Do you know what tomorrow holds?… We have plans for tomorrow, we have certain schedules, meetings to attend, people to see, vacations to enjoy, places to visit. And finally tomorrow is here…

I was going to Atlanta International Airport to take the next flight to New York’s Kennedy International Airport and then to fly to Budapest, Hungary in order to get home. My ride left me at the departures gate so there I was, with my ticket in my hand, ready to go home… And that was about to change, dramatically. The first flight to JFK was overbooked so I didn’t make it. I got on the second one knowing that I could still catch the flight to Budapest. But when I arrived at JFK, all flights were cancelled. The volcano in Iceland froze down the entire Europe, and it was just the beginning. Have you ever been stranded in an airport with no money left, no cell phone, no watch, nothing but you and your carry-on? Then you know how I felt. I knew no one in New York, no person to contact. My luggage was still in Atlanta.  But there was a ray of hope. I got hold of a pay phone and started to try call collect. Eventually I got one number that said “no answer” instead of “sorry, this person does not accept call collect”. In a few minutes, the pay phone rang bak and I jumped to pick it up. I was so glad to talk to my friend in MI! He made some calls for me, and in just a matter of minutes, I got a phone call from a total stranger saying he was on his way to pick me up from the airport. He was so kind as to let me stay with him and his family during all the time the flights were cancelled. He drove me to meet with my brother, who I was happy to see after a long time. I stayed with my brother and his family over the weekend. On Tuesday, Budapest reopened its air space. So I came back to my new friend and he drove me to JFK. I tried to get on the first flight that was leaving America after 5 days. But the flight was, again, overbooked. I can’t describe how it feels to be left behind… to see the door closing in front of your eyes… to hear the dreadful words “I’m sorry sir, there’s nothing I can do”. So here I am again, at my new friend’s house, hoping for a miracle. I’m going to try again today. It is Thursday. I can’t wait to be with my wife, at home.

But I’m thankful for what I have, for what I was given. I didn’t spend the week sleeping on the floor in the baggage claim area, I didn’t have to shower in the tents provided by the authorities, I didn’t eat on meal vouchers. I had someone to take very good care of me. Someone who does not believe in the word “coincidence”. Someone who would go wherever it takes, and do whatever it takes, to help his brother, his neighbor. You know, sometimes the days after tomorrow don’t look like you’ve planned, but there is always something good in every circumstance in our lives. At this point in my life, this is not just easy-cheesy talk. If you know me, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, read Romans 8:28 in the Bible. The days after tomorrow are days when God takes you by the hand and leads you where He wants you to be. God’s will is the best place to be in, all the time.

In my opinion, it has to be first of all about the brand. I know that most of the time, the rule is: you have a certain laptop and it’s given you headaches, conclusion: the BRAND is bad, and you tell everybody, DON’T buy it; you have a certain laptop and it has served you well and you didn’t even have to reinstall Windows every other month, conclusion: the BRAND is good, and you tell everyone that it’s the best brand ever. In other words, a very subjective point of view, which is quite normal. So it depends who you ask. Well I know you didn’t ask me, but I’ll tell you my very own subjective point of view. For me, for many years, there were just two brands worth considering buying: Toshiba and Dell. Sony’s were (and still are) way too expensive for what they offer. Plus they only had their own MemoryStick/Pro card readers for many years. HP’s were famous for their magical ability to find their way to the repair shops. Fancy but fragile. IBM’s were probably the best, no doubt about it, but they had that archaic look and that scary price. Plus I hated the trackpoint. Then there were ASUS laptops, powerful but again, pricey. Fujitsu was another brand to consider, but they were not too common. Last but not least, ACER/Gateway were known not to last long due to the cheap plastics they were made of. Anyway, I had 2 Toshiba A-series laptops so far and according to the rule I stated in the beginning, I can definitely recommend them. No problems whatsoever, decent price, pretty powerful. Then I had a Dell Studio 15 which I loved, and it was quite amazing. To tell you the truth, I bought the Dell Studio because it had so many things in common with the LENOVO Y510/Y530 – the unique screen hinges, the touch-sensitive controls, the non-slide non-glossy cover, the elegant looks. A friend of mine had a Lenovo Y510 and I must tell you I wanted one too!! It had the best sound I’ve ever heard from a laptop, so crisp, so loud, so… Dolby-Surround! Plus it had the most solid feel ever. No cheap plastics, no flying keyboard, no fragile screen hinges. It also had the VeriFace recognition software, all you needed to do was to sit in front of your laptop and you were logged in. If you went away from the laptop, it would log you out immediately. Talk about security! So now I have a new favorite, not because I owned it, but because of what I read about it, because of the pictures and videos I saw so far. It is a LENOVO / IBM and it doesn’t look archaic, it doesn’t have a scary price and it’s extremely powerful! It’s more powerful than an i3 processor and mildly less powerful than an i5! Check this out!!

LENOVO IdeaPad Y550

Processor	Intel® Core™2 Duo P8600 (Centrino 2, 2.40GHz, 3MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)
Operating System	Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
Display	15.6” HD Wide (1366 X 768) LED, W/ Camera
Total Memory	3GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory
Hard Drive	250GB, 5400RPM Serial ATA 2.5″ Drive
Graphics	Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Optical Device	DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer
Wireless	Intel WiFi Link 5100 AGN
Battery	6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Limited Warranty	1 Year Warranty
Color	Black
Bluetooth	No
Integrated Camera	Yes, 1.3 MP
Fingerprint Reader	No
Keyboard/Pointing Device	Multi-touch Touchpad

The model in the video below features a less powerful processor, more ram and a larger hard drive. Just get a feel of it.

So what do you think? Do you want one too? Just let me know I have one for you, with the configuration written above. Ask about details.

Two coffee jars, the same label, the same color, perfectly identical exterior. Yet, so different on the inside. One of them had coffee in it, as it was intended by the manufacturer. The other one had sugar in it, which for me was exactly what I was looking for. But this image reminded me of how people are so many times. Looking from the outside, you may read a label that says, “Christian.” Or “Friend.” Or “Reliable.” And then you may wonder why your tea tastes like coffee or why your bitter black coffee tastes like sweetened water. It’s just not what you expected! What is wrong then? Is the label wrong? Or is the content wrong? I think what happens is that so many times, what’s inside is no longer what the “Manufacturer” intended. We are made by God for a purpose, according to a master plan, but some people think they have better plans, better purposes. They change the inside but they keep the label on the outside. And it is very misleading. How can you tell if someone has the wrong label, or the wrong content?

Well, in terms of the coffee jars, sometimes you just need to take a better look inside. Sometimes you need to taste and realize it’s not the taste you wanted. But always, remember to ask the “Manufacturer” to let you know if someone messed up the content. In real life it is not always so visible and evident like in the pictures above. So beware of counterfeits!

NORC is a great site launched in December 2008. It’s an alternative to Google Maps and it’s “made in Romania”. It provides street-level panoramic images of many cities in Romania and also Central and Eastern Europe. You can “take a walk” on the streets of Budapest, Vienna, Prague or even Moscow. Here are more places you can visit with NORC. If you don’t have time or money to go to all these places, now you have the chance to visit them for free. You’ll still need the time to do it, though.

Discover your favorite places! Discover Romania! Vivat NORC!

N-JOY!

I happen to be one of the fortunate guys who aspire to be a home owner in the near future. The whole process of building a house is demanding the full amount of headaches and stomachaches to compensate for the peace of mind and the thrill of having your own parking spot and your own backyard. Inevitably I had to face (once again) the bureaucracy of the country we live in. So I went today to the Real Estate Register in need of a single piece of paper certifying that I am indeed the land owner. There I had the opportunity to have both my patience and my smell perception tested. I entered a crowded room full of odors and waited in a long line just to get the valuable information that I didn’t take a number. I went out the door quite frustrated and got a number. It said 37. I looked at the time. It was 9:15 a.m. and their schedule was from 8 to 10 a.m. Quick math… after one hour and 15 minutes I had the number 37. This means I would stay there no longer than 2 MINUTES! Great! And then my eyes went further down on the little note and I almost dropped it. WAITING TIME: 108 MINUTES!! But I got less than 50 minutes before they closed for the day… Anyway I chose to wait in line (again) in the hope that somehow I’ll be able, at least, to ask a question. To my surprise, nobody finished in 2 minutes! Average time at the desk was 10-15 minutes. But I am sure I overheard the lady tell one person, “Please wait, I’ll be back in one minute”. So I came to an astonishing conclusion. ONE MINUTE is an extremely flexible, variable amount of time. It can be anywhere from more or less 60 seconds to… and the blanks are filled by those behind the counter. My turn was up eventually and in spite of all the papers I had with me, I was missing exactly the single paper that was needed. Some would call this “bad luck”.

The other thing today is a better insight into mosquito repellents. I read an article some time ago about a recent research regarding mosquito bites. We all know some people who can sleep an entire night without a single bug bite. Perhaps they advise their unlucky friends to eat more garlic, or fewer bananas. The research showed that certain cows gave off odors that protected the entire herd from flies, so the next step was to look for a similar chemical shield in humans. The study showed that there are some folks who are born with a scent that keeps mosquitoes and other biting insects away. Today I can add a few things to the research about this natural human scent. From my experience of staying in that room today, there is evidence that the odor keeps people away as well. It is a universal repellent substance strongly associated with the lack of soap and running water, combined with the lack of antiperspirant or deodorant. This excellent insect repellent works best where high temperatures and physical effort are involved. For those of you who, like me, prefer something odorless, the bad news is that it has a very strong odor that can sometimes kill an elephant. The best thing about it – it’s absolutely FREE! You can try it on yourself if you don’t believe.

Conclusion: I am thankful for today. And why is that? Well, first of all, because I don’t have to go to the Real Estate Register every day! I am also thankful for Rexona’s absolute protection – even if it’s not against mosquitos, at least it’s not against people. I am thankful for the shower I can take twice a day if I want to. And last, but not least, I am thankful for the minutes I can spend with my wife, and they definitely are the shortest minutes on earth (i.e., that’s how it feels).

As an end note, please don’t forget about COMUNIA’s 2009 “Give Them Christmas” project. We want to collect 1,000 Christmas boxes and give them to the poorest in our community.  You can get involved by making a nicely wrapped Christmas gift yourself or giving us money to make one for you. Change someone’s tomorrow. Act today!

Which way?

Every day we come across at least one of these, yet invisible, crossroad signs. For example, every morning while driving to work I see so many people stressed out in their cars, because of the traffic jam, because they are going to be late at work, because of the old man blocking the intersection with his junky old car. Just a look at their faces and you can see how unhappy they are. Take a walk around your city and try to count the happy faces you see. Not so many, are they? More than 250 years ago, Thomas Gray used the phrase “ignorance is bliss”, and many people today choose to stick with that. Indeed, knowledge might hurt and drive the bliss away, but it will bring in awareness and compassion. Ignoring the reasons to be happy, the things to be thankful for, doesn’t help us at all. Focusing on the problems instead of enjoying the beautiful little things life offers will rob us of our happiness and of our peace. But this blog intends to bring us back on the right track. In this blog I want to show the world that somewhere on earth there is still a thankful heart and a helping hand. Being thankful for most people is a one-time event that happens every year, around Thanksgiving or whatever similar holiday traditions they observe. And as the holiday fades away, so does the thanksgiving. Which way will you go? Towards ignorance, or towards gratitude?

I want to bring to you true stories, facts of life, pictures and words in an attempt to stir in you the desire to be thankful, the motivation to be happy, and the passion to live. This is what this blog is for.