What is the opposite of “New Year’s Resolution”?

It is New Year’s Eve. I’m in Aegina at my dad’s and Vasso’s (his wife) new house here. OK, it’s not exactly new, they’ve been living in it for more than a year now, but every time I come here there’s something different about it. I’ve been here since Friday (today it’s Monday) with the owners of the place and Ines, Karina (who unfortunately left for Canada yesterday) and their parents, Nejib and Iro. Lots of names, hooray!

 Right now, Ines is sleeping, and I am sitting at my father’s laptop, thinking… 2007 is over. To be precise, there are about 12 hours left of it. Remember the old song “Πάει ο παλιός ο χρόνος”? The part which went “Γέρε χρόνε φύγε τώρα, πάει η δική σου η σειρά, ήρθε ο νέος με τα δώρα, με τραγούδια με χαρά!”? Every time I hear this part I imagine the year past as an old bearded man who’s about to die. And every time, I can’t help but feel bad for the poor grandpa. He’s dying, but nobody cares. Instead, we’re celebrating about some baby that could very well turn out to be far worse a person than the old man ever was. At this point, I’d like to switch from “pessimistic bastard” mode to something more cheerful:

May 2008 be the best sum of 366 days of our lives. May it be an enlighting, happy, productive and lucky year. Even though they always say something about that February 29th…

Instead of thinking out new year’s resolutions I’ll do last year’s highlights. What exactly made 2007 an even better year than 2006?

2007 Highlights! (highlights below not actually 2007)

• Trip to Holland: My 10-day adventure in this beautiful country. A trip loaded with suspense, exploration, excitement, self-discovery, and realising just how important friends can be. Wow sounds like some movie tagline.
• Bass Guitar: After years of patience, finally I took the plunge in April. My progress isn’t exceptional but I’m hopeful!
• Going strong with Uni: 11 out of 14 1st Year subjects passed. I got the best mark in my year in Interactive Multimedia, several 10ers in the exams and also a 14/14 for the webpage I made for Web-based Multimedia, Synaesthesia.
• CouchSurfing: A wonderful site I signed up to on my 18th birthday. Ever since, I’ve been looking at travelling from a different point of view. Hosting Charisse and staying with Cies were great moments and I regret that Cies in the end didn’t pass through Mytilini for his world tour.
• Cubilone’s Dimension: December saw me getting all interested in blogging all of a sudden. The result of this strange interest lies before you.
• Astronomy and Astrology: Charisse showed me www.astro.com, a good site that details Astrology and its practices. After doing a bit of research, I found out that astrological readings and practices really have some base and that at least character interpretation can be variably accurate. In September I suddenly got very worked up with Astronomy, stargazing and constellations, so my interest in Astrology came back with a vengeance. Now I can proudly say that I’m abolutely captivated by both sides of the same coin, the scientific side and the mystic side. Isn’t it even more awe-inspiring that these two contemporary mortal enemies once were one and the same?
• Xbox 360: The details of this you can find in the post right below. What a day the 19th was! Crazy… Got to get Xbox Live! soon.
• Great games discovered/played: Phoenix Wright, Daigasso Band Brothers, Europa Universalis III, Galactic Civilizations II (too hard at parts though), Hexic, Super Metroid, The Orange Box, Super Mario Galaxy, Final Fantasy VI (playing it right now), and others.
• Shows: I got to watch such wonderful shows as: Samurai Champloo, Fullmetal Alchemist, Firefly (not anime but great nonetheless, must watch!), Death Note, Elfen Lied, and One Piece, which is an AWIP (anime watching in progress, I’m up to episode 62 as of 31/12/07)
• 1st Medieval Rose: The Medieval Festival which took place in Rodos and which I participated in. There’s going to be another one next Spring, I’m not missing it!
• Focusing: More and more I get the feeling that I know what I like and what I don’t like in everything… Slowly but steadily, I’m forming a less flexible character that knows, however, what it seeks. That’s both a good and a bad thing, as my general flexibility is one of my strengths… A stable character nonethelss has its own set of benefits. Going into detail about my greater inner change would be too lengthy and theoretical even for me.

OK, that seems about right… What about the year’s disappointments?

• I’ll only say this: Internet love has potential. Whenever it is not realised, results are mostly tragic. ¬¬
• I started teaching myself german, complete with book and CD. Unfortunately, I wasn’t consistent enough.
• I was planning to go on a Eurotrip with friends in summer. It never happened.
• Still single. Still looking.
• Still can’t cook properly, with the exception of lentils which are edible. Only by me.
• The world is not looking all that good at the moment. Especially Greece with hit with many disasters and misfortunes the past year, like the huge fires and Karamanlis’ re-election.

 I’d write a lot more but I’m being distracted all the time! Ines wants us to watch Midori no Hibi and we also have to write to the finnish national park we’re going to volunteer for in the summer…

“Γιατί ο χρόνος δεν υπάρχει
γιατί ο χρόνος είσαι εσύ και οι άλλοι
και κανείς δε γνωρίζει η ζωή που θα βγάλει
κι όλο αυτό είναι μια μεγάλη γιορτή
Κι όποιος είπε “και του χρόνου”
θα εννοεί πως δεν τελειώσαμε φέτος
Ευτυχές και στο χέρι μας το νέο έτος
και πες το μου κι εσύ.”

Author: Cubilone

This is me. Or so I believe. View all posts by Cubilone