2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,300 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Feeling down? Zambeste!

M’au purtat aseara pasii prin pasajul de la Universitate. Unde am ajuns mai mult sau mai putin cu o falca in cer si alta in pamant, gata sa strang de gat orice/pe oricine m’ar fi enervat catusi de putin. In pasaj m’au intampinat niste nene cu pancarte pe care scria “Zambeste” plus un mic mesaj pozitiv si motivational. Fireste ca toata supararea mea s’a topit ca o inghetata uitata in soare si ditamai zambetul mi s’a latit pe toata fata. Am zambit, am facut poze si, cel mai important, am ramas cu o stare de bine generala care m’a insotit apoi toata seara.

Omuletii sunt acolo pana la sfarsitul lui noiembrie, gata sa’ti aduca soare si voie buna. De ce sa nu’i lasi? Detalii aici.

Zambeste!

Flori

De multa vreme tineam sa’mi cumpar crizanteme..

Trecand astazi totally random pe langa o florarie am decis instant ca pana aici mi’a fost! Mi’am luat o crizantema galbena.

Nu e ca cele din gradina, pricajita si parfumata, dar macar nu e la fel ca celelalte flori pretentioase din florarii. Am dat 2 lei pe ea si miroase a toamna. Toamna pura, rece, prafuita. Exact asa cum ar trebui sa fie.

Un dictionar al florilor atribuie crizantemelor galbene imperialismul. N’as sti sa traduc asta in termeni inteligibili, si nici nu’mi pasa. Singurul lucru pe care l’am descoperit datorita “dictionarului” e ca mi’e dor de carciumarese, care ar reprezenta, se pare, loialitatea. Mie imi lipseste doar mirosul lor de praf..

Hello there!

Da, traiesc! Inca. In caz ca s’a intrebat cineva din august incoace ce s’a intamplat cu mine.

Sunt din nou in Bucuresti, ocupata sa fac de toate, cu capul in nori si limba scoasa. Poate putin cu mintea mai asezata, dar nu garantez pentru obiectivitatea afirmatiei.

Si.. trebuie neaparat sa va prezint pe cineva. Il cheama Alexander (x’ul se pronunta gz), are carcasa nice and shiny, si a jurat sa’mi fie alaturi la bine si la rau, pana cand moartea ne va desparti. Sau, in cazul lui, un crash de la Windows..

Harry Potter 7. Partea a doua.

Am fost aseara si’am vazut Harry Potter. Intr’o sala uluitor de mica, cu toate scaunele ocupate.

La fel ca toate celelalte filme din serie, nici asta n’a stralucit prin nimic. Ok, faptul ca l’au spart in doua parti face ca Harry Potter 7 sa fie infinit mai bun decat toate celelalte la un loc. In afara de asta insa, nu e mare diferenta. Firul epic lasa de dorit (sa zicem ca asta e din cauza cartii), filmul nu’l poti situa nici la copii, nici la adulti, nu te poti horati daca’ti place sau il urasti.. e prea incert cu totul.

Avem o McGonagall care se bucura ca o fetita de 10 ani cand trezeste niste uriasi de piatra ca sa apere scoala, o Molly Weasley care spune ”bitch” pentru prima data in viata ei, iar Ron si Hermione se pupa in sfarsit.. Fireste, o fac in cel mai penibil moment.

Ca sa nu mai vorbim de inconsecventa barbilor din film. In timpul bataliei, Ron pare ca poarta doliu de vreo saptamana, ca la sfarsitul ei sa fie mai fin si mai matasos decat o reclama la Braun. Asta in conditiile in care niciun alt personaj n’a avut timp sa’si schimbe hainele sau sa’si stearga sangele de sub nas. Dar macar au facut economie in ceea ce priveste garderoba.

Ai zice ca au investit banii aia in efecte special, dar cumva batalia de la Hogwarts seamana teribil de mult cu cea din Stapanul Inelelor. Sau poate numai eu cred ca trolii aia aduc a orci si ca multe scene au fost reciclate. Meh..

Sfarsitul e sec. Sec, sec, sec, sec, sec. Pe Ron il prinde burtica de tatic, trebuie sa recunosc, dar Harry arata jalnic la 40 de ani. Ca sa nu mai vorbim de Draco.. Ce’i cu tepii aia pe fata? Puteau macar sa investeasca intr’o peruca, sau ceva.. Si copiii pleaca la scoala, si filmul se termina, si vai ce bravi si curajosi au fost cu totii. Bla bla bla..

Daca as fi fost mai mica, poate ca as fi fost la fel de induiosata ca atunci cand am citit ultimul capitol din Ciresarii intr’a saptea. Dar asa, in coada de peste, filmul asta nu inspira nimic.

job log

And then it was day three, and four, and eight and I lost track of them.

I’m gonna be here for another three and a half weeks and I just can’t seem to be able to adjust to the weather. I feel like I’m acting in a Harry Potter movie. It’s always clouded. And chilly. And windy. Ugh.

I somehow managed to survive through the first week without a TV. Then, I managed to make it work. Well, it took a week, a soon-to-be electronics engineer (meaning me) and a soon-to-be mechanical engineer (meaning Robert), but in the end we won the battle against the machine. Yey for the human race!

Please don’t ask about work. Cause it’s not actually work.. it’s reading and writing and preparing my project and studying. The surroundings are pretty, the people are nice, the food is excellent, but my activities are dull. At least for the moment. I’ve been promised some visits to the shops when the equipment will be brought from offshore for maintenance. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than latter.

Well, actually, I’m lying. I went to a gun shop in my second day here and to visit two other segments (D&M and Well Services) on Friday. But these activities only took about two hours each week and will probably never happen again..

So embrace yourself, little cow.. for the moment you’re stuck in the office and you have to study about the IRIS Dual-Valve and the eFire system. Your mentor promised you some sort of pop-quiz tomorrow..

Useful tips when flying

- Weight your baggage at home if possible and make sure it doesn’t exceed 20-23 kilograms. It will sped things up.

- Better avoid liquids in your hand luggage. At all.

- Keep your documents close so you won’t have to google for them through your purse.

- Smile. It does work better on foreign airports, but you can as well try it in Romania too. You’ve got nothing to lose, really.

- Activate your Roaming before leaving Romania. You need a password in order to do that, and if you didn’t settle one, it’s the number of your ID card (if you’re not a PrePay user, that is, case in which I have no idea how it works).

- Chew gum until the plane reaches full altitude, but mostly when it’s about to land.

When cows fly..

So working for Schlumberger meant going to Norway. Going to Norway meant flying. And after a night of heavy partying, this really wasn’t on the top of my bucket list.

Knowing it was going to be my first flight, everybody asked “And how do you feel about it?”. And the only answer I could find was “I haven’t decided yet.”.

Only on my way to the airport, in the cab (a lovely silver Mercedes Benz) did it really sink in. Like “Oh, f**k. I’m going to Norway!”. And suddenly, my stomach disappeared by magic.

It did reattach itself however at the airport, when the line in fron of me looke like it was getting bigger and bigger. After what it seemed like forever, I got my ticket, left my luggage and went to “visit” the airport. It took a rudimentary passport check, a security check (thorough one; if a guy would have tried to feel me like that lady did, he would have picked himself from the floor in a handkerchief), a more responsible passport check and a treasure hunt for gate 14, but I DID get into the plane. In time. All by myself. For the first time. I’m the man, really!

It took the pilot about 5 minutes to get the plane in its right place for taking off. And after that..the climb. Like French people say: C’est magnifique! Cause it really is.. Feeling the nothingness beneath me, passing through the clouds, watching them afterwards through the window just to see their spectacular formations.. C’est vraiment magnifique!

On the downside, it was rather cold in the cabin. But on the bright side there was lack of dizziness or altitude sickness, no turbulences and even free sandwiches. Thumbs up for that, cause I was really hungry.

Unfortunately, I was also really sleepy, so I got one hour of sleep. Just like in a rocking chair.

And then we got to Amsterdam. It seemed to be a pretty surrounding area from the plane, but what really amazed me was how huge the airport was. I walked for about 20 minutes before getting to gate C06.and I must say that people are a lot more relaxed there than those from the Otopeni Airport. A short look at my passport and an exchange of smiles saved me some minutes. Not that I needed it, since I had to wait for almost 50 minutes for boarding.

Inside the plane, it was pretty much the same cold story, only I slept like a baby and there were no sandwiches.

I arrived at the flat (after paying the huge amount of money of 206 NOK for the taxi) around 12 o’clock, met Birgit from relocation.no, a lovely lady that showed me around and made sure I got to the right Schlumberger base. Apparently, there are three of them in Stavanger and I had no idea which one was I assigned to. Just in case you get assigned to Testing Services in Stavanger, the base is in Forus, on Maskinveien 13.

There, I met Olav Indrehus, one of the people in management and a very nice person to be around. He gave me the tour of the base, made sure I received my PPE and introduced me to everybody. Then he put these really heavy books in my arms and sent me to study in the office that I shared for a couple of days with Robert, a trainee from UK who had already been there for almost three weeks when I arrived.

I must confess I didn’t unpack on that day. After the total lack of sleep from the previous night and the flight, I just got back to my apartment and got a nice 12-hours sleep.

And then it was day two..

22nd July 2011

Schlumberger – The beginnings. Smartness is hot.

Let me start by saying that Schlumberger is a company that really respects its employees and it also has the necessary means to do that financially.

Once upon a time, there were about 15 people, including me, from France, Polland, Turkey, Austria and Romania, anxiously waiting to find out how Schlumberger actually is.

Aaand.. I don’t know about the others, but from the financial point of view, they’re a great company. For me, at least. Four stars hotel, plane tickets, going out to eat in the last evening.. those people would do everything just to get quality employees.

I arrived at the hotel earlier than I should have, and while waiting for my room to be ready, I got the chance to know Gamze, from Turkey, who was just as early as I was. I then played the guide role in Bucharest, role that really sticked to me for the entire period we spent there.

I believe I could speak about the trainings, but I don’t really know if that would be of any interest. Instead, let me just say I met the hottest people in our engineering generation. Cause according to our recruiter, smartness is hot, and smartness was his most important unofficial criterion. Which means we were the hottest.

With these people I had one of the most amazing experience this summer. And hopefully, this won’t be the only time we meet.

21^st July 2011

Zotic, Atal, Kamasie si Filip

Cei 4 martiri de la Niculitel. Astazi este sarbatoarea lor, iar povestea vine cam asa..

In 1971, a plouat. Ploaie de vara, ca’n toti anii de dinainte si de dupa. Dar in 1971 suvoaiele de apa au sapat o ulita laturalnica a satului, descoperind varful unei constructii de piatra. Curiosi, oamenii au spart cupola sperand la o comoara neasemuita. Mare le’a fost insa mirarea cand au descoperit acolo oase.

Era de fapt o cripta-martyrion din piatra si caramida de pe vremea romanilor, inconjurata de temeliile unei bazilici paleocrestine datand din secolul V d.Hr.

La sfarsitul lunii septembrie, cripta a fost deschisa. Pe cele doua nivele, sase schelete umane. La cel de sus, patru, intr’un sicriu comun din scandura de brad. La cel de jos, alte doua, amestecate cu pamant, fiecare in despartitura lui. La intrare, inscriptia “Aici si acolo, sangele martirilor”. Sus, sunt inscriptionate si numele celor patru martiri, cunoscuti de altfel si din arhivele Vaticanului. Pana la descoperirea Mucenicilor Epictet si Astion de la Halmyris (Murighiol, Tulcea), martirii de la Niculitel reprezentau cea mai veche marturie a persecutiilor impotriva crestinilor.

Incalcand dispozitiile vremii nu foarte prietenoase cu religia, in miez de noapte, un preot cu rang inalt le’a dus atunci la Manastirea Cocos, unde se afla si astazi.

De aici sunt luate an de an pe 3 iunie, duse in procesiune la Noviodunum (Isaccea), locul executiei, si apoi la Niculitel, la cripta. Dupa veghea de’o noapte, se face slujba, urmand ca apoi sa fie dusi inapoi cu sobor de preoti la Cocos. Puzderie de pelerini se aduna an de an la Niculitel din toate colturile tarii.

In anul 2001, primul an in care martirii au fost sarbatoriti cu atata cinste, o minune a fost surprinsa de aparatele de fotografiat. O raza de lumina a venit in miez de noapte, s’a curbat si a intrat in cripta in timp ce un calugar se ruga. Un semn ca cineva acolo sus totusi exista..

Astazi este ziua lor. Sa’i cinstim!