What is success

When a person finds his place in the world, he begins to glow, he becomes visible to everyone. He can easily influence others, he even may have the followers who want to become just like him. That is why successful and famous people are called “stars” – because they literally shine because of their glory, professionalism and success.

Why Russia is awesome

Everywhere I go, every news I read, all shout loud that Russia is horrible. Every (ok, almost every) foreigner I talk to thinks that Russia is a huge village without any traces of civilization, where people live in extremely horrible conditions, grumpy and angry on everyone and always offended on life in general. Internet is full of negative things, and especially there is a lot of negativity about Russia, too. Maybe it’s always been like this, and I just did not pay attention to it. But now, being in the Netherlands, I wonder what is happening in the country and sometimes I check the news, especially now, during that interesting and eventful period of crisis, sanctions and really serious cold war against the whole world. And each time I look at the news, every time I read the comments like “I’m sorry, but you live in Russia,” I feel very, very sad.

Prague

Sometimes , you look at a person and think: “his name should be “Michael”, because he looks like Michael”, however you don’t know any person whose name is Michael. Sometimes I associate strangers with the names of countries and cities, and it is also pretty interesting.

Before my trip to Europe I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that the name “Prague” fits me. And it was not because the tickets that had already been purchased, the flight was coming and i felt that travelling mood, no. I don’t know why, but i feel that the girl named Prague has big eyes and a modest, discreet smile.

When I arrived to this city of Prague, I realized that I would come here again and again. I liked this atmosphere of antiquity, these Gothic steeples, brown roofs and streets on which you can walk forever. I was charmed by the sculptures on the Charles Bridge , Powder Towers, the clock on the Old Town Square , “trdelniks” and Czech cuisine in general , beautiful people , stunning architecture and a bit familiar (after all, St. Petersburg is a European city too).

So, I added a couple of photos (which can be easily turned to postcards) to my collection.

Travel, friends! And be sure to visit Prague. It is magical.

Life path

Everyone has their own life path, and how we wish to know where it leads to! Once in Montenegro I took this awesome picture of a road in the mountains, which truly represents our life path. Turn by turn, meter by meter, every single persom climbs up on their mountain top. In the end we will reach our goals (possibly, not even the ones that were set up in the beginning), will get to the highest point, and will admire the whole path we’ve came through.

I’ve always been inspired by mountain’s roads and viaducts – maybe, because of this association. But still, how beautiful they are!?

Friendship

Once I posted a blogpost about the lack of communication, and after that I received a response from my friend who has the same problem. She writes: "you know, it doesn't even matter where you live. Just when something big ends (university life, for example), when people are not parts of it anymore, when they stop associating themselves with it, they just give up. Some give up because they already have their friends and relatives. And some give up because they just do not understand how important it is for other people to communicate with them."And I absolutely agree with it, sometimes even the most elementary relationships need to be supported, and this support requires some costs. People just don't want to waist their time and resources on it.

How to set your mind free

Each of us has ever complained about the endless thoughts before bedtime, making it difficult to fall asleep. Sometimes you just want to press the button and turn off your mind. I remember my roommate was surprised how quickly I fell asleep . “You turn off in a minute! Lucky you! I can’t fall asleep for hours… ”

In fact, you don’t need any supernatural abilities to fall asleep quickly.

Comics

Today we went to the public library of Amsterdam. How awesome it isl! Insanely stylish, bright and modern! Five or six floors of books, magazines, DVDs, music CDs (!!!) desks with computers, soft seats, and most unusual for me - comics! Never in my life I have seen such comics books. They are unbeleivably beautiful! So bright, so professional, of such a high quality! All of them have glossy paper of A4 size, with incredible painting techniques, and, oh, what a pity they are all in Dutch! But despite of this we spent about 30 minutes looking at the pictures. We even found a couple of comics about Russia, Stalin and Lenin! So strange to see Dutch Comics with Hermitage and Palace Square in St. Petersburg =)

Snow

Christmas is over already, New Year will come soon, and I have not seen snow yet. How is it possible to have a New Year mood without snow? That is why we decided to make snowflakes out of paper. Guys, it is so cool! So relaxing, and you are always curious to see what pattern you will finally get. Whoever came up with these paper snowflakes is a genius! Since now I will make them every New Year. Especially when there is not even a hope for snow…

Morning

After 12 hours of sleep with two-hours break the whole world seems to be so wonderful. What a beautiful morning! The sun floods the blue sky with bright light, the weather is awesome, warm and at the same time fresh - just glorious! This mood took me back in Angarsk, in my childhood, in June, when I woke up and immediately ran out for a walk. Everything was exactly the same - the silence of nature, the birds singing the same tune, and such a nice and cool shade. Don't you say the climate here and there is different! We have only one planet, one air and the same birds - the only difference is that in Europe the summer comes a little bit earlier than in Siberia.

Next week it's going to be 20'C warm, hurray!!! Finally I will be able to take off my coat and wear a T-shirt on the street!

P.S. A piece of the sky in the header of the post is the one that I was admiring the moment before I wrote this post - no filters! Beautiful, right?

Wirework

It is interesting that english-speaking internet doesn't really know about wirework. If you want to know how to make sculptures or jewelry, if you want to see the tutorials, or find photos of completed beautiful things for inspiration - it's quite a challenge to do.

Google Energy

What I learned today from Mobile Applications class.

Did you know that Google is the largest consumer of energy in California? A California is the largest consumer of energy in the United States. Taking into account that Google produces absolutely nothing (I mean tangible products) – no machines, no metal, plastic or any equipment, whatever. Nothing. All the energy is spent on huge databases, as well as their maintenance (for cooling, in general). The amount of energy used by Google alone is enough to connect a small town from 100 to 200 thousand people. That is, Google is spending a little less energy than the entire population of Angarsk (my hometown), including all the shops, lighting of houses, streets and so on. All this just for the sake of googling the best cat videos =)

What I learned today

Long ago I wanted to start this column, and now, the New Year has started, and can make my ideas come true:) From this day I will be writing small posts about what I learned this day. Of course, sometimes there will be useless and stupid days when nothing new does not occur, and the brain refuses to look for something interesting around. But still, life is an interesting thing, and so many fascinating things happen! Especially if you live abroad and communicate with foreigners.

For today, for example, I learned that Koreans have no idea what the Korean-style carrot is. We told our neighbor from Korea that spicy carrot is very popular in Russia, and he stared wide-eyed and asked, “What is it?”. It turns out that such salade does not exist in Korea. But Google explained that they have a similar salad made from Chinese cabbage, which was brought from Korea in the USSR. And due to the fact that the Soviet Union did not have this cabbage, it was replaced with a carrot. That’s it.

Musicians

How unusual they are, these musicians. Just imagine: you learn music for all your life, practice playing the instrument, compose your own music, play, play, play… then study in the university or in any conservatory, and play there, learn theory, music history, other theoretical stuff… This is your life, you do it every single day! You look at all the songs in a different perspective. You can hear every single sound of any instrument…

Just usual, real people

Have you ever thought that all these authors in the list of references of your thesis are real and usual people, just like you and me? Well, of course I don’t count literature written half a century ago, but in most cases, in fact, we refer to relatively fresh articles or books, don’t we? It’s like to casually mention a person in a conversation with friends “You know, Rui recently said…” – the same thing is in thesis, just a bit more formally.

American Dream

When I was a child, I had my “American Dream”. Clearly, it was “American”, because i saw myself in a small, beautiful american town, absolutely happy, with my love alongside, walking down the street, admiring small houses, breathing warm and fresh air and not thinking about anything. That was my pure happiness, which i thought would come 20-30 years after. I was wrong. My happiness came yesterday, when I was walking down the street nearby my new home in Amsterdam. The very same small and beautiful street, with small houses, warm and fresh breeze and absolutely unique atmosphere. How lovely my life is! New home, sweet home, in a sweet city of Amsterdam. A year ago i couldn’t even imagine myself here. I just have no more words..

Competition

With the help of competition everything in life can be turned into a game. Any task can be broken up into sub-goals, and if you make a rating of participants, people will be willing to reach these sub-targets and collect useless scores and points to win the opponent. Thus you can make anyone to do unloved job, perform unloved tasks and use unwanted applications, products or sites.

2 suitcases

The more time passes, the more I feel I am going to leave this place soon. Although I know almost nothing about my future, day after day I want to make an experiment and see if all my stuff will successfully fit into 2 suitcases. Imagine how cool it is when everything you gut during 21 years – is only 2 suitcases. Printer, dishes, filter and a couple of other things will be given to friends, and the rest will fit into 2 suitcases and will fly out of the country. Every day I get rid of unnecessary stuff. Of course, it is difficult, because some things bring back memories, but now it is better for me to get rid of these memories. Why should I drag myself to the past? I have to live in the present and be ready to face the future.

And please, people! Stop giving all sorts of trinkets, toys and other useless trash. What for?! 80% of the stuff – gifts that are absolutely unnecessary, layng in the farthest corner, but it is a shame to throw it away, because “it shows a lack of respect.” What a nonsense! Why cling to the trash, why keep it?

English as native

The fact that there are some people with english as their native languages just blows my mind. It is their first language, they think on it, they know every single word, it is the only language they can most fully express their thoughts (well, unless they haven’t learnt another language). Wow, they can understand the most non-understandable sound of english speech! How is it possible? =) And what is more – they don’t actually have to learn another language: “Hey, I speak international language, so let’s speak english, like normal people?” For me it’s like a part of some fiction movie.