The Romanian Dream » american

Dolls?!

Mircea — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:14:00 +0000

If your IQ is smaller than your age you’re gonna’ totally dig this hip dolls I saw:

I’m normally a person that likes toys but this twitard thingy has gone too far. I mean… C’mon! Dolls??. And right near the checkout counters. When will the stupidity stop?

BTW, you should totally buy Edward, not Jacob. Jacob is lame. I mean there were more Jacobs dolls left than all the other 2 figures combined. Jacob is lame. Pair Edward with Bella, we know you want them to be together! Let Edward suck the blood out of her plastic neck already!!

Jesus is a Bodybuilder

Mircea — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:23:43 +0000

When I saw the big Jesus on the t shirt of a guy at the gym I thought to myself: he must be one of those hardcore Christians than everybody in the US has grown to accept. Still had a slightly WTF feeling, but you cannot really question the beliefs of a hardcore Christian, can you?

After that I read the full message on the t shirt and understood that not only was he a Christian, he was also a bodybuilder. The t shirt read: Jesus is a bodybuilder. Adding Ephesians 4:11-16 underneath this should add some authenticity, not. Talking about weird things.

Here is the site where you can see all the Jesus gear to help you with your workout & shit:

http://www.discipletraininggear.com/disciple-training-gear-apparel

If you’re not already hooked by this one, surely the God is a power lifter one will get you hooked.

Back from Vacation

Mircea — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:49:32 +0000

After driving more than 3800 miles and spending almost a week in the beautiful states of Utah and Arizona we are back in the Seattle area. Saw some extraordinary places (pictures to follow depending on time available to sort/upload them) and have a few funny stories about the experience. We’ve sampled summer as it should be (>=100F) but seems we had to return to rainy Seattle (who is also beautiful in it’s own special way).

Recycling Drama

Mircea — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 05:18:37 +0000

Somebody really screwed up something if the giant teddy bear got recycled.

Edward Weston

Mircea — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:27:34 +0000

Does the name Edward Payson Weston say anything to you? I thought so.

Well, this gentleman who lived between 1839-1929 is responsible for some feats that are simply remarkable. To make a long story short he is famous for… walking (The Father of Modern Pedestrianism as Wikipedia describes him).

The one piece of information that drew my attention is the “walk” he did from Boston to Washington, DC in 1861, due to a lost bet. 479 miles (769 km) in 10 days and 10 hours. That is simply incredible. If we compute his average speed, we end up with a number that most of people nowadays cannot obtain even on short distances, and by short distances in this context I mean 4-5 miles (assuming he walked 16 hours/day => 16*10+10=170 hours => 479 / 170 = 2.8 mph)

Read the whole Wikipedia page and sources to see how exceptional his whole story is. Considering he lived 90 years in the 19th century, what do you think about the benefits of an active lifestyle now?

On Linchpins and Tribe Leaders

Mircea — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:18:43 +0000

This are my thoughts after reading 2 of Seth Godin’s books.

In case you don’t know, this guy claims that he’s the most influential business blogger in the world. Maybe he is. The 2 book are are:

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

The recipe seems to be almost identical: take a simple idea and wrap it in a few layers of stories to make it more credible. Build around it using simple but somewhat hard to prove claims and keep repeating the main idea obsessively. Speak to your audience like they are the second coming of Jesus on this Earth and make them genuinely believe that they are a hidden gem ready to be uncovered.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against these kind of motivational tactics and I do get the fact that the author understands how his audience thinks. Actually I admire the fact that he can do that with such a simple message and get away with it.

What I do have a problem with is the “you’re special, you don’t need anything else, just take this pill” approach. Also I have a problem with the simple message which should be applied to any generic situation. But than again, if the message wouldn’t be in this form, he wouldn’t be the “world’s best most influential business blogger”

Leaving your mark… the snow edition

Mircea — Mon, 24 May 2010 03:47:15 +0000

Episode 4 from “human nature” series:

All pictures were taken during the fabulous Mt Pilchuck hike.

Group Death Cooperative

Mircea — Wed, 19 May 2010 03:35:53 +0000

I’ve written about the American Health System before: http://theromaniandream.com/blog/2010/02/01/taboo-%E2%80%93-american-health-system/

It’s not that my naivety level has suffered any major changes lately, but my experience with my health care “provider” (aka Group Health Cooperative) is a surreal one.

Lately I have been having some mild pain in my right hip and I went to have it looked at. After a somewhat short visit at the primary care physician I was referred to orthopedics and physical therapy. The first surprise came when scheduling the PT appointment. The time I have to wait for someone from PT to consult me from the moment I made the appointment: 3.5 weeks. That’s not surprising considering my previous experiences, but 3.5 weeks is too long. But wait! After the visit to the orthopedics, I found out that I need an MRI for them to be able to tell what’s wrong. I attempted to schedule that today and the happy event will take place on the 20th of July. That’s about 9 weeks, or if you want it in months: more than 2 months. I’ll say that again: 9 weeks! What kind of health care is this?

What do you suppose will happen in the following 9 weeks if there is something fundamentally wrong with my hip? Do you think that the way these guys choose to provide medical services is at least flawed if not absolutely moronic? Do I need to say that this is for an insurance that’s supposed to be one of the bests that there is, at least in these area?

At least, back home in Romania, if you have the money and you are willing to shell it out for a quality medical service you can do that. Think about this for a second and you’ll see how wrong the system is over here on so many levels.

That being said, I’m officially giving the longest finger to the nice Cooperative and I’m looking forward to switching to Premera, where hopefully things will suck less and I will manage to get some bang for the buck the insurance company gets.

Leaving your mark… the urban edition

Mircea — Mon, 10 May 2010 05:12:37 +0000

Time for episode 3 in “human nature” studies series.

All pictures are taken near Exit 13 I405 ramps.

Leaving your mark… the obtuse edition

Mircea — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:31:24 +0000

In a previous post I started to explore human nature. Now it’s time for episode 2.

Here are some samples of what people left inside the Heybrook Lookout:

feedback is king

all you need is love

mesage from evil robots from the future

You Will Respect My Authoritah!