Windows to Russia

I have a lot to be thankful for! That is what I am thinking over a great cup of coffee this morning, as the snow falls. We have about 6 inches of snow/sleet and more to come, or at least that is how it looks out the window this winter day. I have to stay inside mainly today, as yesterday I ran a 39 degree Celsius temperature and really did not feel very good… (102.2 F.)

So today I am thinking about Thanksgiving and since I have gone into details in the past years on this blog about Thanksgiving in Russia. I will just tell you what we have planned for this year and not explain that Thanksgiving is not really a holiday except in America…

It started with: Sveta bought a small pumpkin and looked at me with her “Doe Eyes” and said, “Is the pumpkin good enough to make a pumpkin pie from?”

I said, “Well it really is not a pumpkin, but yes I can make a pumpkin pie out of it!’ (Any squash will do! :))

Then she smiled that huge beautiful smile that Sveta uses when she senses that she has done good and good things to eat are coming our way…

Then I realized that I better get to the store and get some goodies to fix a turkey dinner. My little Russian Sweety has thoughts of a huge Thanksgiving dinner and that includes (as I made last year): Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Plus a green vegetable of some type…

That means that I have to sneak outside sometime today and gather supplies. I have been so busy and ignoring the time frames, that I forgot it was Turkey Day tomorrow. I have not bought a single thing to eat for tomorrow, but as you have just heard, Sveta is thinking about it and bought a pumpkin, to at least have fresh homemade Pumpkin Pie…

I guess what I am saying with all this dribble is:

Have a great Thanksgiving, no matter what part of the world you are from. For any day of the year, we should be thankful for what we have. Many of us have way too much and could do happily fine with sharing a little more. For while lots of us have plentiful, there are still many that could use just the basics of life and they would be thankful just to have a big loaf of bread everyday to eat…

Have a good Thanksgiving of the year 2013…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

[jwplayer mediaid=”44519″]

I really liked this video and it just strikes me as a why Putin really is okay! Everyone either hates Putin or likes him. It seems that in between is not an option. The word that comes to mind as I see Putin run Russia: Stability…

Stability is what Russians like and I myself like the same. I grew up in a country that seemed to be politically unstable and the last 10 years have proven that the US is just that, unstable. Politically, internationally, financially, morally and a dozen other LY’s. It seems that America is nothing but a crises everyday, every week, every month and every year. Nothing is stable and nothing is peaceful

I enjoyed the short video and it just made me wonder why we in America do not have a President that just seems like a “good ol’ boy…”

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Once again this is a great recipe for the upcoming holidays. Russians grow lots of potatoes and cauliflower, so it is a natural to mix the two together. Much of the winter food in Russia is high in starches and carbohydrates. The winters are long and hard, so you need energy to survive. Besides these foods like this recipe are full of vitamins and minerals…

Lets make Cauliflower with Potatoes…

Ingredients:
1 ea whole cauliflower head, cut and boil first until tender
1 lb boiled potatoes peeled or not, your choice
1 ea big onion, yes big and chop it up into tiny pieces
2 ea eggs
3 tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste
parsley greens as decoration

Lets make:
Fry the already boiled and cut up cauliflower in a skillet, with the finely chopped onion. Once the onion is translucent, put cauliflower parts with onions, thin sliced raw potatoes in a greased glass baking dish. Then pour over eggs after being beaten, with the flour and salt/pepper mixed in as you beat the eggs.  Then bake in the top of the oven oven, which is preheated to 325 F. I lower the temperature to 300 F, and turn the oven to bottom heat only. Then bake at least 30 minutes and check until done. Takes about 45 minutes total. The top should be brown, not burned and serve hot with parsley greens as a decoration…

The purpose is to have cauliflower cooked to death and potatoes still holding their shape. ..

This is really yummy…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I talked about ordering a new smartphone from China, a few weeks back. In fact here is the article:

Konka W880 A Tough Phone…

Now I wrote the first article around the time I ordered it. To say the least, I am shocked! The phone is here and it came by snail mail and it got through the Russian customs in just a day. Then the same day the Russian postal service delivered it. Now I do believe in miracles, as the Russian post office has lost, destroyed and delivered to the wrong address almost a 100% of the time packages to me. This delivery has renewed my faith, but as real life dictates, it will most likely never happen again. Knock on wood, please…

Here are some pictures of the phone in a gallery:

The phone is all that I was hoping and much more. It really has a steal frame, it really has extra thick Gorilla Glass, it really looks like the pictures and it really works. Works very well, to be honest! This definitely blows the hate China for products out the window and the phone is much higher quality than all the Samsung’s that I have owned and still own…

This is the link to Konka Mobile: http://www.konka-mobile.com/

This is the link to my phone and where I originally found the details: http://www.konka-mobile.com/proShow.asp?ID=84

Konka is a company that I studied for almost a year and it seems to be a very well run company. The products are top notch and quality. Not always the latest OS and hardware, but they build with quality and that wins in my book every time…

Have you ever panicked when you had a cell phone near a lake or ocean? Well I have and now I do not have to worry any more…

Well I did not expect it for at least another month, as it is my Christmas, New Year and Birthday present. I sure had fun this weekend… 🙂

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Who knew?

President Obama should have made sure that his staff checked out the performance credentials of CGI Federal before awarding it millions of dollars to push out a key element of the President’s signature healthcare initiative. The Washington Post, Daily Caller, New York Times, Probublica, Wall Street Journal and, well, hell!, all of the legacy and non-legacy media, have now reported widely on the flaky technical work of CGI Federal and the journey that led to the healthcare’s website flop. That of course refers to the debacle that is Obama’s Affordable Care Act web portal which was to have allowed hundreds of thousands of Americans to register for various health care plans.

CGI Federal has a bumpy performance track record that also includes US Army Human Terrain System (HTS) which remains a controversial and troubled program with ongoing allegations of time card fraud and employee harassment.

PolicMic has listed the US Army’s HTS program as number four in its top five list of most wasteful government programs. One of the comments attached to that piece by “Beau” implies that the HTS troubles date only to the launch of the that program and a year or so after that. That is wildly incorrect as articles reporting on the continued woes of the Human Terrain program—as late as 2013—have appeared in publications in the United States and abroad.

In an intriguing twist it seems that the Affordable Care Act web portal and the Army Human Terrain System were awarded to CGI Federal based, in large part, on having friends in high places. According to the The Daily Caller, “Toni Townes-Whitley, who worked alongside her classmate Michelle Obama in multiple Princeton University student groups, became senior vice president of CGI Federal in May 2010. CGI was the only eligible company considered for the contract to build the disastrous HealthCare.gov Obamacare enrollment site.

Over at the Army’s HTS, there is a nagging belief that CGI Federal received the HTS award largely thanks to a friendship between former HTS head Colonel Sharon Hamilton, USA (Ret.) and one of the founders of Oberon Associates, a subsidiary of CGI Federal (earlier Oberon was a division of Stanley which itself was purchased by CGI). Some also hold the view that some personnel in BAE (former HTS contractor) conspired to steer the contract towards CGI.

The saddest element in both these cases is that the personnel who work in the weeds each and every day–and those citizens/foreigners who are suppose to be the beneficiaries of these efforts—get screwed: there is no polite way to put it. The exact same thing is happening over at the US Army’s Center for Substance Abuse Programs. And these days, no one in these programs dare speak out about corruption or program flaws as that is now treated as a security breach.

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer. Reach him at captainkong22@gmail.com

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

For those bitter cold days and you are wondering what to make everyone to warm them up? Well you know that root of horseradish that you have laying around? Lets make a soup from it and if you are skittish about it being too spicy hot, decrease the horseradish amount…

I grew up on this soup and was very surprised to see Russians who normally have an aversion to spicy food eating this soup. Russians do grow horseradish (?) and for a Russian who likes spicy foods, then I have noticed that horseradish is the spiciness of choice. Be it in a mustard or other kind of sauce..

Lets make Horseradish Soup…

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons ground fresh horseradish
1 cup vegetable stock (I buy a packet of cubes and dissolve it!)
6 tablespoons real cream
1 tbsp sour cream (thick)
salt and pepper as needed
chopped parsley for decoration

Make:
Fry the horseradish in a little butter (better yet Pam spray) in a skillet and add the vegetable bouillon after the horseradish is browned slightly. This is a skillet soup so do not even get out the sauce pans. Cook it up in the skillet and then add the cream and season it with salt and and pepper. Once just ready to boil, remember do not boil, or the cream will separate. Then ladle steaming hot into a bowl, then blob the sour cream on the edge in a pile. Decorate with chopped parsley if desired…

Yummy for the Tummies…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Russians have a lot of apples and due to the fact that Russians love to keep chickens, they have lots and lots of eggs. Also mayonnaise is the only dressing worth eating to a Russian, plus once again, peas are plentiful also. Put them all together and you have a salad that is cheap, wholesome and everyone will love. This salad is available year around as all the ingredients are always available. Russians like to use a variety of grasses or greens as some call them. Use anything from a mint, fennel or even lemon grass will make the treat even better…

Lets make Apple Salad with Eggs and this salad would be great with holiday dinners…

Ingredients:
4 apples cored and peeled… (Unpeeled for that more roughage look!)
3 tablespoons green peas…
2 eggs hard boiled and peeled…
5 tablespoons of mayonnaise…
greens or grasses as Russians call them… (Parsley will do.)

Make:

Cut apples into small cubes. Chop eggs finely. Add peas, mayonnaise (No not salad dressing, like Miracle Whip! No!) and stir thoroughly. Make sure apples are covered well and then they will not turn brown from oxidation. Decorate with greens if desired (I like lemon grass.) Then I prefer to chill for two hour, but a Russian will want to serve it at room temperature. It is fine either way…

Yummy for our Tummies…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I sit here and sip that wonderful cup of coffee, that same cup of coffee that I can make all over the world. It does not matter if it is freeze dried, fresh ground or burnt chicory. It is a warm beverage that warms the soul and lets you think. Coffee, tea or any warm beverage like spiced cider will do and if we stopped to “Smell the Coffee” so to speak, the world would be a better place…

Really! Is life too simple and too “right in front of our face” to see the truth?

Are we so out of touch with life, so scared, so blinded and or so ignorant that we allow things to happen that destroy the world and make a handful of people so rich that your nose bleeds when you get near them, from how high their lofty position in life is…

We allow it and we condone it and we support it…

Everything we do, tells a small part of the humans on earth (The 1% we call them!) that everything they do is good. We line up like cattle to the slaughter, when a new I-phone comes out. We line up for Black Friday after Thanksgiving and beat each other over the heads to get a few bucks savings on a toy and we accept it as normal…

Well it is not normal and it is a byproduct of a sick society…

Now here is where you get to roll your eyes and tell the person next to you, “This guy is an idiot!” or maybe you will say, “May you rot in Hell you Heathen from the Devil!” (I was told that yesterday! :))

“Make Coffee Not War!”

It is a play on the old ”Make Love Not War!” The reason I bring it up is that something has to change and nothing will change until we literally make it change and that will not happen until something beyond our control, does just that. Other words we need to be forced against the wall and that makes us change…

I think that my thought is better, as having more children, which is the result of “Make Love Not War!” is a bad thing. We have enough idiots being born everyday and we need to sit back and stop reproducing for awhile. That means everyone all over the world. Stop turning out babies like robots and start thinking about how we can make a better world for when we start having children again. It is not like humans are going to go extinct overnight if we stop procreating for a few years and get things under control…

Side Thought With Coffee: Besides we have so many children in foster care, orphanages and other such places all over the world, that we could spend a number of years making sure everyone is adopted and has a good home before we start procreating again!

I am not being anti-family or anything like that. I am being anti-stupid and anti-ignorant. Humans are ignorant and making love does not make a smarter human, but I think that sitting down and sipping a cup of tea or coffee and talking things over in a civilized manner would go a long way to solving issues..

Just think about this make believe world I just thought of. Think about a world that would not allow sex (or love as many call it) to happen until we got our act together. No sex, until war was ended and we got it straight in our heads that the world belongs to everyone and not to 1% to 10% of the population. No sex until we stopped starvation, murder, political blackmail, hate, rape, lies, propaganda,  materialism, political-ism, greed and many many other things. It is time that we use our main brain and not the little brain that drives our fantasies over what ever desires that we favor. Be those any form of desires…

Well I think in less than a month, the world would be a better place. People need motivation to get things done and the better you motivate, the faster things get done. The old carrot in front of the donkey trick works every time. It is obvious that the political systems around the world are not working and it is very obvious that corporations are the cesspools of the devil himself or what ever you consider evil in your mind and and it is very obvious that money is the worse form of carrot that there is…

Now if I could get Mother nature to go along with it, maybe we could get some people motivated to get the world under control and stop the games of the masses…

Don’t roll your eyes. The idea that I just wrote about is no more far fetched and ignorant than what we are doing to ourselves everyday on this planet. People are trying to control resources and people want slaves of other people. People want to kill and people want to rape…

Now that sounds crazy to me and we need to stop and “Smell the Coffee!”

Make Coffee Not War – sounds really good to me…

Now you come up with a better carrot and lets do it! Lets get the world on track and make the world a better place, because it sure ain’t getting there the way we are going now…

“Life is Simple and the Answer is Simple…”

Quit the crap, it is that simple…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I have had a blast watching Sveta study and post about western holidays in her Russian blogs. This year she has really done her homework and it started with Halloween this year. She has never paid much attention to my holidays that I grew up with, but she took a fancy to them this year and she is having a blast…

I get questions out of the blue! The questions are all about did you sing this song at this holiday or they are about foods we ate and or about just anything that we did during the holidays in America…

The Russians ate her website up over Halloween and now she is trying to get all the information she can about Thanksgiving. Russians are like a sponge for western ideas and happenings. That makes me sad in many ways and yet, I realize that Russians are very open minded and want to learn about the whole world. They are very unlike most westerners and have a real desire to travel the world and learn many languages. Russians are smart and do not really fall into the trap that is set by many western propaganda pushers…

Speaking of languages, Svet is studying Spanish and I will start also. Sveta feels that you can not ever learn enough and I feel that way also. It is just hard for me to get motivated on some things though and languages are one of those hard to motivate areas of mine. Now computers and such, that is a whole different thing and I want to learn and learn and learn. See motivation is all in the head…

So now the house is full of Turkey songs, Thanksgiving images have taken over the computer desk top and Sveta is a Thanksgiving expert for Russians now…

When Sveta has a sparkle in her eyes and she is singing songs from my childhood, I realize that Sveta is a very wonderful person and she teaches me much more than I could ever teach her. She is teaching me to look at what I grew up with and realize that many things are unique in other parts of the world. Just as there is many things here in Russia that are unique to the western world also…

English 4 Kids: Английский для детей

This website above is one of Sveta’s and it teaches English to Russians. It is very busy and very good and she has about 3 articles about Thanksgiving and maybe 5 on Halloween. She is busy as a beaver on her blogs…

That is why I love Russia and most of all, that is why I love Sveta. Sveta has a fresh outlook at life and I see that as a natural thing. For Russia as a whole, has that same outlook…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

I realized today that this is my 8th Christmas, 8th Thanksgiving and I had my 8th Halloween. It will also be my 8th birthday in Russia coming up soon.  Eight years in Russia and the coffee is even better, as life is also. I am still alive after getting free of the addictions that are so common in the USA…

I came to Russia hooked on a variety of prescription anti-depressants that were given to me to counter the effects and future effects of six heart attacks. My doctor had me on no less than five forms + of anti-depressants. These kind of pills sneak up on you, as they are given to you when you really do not have an understanding about what you are taking. You just take what is given to you starting at the hospital and never ending as your full time care MD continues the path of your destruction instigated at the hospital…

Don’t get me wrong! My life was saved six times and I fought a hard battle to stay alive at times, but I now know that many of the prescription medicines given to me were detrimental to my future and they were given with open ended prescriptions. Fill as needed, when needed…

I had a permanent supply of Lexapro, Amitriptyline, Bupropion, Desipramine and Amoxapine! Plus some other items to spice it all up when needed…

This is bad and actually a sign of a sick society that uses nothing but drugs to solve its problems. That do what you are told and take what you are given idea is bad…

I had a very rough first year in Russia. I was kicking prescription drug habits and getting proper care from doctors. It was a very hard thing to find anti-depressants in Russia and at first it was scary. I realize that was just the effects of breaking the habit. I finally woke up and that is when this website was started. It was amazing as to how the wool lifted from my eyes and I did not have it as bad as most in America. Even drugged up, I was able to crawl away from America and get my life back together. So I know anyone can do the same…

Why I even stopped smoking at the same time that I got rid of all the other crap…

So I smacked my demons and the devil away, as I truly believe that I would be dead now, if I stayed in the US. I really believe that and if you saw all the medications they had me on, you would believe that also. I am now down to just the basic medications and in Russia that is considered the smart way to do things…

8 years in Russia and going strong!

That is why I love Russia…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…