St. Mykolai (in Ukrainian) is a patron of common people, children, prisoners and captives.

Near our apartment stands St. Mykolai’s church. It was very crowded. Yulia and I went to place candles. There was a long line to buy candles and an even longer line to place them or to pray directly in front of the icon to St. Mykolai. We bought candles and placed them elsewhere in the church.

Super blitz (3 minute chess):

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=1373206920

Notes:

7… Bb7 was his attack on my e pawn.

8 Nc3 was my erroneous defense of my e pawn — erroneous because the knight could easily be chased away. I realized it as soon as I made the move, and he realized it too.

8… b4

So, rather than concede the loss of a pawn, I decided I would make an interesting game — I’d sacrifice that hapless knight in exchange for blowing open his center and (hopefully) stranding his king.

In quick games, like 3-minutes super blitz, you can get away with dramatic, if not completely sound moves b/c the opponent doesn’t necessarily have time find difficult defensive moves, and might get rattled too.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/05/wildlife-thriving-around-chernobyl-nuclear-plant-despite-radiation

My friend Олег Согор (right), with whom I started the Lviv Grappling Club and whom I could still submit (sometimes) back in 2011, kicked ass in the ADCC Eastern European Open III 2015!

Gold – 65,9 kg (Advanced)
Silver – Open weight Class (Advanced)

He has the freaky calmness before a bout which I’ve always envied but never understood. It’s like he’s missing the gene that tells normal people to be nervous.

We missed our connection in Detroit b/c immigration wanted to interrogate Yulia. Here’s the sunset from Detroit’s Terminal after they let us through.

Resurrected the croquet set from my childhood.

First generation teaching second generation to make pysanky, and second generation teaching third generation to make vareneky.

My wife’s first ever pysanka.

Ukraine’s World-Record holding cargo plane:

The Antonov An-225 Mriya (Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-225 Мрія (Dream), NATO reporting name: “Cossack”) is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft that was designed by the Soviet Union’s Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s. The An-225’s name, Mriya (Мрiя) means “Dream” (Inspiration) in Ukrainian. It is powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes. It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.

The airlifter holds the absolute world records for an airlifted single item payload of 189,980 kilograms (418,834 pounds), and an airlifted total payload of 253,820 kilograms (559,577 pounds). It has also transported a payload of 247,000 kilograms (545,000 pounds) on a commercial flight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya

Banned European car commercial. It’s powerful because it demonstrates what we all want — we want to find our tribe.

Universalism has failed. Multiculturalism without the enforcement of behavioral norms has left us lonely and disenfranchised.

Tell stories about finding your tribe.

One of the (many) reasons I love Ukraine is because it feels like a giant extended family.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Zhuravlev_%28kickboxer%29

Pity the Property and Freedom Society Conference happened at the same time.

It seems like every time it rains there’s a giant rainbow in Podil.

Ukrainian comic opera Cossacks in Exile (Zaporozhets Za Dunayem). First premiered in 1863.

Ivan pretends to be a Muslim and goes to see the Sultan, his daughter and her lover have been taken as slaves by the Ottomans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporozhets_za_Dunayem

I love the spectacle of opera, and I enjoyed this one’s comic scenes, but as a writer, I’ve always been especially annoyed at the pathetic narratives. This one was typical.

My two big objections to the story:

1) God from the machine. A letter from the Sultan seemingly fixed everything at the end. It’s completely unsatisfying. Happy endings need to be earned by the characters.

2) Hiding the drama. (A common error of cowardly story tellers.) Ivan the Kozak pretends to be a Muslim and goes to see the Sultan, but the meeting, and supposedly the turning point of the story, happens off stage. A lot of writers do this. I think it’s either fear of the intensity, or fear of screwing up pivotal moments.

For a counter example of avoiding the big moments, read the last four chapters of Conrad’s fantastic The Secret Agent. (My video review here: https://youtu.be/qrLTlYNFUaM?t=2m50s)