Author: knari

Cypriot Languages

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When I wrote about the IT industry in Cyprus, I briefly touched on the topic of languages on the island. However, I’ve now decided to delve deeper into the subject because it’s not as straightforward as it seems, and it’s a fascinating topic.

I believe Cypriots themselves are well aware of the languages spoken on their island, but if you ask an immigrant who arrived a few years ago and generally feels like a “local,” they will confidently tell you that the island has three official languages: Greek, Turkish, and English. The more informed ones might even show you a residence permit or a birth certificate (like the one illustrated in this post), where all terms are presented in these three languages. However, this statement is incorrect.

Before I explain why it’s incorrect, it’s worth exploring the historical background by going back centuries.

Originally, some population lived on Cyprus, but during the time of the Trojan War, when the Greeks were returning victorious, some of them settled on the island. This marked the beginning of the assimilation of the local population, and Cyprus essentially became part of Achaean culture (since there was no unified country of Greece at the time, and the Greek city-states were constantly at war with each other, except when they united against the Trojans, for example).

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Book: Alina Nahornaja “404 Language Not Found”

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The book “404 Language Not Found” is about how difficult it is to use the Belarusian language in modern Belarus.

Let me start with a bit of background, with the history of my relationship with the Belarusian language. To be honest, Russian was always the native language in my family, although older generations occasionally mixed in either Belarusian words or dialects (the so-called “trasianka”) or some words from Yiddish. However, the Belarusian language surrounded me from childhood, and I understood it almost as if it were my native tongue. In the 1980s, I once visited Kyiv for a programming competition and was struck by how extensively Ukrainians used the Ukrainian language in daily life. In the Byelorussian SSR, in Minsk, Belarusian was not used as actively. On the second day of this “trip,” I decided to speak only Belarusian in Kyiv. The locals gave me slightly curious looks but generally understood me perfectly.

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Book: Ben Orlin “Math with Bad Drawings”

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I fell in love with mathematics in the early years of school. I was very fortunate to have a math teacher who not only showed us how fascinating this subject could be but also greatly influenced me and many of my classmates in shaping who we became as individuals. He was truly a Teacher with a capital “T.”

In the fourth grade, I completed both the fourth and fifth-grade math courses (even though the official education system didn’t really support such an approach at the time), and I carried my love for mathematics all the way to university, eventually earning a degree as an officially certified “mathematician-systems programmer.” (Though I must admit that by the time I was in university, I realized I didn’t enjoy all areas of mathematics equally—but that’s a story for another time.)

It was probably this childhood passion that made me pay attention to a book titled “Math with Bad Drawings” when it randomly appeared in my feed. Or perhaps it was the description, which mentioned that not every student is lucky enough to have a teacher like Ben Orlin, who knows how to reveal the beauty of this subject in an accessible and engaging way. I was eager to compare the methods of this unfamiliar American author with the approaches that had such an impact on me.

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Reading Results of 2021

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The main theme of my blog is books, so I decided to write about the best ones I’ve read this year and would recommend.

I’ve read 78 books, but the number isn’t as impressive as it seems because it includes several short children’s books that I read with my younger kids before bed. Still, there are many great books I can recommend.

As for fiction, I didn’t read much this year, and most of it consisted of well-known works that I either finally decided to read or was revisiting. I’ll highlight just one:

  • Britt-Marie Was Here — a wonderful novel by one of the best contemporary authors, Richard Backman. I savor each of his books and wait a long time before picking up the next one.

And the most delightful part: this year, I received the first review of my own book (only in Russian) — Graphomaniacs Don’t Cry.

Book: Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson “Venture Deals”

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Over the past couple of decades, the word “startup” has become insanely trendy, and for most people, it’s synonymous with the promise of inevitable success. We know dozens of stories where an ordinary student started a business in a garage that later turned into a multibillion-dollar company. Everyone wants to try on that role for themselves. To help them, there’s an abundance of books explaining how to create the company of your dreams, refine your idea, and build something people truly need. Even in my blog, I’ve reviewed several such books (for instance, “The Art of the Start“ by Guy Kawasaki and “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future“).

Of course, few people mention that for every success story, there are thousands of failures, but who’s interested in those? Everyone wants to look up to the best (this tendency is known as “survivorship bias”). Moreover, not all authors tell you that often, to launch a successful and rapidly growing business, you need funding. At best, they give advice on how to structure your presentations for potential investors. But what comes next… few will shed light on that.

The book “Venture Deals” is one of the rare few that focuses specifically on communicating with investors, the rules of drafting investment deals, and all those details that a future owner of a successful company must know and understand—unless, of course, they want to end up with nothing, even if their business turns out to be groundbreaking. The book’s subtitle is “Be SMARTER Than Your LAWYER and VENTURE CAPITALIST”. And it’s written by none other than those very venture capitalists who’ve mastered the art of such deals.

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Cyprus: The Church

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What else could one write about on Christmas Eve if not the church? I’ve never been a religious person myself, but I do love history, including the history of the church. So today, instead of just a short note about churches in Cyprus, as a true armchair historian, I’ll start from afar.

As is well known, Christianity derives its name from Jesus Christ, who was a Jew and preached his teachings in his native lands, which at the time were part of the vast Roman Empire. Opinions about Jesus himself and who he really was as a person may vary (for more on this, I highly recommend the book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth). However, it is well documented that Christianity was initially intended exclusively for Jews. No other nations or pagans were deemed worthy of it.

Moreover, when one of the apostles began introducing non-Jews to Christianity, he was initially almost ostracized, criticized for his actions. And yet, Christianity would never have become a global religion had it remained exclusively Jewish.

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Cyprus: Slowly, the Poop Floats Away…

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I’ve been silent for a long time, but it’s time to finally talk about the main issue, rather than small things like the slow pace of work and the lack of responsibility among Cypriots. Especially since meteorologists are saying a storm is coming our way from Rhodes, which could sweep across the entire island overnight and into Sunday—so no one will be left to tell you the truth.

Many people (myself included) often write about the lack of central heating on Cyprus, leaving everyone to fend for themselves during the winter. However, far fewer people talk about another side of everyday life—sewage systems!

Modern generations in big cities are spoiled by the comfort of having a toilet in their apartment. Only those who were sent to their grandparents’ village in the summer might recall the rustic charm of an outdoor wooden outhouse. And the Japanese have gone even further, inventing futuristic contraptions that heat the seat, wash your butt, and dry you right on the spot (they’ve gone too far—nothing sacred left!).

Of course, Cyprus has a central sewage system. But not everywhere. And even where it exists, it often doesn’t meet European standards, which has led the EU to threaten Cyprus with legal action because poorly constructed sewage systems harm the environment and the health of animals (and humans too, but apparently if they’re not thinking for themselves, they don’t deserve much sympathy).

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Book: Mike Girvin “Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Mastering Excel Array Formulas”

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Microsoft Excel is a tool almost everyone is familiar with these days. And electronic spreadsheets are used in one way or another by nearly everyone who works with a computer. However, I believe most people are unaware of the full potential of this tool.

I’ve never considered myself a spreadsheet guru, even though I knew the basic formulas, performed many calculations myself, and often used complex tables at work to track budgets and other tasks. Still, I always considered myself an intermediate user in terms of proficiency.

Occasionally, though, I faced tasks that required processing large amounts of data, often in rather complex ways. That’s when I started digging through various articles to find methods for building more sophisticated calculations. I began working more and more with the concept of arrays in spreadsheets. At some point, I noticed that many of the examples and solutions I found frequently referred to the same author—or even directly cited his book titled Ctrl+Shift+Enter: Mastering Excel Array Formulas. The author? Mike “ExcelIsFun” Girvin. He runs a popular YouTube channel where he explains the intricacies of working with MS Excel. The channel bears his pseudonym, ExcelIsFun.

As for the book, it’s a refined collection of his materials, compiled into articles focusing on one specific topic: array formulas.

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Song: Johny Cash “Hurt” & Logan/Wolverine

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Not long ago, I wrote about songs that gained a new life or interpretation thanks to new arrangements, including in films.

At the time, I didn’t mention one song, “Hurt,” performed (but not written) by Johnny Cash. That’s because it didn’t fit the criteria: it’s not a reinterpretation or a new arrangement. It’s simply an original song that was used in the trailer for the last Wolverine movie, released in 2017 and titled Logan.

Cash’s version is a cover of a 1995 song by the band Nine Inch Nails. Johnny Cash slightly altered the lyrics, removing any profanity, and recorded his rendition in 2003. The song is considered his final hit during his lifetime, earning numerous awards and receiving high praise from the original authors. Personally, I find it more powerful and emotional than the NIN version.

But why did I mention Wolverine? The thing is, the lyrics of the song didn’t just fit the trailer’s mood—they seemed written specifically for Logan, who, in the movie’s plot, is no longer the invincible and immortal Wolverine we knew, but still has the strength to prove himself one last time. Together, the song and visuals left an unforgettable impression on me. The trailer uses only the first verse of the song, but the music and imagery complement each other perfectly:

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Book: Alla Shevelkina “Afghan Diary”

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This year, the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, effectively disregarding all the efforts by the Americans to establish order there. For decades, this country has been engulfed in war, serving as a battleground for various forces.

In the fall of 2001, journalist Alla Shevelkina traveled there as part of a team from a French television channel. During her stay, she decided to keep a diary, documenting the events of each day. Of course, over the past 20 years, the country has experienced much, but the diary shows that even then, it was a shocking medieval world for people from so-called civilized nations.

I came across this book on the recommendation of Viktor Shenderovich, just a few days after the Taliban entered Kabul. Again.

From the description, it promised to be an honest and profound immersion into that very medieval reality during the days when the Taliban last ruled Kabul. I was very curious to get a glimpse of life in the country, not through official news reports, which often craft stories for dramatic or sentimental effect (sadly, this is true).

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