Non-practice

Memories and their great luck

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Christian Kortum - Summertime memories

There’s a joke that a prostitute considers it to be great luck to have chosen this career, after graduating some difficult BA.

Un domn trecut de prima tinerețe, dar cu portofelul gras, agața la bar o tânără frumoasă. După puțin timp ajung în apartamentul domnișoarei. Până ce tânără se „pregătește”, domnul vrea să pună un CD pentru atmosferă. Pe raft: Brahms, Verdi, Ceaikowski etc….
– Vai, dragă, asemenea muzică asculți tu?!
– Ah, da, am uitat să vă spun că eu am absolvit Conservatorul.
Domnul se lăsă păgubaș cu muzica, dar vede cărțile din bibliotecă. Pe raft: Eliade, Goethe, Pușkin etc….
– Vai, dragă, asemenea cărți citești tu?!
– Ah, da, am omis să vă spun că am terminat și filologia.
– Păi, bine, fato, dar prostituata cum ai ajuns?!
– Ah, printr-un mare noroc!…

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I have some poor memories, times when I did wrong, times when I wasn’t treated as expected. Still, the good memories in my life are so important that they far outweigh the difficult times.

„How did you get those poor memories? Through luck – see, I have some poor, but also some very good memories!”.

I’m so lucky that I have some poor memories, which make the good memories really shine!

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IMDB ratings of a movie

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Rami ™ - M for Movies

If you look at the grades of the movies on IMDb, most of the popular movies fall between 6 and 7.5. If it’s above that, it’s likely a good movie, if it’s below that, it’s likely a very poor one.

Sure, there are certain specificities to this: comedies don’t get good grades on IMDb, you’ll rarely see a comedy having a good grade.

Also, action-movies, more recently, especially if they have some special effects, tend to get high grades.

I prefer watching movies with a grade above 7, but don’t always do so.

Also, for the movies in IMDb Top 250, I prefer to see them again as time goes by. It’s one thing to see the Godfather when you’re 20, and another thing to see it again 20 years later.

When I grade a movie, I tend to give it a minimum 8, 10 if it’s highly good, a 9 if it impressed me somehow. Recently, I haven’t given grades below 8, and even if I do, not less than 7. I think that the movie creators deserver a bit of appreciation, even if I don’t agree with the ideas in a movie 100%.

I follow a similar principle on Goodreads, where I give most books 3/4 stars, and to the top books 5 stars.

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„The hell was I thinking?”

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Emil Wu - Memory

There’s a funny line in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997): (recalling memories about a person whom she loved/admired in high-school): „The hell was I thinking?”.

Memories tend to be like this. In childhood, you get first memories. First memories of a technical game. First memory of ice cream. First memory of a toy. First memory of a friend. First memory of a person. First memory of riding a bicycle.

And time passes, and your taste in technical objects, in food, in people, in some activities, changes.

You also change, you’re not the same.

People, objects, activities, technical things change.

And you look right now, in August 2020, at a memory some years ago, when you were a child, and you liked ice cream X, game Y, activity Z, and you still think that the memory is nice, that you might have enjoyed it, that you do know why you liked it, but, on another hand, you’re a bit surprised by the choice back then.

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In-kind gift

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Jani Halinen - Gift

In May 2020, I took part in an online event by „Biz” magazine, in which it was told that it matters more to make donations with products, rather than money.

I think that may hold true.

A lot of companies advertise in their job postings that they offer all sorts of small things, like free fruit and tea, a Kindle, things like that, even if the monetary value of thos products can be quite small.

I know a person who wants to give a physical gift as an inheritance.

On December 1st, some years ago, eMAG gave with all the orders a free flag of Romania.

Some real estate players give a „free” car with an apartment.

…

And the list goes on.

It may look like a more impact to say „As a company, we’ve donated X tons of food to people”, rather than say „I gave X amount of money to people”.

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