Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev.

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.

This time, during a walk with Yuki, we encountered an eastern box turtle. Its unique feature is that the plastron of its shell has a hinge, which allows it to completely close its “house” from predators.

Also, I was bitten by a tick for the third time recently. It’s the same type as before, romantically named “lone star tick.” Fortunately, it doesn’t transmit Lyme disease, but in rare cases, the bite can cause an incurable meat allergy (alpha gal). Every piece of pork, beef, or any other red meat in such cases can at least cause nausea, vomiting, pain, sneezing, and a runny nose, and at worst, can lead to suffocation requiring emergency assistance. I hope I’m lucky this time too and everything will be fine, and I won’t become an unwilling vegetarian.

(eng below) To save some money, I opted for a used iFetch on eBay at a quarter of the price instead of buying a new one. Turned out it had a burnt-out motherboard but still had working sensors, a motor, and relays. No big deal: I swapped in an Arduino for the guts, and now it’s got a USB tail. The ball speed is controllable, and there’s potential for adding all sorts of cool features. The Arduino script is in the comments (you can’t get simpler than that). It took about four hours in all. It will take Yuki even longer to figure out how to place the ball in there, especially the electronic parts.

I took a bit of a shortcut and bought a second-hand iFetch which turned out defective. The motherboard was fried, but the mechanical components, sensors, and motors were fine. I decided to replace the original board with an Arduino, and after four hours, it was up and running like new. The Arduino script and ongoing project details are in the comments. It will take Yuki some time to learn how to operate it, might even take a while to get the hang of the electronics.

#MomentsOfTheDay

Meow

This is an American Bullfrog. Found near the pond in our neighborhood. Bullfrogs are generally eaten in North America because they have a lot of meat and can grow up to 10 inches (25 cm) in length and up to a pound (450 g) in weight. It’s name in Russian is “лягушка-бык”, in Ukrainian it is “Велика зелена жаба”

Who’s the boss of the pond?

Yuki thinks that waking up before 9am should be illegal. He can rise and shine but just not at the same time. Ok, ok, Yuki added, actually, mornings are wonderful. Their only drawback is that they come at such an inconvenient time of day! Elizaveta Alieva, do you agree?

This geese family is always near the pond so the goslings have been growing before my eyes. We see each other several times a day. Yuki and I keep our distance because we have already learned (a few times) that the geese act rather aggressively to protect their young if they feel the goslings are threatened. I never thought the birds may be so courageous and even fearless. They are always together. It’s so cute;)

By the way, there are a bunch of (likely) new English nouns for you: the collective noun for a group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; when in flight, they are called a skein, a team, or a wedge; when flying close together, they are called a plump. But to be frank I have never heard any of these words from anyone.