It doesn't happen every day

Another one

I love this little girl...I really like her dad's songs too, but she's reallllly talented

posted by soranelle @ 7:21 PM 2 comments

So Funny...thanks Anya

I found this video on a friend's facebook notes. it's soooo funny :-)

posted by soranelle @ 7:09 PM 2 comments

Another Weekend...

So another week, or rather work-week passed and I always try on Friday nights not to go too early to bed. This way I try to enjoy the fact that I don't have to wake up early the next day and try to do stuff that are not possible during week nights, like surfing on the internet, watching a really bad movie on SF2 (sorry, not a really "Seabiscuit" fan), talking to my friends in the U.S. or Canada...yeah, Friday nights offer a loooot of opportunities.
Yeah...not a lot of news really...school started again this week, not too many classes like last semester, but a loooot of studying to do...yuck, I think I prefer the Seabiscuit right now :-)

posted by soranelle @ 11:25 PM 0 comments

On Being a Woman in Today's World

posted by soranelle @ 9:37 AM 0 comments

YAY...the weekend is coming

This should usually be a Friday-evening blog, but I just can't wait for the weekend to come.
Lots of great news today: I finished my finals, a good friend of mine got his scan-results back and they look goooood. Plus, Saturday drinks with one of my best friends...so even if I still have to work tomorrow :-/ I'm looking forward to Friday night, Saturday night...yeah, lots of things to celebrate!

posted by soranelle @ 1:23 PM 0 comments

Who would make the "mistake" of marrying a career gal...or better yet, who wouldn't, Mr. Noer?

Interesting article written my Forbes.com editor Michael Noer sometime in August. It caused quite a debate both inside and outside of the corporation. Even ABCNews thought it was important enough to air a comment about it. You can find the full article here. Fortunately, if you read the article, you will find on the right hand side another article, written by one of Michael's colleagues, as a response to what stupidity can generate from a single man's brain.

The main point of his article, as Noer states, is don't you dare make the mistake of marrying a Career Woman. Then he goes on to proove that us career gals are more prone to get divorced, have no kids or be highly dissatisfied with our husbands / boyfriends (=lucky bastards who listened to Noer and were not fooled...yet)

He warns men all over the globe to stay away from us. And he even gives them a piece of advice, telling them not to be fooled by this type of women. Because, in his opinion, successful men are usually attracted to successful women, women who share the same goals, aspirations, and interests ... so, Mr. Successful, you should stay away from gals with a career or a career aspiration, lest your life be totally miserable.



so...what do you think? are we really that bad?

posted by soranelle @ 2:24 PM 0 comments

On Basic Business Administration Principles and the Iraq War

I know, you will probably say I need to chill about this Iraq war issue. And I will, as soon as I will have nothing more to add. But these days it seems I do, so I'll just go ahead and say it.

Those of you who study Business Administration with me at the University of Bern (or really anywhere in the world) know that we are taught a few basic principles that we should keep in mind for our future jobs. One of them is that when analysing a project, and deciding whether to follow through with it or not, one has to take many factors into consideration, like the budget, the needed resources and skills, the target state, etc.
Then it occured to me: what if President Bush were working for a multi-national corporation let's say and he would have gone to his boss and presented him with a new project "How to keep the oil in the Middle East for us". He would probably have developed a great Business Plan and thought of great arguments in favor of the project.
Now let's assume we are the board of directors who stupidly agreed to this project a couple of years ago, thinking "it can't be that bad". During a project one has to continually re-assess the situation, in order to see if the project should be kept alive or not. Well, looking back at these past years, what did this project do for our company? (as a big corporation we are looking to maximize our profit, keep the shareholders happy, take care of our employees, plus the whole "environment-friendly" blah blah, etc.)
- the project was based upon false / falsified (WOW, I did not just say that!!!) data
- the project went 10000.......% over the initially agreed upon budget (you can feel free and complete the dots with as many zeros as you like)
- we have no idea when the project will be finished (and we have been taught "Projects have a definite time limit", otherwise it wouldn't be called a project, it would be called "I wanna invade Iraq, so let's find some arguments that I can fool the people with")
- the project killed 2,772 (and rising) of the U.S. Military employees (information taken from http://icasualties.org/oif/)
- the project wounded & maimed 109,900 (and rising) of the U.S. Military employees - the project caused the death of Iraqi civilians (DEAD men, DEAD women and DEAD CHILDREN - min: 650,500 and rising)
- the project will not only not create value to our corporation, but it will dial the number for bankruptcy
- ....
- ....

For the B.A. students of you, I think I already had you convinced at the budget argument, right?

And in the end, for a last note, or general wonderment if you will: how fired would such a project manager be????

till next time
s.

posted by soranelle @ 2:12 PM 0 comments

New Political Party / Project in Romania

This is going to be a post for my romanian friends, so I apologize to those who don't speak romanian :-(
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liberalul Stolojan vrea o federatie cu PD si PNTCD

Conform Evenimentului Zilei consilierul prezidential Theodor Stolojan a lansat ieri platforma alternativa ce are ca obiectiv "coagularea unui pol de dreapta", cum frumos mai zic autorii articolului.
Printre obiectivele politice ale platformei se numara dezbaterea viitorului si strategiei PNL si, super interesant, adoptarea unor reglementari interne care sa delimiteze politica de afaceri. De asemenea, se pare ca aceasta federatie va fi condusa de "omul politic cu cea mai mare credibilitate electorala" (ramane de vazut dupa ce criterii va fi desemnata aceasta credibilitate electorala)

posted by soranelle @ 7:05 PM 0 comments

In Preparation...

Just to keep you posted and to prepare yourself: as of tomorrow morning at 7:46 ET the United States will become a nation of 300 million people (the U.S. Census Bureau estimation) - taken from cnn.com
That means that the U.S. now joins China and India as the world's third most populous country.
What are the consequences going to be? It depends how you look at it: land-wise, air-pollution, energy. What is known is that the United States consumes a quarter of the world's energy and is the single largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world (plus - and I can imagine that my american friends will be pissed hearing me mention this - you should keep in mind that the U.S. did not sign the Kyoto Protocol...yet)

posted by soranelle @ 10:29 AM 0 comments

I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT....

You Belong in New York City

You're an energetic, ambitious woman. And only NYC is fast enough for you. Maybe you'll set yourself up with a killer career. Or simply take in all the city has to offer.

posted by soranelle @ 2:35 PM 7 comments

Modern Times Romeo & Juliet...poor guy

So I have switched my home page on my Internet Browser from blank to cnn.com (a loong time ago)...i guess it's the legacy from my american friends, because up until last year it was just blank. Anyway, so I start reading the news this morning with my usual cup of coffee (those of you who know me well, know I've become addicted :-) ) and I stumble upon this article "Rush to marry ends in tragedy".

posted by soranelle @ 1:36 PM 1 comments

You know that you're Romanian if...

A couple of our romanian friends who are stuyding in the US have created a group on Facebook (this is a network available only to students in the US) and came up with this hilarious, but kinda true list:

You know you're Romanian If:

You grew up on liver sandwiches.... and thought that was normal.

You make your own noodles.

You try and reuse gift wrappers, gift boxes, and of course aluminum foil. - oh so true

You are standing next to the two largest suitcases at the airport

You talk for an hour at the front door when leaving someone's house

You can fit 10 people into a Dacia.

You have rugs covering every inch of your house.

You have or had rugs on your walls.

Your mom tells you you're too skinny even though your 30 pounds overweight.

You ever heard of 'stomach stew'. = asta e ciorba de burta dragilor

Your mom recycles plastic cups and paper plates, and sandwich bags by washing them.

You don’t know how to use a dishwasher.

You have a vinyl tablecloth on your kitchen table.

You use grocery bags to hold garbage

Your dad ever butchered a pig or lamb.

You keep leftover food in your fridge in as many numbers of bowls as possible.

Your parents call you farm animals when you get them mad

Your dad ever told you to smack yourself over the mouth for being disrespectful.

Your mom washes your clothing at 40.

You don't use measuring cups when cooking

You feel like you've gotten a good deal if you didn't pay tax.

You only make long distance calls after 11 p.m.

If you don't live at home, when your parents call, they ask if you've eaten, even if it's midnight.

When your parents meet strangers and talk for a few minutes, you discover you're talking to a distant cousin.

Your parents don't realize phone connections to foreign countries have improved in the last two decades, and still scream at the top of their lungs when making foreign calls.

You have bed sheets on your sofas so as to keep them away from getting dirty.

It's "normal" if your wedding has 600 people.

You dont know half the people at your wedding cuz your parents invited them.

You've seen the ground while inside the lavatory of a train.

You have mastered the art of bargaining in grocery shopping.

You walk out of the grocery store with no less then two packed shopping carts weekly.

You're proud to be Romanian!!!

and of course this last one, which is exclusively for my Romanian friends, written by Ana Maria:

"As adauga ca fiecare roman are o punga cu pungi, ca nu se stie niciodata."

So, my dear romanian friends, got any other ideas to add to that list? :)))

till next time, live it up like the romanians you are:)
s.

posted by soranelle @ 10:15 PM 6 comments

First Time

YAAAY, I finally did it. It is my first time writing such a blog (see, whoever said that your "first time" should happen with someone you love - since you won't get another chance at it - was sooo totally wrong).
I know at least one person who'll be happy I did it. And at least another one who promised will read it:) so i guess it's a good thing.
I was wondering what I should write in here about and then Iulia said I should post on my passions, interests, and so on.
So here it is, for the first post ever, a subject which is now highly controversial in the US (and which will probably set its journey forth to our old Europe pretty soon): gay marriage. For a long time now republicans and democrats have fought over this subject.
I know, you'll probably say it's too forward, too out there for me to be even mentioning it, but let's face it, IT IS something we ought to be concerned about. Should we accept it or not? Is it right or wrong? Is it moral? I'll let you decide, but not before I lay the ground facts:
on February 24th, 2004 George W. Bush called for a Constitutional Amendment protecting Marriage and started his speech by saying : "[...] Eight years ago, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for purposes of federal law as the legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.
The Act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 342 to 67, and the Senate by a vote of 85 to 14. Those congressional votes and the passage of similar defensive marriage laws in 38 states express an overwhelming consensus in our country for protecting the institution of marriage. In recent months, however, some activist judges and local officials have made an aggressive attempt to redefine marriage. In Massachusetts, four judges on the highest court have indicated they will order the issuance of marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender in May of this year. In San Francisco, city officials have issued thousands of marriage licenses to people of the same gender, contrary to the California family code. That code, which clearly defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, was approved overwhelmingly by the voters of California. A county in New Mexico has also issued marriage licenses to applicants of the same gender. And unless action is taken, we can expect more arbitrary court decisions, more litigation, more defiance of the law by local officials, all of which adds to uncertainty."
Republicans argue that allowing people of the same gender to get married and thus have the same rights as a hetero couple will destroy the sacred institution of marriage, which is a solid foundation of our society.
Let's face it: Republicans aren't too happy right now (after the scandal involving the Republican Congressman from Florida Mark Foley) and are afraid that everything they have been promising will blow in their pretty little faces.
There are so many ramifications of this story, so let's not get lost in details and focus on what I started writing about at the beginning of this post.
I found this really interesting essay written by an american. Though it is long, it's worth reading: Jane Galt

I'm pretty curious what you think!
Till next time
love
s.

posted by soranelle @ 6:04 PM 6 comments