• watched “wilderness survival shows”: Man vs Wild, Man, Woman, Wild, SurvivorMan, Dual Survival. Reviews and comparison to come.
• watched Columbo on Netflix. The way the criminal are harassed by the LA detective is just brilliant. Although this is filmed in the 70′s I still enjoy watching it.
• watched Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale. This is not about cannibals as the title might mislead you. If you have patience watching this you will see much more than the story of a man who wanted to be different and has done this in a radical way. Found fascinating the way he proxies the cultures in which he immersed himself towards the “western world”.
• read another chapter from the book The Nine Nations of North America. It is interesting to see how much of the author’s vision has come true after almost 30 years since the book was written.
• re watched all the Dilbert episodes
• re watched 3 South Park seasons.

Overall it’s an interesting read, but it is not clear to me what the message of the book is. It’s either: don’t spend like fools, just enjoy Christmas or enjoy Christmas no matter what the costs are. The novel does a miserable job of getting the reader in the Christmas spirit. It’s also interesting to find out what the cost of Christmas is (was in 2001 when the book came out): around 6000 USD. You would think it’s a bit exaggerated, right? No! Once you get into their Christmas mindset you wonder why the number is so low.

The stories of people living in such places are simply unbelievable. Scary.

Tent City 4 – in Seattle Area:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_City_4

http://www.ci.kirkland.wa.us/Community/tentcity.htm

Aerial image of the encampment: http://bit.ly/iiQKUQ

Also, search for Tent City on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tent+city The picture is not pretty, and yet you don’t hear anything about these people on the news. It’s interesting how people here in the US focus on an earthquake in Haiti, or an oil spill somewhere, when right in their backyard people are living in tents and starving.

Turns up he now has a Facebook account, through which he shared a link to http://www.reverbnation.com where you can listen to many of his song. Check it out at: http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/artist_songs/1160045

Also, seems that he’s a DJ at KZMU (kzmu.org): http://www.kzmu.org/ShowProfile.cfm?id=117 You can pick up the show if you’re in Utah or online.

Enjoy

If you ask me [and this is my own opinion] the approach is moronic. It’s like you have lung cancer, you want to get rid of it, but you don’t want to quit smoking. Not only that, but you look at your handsome, athletic neighbor and wish to have bigger muscles. If you act like that, you simply don’t get it. If you go outside Romania, see things you like and start bitching about how things are going in Romania, but don’t do anything about it you don’t get it.

The symbol of the Romanian Dream on the other hand, is f’n hilarious (picture in this post) or you can checkout Facebook for a full set of pictures: http://on.fb.me/fW6bJ9. The symbol is a suitcase from which, among other things, a pig and a dog pop out. To someone who doesn’t know or speak Romanian this must be an instant WTF. How does this represent the Romanian Dream? This is rooted in an Romanian expression “cu catel si purcel” which if translated literally, means “with dog and pig” but actually means “with everything [important] you have” when used in context of a move or a journey.

Joke 2:
When having some blood collected, the person who was collecting it kept palpating my forearm. Seemed that she had problems locating a major blood vessel to stick the needle in. I joyfully said: “You know, before I started doing intravenous drugs I never had this problem“. Again: Blank stare. Awkward moment followed by a forced laugh when I tried to explain it was a joke.

For those who don’t know today is Romania’s National Holiday.  Other interesting stuff that happened on this day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_1.

Enjoy our ironic anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kov-PvgtDaA [w/ English Subtitles]

Here is an interesting site I came across, which supposedly harnesses the human ability or recognizing patterns. It applies this ability to solve a problem: Multiple Sequence Alignments – it does that in the form of an online game. While I understand the whole theory behind it, I don’t see why each level has a time limit. The game is interesting and how many times a day do you get to use your huge brain to cure cancer?

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=122551

Most powerful parts:

I remember the feeling of loneliness and the deep sorrow from being uprooted from everything and everyone I knew and loved; the helplessness from not being able to understand spoken English. There is a vivid memory, however, of me sitting on a bench in a beautiful park, watching airplanes in the sky above and thinking which one of them could be going home.

Meanwhile, through all this – I worked a number of part time jobs, especially in the beginning, to make ends meet, offer my child a decent life and support my parents in Bulgaria. I was also constantly attending college classes – first to get certified as a teacher, and then as a school administrator.

In Bulgaria, a friend is everything – someone you talk to several times a day, meet several times a week, a sounding board, a drinking and entertainment buddy and a shrink.

Friendship is different in America. People do not get that close; they do not socialize or confess to each other as much and that often. There are things you never talk about even with very close friends. But Americans are always there for each other. Bulgarians tend to take care only of their own; Americans take care of everyone in times of need. I remember people collecting money, cooking, offering a hand to acquaintances and even strangers, because they were in some kind of trouble…

Guess the ones that think about how lucky the emigrants who pack their bags and leave for brighter horizons never stop to think that these people are not robots. Doesn’t really matter where are you coming from. When you’re moving to a foreign country you are trading a part of yourself for, hopefully, a better living.

It’s actually Johnny Cash that did a cover after Nine Inch Nails(not the other way as you would one expect). Would have never guess this. The voice on the cover surpasses anything NIN could do with this song. It is simply amazing.

You can watch it all on Youtube (6 parts). Here is part 6/6:

Key points in the movie:
- use common sense and prefer logic over emotions
- if you want to get ahead of the others you need to do something different
- chasing sheep is a lot of fun

I personally found Moore’s movie more entertaining.

Take for example Black Friday, which is right after Thanksgiving. How exactly does these two go together?

Or think of Valentine’s Day… One day to show your love. Don’t give a damn the rest of the year. You have to do one think at a time. Multitasking is for losers.

Or… the Day of Caring. Again you care one day, ‘live your life’ for the rest of the year. (although this is not technically a legal holiday, it’s still worth mentioning to make the point)

Or Earth Day: Let’s all turn the lights out like morons for one hour to show we care about the Earth. C’mon… Buy an energy efficient fridge or efficient light bulbs if you really care. Don’t buy crap you don’t need. Good for the Earth, good for you.

I’ll stop here and start enjoying the Turkey Slaughter Day. It’s a holiday after all. Does it really matter what we’re celebrating as long as we stuff ourselves and get drunk? Pretty sure that if the turkeys would have a Thanksgiving day, they would be thankful that it’s not our Thanksgiving.

Album link: http://mircea.smugmug.com/Public/public-20100912-R8-model/14805619_ZzzGr

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Monkeys

And here are two ‘samples’:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/opinion/20herbert.html

Now I usually tend to take everything that is “economy-related” and appears in the press with a grain of salt, but you cannot get more to the point than this:

However you want to define the American dream, there is not much of it that’s left anymore.

[...]

We’ve become a hapless, can’t-do society, and it’s, frankly, embarrassing. Public figures talk endlessly about “transformative changes” in public education, but the years go by and we see no such thing. Politicians across the spectrum insist that they are all about job creation while the employment situation in the real world remains beyond pathetic.

[...]

America will never get its act together until we recognize how much trouble we’re really in, and how much effort and shared sacrifice is needed to stop the decline. Only then will we be able to begin resuscitating the dream.

A reaction to the above article:

http://online.worldmag.com/2010/11/23/is-the-american-dream-over/

Checkout the rules for achieving ‘The Dream’ towards the end.

I, on the other hand, would like to turn the empathy switch on for all you insensitive selfish people who by chance also have to fly. This empathy switch is for the TSA employees. Before diving into that let’s take a look at some obesity statistics. 1 in 3 Americans is obese.

Now think about the poor TSA employees who have to either: look at you naked using the scanner OR give you a ‘detailed’ pat down. What is going through their heads? God, please let this fatso walk through the scanner so that at least I have the option to look away. God, I hope he fits through the scanner. Oh nooo… he has an attitude… he is refusing the scanner. I will spend my next 20 minutes petting him…

Now think about going through this experience over and over. What is the logical response when you see a normal, beautiful if you’re lucky, human being? You want to get the ugly and the fat out of your head. Suddenly the Can’t get you of my head song makes sense. You want to forget. Forget by pleasing your aesthetic sense. Maybe you’ll save a picture of the beautiful stranger to look at when the going gets tough. Or if you are lucky you get to pet her/him. If someone deserves special treatment and should have an attitude this is the right person. God… remember when you sent the hippos to the petting station? It’s time I get something in return…. Hahaha.

Now, that you’ve mentally been a TSA agent for a few minutes maybe you’ll show them more love the next time you encounter them. Be nice and they will treat you right. You’ll be touched in unexpected ways and your experience will be unforgettable. You’ll feel like flying.

Photos were taken by Lucian.

Album link: http://mircea.smugmug.com/Public/20101016-Ceahlau-extern-Lucian/14565281_d8wrX

Where:
Washington State Convention Center
7th Avenue and Pike Street, Seattle
Open seven days a week 7:00AM -> 10:00PM
2nd Level South Galleria – Free Admission

Here are the Washington State National Parks: http://www.nps.gov/state/wa/index.htm

Most of the photographs are focused on the Olympic Peninsula and Mount Rainer – no big surprise here.

My favorites: “Trees in Winter” & “Shi Shi Beach Sunset” both by Stephen Matera