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I live in Ukraine. I write about what I see and feel — without embellishment.
My journal contains life stories, reflections shaped by the war, a bit of the past, a bit of the sea, a bit of silence.
Sometimes there are photos, sometimes just words.
If honesty, attentiveness, and depth resonate with you — maybe we'll connect
Is there an interesting story behind your username?
- My username reflects who I am in real life — a bit reserved, thoughtful, and always observing quietly.
Location and language(s):
- English, Ukrainian.
Age range (e.g. 20s, 30s, etc.):
- Age doesn’t matter — I value meaningful connection and people with depth.
List a few things you think it's important new friends know about you right away:
- I’m looking for kindred spirits — people who find meaning in words and emotion, and who might be interested in reading honest thoughts from someone who's seen both peace and war.
You mostly write about:
- Moments from my life, especially during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
My journal reflects my thoughts, feelings, and memories — of being a mariner, a traveler, and someone deeply affected by this time. I try to write with honesty and emotional clarity.
Posts are bilingual (English and Ukrainian), often paired with my own photographs that match the mood or setting.
Is your journal mostly public, locked, or a mix of public and locked?
It’s open. I have nothing to hide.
Your posting frequency (e.g. daily, every few days, weekly, etc.):
- It varies — sometimes daily, sometimes when I find the time or feel the need to share.
Does your journal frequently include any of the following: memes, linkspams, gifs, photos, videos, etc?
- I mostly post my own photography — taken across different years and places.
Do you unfriend people who don't comment much, even if you know they are reading you regularly?
- No — I value silent readers too. I understand that not everyone feels like commenting all the time.
What is your approach when it comes to commenting on other journals?
- If something resonates, I’ll say something. I don’t force myself — I prefer sincere interaction.
When you friend someone, but things don't really click, do you unfriend them without warning, or do you send them a note first? How do you prefer to be unfriended in similar circumstances?
- I respect both ways. If it doesn't feel right — no hard feelings, with or without explanation.
Friending memes often ask people to list their favourite TV shows, movies, books, etc., but more often than not, those aren't things people actually write about in their journal. Do you have any favourite TV shows, movies, books, etc., that you DO often write about -- not necessarily in a fandom sort of way, just in general?
- I occasionally reflect on films or books that have emotionally moved me — like Pearl Harbor, My Name is Khan, or anything deeply human. I rarely write as a fan — more as someone who was touched.
Any final thoughts you'd like to share with potential new friends?
-If you value sincerity and emotion, if you’re looking to read thoughts that aren’t polished but real — you’re welcome in my journal.
My journal contains life stories, reflections shaped by the war, a bit of the past, a bit of the sea, a bit of silence.
Sometimes there are photos, sometimes just words.
If honesty, attentiveness, and depth resonate with you — maybe we'll connect
Is there an interesting story behind your username?
- My username reflects who I am in real life — a bit reserved, thoughtful, and always observing quietly.
Location and language(s):
- English, Ukrainian.
Age range (e.g. 20s, 30s, etc.):
- Age doesn’t matter — I value meaningful connection and people with depth.
List a few things you think it's important new friends know about you right away:
- I’m looking for kindred spirits — people who find meaning in words and emotion, and who might be interested in reading honest thoughts from someone who's seen both peace and war.
You mostly write about:
- Moments from my life, especially during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
My journal reflects my thoughts, feelings, and memories — of being a mariner, a traveler, and someone deeply affected by this time. I try to write with honesty and emotional clarity.
Posts are bilingual (English and Ukrainian), often paired with my own photographs that match the mood or setting.
Is your journal mostly public, locked, or a mix of public and locked?
It’s open. I have nothing to hide.
Your posting frequency (e.g. daily, every few days, weekly, etc.):
- It varies — sometimes daily, sometimes when I find the time or feel the need to share.
Does your journal frequently include any of the following: memes, linkspams, gifs, photos, videos, etc?
- I mostly post my own photography — taken across different years and places.
Do you unfriend people who don't comment much, even if you know they are reading you regularly?
- No — I value silent readers too. I understand that not everyone feels like commenting all the time.
What is your approach when it comes to commenting on other journals?
- If something resonates, I’ll say something. I don’t force myself — I prefer sincere interaction.
When you friend someone, but things don't really click, do you unfriend them without warning, or do you send them a note first? How do you prefer to be unfriended in similar circumstances?
- I respect both ways. If it doesn't feel right — no hard feelings, with or without explanation.
Friending memes often ask people to list their favourite TV shows, movies, books, etc., but more often than not, those aren't things people actually write about in their journal. Do you have any favourite TV shows, movies, books, etc., that you DO often write about -- not necessarily in a fandom sort of way, just in general?
- I occasionally reflect on films or books that have emotionally moved me — like Pearl Harbor, My Name is Khan, or anything deeply human. I rarely write as a fan — more as someone who was touched.
Any final thoughts you'd like to share with potential new friends?
-If you value sincerity and emotion, if you’re looking to read thoughts that aren’t polished but real — you’re welcome in my journal.
Haven't posted for a while, mostly because I've been working my ass off.
I had the week off and once again planned to get some work done on the house. This time I wanted to get the backyard sorted. My daughter came over at the start of the week, and the two of us spent two days pulling up the waist-high weeds in the hot sun. We filled five yard waste bags and I put cardboard over the bare dirt around the house. I did some initial raking around the house to try and slope the soil away from the walls. Somebody is coming over this week to finish the covering on the bottom of the exterior walls - once he's done I'll finish raking the dirt so at least the upper part of the yard is properly graded and then I'll toss some clover seeds all over it. That should hopefully help keep water out of the basement.
Then on Wednesday it started to rain.
And rain and rain and rain.
Thursday the ex-housemate came over and the two of us worked all day in the pour. The sump pump was dumping massive amounts of water into the yard and it was just - collecting on top of all that thick clay until the backyard turned into a flood zone. We built a clay dam along the fence to keep it out of the neighbours' yard and dug a six-foot long trench under the pump outlet. It's just a big water-filled pit right now, but at least it managed to keep the water in one spot.
Then we dug another long trench for my vegetable garden. We framed it with the wood the contractor had left lying around. I filled the bottom with the branches that had been left behind by the felled tree, and mixed four bags of composted manure into the dirt. It's covered with cardboard right now, just waiting for my seedlings to get big enough to plant.
When the backyard dries out enough I'll deepen the trench and fill it with rocks. Both of us vaguely remember from when we built a pig-roasting pit years ago - and the vegetable garden digging seems to confirm - that there's a sand layer about 3-4 feet down, so if I can get the trench that deep the water might actually drain instead of flooding. That's a project for later in the summer though, right now it's just a sea of mud.
Apart from the bags of weeds I have also have two extra bags of trash to put out this week, just from the garbage that the original contractor left behind. Apparently they just dumped all their left-over coffee cups and pop cans and chunks of plastic and scrap wood and metal onto the ground and threw the clay fill right on top of it. More than once after prying the imploded corpse of a bucket of drywall compoud out of the ground with a spade I felt the urge to stand upright, fists clenched at my sides, and shout at the uncaring sky, "Who Raised These People?!"
***
Got my head eplayed, so the vertigo is considerably less than it was.
Still managed to hit me a couple of times this week because I spent most of it digging, and there is nothing like being half-bent over a watery trench with a shovel full of heavy mud to make one's inner ear decide now is the time to send one's sense of "up" into a random dimension. I managed not to actually tip over, although I did have a couple of episodes of just having to tripod with the shovel until the world stopped spinning.
***
Lord Brock is - not great. He ended up having an endoscopy on Wednesday, which found a large mass in his duodenum. Now I'm just waiting on the biopsy results. In the meantime, he's on a steady diet of painkillers and appetite stimulants just to keep him eating.
I'm bracing myself for bad news.
I had the week off and once again planned to get some work done on the house. This time I wanted to get the backyard sorted. My daughter came over at the start of the week, and the two of us spent two days pulling up the waist-high weeds in the hot sun. We filled five yard waste bags and I put cardboard over the bare dirt around the house. I did some initial raking around the house to try and slope the soil away from the walls. Somebody is coming over this week to finish the covering on the bottom of the exterior walls - once he's done I'll finish raking the dirt so at least the upper part of the yard is properly graded and then I'll toss some clover seeds all over it. That should hopefully help keep water out of the basement.
Then on Wednesday it started to rain.
And rain and rain and rain.
Thursday the ex-housemate came over and the two of us worked all day in the pour. The sump pump was dumping massive amounts of water into the yard and it was just - collecting on top of all that thick clay until the backyard turned into a flood zone. We built a clay dam along the fence to keep it out of the neighbours' yard and dug a six-foot long trench under the pump outlet. It's just a big water-filled pit right now, but at least it managed to keep the water in one spot.
Then we dug another long trench for my vegetable garden. We framed it with the wood the contractor had left lying around. I filled the bottom with the branches that had been left behind by the felled tree, and mixed four bags of composted manure into the dirt. It's covered with cardboard right now, just waiting for my seedlings to get big enough to plant.
When the backyard dries out enough I'll deepen the trench and fill it with rocks. Both of us vaguely remember from when we built a pig-roasting pit years ago - and the vegetable garden digging seems to confirm - that there's a sand layer about 3-4 feet down, so if I can get the trench that deep the water might actually drain instead of flooding. That's a project for later in the summer though, right now it's just a sea of mud.
Apart from the bags of weeds I have also have two extra bags of trash to put out this week, just from the garbage that the original contractor left behind. Apparently they just dumped all their left-over coffee cups and pop cans and chunks of plastic and scrap wood and metal onto the ground and threw the clay fill right on top of it. More than once after prying the imploded corpse of a bucket of drywall compoud out of the ground with a spade I felt the urge to stand upright, fists clenched at my sides, and shout at the uncaring sky, "Who Raised These People?!"
***
Got my head eplayed, so the vertigo is considerably less than it was.
Still managed to hit me a couple of times this week because I spent most of it digging, and there is nothing like being half-bent over a watery trench with a shovel full of heavy mud to make one's inner ear decide now is the time to send one's sense of "up" into a random dimension. I managed not to actually tip over, although I did have a couple of episodes of just having to tripod with the shovel until the world stopped spinning.
***
Lord Brock is - not great. He ended up having an endoscopy on Wednesday, which found a large mass in his duodenum. Now I'm just waiting on the biopsy results. In the meantime, he's on a steady diet of painkillers and appetite stimulants just to keep him eating.
I'm bracing myself for bad news.
.