Diary

Блок Турб

2008-04-25T21:55:00.001-07:00

Знакомая из Турции привезла как сувенир. Не жуются, и вкладыши фиговые, а ведь когда-то 100 рублей в коммисионке на проспекте Молодежи и недосегаемая мечта любого нормального советского пацана.

Дворы

2008-04-25T20:09:00.000-07:00

Я только сейчас сообразил, почему в Штатовских городах не так уютно, как в наших или, скажем, в болгарских. Тут не бывает дворов, тут все двери выходят прямо на улицу. Есть backyards, но это дворики в частных домах. Есть проходы между многоэтажками. Есть задние улицы. А вот задних дворов нет. Мне долго было непонятно, почему Торонто всего за один день показалось домашнее Бостона, в котором я уже четыре года. В Торонто можно пройти дворами, они там есть. А тут нет.

Билеты из Штатов домой

2008-04-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

В смысле, ко мне домой:

Moldova House
Answer Travel

Два мешка риса в одни руки

2008-04-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

Поеду в Кишинев, рисом запасусь, солью, сухарями и спичками.

"Sam's Club, a chain owned by retail giant Wal-Mart, announced Wednesday it was placing a limit of four 20-pound (nine-kilogram) bags per person for imported jasmine, basmati and long grain white rices as a "precautionary step.""

А, и вот, под руку попало.

Небритое лицо КазИнвестБанка

2008-04-06T22:15:00.001-07:00

Банк. Фотка. (in English)

Soviet Arcades

2007-12-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

Pictures of Soviet arcade machines.

Numa Numa - Japan Edition

2007-05-25T14:57:00.001-07:00

Boyfriend

2007-05-23T00:24:00.001-07:00

Фотки Булика

2006-12-11T17:28:00.000-08:00

Я не помню, было это или нет, но вот вам старые фотки Булы.

Диафильмы как ПауерПойнт

2006-11-21T20:05:00.000-08:00

Кто-то переснял кучу диафильмов и залил как слайды PowerPoint-а. Осталось проектор с работы взять и потолок побелить.

Alice in Wonderland Illustrations by Chris Appelhans

2006-11-13T21:16:00.000-08:00

more here

AUBG Live Webcam

2006-10-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

Three webcams, actually. Enjoy while it lasts.

AUBG Floor Maps

2006-10-04T22:20:00.000-07:00

Found the entire set of maps of AUBG's main building. Anyone wants to build a Counter-Strike mod?

Boston Bubbles

2006-08-25T15:52:00.000-07:00

Someone poured washing detergent into the Copley fountain today so the whole place turned into a giant bubble bath.

Maxim's Top Ten Video Game Toilets

2006-08-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

People know that abroad McDonald's has great toilets and plan their sightseeing trips accordingly. But computer games? Maxim guides us through video games' ten best restrooms.

A Collection of Soviet Music

2006-08-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Marches, odes and other cool aural legacy of the Evil Empire at sovmusic.ru

Master (of puppets)

2006-08-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Defensive

2006-08-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

Here's what a defended MSc thesis looks like, in three acid-free copies. 70+ pages in single space, Times New Roman 12pt, 200+ references and 6 months of life.

Home Improvement, Part IV

2006-08-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

The apartment is almost done. More pictures to come when the mess is cleaned up, but that's what one of the rooms looks like.

Stalker On Pre-Order

2006-08-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

Can't believe the wait is almost over: STALKER is on pre-order on Amazon. It's a $50-game that will cost hundreds of bucks in hardware upgrade for my PC to be able to run it.

Office Space

2006-08-05T02:19:00.000-07:00

Home Improvement, Part III

2006-07-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

Done painting ceilings, walls, and part of the trim. Tomorrow we will have contractors sanding the floor. Here's the progress on the bathroom so far.

Before:

After:

Home Improvement, Part II

2006-07-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

Jotted down a floor plan in Visio (click pic to zoom in) before heading over to Home Depot to buy paint. Since all rooms will be done in different colors, figuring out the amount of paint took forever. Not drawn to exact scale, but pretty accurate. Also gives you an idea of what walls will be what color. We bought Behr paint, attracted by their great interactive tool for color coordination. It turns out it lays down nicely, covering almost everything in one coat even without priming. Images of our progress tomorrow -- we have quite a few walls done already, but taking an academic break today.

De-cockroaching went strangely. I got six cans of fogger, which filled the apartment entirely, and let the stuff ventilate overnight. No cockroaches on the floor next morning, though. The only insect we found was a dead fly. Hope it's because there were none to start with.

Retro Ads for Japanese Psychiatric Drugs

2006-07-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

An amazing collection of Japanese ads for psychiatric drugs. This one is for Serenace (haloperidol) for treating schizophrenia. Very Pink Floydish.

Home Improvement, Part I

2006-07-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

We are signing a lease tomorrow on a rather large 3-bedroom apartment. We got it for a very good price but in return we are responsible for rennovating its entire 1500 square feet. We have two weeks to get at least the floors done.

Here's what we've got:

Spacious and sunny living room with totally worn out hardwood floors and walls in a desperate need of paint. Two bedrooms, #2 and #3, are across the long hallway from each other, #3 is connected to the living room with double sliding doors.

The bathroom looks horrible and will probably be among the biggest expenses. Besides washing everything, we need a new floor (tile? vinyl?), the ceiling needs to be fixed and walls -- painted. I think we'll make it pink.

The kitchen is big and doesn't look bad at all. The most urgent job is to paint the walls behind the counters, stove and fridge, as well as those ugly door frames.

Dining room is a nice extra.

Bedroom #1. Looks the worst of all three. We'll need to pick a bright calm color to make it look bigger and lighter.

First steps:
1. Kitchen clean-up. The fridge stinks like hell and there are food crumbs all over the cabinets.
2. De-cockroaching. We plan to bomb the place with Raid Fogger -- the weapon ultimate of mass cockroach destruction.

This should be a fun project and I'll keep the journal updated on our progress. Any furniture/decoration tips are welcome.