EARWORM GARDEN // DREAM THEATER — PANIC ATTACK

Πρόσφατα καθόμασταν σπίτι μου με τον Φάνη στη Νέα Σμύρνη, είχαμε βάλει Youtube στην τηλεόραση και βάζαμε τραγούδια εναλλάξ. Κάποια στιγμή ο Φάνης πρότεινε να βάλουμε το Misunderstood («ωχ ρε, πού το θυμήθηκες αυτό;») και αναπόφευκτα μου έγινε το earworm of choice για αρκετές ημέρες – “if I seem superhuman I have been misunderstoooood”.

Καμιά 10αριά μέρες αργότερα, στο Ηράκλειο, τη μέρα που η Μαριλένα έλειπε το πρωί και μπορούσα να απολαύσω μέταλ χωρίς να της πάρω τ’ αυτιά, έβαλα να παίζει στην τηλεόραση του Airbnb της ξαδέρφης της όπου μέναμε (thanks Athiná!) ένα Dream Theater mix για soundtrack στα morning pages μου – τις καθημερινές, υποτίθεται, σελίδες ελεύθερης γραφής που ξαναέπιασα εδώ και κανέναν μήνα τώρα μετά από έναν χρόνο περίπου που τα πρωινά μου ήταν χωρίς ενδοσκόπηση γραμμένη με στιλό. 5-6 τραγούδια μετά, ο αλγόριθμος του Youtube μου σέρβιρε το Panic Attack.

Το Panic Attack και το ότι μου έχει κολλήσει στο μυαλό 5 μέρες τώρα ήταν ο λόγος που κούνησα τον κώλο μου (και τα δάχτυλα γιατί δεν μπορώ να πληκτρολογήσω με τον κώλο ακόμα δυστυχώς) να γράψω το παρόν ποστίο.

Καιρό είχα να ακούσω Dream Theater, νόμιζα ότι τους είχα αφήσει στην εφηβεία μου, ότι «είναι πολύ φλύαροι για τα γούστα μου τελικά» κτλ. Κι όμως, The Spirit Carries On.

Είχα πάει στη συναυλία τους στο ολυμπιακό γήπεδο του beach volleyball το ’05. Τότε που ακόμα έπαιρνα φωτογραφίες και βίντεο οτιδήποτε πέρναγε από μπροστά μου.

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Τότε που ακόμα τα εισιτήρια δεν στα δίναν σε μια φωτοτυπία με ένα barcode.

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Κι απ’ τη συναυλία:


This one’s called PANIC ATTACK — ντάμπαντα ντάμπαντα ντάμπαντα ντάμπαντα ντάμπα ντάμπα κ.ο.κ. Αυτή είναι η πρώτη φορά που άκουσα το κομμάτι. Ναι, το Octavarium δεν το είχα ακούσει πριν πάνω στη συναυλία… 11+ χρόνια μετά μου έγινε earworm.


Μια γεύση του Fatal Tragedy.

Ο Σταύρος, με τα γυαλιά στη φωτογραφία πάνω, είναι που με κόλλησε περισσότερο με τους Dream Theater τότε στη Β’ Λυκείου. Εκείνος μου έπαιξε πρώτη φορά το Misunderstood σπίτι του, και μετά το έμαθα με τη σειρά μου στους φίλους μου – και στον Φάνη. Και ο Φάνης με τη σειρά του, μου το θύμισε τώρα. «Ωχ ρε, πού το θυμήθηκες αυτό!» Το μόνο που μπορώ να κάνω εγώ με τη σειρά μου είναι να το θυμίσω στον Σταύρο. Αν δει αυτό το ποστ ποτέ.

Αν κι αυτό ρυθμίζεται…

KATOSTARA BREAKAGE

Στην στρατιωτική καθομιλουμένη το σπάσιμο της κατοστάρας αναφέρεται στην μέρα – μια στιγμή που κάποτε πραγματικά φάνταζε αρκετά μακρια – στην οποία το υπόλοιπο των υπηρετησιμων ημερών της θητείας γίνεται διψήφιος αριθμος απο το σταθερό τριψήφιο που είχε υπάρξει για τους προηγούμενους 6 μήνες.

image

Οπως η (αδυνατο να υπολογιστει) απόσταση μεταξυ της όασης, εστω της αντιστοιχης οφθαλμαπατης, και του σημείου που ο στερεοτυπικος στεγνωμενος ταξιδιωτης της ερημου την πρωτοαντικριζει, δεν ειναι αρκετη για να του κοψει τον ενθουσιασμο, ετσι και στο γεγονος οτι μου μενουν πλεον 3 μηνες θητειας, περισσορερο εστιαζομαι στο «πλεον» παρα στο «3 μηνες». Με χαρα παρατηρω οτι λιγο με νοιαζει οτι το ιδιο ακριβως χρονικο διαστημα, οταν με τις 90τοσες μερες του χωριζε το κοψιμο της αναβολης μου απο την καταταξη μου, μου φανταζε να χωρουσε στη βραχυπροθεσμη αγκαλια του ολα τα σχεδια που ειχα αφησει, και συνεχιζω να αφηνω, για τις μερες που τα χρειαζονται το λιγοτερο.

*τριζονακια, γρυλοι και λοιπα θορυβωδη πλασματακια της νυχτας που αγαπανε το καλοκαιρι*

Γκουχ.

99 ΚΣ ΡΕ ΜΟΥΡΝΙΑ, 342 ΛΕΛΑ κτλ

EARWORM GARDEN // LAZERHAWK — KING OF THE STREETS

Found off here (GTA V Nightride FM II).

I’m getting more into Synthwave by the day. And I’m not even particularly interested in ’80s movies or the ’80s style in general. However, I kind of like this idealised version of the ’80s that I don’t believe was even that popular in the real ’80s. It’s sort of how we imagine the ’60s or the ’20s that has very little to do with how people lived back then.

Inevitably, I can’t help but wonder what people will “remember” about the ’00s thirty years from now. There will be emo/hardcore/Eurovision/MySpace/sk8er parties with people making MP3 CDs, wearing Guy Fawkes masks and girls having that ridiculous cresty hairstyle that’s been out of fashion for some yeas now. My god, I lack basic vocabulary to describe haircuts—huh, that’s why they insist on teaching you that in foreign language classes so early. Well, I hope you get the picture, anyway.

TODAY I FUCKED UP

Ah, page, we meet again. Hello. Today I decided to write. Express myself, as it were. I fought the distractions… Avoided starting Battlestar Galactica Season 4, despite the fact that Season 3 ended with a bang, it did; I decided not to play Planescape Torment, even though I’ve just started getting into it (and for this kind of games it means playing 10 hours or so). In typical qb style, I even fought off work! I had a nice, warm shower, lay in my warm bed (it’s winter… still hard to wrap my head around it), put some music on that phone that still hasn’t taken full control—I chose Vangelis’ Cosmos—and now I’m here in this right place. The phone proved its supposed smartness by reminding me not to put the volume too high so as to avoid damaging my hearing. As tonight’s token act of proving to myself I’m an adult, I heeded its advice. Maybe the machines aren’t out for us. Pah, who am I kidding.

OK, let’s go. Today I fucked up.

Or, rather, I should say yesterday. But only today did I realise, so it counts as today. Once again I let my overconfidence that everything will be alright cloud my judgement—that sounds suspiciously like a “write 100 times on blackboard” punishment at Jedi school. Sigh… It is one of my greatest weaknesses, and many have noticed, especially those that know me well enough to have pierced at my essence that is invisible to me, similar to a bird who’s only ever known flight can never imagine what it means not to fly, or what sort of happiness a snail might know. Tell a bird it might be flying a bit too much and it’s gonna cock its head inquisitively at you like birds tend to do.

I just aren’t careful. I either want to move fast to be getting to the next task or activity, or, in the face of what we’d call danger in this case, I take that annoying, solipsistic view: “it won’t happen to me, no need to worry!” This is personhood’s very own little facepalm—no, that’s not a good translation of αυτομούτζωμα. I like to take pride in my care-free attitude, or at least the appearance thereof; don’t I know I’m constantly anxious about an entire small museum’s collection of “must-dos”. But that’s another story. I like to say that people don’t really have “positive and negative aspects of their personality.” They only have a single hunk of personality, and according to what side you look at it from, you see different things and judge to whim. Hey, that’s almost exactly like saying that people have personalities and those personalities have positive and negative aspects.

But let met put it this way. Take for example myself. I’m careless and carefree, right? Yes. But these two aspects of me aren’t separate; they’re one. It’s like those digestive biscuits that have chocolate on top. The chocolate is the carefreeness and the underside the carelessness. The whole thing is part of my personality, and the whole box of carelessfreeness, quielation, friendiculousness or abstrant, openular mind is me. I’m this box of biscuits that look the same, because I look the same no matter which biscuit of mine you’re eating. You smell me and taste me the same, and you either love me or hate me… or you might also not particularly care about me. Do you like chocolate digestives?

When I began writing about boxes of biscuits a few lines ago, the point to which I wanted to conclude was that we all are assorted boxes of still different biscuits down a supermarket aisle. Then, however, I chose to pursue the realisation that came to me while writing that yes! People are like food.

Some are so sweet you get sick of them after just a few bites. Others are simple but fulfilling. Others yet are only to be had at parties or thrice-a-year family dinners. You can find each type of person at the supermarket, but there almost always exist the same kind of foodstuff produced locally and tasting better, like that amazing Greek artisanal Nutella that’s not only better, it’s also cheaper.

Some are fancy, others to be enjoyed as part of a familiar routine, some are fresh and organic, many are rotten and/or appear fresh solely because they’ve been peppered with preservatives. We have changing tastes in people and so do we in food. Maturing tastes, perhaps? Some are hot, some are bland. But! The too-bland ones can always spice themselves up; the hotter ones will probably just leave you in tears and gasping for air. But so do onions, at least the crying part. Similarly, there’s a whole lot you have fond nostalgic memories of, but regret every trying them again 20 years later to see if they taste the same. Others are like heaven consistently forever… I presume, I wouldn’t know.

There are hard people, soft people, sweet, bitter, sour and… salty people. Many, sadly, are just plain meat but, although a selective omnivore I may be, it’s sadder when they’re vegetables instead. This is starting to have a Dr. Seuss rhythm to it.

Finally, you would never, ever consider that it’s the broccoli’s fault that Roberto (that’s my Italian coordinator here), with all his exquisite and discerning palate, hates it. I can’t get my head around it: how is it normal for us to think that a person has anything to do with whether others like them or not? Anyway, broccoli can rest easy: I hated it, HATED it when I was a child, you know, it was the archetypical go-to yuck food. Nooow, however, I sometimes even eat it raw. I love it. Broccoli just used to be too sophisticated for my untrained taste buds. There.

One of Terrence McKenna’s famous quotes goes: . qb’s version: “the cost of being sophisticated in this society is being the person-equivalent of broccoli.” Or, while we’re at it: sushi. Lentils with yoghurt. NOT eggs: they could crawl back into the chicken’s ass whence they came and I wouldn’t spill water for the dead. Beans. I was damn near allergic to the things most of my life. Now I can eat them no problem due to my insistence to eat them no matter my stomach’s complaints. I can imagine it quietly giving in after all this time: “okay dude, I get it, you took that little song about beans and the heart a bit too seriously, I don’t agree but I can’t stop you… you should know though that this IS going to put a strain on our relationship.”

Wow. This really worked. Remember? Near the top of this text it says I wrote “I fucked up”. It’s even the title of the post. But I’m better already. All day I’ve felt like shit because the bike I rode yesterday for 25km up and down Montevideo’s Rambla and took the following video,

that is, Laura’s bike she hadn’t rode in years and I paid 1000 pesos to have repaired and use it and got it 4 days ago… well, that bike was stolen. All I did was just leave it outside the Posada. Given, it was locked, but with a lock that cost less than 5€ and could probably only protect anything of any value up to that amount. Only today did I notice that all the locked bikes that had caught my eye on the pedestrian street Calle Pérez Castellano during the day, all those bikes I had subconsciously noticed to give my carefreelessness an excuse to run wild, were nowhere to be seen at night, and so was mine by next morning. I can just imagine it sitting there, alone, singing in the dark: “I’m old and rusty, though orange with some new parts e.g. pedals and handles, I’m safe from harm and theft !”

The worst part is that this bike had sentimental value to Laura, so having to tell her that I almost presented the her old bike to thieves and having to deal with questions such as “really, did you leave it outside?” was less than fun. The second worst part is this makes it the, what, 3rd time I’ve had my bike stolen.  Last time was in Denmark, where I idiotically left mt bike unlocked going to Danish class, forgot about it for hours after the lesson, went around town, only remembered about it that evening when I had to ride it back home and was all disappointed that the mere act of remembering about it hadn’t been enough to protect it from theft or bring it back.

bike_aarhus_qb
August 2011, Denmark. This is like one of those “last selfies.”

And there was this other time somebody vandalised my bike parked at Sapfous in Mytilini. I was totally Anakin bringing back his mother from the sandpeople that evening. Only I didn’t slaughter anyone like an animal. I’m civilized. I only ever hold passive-aggressive grudges.

The carcass of my ride
The carcass of my ride on Minwos and Lavyrinthou. Notive the crooked front only wheel

Anyway, back to today. I went to the police office to report the theft as it was suggested to me I do, because apparently Ciudad Vieja is monitored 24/7 by video surveillance; by checking in their records from last night, the police might be able to find the culprit and track them from camera to camera, if they did stay within the boundaries of the Old Town, that is. I can tell you that if my bike is indeed located by the use of video surveillance tech, I’ll be hit by a small-to-medium-sized train of cognitive dissonance. I hate to be that guy, I know how fashionable it is to hate on the police (I don’t like them myself), but ever since my mum’s handbag was robbed and after declaring the theft and the police guys actually CALLING us home to tell us that the bag had been found at a place where “a lot of τσαντάκηδες leave their discarded prey”, it’s been easier for me to feel a tinge of empathy for people who support the police and are disdainful of anarchy. I mean, suddenly when it happens to you, it doesn’t seem so oppressive, does it?

Anyway №13 or something. I fucked up and writing this relaxed me a lot. Its intent was to be a kind of Post-It for futurue qbs to be wary of carelessfreeness, no matter how many times things turn out to be OK in the end, and to remember that it fucking sucks to let people, friends and yourself down and destroy their trust.

But hey, at the end of the day, I’m a chocolate digestive. Some will like me, some will hate me, some will simply not care about me, forget that I exist until I appear before them (at which point they’ll either choose to munch on me absent-mindedly or ignore me) and some will eat the last part of me that’s left in the box all crumbly and melted, but still like me and recognise that not all chocolate digestives from then on out will be crumbly and melty and that if next time I’m in no condition to eat on my own, just throw me on some ice cream or oats, that would be yummy.

THIS WAS NOT TYPED

This is poetry. Speech to text poetry in different languages.

Yvonne taylor after a lot of people there are you being people are coming out the other in a photo was elizabeth taylor die in a faggy faggy 11 and even after a lot of people there are you being people are coming of the other day enough of that was elizabeth taylor die in a fire in a newborn sleep on abu abu dhabi in a lab amazon app store if a mudguard bbc. Arya babbar academy milli vanilli gonna let you be by mitzi axia sia sia ec3v0dr with it easy peasy oh. Family guy for vomit ibe said 9 10 family guy family guy family guy full romi oadby said 9 10 family guy family guy family guy romi oadby said minden family guy family guy family guy tamilaruvy . Bless and have a love interest loan on wednesday leah. Kelis 4th be with her a****** in the photograph of the mirror. Boobies . Boobies boobies bailey avenue ellesmere booby booby booby booby boobies bailey avenue ellesmere booby booby booby booby booby booby what the f*** weather what the f*** were you . Who are you

E-mail lorraine amigo creo weather . Pregnant by me up sony a7ii the body nobody to love affair by mortimer bathroom.

2012 in a few words

Γαύδος, Σαμοθράκη. Γερμανικά. Ισπανικά! <3 Dark Souls… *dark stare* but also Psychonauts! Evil elections… Ζώντας τις αρχές μιας νέας σκοτεινής εποχής, καταλήγοντας πως πρέπει να κρατάς το κέφι σου σαν ομπρέλα σε σκατοθύελα. Πειραματισμοί, πολλοί, με σώμα και πνεύμα.  NoPoo, noFap, minimalism. Contact! MBTI. Crossdressing. Ριμαγμένες εκκλησίες, γενεαλογικά μάνταλα και συντριβάνια σοκολάτας. Dan Carlin, Kyle Cease, Julien Smith, H2G2 Radio Series, Ursula LeGuin, Raymond Smullyan, Alan Fletcher, Bill Bryson, Steven LaBerge and Lucid Dreaming (sorry Kira for having the book already 🙁 ), distraction that must definitely go away (idling away, staying away from books — failing the 2012 Goodreads Challenge), The SCP Foundation, Spirit Science, σκι, Πικροδάφνη, Eckhart Tolle, σεμινάριο στις ψηφιακές τέχνες και αποτυχημένη αίτηση (για το καλύτερο;), Μυτιλήνη τέλος. Άρης, Σοφία, Χρήστος, Μαρία, Αλεξάνδρα, Vag, Τυφλόμυγα, σύγκρουση ματαιοδοξίας-δημιουργικότητας-μετριοπάθειας, 21/12/2012, γκο, gravitysays_i, Opeth, Mitchell and Webb, animation, Animasyros, ΠΟΦΠΑ, Μαρία, δύο κενά για όλα όσα ξέχασα και είναι σημαντικά…

[…] […]

EDIT: Μαρία Ευθυμίου! Αν και ποτέ δεν έγραψα εδώ γι’αυτήν… θα διευθετηθεί.

Και το καλύτερο το άφησα για το τέλος: μια υπέροχη ύπαρξη που λέγεται Δάφνη, que está soñando conmigo. *hug*

Is it really Christmas?

fuck christmas

So here I am, sitting in my room at my place in Nea Smyrni, stealing someone’s WiFi (together with 6 other people… Logging in to routers with default WEP settings and changing the keys is soo tempting… but I am not that evil), blogging when I should be working on my projects. I’ve been here for a few days already and I’m not feeling like it is Christmas at all. I look at all the constructed, fake festivities around me and I am feeling nothing but disgust for this joke of a festival centered around “love”. Just sneaking a peak at all the advertisements targeted at children, the true targets of this consumeristic parody, is borderline depressing. It’s no wonder we all have a sort of nostalgic aftertaste of Christmas which really stems from our childhood, when it all seemed so magical, so true, so happy… Is it the presents, the holidays, the sweets, the music? Maybe it is the sheer fakeness of it all, the same thing that draws children to Disneyland, that manages to enchant them so. What can indeed be said about the “holiday season”, a cultural curiosity which is one of the best examples of globalization today? I feel that if I let myself loose I’m going to fill pages upon pages of ranting about something that everybody knows is true yet decides to turn a blind eye to, preferring to drown their sorrows in ethical and guiltless super-consuming.

The fact, then, that I’m not feeling as if it’s Christmas is probably a good sign.

Maybe it is because so much has happened in my life in so little time. Maybe it’s because I have been consciously looking away from the very strong build-up that typically leads to an all-encompassing “Christmas spirit”. Maybe it is because I’ve grown mature enough to be able to appreciate being close to my loved ones and having some free time without associating the holidays with consumption, fake feelings of love for the world and this hideous “spirit”. It may be all, it may be none, it may be just one of these things, but whatever the reason, I am happy that I can see past the worryingly ultra-happy social appearances…

OK, Christmas flaming over. :] I started writing this post wanting to share what I’ve been doing the past few days and how I’m going to spend my holidays. Interesting much? It’s the fatal compulsion of blogging…


University Projects

One of the slighter reasons I’m not feeling too Christmas-y and/or relaxed is that I have a serious amount of work to get done for university. Four projects. It was going to be five originally but I decided to drop the project for Virtual Worlds and Digital Animation — my well of inspiration was looking a bit too dry for me to realise my relatively ambitious plans.

1. PHP. My project for WWW Technologies is to build a complete computer hardware online shop. That is much harder to do than it sounds, at least for someone who has little to no knowledge of dynamic website developing. This project is supposedly for two people but Garret doesn’t look like he might be a lot of help; he still needs to get his HTML sorted out. Anyway, it’s online tutorial and lab note time!

2. Cultural Representation. I chose to represent my top 5 favourite cities in the world for this one. I will have to make the workflow chart for an interactive application. I won’t fully develop it, but just designing a workable and attractive User Interface, as well as making it have the distinct Cubi style will take some full hours.

3 & 4. These are secret projects… ^^D

I promise impressive things… It’s not that I’m too bored to write about them or anything like that, no! It’s because I want to surprise everyone!


Flickr, Facebook and Online Identities

It’s been a a few weeks now that I deactivated my Facebook account. After a point, it felt downright hypocritic posting bad stuff about it but having a perfectly healthy account. Nevermind the less than impressive number of pictures I had on it.

Tell you what, I haven’t missed it a bit. A lot of people seem to find it strange that I’ve done so and have tried to persuade me to re-activate it. They say: “We miss you!”, just like Facebook said they would (and I thought it was being ridiculous…) To them, all I have to say is this. Sorry, but I will indulge in pathetic spying and “maintaining expired relationships” no longer!

Some other people, mostly from the Theatre and Photography groups, have told me that I should re-activate my FB so that I can upload photographs for all to see. I have a different reply for them: Flickr! Maybe you’ve noticed, maybe you haven’t, but I’m uploading more and more of my photographs there. It’s a very good image site, well-made, professional, respectful to the applying web laws as far as content protection goes. That is where you can head for my full lowdown of pictures! Look at that: it’s even got integrated support for WordPress (the sidebar pics are from my Flickr photostream, also have a look at my previous post). What else can one possibly ask for?!

To sum up:
Facebook sucks,
Flickr rules,
if you want to see my pics,
you surely oughta choose!


Windows 7 for free! Legally! How?

Casually browsing the web, a few days ago I stumbled upon MSDN Academic Alliance through my.aegean. What’s this, you say? It is a Microsoft service that allows students to download some of their software for free, all in the name of academia. Amazing eh? I was excited to discover that the University of the Aegean is eligible for this service. Why hasn’t anybody, ever, told us anything about it?

I really did download Windows 7 Professional, as well as a valid license key, for free, just by putting in my CT user name and pass. I burnt it on a DVD and now it’s waiting for me to tidy up my laptop HDDs before I format. This might take a while actually… heh.

Check it our for yourself!


Three Sequels and a Classic.

My gaming activity in the past few weeks has centered around four games: Modern Warfare 2, Banjo-Tooie, Half-Life 2 and StarCraft. Let me tell you a few things about these games.

Modern Warfare 2 is a great game in multiplayer, haven’t touched SP yet, as “controversial” as it may be. Enough said, I believe.

banjo-tooie christmas

Banjo-Tooie. Oh, Banjo-Tooie. I am very aware that about 2 years ago I placed it #20 in my 20 Favourite N64 games. I did not remember it very well back then, having only played it once before, when I was only 11. Not long ago I downloaded it from XBLA and decided to give it another spin, especially when I had so much fun downloading, replaying and 100%ing Banjo-Kazooie this time last year from the same service.

Tooie must be one of  the deepest, most innovative platformers in the history of the genre, not to mention one of the most expanding sequels ever. The level architecture is brilliant, how each world connects with a few others is something that hasn’t been used in other games since, even though it was such a good idea. The game is truly massive — getting 100% might take me 20+ hours when Banjo-Kazooie took me around 6. It’s definitely because I remember Kazooie almost perfectly even from my early years while now with Tooie it’s like playing it for the first time… Yes, the game is massive. TOO massive and time-consuming at times, when the original was a lot tighter and pure. I just have to comment on some of the humour displayed in Tooie; there are a lot more sexual references than in the original, and that can only be a good thing.

It doesn’t feel like I’m replaying it so it all feels fresh. If remade it could easily stand next to contemporary platformers and surpass them in many ways. Still, even if I have redeemed it a bit, the original still stands proud of its proximity to platforming perfection even when it obviously offers less, is shorter, much easier and has a fraction of the content of its sequel. I guess that is what separates a very good game from a classic. And talking about classics…

StarCraft. Yes, Blizzard’s other franchise that is about to see its full revival in a few months (and then we’re going to talk about sequels, period. Any new IPs please? :P) Even though I’m a strategy game fan, I’ve never shown great interest for Blizzard games. I’ve tried to like the WarCraft universe but I find it bores me. I still cannot exactly say why I like StarCraft and even worse, explain the on-and-off relationship I’ve had with it for years. Now, this Christmas, I’ve decided  to follow its story and see why it’s a game celebrated like few. So far I’m loving it! Haven’t had this much fun with a Single Player RTS campaign in years.

Want another game I’ve had an on-and-off relationship with for even longer? That’s none other than Half-Life 2 for you. I downloaded and tried it when it was released more than 5 years ago and was blown away by its atmosphere. For some weird reason I lost interest somewhere along the way. I tried to pick it up three times since, once after I bought the Orange Box, another time sometime last Autumn and another shortly thereafter… again and again, I kept losing interest a bit further along the road. My last save was two hours or so before the end of the game, in the City 17 streetfights. I had reached this point last time I’d felt like playing, that is last February. The morning before I left Mytilini and after a good dose of  caffeine, I finally took the bold step, closing a 5-year circle: I finished Half-Life 2.


I had been thinking that the game would have a tedious ending. How wrong I was. Getting rid of the Striders, climbing up the Citadel and then… *spoilers* was just so EPIC! Not only wasn’t it tedious, it was awe-inspiring. The rest of the game was like this, what in the name of Valve made me think the end would disappoint? Silly Cubi… Now, if only I could get Episode I to run on this laptop. Oh, don’t we wish…


That’s it for now! I have more things to share but they’re still being digested. Hey, there’s still lots of happenings left for the rest of the holidays anyway, they’ve only just begun! Soon it’s going to be the turn of the decade as well. Now that’s going to be awesome

Heading out to the Old World

It’s been a strange and hectic 10 days of being back in Athens. But today, our plane leaves for Berlin and eventually Riga. And then, the grand adventure will begin… 37 days of relentless exploration and travel. O thee, old world, home of such part of humanity’s history, beware! And couch-hosts, be ready to enjoy the purest of couchsurfing experiences (that’s a personal warning as well?). Hello world!

*stares then turns around*