The Vostochny Cosmodrome (Russian: Космодром ВосточныйKosmodrom Vostochny “Eastern Spaceport”) is a Russian spaceport under construction on the 51st parallel north in the Amur Oblast, in the Russian Far East. When completed in 2018, it is intended to reduce Russia’s dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The first launch took place on April 28, 2016 at 02:01 UTC.
Makes your heart race and dream of space again…
What a success story! A success that all in the west would not know about. Sad really, hate news from the western media about something so wonderful as Russia going to space. One day we will live in space and travel to the stars. I dream about that happening and wish I could go…
Delays and more delays and so we went to a movie yesterday. A movie that is made in Russia, by Russians and for Russians. It was really good. Called, “Flight Crew (Russian: Экипаж, translate; Ekipazh)”……
“This is not a film about heroes, but of ordinary people. About ourselves and those around. About our contemporaries, in which the entire country is held.” – Now I can say it held to that story line and was wonderful; wonderfully made and wonderfully exciting to watch…
I understand that it is only the second disaster film fully produced all in Russia and it was wonderful. Sveta loved it and it was worth a trip to the big screen. Svetochka was enthralled and I even ended up on the edge of my seat as we watched disaster after disaster fly across the big screen. It was a fantastic movie and worth staying around an extra day for. We may go see another one (movie) today and leave very early on Saturday…
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We still have some loose ends to tie up and we are not in a hurry. Life is too short to drive yourself to an early grave. I have to stop and smell the coffee and the roses at times. Speaking of roses; I bought a cream colored Tea Rose, plus two pear trees, four tomato plants, 12 strawberry plants and some other goodies to plant. I am so excited to plant the rose and see if I can start a tea rose garden in the years to come…
Speaking of coffee, my cup of coffee this morning is so good. I woke all fuzzy headed, but now I feel okay. Sveta is snoozing away and I need to get her up in a few hours. We have to finish getting ready and then gear up to leave tomorrow morning. Boza knows we are leaving and he looks at me like, “What! Are you always this slow? Lets go!”
I have been home in Korolev, Russia for about a month now. Today Sveta is home and we will go to Globus (like WalMart) and grab some end of the garden season stuff. They have great deals right now and I saw some dirt cheap (pardon the pun,) orange and crimson Tea Roses. We also found some pear trees and if they still have them, we will get them. Time to have pears in the village… 🙂
I have a box of coins I collect as I buy things and this is my mad money. It is a large shoe box and it is almost full of coins. Might be time to break out the rainy day money and buy some plants. I think we need to get six tomato plants, two pear trees, a dozen strawberry plants and whatever else we can afford. We have the Blue Seed Potatoes and I have 12 packs of different seeds in the village for the rest of the garden…
Therefore, I will not post for a few days. Getting to the village and getting the village home up and running again, will be a busy job. Then I will be in the village for about six months, before I have to leave Russia again. Russia requires that I leave the country every six months and then I can come back for another six months. It is a pain in the butt….but it is a thousand times better than what we use to go through. (I use this leaving issue as a time to do business in other countries and such. So it all works out!) There was a time, I had to leave every three months for up to a month away from Russia. This is where I talk about how Ukraine use to be my second home…
I can’t wait to see the look on Boza’s face when we get to the village. He will be waiting for his collar to come off and run the fields and forests. I also see that Sveta is excited about spending sometime in the village. She has discovered a perfect world down there, as I have been rebuilding everything slowly, but surely…
On April 26, 2016 it will be exactly 30 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster hit the Soviet Union (USSR). Just 970 years to go. Then maybe that Ghost Town will be inhabited again. Problem is, will mankind make it that long before we eradicate ourselves. Watch a soul moving video. Listen to the words carefully. The words tell a true story…
On April 26, 2016 it will be exactly 30 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster hit the Soviet Union (USSR). The catastrophe became the worst nuclear accident in recorded history and Russian lawmakers feel its lessons should serve the international community…
We posted this video several years ago on the Russian Video Blog…
It makes a tear come to my eye and touches my soul, when I play it and think about what happened…
And I mean storing oil. Not just enough for a buffer, but enough for a damn war. Russia has already done such a thing and has enough oil to fight a long war, but China has been steadily and surely stockpiling oil for years now and we looked at every reason China has been spending money like crazy, bit the real reason was never dreamed of…
They not only hoarding oil but also iron ore (secured supply lines from Brazil) and also gold and silver, the pace of their gold purchases is equal to global production. They are smarter than we think. They use printed funny money to at least buy commodities…
China has silently stashed oil in anything that will hold it and when that ran out, they are building at a furious pace, more holding space…
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Wages in the USA…
In 1970, minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. Today, it’s $7.25 an hour. That’s a 353% increase over that period of time, which seems like a fair amount… until you actually start looking at how prices have increased.
I remember as a high school student working at assembly at Allis-Chalmers in Kansas City for the summers. I made $9.59 an hour and thought I was a rich kid. Guess what? I was…
Try this link… (Money then and Now!) The image to the right is what I made in today’s wages. That was as a kid and no wonder I could afford to drag race at the local drag strip. I had money and more money and even never deposited checks for weeks at a time…
No wonder I could pay cash for a new muscle car, built the way I wanted it to be built…
Are you thinking?
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I find myself confused:
As to how anyone who is sane could vote for Hillary! The rest I could see in some way, why someone would vote for them. But Hillary is plain evil…
I hear people talk about who cares what she has done and we need a woman finally in the White House! Many women would vote for her in a heartbeat and their men would vote that way also or hell will break loose…
I guess if the devil was a man, we would have no issues with telling him to go away. But in Hillary’s case, the devil is in a form of a woman and we want her for president…
The USA is just one big soap opera and we eat it up and want more…
We think transgender bathrooms is an issue, That issue and many more that the build from molehills, pale in comparison if we put Hillary in the White House…
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My friends in Russia:
Laugh when they mention Obama, they laugh when they mention Bill Clinton and all like to act like they have a cigar and they laugh as they shake their heads and ask what is wrong with the American political system?
Then they look serious and ask, “Why does America and the west want war? What did we do to them?”
I tell them that the political system in America is broke and that broken system leads to what we see daily as sanctions and propaganda against Russia, China and many other countries. It is broken and the people who allow it are broken also. Uninformed, ignorant of what is around them, and uncaring of the outcome…
I am going to the Russian Village and build a life there…
My fault actually. We have a weak lock on the Volga and I got careless and did not bring in the tool boxes. I left them in the car and when you have millions upon millions of people walking around daily. Someone is a bad apple and they will do bad things. They jimmied the lock on our car and took two tool boxes in broad daylight. We went to the store and when I came back, the tools were gone. Nothing else, just the fastest thing to grab and run with…
Years of tool collection gone. Has happened to me many times in America and has happened to me twice in Russia now. Carelessness gets you every time. But it is just material items and that is that. Most likely a druggy needing a quick sell, for a fix…
But I had to buy basic tools to not get stranded on the road in emergencies. That hurt the budget and it is funny how things work out. The budget was broke, zilch, no money to spare and someone sent a donation. They did not specify what to use it for and without tools, most of my work in the village would cease to be done…
The donation was more than enough to cover the stolen tools and then I smiled, for it seems that God does things in ways to make all okay. Even stolen tools. I want to thank the person who just sent a nice donation and let them know that without that donation, I would be driving to the village 500 kilometers away and winging it on a prayer, until I could squeeze it out of the budget, to replace the tools. An old Volga needs tinkering done to make it run its best and I was in trouble…
Thank you…
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This Thursday, we go to the village. Sveta is getting time off and Boza had his shots against bad things of life, like rabies and such. The tools being stolen hurt, but then after some thinking and realizations, I realized something…
Life is as full as you make it…
I thought about how pathetic of a person, who would steal our tools. Then I realized that they are just material items and can be replaced. They have been and I will be better off for the lesson of life. Then I thought about that sad individual or individuals, who stole the tools in broad daylight. Anger jumped first, grouchiness jumped next and then something else sprang up in my head…
I guess they needed the tools more than I did. I am glad they have them and hope they use them instead of selling for drug money. Then sadness and anger turned to something strange inside of me…
For some reason I started to think. Sometimes things happen that make you think and that makes you realize how lucky you are…
Tools to me are personal and extremely important. Why is that?
I stopped and realized something! It dawned on me that tools have been in my life since I was a little kid and ever since…
I can drive a bulldozer, I drive cars, I have flown a jet, I trained but never got a license in a Cessna. I have; driven road graders, Tanks, tractor trailers rigs, tractors, plowed fields, dug ditches, cleared forests, driven log trucks, put out forest fires, owned several Harley’s, raced cars and a million other things. I have a degree in Biology, worked in labs, helped in chemical labs, built computers; worked during a time with no calculators, thus I used a, slide rules, compass, abacus, a sextant, magnetic compass, protractors and what seems to be a hundred other things. I have train and specialized in many forms of weapons, vehicles and tons of other stuff all over the world…
Everything is either a tool or needs tools to fix it with and everything breaks down at some point. Or simply breaks and you have to build your own as an example; a sextant…
I built car engines, became a master chef, did spread sheets before computers were around to help, rebuilt a International DT466 engine in the middle of thousands of acres when the grain truck broke down, helped to refurbish a F-16 jet engine…
I trained managers, I trained soldiers to kill, I trained people to become service personnel and I used tools to do all aspects of my life…
Therefore, my life has been nothing but tools and more tools. I could go one about what I have done, but it does not matter. I realized that I have done a lot and have most likely more knowledge in my little finger and lost more knowledge over the years than the ones who stole the tools. Just maybe they will actually use them and learn something from using them…
It is just sad that I could not be the one to teach them to use my tools and in that respect make the world a better place…
Want to know something cool?
I still learn, I still use tools and I still want to make a better world. I think all kids should be taught to use basic tools as they are taught new math, new English and what ever. The tools are necessary to get through life and maybe that could be a big future issue, as we ignore the basic tools of life…
America is no longer the number one wheat exporter. Hmm….Seems Russia is the number one exporter of wheat now. How did that happen? I know and have talked about it…
Cool…
Obama went to Britain and Blackmailed them and talked down his nose and trashy to them and pissed their peasant asses off….Obama is such an international star these days, as he talks down to allies and kisses the ass of the Saudies… Obama said do as I say or else…Now as I have said before, “Obama is a jerk!”
Alright…
Seems Israel is playing around illegally in Syria. Now Israel is crying that Russia shot at their jets, illegally flying around deep inside Syria….Sorry Israel, but you are lucky that Russia gives warning shots, now stay out of Syria…Even if it is not true and Russia says it is not, now we know that Israel is playing in Syria and Israel admits it…
Now that was worth it…
Remember the cracking the iPhone stupidity? Well that went well, crack them all and raise GDP of some country somewhere….but our own…
Ouch…
War Zone USA! Ohio and Georgia, in the land of the free to shoot each other at your desire….Are keeping the country motto alive…. “Kill Or Be Killed!”
The Maidan Massacre in Ukraine: A Summary of Analysis, Evidence, and Findings
Ivan Katchanovski, Ph.D. School of Political Studies & Department of Communication University of Ottawa Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada – ikatchan@uottawa.ca
In The Return of the Cold War: Ukraine, the West and Russia. by J.L. Black and Michael Johns (Eds.), (pp. 220-224). Routledge, Abingdon, 2016.
I have not written for a long time about Visas to Russia. Ukraine has a visa center now. It seems to be a governmental organization and there is a building that has a whole bunch of offices that deal with visas to various countries all over the world. Germans have a spot to go, Americans have a spot to go and so on and so on…
I will let people know information if they desire. I will respond personally and give you names and address, both physical and internet address. I use a gentleman who is very good and honest. He tries hard to work with you and has the right connections. But this information is not given out loosely…
The image above is the e-mail to reach me. I will respond if you seem okay, but will ignore if you do not check out. Spam, hate and threats are real on the internet and I take them seriously…
The days are over going to the Russian consulate in Kiev and it really is a better situation. I do not know about other countries and visas. I know just about getting a three year Russian visa and what you have to go through to get that…
Write me, if you need information and are serious about a Russian Visa. This does not apply to people getting visas for Russia from within your own country and only for people outside of their country who want a Russian visa and have received a visa in the past. This is the only way to get a visa to Russia with the least hassle and not have to spend two to three weeks sitting in a foreign country to wait for a visa and or keep from going home to your country and deal with them. Three years is what I get and you can receive any variance of less years you need or want…
Did not make it to the Tiny Russian Village yet!
China is storing oil…
Wages in the USA…
I have not written for a long time about Visas to Russia. Ukraine has a visa center now. It seems to be a governmental organization and there is a building that has a whole bunch of offices that deal with visas to various countries all over the world. Germans have a spot to go, Americans have a spot to go and so on and so on…