初キス

今日のエントリーは、ちょっと恥ずかしいかもしれない。

昨日、昔の頃について友達と話をした。彼女はどうしてか初キスの事を話に持ち出した。「初キスなんて絶対忘れはしない」と彼女は言った。

その瞬間、私は初キスの事を覚えていないことに気付いた。
正直に「私は覚えていない」と言ったら、友達に「あなたはマジで変だ」と言われた。

それから考え始めた。
もしかして私は本当に変なのかもしれない。
普通はその事を大切にすべきだ。

まる一日考えた後、けっきょく初キスのことを思い出した。
どうしてすぐに思い出さなかったんだろう。

悪い記憶じゃなかったから、思い出して当然なのに。
たぶん、私は変な女だ。

~かねない

冬に暖かい服装をしていないと、酷い風邪を引くことになりかねない。

more for ~かねない:

彼はどんな悪事でもやりかねない。
彼ならそれくらいの事はいいかねない。
彼は望む物を手に入れるためには人をもだましかねない。

bowling / боулинг в Блокбастере

Yesterday I was out with friends and close to midnight we happened to pay a visit to one of 'entertainment' complexes (huge buildings with restaurants, cinemas, clubs, etc.

Surprisingly at 23:30 there were no movies available, so we decided to spend an hour in bowling. 

A mistake.

As far as I remembered from previous times, that precise bowling was supposed to be ok. But it wasn't.

 

 

 

At the photo of bowling balls you can have a glimpse of how awful they were: some had indentations 1cm deep (how one can do that to a bowling ball, for god's sake? it's as hard as rock) and most were greasy and sleak on the outside and inside. We had trouble throwing them, because they tried their best to slip from your hands - and I actually lost a lot of points because ball would slip form my hand at the swing. 

To hell with points, but I also hurt my hand because of that. It started to ache and last 15 minutes I played with my left hand (you remember that I'm re-taught lefty?).

Another con for that bowling clubs is the fact that they have small amount of balls less than 10kg - and those you can find have holes so narrow even my fingers can't fit in. 

It was also hard on me because usually I prefer 8kg balls, but had to deal with 10/11/12kg ones. 

Some girls around us were throwing 6kg balls from their lap, like children throw balls to one another - apparently because they didn't want to lift 10kg ones and couldn't grab 6kg ones any other way. 

It wasn't a very happy ending for the evening, I can tell you.  A shame. A shame for a place. It used to be ok.

But they charged pretty good money for that hour - 240hrn or $30.

aircrafts

what always amused me in air transportation is that you can travel to another part of the world in several hours.
it feels kinda weird to be in one region in the morning and arrive in another in the afternoon.

ニックネームと自信

今年、可笑しい事に気づき始めました。 

隣りの子供たちは、愛称をぜんぜん使っていないみたいです。 いつも相手の名前を略さずに呼んでいます。 

例えば私が子供の頃、家族と友達はいつも私を愛称で呼んでいました。 それで私も友達のことをその友達が賛成した愛称で呼んでいました。愛称で呼んだら、今直ぐ同情心があるの気がした、それとも「他人じゃない」の態度で話をしました。

 

両親が愛称を使わなければ、私は何らかの迷惑をかけたとわかりました。 

私たちは、友達の呼び方をたくさん知っていました。 別の状況で別の呼び方を使い分けました。 

愛称について今の両親の意見が違っているかもしれません。 

私には三歳の姪がいるので、兄嫁にその問題を聞いみました。 

「子供を愛称で呼ぶと、子供の自信が減る」の理論は人気があるみたいです。

 嘘でしょ。 

自信と愛称の関係は何ですか。 

愛された子供が自信を持つ子供だと思いませんか。

愛称は、どうかこの責任を持っているという意見で、両親は細かい事を心配している・・・大事な事より心配しています。 

学校でも「愛称を使うのは反対」という両親がいるの、先生と喧嘩するぐらい・・・ 

ほとんど信じられない話だけど、本当です。 

まったく、人間はおろかな者でしょ。 何かがいいとなれば、「真実だ」と結論に到達します。

ロシア語には、愛称がいつも存在しました。 現在、何が変わったの。

relatives

had an interesting conversation today. ofc half of it was said jokingly

we've discussed who can be considered a relative, and my opponent said that only a person related by blood is considered a relative.
i indicated that by this logic children would be considered relatives, while a husband wouldn't.
my opponent said, well, then husband is considered a relative too, but only he and people connected by blood.
then i asked what if one had several husbands?
it appears that the one you love the most is considered a relative :)

such a relative term it is, 'relatives' :)

extract from skype conversation

[...] for example today i saw sci-fi earth in my dream, earth 40 years after meeting other sapient life in galaxy, they only started showing up at earth.

The otherworldly species were pretty much like humans, but they had more developed DNA, some telepathy and such and they regarded us like 'little stupid brothers'.
i was talking to one.

i was irritated by his attitude.

and he was saying that everywhere he went he met ppl who didn't like looked down upon, but to fix that mankind should evolve
ntn else to do if u r really inferior to someone
and also they brought their own mafia down to earth, the worst representatives came to earth to make a living from exploiting idiots
sth like that
u can imagine that society.

it was also mentioned that since we can't cross-breed, lots of human girls are employed as prostitutes [...]

Probably that dream was inspired by the madness that's going on in this country - the damned Euro 2012. When it ends I'd be relieved.

People who come here for Euro must perceive us the same way as above-mentioned visitors from another planet. Lol. It does feel like we live on another planet sometimes.

Ukrainian realities

Ukrainian realities:

people who have survived WWII cannot find means to survive in 'free democratic Ukraine'

people who have survived USSR repressions cannot find means to survive in 'free democratic Ukraine'

'children of Ukraine' who experienced hunger in early 1990's are scared their children would experience the same thing soon

re-distribution

One gets mixed feeling upon stumbling on something he/she created (we're talking about paid work atm) for someone on someone else's website.
The first reaction is 'Hey, wtf, that's mine! They stole my work!'. Then you understand that even if they did, they stole it from that someone who paid you to do it. And if they don't care, why should you?

Un cadeau d'anniversaire

J'ai eu des ennuis au sujet du cadeau d'anniversaire que je souhaitais offrir à mon ami.
J'avais acheté pour cette occasion un e-book en offre limitée. C'est pourquoi j'ai dû l'acheter à l'avance. Cependant on ne peut échanger les articles au magasin uniquement dans les quinze jours suivant l'achat.

J'ai tenté de convaincre mon ami qu'il accepte mon cadeau trois jours avant l'anniversaire, afin qu'il puisse le teste, et l'échanger en cas de problème.

Mais il est devenu en rage tout en me le refusant.

Je suppose que c'était une mauvaise idée. Mais je ne vois pas pourquoi il est si important de recevoir des cadeaux précisément le jour de l'anniversaire.

酒と喫煙

あなたは、どんな飲み物が好きですか。この場合の「好き」は、よく飲むという意味です。

この国の若者たちはソーダとビールが大好きです。この人たちは大人になって、ビールはウォッカに変わります。
ウォッカでも、別の酒でも、結果は一つです。全体的に、ウクライナの市民は酒を飲み過ぎる傾向があります。

理由はマスカルチャーと消費社会論だと思います。ウクライナでは牛乳はビールより高いです。牛乳1リットルは1.25ドルぐらいで、ビール一瓶は1ドルぐらいです。よく探したら安いビール1リットルは牛乳の値段で買えます。

そしてジュースは、ソーダの値段の二倍です。普通の消費者の感覚では、ソーダ2リットルにはジュース1リットルより得です。
それで不健康な習慣をつけられます。

後で、悪い習慣を取り除く事はとても難しいです。

ウクライナの道で１４歳の子供たちがシガレットを持ってビールを飲む事を見たら、驚かないでください。酒と喫煙はウクライナの若者たちの罪です。

Steampunk

Finished reading Kady Cross 'The girl in the steel corset'  and 'The girl in the clockwork collar'. Still trying to find proper steampunk books I guess.
Anyhow it was OK and even enjoyable in some parts, so I think author deserves her kudos. If she'd stayed true to 'more steampunk, less romance' line in second volume, it'd be even good. Good book.
As it is I can recommend only first volume, since it's more fun reading and story flow is generic, while in 2nd book it is a bit... artificial. You almost can feel author's tension to come up with next scene. May be a result of over-editing, though.
Who knows. 
Hm, but I like the cover of the 2nd book better :)
The concept of the world is good, though. Kudos. 

This one is closer to definition of steampunk than series i recently finished - Parasol Protectorate by Geil Carriger [Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, Timeless] - but nevertheless not quite steampunk enough.

More jokes in this arrangement of books, but also less sense and more vampires and werewolves, which don't really fit into my perception of steampunk. Oh yeah and too much detail on CLOTHES. Really, the writer must have prized her wardrobe research, but to me it all was just blah-blah-blah dress. Provide illustrations, if you want people to crave for it :)
Also these series are a bit special because when I was reading it I had a strong feeling it was written somewhere right after WW II. Figures, the last book only came out in 2012. Lol. After giving it some thought, I decided not to judge whether it is a good or bad thing.Speculating is pointless. It wasn't the language, though, but ... the contents? Not the old-wrodly charm you can find in works of classics of 20th century, no, just ... something that gave a feeling of it being old. Can't ascertain what it was.

reviews for $5

And this http://fiverr.com/gigs/search?query=reviews+kindle&x=0&y=0 is a LOL.
Nothing too amazing, if u think about it. But gives some perspective.

Though... $5? Really?

Brightest Galaxy Ever Seen With Gravity Lens Shines in Hubble Photo [from space.com]

Brightest Galaxy Ever Seen With Gravity Lens Shines in Hubble Photo [from space.com]

The distant galaxy is 10 billion light-years away from Earth and is seen through a so-called gravitational lens created by a massive cluster of closer galaxies located about 5 billion light-years away. What gravitational lens are is explained using the image above.

Original image:

 Full story here at space.com

Finished reading Alma Katsu - The Taker

Finished reading Alma Katsu - The Taker

.
Still have no idea why i even bothered reading it to the end.
Maybe because it is a 'best-seller'. Or because it was heavily marketed.
My impression: putting all the sexual content aside, it could be about four times shorter and not a dime less interesting. Not to mention that it wasn't THAT interesting.
The story can be put like this: not very bright, but courageous and 'open-minded' village girl of 19th century is haunted by her attraction to unworthy, but handsome and rich playboy that takes pleasure in toying with women. As a result of succumbing to the temptation(which makes one third of the book) she gets banished by her family and sent to the big city's monastery to have her illegitimate child. But upon her arrival to the city she is forced into prostitution by rich noble, who later takes her as a private lover - an immortal sex slave.
She begins to lead a life of expensive whole and kind of enjoys it. Her master is cruel, but strongly attracted to her; she even loves him for some time.
Figures, the master is an alchemist that discovered the secret of immortality by switching bodies with young men. And as he sets to have his next victim be the playboy heroine still loves, she takes action to get rid of her master and free all the slaves - and the father of her unborn child
Though, in the end, playboy ditches her again and flees to live his immortal (by this time) life without her. He never loved her and all her sacrifices were for nothing.
So, the whole idea of the book was that no matter how she desired for her lover to care for her, it wasn't possible to make him care. In the end he stayed as self-indulgent and selfish as he was in the beginning, so everything she went through was for nothing.
Mad temptation isn't a good thing. Illusions about men aren't either.
Add to this accent on 'intimate life'. . .
All of that on 448 pages in hardcover, if amazon is to be believed. Published September 2011.

Still, it was mostly my stubbornness that kept me reading it. I don't like throwing out books or stopping reading in the middle. Yet, it was almost the case.
Sex sells, eh?