Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

I haven’t done any Christmas pictures of Maxim. Neither I have made any pictures of our Christmas tree this year. I thought that it would be difficult to explain to him, when he will grow up, why I haven’t photographed him together with the Christmas tree for his first Christmas and New Year. So I made a couple of pictures, that should help me in the future. I’ll hide the date they were made though…

Album location: /photos/2006/2006-01-21_POTD/

I know you’ve been waiting, so here they are - pictures from New Year celebration. They aren’t many, because a) I wasn’t in a mood and b) I was busy being Santa Claus. But those that are there give the idea of what went on.

Album location: /photos/2005/2005-12-31_New_Year_Eve/

To all of you reading this blog as well as those of you who got here by search engine accident - Happy New Year! Best wishes to all of you!

With some time on my hands I went through blog archives for year 2005. Once again I am glad that I kept blogging no matter what.

The highlight of the year is, of course, the birth of my son - Maxim. This is much bigger than the event of the year. This is the event of my life. Truly and honestly, nothing even comes close in comparison. I am sorry for all those of you who got offended - I didn’t mean to.

Preparations for Maxim’s birth and the birth itself have changed my life in so many ways, that I couldn’t even start to imagine the year before that. My house is different. My daily routine is different. My thinking is different. My relationships with so many people are different. I am different. This is like another life - some things are familiar and recognizable, but practically nothing is the same anymore.

Slightly more than 10 month passed. I calmed down a little, but I am still pretty amazed with the whole thing. And with the whole new human being. This still needs much thinking over.

In comparison - everything else was pretty unimportant. But still things happened. I lost some friends. no one died, just we became less close than we used to. I found some new ones too. People change and I guess this year changed me more than any other - thus the friend shaking. Again, I am sorry if I offended anyone - I didn’t mean to.

This year was pretty healthy. I don’t remember being seak - except for a few indigestions and hangovers. Olga was fine too. I had a few worries about Maxim, but they all seem to come to a good ending. Things could have been a little better in this department, but they could have been much worse than they were. And so I am greatful that they weren’t.

Another good thing is that I am still employed. I have food on my table and much more than that. Things at work are somewhat good. I am not enjoying my office work as I used to, but it is still much better than painful. I also have got a few ideas on how to apply my creativity and love for new technologies and get something financially valuable in return. I have started a couple of projects and I hope to see them all succeed in the coming year.

I learned a lot of new stuff. Mostly I was dealing with Perl programming language applied to web development and RSS technologies. I wasn’t trying to limit my exposure to other things, but I was focusing more on these two. This should pay off.

I have continued to improve my photography skills. Though I have to admit that I was very narrow with my subject chosing - Maxim was the main subject of the year. I have made a few thousand pictures of him alone. But I tried. And there is proof that I was looking at other subjects too. From my opinion - I got a little better. But you are better judges here.

I watched many movies, although I could easily live without many of them. The film of the year is, with no doubt, “Sin City“. By far. And it is one of the best movies that I’ve ever seen. And I am saying something here.

On the down sides - this year wasn’t the best for my car. It was hit twice on the parking and it was seriously destroyed in the accident few days ago. Hopefully things will turn out better next year.

This seems like a good round-up of what I was up to the whole year.

Happy New Year and enjoy the holidays!