There is a strange job out there: the florist. Its definition is “a person that arranges and sells cut flowers”. The latter part is okay, but in this case florists would be flower vendors.

The only reason why florists have kept their jobs and not become artists is symbolisms. Apparently different combinations convey different meanings, so florists need to make sure I won’t offend the person I’m giving the flowers to. But the only people who know these meanings are, well, florists. Madness.

Florists should just make beautiful flower combinations, therefore becoming artists.

Facebook or any feed with an algorithm is a manipulator that only shows what is in its interests. The best way to find out the truth is to read the primary source. That’s why I read press releases, watch Eurovision without commentary, find out about metro breakdowns from the metro’s Twitter.

If I need some extra information to better understand something, I google it (yes, Google is also biased, but nevertheless).

RSS is the best way to subscribe to anything, as it is a technology and not a product. Hint hint click click.

While you’re in line, you might as well be choosing what ice cream to enjoy. Usually this ends with the favorite one being taken by the person in front. Instead of wasting time asking about what ice cream flavors are in stock after the moment of sorrow, you see them in advance:

GUM, Moscow

And it’s extremely easy to take a certain flavor off the menu for the ice cream seller.

The only way to further improve this is to put the price up top, let go of the decorations, and stop repeating the words “ice cream”.

The time has come for my website’s code to be cleaned up. Before I refreshed it today, it was a rusty old attic with no sense of order at all. The only reasonable place to have this kind of code is a Halloween website party.

Its incomprehensibility obstructed me from improving my website. While there are no major changes in the design, there is now a starting point for going forward.

What’s new
All colors are specified in RGB;
margins and paddings are in sync with each other as well as being noted correctly;
the amount of styles has been reduced;
code is now easier to read.

robertblinov.net

Death sucks. I’m starting my own immortality fund.

I started talking with the library’s director, Freddy Colt, in July. In August we agreed that I’d be a volunteer and help the library with some stuff. We agreed on what I would work on, but the necessary information and files were never sent due to shareholders other library administrators not agreeing.

One of those things was an online book catalogue. When I was in Sanremo, I went to the library and nudged Freddy to give me the book catalogue. Once I received it, I talked to a friend of mine, Ilya Sidorchik, a master of library catalogue and database projects. It became his term paper (project).

Work started immediately. Ilya became the art director.

This was my first sketch:

Then I improved it a bit:

Ilya started talking to me philosophically about “building a castle” and the Italians that built the Kremlin. Food, wine, and the sun are also part of the conversation, because they are things that excite Italians.

He brings up an idea on how to make the website’s esthetics look more captivating:

Favorites chooser in iOS 7 Apple Music

I did this:

Ilya responded: “Robert, I think you’re still restricting yourself. There’s no need for that.”

Fixed:

Since I was making six different versions, I saw that the 2560 px version could also use an upgrade:

Another idea came up:

We started talking about the details and how putting actual book covers on the home page is close to impossible: the library has rare books the covers of which are not readily available. He also tells me the five steps I should follow to make the website better.

Working on this project also reminded me about how long Italian words usually are.

I started from scratch.

I added support for adding the library’s events in the top-right corner:

I fine-tuned the details with nine intermediate mockups. My final mockup:

I was in parallel studying code, which meant I solved the first & last name crisis we had:

Name = 'Calvino Italo'
print(Name.split(' ')[1], Name.split(' ')[0])

The book adding page looks like this. It is meant to be identical to book editing, because editing is the same thing as adding but with info already filled in.

Ilya then worked hard to make the website come to life.

I came to Italy, met Freddy and gave him the keys.

Pigna.pro

P. S. Ilya’s post (in Russian)

The bag yellow is good, while the jacket yellow is bad.

Know your yellows!

If it is possible to change a capital’s name in a day, anything is possible in eight days.

Take note, Brits.