Proceed to Mind Game 2.

I created a Yahoo group for the users of Fotki.com

Click to join fotki-users

40 minutes - that's how long it took me to walk from 52nd Street to Houston Street on my commute to work this morning due to the New York City transit strike. When I take the subway, it take me only half this time. I did walk quite fast through the red lights and passing in front of the moving cars. So walking may not be as bad of an alternative to mass transit given the fact that I also get some exercise.

I saw this photo in one of my Fotki friends Gary's albums. This was actually a photo of him and his son sitting on a patch of snow on top of the Swiss Alps. The clouds were in the background and looked awefully similar to the snow, so I could not resist to do a little photoshopping to make the two mountaineers have a Heavenly Lunch. I also created Photoshop album where I will post all of the photos that I personally photoshopped. By the way, when I say photoshop, I don't mean that I actually used Adobe Photoshop. I use this term the same as Kleenex for any nose tissue. I use Corel Paint Shop Pro for all my photo editing. I find that software to be more user friendly. To see all photos that have been photoshopped by me and other people, click here.

Tonight Joanna came over for dinner for potatoe pancakes. I finally was cooking for someone who is a cook expert. Some nice advice from Joanna was to use butter instead of corn oil. And also not to put as much butter on the pan as I did. We made an experiment. In one frying pan we had potatoe pancakes cooked with corn oil and in the other with butter. The ones with butter tasted much better. So from now on - no corn oil!

What I like about Times Square is that among the crowd of tourists there is always someone who really stands out.

None of the above! This is actually a panaramic view of nothing more than a station of the Moscow Metro (or subway as they call it in New York City). The stations of Moscow Metro are known to be the most beautiful in the world. Each station has its own unique design. My hometown St. Petersburg has the subway system very similar to the one in Moscow. So now you see how I felt when I first entered the New York City subway!

Since eBay emailed me a pdf with this certificate, might as well display it on my website :)

I am selling a bunch of furniture and other miscellaneous items. Click on this link for photos and information:

members.fotki.com/sale2

If you know of anyone who is looking for furniture, send them the link.

Trying on the jacket which is part of the company cycling team uniform.

Those of you who are fotki.com members, vote for my photo that I submitted to the "People and Emotions" photo contest. Voting is open until March 29th. Click on the photo or here to vote. You need to be logged in to the fotki site to vote.

Every year the dancers of the Quadrille Ball give out the awards to the Junior Committee members. Here is my award this year: And here is the award from last year.

Found these on a friend's blog and decided to take them myself. Here are my results:

My colleague Christine has given me the nickname Pumpkin years ago. We've been working together since JPMorgan times. So today, in advent of my holiday, she gave me a nice pumpkin cup cake! It was veeery yummy. Thanks Christine!

The following previews have been rated G by the Motion Pictures Association Of America.

Ever wanted to call someone and conceal your real voice? You can type a short text message below and click on the SPEAK button to hear it spoken by the selected voice.

Text:


Voice: Crystal ... US English Mike ...... US English Rich ...... US English Lauren .... US English Claire .... US English Rosa ...... Latin Am. Spanish Alberto ... Latin Am. Spanish Klara ..... German Reiner .... German Alain ..... French Juliette .. French Charles ... UK English Audrey .... UK English      

Display the link for the audio file.

This is really cool stuff to play with. The speech is amazingly clear, yet still sounds quite funny. My favorite is Audrey - with her impeccable Queen's English pronunciation :)

To save the audio file on your computer, check "Display the link for the audio file" before clicking SPEAK, right-click on the link and select "Save Target As..."

Don't forget to turn on the volume on the computer and make sure you have the speakers or headphones plugged in.

As I was walking along Broadway between 42nd and 41st streets to meet Joanna to go shopping for my Grand Canyon trip, I saw an amazing sight of bleeding and bruised people in cages on the sidewalk. This was a demonstration of tortures that the Chinese government is subjecting the practitioners of Falun Dafa - a spiritual self healing practice similar to yoga. Click here for more photos.