The last documentary of the Russian Lies series is about Russian athletes and how they are perceived in Western countries. Once again, there was not that much new information for me, but the most valuable part is a clear explanation of how the Russian government uses the athletic achievements of the Russian citizen to it’s advantage. This situation is very similar to the conferences participation, and that’s what I have difficulties explaining to many of my peers. So many times my peers would ask me why I want to panish people “who didn’t do anything,” and tell me that “they want to support them during difficult times.” And each and single time I explain to them that Russian authorities use these situations (like some important person coming to a Russian conference or some Russian researcher is being accepted to speak at some European conference) as an evidence of the fact that “they like us,” ” they can’t survive without us,” and so on. And they so totally-completely do not get the part which is so clearly explained in this documentary!
Month: January 2025
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I managed to finish my training slidesyesterday, and I even did it relatively early in the day. I realized that I needed less than 210 slides because I will have a break in the middle and a quiz at the end. I need to come up with the quiz, and read through the whole thing one more time to make sure there are no stupid typos.
Also (how typical of me!) I realized that I double-scheduled myself for Tuesday and Wednesday (even more for Wednesday), but I must go with that since I made promises. The extra promise I made was for one more pizza-making at the ODS, and since, after almost a year of turbulence, things are finally working there, I am prioritizing these visits.
This week is, in some sense, experimental because I am trying not to stay late and not to rush but still do most of the things I want to.
My mom is still sorting all the presents she received. I showed her all the text messages I received from her party attendees and forwarded to her a lovely email from my two-floors-below neighbor, who admired my mom’s life accomplishments. I think, two days later, she appreciates the party even more 🙂
TIME Magazine: Saying YES Instead Of NO
This article is the last of the “New Year Resolutions” Time Magazine articles that I planned to write about. My initial reaction to the article’s header was – that’s definitely not about me! I say “yes” less frequently than I would love to. But when I started reading it, I realized it was more about my behavior than I wanted to admit.
Full text below.
Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Saying YES Instead Of NO”Mom’s Birthday Celebration
Everything went great, even with all the things I mentioned yesterday, plus today’s problems on the Red Line that made Igor and my mom being 30 minutes late to her party, and some guests as well :). There were a couple of times in the past when my mom got really upset about us not letting her know in advance that somebody was going to visit, that’s why we tried to plan it being a surprise, but not a complete surprise :).
I invited those with whom my mom interacted through all these seven years she has been in the USA, with the hope that she will remember. I was pleasantly surprised that she recognized everyone and addressed everyone by name, even those she hadn’t seen for a long time. About half an hour later, however, she started to ask me again who was who and how she knew them. When I shared this observation with Anna and John, they suggested that she got tired, and they must be right. I am going to focus on the positive side of things 🙂
Everyone whom I asked came, and the food was delicious, and Vanille’s cake was awesome.
Russian Lies #5
The fifth of the “Russian lies” documentaries, that one is about the role of media in Russian society, and it is restricted. Probably the least surprising of all of these documentaries – all happened on my watch.
Mom’s Birthday
My mom turned 90 today. We are giving her a “semi-surprise party” tomorrow, and we have already had enough of disasters: Vlad couldn’t come because the earlier snowstorm in DC pushed the training he had to conduct to the weekend; both Anna and I had a work crisis (and Igor was super busy, too). We had to move to another venue two days before the party. Anna forgot the frame for our collective present at home; all the printing is done not at the last minute but one after the last, and so on.
After disassembling my Christmas tree, I realized I needed new boxes for ornaments. I ordered them, and they arrived, but I didn’t have time even to unpack them until today, so i was repacking ornaments when Anna’s family arrived.
BTW the boxes are great, and I feel like I always feel when I replace something old with a newer model – why didn’t I do it earlier?! It’s so much better!
TIME Magazine: Exercising For PR
One more “New Year” Time Magazine article – I always loved the idea of competing with myself rather than with others. Keep reading below!
Continue reading “TIME Magazine: Exercising For PR”How The New Year Started
Obviously, it’s a new year – a new crisis at work, but in addition, I realized about a week ago that I need to rework the training I am doing in Prague at the end of January. When I submitted this training proposal, I knew “I had it,” but what I didn’t realize was that :
- It has been two years since the last time I ran this training, and all examples are from the book’s first edition and from the year 2020
- I need to apply different template/different formatting
- I have almost three times more material than the training time, so I needed to decide what to keep!
And… that all takes time! And it’s about 220 slides!
Russian Lies #4
I wish this documentary was separated into at least two films because it touches on several different topics. Otherwise, I have little to comment on. Being intimately familiar with the selection process and the teaching methods at the Vaganova Academy through a friend, I never had illusions about Russian ballet. I remember an evening at my Palatine neighbor’s home when her older daughter rushed in after her first ballet class with a Russian teacher: “She was hitting us on our legs! “
As for looting art, it is, unfortunately, a universal problem. Some governments choose to correct their mistakes, and some don’t…
TIME Magazine: History Lessons For Retirement
One of the things I plan to change is that I aim to retire at 65 with a part-time consulting. This article was interesting for me from a historical perspective: some details were new to me.
Continue reading “TIME Magazine: History Lessons For Retirement”
Hettie's Reflections 