Well....I gathered up my courage and took a photo of my shabby computer space.

As the title says, my PC related stuff is located in a corner of my bedroom.



On the right there's a scanner and a small device I use for transferring photos from the camera to my computer. Also lots of CDs that I need around most of the time and, obviously, my 'life-support' --> coffee and cigarettes.

I thought about hiding the toilet paper roll, but I couldn't - it's an ever present item in my working/playing space, as I always manage to spill my coffee, miss the ashtray or get sticky fingers from various things like snacks or chocolate   .

I have to make a special mention about my desktop wallpaper - I have it from a very talented photographer we have here on FT, Mr. Tellywellies. He posted a smaller version of it in the "Daily Photos" some time ago, and it was extremely nice of him to send the big original photo to me when I asked to have it. Thank you!

... I engaged in the quest for "my" younger and more restless ones.

I will have to start by addressing a warm "Thank you!" to my lucky stars, for not making me a celebrity. I would have ended up on Gatsby's list and I would have hated the company I was in.

Here we go with my 3 categories:

  Category 1: I am glad I am 5 years older than...

- Anna Nicole Smith
- Kurt Cobain
- Pamela Smart
- John Wayne Bobbitt
- David Safavian

... because I think those extra years helped me make better choices than they did.


  Category 2: No matter what year, FOR ME, they could've never been born...

- Pamela Anderson
- Nicole Kidman
- Vin Diesel
- George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher
- Rich Skrenta


Category 3: I wish I was more than 5 years older than these and have them as my bright, talented and beautiful children.

- Philip Seymour Hoffman
- Faith Hill
- Charlie Hunter
- Jhumpa Lahiri
- Spencer Tunick

In a special category all by himself we have : Mr. Col Needham, founder of IMDb - Thank you, baby!


Finally, I am honoured to have been born on the SAME DAY  (different years) as: Mary II of England, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, Roger Sherman and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
- Quite a royal environment and inspiration.


**If any of the names I mentioned says nothing to you, please do look them up  
I was too lazy to introduce them all.

I recently received these jokes in an email and had a good giggle reading them.

Joke #1

A 45 year old woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital.
While on the operating table she had a near death experience.
Seeing God she asked "Is my time up?"
God said, "No, you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live."

Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a face-lift, liposuction, breast implants and a tummy tuck. She even had someone come in and change her hair color and brighten her teeth!
Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it.
After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by an ambulance.

Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 43 years? Why didn't you pull me from out of the path of the ambulance?"

(You'll love this!!!)

God replied: "I didn't recognize you."

Joke #2

A judge asked a defendant to please stand. "You are charged with murdering a school teacher with a chain saw."

From out in the audience a man shouted, "Lying bastard!"

"Silence in the court!", the judge shouted back to the man. He turned to the defendant and said, "You are also charged with killing a paperboy with a shovel."

"Tightwad!", blurted the man again.
"Quiet!!!", yelled the judge who continued, "You are also charged with killing a mailman with an electric drill."

"Son of a..." the man started to shout when the judge thundered back, "If you don't tell me reason for your outbursts right now, I will hold in contempt!"

So the man answered, "I've lived next to that man for ten years now, but do you think he ever had a tool when I needed to borrow one?!"

Joke #3

A pregnant woman is in a car accident and falls into a coma. Asleep for six months she awakes to find she is no longer pregnant. She asks her doctor about her baby.
The doctor replies, “Good news, you had twins. A boy and a girl. They are fine. Your brother came in and named them.”
The woman groans, “Oh no, not my brother, he's an idiot!” Expecting the worse she asks, “Well, whats the girl's name?”

“Denise” , the doctor replies.

“Hey, thats not bad. I like that name. Guess I was wrong about my brother.” Then she asks, “What's the boy's name?”

The doctor replies: “DeNephew”

Sitting here, on a fine Saturday afternoon, with nothing to do, I fancied getting nosy (a most pleasurable activity, if you ask me ) and asking you about some stuff.


1. If it were up to you when it happened, would you have given yourself a different first name?

2. Is there anything you really consider to be 'bad luck' and avoid doing/seeing/meeting it?

3. If you were forced to choose only 2 of your 5 (6? ) senses which would you keep?

4. Have you ever given someone a fake name or address/phone number?

5. In your opinion, life is not worth living without......

It is not compulsory to answer, but if you feel like it....here's a chance to make a new entry in your Blog answering to these questions.
Those of you who don't have a blog and wish to answer, feel free to post your answers in the "Comments" section of this entry.

OK, now I came back to give MY answers:

1. I didn't like my name for a long while when I was a kid, but I like it now quite a lot. Still, I always wanted to be named "Ioana" - the Romanian of 'Joan/Joanna/Joanne'.

2. Not really, but I generally avoid talking too much about my plans before they are actually accomplished, as I noticed they were always delayed or 'spoiled' when advertising them in advance. Also (as opposed to the 'bad luck' notion) I try to schedule most important  things on a Wednesday, whenever possible. It's been proved to be my lucky day more than the others.

3. This is a tough one, I admit, but let's try to choose....hmmm....smell and taste. And I am thinking about how I don't need eyes or ears to take a spoon to my mouth, but if I can't smell or taste what I'm putting in there....God forbid! *grin*

4. Guilty, my Lord! I needed to do it when I ordered something online for a friend abroad and Romania wasn't an option in the drop-down list, and it was compulsory to fill-in that form. So I had to lie and say I live in another country. LOL

5. Feelings - Have you seen the movie "Equilibrium"? Or how that fantastic Mr. Data struggled to become a real human?

Sharing stuff I read and like is one of my favourite activities. Today there were a lot of dead people walking through my mind and among them Nichita, our most dear and very missed Romanian poet.

So I'll share one of his poems. :)

 

Another kind of Mathematics

by Nichita Stanescu (1933 - 1983)

We know that one times one is one,
but an unicorn times a pear
have no idea what it is.
We know that five minus four is one
but a cloud minus a sailboat
have no idea what it is.
We know that eight divided by eight is one,
but a mountain divided by a goat
have no idea what it is.
We know that one plus one is two,
but me and you, oh,
we have no idea what it is.

Oh, but a comforter times a rabbit
is a red-headed one of course,
a cabbage divided by a flag
is a pig,
a horse minus a street-car
is an angel,
a cauliflower plus an egg
is an astragalus.

Only you and me
multiplied and divided
added and substracted
remain the same...

Vanish from my mind!
Come back in my heart!

---

Nichita Stanescu is probably the greatest contemporary Romanian poet who unfortunately left us too soon - he was only 50 when he died. Apart from his many wonderful poems he also left behind some excellent essays and a few insights which are often cited/mentioned.

Just two of them:

- "The poet has no biography: his biography is actually his work, better or worse, greater or less so."

- "The only real things which we take with us in the end are our own feelings, our loves, our hates and adversities. I ask myself - at the end of life, what will we leave behind? I suppose we can leave some feelings, less of hate, some passion, but.... especially love."

Nothing new here, many have expressed the same ideas before and they will be repeated, one way or the other, until the end of time, but if you could only hear him saying those words....