Is more less?

A few days now I’ve returned to Mytilini. Leaving Athens was strange… 17 days wasn’t quite enough to enjoy. I wanted more! But if I had stayed any more I would have missed my uni registration renewal! So eh. Highlights of my last days around were my and Alex’s second visit to the Planetarium, going to the theatre to watch a great play called “Η Κατσαρίδα” and of course my birthday. My birthday! Not only was it a great night with 6 of my close and very close people, I got great presents! Yes, presents! Do you really expect me to be tactful and not mention them? Hah! Fat chance. Alexandra gave me a HUUUGE scarf -a bit more than 3 metres in length- she knitted for me herself, and that on its own is one of the sweetest, most thoughtful and overall best presents ever. It’s a bit difficult to wear in everyday situations, and I do look a queerer than usual wearing it but I know it’s going to be great for stragazing nights for two… George got me a Super Nintendo with 2 games, Super Mario All Stars and Donkey Kong Country, which is great. I lost my old Super Nintendo at an unspecified time, so it’s fantastic that once again I can feel how it was… And even buy games I didn’t own! Thank you George for taking me back to the past… Nefeli got me a soundtrack of a movie I’ve wanted to watch for some time, that is “2046”. I still haven’t listened to the album or watched the movie, but once I do I’ll listen to the OST as well. The guys in Mytilini got me Pikmin 2, a rare game that I’ve wanted for a long time. A big thank you to them as well. And the last present was…

In association with mum, Martin, dad and Vasso, each (including myself) chipping in €100, we got me a present the way I’ve never had a present before. Everybody co-operated, and in the end I was able to get my hands on my new wonderful Olympus E-510. I got it from a guy who got it as a prize in a competition but didn’t want it so he was selling it cheap, almost €150 less than retail. I couldn’t miss it: An 18-42mm lens, a 50-150 one, and an extra expense for carrying bag, mini tripod and ultra-fast 1GB CF card. Owning a DSLR just like this is no easy task, especially when my only previous experience is from compact cameras. But I’ll work hard and learn how to use it well! Expect good pictures. *vanity*

For the first time in some months, these days I’ve been feeling kind of… anxious. Restless. I feel like I have so many things I want to do but there’s so little time in my disposal. I’ll take a detailed look at what I want to achieve in the near future (maybe it will help me relax):

	It’s come to a point now that it’s almost shameful that I don’t know the german language fluently. Last year, I started learning on my own… I got distracted in less than 2 months, and haven’t much got involved since. I’m now trying to revise what I hope I haven’t forgot during this past short year. My goal is to have finished the first half of Themen 2 by summer.
	April 2007. I got my Bass Guitar then, aiming to finally learn how to play this instrument that I so love. I also aspired to learn a bit of music theory on the way, if I could. Today, almost a year leater, I haven’t progressed much. I have a good book and the internet in my disposal though, and I want to have the foundations clear first. My realistic goal is to be able to read sheet music for the bass guitar by summer. This is a bit confusing because I can read sheet music on the treble clef since I was little and played flute/clarinet. I’ll have to avoid adjusting my knowledge by learning the Bass clef through the Treble Clef and learn it as a completely seperate entity. It can’t be that hard, can it? Also I want my technique to improve, of course.
	This semester in the Cultural Tec waters seems particularly demanding. Creating a Flash movie that’s to be used by a mobile device for touring in an archeological site from scratch, learning how to use Premiere again (4 years ago I made Krama using it), keeping in touch with all the subjects and making sure that I can do all the projects and essays. I feel it can be kinda difficult because my only availabe partners in group projects are Garret and Mordread. Garret is keen but lazy and Mordread is lazy period. I’m lazy too but that’s the thing, I want to get myself involved! Will I make it? Last semester was a huge success, but only for the subjects that I did sit for. That is, around half of the lot.
	A huge piece of work, just like all other japanese RPGs, Lost Odyssey just begs for some more of my time. And the moral question of how much it should have is still unanswered. I’m still extremely early in the game.
	There are some people out there that are ready to beat me up because I prefer Viva Pinata over Lost Odyssey at this point. I can give them four reasons for this: Rare, Grant Kirkhope, Sandbox game, addictive-as-crack game. I won’t count ultra-cutesy as an argument cause that will scarcely save me any beating. I’m joining the ranks of gamers that are so ashamed of liking this it drives their love for it hotter.
	His Dark Materials. Only through rereading it can I understand how grand this trilogy really is. I first read it in greek about 5 years ago. I recently got all three books in english in a single hardcover tome and I want to finish it as soon as possible, while at the same time savouring it. Right now I’ve almost finished Northern Lights, yes the one that was recently turned to a pretty blah christmas blockbuster under the name of The Golden Compass. Also, check My Space and see if you agree that my daemon should be a snow leopard. It’s cool and appropriate, right? Hurry, you’ve got 10 days left!
	This series is great. I want to watch more! And I will!
	Alex gave me the complete Black Adder saga and I can’t wait to see it all! I’ve only watched 2 eps but I liked ’em and it’s obvious that the best is yet to come!
	For the next week or so, students from the rest of the Aegean Uni islands will be coming to Mytilini. There’s a community site for students of the Aegean Uni, that is my.aegean.gr. Its goal is to unify the different depts and parts of the university. One of them will stay at my place for a few days. I have no idea when he’ll be coming and what we’ll be doing with the rest of the team, but I expect it’s going to be all good. The only problem is that it’s going to throw me a bit off from all the above.

That’s about it. There’s loads of other things I still have in mind, like how I’m going to get by with my purposefully lowered monthly allowance or what other games, movies or outtings I can fit in all this mess. Not to mention more mundane obligations, like housekeeping, bills etc. If lifepoints came with such “achievements”, how many points would each feat get?

In the words of the Angry Video Game Nerd:

So much shit, so much shit, here we go!

Postscripts: Listen to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 II. Allegretto and Sylvan’s Artificial Paradise. Musical masterpieces in their own right.

Author: Cubilone

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