Category: everyday life

And One More Time About Breakfast At Work…

It is great, because:

  • you do not need to think about making breakfast in the morning and whether you will have time for it
  • it is ready when you come to the office
  • the window view from the cafeteria
  • you have these ten minutes to sit, enjoy the view, food and coffee and get ready for the great start of the day
  • you feel that your employer cares

PGSQL Phriday #004 Recap

I am very thiankful for the opportunity to host the January edition of PGSQL Phriday series. I hope that this series will continue and more people will join the discussions!

Hettie D.'s avatarThe World of Data

Thank you to everybody who contributed to the January PGSQL Phriday topic! I suggested “Postgres and Software Development,” while being very well aware that this topic is not popular in the PostgreSQL community. To be completely honest, I thought that it was possible that only Ryan Booz would contribute! 

That being said – a big thank you to everyone who participated! Please find a summary of contributions below, and please let me know if I missed your post!

The first person to contribute was Andreas Scherbaum with his blog post PGSQL Phriday #004: PostgreSQL and Software Development. Andreas had a huge advantage as he could summarize the information from over 140 interviews he conducted for his “PostgreSQL person of the week” series. His blog post mainly focuses on what people are saying about the development for PostgeSQL – patch submissions and other details of how PostgreSQL…

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Not Over Yet!

The Christmas Tree is already gone, and all Christmas decorations are in storage, but still, I got more cards and presents in the mail!

:)

Closing The Holiday Season

It was another extremely productive week. Still, many people at work were on vacation, and although many questions and issues required my intervention, I had long periods when I could focus on my big projects or debus something complex. 

Also, I kept a list of my tiny “do-to” things that must be done at some point – everyone has such a list! I managed to cut it dramatically during the first week of the New Year. I dare to say I did everything I planned:).

I keep thinking about how fortunate I am with my job, where my knowledge and skills are so much needed, and people treat me with respect and appreciate my community work as well. It feels good every day, and I am counting my blessings.

My list for this weekend was modest because the workweek was productive, but I had three huge items on my agenda: to take off all Christmas decorations, take off all tree ornaments, pack everything, and put it back into storage. And it took pretty much the whole day (except for talking to Boris and visiting mom). It sounds right because decorating took many hours as well:). When I decorate house my house for Christmas, it is one of the most joyful things because it makes my place magical. And when I take the decorations down, it feels like: Ok, the holidays are over, and it’s time to dive into life, into the new year, into all new things I want to do. 

And once again, looking back at 2022, it was just an outstanding year for my professional development, although war dominates all aspects of life. And once again, I am not depressed because of the war. I am angry but also very active and productive.

The last glance at my holiday cards before I pack them, sign the year, and put away – Thirty-four this year!

I Can’t Stop Thinking About It

That is – about people in Russia who are not just silent but actively and voluntarily support the aggression. And I know that those of my friends who stay sane amongst this insanity are as horrified as me, only, unlike me, they have to live to face this insanity every day.

And once again, I can’t stop thinking about where I would be if… I recall the conversations I had with my friends sometime in 1980 or 81. I think I already mentioned that, and I want to repeat it again: at that time, most of us didn’t have good feelings toward Jews who were emigrating. We thought that they were cowards and wanted the easy life, and didn’t think about the consequences of their departure for those who stayed (the latter was true).

I was in love with L. (he liked me but didn’t love me and gently tried to push me away), and his family obtained the vise and were getting ready to go to Israel. L. didn’t want to go. He was eighteen and told us he would rather stay and go to Afghanistan than join the Israeli army.

I clearly remember that that’s what he said, and that’s what we all thought, and we hated his parents for not understanding such an obvious thing.

What was I thinking? What all of us were thinking? When I shared these horrific memories with Boris, he said that at least the Soviets didn’t launch missiles against Afghans. OK, they used other weapons. But that’s why I kept thinking: what was wrong with me? And those few Russian people who understand – I really admire them because I have no idea how they managed to stay human, and I am afraid I would not measure up if I were there.

There are people who understand that standing for your country’s independence is not an act of war and that Russia initiated the war, not the other way around, but there are so few of them!

Still, Cards And Cookies

My tree will come down on the upcoming weekend but I still receive Christmas mail! Looks like the flight cancellations and the rest of the mess right before Christmas also affected mail delivery, and my parcel from Germany sat in ORD for at least a week!

I finally received it yesterday!

There is such a variety of cookies, and the ones I tasted are awesome, and out of twenty, only one broke!

Here is a Christmas card from Japan, which also made it this week:

Also, a card from one of my few still-sane Russian friends made it to that side of the pond! It looked like it crossed the Atlantic swimming on its own, so the card itself was almost destroyed, but the ornament inside survived, and I hung it on my Christmas tree:

I am going to take the last picture of my cards display on Saturday, before removing them and storing them.

A Movie Night

The longest continually operating movie theater in Chicago is within walking distance from my house, but for some reason, I never when to see movies there. This finally changed last night when Igor, mom, and I went to see Babylon.

The movie is very long, and it’s great that the theater is so close to us, especially mom’s house. For the movie itself, I am glad I went, although Igor and I agreed that so it is not clear what’s all the drama about. I am sure it was done on purpose because the producers know very well what it should have looked like, but the purpose remains unclear to me :).

Again, the most important is that now I know the way to 400 Theater, and I will see more movies there. And another good thing is that with all of my mom’s “I don’t understand American English,” she understands good acting, so she actually liked it, even though it was three hours long!

That Is My Alma Mater. That WAS.

I am shocked by this news. I guess I should not be shocked because Boris told me multiple times about the situation at our university. The one that used to be THE University.

Hopefully, my non-Russian-speaking friends will use Google translate to read the article above in its entirety, but to give a quick summary, it tells about the hackathon, which was organized by Wagner with the goal of finding solutions for drones without GPS. The first-place winners are the students of Saint Petersburg State University, who previously graduated from one of the top specialized high schools (fortunately not my school, but that’s not a consolation).

And they are saying that it was fun to participate because it was an interesting problem to work on and whatever else…

Again, not like something unexpected, but truly disgusting.

Physical Therapy

Another December achievement was that I finally found a physical therapist I like, and also very close to my house, just ten minutes walking distance. That was another item on my list that I could not complete for a while, and possibly if my back problems won’t exacerbate during the holiday, I might never start looking seriously and could keep living with multiple minor issues.

But now, finally and fortunately – I have a specialist whom I trust and who is easy to reach, and that’s one of these small pieces of my everyday life puzzle, which is finally in place :).

And yes, he did some magic with my back, and things became better instantaneously. Now I can’t believe that just three weeks ago, I worried that all my troubles had started over again.