on mute for a day

Weird experience. I had some health trouble over the weekend which resulted to having a sore throat and actually not being able to utter a single word. Practically, for almost a day I couldn't speak at all.

All kinds of weird scenarios got through my mind of how life would be for me if i lost one of my senses. And once again i realised that, however easy it might seem to say "I would have adapted", it's a tough world for the people who don't have all their senses active. since the rest of us have no actual sensitivity around this fact. Cos we are the priviledged ones, in this case a majority elite.

Becoming a student once again

There's another reason why June will go by very fast: I will have a short-term goal in it, which is to pass 2 out of 2 exams that I have to take. With 3 subjects remaining for my degree, this is an important goal since i wanna have graduated by the time i am off the army for good.

The only difficulty is to get myself in the studying mood again, but that's not gonna be difficult once the weather improves, since I will have lots of afternoons-evenings off camp and study on the beach :) How shameless!

bookcrossing!

bookcrossing logo
Originally uploaded by Dimitris Mazarakis.

Did you actually know this? There's this organisation where basically you do the following: You tag a book and leave it in some spot where the sign of bookcrossing is, then smn picks it up, reads it and leaves it there for the next person. Worth checking out here on www.bookcrossing.com . I am impressed!

This concept reminds me of the concept of chess in some cities in the world where there is a chess board and people go there and play chess i.e. in a park, with people they don't know. Like recognising common interests and finding a free-style way of interaction among ppl who enjoy common things. Cool or what?

eurovision 2005 win for GR

eurovision 2005
Originally uploaded by Dimitris Mazarakis.

Well, maybe it was about time to get a win this contest for once, in the 50 years that it has been taking place on an annual basis. Elena Paparizou did it for us :), with teh song titled "my number one". This means we are also hosting it nest year.

Am I happy? Yes. Most of us Greeks are. It's been a tremendous last year for our country in all that's related to our international presence in sports, culture, now this (in some ways kitch but some ways funny european tradition) contest.

But there are still certain things I don't enjoy:
1. The kind of culture on winning which is being promoted in my country. It's like we would be losers if we came back from Kiev without the 1st place. The goal should be that we have a good presence, this is no championship and when people vote from different countries, motives and criteria are subjective. I don't get the message promoted by our media that WE HAVE TO BE BETTER/reach #1 cos our song is better. Cos this message makes no sense to me. Sad to say that it does make sense to a few people I happen to know.
2. Some people already from yesterday dared to compare Eurovision with the Olympics as an event of simlar importance. I don't think this is worth a single minute of debate at all, in all levels of possible comparison. And I hope I don't see this debate happening in the media in the course of the next few days. Cos the Olympics stand for a lot more things than eurovision does, but unfortunately popular culture has the tendency of putting things of different sizes in the sides of the same equation.

For now lets just enjoy the victory :). congratulate Elena and hope to organise a good contest next year in Greece!

on Fahreneit 9/11 and more

a little late watching this film, but i prefer doing this when it comes to things that everyone in the end comes to watch, read, experience. I prefer being more objective this way, have a more settled point of view.

First impressions, though i have read Moore's books and watched the Columbine documentary, was a shock. You can always claim that Moore is propaganda, the non-mainstream propaganda, so to say, if one accepts the mainstream media and government sources to be what stands for the normal meaning of the word "propaganda". But if you accept the media (or the web?) as a trustworthy source of information, why wouldn't you also accept Moore's research as an alternative source? As an other interpretation of reality? WHY was I shocked? Well, If 1/100 of what he claims to have found out through research is true, then the reason is cos corruption and injustice never fails to shock me in this life. Or at least make me feel vulnerable. The bad thing is I am not (yet) doing much about all those things that put me in this position, but a shock is always a good reminder of where we stand.

I am not gonna talk about Bush or his policy or all the fraud concerning the war and the US gov motives behind it. I guess everyone can judge for themselves and more or less according to what they want to believe. I am more moved by the size of all this and how common this can be in a lot of countries, how disoriented our government wants the people to be in an ever lasting chase of authority and wealth. [No, I am not a communist]. I had a recent discussion about this kind of phenomena in Greek politics as well, maybe not to this extent (war), but to the extent that real salaries in Greece have been raised by a mere 20% since year 1980 while the product prices have raised by 1000s %, and the main theme of TV of the past 2 weeks has been the eurovision song contest.

Ancient practice, never failed so far, this kind of policy has been tradition from ancient Rome, other civilisations probably as well. When is it gonna change? I want to believe that there is a momentum for everything in this life. Maybe not my lifetime, but life in general. But the momentum will come when a lot of people will be conscious of the real problems and ready to act. And that's not gonna happen anytime soon unless you get a lot of people angry (= population that by 94% watches eurovision and is happy to win but 0,000001% has read our constitution or doesn't understand the attack to any of our rights is far from angry) and unless the educational system changes to something that doesn't produce ppl who all they care about is to make money without working (Greece has the biggest per capita redord in betting within the EU), have no opinions about important matters, enjoy talking about the glorious past and doing nothing about the future.

First impressions from Lamia...

For the third time i got transferred to this camp. The first one was for training as a new recruit, the second one for training as a sergeant, this one now is for good, my second transfer and last one. So my border part is now over and I will be stationed in Lamia till November.

This is extremely cool as Lamia is where my parents' place is located. My job in camp is not to guard, patrol or anything like this anymore, as there are plenty of other people who do these things. I work in an office, and thus get to stay at home most of the days of the week. So, say for 2 out of every 7 days I get to stay in camp at night, for the rest I exit camp in the afternoon and re-enter at 6 am. It's a fairly good deal.

On the rest, the guys in the room are pretty cool people and there's more people coming along, most of whom I happen to have met in the past.

My status now is more or less like having a regulary job, with some minor differences:

• I can't leave before November 8th
• I have to wake up at 5:30 every morning to be on time
• I don't get paid
• I don't like it

which more or less doesn't make it regular at all. But compared to my whole border experience it's light years ahead and better. The upside of this all is that the people I deal with are polite and treat you in a civilised manner, I know a lot of people in this camp, I am in my hometown, I have a lot of spare time, which can help me finish university on time and get a job or start some serious job hunting july onwards...Ain't that cool? :-)

I also applied for the permit for going abroad, to the Netherlands in July. Lets see if it's gonna come through. Unfortunately I didn't ask for the permit for Turkey, cos everyone I asked told me i will get both of them rejected in case i do ask...So I won't be present at Evrim's wedding, which is the only bad news of the last few days.

spirit in general is very high, mood improving every day :)

What if till november 8th...

1. I quit smoking?
2. I started exercising regularly, push-ups, sit ups etc?
3. I started swimming almost on a daily level?
4. I finished university?

1, 2 and 3 started already. #4 underway, since my exams are starting again in June. 3 subjects to my degree...becoming a student for a while is a very good escape strategy from feeling that you are a soldier.

Swimming was also quite cool, I should mention that as far as I remember it's the first time I swim in May, in Greece. And now I know why: cos the sea is f***ing freezing, but i liked the feeling anyhow and I am going to repeat it...

PS: no elevator as well till november, unless i have very heavy luggage :) Lets see how much of this is going to become a permanent habit!

grandma's balcony

grandma's balcony
Originally uploaded by Dimitris Mazarakis.

This is my grandma's balcony, she lives opposite to my parents' place. And it's not the only thing she takes care during her day (add cleaning, cooking, shopping, mingling with ppl and social activities etc.). Actually, being 80 years old (or should i say 80 years young?) and full of energy, she makes everyone around her smile and be optimistic.

If smn with 54 more years of age than I have continues to be so energetic, I don't see why i should feel tired at all at the end of my day! Maybe i should ask grandma for her secret!

tree comparison

tree
Originally uploaded by Dimitris Mazarakis.

one of my favourites photos to compare with three months of difference between the two shots. you can see the difference in the light, the landscape and of course the tree itself, which is very cool :)

barbedwire through the seasons...

Photos stuck together, months represented here are March, April, May...Up North in March the temperature was still around 0 degrees, so you can actually tell that we have moved from winter to spring/summer. Already having 30 degrees these days makes everyone wanna go swimming.

miracles won't happen often

and it's only a miracle AEK need to play either champions league or get this year's title for football in Greece. With one day to go, we are third in the league, after a tie with (until yesterday first) 2nd from top, Panathinaikos. We had our chance and we blew it.

Nevertheless, lots of lessons there to be learnt from this year and a lot to celebrate for. Like the fact that one of the teams taht were about to dissolve themself in the beginning of the year reached the point of going after the title till the end and got to play with 50,000 spectators in the stadium. More than something, ain't it?

prioritise.

It's been a long time since i left for my first studies (informatics, 1996), this meaning that it's been a long time since i last lived in Lamia. I have lost 99% of my social circle here since all friends have gone to study/work elsewhere and now most of my friends come from the university/AIESEC. However yesterday was an amazing day since through just a couple of hours of walking around the town (some 60,000 ppl population) i met quite a few people i haven't seen for a few years now! It suddenly feels like home. So I guess since I am spending almost 6 months here now, rebuilding my social circle back home should be a priority.

But then, look at all these things that I suddenly wanna do, since I am back home and time off camp will be more than I had back in Alexandroupolis:

• finish off my last 3 subjects in university
• read more books
• prepare my next steps for getting a job abroad
• planning my trip for NL in the summer, and Turkey if possible
• starting to play the guitar again
• sunbathing and swimming/exercising
• helping out my parents with their job
• getting some more skills of interest (i.e. some programming)
• Making room for myself in my parents' house, cos the room where my sister and I used to live no longer has a bed in it :)
• Tidying up a lot of my old stuff and records

...and the list actually goes on. So the key word is prioritise. One thing is for sure though: I am going to have a much more interesting and better time here than the one i had back in Alexandroupoli. And I can already feel the transition steps from the army back to normal life.

For the time being I will enjoy my leave till next Thursday, for starters I am going to Athens today for the weekend!

Just another link in the chain

don't wanna get into details, but the way that i left alexandroupolis just drove me nuts, i was screaming in the car from my anger cos of the indifference of some people that had to keep me there for a couple of days more than i should have stayed (i should have left early Tuesday morning and I left Wednseday afternoon). That's a dimitris not a lot of you have seen. But that's the way the system works, today i am leaving - tomorrow a new soldier joins the unit, and the personnel is recycled. In an organisation that relies on authority and the fact that i have no option other than being there, things can also work in this way.

today is a big day

I am getting transferred to Lamia. HOME. Can't describe how happy and excited I am. And neither have the time to do so. I am getting straight to the car. 670 km. Mama, I'm coming home.

ironic

"An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your Chardonnay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn't it ironic ... don't you think"

I was the postman again 2day, and a few transfer envelopes showed up. I opened all of them and they contained everyone's transfers apart from mine and another dude's...

Patience is the word...maybe tomorrow...!