November 20, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 0 Comments
We all do weird things that clearly have no logical explanation, right? I am not alone in this, I hope. Let me tell you about the newest addition to this category of aberrant behaviors of mine. It’s all about the PO Box. I lost the key a couple a months ago and I’ve been too busy (disinterested) to change the lock, so I had to resort to other measures to get my bills out. Thus, each month I battle with the poor PO Box on who should hold the envelopes, and there are lots of envelopes stacking neatly inside. Of course, from this constant war, the only things that get hurt are my pride and the innocent bills that some time come out in little pieces, or as if the dog just had some fun with them. I wonder what goes through my neighbors’ heads when they pass me by in the lobby and see me moaning and groaning trying to pull the contents of the box out. And each month I take those bills and go pay them, and I see that the cashiers always look weird at me when I present myself with half a bill, or with it torn and all crumbled. However, nothing can make me move a muscle to change the lock, it has become somehow a part of the way I do things, just another of my abnormalities.
November 19, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 2 Comments
Apparently, we have a new word of the year 2009 (hold your breath cause here it comes): Unfriend, taken from the popular social network page Facebook. The concept is not new at all, it simply means removing somebody from your list of friends because you are too annoyed with them or just don’t interact with them anymore. In my opinion, we have been unfriending each other for centuries, long before this word came around to save the day: Hey, you people, it’s not called not being friends anymore, you should say that you have unfriended them. Now go and be free as I’ve clearly revolutionized your entire world.
The reason I’m so against this win is because the other finalists were much juicier. Here, let me give you some examples:
intexticated - when people are distracted by texting while driving
funemployed – when people enjoy their unemployment and pursue other goals or just have fun
sexting - sending of sexually explicit SMSes and pictures by phone
deleb – dead celebrity (and there have been quite a few of these this year)
Now, out of all these and many other, why in the name of the alphabet would you choose a boring word as unfriend as the word of the year 2009? some people say that this shows the way technology is influencing social relations, but let’s be cereal here, in my opinion, sexting does a much better job at explaining how we are affected by all the gadgets available and it is something at least relatively new (since the invention of the telegraph I think, although I’ve never really heard of the code of morsex). And yes, out of all the others, it managed to stir quite a debate regarding whether it should be defriend or unfriend, and this Oxford Word of the Year contest gained in popularity as a result of that.
What word do you think deserved to win? How about a Romanian word of the year? Does that make any sense, considering that we are borrowing all the new words from English?
November 18, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 0 Comments
Or the Story of Why I Threw Away my TV Remote Control
It has been proven that we tend to prefer (like) things which are familiar, which we encounter most often. However, there are also limits to this increased preference and also drawbacks, much as in the case for the law of diminishing marginal utility (for all me economists out there). So what lead me to close the TV and throw away the remote control?
First, there were the commercials. We all know them, seen them a million times and grown to despise them with all our heart. Why? Because they are not insightful enough, they do not provoke thoughts, raise questions, steam debates or makes us laugh after the first few views. They are simply flat and boring and once you decide that you don’t like something and it keeps coming back into your life, that feeling will become hate and this is bad for my mood and also for the product being advertised, cause my aversion will sure turn on it for revenge.
Second, there were the news. Continuous exposure to a topic you find disgusting, hurtful, depressing, or simply awkward is bound to make you snap. And I snapped so hard that now I hate this country and most of the people in it, I can see no future for us and no real reason to try to make something happen here. Wow, lots of negative feelings that simply made my life a living nightmare and thus something had to give. As news people had no intention to get their positive grove on, I simply gave them up, like I would give up smoking if it was making me sick (one vice at a time people).
And last, but really not least, my favorite show on TV, the one that put me to sleep so many years, finally changed and stopped being entertaining. Yes, its the dreaded Dan Diaconescu and his late night talk show. When everybody was criticizing him for exposing Romanians for the stupid and awful people they really are, for displaying models of behavior and thought that should not be replicated by another human being ever (not even under extreme torture) and for promoting false (fake) stars that were not special in any kind of way, I was simply watching and laughing my socks off. That show has thought me more about human beings and how they think and act than any book or lesson I’ve read or received in my entire life. This was not a case of overexposure for me, but I think it was for Dan Diaconescu that decide to move his station into a bigger space and change the format of his show to make it more commercial or accepted.
So, is there life after TV? All about this and much more right after this commercial break.
November 18, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 0 Comments
This series has suffered a profound transformation over its 6 seasons and it has managed to morph from a medical series (like many others) into a psychological study of human personality. I can’t remember when it stopped being about these amazing medical stories and shifted towards intense moral and personal issues. And House’s personality gradually became more and more intricate as he began to show his Godlike behavior not only towards the patients but also towards his team, friends and loved one. Each disease now comes with a message about morality and our society and each episode gets me more entangled in House’s personality. At first I was fascinated by him because he was broken, frail, the epitome of human misery and with all his intelligence he was not able to see it or fight it. But season 6 has presented us a new and improved House, no more drugs, no more whining about his leg hurting, no more hiding in the closet. Until now I could understand where he was coming from, but now I’m just confused. If he is this new liberated person why is he still hanging on to old habits (his thing for Cuddy is so old and dead for me)? Is this what awaits us at the end of the tunnel? A lot more hurting and misery?
November 17, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 0 Comments
I hate democratic elections because they are all about the majority. Today I saw an ad of Basescu telling me that I’m the majority. Now, who would believe that? I’d like to meet this majority and maybe even join the bandwagon of conformity (at least this once), why not? Truth be told, I’ve always been the odd one out, I’ve voted with so many candidates or parties that were not even noticed by the media, let alone stand a chance at winning something. And the feeling I’ve always had after the results was that my vote went unnoticed too, that my opinion did not count, it was swollen by the majority’s opinion (I was thinking of mentioning fraud, but it’s such a leitmotif of any elections that it has become implicit). So this year I set out on a mission, to make my vote count. And there stood before me three worthy candidates (the ESCUs) and I tried to choose one by using a scientific method: Ini mini miney mo, who’s the Escu(est) of them all? And I got a strange answer: none. And the dilemma still lingers: do I vote for someone I like and let my vote go under the radar again or do I want to cast a decisive vote? Apparently, the bandwagon is lost on me again.
* In order for this to work just imagine that Geona’s name is actually Iliescu (this seems to be working just fine for Basescu)
November 16, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 0 Comments
Our dreams will be fulfilled only with the help of our true love
In a century dominated by individualism and the power of one’s self, one might believe that the influence of the fairy tales is at most minimal. However, when we see Cinderella that does not revolt when asked to do absurd tasks (a model of blind obedience), when we praise her for not questioning the orders and acting like a good little soldier, when Snow White seems too trusting or simply too dumb to protect herself from her step-mother’s traps, the seed of a dangerous idea is planted in our minds. The idea is that only with the help of external interventions can we be rescued and revenged. We transform silently into passive subjects, we still have our dreams but in a latent state, waiting for the perfect partner to achieve them. This is like admitting defeat, surrendering our goals to somebody else, and thus we can neither have the praise nor the glory of their accomplishment. The irony behind this situation is that when we don’t feel complete and satisfied with ourselves, then it is less likely to find somebody to love us, we may be labeled “too needy” and scare off potential partners. If everyone was waiting to be saved, then there would be no one left to be the savior, thus we are in a predicament in the current situation and the only logical way to escape it is to change our perspective on what love should do for one.
November 16, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 4 Comments
Today I had the wonderful opportunity to meet face to face again with some more presidential banners and I was once again faced with two options: laugh my brains out or scream by brains out in anger. You know from a previous post that I view laughter as a perilous thing especially when it comes to politics, so I screamed loudly inside my head (not to send the wrong message to those around me at the time). Proudly, an unknown politician to me, announces that his going to give Romania back to us, possibly the people, probably those that have already stolen all that they could from it, or hopefully some aliens from outer space.
Now, if he is thinking about giving Romania back to me, I’m saying “No thanks”. After everyone got what they needed until there was nothing left to take and then took some more, you want to give it back to me? Is this in order for me to work to rebuild it so that someone can steal a little more? It’s a harsh thing to say that you don’t want your country back (I don’t know where it has been, but it doesn’t matter, right?, cause it’s coming back to us like the little lost lamb, only that in our case just the bones are left), but I’m tired. My opinion in every election seems not to count, I’ve never felt a sense of belonging to this notion of Romania so, yes, give it to somebody who still cares, or better yet, keep it and face the consequences.
And now let’s move on to the second election message: “Think boldly” that belongs to Remus Cernea, my favorite candidate until now. In my opinion it is going to be a very unpopular message cause Romanians have got used to not thinking, and if you start asking them to think boldly you are definitely going to be in trouble. We want fun, games, stupid jokes and a very optimistic message with no meaning. Don’t try to give us substance, don’t offer us actual revolutions (remember Caragiale). If i were him I would have chosen something on the lines of Think positive, think optimistically, or more dramatic Tomorrow is another day (and another try at this thing called democracy).
November 13, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 0 Comments
Love at first sight exists
In most fairy tales it only takes one look to know the right person for you. But is that really love? I believe there is attraction at first sight, and, yes, this can be the base for true love, but it takes a lot of time and hard work to get there, something which most fairy tales fail to present. By reading these wonderful stories we get the feeling that love should come naturally, it should be an easy process, not to mention quick. Now, anybody who has been in love knows that in reality things do not go as smoothly. However, mass media seems to be sending the message that the real, true love, the one that anyone should experience is the one that begins with a first glance, things in the background fading into obliviousness, slow moving just like in a movie scene. Everybody wants to know the story of how the couple met, but it is not only an account of how they met, it is also an account of how they knew they were destined for each other. With such an amount of pressure on us to know right away, it is normal for us to seek this kind of relationships based on lust and first impressions. What can we do? We can take the time to come to love our partner, we can pause, rewind, or even delete and start over.
November 13, 2009 - Posted by ramona_cantaragiu - 0 Comments
Snakes for some, spiders for others. Or the dark: black cold pitch, full of secrets. Or being high up: dizzy, eyes screwed shut against the drop. There are those for whom it is small rooms, no windows, the walls squeezing out the air. For some it is vast open spaces, endless horizons, the heart thumping to find home. The list goes on and on. All of us are frightened of something. Bats, bulls, beards, blood, buttons, slugs, cobwebs, crabs, caterpillars, cellars, fire, water, lightning, thunder - any of these can start up the cold prickly sweat, the heart stop, the shiver, and the shudder*.
And now, there is a new scary thing out there, loose and on the prowl, the flu pandemic and I’m starting to fear it. However, it feels like a new type of fear, it is my own, individual fear, but it does not come from direct experience, it seems to have been instilled in me by the media. It’s not a first-hand, real fear, it is more an abstract, lingering in the shadows fear that (in my case) appears only in the papers or TV news. Thus, I have come to agree with Osama bin Laden who said in an interview when asked “why is the western media establishment so in-humane”, “[because] it implants fear and helplessness in the psyche of the people of Europe and the United States”.
Let me tell you about the part regarding helplessness. The idea that I am part of an age group subject to this biological threat means that I am constantly “at risk”. So what have I become? An individual with a passive, dependent role, in a permanent state of vulnerability, and, above all, alone. The biggest impact that this pandemic has had, in my opinion, was not on our health, but on our sense of communion. We have been lead to regard others not as allies, but as enemies in this individual war that each has to fight with the disease. This is a new culture of fear, one in which we are suspicious of anyone who coughs, blows his/her nose or does anything remotely resembling the symptoms of the ordinary flu.
