top 5 tips for rainbow climbers

I think I will make this the beginning of a customized top 5 series. So let’s begin.

1. Pick your goal very carefully

Your precise goal is important determines your method. Are you literally going to climb? Or is your goal just getting to the other side?

To get to the other side consider the following: bribing a leprechaun (the .ro version of rainbow climbing), renting a flying horse (available in Pipera for just 50 eu/30′), befriending ET (check Facebook & Twitter), getting a job with NASA (they’re hiring monkeys).

If you want to climb be sure to bring a very colorful pickaxe, a lucky horseshoe, sweat pants & peanuts. Also, loads of colored shoelaces.

2. Bring someone along

You’re not going to be able to carry the pot of gold all by yourself. So promise to share the profits with someone. Note: do not do business with friends or relatives – they whine.

3. Practice imagination

If you’re a wannabe yuppy looking for a quick way to get rich… you found it. But chances you’ll find a stable rainbow are about as likely as your grandma standing on one foot on the head of a stripper that just bounced from a cake.

That’s why be sure to watch a lot of cartoons & take notes. Also, get on a strict diet. Avoid chemicals (yes, including drugs) & alcohol. Actually, just go into a de-populated forest with nothing to eat or drink for about 4 days and you’ll be all set. Because you’re worth it!

4. Wear a hard hat

Rainbows go up pretty high so there’s a bigger chance that a flying pig will poop on you.

5. Pee before you leave

Peeing on a rainbow is frowned upon. So make sure to go before you go.

Now go out there and whoop some leprechaun ass!

Si in incheiere un moment special pentru toti baietii de la scara B:

Veioza CURCUBEU!

Fantastic!

Filed under: Pleasant discoveries, To Dos , cateri, climb, curcubeu, fiction, flying pigs, how to, imagination, leprechaun, pot of gold, rainbow, tips, top 5, veioza

opportunities may come along

… for you to turn something that exists into something that didn’t. – Robert Zimmerman on becoming a songwriter… or Robert Zimmerman on becoming Bob Dylan

I’m reading Bob’s Chronicles, Vol. I, that is, the first volume of his autobiography. And it is, of course, amazing. Like reading a Kerouak novel whose still unbelievable character has purpose. 

What puzzles me is that… the generation before us, that was young during the 70s… pretty much did it all. Got high, flew to the moon, lived through a cold war and after a world one, managed to get itself back on its feet and created models all but perishable. After Sinatra and the Rat Pack, the new wave included Johnny Cash, Bob, Baez, Ray Charles. Even the ones that got it wrong: Elvis, Hendrix or Joplin seemed to have a little more life in them than we do. 

So in a sense it’s strange, cause we’re the children of that generation. We’re supposed to be following them and be more peace-oriented, more revolutionary, more open and warm, natural-born drifters. And somehow we are… natural born-surfers. I hear kids these days (mind you, I’m only 21 and there’s a major difference between me and any 15 year old) grow up with a slightly different bone and muscle structure to their thumb, developed with video game and console remotes, that makes them do certain simple things very differently (such as switch on the light with their thumb). I know, it sound silly to think about something like that… but it’s probably what the apes said when we started putting our opposable thumbs to good use. 

There’s still, i think, anticipation in the air. Anticipation, anxiety and great excitement at what the future still holds. 

I used to critique modern communication and be an advocate of traditional methods. ‘People would remain best friends even having not met for years. It would take a month to deliver a letter across the sea, if the ship actually got there, and they would still write and tell’. Sure, they had a life expectancy of 45… 

There’s just so many of us right now, so many people to pick from that we honestly do not need friends for life anymore. We change, we evolve so rapidly and absorb so much more information than any previous generation that our psyche jumps from stage to stage and it abandons those that can’t keep up with it, or so it seems. But we’re still not cut out for all the knowledge flow available. Hell, I live in an industrial suburb of a small town. I see so many “shiny happy people” (sparkling jackets, vinyl shoes, not a care in the world) that have the IQ of an intelligent ape and could not give a damn about the changes going on in the world. This is Romania. People don’t care about online media, going green and globalization. Making a difference, finding a way, creating. (In this respect I know many well cultured people that are worth pretty much the same for having the same dreams despite the different prospects).  

It’s becoming harder and harder to hold on to the wave, even more so to ride on it and it seems unbelievable that there are few preceding it. 

Still, in Bob’s words… sometimes it’s like we’ve been pulling an empty wagon for a long time and now that we’ve began filling it up we’re going to have to pull harder. He thought that about studying poetry but it’s become true for our general livelihood. And we shouldn’t be afraid of pulling harder or going further into… what seems to be just empty open space. We’re inventing the world as we’re going and I used to think that we were doing it wrong and that we were in fact hopeless (even if in a Camusian way). Blow ourselves up or not, either the Earth gets rid of us sooner or we become better and better… I don’t find a problem with either of those.

It’s like we’re walking towards a door and as we’re getting closer the door seems to be getting bigger and bigger. So who knows what lies ahead?!

Filed under: Laid about opinions, To Dos , bob dylan, changes, chronicles, communication, evolution, future, robert zimmerman

the beginning of a beautiful affair

… with more than one thing.

I’m lately trying to get better at what I do… by simply paying attention and reading as much as I can in order to actually form good premises for know how… then the actual, professional, european standard know how will follow.

So, yes, I’ve read Martha Stewart, just the copy that you could buy along with Saptamana Financiara, Martha’s 10 rules. The book is by no means illuminating when it comes to personal improvement or radical behavioral changes. However, if your eyes are open and your mind ready to accept it, there’s definitely something to learn from it’s general attitude. Yes, it’s very, VERY american, which isn’t exactly a plus. Still, it has that… ” I went out and did this and that and look at that… it worked out. Sure, I was smart and passionate, but I could have failed”… and the next few words to that would be “… just like you.”

See… it’s not that we fail, but that we accept that we are and we resume to being… failures. Never trying to do something bigger and better than your present self… that’s failing. It’s failing all the way. Accepting what you’re doing so far and not wanting to do more… again… utter failure. It doesn’t have to be professional, or even spiritual. Hell, it can be sexual, geographical, it just means not being still in all manners. 

If you’re in your twenties and your biggest dream is to buy a house… you’re failure. If you’re in school and your only hope is to do good… you’re a failure. Self-satisfaction inside mediocrity is simple the most popular and shameful form of failure. And the saddest part is, it comes in all shapes and sizes. I know well cultured people having succumbed to the same virus, and I hear about more and more of them every day. 

You may not be Shakespeare, but write… something. Not Armstrong, but step somewhere new, sing something beautiful.

See, there’s a sort of battle between our potential of being excellent and our nearly inborn decision of giving up. It’s not about being excellent at something in particular, just about being excellent. Don’t be yourself, be yourself at your best. You’ll find out it’s not even tiresome. It’s not. Hell, do that for a few days you’ll like yourself so much you’ll never want to go back. The the ego might intervene and stop you again.

The ridiculous thing is the only people that this sounds like bullshit to are those not even willing to try.

And the reason I write it, cause I was asked how the hell I feel entitled, is that I’ve simply had enough of jaded people, of already half-menopaused women in their twenties, drama queens and spoiled brats.

Because on the other hand there can be people like the ones that helped with me writing this from my day-old MacBook. People that do, want and can achieve. 

And the panda that keeps me going.

Filed under: Laid about opinions, To Dos , excellence, failure, martha stewart, mediocrity

the inevitability of trendiness

Yes, it finally happened, like we all knew it would.

And speaking of me being an Apple buff, here’s one negative thing about what is probably the most powerful thing in the world:

“…no matter how amazing your brand message is…No matter how beautiful your product is…No matter the level of customer service…your customers will want a real say in what they purchase and even what your product should be. Don’t be shocked when it happens either. Take it as an opportunity to learn. Let it soak in for a minute. Let their voices be heard and see if what they want might actually help you the next time you engage them.” -> by Matt Binkowski of Jack Morton, after analyzing Apple’s fight to keep its software “private” for sales’ sake

And to further this opinion, take a look at this insightful piece of “now”-coherent writing.

Also, check this out:

“Given the “pro-social” mentality of younger consumers, cause marketing is likely to keep growing. The 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study found that among consumers born between 1979-2001, 61% feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world—and 78% believe that companies have a responsibility to join them in this effort.” – from an article by Liz Bigham

I’m looking into experiential marketing partly because of the day job. Yes, I do however think it’s fascinating and the reasonable step in marketing strategy for any company. Any up-to-date self-respecting brand is already using it and has a long time before it became a topic of discussion, anyway. That is, before respecting the consumer was actually a trend.

However, it all ads up to the same thing: not just companies, but everybody has to go with the flow. Of course we’ve got a soft spot for the past. Hell, I adore Bob Dylan (speaking of which, kudos to one of the world’s better people, Julie White that gave me The Bob Dylan Chronicles, volume I for my bday). And he loved folk music. It is the past that builds us, but it builds us for the sake of the future and it is ludicrous that after all our efforts of reaching and achieving that somehow target some distant time, we could, still, not give a damn about the future.

There’s no common sense towards growing steadily, proficiently, responsibly in what we do. Especially with Romania. It doesn’t happen with people or companies. We’re all just focused on meek, scanty, selfish objectives that have nothing to do with the world around us. And we are in fact the world. Not the cars, not the buildings but the spirit of the era. And we connect from trees, leaves and the rain to everything alive and more real than superficial name-tag elegance.

And, also ludicrously, marketing is probably one of the best examples out there. Because it changes, it evolves, it switches course, anything to grow and stay alive. Talented marketers should be nothing more than elegant fighters, pushing everybody else forward, telling you who to be and what to want, so long as you’re not capable of deciding. They find ways to interact and keep you connected, hook you so badly that any woman in love could take a hint. Brands are probably like women anyway, all trying to get married to the same man: the consumer.

Right… Far too late for my gibberish now. Off to doing.

Filed under: Laid about opinions, Life teaches us..., The times, To Dos , change, evolution, experience, hi5, marketing, trends

thanks (and…)

to this man I discovered this RSS must exampled by:

Don’t you just love passionate people? And how it somehow always seems to work out for them. It’s probably one of the reasons why I so thoroughly enjoy Bob Dylan and this album.

I assumed one thing when I started writing all these things on a blog: it’s going to be selfish. Don’t expect anything else but things that I and no one else cares about. Good comics for instance. Not 1 but at least 2 or 3. Expect “advice” you’re not going to like, listen to or in fact give a damn about. It just has to go out there, or at least that’s my feeling about it.

You know, sometimes you just can’t let what you think remain inside the walls of your head. Most of the time it’s not a bad idea, but there’s things in there that could help other people… i guess.

What I’m trying to do most of the time is encourage you, whoever you are, to follow through. Partly, yes, because I am myself in need of such encouragement. Because I know that, without being a quitter, I still need to hear it or to see it written.

I’m puzzled by the fact that you never do hear positive things that aren’t standardized anymore.

I’m an occasional church-goer in fact and most of the time, in spite of the beautiful service, I still hear dozens of complaints, from both God’s staff and the public. The only supposedly motivating things out there are spelled out in steps and processes: how to become successful, how to build a business, how to handle an interview.

Ok, go for those as well, but i know and I hope I’m right, that deep down you are, in fact a human at your most beautiful. You’ve probably just forgotten that your best is more that you ever dream of. That you can shake off the tired off and the daily issues. Hell, even i do it successfully when I have to and I’m currently living well outside both my age and my income. There are just things that have to be done. Not because they happen to you. Nothing happens TO YOU. It is YOU that HAPPENS TO OTHER things. That’s the good way around, the one to live in. Make your own decisions, change them if you must and live up to YOUR STANDARDS. It’s not even as hard as it seems.

If you’re at a low, of course the walls are high. Thing is, your natural position is on your feet, not on your knees. And walls, high as they may be, are still something to cling to, to scratch on, so you can get on your feet. And once you’re there, take a walk, stretch those muscles, start running. The sooner the better, the faster the better, so far as you don’t sprain a muscle.

Life is a constant effort to get better. Live by that. No, it’s not richer, even happier. It’s better.

You don’t have to believe either in God, friendship, or love to accept it. Just in change, evolution, progress, call it what you want. It’s both a Christian and an atheist’s creed. It’s simple and it only hurts because we bang our heads on the fact that real change certainly lacks imminence. It’s conditioned by the persistence of effort and good will. You will, however, never tire from it. That I think I can promise.

Filed under: Pleasant discoveries, To Dos, Words mainly , art, bob dylan, clichees, comics, effort, improvement, rss, standards

the power of example and the will to change

I read my last post and found I don’t like the tone of it.

There’s something to admire, about people like Nelson up here and you’ll understand if you read this article. Another way to grasp the same thing is to take an overall look at this man’s postings or at this wonderful and revolutionary piece of writing.

There’s something to moving forward without being bitter that doesn’t just push you further, but also brings up the rear. Here’s your soundtrack for this post:

Don’t stride to be alone. There’s nothing to it. Smile and get others to walk beside you. Don’t offer them anything in return. Don’t even pretend to be doing so. Be yourself SO LONG AS you know that it is YOU that builds your self. You’re not stuck in whoever you are. You can be better and you can be more positive, you can be better, do things better, love and laugh more.

It seems, it seems to not have a point and be difficult. But you may find that happiness generates happiness, in people as well in peoples. We need someone to push us from behind a great deal of time. But we do have the strength to act and be willingly, and without help.

Listen to the second one of this man’s songs and watch the happiness on his face while he plays:

You know what? Whatever you’re doing it should be making you happy. It doesn’t have to be easy, it doesn’t have to keep you warm ALL the time, but somehow you have to know deep inside that you WANT to do it, you want to be your self, acting the way you are ALL the time you are in fact your self.

It’s not really what you do so much as who you are. Do what you are!… that’s my advice to you. If you’re caring, do something that only someone who really cares could stand. Find that one thing you’re proud of and turn it into a daily activity. It doesn’t have to be pin-point. And here’s an example. I thought I loved literature and wanted to be a journalist so I could write. Then I realized I could get more into creativity by doing copywriting. And then came across that neither was in fact appropriate. There was something so artificial about it it made my guts hurt. And now I’m into… event planning?!… and I like it because I realized I didn’t like the writing as much as producing the story. I love authoring. And authoring is more than writing, more than concepts or words strewn about. It’s generating, producing, giving birth to something real, that exists outside of you. And I find that I can do that by creating… user-experience. Which coincidentally gives me a perfect place on the… professional market.

It’s not the stories, it’s what they do to people’s imaginations. Therefore, it’s not the events, or organizing them. It’s trying to generate a whole other lifestyle, a better one, for whoever is willing to adopt it for a few hours. And in their memory and in real life you’ve created something outside of yourself that has the power to reach and change.

Find out what you LOVE to do. And you’ll probably go through a lot of things you though you loved before finding one you could stick to. Don’t be afraid of rethinking and starting over. They’re the best things about life: that you can, in fact, be whoever you want to be. And having been a certain way so far is only a poor excuse to stay that way.

I just can’t make the world a better place without your help, really.

Filed under: Laid about opinions, Life teaches us..., Personals, To Dos , change, doing, life, living advice, love, Nelson Mandela, power of example, professional advice, role model, stories, writing

why i believe in environmentalism

Well, what do i start with?

That it’s simpler, better for everyone’s mental and bodily health or just closer to common sense than anything else?

Cause that’s it really. Remember how you used to be embarrassed at that old, wrinkly, worn out cotton bag your grandma used to send you out to get bread with when you were little?

Sure, now there’s Carrefour, Real, Cora, and a dozen other crap places (that i also go to), where you’re offered the newly traditional plastic baggie we couldn’t get enough of when it all started. Well, it still feels like it’s time to grow the hell up.

I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal. But think about it. You alone probably use up 20 of those plastic things per month. That makes over 100 in a year. That makes, for Bucharest’s population over 200 million plastic bags. And where do you think all that goes? You know very well no one recycles in this country. It’s  more difficult to get something recycled than it is to get an asian toothless prostitute if you really want one.

And that’s really the problem, ain’t it. We, don’t really WANT to recycle. We just want to be left alone and let whoever’s been dealing with the garbage so far keep doing it. It will, however, not work that way and the thing is it SHOULDN’T. No-one should be responsible for disposing of our leftovers. We should damn well start taking responsibilities for all the products of our lifestyle.

We’re so busy criticizing the emo trend as a product of society that we’re forgetting that there are other actual PRODUCTS of society that DO do more harm and that we’re not taking a glimpse at. Because we’ve got too much of an ego, because we’re far too ignorant. Because we’re desperately trying to get away from the slum we pretend someone else put us in.

When in fact it was us all the long.

Anyway… watch these and learn something:

Filed under: Laid about opinions, Of the immediate real world, To Dos , environment, life, plastic, recycling, responsibility

the idiocy of being civilized

If you want to save yourself the effort of reading this, then watch this.

One of the things that is probably a consequence of that old red regime our parents used to put up with is that most of us have developed the sickly condition of associating waste with civilization.

Yes, there were no colorful plastic wrappers, McDonald’s, Nestle or Coca Cola products, no single-use bags or chewing gum, no paper cups or ice cream on a stick. Forget the fax, car phone, flexible training shoes, gyms. All in all, there was a lot of shit out in the world that we never got our hands on before the 90s. And it is my theory that this delay in our access to them generated this immense hunger that is yet to be satisfied.

Why is Bucharest one of the most polluted cities in Europe? Because people can’t get over having a caR. Most of them didn’t grow up with one. It’s a social status thing. Riding a bike is healthier for them and the planet, but it just doesn’t go with what you want to wear every day. And of course, you have to show off what you wear, because you probably grew up in chinese slippers bought from some dubious fair or town market.

There’s this desire in people to show that they’ve moved further from their simple roots that puts so much distance between us and the relaxation inherent to any truly civilized society. It is that relaxation that keeps foreigners on the grass in Helsinki. It is that relaxation that is the key to the patience of putting up with the garbage you yourself produced, long enough so as to dispose of it properly. And it is our idiotic pride that finds joy in showing that we do NOT, in fact, care.

There’s something amazingly sad in a society whose members pride themselves on NOT caring, on NOT doing and on NOT listening to anyone or anything.

I’m a big fan of freedom, to the point of civilized anarchy, but fact of the matter is that freedom from all others is not achieved by brutal disregard, but through the generalization and mass consumption of common sense.

And there’s another difference here: the one between the solitude into which our ignorant arrogance and disregard throw us, and the deserved “acquisition” of valid, lawful, peaceful private space.

Change, anyone?

Filed under: Laid about opinions, To Dos

survival kit

Another thing that Bob told me:

“Stake my future on a hell of a past
Looks like tomorrow is a coming on fast.”

You know dudes, here’s a list to things that you should always have in reach. I’ll write in 8 minutes, timed so it’s not too thought about.

1. The pride of having made your own decisions.

2. The relief of a loving heart somewhere.

3. The certainty that you gave up something at the right time.

4. The image of a tree.

5. A song to live by.

6. A character always admired.

7. A bit of strength still left.

8. The ability to say a kind word to someone worth it.

9. A little forgiveness.

10. A tad of respect for other life forms.

11. The knowledge that you’re small.

12. The desire to shine.

13. The will to know.

14. The will to be.

15. The will to leave.

16. The will to see, hear, smell and taste.

17. The memory of throwing rocks in the water and the knowledge that they can jump.

18. The smell of skin.

19. A poem.

20. A bit of guts.

21. The knowledge that past the empty space there’s still something to lay a foot on.

And that’d be the end of the 8 minutes.

Filed under: Personals, To Dos, Words mainly , list, survival kit, to do

cronica unei vieti anuntate

E o problema cu faptul ca suntem invatati sa VISAM sa ne resemnam cu putin.

Lucrurile pe care ni le dorim sunt la fel de subtiri ca videoclipurile lui Natalie Imbruglia. Tinerele vor… un barbat intr-o casa. Sa se duca la serviciu, sa faca… ceva… sa vina acasa, sa gateasca bine, sa zambeasca frumos unui barbat multumit ca le are, sa se intoarca cu spatele la el si sa adoarma.

Si… nu ca ar fi prea putin in general, dar la 2.0 ai mei, tot mi se pare… foarte sec. Da, poate ca n-o sa scriu o mare opera ci mai multe mai mici si mai proaste. Poate ca nu o sa am o mare iubire si nu o sa detin mare lucru. Una peste alta… nu vreau sa ma plictisesc. Dar nu in sensul ala de tinar agitat.

Vreau o viata care sa-mi aduca satisfactii mereu noi pentru ca explorez in ea noi colturi ale lumii si-ale mele. Pentru ca gasesc dimensiuni noi si invat sa le simt. Nu ma intereseza sa ma uit la 0 casa de 100 de ori si sa descopar 100 de detalii de design pe care inainte nu le vedeam. Dar vreau sa merg pe strada si sa simt in aer 100 de prezente reale pe care inainte nu le simteam. Vreau sa invat sa iau urma oamenilor, sa le recunosc ‘umbra’, sa pot sa-i innod si sa-i deznod pe cei slabi si sa-i iubesc dumnezeieste pe cei indumnezeiti. Vreau sa fiu o epidemie de… culori bune. Care sa se prinda de toti cei cu imunitatea receptiva.

Filed under: To Dos , nou, ritm, to do, viata