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Re-listening to The Magic Flute opera, this time performed by The Royal Opera House. It truly is a bizarre piece of work.

The first half for some reason brings to mind “The Fifth Element” (Papageno<->Ruby Rhod) and the first Shrek (quite a pair there). It’s somewhat like a kindergarten round there. The motives of the characters are utterly obscure. Better not to ask questions.

The second half starts with a hint of Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”. Then initially, Pamina threatens to kill herself over unrequited love and waves a blade about, about to commit suicide, but at the last moment, three boys stop her and lead her to Tamino, and then it’s all lovey-dovey. Soon after, Papageno considers hanging himself over Papagena; again, at the last moment, the three boys intervene, Papagena appears, and all ends in lovey-dovey. An interesting message to the audience about how to act when things aren’t going as you want, to make them turn out as you desire.

Possibly, the plot looks skewed from today’s perspective: it’s packed with a huge number of hints and references that aren’t perceived now due to a different context. All those Masonic symbols, Zoroastrianism, initiations. Surprisingly, in the end, the Queen of the Night and Monostatos didn’t marry for total absurdity.

The music, of course, is beautiful, and it allows one to overlook the skewed plot.

#operasrauflikes

At the competition, Masha and Nadya receive thermoses as gifts. On the left – American size. On the right – Turkish size and Taiwan size

There were times when you could turn on the TV and not want to turn it off right away

For instance, take “Prozhektorperiskhilton”

Прожекторперисхилтон – Моя бабушка курит трубку

https://youtu.be/M81Qwa0PmYo?si=s-uJWmf4k3-9Bzuo

You can’t just take and eat a treat

Published a new article on Hybrismart about my developments in the area of Search Analytics. The idea is about how to collect data on search usage in such a way that one can extract flaws in the search configuration and product descriptions on the site. Also, when you change the settings of the search system, it’s possible to fix one thing and break another. The article describes how to monitor such changes and understand which direction they lead.

Search Analytics: Testing and Monitoring eCommerce Search

https://hybrismart.com/2024/03/07/search-analytics-testing-and-monitoring-ecommerce-search/

Currently in the studio, we are viewing the best works from the Portrait Society Competition. This is the kind of modern art I love! A couple more links in the comments

The American state of Utah has been “captured” by an invasion of tumbleweeds. The plants in huge numbers have overrun the cities.

The apocalypse has come from where it was least expected. Although everyone in Utah is accustomed to it, it’s like snow in the north during winter and tornadoes in the south.

This morning, the city greeted me with the sound of a helicopter hovering in the air and slightly blocked roads. At our city church (a huge building covering 10,000 sq.m with a hall for 2,000 people), a “celebration of life” ceremony is taking place in honor of Trevor Brown, a firefighter who died while extinguishing a house fire, followed by his funeral. The Governor of Virginia attended the ceremony, and firefighters from all over Loudoun County gathered, totaling up to 3,000 invitees. Flags are lowered throughout Virginia today in honor of Trevor.

Trevor was a volunteer at Sterling Volunteer Fire Company and was the first to respond to a “gas smell” call. There was a large 1500-liter propane tank under the house, a leak from which caused an explosion and the collapse of the house. Trevor died, and eleven others were injured, but it seems that everyone is now recovering.

The word Volunteer in the title indicates that firefighters are not paid for this kind of work, which, as we see, is associated with risks to life and health. I mean, they don’t receive money at all. Not a penny. All of them usually have some other job that they and their families live on. Serving as a firefighter is not just a job, but a matter of great pride and respect.

Besides volunteer fire stations, there are career (non-volunteer) ones. In the USA, there are over 1 million firefighters, of whom, on average, 70% are volunteers. In our county, there are 15 volunteer stations with about 600 volunteers, which makes up about 50%.