Private property

Pak'n'Save Westgate, early morning. I chose this store and time so there would be almost no clients. I was alone, filming with my phone. About 20 minutes in, an employee came over and very politely asked me to stop, explaining that it’s private property and that the only way to film there is with confirmation from the store's owner, who is currently unreachable.

I stopped. Then I checked the entrance and, yes - they do in fact prohibit filming.

My inner libertarian is fine with that - any business should be able to operate as it wishes. No one should be forced to serve someone or tolerate something they don’t want on their property. That’s normal, and that’s how it should be. I’m totally fine with it.

But the fact still surprised me - it’s such a strange idea for a store to stop someone from giving them free advertising. They have nothing to hide - their goods and prices are published on their site anyway. But it is what it is.

PS Sorry, the next video is delayed.

(Russian)

Auckland in spring

Just a picture from today’s bike ride (a zoomable full-size version is in the comments). The pink curving bridge in the centre of the picture is a purpose-built cycle bridge into the CBD, and it’s a real pleasure to ride across it. We also biked all around the city centre - there are quite a few very comfortable cycle lanes. Using them is actually faster than driving through the centre by car.

And just to share - here’s a cycleway map of Auckland. There are plenty of separated cycle lanes, plus you can ride on public roads too. Speed limit is 50 (sometimes even 30 km/h), and drivers are generally used to cyclists and treat them well, so biking can be a surprisingly comfortable and quick way to get around Auckland.

When it’s not raining, of course.

(Russian)

Parents

A common question in the comments is about parents - is it hard to live far from them? Here is my situation.

Support

I’m lucky. My parents are fully independent and don’t need my support. Instead, they’ve helped me throughout my life - from my upbringing (a liberal atmosphere, complete freedom, discussions rather than punishment), to the financial support they gave when we lived together, and advice afterwards. The older I get, the more I value their advice - they’ve been right far more often than I have.

I only fully understood how much they gave me when I became a parent myself - it’s hard to be the kind of parent they were. I’m doing my best to be a similar parent to my son.

Communication

There’s no problem with communication. We speak regularly online and it feels much the same as when I lived in Russia. We’ve even celebrated some holidays together, gathering relatives from different cities online.

Communication isn’t an issue nowadays and it'll only get better over time. There are worrying attempts to restrict the internet in some countries, but people usually find ways around those limits. Even in heavily restricted places like China, everyone who needs it manages to work around restrictions.

Visits

After obtaining residency, it’s fairly straightforward to get visitor visas for parents for a few months - plenty for a visit. So that’s not a problem. The harder issue is a permanent visa for parents. But that only matters if you plan to bring your parents to live in New Zealand (mine don’t want to).

Another point: when I moved to NZ, I had no support here - no relatives, no friends, zero connections. Now I'm here, and in case of a new emergency, I can be that connection for my family. Managing alone is very difficult - I know that. In case of need, it will be easier for my family because of me.

Stress

Staying alive is quite important. If I died before my parents, their lives would probably be worse than if I were still around. Losing a child is the worst thing anyone can go through. Even just the thought that your child might die or end up in prison at any time, and you couldn't do a thing about it, is hugely stressful.

I'm glad they don't have to grieve my death or worry about my safety - they know I'm fine and so aren't stressed about it.

(Russian)

Crazy tree

When I looked up this tree on Google, someone had called it "crazy", and I think that’s the perfect name for it. The crazy tree. Gorgeous too, like almost all other trees in New Zealand.

I don’t see them very often. This one, as you can see, is just growing on the side of a car park, like a weed.

Its official name is Juniperus kaizuka or Hollywood Juniper.

(Russian)

Capitalism

Yesterday I received $364 from the electrical network. Not paid but received. Sounds odd, I know. But in NZ, you can sometimes get not just tax refunds, but also dividends (without investing).

It was hard for me to comprehend - my whole life experience suggested it was impossible. So I looked into the history. Here’s what I learned:

In 1993, the National (centre-right party, the ones now recovering the country after the previous left-wing Labour government) helped establish a trust to own a large part of Auckland's electrical network.

This trust owns about 75% of the network, earns profits from it, and pays annual dividends to eligible residents (those living in the areas it serves).

Why does the trust pay money to people? Because that’s how it was created - it exists to benefit citizens and is not controlled by the government.

That’s how "cruel capitalism" looks in action - privatisation, reducing of government, and in result more money to people.

(Russian)

Video version of my post on socialisation.

MP3 version of the video above.

The most honest people

A few years ago, researchers visited 355 cities across 40 countries and "lost" 17,303 wallets. They then calculated the return rates in each country to identify the most honest people.

Cash in the wallets was adjusted for each country’s PPP ($13-90), and all contents localised for authenticity. The study took six years and accounted for as many variables as possible to ensure a fair comparison.

The results are shown above. NZ ranked 8th for wallets without money and 3rd for wallets with money - not bad, and consistent with my experience.

Counterintuitively, people in most countries were more likely to return wallets containing money. The researchers suggest this is because people don’t want to see themselves as thieves. Those who didn’t return wallets without money simply saw themselves as lazy, which feels less bad.

PS: Thanks to CEODen for sharing the study. The PDF version in the comments.

(Russian)

Video version of the post on why the 2022 wave of migrants is returning to Russia.

MP3 version of the video above

Baby mantises

One of the cutest creatures on Earth is the baby mantis.

The older ones are barely moving, large, well camouflaged, and look serious and dangerous (in fact, they can't harm humans at all).

But the young ones are funky. They are tiny and super fragile - about the same size as mosquitoes. They happily run around without any purpose, rocking non-stop and jumping a few centimetres when they feel threatened. They are so silly and childlike that, in my opinion, only an evil soul could harm them. They are truly awesome.

It's the first time I’ve seen such a cute insect. Jumping spiders come in second place (I’ll film them one day too).

(Russian)

AI comparison

I made this for myself to test my AI setup and decided not to delete it straight away, but to share it in case it might be useful to someone.

I needed to convert a list of films from Russian into English with the correct titles, directors, and IMDb ratings. Of course, instead of doing it manually, I let several AIs handle it. I ran a small test across the main free AIs: ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, and DeepSeek. The screenshot shows the results: green for correct, yellow for minor mistakes, and red for incorrect.

Conclusion: As of this month, Gemini and Grok are gradually surpassing ChatGPT based on this and other tests. DeepSeek still excels at out-of-the-box thinking and programming (in Deep Think mode) but, as we can see, isn’t as strong with routine tasks. ChatGPT still leads in proofreading.

PS: It’s a list of Quentin Tarantino’s best films of the century, by the way.

(Russian)

Sun in NZ

I wanted to write a post about how dangerous the sun is in New Zealand. The plan was to check a few other countries and cities in the Southern Hemisphere (since it's summer here now) and compare their UV indices with Auckland's to clearly show the difference.

I took screenshots of the weather forecasts for hot December days in Auckland, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, and to my surprise, realised I was wrong.

The peak UV indices turned out to be the same (see images).

I was confused. My first thought was - the UV index doesn't fully reflect the situation. I checked, and it turns out it does. The UV index shows how much solar energy reaches your skin, and the same UV index in different cities means the risk to your skin is identical.

Then I checked...

(Continued in comments)

(Russian)

Ikea is here

Yesterday, the first Ikea in New Zealand opened. I would like to take this opportunity to write about the company. This is not an ad, nobody paid me for writing this.

As you may know, I like to check, calculate, and compare things. When Ikea’s products featured in my comparisons (office chairs, mattresses, pillows, etc.), they consistently showed the best value for money. Their goods are neither the best nor the worst – they are fair. Ikea always sells items at the lowest possible price for the quality, labour, and materials involved, without trying to trick the customer. I respect this approach and use them as my default choice in any situation.

I also had the chance to work with Ikea's team and can say their internal culture is equally fair - they do practise what they preach. Unfortunately, I missed the opportunity to work with them on this store, but hopefully another chance will come.

Congratulations to Aucklanders. Ikea is here and will surely improve the market.

(Russian)