Pe lângă plopii fără soţ...

"Pe lângă plopii fără soţ
Adesea am trecut;
Mă cunoşteau vecinii toţi -
Tu nu m-ai cunoscut.

La geamul tău ce strălucea
Privii atât de des;
O lume toată-nţelegea -
Tu nu m-ai înţeles.

De câte ori am aşteptat
O şoaptă de răspuns!
O zi din viaţă să-mi fi dat,
O zi mi-era de-ajuns;

O oră să fi fost amici,
Să ne iubim cu dor,
S-ascult de glasul gurii mici
O oră, şi să mor.

Dându-mi din ochiul tău senin
O rază dinadins,
În calea timpilor ce vin
O stea s-ar fi aprins;

Ai fi trăit în veci de veci
Şi rânduri de vieţi,
Cu ale tale braţe reci
Înmărmureai măreţ,

Un chip de-a pururi adorat
Cum nu mai au perechi
Acele zâne ce străbat
Din timpurile vechi.

Căci te iubeam cu ochi păgâni
Şi plini de suferinţi,
Ce mi-i lăsară din bătrâni
Părinţii din părinţi.

Azi nici măcar îmi pare rău
Că trec cu mult mai rar,
Că cu tristeţe capul tău
Se-ntoarce în zadar,

Căci azi le semeni tuturor
La umblet şi la port,
Şi te privesc nepăsător
C-un rece ochi de mort.

Tu trebuia să te cuprinzi
De acel farmec sfânt
Şi noaptea candelă s-aprinzi
Iubirii pe pământ."

Mihai Eminescu
1883, 28 August / 9 Septembrie

- source -

Tag: My music band

Catalin tagged me.

Rules:

1. Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click here. The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band
2. Go to “Random quotations” or click here. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click here. The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

So...

Band Name: F.D. Millet
First Album Name: Mental Assimilation

Anyone interested in a little fun on the internet is welcome to try it out... :D

Back in ...black?

No, I'm not dead.
Yes, I've been away.
Yes, I'm back. Yipee!

10 Things ...

I've been asked (by Cata) to write 10 things that I like and 10 that I dislike. Here we go:

10 things that I like (/love):

- Snow;
- Love;
- the color blue;
- poetry and music;
- Harry Potter;
- Football (as in soccer);
- Melancholy;
- justice;
- small babies (:X);
- her;

10 things that I dislike(/hate):

- ignorance;
- indifference;
- bullies;
- cruelty;
- the current government here in Romania ( :)) );
- xbox fanboys (not you Andrew, you know you rule!);
- giving blood (:|);
- being scared;
- mud;
- being ill;

Anyone is invited to respond to this post...

If i were a...

I keep seeing this quiz on the internet, so here are my answers:

If I were a month, I would be December.
If I were a day of the week, I would be Friday.
If I were a time of day, I would be 24:00.
If I were a sea animal, I would be a dolphin.
If I were a direction, I would be west.
If I were a virtue, I would be justice.

If I were a historical figure I would be Napoleon.
If I were a planet, I would be Jupiter.
If I were a liquid, I would be chocolate milk.
If I were a stone, I would be a sapphire.
If I were a tree, I would be a Christmas one.
If I were a bird, I would be an eagle.

If I were a flower/plant, I would be a red rose.
If I were a kind of weather, I’d be a snowy day.
If I were a mythical creature, I’d be an elf.
If I were a musical instrument, I would be a piano.
If I were an animal, I would be a dog.
If I were an emotion, I would be deep love.

If I were a sound, I would be the sound of silence.
If I were an element, I would be fire.

If I were a song, I would be "In the end" by Linkin Park.
If I were a movie, I would be Click.
If I were a tv-series, I would be Brainiac.
If I were a writer, I would be Goethe.
If I were a painter, I would be Claude Monet.
If I were a book, I’d be The Little Prince.
If I were a fictional character, I’d be Dumbledore.

If I were a food, I would be a chocolate cake.
If I were a place, I would be France.
If I were a city, I would be Paris.
If I were a taste, I would be bittersweet.
If I were a scent, I would be the scent of the one you love.
If I were a colour, I would be dark blue.
If I were a fabric, I would be cotton.

If I were a word, I would be ‘feeling’.
If I were a body part, I would be the eyes.
If I were a facial expression, I would be thoughtfulness.
If I were a subject in school, I would be physics.
If I were a cartoon character, I’d be Scooby Doo.
If I were a shape, I would be a triangle.

If I were a number, I would be 3.
If I were a car, I would be an Audi TT.
If I were an item of clothing, I would be a T-shirt.

Anyone that wants to take this test is free to do so. You can also post the answer as a comment, of course.

Shuffle for the win!

I've been tagged by Denize. Here are the rules:

1.Put your music player on shuffle.
2.Press forward for each question.
3.Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. NO CHEATING!
4.Bold the questions and with the answers, give your own comments on how it relates to the questions.
5.Tag 5 people.

Ok, here we go:

1. How are you feeling today?
Rammstein - Du Hast (not in the mood?)
2. Will you get far in your life?
Louis Armstrong - What a wonderful world (so, I'll grow old and be very happy and live in a beautiful environment with happy people? - slim chances, but if Louis says so...)
3. How do your friends see you?
Anathema - Closer (Your dream world is a very scary place/To be trapped
inside... - so they think I'm a helpless dreamer?)
4. Will you every marry?
Tenacious D - Friendship (Friendship is rare...)
5. What is the favourite theme of your best friend?
Vangelis - Eternal Alexander (instrumental)
6. What is the story of your life?
Charles Aznavour - Morir de Amor (LoL:|)
7. How was it in highschool?
Smokie - Don´t Take Your Love Away This Time (...)
8. How can you advance in life?
Staind - So Far Away (by never regretting what I've done and never being ashamed of who I am?)
9. What is the coolest thing about your friends?
Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy (true...true... =)))
10. What's in store for the weekend?
Steppenwolf - Born to Be Wild (perfect, considering the fact that I've got an Olympiad in Informatics and one in English then...)
11. What song describes you best?
HIM - The Funeral Of Hearts ( He was the moon painting you
with its glow so vulnerable and pale...)
12. How about your grandparents?
The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog (Now I'm ready to close my eyes/And now I'm ready to close my mind/And now I'm ready to feel your hand/And lose my heart on the burning sands)
13. How is your life going?
Falco - Rock Me Amadeus (He was a Punker/And he lived in the big city/It was Vienna, was Vienna/Where he did everything/He had debts, for he drank/But all the women loved him - translation...riiiiight!)
14. What song will play at your funeral?
HIM - The face of god (Nothing will be enough/For the ones who keep on stumbling/In the garden of withering trust/Without the courage to leave - would have rather preferred "For My Fallen Angel" , but this works, too...)
15. How does the world see you?
3SudEst - Cand Soarele Rasare (LOL, if you don't know them, don't bother
asking, if you do, still don't...)
16. Will you have a happy life?
Therion - Helheim (Hel, the godess of death is also the godess of fulfilment. Her name means both "hole" and "whole" and she governs not only death but also the process of birth and rebirth. - so, I guess I'll have a life full of death and rebirth? - that's good, right?)
17. What do your friends really think about you?
Daniel Iancu - Muri'ti'ar capra (hahahahahahhahaah=-))=)) )
18. Are there people that secretly want you?
Him - Soul On Fire (perhaps?)
19. How to make myself happy?
After Forever - Dreamflight (keep on living through dreams, like a dreamer that I am?)
20. What should you do with your life?
Los Lobos with Antonio Banderas - Morena De Mi Corazon (become a latin, macho guitar player/part time assassin?)

I'd like to nominate Cata, Deedee, Matei, Adi and Mihai. And whoever else wants to take this funny test, do it and write about it in the comments section.

2008

Well, 2008 is here, and this is the first post meant to celebrate and mark this event.

Happy new year guys! May the following year bring us everything that we wish for and more, things that we don't know we want yet and that we will figure out as time goes on.

By the way, you know I've got three consoles: Ps3/Ps2/Wii. Guess which was the first I played on in 2008? Yeah, the Wii... gotta love it :X... (mom beat me at bowling - kinda sad)

Moving on, what do you wish for in this new year?
Do you have any New Year's resolution? - I don't. I usually find goals 'on the go' and I try and try, until I've accomplished them. Works well, what can I say?

Well, may the spirit of the Rat (2008 being the Year of the Rat according to Chinese astrology) be with all of us and may it give us plenty of hope and joy! (as much as the spirit of a rat could, that is...)

Happy New Year!P.S. Here are a few pictures of me in 2008...

See you next year!

So, this is the last post that I'm writing this year.

Why? Because here, in Romania, there are 20 more minutes until midnight, 20 more minutes until the year 2008.

What can I say?

I've had a wonderful year, full of joy, good health, love and everything else I've wished for. Everything has gone according to plan, all my friends are healthy, everything is fine.

May the new year bring you, and me, all that we want, all the happiness and all the good things we wish for.

Bye, 2007! I hope I'll see you again:))! Now, brb, I've got some champagne to drink and some fireworks to watch.

2008, Bring it on!

Christmas is here...

Well, Christmas is upon us.

Santa's certified that I've been a good boy this year by coming over and dropping off a few presents.

The weather outside is just as I love it, snowy and freezing. You may call me weird for loving the winter, but I find it to be the most beautiful season of the year, by far.

To read more on what I think of Santa and Christmas in general, be sure to go here.

Did Santa stop by your house last night? If yes, what did he leave there?

The following of the Creed is over

So, It's 1:30 am on December the 22nd, and I've officially been playing Assassin's Creed for the past 8 hours or so (yes, dinner and time-outs included) and I've finished it.

What can I say...an incredible game! The story is so twisted that, when you start believing something you think is true, something happens that changes your mind but immediately afterwards you find out something else that takes you back to what you originally believed.

The only downside that may be brought up of this game is, in my opinion, its ending.
The ending is quite nice and intriguing, the whole sequence after you finish you final mission being as a roller-coaster ride, taking you up and down successively until you end up asking yourself if the game is over or not.
Although it's a very original one, I must admit not knowing whether a game is over or not has never happened to me before.

Perhaps I will sit down and write a review of Assassin's Creed, maybe even tomorrow, because I feel that it's a game worth playing, an experience very much worth living, its messages (even teachings) being quite educational and the entire gameplay quite revolutionary in itself.

Express yourself!

I've always thought one should express his personality any way he can.
I mean, why be who you are, an individual and all, if you're not showing it? How can you say you're different if you're not proving it? By the way, isn't that what blogs are for? I know that's why I created this blog, because I sought a way to express and to find out who I was. Now, you should find out who you are!
I'm not going to list all the ways you can express yourself, because tomorrow I've got a term paper, but writing and drawing are two of the most prominent ones.

Drawing...here's something you'll find as being fun if you're into drawing (or not) :

ExpressYourself1

As far as writing is concerned, if you feel up to the task of expressing who you are by literary means, either by a work of fiction, an article on something you find interesting or any original composition, go ahead and try it out. Maybe you have literary talent... if you don't try and find out, how can you tell?

I guarantee that you will find it both relaxing and rewarding and, when you're done, you can send me an e-mail at cosminhards@yahoo.com with the composition. We can discuss it if that's what you'd like and I promise that, with your agreement (if it's not spam), I'll post it to the blog.

You know what, I'm calling this a campaign. A campaign on finding out who you really are, as an individual in today's society. You can send your thoughts and compositions to the email above, and I'm going to post them periodically, so we can find out who we are together!

"Express yourself!" - Let others see who you are and you won't feel sorry about it!

Wii are the champions!

Today is my birthday. Perhaps you already knew that (like, if you've read the last post).

Anyway, today I'm turning 16. Happy birthday for me!

Among the very nice presents I've received today, besides the new clothes, a new home theater system, and a happy-b'day kiss from all the girls in my class, is a Nindendo Wii. Zomg, a NINTENDO WII!

So, now I've got two next-gen consoles to examine and enjoy. Wohoo for me!

Sorry for not posting in a while but I'm very busy playing the Wii (the thing really makes you sweat :\) and the new Ps3 games (CoD 4, Assassin's Creed & Fifa 08) and studying for school.

Later!
Cya!

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?

Shi(F)t happens

As you may have noticed, I've changed the template.

These are times of civil unrest (actually, no they're not, but let's pretend it is so) so one must adapt to the changes of the environment, as the true animal he is.

I'd like to know your opinion on the new theme, any advices and criticism is highly cherished and recommended.
Don't know if I'll stick with this one yet, because I am currently trying out more interesting and never-before-seen-by-the-average-Joe-that-only-surfs-the-net -for-one-hour-per-week (wow, that's gotta be the longest one I've come up with by now - give it up for t3h M0ony and his not-so-funny-or-functional-thingy/thingies) features for the blog.

I'll keep you informed! I hope you'll do the same, either by mail, or by comments.

Historical?

Yesterday I went to the football match Romania - Albania with 6 of my closest friends.

Of course we got there half an hour before the start of the game and we had to trample on (and get trampled on) a crowd of fans to get some tickets (and of course we twice sat in the wrong line, finally getting tickets for the 1st stand, although we wanted to go to the 2nd one). Some were jumping over the fence, some were selling overpriced tickets...everyday Romania, what can I say?

We managed to buy tickets 5 minutes after the start of the game. We entered the complex and started running towards the stadium. After passing a couple of gates, we found out one of the two 1st stands was full, so we had to run another quarter-stadium to get to the second one. Finally getting there, we were checked (for weapons or other dangerous items?) and I was asked to leave a water bottle there. Of course I had two with me, so no harm done there. The trouble was the others had gone on without me, so for about a minute I had to guess the way they had taken, before finally finding them. We finally found 7 seats in a row in the corner of the stadium, put some paper on them (see, the Math notebook DOES help) and started watching the game, 10 minutes in.

I've nothing to say about the way the lads played. Wonderful! Half-time found Romania having a goal's advantage over Albania, and us on our feet, singing and shouting the team on. Absolutely wonderful! We were clearly dominating the game, creating lots of opportunities and calmly controlling the ball. Gabriel Tamas scored in about the 53'rd minute from a well-taken-torpedo-like-struck free kick, making it 2-0 for us. Waves begun by the fans started traveling along the stadium, most of them being stopped by the rich guys over at the 0 stand. The atmosphere was of elation and complete happiness. 10 Minutes later, Daniel Niculae managed to score the 3rd goal for Romania but a couple of minutes later, Albania put one in, the score then being 3-1. Just one minute later, Gigel Bucur sent a good pass to Niculae, who managed to score again for 4-1. Bogdan Lobont, the goalkeeper for the Romanian national team, managed some spectacular saves for which the fans repaid him by shouting his name when Romania was awarded a penalty in the end of the match, wanting him to take it. He didn't take it, but Ciprian Marica did, and he did it well, taking the score to 5-1 ('70). One minute later, another penalty was awarded for Romania, forcing the referee to give the second red card for Albania's team. The crowd once again shouted Lobont's name, but Dica took the penalty, setting the score as it would eventually be until the end, at 6-1 for Romania.

Everybody was singing, everybody was cheering, we were all completely satisfied with the result.

After the match was over, we stayed a couple more minutes to watch the fireworks that marked the Romanian qualification at the Euro 2008, but also the end of an era. An era in which "Lia Manoliu" was the national stadium for the Romanian team, an arena which I'm sure most of us will remember for a long time as a monument, maybe even as long as we live. The stadium is being demolished, the demolition symbolically starting at the end of the match. In it's place a new one will be built, much bigger and much more modern.

After the match, going out of the stadium, we kept on cheering the win and the qualification of our national team with much joy. At the end of the day, I can truly say it's been a very spectacular and special one, that I shall never forget for as long as I live, due to the win we managed, the qualification, the historical event of the demolition being started and the friends that were close to me. ROMANIA FTW!!!111!!oneone!!1!!

Classic...

I'm sure that any serious gamer among you remembers the beautiful time he had playing the following game. If you haven't played it yet, here's a good opportunity to start. I guarantee that it is both addicting and VERY FUN.
I give you ....

SUPER MARIO - FLASH
I remember playing it on my first console, back in the nineties. I can't even tell you the model of the console but I know the games played on cassettes.
I'll do some research and find it out, because I sure loved that little wonder-box.
Be back soon with more details on the subject! 'Till then, I leave you in the caring hands of the
most renowned and loved Italian plumber of all time. (*cough* Mario, that is! *cough*)

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 the tag 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 the 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 forms 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...

I'm shot! (a.k.a "Un fleac! M-au ciuruit!")

Another victim in the next-gen console-war : me.

As you already know (if you've cared enough to have read my posts), I've been researching for a while now. All that research seems to have paid off. About a week ago, I decided to buy a next-gen console.

"Why?", you ask? Because I had been reading so much about it that I thought I knew all the advantages and disadvantages, both for now and for the future, and I got sooooo hyped that I decided the console that I had to own and abuse for a couple of years would be... ta-da-da-dam... yes, you've guessed it, the PS3!

I got it - Starter Pack - on thursday from the local Mall for a whopping 1900 RON (that's about 800$).

I know, I know, "You're one crazy Sony fanboy!". Actually, no. At least you can't call me a Wii-tard or a Gaylo lover (actually, I do like Halo - a lot), or any other Wii or 360 related insult for that matter. *sigh* Ok, bring on the flaming!

Well, I've had it for almost 4 days now and I'm damn proud of it. They didn't have Resistance or an extra controller at the store anymore, so I'll have to pay them another visit next week to pick those up. I purchased Warhawk, so I can only currently play that and Motorstorm, which came with the Starter Pack.

What can I say? The PS3 compelled me to buy a HD-Ready Tv (I'm thinking of writing a guide to buying an HDTV, actually). I think it a blasphemy, a sin to have a source like a PS3 or an Xbox360 and not connect it to a HD-compliant Tv, instead playing it on your tiny couple-of-decades-old 4:3-ratioed CRT. A sin, I tell you! THE LORD SHALL SMITE YOU, O, BLASPHEMOUS ONE! Being a God-fearing mortal that I *still* am (even though I own a PS3 - shouldn't that, like, make me a gaming mini-god or something??), I chose, after careful deliberation/googling, LG's 32lc51 to do my bidding.

I must say, one fact that upsets me is the lack of support Sony has for many european countries. I was anxiously waiting to enter the Playstation Store and download some free demo's or other free content, but it seems that Romania hasn't got a Store of its own. That would be just fine with me, if it wasn't for the fact that Sony doesn't allow you to access any other country's Store but yours. That implies that, unless you have an account with a location of a Store-supported-country, you can't get any Sony free content. Not fair, one would say! I searched for a solution and found out that one can have multiple accounts, so one can add an account with an american, let's say, residence. That enables the use of that country's Playstation Store. "Finally!" I said...now I'm downloading about 6 almost-one-gigabyte-sized demos that'll help me choose my next games.

Also in the news, I've found another sales-counting site which states that Wii is, in fact, the market leader. About time, I say! I give you, VGCHARTZ!


I hope I'll get around to writing some reviews of all the new features and also of the few games I've managed to play so far on the PS3, but for now, "sayonara"!