Month: June 2022

I found a moment to come to Tysons Corner. I didn’t make it inside, the entrance was blocked. Some idiot decided to open fire in the store, and now thousands of cars are hastily leaving the mall.

A helicopter, loads of police. It seems there are no casualties yet.

P.S. In the end, there was no shooting.

A guy pulled something resembling a gun, just to switch from “fighting” to “fleeing” mode. And that’s it. But just the fact that a weapon was pulled out in the mall justified an “active shooter” mode and evacuation. If they catch the guy, I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing happens to him. People carry weapons just so, in case of trouble, they have a chance to get away alive.

Do Zenit or Spartak have an official plumbing partner?

Very true! “…You can face personal challenges like not having enough money, slow career progression, or issues with the project you are working on. Quitting due to personal reasons is completely valid; however, continually complaining about them to everyone at the company is inappropriate. Additionally, you don’t need to fail spectacularly in front of ten thousand people—incessantly grumbling to even one executive about your stock grants can be almost as detrimental.

If you aim to capture everyone’s attention, ensure it’s to further the mission, not for personal advantage. Analyze the issues afflicting your project. Document thoughtful, insightful resolutions. Present these to the leadership. These solutions might not succeed, but the undertaking will at least be educational. Don’t nag, yet be persistent, choose your moments wisely, maintain professionalism, and be clear about the potential repercussions if you fail. Express your dedication to making this position work, but convey that if the issues remain unresolved, you will likely resign.”

Well, I’ve experienced it myself, how much professional labor costs in the USA. Replacing a 15-dollar capacitor, which can be removed with a screwdriver, costs 346 dollars. With the total cost of the entire half-ton unit (Air Conditioner Condenser) being 1500 dollars. Of course, 90% of the 346 dollars is the knowledge of identifying that the capacitor was indeed the cause of the observed issue. Plumbers and electricians earn similarly (thank God, I’ve managed to handle those issues myself so far)

Reading an interesting book, BUILD by Tony Fadell, co-creator of the iPad and iPhone. The chapter discusses assholes, their types, and distribution in nature as well as their strategic significance 😉 a good read

I have already mentioned that my classes are twice a week, focusing not so much on English anymore but rather on art history and history in general. Although, of course, the ultimate goal is to improve my English along with increasing my knowledge on subjects that interest me.

Yesterday we discussed Repin and Kramskoy. I learned a very interesting story about the painting “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan.”

On January 30 (17), 1913, the painting was severely slashed by a visitor, Abram Balashov, who claimed he did it “in a burst of emotion.” Soon after, Repin himself arrived from Kuokkala (now Repino), where he was living at the time.

Repin was almost seventy years old at that moment. The artist agreed to restore his painting.

It is worth noting that long before this incident, Tretyakov had stopped allowing Repin into the gallery with an easel and paints. It was normal for Repin to take an easel, enter the Tretyakov Gallery, take down his own canvas, and add what he thought necessary or sketch out what he deemed unnecessary. Tretyakov, of course, disliked this, as he purchased the paintings in what he considered their completed form, and he had subsequently asked the guards not to let the artist in with his paints.

But this time, they called him, and even with paints. And Repin went all out. Grabar writes: “When I entered the room where the painting was locked up and I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes: Ivan the Terrible’s head was completely new, freshly painted from top to bottom in some unpleasant lilac hue, terrifyingly mismatched with the rest of the painting’s palette.”

In short, afterward Grabar and Bogoslavsky had to wash off all the new art and restore it to its original state.

When several months later Repin again visited Moscow and entered the gallery with Korney Chukovsky, he was overall satisfied with the condition of the painting. The old man wasn’t told that they had washed off everything he added and had trouble restoring it to its original state.

In the 1920s, Kuokkala became part of Finland (along with Repin), and he died in 1930 without seeing “the return” of Kuokkala after World War II.

In 2018, the painting was attacked a second time. A man named Igor Podporin seriously damaged the frame and canvas with a metal barrier pole. The restoration took four years, and the result was shown to journalists, but it will only return to the museum at the beginning of next year, if the Tretyakov Gallery figures out how to protect it adequately.

I believe the next step is meaningful animations generated from narrative.

Very sad news. Gabrielyan and I worked very closely together almost ten years ago. He was actually the one who recruited me into the division.

And this is the second time, ten years later, that I receive news that my former direct manager has perished during an extreme wilderness excursion.

That’s true!

In English, there’s a special word for this pose – splooting. It’s when a dog stretches its legs after a run. For Yuki, it’s a must-do.

Similarly, words like shrugging, commute, and background cannot be translated into Russian with just one word.