Operativni leasing - kako ga skinuti sebi sa vrata i koliko to košta?

Pošto sam ovih dana lično iskusio kako sve to ide, evo pregleda aktivnosti:

1. Kontaktirate banku (Leasing) ili mejlom ili lično sa zahtevom za obračunom vrednosti otkupa vozila radi prevremene otplate i preuzimanja vlasništva.  (Sve to zvuči lepo...)
2. Banka izračuna otkupnu vrednost auta tako što sabere iznos preostalih rata po ugovoru i otkupnu cifru na kraju otplate.  Ukoliko ste leasing plaćali u CHF, recimo 250 franaka, a ostalo vam je 20 rata, vaša otkupna vrednost bi bila 20x250 plus otkupna vrednost (na primer 3000 CHF) - ukupno 8000 CHF.
3. E sad - caka je da ne možete vi da otkupite vozilo već neko treće lice.  (Preporuka je da to bude vaš otac - objasniću kasnije zašto)  Dakle, treće lice plati otkupnu vrednost.
4. Vi platite penale zbog prevremenog raskida ugovora (kod mene je to bila visina jedne mesečne zakupnine).  Vi takođe platite troškove raskida ugovora (oko 200 EUR) i odjavu tablica i saobraćajne (2500 RSD).
5. Dakle idemo redom: a) banka uradi ugovor o kupoprodaji sa trećim licem i primopredajni zapisnik za vozilo b) Vi potpišete papire da ste preuzeli nazad menicu koju ste dali prilikom potpisivanja ugovora c) HQ banke izda račun za otkup i za raskid ugovora d) Treće lice uplati iznos otkupa e) Istog dana banka vama uplaćuje na račun i vraća depozit koji ste dali prilikom potpisivanja ugovora f) Lokalna ekspozitura šalje papire za HQ zbog odjave i 3 dana kasnije vi dobijate i račun i odjavu i sve što vam treba za registraciju (uključujući i poništenu saobraćajnu dozvolu)  Takođe, tad, dobijate i sporazum o raskidu ugovora i vašu menicu nazad.
6. E sad dolazi razlog zbog čega bi vaš otac trebao da bude to treće lice.  Napravite Ugovor o poklonu između oca i sina/ćerke i pritom se ne plaća porez na prenos apsolutnih prava.  Ugovor ima svoju formu (imaju ga sve agencije); vi ga potpišete i overite u sudu u 3 primerka.  Potom popunite PPI-3 obrazac i nosite sve u poresku upravu da vam odrade rešenje o oslobađanju od plaćanja poreza na nasleđe.
7. U međuvremenu odradite tehnički pregled vozila.
8. Kada sakupite sve idete u SUP i dobijete tablice i potvrdu o registraciji.  (Prethodno uplatite sve administrativne troškove za tablice i nalepnicu itd. - to je oko 5500 RSD trenutno)

NAPOMENA: Ne plaćate registraciju jer vam ona važi do kraja iako ste odjavili tablice i saobraćajnu.  Isto važi i za polisu osiguranja.  Dakle sledeća registracija nije za godinu dana već ostaje redovan datum na koji ste registrovali auto do tog trenutka.  Za mene je to 2. avgust iako sam danas dobio nove tablice.

Sve ovo traje jedno dve nedelje i za to vreme nećete moći da koristite auto.

Preporuka:  Nemojte da vam padne na pamet da uzmete vozilo na operativni leasing!!!!

F-22 Raptor - 90% of engineering perfection

To start with, here's a link to a video (available for free)...
F-22 Raptor flaunting itself

I haven't written about fighter planes in a long time... not until I came across this website (below):

Flight School list - not entirely about flight schools!

Anyway, let's not veer away from the subject.
Which is none other than the first downright stealth fighter plane from the minds of Lockheed Martin (yeah those boys from Skunk works!) - F-22 Raptor!!
Besides it's stealth it also has super-cruise capabilities which is as important.  And to cap it all off, it has the US version of thrust vectoring (TVC) nozzles albeit "just" vertical TVC nozzles.  If you don't know what all this means, I'll dial it down for you:

1. Stealth - it is characterized by the low or non-existent radar signature which makes it almost impossible to detect it's approach in a combat situation.  Nowadays, thanks to the Russians, they can be detected from the ground, but not so much in air to air combat.  Stealth is achieved by specially shaped body of the aircraft and limiting of it's heat emissions.
2. Super-cruise - It's the next step from afterburners.  Practically, it's diet afterburners - ability to maintain afterburners for a longer period of time wasting less fuel.  It's grrrrrreat!
3. TVC (thrust vectoring control) - The Raptor has vertical TVC capability which means the engine nozzles can move up or down by some 30 degrees respectively.  It gives the raptor better manoeuvrability and faster and more seamless changes of direction.

All this coupled with a near perfect fly-by-wire system gives the F-22 air superiority.  For now.  
So why is the F-22 not a 100% perfect?
Well for one, relying fully on fly-by-wire has it's limitations as it sometimes goes against the instincts of the pilot - in translation, if it thinks the pilot is wrong, it corrects the move via computer, it takes over.  So the pilot cannot fully get the "feel" of the plane.
Furthermore, "only" having vertical TVC limits it's manoeuvrability compared to, for instance, the Su-37, the Super Flanker.  The flanker literally does somersaults in the air.  (I won't mention that the fly-by-wire in a flanker can be "overridden" by the pilot)
Here's a video...
Su-37 derivative with TVC playing in the air

But this is not the future No1 opponent of the Raptor.  That place is reserved for the Russian raptor, the Su-50 which is still in the shakedown phase but it has all the characteristics of the raptor and it looks like the F-35.

Here's a quick preview....

Su-50 (not yet been given a NATO designation)

I first saw the thrust vectoring nozzles at RAF Fairford in 2006, during RIAT 2006, on a MIG 29 OVT.  My only regret is that I couldn't film the nozzles working.  But you can find loads of videos on YouTube!

Back to the raptor - it will at some point be upgraded with 360 degree TVC but maybe it won't.  Who knows.

In any case, there is no better fighter in the world today.  For now.  (This coming from a massive fan of Russian fighters)

Looking forward to the years to come....

What does "Christmas" mean?

Here is a link to an article on the BBC website about the Pope, his annual Christmas eve mass and his attack on the "commercialisation" of Christmas.

Pope essentially attacking retailers

After you read the article, make your own decision but consider the following.  

Some of the general customs during Christmas are gift giving, playing Christmas music and carols (not my favourite thing during this time), Christmas cards, church celebrations, turkey with stuffing, a special meal with your family, displaying of decorations like Christmas trees and Santa's hanging of trees and chimneys etc.

• It's a tradition for everyone to give and receive gifts at Christmas, especially for kids.  What is wrong with that, your holiness?  Why is that commercialisation?  Because toy retailers earn money and get to give out pay checks to their workers who in turn buy gifts for their family???
• Christmas music - Now, it used to drive me nuts when I worked for Asda, the playing of Christmas music would start around October time and wouldn't stop until New Years.   But isn't singing one of the purest forms of entertainment and soul enrichment and joy and what have you?  Why is that commercialisation, your holiness?
• Christmas cards - while here in Serbia this isn't a thing, it is in plenty of countries.  I received a couple through the post and it made me smile.  It's good to say a few nice words on a seasonal greeting card to the people that mean most to you.  Isn't it, your holiness?
• Church celebrations - enough said!
• A special meal - In times of great stress and hardship, people manage to get together on this one day and sit down together and grab a few tasty bites of the roasted turkey and some cake and enjoy each others company.  A few moments of happiness - moments brought to us by the commercial end of the holiday because, as you well know your holiness, not everyone is religious and not everyone is a christian.  So enough about that...
• Retailers make the most of their revenue around the Christmas holiday.  That would not happen without commercialisation.  So what's wrong with making money and being able to afford things - like life?  Why is that wrong?

With due respect - get off your holy horse and see what's happening in front of you. There are many worse things to attack, and even among your own clergy, than people enjoying a bit of fun at Christmas!!!  

ho ho ho Merry Christmas!

What's hiding in the forest....

While browsing the internet, you come across all kind of useless crap.  Once in a blue moon you stumble upon a real gem and, like me, you decide you want everyone to know about it.

Side note:  All images (a few that I will put on) come from the official website of the Huilo huilo biological reserve website http://www.huilohuilo.com .

You might be thinking: "is that woman crazy, holding a child over some rope on a wooden suspended bridge?"  Or you might be thinking: "Is that someone's house?  And why is there a fountain on top of it?"

In the end, you might just be thinking: "That's crazy!"

While it is a little "original", what we see on the photo is actually a hotel called Magic mountain lodge.  It sits in a biological reserve in the middle of the Patagonian Andes, in the south of Chile.  I will not give you a tourist guide version of the reserve - you can read up about it on the website.

I will say however that I am amazed.

The hotel up on the photo is supposed to portrait a live volcano with water coming down it instead of burning lava.  Nice.  There are photos on the website of the inside of the hotel and the views from it, in season and during winter.

The other significant building in this reserve is the Baobab Hotel & Spa.

  

And yeah it has a heated swimming pool and all the amenities that come with it.

What's fascinating is that all the buildings seem to be made out of the wood from the forests and in their natural state, just polished for our use.  Just look at the guard rails, they are not straight but naturally shaped.

From the photos it looks cosy!

When would you ever think that something like this might exist?  And in Chile!

Whatever you are thinking, I know that I just added this place to my list of places to visit.

The truth shall set you free...

Ili na latinskom.... Veritas vos liberabit.

Biblija Kralja Džejmsa (King James Bible) u izdanju Cambridge-a u svom originalnom tekstu kaže:

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

King James Bible, John 8:32

Naravno, u srpskoj verziji, ovo se odnosi na Jovana 8:32 kada Isus kaže rimskom namesniku Pontiju Pilatu "I upoznaćete istinu i istina će vas osloboditi.  U ovom kontekstu (nezavisno od toga da li je Isus postojao ili ne, ili da li je ovo rekao ili ne), istina je alat koji koristimo da se oslobodimo robovanja našim grehovima, kajanjima itd.

U neku ruku, verovali u Boga ili ne, to je tačno.

Ako smo iskreni prema sebi i spoznamo istinu o sebi, ta istina će nas osloboditi da napredujemo u životu.  Zdrav razum.

Postoje neki kliše izrazi kao "Ne možeš pobeći od istine."  Šta to znači?

To znači da će se svako od nas kad-tad suočiti sa istinom o sebi i reakcija na to saznanje će biti kamen temeljac ostatka našeg života.  

Ali ostavimo se duhovnog tumačenja.

Mi konstantno lažemo sebe, o trivijalnim i o važnim stvarima.  Dok je, na psihološkom nivou, to jedan mehanizam odbrane protiv "surovog" sveta u kome živimo i okolnostima koja su nam nametnuta, s druge strane laganje sebe može da ima i terapeutsku karakteristiku.  

Nismo savršeni, svakom od nas nešto fali, nešto što u većini slučajeva zakopamo negde duboko.  

Da li je to dobro ili ne... ko će ga znati, sama činjenica da nismo savršeni (ili završeni???) nam ne dozvoljava da imamo odgovor na ovo pitanje.

Mislim da je zdravo biti iskren prema sebi.  I prema drugima.

Verovali u Boga ili ne, mislim da je istina pravi put ka našem napretku.  

Napretku kao čoveka.

Jer nismo sami u svetu; tu smo mi, istina i ostali ljudi.  Šta uradimo sa istinom i ostalim ljudima je život. Quote unquote.

Things change.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

And right next to all this.... is this on the photo below.

Things change.

How to recover from a knock-out

In life and work, sometimes you get knocked out.  A knock-out in life or work is not at all different as a knock-out in boxing.  How so?  And how do you recover?  Can you recover?

Part 1 - The initial shock

When you get hit by the other boxer you feel the speed of the punch, the weight of the other guys fist, the force he used and immediate pain at the spot he hit you.  All together they force you to crumble and fall down flat on your face not knowing, and forgive the pun, not knowing what hit you.

It's the same in life or work....  

It's about the moment in time, the severity of the news given, who is giving you the news and the manner in which the news is being told to you, the pain you feel immediately after being notified.  You are left gob smacked and unsure how to react or if you could react, or if you could, what would you say or do?

It's the severity of the initial shock that will prove to be the key to how you react.

Part 2 - The reaction

In boxing, the initial shock is followed by a state of confusion where you are not sure what was happening to you, caused by a momentary lapse in memory and loss of balance.  You flail about trying to grab a hold of something, anything, the rope or your mental awareness.  You look for an anchor to stand on.

In life, or indeed work, after the shock, you are also left confused and unsure as to what was happening.  Almost always you bow down with your head, lose colour in your face and collapse on the nearest sitting fixture.  You start nodding your head left to right to express your disbelief at what had transpired. You try to make sense of it in these first few minutes.

Part 3 - The realization

A boxer, down on the floor, ringing in his ears, the ref counting down, has to decide at that point if he is to get up and fight or if he was to give up and concede.  In those few seconds, he has to figure out how to get up or how to, well, stay down.  And if he was able to.

At work or in life, you realize that this had to come, surely it was inevitable.  Suddenly, it is all too clear what has happened and how it will affect you.  You find yourself back in real life and back in the view of others.  Others who are waiting to see how you are going to act.

Part 4 - The reply (the "give up" scenario)

A boxer sometimes decides that he can't take any more blows to the body, that he has been beaten, that he was better off waiting for the ref to blow the whistle.  After the count, he breathes a sigh of relief.

In our lives, at work, we also sometimes make peace with the fact that we can't influence or change anything and that we have been beaten.  That it would be better to accept your fate and move on.  That it would be better if we retreated at this point.  Heads down, tails between our legs.

Part 4 - The reply (the "fight back" scenario)

A real fighter will not give up until he was made unconscious.  A fighter grabs the nearest piece of rope, struggles himself up, steadies himself, turns around and says to the opponent "Is that all you got?"  He smiles at the prospect of either throwing in a few punches or, to be honest, smiles in the face of another knock-out.  Nevertheless, he got up and he's fighting again.

In real life, it is the same.  The decision is yours.  You can take it or you can learn from it, adapt and dish out some revenge.  You can hit the wall near you until your fist bleeds, you can grit your teeth, make a determined face, you can breathe deeply in and out and summon all the strength you have.  In life of course this can happen in the moment or over a period of time.  But when it happens, you have a clear vision of what you need to do with your life.  You see the light.  You fight back, one way or another.  You try and try until you succeed and then... then you smile in the face of success and know that you will be much stronger the next time.

Giving people bad news

"Can you please call Mr. Jones to the office, thank you" says the Manager (who shall by all means stay universal and only be known as The Manager)

Mr. Jones walks into the office with some trepidation, nervously shuts the door and just stands there.  

"Sit down, Mr. Jones.", says The Manager.  "As you know, from the conversations we've had before, we agreed that we would give you some time to adjust and make some changes in your work.  How do you think you faired?" , says The Manager, sits down on his over priced leather chair and waits patiently.

"I don't know, I guess I've tried my best to perform my duties and fit in.  I think I deserve to be where I am.", says Mr. Jones with, what he didn't know at the time, false hope that everything would be fine.

"What about all the mistakes you still keep making?", asks the Manager, thereby killing the hope in it's tracks.

No answer.

"I am sorry Mr. Jones, we have decided to implement a few changes around the office and unfortunately we have decided to let you go.", says the Manager with a flat, strong voice, getting up at the same time to show the finality of the decision.

"You can stay here for a month, while you look for another job." he added.

............... That's pretty much how the story goes.  It isn't pretty, it isn't comfortable and it isn't supposed to be.  If we observe this conversation from the point of view of The Manager.  He is no doubt a professional but he is either a cold hearted managing machine who is performing his duties or he is an empathic leader who has the unfortunate task of giving someone the bad news. Which one are you?

It surely is the worst thing about jobs in Management, the situations where you have to police, where you have to punish, situations where you have to act accordingly and harshly, because that is your job.  Analyse, evaluate, look at all the options and decide.

Often you are deciding about people's lives.

From the point of view of Mr. Jones, who probably isn't even a bad person, who probably has but one thought in his head which is "What do I tell Mrs. Jones when I get back home??"  

With more experience, especially with more experience in managing people, hiring them, firing them, you build up a certain stance which you use in these situations, you have a certain way of acting, you have a certain pose, you have a certain voice you use.  You end up playing a role.  Which is the only way, in the end, if you want to keep your professionalism. 

However and no matter what, after it, you always end up with a bitter taste in your mouth.

But that's just the cost of doing business. 

And it is the only way you should look at it.  You are not the bad guy; you are just doing your job.

Napisano a nepromišljeno.

Za početak ove novo-nađene ozbiljnosti, hteo bih da se osvrnem na tri sportska naslova iz prethodnih 30 dana.

1. Krstić i Teo u deset najplaćenijih

Iznad je link koji vodi na internet prezentaciju B92 i sam tekst.  

Da li je ovaj tekst stavljen zbog jednog od dole navedenih razloga?

• Da bi nas podjebavali zato što je na završenom euro basketu 2011 Teodosić bio katastrofalan a Krstić skoro nevidljiv uzeći u obzir njegovu poziciju na terenu i konkurenciju?
• Da bi se dičili time što su dva Srbina, nevezano za to kakvi su igrači, u deset najplaćenijih u Evropi?
• Da nam saopšte koliko je u stvari sve ovo jadno i kako njih nije briga za nas navijače, niti ih je briga za reprezentaciju?
• Nijedan od gornjih razloga već su samo prenosili vesti?

Iskreno, mene je bilo sramota ovog teksta.

2. McLaren boss praises Button's resolve

U naslovu je link koji će vas odvesti na tekst, na sajtu ITV-a za formulu 1.  O čemu se radi?  Posle trke u Singapuru, šef McLaren tima, Martin Whitmarsh je mislio da treba da ili brani, ili veliča, ili potapše (javno) Buttona po ramenu zbog, na kraju krajeva, dobrog rezultata na kraju trke,  Nije bilo dovoljno što je Button završio drugi i što je dobro vozio - ne, nije bilo dovoljno.  Morali su svi da znaju da je jadni Button, ljubi ga majka, bio bolestan celog vikenda i da je takav i vozio.  Au, pa kako je preživeo!!  Pa on bi, da je bio zdrav, ladno pobedio Vettela!!!  

Mislim, stvarno, .... šta je u stvari Whitmarsh hteo da kaže?

3. Terzić. "Najbolji smo u Evropi."

Isto kao i prethodne dve vesti....

OK, Terziću, pobedili ste Tursku, i to ne baš ubedljivo pa i ako su tvoje devojke tvrdile da nisu mogle da izgube u Pioniru.  I uz dužno poštovanje, svaka čast na pobedi, nije bilo lako izgubiti dva seta posle vođstva od 2:0 u setovima, siguran sam.

Ali, aman, Terziću čoveče, pobedili ste u polu-finalu, ostaje finale sa Nemačkom.  Zašto daješ ovakve izjave pre finala?  Kako je moguće da smo najbolji u Evropi ako izgubimo od Nemačke večeras?  Zar, po defaultu, ne bi oni bili najbolji u Evropi?

Zašto uvek sebi stvaramo ta visoka očekivanja; zar vam nije jasno da će nam titula biti još draža ako nemamo neka očekivanja???

Zašto se uvek ku**imo???