MARINA SOKOLOVA

My book.

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.

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:

Jessica Watson.

While you and I can sit in a warm home with a cup of cocoa or whatever, a 16 years old girl, Jessica Watson is still sailing around the world all alone. While some of us are making New Years resolutions, she is already busy realising her great dream: to become the youngest person to sail around the globe alone. I think she is amazing and I hope she will succeed.

Facebuilding.

I don’t remember last time I tried a face cream. It was long time a go, when I was younger and more naïve. Currently, I own and occasionally use precisely 2 skincare products: lip balm, and hand cream. I don’t use anything special to wash my face either. I just use whatever is at hand: either a shampoo, or shower gel, or hand soap. It seems funny to me how some people would hope that a cream would make their face firmer. Or even funnier: some people would put plaster or cream on their bellies and hope that it would relieve them of the fat. In my personal experience the only things that made any difference to the appearance of my face are food, stress, and facercise. The last one made the most noticeable impact for me.

It is actually amazing how many people have heard of bodybuilding, but never considered facebuilding (even now, as I write this, the app highlights facebuilding as misspelled, but not bodybuilding), as if the face is made of different material and not out of muscles like the rest of the body. Whereas, in fact, facebuilding is much more rewarding than bodybuilding. The smaller the muscles, the faster the results. Most people I know, who practise it, say that they saw good results with in up to 2 weeks. And it is not just about firmness of the muscles. Blood flow from exercises delivers more collagen and other nutrients to the skin as well.

I, personally, have already tried a number of books and videos by Barbara Currie, Tessa Thomas, Juliette Kando, and Carole Maggio. They are all good in many ways. Currently, I am using one of Carole Maggio’s videos. I think that her exercises give me the best impact for my neck and under chin area. I feel that front of the neck is my problem area. I know this makes me sound quite vain about my appearance, but I thought I would share my experience anyway. And may be it would help someone, who still thinks there is a miracle pill, or cream, or whatever. Nope, this is meritocracy in action. It doesn’t meter how much money you spend, it is about how much work you put in.

Small claim.

After few years of being a freelancer in the UK, I have filed my very first small claim. It is against one of my clients- EuroAsiaIndusty magazine, or to be more precise against a company that owns it - CBS Media Ltd. No, it has nothing to do with that American media conglomerate. It is a small new company based in Norfolk, UK. And I have no idea why they copied a name of the much bigger company. They failed to pay for some of the articles they ordered from me, did not dispute my invoices, and ignored my reminders. I feel like I was left with no choice, but to file a small claim. The claim’s number is 9QZ43305, Sokolova vs CBS Media Ltd.

To be honest, I hate chasing payments and the situation feels quite frustrating. I will post updates on how the case will proceed. I guess, on the good side, I will at least gain some experience to do with litigation and learn some new legal terms.

Update

Work.

I am currently working on series of articles for one British business magazine. It involves interviewing directors or representatives of some of the biggest companies in Russia and other FSU countries. I conduct these interviews on the phone from home obviously. After interviewing about a couple of dozen companies so far, I noticed that recent economic crisis has seemed to do them more good than bad, especially for the big companies in Russia. Everyone says the same thing. The fact that at first sales did decline a little, but then they noticed an increase in demand for many Russian products both from Russian consumers and from the west. It seems that the price of the rouble in relation to other more expensive currencies made it cheaper to buy many types of supplies in Russia. Most of the companies I have talked to so far are actively working on projects to conquer new markets. Many recently signed new big contracts to export their products. And producers of helicopters, for example, even said that they are as overwhelmed with orders as they always have been and have built up an about 2 year waiting list.

 

Raw materials, like coal for example, are seemed to be bought by China a lot. And more complicated products such as processed egg products or fluoropolymers are going more often to Europe. The Middle East seems to buy from them through Europe. But few companies are starting to recognise it as a separate market with a potential and have made plans to sell to Middle Eastern consumers directly. Some of the companies that I talked to are so huge, they are either already world’s leaders or have less than few competitors in other counties. Some of them said that they even actively participate in forming the legislation that would benefit them as producers. Which I guess it is a quite normal thing to do for big companies, but for me it is all very new and I find it very interesting.

 

I never wrote on business topics for money before, especially not on so many different types of industries, so I learned a lot of new things recently. For example: did you know that mayonnaise and crabmeat sticks are made of processed eggs? I didn’t.

Update on Associated Content Scam.

Here is the story for those who haven’t read it yet: http://marinasokolova.com/2009/08/beware-of-a-scam-associated-content.html

 

They haven’t replied. They still exploiting my property (which they never paid me a single penny for, in case you are wondering) against my will, only now they removed my name as the author and put number 1 instead of my name. Seriously? Are they for real? I just can’t believe this lol.

The battle over domestic work.

Has it ever occurred to you that women who constantly complain that their male partners don’t want or cant do their share of domestic or parenting chores are lying, may be even to themselves.

 

I know a person who moans about it all her life. In fact she likes to complain about many things and, having been young and naïve myself, I used to pity her immensely and used to think of her as a victim of her life. And then, one day, when a male relative started to wash the dishes to help clear up after dinner, she furiously stopped him and proudly proclaimed that in her house males don’t wash the dishes. My jaw dropped. This was the moment I stopped pitying her and started wondering what is really behind the complaints about males “not helping”. With years I realised that, although there are some slobs of either gender, many of the cases when a woman complains about him not doing domestic chores, in my personal opinion, are just a convenient and easy way to feel important or indispensable, to get a cheap realisation of her self, or even use it as the reason to terrorise the partner, make him feel guilty, sap his emotional energy. This woman would panic and feel obsolete if suddenly her male partner realised that he can do anything she can and these women would never allow that to happen.

 

For example, on one of the many flyladies’ forums there was a post recently about why she, the author of the post, thinks that a male should not do domestic chores, which has reminded me about this topic again. She says: “My friends often ask me why I don’t use the vacuum cleaner much. Ofcourse, it is a very useful tool. However, when I am home alone I usually read, write, or do other interesting things. When my husband comes home, I start to do domestic chores, so he can really feel the degree of importance of my work. On other hand it is too cruel to enlarge his already big insecurities by using a vacuum cleaner while he vulnerably stares into the TV”. This is hilarious. I guess I can understand her instinctive effort to secure her job, but still… 

Beware of a scam: Associated Content.

Not the thing to be associated with, I tell you. They supposedly offer a service for writers to offer content for sale through them or at least be paid per view. A load of b*llocks, I tell you. They can’t write so they are after your intellectual property.

 

I decided to try out their service with one small article (below), loaded it on, waited for few months. Result: nothing on the account, but few pennies, literally (which they, btw, stole when I closed that account with them later). I decided they are not up for the job and went on the site to remove my content. Here is where it gets really interesting. There is a catch. You can’t remove your content. You have to write to them and ask them to do it. Which is what I did. Eventually, after number of days, someone called admin replied, telling me I cant remove the article from their site, because supposedly, as they imagine, I gave them free exclusive rights forever and ever. Bullsh*t, I never gave up any rights. So I wrote again to whoever it is that it is my property and I want to remove it from their site. They are yet to reply.

 

Scammers everywhere, if you are looking to make money on written content, then why don’t you, for a change, take a pen or keyboard in your hands and try working yourself. Just try once, you might like it.

 

And now, the long suffering article that this huge battle is all about:

 

Fighting Blackheads

by Marina Sokolova

 

Blackheads are a very common skin problem, which is considered to be a symptom of acne. They are usually found in the area across forehead and down the nose and chin, also know as a T-zone. That is because sebaceous glands there are usually more active than in other skin areas. Sometimes blackheads can also be found on other areas of the face, neck, chest, back, shoulder, and arms.

 

Cause of blackheads.

 

Blackheads appear when sebum (the skin’s natural oil), toxins that are expelled through the skin and dead skin cells create a pasty glue and it hardens in the pores. When the tip of the plug is exposed to the air, it becomes oxidized and turns black.

 

Such processes can be caused by unhygienic living habits, wrong eating habits, and chronic constipation. Wrong eating habits mean an excessive consumption of starch, sugar, fried and fatty foods, tea, coffee, alcohol, and tobacco. Where as chronic constipation is a cause because it overburdens the skin with excess waste that

is being absorbed into blood stream after not been disposed of with bowel movement.

 

Preventing blackheads.

 

· Regularly wash the dirt, oil, and cosmetics off the face. Facial cleansers that contain salicylic acid help the most.

· Once a month pamper your self with a facial.

· Exfoliate the face 3 times a week using facial scrubs.

· Use creams containing Alpha Hydroxy Fruit acids, also known as AHA’s, every 3 days.

· Keep your hair a way from the face and try not to touch your face with unwashed hands.

· Use masks with a clay base.

· When you choose skin-care products try to buy only those that are marked as noncomedogenic, which means that it does not clog pores and does not cause blackheads. It would be nice if they are also oil-free, and without added perfume and colorants. 

 

Removing blackheads.

 

One of the most popular ways to remove blackheads is squeezing them out. It is usually done either using fingers or with a help of blackhead extractor. This is a little instrument that looks like a metal stick with a loop at one end. Pressing the loop around the blackhead cause it to pop out through the loop. If you use your fingers wrap them in tissues and gently roll against opposite sides of the blackhead.

 

It is difficult to squeeze out blackheads without steaming the pores, which will

cause them to open. If you have broken capillaries on your face do not steam your face, as it will make them worse. Otherwise steaming can be done up to twice a week for no longer than 10 minutes at a time.

 

If you can’t steam there is other ways to loosen the blackheads:

· Combine ¼ cup of boiled water with one teaspoon of Epsom salt and three drops of iodine. Soak a cotton pad with this mixture and dab on the blackheads.

· Combine equal parts of baking soda and water and rub in on your skin for a couple minutes, then rinse with water.

 

Not everyone likes squeezing either so there is number of other popular ways of dealing with blackheads out there:

· Pore strips can be bought from supermarkets or pharmacies and used to remove debris from pores.

· Moderate sunbathing clears blocked pores.

· Sponging a clean face with milk everyday.

· Applying warm honey on the face for 15 minutes.

· Applying grated potatoes like a face mask for 15-20 minutes.

· Applying grated cucumber over the face eyes and neck for 20 minutes will not only remove pimples and blackheads but will tone up the whole area.

· Mix couple of tablespoons of kaolin with a drop of water will get an easily spreadable paste. Apply it in a thick layer over blackheads and wait for it to dry. The blackheads will come off with it when you pull it off.

 

If you have tried methods above and they did not help you, speak to your doctor about getting a prescription for Retin-A or similar acne medicine. It is a strong

exfoliant that clears black heads, peals off dead skin, speeds up cell renewal, and reduces oil production. The skin may appear flaky at first because of the pealing, but the good result is visible within few weeks.