garret – Page 3 – Cubilone's Dimension

Το χιόνι έλιωσε, το καλοκαίρι τέλειωσε

Το προηγούμενο μου ποστ ήταν για τον θάνατο της Γκρίζας. Η ειρωνεία της ζωής δεν άργησε να ξανακάνει την εμφάνιση της σε όλο της το μεγαλείο.
Μερικές ώρες αφού είχα γράψει το ποστ, με πήρε τηλέφωνο η Δέσποινα.

“Έλα Κιούμπι, η Γιούκι είναι μέσα στο σπίτι;”
“Όχι, γιατί;”
“Έλα γρήγορα…”

Φτάνω λίγα λεπτά αργότερα και βλέπω μια Γιούκι να είναι χωμένη κάτω από το τελευταίο σκαλοπάτι της εξωτερικής σκάλας στο ακριβώς απέναντι σπίτι, αυτό με τις πολλές γλάστρες και την Βίλμα (την μόνιμα έγκυο σκύλα). Δεν σάλευε. Και ένα παιδάκι, ούτε τριών δεν θα ήταν, το παιδί του ζευγαριού που την βρήκε, προσπαθούσε να την πιάσει. Μπορεί να πίστευε ότι ήταν λούτρινο κουκλάκι…

:'(

Ό,τι σκότωσε την Γκρίζα μάλλον ήταν αυτό που το κατάφερε και για την Γιούκι. Φόλα; Ποντικοφάρμακο; Κάποιο οικοδομικό υλικό; Ποιος, γιατί;;; Πέρασε την αρρώστια που παραλίγο να την στείλει πριν την ώρα της και κάποιος ο οποίος μάλλον ποτέ δεν αγάπησε ή αγαπήθηκε στην ζωή του αποφάσισε να πάρει την πρωτοβουλία;

Η ειρωνεία της ζωής σε όλο της το μεγαλείο.

Η εικόνα της κοκκαλωμένης Γιούκι να μην βγαίνει από κάτω από το σκαλοπάτι μου χαράχτηκε στην μνήμη. Το τελευταίο της βλέμα, τα μισόκλειστα βλέφαρα, το ξεραμένο αίμα στο στόμα και στον πισινό. Δεν θα γράψω περισσότερα. Δεν μπορώ να περιγράψω τι ένιωσα εκείνη την στιγμή και τι συνεχίζω να νιώθω. Δεν μπορώ να το περιγράψω συναισθηματικά όπως έκανα για την Γκρίζα… Ξέρω πολύ καλά τι ένιωθα για την γάτα που με συντρόφευε τα τελευταία 2,5 χρόνια. Και απλά… ίσως να μην μπορεί να χωρέσει εδώ. Δεν το έχω συνειδητοποιήσει από τότε… 5 μέρες κιόλας. Όχι. Δεν μπορεί να χωρέσει εδώ. Όχι τώρα.

Χώρεσε όμως στην κηδεία της. Ούτε αυτήν θα την ξεχάσω ποτέ. Τόσο έντονη και αληθινή, μέσα σε όλη την θλίψη. Ευχαριστώ όλους σας για την βοήθεια και που απλά ήσασταν εκεί: Δέσποινα, Γκάρετ, Μόρντρεντ, Νένη, Έλενα… Θα ήταν πολύ πιο δύσκολο χωρίς εσάς.

Το χιόνι έλιωσε
Το καλοκαίρι τέλειωσε
Το νερό ποτίζει
Στον ουρανό γυρίζει

1η Σεπτεμβρίου, Λαβυρίνθου 1

Ο ήχος της μπόρας…

Αυτό με ξύπνησε σήμερα. Η πρώτη μου σκέψη: τι ταιριαστό την 1η Σεπτεμβρίου να βρέχει καταρρακτωδώς…

Ανοίγω τεμπέλικα τα μάτια. Κοιτάζω το κινητό: 07:49. “Νωρίς!”, σκέφτομαι. Και όντως, έχει σπάσει τον τελευταίο καιρό το πρόγραμμα ύπνου που ξεκίναγε μετά τις έξι και έφτανε αργά το μεσημέρι… Ήταν η πρώτη μέρα στο καινούργιο μου σπίτι που ήταν πρωί και ο ήλιος δεν έλαμπε μέσα από τα παραθυρόφυλλα. Το κρεβάτι άδειο, αν εξαιρέσεις την αφεντιά μου, θα έπρεπε να το έχω συνηθίσει μέχρι τώρα, όμως συνεχίζει να είναι δύσκολο… I’ll try to forget you, And I know that I will, In a thousand years, Or maybe a week…Α ρε Wilson, δεν ήταν της μοίρας να σε ακούσουμε μαζί. Όμως…
“Άδειο…; Πού είναι η Γιούκινα; Η Γιούκινα είναι έξω και θα βρέχεται!” Αμέσως ανοίγω την πόρτα πιο κοντά μου και την καλώ μέσα στην νεροποντή… Αρρώστησε που αρρώστησε σοβαρά και έγινε καλά (τουλάχιστον τρώει και βγαίνει έξω και θέλει χάδια!), μην μας πουντιάσει τώρα στην “φθινοπωρινή” μπόρα! Μετά από μερικές φωνές στις οποίες ούτε ένα μικρό, τόσο δα νιαούρισμα δεν ήρθε σαν απάντηση, τι στο καλό, όλη τη νύχτα έξω ήταν και γούσταρε, γύρισα στο κρεβάτι μου και κοιμήθηκα με τον ήχο της βροχής να με τραβάει στα πιο ζωντανά μου όνειρα.

Οι τελευταίες δυο εβδομάδες ήταν σίγουρα πολύ έντονες, σημαντικές… Η νέα μου διεύθυνση: Λαβυρίνθου 1! Ακούγεται σπουδαίο, μυστικιστικό… κάπως αστείο. Το καινούργιο μου σπίτι έχει έντονη προσωπικότητα, παρά την ηλικία του που μια ψευτοανακαίνιση προσπάθησε να κρύψει. Αν ήταν άνθρωπος, πιστεύω θα μου έμοιαζε: Διόροφο, στενό, στραβοχημένο, πότε κλείνουν-πότε δεν κλείνουν τα ντουλάπια, όλα θεοβρώμικα, φρεσκοβαμένο αλλά αυτή η βαρετή μπογιά κάλυπτει τρελλά βαμμένους τοίχους σε περίεργα χρώματα, άλλωστε μόλις έφυγε η κοπέλα που έμενε μέσα καιρό… Αν δεν είχε γίνει πάντως και αυτή η ανακαίνιση, το σπίτι θα παρέμενε κλειστό, ακατοίκητο και εγκαταλελειμμένο, δεν θα είχα πάει να ρωτήσω να τους μάστορες αν και πότε θα νοικιαστεί, θα είχα συνεχίσει να ψάχνω άδικα για σπίτια που δεν μου άρεσαν (εδώ να πω ένα μεγάλο ευχαριστώ για τον Φάνη που με βοήθησε με την περισυλλογή των κουτών, ακόμη και αν τελικά δεν μου χρειάστηκαν… Ήσουν εκεί όταν είχα πραγματικά ανάγκη έναν φίλο, και δεν μιλάω μόνο για την βοήθεια… Thanks bro…) και τελικά δεν θα είχα έρθει σε επικοινωνία με τους σπιτονοικοκυραίους και δεν θα είχα αρχίσει τον αγώνα να τους πείσω για το ότι θα το φροντίζω, θα το κρατήσω καθαρό και ότι δεν πειράζει που θα μείνω μόνο έναν χρόνο (άσχετο που έκλεισα συμβόλαιο για δύο, με την δυνατότητα να φύγω όποτε θέλω μετά τον πρώτο… Περίεργοι όροι!) Έτσι ήρθαν τα πράγματα λοιπόν! Αυτό το σπίτι με εμπνέει, με κάνει να θέλω να ζήσω διαφορετικά… τι κι αν είναι βρώμικο και στενό; Τι κι αν όποτε πάω τουαλέτα γεμίζω μια λεκάνη νερό και η πίσω πόρτα που βγαίνει έξω δεν κλείνει; Όλα φτιάχνονται με λίγη θέληση και ένα wettex. Είναι ό,τι πρέπει για αυτές τις μέρες των αλλαγών. Πόσος καιρός μου έμεινε σε αυτό το νησί, άλλωστε; Παρεούλα με τις κατσαρίδες και τις μύγες και τα σκατά της οδού Λαβυρίνθου; Για να μην αναφέρω την Γκρίζα και το Γατί νο2, αυτές πάνε ασυζητητί. Μόνο με… μπάνια καταλαβαίνουν πια.

Και το σπίτι που άφησα πίσω… Δεν βρήκα τελικά κάποιον ο οποίος θα έμενε για να κρατήσει τους χρωματιστούς τοίχους (I’m looking at YOU, Garret & Elena!) και έτσι το βάψαμε απ’άκρη σ’άκρη αυτό το άρρωστο λευκό (I’m looking at you Despina! OK I’m looking at Mordread a little bit too). Ήταν σκληρό, όμως, πόση σκληρότητα δεν έχω φτάσει να κοιτάζω κατάματα αυτόν τον καιρό; Όταν πήγα πριν καμια βδομάδα όλα μου τα πράγματα στο σπίτι απέναντι (ναι, ακριβώς απέναντι μετακόμισα! Η φτηνότερη μεταφορά ever!) για να αρχίσω το μπογιάτισμα. Όλα γύρισαν πίσω. Πώς ξεκίνησε η ζωή αυτού του σπιτιού με το βάψιμο στα περίεργα χρώματα, και πώς τώρα κλείνει το κεφάλαιο αυτού του σπιτιού με το σβήσιμο των χρωμάτων. Έκλαψα πολύ εκείνη την μέρα και δεν ήξερα γιατί… Μάλλον ήταν ο θρήνος για όσα αφήνω πίσω… Για όσα έπρεπε να αφήσω πίσω μαζί με το σπίτι, αλλά και για όσα έμειναν πίσω είτε το ήθελα είτε όχι. Πόσο επίκαιρη παίζει να ήταν αυτή η μετακόμιση;

Όπως η βροχή καθαρίσε τον σκονισμένο δρόμο της οδού Λαβυρίνθου, έτσι κι εγώ καθάρισα τον Αύγουστο από οτιδήποτε με κράταγε πίσω, κυρίως από την ίδια μου την σκόνη… Ο ήλιος άνθισε, μια νέα ζωή βρίσκεται μπροστά μου. Ένας χρόνος γεμάτος ευκαιρίες, αλήθεια, χαρά, απογοητεύσεις, μάχες, νίκες, ήττες, προσπάθειες, νέες συνειδητοποιήσεις, συντροφικότητα, τέχνη, μυστήριο, θαυμασμό, απόλαυση, όνειρα… Θέλω να πιάσω τον χρόνο που έρχεται από τα αρχίδια. Και είμαι έτοιμος να απλώσω το χέρι.

Αφιερωμένο

We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
And I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again

Change it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fall that’s all
But the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again
No, no!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Cubilone’s Dimension Turns Two!

Just like Garret and Necro (Stefanos), this here blog has its birthday today!

…but this post is two days late! So yeah. Happy birthday Cubimension, and may you see another full year of posts and much much more that is in store for you! 🙂

two

Modern Warfare 2

I bought CoD: Modern Warfare 2 today… Can you say “subliminal peer pressure?” It must be the first game I buy new in over a year. That I’ve been playing it for hours online speaks wonders on whether it’s actually worth the €50. Infinity Ward delivered once again! I can remember buying the first Call of Duty new in 2003… Even back then it was a great game. Now it’s become almost essential.

I do, however, feel a bit like a robot… (sic Yahtzee in his most recent review on the game).

PS: Level 16 already!

September 26th 2006-8

September 26th, 2006. This was the day that was to change some of the most superficial (but important at the same time) aspects of my life. Some days ago it was 2 years since that fateful day so I decided to write a little something about it all.

Summer 2006, shortly after my final exams. My university plans were changing every week or so because of my: 1. Subsequent low exam scores 2. Failure at drawing subjects 3. Entry score boost of the school I wanted to get in (Audiovisual Arts in Ionian University, Corfu). Cultural Technology, Mytilini, had been my second option but the one I ultimately followed. Many discussions later and after having fought urges of preparing for another round of exams just to avoid the move to Mytilini, September 26th was, in the end, the day I took my first ship to Mytilini. It was Nissos Mykonos, leaving at 12:30. I’ve kept the ticket.

I was very scared while making that very first trip. That Mario person I had found through the nintendo.gr forums sounded really friendly and had offered to host me till I actually found a more permanent place to stay, but alone and unaware, I was heading to that strange town (which I still thought was closer to a village than a town). Turned out Mario and his part-friend-part-roomie HouseMaster were cool people. First night with them they introduced me to what still is the largest souvlaki I’ve ever seen or eaten. I repaid the favour by teaching them what Katamari On The Rock feels like! Important note: inside my very first baggage were my GC and PS2 along with all of my games for them: Mario had specifically asked me to bring them along so he could try some GC games he never had the chance to play. In the end, a night with them was enough for me to trust them. Ready they were, not only to show me the whereabouts, meet me to people, help me integrate over the course of mere days, we had great fun while at it! Plus, they helped me find my old place on Gravias 1. My hat’s off to you guys!

Left ro right: HouseMaster, Mario, me. October 3rd, 2006

Fast-forward to September 26th 2008. What has changed now then?

I’ve been living alone for 2 years. Before coming to Myt the idea alone seemed awkward.
Distance, physical and mental, has shown me who my real friends in Athens are. One of them now lives in Chios, another in Canada. Before coming to Mytilini I had contact with a lot more people. Now my real friends from Nea Smyrni can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
My love life has certainly improved a millionfold, although this took a while to occur. Most of my first year I was a proud pink glasses wearer. Now I have what I always wanted: a girlfriend I can trust, have fun with, dream about and love.
My life was touched and changed by CouchSurfing. In turn, travelling has become a major aspect of my existence.
As far as my actual university career goes, my end of 2nd year sees 17 subjects passed and 11 I’ve got to repeat. Cultural Technology has made me look at both culture and technology from a whole new perspective. Their combination definitely feels promising.
I’ve actually cooked some things.
I realised my plan to take up bass guitar. Let’s rock!
German language skills have certainly improved.
I met Mordread and Garret, two unique people to say the least. With them, I got to know many new things and broaden my horizons, especially with Garret. Mordread has been more of a (invaluable) all-around lover of fun. Though we have had many discussions, watched many movies, played many games, even teamed up for university, it’s been 2 years and I still feel I’ve hardly got to know these 2 any better.
My taste in games has changed. I no longer am the huge Nintendo fan I was when I first came here. I try to play many different types of games and by many developers. This became much more evident since I bought my Xbox 360. My Wii’s been gathering dust…
May old values I had have just crumbled to dust. One does change in the span of 2 years, especially between the ages of less-than-18 and less-than-20.
I’ve been reading books like crazy for almost a year now. Can’t say I’m complaining!
I launched Cubimension! But it’s still largely undeveloped… 🙂
I took up astronomy and astrology. The mysteries of the sky are no longer a silent interest of mine.
When I first came here, I was unsure what to think of it. It didn’t take me more than a few days to start liking it, and now I admit. I love living in Mytilini. It is so much better than student life in Athens although we do have some problems here, namely places to go out and variety of entertainment. But it all gets sorted out in the end.

Dusty Low Spirits

I don’t really know how to begin. For one, these last days have been eventful and uneventful at the same time. For one, I haven’t really been going out. Since last wednesday when my finnish couchsurfer left (she was alright), I’ve been mostly indoors. I finished Heroes Season 1, which had too happy an ending I might say and I’m curious to see how the writers have made it go on, I watched The Big Lebowski with Garret and HM, Lola Rennt (AGAIN! What an awesome movie), The Nines (what a strange but also intriguing movie), I watched most of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (what an otaku fest this is), played some Lost Odyssey, more Boom Boom Rocket, more Viva Pinata, watched some more Blackadder, made some research at the uni library for me and my team’s project on copper and how to preserve items made of it, StumbledUpon pages and pages and pages (it definitely is the most complete time killer since the advent of the internet), read a very interesting article by National Geographic on memory, put up a couple of posters using BlockPoster (cheap and easy way of making posters out of any picture), and finally, made some arrangements for our summer eurotrip. This is a good point to start talking about what went wrong.

The past few days the weather’s been absolutely terrible. For one, there’s this dust cloud covering the sky. It makes sunny days almost look overcast… The stars aren’t visible at night and it generally feels humid, moreso than usual. Today the heat (probably in conjuction with the dust cloud) was sweltering. Spring’s upon us for sure, although the heat reminded of June… It was a deafboil as we greeks sometimes say. I used to like rain and moody weather once… Really like it, that is. Now, I tend to prefer warm, sunny and vibrant days. It makes me more cheerful… This sticky tropical kind of situation really gets on my nerves though. Another thing: I can’t seem to get anything done. Apart from going to the library, I’ve done little else for my other interests or obligations. I just sit around being lazy. I hate that, cause I feel like my lazy hours aren’t earned in any way. Even practising for my bass guitar lessons (yeah I finally found a teacher and he’s good to boot!) feels like a chore…

And that’s not all. Weird flylings have started appearing and getting on my nerves, my internet connection enjoys making me want to smash my modem (which by the way I have to return to HOL once I move out) and generally makes the Tower of Piza look like a masterpiece of stability in comparison… and today I was in bad spirits all afternoon. The arrangements about the eurotrip I talked about? Well, me and Alex tried to find the cheapest ticket to Finland for July. After a bit of looking around, we found what looked like a deal: easyjet from here to Berlin, then another flight to Riga and then another flight from there to Helsinki with AirBaltic. All for a grand total of €90 + LVL80-., LVLs being the Latvian local currency. When looking up the exchange rate for LVLs, I confused LTLs wtih LVLs. The LTL, the currency they have in Lithuania, is several times cheaper than the euro so 80 of that seemed a good deal. Well… I should have looked up my Baltic countries’ currency twice; the LVL is actually worth more than the euro, and that made what once looked like a good 20 euro bargain a horrible 120 euro rip-off, something we thought we had totally steered clear from. And I only realised that after buying the tickets… Luckily, I had deemed it a good idea to buy cancellation warranty but AirBaltic can’t decide whether they give refunds and how they go about it. Still, I can’t believe I was so careless, especially when we were in penny-pinching mode with Alex.

So, I’m off to do whatever I’m going to do. Probably watch another episode of Blackadder. Yeah. Or read His Dark Materials. What about german? Ohhh Ill just go to sleep. I only hope that the upcoming Easter holidays will help me take it easy and focus.

And we think 24 hours are not enough

So yesterday was Garret’s birthday… We bought him a cake along with Mario, Mordread and Housemaster and paid a visit far earlier than what he had told him we would. We decorated the cake with a “6939”, aka his days played! I was thinking of maybe having a 10011 on the cake, that is 19 in binary, but Housemaster came up with that other slightly less geeky but loads friendlier idea. We struggled in the heavy rain on our way to Garret’s, running for shelter and realising once again that umbrellas are only a minor help when having to deal with downpours… It reminded me of No-Man’s song “Only Rain” which has been acting as my earworm for the last couple of days (and pleasantly so). At some point it goes: “No more fountains, only rain.“, a lyric I find strangely optimistic…

Anyway, after we somehow managed to get the cake ready, candles and all, under the storm so that Garret wouldn’t catch wind of us, we invaded his place, Happy Birthdayed him all the way home and had a jolly good time! Few of our clothes were dry, footwear not included, so we all took off shoes and socks and left them to dry. The whole barefoot theme was quite unique and fun! Gave the evening a whole new tone of coziness and proximity. And once again, I demonstrated my unique abilities of clumsiness, dropping cake everywhere, accidentally knocking over plastic cups and managing to get all this on video. After the mess I made a few days ago at Mordread’s house while playing D&D, spilling coke TWICE all over the table we played on, for the first time ever I caught myself mentally or even physically nodding when my friends shouted “RE HALL!” when any kind of disaster struck. Mordread likes doing it even when I’m not the cause of blunderous mayhem… I wonder if I indeed emanate this “Clumsiness Aura” *WoW mode: prone to 50% more accidents when within 30feet of me* but what’s mostly funny about is that when I’m alone far less accidents happen. Or maybe it’s because I don’t pay as much attention to them as when I’m in company?

Clumsy or not, it was another of these times I really enjoy nowadays, an atmosphere the Dutch call “gezellig” which means great coziness, right company, right lighting, right discussions, right food and drinks, at the right time. Don’t you just love sitting back and savouring these moments? I’m sure there will be plenty of such moments in Athens when I’ll be going back there in a few days – 5 to be exact – when I’ll be meeting more friends than ever before. I think I’ll have to make a tight schedule to manage to meet everyone I want to… Wonder if I’ll manage to actually sit back and relax at home or with dad in Aegina when I’ll have so many things to do, including of course choosing the parts for my new PC which is underway or helping George with tweaking my current PC which I’ll be handing down to him minus the chassis. Oh yes it will be a busy fortnight, but no less fun (if not more fun) I’m sure!

Today I also had my first Aikido training session. Katana stances, staff, tried some rolls and fighting exercises. It was a great workout too! Even if it’s a bit on the expensive side (45 euros per month), I think it will be well worth it. The philosophy behind the art, which represents peace, spiritual energy and trying to bringing no harm to others while reverting their attack power back to them are very welcome additions to the stylish combat and weapon training… And aren’t japanese weapons just COOL? Yes they are! *takes katana pose*

Also, I’ve been watching a lot of Firefly, this cool little TV series that could. I’ll post my thoughts on it when I finish the two remaining episodes, I doubt they’ll change my seriously positive impressions though! I also wish I’d manage to get 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy before I leave but I think in the end I’ll just take my Wii with me, it looks like it’ll be getting some playtime one way or another in the holidays anyway!

Oh it’s 4:28am… Gotta keep to that uber leet sleeping schedule of mine so oyasumi, goedenacht and kalinyxta!