a story of one coffee shop

so, let's talk about yesterday... just for the hell of it...

yesterday.

a boring day at work. 

most of the day filled with copy/paste, find/replace with regular expressions and then - proofreading. 

a friend of mine had a nasty experience one day ago - she wanted to meet up and drink. even if it's coffee. therefore, our 'close circle of friends' decided to put everything aside and meet. there were supposed to be the three of us, 'girlfriends'.

I had no luck leaving earlier and was stuck in evening rush hour - entered subway exactly at 6pm.

as you may surmise I had little chance to get where I needed to go till 6:15. earlier in the day I understood I had no spare cash on me and had to grab big banknote from the 'atm'. and if you ever lived here, you'd know that buying a subway ticket with a big bill will result in getting change in a pile of old dirty bills. I had to rummage through all my pockets and purse to find just enough nickels to buy me a ticket - thanks to a person who left the city carrying my magnetic multi-travel pass. 

I had to survive a huge queue to the ticket office where people nearly fought, standing in two or three lines to each of two windows. then - stuffed trains. then - even more stuffed exchange station. I forgot when I saw people so tightly jammed into a tube of a tunnel that leads from one subway station to another. 

I had to go through usual routine race to get into the train at one of the exchange stations - its common rush hour plague being that out of 20 seconds stay allocated for each train at the station, 15 or more are usually used up by passengers that exit the car. then you have to rush in and hope sliding doors won't hit you.

if it wasn't dark outside, I'd prefer to walk.

when I arrived downtown, at our designated meeting place, it was 6:25 and raining.

we didn't discuss where we'd go, only subway station waypoint. I tried calling my friends, but, figures, one of mobile network carriers decided it's time to shut down - I couldn't reach any of them.

just so you'd know, here we have two major carriers and a bunch of minor ones. small carriers usually utilize major carriers' networks. that's why if it fails, it fails big. millions of people are left without mobile phones. 

therefore I waited, thankfully having a hood. a call from an unknown number, my network. I found them, already buying pastry and coffee. a fourth person joined our group. yes, I knew that person and didn't mind. 

a girl behind the counter pleaded we didn't use our 100 or 200 bills, because she had no change. downtown, evening rush hour. huh? I decided to pity her and use my 200 bill to pay for two people. was the last to order and pay. got my change, took two steps from the counter and sorted through bills I've been given. it's never a good sign when you receive change with small bill mixed with big ones. they teach cashiers to sort money when giving change. 

the biggest bill in my set of change (100) was glued together, but completely torn apart before. also neatly stuffed in a pile so if you didn't examine it with a sort of scrutiny and turned it upside down to see the glue all over the back side, you wouldn't notice.

I didn't wait to let another person - a stranger - make her order, threw the bill in question on the counter and demanded a 'valid one'. yes, demanded, because I wasn't in the mood for being overly polite to a little 'nice' girl behind the counter who first asked customers for cooperation and then tried to trick them into accepting an invalid bill that amounted to ~$12. my coffee cost $2. 

she gave me another, valid bill, without a word, question or apology. if you needed proof she knew what she was doing, here it was.

we sat at the table and after several minutes got our orders brought in by another girl, a waitress. she placed coffee cups around the table with a smile. I wasn't paying attention when she was moving around the table, but after she was gone took a good look and saw that my coffee cup and spoon that accompanied it were dirty with some muddy substance. just enough to be visible. like it wasn't cleaned before served to me. I looked around and saw that other cups were sparkling white. 

I couldn't help laughing, scoring a look from my friends. you won't persuade me it was a COINCIDENCE.

I could make a scene and talk to their manager, leave a written complaint that would cost them during next inspection. I would consider doing so, if we didn't have a person who had her share of very back luck lately and didn't gather here to comfort her. so I put sugar into coffee to pretend everything's ok, but didn't touch it. to hell with small smiling 'nice' girl behind the counter. and her friend the waitress.

you don't have to guess that I won't be visiting that establishment anytime soon.

nevertheless...

I never quite understood the need to turn spiteful when you lose a game. 

ok, you tried to trick me and failed. deal with it. it wasn't *me* in the first place who handed you - or your establishment - an invalid bill. and you've accepted it, overlooked it. why spite towards the person that didn't get tricked in your place?

yeah yeah, I know it's against human nature. we are spiteful after all. most are. 

and sore losers. 

one of my friends tried to reach her husband, but network kept to its failure. they set a place to meet too ambiguously in the morning, so she was worried he would be angry. he was, when we found him at another subway station later in the evening. 

when we separated after an hour or so at the coffee-shop, the rain poured more vigorously. the fourth person who had a car lent us an umbrella before saying good-bye. I had a hood, so I let the girls share it when we walked to look for 'lost' husband. 

as I said, he was angry that he couldn't get in touch with his wife and continuously showed us 40 out-coming calls to her number. we swore as one that none came through. actually, we used different mobile carriers to call *his* number, but it didn't connect because his network was down. 

eventually, he had to satisfy himself with the fact that he *found her*. or rather she found him. of course, almost an hour later than they planned. 

--------------------------------------

if you still wonder about my mood, my music player's been stuck at Nickelback recently.
if everyone cared, savin' me, far away, next contestant, someone that you're with, I'd come for you, AND when we stand together.

on relatives

had an interesting conversation today. ofc half of it was said jokingly

we've discussed who can be considered a relative, and my opponent said that only a person related by blood is considered a relative.
i indicated that by this logic children would be considered relatives, while a husband wouldn't.
my opponent said, well, then husband is considered a relative too, but only he and people connected by blood.
then i asked what if one had several husbands?
it appears that the one you love the most is considered a relative :)

such a relative term it is, 'relatives' :)

Steampunk

Finished reading Kady Cross 'The girl in the steel corset'  and 'The girl in the clockwork collar'. Still trying to find proper steampunk books I guess.
Anyhow it was OK and even enjoyable in some parts, so I think author deserves her kudos. If she'd stayed true to 'more steampunk, less romance' line in second volume, it'd be even good. Good book.
As it is I can recommend only first volume, since it's more fun reading and story flow is generic, while in 2nd book it is a bit... artificial. You almost can feel author's tension to come up with next scene. May be a result of over-editing, though.
Who knows. 
Hm, but I like the cover of the 2nd book better :)
The concept of the world is good, though. Kudos. 

This one is closer to definition of steampunk than series i recently finished - Parasol Protectorate by Geil Carriger [Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, Timeless] - but nevertheless not quite steampunk enough.

More jokes in this arrangement of books, but also less sense and more vampires and werewolves, which don't really fit into my perception of steampunk. Oh yeah and too much detail on CLOTHES. Really, the writer must have prized her wardrobe research, but to me it all was just blah-blah-blah dress. Provide illustrations, if you want people to crave for it :)
Also these series are a bit special because when I was reading it I had a strong feeling it was written somewhere right after WW II. Figures, the last book only came out in 2012. Lol. After giving it some thought, I decided not to judge whether it is a good or bad thing.Speculating is pointless. It wasn't the language, though, but ... the contents? Not the old-wrodly charm you can find in works of classics of 20th century, no, just ... something that gave a feeling of it being old. Can't ascertain what it was.

Переводы

Прелести переводов:

Just execute the installer - просто казните монтажника.

Feline life

Feline way of life is approach, sniff, destroy, leave.

Alma Katsu - The Taker

Finished reading Alma Katsu - The Taker yesterday.
Still have no idea why i even bothered reading it to the end.
Maybe because it is a 'best-seller'. Or because it was heavily marketed.
My impression: putting all the sexual content aside, it could be about four times shorter and not a dime less interesting. Not to mention that it wasn't THAT interesting.
The story can be put like this: not very bright, but courageous and 'open-minded' village girl of 19th century is haunted by her attraction to unworthy, but handsome and rich playboy that takes pleasure in toying with women. As a result of succumbing to the temptation(which makes one third of the book) she gets banished by her family and sent to the big city's monastery to have her illegitimate child. But upon her arrival to the city she is forced into prostitution by rich noble, who later takes her as a private lover - an immortal sex slave.
She begins to lead a life of expensive whole and kind of enjoys it. Her master is cruel, but strongly attracted to her; she even loves him for some time.
Figures, the master is an alchemist that discovered the secret of immortality by switching bodies with young men. And as he sets to have his next victim be the playboy heroine still loves, she takes action to get rid of her master and free all the slaves - and the father of her unborn child
Though, in the end, playboy ditches her again and flees to live his immortal (by this time) life without her. He never loved her and all her sacrifices were for nothing.
So, the whole idea of the book was that no matter how she desired for her lover to care for her, it wasn't possible to make him care. In the end he stayed as self-indulgent and selfish as he was in the beginning, so everything she went through was for nothing.
Mad temptation isn't a good thing. Illusions about men aren't either.
Add to this accent on 'intimate life'. . .
All of that on 448 pages in hardcover, if amazon is to be believed. Published September 2011.

Still, it was mostly my stubbornness that kept me reading it. I don't like throwing out books or stopping reading in the middle. Yet, it was almost the case.
Sex sells, eh?

Quote

Ghost doesn't have to be real to haunt you.

Japanese roads

Read a story about Japanese roads.
Sometimes in towns special carvings are made on asphalt, that when you approach an intersection at speed less than 60km/hour you hear a melody of a national song.

Steins;gate

Finished watching Steins;gate.
What can I say about it?
I like 5pb and nitroplus visual novels. Though this time it's a bit illogical. . . Why? Well, you can't tell that without spoilers. But all that illogical stuff is generously compensated by emotion and tension, so it looks good. I guess in vn itself they showed more and answered more questions.

Story is: a group of three friends (self-proclaimed mad scientist aka Okarin, hacker Daru, cosplay fan Mayuri ) accidentally invent a method to send messages into the past. They begin to experiment with it and achieve unexpected results. . . But just before the first message sent into the past Okarin finds well-known young scientist Makise Kurisu murdered. The most interesting part is, the next day he meets her as nothing had happened. And things start to get really complicated.
Story features time travel, conspiracies, attempts to change world order, traitors and a lot of drama. Death and blood too.

Picture shows all main characters(from left to right): Moeka, Mayuri, Makise Kurisu, Rukako, Suzuha, Ferris, Daru, Okabe Rintarou aka Okarin. Overall impression good. First 4 episodes are kind of slow though, before you get used to nonsense Okarin says and other stuff.

---------
And now some spoilers.
Some interesting facts: Okarin worked so hard in the end to fool another himself about Makise and blood, but easily changed the past taking out metal upa.
If the conference was cancelled after satellite fell, how did professor get a file? Or in beta timeline Cern gets machine from Okarin?
How did Okarin manage to escape killers all those times to get to machine? He was captured quite a few times.
How Mr. Brown got to be a Fb is a complete mystery. Life of Mr. Brown doesn't seem to change despite appearance and subsequent non-appearance of Suzuha in 1975. But maybe that is the answer to previous question.
How Cern intercepted the message is another dark mystery.
How jelly man paradox was solved is yet another mystery. But oh well. There would be no possible happy ending the other way. . .
And another thing : at first they show us that future rewrites itself when past is changed and then in the end they go for multiple layer change. Change the past to let thing that changed the past happen.

Epic Architectural Fail and Yet Another Fail

#1

This is actually a newly built residential complex in Shanghai, China. 

On the morning of June 27, 2009, one of the buildings toppled over, just barely missing an adjacent building. Had it not missed, it might have caused a horrifying domino effect.

The building that fell just awaited tenants to move in and therefore only one person died in the accident and a few more were injured.

#2

This is a hotel in Las Vegas, featuring unique curved structure.
However on a sunny day inner surface of building collects solar rays and projects them as a ray into the swimming pool area, regularly burning skin and possessions of guests. Thankfully, no casualties there.

Proverb

Everybody's business is nobody's business.

Nationality talk

Had a mood to run doing bosses with random parties in Allods online. Met few people from various corners of Europe.
As usually my cleric was a hit of the day or savior of the party. . . Funny how you get into a raid (5+ character party) with three other priests and only you can heal. Others are dd conversions. . .
But nevermind. What I wanted to say is this old talk in a new old manner.
We were doing bosses as I said (Ugluk, Kosmach, whatever) and I met a person from Sweden with whom we formed a party for an hour or so. Later on some English person joined into the talk and started bugging us with who are you questions. The dialogue was typical, but I will write it down here.
Englishman: Where are you from people?
Swedish man: I am Swedish
E: And you?
Me: I am Ukrainian.
E: :O
S: it's a nationality man
E: ? ? ?
Me: it's a country near Russia
E: oh, how come you speak English? They don't speak English in Russia
me: now I start to get offended
S: people learn languages

That was pretty much it but it's very typical. People think that this country is barbaric (which it is to some extent ) and all who dwell in it are considered stupid barbarians. Even though I'm ukrainian I don't like being considered that. And yes I sometimes have to tell people that bears do not roam our main streets and we don't live in taiga. . .
Russia and Ukraine are so deeply entwined in minds of some people that it's almost impossible to separate those two images.

Maybe

Maybe this world is another world's hell.

Time eats

Even the strongest alliances and the best relationships eventually fall apart if not nurtured properly. Without proper nourishment body and soul wither too, getting weary, old and failing.

On popularity of certain entertainment genre

I think I know why most people are so interested and obsessed with love, affairs and such things. Why fiction and drama 'with love angle' is so popular.
Basically, our life is just a 'mortal coil', endless struggle for survival in the mud. It has no obvious meaning whatsoever and it is usually dull.
Plain and dull.
It gets almost impossible to bear life as it presents itself often. Endless and meaningless struggle often makes you wanna give up and just. . . Give up. Accept the fact that life f#ckd you and just let it do what it pleases afterwards. At times like that you wouldn't mind dying. Everything's gray and joyless and you just don't care anymore. I know the feeling, it has visited me few times already. At different times, though.
So whenever you let that feeling get to you, you are screwed big time.

Lovey-dovey stuff, romance and affairs provide an escape, a way to chase away that doomsday feeling and occupy your mind with something else than treacherous daily life.
Everyone needs an escape.
So that's why soap drama and romantic comedies are popular nowadays: people need to fight the nagging voice inside that tells them to give up.