Moving with style (!!!)

I will be probably be moving by the end of my lease. However, should I call these people?:

I do not know about you, but for me the way this ad combines "looks" with "moving" as well as the specific picture you see with the text you read, makes it just surreal... (and funny!)

This is a real ad! Photograph was taken at the entrance of the building I live....

Bonne fête nationale du Québec

...et à tous/toutes mes ami(e)s francophones,

BONNE FÊTE de la St. Jean Baptiste!!!

À la gauche, c'est le drapeau de la communauté francophone d' Ontario et à la droite, c' est le drapeau de la communauté francophone d' Alberta. (Cliquez ici pour une liste complète ...)

και... Χρόνια Πολλά στον αδερφό μου (et bon anniversaire à mon frère)

Music to my ears.... (Part 1)

There are a few things I find completely thrilling. One of them is the sound that an F1 (and the more, the merrier!!!) vehicle makes. O.K., I know that this can be a health hazard (and with already diminished hearing ability from one ear, I should be more careful) but I cannot really control it. I can almost say that I am addicted to it, you know, that escalating sound while the gears go up (and up, and up...)
Being in this city for 3 years, this is first time that I got to the track. (And I will be there tomorrow and on Sunday of course, for the actual race). Although me and my friend got general admission tickets, we managed to pinpoint some good spots that, God willing and if we get there on time, will provide a fine view of the track and the race.
This is definitely going to be a memorable F1 weekend . After all, my camera trembles (!!!) when I play the videos of the free practice session I took today (since we were behind a fence most of the time, it's the sound that counts and not the picture), and that IS promising....

More to follow....

Spam...I HATE YOU!!!

I just can't take it anymore...
Although most of the spam e-mail I get ends up in a rarely used Yahoo account (and we are talking about 7 e-mails per day), for the last month I have been receiving spam in my other accounts which (unlike the aforementioned one) I forward to Outlook.
Thus, every time (twice per day) I check my e-mail, I get at least 4-5 e-mails with extremely annoying context.
Though the ones with weird attachments (a.k.a., viruses) are limited in number, still this situation is frustrating because they are just junk! From online degrees to pirate software, and from invitations to online gambling to special drugs which are supposed to improve my sexual life, although I found it funny in the beginning, now it's just becoming annoying.
I guess, I can always stop forwarding my e-mail accounts to Outlook, or create a new one that I will just give it to friends. However, I do believe that something can be done for this situation, namely more improved spam filters could be implemented.
I have to admit that Yahoo does a good work since, I rarely get any spam e-mail that will not be automatically forwarded to the "bulk" folder. (Unfortunately, the amount of junk e-mail this account receives does not allow me to turn it to my basic one, and besides, they charge for POP 3 forwarding.....)

Jaywalking and Saskatchewan immunity....

I was walking down on McGill College earlier this evening when I reached a red light at the corner of President Kennedy. Since no car was passing, I decided to cross the street. Now, with me there was a group of people standing in the corner (I guess, waiting for the light to get green) Two of them (a man and a woman) decided to cross the street, just like I did.
A woman from the group yelled at them (apparently joking): "Jaywalkers!!".
The man replied: "We are from Saskatchewan, we can do anything we want!"

I thought this was funny....

You can't teach an old dog new tricks..(Or can you?)

Believe it or not, I have to shamefully admit I do not know how to ride a bicycle. Yes, I 've been on a tricycle (when I was a child) but my first and only attempt to actually ride a real bicycle was when I was 14 and that was a very, very unsuccessful (and painful) experience, as I recall.
So, I let it be, and kept on looking ,some times with envy, all these people that could do something I didn't know how

Now you know where this is getting at, don't you?

Well, I finally decided that "better late than ever", so today, I had my first serious attempt to get the hand of it. In fact, I had asked some friends (one of them had a spare bike to let me try) to help me in my task. So, today was the day!

Now, since this is not Hollywood but real life, I cannot tell you how I mastered the whole bike thing in 1 hour, because I just....didn't!!! However, I did manage to stay on the (bleep) thing for second(s) and, I guess, that is some progress.
Everything is balance, I know that, and unfortunately this is exactly what I lack. (And I do not think all this extra weight helps!) But, I am determined to go through it at least if not for myself, just to disprove this stupid saying I chose as a title for this entry.

So, wish me luck and I am open to suggestions/ advise etc.

(Just please be helpful and if you want to make fun of me, do it before or after you leave some comments)

Pentecost Sunday

Today is the Sunday of The Holy Pentecost for the Orthodox. (For those of you who do not know this, Pentecost in the Christian Church is the feast celebrated 50 days (pentekoste=50th (day) in Ancient Greek) after Pascha/Easter. (Just like Jewish Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Passover). This is when the Holy Spirit (according to Christian belief) descended in the form of tongues of fire on the Apostles signifying the birth of the Church. For those interested, more information can be found here.

The feast is always celebrated on a Sunday and is followed by the Monday of the Holy Spirit. It is a time when Christians pray specifically for guidance from the 3rd person of the Holy Trinity, especially those who are engaged in mental activities. In fact, in Greece, this is an official holiday for students and teachers (and everybody involved in education) and the Press (journalists are considered as mentally hard-working; well, yes, considered is the "key-word")
Though I haven't reached that part of the program yet (and that day is coming), any help and guidance (especially from "upstairs" ) is more than welcomed. Therefore, I hope (and pray) that the Holy Spirit will always be there for us all, guiding us to the fulfillment of our goals.

"Ευλογητός εί, Χριστέ ο Θεός ημών, ο πανσόφους τούς αλιείς αναδείξας, καταπέμψας αυτοίς τό Πνεύμα τό άγιον, καί δι' αυτών τήν οικουμένην σαγηνεύσας, φιλάνθρωπε, δόξα Σοι"

"Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who made fishermen all-wise, sending upon them the Holy Spirit and, who through them, have caught in Your net the whole world, O lover of mankind, Glory to You"

(Apolytikion of the Feast of the Holy Pentecost)

Blogger, you make me so angry.......

What is wrong with blogger?

WHAT?

I have spent half an hour to post something, (25 minutes of which was the actual posting process and it turned out to be posted twice)

All these recurring problems (no, it's not the first time) make me seriously considering of migrating to my other account.... (but in that case, I will have to learn basic html)

Gym days...

So, What have I been up to since summer kicked in?

Well, I have finally decided to do something with all this extra weight that is bothering me (and not forget is a health hazard). So, back to the Y for me it is, and hopefully, this time ,the effects will last...

In other news, I do not know yet if and when (that sounds like the potential topic for eval. paper 2) I 'll get back to Greece. It will all depend on the studying I will have to do during the summer for eval. paper 1 which will be determined in a meeting I will have with EBG later this month. It's not a big secret that I do not really study when I am in Greece, so this time it might be a short or no trip at all. (an eventuality that will not make my brother and dad happy!) We 'll see....

That's all....oh wait!

Many thanks to Émile for the postcard I got... (You know now that I am expecting more...)

Break free....

I have just read the news:

Two prisoners escaped today from Korydallos prison complex in Athens, Greece when a helicopter, (yes, a HELICOPTER) landed in the courtyard and....picked them up!!!!

Korydallos prison complex is a considered a maximum security facillity. In fact, this is where the members of the notorious November 17 terrorist group are held.

What is most surprising is that the escape happened in broad daylight (18.25 local time) and the prison guards did not manage to stop them since they were surprised and/or confused because the helicopter had colors (white with blue stripes) similar to police ones.
The escape seems to have been organized by the notorious Greek criminal, Nikos Paleokostas, who with some "associate" of his, rented a helicopter (under false identities) and using explosives and grenades threatened the pilot to get them to the prison. When they got there, they picked up two people, Niko's brother Vasilis and an Albanian guy convicted for murder. Later, the helicopter landed in a remote cemetery and the prisoners used motorcycles to get away leaving the pilot behind.

Though other people have escaped from Korydallos in the past, this is the most spectacular escape ever. Although excuses can be found, (the helicopter was difficult to track; because of the Athens "Acropolis Rally", there were about 18 helicopters over the city) still this is a major blow for the police (I mean even if the helicopter had similar colors like police ones, apparently it did not have "POLICE" marked on the sides.)
When the story broke out, the minister of Public Order said "he will take heads", but maybe he should start with his own....