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Finally, after about five months, my crowns were installed — I started this whole process back in December last year. I want to share how it feels to have artificial teeth in my jaw now. Luckily, during normal talking and speaking, I don’t feel any discomfort at all. The crowns even look like my real teeth — maybe even better (okay, that’s just a joke, but still, they really look great). However, at the same time, I do feel a bit of discomfort with the lower crowns when I eat. It feels like I can’t chew completely normally, like something is slightly in the way when I grind food. These sensations mostly appear during meals, and it’s not something terrible, just a bit unpleasant.
Yesterday my work announced a sports challenge, and I decided to give it a try. The main reason is that it already matches my daily activities — walking, bike rides, and swimming — so I thought it would be easy to share mini reports and maybe even win some prizes if I’m lucky. The rules are simple: post a short activity report, collect points, and keep going until May 15. Now my goal is to stay consistent, collect as many points as possible, and hopefully finish the challenge in a good mood.
Yesterday I mentioned our company meeting, and now I want to share some updates from it. Unfortunately, the news turned out to be pretty disappointing. Our financial director told us that the monthly targets were nowhere near complete. The company earned only 70 million rubles instead of the expected 123 million, and April ended up being a very unprofitable month. On top of that, our CEO said salaries will most likely be reduced because the company can’t continue operating under the current conditions, especially with how difficult the economic situation in the country has become.
Overall, the day turned out pretty nice. The sun was out for most of it, although the temperature stayed fairly low, around 7°C. The only unpleasant part was the cold wind, which made the weather feel much harsher than it actually was. Luckily, I didn’t really experience it myself since I spent most of the day at home. Still, some of my family members mentioned how freezing the wind felt, especially on their hands.
Yesterday I felt a bit drained and low on energy, so I decided to go to bed earlier than usual — around 11:30 PM. Even so, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning. It was obviously too early to get up, so I just checked my phone for a minute and went back to sleep until 7 AM. That’s when I noticed my battery had dropped to 10%. I honestly can’t remember the last time I used my phone with such a low charge, so seeing the extreme battery saver mode for the first time was surprisingly weird. It felt really uncomfortable to use, and my Android suddenly looked completely different, which confused me a little.
Overall, it was a pretty calm, uneventful day. The only real “update” was a Google Meet notification saying the CEO had shifted our meeting time. The new slot cuts right into my lunch, which isn’t ideal—but honestly, not a big deal, I can move things around. What I’m actually more curious about is the meeting itself. Last time, I was really tuned into the company updates—especially the financial side and how our department’s been performing. I have a feeling tomorrow’s session might zoom in just on our team, which could be interesting.
It’s my favorite viewpoint on the hill just outside the city. The last time I was here was during winter, as I mentioned in this post
After yesterday’s trip to Kazan, I was pretty drained, so my day only really started around 10 AM. Even though I didn’t manage to finish my previous post yesterday, I stuck to my morning routine and made it my first priority to complete and publish it. After that, I was finally free, with no particular plans other than to rest and make the weekend feel productive in a calm way. The weather, however, had a different plan. The day started off sunny, which naturally gave the impression it would stay that way. But it gradually shifted into something much more autumn-like — overcast skies, a drop in temperature, and a slow rain that quietly turned the roads wet. I barely even noticed how quickly the conditions changed, but in the end, it didn’t affect my walk in a negative way at all.
I had a dentist appointment in Kazan at 5 PM, so I didn’t rush out early—I left sometime after lunch, around 3 PM. The day itself was pretty standard, nothing particularly memorable. I wrapped up a few personal tasks and spent some time watching podcasts, easing into my first weekend after the first full week at work. I didn’t plan much for Kazan either—just a quick stop at a hardware store and the visit to the dental clinic. Still, even with such a simple agenda, I didn’t make it back home until around 10, maybe even closer to 11 PM. Overall, though, the trip felt worth it. There’s something oddly satisfying about driving through streets you used to know so well—I used to be there almost every day four years ago—and that familiarity made the whole experience unexpectedly enjoyable.
Yesterday was a bit chaotic — my laptop, specifically Firefox, started acting up. Today, thankfully, everything’s stable again. But I wanted to continue this story because there were a few important moments worth sharing: how I managed to recover my tabs, and how that whole situation pushed me to build my own backup system. Honestly, I got pretty lucky. Being able to restore my tabs felt like a small miracle, and building my own backup solution turned into a surprisingly valuable experience. It’s one thing to try a new programming language once and forget it — it’s something else entirely to actually use it to solve a real problem.
Today didn’t feel pleasant from the beginning, even though I woke up on time and the weather was just adorably nice. I had a very strange dream that left me with confusing and hard-to-explain thoughts. I also had a headache, and my head felt like it was surrounded by fog. I think it was because of that dream, since I woke up multiple times during the night, and each time I fell asleep again, the same dream continued. It was ridiculously unusual and creepy, and even after waking up, those thoughts wouldn’t let me relax. I really didn’t want to experience something like that again.
When I woke up, though, it didn’t look promising at all—the sky was completely covered in clouds, the roads were still wet from earlier rain, and it just seemed like one of those dull, rainy days. But that guess didn’t hold for long. By the time it got closer to lunch, the weather shifted almost unexpectedly—the clouds disappeared, the sky turned a clear blue, and sunlight gradually filled the streets, making everything feel brighter and more alive. That change alone lifted my mood and made the second half of the day feel much more positive.
I captured that moment in the metrics system’s session recordings—he was reading my post about my VPN and some work issues
Yesterday I noticed a small but surprisingly meaningful moment in my blog’s metrics—something I forgot to mention at the time. It honestly caught me off guard in the best way and even made me smile. I hadn’t really expected that someone from another city would be reading my posts in Russian. That felt different. Of course, I’ve seen readers from other countries engaging with my English posts before, but this was the first time I became aware of a local reader. The metrics didn’t reveal anything more about this mystery visitor, but even that tiny hint was enough to make my day. It felt like a quiet confirmation that I’m on the right path and that what I’m writing actually reaches someone.