Hi there, fellow gamers. This week was kinda tough for me - starting with a huge pain in ass caused by need to develop study programs for my Academy (I'm working as a software developer, but still I have to do this kind of BS sometimes) and ending with me getting a better job offer and having to explain everything to my boss. Thank God, Saturdays exist. The Holy Day of Rest which is Saturday pwns. But sleeping all the day along was a bad option anyways, so predicting such kind of stinky grease, I've made a couple of araangements on Saturday, so the day wouldn't be boring. First event was traditional to Russia - going to the forest and setting up a Russian version of BBQ party , shashliki, all for the sake of celebrating the birthday of one of my good friends. Imagine a forest, lots of snow falling from the skies, 12 drunk people trying to set up a fire and you'll get the gist. The party didn't last too long though and near 7 p.m. me and my 2 forest colleagues advanced to the gathering point of our team, ready to spend the whole night wandering across the whole city playing Dozor. What is Dozor, you ask? Dozor is navigating game testing intellectual skills as well. Your team consisting of one-infinity cars is given a vague hint, and 90 minutes to find a small marker-written code everywhere within 121 square miles of Tolyatti city. Nice, ain't it? However, our team managed to get at least 9 out of 10 tasks since the beginning of the season. Hell, that feeling when you're climbing the roofs, trees, abandoned constructions just to find a little piece of writing. That feeling when you meeting the sunrise on top of 9-floor building reporting the last, tenth code to organisators. It's incredible!

I wonder if ruining the parties is the main function of every parent :( Anyway, they called police last evening so everything ended so fast. And today is the day of hockey. Even if the beloved team is playing a road game, I'm still nervous until the game ends - refreshing the online game log kills many nerve cells, FYI. That's why I tried to find myself a timekiller. Old NES came in handy... So, after a hour it took me to beat old good Darkwing Duck I've started to think. Think about 1994. One thing from the past hit me - an excerpt from a radio broadcast - "...Team Lada Togliatti became the champion of Russian Championship and became the first non-capital team in the history of Russian hockey to win gold medals...". The brain started to remember... November '96... I watched a professional hockey game for the first time in my life. And one month later those guys became the Europe Champions... October '00... My mother becomes the family doctor of Lada captain, Vyatcheslav Bezukladnikov (who dies 9 monts later during in a training camp. R. I. P.). As a Christmas present, I receive a season tickets to Lada games. Since then I become a hockey fan visiting every home hockey game during 5 years... April '05... Lada loses the last final game and becomes the vice-champion of the NHL-stars season in Russian Hockey League... The management staff of team promise that they'll do everything to make Lada the Champion of 2005-06 season... October 13th, 2005. Official website of team Lada publishes the official press release of main sponsor's spokesmen. The budget of team is to be cut by 75%... November 4th, 2005. Lada plays its last game in old rosters. 2-0 win over Dinamo, its main competitor back in 1994 is commited by the last word of Lada's captain, Alexander Boykov - "Excuse us but it's not our fault. We've made everything that was possible. Thank you for your support..." Most fans including me were crying... November 22nd, 2005. Lada, with 19 under-20 players manages to get a second 2-0 win in 3 games with new rosters. Thanks God, the coach kept his word and didn't left... ...And finally, after some time these thoughts were visiting my head, I've opened the game log once again. Today, December 4th, 2005. Losing 0-2, these guys managed to pull out a 3-2 overtime win. Yay!