Addicted to iPhone?

I am not a big fan of any type of gadgets. Actually, I did not use to be a fan of gadgets. That changed the moment I heard people in my office talking of the first official presentation of iPhone. Some links were emailed, I started reading about them. And I fell in love...

"iPhone combines three amazing products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone. " More information and photo from here.

Let me tell you I cannot wait for iPhone to be available on the Romanian market! It would be such a delight to have one. My second precious :) My first and greatest Precious remains my car.

Music Videos.

Music Videos

I love music videos, one of my earliest childhood memories was watching the video to Billie Jean. I can remember seeing those paving slabs lighting up and thinking with total certainty that it was The Coolest Thing Ever. Sadly my love of music videos is becoming a love that is harder to justify. Far too many music videos now are dull, formulaic tripe, made to appeal to the lowest common denominator of the "Lad market".

So an innovative and well executed video like this is a rare treat.

Coldplay

Yes. Coldplay.

I don't know what it is about Coldplay that makes me listen to them over and over and over again. I can never seem to get bored of their music! So it's been what? Five years? Yeah, it's been five years since I first started listening to Coldplay. Or was it six? lol..Well it was five or six years ago. My, do I feel old or what?!

About three months ago, the only thing I listened to was Coldplay. And I mean "the only" literally. Whether it was in the car, my iPod or iTunes; it was Coldplay through and through!

Here's the song that made me fall in love with Coldplay.

Enjoy!

Ta ta for now :*

From Paris to Berlin...

Picture from www.shutterblade.net

I have not one, but two shameful confessions.

Firstly, I love Europop. It may be cheesy and kitsch but I don't care, the more it sounds like the work of someone driven crazy by over-consumption of sweets, the more I like it.

Secondly, I love the Eurovision Song Contest as it is the one night where I can wallow in my bad taste. This parade of the zany, overly-earnest and frankly inexplicable with widely diverse styles of music is such fabulous entertainment. Also Eurovision provides great insight into relations between European Countries. For example, Greece and Cyprus will always give each other high scores, as will the Scandanavian countries, whereas Germany usually doesn't do so well.

So I shall be watching tomorrow night munching on a big bag of sweets. Apparently the Finnish entry is a death metal with reptile costumes. How can that fail to be anything other then quality entertainment?

My prediction: I think Kate Ryan, representing Belgium will win.

Around the world in 90 days

One of my passions, shared with other bloggers as it might appear from a certain post of mine, is traveling. Therefore, I will dedicate this post to this passion of mine.

Matt Gross, frugal traveler of NY Times, is going on a trip around the world. His will have an extended time frame as compared to the journey described in Jules Verne's book, "Around the World in 80 Days". He will be posting about this trip of his, the must-see spots, costs, ups and downs, every Wednesday for the next three months.

If you are interested in costs, possible tour operators and costs for such a trip, you can find it all out here. Also, if such an adventure appeals to you, you can follow him through his articles.

I wish I were him.

Wherever I lay my phone, that's my home

I'm not sure if this really counts as a passion, but it seems to be a bit of a fixation and I'm sure it's not entirely normal behaviour.

In the past year I've bought seven mobile phones. Seven.

I never used to be like this. I used to have the same phone for at least a year if not longer. Now, I'll spend ages looking for the "right" phone, buy it, have it for a couple of months (if that), decide that I don't like the keypad, the predictive text is annoying to use, the camera is poor, or that I don't actually need a camera, as I just take lots of pictures of my cats on it like the sad woman I am, then start looking for a new phone all over again.

It's not because I have to have the latest model either. After my super lovely and rather swish Motorola L6 proved to have a somewhat poor battery life (Unfortunately it proved this on Mother's Day, when I was away from home and couldn't get to a payphone - not good),I have now got the most basic Nokia ever, the 1110. Although I had to get another Nokia first before buying that one, of course.



I wish I could have a normal shopping fetish, like buying shoes or something.

Se7en

Ever since I was a kid my passion was about movies, you name it I have watched it. I have always had a hungry imagination that is striving to read or watch anything that could take me on a journey to a place that I could only go to in fiction. Fantasies and imagination was always the name of the game for me..

Se7en

Yesterday I saw “seven” starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and last but not least Kevin Spacey. The film as most of you already know is about the seven deadly sins that may cause destruction to man kind. The movie is great in my opinion it is a classic. I was once inspired by this movie to dig up some info about the subject. Here is how to goes..

The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, are a classification of vices used in early Christian teachings to educate and protect followers from basic human instincts. The church divided sin into two types: venial (forgiven without the need for the sacrament of Confession) and capital (meriting damnation). Beginning in the early 14th-century, the popularity of the 7 deadly sins with artists of the time engrained them in human culture around the world. The generally accepted deadly sins are superbia (hubris/pride), avaritia (avarice/greed), luxuria (extravagance, later lust), invidia (envy), gula (gluttony), ira (wrath), and acedia (sloth). Each deadly sin is opposed by one of the corresponding Seven Holy Virtues.
An alternative but equally popular version of the Seven Virtues was the remedial" or contrarian model, which listed specific virtues as the "Cure' or "remedies' that stand in opposition to each of the seven sins:

Humility cures Pride
Kindness cures Envy
Abstinence cures Gluttony
Chastity cures Lust
Patience cures Wrath

Liberality cures Greed
Diligence cures Sloth

“Wanting people to listen, you can't just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you'll notice you've got their strict attention.”

Have we really come down to this? Are we really living in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was a virtue? I just don’t know. But this is what this movie got me thinking about, may be we should care and listen to people more often and may be just may be this will stop the shockers that we come to see everyday.