Nosetip electrified

The time before Christmas must be the loveliest part of the year. Two days ago, as we had a project meeting (a very serious one on top of it!), we heard some bells on the corridor, and then a real, white-bearded and red-and-white-dressed Santa Claus came in, just like I remembered him from my childhood. A wave of joy and hope overwhelmed me, as he gave way to some of the funniest wishes I have ever heard a Santa utter (such as: “May your garage contain a Mercedes and may you finish construction work on your villa earlier than planned!”). It felt like home, and like those glorious times when I was little, and everything was possible.

What I feel and would like to wish you too, is that all wishes come true this Christmas.

So I sing for you
Though you cant hear me
When I get trough
And feel you near me
I am driving home for christmas
Driving home for christmas
With a thousand memories
(Chris Rea, Driving Home for Christmas)

I'll go wherever you will go

Tonight just a short post about a song I used to love and only listen to now from time to time... Do we really want to go wherever someone else goes? It might might be nice to take them on a trip to France, to go with them to a concert or take them out to a beer. But how much sense does it make to follow them in the direction of their own aspirations and dreams, if this means the suppression of one's own ideals?

So lately, been wondering
Who will be there to take my place
When I'm gone you'll need love
To light the shadows on your face
If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all
Then between the sand and stone
Could you make it on your own
(The Calling, I'll Go Wherever You May Go)

Just a casual, easy thing

This morning I am leaving for here:

and I am hoping to feel like this again:

Wait

Who's that guy just hangin' at your pad

He's lookin' kinda bummed

You broke up that's too bad

I guess it's fair if he always pays the rent

And he doesn't get bent about

Sleeping on the couch when I'm there
'Cos I like you...

(Dandy Warhols, Bohemian like you)

Muse Through Veins

Via metropotam: it’s official, Muse is coming to Bucharest in October and we will be there (again) to watch and drown in the music. I already feel spoiled by the great concerts that we experience here in Romania.

Muse always gets to the inside of me. Theirs is a music of wholeness, in a way psychedelic and in another powerful. Can’t wait to hear them live!

Starlight
I will be chasing the starlight
Until the end of my life
I don't know if it's worth it anymore
Hold you in my arms
I just wanted to hold
You in my arms
My life
You electrify my life
Let's conspire to re-ignite
All the souls that would die just to feel alive
(Muse, Starlight)

5 Things You Don't Know About Me

Almost 7 months after I got the “leapsha” (:) Romanian expression meaning so much as passing the monkey) from Doru, I finally manage to close the circle and answer.

I have never smoked, nor did anybody manage to convince me to do it.
Riding the bicycle was my childhood’s passion. I rode up to Balea Lac, to Brasov, I rode through the whole Sibiu area… through the rain, with friends, alone, in a skirt, up a mountain… and it was great!
I am either terrible when cooking anything or I cook such exotic stuff as chicken with apple or cucumber, tomato and oranges salad. They actually taste good, but nobody wants to test ;)
When I was little I wanted to become a detective. After some failed attempts to elucidate mysteries, I gave up and concentrated on becoming an ambassador instead :).
My biggest hobby is watching movies, although I do not own a collection of them.

Et voila, I am passing the “leapsha” to Dragos.

Analysis Paralysis

Someone told me a while ago that one cannot undo what one has done wrong or hasn't done at all during their life. That all our actions have consequences that further develop into our lives, in such a way that once an error is made, it cannot ever be repaired as it is, although it can yield positive outcomes. So life can only be seen in terms of points won and points lost, in a table where you quantify plusses and minuses at the end and hope you will be on the positive.

I disagreed - then, as I do now. Life is not a contest to win points, nor is it a sad place where every move can make you lose. Life is a process in which you learn from others, teach others and enjoy what you have. You can undo what you have done wrong - with much more effort - and you can repair errors. For me, there are quite some things I want to make better; I have started yesterday.

Believe in the resolute urgency of now

I am in process of preparing one of the workshops I care most about for a company: Mission Vision Values. They have a very good team – only it is a team of “storming” individuals and not one of those teams that work in full unity to achieve one goal. While having performed the training several times in the past, I found myself wondering about the practical utility of it. The practice of leadership is only slowly finding its way in Romania. Simply discussing the issue of adult teaching and adult development in the sense of adherence to values and governance following a vision is a strain – one either gets laughed at or gets ignored altogether.

Yesterday I spoke to a well-respected trainer who told me leadership was all about common sense, about knowing and following oneself first – before trying to get others to follow you. Now, maybe I am idealistic and a bit overgrown in a culture of quantification, but you cannot measure common sense. That makes training a tricky business – not being able to demonstrate a graspable ROI to the client. What you can do is to repeat training at definite intervals as part of an integral package and try to measure a correlation between financial results, sales outcome, company market valuation and the SMART training objectives. That might work in showing just how much a Mission-oriented training approach has worked.

We'll crucify the insincere tonight

We'll make things right, we'll feel it all tonight

We'll find a way to offer up the night tonight

The indescribable moments of your life tonight

The impossible is possible tonight

Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight

(Smashing Pumpkins, Tonight)

New Year's Resolutions

I've always liked to make plans. Of course not all of them worked, but that did nothing to cut down on the thrill I felt when displaying them on the walls. It was reassuring to have them there, and my eyes were gleaming each time they rested on the particular plan. There was one named "Fram", when a friend and I decided to investigate alien life outside our block some 12 years ago. There were plans about carreer, family life and nature trips, about calling friends, helping your parents and achieving in study.

At some point, someone told me that he'd quit drafting plans, as they didn't work anyway, and had started simply acting out things instead. Things cannot always work out good for everyone - and understanding this fact and acting instead of endlessly pondering does wonders.

It's funny actually that we are constantly run into trouble steering our busy lives, given that instruments such as Outlook calendars, Blackberrys and the like were invented. The answer must lie in the ability to finally reach a decision and follow-up on it.

Have a Happy New Year and don't forget to act on all the promises you made to the sky or to yourself on New Year's day!

You might as well surrender now
You'll never hold that stance
With all my wordsI can't find one
To help you understand
It's not too late
Take up the cup
Put down your weapons and choose
But you say," life's so unfair"
All you say is "life's so unfair."
Oh you can ill afford to hold to these views
Oh you need something to blame
But it's you, yes it's you
It's your truth
(James, Alaskan Pipeline)