Category: everyday life

Freedom Is a Verb

Same as the blog post author, I hate music videos and rarely view them, but his one is one of few exceptions. The video compliments the music in a great way.

rmichaelroman's avatarYip Abides

I hate music videos. But this item by Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird is just too right on:

Thanks to Hugh Iglarsh for tossing this in my direction.

You can see more work by Daniel Kahn at his YouTube Channel. Some of his older work can be found at the Playgrrround Vimeo Channel.

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More Details About the CityLIGHTS 2019 Award Night

My LinkedIn just went viral yesterday, I had almost two thousand views within the first 24 hours of my post appearance, and a number is still growing. My likes present all my employment history :). I also got a couple of reposts and very warm congratulations. And everybody is asking for “more details.”  

Well… I do not even know where to start! So, as they say, I will start from the beginning :). I did not know whether I will be a winner or not. Two days before the event, I received a reminder email from the organizers which outlined the course of events throughout the night. It said that if I win, I need to give a 2-minute acceptance speech. I didn’t want to think too much about it and didn’t rehearse it, but I thought a little bit about whom I should thank if I won.

The VIP reception for the finalists plus one guest started a half-hour before the event. 

I barely knew a couple of people there, so I socialized somewhat moderately by my standards.

Continue reading “More Details About the CityLIGHTS 2019 Award Night” →

I am a Winner!!!

In the beginning of August I was named one of the finalists of the Illinois Technology Association “Technologist of the Year” award.

Tonight was an Award Night – and I won it!!! This is all I can say today :), and I will post more in my professional blog :). Below is the video of my “acceptance speech.”

An Interesting Week So Far…

Same as “matter does not disappear” one can say that “time does not appear” from thin air. We all have 24 hours any given day, weekday, or weekend, and nobody gives us more than that.

That’s about my wonderful micro-vacation last weekend.
I had a great time in Ann Arbor, but not being at home for a weekend meant that I didn’t do anything around the house and that I didn’t catch up on work, which I also do on weekends.

So since Monday afternoon when I returned, all this bites back :). I am not even trying to separate work and not work, primarily because lots of my activities do not fit in either of the categories. I had tons of emails to reply related to the conference where I am on the talk selection committee, to the September and October meetups, regarding all my volunteering activities, and what’s not.

I hope it will be better next week!

Breakfast is the Best Meal of the Day!

I still have lots of pictures from the Labor Day weekend, and here are some of them. Why this is about a Labor Day weekend? Because one of the nice things you can do over the long weekend is to make “Sunday breakfasts” every day:).

The plenty of veggies which are delivered daily presents me with a challenge of adding them to everything:

Chocolate goes for the second course:

Also, it’s blueberry season, time to make Finnish rye blueberry meal:

Food and Travel

There are a couple of places in Madison, which I always like to visit when I am in town. Unfortunately, two of them closed recently, but my second favorite store, vomFASS, is still there :).

I buy a majority of what I buy online because it saves time for the more interesting things, but sometimes buying in the brick and mortar store is a fun of its own, and shopping at vomFASS is undoubtfully a case.

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Not My Usual Day, Not My Usual Mood

I am mad about yesterday, and this week in general so here is an unlikely rant of mine. This week Vlad is in Finland, ridiculously precisely at the time when Boris is not. Vlad is flooding his Instagram with the videos of Finnish forests, mushrooms, rowanberries, moonshine, and salmon smoked on the plank.

At the same time, Boris is in Croatia, participating in a workshop which I believe just being an excuse for spending time on the beach :). He is sending me panoramic views of the harbor, the Medieval town and the mountains.

And I did not manage to go to any of four conferences I could go to in late August – September; work is being crazy, and Mom has been difficult. And yesterday I’ve canceled my after-work activity to make sure I am done with one extremely important thing at work and managed to mess up and spent all this time fixing without advancing any further. And on to of that my trainer canceled today’s morning session. 

That’s the day you need to work hard on staying positive and not to yell at people 🙂

About My Stay in Madison

To cover the past two weeks: it was crazy at work. An interesting fact is that it was mostly good stuff. Good things were happening, and some decisions I’ve been waiting for for a long time were finally made and approved. But it was tiresome. When you need to sit at the meetings for 6 to 7 hours every day, and not just “sit,” but actively listen and participate, you are done by the end of the day — so done, as if you worked 16 hours straight.

There was also a lot happening outside work — things related to the December conference in Chicago, which I am heavily involved in. Boris and I were finalizing yet another paper submission. I was trying to make sure my direct report will present our work at another conference, which I am unable to attend. All stuff with my Mom. All things with my volunteering.

And then I took two days off and went to Madison to babysit my granddaughter Nadia. I can’t remember another moment in my life when I would gladly disconnect from my work email, Slack, etc. I checked what was going on a couple of times (literally!), but without any hesitation replied: this can wait till Tuesday.

It still took me some time to relax, but by midday Saturday, when I was leaving, I already felt pretty good.

I returned home to my long weekend to-do list, but I am keeping thinking about everything that happened during this visit, most about my conversations with Anna.
A couple of months ago, I started to write a post about Anna’s and my parenting styles, and then put it aside. I think now I will be able to finish it :).

Love Madison :)

How You Deal with Stress? You Bake!

I think many people can relate to this statement – baking is an excellent way to fight stress. Sometimes, when I am exceptionally stressed, and most often, this happens when I do not have time to do something important, I drop everything and bake. My Finnish friends are my never-ending resource of easy recipes. Remember, I said that I am afraid of complicated recipes with many ingredients? I have a couple of friends who provide me with those. 

I wanted to bake this pie in one of the two days earlier this week before I would head to Madison. And I was planning to bring a result with me. But I was so running out of time, that I didn’t. I felt it being a “non-closed issue.” I loved this recipe from the first sign because I do not consider plums, along with apples and pears, fruit. I put them into a dessert category right away.

Continue reading “How You Deal with Stress? You Bake!” →