Yuriy Palamarchuk

My new melody "Changes Coming ver. 3"

2012-10-25T08:45:00-07:00

My new melody “Changes Coming ver. 3”

25 October 2012 – Shenzhen

People in the club (Shenzhen)

2012-10-22T19:40:00-07:00

People in the club (Shenzhen)

22 October 2012 – Shenzhen

I admire the ones who can play the piano or any other musical instrument.

Taking part in Mr. Asia 2012 contest

2012-10-10T20:50:00-07:00

Taking part in Mr. Asia 2012 contest

10 October 2012 – Shenzhen

Had to perform with injured left knee (which was hurt when performing at “China has Talent” contest a couple of weeks ago).

Video from our dance club performance

2012-09-26T10:40:00-07:00

Video from our dance club performance

26 September 2012 – Shenzhen

Link for the video is here.

Reverse Life Sci-Fi action short movie (video)

2012-09-14T00:58:00-07:00

Reverse Life Sci-Fi action short movie (video)

14 September 2012 – Shenzhen

The planning, screen writing and visual effects took 1 week, the shooting itself took about 1 day. The speed was caused by the fact that our short was taking part in the Chinese Shorts Competition 2012.
Watch Youku version here.

My new melody "Piano Moods ver.2"

2012-09-02T18:32:00-07:00

My new melody “Piano Moods ver.2”

2 September 2012 – Shenzhen

How we were preparing for the dance show (video)

2012-08-26T10:38:00-07:00

How we were preparing for the dance show (video)

26 August 2012 – Shenzhen

Our dance teacher Fuse

2012-08-22T11:12:00-07:00

Our dance teacher Fuse

22 August 2012 – Shenzhen

He’s over thirty now and has been dancing since he was 17. One of rare dancers who can make living on dancing.

First time dancing on stage

2012-08-21T23:48:00-07:00

First time dancing on stage

21 August 2012 – Shenzhen

First time dancing on the stage. Never thought in my life that I’d ever be doing something like that.

Getting ready for tomorrows performance

2012-08-18T23:48:00-07:00

Getting ready for tomorrows performance

18 August 2012 – Shenzhen

Today we had the last rehearsal in the dance club. Tomorrow we’re going to have another short rehearsal in the concert hall and that’s it. One month of preparation and 4 minutes of dance itself. I must admit it’s not that easy to relax, as I thought it would, even though I’ve been to lots of TV shows here in China.

Empty night in Shanghai

2012-08-10T06:40:00-07:00

Empty night in Shanghai

10 August 2012 – Shenzhen

Night is probably the most comfortable time to walk out the streets in China.

Girl in Hong Kong

2012-07-31T09:15:00-07:00

Girl in Hong Kong

31 July 2012 – Shenzhen

Say “hi!” if you like her legs! :D

Director of Take Me Out show

2012-07-25T00:25:00-07:00

Director of Take Me Out show

25 July 2012 – Shenzhen

The girl on the left is the director of Chinese “Take Me Out” TV-show. Everyday she wears different clothes, being extremely kind, inspite of her high position. Her voice is so pleasant to hear, that you could fall in love only by talking on phone with her. The girl on the right is one of guests of the show. Yes, I do prefer this kind of cute girls, and not that superficial bitch-style girls.

Lara from Brazil

2012-07-18T11:32:00-07:00

Lara from Brazil

18 July 2012 – Shenzhen

I like Brazilian girls. They are so open-minded, cheerful, easy to get along with and never get bored.

Shooting short film "Last Time of Life"

2012-07-16T08:15:00-07:00

Shooting short film “Last Time of Life”

16 July 2012 – Shenzhen

It took a couple of days for preparations, and we shot the film in two days (13-14 July). Most of the scenes were shot outside, when the tempreture was going up to 35-40 degrees. Today I’m going to the studio to record voice and that’s it. The film will be ready in a couple of days and will take part in a shorts competition of Guangdong province.

A girl choosing lipstick in Mix City

2012-07-10T06:55:00-07:00

A girl choosing lipstick in Mix City

10 July 2012 – Shenzhen

I’m glad I’m not a girl, otherwise I’d had to spend a lot of time and money on make up.

Morning training and some dancing

2012-07-05T07:42:00-07:00

Morning training and some dancing

5 July 2012 – Shenzhen

Make up stand in Shenzhen

2012-06-29T22:30:00-07:00

Make up stand in Shenzhen

29 June 2012 – Shenzhen

Morning taekwondo training on the roof

2012-06-21T11:43:00-07:00

Morning taekwondo training on the roof

21 June 2012 – Shenzhen

I had to stay on the roof to secure the pads and gloves, which needed to be freshened after many weeks in our fighting club.

Annicka as a model for glasses ad

2012-06-14T10:40:00-07:00

Annicka as a model for glasses ad

14 June 2012 – Shenzhen

Ain’t she cool.

Stars in front of the place I live

2012-06-02T09:40:00-07:00

Stars in front of the place I live

2 June 2012 – Shenzhen

DJ Annicka after work

2012-05-30T23:45:00-07:00

DJ Annicka after work

30 May 2012 – Shenzhen

Picture taken at Coco Park.

Shooting anything is expensive

2012-05-27T23:40:00-07:00

Shooting anything is expensive

27 May 2012 – Shenzhen

Cameramen, lights, sound, directors – all these people need salary, which makes one shooting day worth at least several hundred dollars (in China), not taking into consideration any other expenses, such as: rent of equipment, transportation, props, actor’s salary, etc. There are no unnecessary people on the spot – someone holds umbrella, someone hold the tent, someone uses handpalm to adjust focus of the camera.

DJ Annicka in Shenzhen club

2012-05-22T22:35:00-07:00

DJ Annicka in Shenzhen club

22 May 2012 – Shenzhen

Aww isn’t she pretty. Beautiful girls is one of the greatest danger for men.

New melody inspired by Pink Floyd - Coming Back To Life

2012-05-18T23:43:00-07:00

New melody inspired by Pink Floyd – Coming Back To Life

18 May 2012 – Shenzhen

Playing a designer at the plant

2012-05-11T23:45:00-07:00

Playing a designer at the plant

11 May 2012 – Shenzhen

In the morning I played a designer, in the evening I played Jesus – pretty tiresome but fun.

Playing Greek in a 3D movie

2012-05-08T23:15:00-07:00

Playing Greek in a 3D movie

8 May 2012 – Shenzhen

This is what I like about acting – you don’t have to sit in the office. You can enjoy sun and fresh air instead, playing a Greek guy and thinking of Alexander the Great. The title of the movie is “The Ray of Life”.

Shenzhen center

2012-04-22T23:10:00-07:00

Shenzhen center

22 April 2012 – Shenzhen

Shenzhen blossom

2012-04-17T23:30:00-07:00

Shenzhen blossom

17 April 2012 – Shenzhen

Wuhu's dreamland

2012-04-11T22:40:00-07:00

Wuhu’s dreamland

11 April 2012 – Shenzhen

I’ve been in Wuhu for a week. A very peaceful and quite place. I enjoyed the silence so much, as well as the park amusement.

Nunchaku, stick, wushu, acrobatics - all in one.

2012-04-10T12:20:00-07:00

Nunchaku, stick, wushu, acrobatics – all in one.

10 April 2012 – Shenzhen

Youku version is over here.
Need to shoot something new once my taekwondo gets better, hehehe.

Shenzhen - Dongmen

2012-04-06T23:46:00-07:00

Shenzhen – Dongmen

6 April 2012 – Shenzhen

Dongmen is like a zoo. Lots of people, everybody is watching everybody, be it a girl, or anyone catchy. You can’t hide, you can’t run, even if you get into closest MacDonalds, you’ll find out there someone beside you, eathing popcorn and watching you and all your stuff. If you can’t adjust your attitude right, this thing really annoys. As always, sense of humor is the savior.

My new melody "Wushu Walkie"

2012-04-02T16:22:00-07:00

My new melody “Wushu Walkie”

2 April 2012 – Shenzhen

Tribute to wushu team of Weifang University of Science and Technology, where I had honor to study
wushu during 2008-2010.

My new melody "Lonesome walk"

2012-03-27T21:32:00-07:00

My new melody “Lonesome walk”

27 March 2012 – Shenzhen

Haha, my melodies are all unprofesionally alike.

Shooting "Night at the Museum" 4D

2012-03-20T20:25:00-07:00

Shooting “Night at the Museum” 4D

20 March 2012 – Shenzhen

All pictures are clickable.
I was playing an American – resigned soldier who found a decent job as a security guard in one of museums of Washington. Then lot’s of creapy things happen to him, similar to the movie “Night at the Museum” starring Ben Stiller.

Why shooting 4D movie is different:
1) When shooting – two cameras are used simultaneously. Equipment is from Germany, costs about one million dollars.
2) Absence of other characters. I had to imagine mummies, rats, dinosaurs and soldiers of Terracotta Army, acting correspondingly.
3) Minumum number of items. Only gun, machinegun, bazooka, flashlight and torch were real. I had to imagine the objects which were flying in my direction,
making sure that my eyballs track the trajectory. Doors and corridors were marked with green boxes.
4) All the distances and angles – from camera to the actor, or to the item, the angle of the camera are written down in a special notebook. This data
will be used later, when adding computer graphics.
5) It usually takes a year and above to complete the movie from scratch. Dozens of people are working on the graphics. In our case we already had the engine,
so it will take about 6-7 months to finish the movie.
6) The slow-motion effect was created right on the spot. I was slowly trowing up the barrel, making it look like slow-motion, then adding speed and vice-versa.

Our interpreter. Happily, I can speak Chinese, so there was no need to use interpreter, we were shooting faster.

Cameraman, like an angel in the sky. There were 3 of them.

Oh, the table and the armchair were real too.

First I trained with real tennis balls, then with imaginary.

Pandas nailed me to the wall using bamboo spears.

All these green walls are very light, you can’t lean against them, so there were comrades to prop them up.

The girl on the left is an actress and a dancer, yet very modest.

Before and after shooting the scene all the distances and angles are measured.

Fighting with green men. When I was a kid, me and my bro had a cassette with “Space Jam” on it, starring Michael Jordan.
I don’t remember why, but we were wathing that film everyday for about a month. Would I ever think of myself shooting something
with green men in 15 years from then?

Some of my skills were very helpful. Acrobatics for better falls and dancing for better relaxation of body.

Two sreens for two cameras.

The red tapes will allow to add fire using computer graphics. The same red tapes were sticked to the flashlight, which will make it more easy to point the direction of ray.

Action!

Preparing between scenes.

There’s nothing technically difficult in these jumps, it just sometimes hurts.

The same steel wire is used when shooting fights. To keep the pose, you have to use your abs and waist, the belts cut into legs. I don’t know why don’t they use the belt system, which cliffhangers use.

In the scene I’m being fiered with arrows, so I take cover under the armchair.

The gun weighted like a real one, the machinegun, on the contrary, was made of plastic and was very light. I had to manage it right when shaking. The bazooka was made of plastic foam, so I had to act as if it was heavy.

Finally quitting my job

2012-03-07T10:10:00-08:00

Finally quitting my job

7 March 2012 – Shenzhen

I asked for 5 days off next week. Company didn’t approve that. I said I quit, the secretary tried to make me think it over and stay in the company. They asked to change the reason for leaving for “personal reasons”.

Friday – last day. Freedom. Have no idea what to do next.

Eating sushi and drinking Japanese tea bags tea

2012-02-29T17:50:00-08:00

Eating sushi and drinking Japanese tea bags tea

29 February 2012 – Shenzhen

Inspite the fact that many Chinese hate Japanese, it’s pleasant to admit there are lots of gourmets among Chinese who do enjoy Japanese sushi and do enjoy Japanese anime. It’s good to have a friend who shares your interests, especially if it’s about crying because of wasabi. Oops, I’m talking about food, just like Chinese! That’s what happens when you live somewhere for a long time, hahaha.

How to choose high-quality Puer Tea if you know nothing about Puer

2012-02-23T10:57:00-08:00

How to choose high-quality Puer Tea if you know nothing about Puer

23 February 2012 – Shenzhen

Only during the 4th year in China I consciously tasted Puer.

It has many names – Pu’er, Pu-erh, Puer, Po Lei or even Bolay. Legendary tea, having a lot of talks and stories circulating around it. After the first sip of tea I expected that I’d become more powerful, just like Popeye. I took several more sips, tasting the 2nd and 3rd brew – still nothing. Then I was given a bit cheaper variety of Puer, and I felt the difference in aftertaste. Then they gave me to taste some expensive Puer, which price was several hundreds yuan and I felt like an emperor. After couple of hours of drinking Puer on an empty stomach I felt diggy and my sight grew dim.

It turns out, the longer you keep Puer, the better it becomes, and, correspondingly, the higher its price. Thus, you might buy some Puer, put it in some safe place, come back in 10-20 years, and become rich. Especially expensive kinds of Puer, which price may go up to thousands or even tens of thousands yuan are not kept in the shop. They’re kept at safe place, out of harm’s way.

My paradigm of TEA consisted only of black and green tea. Now there’s one more, which is Puer, yet I still can’t say the difference between wulong and green tea. In either way, I wasn’t buying tea for myself, because I haven’t yet come to that point of conscious and deliberate drinking of different kinds of tea, with the purpose of tasting them, clicking my tongue and clever gaze in the window. For now I’m just gettin some green stuff, thorow it in the cup, add some boiling water. Readiness can be checked by the burn on my tongue. The recipe for a good tea is simple – don’t be greedy for brew.

Questions to expert:
Where to buy Puer? — Not in the shops. Go to specialized markets.
How to protect yourself from being cheated? — Take with you a Chinese friend, who knows about Puer.
How to check if Puer is good? — High quality Puer should have the color similar to red wine.

Streets of Hong Kong on January 18th

2012-02-21T17:45:00-08:00

Streets of Hong Kong on January 18th

21 February 2012 – Shenzhen

Hong Kong is way too narrow and overcrowded. Hong Kong girls are prettier than Chinese, and guys are more stylish, though I think they’re not as handsome as Chinese guys (which are not handsome). In Hong Kong people use perfumes, not as much as Russians do, but surely more noticeable, than in perfumeless China.

Traditional tangerine trees for Chinese New Year. They say you’d better not eat them, because of pesticides inside.

The pic is clickable.

This pic is also clickable.

Pics from Israel. 18th January - 1st February. Part 5

2012-02-17T14:40:00-08:00

Pics from Israel. 18th January – 1st February. Part 5

17 February 2012 – Shenzhen

The pictures are clickable.

I didn’t expect to see ducks in Israel, not to mention lakes or trees. I thought Israel is a complete desert.

Ordinary little street

Cats choose Israel!

Taking into consideration the fact, that in Israel there are way too many beauties per square meter, I feel terribly sorry for all those Jews, who had been killed by Nazi during World War II.
In fact, I think German girls are not that pretty (as someone who haven’t yet been to Germany may think).
Sure thing, after experiencing Israel I didn’t want to come back to China. I was thinking “Why, why, why, oh why am I coming back?”. Maybe I’m just too sensitive, yet today’s “spitting-war”, when I heard people spititng loudly on the right flanc and on the rear, and it went for
about 10 seconds, I was ready to commit a crime. Maybe It was just that type of days when everyone around drives you nuts. Everything depends on perception, though.

Pics from Israel. 18th January - 1st February. Part 4. Netanya at night

2012-02-15T16:33:00-08:00

Pics from Israel. 18th January – 1st February. Part 4. Netanya at night

15 February 2012 – Shenzhen

The pictures are clickable.
Netanya’s seafront. You won’t get far away shooting at night without stativo, yet I still find these pictures special, even they are blurry.

Pics from Israel. 18th January - 1st February. Part 3

2012-02-14T17:00:00-08:00

Pics from Israel. 18th January – 1st February. Part 3

14 February 2012 – Shenzhen

The pictures are clickable.

Tel-Aviv seafront

One shrine

The other shrine, this time with crescent at the top

A model is being shot. A real one, not like foreigners act as they are actors/models in China.

Legendary Mediterrarean Sea

One of old streets of Tel-Aviv

Sight from the hights of the old city

Cat tried to camouflage

I see these places and feel a several thousand year history

Souvenir shops with all kind of stuff. It’s here where I suddenly found myself thinking I’m in Italy.

Seafront. Reminds me of Johnny Depp

I don’t know how old she is, but I know for sure she’s gonna be another beauty when she grows up. By the way,
I wasn’t the only one who was taking her pictures. There was another lady who seemed making a photoset for her.

Pics from Israel. 18th January - 1st February. Part 2

2012-02-13T14:20:00-08:00

Pics from Israel. 18th January – 1st February. Part 2

13 February 2012 – Shenzhen

The pictures are clickable.
One of main streets of Jerusalem

Not far from the Wailing Wall

Cats don’t wail at the Wailing Wall

Sight of Wailing Wall from the position of cats (thanks to the Cat for provided pictures)

Arab suburbs

Window into the world

I like the one at the right

Dogs here are much rare seen than cats

Chick from Chile

Her parents insisted that we take a picture together. When I was writing this post they were standing behind, checking that I add the pic to the blog. Is it a trash bag in her hand ?

Press kiosk

Jerusalem street food

Sometimes they have truly atomic(too sweet) baked goods, and sometimes there are such that make you want to forget about all diets.

Cinnamon is our everything, especially in coffe or apple pies

One of ordinary soldiers not far from bus station at Jerusalem.
Sure she was surprised I wanted to shoot her.

One of the streets in Netanya

It was the last shot made in Israel. It was raining and the sun was shining brightly on the way to Tel-Aviv.

Parts 3 and 4 are yet to come.

Pics from Israel. 18th January - 1st February. Part 1

2012-02-09T14:30:00-08:00

Pics from Israel. 18th January – 1st February. Part 1

9 February 2012 – Shenzhen

The pictures are clickable.
Mediterranean Sea near Netanya

On the outskirts of Netanya

Some men on horses. Seems they’re musketeers. No wonder that many French tend to buy estate here.

CATAEL – there are more cats in Israel than humans. I suggest to rename it, untill it’s too late.

One of streets of Netanya.

At a cottage backyard.

Sight from Rotshild park. You can get to the sea from here.

The park of Baron Rotshild. Somewhere in the first half of 20th century Rotshild spent about 500 million dollars to buy the land and build the park, which is still maintaned using the funds of Rotshild.

Sun-clock. You can forget about winter and summer time.

Gardeners, unite!

Local Israeli

Every bush, every flower has got a pipe for watering. All these watering systems have patents.

The tap with a built-in spring. When you turn the water on, you have to put some effort.
When you take your hand off, the tap is closed automatically.

Israel exports lots of flowers. These are going to stay in the park.

Arab village. Tolerant to jews arabs live here.

The seaside of Netanya.

Macao girl in Hong Kong

2012-02-07T15:50:00-08:00

Macao girl in Hong Kong

7 February 2012 – Shenzhen

Why it’s damn hard to shoot people in Hong Kong:
1) The pace of life in HK is way too fast. Everybody is rushing.
2) Too many people, hard to find suitable background.

I hunted for this girl deliberately. First I found a suitable background, and than just waited.
The idea of waiting instead of rushing like everybody else didn’t come at once to my mind. Now I get that this activity is very similar to fishing.

10 Facts about Israel. Based on my two weeks in Israel.

2012-02-06T14:02:00-08:00

10 Facts about Israel. Based on my two weeks in Israel.

6 February 2012 – Shenzhen

With some random beauty in Jerusalem near the Wailing Wall

1) There’s a whole bunch of nationalities in Israel: Russians, French, Jews, Arabs, Americans and others. You walk along the street and think to yourself – What are you all doing here? Go home! You can often hear Russian speach.
2) Too little people in the streets. Those of you who’ve been to China will understand.
3) The cars are pretty simple. It’s because the tax for imported cars is huge (70%) and the prices for gas are even higher than in Canada.
4) More fat people than in China, yet less, than in Ukraine.
5) Israelis and Arabs are pretty emotional. It only adds the colour when you see some Arab girl shouting and quarelling in the street.
6) There are lots of green trees and parks in Israel. Every tree has got a pipe near it for watering.
7) Sometimes you can bump into a very hot girl. “Sometimes” because you don’t see much people outside.
8) People are generally more positive (maybe only except Russians).
9) Billboards, ads, business cards, even Google – everything is in Hebrew and is written from right to left.
10) Not that much people speak English. More than in China, of course, yet not as much, as I thought. It might be because all the Israeli who speak good English are busy in their offices or riding their cars, so that you don’t have a chance to meet them in the street. I don’t imagine, how one can live in Israel without knowing Hebrew. All the signs, train station announcements – everything is in Hebrew.

Pics from «撻著» TV show

2012-01-17T14:02:00-08:00

Pics from «撻著» TV show

17 January 2012 – Shenzhen

Looking forward to next shows and shootings. Thank you, Hong Kong.

Taking part in Hong Kong dating show «撻著»

2012-01-17T11:30:00-08:00

Taking part in Hong Kong dating show «撻著»

17 January 2012 – Shenzhen

My part starts at 22:14

The show was broadcasted on the 15th of January on 香港亚洲卫视(Asia TV) at 21:00.
The part with my nunchaku was cut, lots of tricky questions were not shown as well (I guess, because of censorship). Anyway, it’s my first appearance on the Hong Kong TV, so I’m very happy to have had this experience.

Chinese cakes are not as good as Russian ones

2012-01-12T14:55:00-08:00

Chinese cakes are not as good as Russian ones

12 January 2012 – Shenzhen

Among all the variety of Chinese cakes, the best are the fruit ones. There are pieces of real fruits inside, covered with white sweet cream. Fruits are also used for decorations, though, sometimes one might suspect they add some chemical ingredients to them. Concerning the other parameters, Chinese cakes are, of course, not as good as Russian ones – you won’t get the same pleasure when biting, smelling fresh chocholate on the top of it, and you won’t get that taste – probably, because of the shortcakes, which are more like fluffy bread without taste, which main function is to fill as much space as possible and hold those tons of white cream on the top. At the same time it’s fairly easy to order the cake of any sizes, shapes, signs and filling. The service is fast: you pay in the morning, get the cake during lunch.

When you give a Russian candy to Chinese, he says – so sweet! When you give some Turkish delight to a Russian, he says – so sweet! The same is about Chinese sweets and baked goods, including chocholate, which don’t have that strong sweet taste, and don’t actually have that real chocholate taste you’re used to. You could also buy an iced cake, which would be beatuful outside, yet would disappoint you on all other parameters, including taste. It seems Chinese don’t really have traditions of baking, which makes it clear, why almost any Chinese cake is cake only technically: the color is fine, the amount of sugar is normal, it has shortcakes, the shape is round, gladdens the eye, but still it feels like it’s been copied from some picture from the web. It may be, that because Chinese don’t eat much sugar and baked goods, they are more slim and relatively fit, though I would leave this theory to scientists.

I'm gonna get fired because of coming late 3 minutes

2012-01-05T11:30:00-08:00

I’m gonna get fired because of coming late 3 minutes

5 January 2012 – Shenzhen

It was fun. Boss told me, my time limit for being late, which is 180 mins for 3 months is over, which means that according to company’s regulations I should be dismissed. That is, being late for 3 minutes every day during 3 months I dismissed myself. Not to mention the fact, that I payed 1 RMB for every minute I was late and even got my points deducted, which all resulted in salary deduction. You might ask me why wouldn’t I come earlier, well I’m gonna say it’s not fucking Japan, to fire people for being late 3 minutes. In fact, for the first 6 months, working in the company, I was never late for a single minute.

At the same time, it was so fun to watch the gloomy face of my boss, saying: “Ohh, I could accept this fact if the company fired you because of bad performance, but because of this! Discipline! Oh my…” And I was sitting like – “Hello! Are you out of your mind? You just said you have no claims about my performance at work, yet admit that I’m gonna get dismissed because of sometimes being late, that is because of stupid rules which you made up yourself”. Well, we’ll see where and how they’re going to find a person, capable of dealing with: IT, translating(Chinese, English, Russian, Ukrainian), Yandex ads, HR (conducting interviews for the candidates), writing articles for the websites, taking pictures of the products! Anyway, my life is going to change now, and that’s wonderful.

My new melody to 5 Centimeters per Second

2012-01-04T09:25:00-08:00

My new melody to 5 Centimeters per Second

4 January 2012 – Shenzhen

Youtube version is here.

Music is mine, pics from “5 Centimeters per Second”. By the way, if you haven’t watched this anime, you’re not my friend anymore. People who create this kind of anime should be treated as holy people.

Friendship between girls

2011-12-31T15:48:00-08:00

Friendship between girls

31 December 2011 – Shenzhen

Another few words about friendships between girls. I have a friend, her name is Xenia, she has a friend Alice, they are together for about 9 years. They are best friends. I like Alice, and during those couple of times when we met, we got not further than kisses, though it’s already very good, taking into consideration the fact, that there were three of us in a one-room appartment. I’d like to mention that it’s damn hard to ask Alice out, because she’s always with Xenia, and Alice is not the girl who just jumps into your bed. As I have good relationships with Xenia, and she knows I like Alice, she makes up a plan to make us be together. Sure thing, nor Alice, nor me knew about the plan.

The girls are going back home in a couple of days, so we won’t see each other for a month, so yesterday evening we decided to meet up and have a dinner. They drank some vodka, and when they came to my place, Xenia pretended she was sick and went to bed, so that Alice and I could stay alone and talk and thus become closer. I didn’t know about the plan, so I really thought Xenia was sick. It was late, so I proposed her to stay, or let everybody stay, anything just to let her stay and sleep. Alice knows her friend for about 9 years, so she started suspecting something. It pretty much explains the fact, that she in every way tried to wake up Xenia, inspite of the fact, that Xenia had a really bad look and seemed to be deadly drunk. The process was repeating during the whole hour: Alice and I were talking on the balcony, while she was having another cigarette, then we were going back to the room, where Alice would try to wake Xenia up. Every time I was praying for Xenia not to wake up, because I didn’t want Alice to take away my trophy. By that moment I already knew that Alice is a hard nut to crack, and that tonight she probably wouldn’t stay with me. *

Suddenly Alice tells something in their dialect in the ear of Xiaozu, at the same time Xiaozu starts laughing. And then shouts “idiots! idioooootss!”. It turned out she planned everything very thoroughly: she would pretend she’s sleeping, so that Alice and I would be alone, then her friend would call her, and she’d go out to join him in an internet cafe, so that Alice and I could be totally alone. That friend wasn’t good at hiding info, so Alice found out the truth, as well as I did.

Then Alice happily drags Xiaozu home, inpite of the fact, that Xiaozu wants to stay at my place. I understood that it’s over, that Xiaozu caould stay, if Alice would leave and let her sleep, but Alice didn’t trust Xiaozu. At the same time, she knew that Xiaozu likes me, so she kept trying to wake her up, so that not to let us stay together in one room. During first few seconds I couldn’t understand what’s happening, why Alice is so happy, and why she tries to ridicule me. And then I suddenly realise: Alice is more pretty than Xenia and she dominates in their relationships. Alice was happy to: 1) reveal the plan, confirm her status quo 2) mess up her friend’s good stuff and lower her self-esteem (say, you could spend a night with the guy you like), thus increase her own self-esteem, and finally turn me down – handsome guy, who’s appears on TV, so that her self-esteem would go even higher.

*When the three of you have a date, and the girls are good friends, it’s the same as to battle with two opponents, even if one of them is on your side. When girls are together, they are two times more powerful, they can understand each other with a single look, tear down that spider’s web, which you were so diligently building. The key moment here is the ending of the dating. When two guys try to make decision on who’s going to be with the girl, that girl most probably will be with one of them. Let it be the guy she likes more, and let the one who lost suffer the pain, but it is what is called men code of honor. At the same time, when two girls are about to make a desicion who’s going to be with the guy, the guy will most probably end up sleeping alone. That’s because one girl would “rescue” another. That other girl would be stupid enough, or be loving her dominating friend enough to turn down her own happiness, she would just shut her eyes to the fact, that she’s the one who had been manipulated, manipulated because of envy.

So I think – it’s simpe with guys. Guys can trust each other, let their friendship be even too primitive, it has no other stuff. On the other side, what should girls do? What if that girl has a childhood friend, who will sit upon her ear, and whisper something that is no good for her ?

P.S. All the names in the story, as well as pictures are fictional. I’m real.

My new melody "The Kill"

2011-12-23T12:35:00-08:00

My new melody “The Kill”

23 December 2011 – Shenzhen

Made it up myself. Pictures from Hong Kong.

Youku version is here.

Just for reference: I was learning piano for a year when I was about 7 y.o. Then I had a break for about 18 years, and in age of 25, on the 26th of December in 2010 I bought my Yamaha 3100, took about 5 lessons with a coach and realized that either I play everyday for 1-2 hours, either it’s useless. I didn’t have that much time, and I had more important things to do, so I stopped taking lessons, and officially gave up the idea. Though I was sometimes playing for fun. I still can’t play reading notes, but sometimes the melody just comes into my mind, or better say into my hands. I explore it, try different variants, and if it’s OK – I record it. The point is – fuck the rules. Even if you can’t play (like me), you actually still can play (like me). The thing which stops a lot of people from doing what they like is actually the comparison with other people who are better than they in that particular skill. My technique is definitely way worse than of a 10 y.o. child, who was taking classes for a couple of years. I sure can’t even think of reaching the level of Beethoven or Bach. The same with martial arts. I’ll never become the second Bruce Lee or Donnie Yen. One shouldn’t think of all that stuff, just do what you like and what you have passion for. If you won’t succeed being famous singer/writer/fighter/composer, at least you will be happy during the process.

Pics from Hong Kong part 2

2011-12-22T11:05:00-08:00

Pics from Hong Kong part 2

22 December 2011 – Shenzhen

Pictures taken on 10-11th of December, when I was visiting Hong Kong for Jeanne Harman’s workshop.
All pictures are clickable.

All pictures are clickable.

Pics from Hong Kong part 1

2011-12-19T16:33:00-08:00

Pics from Hong Kong part 1

19 December 2011 – Shenzhen

Click on the photo to enlarge.

December 10th, eclipse of the Moon.

It took time for the firetruck to get through the traffic jam.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

Taking part in 非诚勿扰 show on 2011.12.17

2011-12-19T10:20:00-08:00

Taking part in 非诚勿扰 show on 2011.12.17

19 December 2011 – Shenzhen

Link to the video is here.

The good thing is that during the show I was able to bring up the topics
of having serious look at work, yet not working and pretending you’re working,
inability of people to relax, and, well, some of that was cut, but hey.
Among all of the 24 girls I liked very few. Girl #22 is pretty, kind and honest, so I picked her.
Didn’t know it’s she who has children. Anyway, I’m even glad that nobody chose me.

17 pictures of Nanjing 玄武湖 lake

2011-12-15T11:27:00-08:00

17 pictures of Nanjing 玄武湖 lake

15 December 2011 – Shenzhen

The pictures were shot on the 27th of November in 南京 at 玄武湖 lake.
I took an electric-driven boat for something like 60 RMB per hour, which is very cheap and is good, because you don’t need to pedal it, so you can do shots without stops. The pedal driven catamaran costs only 40 RMB per hour. The pictures are clickable.

The pictures are clickable.
This 玄武湖 lake is one of the most beautiful lakes I ever seen. It’s even more amazing at night.

Taking Star Ferry in Hong Kong at Tsim Sha Tsui

2011-12-13T16:25:00-08:00

Taking Star Ferry in Hong Kong at Tsim Sha Tsui

13 December 2011 – Hong Kong

Youtube version is here.

Sunday morning, 11th of December. I’m heading to Jeanne Hartman’s workshop. Falling in love with Hong Kong.

Flying Over - my new melody

2011-12-09T15:20:00-08:00

Flying Over – my new melody

9 December 2011 – Shenzhen

Youtube version is here.

Playing piano for a girl in Nanjing bar

2011-12-08T12:18:00-08:00

Playing piano for a girl in Nanjing bar

8 December 2011 – Shenzhen

I met her in one of those bars with soft music (清吧), after recording the 非诚勿扰 tv show. Pretty girl, smart, likes fashion.

I walked to the bar manager and asked if I can play some piano. The answer was “yes”, so I played for her and for myself. When I was playing Numb – Linkin Park, one of musicians came buy and started improvising. It was so fun playing together. I felt that people care, that people listen to different music, and that they are open.

It was the first time I played piano in a bar. 26th of November.

Chinese and foreign languages as a proof of outdated humanity

2011-12-06T15:15:00-08:00

Chinese and foreign languages as a proof of outdated humanity

6 December 2011 – Shenzhen

Sometimes I have a feeling that I already gave up the thought of being able to learn Chinese. Today I was checking the vocabulary to see how to write 漂亮 (beautiful), and 幽默 (humor). During the briefing before shooting 非诚勿扰 show, there was a Chinese guy, who passed the selection, meaning he was good at expressing his thoughts and is capable of reasonable talking. And what do I hear ? “Damn, I forgot how to write in Chinese!”. In the end, I filled the form faster than he did, though I was constantly using my phone to look for characters.

Chinese language – is protection of Chinese against the whole world. Everyone, who came to China, was totally absorbed by it. Even Dashan, who seems to have won the war with Chinese, became Chinese himself. On one hand, I am, sure thing, angry at Chinese, for them having in 21st century such an outdated language, and I have a feeling that they did it on purpose, like inability for a foreigner to get a cheap hotel for a night, or an internet-club. On the other hand, I observe hundreds of guys like me. They’re in the sea, floating on some wreckage. That wreckage is of their year and a half of Chinese classes and myths about China. I see my co-worker, who’s been studying Chinese for 7 years now. His Chinese is awesome, and audition is perfect. Yet he still says he doesn’t know Chinese.

It’s an endless war. Yet Chinese should be learnt to survive the shipwreck. Plenty of loosers in the sea, who think they know Chinese, or think “it’s enough”. Learning Chinese – is an awesome opportunity to learn firmness and bravety, so that not to be scared of reality, which consists of thousands of characters, proverbs, phrases, all sort of new words, almost identical characters, which have totally different meaning. On the top of that let’s add dozens of local accents, called “putonghua”, yet grating on ear so much, that you literally want to run away somewhere over the corner and turn on Chinesepod, and enjoy that correct putonghua, which exists in theory only.

Speacking the truth, the majority of Russians in China – are refugees. And I’m among them. If anyone with excited puppet-like eyes would ask me if he/she should learn Chinese or not, I’d firmly say: “no. under any circumstances don’t do it”. It’s not games, it’s not German.

One more important factor – time. It would be ideal to spend at least 8 hours per day for about 3-4 years, or more to learn Chinese, the more is better. If you think of learning Chinese after work when you have free time, you’d better give up this idea. Because in order to have results, you’d have to give up everything else. One more thing – you should learn Chinese to let Chinese know – they are wrong. What kind of nation you are to have such an outdated language ? Other languages, are, in fact, not better, beging overly complicated as well. Seems people are too slow, yet technologies are too fast. It’s obvious that having different languages – is totally stupid idea. Stupid idea from the point of view of effeciency – just think of how much time you have to spend to master several different languages to be able to communicate with people to get information you want.

Though, there are some attempts – like teaching children outdated English. Which has no results – as I see it being in China.

Having that many languages overall characterizes citizens of planet Earth as highly irrationable beings. Learning Chinese – is like installing outdated web browser on your computer (By the way, more than 70% of Chinese internet users use IE6). There’s a joke: “Optimists learn English, pessimists learn Chinese, realists learn AK-47”. The joke is wrong. Pessimists will never be able learn Chinese.

One more misunderstanding. A lot of people started learning Chinese because China is at the front edge now, the economy is blooming, even the crisis seemed to have no impact on economy of China, the red flag hovers over the sky, high-tech is here, electro-mobiles are coming and so on. It’s all just for the show. Only one glance at Chinese language would be enough, to get clear understanding of the stage of development of the country. Look at these thousand-year characters, and you will understand that today China is ahead only because it is its turn now. Cheap labour, having job from rich guys from USA and Europe and internal market. Look into windows of AUDIs, which pass by, you’ll see uncultured people. Sometimes it seems like there’s a monkey driving the car. You don’t have to be a prophet to understand that shouting over the phone, even spitting wowen – is not something casual. Like scaring evil spirits with petards. China’s been given a seat at a moder fighter plane, so it looks like progress and high-tech future all the way. Yet the pilot is someone, who two days ago was flying agriculturial aeroplane, spraying pesticides over the field. Europe is in shock, Americans are depressed, Chinese don’t realise what’s happened, yet just in case they keep shouting communist songs.

My diagnose: we’re still in the stone age. Technologies didn’t make us humans. Aliens sigh with sorrow. The hamster was given a slingshot, yet it doesn’t know what to do with it. I will go on playing this stupid game. Have to play by the rules. Learning Chinese – is as stupid as learning any foreign language, yet in more expressed way, as you, being in conscious mind are ready to learn totally outdated and obsolete language, which is alive only because of inertia of masses, fear and stupidity of rulers, who have no foresight. In general, any foreign language – is like a car with different operating principle. Gear is somewhere in the seiling, some hoe is instead of the steering wheel, engine launches not with the key, yet with a little earthquake. Any foreign language – is like a local mobile operator. No card – no calls. Meaning it’s totally stupid.

In the ending. If you, dear reader, can speak only 1-2 languages, you’d better not get comfortable with that. Learning languages – is stupid, but speaking only one outdated language is definitely much worse than speaking two or more outdated languages. So you have to learn languages, as we live in the age of not standardized OS, browsers, languages. Put your life for humanity being undeveloped. Just imagine how much stuff you could do instead of learning languages.

P.S. I’m tolerant about races. If you feel abused or hurt, feel free to interchange words “Chinese” with “Russian” or “Neanderthal”. The point of this post is not in being racy, but to once again stress the fact that humanity is too outdated.

P.S. In fact, it’s a good proof that technologies were sent to us by aliens. Anarchy, wars, drugs, languages – thinking beings, posessing technologies allowing them to fly to the Moon wouldn’t allow all this shit to happen. On behalf of all citizens of planet Earth, I say “thank you” to aliens for all those awesome and cool technologies, as if 3 y.o. baby would thank his parents for a new computer.

Shenzhen Lizhi park (荔枝公园) at night

2011-12-02T15:35:00-08:00

Shenzhen Lizhi park (荔枝公园) at night

2 December 2011 – Shenzhen

Shenzhen Che Gong Miao (车公庙)

2011-12-01T17:55:00-08:00

Shenzhen Che Gong Miao (车公庙)

1 December 2011 – Shenzhen

TV station worker

2011-11-30T17:18:00-08:00

TV station worker

30 November 2011 – Shenzhen

They look cool with all those wires and gadgets.

WWII monuments, genocide monuments and other brainwashing stuff

2011-11-29T17:30:00-08:00

WWII monuments, genocide monuments and other brainwashing stuff

29 November 2011 – Shenzhen

The picture is taken from wikipedia.

All these monuments should be unified, or better, they should all have the same look, for example – stupid donkey face. This donkey face would depict stupidity of human race, which indeed
deserves building lots of monuments all over the world. Done that, the process of recognition of historical facts would go more smoothly, and the most important – it would go in right direction.

What we got now – a monument to an unknown soldier. People come by, put flowers, the heart is full of feelings and sorrow. You even start feeling proud for the soldier in particular, and for
your motherland in general – good job, sons! You’ve done hard work, survived and won. In fact all these monuments are built by the government – not for the fallen, but to unite people, so that it would
be more easy to control them and send to the next war.
Monuments, which should be built – monuments to poets, artists, creators. Yet today we are still worshiping the destroyers, even they are natives.

P.S. If you like watching war films (which I do), it means you like fairy tales. Yet fairy tales are only tales, no matter how interesting they are, and how much you want to believe in them.

Photos from CETV cooking show, in which I took part

2011-11-28T17:45:00-08:00

Photos from CETV cooking show, in which I took part

28 November 2011 – Shenzhen

The show will be broadcasted in December. Of course, first we had to put some make up.

Director and staff would prepare all we need for the show.

Attendants would get familiar with the variety of dishes they are going to cook.

And finally, when everything is ready, we would shoot the show.

Enjoy director's cut of my action short film "U之战"

2011-11-25T16:50:00-08:00

Enjoy director’s cut of my action short film “U之战”

25 November 2011 – Shenzhen

Link to the video is here.
Director added some sound effects. Feels and sounds much better now. Though, ending in my version is still better.

My contribution to Rainbow Sweetheart (彩虹甜心) TV series

2011-11-24T16:15:00-08:00

My contribution to Rainbow Sweetheart (彩虹甜心) TV series

24 November 2011 – Shenzhen

Youtube version is here.
It’s been a year (22nd of November 2010), since I took part in “彩虹甜心”. Only one minute on the TV, and it took half of day to shoot it – even though the director is well-known for shooting faster than others.
My expression at the end is a bit inappropriate.

Using MIDI-USB cable to record music from piano to computer

2011-11-23T15:30:00-08:00

Using MIDI-USB cable to record music from piano to computer

23 November 2011 – Shenzhen

The link to the video is here.
I installed Pianissimo – very easy to use software which allowed to record music from my Yamaha 3100 to my notebook using MIDI-USB cable.
The programm allows easy convertion to MIDI, WAV, MP3 formats, so I recommend it to everyone. For better sound quality I also recommend you to buy a better MIDI-USB cable (thanks, Captain Obvious).

How to answer the most stupid questions in the world

2011-11-17T17:15:00-08:00

How to answer the most stupid questions in the world

17 November 2011 – Shenzhen

How to answer the most stupid questions in the world ? Well, it’s pretty straightforward. Don’t say a word. Make a serious look into eyes of the person, untill the dumbass realises the stupidity and irrelevance of the questinon. If the dumbass goes on asking you unreasonable questions, you should make even more serious look, and look into his eyes with even more meaning. Don’t blink or take away your eyes. Your look should make the person feel embarrassed, wronged, discouraged.

Why play fool’s rules games ? Why waste your time ? You might get dumb like that. If you talk to an idiot and you don’t crack jokes on him, don’t gibe at him, or use any other way of conscious protection, you might become dumb too. As a protection against dumbass idiots I love to use my acting skills, so that it makes me laugh almost like when I’m watching Jim Carrey’s movies, or else I make a very serious and discouraging look, don’t say a word so that even an idiot can get what I mean.

Couple of days ago our Chinese colleague asked our Russian colleague the following question: “Hey, Kate, what kind of facing tile do Russians like ?”. You can’t answers this totally irrelevant, absulutely unreasonable question, which probably origined from some random abyss of chaos. This question is beyond reason and logic and is at the most top, meaning you can’t beat it. Any other counter-question would be ranked lower, than this question, so there’s no way you can win. And loosing to a fool always hurts. You can’t play their rules. It’s a matrix, which fools you and tries to make you think using Chinese logic. The chance to make a fool realise he has done something stupid tends to zero, because in order to understand that he needs brains, so you’d better not even start. You have right to ignore shit. Shit-filter, spam-filter – call it as you wish, you can have it. To make it work you have to practice saying “no”. You are not obligated to react on any sort of shit coming towards you, even if it’s of friendly nature.

Chinese - when food takes the first place

2011-11-15T17:32:00-08:00

Chinese – when food takes the first place

15 November 2011 – Shenzhen

I’ve been living in China for almost 3 years. Instead of summarizing my experience and making pretty obvious conclusion, that most Chinese care about money and food only, I want to share with you examples from my own life:

Three questions, which I was asked, when registering at a Chinese dating website.
1) Can you cook ?
2) Do you eat spicy food ?
3) Which dish is your favourite ?

Sure, why to ask about inner world, hobbies, interests – let’s lay off these boring topics for a while. First we need to think of things with “A” priority – FOOD! It’s very reasonable to do so, because in case you and your future wify eat different food, you might even never make it up together.

Status of one of Chinese colleagues in a messenger:
你吃，或者不吃零食，大脸就在那里，不悲不喜；你喝，或者不喝可乐，腰围就在那里，不来不去；你跑，或者不跑步，体重就在那里，不增不减；你减，或者不减肥，肉就在你身上，不舍不弃；来脂肪的怀里，或者，让胖子住进别人的心里，默然想吃，忍住，纠结，泪崩！

My translation:
It doesn’t matter if you eat a snack, your fat big cheeks are there, no sorrow and no joy.
It doesn’t matter if you drink Cola, or don’t drink – your waist’s the same, not more, nor less.
It doesn’t matter if you run, or not, your weight is all the same – not more, not less.
It doesn’t matter if you liked the fat one, or being fat yourself,
Deep inside your soul, you wants to eat, and suffer severe pain…
There are only doubts left and tears – you’ll break, my God, you will!

Morning talk of Chinese and Russian colleagues via messenger:
Most: 我这边有一条鱼死了. 我刚才抓鱼去了那条鱼有病了
Most卡佳: 有病了还是死了？
Most: 有病了估计快要死了。一会过来看看啊
Most卡佳: 不要。谢谢
Most: 说到鱼我想起鱼子酱了。。。。

My translation:
Chinese: we’ve got a dead fish here. I just fished it out. Seems to be ill.
Kate: So is it dead or ill ?
Chinese: It’s ill, but seems it’s gonna die soon. Come by, have a look.
Kate: No, thanks.
Chinese: Ohh, as we started talking about fish, I immediately recalled that awesome and delicious caviar…

I’m scared of all that. Today in the morning I met a Chinese friend. Her first words were: “Damn I’m so hungry, did you have your breakfast?”. I have a feeling that people think of nothing else except food. It’s so contradicting – they build awesome parks, shoot deeply touching movies and write very good music, but in general the nation thinks only about food. From this angle of view the choice of Chinese wife becomes a big question.

Gracis, it's for you

2011-11-14T17:52:00-08:00

Gracis, it’s for you

14 November 2011 – Shenzhen

One of the most beautiful Chinese girls I’ve ever seen.

Night pictures of Lizhi park taken on film camera

2011-11-11T17:40:00-08:00

Night pictures of Lizhi park taken on film camera

11 November 2011 – Shenzhen

This time I was shooting with my Minolta Hi-matic F. Results are pretty interesting. You can compare with the photos I took with Nikon D7000 at the same park.

Chinese people - different sex means different command of Russian language.

2011-11-10T17:00:00-08:00

Chinese people – different sex means different command of Russian language.

10 November 2011 – Shenzhen

At first I could not figure out what’s wrong. Why, why talking to Chinese girls via audio calls is much more pleasant, than talking to Chinese guys ?
First I thought it might be just because I’m a guy and naturally am more interested in opposite sex.
Surprisingly, my college – Russian girl, who sometimes holds interviewes, also noticed that talking to girls is way more pleasant, than talking to guys.

We started analysing:

1) Guys study worse, as they play computer games more (they admit it themselves). Russian, consequently, is worse.
2) Girls study better, because they barely play any games (and they say, that guys often play games). Russian is, consequently, better.
3) Guys of 28-30+ years old sound like 50 year old Russian rednecks from the village. They seem to have no manners at all (it all grates on your ears, making you feel like you’re at some Russian market).
4) Guys totally lack any emotions. They sound like robots answering your question with only 1 sentence. Talking to them is unbearable, as you have to force them to talk. Seems they have some kind of glamour concept (what for?), which reflects upon all of their laconic, dry, uninteresting answers. As If you were talking to a wall.

So I just want to advise those of you, who is going to hire Chinese translators: hire girls. Their oral abilities (as well as written) is way better, than those of guys.

P.S. I talked to a friend, who is married to a Chinese guy. That Chinese guy says that Chinese guys after 30 are usually all like that – talk very little, with no emotions, no expressions. If you’re in China, I advise you to take a good look at Chinese guys – try to spot, if they really do have that boring unemotional facial expression. Who knows, maybe outside appearance in linked to inner wolrd and thus reflects it. Make your judgement and be prepared.

Accused of doing the splits during work time

2011-11-09T17:17:00-08:00

Accused of doing the splits during work time

9 November 2011 – Shenzhen

I’ve been accused of leaning to the back of my chair during work (I’m supposed to sit straight), as well as accused of doing the splits during the on-line audio call. Besides, I’ve been accused of not being nervous during work – meaning, I’m not worried enough, not running all around the office searching for solution of another problem of the Universe. The fact that I’m doing my job, and doing it diligently – is secondary. The key point is that it should LOOK like I’m striving for the company. Jokes during work time, of course, are not welcomed. If you’re making a joke of your Chinese boss – you’re doomed. Walk straight, don’t talk, don’t laugh during work time, do what you were told. Don’t think. That’s the ideal worker. When I was writing these words, our HR was slowly passing by, looking at our facial expressions. Our faces should express total concentration, deep concern, absorbtion in work, and then you are a “good worker”. At the same time, interacting with my Ukrainian boss envolves only positive emotions.

7 Night pictures of Shenzhen Lizhi park

2011-11-08T12:05:00-08:00

7 Night pictures of Shenzhen Lizhi park

8 November 2011 – Shenzhen

In Chinese intonation of the whole sentence is more important than the tones of a single word

2011-11-01T16:30:00-07:00

In Chinese intonation of the whole sentence is more important than the tones of a single word

1 November 2011 – Shenzhen

I have had this suspicious idea for a while now. I noticed that sometimes when I pronounce words with 100% “correct” tones I got misunderstood. Recently I started paying attention to my Chinese colleague, who speaks good Mandarin. She speaks over the phone with candidates for job positions of your company. At the end of each interview there usually comes a moment, when she says “到时候我们会通知你。。。” and so on. So I mentally prepared myself to shout out this 到时候 with the 4th tone(according to the books), when suddenly realize she didn’t shout at all. In fact, she pronounced this 到时候 in a pretty low tone, and it sounded natural. Moreover, she emphasized with “correct” tones some words like 通知你.

This is where I came up with the idea, that overly complicated analysis of all tones and attempt to follow them in 100% of cases makes them sound a bit not realistic, not as natural, as when Chinese speak. That’s how we get that effect of formal speach we don’t want to hear in normal life. It simply sounds weird, as long as you’re not at the meeting or kidding with someone. For example, word like 东西 is pronounced with the 1-st and neutral tones, according to the rules. In real world you’d rather hear phrase 这个东西, where 这个 would be pronounced according to the rules, yet 东西 would sound lower and not emphasized, in opposite to the rules.

Summing up all that, I’ll show an example from English, which reflects what I just said about Chinese.
When we say “This thing”, we normally emphasize “this”, or “thing”. At the same time, every word has it’s own emphasis – in the word “this”, “i” would be emphasized, and the word “thing” would be emphasized the same way. If we pronounce both words according to the pronunciation written in the dictionary, it will sound weird, almost like you’re scolding someone, or giving orders.

The same story takes place when we talk in Chinese. So, what do we do? I believe, one should work more on the general picture of the sentence, where only some words are emphasized. Besides, getting rid of necessity to concentrate on every word’s pronunciation, we free up the potential which can be put to improve general emphasis picture of the sentence. Again, it’s necessary to learn to put in your head longer chunks of sentences, so that they start sounding as natural, as the short ones.
P.S. One of the things which makes your Chinese sound lame has it roots in being lazy, pronouncing one part of the sentence, and being diligent, pronouncing the other part. This thing messes everything up, making the listener do the hard job, trying to analyze your assymetric speach. The ideal case is either be lazy during pronouncing the whole sentence, either do your best during the whole sentence.

Enjoy my new short film "Security vs Beggar"

2011-10-31T21:15:00-07:00

Enjoy my new short film “Security vs Beggar”

31 October 2011 – Shenzhen

Link to youku, for those of you who are in China: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzE4MjM5MjY0.html

How to cheat your destiny while standing in line at ATM

2011-10-28T16:30:00-07:00

How to cheat your destiny while standing in line at ATM

28 October 2011 – Shenzhen

I don’t know about other countries, yet in China it’s a very common thing – to stand in a line at ATM. Sometimes you have to stay for 20-30 minutes because of some rich punk.
Those who’ve been in China for a while, should probably have spotted those mysterious, yet admirable people with shoulder bags.
These people can stand at one ATM for 15-20 minutes, taking cash from 10-20 bank cards.
Today I already managed to spot one of those “rich” guys:

1. The line behind him is not moving
2. Shoulder bag on the shoulder
3. His actions are fast and professional
4. It looks like he’s in a hurry
5. Standing unseemly close to the ATM
6. Staying hours at the ATM using hundreds of cards to get trillions of cash.

What should you do ? First you need to line up to another ATM, and don’t forget to make sure that it’s not already occupied with another “rich” guy. Once I was just lucky enough to spot two of them and made right decision on picking the right line.

Sometimes, when there are too many billionaires at the ATM, you can simply ask one of them: “Pal, how many cards you’ve got there?”. Pal will give an answer, and you will be able to make right decision on whether to stay in the line, or try your luck in another line. There are also good moments in standing and waiting in those endless lines – when there’s only one ass standing between you and the sacred blue screen, and it goes and goes drawing out the money, your ability to tolerate and forgive rises to the skies. I personally pumped my level of patience to level 8. Further pumping is possible only with the help of magic artefacts, rabbit paw and a four-leaf clover.

Why technology is bad for ya

2011-10-27T18:03:00-07:00

Why technology is bad for ya

27 October 2011 – Shenzhen

Every student has got a computer now, capable of processing millions of operations in a second. Did the students become more clever because of that? Everybody’s got a cell phone. Have people become more free? It’s even hard to imagine, that I’m without a phone, and that nobody can reach me. Yet they will find you. You’ll get back to your home, take a glance at the screen of your phone, see that someone called you and then you’ll have to call back, or else it would be not polite. Nowadays you can fly everywhere in several hours. Do people actually have more time now? You can search for any word in online dictionary. Do people really know more, than in times they were using paper dictionaries? Now people talk on the phone. Didn’t it lead to less real-life meetings ? You are okay with not seeing someone for months, because you can talk via Skype or other messenger. Again, every employee has a computer of such capabilities, which were a dream for scientists 20 years ago. Why are the workers still working 8 hours per day? Can’t they complete more tasks now? So what’s the point? Wasn’t that all about saving time ?

Technology is a kind of game, endless race, in which the looser is a person, because now he has to filter more information and trash. Technology steals our friends, family, our knowledge, and now it comes for our time. Everything is going in direction of technology, it’s going “there”. No matter what you do, you can’t skip it. It’s the second reality, the virtual world, where absolutely everybody is present.
What were people doing when there was no internet? Wathing TV (another technology). What was before TV? Radio, tape recorders, players and books. Well it’s already another approach, a bit more esthetic one, don’t you think ? So what was prior to Skype and ICQ? – Telephone. And before the telophone? Meetings in person. People were going to see someone, knoking the doors, and either there was noone at home, either someone opened the door.

Thus, there’s no use of technology, only harm. Of course, I’m not talking aboud medicine. It seems to make sense for me. Though, as we all know 80% of all deceases comes from your own head, pressure at work and so on, so it’s also a good question, if all that medicine is solving real problems or solving the problems which were caused by the technology itself.

What I like about shooting ads and movies

2011-10-26T23:05:00-07:00

What I like about shooting ads and movies

26 October 2011 – Shenzhen

One of advantages of shooting movies or any other stuff where you need to play someone, is that you can actually try something new – try a new profession, or a new adventure.
I experienced being worker, as well as a lost guy in the jungles. It’s fun. Jackie Chan was saying the same thing: “When I’m on the screen, I can be anyone – a rich guy, a policeman, lawyer”.

Safety is not something can cut expenses on

2011-10-25T14:55:00-07:00

Safety is not something can cut expenses on

25 October 2011 – Shenzhen

For example these new safety lights for my beloved Haro – they cost couple of bucks. Yet they add a lot to your safety during night riding. One could actually come up with a bunch of good examples of unworthy money saving, which causes potential danger:

1) Walking in the night through suburbs, instead of taking taxi
2) Getting yourself new tires, instead of saving money on using old ones
3) Buying yourself a new door with a good lock, instead of hoping noone will break in
4) Saving money on high-quality healthy food, instead of spending money and time on doctors
5) Buying yourself health security, rather than in case of emergency have no money for doctors.

Actually I also changed my brakes and fixed the one on the rear, which appeared to be totally broken. Now I have this awesome feeling of riding the bike and being the king of the road.

Cutting my new short film

2011-10-24T14:01:00-07:00

Cutting my new short film

24 October 2011 – Shenzhen

I’ve been cutting it for several days now, including weekends, and now I already have 3 minutes of the film itself.
There will be approximately 30 more seconds of the film, then I will make the color correction, and finally edit sounds – I’ve never done this last part before. I hope, that the movie will be ready in a week.

Making news at Hong Kong TV studio (香港卫视)

2011-10-21T14:01:00-07:00

Making news at Hong Kong TV studio (香港卫视)

21 October 2011 – Shenzhen

I love everything about TV, shooting, movies and the stuff, so I was lucky to get to the HKSTV studio and witness the process of making news by myself.

I’d like to mention, that being a TV host is a hard work. Not as easy, as lots of people mistakenly think. Not to mention that sometimes you have to get up at 4-5 AM, not to mention high pressure and responsibility. Sometimes you have to sleep in the studio.

During make-up, the TV host usually reads the script, to get familiar with the topics she’s going to talk about.

The white sheet of paper is used to adjust the camera.

All set, start the broadcast!

It sometimes takes several shots to get the result we seen on the TV screen.

Then you need to do some post-processing of the footage.

When everything is done, everyone can go home.

10 Differences between Chinese and Russians

2011-10-20T10:40:00-07:00

10 Differences between Chinese and Russians

20 October 2011 – Shenzhen

Taken from the interview with a Chinese girl, who lived in Russia for about half of year:

1. Russians are more lazy, Chinese are more hard-woking *
2. Russians are more civilized, than Chinese (meaning Russians have more artists, musicians people of art)
3. Drivers give way to pedestrians, as well as to other drivers, while in China, even if you’re on a pedestrian crossing – you have no rights at all.
4. Russian drivers don’t honk as often and as much, as Chinese drivers do.
5. Russians barely talk to each other, in contrast to Chinese, who are friendly and often help each other **
6. Russians read more, than Chinese do (especially you can see it in the transport)
7. Russians are very contradictive – double, or nothing. Either happiness, either the end of the world. The same thing about emotions.
8. Russians don’t jump the queue (those who’ve been in China will smile a big competent smile :D )
9. Russians love their country (in a different way, not like Chinese do.) ***
10. Russians are heroes. Chinese are way too cautious.

With which feature of Russians you’d like to endow Chinese people ?
- diligence (again, it’s the main problem of Russians, as many Chinese say)

With which feature of Chinese you’d like to endow Russians ?
- heroism, bravery

We’ve got an interesting portrait of a Russian person: lazy and brave, not controlling emotions, unsociable hero, who likes to read and doesn’t jump the queue.

* Actually, Chinese are very good at working for the show, or working without thinking (埋头傻干). They like to sleep and hate to go to work as well. Yet they are more disciplined, than Russians, which makes the whole difference.
** It’s true that Chinese are much more friendly to foreigners, than Russians are. Yet the concept of “friendship” differ a lot in these two countries. Chinese meaning of “friend” (朋友) is fellow, pal. So it’s very easy to become their “best friends” overnight. In Russia word “friend” actually means “intimate, close friend”. That’s why Russians feel awkward when Chinese person after knowing them for only a couple of minutes, is very possible to call them their best friend.
*** Lots of Russians have the concept of scolding their motherland only between themselves. They won’t show it to foreigners (Chinese). That’s why Chinese sometimes get wrong understanding of real situation. Chinese, in some ways, have common behavior, yet Chinese in general are a bit more pround of China, than Russians of Russia.

Which subjects are missing in our school program ?

2011-10-18T10:40:00-07:00

Which subjects are missing in our school program ?

18 October 2011 – Shenzhen

Why music class disappears after the 7th grade ?
Why during music classes we only sing to the accompaniment of teacher’s piano ?
Why does drawing lesson disappears after the 7th grade ?
Why we never had dancing lessons ?
Why did physical training become optional ?
Why we never had lessons of dramatic art ?
Where did the modelling go ? Did I miss it out ?
Why does labor lesson disappear after 9th grade ?

All those important things are lost and are not coming back after we graduate from middle school. But on the other hand in high school we get economics, history, geography. Chemistry, physics and mathematics, of course, are counted as the most important lessons. For who ? For future scientists ? What about normal people ? Spend your time on the stuff you barely have any interest in, so that you can get good marks and make it to the university, to some shity faculty, to work as a manager later, and still having that beautiful and useless certificate of a “tech-guy” in your hands. What’s the point ?

I’d say that drawing + modelling and other lessons of this kind should be concidered as most important, as they develop creativity, which will help a person in all possible fields of life. Ideal case is to choose yourself what you like. Every person has a talent, being better at something, and being not too good at other things. It’s obvious, that getting to your maximum potential is possible only by doing what you really like.

The answer is simple: the government has its plan. How many welders, economists, engineers, scientists and mathematicians to produce. That’s why the school program is actually all about fulfilling the government plan. Our state doesn’t need poets, musicians, artists.

I was working as a teacher of English in Gymboree – kind of school for 0-5 y.o. kids. And I could see the innovative approach implemented by the teachers. These kind of schools are way better than ordinary preschool institutes. But hey, where will those kids go when they turn 6-7 years old ? Right, to a normal school. Why? Because in the end everybody needs to make it to the colledge, so you need to prepare for it, meaning study lots of stuff you might not be interested in.

Why it is almost impossible to get salary raise

2011-10-17T17:40:00-07:00

Why it is almost impossible to get salary raise

17 October 2011 – Shenzhen

Asking for a pay raise – is already a pretty humiliating process. Well, sometimes this moment comes and you have to deal with it. So, you ask your direct boss for pay raise. The first question he will ask will be “Why ?”, in sense of on basis of what you are asking to get paid more, than before. Normally, you will ask yourself these questions, before actually asking for pay raise, in order to get prepared the attack. Immediately you’ll get two sharp ideas which could serve as basis for raising your salary:

1. Your qualification got higher. Say, you learned a new language or passed some specialized course on something.
2. You started working better, than before (half of year, year ago)
These are basically two major ideas one could come up with.

So, you learned something new, the stuff you can apply during your work, or you started working faster. The boss usually wants to get something back for raising your salary up. It’s logical to think of “I’ll work better” idea. Give me 15% raise and I’ll work 15% better. That’s were the catch up hides: So, what were you doing before ? Aren’t you supposed to work at you maximum 100% capability and paid for that ? So that means you worked at 85%, while getting paid as for 100% ? You were cheating your company during the whole year. Not good.
Thus, the formula “more salary for getting more work done” is dangerous in sense of you confessing you weren’t working at your maximum extent, as you were supposed to. It looks like you’re a bad employee.

Okay, let’s suppose you learned something new. A new technology, or let it be learning super-fast blind typing method. When did you learn that ? During your work time ? So you weren’t working, instead were doing your own stuff ? And you dare to ask for raise ?
It wouldn’t be that easy to proove you were learning stuff during your free time. Secondly, it should be a very good job, if you’re willing to spend your free time on it. So why would you ask for raise in the first place ? Isn’t working already so fun ?

Why you actually have right to ask for raise over time:

You have been in a company for a long time, prices got higher. Inflation, world oil prices, market goes up, etc. Let’s suppose inflation rate reached 10% last year. It means, after working in a company for a whole year, you actually get 10% less salary, then you should. Thus, if you ask for 10% raise, taking prices which went up as an argument, it won’t actually be a raise.
It would be just a compensation, allowing you to stay on the same level of buying potential, as you were a year ago. Which, however, goes in contrary with the concept of normal career growth, where salary should grow at least every half of year, or once a year.

Thus, if you want to have ability to buy more, than a year before, you need to ask not only for 10% raise, which were eaten by inflation, but also another 10%, which would count as real raise. In this way get necessity to get 20% raise, to feel it as a real raise, which, of course, is quite difficult to get.

The main argument to deny your asking for raise whould be the fact that companies don’t give a shit about inflation. You will be told, that company, as you, suffer losses because of inflation, making you look like a greedy employee, who doen’t care for the company. Let me say, it’s a complete and total bullshit over here. Never buy this “we too suffer losses, market goes down – your salary goes down too”.
First, if prises are raising for everything – oil, food, services, then it would make sense for your company to raise the prices too. If company doesn’t do that, the profit would go down, and the company might eventually become a bankrupt. If a company raises its prices for its service and goods, it is also capable of raising your salary, or else it’s cheating.

Even if the company hasn’t raised its prices during the time when everybody did so, you still shouldn’t bother too much. The company tries to pull another piece of shit through your brains, and it’s called “everybody suffer losses” – it’s like a redneck walking towards you, appealing to the statement that “all people are brothers”, and based on that statement you owe him some cash. Because we are all dudes and brothers. Bullshit. It’s just another way to make you feel sorry for all poor people of the world, hungry children of Africa, or a war in Afghanistan. Those excuses the company usually makes up in order to save some money might make sense, if you were asking for a raise for all your co-workers, not only you. But, hey, you’re asking for a favor for only 1 person. In terms of company, 100-200 USD is NOTHING.

So, believing that your company would get bankrupt just because they raised you salary – is the same as believing that if you want to get a good mark at university, there’s only a hard way through study and earning good marks. No matter from which angle you look at it – cheating is everywhere. So, when company rejects your request – it simply cheats you.
Even if you don’t get the raise at first attempt – be brave and know your rights.

How to know if you're satisfied with your job?

2011-10-14T11:45:00-07:00

How to know if you’re satisfied with your job?

14 October 2011 – Shenzhen

If you dream of Friday when Monday not even started – then your job is not for you. You don’t belong there.
The more general formula sounds like that: if you think only about the result – the thing which you’re doing wasn’t meant to be done by you. This thing just doesn’t belong you. It’s you, who belongs to this thing. The thing is doing you. But why, why you still doing it?

There are some misleading concepts involved. For example: “What doesn’t kill me – makes me stronger.”
I’ll translate it’s meaning: “I eat shit, so I become stronger” (quite a contradictory conclusion, I’d say).

It’s all similar to Christianity: I suffer and it’s good. I suffer and I become someone better than I was before bla bla bla. It’s all similar to “No pain – no gain”. After all these brainwashing proverbs and sayings people start to think that “bad” is actually “good”. Well, it is to some point, when you try to be optimistic and it works! When you spilled the coffee on your pants and went to the WC you bumped into a cute girl. You got her number and totally forgot about the coffee and the pants.
But what if we try to think big? ©

When you actually say that “bad” is “good”, aren’t you cheating yourself? Why would you want to suffer, If lifetime is already too short? You simply don’t have time to suffer. You have to be fucking happy every day.
But you still go on doing dumb things like going to dumb work, dating a creepy girl or attending boring lectures in university. Doing everything by inertia.

So, let me classify two types of shit:
1. The shit you eat voluntarily. It’s even delicious so you won’t even call it “shit”.
For example: when a year ago I was getting up at 5:00 AM, studying Chinese, wushu, attending several lectures on Chinese(my love) , launch, again several lectures and a training and so on so on I was very tired. One might think it was shit that I basically never hang out and all my life back than consisted of study and work outs. Surprisingly I was very happy. I ate it voluntarily.

2. The shit you are fed. It’s the shit you don’t need, don’t want, don’t like, but you eat it because someone feeds it to you. And there are even no vitamins in it (no benefits at all).

I suspect there are a lot of people eating shit type #2 and thinking they’re on the right way.
They have lot’s of excuses “There, there, just keep up, wait a year or two and everything will become fine”.
This approach works when you have no choice. Many people use this approach. But when there are new opportunities – the people are already closed. Got used.
If you ask them what’s wrong and why aren’t they moving forward, If they could hear their inner voice, they’d say: “I’m doing everything by inertia”. And it would be true. But they usually can’t judge the situation objectively, so they say “Well, I don’t know, I’ve been doing it for N-years…”. Nice excuse.

So, do you think of Friday? Are you constantly thinking of Friday? Some day there will come your last Friday.
Let’s wait together, or let’s enjoy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and, yes, Friday. Now it’s your call.

What is it like to live abroad. Reality check.

2011-10-13T10:13:00-07:00

What is it like to live abroad. Reality check.

13 October 2011 – Shenzhen

For those of you who might consider if it’s fun to live abroad.
It’s tough to live abouad. Morally. So, before moving abroad, you’d better think twice and consider all pros and cons – it’s like with Chinese language. Either you go for a long play(at least for a couple of years), or you’d better not waste your time. Because there’s no way you gonna go out dry out of the water.

Being in Ukraine – my motherland, I could live in my own flat, eat what there is in fridge, freely attend job interviews, knowing that getting a good well-paid job is just a matter of one-two weeks. Yet here, abroad – everything is different. Your job – is your visa and your accomodation. No job – no visa, and no flat. In other words, your basic necessities are threatened. If you get into fight, you might be deported to your country, and your passport is your only protection. And yet even with the passport you can’t go to computer club, because they accept only Chinese ID cards. On the same reason even getting a room for a night would be a problem for a foreigner, as the majority of hotels accept Chinese ID cards only.

So it’s like being constantly and invevitably pressured, when you must go to work, not only to pay bills, but at least to have visa. At this point let’s add Chinese, who are totally different, totally different country with it’s own culture, where no one expected you coming. We are in their home here, not in our’s, as lots of expats would like to think. Sure thing, you feel yourself here more at home, than in your motherland, yet all the differences are still too striking.
Every time, when you find yourself thinking you’re at home – have a look around, if there is no glare at your back from some Chinese guy, full of numbness, as if he’s not capable of solving some puzzle, like WHO IS THAT (meaning YOU). What are you doing here and why the hell did you come here ? This glare, which you can’t fight. This glare, which neglects all your good Chinese or friendly attitude towards Chinese.

And all that is taking place in the country with, perhaps, the most friendly people on Earth.
Let’s not forget about vacuum – no friends, no family. There’s no kitchen, where you’d sit with your dad, drinking slowly your morning coffee and talking about life, or just pick a topic and think. There are no traditional bathrooms, where you can dive into nice hot water, which would make you forget everything.
Suppose you – being well educated and open-minded person, will be constantly trying to find clues to understand Chinese mentality, it would be too naive on your side to think, that they will ever try to understand you. At least a little bit. For them – you’re just another stupid and rich foreigner, who should be cheated if there’s a chance.
Thus, your loneliness would be greater than in your motherland. There will be only a rhythm – do more before work, do more during work, do more after work, don’t think too much before you go to bed, to gain some time.

In China job hunting always comes along with visa problems. Not speaking of the list of positions which is limited, and, sure thing, you’d better know Chinese.
So you just get into this strange world, with their rules, where you can’t that easily find a job, or friends, or even at least a little bit open-minded Chinese girl. From any perspective, there will be no support, except your belief in yourself.

I believe, the main advantage of going abroad – is to throw yourself against the wall, letting the strike crash all your illusions and mistaken views concerning this world. And with every strike, let more and more pieces of crashed illusions fall down to the ground. Say good-bye to all of the stuff, you were diligently putting up together in your head during years. Face your naked being and be born again. Survive and get what you want.

How to get yourself prepared in case of break up with your girlfriend.

2011-10-12T11:30:00-07:00

How to get yourself prepared in case of break up with your girlfriend.

12 October 2011 – Shenzhen

Everybody knows what is it, when those memories flush into your brains, everything you had, including how she taught you what kind of milk to buy,
what kind of washing liquid to use. Your clothes, which you were once picking together, are still hanging in your wardrobe, and in the fridge there’s still that candy she didn’t eat up.
Yet there are some good ways to get back to your normal life:

1. Preventive. No matter what happens in your life, you need to stick to your plan.
Training drills, languages, all kind of interests you have. Never give up any of your hobby for a girl.
For example, business trip or even just a visit to the gym, in major cases are much more important then stupid shopping with your girlfriend.
Your interests and your way of behavior increase your self-esteem.

2. Immediate. Go somewhere, have some fun, talk to as many girls, as you can. You don’t need to seduce each of them.
When you talk to interesting people, your horizons widen and you look at your situation more objectively.

3. Advanced. Learn to control your thoughts. Not the thoughts themselves, but their flow.
Sometimes a person wants to feel sorry about oneself, nostalgy comes, emotions, and all that results only in waste of your time and spirit.
This state of mind should be put aside, meanwhile it’s better to think about more productive things like work, study, your plans.
Girls come and go, and you’re always as you are, with everything you acquired through your life, with everything you know, or don’t know, with everything you can, or can’t do.

Your ways to overcome break-up or get yourself prepared are welcomed.

Shanghai clubs can't surprise after being in Chengdu clubs

2011-10-10T12:00:00-07:00

Shanghai clubs can’t surprise after being in Chengdu clubs

10 October 2011 – Shenzhen

This club is in Shanghai.
Chengdu clubs are different. Starting from the interior design and ending with girls. The best clubs I’ve ever been to. Lots of pretty pretty girls.

The show 欢喜来逗阵 I took part in is available online

2011-10-09T14:00:00-07:00

The show 欢喜来逗阵 I took part in is available online

9 October 2011 – Shenzhen

My part starts at 21:45

It was broadcasted on 四川卫视 on the 2nd of October 2011. The theme was “I’m not a foreigner” – about foreigners who find themselves pretty comfortable living in China and learning the culture and language of this legendary country.
Another link of the show: http://www.letv.com/ptv/vplay/1364252.html

Shooting my new action short film

2011-10-08T12:18:00-07:00

Shooting my new action short film

8 October 2011 – Shenzhen

As millions of my fans may still remember, in May I finished my first video, where I was swinging nunchaku and throwing cigarettes.
Back then, it took about 3 hours to shoot all the scenes, the shooting itself was very tiresome and the result was “ok” as for the first time, yet not enough as for the cool fight (especially taking into consideration the fact, that I was fighting with myself).
And so, recently I felt my life was loosing its meaning, as I was desperately travelling along China to appear in another show – the product of other people, wasting my time and money.
The plan to shoot something of my own began taking shape.
It was obvious, that I wouldn’t make it with only one cameraman. While I was looking for a cameraman and a fighter, I was living in a world of fights, I was imagining them, making sketches on the paper, and in the end it would turn out that I wouldn’t shoot even the half of all my ideas.

There was a whole bunch of problems, awaiting to be solved, complicated by the Chinese National Day and lots of staff being on vacation.

1) Find the cameraman, get the camera
2) Find an actor able to fight
3) Find a place
4) Get some protecting gears
5) Prepare artificial blood
6) Buy sticks, saw, glue, fishing line, couple of stools (in the end we still didn’t crash them)
7) Buy uniform for security
8) Find a make-up artist
9) Organize everyone and pray for good weather
10) Pray that the door to the roof would be opened (the shooting took place on the roof of the building where I work)
11) Pray that angry guards won’t come and make us leave. I even prepared money for a bribe (in the end there was a guard who saw us, but he was very friendly)

Typhoon was here in Shenzhen last week, so the sky was dim during all the holidays, sometimes the wind was increasing its strengh enough to pull out couple of trees, but in general it was a very civillized typhoon, aftereffects of which were still making us postpone the day of shooting.

At Saturday, when I was just going to buy the uniform for a security, I needed to ask the measurements of the actor. And he simply wanished. For a day. I started searching the other actor, when suddenly he appeared again, so I continued preparation.
I spent hours to find wooden stools, which in the end weren’t crashed and were used for sitting only.
I alwo found a place where I could by some chicken blood, yet we didn’t use that blood.
I prepared artificial blood mixing anti-cough syrop and red dye, still it didn’t look as real as I wanted. I spent hours experimenting with colors and even red ink, which my tongue, who got red, didn’t appreciate.

Everyday I woke up in the morning, was looking at the sky and guessing if it will or not be raining. I was waking up in the middle of the night, still trying to guess, trying to find the Moon and the starts, but everything was in dim.
Thus Tuesday and Wednesday passed, we postponed the shooting two times, so we had to find another make-up artist, as the one we hired in the beginning couldn’t make it.

Twenty times per day I was checking weather forecast. As always, it never came true, the forecast was alwasy showing sun the next day, and the next day there were clouds again. I understood that either we shoot now, either we never shoot. Besides, the actor was going to leave Shenzhen in a week, so there was no chance of shooting the film the orher week.
Adding up the fact, that starting from Saturday we would have 7-day work week, one would understand that we had to forget about the idea, or shoot inspite of the weather.

That day, I, as usual, wrote evebody an SMS, yet this time is was a happy one “we’re gonna shoot today”. This phrase was echoed in my brains just like “today we’re going to reach the summit”. No wonder, as I was thinking about this film for about two weeks.

Two days before we found out, that the camera D5000, which I borrowed from my boss, didn’t have auto-focus during shootig video.
Damn. Back than I thought it might be the end, but the thought about renting another camera give me the hope. Finally, it was supposed that on the day of shooting, cameraman would rent the camera for about 300 RMB.
I asked him three times if the camera supports slow-motion, to find out there’s no slow-motion in the camera he rented. I still don’t know if it’s possible to add slow-mo effect during post-processing of the video.

I thought we would make it in 3-4 hours, how wrong I was. We barely took any pauses during shooting, the time was passing quickly, along with first 3 hours of shooting. At 13:00 o’clock we finished only the first part of the fight. During the fourth hour of shooting my ideas of making flips, sommersaults and ground fighting started to melt. All those things should and must be shot only when you’re fresh and not tired, otherwise it’s easy to get injured.
Besides, we had no time. Black clouds were floating just above us, yet not raining, and it was cool. Nobody would want to go on shooting the next day. Because of the danger of rain I was even considering the indoor shooting. Indoor would mean necessity of lights – more headache, which I didn’t want, so the decision to shoot outside was right, as our non-stop shooting proved.

Some scenes were shot 10 and more times, at least 5 times each – cause even if you did everything right, the partner also needs to do everything right, and it should look realistic. When you did everything right, you still need to shoot the scene from different angles.

During the shooting I got my forehead scratched with a stick, my hand was striked at the same place two times. Soon I couldn’t see the bruise though, as our skin went red because of the sun, which was behind the clouds, yet unmerciful to our skin. By the evening I understood we won’t be able to shoot everything we wanted, so we changed a bit scenario and finished the shooting.

During the shooting I realized I need to work more on the feeling of distance. I realized the one shouldn’t be jeallous about Jackie Chan’s or Donnie Yen’s fame. After shooting for 8 hours we’ll probably have about 40-50 seconds of actual fight, we were shooting for only one day. Now I understand, how much it takes to shoot a fight similar to this one. It’s not one or two days. And you need to fight every day for at least 8 hours.

At the end it started raining. We hurried to finish the shooting and get our stuff packed. I stayed at the roof for a while to enjoy loneliness and breakthrough. There was a million reasons to give up. I wouldn’t have head-ache, wouldn’t be deadly tired. And yet the ideas came into life. Now I need to do a lot of post-processing job and add some effects, proper sounds. I will pray for ability to add for slow-motion effects to the fight.
Now I can’t even look at guards, even at my own clothes, because I saw nothing but that blue shirt during the whole shooting.
So now it’s time to process the video, which might take more than a week to finish.

Never be jeallous about fame of Chinese action movie stars. It’s a hell of a work, and these people are stars deservedly – not everybody is capable of playing a role being deadly tired during shooting fights.

The show I took part in will be live on 2nd of October

2011-09-29T14:45:00-07:00

The show I took part in will be live on 2nd of October

29 September 2011 – Shenzhen

If you’re in China, you can turn on your TVs on the 2nd of October, 四川卫视 at 22:18. The show is called《欢喜来逗阵》. It’s about 国庆 (National Day of China) and the theme is《我不叫老外》(I’m not a foreigner).

10 pictures of Nanjing city

2011-09-29T12:21:00-07:00

10 pictures of Nanjing city

29 September 2011 – Shenzhen

The pictures were taken during my trip to Nanjing (南京) on the 14-16th of September.
The best part of the trip was renting a boat and sailing along the 玄武湖 (XuanWu lake) at night.

Green trees along Shangbu Middle road in Shenzhen

2011-09-27T17:54:00-07:00

Green trees along Shangbu Middle road in Shenzhen

27 September 2011 – Shenzhen

The most exciting about Shenzhen is that you can see the montains in the gaps between the buildings.

Shenzhen Middle road

2011-09-27T12:21:00-07:00

Shenzhen Middle road

27 September 2011 – Shenzhen

Now there’s a new subway station here, called 通新岭 (Tong Xin Ling).

CHINGLISH - why English is so bad among Chinese

2011-09-26T17:36:00-07:00

CHINGLISH – why English is so bad among Chinese

26 September 2011 – Shenzhen

A few more thoughts about CHINGLISH (Chinese English)

Why is it so awful ? Jackie Chan speaks with a very strong accent.
Millions of Chinese speak the same English, and you’re lucky if it’s as fluent, as Jackie Chan’s.
Only very few people, after studying abroad, can be proud of their ideal English. And I have met these people.

So where’s the problem ? For sure, it’s not the problem of native speakers (though, many Chinese would think this way). Let’s take Ukraine as an example – the city of Kiev.
Are there that many foreigners there ? Are there that many teachers of English among them ? Very few. Almost none.
How many good Ukrainian teachers of English went abroad, somewhere to Great Britain, or, say, USA ? How many of them were coached by native-speakers ?
You know the answer – most of good Ukrainian teachers of English never went abroad, and their English was studied on the territory of Ukraine, without help of native-speakers.

During my life in Ukraine I met very few people who were able to speak English without Russian accent. Though, in general, the situation was much better, than in China.
At this point I’m leaning to blame the education system of China. I once talked to a “teacher” of English, in Shouguang province, in a pretty wealthy third-tire city of Shouguang.
It was the most horrible Enligsh I ever heard in my life. And this man was teaching English to Chinese kids, being confessed that he has a good command of English.

As it always turns out, the problem is in skilled personnel. Taking Ukraine as an example, I can tell that one can learn good English without going abroad or talking to foreigners. As long as one has brains and a good teacher.

Now a few words about brains. I also know a guy, who never went to any kind of special English schools. He was watching movies in English for 5 years, reading scenario of each film. Now he has awesome prononciation. Without any coaches.

Thus, I see several key problems, which should be solved in order to increase the level of English among people of China:

1) Pay special attention to personnel. Education system, salaries of teachers, make them become more professional.
2) Make people realize how awful their prononciation is.
3) Once more, pay more attention to cadres. Let the majority of them be phonetics specialists.
4) Forget about laowai and native speakers, except those who are specialized in teaching English and have corresponding diplomas and knowledge.
I often hear a lot of unnecessary word endings when Chinese speak. For example, in the word “ball” they add “r” sound, to make the word sound more softly. Sounds like “borr”.
And this technique, as one of my Chinese friends said, was taught to them by a foreign teacher.

Let’s face it, there’s a lot of stuff in China going on, which is done for the show. The same is with native speakers, who often take teaching work not so seriously, just because they have no other way to earn money.
Chinese like to hire white teachers, even if their English is worse than Enlish of a Chinese person, who even studied abroad.
I have mixed feelings about that, recalling the phrase 出租白人 – meaning “white people for rent”.

In the end there are only two main problems, which should be solved in China:

1) awareness of Chinese people 2) highly qualified cadres

Watering trees in Shenzhen

2011-09-26T16:00:00-07:00

Watering trees in Shenzhen

26 September 2011 – Shenzhen

That’s a very pleasant sight of view, isn’t it ?
Well, if it was a young sexy girl watering the trees, that’d be more interesting, but hey.

Millions tons of motivation around us

2011-09-23T16:00:00-07:00

Millions tons of motivation around us

23 September 2011 – Shenzhen

Lots of motivation here.
When I see a fat guy, I don’t want to skip gym sessions anymore.
(I see another fat person in the shop, buying trillions of junk food)

When I see a person in glasses, I want to start excercising my eyes immediately.
(Plenty of people in China never take off their glasses)

When I see stupididy of masses, I want to think faster.
(For example, when shopping in a mall, you have to maneuver around those super-slow people)

When I see people who are not attentive, I want to always be focused.
(When riding my bike, I’m always 100% focused, always analyze the situation on the road. Once I almost bypass a person, I often hear exclamations and sighs. Once there was even a man who told me “be careful!”. Like I myself am not interested in avoiding the dangerous situation on the road. I see them in a mile, they don’t see me in a meter. Now I understand how people get in car accidents.)

When I see people with zero reaction, I always want to react fast.
(Standing on the red light, it sometimes takes as much as several seconds for most of them to find out it’s green light already)

When I see lazy people, I want to do something useful immediately. Something for myself.
(People change coins and go to play games, spending both money and time).

When I see poor people, I want to become rich.
(I see a “beggar” who has hands, but does nothing useful. Just asks for money)

When I see the way most office workers walk, I can see them in their old age: even more weak walk pace with bended backbone.
(People do absolutely nothing. No sports. If I still can see old people practicing Taiji in the mornings, that’s good. At the same time I see no young people. The same is about gyms where most of the visitors are people over thirty.)

How Chinese see us - foreigners

2011-09-22T16:59:00-07:00

How Chinese see us – foreigners

22 September 2011 – Shenzhen

Every day I have a couple of interviews with people who are totally mistaken.
They hate Japanese, yet study the language of nacist country, where they get beaten and get killed (welcome to Russia).

I discovered a lot:

1. People of Kiev and Kharkov treat Chinese much more coldly, than Crimean people (South of Ukraine)
2. Chinese believe, that education in Russia is better. Say, in China teachers don’t care what they teach, the salaries are low. Lots of hometasks and rote-learning.
3. Having had dozens of interviews, I haven’t heard even one Chinese who’s accent would be at least in some way similar to no-accent standard Russian language.
4. They live in their weird naive world. Sometimes you talk to a man and think to yourself “GODS! What the hell ?”.
For example, I’ve had several people questioned the same question “Which country would you like to visit, except Russia ?”. The answer was “Russia”. Then I ask the same question and they repeat the same answer.
Then you start helping, pointing out that there might be(by some occasion and coinsidence) other countries.
- If you had a huge lot of money, would you go to, say, USA ?
- No
- Why ?
- I don’t like USA
- Well, have you been there (trying to point out their narrow-mindness)
- No
- So why don’t you like it? (I don’t give up)
- They are always at war (yeah, hell of an argument)

I might as well not even try to ask the question about going to Japan. The same thing is about European countries. People don’t want to know anything except of Russia or maybe Ukraine.
When I was asking people about their aims and goals of life, there was only one guy, who wanted to be rich.
The majority just wants to become interpreter. Some of these people weren’t even good enough in wrighting in Chinese(taking into consideration that it’s their local language!)
Sometimes there were people who were saying that all Russians are kind and beautiful.
At the same time I often ask a person about his hobbies. In general it’s not possible to hear something except “I play basketball”.
They live in the world where there exists study of Russian language and basketball only.

A whole bunch of LULZ. Crowds of mistaken people. What if I’m an idiot too ? What if I should have chosen Canada ?
Maybe, but, as I’m here, I should at least improve my Chinese to the level where I would be not ashamed of it.

The Shanghai club

2011-09-22T10:59:00-07:00

The Shanghai club

22 September 2011 – Shenzhen

Burn your life down, son.

The bridge in Shanghai

2011-09-20T17:49:00-07:00

The bridge in Shanghai

20 September 2011 – Shenzhen

The picture was taken on the 3rd of September.

My performance with nunchaku in Nanjing

2011-09-16T17:59:00-07:00

My performance with nunchaku in Nanjing

16 September 2011 – Shenzhen

So I went to participate in the press-conference of 中国达人秀 (China has talents) . It was generally a fail.
I had no stick, no table tennis balls(to hit them with nunchaku), so I had to make up the performance with nunchaku only. The music started too early, so I was late by a few seconds.
Inspite of all that I met some good people and learned new stuff, and I enjoyed the city of Nanjing. Awesome city with great culture and variaty of parks, places of interest, lakes.

Going to Nanjing

2011-09-14T14:59:00-07:00

Going to Nanjing

14 September 2011 – Shenzhen

Going to participate at the press-conference of the show called 中国达人秀 (China has talents) . Don’t know what exactly am I gonna do there, yet will definitely use my nunchaku.

Cameramen at work

2011-09-13T14:59:00-07:00

Cameramen at work

13 September 2011 – Shenzhen

Piano improvisations on Pink Floyd's "Coming Back to Life"

2011-09-13T14:55:00-07:00

Piano improvisations on Pink Floyd’s “Coming Back to Life”

13 September 2011 – Shenzhen

Or you can watch it on Youku

Two days in Shanghai, two days in Chengdu

2011-09-08T17:37:00-07:00

Two days in Shanghai, two days in Chengdu

8 September 2011 – Shenzhen

I was told not to take part in the contest for 中国达人秀 show in Shanghai, and instead will probably go to Nanjing next week. So I just went to Shanghai to see my friends.
I was back to Shenzhen on Sunday evening, and after only 4 hours of sleep was on my way to Chengdu (7:30 morning flight) to take part in the show 《欢喜来逗阵》.
That same day in the evening I had a rehearsal, the same was next day.
I did my job, and I did it pretty fine. Though, I found out there were some issues with technique and my general understanding of the show itself.

- Hard to concentrate on movements, because you have to listen to music to know when to change the weapon (nunchaku, stick)
- Hard to work with nunchaku, as the clothes was not suitable for that
- The stage was pretty small, haven’t had much space to move
- Limited time. I forgot to make some stuff and so it’s gone as there’s no stuff
- Of course, being a bit nervous. Though, must admit, I do a good job in that direction and barely become nervous
- The song I learned and practiced was in a different tone, so I had to relearn it in a C key in one day.

After the show I felt super-tired. Yet super-happy, as hard job was over and I did my best, though, I should do better.
At least now I know what is 90 sec performance and what I will encounter during next performances.

Once again I come to a point where I realize, that I need to became a creator of short films. With fight scenes.
The next day after the show I had an early plane to Shenzhen, and went to job immediately, where I was told if I go on asking for leave too ofthen, I would be fired.
They even wanted me not to go to the 中国达人秀 contest. Yeah, sure, waste once in a life-time chance for an opportunity to become a “good and obedient worker”.

The shows I'm going to take part in

2011-08-26T17:23:00-07:00

The shows I’m going to take part in

26 August 2011 – Shenzhen

On the 2nd of September I’m going to Shanghai to compete in the first round of 中国达人修 show. If I pass, I’ll participate in the show itself.
And on the 5th of September I’m going to Chengdu to participate in another show called《欢喜来逗阵》.

A few words about clubs and clubbing culture

2011-08-24T12:32:00-07:00

A few words about clubs and clubbing culture

24 August 2011 – Shenzhen

So, clubs, right? The most popular way for young people to hang out, rest and spend time.

So, you voluntarily:

1) put yourself in a very limited space with lots of people
-1 feeling of safety
-1 hygiene

2) in the same space you give your ears and nerve system huge overloads
-1 health

3) at the same place your eyes get millions of flares and color distraction
-1 health

4) at the same place you usually go for a round of drinks
at the same time playing drink games
-1 health

5) And what was all that “going to the club” thing? About communication and meeting people! – Let me expalain it to you – it’s when you use all your power to shout out the words to someone who stands
very close to you and still can not hear a thing.
-1 communication

6) And it happens that you come to this place for “fun”. Yeah, you play dice for drinks, very clever. And also you can go dance (again, lots of people, you can’t barely move). Oh, and you can go to the WC. So what else can you actually do, when you’re cuffed to your table, where there are only drinks and dice ?
-1 real fun

7) Meeting people. So, you wanna make it up with a girl. How can you judge on her appearance, look through all that make up and thouse one-meter heels? Only one thing guaranteed – you’re gonna have a big surprise the next morning.
- 1 meeting people

8) Yes, you can still find some drunk girl for sex here. That’s probably the only advantage of this place.
+1 sex
And at the same time it still depends on initial aim of going to the club and some luck.

The young people of every nationality go for it voluntarily, at their own wish. At the same time, as we just said, it doesn’t help to meet new people, and isn’t really fun.
I already got used to the fact that huge masses of people are totally wrong on something. The whole world is wrong on some aspects(like clubbing).

I still remember myself standing in the airport of Chengdu, waiting for the flight. I was standing close to the book store, there was a screen with a famouse and successful Chinese guy 李践, who was talking about how to make it in life, how to become successful.
And nobody was looking, nobody was listening.

Chengdu girls are shy

2011-08-24T11:23:00-07:00

Chengdu girls are shy

24 August 2011 – Shenzhen

Well, I’d say most Chinese girls are more shy than foreign girls, yet everything is changing,
so we’ll see what China will be in next 5-10 years.

Chengdu girl in rush

2011-08-21T11:50:00-07:00

Chengdu girl in rush

21 August 2011 – Shenzhen

In fact, the pace of life in Chengdu is pretty relaxing. Nobody rushes anywhere.

In the make up room

2011-08-20T17:21:00-07:00

In the make up room

20 August 2011 – Shenzhen

This camera was used to take an interview of every guest who took part in the show 《窈窕蜀女》.

Green lake at Lizhi park

2011-08-19T16:12:00-07:00

Green lake at Lizhi park

19 August 2011 – Shenzhen

Very relaxing feeling.

训练后骑单车碰到抽烟的人就克制不住想杀他

2011-08-17T11:10:00-07:00

训练后骑单车碰到抽烟的人就克制不住想杀他

17 August 2011 – Shenzhen

训练后, 我赶时间骑单车回家. 当时我如果骑过抽烟人的烟云去我甚至想打死他. 感觉特别难受. 每次想杀人.
有时候你的朋友抽烟, 所以要么你宽容, 让他伤害你的身体, 要么无法跟他在一起.
不知道因为什么, 大多数情况下, 让朋友多些宽容你(就是在不吸烟的人面前不吸烟)就更难. 为什么?

我觉得有个原因是因为抽烟人自己无法发现云烟, 就是因为他经常吸烟. 他会觉得烟云就是不同颜色的空气. 所以, 据我所理解, 吸烟者主要是吃尼古丁, 而不太注意烟本身. 否则他为什么自觉地伤害旁边的人?

同时, 你如果请朋友不抽烟, 这就代表你已经不是男人了, 是个弱者. 这种事同样可以用来描写对不喝酒人的态度. 还好你的朋友一般知道你的健康习惯便不会因为你不喝酒而看不起你. 跟陌生人完全不一样. 如果你跟陌生人在一起而不喝酒, 那就糟糕了, 就像你当天没有跟他们在一起玩儿, 就像你当时不在. “这个人都怕抽点烟, 喝点儿酒 – 懒得理他. 怕死”.

我这所说的是男女不限的.

Update on my recent shooting activity

2011-08-15T17:38:00-07:00

Update on my recent shooting activity

15 August 2011 – Shenzhen

July:
8 – Growatt electric suppliances tv ad
23 – Dongguan Handsome furniture ad
26 – TV show 大娱乐家
27-31 Chengdu TV show – 窈窕蜀女

The bridge at Lizhi park

2011-08-15T17:21:00-07:00

The bridge at Lizhi park

15 August 2011 – Shenzhen

I love the sun reflection in all its kinds. Be it water, skyscrapers or mirrors in the bathroom.

How they see successful man

2011-08-14T23:32:00-07:00

How they see successful man

14 August 2011 – Shenzhen

Working hard!

Training hard!

Loving the wife!

If you do all that you seem to be doing well. That’s the model, model of a successful man.
I have doubts about that though. I mean I think there should be something more, not just job, but aspiration, dreams, goals, etc. These things have nothing to with being a good obedient employee, as well as it has nothing to do with wife or girls.

Everybody should have their purpose. And if you feel awesome living that life – I can congratulate you. As for me, I need to change my job, but that’s all I need at the moment. No wify, no children, no stuff which would hold me to one place.

I registered for a show today – called 智永大冲关 – I’d translate it as “Wise and brave, go for it!”.
I find those shows, and send CVs, and that’s probably everything I can do now. Do it good and hope for a miracle. I think nobody would give me a job as a tv host immediately, but I really need to get to work on the tv studio. Maybe editing video would be a good start. I don’t care about money, as long as there’s a place to live, and something to eat, but I do care about learning new stuff. If I stay in my current company for another several months, I’ll die of boredom and stupidity. Need to make changes, would be good to find a job on TV withing 1-2 months. Let’s work hard and hope. I feel success coming. Knocking in my doors.

Variations on Linkin Park - Numb

2011-08-10T11:01:00-07:00

Variations on Linkin Park – Numb

10 August 2011 – Shenzhen

Youtube version is over here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFFHt1BEuxY

Chengdu in its inexpressible manner

2011-08-10T10:57:00-07:00

Chengdu in its inexpressible manner

10 August 2011 – Shenzhen

The girl near the police car.

Bridge in Chengdu

2011-08-09T14:53:00-07:00

Bridge in Chengdu

9 August 2011 – Shenzhen

I don’t know what happened to my camera, and why it went blurry, but in the end I find it very attractive.

The first time using motorbike as a taxi in Chengdu

2011-08-09T11:57:00-07:00

The first time using motorbike as a taxi in Chengdu

9 August 2011 – Shenzhen

It costed me 5 RMB to get to the place where I wanted to get, though the driver first wanted 15 RMB.
And it’s the first time I was taking pics in motion, using my manual-focus Minolta Hi-matic F.

The girl I thought I'd be together with

2011-08-08T16:07:00-07:00

The girl I thought I’d be together with

8 August 2011 – Shenzhen

Her name is Chery.

Trip to Chengdu on the 27-31 of July

2011-08-08T12:17:00-07:00

Trip to Chengdu on the 27-31 of July

8 August 2011 – Shenzhen

From general to details:

1) Surprisingly, girs in Chengdu are prettier than girls in other cities of China. In general.
2) Another surprise – the tits of Chengdu girls are bigger too.
3) Local food was awesome, comparable to Changsha’s, which is still at the first place for me.
4) It’s damn hard to catch a taxi in Chengdu. Almost impossible at daytime. It’s В Чэнду сложно поймать такси. Днем – вообще нереально.
5) Chengdu’s pase of life is slower than Shenzhen’s. Thus is feels more comfortable.
6) Chengdu’s teahouses are sacret places for relaxation and forgetting everything in this world
7) Night clubs in Chengdu are awesomely cool. Even people from Shanghai say that Shanghai clubs are not as cool as those in Chengdu.

Chengdu’s teahouse.

27th of July. Wednesday.

Take off should be at 10:20, but the plane was dalayed for 40 mins. Yet we did it in time. Passengers were still behaving like babies. Idiots. We landed in Chengdu at 13, where I and another Chinese guy who was on the same flight, were met and taken to the hotel.

We were hanging out there, till the rest participants of the show – guys from Beijing and Shanghai arrived. The had some friends in Chengdu – two girls, so we went out to have some dinner with them.
They were guiding us around Chengdu, using their own cars, and that was very nice of them.
I must notice, that there is plenty of rich people in Chengdu. There’s one club where entrance only costs 30-40 thousand RMB. Some people say even Jackie Chan likes to go there from time to time.
After dinner we came back to hotel, where we met the director and talked about the show.

The scheme was easy: there are 40 girls. Computer picks 8 of them based on your parameters. Then during the show you pick the one and only one you like. Sure thing, during the show they ask you
questions and you ask them questions, so that you can know each other better.
If the girl has doubts about you, she lights the bulb in red light.

During the show I used my harp for several seconds and played with nunchaku(so-so), and 5 of 8 girls turned me out, which was really unexpected. I know I’m good! Hahahah.

The show itself we were shooting on the 3rd day.

On the 28th of July, ThursdayI had nothing to shoot, so we went to the city with the girls, and in the evening went to the club.

29th of July in the morning we had our make-up at 10 o’clock. At 11 we arrived to the tv-studio.
Back then I didn’t know that my turn would come up only at 00:00 in the midnight. We were 6 guys, started shooting at 14:00, the first part took the longest time as they had to set
up the lights, and the devices had some problems.
We were hanging around in the make-up room. Sometimes we couldn’t go out, because there were girls outside – attendants of the same show.
According to rules we’re not allowed to see each other before the show.
Sometimes we were talking to tv hosts, sometimes we were just sleeping and saving energy for the show.
I met our tv host, who came from Beijing. He was about to turn 50, yet looked much younger and fit. He told me he watched my profile and predicted 2011 year will be a very good one for me.
Especially Oktober-November – I will have a chance, and I should be ready no grasp it no matter what.
At 00:00 it was my turn to go to the show. 5 of 8 girls turned me down. Then there left only two of them – a nice girl and a scary boss. Sure thing I picked the nice one. It was sad to find out later that she’s got no feelings to me, and might even have a boyfriend.

30-rd of July we were walking together with my new Shanghaineese friend Ken, who succeed on the show. And “my” girl was too shy and seemed to be pretty cold about me.
The same night we went to the club, where I met another girl. Actually, some Chinese girls got drunk and were literally hanging on my neck.

31-rd of July was the last day in Chengdu. I was hanghing around the town with folks from the other episode of the same show.
The flight was at 18:20.

Climate in Chengdu is better than in Shenzhen, but still the sky was grey all the time we were there.

My new friend is on the right, and the girls in front are those two girls (Yanzi and Fangfang) who were so nice to show us around.

Night street where we had our beers and snacks.

I at the machine, Sir!
Telephone machine in the hotel

One of outter walls of our hotel.

Eye-pleasening architecture.

Good old ancient Chengdu. The way the city looked long long ago (without the firetruck, sure thing)

Backyard of one of the restaurants

In the teahouse

Playing cards

I want to go back to Chengdu and even live there for a while.

This furniture is so 60-es

2011-08-05T16:56:00-07:00

This furniture is so 60-es

5 August 2011 – Shenzhen

The girl is pretty, yeah.

The girl I picked on the show in Chengdu

2011-08-04T17:13:00-07:00

The girl I picked on the show in Chengdu

4 August 2011 – Shenzhen

It’s been a while. I was busy with all those show preparations, as well as going to the show itself and enjoying the legendary Chengdu for 5 days.
I’m going to write a fresh update on my recent shooting activities later, so now you can just enjoy this pic. It’s the girl who I picked on the love show in Chengdu.
Still she’s too traditional, as it seems, and she believes I’m too western, so I really don’t know what’s gonna work of that. Still, at least good memories.

Changsha in the evening

2011-07-21T16:22:00-07:00

Changsha in the evening

21 July 2011 – Shenzhen

I will be back one day. I surely will. I will go to the same bar and order the same drinks, recalling those 5 days in Changsha which made me fall in love with China again.

Need to change my job, just like one of my colleagues

2011-07-21T15:36:00-07:00

Need to change my job, just like one of my colleagues

21 July 2011 – Shenzhen

I wanted to take 3 days off to go to Chengdu, to record a show. My boss and some other people said “you already asked for day offs too much times”, somebody said I have lots of work to do, someone says Russian co-workers can’t reach me(yeah, sure, I’m every goddamn day in Skype and QQ).
The next day our administrator gave me my application where there was a note from my boss “I can’t let go Yuriy because we’ve got lots of work to do” and a sign of the boss of the company. So, my boss didn’t even let me know that he won’t approve my application, yet gave it to sign to the superior boss and make me waste another 30 minutes to ask for another blank, fill it out and this time state that I ask for leave in terms of my annual vacation. He had no authority to disapprove my vacations, so he finally signed the application.
By the way, one of our co-workers is going to resign in a week. I’m even jeallous.

Photos from Changsha's Window of the World

2011-07-15T10:36:00-07:00

Photos from Changsha’s Window of the World

15 July 2011 – Shenzhen

I love Changsha. Once I asked someone why people of Changsha don’t stare at foreigners. They said there are a lot of country men in Shenzhen, so they stare at you. In Changsha only locals, not much people from the province. And locals are more civilized then country men.

Photos from the Friday show 天天向上

2011-07-11T10:01:00-07:00

11 July 2011 – Shenzhen

Every kind of man is present here.

International team.

Nunchaku? For me? Well, thanks! What should I do with them?

Hyyo! Hyoo!aa

Ho-ho-ho, it seems I can figure out how they work.

Yes, now I feel better, a bit more calm. Still the palm of the hand is close, just in case.

Myaow-myaow, Alpha-male is not sleeping

I could swear to God, that she doesn’t even have one – she’s got plenty of boyfriends. After the show she told me that the reason why she didn’t choose me was that “my nunchaku frightened her”. Aha, yeah, I almost believed.

A blog in Chinese about our show 天天向上

2011-07-08T17:15:00-07:00

A blog in Chinese about our show 天天向上

8 July 2011 – Shenzhen

The link to the blog, where you can see the pictures of all participants and hosts of July 8th 天天向上 : http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_59e10e3f0102dqgg.html

What are possible miminum conditions to be happy on Friday ?

2011-07-08T16:12:00-07:00

What are possible miminum conditions to be happy on Friday ?

8 July 2011 – Shenzhen

To have a dinner with Vietnamese girl on Thursday.
Go to movies with her and watch 武侠 with Donnie Yen(By the way, probably his worst movie ever)
Get a call from an agency aking you if you have time on Friday morning to shoot a promo-video for a company called Growatt.

Friday morning – shooting. Friday afternoon – workplace.
I probably shouldn’t mention, that during the shooting, although it was pretty easy(I was playing a client, who came to a water-heater factory), I got lots of pleasure. I met new people, met a 18 y.o. girl from Poland, who works as a model since 13 years, travels a lot.
She wakes up at 4 AM and goes jogging. People say to her “Come on, you’re young! You should enjoy life! Sleep more, go to parties, watch TV”. Like me, she is interested in self-discipline.
All that happens during +33 C heat, in a distant district of Shenzhen, where it feels almost like the air is stuck and not moving in the rays of sun. It felt like you can push the air with your hand and it will move forward slowly.

My agent was reproaching me – I was trying to give people my name card, hahaha. And it’s not permitted, because it’s agency who found this job for me.

It was so fun to get back to office, go to the WC and secretly wash off the make-up.

A short promo video of our 天天向上 show

2011-07-07T17:21:00-07:00

A short promo video of our 天天向上 show

7 July 2011 – Shenzhen

I’m already a bit nervous, hahah.

http://www.imgo.tv/clip-201107-1-18-111638-122165.shtml

The show 天天向上 will be live this Friday at 19:35 (湖南卫视)

2011-07-06T17:10:00-07:00

The show 天天向上 will be live this Friday at 19:35 (湖南卫视)

6 July 2011 – Shenzhen

我参加的天天向上预告网站: http://www.jiayuan.com/subject/2011Q3/ttxs_lwxq/ 本周五湖南卫视19:35.

Have no idea what it will be like, don’t know how exactly the director decided to cut it. Probably will watch it online. Stay tuned.

Five days in Changsha (长沙) - shooting tv show 天天向上

2011-07-05T11:10:00-07:00

Five days in Changsha (长沙) – shooting tv show 天天向上

5 July 2011 – Shenzhen

From general to detailed, what I gained during the trip to 长沙:

1. I fell in love with China again.
2. I fell in love with Chinese food again.
3. I fell in love with a Chinese girl.
4. Was living in a 5 star hotel.
5. Was attending bars and clubs with American, British, Japanese, Korean, Sirian show participants(just like in one of those jokes)
6. My performance at the show wasn’t at the best level, yet I didn’t fuck it up – I didn’t drop my nunchaku, and didn’t kill anybody. The flips went well too.
7. For the first time during last year I took a real bath – not standing, but lying.
8. During all five days my brains were turned off. I forgot everything.
9. Nunchaku can be taken to the airplane if they are in luggage.

29-th of June. Wednesday. Day one.
I woke up a 4 AM, packed my stuff, had some food, 6:45 I’m at the airport, the plane takes off at 7:25, which is 10 minutes earlier the schedule.
It’s the 4th time in my life I’m flying. The first time using Chinese domestic airlines.
At 8:40 I arrive to Changsha. When the plane landed, a couple of cops suddenly rush to one of the passangers, saying: “Where’s your luggage? Open up.” Their tone of voice was like he’s a criminal.
“Who was sitting with you ? Has anybody changed their places ? Dear passangers, please, check your hand luggage if anything was stolen”. Nothing seemed to be stolen, but they frightened that guy.
A guy from TV studio met me, and took me to the hotel. A very nice hotel with prices about 900-1000 RMB per day, yet two-bedroom. I was going to live with a British guy, name was Byron.

Через пару часов прилетела основная часть людей – все из Пекина.
In a couple of hours the main part of the attendants of the show arrived – everyone’s from Beijing.

The girls weren’t that pretty. Half of them were so so.

At 14 o’clock we met for a lunch and discussed the upcoming show. We were told not to talk to each other too much, so that the next day everything seemed natural.

In the evening we went to the main street of the city – 步行街. It’s very nice there – some ancient architecture, Mao Tze Dun, extremely delecious food at low prices.

After the dinner part of the crew and I returned to the hotel. I trained my splits. The other part went to the clubs. Byron was nervous about the dance he was going to perform during the show, so he got drunk and started smoking again. It didn’t help though.

Yes, you feel lonely, when you’re alone in the hotel, lights are turned off, and only lights of crane accross the road were shining in dark night. Or when before landing, and after you realize that you have no one you could send an SMS “The plane landed”, “bye bye” etc. That’s true solitude.

30-th of June. Thursday. Day 2. Shooting the show

We had a breakfast and were at the studio at 9:40. Had some rehearsal and were waiting when it’s 14:00, because that’s the actual time when we’ll start to record the show. There was a piano, and I played rock’n’roll and Linkin Park – Numb. One woman, a manager, noticed me and said that it’s good that I play piano, but still I need to concentrate on one thing and master it.
Then there was another rehearsal. I picked up the soundtrack for my performance – Skepta Rescue Me, which was cut to 1 minute or even less. I tried my nunchaku, did some flips. I wanted to do a wallflip, but there was no single wall I could jump off. The decoration were all on glue and could barely stand a push with a finger, not speaking about leg.

Then we had lunch. Awesome one, and then waiting. Everybody change their clothes, made new haircuts, took some pictures, the CEO of the show arrived, we discussed the show one more time: Every guy would get 7 flowers of one color. The girls would get 7 strip-stickers of their own color. When everybody go on stage, there will be something like love from first sight – only after a few minutes of eye-contact, the guys should present the flowers to the girls they liked. The girls, in their turn, should stick the strips to the guys they liked.

Then we had a discussion on why one girl had that much flowers, or why the other got such a variety of flowers (meaning everybody liked her). In our case, most of the girls vere the same or above our age, many of them didn’t actually care.Потом должно было быть обсуждение того, почему у той или другой девчонки больше всего цветов, или почему такой большое разнообразие цветов (значит типа всем понравилась). На самом же деле, девчонки в основном были или нашего возраста, или даже старше нас, многим вообще было пофиг на нас. Кроме того, среди нас был даже один гей.

Prior the shooting, I put nunchaku near the speakers. I have a habit of checking everything – just before the show I go up on the stage to find out that nunchaku are not there, they were taken away somewhere, considere as extra prep. And I wanted them to be kept just near the speakers, so that I can get them on the spot, and so that the audience would never see them.

The show started, we were sitting and sweating under the lights. My performance was nubmer 5, and it wasn’t very good, because the more I kept seeting in the same pose under the lights, the more unflexible my muscles were becoming. Now, when the British guy finished his dance, there were some questions to Mido(Sirian guy), who said they can have up to 4 wifes in Siria. Not everybody got a performance, yet my turn came up.

The host gave my nunchaku, though I planned using it later. I said “it’s better to put them there” and put them on the prior place. I barely had any time. The music will start in a moment. I don’t have any single second for warm up. I run up to my chair, put the mic and the table (every guy had a table, discribing his style, like a “British gentleman”, “Korean nerd” etc, I was "Kungfu man). I hear the music, do a coulpe of flips, realize, that my glasses are still on me, so I through them away in a sliding manner, so that the lens don’t get scratches.
There’s no place! Guys on the left, hotties on the right. I’m doing my best, and even sacrifice some flashy movements, in order to guarantee that nobody gets hurt, or that nunchaku don’t slip off my hand. There won’t be second chance. Besides, it’s the 3rd most watchable tv show in China.

My performance lasted for only 1 minute, yet it was really tough. First I got tired with acrobatics and flips, and then, being tired needed to switch to nunchaku, where you need relaxed muscles. I couldn’t use nunchaku from the beginning because I didn’t know how much time I got. I can play with nunchaku forever, but acrobatics needs lots of strenght. Sure thing, for the sake of success I tried to do only the simplest tricks. Again, nobody got hurt, nunchaku didn’t slip off – that’s very good already.
I was deadly tired after that 1 minute.

Besides all that, I was wearing the shoes I bought the day before, and they were a bit too big for me. The pants were from the suit. Glad that they didn’t tear apart, haha!

We continued the show, which was tiresome, not only because of the lights, but also mentally. At the end the girls should pick the guys. So there were only two pairs who liked each other. The girl I liked didn’t pick me. As she said later – she was afraid of my nunchaku.

After show we took some pictures and actually we were very happy that everything ended and we could take a breath.
We went back to the hotel, freshed up and went back to the center. We went to the place with local food – delicious and not expensive. 9 people spent only 250-300 RMB for everything.

The other people from the crew joined us later. We went to the bar to have some drinks. I was drinking Margarita and got drunk soon. In the same bar I met a waitress with whom I fell in love later on.
We had very nice chat with her. It was just what I needed that time.
Then we went to the other bar, found some girls, I got a telephone number of one of them. I must say, the phrase "I’m in Changsha for shooting 天天向上 tv show“ sound pretty funny.

Next there was an awesome moment. We ended up in the clup with some strange shows. First there were drink contests, and then the striptease.
There was a moment, when hosts started looking for a guy to be tortured by the sexiest girl. Suddenly, one of our organizers – drunk 30 y.o. american goes up on stage. He’s tied up by ropes, and then the girl tortures him, and he pretends it’s painful. She takes off his shirt, unzips his pants, and… puts a piece of ice in his pants.
Then the American says something to the hosts, and the next thing I remember is they push me on the stage. The first thought “okay, striptease it be, take off my clothes”. Sure thing, they wouldn’t make the some thing twice, so I needed to perform some kungfu. And I had no nunchaku.

I must say, I never did anything like acrobatics when I’m drunk. When you are drunk, your vestibular apparatus doesn’t work properly. It’s easy to fall. Still, I did a couple of flips, some good-looking kicks in the air, and nothing could stop me except the host.

Suddenly there’s a Chinese guy jumping out of nowhere, saying he knows “Chinese kungfu”. He stands in front of me, takes off his shirt and makes that expression, which supposed to show everybody how extremely cool he is(aha, sure). My thought “are we going to fight now?”. No. He perfomed some stuff, almost fell of the stage, made a wheel and that’s all. He tried so much, but couldn’t beat me. We were winners again, hahah. It was an awesome evening.

1st of July. Friday. Day 3.

The last day in the awesome hotel. Byron, Mido and I left it and went to center, where Byron booked another awesome 5 star hotel. He booked online, so it was twice cheaper than if we took it on the spot. 398 RMB versus 800 RMB. The rooms were awesome. Even safes were there, not talking about hundreds of towels, glasses, awesome bath and all the stuff.

During launch we went to the center of the city to grab some food. Alec – the guy from the show -joined us. Alec is a mix of British and Japanese blood. Wants to be an actor. Adequate guy.
Then we went back to hotel, freshed up and had some sleep.
In the evening we went to the same street with bars. We were drinking whiskey with apple juice. One hottie joined us and we went to karaoke to join the director and her friends. We were drinking and singing. I was singing Elvis Presley – Hound Dog. Good thing is my voice is very suitable to sing this kind of songs. I was trying to make out with one of the girls, but she was too traditional, so I ended up with nothing. It was 3 AM, I went to another club, danced with a girl, and then left the place, as she wasn’t too willing to talk to me. She was hanging out with a bunch of black guys. I returned home and went to bed.

The view from my room – karaoke where we were hanging out. The second time in karaoke. This time I liked it.

2nd of July. Saturday. Day four.

Mido and Byron went homw. I stayed alone and finally could enjoy my solitude. I had fun riding buses, went to 世界之窗 (Window of the world). I went on hills, took some pictures. Found a lighthouse, and got that feeling of “Alexander” movie. Once again I feel I’m where I belong.
I send SMSes to the waitress.

This is the lighthouse which attracted me that much. I couldn’t get to the top though, as all the doors were closed.

In the evening I went to the same street. Went to the club, danced a bit, then went to the bar where I met the waitress. Then I realized that I like bars more then clubs.

The music is not too loud. You can have a sit, no need to say anything. I was treating the waitress, she was treating me. Sometimes we were drinking some low-alcohol drinks or just juice. We were talking, I was holding her hand. Her eyes were so attracting, so that I felt I’d better die, then stop watching them even for a second. She was at work, though, so there were periods of time when I was sitting alone. Sometimes chatting with some guys, girls, enjoying live music, faded light and absense of boring people. Then she would appear again, right out of nowhere, we would chat, chat, and drink. It was that rare case when you like almost anything. Her every expression, the speed it takes for her to turn her head, the way she waves her eyelashes or lifts up her brows. I really fell in love.
Then we were playing pool with her, it was 3 AM. I said I’m waiting her to take her with me. In the end I sent her to the taxi, and when chatting by SMS during night, I found out she has a boyfriend she’s going to merry. I was very sad, yet the next day it all became that bitter-sweet flavored memory. I don’t regret anything. It’s always good when there’s a story, and it doesn’t need to alwasy be a happy-end.

3rd of July. Sunday. Day five.

The next day I wandered a bit around the city, ate some delicious stuff, took some pictures of authentic China. Realized, I like south with all its heat, wind, summer clothes and sun.

At 14:00 I checked out from the hotel. At 14 30 the car from the studio arrived to my hotel. The driver took me to the airport, and was still thinking about that cute, pretty beautiful waitress, name is 王微.

There was a dinner at the airplane. Shenzhen was a bit different, yet almost the same.

I understood that travelling will save me. As well as progress and reaching my dream.
P.S. Changsa girls have bigger tits than other Chinese girls.

Here it comes again - new stupid rules at our company

2011-06-28T17:08:00-07:00

Here it comes again – new stupid rules at our company

28 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Have I told you how much I like working in my company ? Today we had a meeting where our boss introduced to us new rules: You can’t go out during work time. Even if it’s 15 minutes to buy some breakfast. And there’s also a new point system provided (which failed about two years ago). The idea is simple: every worker would get points. Points would be deducted for coming late (at the same time there’s a fine 1RMB/1min being late), for bad work attitude, for bad performance, for anything which is not good for the company. In the end of the month you need to get at least 70 points. If you don’t get them – your monthly salary will be deducted by 30%. And the organ which gives points – is the boss. So there’s no workaround. How do you like that for a Tuesday news ? No wonder, so much people left the company. I’m sure there will be more people resigning, because of the new rules.

Pulling 100 kg off the chest and some words about deadlines

2011-06-28T10:25:00-07:00

Pulling 100 kg off the chest and some words about deadlines

28 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Pulling 100 kg off the chest was on my aim list for several months now. I planned to reach my aim in August, as I recently switched to 90 kg. Suddenly I get the SMS from our gym, saying that due to the Shenzhen Universiade 2011, the gym will be closed from 1st of July to 25th of August. I realized if I don’t do it now, I won’t be able to do it in 2 months. So I get some food to gain some energy, I go to the gym, ask the guy to stay behind in case I won’t be able to pull it. And, OH MIRACLE! I push it! Moreover, I feel the power in my hands. I do 3 times – very clean. And the 4th one I push with the help of my friend. I finally did it – the stuff I was able to do when I was 16, though back then I was able to push it only once, yet the quality wasn’t so good, as I used back to help myself.

It wasn’t enough for me, so I went outside, and after practicing nunchaku started doing the aerial. I couldn’t make myself use even one hand, not speaking of not using hands at all. I tried hard, and finally after numerous attempts was able to perform a sort of aerial.

Thinking back about pushing 100 kg. Damn! I was ready to give 2 months for the thing I already could do! The problem, again, as in case of learning to do 100 pull offs, is in mind, not in body. It’s the mind and spirit that makes the difference. First you need to be ready in your mind, and then there’s no thing which can stop you. When it’s in your mind – it’s already yours. And the deadlines. If I haven’t had that deadline, I wouldn’t even think of beeing able to push 100 kg the same day I got that SMS.

Let's not forget that Shenzhen is the greenest city in China (photos)

2011-06-24T17:40:00-07:00

Let’s not forget that Shenzhen is the greenest city in China (photos)

24 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Our company imposes 1000 RMB fine for not checking email

2011-06-24T15:36:00-07:00

Our company imposes 1000 RMB fine for not checking email

24 June 2011 – Shenzhen

The note to all employees:

In order to guarantee up to date information exchange between employees, we ask you to check your corporate e-mail more often. Moreover, you should use the messangers which are provided by the company, and always stay online. If, for some private reasons, you don’t obey this rule, you will have to pay 1000 RMB fine. We hope that every employee of the company will obey the rule.

I love my company.

Corporate style, suits, ties and other unworthy stuff

2011-06-23T16:41:00-07:00

Corporate style, suits, ties and other unworthy stuff

23 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Suits are still pretty okay when there is a jacket or any other kind of upper clothes.
It becomes more interesting, though, when it’s hot outside. Naturally, you don’t wanna wear jacket, so you have to tuck your shirt into your pants, or esle it doesn’t look nice.
But then there comes the paradox – if you walk straight, your shoulders are straight – the shirt will soon become untucked.
On the other hand you have another option – you can stoop. In that case you can maintain your shirt in tucked in position. In case your belt is tightened too tight, you might even not have a chance not to stoop. But hey, at least you look as you expected to look!
The shirt, which is buttoned up, won’t let you breath, pressing your Adam’s apple.
Conclusion: pants + shirt is evil and bullshit.

What’s next? Shoes – I mean those patent-leather ones. Can you even come close to compare the comfort of wearing these shoes to normal jogging shoes ? We’re not talking about very expensive or custome-made leather shoes.

Tie is, probably, one of the worst things. Not only it reminds a loop on your neck, it also doesn’t let you breath and heats you up as a scarf.
Conclusion: corporate style, as well as wearing suits on events(when I have to wear a suit, or else people would think I don’t respect them and the occasion), school uniform, university uniform(could you believe this shit exists in 21st century? Yes, it does, and I was the part of it) – everything is a traditional stupidity, which no one wants to question just because it’s tradition. And you usually don’t question something what everybody do.

Solution would be to invent new corporate style, for example: jeans + white t-shirt. On the other side we all know that slim and fat people look better in the suit. So, the suit, actually, is something a guy with a muscular body don’t want to wear. Because he looks the same as the week guy. So, I’d say, suits will always have the support of weak people as well as fat ones.

Imagine you work at your job for some time, then you lose all the money

2011-06-23T09:52:00-07:00

Imagine you work at your job for some time, then you lose all the money

23 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Let’s imagine, you’re working at your job for 6 months. You were saving money. Then, one day you get robbed, or simpy lose all the money (inflation, stupid investing, etc.)
Is there anything left ? If there’s nothing left, if all your work was only about the money, then it should be a total waste of those 6 months.
You were giving away your time only for the money. That turns out to be quite risky. You simply trade your time for money. And time is life.

In other way, if you answer “I gained new knowledge, new experience, I lost all the money, but still I got something much more precious” – that means your current job is the right one. It means you’re doing alright.

When is it the “success” started to mean “life joy” ? Is it the same theory as “money” means “life joy” ? You’re looking for happiness, or success? Cause this are not the same. Need to listen to yourself do understand what is it you want. And be careful not to be brainwashed by all those fake models of happiness, which are put into us through media, tv and movies.

Yesterday I had a chat with a Chinese girl. She said that most of Chinese marry someone they don’t love. Maybe only like. This state of affairs, though, should be common to other conuntries too. So, my question is: so you pick someone you don’t love. How can you live with that someone for 50 years ? Together, every day. Every fucking day you wake up and see someone you don’t like that much. And you usually spend most of your free time with your spouse. Let’s make it 1/3 of your life. The same is with the job: how can you marry the job you don’t love ? What’s the point ? You spend 1/3 of you time with something you don’t love. Let’s add your spouse and let it be 2/3 of your life with the stuff you don’t love. There’s left about 1/3 of time for sleep. Is it what you were dreaming about when you were a kid ? I didn’t.

Shooting in the office, shooting at the MMA session

2011-06-21T17:32:00-07:00

Shooting in the office, shooting at the MMA session

21 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Lovely day, I must admit. First I got approval from the boss, so that Sichuan TV crew could shoot some stuff for the show in our office, then we were actually shooting.
I must admit, I never realized, that one could behave in one way during work, and in totally different way when it comes to speaking on the camera. I asked the most cool, self-confident and vivid people to say a few words about me, and yet there was only one co-worker who wasn’t afraid to do that. There were also two girls, and they did there best, yet were very nervous. One of them even wrote down some stuff about me (we work together for more than 1 year!)
Then we had some shooting downstairs the building where I work. I was riding bmx and doing some easy stuff. I wouldn’t even call it trick – just bunnyhop -that’s all.

In the evening the crew came to MMA session (Mixed Martial Arts, for those of you who don’t know). I was tired, and we also had to shoot the same actions for several times. Then the cameramen and the producer realized that my gloves were torn, so we had to shoot it one more time. I was doing some punching, kicking, some backflips, wallflips. I realize, that if you really want to be an action movie-star – you have to know how to do 200-300% of the stuff the audience will see, you have to be 200-300% endurable and strong of what it usually takes to do the trick, because you almost definitely will have to shoot some movements more than one time. During the session I realized I forgot (never knew) how to do a low kick. Woody – our coach said a very good thing “Yuriy, one thing at a time. You can’t learn everything at the same time”. So I started practicing straight punch, devided in footwork, body twisting, shoulder pushing and actually kicking. By the end of the training I felt 10-20% of punch power increase. Conclusion: need to work more on technique.

The good thing is I also tried some new movements from acrobatics. I did a sort of aerial, though, It’s hard to judge, because I can’t see my self from the other side. Maybe will need to ask someone to help me do the shooting. Once again – more stretching, technique, acrobatics.

Playing piano before going to bed is what doctor ordered

2011-06-20T13:46:00-07:00

Playing piano before going to bed is what doctor ordered

20 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Some minor improvisations in the evening of hot Shenzhen weather.

Youtube version

Youku version

Being unprofessional(better to say newbie) I feel totally amazing after I play something. The best soul curing medicine is piano. Get out there, buy pianos, learn to play and stop complaining about life, hahahah

Be man - learn to cry on the spot without emotions

2011-06-17T14:40:00-07:00

Be man – learn to cry on the spot without emotions

17 June 2011 – Shenzhen

In this video I’ll show you how to cry without emotions.
1. Open your eyes wide. Start feeling how your eyeballs are burning.
2. Don’t blink
3. Cry
4. Get your Oscar

In case you find it very hard to cry, try to close your eyes and rub them with fingers before the step 1.

Youtube version

Youku version

I think that ability to cry might not give you a role, but it’s definitely an advantage and fun!
Say, you come to your boss and ask for a day off with tears in your eyes. Just imagine his look. Or you turn to your co-worker with tears in eyes and just say nothing. Or say: “I can’t finish the task”.

The good news is that you don’t need to feel bad in order to start crying. When I was doing some research on how to make yourself cry, I found some advices like “just feel sadness”, “try to recall something sad from your past”, “think of someone who died”, “listen to some sad music”. Lot’s of not worthy advices, as for me. After trying to dive deep into bad mood to make myself cry, I actually didn’t cry, yet felt very depressed. And I couldn’t leave this state for a half an hour. I find it too damaging to your health, if you try to put emotions into it. In this case, it’s just a technique, and you don’t have to feel sad. Works like a charm. Sure thing you need to practice to make it work. For someone it might take a couple of hours, someone might need several days or weeks. Keep practicing and you’ll get it.

Photos of some pretty Chinese girls

2011-06-16T14:36:00-07:00

Photos of some pretty Chinese girls

16 June 2011 – Shenzhen

I was shooting on the film camera Minolta hi-matic f, and I messed up exposure a bit, but still was lucky ta get some nice shots.

Asian girs – is our everything.

I'm not going to the competition, yet going to the tv show "天天向上"

2011-06-16T12:16:00-07:00

I’m not going to the competition, yet going to the tv show “天天向上”

16 June 2011 – Shenzhen

I could go to 江苏 (Jiangsu province) to compete in a fighting competition. Although, I’m pretty novice, but still might have some chances.
They’d pay for the trip and even for the fight, and it would be fun, but it doesn’t matter. I’d have to spend 40 days training everyday, sometimes twice per day. I’m getting dumber and dumber at my current job, so, to make my brains think, I study Chinese. If I’d go with 40 days training, it would mean I’d get more tired and had less time for study. And study of Chinese is crucial for me, as well as Cantonese, because I want to become a super-star, actor, tv-host – something like that. It also means I have to spend some time on acting. The most important is that I can’t answer the question “Why should I fight someone?”.

At the same time, in a couple of weeks I’m going to the tv-show “天天向上” – and that’s just what I need. I have no single thought of doubt about going to the show.

So, again, I figured out I need to concentrate on less things and thus get more results.

What if someone asks you why to learn Chinese if you're gonna die anyway

2011-06-14T16:03:00-07:00

What if someone asks you why to learn Chinese if you’re gonna die anyway

14 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Someone will come up and say to you: “Why do you study Chinese? You’re gonna die anyway. It’s no use!” (you can fill any other activity instead of Chinese). You might not find the answer immediately, but there is one, right from the Peaceful Warrior movie: “Warrior does what he loves”. That’s it. Of course we’re not talking about the case of pushing yourself through suffering to grasp a certain level of language. In that case one should ask himself if it’s worth the efforts.
Speaking about myself, couple of new Chinese characters is like peanut butter with bread.

But I don’t possess photographic memory! I never could memorize even a poem! – someone might shout out from the crowd. The answer from the same movie: “Warrior has nothing to do with perfection”. As long as you do what you love, there’s no reason to think of death or why you do it. At least it makes you happy, and happiness is what we’re striving for.

Why your job might become boring after some time

2011-06-13T16:49:00-07:00

Why your job might become boring after some time

13 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Although, I’m going to talk about my own experience, I’m sure everyone could find something useful in this post.
All the things might become boring after some time, especially after a long time, but it’s not the case.
The ideal case, and let’s face it – that’s how it should be – your job should excite you. You need to find that source of excitement somewhere. Speaking about myself, I like to study, learn new stuff.
So, I felt pretty okay during the first half of the year. Later I started realize I’m tired of IT industry.
Couple of days ago I made another conclusion – my problem is in mission. In its absence.

When I first came on the project, there was a team. I’d say a motivated team, who was creating an Alibaba alike russian web-portal. The idea was neat. Then the creator left us, then designer left us. I’m alone on the project and just started drifting. The things started to get messy when our new Chinese boss (who is hated by both Chinese and Russians co-workers) started giving us stupid tasks.
Just as an example:

1. A couple of months ago our boss wanted me to manually upload queries on the website. So that our VIP clients would see there’s some movement on the website and continued paying.

2. Then he wanted me to introduce him some Russian online sale taols. Sure, we, Chinese, are going to remotely compete with local Moscow online-stores.

3. Then our boss made our Russian designer leave the company. I asked him “who’s going to make the Russian design for Russian sites and magazines?”. He said “it’s okay, our team can make international design”. As a result, there’s a Russian website we’re making for our Chinese client. And we have being starting it all over againg for 3 times. Because the Russian party wasn’t pleased. And everytime I have to upload goods manually.

4. For several months they’ve had this stupid idea about building a jobhunt website for Russians. I said back then “Come on, guys. Don’t even think about it, if you don’t have a clean idea on what features would allow it to beat Russian monsters – the websites who’ve been on the market for years now, the sites which have lots of staff maintaining them”. Sure thing, nobody listened, they just pretend they don’t hear “stupid foreigner doesn’t know what he’s talking about”.

5. Then the boss gave our translator a task – translate 3000 CVs in 2 months. It’s 1 CV per 4 minutes, not including time necessary for opening and closing files. The CVs of complete strangers, who have no idea their CV’s are being translated, who’d never expect to have a call from Chinese HR.

6. Then he called up a meeting of our department (about 10 persons) where he told everyone who’s who. Literally: “He’s a developer, and she’s our tranlator, oh, and that’s our sales manager”. The people who work together more than 6 months and know each other’s responsibilities very good. Captain-obvious he is our boss. Sure thing, he didn’t say anything about himself, because he does absolutely nothing.

7. This Friday he gave us an order: “Download as many CVs as possible from some Russian website”. There was 24-hours limit, so he even wanted some of us to overtime. Happily, there was a limit for 500 views per day.

8. The same Friday, at the end of working day he make a “joke”: “Yuriy! Giving you a task!” (speaking loudly, smiling). “You need to hack that Russian website!”. It’s all psychology. He’s shouting out stupid shit, wanting me to react, so that next time I already got used to it and would be ready to fulfil his tasks. I said it’s illegal, and then he said “it’s okay, you can do it”. Sure, I’d never did this kind of shit If I even knew how. More important is that I saw no reason in it.

9. Than he wanted me to introduce him to “Yandex money” on-line payment system. For what ? Let Chinese pay for public services, for electricity ?

Summing up, I must say that it’s a swamp, where any attempts of rationality sink immediately. I have no idea how they earn money or do business. When you just start working in this company you try to resist, think of the best way to handle the matters, but later you see it’s no use, and so you just start floating and obeying orders without thinking. They have their logic. Still, if they pay for it – why not ?

And here is the main point – the question of motivation.
If you have no motivation, it means you’r passive, you don’t care.
I belive one should care about most of the stuff which he or she is doing.
Why do we live?

How can one compare the feeling of a firefighter who saves a life and an office employee downloading stupid CVs for a project which died immediately when the idea was born in the brains of unreasonable boss ? How does it feel when you know that the thing you’re doing will not change the world to best and won’t change you. That it’s completely useless.

For me, being on the spot, shooting a movie, or a tv commercial and sitting in the office and doing stupid job which won’t make this world better – is two totally different things. Even if I get a task which needs some thinking “say, Chinese translation” I still do it without any passion. As I know it was issued by a person who already gave me lot’s of stupid tasks. So I don’t know if this new task is something important or just another stupidity.

Sure, I try to listen to Chinese dialogues during work, write out some words, but it doesn’t change the whole picture. Everyday I come to work, make some tea, and I know I’ll throw away 9 hours for nothing.

It’s cool when there is a mission. Our company has none of it. Pieces of departments often doing useless work – that’s what we have. I know, boss would fire me if there’s an opportunity, but he doesn’t (maybe, I should feel sorry for that). I got used to this life, and the worst thing is I don’t learn new things.

Mission. I need my mission. All I do, should come out from my own interests. Good mission is the one that changes you, or the world. Anything else is shit and doesn’t worth time spent on it. I haven’t been to MMA for 3 weeks or so, don’t know if it’s good or bad, taking into concideration the fact that I do work out and stretching in the gym.

Now I got a proposition from Beijing wushu team to participate in a parkour exhibition. Need to practice.

And I think to myself – why am I not rich, why don’t I have a car, why do I live in a mini-flat, everyday riding a bike to a stupid job with no prospects? I’m more clever than many, have good strong body and mind full of dreams. Maybe, I’m still concentrated on myself and my skills, not on earning money. In any case, my self-discipline has issues. The thoughts in my brain: Body, Language, Acting skills. Need to develop these, it will increase my chances to break through.

Two main issues at the moment: 1) discipline 2) priorities

Once again: Why do you live this particular day? For what ? What are you going to change it for – for new skills and knowledge(better you) or for several hundreds Chinese Yuan ? The choice, as usually, is up to you.

Shooting a TV commercial for an electronic goods plant in Huizhou city

2011-06-10T12:17:00-07:00

Shooting a TV commercial for an electronic goods plant in Huizhou city

10 June 2011 – Shenzhen

It was the first time I was working with a female director. As well as it was my first time in Huizhou city.

You can rent the rails for 150 RMB per day – it’s cheap and you don’t have to think of place where to keep them.

The cannon shoots electronic devices with radiation. It’s a way to check their quality.

The shooting was somewhere close to suburbs of Huizhou, so I enjoyed the feeling of being back to province with it’s slow pace. There were mountains on the horizon, huge fluffy clounds seemed to be even more far away, the houses standing solid in the ground, the time seemed to be frozen, there was some rubbish on the ground, and even it’s smell fit very well, it felt very natural.
The shooting went on smoothly and fast, the crew was very professional. No talks, only action. Need to learn that. I saw their previous video and couldn’t believe it was shot on a digital camera (Canon Mark II) – the quality was so good. Can’t wait to see the new video.
I learned lots of new stuff during this shooting. That’s what I love.

1. No matter what you shoot – get the rails. They’re cheap, yet can bring the feeling of motion which will make your movie look much more cool, than if it was shot in a static way.

2. The process of making a tv commercial is very similar to web-design. Once you get it done, there are still lots of iterations and changes before the client finally approves the video. Sometimes the process of re-editing of the video can last for months. In many cases you have to compromise with incompetent client.

I appear on the TV show "Da Yule Jia" / 我参加的“大娱乐家”昨晚上了电视

2011-06-08T11:41:00-07:00

I appear on the TV show “Da Yule Jia” / 我参加的“大娱乐家”昨晚上了电视

8 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Nothing special, though. My first show, I’m a bit nervous. It was cut pretty much. They even cut my sommersault, backflip and harp(= my ticket to Hyllywood). So, actually, not much to watch there. Still, you can go to 32:40 and see me and my co-worker Alexander.

Shooting a tv ad for an i-xfitt exercise bike

2011-06-08T10:12:00-07:00

Shooting a tv ad for an i-xfitt exercise bike

8 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Couple of days ago I passed a casting for the tv ad by simply showing my biceps. Though it was the easiest casting in my life, I still had no idea of what exactly we’re going to shoot and why they wanted someone with a good body.
On the day of shooting, just in case, I took some gym clothes, some shirts, pants. When I came to the spot, I finally understood what we’re going to shoot(it’s so Chinese – not to tell anything till it starts). I grew up on Chuck Norris’s ads of “Total Gym”, and was watching lots of other similar stuff when I was a kid, so I was pretty much excited about the opportunity to change the roles and become the guy on tv who’s going to explain how to deal with the body-building machine.
I arrived at 8 (had to woke up at 5 AM), and the shooting started at 9 o’clock. We were shooting all day long, having a little break for a lunch and a dinner. Tottally 12 hours of shooting, from 9 AM to 9 PM.

We had two parts:
1. The most difficult one. Me and my partner (Blizzy from USA, a 20 y.o. girl) were riding these excercise bikes, showing different ways of riding, some stretching techniques, explaining how to adjust the apparatus.
The most tiresome part, as we had lots of scenes, each scene had several shots, and it was hot because it’s summer in Shenzhen, as well as the lightning was heating the shooting spot. You could feel the difference by simply making two steps in the direction from the lights, and then a couple of steps back on the stage.
We finished this part somewhere around 15-16 o’clock.
2. The second part was a sort of tv commercial, me and Bizzy are married, and we have a kid (8 y.o. Russian model, called Sofia – very charming and cute little girl).
We are arguing with the wife about what to present to her parents. I want iPhone, she speaks about clothes. Then our daughter runs by, gives us a hug, runs away to the exercise bicycle and suddenly my wify’s got an idea – we should buy them the same exercise bicycle.
We had two sets of clothes for this part – 1) clothes we wear at home 2) clothes we wear in office. – this last part I was playing a role of busy husband, working with papers, notebook, answering telephone calls, then I suddenly find this bike online and it’s way better then others. So we go with the bike.
There were also several scenes with Bizzy and Sofia, without me, then we waited for a car for like 40 mins. I arrived home at 23:15. Tired, yet happy. I like acting, I like analyzing the person, and trying to express the emotions in the best possible way. It’s so fun, uncomparable with emotionless office work.

Couple of tv shows on Shenzhen TV. Casting for a tv commercial.

2011-06-05T14:00:00-07:00

Couple of tv shows on Shenzhen TV. Casting for a tv commercial.

5 June 2011 – Shenzhen

Recently I’ve applied for a lot of shows on different web-sites and via phone. Couple of days ago I got a call from a Shenzhen TV studio, they said I can come and watch the show, called “年代秀”. Sure thing, being a viewer and a guest – is totally different. Sitting in the audience, you couldn’t get any chances of getting noticed. But at least I got a chance to enter the tv studio and make some new friends, learn something new. Better then nothing.

On Friday I had to get off work 1 hour earlier, had to get permission of my boss. Surprisingly，he said "it it urgent？“. To make it clear, there are 3 days off in China, it’s 端午节，I’m asking of ONE HOUR, knowing that there are no urgent tasks on the projects, and he says “well, could you stay?”. I ask him “what do you mean?”. Because it really sounded shocking for me. I mean, it’s FRIDAY, HOLIDAYS, and I’m asking only for one hour，which will be DEDUCTED from my salary.
He said “you ask for days off too often”. LOL. Another shocking phrase from a mister GOD-BOSS, who, as it seems, has rights to judge whether someone has been asking for day off too often. In my case, I had to go to police twice (visa stuff, not my fault) and to see the doctor. Each time took like one hour. And now he says it’s too much, though, there are no fucking reasons to let me stay and “work” during that poor last Friday hour. I was very strict with him, though, didn’t cross the line of politeness and work etiquette. He gave me that hour so I could go to the show.
To make it even more stupid, his fellow-townsman, the same bootlicking type of person, the php-developer, who’s sitting on the right, said “Wow! Leaving so early!”. Add a stupid fake smile on his face and you got that coctaile of worst possible features of a person.

So, I went to the show as an ordinary viewer. Before the shooting we had a free dinner. Awww, so sweet of them. They’d have to shoot the whole thing from 8 PM to midnight, so they needed to get people fed up.

I sat on the last row, as there were no free seats, but then the director noticed me, said I shout good, and that I’m very active, so she let me sit in the first row. A few moments later she gave a chance for anyone to go out and make a joke. One Chinese guy went out, and said something not really funny. I prepared to pass the opportunity, but hey, why did I go to the show? So I took my word and everybody were happy to hear a joke from a laowai(=foreigner) :D

So, I got noticed, and it made me feel better. There were a lot of famous Chinese actresses and stars on the show, so it was quite a good chance to feel the atmosphere of being a public person. The shooting finesed at 1:00 AM. Everybody were tired, I took some pictures and went home on a taxi, which we shared with one of SZ TV photographers.

Next day they let me drop by once more. I made some pics, made some more friends. Really nice time. I even had a chance to say some words about the tv show on the camera. They finished shooting the 年代秀’s last part (part 10, as I remember) and will have a one month rest. Hope to see them soon.

By the way, yesterday, during Saturday, I passed a casting for a commercial. There were 7 models (girls) and me – the only guy. The funny part is that they turned out the models, because they didn’t fit my height – they were too high. The guy who picked the models said： “Show me your biceps”. I did, and that was it. The easiest casting on my memory, hahaha.

Looking forward to all new stuff which is coming to my life.

It's been one year since I came to China the second time

2011-06-03T12:24:00-07:00

It’s been one year since I came to China the second time

3 June 2011 – Shenzhen

The first time I came to China was the 2nd of September 2008. It was Shouguang city, Shandong province. I stayed there for 1.5 year till 24th of January 2010. Approximately 4 months in Ukraine to handle work visa issues, and on the 3rd of June I’m back to China. This time it’s South – Shenzhen. So, a year has passed. What did I achieve ? Less then I could, but still:
1. Passed HSK 6 two times
2. Got episodic roles in two movies, one tv-drama, two tv-shows.

I broke heart of one of Chinese girls. I had no choice.
My heart was broken twice.
I shot my first short film (promo-video)
Started studying photography
Opened new blog in English (this one)
Learned couple of songs on piano

If you have a look at all this stuff, it’s merely nothing. Daytime at the office, evening in the gym or at home reading books.
I met some good people.

Yesterday I bought myself the first real perfume in my life, which is Guerlain. Oh, and got some name cards, designed by a friend who worked in Lebedev studio.

One more thing. I never worked in the same company more than one year, hahahah. So, it’s the first time I’m gonna work at the same place with the same people more than one year.

Why setting mini-deadlines is critically important to increase productivity

2011-06-02T15:15:00-07:00

Why setting mini-deadlines is critically important to increase productivity

2 June 2011 – Shenzhen

I just realised one thing, about which Tim Ferris was talking in his “Four hour work week”.
Yesterday evening I again didn’t attend my MMA session. Leftovers of depression are still somewhere in my brains.
To make it up to myself, I decided to do some stretching. I hadn’t had much time to sit in the splits, so I gave myself 40 minutes, which is usually as much as half of the time I normally need to sit in the splits.
Guess what ? I made it. I realized I can make it faster, if I set concrete time to accomplish the task.
The other thing is – when doing some task, you fill as much time, as you have. Say, you have the whole day to complete something. Guess what ? You’re going to fill that whole day with accomplishing the task.
If you had two days for the same amount of things to do, you’d most probably fill those 2 days. It means, if you don’t set any deadlines – you’ll most probably spend all your entire life and accomplish absolutely nothing. Sometimes we are lucky enough when outer world sets deadlines for us(be it a boss, or, say, exam, you have to pass next week). Though in most cases there is no outer substance or matter which will set a deadline for you.
The other thing to mention is – the more strict the deadline is – the more effective you work. Let’s recall those university days, when you had to prepare a term paper in terms of one day, or even one night.
You could be gathering all necessary data during the whole semester, or you could bite your teeth and have it done in several nights. Why I say “mini-deadline” is because some of us might think of deadline as of something BIG. For example “finish the project bug fix during next week”. And “week” is way too abstract.
Sure thing, the hardest part is that you have to give deadlines to yourself. There’s no boss, no controlling organ, only you.

I still feel unsatisfied, I still feel something is wrong, something is missing and I’m not in harmony with myself. It might turn out that accomplishing more in less time can’t help make you happy.
Sure thing, I might think of my opponents, who are fighting their way to the top, while I write this post, and it might give me some ignition. But It doesn’t last long. You can’t use other lives to adjust your own.
I see the only cure now. Set my only holy aim. My live-or-die aim, and make a plan on the paper how to achieve it. When I achieve it, I get to a new place, to the new level of self-being, with better understanding of the bugs in my head.

A flashing bunch of thoughts in my mind:
1. Move to Beijing or Shanghai /can be done in 3-4 months
2. Find a job in translations/cinema (cinema is way better) /can be done in 3-4 months
3. New level of Chinese which could allow me to be a TV-host. /can be done in 6-12 months
4. Get new results with my body (new movements, new acrobatic tricks) /can be done in 4-6 months
5. Perhaps, find someone to love (after all is done).

These sound like deadlines, not mini-deadlines, but still.

Two movies I watched recently and changed a bit the way of thinking

2011-06-01T14:44:00-07:00

Two movies I watched recently and changed a bit the way of thinking

1 June 2011 – Shenzhen

The first one is “The Bothersome man” (2006).
Mustwatch for all office workers. It’s an arthouse movie, with lots of unspoken ideas. Pretty gloomy, yet interesting. One might recall a movie called “Office Space” – a comedy about a software developer who finds himself prisoned in the cubicle, with no desires and aims in life, surrounded with several bosses giving him stupid tasks.
These two movies “The Borthersome man” and “Office Space” are two sides of the same topic about wasting your time on the job you don’t like. It’s the topic I like. So when I read the movie intro, I felt very excited.
The film is awesome, though, I doubt if I’d watch it the second time. Still, it has many good ideas, some clues, so maybe there will be time for it to be watched the 2nd time.

The other one had even more profound impact on me. Called “The sea that thinks”.
It’s an arthouse movie too, and the director is Scandinavian, just like the director of “The Bothersome man”.
Everybody can find something for themselves in this movie. Personally I took the aspect of illusions. Illusions which can sometimes rule our lives. Now I’m working on seeing through these illusions, to see the world more objectively.
I believe, the less illusions you have, the faster you can solve the problem and move further. If your mind is in a haze, then you can’t even point out the problem, which is, as we all know, the first step to it’s solution.
“The sea that thinks” – is a movie for those who likes to ask questions about sense of life and for those who try to identify themselves in this world.
“Who am I” – is an honorable question, on one side. Animals probably don’t ask themselves this kind of question. On the other side, this problem of self-identification seems to be pretty huge in modern society.
Lots of labels, yet not that much answers. Teachers, programmers, doctors. Identification by profession, social status, cash amount. Seems people never knew there’s other way but putting labels on everything. Especially putting labels on themselves.
People think that they are the thoughts they think. Is it so ? I doubt it.

How I'm beating depression

2011-06-01T10:08:00-07:00

How I’m beating depression

1 June 2011 – Shenzhen

It’s sad to admit, that a guy at the age of 24 could bump into this thing, called depression. When I think of depression,
it appears it’s more to do with women, not men. But still, we’re all humans, emotional beings.
Point one is to realise, that everything has it’s reason, so has the depression.
Let’s say, depression is a bunch of continuous bad emotions and unwillingness to do anything. So, what’s the reason ? What are the reasons of your bad mood?
These are the first questions you should ask yourself.
At first your inner weak guy will tell you “oh, it’s just bad mood, I just don’t want anything. Nothing happens and everything is boring. It’s depression, it’s normal to have bad mood during depression”.
So you need to break through this wall of shity excuses and honestly ask yourself what’s going on. What makes you not happy.

Lack of excitement? Okay, what excites you? Success ? You have no forward movement, you feel stuck at the same place. Opportunities are passing by somewhere else, and you’re wasting your time.
Wow-wow-wow. Then who could help you ? Is there any person in this world who could help you better than you yourself ? Who knows you better than you yourself ?
That’s why you should ask for help in your inner world, not in outer one – because you know yourself better than anyone else. Sometimes you just don’t want to face the truth.

So, you’re stuck? You’re wasting your time ? Than do something to get out. Do something not to waste your time. It’s that simple.
In my case I’m stuck on the same job for a year now. And the work is boring and doesn’t allow personal or career growth. So I waste my time, while I could study Chinese or train my body, develop my skills in acting, etc.
One more problem is that I don’t have any significant progress in my Chinese, because I don’t devote enough time to it. I need to read everyday, write down new words, work on pronounciation, and normally I barely open a book.

Then I realize the problem was with the wrong approach to studying Chinese. I was measuring my work on Chinise in time. Say “nice, I’ll spend 3 hours studying Chinese now”.
And if some thing happend, and I had to cut the time, I was thinking “No, 2 hours is too insignificant for Chinese. I should do something else”. In this way I was inventing some unimportant tasks, which haven’t got much to do with Chinese.
So, I was unhappy, because in my opinion it’s time which matters to measure success, not the result. Didn’t spend four hours ? – You didn’t succeed.
I made a trap for myself, with the idea of process being more important than the goal. It works in some cases, yet doesn’t work in others.
So, yesterday I said to myself: “20 new words, 4 vocabulary pages for dictation, 2 pages of reading, and then I can do whatever I want to”.
It was like being a parent and a child at the same time.
When I realized I can “go play” after I do my homework, I felt very excited. It helped me seize unproductive thinking about some shit. For example you start recalling the day, think about the boss and what he said and then you suddenly find yourself making up answers to that imaginary talk, being completely “out” of this world for several minutes.
There are too much things and association links you could think of. Way too much, so you need to control it, manage well. Stay focused on your current tasks and don’t let your thoughts flow away.

So I find myself finishing my planned Chinese tasks 30 mins before the scedule, and accomplishing more than in 2 previous days.
Now I can have my prize – say, half an hour of piano. Good – I got my prize, and didn’t waste time.
I did something to change the present state of affairs, so I don’t need to worry about my future. Because I know I’m doing my best now.
By the way, I realize one more thing about myself. I need to learn new things. Constantly. Or else I’m unhappy.

So, some advices that help me and might as well help you to beat depression:
1. Ask yourself these qustions: 1. why are you in bad mood ? 2. What makes you unhappy ? 3. Can you do something about it ?
2. Do something.
3. Relax. It doesn’t help if you’re nervous about something, it only wastes your energy. Why not use this energy to turn the things upside down ?
4. Spend more time with yourself. Ask yourself what is it that you’d like to do now. What is it that you want to do with your life. Listen to your inner world’s feelings.

I'm on the TV show / 我参加的“夺爱大冒险”

2011-05-30T22:55:00-07:00

I’m on the TV show / 我参加的“夺爱大冒险”

30 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Yes, glory is knocking in my doors.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

We’re talking about dating sexy girlfriends, if it’s okay for your girlfriend to work as a model, to wear sexy clothes, getting plastic surgery etc.

Only tremendous changes can save me now

2011-05-30T17:26:00-07:00

Only tremendous changes can save me now

30 May 2011 – Shenzhen

I feel I’m diving in somewhere. You may call it depression or anything else – it will be half thuth though. Because I’m very clear where the roots are. I’m stuck here in the city I know, in the city where nothing happens, in the job which is not interesting and doesn’t allow me any personal growth, with no friends or girlfriends. I can’t even make up my mind to go and pay 1500 RMB for 3 months of MMA-training, and that’s what I love. But still, something is missing. I need to get out of here. New city, new people, I can’t stop. Every day is the same, and there’s no difference, and I can’t live like a robot making myself believe it’s the life I want, making myself believe that I’ll spend some time learning Chinese and then someday somehow it will help me. It will, but I can’t sit here waiting for something. Nothing will help me, be it alcohol,
long-term relations or promised Taikwando coach position. I need a tremendous change of career and location. Fresh up my brains, breath in fresh air. I have no idea where I’m going. I have no idea what I’m doing. But still need to follow my heart, and my heart lies in movies and acting. Bless me.
I realize only one thing – nothing happens if you don’t make it happen. Moreover, things which happen to you without your control should at least be suspicious. So, I have no choice: either move further, either die in front the screen.

Some evening photos of Shenzhen and thoughts about bootlickers

2011-05-30T11:15:00-07:00

Some evening photos of Shenzhen and thoughts about bootlickers

30 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Night is the most enjoyable time. Nobody stares you, nobody shouts “Hallo”, you can go where you want to, you can stop where you want to, think and feel.

I hate my boss. I hate his gay-like hand wave to make me come to his desk and talk about some unimportant shit.
Today in the morning I was buying some food for the breakfast, at the same time reading my Chinese vocabulary. Suddenly I see a hand coming out from my back, pushing my vocabulary. I turn my head around and see him. I don’t know what did he want to do, but I really really hate when people I don’t like touch me or my things.
And the programmer on the right – he glares at my screen whenever there’s a chance. Tolerate ? Hell with it. I can’t help hating brown-nosy boot-lickers. Coincidentally the guy on the right and the boss are from the same place and have the same habbits.
I believe one should surround himself with outstanding, passionate people who share the same ideas and dreams. This way the possibility to succeed is much higher. Sure thing, I’m idealizing, but that’s the stuff in my head.

Today was an awesome day - I was shooting Chinese models

2011-05-29T21:00:00-07:00

Today was an awesome day – I was shooting Chinese models

29 May 2011 – Shenzhen

I could stay at home and learn Chinese, or go to the gym. It would be that sort of Sundays I usually have – good for self-development, yet not interesting. Yesterday I contacted a very pretty model, and she said there’s a meeting in the OCT today. So I can go, take some pictures, socialize a bit.

That’s an interesting expression!

By the way, pics are not mine. I prefer to use film to shoot Asian beauties, used 3 rolls today, so will have to wait several days till it’s developed.
And remember, ASIAN girls – is our everything.

One of the authors of the pics:
http://weibo.com/zwm0735
http://t.qq.com/zwm0735

Tomorrow I'll be on TV, talking about relationships, trust and tolerance

2011-05-27T15:31:00-07:00

Tomorrow I’ll be on TV, talking about relationships, trust and tolerance

27 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Tomorrow there will be a TV show on CETV (华娱卫视) channel. From 9:30 to 10:00. The show is called 夺爱大冒险 (The risky road of love – I’d tranlate it this way). I’ll be talking about relationships, about tolerance and trust between a man and a woman. I have no TV, so will watch it later on youku, or online on their website.

When you’re shooting a movie – you feel awesome for a couple of days, a week. Then, when you don’t do it for 2-3 weeks, month or two, you think “FUUUUCK” – no progress, no future. Need to find new role, new show, new movie, tv-drama, anything.

Yesterday night I had a dream about having AIDS

2011-05-27T00:00:00-07:00

Yesterday night I had a dream about having AIDS

27 May 2011 – Shenzhen

I must admit – it was one of the most motivating dreams in my life. I was at the hospital, I saw a doctor who already diagnosed several people having AIDS. In a minute I’d find out my diagnose. She walks out of the room, her expression is gloomy, so I already know the answer, but still ask her: “So, how is it?”. She says I got AIDS and that they’ll have to give me some drugs to sustain me for as long as possible. This drug has some side effects, including falling into faint during sex. My first thought “Damn, what about the trainings? Can I still train?”, “Damn, now I need to do everything faster to have time to become an actor and a fighter!”, “What shall I tell my mother, or should I better keep it in secret, what about my friends ?”.I need to get out of here, that was a dream from above.

By the way, some people say police started checking foreigner’s identity in the streets of Shenzhen. So, one should carry a passport. Screw them, the copy is the most they’d get from me.

Some stuff on the ground

2011-05-26T00:00:00-07:00

Some stuff on the ground

26 May 2011 – Shenzhen

It’s a rose in Coco Park.

Be smart - keep your clothes in the street

2011-05-26T00:00:00-07:00

Be smart – keep your clothes in the street

26 May 2011 – Shenzhen

That’s what I like about Chinese. They’re so rational. Maybe they sometimes do things without thorough thinking (which is the feature of Russians), but they are still able to beat it. That’s the feature of Chinese: subordination, discipline. That makes the difference. Sometimes they don’t think, just do, but, hey, it’s better then philosophize.

Tim Ferris - 8 Rules that change the rules

2011-05-25T00:00:00-07:00

Tim Ferris – 8 Rules that change the rules

25 May 2011 – Shenzhen

I’ve been listening to Tim Ferris’s “Four hour work week” and decided to write down some of his good ideas.

8 Rules that change the rules:

1. Everything that popular is wrong.
2. Focus on been productive and not busy.
3. Beating the game, not playing the game.
4. Different is better when it is more effective or more fun.
5. Ask for forgiveness, not permission.
6. Emphasise strength, don’t fix weaknesses. Focuse on better use of your best
weapons instead of constant repair.
7. Things in excess become their opposite. More becomes less, etc.
8. Money alone is not a solution.

Some ugly night snacks not far from my place

2011-05-25T00:00:00-07:00

Some ugly night snacks not far from my place

25 May 2011 – Shenzhen

No, I never tasted it. I’m not the one who’s tasting some disgusting stuff to share the experience with friends and look at expression of their face.

I like stylish girls even if they are not that beautiful

2011-05-25T00:00:00-07:00

I like stylish girls even if they are not that beautiful

25 May 2011 – Shenzhen

When you find an eye-catching person in the street – it’s like winning a prize. Though, I must admit, I have problems with my style, mainly because I don’t want to spend much money for clothes and even more because I hate spending time buying things.

A girl in the street

2011-05-25T00:00:00-07:00

A girl in the street

25 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Actually, it was her, who was hunting me. I saw here when I was going to fix the film. She used her peripheral view, I noticed her and decided to take some pictures.

Could you possibly translate 3000 CVs in Chinese given 2 months ?

2011-05-24T00:00:00-07:00

Could you possibly translate 3000 CVs in Chinese given 2 months ?

24 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Our translator, who usually translates from Chinese to Russian, got a task from our project-manager. The task is to translate 3000 CVs of Russian employees into Chinese. Having as much as 2 months to finish the task. My dad counted up that it means translating 1 CV / 4 minutes, not including time for opening, closing, saving files.
Not taking into account that Kate has lots of tranlation work to do, besides doing useless work in translating CVs of people, who didn’t even ask for it and don’t even know about it, as this task mainly aims the fill up of our databases for our new job search website for Russian-Chinese-speaking professionals.

Suppose I’m a Russian, who published his CV somewhere on a Russian job search website. Suppose I pointed out I know Chinese (cause that’s the criterea to pick the CV for a translation).
As I post a CV in a Russian website, I’m awaiting for a response from a Russian employer. My phone rings, I pick it up, and a weirdo Chinese voice asks me if my name is Yuriy and If I’d like to work in China. Dough ?!

Casting Chinese girls for a tv show

2011-05-24T00:00:00-07:00

Casting Chinese girls for a tv show

24 May 2011 – Shenzhen

The casting took place several weeks ago, the shooting was on the 10th of May, the show will be live on 27th of May at 21:00 on the HuaYu TV channel (华娱卫视).
The name of the show is 夺爱大冒险 (“The risky road of love” – I’d translate it this way). The topic of the show – liberties. Would you accept you girlfriend work as a model, shooting naked pics, doing cosmetic surgery, etc.

Guess what ? There were totally different girls on the show.

Our company forbids using Skype and QQ during work time

2011-05-23T00:00:00-07:00

Our company forbids using Skype and QQ during work time

23 May 2011 – Shenzhen

First our HRs forbidded us using QQ, saying we spend too much time in it, talking with friends and not working.
Thus they made us open new QQ accounts and tell them the password. Our sysadmin also did some tuning, so that inner QQ
numbers couldn’t add outer(from out of the world) QQ numbers. Most of my coworkers started using new QQ numbers, and the minority
(including me) are using old numbers, and it causes some communications problems – when you have to send a picture or a text, you have to use old-fashioned
e-mail method.

I thought that’s it, just a little slap in the face.
Last Friday, though, our secretary came up to my desk and we had the following dialog:
- Yuriy, do you use Skype ?
- Yes
- Then write down it here (gives me a sheet of paper with the list of all employees)
I write my skype and notice that Skype is mostly used among foreigners. Moreover, the contacts list was renewed several times during last year,
but no one ever asked for Skype. Well, maybe it’s something new, I though.
Sure. The secretary comes back in a few minutes and says:
- Yuriy, please write down the password of your Skype.
(I’m making a movement pointing the “fuck” in the air, symbolizing the fuck to the company with this kind of shit)
- Yeah, sure.
- Ok, If you don’t want to tell your password, you have to open a new Skype account, but you still must tell the password.
- Ok.

The funniest thing is that they’d never decrease the unnecessary web-surfing time in this way. If you want, you can hang out on blogs, facebook, read RSS, or simply work slower.
Being a freedom-loving person, I even want to rebel. Wear short pants with a freaking eye-smashing picture, make a tattoo of Mao Tze Dun on my chest, wear an undershirt, smoke at my workplace and bother female coworkers.

They’d better think of motivation. There is more sense in it, though it’s much harder to motivate, than to make up penalties and restrictions.
(They also told me that they should deduct a penalty from my salary because I use work-time to eat my breakfast).
Well what about the fact that I don’t smoke and save the time usual smokers waste while smoking. Well what about being on a diet, and thus, having the
necessity to have two breakfasts: one at 6 – 6:30, the other at 9:00 ?
Well, at least now I know the wrong way. When I’ll open my own company, I’ll have a better picture of the things which work and the things which don’t work.

Oh, yes, they also mentioned MSN, which I don’t have.
I was going to guess what comes next, to make the life of employees more complicated and didn’t have to wait long.
Today they started checking the Skype (if someone used it during work-time) and continued asking for Skype passwords of the coworkers who were absent last Friday.

Sure thing, if I’d encounter this kind of company in Ukraine, my motherland, I’d resign immediately, when I just started hearing the first letters
of the words “Skype password” and “penalty”.
But I’m in China now, I respect this country with it’s customs and traditions. And I’m mostly satisfied with my job. And my visa is being extended. I don’t complain, Pussies, I’m still with you.

A dream

2011-05-20T00:00:00-07:00

A dream

20 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Inspite of being deadly tired after all kinds of work outs, I couldn’t fall asleep. I then suddenly felt falling somewhere into a dream.
I found myself at the place of my agent (my movie agent). She didn’t speak much. Than I crawled for some reason and again was swallowed somewhere into
the floor. It turned out the appartmen of my agent was in the sky, and now I was falling into the sky, full of coulds. I could see the sun.
The upcoming wind flow was harsh, yet a bit warm, so it was a very pleasant feeling. After falling for some time I started seeing blue sea under my feet.
At this moment I decide to try to fly, as I’m in the sky already. After several attempts I succeed and start flying in horizontal dimension. Moving very fast.
I feel every muscle of my body, it’s in tone, ready for any activity. I come back to my bed, see myself lieing tommy down on the bed, and I see my body
growing a bit. I then come back to flying, trying new tricks, some rotational motions, etc. Feeling almost like a superman.
I see the see under my feet, some big fish there. I fall into the water, getting swallowed in a sort of a water-tunnel. Feel myself lying on the bed,
breathing in. I get my will in a fist and jump off the water, landing on a stone, which is at the beach of a little island with some trees.
Then I realise I’m at home. The stone is on my bed. I jump off the stone and start wandering around my flat. I look at my hands to check if it’s an “awareness” dream. A flash thought “need to get something from that world”.
Turn my head and see the stone – the thing from that world. I’m happy, yet realize my movements are a bit slow, so, it must be not a real world.
Then I find myself back in the appartmen of my agent, and this appartment looks similar to my flat in Kiev. I see Vivienne(agent), she’s still cool, than
she gets off the range and I realize there’s someone going to appear from out of the corner. My will power is not enough to transform that “someone”
to Vivienne, so I find there a guy, who looks like a Universal Soldier. I punch him in face, we start fighting, I start recalling the movements from MMA classes.
I wake up with the feeling “I’m on the next level”. Awesome dream.

用中文写博客

2011-05-19T00:00:00-07:00

用中文写博客

19 May 2011 – Shenzhen

我现在很明确地感觉到我在这儿真的孤单单。这就是我想要的。办公室里我旁边有个新的同事，但他只是同事而已。在家呢，连老鼠都听不到。如果不开音乐就会有这种很清楚的感觉。没有可以分享心里与思考的会讲俄语的朋友。现在我就如沧海之一粟。在人人之中隐藏起来很简单，只要他们是半朋友半陌生人。

Watch box not far from my home

2011-05-19T00:00:00-07:00

Watch box not far from my home

19 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Shanghai university wants me to teach Ukrainian language

2011-05-19T00:00:00-07:00

Shanghai university wants me to teach Ukrainian language

19 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Suddenly I got this call from a friend of a friend, who works in Shanghai. A Chinese guy with Russian name Lesha said they need a teacher of Ukraininan. First I was like “WHAT???!” Who the hell on Earth would like to learn Ukrainian – the language which is not even as spread as Russian, yet probably is as difficult to learn as Russian. For me, a Ukrainian guy, who’s mother toungue is Russian it sounds VERY rediculous. In my brains it sounds like “Go to Shanghai and teach some stupid or crazy Chinese, who by chance decided to study one of the most difficult yet the most useless languages in the world”. So I was surprised. I was surprised even more, when Lesha asked me if I know how to act. I know he saw my short film Roof Story, where I use nunchaku, stick and some acrobatics, so I’d expect him to propose me a job as an action star or something like that and the last thing I’d expect is to see any connections between acting and teaching. So I asked him directly – “you want me to teach Chinese students acting” ? He said “No”. Then I started to realize that thing, which is all about China. They like shows. Apparently, they’d like to get a foreign monkey(me) in their camp, let the monkey do some useful job, like teaching, and at the same time rise the prestige of the university, organizing shows, events and evenings.

For those of you who didn’t study in Chinese universities – performance is something that foreigners almost have to do. Taking part in all sorts of parties, concerts. Everything. They call you in the morning, when you’re still in bed and notify you, that there is a concert in 2 hours and that you need to prepare. They don’t care what you do, or how you do it. You just need to go out there and show your face. So, I suddenly realised what they needed and still said “I’m interested”, because I still know nothing about the salary and the contract terms. Anyway, speaking the truth, I’m pretty satisfied with my current job, and my current life in Shenzhen. So only a very good chance or opportunity would make me want to leave everything behind and move to Shanghai. Which is for me, the guy, who never been there, a dirty city with lots of foreigners (laowai). I don’t know why, but I got this image of Shanghai in my head. I might be wrong, but still I first need to go there and feel the city, and then make conclusions.

So, speaking short, it was an unpleasant surprise: expect a call to participate in a tv-show, and instead to get a call from someone who wants you to teach unuseful stuff. That’s the thing. I can be passionate about teaching, yet can’t be passionate about teaching useless stuff.

Coco Park van

2011-05-18T00:00:00-07:00

Coco Park van

18 May 2011 – Shenzhen

Meal on wheels.

My first post

2011-05-08T00:00:00-07:00

My first post

8 May 2011 – Shenzhen

This will be the best blog ever in both English and Chinese.
Fuck Russian. It won’t bring any good.