travel plans

finally some travel for 2008! for the first time since i returned from my xmas holidays, i am going on a plane again in only 6 days from now. let me know if you are somewhere around these places on the right dates:

thessaloniki: 27-28 feb
istanbul: 29 feb - 3 mar
iceland: 21-26 mar
the netherlands (amsterdam & den haag) 29 mar - 1 apr

see you there?

same sight, different views

piccadilly circus on sunday night, just random photos just from my cell phone.

long overdue

i know i know...it's not the end of december, it's the fucking end of february. and it's no time for new year's resolutions or evaluation of the past year. yet, you know, my OCD won't allow me not to do this, and the posting was drafted kinda like 2 months ago, but i never leave things in the middle. so here's what i set out to do in 2007...

[before i move on to what i'll do in 2008, actually]

1. make important and conscious decisions and steps for my future
didn't really. i have made one major decision in the negative way, which is that i am not leaving the uk before the summer of 2009, but other than that i have not decided on a definite career or life plan, unfortunately. that would probably have to move to the new year

2. not smoke for at least 6 months (have already quit for now in case you were wondering)
i think i roundabout made it to 6 months. i lost count at some point, despite being on and off smoking, but i spent at least 5 and a half months in 2007 not smoking, which was the purpose of this goal in any case, to keep me off cigarettes for half the year. trouble is, i do realise it's just about one of the worst things i can do to myself, but i still fancy smoking and don't wanna quit completely. but as far as the goal goes, it's a first step, and it's been achieved.

3. start exercising
i did start, i didn't continue. :-) this is a complete failure in the year that ended!

4. read more than in 2006
this is also a measurable failure in the year. i read less books than in 2007,only about 26 or so. unsurprisingly, year 2008 has started with a lot of reading, i guess the weather in the winter also helps that out. i'm happy to have been through 9 interesting books, but there's a huge queue waiting for me, in my room here in london, on the internet, and at home in lamia.

5. travel to at least 4 new countries
this one was achieved. ireland, denmark, china, malaysia, thailand and oman were my six new countries for 2007. i showed a preference to these countries as opposed to some easy destinations that are within reach in europe (prague, berlin). very proud of my travelling achievements in 2007. in plain numbers, 2007 saw me enter a plane at least 39 times, all for pleasure and none for business.

all in all, 2007 was a good year and i can't measure it all by the resolutions i had set at its beginning. it was a year of action, and not thinking, planning or reading much.

in 2007 i had some of my happiest family times ever. i saw my sister and my first cousin get married, i managed to go back to Greece 5 times, including 2 weddings, Easter and Christmas, i got back in touch with a lot of friends, my sister gave birth to my first niece, and generally it was a happy year. not a year of major achievements, but a year of strengthening relations with close ones and creating new ones. discovering london, and learning to like it bit by bit, though i did spend a considerable amount of time and money away from it.

2007 set high standards, and 2008 ought to be better than it!

:)

a bit of inspiration / change of view, anyone?

just finished reading the "god delusion" [by richard dawkins], which i am not going to analyse here, except by giving it a mention as a very pleasant read due to 1. the fact that a lot of his views are somehow familiar to me and 2. the cynicism of the author, which i really enjoyed.

throughout the book but mostly towards its end, it dawned on me that things could have been done differently in the world, obviously. religion or not, we could have just tried to use beliefs for harmonic living on the same planet rather than to direct ourselves against each other. it all depends on how you view the world in the end, and it's summed up in wittgenstein's thoughts, as provided by the author:

Wittgenstein asked:
"Tell me, why do people always say it was natural for man to assume that the Sun went round the Earth rather than that the Earth was rotating?"
His friend answered, "Well, obviously because it just looks as though the Sun is going round the Earth."
Wittgenstein replied, "Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as though the Earth was rotating?"

the truth is, it would have looked just the same, because that's how it looks. it's just what we want to interpret it as, that makes all the difference in the world.

the story of stuff

thanks to brenda's blog [and brenda of course :-)] i saw this link, with a short video on "the story of stuff" and a different approach. lasts for about 20 minutes, but well worth watching. go for it. or just bookmark the link and do it at a later time.

smashing pumpkins live

my second live concert for this year was the smashing pumpkins at the o2, and it was great all the way, excluding the 20 mins before the encore, where the band chose to improvise and fall in love with themselves, probably ignoring the fact that they were performing for about 15,000 ppl. nonetheless, it was a great concert, with old and new favourites being played along the way. i particularly liked the way 1979 and tonight tonight were played.

enjoy a video from them (not mine)

an ad that made me smile

creativity is obviously still around :-) enjoy!

valentine day video from postsecret

enjoy!

nouvelle vague

i saw my first live concert for the year in colchester, on saturday night. nouvelle vague is a band i didn't know much about, but the concert was great and so is their music. good start for the year. on to the smashing pumpkins next saturday!

best book i've read in a while

actually, the best book i've read in a very long while, should be years now. the kite runner. i have a natural tendency of reading the book first, without knowing that there's a movie lying around (like "about a boy". "high fidelity" etc), but i think that makes even the movie more enjoyable. in any case, it's a great story and also very well written. recommended.