Month: November 2005

Weird consumer behavior

For years now Limassol is inhabbited with crowds of Russian people. There are so many of us that many locals somewhat speak the language, many restaurants offer menus in Russian, as well as shops have “special” price lists.

One of the sides of the strong Russian community is a number of “Russian” shops. These are rather small shops that sell all sorts of goods that many Russian people miss. Mostly those are books by suicidal novelists and food items like caviar, pelmeni, and vodka.

For years, both Olga and I were going to visit one of this shops just to see if there was anything that we’d like to buy. We always knew practically the complist price list, because so many of our friends shop in these places regularly and tell us all about them. But we never got our act together. Either we were to lazy, or didn’t care much – I am not sure.

Our shopping routine was almost rock solid for all this years. A weekly trip to Woolworth Ermes covered almost all our food needs. Nearby bakery supplied us with fresh bread. And when we felt like and adventure we would sneak into the enemy’s camp go shopping to either Chris Cash & Carry or Orphanides.

Guess what have changed last week? You’ll never do, as we were surprised ourselves. Our best and favourite supermarket Ermes opened a small section with products for that Russian market. Some of the products are imported directly from Russia – cereals, beer, bread. Others bought from European countries that have so many Russians that it is economically feasable to produce those goods – canned mushrooms, tomatos, and meat.

When we discovered this Russian shelf near the butcher’s section were were laughing out loud. They say that if gnome won’t come to the mountain, the mountain will come to gnome. True indeed.

Now we have even fewer reasons to go shopping at another supermarket. Not only we have everything we need in Ermes, but we surely have more.

P.S.: Russian beer sucks big time. Canned (salted or marinated) mushrooms imported from Germany are pretty good. Canned (salted) tomatos are superb! Just in case you were wondering.

The 40 Year Old Virgin

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)I don’t know about you, but when I first heard the title of the film “The 40 Year Old Virgin” I knew that I didn’t want to see it in about quarter of a second. It just shouts “cliche” in every word and then some more. I immediately knew that it would be a romantic comedy about a somewhat old loser that never got laid. And that his truth will come out and some guys will act upon it and will try to get him laid. And by the end of the movie he will fall in love and yada yada yada. The only minor question was if they would use a guy or a girl for the main character, and all those cliche shouts were suggesting that it would be a guy. That was later confirmed by the poster.

So why did I change my mind and went to see it? Well, just out of curiousity I checked the film’s rating at IMDB and was surprised to find a whole 7.5! I mean I know there are a lot of kids, losers, people who never got laid, and those three types combined into one, but I could never imagine that there were more than 10,000 of those using IMDB.

Directed by: Judd Apatow
Genres: Comedy, Romance
Cast: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Leslie Mann, Jane Lynch, Gerry Bednob, Shelley Malil, Kat Dennings, Jordy Masterson, Chelsea Smith, Jonah Hill, Erica Vittina Phillips
IMDB raintg: 7.5
My rating: 6.5 [rate 6.5]

Continue reading The 40 Year Old Virgin

iPod did some good too

I am trying my best to be objective and open minded. I am not always good at it, but at least I’m trying. The other day I wrote a somewhat negative post about iPod. Ok, and a few negative comments too.

Because I try to stay open minded and because I don’t want to become an always complaining gramp, I try to find positive sides too. I thought about the iPod issue a bit and I think that obviously there is a good thing about it too. And not just some theoretical crapy good thing that is good for some abstract iPod user, but a really good thing for me and you.

iPod hype has increased the popularity of podcasting.

What good is in podcasting? Well, I happen to think that podcasting is a good idea by itself. It is one of those applications that make Internet more popular with the masses. And that’s a good thing. Podcasting, in turn, increased the popularity and common knowledge of such modern technologies as feeding (RSS and Atom) and audio compression (mp3 and ogg). That’s another good thing.

So, with iPod, as with any other thing there is good stuff and there is bad stuff. I found both. Now is your turn.

Maybe aliens aren’t that bad afterall

I’ve just realized that neither Olga, nor I did anything to protect Maxim from aliens. Nothing. Nada. None. Some parents that I consider a good example, use tin foil all over the place.

I put tin foil in Leta’s windows when she turned four months old to keep the aliens out. Something kept waking her up every two hours and I figured it was either the ambient light or the aliens, and I knew that tin foil would take care of both. During the winter it also kept out the snow elves so I never took it down.

Thinking about why we didn’t protect Maxim from aliens, I came to the conclusion that neither Olga, nor I are paranoid enough. While there is plenty of evidence that aliens are evil, I still have my doubts.

Just maybe aliens are good. And just maybe they understand the tough job of parenting. And just maybe they use their rays on children’s brains to modify their behavioral patterns. And just maybe protecting kids from those rays might make the parenting job a bit harder.

We made the thirty second journey through the parking lot to the store without any birds entering her radar and falling thirty feet to their death. But the moment we set foot in the store her body went limp with anger and like a fresh fish just pulled out of a lake she almost slipped her way out of the stroller. I tried holding her but she turned herself upside down and I almost dropped her on her head. At one point I was holding her body sideways, her armpits in my left hand, her feet in my right hand, and she was trying so violently to free herself that I looked like I was being electrocuted.

It’s been eight and the half month of Maxim’s alien unprotected life. I don’t think that he went unnoticed in their council. So they have probably affected his brains with their rays. But nothing bad came out of it yet. So I’m willing to take my chances.