New header, old love: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

Summertime and the living is easy~~~

The new header reflects the season, it's fresh and playful. Yes, we've decided that each season the header and general layout will change. But it'll always be about us, something reflecting us as a couple or us as individuals and our memories.

So this time, we decided upon the girls of Sailor Moon, who I can now clearly see the girl power they represent and who are tied together not so much by obligation rather than true friendship; a friendship persistent in time, a friendship which overcomes obstacles. We, Neko-kun and Foxy Lady(/Kitsune), share such a strong bond and we hope to preserve it against all odds, against all obstacles.

As for me, that was the anime that got me hooked, introduced me to the anime world, charmed me and gave me plenty of illusions and ideals as a 6 year-old girl, but opened my mind as a teenager...

Virtual worlds of true memories:The gaming experience and other issues

Ever since I was a little kid, I have always carried a great love for videogames. No matter the genre, good videogames have always been my most enjoyable sin and I cannot have enough of them, even though I no longer have the time or the patience to play for six to ten hours like I used to when I was twelve years old. Today, twelve years after I bought Final Fantasy VII, I am a few hours of gaming before finishing the storyline and I have decided to write down my thoughts and memories on gaming.

CODE NAME: CREATIVITY- TEDster's come-back

creativity by wesso85 on deviantart

Here we have another two speeches,both of which we have hosted here and here, from two very intelligent and distiguished individuals. They talk to us about different aspects of creativity: Sir Ken Robinson links creativity to education and to a revolution the education system needs; Lawrence Lessig links creativity to laws, freedom and socialibilty.
Follow up some really clever typography/ graphic design works about creativity and some recommendations for watch.

A singing bird : Maaya Sakamoto

Maaya Sakamoto with Kobato, Suu(Clover) and Sakura Kinomoto(Cardcaptor Sakura)

The above illustration is by CLAMP. That's pretty natural isn't it? Maaya Sakamoto has tied her name very strongly with anime adaptions of CLAMP's works (Cardcaptor Sakura, Clover, Clamp School Detectives, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles). But that's not where Maaya started from...

Conversations - The right to choose your child's education

Here we are again with another conversation. It is pretty tough to find enough time to talk about controversial issues and even more difficult to have this conversation recorded. The past two months we both had many assignments to carry out -I still have some... but now we are back. And since foxie lady's posts concerned education, we soon started a heated discussion that led to this post. If you are interested on the subject check out the videos following the next.

Pioneers of education- When you strive for a vision

by winktothanatos

Changes can be achieved. We just need will, ideas and determination.

create-rip-mix-burn : a whole new culture

And you may wonder what this picture is all about and how does it relate to the 'pirate' processes most of us follow at home. If you want to know more, follow me after the link. Two TEDsters will enlighten you; the first one sharing his opinion about the laws protecting copyrights in society of information we live in and the second one talks about a pioneering 'legal piracy' that helps teachers teach in a whole new fascinating way.

The universal patient : Schooling

Blowing Bubbles by AquaSixio on deviantart

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. ~W.H. Auden

I believe you have NEVER EVER seen a student fall asleep in the classroom, because teachers are educated and trained individuals who really love their job and know how to make the lesson interesting... Aside from joking, what I saw in my visit at schools in the (greek) classrooms during my training last week (A' phase training where we watch teaching and write down our impressions and try to learn how to make a lesson plan) was frustrating for many reasons. Not because I didn't know that schooling hasn't changed basically much since last century, although there are so many new teaching methods out there, but because I realised that teachers as human beings with feelings and thoughts haven't changed and because it dawned on me how much we idealize our own teachers from our childhood...

So, on this post I'm going to talk about

• my one-week experience in schools, my feelings and thoughts on it,
• the difference between schooling and education
• what education should be. what education is and how it can be changed (content, goals, methods)
• and of course about teachers, students and parents, since they are the ones mainly involved, even though there are 'outside restrictions' -don't forget that education in schools is an institution designed by a state and confined by laws and politics.

Naturally, some people know better than me, so I'll let them speak in my place through quotes and videos.

'I can' bug- children as the future (hope)

If someone isn't given love, then (s)he can't give it. If we don't empower our children, trust them, support them into taking risks and chances, how will they change the world?

After the link follow two inspiring TED  talks, that focus on what can children do, if we believe in them.

AKROSS CON- a russian AMV contest

Feel Alive by Yuumei on deviantart

AMVs have become popular and that's not without reason. Some may insist that this kind of 'product' is not anything very creative, since it uses material already produced by other people. But if we accept written works that are based on other books (e.g. critics by a professor B on a scientific issue addressed by a professor A), why can't we accept videos that are based on other videos and give a different point of view? Seferis, a Nobel awarded Greek (for literature), had written "Our words are many people's children"...