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.

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.

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!

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 :).

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.

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.

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...