Selected photos, improvised road trip in Slovakia. Now at Wordpress. Google? Why?

Bojnice, Slovakia.  Family.

Dan with Down travels anywhere. Here, Bratislava, Slovakia, with Napoleonic influence. 

Karst, roadway in Slovakia driving east.

Kosice, Slovakia. Jewish memorial, holocaust, synagogue

Levoca, Slovakia. Women's cage. 

.Coins and currrency, S;ovakia. 

Zvolen, Slovakia.  Castle,

We may bring our full blog back to Blogger here, because Wordpress is adding offensive ads without our knowledge or permission: skim to the latest there, a 'gentleman' buffed out stragetically, full frontal for something being sold.

Zvolen Castle, Slovakia

Outside Zakopane, Slovakia.  En route to the mountain resort

Spis Castle, Slovakia

Corporations, condominiums, all set up as little (big) dictatorships.  The longer a board is in power, with its own little 'constitution' for profit and ego, the more it does to suit itself, not the people living in it, investing in it. And all within a what, national "democracy?" Once caught in one, no recourse. Is that so? Nationalizing is also subject to abuse.  Scylla and Chrybdis live.   Visit https://www.slovakiaroadways.wordpress.com.

Le blog est disparu. Elegy for a missing blog. The goat ate it.

One is never alone.
Dennis Cooper lost his blog. *
Ou' est le blog?
Myste're!
The Google Goat ate it.

Dark Matter. The Black Hole of Blogs

Gee, is there nothing he can do to get it  back?
It might not have been pretty.
Maybe subject matter dicey? Ranty?
Sometimes its assemblage mechanism burped?

Blog defined as metaphor: A blog is a cobbler's bench.

But did you have to take it?
See? It just took some working on. That was good, solid wood, mostly.

Blog underside. May be stronger than you think.  Worth keeping.. 

Lots of people sat on that seat, the better to find what they were looking for.

Cobbler: Needs a strong seat. Takes constant repair.

There were places to store things, as Dennis cobbled his ideas together.

Blog as analogy: Like a storage place.

Dennis had it the way he liked it.

Cobbler's bench: This one parses, to put on the mule to go to the next farm.

See that clamp?

Cobbler's bench. Cobbling a blog. Hold things firm with a stirrup clamp, while the monkey chases the weasel.

That clamp's for linking.
Did Dennis link?
Linking -- to self, or elsewhere.
Helps people vet, check.
Connect ideas while giving credit
To other cobblers who came before.

There's the linker clamp.
All ready to be plugged in.
Oops.
Is Dennis' fun, and seriousness, so incomprehensible
To The Powers?

Algorithm Execution Committee

If the Algorithm Execution Committee didn't like the linking,
Or the topics,
Dennis could have taken it out, right? Rather than be forfeit?

Equity abhors a forfeiture.
Oh, dear. Ab-hor.
Methinks that will that trigger the very thing protested.
Will it?

There they sit. They know nothing real about blogger people,
Just stats and algorithms. They don't care
About BST -- blood, sweat and tears in creating something
Important to the person.
If there is harm alleged, let it be excised, that's all.
Profit. Just profit.

So: No notice, so he could move or change it.
Just poof.

Poof goes the blog.

Just like mine.
Have to look elsewhere for my Slovakia Road Ways.
With the s.
This? A truncated peek at pique.
Slovakia Road Way. Plus ca change.
Go seek. It's far more boring.

Still liked the old one.

Cobbling is risky.  Cobbled blog once had nails, glues, pokers, knives to shape the leather.  All work,to get a job done, that was important to the blogger -- and to readers seeking him out. 

How to keep the algorithm goats 

In an appropriate and accountable pen.

Still with us? 

We kept on going, ourselves, yes, we did.

We do have a verification code for our successor at http://www.slovakiaroadways.wordpress.com.  Putting it up now.  [google6049c1b6618e295c.html]

.....................................................................................................

*  There. Just looked it up. See DC's Blog.  Fate?  See  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/opinion/sunday/the-blog-that-disappeared.html?_r=0

Terms of service. Into the fog. Somebody else is driving this thing. Uneasy riders. 

Creativity in Slovakia: From Currency to Bojnice Castle

Creativity:  A Fragile Thing 
Slovakia's Gift for Narrative, Theater, Celebration

In Slovakia, creativity has been periodically tamped down, as invasions, wars, politics, overcame people's lives.  Creativity nonetheless showed in surprising ways -- including in its currency before the Euro, as well as in its celebrations for families and young people dramatizing history.  Cash, and a castle.

Bojnice Castle is the site of a summer festival not far from Bratislava (the capital on the Danube) including young people acting out a different aspect of the castle history each year. Its presentation is creative and educational. And family-friendly.

I.  Creativity and the currency. 

Slovakian currency, pre-Euro

Creativity in Slovakian currency, before the Euro

Our main site has indeed moved, but old ideas linger.  One last post.  Perhaps more.  I do love Slovakia.  I am trying to find the original currency bills so I can research who is on them.

.

II.  Slovakian Creativity and The Castle.  

Bojnice Castle is romantic from afar. In 1385, one Juras Leustach took possession of several prominent castle forts, including at Filakovo, Bratislava and here at Bojnice.

Bojnice Castle, old fortress site, renovated in the 19th Century to look like the Loire, Slovakia

There are bullet-holes at Bojnice up close.  See Slovakia Road Ways  From what conflict?  The country takes great pains to demonstrate the safety of travel there, and we saw no problems.  See http://www.slovensko.com/about/war-terrorism-slovakia/  Answer? The site notes that there was a period of Russian incursion after WWII.  A comment at http://scotfot.aminus3.com/image/2008-02-02.html identifies the Bojnice bullet holes as the result of Russian soldiers firing at it.

Despite renovations, centuries-old doors remain.

Ancient door, Bojnice Castle

Inside Bojnice:   Opulence. 

In 1396, the Turkish Sultan defeated the Hungarians (this part of Slovakia was considered Northern Hungary's area), and Juras Leustach, then the Palatine, was toppled.  See http://www.bojnicecastle.sk/kalendar-en.html.  An entire room displays the oriental design.

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The summer season features young people dramatizing a narrative from some part of the history of the castle.  We lucked out with a nineteenth century phase:  gliding ghosts, unrequited love, tragedy, longing, but were left with a real sense of the sadness in the real lives that lived it. See 2012 events at http://www.bojnicecastle.sk/kalendar-en.html

The Spectre of Count Jan Palfy, 19th Century owner, at Zamok Bojnice. International Festival of Ghosts and Spirits

The International Festival of Ghosts and Spirits:  a castle's owners' lives reenacted.

Dances of Death and Lost Love, in the lives at Bojnice Castle

Teenagers acting, dancing, present tableaux to narration as the groups move through the castle.

Revelry at Bojnice, Slovakia.  Dramatization, life of Count Jan Palfy

And much fast food, slow cooked.

Bojnice Castle, street party revelry, with suds, SK

III.  The fragility of creativity

Can a culture accommodate creativity, and watch someone track thought to see where it goes, without censure.  Does it serve the common good for an authority to rule regardless, and without communication.

Slovakia has felt a heavy hand in the past.  Its creativity is now emerging in many ways.  In others, the old authoritarianism remains:  no photos in this supermarket!  Put that camera away!


What will happen in Slovakia, as part of the Euro Zone.  It needs the financial and economic support, but will its culture be subsumed.

Can authority do its work in a way that does not destroy. Will anyone take time to study the concepts before simply deleting, to correspond and allow change.  Are corporations to be more feared than government when it comes to speech restriction without accountability to those who mean no harm.


Dear Algo,

As part of the rithm of life and stewardship of blogger, we hope you enjoy our vacation pictures.  Do visit Slovakia.  There is much to see. And if anyone returns from your own travel with critical thoughts about our own culture and how it evolved, that is a good thing. Let the thoughts be heard. We look forward to yours. Just let us know first if there is something you do not like about ours. We will consider your views. And maybe even have an open mind to changing ours. Discourse. I trust that the concern of Christopher Maxwell, as the Weather Underground is sold to Weather Channel, see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/us/as-weather-channel-buys-weather-underground-fans-fear-change.html,  is not also happening with our beloved blogger.
Thx for listening.
Car-Dan

Slovakia Road Ways has moved. Doors open and shut

Bojnice Castle, SK. Doorway. Open.

Please visit us as we reconstruct, see http://www.slovakiaroadways.wordpress.com.  We have no specifics on why the algorithm triggered a deletion of our original site, except that it was indeed the last of our recent sites to get updated, some posts were sketchily written, and subject matter was not uniform or bland.  We are concerned with the deletion without return of property is a taking of our photos and work product, as copyright holder, but so it goes.

• Is direct linking a problem? It should not be -- a URL is an address. 
• We do not monetize, get nothing back from anyone for our references to sites about history and culture. How else can someone vet what we say about a country, if we do not offer our sources? 
• Adult content? Hardly.  We reference the evidence of trafficking in Slovakia, but noone could find the out-country farm we passed and we could not even locate it again ourselves if we tried.  So, do visit us somewhere else.  
• By way of update (7.5.2012), the roots in culture and religion as to the acceptability of exploiting women, is worth exploring.  Yesterday's NYT letter to editor on the topic of forced abortions in China, also refers to forced sterilization of Romany women in Slovakia,  a similar issue of women's exploitation. Can we not blog about current issues without flagging someone who does not want the topic examined? See http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/forced-abortion-in-china.html

We would like to correspond on the issue, and may add a few photos back to this site to make it less dull, but really would like our old blog back for copying at least.