Sunday, December 30, 2007

American Christmas...part 2 - A Sick Christmas

Well, don't you kind of think that life's kicking you in the ass for apparently no good reason, when you fly 7000 miles to spend Christmas with your friends and you get sick for like a week and you don't get to enjoy anything?

I must have done some horrible things in my life to deserve such a lousy Christmas. I was literally in bed with the phone in my hand, ready to call 911 at any moment, because the pain was too much for me. That's how all of the 2007 Christmas pretty much sums up.

I was supposed to do a lot of things, meet with a lot of people, travel, enjoy the scenery, instead I was in bed, crying from the pain, alone in the house, because the healthy people I'm staying with were doing whatever normal, healthy people do for Christmas in this part of the world.

Anyway, I am now up and kicking, no more back or pancreas or kidney pain, no more coughing, no more huge amounts of tea or fist-fulls of pills. I am alive.

You never get to appreciate your well-being until after you have felt the worst. I am so glad that the pain is gone and I can enjoy the simple things I took for granted, like walking through the snow and taking photos and sitting at Pizza Hut, having some nice pieces of apple pie and checking up on my e-mails.

I wish all of you a Healthy and Extremely Pleasant New Year!


Best wishes,
Lumi

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

American Christmas...part 1 - The Departure

Well, little I knew that the visa part was going to be the easiest and less expensive of them all, I would have worried less prior to the interview, by doing that I would have saved myself loads of precious neurons and my skin would have had less wrinkles, but noooo, I had to worry.

Here's a free piece of advice, which I promised myself I would take every time I have something hard to do, but I somehow almost always forget about it...DO NOT WORRY! WORRYING DOES NOT DO ONE GOOD THING FOR YOU. On the contrary, it makes your body anxious, it decreases the power of concentration, it clouds your judgment and it makes you annoying as hell to those around you, trust me, I've been there.

Back to the main topic, namely, my departure, I got my plane ticket (I kind of made a huge hole in the family budget because of that, but I love my parents and some day, I will pay them back, with interest), I got myself a medical and luggage insurance. NEVER LEAVE THE COUNTRY WITHOUT ONE!.

It doesn't cost a lot and it covers a lot of expenses in case of baggage loss, broken arms - I am going to ski after all :D -, flight delays and much more. You can get the travel insurance at any travel agency or insurance firm or in other places that I don't know about yet.

I'm going to leave this Saturday and apparently I'm going to be stuck in two airports about 9 hours in total...that should be fun, all alone in Amsterdam and LA, with no time and no money to visit anything in the cities, 'cause the airports are too far from the airports :)...but I don't want to complain, after all, after about 24 hours straight on the road, I will have to drive about an hour and a half to the place I'll be staying at. I can't wait for the actual travel time to be over and have some fun in a ten-hour-time-difference-from-Romania-zone.

Imagine, although my trip is about 24 hours long, I'll be leaving Romania on the 15th and arrive in the States on the 15th, same day, different continents.

And on a trip related subject, but another kind of trip, namely the carrier trip in our life, for those of you who live and breathe for PR and for those who have the courage to start their own business, in case you haven't heard about it yet, there's a book called "Guerrilla PR", written by Michael Levine. Read it and you won't regret one page; it's easy and fun to read and it has great advice on how to make your own PR campaigns without a lot of money.

I recommend that you read it in English though, because as I have noticed, translations seem to loose some of the charm of the writing and it would be ashame not to benefit from all that this book has to offer.

My next post is probably going to be from the States or from one of the airports on the way, since I'll have so much waiting time on my hands.


Take care of your budgets and don't fall in the holiday-retail-trap!


Best wishes,
Lumi

Friday, November 30, 2007

American Christmas...part 0 - The Visa

I've got it, I've got it, by Joe I've got it :D!

I got my tourist visa today, 10 years of traveling back and forth to/from the USA; as long as I have money for the plane ticket and my friends there can provide a house for me, I'm all set to go.

It kind of took me by surprise, after a month of searching for documents, fighting with everyone around me...it all paid out, with interest :).

In two weeks, my feet will no longer be on Romanian soil, but in sweet California, my home from last summer.

A Big Thank You goes to all of you who didn't bet against me and all that supported me through my crazy days!


I hope your Christmas will be a spectacular one, I don't know how mine will be, but, I'm gonna be in the States with a bunch of awesome people, so something at least pleasant has to come out of it.


I've always wanted an American Christmas :)...




Yeah I know it's the OC, but I only wanted the song :D.

The Spanish translation is mandatory, everything is translated in Spanish in the USA, from the milk carton labels to the ride announcement in Disneyland. It's the second unofficial (yet) language.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Something to write about...

Writers usually need to have something to write about in order to create a new masterpiece, mathematicians have to wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea of solving an equation in order to solve that equation, professors need to read in order to write their lecture for next day's classes, tattoo artists need to flick through art books in order to write new tattoos on a skin canvas, we all need inspiration and funny enough, when you're about to write something, most of the times, something that we read somewhere inspires us.

Today I was reading Mircea Eliade's "Oceanography" where he talks about a lot of everything, but mostly about the frustrations of writing an being a writer...so that's what made me write today...well, that and the fact that Joe, might read this :).

I have really gotten addicted to his music, I'm actually listening to KT Tunstall while my fingertips beat the keyboard.

Back to writing, well, from my very slim experience in the writing business you can write about almost anything and there is a pretty big probability that someone will actually like it. Writing is easy if you have a lot on your mind and it can be frustrating when it's conditioned by a deadline. Copywriters know this more than anybody.

But enough about writers writing stuff, enjoy KT with one of my favorite songs (the ending doesn't quite apply though):



Take care, Joe!


Hugs and kisses,
Lumi

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Resting my chemistry

Everybody has their little escape plan (even if it is unconscious ) to get away from the things that make them mad. I calm my nerves by cleaning my room, so, if you happen to see a lot of mess in my room, that means that I'm happy or close to it, if you see it spotless, that means that I was very mad that particular day.

If the room is already clean and I'm still mad, I listen to Interpol...





If Interpol isn't around I make up definitions...like today, I made up a new definition for Marketing, I made a lot of these in the past :D...

Therefore, Marketing is (in my very own making-up-definitions-mood opinion) the field of science that deals with the creation and development of the life of a social-economical entity (product or service), so that, that entity will produce something (money, socio-cultural revolutions) and the individuals (people or organizations), that benefit from this entity, will be so well psycho-economically manipulated, that the illusion of satisfaction will get installed and will persist.

If you dare, tell me a made-up-by-you-when-you-were-mad definition!


Take care, my dear reader!


Best wishes,
Lumi

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

StrawberryFrog

I found out about a witty advertising agency several months ago, at an
AdRevolution 2 conference. After that I got on the net and found their site...since then, it has been one of my favorite web sites.

The agency is StrawberryFrog.

I like their site because it has very interesting navigation possibilities, the frog is your site guide, the menu is extremely easy to access and it has an unique simplicity that I haven't encountered in other similar web pages. You do need to have installed a Flash version on your computer in order to properly navigate it.

I like the agency because they have a different way of approach towards business creativity.

The stuff that they do, well, it's a lot and too interesting to even begin talking about it. I suggest taking a peak to see for yourselves and for that just look at the stuff they've done for MTV in Europe.

Here's a hint about what this amazing frog is all about :) :


Saturday, November 10, 2007

Kilipirm and a rainy Saturday

About two times a year, at the Dalles Hall in Bucharest, book publishers from all over the country gather and transform the bleak street scenery into a book festival joined with a discount heaven and it's all called Kilipirim. This autumn it's held from November 6th until November 11th.

I had a gander at this autumn's Kilipirim and although I didn't have a lot of money to spend on books, I left Dalles Hall with two bags full of them. The selection is fantastic, you can find anything from architecture to cooking books, the ambiance is really pleasant and the discounts are a real pocket trap, but it's all worth it. After all, books are different worlds in pages and lines. They are an escape door to another dimension, a dimension where it doesn't rain so much, where there's not a lot of mud all over, where you do not see pickled, stray dogs on the streets.

Don't get me wrong, walking in the rain, just you, your sweety and a big umbrella is just oh so romantic, but sitting alone in front of your Mac, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, still in your pajamas is not exactly my idea of a great time. So, I think I'll go to Casablanca for an hour or so, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.


Here's looking at you...white MacBook because we'll always have South Lake Tahoe :).


Thursday, November 8, 2007

Another day in paradise :)

Loneliness.....

Another loneliness....

Meeting...Contact..



Love.

It's funny what things roll through the chocolate of your thoughts on a yellow-sky afternoon.

Sometimes I just like to waste time, do absolutely nothing that would be considered useful for our oh-so-busy-I-forgot-I-had-to-sleep-eat-pick-up-my-kids-from-
kinder-garden-call-my-mom-for-her-birthday society...

The sky is yellow, papers are going to be due soon, my final thesis exam is knocking on my academic door, I think of the beautiful Christmas that lays ahead, I think of the billions of worried souls that forget to take time for themselves, I think of how fast time is going and how we can't do a thing to make it go slow, I think of Coldplay, of funny shaped clouds, of mirrors, clowns, candy bars, the big Coca-Cola outdoor in Roman Square, the setting sun, love, an eventual job that I keep postponing, traveling all over the world before I'm 40, flying birds, plane crashes, Lake Tahoe, spring, summer, poetry, me, him, friends, tomorrow's theater play, the big night out with the gang, today's test paper, parents, jokes, skin, green eyes, black...
that you don't want to read further or
...that you're actually letting your mind wonder around :)...


Here's Coldplay for this yellow autumn day with a golden sunset and a head full of dreams and apparent balderdash.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Home sweet home

Sometimes I think I underestimate the comfort and tranquility that the home I grew up in brings me.


This weekend I discovered that I actually really enjoy Sting's voice and Sting's songs. I've been listening to Sting with or without the Police since I was in secondary school, but today I realized that I really, really like his music, it was one of those things that kind of dawned on me, maybe because I was in a peaceful place for a few moments in such a long time...

Thursday, November 1, 2007

The saddest day of Autumn :(

Today has truly been the saddest day of autumn.
Today I read in the press that the Romanians are almost the saddest people in Europe. (only 1% difference, for those who read the article)
Today I didn't manage to achieve anything worth writing in this post.
Today I found out that it's year 47 D.D., that means that for the Maradonians (yes, the sect that worships the famous soccer player, Diego Armando Maradona) 47 years have passed since the birth of their idol. (D.D.="Dopo Diego", that means After Diego)...find out more about this here.
Today it was too rainy for me to go outside.
Today I got mad at a site that had Botswana in their country list, but not Romania.
Today I have to write a paper on FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) in the country that's 1% closer to being the saddest in Europe.
Today is almost over.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Look up Ring Tales on Halloween

I found a very interesting section of animations on our beloved YouTube. You might want to check them out. This particular one, although painful, is sadly so true :D.


Tastes just like chicken and goes to your a*s:




And here's another (Relativity and Customer Care):




And another (Casual tie day and Erecting a Brand):

Peace of mind on Halloween

It's funny how much we value the simplest of things: a ray of sunlight, a walk on leaves in the park, the noise of falling water, hearing small birds sing...all for the precious peace of mind...

So here comes my question:
If our conscience were clear, would we really need peace of mind?

Let's say the problem is that we are so chore-absorbed every day, that we sometimes need to be reminded it still doesn't take much for us to find a corner of tranquility. I dread to think what we will do without the little nature that human kind has got left. But it's more than that, it's like every day we are confronted with situations that make, at some level, question our integrity.
For instance, I recently tried to get a signature from my dorm building landlord, in order to prove that on October 1st, I was in the country, fighting with the bureaucracy of my beloved Romania and my esteemed college representatives. He had to sign a written declaration (written by myself, because he didn't know what to write in order to prove that I truly, personally picked up my dorm room from him on the previous mentioned day, despite the several official papers I had signed then).

The declaration was inspired from a declaration of income I had found on the net, so it had the following final print: "I hereby recognize that this is a public document and I take full responsibility in the court of law, according to the penal law, for the inexactness or falseness of what has been declared."
The landlord dreaded this final phrase so much, that he refused to sign a document with no falseness and no inexactness in it. An the thing that surprised me the most is that, he agreed with everything else written there, that means agreeing to the the part where "I state on my own responsibility that...", which was the first part of the declaration. So the first part and the final print seemed so different to him, that he refused to sign the declaration.

The funny thing is, even without the final print, if he signed the rest, he would have still been responsible in the court of law, because that declaration was a public document.

Therefore, returning to the main idea of this post, people have a lot on their conscience, a lot that gets triggered by expressions like: take responsibility for one's acts, court of law, law etc..

The feared equation for a guilty conscience is:

TODAY+RESPONSIBILITY FOR DONE ACTS=DREADED TOMORROW

I guess we all have our conscience spooks haunting us every, not just on Halloween :). This actually reminds me of a very interesting commercial.
Try guessing what it's for!(don't cheat by first looking up information about it :D!)





Happy Halloween for those who care!

Friday, October 26, 2007

What we are, were and will be...

The expression of indignation on our faces is one that characterizes us our whole life. The same expression of indignation sits on our faces when we are kids, when we grow up and when we are old.

Come to think of it, we have a lot of expressions, reactions, conceptions that stay with us our entire existence, imprinted in our behavior. For instance, have you ever noticed the way you put soap on your hands right before you wash them, your sleeping position, the way you hold your fork at the table, the way you tie your shoe laces etc. ?

We are distinct and easily identifiable because we truly have some aspects of our personality that are ours and only ours. Even if there are similarities between the behavioristic-cognitive processes of one person and another, nobody is going to be exactly like you and do exactly the things you do...that's the beauty of it. Our inexactness and the lack of capacity of any human being of making the exact replicas of another's behavior, is what makes us unique, it's what separates us from robots.

Although I am inclined to say that humanity is losing more of its humanity with every day that passes, because of the daily routine and the boredom and tiredness that it inflicts (metrou, boulot, dodo as the French say - that means subway, work, sleep), I still think that there is hope for us yet. As long as we make mistakes and correct them, as long as we care, as long as we remember to take some time for ourselves, as long as we remember to see something else than school, job, worries, then I truly think we will be OK as a race and we'll keep developing as a species.

I happened to come across a small helping hand to our routine caused problems when I saw this particular short film, that got turned into a regular film:

Cashback





In another order of ideas, my pet Jeremiah (the turtle) is growing every day as others grow in seven years...kiddin', but he is developing at a normal rate for a turtle and fancies only dried fish in his diet :).

Thursday, October 25, 2007

ANVIDA

All our staff is always set,
No customer shall be ignored;
Victory will be here we bet,
In business we've all majored.
Dependent on us you can be,
ANVIDA does the job, just see!


Copyright © 2007 Luminita Stoica



I recently have been made an ANVIDA international staff member. It is an honor. The people there are really trying and succeeding to do something great.


Thank you Manny! Thank you Jeff!

Happy Birthday ANVIDA!...your 25th anniversary is approaching.



Best wishes,
Lumi



Monday, October 22, 2007

One of my many obsessions




As corny as it may seem, the first season was extremely interesting :D. The second, well...we shall see.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Let's talk about war baby, let's talk about you and me

WAR
Atrocity all over,
Belligerent in parts,
Catastrophe in houses,
Denial in all the minds.
Effectiveness of weapons,
Ferocity in souls,
Geographical locations
Itineraries hold.
Justifiable crimes and
Knives cutting hearts away.
Lonely are the ones that leave;
Mothers often weep and pray.
Nobody cares at all,
Only power they must seek.
Poor are the ones
Quite eager to stay safely meek.
Random killings all the time,
Some for money
Too many for none.
Under the sword of Aries the fight
Varies the price it carries.
We all suffer, war’s no gift
Xenophobia can excuse,
You can’t think the whole abuse
Zen-like-wisdom does inflict.


Copyright © 2007 Luminita Stoica


It seems to me that humanity is starting wars on a daily basis (apart from the gun-usage-nuclear-explosion-Jew-killing-children-tank-crushing ones we have in past and present history).
It's sad really when parents fight in front of their children in the war of marriage, when friends link to the most absurd reasons just to prove their friends wrong, when you find out (to me it was a shocker), that nobody else cares, not really, and by "else" I mean other than your family (and that's if you're lucky), and if you're really really lucky you find somebody that cares because they're crazy or deluded or, most often used, in love...but then you enter a tough battle. If it's a distance thing, you have to fight with everybody that tells you that "the ocean has plenty of other fish". If it's a local relationship, you get hit by the wall of "you don't care about us anymore, you've changed"...so love is a war too, a war against those who don't get that, for once, you want something that's yours an only yours and you would very much appreciate it if people would just leave you be, leave both of you be. To ask for support from your late loyal friends is a bit too much...sad no?!...to find out that sometimes you did a lot for them (overall) and they repay you with blame (in the end) :(.

Returning to war, I guess that it has to take a lot of human evolution levels passed this one in order to get rid of this nasty gene.


To be in accordance with the above stated, here's the well known Zombie.




Saturday, October 20, 2007

Nature, Body, Mind and Universe

...in the Head


Universe inside,
Mind into mind into mind,
Petals of the
eye.


Copyright © 2007 Luminita Stoica

Friday, October 19, 2007

VMware and other happy tales

Lately I found a thing that I love (let it be noted that I wrote thing not person), my MacBook. I bought it from the States with the money I earned this summer...mainly because I'd been wanting one so badly since May this year when I saw it in a computer store.

Every day has been a day of discovery with it, Mac OS X has a really friendly user interface, although it is a lot different from the Windows one we are all familiar with. I wanted more though...
I kind of gotten used to the Mac OS X, but I also wanted Windows on my MacBook in order to benefit from applications from both operating systems.

There are several ways to install Windows applications on a Mac: you can download windows applications made especially for Mac (like Office 2004 for Mac) - but that kind of costs you-, you can install Windows and Mac OS on your computer (it's easier if it's Intel based) and switch between them by rebooting (but that's not highly recommended) or you can do what I did...install a Virtual Machine and have both Mac OS X and Windows XP (because Vista is too much of a resource eater) at the same time. To apply this marvelous facility on my laptop I used a little VMware called Parallels Desktop.


But enough about the one that occupies most of my time these days. On Wednesday evening I went to the cinema with a bunch of friends and I saw the new Silence of the Lambs-related -film, Hannibal Rising. Why did I went to this film?...Hmmm...I'm actually wondering myself...at least the actors pretty convincingly got in the skin of their characters ...in more ways than one.

Pretty landscapes, a lot of gruesome scenes, if you are not into the whole "nobody is worthy of redemption and I'm kind of a cannibal" way of living and you haven't seen the Anthony Hopkins films about Hannibal Lecter, then I suggest staying away from this last one...Just in case you do think it's worth seeing, here's the trailer...maybe you'll change your mind :D:



In other order of ideas...the new Heroes season started in the USA and the 4th episode is already out, so GO AND GET IT!...from Torrents of course...luckily we have the REGIA around ;).


Have fun watching...or not watching what's on today!


Best wishes,
Lumi

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Happy Together

Some bury themselves in pages, some sink their eyes in endless roles of film, others start writing poetry, decorate their dorm rooms or think about the future...it's funny how we all try or feel the need to occupy our time with intellectual activities...Do we feel our mind slowly slipping away if we don't?

Science has proven that big periods of intellect vegetation can lead to the slowing down of mental processes due to the lack of exercise. You see, the intellect is just like a muscle, we need to constantly train it in order to keep it in shape, otherwise, the fat layer of stupidity threatens to take over and we do no want to have an obese mind, do we?

A good friend of mine gave me as a welcome-back-to-the-campus present, a Wong Kar-Wai DVD (he knows he's my favorite director :)), so I started exercising my neuromuscular tissue with a little stream of cinematographic metaphors.

For those of you familiar with Wong Kar-Wai and Pedro Almodovar, I have to point out a slight soundtrack resemblance between the waterfall slow-motion scene in the Asian film and the guitarist scene in the Spanish one.

Have fun bathing your brain in tolerance with the help of the beautiful Happy Together!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The things we try, to make a change

Chained Seagulls
Morning breeze on planet’s face
So blue once,
So warm now,
So sad for us.
With ink from depths ,
Covered all over,
The sea’s inhabitants
Cold rocks populated with their corpses.
Guilt?…mostly none.
Anyone? Something? Now!

Through clouds of dust
In chains of smog
Fly the once that were free…once.


Copyright © 2007 Luminita Stoica



Here's a little web page that provides the necessary lyrics for the opportune occasion...including some of my own work www.poetrysoup.com

Enjoy the poetry!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

...time

Fix here ye overdated spheres
That wing the restless foot of time.
(John Milton-Fix here)


All I hear lately is people (including myself) complaining about the lack of time or that time moves too fast etc.. Everybody has to check their schedule in order to have a cup of coffee with an old friend. We depend upon the the mighty watch, the all-powerful clock, our agenda, to-do-list etc.
It seems to me that we try more and more to became computers more than we seek their help.
Nobody has enough time so...they blame the planet :).

The Earth has four types of movements: its own axis moves once every 26000 years, around its own axis in 23 hours and 56 minutes, around the sun in 365 days and aprox 6 hours and around the Milky Way along with the whole Solar System.
Our planet has been moving exactly like this for thousands of years, the Earth doesn't suddenly move faster, so the whole time passes faster than 10 years ago excuse is groundless.
Time seems to pass faster as we grow older because our brains accumulate more and more information as we advance in life, resulting to the slowing down of several processes which took less time to accomplish when we were younger.

Our brains are actually like computers, the more programs you put in them, the less usable space you have; some programs may slow the computer down, programs like: smoking, drinking large amounts of alcohol, living in a polluted environment (air pollution, noise pollution), sleepless nights etc..

Therefore we have less and less time because we have more and more to do with the same capacity...the sad thing is that we cannot easily upgrade our memory.


But enough about the genetic incompetence of human beings, here's a little film that will make you think about something else than the cruel time-free-less life that we all have to face...

Ladies and gentlemen, the cassic, number two on the Americans' list of all time favorite movies:

To kill a Mockingbird



Monday, October 8, 2007

Is there such a thing as BAD LUCK?

In Romanian we don't have an expression quite similar to the one in the title. Let's think about it for a little bit. Bad Luck can be translated through "ghinion", Good Luck through "noroc", but just, plain old Luck can be translated as "noroc" too, but the meaning heads more to the idea of faith, destiny.
So, to recap the, Luck is sort of a given thing, you can even consider it the sum of energies that surround a person all his/her life and if we pick a certain moment in the time of that person's life, than the Luck classifies itself in either Good or Bad, it all comes down to "Do you feel lucky, punk?...Do you?" :D. As it seems, Lucky is the adjective from Luck, but in all he situations it is used (currently), it has a direct link to the expression Good Luck, because being Lucky means that you have Good Luck :), it never means that you might, sometimes, have Bad Luck.

Why this rattling about Luck? Because, as it seems, lately I'm running very low on it, Good Luck that is.

Last night, when yet another bunch of actions went totally wrong, I had a revelation (not a religious one, just a plain awakening), the strange thing is, I don't know exactly what triggered this or what it was about, but suddenly the problems I am still facing kind of faded away (NO...I didn't smoke pot!).

If I were lucky every single moment of my life, how could I enjoy every single moment of it?

Here's a film I saw when I was a kid about the very theme in this post.
If you can find it, enjoy it!...if you can't...I'm sure you can live perfectly well even without it ;).



...just my luck, I can't find it. Sorry! The Romanian translation for it was "Norocosi cu ghinion", it's a French film. If I'm lucky enough to track it down this week, then you're in luck.


Best of luck to you! :D


PS: The film was made before 1990, so Le Boulet that came out on DVD isn't the right one.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Back to Romania

After three flights with a little, a bit and a lot of turbulence, I finally made it home. From the first moments of my time back in Romania I've sadly noticed the striking difference between the American client service and the Romanian one.

I left a "Hello! How are you this morning? How may I help you?" for a "Miscati-va si voi mai repede cu bagajele ale!"("Move faster with that luggage!"), said by a very polite Otopeni employee at the same airport.

What can I say?!... when it comes to the behavior of tellers and any other kind of public functionaries , the American system kicks the Romanian system's ass (*it's a private blog and I can use any kind of language I see fit to use :D).

The things I haven't missed in Romania:...everything except my family, my friends and my pets, so I figured out that I can live anywhere in the world that's habitable, as long as I have the people I like and love with me and I can even live without them...but not for very long.

I went to the USA with 7 friends, I came back from the USA with loads more.
On our big trip on the West Coast we traveled over 2300 miles (2300*1.609344Km=3701.4912Km) and we visited: San Francisco (If I ever had a sh** load of money, I would surely move to SF...it's the most beautiful city I have ever set foot in.), Alcatraz (the famous prison of Al Capone), San Jose, Monterey(there is a beautiful aquarium there), Santa Barbara (where they have a Zoo that recreates the natural habitat of the animals so they feel like home; the facility is made only with the help of donations), Los Angeles (where we visited Hollywood with the Walk of Fame, Disneyland - "Where all your dreams come true..." and Long Beach), Las Vegas (the city that never sleeps, the city of kitsch opulence, the city of fake Venice and casinos), Hoover Dam, Yosemite Park and the breathtaking West Coast shore, where the Pacific Ocean mesmerizes you.

The West Coast has been a fantastic place to spend our summer and I can honestly say that this has been the best vacation ever.

Have a great beginning of the new school year!Hopefully you will not face the cruel bureaucracy I had to fight with in order to get my dorm room.

For those I left in the USA: I'll miss you guys a lot. Hope you'll come and visit sooner than I expect that to happen.
Joe: Take care, stay safe, don't smoke, dream sweet..the dream-catcher is guarding you for me :)!
Chris: stay away from that bong, keep your head smooth as a baby's bottom :)!
Paypay: keep writing on those walls Logic one, Paypay the dawn, but don't get caught :).


Here's a glimpse of what we visited:



Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Close to departure

My dear reader,



My full-of-events-American-summer is nearly over. I know that lately my blogging sessions have been slightly neglected, but time passes with the speed of a blink here...and that is truly sad.

After three months of hard work, well-deserved fun and very little sleep, our colleagues from work are throwing us a big-going-away-beach party this Tuesday...so nice of them...the kitchen and maintenance Romanian staff members are united in joy on the lake's shore.

I have made a lot of friends (of a lot of colours :D) and learnt a lot of things (that will probably be very useful to me later in my life) from wrestling and cooking to slang :).

The cinema and Blockbuster movie rentals haven't been a stranger to me either these past weeks: Casino is a must anytime (no matter how many times you've already seen it).
2007 has had a pretty good American-big-audience-movie-spree so far (leaving Evan Almighty aside ). I've seen Superbad and Disturbia and they are worth watching, not for artistic parts ('cause since The Fountain I haven't seen a USA release with real cinematographic value), but they capture parts of life that sometimes get left out by the busy, the upset, the tired, the bored and the distracted by weed human mind (for those who know ;)).


Until the next post, here's a sneak preview of the last two movies I've mentioned. For further details contact your local cinema :).

Superbad




Disturbia





Best wishes,

Lumi

Monday, August 13, 2007

Wireless-less

The thing about having free net at your home is that you cannot possibly have it for a very long time (at least in the USA), ergo after a few weeks of having wireless at home, the person whom we were stealing the net from realised the theft and put a password on the network...so...long live Starbucks (where you can sit in a comfortable chair, eat a delicious piece of banana bread and surf the net for free).

I've been to the movies this week and saw The Bourne Ultimatum. Although I haven't fully seen the trilogy, I must say that I enjoyed the third part a lot. There's something about spy movies that always made me like them. Don't you ever think about what it would be like to work for a very powerful spy agency and be able to operate a wide range of vehicles and protect yourself in several types of combat techniques? I know I do :D.

Slowly but surely, the house in which I live is rapidly transforming in a nut house (I include myself amongst the nuts...I think I am an almond :D).

Work is tiring and America remains lovely though the weather is getting colder with each day of August that passes.


Enjoy your cinema visit for The Bourne Ultimatum and have a very nice week!

Your blogger,
Lumi


Monday, August 6, 2007

An unforgetable holiday :D

Sometimes it's just soothing to get away from the things that you have been used to for many, many years (your parents' financial and moral support, the places that you know like the back of your hand, the same conversations with the same people, the same quest for never-ever-gonna-be-found-happiness, etc. etc. etc....you know these...and those of you who left home, to go to another country are already familiar with the things I'm going to state further on).

To get away from the comfortable, rather boring existence that I have been contemplating for a few years now, I have decided to come to the USA for a summer on the pretence that I wanted to see what the fuss was all about this particular part of our planet, when in fact I just wanted a few months of mental rest and something different to recharge my tired rechargeable batteries...what I got instead...well...a lot more.

The thing about Americans (and I mean those that have ancestors that date back to the beginning of this whole phenomenon that hangs on by every thread of the 52 starred spangled banner, not all the other aliens, yours truly included, that have come here basically for the American dream :))))))) ) is that they are a nation of subliminal-trained-to-be-nice-individuals. They don't give a rat's ass how your day is, how you've been doing so on and so forth...nooooo...they are doing this because of an over proportioned sense of pride that has bees implemented like a chip in their brain from the start of the USA...they are a proud nation, and they were, are and will be as masked-condescending as they can be just to show you the superiority of the American way.

Let me tell you (I'm gonna tell you anyway because I actually do not need any one's permission to write on my very own blog :D...) a few things about these individuals, they make you feel that you can be far more cynic than you've ever imagined, they kill you with kindness, they give you their friendly help because they are obliged to do that by the red, white and blue...the weired part of this whole thing is that the fake-ness of it all doesn't bother me at all, I would rather have a fake-polite clerk that does his job properly, than a Romanian teller that scorns at you and keeps you standing for hours and hours in a in line in front of her/his counter, I would rather have people smiling at me on the street while they walk their dog, instead of being ogled at by mean eyes, I would rather get a book in less than five working days on my doorstep with no extra charge from all the way across the USA, than having to go to the postal office, wait in a f***ing-long queue and get the counter window slammed in my face in the exact moment I get in front.


So, boys and girls, as you might have noticed, I kinda like it here; I've made some friends (black, white, red :D), went to the movies (American style), visited Carson
City (state capital of Nevada) and Reno, made some greens to buy some things :D, learned how to cook and a lot of other things that really matter to me, but are of no concern to you :).

On the whole, I do not regret one bit spending $2500 on this work and travel program.

About films, I have seen a couple so far, some good, some not so good, but from everyone (as from every experience) I have learned something...hopefully you will too...here are two of the best I've viewed so far:

Ratatouille



The Illusionist




Stay away from: Evan Almighty...it's just not worth the pirated CD burn, the disk space or the money spent on the cinema ticket.


Marina: Hey sweety! Hope you're enjoying your summer at least as much as I am. Stay blue and butterfly-y all through the summer. I've got loads to tell when I see you. Thank you for still reading my blog. Aida and I give you a huge group hug and lots of kisses.

Cezar: Hallo mein Freund! Congratulations on the scholarship...you rock dude (as usual)...hope I get to see you before you leave...if not...best of luck and pack a lot of wool panties :D...Hugs and kisses. PS: I'm going to check out that blog of yours ;).

Sorinel: Howdy-Doody! Thanks for reading my usual nonsense on the blog :D...that means a lot...to me (if there were any doubts). I never forget my friends from back home...never ever.


Therefore my dear readers...have a nice summer (all of you)...


Lumi

Monday, June 25, 2007

Lake Tahoe and the USA

Start: I have arrived at the most beautiful mountain resort I have visited so far. The lake is breathtaking and the view is incredible. Lake Tahoe is surrounded by snowy mountains, its water is very cold and on its shore you can take a sun bath on a warm beach or you can enjoy a sunset like no other I have have set my eyes on.

Home: I'm staying in a spacey apartment with my seven friends with whom I have started this American adventure (when we all sit down and watch TV together we're like the "Friends" cast in a brand-new-Romanian episode). Our American home is in California and the place where we work is in Nevada (because the border between the two states passes trough Lake Tahoe City).

Work: We all work in a Golf Course resort, the most expensive one that is around here. Five of us work in the kitchen the other three work in the maintenance department. My kitchen coworkers are very friendly and smart and we talk all day long (one of them is almost as chatty - if not chattier- as myself). A lot of Mexicans work here so I have the great chance of improving my Spanish as well as my English skills this holiday.

Films: I saw a very interesting and intriguing film with Joe (a quick-made friend that lives near my new home). The film is called Garden State and I think that the writer knew someone like me when he wrote the screenplay (those who know me and will see this particular cinematographic piece will find out why I wrote all the above :D).



End: This is it for now. Unfortunately I don't have Messenger around here and my schedule doesn't allow me to surf the net whenever I please, but I shall try to keep you connected to my American summer. Until next time, watch Garden State and have a great holiday/vacation/season.

Lumi

PS: Happy birthday Vlad. I hope that you found a job and that you are cheerful, merry and all that all year long. Best of luck! Hugs and kisses!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Cinema, Cinema, Cinema

It appears that we are facing a crises. Romanian cinematography suffers a great deal because Romanians don't go to the cinema, not even for Romanian films, films that have received applause and European recognition.

This is a moment of mourning for the cultural future of this country, I mourn empty plush seats, big dusty screens, torn-up film posters, I mourn frames of delightful images that are seen far better on the big screen than on a computer in a poorly ventilated room, somewhere in Regie, I mourn the social life of thousands of students that have an umbilical link to their computer.

The films are made for you, go and see them! Go, don't stay!

Here are 100 reasons for going to movies:



Here are reasons for going to Romanian films:





Sunday, June 10, 2007

Happy 21st Birthday Luci!

Today is a very special day for a friend of mine...today Luci has turned 21, today Luci has received the wright to drink and gamble on all continents (careful with the Muslim countries...but then again, you're not Muslim...so...carry on).

I remember my 21st birthday like it was a few months ago...ahhh...actually it was a few months ago :D...the best birthday I have ever had, my best friends were there, the presents were amazing...fantastic.

Birthdays are great if you have cool, smart and friendly friends and if you give a party.

Enjoy your birthday Luci! May your year be like a ride in Alton Towers.



See you in autumn 'cause from Wednesday, I'll be in The States all summer. The posts will probably be fewer though, but full of events from the upcoming adventure.

Thursday, June 7, 2007

California Dreamin'

Last night I saw what is probably the best Romanian film I have ever viewed, the late Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin'.



Without exaggerating one bit, the director depicts the cruel, ass-biting-real-Romanian scenery that our country sadly has to offer its public. The characters are remarkably vivid and will strike many cords, the action is simple but I don't know how, in 155 minutes of film YOU DO NOT GET BORED ONE LITTLE BIT.
This is a film that makes you laugh, makes you sad, opens your eyes and creates a certain feeling...when you get out of that cinema, after seeing it, you'll walk differently for an hour or so, thinking about you, your country and the future...but you'll see all of them in a whole knew way...you will love that feeling.

Cristian Nemescu died last year in a car accident...I feel so sorry that he is dead, a man that can direct like he did deserved a lot more time of film-making on Earth.

The film is endless...but I don't think that it lacks or abounds in one single scene...this is a incredibly good film and it was also distinguished with "Un Certain Regard" at Cannes this year.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Sibiu...a journey to the past, a journey into the future

Sibiu is truly amazing, relaxing, inspiring...if I were a writer with writer's block I would go to Sibiu and probably come back with a literary masterpiece.

Everything is different in Sibiu, the distinct sensation that you step into another territory, a territory of peace, culture and great ambiance...the buildings are renovated and very pleasantly coloured, the streets are full of bohemian terraces and trees. A lot of parks offer the greenest grass and the most comfortable benches, especially if you come from a 5 hour long train ride into a compartment with a serious lack of air.


Brukenthal Museum offers an impressive collection of Illuminist art and other art-currents-art-works (sadly there are not well organized and tend to make your brain numbingly-tired after watching two whole floors of paintings), the Tower of the Council has a delightful view of the city and it also makes you dream of a big house of your own, with a big attic with a glass ceiling, a wooden spiral staircase and pillows all over - a place of your own where you can write or read or work on your computer and look at the sky above, on clear spring days and find funny shaped clouds...

The Evangelic Church is a Gothic cathedral situated in the main square, that breathes serenity, it even has an organ - but I didn't have the great privilege of hearing it live, maybe next time...because there will be a next time.

I retraced the steps of the lovers that sweetly lie on the Bridge of liars and I saw a fantastic exhibition of simulating-lighting-objects (flower pots in wire spheres, white undershirts on hangers above the heads of the visitors, huge transparent umbrellas without handles, metallic spheres hanged like flowers).

The publicity in the main square is barely noticeable, they actually custom made all the logos to fit the cultural air that flouts about. All the logos are shrunk (Vodafone, Orange, Banca Transilvania, BRD) to be demure and not to pollute the cultural atmosphere.

The terraces are very well arranged...Sibiu has the most delicious non-alcoholic cocktails I have ever tasted (Green Apple - a balmy summer drink, Kiwi-kiwi - that needs no introduction and is great, Green Frog - very light and refreshing, Florida - a fruity madness) - all these have been tested and cannot, under any circumstances, be a danger to your health or your taste papillas :D.
The food is also delicious, exquisite chocolate ice-cream and a like-grandma-would-cook chicken-a-la-Greek-soup.

The trip ended with a five hour train ride with air-conditioning, soothing music, a lot of empty seats to sleep on and amazing landscapes just outside the window, frame by frame, green mountains and the clearest sky that this spring has given us, filled with my favourite kind of clouds (Cumulus).

If you want a relaxing, intellectually stimulating and fresh-air weekend, go to Sibiu, a Romanian city that deserves to be The European Cultural Capital of 2007.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Tired and lucid

After a day that started with a loud alarm noise at 6 o'clock, after my last project was completed, after Aida's last project was completed, after I showed a friend around the dorm, after we went to the market to buy fruits and vegetables and other very healthy things, after a quest for a dentist, after waiting for 2 whole hours at the dentist, I finally got home...the sweet, cosy home away from home, my dorm room (actually I'm in Aida's room right now, but still a sweet home away from home).

I realized today, everywhere I went, everyone I saw, that everybody is really, really tired...all day long, from dusk (some of the unfortunate individuals who have to face the streets before the official morning appears) 'till dawn and beyond, until the last subway train marches to sleep, until you literally cannot utter one more word because your brain doesn't function.

Good night and pleasant sleep to all of you!...May you have a very un-tiresome day tomorrow...every tomorrow ;)!

Monday, May 21, 2007

The project is completed

I was a copywriter for a Direct Mailing Project...the project is finally done...it was the most mood-fluctuating-day I have ever had this year...luckily it's over.


Good night and pleasant dreams to me.


PS: Here is one of the lilies I was talking about earlier...absolutely beautiful.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad...

Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad

If you counted well, there are 21 "sad" in my post (not counting the title and this last one).

There is only one person that can cheer me up, but that person is not here with me right now...so...

21 grams, 21 years, 21 minutes before I really have to do something about this project, 21 days until I have to say good bye to my grandmother, the 21st day of this month is tomorrow, 21 yellow lilies on the floor of my room (I don't know who put them there), 21 lives I wish I had so I could mess up every single one of them except the last...

Back with a d...k in a box

Luckily I have great friends. After an awful day Scrat came by with great ideas and his funny way of being. He cheered me up a lot and still no homework, but a lot better.

Relax and enjoy the box...kiddin' I'm not that kinky...I think :D.

What to do? What to do?

The thing about a rainy afternoon with homework just waiting for you on your computer is that you aren't in the mood for anything.

The balcony door is open, I see green trees dancing with the tired wind, I hear kids outside playing in puddles, I want to do my homework so I can watch a movie, I want to watch a movie so I'll hopefully get in the mood for homework afterwards, I wish I were far, far away, maybe in Hon Kong or Tibet or Alaska...somewhere that doesn't look like here, somewhere where I can not care about the things I have to do and the things I wish to be done.

This is it for now, but as it seems, I think I'm going to write a lot on my blog today, don't know if I'm going to publish it all...

Love me if you dare



Did you ever had one of those periods when no matter how much you wish for a good thing to compensate for a bad one, that never happens?

To be more explicit than you are accustomed to expect from a post of mine, it didn't matter how many projects I successfully completed or how many exams I passes without cramming one second, all in the passed 2 weeks, it mattered/matters only the fact that I don't seem to do anything right personally wise.

I don't know how I do it, but I always do something wrong...usually I realise that after quite a while from the event.

When I first saw Jeux d'enfants (Love me if you dare), I thought about how amazing it must be for two persons to play with and love each other all their lives...too amazing, in fact, totally unrealistic. Although I hoped that that kind of love existed somewhere, that somewhere was most likely to be in our imagination, I haven't yet seen a single couple with a history even 10 yards close to the one portrayed in Love me if you dare.

Still, with all the skepticism, with all the irony and all the toughness I like to boastfully show...I vividly dream of such an occurrence...the occurrence of true love, a perpetual occurrence, one that lasts, and lasts, and lasts...

If there are any incurable-and-most-likely-to-be-hopelessly-romantic-all-their-lives out there, then see Jeux d'enfants!

If you are tough and stiff and don't believe in love and you are totally focused on your career or on school projects...see Love me if you dare!

If you are lonely or bored or sad or happy or drugged or ill or tired see Jeux d'enfants (Love me if you dare), then go to bed :)!

Friday, May 18, 2007

Carol Park

These days I'm discovering a whole new side of Bucharest, the non-polluted-friendly-peaceful-side, the side that makes me fall in love with this city.

After a few extremely tiresome, sleepless, mood-less nights, yesterday I left all the projects, all the stress an took a day off, a day to recover my energy, a day to relax my mind.

I started strolling on Magheru Blvd, the aim was Carturesti and another meeting with my beloved Dali, but I realised on the way that I wanted something different, something bigger, something greener that day. I had never gone to Carol Park, so after calling my friend H. for directions, I went there.

Amazing, so peaceful, so serene, so green, for a few moments I had the sensation that I was in the mountains somewhere, near a bohemian lake with a five-arch-mausoleum as a sentinel. Statues, a working artificial fountain at the entrance, lots of trees...I really charged my batteries for an hour or so. And the thing that pleasantly surprised me the most was a little game that the light played with the lake's water on a man-made stone bridge. It was comparable to the special effects in James Cameron's Abyss.

...water, light, the green of the seemingly-untouched-by-man-nature-corner, a real "I'm on a mountain right now" sensation, relaxation, a free-extreme-biking-show...

The day ended much better than I thought it would....in the great company of a very nice friend, in a zen-like, Greece garden, with fluffy pigeons and non-alcoholic beer.

Go to Carol Park and enjoy!

Monday, May 14, 2007

Suddenly...I am a student

I kind of skipped school these last...months, I only went if I had a presentation, a test or an exam...the classes just don't allure me anymore, because I tend to fall asleep on a bench, thinking of everything except the class I physically attend that particular moment.

After all the mint-rubbing, the sleepless nights with deadline on my head, after all the days of waiting for something to take me out of the vicious-sloth-circle, I woke up this morning with the heap of projects crashing over me...suddenly the mint-rubbing-time has ended, I have become a student yet again, with an up-coming examination and two presentations tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

Sleepless nights await me with open eyes...but the thing that bothers me the most is not the future tiredness, not the fact that I didn't go to school, not even the almost-tasteless-salad I had last night in a pub with some friends (at least the company was great, although tired)...the thing that bothers me the most is the fact that I don't feel one bit of regret for the fact that I insolently skipped classes.

Endless numbers of too-much-"texted" slides are not my idea of classes, neither is the fact that I, no matter the hour of day, feel the sudden urge to put my head on a bench an sweep away to dreamland the instance a new "Now let's see another slide" sentence flows from the lecturer's mouth.

So, my dear reader, I would like to know, if I may, if you go to classes and if you do, what keeps you from slowly shutting your eyes and think about the minute you get out of that uncrowded boring room and see the green of May or drink a delicious Moccacino.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Aurora Australis — Hollow Earth Evidence

The more you look at the Earth's phenomenons, the more you think about the fact that beauty is at every pace, ready to enchant you, ready to get under your skin and make you more alive than you state that you are.

Just admire and feel...take your time...after all, you should make time for yourself so that you can lose it in a pleasant way...from time to time ;).

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Light of it all

I have always felt a special connection with the word "light" and all that comes into your head when you hear it...the most interesting things in this world ca be seen and created with the help of light. My name meas a little light, the first rays of the sun make me so relaxed and happy, I just have to catch them after an eventful and sleepless night, the first rays of spring, the light of a candle on the first Easter Night, fireworks at New Year's Eve...everything is light.

What does this word make you think about?

Tell me!

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

The Dalilian ant

Yesterday was a surprisingly pleasant day...I did a lot, I wasted a lot, I thought a lot, walked a lot, felt a lot...everything unplanned.



I was looking forward to a few hours of doing what I wanted, with someone whom I really like, but 16:00 never existed, it was erased from my watch, along with it...all the plans.

I read memorably-intricate-and-exquisitely-wicked-from-dot-to-dot sentences in Dali's Journal. Every word poured in my brain like a drug, but one that kept me more awake than ever. Words, silvery-decaying fish, Hitler's buttocks, football on the peers, discussions about the power of keeping your mind safely sane and tea, delicious tea, filled with friendship, dare and the usual aberrations.

The last cup I received was like the late plot of the day. My M47 cup was invaded by a M27 cup of ant tea. Yes, there was an ant in my tea-cup and I was absolutely enchanted by the sudden change of scenery. Dead, perfectly sketched, at the bottom of a Moonlight tea-cup, there was an ant, Dali's ant, the ant that changed my day, the ant that I drank, I drank it willingly, I drank it almost ecstatic, as if Salvador's surrealistic essence was captured in that lifeless body, I drank it because I was dared to do it, but most of all, because I wanted to.

The park was dark and smelt like freshly cut grass (it reminded me of a different evening in a different park), the air was warm but pleasant, we sat and talked...about what we wanted, why we wanted it, how we wanted it. I realized some things, we elegantly banished an unwelcome-little-meddler and we dreamt with open eyes.

The night was filled with delicious confessions, chocolate, pillows, stars and the city panorama. I always wanted to spend a night on a secluded roof and just look at the sky...I didn't do that, but someday, maybe...

The bed was just right :D, the time was too late, my mind was far away, the sleep came crawling on my lashes, I let myself be powerless and swept into a dreamless sleep.

Such a strange day, such a pleasant day, such a close-to-perfection-day...still, I have to wonder...why? (again why, a particular why this time, only my why :)).

Monday, May 7, 2007

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Visa and the Northern Lights

After a 4-hour-back-aching-cold-enduring-waiting in line in front of the USA Embassy and after 2 very hard questions :D, I finally got my visa. This summer you can reach me at 108 Parkway, Stateline, NV, on the actual state-line. 8 of my friends (very funny and interesting individuals, Aida is amongst them of course) will join me.

The big plan is to visit as many cities as we can (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Reno, New York) and to have as much fun as we can...the American way. Actually I really want to SEE, HEAR and KNOW, first hand, what all the fuss is really about.

Since the moment I knew I was going to go for three months on the West Coast, I obsessively had one thing in mind...to reach Alaska and see the Aurora Borealis - a phenomenon that surpasses any human-made-artistic beauty.

So...California (and Nevada) here I come :D!


Best wishes,

Lumi


PS: Here's a glimpse of the light spectacle that the North's magnetic field has to offer (sorry but my youtube-download-function just seems to ignore me, so I'm gonna have to settle with these imagines).


Thursday, May 3, 2007

Bribe, Pancakes, AdBreak and HRM

A known-to-be-busy day should start with the awaking from a good-8-hour-night-sleep, a shower, a nutritious breakfast and the eagerness of solving all your to-do-list.

Well...I didn't exactly did all that...I woke up after a 4-hour-night-sleep, took a fast shower and ate two schnitzels with bread at Aida's in the morning. Yesterday (I see it's 2 in the morning now) was a day of confronting the system. I think it is absurd for a 21st century institution not to provide the necessary paper-work for a tax-paying-citizen's-kid. Aida and I bribed the secretary with a five-tulip-bouquet today...our first bribe, the country is truly proud of us :P.
It seems that the saying "if you can't beat them, join them" nowadays applies to any-official-paper-related-situation...sad, sad, sad. It's sad because we were totally against bribing anyone, until we needed something urgent (What is to become of this world when even those who disapprove the methods use them while feeling guilty?)

This makes me think about the Romanian Health System. What happens if a person has no money and is in desperate need of medical attending? Do doctors today follow the Hippocrates Oath without looking in the patient's pocket first? It kind of makes me a little scared now, at 2 in the morning, because I'm shaking with a start of a fever and I don't feel very yes-I-can-hardly-wait-to-do-the-project.

I always seem to do my homework a few hours or minutes before deadlines, I hate it when I have to sacrifice yet another night's sleep, just because I was too lazy to do the simple-damn-project the weekend before...I could really use some time management courses.

After today's paper race I actually had fun the rest of the day. I made pancakes with a couple of buddies of mine (by the way...super duper persons, but don't tell anyone ;) ), they were smeared with honey and Finetti...yummy (not the buddies...the pancakes were :D).

After the cooking session we all went to another AdBreak event in Music Club. It was quite interesting because I found out a few insights about TVC casting and it was also funny - Bobo entertained the audience with a little stand-up comedy bit about Florin Piersic, Magda Catone and a few annoying Romanian spots (TV spots that is).

Now...I think I wrote all the above just to prolong the period of idea searching for the HRM (Human Resources Management) presentation (today at 09:05 AM), actually the idea searching is an excuse...I sometimes linger on my blog just because I'm just full of tiredness and laziness.

Piece of advice (I know, I know, who am I to give advice?...Well, I'm a person who often learns from her own mistakes and doesn't want others to beat their head on the wall with the same problems that her life trips on)...so, the advice: Do a simple thing...Do your assignments (either work/school/or personal life related) on time...you have no idea how I crave, just once, to have everything done in due time, without sleepless nights.

Pleasant dreams my dear reader :),
Lumi

Monday, April 30, 2007

Faith or "I am master of my domain"?

Does the thought of not being in control of your own life bother you sometimes? What if we do the things we do because of a pre-designed scheme? And the most annoying of them all...what if a person, just like us, same wrights, same intellectual capabilities, same species, is controlling our life?
I'm really pissed off when the thought of not being queen of my domain creeps up on me. But if I think about it a little bit, there are some occurrences that seem to have a seed in my memory, right before the actual event takes place...deja vu or a game of the mind?...And what if you happen to stumble across the narrator of your own life one day? What then? Wouldn't that be Stranger Than Fiction? ;)

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Choose to forget?

When we are kids, everything seems new and exciting, everything has the potential to entertain us: a funny shaped cloud, a big greenish caterpillar with blue spikes, a small rock thrown from a slingshot, jumping into muddy puddles, collecting pebbles...as we grow up we tend to enjoy the things around us less and less, probably because we get used to reusing/re-seeing/retouching/rehearing/re-smelling the same things over and over. A kid would always get happy while seeing how big the moon is, but an adult would seldom enjoy the night sky queen and take a moment to think about how beautiful reality can be sometimes (the not-in-your-face-reality).

Would forgetting things for a while (so that we can discover them as new) bring us the enjoyment we had as children? Should we choose to forget sometimes some things in order to really feel them, not just react as with a conditioned reflex?

On the other hand, forgetting things can be quite frustrating forgetting whether or not you locked the door on your way out, forgetting your messenger password, forgetting to feed the dog, forgetting to meet with a friend, forgetting your boyfriend's/girlfriend's favourite colour, forgetting to reply to a message etc. etc. etc..
What would it be like to remember new things and people for only 10 minutes and then forget them? What would you do to connect yourself to the things that you instantly forget, but that you also need?
Get the answer from MEMENTO.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Card Eating ATM

The stupidity of it all...There are many individuals that just cannot act as normal people (or at least decent) in an awkward situation. Today I went to a BCR ATM to get some money because the University bureaucracy inflicted by none other than the almighty secretary made me pay 10RON for a grade history sheet needed for my Embassy interview. The secretary told me, like I was supposed to have the information tattooed from birth on my retina, that I had to run to three faculty members in order to get my grade sheet released (Romania is truly the country of "walk with the paper") and on top of that, she was going to stay only 30 minutes more (the programme was from 13:30 'till 14:00 in the same day, not 24 and 1/2 hours of work, no, only a half an hour... wow, I don't know how they do it, so many back-aching minutes flipping magazines and hair dye catalogues).

So..I had only 30 minutes to pay my tax and drop the papers in the secretary's lap. But of course that, the pay office was in another building and I had no money...

I was in front of the BCR ATM, took my card out, put it in the hole, then, suddenly the message "Temporary out of order" appeared on the screen, I pressed Cancel and after a few anxious moments, the ATM spat up 3/4 of my card :((((...yes, it bit my card. When I thought things couldn't possibly go worse, a man with glasses came shouting in my face "Can you read? Can you read?"...I answered "Yes" of course...The man was a BCR employee who started working at the back of the ATM the moment I put my card in it...he was blaming me for the fact that in broad daylight, with a person already using the ATM when I got there, I had the nerve not to ask the ATM if someone was working in it at that particular moment. The irony of it all, I was blamed for using the ATM the exact moment before it went out of order, without even a warning I might add.

Usually, there are two workers that do this kind of operation in broad daylight (I repeat), the one behind the ATM and the one in front of it, who is suppose to say "Hey stupid, in just a second, this here ATM machine is gonna slice your card if you stick it in now."

No money (I can get the money from my account, but I have to sign a request that needs to be approved by the Chief of the BCR office and that will take more then a while), no card (actually there is a card, 3 quarters of it), no paid tax, no way of solving the grade history sheet problem before Wednesday (because the 1st of May is on Tuesday), the sheet is supposed to be in the Embassy file by Wednesday afternoon, because on Friday morning I have my visa interview.

Ergo...Who's to blame for it all?...the bureaucracy?...no, because people create bureaucracy and implement it as well...the secretary who's never there when you need her and when you do catch her she's about to leave?...no, because I would leave to if I had her job and her salary...Am I to blame?...probably, because I'm running out of culprits here.

Hope you have a great end of the week...do yourselves a favour and watch out for card eating ATMs or shouting bank employees.

Best wishes,
Lumi

PS: The interview is for my USA visa. I'll be in Edgewood City near Lake Tahoe this summer, on a work and travel programme for students...wish me luck...because, as you might have noticed, I really need a little bit more good luck than I already have :).

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around...

The JT excuse...

Pure jaded morning in slippery sheets

I've never noticed how shhh-vibrant the city is at 05:30 AM 'till this morning. The bus was full of quiet people, the streets were crawling with early-to-the-job-individuals...nobody was talking...except for yours truly and Aida. The pure-polluted morning made me remember, I don't know why, the Jaded Video from Aerosmith, the end of it actually, when the pretty dark-haired-green-eyed-disoriented girl opens a trapdoor and enters a great forest, flooded by the morning rays...I felt just like that.

Then I thought how things are used and reused (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle from Captain Planet, for those who used to or still watch it), even the props. In Justin Timberlake's latest car-crashing video, he has a scene where he sings for the audience (cliche for many music videos) and the background is amazingly similar to the background used in Jaded (but the latter is more artistically motivated, whereas in JT's video it's just so that Scarlett Johansson would have a reason to dress in the '20s/2007 chic style).

After the two backgrounds collided in my mind, a third similar one resonated in my head, former Puff Daddy's, present P Diddy's video featuring the lovely Jenifer Lopez's ASSets had a decor just like in Jaded...Circus, Circus (and I don't mean the Las Vegas location where Tu Pack was shot).

Great ideas come hardly, good ideas come slightly easier, bad ideas are always on our mind, we swirl in a pool of jaded mornings, we try to hide our eyes in slippery sheets, but it always seems that dogs wake me up in the morning and the idiot on the 5th floor that plays basketball in his room wakes me up in the afternoon.

Life is rapidly turning into a nebula for me and my home into a menagerie...Jeremiah has grown a lot and he even snaps his beak at people - be careful and don't piss off your turtle by exaggerating the head-caress period - and he has a company now, a doggy called Cookie. This dog is the reason why I have reevaluated my respect for mothers in general and for my own sweet mother in particular. I had to stay up a few nights and feed Cookie once every two hours, imagine to have to do that for a few hard-passing months with a small human-being...I don't know how mothers do it.

I woke up this morning after approx 9 minutes of sleep, I never felt so untired in my life, it's amazing how our mind can fool our body ;).