The Day I Have to Hunt for Material Is The Day...Ah, Forget It, It'll Never Happen.

It's true... writing this blog is so easy, it's a wonder I'm not getting a salary. Isn't that how it works? The less hard you work, the more someone's likely paying you to do it? Well, even so, I'm open-minded enough to admit there are jobs out there still even cushier (certainly better paying) than writing this blog.  One that comes immediately to mind is "Romanian Copyright Auditor."

Yep, this fell into my lap like most of it does. The good news is: copyright infringement in Romania is apparently widespread enough to finally attract the attention of high-ranking politicians.  The bad news is, they're joining in on it!

For your viewing pleasure: presidential candidate Eduard Manole's campaign poster. Note the clever hammer logo at the bottom.

This logo is all over his website as well.  Too bad it was all over Pink Floyd's rock album "The Wall" in 1979, and even moreso in the 1982 movie adaptation.

Manole's 2009 campaign, as best as I could translate, included a desire to "undo 20 years of damage." I suppose only here would plagiarism not fall into that category.

In truth, plagiarism and politics are apparently not such strange bedfellows. Globally prominent figures from Vladimir Putin to Joe Biden have these proud credentials under their belts. My favorite, which I distinctly remember seeing on the news years ago but can't find reference to at the moment, was a US candidate whose speech was lifted directly from the script of the 1993 film "Dave."  But this is my point. It was in the news. Just as Putin and Biden and all the others were in the news. Their flimflams got the exposure and resulting derision they deserved. But in my too-long-to-be-called-anything-other-than-adopted homeland, it seems the hammers (of justice; smooth metaphor insert, eh?) will not soon batter down any doors.

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Tag on a pair of jeans at the local hypermarket:

"PARTY LIKE A CRAYZ THINK"
"Working of a ging to us in order to run"

Somebody remind me again what my 810 Verbal SAT's gotten me?

Take Your Karma Where You Can Get It

Driving down a narrow street during rush hour, stuck in the usual long line of cars.  Invariably, one or more hotshots don't feel like waiting. Since traffic laws don't apply to them, of course, they have no problem breaking formation and scooting along the wrong side of the road to get around everyone else and pull to the front of the queue.  This puts them sticking out into the intersection to obstruct cross traffic, but again, laws are for suckers.

Naturally, expecting the police to be around to handle any of this is a fool's dream, but even justice can't be denied forever and once in a tremendous while the idiot gets his. In this case, our idiot did his thing, scuttering down the wrong side of the road to get past us lawful losers. But at the very last second, an oncoming car turned the corner right in front of him. Gee, didn't plan on THAT, didya?

Normally when this happens, the scofflaw manages to frighten or bully the lawful oncoming motorist off to the side, usually onto the sidewalk, so he may continue on his lawless way.  But in this case, either the road was too narrow to detour or else our lawful motorist had (dare I say it?) a spine, and stood his ground.  Scofflaw had no choice but to throw it in reverse and back all the way up the street, garnering well-deserved waves and comments from his would-be victims along the way, ultimately taking his place at the end of the long line of cars, much further back than if he had simply held his proper place in the queue.

We didn't see him try again, so nobody knows if he'd learned his lesson and stayed in line, or found a new and exciting way to break traffic laws to get ahead elsewhere. But for one minute of one day of the normally miserable existence that is Bucharest, life was good. You learn to cling to these moments like drops of water in the desert.

Totally Obvious Statistics, Gotta Love 'Em!

Maybe you know of the urban legend Office Memo from Human Resources which reads "Stop taking fake Sick Days to extend your weekends. We found that 40% of all Sick Days are taken on Fridays and Mondays."  If you don't get the humor, know that in a standard 5-day work week, each day represents 20% of the week. So any two days of the week would represent 40%, not just Fridays and Mondays. I'm really sad that I had to explain that, but then it's well-known that I'll do anything for readers.

Anyway, it happens in real life too. A recent article in the Bucharest Herald proclaimed "Office sex: Women get involved in love affairs with bosses, men with employees."

Ummm... Duhhh?

Okay, making the narrow-minded, unfair, chauvinistic (yep, welcome to my blog!) but likely all-too-realistic assumption that the majority of the affairs in question are standard 1 male + 1 female, let's analyze:

Women tend to have affairs with bosses, assumed (sexually, not professionally) to be men. Men tend to have affairs with employees, assumed (sexually, not professionally) to be women. Therefore, this statement says "Employees have affairs with bosses, but hold onto your hats, bosses have affairs with employees!"

Now, this time, say it with me.  "Duhhh...!"  Both sides of that statement may well describe the same couple!

This article bothers me for two reasons. First, because someone's actually getting paid to print this circular tripe. Well, no, it's because someone got paid to research this circular tripe. No, truth be told it's because I lost nine seconds from my life which I'll never get back, by reading this circular tripe. Well, whatever, it all falls under the first reason, which pales in comparison to the second, more important reason this article bothers me: I'm self-employed! :-(

Uncharitable Observation Of The Day

Actually, this happened a long time ago, but I thought I lost the photos, and just found them, and needed to post something before April ends.  Those are all the reasons for this post, and not a good one among them.  But here it is anyway.

It was November 2008, and two things happened that, while separately probably really good things, thrown together just meant trouble. First, I was gainfully employed. Second, some woman ran for political office.

Being gainfully employed meant a period in my life where I would actually get off my ass from in front of the PC, and get in the car and drive to a job.  Where I would sit on my ass in front of the PC.  But I digress. The feminine political aspirant meant a period where her face was on billboards every 30 meters along every major road in Sector 1.  You can see where this is going, can't you? Yep, I drove to work through Sector 1.  Usually not fully awake, not ready for the day, and certainly not ready for this woman's face 6 meters high hammering me every 18 seconds of travel.  There was just a "GAAH!" sort of shock every time, which I couldn't explain for the longest time.  Until one day I left for work later in the morning, and with my wits finally about me, finally made the connection:

Call me a jerk if you need to, but honest to God this is what I was reminded of every time I saw her. I couldn't help it.  She could be the sweetest thing, I don't know. If she is, though, I'd like to think she'd go about her campaign image a bit differently...

In retrospect, compared to the subsequent Presidential campaigns, ever setting new records in slander, disrespect and abuse, this lady was completely harmless. I should at least find out if she ever got elected to anything or not. And it could always have been worse... Heath Ledger, anyone?