Monday, September 21, 2009

To know or not to know

I finally finished the "Freedom writers" book that I've started reading a few weeks ago. Such an incredible book! I've seen the movie about 2 years ago, but it doesn't even compare with the power of the book and the message that it holds. I never could have even imagined what some teenagers go through in their early years!

And now I decided to follow the "syllabus" of Room 203 and read the same books they did. I started with "Night" by Elie Wiesel (winner of the Nobel peace prize) and now am stupefied. I read about the German concentration camps before, but nothing so powerful and scary as the "Night". Burning children, women, and elders in the ovens... It just sounds like a bad nightmare, an explosion of someone's bad imagination. Thinking that there were people who supervised and supported these "methods" (oh, what a cruel word!) sends shivers through my body. What could possibly drive those people to perform such horrors, what went wrong within their minds?

Reading about the Holocaust made me wonder if we are to see more of these. Or what's more scary, maybe there are some happening this very minute and I just don't know or choose not to know...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Saw 10 'falling stars' today! Incredible! Why haven't I seen such things ever before?

Saturday, August 8, 2009

What does Google do for Russians?

In relation to my earlier post, I wanted to note that I did a similar "survey" in Russian. Not to be biased or anything, but I found that in Russian people were way more creative in their questions. Here are some of the top ones that I've seen pop-up in google suggest (one word question word was the only thing I typed) :

What? (Screenshot)
- What happens if you throw a crowbar in the toilet?
- What does it mean when a girl wears a ring on her thumb?
- What happens if you switch on beam lights at the speed of light?

Where? (Screenshot)
- Where is the G point?
- Where are the little apples?

Where to? (Screenshot)
- Where did the little apples disappear?

Why? (Screenshot)
- Why is Putin a crab?
- Why don't girls like me?
- Why isn't Russia an America?
- Why me?

How much? (Screenshot)
- How much does you dead body cost?
- How much does a kidney cost?

What for? (Screenshot)
- What is a Scroll lock key for?
- What is punctuation for?
- What are men for?

Where from? (Screenshot)
- Where do children come from?
- Where do sniffles come from?
- Where does dust come from?


Google suggestions on life


Why am I always curious about the random things? Maybe I should ask google. Start typing "why am I" and you'll see what the world wants to know about themselves :) Hehe, that was my entertainment for the last hour: seeing what people are wondering about. It was quite enlightening, so I decided to share. Enjoy!


"Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria" definitely took me by surprise!


And I found out that actually google answers the relationship questions pretty well too :)

1. He wonders if she likes him, she wonders if he likes her...


2. Both are ignoring, avoiding, and pushing away each other. How did that happen? She's acting distant, b/c he's not calling. He's distant, b/c she's playing hard to get. She's mad, b/c he's not a solider officer!


3. She wouldn't talk, b/c he wouldn't marry. She wouldn't call, b/c he wouldn't propose. She wants him to commit, he wants her to swallow. She wants him to call, he wants her to text.


Indeed, Google knows it all!

Friday, July 24, 2009

To the soldiers of everyday life

Hello my dear friend,

Writing just to share some observations that I made through the past months while living in our shared apartment. Am writing just to share some thoughts, that's all.

- No, a mini garbage truck doesn't drive past our trash bin standing in the kitchen. A truck picking up recycling doesn't either. If you already know about the truck, then why do you collect all those items in the corner of the poor kitchen? In the hope that the corner will automagically expand to fit all the garbage? It's not that type of corner. I know, I know: you noticed a few times that all the items were gone, so you were hoping they would continue disappearing the same way regularly now. So it actually was me who took them away, and I don't want to do this regularly all by myself. Really.

- I know you like animals, but do we really need to daily leave a cutting board with the bread crumbs on it for the hungry insects? Oh yes, I forgot: cockroaches and ants are like magic to you, you will not believe in them until you see them. Well, those creatures get really attached to their providers, so if you see them once in our kitchen, you might as well tell your friends you got some pets. And I don't want that, really. At least because we have a "no pets" policy at the complex.

- The movie "Signs" was really impressive, I agree, and you probably want to be ready for the attack of the aliens. Why else would you leave glasses with a bit of water everywhere around the house?

- Somebody must have told you that keeping old bread brings good luck. Lucky you are indeed now, because I have just found 6 loaves of old bread in the cupboard! I'd really prefer it, if you switched to the four-leaf cleavers though.

- They say that art should be part of our everyday life. You can make art works on the plate, in the pot, in the cup - anywhere. Oh yes, anywhere but sink. Sink is not a good medium for creating compositions. Direct to me anyone who told you otherwise.

- I know you want to be ready for hiking any minute, but does this really imply keeping all the necessary equipment on the floor of the living room? If you want to be a real Indiana Jones, you can move those items to the balcony and then just pick them up while jumping from the balcony to the fence on your way to the new adventures. Wouldn't that save you more time than the living room approach? I knew you'd agree.

That's all for now.

PS: I like my roommate, he's great! It's just there are always these little annoying things. I'm sure, every one of you knows exactly what I mean :) So let this post be dedicated to you, the brave soldiers of everyday life! Hehe, good luck to us all.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Mini-vacation

I went for a weekend to San Diego to meet with a great friend of mine and it seemed like a real 2-day vacation! We went to the zoo and in one day I saw red and giant panda, koala, and my favorite capybara (who, turns out, is called Wasserschwein in German - literally, water pig! I'm offended for the capybara). Here are some pictures:



With all the travelling, I also managed to finish the book that I've been reading for the past few months: "The Precipice" by Goncharov, Russian classical literature (XIX century). Maybe one day I'll get myself to write a bit about this, b/c this book had a great effect on me and I slept very heavily yesterday after reading the last pages.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Almost july

It was a great day today and I felt like writing something. First, at about 2:30am my semi broken cell phone decided to call my friend on his cell phone. How did I learn about that? Through my deep sleep I heard some woman's voice around me, I opened my eyes and saw some light coming from the nightstand: turned out to be my cell phone whose screen was in "talking" mode, but luckily there was voicemail on the other side of the line. I switched the device off immediately and went back to bed. In the morning everything seemed like a dream, but the caller log confirmed that the night adventure was real.

My phone did random calls before when I just slid it open, but never did it manage to do something before I even touched it. I am impressed, really :) Artifical intelligence in action. Though it's not too intelligent to call someone at 2:30am and wake me up at the same time.

Argh, and it's almost july now. Time flies so fast!