Do I look to you as a Face With Glasses?!

You are "Face with Glasses"

And so what? Is that an offense? And what is it changing now that I'm aware of being a "face with glasses"??! At least, I prefer the indian names with fantasy (and therefore internal revealing symbolism), like "bird-of-wisdom"; could it be "daughter-of-sun"? Just much more interesting to make yourself finding out the symbolism the suits you the best - needs self-estime and inner knowledge.

After all I'm gonna revenge for all this kind of "smart quizzes" :P ! Are you an enough strong character not to learn...

What Japanese Smiley Are You?

When we' ve got nothing to say...

...let's talk about the weather!

The weather got totally crazy with its 25C, end of October, don't you think? I see the people all around getting crazy as well. Wearing their coats due to an only-psychological-autumn, they get the autumn-cold and wear their autumn-grumbling-mood.

Oh, no; I prefer to be the "fool" who keeps on going with the T-shirts until Christmas / until the summer ends. At last who determines the "fool"? Isn't this a sort of social camouflage - well, only the peak of the ice-mountain, a very expressive one though!

PS: With such rythms, as friend Eva remarked, we can predict snow on April!

The uso of ouzo ;-)

Το ούζο, η ιστορία μιας λέξης (Αχιλλέας Τζάρτζανος , «άρθρα και μελετήματα»)

... In Tirnavos (greek village), apart from the wines, alcohol was also produced from the grapes that they boiled with proportional quantity of water or with some spoiled wine. The distillation was bringing what was called soumma (σούμμα) or hamiko (χάμικο). This hamiko is not drinkable, because it smells badly and burns you deeply. That was the motivation for a second distillation, after having added anis (aniseed), salt, few coals and onions, each in proportional quantity. After the whole gets boiled, we take the tsipouro (τσίπουρο) or raki (ρακί), which is pleasantly drinkable. Now if this tsipouro gets again boiled together with few gum and sugar, it comes out a better quality of alcohol of the type that today is known as "ouzo" - which in old times was called re-boiled raki.

The re-boiled raki was called ouzo only at the last years of Ottomanan domination from the following reason:
One could find at that times in Tyrnavo a militarian doctor of the turkish army, an Armenian called Stavrak-bey, who had built great friendship with two persons that were from Tyrnavos, Antonio Makri (mercer) and Dimitrio Doumenikioti (grocer and distiller), and this company of three friends regulartly took its appetizer, the "re-boiled raki".
Stavrak-bey went once in the factory of D. Doumenikiot and suggested that he adds one more substance so that the result would be a "raki" of even greater quality. Indeed, when the distillation was done and the three friends went there to try the new product, Ant. Makris excited said: "Well, what is this? This is ouzo for Marseille!!" And thus the name ouzo emerged...

But now, someone could ask what Ant. Makris, the ouzo's "godfather", was meaning with the phrase "ouzo for Marseille"... In Tyrnavos since the very old times silkworms' culture is very popular and each year cocoons are produced in big quantities. The finest of these cocoons where thus packed up in special "balls" and sent from Volos (greek city) to Europe with the sign uso Massalia, which means "to use of Marseille". This phrase (uso Massalia) was meant to show [in cocoons' trade the fine quality and this is what Ant. Makris wanted to remark with his "declaration" - without of course being aware that we was become the creator of a word, which characterizes now a particular industry of alcohol...

* * *

geia mas/cheers/fratern's/prost/chin-chin/prieka

"Πάντα λεύτεροι" [η ευχή της γιαγιάς]

Τα ψεύτικα τα λόγια τα μεγάλα...

"Οι καρδιές μας είναι μαζί με τους άντρες, τις γυναίκες και τα παιδιά της Ελλάδας. Ποτέ δεν θα λησμονήσουμε τις αδικίες που έχουν διαπραχθεί σε βάρος της Ελλάδας, όταν έρθει η ημέρα της κρίσης..."

Χένρυ Ουάλας, Αντιπρόεδρος των ΗΠΑ, 1944

"Ας μείνει ήσυχη η Ελλάδα: θα πάρει όλα όσα της ανήκουν. Θ' αποκτήσει τα εδάφη της στο ακέραιο και θα ζήσει περήφανη και ηρωική μέσα στους νικητές..."

Ουίνστον Τσώρτσιλ, Πρωθυπουργός της Αγγλίας

Dedication

She comes in colors ev'rywhere;She combs her hairShe's like a rainbowComing, colors in the airOh, everywhereShe comes in colorsShe comes in colors ev'rywhere;She combs her hairShe's like a rainbowComing, colors in the airOh, everywhereShe comes in colors

Have you seen her dressed in blue?

See the sky in front of you

And her face is like a sail

Speck of white so fair and pale

Have you seen a lady fairer?

She comes in colors

Have you seen her all in gold? Like a queen in days of old

She shoots her colors all around

Like a sunset going down

Have you seen a lady fairer?

She comes in colors ev'rywhere;She combs her hairShe's like a rainbowComing, colors in the airOh, everywhereShe comes in colorsShe's like a rainbowComing, colors in the airOh, everywhereShe comes in colors

Rolling Stones, "She' s A Rainbow"

In my black and white everyday-life it happens sometimes: one gesture. Like a rose offered by an unknown man in the middle of the street. Like a rainbow shining upon and all over you; it gets you back to your childhood's colourful fairy-tale, when time was slow and everything was so simple. Can it be that the music draws? I remember that song of Rolling Stones; when I hear it, I can see in front of me the Carousel of the Luna Park moving quickly so that the colours - swirling around very quickly - make the absolute, the no-colour: white.

I assumed today romantism is still whispering underneath the surface.

PS: This post is dedicated to Irene for the time we were kids in the park and for that other time - she knows better...

Citius, Altius, Fortius No2

Ανεργία (ΕΡΤ3, 25/10/2004)

I keep going with my cold the same steady way that the greek unemployement levels keep rising... First statistics (for the first trimester of 2004) just appeared only to remind us that worse days are coming, especially after (the 2nd or 3rd semester of 2004 = ) the end of the Olympic Games - which besides their other "good" impact became the source of employment for many people due to the new infrastructure.

11.2% of the greek population claim unemployed (instead of 10% in 2003) while the 21.3% concerns the young people between 15-29!!

The percentage that is recorded in the women-group (16.8%) is over double from that of men (7.3%)!!

Even worse, the rates of unemployment are found above the total percentage mainly in the graduates Medium or Superior education: 28%!!

Are we still wondering why we are hearing more often lately about robberies and rapes? The TV-news are warning about a rapist who makes...circles around my neighbourhood :P

Post-olympic depression No2 and not due to the lack of the olympic spirit; surviving spirit is here - how about a "survivor" alternative? [see the "reality show" post of Estilhacos...there could be a connection ;-) ]

Untitled past-print

Signs...
Smoke and fire
Desire
Nose running
Eyes overflown
Cold

Can you still see in ME?

Cold inside
Can you still sit by my side?

(Coming from the past, 7/11/2001)

"Personality goes a long way"

I wanted to write much today, it seemed as if the whole week-end I was collecting my sources somehow; too many ideas, too many motivations - national celebrations will begin in a couple of days, the matter of the albanian pupil holding the greek flag, the national matter of turkish planes invading, the matter of old people who live under the poverty-limit... But then I just woke up this morning in my warm bed, with the sun penetrating in the purple room and multiplying its reflections on the white ceiling. So I just woke up this morning to find out that I'm becoming sick with red overflown eyes; all ideas were meant to stay in the background, 'cause however selfish it sounds it is really so [and I have the courage to admit it] : what happens to ourselves is always the most important thing in the world.

Personality goes really a looooooooong way

[VINCENT]You want some bacon?

[JULES]No, man, I don't eat pork.

[VINCENT]Are you Jewish?

[JULES]No, I ain't Jewish, i just don't dig on swine, that's all.

[VINCENT]Why not?

[JULES]Pigs are filthy animals. I don't eat filthy animals.

[VINCENT]But bacon tastes good, pork chops taste good...

[JULES]Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy motherfuckers. Pigs sleep and root in shit, that's a filthy animal. I don't eat nothin' that ain't got sense enough to disregard its own feces.

[VINCENT]How about a dog? A dog eats its own feces.

[JULES]I don't eat dog either.

[VINCENT]Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal?

[JULES]I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy, but it's definately dirty. But, dogs got personalitly, personality goes a long way.

Travolta John, "Personality goes a long way (Dialogue)" Pulp Fiction Soundtrack

Citius (ταχύτερα), Altius (ψηλότερα), Fortius (δυνατότερα)

Αθήνα του δρόμου και Δρόμοι της Αθήνας
Post-olympic depression...

Και βλέπω τα Ολυμπιακά πανώ να κατεβαίνουν και μαζί μ' αυτά κατεβαίνουν στους δρόμους - όχι πια τα πολυποίκιλα και διαπολιτισμικά δρώμενα αλλά - οι χείμαρροι των αυτοκινήτων ανάκατα με αυτούς των απεργών συμβασιούχων ΑΔΕΔΥ, ΓΣΕΕ και ό,τι άλλο. Κατεβαίνουν ακόμα σε διαδήλωση τα στροβιλιζόμενα σκουπιδάκια των πεζοδρομίων, οι μηχανές μικρού και μεγάλου κυβισμού που "καβαλούν" τα πεζοδρόμια, το καυσαέριο που εκπέμπουν οι μηχανές, οι αισθμαίνουσες αναπνοές των αγχωμένων αργοπορημένων εργαζόμενων της καθημερινότητας - που εισπνέουν το καυσαέριο. Κατεβαίνει σε διαδήλωση ό,τι μας πνίγει και πάλι: η ρουτίνα γεννά τη μεμψιμοιρία ή η μεμψιμοιρία τη ρουτίνα μας;

Η Σύγχρονη Τέχνη επιστρέφει στο αραχνιασμένο χρονοντούλαπο μουσειακού χώρου που εμείς, οι Έλληνες, πάντα την είχαμε συνηθίσει. Μαζί της επιστρέφει στο κλειστό μουσικό κουτί της όλη η πολύχρωμη παρέλαση του πολυπολιτισμικού παραμυθιού. Κι ας λένε οι φίλτατοι αδερφοί Κατσιμίχα "μες στο κλειστό δωμάτιο υπάρχουν όλα / αν έχεις μάτια να τα δεις / αν έχεις χέρια να τ' αγγίξεις / μπορείς να βρεις κλειδί να ξεκλειδώσεις τη σιωπή τους / αρκεί να πας, αρκεί να πας, ολάνοιχτος /γυρεύοντάς τα"... Αν δεν έχεις πια μάτια να δεις και χέρια να ψηλαφίσεις, χρειάζεσαι κάποιον να σου δείξει - κι αν όχι οι καλλιτέχνες του δρόμου, τότε ποιος; Εξάλλου, τι σε κάνει να πιστεύεις ότι η ίδια η πόλη με την πολύβουη λαβυρινθώδη δίνη της είναι κάτι αλλότριο προς το Κλειστό Δωμάτιο;

Μεταολυμπιακή Αθήνα

What is called "love forever"

"I don't understand how come you're gone, man.
I don't understand why half the world is still crying, man, when the other half the world is still crying too. I just can't get it together.
I mean, if you gotta care for one day, man. I don't mean, if you, say maybe you wanna care for 365 days, right? You ain't got 365 days. You got it for one day, man. That's all you got.
You gotta call that love, man. That' what it is, man.
If you got it today you don't wear it tomorrow, man. 'Cause you don't need it.
'Cause as a matter of fact, as we discovered on the train, tomorrow never happens, man. It's all the same fucking day, man. "

Janis Joplin, "Ball and Chain Break down"

RED morning...

Just to share with you what usually wakes me up every morning the last couple of months [sometimes it is really the only way to get persuaded to quit my REM dream-country :-) ]...

redfm: click "live"

Deception of Security or Security of Deception?

"Μερικοί χάκερ καταστρέφουν τα αρχεία των άλλων ή ολόκληρους σκληρούς δίσκους. Αυτοί λέγονται συνήθως πειρατές ή βάνδαλοι. Μερικοί αρχάριοι χάκερ δεν κάνουν καν τον κόπο να μάθουν την τεχνολογία. Απλώς κατεβάζουν από το διαδίκτυο πειρατικά («χακεράδικα») εργαλεία που τους επιτρέπουν να εισβάλουν σε ξένα συστήματα. Αυτούς τους λέμε μωρά.
Πιο πεπειραμένοι χάκερ με προγραμματιστικές ικανότητες γράφουν σπαστήρια και τα ανεβάζουν στο δίκτυο, συνήθως σε τόπους κοινής πρόσβασης. Και υπάρχουν και άλλα άτομα που δεν έχουν το παραμικρό ενδιαφέρον για την τεχνολογία, αλλά χρησιμοποιούν το κομπιούτερ μόνο και μόνο σαν εργαλείο για να ιδιοποιηθούν χρήματα, προϊόντα ή υπηρεσίες.
Παρά το μύθο που έχουν δημιουργήσει τα μέσα για τον Κέβιν Μίτνικ, δεν θεωρώ τον εαυτό μου κακόβουλο χάκερ.
Όμως προτρέχω."

Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon. "Η Τέχνη της Απάτης. Ο Ανθρώπινος Παράγοντας στην Ασφάλεια." (Πρόλογος)

"H Τέχνη της Απάτης. Ο ανθρώπινος παράγοντας στην ασφάλεια" (βιβλίο)

"The Art of Deception. Controlling the Human Element of Security" (book)

After having spent 4 hours in front of my pc in order to remove two viruses and restore its "immunization" I was thinking of really bad things that I would like to say to that damn hackers - if only I had a couple of them in front of me! Then suddenly an idea crossed my mind: "everything that locks can be unlocked", so the red line between the hacker and the social (security) mechaniker could be THAT close... For you to decide! [I only give you here some food for thought with that book ;-) ]

"Sunday bloody Sunday"

This Sunday is a SANDday
This Sunday is a Bloody Sunday

There is nothing bad-sad-mad with that
It's only autumn mood of rearranging memories
>old papers and well-kept travel sand<
Bloody because although the red is fading

everything's still vivid

bleeding wine from somebody's tears

Sunday bloody SANDday

"Bring [back] to life"

Two reasons that refer to such a title:

• after half a century... Greece steps in the International Council of Security! [could you ever believe that? As we, the Greeks, are not used in good news, I am even suspicious about that: is it really supposed to be a good thing or some sort of trap? :P ]
• after... 30 years (ehehe) my beloved cousine brought today to the world's light her first baby - which makes me Aunt! Small tiny human being in its swing, sleeping like an angel, unprotected and smooth like the heart of a flower. Primitive feelings of affection - what can be compared with that?

[which is supposed to be more important?!??]

Βυθός

"Πέρασαν μέρες χωρίς να στο πω
το σ' αγαπώ δυο μόνο λέξεις
Αγάπη μου, πώς θα μ' αντέξεις
είμαι παράξενο παιδί σκοτεινό

Πέρασαν μέρες χωρίς να σε δω
κι αν σε πεθύμησα δεν ξέρεις
Κοντά μου πάντα θα υποφέρεις
σου το' χα πει ένα πρωί βροχερό

Θα σβήσω το φως κι όσα δε σου' χω χαρίσει
σ' ένα χάδι θα σου τα δώσω
κι ύστερα πάλι θα σε προδώσω
μες στου μυαλού μου το μαύρο βυθό

Θα κλάψεις ξανά που μόνη θα μείνεις
κι εγώ πιο μόνος κι από σένα
μες σε δωμάτια κλεισμένα
το προσωπό σου θα ονειρευτώ

Γιατί μες στ' όνειρο μόνο ζω "
Αλκίνοος Ιωαννίδης, "Βυθός"

Κι από της μήτρας το βυθό αναδύομαι
με πλήθος αμφίσημες έννοιες
σε στρώματα χρόνου συμπυκνωμένου
- κοχύλι

Διττός κι ο δρόμος της όποιας αλήθειας
από ψηλά χαμηλώνω αιωρούμενη
Αντικατοπτρισμοί στον ουράνιο χάρτη
- αστέρι του βυθού

Αφροδίτη

"Here comes the rain again"

"Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion..."

Raining in Athens this scary night - who dares to say that this is something of no importance? The tiny things are that that make the difference. It's finally raining after four months... Mother Earth ;-) is really thirsty.
But nothing compares to the smell of rain in Berlin -exactly (!) one month ago.
Living in Greece...

Stoned etymology ;-) "Ελευσίς Πέρασμα" (έκθεση Β. Ξένου)

Getting through this week which for personal reasons I call as "week of symbols", I was somehow trapped today in a sort of etymological game which reveals strong connections underneath the surface of apparently irrelevant things...

Today's visit in Eleysina with its special ancient greek myth of goddess Dimitra, its secret routes and revealed archaeological signs made me think that I have not to go that far away as the "Da Vinci Code" book in order to admire the brilliant invisible net of primitive symbols; the magic is just under my feet, only behind the words I use everyday - it's only hidden in ancient greek mythology.

According to the symbolic thought, the world is vividly open, a thing is never only itself, there is one more "reality" which re-forms the inner form. Mythology wants the human being to have its roots in the earth, like a plant. In Theogonia of Isiodos the creation of the woman is a holy action: made by Ifaistos, Pandora (Pan-Doron= Whole[every] - Gift) comes from the earth. Agriculture is the template of union between a man and a woman. It is not by chance that one of the most radicalistic artworks of the 20th century, the "Big Glass" (Marcel Duchamp) has as subtitle "agricultural machine". According to Ploutarhos the idea of love (eros) is firmly connected with the wound (and the pain); god Eros brings arrows exactly like the plough which hurts the insides of Mother Earth.

Up to here, more or less, I would say that I could handle with my surprise-admiration levels. But then greek etymology hits again: according to this very idea, the myth wants the stone as the main "product" of earth to be parallelized with the human being - as its roots belong also to Mother Earth. The thing is that the word stone in ancient greek is λας (las) while the people, the different populations of the world are called even today λαοί (laoi) - plural of λαός (laos)!

Fear of void

Inspiration - expiration. Facing your fears, you beat them; in rememberance of the first time inside a dark water-tube [only one month ago]...
Now it is the fear of leaving for one day this blog empty - at least I am honest and don't cheat ;-)

"Δυστυχώς επτωχεύσαμεν" ;-)

Στατιστικά στοιχεία

Ετήσιο εισόδημα: .......................Tιμή καφέ espresso:

• Ελλάδα 18.000 Euros ..............2 Euros
• Γαλλία 29.000 Euros ...............1,5 Euros
• Γερμανία 27.000 Euros .............1,6 Euros
• Ισπανία 19.000 Euros ...............0,8 Euros

Μήπως παραλογιζόμεθα;

ΥΓ: Η Γαλλία πάντως συμφέρει από κάθε άποψη :Ρ

Autumn still can't get rid of summer habits

Early afternoon. Girl lying on a bench of the National Archaelogical Museum's garden reading a book under the greek sun. You think I play the fool? Nop, just imagine the scene - could be a movie scene. Have you ever thought in your everyday life that some of your simplest movements could be the greatest cinematographic poetry if captured by a lens?

That' s it... I decided to read more often outside and not in a well-saturized, clean, still room.

By the way, book in progress: that "Da Vinci Code" thing which everyone has read this summer, more by curiosity - 'cause one has to experience whatever by himself in order to have the right to express an opinion about it - and less by real interest :P !

"Bad education" ;-)

Σύγχρονη εφαρμογή κράτους προνοίας - για Έλληνες
Κοινωνικές παροχές συστήματος δημόσιας δωρεάν ανώτατης εκπαίδευσης

Τέσσερα χρόνια κράτησαν οι εργασίες για τη δημιουργία φοιτητικού εστιατορίου στο κάτω σύμπλεγμα του Εθνικού Μετσοβίου Πολυτεχνείου, επί της Πατησίων, για την εξυπηρέτηση των φοιτητών της Αρχιτεκτονικής Σχολής, η οποία και δε συστεγάζεται με τις άλλες πολυτεχνικές σχολές στην Πολυτεχνειούπολη Ζωγράφου αλλά αποτελείται τη μόνη ενεργή Σχολή στο ιστορικό σύμπλεγμα του Ιδρύματος. Επιτέλους τον περασμένο Μάιο οι εργασίες οληκληρώθηκαν και το εστιατόριο δόθηκε στους φοιτητές για μια περίοδο "δοκιμαστικής λειτουργίας" κατά τους μήνες Ιούνιο - Ιούλιο.

Νέα ακαδημαϊκή περίοδος τώρα και έξω από τη γραμματεία της Σχολής διαβάζει κανείς την εξής ανακοίνωση:

Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο
Τμήμα Αρχιτεκτόνων Μηχανικών
τηλ...
ηλεκτρονική διεύθυνση...

Προς τους σπουδαστές

ΠΡΟΚΕΙΜΕΝΟΥ ΝΑ ΑΝΟΙΞΕΙ ΤΟ ΕΣΤΙΑΤΟΡΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΣΧΟΛΗΣ ΠΡΕΠΕΙ ΟΙ ΣΠΟΥΔΑΣΤΕΣ ΝΑ ΠΡΟΜΗΘΕΥΤΟΥΝ ΚΑΡΤΑ ΣΙΤΙΣΗΣ ΑΠΟ ΤΗ ΦΟΙΤΗΤΙΚΗ ΜΕΡΙΜΝΑ.

Ο πρόεδρος της Σχολής

Σχόλιο φοιτητή (γραμμένο με το χέρι πάνω στην τυπωμένη ανακοίνωση) 1 : Ευχαριστούμε για την ανακοίνωση αδιαφορίας!
Σχόλιο φοιτητή 2 : Και γράψτε σωστά τουλάχιστον το email να σας τα λέμε και ηλεκτρονικά!
Σχόλιο φοιτητή 3 : Στις πόσες κάρτες ανοίγει δηλαδή;

Αυτό θα πει διαδραστικό blogging._

"Just a perfect day"...

Just a perfect day
Drink sangria in the park
And then later, when it gets dark, we'll go home
Just a perfect day
[...]
Then later a movie too, and then home

[...]

Just a perfect day
You make me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
Someone good

[Chorus]
You're going to reap just what you sow

Lou Reed

- - -

I could be Lou Reed in Athens today - i was feeling like a traveller in my own city, paying attention to the others' faces, paying attention to the sky and the wind and the pavement, appreciating life. Autumn is earning one step each day against summer and i' m very willing to dive in its own magic; time for schedule-planning, time for digesting summer experiences (and re-digesting past regrets), time for sharing deep thoughts with close friends . Last but not least, time for ourselves - we have to set our goals now and to sow for that we reap during [hearts-out] next summertime...

Daytime in Athens played magic today with its cafes and art-bookshops, its students wandering lazily around University's classrooms. I was just thinking words of Shelley:

.

Another Athens shall arise

and to remoter time

bequeth, like sunset to the skies

the splendour of its prime;

and leave, if nought so bright may live,

all earth can take or heaven can give.

Byssche Perche Shelley, "Hellas"

.

And then a glass of wine after shopping in the center and then later, when it gets dark, we go home - my thoughts and I. Just a perfect day and then a movie too: "Bad education" of Almodovar; punch on the stomach but it is just to keeps you alerted - eyes open, mind in movement, heart beating.

.

And then home... After all it's a matter of breathing - a matter of technique ;-)

.

Day-template (and not easily repeated)

First unsteady steps ... baby learns walking!

"Either write something that is worth it
or do something that is worth to be written" Franklin Roosevelt

In any case, even if none of the two works, it's good to have in mind these words as a goal. So just let the music play here and we' ll see what we can do together - because this is supposed to be an open-minded, liberal meeting place which needs your comments; so feel free to write whatever!

Oh, and because there is no rule board here, this is supposed to be a semi-greek, semi-international affair. So i' ll write in both languages (it depends on whom i want to read what each time - completely liberal ideas, as you see :P ). Anyway you can try a google translation...