The virus is still raging around the world, and most borders remain locked down. But the bravest are already starting to travel somehow. I decided not to fall behind and went to the data center :)

(actually, a hard drive died prematurely and I had to replace it, but at least it's some kind of change of scenery)

Внезапно подумалось, что куда ни приедешь, на радио в основном крутят местные и англоязычные произведения. А другие языки (за редким исключением) обходят стороной, хотя там тоже немало интересного.

Исправляю эту несправедливость небольшой подборкой по следам пары предыдущих поездок того, что меня зацепило на радио или просто в интернетах. Послушайте её прямо сейчас на Я.Музыке или по ссылкам ниже:

🇫🇷🇪🇸ZAZ – Qué vendrá

🇪🇸Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 - Mas que nada
🇪🇸Alvaro Soler - Sofia
🇪🇸Play-N-Skillz, Daddy Yankee - Not a Crime (No Es Ilegal)
🇪🇸Soda stereo - De musica Ligera

🇪🇸👼Pepo Lamberti - Mi Burrito Sabanero

🇫🇷Les Rois du Monde - Romeo et Juliette
🇫🇷Noir Désir - Le Vent Nous Portera
🇫🇷ZAZ - Je veux
🇫🇷Vanessa Paradis & -M- "La seine"
🇫🇷Calogero - Face à la mer

I'm back. What really stands out is the incredibly high concentration of drivers who think turn signals aren't necessary. I guess everyone's just supposed to magically know what maneuver is coming (spoiler: they don't).

Even the way people use signals is different though. Here, people love turning on their blinker at the same time they're already changing lanes or like a second before. There, they usually signal well in advance. Sure, you get weird drivers on the roads there too, but noticeably less often.

But they definitely don't have the whole "thanks" hazard light thing down. They use it to warn about traffic jams where you need to seriously brake or even come to a complete stop.

Yay, New Year's coming! That means a few days off work and a chance to escape somewhere a bit warmer (if the forecast is to be believed).

Flying out on the first is awesome: the roads to the airport are empty, there's barely anyone at departure, and all the checks go super fast. Beautiful! :)

Brooms and garbage bags? Those days are gone. Street vacuums are all the rage now. Give it a few more years and they'll probably teach the machines to clean the streets on their own.

PS. It's 20 degrees out. And this guy, along with tons of other people, are walking around in warm sweaters and raincoats. I don't even do that when it's 10 degrees. Did they get so cold after those summer 40-degree days that they're already freezing?

I'm back in Moscow (the real one now). Something's off at Sheremetyevo – they just can't seem to get their act together with baggage. I waited over half an hour just for my bag to start coming out.

And then I saw a huge pile of unclaimed luggage. Guess people ran out of patience waiting.

Sheremetyevo is a mess. 20 minute queue just to get into the terminal (!). Another 40 minutes to check baggage. The only thing that went smoothly was getting through border control. And even that was only because I happened to catch a window that had just opened up.

Good thing I arrived with some extra time.

Back in 2018, civilization arrived in the form of centralized garbage disposal.

Before that, there was nothing like it. Apparently, it was expected that residents would haul all their trash to Sergach on their own. In reality, everything that could decompose went into a compost pit on the property, and everything else was hauled to a dump behind the highway, away from the village. Though locals did scavenge some of the waste—old machinery, metals, that sort of thing.

It's interesting to know where they take the garbage now. You'd like to think it's not just being dumped in some bigger pile.

But you can have a blast biking around here. True, you'll inevitably have to carry your bike for part of the way because the climbs are way too steep. But you can still easily do day tours around the nearby villages for 40-50 km.

You'd think in a village, everyone would have their own livestock – a cow if not a sheep, or at least some kind of poultry.

But nope. A lot of locals have switched to store-bought products. It's just way easier that way. Hardly anyone keeps cows anymore. Everything comes from the farm.

Sigh, but back when I was a kid, t̶h̶e̶ ̶g̶r̶a̶s̶s̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶g̶r̶e̶e̶n̶e̶r̶ we'd get fresh warm milk from the neighbors every day in summer (:

Local customs and traditions can be quite interesting in how they differ from city life.

In Moscow, for Eid al-Adha (or other major religious holidays), people simply come to the mosques around 9 in the morning, pray together, and then leave.
In the village, everything starts before 6 in the morning. People gather, pray together, and then go to the cemetery to visit their relatives' graves.

When guests are entertained, dishes are served in an unusual order. In the city, it's always first course, second course, then tea with pastries. Here, they start with sweet tea, then soup and meat.

A dose of harsh reality.

On my way from Sergach (where the train station is) to the village (25 km), I got chatting with the taxi driver. He tells me that over 3 years, Sergach's population has shrunk from 25,000 to 20,000: the elderly are dying, and young people are leaving.

The only production facility that's somehow holding on is the sugar factory. Everything else has either already collapsed or is on its last breath.

A good salary is considered to be around 15,000 rubles a month. And people are clinging to that money. If someone's lucky enough to get 20-25k, it means working at 150% capacity.

If conditions are tough or they're forced to do extra work, people just endure it. Few are ready to simply write a resignation letter: it's hard to find another job, and nobody wants to starve.

The only ones doing noticeably better are the managing officials of local authorities (who would've thought).

In towns closer to Nizhny Novgorod, things are better: there are still investors from the big city willing to put money in and actually do something. But here it's complete backwoods. There's no interest.

What do you do when a road needs to be repaired but there's not enough money in the budget (or some of it "went missing" along the way)?

Just lay down one lane! Preferably in the middle. And don't remove the old asphalt to save money (that's what you see on the edges).

While they're jamming cell service at Moscow protests, let me tell you what it's like just 650km from the capital.

The terrain is hilly with elevation changes of a hundred meters or more. As a result, you can only get a decent signal (== calls + working internet) at the top of a hill. Move 15-20 meters away from the highest point and the internet just disappears. In the valleys, there might be no signal at all. But people live there too.

Your battery drains way faster with this kind of network. Even with the internet turned off.

The same situation isn't just here, but in dozens of villages around the area.

Pitza Village. The name comes from the river of the same name and is considered to be a Mordvin word meaning "pine". Though the river has almost dried up by now.

And the population has shrunk too. A hundred years ago, over 2,000 people lived here. Now it's less than 350.

PS. I live right under the arrow (:

If you ask me, that's a win: the weather is definitely better, and the sun's even peeking out here and there. The wind is pretty strong though.
PS. I'm not sure how to photograph this place properly. The fields are too wide to fit in the frame to capture how it actually feels in person.

The weather in Moscow has been pretty awful lately. I'm gonna take off for a few days and hope it clears up :)

Sabantuy in Kolomenskoye. There's lots of interesting stuff there and the food is amazing. Go check it out right now (:​

So at work, I suddenly got asked to help interview a ton of Indians, Mexicans, and various Bulgarians for hardcore devops guru positions. Since mid-April, we've done over 50 interviews (that's a lot).
A couple of interesting observations:

- On average, the ratio of top-tier specialists to the number of interviews doesn't depend on the country. It's pretty much the same everywhere: 1 solid person per 7-10 interviews. Even among Indians.
- Indians have noticeably more female candidates. Well, to be precise: we didn't get a single one from Bulgarians or Mexicans. But from Indians, 4 out of 20!
- Surprisingly, a lot of Mexicans really love to chat after the interview about random stuff like "oh, where are you from, what's your project, what time is it for you". If you don't stop them in time, it can go on for a while. Nobody else does this.
- The most technically strong candidate was from Bulgaria. Arguably, the strongest one I can remember from the past couple of years of interviews.
- One candidate suddenly launched into a speech at the end of the interview about how amazing he is (he's really not), how much he loves this kind of work (he almost teared up) and how he absolutely needs to be hired. I have no idea what he was expecting, but you just shouldn't do that.