Tbilisi's Statue Of Taras Shevchenko

The noose around the neck made for a neat photograph, but before you think that something unpleasant was going on, I should say that they were putting the statue up, not taking it down.

He's right on Chavchavadze now, near the intersection with Kekelidze.

Here is the Wikipedia article on Taras Shevchenko.

By the way, it seems to me that with their relationship with Russia in tatters Georgians really are reaching out to Ukrainians to fill the resulting Slavic void. You can get Ukrainian vodka, beer and chocolates everywhere here.

GL.Mimino.Org And GL@Mimino.Org

If you are reading this post, congratulations! You are either pretty tolerant of of technolgy or have nothing better to do than wade through the problems I dreamt up to make your life more difficult.

Either way, you're special, so thanks.

Still, loyal readers, rest assured: the days of my blog's downtime and unpredictable address changes, not to mention the often bizarre formatting you have seen, are over.

Really.

I don't want to bore you with a blow-by-blow account of why all of this was necessary but I should say my intentions, like most people's intentions most of the time, were good. As Victor Chernomyrdin, one of Yeltsin's Prime Ministers, put it when explaining a highly unsuccessful monetary exchange performed by the Russian Central Bank, "Мы хотели как лучше, а получилось как всегда" - "We wanted to do better, but it turned out as usual".

OK, maybe by way of an explanation, I'll add this: It all started because I wanted to 1) host my blog under Mimino.Org 2) keep the URL manageable 3) use Google Blogger and 4) stay away from FTP publishing.

That's how it started. Then I got caught in a web of bugs that left me in a state where I lost all my posts, my domain was screwed up for months and even my carefully crafted blog template was corrupted. The downward spiral and climb back up lasted a month and half. It took weeks just to re-upload all the text and photographs.

If you think all this is funny, just remember my Internet connection runs about 300 baud on good days. Really, it was barrel of laughs.

I swear, I never did a thing that the help pages didn't recommend. Lies, all lies.

The worst of it is that my until now unshakable confidence in Google is shattered. I still think that Google is great, but listen, take my word for it, Blogger is screwy. If you are using Blogger, please treat it like Zork (if you've never played Zork you can - and should - play it here).

Enough rambling.

Please take note: I have no idea how you got here, but you probably won't be able to come back the way you came anymore. The new address for this blog is GL.Mimino.Org and my new matching email address is GL@Mimino.Org.

Neat, huh? It was worth it, right?

Please don't answer.

Thanks again.

Ani

Or in Georgian, ანი.

Nino Burjanadze Will Speak At My University!

Unbelievable, but true! If you have any interest in Georgia, Russia or just the world in general and you are lucky enough to be in Ottawa (I never thought I would say this), do not miss this talk.

Here is the official information for the talk:

Her Excellency Nino Burjanadze
Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia

After Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’:
Results and Prospects

H.E. Nino Burjanadze received her Ph.D. in International Law from Moscow Lomonosov State University and has been a professor at Tbilisi State University since 1991. She has a member of Georgia’s Parliament since 1995 and Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia since 2001. As Speaker, she is the second highest ranking official in Georgia. Dr. Burjanadze was also Interim President of Georgia from November 2003 to January 2004, and she has been Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly since 2000.

Where: A602 Loeb Building, Carleton University
When: Thursday, February 15, 2007
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

The event is held in cooperation with the Parliament of Canada and Honourable Peter Milliken, Speaker of the House of Commons, who is hosting Dr. Burjanadze.

For information contact Joadn Debardeleben at joan_debardeleben@carleton.ca or +1 (613) 520-2888.

Annabelle

Or in Georgian, ანაბელი.