#my cat yugoslavia

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[judgingbooksbycovers]

My Cat Yugoslavia

By Pajtim Statovci.

Design by Anna Morrison.

[geryone]

My hopeful tbr full of books I’m pushing myself to get to before the end of this year ❤️

[eurovision-facts]

Hi! Love your posts !! Suggestion for a fact (if you take those): Eurocat. The 1990 Eurovision featured an animated purple cat in the postcards (?) named Eurocat and I’ve never seen anyone mention anything about his existence. I only learned about him bc I was researching old shows and saw him mentioned on the Wikipedia page. 10/10

Eurovision Fact #477:

Eurocat was the mascot created for the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest in Zagreb. He appeared at the beginning of each postcard in an animated short that featured a blue background with the name of the country repeating on a diagonal and some cultural representation of the country being showcased that Eurocat would interact with.

For example, on the postcard for Spain, Eurocat blew bubbles that formed the Olympic rings, calling to the fact that Spain would host the Summer Games in two years.

Eurocat was created by Joško Marušić, who is credited for his as a member of the directors of the per-production materials for the contest for animation.

While introducing Belgium, commentator Terry Wogan spoke a bit about the mascot saying, "Eurocat! A tomcat who's slightly neurotic, not too silly, and eminently lovable." He also later said while introducing Luxembourg that he was "trying to ignore this cat," adding "I don't think he's gonna go away though," under his breath.

[Sources]

Yugoslavia, Eurovision.tv.

Eurovision Song Contest 1990 (No commentary), 2:47:06, YouTube.com.

Eurovision mascot 1990 EuroCat compilation, YouTube.com.

Barcelona 1992, Olympics.com.

"I would love to share with you..." @rice-crackerz on Tumblr -- See reblogs and comments (esp by @mirai-desu, @elliemadeit, and @unibrowzz) for their knowledgeable comments :)

[definitely-totally-croatia]

Knock knock fellas-

I gave in to the demon within me and made this blog-

Disclaimer: For legal reasons I am not actually the country of Croatia, I am also not from Croatia-

Currently at war with: No one

(Lord I suck at introductions 💀⚰️✌️)

Pronouns page:

Anyways... Here's some info about the mod (@crystalsandbubbletea)

Pronouns are They/Xe/Ve/Zir

This is the second gimmick blog I have, the first one is @/aroace-spec-empire

Transmasc Nonbinary

Demisexual, Demiromantic, Trixic, and Polyamorous (The queerphobes worst nightmare [/mj])

Requires tonetags (Ex: /j, /srs, /pos) for certain things like jokes

ADHD and Autism

Minor

Indigenous American (Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma)

Mostly made this blog to be silly (Much like how I made my AroAce Spec Empire blog to be silly-)

Learning Croatian (Actually learning 6+ languages SOS-)

Other information below the cut:

Boundaries: Please don't call me 'cunt', 'slut', or 'whore' even if it's a joke

This blog is not a safe place for the following:

Racists

Queerphobes

Antisemitism

Zionists

Ableists

Misogynists

Radfems + TERFS

Blogsona(s) info:

Croatia's appearance:

Vesna's appearance (Blood CW):

Croatia info:

-Mentally around 37 years old

-They/Xe/Ve/Zir pronouns

-Nonbinary

-Demisexual, Demiromantic, and Pan

-Parent of Dalmatia

-They have Maine Coon cat ears and a Maine Coon cat tail, the result of anon magic

-Also the god of stars because of anon magic

-Their siblings are Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro, while their father is Yugoslavia

-ADHD and Autism

-Married to Czech Republic

Vesna info:

-49 years ago (Around death)

-AroAce

-The spirit that split from Croatia and is now trying to torment everyone

@croatias-ghost-vesna

NOTE: Vesna started possessing Croatia when Croatia was eleven years old

Lucija info

-She/They

-Around 22 years old

-Another spirit possessing Croatia because of a anon

-Demisexual lesbian

(Infos will be updated whenever lore moments happen)

[iambic-stan]

last book read + last stethoscope used, part 14

The stethoscope: MDF Instruments' Procardial Titantium in Starry Night/Capridium. Lovely look and sound. Love everything about this one.

The book: Late Babylon 5 actress Mira Furlan's memoir, Love Me More Than Anything in the World. I started this book just before I lost someone close to me, and considering how much it concerns grief, I wasn't sure that finishing it was wise in the state that I'm currently in. I don't regret it, though, and no state of mind is ideal to read about how Furlan lost her childhood friend to suicide, as well as her parents, friends, and many others, before her untimely death and this posthumous publication. It seems inevitable, in a tragic Shakespearean kind of way, that a woman hailing from the former Yugoslavia, whose family history involves multiple horrific stories of imprisonment in concentration camps, would continue to see unjust ends for the rest of her life. But her ability to find joy in what a lot of people take for granted is one thing that staved off some of my own despair. In one chapter, she writes with great detail and affection about how she accidentally came to be owned by a cat. Anyone who loves them will understand her devotion, and knows how they capture us so quickly and without warning. I became interested in Furlan after watching her character, the Minbari Ambassador Delenn, fiercely commanding fleets, doling out wisdom for the ages, and still being an advocate for nonviolence until all of its options have been exhausted, but this memoir is about much more than how the actress immigrated to the U.S. to eventually star in a science fiction series. I think it was just what I needed, too.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

This is my cat, Tito. I got him because of all of this I/P stuff and he is my new favorite being on planet earth. He is named after the former dictator of Yugoslavia because it’s funny and all cats are dictators. I love him so much. He is so fluffy.

Awwwwwww what a sweet floof! I want to bury my face in his belly fluff <3

[aristotels]

What do you think the outcome of the AI debate will be? Does this differ from what you think it should be?

Do you consider it worth engaging in/with at all?

i dont think there will be any actual outcome because the debate in *this* form about whether it is or isnt art is useless precisely because its philosophical and doesnt have an actual answer. it also doesnt rly change anything in context of art being "expression of human emotion" or whatever. the only context i can see where ai status as art matters is the context in regards to art as a profession and that doesnt affect people making gay sex cats on their laptop or hobbyists who make art out of love. im talking about things like if ai should be allowed in applications for state fundings for visual artists, if it could be basis for joining artist guilds etc.

(p.s. you cant actually just show up and join the guild, at least not in my country - you need to have like 5 years of public activity as an artist, certain number of solo and collective and juried exhibitions completed with documentation, and your art has to meet some standard for you to be accepted.)

these are things concerning visual art as profession, not human soul or whatever. i think people keep using artist as a professional status and human activity interchangably, and it creates confusion. art as expression is humane and holy and all that, art as work and a profession is simply a category defining labour and has no moral value. same way like teaching, nursing, etc are job descriptions. artists shouldnt be above the working class. thats how arts were treated in ex-yugoslavia, where artists werent separated or holier than other people, but were a part of proleteriat. a lot of funding was being given to artists because art was supposed to be for everyone and cultural soul and food for people. (the "art is a luxury" argument has genuinly been getting on my nerves; idk who the fuck came up w it but art is a service like any other. i also believe artists have duties to their own compatriots, to provide art to the public and not just burgeoise. this is going to be taken out of context btw, but it does make sense under a communist state).

i think that this whole ai discussion is trying to elevate artists to something "grander than ordinary humans" when its rly not. the yearning wish to be acknowledged as an artist instead of prompter is a part of it as well, making the "artist" status to be the only way creativity can be recognized as worthy. i think the same of people who talk about art needing to have SOUL btw. in both cases the artist status becomes something soo special and important, when it rly shouldnt be.

the individualism of artist as an independent creator instead of a part of proleteriat collective is problematic.

anyway why do i care if ai art has art status or not? the closest example i can come up with are comics in croatian national funding, where things arent very clear. comics belong both to visual media... and literature. so for example, instead of applying for visual arts, we are required to apply comic books to the literary works funding. however, the commission prefers writers - so you have more money allocated to the writers than comic book artists, and theyre disproportionately granted. the grants are also the same amount. you get 21,000kn to write a book or draw a long form comic.

then, for example, i have an official artist status in croatia. comics are my primary activity - but see, there is no category for that. i can only be a sculptor, a painter, or a multimedia artist. and the closest thing to a comic artist is........a painter. and the requirements for the painter status require a set number of solo and collective juried exhibitions - in gallery and all. why should a comic artist who draws comics be required to participate in juried gallery exhibitions? the commission doesnt care about hundreds of pages ive drawn and the publications ive been a part of - they want exhibitions.

anyway sry for a horribly long post, but my point is that the art status of ai needs to be defined for *things like these*. in context of creative value it doesnt matter, but in context of craftmanship it might.

this might ALSO be because "umjetnik" (artist) in my language is mostly used as a defined status, while hobbyists will usually say "i dabble in art/drawing" instead of assigning themselves the label. its rarely used by someone who just likes to draw on the side. my official academic title is "diplomirani umjetnik", my national status is "samostalni umjetnik". to me the word "artist" is simply a descriptor of my job, so thats how i see and understand that word, but im realizing it might be different in the english language.

[toddandersonslosttwin]

Marry Christmas everyone

I am a born Orthodox Christian but spending Christmas with a group of catholics so I am being festive today.

Growing up I was always told "please don't ruin Christmas for us"

I grew up with neglecting parents, so I almost never got a gift and I barely celebrated it, since my parents would make the day just for themselves and when ever I would say something or get upset I would be told the same thing "don't ruin Christmas for us"

This year after my best friend learned I didn't celebrate Christmas made sure he made me a Christmas movie worth of Christmas. It was magical I never experienced such holiday joy for past few days and he really did his best and I appreciate it.

So about the gifts... Well I got spoiled but I spoiled back.

Wilbur got me every single book Albert Camus wrote , Frank Sinatra vinyl and my probably fav a hand written letter.

I got him Remus Lupin and Sirius Black funko pops (he adores them) and vinyl with our favourite songs on it.

Mark he got me some David Bowie related stuff (t-shirts, posters, CDs) he wrote on top of it "delivery from the mars"

I got him his favourite book translated in 5 different languages since nothing makes a language major and polyglot happier then reading same book and experiencing it in different languages and i got him a water bottle since that little ass keeps stealing mine water bottle.

Matevz the Christmas man and man who made myself experience the Christmas spirit. He blew my mind with the gift... He got me kitten (he actually got two but gave one to Mark too) he said he saw the Two in the shelter and seeing their names among many , Henry and Camilla. I got Henry and he is adorable black and white cat that has been very calm, while Camilla is a beautiful white cat that is very energetic and keeps climbing on stuff.

I got him couple of t-shirts which the the most random chaotic text saying dumb stuff (he loves them) and as a inner joke of ours I got him a flag of Yugoslavia since he is Slovenia and I am Serbian and we have this joke about the history of Yugoslavia.

But the most funniest part was my adoptive dad coming to join us and he too got me a cat I called Garfield (he is orange I had to name him that)

So hey now I have to cats.

I couldn't be more grateful for what I got... I never got as much as today in my life... I am so emotional this whole day... I can't express how grateful I am.

Finally feeling love

[tablevivant]

housewarming gift ideas:

handful of P-38 can openers

bottle of wine

live snake (reminder: finish reading My Cat Yugoslavia?)

typed manuscript of crushing architectural critique

black mold

a lasting sense of contentment and reassurance

childhood best friend

hammer

[katoktm8]

Chicken Bus Airplane

Excuse the exhaustion and the illiterate thoughts in this blog post, I believe I am at 30 hours without sleeping in a bed. if you can match the pictures to my stories, that would be helpful.

One of the strangest flights I’ve ever taken. If I took a charter bus from Charlotte, North Carolina to Madrid, I was on a school bus to Albania. People squished in, up in the aisles the entire flight, groups up and laughing and chatting with the flight attendants, window shades up, music playing, loud talking, people brought their own food on board, bananas, chicken, anything that smelled… school bus interior. As opposed to my charter bus interior plane that had pink lights to wake us up and light blue lights to dim the lights for sleep. Chatting, conversing, pushing and shoving, just to get on and off the plane. And at the airport, there were no announcements of boarding or gates. You just had to know where to go and when to get on the plane.

Long traffic jam drive back into the city to our hotel. Where we dropped our bags at the oldest hotel in Tirana and went looking for lunch. Ended up with Albanian stew, Albanian specialty soup, and Greek salad. (Photos) Very salty. Reminds me a lot of Romania. Actually the whole city reminds me a lot of Romania. Communist Era 1940s-1991. This dictator had his own brand of communism, and therefore Russia and Yugoslavia were the enemy.

Walking walking. Caroline and I take an online self guided walking tour of Tirana city. We ended up walking about 9 miles. Some great architectural buildings. (photos) Not the most beautiful city, still remnants of the communist era. We walked by what was once the communist dictator’s house. Enver Hoxha. As you can see from the pictures it is by no means a palace. Apparently he is so hated they closed the doors on his house and left everything inside and never looked back.

Pyramid. Apparently the dictator’s daughter built a pyramid mausoleum for her father. See photos. But he was so hated. He is no longer underneath the pyramid and now it is a tourist attraction that you can climb and see the city from above.

Doors… I swear every door is not closed, but they have this little lip on the door that’s about a half inch wide that makes it look like the door is not shut, but it’s really shut. See if you can tell what I’m talking about in the picture. It’s driving me bananas because I’m trying to slam the doors, but they are already slammed shut.

Walked to this man-made lake and had a rest and watched ducks and dogs play for a while.

Stray dogs. You can notice in a picture that one of the stray dogs we met has a blue tag on its ear. Similar to feral cats in Arizona, they round up the stray dogs vaccinate them, spay or neuter them, and if they can’t find a rescue to take the dogs, they release them back into the streets. But by seeing the tagged dog, you know it’s safe and healthy. The stray dogs seem to be very well fed.

Artist meeting. Walking along, we were looking for things that someone would normally not see. I looked down and saw an artist studio so of course we had to stick our noses in the door. Apparently this artist was very famous during communist times for his caricatures of the United States in Russia politically. Anyway we talked a while. Got some photos and went on our way. He was quite intense.

Professor meeting. As we were walking along the street, looking for coffee to give us energy a man walked up to us and said, “I am a professor. Could you tell me what the word squander means.”After a discussion about using it in context, he gave us a whole history of how dictators all are trained in France. And gave us many examples of how to use or how should he use the word squander. We finally said we had to go to the bathroom and left.

Me always looking for the spiritual salvation we went into the orthodox church and took some pictures and tomorrow will be the Great Mosque. It was cool to see this man touching up the murals on the inside of the Greek Orthodox Church

My Fluent Spanish. As one would predict my Spanish is very fluent in Albania. I’ve ordered Café con Leche, and at the restaurant said no Gatos no perros allowed. Albanians do not speak Spanish anymore than they speak English, but this is all that comes out of my mouth. As when I was in China, it’s always Spanish.

Dinner… delicious dinner in the touristy section of town. Near the castle. I had my favorite big fat sardines, big fat, feta cheese, and other appetizers. We shared a liter of wine and sat in the cool night patio.

Click on pictures to see the full view. 

In conclusion, I cannot believe how nice people are here. Everyone goes out of their way to help us. Instead of charging us a full amount they charge us less, take our phone and set up Wi-Fi, park a car, whatever that needs to be done to help. Our hotel is a wonderful, we can’t be happier, but we can’t be more exhausted.

- [ ]

[geryone]

Going to finish reading Cain tomorrow & start Lighthousekeeping after!!!

[antinonymous]

Call my cats affectionate terms like “war criminal” or “leader of the Bosnian Serbs after the fall of Yugoslavia”

[northwindow]

7 & 15 📚

what languages do you plan to read in? do you want to read anything in translation?

regretfully i can only read in english— this year i fell in love with alejandro zambra so i need to read the rest of his books now, probably starting with the private lives of trees (trans. megan mcdowell). i also want to try more banana yoshimoto probably starting with amrita (trans. russell f. wasden). my boyfriend gifted me the complete stories of clarice lispector (trans. katrina dodson) a couple years ago and i haven’t touched it so that definitely needs to happen soon! and a few others on my list: my cat yugoslavia by pajtim statovci (trans. david hackston), almond by sohn won-pyung (trans. sandy joosun lee), azorno by inger christensen (trans. denise newman).

any other reading you’ll do in 2023 that you want to recommend to folks? newspapers, substack, favorite blog etc.?

i actually really want help with this lol! i subscribe to poetry mag and regularly read aeon... and i dip into a lot of other major american media for my job but my knowledge is all breadth, no depth (very lacking in small independent pubs too). i subscribe to a few substacks but not many so suggestions really appreciated 🥰 i feel like a couple of my mutuals might have one?? lmk!!

[snowfea]

I never had a cat growing up (I had a big, massive dog, look up yugoslavia shepherd if you're curious), so I never really understood why people loved them so much but. My girlfriend's parents have two cats. I would kill for those two cats, I would sacrifice the like thirty minutes of restful sleep I get per night for them, I would spend all my savings for those cats.

I am now a cat person as much as I am a dog person, which is a lot.

[8iunie]

🦙 let's just identify me with this

(joker out question må and käärijä anon)

Who's gay or bi?

Who's straight?

Who's single?

Who's not?

Ages?

Summary?

I can't answer the first two questions, none of them made their sexuality public. So I won't assume anything.

Bojan and Jure said quite recently in an interview that they are single.

And the most recent interview I know of to tell you about the others as well is this one. So it's probably still true, Jan is single and Kris and also Nace are each in a relationship.

Jan is 25 years old (Capricorn, 01.01.1999), Bojan is 25 years old (Capricorn, 06.01.1999), Kris is 24 years old (Capricorn, 16.01.2000), Nace is 29 years old (Cancer, 30.06.1994) and Jure is 27 years old (Gemini, 25.05.1996) 💕

I think it would be best to name a few words that come to my mind when I think of them:

Jan - math, smart, mysterious, sparklative, bog, always beeing late, Igor, purrrincess

Bojan - balkan dad (lmao), Mr. Yugoslavia / Mr. Worldwide, pookie, tits, short, baby seal, douchebag, annoying

Kris - babygirl, slay pose, The Netherlands, booty, hater, tall

Nace - gluten free, tattoos, turtle, teddy bear, laugh

Jure - orange cat, pilot / airplane, cigarettes, sunshine