Sorry to start with the weather again, but the point is that there is definitely something wierd happening. Exactly a week ago, on the last week-end I was cold. And this week has been pretty warm. Well, "warm" is not the word to describe it, because during several days it was +25C. Now it's getting colder again. Like a sinusoid.

A typical East European autumn.. Yellow leaves, cold winds, drunk mugs.. In such a season there is a temptation to relax, and just watch the outside world and oneself. To go to nirvana until the spring comes. No way. My appartment here, which is very like Dracula's castle judging from Bram Stoker's description, with a lot of rooms and only one mirror, has got a problem this week. An outside glass in one of the windows got broken. The whole part of the glass had just gone, and I couldn't even notice any splinters on the still. Because of that it got much colder in my sleeping room. But that's not all. Barking of dogs every morning became louder. Once I even tried to find out how much it would cost to get a gun here, but then gave up because of its being too expensive. Kidding.

As to my Free software activities, recently I wrote an interface for dictionaries. Current name of the project is groan, though I'm looking for better names. Its aim is to replace the console version of slowo (Russian unix guys might know). Dictionary format of the latter is already supported by groan. Reading and searching dictionaries are performed pretty fast. The main idea is to create a universal UI for dictionaries of any language, with support both for local files and dict servers. Before the first version sees the world, I have only to finish the minimal doc and dialog for adding/removing dictionaries. I believe it'll be done during the next week.

By the way, I'm actively looking for Russian-Romanian or English-Romanian dictionary in text file or in any other format which can be converted into text. It would help me to attract Romanian users, and also to learn the language. Currently I have only two dictionaries in book format, which is not ok for me. I'd rather prefer something more digital, and not for Windows.

Here in Romania I'm frequently asked about impressions I have from the country. And every time I have to answer that something is to be written soon. It's gonna be a sequence of stories. Hope, next week I'll find one or two hours in the evening to spend for such a nice affair. I will start right with my coming to the country. Main ideas are already written down. So, prepare yourselves :)