Jim, Bob and Pete

Pete is an imaginary friend of a schizophrenic person, a fictive character that has not his creator’s faults, he’s always mentioned in some situations that ‘he would have known better’ and ‘realized better’ and ‘done better’, ‘done the right thing’ and so on; ..so much so that, although the others do realize that Pete is a fiction of his imagination – some start to look up to him.

Bob and Jim are sitting on the doc with the feet in the water, just staring at the water, stars and moon. Sounds of the night are clearly heard now and then breaking a contrast in the very mute atmosphere.

After a while, in which both were jut gazing straight ahead, Jim moves his sight a little towards the moon first, then at Bob, then ahead again, and – like realizing something, turns again to Bob:

Jim – Bob?

Bob – Yes?

J.– Would you be Pete?

Bob, turning his head just a bit and looking slightly in another direction to think, says after a while:

B.– I don’t know.. it depends..

J.– On what?

B.– (Turning his head a bit again) Well.. is he rich?

J.–(After pondering a bit) Suppose he is..

B.– Way richer the me or just a bit rich..?

J.– Suppose way richer..

B.– Is he athletic..? I mean the silhouette.. you know?

J.– Well..

B.– I don’t mean if he’s very sport-ish or muscle packed but.. you know, if he’s fit enough.. like, not looking like a slob or anything.. not fat or thin as a reed, but also with some shape in his body..

J.– Well, say he’s athletic, you know, got the muscles but just the right amount.. nothing too fancy but.. just enough.

B.– And the face? Is he handsome?

J.– Yeah, he’s handsome.

B.– – More hansom then me?

J.– Well.. would you like him to be?

B.– (thinking a bit) Dono’..

J.– Say he’s just the right way you’d appreciate it the most.. you know.. like.. just so much more or the same amount of hansom.. -ness as you’d like him to be..

B.– And he’s smart yes? I mean, he knows things, read a lot and.. stuff..

J.– Aahh, yes! He’s the smartest, very sharp mind indeed, very vigilant..

B.– Well.. I wouldn’t mind being Pete then.. wouldn’t be so bad I suppose.. might actually enjoy it I think.. at lest for a while you know.. to see what it’s like, you know? .. to be Pete..

Both are silent for a few seconds. Then Bob continuing;

B.– I mean wouldn’t you?

J.– (after taking his time) I dono’..

B.– I mean if he’s way richer.. and still down to earth, and.. and a good fellow, and all clean and mannered..

Jim doesn’t answer and Bob looks surprised, and in a way trying to justify him self,:

B.– Wouldn’t you? I mean.. say he’d have it all, all you can want, be all you would like to be..

Jim still seems in doubt and doesn’t answer.

B.– Well? Would you? (like a cry for solidarity)

J.– It’s true I suppose.. I do have a lot of things that I.. could have done better.. ways I could have been better I suppose.. I have done many mistakes.. I guess because I did’t know any better or.. because I was distracted by other things.. there are still so many things I don’t know, that I.. wish I knew. Somehow it seams I just can’t wrap my mind around all of these things..

It’s silence for a few seconds when Jim suddenly continues

J.– But there’s nothing like being with my baby.. somehow I don’t see Pete with my baby.. the thought disturbs me. It’d be like cheating or taking an undeserved shortcut.. But then I think we have our own version of Pete, a better us, to which we try to head towards and gradually become.

[…]

B.– Well.. it was just a hypothetical question (getting upset like a child almost about to cry out, offended), I mean you started and asked me in the first place!

Again a few seconds of silence when Bob looks upset at Jim which keeps staring at the water. Suddenly Bob, upset stands up and leaves after exclaiming upset:

B.– You twat!

By me

Actually I was fluctuating between different endings in Jim’s answer. I’m not happy with this current ending. In one of the versions Jim gets jealous on Pete (left a bit of possible interpretation but barely) and starts to feel insecure. In another version he realizes he doesn’t want to be anything like Pete but I did not want to portray a man who is conscious enough to think that ignorance could be a bliss and also accept it as his fate. I’ll possibly update the ending. But it will still be with Bob getting upset and leaving, just that now, his reason for being upset and calling Jim a twat is not obvious or well build.

Carl Sagan on creativity

In a Tv interview in ’88, Carl Sagan was invited (remotely via satellite) next to Stephen Hawking and Arthur C. Clarke the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

From that interview I extracted only Carl Sagan’s answer to: How does creativity operate?, along with another excerpt to which he refers in his answer – and the relevant context of that excerpt, all chronologically.

Q [..] …an agenda for the future?

“C.S. My sense is that the scientific way of thinking, questioning.. some delicate mix of creative encouragement of new ideas and the most rigorous and skeptical scrutiny of new and old ideas, I think that is the path to the future, not just for science but for all human institutions. We have to be willing to challenge because we are in desperate need of change.

[..]Q. You said science should be skeptical of politics, don’t you think we should be skeptical about science too? I mean can we trust you guys?

C.S. I think you should definitely be skeptical, but my view is that there is no community of people on the planet more skeptical then scientists, it’s our stocking trade, it’s the live blood of our subject.

[..]Q. The question of creativity, which fascinates me.. [..] how in fact does it operate? [..]

C.S. This issue of where creativity comes from.. I share your fascination with it. I don’t think we understand very much about it.. My practice is merely to respect my unconscious mind, who often is much wiser then the conscious part of me.. and pay attention to what it says. In fact I think this is connected to that delicate tension at the heart of the scientific method I talked about before, the unconscious mind proposes a range of possibilities and the conscious mind disposes – that is compares those ideas with the real world, checks for internal inconsistencies and so on. I think the creative process is a partnership between a conscious and an unconscious part of our minds, at least that’s how it seams to me.“

See the whole interview here.

tranquility vs zen

“- You see, we all can be the master of our selves, in control and aware, pure if you like. We just have to give up on the things that hurt us, that destroy us.. he says looking at the cigarette and then slowly taking a smoke. But we can’t.. we’re addicted, we’re the slaves of our own ignorance, the pawns of our own self destructing plan, following it blindly.. Although! (after suddenly reducing intensity of speech) at times we realize, we know.. Some just can’t live with the self that they have become, that has been affected and build by the path they find them selves on.. and let go into ignorance.. apathy, surrender to the sweet immediate reward, (a sudden rise of intensity, exclaiming) the instant gratification! why get your self all beat up in tiredness and compromises when in one day!  you can be the king of procrastination, the lord of Bohemia! You feel full power over your self and stand naked in the middle of your living room with Tchaikovsky floating all around you and over saturating every cell of your eardrum when, in a high peak, while neighbors are hitting on your walls and shouting, you roar: “I don’t give a fuck!”..  and feeel soooo freee.. (he said slowly, enjoying the moment in a sudden stop from adrenalin, but after another second a bitter realisation is reflected in his suddenly dimmed face).. Of-course.. the day passes.. and you find your self in the morning making re-acquaintance with your life, (starting an expression of discontent like hatred towards that discouraging moment of re-acquaintance) which it felt so good to just ditch!.. and enjoy tranquility..  it almost feels right to make the same choice this next day too.”

By me.

PS. I just find my self imagining these kinds of dialogs or monologues after experiencing or witnessing intense emotions, sometimes it’s something I see on the street or anywhere outside, reading something (not as often as I would like), hearing someone’s own story or remembering moments of intense feelings or situations. Another often occasion is after seeing a movie. And in this above paragraph in particular it was after seeing “Black Swan” – still, it has nothing to do with the movie’s story.

expoziția fotografiilor câştigătoare


Astăzi am primit veste de la British Council:

Vă invităm, în data de 21 ianuarie 2011, ora 18,00, la deschiderea expoziției cu fotografiile câştigătoare din cadrul concursului Photography Challenge din 27 noiembrie 2010.

Fotografiile vor fi expuse în sediul British Council din Cluj-Napoca, str. Arany Janos, nr. 11.

Concurenții vor avea ocazia de a discuta, într-un cadru informal, cu prof. univ. dr. Dorel Găină şi prof. univ. dr. Feleki Karoly, membri ai juriului.

Vă aşteptăm!

Ann Druyan; marijuana; James Randy

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan in an interview about their book: “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors“, at the end of the interview are asked regarding their religious belief and they answer:

Carl Sagan “I’m an independent in religion as in politics. I am a searcher, but I have high standards of evidence.”

Ann Druyan “This is my idea of what the highest form of piety is:
In a universe as vast as ours, as ancient as ours, with beings as young and foolish and ignorant as we are, to say that we know what God is or how this universe came to be, is a form of arrogance which I do not subscribe to.”

The interview can be seen here: Part 1 | Part 2 .

Because I did not know about her, I looked up for more videos with Ann Druyan and found a jolly:
Ann Druyan – A Plead for a Change in the Marijuana Laws.

Looking for some more reference to their book, I found the magicians debunk-er James Randi Speaking about Carl Sagan. While I was at it, Mr. Randi has a charismatic way of speaking his opinions about interesting – important matters, so I found him also:  Questioning the Bible, and asking “Why Do We Still Believe?“

caracterul mioritic românesc..

Uneori e foarte deprimant să te gândeşti la România.

Mă uitam la câteva secvențe din interviul cu Adrian Sobaru şi m-am întrebat cum este văzut aceast fapt în-afară, cum este văzută România prin prisma acestui fapt. M-am oprit asupra unui articol in NewYork Post.

Articolul se termina astfel:

“The first line was a reference to President Traian Basescu, who upon winning the presidential race in 2009 said “I’ve pierced them,” using a well-known line from a Romanian movie.

As emergency medical workers took him out on a stretcher, Sobaru shouted “Freedom!” ,  echoing cries of the 1989 fall of communism in which more than 1,300 people died. Romanians are commemorating the 21st anniversary of the uprising in which authorities shot unarmed protesters.”

Un comentariu zice:

“Obviously, no Post reader understands anything about Romania. There was no “revolution”–the corrupt commies got rid of the dictator and continued with business as usual. They export food and let their own people starve. Little has changed. I wish Americans were as passionate as this guy, but they just bend over for the rich and the criminals–usually one in the same.”

forget me nots ep.4 ~ don’t hurry! take the time!

Last episode I mentioned extremes and, ironically, this title could head you on a slippery path that could diverge you to one of these extremes, the one where – if you take too much time – you could end up loosing time – chances.
It’s true, you can slip on this path, but for some people – me included, it’s a path worth considering. But I am aware or try to keep awareness of the slipperiness of it, actually I’ll have some episodes about extremes. This gives me the occasion to announce the next episodes:

– Forget Me Nots Ep. 5 ~  Find & mind the extremes!

– Forget Me Nots Ep. 6 ~ Begin! Be there!

– Forget Me Nots Ep. 7 ~ Finish what you started!

But back to taking our time. Sometimes, some people seem to be doing things just to get over with them. This attitude sometimes comes after loosing enthusiasm or when enthusiasm is for something else and thus your head is drifting from what you are doing, often resulting in pour results.. Sometimes we get to some tasks in life, be them professional or not – but I suppose they are mostly professional, which we just want to get over with, fast.
In a way, if there’s no enthusiasm then that thing is not of importance to you and I can relate to that, unfortunately. But mind you that you are never the less responsible for it, it too will be your recommendation, the reflection of your abilities, a part of your evolution, it will be regarded as one of your approved – finished.. whatever it is. So don’t hurry too much on whatever you loose enthusiasm or have no enthusiasm for but are doing never the less.
But even with enthusiasm, because of the enthusiasm some tend to get all excited and an up-beat rhythm, sometimes the thrill of it can distract from paying attention to details; and sometimes important such details can make the difference between a winner or a deal-beaker. Unfortunate how some people don’t have the patience – don’t take the time, due to enthusiasm, to consider context, momentum, and sometimes miss out on great potential. If only we would realise and exercise  more patience and awareness for details,  and aknowledge the ease in wich enthusiastm can make us impulsive.

forget me nots ep3 ~ proofreading, proofreading, proofreading

This is a thing that I’m sometimes so obsessed with and never-the-less sometimes I manage to neglect. Grammar and spelling is indeed very important, it reflects on one side your capability to focus and your attention to details, but on another side, because of the effort that you made or did not make it also reflects your attitude – responsibility and care about what-ever you are doing – writing about.

Never-the-less, I have always thought that the content is way more important, and is more ignorant to ignore a good content or have a lower attitude towards it because of such mistakes. These days our focus is spread in multitasking like never before, there are tons of visual, audible or plain psychological distractions. These do not affect us just  directly whenever we might find ourselves typing, but can easily contribute to tiredness which again isn’t so productive for our focusing capabilities.

I suppose we are adapting creatures, and it is a sort of survival of the fittest one way or another. Technology is helping us with auto-correction but it can fail, I don’t always want to write “i donut kink munch about it” (that phrase did not get corrected – wasn’t underlined). But specially if it’s something that will be public, do take the time and do it right.

Do realize that there are two extremes in this: on one side you can miss important moments or opportunities by not expressing yourself as directly and fast as possible or at all – I’m saying this because in many things it’s a competition out there and the one that’s first is favored; but also the one that is best is favored and so on the other side – not realizing what you actually express and how you express it can have an unfavorable outcome.

This perspective and these extremes are important not only for the stuff we write, but also for things we say or for behaviour we have, choices we make; it comes as an incentive to think before we talk or act – exchanging perspectives (hats or shoes or roles with the others involved, or with the world like Kant would suggest – how ever helps), using critical thinking / skepticism too / questioning everything – including our own premises / conclusions.

Of-course, there’s more.

forget me nots ep2 ~ keep it short / simple

This is a challenge for me, a challenge I must take > pass > and only remember in laughter that I was once like this.

Imagine this post was like two or three screen scrolls long(er). Those that are closest to me maybe would have had the patience to read it entirely or at all.  Actually, looking back at my old long mails, post or memos, etc – I my self do not have the patience or the time to read them.

Now indeed it gets that long because, in my case, I don’t want to miss anything out and try to make sure it’s all clear. But it’s not efficient, the message is not  received – not evaluated, no feedback / reply – it’s literally into the void. Sure sometimes it makes sense, like when you are writing a book I suppose; but most of the times it’s just wasting what could be a possibility to share, get evaluated, evolve.

What can be done? On one hand: attention on details is good, so if you do have the time to write the whole thing do it. But if you want to share or get evaluated, give only the essential and let people know there’s more if they want it. That’s the solution I found for my self for now anyway.

Here’s an example, instead of a long post on time management (it applies in content management too):

“Collect all in one place > Choose the essential > Eliminate the rest > Organize the remaining”

Got any other perspectives / solutions? (appreciate it)
PS. There’s more.

forget me nots – series – late prologue

I wrote on twitter, recently, a memo that was meant for my self more then anything. It was like this:

” Forget-me nots. Ep.1 (i prefer the w3c one) W3C_and_Internet_Explorer_box_models.png “

and that made the first of what I’m thinking of making a series of important memos and also lessons learned the hard way which should not be forgotten.

Up next, when I’ll have some time, will be three episodes:

“Forget Me Nots Ep. 2 – Keep it Short / Simple !!”

“Forget Me Nots Ep. 3 – Proofreading, proofreading, proofreading !!”

“Forget Me Nots Ep.4 – Don’t hurry!! Take the time!”

I know it’s a good idea to do this series for my self, maybe not only for my self. Do drop any feedback, thanks.

provocare în fotografie

Lansează provocarea: Prof. Univ. Dr. Feleki Karoly, Prof. Univ. Dr. Şefan Dorel Găină Gerendi şi Ing. Mircea Albu AFIAP ~ membri ai juriului.

Organizat de:British Council Cluj în parteneriat cu Universitatea de Artă şi Design Cluj-Napoca şi Asociația ArtImage Cluj-Napoca

Cu sprijinul: Adrian Radic şi Mihai Biriş.

Astfel de concursuri se mai organizează prin lume sub diferite nume sau variațiuni de regulamente, însă (din câte am observat personal) nu şi în Cluj-Napoca. Am propus împreună cu Monica organizarea acestui concurs Consiliului Britanic din Cluj, după care am făcut legătura cu Mihai Biriş (mihaibiris.ro), care apoi a făcut legătura cu Universitatea de Artă şi Design şi cu Asociația ArtImage Cluj-Napoca şi totul a început să prindă formă.

Personal, sper ca acesta să fie văzut şi valorificat ca o oportunitate de manifestare, experimentare şi interacțiune pentru fotografi de orice experiență, toti având în comun o pasiune / hobbi sau curiozitate pentru fotografie.

Mai multe detalii găsiți la
http://britishcouncil.ro/cluj
sau
http://art-image.ro

word

“I love to disturb people, because only by disturbing them can I make them think. They have stopped thinking for centuries. Nobody has been there to disturb them. People have been consoling them. I am not going to console anybody, because the more you console them, the more retarded they remain.

Disturb them, shock them, hit them hard, give them a challenge. That challenge will bring their capacities to the climax.”

Osho

a new day to celebrate..

I’m a freelancer by the way, in case anybody out there didn’t notice. I’d like to think I can do graphic designs and web development (at some level). My portfolio is having a little face-lift, I’m almost done with it. See the active online version here:

https://adrianradic.com

Or see the new to be version at https://adrianradic.com/v2/ .

By the way, any impressions are welcome. Also, my resume is here.

in the 4th dimension

I’m sorry I didn’t pass by here lately. I didn’t really disappear, i was just.. in the forth dimension :-)

Here’s a drawing I managed to make in Illustrator to explain the 4th dimension. I just followed the guides from this clip
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccws454YiVM&feature=related ), mind you that in that clip there was a little error and they made a second one for it ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pRZCoWY6TU&feature=related ).

4d drawing the hypercube (4th dimension)

the long arm of creativity

I’m thinking of keeping “ARM” as the label of my gallery and projects.

It started as a personal fool-around as these are our initials but I started to like it and now am thinking of transforming it into “ARM – the long arm of creativity” (diverging from “the long arm of justice, and later to play with it like “lending a helping arm” and maybe even visual play like with Michelangelo’s ‘Creation of Adam’ ( http://images.google.com/images?q=creation%20michelangelo ).

I’d license this in the states too (if it isn’t already) but have no ways or funds or knowledge of the necessary for getting anywhere near to it.
Anyone in interested in such a professional adventure?

Here’s the dream behind it: building an international multimedia / advertising studio where creatives collaborate and are offered opportunities, as I could use one now, this studio would offer intern-ship opportunities and several scholarships to people that are talented but with financial / social difficulties, maybe even courses and/or motivational creative contests.

It seams now like a long way to the end of the tunnel I seam to be in, but here it is.

Hmm, i did not think of creative commons for this idea. I wonder if this post could count as evidence of initiative. Could it?
Here’s a ( c )  :-)

But actually, the more studios or agencies would do this the better, probably some already do and that’s great, congratulations! So the creative common would be for “the long arm of creativity”, now that’s a keeper.

improvements time – updated

I’ve finally got to spend some time to make some improvements on the blog. A bit under the hood but also little Usability bits.

I have been asking for feedback on the gallery for some time and it’s sailing for a while now. See it on the root of this server (finally updated the personal page). The gallery contains five sections: photography, video & animation, id, web design, drawings & others.

https://adrianradic.com

It’s time for improvements on my professional world. Time to make new connections and improve the valuable current or old ones. I’m opened and looking forward to collaborations, project proposals and so on. In this perspective I have to tell you about my resume.

About my resume. I must admit I started from a pretty low point. At one time, about 5 or almost 6 years ago my way of presenting my self was kind of embarrassing. And in this perspective I realize I can never thank Mircea Dragoi enough for giving me a reality check feedback back then. But let’s see if I have evolved since then. Below you can find my resume in both English and Romanian.

ro ~ Curriculul Vitae

en ~ Resume

So there’s my portfolio and resume. With these in mind, if there’s an awesome job or project laying around, I’d like a new opportunity for a reality check which would only lead me to progress.

Yours Trully,
Adrian Radic

PS. The Romanian resume is a bit unusual, but so far it got a lot of attention and landed me in many interviews, specially that I did not even apply to. At that time I was too comfortable with my current job. Just a heads up.

got love

I know you all probably know of this song and clip, actually I think I’ve seen the clip on Discovery myself but forgot about it (no Tv but occasionally for years now), but as I rediscovered it at dalinku.ro i just had to share it and make it personal, here it is. (At daliku.ro is another version of it.)

Watch out!

Mr. Genndy Tartakovsky, I know you’re probably busy with Iron Man II, and/or other things too, but we’re looking forward too see Jack again.

Love your creation! But please complete it.

All the best,
huge fans.

necessity

Ellen Lupton – D. I. Y. Design It Yourself lecture (2006, University of Arizona)

“[..] one of the things we learn about typographic rules, that you learn the rules and you understand the why behind them, and once in a while you find that it’s OK to brake them, but you brake them from a position of knowledge, not ignorance.”

I think we can all agree that this is true not just for typography, but all other aspects of design and usability, not just letters (with font faces, heights, wights, so on) but also the actual text / paragraphs (with alignment, line – letter or paragraph spacing and so on) or other spacing, dividing, aligning, sizing of composition elements that make symmetry and/or actual sense by contrasting with height or weight on a greed or with color.

Such rules imply indeed symmetry and/or consistence and avoidance of clutter of elements (not just physical elements like paragraphs of graphic elements but also clutter of font types or colors. Why are these bad? The purpose for avoiding these is one of the main and most important objectives in a good design, that is clarity and ease of accessibility of the actual information that the content brings.

Here is Ellen Lupton’s “Thinking With Type” dedicated site, and below is the lecture from which I extracted the quote.

rejoice

He has a flowering spade
Growing out of his chest
Full of magic and healing
She is a flowering spade
As she moves and she sways
You can see that she feels it

She’s off to dance with the goat boys
He’s of to sail through your wide open ocean
She learned to sing from a siren
He learned to swim from a drop in the water

There are words there are signs
Close your eyes there is magic inside you
Hear this box in your mind
building frames for to trace your desires

She learned to cook from a sailor
He learned to cry in an elephant circus
She found a recipe for flying
He’s growing flowers to understand dying

Rejoice
Hmmm…
Oh ma na na…

campanie umanitară – humanitarian campaign

Ro – Hai să dăm mănă cu mână pentru-o lume-un pic mai bună..
En – Let’s get together and turn things right..

Ro – Am văzut că se poate şi am văzut că este bine. Internet Explorer 5 a ieşit din statistici din iulie 2008!
En – It’s been done before and we’ve seen that it was good. Internet Explorer 5 is out of the W3 browsers statistics since July 2008!

Ro – E adevărat, va fi mai greu. Până ce iese Windows 7 mai este puțin, sunt unii care nu îşi permit sau nu văd folositor să-şi actualizeze sistemul de operare sau calculatorul, sau noob-ii cu atât mai puțin ne putem aştepta să-şi dea seama. Dar tocmai de aceea putem transmite împreună un mesaj simplu şi clar, fără să ofensăm pe nimeni, mai ales nici pe Microsoft:

En – It won’t be easy, it’s true. There’s still little time until Windows 7, some might not afford it or find it necessary for a while, and of-course noobs will hardly figure it out by them selves. But that’s the actual reason we should spread  the word for a better world, clearly and with no offence, specially not even for Microsoft:

Ro – Dacă foloseşti Internet Explorer 6 :
Actualizează-ți browserul! Fi la zi pentru o lume literalmente mai bună! Opțiunile te aşteaptă şi sunt uşor de aplicat şi mult mai uşor şi ergonomic de folosit:
Internet Explorer 7 |  Internet Explorer 8 |  Firefox |  Chrome |  Safari.

En – If you are an Internet Explorer 6 user :
Please update your internet browser! Be up to date for a literally  better world! The options are waiting fore you and are easy to apply and even simpler and way more comfortable to use:
Internet Explorer 7 |  Internet Explorer 8 |  Firefox |  Chrome |  Safari.

Mulțumesc pentru timp şi schimbare!  ~  Thank you for your time and change!