Toilet sign fail

Please keep cleaning our toilets!

On the A2 highway, in a toilet (might just be in all of them... didn't check), you can find this sign...
I'm sure they meant KEEP CLEAN... but translating word by word from Romanian... you definitely get KEEP CLEANING.

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Creativity / Experience ?

I think that experience is closely related with being creative...

How is that? Well... creativity is about solving problems... about finding solutions to a given problem...
Now... let's think of a situation where you have a problem at work... the boss wants you to solve it... You have never encountered that exact problem before... What do you do? You start thinking how to solve it... Unconsciously your brain starts a similarity check with your past experiences... and when it find something... the conscious is like: "Wow! I have this great idea!... let's try this...!" And you solve the problem... everyone says.. "Dude! that was pretty creative of you!"... but no one... no even you... really realize on the spot that it was somehow related to some past experience of yours... even if that experience was you playing with your construction blocks as a baby...

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Bar code :)

I love bar codes...

And I love Google :)

But today I love Google more cause they turned they logo into a bar code doodle!

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HTC Magic Stop Motion

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Vreau putina magie in buzunarul meu.

(Want some magic in my pocket.)

Post scris pentru concursul "Imi doresc un HTC Magic", organizat de Gadgeteer.ro si Vodafone Romania.

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Hitchhiking adventure

Last week I was in vacation as I already told you... I was in the mountains... Vatra Dornei... and on my way back I decided that I want to get home for free... somehow... At first the idea was to make "blatu'" on the train... that is go without the ticket and pass unnoticed by the ticket controllers. So at about 4 pm while everybody else had their tickets ready... me and a friend got on the train with no ticket.. :) Shame on us... (Kids.. never... I repeat... never do this! under no circumstances...) But as the name of the post suggests it... that didn't go as planned...

Even worse... we got face to face with the controllers right after the first station... In order to spare our colleagues, that had paid the ticket, from any problems with the controllers we decided to leave our luggage with them and get of the train at the next station. Said and done...

But what to do next? Well we thought that we might catch the train at some next station and buy tickets... but that wasn't a good (free of charge) idea... Anyways we needed to get ourselves moving... so just as we get out of the train station we see a car waiting at the railroad crossing (train in station... they had to wait a bit longer...) So we started running towards the car... hopefully they could take us closer to our destination... where ever that was...

So we got to the car... asked the driver if they could take us anywhere on the way of the train... they said that they are going in that direction ... but they would stop at village not too far from a train station... That was better than no ride... so we took it. The car was a local old model DACIA 1300 :) But the driver... he was one of a kind... he thought he was playing Need for Speed in real life... with drifts and all... especially that he had nice curved mountain roads (serpentine windings)...
Anyways... we got safely to the destination (free of charge)... So we are here... it's about 5.30 pm ... in the middle of nowhere... we have to hitchhike our next ride... A jeep passes us by... nothing... probably full... it had tinted windows... Look there a truck!... maybe it will stop... (or not... like we have waited only for a few seconds... how lucky can we be?...) And it stops... We ask the driver where is he headed... by the looks of it we could reach faster another train station for the second train our group is supposed to take a few hours later... Said and done... After a few hours of chatting, joking... telling our life's stories... checking train hours with the station, with friends/relatives that were home and had internet access... we end up behind another truck... but me and my friend were to busy chatting to notice that the truck had Constanta plates... good thing the driver had a keen eyesight and notice before we got in front of it... He called up the driver of the other truck on the radio and asked him where is he headed... the driver replied he is heading home... :) but where is home for the driver... lucky for us it was actually Constanta :) The our driver asked if he could take us all the way to Constanta... He said he don't usually take hitchhikers... but this time... as the request came from a colleague... he will make an exception... We have our next ride all the way to Constanta... and it's only about 9 pm.

He said the wants to make a halt to eat something... and we could make the change there. Said and done... after a few hours we made the halt... ate some... good food... and when we wanted to leave... me and my friend thought we could cover the bill so that we'd repay the truck drives for the ride. The truck drivers kindly refused to accept us paying the bill for them and they said that it's their pleasure to help us... and after all having someone to talk on a long trip is also a good thing... So from there for another 2 or 3 hours I rode in the Constanta truck and my friend rode in the first one. After that the first truck came to a halt and we continued the way with the Constanta truck... We arrived in Constanta at about 5 am.

The train with our luggage is due to arrive at the station at 7 am... if it arrives on time. We got to the station... waited a bit... The train is here... it's 7.15 am and I have my luggage... and I have arrived in Constanta free of charge... Weee :)

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Then again...

... some planning is better than no planning ...

There are situations when if you do not plan anything... you shouldn't expect anything to happen. Especially if it's one of those days when you got to bed very late... and all your body wants to do is sleep, sleep and again sleep... (sleeping does not mean you are doing something.. :) ... just in the situation when you have a very tight schedule and you really need to plan sleep too...)

So some planning is good. If you feel that planning makes your life too strict... takes a toll of your freedom... but still you don't want to stay all day in bed... or watch TV with no good reason... then you should definitely do a bit of planning... in terms of things you want done by the end of the day... leaving some flexibility to the time and the way you are going to do those things.

But if you can't handle a flexible planning... as in you still end up in front of the TV... or if you don't get even half of the planned things done by the end of the day... then you should definitely opt for a more detailed planning... assuming you are a person interested in getting things done... especially if you got to read this part of the post...

Also there is the part of long term planning and having a vision of your own... your very own purpose in life... which you should have no matter if you like to do things nicely planned, partly planned or just on the brink of time...

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Planning SUX Bigtime! - Vacation

This doesn't mean that I don't support planning in business... but in my personal life I have come to realize that when ever I plan something... more or less things don't seem to turn out the way they were originally planned...

I am now on vacation... I have planned this vacation 2 months ago... I had it all planed... then boom... I was left alone... the people I was supposed to go with could not get days off from work and other important stuff...
And that's when the "circus" started... since then, plans for the vacation have changed ten times over... from a trip to Paris... to seaside cottage.. to 5 star hotel in seaside resort in Turkey... to a week in the mountains... The last one being the final one... the one where I am right now...
But the decision for it came one day before the departure...
Three days before the departure I was in sitting at home... it was my third day of vacation... and still no viable plans for the rest of the vacation... I think to myself that this vacation is ruined... I go out... meet some friends... it was the birthday of a dear friend of mine... On my way there I stop at a book gallery which was open for the weekend... didn't know about it... but I some how landed there... I met a friend there ... suggested we go that night to a resort and party a bit... that was fun.. almost no planning... by I left the birthday meeting with the friends.. it was to late to go to party ... so we decided that we leave it for the next day..

Two days before departure... sleep all day... wake up... eat... start calling friends... no one is available for a night's party except the friend I met at the book gallery... Said and done... we leave for the resort... party all night...

One day before departure... still no idea what to do with the rest of my vacation... Thought "what the heck" ... let's party again all night... called up the friend.. found online a dear old friend who was also in vacation... asked her to join...
Checking my email... saw that the people in @LC Constanta are going next day to Vatra Dornei, in the mountains for the Motivation Seminar. Called up the organizing committee to check if I can still join them from the first day.. All is OK.. I can join them. No luggage prepared... I still have a night's party in front of me... said and done.. we partied all night... ended the night in the emergency room of the closest hospital... my dear old friend twisted her ankle. Nothing serious the doctor says..

Next day... the day of the departure... I am having a hard time waking up... finally I am up... I go shopping... have some things missing that I would really need on this trip... The organizing committee is calling me to see if I'm awake... :D last time I almost missed the train because I was sleeping .. and didn't hear the alarm :)

Two hours to the gathering at the station... I still didn't get back home from shopping... no luggage prepared yet...
One hour and a half to the gathering at the station.. I get home and start shoving stuff in my backpack... hopefully don't forget something important...
Half an hour to the gathering at the station... I am going to buy some booze... couldn't find absinthe... vodka will have to do the job...
I get in time to the station... Looks like it works fine even without too much planning...

After 15 hours by train we are here... :) bit chill but it's the mountains... Yesterday was all sunny... even though we were so tired after the train trip... we still managed to run around the city for like 5 hours or so.. doing a scavenger hunt... In the evening it all ended with a sharing of the experience of the 3 teams that participated at the scavenger hunt.. and a party!... some weird twister.. "poor man's twister" no colored floor... just a roll of duct tape... and we would throw that around the floor and people would have to put a part of their body on the spot where the roll landed.. :) and other crazy party games... But this is a story for another time...

Should stop here... you got the idea... tried to plan stuff didn't work out... made stuff at the brink of time... and it all worked out quite well... :)

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The Elegant Universe

Don't really know why... but for some time now I am more and more interested in physics in general and more specifically in quantum mechanics and string theory... all though this is far away from my field of expertise.

I have been doing a lot of research on the internet... reading a lot of materials... watching a lot of documentaries on this subject... and the more I read the more I want to find out more... It's quite addictive...

Now you would think... why is this so interesting... well maybe because they (the scientist) over time came up with many theories to explain how various things work... mechanics, therodynamics, electromagnetism etc. ... but why are there so many theories and not one to explain everything... why does it have to be so complicated? So they tried to put up a theory (and to demonstrate it) about everything around us... one single theory that rules everything that is happening around us and within us... from the highest level (universe, galaxies etc.) to the smallest level (atoms, particles etc.).

For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about here I recommend that you start by watching this very interesting 3 hour documentary: The Elegant Universe. I explains some of the theories up to the string theory and the birth of the string theory (the theory of everything).

Well I'm going back to my research... Hope I got you interested on the subject :)

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Happy Birthday Tesla

Today is the birthday of Nikola Tesla and looks like the guy at Google didn't forget of him either. :) The father of wireless telegraphy as some would call him, he was Serbian, born in 1856 at Smiljan, back then part of the Austrian Empire.

Inventor and electrical engineer, his patents and theoretical work formed the basics of the AC electrical power systems we all use in our homes nowadays. One of his inventions that I like in particular is the Tesla Coil. Invented in 1891 it could deliver a one million volt AC. Of course mostly used for scientific purposes... some scientists get carried away though... watch the clip and be amazed :)... Tesla would be proud :)


No idea what that was... go and play some Mario Bros... you'll figure it out...

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The most effective baby-sitting tool

You really enjoy the fact you have younger brother/sister, but sometimes feel you just cannot make him/her calm down when you are left "guard" at home while your parents are away at some party? Well there is a very old tool that can prove to be verrry effective in helping you have a quite and relaxed evening...

If you haven't guessed by now... it's the DUCT TAPE!

A few tips...
- never position head pointing downwards...
- regularly check up on the situation... as you don't want wet wall & floor... or worse... brown sticky stuff on the wall...

In the end your brother/sister might get a bit of sticky skin... but it can all be fixed before parents get back with a bit of shampoo :)

Happy baby-sitting!

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Long Distance Hug

For a far away friend:

Feel like a hug? Go to a park...
Stand by a tree and think of me.
I hug a tree, you hug a tree
Pretend it's you, pretend it's me.

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FAILED in translation...!

Well actually the translation might be correct but the sentence chosen... total failure... What the hell am I talking about?
I like Romani... as a language... it sounds... I don't know... different... maybe a little funny to my ear (no offence all you Romani speakers...). So I searched for an online translator... and found this website: Freelang.net. But where's the failure you ask?

Well... while trying to translate some words for a small little project of mine... I ended up searching "clean"... looks like they don't have the word... well at least that's what the dictionary is telling me... whatever... maybe the dictionary is not as complete as I expected it to be...
But wait!!! I see a "random entry from this dictionary"... OMG!!!... It's kind of too... how to put it... sorry... I can not write that here... you'll just have to read it for yourself!

Disclaimer: This post is not intended as an offence to the Romani language or the Romani People, nor do I keep Freelang.net responsible for the mistakes. If anyone feels that this post is offensive in any way to them as part of the Romani community, please feel free to post a comment and I will do my best as to fix the post in order to solve the issue.

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