2012 – here we go again

In January I went to ski in Austria for 6 days & it was great; I got to know lots of nice people, made new friends.

@dayjob things are moving on, lots of cleanup going on. Managing & planing is taking more time than I anticipated & it keeps me from doing research / learn new tech; I’ll have to deal with this asap

@family & friends – things are going well, I am doing lots of progress in “filtering” my social environment: the little free time I have is valuable and I don’t want to waste it with people I don’t like

@personalprojects – an alpha version of one of my products will be online by the end of this month

Overall, this year should be a good one; if everything goes smooth @dayjob and $ keep coming as they are now, I only need to take care to keep everything in balance, I have a lot going on all levels.

Autumn gone

This year we had one of the most beautiful autumns: excellent temperatures, sunny days and little rain (too little actually). Those days are gone, it’s getting colder by the day & you can smell winter in the air.

In this time of the year I usually get to do stuff I love  & take a break from everything. I am looking forward to it, I am not quite there yet. @dayjob I am renegotiating my salary and it is causing lots of tension between me & hr. I am beginning to doubt my medium and long-term future at the firm.

@personal level things are going ok with both family and friends. I am looking forward to some “me” time to reflect on all that happened this year and plan for 2012.

@personal-projects – again I neglected them because of investing too much interest at the dayjob.. and I want to change this.

Keep in touch.

Just do it

Just Do It (Prezentare NetCamp 2011)

View more presentations from Sergiu Biris

Simplicity

Today I sort of rediscovered OSX.. after a long while of using mostly Windows 7; after the upgrade to Lion, working on the mac became annoying: the new OS needs 4 gb of Ram to run smoothly & my old iMac has 2 gb.

Today I took the time to configure OSX Lion properly & although a bit unpolished compared to Snow Leopard, the new features are a natural evolution (towards iOS) and it runs Ok. I configured iCloud, a very useful service; I couldn’t help noticing that it lacks features present in the Google services gmail, calendar, docs (all free), but it definitely wins when it comes to general users: it is easy to setup & it acts like a cloud dashboard (the Google services are spread all around & there is a bit of ambiguity in their organization).

OSX, iOS are really good with keeping things simple, clean, clear, so that the user can focus more on actual content /actions / .. and less on configuration. This simplicity comes at a cost: some lack of features & limitations; they make it hard for you to break stuff.

RIP, G.

A colleague from Germany died (suicide). The news was a shock for me.

Later update:

My colleague, G. , was a a great person with a huge heart; he was one of the good guys. I spent some time thinking about what he chose to do.. to understand Why. In the end, I think the loneliness got to him: ~50 years old, had a house & car, divorced, no kids, an unsuccessful attempt at a new mariage, his mom was sick.

Because of the above, I started thinking more seriously about life, family, friends.. my personal situation. Lots of stuff I don’t have figured out .. & I am hoping for the best. I do what I can in order to have a decent life & be happy. In the end I think it is all about the people around you – family, loved ones, close friends; without them, there is no meaning to any of it & everything would be empty. Going home to an empty apartment, falling asleep in the company of shadows & silence.. gets to you after a while.

For G. :

Weekend chill

Photography is a hobby I enjoy a lot & I missed it. This weekend I took the time to kill some stress with a walk & a few photos. What came out:

 

One year ago

Childhood Memories - Grandparents

Time flies.. and waits for no one . It’s been a year and 3 days since my journey started and I wrote my first post here.

Some of you read a few posts, others even commented. I write mainly for myself, to keep track of ideas, progress, to clear my mind. I usually write at late hours in the night; it is then when we are most honest.

How things evolved this year:

• Family - things settled & they’re going in a good direction
• Friends – old ones remain, new ones are hard to find (for me); despite that, I began to hangout in nice (extended) circles of people, like-minded.  I am not the most social person, so this is progress for me
• Sports & Health – I finally took time for both; I go regularly to the Dojo (martial arts), 2 times per week and I play  football (or soccer) on every Tuesday. I also took some tests (the 1st ones in my life) and apparently I am in quite a good shape
• School – I graduated from Polytechnics University Timisoara. I became an Engineer (computers & automatics)
• Career / @dayjob – I got to see USA (San Francisco), Germany (Baden-Baden, Frankfurt, Mannheim), visit Bucharest; I now run the Romanian division of the company: lots of responsibility, lots to learn. I like it. In January it will be 3 years since I work here.
• Outsourcing – I built a few nice projects, I learned to delegate, I learned how to identify bad projects & partners, I learned to say No
• Personal projects - my personal website is redone.. almost & one of the 2 projects is already online (still needs work – new features)

For the next year I want to .. learn more (career – management & development), grow socially (friends, events, networking), accelerate personal projects, catch-up on some of my hobbies (travelling, photography, piano, painting). I want to revisit some places: I miss Cluj Napoca, a city really close to my heart (the sky feels closer, the old streets tell stories, people smile more often).

PS:

So much to do. So little time.

@dayjob – Last week was crazy & lots of goals were achieved. In the last 3 days I realized just how much work is involved in keeping others busy. I learned that delegation is my friend, I don’t have to do everything in order to get stuff done. I am now in the process of getting people used to certain flows for doing tasks.. & the results are starting to show.

@outsourcing – I am working on a friends website (no $ involved) & it’s looking pretty good so far

@personal-projects – I want to launch a beta version of my 1st web project by the end of the month; I’ll promote it a bit with Google AddWords.. just to test the ground for later campaigns

@family – general mood is good: bro is learning how to drive, school is going well & parents are Ok

@friends – old ones remain old.. new ones are hard to find.

PS: there are nice places in Timisoara too

 

E toamna nebun de frumoasa la Cluj

De Juventute - Horia Bădescu

Ascultă cum cântă întâiele brume,
dezmăţ de culori e-n copacii ursuzi.
Acum te poţi pierde pe străzi fără nume,
e toamnă nebun de frumoasă la Cluj.
Acum bate-n turnuri o oră regală,
din vechi manuscripte vocabule ies,
e-un ceas când oraşul în haine de gală
începe să cânte.

O stea poţi purta noaptea asta pe umăr
poţi iubi, poţi vorbi cu prietenii duşi,
poţi uita anii care se-adună la număr;
e toamnă nebun de frumoasă la Cluj!

De aici. Cat de frumos.

In a few hours..

My first day as a Team Leader @dayjob starts. Lots of new challenges, lots to learn, lots of unpopular decisions.

PS: RIP Steve Jobs