Adi's wedding

Yesterday I attended the wedding celebration of my coleague Adi. I'm not much into big fests around weddings. I liked this one because there weren't hundreds of people and lots of noisy and crowdy. It was cozy, friendly. I loved that about it. Also the people were really nice and full of life. It seams I'm just fine with places where I know almost no one. I remeber the banquet at the end of university. I felt something similar here, just that there I knew more people. Even so I managed to have quite a good time there. I've met some people around my age and we had quite fun conversations. We even covered topics like politics, economics, E.U., career, etc. Adi, Laura and Adi's parents were great hosts. I really felt like a VIP there. I guess each one of the guests felt this way, as they were always making sure everything was alright. Very nice indeed. Thank you for that.

So, the party was good. Me and the others I met there, were actually among the last leaving. We had such a good time, that I got home only early in the morning, when outside was almost light. Today I kinda had a hard time recovering. Damn it was a long night. I am indeed very happy for being part of this. Thank you Adi for the invitation and for the good time I had there. Also, I want to wish you, once again, lots of happiness, love, passion, and a strong long-lasting marriage. Good luck. ;)

A water lily in my own garden

It is really amazing how this little fellow blossomed right here in my garden. I was really shocked to see it. It seams that the little pond my father made is more and more alive. Also, the fish inhabiting the pond seams to enjoy the companionship of the beautiful water lily.

Men's European Junior WP Championship 2006

This year, Oradea hosted the Men's European Junior Water Polo Championship. Even though I really wanted to be part of the organizing committee as a volunteer, I just couldn't. My working schedule was too tight these weeks to do anything else. Sadly I didn't even had the time to attend more matches in this event. The good news is that I did manage to go yesterday and see the semi-finals. Croatia got to this stage as well, and I was really happy to be there to support them. They were playing against Hungary, which had lots of noisy supporters in the tribunes. I haven't seen many Croatian supporters though. Just a few girls (hot, as usual for Croatia) and some others. I guess the most noise was made by the team waiting on the bench. The game was very tight and very good olso. Sadly they lost. I was really sad and dissapointed, especially that Hungary was quite favoured by the referees. I'm not much of a polo fan, but still I find it a very interesting sport. I like it way better than football (soccer). I was not expecting to see this, but I do belive that it is quite an agressive game. I think it's quite easy to get hurt there, and the goalkeeper must have stoneskin, as that ball cames at really high speeds. It is a very cool game. Too bad it's not that popular.

Today were the finals of this event. Croatia played against Spain... and lost :(:(:( And then Serbia & Montenegro against Hungary... Serbia is, for the sixth time in a row, the champion. They put up a very good game. Romania was also participating (d'oooh!), but lost yesterday against Italy, so we're not that cool. I heard we have quite a good team though... Well luck is also part of the game. ;)

I want to congratulate Croatian team for the good games they did, the Serbian team for winning the championship and also the Romanian team for being Romanian :) I do hope you'll get to see such a championship as well. It's quite nice. :) Meanwhile I wish you all a cooler weather :)

P.S. the picture above was made with my new Panasonic TZ1 digital camera. IT ROCKS!:)

Do we really need this shit?

I was reading this article about some study that UNICEF has made, regarding the way Romanian parents are educating their children. The study presents that a considerable percent of the parents still use beating as an education method. And they condemn that! Fuck that! I was beaten by my parents when I was little, but I do know that was for my own good. How else can you educate a child if you don't slap their ass when they do wrong. They say that communication is the key. I agree, it is... in a perfect world! Not here, where the child goes next day to kindergarden or school, or just out to play, and meets all the other kids that are not really educated by their parents. That's where the educated children learn the bad things and start doing it. I think this is the problem! Not me slaping my kid, but the others not doing so... It's not ok. I was around my old neighborhood a few weeks ago and I've seen all this little kids with all kinds of scars on their heads, arms and legs. How can a parent be so irresponsible to let those children play in such a dangerous way. That's a REAL problem. Not me education my kid in an old school way. UNICEF, stay the fuck out of this, and focus on these REAL issues of the Romanian society.

Another stupid thing that I read today is that 65% of the Romanian families still swaddle (wrap tightly in cloth) their babies. UNICEF and other wise enlightened scientists say that this affects seriously the child, both physically and psychologically. That's crap!!! I was swaddled. My parents couldn't get diapers for me. Hello! I'm ok! I don't have physycal or psychological injuries. Not me, and not the other billion of people growing up this way. I'm sure it's all ok to swaddle the baby, especially if you can't afford the diapers or you don't have access to it. What you gonna do? Stop eating so you could get diapers? This is bullshit! All this "sanitation" of everything that a baby/child/adult touches I believe actually destroys our imunitary system. We are made to survive this world. We used to survived using old fashion sanitation also. I think all this "worrying" for the hygiene is actually the reason why so many people living on the north-american continent are suffering from asthma or other stupid diseases. This really pissed me off.

Do we really need this shit? Do we really need this kind of mentality? Do we really want to join EU? Can we really afford that now?!

Other blogs... Other bloggers

Today I had a few free moments for myself. I got to read the news (for the past few weeks), read some mails and reply to some as well, and also read some blogs. Dude! What's up with these people? Everybody's writing philosophically. What the hell, man? I don't want to read complex, metastatic, Freud like paragraphs.

I want to read stories. Funny stories. Or cynical opinions. Or about happy/unhappy moments. I don't want to read philosophy. If I'd want that I'd buy some books. Dude, it's perfectly ok to express your feeling or thoughts about life. But do that in a way that people could easily read. Don't write long complex and poorly translated posts about some feelings that could be simple... very simple!

I'm sorry if I offend any of you, my dear readers, but it's just the way I feel. Obviously one has the right to write what ever one pleases, but still that doesn't make it cool for me. I do support freedom of speech and expression. But I also support the freedom of understanding and enjoying reading. :P

Weekend update

After a hell of a week, a nice, relaxing weekend followed. I did like this weekend as it was new, different. My parents left town on Friday evening, right before I got home, so I was home alone. That's not much of a deal, as I'm not 16 anymore, so I would break down the house, host parties and go wild. That time is long gone... I'm an adult now... responsible! :) :) Bullshit! I'm not really responsible when it comes to fun, but even so, no more parties like those at my place.

I did something else which was really cool, though. On Saturday, even so I had to work as well. I managed to find some time for myself. I started to clean up my computer's hard drive of junk and organize my files. I never realized it's such a mess there. Yes, it is still there, even so I worked for la 3 hours on it. I haven't got to finish up. I haven't done such a clean up in ages, as I didn't have much free time and energy for this. It was quite fun, as I found nice files that I haven't read/seen in a while. Then, around 9:30 pm, me and Flaviu went to this nice exhibition/fair, where people from all around Romania and some from the Republic of Moldavia were exhibiting their work. I can't translate the name in English as I really can't find these words: "Targul Mesterilor Populari". Even so, it was nice to admire the ceramic pots and wooden tools. Later that night we went out, and it turned out to be a "boys night out". I had loads of fun... and drinks :P We crashed at my place from where we left on Sunday.

On the next day, Relu, Georgi and I went for a day out fishing. This was really cool. I haven't been fishing in ages. We went to Talpos, which is a small village right next to the Crisul Negru river. Sadly Relu was not feeling very well. He felt dizzy and sick all day. In the picture above you can see Georgi feeding him. It think is one of the funniest pictures that I've got with Relu. He looks really strange in this one.

Helped by Petrica, a local, friend of Georgi, we got to this nice place, on the river shore, where we sat, ate and fish. He gave us all the tools needed, and also taught us a few tricks. It was so much fun. Alltogether we managed to catch 46 fish... most of them quite small, but still delicious. I had the "honor" of taking off scales, and to clean them inside and outside... Georgi's aunt that paid us a short visit also helped us with cleaning and also told us a way to cook the fish. as we really didn't know how to do it. She told us to put salt in a frying pan and put the fish over... well that didn't come out as we were expecting. It just spoiled some really good fish. So Petrica and his wife helped us one more time. They gave us flour and oil and showed us how to cook that fish. Damn it was delicious this time! Too bad Relu couldn't eat any. As a desert we also had a water melon, which was also amazing.

Overall it was an amazing day even though I was dead tired when I got back home at around 11pm. I got to get out of the city, relax, spend some quality time with my friends, and to do something different. Too bad Flaviu couldn't come as well. Besides Relu feeling sick, another bad thing about this day was the fact that my digital photo camera took a nice bath in the river, so now it's not functioning properly anymore. I'll have to get a new one, and I already know what's gonna be next... This wonderful Panasonic TZ1, with 5 MegaPixels, 10x optical zoom and 2.5 inch LCD screen, is my future digital friend. I'll let you know when I manage to get the money needed for this beauty... around 330 euro... plus taxes :P

Monopoly sucks!

I'm not thinking about the game when I write this lines. I think about the real life monopoly. There are people/organizations that still take advantage of this. It's not fair and it's not good for the economy and society. It destroys opportunities and creates limits in long term development.

Soft-Scape, the company that I represent does also IT service and consulting. Many of our clients are transporters and customs commissioners. Well this week the Customs administration have changed some software that they are working with. This meant that many of my customers have to get it so they could work. This is where my company comes in and makes sure everything is done properly. Well this is where the shit began. They have offered this software for free (obviously) but never said that if you want to print your work (which is crucial for it to be done) you also need some add-ons for that particular software. Well these add-ons were only given to a company (competion, of course) which started selling them. That really put me in a bad light, as my customers were all needing it and they couldn't get it unless they paid another company. This sucks! Why is that? How can you think this way? Especially that the other company, even though it's older than mine, do not provide quality services and therefore many of our clients dumped them and asked for our services. So they suck! But still they got those add-ons (freely) and I didn't. I really belive this is bad and not fair. Obviously I managed to get* them (*to be read "steal"), but only after some of my customers had to pay for them. This kind of monopoly is really bad. I am so pissed about this... :(

Smoking? It's not worth it...

About two weeks have passed since I have quit smoking... I have to confess that I have still smoked a few cigarettes since then, but only when drinking or being wild... Since I had quite a lot of fun during the past two weekends, I have also drank and smoked... I know! Bad me! I do want to say though, that I haven't smoked at all during the workdays.
This makes me want to share something that I feel. Smoking sucks! For many reasons. I have identified the things that really makes me believe that is way better as a non-smoker. These are: you stink when you smoke, smoke stinks like shit; it costs lots of money; you bother the non-smokers around you; it damages your health.
Today I was out fishing with Relu and Georgi. Amazing day. I'll write another post about it. What I want to say here is that I realized that feels amazingly well not smoking. It's so cool. I feel fresh. I don't keep my hands busy. I'm not stressed that I can't smoke in the car or in other places. I don't litter. I don't have my pockets full. I can really enjoy fresh country-side air. I'm lovin' it! It's really not worth smoking. I encourage all the smokers to stop doing it. I really do not recommend that anyone would ever start! Let's all stay fresh and be really cool!

Weekend. Remeti. Fun. Relaxation

The title of this post describes very shortly what happened. What really gets me excited is that I got to relax. I got to chill and have fun and think of nothing. Well almost nothing :P

As I was saying in the previous post me and my friend, Flaviu left Oradea on Friday evening, by car, to join Popi and his friends in the Remeti for a wild weekend outside the city. It was indeed wild. We got there around 11pm ready to party. They were already quite friends with Bachus, but still in the mood for more. :) We got to the fire, outside, had a few beers, a considerable ammount of fun and something to eat. Really nice welcoming. :) Thank you Popi, Radu, Cristina and Lili. It was quite odd somehow to go there as they were too couples and we brought no girls with us. I really believe I won't do this again, but it was such a hurry the whole departure and no existent plan, so it just happened this way. Even so, we had an amazing time there. The guys were great and the girls also very nice and kind. Thanks again.

So, back to the story. On Friday we didn't stay up long, as we were all tired, and after a quick chess match with Flaviu, we both went to sleep. The cabin was really nice and not very expensive. We paid around 50 lei(14 euro)/room/night, so that took something like 7 euro/person. Which is ok :) By the way, the words "which is ok" are starting to bug me badly. I use them all the time. I even got Popi to say that all the time. Which is ok :) The people hosting us were so nice. They are a nice family with 2 kids. One of them, the older one, is a smart, well behaving, polite, but a bit shy boy. Very helpful and nice. The other creature was a mess. Dude, that kid was about 7 years, but he might be the most unpolite, rude, egocentric, selfish, mean and harmful kid I have ever seen. I don't think I've ever heard a person at his age talking so dirty and offensive. This is what I really disliked about this family. Anyway, in the end, after some more or less agressive chats with the imp, we managed to level somehow and in the end I guess I got his respect. But that was hard to earn. It's not that I needed, just that I think it's nice, normal, ethical to respect the ones older than you and to behave your age, and not like an ol' future less ingnorant drunkard. This kid actually opened up a nice discussion regarding the future of Romania. Interesting.

Saturday was also really fun. All day we drank beer, walked around a bit, played some rummy, cooked some food and basicly did nothing. Well not really nothing, as I had a few hours on the phone with different clients but still was much more fun than staying home. We laughed a lot and had a great time. Even if I'm speaking for myself right now, I'm quite convinced that everyone had fun. We took about 400 pictures this weekend. I am still shoked - which is ok. I will upload what I consider interesting on my online photo album, so you could check them out as well.

Today we decided to Stana de Vale, a place about 30 km from Remeti and around 95 from Oradea. When I think of 30 km I think of maximum 1/2 hour. Dude! The road was so bad, that we had to go with like 5-10 km/h. I didn't even know a car can go so slow. DAMN! I was so pissed as I had to take the car through all that pain. Man, the road looked like tomahawk missles charget nuclearly hit the way. I don't think I've seen so many holes in my hole life as I've seen on these 30 km. This really pissed me off. I mean we haven a beautiful country, which never stops to amaze and surprize me. And the stupid government doesn't take advantage of that. How can you even think of letting a road that connects directly two (or more) beautiful, well known, places in this part of the country, in that condition. Man, this road is what Hummers are made for. Idiots. It took us 2 hours to go 30 km. Fuck man! Somebody has to do something about that road. It was really stressful to drive all that time and try to avoid holes and strangely inclined terrain. But it was an experience, as Popi says. And quite a good one :)

We got finally to Stana de Vale where we took some more pictures. There I also visited my father's paintings exhibition and we've seen some really nice cars. Today there was a rally cup in that area. Sadly, we didn't get to see any of it. The really sad part was that it was raining quite badly and no sign of stopping. We didn't get to walk around that much, so we just had a few sandwiches, a few pictures and headed back to Oradea.

I'm convinced that I didn't manage to show you how much fun and good time there actually was, but maybe if you will see some pictures (not uploaded yet), you'll have a better view of the moment. I loved this weekend and I really enjoyed the companionship of these cool people. Thank you all of all the fun. I really do hope we'll get together again for such a trip.

Now, I go to bed as tomorrow it's gonna be another hell of a day. Cheers and good luck with everything you do. Buh-bye! ;)

Catching up...

Phew! It's been about 9 days since I last posted on this blog. The past two weeks were TOO much. :) I'm not sure I got to mention this, but about two weeks ago, my dear friends and boss, Sanyi, left the country and headed to the USA. Well, since then all things are different, as I have much more stuff to do and much more responsibility. I do appreciate all the help that my colleague, Adi, is giving me and I wanna say thanks for that. I couldn't do it without him.

Now to sum up what happened in the past weeks. Well, after getting licenced in marketing, I had this wonderful weekend with my friends. We went out, we had barbecue, got out of the city and celebrated. It was an awesome weekend. I even got time to rest a bit, so I could start all fresh and ready on Monday, at work. Well I started ready alright, but not really fresh. I was really feeling like I needed a short holiday. Just that I don't see it coming in the next few weeks.

This last week was almost horrible. At work it was a total mess, especially on Thursday and Friday, when the smart ass administrator from the Oradea Customs, had to change the firewall on their sever and therefore all our clients that do paperwork for import/export were forced to change they way they worked as well. I don't wanna get into details. It's just that I've been, together with Adi, very busy trying to fix all the mess created. I still haven't succeeded, but I do hope that tomorrow will be the last day to think about this shit.

Anyway, on Friday, I was almost dead tired. But my salvation came around. My class mate and friend Bogdan Popa (further refered to as Popi) invited me to join him and his friends on a weekend in Remeti. That's a magnificient place in the Carpathian Mountains, about 90 km from Oradea. I was convinced I wouldn't make it, but finally I managed to get things done in a way that made it possibile for me to go. Not much time for preparation or nice invitations, so I just called Flaviu, knowing he's free and left town around 9:30 pm on Friday. What happened there, I'll write in the next post. :)

Oh! I forgot to mention...

I made a deal with myself about two weeks ago, that if I manage to get the licence I quit smoking. I promised myself to do this... And I also told my friends and family about it. Sadly I tried this so many times. Over the past two years I have quit smoking 3 times, but never really managed to get rid of this habbit for good. "Bad habbits die hard"... So, in order to be even more determined to do it properly this time, I make a commitment to you as well, my dear readers. I hope I won't let you down.

So, starting with Monday I will stop smoking again. I appologize to those who will come in contact with me next week. I bet it won't be very pleasant for them. :P

Today is the day (2/2)

Well actually yesterday was the day... today it's just the next day. But it's still cool to say that I finally finished the forth education cycle in my life. This is SO cool. I'm done with the university. I finally graduated and got my licence.

It's such a relief... I can't belive it. I was so stressed lately, especially during the past week. But Now I'm done. I can finally focus on my work and on myself. :)

So what next?

- party really hard this weekend :)

- get back on track with my job

- have my well deserved holydays

- masters... maybe :P

- traineeship

That's the plan. We'll see what comes out of it.

I want to thank all of you that supported me: my family, and my friends (Relu, Flaviu, Ana, Georgi, Crys, Sanyi, and many others). Also I want to say a big thanks to all of my colleagues at the university for helping me with exams, advices and support. You've all been great, especially you Bogdan. And in the end, would come the professors that have been very supportive (D. Coita, I.Pop Cohut, A. Dodescu, A. Tomescu). I couldn't have made it so far without your help.

My favorite Yahoo Emoticons

I started using Yahoo IM very much in past few months. And I start to like it a lot actually. I have even started to use more emoticons than usual so I thought I should select the ones I love the most. Here they are :)

	>:p	Phbbbbbt!		:-w	Waiting		@};-	Rose
	8-}	Silly		:-o	Surprise		:)]	On the phone
	>-)	Alien		b-(	Beat-up		:">	Blushing
	:-@	Chatterbox		\:D/	Dancing		;))	Hee Hee
	:-??	I don't know		/:)	R. Eyebrows		%-(	Not listening

I hope you like them as much as I do :)
P.S. The exam yesterday went quite well. I can hardly wait to see the results today. ;) Thanks for all the encouragements I got lately. You rock! :)

Today is the day (1/2)

Hello, I'll have to keep this post short, as I still have a lot of work to do. As I was saying the a while ago, I managed to pass all my exams and now I have to only get the licence. Well, today is my first exam in a series of two. I have the written test today, and... if I pass this one, I'll get to attend the one on Thursday. I didn't get much time to study, so I'll have to rely on my luck and my analyzing capacity, so I could write some stuff on that paper. Hopefully I'll get it done, properly. So... wish me luck. I'll be back soon with the results... whether they are good or not. Cheers!

A weekend full of concerts in Oradea

Yep, it has been a long weekend. Somehow, I'll always hate the memory of this weekend, as I spent most of it studying for my license exam. Not much fun on this part. And I hate it even more as it was a very animated weekend in the old Oradea, and I couldn't attend much of it. Anyway, there were some really cool parts which I happily joined. It all started on Friday, when the largest telephone company in Romania, Romtelecom, held a free concert here. Well the bands sucked... BIG time! But it was fun anyway to attend such an event, as it's been a while since the last time I was in such a place. Too bad that most of the cute girls were not there... I mean except for kids and high-school rebels and some parents there was nothing much to see. :(

The next cool thing happening this weekend in Oradea was a three days event called The Oradea Fortress Celebrations. This happens every year, but this year was really cool. Starting with nice costumes and music, and ending with the traditional mix of concerts, "mici" and beer, it was a nicely organized fest. As I said, sadly, I couldn't attend much of it, but still I enjoyed the concerts held on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday evening I initially joined Relu and Georgi for a short refreshing walk, which was everything but short, as I got home around 1 am. The Iris band, one of the most popular bands in Romania, threw a hell of show, with really really nice songs. It was really fun. Sunday, also I went out, even though I didn't plan to. Back to the fortress, for another magnificient concert of Phoenix. I even forgot how cool these two bands were, and how cool the Romanian language sounds put nicely in a good song. :) I loved it. Last night it's been also very long, as I got home around 3 am. Damn! That was late! :P Especially thinking that I'm way behind schedule with studying and that today I had to wake early to get to work.

Now, even though that my eyes are almost falling, I am happy that I had such weekend nights. It was cool. Too bad Matt couldn't stay longer to attend those. Man, you would have loved this.