Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

Cyprus Mail runs an article with some statistics of drug use in Cyprus.  It is said that drug use doubled over the last three years.  That’s not too good.  But the report itself is hard to understand – quotes say one thing and numbers say another.  For example:

“Cannabis is not so fashionable anymore among young people,” said EKTEPN head Neoclis Georgiadis. “The United States and Europe had their [cannabis] peak in the nineties, our peak was in 2004. We are ten years behind Western Europe.”

That’s on one hand.  And on the other:

THE PERCENTAGE of cocaine and cannabis users in Cyprus doubled between 2006 and 2009 with more women using, and a hike from zero to 1.6 per cent in the 55-64 age group taking up cannabis, it emerged yesterday.

Judging by what I can only see around myself, cannabis use more than doubled.  People who were occasional users before seem to do it more often, and those who wouldn’t even think about smoking pot just a few years ago, seem to welcome an opportunity now.  Also, on a few occasions where I could observe the high-school generation, I was rather surprised as to how familiar they are with the drug, how easily they can access it and how integrated it is with their culture.  I obviously can’t compare it to my own high-school years, but I’d says that even during my college years in this country the situation wasn’t the same.

And for the record, since I did mention cannabis, I have to say that I was pretty much neutral on the legalization issue for a long time.  Now I am more inclined towards legalizing it.  However, it should be clearly separated from the rest of the drugs, which should remain illegal.  And I do think that there is a whole lot of education to be done if legalization is to be considered.

Yesterday, December 1st, was a World AIDS Day.  A lot of sites on the web were trying to increase awareness about AIDS by switching to red-colored desings and such.  One of the web sites apparently was Twitter.  And guess what?  Today morning Twitter is dead (again).  Here is a screenshot of their red design from Google Cached version:

I guess AIDS is dangerous not only to humans, but to web applications as well.

If you have ever been at the dentist’s office, you’ll be laughing hard watching this.  If you have never been to the dentist’s office, you’ll laugh even harder, thinking that it can’t be true.  But it can, and more so, it is always exactly like this.

Glove Shoes (photo from linked article)

Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, says:

People have been running barefoot for millions of years and it has only been since 1972 that people have been wearing shoes with thick, synthetic heels.

Well, they weren’t running on asphalt for million years.  And they weren’t running for the pleasure or the healthy effect of it either, I guess.

There are a few other things I disagree with in the article, but it makes an interesting read non-the-less.

Reading Linus Torvalds’ blog I came across this paragraph:

Not that I actually ever really minded wearing glasses, but I could not recognize my own kids when in a swimming pool and they were more than six feet away. And let’s face it. swimming after other peoples kids and tickling them is not socially acceptable. At least in the US.

Laughing…

Maxim went through the operation today.  Everything went well, and he is now back home, sleeping and recovering.  We’ll check back with the doctor in about 20 days, unless there will be any side effects (hopefully not).

Once again, thank you all, who wrote and called.

Yesterday I briefly mentioned that Maxim is about to have a surgery.  That was very inconsiderate of me.  I got a lot of people worried without providing any details whatsoever.   And for this I want to apologize. Thank you all who called and wrote.

Here are some more details just to lift that burden of the unknown.  Maxim will undergo removal of the adenoids and a related clean-up.   We are arranging blood tests and paperwork, and if everything will go OK, he’ll be operated tomorrow (Friday).  The procedure is widely practiced and should take only about 20 minutes, but will require general anaesthetic.   He should be back home before the end of the same day.

We tried to avoid the surgery for as long as we could, hoping that the problem can be cured other ways.  Unfortunately, in his case, it can’t.  And pushing it further is getting dangerous for his health.  He has been sick pretty much every other week for the last 6 month or so.  More often than not he needed antibiotics treatment.  His immune system needs a break, as well as his ears, which suffered to the edge of degrading his hearing.

So, that’s how things are for now.  I’ll keep you posted on how it will go.

Once again, thank you all for calling and writing.  Your support is very much appreciated.

It’s almost two month since I got back to the gym.  At first I started with the same program that I end up with last time.  For more than a month I was pushing and pulling weights up and down, back and forward.  Somehow, it didn’t feel the same.  It was much harder and results were much weaker, no matter how hard I tried.  That was a bit offsetting.

Then I did something very smart.  I talked to Uncle Vova – my coach, trainer, and P.T. advisor. He resolved plenty of my doubts. Aparently, doing weightlifting in the morning is not the same as doing the same weightlifting in the afternoon. The body needs to wake up and get prepared.

Since I can’t go the gym in the middle of the day with my current time table, but only in the mornings, Uncle Vova suggested that I change the program a bit. I listened hard, but than I changed it even further for my personal feeling.

Now I just run. I go to the gym about 8:30 in the morning and I run. When I can’t run anymore, I have a small break doing some other exercises (no weights though). After about 10-15 minutes I go back to running. And that’s it. But I do it every working day (Monday-Friday) for the last two and a half weeks.

The first week that I did this, I could run only about 1-1.2 km during the first time, and then another 0.5-0.75 km during the second time. Today I did 2.25 km for the first run and 0.75 for the second.

I feel that running works better for me. My mood goes up, I’m full of energy for the rest of the day, I have no pains, and I have some gains. I see (and feel) the progress every (and I mean every) day. And progress stimulates me…

Note to myself: consult with people in the know regularly. Listen to what they say.

Liepaja, originally uploaded by Emmanuel Smague.

… but it’s so good for your photography

We took Maxim for his routine pediatrician check-up today. Everything was smooth and nice. He has gained almost half a kilo in the last month (now: 10.4 kg) and has grown almost 2 cm (now: 78 cm). He got his next vaccination too. Yet another one will be given to him on the next visit, in about a month’s time. I hope they help…