28 Jun 2007

non-blogging consequences

This blog has been deserted for too long now. And during this time, i tried to come up with all sorts of reasons to convince myself that there was a very good cause behind me not writing here anymore. Most times, i felt like i was too busy to post (which is not so far from the truth), some other times i felt like i 'd rather use the time for doing something else, sometimes i felt like i didn't really have anything interesting to say, some other times my enthusiams was simply cut down by all sorts of talks about blogging vs planning or blogger vs. practician. At times, i even got annoyed by all the fuss that was created on blogs following events such as Olimpiadele Comunicarii - when the unhappy people used the blogs as the perfect environment to let go of all their frustrations and insult other people who were only trying to help. More recently, i blamed not posting on the fact that i have temporarily moved away from my home, and no longer have internet, which must be one of the silliest excuses ever.

And then, slowly and surely, i started to realise all the drawbacks that not blogging has on me. Like for example:


1. my daily dose of interesting bits dramatically decreased - i simply love the blog brain, not necessarily for the times when it reminds me of random "cultural" or scientifical facts that i could have read lots of books about or even looked for myself on wikipedia, but more likely for its "amazing ability to come up with all sorts of hypotheses that sound correct and have the added benefit of being totally impossible to verify", as Scott Adams puts it. Blogs are full of ideas and, most important, thoughts - some brilliant, some crazy, some silly, but who cares as long as you can always make connections and get something out of them ? I mean of course i spot all sorts of things in the street, i read all sorts of things in newspapers and watch some on television, but their tone sounds more argumented, more like "these are the facts", and less like the "you know, this thingy crossed my mind this morning, and i can't realise whether it's retarded or genius" blog-tone.


2. the more i postponed posting, the more i postponed reading - and i mean even postponing reading blogs that i adore, written by people who always get me curious with their posts.


3. the less i blogged about them, the less events i attended - i used to be so much more connected to Bucharest arena - no matter how tired, i still found time to simply know about very many of the things happening, and i also found time to attend at least half of them. I went to events, museums, i compared, i combined, trying to extract something interesting enough to share. And actually, this isn't only limited to attending stuff.


4. blogging less meant getting in touch with less wonderful people - and also losing touch with some of the wonderful people i "met" via blog. Quite an obvious one, isn't it ?


5. lack of blogging reduced my enthusiasm in implementing all sorts of small projects - sometimes blogging feels like writing my very small manifesto and keeping track of how consistent i am with it. Otherwise, many of my small manifestos remain notes in my notebook i often forget about.


This being said, it's time to gather the Word docs i saved as drafts on the laptop, even though they seem really silly, like the one trying to prove what a great planner Hitchcock would have been.
pic from here.

20 Jun 2007

interesting2007

Interesting2007 has been one of the most exciting experiences i've ever had. The atmosphere, the presentations, the rhythm, the mood, the audience, there simply was something special in the air that made me feel very special to be part of the gathering.
The whole thing was mostly interesting because of its randomness - and it kept on bombing us with different ideas, different angles, different perspectives, developing far less like the regular planned big teaching seminars and conferences and far more like the exact way in which we find ideas and inspiration - combining a bit from here, a bit from there.
At times, the randomness and events-on-stage made the event feel weirder and slightly spookier than a Star Wars convention. Which is kinda brilliant. There were moments when i simply laughed and wondered what would happen next, and i didn't get disappointed for a moment. The combination of topics included tips on how to split a log, video games and art, the challenges encountered when you you try to use simple everyday actions to change the world, television, tips for making a better erotic film, comics, niceness, knots, food reconstructions, printing, Ibsen and muppets, tubes, skateboards, finity, Oprah, science of spying, amazing pics, fobias and many others.
Once again i was reminded the fact that no matter whether they're used to talking in public or not, whether they're used to writing presentations or not, people are just brilliant when they talk about something they are really passionate about. And passion can get really contagious at times.
I was very glad that Alina and Ileana were also there. And it was also really nice to talk to John, who's up for a brand new experiment and who will also be in Romania soon, Ben, who was kind enough to sign me an autograph and draw me a map of London, and Faris, who had just been to Romania. And i even got a chance to say hi to Paul Colman himself.
Amazing day, amazing feel. Pics soon.

7 Jun 2007

instead of counting sheep

We're dead curious to know how many planners Romania has (and making bets about it), as one of the first APG Romania actions. So please tell us about you here.

5 Jun 2007

resolution

"It's just this crazy day - so damn many things to do. Tomorrow it will all be different". "The weekend...aaah - the weekend will be free". "This is the last weekend when i work instead of doing other things". "It's just this crazy week. Next week i'll have spare time". "It's just this month. I'll have to reconsider my lifestyle next month"...

This is how i've been lying to myself lately. And it has to stop, so that i can post on my blog once again, and attend all interesting events again, and watch loads of movies, and practice sports, and stay out like crazy and so on. That's it :).