Many thanks to DonCiuchete for helping me along!

Almost 4 years, 1426 days, 19271 visits, 100 posts and 202 comments later I must say that I’ve changed a bit since this journey began, well who wouldn’t? I’m all grown up now (sad / smiley face). These 4 years have been a hell of a ride … I’ve had my share of good and bad, made new friends and became disconnected from others, I’ve traveled, I’ve teached, I’ve messed up, I’ve inspired, I’ve learned new  things, I’ve made some people happy and I’ve also made some people sad. This is all part of this thing called life.

Would I change anything? No. I am who I am now because the choices I made till now and this will also define me in the future. I like being me :)
Really! I have my good’s and bad’s, but so does everybody else!

What’s next? I don’t know. I’m trying real hard to achieve something of value. As most of us are. I’m just following my dream and see where it will take me.

As I’ve been going  trough my past posts, I selected some of them.

• Chasing your dreams – Starting my own company.
• Crazy friends – My friends. People I really care about.
• Diversity – Understanding it.
• City of two continents – Istanbul.
• City of romance – Venice.
• Duesseldorf – Germany.
• Returning to Austria – Salzburg. Flying over the Alps.
• City of Rome – Grandiose Rome.
• Becoming an Alumnus - The end of my AIESEC experience.
• Fears – About fears. Fear of life.
• Fragility of Life – Pain in huge amounts.
• Thoughts around a Wish – Inspiration from where you least expect it.
• My Super NPS – Some of my best times in AIESEC.
• Time of my life – Some of my best times outside of AIESEC.
• Thoughts racing eachother – The end of the greatest experience of my life so far.
• The journey – My very first entry.

I see them now as moments, frozen in time, and the feelings are overwhelming. Why do we spend so much of our time looking forward and so little looking back? I noticed that I too got dragged in this strong current … always rushing forward, always in a hurry, always lacking the time for myself, for those around me. We’re all rushing to what? At the end of this road, this voyage there is only one constant … death. I remembered today a poem by Octavian Paler I read a while ago called “We have time”. Maybe we should slow down a bit from time to time, find time for ourselves, for those close to us.

I’ve enjoyed the ride  so far … I can’t wait so see what’s next.
The Lion.

It all started with a pain one morning that was bearable but wouldn’t go away … so I decided to go to the hospital. I’ve arrived at 8 AM and for the next five hours I was moved back and forth between the hospital buildings. I had x-rays, ecography, blood and urine tests. I was examined by four different doctors, all saying it’s food poisoning. In the end I was sent to the infectious diseases wing to spend the night there. In all this time I was getting weaker and weaker, at the end I could barely walk.

My father felt the need to step in, this had gone the wrong way for too long, and asked to transfer me to the surgical wing where he used to work before he retired. He called former colleague to examine me and pointed out that I needed surgery right away. He believed I was misdiagnosed and this was a case of atypical appendicitis.

They tried to get my medical files and blood and urine lab results from the infectious diseases wing for the next 20 minutes while I was moved into the ICU. At this point I wasn’t able to walk on my own. Titel managed to reach the hospital and to make a short visit. I must admit I was now pretty frightened as everyone told me all morning that everything is OK .. and I was only getting worse. Finally as they prepared to take another blood sample (without my blood work surgery couldn’t be done, they needed information about my blood type, anesthetic, etc.), magically my tests results were found and I was rushed to surgery.

The next hour and a half I’ve undergone surgery being only partial anesthetized (I call it the “let’s scare an already frightened young man to death” game). I hyperventilated on the operating table several times and the surgeon kept telling me to calm down. I was calm … but I had uncontrollable shivers (I later found out this was a side reaction to the anesthetic) and some people were messing around with sharp metal instruments in my insides … I mean, how could I not be calm under the circumstances? It’s like when you’re in a plane that is in a nose dive, oxygen masks fall out and you’re instructed to be calm and breath in normally. Of course, you also shit normally at that point.

After surgery I was moved to the ICU again and for the next 3 hours I my body convulsed uncontrollably. I don’t remember much. My phone kept ringing and some people told me I’ve answered and had a conversation with them … I really don’t remember. My mother told me that evening that I was lucky … my appendix was not in the regular place and was almost ruptured. If I would have waited another day, my chances of recovery would have decreased significantly.

The next days were not very pleasant, except for the visits of my friends. I got regular medication and that was about it. After the first 24 hours you stop existing, you’re basically a piece of meat, until it’s time for your medication. I had the good fortune once a day a really nice nurse was entering her shift and she was helping me out (walk, change sheets, etc). In my time spent in the ICU, I couldn’t get much sleep. There was constant noise from other patients, nurses and doctors talking (yelling) all the time even at night except for two or three hours per night between 3 AM and 5 AM. I can’t really see how you can recover from major surgery in that stressful environment … “Intensive Care Unit” my ass … more like “Intensive Stress Unit” … And there were other patients much worse than me. After 4 days I was released … no one offered to help, I was barely walking … I left the hospital on my own two feet, no nurse waking me out … no one was even looking at me. It was as if I was made of glass. I could have easily collapsed there, I don’t think anyone would have cared. There are no procedures, no regulations, everyone is doing what he/she thinks its right. In the hospital you loose every bit of dignity you might have left. They just rip it piece by piece out of you.

I’ve recovered almost 100% … my liver and kidneys slowly getting back to normal after the high amount of antibiotics they’ve pumped trough me. Overall it was an experience I would not like to go trough again. At least not in this country. We’re 100 years behind the civilized world in terms of health care.

In the end, I’m happy that I still am … Check out the song to this post for clarifications :)

Till next time,
The Lion.

Photo by Mad Paul

If some of you fail to understand the huge significance of this moment let me make it clear for you: The space race has entered the private sector. The cost of sending a 1kg into space is $22.000 at today’s costs. Basically, to send an object into space costs almost the same amount in gold. This company with limited resources, has succeeded in putting a vehicle on a precise orbit around earth and plans to slice this price in half … manned missions will follow.

It’s started :).

The Lion.

Yes, it’s true, my hair color has changed: it’s blond now. Well kinda’. It’s more of a greenish blond. I think I mentioned my friend, Soso the hair stylist, in an earlier post. Well he needed me again and this time it was a lot easier to say yes. I just was damn curious … sorry :).

He got to a real competition this time in Brasov, and qualified for the national finale. Although (and I admit it) I don’t really like what came out, if the jury considered this haircut and colors were good then I’m happy for him. I had a real good time in Brasov, although the preparation and dying the day before were a bitch. The good part: I was the only guy model there were lots of fine extremely good looking ladies … ahem let’s say I should have stayed for the party in the evening :).

An impressive moment at the premiere was when a 15 year old girl (hair stylist) got the first place in her category … It just reinforces what I wrote in an earlier post:

“We’re educated to label people by their abilities, their interests, their education, their hobbies and their jobs. Maybe we should stop and take a look at ourselves. Everyone has something he’s good at, everyone has something they can do best. And that is one of the few things that matter.“

Have a laugh … enjoy the pictures :)

The Lion.

A friend of mine woke up one morning at 5 o’clock and while browsing his blog, trying to kill some time, he had an idea. In the next moment he started to send out e-mails … long story short, we want to organize a meeting for the bloggers in Sibiu. We’ll start as a small group next Friday and see where we go from there. Eduard, wrote his own post about this meeting here.

If you want to join us, just leave a comment on Eduard’s Blog, or to this post. The meeting will take place Friday, on the 11th of July, 19:00, in Sibiu, Amber Cafe in the Big Square.

The participants that have confirmed till now are:
[Updated: 07.05.2008 21:42]
[Updated: 09.07.2008 11:40]
[Updated: 09.07.2008 20:50]

1. Laura Cătuneanu
2. Shoricika & Păpuceii cu năsturei
3. Constantin Tovisi
4. Cristi Văduva (Online)
5. Răzvan Pop
6. Oana Cunțan
7. Tudor Popa
8. Brylynski Bogdan
9. Ovidiu Valentin Olteanu
10. Alin Mechenici (Supports the initiative, cannot make it)
11. Matzishor
12. Tommy
13. Mazemania
14. Marius Ogrean
15. Dheo (Supports the initiative, cannot make it)
16. Nosfer
17. Andra
18. Valeria Stancu
19. Seba
20. Lucian (Supports the initiative, cannot make it)
21. Silvana
22. Mihai
23. Zafox
24. Cristi Rus
25. Eduard Stoica
26. Zeno Popovici

This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship :).
The Lion.

Last months were hectic, been having my up’s and down’s and most of all lots of work. But now I’m here … just where I longed for some time now to be. I now own my own company. And it feels good. Very good.

I remember being very frustrated somewhere in Autumn last year. I was finally getting somewhere when the whole thing collapsed and I had to start over again. The most difficult thing was to find someone I could trust, I could really rely on … but every now and then help comes from where you don’t expect. I ended up with someone I coached a few years ago during my last AIESEC EB experience. He’s one of the most patient people I know (I do believe I’m challenging his limits sometimes :)) and the whole experience brought us a little closer. It’s cool to talk together about next steps, work together till late in the night and feel excited and happy like little kids about every small step forward. It’s a new start and it’s just like I imagined it to be.

I’ve posted below a video from the Apple “Think Different Campaign“. The campaign was a turning point for Apple, it took only 60 seconds to reestablish Apple’s counter-culture image that it had lost during the 90s. Think different, don’t stop dreaming, don’t stop chasing your dreams.

The Lion.

Today I’ll just show off … After long eBay searches and unsuccessful bid, sleepless nights, desperate longing, etc. I finally managed to replace my old phone. And as you may imagine I didn’t replace it with any phone … I replaced it with The Phone :). So to make things short I am now the happy owner of an iPhone!

I can tell you that after a week I still didn’t get bored with it. It continues to make me feel good, providing me with: excellent Internet surfing capabilities, clear and perfect music as only an iPod can, good e-mail and RSS reader, innovative bubbles text messaging and the list could go on. The only thing I’m missing is my synchronized Outlook tasks list, but I can live with that for a while as new software for this marvelous device pops up every day.

Next on the list is a laptop (probably MacBook Air) from Apple. I’m so very frustrated with Windows and all I want is a computer with an Operating System that just works. If you’re a Windows user and don’t know about Apple, you should check them out. My bet is that you’ll instantly love them.

The other thing I wanted to tell you about is my fish bowl (literally). I received it for Christmas and I still didn’t manage to kill the two fishes in it although I tried very hard. I never remember when I have to feed them or change their water :). And because they’ve survived for such a long time I made their environment more friendly buying them some colored aquarium marbles and a plant to oxygenate the water. Hopefully they’ll still be here when I make my next post :D.

I also put up a new song for you guys because it seems you really like my radio :).

Cheers,
The Lion

I’ve done some improvements to my blog and therefore some features are out and some new ones are in. What’s changed:

1. I’ve created a structured monthly archives page to make the sidebar more lighter and allow people to make some sense of it.
2. I’ve replaced the default WordPress search with a brand new search powered by Google. The default WordPress search was absolutely horrible.
3. No more “smooth loading” of the content. I had some problems with that feature (videos not showing in Internet Explorer, problems when loading the page, etc.) so I’ve removed it. Hopefully I’ll find a solution soon.
4. The radio doesn’t start automatically anymore. The main reason is the removal of the “smooth loading” feature. If I would have kept the auto-play, the player would have started automatically at each page load and this can be quite annoying. I usually put up a song every time I post so that there is a nice sound background to the post you’re reading. Just start the player yourself from now on. Player is starting just on the homepage, posts feel empty without it.
5. I’ve inserted a tag could in the sidebar (“Could of Life”). Tags were introduced in this new version of WordPress so I thought I might take full advantage of it..
6. I’ve inserted a feature that displays the last 5 recent comments on my blog. I’ve made a commitment to reply to all your comments :)..
7. I’ve created a structured links page because the sidebar was too crowded..
8. Last thing: I’ve added support for Gravatar. This is how my picture appears next to my comments. Many blogs have support for it, you just have to create yourself an account, specify your blog or personal website and upload a picture. No complex configuration, or any other rubbish.

Please let me know what you think and if something else needs to be changed. I’m all ears :)

That’s it for today,
The Lion.

I can say that life’s good right now, there is no need to complain about the small challenges or little things I’m dealing with every day. I do realize I have a lot: relative health, family, real good friends, a job, a bank account, what to eat and a roof over my head; All this and the fact that I’ve been traveling around Europe this year, visited 5 countries, some of them twice and spent more than 3 months abroad. This is quite something :).

Right now I strongly feel the need to settle down. I want stability on personal level, more than anything. I’ve started spending more on myself, and I’m taking steps to bring more balance in my life. I want to live a healthier life, stop abusing this body of mine by working all day, eating one time a day mostly junk food, and sleeping 4 hours a night. I’m trying to get myself to exercise, swim, get out in the open. I’m not 18 anymore and it shows, whenever I’m stepping over the limit.

Another thing that’s been going on and I didn’t share with you is the fact that I’ve been an Assistant Teacher for the past 2 months. I’m teaching introductory computer science for the 1^st year at my university. It’s been an amazing experience till now. I don’t think I will go on teaching the next semester, but still this experience was something I always wanted to try out. Teaching isn’t as easy as it seemed at first. Preparing for lessons, correcting test papers, keeping an online website for the students, answering questions and doing my current job proved to be quite challenging. These “kids” remind me of … well … me :). That’s why I’m striving a lot to get to them and become really upset when I see them fail tests. It’s been quite a ride till now and I hate the fact I’ll bee seeing them just 3 more times. I still hope I managed to teach them something :).

More recently, In the past week I had the chance to reconnect with old friends at NPS. I didn’t know how much I missed those guys till I got there. It was so cool to remember old times, joke around, getting back in touch. For the first time we had a very interesting session prepared just for us, Alumni, on coaching. The session on coaching gave me a better understanding about coaching and I will definitely apply some of the stuff I’ve gained there.

We also had a “Getting to know the Alumni” session at NPS. We were once again on stage, cracking jokes and pushing each-other to speak. Later we split in groups and did some sharing on our experience, answered questions and connected with the members. It felt strange and at the same time cool to be there.

On the way back home I got to know the new members a little bit better. Having Robert around was a bonus :). We traveled together and although I wasn’t much of a company on the way back, it was like in the old times. Thanks :).

In the next period I will work once more on starting my own business. I have new perspectives now and you know the saying: “If you fail, try, try again”. I’ll keep you posted.

Now, about my blog: I want to start posting about other things than myself in the near future. I have tons of things I’m interested about and want to share with you. :)
So if you read and rate the posts, please leave a comment. I want to know if you have something to say.

Cheers,
The Lion.