Lately I've been into playing Sudoku puzzle game on my Treo.
Here are some videos explaining the rules and giving some tips and tricks on playing this game.
This is the sequel to Mind Game. You will be asked to perform several simple calculations and at the end you will be asked a question. Answer it immediately. Don't stop and think about it. Follow the instructions below one at a time:
One day during the week before Christmas I took a walk on 5th avenue to take a look at the fabulous window displays that many fancy stores put together. I went by Saks 5th Avenue just in time for the snowflakes on the building facade to light up to the music. The windows of the ground floor had awesome animated displays. Other notable stores are Henri Bendel with their spectacular display of the characters from Alice in Wonderland, Bergdorf Goodman with it's fabulous winter themed window displays and of course the "Miracle on 34th Street" Macy's. Below is the video of the animated displays as well as a slide show of the still ones.
If you stay in Manhattan for Christmas, make sure you check out all these stores. The best time to see them is at night because there is less street reflection in the windows and the displays' lighting looks better. More photos of Christmas in New York that I took are here. There is also a nice collection by someone else here.
Here is my cheesy appearance in the EuroCircle promo video. The interviews were taken on October 26th at one of their parties. They cut out quit a bit of the blahbing that I did infront of the camera in both English and Russian.
Yet another weird encounter on my way to work this morning. By the shape of her hips, it looks like it's a woman. Moreover, the one who really likes to knit! I wish I talked to her and ask her about the outfit. Next time I see something like this, I'll conduct an interview.
To see high-resolution photo, click on the photo here and then click on "Get Original Uploaded Photo" link beneath the photo that you see on the next page.
On my way to work today I saw several ambulance and police cars at the intersection of 5th avenue and 14th street right next to Commerce Bank. As I came closer, I saw quite an unusual character in the stretcher... Only in New York...
Today it felt like 110 degrees outside and at night it started to rain. Some people chose to walk underneath an umbrella, but some decided just to treat Manhattan as a beach.
My Brazilian co-worker brought some authentic Guarana soda to the office today. This soda was the one I fell in love with when I visited Brazil last year. I've also had it here in the US in a Brazilian restaurant near the old office, but that one was made in New Jersey.
On Monday David Blaine performed a stunt, but he is also a magician.
Magic fascinates me because I see something done right in front of my eyes and yet I have no idea how it is done. The tricks appear to be supernatural, but in reality magic is nothing more than a trick. Below are the clips from the ABC Special on Monday showing street magic tricks performed by David. Some of these tricks are so unbelievable that I think they were just staged in front of the camera. I believe them when I see them with my own eyes. I created a DVD of the show and watched frame by frame how he did some of these tricks and I could not see anything that would reveal the secret!
David must have signed special agreement with a phone company! I think this thing has been staged. As far as shattering the card, damn that's impressive. I don't see how that could be staged. Must be some very fancy cards in that deck!
The prisoner never told us the card he thought of apriori. This also could have been staged.
They could have put a special door for the show
I wonder how many takes it took to shoot this video until all bets were all winning.
Ok, I can see him biting off a piece of the martini glass, but he definately was not chewing the glass. He had something in his mouth beforehand which made crunch sound when he chewed and then either disolved or it was made of eatable substance.
Of course the teeth were always there. What he had in his hands did not even look like a tooth. He held two very thin objects. He must have put something black to cover up the teeth and make them look like they are missing. I don't think her tounge actually went through the holes contradictory to what the people were saying. Then he blew that black cover up away and the teeth reappeard.
Very masterful trick. I bet he had another set of laces which were already tied up. As he was flicking his foot that set of laces came down from underneath the cuffs of his pants.
No matter how unbelievable the magic tricks are, again, they are just tricks. A lot of the tricks requrie sliegh of hand and appropriate props. There is a website The Trickery where you can buy these props and see many demos of the tricks using those props. I downloaded every single one of them and will watch them on my Treo to see if I can have an idea on how the tricks are done. The total time of all clips is more than 4 hours!
I also bought my first item from them - Bottle Up Inside - a DVD explaining how to get a ring inside a glass bottle. I've seen a similar trick myself performed by a street magician. He was able to get a quater inside a glas beer bottle, and then take it out. I can't wait to find out how it's done!
The cool thing about having a personal website is that other people with the same name are googling for themselves and find it. Today I received an IM from Sandra Pungin who lives in Spain.
It's amazing that in a city with more than 8 million people I keep bumping into the people I know. Today I bumped into the reporter from New York Sun Amanda Gordon. She is the author of the section of the paper called "Out and About with Amanda Gordon" where she publishes photos and small blurbs about various events that take place in the city. Many of the events are charity galas such as various balls that I frequently attend. First time I met her was at Quadrille Ball 2004 when she interviewed me and Kerrie among other people. She published Viennese Opera Ball 2005 dress rehearsal. She took this picture of me in the paper. Also she wrote an article about Viennese Opera Ball 2006.
This is the sequel to Mind Game. You will be asked to perform several simple calculations and at the end you will be asked a question. Answer it immediately. Don't stop and think about it. Follow the instructions below one at a time:
On Monday David Blaine performed a stunt, but he is also a magician.
Magic fascinates me because I see something done right in front of my eyes and yet I have no idea how it is done. The tricks appear to be supernatural, but in reality magic is nothing more than a trick. Below are the clips from the ABC Special on Monday showing street magic tricks performed by David. Some of these tricks are so unbelievable that I think they were just staged in front of the camera. I believe them when I see them with my own eyes. I created a DVD of the show and watched frame by frame how he did some of these tricks and I could not see anything that would reveal the secret!
