Language: English

Saturday night

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It’s Saturday night. A friend says – „Hey, it’s Saturday, why not spend the night in the club, since, anyhow, there’s not anything else we can do better?” Snap. I forgot how it’s like not to have anything to do; sure, if you care for your living only, it’s fine to go & dance in the bar for the night; but sometimes there’s more in this life than you and for this purpose I felt bad only at the thought; „Dexter’s Laboratory” (cartoon) dialogue: – How do you have fun? – Fun? What is that – „fun”? – It’s a pleasurable activity; – Oh, we have that (and the peasant goes on to show Dexter a method of both working and having fun); I mean, it’s nice, you can have fun, sure; but to say there’s nothing you can do better than this, since the next day is a (perhaps rainy) Sunday is a bit strange; there’s a whole planet; it’s the Bucharest of 2011; there’s a lot of things to be done; lots.

How to buy things?

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OK, there are solutions to buy the right thing: Look for the best product (you go to niche stores, you research about a product on the Internet, you ask friends recommendation, you return to the stores that serve you best); so, there is the concept of quality (it can be anything from the quality of the product itself, to the service provided); Look for the best price (things get simpler, people generally have strategies like buying from a supermarket, buying online, buying in mass quantity, buying off-season); Emotional things (you get used to a brand, you want to try something new, it was recommended by someone you trust, you like it or hate it due to advertising, everyone else is buying it; you know, the usual stuff); But the best solution is not listed above. The best solution, to get the best value for your money is not buying a thing. Any commercial will start with the assumption you want to buy something. So, they’ll always tell you „hmm, buy from us, it’s cheaper”. Or „buy from us, we’re the best”. The solution, on the other hand, is different – don’t buy. Anything. Or, prior to buying something, really think about it. And if you can’t help yourself from buying something, buy small – small quantity of items, cheap products, small ones (but also aim for a good value for your money, sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a bigger product). So, challenge the assumption, and don’t buy it. People always tend to focus – how can …

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A cool trick for Google Chrome users

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In Mozilla FireFox one of the cool features is „search & go”; so, I go to the address bar and type something: „wikipedia”, instead of „en.wikipedia.org”; FireFox does a cool trick – it searches on Google for „Wikipedia” and does an „I’m feeling lucky” button hit (so, if I search for Wikipedia, it’s obvious I want to go the web site; if I type something that’s ambiguous, Google will do a search for me and present me the results);

In Chrome, I want to do the same thing – type something in the address bar, do a search for it, and go to the first result;

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The one solution for work – intense

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Seth GODIN says: „If you’re going to work… work hard.” Nothing fancy. How to implement this? Don’t have a smartphone; you’ll work in a non-intense way, most of the time, instead of focusing on working very intense in smaller period of times; instead, get a voice & SMS phone; Don’t have a laptop; you’ll have to use a small monitor (instead of a 22+ inches one), a small keyboard (instead of a full-size one), and, in most cases, a lower capabilities machine; instead, get a regular PC; and for the same powers as a laptop, you’ll pay less, or for the same money, you’ll get a better machine; Have times for work and times for leisure; in working time don’t check mail, don’t go on Facebook, avoid doing anything else but work; when leisure time, have fun; but split the two; Do you have any other solutions?

Follow-up: The pleasure goes on: kayaking from Oltenița to Călărași or how to use the kayak as a submarine (2011.05.28-29)

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On the 28th to 29th of May, 2011, I went from Oltenița to Călărași on the Danube, via kayak. A total of 55 km in total, made in two days: 30 + 25. The days were sunny and the camping site (we spent the night on an island, in tents) was welcoming. The organizers provided (some of) the participants with kayaks.

Other details (from Costin IATAN):

See a follow-up of the event:

and another one:

I’ll provide below a 1st eye view on how the event was.

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