saSHIMmie

Mărțișor contemporan

2010-03-04T17:25:00.000Z

Adică: tech, redundant și... întârziat :)

lady owners!

2009-11-17T00:14:00.004Z

...and when i find such adverts in my inbox....i cannot help but wonder [together with carrie]... isn't it beautiful that there actually IS an argument in this world helping you sell your car nice'n'easy??? simply because you can make great use of the wonderful gender stereotypes?...

it would have been so much better if the seller had mentioned that the previous lady owners had been old grannies! i can already see them driving madly on the beautifully illuminated English country side roads!!!

ta-da!

p.s. and it IS an alfa romeo! i bet it's red too!

nice one, amazon!

2009-11-16T23:00:00.003Z

i am so much more relieved now that Amazon loves its customers soooo godamn much that it is thinking about the frustration a shopping addict may experience when not being able to open the product in an instant!!!! sometimes..you really want that 'shot-of-capitalism' right in the vein, right THIS INSTANT. u need your fix, u need to feel THE SHOPPING RUSH!!!!!!

hooray for amazon for knowing exactly how to make it happen!

..and saving the planet too, in the process!...

2009-10-02T10:08:00.002+01:00

"The mouse folded her arms and started chewing absentmindedly, then spat suddenly, having recognised the taste of chewing gum for cats. The salesman had made a mistake."

(Boris Vian, Foam of the Daze, p. 96)

blame it on the booooooooooooooogieeeeee!!!!!

2009-09-13T17:51:00.000+01:00

scramble

2009-08-24T09:56:00.001+01:00

Itugg mobi ulis

fol wob .dk

lag.ben ulomly

pg.beeny jr

[morning dadaist poetry on my 'new' nokia phone - after activating the English dictionary for text-writing]

Alien[ating] life?

2009-07-31T11:51:00.008+01:00

here are two stories that i've been meaning to post in the past days; they kind of show the absurdity of life, but nevertheless, make no mistake about it [as US politicians like to say]. they are not fiction. they actually DID happen to me. both of them. and i thought i wasn't living in a science fiction novel... hmmmm

1: a story about Humans, Robots and Gynaecological examinations

i was back to my office from the early-day class and desperately needed a coffee. my mobile phone screen showed the digitally encoded remnant of a missed call; an unrecognised number that looked like one of those easy-to-remember, CALL US in case of emergency or in case you urgently feel the need / want to buy something from us. i shrugged. i wasn't going to call back, so i got down to my 'business' and worked for a couple of hours. until the phone rang again and i saw the same number on the display. aha! i was now going to find out who had been looking for me before! a soft voice whispered to my ear: "hello, this is a recorded voice message"; the first urge was to hang up thinking it was another one of those 'great offers' where you can hardly believe how lucky you are...but curiosity prevailed and i kept on listening. i wanted to see 'what was on offer'; it turned out there was absolutely no 'great deal' coming at me from the abstract realm of some impersonal and selfish company wanting to sell things to me or benefit from my 'innocence'; it was someone calling me about my health! a robot that cared! this soft female voice spelling out my name carefully, with emphasis on the vowels, making sure i understood every sound, was actually calling to confirm my gynaecological appointment that had been done for me months ago; it, or shall i say 'she', assumed that there was a high chance of me having forgotten about it, so 'she' said this was a kind reminder and also a confirmation that i could actually make it..... ah, the wonders of technology! the robot calling me to ask about me and my feelings, me and possible forgetfulness (a 'quality' that shows the deep 'inequality' between us humans and robots, we forget things, they don't!), me and my possible change of plans, circumstances or even preferences regarding the day and time of my appointment.... maybe i was embarrassed to call and change my appointment and now...thanks to this miraculous call, i was able to escape all embarrassment at the press of a button: "please press 1 if you would like to confirm your appointment and 2 if you would like to change it. thank you and have a nice day!"; and i did, i had a very nice day, because...at the end of it....the following happened...

2: a story about Italians, Romanians and aliens from outer space

I was going home after a very long day of work. my thoughts entangled with methodological puzzles and my eyes sore from too much staring into the unfriendly screen of my toshiba laptop. i was dead tired and my legs were moving quickly and resolutely, as if driven by an unknown force. as if set in motion by some sort of mechanism beyond my control. it was almost midnight and the road leading from campus towards my house was empty. i was passing by a bus-stop on my path, when a young man standing there with a bottle of beer in his hand, waiting for an invisible bus that was definitely was not going to come at that hour of the night, stopped me with a low-pitched 'excuse me!'; i thought he might ask me something about the time, the bus schedule or anything remotely related to the situation (i.e. him standing in the bus stop while me passing by), but he uttered the following words:
"you speak good English, no?"
"umm, i don't know..." [and i smiled in surprise]
"where are you from?"
"...mmhh, i'm not from around here" [visibly uncomfortable with the question]
"no, really, where are you from?"
"(pause) i'm from.... outer space!"
"from SPAIN!??!"
"no, no, from O-U-T-E-R S-P-A-C-E. you know?...space?!" [gigling]
"outer space?...ahhh...ok. I'm from Italy"
(smile)
"what country are you from?" [he asked again]
"Romania, i'm from Romania" [I finally gave in...the secret]
"oh. ok. bye!!"
"yeah.." [vexed; turned around and left]
as i was leaving, i heard him mumble: "outer space...nice one!!"
[giggles.]

the house

2009-07-26T10:39:00.007+01:00

it was a green house. huge. empty. in the process of being renovated.
it was *my* house. but I was going to share it with others. no idea with whom. i had the big room on top, left side. the symmetrical left-side of the house, a sort of wide open attic that was identical to the right-side room. the renovator guy showed me around. he was the one who took me upstairs and then vanished into thin air, only to return when i needed him.

the 'going-up-to-my-room' part was the most exhilarating one! while going through this labyrinth of stairs and doors, i was mesmerised by the mystery of it all. i was excited with curiosity to find what was behind every inch of dusty piece of wood, of every white washed wall that seemed to crumble. going up to my room was the most eventful quest. it seemed to be a never-ending journey! so many stair-cases, narrow passages, hallways and little corners...all through an empty house! wondering how would my 'one' look like now, how would it look once it was completely renovated, redecorated, refurbished? My mind was projecting a whole story way ahead of what was going on at the moment, by this was not making every step less enjoyable or less enjoyed.

at some point I became annoyed with the idea that my room was so hidden and difficult to get to, but to a certain extent I was also happy that it was protected from the outside. if it was so hard for me to get to it, it would be the same for the 'harm'. i would feel safe in there, i thought. and kept on going, curious as ever, to see what other rooms this house had to hide.
at some point we reached the room. my room. it was huge and empty. big windows letting the sunlight in and...a white bathtub right in the middle of it, like the ones you only see in movies. Its corners were rough, cubical almost, which seemed odd, but I loved it! no furniture yet, of course, it was all covered in plastic sheets to make it easier to clean up once the mess was over. the floor was unstable. the guy told me i should be careful where i walked. it was as if i was truly in an attic and i needed to make sure i stepped on the right tiles, otherwise i would fall right down to where i had come from. somehow, I was not afraid of falling. it was just the excitement of discovery, mixed with that of sweet anticipation of how it would all look like when the renovating was going to be over.

i began exploring my future room and its corners. i found a tiny door leading to a small bathroom, and then another one, leading to another. I had two bathrooms! why would I need so many? a jacuzzi?..hm. too much self-indulgence, I thought. they were both immaculate white.

finally, I stepped out to see what was on the other side of the room. who, or what was going to be my next-door neighbour in this huge house? i opened shyly this white door in front of me and i instantly felt nauseous. one more step and i would have been falling down into the void. it was a vacuous room, a huge void going all the way down to the basement. an enormous black hole spanning on the whole height of the house, up to the roof. and dark as pitch. I couldn’t see anything inside! I was scared stiff and I quickly slammed the door shut. I couldn't breathe and stop wondering what was that room for? I imagined it wasn't really a room, it couldn't have been! there was no way the constructors of this house did this thing on purpose! there was absolutely no purpose for something like this! it must have been a mistake, or just..an intermediary stage. they WERE going to build something there, to build floors and rooms, and intricate hallways, just like in the rest of the house! I was sure of it. but just to make it even 'surer', i asked the renovator guy.

the house was not new, it wasn't something that was just being built for me. it was a pre-owned house that needed a lot of work.
After asking around as well (he seemed unaware of it himself!), the guy found out what that side of the house was for; he gave me the perfect alibi for it: apparently, it was not meant to be part of the initial house, it was added later. it was a sort of annex that was built for the purpose of 'keeping stuff'. it was a depot! it needed to be a huge open space so that as much air as possible would circulate, thus making all the ‘stuff’ thrown in there less likely to decay. i imagined it as a huge cellar, or barn, although i couldn't possibly imagine any food being stored in there. it was too dark even for imagination to populate it with objects!

i gave up, happy that there WAS an explanation for that void (i could not even call it a room, no matter how hard I tried) and that was it. I went back to my future room, contemplating, asking about this or that, wondering about nothing more than when will it be ready. i could not contain my happiness that at last, the prospect of me having a nice cosy room of my own was starting to take shape right before my very eyes...

it finally happened!

2009-07-18T09:58:00.012+01:00

i am able to choose 'other not captured in male/female';
we are constantly trying to escape our own classifications, but how far can we get?
Monsieur Foucault would have been so proud to see this survey i recently took!
categorisations constantly create and re-create us and....this is a great example of how -somehow- someone- who probably has read too much [or too little!] of gender studies literature, has decided to be 'politically correct' and include those who do not feel their gender is CAPTURED in the millenia old dichotomy of male / female! but if we want to be so politically correct, why don't we say the female/ male dichotomy then? F comes before M, at least in the alphabet, right?!?!?

i am happy i could also choose another - this time "ethn0-racial" and tipically British - categorisation gem: 'White OTHER'.
It stands to reason that I am not as white as the british or the irish, am I?!?! me and the rest of the other 'white' world..
it reminds me of the cute english girl (Jackie- first one on the left) in the 7-UP series who, at the age of seven, when asked what she thought about 'people of color' said something like: "they're alright, the same as us, really... we are white, sort of pinkish we are"...

fuzziness

2009-07-12T19:19:00.004+01:00

strange feeling...

2009-07-08T13:56:00.004+01:00

however green
however little
however flowery
the rain that day
the smell of it
the need to cover ourselves
the road that goes nowehere
the newly discovered footpath in the woods
the need to kiss you
and the impossibility of it
the words came out like empty drops
and vanished immediately
their weight impossible and dry
their trace impalpable

i cannot feel more than i already do
the invisible word that i wrote in my imaginary diary that day
was indeed 'freedom'

and now it is 'love'

i saw a post

2009-07-08T13:53:00.002+01:00

about love.

i can't stop staring at it

Incongruous. Indiscernible. Inconclusive

2009-07-08T12:56:00.007+01:00

09 started for me with tremendous pain. It was a tooth-gone-bad on the right side of my mandible. I had mended at least 3 times it in the past – excavating-filling-re-excavating -re-filling-re- excavating again-re-re-filling – and so on. 2 different dentists had already worked on it and both had told me that the next time I come to see them about this same tooth, it would have to be killed: namely, the nerve had to go out.

This time I was in the UK, so it was a 3rd dentist that had the ‘privilege’ of working on my bad-tooth. The pain was terrible and it started right at the beginning of the Christmas holidays. It was impossible to get an appointment anywhere but I was lucky enough to have some painkillers, strong ones, from home. I took them until they finished, panicking at the thought that they’d run out or that I’d kill my liver in the process. They did run out and I had to bear the pain, bare, naked, hollow and deaf as it was, no matter how loud I howled. The dentist saw me and almost made fun of my whining, of my fear of further pain. He did not give me strong painkillers although I basically begged. I tried everything, even home-made remedies, the kind that grandmothers know. Nothing worked.

I was programmed for a root canal treatment. The dentist worked his way through to the core of my tooth, with all kinds of weird looking tools, and killed its nerve, the pain transmitter. The seed of my unrelenting, cruel pain. I was at last saved! I had undergone this procedure before on another tooth, back when i was 14, in Romania – and I knew that once the nerve was out, out was the pain too!

I wasn’t so lucky. The dentist told me, at the end of the procedure, after making some x-rays, that he needed to warn me about something that had happened, something that was not unusual to happen in the course of such procedures: the stuff he had used to fill up my nerve-emptied canal had spilled over a bit beyond the tip of one of the tooth’s roots. He said this might, or might not, cause a problem in the future. I might come back with a swollen cheek, or everything could be fine. I had a 5-year time span of worrying about it.
So I came back home without the relief I was hoping for. The tooth pain was not over with! It could backfire anytime from now, until 2014! The fear of this pain coming back and – most of all- NOT KNOWING whether it will - was paralysing.

I was programmed for a permanent filling a few months later, to give the tooth time to heal. But when the doctor found out that I still had occasional pain and that I couldn’t eat on that side because the tooth felt weak and painful, he made another x-ray. This time he said it may be more problematic than he had thought. He said it could be a ‘root fracture’, because there was a dark shade on one of the other roots. It was not the spill-over this time, it was that damn dark shadow that cast suspicion, a dark shadow that was there from the beginning of the treatment, as he realised after revisiting all my previous x-rays. The next step was a visit to a specialist, a dental surgeon.

As I was going to spend the next month and a half in Romania for research, the dentist suggested I see a specialist there. It may be much less expensive than in the UK, he claimed. And so I did. It was a good ethnographic experience for me: I went to the Dentistry Faculty and I was seen by a big shot surgeon – professor there. I was caught in the middle of practical exams (end-of-academic-year!) and was able to observe dental hospital life at its greatest! With patients, professors, students, almighty gatekeepers and angry assistants. After spending a few days in the corridors, being taken from one room to another, from one person to another and trying to reach the great-professor whose only expertise was good enough to say what the future of my tooth would be, I finally had 3 minutes of bliss: the professor looked at my x-ray and said: it’s inconclusive. He didn’t have any of my previous x-rays to observe the evolution, as the British dentist had not given these to me. The x-ray I had was a recent one and nothing could be observed. I was told to come within a month with a new x-ray so that a clear comparison could be made. The great-professor told me, whit a great smile on his face: “well, we’ll see what happens; if you swell up within a month, we’ll know that something is wrong and we’ll do what has to be done: a resection of the apex!” – which meant, in lay-wording, that they would have to surgically remove the tip of my tooth root, the one that was causing all this trouble.
Again, I was going home without KNOWING what would happen to my tooth.

I came back later, after a month, with a new x-ray. Same corridors, same rooms, same waiting. This time, a different person saw me. The great-professor was on holiday. I was asked again:

does it hurt?

Well, it does, but not as much as last month.

Oh, so the pain is cooling down a bit, that’s a good sign.

Yeah. But does this mean it will go away for good in time?

Well, from this x-ray, I really can’t tell. I can see no big difference from the last x-ray. I really
don’t know what to say. I think it’s better to wait and see.

...?

There is no point in making a resection while the tooth is not in a really bad shape. If we do that, the life span of the tooth will be significantly reduced; you will lose that tooth anyway, but we can prolong it’s life if we postpone the surgical intervention as long as possible.

I see. so then what should I do?

Nothing, just wait and see what happens. If you’re in tremendous pain, you come back and we’ll fix it.

OK...

***
Needless to say, I was happy, momentarily, that I would not undergo any kind of surgical intervention, but my heart was not light. I was not happy actually. What did this mean? WHEN WILL I KNOW WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN WITH THIS TOOTH? Will I ever be free-of-pain from it?

It still hurts, occasionally. But is this enough to take it out? The dentist said no. I am afraid to take it out. I guess I will have to listen to the specialists....

The moral of the story? Or why did I feel the need to share this now? The tooth-saga is reflective of what I am feeling deep down inside. I am in a moment of my life when EVERYTHING is inconclusive. Let me explain:

The tooth had been deteriorating for years now. It had a huge outburst of pain, a crisis, and then something changed. Something very important changed, because something was taken OUT of its core for it to stop hurting me. But the pain didn’t stop. Not completely. The threat of future pain is still there. As is the hope of no more pain. They are both there, equal shares, incongruous (because I cannot BUT think of them as NOT mine), indiscernible from one another, inconclusively there.

Will I be able to live with this uncertainty? Yes, sure! I am used to pain (I am a Christian, am I not? If I feel pain, I certainly deserve it) but until when? Should I take the tooth out even if it doesn’t hurt that much just to rid myself of the fear of another outburst of pain? or should I let it there, endure the small occasional pain and get on with my life by avoiding to ever chew on that tooth again?...Why is it that all the dentists’ aim is always ‘saving’ the tooth or prolonging its life? Going with the inertia of having a tooth in there? Is this a ‘conservation of the current-state-of-affairs’ strategy that I should embrace? I guess I am already doing that.

I have NO CLUE if it’s the right thing to do, but I need to be fully aware of what I’m doing before deciding to take the tooth out. I need to have a conclusive x-ray. And right now, I don’t have one. The only thing I have is what I feel..the godamn tooth STILL hurts! And the fact that I STILL DON’T KNOW, after all these dentists, after all these x-rays, HURTS EVEN MORE.

isn't it ironic?....

2009-06-30T19:10:00.000+01:00

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic ... don't you think
Chorus

It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
'Well isn't this nice...'
And isn't it ironic ... don't you think
Repeat Chorus

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face

It's a traffic jam when you're already late
It's a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic... don't you think
A little too ironic... and yeah I really do think...
Repeat Chorus

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out

diverted attention.

2009-06-24T11:14:00.005+01:00

sometimes [for example this Sunday] this is what happens when we try to occult the important stuff. a crocodile found in a French lake (!!!) is more important than the killings in Iran going on at the same time. at least for yahoo. this was the first peice of news that came up when i opened my account.
But then again, such is life. people are selective. there is no ultimate, absolute, universal authority to decide WHAT is more important, is there? there are just little fragile human beings for whom crocodiles seem more threatening than a bullet sent straight to the innocent's heart. and sometimes, i guess they are.
it's just a matter of knowing how to recognize the evil that lurks behind. to know which one to fear most. or just to stop hiding from the truth.

but the question remains: is there any hidden truth out there to uncover??? the truth may be a treasure that we keep on desperately searching for hoping that it would lead to happiness, but to me, right now, it seems like an unending spiral, leading to nowhere, going down, and further down, the more I try to uncover it...and find an even more 'hidden' truth underneath...
i forgot where i started. is this normal!?

happy b-day <3

2009-06-22T13:39:00.002+01:00

selfless

2009-06-20T21:24:00.004+01:00

aching
wishing
trying
hoping
that there will be a time

when i will forget
about forgetting myself
and start truly
forgetting my SELF

dreaming of a time
when i will shed
layer after layer
of self-bruised ego
of self-mutilated ego
of self-absorbed
and self-victimized
selfishness

when i will not act impulsively
no matter how pushed over the edge
by my own mystifications
when i will act without
thinking for a moment
about
my pain
my pleasure
my goddamn self

without poses
without contradictions
happy to be who i am
happy to be naked in front of the mirror

when i will have become
truly
selfless

i feel stupid. and contagious.

2009-06-17T08:32:00.016+01:00

growing up is a mere illusion of ours. we like to believe in it like we like to believe in god. we like to kid ourselves (or better said: we like to kid the kid in us) into thinking we actually 'know' what we are doing, at all costs, at all possible times. we brace ourselves. we are keeping our head and limbs INSIDE the car at all times. we are respecting all those rules that are telling us we need to constantly keep our seat-belt fastened, and hold on to the sustenance bars, the metallic structures that prevent us from falling - by virtue of inertia- when the vehicle stops its motion all of a sudden (like in the metro or bus, or any other ride you may think of).

is this how we are 'supposed' to act? is this what others expect of us- the generalized other's gaze, constantly judging us, deeming us 'illegitimate adults' if we fail to produce the 'grown-up behaviour' that is acceptable to their eyes?
i guess so. that is why we need to lie. most of all, we need to lie to ourselves, to damage ourselves, to mutilate ourselves to fit the 'grown up' pattern. the one that KNOWS what to do. when to do. and how to do. the omnipotent adult that never falters, never fails. the adult-as-god.

when i was younger (i cannot say 'when i was a child', because i still am), i used to look up at 'grown ups' (my mother, my father, my grandpa), and think they were never hurt. whenever i went to the doctors i used to think that when i would become 'like them' [when i will 'grow up'] the shot will not sting anymore. the teeth will not hurt. the body will not feel any pain. I used to think that pain was only a child’s predicament that would simply disappear, with age. something like a pimple or wound that cures with time. Was it simply because the grown-ups never showed their pain to me because i had to be [taught how to be] brave and not show signs of it or was it because they were trying to conserve the illusion of having actually... grown up?

i don't really know. but what i can say now, 20 years later, is that i was absolutely right back then. Pain IS the child’s predicament. But I was also wrong! because i thought i’d ever stop being one and that my ability to feel pain would fade away over the years.

i guess the only difference between me_now and me_then is that – although I STILL DON’T KNOW what the f*** i am doing – i can no longer be forgiven with a condescending pat on the shoulder by those who DO know. this time, i have to pay for my ‘innocence’. the child is oblivious to others' pain, but now at least i should know: others hurt too.

Crazy thing is, intuition never failed me. I always follow my patterns knowing exactly where they would lead. Knowing the disaster is there, at the end of the line. And this is something that never ceases to amaze me. The very moment of setting foot on my path is always new and exciting. It’s always an adventure, no matter how strongly i feel the end deep down in my guts. it's a fascination that i cannot resist. like the vertigo that draws you into the void. I do it relentlessly. I do it fearlessly and then i run away once i feel ashamed and guilty. Is it a change of mind? Is it proof of poor judgement? Or of no judgement at all? is it mere insanity? or, oh yes, stupidity. plain and simple stupidity. what can u ask from a 'limited' person?.. obviously nothing. you can just pity them. do not hold accountable the ignorant and the insane. forgive them, dear father, for they know not what they do.

No wonder they do not trust children until the age of 14 to make decisions in court! for example, whether they would choose to live with their mother or father in case there was an argument over custody. They are considered immature and unable to say who they’d rather be with. Of course, they have desires, they have emotions AND cognitions, they are perfectly aware of what they feel. But they cannot be trusted in their decision. The default assumption is that they will most likely make the wrong one. And then BAM! All of a sudden, when they turn 14, they are able to make decisions. not only able, but required. it's what adults *do*. And so they will be, for the rest of their lives. It’s an ability that blossoms in them. Once in full bloom, it can never be taken back. And the assumption is, it never fails to bloom.

My only question is: if everything blooms, then dies [by this not making the flowers less beautiful], if life is so beautiful and yet unfair... why can’t WE be beautiful too? Because one thing is for sure: we definitely are unfair.

BAS

2009-06-06T13:18:00.000+01:00

JAN ADER
[i'm too sad to tell you]

....say what?

2009-05-28T13:51:00.008+01:00

The Communist party in Moldova announced that the election of the new president which was scheduled for today was postponed because....well....of the Christian celebration of Ascension Day (the day when Jesus went up to Heavens after ressurecting on Easter sunday...)
[source -in RO]

hehehe!...
it certainly fits with the ideology...isn't that right, Mr. Lenin!!??

da-mi doamne..o femeie [din galeria de femei!]

2009-05-26T07:48:00.003+01:00

citind egophobia (sectiunea de poezie)...am dat peste anunturile google la capatul paginii, foarte bine adaptate la subiect....si intre ele!!

Cum sa ne rugam ca sa ne raspunda Dumnezeu la dorinta de a ne intalni dragostea...? pai simplu, ne rugam facand click pe galeria de femei!!!! ca doar ce-i frumos...si lui Dumnezeu ii place. pai, nu?...

ioi, Doamne, ce ne mai objectifica barbatii astia si ne pun prin galerii....

First BOOK launch: Congratulations, Lori!

2009-05-18T08:15:00.004+01:00

Exactly one week ago, I witnessed the most touching book launch event of my life (okay, i haven't been to that many, but still --).
I admit, it may have had to do with the fact that I do share a special connection with the author of this book and I do feel very close to her (both academically and personally), but it was also because she gave a very good and charismatic speech. She made the whole audience feel her emotion, she made us all part of her inner thrill, she shared with us her childhood dreams and aspirations and literally brought tears of joy to our eyes [well, at least to some of us..]

Her book, called "The First 20 Seconds", is the fruit of her PhD thesis (maybe one day...i will dare to do the same) and it presents the first social-psychological experiment ever conducted in Romania in the field of Non-Verbal Communication. I think it's a must for students of communication and the wider public alike!

so this post is just to say "Congratulations, Lori!"
& thank you! :)

[photo credit: tritonic blog]

un, deux, trois...vive la reine!

2009-05-16T07:47:00.004+01:00

Alexandrina 's video - shot at her painting exhibition opening back in 2007 - in my favorite Bucharest book-shop/ culture-shop / music-shop/ art-shop but most importantly: tea-shop: Carturesti [recently migrated to NY]

Bucharest, my <3

2009-05-08T19:20:00.006+01:00

I just cannot contain my happiness!
it was a lovely day today, in Bucharest...

Travelling back home, yes, home, after - well - countless months (possibly the longest i've ever been away from home - and almost [?!!?!] having created a new home away from home), i had quite a rough impact with the city:
huge turmoil in the streets (with incredible holes being dug out for the sake of infrastructure), many cars, loud honking and mis-directed frustration at every corner - nothing new! yet it all seemed so distant and strange. the feeling of having been here before but not being exactly from here, of having seen all this, of having grown up here- yet not being able to take it all in. a feeling that you get when sometimes your own skin does not even feel like yours anymore. a feeling of repudiation. what was all-to-familiar had suddenly become unrecognizable- with just a few funny reminders of 25 years of living in this place. a city, of course, has many faces. and this one has changed so much in the past 25 years! but this was the first time i could hardly recognize my home-town! "have i actually grown out of it?" i asked myself, amazed. relentless. fascinated by this mixture of old and new. discovering it again and not understanding anything.

going up the old elevator, my mum wondered how i felt to be back home. in this rusty cubicle taking us up to the 9th floor, the only home i ever knew until i reached my 25. bearing the signs of old-age. doors scratched. paint chipped. i said it was strange. and it truly was. she wondered whether it was an 'ugly spectacle' for me, coming from 'abroad', where everything is supposed to be shiny and new. i said no, it's not that. it's just...that i feel out of place in my own place. ALREADY.

maybe it really just takes 2 days to get used to a place. maybe it takes 3. i don't know. but today, things were different. i went out to the heart of the city. and i contemplated it. i immersed in it. i took the bus. i took to the streets. interacted with strangers. made photocopies in the local shop, re-activated my pre-paid sim-card, called my friends, went to the post office, paid a bill, made some shopping and...filed my request for a new passport. went through the local market, watched TV - cheap sopa operas, a ridiculous dating show, a cooking contest, a huge public scandal, the social-democrats electoral campaign start off and (what i like to call) cheesy politics (or even better: a sinister display of ideological masquerade).

at last: i feel at home.

i thought she said maple leaves...

2009-05-04T19:29:00.001+01:00

sweet lyrics...sweet song

kiki forever

2009-04-27T10:56:00.003+01:00

Feminite, 1930

Wire, tin, wood, and paint

18" h.

(calder foundation)

tribute to kiki de montparnasse (the artist, the woman, the model) and her nose - what clader considered to be the epitome of feminity and to her beauty, where man ray-and many others-found their inspiration...

calder's circus

2009-04-25T15:47:00.006+01:00

"Calder's Circus" is on temporary exhibition at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

see also: the 19-minute film by Carlos Vilardebo (1961) showing a white-haired Calder - homo ludicus....

Absolutely beautiful: EIKOH HOSOE photography

2009-04-25T15:26:00.006+01:00

from the 'Ordeal by Roses' series:

thanks Mariya for sharing!

Today's discovery: word-doodling my blog!! [via wordle.net]

2009-04-07T19:35:00.006+01:00

...and a quick personality test for my readers:

Which would *you* choose?

a) Regular -positive- white- (block-shaped) - solid- horizontal-agglomeration

or

b) Beautiful -negative- black - (fish-shaped)- fluid-mixed- randomness?

Please post your answers in the comments box by noon (12.00) tomorrow.
I'll provide a psychic 'reading' of your answers at 14.00. GMT!

[visuals provided by www.wordle.net -> can't stop playing with it!!]

birds are singin'...i am cyclin'...

2009-04-06T17:30:00.007+01:00

so...i guess it must be spring.

will be back SOON. with a vengeance (!?)

[photo credit: Danny Allison via the little chimp society]

this is what you get..

2009-02-27T14:15:00.006Z

...when you cross a zebra with the union jack.

= zbritishness - the unlikely animal

(c) re-mixed by shimmo

photo credits: National Geographic for zebra (thanks to photo-of-the-day gadget on my iGoogle)
idea credit: Sun Xun, UoE artist in residence whose re-mix of Orwell for the English public (art with a political message: 'People's republic of Zoo') inspired this [photoshopped] work.

national portrait gallery-last day to SAVE THE PLANET

2009-02-15T18:26:00.004Z

"Bag" - by Hendrik Kerstens

Environmental message using dutch portraiture style at the National Portrait Gallery London (photographic portrait prize winner - exhibition ends today)

other work by Kerstens here.

dumneZEU

2009-02-11T16:15:00.003Z

astazi, in folderul meu de spam pe yahoo, am crezut ca l-am gasit pe dumneZEU.
din pacate, am aflat, printr-un simplu click, ca [pagina Lui] nu exista! :(:(:(

innocence lost (and found!)

2009-01-17T11:39:00.002Z

valerie and her week of wonders - a film by Jaromil Jires (1970)

2008-12-28T20:22:00.003Z

erika svensson

more more more!!!

2008-12-28T20:18:00.005Z

Pertti Kekarainen - exhibition: Tila & Density

Cormac

2008-12-26T19:08:00.000Z

cormac hanley

photo-hunting the web [again!]

2008-12-26T18:22:00.018Z

josh smith

christiane feser

kirill golovchenko

ann woo

yvonne lacet

there's something about peace - with john lennon

2008-12-20T18:50:00.001Z

domesticity

2008-12-20T15:14:00.004Z

shimmo-hobby: new and improved formula!

2008-12-18T17:57:00.005Z

* instantly kills visual-inertia germs!
* now effective against intchy-hypodermic cyber-nausea
* x.5 % of users claim to have slept longer hours after being exposed to the new PHOTOBLOG and to have experienced better quality night-orgasms during their REM stage of sleep!

Try it NOW!

photographs...

2008-12-11T16:17:00.014Z

Donata Wenders

Eleonora Ghioldi

feebrile

post si pre 1 decembrie 1918

2008-12-10T11:43:00.005Z

Racism á la 1909, baby!
- whoever said that the shallow beauty criterion was a only a glitz-glam recent invention?!...

photo & music

2008-12-07T14:09:00.003Z

by Tokihiro Sato

&
Arun Ghosh indo-jazz sextet

am dat drumul la microfon

2008-12-01T21:12:00.001Z

just when i thought i was safe...

2008-11-29T11:26:00.003Z

i'm red

2008-11-26T17:32:00.003Z

i'm
red with shame
red with anger
i'm red because you haven't seen me become red
{inside}
as i was watching your hands move
#
i'm red because of the un-promised lands that have been given to me
because of too much rubbing
because of too much scratching
i am irritated
and i am red
@
i'm red with blood
i'm red with fear
i'm red with the pain that shakes my womb
every now and then
i'm red with the unspoken torments
of our children unborn
*
i'm red from the dark wine
that stains my lips
i'm red with excitation
that stains and scars my very soul
i'm red with anticipation
and despair
&
i'm red from the hot air
[baloon has popped]
and i am cooking all the red things
so dear to you
and eating them altogether
in my red plate
¬
but sometimes
i'm red with joy
red signs
red brands
red shirts
red ideologies
waltzing in my head
as i smile
with [coca-cola red] joy

Your Highness, DON'T EAT THE SCHNITZEL!!!!

2008-11-22T15:34:00.002Z

about a dog

2008-11-07T17:14:00.002Z

donchu just luuuv the brits?...

2008-10-30T14:13:00.002Z

...and their SIGNS?... :)

God Save za Queen!

2008-10-16T09:43:00.008+01:00

during a very cute conversation i had yesterday with the girls from the copy shop on campus because, as I was preparing posters for the next art film soc screening, it started raining cats and dogs [doncha luuv this expression!?], i realized the new 10 pence coins (i.e. my change from the poster-printing) have a new picture of ZA QUEEN. The new coin (issued 2008) displays a slightly older Elizabeth.... her chin is a bit soggy...we compared her to the image on the old coins and indeed- there is change!! in the first one she was younger! so it's true! even coin effigies grow old, sometimes...

when i opened my browser this morning...what do I see??!

ZA QUEEN again!
God save her....

intellectual communism!

2008-10-15T00:39:00.003+01:00

...or communist intellectualism!?...or else, what you may find by the paternoster lift of the Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex (this one's a special dedication to you, bezdomny, my friend....)

photographing strangers in London

2008-10-10T15:04:00.002+01:00

photos by British artist Dryden Goodwin
- at The Photographer's Gallery- London

hey, baby...

2008-10-07T17:41:00.002+01:00

did you forget to take your meds?

new habitat...old habits!

2008-10-03T22:30:00.002+01:00

my life in 34 lines of text

2008-09-29T23:56:00.008+01:00

....from ralucashu & chris

Yourself: Curious
Your Spouse: Missing
Your Hair: Soft
Your Mother: Home
Your Father: Away
Your Favorite Item: Earrings
Your Dream Last Night: Forgotten
Your Favorite Drink: Tea
Your Dream Car: Motorbike :)
The Room You Are In: Cozy
Your Ex: Spanish
Your Fear: Solitude
What You Want To Be In Ten Years: Mother of two
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Myself
What You’re Not: Moody
Muffins: Chocolate
One of Your Wish List Items: Time
Time: GMT+0
The Last Thing You Did: Art Film stuff
What You Are Wearing: Turquoise
Your Favorite Weather: Sunny
Your Favorite Book: The Satanic Verses
The Last Thing You Ate: Crackers & houmous
Your Life: Exciting
Your Mood: Tired
Your Best Friend: Comforting
What Your Thinking About Right Now: Caramel
Your Car: Unwanted
What You Are Doing At The Moment: Wondering
Your Summer: Full of surprises
Your Relationship Status: Committed
What Is On Your TV: Nothing
What Is The Weather Like: Windy
When Was The Last Time You Laughed: 1 hour ago

...goes to..zuzu! & medicul-sef
[later edit: and to Ana-Maria!]

Daily poll!!

2008-09-25T15:50:00.003+01:00

Daily poll!!

Do you think I am...
1) more of a travel bug?
2) more of a shutter bug?

[the picture is visual aid for your answers which i expect right here in the comments box!!]

Despre evitarea aviatica a stolurilor de pasarele sau Cronica femeii fara nas

2008-09-10T22:21:00.007+01:00

Două chestii drăguţe apropos de călătoria cu avionul şi de cea cu autobuzul:

- din când în când, cam la 30 de minute de la decolare, domnul pilot are amabilitatea să povestească pasagerilor despre micile incidente de zbor, cum ar fi spre exemplu de ce a binevoit dânsul să încetinească şi să oprească avionul fix atunci când intrase pe pista de decolare şi începuse să bage viteză...păi, cum de ce? pentru că domnul pilot a văzut un stol de păsărele deasupra pistei şi şi-a zis: "ia să nu mai facem noi - nu-i aşa? - un incident aviatic şi să aşteptăm să treacă păsărelele (care, evident, zburau către ţările calde, fiindcă a venit toamna...) că tare nu le-ar sta lor, săracele, bine, în motorul acestui frumos boeing 747 sau 737, cine le mai ştie numerele, noroc că nu e, ptiu drace! un mcdouglas vechi, că ne mai treyeam şi cu mai cine ştie ce defect tehnic, ferească Sfântul...şi mai pilotam eu avioane apoi la Sfântu aşteaptă!

De ce mi s-a părut drăguţ că domnul pilot a simţit nevoia să ne explice de ce a încetinit, în condiţiile în care poate că 80% dintre pasageri nici nu au remarcat incidentul? păi foarte simplu: pentru că sunt sigură că dacă nu ar fi existat un accident aviatic recent, el nu s-ar mai fi obosit să ne asigure că nu avem absolut nicio problemă tehnică la bord... la fel a procedat şi pilotul american care a zburat cu noi la o săptămână după atacurile de la 11 septembrie 2001, care absolut tot timpul zborului ne-a vorbit, jovial, din cabină, cu pasagerii, ca să ne asigure că e teafăr, sănătos, pus pe şotii şi pe vorbă, şi în nici un caz sub ameninţarea vreunui terorist...

A doua chestie:
- autobuzul care trebuia să mă aducă în faţa căminului de la aeroport, făcând un mic popas (obişnuit pentru cursa respectivă) în staţia de autobuze, a rămas în pană; pasagerii (adică eu şi o fată care asculta atât de tare heavy-metal la căşti încât nu a realizat că eram date jos din autobuz) au fost transferaţi în altă maşină după o aşteptare de mai bine de jumătate de oră. Autobuzul cel nou - care era un "regular service" - ne ducea înapoi în centrul orăşelului şi mai mult, înapoi la gară (bine că nu înapoi chiar la aeroport!) şi abia după încă vreo jumătate de oră la destinaţia dorită. Morala poveştii, sau mai bine zis MOTIVUL evident al acestei ore petrecute în autobuz? Am realizat instant: a trebuit să trec prin asta ca să o pot vedea - într-una din staţiile redundante - pe octagenara femeie fără nas (dar cu un mare pansament în formă de cruce în locul unde trebuia să fie nasul) aşteptând autobuzul la braţul unui domn fără picioare...

domnu' președinte..ești un comunist!

2008-07-29T12:12:00.004+01:00

where: realitatea tv în direct din Tămășeni - județul Neamț

when: ora 14:10

headline: BĂSESCU ÎN MOLDOVA

topic: inundațiile recente care au lăsat oamenii fără case

campanie elctorală: guvernul a aprobat acordarea de ajutoare între 300-800 de RON pentru fiecare sinistrat căruia i-a fost avaraiată casa; 5000 RON pentru cei cu deces în familie

discuția zilei:
un nene cu cămașă albastră: spuneți dvs. cinstit, ați fost sau nu membru de partid?
băsescu (în cămașă portocalie): am fost...
nene: membru activ!
băsescu: păi domne, ce facem noi aicia? apa e până la gură și noi facem propagandă?
nene: domnu președinte....ești un comunist!
băsescu: ... (no comment)

re:construction

2008-07-06T16:02:00.001+01:00

re:cartoons

2008-06-26T23:25:00.004+01:00

her eyes were damp when she first realized it as she was watching the last scenes of the last film of the year. the very last closing scene. the round up of the show. the curtains down, her eyes now soaked. it all started with a return. and it was now ending with a little girl being lost. trying to find a surrogate parent. in the cities of your own wanderings. the cities of your childhood. of your long forgotten memories. the cities of your worst nightmares. the cities of your fears. the cities where abandonment and despair lie at every corner. looming behind the dark alleys of your discontent. staring right at you. the cities of an alice-in-wonderland that is being constantly downgraded to the-poor-little-match-seller.

she came to as someone asked whether she was sleeping. she wasn't. her face trying to recompose. her eyes trying to hide their inappropriateness. she was offered some food. hand-made [not machine-made] food. and it helped. this green, stuffed 'stuff' was delicious. it asked for some wine. grape=wine. vineyard. recollections of distant moments of grape-season somewhere on a Tokaj hill, one sunny autumn afternoon when the sky was as sweet as the wine that was lovingly being made underneath it.

they all went out into the rain. it was not nearly half as bad as they thought it would be judging from the water they saw coming down onto the glass ceiling as they were closing up the screening room for the last time this year. light wooden door-stops pushed away from the doors. doors closing with a roar.

when they entered the bar it was all packed with people passionately watching the EuroCup semi-finals. but they knew they were there only for a drink. they went to the back of the room and ordered some wine and some beer. they started chit-chatting and the time just flew. sometimes slow and sometimes awkward, with moods and unpredicted swings, other times fast and steadily, hitting the target as precisely as a shotgun would, just like those paper airplanes they kept making and throwing at each other in the absence of words.

she would have preferred to be alone. she knew it all along. but somehow she managed to suspend that time, those ephemeral moments, somewhere beyond time itself. she hung them up above herself and let them dry out in that nice little conversation they had to make to catch up on old times and put the seal of closure on what had been a great year ...for science.

but why did she want to be alone anyway, she asked herself after saying nice, energetic, happy goodbyes to everyone. she was drunk and she was screaming. she was laughing. she was jumping. she was swaying around. alone. in the dark. in the rain. in the empty squares of the already empty city. apparently to keep herself warm. but actually...trying to keep herself cool. was this going to help her think better? was this going to help her let it all out? was it going to help her in any way? was it what she really wanted? somehow she felt free. all of a sudden she was no longer in-desperate-need-of-some-stranger's-hand. she was not in need for warmth. she was not in need of what she had not. she just felt she had to run. and she did.

after the wind-tunnel going straight, the path made a sudden left turn and then it went sharply down. the pavement was wet and glossy in the street-lantern’s orange, violent light and the pointy, shiny drops were hitting the stones with an angle that she could not calculate, not matter how much she had wished she had been better in physics when she was a schoolgirl. she ran down as fast as she could with her awkward moves. she ran down in this tiny rain with her weird legs throwing themselves in the wrong directions, with all her limbs expressing at every step the[un]natural clumsiness she had been carrying around ever since she had started doing things while others were watching. by the time she reached the bus stop, her loose, never-been-used-to-a-bra breasts were giving her a sharp, heavy pain she was strangely unfamiliar with.

she stopped for a moment to catch her breath. the drops were stinging her cheeks. and she smiled. she remembered a big red sign on top of a central building in bucharest advertising for a mobile phone company that had hit the market a few years ago with a unique selling proposition targeted especially to small businesses and entrepreneurs rather than to individuals. and although it had been BIG at that moment, it had decreased in significance and sales considerably ever since. but will it ever go bankrupt? that's a question she will never know how to answer. she had never read the business section of the newspapers. and she hardly reads any newspapers at all anyway.

on the heavy-rustling and wet-sparkling high-grass footpath she began thinking back about the film. the time-suspension was over. and so was the overwhelming emotion burst from a few minutes earlier. she was walking slow now. her steps were clear and steady. her breath restored. her head cleared. she walked the bridge faster than everybody else, bikes and pedestrians alike, who seemed to have been caught in an endless night-time musical performance in the D minor – ♭ (most lyric) key of a sad symphony. the bridge was their stave. she did not know what she was going to do in Munchen. she had shrugged when her temporary father had asked her. she raised her little eyebrows with an adult expression that did not suit her age and did not utter a single word in reply to him. he smiled understandingly and waived his affection away from her. his job was done. his role had expired. this act was off. the rental-father was to be returned to where he belonged. just somewhere away.

she reached home, put the door code in and rushed up the stairs. the flat seemed empty. she did not care if the door banged shut. she entered her dark room. and for the first time in months, she turned the key towards the wall and felt incredibly warm as she locked herself in.

simplicissimus

2008-06-26T11:40:00.005+01:00

is there any simple-similarity between these two images?

I screaaaaaaaaaaaam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-25T19:22:00.000+01:00

mi-e dor de mare...

2008-06-19T10:15:00.002+01:00

...si mare de dor.
...si de cort.
...si de tot.

[mi-e un dor cat se poate de standard, de mainstream si de plictisitor - exact asa, ca un substantiv comun. exact ca aceasta melodie.]

3 things

2008-06-16T21:40:00.003+01:00

- smilla's new thingie
- stereO's review of TIFF
- Firefox's download world record breaking

over. and out.

hens gone mad!

2008-06-10T11:17:00.004+01:00

I've received this on an ads mailining list i have subscribed to. Needless to say, the eggs were gone ("eggs now gone!") within minutes... talking about innovation in egg-selling marketing techniques! the hens MUST be proud....

"Free Range Hens Eggs

£1 for 6 eggs (18 eggs available)

Chickens enjoying the sunshine and have gone laying mad!

Please email if interested"

technocrati is borked right now

2008-06-10T10:38:00.002+01:00

[as i was browsing to see Alex's online authority...i found myself..BORKED!]

spiralling the web

2008-06-07T21:05:00.002+01:00

the intricacies of a relationship gone bad

2008-06-06T11:23:00.003+01:00

Europe loves Romania(ns)! and the feeling...is mutual!

[drawing by Chappatte]

now izent that tweeet?!

2008-05-31T00:30:00.003+01:00

thought of ze day

2008-05-30T20:38:00.006+01:00

pe drumul dinspre campus spre casa am vazut azi o gramada de iepuri si de urzici.

instant thought: oare din cauza asta zaresc de multe ori priviri deznadajduite pe mutritzele iepurilor care topaie prin campus? sa se fi urzicat cumva la fundulet???

maine ma duc sa le arunc niste morcovi.

B--M--R (a short note on temporary letter privileging in media contexts)

2008-05-28T11:26:00.004+01:00

dunno why but i've noticed that lately my winamp playlist - while populated with a whole range of A to Z artists - tends to get stuck [upon my very -temporary- choice, obviously] on artists whose names start with either B, M or R:

--B--
backini
beck
bjork
blondie

--M--
massive attack
morcheeba
morphine
madrugada
muse
madredeus

--R--
radiohead
rammstein
rem
red hot chilli peppers

other favorite letters in the musical-alphabet of my mp3 player:

--P--
PJ Harvey
placebo
portishead
pixies

--L--
lhasa
Leo C.
Led Zep

and an outlier:

--E--
einsturzende neubauten

2008-05-25T14:34:00.009+01:00

when i first read 'the unbearable lightness of being" by Kundera I thought to myself that, in love, no matter how hard the protagonists try to overcome their own roles by switching and doing the 'highly improbable thing(s)' to themselves and to each other, in the end, it turns out that the roles can only be complementarily divided between them: one is always the victim while the other is the perpetrator; one can only experience 'the lightness of being' at the expense of the other one's burden; one is always the lover while the other one is he/she who is being loved.

but what can you do when you actually realize that both these complementary roles have taken over you, breaking your allegedly unbreakable unity, when - while taking a casual shower- you just see yourself, under the running water and the fading-away soap, as both a carrier of lightness and a distiller of burdens? what happens when your own image, reflected in a hazy bathroom mirror starts to crumble and flow down like Dali's clocks?
i guess that the only thing that you can do is...write some unbearably heavy words on the unbearably light screen in front of you. just some words sounding like this:

i am a green-metal circuit. inside.
bewildered by the connections it sparks
crooked with her copper-like guilt[s]
overcome by her own simplicity.
overburdened with her own madness.

i have grown tired of moisturizing myself.
i would like to be sharp around my edges
my body - a knife pointing against your wounds
my hair - a thousand spikes to pierce through your world
my skin - a metallic layer of stainless steel
having forgotten how to be soft

having forgotten how to (be) love(d)

roughness is the lust of life
tenderness – is its antidote
and at the end of the day,
at the end of the blue sky
lies nothing but the headless man in his papillion-suit
the white-wigged Siamese diva letting out her voiceless tune
the faceless, featureless mechanic ballerina dreaming she was human
and the over-sexed flamenco nymph glaring behind her monstrosity

the grotesque show is over.
it's time to return to your own stage.
and get back to your usual after-shower massage
that makes you feel good about yourself
every single (bloody-peachy-creamy) blind day.

for old times' sake!

2008-05-24T09:43:00.003+01:00

in [loving] memory of ....Josephine Baker.

Warning! may contain explicit traces of female nudity.
please use wisely :)

...and do tell me if the video seems misogynist to you or not. I am still having a few doubts. lol.

lil' b(r)agging

2008-05-22T21:12:00.004+01:00

remember this? and this? and... this?

well, (i guess) sometimes it's good to b[R]ag

the rock, the cube and the cake

2008-05-12T09:51:00.003+01:00

one day, the sphere said to the cube:
sph: will u let me rock?
cube replied:
cbe: i will, if you cake
..and the sphere caked.
..and the cube cracked.

conclusion:
don't eat cake unless you're ready to crack.
and don't bake cakes unless you're ready to rock :)

The infinite

2008-05-09T12:03:00.002+01:00

L'infinito

Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle E questa siepe che da tanta parte De'll ultimo orrizonte il guarde esclude. Ma sedendo e mirando interminati Spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani Silenzi, e profondissima quiete, Io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco Il cor non si spaura. E come il vento Odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello Infinito silenzio a questa voce Vo comparando; e mi sovvien l'eterno, E le morte stagioni, e la presente E viva, e'l suon di lei. Così tra questa Immensità s'annega il pensier mio: E'l naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare.

by Giacomo Leopardi

[May poem from Abi's -beautifully hand-written- poetry calendar; it made me drift away in a sea of thoughts as my eyes lay upon it today as I was drinkingmy morning coffee. so i thought i'd share it with other morning coffee drinkers...]

[wild-fowl mediated] lesson of the day

2008-05-07T12:44:00.004+01:00

[photo courtesy of UoE website]

what i've learned today while reading by the lake on the essex, beautiful, sun-bathed campus watching an african student feed the wild fowl, (okay, apart from some stuff on the historical links between education development and state formation), was that inter-group [with all its inter-species, inter-regnum etc. variations], inter-generational and inter-gender conflict can all be reduced to sheer....struggle for food!!

MOTO-thoughts

2008-05-01T15:47:00.007+01:00

This is what thoughts u may have while riding a Honda-Transalp Motorbike as a passenger for 500 km on your way back to Bucharest from a Transylvanian-ly spent Orthodox Easter.

politicians and their ruthless, illegal and amoral huge electoral banners every 500m on ANY damn route in this country half a month before official campaign starts make me SICK/nauseous/incapable of being proud of being a citizen of Romania

kids waving at motorbikes passing by in faraway villages are [definitely] cute

architectural features of houses in different regions of the country are related to ethnicity, economic status (=> social class) but also, i would add, to the 'soul' of a community, their inner 'making' (maybe in the way described by Romanian philosopher Lucian Blaga [something like sufletul mioritic]); so then I asked myself: is the lifestyle shaping our way of being-in-the-world, our interaction mechanisms or is it the other way around? As I was comparing the two types of Transylvanian houses & fences (Hungarian and German) with the Moldovan ones I couldn’t help but wonder: are we building our houses and gardens as 'maps' of our 'souls' [dupa chipul si asemanarea noastra]? isn't their spatial arrangement shaped by our very understanding of the world, by our definitions and representations of the public/private, friends/foes, in/out good/evil, clean/dirty and so on?

stating the obvious, of course: take an animal, such as my [tom]cat, out of its context [for example to the vet's when ill] and what noticeably happens is that its ability to respond aggressively to a perceived threat to its bodily integrity decreases significantly in the event of an unexpected, uncontrollable act (such as a shot administered by the vet). the cat does not feel 'at home' anymore. So it’s overwhelmed by the new context. He does not readily know what is going to happen to him. if the vet does a house visit, the cat responds more violently, as the context reinforces its aggressiveness, just as if context, as a space denominator, miraculously empowered the animal. These days I have been increasingly [re]discovering that people too are indeed such context-dependent animals. take me out of my context and i will not bite. i will obey and accept the will-of-others until the new context becomes mine. strangely enough, i think we, as humans, have the amazing ability to make a whole array of 'contexts' ours, depending on the length of stay in different places [i.e. we tend and we like to transform abstract, a-contextual spaces into 'homely' places]. in the end we create 'contextual packages' related to certain places we live[d] in, in which everything 'goes' with everything. once displaced to yet another habitual place, displacement does not occur as usual. we re-adapt, we re-adjust. we are faced with context-switching, not context-loss. thus, i gather, we are multi-contextual, context-creating creatures. does that scare you at all? or..did u wish we were context-free, like this pogrammer-grammar? LOL

and now [not the billion dollar but] the 150km/h question:
is our inability to cope with downgrading in any aspect of our lives (such as reducing the speed from 150km/h to 30km/h because of traffic regulations, or switching from a present-day computer that runs with at least 2 Gb of RAM to an older model running on 128 Mb, or being deprived of food after an Easter gastronomic feast etc.) yet another proof that, as much as I hate to admit it, evolution, progress and unilinearity [!!] are the quintessential characteristics of mankind? or are they just another way to look at life?

Săptămâna Patimilor. Lui Carbo

2008-04-24T09:02:00.005+01:00

Pisico-patimi de pisico-pat.

all strings attached

2008-04-15T12:09:00.018+01:00

screenshots from Takeshi Kitano's beautiful film Dolls
[mixed by shimmo]

& a head-full-of-questions:
why do we attach ourselves to people? how do we do it?
is it because we want to protect them or because we are afraid of our own liberty? or both?
what do we do with our liberty once we find it? what is the meaning of liberty after all?
is there such thing as liberty within a couple (or outside it)? is there such thing as liberty qua lack-of-liberty?
why do we enjoy being tied down in moments of intense, erotic pleasure? why do we like giving our liberty away? and under what circumstances do we do it? do we only enjoy doing it when we know we can escape it because it is just a game? do we only enjoy freedom while giving it to someone else?
how do we carry on living while knowing we have hurt someone we loved? how do we live with our guilt[s]? is tying down a knot enough? is giving ourselves up (ever) enough?
how do we break the cycle?
why do we detach? how do we do it? and when?
is death the ultimate answer? the ultimate sword? is death the only way we can turn back the time, while at the same time, annihilating it? is death the only thing that unties everything? is death both the eternal breaker of the cycle and the perpetual circle unifier? tying up the strings that have been broken, tying up the seasons, our sins? our lives? spring after winter, summer after spring, autumn after summer, winter after autumn and then spring again:
and we're one - and || while - apart...

today's link

2008-04-14T17:20:00.000+01:00

Ballistix!!

"Iubirea adevarata exista numai pe timp de razboi"

2008-04-13T18:18:00.009+01:00

[photo from Madame Tutli-Putli, award-winning animation by the National Film Board of Canada]

as i was walking home from NexT earlier today, after spending more than 6 monadic, solipsistic non-interactional hours in a dark room [camera obscura..alas!] it almost felt like i was stepping through a different sort of reality. not the street. not my street. not the street i have been (more or less) living on for the past 25 years. since i was born. my very own 1st of May. m[a]y very first everything.
the street where i have first held hands, first been kissed, caressed, looked straight in the eye.
the street that i was sick on coming from high-school, the school i have been happy on blushing away my increased heart-beat when he offered flowers.
the street i have first crossed, where i was almost run over by a car, where i have witnessed so many incidents with angry men swearing at each other because of silly car-bumps.
the street where i bought my first pack of cigarettes (for my grandpa!), where i placed my first [not-so-]lucky ticket at the National Lottery booth where the ladies always talked to me with soft voices and had strange colored perms.
the street where i made my first friends. where they had built my first playground [both real and virtual - in which, not surprisingly, i had discovered the murder of an old man coming back from the market place with a cow head in his dark blue textile bag]
the street i have curiously watched a hundred thousand times from above, from the 9th floor, stretching from east to west, as the sun rose and dawned everyday, behind those grey and sulky looking buildings that have been erected in the beginning of the 80's on both sides of my street.
the street I have been throwing water bags onto from the balcony with both sheer fear and some strange, lurking, sadistic hope that it would sprinkle a stranger…
the street that changed colors, faces and smells as the seasons and political regimes passed by.
the street that hosts a cemetery, a museum, 2 hospitals, a bakery and a school. 2 marketplaces, several supermarkets and now increasingly -and quite annoyingly so- around 5 pharmacies, 9 banks and 4 gambling arcades and casinos.

this street i grew up on seemed strangely unfamiliar as i got out the prolonged film-screening session that I attended with physiologically numb spiritual hunger. i was unable to speak. to interact. to see. i was seeing everything as through a blurred, yet compact, vividly colored membrane. the only eye-contact I made was with an old lady seeking approval in my eyes for her disapproving look given to the guy that had just rudely and nonchalantly parked his car on the sidewalk right in front of her, almost running her over. i gave her a little smile and walked past. and then i saw a baby, held on the shoulder by a woman. as i was unsuccessfully trying to catch the baby's eyes to smile at it i realized i want a baby too. my clock is ticking, isn't it? i thought to myself: i am so predictable. and i walked past with an unsatisfied smile.
after crossing the supermarket and peeping through the window at the anxious shoppers getting their stuff ready for the counter, i saw a teenage boy, head filled with hormones, very tall and careless, flinging himself around in a flimsy shirt. right behind him, a homeless old man with a heavy beard and a woollen hat (28 degrees celsius heat notwithstanding) with swollen eyes, starkingly looking for the zebra crossing ahead.

and as I approached my building (the Arab cultural center where the old unique telephone company paying booth used to be, just next to the dark alley leading to the front door of my apartment building and that always smells like piss), my thoughts were:

“is growing old the same with getting more 'mature'? what does being 'mature' even mean? maybe all it means is...being increasingly able to attach increasingly likely stories to an increasing amount of unknown people you see on the street. maybe it just means you have seen enough films, been to enough festivals, listened to enough song lyrics and read enough poetry or novels, heard enough stories on tv and had enough friends cry on your shoulder to be able to say: i can imagine this man's/this woman's/this kid's story. i could even make a film out of it!”

Maybe this is why the title of my post reads: "True love only exists during war-time" =the most thought-provoking line i had witnessed today at the festival - given by a middle-aged woman night club tender in glamorous 1920's Berlin in a film called Der Blaue Affe. I felt suspended today when i came out of that cinema. I felt that my whole conscience had been suspended as if in an exceptional state of urgency. such as war. a war with myself? with others? i don't know. but i definitely agree that love un-contested, un-challenged, not put to war, may very well be no love at all.

Motociclistii exista in trafic! avem martori!

2008-04-12T17:38:00.012+01:00

Invazia [moto, nu extra-] terestra a inceput cu marsul moto de astazi, initiat de AMR (Asociatia Motociclistilor din Romania)...

photo-Log [neoficial]:

Cat despre vorbe...dupa un mic cyber-periplu personal iata ce am gasit...

ce s-a zis in media:
- foarte frumos articol la mediafax (mai putin frumoase comentariile de dupa insa) si excelenta reflectare la tvr cu un video extrem de reusit :) [ok, sunt putin subiectiva dar sa nu dramatizam! :P]
- nu atat de buna insa la hotnews si realitatea care au dat informatii distorsionate sau inexacte (de ex. fiecare a dat alta cifra estimativa a numarului de participanti, marsul a fost numit 'de protest' - adica au fost bagati motociclistii in aceeasi oala cu politistii care chiar au facut un mars de protest cu pancarte, lozinci si tot tacamul...in schimb, motoristii nu au scandat nimic si nu au cerut nimic de la guvern :) etc. etc. etc...

ce s-a zis prin blogsofera:
- articole de opinie nu am gasit deloc, am gasit insa anuntarea evenimentului pe vreo doua-trei bloguri; prin urmare tind sa cred ca fie nu prea exista motociclisti cu blog, fie nu le sunt simpatici celor care au blog [='masinisti'? 'conservari'? hm...] fiindca bloggerii nu prea au comentat si daca au facut-o a fost mai degraba legat de campanie nu de actiunea in sine...

si acu' daca tot am adus vorba despre campania AMR - asta este clipul cu OZN-ul (kinda cute!):

ah, da - si foarte foarte misto: am gasit linkuri catre alte doua clipuri asemanatoare de la englezi care fac o campanie extrem de.... 'cognitiva': merg pe ideea 'iluzie optica' si mental shortcuts [creativii britanici si-au facut temele la cursul de psihologie cognitiva si la neuro-science :D] - clipurile sunt aici si aici.

alte campanii anti-accidente moto in ro: aici

3 things & 3 places

2008-04-10T10:19:00.006+01:00

this is what i like today:
1. cute self-delusional drink-of-love
2. customizable proximity of needs
3. book alter-ation/ity from ARTchix studios

&
this is where i want to go tomorrow..
1. NEXT International Medium and Short Film Festival [cinemateca eforie, bucharest...]
2. Rokolectiv - festival for electronic music and related visual arts [Daedelus at MnAC, bucharest]
3. Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia: The Moment Art Changed Forever - surreal ehibition at the Tate Modern, London & related series of screenings: Paradise Now! Essential French Avant-garde Cinema, 1890–2008

[highly addictive] new toy

2008-04-08T19:55:00.004+01:00

whoever thought darwinism could be so immersive....?
just <flOw>

con/\vexity: protuberances of a blindman

2008-04-07T17:18:00.003+01:00

Read me with your fingers
[your only way]

Touch me in braille.
smell my womanhood in braille
those little bumps. coming out like massage grips.

Oily
Soft butter
your fingertips

Caress me with your alphabet
rub your words into me
Swollen up. Skin Rippled with riddles.
Violet. violent
[she becomes]

Rape me with your digital protuberance
and kiss me with your soft.01breath1011bytes.

Your convexity
Vexes me

I guess
THIS is [..::..:.:.:::.]
MY blindspot

i love alice

2008-04-04T17:24:00.003+01:00

pink hair-spray and green-wooden flower throw-aways with undying creativity 'gal
[mixed by Alice]

the unbearable truth about US

2008-04-02T18:39:00.007+01:00

or 'How to bake a Romanian totalitarian cake'...

[photo credit]

Ingredients:

take a NATO summit
a few (46 to be exact) anti-NATO protesters [a.k.a. anarchists] from different countries
a lot of (clearly a lot more) big, black, scary, masked security guys with guns (many different types of weapons; when faced with a game, one needs an array of 'toys' to choose from, regardless of the enemy’s defencelessness)
some journalists

Preparation:
The big, black, masked, armed forces come, seriously outnumber, threaten and surround the mob of peaceful protesters in front of Timpuri Noi factory in Bucharest.
They take them (and a journalist!) to the police headquarters by pointing guns at them, with a 'damn-those-terrorists' kind of attitude.
After a few hours in the police building 'oven' u'll get:
A nice, crispy 'active citizenship, freedom of speech and democratic practices in the European Union' cake that can be served with a tinge of 'fucked-up-politics' sprinkled on top.

enjoy your meal.

.ro links:
mediafax.ro
cotidianul.ro
hotnews.ro
proTV.ro
marius cosmeanu blog

video interview of protester (in romanian): here
another video

photos:here

anarchist links:
contra-doxa
infoshop
wombles.co.uk

quest-iunea zilei [de vineri!]

2008-04-01T09:30:00.002+01:00

ce face pilotul unui avion care face o cursa de aproximativ 3 ore [spre exemplu londra-bucuresti] cand ii vine sa faca pipi?

today i feel like...

2008-03-25T17:29:00.001Z

..this:

200 things I [might] have done..

2008-03-24T22:22:00.006Z

This is a snow-ball from Ralukashu & Chris...[adică o prea-frumoasă leapșă auto-asumată care merge la Dee si gargalina, of course!]

I admit, I have taken the liberty to consciously and carefully OMIT 2 things i have done but which, while i am honestly not ashamed of, could 'seriously' (?!?!) damage the impression some ppl may have of me; in the spirit of Mr. Goffman -whom i adore- and his dramaturgical take on human life [note-to-self-and-others: impression management techniques included!] here it goes :

200 things I [might] have done..[i only did 75 of them +/-2 :d]

01) Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02) Swam with wild dolphins
03) Climbed a mountain (i would love to do it more often!)
04) Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05) Been inside the Great Pyramid
06) Held a tarantula
07) Taken a candlelit bath with someone (many times :">)
08) Said ‘I love you’ and meant it (everytime)
09) Hugged a tree
10) Done a striptease (definitely not in a public space and not for more than one pair of eyes)
11) Bungee jumped
12)Visited Paris (twice)
13) Watched a lightning storm at sea (when i was a little girl and i still remember it vividly)
14) Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise (highschool memories...)
15) Seen the Northern Lights
16) Gone to a huge sports game
17) Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa (does it count if i only went there and the walk up to the stairs was closed?!)
18) Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19) Touched an iceberg
20) Slept under the stars (both at the sea side and on a hill)
21) Changed a baby’s diaper (yes!! yes!! my little bro's and sis's)
22) Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23) Watched a meteor shower (i've seen many falling stars :P)
24) Gotten drunk on champagne (oh yes! especially on New Year's Eve!)
25) Given more than you can afford to charity
26) Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27) Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment (more than once!)
28) Had a food fight
29) Bet on a winning horse
30) Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (oops!)
31) Asked out a stranger (does giving him my e-mail address count?!)
32) Had a snowball fight (only one?!?!)
33) Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34) Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35) Held a lamb
36) Enacted a favorite fantasy (mostly when i was a child)
37) Taken a midnight skinny dip (i skinny dipped in the morning :D very early!)
38) Taken an ice cold bath
39) Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40) Seen a total eclipse (on 11 august 1999)
41) Ridden a roller coaster
42) Hit a home run
43) Fit three weeks miraculously into three days (before some exams, yes)
44) Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking (almost always)
45) Adopted an accent for an entire day
46) Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47) Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
48) Had two hard drives for your computer
49) Visited all 50 states of USA
50) Loved your job for all accounts
51) Taken care of someone who was shit faced (Andreea told me this means 'drunk' so..yes)
52) Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53) Had amazing friends
54) Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55) Watched wild whales
56) Stolen a sign
57) Backpacked in Europe (ok, i did it, but i think that since the questions are for an american, the 'culturally' adapted thing would have been: 'backpacked in Asia')
58) Taken a road-trip (many of them..)
59) Rock climbing
60) Lied to foreign government’s official in that country to avoid notice
61) Midnight walk on the beach
62) Sky diving
63) Visited Ireland
64) Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
65) In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
66) Visited Japan
67) Benchpressed your own weight
68) Milked a cow (i think i tried once and i wasn't very efficient so i quit)
69) Alphabetized your records
70) Pretended to be a superhero
71) Sung karaoke (yes...last year in Brasov...)
72) Lounged around in bed all day (sure!!)
73) Posed nude in front of strangers
74) Scuba diving
75) Got it on to “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye
76) Kissed in the rain (like in a Bollywood scene!)
77) Played in the mud (when i was a kid)
78) Played in the rain
79) Gone to a drive-in theater
80) Done something you should regret, but don’t regret it
81) Visited the Great Wall of China
82) Discovered that someone who’s not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
83) Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84) Started a business
85) Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86) Toured ancient sites (the most exotic was: South American vestiges of the Incas!)
87) Taken a martial arts class
88) Sword fought for the honor of a woman
89) Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90) Gotten engaged
91) Been in a movie
92) Crashed a party
93) Loved someone you shouldn’t have
94) Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95) Gotten married
96) Had sex at the office
97) Gone without food for 5 days
98) Made cookies from scratch
99) Won first prize in a costume contest
100) Ridden a gondola in Venice
101) Gotten a tattoo
102) Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103) Gotten divorced
104) Been on television news programs as an “expert”
105) Got flowers for no reason
106) Masturbated in a public place
107) Got so drunk you don’t remember anything
108) Taken illegal drugs
109) Performed on stage (i was in the 8th grade, ok?!)
110) Been to Las Vegas
111) Recorded music
112) Eaten shark
113) Had a one-night stand
114) Gone to Thailand
115) Seen Siouxsie live
116) Bought a house
117) Been in a combat zone
118) Buried one/both of your parents
119) Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120) Been on a cruise ship
121) Spoken more than one language fluently
122) Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123) Bounced a check
124) Performed in Rocky Horror
125) Read - and understood - your credit report
126) Raised children.
127) Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy.
128) Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129) Created and named your own constellation of stars
130) Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country (in Germany with Alexandre!)
131) Found out something significant that your ancestors did.
132) Called or written your Congress person
133) Picked up and moved to another city to just start over.
134) …more than once? - More than twice?
135) Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136) Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
137) Had an abortion or your female partner did
138) Had plastic surgery
139) Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived.
140) Wrote articles for a large publication
141) Lost over 100 pounds
142) Held someone while they were having a flashback
143) Piloted an airplane
144) Petted a stingray
145) Broken someone’s heart
146) Helped an animal give birth
147) Been fired or laid off from a job
148) Won money on a T.V. game show
149) Broken a bone
150) Killed a human being
151) Gone on an African photo safari
152) Ridden a motorcycle (oh YEAH BABY!!!)
153) Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
154) Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155) Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156) Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild (ah...those were the days!!)
157) Ridden a horse (I LOVED IT! i wish i could do it more often..)
158) Had major surgery
159) Had sex on a moving train
160) Had a snake as a pet
161) Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162) Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163) Slept for more than 30 hours
164) Visited lots of foreign countries
165) Visited all 7 continents
166) Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167) Eaten kangaroo meat
168) Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169) Been a sperm or egg donor
170) Eaten sushi (and i looooved it!!!)
171) Had your picture in the newspaper (in a small, quite insignificant one)
172) Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime [ok, i am not sure what is meant by 'healthy' but...i say yes nevertheless]
173) Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
174) Gotten someone fired for their actions
175) Gone back to school (I am the 'perpetual' student)
176) Parasailed
177) Changed your name
178) Petted a cockroach
179) Eaten fried green tomatoes.
180) Read The Iliad (just fragments of it)
181) Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
182) Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183) …and gotten 86′ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184) Taught yourself an art from scratch
185) Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186) Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187) Skipped all your school reunions
188) Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189) Been elected to public office
190) Written your own computer language
191) Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream (just a few times in my life and..mostly related to romantic relatinships..not professional life)
192) Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193) Built your own PC from parts
194) Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
195) Had a booth at a street fair
196) Dyed your hair
197) Been a DJ (for myself and friends)
198) Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199) Written your own role playing game (when I was a little girl, playing with Irina)
200) Been arrested.

On Her [Letters]*

2008-03-20T16:59:00.004Z

When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
"Her sins were scarlet, but her letters were read."

*paraphrase after Hilaire Belloc - in here

[sunday] morning bliss

2008-03-16T16:12:00.004Z

...with crepes. Ioanna-style.

[my post #100 is de.lish!]

so what do you do when...

2008-03-15T16:49:00.006Z

....u are tired of wearing beauty masks all the time?

....u are scared and u run out of places to hide?

....u cannot stand what u see?

....u don't know what to do with your life?

today i don't like:

2008-03-12T15:35:00.003Z

british fuckin' weather: wind-sun-rain-wind-sun-and-rain-again
myself
my three nightmares from last night
stupid paperwork
that i didn't buy my Neubauten concert tickets yet
that i'm indebted to aanka
that the skins episode was less good than i expected it
that i couldn't jog today
that my computer refuses to play the sound of any youtube videos and of any video streaming [technology lets me down as mcuh as anything else these days!]
that i can't take pictures like that.

today i like:

2008-03-11T21:10:00.003Z

ghosts

vertov

cubes

picnik.com

German expressionism

Swedish aesthetics

fish [silver, translucid, skeletons]

before I forget

2008-03-10T11:24:00.005Z

Avionisme cu R(r)omâni:

1. (frânturi de) discuție la poarta de îmbarcare, London-Stansted:

- și... voi unde ați stat în Anglia?
- păi...(privire temătoare)...într-o...vilă....(iarăși privire temătoare)
- (privire șugubeață) nu prea ai muncit tu, hă?
- (zâmbet cu subînțeles afirmativ)...
- și... ciordeala cum mergea, mă?...
- (privire relaxată) ăă, da, mergea bine...
(gap in knowledge - adică aici observatorul ilicit nu a mai auzit conversația datorită unor fâșâieli generate de alți pasageri plictisiți)
- bă, știu io niște țigani în Oraș_din_UK (....din motive de protecție a participanților la discuție nu vom desconspira localitatea menționată...) care furau băi frate, de toate! aur, haine, de peste tot! erau ăștia...ceva de speriat!

(gap in knowldge datorat și perplexității observatorului-care-nu-și-putea-crede-urechilor, furat fiind de altă conversație purtată la mobil de un nene burtos, în geacă de piele: "Da, mașina e furată! tu găsește-mi un amator, nu contează cine!")

- ...și la noi se împărțea tot la sfârșitul zilei...că eram mulți...(gap) (gap (gap)... nu știu bă, da'....îți zic io, nu mai ține nici în Anglia (expresie dezamăgită). Nu mai merge ciordeala, frate! ce dracu' să faci??...

2. proaspăt îmbarcați în avionul Blue Air pe care în loc de clasicul 'Blue-air web' scria 'Seagull Wings' (sau ceva de genul!):

- Nu vă supărați, m-am îmbarcat bine? La Londra mergem, da?
- (privire condescendentă din partea însoțitoarei de bord, o 'doamnă' între două vârste) I dont speak YOUR language.
- Oh, sorry... we are going to London, right? (încercare de zâmbet)
- Yes, we are. Blue Air has no aircraft so we are helping them out (privire triumfătoare!).
- Oh, ok.

3. avionul tocmai a aterizat și se îndreaptă spre locul de parcare. are încă viteză destul de mare și se află la o distanță considerabilă față de terminal. domn cu mustață, geacă de piele și pălărie ca a lui bunicu se ridică instant, de cum a simțit că rotițele avionului au atins pământul. o stewardesă spune disperată în microfon:

- please keep your seats until our aricraft reaches a full stop!

văzând că tipul nu reacționează, ba mai mult, înaintează vertiginos spre EXIT, stewardesa vine tunînd și fulgerând și-l apucă pe nenea de braț:

- WHERE do you think you're going?

nenea înțelege limbajul universal al trupului și..se așează, vizibil stânjenit și dezamăgit că nu poate sa fie primul care 'coboară la prima'.

Concluzia?
Flying will soon become my favorite past-time!
(cine știe? poate voi deschide un overheard-in-the-air blog sometime...)

Ceausescu's gift to Romanians

2008-03-07T19:18:00.006Z

communism with a dental face.

the pink panther had a dream

2008-03-02T20:06:00.002Z

pantera roz visă că era gri. se făcea că o săgeată cu cruce îi străpungea ochiul ca un păianjen periculos. privirea i se încețoșă brusc. nu putea înțelege ce i se întâmplă. așa că se gândi:

mai bine mă trezesc la realitate.
mai bine rămân roz.