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!

Hello Santa Barbara!

So here's a map of where I went yesterday for a drive :) You can see how I almost made it to LA: it was less than 100mi to the city.

View Larger Map

I must say: the trip was great! It was long and extremely unexpected, but I finally got to put my feet into the Pacific that was not freezing and I get to drive through Santa Barbara - the city whose name I heard from when I was 3-4yrs old. 

There was this american soap opera called "Santa Barbara" broadcasted in Russia in the 80-90's and it was the longest soap opera in history as it kept going for 10 years (oh yeah!). Now I don't even remember what it was all about except that there was a man with a funny name "C.C." (I always thought it was his full name and in my head I spelled it like "Cici") who was the head of the Capwell family, then there was a young woman with really long and blonde hair named Eden and she was married to a man named Cruz.  Cruz always reminded me of a gorilla (probably not too flattering for the actor, but oh well) and I thought his name was ridiculous. What kind of person is called Cruz? Haha, if only I knew then that in 15 or so years for the weekends I regularly would be going to a place with the exact same name in it - Santa Cruz. I never questioned "Cruz" in Santa Cruz though... Strange.

In any case, for me, the "child of wilderness" at the time (ok, maybe not wilderness, but still - those Santa Barbara houses and beaches shown in the soap opera seemed like shots from another planet to me back then), it seemed not possible at all that at some point in my life I would visit those places. That's why this trip yesterday was so incredible.

Oh yeah, and then SB was the first american show ever broadcasted in Russia, so everyone in the country was watching it with open mouths. The name "Santa Barbara" itself became a common expression meaning "something unnecesary long, complicated, and "soapy".

Anyway, so here's what the intro to SB looked like. I still remember that first few seconds with the gates! After 15 years :)

Why do men never wear hats anymore?

Stumbled upon this question when seeing a rare scene at the street: a man wearing a hat in the evening in the city. Why don't men wear hats anymore? Is it because they're tired of taking it off to greet every woman they know?

Forever 21

When I was 16, I thought that in a few years I would have a better idea of what I want to do and who I want to be. Ha! Gonna be 21 in a few weeks and I still got no clue, but now I know that most people are like that. I guess up to my last breath I will keep wondering what this whole life was about.

My good friend once asked me what I thought my dream was. Years pass, but I think it's still the same. I always wanted to make a photograph that would win a contest and get published. Years pass, and I'm still working on that one :) 

Ziehe ich?

Well, since my blog has a little "paper basket" logo on top, I figured I can throw some more garbagé in it. Last yeat I developed this passion for copying photographs from ads in the magazines and then this kind of drawing became my own kind of meditation. Thought it would be nice to post some pictures here for a change :) 

Beware: I do not want my drawing abilities to be criticized. It's the silly thing that I do and silly things cannot be judged. I'm in no pretense that I'm a great artist, so no need to remind me of that :)

So this was sep 08 (this is what happened when I was by myself on a 9-hour flight upset and restless):

    

This was Dec. 08 (in the madness of final projects and exams). What inspired the middle one is pretty obvious if you look through my past blog entries, and the last one was just dedicated to my lovely sis, who loves crows.

   

These 2 are just still shots from 2 Russian cartoons "Hedgehog in the fog" and "The tale of tales":

  

And these last ones were again just from the magazines:

   

The quality of the photographs is not all that great, so my apologies for that. The camera has given up on me in the past few months.