Month: August 2025

One More Piece From Portland

The place where you work on a project does matter: you should have good coffee and good food. Chocolate is a bonus 🙂

In the morning, J and I worked at the Umbria Cafe, which had great cappuccino and espresso, and macarons as an extra bonus 🙂

In the afternoon, finding a coffeeshop became challenging: all of them were closing at 3 or 4 PM, and we didn’t like the dessert selection in those that were open. Finally, we came across a Chocolate House, which had everything!

They had chocolate-everything! Beverages with chocolate, pastries with chocolate, just chocolate in all shapes and forms!

This chocolate and espresso beverage was heavenly!
I went back to purchase more twice. When, on the second time, I asked for “regular coffee, the owner gave me a mini-french press and an hourglass and asked me to wait till the sand falls through before pressing 🙂

Amazon

That was the worst experience I have had with Amazon so far.

I placed a large food order with Amazon Fresh to be delivered on Sunday. Some time ago, Amazon began severely limiting the number of delivery windows available at any given moment, making it challenging to obtain the delivery window I really needed. It so happened that I had a chance to grab a slot while I was sitting at the Portland airport lounge late on Saturday evening. I placed the order and didn’t even look at the confirmation.

It turned out that I accidentally placed it at my mom’s address; I have no idea why it happened; I do not default to her address ever, but I had such a situation specifically with Amazon Fresh several years ago when I placed an order at Anna’s address, but I cancelled it immediately. This time, I only noticed the address was incorrect when it was out for delivery.

I started the Amazon support chat, but immediately noticed that the callback was available, so I pressed that button. A CR called back, and I explained the situation, and she said she would try to contact the driver. After some time, she reported that the driver is not picking up, and asked whether I want to cancel the order. Retrospectively, that’s what I should have done, but I told her: No, do not cancel, I will walk there and pick it up.

After I hung up with her, I saw a CR chat flashing with “Are you there?” I replied that I had already been contacted by phone, and my issue was not resolved. They said: well, let me try! I repeated the same story, and they double-checked that the addresses were within a mile of each other, and typed: trying to contact the driver. Then a new message appeared: I was able to contact the driver, do not worry, your order will be at your place in 10-15 minutes!

Thirty minutes later, I received an automated Amazon message: We are sorry, but your order could not be delivered. Would you like a refund or reschedule? I clicked “reschedule” and selected the last evening slot on Monday when I would definitely be home. After the reorder went through, I saw that it was again placed at my mom’s address!!!

I contacted the customer support chat again. The CR typed: let me see what I can do, and then – sorry, I can’t cancel this order since it was already placed (???!!!), I can issue a refund, and then you can submit a new order. I asked multiple times whether it is possible to stop the order delivery, and they were like” if this address does not existm the driver will return the order,” and I kept saying that the address exists, it’s not the point. Finally, he said: OK, I will take care of that!.

I placed another order and checked that it was place at the correct address. I received it on time, but forty minutes later, I received a message that my other order was out for delivey! I still hoped that it will be “not delivered” or at least they will contact me, but at 10 PM (!!!) my mom called me: I am so sorry for disturbing you, but there are four gigantic packages by my door!

So I had to walk to my mom’s place, take the packages, quietly discard behind her building a half of the produce so that I could bring the rest home, filled in my backpack and walked back, returning home at 10-45.

And, for the record, there is no good way to complaint to Amazon customer service. I tried, but it brings me back to the same chat, and the only thing I can get is a refund, which I already got. But no one will refund me a total of 3.5 hours!

2000 meters to Andriivka

I just watched “2000 meters to Andriivka” at the Siskel Center. I started crying even before the documentary title appeared on the screen. Then I stopped crying because there were no tears left. And then I started to cry again when they showed footage of the funerals. And for all these almost two hours, I felt eternal hatred towards those who started this war and those who allowed it to happen.

Horror. Hopelessness. Sorrow for all these lives gone, especially since Mstyslav Chernov tells us which of the soldiers he filmed were injured and died later. And the way he runs the excerpts from the news coverage from the days of the counter-offense, mentioning that “it didn’t deliver to expectations” or whatever the language was.

To say this documentary is difficult to watch is to say nothing. The official trailer below does not give even a remote impression of it. I don’t know how to keep living life as usual when you know that this actually happened, and that the corpses I saw on the screen were not props, and the captured Russian officer was not an actor.

P.S. If you are in Chicago, there are two more screenings.

Getting Around In Portland

It was fast and convenient to get to and from the airport. The train stops just outside the terminal, and the ride cost me $2.80, with a total ride duration of about 45 minutes and a nice walk to the hotel.

To be fair, I should say that the Blue Line in Chicago will also take you to the airport from the Loop in about 45-50, so it’s mostly just me living in the wrong place :). On Friday, I left for the airport earlier to try to get there without Uber. I did, and the Red Line worked great, but with the connection and the Blue Line being generally slower, it totaled 1 hour and 50 minutes .

24-hour Fitness, Oregon Style

When I was booking a night at this hotel, I checked whether they had a fitness center. The website said they didn’t have one onsite, but the guests could use a 24-hour fitness center just one block away. With that, I packed my gym clothes and decided to bike instead of working out on Friday morning.

When I arrived and checked into the hotel, I asked about the fitness center, and they said: Well, it’s not really a 24-hour, it’s just the name. I asked when they open in the morning, and they said: 5:30. It was later than I would normally go, but it sort of worked for me, so I planned to go down at 5:20 and get the pass.

After some wandering around, I found the fitness center, but it was locked. There was no sign on the door, but when I peeked inside, I saw that the blackboard said that they are open from 5:30 to 10 PM on weekdays and from 8 AM to 8 PM on Saturdays and Sundays. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Portland, Oregon

I am about to leave Portland without having seen much, but I’ve had an exceptionally productive workday. Several months ago, J (my peer from Scotland) and I submitted a talk proposal to the FOSSY conference in Portland. The proposal was not accepted, and I moved on with my life.

Then, about three weeks ago, I received a message from J: Could you come to Portland so that we could work on our project? The project meant our talk on the same topic, which was accepted to another conference, which I will be unable to attend. J will be presenting for both of us, but I wanted to participate in the PowerPoint preparation. In addition, our proposal for a community event at PG Conf EU was accepted, and we needed to create an event plan. I didn’t know he was coming, because I knew our talk had not been accepted. He told me that his other talk was, so he was coming. I regret not knowing about it earlier, as I had just recently made plans to visit my friend Lena in Ann Arbor, so I said “no.” But two weeks ago, Lena informed me about her home situation, and we agreed that it would be better for me not to visit now. I immediately thought that in that case, I could go to Portland. I made this trip very minimalistic because I couldn’t waste workdays, and I had things to do at home (and I wouldn’t have any free weekends until October).

If you want to see a crazy person who spends their own time and money to fly for one day to the other side of the country just to work with somebody on a project – that’s me! Fortunately, the conference hotel was very reasonably priced, and I also found that I had $300 credit with American Airlines from last summer when we had to cancel our flight to DC, which was more than half the price of that ticket.

On Friday, I departed from ORD at noon, arrived in Portland at 2:30 PM local time, and still had time to attend the last two sessions at the conference and listen to J’s talk. We agreed on our working sessions’ schedule, and spent most of Saturday working, with interruptions for meals and coffee, and then I left for the airport, where I am now sitting, waiting for my red-eye flight.

Time and money well spent!


Unfortunately, Yes

On Tuesday, I was making dinner at the ODS, and after the dinner was made, and everyone who was around ate, we sat down chatting in the common area. One of the newest residents asked me the usual “where I was from,” and then whether I ever go back, and what part of Russia I was from, and whether I had even been to Moscow. And finally, he asked: what’s the best time to visit Moscow? I paused for a moment and replied: When the war is over. And when Putin is out. To his credit, he immediately understood why I replied that way, but his questions perfectly illustrated the fact that the war in Ukraine is completely out of sight for most Americans. People do not think about Russia as one of the parties in the war. And they do not understand that when I reply, “I am from Russia,” I feel it as saying, “I am responsible for that bloodshed.”

In my mind, that’s somehow related to another story my friend told me. She was at a store, where an older Pole with very limited English was trying to communicate something to a store clerk. Later, after my friend and her daughter left the store, that person left right after them, and upon hearing them speaking Russian, he said: Well, I should have asked you for help in the store! My friend turned to him and asked him in Russian: “Oh, do you speak Russian?” He looked at her with a deep pain in his eyes and said, “Unfortunately, yes!”

My friend told me that she will never forget this person and a pain in his eyes.

The Lake In Many Different Ways

Before I sat down to work on my presentations last Sunday, I went for what turned out to be my longest non-stop bike ride so far (total distance 27 miles). I keep exploring the Lake Front Trail, going more and more South with the hope of finally reaching the Museum of Science and Industry. I already did it twice during Bike the Drive events, but it’s a shorter distance when going by the Drive, and also, there are stops.

I posted some pictures from my newly found lands 😀 here.

Here are more pictures from the shorter rides this week.

Very early in the morning on Monday
Very stormy weather on Tuesday
Today was equally stormy, but warmer, and I could not resist breaking the rules