MARINA SOKOLOVA

Do you enjoy house porn as much as I do?

For those, who doesn't know: house porn is videos or photos of beautiful real estate. Try it, you will love it.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/new-homes/property-28524325.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2sJG2XfRWI&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PICnhdkHTi4&NR=1

 

USA arrested and tortured foreign journalists.

USA's authorities arrested number of journalists, including foreign ones, who were reporting about a protest, which happened in Columbus, Georgia, USA, few days a go. Among illegally detained journalist were a TV crew of a large Russian TV channel. US officials tortured the reporter of that crew especially bad. They cuffed her hands really tight and when she couldn't take it any more, they cut the handcuffs of her arms with a knife. However they did it so sloppy (or on purpose?) that they badly cut her arm. Then they gave her no medical help and threw her into the cell with hardcore criminals. Her wound now got badly infected in their dirty jail without any medical assistance.

In fact, all journalists were forced to strip. Even their underwear got taken away. They were given jail robes and put into cells together with real criminals, who were serving sentences after been found guilty. Journalists were held for 32 hours, then they realised them on bail. They were given a choice to sign the confessions and pay bail or stay in jail indefinitely. Journalists chose bail. The charges against them are “participating” in illegal protest and "resisting" arrest.

Bloody animals! And they dare blab about democracy and freedom of speech, while they torture journalists!

 

  

Piracy for charity.

Recently, an acquaintance of mine expressed shock from seeing me throwing books in a trash bin. “You should never throw books!” she exclaimed. “But I finished reading them and I no longer need them,” I said. “You should at least donate them to charity,” she said.

Today I was walking by Oxfam book shop in Eastleigh and I remembered the conversation. It is a spacious shop with wall to wall shelves filled with donated books everywhere an eye can see. I asked a sales person, whether like public libraries they also pay anything to the authors. She wasn't sure what I meant. So I explained that public libraries in UK pay something to the authors every time someone checks out the book and I am curious about how charity shops compensate the authors. Is it the same or different? She thought that it was an interesting question, became curious about it herself, and asked the manager of the shop.

The manager explained to her and me: “Yes, libraries do pay authors – it is called public lending rights. For these books authors are paid one time, when books are bought new.” I asked: “So if I buy a book here, author gets nothing?” She frowned and explained again that an author does get paid once, when the book is bought new before it is donated. I said: “If I buy an electronic copy of a book and share it with people – that is piracy and is illegal. People donate books here, you sell them. Other people read, donate. You sell. Authors get nothing. Don't you see it is as same as piracy on the internet?” She disagreed. I sensed that we were starting to get into an argument and it was getting uncomfortable. So I said: “Thanks, I was just curious,” and left.

As I am typing this I noticed on my table another paperback, which I finished reading this week. I think that after I post this I will go and throw the book in a trash bin. I feel uncomfortable doing charity, while at the same time stealing from another person's pocket.

Water, water, and not a drop to drink.

Since I lost one of my clients by successfully suing them lol, I decided to consider some different magazines to pitch to. So, I went to WH Smith for research about what topics magazines are publishing nowadays. Again – water, water, and not a drop to drink. Who reads this?

“Women's magazines”, if they are not filled with stuff about cosmetics, cosmetic surgery, or cooking (topics I have no interest in), publish very little else. Esoteric magazines have no serious articles, but are filled with covers stories like: “I watch my hubby in my mind's eye all day long”. Seriously? All day long? I am not even gona mention the usual: get a life. I just want to say: have you heard of the internet, for a start? Another prominent spiritual magazine has a prominent cover article about spring cleaning. It had half of the page dedicated to the subheading: “Get your cleaning tools together”. I am not kidding. They really did that. Do they really think a woman need a half page of an article with illustrations to assemble her detergents into one pile? The “posh-head's“ magazines have covers filled with names I never heard of. The gossip magazines are full of stuff to make insecure losers feel better about themselves, such us: look at her cellulite, look at her tiny bag, look at her weird skinny legs, and so on.

Unhappy Russian miners.

There are mass riots and meetings in several Russian cities in south of Siberia. This was triggered by the fact that at least 150 died in a recent accident in one of the local mines and government's pressure on miners professional unions.

Citizens demand apology from officials, more social equality, bigger salaries, better safety, and more job security for miners (jobs for them and not for cheaper Chinese migrants). Miners say that they feel like slaves working for money they are paid in conditions provided. They say their current salaries range from 20 000 to 30 000 roubles per month. This is an equivalent of £400 to £600. While a typical mortgage and credits payment is 18 000 roubles per month according to what they say in the following video. They demand more companies' profits to be shared with them.

In my opinion that region of Russia smelled of revolution for few years already. And considering the amount of guns people own in those parts of Russia, things can get a lot worst if this gets out of hand. Coincidently, I interviewed a director of one of those mining companies for one magazine last year. I remember he assured me that they have a wonderful safety (including medical checks for alcohol of all workers before the shifts). Also, miners in the video above admit that they violate safety procedures at their own initiative because they “have to earn more money” for their families. While these miners pity themselves, most Britons have in average about £5 000 of living expenses debts each, not counting any mortgage loans. In comparison, these miners might sound like they are out of their minds if they expect to have a lot more. I sympathise with these miners though. It must feel awful to work so hard like them just to give it all to pay main living expenses and mortgage bills. Will companies give up some of their profits to the miners? Will miners give up? Or will this conflict escalate further?

Update on my small claim.

Well, after few phone calls from the defendant's solicitor and some negotiations, him and I have agreed on a settlement. Which is: they pay me £750, I pay them nothing, we discontinue our claims and forget about each other. My original claim was for £750.88. This includes: original unpaid invoices, late payment compensation, interest accumulated before the date the claim was filed, and £60 court's fee for filing the claim ( this is cheaper than usual, because I filed it first to the online court and then it was transferred to the appropriate court at no additional costs). As a gesture of meeting them a part of the way, I waived about £15 of the interest, which has accumulated since the date I filed the claim. I also did not include £75 court hearing fee for the hearing scheduled in April and for which I had to pay in February. Since we reached a settlement well before the hearing date, I hoped to get this fee refunded by the court, and they did refund it. And I refused to pay half of the court fees to get the settlement approved by the court as well (about £40). Lucky for the defendant I have no solicitors costs to recover.

I am happy with the outcome. This was my first time and I have overcame a learning curve. I spent days on internet research alone. I learned tons of stuff about UK's court procedures related to the small claims, legal documents, and legal terms. I am sure that some of you, out there, might feel that all the time I have put in this case was probably worth more in monetary value than the claim. However, I feel that I had no choice other than let them walk all-over me. And the feeling one gets from successfully standing up for oneself is priceless. Plus, one never knows when this experience might become handy again.

Yay!

My book is available for sale from Amazon already: http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Feng-Shui-Marina-Sokolova/dp/1450527027

My book: Personal Feng Shui.

I have completed the publication process. It took over a month for the second proof copy to arrive, because it got lost in the post. The printers kindly sent me a replacement with UPS. I reformatted and replaced the interior file since last time.

As you see, now it has page numbers :)

 

Since I had to replace one file anyway, I took the chance to mess with the cover as well, which was originally designed for me by a good friend of mine. I opened it in the photoshop and moved the text on the back a bit and also moved the title on the front. It was nice anyway, but now I like it even more.

Now:

Before: http://marinasokolova.com/2010/01/work.html

Within two weeks it should be available to buy from Amazon. Right now it can be bought here: https://www.createspace.com/3425174

Update on my small claim.

As I mentioned in the older post, I am involved in litigation with one former client. I decided to simply follow the instructions on the court’s official websites and they hired a solicitors firm. I decided to file with online claims service first as it is cheaper. I also did it as an individual against an organisation case, so if they choose to defend themselves, the case would get transferred to my local court and I wouldn’t have to travel too far for the hearings.

I filed my claim for about £750.They filed a counterclaim for £5000 (£50 000 reduced to £5000 – oh, how nice of them (sarcasm)) in response to my claim, claiming that I caused them damages, because they couldn’t publish my articles with adverts alongside. This is for the reason that their sales person quit her job as she allegedly got frustrated with me and they were unable to replace her. Then they invented a name for her forgetting that I know her, because they introduced us …in writing. I couldn’t believe that they put this on a formal statement, which includes an oath of truth. After she stopped laughing when I told her the above, she signed and posted me a witness statement in my favour. The court hearing is in April in Southampton County Court. Wish me luck.

Work on Personal Feng Shui book.

I am in the process of publishing my first book using POD technology with one of Amazon’s subsidiaries. I was planning to get it all done by this month. I was at the last stage, where I needed to approve a proof and the book would have been released for sale on Amazon. Today I received a proof copy, which I was eagerly awaiting for weeks. I unpacked it, took it in my hands, and flipped through it. I liked it. Then my brain registered that something is wrong with it. I flipped through it quickly couple more times thinking. Then I realised what it is. There is no page numbers! I simply forgot to insert them when formatting the manuscript. This means that I cant approve this proof, I will have to replace the files and start all over again. And the book will not be released for another month or so. The good thing though is that I noticed it now rather than later.

Proof copy:

No page numbers: