it's getting weirder and weirder to post here on LJ. I read my friends' list everyother day, and comment occasionally, but then I click on “post something new” and freeze. It's not helping that I cannot concentrate when I am at the computer – so many things to do – my mind frazzles. I mean, I don't post in any of my blogs, the only thing I am somewhat active is facebook, which I use as Twitter and Instagram, for snippets and pictures. Without posting in actual Twitter or Instagram.

My time is all taken with kids, and household, and worries about all kinds of stuff. I do read and occasionally watch something, but it always feels that I don't have anything particularly interesting to say.

Daniel is in the third grade now, reads a lot, in Russian and English, plays chess, just started being in a swim team (not a very good swimmer, really). He sweet and kind, and occasionally very anoying. Doing homework is torture for everyone involved, but I think that what most kids are with their homework.

George is 19 months, and he is extemely adorable.

Still, motherhood is the most terrifying occupation ever. I am like a sapper, leading kids through a minefield that never ends.

Best thing watched recently

Ant-Man. It was fun, and I was out with my husband alone first time since George was born. I read all the criticisms, and they are valid, but the movie was fun, it had Paul Rudd in it, and Evangeline Lilly was awesome, and I am easy that way.

Best things read:

Ann Leckie. Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword. Now on pins and needles for the Ancillary Mercy coming out just in time for my birthday.

Reading now:

A Shepherd's Crown. Last book ever by Terry Pratchett /sobs

Also found some cool new Russian writers, among them Alisa Ganieva. Her debut novel was recently translated into English http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Wall-Alisa-Ganieva/dp/1941920152/, and I can wholeheartedly recommend her to you. She is from Dagestan, a small republic in the Causaian mountains, mostly Muslim, mostly traditional, very complicated in its ethnical and lingustic makeup, a place that comes alive in this distopian story.

First of all I am very grateful for the lovely words you said in luna_k's Love cup post. Every time I look at it - it makes me warm and fuzzy and able to fly. ;)

Otherwise the week was almost uneventful. We counted days and sent off our applications for Canadian citizenship. There is a good chance that in two years we will become Canadian citizens (in addition to Russian) it is a new big step, but too early to congratulate – and besides, I am feeling a little bit as a phoney – since I don’t feel nearly as excited as it is appropriate, though I am looking forward to Canadian citizenship, but not to singing the anthem and such stuff. I am not an anthem-singing person, generally.

We also realized that we probably will stay in our apartment for some time, and we need to make it more cozy than it is – so we bought some shelves and stuff, and moved the furniture around. Still miles to go, but overall it looks nicer.

Also I’ve seen unusual amount of movies this week. 5

Four brothers – I didn’t like it. The idea seemed interesting – four delinquents adopted by a woman and raised as brother meet after time passed, but it was such a clichéd vengeance story! Every single plot turn was trite, the villain was flat and cartoonish, the violence ruled, and mother was saintly and dead. The only “blemish” on the mother’s reputation was that she was dating a decent elderly lawyer. Couldn’t she date a young and evil lawyer at least? Besides, why the villain needed to kill her was never answered. Because he was evil, apparently. And the thing is, I cannot say that I utterly disliked it – I truly enjoyed watching the four brothers themselves, and the actors had good working chemistry that in my opinion was totally wasted in the movie.

Red eye. A very decent thriller I enjoyed a lot. A creepy villain, a mounting tension, and action that moves so fast that you don’t stop and notice the plot. Plus, a capable heroine is always a plus.

Intolerable Cruelty. I got it from the library mostly because it was there – but I was hoping I like it. And I almost did – but the ending spoiled all the fun. George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones are pleasing to my eyes and had a decent chemistry working together. But the romance between their characters and the kiss at the end seemed so artificial and so unearned that it spoiled the whole movie. I believed them as rivals, but I didn’t believe them as lovers - mostly at the Zeta-Jones’ part. Pity.

Team America. We went to see our friend, and she had the DVD, so we watched – with some wine and beer. I don’t remember the last time we laughed so hard. And we were dying over the puppet sex there, proving that we are all, in fact, twelve.

Forty-year old virgin. No puppet sex, but fun enough. The final song-and dance sequence kills me dead. ;)

There was this five questions meme going around, so I asked fer1213 and sweet_ali to question me.
Here are the answers:

To sweet_ali’s questions: ( Read more... )

To fer1213’s questions: ( Read more... )

Life is going along, as it usually does. I am getting used to Linux, although still the notion persists that MS Windows is normal, and for Linux one has to have some special reasons. And, yes, we have our reasons. But that's not . Because – there should be reasons to use Windows (as says my husband) – it is expensive (not that we ever...), whereas Linux and its applications are free. Of course, Linus is a pain to set up and configure, but once it's there, it's fine... Still: Feeling as I am making a heroic effort by using Linux. Never mind a load of a silly games that keep distracting me from the Useful Stuff. Regarding the Useful Stuff: Found myself not writing what I planned to write, but a story (in Russian) that I thought out a year ago, some technical writing (?), and busy with (gulp!) graphic design. Hmm... The later includes me using the traditional Russian method of "scientific poking" working with GIMP and trying to get a picture from my mind onto the computer screen. The method of scientific poking consists of some quality staring at the studied object, then poking at it in different ways. Sometimes it yields amazing results, sometimes not. So, I am poking at GIMP...

The LJ fairy visited me today and left me with two months of paid account. Thank you, dear anonymous fairy! I am feeling happy, grateful, and dumbstruck. I want to hug the world and to give everyone a puppy (ok, not everyone wants a puppy, but I still want to do some good deeds – may be to help an elderly lady to cross the street? I'll need to hunt some appropriate old ladies for that.) I also want to know what to do with my shiny new paid membership? Make the pretty layout? Grab more icons? Mood themes? Polls? Phone posts? Whaa!

::is still happy::

::dances around::

::goes to a pub to celebrate Isalba's birthday::

Yesterday was The Wild Anastasia Day - the date, celebrated once by 6 people; the date remembered now with the bittersweet aroma of
nostalgia.

It was a celebration of an unabashed silliness, joy of creating unimportant stuff, and friendship.

If you really want to know, ( Read more... )</lj-cut