The Donkey

It's rather hard for me to make up a description. I hate personal descriptions. I'd rather write a research paper or project documentation. Yes, I do hate them that much. So I'll start up with what I hate least of it -- my nickname.

Where I come from (Romania), being called a donkey is not much of a favor. Donkeys are considered to be dumb, unmannered and stubborn around here. But I like them. I ended up being called a donkey because of my annoying sarcasm and dumb-like calm. I'm generally the one inventing puns minutes before term tests, working around mythological misteries only to be annoyingly interupted by an exam, making incredible fun of anyone getting on my nerves and fighting with teachers. There is no animal qualified as reckless so I think donkeys will do. Otherways, I like donkeys as animals. And they are calmer than dogs as well.

If you want to contact me, you can drop me an email on std at cwazy dot co dot uk, by de-antispam-iffying my email address.

top

What The Donkey does

There are many things I do in my free time. I'm a very open person when it comes to learning something so there are lots of things I picked around the way. The things that claim most of my time are computers. Anything that has to do with them is at least remotely interesting to me. Much of the time is taken by programming, although due to the lack of any job that has to do with that, it's mostly casual programming, trying to see if I can do x or y so most of what I do is not qualifiable as a real project. Except for computers, I often fiddle around trying to make others believe I can sing. Most of them believe and according to their testifies, I'm not entirely bad at it. Despite knowing that they just try to make me feel good, I can decently use drums and harmonicas. I'm also a wannabe-vocalist and seem to do quite well, except for the fact that I become rather unlistenable after a few hours. I'm currently trying to teach myself to play the bass guitar with listenable results, although I wouldn't mind if I had more time for it.

When I don't disturb the air and I'm not stuck in front of my computer, I'm also fooling others into thinking I can write. I do techwriting and, in my free time, fictional writing, with a not-so-big audience because English is NOT a language for anything even remotely connected to prose or poetry. Or, if it is, I still prefer Romanian. The fact that Edgar Alan Poe and Oscar Wilde used English is not an argument. They would have sounded better in Romanian. Yes. in Poe's case, 'better' is rather abstract. I also enjoy reading, but I have more and more difficulties fitting anything that isn't a short story or a poem into my time.

I'm also interested in mythology, after discovering that the rather idiotic cultural sittuation in Romania tends to promote Greek or US-imported mythology way more than Romanian mythology. Despite not being an extremist nationalist, I preffer enjoyable mythology to the best-selling mythology. And yes, this includes the fact that Dan Brown's 'incredible discoveries' in his best selling da Vinci Code is close to bullshit for me. Close as in millimeters.

After all these incidentally come other things I got interested in at some point. History, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geometry, 3D design, football at some point of my life, electronics and many others. As a remote note, this summer I went to visit my grandmother and humbly came to the thought that I can't even remember Kepler's third law. So the point with astronomy is quite far. I can only imagine where the other ones are standing. Just don't rely on anything I say in those domains. Also as a remote note, my greatest deed in electronics was frying my USB port. Whatever you do, don't call me to fix anything that uses electricity. Actually don't call me to fix anything, chances are it will need even more fixing. Blah.

top

What The Donkey likes

Yes, it's closely linked with what's above, except that I don't do everything I like. You can't do a cat. I like cats. I also like music. With a few exceptions of course. I'm a pretty big Deep Purple and Pink Floyd fan, and I also like Phoenix, a Romanian band, not that known outside my country though. I also like very long walks. Very as in hours. I like tea. I don't mind coffee but nothing can really come close to an Irish Cream or English Breakfast tea. Except maybe for jasmine tea. I also like analog clocks, although I'm not some sort of a collector. I have one lying around just because I like it. It's unusable otherways, it runs a few minutes ahead in a matter of days. I like autumn mornings, although I don't get too much of them (I have to go to school in the morning). Going to school is not in this section. Neither is Ian Gillan, I think I hate him. He's the perfect recipe when you think you can sing well, you actually get to realize how pathetic you are.

I have a strange inclination towards archaic. I like simple and unbloated things. It's probably why I switched away from Windows. And KDE. It's also why I probably like old computers. Except for the fact that they're just different. For anything related to difference, see below.

Being a donkey also rendered me being a bit different in the mind-twisting meaning of the word. It's not just that I hate doing what everyone else is doing without giving it some thinking. I'm often the one who comes with the most braind-damadged, mind-blowing, twisted and plainly weird solutions which in the end happen to (unexpectedly) work. There are less pleasant ways in which this diffence and donkey-ence manifests, often making me a bit antisociable and lonely. And bluntly insensible. Not that I'd care. (Self-irony? Did anyone say anything about self-irony or sarcasm?)

And as a sidenote, I like beer. Black beer.

top

What The Donkey doesn't do

There are many things I don't do. The most annoying of them all seems to be sleeping. Unusual sleeping hours rendered me not quite able to fall asleep easily. So unless I'm tired (read: barely standing) I have quite serios difficulties sleeping. I'm sometimes helping myself with tea. To stay awake, that is.

I don't dance. I'm big enough anyway (1.81m, 78 kg with some variations) and turning myself around reminds me of a Panzer. Besides, my moves don't really know about the word 'ellegance'.

I don't drink alcohool-less beer. It's like tea, only it tastes like beer. Or at least wants to taste like beer. And that sucks.

I don't watch news at TV. I read the newspapers anyway, or find out about them on the Internet. The way news are broadcasted in Romania would probably make you sick anyway. In fact, I don't watch TV too much at all. It's not self-imposed, it's just not interesting.

top

What The Donkey dislikes

This list is rather long. You may want to skip it if you hate long descriptions. If you read until here without skipping anything you will probably want to read ahead. I hate disclaimers, by the way.

First of all, I utterly hate and dislike anything that has to do with the definition of 'normal'. Maybe it's because I never really found some sort of an even remote place in that definition. I hate arrogance displayed in a form of self-idolatrisation. Anyone thinking he is superior is inferior enough not to care about him for me. They remind me of Pink Floyd's lyrics: Good evening, worm your Honor.

I also dislike people giving themselves more self-importance than they should. Romania is quite full of such people, ranging from super models who can barely spell their names to the latest top breaking singers who can't tell a C from an E#. Or sing an E# without some bullshit pile of effects for that matter. Or at least know that the # doesn't mean you can cut yourself with the E.

I don't like complicated expressions. It's rather common around here to hide your incompetence or ignorance behind cool, twisted words and expressions memorized by heart. I don't like that. And I don't like euphemisms. If I have to say something, I'll say it. Even if it includes fucking bad words.

I don't like people who mumble about Linux without knowing what they're talking about. Despite all mythical appearances, Linux is not a total heaven if you're too dumb to read three lines of documentation. I use it because it's more usable than Windows, and it's more usable because I can use it better, not because it has the Tao.

I don't like all the mumbo jumbo about fashion. Fashion shows tend to show more and more extravagant design, but when you come to ask the critics who fall into a dictionary of superlatives if they'd wear anything they saw, you may end up with a surprise. Clothes are made to be worn and not to show off with the label.

Since we came to fashion, I hate ties and dress codes.

There are some other things I dislike but I already said in the beginning that I hate descriptions. I also hate long descriptions. So I'm cutting it short

top