The year 2005 in review

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. Noone 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!

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005)I miss movies. Lately I haven’t watched many. Either I was too busy, or there wasn’t anything worth the while. But I got desperate. So I grabbed the first one available. It was “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo“.

Directed by: Mike Bigelow
Genres: Comedy
Cast: Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin, Jeroen Krabbé, Til Schweiger, Douglas Sills, Carlos Ponce, Charles Keating, Hanna Verboom, Kostas Sommer, Bastiaan Ragas, Zoe Telford, Miranda Raison, Federico Dordei, Elisabetta Canalis, Johnny Vaughan
IMDB raintg: 4.1
My rating: 6.5 [rate 6.5]

Continue reading Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Blogging is good for you. Part X.

You’ve heard me saying that blogging is good for you, haven’t you? Well, today I’m gonna give you just another example of how good it really is.

Olga and I were chosing the place to order some food from. We decided to get some Chinese. I picked up the Pagoda menu from the pyle of others and scrolled through. Olga did the same. And when I was almost dialing to make the order, she remembered, that the last time we ordered Chinese from another place. But she couldn’t remember which one it was. Neither could I.

And than I remembered that I posted something in the blog about some Chinese food. Seconds later I found – “Jin Ciao. The new food stop.“. Not only I posted something. I wrote a very comprehensive review.

I dug up the Jin Chao menu from the pyle of papers and we put up a new order. We were able to make smarter choices and knew what to expect – all because I spent 10 minutes three month ago.

The moral: blog – it’s good for you. At least it’s better than your memory.

P.S.: We ordered other dishes and they were excellent. Jin Chao is definitely my number 1 Chinese food spot in Limassol right now.

Accident updates

I am still pretty hyped up about the whole thing, but there were a few things to calm me down.

First of all, Dmitry offered me a helping hand – he gave me his second car. We drove to the insurance today and added me as a temporary driver for the next month. Thanks a bunch, man! Staying without a car for the holidays would have been pretty tough – now I can finish up holiday preparations.

Secondly, I passed by my insurance and did all the paperwork. The other driver, it seems, haven’t admitted his fault, and so the full round of paper football will take place now. My claim will be faxed to Nicosia, where the insurance agent will gather the reports from the police and from the other party insurance and they will decide who is guilty. Sometime next week they should arrive to the conclusion and inform the garage masters on who will be paying for repairs.