With Work

If you’ve often felt that you’re too sensitive, perhaps the problem isn’t you, but your work environment. “Working Under the Microscope” aims to make you harder to manipulate and provide you with communication strategies.

📖 The book can be ordered from here -  https://www.cassius-books.ro/cumpara/munca-sub-lupa-770 

Keep telling me this!

 

Munca sub lupa is now available to order

My new nonfiction book (written in Romanian) is available to order starting today.

If you've often felt that you're too sensitive, perhaps the problem isn't you, but your work environment.

You can click here to order it.

Diversity

Some people’s perspective shifts when they realize they want to be flattered—that, in fact, they’ve wanted this their whole lives.

Others’ perspective shifts when they realize they no longer want to be flattered and would prefer to have the truth told to their faces.

Meanwhile, others realize they want neither one nor the other.

What a variety!

The Letter F

 

Defect

There are books about which it’s hard to say much, for fear of diminishing their charm, because piling words upon words to highlight the artistry of other words can actually do a disservice to the latter.

I’ll say this much—this is a book worth reading.

And I’ll keep this line from the book with me: “Because, before we find justice, we must find peace.”

My Books on Citesc si Calatoresc

In a recent video, Dana explains that it took her some time to change her mind about the writing of Romanian authors, which she had found uninteresting because of the required reading assignments in school.

I was happy to find out which Romanian writers Dana has on her bookshelf—in both the “read” and “unread” sections—and to discover that some of my own books were listed in both sections.

Silver Foxes

I’ve always believed that mothers have a special intuition—the ability to see beyond words and behaviors and understand exactly what’s going on. So, I always called my mom a fox. No matter how well I tried to come up with explanations, she already knew. What’s more, I knew she knew, but I didn’t have the courage to come clean with the truth. Maybe my little trick sharpened her senses—who knows?!

But for a while now, I’ve realized that Dad has these abilities too. It’s just that I hadn’t paid attention to him, convinced as I was that only Mom could be a fox. But looking back, I realized that Dad hadn't missed a few things either. This leads me to believe that Dad is a fox too—only that he's a silver one.

And you don’t have to take my word for it. Take a moment and look around at your loved ones. Be careful, though—foxes are very discreet, and you might not see them unless you look back to catch a glimpse of their footsteps. It’s still something, I tell you!

Attire

A mother and daughter walk past a formal dress shop, and the window display features nothing but sequined dresses.

'Look, Mom, this is where I’m going to get my prom dress!'

'Yeah, sure. What prom?'

'The eighth-grade one.'

'Aha! I'm sure you’re only going to get your godmother’s dress from here!'

Coming soon!

How many times have you been assigned a task with a deadline of “yesterday,” received an email as long as a Dostoevsky novella, or gotten a cryptic WhatsApp message from a “telepathic” coworker who expects you to read their mind through a crystal ball?

Cassius Books Publishing House has done me the honor of agreeing to publish my new nonfiction book about office life. 'Work Under the Microscope' aims to make you harder to manipulate and provide you with communication strategies.

Because a healthy work environment isn’t built with fruit in the office or wellness classes, but with clear rules, mutual respect, and the courage to call a spade a spade.

Saying

People don't laugh at you because you're stupid; they laugh at you because you can't handle things.

Inexorable. Until not.

A woman is talking on the phone in the park.

“And they were saying on TV that these guys are going to ban us from going to church. Yeah, that we won’t be able to go to service anymore—I mean, whenever we want. Yeah, you hear me?! Yeah, it’s going to be a disaster. What’s he saying? Oh, he’s hungry! Give him some fruit or something—it’s not good to eat dinner on an empty stomach. Yeah, so that’s what they were saying—that it’s going to be a disaster.”

Pause.

“So you went on a trip? Did you like it? Never mind, it’s fine—at least you got something for yourself. Because these sequins are in style at parties, weddings, or whatever. Never mind, you did the right thing!”

Come on!

Two sisters nudge each other. One says to the other, “You ask!”.

“Daddy, are you making pancakes for us tonight?”

“No.”

“Taraaaa!”, the little girl says, turning to her sister.

Surprises at the antique store

 

A Quantum Drunkenness – Goran Mrakić

A few years ago, I gave my nephew a calendar that featured a joke a day. This book reminded me of that calendar. And not because it treats everything as a joke; even if we wanted to, life makes sure to laugh at us first.

Told with humor, tenderness, and a love for traditions—for things that have vanished and that young people will never be able to understand simply because they lack the experience (my nephew doesn’t understand how we could have lived without a phone, especially since we didn’t even have a landline)— the stories for each day are a delight for any reader.

 

“Tales for a Bizarre World”— the subtitle reads—I’d say they’re more like tales in defense against a bizarre world, one that’s constantly expanding and for which I often can no longer find understanding.

 

I wouldn’t rule out keeping this book close at hand, to serve as a sort of calendar, as you mentioned above. 

Notti maghice

Through arguments

I walk past a barbershop. There’s a commotion.

“Can’t you see you’re just talking nonsense?” a woman yells.

“What? What did I say?!”

“Just keep your thoughts to yourself.”

 

I go on my way and come back five minutes later. The commotion continues.

“I get it. But what are you telling us?! Like we can do anything about it!” the same woman yells, seemingly even louder.

Nichita Stănescu – Breaths

Page by page, this book has shown me just how important poets are in opening our eyes to things, to beings we pass by. And, in fact, we don’t just pass by—we float. Both we and they. Until the poet makes us aware of their existence.

More than ever, I can’t write about what I’ve read, because I felt it more than anything. Yet feelings are so hard to put into words—perhaps even impossible. So I’ll stop here, I’ve used too many words already. But I’ll share below the few that carried me far, all the way up, and even now I don’t know if I’m writing from there or from here.

 

“The angel came and said to me: ‘I’ve been watching over you for so very long, hoping you’d become a scientist, and yet you haven’t invented a single thing!’

‘Of course I have; I have invented something—it’s just that the science I’ve created is so subtle that it’s sometimes mistaken for the natural order of things. It’s called hemography—that is, writing with yourself.’ ”

 

About the 1977 Earthquake

“My lifelong friend, the poet Grigore Hagiu, told me: ‘I had gone out barefoot onto the ground and held onto a tree. The tree was holding onto me, and I was holding onto it. We were both scared.’”

 

The Great Survival

“The realization of one’s own nothingness produces fear. Fear is the most powerful emotion. Fear is the only living emotion. Fear, in its primitive forms, is encased in an eggshell. Real fear transforms into words.”

 

“Like the eye, the word perceives light, but, unlike the eye, the word retains it within itself.”

Corporation in Cluj-Napoca

Given how many books are written and published these days, I can’t help but feel honored that, after more than two years, ‘TheCorporation: Typologies and a Survival Guide’ is still available in some bookstores in Cluj-Napoca.

Librarium Book Corner, Cluj

Humanitas, Cluj

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Humanitas and Librarium bookstores. 

And for you, the readers, I’ve signed some copies that wait for you there.

911

 

Traffic Updates

I was really impressed to see this message. 

I was so used to seeing cars with notes on the dashboard containing phone numbers, apologies, and assurances that the owner would come right away to move the car. Or notes with threats because the car had been parked in a private parking space.