Is death the answer?

This weekend was "special". I had to go to a funeral. I don't like this kind of events (who does in the end), but I had to go. It was the funeral of a neighbour of us, a woman my folks knew well and were quite good neighbours. She is dead now.

She was 77. Lately she had some family problems. Few years ago one of her sons died. He used to drink a lot, had an accident, lost his legs and spent some years in the wheelchair. He was the "bad" son, she didn't love nor help. He died in misery while she was taking care of the younger son.

This young son is 46 now, has a serious drinking problem too and now has no job. Her last months meant fear she might get hurt when he came home drunk, hospital fees (they had to put him into the hospital too) and some health problems that started being more serious as she was getting older.

I remember she came to our apartment few times in the last months to talk to my granma about this ordeal she was going through. She wanted to die.

Few days ago she had a sort of a stroke and was taken to the hospital. In 2 days she paralyzed and her life seemed to be even harded: paralyzed but still conscious, a drunk son with no job, no one to care for her except for her sister (old too) ...

I don't know .. maybe it was the moment for Someone to solve this. She had a second stroke and in 3 days she was dead. Maybe in this case it was a good thing she died. Don't know what to say. It's a serious assumption, I know, but in the end something tells me she is better there.

May her soul rest in peace.

Oh Happy Day ...

Oh yeah ... happy ...

The week passed quuite OK. I couldn't wait to have the weekend come faster so that I can dedicate to my sites even more. The weekend came all right .. but the server was under a flood attack and that meant h@ll for the entire saturday.

Today I found out they need to change IPs and I have to close my sites for some hours. Well, one of them is still on, Morrowind.ro .. so I think I'll install some nice stuff there.

I am trying to get prepared for another week, quite busy as it seems. I hate mondays and all this ado, but I have to "survive" till the next weekend. Now I'll install some hacks on the forum that's working to calm down a bit

The blogging disease

I seem to have started liking this blogging issue and that means I'll try to update this more and it also means I am not restricting myself to this blog.

Since I play Travian a lot I thought it's a good idea to put down my ideas about this strategy game in a new blog.

Here it is: Travian Tips & Tricks.

Enjoy it. Hope it helps ;)

The Flu

Almost 1 year ago we had the Bird Flu. Well, in this case many still doubt it was real since NO ONE was sick; this lead many of us to think that it's just another "trick" of some of the Romanian officials who wanted to destroy the local market for poultry and earn more comission from imports. If this seems unbelievable to you, I'll add that in this moment all we do is buy and resell on a higher price. It's not worth it to produce anything anymore, just have few people, a car and resell to death. This is our economy now and we have such corrupt politicians that it's almost like in that Italian series called "La Piovra" ...

So ... everything is still spooky with that Bird Flu and recently some of owners of the biggest chicken farms who had a lot of losses are suing. Nice thing, another scandal to keep us from the daily misery ...

After the bird flu we seem to have another pandemic, this time "normal flu". Almost everyone I know had it or is ill now. And it seems to be quite a tough illness. Most of the "normal" medication fails and they are really sick. As I type this 2 of my coleagues are coughing and have fever. I seem to have escaped this so far. I cannot knock on wood that soon since it can always hit me, but it looks like at least so far I am OK. Was a bit feverish few nights ago, but I took some medication (I always take something called Coldrex) and it worked.

For all those of you who still suffer: I wish you a fast recovery. And here are some pills to make you feel better.

The Devil Wears Prada

This movie kinda reopened my taste for Meryl Streep. I was never into "easy" movies, so she was always on my list of favourites, as Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Emma Thompson and some other good actresses are.

I dislike the media's interest for SEXY actresses. Or at least what they think it's sexy. For many people an actress becomes this when she's dressed in raunchy clothes, better off naked in "expressive" positions.

Well, no, in my books a woman can be sexy even if she's dressed in a casual (and let's face it ugly) dress as in The Bridges of Madison County. Meryl Streep doesn't need to wear tight clothing, not even make up, to really shine.

It was pretty funny to re-watch this movie after seeing The Devil Wears Prada for 7 times in 5 days. It's a new Meryl Streep in here. An ... don't know if I could use older as a word since she doesn't look old, she just looks refined ... Meryl Streep, in the role of a bitchy editor in chief, the main leader of a fashion magazine called Runway.

She is the one to terrorize new employees and make their life a living hell.

This role kinda reminded me of Cruella De Ville from 101 Dalmations and 102 Dalmations (movies that made me admire Glenn Close so much). The 2 characters are kinda similar: both are fashion gurus, very well dressed women, with a taste for making the others suffer. Still they are different in many ways: Cruella is a singleton, a bit crazy I might add and quite hysterical. On the other hand, The Devil who wears Prada is very calm and her meanness is calculated. She doesn't scream, she barely opens her mouth, but when she does poisoned ironies hit the victims.

She's a successful career woman, who in the end let's us see some of her "personal" side. Nicknamed "the devil", "dragon lady" etc. she runs the magazine with an iron fist, just like a man. The problem is nicely spotted by "Emily" (Andy Sachs as she is called normally): "If Miranda was a man, people wouldn't say this about her" when she gives a reason for not hating Miranda, but understanding her.

If I was to recommend this movie (which I try), I'd say that it's a beautiful and smart comedy. It's filled with witty dialogues, with a good choice for music (very dynamic and en vogue), that type of movie that always keeps you on and grabs your attention with a lot of details.

I would have some things I don't agree with and the main one would be the end. But I think they wanted to make it yet again another "moral" story and ruin the entire plot. No matter how many times I watch it, I still cannot agree with their choice for a "happy ending", but unfortunately we're given a movie and have to deal with it.

Anyway .. if you haven't seen the movie yet: go see it. And so that we pay our respects to those who made it, here's the link to the official site The Devil Wears Prada .. yeah I know it's in Flash and lacks a lot of information it could have given us, but it's not that bad. See for yourself and maybe they can convince you even more to see the movie ..

The Devil Wears Prada at IMDB.com:

The story tells the professional adventure of Andrea, whose greatest dream is to become a journalist. Andrea gets a job in the fashion industry through Runway magazine, the most famous of its type, to make ends meet. But Andrea won't develop her writing skills in the magazine, but her talents as the editor in chief's assistant, Miranda. The problem is that Miranda is a merciless, posh and cruel woman, making the experience a living hell for the girl.

The environment in the place will be cold and extremely critical with the physical appearance. The girl will have to change her simple and plain style, for a more trendy and elegant one, in order to gain the acceptance of her ruthless boss and colleagues, specially Emily, her unpleasant workmate. Despite everything against Andrea in the office, she will consider the experience as a challenge, drastically changing her clothes and self-image, with the help of Nigel, the magazine's art director.

Nevertheless, the job becomes extremely demanding, because of Miranda's tough work rhythm and nearly impossible tasks, leaving Andrea without a private life with her boyfriend, family and friends. Maybe the old Andrea has gone, now more preoccupied about her image and her future in the magazine.

I hate "defaults"

Well, it's quite something to start the second post in your own blog with the nice word HATE. But my knowledge fails me into finding something smarter, so HATE it is. I hate defaults.

I have started web design 5 years ago with a template created automatically by Front Page. My first site was made like that. I discovered then the weird fact that I am never pleased with its looks (that's almost like a disease) and that I always try to be .. different.

I realized this again tonight when after creating this inspirational blog (yeah, I wish) before even making the first post I looked to find the template editing options and the CSS. I think I do have a problem. And now, since I am displeased with the way my blog looks I am thinking about how to change it.

It's almost midnight, so I just won't open Photoshop again to make a layout, but be at ease .. a change WILL COME that's for sure.

Well ... HELLO

Hello world :D

I recall this is one of the most used texts when people learn about php for instance. The first "code" they make is created to display the "Hello world" text. Well .. Hello world ..

I already started having a "professional blog" on my main webmaster site, Webmaster Tips & Tricks, but that's for business. I needed a rant place of my own and that blog is not quite a good idea for this. I have an image to keep there and some personal grunts from my part won't look that good on it.

This is why I have started this .. maybe I was bored, even if I have SO MANY things to work on. And here I am .. posting rubbish in a subdomain site ... Gee .. I almost feel like 2 years ago when I had my main site hosted on a free host. Well, I am too tired right now to buy a new domain for it (memo to self: I need to pay for the hosting plan this month ... I'll forger .. AGAIN !!!) so I just went on with this.

We'll see what I come up with :D

I think you expect me to tell you something about myself, huh? Well. I am a woman, I'm 28 (God, when did I get so old? :D) and I work at a radio station in my home town. I am Romanian and proud of it ... My main hobby is web design. I started slow with a site 5 years ago and now I have a HUGE list (at least for 1 person to do all the work). I also love music .. GOOD music (we'll talk about this later anyway) and Martial Arts, especially Karate Shotokan since that's what I practice.

I also have a thing about dogs. Love them. I have a dog taken from the streets 7 years ago. As I write this he's whining in the other room to get some more attention. Uff .. sometimes he's just annoying, but still I like having him in the house.

I think that would suffice for a first posts, what do you think?

PS ... have to confess I love Firefox 2.0 (BTW, if you're still on IE, move fast from it :D) .. The spell check option might make me write more correct things. That kinda ruins my "queen of typos" title, but it's OK ...