The Simple Stuff

Full name: Illya Borisovich Lapko
Date of birth: November 17, 1990
Nationality: Ukrainian
Currently live in: Hong Kong, China
Previously lived in: Tampa, Florida, USA (2.5 years) and Mykolaiv, Ukraine (8 years)
Studying: First year undergraduate Business student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Getting Personal

Mac user I switched to Mac OS X in the summer of 2007 and have enjoyed my switch tremendously. I’m not one to go around and bash Windows, I still use it on occasion and I would have to be in denial to say that Windows doesn’t have some neat programs unavailable for OS X. In fact, Windows XP has become a very stable and tough OS. Just read my no-nonsense article about emulating Windows on a Mac and why I do it.

Cat person I have a 6 year-old male cat called “Ah Mao” which literally means “the cat” in Cantonese (Chinese dialect spoken almost exclusively in Hong Kong).

Reading Used to read a lot when I was younger, barely have any spare time or motivation to read nowadays. I read online newspaper articles often but haven’t read a novel since last year’s AP Literature class.

Music Rock. The only hip hop/rap bands I like are Eminem, Beastie Boys, and Run DMC. I’m also a big fan of 60s, 70s and 80s rock but there are a few decent British and American rock bands nowadays. Here’s a list (in no particular order, except Jimi):

Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, ACDC, Aerosmith, Eric Clapton (Cream), The Yardbirds, The Kinks, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Billy Joel, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, Uriah Heep, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kings of Leon, INXS, Guns n’ Roses, Franz Ferdinand, Eminem, Run DMC, Hard-Fi, Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Stealers Wheel, The Who, The Kinks, R.E.M., Madness, Coldplay, Elvis Presley, The Doors, The Verve, Rooney, Athlete, Queen, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, The Killers, Keane, The Kooks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Beatles, Bee Gees, The Eagles, Pink Floyd, Snow Patrol, Manic Street Preachers, The Rolling Stones, Travis, The Clash, The Fratellis, Green Day, Mumm-ra, The Jam, Dido, Robbie Williams, U2, Michelle Branch, Bob Marley, Dido, Boney M., Modern Talking, Sting, The Police, Gipsy Kings, and so much more.

This is what I’ve been listening to lately:

Movies The Godfather trilogy blew me away, I especially liked the third movie. Movies based on John Grisham novels are usually good too. But most movies make me happy. Seriously. Not much of a critic, obviously.

Hobbies/Interests I love the internet and I enjoy creating websites and finding hidden gems on the WWW.

I also have an interest for cars and like my tastes in music I prefer older cars, especially those from the 60’s and 70’s. Favorite car: 1968 Ford Mustang.

Traveling is something that I greatly enjoy and believe it or not I actually like long flights more than short ones because usually it means I’m going to someplace totally different from the place I left. I don’t even mind airplane food.

I’ve recently started learning how to play the guitar. Slowly but surely, someday I’ll be able to rock out. For those of you who know something about guitars, I have a Squier by Fender Strat Affinity Series which is considered a cheapo but it gets the job done.

Strange Stuff I think I might have a very mild case of “Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder”. You see when I have a stack of CD’s I like to line them up exactly with each other at right angles and try to make them have the same height when stacked. I also always have this knack to push books to the end of their shelves and I remember doing this a lot when I was younger and went to a library. This goes for videos and CD’s too. Don’t worry, I’m not a total freak and this may not even be OCPD but it’s the closest thing I’ve found.

Here’s a list of 7 things you’d probably never guess about me.

Religious? I am an atheist but I don’t bash people’s religions. As one of my teachers once said “The greatest gift from God is the freedom to choose whether to believe in Him or not”. But anyway, don’t even start trying to convert me.

So what are you actually good at? I guess design would be the best answer here. I love designing all sorts of things. Web design… I know HTML, CSS and an insignificant amount of PHP.

Apparently, I’m good with computers and have helped many people learn how to use them and troubleshoot their various problems.

About ilapko.com, The Blog

ilapko.com is my blog and personal website. Here I talk about whatever interests me, things I see around me and my opinions on all kinds of topics. I try to update this site quite often but lately, time has been an issue. As you can see I write about a wide range of topics on my blog. For those of you who aren’t all that interested in what I have to say, you can also take a look at what I see by checking out my photos on flickr.

This website is powered by WordPress, a powerful CMS/Blogging software that I can access anywhere that has a computer and an internet connection. The greatest thing about it, besides the great themes and plugins and helpful support, is that it is free (woot! for open source) and takes minutes to download and install on your server. All you need is a host with PHP and MySQL and you’re all set to run WordPress to write whatever you want.

I recommend Domainsite for buying and managing domains (only because I don’t know any better and it’s the only one I ever used).

By the way, this website is best viewed in pretty much any browser besides Internet Explorer. I honestly pity those who still use IE as their default browser. Come on guys, get Firefox!