Category: everyday life

“I wish I knew” – Documentary

Yesterday, I watched a documentary, “I wish I knew.”

Widely considered China’s most important contemporary filmmaker, Jia (STILL LIFE, ASH IS PUREST WHITE) focuses on the city of Shanghai in this ambitious documentary, never before released in the US The city’s present in captured in stunningly composed widescreen images that emphasize the juxtaposition of decay and progress, often incorporating the hazy expanse of the Yangtze River. The past is explored through interviews with the survivors of such upheavals as the Civil War and the Cultural Revolution, their stories often marked by violent death and exile (the latter subject occasioning side-trips to Taiwan and Hong Kong). As in his other major documentary 24 CITY, Jia blurs the line between fact and fiction, with his muse Zhao Tao serving as a recurrent presence wandering through the city. In its latter stages, much of the film concerns China’s cinematic past, with excerpts and interviews (including Hou Hsiao-hsien) evoking the often contentious relationship between art and politics. In Mandarin with English subtitles. New DCP digital widescreen restoration. (MR)

Siskel Center website

I found this documentary to be very depressing, although Igor disagrees with me. The filmmaker’s work is outstanding, but it shows China not how we are used to seeing it. In this “mixture of decay and progress,” we are not really used to the “decay” part.

For me, there were too many allusions to the history of the Soviet Union, both in the excerpts from the propaganda movies and the specific language, the way of saying things by survivors/witnesses.

Also, I was thinking about the Soviet documentaries from the time we were not friends with China. At that time, the Soviet correspondents would search for Chinese dissidents, and film interviews with them (half-face covered by black stripe). And these dissidents were saying, how things were horrible in China: hunger, shortage of everything, no freedom of speech… how ironic!
I’ve already mentioned some other Soviet documentaries when they would interview people in England or the US during the 1970s economic crisis. The funny thing – is was all true! The workers would emotionally tell how prices are up every day and how their salaries are not matching up… You do not need to photoshop the reality, you do not even need to cut and paste the pieces of film, it’s all in the commentary on the background…

More Eye Surgery Updates

You know how I said I was freaking out about a million things regarding the surgery – one of these things is happening. Today, I got a call from the surgeon who is going to operate me. I do not know why he only looked at my numbers now, not three months ago, but what he said was that they wouldn’t be able to fix my long-distance vision 100% unless I go mono-focal, which means no astigmatism correction, and no vision depth… I was leaning that way, but the doctor was positive that that would be the best for me.

I understand that he is right long-term, but short term I will be going the way that I won’t be able to see well enough to perform my daily functions AND for a while, there will be no way for me to have any corrective devices. He said he would do Lasic on me in about three months, but I can’t stand an idea of going to another surgery. I guess it is all not so bad; I was just not prepared… and there will be way more steps in between..

Eye Surgery Update

That’s for my real-life friends. I went to do the eye measurements today. Today there were no delays, and also, I was not dilated, but still, it took a lot of time.

I confirmed which type of lenses I want, signed tons of papers, and received tons of instructions. I already read them three times, including two pages of possible complications (which are always scary!)

The good part is that they told me that after my first surgery I could wear a contact lens on the second eye, except for the last three days before surgery. So I am going to be one-eyed for only three days. Also, I can’t get any water in the operated eye for a week (have to go with my hair unwashed?!), can’t do heavy exercises for a week after each surgery, and also I have to do eyedrops.

Let me tell you – this is something! There are three kinds of drops, and you need to put the into an operated eye before and after each surgery and somehow not to mess up! Once a day, twice a day, do not touch an operated eye, but make sure the drop stays in …

Ohm and also – not only the surgery is not covered by insurance, but even the eye drops are not covered either! The total cost of these three microscopic bottles will come to over $600.

The better part: they offer zero percent interest credit for 20 months. There will be some fees, but I am going to take it – just in case.

To summarize: I am still freaking out, and each and all of my children have told me I should not do it silently. And I will be freaking out until all is done. But I am more informed now:)

Today’sAdventures

Today, my day started in the middle of the night: there was a text message about suspicious activity on my Mastercard. And yes, they identified it correctly.

I use this card moderately and have very few scheduled payments on it, so I am surprised it got compromised. But I am getting more and more impress with how quickly any credit card fraud department can identify suspicious transactions.

I got a text at 2 AM, and email a couple of hours later. I promptly replied that these transactions are not mine, and they stopped the card immediately, issued me a new number immediately and shipped the new card.

Letting me know the new number is great, last time I had a compromised card, I had to wait for a new one to arrive physically. It took me just ten minutes to restore the normal order of events in my life. Just keeping telling everybody: online fraud is the best one, easiest to detect, and you won’t be charged anything extra

Wanted to Share

The other day, I received a newsletter for the Silk Road Rising, one of the small theaters in Chicago, which I really like and frequent. In this newsletter, they were talking about the new building where they move some of their functions, and the newsletter ended like this:

I thought that was beautiful.

Palatine Public library in the News

We love our library since our first day in Palatine. Unfortunately, they do not feature anymore the old library sign, which announced the opening of the library in on September 8, 1923 – it has about 500 books back then. 

We grew up in this library. As a family. As citizens. There is so much more in the library than just books. In addition to all the materials you can check, in addition to all the clubs and lectures you can attend, it provides the meeting spaces, which is priceless for anybody seeking to find like-minded people.

Our library has been recognized several times as one of the best in the nation in it’s category. Last year was not an exception – it received “Star Library” recognition among neighboring and national libraries in the Library Journal’s Index of Public Library Service for 2019.

Interestingly, the same week, Igor showed me another article, which recognized the library for the outstanding marketing of its renovation project. The article in the Library Journal provides all details, and I can second their recognition. The way how the necessity of the changes was explained, how the library engaged the whole community into the discussion, and made sure each voice was heard was indeed outstanding. You could drop a response in the library collection box, you could reply online, or by mail, there were several public meetings held to discuss the renovation. 

I can’t wait to see how it will turn out!

“Heartland”: a Book Review

I wanted to share my impressions of the book “Heartland,”  which I recently finished reading. 

From the very first page, the book captured my attention: the first page said that although we never admit that classes in America exist, they do. Moreover, whichever class you’ve born in shapes your life in a very significant way. Indeed, it is challenging, if not impossible, to break out of your class-instilled barriers.  

That we could live on a patch of Kansas dirt with a tub of Crisco lard and a $1 rebate coupon in an envelope on the kitchen counter and call ourselves middle class was at once a triumph of contentedness and a sad comment on our country’s lack of awareness about its own economic structure. Class didn’t exist in a democracy like ours, as far as most Americans were concerned, at least not as a destiny or an excuse. You got what you worked for, we believed. There was some truth to that. But it was not the whole truth.

Smarsh

The power of the book is that, on the one hand, it’s the author’s true story. Through the book, though it is not clear until the very end, the author explains her very personal decision not to have children by telling the life stories of the previous generations of her family. On the side of the storylines, she provides a very in-depth analysis of social and economic trends which led to the current situation and keep people from getting out of poverty. For me, the biggest revelation of the book was a discussion about why people who need help so badly might reject this help, and as a consequence, why poor people might favor republican policies. 

Society’s contempt for the poor becomes the poor person’s contempt for herself. 

Smarxh

People perceive receiving assistance as seeing themselves lesser beings, and it translates into “nobody believes I can make it on my own.”. So, controversially, if the fact that you are poor is “your fault” gives you the hope to get out of poverty. It may be just me thinking slow, but it took me some time to understand how this thought process works. And that’s my biggest takeaway. 

Sleep and Time Management

Back in Cyprus, during my conversation with the local organizer, I told him I had one complaint about the hotel – the fitness center opens at 8 AM. He looked at me with amazement and asked: and when do you go to workout? I shrugged: at 5 AM. He looks at me inquiringly: when do you sleep? And since I hesitated for a moment, he continued: or are one of those people who do not want to waste time on sleep because there are better things to do?… I nodded: precisely! He continued: oh, I know! I once had a girlfriend like this; I couldn’t stay long with her, I need my sleep! We broke up!

Mind you, that conversation was happening next to Boris and before this gentleman said that my husband is lucky:)

Nevertheless, one resolution I made when in Cyprus was to get my sleep back. First, for a very long time, I was sleeping 4 – 4.5 hours a day, and that was way too little even for me. Second, while monitoring my sleep when I did not need to be ready by a specific time, I figured out that my natural sleep need had shifted a little bit. Instead of the previous 5 – 5.5 hours, I now need 5.5-6 hours. And trust me, this is not a fictional difference. 

Since I still want to be up at 4-30, because it fits my schedule better, I resent my evening alarm to 10 PM, which means I am up from my computer at 10 PM, no matter what. The maximum delay is to finish a paragraph. Since I still may need to get my tomorrow’s lunch and/or breakfast ready and to get prepared to sleep in general, that means I am in bed between 10-30 and 11, not close to midnight or past midnight, as it used to be in November – mid-January. So far, ten days after I returned from Cyprus, it really works. 

That’s to the fact, that a New Year resolution does not have to be attached to January 1 

New Bitemporal Correction

I know that this does not make any sense to 99% of my friends, but I still wanted to reblog this post here because it gives some idea of what I was doing for the past five days. Except for my tax returns 🙂

Hettie D.'s avatarThe World of Data

It might take several more days, till the new ll_bitemporal_correction function will appear in pg_bitemporal GitHub repo, but it is ready. I finished development and basic testing, and it works.

It means nothing for those who do not care about “the state of bitemporality”, but I know that some people care. For those people, I am happy to report, that finally I delivered what you guys have asked for a long time. Now, you can make bitemporal correction not just to the last effective interval, but to any stretch of time. It may cover several historical intervals, it may start in the middle. It can’t end i the middle, because I didn’t come up with any business case for such situation, but if there will be a demand, I am sure I can provide :). Overall – I am very happy about this result :). Stay tunes – I will…

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I Just Have to Say (a Rant)

Last year was a year of big and small changes, which I was mostly happy about. I am not talking about changes in my views, preceptions or any professional achievement; those were all changes in my everyday life. I changed my hairdresser, my nail spa, and my dentist, and also my tax preparer. The latter one was by personal recommendation, and I was very much satisfied with the outcome. 

Last year, I visited the tax preparer office in person. It was about 25 min drive one way, and we talked for about 30 min. And that was it. 

This year, since nothing except numbers have changed, I was hoping I can send him all my supporting documentation. Instead, I got a very thick envelope in the mail (it arrived when I was in Cyprus), and it contained a questionnaire I needed to fill, even if this is not the first time they are doing my taxes. I already spent two hours on it, and I am not done yet! I will be lucky if I will be able to mail it by Saturday. Honestly, I feel like I’ve already prepared my tax returns by myself 🙂