Thursday, February 14, 2008

San Jose airport and yoga

Spotted this yesterday in San Jose airport, on my way back to Chicago.
This lady looked much more comfortable than most of other laptop users in the airport (sitting on the floor in inconvenient poses, sitting in the airport chairs which are not exactly designed for people with laptops, etc.).
I think she practices yoga, and looks like yoga training and yoga equipment (yoga brick in this case) are helpful!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

San Jose

ODC 2008 begins tomorrow, so today I had several hours to walk around. Weather was just great, 60++ F, sunny, very nice. I got my shorts, sandals and camera, and started to enjoy life.
Streets almost empty. Beautiful St. Joseph cathedral - white on bright blue sky background. Cathedral gift shop - many religious souvenirs, religious and classical music. Very interesting, unusual, modern-design cross (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pntphoto/2253465607/). Very polite man agreed that cross is quite unusual and explained that cross is from El Salvador (“…there are many interesting things from El Salvador… ”). I asked how far is downtown (crowd, troops of tourists, traffic, etc., etc., etc.). Man in the store looked at me silently for approximately 12 seconds. Answer: “You ARE in downtown. Right in the middle….” Yes…… OK…... February, definitely off-season.
Streets of San Jose look nice, but there are not so many really distinctive buildings (my very subjective possibly wrong opinion just after several hours in the city). Really great City Hall, Beautiful example of modern architecture.
Went to the Art Museum. Exhibition of Goya and Picasso graphics – absolutely great. Three chandeliers by Dale Chihuly in the museum lobby, very similar to chandelier which I’ve seen in Columbus, IN visitors center (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pntphoto/2137283494/in/set-72157603417353853/).
Little vegan café. Two vegetarians with tattoo all around the visible parts of their bodies (arms, elbows, shoulders, necks, etc.) sit in the corner. I got green tea and two healthy vegan deserts. Very tasty.
From all possible directions ladies and gentlemen are heading to hotel. Crowd of limos, tuxedoes and very nice evening dresses. Soft piano music in the lobby: Fransis Lai, Michael Legrand, “Stranger of the Night”….. Smell of Chanel #5 and/or something else very nice, all around the hotel lobby. My shorts, sandals, backpack and camera look not exactly……. I ‘m moving to my room and now I’m blogging about my first ½ of day in San Jose, California.

What else?..... More than 100 photos have been taken. Hope to upload them to Flickr soon.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Social Networks Surprises

Recently I registered on www.odnoklassniki.ru (it's russian clone of www.classmates.com).
Of course, found some of my high school and college classmates. It was great to exchange messages with people who I've not seen many (MANY) years, very positive emotions.
My last name (Trebukov) is not very common in Russia and Ukraine, I've never met anybody with last name who is not known relative. Just today another Trebukov contacted me through odnoklassniki.ru, absolutely unknown for me person from Russia. Would be very interesting to "investigate" possible connections. Social Networks definitely work!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Poor news coverage

Colleague from Bogota has sent those photos:



10 millions Colombians (25% of country population) marched against drug cartels and against terrorism in Colombia. Quite amazing. It was four days ago.
I don't remember any mentioning in international news.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Starting blogging again

Third attempt to start blog........ Lets try to keep blog alive this time...