Or:

“It is impossible to even think without a mental picture.” – Aristotle
“Man’s mind cannot understand thoughts without images of them.” – Thomas Aqunias
“The evolution of images is a kind of intermediate between that of the perceptions and that of the intelligence.” – Jean Piaget

… or any tablet for that matter:

Keep up with technology.

It might sound shockingly simple or unconvincing. If you are like me few months ago, you would think that the tablets are not much, just a bigger smartphone, the technology is still in its infancy, there are not many “meaningful” apps, better wait and see where things go, wait for a better model.

But think about it. People had similar thoughts about the TV, the cars, cell phones and more. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to end up like an old man that still holds on to his magnetic tapes when everyone stores the music in the cloud. I want to keep up with the new technology. I don’t want to wait for a better model because new models will keep on apearing. I just have to jump on board before the young kids beat me to it.

So don’t waste your time and get that smartphone, tablet, ereader or other piece of technology that you were holding on to.

Uitându-mă la planurile pentru 2011 făcute la finele anului 2010 nu pot să nu scap un zâmbet în colțul gurii. Asta pentru că la doar câteva luni de când am făcut acele planuri, viața mea s-a schimbat radical. M-am gândit destul de mult ce țeluri să îmi stabilesc pentru acest an și am realizat astfel un lucru.  Toate planurile pe care ni le facem pe termen (relativ) lung țin foarte mult de conjunctură și de lucrurile neprevăzute care au tendința să tot apară.

Așadar în 2011 am schimbat locul de muncă, ajungând la IBM în Bratislava, Slovacia; am început să am o viață socială mai activă; să fac mai mult sport ca până acum; am reușit să fac hiking în Alpi; să merg și la Târgul de Crăciun din Viena și multe altele.

În 2012 vreau să am parte de o vacanță de vară relaxantă; să fac hiking în munții Tatra; să continui să am un stil de viață echilibrat și să fiu tot timpul pregătit pentru neprevăzut. În același timp vreau să continui să păstrez țelurile care au ajuns obiceiuri: să fac sport/mișcare, să citesc constant și să nu intru în datorii, urmărindu-mi în continuare cu atenție cheltuielile.

Ceea ce vă urez și voua!

A few days ago I saw this video above and the idea easily got stuck in my head. How true is it?

Let me give you another example that I came across since I am living in Bratislava. In 2010 there was a terrible incident that shocked everyone. A man opened fire on a gipsy family, killing 6 people, injuring 14 others and then committing suicide.

As a result, now the Police forces increased significantly. I once saw 3 patrol cars in under 2 minutes, just going up and down the streets of downtown. They even patrol, by car, in the most uncommon places where you wouldn’t even think a car has access. I never saw so many policemen in all the cities I’ve been visiting all over Europe. On top of that, some of them are carrying machine guns. I am not talking about special forces, just regular policemen. It is chilling to be stopped by a patrol officer and see him coming to your car holding an AK-47.

I understand that the incident from 2010 was a terrible one and something should be done to prevent it, but let’s be serious now, these situations are isolated. Sending officers on the street with that kind of firepower doesn’t make the citizens feel more secure, on the contrary, it makes them feel more afraid and expect something bad to happen any time.

Instead of doing that, they could ban the store recently opened in a shopping mall that sells “hunting” equipment, among which you can also find automated rifles. Wouldn’t that make more sense?