Bill's Blog

I listened to the audiobook “The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky” by journalist Simon Shuster over the past few weeks. The book is a good biography of Zelensky, a history of the USSR and Ukraine, and a description of the most recent war between Russia and Ukraine.

Zelensky was born to middle-class parents in a small industrial city in south-central Ukraine (Kryvyi Rih). His dad was a mining engineer and worked for years in Mongolia while the family was back in Ukraine. His parents wanted him to go into a career in science and engineering as well, but Zelensky was a gifted comedian and entertainer and after seeing the maximum life his father lived at the top of his field, decided that engineering was not for him. He would never be as good as his father working in the technical aspects of the mining industry. It was a good choice because he ended up being a big star in the Russian-speaking world, hosting variety and talk shows, producing and starring in sitcoms, and being a great comedian, both stand-up and sketch comedy. His best project was a Saturday Night Live type of show.

He was a huge celebrity with a lucrative career and could have continued in that vein. However, he was upset at the Russian incursions into Ukraine and quit the large Russian market, downsizing to only appear on Ukrainian television on principle. He lost a lot of friends and money with this decision, but couldn’t justify working in Russia when the country was attacking Ukraine. Eventually, he got into politics and won the presidential elections, right before Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. Surprising the Russians and some experts, he did not flee into exile and has been an outstanding war-time president for the country. The book describes his life in the bunker, commanding the war efforts with his top generals and advisors.

USSR/Russia has treated Ukraine poorly through the years. The book puts it into perspective starting with Stalin causing widespread famine in the 1930s. Between 6 and 9 million Soviet citizens died of starvation because of Stalin’s policies of breaking up agriculture and turning them into factories instead. Many Ukrainians died or barely survived between the years of the famine between 1930 and 1933. Next, World War II was an absolute tragedy and disaster for Ukrainians. Around 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews were murdered and between 5 and 7 million Ukrainians died during the war as Ukraine was in the center of the battles between the Germans and the Russians. Another million or so died from malnutrition after the war and until agricultural production could come back to pre-war levels in the 1960s. That is some pretty serious post-traumatic stress disorder for a country.

In post-Soviet Russia, the Russian government continued to interfere with Ukrainian affairs. Russia influenced and supported pro-Russian candidates and parties as Ukrainians decided to move towards the EU or stay in the Russian sphere of influence. Russian operatives and initiatives destabilized the country during the two major revolutions to topple Putin’s government officials. Russia also annexed the Crimean Peninsula and several Russian-majority border regions. The latest interference was the invasion of 2022.

One of the chapters details the war crimes that took place in the resort town of Bucha. The undisciplined behavior of Russian troops there was horrible and I watched a couple of documentaries about this part of the war. The murder of civilians, rape, pillaging, etc. is beyond words. I had not heard of these events and it reminded me of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

I had a wonderful day traveling with my son Oliver. He is in university and is on Winter Break visiting us in Tashkent. Thankfully, St. Norbert College does not begin until January 27 so he is still staying with us. When I asked him if he wanted to come to London with me, he jumped at the chance. He is a huge Premier League Football fan and it has always been a dream of his to visit the city. He is planning to visit some of the famous football stadiums including my favorite team, Fulham FC, and Chelsea. 

It was so pleasurable to hang out with him for the day. It is strange to be with him in airports as an adult. We were remembering all those years of traveling together when he was a child. I don’t need to carry his passport and he is not hanging off my carry-on on the way to the gate. 🙂 

The flight from Tashkent to Istanbul was five hours. We were delayed in boarding the flight because the computers were down at Turkish Airlines. The gate desk employee had to write the information on the boarding pass. It reminded me of flying in the early 1990s when all of the boarding passes were like that. Oliver recommended a stop at Shake Shack, the US burger chain while we were waiting for our connecting flight in Istanbul. It was a good call. The burger and shake really hit the spot! I fly a lot through Istanbul and am familiar with all the restaurants and shops. They charge excessive prices which is unfair.

Overall a great day with my son! Sneaking in a precious few days with him as he was on his way to independence was special. 

It was an unusual week for me. Last weekend I came down with a fever and missed school on Monday. I was diagnosed with influenza (no COVID!) from my low-grade fever, muscle aches, headache, and cough. I felt better by Tuesday and was in the mountains for three days. Due to a postponement from last week, I ended up chaperoning two student ski trips and one day of exploring possible mountain campus sites for the school. I am thankful that I got a flu vaccine this year and was able to recover relatively quickly. I am also thankful to get the week to be in the great outdoors, surrounded by snow, mountains, and fresh air. It is so nice to have the mountains be easily accessible from Tashkent. Air quality in the city during winter at times can be poor, but the elevated land of Chimgan Mountains is always fresh.

Skiing with the students is not the same as just going up with my family. It is rewarding to teach young people to ski and develop self-confidence to make it down the mountain by themselves. I joked I felt like Matt Damon in the movie Martian, continually solving problems (adjusting bindings, collecting poles, tightening boots, finding lift tickets, etc.) to keep students upright and moving in the right direction. We had one sunny day and one foggy day at the Amirsoy Resort, and a morning of gorgeous, fluffy snow on the exploratory walk. A great week of the TIS Adventure Program!

I finished off the week with a retirement dinner for a good friend of ours followed by a visit to The Bani, the Russian “banya” (spa) to warm up! It was a nice way to end January!

I enjoyed reading the science fiction 2023 novel by Samantha Harvey while on the long flights to London last week. It is the story of six astronauts in orbit 250 miles above the Earth for 9 months. There are two Russians, four Westerners (Japanese, American, British, Italian) – four men and two women. They are in one of the international space stations and on a routine mission. The goal is to study the effects of long-term space travel on humans. The astronauts are also tending to experiments in the station and observing the earth and its atmosphere. They see many sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours as they hurtle through orbit at 17,500 miles/hour. They complete 16 orbits in 24 hours. 

It was a good book to read on a plane. I felt a bit like them. Trapped in a small living space with others, not for nine months, but for five hours (Tashkent to Istanbul). There are the same problems, how to dispose of waste, dealing with medical emergencies, controlling your emotions when the woman in front of you is leaning fully back in her seat and you can barely have enough space to write this blog post. I understand the tight margins of the airline business, but what would it take to take out a few rows of seats and make the flight more pleasant for everyone. 

I didn’t know how a lack of gravity harms the human body. The astronauts need to exercise every day to keep their muscles from wasting away. Without resistance, the muscles turn to jelly. Astronauts also suffer from “space headaches”. I get a lot of headaches when I fly, and I am never sure why. I read it was from dehydration. In microgravity, arteries thicken and stiffen and the muscles of the heart weaken. Six months in space ages a person 5 to 10 years. Bones deteriorate, vision weakens, etc. I guess the only long-term impact I’ll have from this flight is perhaps catching a cold. You can hear coughs, up and down the plane. One positive impact of space is for older people, joint pain goes away and it makes them feel young again. Without gravity providing resistance in the joints, there is no pain.

It is funny that you would think that astronauts would live a life of adventure and exploration, but most of the time, they are in cramped spaces and doing routine tasks to keep humans alive in such a harsh environment. The knowledge gained from the six astronauts in the space station will inform scientists how to keep humans alive and well on longer missions. In the novel, a ship carrying four astronauts is on its way to the moon for a landing mission. It is cool that today, there is always at least one human off Earth in orbit. I see in the near future humans developing permanent colonies/stations on the moon and Mars. I hope this happens in my lifetime.

The astronauts see huge natural phenomena from a different perspective. The Northern Lights are towers of light 200 kilometers high. In the book, they are photographing a Category 5 typhoon heading towards the Philippines. Harvey mixes in space exploration history, astronauts’ memories of their lives on Earth, interactions between them, and interesting facets of life in the space station. I think she spent a bit too much time describing what the astronauts were seeing of the globe from their windows. Yes, it was poetic and majestic and gave her ideas to riff on for chapters, but after a while, for someone who is knowledgeable about geography, it did get a bit repetitive. 

The author mentions the famous Apollo 11 photo taken by Michael Collins (above). The photo shows the lunar module carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and just beyond the moon, the earth, a blue half-sphere appearing as the moon does to us. It is the only photo of all of humankind, except for one person, Collins, who took the photo. He also spent time on the backside of the moon, being the only human on that side with the infinity of space beyond. It is crazy how precarious life is on Earth, a relatively thin atmosphere surrounding the surface that sustains us with everything else in space having no life. I never thought much about the photo, but it is amazing!

Overall it was a good read and not too long of a book. She might have had some stuff happen out of the ordinary, but I guess it was realistic fiction in that it was a routine flight. It made me want to go back and learn more about the history of moon landing and early NASA space flights.

Thursday evening we took our middle son to the Tashkent Airport to see him off. He flew back to DePere, Wisconsin to start his second semester at St. Norbert College. It is always sad when our adult children leave us after a holiday break. This is the next stage of parenthood, supporting them from afar as they make their way through university.

It seems like every time we go to the airport, something has changed. The departures terminal was renovated, and it is so much more spacious and modern. Officials put in a reception area on the ground floor and check-in desks on the second floor. Passengers can take escalators, elevators, or stairs on both sides. There were only two flights departing and mid-January not being high travel season, it was very easy to get him to the immigration desk. People can also enter the terminal building without showing a passport and getting by a soldier. This is another example of the modernization of the country.

Oliver was quite melancholy about leaving the family nest. He had it nice here with his own bedroom, a full refrigerator, his mother cooking delicious meals and fawning over him, and no responsibilities. Ollie is not looking forward to ROTC morning training three times a week in the bitter Wisconsin winter! I make it a point to treat the kids well when they visit, so they are more inclined to visit us in the future. We won’t see him in person until Owen’s graduation in May.

We also had a very light snowfall this week. Temperatures have routinely been below zero Celcius in the mornings but it warms up slightly during the sunny afternoons. I took our dog Obi for a late evening walk as I was getting over jet lag from my recruiting trip to London (five hours’ time difference).

We said goodbye again to Owen as he returned to the USA for his final semester at Northern Michigan University. It was so nice to have him back with us for a few weeks and we are looking forward to attending his graduation ceremony in May. Nadia and I went shopping in the morning and as dutiful parents, stuffed his suitcase with stuff we thought he would need. He spent the night in Istanbul and will fly to Chicago this morning. He made the Dean’s List for the Fall Semester and wish him luck to finish is Bachelor’s degree strongly. He is considering his post-graduation life options. All of it is exciting at that age. Nadia and I of course were heartbroken to see him walk through immigration and to his gate. Everytime he comes back, he is a bit more independent, which is what he is supposed to be. Nadia and I are both trying to let go and allow him to forge his own path in life.

A highlight for me was walking with my middle son Oliver and taking our dog Obi out for a walk. Obi loves running around the school and it was cool to watch Oliver kick the soccer ball around again, like old times. We have two more weeks with him because St. Norbert College doesn’t start again until the last week in January. I am sharing a few more photos from our photoshoot with Alex on Friday.

Today is our last day of Winter Break and Nadia, Ocean and I are gearing up for a busy second semester of school.

We had a great day yesterday as a family. In the morning I was busy working but in the afternoon, I took time out to enjoy our final full day with Owen. Owen and I had a tennis training session with Coach Igor. Owen worked on his serve and ground strokes, I focused on my backhand. After the training, friends purchased a family photography session for us with local photographer, Alexandr Yugay. It was a late afternoon, sunny winter day in Anhor Park. Alex was kind and creative and we hope the photos turn out well. Nadia and I had a special moment together watching the kids as they were being photographed. It is amazing and wonderful that we created three lives and having the opportunity to share in their journey to adulthood. I am so fortunate to be a husband and father in a beautiful family.

After the photo shoot we took the kids clothes shopping and had a nice dinner at Kaspikya restaurant. We hung out at home afterwards and had a few laughs. We are going to struggle to get back to our regular sleeping timetable when they go. I post tennis videos for Owen and I to analyze and learn from. We are all looking forward to the start of the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open.

We played a spirited 2 hours of tennis yesterday at the Yunnusobod National Tennis Club. In the first doubles set, Owen and Nadia defeated Oliver and me 6-4. We then moved to rotating singles sets of three for the remaining time. Owen has surpassed all of us! Oliver was a bit rusty but is such a better player due to playing more. Both of them are good athletes. Nadia and I love tennis and spending time together with the boys was so rewarding.

We are looking forward to following the first Grand Slam Tournament of the season, the Australian Open. I read 1.1 million people attended last year’s AO over the two-week tournament. I usually do a post previewing the ATP season and this year is no exception. My favorite player, Novak Djokovic ended the 2024 season ranked #7. He is the last of the “Big Three” left and his defeating Carlos Alcaraz in last summer’s Olympics to earn his first Gold Medal was the highlight of the season. It was the one goal that he wanted to reach before retiring. He is 37 years old and is established as the greatest player of all time. Older players are always at risk of an injury ending their career, so I am hoping he can stay healthy and have a chance of getting another Grand Slam title. It is all gravy at this point in his career.

The top players, Jannick Sinner (#1 – 73 wins – 6 losses in 2024), Carlos Alcaraz (#3 54-13) and Daniel Medvedev (#5 46-21) are better than Nole at this point in his career. He will need some luck in the draws to get him a Grand Slam this season. I hope he gets one! There are several Americans who have stepped up, including Taylor Fritz (#4 53-23) and Tommy Paul (#12 45-19). I really would like an American to win a Grand Slam. It has been 22 years (2003) since Andre Agassi (Australian Open) and Andy Roddick (US Open) since an American won a Grand Slam. Fritz lost in the US Open final to Sinner last year. Can he or Tommy Paul get to the top? I also see Americans Frances Tiafoe (#18) Ben Shelton (#21) and Sebastian Korda (#22) sitting a couple of tiers below the top group. Other stories to watch is will Alex Zverev (#2 69-21) finally win a Grand Slam. He is the most successful player who never won a Grand Slam. Jannick Sinner is clearly the best player in the world and won 8 titles last season. I listened to a fascinating interview with John McEnroe on Andy Roddick’s podcast, Served. He pointed out the evolution of the game to bigger, taller players dominating play. Alcaraz will have to fight through that being only 6 feet tall, against Sinner, Zverev, Fritz, Medvedev, all over 6-4.

ohn Valiant reports on the May 2016 forest fire that burned the northern Alberta city of Fort McMurray. The remote north Canadian town is located near the Athabasca oil sands. The town serves the petroleum industry. The wildfire destroyed 2,500 homes and buildings and 88,000 needed to evacuate. The fire burned forest the size of Delaware and it took four years for fire fighters to put it out. Valiant tells the story of the history of northern Alberta and the development of the town. I lived in Venezuela for six years and understand the petroleum industry well. It is a typical oil town, going through periodic booms and busts, depending on the cost of a barrel of oil. Fort McMurray petroleum however is different from most areas due to the difficulty and high cost of extracting usable petroleum products from basically sandy bitumen, or as Americans call it, asphalt.

The ecology of the boreal forest depends on naturally occurring wildfires to renew life in the vast forests. The boreal forest in North America ranges from Alaska, through Canada down to my region of the upper Great Lakes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Trees like Black Spruce have combustible resin and fire occurs every 60 to 150 years, the fires clear thick understory of mosses, lichens, and shrubs. They usually occur in the spring and summer. Seed cones of the spruce trees need fire for germination and 5-10 years after a fire, a new generation of spruce seedlings rise up. The problem is climate change due to increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are causing longer and dryer summers. The intensity of wildfires is increasing. I remember two summers ago the skies of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan were hazy when we arrived in June due to Canadian wildfires.

The Fort McMurray Fire of 2016 was particularly intense and as Valiant points out, we should expect to see more of them in the coming decades. Humans don’t think about the cost of convenient fossil fuels transporting us around the globe and around town, hot showers, air conditioning, etc. We are not slowing down our rate of burning fossil fuels and the increasing CO2 content of the atmosphere is greatly altering our planet’s weather. Valiant gives a good history of climate change science. We have known that more CO2 and other byproducts of burning petroleum products causes temperatures to rise since the 19th century and the first oil wells. Humans have a hard time seeing gradual processeses impacting our long-term future. Fire management officials of the province underestimated the intensity and speed of the fire, much in part of not taking into account global warming. The ultra-dry forest bed, high winds, and low humidity were the perfect conditions for a mega wildfire. Incredibly everyone escaped (barely) but millions of dollars of property were lost. This is amazing as Valiant described bumper to bumper traffic going through flames and smoke on both sides of the only road out of town. I am sure the insurance companies will think twice about covering homes in the region in the future. .

Other things I took away from the book:

• I sympathize with the government official who has to decide to evacuate a city. He must have been under intense pressure, especially considering the impact on the petroleum industry where millions of dollars are lost daily if they need to shut down. I feel this a bit when deciding if we should close school when it is snowing. It is a much less intense level, but people’s lives are altered greatly if the kids need to stay home. I have to go with my best judgment with the data I have at the time to act in the best interest of the students. People may complain and it is easy to when you are not the person in the role of making the decision. It was a reminder to me not to bow to pressure.
  
• Lucretius Problem – This concept applies to risk management. When assessing risk, people look to the past for worst-case scenarios to predict future scenarios. It is natural to think that it is good to use past events to predict future events. What could be the worst thing that can happen? The “problem” is that disaster or “worst case” in the past, surpassed a previous “worst case” event. That means in the future, another more serious event could surpass anything that has happened previously. The idea is named after the Roman poetic philosopher Lucretius who wrote “a fool believes the tallest mountain in the world is the tallest mountain he has seen.” In other words, often we are limited by our own personal experience when assessing risk. Officials in Fort McMurray never experienced a wildfire as fierce as the one they encountered in May of 2016, hence they didn’t expect it to rip through the town.
  
• I come back to the “WUI” (rhymes with phooey) the Wild-Urban Interface. Modern sensibilities love this idea of having a house in the woods. “Hiking trails out the back door” and in the past 30 years, a third of American and half of Canadian homes are right in the WUI. Early settlers to America understood the safety of clearing forest around dwellings. I wonder if climate change will reverse this trend and more people moving back into towns and cities instead of having their 1-2 acres of forest around their house. I value connection with others over privacy and think more North Americans would be happier to be closer to neighbors and having a stronger sense of community.

As I finish this book, I am watching scenes of the wildfires in Los Angeles county. With hotter, drier conditions, more intense wildfires will take place. Besides the boreal forests, Australia, California, Spain, Italy, and many other locales around the world experience periodic wildfires.These will be more common in the coming years.

Today, January 7, is the Russian Orthodox Christmas and so I stopped in at the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin here in Tashkent. It was built in 1871 and has been remodeled and improved over the years. I went around 12:00 noon and there was a steady flow of people coming in to light candles and pray. There was no service taking place when I went. People were coming and going, and sales of cakes, bread, honey, and religious icons were brisk outside of the cathedral. I noticed that many Russian women cover their heads when entering the church. Orthodox churches are beautiful and designed to be awe-inspiring and the cathedral here in Tashkent is no exception. It is a beautiful place, with a main hall and two side halls that can also be used for a service. 12% of Christians worldwide are Orthodox and they use the Julian calendar which is 13 days behind the Gregorian Calendar. The Julian Calendar (named after Julius Ceasar) was the main world calendar from 45 BC to 1582 AD. The Julian calendar gains 3 days every 400 years. The Gregorian calendar promulgated by Pope Gregory is more accurate and takes away this drift. The Orthodox Church still uses the Julian Calendar, probably because the Catholics adopted it right away. It is only a religious calendar and the Russians here use the Gregorian calendar for civil purposes.