more movie mumble from me

after more than one year of completely ignoring it, i eventually decided to start posting on my silly movie blog once again. I've written a tiny bit on Todd Solondz, and now i'm already preparing the next post about Henry: portrait of a serial killer. And i'm suspecting it's going to get a bit more serious soon, because my graduation paper will surely deal with movies, and i'm going to need a lot of feedback and opinions on that.

in the mean time, i'm open to any movie-related suggestions.

advertising young minds

There are so many interesting blogs out there, it sometimes feels like a pity to simply stick to one list of feeds, even though the list contains posts i feel like i definately must read. Which is why every now and then i enjoy brand new random lists of blogs - sometimes i take them from somebody's blogroll, some other times from one top or another.

Now Daniel Mejia - whom blog i totally feel in love with - gathered Advertising Young Minds - the top 27 blogs of people under 27 , by combining all sorts of ranks and authority stats and so on. Enjoy !

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.

why i have fun online

Gavin, who doesn't just have one of the most inspiring blogs, but who has also gathered an equally lovely community around him, tagged me to post 5 reasons why i blog. And i think he couldn't have found a better time to make me think about this :). So here i go:

1. Community - when i first started blogging, i was a very lonely junior invited by the creative director to switch from copywriting to planning. I had no idea what planning was all about, no idea whom i could ask what planning was all about and so on. Then i discovered Russell's blog and a great deal of things derived from this. I slowly drifted in the lovely planning community. At the beginning i was crazy about reading more and more communication and brands-related posts, i felt like i was getting so many bits of knowledge from so many different great people. Now, it's far more than that - i feel like i have great friends all over the world, friends whose posts inspire me, give me food for thought and brighten my day. Brilliant people who are willing to answer my questions, give me advice and feedback, because they don't mind sharing. It's like in some very nice school. What could be greater than that ? Besides, one way or another, the blog actually helped me meet other Romanian planners.

2. Learning - i see all sorts of things, i read all sorts of things, i make all sorts of connections, and get all sorts of ideas and often forget about them. However, when i write about them, they all add up like in a sketch book - some of them are really stupid, some others are an incoherent pile of inspiration. And that's lovely.

3. Sharing - sometimes i come across stuff i am simply dying to share. I daily come across so much unexpected stuff, that a blog might easily pass for a sort of "travel diary". Even though i have become really really lazy when it comes to posting lately.

4. Playing and experimenting - ok, so i am not a tech girl, but i simply love to play with all sorts of internet toys - and i wouldn't know how to make the most of them, if i didn't use them somehow. The blog is an excellent place to test the many possibilities of adding things to the little sketch book - pictures, videos, recordings, stuff that i'm sure i'd otherwise lose among loads of files and bookmarks.

5. Portrait - the blog shows a glimpse of myself - and that made it easier for people interested in the way i see things to contact me, and it also made it easier for me to introduce myself to people i contacted. Which i think is great, cause that's how i ended up being involved in some wonderful projects or mere conversations.

All in all, i realise that the blog brings so many good things, that i simply have to re-gather all energy and start posting and posting, cause it sure is worth the time :). Thank you, Gavin !

For further motivations, i summon Bogdana, Stefan, Andreea, Ben and Cosmin.

the blogosphere just got richer

I've spent a lot of time talking to various people about the wonderful events organized by the Czech Centre Bucharest. And each time i was sorry i couldn't indicate a site or a blog which was less formal than the official site and provided much more information (and pictures, and movies and all that) both about the Czech Centre projects, and about the discussions that followed most of these projects. Which is why we kept on nagging Monika about starting a blog, and she eventually decided to do so :). Czech-it is a must-read for anybody who wants to stay in touch with some great people doing great things.

Keep up the good work !

building a bright green future

this must be one of those things that everybody knows about and checks out frequently and i'm the only one who doesn't know about it, but i have just come across it and fell in love with it.

Listening to photographer Ed Burtynsky's Ted speech revealed a fantastic blog called World Changing, which is an amazing collection of articles, tools, models and ideas for building a better future, all coming from contributors all around the world: "WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it's here. We only need to put the pieces together."

wonderful to hang out with wonderful people

Iain is right: "It’s nice when people you know start good blogs." Razvan has a brand new blog about which i found out yesterday. He's part of Oricum, a really amazing guy, and a sheer delight to hang out with. And while we were having coffee yesterday, i remembered a little nice quote from addicted to the hustle:

"I don't bother "networking" anymore, instead, I try to build relationships with people I find interesting, and who I think are doing interesting things. And I make it my mission to help them in any way I can to achieve their mission. I find this much more satisfying, much more honorable, and much more fun. And this is the cool thing about people....When you help them out in this way, they help you out. Not because it's a tit for tat deal, but because both parties are engaged in a mutually beneficial relationship that extends beyond the next favor."