pleasantly impressed with the romanian blogs...

I didn't follow up the Romanian blogs for a while, or the Romanian projects, but recently somehow I "bumped" into them again, and I have to say that there are some projects and blogs that are quite nice.... (if u know Romanian, how to read and write, and u're into "blogging"). Let me list some below...

• It all started with gramo. Exhaustless guys, going on posting on so many topics...
• Multumeste - "Do thank" - real stories in which and for which there's so much to thank for...
• alexbrie - another romanian blogger, with a network of blogs(including some interesting iPhone news website...) - blogger/software developer;
• Compuneri - another interesting project, compositions about different subjects... especially for school;
• diyro - started small, but I hope it's increasing - do it yourself, different practical things, in romanian...
• chitzchitz - cute, interesting, and nice - children stories, either invented by the blogger or posted by others... :)
• unapezi - One Per Day with Dragos Novac... check it out;
• metropotam - events in Romania, with recommendations;
• urbee - urban events... on the go! On the Windows Mobile, iPhone, etc;
• douamaini - you've got 2 hands - use them for useful things; some useful things that come out by the proper and coordinated use of the 2 hands we all have....
• am.voce - Alexandra Ivan, singer... and the series of blogs of the "voice family";
• Ariel - 18 yrs old blogger... one of my old "virtual" friends;
• andressa - everybody knows andressa.... blogging for her pets and because she likes it;
• kilometru0 - fun, and funny vids, and funny links...
• egustos - delicious dishes and how to cook them;
• stiritelefoane - news about mobile phones, in romanian, blog style;
• nenea - there are also some "mad" people in Romania, writing against the system...
• fulgerica - nobody is perfect; I am nobody. Funny ...
• cabral - Romanian TV person Cabral's personal blog;
• monicaspune - monica's stories, with pics and movies;
• sutu - I don't really know whether it is a pro or against the current order in Romania....

and many others.... these are the ones I compiled now. And Forbes made a top 25 web celebrities, which is interesting to see....

funny blogs and interesting ideas....

Interesting ideas first: I was just considering recently about our increasing dependence on the mobile phones, items which did not exist 20 years ago yet now we can't live without them. How many times did we leave our mobile phone at home and then the whole day we felt it missing(or worse...)! Once upon a time the mobile phones were "pocket-bricks" designed for receiving calls and writing some text messages, with 2-3 lines of text available.... nowadays, a mobile phone(like the iphone, for instance) can:

• touch screen - and not only with a stylus, but simply with the finger.... - literally "the world at your fingertips";
• video calling - not on the iphone, but there are 3g phones (nokia, starting with Nokia 6680....) that support video calls;
• taking pictures and video filming - that's normal, by now...
• creating, reading, and editing documents - from the docs to excels and pdf's, also the isilo docs and numerous other documents readers....
• operating system, many times multi-tasking, even on the phone;
• internet on the phone - besides the wireless connection, the internet on the go from the service providers is available at cheap rates....
• movies and pictures on the go.... due to the high capacity storage of the mobile phone, you can store movies and pictures, sometimes even having the possibility to edit them;
• music on the go - high capacity storage, high quality sound, even good speakers, long battery life while playing music(if you don't do anything else on the phone);
• games.... lots and lots of games;
• other third party applications like: newsreaders, compass, google applications(from google earth to searching, etc), calculators, encyclopedias, dictionaries, phrasebooks, piano or guitar tuner, weather application, tube or metro updates and routes, level, flashlight, voice recorders, bible readers, etc
• messenger on the mobile phone - from skype to msn and yahoo, aol and other messenger, either separate or altogether in one application.... including facebook on the phone;
  
• GPS and SatNav - very nice and handy applications that track certain addresses or give you the route to get there, with the pin-pointing of your current location(I've been enjoying this one recently.... - going on the bus and seeing your pinpoint moving along the street.... until you either pass your destination or stop before it....)
  

and many more other applications. They take our time, yes, but somehow they also became part of our life.... living more and more a "virtual" life, on the electronic devices we have....
Now moving on to some funny blogs I discovered online:

• failblog - Fail, Owned and Pwn moments in pictures and videos. Share fails, pwns, and owns with the world on FAIL Blog. Check out the funny articles/pictures/movies they have, like: Luminous life fail(among the illustrious people presented by the Luminous life, people like Nelson Mandella, Alfred Nobel, etc, is also... Ricky Martin!); Drive fail(be ready for a shock while watching a seemingly simple maneuvre to drive the car into the courtyard...), Handicap access fail(the toilets for the people are downstairs, for the disabled people, they have to go up the stairs...), Ironing fail(checking out if the iron works...); camera fail (taking a picture of.... your own eye); public decency fail(no comment...); and many other funny yet real stuff...
• suvive the apocalypse - I hope it's a joke... what things you need to get in order to be protected in the case of the "apocalypse"... I like the funny application that shows what would happen to your city in case a bomb of a certain size would be dropped... - imagination...

though on blogspot, I like wordpress more because....

Maybe I was "raised up in blogging" with the wordpress, but I think that definitely wordpress is much better than the platform google offers. Some of the reasons:

• when posting in wordpress, you have a full - much fuller - menu of text formatting, including options like: open link in a new window(when u choose to put a link towards a website, you have this pop-up window that opens and has lots of options - not to mention the fact that it does not block/lock you on that particular page - you can also visit the tabs in the background); resize the box where you write the text, etc.
• the dashboard - lots of updated cool plugins for wordpress, lots of themes(hundreds, literally, while blogspot has just a handful...), the links so easy to find - the menu is very well constructed, the possibility of editing the way the links look like when u post, the presence of the categories(which help a lot...); statistics - free and nice, offered by the community - updated regularly.... On blogspot, it simply is very difficult to find your way around, to change and customize the themes... and sometimes the plugins listed are useless for what you want to display/have on the site(especially when u got used to wordpress...);
• the arranging of the elements in the page - the layout gadgets and navbars in blogspot, which are kindda' set and not customizable, while in wordpress you know you can play around with the set sections you are being given(some optimization can also be done...);
• the simple things in life, that make your life happier - even the list of posts and comments, together with the classical askimet spam catcher.... - on wordpress, I mean.... - with the possibility of re-arranging the elements in the page, always having a left-hand side full menu, even while posting....
• the wordpress downloadable platform - download wordpress, install it on your website(see the 5 minute guide), and then use and enjoy it on other websites; the blogger platform.... what is that?
• what I like about blogger.com is the autosave(just like in the google mail...) every several minutes of activity... and about wordpress: wordpress for iphone? Wow! I have to check it out!

and some other reasons, which I'll update as I remember them.... Suggestion 4 google: replace the blogger platform with the wordpress platform!
I'll continue to post on blogspot, yet I prefer the wordpress...

looking for website templates...

Once upon a time, it used to be that you had to pay big money to get a website done(and can still be the same today....) and also the design would cost you a lot... Yet today all you need to do is either to create a blog, or look online for some nice templates either to buy or to download(they are free...). In creating and taking care of websites, online, on the design side one needs

• lots of time and inspiration to create some nice layouts/website templates OR
• simply to download or buy from online some nice website layouts and templates OR
• someone who either does the layout or gets one for them.

Of course, I use all the 3 methods, sometimes combining them.... But here below is a list I compiled of some websites where from you can get some website templates / layouts for websites:

• templatesbox.com - free web templates, free website templates, free logo templates - takes some 3-4 steps to get the web template you want, but it's nice and it's free! :)
  
• freewebsitetemplates.com - free website templates, list of 70-80 templates for free, with preview and download. Simple and clean.
• freewebtemplates.com - free templates to download, over 4000, categorized: business, dhtml, flash, hi-tech, html, themes, others, etc.
• zeroweb.org - free website layouts and free website templates - still, so many / the nicer ones are for shopping...;
• mastertemplates.com - free templates from Master Templates, nice colourfull templates, downloadable templates, especially business templates;
• freetemplatesonline.com - lots of free web templates by category - fashion, cars, business, corporate, portal, drink, industrial, law, media, etc - each category has at least 3-4 free website templates;
  
• freelayouts.com - free websites templates - layout templates, and also free myspace templates;
  
• metamorphozis.com - website with a lot of templates, most of them paid ones, but there is a hidden section with free websites templates - most of them, I would say, are wordpress/blog templates, but they are really nice!
• steves-templates.com - free templates and premium templates; the free website layouts are kindda extremely simple and basic...
• interspire.com - free web site and newsletter template from interspire - simple and clean website templates;
• webzonetemplates.com - free templates from the original template provider, list of some free and most others for pay templates for websites;
  
• andreasviklund.com - Andreas Viklund, musician, writer, and web designer - puts out on his website some original free website layouts, either website templates or wordpress themes;
  
• templateyes.com - list with preview of free html website templates, very nice and simple, and free flash templates, photoshop templates and web backgrounds;
• websitetemplates.org - download free website templates, after you enter your email address(they may spam you); on the right hand side, the menu, is actually for premium templates(for which you have to pay);
  
• oswd.org - open source web design - free website templates, by designers; not extremely many designs for web, but some nice simple ones, with preview and download web design....
  
• templateworld.com - they also have a section of free XHTML/CSS websites, with some very cool templates :) - yet most of the site is paid website templates;
  
• freesitetemplates.com - site that claims to have the largest collection of free website templates, YET you really have to be careful - the most obvious and nice ones are the ones that you have to pay for! On the right hand side there's a small menu: no frames, speed demons, dreamweaver, etc - that is the list.... And if you want to download any free layouts, you have to register with your email address - for getting a password...
• templatesland.com - yet another download free website templates - not too many layouts, only the first page is nice....
• themebot.com - website templates for themebot, both free downloadable templates and paid website templates, including some webmaster tools;
  
• quackit.com - free website layouts, html / grunge / business / ecommerce / portal / frame templates - very simple, and not so many templates....
• myfreetemplatehome.com - lots and lots of free website templates, when you want to download them, it opens in another window, and there you have to look for the small size red link to download...
  
• buy online website templates at:
  # templatemonster.com - the best resource, I would say - lots of web templates online, most of them paid; also has some free web templates;
  # templateworld.com - annual subscription;
  # 4templates.com - pay per website template;
  # and most of the ones above are "premium website templates", that is, you can buy them.
  

and so many others free website templates. Of course, there is an acute battle for the visitors and clients, and you have to be really careful when you visit these websites: from link to link, you find yourself in a "premium" section! Anyways, they know what they're doing, and they try their best to "get you to buy" the "premium" templates!

not so easy to be happy where u work - test

Working somewhere is a test to all, especially if you're not so easy to be satisfied, or you're looking for something that not even you know what it is. I used to think that working for google is amazing, and it actually is - check this out:

• videos about working at google, benefits and fun;
• someone's testimony about how nice it is to work at google;
• life inside google at cnn;
• google's gourmet food at cnn;

and other many many testimonials about the nice food, nice people, good benefits, social life, working on what you want, working what you like, free time, sports, etc - involved with working for google.
Recently I stumbled upon the article at techcrunch - why google employees quit, which was another eye opener for me. You can work for the "best" and most innovative and fun company in the world, and still not be happy. Why?
As I said before, working for a company is a test. Do you really want to work for the best company / most recommended, doing what you really like, and having lots of free time, space and holidays? I think that what you actually need is to LEARN TO WORK for the company that hired you. Once you get a job, you just need to learn and work on "learning to like what you naturally dislike" - maybe some aspects of the job are not so "attractive" to you, but should you just give up the company for not having all the benefits in the world?
This is also the principle in life: unpleasant and not so nice things will come our way so many times, and so what should we do? Ignore, reject and criticize these things? Or learn to go through them, being formed into more mature persons, and continuing to be open?
It's our personal choice though.... in today's society the cultivation of the individual is being proclaimed, and "do what you want where and when you want" is the general slogan everyone is encouraged to live by. Unfortunately - or rather fortunately - shocking and shaking things will come and do come our way, and we can all learn more thing even through failures or in difficult times....

everything is designed to keep you busy

While updating some of the links on my blog, and thinking: which websites do I visit often? - I realized: the internet is designed in such a way that, whatever need or preference you have, there is a website/service to suit it - and this will keep you busy for a long time. It simply takes your time! I'll talk a little about the sites that tend to consume my time...

• Once upon a time, there was ringo, and you could see a lot of pictures, comment on them, update pictures, etc - lots of time eaten up and spent in watching others' pics. Of course, the ones that have and use myspace, that's even a bigger thing, with all that you want to have online! - it's your space!
• Then, facebook emerged, and.... I like it! And you can write notes, update status, put pics/video/links on, play games, write on others' walls, comment on pictures, view pics, add some quizzes, chat, etc - some things of which are useful, yet somehow, your time/my time is eaten up by yet another thing....
  
• Emails - Of course, gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail, and all kinds of other free mail, necessary for communication, file sending, etc. Can you believe that there was a time when the storage space was an issue, and Yahoo! Mail was the first free email website that decided they will give 1GB storage space for its subscribers? And then, gmail followed, and the others... and now the storage space or sometimes even the size of the emails do not matter anymore...
• blogging - or having your own free website - once upon a time you had to pay for a website, and you had to know what to write/how to write, html at least - nowadays you have dozens of free platforms(like the wordpress, blogspot, etc.) with the possibility of writing and puting any kind of content online!
  
• multimedia and videos - youtube, google video, and other websites online where you can find, download, post and comment on video clips or even videos/movies/music videos - a whole world in itself, from watching what others say/have to say/do, to posting video comments and even using/posting copyrighted content.
• travelling - everyone has to travel from time to time, so in Europe there is a continually growing set of cheap flights carriers, like easyjet, ryan air, wizzair, etc, besides the major national or international carriers. Of course, there are also these.... cheap flights "scanners" or aggregators: instead of visiting the cheap flights carrier itself, you enter your destination and departure city and they "scan" the existing flights for you.... - skyscanner, travel supermarket, cheap flights, flights direct, etc. Sorry, there are many many other links, especially to overseas/outside of Europe destinations, but I didn't encounter them yet...
• Online shopping - wanna buy anything? Try ebay, amazon, or the many online stores that are out there(you can buy everything like food, clothes, electrical items, switches and sockets, etc). Once upon a time, everyone was suspicious about the quality or "newness" of the items, the means of payment, etc - nowadays, everyone just buys whatever he wants. You want to pay less for something you see in the store and want to have? Bid it on ebay or other online auction websites. The payment is thru secure gateways(like paypal).
• News? Subscribe online either free or by a monthly payment to big news sites like bbc news, telegraph, sky news, daily mail, independent, mirror, etc. You want to see the latest business/sports/breaking news online - as in watch them? No problem - just visit the website of the desired news agency, and watch the news!

And so many other websites that are out there, ready to get your attention and your time. Or maybe you don't really know the website address for the preference you have: no problem, google it! Or search for it online on ask, yahoo, live, etc! There is a "search engine warfare" going on, besides all the other niche warfares online....
I'm sorry to bore you all with this long list of obvious-by-now websites, that we all use, but my point is: it's all designed to take your time, to get you busy, occupied.... - though they may be(and most are) useful. What is then the most important things that we need to take care of? Is it just these online things? The networks we belong to and the blogs we write on?

Misaras Stefan - challenge - get my name back

right now, if you search on google for Stefan Misaras, you get.... 1410 results, and this blog is not even on the 1st page! The same, if you search for Misaras Stefan, same number of results, just the order changes a little. The results I get are mainly:

• stefan misaras at blogflux - my previous blog, while in Romania;
• misaras stefan at linkedln - business connections and profile;
• misaras stefan at facebook.com - though I don't really like it, I have this listing also;
• stefan misaras at american chronicle - tried once to become a writer, they accepted me, but it didn't quite work. Guess what: I still have a link there with them!
• stefan misaras personal blog at tehnorati.ro - indexed and still there in tehnorati.ro, though the blog does not exist for more than 2 years now....
• misaras stefan profile at tutoriale.ro - I wrote some tutorials, SEO related, in romanian;
• stefan misaras at shoemoney's blog - SEO geek(I hope he still is one) that once made some interesting SEO grey-hat contests;
• stefan misaras at stilxxi.ro blog - I used to manage and post there at my previous job, and I enjoyed it; it may be said that it was there that I got a "passion" for blogging, whether thematic/corporate or personal;
• misaras stefan at globe of blogs - by birthday or by name;
• misaras stefan at live blogs - that's a surprise, but it looks like I'm there too;
• stefan misaras at seopedia blog - recommending the blog I managed, stilxxi.ro/blog;
• stefan misaras comments on spam - a anti-spam mtg we had in Romania once, trying to cure this problem....
• stefan misaras at sparksdirect - in yahoo I'm no 1!

and the list can go on and on. I may add some more links, especially the interesting ones, as I find them - as I find myself online. What's the point? Let me see.... I would like to "claim my name back" - it is in several places online, and so I want now that, if someone searches for

• stefan misaras in google,
• stefan misaras in ask,
• stefan misaras in live,
• misaras stefan in yahoo,

or in any other search engine, my blog, that is, this blog, would be the first result. Let me see: do you think I can do this? We'll try.... organic results and not too much SEO, but just gradually building....