celebrations

Chinese New Year

I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog that I’m a big fan of Chinese culture. Today, at the office, we had Chinese New Year celebrations will plenty of home-made food (cooked by our Chinese colleagues) and red decorations all around. That inspired me to read some more about China on Wikipedia and even try my hand at calligraphy.

The above image depicts my third attempt, which was good enough to be readable and was actually recognized by at least one Chinese person as “this is actually pretty good“. Let’s all call that my best wishes for all of you this year.

P.S.: If you wander what that one means, I used this image as the source of inspiration. Wikipedia says it means “When wealth is acquired, precious objects follow”. Having no idea myself, I’m inclined to trust that.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2012 Year!

Here we are, in the last hours of the 2011. Those of us who celebrate the New Year holiday are either taking a quick nap, getting ready for the night of partying or getting ready to receive guests, cooking in the kitchens, calling relatives, cleaning the house, and starting to have a quick drink.

I am among those who are cooking in the kitchens and taking a quick drink. Taking a quick break from all the preparations, it’s a good time to relax and reflect on the year that is almost gone, as well as pave the road for the coming year.

If I was to use a single word to describe 2011, I’d definitely stick with ‘quick’. It seems that only a few weeks ago we celebrated the New Year, and here we are again, a year later. It is, for sure, one of the quickest years I had so far. Things just flew by me so fast that I barely noticed any time at all.

It wasn’t as chaotic as 2010, but it did bring a lot of new and interesting moments. I spent most of 2011 working for FXCC. Even when it just seems like yet another Forex company in my resume, it is not exactly so. New team, new concepts, new technologies, new ways of doing things. The experience I had this year was definitely enriching and empowering. One example to give was my new and extended experience with Microsoft Windows. And even though I haven’t changed my personal preferences from Linux, I’ve definitely learned a lot and saw many things in a new light.

One of the items on my wish list from last year was an Android phone. I’ve been following the platform for a few years and finally I got myself an Android device early in 2011. I also was considering an Amazon Kindle, but that wish changed a bit. Instead I now desire a tablet. And even though I still don’t have one yet, there is one in the mail. Yes, that’s right, I’m awaiting a delivery of a tablet device.

One of the biggest adventures I’ve ever had happened this year too, and I didn’t even have to travel for that. I’m talking about ImpreStyle – a start-up and a project that I am doing together with my very close family. We started back in May and recently we reached yet another milestone (more on that later). There were a lot of slow downs, problems and misunderstandings, but we managed to pull through, solve it all, and push it together. We have an excellent team now, where each one brings to the table something that others can’t. And we have some really good signs for this project for the upcoming year. I’m sure that each member of the team learned plenty of new, but I’ll speak of myself here. It’s been a while since I wanted to get into mobile technologies, and finally I did. I’ve learned a lot about how this industry and market operate. I’ve learned a lot about web promotion. I’ve learned a lot about online marketing – now from a more practical perspective. I’ve learned more about finance, accounting, management, and other areas of running a business. In some more, than I ever wanted to know. Yet, I’m sure I will learn more next year.

Something else that I experienced today and enjoyed a great deal was my first TED conference. TEDxNicosia event was awesome on its own. But for me personally the timing was excellent as well. It came just when I needed it and provided the inspiration that I needed.

While I’m writing this post, and thinking back and forward, I’m enjoying a glass of a real port wine. I got a bottle directly from Portugal thanks to Michael. This is yet another first time for me. I’ve tried the Russian idea of port wine quite a few times but it has nothing in common really. The real stuff is awesome – definitely something to experience again!

Now, for the New Year. My biggest hopes and plans are all around the ImpreStyle project. I think that that will be the year when it grows up, defines itself better, and gets a much needed infusion of resources. We’ll see. Regardless, I think I will get even more into the mobile stuff – smartphones and tablets in particular.

I also think that working on the same project brings the family closer together. That’s what was happening this year, and I hope the trend will continue.

As with any year, I am always looking forward for some travelling. I haven’t been out of the country in either 2010 or 2011, so I hope this year will provide me with an opportunity or two to go and visit foreign lands.

That’s about it really. Instead of having many different wishes and expectations, I am concentrating more on those which are the most important to me. How about you? What are you expecting from 2012? How did 2011 treat you? How does it compare to your expectations from it a year ago? Let me know in the comments.

Once again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your loved ones. Enjoy the holidays season and family time. I hope Santa Clause brings you everything you wished for and a little more on top of that. Have fun, eat, drink, and I’ll see in 2012. Tada!

Personalized phone call from Santa

Gmail team, as awesome as it is, has outdone itself. Here is a little tool they’ve created for the seasonal greetings – SendACallFromSanta.com . The idea is old but the application and execution is fresh and excellent. Basically, you just provide a bunch of information about the recipient and then gets either an audio or video message from Santa, very personalized and unique. Here is a video message that it created for my son Maxim after I answered all the questions.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lmbbO4XfQ8]

Try it yourself – it’s fun and cool!

Which day is your candidate for the Groundhog Day?

This blog post (in Russian) tells a story of a young woman that really loves the first day of winter, when the first snow falls. The author suggests that if there was a chance, this woman would have chosen the first day of winter to live through again and again, like the character of Phil, played by Bill Murray in the excellent movie “Groundhog Day“.

The author of that story also asks an interesting question. If you had a choice, which would be the day you’d choose to live through and through, like in that movie. If you could pick any day at all, which one would that be?

For me personally it is a hard choice indeed. I love and cherish every day of my life. Except for, maybe, Mondays. I’ve had plenty of excellent days over the years and I can’t really pick one of them. But if I had to, I guess I’d have to go with the 1st of January, the New Year Day. Why? Well …

I am Russian and Russian celebrate the New Year like nobody else. It’s one of the biggest holidays in our culture. We eat, we drink, we have fun, and everybody stays up until very late. Until early morning even. 1st of January is a public holiday. No matter which day of the week it is, you don’t need to go to school or work. Since everyone stayed up late, most people sleep through the morning, waking up in the afternoon. This is probably the only day when I am not standing out in this regard, when I’m not the only one who loves waking up past midday.

Oh, and then there is food and television. 31st of December is the evening of celebrations. We prepare lots of food. We call plenty of guests. We dress nicely. We behave. It’s all nice, but it’s a tiny bit too official and tiring. On the 1st of January though, it’s totally different. It’s the relax time. There is still plenty of food and drinks from yesterday. Whoever survived the drunk night is not in the mood for any official behavior. People under-dress, grab food, and spend a lot of time in front of the television watching entertainment shows or movies, taking short naps in between.

By the evening, people, and people I of course mean myself, are often recovered enough to take a short walk. Time to see friends or relative or visit the nearest pub. Slight tough upon the yesterday celebration with an attempt to reconstruct the chain of events from a collective memory. And then early bed time.

I think that year on year, 1st of January is the closest day to a perfect one. So if I had a choice to live through one day time after time after time, I’d choose that day. Gladly, of course, I actually do have a chance to do so. It’s just that I have to wait a year in between.

What day is your candidate for the Groundhog Day?

Octoberfest celebrations at Bavarian Delicatessen

Bavarian Delicatessen once again organizes an annual celebration of the Octoberfest. Coming Friday, September 30th and Saturday, October 1st, they will host an all you can eat buffet, beer, music and more beer. Since the place is small and is likely to be packed, make sure you book a table by calling either 25-747441 or 99-603051. Here is a photo of a poster hanging right outside the Bavarian Delicatessen shop right now.