Alright, today I have a question which is not as stupid as the previous ones.
Do you remember GREASE ? I guess all of you know that it starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
OK, but which one of the >following actors< did play a very minor role in the movie ? It was one of his first roles and he was not famous at all then, but later he has become a very famous action-movie-hero.

In GREASE appeared...

a) Kurt Russel
b) Sylvester Stallone
c) Bruce Willis
d) Lorenzo Lamas

PS: Like in most of his roles, he didn't have much dialogues in GREASE either :)

Here are 7 GOOD movies I have seen lately. Well, I just wanted to let you know that if you have opportunity to see any of these movies and you consider yourself "yntelijent", go and see 'em !

1. Moulin Rouge.
It's not a movie. It's not a musical. It's a brand new kind of art. It is one BIG spectacular JAM ! Surely one of the most original pieces ever shot.

2. American Beaty
Yeah, it's "pretty old", I know, but I have seen it for the 1st time only a month ago. Another great movie, revealing "modern life" as we know it, showing no mercy. This one surely kicked some US butts !

3. Memento
You gotta see this one ! Bet you won't find anything like this. Although I don't like thrillers too much, Memento is not a usual thing. At the end, you are even less sure than at the beginning. A movie shot backwards.

4. Everybody's famous !
Well, this is a Belgium/Dutch film, so I quess that not too many of you will have opportunity to see it and actually it is quite "old" (1999 or 2000). One of the best comedies I have ever seen, nomination for Oscar. Go and laugh your ass off, watching a girl weighting "1000" pounds, dressed in Madonna's outfit making a BIG career.

5. Jalla Jalla !
Another wonderful comedy that comes from Scandinavia. So joyful, so nice, so funny ! Thumbs up !

6. Fucking Amal
A NICE Danish/Swedish piece. Not a comedy, not a tragedy, not a thriller, not too philosophical either. Just a NICE NICE NICE movie. I really enjoyed it.

7. Street of miracles.
Mexican film, starring awesome Salma Hayek (she herself makes the movie worth of seeing :) ). Daddy gay, virgin slut, wealthy beggar, ...

One more movie worth of spending 2 hours watching it, (which I have not seen lately): Dead Man, starring Johnny Depp in black & white visual poetry.

"How I nearly died twice in 15 minutes"
(subtitle: "Why I have a scar on my neck")

Kind of long, I know. The story is much more fun when
I tell it myself, reading it can be boring, I quess. Anyway...
I'm sorry for misspelled wods and wrong grammar, but writing this took me more than 2 hours and I don't feel like making corrections :)

Chapter I. - Introduction

Back in June 1999, enjoying summer holidays when I was 18,
just few weeks after finishing the high school,
me and 3 friends of mine: 2 guys - Victor & Lado and one girl - Lucia, took a trip to Lucia's cottage. The cottage was located some 2 miles from a small village Rohoznik, about 35 km from Bratislava where I live. We caugth a bus and were prepared to spend 3 or 4 days in that cottage.

Chapter II. - Arrival

After we had arrived we spent the first 2 days playing poker
and drinking beer. Victor and Lado are passionate poker-players, and Victor had bought a brand new knife which was supposed to be used as prevention of cheating during the game. We call it 'Las Vegas knife'. The one who cheats will find this knife in his back :). Of course it's just kidding, we never used that knife, it's a joke, but the truth is that when Victor plays poker he always lays
down the knife on a table to show that cheaters are not welcome. Once again, we are all great friends and the whole killing-cheaters thing is only a stupid joke never meant to be serious.
Apart from information that Vicor had a brand new knife as sharp as a razor, another important information is that Victor had also a brand new driving licence. He had passed his exams 2 weeks before we went on this trip. 2 weeks ! And now the last essential information. In the next house to our cottage lived probably 50-years-old neighbour. He had car but he could not drive it, because his sight was "out of order". He was not blind but he wore very "strong" (?) (how do you say it?) glasses. He could not drive a car anymore. He offered us that we could
use his car anytime we would need it, for example to go to the village to do the shopping etc. Victor had a driving licence so the neighbour permitted us to use that car. The car was old Russian car, 25 years old or maybe older, a real junk. It was a wreck but it worked (all old Russian things work; Russian production is immortal :) )
At 19:?? pm we were watching TV, likely the oldest TV in the world. I still remember that in the TV news I watched some report on Chinese nuclear weapons. Lado, Victor and Lucia were sitting behind my back...

Chapter III. - Blood

I was watching the news, when suddenly Lado approached. He
stood behind me so I could not see him. And then he grabbed
my hair and pulled it a little, so I had to turn my head
little bit backwards. To imagine the situation: look at the
fabulous picture above, which I included to make is easier
to understand the situation. So, sitting and staring at
Lado's face, because that was ALL I could see, I saw Lado
with a biscuite in his mouth, grinning and looking like an idiot. I had no idea that Lado had a knife in his hand and he put it on my neck. There was no way I could see it, because he was holding my head so I could not see anything but his face. Looking at him I wondered: "What the hell is he doing ?" On the other hand, Lado is a weirdo and there is not always a logical explanation to thing he does, so I thought that it's his usual who-knows-what-does-it-mean activity. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Lado grinned at me for some 5 seconds and then he decided and it's enough. I still had no idea there's a knife in his hand so I was totally calm and relaxed. Lado decided to finish this great "joke" and wanted to take the knife away from my throat. And then, suddenly I felt something "itching" me on my neck. It was like a sting. No pain at all. Still not knowing what was happening I saw Lado's face turn green. Well, it did not turn green, it turned into deperate mask. Lado's scream: "F**K ! JESUS CHRIST ! SORRY ! SOOORRRRRY ! F**K !"
and the look on his face told me that something BAD happened. This whole lasted less than a second. I touched my neck as reaction to that "itching", looked at it, and... my hand was FULL of blood. I turned around, saw a knife in Lado's hand and I finally realized what had happened and what was Lado doing while standing behind me and grinnig at me.
Lucia screaming as she saw result of Lado's joke,
Victor running all over tha place. Lado being mad and screaming "F**K", "JESUS CHRIST" and "SORRY" in different varaintions. The blood pouring out of my vein. Chaos. Panic.

We all started to run up and down not exactly knowing waht to do :) We thought that Lado cut my "main vein" (I don't know how to say it, I don't know the english term for it, but I mean the big vein in one's neck. When you cut it - you die, if you don't stop bleeding pretty soon). I ran downstair to the washing room and looked into a mirror. What
I saw, was me with a LOT of blood all over my neck and hand. Not a good sight, let me tell you. While Lado and Lucia were making panic, Victor gave me a towel to push it agaisnt whe wound in order to stop the bleeding. Then he gave me a frozen steak in a plastic bag (yes, a frozen steak !) which was supposed to be a substitute to ice. Me, blood, towel & frozen steak in my hand being pushed against the wound as much as I could.

Chapter IV. - Long long way to hospital

Still thinking that Lado cut my "main vein" we started to
think what to do. We knew that the nearest hospital was in
Malacky, about 10 km from us. At first, Lado wanted to use
his phone and call 112 (emergency number) from his phone, but then we found out that using the neighbour's car would be much faster way to get me to hospital. Victor ran out of the house, sought the neigbour and quickly told him what had happened. The neighbour gave him keys and car. Leaving the cottage (I still remember that moment pretty well) I looked at the ground and I realized that I would die. It took less than a second, but for the first time since I looked at my hand full of blood (which was maybe 1 or 2 minutes ago), I had a time to think and for the first time I realized that I would be dead soon. I remember better things in my life than being sure that I would die. Do you want to know what are thoughts of a man who is about to die ? It goes like this: "F**K, I'm going to die. NOOOO !
Too soon ! I have experienced nothing at all yet ! Jesus,
mom will turn insane if I die. She will kill me !" Funny, but most of all I thought about my parents and that I cannot die, I cannot do THAT to them. Whole thing lasted only a fraction of second. Wheels of the car started turning. Victor and the neighbour started the car, but in 2 seconds they found out that they had forgotten something: ME ! :) They stopped the car I jumped in and we were on our way to hospital. Victor was driver, neighbour navigated him to Malacky. Sure, his sight was poor, but he knew the way pretty well. Do you remember what I noticed about that car ? It was a Russian wreck.
25 years old car.
Victor.
Road not repaired for at least 30 years.
120 km/h (75 mph).
Victor probably thought that he was F1 driver, although he
had his driving licence only for 2 weeks. Fortunately, the
road was prety straight all the way to Rohoznik. We arrived to Rohoznik in 5 minutes. From Rohoznik it is only 5 more km (3 miles) to Malacky. But... a curve ! And not an ordinary one. 120 degrees.
80 m left: 120 km/h (75 mph), neigbour screaming: "SLOW DOWN !"
30 m left: 80 km/h (50 mph), Victor hitting the brakes, neigbour screaming "F**K ! SLOW DOWN !"
1 m left: 50 km/h (30 mph), neighbour screaming: "F**K !", Victor screaming: "F**K !", Marcel screaming: "F**K !"
So... the curve was too sharp. It was one of those roads that are 2 metres above the terrain, with a sharp hills on both sides. Do you know what I mean ? So it looked like this: 50 km/h, grass, downhill. AAAAAAAAAAH ! This was the second time I was absolutely sure that I would die. This time I was even more certain about it than before, because the car was inclined in 80 degrees angle. If there was one more person in the car I'm sure that the car would have turned on its roof and we would all die. It was 25 years old car, no seatbelts (where I was sitting), no airbags.
Fortunately, we survived and the car stopped in 5 seconds.
Try to imagine this: a guy with cut throat, pressing a frozen steak against his neck in a car that's rolling down the hill. Do you know anyone who experienced something like that ? I'm "proud" to have copyright on this experience :)
I jumped out of car at wondered what I was going to do, with
a towel full of blood, half a way to hospital.
We waited for a minute and then finally a car appeared. It was driving the wrong direction but I stepped in the middle of the road and stopped. When we told him what had happened we turned his car and took me to hospital. Finally ! I must thank him he was very nice. By the time I get to hospital (it was about 15 minutes from the moment when Lado cut my neck) I knew that I would not die. The bleeding has decreased and nearly stopped, thanks to the incredible pressure of towel. It was not the "main vein". WHAT A RELIEF !
Suddenly, knowing that I'm survivor, for the first time I realized how my hand ached because of that crazy pushing a towel against the wound.

Chapter V. - Hospital

Never, I tell you NEVER go to hospital in Malacky !
Since the first moment when I saw my hand full of blood, I
knew that if I ever get to hospital I'll be safe. You know,
when you watch TV series like ER, Chicago Hope and shit like that you think that when you get to hospital, 500 doctors and nurses appear and take the most careful care of you. BULLSHIT !
Me: "I have cut neck, it bleeds a lot ? Where should I go ?"
Nurse: "Emergency room is on 3rd floor"
Elevator. "3". 3rd floor. No ER.
Me: "I have cut neck, it bleeds a lot ? The nurse told be that ER is here."
Other nurse: "Emergency room is on 2rd floor"
Elevator. "2". 2nd floor. No ER.
Me: "I have cut neck, it bleeds a lot ? The nurse told be that ER is here."
Other nurse: "Emergency room is on 1st floor"
F**K !
Elevator. "1". 1st floor. ER, finally !
I'm saved.
Nope, I waited for doctor 20 minutes ! 20 minutes !!!! Aarrgh ! By the time he came, the bleeding completely stopped.I was not even the 1st one to get in ER. I went there 3rd. Doctor just smiled. 5 stiches.
Leaving hospital. 20:00 pm.
Me and towel full of blood. How do I get home ?
And so I hitch-hiked. I did not believe that anyone would give a lift to someone with a towel full of blood but luckily nice people are not dead yet and some family took me to our cottage.

Chapter VI. - Aftermath

Funny thing is that when I returned I was not even upset.
I should be mad, angry, I should have killed Lado. But somehow, I was calm. Most probably I was too happy to be alive to be angry. When I tell this story to people I know and show them my scarv, they usually laugh their ass off rolling on a floor ! Then, it was not funny at all. It was horror. It was the worst day of my life. Being sure that I would die twice in 15 minutes, hmmm, not bad. As I said, everone laughs when listening to thi story. Even I do.
There is only one person that still doesn't laugh. Lado.
When I returned to the cottage, the reason I didn't kill him was that I knew that he must be in even worse situation than I was. Honestly, he was ruined. I don't think that he will ever play with a knife.
The next day I returned home:

Me and 5 stiches on neck.
Mom.
Oh-oh ! Houston, we have a problem ! :)

That's all. I hope you like this crazy story.
One more funny thing. On the way to hospital I was testing my brain so I would know if I'm dying or not. Do you know what was I doing to find out if my brain works or not ? I was moving my fingers up and down and integrating and derivating. :) I always do this when I what to find out if everything is alright. You know, i attended a maths-oriented high school and so when I want to test my brain I start to perform mathematicla operations. Sick, isn't it :)

And if you want to know how much blood did I lose. Well, one
towel :) I don't know exactly, it could be half a litre, maybe little bit more.

Do you have any more unbelievable story ? ;)

Marcel, so called "scared throat".

Once again...
...and the winners are: josie_h, angel_on_broomstick and not_neo !
Yes, B was the right choice. Vomitario is where Ramans vomitted.

As for the misspelling, I didn't say it is an English word :)
Here's an explanation:
2 years ago I spent holidays on Italian island of Sicily.
I hitch-hiked to the city of Syracusa (really beautiful city). They have there wonderful archaelogical park, with plenty of sights, containing Greek and Roman colosseum. This place is really spectacular; I considered it a great place to die at. But back to "vomitario". I was standing in front of the Roman colosseum when a group of (probably)
American tourists with a guide came along. The guide was Italian (surely working for the park), but seh spoke English. And so I, standing 3 meters from them, decided to listen what she was talking about. After some time she said something like: "...and over there, you can see vomitario, which is the place, where Romans used to vomit...". She little bit talked about it and so I found about what is vomitario. Pretty disgusting, uh ? Well, to understand why there was such a thing at a public place, you must understand Roman mentality. Romans were sometimes really crazy people. They did not consider vomiting to be disgusting (like we do). On contrary, vomiting was cool ! When you threw up, it meant that you were feeling fine,
you were having fun, you were relaxed. It was fun. It was national habbit. Can you imagine: "Hey Julius, wanna go vomitting with me ? Yeah, sure, Marcus !" Ugh ! :)
Therefore, one part of Roman colosseums was reserved for vomiting, so everytime people watching gladiator show or something like that, thought they feel like being sick, they just found this room and... bluuaaaaaaaaghh.
Rough, isn't it ?
Word "vomitrio" is Italian, I had no idea that it has any English translation.
Latin word was probably Vomitarium or Vomitorium, but I'm not sure.

Well, maybe there are some Italians here, who are gonna tell me that I'm all wrong, but this is what the guide said.

Petra: Nice try with that Vomitus !
J: You take this seriously, don't you ? :) Checking the birds list. LOL.

Alright, that's all for now...
...go visit your neighbour and invite him to visit vomitario :))

Marcel

Hello everybody !

I have a brand new $1,000,000 question for you:
What is "V O M I T A R I O" ?

a) Original name of Ontario territory in Canada, used by native Americans, later changed to Ontario by the Europeans.
b) A part of Roman colosseums (arenas), where people used to go to throw up.
c) Amazonian bird (full Latin name: Vomitario vomitarius), extinct since 1962 due to deforrestation of Amazonia.
d) Younger brother of Horatio in Shakespear's Hamlet, killed by Hamlet's uncle.
e) (Bonus) NOTHING. That word doesn't mean a thing !

Well, this question is really a difficult one, I tell you.
Let's see who knows or who is the most lucky one :)

Tomorrow I'm leaving to drink some more beer (Birra I WILL think of you :P) in Czech Republic. I should come back on Sunday, I'm looking forward for your answers.

BTW, good story:
5 days ago I went skiing and God knows that I nearly died. I
fell down at speed close to the speed of light, I rolled down the hill some 50 metres, 4 times sticking my head into snow. As I was making 3rd somersault I was thinking that I am paralysed, because I could not move during the monsterous rotation. After "landing" face down I was so lucky to be able to move. I could not believe it that I
was alive and without one broken leg or arm. Hmm, thinking "Now I'm gonna die !" really makes you think about life and appreciate it. This was the 2nd time in my life, when I was sure that I would die in few seconds. First time I experienced that after one of my mates cut my throat, but that's a different story (really cool one), I'll tell you later...

Now, try to find out what-the-hell is that vomitario thing !

See you...