Written by Marian Stanescu | 30 September 2009
Posted in News & Events

A Sense of Urgency

About a year ago, the global economy was in free fall and dark grey clouds already way past the horizon line, heading straight toward us. Although we had barely moved to our new place in northern Kyōto, I began to entertain seriously the idea of a major shift becoming imminent.

The nature of the apparently impending change wasn't yet at the time entirely clear to me. I knew however that, in order to deal myself and my family a better hand at weathering the storms that I suspected would begin to roll, I'd have to deeply rethink some directions and priorities, both common (as a family) and personal. So I started looking at and around us.

Written by Marian Stanescu | 14 September 2009
Posted in News & Events

Hello world!

I am Wynken and next to me is Blynken, but I'll speak for both of us since she - I mean I suspect it's a she - is a rather shy character. Got to give her a little extra time to adjust to the new place, I guess.

As you can see, I am young Red-Eared Slider, barely two month old, but then so is Blynken, and I've just learned that we came all the way from Mississippi, USA. Can't say I remember too much of this trip though.

So, yesterday we found ourselves a new warm and loving home. I understand that we were presented as an anniversary gift... or the aniversary was an excuse for him to have us... I didn't quite get it. Meh, whatever. The important thing is that I like the large aquarium with plenty of space to swim around, and I like swimming against the underwater jet streams of the filter. However, most of all I love the big brown rock: it's great for basking on, and ideal for the head-on plunges I so enjoy. Gonna make it my domain and leave Blynken the other grey, smaller island.

Without wasting too much time (I can only hope for 25-40 years of life), I made myself comfortable right away, and established clearly who makes the rules here. Still, I promise to be friendly because Blynken also likes our little private island, although she only keeps me company when Marian's out of sight. Most of the time she's submerged and stays between the rock and the transparent wall; what's she doing there I don't know, but I hope she's not depressed.

Perhaps she doesn't like the food, and if that's the case, I understand. For the moment, we're on a transition menu of commercial turtle food, but I hear that our new caretaker is doing his research and these little green herb rolls would be soon replaced by a more balanced and varied diet, starting with fresh clam at breakfast tomorrow. Yummy!

So, what more can I say? I hope we'll enjoy it here for as long as it will be. Should anything out of the ordinary happen, I'll sign in again and let you know, of course. Till then, all the best and thanks for the opportunity to introduce ourselves.

Wynken out.

Written by Marian Stanescu | 01 August 2009
Posted in News & Events

MMS Japan's true first article.

Ori să să revizuiască, primesc! dar să nu se schimbe nimica; ori să nu se revizuiască, primesc! dar atunci să se schimbe pe ici pe colo, şi anume în punctele... esenţiale ! -- "O Scrisoare Pierdută", by I.L. Caragiale

Two people from two continents, two culturally different methods of approaching things, two languages (and sometimes even three, though we don't have children yet) in which we express our thoughts and opinions - these are just a few aspects one can naturally expect to find in an international marriage.

For the last couple of years, both Miho and I have had a sustained on-line presence through our blogs, namely mykokusaikekkon.com and marianstanescu.net. She told her stories, while I talked about things that interested or bothered me although, to be fair, I found equal pleasure as well in only tinkering under the hood of a number of Web CMS.

This was all fine and went smoothly till I realized that, as the sole and whole IT department in our family, I am starting to have difficulties in keeping the pace with the necessary regular maintenance: back-ups, cleaning, upgrades, updates, and so on.

And this is how the idea was born (i.e. out of laziness): let's have ONE website of ours!

I might discover later that there are disadvantages to this, of course, but surely the advantages must outweigh them: a good framework in Joomla!, better structure and data control, overall less hassle and more time. Not to mention that, after all, we are a family: a family website to represent us would suit us well, right?

So, after a month in the making, everything is set and ready: Miho has her section where she will keep posting in Japanese about her interests; I'll have mine, where entries on probably less exciting topics will likely continue. But now there's a family section too on our site where we'll publish collaborative work, and the ground is laid for any new members of the family as well!

Other than that, I didn't press for any dramatic changes: it probably wouldn't suit the Romanian in me.