Caffeined.....

I always knew that coffee gets me. I mean, in the morning, a good cup of coffee does the trick all the time.
But what happened to me yesterday was way off the board.
So, me Aemilius, and Mina ended up watching two of Woody Allen classical films, Manhattan and The Purple Rose of Cairo. It was the first time I saw Woody Allen films (I am mostly an action flick guy), but I have to say I found them both brilliantly funny.
Now, everything would have been just great, if I hadn't had the idea of getting a cup of coffee beforehand. It was a regular cup of coffee (with milk and sugar, as I always have it; nothing weird. Mina also got one).
But, somehow it got me and it got me bad. Maybe it was my empty stomach, I don't know; but from the second half part of the second movie till we reached Thomson House later for a pizza, I was totally agitated and excited. I mean , I felt like I was drunk (which I wasn't) and it was only after a pizza and two glasses of beer (+ 1 glass I spilled) I reverted to my usual boring, and tired self....
Oh well, at least we all (+ Andria (who joined in for the second movie and on) and Moti and Francis who joined for pizza) had a good time.
Yeah, we should definitely re-establish our pizza nights at Thomson House, but note to self "no coffee with an empty stomach!"

Some values last for ever....

Go Chuck!!!

(I just love the "Walker Texas Ranger button")

Disappointment

I expected better from my fellow Greek people. And above all, I expected them to show some "logic" (In Greek the word "logic" in this context is synonymous to "sense"). How can you vote again for the people responsible for financial, social and political scandals, people responsible for the deaths of 67 of their countrymen and a unprecedented ecological disaster?

To them I dedicate the following poem of K.P. Kavafis


The City

You said: "I'll go to another country, go to another shore,
find another city better than this one.
Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong
and my heart lies buried like something dead.
How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?
Wherever I turn, wherever I look,
I see the black ruins of my life, here,
where I've spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally."

You won't find a new country, won't find another shore.
This city will always pursue you.
You'll walk the same streets, grow old
in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.
You'll always end up in this city. Don't hope for things elsewhere:
there's no ship for you, there's no road.
Now that you've wasted your life here,
in this small corner, you've destroyed it everywhere in the world.


As for the leaders of opposing parties who failed to do their job properly, I think that the words of King Richard already sound in their minds...

King Richard II:
...For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king

(William Shakespeare, King Richard II, Act III, Scene II)

No Christmas

I was just checking the PGSS 2007-2008 agenda. They forgot Christmas..... (Just don't tell Santa...)

Il était une fois...la vie

For the last 3 hours the theme from this series keeps on playing in my mind. This was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid and although it was dubbed in Greek, the theme was not, so this show was one of my earliest contacts with French




Interestingly, I found an English version, but nah, I still prefer the French one...

R.I.P. Luciano

Luciano Pavarotti

10/12/1935- 09/06/2007

 

You shall always be remembered....

Disaster

11 days of fires...

77 people dead.... (67 fire related deaths + 10 in fire related road accidents)

280,000 hectares of forest land burnt

40,915 hectares of farm land burnt

120 villages affected

1500+ houses destroyed

100,000 people left homeless, or lost their farms...





The song heard in the background is titled "Omorfi ke parakseni patrida" (Beautiful and strange homeland)

Alarmed

I just got back to my apartment after a (once again) false fire alarm. Now, why does the fire alarm has to go off at 11.30 pm?
In fact, I am really annoyed, because this is the second time it happened in the last week. But the most annoying part is that when the alarm goes off and the fire brigade comes, they have to figure out in which of the 6 (!!!!) buildings the alarm goes off, there is a fire.
You see, my address is shared by 5 buildings (which are in fact one) and they are connected to the same fire alarm system. (Of course, I still don't understand why there is a 6th building connected to the same system, a building that has a different address.....). I am afraid that if a fire does break out, by the time they figure out where it is, it will be too late.

Churching...

Today, after months I have to shamefully admit I went to church (although I got there half an hour late; and before you say anything, Orthodox services start early in the morning).
Overall, it felt good seeing old friends and communicating with God, something I haven't been doing quite often....
After all, typically in the Orthodox Church, the church year starts in September 1st (I think that this is a remnant of the old roman empire taxing season), so this is a good time to resume good habits. Finally, it is also the beginning of a new academic year, another reason to seek help and guidance from the 'guy upstairs'. (I just hope I get it!)