My background, cliffsnotes

I've managed to go five years without taking the vanity step of telling my life story while living sort of thing. However, I'm getting sick of typing and re-typing this as people (understandably) ask, so here goes, my official biography :

I was born about thirty years ago in Cluj, which is the historical capital of Transylvania. Yes, the very land vampires come from. Transylvania happens to be the largest part of both Hungary and Romania, happens to be where the national birth of both countries ocured during the XIXth century and consequently is very important - economically, politically, culturally, historically - for both. A guy from my town was King of Hungary some years ago. A guy from my town was Prime Minister of Romania some years ago. Transylvanians themselves are tolerant of the situation much in the way a suckling mother would behave.

I went to school in what was at the time called a "suprareal" class. There was one organised per "university center" of which Romania had at the time something like three. You'd basically have to be one of the smarter kids in your broad general area to qualify. Romania at the time had some national contests which were being taken quite seriously, called "Olympiads" - one per class subject. Our class contained experts in Physics, Informatics, Math, Chemistry. I counted as a Physics expert at the time, and obtained whatever honors. We enjoyed what'd be probably familiar to you as an athletic scholarship from the corresponding US practice, which is to say complete immunity to anything. Over four years I showed up on average for less than half the classes, for instance.

Everybody expected me to continue with a research career in Physics, to the point that I received an ex-officio A graded admission to the Physics dept. of the local University. I couldn't be arsed to wait in a queue to submit whatever papers the students' office wanted. I subsequently sued the University. The suit was settled.ⁱ

Four years later I had degrees in Philosophy and Anthropology from a private university. Teaching were heads of departments at the state-run "main" university. We had Vasile Musca (history), Vasile Frateanu (metaphysics), Virgil Ciomos (gnoseology), Dumitru Dumitrascu (physical anthropology) and I have to stop already, sorry. I was a difficult student but I enjoyed the experience.

All through this I was running my own businesses, which were numerous and will forever remain covered in a cloud of mystery. Circa 2003 I decided I'm retiring. I spent a few months in Egypt, then about a year in the United States, mostly in Lowell, Mass. Towards the end I went on a road trip that spanned all the Eastern and Southern States, two dozen or something. This took months, I then crossed into Mexico via Laredo and applied the same principles following roughly the Gulf line. Months later I crossed into Guatemala, which for the record I hated - it's a country that should be nuked out of existence.

I evacuated myself to Costa Rica, on the notion that we'll rest there a few weeks and then see. I ended up spending two-three years there. It's a beautiful place, the land of eternal spring. Eventually I got bored of retirement, and as the situation in the US was getting ugly all through 2007 (anyone claiming the crisis "could not have been predicted" is plainly lying) I decided we're moving. Through proprietary selection procedures a few towns were selected, of which Christchurch, New Zealand and Timisoara, Romania made the short list. I picked Timisoara and given the subsequent earthquake and nuclear accident it seems a reasonably correct choice.

I've been in Romania for about five years now, I'm getting sick of it. Argentina is probably next. That's about all.

1. Speaking of suing : I won my first suit at age 17. It was a civil matter, I represented myself and the judge never thought to check my ID. [↩]