Month: March 2025

Books

I haven’t updated Goodreads in a very long time, so now I have to add a whole bunch of books at once. That’s because of how my life has been during the past several weeks! I mostly listened on the go, mixing the audiobooks with BBC news and WBEZ podcasts. And sometimes, I was too stressed to listen to anything! Here is my list from the past five or six weeks:

Machiavelli for Women. I read it because Stacey Vanek Smith came to our office and gave a talk, and I was in Finland! I couldn’t even dial in because I was on my way home from the coworking, and the day was insane, and I couldn’t leave earlier. I liked the book, but I liked the author’s talk and especially the Q&A even more!

Bel Canto by Ann Prachett. I read it for the book club at work, and didn’t like it. Can’t tell why exactly, but it is entirely “not my book.” If it weren’t for a book club, I would abandon it after the first ten minutes of listening, but I listened to the end, hoping to figure out why people chose it. I am not even going to stay for the discussion later this week.

The Goddess of Warsaw. I was listening to it non-stop, that’s how captivating it was, but the ending didn’t feel convincing.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens. I remember why I started this book and who recommended it, but it didn’t click. I am half into it, and thinking whether I should abandon it or finish.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. I gave it four stars, but maybe I will get back and change it to five :). I love these series, and possibly I have higher expectations than I should.

On Immigration

Shortly after the elections, I published a blog post about one of Time Magazine’s articles on immigration. In that post, I mentioned my Venezuelan co-worker who “didn’t want them here.”

It took just two months of Trump’s presidency for her position to alter in a most drastic way. Now, each time we go for lunch, she tells me what a horrible person Trump is to deport people when “maybe ten out of two hundred are criminals, and the others are honest hard-working people.” Now she sees for herself the impact of all Trump’s policies on economics and on people’s well-being in general, and she is asking me whether Democrats will be able “to put everything back” or some irreversible damage is already done.

And while I would prefer these revelations to come before, not after the fact, I hope she is one of many.

Protests Are On The Rise

I think the most significant factor contributing to the increasing number of Trump/Musk protests around the country is the Congresspersons’ meetings with their constituents in mid-March. From what I hear, the rallies affected both Democratic and Republican Representatives. I remember what Anna used to tell me during the time she worked at Melissa Bean’s campaign, and it looks like Representatives have nothing to lose… I am not implying that the protests are organized by elected officials – I’ve organized enough and participated enough to know. However, I think these townhalls helped people feel they still have power.

When I saw Titanique, I was surprised to hear a political satire with direct references to current events, which I hadn’t heard for a while. Then the messages about the upcoming National Hands Off Day started to arrive from multiple sources. That gave me hope that the April 5 protests will be massive. We have just six days to wait and see.

I will keep making people aware of protests, because I know what a difference in numbers this can make. And yes, there is a little bit of that thought: why did I wait for somebody to start organizing?! Don’t I know how this works? I know well that I didn’t have any organizational capacity in the past two weeks because I was fighting my own battles, but retrospectively, I still feel like I could be more active.

That’s for those who are in Chicago. For those who are not, there are multiple events on the same day and time all over the country – find the closest to you. Things are happening.

Office On Friday

Most people prefer to work from home on Friday, especially when the weather is as nice as it was yesterday, but then you miss out on all of the Friday food!

A Small Miracle

On Wednesday, my neighbor and I saw a play Tiatnique at the Broadway Playhouse. There are many good things I can say about this theater: it is the only one of all of the Broadway in Chicago theaters built recently, so the floor plan is much better, the seats are more comfortable, and the view of the stage is great from any angle. Also, it’s the only one of the Broadway in Chicago theaters that is located outside the Chicago Theater District, close to the Water Tower. With that, getting there and getting home requires some planning, simply because it’s not the usual way we get home.

When we got out of the theater and reached Michigan Avenue, we saw bus 147 approaching the stop, and my neighbor said: Let’s go! (We were going to walk to the Red Line.) I hesitated, because I expected a way longer ride, but I saw that she would prefer the bus, and said – OK. The miracle was that it took us only 27 minutes to get home from the Water Tower, and half of this time was spent on frequent stops closer to our home. I still can’t believe it! It was as fast as a cab ride! If the announced plans to increase service come true in the next couple of months, there will be less than 10-minute intervals between bus services. Fingers crossed!

One more reblog

And one more – for visibility:). Most of my life in the past two weeks has been on LinkedIn 🙂

In 2025, I am doing…

PostgreSQL Meetup

Giving some visibility to my non-professional social network 🙂

March Meetup with Ryan Booz

Member’s Night at Aquarium

On Friday, I left work earlier and took a train to Milwaukee to pick up Nadia and Kira for the Shedd Aquarium Member’s Night. We already did it multiple times: Anna brings the girls to the train station, I get out, pick up the girls, and hop on the same train. That works great because the wait is minimal, and there is no risk of missing the train: it’s actually the same train going back!

I have many reasons to be proud of my granddaughters, one of which is that they can walk a long distance without complaints and understand what it means to wait for a bus or for the museum doors to open. We ended up walking most of the way from the Union Station to the Aquarium, with only a short Red Line ride in between two strides, and they did great 🙂

The Shedd is undergoing a major renovation, but some parts are already open, including the former Rotunda reimaged as two exhibits:

These are two live ecosystems: one with fresh water and one with salt water, and some parts of the glass are magnifying. The best part is that the systems live and evolve, so the promise is that each time you come, you see a slightly different

Nadia’s personal achievement was that she finally touched a sea star 🙂 (not pictured). and a couple of creepy creatures we spotted – there were more, but we were very busy watching!

Friends! In case you are wondering – life is getting on my way again 🙂 But I am alive and well! Probably too much alive!!!

Shostakovich’s 11th

It was definitely not the first time I heard Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony, but I guess it has been a while. Or it’s just how it feels these days. Usually, I leave the CSO uplifted, with the general feeling that “life is not so bad,” but the 11th Symphony left me feeling hopeless, especially the finale. Too many cultural references, plus too many parallels with today’s situations (more than one). After the last accord, when the audience exploded with applause, I felt almost insulted by this sound: how could anybody applause after hearing that?!

There was one interesting episode at DevOps Day. I met one person at the beginning of the day (he was a partner of one of the speakers). He approached me later in the day, asking my opinion about some abstract situation (and he told me that he was constructing this situation based on the previous responder’s feedback). After several clarifying questions, I finally realized which moral dilemma he was trying to solve. I told him: you do not need to ask me about the hypothetical situation; I have been in a similar situation for the past three years. And I hate myself for not doing enough years before. I hate myself for not doing enough now, for having my spoon being too small to scoop the water out before the people drown. And I feel guilty for “living a life” and worrying about a million non-critical things while some seriously evil things are happening all over the world…

At the end of our conversation, that person thanked me for sharing my opinion and said that he was sure I would have something to say. I asked him why he was so sure, and he said that he listened to my talk and knew I had opinions.

I don’t know why I feel this conversation is related to Shostakovich’s 11th, but somehow, in my mind, it is!

Art Institute: Ancient Roman Sculpture

I still keep myself muted about the activities that take most of my time these days, draining my whole self in the process. There still appears to be room for cultural activities (but no time to blog about them), so I will try to post a short summary of the past two weeks.

Myths and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from Torlonia Collection is a new exhibit that opened at the Art Institute last week. I was there on the opening night for the Members-only preview (and invited a friend). I didn’t expect anything groundbreaking from this exhibit (what could be new about the Roman Sculpture?) and mostly thought about taking my friend out, but there were plenty of new things!

This private collection was not on public view for over 70 years, and many sculptures where cleaned and restored for this exhibit specifically.

Men were always presented with their distinct personal features, and women in a more generic way, so it’s often difficult to identify the portraits, or even tell whether it was a portrait of a nobility or a goddess or a random person.
Younger and older Markus Aurelius on the right
As my friend noted, in most couples represented in this exhibit, the man looks way happier than the woman
Hercules is smaller than Athena and Apollo, probably because he was mortal
Arthemis with multiple breasts
Bacchus

After we saw this exhibit, I realized that my friend hadn’t seen the Black Planet exhibit yet, and we rushed there, and didn’t have enough time. And now, one more exhibit is about to open!