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!

SMS

Finally, 4 years later, I can finally send text messages from my mobile phone here in US to mobile phones of my friends in Russia. Amazing! 4 years... wow

Loneliness on the net

About 2 years ago I read a book by a Polish author Janusz L. Wisniewski "Loneliness on the net". It starts with a young woman sending an email to a complete stranger, b/c she was feeling very sad and lonely and wanted to share all her thoughts with someone who didn't know her true identity in real life. Stranger turns out to be a Polish scientist working in a renowned Munich lab. From that moment on the two start talking online, sharing all their thoughts, memories, and dreams. I wouldn't tell what happens to them afterwards though, in case you're curious enough to read the book.

So I remember staying up till 3am just to finish the last pages. I found the book fresh and original; and even though I was disappointed with the ending (it was too sad), I loved it. I probably learned about the DNA from that book more than from my biology classes :) In general, there were so many interesting (and maybe a bit random) facts about the world in the dialogs between the characters, that I even got curious enough to read up on some of those topics later on.

Anyway, so last week I got my hands on the movie that was made a few years ago based on this book. I was truly amazed with the quality of the Polish cinematography :) Here are some extracts from the movie:

It was very sensual and touching, but sad again :( The soundtrack was incredible too. So in case any of you were curious in seeing something from East Europe, I would highly recommend. Although, one disclaimer: the movie is quite slow and talks are prevalent to action, so if you have no tolerance for such things, then don't watch it.

Remember those pre hi-tech times?

Lately I've been thinking how much different our lives are now compared to say 10 years ago, communication wise mostly. It's incredible!

In pre-email era, we used to write letters on paper and mail them via regular post, waiting sometimes for weeks for the envelope to reach its destination. Now we just send emails! And paper letters are luxury, like flowers. 

If we were going with some friends to the movies, we would arrange in advance the time and exact place, b/c there were no cell phones and we couldn't just call and ask "Where are you standing now?"

There was just no possible way of telling all our friends something at once in a random point in time. I could shout out of a window to tell something to numerous strangers, but you didn't get much more than that. Now there's facebook with walls/status updates/...

Remember the times when we brought photo albums to school to show how great our summer break was? Now again - there's facebook. Everyone can look at our pictures whenever and wherever they please.

Remember the times when we didn't have Internet at home? If we wanted to go to a theater play or even to the movies, we had to buy a special magazine that listed all the cultural events in the city, their times, places, and prices. Then you had to physically go somewhere and purchase the tickets with real money. No online shops.

If we heard a song on the radio that we liked, we rushed to write down its name and the name of the artist. Otherwise, there was no way we could ever get a hold of that song again. I wouldn't even mention that cassettes and CD's were the only ways of getting your hands on music.

News? Oh yeah, that's what newspapers and magazines were for.

Had a question about something? No google, no themed forums. Yes, you had to ask your friends, relatives, go to the library, or even write a letter to a newspaper/magazine! 

And what about those old times, when you could see your tv show only if you rushed home and was in front of the tv in the right time? No TiVo, no DVD/VHS-recorders. 

Oh, and then there were times when you had to ask people how to get somewhere, because there were no google maps, no iPhones, and no android phones. Hehe, and your friends had to draw you maps of how to get to their place with all the streets, turns, and reference points marked.

Seems so long ago! And how would I even have shared these thoughts with you then, 10 years ago? If I wasn't a journalist or a writer, I just simply couldn't. For better or for worse :P

Use your fan to blow up matress

Yup, just learned today that you can actually use your hair fan to fill a blow up mattress with air. Works incredibly well and fast!

Rollerblading

Last Saturday I went rollerblading to SF! Me and a friend of mine with a bike made it all the way from the Golden Gate Park to the GG bridge, over the bridge (oops), and then back! It was a total of 10-12mi and there were some small hills on the way too. It felt like quite an accomplishment, I must say.

Unfortunately, on the way back I was going down the hill too fast, and the breaks weren't helping. I ended up falling to prevent running through the upcoming intersection on full speed. I wore my wrist protection, so luckily there were no serious damages. Though my right wrist area does hurt a bit now when I lift things. I really hope this won't spoil my volleyball weekly plans :P

Incredible San Francisco

Oh, wow! What a day! One of the guys I know from MD came over to the Bay Area for a week and we met up in San Francisco today. I was supposed to be the guide, but really - I got no clue of what I was doing or where I was going. I think it was a discovery of new things for both of us. We went to the Haight district which is a famous hippie spot, I guess, and it was incredible! I've been there once before, but it was weird and strange. It still was today, but in a different way :)

One of the guys on the street had a great dog, but when we expressed our adoration for the 4-legged creature, the man said that the dog had the devil within him (crazy, right? :P) I forgot what the rest of the conversation was about, but at the end the guy asked if we could spare him a dollar. I had no cash and neither did my friend, but he pulled out a BART card and offered it to the guy with the words: "Well, I got no cash, but here's a BART card for $3.50. You could use that, right?" The guy took the card and said: "Sure, and if I can't, then somebody else will find a use for it for sure. Thanks, man!" I don't know why, but I felt incredible to be a witness to that scene.

Then we met a hippie guy with this crazy hat on and my friend asked if he could take a picture with him. The man agreed, but then asked for a beer in return for the favor. My friend looked at him carefully and agreed to buy the beer if the guy promised he wouldn't do anything stupid on the street after he drinks. We bought a beer for the guy, but a credit card limit in the shop was $5, while beer cost smth around $2, so we ended up with an extra can of beer that my friend just had to put in his pocket. We kept going down the street and saw another hippie with the "Want a beer" sign, so that's where the second can went to. 

After a while we ended up in the Golden Gate park, where there was a drum circle and a whole bunch of street musicians just played some rhythm together. It was great! My friend played on one of the drums himself and then I got some instrument too that I could use to add up to the beat :) Then we played some ball game with another guy who gave me the intrsument and it was so much fun! Everything was random, spontaneous, and just so unusual that I couldn't stop smiling the whole time.

Then we decided to go for coffee and after a search for "the best coffee in san francisco" ended up in the Ferry building, where I got a latter that looked pretty much like this:

The coffee itself was delicious, no doubt about that :)

Then we did some more random walking along the piers, watched the seals, tried Ghirardelli chocolate, looked at the crazy people swimming in the freezing cold water of the bay and then head back to our homes. Such a crazy day! Haha, loved it :) Thought I'd share that with everyone.