I decided to write this short story, to give you an idea about who I am.

I always thought it was not of reason to leave personal information on the Internet, as well as any traces that could help someone figure out who I am. It is a network full of bad people (tm), so we should be careful with what we do, what we write, and where we write it.

For many years I've had an obscure Internet presence. As I expected, nothing bad happened to me. But then... what could have happened? If someone found my real name, would that be a big deal? If someone saw my picture, would that make a difference? There are hundreds of people who see me in the street on a daily basis; there are people with whom I interact on the phone, at the market, in public transport - does that make a problem?

I changed my views regarding this policy. I became someone who respects those who sign their work with their real names, instead of hiding behind avatars, nicknames, proxy-servers, and so on. Isn't it cool when you can be yourself?

Another incentive - knowing that others can 'see' them, one thinks twice before writing something on a public board, because they care more about their image (hence they have something to lose if they misbehave). It is really simple - would you enter a store and start shouting at people, calling everyone an asshole? I guess not... then why would you do that on the Internet? Right... because nobody can kick your ass for that.

Most people hide their identities because they are afraid to be criticized... We have to face it, if you can't deal with being criticized on some forum, then how the heck are you going to handle real world (tm) situations - debates at work, projects at school, meeting people in offices?

We should not be afraid to reveal who we are, otherwise we are nobody.

My name is Alex Railean, and I am %now-$var% years old ($var = the title of a book by George Orwell). I live in Chisinau, which is the capital city of Moldova.

Here are some things about me, in no particular order:

• Very friendly and supportive
• Totally not aggressive, unless the circumstances really force me to change my behaviour
• I have a well-developed sense of humour (which is most often set to "not aloud" mode). My jokes can be very cruel sometimes, so it is better if I leave them to myself, and only let the neutral ones out. This means that only a small deal of them make it to the surface, yet many people think I'm one of the funniest persons they've ever met
• I tend to be a lazy fellow, so I try to do things just once, but do them well. For example, I won't have to update my age on this page next year ;-)
• I have a technology-oriented mind, I like to think in charts, mathematical functions, numbers, logical expressions, programming languages, variables and universal constants. If you hear someone say "while tee less than maxint, delta plus plus" outside the context of computers, it could be me.
• I am pretty bad at mathematics
• My tech-friends and colleagues think I am a humanitarian
• My humanitarian friends think I am a cold and rational techie
• I enjoy watching movies and discussing them with my friends. I am especially a fan of movies with non-linear chronology, where the events are not shown in their normal order (ex: Memento, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, The Jacket, etc)
• I play music in my head all the time. Most of the times I can't stop it
• I think the world can be a better place and I always try to make decisions that are better for humanity
• Sometimes I write poems
• I like to express myself in riddles
• I like making photographs, although I am not particularily good at it (at least not yet)
• I speak Russian, Romanian and English (I think that knowing Russian has a huge impact on one's sense of humour), I also know the basics of French and German
• Computers - that's what I study, that's what my job is about, they're the instrument I use in most of my activities... need I write more?
• The colour of my eyes never changes
• If you ask me to write this list again, I am sure that v2.0 will be different from this one... because there is so much more to say? because I don't like doing the same thing twice?

There you go, now you can use this information against me :-)

Purpose of this site

• Keep in touch with my friends. If I write a story here, there is no need to repeat myself in emails over and over (look up "keystroke conservation principle");
• Friends can keep in touch with each other, using this web-site as an intermediate link;
• Collisions between social groups. The site is a way to "unite" individuals who would never interact with each other in real life. Not all my friends are compatible with each other, and sometimes it is interesting to see how different people react to a story;
• Knowledge should be free. Perhaps many ideas are raw, perhaps some are not properly expressed in text, or maybe they have flaws; but still, they can be reviewed and used by other people, therefore the sum of global knowledge is increasing;
• Letters to the future. The site is a repository of thoughts, which I can use later to see how I changed with time, and how certain events influenced me. I think there can be no self-improvement if there is no way to look at "where I've been";
• Harvest statistics for my studies. Sometimes I'm researching various problems, or testing various hypotheses - and the site is an efficient way to collect data to support and extend such projects;
• Meeting new people. From time to time I get comments from unknown people, and that's how new social connections are established. Isn't that great?

I guess there are other reasons too, for example "find my one and only". Does that work online? I don't know :-)

Contact
I love reading emails, as well as responding to them, so feel free to write - gr8dude at BLUEgmx dot net (remove the colour to obtain the actual address);

You can also leave a comment here, but then it will be a public message.

Cheers! and thanks for stopping by to read this.