Andrei Zmievski

Ah, the wonderful idioms of the English language..I have to admit that sometimes I catch myself saying one and then thinking, “Was that right? Is it really jumping at the bit?” In fact, that’s how I found the referenced page, by searching for an idiom that I butchered mercilessly. Oh well, no skin off my teeth.
Now reading: Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and a posthumous collection of Douglas Adam’s writings Salmon of Doubt.

Some “fashion” trends are sure to pass me by completely. Good riddance. But I’ve got a vintage pair of coveralls for any interested hipsters.. Comes pre-covered in paint stains. Bidding to start soon.

I came to conclusion that my bookshelf and entertainment center, made of black metal and bought cheaply a few years ago, served their purpose and I needed something better. It took me a while to look through miriad offerings out there and settle on something that was functional and pleasant to look at: a bookcase from Scandinavian Designs and a TV bench/audio tower combo from Bell’O. I enjoy putting together furniture, and this kept me busy for a couple of days, but now I have this and this. Maybe I could do this furniture-assembling as a side job?
Next step is the update of the home theatre system.

I had always wanted to see the Mediterranean, and I finally got my wish. Earlier this year, while still at FAST, I booked a 14 day Mediterranean Highlights tour with Contiki, a company that organizes and conducts tours all over the world for 18-35 year olds. The time I picked was the middle of July, and actually it worked out quite nicely with my relocation and change of jobs since I started at Yahoo! right after the vacation.
The tour started in Madrid, progressed through Barcelona, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo, Florence, and ended in Rome. We traveled by bus and spent 1-2 days in each city with shorter stops along the way. We had about 50 people altogether, including the tour manager and the driver. I must say that our group was simply great – very friendly, funny, and affable people from many different countries: Australia, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, USA, and so on. We had a lot of fun on this trip and saw most of the famous sights, all of which is detailed in the pictures I took with my new Canon S45 camera. I would do it again in a second and recommend you try out one of these tours yourself.

Full Disclosure mailing list had a posting by Bill Borton who made the best “What If Microsoft Made Cars” analogy that I have seen on the Net.

Jeremy is a fellow book nut. I love the smell of books, that distinct combination of wood pulp and ink that assaults you when you walk into a bookstore. Almost every weekend I head out to one and browse through the shelves, picking up books, thumbing through them, reading the first paragraph and a few in the middle, in hopes of finding a true gem. I also have a long reading list that I accumulated from various sources, but it should probably be revised. Sometimes I struggle with what book I should read next – there are so many and so little time. How do you figure out which one is worth spending your time on? Recommendations only go so far. I have literally thrown away some highly recommended books because I could not stand them, and at other times I could literally pick a random one up and go through it in one sitting. I would be interested to hear what approaches people have to organizing their reading list and how they discover new books.