20 years later

It’s only been about 20 years since I stopped actively posting here. Maybe I shouldn’t have walked away from it back then, but... it’s finally time to share what I’ve been working on lately. I recently launched a site called Retro Games Lib. It’s a massive catalog of 80s and 90s games where you can play everything right in your browser and soak up all that retro nostalgia. To keep things on brand for this blog, let’s talk about a game called World Heroes—or more specifically, its version of Rasputin. Honestly, it feels like the Japanese devs based their entire research on the Boney M. song. Then again, back in the 90s, almost every foreign take on Russia inevitably turned into a total "cliché fest." You can check out the game yourself using this link. Go see the "mystic monk's" magical moves first-hand, including his infamous "Secret Garden" super—which, by today’s standards, looks a little sketchy on the consent side, to say the least. Let me know what you think of the game in the comments! And let's just hope Grigoriy Rasputin isn't rolling over in his grave too hard because of his pop-culture legacy.

Tours to Russia

The following is a paid review:

New Year's celebration is coming and I was asked to offer you a great way to spend it in Russia. I talk about Baltic travel company's (located in UK) tours to Russia. So what do they have.

First of all it's guiding tours to Moscow, St. Petersburg and some other famous places. For example, choosing "Experience Russia Tour" you'll have one day to see the town where I live, Velikiy Novgorod. Program includes visiting the Kremlin and St. Sophia Cathedral, Yaroslavl Court, open-air museum Vitoslavlitsy and Cathedral of St. George. Tour's prices start at £1000 pp.

Another interesting tour is "Trans-Siberian Express". For 14 days you'll pass all Russia from West to East. You'll see Russian nature, Russian vilages, and still unexplored Eastern part of Russia.

Moscow and St. Petersburg city breaks leave you more freedom for planning your holidays. It would be mainly interesting for experienced travellers or travellers with unusual interests. Anyway, walking without guide, you can better feel the mood of the place, act like native people, make friends, and do things you can't do with a guide =). Russians are friendly to tourists, so you can be free to walk wherever you want . City breaks are much cheaper than guided tours. Prices start at £500 pp.

P.S. Happy New 2009 year =)!

ReviewMe

The following is a paid review:

I would agree to sit in prison if there were a computer and the Internet (and that me fed and started up in a toilet). The Internet, if you yet have not understood, is more terrible than the Siberian ulcer, the bird's flu and AIDS. In the future, people will migrate to the Internet but not in cosmos. I don’t know how it will be; I hope somebody will think it out for me...

And where those times when I stood in a queue at cinema on "The Matrix"!

More ingeniously then the Internet to think up nothing. Judge: on the Internet you can get virtual sex with whom has got, to copy messages from one window to another, to fall in love, exchange gossips and to have 100 friends, and certainly to earn a PayPal.

For example, free-lance work is very interesting thing. Is like you are cool designer from Kolyma, but you have free-lance work in one famous design company in Moscow or Paris. And also you receive for the design so much, how many in Kolyma nobody and never would pay to you.

Or another variant - you whimper in the blog, that you can’t find work and as a result the employer himself find you.

There is the system ReviewMe. The system is engaged in reviews. Any company, may be Audi, decided to arrange PR-action on the Internet and has addressed for service to ReviewMe. And ReviewMe ask bloggers for some payment write about Audi in their blog. Now it is popular to be a blogger and get a blog. It is considered, that it is very favorable to advertise the company in blogs.

P.S. There is same system in Russia.

Ded moroz vs Santa Claus

Ded Moroz is a Russian analog of Santa Claus. What will be if they change their locations? You can see it in a flash movie (1,9 Mb) by Russian studio Antimult.

Plant a tree on Baikal

Every man should do three things in his life: Build a house, get a child and plant a tree. But your life can became easier on one third with site Adoptree.com! This is a some kind of lifehack: you can plant a tree in one of the most beautiful places in the world, over the Internet. And, of course, you can visit your "pet" in any time.

Web 2.0 in Russia

Read here.

Update: Some fair comments form the Russian side by Aleksey Andreev.

James Bond girls

In certain quarters of Manhattan these days, it's not unusual to encounter characters that seem to have come right out of a James Bond film: beautiful young Russian girls with revealing outfits and hidden agendas. They're the latest status accessory in New York's power game, the mistresses of the Masters of the Universe. The fact that they're dangerous -- wild, unpredictable, on the lookout for a bigger and better deal -- only seems to increase their appeal. So certain women on the East Side are not seeing their husbands as much as they used to. "How old is your Russian?" one just-abandoned uptown wife asked another not long ago.

Originally posted: http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/nightlife/barsclub...

Russia, Racism and Pushkin

The greatest gift Hannibal gave to Russia was a great grand son named Alexander Pushkin. And the greatest gift that Pushkin gave to white Russian was literature written in Russian. Without Pushkin the black poet of Russia there would have never had been some of the most famous poets of Russian history. The white racists need to remember — that the next time they see a book written in Russian. They should say to themselves we own this to a black man named Alexander Pushkin. Then realize that when they attack a black person in a hate crime they are attacking part of Puskin’s African genetics.

Originally posted: http://www.dellgines.com/?p=614

Russian Space Agency Needs 5 Volunteers for Mission to Mars

The "launch" is set for late 2007.

Originally posted: http://mosnews.com/news/2006/08/07/missiontoma...

T-shirt design

I have decided to buy a new t-shirt recently. I have gone to MaryJane and some of variants was so awesome, that I have decided to write about it... Below some links, if you are still interested. =)

Here you can see t-shirts for sale, t-shirt design contests for PlayBoy, Mtv, Mazda and others. I has chosen this and had a great pleasure of watching. =)

The perpetual struggle between Capitalism and Socialism

Both sides raise interesting points. A democrat would argue that social welfare programs better humanity by raising the standard of living among all people. A republican would argue that such programs only further the degradation of society by encouraging indolence. Whereas, competitiveness and self preservation (broadly defined as betterment of one-self, rather than a simple objective of survival) are hallmarks of human nature which must be emboldened at all costs. However, such differences are not always black and white and a balance is critical to the progress of humanity.

Originally posted: http://www.dime95.com/blog/politics/2006/02/13/the...

Muddy orange

Ukrainians might well wonder why they bothered. The bright 2004 Orange Revolution has turned a muddy, burnt orange shade now that President Yushchenko has been forced to take his arch-foe into the heart of his Government.

Viktor Yushchenko, the hero of the Orange Revolution and passionate advocate of closer links with the West, has finally picked the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych as his next Prime Minister.

Today Ukraine’s parliament will vote on the nomination. But the outcome is all but a formality — and for Yushchenko it is a catastrophe.

Originally posted: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2298438,00...

Let's talk

For thoose of you, who are learning Russian language. Now I had a Skype account. It is sergey.belyakov. I will train my practical English with great pleasure. So, if you want to talk with me - just call. =)

Kazan "off screen"

I didn't post such nice material for a long time! Photo exhibition Kazan "off screen" is about capital of Tatarstan - city that recently celebrate his 1 000 day of birth.

All photos are beautiful and comic, but you should know some Russian to understand image text: "Dear brothers and sisters! Candels buyed on the street are not valide in cathedral! Don't use it please.", "Muslim will do massage", "People in building" etc.

Nick Paton Walsh: "How I learned to love Vlad"

As it feels like a sin, then this must be a confession. I have been in Moscow for four and a half years, reporting on the presidency of Vladimir Putin - its slow erosion of democratic freedoms, its savage disregard for the individual, its petro-dollar arrogance. I've been reflexively critical, due to the obvious truth that the battered Russian people deserve something better. They have done for centuries. But now my time here has come to an end, I need to confess: I am becoming something of a Putin fan.

The Guardian correspondent in Russia Nick Paton Walsh returning home. Some kind words from he.

Moscow photo blog

This photo is from Moscow In My Eyes photo blog by Svetlana.

Russian Scammers

In 2004 the United States Embassy in Moscow received 3126 complaints by Americans claiming to be the victims of fraud. Less than 20% of murders are solved in Russia, so do not expect anyone to take your monetary loss seriously.

Review of Russian scams: High Yield Investment Program, Dating Scams, Package and Money Transfers. You should read it before starting exporation of Russia. Danger is real!

Russia’s Spam King - Vardan Kushnir

He withheld pay from employees, boasted of his sexual adventures, enraged government officials, and flooded Russia with 25 million emails a day. Then one morning, Vardan Kushnir’s mother found his bloodied body on the bathroom floor, skull bashed in.

Wow! Interesting detective story with bad end from Wired. Don't doubt: I am received 1-2 mails from American Language Center, as all Russia.

Russia and Europe: friends or enemies? What are your stakes?

One more interesting link to the Mosnews! With hot title "Europeans See Russia as Partner, U.S. as Threat — Poll"!

The Village of Moscow

The Village of Moscow (state Michigan). Thanks for link to Dirty.ru.