On friendship, New Year and carpe diem
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Tuesday, November 30 @ 00:00:00 CST (17589 reads)
This holiday season I didn't even post my greetings on the website. At first, I thought of this as of a new low, but in fact, it is not. I just have done something different with my time: instead of trying to come up with something funny, insightful and/or cheerful that will appeal to everyone, I decided to reach out to as many of my friends, old and new, directly. Calling, emailing, instant messaging, meeting in person - I would have even said mailing paper letters, but I didn't have to resort to that :)
Friends... Well, what can I say - there are many of you out there! It seems that I've spent my time well so far :) Friends... you're all over our little big planet, making the world a truly small and cosy place. And it is an incredible way to start a year by reconnecting with you, especially those who I haven't seen or talked to for a long, sometimes very long, time (you know who you are :) ).
So, ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, guys and gals - thanks for being wonderful people you are! Keep it up!
And on second thought, I'd actually like to make a suggestion for your new year resolution. Better late than never, right? So, make 2009 a year when you'll do something that you always wanted, but never did. Live your life to the fullest! Heck, I can put this in many words, but I believe this awesome clip describes the idea much better (thanks to Igor for pointing me to this video):
"If your life flashes before your eyes, make sure you've got plenty to watch!"
Elephant Back Safari in Zimbabwe
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (6847 reads)
I've got another video from my Southern Africa trip. This time, it is all abou elephants. These magnificent animals, unfortunately, are not immune to effects of human expansion. Just as many other species, they become victims of poachers, they become displaced from their natural habitats. There was even a trend in keeping young elephants as pets on farms in Africa, only to abandon them when they grow too big to handle.
But there are people who are very dedicated to protection of wildlife such as elephants. Wild Horizons Trust runs a Wildlife Sanctuary and Orphanage in Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), where abandoned and injured elephants are cared for. There are no fences, and most of the time elephants roam on their own. This is a safe haven for animals that are not able to be a part of wild herd; and if an elephant is able to re-integrate and desires to move on, then it is released completely.
In order to raise money for operation of the Sanctuary, Wild Horizons organizes so-called "Elephant Back Safaris" - you can ride an elephant for a walk around Victoria Falls National Park, with amazing views on gorges of Zambezi river. I've done that, and here are videos from the complementary DVD:
This is an intro (DVD menu), with views around Victoria Falls:
Skydiving in Swakopmund, Namibia
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (6731 reads)
Skydiving... How to describe this experience? Stepping out into nothing but thin air, feeling time dilation when you accelerate towards earth, free falling, and then slowly gliding down under the canopy in absolute tranquility? Those who experienced it don't need words, and those who didn't won't understand. I cannot think of anything that better reflects the feeling afterwards than this quote:
"...and once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return. "
Happy Holidays!
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (9599 reads)
'Tis the season...again. My, how fast time flies. Hmmm, I feel old by using this statement...
I didn't post a single announcement on my site since the last winter, but not because I had nothing to say. In fact, exactly opposite is true - there were so many things happening (mostly good!), that I hardly had any time to breathe. I didn't send as many "What's up?" emails and made only a few "How are you?" phone calls. For that, I am sorry. I promise that things will improve in the new year, as I plan to catch up on some of my other personal projects (like uploading photos, of which I have a huge backlog now). I also hope to strengthen links that weakened over time. But today is not the day to reflect on the year's results, not yet. I am going on vacation right now, that's when I expect to post more information.
Today is the day to enjoy the holidays, to give and receive congratulations and gifts. As far as congratulations go, I'd like to join the chorus and I want to wish you happiness and joy! Have a wonderful New Year, you deserve it!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (5662 reads)
It is this time of year, again... Is it the end, is it the beginning, or is it just an irrelevant point in time that is arbitrary chosen to give us a reference in a multitude of possibilities? You decide. For me, this is the time to reflect on what has happened in my life, where do I want to go and what does it take to get me there. I don't really understand what I just said. If I'll have the opportunity, I'll post my musings on this subject during the winter holidays.
Now, I didn't forget about a traditional gift for you. As usual, it's rather immaterial; and this time the inspiration is Oriental. The year of 2007 falls mostly on a year of the Pig, according to Chinese Zodiac. Can you combine "pig" and "Zen" in the same sentence? Too easy? Well then, flex your mind and contemplate over this koan (originally by Timothy J. Weber):
The Zen Pig Farmer went out to slop the hogs one day. He poured the slop into the trough, and the pigs came quickly and started eating. He stood and watched. After a bit, one pig looked up at him. Licking slop from its chin, it said, "You know, every day you come here and bring us our food. All we do is lie around and eat; yet you see to all our needs. Why do you do this?"
The Zen Pig Farmer stroked his beard slowly and said, "They call me The Zen Pig Farmer because of what I do." The pig went back to eating.
A little later the pig looked up again. It said, "Did you ever consider that maybe you are called The Zen Pig Farmer because you are a pig farmer and I am the Zen Pig?"
Confluence visit photos
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (5851 reads)
As promised, photos from my last field trip are uploaded. Even not counting two new visited confluences, September's long weekend was pretty good, to say the least. Alas, the fun season is almost over - until the snow falls, that is. Can't be that long... or can it?
Confluences conquest
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (6927 reads)
I know, I know, I've been neglecting site updates for far too long. But no more! Let's start with good news: on 02-03 of September, Artem Frolov and I reached 2 previosly unvisited confluences! Here you can read our reports: 49°N 83°W and 50°N 85°W.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (9726 reads)
I have two weeks of blissful holiday, which I am going to spend visiting my parents and school/university friends. And for all of you, here is a little holiday present: an ancient Cherokee legend. An elder was teaching his grandchildren about life and he said to them: "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represent fear, hate, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, superiority, lies and pride. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other human."
The children thought about the elder's words and then one child asked: "Grandfather, which wolf will win?" The elder simply replied:
...
"The one I feed."
Site transfer completed. Yay!
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (2066 reads)
...and so it is done. The site has been running on a new hosting for about a day now. Transition was suprisingly smooth. Really. And the site is already more than 270Mb/10000+ files and 6Mb of mySQL data. Granted, most of this is related to the Photo Gallery, but still, just about all what I did was transferring a tar-ball of files, restoring mySQL backup dump, and replacing DB access info. That's it. I expected several days of fixing things here and there, but so far everything seems to work just fine. Note, that server time changed from CET (GMT+1) to EST (GMT-5).
Change of hosting provider
Posted by Victor Mozgin on Wednesday, December 31 @ 18:00:00 CST (2204 reads)
In the last few days the quality of service of my current hosting provider (O. & K. Webhotel in Sweden AB) has steadily deteriorated; this is especially true for their mySQL database performance. I've seen some ridiculous figures for page generation times, something like 270+ seconds for my Photo Gallery front page, which previously was 8 seconds maximum, and usually around 3 seconds with the same hoster! Database server swamping coincedes pretty accurately with daytime in Sweden; during night/early morning hours there things were back to normal. Ah well, yet another typical case of overselling hosting resources.
Anyway, I guess it is time to switch to something better, and a new hosting arrangement is already in the works, test site runs great and if everything will work out as it should, expect better service in a few days.
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On friendship, New Year and carpe diem
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