In concediu in Turcia

Acum doi ani cand am plecat in delegatie in Marea Britanie am avut nevoie de traducerea cazierului in limba engleza. Nu mi s-a cerut si legalizare notariala iar costul, pe care nu mi-l mai aduc aminte prea exact, a fost undeva in jur de 15 lei. In urma acestei experiente ramasesem cu impresia, foarte gresita, ca tarifele pentru traduceri sunt destul de „prietenoase” cu cei ca mine, care nu se scalda in bani. M-am trezit insa la realitate vara asta, inainte sa plec in concediu in Turcia. Cu 2 zile inainte sa plecam am avut parte de o surpriza foarte neplacuta: mi s-a oprit masina in drum. Totusi daca stau acum sa ma gandesc mai bine, se putea si mai rau. Mi se putea opri in drum spre Turcia sau in timpul concediului si ramaneam in drum cu catel si purcel (adica doua bucati de copil, una bucata sotie si multe, fara numar, bagaje). Asadar sa privim jumatatea plina a paharului, sau sa ne inchipuim ca ar fi jumate plin. Masina mi s-a oprit in drum la 200 metri de bloc. Eram impreuna cu nevasta-mea asa ca am reusit sa o impingem inca vreo 30 de metri pana intr-un loc de parcare. Disperare, par smuls din cap, ce ne facem? Cum mai plecam in concediu?! Am sunat repede la service-ul auto din apropiere unde ma duc de obicei sa fac revizia. Au venit in doua ore si mi-au tractat-o la service. Diagnosticul a venit destul de repede: pompa de benzina a murit, trebuie schimbata dar vine pe baza de comanda in 3 zile. Noi in 2 zile trebuia deja sa fim pe drum. Ne-am panicat putin dar foarte repede, ca de obicei, nevasta-mea a venit cu solutia salvatoare: luam masina ei de serviciu. Portbagajul emai mic dar nu mai are rost sa facem nazuri. Le mai inghesuim sau mai lasam din bagaje acasa. Oricum aveam prea multe. Si acum urmeaza sa ma intorc cu povestea de unde pornisem: de la preturi traduceri. Fiind masina companiei, ca sa putem iesi cu ea din tara trebuia sa facem un contract de comodat intre firma si minunatul sofer, adica eu. Turcii, fiind mai cu  mot decat restul tarilor prin care treceam, nu acceptau traducere in limba engleza ci vroiau ca actul sa fie tradus in turca, legalizat la notar si apoi supralegalizat sau ceva de genul asta la ambasada lor. Pentru actul asta am cheltuit, glumind putin, ca cat ma costa sa imi cumpar alta masina. Intai m-a costat intocmirea actului in romana la notar. Apoi am aflat ca engleza nu seamana cu turca iar o pagina de turca nu costa 15-20 de lei ci vreo 60 de lei, iar fiindca ma grabeam m-a costat cam 100 lei/pagina. Apoi m-a costat legalizarea traducerii si la final am varsat o mica avere la ambasada turciei pentru o stampila fara care erau sanse mari sa raman pe la granita sau chiar mai rau, sa raman pe la granita si fara masina. Pana la urma doar asta a fost ghinionul, concediul a fost minunat iar la intoarcere am rezolvat si cu pompa de benzina.

Noonz Wire On Hiatus

Well, recent bloggy developments have moved me to place Noonz Wire and NoonzWheels on indefinite hiatus. Any of you who had been regular readers saw that posting had become a lot more infrequent, anyway, so this probably comes as no surprise.

It's all good, though. Click on the link above for the rest of the story.

Thanks to all of my regular readers and to all the bloggers who've exchanged links with me and sent people my way. I'm eternally grateful.

Special thanks to Joel at The Stupid Shall Be Punished -- the first blogger to ever link to me -- and all the Submarine bloggers at Ultraquiet No More for letting me join their group, even though I didn't have the background or cool stories to tell like they all do.

Take care, everybody!

A few thoughts, to kick things off...

• The Lieberman/Lamont story is a joke. Even if Lamont is the Dem candidate, Lieberman will destroy him and the CT GOP's sacrificial lamb in a 3-way. This'll result in an interesting scenario: Lefty lamentations over the election of a big-time liberal to office.

• A-Rod: the "A" is for albatross

• I'm more excited about Miami Vice than Superman

• I have read 4 Vince Flynn novels in the last six weeks, and am devouring #5 right now. Like political/military/techno-thrillers? Look no further.

• Of all the albums I've downloaded in recently, Van Morrison's The Complete Bang Sessions, and Pat DiNizio's Songs and Sounds are two of the best.
  

• The million-dollar Bugatti Veyron is, quite simply, the greatest car I've ever seen.

I've missed NoonzWire. It's nice to be back.

Once upon a time...

...the Noonz wanted to work in movies.

I was a film student at Miami, and I worked on a few features as a PA when I got out of school. Along the way, I got sick of not making any money and came to the realization that as interesting as being on sets was, I liked watching movies a whole lot more than the grind of making them.

Let me digress for a moment. People who act or perform on-set functions know this, but the average moviegoer really has no idea, no matter how many HBO "First Look" docs they see: People who work on film and television productions bust their asses. The hours are insane. The work can be highly stressful. Much crap is dealt with.

Sometimes it's fun, though. Sometimes you meet great folks on the project. Alfred Molina comes to mind here. I interned on The Perez Family, and Alfred (who played the male lead) was a super guy. Classy. Friendly to everyone. I root for him to win an Oscar someday.

Anyway, I'm rambling and way off track. Back to the point of this whole thing.

Another movie I worked on was Reckless. Shot here in CT, it starred Mia Farrow, Scott Glenn and Mary-Louise Parker. I remember that the Teamster captain on the show, Frank, had some of the best set stories I've ever heard.

Anyway, Reckless was a weird movie. I didn't really like it very much when I went to the premiere in NY. It was the last gig I worked on before I pulled the ripcord and bailed out to regular-jobdom.

Today, I found something that made me crack a smile. Reckless, that strange movie that nobody I know has ever even heard of, gave me a novelty that comes as a complete surprise.

Peach Bowl Blogging

In about 30 minutes, the 5-Time National Champion Miami Hurricanes will begin kicking the crap out of the LSU Tigers.

GO CANES!

Maybe I'll liveblog some of the game, time permitting.

Miami is the road team, so they'll be sporting their white jerseys. Hopefully, they'll wear the white pants as well, because I'm really not crazy about those green uniform pants. Yeah, I have issues. I know.

Anything is better than the godawful throwback unis they wore earliere this year.

You can follow the game with live stat updates at the Peach Bowl website.

Update: Miami is rocking the home orange jerseys. Nice!

Halftime: Well, there is much crap-kicking going on, but I am chagrined to note that it is the guys in the yellow hats that are doing it. We need a huge 2nd half...

4th Qtr: 12:27 left. 37-3 LSU. Good God, what an unmitigated disaster....stop throwing, guys. Just run the ball so this can mercifully be over.

Final: 40-3 LSU. Miami looked lost out there. They had no answers to anything LSU threw at them, and then followed it all up with a classy tunnel brawl. In that sense, it was like old times. Except without the winning...

This is the most ignominious Miami Hurricanes football loss in recent history. I thought they were a better team than this, but the numbers---and my eyes---don't lie. Miami was totally unprepared, while LSU looked good enough to beat any team in the country.

The Canes got slapped around.
Kicked all over the field.
Manhandled.

Then, when it was finally over, they couldn't even deal. They threw punches in the tunnel like a bunch of petty little thugs, adding insult to injury.

How utterly disappointing.

If this is the level of play we can expect to see against quality opponents, it'll be a million years before they win anythiung meaningful again.

The Canes need fixing. Let's see what happens.

One thing's certain:

2001 seems like a million years ago.

Kathleen Blanco: Another Day, Another Outrage

Michelle Malkin shines the light on a story out of Louisiana that would be mind-blowing if our minds had not already been numbed beyond measurement by the endless parade of idiocy out of the state led by majorette Blanco and bandleader Ray Nagin.

Here's the skinny, courtesy of the Baton Rouge Advocate:

Shortly after the two hurricanes, Gov. Kathleen Blanco decided to renovate some of her staff's offices. At the time of her decision, Blanco also was hinting at deep budget cuts to state programs and the possibility of laying off 20 percent of the state workforce. The project cost $564,838.

There's much more, which you can and should read at Michelle's. The article goes on to state that as Blanco continued renovating the offices (at considerable expense), she froze state spending and cried poor to everyone who would listen. What leadership.

I have to wonder what the outcry would have been like if Rudy Giuliani had initiated a similar effort post-9/11. I think it's fair to say that if he embarked on a City Hall renovation at the time, the backlash would have been harsh, immediate and national.

Unfortunately, since the only people holding the likes of Blanco and Ray Nagin to any real account are bloggers, I expect this latest outrage to blow over, as has every other scandal that should have effectively ended both their careers during and after the storms. While the two are utterly incompetent and not worthy of holding the office of Dog Catcher, they have demonstrated a cockroach-like ability to survive armageddon in the political sense.

Yes, Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin are punchlines today. Yet they still remain in office, wielding power they are unfit to hold.

That means the joke's on the rest of us.