Nick's Journal

Dnipro 2023

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 21:00:00 +0000

Even though I left my hometown two years ago, a part of me seems to go on living there, as if in a parallel world.

The Spring That Never Was

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 18:29:10 +0000

Rollei 35

Sat, 13 Jun 2020 21:00:00 +0000

The Rollei 35 S is my favorite compact film camera.

I am not a fan of treating gear as sacred. A camera is a tool, and it should be comfortable, discreet, and reliable. The Rollei 35 is exactly that kind of tool for an amateur photographer.

How it was created

Photographic equipment made from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s interests me the most.

Back then people did not yet think in terms of mass consumption, manufacturing optimization, and cost cutting, all the things that arrived in the 1980s. Camera gear still had a lot in common with scientific instruments and military technology of that era: precision and a huge safety margin.

Shared Accidents

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 07:34:41 +0000

Do you know how to tell whether a roll of film in a regular cartridge has already been shot? Practically no way. Usually photographers rewind the film all the way in, which is more convenient and a reliable sign that the roll is finished. But that approach has a downside: you then have to pull the leader out during development, which is a bit inconvenient. So sometimes the film is not rewound fully inside the camera, and the cartridge looks no different from a new one.

What Annoys You?

Thu, 02 Aug 2018 08:45:29 +0000

What annoys you points toward your direction of growth

Sometimes, when something annoys you, your mind is actually pointing toward the direction in which you need to grow, the fears you need to overcome, and the problems from the past you still need to sort out.

For example, if we simplify it as much as possible: beggars and homeless people annoy you because you fear poverty and avoid asking for help; bad grammar annoys you because you are too proud of your own literacy and “difference”; people having fun annoy you, but can you yourself let go and enjoy life that carelessly?

I’ll Write Before I Leave

Thu, 19 Jul 2018 09:23:00 +0000

At work we often have to communicate with someone at the end of the day, and sometimes we do it deliberately. I try to structure my work so that by 5 or 6 p.m. only a minimum of important tasks remains, and all of them are already moved to the next morning.

Hardly anyone would think of starting work communication right before going to sleep, at the very end of the day, would they? The end of a workday should be treated the same way.

Music for the Road

Sun, 01 Jul 2018 09:38:00 +0000

You can get to the sea in three and a half hours. Sometimes that means driving at 150 km/h, nervously crawling behind trucks, skipping coffee, sinking into the seat, and stepping out of the car already on the beach.

But what would you not do to enjoy a great set while fields and cities blur past?

4′33″

Mon, 07 May 2018 13:58:38 +0000

Every something is an echo of nothing

Listen.
What do you hear?

The sound of cars, co-workers talking, birds singing? You are surrounded by countless sounds right now, even if you are not focusing on them. If you think you are in silence, stop reading for ten seconds and listen. Hear it now? At the very least, you will hear your breathing and your heartbeat.

In the early fifties, one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century, John Cage, created the unusual piece 4′33″. Here is one version performed by William Marx:

Is This a Good Book?

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 09:27:27 +0000

655. That is how many books I have in my iBooks library, not counting a few paper ones. A little over a hundred of them have been read and kept around in case I ever need to return to them. Most are nonfiction, with only a very small amount of fiction.

But what can you do with five hundred books? How many months would it realistically take to read them? And more importantly, what useful things can you actually get out of them?

Do Not Judge Too Quickly

Mon, 19 Mar 2018 06:17:00 +0000

All the rich men in his region envied one poor Chinese man because he owned a marvelous white horse. Every time someone offered him a fortune for the animal, the old man replied:

– That horse is much more to me than an animal, it is a friend. I cannot sell it.

One day the horse disappeared. The neighbors gathered around the empty stable and said:

– Poor fool. You should have known the horse would be stolen. Why didn’t you sell it? What a misfortune.

Greece by Car in 6 Days

Thu, 11 Jan 2018 05:37:20 +0000

Mainland Greece + Lefkada Island + the Peloponnese

I did not expect anything special from Greece. My head was already full of tired images: islands packed with white houses and blue roofs, beaches, dirty and depressing cities. But sometimes the lower your expectations before a trip, the more a country can surprise you afterward. That is exactly what happened to me with Greece.

Route

When sketching out the route, I picked only two places that made the trip worth taking: Athens and Meteora. Luckily for me, those points are in different parts of the country. The road from one to the other gradually turned into a loop across almost all of Greece, nearly 2500 km long and six days in duration.

Fog

Sat, 28 Oct 2017 14:48:46 +0000

Fog delicately emphasizes light sources, as if giving them character. It adds depth where there was none before, as if light gains a new dimension and stops being flat. You can suddenly see the whole path from the source to the illuminated surface.

Photographing in fog is pure pleasure. In a frame, those light characters begin to perform: one shines in a direct beam, another in a diffused glow. Different temperatures of light and different directions of the beams make your eye jump between accents as you look at the photograph.

Stoicism

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 10:20:35 +0000

The optimist says the glass is half full, the pessimist says it is half empty, and the stoic says: “How great that glasses exist at all.”

Stoicism is an ancient school of philosophy with no religious component. Etymologically, the “stoa” was an open colonnaded gallery. It is assumed that the first Stoics gathered near one of these galleries in the second century BCE, which is where the name of the philosophical movement came from.

What Can You Learn from an Astronaut?

Fri, 18 Aug 2017 06:11:00 +0000

When the whole planet was visible through the window, I felt a certain bond with all seven billion people who call it home.

Loneliness, it seems to me, has little to do with location. It is a state of mind. The loneliest people usually live in the centers of large, noisy cities.

One morning I woke up and caught myself thinking something strange: the socks I am about to put on will be on me when I leave Earth.

What Is the Worst That Can Happen?

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 04:25:00 +0000

A question that relieves anxiety and helps you think clearly.

Most problems are not worth our panic and can be solved with far less effort than we usually spend on them. But fear prevents us from seeing that.

Fear often comes from uncertainty: we do not know what is rustling in the tall grass, a tiger or a snake. If you do not understand what danger exactly threatens you, it is hard to decide how to survive, whether to fight or to run. A state of uncertainty causes panic and keeps you from thinking adequately.

The Stonecutter — Benjamin Hoff’s “The Tao of Pooh”

Tue, 21 Mar 2017 14:40:00 +0000

Whoever we are, it can take us a very long time to value ourselves properly.

There once lived a stonecutter who was unhappy with himself and with his place in society.

One day, passing by the house of a wealthy merchant, he happened to look through the open door and saw many beautiful things inside, as well as honored guests. The stonecutter envied the merchant’s power and wealth and thought how wonderful it would be if he too were a merchant. Then he would no longer have to endure the miserable life of a stonecutter.

Hagakure: Quotes and Commentary

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 14:42:00 +0000

Hagakure Kikigaki (jp. 葉隠聞書, “Notes Hidden in the Leaves”) is a practical and spiritual warrior’s guide composed of the reflections of the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo.

Many of the prescriptions of bushido still apply to modern life, which is why some of its principles were adopted by both military and criminal structures, including the Yakuza.

To me, Hagakure feels like a treatise on bushido and at the same time like the advice of a wise father to his son.

There Is No Bad Music

Sat, 14 Jan 2017 15:42:00 +0000

Only music that does not fit the moment

At twenty, I divided people into those who listened to a specific style of music and those who did not care what they listened to. The latter seemed to me to listen to everything at once, and their taste appeared to change several times a day.

Eight years later I noticed that no single genre can describe all our emotions, and no single kind of music can create every atmosphere.

Notes on Sex at Dawn

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 15:52:00 +0000

Continuing my notes on the book Mating in Captivity. Unlocking Erotic Intelligence, I made notes on one more book. This time it is about sex in human history.

The book was written by two authors, a married couple: Cacilda Jetha and Christopher Ryan.

Since Darwin, official science, religion, and cultural institutions have claimed that men and women evolved in families where property and protection were exchanged for female fertility and fidelity. The authors challenge that model.

Notes on “Mating in Captivity. Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic”

Mon, 26 Dec 2016 07:11:00 +0000

Over the past year I read four books that are connected with relationships in one way or another:

Mating in Captivity. Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic — Esther Perel
Sex at Dawn — Cacilda Jetha, Christopher Ryan
The Five Love Languages — Gary Chapman
The Art of Loving — Erich Fromm

Based on the quotes I saved, I am putting together small notes on each book. I will start with the first one on the list: Mating in Captivity. Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic. It is a book about preserving passion and desire in family relationships. The author is Esther Perel, a well-known psychotherapist from New York with 25 years of experience.