November 17, 2007

Cultură și civilizație românească

Precum Dorin, și eu cred că facem o treabă jalnică în a promova cultura și civilizația românească. Din păcate, suntem jalnici nu numai la promovarea ei în marele noian de culturi și civilizații ale lumii, ci chiar la noi acasă pe meleaguri românești. Abia de reușim să ne mai aducem aminte noi înșine, și eșuăm mizerabil să ne învățăm copiii, ce înseamnă să fii român. Dacă nici noi nu mai știm...

Cine face cultura și civilizația româneasca dacă nici românii? Așa că primesc provocarea lui Dorin de a promova din câte îmi mai aduc și eu aminte din cultura neamului care m-a născut fizic și moral.

Am să postez însă pe un alt blog aceste lucruri, subiectul acestui blog e prea banal în genere. Așa că postez aici: http://raulthoughts.blogspot.com o amintire de cultură românească, ceva ce exprimă exact ceea ce se întâmplă astăzi lui Pan cel al românilor.

October 27, 2007

Harry Potter

I would not read any famous contemporary* book as it is for sure a very bad book. Such is the state of the art and the world today.

*I carefully picked the word contemporary as there is nothing modern in the contemporary literature.

Dumbledore vs Burma

I recently wrote my first reaction when I've heard that Dumbledore is gay here. So let me elaborate.

I believe it is part of being human that curiosity is rose by absurd, and a new title like "Dumbledore is Gay!" is absurd enough to get you read it. It happened to me as well. Also part of being human is the big probability that by the time you finished to read the absurd news you forgot that it was the absurd title that got you reading it and you get engaged in discussions on the user comments part of the site presenting the news as if it was actually "real" and something to be concerned about.

So there you go, all these reactions of teenagers (which by the way, are more likely not to be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction) and grownups about how Dumbledore is gay and how bad or good that is.

In the mean time people in Burma die. The news titles suggests that there is a bloody revolt of some sort happening in Burma. But this is not absurd is it? This does not attract ones attention as much as Dumbledore. Why? Because this is actually "normal" and we have gotten used to things like this happening everyday.

And this is truly sad! Because if we react to absurd news, we don't react to "normal" news like human rights violations in different parts of the world, or worse, people being killed because they fight for these basic rights for them and/or for their children.

Now why I do I care about what actually happens in Burma today and I am not very concerned about the sexual orientation of fiction characters?

Because it reminds me of Romania 20 years ago. It reminds me of the people that would give their lives for freedom. And I do not think the western world today understand what that means anymore.

It means that you wake up in the morning, you wash your face, you dress up, you think about all the injustice that happens to you, to your friends, to your family and you know they will all happen again today. But you also know that today you are not going to take it anymore, you also know that today you are so fed up with it that you would rather die than living one more day lacked by your freedom to be.

So you tie your shoes, you kiss your children and go in the streets marching for freedom. And you know you might not be back. And they know you might not be back. But you have to do it, if not for you, then for them waiting at home, hoping you will be back. And most probably he/she was never back.

Now just take a look at another part of the world. The most important, how they like to think of themselves: US. How many people in the US would have the strength to defend their freedom with their life? To be honest I think if the personal freedoms in the US would be threatened (and they are) they would sit on their fat asses and read about Dumbledore. The only thing that might get them to react would be a ban on McDonalds most probably. Europe is a bit different as people do react more asking their rights and not taking in all the crap from politicians, like the recent strike in France. But still...

Anyway I don't think that this is the fault of anybody. It might be the fault of the society for improper education, but not even that. Simply it is hard to understand what happens in Burma if you never experienced something similar. And this is the saddest thing. And this is why it is more interesting if Dumbledore is Christian or Muslim or heterosexual or homosexual.

And that person I was talking before, never came back home... and nothing in Burma has changed because of their sacrifice. Just that some parents are left without their child, or some children without their parent all in the dream of freedom. And the world leaders sleep well at night very aware of all that happens, and we sleep well at night not aware of much.

And Dumbledore is gay, and that is outrageous. Or is it?

October 25, 2007

Dumbledore is NOT gay!

Dumbledore is...

Oh wait! Dumbledore never... was anything but fiction. And I never read the books anyway as there are plenty of better books to read and just this much time.

In the meantime people in Burma are being killed because they want to be free, people in Africa still die of hunger, forests are being destroyed... just the usual.

But hey, to hell with all that! Dumbledore is gay!

August 28, 2007

Marele, bunul, cuceritorul de inimi... Dudu în Italia!

Dudu a fugit de-acasă!!!!

Doctorii au zis că e din cauza lipsei de atenție, eu la muncă toată ziua, Denisa la fel... VAAAIII ce ne facem?


Dudu in Italy


A trebuit să îl urmărim pe Dudu mai bine de două saptămâni prin toată Italia... zău așa: Milano, Florența, Roma, Veneția...

Acum toți suntem fericiți acasă, familia-i reunită, bine, veselă, dar Dudu... Dudu mai fuge el din când în când, în secret dar noi ne dăm seama... că știm noi ce-i poate pielea!

August 19, 2007

Boogie Woogie

- Bughi ce?
- Uuuughi măh.... uuuughi!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie_woogie

Deci ne-am început concediu de vară mergând la un campionat mondial de dans. Nu știam la ce să ne așteptăm, dar voiam să văd cum e. Și în ziua în care am fost noi era finala la două chestii: standard (vals, quick step...) și bughi ughi.

Ce e bughi ughi? Păi e un rock-n-roll aerodinamic... sau rock-n-roll 3D... sau dai din picioare de nu ți se mai văd (și nu glumesc) și pe deasupra o mai și arunci pe parteneră de colo-colo, și dacă și ești profesionist... o prinzi după.

Ce mai tura bura, a fost fain (partea de țopăială). Partea de standard... nu știu... la un moment dat mi se păreau toți la fel. Adică noroc că aveau tipele fuste de culori diferite că altfel habar n-aveam că sunt alții și nu tot aceeași pereche clonată de 6 ori să le iasă ălora numărul de finaliști.



După cum ziceam, eram un pic sceptici. Mai ales că nu ne-a placut Sttutgard deloc... urât oraș pentru un oraș nemțesc, zău.


Delectați-vă! Și concurs: "de câte ori dă tipul din picioare în timpul primului dans?"

August 18, 2007

Violenţa la TV...

Sunt de acord cu petiţia de mai jos, şi în caz că sunteţi şi voi vă invit să o semnaţi şi/sau să o promovaţi prietenilor.

http://www.petitiononline.com/nu_crime

August 14, 2007

Ziua mea, Alpii, un Ghețar și Jacuzzi

Veni și ziua mea... iar. De data asta a fost o surpriză aranjată de Denisa.

Și uite așa am ajuns la cel mai mare ghețar din europa. Și a fost super. Am făcut asa:
  • hike pe crestele munților de langă ghețari pe la vreo 2900m - am zis că nu mai scap, cum mie nu prea îmi plac înălțimile și diferența de aer se simte chiar tare deși sunt numai 400m față de Bucegi unde mergi și n-ai nimic... Oricum când am ajuns la sfârșit m-am simțit excelent și ușurat: "AM SCĂPAT!!!!" :-)
  • a doua zi am fost rupți așa că am mers numai cu gondole și telecabine
  • și seara a fost seară de relax. Jacuzzi și hidromasaje, și saună, și iar jacuzzi... dar asta nu e tot. Jacuzzi cu tot hotelul la care am stat era la 2500m, într-o cameră cu trei pereți de sticlă prin care vedeai alpii... eeeeehhhh... Mai bine uitați-vă aici, mă tot chinui să explic eu:
  • Și am mâncat cel mai bun desert din viața mea... sublim! O cremă de ciocolată (chocolate moss) cu cremă de vanilie/brânză dulce... moaica mia! Și da, știu că după ce mergi pe munte mâncarea pare mai bună, dar nu e asta, desertul ăla a fost excelent. Am lins farfuria, fără glumă :-)


Și restul de poze sunt aici:
Aletsch Glacier, CH

July 16, 2007

Dreaming about the past (answer to criticism)

The usual critique for this blog contains a few statements that I'd like to answer to.

The first one, and perhaps the most important is that we dream too much about the past. "You see the past in such an ideal light" - and that is wrong.

As a matter of fact, I would say that there is NOTHING to dream about the past societies. The past societies did nothing to preserve the earth, as a matter of fact, the effects of the past societies are the ones that we endure now! So no, we don't have an ideal light over the past societies, but we do mourn the nature as it was in the pre-industrialized world. We do love our computers, our life-span of over 70 years and our health - and we are healthy since it does take more than an epidemic to kill hundred of thousands of people. Of course, we still have epidemics that kill a lot of people (look at the HIV epidemic), but that is somewhat different, since this epidemic looks rather human inflicted than nature-inflicted. We have now the cleanest water in history - because we know how to clean it up and all, and we have it bottled. It's not cheap, but health is important - the fun fact is that having the cleanest water in history we still drink the most poisonous stuff like chemically created carbonated sodas. But, aside all that, we are healthier.

The second criticism against this blog and against people like us goes with the fact that we are too critical. There are wheels spinning, the people are starting a new trend - a 'save the planet' trend. Well, I don't believe that there is really a 'save the planet' trend, but there sure is a 'look at me trying to save the planet' trend going on. So is this true that we are too critical? Perhaps we are. Perhaps we are talking about stuff that contradict too much our own lives, and perhaps we should do more, talk less, and do that silently. Well, my guess is that this is not possible. That we can't have surgery without the blade cutting the skin - and we can't just ignore the facts that we see. We talk about them because we want people to know, and spread the word. We see other people moving stuff, we see other people thinking great things, and we try to spread the word. It's the least we can do.

We do criticise, but there is no progress without critique. As a matter of fact, we evolved like this because we didn't criticise the ways we did evolve. We did grow fast, but it was better a slow evolution that would put us at peace with our own house. And here comes the ancient wisdom that we talk about in our blogs. Because our society is now affected by gluttony, greed and desires and all these are coming back against us to hit like a hammer. We are the victims of the past societies. But now it's too late to criticise them, so we criticise ourselves.

We are biased, some say. I've read some weeks ago an article written by Vaclav Klaus that said that not the climate is at risk, but the freedom of thought. He is true, as far as he is concerned. The idea that the climate change is a propaganda might be true, and I took some time to think this over. But somehow it seems quite different the world we live in, and I know for sure that weather is a whole lot different nowadays and a few years ago (like the '80s). Of course, Mr. Klaus argues with the arguments of a person that fought the totalitarian movement of the soviets, but perhaps this is not the case. You choose for yourselves. But even the most ardent opponents of the 'global warming' did shift in time - from denying the phenomena to stating now that 'humans have nothing or too little to do with it'.

And we have some harsh proves. I am not talking about some politician's movie, but I think that anyone who lived in New Orleans does have a say or two about the global warming. The phenomena is there. The question is: do we accept it and try to get over it? Or do we just fight for our freedom of speech (which I don't see in what way is affected) and die of some desert disease in our temperate-climate homes?

Yes, I have some unruly thoughts about some oponents of the global warming. I never thought I would hear this, but I hear more often: "but warmer is better!". And I fail to see it - I fail to see why warmer is better. You don't die of cold... but you do die of heart-attack at high temperatures. So where's the gain?

And even if we didn't have these effects on our hands, think about it more. Would you start a gasoline-based car in your apartment? Would you ride your motorbike in your apartment without a breath of fresh air? Point is that the current environment is damaging our health, and sure, we do survive more, but it's survival what we do.

So if there is something to criticise, don't criticise the ideas. It's so silly to criticise the existance of global warming now, but soon global warming will become textbook issue. You know, the kind of things that you learn in the first grade. And you may say that this is pure propaganda, but then again 1+1 equals 2 is pure propaganda as well (and people that finished some mathematics-oriented sections of universities know that what I say is true, and 1+1=2 is quite a different thing).

As I remember, it's George Orwell that said that 'freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2 makes 4'. The freedom to state the obvious. And this is the obvious.

If there is something to criticise, criticise the methods that are used to clean the Earth. Please do.

Perhaps there are many points I left out of this. There is still a lot more to talk about, but questions are welcome :)

PS: Since we talked about freedom of thought and global warming, a reaction (translated from romglish to english):
(3:37:56 PM) Teo: i'm back. again
(3:38:06 PM) Dorin: Welcome
(3:38:07 PM) Dorin: You have a link (with the new post, my note)
(3:38:13 PM) Teo: I saw
(3:40:23 PM) Teo: it's too hot to think
(3:40:51 PM) Dorin: :D
(3:40:57 PM) Dorin: it's about being too hot to think
(3:40:57 PM) Dorin: :P
(3:41:02 PM) Teo: i know

July 7, 2007

Zürich Fäscht!

A fost sărbătoarea Zürich-ului... IHA!

Adică o sărbătoare ce se ține doar o dată la 3 sau 4 ani! și la care participă peste 2 milioane de oameni și la care sunt cele mai grandioase focuri de artificii pe care le vede Zürich-ul... și noi :-)

Dar mai întâi a fost zi. Şi în timpul zilei: Carnavaleeeeelelelelee!

Şi da, am ameţit, dar nu să mi se facă rău. Şi da, este de fapt un experiment de cum se comportă oamenii în medii cu forţe centrifuge mari, făcut pe nebuni care dau şi bani să participe.

Și apoi a fost seară. Şi seara: Artificiiiii!


Ce ne-am mai distrat :-) A fost chiar fain.

Și închei cu o poză cu Zürich într-o după-amiază de festival, care îmi place tare, tare.

Hans Rosling: The Seemingly Impossible Is Possible

I loved this talk. The presenter has such a catchy optimism: "We need to get serious, so what do we do to get serious? A power point slide!".

The main theme of the talk is how less fortunate countries (in financial terms) are striving to achieve the same (in terms of health and education) as (what do they call them?) "highly industrialized countries" (meaning reach).

It is amazing to see that countries like Japan and Philippines can do so good and will probably do even better with much less. As always there is another side of the story: the few very rich countries gather their wealth from resources of the impoverished countries. Or in other words: you don't want your miners to get clever and ask for more, you just want them to dig up the gold and give it willingly to you for free. It's all in interests and whose interests they are.

I find that (as with my previous video post) the most interesting people are the ones who have traveled the world in its most forbidden and remote places.

Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the west. In fact, most of the third world is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.

Rosling began his wide-ranging career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and as a professor at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm initiated key international research collaborations. He’s also personally argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro.

As if all this weren’t enough, the irrepressible Rosling is also an accomplished sword-swallower.




Have fun with the graphs here.

July 5, 2007

Alienation

The greatest of the apes came down from the trees only to cut them.



Note: the talk was given 5 years ago.

Somewhere in Africa they have cut down the last tree for some bucks out of desperation/starvation and Jane Goodall says this is understandable. I think this is the true human nature:

The last of the greatest apes face to face with the last of the trees.

The apes know that they will have no chance of survival, even if they exploit the resources of the last of the trees they would just survive a day longer.

The apes also know that if they save the last of the trees and just starve a day earlier the tree has a chance to multiply and bring back the forests in the absence of the apes that have all starved to death.

And what do the apes do? They cut it down of course, so that they can live one day longer and to be sure that when they're gone, there is nothing left behind them.



I find the Mayan story from the Apocalypto movie interestingly related with my last posts:

And a Man sat alone, drenched deep in sadness.
And all the animals drew near to him and said,
"We do not like to see you so sad.
Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it.
"

The Man said, "I want to have good sight."
The vulture replied, "You shall have mine."
The Man said, "I want to be strong."
The jaguar said, "You shall be strong like me."
Then the Man said, "I long to know the secrets of the earth."
The serpent replied, "I will show them to you."
And so it went with all the animals.
And when the Man had all the gifts that they could give, he left.

Then the owl said to the other animals, "Now the Man knows much,
he'll be able to do many things. Suddenly I am afraid.
"
The deer said, "The Man has all that he needs.
Now his sadness will stop.
"

But the owl replied,
"No. I saw a hole in the Man, deep like a hunger he will never fill.
It is what makes him sad and what makes him want.
He will go on taking and taking, until one day the World will say,
'I am no more and I have nothing left to give.'
"


In relation to the Century of the Self post, when was last you heard a story from your elders?

July 3, 2007

The Trial - The Judge

If the entire mankind was on trial for crimes against life on Earth and you were the judge:

  1. For what reason/ground would you choose not to convict mankind?
    [Greatest of the deeds / qualities]

  2. For what would you blame mankind the most?
    [Greatest of the crimes]


Leave your comment.

June 24, 2007

The Century of the Self

"Who are you?"

Let's start by looking back into the middle ages for a bit. We all know that was the dark age of civilization, when terrible things could happen, and when reason was greatly shadowed by primal instincts, mostly fear. Or was it that dark?

In the middle age, when common peasants were slaves of the elevated nobility, the usual (let's call them) "working days" were around 100 days per year or less. So they had 256 days to do... well whatever it was that they were doing when they were not working the fields. Probably drink wine and tell stories by the fire. Who knows? History books don't tell us what common people were doing in their free time and how that changed. But I bet that would be an interesting subject to study.

Anyway, how many days do you, the modern man/woman have to work to pay your dept to the modern nobles (some may call it dept to "society")? Well if I would start counting I would say around 300. Indeed 3 times more than the middle age peasant slave.

As you have probably guessed by now, my count includes Saturdays also. Well it is true that many people work on Saturdays but this is not the reason. I included it because on Saturday usually people work for themselves. You do your laundry, you clean your apartment, maybe you cook something, iron some shirts, do some shopping for the next week so on. So you spend at least 5 days a week to slave for society (aka work) and then 1 day for yourself and you are left with 1 day.

Oh well, this makes me think from time to time that the peasant from some years ago must have been more human than I was. I mean, he had time to do all these things that make us humans, like I don't know: dance?, sing and not be an MTV star but just for the fun of it?, tell stories about witches?, hope in a divine entity?, build a house?, plant a tree?, raise 7 kids?, cook some simple and natural and organic and bio dish with ingredients right from the garden in the back of the house?, hear the grass grow?, and stuff like that.

You know, if there is something I consider myself talented in, that is logic or finding the relationships between cause and effect. This combined with curiosity is a real recipe for disaster, stress and depression. So let us use logic to investigate a bit this modern form of slavery.

So why do people work and work like slaves? Well they want to be able to afford a certain life standard. But when do they get to actually live at that standard? Mostly on Sundays. But what do they do on Sundays? They usually sleep and rest because of all the fatigue incurred in the previous years.

OK, so modern slaves work that much to try to afford an ideal. I say ideal as everybody knows ideals cannot be materialized or reached. But a better life is not the only ideal, another common one that people get educated to believe in is: you have to make your contribution to the society.

Now let's take a look at the society: 90% of the entires world wealth is owned by 2% of the global population. Well I don't know how one could say that his personal contribution is for the society in general since statistically speaking 90% of the fruits of your work are owned by these select few and only about 10% divided to 98% of the world's population comes back to you.

I will just let your imagination run wild about how the 2% contribute to society. They must do something with all their free time. You might get some clues from the documentaries at the end of this post on what they entertain themselves with.

Now let me come back to the other 98%. So this other 98% pays health insurance and pension plans and who knows what. Right? And what happens when you actually need the health insurance? Well, you usually end up paying yourself anyway or die. And what if you die? Well if you die then the pension plan was paid for nothing. So business would be better for both health insurance companies and pension plans that you just die. Or?

And that is the key: business. Your health is a business, your pension is a business, and business is not meant to help you personally, it is meant to make money. And business does not make money for you or the general individual, it makes money for the 2% I was talking above.

Who said turning health into a business would be a good deal? Well it was definitively not me, I don't have enough time in my hands to think about stuff like that. But definitely someone did, and they also realized that very few people would go cheap on their health, therefore there is a huge potential for business here. People can't live without this business, what could be better?

So back to "Who are you?"
Is that the right thing to ask in these days of mine? I wonder... I wonder if we had not reached a point where one can safely ask "What are you?" when addressing to "persons". And they should say: Software Engineer Junior II, Nurse Senior III, Mechanical Engineer etc. Most of the time we don't really care about people's names, we just care about what they do so that we know how they can help us do what we do.

A human being is not born into a person, with identity and elevation of thought. A human is educated into a person, is taught how to be a "who" and not a "what". You can say a human child is taught how to think. But whose interest is to to educate other self aware individuals?









UPDATE


Some people may find some links between my thoughts on the social health system and the newly released documentary Sicko. This post was written before the documentary was introduced to the public, so I guess it only means that two rational minds reached the same conclusion on their different reasoning path. Which should make the argumentation even stronger.

June 18, 2007

Stand-Up Tragedy?

We are living in an interesting world I guess. A world where sophisticated civilized people die unhappy of stress induced health diseases completely ignorant to the poor and uncivilized (so they say) world.

People these days live and die without even knowing what happened to them. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you think about resources and want to be efficient, you might say they are wasting air, water and the rest of the ingredients this planet has to offer to sustain life.

In the same line of thought, enjoy something that in the US passes as stand-up comedy:



Wasn't that a good laugh? :)

June 10, 2007

Ce se mai petrece?

Păi am fost la concert Dolores O'Riordan (aka The Cranberries). A fost chiar fain, deşi m-am simţit moş rău pe lângă tinerii de liceu care erau acolo în faţa scenei dând din mâini :-) Aş fi vrut şi eu cu ei!

Dolores a lansat un album solo, mai rock decât tot ce a cântat Cranberries până acum. E destul de bun, dar cred ca tot oldies but goldies de la Cranberries îmi plac mai mult. Şi oricum mi-am cumpărat albumele lor, cum am decis eu că nu mă mai chinui cu muzică adusă de pe net, pentru că oricum e de proastă calitate (encoding). Mai bine cumpăr CD şi îmi encodez eu cum îmi place.

Apoi am luat bilete de avion către casă, cu două ocazii. Uite aşa o să fim acasă în august o săptămână: 28 aug - 4 sep. Sper să apuc să mă văd cu mulţi, mulţi dintre voi. Ar fi super mişto dacă v-aţi lua şi voi o zi două libere în perioada aia şi să mergem pe undeva/pierdem vremea împreună. Poate fi ăsta cadoul de ziua mea? :)

Dap, anul ăsta cred că e primul an de când îs, când de ziua mea nu voi fi acasă şi nici nu mi-am luat concediu/zi liberă.

Apoi o să stau ceva mai mult de sărbători, care iarăşi este un fel de record, în sfârşit după destui ani, sunt acasă de sărbătorile de iarnă, şi nu în Olanda, sau Franţa, sau State, sau Elveţia :) Vin pe 20 dec şi stau până după anul nou, adică vreo 3 săptămâni. Facem planuri?

June 3, 2007

Apocalypto

And a Man sat alone, drenched deep in sadness.
And all the animals drew near to him and said,
"We do not like to see you so sad.
Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it.
"

The Man said, "I want to have good sight."
The vulture replied, "You shall have mine."
The Man said, "I want to be strong."
The jaguar said, "You shall be strong like me."
Then the Man said, "I long to know the secrets of the earth."
The serpent replied, "I will show them to you."
And so it went with all the animals.
And when the Man had all the gifts that they could give, he left.

Then the owl said to the other animals, "Now the Man knows much,
he'll be able to do many things. Suddenly I am afraid.
"
The deer said, "The Man has all that he needs.
Now his sadness will stop.
"

But the owl replied,
"No. I saw a hole in the Man, deep like a hunger he will never fill.
It is what makes him sad and what makes him want.
He will go on taking and taking, until one day the World will say,
'I am no more and I have nothing left to give.'
"

May 19, 2007

Am votat: NU

Pe scurt:
  • Votul meu n-a avut nici o legătură cu persoana lui Băsescu (nici pro, nici contra).
  • În schimb am votat împotriva unui abuz: parlamentul nevotat de mine încearcă să demită preşedintele votat de mine acum 3 ani.
  • Mă întreb dacă majoritatea oamenilor au votat pro/contra în funcţie de cât de simpatic sau nu e Băsescu. Mie nu mi s-a părut că acesta ar fi fost scopul votului.
  • Mă îndoiesc că Băsescu realizează ceea ce s-a întâmplat: românii l-au susţinut de două ori.
  • Şi cu atât mai tare mă îndoiesc că această susţinere şi încredere va fi şi reciprocă. Aştept să văd cum îşi va arăta gratitudinea, şi ce va face dnl preşedinte.
  • Cei cărora nu le-a ieşit pasenţa, să tacă... am auzit destule. Dacă e cineva care nu reprezintă poporul, atunci ei sunt aceia.
  • În special am să pomenesc liberalii care au ucis începutul de liberal din mine aliindu-se cu PSD. Nu! Nici ca să treci puntea nu te aliezi cu PSD. Mai bine te îneci. Adio liberali.
  • Şi tot în special am să pomenesc din nou liberalii care în alianţa DA au propus marea şi tarea echipa Băsescu - preşedinte, Tăriceanu - premier. Da, memoria mă mai ţine să ştiu că am votat o echipa. Ce echipă domnilor? Cei doi oameni de la căpătâiul statului român nu sunt în stare nici să îşi vorbească. Asta spune multe despre diplomaţia românească. Vina e a amândoura.
  • Şi în nespecial am să pomenesc că dacă liberalii s-au dus pe apa sâmbetii, nu mai există nimic decât PCR. În caz că aţi uitat PD este desprins din PSD nu cu mult timp în urmă şi nu au nimic necomunist în mod special. Deci ţărănişti adio, liberali adio, am rămas doar cu PCRu iar. Doar acum e mai cochet, are două sub-ramuri, dă bine în ochii lumii în ce priveşte competiţia politică.
  • Cea mai tare fază? :-) Mă face să râd. S-or fi deşteptat românii. Le-au mâncat micu şi le-au băut berea PSD-istilor şi au votat cu Băsescu :-) Bun aşa.
  • Iniţiativă

Singurul lucru bun din toată asta? Am vizitat şi eu Berna, cel mai apropriat centru de votare. Frumos oraş.

May 17, 2007

Junii din Zuerich

Acum o lună (pe 18 aprilie) a fost în Zuerich festivalul ce sărbătorește sfârșitul iernii. Un fel de Juni de la noi (cel puțin de prin Brașov, nu știu dacă în alte orașe se ține).

Ce se întâmplă este că fiecare breaslă din cantonul Zuerich vine îmbrăcată într-un anume costum, cu simbolurile proprii și defilează pe străzile principale din Zuerich. Parada dureză destul de mult și se încheie cu arderea unui om imens de zăpadă, care stă în vârful unei claie mari de fân. Și gata, iarna trece :-)

Și fericirea copiilor, toți aduc câte ceva cu ei, fie și doar bomboane și le împart spectatorilor. Un pahar de vin din producție proprie :-), un biscuit, o bomboană, o pâine coaptă chiar în timpul defilării... etc. Frumos, frumos!



May 12, 2007

Hope

I wish I could trust the greatest of the apes,
But experience prevents me to.
Look at the world they have built,
And the ruins of the one they have built upon.

Beauty is lost!

May 5, 2007

Am obosit de românia

Stări de fapt despre care toată lumea ştie dar în legătură cu care nu se întâmplă nimic şi nici nu se va schimba ceva vreodată:
  • clasa politică română nu ştie ce înseamnă instituţia preşedinte (pe plan naţional şi internaţional)
  • demiterea preşedintelui a fost un abuz
  • preşedintele interimar este un alcoolic fără doar şi poate, dar este cel mai important om din statul român: reprezentativ!
  • abuzul demiterii este urmat de alte şi alte abuzuri (precum modificări ale legii referendumului)
  • România nu este o democraţie, poporul tace şi înghite lipsit de orice putere sau informaţie
  • actuala clasă politică este vechea clasă politică, de pe vremuri comuniste
  • actuala clasă politică nu a fost schimbată, doar conducătorul ei de la acea vreme a fost
  • este probabil imposibil să schimbi o întreagă clasă politică, chiar şi timpul are probleme, pentru că tinerii politicieni vor ajunge exact ca actualii
  • după 20 de ani nu s-a schimbat mai nimic în bine, ba multe s-au schimbat în rău şi singura şansă adevărată de a se schimba ceva în bine a fost triumfal stinsă de "intelectualitatea" minerească:
    partea 1 partea 2 partea 3 partea 4


Probabil că este ultima mea părere/mesaj despre românia (da, cu r mic). Am o viaţă de trăit şi ar trebui să mă preocup cu altele. Îmi pare rău totuşi că "acasă" ca şi reper geografic, pontează către latitudinea şi longitudinea ocupată de acestă ţară. Însă cum natalitatea este în scădere, să sperăm că într-un oarecare sfârşit românii şi tot ce ţine de ei vor fi extincţi.

Concluzia?
Şoarecii inteligenţi sunt primii care părăsesc corabia ce se scufundă. Vă doresc success oriunde vă veţi duce.

May 2, 2007

1 mai muncitoresc

Citesc pe siteuri de ştiri:
"Fostul partid de guvernamant si-a mobilizat membrii si a blocat circulatia in Bucuresti, pe un traseu de 6 km. In frunte cu Mircea Geoana, pesedistii au marsaluit de pe Bulevardul Kiseleff pana in Piata Izvor, unde presedintele PSD Bucuresti, Marian Vanghelie, a pregatit mici, bere si concerte pentru cel putin 10.000 de persoane. Ceremoniile de 1 mai au inceput la sediul central al partidului, prin inmanarea carnetelor rosii de partid celor 1600 de noi membri adusi din toata tara. In jurul orei 14.00, coloana PSD a ajuns in Parcul Izvor, loc in care erau amplasate mai multe corturi si tonete, unde au fost serviti micii si berea. Ulterior, liderii PSD au parasit zona Izvor, unde au ramas doar tinerii care urmeaza sa participe la concerte." (Citat de pe hotnews.ro).

Şi mă mir cum de nimeni nu se întreabă pe banii cui s-a organizat de fapt petrecerea? Să spun eu evidentul atunci? Pe banii pe care neo-comuniştii (adică aceia nemişcaţi de la putere nici de revoluţie) i-au furat de la exact cei ale căror guri flămânzi au mâncat micul acum.

Să vă fie de bine! Cu o mână vi se i-a totul, cu alta vi se dă un kilogram de zahăr şi un mic... Însă cum cei care au fost acolo sunt suficient de orbi încât să nu vadă că cele două mâini sunt ataşate aceluiaşi corp: Doamne ajută!
Sau poate "Gigi ajută!", mai nou.

Şi atâta polemică şi atâta vorbăraie încercând să îţi dai seama care e problema în România şi de ce nu merg lucrurile, când totul este foarte simplu: românii (în marea lor majoritate) sunt proşti, incapabili să discearnă sau să înţeleagă legătura între faptă şi consecinţă.

April 28, 2007

Interese

M-am gândit eu că dacă tot lucrez în mediul în care lucrez, şi tot aud de, sau chiar întânlesc oameni mai interesanţi, cumva să împart din ce mai aflu cu "voi" cei care îmi citiţi blogu.

Şi ca să nu fac o harababură am să public informaţiile de care ziceam mai sus pe un alt blog: http://mycontemporary.blogspot.com.

De exemplu, în cadrul unei iniţiative ecologice a câtorva colegi de-ai mei a circulat următorul material video, care este prelegerea unui arhitect la o conferinţă destul de celebră în state, un fel de "food for thought" (hrană pentru creier).

April 27, 2007

Maybe there is hope!

It made me go WOW and optimistic! And I think the video is self explanatory.



From the talk:
  • The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.
  • 6 times as much plastic as plankton (in the planetary ocean).

Să râzi sau să plângi?

Cel mai interesant este în deschidere, în pasajul serios în care reporterul spune: "asking US locals about the very world their country runs" (în traducere liberă: "întrebând cetăţenii americani despre întreaga lume pe care ţara lor o conduce").

Cu alte cuvinte americanii chiar sunt aroganţi suficient încât faptul că ei ar conduce lumea este de la sine înţeles. Este însă adevărat că fiind în state nu auzi nicăieri nimic despre restul lumii (nici măcar pe siteuri de news), şi percepţia majorităţii este că harta lumii are un super continent pe care scrie America şi pe lângă ea mai e o mică insulă undeva înghesuită într-un colţ pe care scrie: Restul lumii. Infimă şi neglijabilă insulă.



Oricum filmul de mai sus este o extremă, am întâlnit şi americani care aveau habar despre unde este Franţa pe harta lumii şi aşa mai departe. Depinde probabil de zona în care eşti în state şi cu cine vorbeşti. Dar tot am avut impresia că cei pe care i-am întalnit au fost mai degrabă excepţiile...

April 26, 2007

to write

You! You, the one who reads this! Who are you to ask me to write in such a form so that you can understand? I'm tired now and it's your time to use your brain and understand what I want to say. I did my half: I wrote. Now you do yours: you read.

Lazy people don't even try to understand what they read, they want things to be already digested and plugged directly to their brain. No thinking required!

Munca

Mă distrează. Au ajuns românii să se vaite de "prea multă muncă". Zice-se. Din nefericire cineva a murit la datorie. Dar ia să vedem. În germania, acum câţiva ani un individ moare în timpul serviciului. Pentru că el era primul care ajungea la muncă şi ultimul care pleca, nimeni nu şi-a dat seama pentru câteva zile (nu ore, zile).

Să vorbim despre japonezi sau despre chinezii care fac toate hainele pe care le purtăm şi toate tastele pe care le batem să ardem gazul degeaba pe bloguri? Şi mai trebuie să menţionez că acei chinezi lucrează 16 ore pe zi şi tot nu le ajung banii nici să mănânce!?

Sau să vorbim despre paradisul de pe lumea asta. America. Hai să vă transcriu câteva idei de pe meleagurile celei mai de invidiat tări din lume, acolo unde toată lumea e liberă:

  • săptămână de lucru de 60h minim (ţi se spune de la angajare, dacă nu îţi zic nimic înseamna că e şi mai rău).
  • la interviu eşti întrebat (în multe locuri) câte zile de concediu medical ţi-ai luat în ultimii ani (pentru a evalua riscurile pe care le aduci)
  • concediu 15 zile pe an maxim (asta la companiile cu "principii"), pe care evident nu le poţi lua deodată într-o singură vacanţă.
  • concediu de maternitate max 2 săptămâni
    şi aşa mai departe. Asta îmi aduce aminte de un coleg de-al meu care a treia zi dupa ce soţia lui a născut era la muncă pentru că de ce să nu vină? Nu avea nimic altceva de făcut. Alegerea lui.


Să mai zic de cei de prin peninsula arabă sau africa? Mai bine delectaţi-vă aici:


La văitat nu ne intrece nimeni însă. Blogurile plâng toate de o problemă apărută peste noapte. Binenţeles că nimic n-o să se schimbe, binenţeles că mâine toţi or să lucreze la fel de mult ca azi.

Dar care e problema de fapt? Pentru mine e foarte simplu. Lucrezi şi dai 300% pentru că vrei să impresionezi, că te-ai angajat prima oară. Apoi pentru că vrei să promovezi, apoi pentru că vrei mai mulţi bani şi dacă ai moaca de căţel cuminte care îşi face tema şi extra, un extra mai extra decât toţi ceilalţi căţei cuminţi crezi că ai mai multe şanse. Dar promovarea nu vine şi în curând uiţi de ce ai început toate asta şi le faci numai pentru ca trebuie, au intrat în obicei şi e ceea ce fac toţi ceilalţi.

Şi apoi dacă se întâmplă să ai 2 zile libere te uiţi la televizor din lipsă de idei. Prieteni nu prea mai ai şi nici nu mai faci... când? Şi după un concediu prea lung (3 zile) te plictiseşti şi vrei înapoi la muncă. De parcă te-ai fi născut muncind din prima şi altceva n-ai făcut niciodată.

Ce e cel mai trist? O persoană a murit de surmenaj fără ca nimeni să îi spună: nu arăţi bine, du-te şi dormi, nu se merită. Cum de a putut ajunge atăt de singură? Unde îi erau prietenii şi familia? Şi cum de colegii de muncă nici măcar nu s-au sinchisit să o întrebe dacă îi e bine sau dacă poate fi ajutată în orice ar fi ce făcea.

Nu i-a luat o noapte să moară de la surmenaj. I-a luat probabil ani. Şi... nu numai că nimeni n-a făcut nimic, cel mai probabil tot ce au făcut a fost să îi ceară mai mult, să pună mai multă presiune, pentru că au văzut că merge.

Dezumanizarea asta la locul de muncă, care devine singurul loc în care sunt persoanele care nu dorm, mă duce înapoi cu gândul la acel neamţ.

Successe profesionale nenumărate vă doresc. Viaţa trece pe lângă muncă, dar asta nu mai contează. Suntem prea multă carne de tun şi prea puţine lucuri de făcut (aparent). Sau este oare că 90% din resursele financiare aparţin unei categorii selecte de 2% din oameni? Probabil că aceia sunt singurii care trăiesc omeneşte, restul se chinuie la muncă să îşi asigure traiul din cel relativ 2% împărţit la 6 miliarde.

Rotiţa din sistem se învârte, curentul se produce, hamsterii aleargă în cuştile lor fericiţi că au ceva de făcut.

April 10, 2007

Behind the glass writing

Sometimes I return to this blog, expecting from myself to write some meaningful thought. Today is one of these times.

I am looking through a glass window at the sun and the nice weather, I hear some birds singing and I can see trees growing leafs. Nevertheless I am behind a glass from all these beauties in front of a so called keyboard device.

Where do I want to be? I want to be out there, growing with the leafs. Why am I not? I don't even know myself. I could enumerate plenty of reasons, and they would all sound like a blackmail. I am behind the glass because I want a social secured life, but all I am given is the security of a life behind the glass.

I don't think I can use such electronic devices to write. Actually, I don't write. Writing is just a way to share your inner art and it is almost always a post-climax ritual. Like the after-sex cigar.

Inspiration went through you, in every little corner of your mind, in and out, you felt everything, you met the muse. Afterwards you are tired and happy and not in the mood for writing. Sometimes you force yourself to, even though you know that by doing so that sweet feeling of having met the muse will vanish much faster.

I don't write... I dream, I see, I feel, I create, I hope, I despair. And I need to be on the other side of the glass to do all that. And on that side keyboards don't work.

I need pen and paper. Pen and paper slow my writing down, leaving plenty of time for inspiration.

March 28, 2007

România

Am fost pe acasă şi mi-a plăcut să îmi vad din prieteni şi familie. Vizita a fost scurtă şi scopul a fost reînoirea paşaportului.

Şi câteva gânduri din jurnalul de călătorie:

  • o mizerie cruntă, tot drumul de la Bucureşti până la Braşov
  • românii sunt în stare să cureţe foarte bine şi profesional străzi şi toalete, sau să culeagă căpşuni de dimineaţa până seara pe meleaguri străine, dar la ei acasă nu, la ei acasă aruncă pungi şi bidoane pe marginea căii ferate
  • eram vreo 10 oameni în vagonul săgetei CFR, din care cel puţin 5 s-au întins să pună "ceva" în poşeta controlorului, care întâmplător avea ceva de căutat prin poşeta lui în momentul în care se apropia de ... unii. Pe când estimaţi voi că săgeata o să fie închisă din ineficienţă financiară şi respectivul controlor şomer?
  • Braşovul e un şantier gigantic.
  • nu m-am dus pe deal, avertizat că ce o să găsesc acolo nu mai e natură ci groapă de gunoi. Cum am văzut destule gunoaie, am evitat să merg.
  • oameni trişti, lipsiţi de perspective.
  • dar... e acasă

March 27, 2007

Am asistat la facerea Artei

Loreena McKennitt a fost în Zurich. Concertul a fost unic. Nu a fost doar vocea Loreenei care, cum bine spune și ea "vocea este instrumentul muzical ultim", a fost o combinație unică de mari artiști toți laolaltă pe aceeași scenă, toți facând artă într-un mod unic, fiecare la instrumentul său, combinându-se în ceva mult mai măreț decât suma lor.

Altfel spus, cred că a fost printre singurele ocazii de până acum din viața mea în care am asistat la facerea artei. Nu cu transpirație, nu cu chinurile facerii, nu cu sila ci frumos, pur, simplu, ca și când venea totul de la sine. Nu știu cine, mare poet spunea că "arta este 99% transpirație și 1% inspirație". Ideea mi-a repugnat întotdeauna, arta care s-a chinuit în 99% transpirație să iasă poartă cicatricile nașterii grele toată viața ei. Nu și la Loreena. Vocea e vocea ei naturală, nu îi vezi muschii gâtului încordându-se când cântă, nu îi vezi fața chinuindu-se să vocalizeze, totul vine de la sine, cântă cu zâmbetul pe buze, ca și când cântatul e cel mai natural lucru pe care ea îl face.

Și la fel toți artiștii care au acompaniat-o. Cântau și râdeau, cântau și simțeau, cântau și erau ei simpli, uimitor de naturali. Nu mai am cuvinte...





March 26, 2007

Zuerich Zoo

La Zoo! (... cu Dorin) :-)
Zoo, Zuerich - CH


March 18, 2007

Ghețurile permanente din Titlis, Elvetia

O altă minune Elvețiană, și e cam oficial: Îmi place Elveția! Chiar mult. :-)

În Engelberg, care e undeva în centrul Elveției, pe la vreo 3000 de metrii este gheață permanentă. Încă mai este, deși ghețarul s-a retras mai mult de jumătate din cât era in 1970. Este o minune.

Chiar mă gândeam că nu prea am văzut eu minuni facute de mâna omului, dar am văzut minuni naturale pe cale de dispariție de mâna omului. Dar asta pentru alte cugetări, acum să vă povestesc despre ghețar.

Ghețarul din Titlis are 30m grosime și curge la vale cu 15m pe an. Practic este un ghețar ce se formează și curge la vale non-stop. Din 10m de zăpadă căzută în vârful muntelui, se formează cam un metru de ghețar.

Elvețienii au săpat în gheață o peșteră ca să îl poți vizita pe dinăuntru. Este uimitor să vezi gheața de dinăuntru. Aspecte interesante despre culoarea gheții:

  • gheața este de un albastru curat doar dacă gheața este pură si compactă.
  • este albă dacă a prins multe bule de aer în interior
  • este galbenă! sau are straturi galbene dacă face parte din stratul de zapadă din anii în care vântul a fost suficient de puternic să aducă nisip din Sahara!!!


Eh și iată că am ajuns și la peste 3mii de metrii! Drumul a fost cam așa:

  • tren din Zuerich până în Luzern. (~500m alt.)
  • tren din Luzern până în Engelberg, un tren incredibil care urcă o pantă de ~40°. (~1000m alt.)
  • în Engelberg suntem practic la baza muntelui, și urcăm cu gondola până la 1800m și apoi cu cabina până la 3040m. Deci practic urci deodată 2000m diferență de nivel, și vreau să zic că deja se simte, chiar când am ajuns am urcat niște scări și... după câteva trepte mă simțeam super obosit și aproape m-a luat cu amețeli așa că am făcut un popas :-)


Poze și film:
Titlis Glacier, Engelberg - CH

March 13, 2007

Vizită la cascadele Rinului

...care sunt cele mai mari cascade din Europa și care sunt aci în Elveția la o aruncătură de băț de Zurich. Este... impresionant!

Mi-a plăcut foarte mult. Adică ne-a plăcut tuturor celor implicați foarte mult :-) Ce să mai zic, decât că pozele și filmul de mai jos reflectă în mică parte cât de imensă e cascada și cât debit de apă are. Te face să te simți mic, mic.

Poze și film:
Rhine Falls, Schaffhausen CH

February 25, 2007

Bjork

Tot preocupându-mi mintea cu probleme existenţiale (vezi încălzirea globală), mi-am adus aminte de Bjork şi o melodie care mi se pare că se potriveşte cu starea mondenă a lumii. :-)

Bjork - Joga
All these accidents,
That happen,
Follow the dot,
Coincidence,
Makes sense,
Only with you,
You don't have to speak,
I feel.

Emotional landscapes,
They puzzle me,
Then the riddle gets solved,
And you push me up to this

State of emergency,
How beautiful to be,
State of emergency,
Is where I want to be.

All that no-one sees,
You see,
What's inside of me,
Every nerve that hurts,
You heal,
Deep inside of me, oo-oohh,
You don't have to speak,
I feel.
Emotional landscapes,
They puzzle me - confuse,
Then the riddle gets solved,
And you push me up to this

State of emergency,
How beautiful to be,
State of emergency,
Is where I want to be.

State of emergency,
How beautiful to be,

Emotional landscapes,
They puzzle me,
Then the riddle gets solved,
And you push me up to this

State of emergency,
How beautiful to be,
State of emergency,
Is where I want to be.

State of emergency,
How beautiful to be.

Americaniiiiiiii

Bună lume!

M-am învârtit pe net, ca de obicei (obicei de când am plecat din ţară şi nu prea mai am cu cine să ies din casă) şi am găsit dovadă că nu-s nebun :) De ce nebun? Păi mulţi mi-au spus, vis-a-vis de părerea mea despre viaţa în US, că nu poate să fie adevărat.

(Poate unii dintre voi îşi mai aduc aminte celebrul email care a făcut înconjurul lumii prin comunităţi româneşti şi a ajuns şi printr-un ziar braşovean.)

Dar am găsit pe net această parodie cu două babe care se pensionează şi se mută în state... Şi să vedem ce zic ele despre state :)


PS: Vorbesc repede şi înalte cunoştinţe de engleză sunt necesare, dar eu vreau să zic că am râs cum n-am mai râs de foarte mult timp!

February 23, 2007

Fear of changes (the DST)

Remember Y2K?

Of course you do. You filled your storage spaces with food, drinking water, and so on because the end of the world was near. Oh, you didn't? So you're not from the USA?

There's a new bug in town. It's not Y2K, Y2K is now far behind us, the new name is DST. From what I understand, the DST is now updated in the US, reason for wide-spread panic and new business opportunity.

I have nothing against making good money over other people's lack of knowledge. What I have is a tooth against the panic spread from minor changes. I never thought that changing my clocks from time to time (twice each year) would become a reason of panic for some...

I am a programmer. I know how hard is to handle all the localization problems that may occur. And speaking of software, I'll let the more knowledgeable to talk about these issues. I especially appreciated this article of Mr. Ulrich Drepper (one of the brains that keep one of the most sensitive parts of some UNIX-based OSs (glibc) working). Perhaps the most valuable in my eyes is the 'offtopic' part:

Having lived here in the US now for quite a few years I think the root of the problem is the same that keeps the US from making progress on other fronts: fear of change and trying to prevent change through denial. Another example? Take the measurement system. When knowing the metric and the imperial system equally well, who would argue the latter is better? And it's not that people don't know the metric system at all. There are large numbers of people who serves/d in the military and all these people had to use it in their job. Every food container also shows grams.


I think that the problem is that the more civilized we become, the less human we become. We don't adapt anymore. We adapt the environment. And that is the most important problem of them all. We forgot to look out for the changes, we lost the ability to be, after all, natural.

Is that going to give us anything good? Maybe on the short term, as we don't see the impact we have on the world we live in. Definitely nothing good on the long term. It's funny that we define intelligence as the capacity to adapt to new situations and new environments. We're then definitely heading towards a numbed down and stupid society.

February 16, 2007

Maybe a little warmer is better???

People ask themselves if there are all the signs, why does nobody do a thing? Like... really. Why doesn't someone do anything?

Well, I have found some of the answers. Look at them, see for yourselves. This 'smart man' tells us the inconvenient truth: the global warming proponents, he says, want to spend a lot of money so that our children will have a lower 'air conditioning bill'.

His points: "If we grow so fast, soon we will be able to do the cleaning up faster than now". Or: "Because our governments sucked, what makes us think we'll even succeed". And, of course, the "last but not least", is that the best thing we can do with his trillions of dollars???.

But by far, this presentation shows that ok, we had a slight warming, but if you get the perspective you won't have a problem with that anymore, because if you have the perspective then you'll understand that climate changes a lot more than the humans can control...

Now these guys are pretty sure. The hurricanes and tornados are quite ok. Nevermind that New Orleans was under the water (does anyone remember New Orleans?). Nevermind all the other signs (Kyrill and the like). The problem is, as the histerical lady in the film says:

"At what cost are you sorry? Trillion dollars? It's a trillion dollars sorry? To destroy the american economy?". Yeah, baby, we are not a trillion dollars sorry yet, but we sure as hell you are a third trillion dollars angry instead as of today.

Of course, the gas prices will go up 50%. Oh my god, the horror. But of course, there's no problem, sunken cities are not a problem... people love Venice, after all!

The final straw is why it's good to be so warm... Well, look, in Syberia is now from -40 to -38. Amazing! Enjoy!

For the time being, I will enjoy my warm winter. Warmer with not 2 degrees, but 20 degrees.

February 13, 2007

non-communication in a communication era

I feel that it's quite ironic that this day we talk so much, yet we communicate so little.

You have so many ways to communicate. You have the phone. You have the EMail. You have the instant messenger. You have IPTelephony. Most of the technology is communication oriented. Your mobile phone follows you everywhere. Your Pocket PC or Palm or whatever tells you where you are, where to go to, but they fail to tell you why you are there, or how you could really enjoy your presence there.

Quite a shame.

We talk a lot. I always have my talking program opened. I talk with many people, but that doesn't take me close to them. It only draws me to a confortable distance. The new generation communication only brings confort in the distance, nothing else. It's easy to be far away now. You can instantly contact anyone by phone, yet you can't enjoy their presence. You can easily hide yourself behind a messenger window. Now smileys took the place for real life gestures. You :), but you don't smile, you lol, or even rofl, yet your body doesn't react. Merely a smile forms as you live by your fingertips.

You can be upset yet smile. That's the greatest trickery of them all. You can be sensual, bold and smart, although you just copy-paste your life. You record every single line you say, yet you say always the same things. You argue with people, you laugh with people. You are playing games with people. Yet you never leave your death-chair.

You don't have memories, you have logs. You have photos. You don't like your face, but you can photo-manipulate everything you don't like out of your photo. You are perfect, yet you barely breathe.

Do you have a choice? I don't know. Maybe you do. Maybe you don't. My guess: you cannot choose. Your card will contain your mobile phone numbers, your email addresses and your messenger IDs. Better yet, you can use your vcard. Tons of informations about you.

Except that you can't say there that you dream. You can't talk about the simple things anymore. Solutions are everywhere, you just have to search for them using Google.

There's no need to communicate. That's why this blog here is not about communication. It has no solutions, no questions, no answers. Only observation.

Enjoy These Days of Mine...

February 11, 2007

Ştiri


  • Ne-am mutat în noul nostru apartament din Zuerich. O să pun poze în curând, vreau să zic că a fost foarte scump să luăm iarăşi mobilă şi tot ce ne trebuie.

  • Denisa e în ţară pentru trei săptămâni.

  • O să vin şi eu pentru o săptămână pe la sfârşitul lui martie, începutul lui aprilie.

  • Mi-am luat telefon mobil (şi am făcut pozele de mai jos cu el :-)

  • Am fost la un spectacol superb pe gheaţă: Art on Ice şi am văzut cei mai buni patinatori din lume practic: Evgeny Plushenko, Stéphane Lambiel, Elena Bereznaya/ Anton Sikharulidze, Tatiana Totmianina / Maxim Marinin, Philippe Candeloro.


  • Am cumpărat un apartament în Braşov, deci avem o "căsuţă" unde să stăm când venim pe acasă.

  • Şi pentru că sunt câteva lucruri pe lumea asta care chiar nu mă lasă indiferent, am mai pornit un blog pe care comentez despre evenimente mondene, că altceva nu ştiu a face ;-)
    http://mycontemporary.blogspot.com

Religion vs. Science!? A debate?

How interesting is it that *scientific* debates are now settled in the courtroom in US? Is it just me or this is fundamentally wrong? And since when being a religious person is synonym to being insensible and unaware of the scientific facts?

Einstein was religious but that did not blinded his genius, his scientific mind. I am religious, however that does not stop me from understanding obvious scientific facts.

Ultimately I *believe* God cannot fit the boundaries of the human mind. God is far grater than anything that can be described in a book, however old. "That" book was written thousands of years ago. At the time it was one of the best things that could happen to the world. But it's about time we evolve our minds and faith beyond it, and not take it literally.

And for once I agree with *mother* Russia, however much I dislike them. But it seems to me that rational reasoning is more and more lost in the US, which unfortunately has a great influence over the entire world (global warming, war on terror, science, etc): news.



I found the documentary above to be in an interesting way related to the one bellow:
UPDATE The original BBC published documentary on Google Video is unexplainably nowhere to be found so instead I had to relink to YouTube (4 parts):








And another thing that bothers me is that Christianity is somehow equal in the western mind with Catholicism or more recent branches of it. Well news for you, I am Christian, but I don't need a pope or anybody else to intermediate my relationship with God, and in my Christian world priests *must* get married before being assigned to a church/community. Which makes a lot of sense, specially considering the second of the documentaries above. And this eastern flavor of Christianity is as old as the Catholic one: Orthodoxy

And I would end with:
When religious faith blinds the rational mind, the Middle Ages happen.

February 8, 2007

Eu, un snowboard si Mont Blanc-ul din Italia

Da, da. De curând am fost în excusie de ski (adică snowboard) în Italia, în Courmayeur. Frumos, da, da! În sfârşit am văzut şi eu zăpadă, după atâta timp (3/4 ani?).



Şi cu această minunată ocazie am avut şi o lecţie de snowboard şi pentru prima oară am încercat să vedem dom'le cum e. Şi e bine, bine. Mi-a plăcut la nebunie. Snowboardul e mult mai misto decât orice ski. Atât de mişto încât mă gândesc să îmi cumpăr unul, în era încălzirii globale.

Şi vreau să zic că sunt un talent natural pe snowboard. Instructorii nu mă credeau că e prima oară :-) şi după ce am terminat instructajul am coborât pe pârtie dificilă (din prima), până jos... şi n-am căzut!

February 7, 2007

I miss radio

My freedom started as a radio broadcast.

It wasn't music, but theatre plays adaptation of plays. In a world that didn't allow dreams to come true, the radio was the escape route.

It wasn't Europa Liberă (Free Europe) radio that made me dream of freedom. I didn't know a thing about FE Radio, except the fact that everyone was forbidden to listen to me, and the old people that took care of me while my mother was at work (in another city) and my father was at the Academy (in Bucharest). A 'Gloria' radio receiver was needed - those were the best at that time.

But my listening delight needed something less powerful. Any receiver, no matter how old or rusty could provide it to me. It was like a drug to me, although I didn't know what drugs were.

It was the voice from nowhere that told stories. The voices I knew, but they were various characters I loved and explored. The radioplay was my first love.

Afterwards, music. I couldn't live without radio, I woke up with radio and went to sleep with the radio on.

Where's radio? It is still there. It doesn't make me dream anymore. I know all the stories it can tell me. It's all the same. I read it in the news. The music is trash, although the music I used to listen to was trash too, but it was MY trash, and I loved that garbage. Everyone remember MC Sar and the Real McCoy, or Casablanca? That's funny, my childhood grew from the junkyard :)

Anyway, where's radio now? The only radios worth hearing are online, and as Raul said in a previous post, everything goes online now. Now it's not about a better/taller antenna, it's about a higher bandwidth. It's not about FM/AM is about bitrate. And this is lost to me. I don't like online radio, but the only ones worth hearing are the specialised radios. Alternative, new wave, trance, punk, brit pop, every genre has two, three, ten million radios around the net. But I need the computer turned on for that. I need the UTP cable in the back of my device. I need wireless 811g. The air is not enough, I need to authenticate. But everything... everything is so fake now. No child will ever be able to discover the radio and love it the way I did.

I miss radio... I really do.

February 6, 2007

Global Climate, Online Life and Myself

One of the reasons I started this blog and named it "these days of mine" is because the documentary posted at the end of this blog entry has gotten me seriously thinking that "these days of mine" may be among the last days of mine as I know and define myself today.

And if the climate change has been underestimated, which is most certainly true, mostly because scientists function the same way as doctors: "it's not as bad as it seems, it will be fine"; and if I run the worst case scenario in my mind, what scares me more than my individual survival or even that of the human species is the survival of the memory of our existence on Earth and of the Earth itself as we know it: a nice green planet with blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

What will we leave behind? Men inherited paradise and by the time he was done with it, it turned into hell. Or, if ever in the long distant future intelligent life will evolve once more, what will they learn about us? The dinosaurs went extinct because of an asteroid, the mammals went extinct because of the human species.

Anyway, turning back to my own little life, I find it very bothering that all traces of my existence are online; and that will not last long without electricity. Maybe I should go back to writing my thoughts on stone plates, history shows they preserve much better.



Human kind has many addictions. Some of us, as individuals, could fight with different addictions and few win. But we as a specie, can we win over our multiple addictions in such a short time?

things happen

All over the world things happen... all the time. And this blog is where I will write down my thoughts about things that happen in my contemporary world.

January 7, 2007

Zuerich, am ajuns


Prima mea reacţie după ce am ajuns: "parcă am fost eliberat din închisoare şi am respirat din nou aer liber (european)".

Pe scurt: tramvai, trolee, oameni pe străzi, curăţenie pe străzi, cultură, afişuri cu spectacole, oameni educaţi, arhitectură, muzee, adică civilizaţie (?) :-), libertate de exprimare, lipsă de religii şi concepte fundamentaliste fals creştine, oameni necăsătoriţi ;-), lucruri de calitate de vânzare, etc.

Şi apoi munţi şi aer de munte într-un oraş de munte... ca acasă.

Şi poze de primă impresie zuerichiană :-)