Being at the conference, I completely forgot to commemorate the day I came to the US for the first time twenty-nine years ago.
And my actual first day:
Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts
The Conference Venue
On Monday night, when we just arrived at the Radisson Blue Latvija hotel and got into our room, I sat down on the bed and listed out loud everything that was wrong with it: no drawers whatsoever, no shelves, no space in the bathroom for any of the toiletries (even nothing under the sink!). The fitness center is a part of the Spa, and as such is open only from 7 AM to 9 PM. No dial to set up a specific room temperature (just a dial with “more” and “less” arrows).
And then I started laughing, because I remembered how Boris and I used to joke about “people are getting spoiled very fast.” I thought about the first conferences we attended together, including all the fun of not being able to be in the same room if you can’t show the marriage certificate (or a stamp in your internal passport, which affirmed that you indeed have one). Also, I remembered all the weird places we stayed in over many years of travel. I should start lining up new blog posts about it 🙂
And aside of not being open when I needed it, the fitness center was amazing:
And that is not even half of it; there were even more machines, a separate room for yoga, TRX, yoga balls, and countless other things.
Speaking about the hotel, though, it was a great conference venue. I do not know what they did differently in the rooms with placing the podiums, but it was easier than ever to see the speakers and follow their presentations. There were almost no lines for food and plenty of coffee on every corner :).
There was also a bag of dry fruit, which I’ve already consumed :).
Otherwise, I am using this weekend to email people with whom I didn’t talk at the conference, or didn’t talk enough 🙂
The Conference Is Over
The conference is over, and I am still processing what I heard and what I learned. I am thinking about many conversations I had during the conference and about many that didn’t happen because there were too many people.
This morning, I posted on the conference chat that my deepest regret is countless conversations that didn’t happen, and dozens of people supported this comment. Some first-time attendees mentioned that they were so overwhelmed that they didn’t talk to anybody from their shortlist, because something was happening all the time. And to be honest, I feel the same way!
I owe several new professional blog posts, RSVPs, talk submissions, and I don’t know what else. My head is spinning :). Yesterday, we took a cab to the airport together with my co-worker, whose flight was a little bit earlier than ours (at least, that’s what we thought), and because of that, we missed the end of the closing remarks (and there were several things I wanted to hear; now I need to find out whether they were said!).
When we arrived at the airport, we found that since there were very few Finnair flights, the Finnair check-in was closed and would only be open 2 hours before the flight. I had luggage to check, so we couldn’t go to the lounge, and had to sit on the first level for almost two hours. Oh, well.
The flight was on time, but it was a late flight to begin with, so we were home just before midnight. Tomorrow, Europe switches to the winter time, so that extra hour will be handy. And the US switches the next week, so I will get this extra hour twice!
Still At The Conference
It’s still working around the clock, meeting with people and talking with potential sponsors.
A colleague sent me a picture from the first conference day (the Community Events Day), and I really like it:
This morning was a Women’s Breakfast. it was hosted in a different hotel, and the setup was a work of art!
That was an additional opportunity to chat with many of my friends with whom I hadn’t had a chance to exchange a word at that conference yet.
It rained all day, so I was glad we had a chance to walk outside on Tuesday. Even though it was raining, we wanted to go for dinner with my UK co-worker, and we found a restaurant with mostly authentic food within walking distance.
I am really happy with how everything is going so far, with all the conversations I had, and my outlook for my upcoming conference is optimistic.
PG Conf EU: Days 1 and 2
I do not have a spare minute at the conference, but what a difference between last year and this year! I do not need to run around nervously; I talk to everyone about the conference proposal submissions and sponsorship. On Tuesday, I led the Postgres Standard discussion, and we had an amazingly productive session.
We had an afternoon free (I didn’t need to do anything during the afternoon sessions), so Boris and I went to see all the “required attractions.” I believe I already mentioned that Riga is my least favorite city among all the Baltic cities, and in addition, I have some complicated personal history with it. Also, the wind was brutal, and it felt even colder than it was. I made two more attempts to buy a warmer coat, both without any result. Surprisingly, I felt OK in my very old coat, and hopefully, I will be able to manage for the rest of my stay (or I will finally find something!)
And Actually, I Am Traveling Since Saturday!
I departed from ORD on Saturday afternoon, and it was one of my most uneventful journeys, even though it was on American Airlines, and not in the early morning.
To my surprise, both departures and arrivals were on time. The service in Business Class was as it should be, unlike the last time, and the food in the Heathrow lounge was excellent.
The only thing that went unplanned was that my attempt to buy a new fall jacket in Helsinki was unsuccessful. I love the one I bought several years ago, but I wore it up to the holes in the pockets and on the seams, so I wanted something “almost like that one.” It turned out, however, that fashion changed, and fitted waterproof jackets no longer exist— only the puffy ones.
I pulled out my super-comact-foldable one, which I kept in a drawer “just in case” – it worked perfectly today, but I still want to take something home.
On Monday, I went to my co-working space (my UK co-worker was traveling earlier, and I wanted to make sure we had some coverage). I noticed the kids corner there, and I do not think it was there before!
I was able to work the whole day. Boris came there with my luggage at 5:30, and we headed to the airport. The flight to Riga was less than an hour, and by 9:45, we were in our hotel room.
The window view in the morning:
And then the actual work started!
Time Magazine: Trump Is Getting Fooled by Putin Again
Here is the article, and I agree with every word here!
What a difference a week makes.
Seven days ago, Ukraine’s supporters were watching on optimistically, as all signs pointed toward Donald Trump allowing Ukraine to acquire long-range Tomahawk missiles at a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.
Giving the green light for Ukraine to buy and use such powerful weapons would have dramatically increased the country’s firepower and ability to strike military infrastructure inside Russia.
But Trump, whose tone towards Russia had hardened since his Alaska Summit with Putin in August failed to produce any meaningful results, made a U-turn that few saw coming.
Zelensky’s most recent trip to Washington had a lot more in common with the notorious shouting match that took place in the Oval Office in February. On top of Trump’s withholding of weapons Ukraine needs, he returned to some of his old talking points. Most alarmingly, he insisted that any halt to fighting would mean Ukraine give up the Donbas region to Putin—an area Russia has failed to take total control of, despite 11 years of fighting.
According to a report in the FT, Trump told the Ukrainian leader that if he did not bow to Putin’s will, Ukraine would be “destroyed.” The meeting reportedly descended into a bad-tempered shouting match, with Trump throwing away maps of the frontline, repeatedly swearing, and echoing a Kremlin talking point that the invasion is a “special operation, not even a war.”
Trump held a surprise two-and-a-half-hour phone call with the Russian President Vladimir Putin while Zelensky was on his way to America.
During that call, Trump reportedly agreed to a second face-to-face summit with Putin, this time in Budapest. Hungary is one of Putin’s few allies in the West, and its Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has repeatedly dug his heels in on Western efforts to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. To say it will be an embarrassment not just for Ukraine but many of its European allies is an understatement.
The meeting will allow Putin onto E.U. and NATO soil, where in theory he should be arrested given an ICC arrest warrant. The sight of Putin standing alongside the most powerful man in the world in a NATO country will instead likely be used as Kremlin propaganda—and another sign that Trump has once again been played for a fool by Putin.
For all the positive noises that have come each time Trump has made commitments to Ukraine, or encouraged NATO allies to spend more on defense, or apparently started to see Putin for who he really is, the facts speak for themselves. A BBC Verify report in August found that the number of Russian attacks on Ukraine has doubled since Trump’s inauguration. In recent weeks, mounting drone incursions have even brazenly entered NATO skies.
Trump’s desire for the war to end seems sincere. He has also made no secret of his wish to win a Nobel Peace Prize. But if the war in Ukraine ends with the nation’s future largely in the hands of its invader, the very idea that Trump is deserving of the prize would be a dishonor.
The Russian President is a man who lives by the axiom: give an inch, take a mile. When the Obama Administration let down Syria, Putin was more than happy to intervene there to prop up his ally Bashar al-Assad. The West’s decision to turn the other cheek after Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 may have also emboldened him to launch his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin scoring another summit with Trump is a diplomatic coup. So is Trump’s decision to renege on Tomahawks for Ukraine and swing back to Putin’s way of thinking.
A version of Occam’s razor—that the simplest explanation for a phenomenon is probably correct—applies here. If Trump continues to reward Putin and punish Kyiv, Putin will most likely further escalate in Ukraine and test the West.
There is still hope that Trump may swing back to Ukraine, and heeding Zelensky’s call for an additional 25 U.S. Patriot anti-missile batteries is a good start.
Those closest to the U.S. President should urge Trump to do more for Ukraine, and stress that his current strategy is making Putin look smarter and stronger than Trump’s America.
For a man who cares about optics, that may be Ukraine’s best hope.
Charmer’s Cafe
New decor, partially Halloween-related, partially just new 🙂
… And One More Splash Of Summer!
Yesterday, before I left for the airport, I walked to the beach and realized that if I wasn’t in a rush and didn’t put away all the beach things, I could still go! It was nice and warm and calm. Several people were walking in the shallow water, likely regretting having put their swimsuits into storage.
I rolled up my jeans and followed their example:).
Art Institute And CSO
On Thursday, I had a very packed after-work schedule. First, I went to the Art Institute to finally see the Strange Realities exhibit. Usually, I am among the first to see a new exhibit, but this time, I have something going on each Thursday, and I didn’t have time to make a separate trip to the Loop on any weekend.
Upon entering the exhibit, I realized that symbolism as an art movement had completely dropped from my radar many years ago. In high school, we studied symbolism in literature, including Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely. We “obligatory loved” Balmont, Annensky, and other poets of the “Silver Century” of Russian poetry. I just tried to find (unsuccessfully) a blog post where I wrote about how an “intelligent person” in Soviet Russia was supposed to admire certain poets and writers, who were not explicitly banned, but were not praised by the official propaganda; loving symbolists was one of those “requirements.”
Now I realized that for many years, it was not obligatory anymore, and this artistic movement dropped from my sight, and it took me a while to realize: yea, I know what it is all about!
I think I will go see this exhibit again; I didn’t have enough time because I also wanted to catch up on the Elizabeth Catlett exhibit (I saw it as a “second one” when we were at the Art Institute with Boris in August, and it was not enough).
Next stop was the CSO. A week before, they advertised the pickup dinners at the Rotunda. I think it was in response to the disappearance of the affordable “before the show” dining options, which I also complained about. So I tried it, and the answer is no :). I would rather stop at Lea!
As for the concert, it was absolutely amazing! It was an all-Berlioz program with Klaus Makela conducting, and now I have finally started to like him. I won’t say I disliked him when I heard him conducting for the first couple of times, but he is so different from Riccardo Muti that it was a difficult switch! This time, I sat with my mouth open throughout the whole concert 🙂
Oh, and the violist Antoine Tamestit was absolutely outstanding!!! Loved every moment of his performance in the Harold in Italy.
Hettie's Reflections 