Shh... Shh... The goose understands

The case of a weak chorus

2009-07-09T00:54:00.007+03:00

In stark contrast to the strong chorus example comes, from the same artist though several years later, a surprisingly weak (but catchy) one. The conclusion is obvious: People might have to change in order to remain relevant.

Tonight you may date all the sluts in the world.
Go on, go strong, for new romances.
Go ahead and find proper girls, to make mama happy.
At the stake... at the stake... burn with the dull ones.

Wait for it, or seek it at 0:45, 1:35 or 2:20.

Anna Vissi - Stin Pira

The case of a strong chorus

2009-07-02T01:15:00.009+03:00

I wanted to tell you so much, yell at you that I love you.
If only I could change a life in an instant.
I wrote "I love you" on the window,
and when I saw you shed a tear, I cried a river.
Cause, my heart, you were late...

Wait for it, or seek it at 1:54 or 3:48

Anna Vissi - Treno

Full Circle

2009-06-18T18:22:00.013+03:00

Flashback: Fall of 2004 (5 years ago).
A bunch of friends from UW and I are doing an internship in Mountain View, California. We take the opportunity to visit nearby Stanford whose campus we had heard great words for. The campus was indeed beautiful. Part of our sightseeing included the campus's cactus garden. One cactus was particularly interesting: It curiously grew sideways, almost crawling throughout its life, until it found an obstacle, a rock, and only then did it become a normal standing cactus (the tallest one, too).
Fast Forward: Fall of 2008 (less than a year ago)
I am now a student at Stanford and some friends are visiting California. I take them to the cactus garden and we accidentally stumble upon the curious cactus. It seems the cactus has fallen and looks almost dead. Perhaps the rock was not a big enough obstacle to sustain its growth. Perhaps it was just too old and it was time for it to and provide "space for growth" for the normal cacti which have now grown quite tall.
It could be a sad story to some, but to me it looks more like a celebration of life in its full form: Good and Bad.

Second in The World

2008-06-27T22:12:00.007+03:00

Sotiris and I took part in a beach volleyball tournament at the end of last May (2008). The tournament took place in a complex called "Mediterranean Κόσμος" which translates to "Mediterranean World" but its common name, the one everyone refers to it as, is simply "The World".

The tournament lasted two days, had 16 teams and was played in a double-elimination setting. On Saturday we won our first game by default and lost the second one. Our performance was quite bad. Sunday was a very different story: The stakes were high as we had to win all games in order to get to the final. And so we did. But the highlight was the final itself...

We played against two very good players, Akritidis and Naziris, both of whom have consistently won medals in Greece's North Cup in the past. One of them however had not trained during the year, due to army obligations. Both Sotiris and I put forward our best selves and probably played the best beach volleyball of our lives against the excellent opponents. The first set was very tight for its entire duration and ended with a slim 2 point difference in their favor although we were leading the score for most of the game. We lost the second set with a higher difference (close to 5 points) which was indeed quite expected both due to the quality of opponents but also because the body was weak, even though the spirit was willing (we had already played 9 sets before that). And just like that, we became second in the world!

Le me elaborate on the pun:
Greek, being a highly inflected language and quite strict with its syntax, would not allow us to play with words like that and mislead the public on our achievement. In Greek, we are forced to say "Δεύτεροι στο Κόσμος" [Deuteroi sto Kosmos] as opposed to "Δέυτεροι στον κόσμο" [Deuteroi ston kosmo] but in this case I choose English and say, with great pride, "Second in the world".

Here we are, Sotiris and I, second in the world...

Paris Reloaded (aka 2008)

2008-06-04T23:02:00.011+03:00

Yet another G-Unit reunion took place in Paris on May.
Our mission was simple: Get 5th place in the volleyball tournament, a long-standing hope ever since last year's trip. We failed...
What we didn't win in the tournament's placement though, we won in fun, new friends and hope that we will keep on improving and that in 3 year's time we'll get first place: See, we got 6th this year and we want to believe in math, patterns and their inevitable consequences.
Karim, that means you need to practice thrice per week, every week of the year, and not just one.
:p

In retrospect I do think we all played well, but the truth of the matter is placement is not important as long as we have fun galore. And that we did.Following the long standing Inside-Joke-Quotes Paris tradition I present some below:

Annoying Conversation in the Train-Tram-Metro, you name it.

And then she was like... blah blah blah
And I was like...
And then she was like so whatever...
Like... like...

We'll do this the engineering way: Proof by Example.

I think we should have blocked that guy's line.
Yeah? You think? Give me an Example...

Karim's funny bitchy moments.
- Eddie: Sorry guys, my fault...
- Karim: We know...
- All: [delirious laughs]
- ... time passes, several plays take place ...
- Gus: Nice dig Karim!
- Karim: I know...
- All: [delirious laughs]
Enough said.
- Bonjour...
- I'll bon your jour!
- Koutchi, Koutchi...
- Koutchi, Koutchi, kou...
- In face of you, the palece of ...
French 101.

Allo, qui est a l' apareill?
C'est moi Filippe, et toi?
C'est moi Corrine.
Comment ca va?
Ca va bien et toi?
Tres bien.

And one of the trip's funny highlights which I couldn't have described better myself, so I'll use Dan's narration.

Gus, god bless his innocent friendliness. Upon arriving to Paris a day early, he sees an Italian volleyball team that he recognizes from last year. He approaches to say hi. The Italians have no clue who he is. He lifts his shades. Still nothing. He smiles, shrugs, and walks away - ego bruised. This becomes the weekend's best joke.

A true believer

2008-04-22T17:22:00.009+02:00

G-Unit rules!
They put the 'team' in volleyball's 'team sport' qualification.
Playing with them reminds me what Volleyball is all about. Although they haven't coined the term "let's just help each other" they are the embodiment of its meaning.

We had two excellent tournaments in Canada and managed to get 3rd out of 36 in the first and 2nd out of 21 in the second. During the tourneys I was once again reminded that team play is all that really matters, and ever since I am a true believer!

Here I present to you, G-Unit, around the time when I first met them.

And since this blog is becoming ever more media inclined, what better thing to do than to share a song capable of conveying some of the feelings G-Unit induces.

Dragonette - True Believer

On GASS Conventions

2008-04-15T01:43:00.008+02:00

It's been occupying everyone's mind lately, that much is obvious. Fans across the world have been anticipating this convention for a while now. I am of course referring to the latest GASS convention which, with only its third occurrence, has swept the world by surprise and has everyone asking for more. In this post I shall try, to give to you the history and significance of this recurring event.

The GASS conventions were established as a means for four University of Waterloo (UW) alumni to meet annually. Gus, Albert, Steve and Sinan all completed their studies at UW (three Computer Scientists and one Actuary) and subsequently parted ways to split all over the globe. Two remained in Toronto, ON while the other two headed to two different parts of the US. It wasn't until the first GASS convention that the four of them met again.

The first GASS convention took place in Montreal, QC in the Summer of 2006. Its importance was immediately apparent and a pact to guarantee its recurrence was established.

The second GASS convention took place in Niagara Falls, ON in the Spring of 2007. One of the four founding members (Gus) was quite far away at the time (Greece) and consequently was unable to attend. Petitions raged on whether there should be a renaming of the convention but, as any astute reader can notice, the proposal would have raised many eyebrows and was quickly dropped. The name would remain the same with the prospect of the missing member return at a future convention.

The third GASS convention took place in Washington, DC in the Spring of 2008. All members were once again present and able to witness the cherry trees, a gift from Japan to the US, blossom.

The archives and proceedings of the convention are not easy to be found. But after thorough scrutiny of the press I was able to unearth a picture from their latest convention, which I am posting here to prevent it from getting lost forever.

It does conspire, but humorously so

2008-03-09T21:46:00.008+02:00

"When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
- Paulo Coelho

I had heard the above mentioned quote in the past and even then thought it sounded really good. Very optimistic and positive. I will now tell you a story that reinforces Paulo's belief, but with a twist. The story goes like so:

Once upon a time there was a volleyball player named Gus. Like most volleyball players he trained regularly and occasionally watched professional games. During one of the professional games, when PAOK wasn't doing too well, Gus heard one of the players say 'Come on guys, let's just help each other'. The words felt profound. You would expect everyone in a team sport to 'just help each other' but there are times when it doesn't happen. Gus felt inspired by the player's words and thought he ought to get a picture or autograph.
Weeks passed and due to work or other commitments Gus couldn't go to watch PAOK. Things changed though, a couple of days ago. Gus went to PAOK's arena and hoped that by the end of the game, he would find a way to enter the main Gym and ask for a picture. To his great surprise, Grigoris, his team's physiotherapist was in the main Gym. Grigoris used to work for another team, ARIS, but had switched teams a couple of weeks back. Gus and Grigoris spoke and everything was arranged: Gus would go in the gym at the end of the game and get his picture. The game hadn't started yet and Gus saw a lady that he had seen in the past. The lady spoke English and French and seemed to know the players. Gus thought: awesome, the lady might actually help in the pic. So they talked and she offered to help with the picture. Awesome!
The game that followed was a very good one. PAOK ended up winning 3-1 while offering a great show. At the end of the game the girl started talking to the Canadian players and nodded to Gus, who went there. The girl took the picture, Gus thanked her and the players and left thinking how lucky he was that the universe had conspired to help him achieve his goal.
Gus then went down town to meet up with Harris. He found parking space very easily and thought 'Wow, things are only getting better today'. He parks and is about to leave the car when he realizes his wallet is missing. He searches the car, but nothing. The wallet was gone... nowhere to be found. The universe's services are kind of expensive he thought as it did conspire but at a cost.
Harris arrived at the parking lot and after searching some more, both of them decided it was a good idea to head back to the Gym and look there. So they went, arrived at the Gym's parking lot and started searching. Nothing. They went in the Gym which was still open. The Gym's guard turned on some lights, Gus went to his seat and started searching under it. Nothing. He then searched behind it, and there it was! The full wallet with nothing missing! AmaZING!

It does conspire, but humorously so!

As for the picture, appearing from left to right:
Alex Gaumont Casias, Gus the Goose, Louis-Pierre Mainville

Merry Christmas... Beach Volleyball

2007-12-25T17:37:00.000+02:00

Merry Christmas to all of us!
Most of us associate Christmas with snow and Winter while some of us associate it with sun and Summer. I associate it with snow. It did actually snow here but it was a few days ago and I didn't get the chance to take any pictures. Instead, I've had some time to digitize and upload 3 Beach Volleyball videos of this past summer.

Gus - Odisseas

Haris - Lefteris

Giannis - Odisseas

3500 Linuxes... or maybe Linii? Yes, Linii!

2007-11-14T23:09:00.000+02:00

A nation-wide election took place in Greece this past Sunday (2007 November 11). Its purpose was to elect PASOK's new leader. For the politically inclined, details can be found here.

What's interesting from a technology perspective is that Linux (Xubuntu 7.10) was chosen as the OS for the computers used for the election.

Computron is proud for having prepared, distributed and having installed Linux on 3500 computers, of which 100 laptops, to facilitate the election process throughout Greece. More details here.

Victims of Peace

2007-10-27T23:00:00.000+02:00

In my pre-blog era I had read a book ('Victims of Peace' by Vassilis Vassilikos) and wrote an admittedly tiny review of it that was then emailed to several friends. Recently seeing the book on the shelve reminded me of the review and thought it fits well in this blog especially under recent circumstances of non-updatedness.

In a blatant attempt at Self-Plagiarism:

I've read a (greek) book whose title loosely translates into "Victims of Peace".
Overall it's pretty good. Me loves the writing style. Kind of cryptic. It's one of those almost self-referencing things (see "This statement is false") but in a completely story-telling novel way. Doesn't make sense? Sorry, can't express it...
Maybe this will help: In the story, one of the characters is an author who writes the book "Victims of Peace" about his friends. Half the book is mainly an introduction of the characters and the other half puts them together with a common goal. So the question is, which book was i talking about??? The real or the book in the plot. Both.... Along the same lines there's more stuff, on how the book is written: The author of the "real" book dictates the fate of the heroes (cause he writes it). But at the same time, the heroes in the book talk about how the hero author dictates their lives with his book story... weird... but fun.
Also, it so happens that the hero author's girlfriend is named Eirini which means "Peace". Was he a victim of his Love? Is that why he chose the title. no. doesn't seem so. but still a twist. funny.
Overall a good read.

All about us

2007-09-21T00:06:00.000+02:00

The TATU girls have done it again. It so happens that their songs are extremely catchy: They will get stuck in your head and just stay there, refusing to go away until you are completely fed up with them.
You doubt me??? Wrong move...
All the things she said
Not gonna get us
There... now have them stay in your head for a while!

I recently heard a relatively new song of theirs, All about us.
I can now claim, with a fair amount of confidence, to know why their songs are so catchy. I've found exactly what they have in common. Being the cryptic that some of you want me to be, I won't give the answer right out. I will instead let you watch a clip of the new song and then give out some more clues.

The song:

The clues:

All the things she said, all the things she said, running through my head, running through my head, running through my head...
They are not gonna get us, they are not gonna get us, they are not gonna get us, not gonna get us, not gonna get us...
It's all about us, it's all about us, it's all about us, it's all about us...

Secret recipe revealed:
([:phrase:][:phrase:]+)+

Go back and face your deepest fear

2007-09-20T00:11:00.000+02:00

We have been naughty lately...
A couple of us are attempting to relieve the thrills of life, the kind one gets by experiencing intense emotions from the past. We opted to begin with fear.

The plan went like so:
We must do something that we used to do in the past. Something that "didn't kill us and so made us stronger." We will visit a deserted house, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, at 3 am. We will explore the place, ignoring the presence of wild, barking dogs. We won't hesitate to go inside the house, even if it's dark and creepy. We will avoid using flashlights. We will be prepared for anything, even though we most probably should be prepared for 'nothing at all'.

And so it was... Mission accomplished! Is there a next, and if so what?

Mini-trip to England

2007-08-01T00:56:00.000+03:00

I met up with a few ex-UWaterloo students in England a few days ago. Jennifer and Kevin actually work there. John flew over from Sweden and I from Greece.

We visited Stonehenge for 2 days and the remaining 2 we stayed in London.
Jennifer and Kevin were very good hosts, taking us to all must-see places and giving us very good historical information for each. We had our private guides to all museums. Kevin had tons of info on the Egyptian culture as well as the English dynasties. The stories were very entertaining.

London was rather expensive, but overall the trip was totally worth it!

Below Kevin is taking a picture of the rest of us.

Island Hopping 2007

2007-07-30T16:34:00.000+03:00

Francis visited Greece this summer and we together embarked on an island hopping trip to several Greek isles. Our trip lasted close to 10 days and included stays on non-islands.

We first visited Possidi, a rather large camping in Halkidiki occupied mainly by University students. Thousands of them. Our main activities included swimming, sun-tanning, beach volleyball and some partying. Francis and I took part in a beach volleyball tournament, but actually lost in the first game. We had rather good opponents and didn't play our best either. The game was close but we both think we could have actually won... Me losing a serve near the end didn't help either, and would under other circumstances have invoked an at-least-a-troisième dumb bitch cheer.

Following our devastating defeat, we left for Athens via train. The plan was to take a ferry from there to Mykonos early in the morning, but luck would have other plans for us, as we lost the ferry. We had to wait till the afternoon to eventually arrive to the island. I liked the island and its windy weather. It was quite crowded, with Italians holding the majority in the population pie. We visited beaches, but overall our trip was not very eventful, perhaps cause we only stayed there for a day and a half.
Naxos was our next stop. A pleasant surprise awaited us: A beach volleyball court at the beach next to our hotel. A chance for redemption! We ceased the moment and immediately challenged any player in the vicinity. The challenge was a success. We effectively decimated every team willing to stand in our way. Go G-Unit Mini!
The second day in the island involved climbing a mountain to eventually reach the Cave of Zeus. The cave was rather large, dark and kind of scary, especially when the bats living there felled threatened by our presence and started making noises, presumably to scare us of.
Santorini was next. I will make the bold statement of saying that it is the most beautiful place I've seen in the world. The natural beauty coupled with breath-taking cliff views are simply phenomenal. I doubt any picture can actually convey the reality. Do visit this island if you ever have the chance!
Our stay in the island ended with some mad dancing. Go G-Unit Mini, once more!

Francis continued his trip to Crete and I returned to my hometown, Thessaloniki.
Overall a very enjoyable summer excursion!

That summer song

2007-06-25T11:29:00.000+03:00

Here's the tune that will be considered my summer song this year.
As most good things in life, it's a mix. Kind of rock, kind of pop, kind of its own genre.
Prove me wrong, listen to it and judge.

The song is in Greek, but here's the translated chorus.

Hide, lest I find you and love you
lest I touch the things you feel
lest I bend your confidence
and erase the things we've lived
I'll erase them

Ράλλια Χριστίδου - Κρύψου (Rallia Hristidou - Hide)

On Farewell

2007-06-02T23:45:00.000+03:00

We are social creatures. We most of the time enjoy the company of others, and when not enjoying others' company we still remain social, in engaging with ourselves.
I understand the argument is kind of circular and as such the phrase a tautology, but I believe it to be true based on my experience, so to me it's closer to an axiom.

So what happens when we are forced to walk against our nature? It's time for a farewell.
It could be to a family member, a dear friend, a favorite team, an unrequited love or even crush, a person we exchanged lots of smiles in a small amount of time, a perfect stranger at the airport with whom we shared one too many gazes, or ourselves when it's time to leave our-world. The farewell is almost always bitter-sweet, and sometimes addictive.
The recent trip to Paris lent itself to most kinds of farewell to me.

In my search for a video clip able to convey the complicated parting emotions, I settled with an amalgamation of scenes from Jean Grey's Phoenix Saga (X-Men Animated Series). In the video, one can find two spoken farewells, as well as an implied one, which I will leave as an exercise to the astute viewer to discover. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then the following video should be worth close to 12,905,000 words.

Farewell!

Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell. [Emily Dickinson]

Paris, the highlights

2007-06-01T11:41:00.000+03:00

For this once, I am not referring to miss Hilton's hair.
Instead, I'm referring to the Paris vacation which is now nearing its completion....

Our team managed to finish 8th out of 10 in the tournament's A league.
We could have done better, but our performance on Saturday was way below what it should have been. Sunday however, was a different story! A feisty G-Unit put forward a recital performance against the then 2nd team (who would eventually finish 4th), and we scored an important victory with two winning sets, 20-13 and 20-09. You can see the happiness reflected in our faces below.

The New Inside-Joke quotes

Oh come on, people are dying back here!
Just buy shorter shorts...
- Dan, Dan, Dan, Danny, Danny, Daniel, Daniel wake up! - Whaaaat?!?!?! - G-Unit needs you.
That's not classy...
Bravo!!! [frantic clapping ensues]
When I was in Jamaica...
Do you like Bob Marley?
Pita Bread!!!
Fifth... [delirious laughs ensue]
Dear diary...
We ought to talk!
- Mercy! - Beacoup, Beacoup!
Bagel. Oh god, I keep getting this picture in my head...
What's a guy gotta do around here to get a gommage?

The Cheers

Ace, Martina! M.A.R.T.I.N.A. ACE! Ooohh!
Dumb bitch [clap, clap, clap], Dumb bitch [clap, clap, clap].
- Au sigming! - Ping!
Allons, energy!!! ooooOOOOOHHH
Barbie, Jouie! Hi hi hi hi hi.

The Classics

- Didn't your mama teach you how to show affection? - Well, she did, she tried, it didn't work...
Talk, talk, talk... Just too much.

Spielberg, eat our dust!

2007-05-09T11:49:00.000+03:00

I present to you a recently unearthed film by Goun Productions.

Short, unfinished, not properly edited and as such quite funny. Every director's dream!

Αόρατη Απειλή [Aorati Apili] (Invisible Threat)

The Big Three

2007-05-04T15:07:00.000+03:00

The videotape searching spree has been fairly fruitful.
Below I present the Big Three. I am most certainly not referring to C++'s law concerning the copy constructor, assignment operator and destructor. Instead, the Big Three represent three spoof video clips we created a couple of years ago. Without further ado...

Spoof 1: Oops I did it again [Britney Spears]

Spoof 2: Killing in the name of [Rage against the machine]

Spoof 3: Freedom [Rage against the machine]

Panathlitikos Victorious

2007-04-24T15:16:00.000+02:00

My Volleyball team, Panathlitikos, managed to finish first in E.P.E.S.T.H's B Regional league.
Checkout the official results, the team's roster and a parody.

Chocorello

2007-03-27T00:46:00.000+02:00

Every now and then comes an amaZING commercial.
Sometimes it's funny.
Sometimes it's witty.
Sometimes it's sophisticated.
And sometimes it's something else, but always amaZING!

That's the case for the Chocorello ad by Dodoni.
The ad is of the "then" (~ 8 years ago) and "funny" varieties.

I immediately loved it, and a couple of years ago was able to find a video file of it. However when recently trying to view the file it either appeared corrupted or I was lacking the proper codec. Heck, even the amazing VLC wasn't able to play it. Uploading it to Google Video a couple of months ago didn't help either. Its status was 'Failed'. Finding the video online was now impossible. Too many years had passed, it seemed.

To my great surprise, after accidentally updating its meta data on Google Video two days ago (because i was playing with other recently uploaded video files), the file went 'Live'. I can only guess that Google augmented its list of supported formats and my modifications of its meta data triggered a re-evaluation.

Enjoy the video and by all means make your opinion heard: Please, rate Chocorello!!!

Celibacy, Truth and Video Files

2007-03-25T20:00:00.000+02:00

As promised, I've uploaded one of the movies we've created.
The movie has no subtitles yet (English or otherwise) and as such non Greek-speakers will not be able to enjoy it just yet.
For the greek-speakers, enjoy responsibly:

Το κουτί του Θεού [To kouti tou Theou] (God's box)

300's Historical Elements

2007-03-18T14:14:00.000+02:00

'Η ταν ή επί τας. [I tan i epi tas]. (Either with this or on it).
The words a Spartan woman would utter to her child when it left for battle. The words refer to the child's shield and a good translation would be "Either come back with the shield, or (dead) on it".

Μολών Λαβέ! [Molon labe]. (Come and take them).
A very elaborate explanation exists in the linked wikipedia article. I can only add that this is a phrase that carries lots of pride.

Οι Αθάνατοι. [I Athanatoi]. (The Immortals).
A bunch of Xerxes' soldiers, that were truly immortal, no joke. They were immortal in a collective sense, not individually.
Each time an "Immortal" soldier died in battle, another one was immediately sent in it, keeping their total number constant.

Ἐφιάλτης. [Ephialtis]. (Ephialtis).
The traitor who showed the Persians a way around the Greek's defenses (effectively surrounding and decimating them).
The treachery was so deeply engraved as a wound in our spirit that the word "Ephialtes", once simply a name, since then literally means "nightmare".

Ω ξείν, αγγέλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις, ότι τήδε κείμεθα, τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι. [O ksein aggelein Lakedemoniois, oti tide keimetha, tois keinon rimasi peithomenoi]. (Stranger, go tell the Spartans that here we lie, obedient to their laws.)
The Simonidean epigram. Very moving.
I believe the "laws" refer to protection of freedom and no retreat, but I am not certain.

For more historical elements of 300, check out a very good article: 300 and History.

My secret fantasy, revealed...

2007-03-09T02:02:00.000+02:00

Ok, with a juicy title like that, I ought to get your attention...

Here is a fantasy i've had for a while now:
I'd like to participate in a volleyball tournament where three criteria are met.

There exists a team named "Versus".
There exists a team named "Referred by".
There exists a spokesman announcing the matches.

Some Team vs Versus refereed by Referred by.

Obligatory...

2007-03-04T21:33:00.000+02:00

- I've acquired a TV-Tuner card...
- "Yeah, but does it run Linux?"
- Well, it doesn't run linux, but testing so far indicates it works fine under Linux.
- "But what does that meeeeaaan?"
- In itself, admittedly not much... However, we've also unearthed one of the promised videotapes (the ones containing movies we created during highschool).

The videotape was inspired by The Blair Witch Project.
My plan is to digitize the videotape, add English subtitles and make it available on YouTube/Google video.
You 'll know more details about the movie when it's publicly available...

The Carnival and The Capoeiras

2007-02-21T01:20:00.000+02:00

A bunch of us visited Ξάνθη (Ksanthi) for the carnival.
The carnival took place during this past long weekend. It was a cool excursion. An event attended mainly by youths. Lots of craziness going on.

The highlights of the trip?
Witnessing stoned Patricks......befuddled Happy Hippos,

and something more... The Capoeiras.
A wonderfully sober bunch performing something bordering martial arts and dancing.

manamanah: Original vs Spoof

2007-01-26T20:59:00.000+02:00

Most of us are probably familiar with the Muppet Show.
Some of us grew up watching it.
Few of us actually know the significance of the manamanah song.
A handful of us have had the privilege to watch both the original clip of the song as well as a very funny spoof of it... up until now!

A little bird has informed me that the spoof is now available on Google Video. I'm proud to present both the original and the spoof for your enjoyment. Please vote as to which is the funniest.

As always, patience is well rewarded... Wait till the end of both videos!

The Original:

The Spoof:

P.S. The availability of this video on the net has triggered my desire to find movies that we've filmed with friends back in the old days. Some of the video-tapes have been lost, others await to be found. Hopefully by Easter some of the long-lost videos will have been unearthed and subsequently posted online.

Panathlitikos News

2007-01-26T20:23:00.000+02:00

We won 3-0 against Bergina.
The game was relatively easy.

I understand that my blog is becoming kind of monotonous, being dominated by Panathlitikos posts. As such I've decided to create a blog dedicated to Panathlitikos.
That way the goose that understands will remain more personal and less collective.
From now on, expect to find team news at the Panathlitikos Blog.

Panathlitikos News

2007-01-19T15:42:00.000+02:00

Panathlitikos won again.
It was a solid 3-0 without any big surprises. This time the match was not a derby although we were playing against Eukarpia, a team that up until yesterday held first place in our league.
The win bumped us into first place and we will definitely fight to stay there.

Merry Christmas and a real treat

2006-12-25T12:36:00.000+02:00

The benefit of living in a timezone that's ahead of someone else's: You get to wish them happy holidays first.

Merry Christmas to all souls reading this blog.
And to the subset who are also volleyball lovers, enjoy some volleyball but with a twist.

Panathlitikos News

2006-12-22T02:09:00.000+02:00

I know you've all been waiting to hear news about what could be considered as the most important game in our league.
Wait no more. My Christmas gift to you arrived slightly early. So please enjoy, but do so responsibly. The last thing I want is crazed groupies posting comments non-stop.

The match with Polygiros was a true derby!
It was a war!
It was the culmination of months of training.

We lost the first set. Our game was sloppy and our defense on the serve was U.G.L.Y. No alibi...

We won the second set.
Lost the third set.
Won the fourth set.
Cliffhanger...

Cliffhanger still...

Y.A.C.F ...

We won the fifth and final set.
Kudos to the team, we were losing 4-9 in this last set and then came back to win 15-13.

It was a good 3-2 match...
We made lots of mistakes, were stricken by several injuries, but we delivered.

Why all the rant for a game? How can it be so important, you ask?
Our win sort of guaranteed at least second place in the B Regional league. The best two teams advance to the next level. So next year we should be playing in the best regional league, A Regional.
Above that, there's B National, A2 National, A1 National. The A Nationals consist entirely of professionals and indeed they are quite far away. Even B National is very tough to get into.

We are now aiming for first place in B Regional. It will be tough, but it's possible.

Disclaimer:
Polygiros has nothing to do with gyro, the food.
In case you were wondering, it's a place, a small city to be more precise...

Panathlitikos News

2006-12-15T14:04:00.000+02:00

Panthlitikos won 3-0.
The opponents were not very good. I believe their team was formed this year and it kind of showed. I'm sure they'll present a better face next season.

After the match we all went for food as the game marked the end of the first round.

The second round begins next week, and we are playing a good team. It's the only team we've lost to so far... It was the game where we were winning 0-2 and then lost 3-2.
This time we have the home-advantage. Also, continous training has brought our players very close. We've each learned our roles much better and we work together now.
The only downside: A few recent injuries have fallen upon our middles. Can we pull this off without them?

Stay tuned for next week's results...

Panathlitikos Wins Once More

2006-12-07T00:47:00.000+02:00

Panathlitkos won again, this time against Nestor.
We lost the first set and then came back to win 3-1.
Our first set was very sloppy and that explains the loss.
I didn't get to play this time.

Panathltikos' win comes with some extra good news. Our championship has officially been extended. There were supposed to be 2 rounds of 6 matches, but now there will be 3.
More volleyball, now that's what I'm talking about!

What say you?

2006-12-06T12:32:00.001+02:00

Would cars have two headlights if we didn't have two eyes?

Let's Celebrate

2006-12-06T12:22:00.000+02:00

A celebration is in order!
The PostgreSQL community has released a new version (8.2) of their amazing DBMS.
A press release describing the new features can be found here.
Bravo to the world's most advanced open source database (and in my opinion the world's most advanced database, period).

Lego Boy

2006-12-01T14:14:00.000+02:00

Yesterday marked yet another win for Panathlitikos. We got a solid 3-0 with all sets finishing near the 25-15 range.

I couldn't play cause of some weird small pain in my knee. The pain surfaced two days ago but it's slowly going away.

I certainly hope my rate of injuries (Injuries/Month) decreases, lest I get assigned the nigh-hilarious nickname "Lego Boy".

Top Ten Girl Geeks

2006-11-23T11:53:00.000+02:00

Of particular importance is number 10 on the list.
Who would have thought that others agree with me?

Go Panathlitikos!

2006-11-23T00:53:00.000+02:00

With the risk of sounding boring, congrads to our volleyball team.
We won 3-0. Detailed scores: 25-05, 25-15, 26-24.
Yeah, it's kind of a downhill, but hey, we won (we were actually losing 15-19 in the third set, but came back with a vengeance).
The win should bump us into second position.

Panathlitikos' First Win and a Gigolo?

2006-11-17T01:27:00.000+02:00

Today marks our first win in the volleyball championship.
We beat what was considered the best team. The match was kind of a derby. We won the first set, lost the next two and then came back to win 3-2. We are dangerous!

And cause i'm feeling amaZING now, check out this catchy song i like a lot.
A third of a song is in greek and the next two thirds are in english, so be patient.
Gigolo by Helena Paparizou.

Paris, you go girl!

2006-11-15T09:50:00.000+02:00

That Paris girl never ceases to amaze me. She is truly exceptional, and I mean it!
After breaking up with Paris Latsis (rich greek shipping heir), she goes with Stavros Niarchos (richer greek shipping heir) and then some guy whose name i don't know (poor greek magician?).
But this isn't big news, and certainly not post-worthy in itself. When coupled with the following though, things change...
Paris has expressed interest in becoming a space tourist!
I concur, you go girl!

First Championship Game

2006-11-07T11:13:00.000+02:00

Our first official championship game was lost 3-2.
It's a shame, cause we were winning 0-2 and then, for some odd reason, simply lost.
Unfortunately, there is no video for the game.

Even though we lost, we are currently in 3rd place out of 7, because other teams were punished for not following the league's rules.
Official Standings
(Look for Παναθλητικός Συκεών)

Long overdue

2006-11-07T10:21:00.000+02:00

The following video is long overdue.
It should have been live for more than a month but I had experienced problems with the Google Video uploader. All problems are now solved.

The video depicts our (PSFS') first volleyball game for the year. The game was against MENT and we lost 3-1. But the game was a 'friendly' game, in the sense that it doesn't count if you lose...

Enjoy.

I'm bringing balance back...

2006-10-19T09:19:00.000+02:00

Recent events included a right ankle injury, similar to the left one in the near past, but not as intense. The injury has started subsiding.
Got to thank the wonders of physiotherapy for that.

My jump though has been halved and I'm trying to double it, only to bring it where it was. Seems like the dream of high jump is now quite far away, but it's a dream and one's got to live it.
On the positive site, the once semi-dormant left leg will have to deliver, becoming the strong one once more, bringing the missing balance back to the known universe.

Google buys YouTube

2006-10-10T10:31:00.000+02:00

The rumours are true!

Progress Report

2006-09-14T00:34:00.000+03:00

Here are further details on my volleyball career.

The Team: P.S.F.S. Loosely translating to "(Panathletic Syndication of Fans) of Sikies". And yes, bracketing is importat to convey proper ownership of 'of' in English.

My Position: Power. My bet had been that I would play Weak, but the coach thought otherwise. I of course obliged.

The Progress: Rigorous training has had unprecedented results. You be the judge:

Something not right? Of course!
The guy in the pictures is not me...
But, I hope to have 3/4 of his jump some day.

Stoppable force meets unmovable object

2006-09-03T20:51:00.000+03:00

Back to basics

2006-08-20T19:49:00.000+03:00

It's been more than a week since arriving back home.
I've been en-climatized again and I am now back to basics, inventing and misspelling words.

The future looks kind of mixed.

The bad: More than half of my friends are either going to the army or going abroad (to avoid the army?) for grad-studies. My timing of return is quite frankly ill-chosen.

The good: The open swimming pool near my home is nearing its completion. It's a marvelous Olympic-sized pool. I'll make it a habit to go there. Nick, next time we race I'll tear you into pieces. But more importantly: I spoke with a volleyball coach and it seems he will accept me in his team. It's a team that trains regularly and it's kind of 5-days-training-a-week-serious, so my volleyball skills might just go up after all. G-Unit and Trombones this is for you as much as it is for me.
We start practicing on Monday. It will be more fitness practice for the first couple of days and then we'll go in an actual court sometime in the next weekend.

To Volleyball!

Memories

2006-08-14T02:49:00.000+03:00

Just arrived home in Greece, after a trip that lasted approximately 48 hours.
Long trips in the real world lend themselves to trips down memory lane.

Most of my trips were on recent events. But some headed to the past. Wayback where memory lane begins to fade. But memories are like antiques, gaining value over time. And here is one from a while back:

My family and I had gone on a hike on a mountain close to my village. The name of the mountain loosely translates to "The nun's mountain". It was a sunny day and very warm. I remember waking through golden fields. I was getting thirstier by the moment. But I feared not. I knew we would sooner or later come across the house where the Nun lives. She would give us water and let us continue our journey.
But time passed, I got thirstier and thirstier.
We never ended up finding a Nun.

Sure, being a victim of naivete at a young age is natural. But does it really end there? It's said that 'what we want to be true, we generally believe to be true'. And some things never truly change. They disguise themselves but they don't change.

Don't Panic

2006-07-17T10:01:00.000+03:00


'Nough Said

It's windy today...

2006-07-13T07:14:00.000+03:00

...and i like it.
Understatement...
I love it!

To kill a mockingbird

2006-07-11T10:26:00.000+03:00

The Trombones have successfully returned from Vancouver after a fun volleyball tournament.
But there's always more in a name, than the name itself.
Namely the names that were never chosen.

On their quest to find a proper name, the trombones of course consulted The List.
If the link doesn't work, fear not... I understand the Slashdot effect my blog can have... Instead, settle for less.

'To kill a blocking nerd' is a good one.
A name so catchy that made me go ahead and buy the original that inspired it.
To kill a mockingbird is quite nice so far.
I've only read the first chapter but it reminds me of childhood: Haunted houses, sneaking into yards... Being harmless yet annoying. All because of the thrill the possibility of getting caught gives.

Let's see where it goes from here.

I love you Gimp!

2006-07-04T08:10:00.000+03:00

OpenSource, free, awesome: The Gimp
Helped me manipulate a logo for a volleyball uniform.

Introspection

2006-06-27T09:15:00.000+03:00

I'm terribly bad at explaining my feelings, but very good at feeling them.

Who would have thought a 'Red Blooded Woman' could have such a profound effect?
Exagerating, of course... but still.

A parody

2006-06-16T18:44:00.000+03:00

Inspired by recent events

- (Balmer) Tell me it's not google.
- (Gates) It's google.org, the filanthropic arm of google.

It's raining chairs, alleluja...

The Federaul Bureau of Sin...

2006-06-16T09:32:00.000+03:00

...well, i don't know if such a bureau exists, but there is bureau that might as well claim the nick name.

The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

no, i'm not joking...

Me too? You too! you arrogant fool....

2006-06-16T07:50:00.000+03:00

This is a story of a trap I've fallen into countless times.
Meet someone, introduce yourself....

- (Someone) Nice to meet you!
- (Goose) Me too!
- (Someone) Thinks: How arrogant.

Well, actually someone shouldn't be thinking that.
I will argue that saying 'Me too' makes much more sense than saying 'You too'.
And instead, saying 'You too' is the actuall arrogant thing to say.

Gramatical analysis could argue that the verbless 'Nice to meet you' really means 'It was nice to meet you'.
Since someone is actually saying it, niceness is clearly subjective w.r.t someone, so really we should say: 'It was nice for me to meet you'.
And then it makes complete sense to reply 'It was nice for me to meet you too'.
Now you need to cut this phrase short.
Since you need to maintain the subjectivity, you have to say 'Me too' and not 'You too'.
Cause saying 'You too' simply means that 'yeah, not only are you pleased, but, you too are pleased'. Nonsense... Arrogant, make your choice.

And now, for the utter twist, i'll pull a 'sixth sense' or a 'the others' :
Me and You are really duals of each other. Think Yes and No, True and False, 1 and 0...
The title of the post is invariant w.r.t who (Goose vs Someone) says it...
- (Goose) Nice to meet you!
- (Someone) You too!
- (Goose) Thinks: How arrogant!

Interpretation of the sentence is in the eye of the beholder!

Yes, school was awesome!

2006-06-13T10:47:00.000+03:00

Following the nostalgic poems of Group Thoery came an incident at work that just reinforced the awesome memories from school.
School in general and University in particular.

A coworker posted a question on a newsgroup today, asking what is the formula for the sum up to the Kth element of the harmonic series:

Why? I don't know.

Anyway, I pointed out, specifically:

And the second ultimately had the answer to his question. Which amounted to "there is no closed form formula".

In any event, this just brought back awesome memories, and it had to be put online to remain eternal, digital, free (let's hope, XX government...).

Net Neutrality, you will be missed!

2006-06-10T09:24:00.000+03:00

Thumbs down US Government!!!
Rejecting Net Neutrality???
Rejecting Freedom???
Why?

Groups

2006-05-05T10:39:00.000+03:00

Begin Excerpts of Am. Math. Monthly, Nov. 1973

...
The floodgates were opened! New groups were the rage!
(And twelve or more sprouted, to greet the new age.)
By Janko and Conway and Fisher and Held
MaLaughlin, Suzuki, and Higman, and Sims

No doubt you noted the last lines don't rhyme.
Well, that is, quite simply, a sign of the time.
There's chaos, not order, among simple groups;
And maybe we'd better go back to the loops.

Finding all groups that are simple is not a simple task!

...
Some details were dramatic, like the Monster of Griess.
A sporadic group that'll make you look twice.
In fact it's so big that it's given wide berth.
Its order is greater than the atoms of Earth.

When the battles were over, the War came to an end.
Commander-in-Chief Gorenstein, an anouncement did send.
We've found all finite simple groups, we sure earned our wages.
The proof that it's true is some 10,000 pages.

Finding all groups that are simple is finished at last!

End Excerpts

Ah, good old group theory, me misses you....
waterloo, me misses you...
home, me misses you...
cskids, me misses you...
renison gang, me misses you...
montreal v-team, me misses you...

Confession

2006-04-20T07:42:00.000+02:00

I have a confession to make.
A confession I have been avoiding for a while now, because of the implications it could have:

Would people think less of me?
Would they judge me?
Then again, would they even care? They really shouldn't...

Based on the last premise, I realized it was time to make the confession:

I love Paris Hilton.

They were so vivid... they were so vivid...

2006-03-30T10:31:00.000+02:00

Lest we forget

2006-03-28T09:52:00.000+02:00

U for Understands

2006-03-25T11:47:00.000+02:00

I definitely recommend V for Vendetta.
It's probably one of the best movies I've seen in the past few months.
Controversial, contemporary, smart twists.
In summary: V+

Microsoft Access to PostgreSQL

2006-03-16T09:12:00.000+02:00

You 've written an application utilizing Microsoft Access.
Your database is growing larger and is becoming slower.
You don't like Access's behavior on a multi-user environment.
You want to keep your existing Access application as a front-end (all your business rules are there after all).
You want a solution that is scalable, reliable, Open Source.

Fear not!
Here is the solution.

Read the instructions in exportSQL3.2-dev (VB code) to export your schema and data into SQL files.
Run the generated SQL files against your PostgreSQL db.
Download the latest PostgreSQL ODBC driver and create a DSN for your PostgreSQL db.
Use Access' Link Table funtionality to link to the tables of your PostgreSQL db.
Your Access UI (forms, reposts, queries, macros, modules) should work seamlessly (with 1 caveat... So read below)

exportSQL3 already exists out there. I just made some enhancements to better support PostgreSQL, especially when its tables will be used by Access.

What exportSQL3.2-dev will do for you:
- DataType Conversion (Including OLE objects)
- Primary Keys, Unique Keys and Indexes.
- Default Values and Null constraints
- AutoIncrement fields
- Something I might be forgetting (so read the comments in exportSQL3.2)

What exportSQL3.2-dev does not (yet?) support.
-Foreign Keys (aka Relationships)

Use the latest PostgreSQL db server and ODBC driver and you should not face any problems with non-English characters, as long as your PostgreSQL database encoding is in UTF-8. (The ODBC driver will handle the conversions properly).
Also, when running the INSERT SQL queries (the ones in the "add" generated file), you need to make sure that your client where you run the queries from can support the encoding of the generated file. Free PgAdminIII will work, but it will choke on large files (>30 MB). Instead You can use Navicat PostgreSQL and execute the files as batches to your db server.

When creating the DSN make sure you choose the following options (careful, different from defaults):

You say: Cool, I'm sold, what's the 1 Caveat????

Here it is: Microsoft Access does case-insensitive comparisons in queries. PostgreSQL does case-sensitive comparisons.
When working with a Microsoft Access table, SELECT * FROM SomeTable WHERE Name = "SmItH"
can return records with corresponding name 'Smith'.
When working with a PostgreSQL linked table, it can't.
So your Access GUI might require some modifications after all.

Enjoy...

Cocoa vs Cacao

2006-03-15T09:38:00.000+02:00

Imagine the concept of a chocolate-based drink.
Attach a name to that.

If you are thinking english you would pronounce "ko-ko", when really you should pronounce "ko-ko-a", cause that's what you wrote.
But that's not the point.

Operate the following transform on the concept: o --> a, a -->o
You get something pronounced "ka-ka-o". That's "ko-ko".

Going "koo-koo"?

Phoenix forever...

2006-03-12T22:35:00.000+02:00

Saturday night club-crawl.
Jean Grey - Phoenix.

How can you possibly tie the two together?
EZ...

Last club we visited on Saturday was displaying on its TVs, yes you guessed it...
X-Men Animated Series - The Phoenix Saga!!!

Can't wait for X3, out in May 26.

We all knew this would eventually happen.

2006-01-28T09:56:00.000+02:00

It was only a matter of time.
We tried to deny it.
We took solace in that denial.

But deep inside we knew we could never prevent it:

Octopi have declared a war to humanity!

Eternal sunshine at a drugstore near you

2006-01-20T04:01:00.000+02:00

It seems like the idea of the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is not so far in the future.

No need for machines either... Just pills...

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/18/0629251&from=rss

Contact

2006-01-18T08:36:00.000+02:00

I watched Contact this weekend.
Arguably one of the best movies ever made.
This is probably the 5th or 6th time watching it in the last 4 years.
Why?
Below are snippets of the dialogue that are just worth it!
Reading them is one thing. Watching them performed by amazing actors is yet another.

[When Ellie talks to Hadden inside his plane]
- The powers that be have been busy lately.
Falling over each other to position themselves for the game of the millenium...
Maybe I can help deal you back in.
- I didn't realise that I was out.
- Well, maybe not out, but certainly being handed your hat.

[ When Ellie is being pushed to answer the question of whether she believes in God ]
- I believe... I believe I have already answered that question.

[ When Ellie is at the hearing, being 'questioned' about the validity of her testimony with respecpt to the trip ]
- You come to us with no evidence, no record, no artifacts.
Only a story that, to put it mildly, strains credibility.
Over half a trillion dollars were spent.
Dozens of lives were lost.
Are you really gonna seat there and tell us, we should just take this all on faith?
- Please answer the question Doctor.
- Is it possible that it didn't happen? Yes.
As a scientists I must concede that, I must volunteer that.
- Wait a minute, let me get this straight.
You admit you have absolutely no physical evidence to backup your story.
- Yes.
- You admit that you very well may have halucinated the whole thing.
- Yes.
- You admit that if you were in our position you would respond with the same degree of incredjulity and skepticism .
- Yes.
- Then why don't you simply withdraw your testimony and concede that this journey to the center of the galaxy in fact never took place.
- Because I can't!
I had an experience. I can't proove it, I can't explain it.
But everything that i know as a human being, everything that I am, tells me that it was real.
I was given something wonderful, something that changed me for ever.
A vision of the universe that tells us undeniably how tiny and insignifficant and how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tells us that we belong to somehting that is greater than ourselves, that we are not, that none of us are alone.
I wish I could share that. I wish... that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe and humility and that hope....
That continues to be my wish.

Phoenix ... Such a perfect surprise

2006-01-03T04:12:00.000+02:00

So here you are, catching up with Alias, starring Jennifer Garner (Sydney).
You've watched season 1, 2 and 3. And yesterday, yesterday you were hardly prepared for what was about to happen. "Could you ever believe such a perfect surprise"?

You watch the first episode of the 4th season.
Not bad. Fine plot and something more:
Sydney, in one of her aliases bares an uncanny resemblance to Famke Jansen.
None other than the actor who played Dr Jean Grey in X-Men 1, 2 and (soon to be released) 3.
Kind of cool, but not really. After all, resemblance is very subjective. Even more so since what someone wants to be true, generally believes to be true.

But then, the second episode. Oh the second.
"Authorized Personnel Only - Part 2".
Something is revealed...
Sydney's new codename is: Yup, you guessed right: Phoenix!!!
None other than Jean Grey's codename.

Can you really believe it?
Two of your favorite ficticious characters, end up being connected in such an unexpected kind of way!
But is that it?
Not quite, there's more:

Jack's (Sydney's father) codename is Raptor.
And at some point we hear: "OK, Phoenix Raptor, it's up to you now!"
The Phoenix Raptor would be the firebird that appears as the manifestation of Jean Grey's powers. There are several occasions in the X-Men Mythology (just love that word), where all hope is lost, and it's up to Phoenix to save the universe. When that's the case, a very huge Phoenix Raptor will most certainly appear.

Cool or what?

Part 2 (of 2). YaST!

2005-12-20T08:19:00.000+02:00

For all SuSE (Novell?) fans out there, sorry, you might be disappointed.

Yet another Song Translation

"The Supplicant"

The mountains i cross and the seas i cross
I love someone
Two wishes i hold and two promises i hold
I walk and i go
Someone said that love lives in a star
Tomorrow night i will be there
Someone said that love lasts for a moment
Tomorrow night will be late

To the birds i talk and to the trees i sing
I love someone
And when i sing i mumble prayers
I walk and i go
Someone said that the road is the fire's vane
My soul always roll
Someone said that only a prayer is a trip
My heart be alive

Someone said that love lives in a star
Tomorrow night i will be there
Someone said that love lasts for a moment
Tomorrow night will be late

Part 1

2005-12-12T01:35:00.000+02:00

And now what more appropriate than a translation of one of my favorite songs?
Very deep lyrics and quite unfortunate that the song is written in a language that, at the moment, few understand.
Hence my desire, if not obligation, to make this accessible to more.

Once came to the village a tarantula woman,
and everyone run to see her
Some through her bread
and some through her rock, to save themselves from the ugliness
And a child, gave her a red flower, a child
A child asked her to sing a song, a child
And she said
Never tell them how ugly they look,
the ones that despise you and yet keep looking
And said
Never lock eyes with someone,
because you become a mirror
and everyone brakes you into pieces

Once came to the village, a wounded angel
They brought him in a cage
And the crowd was buying tickets in a fury
to see his beauty
And a child, like a little angel, a child
A child asked him to sing a song, a child
And he said
If you want to save yourself from your beauty
take axe and sword and cut off your wings
And said
Never lock eyes with someone,
because you become a mirror
and everyone brakes you into pieces

By Alkinoos Ioannidis.

Please Elaborate...

2005-12-12T01:08:00.000+02:00

Don't be quiet to prevent it from understanding.
It doesn't understand human language.

Instead be quiet cause you really need not explain.
It understands situations and emotions, feelings and memories, the magnitude of it all.