Monday, December 22, 2008

Santa

A part to my friend from WWU and parts for all my friends:

May Santa bring you a perfect gift and...

Santa better bring you a job as well,
And a new beautiful home to dwell.
May your winter be snowy and cosy,
Without any neighbours being nosy!

As the days of holiday progress,
May your mind be free of stress!
Be as light in heart as snowflakes falling,
In a room filled with light each morning.

I wish you journeys to the far and exciting,
Maybe even another European sighting!
May all your worries be blown away,
By the cool breeze of a winter's day!


All my best to all of you,
Lumi


PS: Yes, the poem is mine :D.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Let me sing you a waltz...

...no, or...I just don't know, I really don't know. It's like even the most intense reality I experience doesn't feel real anymore. Is it a trap that I've carefully and unconsciously created for myself in the past few months, or all my life? Is it...a trap, a cage? Because this is exactly what it feels like.

We are, all of us, the prisoners of our own mind. And I'm not talking any Matrix BS here. I genuinely experience mental entrapment each day that I face. I try to escape through films. So far, I have been unsuccessful, but there are a lot more films that ca provide a surrogate escape from the unreal reality that I'm passing through, or maybe that passes through me.

A brief surrogate escape was recently provided by two films, about a beginning and an end: Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004).

Maybe they'll help you more that they helped me, or maybe you'll just take a trip through Vienna and Paris, from the perspective of two people that have an opinion about everything. You might just find a few things you thought about at one point in your life.


Before Sunrise




Before Sunset - The Waltz

Monday, December 15, 2008

The Snowflake Man

Since I was a kind I have been fascinated by the beautiful shapes of the snowflakes. Even now, if I happen to catch one in the palm of my winter gloves, I stare at it until it melts. This is an amazing piece of nature's perfect handcraft.

When I was in kindergarten and I first saw a snowflake, and it looked just like in the cartoons on TV, I tried to tell my friends about it, but they didn't believe me. And I never got the chance to show them, because a certain kind of snow makes those shapes visible to the naked eye.

I'm so glad that now, I get to show everybody that didn't believe me...well, at least, the few of them who read my blog, what these snowflakes look like.

The pictures below were taken by a man who dedicated his whole life to snowflakes, Wilson Bentley, also called The Snowflake Man. He took his first snowflake pictures in 1885. You can read the short versin of what he did: here.

Snowflakes, Snowflakes, Snowflaaaaaaaaakessss!!!!!




Thursday, December 11, 2008

How about this for making students buy things?!



See if you can guess what they did to make their products more appealing to students, then click on the picture to see if you guessed correctly.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Trees and Twilight

About a week or so ago I went with Aida to a tree-planting session near Bucharest. We planted all day and the satisfaction and exhaustion felt afterwards were memorable. An organization called MaiMultVerde (the Marea Plantare campaign) has enabled Aida and I to tick off the list one of the three MUSTS in a life time: plant a tree, dig a well and baptize a child. I don't think the second one will ever be ticked, except maybe if we're away in Africa...maybe, but the first one has been done. I actually wouldn't mind doing it again.

Speaking about trees, I have to say that the ones in the movie Twilight (the script based on Stephenie Meyer's book with the same title) look fantastic. I love the cinematography in this movie and the soundtrack has something for everybody.

I had a huge-vampire-movie phase as a teenager, and this particular film brought a little of that period back to me. But it's not your classical “fangy”-tale of blood, it's a beautiful beginning of a love story between a vampire and a teenage girl. The actors are super sexy and the landscapes are amazing and mysterious.

I might be under the influence of Robert Pattison's golden-vampire eyes (he, by the way, sings a couple of the songs from the soundtrack), but I kind of developed a soft spot for this movie and am waiting for the sequel, New Moon.


Enjoy Twilight! Enjoy every twilight!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Help the Turtles

You all know I am a huge supporter of animal rights, so this link won't come as a surprise to you. The information in it should be surprising in both directions though.

http://www.scaryideas.com/print/9253/

STOP EATING THEM!!!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Wassup 08

U've gotta watch this:

Thursday, November 6, 2008

12 Angry Men

If you ever wondered why the US justice system states that there must be 12 members in a jury and if you ever wondered why, for a man to be convicted of a crime, there has to be an unanimous decision of the jury, and if you ever wondered how the way we were brought up to the family status that we have when we're 75 can influence our decisions, YOU should WATCH 12 Angry Men, a Sydney Lumet masterpiece from 1957.

Long phraze, isn't it! :D

Here's a glimpse of the film:



Isn't prejudice so so so sad?

The truth is, we will always be different, us humans, and there will always be people who will dislike other people for different reasons. But these are never good enough reasons (even if they're only in our heads) to convict innocent people.

What we think about what happens should certainly be linked to what really happens if we want our decisions to be fair to everybody, especially to us.

...and another thing: I am very glad that BARACK OBAMA is the next US president :).

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

I have a Dream

I was talking to a very good friend of mine a few days ago about what's worth doing in Romania, if anything.
It all started from he fact that a reporting crew from PROtv won an EMI for their scene broadcasts. That's great for them. I tip my hat to the talented journalists that managed to beat broadcasting crews from Brazil and Great Britain. But I also have to be a little disappointed about what they show in their broadcasts and also about everything shown about or from Romania that wins awards...that's right...bad things.

How is it that a film about an abortion during communist times won more appraises from international critiques than one about conquering basic human condition and rising above all unpleasant events and misfortunes? (4 months, 3 weeks and 2 day vs. California Dreamin’) How is it that only news about gypsies that allegedly kill ladies in Italy, high school hackers, deplorable asylums and orphanages get into the international public eye? There are a lot of good things that come from our country, just not good enough to overcome the bad ones.

Don't get me wrong now, I am as displeased about what happens in our country: the poverty, the fact that we don't have a decent educational system, the social programs that don't get enough funding although international funds are returned unused at he end of the year, or worse, budgets are used in a blink on fictive operations so that free money can be accounted for, the fact that children are burnt in maternity incubators in the care of inhuman nurses and a lot of other very unpleasant and disturbing things.
All these are sadly very true, but do we really have to accentuate only them when we present something to the international communities? What kind of country are we that we don’t even give them the chance to question the fact that we’re deplorable?

Like Chaplin and Martin Luther King Jr once let to be understood or just plain said it in their speeches, I too have a dream; a dream about people getting along, a dream about a country that can solve its problems by internal means and consideration from all its citizens, a dream of cooperation, a dream in which people actually consider de consequences of their actions, a dream of peace and prosperity, a dream of free education for the masses, a dream in which orphans in orphanages and old persons in asylums are treated like humans and not like rags, a dream in which the public international eye finds our emancipation efforts and the solutions to our internal problems truly commendable, I have a Dream...



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Part of something, Part of everything, Part of...(Not Nothing :D) my latest poem: Astray

....It may be God or Allah or Buddha or Zeus
Sunny mornings or flowers or a moose,

It may be software or books of money
Or movies or jokes that aren't funny,

However far our beings go astray,
We believe in something anyway.

If you suggest that you don’t need to pray,
Even if it’s to yourself in your mirror’s way,

I know you’re doing something of the sort,
But are too proud to admit the spiritual effort.

You need to believe so you can feel empowered,
Because you’re alone and, deep down, a coward.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Immersion

About four years ago, when I was studying, well, sort of studying, to pass my high-school exams and get into a good university, my body experienced something very strange to me at that moment. Mentally, focus-wise, I was quite alright, but my organism was channeling all the stress to the bone system, therefore I was in a lot of pain for a couple of months, all because of my joints.

Now, after a lot of exams and a lot of changes in my life, I find myself experiencing a huge amount of stress again. My bone system is not the source of pain this time, my subconscious is. All my dreams are totally messed up and make absolutely no sense (they usually have a plot, or some kind of action). I feel as if immersed in another Chien Andalus film, but this time, no ants, but a lot of teeth. I am not only dreaming them, but also clutching them in my sleep. Not a healthy thing for my maxillaries, but I just cannot control the unconscious clutching.

Stress is a very odd thing that our body experiences. It often has surprising effects. I'm glad that I don't feel it as accurately while I am awake and I can carry on with my business, but I would like to have it eliminated all together, not just in the conscious part of the day.

But enough about stress-related changes in humans. School has started, for a while now, but I haven't quite started it myself. I went to one course and it was only about organizing the course itself and not about relevant information about that particular subject, so I got fairly bored, like you probably are right now :), and I haven’t been to a course since.

Have a very un-stressful rest of the autumn and don't forget that Heroes is on its third season. A lot of related to stress and anxiety changes are going on there :).


Good Luck to You,
Lumi

Monday, October 13, 2008

Between

The will to succeed is in all of us, but few have the courage to go all the way to get what they really want and not what they claim they want.

As I see it, many times you're torn between what you should do (in order to be safe and in order to make your parents feel OK where you are concerned) and what you love and has a huge potential of making you truly happy (but you have to work a great deal to obtain and you have to make a lot of sacrifices, from little sleep to refusing to go out with your friends).

Today I went to a class. I don't know exactly why, maybe I was too pissed because the wireless network wasn't working and my mac couldn't make its updates properly.

In other news, I had my TOEFL exam on Saturday. The results will be available in 15 working days.

As you can see, I am truly bored and displeased with the world these days. Maybe the days to come will be more agreeable.

I'll leave you now with George Costanza, a man who always knew he wanted to pretend to be an architect.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Vienna and Coldplay then cold Bucharest and being Homeless

After two wonderful days in beautiful Vienna and after admiring both the old and the new there, pictures are provided below, I have returned to Bucharest to find myself literally homeless. I guess there's a balance in everything, at least my life, so far, really wants to show me that.

With two weeks before my TOEFL and three weeks before my GMAT exams, with a lot of stuff scattered in different friends' places, no bed I can truly call my own and a lot of other things I have to solve this month, the homelessness situation is just what I need right now to complete the circle :).

But enough about my problems, nobody (except one or two truly kind persons) seems to care about them, so why should I, right?!

So, back to Vienna. Well, as my life has a balance, this city has one also. It combines the old part with palaces, museums, churches and gardens with the new part, a very futuristic an extremely organized business center with a 252 meter tower just watching over the city. I ate in that tower (Donauturm) with a bunch of friends. We went round and round in the restaurant situated at 165 m over sea level and we admired the beautiful pieces of Vienna, connected by the night lights. The view is spectacular and it is only barely equaled by the mango mousse they serve there.

The concert was amazing. Coldplay, especially the incredibly talented Chris Martin, truly rocks.


Thank you Radu for stalking us with the camera all over Vienna, we wouldn't have these pictures if it weren't fot you :)!






Monday, September 8, 2008

Sunday, September 7, 2008

New people

There comes a time in everybody's life when the need to meet new people arises. It's not that you get bored of what your usual entourage is saying of doing (although sometimes you do), it's just that, meeting new individuals provides you with a new and decent conversation for the day. It's like a job interview with no interviewer present. You can end up talking about oil drills and be fascinated by that. You never even thought that to be something you would do...ever.

I've noticed something rather interesting (for me at least) in the past years. Whenever I meat a new person (usually it's a guy), and that person is really smart and very good at what he/she does, we always end up talking about movies. And it's not your usual "Have you seen that movie? It's really good." crap, no, it's deeper than that. They know films, directors, actors, they know who Tarkovsky and Aronofsky or Foreman and Fellini are, they insightfully comment on Al Pacino's acting. Even if they’re usually very busy people, they have time for a lot of cinematographic experiences.

At first I thought WOW, these people are great. They have (or take) time to be very successful, they travel a lot and they also know their stuff about films. But then I realized, they don't actually have a lot of free time on their hands, and when they do, a quiet date with a non-judgmental, not-to-be-impressed, non-stressful, great-to-learn-something-out-of, emotion-triggering film is what they choose.

Films are a very comfortable refuge if you're not in the mood for human conversation. For some it is an excuse to make-out, but for the busy ones, the preoccupied and the always-thinking-about-their-job or their family or tomorrow's worries people, a film is an escape.

As I was in a film-watching kind of mood, I saw HEAT with AL PACINO and ROBERT de NIRO last night. It's two and a half hours of mounting tension, egos and careful planning put on reel. Plus it’s packet with action, an apparel for the psychology behind it all. So it’s a definite must for both the busy and the lazy :) .


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

We're messed up :)

Sometimes we just don't know or refuse to see that we do have loads of things to be thankful for. If complaining were an Olympic event, I would probably break more records than Phelbs did this 29th edition of the Olympic Games. I always complain and I'm sure I almost always annoy the people around me.

It got in my head that I was this complicated creature with a huge amount of insurmountable problems, but this is just balderdash and I know it. I have a lot to be thankful for and I know this too. It's just that, we people, at least some of us (myself included) tend to see the particularly empty, sad, moneyless, future-homeless and lonely part of the glass, instead of the part filled with great friends, health, Internet, Battlestar Galactica, fluffy clouds, frogs, endless conversations about nothing, smiles, trips, sunny days, rainy days, books, chocolate, music, wind, love that was, maybe is and perhaps will be.

Because I've mentioned Battlestar Galactica, you should check it out if you're in the mood for a phylosophical-mythology-based-end-of-human-race-thrilling-story-
packed-with-action-and-gorgeous-actors-and-actresses-SciFi.
As for the music part, I have finally found a song I've been looking for since last summer: The Fray - Look after you.





Really look after what you have! :)

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Lights! Camera! HMM?? :D

How do we save the world? Do we each do our little, simple share of planet heroics or do we leave the battle to someone who cares?

Well, everybody should care, after all it's our bloody home. We all know that you should clean your home from time to time, pay your bills, and give it a nice paint job once in a while, in order to make it livable.

If only we could paint the desert green and make it produce oxygen, or train oil stains to give ocean fish nice shade instead of killing them, or make penguins crap ice, so that Antarctica wouldn't run without it in a few decades...if only...

Something we could do though, is the smallest decent amount possible. Here's an example:




Sunshine - video powered by Metacafe




P.S.: The PoetrySoup link is now ready to be accessed :).

Friday, July 25, 2008

To annoy or not to annoy...that is the...u know :)

Well, well, it seems that I have taken a small leave from my writing. I guess the whole degree thesis shenanigans wore me out more than I want to admit to myself, or maybe I'm just king of uninspired. Nothing very thrilling seems to happen. But I won't say more on the subject, Murphy's law apply when you lest expect or want, from my experience.

I am fresh out of a very uninteresting weekend. It was so uninteresting that I'm still recovering from the dullness. It’s so sad when you go home and the most exciting thing that happens to you is a conversation with your granny, which actually turns into an interrogatory about what you're going to do with you life now that you’ve graduated.

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE?

That's actually a pretty good question. People around me kind of look like they know the answer or part of it. Many get jobs, others look for a future home, others stress themselves in the search for a good graduate school and I...I just annoy myself.

I started a nice book by Edward de Bono, called Lateral Thinking, you know it for sure. The book encourages us to think out of the box and find more than one satisfying solution to any given problem. Maybe I'm reading it because I want to find a way to annoy other people, other than myself...that's thinking out of the box for you. It's already starting to work.

Speaking of new solutions and ideas, if you want to know why a 9 year old thinks pockets should be detachable or how he turns a twisted and sad family tragedy into an exquisite string of weird happenings, you should definitely open Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close book. A friend of my mine, who left Romania about a week ago, gave it to me. I couldn't put it down until I reached the final page.

Returning to the being annoying bit, here's the most annoyingly pleasant tap dancer I have ever seen, in Top Hat:


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

My work :)

I was looking through my poems today (the link on the blog works, but the site is in remodeling, so the poems are not available for non-users yet) and I found a poem I had forgotten I wrote. It seemed fitting for today, because it completes my being-lost feeling.


Start again

I begged them all to stop and cheer,
I cried so loud the depths could hear,
I shouted and I spat in rage,
I couldn't turn another page.
The story was so true and blunt,
It ignited my selfish heart.
It was a story about me
And what I finally come to be...
A big mass of information,
Decaying to termination.

Hope is just a feeble concept,
Money's only but a thing,
Life has palpability,
To which we all so dearly cling.
We give it up so hard and tough,
Even when we have enough.

Some give it with relief,
Others take it in a brief.
We all think with disbelief,
That it doesn't end so fast,
That we have a future and a past,
But we never know for sure.
That's why this life, I adore.

I don't want to see the story end,
Whatever rules I have to bend
Without hurting those apart from me,
I couldn't bear to do the wrong I see.
The wrong the world makes my eyes endure,
The world where nothing can assure,
That what you love will stay unharmed
And what you want shall be done.

I don't have the power to abolish,
Those who stubbornly want to demolish,
Peace and love and friendship too,
But I could fight with you.
For the sake of my existence,
I cold hurt you in an instance,
It's still survival of the fittest.

Whatever more we do invent,
I'm tired of hearing that
It's all built with good intent,
When all things have double usage,
They can destroy or do some good,
It depends on the dosage
Of the user's mood.

I close the book of no return,
I don't want to see the end.
The lines I read make my brain burn.
Before finish I want to turn
And start again.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Nonsense

The equality calculation predispositions an inaccurate contribution to socially interacting endeavor, that overthrew the malicious suppositions of the participating party...

If you are from Earth, you speak English and you are in full control of your mental capabilities, there's a fairly good chance that you didn't understand much from the previous paragraph.

Imagine that you are in a room full of people, all extremely specialized and trained in only one field each. Imagine you enter this room, without knowing one thing about any of the fields the individuals specialize in. The people are talking, nobody can understand one single thing. How do you ask somebody where the bathroom is? How do you ask for a glass of water or for directions?

It's not enough that we know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff, we have to be able to share that through means of communication that are easily understood by others, otherwise, we couldn't help anybody find a bathroom, but we could tell them the Theory of Relativity...I doubt they would care in that precise moment.

Today I listened to a lot of oldies from Marilyn Manson, they kind of kept me awake during the hot hours of the day when I had to work on my final thesis...but, besides the point. I was listening to The Nobodies. I have listened to this song too many time than I can count, and only today I thought about reeeeally listening to the lyrics, but I couldn't make out a lot of what he said, so, of course, I searched the last verses online and I found this:

We are the nobodies
wannabe somebodies
when we're dead,
they'll know just who we are

Some children died the other day
we fed machines and then we prayed
puked up and down in morbid faith
you should have seen the ratings that day

It struck me, we live in such a morbid society. Of course you're going to say it's not always like this, that there are nice things that take place in this particular human civilization corner (like...balloon rides stuck to the ground or smoking hookahs until 2 AM talking about toilet paper and economics), but the sad reality is that, there are really f***ed-up things in this world and all the nonsense doesn't help.

Here are the Nobodies:




Let's be "somebodies" who give a damn if people need our help!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Good or Bad?

Stop being way nicer than you really are! Stop doing favors that you hate doing! Stop helping others when you need help more than them! Stop thinking that you are indestructible, incorruptible and hard to manipulate?

We are feeble and bad and stupid and lazy and we stress ourselves about problems that we, many times, don't have. We are week and we can hurt those around us. The only thing that saves us from what we are is the will to do good.

It's always a matter of choice. Nobody says that doing good is the easy choice, it's easier to ignore the people who ask you for help, it's easier to avoid/be mean to your enemies than be kind to them (who does that anyway? who is kind to their enemies? that's the proverbial turn the other cheek business sent to the battle field of current society). Whatever you think of doing, ignore that and do some good, just don't be false about it. This is the trickiest thing ever: do something good genuinely, even if you don't want to do it or if it's too hard.

Sometimes it's a challenge for us all, to test the power of our will, sometimes we just make the easiest choice and do nothing and many times, we do something that, if we have a conscience, we regret after a while.

I'll always be sorry for being mean to my grandfather just before he died, or being disrespectful so many times to my grandmother. I'll always be sorry for killing a big, green and sparkly caterpillar when I was a kid. I'll always be sorry for hurting my mom by ignoring her or for hurting my dad by lying to him, I'll always be sorry for not being there for my friends when they needed to talk about what was bothering them, but I was in no mood. I am sorry for not making the right choice or thinking the right thing too many times. I'm sorry for flirting with guys that were hitched (not with me). I am sorry for all of this, but I don't regret one thing.

Being alive it's all about making mistakes and learning from them. If you learn from the mistakes that others have made, great, but, usually, we learn better if we actually experience the consequences of our mistakes.

Stay safe! Be good! Stay Alive!


Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Savour the moment!

Everlasting moments...as oxymoronic as it may sound, there are such things. These moments stay itched in your brain a life time. They're like small videos that you remember whenever you do something related to that particular moment. For instance last night was high school moments night.

In a room full of people my age, very nice and smart people indeed, with two hookahs and two bottles of red wine, we strolled down memory lane. People remembered they used to wear black instead of pink, their obsessions for 2Pac, the fact that we all knew the lyrics for Linkin Park's "In the end" may have struck a cord, we remembered cartoons and shows that we used to watch on Italian or other TV channels (this was a little before high school) - Sailor Moon, Captain Planet, Power Rangers etc. etc. etc..

In the wee hours of the night, smoke was everywhere, the bottles were empty and the room was full of Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit, P.O.D., Stained, System of a Down...ahhh, sweet moments from high school that allow you to have sweet moments in college. It's like a chain of memories that trigger more fun memories. After all, what we have in our heads makes us create the next and next and next everlasting memories...circumstances might help too ;).


Monday, June 16, 2008

Hello Boys and Girls!

My new found infatuation with a certain TV series has reached its apex today. I am delighted to say that I finally had a very pleasant day.

I have to admit that my current fascination with this particular TV show is not a usual one, nor that I am particularly fond of such stories, but this one is aimed to please my scandal-and -relationship-twists mental need (and I didn't even know I had one). I am talking, of course, about Gossip Girl. Judge all you like, if you haven't seen it, you should, no matter how cynic you think you can be.

Moreover I found a new song that I love, when I was watching another scandal-full episode on the show. Have a look and tell me what you think!



In other news, I'm still waiting for the perfect mood to seriously start working on my final thesis. So far, a lot of moods have auditioned, none have gotten the part.

Happy final thesis writing for those who already ended the casting ;)!


Have a pleasant week my dear readers!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Focus Group Mayhem

In the quest of writing my final thesis, I have finally managed to complete part of the qualitative research, by doing three focus groups. I have never thought that it would be so hard to gather 24 people, by offering free chocolate and cookies. Luckily, students actually showed up for this research and I had people to moderate in front of.
It was fun and it had a lot of "surprises": people telling me half an hour before the focus group that they couldn't come, people laughing at each other for no reason, people fighting about unrelated to the research topics, without even knowing each other prior to the interview session etc..

I found out I really liked doing this, although I have a lot more to learn about moderating focus groups. A lot of insights came out and a lot more will reveal themselves after I analyze the FG videos.

After moderating, participating and observing focus groups, I have to admit I like moderating best. Maybe because my personality is dominant and stubborn in many aspects of my life or maybe I secretly like to be a professor and never admit it, but moderating is exciting, it can test your patience and your interviewer skills, it can even be a great crisis management training.

Overall it was the most existing part of this final thesis, which I have to be done with in a week. The countdown begins!

...but before that, yesterday was the anniversary of 1 year since we left for the States. There are a lot of sweeeeeeeeet memories, a lot of fun facts, a lot of songs that remind me every day that last summer was the best summer in my life.

Here's Gym Class Heroes. Close your eyes and imagine you're driving to San Francisco :)




...we are fragile...

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Back in action :)

Being too hot and all, it's been a while since I thought...on the blog, of course. With one more exam around the corner and a whole final thesis to prepare, time and the weather are not my best friends these days. I'm sure I'm not the only one in a time pickle, but I am sure that I'm amongst the very few who managed to be ostracized by their final thesis coordonator. Ah yes, the sweet sound of panic rings in my ears.

I came home a nervous-wreck-to-be. The warm, safe and smothering air in the room filled me with the joy of not having any more problems than I already had, but...surprize!!! In the late hours of this beautifully-wretched evening, I found out that the professor that didn't get my homework emails, also didn't pass along my new grade. Therefore, I can now consider myself flunked, until further notice.
Ahhhh, the satisfying grief of getting the maximum score in the seminar, passing the exam and somehow, still, flunkig the subject. Isn't it swell?!?

Maybe tomorrow the tables will turn and I will have a beautiful day.



Maybe your day won't be too bad as well. Maybe we'll be closer to happiness tomorrow or maybe stupidity and bureaucracy will overthrow it all, yet again. We'll found out in a few hours won't we? Until then: good night and pleasant subconscious trails!

Monday, May 19, 2008

Too Hot to Think

I thought that Romania was in a temperate climate zone...I guess I was wrong.
When it's May, you have more than 80% of your final thesis to write before June 30th, the last undergraduate examination period is in one week and all you can think about is shade, sweat and "Please not the bus again!!!", then people, we have got a problem!

For the past five years I have been saying over and over, every summer, that we should just have showers on streets corners and changing booths next to them. People should be able to slip in their bathing suit and jump under the shower....or...skip the clothes altogether and get on the streets in swimsuits: business swimsuits, casual swimsuits, skateboarding swimsuits etc. etc. etc..

We should also have windowless buses :).

Another thing, in case you're familiar with the street vendors that sell overpriced, cheep umbrellas during the rain in the main squares of Bucharest, well, they should sell sun umbrellas and ice on skewers during the awful heat that will follow.

Enjoy the months of smell hell!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Stray

Sometimes you just sit and think (or stand and think). Your mind isn't linked in the present-surrounding reality, it just jumps from image to image while your body is prey for the aging seconds. Even with your eyes closed, you start the mind wandering through brain files with different extensions (.doc, .jpeg, .mpeg, .avi, .dmg or .exe etc.): the first poem you wrote, your baby pictures that your mom kept so dearly, your first view of clouds from the plane, the first time you made love, the first book that really changed you... a lot of stuff...

Suddenly, your thoughts aren't that coherent, extensions start to mix and you suddenly find yourself getting out of a pink trunk, in a room full of mirrors, where ducks indeed have an echoing quack and pink pigs in Armani suites follow the yellow brick road that leads to the cat's hole...
you're the hole, you're the duck, you're the trunk, you're just a dot, you can't be seen from the moon, you're not immortal, you have no idea where you're headed, you really don't know what's next, you're lost, if only there were a map for existing, you would get it out right now, instead of wasting precious time on rethinking things that periodically come into your mind and never get solved...Stop wasting your life on stray thoughts...just stop, have a look around, maybe you'll come into your senses, stop looking at people in the subway, just look at their shoes, no, not their shoes, look at the prints, that's it, stay with the prints, hmm, Kylie is really hot, although she's too small, so is Christina and Jennifer and Selma so is my patience with you, stop wandering just start planning your final thesis, you can start now, right here, you have a pen and a note book, take them, out...slowly, that's funny, if someone were in my head right now...wait a minute, are you reading what I'm thinking???



Wait, they don't love you like I love you
Wait, they don't love you like I love you
Ma-a-a-a-ps, wait!
They don't love you like I love you...

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Olboy, new Guy

Laugh and the world laughs with you.
Weep and you weep alone.



Imagine being taken from the street, on a rainy day and being imprisoned for 15 years for no apparent reason. Would you try to kill yourself? Would you remember all the wrong you've done and all the people you have wronged? Would you go crazy if you didn't get to touch a human being in 15 years?...and, most importantly: Would you turn your life after the imprisonment into a quest for vengeance?


We never know what we're capable of until we're pushed to the edge, until we are desperate beyond comprehension. Do you have something you would kill for? How about something you would cut your tongue for? Do you like ants? :)

If any of these questions press a key on your brain's piano, you have got to see Chan-wook Park's Oldboy.


Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Contrast

I was curious where Bora Bora was, because it's something that I hear people talk about these days. It's a luxury travel destination that the rich can easily reach. I found out that it's in the South Pacific, in the French Polynesia, in the middle of no-land, in the Earth's biggest ocean.

Then I thought about Earth and I remembered a friend told me once that if the world were a community of 100 people, it would look something like this:




I started off dreaming of Bora Bora and ended up feeling privileged.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Lesson

Go here!
Watch it all!

Oh Happy Summit, Oh joy for us :D

Summit week people, from the 2nd to the 4th of April.

The city is paralyzed, people are stocked on the streets by the law and order sentinels (quite a few: from regular police officers to water tanks).
Be careful! If you're in Bucharest and you just happen to have a photo camera in your possession, chances are you'll be stopped, questioned and searched by the police, they do mean Business.

If you happen to have any weapon-like object on yourselves, no matter how non-threatening it may seem to you (a Swiss army knife, a glass bottle of beer, your hands in your pockets :D), you can be considered suspicious and stopped on the street for no apparent good reason.

Apart from the locals' indisposition regarding the summit which includes police stocking and not being able to take the bus to work (for those unfortunate enough to work near the center of the summit-city), the foreigners have encountered a few problems themselves. Starting with the fantastic journalist-welcoming-committee at the airport, the wonderful lack of means of transportation (no taxis) and, of course, the always-present technical difficulties (no sound for the foreign journalists who were in another press-room during Bush Jr's speech).

How much money does the Romanian Government have to spend for all to be perfect if the 26 million EUR that were spent for this summit weren't enough?

Thursday, March 27, 2008

100

For my 100th post on this blog I thought I'd give me and you a bit of insight about what life is all about. Life is all about the shape, age, glow, size, hairiness, color and sex of skin.

Our ultimate presentation suit is our skin. A lot of people give a lot of money to make their natural suit look as perfect as possible.

It's not about being shallow, although, let's admit it at least to ourselves, the way that people look really influences the way that they are treated by others.

I'm not just talking about the lair of our body that has a direct contact with our clothes, but about the whole shape that it gives the body, the presence....


Did I scare you a little bit with the personal image rambling :D? This is what got me thinking about skin image:

1. A skin-care products firm in Australia has made a very interesting outdoor for their campaign (Skin good enough to eat) - a lady made entirely of peaches. They say we are what we eat...this is eating what we are :D:











2. Kisses that come with a side effect:










3. The ultimate intimate-hair-due :D:














Have fun with hair dues and skin pampering and remember:

Take care of yourselves, because nobody will do it for you and because the person you love the most is you ;).



Wishing you the best my dear reader,
Lumi

Monday, March 17, 2008

Sunscreen

We are amazing and we should never forget it...ah yeah, and we should always wear sunscreen.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Change through images

Some people want to make a change through images, maybe they just want to seem smart on a web site or maybe they just really care, anyway, you should have a gander at this, it really caught my attention.

If you're still in that area, you should definitely check this one out too.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Make life Your Stage regardless of Who watches

On stage

The mistake of being chosen,
When you aim for playing by spite,
In a game that’s both black and light,
Surely links to the parts of life
When one acts like a heated knife,
But the butter is not frozen.

Another untrained viewer’s eye,
Randomly passing near the scene,
A strange inkling to intervene
Might gently cross his stream of thought;
Possibly messing up a lot.
The watcher doesn’t get to try.

The spiteful actor battles much,
All faces turn to judge his moves.
His features fidget, they amuse.
He sends his words out into meaning,
Their loud silence sees no clinging
To ears that eat his kind for lunch.

He is alone on stage and nothing helps his mind.
The role he has is hard, some lines are forgotten;
Changes made from frame to frame seem all too sudden.
He is lost and feeble and under the spotlight
Wishing that, at casting, his acting wasn’t bright.
Strangely he feels himself as being mute and blind.

Bit under construction, this feature of existence
Can get you into places without any escapes
And it makes you face your nightmares’ gruesome theater drapes,
Which normally you threat so, because they always hide
An audience unfriendly and just so full of pride,
That boos off life’s stage the ones without experience.



Copyright © 2007 Luminita Stoica

Saturday, March 1, 2008

10 things I hate about clubs

1. Dirty, small, unequipped bathrooms;
2. The nonexistence of non-smoking zones (real non-smoking zones, not the ones that say "non-smoking" and are exactly next to the smoking zone, and you cannot possibly avoid the smoke);
3. Small or inexistent dancing rings;
4. Rude/"deaf" bartenders/waitresses/waiters;
5. Huge prices but bad-service;
6. Same music playing with very little variation over and over and over and over...
7. Totally "fiddle-de-dee" advertising: you show the best and give the medium or worst => lack of credibility or unsubstantiated credibility (but that's what I hate about the majority of products that are being advertised; very few organizations have the decency to even try and be at least 60% honest with their customers);
8. Sleazy entertainers (girls/boys that dance on small podiums in the club) that can't dance;
9. Bad light shows;
10. Dangerous floor designs with no warnings.

There are a lot of other things, but these are the main 10. If you have your own, share with the class.

Meanwhile, take a look at this (no, it's not about clubs if that's what you're expecting):

Saturday, February 23, 2008

New beat :D

It's a beautiful, semi-humid Saturday afternoon and I'm strolling through YouTube. After a few minutes of Jim Carrey I found myself listening to the Arctic Monkeys, awesome band if I do say so myself.



Somehow they remind me of Quentin Tarantino's films :), but if I listen a little bit longer they actually remind me of the White Stripes...these Brits, gotta love them, mainly because of the accent, but that's just my case.

Here's another Arctic Monkeys business :):

Friday, February 22, 2008

Control Freaks

We humans are all a bunch of control freaks, we want to know it all so we cannot be taken by surprise in a bad way and even if there's a good surprise involved, we still want to know what it is about, we want to be in charge, we want to have the power. Proofs of this eagerness to be superior than others or other things have been here for millennia, we wanted to be like the gods we invented, then we invented super-heroes, a modern version of the gods, and we wanted to be like them. There actually are people that really think they are superheroes or some that try, like people that want to do everything and be the best at all that they do.

To sustain even more the "need" to be almighty, Emotive Systems has developed a device called EPOC that enables users to control a computer game with brainwaves, basically you don't touch the keyboard or joy-stick , you just play with you mind.


I can see a lot of use for this in the medical aria, helping people with disabilities get around faster and living an easier life, but, as all invented things can be used for both good and evil, I can also see this device used to control tanks and planes from long distance and taking over rich oil regions without any casualties from the aggressor....yep, very useful indeed.


Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bad, new haircut :(

I never imagined my hair meant that much to me, but it does. It's somehow connected to my state of mind, to my mood. Maybe I do act like a girl sometimes :).


After two very unsatisfying trips to the hair stylists, I have decided never to go to a woman hairstylist again, men are way better at this. Two women have managed to ruin what several males have beautifully preserved over 4 years now...

I guess in life you win some, you lose some...hair :D....and it doesn't matter how short my hair is, what matters is how and how much I think...or something like that:D.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Bloody Sad

I saw Lars and the Real Girl today and it made me bloody sad.



Sometimes people just replace things that they need with something. Usually the need for affection is replaced by other stuff. Some people replace it with alcohol of drugs, some bury themselves in work, others in films, others in blogs, others in books...we all have a surrogate positive energy stream, that doesn't involve human affection...or at least something to make the time between affection sessions pass faster :D.

Friday, February 15, 2008

When you're down, keep your mind occupied!

I don't understand people that, when faced with a problem that can very easily be solved through communication, choose to disconnect themselves from the other party and "Try not to think about it."

If you "try not to think about" all your problems, you will never solve anything, apart from the issues sorted out by sheer luck or coincidences. All my life I have tried to make people talk about what's on their mind, about their brain burdens. Many of them have opened up and found that verbalizing their problems and thoughts about them was way more helpful than wallowing in their self petty.

Still, I do agree that a period on your own, alone is necessary sometimes. When you feel bloody awful and you don't want to be seen or see anyone, people that want to talk about your problems make you run even farther away. But, if the problem directly involves two people and one wats to save something and talk about it and the other prefers to "try not to think about it", then that truly sucks for the party that wants to solve something.

Actually, that's how big problems start in this world, kids don't want to talk to their parents about who's bullying them at school, then they bring a gun to class and kill innocent people; husbands don't want to talk about their problems with their wives, instead they choose to beat them senseless to externalize their rage; students hate their teachers and they struggle to become teachers themselves so they can torture students just to get back at life; young people dream of becoming film directors, ambassadors, top managers and they end up being some firm's bitch in a small office in the financial department, taking files from one place to another for a living, coming home depressed, committing suicide at the age of 40 or dying from exhaustion at the age of 32, just because they didn't communicate what they truly wanted with their employers.

I admire those that dream even on their death beds, I admire people that take chances and choose to fail their way and not to succeed in other people's eyes, I admire people that believe in themselves and people that stay positive no matter what, I admire human beings that find time for themselves and don't waste their youth and health on jobs that they hate, just to get some CV experience, I admire people that stop doing what they come to dislike doing, I admire people that don't bullshit other people, I admire people that don't forget their promises or that are smart enough not to make promises if they know they don't have the power to keep them.

I would love for us to have an enchanted world, where good dreams do come true, where everything has a happy ending.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Happy Birthday to me :)

There are moments of clarity in your life, when you see, like a spectator, what you did wrong, what good you did, who cared for you, who you cared for. It's sad if you see that you gave more than you received, it's sadder if you received a lot and gave nothing instead.

I was talking about life and death with my mom a few days ago, about what happens to the brain after the body dies, actually what happens to our conscience when our body dies. I seldom think that the stress of the whole biological system collapsing is like a short circuit in the brain, maybe for a few seconds the memory randomly produces images from the brain files, images that seem to make people with near death experiences think that they've crossed to the so-called other side; after the short circuit, the brain dies too, it's like when you're erasing everything you have on your hard drive, actually it's worse, it's destroying the hard drive completely, making it unusable in the same form.

What happens to the information?...because, after all, we're just a biological bundle of information at work...well, the information is either recycled, it's passes like an entity to the universe, in the form of energy or it is transformed, thinking the body is like a black hole and the information contained in it will eventually end up in another universe through a white hole or just be terminated, without a trace except the decaying remains of the once living body.

Like I have issues, you have issues, the world has issues, problems that we ignore most of the time because we are too busy with ourselves and that's totally understandable, after all the person that we love the most in this world is ourselves.

Here's a film that deals with the oh-so-many problems that Afghanistan is facing, from child molestation to killings for not having a beard...despite the terrible issues depicted here, the film manages to exude a cinematographic beauty that fills the mind with color and emotion. The Kite Runner....



Today was my birthday, I don't feel older or wiser, I don't understand why people are so compelled to hurt other people and to destroy what they have, but I know that there are some people I can always count on and that makes the information in my brain construct a sometimes beautiful documentary of my life.

Thank you my friends.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

What are they doing in Iraq?

The things about Iraq that have been hidden from the public are quite disturbing. There are pieces of the puzzle that gruesomely come together, and they don't construct a pretty or heroic, for that matter, picture. After USA soldiers have come back from Iraq, many have experienced serious behavior changes and psychological damage. In 2008 only, 121 US soldiers committed suicide after coming back from Iraq (9 AM Newsletter).

Here's a film by Paul Haggis that eloquently shows the dramatic personality and social changes that Iraq inflicts in In the Valley of Elah.




Another intriguing display of psychological oddity from the Coen Brothers, you might remember the main negative character from Alejandro Amenabar's Mar adentro (Javier Bardem). Here's No country for old men.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

LIFE IS CURIOSITY IN MOTION

I would like to state that this is the saying that has actually guided my life so far and I realized it recently. I think every person is actually in this situation and not only humans, but animals too. Evolution was based on this, if those fish weren't curious about the land, we wouldn't have amphibians, then snakes, then birds, then platypuses, then apes then Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens and Homo distructus (yes us, because we are so eager to make our life as easier as possible, most of the times, regardless of the consequences that our actions have on others and on the surroundings).

If curiosity combined with need were inexistent (yes we use the plural here :D, just in case you were thinking I did a blunder :P), we wouldn't have needles, vaccines, computers and so much questions, that eventually, get us into a lot of trouble. Curiosity makes us want to understand, which makes us search for answers, which makes us find out more and more which makes us ask ourselves more questions.

Since I couldn't find any other site on the net with the exact "Life is curiosity in motion." statement, I'm gonna claim copyright on it :D, because that's what we humans do, we mark our territory and then we defend it, other mammals do this with claws, we do it with wit...and now, a stand up comedy artist (Jim David)would say..."with[wit] what?".

Have fun with comedy Central!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Film Frenzy

How does it go?...Let me see...

You start off with a very interesting and disturbing documentary about the flaws in the medical system in the biggest economical power in the world. Micheal Moor's SICKO shows that even Cuba provides better medical treatment for its citizens than the United States of America.



Then you leave documentaries aside and jump into JUNO, a 2007 serious story disguised as a fun one; a film about the issues of an unwanted teenage pregnancy.



After that we hear the lovely soundtrack of ONCE, one of the best platonic love stories I've seen for the year 2007, a love of music and of ex-s in an Irish scenery.



To top it all we add a little box-office type of story, like 27 DRESSES, just to relax the brain with yet another Katherine Heigl film for this year. For those of you who don't know who she is, I'll give you two hints: a star of Grey's Anatomy and the leading lady from Knocked Up.



And we finish with Al Gore's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, he might be a politician and have a southern accent, but he knows what he's talking about when it comes to the danger of Carbon Dioxide Emissions.



Enjoy films and documentaries that you can really learn something from :).

Friday, February 1, 2008

Funny Fat Film

As mankind progresses, the human body gets more and more unhealthy. That's not a laughing matter, but the following spot is funny as it is ironic.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

The TV "dumbelization"

I've been home since this Tuesday afternoon. So far I've spent most of my awake hours doing stuff on my computer (reinstalling, reorganizing and fixing things), but in the background, the TV was on, all the time.

During my computer-fixing hours I've kind of surfed the channels with the remote, leaving it on random programs. After a few hours of just hearing the TV as an ignorable background sound, I started listening...What has happened to TV in general? Do TV program creators consider viewers that dumb or are they on a solemn quest to lower the Romanian population's IQ?

I have unwillingly heard hours and hours of crime news, soap-operas, bad TV shows about who slept with whom, who has had her boobs done in the past week, which girl band looks more slutty, which Chinese guy stole who's baby, who got killed by whom, what politician set what on fire etc. etc. etc..

After I realized the dreadful (at least for me) downfall of the quality of Romanian TV programming, I took the remote and tried the last oasis of smart TV, I could find...the Discovery Channel...great for me that How it's made was on :).

Speaking of smart things to watch, you should definitely have a look at Imax Deep Sea. It's narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet and it's absolutely fascinating.



OK, OK...so it's a little about crimes, but these ones keep the ocean ecosystem balanced...at least when we're not spilling oil in it or do any other mess.

Monday, January 28, 2008

The examination period is oveeeeeerrrrrrr

My dear reader,

My last exam is over, the whole examination period is over...for me, for those of you who still have exams: Good Luck! and remember, studying all your courses the night before the exam doesn't always pay off, I do not recommend it, although it kind of worked for me...so far.

Boy, the word "exam" has been said a lot in the last phrase :). Anyway, did you ever feel like you're floating, not the proverbial floating on clouds when you're happy, I mean floating as in "I have no clue what I'm going to do with my life or even where to begin in getting the clue"?

Some people have it all planned out, I don't, so, just to spite me, faith, karma, the most probable universe of all the possible ones or whatever entity exits out there put me in the following situation a few weeks ago: I was accused that I didn't have a plan or even "a fine outline" about my trip to the States - would I have struggled 2 months to get there hadn't I had a "fine outline"? - and for that information I flew over 7000 miles. Now I know that I might not be the most organized or, for that matter, sane person in the world, but I do know that pointing fingers has never helped or even smoothen a situation.

When your friends or relatives or your loved ones (yes, relatives aren't necessarily loved ones, I bet you have an aunt or an uncle that you hate or at least don't like to be around) say that they're lost, you should be kind and if you have nothing constructive to say, don't say anything at all and give them a pat on the back or a hug, if you can, because that helps more than any smug remark could ever do.

Don't forget to be kind.

Because I'm lost and don't know what to start/finish or revise with/in my life I leave this post unfini...

Friday, January 18, 2008

Hell Week and the Beatles

I always seem to underestimate the value of a sweet, fulfilling night's sleep, when you get tucked or self-tuck yourself in bed before 12 o'clock (that's what scientists recommend after studying our specie's usual sleep pattern), you go on and enter dreamland and you wake up in the morning all fresh and ready to start another day :).

Well, this week, I thought, just for laughs, that I would skip night sleep all together...kiddin', not just for laughs, but because, as usual, I left the making of all my school projects for the night before the deadline, ergo, I haven't slept one single night this week.

The great thing about all this is that the week is over, I can finally enjoy the simple, biological pleasure or resting a part of my brain, through the slowing down of body processes.

But enough biology, here's a film that brings the beauty of a lot of the Beatles songs with a twist of XXI century in them.

See for yourselves! Go Across the Universe!





Ah, almost forgot....Have an easy and fun examination period!


Best wishes my dear readers,
Lumi

Friday, January 11, 2008

Poor, poor FBI :))) and a little debate

As it seems, not only average citizens don't have money to pay their phone bills and get cut off from the network, the FBI has the same problem.

Feast your eyes on this FBI blunder.

While we're on a USA related topic, have a gander at this little article, I found the comments of the people who read it especially interesting. Apparently everybody is good at politics and social studies :D; don't get me wrong, as a free person of a democratic country it is sort of a duty to say what you think...and resume to that :).

American Christmas...part 4 (final) - 36 hours on the road

I finally made it our of the Sates. The day I left the sky was clear, the flights weren't canceled and after being super searched at LA International Airport, LAX, I finally boarded on a Boeing 747-400 over the Atlantic.

A funny thing happened to me on the plane. I sat next to a German teenager (9th grade) and her father. After we started talking for a while, she asked me where I was from, so I told her I was from Romania. At that moment she said a most disturbing thing and I quote..."When I think about Romania, Poland and Russia, I think about criminals."...and I replied..."What a coincidence, when I think about Germany, I immediately think about Hitler and the Nazi ", she smiled and said "No, no, no."

After this lovely trip under the influence of the Second World War, I waited for 8 whole hours in Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, which I officially hate. I don't have anything particularly against the staff of the airport, or even against the airport itself, I just got so bored of those yellow signs and the announcements in Dutch, made from 5 to 5 minutes, non-stop, for 8 hours.

And after a short delay due to the fact that the plane had ice on its wings, I finally landed on Henri Coanda in Bucharest. Now think about this for a moment: Reno, snow everywhere, airport runway super clear and dry, Amsterdam, foggy and cold, airport runway super clean and dry, Bucharest, snow, airport runway super full of snow and ice...no comment.

To top it all, after they managed to ruin both my big suit cases up to the point where they are unusable and after I've waited about 20 minutes in the cold for my taxi (the taxi drivers at the airport were so nice that they offered to give me a ride to my dorm building for twice the actual current cab fare), I went home in a taxi driven by the only antisemitic person I now know in Romania.

Welcome to your home country Lumi, the place where you land in snow, cab drivers want to rob you and people publicly announce that they want all the USA destroyed and the Jews along with them (same taxi driver)!

Now I'm struggling to overcome the 10 hour time difference and to finish all my school projects before the deadlines. Overall, the trip to the USA was very eventful and pleasant, when I wasn't sick.


Have a great examination period and a fantastic holiday after!


Best of luck to you all,
Lumi

Sunday, January 6, 2008

American Christmas...part 3 - Burried in Snow

I'm looking outside and it's snowing like in the fairy tales we use to hear when we were kids. Outside all is covered in snow and if you go out, in about 10 minutes, you become a walking snowman.

As you might have already heard or read, California and Nevada are being hit by a huge snow storm these days. A lot of main streets are closed, you see people with shuffles everywhere, like in a horror film, most of the cars skate even with their chains on, airports are being closed, flights are being canceled, people are freezing and I'm sitting comfortably in my warm and nice room, watching the NFL playoffs (not my choice, it's not only my room :D) and surfing the net.

I should be very worried that I might not be able to arrive in Romania on time, I have a lot of projects to finish and they're not even started yet...but no, worrying is the farthest thing from my mind at the moment, I guess I'm kind of mesmerized by what's happening around me...I'm stuck in the USA in the middle of a snow storm :).

If you want to have an idea of what's going on here, just look outside your window, because I know that Romania doesn't have an easier fate.