I don’t remember what my first encounter with Kurt Vonnegut was, but it must have been impressive. Impressive enough to prompt me to look him up and to read some of his novels. I think it all started with his last one – A Man Without a Country, which I listened to while I tried to fall asleep one night. I did eventually fall asleep, but only long after the book finished. Then came a classic – Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel which undoubtedly is one of the best written books I have ever read. Browsing through library stacks one day I stumbled upon a tiny little book with an intriguing title – God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian.
Bicycling on Long Island – Stony Brook to Long and Short Beach
May 1st, 2009 · Bicycling, Geocaching, Long Island
Long and Short beach are located in the town of Nissequogue on the North Shore of Long Island. Both beaches seemed to be accessible by ~20-25 mile bicycle ride to the west from our homebase in Stony Brook. The weather forecast for the weekend was sunny and hot (too hot) so we decided to leave around 8 am from campus. After some minor repairs and bike maintenance we left around 8:30. The basic plan was to follow 25A to St. James and then Moriches road north to the beaches and then on the way back, to avoid busy 25A we planned to follow the coast on Harbor Road back to Stony Brook village and to campus.
→ 3 CommentsTags: Bicycling·biking·Long beach·Long Island·New York·Short beach·Stony Brook
Geocaching on the Mason Rail Trail, NH
April 19th, 2009 · Geocaching, Hiking
Compared to Long Island, north-central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire offer plentiful opportunities for mountain biking, hiking as well as geocaching. One of those opportunities is the the Mason Rail Trail, which starts at the MA/NH border and continues north before turning west. We were eager to take an easy walk in a fairly secluded place, while doing some geocaching and giving Curie a chance to run around.
And the spicy mess was banished …
April 18th, 2009 · Cooking, Personal, Photography
From our kitchen, that is. Over the years we have accumulated quite a collection of spices. Starting with asafoetida (or hing, if you insist), through berbere and cardamom pods (both green and black) to vanilla and yellow mustard – it was all in there, stuffed several rows deep in a cabinet. An unfortunate consequence of this arrangement is that every time we needed a bottle of spice that was not in the first row we had to rummage through everything and inadvertently drop some of them on the counter.
→ No CommentsTags: do it yourself·Photography·spice rack·time lapse
Welcome to redesigned asmirnov.org
April 14th, 2009 · Personal
The old website is no more. I have moved the worthy content into the new Wordpress format and content management system and removed the old unncessary fluff that has not received a hit in months. As a result of this migration I expect to disappear from google search results for a while but hopefully bounce [...]
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My favorite bits from Monty Python’s Holy Grail
April 12th, 2009 · Movies
MORTICIAN: Who’s that then?
CUSTOMER: I don’t know.
MORTICIAN: Must be a king.
CUSTOMER: Why?
MORTICIAN: He hasn’t got shit all over him.
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Images of Niagara Falls and Southern Ontario (August, 2007)
April 12th, 2009 · Photography, Travel
To conclude the summer of 2007 we drove across the New York State to get Niagara Falls, and to a limited extent southern shores of Lake Ontario. In Niagara Falls we met up with Francis and Lisa and visited most attractions in the area, including both American and Canadian Falls, Cave of the Winds, the Maid of the Mist, Walk behind the Falls, etc, etc. Soon enough me and Andi got fed up with the tourists, crossed the border into Canada and visited the historic Fort George south of Niagara-ON-the-Lake, and St. Catherines on the shores of Lake Ontario.
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Orphaned Kitten (07/2008)
April 12th, 2009 · Photography
In July 2008 my friend Harris stumbled upon an orphaned litte kitten while walking on the Stony Brook University’s campus. He took the kitten into his care and eventually adopted it. Her name is Mac and in these pictures, she is only several weeks old.
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Images of Slovakia (06/2007)
April 11th, 2009 · Photography, Travel
All photographs were taken during our trip to Slovakia in the summer of 2007. With Francis, Lisa and Andi we have covered several touristy spots around the country: Banska Stiavnica, Pieniny National Park, The Spis Castle, Mala Fatra National Park, Demanova Cave of Liberty, and many many more.The entire photo gallery from the trip can be seen in my Picasa photo album.
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