Someone likes you

I think that smiling is a very important action one must do as much as he can, everyday. For today, here’s the thought that should make you smile : Someone likes you. I’ll prove it not by talking to you about your family and friends who care about you and think about you in a pleasant way, but by showing you someone else who likes you. Enjoy!

Birthday of a nation

Today is the national day of Romania, the country I’ve been born in and lived in for the past (almost) 16 years of my life.

Happy birthday, Romania!

Let me tell you about 1917-1918. It was the period of Greater Romania (Romania Mare – picture 3). The first province to join Romania was Bessarabia (Basarabia), in March 1918, following the “October Revolution” of 1917, which brought about the collapse of the Tsardom of Russia. After Ukraine tried to annex the province of Bukovina, it requested help from the Kingdom of Romania, which sent an army to protect the Bukovinans. Using the right to self-determination, Bukovina joined the Kingdom on the 27′th October, 1918. In November a national gathering is convoked in Alba-Iulia and on the date of December 1’st 1918, 1200 delegations of the Romanians in Transylvania (yeah, Dracula, that’s the place!), in the presence of a popular gathering of over 100000 people, decide the unification of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania, thus uniting all the historical provinces populated by Romanians, creating the largest Romanian country ever to exist in time of peace.

It was the second time that the unification of every territory occupied by Romanians was achieved, the first being Michael the Brave’s (Mihai Viteazul – picture 2 – Mishu FTW! ) ) conquest in 1600, ended one year later, after his death.

Romanians have always been good patriots and close brothers, but sometimes we forget that. The sad thing is that it takes an important or even critical event as a war or a cataclysm to make us remember that we are all members of the same community. Patriotism is mostly forgotten during peaceful times, people going as far as joking and making fun of their own compatriots when they talk of the spirit of this country, a spirit that has helped us keep our own national identity during the years that have passed from the conquest of Dacia by the Romans, in 106 A.D.

Even then, Dacia was an important province and it was said that the leader Burebista (82-44 B.C.), who managed to unite the Northern part of the Thracians (Romania’s territory of today) under his rule, defeating the Romans and the Celts, along with other peoples, managed to bring together the greatest army from there to India, seeding fear among his enemies.

The Romanian countries fought in order to deny the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Ages access to Europe, refusing their advance countless times. Names like Mircea cel Batran (“Mircea the Elder”), Stefan cel Mare (“Stefan the Great”) Vlad Tepes (“Vlad the Impaler” – yep, that’s him) or Iancu de Hunedoara (“John Hunyadi”) struck a great deal of fear in the turks. Romania acted as a guardian of Europe, as the “Gates of Christianity” who stayed firmly shut in front of the Ottomans.

Romania has been an important country during the last couple of centuries, too. Bucharest, it’s capital, was even called “Little Paris” in the interbellic period. Although important territories were lost in the forties, first Bassarabia and Bukovina were lost to the Soviet Union after the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, then a large part of Northern Transylvania to Hungary and the Cadrilater to Bulgaria, separating the Romanians politically once again, the spirit is still alive in the heart of every true Romanian, be him under the name of “Romanian”, “Moldavian”, “Ukranian” or any other such nationality, because we all have common ancestors, common roots.

One cannot forget his roots, or he will never fully understand who he really is.

I am a Romanian, and I’m proud to say it. Now, who are you?

Beauty and "the beast"

What is beauty?

It is said that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.
I completely agree with this quote, thinking of beauty as an abstract concept, a characteristic of either an object, a person, a place or an idea that induces a feeling of pleasure or meaning.

Where does beauty come from?

I believe that the beauty of something emerges from the meaning one gives to it. That is the reason why people’s tastes are never alike, why two people with different life experiences can appreciate the same object differently.
An object bears a message. It is the symbol of something, a symbol deciphered by our minds with the help of past experiences and transformed into an idea, a thought, which represents the hidden core of every object. The form is just a shell, just like the wrapper of your favorite candy, the cover of your favorite book, the eyes of the one you love… beyond them lies the true object, the nature of which is never physical, but conceptual. It matters not whether “her” eyes are blue, green or black, what matters is that which lies behind them, the person inside, the soul that cares so much about you. The eyes are just doors, windows of the soul, ways in which the soul connects with the world.
To be beautiful, something must mean something special to the mind. Its core must be pleasurable for the mind, it must trigger a “happy response” from it.
Every aspect of an object is a potential “beauty factor”, having the possibility of impressing the mind which understands it’s message.
The same song can mean different things to different people, sometimes even inspiring opposite feelings. Why that song is beautiful to someone comes down to form and meaning. A song’s form is the melody, the succession of notes that create the song’s body. It can impress through the skillful use of an instrument (the violin and the piano always impress me) or a catchy sequence or part that appeals to the listener. Deeper than the form is the song’s meaning, carried both by the atmosphere created and, if present, by the song’s lyrics. Sometimes, a song will impress much more by its strong lyrical message, being capable to transmit some feeling or thought much more accurately than a melody can.

Other than the object itself, the context is a very important factor in the beauty of something. The context can either make, or break, or just complete the object’s features by the “whole” it creates along with it. For example, if we take the same snow flake falling from the same sky in different conditions, let’s say in state 1 it’s snowing heavily and you can’t observe a snow flake in itself, and in state 2 our snow flake is falling slowly, hanging in the air for a while before touching the ground in a painfully slow manner, then that one snow flake’s beauty in our mind is different, quite different between the states.

What matter are the criteria by which one’s mind judges the object as beautiful or not.

One would, not without difficulties at first, but ultimately one would be able to think of an object in the type of “the beast” as beautiful. Some traits, physical or mental, can be the ones that create a beautiful image for “the beast”.
Take “the beast” from the famous story by the name of “Beauty and the beast”. Even though he is ugly on the outside, he is a wonderful person, very hospitable and a very sensible and caring man. “Beauty” – the girl – eventually sees past his ugliness and recognizes the man within as stronger and more important. Beauty is found in “the beast”’s behavior and feelings towards others. “The beast” is a symbol for all things which, apparently, are “ugly”, whatever meaning “ugly” can receive, but in their true nature they reveal themselves as beautiful.

It proves that beauty is far more complex that what the eye can see and that it takes time and attention to find the true nature, the true meaning of something.

Tag! I’m it!

Seems like I got it from Tvvity.
What do I want for Christmas this year? What I’m thinking about right now are PS3 games like Haze, Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty 4 (actually, I’m getting this one myself sooner than Christmas, I think). What else do I want? ….
A, yes, now I remember…well, that’s not going to happen anymore, so why bother you with it? *sigh*
On another, more cheerful note, how many of you still believe in Santa? I know I do.
Yes, I do know that no kind-of-overweight older-than-your-average-grandpa, red-wearing, pipe-smoking or chimney-climbing man visits me every year, but I’m talking about the true Santa, the true nature of Christmas all around the world. I’m talking about the fact that the real Santa DOES exist. Santa is the spirit that fills all of us around Christmas, that joy of being with the ones you care about, the warmth you get on a snowy day from watching the one you love, the excitement and surprise that overwhelm most children, the beauty contained in that one snow flake that keeps gliding through the air before it gently settles on the ground, among it’s infinite counterparts… you see, even the snow flakes spend Christmas with their loved ones. All of these feelings and many more represent Santa, who is in fact as real as you and me, and who does come each Christmas, not only in our house but, most importantly, in our souls.
The fact that we (most of us – I do know that some, if not most, of my readers are 4-year-olds, that’s why I’m trying to keep everything PG) know that no such old man is going to come doesn’t diminish the feeling I get from thinking about Christmas. As long as his presence is felt throughout the world, what would even be the purpose of him showing up?
And concerning my wishes for this holiday, I really don’t believe I have any. The people I care most about are all around me, I’m healthy enough (I think so ) and so are they, so what could I wish for? I know, how about wishing that everyone on this tiny planet would just join in on all the beautiful feelings nature has to offer, both outside, and inside.
I’m passing it on to whomever feels like writing about his/her Christmas wish/es. How about you, Denize, since you’ve written most of the comments on this blog? Whomever it is that chooses to continue, please post a link here so we can all read about it.

We’re still children… aren’t we?

I believe every one of us still holds a part of his childhood self. We should all take a moment from our busy lives and play sometimes. It doesn’t matter the age we are, the place we’re from, the lives we have. Everyone still has a part of themselves that is eager to burst out and play. No reasons, just fun. Moments in which you forget all your worries, all you duties and debts. Now isn’t that bliss? We should all try to never forget to relax, because the stress needs to get out somehow, and if you don’t do it by playing, it may come out in a more undesirable form. So my advice for today is : “Shut up and HAVE FUN!”

Go here for FULL-SCREEN fun!

The world is me

Yesterday I saw something I didn’t think possible, especially in our society’s current state of degradation. I saw a man, with a dog, picking up off the ground the dog’s poop in a small bag.
Wait, what? A man actually doing what should be considered normal, but what actually is considered the rarest of rarities in this society? Someone actually doing the right thing, not just talking about it? Wow, no way!
I was walking down the street when I saw him. I passed him and then I realized. I walked backwards for a couple of meters, and watched him pick up the poop in a bag, because I truly couldn’t believe my eyes. I felt a sense of gratitude… a sense of care for the man that I didn’t know, but who proved that, as I stated in a previous post, there still is hope for us. There still is a chance that the world is slowly changing for the better, that sometime, maybe not for a couple of decades, maybe not even for centuries, but sometime in the future, all the ideas and values that some have given their lives for will be obeyed, unforcefully respected and priced as they ought to be.
That thought alone warms my soul.
You see, I think that most of the man is created and influenced by his environment. I consider that, no matter the core of man, no matter the traits that are said to be passed on, generation after generation, by genes, one is shaped by the world he grows up in, the world he lives in, the world he dies in. Society creates us, but we are the ones who create society. Society is me, and society is you. A crum makes the bread and without it, that bread is never the same. People change us, people teach us, people (and places, but mostly it’s the people) make us who we are, but we, in turn, teach and change others, who will do that to others, and so on and so forth. So, it’s all a cycle, a cycle in which some ideas are lost, some are modified, just like in a game we used to play in school. It was called “Telefonul fara fir” in romanian, that would be “wireless telephone”, right )? Someone would start by whispering something to the next player, and he would whisper to the next, and so on. The point was to see how much information accurately reached the end of the line. We had tons of fun with it, but it proved that almost every time, information is changed by the bearer.
This can be extrapolated, leading to the idea that one adds his own thoughts, his own identity to the message he bears, to the teachings he’s learned, to all that he interacts with.
Society will only change with the change of the people who make it. The base is that people are the society, their personalities define it, their laws govern it. Changes in mentality are the means by which the world evolves, and regresses. It all starts in your mind. You, and only you, are capable of telling good from evil, because good and evil are relative concepts. Good and evil can be restricted to some extent, to create some basic ideas that everyone accepts, but the little things, the ones that truly matter, are detailed in each of our minds.
We all owe it to ourselves, and to the ones who have tried to make us better people, to think alone, to judge by ourselves what is good and what is bad, to question everything around us, and not to take anything for granted. “Why?” is the basic question that leads to progress, progress of mind, thus of society, and thus of the entire world. I refuse to be told what to do, and often react quite nervously even to people whom I wouldn’t want to hurt, because I feel that one’s liberty of thought and one’s freedom of speech constitute one of the species of freedom, the most important and most sought after type of freedom – one of the types of freedom that is essential to one’s existence and without which none can live.
You cannot say that you are alive if you do not think by yourself, if you are not the one who pulls the strings in the puppet show you call “life”. The easiest way to tell if someone is intellectually asleep, or worse, dead, is to ask the fundamental question: “Why?”. “Why do you think that way?”, “Why is that which you claim true?”…”Why?”. Some can still be awoken from this lifeless dormitation that plagues life.
I told you earlier that the prospect of the world changing, although kind of distant and uncertain, warms my soul. It should warm yours, too…

Hope

A few days ago, my two best friends (we shall be calling them Padfoot and Prongs) were playing Champions League ‘06-’07 on the PS2 and I was watching. Padfoot was playing with A.C. Milan and Prongs with Barcelona. It was a rainy evening on the San Siro in Milano.
Near the end of the game, Prongs was leading by one goal and Padfoot was very upset. When he saw the minute was 89, he put his controller aside and said that it was all over, and that Prongs had won. I told him that it wasn’t over until the game ended and urged him to continue playing. He was totally out of hope, so I asked him for the controller and told him that if he wasn’t going to finish the match, I was.
So, there I was, playing against Prongs, being lead by one goal in the 90′th minute of the game, trying to do whatever I could to prove to Padfoot it could be done. I had the ball in my own half of the field so I quickly passed it through to the middle and tried to make my way towards Prongs’ goal. Then, my player was hit by his and the referee awarded me a free kick from about the center of the playing field. I hit the ball high, towards his box, and tried to hit it with my player’s head. His goalkeeper sadly punched the ball away, back to the middle. I knew the game was about to end, so I pressed the “Shoot” button as soon as the ball came in my possession. Seedorf was the one who got the command and fiercely shot what I knew was going to be the last shot of the match. The ball went flying through the air like a torpedo…still flying, not stopping at any of our players…
Everyone of us was holding their breath, waiting for the end of the play.
The ball was still high in the air when it came to the place the goalkeeper stood…then, it decidedly went past him and violently hit the back of the net. It was a goal!
I couldn’t believe my eyes, and neither could any of my friends. After 90 (virtual) minutes of Prongs’ dominance over Padfoot, there it was, the final score : 5-5. We were all dumbfounded with the chain of events and, even though the match was supposed to be only between them, Prongs accepted to continue the match with over-time.
I gave the controller back to Padfoot and sat down beside them, patiently watching. Hope seemed to have filled Padfoot’s face. They played for a while and then, near the end of the over-time, it came : a shot made by one of Padfoot’s players went passed the goalkeeper and changed the score-board to 6-5 for Milan. The rest of the game was just a blur. At the end of the over time, the score-board still read 6-5. Padfoot had won.
We can draw a lot of teachings from this one. First of all, hope only dies if you let it die. If you are able to keep a small fire of hope burning then, however dim the light gets, the flame will never fade away. That one flame that remains protected by you can, at any time, spark numerous others and turn into a real bonfire. A bonfire of hope.
Secondly, I told him that if he ever loses hope, he’s always got me to lean on, standing nearby with a couple of lighters or even a torch, ready to provide him with a spark for the dying flame. All of you have got a friend nearby, ready to do the same thing. If you think you don’t, look closer at the ones around you. Some of them are just waiting to have a(nother) friend and, given time and care, become the one always there for you, ready to revive that possibly lost flame.
After all, what is a friend?

Twisted

I was thinking…about how twisted our little society has become. About the fundamental difference between what we are supposed to value and what we truly do. About all the character traits that are becoming more and more rare in a community that promotes corruption, betrayal, cruelness, hate, hopelessness, monotony and conformity. About the fact that the central concept around which everything else revolves is money. Everybody thinks that happiness equals money. We are so set on the idea that life’s purpose is to make money any way we can that we keep going, never stopping to think about all the people we’ve stepped upon or those we’ve pushed off the road just for being in our way. Friends are lost, along with dignity and scruples. Only when you wake up full of money and painfully alone do you understand that the whole point of the journey was missed. In the end, think about it this way : if everyone else is dead, who cares that you’re wealthy? I’d rather die now that know that when I’m old the only friend I’ll have left will be the twenty-year-old girl claiming to be my wife, just wating for the “old fart with big bucks” to bite the dust.
The sad thing is that some of us are already giving up the fight, getting used to this mutilation of the sense of good and bad and starting to truly believe that this is the way to be, if you want to win.
But, as long as there will still be a few of us who refuse to lose hope in true moral fiber, all is not lost…