Renaissance Man

Being able to help others with technical issues, such as removing viruses from their computer with the proper software, and being able to write well and use sophisticated and insightful language are two very important skills in today’s world. Whether you’re at school, work, at home or even just walking around on the street or a public place, technology will always be common. Computers (laptop/desktop) and Smartphones are inescapable in these situations. Furthermore, writing a simple email, text, or even an essay require at least some knowledge of writing. I can say all this from experience.

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I happen to be an IT major at NYIT who is not only tech-savvy but also has some great writing skills. First and foremost, I know the basics of operating systems, networks, hardware/software and simply just assisting people with help desk issues. But that doesn’t mean I can’t write and express my thoughts like an author or journalist may do. I have proven myself to write exceptional papers in my college composition classes in the past. So I basically have taken these skills and knowledge and incorporated them into my daily routine. It’s as if writing comes naturally to me now just as technology does.

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Being a “Renaissance Man,” or in other words, being good at more than one thing is something I firmly believe in. I know quite a few people who would agree and are adept in more than one skill as well. Having an additional skill can come in very handy in careers or just daily life. I think being open-minded is a great way to think of being skilled in more than one field. It can expand someone’s horizons. Like me for example: I have a technical background but also enjoy writing on my leisure time. So I’m pretty sure it will help me in the long run once I enter the real world.

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If you know you are good at something that you don’t do often, anything from sports to music or even cooking, broaden your mind and integrate it into your life. It may serve as a great hobby or possible career. Friends and family will definitely notice that and respect your additional talent. So remember, never let anyone tell you otherwise. In fact, go with your gut instinct!

The Mystical Trip of a Fake Vampire

Despite the stillness of my posture, the beats of my heart gradually intensify with each breath that I am taking. I am looking around and myriad of happy excited eyes are frenetically scanning the new comers. Dragging my luggage packed with dozens of presents, I am blending with the crowd in the search for her, my best friend, my mom, my sister. “Hide and seek mommy!” I heard myself giving voice to my thoughts. That's what she would always say when she would give the start for our everyday game. In a jiffy, grabbed from behind I am feeling that warm, soft hug filled with all the love in the world. I turn around and those amazingly green eyes kissed my soul and embraced my being in a way that only a mom could do.

That's how it started, my long expected trip in the Dracula's land in the search for a revelation. Leaving the ever vociferous Romanian airport, we were heading to the neighborhood of my childhood. My mind was cluttered by long past memories that engraved on my face a constant and undisturbed smile. I was living up the excitement of a three weeks trip where my everyday schedule would leave me sleepless.

Every summer I would return there, to my fantasy world where my heart would be infused with all the joyfulness of a child. I needed that dosage of happiness to be able after, to return and confront for another year the loneliness I was bathing in, the loneliness of a city cluttered by over eight million people. But this time would be different. Wasn't a trip planned for only visiting my family, but a whole country? I was in need for rediscovering Romania, a country that hosts the Danube Delta, that baths in Black Sea, that has the only funny cemetery in Europe, that takes pride in having the most monasteries on the continent, a country where Carpathians Mountains barricade Dracula's Castle and its mystical stories.

All these represented for me itineraries to be explored. Grabbing my backpack and my camera, I started my adventure traveling from south to north and west to east. Far from being what I imagined, the unexpected was omnipresent. Riding horses, traveling in gypsies carriages, being rubbed by them, getting lost in mountains and forgotten caves, drinking holy water from the monks' palms and climbing trees for apples were just a few of all those magical moments that filled my trip with surprises. I was discovering a world stripped away of the concreteness of a metropolis. Every step made was unfolding the unknown, where a perfect combination of the nature and a manufactured world would make me grave for more. That world hidden by forests, monasteries and myths of an East European country represented a deep breath of oxygen that pampered my unsettled soul, a self introspection within my nature. I felt healthier, more awake and rejuvenated.

Once I got back in my beloved hometown, I came in contact with my friends and their two years stories in a place where the pace of life was run by other notions of calibration than mine in a city that never sleeps. At the dinner table, in my grandparent’s home, my family's eyes fixed solidly on me but their gaze traveled to a time when I enjoyed prancing around in my diaper dreaming of becoming a dancer. My attitude was affected by the way they anticipated showing me every part of their lives. They had so much pride in their culture and way of life, in their little vineyards with house made wines, in their traditional folklore, in their natural tomatoes and unstained commercialized views. The epiphany that I had was giving me a different perspective about my nature. It struck me to realize how selfish in a way I had become. In all this time being away from my homeland, I was losing the appreciation of the little things that made life so wonderful.

After recollecting my thoughts, I felt like a new being made from a slightly different mold, a humble young woman that would emerge herself in the beauty of life through openness of the heart, momentous observation with detail orientation and detachment. My perspectives on what us and life mean have changed, opening a new exciting chapter of my life. With youthfulness in my heart and maturity in my thoughts, I salute you all, travelers of the world. ;)

Made In China

Ambassador Chris, Lieutenant Cathy, Commodore Alyssa, 

Commander Fayon, and Vice Admiral Chris toured the 

"Made In China" Street Fair on Madison Avenue following an 

UP With GAM gathering with a cheese and pepperoni platter from 

our Commodore and additional goodies to eat.

"Now the looters' credo has brought you to regard [the] proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, ... prosperity as guilt, [the] greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards ...."  -- Atlas Shrugged.

GAM is the most diverse club of individuals on any campus.  But unlike the wrong-headed multiculturalists, we are focused upon American exceptionalism--E Pluribus Unum.  Out of many cultures, religions, and creeds, we come together to celebrate what is good--industry..  .

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“In all things social we can be as seperate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” ― Booker T. Washington.

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British Prime Minister Cameron admonished the United Kingdom's parliament that those ambiguous on Western values should no longer receive state funding, and should be banned from university campuses. "Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream."  

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As GAM officers walked through a Madison Avenue street fair, our Purser Cathy (Chief Financial Officer of GAM) noted that ironically she came all the way from China to walk this corridor of tents and booths with goods for sale all made in China.

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Cathy is here in the United States to supplement her business education.  While the English language is new to her, she is fluent in dollars and sense.  E Pluribus Unum.

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While Unions supportive of the Democratic Party seek isolationism from foreign competition, and the Occupy Wall Street hoodlums supportive of the Democratic Party demand redistribution from the prosperous, GAM hopes you see that the Made in China label is an extension of the ideal of "the people who created the phrase 'to make money'"across the world.  While China may be a communist state, and the United States a mixed economy, so long as industrialists sprout up around the world, hope for all mankind persists.  

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Let nations default, let children throw tantrums, let fools self-destruct.  But let's not turn our backs on friends in industry.  The People's Republic of China did not make those goods sold on Madison Avenue, Chinese industrialists did.  When you read Made in China, hear as an industrialist E Pluribus Unum.  American exceptionalism has no borders, only multiculturalism does.

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[The opinion here is an inclusive expression from the Fleet Admiral and does not necessarily reflect the current understanding of anyone else.  Isn't that ironic?]