Why to be shy of having kids grown-up?

While advancing in years and having kids growing up the same time, some women make desperate and ridiculous attempts to disguise their parental relation to those kids and out of sudden, instead of daughters and sons, they aquire "sisters" and ... no no no - no "brothers", but "boyfriends" (BTW is something Freudian in there?).
And they make kids to follow this pattern and avoide "Mum" when in public and - I've seen it - even at home.
Never understood that.
Our daughter is a mature teen and a child of young parents. She's taller than me, bigger than me (I'm not a good measurement unit anyway), beautiful and serious-looking girl, with all that make-up and trendy attire. Very often people from work, new friends, her schoolmates and just guys from the street do not beleive that I'm her mum. But I never failed to point out that Ksusha is my daughter and I'm proud of it.
And I'm not shy when she calls me Mum and people turn heads and make surprised faces.
Because being a mum (and I beleive, a dad as well) - it's happiness.
Caring about children, sharing their thoughts and problems (the latter may be as great as a Universe!), having fun with them and even when they make fun of you - all this makes you young and drives your life on a high gear, so that you won't fall under temptation to observe the world and reflect on the future of humanity.
Yes, "caring" and "sharing" might be such a burden sometimes! But look on the bright side: having a grown-up son(s) or daughter(s) and remaining still young, dynamic and with a whole world open for you for discoveries - isn't it an achievement? Why to be shy of it?

P.S. I'm not talking about the age, of course. Everybody knows that disclosure of the woman's age is a crime! Just advocating mother(father) hood...

Economies of scale

No no no, I'm not going to elaborate on the economic theories over here :)

It's just another fine day when I ought to exersise all my powers over our poor daugther Ksusha to go through yet another fascinating (I wish so!) chapter of the study book.

All my powers... It's not only about brainpower, persuasiveness, motivation etc. It's more about a physical power to drag the kid in the kitchen, set in front of me and pull through a few pages of extremely boring text and exersises - extremely boring for her, needless to say, 'cos for me... nevermind.

So, I've made my best to get well prepared. Being unsatisfied by the contents of the chapter and its presentation, I've spent an hour to make a beautiful handout which covered a wide area from economies of scale to organisational structure and as far as to the Porter's value chain model (ok, it might be outside their syllabus but it's so interesting, - I thought).

Also, I answered all the multiple choice questions (to give her correct answers for check-up) and made a plan for the essay which she should be able to write upon the completion of that chapter.

And that was it. Ksusha was strong, responsive and patient in her resistance, so was I... because I had to re-explain some passages two or three times and she had to stop me every now and then from getting, say, too emotional :)

I thought, we never finish... But we did. After three hours of brainwrestling Ksusha answered correctly all the questions and went on with the essay. She was writing industriously, thinking over something, striking out some lines and replacing them by others with her neat handwriting. Page after page was getting covered by her beautiful script... Even cats froze in awe.

I was watching all this, quitely admiring my clever kid and being slightly proud of myself ("oh, I'm not so bad mother after all, help my girl, give support" and other selfish stuff like that).

Ksusha stopped writing again for a minute and I said: "Look, I understand - it's not easy to find the proper wording to formulate your thoughts. Just try to make it easier - like you are writing a letter to me".

And her answer killed me instantly:
-If I was writing a letter to you, I would just say: "Mum, I hate you".

That would be much easier indeed, but is this economies of scale?

Birthday makes you happy even at 25+ :)

Множество раз доводилось слышать (читать) вариации на тему "настоящий человек должен быть одиноким"... Сама написала в профайле "loneliness on the cold mountain is such a beautiful state of mind" - и ведь искренне тогда писала!

А на самом деле чушь все это.

Вот вчера был мой день рождения, при этом это был действительно день - с утра до позднего-позднего вечера, когда я чувствовала себя самой счастливой на земле. Почему?

Понятно, не потому что стала еще на один год старше и даже (немного) не потому, что люблю подарки и цветы. А потому что весь день непрерывно общалась по телефону, мейлу и лично с целой кучей очень разных замечательных людей, и у всех нашлись такие трогательные и неожиданные слова для меня, что порой возникало ощущение - а о ком они говорят? Кто эта потрясающая женщина, которую столько народу любит, а главное (зная мою весьма нелегкую personality) - за что?! Сколько раз мне сказали и написали "солнышко", "красавица", "умница", "любимая" и еще много слов, которые совсем не похожи на обычные поздравления, а такие искренние, чуткие (например, "женщина с необычной структурой души" или "чтобы тебе продолжали завидовать мужчины и женщины- твоей красоте, уму, успехам" - когда пишу, выглядит странно, но когда это говорит друг - хочется плакать от не знаю чего :). Весь день была в опьянении, хотя от спиртного уже 6 лет отлучена :)

Ну и, конечно, многочисленные комплименты. А какие цветы восхитительные! Теперь гостиная наша выглядит так, что впору переимновать дом в Балчуг-Курбатский.

А подарки... Не верьте, кому это безразлично. Подарок от души - он душу и греет (а если его можно еще на шею навесить для крысаты или на тумбочку у кровати поставить для уюта)...

Да какая же дура будет после этого говорить, что ей счастливо в одиночестве на холодной горе?! Да, дура полная и будет говорить так, наверное.

А я скажу, что это огромное счастье НЕ БЫТЬ ОДИНОКИМ, иметь семью и родителей, прекрасных друзей и веселых, добрых знакомых и коллег. С ними можно от души по-русски веселиться даже в японском ресторане, слышать от них и говорить им правду без обид и всякую лабуду, которая может залезть в голову кому угодно на разных этапах жизни - потому что тебя все равно поймут, поддержат и вообще.

Холодные горы - это так, игра извращенного интеллекта. Дружба, любовь, тепло, радость общения - вот это правда.

Да, что-то меня понесло... Ну это только один раз в году. Все-таки ДР!

Дима, Ксюша, Марина, Саша, Саша еще раз, Слава, Эля, Вика, Адонис, Игорь, снова Саша (вы там разберетесь, надеюсь!), Катя, Вика, Ксюша (опять имена повторяются), Андрей, Дима (так, надо заводить картотеку), Руслан, Аркадий, Стас, Инга... мама, мама и папа Димы, Миша, Гуля - и это только самые близкие. Весь список надо будет выложить на фликере :)

СПАСИБО ЗА СЧАСТЬЕ, КОТОРОЕ ВЫ ДАРИТЕ, И ЗА ТО, ЧТО ЗАМЕЧАТЕЛЬНАЯ ЖИЗНЬ ПРОДОЛЖАЕТСЯ БЛАГОДАРЯ ВАМ!

On the green road of Open Access

Very impressive.

What I like about "getting free, immediate, permanent online access to the full text of research articles for anyone, webwide" is that the information you receive is refined and, by definition, scientifically proved. This is what is lacked sometimes in the wikipedia-like articles heavily hyperlinked and still missing some depth... OK, the ...pedias have a different objective - to feed widely accepted and digestable info to the average Inet users. But non-average people need more.

I've used to be involved in the reaserch processes during those times when the one, in order to have an access to somebody's article, had to browse the huge paper-wooden-made catalogue in the public library and then spend cold and lengthy hours crunched in extremely uncomfortable chair and without immediate, permanent whatever access to some coffee, beer or sigarettes!

Thanks to the Uni of Sauthhampton - now we have access to everything we need. During our research at least.

I'm really eager to start my own research, and EPrints OA gives me plenty of ideas.

Attention on the roads, please!

I was rather busy the last weeks and didn't post anything, but today I'm going to write something which may help (in a way) to prevent the road accidents on our streets.

I was walking (innocent like an angel), thinking nothing. Just remembered the last post from my friend which contained a lot of pleasant words and feelings, and a happy smile (I would think that was a rather stupid happy smile) spread across my face.

I had to cross the road, so I'd stopped and turned my head, still smiling, to check all clear and suddenly locked my eyes with a smart guy on the motorbike who also stopped and turned his head to check his way on the crossroad. Before I'd changed face, he lost his balance and fell down from the bike (actually, together with his heavy bike) still looking in my eyes and smiling as well!

Jesus Christ, that was so funny!

However, it's not safe to stare at girls around when driving. I think :)

Life is fair after all...

Sunny day, light breeze, nice mood… We are walking down the street with Ksusha, chatting and smiling and obviously being very happy after visiting a couple of trendy shops. The day couldn’t be better unless…

Just when we passed a coffee shop where a group of lazy young Cypriots sat slumped in the comfortable armchairs, talking, the wind blew stronger and my skirt (you know, that type of “one button only”) flew open instantly making the conversation at the coffee shop stop and five pairs of sunglasses gaze at us.

“Mum, c’mon, they saw everything” – my daughter’s voice was sarcastic, - “even the bruise up there”.

While I was trying to figure out why I would have a bruise up there, one of the guys – whom I’d never seen before – leaped up from the chair and ran towards us with a broad smile and his hands opened for a hug.

“Hum, a stranger… It looks like he knows Ksusha”, - I thought seeing her smiling to him, but then he took my hand and kissed it passionately.

“Hello, how are you?” – he was so happy to see us (her? me?) that I’d started feeling sort of, OK, stupid?

Maybe that was a rather straightforward way to make a conversation with two beautiful girls (one of them in a school uniform, by the way)? Am I missing something? And why the hell I have that bruise?!

Thank God, in a minute we remembered that he was the guy who fixed a broken door lock at my office two months ago. Such a memory, ha? And such an after-service support!

Of course we had been invited to have a cup of coffee etc. but left with our most charming smiles and promises about “the other day”.

And then Ksusha told me indignantly: “Mum, it’s unfair. You were with ME! Why was he so happy to see YOU?!”

“O, my poor girl,” – I was going to say, - “life is unfair sometimes…” but suddenly a better thought had sparkled in my head: “Life is fair, because this will be my rrrevennnge for that stupid math and those stupid equations which spoiled my weekend and made me feel an idiot”.

We forgot the guy and went on with our nice time together, one of us just a little bit happier than five minutes ago.

Kids...

This should happen sooner or later…

Sunday noon. I’m sitting slump in the sofa, enjoying fresh fruit and lazy reading, the air conditioner softly murmuring somewhere in the distance… Time is passing slowly and without any purpose… Paradise…

Who said without a purpose? My daughter’s voice brought me back to the REAL life instantly: “Mum, you said you were excellent in math at school. Please have a look; I can’t get these equations simplified.”

And she produced a study book of Heinemann Modular Mathematics where the most frightening equations were carefully outlined for beloved and clever Mum’s explanations…

She made my day.

Most of that stuff was easy for me, but then there were a couple of equations I couldn’t make to the answer given at the end of the book (yes, I have to confess that I’d consulted with the answers under a limp excuse that “I don’t want to confuse you and give you the information you shouldn’t have at THIS level” – how clever of me, ha? And very “persuasive”!)

So, after 15 minutes of struggling with equations to get those stupid answers, and being unable to get them, Ksusha said: “It’s OK. I will ask the teacher ‘morrow”. I felt that I had never in my life been put in a bigger disgrace than this one. But what was worse is that after Ksusha left with her horrendous study book and cunning smile on her face, I couldn’t get back that wonderful feeling that “time is passing slowly…” (see above).

Needless to say that after a few minutes of trying to concentrate on the book I’d read 30 minutes before, I found a piece of paper and made heavy weather of those stupid equations till I’d got the correct answers (bloody answers, to be precise).

So, if somebody is bored with life and needs an external stimulator, this is a perfect recipe: get kids, love them and bother with their troubles and problems – and you will have a quality time 24/7.

I broke a password!

Just to share my great experience in code-breaking.

I wanted to replace MS Express by MS Outlook and asked my good friend, coincidentally a very clever and skilled IT expert, to help me with it.

Of course, that was very easy for him ...until the time came to enter the e-mail password. I didn't know it, the guy who had set it several months ago was out ot reach.

So, we had two options: either wait until I get in touch with that guy or... Actually, with an IT profi by my side the only decent option was to break through.

Quite a lot of programs which promised to disclose the 12-asterisk stuff had been downloaded from Google. But none of them really worked. Digital fortress held strong. I went down to the kiosk to buy more sigarettes...

Eventually Alexander found a program which managed to reveal three first symbols of the password. He said: "No, this is not good, it shows only three letters. Let's go on to find another one". And THEN my glorious moment came, when I suggested: "Let's delete these three letters and try again then, and the program will show us the other three first letters - and so on". "No, it won't work", replied Sasha but agreed to try. And you know what? It worked! We'd read the password 4 x 3 letters and finished with my e-mail within a minute.

So, dear Sasha and all IT guys! After all, dumb users also have brains, and they work some times.

I wish THIS anti-terror war never ends

People all over the world and, particularly, in the UK and USA get paranoid about the resent issue at British Airports and the problem of security (as if it hadn't existed before!).

I had been one of those "victims" of the excessive measures applied at Luton Airport on the 14th of August.

Yes, we had not been allowed (by mistake, as we found later) to have a newspaper and a book in our see-through plastic bag until we pass security check-up, so we put it in the bag and had been "forced" to buy a couple of other books in the after-checkup area. Very interesting books, by the way, and I'm glad that bought them spending some extra money which would be otherwise spent on some less valuable stuff.

Yes, my precious and rather expensive lipstick had been confiscated due to the fact that it was made using liquid materials. I suggested to put it on my lips in front of them or even bite a piece, but three officers handling this issue acted against it in a united front. But they did not just take a lipstick and throw it in the bin (as the one familiar with other airports' securities might expect,) but spent quite a time to comfort me and persuade that it's not because they want to harm me - just they have their orders. I understood.

But look, guys, the order, cleanness and peaceful quiteness of the Luton Airport were amazing.

People enjoyed a longer stay by having snacks and proper English breakfast in cafes, they red papers and books, neetly queued and exchanged jokes like the last resort of terrorists is that the passengers are still allowed to wear pants in the plane.

If this is a feature of the war against terror, I vote for it to never finish.

Order always makes people good.

Just a word for forgiveness

Mel Gibson got drunk, was arrested on Friday in Malibu and made some anti-Semitic remarks while being arrested. Now, the Hollywood community is questioning his future as a filmmaker. There are statements that he had "seriously compromised his career" and "betrayed his friends and collegues". And, of course, all this has been immediately referred to and connected to the ongoing Middle East crysis...

Jesus Christ, why people cannot just forgive this man for his mistake. Mel confessed that he'd battled the desease of alcohol for all his adult life. This is a tragedy, and he's still a prominent actor/ filmmaker and good man... Who are those friends been betrayed so easily?

All people make mistakes of different magnitude during their lives. Shame on those who trumpet their judgements instead of trying to understand and forgive.
It's mush more difficult, isn't it?

Let's save the planet instead...

Unbeleivable!
Is it yet another evidence of TB's descending his political ladder or we have to cheer up the new star on the Hollywood horizon?

Mr.Schwarzenegger is gaining weight anyway...

I left more comments on Nick's blog.

Do British people have a voice?

What impressed me in this post on the Nick Robinson's BBC Weblog is, actually, not the contents of the post itself (we all knew about the "poodle factor" in British politics way before!) but the comments to it.

Once again I've seen that people in the UK are very much concerned with their country's past, present and future, and they cannot watch indifferently how the current government obediently follows the US President's bold line to destroy the world with his Cold War tactics. They are sincere and open end express their thoughts on the BBC Weblog with a confidence and involvment of the true patriots of their country.

One of the respondents wrote that the Blair/Bush meeting at the White House is "just a way to make Blair more comfortable with his alliance and the British people feel like we have a voice when we have nothing of the sort".

No, it's not true. British people do have a voice and should be proud of it. And Mr.Blair will never feel comfortable with any alliance as long as he works for this country and the people of this country do not share his views and choices and, what's more important, do not keep quite about it.

Minefield of blogging?

Many people assume their blog is read only by people they know. However, this is often not the case and a recent story about the dismissal of a secretary over her blog writing proves that.

There are disputes regarding the bloggers legal rights and speculations on the "fine line between an individual's private online writings and their public work persona". The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published detailed tips on how to stay anonymous and advises against blogging in work time.

But shouldn't we just follow one simple tip: respect.

Blogging is selfish by nature, since the blogger's primary objective is to express himself to the world regardless whether the world wants it or not. A respectful attitude rules out the blogger's selfish behaviour.

This ruling looks as simple as that: before publishing another masterpiece, just pause for a second and ask yourself a couple of questions, such as: "Who are the people I'm going to mention/ refer to in my post? Would they like to go public?"

When I say "people", I mean not only collegues, bosses and other characters from the one's "public" life, but also close friends, family, relatives. And when I say "post", I mean not only stories about personal and public life (including job), but also comments, photos and jokes - they might look innocent for you but have another meaning for the others.

Different people tolerate different level of public exposure, and I think this is what bloggers should remember first, before starting to worry about copyrights, defamation or the employer's bad publicity.

What Business Can Learn from Open Source (part 2)

Shall we continue?

Last time I've made coments on the Paul Graham's essay, it was about Workplaces.
Now, let's challenge Mr.Graham's views on quality and professionalism.

Being devoted evangelist of open source, he starst essay with a bold statement that [open source] is something people do themselves, for free, because they enjoy it (like blogging). Who would argue? But the following passage makes my eyebrows rising:

"The method of ensuring quality is... Darwinian. Companies ensure quality through rules to prevent employees from screwing up. But you don't need that when the audience communicate with one another. People just produce whatever they want; the good stuff spreads, and the bad gets ignored".

Isn't it too good to be true? We all know very well that the Net is full of "bad stuff" and its volume is growing exponentially. Moreover, the "bad stuff" has its own enormous audience and is flourishing on feedback. Following the essay author's line, "feedback...impoves the best work", and that equally implies for both "good" an "bad" stuff, save the specific meaning of "best work" in the "bad" contents.

Quality and joy - sure they go together, but in a much more complex way than Mr.Graham sees...

Further on, Graham elaborates on the prominent distinction between professionals, associated with the "old" business model, and amateurs - those who "work for love and often surpass those working for money".

Yes, if we define professional as the person who accepts payments [for work], (s)he is different from the amateur. But let's look more thoroughly at the definition of profession?

"A profession is an occupation that requires extensive training and the study and mastery of specialized knowledge, and usually has a professional association, ethical code and process of certification or licensing".

All checked, and what do we see?

Mr. Graham's "amateurs" turn into the professionals who "work a lot harder" and for free on something they really like.

If you do something you like but do not possess required knowledge, skills and competences, you won't be able to produce a valuable output, will you? Of course, open source provides enormous support and stimulates rapid development through communication and instant feedback, but feedback itself will hardly cover blank spots on your "professional" mind-map.

I think, what business can learn from open source is that there is no real competition between professionals and amateurs, but there is a competition between professionals, and it was always like that. Just the environment changes...

As Mr.Grahams said: "In the most literal sence,... there is nothing new in it".
True.

How well do I deal with my teen?

While visiting this, I couldn't resist to do a couple of tests concerning two issues important to every parent: knowledge of the teens culture and ability to deal with a teen in conflict.

So, the first test was not as easy as it seemed (5 questions only) because it included questions like "What is special K?" and, of course, I didn't have a slightest idea. Nevertheless, I've managed to score 60% having correctly answered a question "What is Korn" and other two - not so bad!

The second test was much more serious and it was a challenging task, indeed. Why? Because for each of 10 questions there were only two options for answers, and being "old" enough to have a teen child you could obviously figure out which answer is "correct".

I've tried to be honest with myself.

The most difficult question was:

When your teen is angry and hostile, do you escalate the drama or do you work to calm the situation and deal with it when your teen is more under control?

I've opted for the second part, although my guilty conscience didn't let me to make this choice easily - on the contrary... Yeah, the truth is that there were a couple... ok ten - maximum fifteen accounts when (I wish) I could be more calm, thoughtful and patient. But look, guys, I'm also young and have temper, frustrations...just bad days! It's so easy to make wise suggestions like "let the situation diffuse and deal with it when he or she is calmer". Try and do it when your teen tends to get out of control AT LEAST three times a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That makes a good 1095 units of sustainability-tesitng per annum, and I wish your manage to get through without casualties.

Anyway, at the end of ends my score was as high as 90%! Which means that I'm "doing well communicating with my teen when there are conflicts". Wishful thinking?

I can see my lovely daughter reading this post, smiling and nodding disapprovingly, and I hope she won't punish me too much for trying to make things better than they are (sometimes). Because I love her very much and try to be a good Mum.

After all, I KNOW what Korn is, ha?

Knife amnesty

This BBC update made me upset.

I've met a lot of people from the UK here, in Cyprus. Also, we have been in England some time ago and saw different people in London, Manchester, Liverpool. What I remember that, although regularly spotting crime news in Daily Telegraph and scaring articles in magazines, I didn't feel insecure over there. More on the contrary. Friendly people, nice places, interesting events... Even Manchester did not made on us as dreadful impression as some articles and blogs might produce.

However it appears that the ordinary life in England has its dark side. .This particular issue is much disturbing for me because our daughter is going to study in the UK in future. We had been at the Manchester University Open Day, saw the Uni and campus crowded with girls and boys - talking, smiling, with nice open faces. It didn't surprise me that Manchester has been voted the coolest place in the UK outside London by a survey of 18-30 year olds and that it's the third smiliest place in the UK. I was smiling over there all the time!

And now I've learnt that most victims and offenders in the Manchester crime statistics are young people, and some clubs have started introducing airport-style knife detectors at their entrances...

This is sad, and I really don't want to start thinking that there might be other palces to go for studying...

I was born to work with numbers

All the early years of my life I've desperately spent in the music and arts enviroment. That was, actually, my destiny and life-path predetermined by one genuine and unavoidable superpower-force - parents. Been very advanced in maths and having learned how to read and add at the age, when average toddler learns how to walk and run, I was chained to the piano and school's choir for ages...

Since perfection was my ultimate goal in everything, I'd managed to graduate with honours from the Moscow State Conservatory, got my PhD and even published two books and some articles on contemporary music and art. Funny though, in the huge field of the music theory I'd discovered - surprisingly enough - one semi-deserted area where my restless and number-striving mind could get a playground and searchlab the same - this is a theory of Serial Music. Studying and scrutinising endless scores and workings of great composers and analysts during so many days and sleepless nights, I've learned how to turn the music into beautiful equations and proportions, how to find symmetry, balances and progressions in the music texture and - most important - I've discovered that the numerical and logical orders, which I'd carefully ( and maybe rather ackwardly) derived from that music, had been there way before I came to find it... So, the beauty of numbers had been unveiled once again, and I think that was a turning point for my further life and career development.

Why? Because at present I'm a qualified accountant, ACCA member and my everyday chores have absolutly nothing to do with music and arts - unless you count playing CD and occasionally watching my daughter's painting on the opposite wall... But not as simple as that, though.

It seems now that my hard work had served a purpose after all, and more than one.

In the Russian music theory Serial music was presented as underdeveloped area. My initial adea to summarise and further develop existing findings had evolved into a solid monography which had been highly appraised in 1996 (although some people thought that so young girl could not produce something worthy), and the one can spot numerous references and quotes in the Inet articles and catalogues like this for example, mostly in Russia, but in some other countries as well, like Germany, France, China, Azerbaijan - honestly, bearing in mind highly specific nature of the subject, I didn't aim so far...

Also, analytical experience gained in "that" part of my life was very useful and helped me a lot to accommodate myself rather fast and comfortable in accountancy and finacial analysis. It seems sometimes that I could see figures and grasp their sense, meaning and correlations almost instantly, like if I would hear their wonderful music. It's still amazing, after several years on the new grounds, and I'll never get bored of it.

What Business Can Learn from Open Source(c)

Recently I had a conversation with friends regarding the benefits of open source. Some references had been made to Paul Graham's talk at Oscon in 2005, so I was keen to find and read this essay.
Very inspiring and truly reflects the reality.

Just want to make some comments on one particular topic on which Paul Graham elaborates so knowingly... This is about Workplaces - those places where most of us spent a great deal of our lives.

As I can see, Graham's points are:

- The average office is a miserable place to get work done;
- The most demoralising aspect of the traditional facetime model is that you're supposed to be at work at certain times;
- People at the office are prevented from having fun;
- Open sourse and blogging show us what real work looks like;
- Working in crappy informal spaces is better than at office;
- Separation of work and life is one of the key tenets of professionalism.

Of course this is just a bit of exaggeration and the one should bear in mind that this talk had a purpose and been addressed to a certain auditorium. Anyway, without arguing in principle, I want to challenge the author's view on demoralising aspect of the facetime model.

Yeah, who wants to wake up every morning ang go robotlikely to that place the very look of which might send you into the deepest desperation... It looks so great and promising per Graham: wake up any time you like, enjoy your long leisury breakfast, spend hours pondering over some great thoughts and then, being led by sudden breathtaking inspiration, make a discovery of your lifetime which changes the world overnight...

As it turns rather often, many of us would easily get stuck on the leisure-pondering stage without further realisation into something sensible (readable, visible, eatable whatever). So, the boredome of the dull days at the office will be replaced by the boredom of sitting-in-crappy-informal-space(vivat Graham)thinking-doing-nothing... I'm not against informality. I'm for having in mind that some people lack self-discipline, and opensource model might be a threat to their ability to self-control and self-motivate without bad guy from managerial pushing your back from time to time(or kicking your bum - just what is necessary to keep things moving).

And why we cannot have fun at the office? Ofcourse, you might not be able to laugh girls/boys aloud in front of your boss every now and then, but it's almost unbeleivable that the one cannot find time to share a fresh joke with a collegue or surf the Net to find some funny stuff and send to friends. I do not mention extra facilities and staff gatherings which indeed might bring life and fun into everydays office routine. Look, guys, sometimes I'm alone in the office laughing so much over some funny stuff from Inet or telephone conversation with a friend, that my stomach churns. Am I Crazy?

Finally, I found it very funny that Graham suggested to arrange for the Work Day at office, when employees would be prevented from communication and forced to work eight hours flat. Nowadays, nobody can interrupt communication process (unless, ofcourse, the lines are cut and each employee been continuosly supervised face-to-face by invigilator). Probably, the Work Day will be a real fun and sort of a competition for Who Cheats the Boss Better...

I like freedom and sometimes (very often, in fact) I hate office chores. But I don't agree that profeccionalism and realisation depend on where people work. These qualities depend on many other factors, including the one's ability to keep life and work together and have a true joy in "both" of them.

Hello!

I've got some experience to write on the other people's blogs, so this is time to start doing something on my own.
I've put the description of my blog as "stories and thoughts". It means that I'm going to write something that might be interesting for the outer world (at least for the visitors of my blog). Who knows: may be I'm gonna be a good storyteller or have some thoughts worth to put in writing... We'll see!

P.S. Expecting some response from one nice guy who knows about it:)