I said it. Now you're happy?

Yesterday I just confessed my emotions to a guy who considered me to be no more than a friend. Just saying this is crazy, what's not is that I got refused. Whatever. I said it, that's good enough now.
Today it snowed. Quite heavily, in fact. So I woke up to see a cool peach sunrise over our district, shining through the clouds. Not to mention the view over the bridge just minutes ago. Too good to be captured by phone. (Not that I had anything better with me)

Staring into the winter

Brief news about my life: First time it's zero (and frosty) outside this year. Not that it matters much to me. Still conflicting with mom about my barefootness and stuff. Got something in my eye today. Slowly making friendship with the concept of homework, though it still is as far from love as I can possibly imagine!

My recent life, reduced to some words

Before I finally load my photos for the reviews and other stuff, I'm going to briefly (sorta) talk about what's going on in my life.
It is already the beginning of my second month into sophomore life, and so far I see it being a magnitude better than last year, with the lectors being a little less aggressive and me actually putting somewhat more effort into the process. A not-so-neighboring group was merged with ours, so now I study with a few pretty cute girls! ^_^
On a slightly less amusing note, I find myself quite in the need of some part-time job, since stuff around seem a little more expensive now, more so after I've already worked through summer and, for the first time, covered most of my spendings (excluding my phone) by myself. That sort of stuff makes you want more and more money, you know...
It is getting close to nearly-six-months-nearly-non-stop of me going barefoot, and I can say that the only person really trying to push me from it is my mom. It seems to be the only thing that bothers her regarding me. At the same time, I'm feeling better than ever, as always running fastest and most consistent in the whole 5-th and 6-th faculties. The reason I earlier said "almost" is because with laboratories (which, studying chemistry, I must attend) it would be like not wearing a labcoat. Similarly with places like synagogues (not that I'm a very religious person, but still ^_^).
Because of our non-fitting schedules and more-than-modest lack of free time, I couldn't spend a lot of time (practically any) with my older brother, so I kinda miss him already... Even with him being basically my polar opposite, I still find to love his company and would prefer him to most of my - even close - friends. Not everyone could agree, but I find it pretty fine.
As I said, my promises may be dodgy, but pictures will come!

What?! Camera reviews! (part 2. Really)

Here is some more funny stuff I've been handling for a while:
Express Delivery from crapland
The Nippon AR-4392F. Talked about by more experienced people long before, this technology wonder from China is already considered a time-proven and classic design (In other words, not just useless crap, but decades-old one). Unlike the one tested on the link, mine is different by having a changeable aperture (On that later) and no flash power switch. Otherwise, pretty much the same old lump of unlucky plastic. The fit and finish are ridiculous, with the seams changing size wildly under finger pressure. This has a better side to it - huge tolerances (if barely fitting pieces squeaking against each other can be called tolerances) mean that the camera can be dropped or thrown at stuff (or people, as self-defense) with no worries. Not that you'd worry for a 100 ruble camera (~$3, that is) any much at all.
The tuning:
Inspired by the great tradition of tuning toy cams for them to fit whatever perverted needs the users have, I decided to try and play a little with what I got. First step was not much more than making the back removable for easier and less embarrassing loading. Then, after opening it up, finding out half the screws have eaten through the plastic threads and cleaning the primitive mechanics (which, unsurprisingly, take up less then a third of the insides), I decided to give that diaphragm sistem a look. As it turns out, the blades and lens themselves can easily achieve the 1:6,3 setting written on the fake lens barrel, but a plastic mask was, well, masking everything up to about 1:11. So I cut around it with a pair of scissors. Crude, yes, but pretty effective. (Though flare might be a problem).
The next step after that and putting it back together (Not without super-glue, because of the aforementioned screws) was to do something with the stupid curved lens cover. Doing something in such cases usually means ripping the shitty part out. But a naked lens isn't good either, so I took a mysterious (later down)filter I found and glued it to the front of the barrel. Now this camera seems to have a more precious metal then the chromed foil for the hot shoe. This also gives me the ability to attach real lens accessories to the 52mm thread. But more importantly...
The filter:
A dirty at first, dirty forever piece of colored glass in an aluminum ring. Found in what basically is a trash bin, it has some unusual things to it. The ring writing indicates it is a LZOS K*5,6 red filter, but red it isn't. Instead, it's blue through and yellow-reflecting, with some age-induced stains somewhere inside. Theorecically (after trying it out on my phone and other cameras) it should just serve as a roughly-dirty-light-blue filter, but the unusual looks have won me over!
The result:
After all this mess (and filling the missing sticker-spaces with Olympus Trip 35 body coverings) I have a fun toy camera for going crazy with pictures. Like a Holga, only more affordable (~20 times so) and a lot more funny and special.

What?! Camera reviews! (Part 1, maybe)

If you're camera geeks like me, you might find this interesting. Or not, depending on how bored you are.
Long story short(er), I've managed to get my hands on some pretty nifty tech lately.
The Alien
Last summer, a tragedy hit my family, with one of our best relatives losing to cancer. Some of what he left, though, passed into my hands, including a lovely - wanted to say little, but regretted even thinking this - camera - the Olympus iS-2
My first thought holding it,- and I've used Rolleiflexes, Kievs, Moskvas and whatnot - "It must have some lump of uranium inside! It just cannot otherwise be so heavy!" This monster of plastic and glass is big, and when I say big, it's not coke-can-big, it's Old-Dictionary-Big. And did I mention the noise? Louder than state-owned lawnmowers for sure!
The looks are even more unusual (Pictures will follow... someday... For now - use Google!) As the title mentions, it reminds me of the Ridley Scott's xenomorph's skull, and the zooming mother-of-all-lenses, especially in the dark,- it's recursion-struck nightmarish jaws. The whole thing is operated by buttons, so it took a little accustomation, but it is remarkably easy to use, those buttons and their arrangement being the only thing that shouts - make it screams forcefully - this camera's 20-year old age (Actually, since they were made for more than a decade and olympus serial numbers are all over the place, it can be of practically any age within the last two decades!)
It is really slow by today's standarts, but not really very good for slow, considered working. So what did I find in it that I couldn't in better suited machines?
Soul. 100% close up on the pictures reveals the kind of brute, thick cinematic look we (or at least weird I) love from old movies. Take a different angle, and it looks like a '90-s anime VHS put on pause. The scale of flare it creates with even the tiniest light sources in the frame is nothing but cosmic! Yet don't make any mistake - that lens is sharp as well (though only by superzoom standarts, which is why I always have something else). Whether it really is the lens or just the holding of the camera reminding me of the good stuff of the '90-s culture, all that matters is I am finally beginning to understand what's so special about lens "draw". Maybe by choice is bizarre, but is anything in me not? ^_^
The Cheap and cheerful
A Malaysian-made plastic-clad Minolta X-300s. So simple, so easy, so much my new workhorse!
Unlike older X-series Minoltas, this one isn't trying to look like metal-and-leather while being actually neither. This is honest flimsy plastic looking, feeling and sounding like such. The X-300s is small and light, much like the Olympus OM-10 I used before. Unlike both the OM and the japan-made X-300(plain), this has an aperture window in the viewfinder, and, to say frankly, I've never thought such a small detail could possibly make such great difference to the user experience as a whole, with that last bit of information slipping into the finder. The ergonomics are, in fact, pretty spectacular and my unit is one of the smoothest cameras in my life!
Nothing unnecessary. Heck, let's count the control features and even include the lens (about which later): Focus, F-stop, shutter speed, ISO, power switch, lens release, shutter release, wind lever, rewind crank, rewind switch and... That's really everything, down to the last moving thing, and everything you really need. Ever. Seriously, that's all you need in a film camera!
The main good thing about this cheap plastic thingy is, well... It's cheap and plasticy, so you don't worry about using it roughly and heavily: whatever happens - get another!
A main attraction though, is the lens it was sold (actually swapped) with: the ever-glorious MD Rokkor 45mm 1:2! Commited bunch of fans included. Well, I was joking about the ever-glorious part, but it's fans are a very real lot of people, and are all over this thing for a reason. Cheap and simple in itself, it is known for some really good image quality, at the same time staying very small (mounted on camera, it's almost shorter then the well-known Zuiko 40mm pancake, while having more features, like the non-rotating filter thread that's NOT the aperture ring. ^_^). Like the camera, the lens is very smooth, bettering modern kit lenses by some, like, order of freaking magnitude!
So, that simple. And I love it.

Summer start. Not what I planned

After my flight to Chicago got cancelled because of my semester exams, I was thinking: "what could go any worse than that?". Well, it turnes out there can be worse. My mom's uncle discovered he's got cancer, granny's dog died in a gruesome kind of way (eaten alive, for you curious) and I broke up with my girlfriend after she pissed me off (sorry for that) in another scandal.
The good part of recent days - I got a job! Not only that: Now I have enough free time for some interior changes in my room and stuff like setting a proper home network. It's also the perfect time to explore some 1980's soviet music (I know, I know, weird style taste, whatever).

Selling some stuff

 So, I've been kind of hoarding lots of stuff during the 5 years I live here. Most of that is not really useful anymore, and since I'm planning on a complete remodelling of my room, that means some things have to go.
Long story short, I'm shamelessly selling that away. So here comes the list:
-Official Clamp manga "X/1999" in volumes 1-5. Printed by Eksmo. That's 100r each.
-Pirate-printed manga "Blame!", volume 1. these are rare, so 150r.
-Various vaccuum tubes for amplifiers. Vintage, untested. 50r each.
-National Geographic CD collection 1888-1999. 600r. Only at once
-DIY Robot fugures. (Pictures seperately). 50r each.
-Camera lenses:
 1)1951 Industar-22 50mm 1:3,5. Good condition. 400r
 2)1970 Industar-69 28mm 1:2,8. Covers 18x24. Good for Digital. 350r
 3)1975 Industar-50-2 50mm 1:3,5 for Zenit. Like new. 400r
 4)1984? Industar-61L/D. Damaged front, bad coating. 300r
-Chrome-coated premium compass. 200r
-CF memory cards: 64 and 256 MB. 75r each.
-Gameboy Advance Transparent. 200r (300r with 2 games)
And so on. I know most of that is kind of old, but in case you're interested in these or other things, just email me on leningrad2046@gmail.com