Goodbye, summer!

Another summer passed. Hot, messy, short and sometimes annoying summer. I remember when I was little and the summer holidays seemed never to come to an end. And when they did, I was already excited about going back to school. Things changed, time gets crueler and crueler as you grow up, for some reason.

I remember the summers when I was still at uni. Going to bed at 6 am and not waking up before 2pm, talking to wonderful people and not worrying about a thing. Certainly had their charm, I would go back to that anytime.

This summer is the first one I’m experiencing since I’ve got a job. I didn’t really enjoy it, going to work in the summer should be frowned upon. Also, first summer in many years that I didn’t get the chance to see the seaside. It feels odd.

My past 3 summers always ended in tears. Autumn equaled departure. His departure, again and again. I never looked forward to autumn all this time.

Now, there’s no departure. But the routine I’ve been stuck with for these past few months is annoying. I want to believe this autumn will come with change, good change.  

Until then, goodbye summer! I will miss you and your 45C!  

Why people should let the Kristen Stewart story go

I know it’s old news but I wanted to give my opinion on this subject and for some reason no one’s willing to talk about it. Nor to listen to it, for that matter. So I decided the blog is the way to go.

Ok, so Kristen messed up. She cheated on her beloved boyfriend with some older famous guy, married and 2 kids as a bonus.

She publicly admitted it, then the shiny vampire broke up with her and she’s in hiding, all ashamed and humiliated and depressed.

It’s not the first time this happens in the real world. And I don’t get why people make suuuch a big deal about it. We all made mistakes. Some of us still make them. So what’s the deal? She’s young and behind the celebrity face there’s a human person. She is still growing, still learning. It’s how it is, it just happens sometimes. There’s no need to point fingers. But if I were to do that, I’d definitely blame the guy. Simply because he has a family. When you’re in a relationship things are different, especially if you’re young. But a family is a serious commitment – wife, kids, bills and everything else that comes with it. I’m not saying it’s right and no, I’m not defending her and blaming him. What they did, both Kristen and that Rupert guy, is wrong. But that doesn’t mean we should judge them. We have no idea what’s going on with them other than what we see on gossip websites. We don’t know what’s in their souls or in their mind, we don't know anything about them as people really, we just vaguely know them as celebrities.  

So live and let live, accept some things as they are and don’t judge anyone other than yourself.  

Not necessarily in that order

I’d like to have a whole week for myself. To go to bed in the morning only after watching the sunrise from my balcony, to wake up late and spend half an hour  just being lazy in bed because there’s no other things I need to do.

I’d like to take long warm baths, vanilla scented or maybe coconut, I’d like to wash my skin with honey and milk and feel their texture on my whole body.

Then I’d get out of it and I’d just let my body dry and I’d watch the water disappearing from my skin, while being fascinated that it goes away so fast. Or maybe I’d just wrap myself in a white fluffy towel and I’d sit on the bed for several minutes.

I wouldn’t put on any body lotion because I’d imagine my skin breathing at the same time with me. And I’d be there naked for a while, wondering why do I even need clothes and when did mankind start feeling embarrassed of its natural naked state.

Then I’d eat some cereals, or maybe just a banana and I’d enjoy its taste, without being able to explain it to someone who’s never had bananas before; what do bananas taste like? They taste like bananas.

I would let my hair dry even though I know it’d get frizzy. I’d watch Friends, or maybe some Youtube beauty videos.

I would decide I wanna go shopping so I’d put on the most comfortable clothes I have, I’d do my make-up, simple and natural and I’d put my frizzy hair in some sort of tail that’s all messed up.  

I’d go out and I’d buy the most beautiful clothes, all colored or maybe just gray, because I love gray. I wouldn’t buy dresses ‘cuz I might not look good in them, but  I would buy an ice-cream and I’d eat it in a second, even if I knew I’d get a sore throat.  

I would go to the cinema and I would watch a movie all alone. I wouldn’t see a comedy because of my laughing fits and I would eat popcorn and drink Coke and think damn, this tastes good!  

I’d take a taxi back home and I would feel the wind on my skin and in my hair and I would smell my own perfume and I’d imagine what the driver is thinking about.

After that, shower and lazy time, games and stories, movies and feelings. And not necessarily in this order.

And this would be just day 1.

Despre bac şi alte căcaturi - RO

România a devenit un circ. Aglomerat, agitat, zgomotos, plin de animale si de clovni (yucks). Avem şi şmecheri care trag cu pistolul, şi proşti care se sperie şi îşi înghit guma de mestecat, şi muzică proastă, şi oameni care râd de noi. E genul ăla de circ ieftin, prost, la care te duci o dată, să vezi despre ce e vorba, pleci scârbit, uşor amuzat şi uşurat că nu te obligă nimeni să te mai duci a doua oară.

Hai să vă spun cum e cu bacul. Pe vremea mea, adică acum vreo 6 ani, promovabilitatea la magnificul examen al vieţii a fost de aproximativ 80% la nivel de ţară. Eh, anul ăsta a fost de 43%.  Aproape pe jumate. Ce dracu s-a întâmplat, ce vă cer ăştia? Să vorbiţi despre războaie pe care Fănuţ nu le-a purtat? Să inventaţi un nou dialect al limbii române? Să băgaţi o nouă ţară pe harta Europei şi să vorbiţi despre ea? N-am urmărit toată abrambureala făcută în jurul căcatului ăstuia, dar am văzut, pe ici, pe colo, cum cei mai mulţi acuză sistemul. Cred că glumiţa asta cu sistemul e una dintr-alea care au prins până la exagerare, pe care toată lumea le foloseşte mecanic, fără să mai percuteze ce zice, fără să mai gândească. Pentru orice căcat e de vină sistemul. Nu mai sunt la curent acum cu situaţia în învăţământ – pe vremea mea dacă luai 10 erai cel mai şmecher, acum e ceva cu expert, calificat, profesionist, uber avansat. Habar n-am şi nici nu mă interesează, nici nu vreau să aflu pentru că ar fi, probabil, o altă scuză ieftină care m-ar scoate din sărite (cum era aia cu avansat la oral, totuşi?).

Revenind, e vina sistemului că afară a fost prea cald şi bieţii elevi nu s-au putut concentra, e vina sistemului că cum dracu să îi pui pe-ăia mici să se trezească la 9 dimineaţa să vină să dea examene, e vina lui Ponta că îi induce în eroare pe tineri, promovând un comportament neadecvat şi făcându-i să creadă că şi ei vor reuşi pe astfel de căi, e vina lui Băsescu că a omorât câinii şi n-a mai avut cine să-i muşte pe elevi, punându-i în situaţia jenantă de a merge o dată pe săptămână la şcoală.

Sunt sigură că dacă aş întreba elevii picaţi în cap, aş face o listuţă, aşa cum îmi place mie, de toată frumuseţea, cu motive şi scuze şi mai bune de-atât.

M-am uitat rapid pe subiectele la română, la geografie şi la istorie parcă, de anul ăsta, într-o zi când mă plictiseam şi le-am găsit întâmplător. M-au plictisit, n-am avut răbdare să citesc tot şi mi-am zis eh, mare chestie, subiecte de bac.

Dar eh-ul ăla avea să mă lovească fix în freza-mi blondă. Pentru că eh, oamenii n-au luat bacu’.

Hai să vă spun, aşa cum mi-am propus mai sus, cum e cu bacul. Bă, n-aţi luat bacu’ că sunteţi proşti ca noaptea, că n-aţi învăţat nici pe dracu’ în aia 4 ani de liceu, şi nici măcar cu 5-7 zile înainte, atât de proşti sunteţi! N-aţi luat bacul că în timpul ăla în care aţi fi citit acolo despre draci de bătălii şi predicative şi subiective (şi-aia altă poveste de success, ai dracului ăştia cu subiectele lor, nu sunt sănătoşi, mama lor de nenorociţi care fac subiecte d-astea), voi v-aţi blindat cu copiuţe şi blututuri şi pixuri cu infraroşu şi chiloţi de tablă şi eu mai ştiu ce alte minuni. Ca să copiaţi, ca băieţii şmecheri, ca la oricare altă lucrare de control şi să staţi cu urechile pă spate şi să scăpaţi şi de bac.

N-aţi luat bacu’ ca sunteţi nişte idioţi infecţi care habar n-au pe ce lume trăiesc, care nu mai au nici un fel de valoare sau de principiu sau de dorinţe altele decât “dăăăăh eu vreau să-mi iau un seria 5 şi să-i dau blană” – dă-i blană lu’ mă-ta, bă prostule, şi după aia mori! Şi ai grijă să-ţi cânte imnu’ repetentului sau respinsului la bac sau cum naiba s-o mai fi numit şi mizeria aia cu care vă mândriţi atât.

Aş vrea să vă iau pe fiecare în parte şi să vă pun la punct. Să nu mai faceţi pe vitejii şi să vă umilesc într-atât  încât să vă scot toate băşinile din capul ala prost. De proşti ce sunteţi. Vă plângeţi că ţara e de căcat – voi o faceţi aşa, bă! Voi ăştia de aveţi impresia că sunteţi cool dacă nu învăţaţi pentru bac da’ vă scoateţi un 5 acolo, voi ăştia care picaţi bacu’ şi îl luaţi, cu chiu cu vai în toamnă, după aia daţi la Cantemir şi după aia vreţi salarii de 2000 de euro. Pe voi v-aş bate până n-aţi mai mişca, până aţi zace într-o cameră rece, pe jos, într-o baltă de sânge. Poate atunci v-ar veni mintea la cap, idioţilor!

Generaţie de căcat care sunteţi, plină de copii retardaţi, vă doresc, din plin, muie. Pentru că mai mult nu meritaţi, pentru că mai mult nu puteţi. Felicitări pentru mediocritate devine, brusc, o urare pe care vi-o doriţi. Aşa, felicitări că sunteţi nişte puţoi infecţi care nu aduc nici un bine societăţii – mergeţi şi spălaţi geamuri în Piaţa Muncii, pentru ca la nivelul ăla sunteţi, oricât aţi nega-o. Şi după aia, din nou, cu drag, scutiţi-ne de prezenţa voastră jegoasă şi daţi-vă foc. Sau muriţi brusc, la fel de convenabil.    

Dear 14 years old me .. (II)

After meeting my new colleagues and stuff, I’ve never actually felt good there. I was all small and awkward, didn’t actually make any friends so I focused on studying, assuming the geek/nerd position and having the other kids look at me with some sort of pity and, at the same time, anger/envy. Mixed feelings, even for 14 years old.

I didn’t actually get the chance to interact properly with the other kids, mainly because well it’s hard to be surrounded by stupid people – that’s when I started learning it, I’m continuously doing so. Furthermore, it’s hard to be leader for stupid people (I like this saying).

And then there were the big boobs. Ofc they weren’t really big but for the boyish type of girl that I was – they were huge. And the whole hysteria with kids discovering their sexuality started. It was awful. Who looks good in a mini-skirt, who doesn’t, whose legs are more beautiful, who shaves better, who has the prettiest bum etc. As I didn’t have any of those, I, once again, chose to be smart over pretty. Cuz you can’t have it all – I’ve heard.

So that was school for me. That’s why it sucked. Bullying, socially awkward, not liking my colleagues and so on. It wasn’t fun. I talk to people now and they say ‘oooh dw about it, that’s how school was for all of us, we were kids, we knew nothing, just look back and smile because it was a nice period and it’s fun to remember it’. No, for me it isn’t. I don’t hate – people or things, but school came very very close to that.

After that, I went to high school. Because I was a smartass I managed to get into the one that I wanted – and I was one of the few people who did that (see, there’s a reason for the whole “my colleagues were stupid” burden).

And as it turned out, high school rocked. Ofc, not for the 1^st year. Because I don’t like beginnings. And I’m no good with them. But after that, trust me, it was awesome.

I guess there’s few lessons we should learn from these stories (I learned mine a while ago though):

- don’t mess with stupid people. As a wise man once said, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience. Tru dat.

- do everything you can to look pretty. Yes, inside is important and yes, it’s good to be smart but pretty always helps.

- be pro at something. Just do it.

- (especially) when surounded by stupid people, try to dominate them. It won’t be hard. No jokes, no friends, just domination. Anger domination :D

- and, ofc, if you see a a hot girl with big boobs, remember this: she’s stupid. If she gets good grades or awards or whatevs she’s a whore cuz she can’t be that good. Stereotypes help, try them!

So, dear 14 years old me, I'm glad you now know these things.

Beauty of the day

Paris is always a good idea!

Memories

My memories begin when I was 3 years old. I was living at my grandparents and I was pretending I knew how to read when the neighbors visited us. At 4 years old I got all upset with my grandpa 'cuz he ruined one of my masterpieces, a girl with no shoes that I drew on a cold winter day. He wanted to add the shoes and I went emo. I guess I wasn’t really a “shoes girl” and that stuck with me ‘til today.

At 5 years old I fell. And apparently not only tall people fall hard, little ones do it too. I broke my head and my forehead met some stitches. At 6 years old I refused going to the kindergarten, I broke down (I’m a special girl) and my parents took me to my grandparents’, once again.

At 7 years old I started going to school and I discovered I’m smart and pretty and people like me.

At 8 years old I finished 1^st grade and I was the only one not finishing with a perfect 10. I had a 9.95 because of a 9 grade at math. my mathophobia followed me til our days.

At 9 years old – I  don’t remember. At 10 years old I slipped and I fell in front of the class. No one laughed, they were all worried and came to see if I was ok.

At 11 years old I was passing my first serious test for the silly French class. I refuse to remember 12-13 years old.

At 14 years old I discovered I had scoliosis and went through a rather traumatic experience with the scoliosis braces.

At 15 years old I started high school and I discovered  I’m not all that smart or that pretty. It’s all about different standards.

At 16 years old I had my first kiss. With a blond boy with blue eyes. Who – I suspect – stole my wallet.

At 17 years old I had my first “official” boyfriend.

At 18 I started being pretty again. And other things. Yay for me!

At 19 I met him. 

After that, a whole different story began. And we're still living happily. Ever after.

Beauty of the day

Today, beautiful summer feelings <3               
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Miss. I miss

I miss passing an exam at uni. Ok, there’s a lot of stress and anxiety and you’re nervous and you think you’ll fail and whatnot, but the sensation before, during and especially after an exam and is quite unique and I miss that.

I miss my uni friends, the time we spent together, the laughter, the  emoness, the “hanging out after classes”, the “going out in weekends” and so on. They were great people and, even though we still speak or meet occasionally, I have to get used to the fact that things changed and they won’t be the same ever again.

I miss having time for myself, for my little guilty pleasures, I miss being able to stay up all night, going to bed at sunrise and talking to different wonderful people that I will probably never meet in real life, waking up at 3 pm and just being lazy around, knowing I can do anything because I have no restrictions.

I miss my sister. It’s been a while since she moved out but things seem to have changed, I guess it’s always hard to deal with that.

I miss playing WoW like I used to, talking to my friends, spending my time watching a new TV series or attempting to find a new hobby, I miss having the time to do a LOTR marathon without worrying that I have to wake up early.

I miss going shopping on my own or just out to discover new places; I miss feeling appreciated and loved, I miss Alex, I miss having the perfect summer with him, planning our holiday, traveling together and just forget about everything else.

I miss my old self.

-L.

Beauty of the day

Today, beauty on so many levels.
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Dear 14 years old me ..

          ..  Please stop being retarded. Your colleagues are stupid kids that you’ll never meet again and who will, most likely, experience major failures in any important aspect of their lives. So stop caring about what they say.

      Wear those braces ‘cuz shiny perfect teeth later, nomnom. And no, ofc boobs aren’t important. Especially 14 years old boobs, no one cares about them. So stop obsessing about that.

Also, don't lose your confidence. Remember you are head of your class because you are smart and because your teachers have seen the potential you have. So there's no reason to turn into a shy, non-confident girl who will later become socially awkward.
Do yourself a favor and don't tell those ugly guys that you like them, they are really stupid and they're not gonna make a difference in your life. You'll forget their names on your way from childhood to real life.
Don't be afraid to read a text in front of your classmates, you won't mess it up. You might mess up the math problem though but don't worry, sometimes it's ok to mess up on things you don't really care about.
Remember, you're smart and pretty. Don't let anyone else tell you differently, they are all wrong.

Sincerely,
25 years old you

We all know by now that kids are mean and stupid. They will laugh at you and make fun of you in the cruelest possible way, no matter what you do. They'll make fun of your name, finding silly rhymes that most of the time don't make any sense. They'll laugh at your clothes, at your size, at your glasses or braces. They will laugh at anything. Because that's what kids do ( I recently realized there's lots of "mature" people doing the same thing - another post will be dedicated to this). 

My first 4 years of school were ok, I'm not gonna lie. 7-10 or 11 years old is simply children fooling around. I was the smartest in my classroom so our teacher kindly introduced us to the wonder of hierarchy by promoting me to some sort of head of the class – I was responsible for kids to be quiet when the teacher left the class, I was checking to see if they wrote their homework and things like that.
Like any respectable kid in this situation, I soon got drunk with power and I turned into some fascist mini-leader, yelling (occasionally) and patronizing the other kids. Of course, some of them hated me. But I had my group of supporters, just like any leader.  Now that I think of it, I think I enjoyed school ‘til the 5^th grade. That’s when the shitty part started.

My teacher and the French tutor thought I was smarter than the kids in my class and that I had a natural talent for French – therefore I had to go to some special advanced French class. That meant passing a French test in order to transfer to the best classroom in my school. It also meant changing colleagues and, more importantly, losing my authority. Of course, just like any normal kid would do, I did my best to fail the French test so I could keep my old position during the 5^th grade. For some reason it didn't work though – somehow I managed to pass the test and I got transferred into the new class. 

Which turned out to be shit. At first, because no more power. And then because boobs; or chicks with boobs.

I think 5^th grade is when my socially awkward phase started.  I had to make new friends – and we all know how hard that actually is, especially when your options are limited and you get to pick from silly 11 years old. The new class already had its leader: some girl that was pretty much like me - evidently, less cool. She wasn’t a problem though – I tactfully assumed the leader position once again (ok, we might’ve shared it for a while), I got to check kids’ homework and all seemed to be going according to my master plan.

Except it didn’t.

 - to be continued -

L. 

Beauty of the day

I declare Friday the "Beauty of the day" day - I will post something that I consider beautiful, whether it's fluffly cats or places or people or quotes. Maybe I'll just do it every day, 'cause there's so much beauty around.

Today - Frida Gustavsson.

I think the picture speaks for itself. Beauty - she's it.

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If the world ended tonight

If the world ended tonight, I would stay in my room. I would spend the afternoon thinking about those persons who made a difference in my life, listening to the songs that always made me remember funny or sad or nice things, eating yogurt with cornflakes or maybe just some pancakes that I wouldn’t bake myself ‘cause I still don’t know how to and I doubt I have time to learn until tonight. I wouldn’t think of primary school, because I hated it. I wouldn’t think of beginnings – I always hate those. I would think about the ends – end of school, of highschool, of uni, of MA, of my first job. I would think of all the money I spent on clothes and cosmetics and how I saved a special perfume for a special occasion, just because I’ve splurged on it. Maybe I’d wear it tonight. Along with my YSL mascara and my Chanel lipstick. I’d like to be pretty when the world comes to an end.

If the world ended tonight, I would go on Facebook and Twitter and see what other people think or do. Or simply how they feel about it. I think I will find someone who’ll enjoy  it. I reckon most people would feel sad. I know I’d feel disappointed. And maybe a bit melancholic.

Then, I would turn off my pc, for the last time and get annoyed that Windows wants to update right now. I would, maybe, think that I should’ve bought a Mac. Silly overpriced Apple. I would then think of hipsters. And I’d giggle or even laugh, mentally saying “are you seriously thinking about hipsters now!?”. Or maybe I’d just say it out loud.

 If the world ended tonight, I wouldn’t call anyone. I don’t like phoning people, I like texting, everyone knows I hate being on the phone for more than 2 mins. I like to think I’d get a few calls. Maybe some friends saying “hey, I’m glad I had the chance to meet you”. Maybe an old acquaintance telling me “hey, you know, you did make a difference in my life”. That would make me happy.

And then I’d go outside. I’m sure there’d be plenty of people on the streets. There always are, we all go there when something happens: fireworks, earthquake, car crash, anything. People would be loud, some of them would cry. I would walk. Slowly, because I always walk like that. Maybe I’d do things I’ve never had the guts to do, like hugging a few random persons. I would smile – I’m usually the stranger that smiles at other people. And I don’t even have a perfect smile.

I’d watch the sky and I’d feel sorry I haven’t watched it more often. I would touch some trees and be happy, cuz they most likely got to live more than me.

And then I’d run. I hate running but it gives some sort of unique feeling – I’m not sure I can think of anything that comes close to the sensation you get when you run. I would run slowly, I’m not fast at all – but it would seem so fast for me. I’d run ‘til I’d be out of breath and until my hair would be straight behind me. And then I’d stop, sit on the sidewalk and run my fingers through my  tangled hair and thinking to myself “my God, girls shouldn’t run with their hair down”. And then I’d just stand there, watching the sky again.

After that I’d go home. I’d like to be with my family when the world ends. Just like my family was with me when the world started.

Then we’d all lay down. Or maybe lie down. If the world ended tonight, I would think of all those things I’ve wanted to learn, but never managed to (lay/lie spelling, Russian, swimming, riding a bike). But I’d also think of the things I’ve learned.

The world isn’t ending tonight. But if it did, I would like to have the chance to be happy.  And I like to think I'm doing my best to achieve that.
-L.

Foam of the Daze..

.. or how to put things in perspective. For good.
From my experience, most people don't really appreciate what they have or who they are. We think of ourselves as either too skinny or too fat, too tall or too short etc. We rarely take the time to be thankful if we're healthy, happy or lucky enough to have a great family or friends. It's in the human nature to always strive for more - nowadays we just seem to forget the things that really matter and we're bathing in the pool of superficiality, minding our own shallow thoughts.
Sometimes it takes a huge slap in the face to get back to reality - and I don't wanna go into this 'cause we've all had ours. But other times, it takes less - a good chat with someone, a good movie or, in this case, a good book.
That's right, I managed to put things in perspective after reading what can be considered, in my opinion, one of the best book ever written.

As you might've figured out, I'm talking about Boris Vian's "Foam of the Daze". I'm not sure about the English title, the original title is "L’Écume des jours" - in English I've found it as "Foam of the Daze", "Froth of the Daydream" and there might be more, I haven't done my research properly.

Now I'm not gonna start telling you what's it about, you can easily find that on the interwebs. However, I strongly recommend reading it - no matter what sort of literature you're usually into, I'm sure this will make a great read.

What striked me mostly was its ability to make me feel sad. I read quite a lot of books but it doesn't often happen to get such feelings - I was depressed for like 1 week after finishing it and throughout the reading I was happy or sad or in pain along with the characters. It was the first book that made me shed a few tears - and I'm the type of person who didn't cry while watching "The Notebook" or whatever, so yea, it did come as a big surprise. 

It made me realize how lucky I am for being healthy (yes, I do have some issues but nothing that's gonna kill me), for having found the love of my life, for my great friends and my great family.  Maybe the most important lesson would be this: no matter what problems you have, just learn how to live with them. You know what they say, if they won't kill you, they'll definitely make you stronger.

- L.

Never again...

You know how they say "You never know what you have until you lose it". I used to think it was such a stupid quote. Not to mention it was such a popular one that it actually turned into a life philosophy for many people. I pity the fools.. (me and Mr. T. would've said back then). However, I reached a certain point in my life where I couldn't agree more. Let me explain how it works: at first you're extremely happy and grateful for what you have. Then, as time passes by (oh time... that necessary evil!), you sort of get used to it. It becomes such a big part of your life that you take it for granted. You might even neglect it for a while or, even worse, mock it, without realizing it won't be there forever. 'Cause obviously, why would you lose something that's an integrated part of your life, that you became so fond of, that blends so well with you that you forget it's actually there? And then it happens. You do something stupid, something you know you wouldn't normally agree with; something you know you'll regret. You do it, just like in those Nike commercials. And then you get a huge ass slap from reality and you realize what you've done. And how there's nothing, absolutely nothing you could do to UN-do it. How do you deal with a situation like that?
This goes for pretty much anything in your life that you value.. whether it's your health, your fiancée, your car, your parents, your Prada bag and the list goes on and on.
Regret is the worst feeling that one could experience. It is not pain, pain you can bear with. It's even worse than when you suffer - time heals anything. But it doesn't make those regrets go away. No matter how hard you try, no matter how long you wait.

-L

World of Warcraft - my story

World of Warcraft is the most popular MMORPG, the game with the most subscribers, the awesome Internet phenomenon that took over about 12 million people and that you've clearly heard of.
And yes, I am one of them 12 million. I have been playing it for almost 4 years now (with few breaks.. some lasted longer than others) and I still can't get enough of it.

Before I started, my boyfriend  was playing it with it a friend and I honestly didn't like it in the beginning - those scary and ugly creatures were just not my cup of tea. They tried to convince me to get a subscription for several months and in the end I caved - I made a gnome female on my boyfriend's account and I just fell in love with her :D  But, surprisingly as it might seem, the first character I made on my own account was a pretty human. And as I didn't know anything about classes or roles whatsoever, I picked out the one with the prettiest outfit - a rogue. So that became my main character, the one I raided on, the one I annoyed other players in battlegrounds on etc etc. What's more important than that is that even though WoW took up a lot of my time (yes, I admit that), it also had a major impact on my life.

First of all, I met really nice people and chances are I wouldn't have met them otherwise. Ok, I'm not gonna say everyone in there is awesome, there's looots of weirdos, but then again you could easily meet those in real life as well so yea, not that much of a difference. I met few WoW players in real life and I can assure you they are normal people, no 4 heads or 3 arms.  Hell I even made a really good friend that I spent part of my last 2 summer holidays with. Secondly, I started to like the whole gaming thing and I grew interested in it as I created and leveled moar and moar chars. And this is how I ended up writing my MA dissertation on World of Warcraft, impressing everyone and getting a max grade for it (like a boss). I cannot tell for sure whether or not I would've gotten a max grade on a different topic but still, I sort of liked my chances with this one, considering how well I actually knew the subject.

WoW is one of the few things I don't really get bored of. I could easily spend a whole day just doing nothing but playing the game, laughing and having fun with my virtual friends and just nerding about. And yes, people are sometimes making fun of me and they are getting into the whole "AMG you play WoW?!?!!? hahaah" hysteria and everything but all that does for me is making me smile. And that's always a good thing!

So what World of Warcraft character do YOU play? :)

- L

Why 3D is ruining cinema

Unless you've been living under a rock on Mars or some other distant planet for the past 10 years you may be aware of this phenomena known as 3D, while it is certainly not brand new technology only in the past few years has it really hit mainstream and has taken the entertainment world by storm. Its not just cinema too, now you can buy 3D monitors, 3D TVs, 3D game consoles, 3D DVDs and the list goes on, at this rate even reality will have a 3D edition soon! Now some of you may be asking 'so why exactly is this a bad thing' and in most cases it isn't, not necessarily, the entertainment world is always evolving and 3D is just the newest shiny toy in their arsenal. However when it comes to movies, both cinema and then later DVDs it most certainly is a bad thing and let me tell you why.

Back in the olden days, and by that I mean pre 2000, when a company wanted to make a movie they would have a budget, a certain amount of money that they can spend on making the film as good and as successful as possible, this money they could spend on hiring actors, a producer, filming crew and sometimes a bit of special effects for kicks. The distribution of the available money would be at the companies discretion, they may wish to hire a lot of big name actors and make the movie popular by having recognisable and well known faces, or they can choose to spend a little less on that and maybe hire a very talented producer (which lets be fair is usually no cheaper then big name actors) and make a compelling story with an excellent script. While most films did have some special effects it was not usually a selling point, or at least very rarely, movies only really became successful through the power of their story and actors performances, successful movies were, by definition, successful because they were good.

Now however there is a third contender, what I like to call the 'oooh look shiny lights' way of making films. The unfortunate reality is that people in general are not very intelligent, the masses do not want to think, they don't even necessarily want to understand, they just want to be entertained. Just like a kitten will chase a laser pointer round a room for hours happily most people are content with watching shiny lights flicker across their field of vision as long as its somewhat coherent. So now the producing companies have a new way of making a film successful and unfortunately special effects are not cheap. They could hire some big name actors to make a film popular but there is always the choice of which ones? Not everyone likes the same people, while one particular choice will attract a certain audience it will at the same time alienate another. Or they could go with a compelling and interesting story, but again this doesn't necessarily appeal to the masses because most people simply don't want to try to untangle intricate plots and complex characters, they just want a big bucket of ice-cream fed to them and a little kid repeatedly saying 'ouch Charlie bit my finger!', and even those who do appreciate a finely crafted story, the plot twists and intricacies lose some of their charm after seeing it once.

So this leaves them with the third option, shiny lights and fancy effects, which is not cheap but will appeal the biggest number of people. While it is true that perhaps it will not appeal to the highest class of cinema goers, the connoisseurs of films, at the end of the day all you are to the film companies is another head and €10, it doesn't matter if your Albert Einstein or Wayne Rooney, all that matters is the income. Theres also more to it then just that, when you make a film you want it to give you a return for the longest possible time, this means future proofing and in this day and age that directly correlates to making it releasable in 3D. If you don't have shiny effects then 3D loses its charm, people can see every day things in 3D all the time, what they can't see is lasers and lightsabers and flying blue people on some distant planet. What this effectively means is that 3D usually comes at the price of everything else, good story, clever script, interesting characters etc. because every film is still on a budget and you can't have everything.

A prime example of this is Avatar, it has the most bland characters known to man, honestly paper cutouts have more personality, the story is directly stolen from a another movie except now its set in space, the acting is subpar at best and the entire movie is just dull. What it does have is shiny lights and bright colours and the all important 3D, and while this didn't exactly land them with a truck full of Oscars like some other successful movies it did make more money then the treasury of most small countries. It is the most successful movie of all time in terms of income when it is in essence NOT a good movie. Nice visuals are certainly a good thing to have in a movie but it cannot be the only thing, nice visuals alone is not enough it has to come as part of a package.

3D makes for easy income off the drooling masses, it does not make good films, but unfortunately in the world we live money is king and 3D makes money.

- M

Guilty pleasures...we all have them

"A guilty pleasure is something one enjoys and considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it."

Whether we talk about movies that we secretly watch and we don't want our friends to know about (and no, I do not mean porn!) or we abuse those delicious chocolate cookies at 2 am, we all have our guilty pleasures. They make us and our lives happier in such a superficial way, and what's better than that ?

I'm gonna share some of my own guilty pleasures.. but hey, no judging, kk? So... spending waaay too many hours on Youtube watching random people singing, playing World of Warcraft (yes, I know.. those 250 days speak for themselves), eating ice cream even if I get a sore throat every single time after that, junk food (though I swear it's only now and then and it's only because I am so damn lazy!), watching "Gossip Girl"  - talk all you want but watching them rich teenagers struggling with fashion and love issues is fun!

What about you, what guilty pleasures do you have (and please, please don't mention things like sacrificing virgins under a full moon) ?

- L