Social Talk. Text 123.

The one with the bleak life.

Have you ever been on a deserted road? If you had been, than you must have remembered those tremendous moments, when after climbing on a lonesome hill, which is standing in your way, you see it, great and mighty snake like road which has no end to find. There are some barely noticeable hills in the distance, and a tiny dot in a place where it's body bends over the skyline.

Have you ever had that special felling, that occurs only when knowing, that you are a sole person in any side back and forth till horizon, makes your sole feel totally free? Such emotion is a once in a lifetime experience, and I hope that you had memorized it well, cause who knows when, if ever, you might have such possibility again.

My final question will be simpler, yet harder to answer. Have you ever tried to find such road? Will you search it? To be completely free from everything at least for a moment. But before answering, I want you to think what could happen to you after that glorious moment. Would your life be the same after passing such emotional peak? Wouldn't it be bleak after that?

Social Talk. Text 121.

The one with fellow traveler.

Traveling, you might have noticed huge difference between short and a long distance trip, and what is interesting, it may have seemed that distance itself is more important, but in real life it is not. Our life obeys only strange and unpredictable rules of chaos, and if in a bus a guy, you are sitting with, is normal, be careful, the next ride, you might be accompanied by drunk man in a business suit or even worse, by a talkative annoying girl, whose problems can be a nightmare for any psychologist.

It seems to me, the greater the distance of a trip, the more important your fellow traveler is. 'Cause being annoyed is not what you want in a nineteen hour flight, hence you are waiting for a reasonable neighbor, who can be a nice interlocutor and who will be accepting to all problems you may encounter during flight.

All this matters only if I speak on my behalf. It's my own experience talking from inside, choosing whom it would have chosen if it had such possibility. But after all we're different, and it doesn't mean that something that applies to me will apply to you. But anyway I guess the best fellow traveler for anybody must be at least clean.

Social Talk. Text 120.

The one with trains.

(~200 years ago)
..sitting in a moving train,
looking through it's windows glass
on a deep green valley's waving grass.
I am thinking could we've lost,
our future brightest gloss,
by inventing those machines,
which are powered by steam.

(~now)
In the years - nothing had changed,
we still traveling by train,
but the thing is - we are not
looking through the glass a lot.
Every person has it's own,
windows in computer phone,
which we're using not to watch,
something that sould have some worth,
but to hide our own small soul,
from the people, from unknown.

(~200 years after)
In the future we'll be like
certain mix from now and past.
Will be riding same steam trains,
but in space and not in vane
Now we trying to find out,
what it will be then, with ours,
precious soul that keen to travel,
keen to live and to enjoy.
Will we live in here forever,
or we're doomed to be destroyed?

Social Talk. Text 119.

The one with a way to be free.

Being an abstract fact and almost an illusion, freedom itself cannot be reached by so primitive creatures as we are, because of one mere fact, if it were possible, we would have got it by now, and there must have been some kind of institution with knowledge of how to be free, or, in case you're not, how to become one in a reasonable amount of time.

I guess you could have heard that being somebody else, besides ordinary human, you might have got a freedom you were so keen to get, but on the other hand, what you will get, will be a total and complete rearranging of your principles and life.

What actually would get you freedom nowadays, if you had wanted it so much, is strictly banned in every kind of society, therefore it's impossible, in my opinion of course, to be completely free, living in this world.

Our own mind is extremely powerful tool which, as you could have guessed, will crack, once being freed. You could imagine an atom, which ought to be a good source of energy in controlled environment, but at the time, the exact second you give complete freedom to it, you will see only demolition..

Social Talk. Text 118.

The one with beyond the time.

We are not lost, yet not we're found,
in the deserted vastness of surrounding.
Though we can hear each other clearly,
our tightness is decreasing firmly.

If we'd just been more wise and strong,
we wouldn't have to go from home.
To leave our lovely, precious planet,
which is about to be dead.

By filling it with filthy atoms,
we've forced the nature to react,
It split our planet core in halves,
and oxygen is running out..

Now, surfing through the space,
have made me think of time.
I know I've got a plenty,
but still I wish I wouldn't die.

The year was twenty thirty,
when it had made us run for lives.
Still can't believe we lost it,
our darling and beloved this time.

When I was scraping this on plate,
I knew my time had passed.
I died a million years ago,
but knowledge of my doom still lasts.

Social Talk. Text 117.

The one with not the right one.

Buying stuff at Ryan's store,
such as hummer, nails or saw.
Never would you feel so good.

Because having bunch of wood,
you intended to build smooth,
sturdy looking bridge with booth.


Which will make your friends to wonder,
how could you have done so quick,
wooden bridge like from boutique.

Seems to me, I have been wise,
you can say just once or twice,
buying tools on cheapest price.

Ryan's store is best to buy.
Any tools you would require,

He'll supply within the hour.


Decent tools for such low price,
nowadays cannot be found,
so hurry up, no more time left.
(to write social about transport,(which we had to write))

Social Talk. Text 116.

The one with London.

To know London means not only visit famous places, but also to travel though it tremendous sewer system, which is known to be the most long among all others, and has sophisticated, hence not completely discovered maze of tunnels, which could have been a shelter for those who were on run, but turnout to become a tomb for them.

Destination of such system, besides the obvious one, is to protect noble citizens from possible terror and to hide numerous secret artifacts which are supposed to be hidden from public sight for years.

Building five kilometer section of those sewers, during the first years of construction of the Big Ben, they'd managed to discover that city underneath has kept number of tunnels beyond any reasonable explanation.

Nowadays using sewers would be a great time saver, if intelligence opened public access to it. Because network of tunnels is ten times complex than an underground, and sometimes it's so wide that you can ride a car in it.

Notorious Wiki Leaks database has few maps of northern part of the sewer system, and many believe that strange marks on those maps were the real reason why WikiLeaks founder was arrested in a short time after publication.

I guess that living in a country, you should have tried to reveal its mysteries, at least to know that you live in a country full of legends and ancient history.

Social Talk. Text 115.

The one with forest tales.

Sometimes greetings could be funny,
said old rabbit to the bunny
north pole grey fox has it tricky,
lure you, treat you like her sweetie.

But the reason she's so kind -
she wants rabbit in stir fry,
with delicious red hot sauce,
instead greeting like she was.

Old and clumsy Teddy bear,
whose great roar is in the air,
would have eaten you at once,
if you'd gotten in his arms.

Having tasty meat is bad,
only troubles go from that.
Every single creature's foe.
Aren't safe away from home.

But today I've found a friend,
he is tall and has two legs,
lots of food is in his pockets,
and his greeting is superb!

Gave me a carrot - said stay still,
took few pictures by my will.
I suppose we're friends forever,
Human, me and photo camera.

Social Talk. Text 114.

The one with flaws.

Picking stuff you made a choice,
making it - commit your voice,
and committing, you suggest
make the same buy for a friend.

Friends are different, not the same,
could have bought it, couldn't they?
Could suggest thing for their friend,
who might hate it in the end.

Such a way of spreading stuff,
sharing, giving friend a link to that,
to be honest, has some flaws,
like the one you should have known.

By accepting others will,
you deny your own believe,
which can lead you in the end,
to a dead end of depend.

Social Talk. Text 113.

The one with electricity.

Sometimes I wonder, what could have happened, if I hadn't missed that meeting? It was an ordinary meeting with employer and it supposed to be informal. But that day everything went wrong. Having set my alarm clock to wake me up at nine, I completely forgot to specify that it had to be AM, but not PM, as used a day before that.

Of course I overslept. I thought that it had to be all my troubles for that day, but I was so wrong. Most awful day in my life had started. Searching for the phone, to reschedule my meeting, I accidentally crushed my girlfriends hamster, and cleaning the floor with from the mess done by insides of that terrible plastic toy, which I always hated, I must admit, I hooked a table leg with an elbow, which in the end made my phone fly to the pail of water I used to clean the floor.

I managed to leave home only in an hour, but horrible traffic jam made me get to a subway only in another hour. I knew what my possible employer might have felt waiting for me in the diner at the corner, but there was nothing I could have done to speed up my travel. When is was almost my stop to leave, there was another surprise for me, don't know whom to blame though, but North American power outage of 2003 was a great surprise for me back than.

Finally, when I had reached my destination point, I understood that I was one day late anyway, so there was no sense to hurry at all. Central Perk was empty and already closed.

Now sometimes I refer to this particular day as a greatest day of my life, cause I eventually joined The World Race, and become a Peace Corps member in a year because of it. I'm Stanley, it's my life, and I'm completely happy about it.

Social Talk. Text 112.

The one with the travel.

Travelling is what we are, not only because of modern explanation of travelling like a remedy from boredom, but because every single human on earth is where he is just because our ancestors used to travel a lot. Ancient nomadic tribes were wandering north to conquer new land and to be conquered by the others. Back then it was difficult to be a traveller, but many of them roamed further and further to be the only one in the neighbourhood.

Nowadays travelling can be as easy as taking a cab. The most difficult thing to choose is where you’re heading, east or west, Japan or Peru, and it doesn’t matter by train or by plane, by ship or hitchhiking. Now you can live a house with a million dollar in your pocket and reach only nearest inn in your trip, or you can catch a car with a handful of unknown currency in your bag and find yourself in Beijing in a month. It’s only up to you, if you dare do it or not.

Although our world of endless possibilities brings us a chance to travel virtually to every corner of our tiny planet, at the time it puts us in such a leeway, that most of us stopped even dreaming about seeing Pyramids, or catching a sunrise on Caribbeans. Now we’re tightly bound by hundreds and hundreds of various strings to our job, to our house, to our surrounding, which eventually knits itself into our tiny universe, our tiny cocoon, which we’re so keen to leave, but to afraid even to move.

Social Talk. Text 111.

The one with the long sentence.

Having bought a new device, you expect it to be flawless in every possible and impossible embodiment, but stubborn thing rejects your attempts of controlling it, thus making you regret buying it despite the fact you wanted to posses this particular device, which you consider, was the best solution of problems you've got recently, and making you angrier (at the same time) it makes you less confident in yourself due to the felling of regret itself, and continuing to reprove yourself for wrong purchase eventually might make you fell depressed, which is not surprise, considering what a pathetic person you should have been, if you'd agreed to buy this useless, not to say bad words, item, and it's needles to say that your current state is way worse than it was before, but on the other hand, it just could be a voice of regret speaking to you, spreading itself like a decease though your mind, making it numb and unreasonably inconsiderate about mere fact that you can refund your buy, and a thought of refunding makes you feel strong again, makes you understand that is you, whos control this device should have been afraid of before persisting your will, and that's why you'll refund it today, to be happy, or at least to increase you happiness by a fraction instead of ruining whole day, whole week, whole life, and I guess best solution for the future would be always to think twice before acting.

Social Talk. Text 110.

The one with a story of election.


If I were a president I would be heedless ruler. I mean I wouldn't spread such information among the citizens, but I definitely would be useless for them as a governor. Driving a lorry truck is all I can do well enough to be paid for, and I don't understand what in the name of gods must have happened that you're asking me to be your president. My answer is no. I decline such proposal.

Thank you Andy. To all our viewers who just joined - this was Andy. The second competitor in currently running elections, and you've heard him. He doesn't want to have such responsibility.

The next competitor picked by computer would be Bob Noname form Baltimore, Maryland. What would be your answer Bob. What would you do if your were a president.

Hello, my name is Bob and I'm a plummer. Running the country could be interesting, I suppose. I have few ideas for Health care improvement, and at lest five things to change in our foreign policy. So I guess I will agree to take such post if there is no one better than me till the end of election.

Thank you Bob. To all our viewers who just joined - this was Bob. The third and the last candidate for today. We'll return tomorrow, for the next round of presidential campaign 2081, and the question for tomorrow three candidates will be - "How would you spend one billion dollars being a president."

Social Talk. Text 109.

The one with the color.

As you know the most known symbol of each country is it's flag, but what nobody really knows that each flag has a huge history behind it's colors. Currently scientific knowledge about colors, and their impact on our psychic abilities is only an embryo of creature it would be someday, Now it can tell you only simplest things like green color - calms, and red color causes ulcer. But there is so much we don't know yet.

According to ancient legends flag of the tribe, in other words - country, must be it's guidance in search of the place that would become a motherland. Legend says that each of thirteen great tribes, before abandoning their dying home, were given a colored patch of fabric which should identify them though generations, and reunite them in the next millennium, but that knowledge was lost in the journey.
Nowadays archaeologist have found evidence confirming prehistoric origin of at least five modern flags, and recent fossils from Babylon Tower site in Iraq are about to confirm another one.

The most interesting, that if you assign a letter to each color combination on ancient flags, you may notice a strange pattern. After four years of study of this color patterns, scientists managed to decipher part of the code. It has only eleven letters in it so far, and only one distinct word - "search".

Social Talk. Text 108.

The one with aim for whole life.

Uncle Martin's life story is quite interesting, but nobody in Longster's family seemed to know it, despite the fact that they think they know him well.

Having got a bachelors degree in chemistry, he started to think whether he wanted to study further or not. There were not so many places where he could work those days, Vietnam war had changed everything.

It was popular to serve in the army for two years, and get paid for the rest of your live. Although not many from those who signed knew that two years in Vietnam it's like twenty years as a civil. For those kids it supposed to be fun, playing a war, but Martin was not so dumb, he knew that if he had joined the army, he would have to be highly persistent in his goals, to be one day a Colonel.

That was his dream back then, but a dream is almost a foe to reality, and when he was a half way before reaching his dream, it suddenly went wrong. Being captain only a day he led his troops to a mission, then was loud boom, and he woke up in a hospital wing.

It was the end of his ambitions and his plans for military career. He expected to be given a promotion, but instead he got a shrapnel in his head. You might guess who I am, but I can insure you that I know him well, because we were in the same squad since enlisting into the army, and by the way we were in that hospital at the same time too.

Now he has a nice factory and living in a wonderful family of his nephew, but sometimes, I think, he is wondering why he was so inconsiderate about his abilities and knowledge, and wasted them in the army, instead of his own family. I guess he has the answer to that, but it will be better if you don't ask him.

Social Talk. Text 107.

The one with arguing.

Finding a way out in arguing could be hard if your opponent is your relative. Especially if it's your spouse. Having started a quarrel with spouse you doom yourself to a long and severe dialogue, because you really know each other, therefore can use a bunch of arguments that no one else knows. Not to have such situation, you must choose proper words and know exactly how to act. That's why I bring you a list of recommendations based on my own experience.

Diana's problem solving list. Short version.

Around nineteen years ago my parents were arguing whether to break up or not, and suddenly they come up with idea of having a baby. In other words - me. I know it sounds weird, but I never wanted them to change their mind that day.

Another good example happened when I was five. Parents were unable to decide which school I should enlist. It was a huge argue, but when it seemed to have been impossible to stop them, my mother said that she loved us too much to continue arguing, and she proposed my father to choose a school instead. In the end they were asking me which one I liked the most, and completely forgot to argue.

Last big quarrel I remember, was about Stephanie's drinking habit. Finally dad got used to avoid her by staging huge battles with uncle Martin's soldiers, in the garage.

Of course there were some minor quarrels after that, but I never heard them yelling ever again, and I guess the reason we became a real family, is that we wanted to be one, we never stoped loving each other.

Social Talk. Text 106.

The one with letter from Stanley.

... (in the end of the letter)

Having thought about my future occupation made me think of money like of something irrelevant, and I'll try to explain why.

I was aiming Peace Corps since I was ten, after I first saw it on TV. I knew that I would need not only my will, but also a hefty bag of diverse knowledge to be in it. Having this in mind, I enrolled every evening class I could find, and since my mother was divorced, and my bigger brother Matt just entered University, my classes were supposed to be free of charge.

In four years I've managed to finish nineteen classes, such as hiking in Tundra, bandaging for newbie, first aid without first aid kit, especially hard one - making fire under rain, and a dozen of others. Now I know, that without them I would quit my post less than in a year, but, to be honest, now I know a better way of helping people.

A young man from headquarters, name Ashton, visited our camp in Peru last week. I recognised him at once, cause I saw him in the hall of some large corporation, which we were asking for donation. An expensive suit, a leather suitcase, a golden watch, all this was gone now, but what he got instead, is just a odd smirk of a guy who thinks he knows what he's doing. He quit his job, and thinks he did a noble thing. I wish he still had it, maybe he could have helped us get a donation. My dreams never come true, at least I've got what I wanted. Wish me luck.

Your brother Stanley.

P.S. Can you send me some cheese. Haven't eaten it for ages.

Social Talk. Text 105.

The one with bald date.

Have you ever had a blind date? Probably you would say no, cause blind dating is a tricky thing, and most of the people avoid it because of obscurity it has. I guess you have to know at least something about person you'll be dating, or you can find yourself in a situation, when you would want to be strolling alone, instead of having such date.

If having a blind date, taught you a lesson, you might try to use modern technologies, in another word social network, to meet your sole mate. Those, who used to live in social networks, upload hundreds of photos each month, hence to know this person like his friends do, you are not even obliged to be introduced.

The above mentioned is good only for breaking eye contact, but if you want to find yourself a partner, you must see each other in person. Without it you'd never know that he is bald because of allergy on human hair, or that she is taller than you by a head. What would you do in such situation? I guess you'd just pretend asking time, and then run away.

There are plenty of ways to meet a person you want, but to make such meeting successful, you should be not only confident, but you also must be yourself. You'll succeed only if you take off any mask you used to wear.

no social talks for a while..

Last week we had "newcomers", two Americans from World Race. That's why we didn't have to write social talks for the time they were present at the classes, cause spending one third of a class to check our "socials" could have been a waste of time.

Social Talk. Text 104.

The one with lonely geek.

Loneliness itself is not what we should be afraid of, cause being lonely actually doesn't mean anything. One day you are lonely, next day you might have a dozen of friends. What we really should be afraid of, and what is more important, what we should understand is the reason of our loneliness.

If you are good at studying, you might have only one nerd friend and be completely happy about it, but it can be totally different situation if being a geek makes you unhappy. In this case, I guess, you are trying to unite two almost incompatible features in one man. You cannot be brainy and have high social activity at the same time. Of course I mean usual kind of activities like parties, movies and hiking with non geeks.

It's a real problem for highly intelligent, but not so good looking boy to find a girl he wants. Often it's not because they are on different sides of a road called life, but because the boy is looking on a wrong side. I guess it may be the problem of all unhappy people, they just don't know what they are looking for, hence they are trying to follow the path of the majority.

Such situation is not the a rare one, even though it's a little bit controversial. I mean how can you be smart and alone at the same time? Although this is world we living in, and to be happy you must be not only smart, but try to be a wise person as well.

Social Talk. Text 103.

The one with music.

All of them are the same. They have proposed me limousines, corsages and even champagne, which is interesting, but their lines have no difference, besides the name. Boys can be so boring. Why Eric had to use exact words that Lori said yesterday? It made his proposal bleak and meaningful just like Lori himself, even though Eric is cute. I guess if no ask follows with at least different lines, I won't go at all. Who wants to spend a prom with bad made replica of a prince on white horse?

..evening..

I have thought that previous proposals were bad, but another three calls in two hours made me change my mind. I even can't imagine what the last one was hoping for, having dialed my number. I guess now he wishes that I would forget his name and how he looks. I bet it wouldn't be hard.

When phone rang again, I thought that such conversations even might be funny, if I hadn't tried to be serious, so I decided to try this.

- Hello.

- Hi, it's Charlie. I just wanted to ask you. Would you go to the prom with me? But I must warn you to wear comfortable shoes. Five block it's not big a deal, but anyway kicks will kill you.

- Are you going to go there? Aren't you supposed to book a limo?

- I don't really like limo, but we can take bus number sixty two. It will drop us right next to the venue.

- I don't really like proms Charles. I'd better stay at home.

- Come on Di. You know what, I will even let you listen my iPod.

(P.S. Charles is a friend of Diana from Social Talk 17. They used to work on uncle Martin's factory. And sometimes they were listening the music, sharing headphones from a single iPod that Diana had.)

Social Talk. Text 102.

The one with the best years.

Which year could have been the best? I guess no one can give you a sheer answer to such question. Cause picking one year, you make other look less happier, but how this could be true. How could you even compare your kindergarten play-yard with your school hiking trip? How can you measure your first travel abroad or your first love? It will be something like five pounds, six meters and four degrees in total. Nice comparison.

Having thought about my life, made me remember every tiny detail from each year, that had made it special. Like my first bicycle ride, or my first broken leg, like my graduation, or my birthday party. And what is interesting, although none of those events are the same, they are quite equal in happiness level they had produced. And what is curious, if I hadn't been asked such question, I might have never understood that my best years are each one of my actual years.

And this means that life itself is the happiest thing that might happen with someone. Though you never know what lies behind next corner of your life, you can be sure that your life - is your happiness. And one of the keys to success - is sharing your happiness with people.

Social Talk. Text 101.

The one with cheating.

Actually, cheating is nothing, till it harms somebody in some way. Single persons life is insignificant to society and if someone had cheated more in one's childhood, I guess it wouldn't have influenced a lot of people. Maybe relatives, friends, and that's all. Cause most of child's cheating, if it were, was only about studying. Cheating for taking one grade higher, for example. Usually you would have got A instead of B, if you had cheated properly, but at the same time cheating might be your expelling.

Children's cheating isn't so harmful, but if being a child you hadn't stopped cheating, then adulthood cheating might be your worth nightmare. There will be nobody to take your responsibilities, because everyone has their own duties, and they simply don't have time to help you. If you are a hard-working kind of person, and you don't have to cheat, than probably, you must have studied well at your school days.

But what about those who are not so clever in ordinary stuff, but still have a high ranking position in society. What is interesting if you want to be on such place, you must be completely different person. Cause knowing how to rule people doesn't oblige you to know math.

Yet mistakes of such people, and what is worth, their purposeful cheating can have way bigger consequences. A factory manager money cheating can impact not only factory's reputation but also workers safety, who can die due to lack of new breathing mask for instance. In general, the more power you have, the more responsibility is behind your decisions. And I hope that phrase “Once a cheater – always a cheater” is not about you, or at least you should think about it.

Social Talk. Text 100.

Social Talk. Number one hundred.

Having written previous social talks gave me a lot of experience in both writing it quick and writing it properly. At the NewTone we're constantly increasing our skills not only by learning English grammar, but also by using no Russian language at all. And this means that we're talking a lot at our two hour classes, which leaves you a little room for your future social talk. But such situation has two contraries in it.

If we hadn't talked about our current unit topic a lot enough, we wouldn't have learned it properly, but when we had, we might have got a social talk that looked like a reflection of our previous lesson. Which is no so bad, cause we've been using learned grammar and words. But still, having written social talk with nothing but what we were discussing, made me understand that it could have been better.

Then our third week in NewTone had started and I invented the easiest way to avoid such annoyance of mine. Having faced another social story task, forced me to invent whole new way of writing them. In that day Longsters family had been born. It has been truly long story that helped me through all my talks. I've got a family that could survive almost everything, diseases and parting, hurricanes and fires, traveling to another countries and so on.

But there was one tiny issue. Having got so diverse life from me, they also have got quite unmanageable main storyline. And it became just like in any kind of a story, main character would have exploded, if it had been a real human.

Thats why now it's not more than previous social talks, and I guess I have to adjust my writing, in order no to be annoyed by it. Cause writing social talks is fun that I cannot miss.

Social Talk. Text 99.

The one with child development.

Having chosen your future child traits, you would probably wonder, what should you do to make that huge list became real?

That's obvious, you might think at first, all you need is just couple of sport or dance sections, and it'll be done. But what will happen when you face a fact that your child wants to be a tailor, for example, if you are a plummer in fifteenth generation?

I guess you will be shocked at your own reactions. Such as: "you will do what I said", "this is not for boys", or even "you will quit it immediately". Often we're selfish in such descisions, cause when we picked something for our child, we think it'll be the best thing to learn, and we'll never drop that line. Even despite constant argues and quarrels. Most vise thing to do for a child in such situation - is to obey parents will, and learn how to play this ridiculously large violin.

But if you are not sure what will be more suitable for your kid, it's probably better not to act at all. And if you heir is interested in some kind of activity, someday your son will say that he is singed into theater section in his school, or your daughter will ask money for the new drawing equipment for her painting section. But what is more important, it will be child's own choice, and if it doesn't make the job, at least it might be used as a good life experience of making right decisions.

Previously depicted options are not mandatory, and even more, they are not as good as the last one left. Be a friend to your child. Knowing and understanding younger generation needs might be difficult, but only to those who belong to strict or not confident parents. If you are a friend with your kid, you will know his needs, or her requests, and when it comes to a decision dance or culinary classes, you won't have any doubts.