I can has cheezburger?

Lately Icanhascheezburger.com has become my biggest attraction on the internet. I have simply grown accustomed to viewing the site at least once a week to read some of the latest submissions. Also I’ve discovered thanks to a dear friend of mine, Questionable Content. And, while I realize that this is not the smartest thing I could do I can’t help it. Meanwhile I’ve found in my archive of music some beautiful Buckethead songs which I recommend: Soothsayer, Big Sur Moon, Wondering and Whitewash. I’ve listened to these songs today for about 20 times and they have yet to reveal more.

Nothing new…

… on the new school year front.

While this may all sound familiar I just thought I should lay down a few words about the summer that has just ended. I have no regrets for this summer for it has truly been an experience worth documenting and remembering. I must state (the obvious) that this was one of the few times I really can associate with no regrets. Everything went great, apart from a few hick-ups here and there, everything was great. I repeat myself when under stress.

I’ve now begun to truly understand what being happy is all about. It revolves around having the person you love close to you, having your friends by your side and having a lot of interesting activities and discussions. And just as important, second only to having the person you love close, is variety. Do a lot of interesting things and never go under a routine. Spice things up. It’s great. You’ll be able to accomplish a lot and never feel like you’ve repeated yourself. Few people actually live by this rule for the entirety of their lives, but a few moments of such a behavior can be more than you can imagine.

I’ve had the change to go sightseeing across Europe (not too much though) and to the mountain and to the beautiful delta all with my beautiful girlfriend.The first part of the sentence is, honestly, not that important to me, because I had a great time with the person I love the most. I’ve really gotten to a point in life where I have what I always wanted and this means so much to me, especially after making, what seems to me, an 11 month mistake in romance. I can now focus on what I care about the most, my life, and making sure that the one thing I need, my girlfriend, is happy and loved. I admit, I am clingy at times, almost to a point of complete dependence, but I can’t help it! She is great, I haven’t been able to be so happy and enjoy every moment of the day for a long, long time.

I truly recommend that before you start off closing this web-page you read everything. I don’t pretend to know everything about life, nor should anyone else. But I think I could give my example and people can see if it might work for them as well.

I cannot do anything without having someone to care about. I am, by nature, very picky. But picky as I am, after a while I get fed up with all my ways and go for the one person who has nothing that I’m looking for. So far it has led me to nothing but mistakes and heart-breaks. I’m glad that the one time I was really picky I found my current girlfriend. She has everything I was looking for and more! For me she is the only example of a complete woman. But I’ve strayed too far from my original idea. I’ve always had the need for stability in order to accomplish anything worthy of even the slightest value. So now after having done that I can start working and focus on whatever I need to do. But, and this I must stress out, I never will let anything be more important than that stability, than that love and the happiness of my girlfriend, regardless of the situation!

You could do the same, find the one thing you need in your life and focus on that. You’ll see that everything else will, eventually, fall into place.

I will tell you more in a few weeks…

Music – the art that doesn’t seem to go out of style

Well we’ve all had our fair share of trends and styles and we’ve all had our dark phase or our pretty pink phase. Some of us never leave that phase, some do. Others develop a new trend that lasts a generation and others have their own micro-trend that lasts only a few days.

Out of all the arts, I thinks that music is the one that will have a hard time fading out. We’ve seen the cinema slowly being replaced by TV, VHS and now DVD and Blu-ray. We’ve seen the rise and fall of so many painters whose style only lasted a few hundred years, of course, the same can be said about music. But music has remained consistent throughout the ages. Play a piece of baroque music and people will still like it today. Even more, more people will like the baroque music than baroque architecture or paintings or whatnots.

Blogging – a need or …

Preamble

For most, a blog is nothing but a playground, a place to express their feelings and needs in a way that will not harm anyone but may cause a surge of followers and readers and, why not, friends. But why do we use blogs or other journals and content-management systems as personal sites, why do we use social-networking?

Smiley and browser-based game debunk

 

Smileys – a blessing or a curse? - written as a response to: DDVlad’s Thoughts on Smileys

Smileys are a form of communication used to express emotions and smiles, this much is true, but how many of you have really got their finger stuck on a key because you laughed so hard? How many times have you actually laughed that you rolled on the floor (ever in your life!). The questions can go on and on.

Smileys are hard to get, hard to enter and only after a while of writing them will you be able to learn how to use them. Another downside of the popular smiley is the fact that they are emotionally inflexible and may mean different things to different people. The sigh smiley can mean a normal sigh or a pause for air – I’ve seen cases. The social conundrum ensuing from this is more than obvious.

Considering you open up your computer and you get a surge of smileys from a friend that hasn’t seen you in ages, how do you react? You get the hug, kiss and smile. Does that person hug you, kiss you and then smile at you the first time he/she will see you? Is the smiley getting to be more of social courtesy rather than real meaning?

I’ve encountered many people that after each 2-3 lines they place a smiley – the original and simple smiley face, the – just to remind you that they are feeling fine and dandy. This is not just a useless consumption of processing power and hard-disk usage, but also useless from a social point of view. Let’s face it, why should I be given a newsflash every time his/her state of mind changes.

Despite all of this smileys still have a few good points, ease of communication and friendlier crowds. But let’s not be so superficial. Try telling the person you love I love you rather than send a smiley!

Browser-based games – Stress release or stress increase?

Most people now try browser-based games because you can play the game on any computer with an internet connection. This is a great thing, playing everywhere and with NO software installation required, other than Firefox!

But, how many of you, that have tried such games, have realized that you are losing more time and neurons that gaining relaxation? Most browser-based games still follow the principle of a game, they involve a bit of relaxation and some stress to make you push harder. Examples of games are many, from Travian to Utopia to Legend Of the Green Dragon.

Why stress? Well because most browser-based games rely on competition to increase addiction and, because of this, you will be forced to enter and play the browser-based game very often and more than on a daily basis. It may not sound like much but you will soon enter the game much more often just to see if anything has changed, this is now the addiction phase.

Quit the game, stop the addiction, remember that most, if not all, browser-based games offer a better deal for people who pay, thus the idea of a free game played in a relaxed environment is ruined completely.

A revolution for each one of us

It seems that the Internet has brought with it a new wave of revolutions regarding self-imagery and self-promotion in the form of social networks. People now seem to be more willing and desire to connect to more people all over the world and meet new people and learn more about them.

What is a social network?Any examples?

A social network is nothing more than a site with users who interact with each other via displaying information about them. Think of them as the dating pages but easier to update and more interesting.

Examples: Hi5, Last.Fm, Myspace, Facebook and many many more. One can also consider YouTube a social network.

Social networks also serve a purpose, regardless of the shallow-level of the users, social networks can provide a lot of information about people and relationships while, at the same time, give the user a sense of self and increase one’s self confidence!

Consequences

But, how much of this is just curiosity and how much is real desire to know someone. I believe that such social networks will lead to a simpler way of relating to people, but also a shallower way. Teenagers are most likely to take the hit from this, because their addiction to information has grown stronger over the years, they are longing to connect to more and more people and have their address books filled with people, regardless if they are friends or just acquaintances. Take the following as an example: A man creates a new account on a random social network. He then invites a few friends to join. These friends ask a few more to join. The first man is linked, via the social network, to the newly invited friends. Thus a relationship can be started. Parallel example: A woman opens up her social network page and logs in and browses around, she finds the man in the earlier example. She wants to know him so she sends him a message, after this she sends the same message to 4 more people. The relationships which result from their action will be, for at least a period of time, very shallow and very fact-based due to the fact that their lives will have been summarized in a text box no bigger than the one on the right of this blog post.

Finale

I don’t enjoy a social network because the people you want to be close to probably are and you are neglecting them as we speak. Also it’s quite the invasion of privacy. Finally, most people don’t write the full story about them so shallowness is all around

Alone

For the past week I’ve been alone at home. It’s a great feeling, to be home alone for days on end while your parents are enjoying themselves.. ahem.. the scenery of lovely places. The house is a complete and utter mess. It’s a bad day in Bosnia. It’s worse than a war-zone. It’s the most chaotic place I’ve ever seen and I like it!It’s THE breeding ground for fresh ideas and killer parties and moments to hang out with your friends and enjoy life as it was mean to be lived, with friends. You may realize from this that I don’t enjoy my parents because they are still teenagers and they don’t know how to live and how to enjoy life with their children – I have a 25 year old sister. They’re great for friends, but not so great as parents.

I am really glad that these days have given me the opportunity to stay with my girlfriend, Simina, more than the usual 3-4 hours a day. We’ve spent, literally, days together and we are loving every minute of these days. I’ll try to get into more detail over various other posts, but for now, this is enough.

My best friends Vlad and Octav have joined me for a little get-together these days. All three of us on computers playing various LAN games and having a blast… this is the geek part of the journal.

I’ve also added my little attempt of a book to the Cabinet of files in the right side of the blog, hopefully someone will have the patience to read it and comment it, it’s not much, it’s just a series of events linked together by the existence of Lazarus, the main character.

A list of likes and dislikes

Here is a small list of my likes and dislikes. It features a lot of areas and domains ranging from computers to music to movies to life.

A hello to the world

Ah.. the sweet smell of a fresh blog. It seems just yesterday.. wait, no…

In this blog I’ll try to entail some of my more memorable moments and write some of the music and movies I find interesting along some very nice pieces of code I might write from time to time. Expect some software and computer related posts as well as some real-life situation posts.