his dark materials – Cubilone's Dimension

What’s My Daemon?

Your result for The Golden Compass Daemon Test…

Multi-Faceted Soul

In a way, you are a truly balanced person. You have a good sense of self, but you have periods of worry and self doubt. You don’t like to be alone a lot, but you don’t like being constantly surrounded, either. You can be shy in some situations and bold in others. You can tell people how you feel, but you don’t wear your heart on your sleeve. You aren’t “TOO” anything: You aren’t too shy, you aren’t too aggressive, you aren’t too extroverted, you aren’t too introverted. However at any one time you can be any combination of these things.

You tend to adapt yourself to match the situations in which you find yourself. You may be quiet and sensitive with some people, or joking and loud with others. These are all facets of your personality. People tend to perceive you as they want to perceive you. They may even tend to idealize you a bit. Then, when you do something that doesn’t fit their concept of who you are (like have an outburst of anger, or a fit of shyness, or make an insensitive joke)they can be shocked and surprised. Does anyone know the real you?

Your daemon would represent your multi-faceted and ever-changing personality, as well as people’s tendency to idealize you. He or she would get angry when you did not, be calm and poised when you felt ruffled and anxious, and always be the voice of emotion and reason in your ear.

Suggested forms:
Swan, Elephant, Koala, Panda, Chameleon, Wolf.

Take The Golden Compass Daemon Test at HelloQuizzy

What do you think my daemon would be? Yesterday I had such a discussion with Garret and he thought something like a migratory bird such as a swallow would fit me best. See: “People tend to perceive you as they want to perceive you.” Nice test!

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.

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.

A little piece of February

Sunday, February 24th 2008. My location: Dad’s and Vasso’s place in Aegina. We came here yesterday with Alex (it was a good opportunity for her to see the island and meet the owner’s of the house!), but she left an hour ago so that she could catch her choir practice session.

It’s been 9 days since I returned to Athens for February. This month is chock-full of celebrations. On the 1oth was George’s birthday. On the 14th was mum’s birthday. I missed both because of the weather’s annoying shifts of mood and general exam obligations but I didn’t miss my chance and by the 15th I was back in Attica. Most of my first few days were (well) spent with Alex, who stayed at my place a few nights. We watched Sweeney Todd at the cinema the first night, brilliant movie by the way, excellent clash of horror and musical, and the second night we went to Taj Mahal, the place Savi’s currently working at, with Alex, George and Elena. Nargile, drinks and even munchies for us all came from buddy Savi who treated us the lot. We thank you again! That night it also started snowing…

The next few days were dedicated to enjoying the Reign of White that took us all by such great surprise. Till Savi’s birthday, that is the 18th, and the day after, Athens and of particular interest, Nea Smyrni were as white as I never remember seeing them. Okay, I kind of missed the great snow of 2002 and the 2004 one lasted for just one day, but still. Streets frozen, plants all suddenly bearing the same bright appearance, a searing pain in the hands every time you tried to make a snowball with no gloves, going to Syntagma Sq, realising that it’s only you and your friends and only a few other (probably nice and interesting) people at the square, and then playing with the white stuff and watching it fall, denser and denser, more and more intrusive, more beautiful by the second. And oooh the chill, ooooh the cold. That’s what I call a flash whiteout! I took many pictures of us and the world but they will have to wait till I get back to my island home.

Then there was the Planetarium… Me and Alex enjoyed a documentary there about flight and a show about how violent the universe is, how the destructive nature of its components make the recycling of the stars’ lives possible (through novas, supernovas etc) or how great events like the collision of a newly formed planetoid with Earth during the earlier stages of its life, apart from almost turning our planet to space dust, created the moon and tilted the Earth’s axis to the place it is today -23.5 degrees from being perfectly vertical to its orbital plane- and thus created such seemingly unique phenomena as our yearly cycle of seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Climate change is showing a tendency of screwing this balance up but more is yet to be seen, let’s hope in the right direction. That night was also the night of the total lunar eclipse… The moon, only illuminated by the red beams that aren’t filtered by the Earth’s atmosphere, looked like a giant peach or christmas tree ball hanging in the sky. In fact, under this dim light it looked more like a satellite than usual, more like an actual celestial body than just a bright light. It was pretty.

These days I’ve also been watching Heroes, the TV series about superheroes which is actually pretty awesome, and re-reading His Dark Materials. I love this book (books)! Last week I also got 3 games for 50 euros, 2 of them used: I got Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Rare’s first game for non-Nintendo machines in a long time, Beyond Good and Evil, a game everybody knows is good but few have played and Viva Pinata (I bought that one new). I’m just so curious to see how they play. Oh and erm… My very own birthday is right around the corner and I’ve been thinking about how to celebrate. Alex had this great idea of having friends at home and just relaxing! It’s amazing how it’s an idea on its own, I had almost forgot/ruled out automatically the option of staying in with pizzas, drinks and games almost completely! Now let’s see who will be able to come and what presents I may receive. It’s possible I’ll get a DSLR camera, but I’m still researching prices and honing my diplomacy skills with my parents. But if no camera does fall into my hands, a nice Go board would do just fine, I fell in love with this game ever since Cies, the dutch guy who hosted me in Rotterdam, played it with me. “It was a gift to us by the gods” indeed.

This next week I’ll be around looks interesting and eventful. I can’t wait to have a good time with everyone. As usual, I’m missing Mytilini a little bit but when I get back there I’m going to miss Athens, or more like the people that live in Athens, my folks. But why is it that we only want what we can’t have?

They say that true happiness doesn’t come from having what we want but rather from wanting what we have.