Month: March 2005

I love China

I have realized something today. I love China. I never thought I do. Actually, I never thought on the subject. Neither about China, nor about any other country. (Well, maybe Cyprus, but that doesn’t count since I am living in this country).

Before you start looking for a different blog to read, let me tell you that I have never been to China. Nor have I read any books about China. I have met a few Chinese people, but I haven’t been really close with anyone of them. At this point you might be wondering how did I arrive to the conclusion.

Well, I was sitting there doing nothing when this Chinese girl popped up in my ICQ. Her English was good enough for us to talk so we did. She asked me if I ever visited her country or if I knew anything about it. I started thinking. And here is what came to my mind.

  • I am one of the greatest fans of Chinese martial arts movies. There is a special place in my heart for all of them collectively and few of them individually.
  • I really enjoy Chinese cuisine. Of course, all those places that I have tried might have nothing in common with the real meal in China, but as far as I went and as far as my imagination can take me, I really like Chinese food.
  • I like Chinese art. Especially paintings, but anything works. Some of the best decorations that I have seen were embroideries on Chinese silk. And, of course, the china porcelain dishes. Those are really cool, though I haven’t seen many of them. But I liked those that I have seen.
  • I like Chinese dragons. Dragons have a special place in Chinese culture and I totally dig them. Dragon dances, pictures, fairy tales and all the other dragonware – I like it.
  • I like Chinese architecture. I haven’t seen any in real life, but those that come on pictures and in the movies look really cool. If you can’t think of any, I’ll remind you of Imperial palaces, Great Wall of China, and monasteries.
  • I like Chinese people. I met a few. I didn’t get very close to any of them, as I have already mentioned above. But all of them seemed like decent people. What I liked about them was that they knew how to have some real fun without crossing too many of cultural borders. This is a rare quality, if you ask me.

I was surprised by myself. First of all, I never knew that I knew so much about China. Secondly, I couldn’t believe that with all these positive emtions towards China I never thought about the country or culture separately. Strange. I am really glad I discovered all those feelings. Now that I’ve done that, I put a visit to China on my todo list. It is one of the first things to do after I fix my financial situation.

Imperial size bed

Everyone knows what a King size bed is. Today I’ve learned that there is a bigger option – Imperial size. Imperial size bed is a standard King size bed given out completely to a one month old baby. It is so big you can practically play hide-and-seek in it.

My mother and I left for a while today and left Olga alone with Maxim. She fed him, but he didn’t want to sleep in his bed and she didn’t have enough patience and strength (yet) to play him into oblivion. So she just left him in our bed alone. You had to see this. Among numerous pillows rugs, sheets and blankets there was this tiny little lost face. And it was sleeping. I could almost see the angel wings sticking from under the blanket.

Sunrise

SunriseIt has been a while since I photographed the sunrise. I did a lot of them at some point, but then I just couldn’t see anything new in them anymore. This was mostly due to the fact that I photographed all my sunrises from my office window.

Today I suddenly saw a slightly different view. It was there for about two minutes only, but luckily I wasn’t grumpy enough to miss it. I grabbed my camera and made the shot. At times like this I am really proud of myself.

Album location: /photos/2005/2005-03-23_POTD

Blogging anniversary

About one year ago I have installed Nucleus CMS and started blogging seriously. I haven’t missed a day. Every day during the last year I have posted at least one article. Sometimes I have posted as much as twelve!

I have learned a great deal about a number of topics. Mainly, of course, about blogging technology. I went from a total newbie level. I remember now how hard it was for me in the beginning to get ideas for postings. Than it became a routine. My writing got better. My vocabulary increased. Soon I had to introduce categories to maintain some order with the posts. Than I’ve learned about comments and comment SPAM. Than RSS feeds and blogrolling. That was really an eye openner. Than were trackbacks. Than a whole bunch of social software.

Daily blogging did wonders to the popularity of my website. I have jumped up in ranking tables of Google quiet a bit for a number of keywords. My posts were linked to from a number of high profile websites. My audience grew several times during this year. I am now getting about 1500 people daily. More than half of these are returning users.

My relationship with the Internet changed as well. It became closer to me. I became more open. I have learned myself better. I’ve got a better understanding of people on the Internet. I’ve discovered communities around topics that I have never thought existed.

Overall, blogging during the last year gave me much more than I ever thought it could have. I will surely continue the practice.

One month

Maxim is one month old today. Unbelievable!

I told Olga that last month was the longest month of my life. She replied that probably my first month was longer. After considering the point for about two seconds, I have to agree with her. So many things happen to an infant during his first month in this world! Getting out, breathing, meeting a bunch of people, bathing, eating, crapping and peeing, moving, listening, sleeping in bed, wearing clothes, etc.

Don’t take me wrong – parents also have a tough deal to live through, but they are under a way smaller stress than the baby. (Probably it is a good thing that people don’t remember their first monthes.) Parents have to process a tonne of information too. Books, articles and granma advices about feeding, bathing, changing, walking and taking care of other needs of the baby. They have to change their way of life to welcome a new creature to this world. They have to pass through a number of psychological stages.

Anyway, one month is a real milestone for both the child and the parents. And I am extremely glad that we’ve reached it. It gives me confidence that we are not screwing everything up and that there are at least few things that Olga and I can take care of properly.

Off for the second month…