Disclaimer: This is a Journal, it is updated daily and for convenience’s sake, the higher a post is, the later it has happened (relative to the creation of the universe, naturally).
Now, that doesn’t mean I can’t describe events that happened before I write a post, well actually that’s the only way that can happen, I can’t describe the future, or even the present, since… IT’S PROBABLY BEST TO JUST READ THE DATES, they are self-explanatory

6/4/14

Well, publishing my larger Journal entries on the front page certainly yielded results. The people loved it. Well, one did. So whenever a Journal entry is more than a few lines of “what did I do today, by Timmy, Age 4” I will post it there.
Today was fun though, A day of Museums, and Libraries. Maria and me rode old trains (she rode a newer one later) listened to chamber music in the old library, had a quick pint in an old pub and had a jolly good time.

I am sorry for the lameness of this update.But I am quite tired.

~Garret

4/4/14

Today I cooked.
Well, heated a can of beans. I know how it looks to anyone who can make anything more complicated than a sandwich, but I felt like I was a Master Chef. And the cleanup was relatively easy too!

That being said, I am a bit disappointed in how little work I’ve done to a) get a job and b) do any progress on the university front. I caught myself checking some cheap ways to buy some Warhammer 40k miniatures and then it hit me. Instead of looking ways to “save” money by ordering that stuff cheaply, I should be focusing more on getting a job. I know I have been doing baby-steps towards it, but this is not the time for baby-steps.

Now, I hear you say, quit pointing out what is wrong and do something about it!
I am trying, okay?

In other news, I saw Fargo today, it was quite a bleak… thriller of errors, is a description that feels apt.
Maria is also coming to visit tomorrow! I am already sorry about how cool she will find Manchester in comparison to Birmingham.

Should I be posting these at the main page?
Actually, I am the Supreme Ruler of this site, I can do what I gosh darn please. This is going to the main page as well!

~GArret

3/4/14

YOu know, I’ve been thinking. Doing these journal updates is all well and good, but it doesn’t feel a very… meaty way to use my blog. I mean, I have my main page practically sitting there, getting updated once per month at best. That’s not what I intended for this. Granted, I kinda like the idea of this journal, even though I’ve never actually gone back in time to read my entries.

One thing I should change though is the time I do these entries. By having them right before bedtime there is a pressure to say “No news, gotta work harder, cya tomorrow”.

I think I should try earlier updates, is what I am saying.

I saw Westworld, it was not great, but had some neat ideas. And it was fun to see it as a proto-Jurassic Park of sorts.

I also tried to apply for a volunteer place in a library, turns out the thing needs reference! For volunteering! The world has gone MAD!

~Garret

1/4/14

Thought about doing an April Fool’s joke, but decided against it. I have an appointment tomorrow for my NIN and today I attended a meeting of a photography group in Madlabs, a place Jana recommended to me. It was good fun, reminded me of my FOPAM days in Mitilini. We did HDR photography, something I am not too keen about and then headed out to the pub, which seems like the common (lulz) practice here. (I laughed because Common was the name of the pub we went to). Anyway, I met folks, chatted, shot some shots and had an all round good time. Tomorrow is NIN time!

~Garret

31/3/14

A minor setback, but now I have a british phone number. No I am not going to give it to you unless you ask nicely. No run.
I have to get a National Insurance Number. |

~Garret

30/3/14

Tomorrow is Jobcenter day! Let’s do dis! Also Running.

~Garret

29/3/14

A good full day today. I woke up later than I would like, but then went to a Manchester Histories festival that was well, about Manchester history, Jana (my housemate) was hosting a really nice and interesting game that involved actors and stories and thieves and all that good stuff, it was about the Belle Vue Zoo. It was really well made. In the evening we went to a really nice albeit hipstery neighbourhood (my rule is : unless bald, if your beard is longer than your hair= hipster) where we went to a pub. Some nice bands were playing, gypsy-swing kind of thing, it was a bit weird listening to english people trying to sound non-english, but a good experience all around. I met nice interesting people and got home in the van of one of the bands.

Basically I am now an official groupie.

I must say though, I find the whole “Go out at 6 and drink till midnight” deal very efficient. By 11:30 I felt like I have had a full night of revelry, home in time for a game of League.

~Garret

28/3/14

Getting accustomed to the house, exploring the neighborhood.
Bought some stuff from my friendly nearby Lidl.

Learned how to use the kettle.

Now going to bed.

:)

~Garret

27/3/14

I know what you’re thinking: Where are the updates noob!
Aha, I see you have fallen into my trap. If you care to see the main page, you will find that there are not one but TWO updates concerning my past few days. So yea. Read those, if you already haven’t.

Today was my first day in Manchester. I still can’t believe I am living here. Does this get a few days to get used to? I bought a few supplies, foodstuff and a mug mostly. Now I am quite tired and will go to bed.

P.S. I saw The Departed, what a depressing amazing movie. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Also, how the flip can something like yify.tv be allowed to exist? I love it!

~Garret

24/3/14

Busy day. In the morning, I packed all the non-digital stuff. Most of it anyhow. Then went to the bank for some unfinished business, cancelled my mobile internet contract for my iPad, met Mary with whom I went for a lovely coffee/photography walk (see picture) and after that I played a few games of league. After that Paris came over and we had a nice politico-socio-philosophical conversation-night accompanied by the golden company of beer. All in all, a full, nice day.

~Garret

23/3/14

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
It was a good day. Starting to pack all the digital stuff. Updated my laptop, sortof tidied up an external HDD, that kind of stuff. I would like to make a fresh start. Bring a few things only. Creativity thrives in restraint and having all these beautiful distractions around might not be what I need right now. Maybe by living away from all this, all these games, comics, books and stuff I will learn to enjoy whatever I can find. Maybe this is the chance I was looking for to play all those lovely good old games, maybe this is the chance I was waiting to read all the books I meant to. Sketch because I will have no tablet, write because I will only have a tiny screen.

Not sure, past history (the only kind of history actually, I doubt there can be anything like future history, as cool as that sounds) is not very encouraging. But hey, changes are sudden… right?

*Things I want to do: Watch Red Dwarf.*

~Garret

22/3/14

Sooooo sleepy today. Woke up early and went to Lavrio for ouzo and fish. Tomorrow I will have to pack my stuff.

Have been watching a few X-files episodes and while browsing Wikipedia I came across a Spin-off show called Lone Gunmen. Here is something that caught my eye:

The plot of the first episode, which aired March 4, 2001, involves a US government conspiracy to hijack an airliner, fly it into the World Trade Center and blame it on terrorists, thereby gaining support for a new profit-making war. Parallels of this scenario to the events of 9/11 are noteworthy, if not uncanny, since the episode was aired six months prior to 9/11.

Now isn’t that quite the coincidence?

~Garret

19/3/14

Lately I haven’t felt much like updating the Journal. Is that a phase? What isn’t?
I am in the final stretch. Leaving for Manchester in less than a week. I feel completely unprepared. More on that later.

I have been dipping in a bit of Steampunk fiction lately. A sub-genre I always felt attracted to, but I could never fall into it completely. After a few minutes of careful thought I have concluded that it is that , regrettably overused phrase, style-over-substance. I dig the aesthetics very much, but so often I feel like Steampunk fiction is driven by the style first, as a result I always felt that the plot and characters were always playing second fiddle, merely a vehicle, a roller-coaster cart, serving no other purpose other than showing the world to the audience.

Can the world be the lead in a story? Maybe in an interactive medium where the player can sort of “read” the world at his own pace. Like Rapture in BioShock or (even if it isn’t Steampunk) the world of Lordran from Dark Souls or Sera from Gears of War (the first one).
Oh, got another one, the Capital Wasteland from Fallout 3.
What was I talking about?

~Garret

17/3/14

St. Patrick’s day today, we did pay Malone’s a visit, as is the tradition, much Guinness was had and a top hat was earned. This week is gonna be a hard week of preparing and farewell-ing.

~Garret

16/3/14

10 Days to go.

~Garret

15/3/14

I was in the middle of writting an article all grand and nice, but I was distracted by… Mass Effect 3, of all things. It has been years since I finished ME2, a game I enjoyed immensely, especially the loyalty missions. Is it procrastinating? Is it a waste of time?

All I can say for now is that I am enjoying it quite a bit, can’t wait to see the old gang again, maybe even rekindle my relationship with my dear Tali.

Anyway, more news tomorrow.

~Garret

14/3/14

I haven’t slept much. I had to wake up early today to go to sit for a TOEFL exam. I found it quite easy but it was a boring 4 hour grind. Anyway, in other news… I am living in the twilight of half-awakened-ness, watching streams of Heroes of the Storm, the alpha version was released today, can’t say it doesn’t look fun, I wanna try it.

Anyway, I am rambling, off to bed Garret.

~Garret

13/3/14

Hey, I did not update yesterday. I was thinking about it, but then I did not. I seem to be losing my drive. As much as I hate to admit it, I do find a correlation between how much League I am playing and how much of everything else I do.

On a more musical note though, check this composition. It is from a Russian bloke I hadn’t heard before, but this piece is eerily similar to the Metal Gear theme.

Here, have a listen

~Garret

11/3/14

Another sort-of unproductive day. After finishing my Dark Angel squad, I had the idea to turn a bunch of boxes and cardboard into a makeshift castle. It is a fun process but I am not sure how well it will turn out, but I am enjoying playing with PVA glue. I feel like I am way more relaxed than what I should be.
Tomorrow is my favourite day of doing things.

~Garret

10/3/14

It’s been a while since my last science binge. I started Death by Black Hole yesterday, a book I first saw qb reading millions of years ago, anyway, I ran into while I was looking for another book I did not find eventually (one might say it was… Improbable to find). Other than that, I watched the first episode of the new Cosmos series (on Fox, of all places), hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, who incidentally is the same guy that wrote Death by Black Hole.
Now I am currently putting the finishing touches on my final Dark Angel figurine and watching a debate between John Lennox vs Richard Dawkins.
Boy, I am really impressed with the way Richard Dawkins conducts himself in a debate, his arguements, his manner and his “defense” are really some of the best I ‘ve seen. Wish I had skills like that.

~Garret

9/3/14

Downloaded a few books on my iPad, way more than I will read with my current reading speed. Also discovered a webcomic called existential comics, it is this one right here, quite interesting, not extremely funny though, and I did a sketch of Eva Green (based on the screenshot I posted yesterday) that I will post in the main page, tomorrow I will have to wake up early so I am going to bed. I am currently having heartburn and it is yuuuuuuck annoying.

~Garret

8/3/14

Just got back from seeing 300:Rise of an Empire.
It was not a good movie. But it was way better than I thought it would be. I liked the fact that it did not try to be exactly the same movie as 300 and BY THE GODS WAS EVA GREEN AMAZING IN IT.
She really was the main reason to watch the show, and not only because she is incredibly beautiful, but in this movie she was one of the best female barbarian villains in recent memory.

I do believe that movies such as this help promote history, tangential learning I think it’s called. For example, I just started looking up the Greco-Persian Wars just to see how off the movie was, and guess what, characters I never knew existed were actually real. I mean sure, the movie is complete fantasy but it did plant the seed for me to go and look up stuff that DID happen.

Btw, there was a second Battle of Thermopylae, it happened in 1941 and it was the German Army vs. a bunch of New Zealanders that were trying to delay the German advance to buy time for the allies to evacuate. No Greeks were involved so I guess the place does have a thing for heroic battles.

~Garret

6/3/14

I am struggling to think of something important I did today, yet nothing comes to mind.

~Garret

5/3/14

It wasn’t that bad, but maaaaaan was it tedious. Go to Public Service A, get Quest Item [Birth Certificate], travel to Public Service B, 1 hour away by the Metro Fast Travel Network, get your Quest Item upgraded to [Signed Birth Certificate] then go aaaaaaall the way to the Translation Center and drop it off, it will finally become a [Translated Signed Birth Certificate] after a few days and a few gold to pay the fee. So yea, that was my day, mostly.

I also had lunch at Kostas, simply the BEST SOUVLAKI IN THE WORLD AND BY EXTENSION IN THE UNIVERSE (AS FAR AS WE KNOW). In all seriousness though, this place is one of my favouritest places in Athens. On my way back I decided to have a look in a second hand bookstore, where a small treasure was found.

The Warhammer Fantasy rulebook, hardcover, 300+ pages of maps, lore, painting tips, battlefield creation tips, rules and in a great condition too for only…….. 5 euros! Yes sir, only 5 euros for something that would normally cost 60.

It was a good day.

~Garret

4/3/14

Zero productivity day, I guess last week was too much for me. I have to become more resilient, prepare for the future. Remember when I was counting the few days I did not work out, in the early days of this Journal? Oh, how times change amirite? I wonder if it will be like that with the sketches as well. I haven’t sketched in quite a few days.

Tomorrow is officially (let’s see if I can write it correctly the first time) Bureaucracy (yup, I did) Day. I am not looking forward to it, but it has to be done.

I just had a mini nostalgia trip, visited HMs Facebook page… saw old photos. HM always makes me feel very nostalgic, he is a cool guy that has not changed significantly ever since my Mitiline days, I think that is because he is one of the most at-peace with himself guys I know. Inspiring in a way.

So yea, I am rambling again, I bid you all a very good night.

~Garret

3/3/14

Much drinking was had today. I spent Ash Monday with my family, we visited a friend’s house, it was good. It would seem that after a few hours next to alcohol the conversations tend to dissolve into faux-deep subjects such as destiny,religion, souls, science and the meaning of life. It reminds me of discussions I’ve had during my university years, I guess the gap between that and the gatherings of middle aged couples is not as big as I used to think.
I don’t know how that makes me feel, I’m just making a remark I guess.
All in all though, I had a good time. No kites were flown and the weather was delightfully rainy.

~Garret

2/3/14

This was a day of leisure. I did absolutely nothing that could be considered remotely productive today. Well I did go and see a play that my cousin Fani was playing in. It was a children’s play, Peter Pan. I did not enjoy the show a whole lot, the characters were quite one dimensional and the plot felt quite rushed at points. A weird decision was to include parts from the movie Hook, a sort of sequel to Peter Pan, that did not work quite as well, since the context was different in the original story. Having said that, Fani was brilliant in her role as Little Jon, she was constantly running up and down, full of energy, and she seemed to be really enjoying the part. I think she is a fine actress.
To my shame I got a few of the songs stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow is Ash Monday, a really cool sounding name (in English at least), for the day that marks the beginning of the Sarakosti fast, the forty days till Easter. I don’t think I will be flying a kite, as is the custom, but I will be partaking in a feast most delicious, for sure.

~Garret

1/3/14

Woh, spent the whole day writting my Thief review.

~Garret

28/2/14

Oh boy, the past couple of days have been… eventful. I am not used to having busy days.
Today I visited the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport Air Trafic Control Tower. I never thought I would have the opportunity to go in one of these buildings and it sure was a very informing and interesting. The thing that struck me as most odd was how ordinary the folk that worked there are. These are public servants that would not look out of place in ,say, a school and here they were, responsible for HUNDREDS OF LIVES every day. Very cool experience. The view from up there was quite nice. I can also verify that the builders of the Tower were not superstitious, the control room is on the 13th floor.

~Garret

25/2/14

So the wheels are up. Well, the “gear up” model did not fit, so I did a little hacking and slashing and stuffed the “gear down” bits into the wheel holes on the wings, I also painted it metal grey but hey, let’s not torture this analogy any longer.

Meaning, I am going to turn town a Job offer tomorrow (probably) and continue on my initial plan to move to Manchester and try my luck there. I say luck but deep down I know luck to do with it, it’s hard work, consistency and perseverance. My strong points, one would say. HAR HAR HAR.

Also, fuck the arbitrary sexy-fication of nerd culture. Boobs are nice, Lord of the Rings is nice, Boobs + Lord of the Rings is just a lazy way to get attention.
I mean seriously, look at that. Dresses, Swimsuits,Bathing suits. If someone ,who hadn’t seen Star Wars, accidentaly googled R2D2, he would probably think that he is an eccentric Japanese fashion designer.

~Garret

24/2/14

The day was big aright. But not too exciting. I went to a job interview. I think I might have gotten the job, but it is not a great one. It pays tiny amounts of money, and from what I have heard (from people that have done it) it is one of the worst experiences you can have at a workplace. I would not mind taking this job, but I might have another option.
I will try to explain my thoughts through the power of allegory. You can call me Jesus 2.0 if that works for you.

I always liked airplanes, I guess it was fallout from my dad’s massive passion for them. Anyway, recently, as a spin-off to my miniature painting, I have gotten into model airplanes. My favourite era in aviation is definitely World War II, it was the time when technology was advanced enough to be a huge factor but it wasn’t so advanced as to make pilots obsolete, nothing more than glorified computer operators.

What I want to say (the previous paragraph was not part of the allegory, the next part is) is that I bought me a small Supermarine Spitfire, just to practice painting techniques on. I am currently in the process of gluing it together and I am faced with a dilemma, should I glue the landing gear in the up or down position? Option Down, is safe, I can have the Spit posing nicely on my shelf, calm and secure, but I won’t be able to have imaginary flights and dogfights, it will just be sitting there. If I took the Option Up, well then, my little Bane of the Luftwaffe will be soaring high, I will be able to take it out for a spin, in many a glorious pretend-a-flights, things will be more exciting and fun. But it won’t be as safe, with no proper “standing” pose , I am afraid that the Spit will not last long, I will leave it on a shelf, his machine guns broken, his mast or his engine missing parts…
It is a choice between Safety and Uneventfulness on one hand and Excitement and Uncertainty on the other. I find it hard to make a choice.

I am rambling though, I’m pretty sure this analogy doesn’t make a lick o’sense, perhaps I will devote a lengthier article to explain my dilemma. Perhaps not. Who knows? Not I.

P.S. I recently discovered my favourite WWII fighter (as far as looks are concerned,it is outclassed by many other fighters when it comes to performance). I was astonished to find that it is a Soviet one. One that I hadn’t heard of before either! Anyway, without further ado, here is the sleek, the cool, the sexy: Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3

~Garret

23/2/14

Big day tomorrow, hope I wake up early.

~Garret

22/2/14

I am not forgetting you dear Journal, but I am posting on the main page some Journal-ish posts so, yea.

Anway. I am spending quite some time with friends these days. Aramil is here and so is qb, both of who I saw yesterday and today. Also, this weekend is a weekend of news: I got accepted, well, “conditionally accepted” for a Master’s degree, everything is up in the air still but I just want to make a small mark here so I can look back in the far future.

You know something that bugs me? The Wilhelm Scream. What is that, you may ask. Oh you know, it’s this bloody scream.
It annoys me for several reasons.
First of all, it is not a very… scary scream? I mean, you *know* that the guy that produces that scream probably lived to scream in other movies.
And secondly, it is overused. Overuse can kill anything. I always thought that the Wilhelm Scream was something audio editors tried to sneak in a film, a sort of in-joke between audio geeks. Now it has become something that is almost displayed, not hidden. Anyway, hide your Wilhelm Screams better, audio people!

On a completely unrelated note, how on EARTH do videos like

this

considered normal in Japan? I mean, I sure enjoy it, and the song is catchy as hell… but I keep having a certain shepherd appearing in my head warning me about… a SPECIAL hell.

I gave one of my Dark Angels to my dad. He had a scope.
The Dark Angel, not my dad.

~Garret

19/2/14

I am pleased to announce that I am currently the commander of 7 (seven) painted Dark Angel Space Marines. My little army is growing.
I am actually writing this while the internet is down. I am restarting my router but still, it feels weird (I used to misspell weird and write it “wierd” but my amazing friend Faith corrected me, I believe the first year of our friendship and I’ve never misspelled it since) to actually update my blog while I don’t have an internet connection.

So… today things started smoothly. I had a great dinner with a view of the Acropolis Hill, apparently I drove a girl out of Athens. Well, not really, but I think I did play a part in her exodus. I am quite the catch really. If only I told you half of how bad I am with human relationships you would never set foot on this site again, let me tell you that.

The Great God of the Internet is still not answering. Will the Net ever become so vast and so incomprehensible that people will start to make up stuff about it?
Will there be Lolcat, God of Laughter and Despair, The Ritual of Router Restarting, the Mighty Google Allfather will keep a watchful eye over everyone and his bitter brother Yahoo, the Hasbeen will suffer an eternity of bitter regret.

~Garret

16/2/14

Oh boy, another late night. To cap it off it was not a very productive day. I had a mini Wikipedia spree, started after I watched this, umm… thing, and then started reading about ninjas, then moved on to Yakuza, the Yamaguchi-gumi, Contract Killing, Albert Anastasia and then capped it off with the Prohibition.
The internet might sure be a huge time drain, but when else in the history of time-wasters had Man such potential?

Speaking of potential, Ymir linked me a site the other day with a lot of images based on the Ascent of Man (you know, the primate conga line), some of them were interesting but there was this one that really impressed me with how well it delivered it’s message. Without further ado, here it is:

~Garret

15/2/14

Today was a fun day, it included a nice lunch at Lavrio and a six hour LoL night. Lots of defeats, I stayed up till I get a win and now that I’ve won… It doesn’t feel as satisfied as I thought it would feel.
But I don’t complain, it was fun.
Tomorrow I MUST sent that email to Vicky.
~Garret

14/2/14

Valentine’s Day! Wooohoo!
This is the “Decide if you re more annoyed with Valentine cynics or Valentine revelers” day. Anyway, posted another sketch with a whale and Cthulhu on the main page. It is getting a bit late now though and I would like to go to bed. Me and my dad got some really cool airplane cockpit lights, authentic and sleek looking, but… they don’t shed much light. Oh well can’t have everything.

Anyway, I googled some stuff I shouldn’t.

Tomorrow is ouzo day!

~Garret

13/2/14

Posted a new painting and a new review for Game20.gr.
Check those instead.

~Garret

12/2/14

Supermarket. Finished Papers,please review. Saw Galdar and Inzi.

~Garret

11/2/14

Oh boy was today a do-nothing day.
I did not write or draw.
I will have to make up tomorrow.

So see ya all then.
I’ll go to bed and watch stuff on YouTube.

~Garret

10/2/14

I’ve been posting sketches on the main page so yea, roll your eyes (eheh) over there and check them out.

~Garret

7/2/14

Hello! Episode 13 of A.o.S. (I am in the middle of watching it right now) is actually quite good. The action was solid and remember what I said yesterday about character arcs not “working”, well now they are, it is the subtle differences really. I think I saw on the credits that it was written by J.W. himself, it’s been a while since I last saw a good show, or maybe I am just missing the Buffy and Angel days.

So, I think I’ve let myself go quite a bit these days.
There are to-dos that have to be-done and the week is coming to an end.

Writing and reading must happen!

~Garret

6/2/14

Finishing the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode and going to bed. It’s not that it is a bad show, but it is quite mediocre. I think I preferred Agent Coulson when he was just a likable no-nonsense bureaucrat. But now that he is the spine of the show he has to have character development and transformation arcs and what is the word… ah, yea “feelings”, that so far feel a bit tacked on.

On other news.

I am sleepy.

~Garret

5/2/14

What? What missing day? Oh darn! The aliens did it again!
I swear.

These days have been quite eventful, well, not exactly eventful. I guess the same way you might call the pilings of ultimatums before a great war might eventful. I am not saying there will be a great war, I am not saying that there won’t be. Who knows really? I’ve had some talks recently, read some articles as well, about how our feeling of security and world hugginess is not very unlike the feeling the world had in the early 1910s. I am sure there would be some sort of poetic motif if a great war erupted soon, but I wouldn’t like to see one. But maybe I will. I will certainly not be updating this blog with my daily doings when I am busy hiding from the Icelandic military that would be occupying us. Maybe I’ll be keeping a regular paper blog, saving it to be published when the war is over, maybe even become a musical, if there is a Broadway left. I guess I can settle with West End.

Yea, so what did I do today?
Umm… planning.

Garret makes a mysterious exit, pursued by a bear.

~Garret

3/2/14

Settling in nicely, home feels good.
Painting a miniature today, also making plans.

Cya tomorrow!

~Garret

2/2/14

Home. After almost a month of travelling and seeing things, I am back.

I have a suitcase that is missing a cellphone but is full of memories, experiences and a couple of books.
Even though my journey was framed by disappointing news on my Academic/Job fronts, but in every other area, this was one of the more Garret-changing experiences I’ve had lately.
I might write a thorough-er post, or even scan/transcribe the non-digital Journals I kept on my journey.

For now, I am glad to be back (to my family, not the country).

~Garret

31/1/14

This was an… interesting day. To say the least.

Something happened that I never thought would happen. It was the last thing I expected to experience but….
I.Had.Fun.In.A.Club.

A Club.

Me.

Seriously, I never thought that would happen, never in a million years.

But there I was, mingling, not dancing but shuffling along (more than I ever did) and genuinely having a good time in a club (the lack of smoke helped). I probably had more social interaction in one night than I usually have in a year.

Anyway…

Before that I had a really good time at a Jazz bar, maybe a tad of awkwardness was included but all in all, a good time. It made me think a lot of things about myself.

Before that (we re going in a memento kind of way here) I had dinner with a friend of a family friend who has lived and worked in Leiden for a quarter of a century, with whom I had a very interesting chat, that provided invaluable.

All in all, I had a very good day, met quite a few new people, learned things about me and and the things I would like to do.

My month-long journey is coming to an end, and I realize it has done all that a journey can do.
It has challenged my preconceptions, it has educated me, it has cheered me up immensely , it has widened my horizons and made me rethink my life and what I want to do with it.

Will it actually effect my life in a major way? I don’t know. It might, but it also might not.

In the end, it is up to me.

~Garret

30/1/14

I am quite sleepy, I will try to Haiku my way out of this.

Museum cocktail bars.
City built on a river.
Red girls in boxes.

~Garret

29/1/14

Yet another late-start day, but a full one none-the-less, in the afternoon we went to buy some olives from the local market, bought supplies and Aris cooked chicken with sweet-sour sauce, quite impressive actually, we went for coffee with Ria, a girl that works with skeletons and believes in the existence of the Soul, appropriately enough, found our second Geocashe, it was the second in the Heroes of Leiden series and it was hidden amazingly well (can’t say where).

After a brief repose in the apartment we brought an ethernet cable from the router downstairs (who’s wifi is simply not up to the task of delivering data to all the apartments it is supposed to) and with the power of duct tape we managed to get the cable in here, after a brief speedtest we were stunned to see the speed go up to 170 Mbps, it was a worthy project.

I also did my first drug purchase (completely legal, this is the Netherlands, nia nia nia!), and it was a gram of something called Bubblelicious. It smells really nice but I have not smoked it yet).

The night was probably the best part of the day, we went to Einstein initially, there was a first year student party thing going on, but since it was too crowded we decided to move to WW, not the greatest place, but it did have a Medieval Madness pinball machine (I was told that it is worth many thousands of $$) but besides that, I actually had a rare and quite delightful chat, something that I realize I don’t do as often as I should.
It also continued in Facebook. I should talk to people more. Like, actually talk.
Long story short, it made me feel nice and happy.

Now I stink of cigarette smoke and will go to bed, not something I am particularly fond of doing.

Tomorrow we are supposed to go to Amsterdam. I look forward to it so I should get some shuteye.

~Garret

28/1/14

My days seem to be starting in the afternoon, this is a student town after all. I lost my phone btw… my old dependable tough lil’ communication device is gone. Without a battery so I can’t call it. I feel sorry for the little guy… We did not have a lot of time to bond, but the little time we did spend together he was a faithful, durable friend. May you find someone that respects and treats you well.

In other news: I found the coolest Geocashe so far, it is part of a series of 6, set here in Leiden. Their all about “Heroes of Leiden” and the first one talked about a Mayor of Leiden that sort of kept everything cool while the city was under siege from Germans and Spaniards (It was cold, I didn’t read the whole thing). The other 4 contain information that leads to the 6th Cashe. I know that I should not spoil the Cashe contents, but A=8.

Then,after a supply run, we sat here drunk … beers ,among things, and watched the World’s End. (It was the third time for me, but GOSH DARN IT it is an excellent movie.) So much creativity and talent, a unique and enjoyable movie.

Tomorrow I will try to find the next part of the “Heroes of Leiden” treasure.

Adventure awaits!

~Garret

27/1/14

My, today was a zero productivity day. I spent most of the day catching up on Warhammer 40k lore and staring at my belybutton (no change).

We just got back from a very nice Jazz bar, tonight was a live jam session, people just showed up on stage and played some smooth tunes. Last time I was at that bar it was a very different occasion, there was no live and I was there with Matina. Time flies by man, places stay the same, serving only as reminders of moments now gone.

Anyway, it was a good night tonight.

As for tomorrow, it’s like they say in the droga club: “Let’s all have a lucky day”

~Garret

26/1/14 (Night)

It is kind of strange to write an entry twice a day, but I do feel like I’ve had a good night today. We went to a house of a friend of Aris’s (a kick-ass house btw, an even better attic than the one we are currently living, with cool slanted windows that are the best kind of windows when it is raining) anyway, we watched “Τα Τσακάλια” (The Jackals) a really disturbing (not the way the director intended, but in a fun way nonetheless) Greek movie from the early eighties. It is a movie about a jack and smart ass , a rebel without a brain, something like an annoying Greek version of a young John Travolta.

After that we went to a party, it was in the building that I stayed last time I was in Leiden, but it was a much better room. Anyway, the night was fun, even though by the end there were some tsiftetelia going on. I also drunk a really strong liqueur that had gold flakes in it! It had a rich taste, oho ho. (my sense of humour is dying i think).
Nevertheless, I had a good time, even though these parties are rarely my cup of tea (I had some tea afterwards, followed by a political covnersation with Aris (I won)), and it made my resolve to someday live in Leiden (or the UK, okey) even stronger.

Anyway, I think I should go to bed, the hour is getting late.

~Garret

26/1/14

I decided today that I can live exclusively on garlic-y olives, philadelphia cheese and crisps. And beer. So yea, today is shaping up to be a calm day, me and Aris played a game of LoL, the first one after I don’t even know how long.
The Gods of the Internet were not on our side today though, thus we were cursed with a Latency of titanic proportions and frequent disconnects. We won in the end , I had to send my ult’s a good deal ahead of time hoping for that perfect timing. 9/10 it did not work.

So yea, Leiden, it has been cold. Yesterday we went for a general supply run, I met quite a lot of humans , most of them I don’t remember their names , or at least I am not able to match the correct face with the correct name.
But regardless, it was a fun day. I am starting to get accustomed to my mini-portable Cintiq (okey, it’s an iPad with a pen). We went at a bar called VV (that’s 2 Vs not a W) where we met more people and had beers. Many MA students here are speaking of how hard and demanding an MA programme is, I am still nowhere near figuring out what I want to do on that front. I would want nothing more than living in Leiden or Manchester, but live and do WHAT? Is that only an excuse to keep myself in the familiar and cozy place in Athens?

How can I work this out?

Anyway, last day was fun, this one is looking up pretty good too.

We’re staying in an Attic btw.

~Garret

24/1/14

Reporting from Leiden.

After a huge journey, I am finally here.
The Megabus journey was way better than I thought it would be, even though it took about 30 days.
I had the front seat on the top of the bus so the view was arignai
iswht.
At one point I was in a bus, in a train, in a tunnel, under the sea.
At the same time. We live in the future (man).
During that trip I finally got around to listening to Blueprint for Armageddon by Dan Carlin, it was an amazing episode, easily one of my favourites from Hardcore History, about the beginning of World War I. Listening to Dan Carlin is easily the closest experience to time travelling one can have.

I also read a bit of the Warhammer 40k Rulebook, I think I will start working on my Dark Angels army again, there might also be a chance I can buy half the Dark Vengeance models (basically a Dark Angels mini-army.)

I was hungry, dirty and tired. If I was a sim, my little overhead diamond would’ve been the colour of blood.
We shall see, I just had some food and I’ll go take a shower so, things are looking good.

It is colder here than it was in the U.K.

~Garret

23/1/14

Final day in Manchester, I guess final day in the U.K. as well, for now.

I have packed almost all my things, everything that needs to be charged is charging right now, but with only one power adapter I am currently daisy-chaining my devices via USB, it is like a technological human centipede. My, did it suddenly get hot in here?

So yea, my trip to the U.K. that lasted way longer than I thought it would.
I walked under the Cutty Sark, visited the house of Sherlock Holmes, drunk a pint in the Pub that J.R.R.Tolkien himself did the same thing, visited the World Seed Bank and a mansion full of secret doors (probably), visited Jazz Bars, saw an exhibition of Francis Bacon (the guy that inspired Silent Hill 2 art), got totally destroyed in a Job interview, bought a calligraphy kit, played board games, played my first Warhammer 40k game, had a proper English breakfast,slept on the 14th floor, walked the canals of Manchester, had malt whisky while talking about games and bought a Sharpie.

Yes, I had a good time, makes me wanna come back even though I haven’t left yet.
Jana said she will be looking for a flatmate at the end of February…

What was that brain? You have nothing to do in Greece? It is a huge opportunity? What are you talking about?

Anyway, I am soon setting on a long bus ride to the land of weed and windmills. I don’t think I will be updating before I get there, but one never knows.

As they say here, a bientot.

~Garret

21/1/14

Today was a day walking around Manchester. I went to M.O.S.I.(Museum of Science and Industry, if you must ask). There were all sorts of engines there, steam powered, water powered, there were Gas galleries and Electricity galleries. I even saw a machine that was first designed in 1930, a replica of which was demonstrated by the coolest sottish old guy who studied programming 40 YEARS AGO. The machine drew me a circle, I will post it when I get the chance to scan it. It was a wonderful museum, I even saw a Spitfire, I’ve never seen one in real life before.
Seeing a machine that played such a huge part in World War II was awesome.

Then I went to a Library that was basically like Rivendale.
Huge arches, stained glass and rows upon rows of books, it was a very majestic building.

My day then took a turn to the creative, I met the Larks, the creative-interactive-game design group that Jana is part of . They will be doing a sort of interactive-theater thing and I was invited to take part! So cool.

Afterwards we went for beers in two really cool bars, very unlike the pubs I’ve seen so far.
In the first bar I noticed a sign saying that you can’t wear football team colours there, in the second bar we were drinking our beers next to two couples of ladies, of quite varying ages. It was something you wouldn’t ever see in Greece and made me feel nice about humans.
All in all, I had a great time, we even went through the Gay Village, where we saw the statue of Alan Turing, it was a very classy statue (he was sitting on a park bench, holding an apple).

I’ve no idea what I’ll do tomorrow. Tomorrow is a mystery!

~Garret

20/1/14

Things happening!
So yesterday, even though me and Maria got up quite late, we did enjoy a delicious English breakfast ( I had beans and eggs and toast, oh yea) and then went for my last day walk around Birmingham. While we were walking towards a mysterious red building, we spotted a Games Workshop shop, there we painted miniatures and fought (Maria won…), it was my first Warhammer 40k battle. It made me want to get back into miniature painting.
Later that night though (we saw a horror movie that really lost me by the end.) I saw one of the worst dreams in quite a while. It was sad, depressing and disappointing.

Today though, I finally got to Manchester, it was a 2 hour bus ride from Birmingham, I arrived here at noon. After I saw Jana (last time I saw here we were in Potenza, such a nice and tiny planet) I explored the center of Manchester, bought a few art supplies , a calligraphy book and a fashion design one, I hope I put them to good use.
The place where I am staying is a gorgeous two-floor house, in a neighborhood that my dad said had “very bad reputation” , all those years ago.
We watched the third episode of the third series of Sherlock, I still have mixed feelings about it but I guess it was entertaining, with mulled wine , one that was actually pretty tasty, I have to get the recipe, and topped it off with a nice discussion on games over malt whisky.
Future Garret reading this: be jealous.

Anyway, tomorrow I think I will go to the Manchester Science Museum, I wanna see planes, rockets and steam engines!

~Garret

18/1/14

Yey, we went out for drinks! And then some more drinks! And then closing time came, it was 1 AM.
Even though the night ended early, it was a good night, met people had some weird cocktails in cube-like glasses, good times all around.

We also went to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, an amazing museum that, the sort where you can easily get lost in for days , there were many beautiful paintings (and some extremely simple ones, the value of which I could not see) there but the one I loved the most was this one:

It was presented in a cave-and-brick sort of alcove that really made it feel like you were in the painting. I love paintings like this, especially the way they make surreal environments that seem like they could exist. I admire the dream-like quality they have. I will try to find a higher resolution version of that painting.

It also reminded me of Dark Souls for some reason, oh I really hope Dark Souls II doesn’t suck.

~Garret

17/1/14 (morning)

I won’t be too hard on myself for not posting a Journal yesterday, because if you roll your eyes and cursors, (or fingers, let’s embrace the modern age) mainpage-wards you will see a new post there.
Yes, dear diary, I wrote something. At least I think I did, the internet went down for a period of time when I came to I was looking at the laptop screen,wiping the drool off my face I realized I had written a whole post’s worth of text, swiftly I pressed update and you can all now see the results.

I also tasted the WORST. THING. EVER. It was a snack I got for 99p and it tasted like cold pork fat with chilly and pepper. It made me feel like I had eaten the worst steak without at least having the benefit of sating my hunger. Also, Rena decided to go Vegan… out of the Mitilini Trio, the one who would be the fear of every tavern owner, who would immediately go check his meat supplies as soon as we walked in, now only I am left that will partake in the chewing of flesh. Oh how the times change…

Also, I had a dream I was a first mate on a sailing boat, a Cutty Sark lookalike, it was a huge dream with foggy seas, high adventure and yes, even romance.
It was partly inspired by the book I was reading before I fell to bed, American Gods, quite a nice read btw.

~Garret

14/1/14
Hello there, dear… parents who read my Journal updates.
Today I woke up in a panic, cause during my undercover (literally) morning email check I received a “application status now: Cancelled” email. In a panic I gathered all the necessary paperwork and turned my laptop on ready to re-apply for Dundee (something I did yesterday) but soon the “red alert, battle stations” was called off, the email was from a University I applied to last year. So , after that wake up that was more potent than an intravenous Espresso drip, I applied for a scholarship, booked the tickets for the rest of my trip (BIR->MAN->AMS->ATH) and then just goofed around, washed some dishes tried to figure out how the boiler works till Maria got home from work.
After that we went to a very nice pub called Shakespeare (I can never write his name properly the first time) where I attended, but did not take part :( to my first TRIVIA NIGHT. It was so nice. Beer and trivia are two things that seldom combined in my up-to-now nightly life, but there I was, among people enjoying booze, noms and knowledge of obscure facts.

Disclaimer: We would have done better than I thought, if me and Maria had joined.

No matter though, it was a good day, and a very entertaining evening. This trip reminds of my trip in Finland , earlier this year, on the how-it-makes-me-want-to-change-my-life scale.l Not that I changed my life much after Finland but still… It takes many ax swings to fell a tree.

P.S. Very interesting article by Yahtzee, this guy amazes me how he can regularly produce quality content. Reading his blog was a huge inspiration for me to start the Attic and his whole career is something that I aspire too.

~Garret

12/1/14

Okey, lets give this one a shot. Today it is my first night in Birmingham. We scraped some really nasty creep from Maria’s kitchen, we applied toxic cleaning products and used blades instruments. On my train ride here I passed through Rugby, the supposed place of origin of the sport of the same name, and the home of Yahtzee. He couldn’t wait to leave this place and here I am looking for a way to stay here. The grass is greener here for one thing.

The view from Maria’s place is quite nice, you can see so many buildings and windows and rooftops from up here ( we re on the 14th floor!!!)

Anyway, cya all tomorrow.

~Garret

11/1/14

Today I had beer and food at the Eagle and Child, the very same pub that J.R.R.Tolkien and his mates used to frequent and talk about their writings, among other things. It was something I never thought I would do. Oxford was an amazing place, studying there must be one of the best legal experiences a student can have. Tomorrow I will continue my trip to the town of Birmingham, a town I know almost nothing about.

~Garret

9/1/14

Day one at my godfathers house went well, we drove around London (that is in a circle around it, not meandering in the city) and visited a very nice eye sight clinic and the GLOBAL SEED BANK, where every type of seed is stored in cryogenic storage. I would not be surprised if it was a front for a “wipe all humanity and start from the beginning” mega-villainous corporation, they even had a proper villain mansion on the grounds. Anyway it was impressive.

I don’t like how in flux my schedule is. Tomorrow I will make my final concrete plans for the journey. I was browsing train, plane and bus tickets and some quite ambitious plans came up. If I manage to conserve enough money… I might be able to actually make quite a long trip. Tomorrow I will consult parents and see. This whole thing started as a job interview journey, but that goal failed from the first hurdle. Now I can a) try and stick around as long as I can, maybe see what job hunting is like in Albion or b) just pack my bags and go back saving as much money as I can.

I am still quite disappointed in myself, both with my performance at the interview and my lack of any alternatives, so even if this was a great opportunity to see friends and the UK a bit… I feel like the proper thing to do would be to pack it and go back home…

If I could have a poll here (and readers of course) I would be interested to see what you (imaginary) guys would say.

Anyways, all that is work for the fantastic land of Tomorrow!

~Garret

8/1/14

Well hello again dear Diary, long time no see.

I am afraid I have bad news. The interview was a total disaster. I was quite disappointed with my performance, even though I had prepared and rehearsed a lot, that didn’t show through. I believe I appeared as someone who did not care much for the job. 90% of what I wanted to say I did not get to say.

Lesson learned I guess, but it still was the worst possible outcome from that interview. The whole experience was eerily similar to the infamous Yacht Fiasco incident of last September, not the best of days for my self-respect and confidence. I will soon post a transcript of my Travel Journal.

~Garret

5/1/14

The gathering at qb’s was quite nice. Smooth Jazz, homemade rakomelo and good company all around.
Eleni was there too, we used to date. It was nice seeing her, she is with a friend of qb’s for a good couple of years now, every time I think about it I feel weird, not jealous weird, I seldom feel that way, and for very few girls, but disappointed in myself rather. Many people that were great and worthy and beautiful, I have failed to recognize these qualities before they gave up on me (I really don’t blame them).
Nobody is perfect but I feel like I am one step behind my jerk self.

Other than that, in less that 12 hours I will be flying to the UK, for one interview. It sort of feels like putting all of one’s eggs in one basket, something the stories of old warn us against, but it is a job that I am willing to risk the basket for. Who knows? Maybe in a week or so I will be updating with great news, or bad news. The future is unwritten, you realize you have connected the dots after you’ve drawn the line.

~Garret

4/1/14

Tomorrow is a big day.
Packing, Planning ,Procrastinating and Partying are all in the schedule.
qb will be having a small pow wow at his place, (he is leaving for the uncharted Balkans soon, I am sure he will have many adventures there.)
Other than that, saw the new Sherlock today, it was okay, not great though.
I have downloaded a new sleeping cycle app, that supposedly will wake me up in the smoothest way possible. We shall see.

Dangit I have neglected the main page of my site.

~Garret

3/1/14

I will soon go to bed, I have to get into a U.K. schedule. Tomorrow I will be going to find and buy a big button mobile phone for Kokovos, his old phone is quite busted.
I am quite nervous about the following weeks. But cautiously optimistic.

Why is Tomorrow so hard to type? I mean really.

~Garret

2/1/14

Weird sleeping schedule times are upon us, dear Journal. Prepare for good morning updates at 10 PM and goodnight posts at 2 PM.

Today I posted the second qbdp podcast (links and info in the main post), so if you want to feel like you were sitting on the couch of the ξενέρωτους, in a New Year’s party, feel free to put some headphones and hop in. It will be like you were an invisible time travelling companion.  Party like it’s 2014.
Do give it a listen.

I sent a “Happy New Year” text to Marina, we had a small chat, it might be the start of a very fragile new friendship, or nothing at all.

Time will tell I guess.

I must prepare for the interview more. The more I practice, the less nervous I will be.
~Garret

1/1/14

Two thousand fourteen, blimey… we live in the future.

Well, New Year, New Me. As if. I know cynics say that tommorow is as much the first day of the new year as the 30th of June is, but I guess we had to pick a date. The beginning of spring would make more sense though, in a narrative sort of way.
I will be going at a party later on tonight so I am sort of preemptively journal-ing just in case I can’t find my face when I get back.
Today Maria came by and helped me prepare for the interview (she has been in quite a few so there was lots to learn), her help was invaluable.

B.T.W.: I recently bought Frozen Synapse and XCOM for my iPad. Total cost: 25 euros. During the holiday sales I could have bought them for 10. I am sure there is a lesson somewhere in there.

What would I like from 2014? Me having secured a living abroad. work out regularly, eat properly be healthy and happy. How much of that will I achieve?
Stay tuned… see you after the party.

~Garret

 

30/12/13

For the past few days i’ve almost forgotten to add a journal entry, it makes me feel bad but admitting it might help me being more consistent , like it did with my workout, HA!

Anyway, i saw Rush today, it was a very neat movie, a tale of rivalry and racing. Also, at the time of writing, Michael Schumacher is in a coma at the hospital after a skiing accident.

I also learned today about Marina and how she’s doing. She’s back in her hometown. Anyway, it got me thinking, we haven’t talked since our parting of ways this summer, after some quite hurtful behaviour on her part. I guess completely shutting someone off is my way of moving on. I have not spent much time thinking about her, but I would be lying if I said I haven’t missed certain things. I am currently facing a dilemma, should I sent her a message that might rekindle some sort of communication or not? Do I really want to? Is she worth it? Does it even matter?

Anyway, I am rambling.

~Garret

29/12/13

Indoor day today, partially spent it researching stuff and practicing for the interview, playing League and getting distracted. I am neglecting the site a bit, I bet 20p (let’s get used to it) that I ‘ll be doing a sappy new years resolution in which I will have a “update the site more often” somewhere between “work out” and “date Eva Green”.

heh, remember when I worked out?
REMINDER: Pay your mobile internet bill, or it will get SHUT DOWN!

~Garret

 

28/12/13

Issues with the journal, will resolve tomorrow. I guess the main site should serve as an update place for the time being.

Spend the whole day with my godchild, had a great time and we had a very tasty dinner and then i went for beers and wine, maria was there too! She is partially to blame for the Journal incident we have on our hands, so send her emails and bug her.

Other than that, i ll probably fill you in in a later update and if I get to restore my previous journal entries.
Goodnight folks.

Update: Fix’d it.
Also, man I had the weirdest dream today. It is starting to fade on me now, but it was a huge story of treasure, murder, friendship and rotating blades.

~Garret

 

27/12/13

I think I am going to live this through, nose continues to annoy me but oh well.

Lol, I wanted to write an journal entry but then I started to listen to qb’s new podcast (maybe these words will send you to it) and lost my train of thought. I am only 10 minutes in as I type this so I can’t comment on the whole thing, but I do recommend all my readers to check it out, personally, I think it is very… “qb”, clumsily funny and honestly interesting.

By the way, today I filed papers for a passport, on the way back me and my mother stopped at the super market, there a book caught my eye, a children’s book,upon closer inspection I realized it was (Aw, I was just mentioned on the qbdp! So, in a weird combination of media I will answer and say “No problem, qb!”)a chapter of one of my favourite fairy tale books, Το Μεγάλο Βιβλίο του Δάσους, a.k.a. Meet the Woodland Folk. It was a series of wonderfully illustrated and written books full of wonderful stories of talking animals, dragons that whistled before they grow into adulthood, gnomes, giants, witches and elves. The book I had is unfortunately lost now, I’ve searched my old books and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I think I will making a purchase, every kid should read these.

I mean just look at the Elves house. Now imagine you lived there. And there was a snowstorm outside.

The smoke from the stove is warming the stone beneath the winter beds. I MEAN DAAAAAAAAAYUM!

~Garret

26/12/13

The runny nose has continued to plague me. I am trying to create the biggest pile of snotty tissue in my bin, it will be like a Trundle pillar when my nose has dried up.

Feeling gloomy.

~Garret

25/12/13

Panic Mode! The interview is 10 days earlier it seems, anxiety levels rising!
I also have a runny nose.
I might be biting off more than I can chew

~Garret

24/12/13

Oh boy today I woke up and got a reply from one of the jobs I sent an application for, for a video game company no less! I will go to London in January for an interview. I am super nervous about it, as this is my first interview of the sort. I will surely spend the next few days studying and preparing for it. Oh boy if I get this it would be big…

I will know in roughly 20 days. Blimey!

I should try and get some sleep. HA!

~Garret

23/12/13

Birthday party update:

I always had this horrible fear that I would do a birthday party once and none would show up. I have this image of me sitting alone on a big table, wearing a sad party hat, next to a stack of party cups, only the one I am drinking from missing.

Tonight it wasn’t like that. It was a night of friends, beer and merriness. It was cheaper than I expected, it was funner than I expected, and everybody was there. It was like the ending of bloody Big Fish.

All in all, I had a great night, I feel lucky for having these friends and want to thank each and every one that was there for their company and fellowship, over all these years.
Here is to 26.

~Garret

21-22/12/13

Woh, second night in a row of drinks.
Went back home and crashed , not even thinking of an update.
So this is the first Journal entry I do in the morning, (afternoon even).

Still, words, not, easy, I’can’t.

Probable update later.

Update Later:

After a nice hearty meal everything seemed brighter.
Instead of an journaly post, I will just recount a true story a friend of mine told me.

This guy is walking in the woods, he set out in the afternoon but he got a bit carried away and as a result, got lost.
After a few hours he still hadn’t found his way back, and night was well upon him.
In a stoke of luck, he found a house, something that looked like a summer cabin, with the lights on. He knocked on the door but there was no answer.
It was starting to get chilly so he gave the door a prod to find that it was unlocked.
He entered the house, it was basically a two room deal, which was , indeed, empty.
There was a bed in the back room, and as it was too dark to see anything tonight, he thought that he might as well sleep here for a while and try to find his way home with the morning light. The bed was comfortable and the room was adequately warm, the only weird thing about it were some paintings on the walls, portraits of people, they all seemed to be looking at the bed.

But our friend was a logical man, so he ignored this , admittedly, strange thing and went to sleep.

It was only in the morning, when he was woken up by the early sun that he realized:

They weren’t paintings at all… they were windows.

~Garret

20/12/13

Woh, had a good day today. A full night too!
Today was the annual Christmas dinner that my dad’s company holds every year, we went to a very nice restaurant, with a view of Lycabetus hill we feasted on some expertly made dishes and service that made me feel awkward, I always do when I am being served by 3-4 very eager waiters. So yea, it was a great night.
As an extra bonus after that I went to meet my friends, (Ymir just got back from the Netherlands) in our favourite German beer hall. There was beer, friendship and fun there.
Now I am back home watching David Mitchell rant about various uninteresting things in an interesting way and drinking tea.
Life was good today.

As they say at the Road Club in Karelia, “Let’s all have a lucky day”

~Garret

19/12/13

I am hungry.

~Garret

18/12/13

Slow day today, did a bit of writing for the site, nothing ready yet, but will be posted soon. Sent an email requesting clarifications to the Masters, I should double my efforts tbh.
Oh, saw National Treasure 2, it was a piece of shit.

Got Baldur’s Gate on my iPad, it looks GOOOORGEOUS on it.
I wonder what a good no-internet timetable would be like… I really should use qb’s gift.

~Garret

17/12/13

Sleepy, had a good day.
See you tomorrow!

~Garret

16/12/13

Another iPad entry, getting used to the keyboard, it seems to be quite adequate for short to medium posts. Today I cooked some rice, it was quite tasty, I can now add it to my list of things I can cook (now consisting of: rice).
Other than that, I filled my iPad to the brim with games and apps, finally got XCOM, it runs so smoooooth.
Tomorrow I really should get some work done.

P.S. The Silent Hill Revelation 3D movie sucks monkeyfuck. It is almost admirable how they can miss the point of Silent Hill. Also a lesson on how a recognisable name, ANY, recognisable name can persuade movie studios to make a movie.

~Garret

15/12/13

Got back from Arkham Horror night with qb and Karina, her house is just amazing, you can see the Acropolis from the living room. Very Jealous.
Also, taking the iPad out for a spin.It is performing admirably.
But, I parked quite a bit away and had to wait for about 50 minutes, for the night bus, so I could get to my car.
While walking home, I got this urge of “i-must-do-stuff”ness, so I got back. So I got back and translated what I had to send to my professor, AND sent an application for a very very yummy job at Failbetter Games. AND made tea!

So yea, I am feeling quite the overachiever. I should do stuff more often.

P.S.: qb, if you re reading this Thanks for the birthday present…!!!
I am almost too scared to use it… also: :p
P.S.2: Maria, if you re reading this, why do you say that you don’t want people reading about you in the Journal?

~Garret

14/12/13

Hey, last days entry is missing!
Where could it be?
Today was an iPad day, I am setting it up quite nicely, got some comics and books in. Maria got a Nexus 7.

Tomorrow, I should get to work, translate my recommendation letter and see what I should do about the IELTS thing .
I am updating from the iPad btw, waaaay easier than from the iPod, I wanna write a tribute to my pocket media friend though, me and him, we’ve seen quite a few thing together. Maybe I can sync my notes too….

I am neglecting the Attic a bit.
Now where did that lost entry from yesterday go…?
.

~Garret

12/12/13

Yey, birthday is done. Onward to 26.

It was a good day, we saw Hobbit with Michele, Lupo,another girl whose name I can’t remember, Pano, Vaso and Sokrati.
The movie was good, it takes quite a few liberties from the book, extra action scenes, extra characters, plot threads, it was more like Hobbit fan-fiction than an actual movie. But it was good fan-fiction. Enjoyable. Even though Legolas looks like he lost 20 kg and 20 years in the time until the Council of Elrond.
The sets were amazing, Laketown especially I thought looked brilliant.
On the whole, I believe that these movies will be able to fit in the great world that the LotR movies showed us. The Hobbit was not as good as LotR, in either medium.

After the movie we went for beers. It was good.

Also… My Cambridge Proficiency in English diploma I got in 2003 is not good enough for Leiden, because it is too old. I guess getting a diploma is more like a 2-year verification that I know English.
So I ll have to get a TOEFL or a BLAFEG or a FFS.

Happy Birthday to me!

~Garret

11/12/13

Howdydoo, tomorrow I will be 25…
I wrote an article about it on the main page so go read that instead.

~Garret

10/12/13

2 Days left.

They say it will be cold tomorrow.
Today I woke up really badly, had a rough sleep last night and woke up , albeit by my awesome godchild, in a rotten mood.
It was soon rectified by good food, lovely people and a trip to downtown Athens where I hunted for the elusive iPad Mini Retina 32Gb Cellular that I am after, but these things are probably made from materials of the FRIGGIN’ MOON , judging from how hard they are to find.

Anyways, tomorrow I will be applying to another company that does… communications and technology, right up my alley, who would’ve thunk it!

Other than that,

LET THE COLD BEGIN

~Garret

9/12/13

What the flip?! I thought I did an iPod update but now it seems to have been lost. Down the dark drain of the unmade. What a cruel analogy for our flickering, pointless existance.

Other than that, I should also cut down on LoL since I feel it can drain away my day.

~Garret

8/12/13

Not so late night this time, but then again I am currently watching Predators, for the second time.
It is not an amazing movie, but it is a better sequel than Predator 2. It’s heart is in the right place, with a few clever moments and it is respectful of it’s franchise.
The cast is hit and miss, Adrian Brody is definitely NOT a good action star, he looks like a kid acting a bad-ass. The rest of the crew is okay though, I especially liked the cool Yakuza guy, his Samurai Showdown with a predator was the highlight of the film.

Other than that, tomorrow I’ll try and wake up early, btw I am never gonna learn to spell tomorrow correctly.

Dusted off my Wacom today, daily sketches would be nice.

~Garret

7/12/13

Another extreme late night, this must change soon.

Watching this and conquering the world with America.
I just won a World War and managed to secure a whole continent in Civ for my Nation.
I had to destroy Korea, Spain and the Iroquois all while being under a trade embargo.
A brutal struggle but in the end no-one could match the well oiled machine of my fighting force.
Artillery shells in combination with strategic cavalry attacks made short work of any opposition on the continent of Garretia.

In the real world though, I am quite annoyed with this late night thing, it is very easy for me to settle in a sleep schedule such as this.
It’s not that it is not fun, but changes must happen.

I should go sleep.

~Garret

6/12/13

Beer was had today. Beer is good. Beer makes Garret happy.

So yea, this German beer place that we used to go quite often but was quite expensive and as a result, shut down.
Recently we heard that it had reopened.
Galdar had some days off from the army so we went and partied like it was 2005, good times were had.
Other than that, some news… the NF thing is going okey, much easier than I expected but then again, it’s only been 3 hours days.

On an unrelated note… I am a lazy person. I am the first to admit it.
So I often wonder, is everybody as lazy and somehow overcomes it or is there a special level of laziness I have somehow achieved?
Millions of things I want to write/make/draw/do, I never seem to do them. I know it’s only me that is standing in the way.

But then again, here I am.

Remember when I said this wouldn’t be a whining blog?
HA!

~Garret

P.S. Final Fantasy VIII is now out on steam… oh the memories. That game not working on my PC was the reason I got a PlayStation.

5/12/13

What! I skipped a day! Oh, well. The post on the main page was very Journal-y so I guess it is a sort of excuse.
Today I applied for the Leiden MA, paid the application fee and everything.

I have some issues with Windows Movie Maker and it’s ability to import photos for my time-lapse.
For some reason some of them will be imported with letterboxes on the edges…

And, speaking of Makers, I downloaded Game Maker Studio, I am trying to think of an idea for a very basic game just to try it out, I guess I will go with something really basic, probably involving princesses and zombies.
Zombie princesses maybe.

Man, even that has been done.

Zombies went from cool and edgy to mainstream and lame in just a decade.

Even articles talking about this are commonplace now.

O tempora, O mores.

~Garret
3/12/13

Half wrote a post for the journal and then decided to make it a bit more robust and post on the main site.
But alas, dear reader, the hour is getting late.
Well I would have made it ready to post by tonight but I started watching this video here and I got quite distracted.
I very much appreciate what Dawkins is doing and I admire the way he engages in conversation.
This video was too much though… I can’t fathom how he could maintain his cool when faced with such εθελοτυφλία…
Humanity has a long way to go still.

Speaking of which Civilization 5 is proving a MAJOR time sink.

~Garret

2/12/13

After a thoroughly good dinner with pasta,salad and wine, the post-food drowsiness struck.
So here I am after a weird two hour sleep.

Today the bank thing did not work out (not the only thing that didn’t. Or is it workout?).
Anyway I’ll have to try again tomorrow.

I spent quite a few hours in Civ 5 today, I am leading the Celts into glory and world domination with the help of Garretism, a religion that seems to be about rivers n’sheeeit.
I like the game, it has a nice relaxing feel to it, the music is excellent and the bizarre scenarios you find yourself into I am sure will make for very interesting tales no-one would want to listen to.

Well, that’s mostly it for now folks, I’ll just finish up my tea and figure out what I want to do with my life.

~Garret, of the Celts

1/12/13

Happy December!

I… WHAT 6 AM? But I was just trying out Civ 5… and I picked Greece and had no idea what the hell I was doing… and I explored, and researched stuff and met Persians (awkward), Celts and Mongolians…
and bloody hell this is just as bad as HoMM in terms of “Just-one-more-turniness”

Anyway, gotta go sleep super quickly cause tomorrow morning I have to get up and go to the bank.
I will pay my application fee for the Leiden MA and then get back home and send everything to them!

ttfw!

~Garret

30/11/13

Wake up, November is ending. The green month is gone. I am now 12 days away from turning 25.
The Gazi event was fun, even though both me and Sokratis did not fare well in LoL and Sc2 respectively.
There were tons of booth-babes ,something I consider insulting for myself and the video game industry but… also… kinda hot…).
I also touched my first PlayStation 4 and played Crysis 3 (I think)(I was not impressed, the controller was nice though).
And I nearly won a prize.

I was quite beat by the end of the whole thing so when Vaso suggested that she and Sokratis go for a drink, something I was less than thrilled about.

I played a bit of HoMM VI and got my ass kicked in a Scenario.
Tomorrow Maria suggested we work on “stuff we have to do” i.e. my master’s application.

Well, That was it, no workout.
It died a slow death.
Will it rise from the ashes like a phoenix?
Doubt it.

I find that my mood was way better when I exercised, COULD IT BE THAT WHAT EVERYBODY SAYS IS TRUE!?
Tune in tomorrow to find out!
Nighty-nites

~Garret

29/11/13

Oh boy, I nearly forgot to update tonight.
I am currently watching the Parkinson interviews of Muhammad Ali, I first watched the one in 1974 and now I am watching the one in 1981… even though he is one of the most passionate speakers I have ever seen, also very quick,mentally, the latter interview though sure shows signs of his struggle with illnesses.
Also, tonight I went out (something I haven’t done in quite a while) with Pano, Sokratis, Vaso and Michele.
We went to Spirtokouto, quite an crappy place but for some reason always is full of people.
The beer was cheep though, although watered down, hard to argue with 3 euros a pint.
Had four or so, plus some really nice spicy shots. And a jello-shot. No navels were involved.
Man, Parkinson is the best interviewer, he has interviewed EVERYBODY.
Tomorrow I should wake up early, I am going with Socratis to a gaming festival in Gazi, there will be 1v1 tournaments in League of Legends,200 euros for first place, it’s gonna be fun.
Not that I am gonna win.
Also, bought Heroes of Might and Magic VI with EVERY EXPANSION for 10 euros.
I will be surely playing this game.

See you tomorrow, dear readers*

~Garret

*By that I mean, Mom.

28/11/13

Aaaah, the late nights strike again!
Well, no MA progress I admit. But, I did apply for a job at Riot. I can’t say I expect anything but it felt good applying.
Other than that, I played some Planetside 2 with Maria tonight, she is developing into quite the gamer.
Anyway, late night, guilty for staying up, see you tomorrow, world!

~Garret

27/11/13

Heeey, early-ish update! The world has gone topsy-turvy!

Today I did my first livestream, I played the first, half hour or so of Outlast, a very decent horror game, and my glorious viewers were mostly Maria and Nicklas.
The experience was very enjoyable and I would really like to do it again sometime.
Also, I found out my camera has an interval shooting mode, basically I can program it (her) to shoot a photo every 30 seconds, or how many I chose to set.
I have a feeling many time-lapse videos will be coming.

No progress on the MA front, I will have to double-time it tomorrow.

~Garret

26/11/13

By the Gods is it late, nearly 5 AM.

Anyway, I just wanted to post an update on my extremely fruitful (disclaimer: not really) visit to the Eures convention.
Imagine a big hall with tables all along the perimeter, for all the different countries, each with a couple of representatives that would inform and hand out leaflets to eager applicants that wished to work abroad.
I did not hand out any CVs, even though I spent 5 euros to print 15 of them, since it was more of a consulting event than a job offering one.
I spoke to people from the Netherlands, Scotland (Aberdeen specifically, the lady there advised me against going in Dundee since they have the insane unemployment rate of 6% [Greece has about 60 in my age bracket]) and Denmark.
I got some basic information as to which websites I can use to find a job, a ton of leaflets and 3 pens.

I am not going to lie, I was disappointed a bit, not by the event but in me. I saw many people around me that had a clear job title, Engineer, IT Guy, e.t.c., something that I cannot say about myself. Qb suggested I use the title Media Expert but I can’t help but feel like I have accumulated a lot of “interesting stuff” and not enough “stuff that someone would pay me for”.

Anyway, posted the Doctor Who article and suggested that Maria watched Blink (my favourite Doctor Who episode) so far she thinks it is awesome, I will post her final opinion tomorrow.

and I am going to crash soon, my bed is calling, warm, inviting, never judging.
See you in a few hours, if you re into that sort of thing!

~Garret

25/11/13

I wonder how long I will keep mentioning that I have not done any exercise before I officially give up.
Time will tell I guess.
As for news, I am nearly done with a Doctor Who article and tomorrow (in less than 6 hours actually) I will go to this… work…festival…thing, where people from the magical land of Europe, that have jobs to give to the talented but unlucky Greek youth, such as myself, will come to meet us.
I am worried though because the announcement I read mentioned that it concerned engineers and IT guys, I have to admit I barely consider myself a programmer but I will print out a few CVs and head out , wearing my sharpest clothes, to hand them out.

Am I optimistic about it?
Not really. But it will give a sense of purpose and more importantly, a sense of not-sitting-on-my-ass.

See you tomorrow for an update.

P.S. I did send a request for a recommendation letter. It has begun!

~Garret

24/11/13

Another late night entry in the Journal.
So let’s keep that one short as well. Tomorrow a new week is starting. I will make a pledge here and now to have applied to BOTH of the MA programs by next Sunday.

I also saw the Day of the Doctor,the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special and that reminded me all I like and dislike about Doctor Who.

I will post something about it on the main page soon.
So yea, lot’s of things to be done this week.

Workout is in hiatus… it is annoying to read previous entries and seeing the slow corruption that led to where we are.

~Garret

23/11/13

This will be brief cause I am quite sleepy, you know the kind of sleepy, where I am trying to keep my eyes by using my eyebrows.
That thing.

Anyway, today I changed the Attic’s theme.
I will try using Weaver II after a recommendation by Cubilone, it seems much more modifiable and flexible than Skirmish.
It just occured to me that future readers of the Attic, me included, will not have a way to see what the site looked during it’s evolution through the years, decades even. I don’t know of any way, save screenshots, to document the visual change.
I also went out for b33rs tonight with Maria, Tzam, Niko and Ale3a.
I hadn’t done that for aaaaaaaaaaages.
With Galdar now in the army, Inzi working and Aris in the Netherlands, Malone’s is starting to forget who it’s true mayor is.
On the plus side: I am stockpiling money.

Leiden MA progress: Well, I just need to get a translated recommendation letter (I will have to contact her and probably send her the Greek version for translation).
Other than that… no progress…

~Garret

22/11/13

How do you call progress so slow it can hardly qualify as progress? Progress I guess.
Anyway, that’s what I did today. I made a list , yes a list, with all the documents I need to apply for Leiden.
It was so exhausting I took a nap afterwards. No joke.

I think there is a correlation between the number of tabs I keep open on my browser with how little I do each day.
Right now I have 26 tabs open.

I will take a hit on my HabitRPG profile for not working out today… I have no idea how many HP I will lose.

So, on less inert news, Fotis did a really cool remix of the audio file I posted a few days ago (not in the Journal). I will be surely posting it on this site since it is awesome and cool and creepy!

Drawing, drawing, I haven’t drawn in ages. Doodles don’t count. I should draw something one of these days. Maria had an idea for a series of drawings, it sounded interesting but insanely hard (I can’t draw real life faces). I should ask her for more details.

That’s all folks, another late night has come to an end.

~Garret

21/11/13

Well… today was spent in League of Legends.
The only thing I did remotely related to MA progress is set up my HabitRPG page where Applying for Dundee/Leiden is on a To-Do list.
It is not much I admit and I feel bad not doing it.
You know, I would like to avoid whining and nagging in this blog but not by simply omitting it from my Journal but by actually doing things that would give me a sense of fulfillment instead.
Even though I set up my profile on HabitRPG, I am still not sure how to “balance” my rewards and “quests”.

I think there is a connection between my sleep pattern and my productivity. But strangely enough these are the hours (well, early morning) that I feel most motivated. It is weird. Anywhoo…

Tomorrow I want to gather all the papers I have that will be needed for the applications and see what is missing.
I would also like to exercise, gosh darn it is SO EASY not to.

On the bright side I kicked ASS on League. Best Lux around ooh yea.

~Garret

20/11/13

This week has not gone well. Not in any serious way, but I haven’t worked out since last Friday I think. As a certain songwriter would put it , I am slip slidin’ away.

It is 4:30 AM. I feel the wake up late-waste time-go to bed late at night routine just around the corner. I should find something to do, a goal or something else to work towards, that will give me something to focus.
I want to apply for some MA courses , one in the Netherlands and two in the UK, I wanted to do that last year also but I did not. I just procrastinated till it was too late, I think this dull routine I am at the edge of might be the reason for that.

Okay, goals for tomorrow: Work on the site, write an article or learn a bit of CSS AND make some sort of first move as far as the MA applications go.

Let’s see.

~Garret

19/11/13

Ugh, words. Today is not for words. Brain… works… slowly.

I had a really embarrassing conversation today where I went on a rant before realizing I had understood the whole thing ass-backwards. Of course I made an ass of myself. Watching it from afar it might have been interesting.
Oh, you know… something like this.
It has happened a few times and it makes me feel really awkward and stupid.
Oh well, let it be a lesson for the future.

Other than that… I won’t have to keep going to the office soon.
Which means I will have to find an actual job with … what was the word… ah,yes, money!

Sleepiness… is near…

~Garret

18/11/13

I am writing this instead of exercising. I am a little sleepy but I do feel like this is an excuse on my part. Darn it, Blerch, it is soooo easy to let myself go just this once and then next Monday effortlessly becomes the next starting-again date. At least I document it this time eh? More excuses me thinks.

Let’s not dwell on that though. I bought a new mug today, my old one was getting quite beat up, being plastic and all, but still I feel like it was superior to the one I have now.

What else did I learn today…. Oh! This guy, most probably, saved the world, well, at least millions of lives. The fact that not many people know about him makes me suspect he actually DID save the world.

So what do I intend to do now? I will watch an episode of Columbo and drink tea from my new mug, then have a bath (turn the water heater on!!) and dive in my bed where I will fall asleep watching Let’s Plays on my iPod.

Yes I am lazy today, and it feels sooooo gooood.

Fuck.

~Garret

17/11/13

I have been gathering some ideas for stuff I want to write on the blog. But they are half-baked ideas. So I will let them cook for a bit.
I just had a lengthy internet crawl that started , as many do, from xkcd. It was a space-themed crawl, I saw images from Mars, documentaries on Black Holes and other such things that I have the urge to make a regular post about, but I want to express my gut feeling tonight.
And that feeling is:

We know nothing (,man)!

The universe is HUGE and our means of exploring it are very limited.
So often in history people KNEW they knew at least most of the stuff that goes on.
They were almost most of the time wrong.
The half-life of truth is so short that it makes my certainty-seeking nature very upset.
Embracing it is a struggle but in a weird way… at least that is certain.

Great… no progress made since Socrates.

Anyway, this is it for tonight.

P.S. No workout today… I am not happy about it.

P.S.2 Update from 5 AM, no sleep yet because I JUST HAD to learn the rules of Fantasy Football. #internetaddiction

P.S.3 I don’t even LIKE football.

~Garret

16/11/13

Well hello, people of the World.
Oh, I just found out there is a Craigslist for Greece, of course I went and checked all the personal ads, some were… interesting.
Anyway, tonight was a night of Hookah and rakomelo, with Cubilone, Mario and Niko, good times.

Reminded me of the Mitilini Years a bit, I am a sucker for Nostalgia.

NO I DID NOT WORK OUT TODAY BTW.

But I did send an application for the Graphic Designer job so I don’t feel like I have wasted my day.
We had to run to Syntagma Sq. to catch the last Metro and I was quite out of breath when I got there.

Cubilone wasn’t and that made me really regret not going through with the C25K the way he did, I could have been a lean marathon runner by now!

Oh well… he didn’t paint any Dark Angels miniatures though! I finished up my third today, he was a tricky one and he turned out way better than I thought.
See you tomorrow folks!

~Garret

15/11/13

Laziness is something that comes easy to me.
I was supposed to workout today but I managed to convince myself that I might as well do it tomorrow and still hit the 3 days a week I hoped for. I can’t help but feel like the Blerch has won today. I miss sketching/drawing as well.
I am currently watching my first episode of Columbo.
Tomorrow I really must send my CV for that internship.
Hold me accountable Journal!
I really like Columbo so far btw.

~Garret

14/11/13

Daily updates are hard, there is no two ways about it. How Yahtzee managed to do daily interesting updates for so many years is beyond me.
Cause, folks, really, I did not do anything interesting today.
I am don’t want to admit it, since this blog is meant to be a “do something worth writing for” kind of thing but it is true. I did not even paint my miniature, well, I did glue some sand and rocks on the base of one, so there. I am such an overachiever really.
Tomorrow I really should send a CV to a company looking for a Graphic Designer for an internship, it would be really cool if I could land a job like that.
What else… Well, currently I am drinking wine and checking out the Insomnia Sale on Good Old Games, just bought Myst for 1,49$ or so. Booze and money-spending decisions should NOT be mixed, casinos know what they are doing man.
I also bought Wing Commander 4, starring none other than the Jedi Master himself, the Clown Prince of Crime, Mark Hammil.
Will I ever play all these games I’ve stockpiled like a deranged squirrel? I keep imagining myself being somewhere with little to no internet and tons of free time where I will be able to ,finally, play all these games, read all these books… What did you say? I should write a blog post about this feeling?
What a brilliant idea, I just very well might!

~Garret

13/11/13

Can’t stay for long, dear diary.
I am getting sleepy, well, bed-y at least.
Alas, I couldn’t go to bed without a check in.
Unfortunately it can’t be anything more than that, but worry not, faithful friend, for absence makes the heart grow fonder and our reunion will be all the sweeter for the time we have spent apart.

Oh, it seems there is a blackout from the storm, everything is dark outside my windo–

~Garret

12/11/13

As you regular readers will have noticed, there was no Journal update yesterday, so let me give you a recap.

The iPhone training is going great, my dad seems to enjoy it more than I expected he would.
And then the RAIN! It was pissing down all afternoon, I got thoroughly soaked when trying to get into the car to go home. It was brilliant.
I guess I haven’t made that abundantly clear in this blog, so here goes:
I love rain.
Not in the sissy way of “Yea sure, if you’re inside its great”.
I would love rain even if I was a sandcastle. I will not go to great length about it, this is not the time nor the place.

So anyway, last night I was fully prepared to do my , by now shaky, routine of painting Warhammer miniatures , exercising , playing league of legends, watching Let’s Plays on Youtube and updating the Attic.

Next thing I know it’s 6 AM for a brief couple of minutes then it is noon today.

So yea, I slept with my clothes on, like a Final Fantasy VIII character, something I haven’t done since my days of reckless rock-star-lifestyle in Lesvos. The last thing I remember was watching Radio Arvila and then… darkness.

After 12 hours of sleep though, I do feel quite energetic, even though I did not think I needed any rest, I guess I did. Unless we have another case of a missing day as the dreaded first Tuesday of June 2006, a day that was lost, what happened then was never explained.

Random Fact of the Day: If you squeeze toothpaste from the middle while singing “O come all ye faithful” backwards, the toothpaste will taste like vanilla and chicken soup.

~Garret

10/11/2013

Not much done today.
We nearly held a BBQ but the coals where shit so we grilled some tasty ribs and sausages.
I also finished my second Dark Angel figurine. The next one is more complex, he has a chainsword, no helmet and a banner base on his backpack. I will try and create a makeshift banner from a clear plastic package I found, see if that works.
Tomorrow I’ll go get my dad’s mini-SIM for his iPhone, see if I can set it up and begin his training in the world of touch and swipe.
Things I learned today: That I should make sure I learned something today before I start a sentence with “Things I learned today:”

I‘M SO META EVEN THIS ACRONYM

~Garret

9/11/2013

I am writing this mildly drunk.
Just got back from a nice night out with Galdar, Inzi, Bill, Panos, Michele and Vasw. Lots of beer was consumed and much fun was had.
Galdar is joining the Army next week and this might be the last night out we have, especially if there is a war and the troops must go and kill every non-Greek out there.
But probably that won’t be the case.

Today my dad got an iPhone 4s, that makes me the only person in the family not running an iOS7 device, not that I care, I am just pointing it out.

While I was in the shop waiting for the new-phone procedure to go through I saw Kiratzos, he was in a demonstration that was passing outside.

After me and my dad bought the iPhone, which I fully intend to make him comfortable using, we went to have a snack at our local KFC, a place I hadn’t visited since the beginning of summer, that is where something weird happened:
There was this man and woman, mother and son probably, mother in her 80s and son in his 50s, eating a regular KFC meal, thing is: they were there the LAST time I was at the same KFC, following the same procedure: eating a cheap meal and then the old mother would gather all the leftovers and the leftovers from the nearby tables and then they would leave.

So that was my day. I did not workout, I did not learn how to add a browser tab icon to my website but soon… soon I will. Also tomorrow I meant to go to a photo contest in downtown Athens but the sweet embrace of Morpheus might force me to abandon it.

Cya tomorrow!

~Garret

8/11/2013

Today I didn’t go to work, stayed in and did housework.
Things I learned:
1) Sharp-side-up cutlery in the washing machine makes me paranoid that I will cut myself.
2) I can see the island of Hydra from my balcony, it is 36 NM away.
3) Blizzard can still make the kick-arse-iest cinematic trailers in the gaming industry.
I mean seeing Kerrigan Vs Tyrael in the new Heroes of the Storm trailer sure made my pants
tighter.

Also saw World’s End. At last. Theaters in Greece decided that we weren’t worthy of witnessing the brilliance of Wright’s, Pegg’s and Frost’s moviemaking magic so my only choice was to see it on my PC. IT WAS AWESOME.

~Garret

7/11/2013

Dear Diary,

Today I decided to start keeping a diary. The intent is for it to be daily, (although I’ll have to find some interesting stuff to write every day) and completely non-fictional.
I wouldn’t like my main blog flow (Is it me or would the phrase “blog flow” sound like something produced by diarrhea to someone from the pre-internet dark age?) too “diary-y” so with this arrangement here I get to have a journal of sorts without it getting in the way of the avalanche of awesome content in the main page.
Let’s start, shall we?

Quite a normal day today, went to work at about 2 PM and have been actively trying to avoid work today. I know it will catch up with me tomorrow but I will be a different man by then, more resolved, more experienced, older, wiser.
I also spoke with Argiro, who I hadn’t heard from in ages, we arranged a Skype call for tomorrow morning.
If I had started running, today would be a running day, I can almost picture another Garret in the nearly identical parallel universe where I did run, with leg muscles like industrial pistons being halfway in his C25K. But screw that guy, he did not start his journal today and I bet he is almost !
So yea, this is pretty much a test post, see ya all tomorrow.

~Garret