Andrei Zmievski

All good things come to an end, and thus, November 5 will be my last day at Outspark. It’s been a wild, yet fulfilling ride over the last 17 months. When I was leaving Yahoo, I wanted a challenge and to be closer to the front lines of the business, and my wish definitely came true. Yes, there have been emergencies, frustrations, downtime, and a few crazily surreal moments in the true start-up fashion. But I’m very proud of what I helped build – a virtual playground for online gamers, a destination, a community, and the company that is the leader in its field. I met a lot of great people there and made good friends and I will definitely stay in touch with all of them. Outspark has a bright and interesting future.
As for me personally, it was simply time to move on. I wanted to take some time off to chill, travel, invest some effort into personal development, and reassess my future plans. My last day almost coincides with my birthday, and it feels like a good date to start this new chapter in my life.
P.S. As you noticed, the look and structure of this site has changed. If you can’t find some page you were looking for, please let me know.

I have not posted lately, mostly because I had been busy with the phonemic analysis paper for my phonology class. Having turned that in last Thursday, I have to say that, in retrospect, I should probably have picked a language that is phonetically simpler than Danish (like Hawaiian). In any case, thanks go to Rasmus for help with the paper. I think I can finally pronounce a basic word like rød without making Danes collapse in weeping paroxysms of laughter.
Having wished for a good illustration of RAID principles, I believe this one fits the bill rather nicely. 🙂
And finally, I’ll be turning 29 on Wednesday. Time to open the bubbly and celebrate.

Yesterday I got an unpleasant surprise when I got home after work. The management of my apartment complex has left a note in my door saying that my lease is expiring in two months and that the rent is being increased $300 (about 30% from the current level). Now I know that the economy is recovering, but this seems like it’s the height of the boom again. So, I have to seriously think about looking for another place unless they agree to a more reasonable increase.
I’d like to find something fairly close to work (not more than 15-20 minutes away by car) and probably an apartment complex rather than a townhouse or a condo. Fairly close to 237/101 would be nice and a proximity to some semblance of social life even better. Any suggestions for a good place? Palo Alto is another option I guess, but may be more expensive.. Anyways, let the search start.

Yesterday I emptied out the mailbox after my trip and what do I find there but an approval notice for my application to adjust to permanent status in the United States. Translation: at last I have my green card. Afte 12 years of living here and 4.5 years of the application process, it’s a welcome sight. Now is the time to plan the big party.

Jeremy says he hired Merry Maids to clean his slobby apartment. I’ve thought a few times about trying them or a similar service, but I have a hard time getting over the idea that some strange people will come into my apartment and have fairly uninhibited access to my personal things and possibly documents (think identity theft and all that jazz). Of course, I can and will shred sensitive documents and try to lock up the valuables, but it all comes down to evaluating how much of a crimp this might put into my lifestyle versus the benefits I gain from not having to clean the place myself.

I turned 27 yesterday. According to USA Today, most people under 30 would choose this as the perfect age if they could freeze their aging process. What can I say, it feels great so far.
The older you get the less you care about making the once all important b-day special. I mainly chilled out at the coffee shop, reading a Terry Pratchett book, and later on went with a couple of co-workers for a dinner at Steamer’s in Los Gatos followed by seeing Lost in Translation. A very nice, small, sweet movie that felt perfectly suited to the night.

Over the weekend – in between helping Rasmus move to a new house and going on a kayaking trip – I upgraded my TiVo Series2 to have more recording capacity. Drive A is now a 160 GB Samsung and Drive B is the original WD 40 GB one. The process was fairly painless (at least for TiVo itself, since I managed to cut myself on sharp edges of the box twice), if a tad long – I wanted to preserve the recordings which involved mirroring the drive.
Still there were a couple of close calls: at one point I thought that mfsadd has corrupted the partitions, and the other one was getting a Green Screen of Death after assembling everything and turning it on. But now I have 195 hours of storage at Basic Quality level.. wait! no more Basic Quality! From now on, all the shows I record will be in High or Best quality, show content notwithstanding.

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.

A strange and wonderful thing happened over the weekend. I received an email from someone who turned out to be an old classmate of mine, back when I lived in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and attended School #110. Apparently she has been trying to locate me for a while now, and finally posted a message on a Russian community site with a plea for help in finding me. Some good soul saw her request, found my email address (most likely by googling), and sent it to her. So after more than 10 years, we are once again in touch, and the Internet’s claim of keeping people together is somewhat redemeed.
On another note, I finally broke down and bought a digital camera: a 4.1 megapixel Canon S45.

Don’t worry, Jeremy, I email myself all the time.