Digital Wanderer | Lytbobr: exams, a ski resort, LEXX, and French rolls

Lytbobr: exams, a ski resort, LEXX, and French rolls

2006-01-29

   My exam period ends tomorrow. I spent the whole week writing a program instead of taking an exam; it seems to be ready, and tomorrow I’ll show it to the professor. I went to bed at 5 a.m. It turned out to be the most monstrous and convoluted program of my life—patch upon patch, no structure whatsoever, impossible to understand. But it more or less works. Along the way, I learned regular expressions. They are text-search patterns, a very popular and widely used thing these days. While endlessly staring at the code, I remembered that the community would cease operating in 2 days, so I had to urgently send them my musical top list for 2005.

    Yesterday we went to Egļu Kalns, which means "Spruce Mountain". It is a relatively new ski resort 20 km from Daugavpils, near Lake Svente. For the first time in my life, I got on alpine skis and learned to ski straight down the beginners’ slope without falling. I still can’t turn or stop very well, so I fall over. For some reason this bothers everyone, but I like it—it’s fun to tumble into soft, freshly fallen snow!
    It turns out that ski boots really are instruments of torture, and they have to be chosen extremely carefully. Mine personally pinch at the sides, my foot feels as though it’s in a vise.
   We skied for 2 hours. It costs (on weekends) $5 for 1 hour, plus another $5 to rent the skis. Each additional hour is another $2+$2. For that money they give you perfectly decent skis, boots, and poles, and let you use two slopes—one for beginners and one for those who are steady on their feet. You can climb the observation tower for free, which we didn’t have time to do on this occasion. You can also grill some shashlik, teasing the other vacationers with the smell of roasted meat.

   Incidentally, European Hit Radio was playing over the loudspeakers. It is a very funny Latvian radio station whose motto is "Europe’s best-selling songs". That is, of course, a monstrous concept, but for some reason it isn’t irritating at all. Alongside disposable pop, they mostly played Madonna and Depeche Mode, several different songs by each. The Editors also slipped in, if I’m not mistaken.

  In the evening I watched the third season of LEXX. It used to be sci-fi trash, but in the third season it became psychedelic trash. It certainly didn’t become any worse because of that. You can download it from https://drive.stream.ru.

   An IKI supermarket has opened near our home. Prices at Mego, the former monopolist, immediately plummeted, but that isn’t the main thing. The best part is that IKI bakes long, crispy French rolls, and you can buy them while they’re still hot!
In conclusion, a recommendation.

Eat some more of these soft French rolls, and have some tea!