When I feel like writing... I'll let you know

Dropbox, a way to keep backup of files and competitors

2010-04-08T10:26:00.002+03:00

I've been using dropbox for more than a year to keep an online backup of my work, so that even if all my computers crash simultaneously my data will be safe and sound at the "cloud". The free online data-storage is 2GB and recently this free space can be augmented to 10GB (thank god for the competition), by sending invitations to other people (spam me baby). To get ME more online data-space one can follow this address:
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTE2MTc1NTk
and add for me a few MB of free space.
Nice move, since the major competitors offer so much more than just an online synchronization folder.

So the newest addition is the UbuntuONE. Take notice that currently works only on the ubuntu Operating System, although there is an ongoing work from users to port the service to different linux OSes.
What does this service offers:
First of all You got 2GB of personal free data by subscribing to the service.
Then you got access to the UbuntuONE music store, like the itunes/apple store,
you can sync your bookmarks, and share them with the your contacts
and synchronize any folder outside the ubuntuONE folder.
And if I'm not mistaken the announcements still continue to add more features.

Also there is
SugarSync
that is the same as dropbox, but mostly oriented as a paid service, with cheaper service fees, from dropbox (users can sign up for a 10GB plan ($4.99/month, $49.99/year), and offering so much more if you willing to pay, from dropbox (ex. 20GB, unlimited access of files from more than 2 PCs, keeps history backups of more than 2 files back, mp3 streaming from the cloud to every device and more...) and the big one is the ability to synchronize files outside the synch-folder. More on the Sugarsync here.
But I prefer dropbox, since I need only 2GB, and I got almost all the privileges of the paid plan (one thing I don't get is the ability to access more than one history backup file). If you interested in the paid serveices here is a comparison made from the SugarSync developers, no UbuntuONE there.
Also SugarSync supports most of the popular smartphones, BUT there IS NO Linux Support (a great minus for me)

Then there is the BIG announcement for a collaboration between the two rivals, KDE and GNOME (both are leaders in graphical desktop environments for Linux platforms) for the development of a FLOSS Alternative to Dropbox. One that will be opensource, and offer much more than dropbox (don't ask me what)

So, click on the link for the dropbox, to get me more MB, and see you when I see you.

History always goes in circles

2009-12-11T22:46:00.006+02:00

I've done some reading and a proverb by Aristotle made me wonder of the current political and economical situation in Greece.

It goes as this:

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime

About the current situation an about the things to come and I'm not an optimist or pessimist.

And another more famous to be added to the context:

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen

Here comes the Grooveshark

2009-10-24T14:35:00.005+03:00

Well, no time no see. I've been doing a lot of things at this moment so no time to posting anything. But I would like to share this one with you.

It's about a good alternative site to Last.fm that i'm listening to it for a while now.

Grooveshark

hope that you'll like it

the last days of Last.fm

2009-05-06T00:35:00.004+03:00

I was expecting that one a long time ago.

But it was today, as I was at the institute (interpretation vary), doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, listening to "my music" from last.fm, I got a message, a ridiculous one, from that company asking for subscription fees to continue listening to "my radio station"!!!. And the irony was that this warning came up while a song from Radiohead's last album was playing. An album that was freely distributed from the Internet, for anyone who cared to download it.

The fee is 3 money metrical units, per month. Radio stations will never play the music I listen to, but are free, full of advertisements but there are some producers that still play great music. So I removed every last.fm program I had installed or script placed in this blog, since there is no meaning. I will think of removing my account from their site, since I can access any other information without an account from the Last.fm webpage.

The most annoying part is the press release about the transforming of the company to a pay-to-listen service, that states that three countries will continue to listen to their radio stations freely, what if all the other services are still free, I do not care. It was a good thing that I could listen to my personal music selection everywhere I could get a connection to the Internet.

If I find anything similar I will let you know.

indie music

2009-04-04T02:47:00.005+03:00

Amazon.com, has posted a very interesting article (not an article though, more like a list) about the top 100 indie albums of all time. It is a good list and I think that it will remind us of albums we listen back then, most of them I still listen to, actualy. It is a good opportunity to check out albums and groups that never had the time or the opportunity to listen to, cause this list got me unprepared. I never heard for example the early works of Eliot Smith, even "better" I never heard any album of Neutral Milk Hotel or Unrest or Slint and many more, and it is with great surprise that I found them at the very first of this list, between the top 10. I hope that this list will be a starting point to learn about differentiality in music (if I have grasped the meaning of indie this could be a good point), to listen to new tunes (some of the groups are no longer active, others keep it on for more than 20 years) and to talk about the music (or the list).

so the link to the list is here

By the way I can not understand under what criteria belle and sebastian's "If You're Feeling Sinister" is at this list and not the "The Boy with the Arab Strap"...maybe the selection was based upon the album that make the band known to a wider audience. Who knows...

The Day We Stuffed Our Pockets With Stones

2009-03-20T17:18:00.001+02:00

When? I can not remember.
How, I don't know, and I do not care, since everything is alright now. And this is what matters, present tense.
I’m sure it started when I was young, not even old enough to smoke or drink, but old enough to work for our survival.
A vague sensation stays in me, hunting me, till those days…of those days.

it was during the days of the Great Winds. When all living things stayed underground, not because of the polar cold, or the extreme heat, or the radioactive pollution, or of alien invasion and overflow of land by sea, but rather of windstorms, hurricanes, fiercely traveling through the empty space of soil, constantly moving a huge amount of dust, among other things, that could reap one’s flesh to the bone. Only grass could survive the winds, and the ecosystem developed to live under those conditions.
They did get one thing straight, those scientists of the old times, environmental changes were imminent, but in unpredictable ways. No one could ever get the small details that would define the true outcome of the changing. And one factor was still there, the sun, shining as ever, heating the equator in temperatures never before reached on the earth’s surface. But the poles, although hotter than before, were still cold enough to create a temperature difference from the equator, and that vast difference in temperature was enough to create hurricanes, speedy winds with devastating results. The ground above was a mess, with only the strongest of human’s creations standing.
A few people had clearance to surface to the ground above, for maintenance of the communication systems, the only machines operating at ground level, necessary for our communication with other remaining colonies. All those colonies spread around the world strived to create the kind of civilization existed before. Those were the ones still remembering the influence they had back then, the power.
The survival of the fitness was number one rule, nowadays. There was no meaning for ownership, since you never had something under your possession for too long. There was always someone, bigger, stronger, smarter to take your items, sooner or later.
That was one of the reasons we always carry stones in our pockets, for protection. Small enough not to restrain us in our flee, but big enough to inflict damage when it was necessary. We always moved in groups. The safety provided by numbers, by people you trusted was one of the factors that catalyzed the formation of groups.
Things were far from good, especially for older people who had known the sensation of the sky above their heads. They were under pressure, of an unknown kind to the ones born in the tunnels, they were alone, lost. The few ones still remaining.
Every day the population of the colony decreased, not by illness, but mostly from suicides and sudden bursts of violence, that ended up in a blood bath. The ones responsible for those actions were the old ones, the fossils of the ground above, the “grounders”.
I was just 15 years old by the time it started. My assignment was to monitor and service the communication center. I was one of the the few people, that had special training and special protected armor that could overcome the hardness of the winds above, an armor weight more than a ton, that could be operated with electric power for its movement. Only small children could operate those machines, since only undersized people could fit into that robotic armor. Once in a week or when malfunction was reported, I was away from the security of the underground. Into the void, that always brought me nausea. Because of the winds the visibility was reduced to no more than a few steps away. The exit point had been designed to be no more than that distance away from the machines.
Days passed by, routine faded the sensation of time. Our time in this superior position was almost at the end, we could no longer be of the ones wearing the budge of maintenance, with the armor engraved on it. Soon we were going to stop being untouchable, our marks would be passed down to younger ones…but we didn’t care. At least we would be away from the void that swarmed above. The horrible twilight of the morning or the deepest darkness of the night. Even in the deepest caves there were some light to lighten the path so that none would get lost

It was that time that I realized the unthinkable, i can remember that much, when my...when our expectation for the future altered.
As I was above, doing the week’s inspection, I spotted, far away, something that seemed to me as a ray of light breaking through the dust. Never again for decades had anyone seen the sun that should be somewhere there. I could never believe what I saw, and certainly I would had ignored it. Next week I had the night shift. And the week after nothing happened out of the ordinary to recall the previous incident. After two months I had forgotten all about that incident. As I was above, doing what I had to do, I looked over from small window in the direction where the sky should be. I was lucky cause I was not looking for it. Once again the manifestation of he improbable was up ahead. It was there a faint passage of pure light through the innumerable particles of dust , but it was there, I was astounded, it was mine, and I would never share it with no one. I counted the days, the nights when I could be above, when one of those rays would illuminate me. It took my a while to ask the question, to wonder what could produce this magnificent effect. I never was a bright one, so I didn't care. But, one day while I was above trying to finish the task before me, looking over for the light, it came to me the answer I was looking for. As I was looking at the stream of light, memories of old teachings filled my thoughts, about the harsh climate of the air above, of the speedy winds carrying tones of dust, and more. And then I knew, I knew what I was seeing. This manifestation, could mean only one thing. The winds were breaking up, wind's velocity was dropping enough, for the dust to settle on the ground after decades.

I had to test it. I had to know if winds were as dangerous as described by the tales of people of the old times.

When my turn came up I grubbed one of the rats swarming the place underground, strapped it to my armor and surfaced. I finished my routine and I descended back to the familiar moist, to see the results of my experiment. I was astounded, the rat had suffered great damage, but was still alive. Not for long anyway, cause a couple of hours latter was dead...

I didn’t know what to do with the information, as I was reviewing the results of the test, the observation of the past months, the tales, the facts, the science, something from deep inside me came to feel me up, and I started to smile, it was a discreet twitch of the lips, it was for the first time in my life the sensation of hope, the one feeling forgotten.

Every time i ascended a guinea pig would face the wind for me. Would let me know...
...would let me know of what? What I was thinking, what was the point of these actions...I could not thing straight. But, I knew that this battle inside me had a reason. I knew that it was time for me to ascend to the surface. And this thought, this belief was far from the teachings of our world. The surface, the air above was forbidden. But, all the tests were successful and a hard layer of protective clothes were enough to diminish the effects of the harsh winds. Animals strapped with thick clothes could survive for more than an hour, without even a scratch. A full helmet and goggles, and filters for my nose, mouth ears to protect them from the vicious dust, those were enough to protect me.
But by the time I felt ready for the task, I had lost my permission to use the armors,. So even if I wanted to get out, the only way would be without the safety of 10 cm metal. There was no other way. I wanted to fell the air.
I studied old maps of the area not that I would ever leave the spot, but to be able to imagine the area around me.

...the time had come. I strapped myself in old clothes, I could get my hands on, fixed a metal helmet, took gloves, boots, goggles, anything I could get my hands on. The docking station was empty as it always was. No one would ever come near the last frontier of the caves, if it was not necessary. Pressed the big red button and the hatch opened with a hiss. The wind was fierce, from the smallest cracks was pouring a significant amount of dust into the station. But I was OK. The hatch was almost half open but I closed it immediately. I felt as light as a feather, the wind almost got me of the ground. I need to be heavier. I grubbed my old coat and filed once more its pockets with stones. This time with large ones, heavy stones, even scrap metal. When I felt heavy enough I pushed the red button and waited for the hatch to reopen. This time was even better. I felt my feet firmly close to the ground. I didn't feel anypain, or dysphoria, as it was expected. I could even breath right, although without the mask I would have choked to death from the dust.
And for the first time I could breath fresh air, dry air. I looked up the twilight was there. I closed the hatch behind me. I could not afford for anyone to find me out here in the open, for as long as it lasted I wanted this only for me.

I was happy and I knew that the time of our resurface had come. We waited long enough in the darkness, suffered from the errors of the past.

When science projects...

2009-03-04T19:33:00.000+02:00

...become interesting again.

The following article was posted on daylymail and got me smiling. Although, I have stopped to post news, this one got my attention and I thought that it will be nice to share it with you. A bunch of Spanish students could get pictures of the "outer space" (ok not so outer, just of the stratosphere) using a simple digital photographic camera attached to a helium balloon. Total cost of their science project about 60 euros, or the cost of the camera. Innovation and knowledge does not require lots and lots of money to get children learn a few things. And I'm sure that they got their minds off the boring stuff of everyday-life.

Μελλοντικη Μπουρδολογια του Παρελθόντος

2009-01-11T13:20:00.002+02:00

Απόσπασμα από την υποθετική αλληλογραφία δύο υποθετικών προσώπων σε υποθετικό χωροχρόνο για τις επιδράσεις των ναρκωτικών όχι μόνο στον χρήστη αλλά και στον περίγυρο του.

Τι γίνεσαι ωρέ Κοκσάκης; καιρό έχουμε να ακούσουμε νέα σου, αλλά διαβάζουμε τις ιστορίες σου, πολύ καλές δε λέω αλλά τα ναρκωτικά πού σκατά τα βρίσκεις; μα καλά τέτοιο τριπάρισμα, φοβερό. Όμως από παρενέργειες πως είναι, όπως επίδραση 24 ώρες το 24ωρο ακόμα και μετά την διακοπή της χορηγίας.
Να υποθέσω ότι ετοιμάζεις βιβλίο; γιατί αν ναι θα σκάσει από το κακό του ο φανταράκος...
"και μαθηματικός και γράφει και λογοτεχνικά βιβλία...σκατά, που βαδίζει αυτός ο κόσμος"
και άλλα τέτοια θα σκέφτεται εν ώρα γερμανικού σκοπέτου.
Το χειρότερο βεβαίως είναι η άτυπη πνευμονία, το αμέσως χειρότερο η σκέτη πνευμονία, και το υπέρτατο ο Φόρις, του οποίου τα τα κατορθώματα αν δεν τα ξέρεις μπορώ άνετα να στα μεταφέρω, αν βέβαια με πιάσει η όρεξη για κουτσομπολιό την οποία αυτή τη στιγμή δε διαθέτω, ο οποίος Φόρις, επανέρχομαι θα σκέφτεται...αν σκέφτεται αυτή την περίοδο (μακάριοι οι εκτός του γνωστού κόσμου περιπλανώμενοι)...ότι
"πάει ο καλός μου ο φίλος το κολλητάρι μου, αυτός με τον οποίο σκαρώναμε την επανάσταση, στον οποίο στήριζα την επανάσταση, με πρόδωσε για χάρη των κολοναρκωτικών...αχχχχχ που να πνίξω τον πόνο μου"
και θα τον πνίξει σα το κουνέλι, μάλλον, ίσως πιο σωστά την κότα, και ίσως γίνει και γερός αλκοολικός...
οπότε επανερχόμαστε στον Sfiltro, ο οποίος για ακόμα μια φορά θα δεχτεί ισχυρό πλήγμα, θα απογοητευτεί από τις επιδόσεις του στο αλκοόλ και στις γκόμενες, πλήγμα που το δέχεται βεβαίως βεβαίως από τις επιδόσεις του Φόρι, για τις οποίες κανείς δε ξέρει τίποτα αλλά κάτι πρέπει να υπάρχει για να ασχολιόμαστε, η μπορεί και να μην υπάρχει τίποτα, αλλά και πάλι κάτι θα φτιαχνόταν ώστε να έχουμε να ασχολιόμαστε με κάτι ακόμα και αν είναι άτοπο.
Μάλλον δε θα αντέξει την ντροπή της μη αντοχής στο αλκοόλ ("τις γυναίκες ποιος τις γαμεί..".) και μέσα σε μια νύχτα μεγίστης κρίσης η μεταμόρφωση θα πραγματοποιηθεί και πλέον στα χέρια μας θα μείνει μόνο ο "Βασιλάκης".
Τελικά ο Λιάκουρας βλέποντας την κατάντια των φίλων του αλκοόλ, drugs και "Βασιλάκης" θα ξεκόψει εντελώς από την παρέα, θα παντρευτεί με όποια είναι εκείνη την περίοδο, γιατί "που να ψάχνουμε για γυναίκες τέτοια εποχή, και βρέχει έξω, το μαλλί δε προλαβαίνω να το φτιάξω, και για να μην ξεχνιόμαστε, άμα δεν έχει και λίγο κρέας το πράγμα δε το φχαριστιέσαι"
οπότε ο Λιάκουρας μπαμπάς, με κάτι πιτσουνάκια, με θέση στο δημόσιο, τιμητική θέση στο γυμναστήριο, με δώρο μια ώρα στο μασάζ, διαμονή μακριά από την Αθήνα τον τόπο διαμονής των πρώην φίλων του (πάντα, όμως, κοιτάζει που βρίσκονται)
Ο koxakies από την άλλη μόνιμος κάτοικος πλέον του εξωτερικού, εδώ και καιρό έχει ασπαστεί την Αμερικάνικη κουλτούρα και ιδεολογία και πιστεύει ότι ο
"Θάμνος ο νεότερος, δεν ήταν και τόσο χάλια ντε"
έχει γίνει ο κλασσικός μαλάκας, αλλά μεγάλο μυαλό,φοβερός μαθηματικός, τον οποίο τα Ελληνικά Πανεπιστήμια θέλουν για μεταγραφή για τον τελικό του διαγωνισμού "επίλυσης του τετραγωνισμού του κύκλου με απιθανολογικές προσεγγίσεις". Αυτός δεν υποκύπτει σε μαλάκες εξω-ΝΑΤΟικούς (η ΕΕ πλέον είναι ανεξάρτητο κράτος, 5 χρόνια μετά την καθολική επικράτηση των αριστερών στοιχείων στο πολιτικό παρασκήνιο, και προσκήνιο), αλλά γενικώς όλοι γνωρίζουμε ότι δε πρόκειται να έρθει εν στην ΕΕ γιατί οι μπασταρδεμένες ασιατικές φιγούρες σπανίζουν πλέων εντός των πυλών,ένα φετίχ που δε μπορεί να αποβάλει ακόμα.
Επαφή πλέον έχει μόνο με τον Φόρι, ο οποίος αποτελεί τον καταλυτικό μηχανισμό για τον απόσχιση της ΕΕ από το ΝΑΤΟ και της κήρυξης της ανεξαρτησίας της, φήμη βεβαίως που διαδίδεται από τους γνωστούς τύπους, και ο λόγος που το κάνει αυτό, ο koxakies, παρόλο που έρχεται σε αντίθεση με την παρούσα ιδεολογία του είναι η μεγάλη απήχηση που έχει με αυτό τον τρόπο στις νεαρές υπάρξεις και χωρίς να το παραδεχτεί η συνομιλία μαζί του κατά περίεργο και υπερφυσικό τρόπο οδηγεί σε διαρκώς και μεγαλύτερες επιστημονικές επιτεύξεις, καθιερώνοντας πέρα για πέρα το όνομά του στους πάπυρος της επιστήμης, για την συμβολή της θεωρίας των αριθμών και των πιθανοτήτων στην επικοινωνία με άλλους πολιτισμούς (αυτή η θεωρία πρέπει να αναπτύχθηκε κατά την διάρκεια της ενασχόλησής του με τα ναρκωτικά, ίσως την δημιουργικότερη περίοδο του, ακόμα μια προσωπική παρεμβολή, στα γεγονότα πάλι) επίτευγμα τόσο σημαντικό όπως και της αναγωγής μετά από τουλάχιστον 150 χρόνια από την ίδρυσης της. Ο Βασσιλάκης-Sfiltros, ξεπέρασε τα προβλήματά του με την εμφύτευση μονάδων στο σώμα του, τα οποία επιτυχώς και για καλή του τύχη οδήγησαν σε αύξηση των επιδόσεών του στο ποτό, στις γυναίκες και στους κριτικούς (όχι σε αυτούς που μένουν στην Κρήτη) σε αφάνταστα επίπεδα, με αποτέλεσμα να επιτύχει ότι πάντα ονειρευόταν. Την καταξίωσή του ως συγγραφέα (αν και η μυστήρια εξαφάνιση του Δύδιμου και η ταυτόχρονη απώλεια χειρόγραφων διηγημάτων του άγνωστου, γνωστού ως Δύδιμου -μόνο τα ποιήματά του κατάφερε να εκδώσει, για τα πεζά κανείς δεν ήξερε τίποτα-, μπορεί και να μην είναι τόσο τυχαία...) την κατανάλωση απερίγραφτων ποσοτήτων αλκοόλ και τις επιδόσεις του στις γυναίκες σε επίπεδα ΚΟΡΚΑ (: μυθικό πλάσμα που βασίλευε στην περίοδο 1985-2006, όπου και παντρεύτηκε, με το μοναδικό προσόν της πανταχού αναγνώρισης στο γυναικείο φύλο, εκφράσεις όπως "το κάνει σαν τον ΚΟΡΚΑ" και άλλα έχουν παγιωθεί, από την εγκυκλοπαίδεια).

Ο Λιάκουρας, 'οπως προαναφέρθηκε πάντα παρακολουθούσε τις κινήσεις των φίλων του με τρόπο ύπουλο που φανέρωνε ζήλεια αλλά και δέος, τελικώς κατάλαβε το λάθος του, που όμως δε μπόρεσε να επανορθώσει (ποιό λάθος είναι αυτό ακόμα το ψάχνουν και τι θα επανορθώσει και αυτ΄οδε το γνωρίζουμε), γιατί η παντόφλα δε τον αφήνει (ακόμα και σε αυτόν τον χωροχρόνο η παντόφλα δεσπόζει), οπότε μάλλον η ιστορία του είναι μικρή και αδιάφορη, όμως αν εξετάσουμε την κατάσταση καλύτερα στο πρόσωπό του διακρίνουμε ένα τελευταίο απομεινάρι του παραδοσιακού πατέρα (όποις είναι αυτός)
Τέλος, στην ιστορία υπάρχουν και άλλοι ακόμα, όπως και ένας που ζει στην κοσμάρα του, άξιο λόγο για τον οποίο δε μπορώ να έχω

ΤΕΛΟΣ
(2004)

Το παραπάνω είναι ασυνάρτητο, ανορθόγραφο, ασύντακτο, άχρονο, ατονικό και άγχρωμο.
οποιαδήποτε ομοιότητα με τον οποιαδήποτε μπορεί και να υπάρχει, μιας και ότι γράφουμε και λέμε πηγάζει από τα βιώματά μας. Αν δεν αρέσει ή προσβάλει θα μπορούσα να πω ότι χέστηκα αλλά φοβάμαι τισ μηνύσεις μιας και πλεόν τρως μήνυση απλά επειδή είπες καλημέρα, και άμα την πεις και σε καναν ματατζί μπορεί να βρεθείς και νεκρός.

Pearl Jam, Athens 2006

2008-11-20T20:13:00.004+02:00

Driving on a rainy morning (the sun could be up, but heavy clouds obscure the rays to end their journey) from home to work, I plugged in the car stereo my mp3 player. As always in Athens a rainy day equals to hours inside the vehicle just to go to work. So my mp3 player is my only remedy. I resume listening to Orishas, a good group mixing hip-hop with traditional Cuban music/rhythms, and as "el kilo" was finishing, from the speakers came the sound of clapping from a live show.
"Go" was starting to play and I was transfered once more into the stadium...
The band was on time and as soon as the clock ticked the eighth hour of the evening Eddie with his friends stepped into, through screams of joy and excitement.
Two years and almost two months ago, I was present in one great evening, an evening with Pearl Jam. The first track of the evening felt as a trip through time, years ago, still at high school. "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town" had me singing and it was just the beginning.
I still had a long way to work and I was happy about it. As soon as it finished we received a surprise call from our friend from Spain, and as soon I got to talk with him Pearl Jam was playing "Given To Fly". One of my favorites, one of Pearl Jam's best songs, and I was remembering how excited I was talking with him and listening to the song (the conversation lasted for a few seconds, but that was enough!).
As soon as I was trying to find a parking space, Eddie was presenting his "wish list". The first part of the concert was over, I closed the stere,o got out of the car and patiently was letting time slip away so that I could hit the road.
Play button and "Insignificance, Jeremy, Better Man", got me to the last traffic lights before show down of evening's traffic jam.
The first Encore started with "Footsteps" and we were still at the middle of the evening, sun was descending, leaving hopeless drivers looking for a small fracture in the continuity of endless metal to fill in. In between Pearl Jam's songs a small tribute to Pink Floyd, "Daughter (Another Brick In The Wall)" and Jimmy Hendrix, " Yellow Ledbetter(Little Wing)" which closed the evening and some greater with the Band to thank Ramones, by performing "I Believe In Miracles" and Neil Young by performing " Rockin' In The Free World".
And then the lights were on, lifting away the anonymity, the crowd was exposed to the Band, but even under the heavy light the crowd was happy, was singing was dancing. The band finishing with " Yellow Ledbetter(Little Wing)" waving to everyone of us...

Memory

2008-07-25T22:30:00.004+03:00

It was an ordinary day in the lab, an unpleasant one, since I was In the Lab, and one of the hottest days of July the last days of July. I was sitting on a stool, mixturing some liquids in a small tube. In order to avoid any unforgivable mistake, I had blocked out every distraction, the chattering people, the music from the radio, the boss asking various information needed to be answered. Everything was but a blur, I was just counting every μl and memorizing each ingredient I've used, so that the steps would be imprinted in my memory, long enough to transcribe them to a piece of paper, at the end of the experiment, for future evaluation.
But memory works in mysterious ways. No one knows which memory, information, or whatever, is stored in the brain, patiently waiting for the moment that it will be retrieved. No one knows what is hidden deep into the labyrinth of myriads of synapses between an equal amount of neurons. How all that information is being organized, archived, does any kind of indexing exists, that will facilitate the immediate and specific extraction of long forgotten information? Or, rather, there is no organization, everything is in chaos, so that enormous amount of data could be stored in that gelatinous part of our bodies called brain.
I had blocked out everything, but just the smallest distraction could blow everything in the air. So, when a colleague of mine opened one of those advertising handkerchiefs used for cleaning up our hands after a meal, a soft ,but not so delicate, lemon aroma diffused into the lab. It was not the first time that I had smelled that aroma, as those handkerchiefs are common.
For some reason at that particular moment and within a relative small amount of time every function ceased, I blacked out and my brain filled with all the data that had been unlocked from that aroma. My mind was filled with images, smells, feelings, sounds, of a past time. Every sense was alive but inside my brain. It was as if for just a few seconds there was nothing else. As time was not and past and present was one.
In the center of this experience was the soft delicate lemon aroma derived from those big dark semi-transparent bottles filled with hand-made lemon aroma.
Sunday evening, probably during the winter, cause I was having finishing a hot bath. Wrapped in a big-towel following barefoot my mother, who is carrying into her arms my brother, to the sofa to dry us. My father watching the news. Since it is Sunday and the day after we have to go to school, we need to be shiny to wear fresh clothes, for the first day of the week. I am still attending the first classes of junior. While we are still covered with our towels (my brother covered with the towel he had inherited from me, the one with a small hood with some patching on it, making it look like an animal's head) steaming from the hot watter, she would probably trimming our nails, dry and brush our hair.
Then I know that she will stand up and headed for the kitchen and I will wait there patiently for that big bottle. She would open the cabinet door beneath the kitchen. There are always two big bottles, among other things in that cabinet, but I can never recall the aroma of the second bottle. It is as that second bottle was sealed, never meant to be opened. So, she returns to find us still waiting patiently. As soon as she removes the lid, she sealed the opening of the bottle with her palm and inverting it so that sufficient amount of cologne would soak her hand.
And as she removes her hand from the opening of the bottleneck, the lemon aroma is feeling my lungs and my senses...
and I exhale into the lab those memories from the past.

In The Mood For Love

2008-07-25T22:00:00.002+03:00

Busy day...a hot day
an exhausting day, but still when the work was done I returned home waiting for the night, there is a promise for the end of the week, for something different. Not that it was a special night, but still, the promise of a night with friends, the promise of a well organized party changed dramatically my mood.
It was party time and that was all i needed.
I took a shower, wear my favorite t-shirt and a pair of short trousers and rushed for the late bus. In my ears the appropriate music from my mp3 player to warm my mood. Radiohead, The Dandy Wharhols, Mars Volta, and Blue Monk to cool down.

I only needed a few drinks to loosen up so I could work out my dancing moves. There is no greater joy than losen up, cloud a little bit your thoughts with the appropriate amount of alcohol, not to much not to little, just enough to let go of he moral constrictions that tighten up the feet and the tongue, and then ignoring those that stare at you making all kind of comments, good or bad, to dance, sing, talk with all you.
So, I entered the room, dim light enough space for the guests to feel comfortable, but not to spacey so that stranger will have the chance to get accustom with each other. Most of my friends were already on the second round, high on spirit, talking vigorously, mostly about soccer, about the new season, the new coach...
"I'm late as always" I though...but the bar is always close.

It is as if the shortest road to anything is the road to the bar. And when you reach it, usually the amount of time required to reach the bar is always proportional to your sobriety (you get there faster when you are a little bit drunk) you found it crowded, with people doing anything else BUT drinking. So you end up thinking of ways to remove the obstacles that separates you from your goal, a cold big glass of frozen Beer.

After the usual greetings and small talk I headed to the bar.
The music was surprisingly good. The one that will make you feel great, smooth to the ear and to the mind. It was a great evening. Not as great as I could possibly think. As I reached to the bar I grubbed a cold beer, for starters, and turned around to look upon the growing crowd. The music had an amazing effect on all the attendants, as the next song was started I was astound. it was Frank Sinatra's
"I've got you under my skin".

"that is an excellent choice" I though.
I turned around now facing the steady relaxing movement of people having fun. The crowd surrendered to the groove. Some of them were singing the song, others had already found a partner to dance with.

"some songs will always have that amazing effect" I pondered... I let the beer to cool me, and as I took a deep swallow of the liquor, a exhale of relief, relieved from the last traces of the morning tension.

As my mind and my sight was wandering, partially from the big gulp of 1/2 lt Weiss beer, in the far end, under low light, and in the left side of the room, I saw her.

...I may see only fools 'round she...

The air was heavier, my knees could not held my weight, and time stopped, for as long as it was necessary for me to fully grasp the moment. I stepped away from the lights that darkened my vision, far but not too far, so that I would not miss the softness of your movement, the freshness of your smile, just enough to be unnoticed. I was memorizing every gesture, trying to read your lips, not to understand what you were saying, but to just watch, observe, with a faint smile.
For that time of no time, I could only hear my heart

...pounding to the rhythm of the rain..,

just for a second, but it was enough.
Dark black straight long hair shining to the faint light of the room, a gentle calm face, a woman's body, not too thin, not fat, just as I dreaming of it, in a simple black dress that fitted with her pale skin and those black eyes, shining more that anything I could thing of, looking straight at me.....The darkness I was hiding was illuminated, your smile, to give breath to my breath , and to stub once more my heart, crushed my knees under the weight of its glory. My mind was numb, the place was erased, and all that was left was her.
...You know, you must take a look at me, Baby, baby, I know that's the way...
Time, once again, was on the move and the voice of Brian Ferry's interpretation of
"the way you look tonight"
brought fear to my heart, I turned around, seeking for a second drink. stronger one this time. To calm me down.
I stand still staring at the enormous variety of alcohol, try to think of possible knock-down combinations, I poured a big glass of beer, and insert a sot of tequila, a good drink, with a nice aftertaste and with guaranteed results.
"I will have one of that" heard a voice, and turned around in awe.
I was surprised to she her smiling at me
...all I ever wanted, all I ever needed...
I was even more disbelieved and turned to see if she was talking to someone else.
"None around" I though..."not good" I add, "not good at all", "OK, unexpected, but definitely good" I concluded.
"It would be my pleasure" I added with a smile, trying to look as fascinated as I could.
And as a naive knight from the old times I asked for her name:
"Could I have your name", and that time this few words implied that her name WAS important, as important as were the true names in the earthsea, from Ursula's K. Le Guin novels. A name that I will only know and pronounce cause she had gave it me.
I'm @@@@ she said,
@@@@@@@ I replied...
I present her the mixture of beer and tequila, she brought it to her lips and I wished that it were my lips she was drinking from.
She smiled at me, at least she liked it.
"So what are you doing in a place like this?" I asked
"A friend of mine is organizing it." she replied

...Stop me, oh, I said stop me, Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before...

"Who, @@@@? I know him since we were still at high school"
and it was easy for me to direct the conversation from that moment to where I was most comfortable with.

...I rather dance with you, than talk with you...
I can not remember the details of our conversation, what we were talking about, what was her favorite movie, her favorite song, what were her thoughts on religion, economics, the big bang theory, the existence of extraterrestrial beings, ... but all I wanted was to hear her talking

"Thank almighty sfiltros and koxakies the twin gods of alcohol that I'm not that drunk, I couldn't stop talking if I was" a thought crossed my mind...

It was as if I we were alone by the sea, or even better on a boat on the calmly surface of the sea, the sparkling sea under the bright light of a red full moon.

...You whisper secrets in my ear, Slowly dancing cheek to cheek...
All are a blur in my mind, I was only noticing her movements, her hand moved away a strand of hair getting in front of her face, her white skin soft and smooth as a marble statue. Her posture, as she was sitting to this long chair, her legs crossed. I was listening but not listening, I was talking and not talking. The world had disappeared, my friends fell into a black hole aimlessly wondering in the room. The room itself had vanished together with my friends.
And suddenly unexpectedly the black hole suck me through, the universe had collapsed under my feet.
"Actually, I'll be back at @@@@ in two days" I heard her saying.
I stopped talking, I stopped listening, everything stopped once more but this time even her was frozen, was out of the frame, out of my reach.

...Cos I don't wanna lose/What we had last time your leaving this life ain't fair/You don't get something for nothing, turn back/Mmmm gotta try a little harder/It could be sweet...
There was no point on continuing this, no point at all, suddenness filled me, darkness surrounded me, as in one night I had found and lost in a moment what I wished for.
I gave her my telephone number, but never asked for hers, cause I though that it will be meaningless to chase down what appeared to be a loosing case.

...this is the end...

Something that I always regret cause when I see on my cell phone screen, an identified/unknown telephone number, my mind always hopes at the other end to be her. But, it never is...

...and what can you tell to your friends that smile at you with truthful joy, knowing that something good was happening back there...

...κι είναι βάσανο ο φίλος, κι είναι βάσανο ο φίλος, που ζητάει εκδρομή...

has the beautifull game turned ugly

2008-05-29T21:28:00.003+03:00

I saw that advertisement and just couldn't resist from posting it.

from footballyourway.co.uk

Nightmare - Terrifying Bed-Time-Stories

2008-05-15T19:22:00.006+03:00

How many of you have seen a frightening nightmare? One that will wake you up in anguish, heavy breathing, rapid beating heart and so on? Do you recall that dream, even if you had experienced it years ago?
I once though that that kind of reaction existed only in movies. I had experienced terrifying dreams and still do, but never managed to wake me up, so much for heavy breathing, and the ones I could remember were practically a remake of past experiences, usually ones that exited me, in the negative way. I had my share of hideous monsters, with claws as big as my fingers, etc, running after me, to end my life by strangling me, but it was the sheets that tangled around my neck that was threatening my well being. Experiences of falling, after the first 50 I got used of them and realized that it is a reaction to the relaxation of the muscles, or falling from the bed, for various reasons!!! And other ones too common also.
But...
It was years ago that I got that weird dream, one that when I describe it to other people they find it quite weird but not at all frightening, that got me full awake, standing on my bed sweating heavy breathing, a dream that the reminding of it kept me awake. For no apparent reasons.
Since it has been more than a decade I cannot recollect if I was drinking that night, had an overwhelming dinner, a rough day or any other experience that could produce such a nightmare. When I was a little boy no nightmare could mess up with my sleep, even when watching those Friday night horror movies.
Also, from what I am reading it's stated that our dreams lack of colors, all we see is shades of gray.
But...
I recall red in my sleep, if that is possible. The only color that dominated the dream.
It started as a journey into a forest, a person (that one should be me) dressed in red holding a messengers-bag, accompanied by my huge-ugly-drooling BUT trusted friend the Bear, he looks more than a vigilant than a good person, but in the story he is a good person, or so I believe!!! We are hight-spirited, singing as we walk and so on. Times goes by, if time exists in dreams at all, when we stumble across the Wolf.
Now that one is familiar, it cries out for Little Red Riding Hood.
So the Wolf character steps in front of me blocking my way. He is one great gentlemen, all suited up, nice talking and so on, but his honey-dripping talk is threatening in some manner. I cannot make out what he is saying, but his chattering implies of danger.
The Bear enters in front of me blocking the wolf from coming closer and gets scary, his foolish attitude is gone and now by looking straight at the eyes of the Wolf he warns him to withdraw and let me be. The warning, although I cannot here it, is starting to develop an atmosphere of anxiety, the forthcoming event seems appalling. The Wolf with all his sweet talk he backs-off and disappears into the bushes.
In a few moments our spirit is restored and we continue to fool around, the Bear has transformed again to that hideous creature but a fool one, more innocent than a infant. But the Wolf never give up. He reappears in front of starting his sweet-talk (you know like those salesmen that get really kind and gentle, not because they truly are, rather cause that it is the only way to approach the customer and "force" him to consume). The Bear transforms once more, blocks his way and for a second time he warns him to stay away. He also warns him of not trying to approach me for a third time cause the Bear will be different and not so soft on the Wolf. And again by the implication of the warning the atmosphere changes.
So for a second time we continue our carefree walk as if nothing has happened.
But...
The Wolf appears for a third time trying once more his sweet-talk on me...
...
...the Wolf was informed but he ignored the warnings of the Bear, as if the Wolf was looking forward for the Bear to do what he was about to do. As if I was insignificant in that play and the only thing that matters was the Bear's reaction.
The Bear transforms once more, but this time in something different, there is no shape, it is peculiar but still not frightening. It seems that the Bear engulfs the Wolf...
...before the Bear with enormous fists start pounding hard the Wolf. The Wolf isn't even trying to defend himself, only stares in apathy those fists hitting him hard...
...there is nothing supernatural about it, is real, it feels as a street fight, but only one part of the contestants fights, it is RAW, bones against meat...
...and then...
...then once more color, red splatters everything... slowly starts to accumulate...I try to stop the Bear from harming the Wolf...the Bear ignores me...
...red...
...and I'm awake, bathing in my own sweat, heavy-speeding-breathing, heart pounding-like-a-sledge-hammer, the taste of the dream still in my mind.
I never could figure out what was about this dream that frightened me so much.
Since then I never had a similar dream. Real life is still more terrifying than any fictional monster...

Comments Layout

2008-05-11T12:30:00.003+03:00

The ones that visit this blog probably noticed a new blog element (?) that I had introduced in the right panel, since today I've removed it cause I didn't like it that much, that presented in a feeds form comments made by users. The script, is placed in a new HTML/Javascript-untitled element and delivers in your main page the newest comments.
This code was not written by me it was taken directly from the Tips For New Bloggers site.
Some of you might find it interesting.

Asian Movies

2008-05-04T20:22:00.000+03:00

This post will be updated from time to time, since I will try to record here all the movies I've seen and were directed in Asia (~~Australia not included, since Australian movies are considered to be Western Movies~~ under revision of that statement under the term Asian Movies, I will include movies filmed, produced or written in Japan, China, Korea and Thailand).
The movies I will recommend will not be ranked and will not be sorted either alphabetical or by any manner.
Also those movies I present in this post are recommended but not for all, some are at least weird, and you are advised that some of them will test your senses and your ethics, your stomach, and more one at a movie or all together.

Memories of a Murder

...is a South Korean Drama film, directed by Bong Joon-ho, mostly known in the rest of the world so in Greece for "The Host", The film is based on a true story about one of the country's first serial killer. The film tries to explore the characters personalities as those change from the outcome of the murders.
Two detectives trying to solve the mystery behind the identity of the serial killer. Under different methods, a violent one, first shoot then ask questions, and a more methodical educated one, one that trust more the facts than his feelings.

rating from imdb

Premonition (Yogen)

Do not be mislead, this one has nothing to do with the 2007 film under the same title, staring Sandra Bullock

...is a Horror/Drama from Japan. A professor going with his family for an excursion, stops at a public phone booth, to send his work over to the university via modem (damned 56k), when a truck hits the car with their daughter inside. The car burst into flames and professor with his wife run to save their daughter. Only to find a piece of a newspaper...

rating from imdb

Battle Royal

...a Japanese movie, so different from every movie I've seen that I refuse to include it any kind of tag. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, mostly known as the director of Tora!Tora!Tora!. Based upon the novel by Koushun Takami, tells the story of a parallel universe where grown-ups in order to restore order, send children in a remote area and force them to kill each other till only one is left alive.
"At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence, and fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act - AKA: The BR Act..."
rating from imdb

House of the Flying Daggers

...is a Hong-Kong wuxia film, from the director of the amazing film Hero, Zang Yimu, also known for the raise the red lantern, maybe his best movie. A drama, in beautiful colors, of martial arts choreography, and wonderful scenery, dreaming photography and so on.

The film is set in 859 AD. The once great Tang Dynasty is now in decline. Numerous rebel groups have formed, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Feng Tian county. The Flying Daggers steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the support of the locals.
The local deputies have managed to kill the leader of the Flying Daggers, but the rebel group only becomes stronger, due to a mysterious new leader. Jin and Leo, two police captains, are ordered to kill the new leader within ten days.

rating from imdb

Hana-Bi

This movie by Takeshi Kitano if I remember correctly is the one movie that started my journey (some people can't stand me for my love to asian movies, anime, manga) to the diversity of modern japanese films. Till this day Takeshi Kitano remains as one of my favorite director and this movie I still consider it as one of the best movies I ever seen. So beautiful, simple and melacholic, yet so brutal. The plot simple, but full of possibilities:

Kitano plays Nishi, a violent and unpredictable ex-police detective who quits the force after a terrible incident that results in his partner, Horibe (Ren Osugi), being confined to a wheelchair. After his retirement he spends much of his time looking after his wife Miyuki (Kayoko Kishimoto), who has leukemia.

...and one usufull information, hana means flower, bi means fire, all together fireworks, literally fireflower...
rating from imdb

A Cruel Attendance

...is a Korean comedy/ethics/horror(?)/action(?) movie. I've seen a worthless wuxia film by the same director the Shadowless Sword, so I was a little bit prepared for a big time shity film (φόλα, πατάτα κ.λ.π.). But, I really enjoyed that one!!!
The story as far as I recall is about two losers, who own money to yakuza(?), try to get some money by kidnapping rich people's children. But, they never get it right...

rating from imdb (I would give it a 6,5+)

Save the Green Planet

...is a Korean anti-war movie, that defies every known categorization to any known movie genre. If you would like to place it somewhere put it together with the Battle Royal, mentioned above. Director Joon(or Jun)-Hwan Jang in his 2003 debut knows how to surpass the expected and mixes perfectly the violent, sadistic, melacholic, psychedelic, drama, action, horror, thriller, and Sci-Fi genre presenting a truly fresh film.
...and the plot is even more twisted:

A young a man who believes that aliens are about to attack Earth and that he is the only one who can prevent them. With his childlike circus performer girlfriend, he kidnaps a powerful executive who he believes is a top ranking extraterrestrial who can contact the prince of these aliens when the upcoming eclipse occurs. After imprisoning him in his workshop/basement he proceeds to torture the executive, and slowly Byeong-gu's true intentions are revealed.

rating from imdb

This one I've seen it back in 2004, at Athens movie festival called "nights of premiere"(I don't even know if the translation is good) alone in a full cinema after midnight. I believe, judging from the expression of the attendants that most of the people enjoyed it!!!

Kung-Fu Hustle

...is...don't tell me that you haven't seen that one yet? The Chinese movie by Stephen Chow? It was appraised advertised and it worthed it. It's a hilarious parody of the kung-fu movies of the past, especially the ones where an innocent boy, suddenly becomes a kung-fu master. But to get there one has to go through a bunch of gangsters, a trio of furious assassins, but the most fearsome of all is the landlady...ok and later that frog-smelling-dude.

rating from imdb

I sincerely thank - m - for her corrections, Kung-fu hustle is Chinese.

Emperor And The Assassin

...is a historical Chinese film based upon a true story. In the 3rd Century one of the Seven Kings of China sets on a dream, to unite all China under the same sky (Hero, is also another movie based on the same events). King Ying Zheng sends his concubine to find an assassin from the Kingdom of Yan, to fake an assassination against himself, so that king Ying will have an excuse to evade the kingdome of Yan. But, the concubine felt in love with the assassin, something that wasn't in the plan. Do not expect flying scenes, and martial-arts-choreography, this film is more about the characters, a sword is rarely drawn. I would consider to be more than a Historical Drama, than action. Far from the Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style, 3hrs long but worth viewing.

rating from imdb

Bad news

2008-04-21T22:00:00.002+03:00

...there are a few events that can be associated through almost visible lines that eventually will reveal the great picture, even though you can not make out the final strokes, even though this picture is just a faint sketch, because like a good mystery novel the important notes, clues, hints, the masterminds behind the curtains, are unreachable. There are a lot of people that try to assume what will happen, what the multinationals have planned long time ago, or whoever weaves the plot, in order to achieve world domination (like brain in pinky and brain!!! although brain always failed to achieve his ultimate goal), by controlling the economy, the governments, the masses and finally the individual, preferably in this order. Few people deciding over the fate of billions. Governments, unwilling, for any reason, to stand up and act in favor of the citizens, for reasons probably unknown. Tragic misdirection of funds (from the view of the many), and labor, keep making the rich people reacher and the poor poorer. Since we live in a world dominated by imperialism and capitalism it is an expected fate. We are blinded from our urge for consumption of products, as the one I'm currently using to deliver you those thoughts, keeping us in constant search for the best, the fastest the one with the best style, with the most functions, and so on, to keep our minds away from the problems that keep surrounding us, and we like it as it is, no worries, means a happy life. We using technological achievements to keep ourselves occupied, to get away from the boredom of the contemporary life, to get ourselves safe from everything evil. It reminds me of this expression:

see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil We tend to resemble those three little monkeys, trying to keep away from evil, although it exist, happy in our ignorance.

This is human nature, selfish, arrogant and self-destructive. Exceptions exist to verify the rule.

But for how much longer? How long our empathy, indifference will last?

What am I referring to with that cryptic prologue? Basically to the latest(s) world wide crisis, the plural under the brackets defines the variety. I do not know how it started or why (although I think that it all resides in the those aspects of human nature described from as the 7even deadly sins)!!!???. Anyway, in a few words, I am referring to what I consider as the greatest crisis till now, that seems to just getting build up. It's not about the oil, about the banks or the downfall of the stock markets, I am referring to a crisis of the most basic human needs.
The lack of food, the high food prices, around the world that is more noticeable in countries where the daily salary of a great percentage of the population is no more than a dollar.

One of those is Haiti, where people where killed during food riots.

from timesonline
from msnbc
from bbc

In Zimbabwe also in the middle of political crisis, during the elections (the link is in Greek, sorry), while millions are disappearing, in a country that a decade ago was one of the most prosperous in Africa.

from bbc

Also in India

from economic times
from down to earth

Asia Food Crisis, facing Rice shortage,

Cambodia
Vietnam
Thailand

Those are just the peak, according to the wiki on world food crisis. The World Bank has donated 10 million dollars and advices other countries to do so( I heard that one from the news on the TV), a total amount of 500 million dollars should be raised to avoid a crisis in much larger scale. Some articles and news reporting sites give the magnitude of this crisis.
USA and UN express their concern, but it appears that they are capable to do only that.
The World Food Program cannot afford the raise in food prices, UN strangle to keep the program going.
France one of the first countries (?) to give 60 million euros trying to avoid the worst. But my opinion is that giving just money, the amount is insignificant, will not solve anything, the problem will remain as long as the causes are unsolved. As a Chinese anecdote says, if you want to keep a poor man well fed, do not give him fish to eat, teach him to fish.
The main causes of this phenomenon are the extreme rise in oil prices and the usage of fertile land as source for biofuel, and of course the climate changes (one more site). Also other reasons exist, such as animal industry, millions of food is wasted to feed our beloved cats and dogs, and I do not want to know what else, keeping the products of the land away from the farmers, and the citizens.

To end this a few more links regarding the food crisis, comments, facts and analysis of the phenomenon.

2007–2008 world food price crisis
Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite
Food price hikes spark riots
US Food Riots Much Closer Than You Think
Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?
Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring

Food riots revisited - public protests in the seventeenth to the nineteenth century
this one is a rather big article and I haven't read it all...will try
and a site from wiki that try to document the enlisted riots of human history:
List of riots

Finally I've finished it!!!

Good News

2008-04-12T14:46:00.002+03:00

After years of struggling with supervisors about the minimum amount 0f time a person (that person is me) should spend in work, or working, or do anything but work, talk about work, and even dream of work, an article from lifedev, an internet site about the numerous ways to increase your productivity, by be focused on the work, who many times have I heard that single word, clearly argues for the exact opposite. Taking short, or long, brakes, letting your mind wonder, working but few hours per day, was common schedule, some of them never had one, of great people of world history.

What that article doesn't comment, but I hope that it implies it, is the fact that during the time we consider as working hours should be dedicated for that purpose.

So in titles the 10 way's history's finest kept focused at work

1. Don’t work long hours (tell that to my supervisor)

2. Take breaks

3. Take even longer breaks (that one is my favorite)

4. Stop work and sit down for meals (I'm already into this one)

5. Don’t work in the afternoons (actually I'm trying not to work even in the morning)

6. Mix it up (done that)

7. Aim low (all I need is a roof above my head, a plate of food to eat, and a woman to love)

8. Take time to relax (isn't that one consistent with points 2,3,4,5?)

9. Get up early(?) (I couldn't argue more with question mark, but waking up early has some advantages, I can recall none of them right now, feel free to add some)

10. Exercise! (no comments)

Vodka

2008-03-28T19:47:00.003+02:00

I found that one while I was reading the daily news. The one who wrote those facts is unknown. So apart from the link, I am posting directly the 21 uses of Vodka.

21 Uses for Vodka

1. To remove a bandage painlessly, saturate the bandage with vodka. The solvent dissolves the adhesive.
2. To clean the caulking around bathtubs and showers, fill a trigger-spray bottle with vodka, spray the caulking, let set five minutes and wash clean.The alcohol in the vodka kills mold and mildew.
3. To clean your eyeglasses, simply wipe the lenses with a soft, clean cloth dampened with vodka. The alcohol in the vodka cleans the glass and kills germs.
4. Prolong the life of razors by filling a cup with vodka and letting your safety razor blade soak in the alcohol after shaving. The vodka disinfects the blade and prevents rusting.
5. Spray vodka on vomit stains, scrub with a brush, then blot dry.
6. Using a cotton ball, apply vodka to your face as an astringent to cleanse the skin and tighten pores.
7. Add a jigger of vodka to a 12-ounce bottle of shampoo. The alcohol cleanses the scalp, removes toxins from hair, and stimulates the growth of healthy hair.
8. Fill a sixteen-ounce trigger-spray bottle and spray bees or wasps to kill them.
9. Pour one-half cup vodka and one-half cup water in a Ziplock freezer bag, and freeze for a slushy, refreezable ice pack for aches, pain, or black eyes.
10. Fill a clean, used mayonnaise jar with freshly packed lavender flowers, fill the jar with vodka, seal the lid tightly and set in the sun for three days. Strain liquid through a coffee filter, then apply the tincture to aches and pains.
11. Make your own mouthwash by mixing nine tablespoons powered cinnamon with one cup vodka. Seal in an airtight container for two weeks. Strain through a coffee filter. Mix with warm water and rinse your mouth. Don't swallow.
12. Using a q-tip, apply vodka to a cold sore to help it dry out.
13. If a blister opens, pour vodka over the raw skin as a local anesthetic that also disinfects the exposed dermis.
14. To treat dandruff, mix one cup vodka with two teaspoons crushed rosemary, let sit for two days, strain through a coffee filter and massage into your scalp and let dry.
15. To treat an earache put a few drops of vodka in your ear. Let set for a few minutes. Then drain. The vodka will kill the bacteria that is causing pain in your ear.
16. To relieve a fever, use a washcloth to rub vodka on your chest and back as a liniment.
17. To cure foot odor, wash your feet with vodka.
18. Vodka will disinfect and alleviate a jellyfish sting.
19. To remove cigarette smoke in your home or office mix one part vodka and three parts water and spray the clothing, then launder and let dry.
20. Pour vodka over an area affected with poison ivy to remove the urushiol oil from your skin.
21. Swish a shot of vodka over an aching tooth. Allow your gums to absorb some of the alcohol to numb the pain.

One last thing:
Do not drink Vodka, as it will harm your health. Excessive Abuse Will Kill You.

Top 10 Reasons To Have Sex Tonight (from cbnnews)

2008-03-25T14:31:00.003+02:00

Top subject on every conversation, on every text, in our life, is without doubt sex. Even when everything goes wrong, the pressure rising up, we look for the comfort of the opposite gender, to have a person on our side, to have sex with, making love, for the romantic ones.
Once more, from cbn this time, we have all the good reasons to get out of our clothes, literally. Ten reasons to be more exact, in headlines those are:

1. Sex Relieves Stress
2. Sex Boosts Immunity
3. Sex Burns Calories
4. Sex Improves Cardiovascular Health
5. Sex Boosts Self-Esteem
6. Sex Improves Intimacy
7. Sex Reduces Pain
8. Sex Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk
9. Sex Strengthens Pelvic Floor Muscles
10. Sex Helps You Sleep better

This articles reminds me of those chain mails we receive almost everyday, usually from friends. The purpose of those mails is to raise our "stats", such as fortune, luck and charisma, by forwarding them to as many people as exist in their address book. All these for just to get laid. It reminds me of those RPG games and the items a character receives usually randomly. It is the only way for a character to achieve a heroic status, in order to be able to finally defeat the final enemy. These kind of mails magically, found their rightful place into my garbage bin. Anyway, as you can read there are ten sentences above, all starting with the sex word, implying that action. I could say that reasons 1, 5,10 maybe 6 and 7 are known to everyone that had sex. One can argue about the beneficial of having sex without being an expert, with a pHD in medical science, that kind of expert, for hours and he will probably be right.
Those kind of arguments do not solve any problem, it is not like visiting a doctor, who examines you and then prescribes a dozen of medicines. Not even a law that you are forced to obey, otherwise there will be consequences, have sex or I'll sue your ass, although I tend to believe that such a law should be interesting (this though reminds me a little bit of a comedy from Aristophanes the Ecclesiazusae. These kind of news reminds me of those advices you get from parents or friends to be more socialized and so on.
Back on the subject, in those arguments and scientific observations or experimental verifications, there is always one MAJOR factor that is absent. Two or more people should be active to have sex, one person alone leads to masturbation or to the "making love to the one you love most" situation. It will be a relief, if one could walk into a place, spot a person with whom would love to have sex, and vice versa, and accomplish it by mentioning those ten reasons. That would be beneficial cause part of the stress is caused by the fact that finding someone to be with is troublesome and usually at least one of the people involved hasn't the courage to move on.
Still "Top 10 Reasons To Have Sex Tonight " does not sound so much promising.

Police Officers and Protesters

2008-03-16T18:13:00.005+02:00

I got that one from the digg and I just keep on wandering a great WHAT IF...
What If every Police Officer would treat every citizen in a same manner?

...enjoy your time protesting...

...I just don't want you running of the streets getting hit by a car...

I believe that one should be considered as the line of the month, so with every single word delivered from the officer.

Anonymous web posting may become illegal in Kentucky

2008-03-14T22:58:00.005+02:00

So, the next one has to do once more with the freedom of speech in the internet era, under the safety of anonymity. This one from Kentucky, news taken from Betanews

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews March 11, 2008, 2:31 PM
Although it's not exactly clear how the law could be enforced, the lawmaker said outlawing anonymous posting could curb online bullying.
Kentucky Representative Tim Couch introduced the bill in the state's Legislature last week. Under the policy, anyone who contributes to a Web site will have to submit a name, e-mail address, and mailing address.
This essentially would ban anonymous posting, as the contributor's name would have to be listed with the post. If the site still decides to allow for anonymous posting, a $500 fine would apply for the first offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
Couch seems to be directing his ire at sites like the increasingly popular JuicyCampus.com, which encourages students to post anonymous, and most times slanderous, comments about others. He says that the bullying problem is significant in his own district in eastern Kentucky. However, at the same time he says the bill could be difficult to enforce if signed into law.
A local news station said it polled residents of Couch's district and found mixed results. While some saw it as a method to combat online harassment, others saw it in violation of the First Amendment.

I find it a little bit ridicule and more importantly frightening.

So let me get this straight. In USA and particularly in Kentucky, a new law was voted (?) to protect people from being bullied. A law to divide citizens:

some saw it as a method to combat online harassment, others saw it in violation of the First Amendment

In Greece there was a big fuzz a few weeks ago when it was discovered that a blog site (in Greek) maintained by "bloggers" (I despise that word), tried to blackmail a few high ranked persons (as the article mentions this story is more than a year old), from journalists to politicians, with the threat of exposing their illegal actions to the public. The revelations were mostly false accusations with intention to hurl the reputation of the "victims".

I hope that that case will not set an example to the rest of the world to blackmail by abusing the freedom of speech and the anonymity of the internet, because the outcome will be terrible. Certainly, governments and companies will have a milestone to use in their efforts to control the internet and silencing the unwanted voices.

VerveEarth

2008-03-13T17:11:00.004+02:00

Today I got this message from the CEO of an new site, still in Beta, but it looks OK:

Trotos,
Your blog Navy, a playground for bigger kids caught our attention.
I'm the founder of a recently launched startup for bloggers. We are searching
the internet for the world's best blogs by geography, and we found yours for
Greece. I would like to invite you to our site which plots the content of the
internet on an interactive map of the world. VerveEarth is an entirely new way
to surf the net. It shows spatial and geographic connections that a blog search
engine could never reveal. The site is http://www.verveearth.com/. Once on board, you can easily claim your blog a place in the VerveEarth world. The site is free to use
and a way to drive new traffic to your blog. If our vision resonates with you,
please give us a mention or add our widget to your blog. Please see our FAQ for any
questions, and we welcome your feedback. The VerveEarth team will make a timely
reply.http://www.verveearth.com/
Kind Regards,
Clayton CEO VerveEarth.comEmail clayton@verveearth.com,

First of all my thanks to VerveEarth's CEO, but I do not believe that my blog is even close to be described as one of the "best blogs by geography". It seems to me that this mail is nothing more than a polite invitation, randomly generated by a script. It could be a clever way to invite one more blogger (I think I dislike this word, blogger) to register to theirs site and grow it bigger, fine by me. The invitation is welcomed but I do not thing that exaggerations such as best blogs is suitable.
So I registered, at the end a few more readers never harm anyone, right?

It seems that till now 32 other people from Greece received the same e-mail. Haven't checked their blogs yet, till now I'm preoccupied with other activities (NAVY, my thesis (actually on hold at the time), women (if I can find any)), so I only have time to read and sometimes comment my friends' blogs.

...less than a month now...

Darkness

2008-03-08T21:27:00.005+02:00

For more than four days the workers from the public electric service (our friends call us ΔΕΗ-"dae") are on strike (if I'm not mistaken they still are and as of Wednesday it was announced that their efforts will keep up in greater magnitude). Everyday at noon, for a duration of three hours the area I live in was experiencing scheduled power outages (blackout). But, on Saturday the 8th, the ones that are in charge of the scheduled electricity losses, changed their minds. They rescheduled the whole schedule (!), for our amusement.

As it was scheduled, at that Saturday noon we experienced electricity loss, but not for long, in fact it lasted a whole minute, or so, nice. Say goodbye to my microwave, may it rest in peace in the micro-appliances heaven (I won't write about that). One of the major points is that in the official site there is a complete lack of information about Saturday. No scheduled blackouts, nothing. We had a good Sunday, but Monday, clean Monday, even if the news report reassured the clients, me for example, that there will be no blackout, it strike at two o' clock P.M. and lasted for about 2 hours (that's not the story I want to tell either, so, I won't get in any further details).

Saturday is the day that "dae", instead of providing us an enjoyable quiet noon (you have no idea how much noise is being produced from electric appliances, constantly working 24 hours a day, inside your own house, I won't mention the noise from outside), spending it in my back yard, staring at my garden (no exotic women next door to spy on), drinking a chilled frappe, reading one of my books (and that's life, since my current state could be described as unemployed, I can relax a little bit longer, well not to long cause I have a thesis to finish), we had one of those ordinary noisy beautiful shiny days.
That was one disappointment, but still I could place my vinyls on the turnable and rock the neighborhoud. Not too loud, do not want to disturb them, only to entertain them, and "who's afraid of the big bad Monk" is an excellent choice, and "Blue Train" lines up.
But, "dae" never meant to hurt my feelings, so to my surprise, we experienced a late afternoon blackout. Unexpectedly, the room filled with shadows, colors disappeared and neutral grey filled everything. By the time I finished unplugging the electric appliances, darkness surrounded me. Not absolute though, since in a city as Athens light is everywhere.
I opened the lid of my laptop and shiny bluish light blinded me. I found a couple of candles light them up and silence filled the room. Static was the only sound I could hear, the hissing from the candles and the bells responding to the wind. Blackouts during the noon when the sun is illuminating this side of the earth might be OK, but after sunset blackouts are almost horrible. My first thought after the realization of the situation was "now what?" what is for me to do without light, without electricity during the night? In an empty house, but for the candles. I sat back and stared the malformed shadows on the wall, dancing to the rhythm of the candles. Stand up, open the dark refrigerator (now this is an odd image, since we are used to the light of the refrigerator as the sole light source in a dark kitchen), find a bottle of wine open it up, pure some in a short glass of wine, resumed my previous state and continued to stare at the dancing shadows.
I tried to think of the time before electricity, what normal people did, every night. Only one thing came to my mind, sleeping. Finishing their dinner under the candle's light, a few hours after the sunset, after the end of their day-jobs, chattering a little bit about the events of the day, cleaning up the left overs from the dinner, taking care of children, if any, and after that straight for theirs beds.
The day will start once more as soon as the first sun-ray break-through the vastness of darkness.
Electricity was restored and I got up, opened my Desktop PC and did what I did.
For the modern human blackouts are nothing more than waiting time, waiting till electricity will be restored so that we continue to do what people were doing hundreds of years ago without the existence of electricity. Trying to spend their free time. Others will sit back in the sofa, changing the channels of TV programs with the remote, others will listen to music, surf the internet, read the newspaper or read a book, talk to their friends and be occupied with other wonderful activities of our everyday life.

P.S. If any mistake, failure to comprehend or misspellings is caused by another blackout, an hour ago, again without notice and by all means out of schedule, actually I'm starting to believe that there is no schedule.
P.S. Lord praise the UPS!!!

FACEBOOK.COM

2008-02-01T13:55:00.000+02:00

What is facebook? Answer: one of the most famous social networking sites IN THE WORLD (pffff).
I have also signed in and I'm active. Not under my nickname, "trotos", but, rather, under my real life name (hehe it will not be revealed, although all my friends and maybe more people know my real-life personality). This revealing of identity is not common when browsing the net, registering to sites, or talking to chat groups. Everyone wants to move in the vastness of the internet under the safety of anonymity, to speak up one's mind or even to be what he ever wanted to be, without "the real life" to criticize him or make fun out of him (in person anyway).
For once this "revelation" goes with some happy surprises.
For me one of this welcomed surprises, came from an ex-neighbour, with whom we were good friends almost 20 years ago, back in the days of innocence and soccer-playing in the alleys (yes those mythical places existed once). She was just looking around faces in the "search for people" option and my lovable face, popped up, like a politician's fart, waking up memories of the past. "Where have I seen this toad!!!" she would probably thought, but she didn't hesitate, she just grub the keyboard and send me a message, despite my toadish appearance. "this person wants to add you as a friend", appeared in my screen, and I was amazed that a woman would like to add me as her friend. But, as I was reading her name and watching her photo it occurred to me that I know her from somewhere, so I confirmed the add friend invitation. In a few days we were talking over the phone about the good OLD days.
Some thing happened recently when I received another invitation from a colleague of mine from the academic era,
the traitor now lives in a different town, so it is not soooo easy for me to give him a visit, but I will work things out. Although till now I haven't wrote anything of importance to him, cause I I'm bored to death (and that is unacceptable).
But beware, and be advised, facebook once probably was a fresh air to the social networking community, but I think that lately it stinks of money (maybe this one sounds a little bit harsh, but If you read the various reports on how much the facebook worths, and how managers from various big companies whining about the money companies are loosing cause the employs are preoccupied with the facebook. ~~and rumor has it that from sometime in the future it will ask for a subscription~~ -that one could be a hoax-. Also a lot of people, and companies residue in the facebook hopping to attract more clients.
The article "The Facebook economy" is describing in more details the road to success for facebook.com but also ways to get money out of it. I believe this one is worth reading.

For example, download iLike, an app that lets you sample and purchase music, and the developer gets a 5 percent kickback if you end up buying songs from iTunes or Amazon.com (Charts, Fortune 500).

Last but no least, facebook, is not as safe as we think it is (previous post for details). And most of the so called applications for me look like the evolution of the chain-mails and the spam-mails, so please take no offense if I immediately ignore or delete any invitation-message that applies to the previous categories. Also, there is the case of exploiting our personal data for economic interests without asking us first, personal data as sex, likes, occupation, education and so on are delivered to companies so that will feed us with more personalized advertisement. A lot of articles exist over the net about the mining of personal data and a few of them are:

Do internet companies protect personal data well enough?
Facebook Sharing Too Much Personal Data With Application Developers
MySpace and Facebook Plan to Use Personal Data for "Targeted Advertising"
Facebook questioned over data protection

BUT, I will continue to use it since I find it useful and sometimes even funny and relaxing, but I do not know for how long. Also I'm thinking of removing every application, except maybe a few, and use it as a tool to communicate with people, usually with the ones that are hard to find.

P.S.: Is my English terrible, or it's just me?

Update 06-02-08: As a friend wrote at the comment session, my English IS terrible, but it's OK for facebook. And I expect it to be OK for any social networking site, for any instant messaging application.
Yep, it's a fact my English is terrible, so are my Greek...so, no harm done. But, I also forgot to finish a sentence...

Update 07-02-08: This articles will again be revised, since everytime I read it I find it incomplete and horrible.

Update 08-02-08: This should be the final

From The Rooftops

2008-01-19T12:50:00.000+02:00

How are you this excellent, superb, if I may, morning. Today, the 19th January 2008, started as a awful day (OK not so awful). From the next building the sounds of reconstruction, hammers, jackhammers, and other unspeakable tools were disturbing my sleep, also Vassily's sleep, who is kind enough to get along with my existence and my occupation of his house, and mostly his toilet. The weather WAS cloudy, and the mood was not the one suitable for a weekend away from the Navy (mpliax, Greek expression corresponds to great revulsion). The tip of the iceberg (the cherry on the cake, as we say here in Greece), Vasily doesn't have an ADSL connection installed to his house and no TV (no TV you've read correct), and the radio in Crete really suck big time
(in general, I think that the radio stations that worth your attention are the national radio station and the university radio station in Heraclio). So, it is a little bit boring to just preparing the breakfast, waiting for him to wake up. Anyway...
The point is that in a few minutes, sunrays break through, Vasily woke up and most of all I could get an access to fast internet (Broadband). The rapid change in the weather is all about physics, the early arouse of Vasily is thanks to the jackhammer (which in general is no good at all), and the internet-connection thanks to those loving-caring-people who, either because they do not know how, or they just don't care, leave their wireless routers free to public access. BUT, the good weather was actually the main reason for the internet. If the cloudy weather persisted I would have never pulled myself on the rooftop and search around for an open wi-fi network.
Dear LILA, is kind enough (no past tense here) to share her internet access with everyone. So I Seized the day, and wrote down those lines, which have no meaning and will not change the way people thing. But, it could be an important aspect of my life, because the story doesn't end at this point.
The truth is that this story, if you haven't been bored till now keep reading, completed in FO.R.T.H. (the technological institute of Crete), were I had accompanied Vassily to finish a work with fruit-flies. After a long-long time I was inside an institute, deep-freezers on one corner, little glass bottles on the other one, PCR machines, electrophoresis devices, and so on. It occurred to me that I enjoyed working in an institute, able to talk about "science", do science and all that stuff, even when the environment (talking mostly about my supervisors and the way the institute, I am working to (know I consider to be on vacation, long term), is functioning. So I would like to return to a place like that, for many reasons, but under better supervision, and of course with bigger salary:)

P.S. another chaotic note from a disturbed mind...

News For Technology Freaks

2008-01-10T14:07:00.000+02:00

The first one goes around to the net for a while now and has to do with the popular "social site" FACEBOOK. So if you ever get invitation from the application "Secret Crush" just harden yourself, turn your heart into stone and forget of the could-be-lovers ones.

Secret Crush was quickly branded a malicious widget by the security researchers who discovered it, seeing as how it poses as a legitimate application that promises to reveal someone’s admirer(s). In reality, it loads an adware/spyware associated with Zango, which historically has been linked to adware and spyware designed to gain access to certain games, DRM-protected videos, and software. In 2006, the FBI gave it a fine of US$3 million for allowing third parties to secretly install its adware.

.
The next one has to do with the vodafone 3G, or however they call it, and sites as yahoo, mail.yahoo.com to be more accurate. It just refuses to load while I'm surfing using the vodafone's 3G service, for those who doesn't know, 3G services are streaming data over the cell technology in high speed, as with ADSL. This network thinks for itself, sometimes I'm able to "surf" to any site I want to and sometimes the address is unreachable...This blog is not too popular so it want make any difference, or I want start a thread from this post, but posting it won't harm anyone, right?
update
it seems that with the newer 3g modems internet sites loads properly now.

eArtHQuakE

2008-01-08T23:31:00.000+02:00

For your information and only, Sunday's earthquake was strong enough to wake me up, even all the way down here in Crete.
It was one of a horrible Sunday.
I had a really good plan.
It would started with dozing in my bed till 10:00 in the morning and latter on reading the news, spend time listening to music and reading a little bit...and so on.
But the sailor-mates who woke up at about 6:30, they needed to wear the official uniform, the one that also SAILOR MOON characters wear, to participate in the Sunday's ceremony (present arms and so on), and had the bright idea to wake me up by turning on those horrible lights of the dorm had it coming...
...and you know how rude I am when waking up like this...
...well...you know, I think that a was f@$k and As#$%e them for nearly 30min...

maybe this is a new record

and then there was the earthquake. The bed was swinging like a ping-pong ball in the middle of a game, and the old building was threating our peaceful living with collapsing.
I think that it was the first time that I did nothing, I just woke up, wished a "good morning" to the earthquake as I had done with the guys earlier and stood up and went to take a leak(!!!???)...

Best Scientific Magazine Now is Free

2007-12-31T19:34:00.000+02:00

Could it be Nature? Could it be Science? PNAS? Popular Science? Scientific American?

No, no and once more no. The source off grandioseness lies elsewhere.

The one and only magazine that will be unforgettable for its "Ig Nobel Prizes" offers for free a low resolution of its acclaimed publications in pdf format. So, click on the link that will let you through the vast knowledge that improbable research offers us.
...and to give you a hint of the grandioseness of those Ig Nobel Prizes, the winner of 2007 for the PEACE IgNP was:

The Air Force Wright Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio, USA, for instigating research & development on a chemical weapon -- the so-called "gay bomb" -- that will make enemy soldiers become sexually irresistible to each other.
REFERENCE: "Harassing, Annoying, and 'Bad Guy' Identifying Chemicals," Wright Laboratory, WL/FIVR, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, June 1, 1994.

.
conducting war without spilling a drop of blood, but by spreading LOVE to the world

Although my favorite is the IgNP for the AVIATION category:

AVIATION: Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek of Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina, for their discovery that Viagra aids jetlag recovery in hamsters.
REFERENCE: "Sildenafil Accelerates Reentrainment of Circadian Rhythms After Advancing Light Schedules," Patricia V. Agostino, Santiago A. Plano and Diego A. Golombek, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 104, no. 23, June 5 2007, pp. 9834-9.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Diego A. Golombek

yeap, this is THE PNAS dear ladies and gentlemen!

P.S. Dear koxakies are you reading this?

A long time ago, in a music land far away

2007-12-24T12:09:00.001+02:00

Again, due to extreme situations, I was not able to update this post. But I'm BaCk.

This Time I intend to do a review, tribute to things I listened to a decade ago, but still I am really Fond of them. Most of the albums I will present, or just announce, could be unknown to most of you, but I enjoy them till now.

So let us begin...
The albums will be not presented in a Top 10 listing and are from my CD collection

808 state - Don Solaris// a great album from a group that influenced musicians as Autechre and Aphex Twin. This album includes one of my favorite songs, Azura, featuring the lead singer of Lamb Louise Rhodes

A Reminiscent Drive - embrace e.p.// electronica, down tempo, kind of music. Not the boring type of down-tempo you usually listen to those fancy bar found anywhere in Athens these days. No computer was used for this album, as the creator of this album is mentioning. The last song of the e.p. "two sides to every story" distinguishes from the rest.

AkaSha - cinematique// from the wiki:

Akasha (or Akash, Ākāśa, आकाश) is the Sanskrit word meaning "aether" in both its elemental and mythological senses. In Hinduism Akasha means the basis and essence of all things. The source of everything that exists. One of the Panchamahabhuta, or "five great elements"; its main characteristic is Shabda (sound). In Hindi the meaning of Akash is sky.

In this catalog refers to a band form in Brixton, London, UK, and theirs first album. A fusion of electronica and jazz. Akasha are responsible for one of the best re-arrangements and orchestrations, of Guns n' Roses' Sweet Child of mine, featuring Neneh Cherry

Boards Of Canada - in a beautiful place out in the country// another electronic based e.p. I surely recommend the excellent album: Music Has the Right to Children, but this one belongs to the LP/Vinyl area. Excepts from the easy-listening theme song this e.p. includes the "amo bishop roden" one that comes in waves of repetition, building the sound in every step, adding in every loop a new sound, so being repetitive but not boring.

coti K- quasi// a Greek producer, mostly known from his collaborations with the famous Greek band Στερεο Νοβα. This album from the '97 includes one of the best memories I have, the formation of the AEON FLUX, and the intro of our radio days, back there in Patra. Notte Estiva was the track. I found an interview of coti K from avopolis (Greek only).

the princess + the warrior - OST// From the same people that brought up Run Lola Run comes another great film. Enough with the film, the soundtrack is written by "pale 3", the same people that written the Run Lola Run Soundtrack. I think that I prefer this one.

french fried funk - various// all the super stars of France electronic stage are here, from DJ CAM to AIR,Alex Gopher to Dimitris from Paris. Double cd, songs spiced by the remixes of IVAN and ERIC RUG (who the F@$K are those people?)

Gonzales - Uber Alles// hmmm, this one is sooooo good, he is behind and responsible for the increased fame of popstars as FEIST and Peaches , involved in various collaborations and re-arrangements. I recommend his latest album "Solo Piano"

Deep Dish - junk science// house music from one of the best groups (DJs actualy) formed by the Iranian American members Ali "Dubfire" Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi.

Cut La Roc - la roc rocks// At the end of the big-beat movement led by "fat boy slim", "the chemical brothers" and other bands, this album stands out to remind us of the parties. Get you jumpin'.

Red Snapper - Prince Blimey - The debut album from the U.K. instrumental band. One of the best albums I ever listened to. An excellent fusion of Jazz and jungle-breakbeat percussions, performed using a bass, drums and a guitar.

Jamie Myerson - The Listen Project//Mostly known as a remixer, but this album is good, and the songs titled as "afraid" and "this time" are worth your attention.

DAFT PUNK - everything your choice// OK, so nothing to say here, the name speaks for itself, the duo from Paris, with the robot heads. Influenced everyone and everywhere.Teir first album back at 1998. tracks as "revolution 909", "da Funk", "Around the world",Burnin'" from their first album are monumental to the dance community (am I wrong?). Ah, also you can know find them at their new sub-site in youtube

check this one...it really rocks

Scheer - Infliction// enough with the electronic based groups. This one in '96 was voted as one of the most promising new bands. And listening to the "wish you were dead" felt like it.

cracker - kerosene hat// don't foul yourself lyrics are about opium!!!

Sometimes I wanna take you down.
Sometime I wanna get you low.
I brush your hair back from your eyes.
I take you down let the river flow.
Sometimes I go and walk the street
Behind the green sheet of glass.
A million miles below their feet
A million miles, a million miles

CHORUS:
I'll be with you girl
Like being low
hey hey hey like being stone
I'll be with you girl
Like being low
hey hey hey like being stoned.

A million poppies gonna make me sleep.
But just one rose it knows your name
The fruit is rusting on the vine
The fruit is calling from the trees
Hey don't you wanna go down
Like some junkie cosmonaut
A million miles below their feet
A million miles a million miles

CHORUS
Blue blue is the sun.
Brown brown is the sky.
Green green are her eyes.
A million miles a million miles
Hey don't you wanna go down
Like some disgraced cosmonaut
A million miles below their feet
A million miles a million miles
CHORUS

Don Fleming - Because tomorrow comes// the uber song, the uber e.p., from the leader of the "Gumball".

Motorpsycho - angels and deamons at play// the first album of the Norwegian rock band that i have ever heard, The Song "in the family" echoes in my brain for a decade now. Also its one of the bands, with the Gomez, that till now never fails to amaze me, that every-single-one album they release is a diamond worth listening.

Kyuss - Blues for the red sun// long time ago, before QOTSA (queens of the stone age), this band among others was building the now-called "stone rock". Hard guitars, mixed with blues rhythm, cool as a hard-rock band can be. Each album a different story, a different sound, till their final one "...and the circus leaves town"

Steel Pole Bath Tub - scars from falling down// from New York, a punk rock band formed almost 20 years ago. This is the only album I ever listened to. They sound almost like Sonic Youth, if you asked to compare it with another group. Song to listen to "Kansas City"

The Posies - Amazing Disgrace// Power-Pop band, with lots of fuzz to the guitars (speaking for the amazing disgrace). Not so good in total, but there are excellent songs in this one. My favorite "Please return it", melancholic although the the fuzzy guitars. Loved also "ontario", "precious moments" and "everybody is a fucking liar"

the experimental pop band - homesick// one of the coolest albums I have ever listen. Most famous for the "forty greatest hits". Pop-funky-Samples, everything goes in this album. Songs as "for dancers only", "archive"

the afghan whigs - black love// If I were to describe the music played by the afghan whigs I would described it as soul-funk-hard-rock fusion, sometimes with a 80's finishing touch. Honky's ladder the single from this album. The band became famous with the 1965 album and the single "somethin' hot". In the 1965 album their love for soul, is more than obvious.

Fu Manchu - the action is Go// Speeding cars, gazoline in the air, explosive riffs...

Rolling Stone describes their sound as: "Super heavy and bass happy Detroit rock 'n' roll is totally deep-fried, fuzzed out, window breakin', pot sellin', sleepin-in-the-van, skater metal."

...head-bunging all the way. Feel the power of fu-manchu.

Octopus - from A to B// Pop till you drop dead, with a touch of psychedelic tunes. A classic if you ask me, the first single, also the first track "your smile", sounds so gooooood. Find it, listen to it. The best part is the album itself, a game is hidden inside it.

Lightning Seeds - Dizzy Heights// from pop to pop, lightning seeds dear ladies and gentlemen, one of the most famous british bands around. Lucky you from the Jollification, album is their greatest hits ever.

Shit gotta go so a few more in rush...

the cruel sea - the honeymoon is over
john lee hooker - chill out
honest - OST
grand lee buffalo - copperopolis
this is for apache - various
babybird - ugly beautiful
the church - magician among spirits

Radiohead, a new album, but not a review

2007-11-18T18:33:00.000+02:00

I believe that most of you know that Radiohead (Ραδιοκέφαλος) have finished recording their latest album, In Rainbows, the forthcoming cd/vinyl release should be available after the 3rd of December. I am also aware that a great deal of you also have visited the corresponding site and downloaded the album either free or by paying a fee (those not informed of this, will now be considered as such!!!). No big deal right?
Not quite...
...Radiohead are not just a group, since they considered to be one of the greatest bands in the world. So when Radiohead decide to "sell" their new album, directly from their site, by giving us the chance to pay as much as we want, to download the album, (or to preorder a great edition of it, double cd, vinyl and a hardcover illustration book, I'm drooling here, without the labels) it will be an opportunity for various sources to do their hypothesis and conclusions about the outcome.
From Bittorrent search engines to market analysts. even slashdot.com, all making their comments on this movement, as do I, while others, go even farther, considering it to be a hard kick in the balls for the music industry.
Even TIME magazine has an article on this, including a piece from an interview of Thom York, describing the music industry as a decaying business model. A statement, that is backed up by:

an A&R executive at a major European label:
"This feels like yet another death knell, If the best band in the world doesn't want a part of us, I'm not sure what's left for this business."

As of 12th of October Radiohead Made $6-$10 Million on Initial Album Sales (depending on the average amount payed for downloading the album) as I was informed from WIRED

I'm thinking...will they got a lawsuit from RIAA, from music corporations, for "freely" distributing an album via the internet, even if Radiohead has finished with EMI from 2004, and by doing so, encouraging the "leeching/seeding" community to burn up some more the copper telephone wires?

A few more artists seem to follow this business plan, one of the Trent Raznor, the Nine Inch Nails man, as well as Prince(?couldn't find that one). Even a record label as magnatune and artists as Saul Williams.

And this lovable guy (Trent Raznor) has said:
A few months ago, Trent Reznor (frontman of the band Nine Inch Nails), was in Australia doing an interview when he commented on the outrageous prices of CDs there. Apparently now his label, Universal Media Group is angry at him for having said that. During a concert last night, he told fans, '...Has anyone seen the price come down? Okay, well, you know what that means — STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these mother****ers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right.

And to finish this read that one:

The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada

Description: Industry Canada undertook a music file sharing study during 2006-07 to measure the extent to which music downloads over peer-to-peer file sharing networks, for which the sound recording industry receives no remuneration, affect music purchasing activity in Canada. The data used for this analysis are from a Decima Research survey conducted between April and June, 2006, on behalf of Industry Canada. The report, prepared by University of London researchers, Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, found that music downloads have a positive effect on music purchases among Canadian downloaders but that there is no effect taken over the entire population aged 15 and over.

that's all for now...keep on sharing...

News, DO we have ENOUGH time to ponder over them

2007-11-16T12:51:00.000+02:00

In the state I am the past 2 and 1/2 months, I've been missing quite a few things that concerns me and the rest of the world. The one outside the NAVY. One of those is the ability to "freely" be informed on the latest developments on almost every subject, whenever and wherever I want to. So during my "vacations" I spend most of my time sitting in frond of my (excellent DELL 2007WFP) screen (if you won't praise your house...!!!) and reading everything, from the game industry to scientific achievements to domesticate problems. I don't think that I will be able to read, even superficial, what happened in the real world before the 2nd of November.
So this one raises one significant question:

News, DO we have ENOUGH time to ponder over them?

...and more significantly, DOES IT WORTH IT? What good does it make to know that Radiohead earned about 6 million $, by releasing their latest album over the internet under a shareware, kind of, license? Or that scientist are about to brake through the production of hydrogen from waste water by bacteria, so that it can be used in a mass scale (a kind of free- environmental friendly energy).

So, as all these information stacking in my brain, occupying free neuron cells and reforming or forming new synapses, between my nerve cells, do I have time, or will I ever be able, to brake down this information, deconstruct it and in consequence reconstruct this flood of information to knowledge, that can be used to make my life better, to know my rights, to brace myself for the future (I am denying to talk about the future of me as a worker in this country, considering the pensioning system, that competes on equal terms with the estimate Average life span.)?

A Gem Raised From Trash? Paul Potts

2007-11-12T16:21:00.000+02:00

I got the following from the known email-chain, so probably it's not news, but it was one of those things that got my attention. Is anyone of you familiar with the show "Britain you have talent"? I believe that the same reality show was aired in Greece with the profound name of "Greece you have talent"!!!
I could never attend to similar shows for more than 15 min, and I thing that that's a personal record. But a friend of mine send me an e-mail, that emphasized on the winner of this show.
Paul Potts
He appears to be an ordinary guy, a 36 year-old cell-phone seller, too ordinary, modest and maybe a little bit shy, bullied as a kid, with low self esteem. He chooses to participate in the show and I'm indifferent to what he is about to do or to say, his looks betray him. One of the judges asks one and only one question:

"What are you here for today, Paul?"
"To sing OPERA", he replies

and she is almost shocked by this unbelievable answer. So am I, this is just another hoax with a lunatic megalomaniac thinking of being grandiose, without even deserve to be in frond of a TV camera (now that is an oxymoron). And after the millions of animals performing, sometimes better than men...

...he sings and I am amazed and shocked. I just hope this is for real, cause he is marvelous. "a breath of fresh air", out of those TV trashes, I couldn't agree more.
Listen to him sing:

Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turrandor, in the first round

...and Time To Say Goodbye

Soundtrack, for your ears only

2007-10-21T13:57:00.001+03:00

The Chemical Brothers - All Rights Reversed (at last the duo goes back to the old good songs)
American Analog Set - Million Young (I will never get tired of this)
Clint Mansell - Together We Will Live For Ever (End Credits For a Great Movie)
dEUS - The Magic Hour (no comments)
Feist - One Evening (Gonzales Solo Album, when was the last time you listen to good pop songs?)
Gomez - Notice (One of my favorite bands, from my late high school years)
The Cinematic Orchestra - To Built a Home (Wonderful)
The Avalances - Since I Left You (It really fixes me when I'm blue)
Razorlight - Who Needs Love (CooooooooL)
Q.O.T.S.A. - Little Sister (Best Band On Earth)
Motorpsycho - Devil Dog (Both motorpsycho and Gomez have never disappointment me)
Mogwai - Travel Is Danger (the definition of post-rock)
All About Lily Chou-Chou - Sight (from the OSTof the movie)
King Of Convinience - I Don't Know What I can Save You From (Quiet IS the new Loud)

Constant editting

2007-10-21T13:51:00.000+03:00

Well, one of the things I like to do in my blog, is to go back to older posts, editting them and either enriching them or cut things down. The same applies to the bars at the left side and the interface of this page. I like it to be in constant flow, not something static.

Cheers from Herakleio

Days Going By

2007-10-21T13:10:00.001+03:00

Even if I haven't slept well
I'm always looking forward for the few hours
I'll be out of that miserable place,
in order to ease my mind to cope with
the attitude of some people, who test the "red thin line" of my nerves, disturbing my inner peace (OK there is not such a thing, but anyway)

My hung-out-place is a cafe by the beach
called small coffee shop (μικρό καφέ). Not too crowded, not too isolated.

A freddo espresso, a bottle of water, the seventh tale from
the "tales of the malazan book of the fallen" by Steven Ericson"
and the mp3player playing for hours.

By the sea, as calm as I want to be. The cigarette never tasted
better, and smoke swarm out of my mouth hiding the unwanted.
(not the gorgeous lady at the far end).
How long has it been? Two full weeks
and still there is this feeling in my guts when I'm in that place.
And I don't think it has to do with the "being there"
rather than with the being with people I haven't choose.
People I either find boring or swallow,
or completely irritating.
With enormous complexes waiting to get "old" so they will do what the want!!!
So even for a few hours, while I'm alone at that cafe
listening to something I chose To, something I chose to,
reading, and be swallowed by the vast world of Steven Ericson,
I find peace...momentary.
And I feel even better, my skin crawls, a sweet chill travels through my spine,
as the night unfolds over the stormy sea of Chania, listening to Cinematic's Orchestra, To Build A Home, their first song from theirs latest album, My Fleur.

Chania 15/10/07

Movie: All About Lily Chou-Chou

2007-09-19T03:00:00.000+03:00

Αway from the political orgasm that this country just got through and as an interfering post, I would like to recommend a movie, from Japan. It is not a plesant one, it is not a DIE HARD movie for 2 pleasant hours.

All About Lily Chou-Chou

It's a movie about the misleading Japanese youth:
A story about the end of innocence, from a carefree life to being bullied to a dead-end road, leading to a predetermined death. The small parts of past events that are interfering to the main story, will test our feelings towards the main characters, enough to prepare us for the final scene.
The ones considered to be closed friends turn against you, when their way of living dramatically shattered. The film, focus on characters and on events that transformed them, from the late preliminary years, to the last high-school days. Their lives goes one without anyone restraining them without any morality. Parents living in another world, grownups who have turned away from the bitter reality. Salvation can be found only in the music of the pop artist Lily Choo-Choo. For both sides.
Beautiful cinematography, great story.
Beautiful, yet so disturbing.

Hope you'll be able to get a copy in your hands.

200 years ago, history lesson

2007-08-28T02:41:00.000+03:00

It was the 4th quartet of 1824 that the Sultan with the help of the Egyptian forces, trained under the western military forces, sets to annihilate the successful Greek revolution. Two forces, different in the way of training compared to the chaotic past organization of Ottoman troops, set to deliver mayhem, to eliminate any resisting Greeks. Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali, With an army of almost 15.000 (not 100% sure about this one) sets to Methoni in 1825, without any force to oppose him, with a single purpose:

To Burn down or chop every tree, to kill everyone who will oppose him, and will not yield. And he succeeded. For 2 years, and even under the resistance of the released Kolokotronis and his guerrilla warfare, Ibrahim managed to take over Peloponnese.
The disaster was so great that Kolokotronis send a mail to Ibrahim telling him that:

Not the branches of tress to cut from us, not the trees, not our homes you burned down,even if stone under stone to be left, we'll never yield. Even if, the trees to cut them down, the soil that doesn't want to be lifted up, the same soil that raised them, this soil will be ours for ever and it will reborn everything.

free translation...the original as follows:

Όχι τα κλαριά να μας κόψεις, όχι τα δέντρα, όχι τα σπίτια που μας έκαψες, μόνο πέτρα πάνω στην πέτρα να μείνει, εμείς δε προσκυνούμε. Τι, τα δέντρα μας αν κόψεις, τη γη δε θέλει να την σηκώσεις και η ίδια γη που τα έθρεψε, αυτή η ίδια γη μένει δική μασ και τα ματακάνει.

The reasons for the complete defeat were: the best strategic minds of Greece where in prison or pursued as criminals, the Greece was under the bad influence of foreign forces, the government under the presidency of Georgios Kountouriotis not able to handle the crisis, and the people not having faith to the government.

Peloponnese was turned into a dry land, was deserted, people were fleeing either to Sicily or to the coast line of Ottoman Empire, to get away from the disaster inflicted by Ibrahim. The land recovered after 100 years.

It seems that History repeats itself. But this time we do not needed any Ibrahim, or any Ottoman troops. We managed to bring total annihilation by ourselves. Cause, don't get fooled by political declarations of salvation to all Greeks by blaming the others, pointing the finger to everyone else but ourselves, we all have part in this.

I that throw the cigarette out of the speeding car into the dry land, my need for more money, for a "better place" to raise my children into the "forest", any action that is believed to put the blame on the other political party, of burning the weeds. Of the Greek way, as a nation, of the government (of every government) THAT consists of local Representatives that are responsible for theirs specific area of jurisdiction, of the ministers, the authorities, the leaders, all elected by the people...and goes on and on. Because I believe that in this case its not only the head of the fish that stinks it the whole fish.

And a final though is:
will this disaster be enough to awaken us, the dormant fellow Greeks;
It sounds as rhetorical as ever. Anyway I hope that I made a point and not been misunderstood.

Talk to you when I feel like it, or when the Navy permits it...

P.S.: minor spelling corrections. 19/09/2007

The Day After Tomorrow

2007-08-26T01:24:00.000+03:00

...will it ever come?
PHOTO IS FROM NASA's "VISIBLE EARTH" obtained ON 2000 (not recent OK? but to the point)

Once more the world has noticed this small country called Greece, but again not for something we are proud of. Almost the 2/3 of Peloponnese is turned to ashes, over 52 persons dead, and respiratory problems for thousands of people as most part of Peloponnese is covered with thick smoke. It seems that there is no end to this horror that is spreading through Greece, mostly at Peloponnese.
Fire raging on, from numerous locations to devour anything or everyone that stands in its way. As if it will rage on even through the sea.
People have died, people will probably die during the night of Saturday 25th of August and the death toll will probably rise, at the morning of Sunday the 26th. Hopefully, I will be mistaken, and wish I am.

CNN,photos
EL PAIS
ABC NEWS
HERALD TRIBUNE
THE GUARDIAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MSN NEWS
AL JAZEERA
RADIO CANADA
LE FIGARO

I believe that there are numerous hypothesis on this profound disaster. I know that we all have listen, read, talk about the why who or where and how, but in the end as history dictates and to quote Einstein:

...Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

I will come back to this subject and edit a few things, as I usually do with every article.

It's been almost a month since i've written anything

2007-07-25T15:45:00.000+03:00

I will start by saying this...

What the F#@$

Well for starters, since Friday, 20 July 2007 I'm facing a great opportunity. The one that WILL lead me where I never, ever have settled my feet before (and hopefully never to settle myself there ever again). This GREAT PLACE, this GREAT opportunity has a name:

ARMY

It will grand me the valor, the discipline, the heroism that was missing in my life (and then by grabbing the +4 dragonslayer sword, you'll be the hero of sword coast, not to mention the advance in the constitution stats). And all this glory, in no more than 2 weeks...

BUT...those are oooooold news

Actually by the blessing of mother country and of course taking advance of the great opportunity called elections, a great guy managed to get me into the NAVY (at 28 of August). But there is this constant feeling, that it's the same but not so intense anymore, I got when I was about to join the "ground forces", expecting the unexpected, getting my self in a new "environment" without the faintest clue of how it really is. You hear a lot, you get thousand of advices but then again you still thinking "WHAT I AM DOING?". The biggest problem is the restriction of choices, offered by this "wonderful new world", that gives me the creeps. I mean it's not a job, it's not for fun, it's not for mother nation, it's not for learning to withstand any threat, to be prepared for a new world, it's not about passing to maturity or learning the way of the warrior, the discipline. Then what it is about?
When I get over with it I will inform you.

So waiting for the day...

Enough of that.

P.S.(23-08-07): The WORST part is that there isn't a gorgeous woman around to comfort me...and not just that!!!
Also it is really hot.
I'm starting to act like my father, taking care of the garden, which gives me great pleasure, watching movies of every kind and reading. I do spent like 30 min to 1 hr trying to finish this publication, but it's not gonna happen if I'm spending soooooooo much time with it!

The Long Before Forgoten Usage of Spear

2007-07-15T03:10:00.000+03:00

Long before javelin was introduced as a standard Olympic Game (modern or ancient), it has been used during warfare or for hunting. Think of it as the ancient equal of a modern rifle.
In 13 of July 2007 during the Golden Gala Rome Giavellotto, a javelin athlete, mr. Pitkamaki (hmmmm weird name...here in Greece kamaki means fish-spear, a harpoon....hmmmmm...coinsidence?) demonstrated the original use of a spear to the unfortunate candidate of long-jump, mr Sdiri.

If you ask me that was a perfect throw, well calculated, balanced, the warrior demonstrated his skills without the need for further bloodshed.

France should admit defeat to Finland.

P.S.: Rumor has it that mr. Sdiri looks like a dear but its from an unconfirmed source.

Music A personal Afair

2007-07-09T20:21:00.000+03:00

OuR DearesT FrienD Has ReturneD FroM The LanD Of "if-you-pay-a good-lawyer-you-can-almost-do-anything" and many other , BUT RidiculouS NewS Are FlooDing IN. AnD My FavoritE Ones Are RelateD To MusiC RoyaltieS and THE ExtremitY OF RIAA ActionS. SO...
I've TolD YOU AbouT The BIG HAND of Darkne$$ ThaT AfteR The "SuccesfuL" ProsecutioN OF InterneT UserS ThaT ARE SHARING MUSIC, actually "stealing" under theirs terms, AND InterneT RadiO StationS...the Fullne$$ OF TimE is HerE and TheiRs ProtectivE Wings HAD SpreaD to OtheR areas ThaT NeedeD TheiRs ImmediatE DivinE IntervantioN.
ONE of ThosE ARE YouR LocaL CoffeE ShoPs (the American Term for CAFE, avec accent)...

So In the future,
AuthoritY WilL CrosS ChecK if your MP3 PlayeR IncludE LegaL CopieS of OweneD MusiC
.............. WilL ArresT You if The MusiC is TOO LOUD and CAN be HearD FroM OtheR PeoplE
.............. OfficerS WitH A WarreN EscordinG LwayerS WilL BreaK UP a PartY and ArresT PeoplE NOT FOR BEING TO LOUD, BuT FoR BroadcastiC MusiC, without PayinG a PennY for ThiS Action.
.............. No MoRE BeacH PartieS WitH a GuiTaR UndeR a StarfuLL SKY
.............. No MorE WhisperinG of SongS to The EAR oF YOUR LOVER, SinginG LullabieS to YOUR ChilD.
It COulD EveN go to the extreme case of:
BeinG aBle To SinG a FamiliaR TunE WhilE BathinG ONLY if those bloody ROYALTIES were PAID.

CASE CLOSED

Short Story Of a Desperate Moment/famous lines

2007-07-01T13:36:00.000+03:00

I'm sitting in front of my PC and I'm trying to set up my UBUNTU Feisty (Ver.7.4) drinking my chilled frape (avec axcent agouce? please correct me). The same frape I prepared 10 minutes ago, or so. But with great anxiety I had come across the reality of missing ice-cubes.
My dear brother (probably soon-to-be-dead-by-my-own-hands for his intolerant actions) had visited my freezer (also my sister has a part in this extreme situation), removed and used every single ice-cube I had and left the ice-cube container empty and out of the freezer (not that it would have made any difference if it was empty inside the freezer, he could still have been starting a controversial conversation with radishes).
So, happy in my ignorance, I prepared my world famous frape. A short moment latter my good mood disappeared like a planet under the gravitation effect of a black hole, and in GREAT horror as soon as I was indulging my mind to a chilled frape, I realized the ugly truth, and it was as hard as a meteorite's impact on earth. I was left with a warm substitution of my world famous frape, with no ice-cubes to ease my thirst.

"The battle was lost but not the war"

After I took a few deep breaths, inhale-exhale, breath with me, slow down my heart beats, ate a chocolate bar, rationality come back to me and I postponed my plans for world annihilation, which I regret it now. My thoughts were faster than a speeding bullet, faster than light itself. And without further delay I placed my coffee into the freezer.
After 10 min (present time) I'm writing those lines with a cup of chilled frape happy and content with myself and my everlasting ability to face boldly any challenge and deal successfully with them...So the moral lesson for today is:

"World Annihilation can always wait a few more days"

Army

2007-06-27T13:25:00.000+03:00

I've been informed that till further notice I will have to be presented to the army at November.

News

2007-06-26T19:51:00.002+03:00

Today 26th of June 2007 and for the whole day internet radio will go silent

to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of this country’s Internet radio industry.

What for? Copyright Royalty Board will raise royalties from per-song rate to per-person rate!!!

RIAA sued back, lovable -Directly from Slashdot

Washington Woman Sues RIAA for Attorneys Fees

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday June 23, @11:40AM
from the time-and-recompense dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A Washington woman sued by the RIAA has asked the Court to award her attorneys fees, after the record company plaintiffs (Interscope Records, Capitol Records, SONY BMG, Atlantic Recording, BMG Music, and Virgin Records) dropped their case against her after two years of litigation, in Interscope v. Leadbetter. The brief submitted by her attorneys (pdf) pointed out the similarity between Ms. Leadbetter's case and Capitol v. Foster. In the Leadbetter case, as well as Foster case, the RIAA sued the woman solely because she had paid for an internet access account, and then later in the case attempted to plead 'secondary liability' against her without any factual basis for doing so. This tactic had been repudiated by Judge Lee R. West in Capitol v. Foster as 'marginal' and 'untested' in his initial decision awarding attorneys fees, and in his later decision denying the RIAA's motion for reconsideration."

and...

RIAA, Safenet Sued For Malicious Prosecution
Today at 3:34 πμ
DaveAtFraud writes "Tanya Anderson, the single mother from Oregon previously sued by the RIAA — which dropped the case just before losing a summary judgement — is now suing the RIAA and their hired snoop Safenet for malicious prosecution. (Safenet was formerly known as MediaSentry.) Anderson is asserting claims under the… Read more
DaveAtFraud writes "Tanya Anderson, the single mother from Oregon previously sued by the RIAA — which dropped the case just before losing a summary judgement — is now suing the RIAA and their hired snoop Safenet for malicious prosecution. (Safenet was formerly known as MediaSentry.) Anderson is asserting claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. A reader at Groklaw has already picked up that she is seeking to have the RIAA forfeit the copyrights in question as part of the settlement (search the page for '18.6-7')."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.

German Bundestag passes it's new Internet surveillance law

Most of the news are from the German Newspaper Spiegel.

The story is just a fragment of the EU plans to control-track conversations, personal data and more, by forcing companies to keep a record of at least 6 months in their databases of every kind of traffic information.

The Good Part of this new wannabe law is the that Greece ONCE MORE has proven to be a step ahead in violation of personal rights. Do you remember the scandall with VODAphone regarding rather crusial data leaking out to "unknown" receivers?

and don't forget...

Parties in Greece tend to move theirs sorry butts to work only a few months before elections. Those are the days of milk and honey cause after they will turn to be the days of rape and honey (to rephrase the titles of two albums).

Just for laughts in Greek

Θα πληρώσει τα δικαστικά έξοδα: Έχασε τη δίκη μηνυτής που ζητούσε 54 εκατ. δολάρια για ένα χαμένο παντελόνι

Φυλακή τέλος για τη μεταμελημένη χρυσή κληρονόμο Πάρις Χίλτον

That's all folks

Battlestar Galactica

2007-06-26T04:03:00.000+03:00

What? You thing I would leave my favorite show out of this blog? I though so...So let's started.

Battlestar Gallactica as of 2002 is a remake of the naive (to the point of horrible) TV show of 1978. But as a kid I loved it in full grayscale. Back then we were lucky to even have a black/white TV. Anyway, as you already know (?) In the original series the purpose of Cylons (androids/cyborgs) was the complete extermination of the human race, but for the pleasure of the viewers in the recent series a few twists have been introduced.

During the BG history war raging between Cylons and humans, when the first rebelled against the latter. Give them brains and they will use them to destroy you. Humans prevailed and throw Cylons on a planet to live. But Cylons want more... so the creation (Cylons) search for their creators (humans) in order to destroy them, a rather phylosophical point, creation VS creator, son VS father...As we learn from the 2002 "pilot" movie, in a station were represantives of both humans and cylons should meet, once a year, for establicing every year the truce. In the past 40 years, only humans show up. Until the time a not so ordinary Cylon, not from metal and electrical connections, shows up to the meeting point asking human's representive:

"...are you alive? then prove it..."

so the story begins and with it one of the best series I've ever seen.

The rest goes as...Cylons trick humans (that includes some old fashion manipulation and trickstery OF COURSE) and destroy all 12 colonies (actually we are in deep space, were humanity is spread out to 12 colonies, named after the zodiac circle) in one blast, leaving something more than 40,000 living souls to drift into space under the leadership of the last battlestar, the Galactica. But there might be a solution for the last survivors, to find the mythical 13 colony, the legendary one mentioned at the holy manuscripts of the holy book, EARTH. So the remaining survivors set up for a witch-hunt after earth.

But as the intoduction to the series informes us:

"The Cylons were created by Man.
They Rebelled.
They Evolved.
They Look
And Feel
Human.
Some are programmed to think they are Human.
There are many copies.
And they have a Plan."

So there are Cylons who look like humans feel like humans, live among humans and this option make things a little bit more intresting, since the aspect of trust is more important than anything since anyone around you could be a Cylon programed to kill and this anyone could be your best friend, your lover, anyone. But, frankly, the main question till the end of the 3rd season is "what is the Plan?", and a subquestion since they find earth THEN WHAT?

After 3 glorious seasons Battlestar Galactica WILL END to the forthcoming 22-episodes-season. As producers said:

"Over the course of the last year, the story and the characters have been moving strongly toward that end, and we've decided to listen to those internal voices and conclude the show on our own terms. And while we know our fans will be saddened to know the end is coming, they should brace themselves for a wild ride getting there: We're going out with a bang."

I'm drooling.

So, what makes this series different from any other I've attended to?

First of all the characters.

I've never before attended to a show that creates real life characters under a sci-fi costum. Characters actions determined by their personality, not by the hand of "writter" and eventualy get what they deserve for every single action they take. The effect of counter action is always there.

I also liked the fact that there are no distinctive good-bad persons, the fact of incorporating conteporary politics, as the continous treatment of "terrorism" by the president of U.S.A. as a Large Scale WAR, every mulsalism as a terrorist, everyone who thinks in a different way as enemy. Also critisism withstands religion, humans are believers to the twelve Gods of ancient Greece, whereas Cylons tend to believe to the one and only loving and carring Cylon God. Monotheism versus Polytheism.

As the story goes the plot thickens, as both humans and Cylons reach earth the tension rises. And I'm waiting for the end of the series to amaze me.

Here is a preview of BG.S4 (not sure if it is the real thing) with presentation of every seasons in chronological order.

Then for season 2

Season 3

The last 5 min of season 3 last episode

and last but not least a 5min video clip including all episodes, music by rob zombie

but it includes SPOILER so be carefull

and for the final sneak peek of season 4

Fear Of The Black Blog

2007-06-20T01:10:00.000+03:00

Frankly I would like to talk about the 10th planet of our solar system Xena or later called Eris (if Pluto is still considers to be a planet) or even proufs for the existence of dark matter (another one) and dark energy, but more earthly matters dictates me to post something else

(image from libertarian)
All of us who are writing down a few thoughts, that includes any kind of criticism, are constantly under the sleepless eye of Greek authorities and subsequently to be arrested for criticism. The triggering for this post is the trial of Antonis Tsipropoulos tommorow. If this sounds a bit confusing then let me tell you the story as it is...or as I have understand it.

Once there was a blog that its purpose, as we read, was to collect via RSS feeds information from Greek blogs and hospitalize them under one roof so that visitors could find what they want, sounds nice isn't it? From the blogme (in Greek):

Το Blogme directory ήταν κατάλογος που ταξινομούσε τα blogs, ανάλογα με το περιεχόμενο τους, πχ, αθλητισμός, τέχνες, κλπ,(όπως πχ το in.gr), έτσι ώστε να διευκολύνει τον επισκέπτη να περιηγηθεί εύκολα μέσα στις κατηγορίες που τον ενδιαφέρουν.

But one link referred to a site that satirised Dimostenis Liakopoulos (nope I will not place a link to his site, will not give him the pleasure), was enough for D.L. to sue him, that led to his arrest for "criminal actions".. He didn't even made a comment about D.L., but was pointed as collaborator. I will not link to the controversial site, but at blogme you can find it, cause I am also afraid of being persecuted.

WHAT THE FUCK

Constitution of Greece, article 14 (yeah right)

...stated at his site (yes he is the owner of about the freedom of speech...but in this country (God and whatever divine creature makes it one) only the powerful ones are entitled of freedom of any kind. As Antonis Tsipropoulosblogme), although numerous sites (including in.gr, and foreign ones as youtube) does "physically" store videos of D.L. (also the ones that satirise him) or shows on TV he was the one to be arrested.

and once more we are known world wide for the ridiculousness of the authorities

BBC about the Internet Governance Forum held on Athens from Monday 29 October 2006 to Thursday.
1030 ATHENS (0830 GMT)

The Internet Governance Forum has only just started but already there is controversy surrounding freedom of speech online.

There are several reports on the blogosphere that the Greek authorities arrested a man last week for linking to blog posts hosted in America that satirise a Greek businessman.

Antonis Tsipropoulos was arrested, say reports, for linking to a website which satires Dimostenis Liakopoulos, a Greek tele-evangelist.

Mr Tsipropoulos is the administrator for a Greek blog search engine, called blogme.gr.

Bloggers are describing this as a "spectacular own goal" by the Greek authorities, especially given the fact the country's prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis and minister of transport and communication, Michalis Liapis, are attending the IGF's opening ceremony.

The Guardian "Blogging In The Free Speech World" an article worth reading

...The Greek hosts have scored a spectacular own goal with the reported arrest of Antonis Tsipropoulos, whose alleged "crime" was linking to blog posts hosted in the US that satirise a Greek businessman. Tsipropoulos is the administrator for a Greek blog search engine, blogme.gr.

The incident highlights again concerns raised by Irrepressible.info, a joint Amnesty International and Observer campaign promoting freedom of speech online.

In today's session on "openness", Theodoros Roussopoulos, the Greek minister of state, denied knowledge of the case but said: "We have a problem with bloggers who spread lies through television ... we have bloggers who create false news ... So yes, perhaps a code of behaviour is an idea."...

And many more, from newspapers to other blogs. Just Google it I found 882 posts.
I think that I will leave the rest to your judgment since there is a possibility to be arrested for my thoughts, and never to finish my thesis or going to Barcelona.

I THINK THUS I BEING ACCUSED

I forgot to mention that this is a case of making illegal every Blog in our Country, if Antonis Tsipropoulos found guilty

Also I found a few interesting sites that about bloggers rights (maybe there should be a Bloggers DAY)
Electronic Frontier Foundation

greekliberals.net

Le temps de moussons

2007-06-14T19:52:00.000+03:00

Bombay, Thursday 14 of July 2007

To my beloved friends

It's been a while since I wrote to you, but the fact is that this is the worst season of all.
Here in Central India, time goes by slowly.
Actually, weather does not allow us for any unnecessary movement so this is why everything seems to slow down. The humidity is above 60% and rain is a common phenomenon. A blessing to be more exact since the atmosphere looses tension allowing us to breath. Ever heard of the expression "soaked to the bone"? It feels every day like this.
Global warming effects seems to apply to our country too and people fear for worst times since the season of moussons is far away, but it feels like it.
Tea do make us feel better and works as a stimulant to let us perform the necessary actions for any trivial task that otherwise would seem impossible. But it is not easy to shake the feeling of dizziness and hypotonia. Only children seems to be unaffected during this season. It seems as children are unaffected by any weather, theirs mothers do not have the strenght to yell at them, they only try to sophronize them by calling them once, by their names. and this allows them to scream louder since there is no particular effort from anyone to restain them
...even the animals act in a easy-going manner, the birds do not chatter, the dogs do not bark, quiet is the world around me, apart from those god damned car horns and the children.
Times like this I do envy you for being under the healthy Mediterranean weather, even if draught is a major problem. But since my work demands from me to stay here I have to bear with it and give every day the best out of me. I want to finish with it as soon as possible to return back to our family. But every time a new obstacle arises from nowhere to stand in my way, as if a force greater than my powers dictates my staying in this country. I do not now if I can take it any longer, but I have to be patient, I have to finish it so that all those years of hard work to let us live a better life. I hope that you are better in Greece, under the glorious sun that I miss so much.

My love to all.

FAKELLAKI

2007-06-02T00:06:00.001+03:00

Ok people this is SERIOUS.

How many of you know about http://fakellaki.blogspot.com ?

Well, you should and I have to say that I was referred to it just yesterday. It is/was created by amalia kalyvinou and I found this blog important for reasons of ethics, of humanity of not going with the easy way. As far as I know, she had cancer (malignant tumor) at her leg. And I'm referring to her in past tense cause from 25/05/2007 she is no longer a stranger among us.

The short story is that from the age of 8 till the age of 26 she complained about pain in her leg. All the doctors mentioned at her blog failed in miraculous ways to diagnose the growing tumor. Until it was to late. But her suffering was never-ending. And even when the size of tumor was too great, some doctors (names and situations in the blog) refused to see the obvious. As she refused to bribe doctors for drags, chemicals, for even to diagnose the problem so that the treatment Will commence.

The tumor spread to her body...

Read her blog...

the story is not new but it is my first time reading them from a person how suffered from the medical/pharmaceutical system in Greece.

FOR THE NON GREEK READERS SORRY...but find someone to translate this one to you.

[EDIT] : no comments will be allowed for this post. Read her blog and write there, if you feel like it. No credits for me. She will never read your replies or your condolences, sad but true.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Music

2007-05-31T00:17:00.000+03:00

Two new entries in the music section, and also in reaction to the bittersweet band presented by sfiltros, the one and only editor of newslete, at the friends tag, I present 3 high speed groups that are located in my mp3, and damage my hearing for a few weeks.

After a long time (almost 2 years) a new album from Fu Manchu, titled "We Must Obey" not as good as the legendary "The Action Is Go", but a real butt kicker. Your day is just awful and want to kick your head somewhere? Go and headbanging with this album. It's pure unconditioned riffed-based-fuzzed-dirty-as-army-toilets hard rock. Top track for me "Moving On Stereo", there are a few elements from the old Black Sabbath in this track. Or I think so.

Next "Enter Shikari". A band consisted of "four standard geezers from St. Albans City, a standard area just north of London" that mixed hard-core, punk, heavy-metal and "καφριλα" (I luck of a proper translation) with electro, techno and other stuff. The result? Pure grade A', f#@$ing FUN. "χαβαλες" as usually referred by that name in Greece. But the guys don't lack of good melodies and great music. Tracks as "Return To Energizer" and "Adieu", give hope for those guys. Wish the best for them, and a real good fresh start.

And finishing with the announcing of the new album from THE GREATEST BAND ON EARTH, Q.O.T.S.A. (for the uninitiated "QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE"). The title of the new album is ERA VULGARIS. The words are meaningless, the feeling overwhelming, the hand is trembling, the mind loops back to the best concert ever, back at the glorious summer night of 15-06-2005. Enter the site watch/hear the single and beg for forgiveness for ever listening to Corrine Beilly Rae and Urbs (not bad for easy listening and pop stuff).
Sick, Sick, Sick the first single, into the darkness away from safety once more. When I get that album on my hands (and survive holding it) I will emerge from the hard-stoned-trip, stretch my head and write down a few things. But it will take some time...

...sick, sick, sick don't resist...

Jesus, I'm really hungry!!!!!!!!

News

2007-05-30T22:24:00.000+03:00

OK, so after a long time let me write about a few things that raised my curiosity.

...In The Beginning

talking about billions of years before of our times, to be exact, 13.2 billion years ago, +/- a "few "million of years probably, a star was formed, now coded as HE 1523-0901. So what is the big deal?
Apart from the obvious and jaw drooping 13.2 BILLion YEARS?????????????OK let's see what I can come up with:
First concentration of metal is low ( I do not know the significant of that one, probably has to do with the age determination), it is located in the Milky Way (which has a diameter of around 100,000 light years, those are the years we are looking back to the past watching the far end of our galaxy), aaaaaand keep in mind that the BIG BANG is located like 13,7 billion years ago, this one is one of the oldest stars founded and still active (I cannot find its distance from earth, so I do not know how much back in time the good fellows looking at). Soooooooo, as physorg calls it, it is a true galactic fossil, alive and kicking.

Our beautifull "milky way" as seen from death valey in U.S.

The next one is just a note of something else I read at physorg.
SKorea's LG Philipps develops first A4 colour e-paper. No more paper, tons of it are going to waste anyway, so why produce more, I would love to have one of that in my pocket, full of newspapers, books, comics, art, anything... but hush my foolish heart, the time for revolution is not here yet!
For more technical data, as we read from engadget.com:

A4-sized rendition of the vivid bendable display has successfully been developed in its labs. The panel reportedly measures just 35.9-centimeters diagonally, is 0.3-millimeter thick, and can display up to 4,096 colors while maintaining the energy efficient qualities that inevitably come with using energy only when the image changes. Unsurprisingly, the company plans on marketing the device as one of convenience and doesn't hesitate to tout its greenness in the process, but unfortunately, it failed to mention when this would find its way out into the general public.

Next on somedayitwillbe...

Another scientific thing, and cosmology again from newscientist.com. It's a vast and unknown universe (but sometimes is better to focus on the one we are standing on)

Those lovable darlings (who never misses a chance to attend a meeting, a scientific one, and get stoned/drunk at the dinner/parties) found out a planet coded GJ 436 with a four times the width of Earth surrounded by "hot ice". An exotic form of water that although it is under 300° C or more the gravity keeps it in "liquid" form.

PARTHENOGENESIS

About another thing I wanted to talk about is the finding of female sharks that are able to fertilize themselves, without the need of a male, a PURE PARTHENOGENESIS. The offsprings are genetically identical to their mother. And I quote:

Mahmood Shivji -- Nova Southeastern's Guy Harvey Research Institute director and one of the paper's authors -- said that he and his colleagues determined that a byproduct formed when sharks produce eggs, known as a sister polar body, had fused with an unfertilized egg to produce the baby shark, whose DNA had only half as much genetic variability as the mother.

"Yes, indeed this is a virgin birth," Shivji said in an interview, adding that this could help explain why other sharks have suddenly been born in captivity, like a bamboo shark that appeared in Detroit's Belle Isle Aquarium in 2002.

"We have now demonstrated that sharks are actually able to use an alternative, previously unknown reproductive pathway, which is parthenogenesis. The problem here is that this alternative reproductive pathway results in offspring that have much lower genetic diversity," he said.

That's all for now folks. It's 00:05 and I need FOOD, and a beer but the fridge is empty. CRAP, pfffffffffffffff

No Comments

2007-05-26T23:01:00.000+03:00

...only that this is from a movie poster (as far as I know), of Good Luck Chuck debuted this past week at Cannes festival (picture from IGN).
Jesus Shaves

Music Lists

2007-05-26T17:45:00.001+03:00

As you may have noticed there is a new tag inserted (there at the right side) regarding music I am listening to at the time being. Although there are a few problems I dislike. Actually one problem, the fact that it can not be configured to work as a real list or a drop-down menu, sawing all the music I inserted by time. Thus, I have to remove an album at time for the list to be shown well. So, I will introduce a new category with music I hear, or located in my mp3 player, and worth mentioning. So as for the previous days the list goes as:

!!! - Myth Takes
A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms
Aceyalone - Magnificent City (MC Aceyalone "sings over the music written by RJD2, a hip-hop/electronic/sampler musician)
Alex Gopher - S/T (Not a great album, but includes a few great songs as the first 2 songs of the album, rain Leech and Out of the inside)
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Better than the first one, it surprised me positively, recommend it to everyone out there)
Artic Monkeys - Favorite Worst Nightmare (Second coming, still licening to it, a great album, but i cannot get throuthg the aftershock of the first album :))
Artic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (the first wave was like the crash of tidal waves, pure guitars, excellent riffs, and those kids enjoy what they do. My favorite track, fake tales of Sun Francisco)
As Tall As Lions - S/T
At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command (including the single "Invalid Litter Dept.")
Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir
Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed The Fish?
Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Bat For Lashes - Fur And Gold
Berg Sans Nipple - Along The Quai
Bjork - Volta
Boy Kill Boy - Civillian
Calexico - Feast of Wire
Clint Mansell - The Fountain OST
Death Note - OST
dEUS - In A Bar Under The Sea
dEUS - The Ideal Crash
Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
Enter Shikari - Take To The Skie
Feist - Open Season
Fu Manchu - We Must Obey
Isombel Campell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the broken seas
Jenny Toomey with Calexico - Temptin: Jenny Toomey Sings The Songs Of Franklin Bruno
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman
John Coltrane - Blue Train
Kwan - Love Beyond This
Maximum The Hormone - Buiikikaesu
MooM - TooT
Palast Orchester & Max Raabe - Palast Orchester Mit Seinem Sänger Max Raabe Präsentiert Superhits
Pearl Jam - Riot Act
Porcupine Tree - In Absenthia
Q.O.T.S.A. - Era Vulgaris
Q.O.T.S.A. - Lullabies To Paralyze
Seu Jorge - The Life Aquatic Sessions
Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band
Sparta - Threes
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Suzane Vega - Beauty and Crime
The Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder
The Besnard Lake - S/T
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
The Postal Service - Give Up
The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward
Thelonius Monk - Who's Afraid of the Big Band Monk
Tribalistas - S/T
Windermere - No One Wins
Yo Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone
Young Gods - Only Heaven

I will also Try to write down a few comments...probably i will be to lazy to do so.

So Cute You Could DIE

2007-05-20T16:03:00.001+03:00

This must be the cutest site ever (at least from the ones I had the opportunity to visit), not by design but by context. What I want to say Is that I've never been around to a site, or even received (by one of those chain mails), so fulled of cute animals.
So want to freak out from cuteness? Just go to cuteoverload. And If this isn't far from enough just visit Islands In The Sun. Hey, it is also accompanied by Weezer's some titled song. Well, I couldn't here the song...lucky me.
After that I just for once have to call upon BOB SAGET.

But if you still haven't been convinced and need a proof of cuteness...well don't blame me, and please, no aahhhhhhsss or ooooooooooohhhhs. OK?

Nafplio (and a new way to write)

2007-05-17T21:36:00.000+03:00

Well, once in the
      constant repetition
              of the same play,
            the roles have to be reassigned,
                        the story should get out
                   of the ordinary
                            to get you
                              going on and on.
              Otherwise, days will be the same,
                        people will look alike
                               and even your actions
                                  will seem meaningless.
So, what better than small vacations?
        a weekend to a different place
               doesn't matter that you are
                           with the same faces
                 even better makes the journey
                        more relaxed. and provides you
                                  with the freedom to be
                                            alone
                                and enjoy things that matter.
Yes, I really enjoyed previous weekend
              For me was a chance to get
                      away from everything.
                            Cause I find myself
                       building up anger towards
                                 those that seems to be
                                     against my way of living.
Nafplio was great, relaxed, easy going
         and the company, without demands.
                   I had the chance to swim,
                       my first, and the second
                             for this year. But be aware.
                     Even at this period sun is a killer.
                             Hopefully
                       more chances will rise up.
We haven't been to Palamidi
            the castle were Kolokotronis was
                            imprisoned, in a dark cell,
                                   almost leaving him blind,
                                      as the myth (history)
                                           tell us. We didn't even
                          had the chance to
                               "climb" all 999 stairs to the top
                                         but walking in the
                                     narrow alleys was relaxing.
                            People were nice and it appeared
                                   that they really cared about
                                           the old city. To be proper and beautifull.
             I've been there before, when I
                      was young, like 10-12, so I do not remember
                                anything. Maybe a feeling of those stairs.
Also, as for Acrocorinth
         (the castle at the old Corinth up in the mountain)
                   Palamidi was beautifully illuminated.
                            I would like to attend to this spectacle
                                   in a less luminated area. But,
                                         nothing is perfect.
                                            The gate build by Italians
                                            (from Venice-citizents anyway,
                                                      different country back then)
                           with their symbol of the lion
                                           carved at the walls, was fearsome.
     Also I liked the way modern hotels or houses
                   fit to the scenery, being one with
                           the old, an example for the rest.
The sea at Karathona was quite warm
           for the season, and the contradiction
                               with the warm and humid
                           weather was rejuvenated.
I do not know how Nafplio
             is during high season
                   but this time of year it felt great.
By the way the house we were
               staying, was so isolated,
                            surrounded by orange blossom trees,
                                 and palms
                             that felt like being alone, as in a monastery.
                And the company was great.
                        I enjoyed the talk we had Saturday night
                                just before we go down-town.
We attended
          Eurovision at the "plaza" of the old town.
                  I think that there was
                          not a single song i could
                                 enjoy.
The bad thing is the high secutity prison
       and the "agrarian" prison, is so close
              to new Nafplio, in a populated area.
                     Why don't prisons in an isolated area
                              like Imia? This will be prison in a
                                   higher meaning. No escape.

P.S. The reason for writing like this raised after reading this and this article, that correspond to the efforts of liveink, a company, or something like that that did some research on how people read. They concluded that the eye sees only a spherical portion of a text and focuses on the surrounding area. So as long as a text is formed in succession of lines of no more than 30 characters it would be easier to read.
So what do you think?

Army, phd, job

2007-05-11T22:55:00.000+03:00

Is it possible to accomplish all those things in one stroke? Well seems impossible but...if you find the right connections and also the timming is right, it could happen, we'll see soon enough...

But I have to run like all hell is after me. If time and luck is on my side.

[UPDATE] seems like time is not on my side, I think that I will join the army during November, so I will loose time after all. An I do not think that there is a way to serve Mother Greece, on August. pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

NEWS, wireless power

2007-05-10T22:35:00.000+03:00

Well the news you will never read from anywhere else except from here, or the other sites that mentioning them, are...
First of all THE one and only

Plastic sheet delivers wireless power

Anyone who has access to this article could read it. As for all the others could go to the links provided and read what I've learned. So go here or here. All the others could read this small but complete abstract by myself.
So T Sekitani et al, were able by using a plastic sheet of 4 layers to deliver remotely 40Watt to different appliances. The whole idea is based to something that was first described by Faraday in 1831 called electromagnetic induction. Transmission of power was a common knowledge (when electrical energy can be transmitted without direct contact of the source and the battery), the thing that makes a difference is the fact that

it can transmit high power selectively to the position of electronic objects

as the researchers said, as the fact that this is a rather simple a cheap way to do it.
Well do you plan for a wireless home? I think it could be happen.

...it's been soooooo loong

2007-05-10T22:06:00.000+03:00

Since I've written anything. Actually not that long. But as you know, it was one of those weeks, when you have time for nothing. And the reason for this stressed week was THE reason. NOP my friends, no women has occupied my time . Although I wish for, cause women I like (more than the women I normally like) tend to be far away from me, literally.
Anyway, the reason is the most common of all. WORK. I've been running like the coyote (the one of the famous cartoon), chasing for something that I can not have it, or so it seems that way. And as 85% of all the lab cases, I just flushed everything in the sink. THE WORK needs to be repeated. This is the part that I start screaming and make even Mister Satan to turn his face in shame. Anyway, I have plans for this weekend, like going to Nafplio, with a few friends and as tomorrow is a free day cause of today's work. Also dear readers you have the chance to get new articles to read about.
Enjoy

Miserable

2007-05-06T00:39:00.000+03:00

Well today is the day that every optimism in me is gone. I had a 2-3 hours sleep, cause i got worry that i had forgotten an oven operational in Demokritos (foes list), and I was so anxious that I could not sleep. Actually to return to a normal state, I got the first bus at 5:15 in the morning and rushed to Ag. Paraskevi. Everything was OK. A lesson to learn for me that I should never worry about routine. It goes by itself. Although I was tired and sleepy, I noticed that public transportation at the early hours is like being in a completely different world. METRO and buses are filled with every kind of immigrants, going at the northern area of Attica to find a work. Everyone of them was carrying a bag with food for lunch, I suppose. Although they formed companies, none of them spoken to each other. Everyone looked so tired. And I was thinking, are those the bad guys? They desperately go to places that will offer them a minimum salary, like almost every one of us. Anyway, the trip back home was completely different, as if the sun erased the existence of those that travelled at the twilight zone. Sun was glorious, promising an excellent day. My spirit raised with the rising sun and i could think of nothing bad. I return home and started finishing some jobs in the garden (the ones I've promised to my parents) fixed a few loose ends in my apartment, prepared breakfast and a cup of coffee, and chat with my mother. As I went to my apartment Morpheus offered his arms and I couldn't resist him. So I slept for 2-3 hours. At around 2 o' clock I took a bath and joined my parents for lunch.

Then I started to organise my work, but before I started a friend, Fotis, told me that in 15 minutes I should be ready, cause they would pick me up. I went for another cup of coffee with a couple of friends in Argyroupoli. We talked about our favorite asian movies, anime and manga, and also watched half of the match between Larisa and Panathinaikos (no relevance to our story). So as soon as I returned to home I started to prepared for the meeting, with the other guys, at Plaka to wish Elias for his days at the army. I took the bus and it was almost empty, but the metro was another story. Filled with people, filled with vanity, with overconfidence to our looks, filled with people searching but never finding cause their criteria are based on material needs, or i seemed that way to me at the time being. As I was got off at Monastiraki, I watched all those people at the square, doing nothing, smoking the good stuff, drinking beer, and thinking how cool they are. They got the right to ruin everything they come across even if it doesn't belong to them, or even helped to be built. Anarchism in the U.K.??? You should visit Greece, even better live you myth in Greece. They bother me but I try to do everything in my power not to disturbed them. Do they do the same? Anyway, shit happens, but they have flooded the place.

And I met my friends. It was fun. It is always nice to be with friends. With people you can just chatting or analysing the meaning-of-it-all. It is even better to be with the ones you love and they love you back.

But, as soon as I returned back home a calming emptiness filled me, the void became me and choices of the past flashed before me. As I was closer and closer to home I could only think that it is mine but it is empty. And now I'm sitting in frond of the monitor writing down a cluster of my thoughts, believing that it will make me feel better. It does. But, it is not good enough. How my mood changed, from an excellent morning to an miserable night, I think it is not that hard to understand. For me anyways.

So without any further delay, even if it is half finished, even if a small fraction of my mood and thoughts is stated in those paragraphs I publish it, in case I change my mind. scripta manent

Tomorrow, as I will feel fresh and so does my mood will lighten up. For all I care, I will do my best to ameliorate my life.

That's all, goodnight and good luck

artificial intelligence game

2007-05-04T16:11:00.000+03:00

Well this is something. It's been a while since it's been on the net, but never had a chance to check it out myself. So lets present the first game with a real Artificial Intelligence: facade. This a simple game, but completely different from anything i come through. Actually, it is not a game, in the traditional way. I think that the term "a one-act interactive drama" is more accurate. It's not about graphics, not about shooting, not about platforms, not about leveling and experience, not about managing, or storytelling-puzzle-solving. It's a simple story.
You've visiting the house of a couple, Grace and Troy (if i remember the names) that are not going too well. So the goal, if there is any, is to kiss and make up. Soooo, you start a conversation with them, you talk about almost anything and the characters just come to life. You can even interact with the environment. It's amazing. The storyline evolves as you "play" (interact with the characters). Almost nothing is predetermined.
As I go through the game I could say that its more like a soap opera but the script is made by you. This video actually shows one way of storytelling. You can freely manipulate the characters to stretch them to their ends.
It's only 131mb so what are you whating for?

One shallow doesn't bring back spring

2007-05-04T13:38:00.000+03:00

Or "ένα χελιδόνι δε φέρνει την άνοιξη".
The question is about which swallow am I talking about, cause theoretically speaking spring kicked in from March, actually, spring was the succession of autumn, no winter ever involved in the procedure. Since then every good or bad symptom of Spring and the forthcoming summer is here and inspire us or trouble us. So, allergies has taken the best out of me. My skin feels itchy, my eyes are swollen, and painful, lest not talk about the nose called waterfall. Pills do nothing anymore.
The other one is the Sun-that-burns-through-your-skin-and-boils-your-blood. The day-before (as in Greek προχθές, meaning a unspecified period in past-time) while working on the sewerage I got sunburned (sewage???). My grand-mother always told me that May's sun is the worst, but it was still April.
And the inspiring things, the drunken aroma from the lemon flowers, all kind of night flowers and jasmine (lemon flowers are long before gone). The promise of a great summer, with wine, in my yard, listening the silence of summer nights. A trip to Barcelona, and visiting our favorite Island, Syfnos. Summer love, summer wine, summer journey, summer beach...and of course HEAT.
But, where are the swallows??? Have you come across one? Do they still exist? I'm searching high and low for a sign, something, but nothing is there. I'm really disappointed. I only hear the morning chattering of sparrows, but no shallows. I'm missing them, building their nests at the corners of balconies, feeding their nestlings. Not good, not good at all.

P.S. Everything was different this year, birds where preparing for their migrating trips not in September but in January. Deciduous never lose their leaves. Draught is at the gates.
Recent news state that Italy entered in emergency state as Pados, Italy's largest river, started to shrink.

DEATH NOTE

2007-04-30T21:13:00.000+03:00

I still cannot belive how good is the two soundtracks from the anime death note. Not as good as the Cowboy Bebop's soundtrack but it does has some excellent themes, more like post-rock, there is a theme that reminds of mogwai's auto rock. And the series, just when you say you have figured everything out...great story, great animation, great dialogs, great characters. Just superb.
For a few info also check those blogs.
NOVASTORM
Random Curiosity

FOOD

2007-04-30T17:54:00.000+03:00

well as they say..

once hungry always hungry

so after alcohol, or even better, before, or in parallel with alcohol, food is what I believe to be my TOP priority. I;m not going to present as my first post about food a site of weird recipes, or exotic dishes, but a most scientific matter.
It is called,

molecular gastronomy

just Google it and you'll see what I'm talking about. But, you are lazy bastards, so I'm going to make a brief presentation of it.
It all started when chemistry has advanced so that it could determine what kind of chemical reactions could take place while a food is being prepared (yes it is called molecular gastronomy but actually not like molecular biology, chemistry and physics are the main aspects). So a good fellow, Hervé This, with another good fellow, Nicholas Kurti, started what at the begining was refered as Molecular and Physical Gastronomy.
The basics of it as described at This theses are:

(1) investigating the culinary and gastronomical proverbs, sayings, old wives tales…
(2) exploring the recipes;
(3) introducing in kitchens new tools, ingredients and methods
(4) inventing new dishes based on 2
(5) using Molecular Gastronomy to help the general public understand how science can contribute to the well being of the society.

the reason behind this idea and the “International Workshop on Molecular and Physical Gastronomy” were as it was described by This himself:

Each aspect of our environment is studied by a specific scientific discipline, using the experimental method, introduced Francis Bacon and later by Galileo Galilei. Why should gastronomy be an exception?

So to continue, his idea is to collect old fashion cooking recipes, and put their statement under the harsh experimental procedures, and also introduce new methods to ameliorate the cooking experience (I mean the aftertaste). Nicholas Kurti is no longer with us, but This is active and also recently had a publication on EMBO regarding molecular gastronomy.
To give you an example lets find out what happens when you do BBQ. Meat turns brownish. NO SHIT!!!. What happens inside meat to turn to brown? Well at about 65 Celsius degrees, aminoacids compine with reducing sugar by no enzymatic means, producing Schiff bases, as posted by Maillard in 1912, Maillard reaction, and that results in the changing of color. The point is that during this reaction meat gets its flavor.

Also, for the industry, the goal is to maximize food flavor through the heat-induced Maillard reaction without impairing nutritive value or creating carcinogenic heterocyclic amines, which are formed during high temperature cooking of foods like meat and chicken that contain high amounts of protein

. And again, the reaction will give different flavor according to the chemical substances of meat, not all meat are the same. So, chefs around the world try to find ways to increase the flavor of cooked meat, without being either raw or harmfull, overcooked (the Greek way).
So how good it is? Now that is the question. Well, first of all one of the achievements of molecular is to successfully combine ingredients, that according to tradition are incompatible, with amazing results. One of this is the combination of caviar and white chocolate. I do not know if it tastes as good as they say, but it should be good, as combining cheese feta with chocolate from papadopoulou biscuits γεμιστά (one of my achievements as a youngster). And if you think about anything else let me tell you that in Fat Duck restaurant at Bray-on-Thames, a meal costs about 120 euros per person (or that's what i've read from somewhere else)...and to eat there you should reserve a table ages ago.
JAW DROPPING

interview
molecular gastronomy news
a brief listing of links
blog dedicated to molecular gastronomy
molecular gastronomy is dead?
article on Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat Duck
Fat Duck, images form dishes served

How to

2007-04-29T13:00:00.000+03:00

You planed for a really nice excursion in the forest, in the wild, to get away from work, routine, wife, parents, anything you need to get away from. But as most of mountain roads danger lurks in every turn of the road. You never know when and how the bad turn will arise and you might then find yourself hanging in middle air. As you sitting in your car, balancing, half of it in the void and the other half on the road, a thought crossed your mind: Why haven't I read the "how to get out of a car that's hanging over a cliff"?
Good question, the other one is why someone ever wrote a guide like that one? there are many more, like how to get out from a sinking car, etc.

Famous Lines By Infamous People

2007-04-29T01:02:00.000+03:00

Well this will be more for Greek People or those of you that know how to read this...
λοιπόν σκεφτόμουν να κάνω κάτι τέτοιο εδώ και καιρό. Δηλαδή, να μαζέψω εδώ ατάκες που έχουν ειπωθεί από φίλους ή και από εσάς τους ίδιους και αξίζουν να μείνουν γραμμένα. Τα γραπτά μένουν (scripta manent ή κάτι τέτοιο). Όποτε θυμάμαι κάτι θα συμπληρώνω. Για αυτήν την ώρα αυτά είναι αρκετά

οπότε αρχίζω

trotos: προεξέχουν υπέροχα (για δύο όντως υπέροχα)

trotos: η αντιμετώπιση του κόσμου ως τετελεσμένου γεγονότος (ποτέ δε μπόρεσα να θυμηθώ πως ακριβώς το είπα)

Κώστας Γ: το χειρότερο πράγμα είναι να έχεις πνευμονία (~~στα σκαλάκια Γεροκοστοπούλου~~ στον μώλο)
koxakies.: Αυτά είναι τα άσχημα! (βλέποντας φίλο του να ξερναει, ενώ ο ίδιος τρώει σουβλάκι)
Ηλιας Π.: Μαλάκες, κρέατα! (προφέρεται με πάθος)
sfiltros: Εγώ θέλω την κατανόηση του κόσμου (ως απάντηση, για το τι πίτσα θέλει)
trotos: Η γη αντικατοπτρισμένη απο το Σίνο κατα τη θολωτή γέννεση (τα ρεστα μας)
Νικος Κ.: Δεν κοιμόμουν, έκλεισα λίγο τα ματια μου. (αλήθεια σας λέει...)
Βλαχάντερ: Τζερεμέ! Σουρουκλεμε! Κουνενε! (και συναφείς φιλοφρονήσεις)
Νίκος Κ. (του πέφτει το τετράδιο κάτω και αυτός το αγνοεί)
ερώτηση: σου έπεσε το τετράδιο κάτω... απάντηση από Ν.Κ.: ε, το να πέσει πάνω είναι λίγο δύσκολο...

Γράψτε στα comments κάτι που είπατε ή ακούσατε και έχει μείνει.
[EDIT] christobal έβαλε το χεράκι του
[EDIT] sfiltros, σύσωμη η εκδοτικη αρχή του ΝΙΟΥΣΛΕΤΕ έδωσε το παρόν

...news

2007-04-28T20:54:00.000+03:00

Let's started:
Student writes essay, arrested by police
...WTF???!!! I mean freedom of speech? pfffff I tried to find a link to read what the students essay was about and how could cause any trouble, and i did. As it has been posted

"Allen Lee made references to violence, drug use, and a dream about a shooting spree where he had sex with dead bodies"

oh my god i'm in trouble, i think i hear police knocking on my door, well so does Steven Kings, Paolo Pasolini if he was alive, almost every contemporary American novel writer, like J. G. Ballard, most of Japanese film directors including Takashi Miike as their leader and so many other people.
Create a WANTED LIST on the comments. Feel free to add yourself also.

NEXT

Japanese Railway

I do get furious with Greek public transportation and especially when i compare Greece with the rest of the world, so after the previous news of TGV and the speed record achieved recently i found that its great rival in public transportation, Japan, started a new project on magnetic elevated trains (our friends call us MagLev. So one thing in mind...
BOB SAGET help us

...last but not least

Broadband to go free in 2 yrs

In Greece, oh no, dream of it. In INDIA. Yes in India. The point is that if i had heard of it like 1 day ago, i would be there (at the enemies auditorium, demokritos) and kiss India's president feet, no in fact beg him to adopt me.

working on it...

2007-04-28T19:56:00.000+03:00

I'm still working on this blog, it has been a while since i read anything regarding html code, and also thinking of what i want to do with it, since i like and dislike lots of thinks. What you see is not what i have in mind. I find it complicated.
...will it be a calendar of those? will it be Me? will it be something or nothing? will it keep going? does it worth spending time in frond of the screen to write anything?
Well who cares?
One day you wake up and decide to do something. If half of it comes to existence, it is good. If you fulfill your wish, then you are a happy man. So I will try to make me proud.

P.S. the worst thing about this blog, εκτός από το να έχει πνευμονία, το οποίο είναι όντως ΤΟ χειρότερο, is that i always liked a name as onedayitwillbe, but another guy has TM the link...pffffffffff

OHMYGODITBURNS

2007-04-26T23:48:00.000+03:00

...after serious searching over the internet i finally rediscover it...the best site on cheap vodka. OHMYGODITBURNS. Its latest post was on 2005, so i hope those heroic guys to be OK and still enjoying their vodka.
...and kids PLEASE DO TRY THIS at home, i'm not responsible for the hungover.

Sea, money, and fire

2007-04-26T21:55:00.000+03:00

Well those three words always were describing, and will be, Greece, from ancient Greece till now days. And I mean it. Lets look over at today's and yesterday's news. TOP leading articles all over the press: (something is wrong with syntax but i had to let go of my proof-reader)

first there was fire

1. Assault on Precinct 13...hmmm wrong, but not quite, OK the real stuff. Assault yesterday and today to police stations by the Usual Suspects. What I've heard from the news, imagine like 30-50 people crossing a distance of 2-4 kilometers, and then as easy as taking a crap, unload a few molotovs, to the police stations. The surrounding area, bursts in flames (I'm really sorry for those poor bustards that watched their cars burned to ashes). And all of that shit because the demand the release of a convict, who was not imprisoned because of his believes, but of robbery (i found out, by the news reporters that he has confessed his participation in one of the robberies he is accused with (I'm hating writing down in English, but since i started it...).
...sooooooo where else anyone can prepare a few homemade molotov and burn to ashes a police station (well it wasn't burned but you get the picture). how did this joyful party arrived or left from the area in daylight, without any police officer even start a pursuit, even notice anyone to track them down. What the hell do those cameras ever exist? and so on, and so on. I will try to keep this post informed.
links, most in native language:
in.gr
flash.gr

...then water

2. TITANIC strikes back...i think it's been like two weeks...
the story is simple (but be aware nothing in Greece is as simple as it looks like). A ship was sunk while being at the "port" of Santorini. The "" on port is cause of the lack of a decent port in this particular island, peculiar geographic reasons make this almost impossible, for Greek standards anyway. Now even on CNN
CNN1
CNN2
CNN3
CNN4
soooo i heard today that after 14 days post-sinking and recovery of ships black box, it hasn't been sent for analysis...(??????????? probably they just trying telepathy on that black thing, who needs hi-tech??????).
Anyway, one thing left to say...CONSPIRACY THEORIES RUUUUULE. Who's gonna admit that all bad things happening are caused by aliens that are bombarding our planet, especially Greece, with strange radiation that causes a series of unfortunate events?

and then human greed create money

3. take the money and run...a few millions of euros via bond where misplaced, and now are missing??? Truly I'm not the best person, not a clue with economics, to talk about those things. So, money (actually public money, money to pay pensions etc) are in a company's or a person's pocket. Or this is the way i understood things. An then they say that those bonds should bought back from J.P. Morgan ( i seem to recall this company from somewhere...)
latest articles:
in.gr1
in.gr2

it's out of control so they called up the reporters to solve the case.

...live your myth in greece

P.S. how awfull is my writting????

Alcohol...we love it

2007-04-26T12:51:00.000+03:00

Alcohol, i decided to start a new section related to alcohol, I will include sites that i've visited for more than 15min and afterwards i had the urge get myself a glass of alcoholic beverage

Violence, games and reality

2007-04-25T10:29:00.000+03:00

Well, I should say that after the latest survey from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), computer games will not force you to MURDER DEATH KILL (MDK, do you remember this game? Apart from the name it was almost hilarious). I'm soooo disappointed, all those years of "melting" my brain will lead me to no misbehaviour? Except if you are already a little bit crazy and you already have killed most of the cats you run along in the street, then violent games could do some "good" to you and advance to people killing. This is like the heavy metal will lead you to Satan, to much violent movies will lead you to kill innocent schoolmates (like the recent Virginia Incident)and so on.
Anyway the subject is still open for debate for both sides. I will enjoy playing computer games, listening to metal (καφρίλα για πάντα) and watching violent movies (το ξύλο βγήκε από τον παράδεισο, beating arrived from heaven -free interpretation of classic Greek movie- the ultimate ass kicking movie, where dozen of schoolgirls are beaten up by their teachers, those were the good old days, a real hard-core, Avant-garde movie, from Greek independent movie productions)

from CNN.com

The Host

2007-04-24T17:27:00.000+03:00

From Korea with love, a movie as good as fun. I've seen it like a year ago but here in Greece it just premiered this week. It's about a family, not the ordinary one, even for a korean standard, i think, that loses theirs daughter by the tail of a GIAND FISH (holy shit!!!)I'll write the rest of the plot and comments for this film... when i feel like it

verdict: 4,5/5 if it can be included in the sci-fi section is better than Sunshine. (but be warned not all of you will find this one intresting, it's one of those weird movies that you love them or you just hate them)

SunShine

2007-04-23T20:56:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I watched the "Sunshine" by Danny Boyle. After ages (literally) a new sci-fi movie with a storyline that makes a difference.
The sun is dying and with it humanity (if humanity will be still alive when this event occurs...hehe). So, the solution: a spaceship is sent to sun with a bomb, capable of reestablish the fusion chain reaction in the sun, with the escort of a capable crew. Nice isn't it? plain and simple. Actually it would be as boring as Greek TV, if it weren't for Danny Boyle and a really good twist in this rather simplistic plot.
And do not forget the cast.
Ladies, your favorite blue eyed star is one of the best actors in this film. Cillian Murphy, had one of the leading roles in The Wind That Shakes the Barley, during it i felt asleep (it was late and i was tired the movie is OK), but i really remembered him as the scarecrow in Batman Begins...i remember asking my friends who the hell is this guy?
I liked the character played by Cliff Curtis. His role was the phycologist of the crew, the one to mend the traumas of staying for more than two years in a spaceship. He was the character i liked, almost phycho, but not actually, he was just different in the way that he felt things or comprehended situations, regarding the other crew members.
The other actors are quite good, but not in my opinion worth mentioning, so just visit the links to find more info.

...back to the movie,

So if you wake up one morning and it's a particularly beautiful day, you'll know we made it.

quote from Capa

That's the goal as i wrote, but something has to happen for the movie to be worth your euros. Well, let's make this mission the second one, with the first to fail just before the ending stage. And also let the first spaceship be found, empty, with no clue of what happened to the crew members (hmmmmm mate isn't this sounds like Event Horizon? You bet it does mate, actually is so similar, that i bet he has stolen material from it, nope my mate the idea is not new but the film is really different in a way. Go and watch it)
The colours were great, like the sun burning your skin...anyway I'm not the best to say anything about colors. I liked the soundtrack. And of course the director's way of visualizing madness. So to finish this...

Verdict: one of the best sci-fi for 2007 (is another one out there?)

4/5

Cool Links:

SunshineDNA
imdb link
official actually leads back to SunshineDNA LOL
and wiki

P.S. the second part is violent and completely lunatic. There are lot of cliche but you really gonna love them in this movie. As a friend pointed out and i agree on that, it resembled the atmosphere of the ALIEN. Closed corridors, no room to run, but infinite space, and with the terror that lurks somewhere out there...you'll find it in the second part in flesh.

2007-04-23T16:34:00.000+03:00

France: after the first round of national elections, as it was expected, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal received enough votes to compete for the presidency at second round. Interesting is the percentage of 10% in favor of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of far-right nationalist party. Well it seems to me that as time goes by far-right parties increase their popularity among citizens. Troubled times indeed...so waiting for the second round.

P.S. a lot of info derives from www.liberation.fr, excuse me for any abuse of any TM rights.

Anime...again and again

2007-04-23T15:02:00.000+03:00

Sooooo, well ok I really do love Japanese cartoons. So under the anime category I will introduce you to Japaneese animation that worth attending to. In this first introductory notice for the anime category i would like to point out to you the exellent DEATH NOTE, plain and simple. Rest recommendation and reviews will be added, when I feel like it.

Radio Over The Internet

2007-04-23T14:36:00.000+03:00

So I recomend you two links for web2.0 services regarding internet radio. The first one is the pandora radio, and the other the LastFm. Both of them working as a automated juckebox that provides you with songs based on your first selection, either a group/artist or song. The latter also provides you software that incoporate a plug-in for Windows Media Player that feeds your playlist to your LastFm page, in order to create an internet playlist based on your selections, or to be avalaible for other people to check it out (look at the left panel, nice isnt it?).

TGV new speed record

2007-04-22T13:09:00.000+03:00

Traveling with train is one of my favorable meanings of transportation, the other one is the bicycle. So when i read the news that at Tuesday 3 April 2007, the famous TGC (Train de Grand Vitesse) brakes another speed record. I really got depressed.
How come, you'll ask me. Well, it takes about 1 hr 10 min by train to go from Athens to Corinth (85km), or even 4 hr 30 min for 500km (Athens to Thessaloniki), so how should i feel like? The same distance in France is no more than an hour trip.
Ok you'll argue, the geography of the countries is completely different and standards as those can not be achieved in Greece. But train "exists" only for particular destinations. For other cities/villages either there is no train, or the one that exists at full speed and without any load will reach the astounding speed of 40-50 km/h. So traveling around Greece will take you days. So you are condemned to buy a car (the root of all problems).
Why am I always hearing promises about meliorate the means of transportation but always being at the shadow of other countries? pfffffff

...to do list

2007-04-21T18:23:00.000+03:00

well i would like to include in this blog my reviews about music i've listen, movies i watched, or plays i've attended. To plan it and to make it is a complete different thing. But i will find a way to make it easy to handle it, i've seen some great examples over the net. I'll figure it out

[UPDATED] I decided to write also in Greek (for those that can read them).

I'm still at experimental staging...

2007-04-21T18:02:00.000+03:00

I find the so called web2.0 services quite nice, since a lot of info of different activities can be included in one page.
Anyway, i'm trying to figure a nice style for this blog.

P.S. The neighboords are reconstructing their house and the noise is killing me...and i hate closing the windows but i have to. pffffff

So i have my own internet diary...or something like that

2007-04-20T19:27:00.000+03:00

let's get it started

As most of people writing blogs i would like to post things i like, i dislike, news that are important (in my opinion) and whatever else i think is nice.

P.S. I do sound like a total loser...pfffff