Paranoia and other pleasant things

2007’s first post is brought to you by Ada’s dirty, dirty mind2

I mean … I’m sure those images on the kiddie champagne and on the toffees are perfectly innocent, right? RIGHT?

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WordPress, Movable Type or else?3

I’m at loss with this weblog. I had WordPress’s Akismet spam catcher plugin for a long time until our hosting company started sending me angry emails about the fact that a huge part of their memory was occupied by the spammers’ battle with Akismet. Okay, I turned that off, found a Captcha plugin and y’all had to write the little numbers and letters inside the box. Not much time passed until spam started reappearing - it outsmarted the Captcha. Plus the hosting company started shouting again about resource overuse. So I turned off the Captcha, and spam started flowing in, at a rate of approx. 25 comments /day .

So now only logged in users can comment. Which is a nuisance, and I know it. I’m considering switching to Movable Type, installing any plugin that you tell me about and that works against spam effectively or shutting down the blog altogether . Ideas (either as comments here or mailed) are very much welcomed.

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Mos Nicolae or the return of the meme2

Zu has tagged with the making of a list for Saint Nicholas’ Day, which is on Dec 6th. Saint Nicholas is celebrated here as an anticipation for Christmas, with kiddies all around the country shining their boots and putting them in the window for Nicholas to bring them gifts. The bad kids are supposed to get a stick instead of the presents. I have yet to see a kid that got one of those, though.

Anyway, here’s the list of things that I want from Mos Nicolae for 2007:
-A second baby, at least as gorgeous in every way as Timi is.
-Health for us and our loved ones
-To get a new and better paying job along with / instead of the one at the hospital
-For Timi to learn to speak well both Romanian and Hungarian in the next few months, and to be able to meet the kindergarten germs without getting sick
-To be able to pay the loan for the car entirely.

I’m tagging Romerican, Deea, Andy and Mirona (I tried to choose only people living in Romania this time, what with the national day of Ro and all, but any non-Romanian that feels like being tagged with the list … please, go ahead)

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Synesthesia2

Sony Bravia (remember the no 3d TV commercial with lots of balls bouncing down a street ? That’s the one) has a new commercial. Colour like.no.other. again .

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No shit, Archimedes4

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Another virginity loss3

.. tag virginity, that is -and Raluca is to be blamed for it .

3 places I love here:

• the Catholic cathedral. A mix of Gothic and Romanic, many times burned down and then rebuilt, it’s where me and Robi married.
• the part of the citadel where this medieval window still can be seen even if the house sunk in the ground enough to render it non-functional .

• this quiet old street near my workplace, where one of the biggest collection of manuscripts and papiruses from this part of Europe is located.

3 places I hate here:

• the industrial zone. Dust, cars and ugly buildings.
• the “Tiganime” - the only neighborhood where I wouldn’t dare go after 8PM.Basically, our very own ghetto.
• the “Ampoi” neighborhoods (there are 3 of them) - home of the most manele admirers / square kilometer

3 places where I like to go with my friends:

• our one and only chinese restaurant, called Zhong Yi . Good food, huge portions, reasonable prices
• Pizzeria Nettuno -recently discovered, home of the best pizza in town (and we have LOTS of pizzerias, trust me)
• The Steak House - when we roll in cash and feel hungry for Meat with a capital M.

3 things an outsider wouldn’t understand about my town:

• the local dialect. Older peasants from around the town still speak it, younger people ocasionally indulge in slipping into it.
• our fondness for the local bread and local telemea, to which no other bread or cheese can compare.
• why the gates of our citadel still aren’t renovated, 8 years after the start of the restauration.

The fanciest neighborhood - definetely the plethora of villas that appeared just under one of our beloved hills, the Mammoth.

The ugliest neighborhood - Tiganime. You don’t want to see it, trust me.

If you know what to google, you’ll find out the name of my town easily. Good luck

Now for the tagging:

Mrs.S

Mist

Becky

and Mar

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Links4

Looks like I’m on the first page on Google for “I want to move in Transilvania” (more precisely, my post about the festival in Sighisoara is). For the English person that searched it: by all means, come. Both your food and your weather will get better.

In other news, don’t click this link if you eat/drink anything. The snorting and coughing from the laughter will ruin your keyboard.

Posted: stumbled upon