Being helped by a salesperson at Paragon store as I am shopping for the supplies for the upcoming 9-day Grand Canyon trip. This is going to be first time when I will be isolated from civilization for that long and will not be able to do all the things that I do on daily basis, like surf the web.

It's Friday night and my colleagues and I decided to have a Dance Dance Revolution in a cubicle of our office. Click on the picture for more photos.

Other DDR pages on my site:

Dance Dance Revolution - Effective Way to Lose Weight DDR Videos

When many of my German-speaking friends tried to translate this article into English, they all were puzzled with one word which appeared in the first sentence of the second paragraph. Here is the sentence in German: "Es war zwar night die Oper, sondern das patinöse "Plaza" am Central Park,...", which translates into English as "It wasn't the Opera, but the patinöse Plaza at Central Park, ...". Now, what the heck is patinöse?!

One of my friends who is actually from Austria was so curious about this word that she called the newspaper and asked them to give her the email address of the author of the article - Claus Pandi. Here is what she wrote me in an email after she got a response from him:

Hi Raphael!

The journalist from the Austrian newspaper replied to my email today. He said that the word is a "creation" of his (!!) - very funny man - and that it derives from the word "Patina". Attached is a description of the different meanings of "patina".

I think if you take the meaning of the word figuratively, he was trying to say in his article that the Plaza is still a very elegant location, but has gathered some "dust" over the years, in other words: not really a compliment for the Plaza.

No wonder all of my German-speaking friends could not figure this word out! I am glad now the mystery is solved.

Fotki members, vote for my submission for "My Homeland" photo contest. Votes accepted until May 10th. Click on the photo to vote.

Happy 2004!!!

Wish you all a wonderful year of the . well, well, smoothly, less and remember to dedicate enough for . May all singles fall in , all ladies enjoy and . Husbands & wives don't , and good luck for those who plan to get or have . People who better quit this year for good because it's for you. No matter what lies ahead, just stay .

Those of you who are fotki.com members, vote on my submission to the Winter Photo Contest. This photo is from this album, which is full of many other great winter shots. Voting ends on Saturday January 3rd, 2004 5:30 PM EST

I wish you happy Holiday Season full of joy, love and gifts!!!

This is the view from my office of the first snow of this winter. It came down pretty hard, but only for about 15 minutes. Since the temperature is above freezing, it did not accumulate.

Then the sun came back out. I guess it was a quick reminder that it is December already.

At night though it got really cold. This was the coldest day of the winter so far. It was a good preperation for my upcoming trip to Russia.

This movie series based on the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been my favorite movie when I was growing up in Russia. I am so greatful to my friend Sabine for getting the DVDs of this masterpiece of Russian cinematograph here in America. I've been dreaming to see it again during many years after I have left Russia and now I can finally watch it! Thank you so much, Sabine!

The series consists of the following episodes: Znakomstvo (1979) Krovavaya nadpis (1979) Korol' Shantazha (1980) Smertel'naja shvatka (1980) Ohota na tigra (1980) Sobaka Baskervile (1981) Sokrovishcha Agry (1983) Sherlok Holms v dvatsatom veke (1986)

Check out this page for more information about this awesome movie series.

Live demonstration of an artist using sand to draw artwork in the matter of seconds. This took place at the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival (SICAF) 2003 in Seoul, Korea.

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Hello Manhattan!!!

I finally moved to "The Capital Of The World". Last night was my frist night in my new apartment. I hope to get used to the sirens and honks of cars. But other than that I love it to walk out of my apartment building and be right where I used to commute every day from Jersey City. On to unpacking...