Metajournal

Chicago

2010-08-29T16:49:00.002-06:00

I've been a Chicagoan for 1.5 months now and here are the conclusions:

Pros:

being able to walk to places is awesome
Lincoln Park Whole Foods - sells herbs by the pound (including basil), cheese island the size of a regular WF, and beer on tap you can sip while shopping
people (most of them, or at least all the ones we met so far)
Brugse Zot on tap for $4 as a seasonal monthly special, or always available in a bottle (Kyle and Carly, are you reading this? we have an inflatable bed)
WIDE variety of reasonably priced good food (Styrofoam containers everywhere, see Cons)

Cons:

Transportation is a mess (traffic is BAD, public transportation is unreliable, bike lanes are far and few between, streets are in a horrible condition, where does the tax money go?)
Recycling doesn't exist (all blue bins are either always empty or full of trash and there is no scheduled pickup time, restaurants serve everything in styrofoam, canvas bags are endangered species)
Weather - not much we can do about that, but it's amazing people chose to build such a big city in a place where the weather is so shitty

Bike miles

2009-08-06T15:45:00.003-06:00

My bike computer finally died yesterday. For the non-contiguous period it was working I biked a total of 2,276.7 miles. Most of these miles were biking to and from work. If I were to drive instead of bike, say at an average 27 miles per gallon, I would have burned 84 gallons of gasoline and produced 1635.8 pounds of CO2. Question is, how many pounds of CH4 and H2S I produced while biking the above mentioned miles?

Recession - how is this graduate student staying afloat?

2009-02-15T08:53:00.002-07:00

Mint.com is the obsessive compulsive's best friend. This free website monitors all your bank accounts and credit cards, keeping track of all your finances. It is entirely secure becasue you never plug in personal information (like account number) of the cards, but only login id and password to your bank. Below are my expenses for the past 8 months. During this period I managed to save about $1000, which is not much, but at least I can brag about staying within budget.

Here's a boring analysis of the categories, in decreasing order of their amount:

21% - Home - mostly rent, includes some home furnishing and home supplies. Not much to save here.
21% - Food - about half of this is groceries, a quarter restaurants, and the rest alcohol and fast food. Deffinitely a place where I could save a little by eating out less and cooking at home more. Overall I don't think I am spending way too much on food, as it adds up to an average of $317 per month.
12% - Education - grad school fees. Period.
11% - Gifts and donations - mostly Christmas gifts, but includes charity donations and such. Technically not a gift, since I received presents back. Saving here would make me a Scrooge.
9% - Health and fitness - last portion of my ACL surgery bills, dentist and optometrist visits.
6% - Bills & Utillities - cable, internet, phone, water, electricity - not much to save here.
6% - Shopping - clothes, camping gear, computer parts. Some if it's necessary (tennis shoes), some of it can be trimmed.
4% - Pets - Chevy & Sedona are hungry beasts.
4% - Auto and transport - Mostly insurance, a quarter is gas, and then some oil changes.
4% - Entertainment - Netflix movie rental, movies, concerts, shows. I wish I could afford to increase this category.

Bottom line: there's not much room to wiggle. I am a poor grad students and I should at least be thankful that I am not getting in debt.

In Lubbock TX justice gets YOU!

2009-02-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a very common story of a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. In this case the real perpetrator came out and confessed, but the Lubbock justice system did not want to own to its mistake.

"Then, in 1995, Johnson wrote a letter to the district court in Lubbock in which he confessed to raping Mallin. He got no reply. So he wrote another letter asking for an attorney so that he could legally confess. Again, he was ignored. Johnson eventually wrote to the former Lubbock district attorney who prosecuted the case, Jim Bob Darnell, and asked for his help. There was only silence in reply."

Who cares if an innocent man died in prison because of this? By the way, his only fault was to be black, which directly implied "brash, slick liar" in the words of the defense. Yet, here comes the best part, scumbag D.A. Jim Bob Darnell is now a judge. I hope no one will ever have to seek justice in Lubbock Texas.

Family Of Man Cleared By DNA Still Seeks Justice : NPR

Boulder fire

2009-01-10T09:26:00.005-07:00

Wednesday and Thursday we had a wildfire in Boulder, just a short distance from our house. It all started because of the sustained high winds (60 mph or 100 km/h) which downed a power line onto a structure at a llama farm. The farm caught on fire and because of the winds the fire spread quickly. Below is a picture from the aftermath. (click for newspaper article). It's amazing how close the call was. Thank you to all the firefighters who did such a great job.

And here is a google map of the fire. I live South of the green evacuation area, close to where the 36 highway sign is.

View Larger Map

My Earn-A-Bike from community cycles

2008-09-14T20:53:00.006-06:00

Community Cycles is a non-profit organization in Boulder that collects old or abandoned bikes, takes them apart and then puts together and sells fixed up bikes. All this is done with a few permanent employees and a bunch of volunteers. The main incentive for the volunteers is the Earn-A-Bike program. When you volunteer for 10 hours you get to work for another 5 hours building a bike that's yours to keep. The red Schwin below is the bike that I built for Kristen. I started with a very old bike and ended up keeping just the frame. After a new derailleur, wheels, handlebars, brakes, shifters, etc, and more then 5 hours of work the new European style townie is quite comfortable.

Why I love Colorado.

2008-09-01T08:33:00.003-06:00

This weekend I finally climbed my first fourteener, Long's Peak. There are only a few weeks in a year when climbing Long's is non-technical and we lucked out with the weather on Saturday. We left the parking lot at 3:20am, made it to the Keyhole by 7am and summited at 8:15am. We were back down to the car by 1pm after a very exhausting day. The adrenaline rush of touching the summit was totally worth it. Click on the photo for more pictures.

Latest Romanian adventures

2008-07-10T22:41:00.001-06:00

For the past couple of days I've been loafing in my hometown with mom. Since the weather has been pretty moody I've had an excuse to work on a paper I have to submit before Jul 15th. Yesterday morning I finished the bulk of the work, so me and my mom went for a walk through town. I found some really nice shoes which I didn't buy but suggested to my mom as an excellent Christmas gift. We pretty much walked from one end of the city to another in a couple of hours, shopping in a few stores along the way. We then stopped at the supermarket where I bought lots of chocolate and some cheap tasty beer. Catalin, my mom's business associate came to give us a ride back home. On the way home he got stopped by the cops and had his drivers license taken away for 30 days!! Apparently he didn't yield to a pedestrian waiting to cross the street, although this happened in a bumper to bumper situation in 10 mph traffic on the busiest street in town. I don't know if the cops were expecting some bribes and he didn't want to deliver but I think he's going to contest it so the cops will have to show him some video proof of the offense. While we were waiting for the paperwork, the cops stopped 10-15 cars, including all the ones in front and after us. It deffinitely turned out to be one of the most expensive supermarket runs ever.

Today I will go back to my grandparents, say goodbye to them and my uncle and tomorrow morning I will drive myself back to Piatra. On Sunday I am flying back to Boulder, on a 4 stop flight: Bucharest - Frankfurt - Brussels - Washington - Denver.

Romania sweet home

2008-07-04T14:39:00.002-06:00

I am finally back to Romania after a few years of absence. Yesterday I slept at my dad's small apartment in Titu, DB, where he works. Today we drove to Piatra Neamt and now I am writing from my (Vlad's) room.

Here are the most important highlights of the trip in Romania so far:

Since Romania is now an EU member the airport experience was flawless. The bags showed up quickly, and no bribes were to be given when I exited.
The area around Bucharest, I mean the drive, the houses, the people were all horrible. Lots of stray dogs, dirty people, rude drivers and roads full of gigantic potholes and dirt.
Titu is a total shithole
The drive from Titu to Romania was quite pleasant, except the first hour or so, what was needed to get out of the Bucharest sphere. It is now a seamless 4 lane road (1 big, 1 small on each side). The speed limit is a little small (30mph town, 55mph outside) but overall the road is very smooth and safe.
We stopped on the way and got two watermelons and some apricots. We just finished one of the melons and it was delish.
Piatra Neamt is very nice now. They pulled out any old ugliness and replaced with goodness, beautiness, efficieness, ..etc. They put in a lot of new parking spaces, and if you park where you're not supposed to the cops are actually going to do something about it. They also have the first pro tuned police car. It looks quite ghettofabulous.
The town now has a little gondola the zips between the buildings to go the top of the mountain - quite touristy. They put a lot of new grass and trees and painted a few of the old commie blocks of flats. Tomorrow I am going to take a trip with the gondola and walk around a little bit.
My parents redecorated the apartment where I grew up and lived most of my life. It is a little more spacious and has a more modern look.
I had some really good beer, good food, and , unfortunately, not so amazing bread. They've figured out that they can make more money selling fluffy american style shitty bread. I don't think you can still find the thick crust, heavy, consistend bread anymore.

More stories, and more pictures soon. Stay tuned.

Salut din Brugge

2008-06-30T01:42:00.005-06:00

Hello from Brugge,

This is my second day in the city and I've probably seen 50% of it. Very beautiful, very smalery quiet. The pace of life here is so slow compared to what it is in the US, that it almost looks like time is sitting still.

I am writing from the main conference room, the only place with free internet. Brugge is amazingly beautiful. Being away from Europe for such a long time, I forgot how small these old cities are. It probably only takes 20 minutes to walk from one end of the city to the other. All the streets are cobblestone, all old buildings and the smell of good food is everywhere. The Belgians are a fortunate combination of French and Dutch: good food + good beer = best chocolate and best beer in the world. When we come to Europe together, we definitely have to stop here again. It’s as romantic as Venice, but much cleaner. No poop smell here, just chocolate aromas.

The hotel room is smallest I’ve ever had. 10-20 inch extra room around the two twin beds that are lumped together. The AC in the room doesn’t work, and it’s very humid here, so I am very annoyed after taking a shower, since you can’t really dry. The hotel is the equivalent of a Motel 6, I guess, but let me tell you, the food was a little better. No sugar lathed breakfast here. Oh, there is no AC in the conference hall either, so in a room of 200 people the atmosphere has already become pressing. The conference center is located in a 1100 year old hospital and you have to pay 0.5 Euro if you want to go to the bathroom. Obviously, I have to be cheap and optimize my bathroom visits.

Last night I went to watch the football final with two dutch guys. I’ve had two beers (Brugge Tripel = 9% alcohol) and I can still feel a little hungover. After the game the streets were resounding of “E- SPA– GN, E-SPA-GNA”. I’ve learnt that there is a very strong link between the dutch and Spanish royal houses, and obviously nobody really likes the germans, so the place was a little out of hand.

Denver - Bruges - Romania and back

2008-06-28T07:15:00.002-06:00

For the next couple of weeks I will be traveling back to mother Europe. I am presenting a talk at the ALD 2008 conference in Bruges on Wednesday next week. On Thursday I am flying to Romania for a week and a few days until Sunday, July 13th. Whenever I have internet I'll try to post story and picture updates on here. Stay tuned.

Chevy Boy

2008-05-10T11:58:00.000-06:00

Chevy, the latest addition to the family:

Colorado Sand Dunes backpacking trip

2008-05-10T10:33:00.003-06:00

Last weekend we went on an overnight backpacking trip in The Sand Dunes National Park in the San Luis Valley by Alamosa. This was one of the best camping experiences so I decided to document it for further use. Here's the breakdown of the weekend trip:

Leave Boulder at 8am, get there by 12pm. The 285 route is unbelievable with high plains and multiple passes
View Larger Map
We crossed the Medano Creek and started walking barefoot through the dunes. It is a surreal experience that I highly recommend. Some sides of the dunes are very hot (we believe Sedona burned her paws a little bit) and some side are quite cold. Riding down the very steep side of a dune is a lot of fun.
We started on our hike around 3pm. We drove up the jeep road to the "Point of no return" Don't forget to let some air out of the tires otherwise you'll get stuck in the sand which is not fun. We had to hike on the jeep road because dogs are not allowed on the trails anymore. All the terrain is very sandy and the hiking speed is about half as normal. Although the air temperature was in the 50's it was quite hot at the sand level. Sedona would walk for 5 minutes and then take a break for huffing and puffing.
We hiked 3.8 miles up to the Wilderness and then found a good campsite 0.5 miles up into the reserve. The campsites were amazing: bear boxes, metal fire rings, and lots of firewood because everybody carcamps. Fires are allowed in the wilderness.
We had a fire going for a few hours and turned in at 9:30 pm. The overnight temperature was in the 20's but neither of us was cold. Sedona was shaking to keep warm around 4am, but she snuggled in between our sleeping bags and warmed up quickly.
In the morning we took a short hike without backpacks to the Frenchman's cabin, 1 mile up the road. We found a group of 8 big horn sheep at the second creek crossing.
We started the hike back at around 1pm. We decided to take the trail on the way down which turned out to be a mistake. I usually like a more challenging route, but hiking in the sand is up and down the dunes is quite exhausting. We made it back to the car in 2.5 hours
We stopped in Alamosa for a bite because we ran out of food when we left the campsite (I call it super efficient backpacking). We ate at Pizza Den a mom & pop italian place that we surmised was one of the best food places in Alamosa. The town is very hot and dreary, with a typical western flavor.

Pig batons

2008-04-18T11:27:00.000-06:00

The salamis are in! I was one of the grad students who placed a collective order of salamis at Salumi, the cured meat store Andrew introduced me to in Seattle. The fennel smell in the sopresseta now fills our entire office. Mmmm....

Tartine Bakery - San Fran 3

2008-04-17T12:37:00.003-06:00

Tartine Bakery was by far the best food place in San Fran. We went there for Saturday brunch at 10am and the place was truly hopping. The hardest thing was to decide what to get because everything looked so good and smelled even better. I settled for a bread pudding, that included asparagus, egg, sun dried tomato and some tasty pig. Maybe I should mention that everything in the store is local slow food, a la Chez Panisse. Each ingredient is therefore full of flavor because it is entirely grown by nature in a sustainable manner (read no preservatives, no chemicals, no hormones, no antibiotics, just sun, air, water, and soil). There are no words to describe how perfect the texture of the bread was, or how piggy the bacon tasted like. I ended up going back and ordering a breakfast roll, their version of the cinnamon roll with a slight orange flavor. No one in their right mind should miss this place if traveling through SF.

House of Nanking - San Fran 2

2008-04-17T12:26:00.003-06:00

Here's my second San Francisco food review after it all fades away in the foggy shadows of daily work.

Our first dinner in San Francisco was at the "House of Nanking", voted by different local papers as the best Chinese restaurant in town. It took us almost an hour to find it (sorry hungry/cranky Kristen) but it was totally worth it to our growling stomachs.

The restaurant is on the lower end of the spectrum, with reasonable prices and a very cramped table situation. The line out the door was a clear indication that we were onto something. I had their number one recommendation, sesame chicken and Kristen did a tofu dish. The sauces were a little greasy for my taste but very flavorful and not in that cheapy sweet and sour way. I was impressed by the greens that came with Kristen's meal, which had plenty of cillantro, chives and some sort of bamboo shoot look-alike. Overall a good cheap meal, probably the most flavorful Chinese I've had so far.

Mojo Cafe - San Fran 1

2008-04-13T01:20:00.003-06:00

I am in San Francisco with Kristen for two days of relaxation this weekend. This is a first in a series of posts where I try to document my culinary experiences during my stay here.

We accidentally stumbled upon Mojo Bicycle Cafe, a neighborhood bike shop / cafe joint. We wanted to go to a pizzeria, but since they didn't open until 5pm and we were starving we stopped at the first taste-bud friendly looking place. From the outside, Mojo looked clean and put together.

I got excited about their bike/restaurant combo and started salivating over their bikes more than over the prospects of their food, but I was soon to be convinced otherwise. We sat in the garden, which was the best component of the experience: peaceful, cool, and fragrant. As for the food, I was impressed, mainly because my expectations were blown away. The Mojo Cafe is centered on the local community idea. They had fresh fruit purchased at the local farmer's market and the food ingredients were obtained from sustainable sources. My walnut bread had a hard crust with lots of taste. All the ingredients (including the turkey) were very flavorful, a clear indication that they were not your typical warehouse cooking ingredients. Most of their sandwiches had roasted red pepper, which was homemade and local. The potato chips were also homemade, a very rare occurence these days. Kristen had a pesto, basil leaf, mozarella sandwich and she said it reminded her of the Czech republic. All in all, Mojo Cafe is a place where I would come back. I wish somebody would do something similar in Boulder, instead of the half-ass Half Fast Subs we have on The Hill.

Another excuse not to ski

2008-04-04T19:01:00.003-06:00

There were 17 ski deaths in the Colorado resorts this season. If you look at the list they're either middle age tourists that probably had no idea what they were doing on a blue slope or crazy ass locals that thought that death does not apply to them.

Bloxes

2008-03-31T16:56:00.001-06:00

I wish I weren't a poor grad student so I could afford some of these.

Barack is good

2008-03-20T11:11:00.003-06:00

John Stewart summarizes perfectly Barack's best speech so far. It is weird, yet refreshing to see a politician that stands up there and speaks like a rational human being. This "us vs. them" rethoric in American politics is starting to get really old and unproductive. The problems are very complex and the solutions are not very linear anymore. Take for example Sergio Vieira de Mello (or this), a diplomatic genius famous for his crisis mending skills as a UN envoy.

Book recommendation system

2008-03-17T22:53:00.003-06:00

I've always liked Pandora, although I don't have time to listen much anymore. I was wondering if something similar is available for books. Although any book (no matter how good or bad) is worth reading, it would be nice to have a little guidance, something like a well-read personal assistant. That's how I found LibraryThing. I guess this book recommendation system is more like last.fm , in the sense that the recommendations are social not stylistic. Google has now it's very own My Library module. Coupled with their online BookSearch project I can envision that we'll be able to read any book anytime anywhere, just with the click of the mouse.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

2008-03-11T11:08:00.002-06:00

This is one of the best documentaries and most heart wrenching stories I've seen in a while. Daniel Johnston reminds me of Bob Dylan in his early days. The sad part of the story is that he develops a severe form of bipolar disorder. This movie not only shows how unbelievably talented this guy is, but how all this talent gets washed down the drain when his manic depressive episodes kick in. Daniel Johnston is still around, although physically and mentally far from the bubbly talented genius he once used to be. He's playing in Denver in April, but his story is so sad that I cannot drag myself through it again.

Ape genius

2008-03-04T20:45:00.004-07:00

While I am at it, another great TV show was NOVA's "Ape Genius." Chimpanzees are apparently more of a hunter than we thought. The language and numeral skills some of these trained apes showed were simply amazing.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/apegenius/

Sad and outrageous

2008-03-04T20:34:00.002-07:00

One of last week's "60 Minutes" segment almost brought me to tears. Something is not right when the wealthiest country in the world cannot take care some of its citizen's basic needs. Is it really worth having highly specialized high tech super expensive medical care a la John Hopkins at the cost of not being able to provide reading glasses and routine checkups for millions of people? I don't think so. Even in my native second world country things are not this bad.

Seattle pics

2007-10-25T21:19:00.000-06:00

I posted some pictures on Flickr from my recent visit to Seattle for the AVS conference.

ACL surgery

2007-10-25T14:28:00.000-06:00

I just got back from my ACL surgery. Everything went smooth and I am now immobilized with an ice machine hooked up to my leg. The doctor cleaned up the torn ACL, did a little cleaning on my meniscus also, and secured the new ACL. I now have someone's (26 yrs old, male) tibial ligament as my new ACL. I'll post some nice pictures of the before and after whenever I am a little more mobile. Stay healthy out there.

news update

2007-09-26T09:57:00.000-06:00

I've been so busy that I completely forgot about this thing. I was just reading Sarah's blog when I realized that maybe I should post something on mine.

Newsflash

We moved into the new house 3 months ago. Plenty of space, good layout, nice yard for Sedona. Everybody (me, Kristen, Vlad and Zeb) is happy.
I've torn my ACL a few months ago. The surgery is scheduled for Oct 25th. I putting in a "new" ligament from a cadaver.
Research started to cooperate, so work is keeping me very busy. I went to a conference in San Diego back in April, and I am presenting another paper in Seattle on Oct 16th.
Because of my injury the only cardio activity I can do is biking. I recently bought a sweet older road bike. It's a Piranello, steel frame, built initially for cyclo-cross, so it has very light mountain bike components on it. I've done a couple of rides so far and I love it.
I am building a Home Theater PC using MythTV for the living room. So far it cost me in the neighborhood of $400. What is a MythTV good for? You can set it to record one or two episodes of "Law and Order", "CSI" or any other favorite show everyday. If you only have time to watch TV once a week, you go to MythTV select the recorded show that you want to watch and click play. The best part is that it automatically cuts out the commercials for you (suck it Tivo). I hate commercials with a passion, and being able to watch the whole Daily Show in 15 minutes without the stupid ads is awesome.

Boulder renters pay the big bucks - News

2007-05-12T10:05:00.000-06:00

I am in the process of looking for a place to live and the rent prices are just ridiculous. Boulder is apparently the eighth most expensive campus in the nation, according to this research: Boulder renters pay the big bucks - News

What to do in the Denver / Boulder area

2007-05-05T09:07:00.000-06:00

My parents are coming from Romania on May 15th. They're visiting me for a week and then go to my brother's graduation in Baltimore. I am trying to put together a list of things that would keep them entertained. I hope to update the list as soon as I come up with more ideas.

Boulder

sip some tasty tea at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse
hit the Boulder Farmer's Market on Saturday
drive to Estes Park, and do a little hike: Gem Lake Trail, or Bear Lake or Mary's lake, if we want something super easy.
come back from Estes via Highway 7 and stop in Nederland for a bite
go back to Boulder via Boulder Canyon and stop at Boulder falls or continue to I70
visit the Celestial Seasonings factory
bike along the many beautiful bike paths available in Boulder
walk, eat, shop on Pearl Street
go to Skinny Jay's on Friday night for some truly American food and music
watch me (or others, if my leg doesn't feel better) play frisbee on Sunday
have breakfast at the Village for some authentic morning grease
Southern Sun for some hippie infusion
do a short hike on Mount Sanitas for an aerial view of Boulder

Denver/out of Boulder

walk around 16th street Mall
go the Denver Art Museum, acclaimed mainly for its green architecture
eat at Sushi Den, the best sushi ever
drive up Pike's peak or take the cog train
go to a Rockies baseball game

Fear of change

2007-04-28T09:29:00.000-06:00

Here's an excellent summary of the clash between the anglo-saxon and latin-romantic mentalities. Sometimes I feel we need a combination of both. Vive la France!

Lista cu lucruri din Romania

2007-04-19T22:51:00.000-06:00

-crema naturala pentru genunchi (versiunea naturista a BenGay)
-pulover pt Kristen (L)
-ceva pentru Zeb (orice)
-ciocolata (gramada)
-saprosan si triferment
-adidasi / ghete - ceva de incaltat bun de mers pe munte sau prin padure

va urma ...

Frisbee partay

2006-11-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures from the frisbee party taken with the new phone camera. Pretty bad quality in the low light environment, but at least I don't have to carry another brick with me.

Kristen is probably the only person who hates being photographed more than I do. The ceiling at the "Dark Horse" is adorned with carriages, sleds, road signs, stuffed buffaloes !??, and other crap that makes it very surreal (or should I say kitsch?).

Jason is not very happy with the bright light on my camera either.

Everybody danced hippie-style, that is throwing various limbs in the air at random intervals, regardless of the beat of the song played at the time.

New phone

2006-11-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

So I finally gave in and bought a new phone with a real plan. My "pay as you go" didn't cut it anymore. I couldn't help getting a gadget, of course, since most of them are free after rebates anyway. I got the Sony Ericsson W810i. It comes with an iPod-like mp3 player and after a 4Gb flash card update it serves that purpose very well.

I've got the basic monthly Cingular plan, which I think is a little overpriced. In numbers that is:

450 min / month
5000 min nights (after 9pm) and weekends
free roaming, long distance, blah blah
free Cingular to Cingular
10c a text message and 1c/Kb for internet browsing
TOTAL = $39.99 / month plus fees and taxes

Halloween

2006-10-31T00:38:00.000-07:00

Disco vibes and Rasta-Man vibrations.

My red devil.

You can run, but you can't hide ...

2006-10-31T00:22:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seriously asked yourself how racist, misogynistic or homophobic you are? Do you think there might be some incongruence between what you think about yourself and your subconscious beliefs?

Here's a test to answer all those questions: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/
It's brilliantly designed so as more aware you are of your bias and try to correct for it, the more biased you end up being.

I took a few of the tests and here's what I got:

slight bias towards African Americans vs. European Americans
slight bias towards men in science vs. women in science
automatic (strong) bias towards gay couples vs. straight couples
moderate bias towards Judaism vs. other religions
automatic bias for other nationalities/religions vs. Arab/Muslim

No references will be made here about someone's roommate's biases ...

LateX

2006-10-27T17:10:00.000-06:00

Great way to start with LateX for newbs like me.

http://math.auc.dk/~dethlef/Tips/introduction.html

Morning commute

2006-10-18T11:36:00.000-06:00

Even the vertical Flatirons have a thin layer of white powder on them.

Red, white, blue, and the necessary "axis mundi"

The buses are always full when the weather worsens.

first snow

2006-10-18T08:34:00.000-06:00

I bet these poor flowers didn't get the weather forecast on time.

Sedona and Kristen. I didn't know that Australian shepherds love snow so much.

Chinese killing Tibetans in "self-defense"

2006-10-18T00:59:00.000-06:00

The footage was shot by a Romanian journalist on a mountaneering expedition in the Himalayas.

New blogging friends

2006-10-17T11:17:00.000-06:00

Jason and Sarah have lost their blogging virginity. Thanks for making me feel less dorky.

Romanian soccer

2006-10-17T10:52:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted here. A lot of things have happened since, but today's momentous event is that the Romanian soccer team Steaua Bucuresti is playing the infamous Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League. Real Madrid is Beckham, Ronaldo, Canavarro, Raul, Roberto Carlos, Van Nistelrooy, etc... The game is shown by ESPN Deportes and I am going to take an extended lunch break to see it at the Lazy Dog down on Pearl Street at 12:30. This is the first soccer game involving a Romanian team I've watched in a few years.

There is already a rumor on the "internets" that Steaua's owner signed a deal to sell one of the Romanian players to Real Madrid in exchange for the Romanian team losing both of the games. It sounds very ... Romanian already.

ROYGBIV

2006-08-02T19:20:00.000-06:00

The first time I had to stop and dig out the camera from my pack. ROYGBIV

New webpage

2006-07-28T23:31:00.000-06:00

I am back in this game. I updated my ancient webpage. I used googlepages and it literally took me an hour to get it where it is now.

P.S. Poison ivy takes a long time to heal. Long time = more than a month. Very annoying.

Adios

2006-06-05T11:56:00.000-06:00

I seem to have abandoned this blog. There's so much to do for fun in the summer in Boulder and I don't have enough time to do it. I don't know when I'll feel like blabbing again on here, but until then check out my new photo page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragos

what do you eat?

2006-04-12T23:22:00.000-06:00

One of the best NPR stories this year. I am so proud that my grandparents live such a simple and meaningful life. How many people can claim to know somebody that lives happily in total harmony with nature, instead of destroying it?

happiness

2006-03-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

After a heated debate with my roommate about happiness and science - don't ask me how they're connected - I found this on NPR. "Positive psychology" is the most popular course at Harvard, but it sounds more like a Dr. Phil show, rather than a Ivy League class. I didn't make my mind about it yet. Should I be dissapointed or excited about this? Sometimes I feel like simplification is a great idea, but other times I want to be hardcore and change the world.

Pandora

2006-03-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

free music + artificial intelligence + awesome website design = pandora kicks ass

This is the best project I've seen in a while. Thanks to my students who pointed it out. You start by choosing one song and then give pandora pointers based on what you like or don't like and it will play music in accordance to your preferences. After a couple of days of feedback it actually started to play only music that I liked. Pretty amazing. In the same category with www.20q.net

South Park night

2006-03-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

What American City Are You?

2006-03-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

I thought the test was pretty weak, but then out popped Austin, one of my favorite cities. So much music there... Sighhhhh. via another Dragos

You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.
You're totally weird and very proud of it.
Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way.

Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

What American City Are You?

Dragos and Zeb make it in South Park

2006-03-13T00:54:00.000-07:00

Not really, but we designed each other as South Park characters.

Here's me in my roommate's vision. I have baggy eyes, I like beer, and I am pretty much a self-infatuated dork.

And here's Zeb. He always sleeps in class with a frown on his face. Although he is agnostic, he acts unnecesarily angelic all the time.

And while I am at it this is my brother Vlad. He is very anti-establishment so it makes sense that he is always roughed up by this fight with the world.

Chuck. Norris.

2006-03-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

Another Dragos reminds us of some basic laws of the universe. These are the first concrete results to come out of string theory. Here's more.

Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
It takes Chuck Norris 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer.
Chuck Norris knows the last digit of pi.

pack o' meat

2006-03-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

Romania has finally made it in the American news. For those who don't know "Wait wait don't tell me!" is a funny weekend NPR show that reviews the week's main news. This weekend an unusual soccer transfer at UTA Arad made it in the show. Go here and click on the "Bluff the listener" podcast. It's so sad that it's funny. Go on and laugh. Once again, Romania holds on to its reputation. I can't wait for similar cheese and wine stories. Yummm....

Corruption

2006-03-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

The latest Romanian news is that the ex prime minister is charged with bribery. He owns this $2 million apartment, filled with expensive art worth another $4-5 mil, all from his meager $30,000 a year. The prosecutors are trying to search his house but becuase he is a senator they have to get the warrant approved by the senate speaker, according to Romanian constitution. Now guess who is the senate speaker? Yep, the same ex-prime minister, Mr. Adrian Nastase. Isn't that convenient!

At the same time in the U.S. a congressman was sentenced to 8 years in prison for corruption. He aparently received gifts amounting $2.4 million, which is literally nothing for somebody relatively affluent in the States. These are some gifts Cunningham received.

-- A Rolls-Royce
-- Yacht-shopping trip: $15,000
-- Two rugs: $40,000 each
-- French lampshade: $3,500
-- China hutch: $24,000
-- Hall tree: $3,700
-- Statue: $12,000
-- Moving expenses: $11,393
-- 42-foot yacht: $140,000
-- 3 shooting simulators: $13,800

If all this was worth 8 years I hope we'll get to see how much Nastase's Tizian, Rafael or Frans Francken are worth.

DIG!

2006-02-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

Dig! is a documentary about two bands. "Dandy Warhols" and "Brian Jonestown Massacre" are two modern rock bands that have an unbelievale 60's sound. They are friends, enemies, and competitors. Anton, the leader of BJM is considered a music genius, one of the most talented artists of all times. (In the film he is compared with Lennon, McCartney and Bob Dylan) He has a big problem though: he is so entiestablishment that he can't get his act together to become succesful. He starts beating up his bandmates for messing up a note, he can't work with anybody and doesn't give a damn about anybody else. He just lives for his music. He knows how to play over 100 instruments, composes and plays like a music God but can't get anybody to sign a record deal with him.

The other band, "The Dandy Warhols", who's leader is actually narrating the film, decide to get their act together, shake hands with the record industry devil and become semisuccesful. Not in America, becuase they can't listen to a video director ass clown or photo shoot Hollywood douche either. "Dandy Warhols" become big in Europe where they mesmerize the crowds with electrifying performances.

Although there is no climax or resolution in the documentary, I liked to see the inside view of this evil machinery the record industry has become. It's sad that the whole business is 90% marketing. It's like the mailman gets the credit for all the good letters, or the typist for writing a good novel. It doesn't matter that you are the most talented musician in the world. If you don't whore yourself to the producers standards, you're out. Everything is driven by ratings and sales, so if you're a genius out of your time you are doomed to oblivion.

By the way, since I've heard them about 2 years ago, Dandy Warhols have been one of my favorite bands. Does anybody else know who they are though?

BUSTED

2006-02-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

This was two weeks ago. I think I was coming from the store and was probably just zoning out. There goes my lunch for 10 days. It's a bummer!

one saturday

2006-02-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

My blog-denying roommate Zeb, our new fishtank, and the coolest $10 clock evah.

Procrastinating

2006-02-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

Inches away from my garden level window. If I want to procrastinate all I have to do is look outside.

Sunday grading

2006-02-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

This is what Sundays look like.

Aussie vs. American

2006-02-16T23:54:00.000-07:00

I found this article very interesting. Some people might not find it PC because it's pretty much a broad generalization, but I like it. My favorite part is about how children are raised. That's absolutely true about Europe too. Kids play outside all the time, all by themselves, and don't have to report to their parents every second. There is some sort of trust that develops and then you don't have kids that either mature or party themselves to destruction when they get to college.

The right to bear arms...

2006-02-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

You won't believe this shit . Check out some pure clean family fun for these Oklahoma rednecks. You'll get a chance to see a five year old GIRL firing a machine gun and people blowing shit up left and right. This is America, the land of the free and home of the brave.

squirrel fishing

2006-02-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

I found this on my ex-roommates facebook. Sounds like fun.

Interior design - Romanian style

2006-02-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I stumbled upon this, but it looks decent. Mom, where are you, are you reading this?

http://www.cass-design.com/portofoliu.html

Humping all the way...

2006-02-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is what my Christmas present looked like. What would I do without friends? I was wondering at what Christmas store do you go and ask for "humping theme" wrapping paper, but then I found out they got it at a store in Fayetteville called Condom Sense. It all made perfect sense then. Get it?

Romania in pictures

2006-02-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

The Peace Corps Volunteers in Romania present a very accurate tour of Romania. The pictures are breathtaking and cover all the important areas of the Romanian life. This is the first website that made me say: yeah, that's exactly how Romania is . Deffinitely worth clicking on: HERE .

P.S. It works better in Internet Explorer for some reason. Mozilla gives a funny white background.

the easy way out?

2006-02-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

Some Iranian newspaper is going to hold a cartoon contest similar to the one the danish newspaper had a month ago. Not surprisingly, their theme will be the Holocaust. In some sort of retribution, they are trying to piss off the Jews, but I don't believe their tactic will work very well. What they don't understand is that the western society doesn't officially value Jesus, Mohammed, Shiva, or pride. Instead, we value liberty and freedom and speech. I say that Matt and Trey should make a whole episode where they make fun of God, Holocaust, and Kyle and send it in for the contest. Maybe this would be the solution for the cartoon crisis, eh?

Windows, faster, now

2006-02-07T01:47:00.000-07:00

I found this website and I managed to reduce the startup time of my tired laptop from a whopping 305 seconds to 210. Isn't that something to write home about? It's indeed a 33% decrease but my lappie still sucks.

Bear Peak photos

2006-02-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went hiking with Zeb. We did Bear Peak here in Boulder which turned out to be more fun than I expected. I finally managed to take some pictures so I posted them on my new flickr accout:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragos

How to make PDF's for free

2006-02-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

I finally found a sweet program that will make PDF files from scans or any other file format for free: Pdf995

Bible meets Real World

2006-02-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to the International Film Series and saw The Real Old Testament. The director and producer is a former CU student and the whole thing reminded me of how South Park started. He's going to treat more subjects with the same Real World idea: Lewis and Clark, Trojan Wars, The New Testament. Apparently God has also a video blog at www. realgodvlog.com . At the end fo the film God himself made an appearance in the Muenzinger auditorium and we had the chance to ask him a lot of funny questions. Although the movie itself has only my B, I have to admit that the whole idea has incredible potential.

My delicious links

2006-01-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

Last year I signed up for the del.icio.us link aggregator website and this is what I have gathered so far.

Fear of Girls

2006-01-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

No comment.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7521044027821122670

The Detroit Project

2006-01-27T18:59:00.000-07:00

Arianna Online has on her first page three ads for "The Detroit Project", which is a campaign about reducing the fuel consumption of the average american car. I know so many smart conscious people that say: "Well, I am used to driving sitting up high and I like to be safe. I will always drive an SUV". That logic works until somebody is driving a bigger car, and then you have to upgrade yourself. And that's the way we end up consuming a ridiculous percent of world's oil reserve. There, I feel like such a Boulderite now!

Excellent live music online

2006-01-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Boulder non-clearchannel radio station is quite excellent. KBCO has such a great reputation that every artist that comes to play in Boulder stops by their studio and plays live for the whole town. KBCO records the live shows and makes a CD that comes out every year around Christmas. Lines are formed early in the morning at the few local electronics stores supported by KBCO and the thousands of CD's are sold within minutes. Recently KBCO created a new online radio station, KBCO2 The Studio C Channel, that plays non-stop all the KBCO live performances. If you ask me it's the best online radio I've listened to. Sometimes I love this community driven town so much!

Home sweet home

2006-01-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

I missed Boulder a lot. Looking at these Flatirons every morning when going to school does something to you. Which reminds me: school started, teaching continues and homework and craziness will soon take control. Such is life.

Hey, fishy fishy ...

2006-01-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

We use our new fishtank as a TV set. Is far more relaxing.

gypsy beats

2006-01-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

"The Balkan Beat Box" is the name of a jewish band that combines hard-rock, and techno with eastern european traditional music. I found out about them via a recent NPR story. They are so energetic and catchy that they might have a chance here in the US.

We, the Romanian people ...

2006-01-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

While I was home for the holidays I met Gabby a Peace Corps Volunteer in my town, Piatra Neamt. We talked a lot about Romania and the way we feel about solving the problems the country faces. Recently she asked me to write a short piece about my image of Romania after five years of living in the States. In case anybody else is interested, this is what came out. Again, thanks Gabby for doing what you're doing. I know not very many Romanians see the importance of you being there, but I hope you will be able to open many minds.

Making fun of yourself is an important survival skill, and the main reason why Romanians have been around for thousands of years. One of my favorite jokes about Romania goes like this: In the third day of Genesis God created Earth and went around distributing the natural wealth and riches. At the end of the day Hungary and Bulgaria came up to God and said with an angry voice: “God, you are so unfair. Why did you give so much wealth to Romania? They have oil, natural gas, three feet deep of the blackest soil, beautiful beaches, tall mountains, and hills filled with gold. We don’t even have a tenth of the stuff that they do. Why God, why?” With his well known fatherly grave voice God replied: “My dear sons Hungary and Bulgaria, just wait until you see the Romanian people”.

Although I am a Romanian, I love this joke and I never felt offended by it. It is a paradox that all the Romanians criticize their own country and people. “Romanians are this”, “Romanians are that”, but nobody really mentions that they are themselves Romanian. And, if I may be excused for my honesty, this is the exact kind of hypocrisy I will use in this letter.

When I think about the joke I obviously realize that there must be something bad about these “Romanian people”. The first thing that comes to mind is: they must be stupid. They must have an average intelligence below that of their fellow neighbors. They are probably intellectually incapable of managing all those natural riches that God gave them for free. But when I think a little bit more I understand that stupidity can’t be the real reason. I was born, raised and educated in Romania and my family, friends, and teachers were some of the smartest people I’ve known in my life. Each year Romanian high school students top the charts at math, physics and chemistry international Olympiads. From personal experience I know that Romanian researchers and professors are well respected in the US academia. In my recent visit home I met with some of my old friends from high school and I was impressed with their knowledge of American geography and politics: “So, it’s going to be Condi vs. Hillary in 3 years. That’s something, huh?” or “So you’re in Colorado now. That’s actually a few degrees latitude lower than Romania, isn’t it? And a little more deserty, no?” It is clear now. Romanians are definitely not stupid, but rather smarter than other people in the world.

If they’re not dumb, then maybe they’re lazy. They don’t like to work and hence can’t use all those beautiful things God gave them. They probably just loaf around all day, doing the minimum to get by and not caring about being rich or poor. Some might partially agree with this, but I found out when I was in Romania for the holidays that this reason doesn’t stand either. Recently there has been an exodus of Romanians to Spain, Italy and France in search for jobs. They are going there to pick strawberries, tend for retired people and build roads and houses for a minimum wage. These are all hard jobs and you can’t be lazy to do them. Even the Americans agree with me. The coordinator of a work exchange program that takes skilled Eastern European teenagers to work in restaurants, camps and nursing homes in the US recently declared that the most sought after workforce are the Romanians. The American employers find the Romanians industrious, responsible and motivated. Ok, ok, I get it. Romanians are not lazy, they’re actually harder workers than the other eastern Europeans, according to these accounts.

I could go on like this for pages. Every negative attribute that I can think of is immediately neutralized by a strong counterexample. The Romanian wine makers are just at passionate and careful as the French, the cheese makers just as skilled and traditional as the Swiss, the writers, poets, and journalists just as witty and funny as Bill Maher, and the politicians as wicked and conniving as Carl Rove. However, the joke stands true like a prophecy. Romania has one of the lowest standards of living in Europe and the Romanians are officially the unhappiest people in the world. How is this possible? After living five years in the States I can bet that if one would transplant all the Romanian people in America, the vast majority of them would integrate quickly and become soon examples of the American dream. The solution is now very clear: we should move all the Romanians in the US and bring back 22 million of Americans. All the Romanian resources will be put to good use and America will benefit from all the wonderful qualities of the Romanian people.

On a more serious note, I think that two are the main reasons why this joke is unfortunately true. First reason is an acute lack of organization and planning. The leadership is lacking accountability and is generally incompetent. Romania is like a salt solution. The individual ions are very potent, charged, and reactive. But in solution, the positive and negative ions rearrange spontaneously so that the overall result is a neutral boring Saline nasal spray. I find it therefore essential to have people like the Peace Corps Volunteers to come in and bring a sense of organization to Romania.

The other reason is the existence of this joke itself. Many times I am confronted by my friends: “Don’t you have anything positive to say about Romania?” The truth is I tend to be such a Debbie Downer about my motherland not because there are not enough positive things to say about it, but because I am myself deep inside a negative Romanian. A tiny bit of self esteem and a more positive look on life would go a long way for us Romanians. That’s why I encourage any American in Romania to do what they know best: smile. One day it might rub off.

Cousin

2006-01-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

Madalina is my super cool cousin and she has a super cool website: www.madalinaseghete.com .

Romeo, oh Romeo ...

2006-01-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Breaking news!! Juliet has a new partner after last year's tragedy when an uneducated coyote, a brute, had Romeo for supper. The new lover will soon be baptised, so I have to come up with a kewl name.

Flickr

2006-01-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

I created a Flickr Pro account for my family. They needed a place to post their digital photos and I found Flickr to be the user-friendliest. Will see if I made the right decision.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/famseghete

snow and flavors

2006-01-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

This picture is gorgeous but quite misleading. Not much snow here in Romania, not even that cold. The world just turned crazy. I haven't done anything for three weeks and I feel great. I had the most amazing meals, and I was spoiled by my family by being left alone to do a lot of nothing. That's what I call true love.

New Phone

2005-12-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

(0114) 074 192 2479

This is my new cell phone number while here in Romania. Call me if you want to meet up. I am planning to go ski in Vatra Dornei after New Years, but I will be at home for most of the other time. I am leaving on Jan 12th, and I would love to meet some old buddies from middle school or highschool. Just call.

Romania, the land of ...

2005-12-20T01:42:00.000-07:00

... change, because I just got back from the gym. A pretty nice facility, with weights, treadmills, big ass pool, tanning and massage. 16 visits for a little less than $20. Life is sweet.
Dr. Pepper. YES, they have the infamous Dr. Pepper, who sits in my fridge right now. I will come with a pic to prove it pretty soon. Alas it's 30 cents a can, it's still DP, in Romania!!!
supermarkets. Since last year they have opened a gazillion little super markets / grocery stores. They probably have the variety on the shelves of K-mart displayed on a tenth of shelf space. Sometimes I don't want to get something because I destroy the beautiful merchandise symmetry.
cops. Radar detectors are legal, but cops know how to outsmart them. They hide the popo car in the bushes and turn the radar gun on for a few seconds just for those that look like they're speeding. The sad part of the story is that they did just that when me and my dad were driving from the airport, and now my dad is driver-licenseless. Yes, he was driving 70mph on a stretch of the road that looked exactly like any other highway, except that it had five houses on the side, hence a speed limit of 30mph. For three months he will experiment with the train system, I guess.

the end is near

2005-12-04T21:12:00.000-07:00

This was outside of the chemistry building about a month ago. Now it's cold, windy and quite desolate. Finals are coming up, grading abounds and the times are just crazy. I can't wait for all this to end and to go home to Romania and hang out with my parents for a while.

More campus pictures that I don't have time to post somewhere else.

betty

2005-12-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

Betty is my car of course, and she just passed the age of 100,000 miles. I hope she has about twice as much to go, as she is japanese breed and very healthy. Actually, I had to fix some things this week after my 2000 mile trip to Arkansas and back.

The Aristocrats

2005-11-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

If you were never offended by a dirty joke then it's time to see the Aristocrats. The documentary is named after an improv joke that's been circling the comedy scene since the 1900's. The idea is simple: you have to say the most offensive, vial, disgusting, wrong, and downright sick things that can ever pass through your mind. Here's a version of the Aristocrats by Eric Cartman of South Park, CO. WARNING! - if you are underage or easily offended by foul language just get the fudge out.

Apparently this joke is never performed in front of the audience and it is rather used as a skill meter by comedians. In the documentary more than 100 entertainment figures put a spin on this joke. What's amazing is not the sheer number of versions of the joke but how different they are and the fact that you can see the creative juices flow right in front of your eyes. Leave your kids at home and head out to the independent film theater near you. Or, if you can wait till January when the DVD comes out, pull out your slippers, make a cup of earl grey tea, adjust your spectacles, cross your legs on the couch, turn the movie on, and be an aristocrat.

financial analysis #2

2005-09-10T20:30:00.000-06:00

It's the end of another month so here's the breakdown:

From Jul 22nd to Sep 9th I spent $2890 as follows:

11.74 % food
1.33 % clothing
2.46 % entertainment
35.51 % utillities
5.18 % car insurance
11.09 % transportation
7.18% household needs
5.49 % computer
3.28 % education
1.72 % health/hygene
15.03 % other

By far utillities dominate my expenses. Food is not too bad this month, and transportation is a little higher because of gas prices and my trip to Canada.

personality test

2005-08-19T10:14:00.000-06:00

Here's my personality:

ENTJ - "Field Marshall". The basic driving force and need is to lead. Tend to seek a position of responsibility and enjoys being an executive. 1.8% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

The most brilliant theater play in the world

2005-08-06T20:08:00.000-06:00

is just 2 minutes long. I am not kidding. Listen to this episode of "This American Life" and skip to 25:30 . I am still laughing out loud by myself. Just brilliant!

"Preparing boys for girls"

2005-08-03T18:48:00.000-06:00

I finally grabbed a copy of the series "Freaks and Geeks" and have been recently savouring each episode. For those less familiar with the greatest show on the face of the Earth, "Freaks and Geeks" reveals a deep analysis of high-school adolescence hidden under the covers of another cheesy teenage show. Don't be fooled by the apparent geekiness of the movie, but pay attention to the outstanding acting (especially Neil and Bill), excellent character building and unexpectedly good film-making.

I really didn't want to talk about my questionable past-time activities on here, but today I heard on NPR a very thoughtful commentary by Gwen Macsai that relates in a odd way to the subject of "Freaks and Geeks". In "Preparing boys for girls" the commentator looks at the abysmal differences between her childern: on one side stand her two boys who have only four emotional states: happy, sad, mad, and hungry and on the other is her daughter who displays a wide range of complex drama-queen like emotions. How can a mother teach her simple four-state males about the hyper-emotional females that await them? The straight answer is: she can't, but it's still fun to listen to her blurb.

Music flavors

2005-07-23T17:03:00.000-06:00

I just remembered that a few months ago I signed up for audioscrobbler, a program that tracks all the songs I play on Winamp and makes a webpage with the history of my music. So I guess this is the music I have been listening to lately.

Living expenses

2005-07-23T11:30:00.000-06:00

It's a slow Saturday morning and I have nothing better to do than being nerdy. I was curious to see how much it cost me to live in Boulder for a month and a half and what did I spend my money on. I tallied everything up, I looked at my receipts and and my credit card statements and here's the conclusion:

Between June 13 and July 22 I spent a total of $1845 which was broken up as follows:

15.24% food
3.20% clothing
3.25% entertainment - going out, beer, movies
29.10% utilities - rent, cable, electricity
4.34% insurance - car
0.51% transportation - gas + bike expenses
18.08% household - furniture, appliances, cleaning supplies, etc.
15.10% computer - monitor, dvd, memory
0.00% education - books, texts
0.44% health - medicine, hospital visits
7.78% other

I surely spent too much on food, and it looks like the expenses on the household will be high until I get all the stuff that I need for my apartment. Also, the computer expenses were a little steep this month because I needed to make a serious upgrades to my 4 year old beast. Will see what happens next month.

Branding Romania

2005-07-18T20:47:00.001-06:00

I have recently stumbled upon Branding Romania, a place where people share ideas about the most effective way to change Romania's image abroad. Being here in the States for four years I can say that most people bring up a slightly negative third world country image when they hear about Romania: ugly people with sad faces, bad teeth, russian-like brutality in language and actions, Dracula, and tiny but very serious gymnasts. Fortunately, since I have come to Boulder I saw the other side of the fence, that is an American community where people know a lot about Romania, its culture and centuries old traditions.

Last weekend, for example, the Romanian festival took place down on Pearl street. Yes, an entire festival with food, dances, clothing only from Romania was the main weekend event in Boulder. It turns out many Americans find the energetic dances and unusual Romanain songs extremely interesting. I guess it's just like bagpipe music which some native "green men" might not find that exciting, but which I love very much.

The Romanian festival was organized by the Romanian American Freedom Alliance, a handful of Romania-enthusiasts (both American and Romanian). I think that RAFA's actions are the most compelling argument in building Romania's image. I haven't seen anywhere in the US people so open and knowing so much about Romania's geographical location, its problems with joining EU or even knowing the detailed stories behind some "doina de jale" traditional Romanian songs. Now, that's changing Romania's image!

Mountainbiking trip - Sourdough trail

2005-07-17T23:32:00.000-06:00

Markus against "Lefthand" reservoir

Like almost any other day here in Boulder, today was "active" day. This time I went mountainbiking with Markus and a couple of his buddies. We went up in Ward on the Sourdough trail. Although my bike and other equipment is not up to the highest standards I had a lot of fun going up some steep and narrow trails. This time I couldn't help taking some gorgeous pictures so if you go to my website you can check them out in the Photos section.

2005-07-10T20:40:00.000-06:00

I finally had time to take some pictures of my new Boulder home. Check out my homepage under the Photos section. Yesterday I went climbing with Zack, Oscar and some other chemistry people and it was a blast. Today I ran 6 miles and it fealt great.

Tantra Lake - my home in Boulder

2005-07-10T20:38:00.000-06:00

My famous hummus

Romania living in the middle ages

2005-07-02T14:57:00.000-06:00

Yes, I am back alive in the blog world. Boulder is awesome, summer work is enjoyable but more about that in a future post.

A recent article in the New York Times brings about a very careful analysis of the most recent case of Eastern Orthodox fanaticism. I understand that people have spiritual needs but is religion belief the grounds for killing people? Hell NO. I hope that so called priest and those nuns stay in prison for a long time to show that there is a clear separation between religion and state.

2005-06-10T14:34:00.000-06:00

sitting right on the 40th parallel

2005-06-10T14:31:00.001-06:00

In the Flatirons

2005-06-10T14:31:00.000-06:00

Vlad cu basca