Sleep, Alarms and Shock Therapy
I've experienced a particularly busy period lately, which was reflected in my blog update frequency as well. I'm not out of the woods yet but I thought this was something particularly worth publishing.
So, you work continuously for days and nights without ending. You maybe get the opportunity to sleep for a few hours every now and again. The temptation to seize this opportunity is great but when you're severely sleep deprived there's always the risk that if you do choose to go to sleep you will wake up in 3 days. But, there's more urgent work waiting and you need to make sure that 2 hours of sleep don't become 30.
The solution lies in a really good alarm clock. Below three proposed solutions:
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The Shocking Alarm Clock
Pretty basic stuff. It's essentially an alarm clock that delivers an electric shock to your fingers when you try to press the cursed snooze button.
Available at Deviltronics |
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The Flying Alarm Clock
Besides the normal sound alert this alarm clock deploys a flying plastic mosquito-like creature that makes a really annoying sound. The beautiful part of it all, the only way to stop the alarm is to catch the mosquito and put it back on its base.
A simplified version is available from ThinkGeek |
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The Sonic Bomb
The alarm siren on this thing is capable of 113 DB, louder than the noise on a construction site. There's also a vibrating accessory that you can fit under your bed mattress that hooks up to the alarm clock.
Also available from ThinkGeek |
Picture this! Your alarm goes off in the morning... silently. There is no noise but your bed shaking as if a major earthquake was in progress.
You don't bother wake up.
The sound alarm goes off at 85 DB.
Your eyes open.
You realize you have 60 seconds to find the key to the alarm or flee the premises before the alarm goes off again at 105 DB and your ears start to bleed!
You're wide awake and probably running for the door!
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| Christian Nasulea - 28.05.2010 | |
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Houses, Pets and Tenants
I was raised a certain way, perhaps very differently from the way most people are raised, although I doubt it was that different.
You will probably identify with some of what I am about to describe. I remember being repeatedly told off as a child for being untidy. Phrases like "clean up your room", "you can't go play outside unless you put your toys away" or "go to your room and arrange your toothpicks" will likely bring back memories for many people. OK, not the last one, that was a joke (if you do remember the last one let me know and I'll give you the name of a good shrink for your folks).
I also remember looking at my room at the dorm or at the apartment I rent out in Bucharest and thinking "wow, this place is a mess". There's even the distinct memory in my mind of Grandma paying me a visit in Bucharest and making me scrub the stove clean (I never use the stove, it was all Costi's fault). I deem myself a disorganized person.
As the May 1st weekend drew to a close for most people, I went to Constanta to check on the new tenants occupying my Mother's house since late last year. After a long chain of bad experiences we were very hopeful.
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Let's just say some people must have very different values, besides their being brought up differently... probably on another planet. Those same "some people" have very different principles with regards to the part animals should play in a household and the spaces they should occupy. Also, I was surprised to discover revolutionary new ideas about waste management, especially animal waste.
I always used to regard houses as a means of sheltering humans from the elements. The past couple of days helped me realize my mistake as I now understand that we can rid ourselves of such ridiculous ideas and be one with nature once more. All it takes is dismantling a few (exterior) doors to make it easier for the restless hordes of household pets to roam free and pee everywhere.
That place means a lot to me and being there still takes me back to many fond memories of long summers from a care-free past that almost seems to belong to a dream or another life. In a time when most of us seem to be in the business of "making ends meet" renting out a big chunk of a house you only use for a couple of weeks every year seems only natural. Still, in light of recent events I cannot help but wonder: is it worth it?
A thank you to the many people who expressed their concern with regards to my status message yesterday.
My apologies for the feeble attempts at humour in this post.
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| Christian Nasulea - 04.05.2010 | |
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No Pictures
I had slept for about 50km in the back seat of Stelian's car on Sunday when he pulled into a petrol station. After my initial "no, Mummy, I don't want to go to school today" reaction I managed to drag myself out of the car and set course for the automatic doors of the shop. When I fell asleep my DSLR was hanging around my neck, which probably means I slept on it, and unsurprisingly it was still hanging there as I was entering the shop.
The shop doors open and a voice behind me stops me saying "You can't take pictures here". I turn to him with the coarse car seat texture still imprinted in my face and mumble "I'm not taking any pictures". I then notice the huge DSLR camera hanging around my neck. The guy comes back with a surprising "yes, but you can't take pictures here" at which point I yell "I'M NOT TAKING ANY PICTURES", just in case his ears malfunctioned the first time, and turn away.
The event itself was unimportant but it did remind me I was in one of the most photo-phobic countries in Europe, perhaps even in the World. You probably did not know this but:
- you're not allowed to take pictures anywhere in Romanian airports. Everywhere else the only no-photo areas in airports are passport and luggage control areas.
- you're not allowed to take pictures at Gara de Nord in Bucharest. Other train stations would probably apply the same policy were it easier to enforce.
- you're not allowed to take pictures in shopping malls or hypermarkets.
- you're not allowed to take pictures inside the Bucharest subway.
Basically, anywhere there's a big guy in a uniform who didn't manage to graduate the 4th grade you're not allowed to take pictures.
I'm not bothered only by the infringement of my legal rights when I'm told not to take pictures in places which are clearly public. I'm very bothered (although "amazed" might be a better word to describe the feeling) by the fact that owners of shopping centers apparently decided to forbid photography in order to "safeguard commercial secrets". These are private entrepreneurs who should seek to promote their commerce by any means possible.
There are many places (in Romanian) on the Internet discussing legal implications in more detail. Just to name a few:
fotografierea interzisa on AvocatNet
baze legale pentru fotografiatul interzis on Bad or Good
Image credits go to: the depth of the Internet
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| Christian Nasulea - 27.04.2010 | |
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Where was I?
I know, it's been over two weeks since my last confession... by that I mean post on this blog.
To avoid situations the likes of this I will clarify a few things:
- The workshop I was mentioning in the previous post took a big chunk of my time, as lending a helping hand, like all things, should be done right if you decide to do it.
- I had a few big software design projects hit their deadlines and go through their launch phases in the past weeks.
- The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland changed parts of my schedule and made things harder to complete.
- I spent enormous amounts of time working on the final report for my PhD thesis.
- It's 6:15 am and I just got back from a great wedding party in Slatina.
Those who know me better or follow me regularly know that I am usually available through loads of communication channels. Well, when the going gets as tough as it did I tend to shut down some of them. Blog and messenger are usually the first to fall.
Also, people following my updates through Facebook, Picasa or DeviantArt will have noticed that I did continue to post some updates.
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| Christian Nasulea - 25.04.2010 | |
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Applied Behavioural Analysis Workshop
This week, Thursday through Saturday, I'll be taking part in a series of workshops on Applied Behavioural Analysis and PECS. I'm taking part on the organizing side of the event not on the "just attending and absorbing knowledge" side.
The talks will be given mostly by three UK based speakers, with some interventions from Romanian professionals. I think it's perhaps inappropriate to call them "talks" as they will actually be very practical both as approach and as content.
The workshops will take place in Ploiesti and will be hosted by the school inspectorate. Besides various institutions from the public school system, many people and organizations pooled their resources together to make the upcoming knowledge transfer process possible. They are too many to mention here.
The event is designed for and will be attended predominantly by practicing professionals who already have first-hand experience in working with children with autism.
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| Christian Nasulea - 07.04.2010 | |
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First Digital Picture
What was the first photo you ever took?
The question popped into my mind while I was working "early" last night. While the first picture ever would have been pretty hard to find, moments after the question arose I brought up the console to the document archive and quickly found the first digital picture I ever took.
At an unbelievable 0.3 megapixels, the picture of some flowers from my Comarnic bedroom's balcony was taken on the 20th of October 2001. Granted the white balance is a bit off and the picture clarity leaves a lot to be desired but it's not bad considering it comes from a device which was actually a webcam - digital camera cross-over.
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| Christian Nasulea - 06.04.2010 | |
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Nasulea & Co - Genealogy
Mother got a call from somebody in Timisoara today who was trying to trace some connections up the old family tree. This reminded me that research isn't worth much if it's not published (sort of like the good old "publish or perish" principle but not quite).
It also reminded me that I've done a lot of research into our family's history at one point and never really got around to share the information with anyone but those who helped me with the research.
So, here it is at last, the good old genealogy website, built in 2007, yet rarely visited by anyone other than Google:
http://genealogie.nasulea.com
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| - 06.04.2010 | |
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Home for Easter
Reading Aura's blog yesterday and compelled by my own philosophical interior debate I decided that although pictures may be worth thousands of words I'd better write a couple of explanatory notes as well.
Friday morning (very, very early, like 6:30 am early) when I arrived in Comarnic I started taking these photos of the simple things around, of recurring elements that define Easter from my point of view every year. I posted these primarily to the Home for Easter album on Facebook. I knew there would be Easter cake, like every year, we'd go to the cemetery on Friday afternoon to remember our dead, like every year, there would be painted eggs, like every year, and so I kept adding these photos to the album as things happened.
The one thing you will notice in my pictures is the complete lack of pictures from the Saturday night "resurrection" service in church. That's not because I believed it was inappropriate to take pictures in church. It's simply because I wasn't there. My family would probably be best characterized as "spiritual but not religious". We keep to our traditions, because we believe in their importance, but we're usually not involved in religious activities as such.
So why bother with all the Easter stuff, then?
Because they are an important part of my cultural identity...
Because remembering the dead is not necessarily a religious act but an important spiritual component of life...
Because religious holidays, observed or not, are a good reason to get together with friends, strengthen or mend friendships, take a physical and mental break, look back introspectively...
I could elaborate endlessly on all the possible reasons but that's not the point.
FINAL NOTES:
To all those who deemed my words heresy, we also paint our eggs on Saturday afternoon instead of Thursday and the only times I go to church are weddings and baptisms (or tourist visits where I take thousands of pictures). Plus, half your religious rituals, which you observe so blindly and rigorously are pre-Christian or have pagan roots. So, shut it! Leave my beliefs alone and I might leave you in peace. Religious freedom to all!
If you hate Facebook or prefer browsing pictures differently and in better resolution the same Home for Easter album is also available on Picasa.
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| Christian Nasulea - 04.04.2010 | |
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Speedlite Di622
I've received a number of complaints about my failure to present reviews of my latest technology acquisitions on this blog. I will try to make amends for this and to avoid such failures in the future.
Today I acquired a Nissin Digital Speedlite Di622 flash. I've played with all its functions and I've read the manual but I haven't done any testing yet. Based solely on its feature list it seems to be really good value for money.
I've also bought a photo sensor shoe to hook up to my previous, old, antiquated, vintage flash in order to turn it into a slave flash.
I'm really looking forward to put everything to the test.
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| Christian Nasulea - 01.04.2010 | |
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The Right Attitude
For a while now, I'm talking in the range of a couple of years, things haven't been as easy as they used to. What with the world financial crisis, all of us becoming busier and time shrinking to the point of disappearance it seems like the level of stress we're subjected to on a day to day basis sometimes climbs off the meter and straight through the roof.
It's very important in these instances to work with people who know how to behave in stressful situations and who understand how stress influences others as well. I work with a very large number of people. You sometimes just can't choose not to work with people who have poor people skills.
However, this post is not about me pointing fingers and bitching about those who lack "savoir-etre" (French for "knowing how to be"). Instead, I just want to take the opportunity to thank those trying to make it easy on this "busier of the busiest weeks of the year".
Thank you!
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| Christian Nasulea - 31.03.2010 | |
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