! NB from the author: parts of the content below contain the views of heavy violation of the human nature, and are not recommended to read or view for persons with weak mentality, and/or aged under 18.

Now I know why I'm not even trying to post tweets or blogs on a daily basis :) If something related to May comes in July, it says a lot. Luckily, the "annual" format allows me to post something, which stands out of time...

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The basic reason of silence is simple, and now it has its codename: ELVIS. A letters game from the abbreviation "LVS", i.e. "Links Verification System", which we're heavily working for a few months by now.



It became more difficult that we could even imagine, but it truly opens eyes on how the current model of Internet works, and how imperfect it is. If you ever heard about HTTP statuses, which should be given back to the client on any web page's request, then you might forget about standards. Huge percent of servers in this world are configured truly badly. They may easily give 200 (OK) status for missing documents, which should be considered as 404 (Not Found). They may give 301 (Moved Permanently) for pages which appear truly ok (200). They may create never-ending loops in redirection. They may fight hotlinking, so direct request to images becomes obsolete, and so on... I hope we will finish this thing soon, and it will add a truly important option not just to miniBB-based content, but also to any program, which is based on mySQL and contains links, which should be verified from time to time. The most important option of ELVIS, however, is that it will not only verify links and get their statuses with extra improving and validation, but will also auto-fix the broken or moved links in the content. This is a feature, which is truly rarely provided in the "regular" links validation software.

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May is not just a month, when weather changes its dimension. For all of my life, one of the important days in May is 9th May, also known as the "Victory Day". Almost each year I'm taking my memories back to timeline and if time allows, visiting one of the memorials to lay flowers for all the Soviet soldiers and my ancestors killed in World War II. This is one of the rare days I truly celebrate. I'm happy to live in the peaceful country, and I'm grateful for this to all of the people who died for it.

In the recent times, there are many speculations and contradictions regarding this Day, but I always tend to ignore them. They all come from people who did never ever holding a gun, who didn't see how the real blood smells, who have no ideas about what is the corpse. Divan-killers: the new generation of online warriors...

Each year in Riga collects thousands of people around the Victory Day celebration, which is happening by the Victory Memorial to Soviet Army. This year wasn't an exclusion,



and brought up some fun stuff, like usually.



Despite for the last few years there's forbidden to drink alcohol, actually everyone ignored this fact: the Victory Day can't be celebrated without the "hiking hundred grams".



It would be a great fun, if it wouldn't be sad...

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May'2014 started in agony referencing to this Great Day. On the 2nd May, Ukrainian murderers killed tens of people, closing them off in the Trade Unions House of the Odessa city, naming them as "terrorists", burning them down, and as the recent investigations report, even using the poisoning gas. The number of victims varies from 42 (official number) to hundreds. I never expected that the protests in Ukraine, started earlier this year, will go so deeply. Now they turned into a real Civil War. Dangerous.



Shocking is the fact, that the World itself now is operated by the Information War. It's specially remarkable when agencies start to talk about Ukraine. They intentionally hide half of facts, and promote the other half from the opposite ground. None of the first class agencies shown what truly happened in Odessa. People who are trying to protect themselves and their cities, are now called "Separatists". The band of paid mercenaries and the crowd of 18-19-years old chucks are now called the "Ukrainian army". On another side, there comes the "Russian Aggressor's Propaganda" with a completely other view on things.

Whom to trust?.. Or better keep it silent?..

I found one of the blogs online, related to this event: How the thugs killed Odessa inhabitants; it also contains English translation for everyone interested. For the first time I saw these shocking pictures, I thought this is kind of dramatization, and there are mannequins on pictures, not real people. But finally, I started to doubt, how it would be possible to draw so many models. Afterall, I've paid attention to one important thing: people's arms. They all are extended upwards. It is probably because someone was holding their arms up for poisoning or burning the face...





You will never come to such thoughts while watching CNN, BBC, DW or other BS. As well, none of the leading agencies is paid to tell their audience about protests against the rise of fascism in Ukraine and Europe, such as happened in Rome (May 17th) or Aahen (May 29th).

It's so obvious now that people do not even know what happens... in Russian "blog-o-sphere", there's even a bad joke started to circulate, it's about the "new moniker" of Barack Obama - bloggers called him "Bardack Obmana", which is a words game meaning "The Chaos of Lies".




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May also started the Summer Season opening in Jurmala, the most notable beach resort in Latvia. Despite it was not a truly hot weather outside, many people tried to catch the rare portions of sun and joined the official streets party.



Musicians hitting drums and pushing tubes,



girls singing and waving balls,



and... Oh-My-Gosh!!! There were SOLDIERS again, even in the middle of the festival of sun and fun! I'm not even sure: these guys were invited to Jurmala to show... what? The power of the Latvian army? Or just claiming the fact there is a decorative army in Latvia?



Pay attention to the soldier on the right... I guess, celebrating the Victory Day, a Russian drinks less than him.

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Yet another story I've read on LinkedIn this month, was about the company called "Target". I don't have ideas what this company is about. But I liked the quotation of Emile Zola used by Jeff Jones, the Chief Marketing Officer at Target:

It's weird to read the article from an U.S. based company worker, containing references to European novelists. I never expected the Global Island could be so International. Thus exactly this quote is not just about Target. It's more about what happens in informational world now...

But overall, this article attracted me because of its title picture:



Now I know what influenced Latvian "architects", who worked out the Origo shopping center in the very center of Riga:



Not saying they have adopted the principles of the modern boring architecture of stone and glass, they also have adopted Target's logo, just making it in a bit different colors!

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So... May is the time when everyone expects something new... including Jaime's dog! :)




P.S. By the way... if you would ever visit the Munchausen's World Museum in Latvia, you would know that May could have an extra day, like it was proposed by Baron Munchausen... In his Calender, Jaime obviously missed this wonderful day, proposed by his fellow countryman :)

On the other hand, after having lived in a high-paced environment for several years, I sometimes conclude the guys standing by a beer kiosk all day, doing nothing but drinking beer, laughing and talking BS, are actually happier and much more relaxed than the tense Wallstreet executive types ;).

I'd say there could be even more happy people, and they are not visible on streets, because they smoke weed while sitting at home, playing Lila, smiling at each other and giving no sh*t to publicity ;)

BTW, Latvia is one of a few countries in the world which allows to celebrate not just the "Soviet Victory Day", but, in opposite, also Legion Day. At March 16th, memorial service is held in Riga Cathedral, after which the participants go in procession to the Freedom Monument where they lay flowers. In most of the international media, this event is called as the "glorification of Waffen SS".









The participants of this "celebration" do not take alcohol, and I never seen their faces happy.
Probably, it's the price for the "freedom country" we're living in now.