Upgrading mode

We now live with tools that can resist a generation or more. Yet, we run for upgrading as squirrels for nuts, in the  Fall.

Just a few years ago I had a four-hour hand-written exam. Now the other day I could just fly to New York with a very late notice and get a computer-based exam, not having much human supervision, nor any human interaction. I would have been happy to continue to hand-write and I would have probably bought a shiny typing machine the most, just to improve my writing-life. Yet, now I type with the help of a word processor, I draw with a software that is supposed to read my mind and  I have my whole life in a phone and in a vacuum which takes different shapes and names: "internet", "wikis", "twitter", "google".... and some others that I haven't upgraded to yet. I feel the race wave around me for upgrading all that: computers, phones, software, smart tablets, not to talk about the classic TV and car-upgrade.

Imagine you walk calmly in a park while people start running. Most of them, in the same direction. What would you feel then? Would you continue to walk slowly? Would you change your pace? Would you think there's something happening that you don't know of, and they do? Would you start running yourself? Let's say you would continue walking. You'd probably experience frustration, because the normal that you use to know - walking calmly in the park - is not the general normal anymore. You'd then feel tempted to find out why the other people are running and create some valid arguments for that. Then, the idea of following them would cross your mind. You'd experience a mental tension and you'd try to solve it by bringing more rational arguments. They call it solving the cognitive dissonance. Ultimately, you'd most probably think that the other people will think bad of you - they call it peer pressure - and you'd remain alone in the park anyway, if you continue to walk. So you start running.

People are actually racing for change. Change is good because change is natural. Yet, we fight and race for it.

Ironically, the technological upgrade easily transfers into our physical and psychological life. We daily upgrade our calories count; some upgrade their noses; some just upgrade husbands; others, their diplomas and their titles. Some people upgrade their garden crops, while others upgrade their house, their job, the city they live in. Lately, some even upgrade their home country. Very few though I see struggling to upgrade inside. We try to become better, but for a better job. We try to become smarter, for a better diploma. We try to become better-looking, for social recognition. Nothing is inside anymore. Nothing is private. Nobody stops racing and nobody asks why anymore. And if we do, we take the pre-packed answer, which is socially accepted, and which is, by default, good. And continue running. But what if you stop for a few seconds and look around? The perspective would change, along with the upgrading process. If we stop, for just a few seconds, we'd realize that there are no good or bad changes. There are just changes. While some cannot be avoided, for some we can discern. We'd realize that first and foremost....

Change is a mental upgrade.

Still alive and breathing

Yoga physical exercises, master's thesis, projects to plan, projects to complete, craving for a spring cycling marathon, international dinners, presentations held and attended, cooking good, keeping track of what I did and designing what I will do... That's my life lately, spiced up by the good feeling of freedom, by the memories in the South and by the memories I'm building every day, as a Fulbrighter.

A new puzzle piece

E dimineata tare. Atat de tare, incat nu vad prea multe pe geam daca nu-mi pun ochii de pisica. Vorbesc cu Budapesta (aka Irina I.) si sunt intrebata ce am sa fac dupa. Dupa ce termin teza, masterul, jobul, dupa ce termin de calatorit, dupa ce-mi termin conturile cu acest continent. Cum ce? Caut urmatoare piesa din puzzle. Ma indrept, natural, din zona de client service in zona de public service. Si imi place cautarea!

Romania, on its way to US media

A few days ago, on a Midwestern US university website:

Internet access brings Romanians new freedoms (article about a research mission led by Ball State Anthropology Department who took a student team to rural Romania to examine the impact of free Internet access in several small villages):
 
Installing computers with Internet access in Romanian public libraries was designed to support positive social change in this underdeveloped eastern European nation, but it's also spurred online dating, comparison shopping and social networking, says an analysis by Ball State University. (...) "The Internet has the potential to bring most of Romania into the 21st century," Nyce added. "Right now, it is mainly an agrarian society that, for our students, resembles the rural U.S. around 1910. It will be interesting to see how the country transforms in the next decade as information technology and e-commerce becomes more prevalent."

After back and forth emailing with the authors and reasonable arguments, the article changed its tone. However, hasty generalizations and stereotypes will always make the headlines... Where is the true Romanian spirit among these?

Bad bag!

Yes, I am guilty, I know! I haven't written for a while and when I used to do it, I did it in Romanian. I am now changing the gear to English, as an answer to the friends here in the US who wanted to be able to read me - their Romanian improved, but I don't want to push it :)

Now what made me finally write? A bad bag. In Muncie, Indiana.

Before I came here, one of the friends I had in the US told me that small towns are a safe place: "you can leave your bag in a park and find it untouched the next day."  If I would ask my friend today what can happen with my bag if I leave it unattended around here, she'll probably say: "nobody will take it. They'll just blow it up...":


"Traffic at McGalliard Road was stopped around noon for about half an hour after police received a call to inspect a mysterious package at a gas station on the intersection of McGalliard and Oakwood Avenue. McGalliard was blocked from Tillotson to Rosewood avenues, and Oakwood Avenue was blocked from Woodmont to Royale drives. Stg. Bruce Qualles from the Muncie Police Department said the store clerk discovered a brown leather brief case at the station and called the police. The county bomb squad arrived 15 minutes later. The package was detonated at 1:25 p.m. and police proceeded to reopen the road."

Poor person who came back for the bag/brief case two hours later!

Cum e viata de student mai, mai

Wall-Street.ro a publicat acum cateva zile un articol comparativ legat de viata de student: cum e in Romania, in comparatie cu alte tari. O analiza clasica. Si un pic trista. Nu pentru ca in alte tari este mai bine. E foarte bine in mediul universitar. Doar ca studentii romani cred ca e fara indoiala mai bine. Sfatul meu: mai si indoiti-va!

fulbrightpuzzle si adevarul

Mirosul de cozonaci in Adevarul.