I think, therefore i am

I have finally gotten to this point where i cannot procrastinate no more, when i have to stop denying what is in front of me and accept that there's need for a change. Coz things cannot go on like this. They have been like this long enough, and now it is time. It is time to take the name of my blog seriously, as i have not set it randomly. From the dreamy ME i used to be ("Lacul oglindeste stelele pentru ca vrea sa fie cer"), i went over to "daring to be different", but that did not work too well for me either. Yes, i am different, yes, i am unique.... just like everybody else. But we live in a society where one has to find an equilibrium between being himself and fitting in. So i decided that i was gonna try and do both for a while. Be myself, be different together with other people. I decided to Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, i decided to face the things that i was so afraid to acknowledge up till now.

The above expression was made famous by a newspaper columnist Ann Landers. She used to write about controversial issues like prostitution and how people put razor blades and poison in trick-or-treat candies on Halloween. Homosexuality and other concepts that were unthinkable in the 50s. Among the quotes we find ideas like "Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful." Truth hurts sometimes. But when one is tired of listening to lies, it is time to wake up. And yes, smell the Coffee.

These last 2 days i found myself among the Italians that populate the hot kitchen in the middle of the afternoon trying to cook their pasta. Also, i found myself passively smoking with them late into the night, trying to make something out of their sometimes impossible pronunciation. Opinions that it was sooo strange to see me there were vociferated not only once, but the fact that i did not always hang around them in the past does not mean i didn't want to. It just meant that i usually had other things to do. Which is actually the same thing. But now i decided to make time, to set my priorities and do things differently. It was kinda funny how we were all walking purposelessly on the hallways half a night yesterday, how we were trying to pick on one another, how we were peaking into other people's lives, how we were trying an experiment which involved the 5 of us staring at a piece of un-popped popcorn seed while nothing but "World hold on" playing on Mirko's phone happened. Although the videos on Utube show that a popcorn can pop



we were more like these guys here



As there is a whole controversy on the internet and world wide about whether it is true that the cell phones emit such strong waves, punto-informatico.it says that it is all a fake, that if the cell phones where anywhere close in function to a microwave, every phone call would be extremely painful. But the fact is that the cell phones do heat up the human tissue, but the studies show that it is not dangerous for health. Ok, do we feel safe now that we have seen with our own eyes that the popcorn did not pop?

Waking up yesterday also meant reading something other than the items included in the syllabus of the University or blogs. So i opened a book...Wake up and smell the coffee.
I have no idea what it is about. It is a theater play by Eric Bogosian, who is a known performer with a distinctive style, his one man shows are a blend of dark comedy, geopolitical commentary and social realism. He generally appears as a series of characters, which makes the experience colorful and believable.
All the monologues have different themes yet i could feel that there was a central subject, yet it was constantly escaping me as i was jumping from one character to another, from one action to another, from one state to another.
One of the ideas i got from the reading was that the world is becoming more and more insensitive and that people are already loosing their humanity. "People are the only ones who make [meat]balls out of other animals." Another idea is that people are trying to make so much money that they forget to enjoy them. Money has become the #1 priority and that we seem to forget about what is really important in this life. Like making coffee with your family. And actually smelling it.

"The paradox of life is... paradoxical. In order to breathe in, we must first breathe out. In order to grasp we must first let go. In order for the sun to rise, it must first set. In order to take what i have to give you, you must first give me 2 thousand dollars in four easy installments. Life surrounds us with bounty. An overfloweing cornucopia of goods and services. Everything is there for our taking. We only have to pay for them."

People need to believe in things. It helps them.
People need rules, it takes responsibility off them. They may not even know why they do the things they do, but that is how they do it. Automatically. It's easier. It is not freedom, but it is easier.
People need to place blame. And they need continuity. They do not change their opinions, they are rigid, they are constant. Because change means work, change means moving. Change means you have to think. And why think when you are happy while others think for you? The manipulated and the manipulators. The leaders and the masses. It has always been this way.
"A plane crashed in the mountains last week. 300 people dead. And all i could do was wonder how many of them were on a diet, how many were trying to stop smoking?"
Live your life. The way you want it. Read a book. Like Wake up and smell the coffee. It makes you think.