Goosfraba!

I’ve recently seen awesome desktop wallpaper – a sticky note saying “Stabbing stupid people is illegal”. Too bad!

An incompetent person is hard to work with, a disorganized person as well. But when someone is both, OMG, kill me please – or the person, even better.

Although, on my hate scale this kind of people is way below someone completely stupid but believing they are the brightest ever and trying to persuade everyone around of the same.

Religion VS Faith

Ok, here I go – I am currently experiencing a religious crisis.

Approaching the 30th birthday

I realize that it is not bad at all.

I wish

I always knew God had a weird sense of humour. Just look at platypus as they jested in the Dogma. I had so much personal experience that proved the proverb “be careful what you wish for”, that I quitted making wishes whatsoever. This is the reason I like the Bedazzled so much – it’s so true!

First parking tickets In Canada

We got two of them this morning. And man, am I going to fight them!

A day full of discoveries

I have just been called an “import”

Hockey team killed in plane crash in Russia

RIP to these boys as to so many others who died or are about to...

Toastmasters International - First Speech

I recently became a member of Toastmasters International. Last night I made my first speech:

I will think about it tomorrow

The quote from the Gone With The Wind has helped me a lot in my life and I worked it out by myself. When I studied at the first university, I used to be a wonk with these panic attacks before each exam – what if I fail? The hell will break loose and I will die of shame. Mind you, I was 17 and 18 then.

Rules of my life (subject to change anytime)

These rules are partially taken from some slogans – they are a better way of expressing my feelings sometimes

Social networks phobia

It’s kind of a mass-hysteria nowadays to scream of how social networks are intruding into one’s privacy. You will always see warnings in your newsfeed telling about yet another piece of information your profile shares with the world without asking for your permission.

G Full test in Kitchener, ON route

Like I said couple of posts before, I had trouble finding the G Full drive test route for Kitchener Drive Test centre in Ontario - here it is:

Просмотреть G Full route Kitchener на карте большего размера

Sensations

I recently had one of these moments where you are so stricken by something you get into the denying mood. It’s just can’t be true you keep saying to yourself. And then, when it sinks in, you realize it is. Another thought gets through your mind that is even more unsettling – why do I care? I shouldn’t at all feel any way about it, but nevertheless, being honest to myself, I do. And that makes one feel even more uncomfortable and weird.

Summer dress code

When I started in my current job I was provided with the detailed instructions on the dress code and what a business casual outfit should look like. Not willing to appear a hypocrite, I am hereby declaring that the clothes some ladies wear at work in summer time cannot be called business casual. As a matter of fact they can hardly be called clothes at all.

Would you wear flip flops and pajama-like looking shorts with a sleeveles top to work? Some outfits look really not suitable - even for gardening in your backyard I would say. Even though dressing comfortable is a good habit, there are some limits to what should be acceptable for office wear.

un italiano vero

I do speak three languages, but Italian is not one of them. Despite this fact I've spent some time over the last two days translating parts of a contract in Italian, whereas I had to manually type the whole thing into the translator - it's saved as pdf picture and I cannot copy and paste the text. It's fascinating to some extent - where I can guess meaning of certain words. I also noticed that the typing speed increased over time. :)

My work

The longer I work for my company, the more I like it here. My new position is quite challenging, but that's what makes it interesting. I also really like people I work with - both peers and senior staff. I am also really grateful that the company decided to give me a chance to prove who I was despite of my lack of the mysterious Canadian experience.

I've been with the company for over a year - which is actually pretty impressive for me - the longest I've been employed by the same company was 1.5 years. :) I hope I will beat this record this time.

One of those days

Do you know this feeling when you are so proud and happy with yourself? I just had one of such moments where I want to stand in front of the mirror and say "Who is the smart girl? Look at yourself - you are such a smart girl!" Although, in general I am really critical about the abilities of my mind :)

Take it easy

I like people who see life as an adventure – they mostly improvise and do not spend much time planning. One of my beliefs about life is that it pays you back – when you say life sucks, it eventually does. But when you keep smiling through hardships, a ray of sun appears in the darkness.

I always smile when I see people trying to “keep their lives under control”. They remind me of the boy I met on the train ride in an amusement park. He took the seat on the “loco” and was turning the steering wheel announcing that he was actually driving the train. The right approach to life is to relax and enjoy the ride :)

Drive test route in Kitchener, ON

Tomorrow I am going to the drive test to get my G Full license. I mixed up the appointment time and was left without a training from the local instructor. Main use of instructors is to see and get to know the route. So that you know speed limits, signs, lights etc. I tried to find the route description on the Web instead. Seems like there is a conspiracy of instructors of some kind – there is no detailed description of the route anywhere. The only thing I could find was the number of Highway – 7 – they take you to during the test. No more.

My friend who took the test about a year ago provided more details – I am going to drive that route couple of times tonight: Ottawa Street from Drive Centre (1405) left to Highway 7 – exit at Victoria Street – Bruce Street – Frederick Street – Edna Street – back to the Highway 7, exit at Ottawa Street – turn right into some residential area – go around, do some of the exercises – parallel parking, three-point turn, emergency stop – return to the Drive Centre – park there.

I will share more details and write a full report tomorrow – no matter how I do in the test!

Vacation plans

I’ve heard that one becomes a real Canadian when one starts planning their vacation long ahead and that is the biggest challenge of the year. Seems like we are getting there. At least we started planning our mid-August vacation now – which is well ahead to me and it is a real challenge to put those plans together.

Our current plan is a big and costly one – going to Italy on a tour that includes Rome, Siena, Napoli, Pompeii, Florence, Pisa, Genoa, Milan, and Venice. We have 12 days for the trip booked in our calendars. Now we are trying to figure out the least expensive option of fulfilling it – that is quite a challenge I must say, but a pleasant and exciting one so far.

I miss Italy badly since I went there once when I was 15 or so. It’s one of the several places I want to come back to – one, where a part of my soul was left behind and the rest of it yearns for reunion ever since.

The Big Wedding

Many Canadians are crazy about the royal wedding - it's been on the news forever, some people are going to get up at 4 am to watch it live, most channels are going to broadcast it. No wonder they are coming to Canada on honeymoon!

As for me, I used to be a fun of Diana back in my teens, I cried when she died. I am also the same age as the prince - so I thought it kind of romantic back then.

But I've grown up since then. I might watch parts of the wedding afterwards and take a look at the pictures out of sheer curiosity. But I won't pay 25 bucks for a pillow with the picture of the prince and princess-to-be. I also won't give up sleep for a doubtful pleasure of watching the wedding live. I can understand the passion of watching a race or a game live - anything with an upredictable outcome. Guess what's the outcome of the wedding? They'll get married - surprise!!!

All this fever is a commercial arrangement to get money out of those believing in fairy tale. But it takes so much faith after a decade of the miserable divorce and poisonous counter-accusations to still believe in this great and shiny royal nobleness. They are people just like the rest of us. And there is something barbarian in the idea of turning living people into a tradition.

And a bonus:

Life is like a box of chocolates

There is a number of movies I can watch over and over again without getting tired of them. The list contains a number of Russian movies as well as certain American films. Erin Brockovich is on it. But Forrest Gump is number one favourite. There is such a mix of funny and touchy episodes and deep emotion and drama, that I cannot find any better composition anywhere. It is entertaining and thought-provoking, relaxing and educating at the same time.

"And you, Miss, are no lady" :)

Do you know this feeling – as if you are walking on a thin spring ice fearing that you will break it and fall into icy water at any moment? That’s how I sometimes feel when communicating with ladies. You never know what might be on their mind at the moment, how they may react to something that sounds totally neutral to you… I may not be the most empathic person in the world, and being a thick-skinned person myself I might expect the same from the others.

I also noticed that I am not an observational person in the female way either – I hardly ever notice things like new haircuts or clothes. After some exposure to female colleagues I trained myself to try my best in it. But I’ve never been natural in it.

The qualities listed above have made it easier for me to communicate with men than women. I am feeling more comfortable in a world where yes means yes and not maybe or no depending on the circumstances. I may lack unpredictability some men praise in women, but I prefer reason over spontaneity. I also like certainty better than obscurity – it’s always good to know the facts to be able to make decision and move, no matter how bad and unpleasant they may be.

I am not saying that I prefer male company over female. It’s just that I am now trying to befriend females who like me prefer reason over charades. Life’s too short to spend it on guessing what others might think or feel – just say it! :)

Global warming, huh?

My English blog seems to be pretty abandoned – I hope to improve at it.

When I looked out of my bedroom window earlier this morning and saw snow yet again, I felt really pissed off. It’s almost May and the weather is ridiculous! (Yey! I spelled it right!) We have the housewarming party the day after tomorrow and were kind of planning outside activities – I cannot believe that we were so naïve to plan something for outside for the end of April!!!

And they say Russia is a cold country!

Karma issue

I never understood people who were triumphant at the death of others. Like those celebrating 9/11 or the recent disaster in Japan – I just saw pictures where Americans were posting something like tsunami=Pearl Harbor, it’s karma on their Facebook pages totally forgetting that there was Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing on their part. But this is not the point.

My point is – how screwed should a person be to be happy about somebody’s grief and misfortune? No matter what you think of the country, its policy or history – how can a human being be jubilant about a death and suffering of their own kind where those in pain and need did not do anything bad to you?

I feel like agreeing with the saying “the more I know men, the more I love dogs” – cats in my case.

Rain is a good thing?

There is a country song where they say so, but the more days of rain we get, the more I tend to disagree with it.

I have not given up my blog as you might have thought – it’s just that we are now preparing for moving to our new home – our first house in Canada – and that is a very time-consuming process. It is very exciting and a totally new experience for both of us, but really exhausting at the same time.

I also applied for and got another position with the company I work for, Alex found a job as well and we are still adapting to these changes. One day I will try to put down a whole report on the moving experience, but now I am just not up to it. :)

Terrorist attack in Moscow airport

I don't want to speculate who might be responsible for another bombing in Moscow. I will just refer you to Wikipedia table showing terrorist attacks by countries (scroll the page down) - if you search for Russia, you will find 23 attacks during the last 20 years - now they are 24. Seems like countries like Pakistan, India and Israel - where there is a conflict of some kind going on - can only claim the same frequency.
I remember too well 1999 when I was not able to sleep fearing that our apartment building might be the next one to explode - and I have never been a person with rich imagination. I also remember that one of my close friends overslept one day and missed the subway train that exploded - she was on the next train actually. I wish I did not have such memories!
One more thing - my mom is arriving at that airport next Monday - it was our luck that we did not order the tickets for a week earlier, wasn't it?

Education and healthcare in Russia

Education in Russia

Standards of education in Russia have hugely decreased over the last 10 years. I am not talking about Western Education here – since I only had a limited exposure to it. But I have graduated from 2 Russian Universities, one of them being one of the top-3 in Russia. I got both diplomas with honor but I am not proud of it – because whereas I had to study hard in both cases to get there, many of other students got the same results by bribing and ass-licking. It did not feel right when students get good marks just for regular attendance – a common case in Russian universities.

There is an opinion that Russian school education provides broader knowledge foundation compared to the West. Since my first education was in teacher’s training, I know pretty well that nowadays it is extremely rare that those who did well in their studies go on to teach in schools. There were about 30 students in our group, only about 5 of them went on to teach in school, most of them had bad marks and were far from knowledgeable in their subject.

There was a moment in my life 2 years ago when I was so tired of hard exploitation at my office with lots of overtime work and no gratitude for it from management, that I went to school I graduated from – mind you it was a Moscow school with in-depth German study – these are considered almost elite schools in Russia – and offered my services as English and German teacher. The principal offered me an administrative job as head of educational activities in out-of-school hours as well as part-time teaching English and German. She promised me lots of interesting activities and independence in the position. I liked the sound of it – until I heard the price tag. I would get 22,000 RUB which is about 700 USD – at that time my basic salary in office work was 48,000 and with overtime payments I was getting 60,000 and there were different bonuses paid as well. We were paying 28,000 RUB rent for a bachelor apartment in Moscow – so you can imagine what I thought about the idea of taking the job. The only way out from this according to the principal, were private lessons that I could be teaching and although they are not officially allowed, everyone did turn a blind eye on them.

Russian healthcare

There are doctors in Russia who do not charge bribes and treat patients well anyway – my classmate’s mom is a good friend of our family and head of department in Moscow hospital – she is one of these doctors herself. But there are also many others who won’t do anything unless bribed – and I do not judge them for it – with the funny salary they have it’s their way of surviving, I do not mind help them in this. Though I do mind the Government making them act the way.

There is a nice quote from Stalin the Government must be following “We will not increase doctors’ and teachers’ salaries – a good doctor and teacher can take care of themselves and we do not need bad doctors and teachers, do we?”. To me it sounds bizarre but what do I know!

Happy New Year!

No, I am not crazy! It’s the Old New Year in Russia – since Russia used another calendar (and Russian Orthodox still do) that is 13 days behind the rest of the world, there is a tradition to celebrate this holiday as well.

We got our kind of present last night - we thought that we were paying our real estate agent for her services certain percentage of the list price of our house-to-be - but as I discovered yesterday, we are not - which is a discovery worth $ 7,000 - I wish I made more discoveries like this one!

I also found a great deal today - I was dreaming of subscription for The Economist for a while, even looked at their promotions yesterday, but they were too expensive to me. But today I saw this special offer, where you get first 12 issues for $12 and pay $36 per 3 months after that. However, when I tried to sign up, it did not work in the beginning - since the offer was a US-only deal. I was disappointed and was closing the window, when a pop-up appeared stating that there is a similar offer in Canada, but I will have to pay CAD 15 for the first 12 issues, which I thought still was a great deal and subscribed for it. Yey!

Sacral truth about women

I so totally agree with the quote:

There can be 3 things wrong with a woman:
1. She is not being fu...ed
2. She is being fu...ed in the wrong way
3. She is being fu...ed by the wrong guy

Any other problems are derived from these three. I just got another confirmation for this.

Hobbies

From a very young age I had different hobbies all the time. I am not the kind of person that can collect stamps all their life once started. Maybe it’s attention deficit disorder but I don’t mind it this way. I’ve been to dancing, drama, karate, typing and many other classes while at school. But neither of them lasted long. I was always on something new and fascinating in the next moment. Never felt obliged to keep to one thing and try and achieve some level of skills.

Same was and is true with music, movies and books. I don’t prefer some specific genre – there are many of those I enjoy from time to time. You can find Tolstoy and J.K. Rowling’s books on my bookshelves, I can watch some serious dramas one day and silly comedies another and enjoy both likewise. My approach to hobbies is to try as many as you can, to switch between them depending on the mood and I don’t believe in the concept of the One – the best, the most attractive and suitable for me. I change so do my affections, taste and habits. So should my hobbies as well to match my current self.

There was always a wish list of hobbies I’d like to try one day – these are painting, writing and singing. I still hope that I might do that one day. Well, I will give up writing eventually – I guess I just lack something in my brain to be able to make up stories.

As for the present, when we were at cottage celebrating New Year, I found a book by Maeve Binchy – Irish author – Whitethorn Woods – it is a slow, easy-going book, a typical female reading – romantic, a bit naïve, but still enjoyable. It is more like set of short stories, than a novel, I usually don’t like such plots, but not in this case. I like to sit with my e-book under warm blanket with the cat lying at my feet and enjoy winter evenings.

Patriotism issues

This post is inspired by a Canuck who wrote on my friend’s Facebook page "Listen , and I am serious about this ... I was born here so I have a RIGHT to say this... YOU were born in Russia , yes maybe you are a citzen of Canada but YOU are FIRST Russian second Canadian and its disgusting that you as a early immigrant to MY country.....So listen ... You are first RUSSIAN...second Canadian...and please dont confuse this shit..” replying to her comments that she supported team Canada in its game against Russians.

There are idiots everywhere – that is one of the proofs for that. Another one is for example when another friend of mine heard from his Canadian neighbor “Go back where you came from” as a reply in an argument. When people start using things like these it only shows that their IQ is dangerously close to zero and that they are not able to come up with a reasonable discussion instead.

I want to share my ideas of patriotism here – being proud of your country, its history, achievements, culture etc is good and right. However, it’s dangerous at the same time. It’s like being religious – when one gets emotional about something, it’s easier to manipulate such person. There is indeed nothing wrong about believing that if you do good deeds in your life, you will get your reward later on. But once someone tells you “your prophet/God is wrong/does not exist” things may turn nasty.

Same with patriotic moods – politicians have been using them forever over the history to better control people and to achieve their goals and ambitions. Abuse of any feelings is a dirty play, but a very efficient one. Hence the only way to avoid being a puppet is to ask yourself “Who is the profiteer in the situation?” – there is a Russian saying going “When the stars got lit, it means, somebody needs it” - let’s not get influenced and keep clear mind in any situation! Since “if you don’t control emotions, emotions will control you”.

As for the immigration issues – indeed we came to Canada from somewhere else. But one cannot say “nobody invited us here” unless someone arrived illegally – government representing people set rules for immigrants to be able to come to the country – meaning there was mutual interest in the deal – we wanted to come to the country, it wanted us to come. I don’t believe in public charity, I am sorry. Hence Canada had its reasons to let us come and now we have the right to stay and try our best to become part of it. I am not saying as some do “Canada owes me now that it let me in”, I am saying that I can stay and try to set up a new life for my family and myself here. That is part of a deal, nobody promised it would be easy, the only promise was this opportunity. And I am indeed grateful for it.

Popularizing my blog

Not that I am fame-thirsty or anything, but the stats on my blog are really upsetting - the graph looks like a dying's person ECG! I guess I should spend more time posting some dirty stuff interesting texts in here...

The only problem to solve now is to decide on what might be interesting...

Can someone help me out with this? Not that I am desperate to read all those "5 ways to popularize your blog" manuals, so do not send me to google, but if you have some topics that you would like to read about, I would be glad to know.