Epilepsy Seizure Detection

You know how we’re always waiting around to be rescued and hope someone will show up and save the day?
Well, now the wait is over.

The entire Romanian press, from playtech blogs to medicine newspapers to TV News Channels, is talking about these two Romanian young men who created a system that can change millions of lives.

Giving the fact that Vlad Teohari is my best friend, I have the honour to an insightful article, before they become rich, famous and successful. 🙂

Chronologically speaking, Vlad’s been talking about this idea of creating a system that can detect epilepsy seizures since he attended, in the summer of 2014, an internship at Eindhoven University of Technology. Together with Constantin Ungureanu, they built the first prototype that was called Epilepsy Seizure Detect.

I remember that during that time I was away in the USA and every time we Skyped Vlad seemed to be more and more enthusiastic and proud of his work. It was actually the first time I’ve ever seen him so passionate about …kinda anything he ever did before.

After his return to Romania, he continued to work and improve the app, talked to doctors and possible investors all day long. Not to enter into specific details, that you can check out here, Vlad told me the that Epilepsy Seizure Detection is the first Android app in the world for real-time detection of an epileptic seizure, based on heart rate and not only.

Anyway, back to the chronological order of events, in November 2014, Vlad attended AMI’14, The European Conference on Ambient Intelligence, where he presented  Epilepsy Seizure Detect, during an “WORKSHOP on Smart Healthcare and Healing Environments”, that took place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
It was after AMI’14 when Vlad realised that his summer school idea was starting to become a serious thing that could become an actual real thing.

So he gathered up a team of three other people (Cristian Soare – Programming Developer, Radu Stefan Rogojina – Medicine student at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, George Moisa – Pediatric Neurologist at Obregia Hospital in Bucharest), forming Epilepsy Combat, which joined Innovation Labs 2015, that took place on the 7th of March.
And this is where everything escalated. Their idea caught the eye of the Romanian press and of several investors who found the idea more than interesting.

Future plans?! Waiting for Vlad’s first million dollars to marry him. Oh, and for Epilepsy Combat, finding a good sponsor that believes in their idea and trying to release on the market an actual product.

For any other specific details, you can find the app on GooglePlay. Just click here. Or here. Or if you know Romanian, you can check out the press. here, here, or here or please just google it… you’ll find plenty!

Epilepsy Seizure Detection

P.S.
Vlad Mihai Teohari, I’m more than proud of you! And I know this is only the beginning! Love you!

Just like…

I like leaving the window open before I go to bed ,so I can cocoon myself in my fluffy blanket, but then it gets too hot, and I need to unwrap, to get away from the blanket toward a cold part of the sheet
it’s like we used to be. we used to cuddle in each other’s arms and feel safe, but then it started to get suffocating, so we had to let go…

I like it when I fall asleep right away. just like we fell in love.

I like it when I stay awake at night to make up scenarios in my head, then it gets too late and I wish I fell asleep right away. just like sometimes I wish “us” didn’t happen.

I like waking up with the smell of fresh coffee, how my taste buds dance from the sip of the sweet-milky potion. just like the feeling of waking up next to you made my day.

I like dancing while doing the dishes. just like when we were dancing in the middle of the room with no music on.

I like singing loud while driving alone in the car. just like that time when you started singing and it took me by surprise.

I like taking pictures. just like those times when I was trying to capture perfect moments for ever

I like watching the moon and the fact you know it’s mine. just like you used to be.

Buh bye, 2014!!!

Ok, so there comes a time when you need to evaluate yourself. usually on your birthday or on occasions like this..new year’s eve.

2014 was a year full of ups and downs for me. I’ve lost someone very close to me, my grandma. She left this world on my birthday,it’s like, she wanted to make sure I’ll never forget her. I wouldn’t have anyway. I had other plans in the beginning of this year. Plans that changed due to different factors, plans that are pinned on my to do list and hopefully I’ll accomplish in the future.

On the bright side, I graduated. On the 27th of June I had my last exam and on the 28th I was meeting my love again. We spent amazing moments together, we got to know each other more and fall in love even deeper. But then we had to say goodbye in October..more like a see you later, hopefully. My love will wait for me. True love waits, right?

Back in Romania, I got a job out of the blue. unexpected. A job that I enjoy very much, which gave me the opportunity to meet wonderful people and make new friends.
So, that’s a short retrospective of 2014.

Only a few more hours until 2014 is out the door. Is gonna take with it all its good and bad. So, 2015, bring it on! I’m ready for whatever you’re getting ready to throw at me. I truly have a feeling it’s going to be my year, as a cliché as that sounds.

And so, as the internet is full of new year’s resolutions, I decided to write down a few of my own.

No.1 Start a #365reasons project on my blog
No. 2 Stop looking for love and appreciating the love that’s already in my life.
No.3 Quit those bad habits..or reduce some of them as much as I can
No.4 Become healthier. I’ll go on a diet and start exercising on 5th of January
No.5 Pass all my exams
No. 6 Get a promotion
No. 7 Accomplish some of those pinned plans and project.

No. 8 ….

I need to start getting ready for the New Year’s Eve party. So, put on those red panties/underwear and let’s hope 2015 is going to be the best year of our lives so far!

Happy New Years! and remember! Always hope.Never expect.

The Love Monster

Originally posted as my second guest post on Gigi’s blog,  Cigars and Jewelry. 🙂

Do you know the feeling when you’re swimming underwater and you run out of air, and that second you raise your head above the water, the feeling of air filling your lungs? That awful sensation of drowning goes away in the blink of an eye.

I think that’s what I was to you, a breath of fresh air in the routine you were in. A fun distraction from all your day-today activities to kill time. I was a challenge for your macho skills, to see that you still had it. I was someone who was keeping you company when you were bored… feeding your ego with that lost look on my face while listening to the echo your fingers on the piano left in the air.

But you, my baby, you were the monster that grabbed me with your smile and threw me far away from my comfort zone, and showed me a different world. Everything seemed to change its color, its smell, and its whole essence. You showed me that there is something else out there and that I could still dream big for myself. You were the man who made me restless and calm at the same time. You were the one who made me want to settle down and dream in long-term perspectives. Every word that came out of your mouth crystallized a new meaning for me.

You made me feel that giving myself to you was the easiest and hardest thing to do.You had this power over me, to lift me and to bring me down, to make me feel so small, yet the center of the universe, or at least your universe… Which would have been enough for me.But there was this feeling eating me from the inside, that I’ll never rise to your expectations, yet you grew a desire in me for so I was willing to spend my whole life trying to meet those great expectations.
There were these obscure thoughts, spreading through my mind like a spider’s web, that I was alone in this, and that you didn’t love me like I knew you could love someone.And I was right.

One time you told me I will be one of the toughest “what if’s” of your life. Now you are mine. You also told me never to settle for anything less that I know I deserve. I promise, I won’t.

Carrie was disappointed when Berger left her through a post-it. Well, I’d say she’s pretty damn lucky he had the guts to say, “I’m sorry”, even on a bright yellow piece of paper. But what do you do when your loving monster doesn’t have the balls to say goodbye? Not to mention an explanation.

One more thing, from one love monster to another, just keep in mind that what goes around, comes around.

Always.

“Personal manual of instructions. Use with caution!”

Men have always complained about how difficult it is to understand a woman’s mind. Maybe they’re right after all. But guys, trust me on this one, you’re worse than we are.

I’ve came to the conclusion that life would be much more simpler if people would come with an instructions manual. You know, just a small/large folder to put discretely on the table, next to the candles and the wine glasses on a date.

So,

 Roxana Sava’s manual of instruction

Thank you for showing interest in getting to know me better.

Described by some as being easy to read like an open book. I’d say, don’t jump to any conclusions. I’m much complicated than I appear to be.

Getting started

Charging the battery pack

I am a sleepy person. For a full battery recharge I need a 12 h sleep. In need, I can resume to a few hours per night and a lot of additional caffeine.

I can’t start functioning in the morning without a screaming orgasm big cup of coffee.

I’m a night bird. I simply cannot go to sleep before 12am. I stay awake making up scenarios in my head. (I just hope one day I won’t lose touch with the reality and start taking for good these stories made up by my imagination. )

 First time settings

You want to get in my good grace. I either like or hate a person from the start. I rarely change my opinion.

NOTE: I don’t judge people on their appearance/looks/sex/religion/etc. It’s about the chemistry. So, if you get the feeling that I don’t like you, you’re right, I don’t.

Setting the language

The default language is Romanian. You can set it to one of the following: English, Spanish, French or un po d’italiano.

Memory

The short term memory provided is pretty short. But the long term one, that’s very good. That can come in handy when you get me mad. I simply tend to forget the reason and I start to behave normally.( my own kind of normality). But I might remember it later in the future, so if you screw things up, sleep with one eye open. 🙂

NOTE

My short-short term memory is a defense mechanism in order not to stay mad. “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness”, so I’d rather be happy and spare your existence.

Due to my memory of a golden fish, I’m extremely bad with names. So don’t get offended if I ask your name several times. You’re not special. More like, “it’s not you, it’s me”

Maintenance instructions.

In order to avoid the failure of a future relationship you need to give me attention. Lots of it, so be creative!

Challenge me intellectually

Make me laugh

Be honest. Always.

And direct – spare the details for later

Try to be spontaneous – it’s not always easy, I might hate it, but take the risk

Make me feel special – I know I am, but from time to time I need to check we’re on the same page 😛

 (For more details you’ll receive part II of the manual in the future)

 Troubleshooting instructions;

for when I do not behave as expected.

Read the maintenance instructions and see what you did wrong. Apologize. Like you mean it!

 Help

Currently unavailable.

Sorry pal, you’re on your own!

*Don’t get me wrong, I support love and romance, but wouldn’t it be easier if sometimes you would get a heads up? If you would know how to approach a person? What buttons to push and when to do so?  When insisting only makes it worse? When to give them their space without them thinking you’re ignoring them? Or when to let go?!

To cook or not to cook…

Like Elizabeth Gilbert said, “a woman’s place is in the kitchen…sitting in a comfortable chair, with her feet up, drinking a glass of wine and watching her husband cook dinner.”

Yep, that’s me! Those who know me start to panic every time I say I’m going to cook. But they are over reacting. The brave ones, who despite my glorious reputation, which I don’t know how I ended up with, had the guts to taste the food I cooked with love and patience are very much alive. Nobody ended up needing any medical assistance or hospitalization.

I used to say I have no idea how to cook, but the truth is I never had the intention of actually learning, until I met someone worth trying to learn how to cook/ cooking for.

From time to time I have this crazy housewify instinct to prove to myself and to my lovely friends who always believed in my cooking skills(not!) that I actually can cook.

Last week I asked my awesome mom to teach me how to make ciorba. A traditional Romanian soup, which is in my novice opinion a pretty complicate dish. So I went shopping for all the ingredients, came home with the bag full of yummy stuff and started the operation “mission impossible”. It turned out it wasn’t as hard as I thought it will be. And my mom gave her expert opinion that I’m a natural in the kitchen, I just have to spend more time there. She made her first ciorba after she got married and it was a disaster, but my dad, as a gentleman, ate the whole thing without saying a bad word.( future husband, please take notes!)

So, I proved to myself that I’m not a lost cause after all. But I’d rather sit my beautiful ass on the kitchen counter, sip some wine and watch my sexy man cook me something delicious.

When Romania met New York

Do you remember the fairytales you were told when you were a child? You know, the ones with princes and princesses who run away together till the end of the world.

That’s my fairytale, except I’m not a princess…and my prince is not actually a prince. And I had to get to the end of the world by myself

 My tale begins on June 12^th 2013 when I first met my “prince”. I had a glimpse of him while sitting in a window seat on a bus which was taking me from the JFK airport to Beach Haven, NJ and that’s when I spotted my slice of heaven. That’s when all six seasons of Sex and the City, all the Gossip Girl books and TV episodes flashed through my mind. That’s when I met my love. In that bus, a long platonic love started to take shape. The contour of skyscrapers, yellow cabs and glimmering lights were revealed to me in pie-eyed amazement. It was like that sensation you get when you feel you know somebody from all the stories you’ve heard about them, and then you finally get to put a face to them. I was simply and irremediably awed.

 In that very moment I knew what I wanted. This enormous urge started growing inside of me to know more, to experience more and to find more reasons to fall ever-deeper in love. The curiosity grew daily to see my lover’s face first thing in the morning and to stay awake at night just to watch him sleep. But my prince never sleeps. You know, same as all relationships are at first.

Most of all, I knew right away I wanted to marry my prince! I wanted to move to his kingdom and start my life there from scratch and live together, happily ever after.

 But of course, there had to be a dragon in my fairytale, one that wanted to poison my love. I had a serpent in my garden telling me that my prince was dangerous. But I trust him. That my prince smells, but I could only smell our love. That my prince steals, but he only stole my soul.

 The end of my tale isn’t written yet; it’s still a work in progress. I guess my prince has to love me back, and to accept me and help me grow. He has to unsheathe his sword and fight whatever dragon that may attack us. As for me, I just know I’m going to fight for my love and do what it takes to make New York love me back.

Originally posted on Cigars and Jewelry.

Did you hear about Farfalle?!

Recently I discovered that one of my friends started a little business with his roommates. Being big fans of bow ties and not finding many models in stores, were the reasons that made them start Farfalle. Once that got them going, they added a new collection of necklaces and sunglasses for fancy ladies.

I was curious and visited their Facebook page and found this pretty necklace.

I talked to my friend and if you guys are interested in anything on their page, place the order by sending them a message. And since they are such nice fellows, they’ll offer you a discount if you add the code “Butterfly” in your order. 😉

Now let’s show off a little 🙂

I’m Addicted to Being American – Guest post by Gigi Engle

As J.R.R. Tolkien put it, “Not all who wander are lost.”
But the thing is, I don’t want to wander anymore. I’m not lost here in New York City, and I’m truly happy. I have the perfect home for my heart nestled in the most wonderful city in the world, and I have no desire to leave it (unless you count weekends in the Hamptons or trips to Cape Cod in the blistering months of summer).

I have, what I refer to as “Satiated Wanderlust.”

I used to love traveling. I’ve been all over Western Europe. Tours of Spain, England, France…and even a brief stint at a summer school in Switzerland—until I was “removed” for sneaking out with boys—turns out I was lusting for more than just wandering.

Each trip was about four to six weeks and by the end of each one, regardless of country, region or city, I would be desperate to get back to America. I was devastatingly homesick. Maybe it had to do with not understanding the language, the customs, and the people. But after one-to-many discotecas and currency exchange centers I was ready to pack my bags and get on a plane home.

I craved shampoo brands I could recognize, Twix bars, and delicious, normal-tasting diet coke. I missed my music that wasn’t 15 years behind the times and my amazing water pressure. I needed home, I needed America.

My name is Gigi Engle, and I am an addict. I am truly, 100% addicted to America.

Traveling didn’t make me lust for more, it made me lust for home. I am THAT girl who marched around London on the 4th of July wearing a red, white and blue Cubs jersey, Daisy Dukes and cowboy boots. I was THAT girl who screamed a DJ in Barcelona for refusing to play Skrillex. I was THAT girl who ate only Neutella for six weeks straight.

I admire those who love to travel and to go outside of their comfort zones to new and exciting places. I love them for it. Go forth, my traveling darlings, and see the world! Instagram it so that I can see it too! But please, don’t make me come!

I left my travels behind, and I’ve never craved a return to them. I am American. I can see the world in pictures. And, you know what, I’m really fine with that.

For the last five years guest writer, Gigi Engle, has contributed to a variety of fashion, short fiction, lifestyle and love&sex publications.
Currently, she is a Fashion Assistant at Men’s Health where she writes for their Style and Grooming channels.
Follow her blog, Cigars and Jewelry, where she writes about being a young single woman in New York City, making it on her own.

Something that touched my Romanian ego

I discovered this website while having my coffee this morning. I don’t know if it’s because it touched my Romanian ego or because I found myself in this guy’s words, but I love it!

And I think more people out there should read his articles and come to the same conclusion.

Check it out! http://carpathiandesign.com/