London and "28 Days Later"

Do you remember the movie "28 Days Later"? I am sure it was shot on Christmas day. Why? I will tell you through a story.

Today I was invited by my ex-girlfriend to have a Christmas eve dinner with 2 more friends. I went, had a good time, and left. On the bus I realised that I took by mistake her cash card, don't ask me why. I found it very funny, and called her to ask for her pin number in order to buy myself a Christmas present offered by her, and I couldn't help laughing. Then we realised that my friend had also forgot his bag there. I continued laughing. And after 5 mins I realised that I forgot also the bag with the presents I bought for my family and my flatmates. Then I stopped laughing. (but after a minute I started again). I would leave for Greece in two days, so I had enough time to go and get them. But, had I?

Christmas day is the only day in this city that there is nothing working, and above all the transportation, not even rare bus routes. It is a strange feeling to realize how bounded we are with such fundamental things, like the freedom to move from one place to the other on demand, which we take for granted. I felt like being trapped in my house (well, it's not so dramatic, it's not the first time to stay at home for a day, but it is the first time I have no other choice).

It's not bad of course, since I think these people did it on purpose to let London relax for one day; I will call it striking. My family and friends will call it something like "Dimitri stop thinking these kind of stuff and find ways to improve your memory"

PS I am thinking to have the presents delivered by post to Greece (Btw I live in NW London and Vicky lives in SE - Greenwich)

A day in Google

Google is a fun place to be. Today I have experienced what makes its developers be so inspired; it's not actually a working place, it is a

1) playground: from video games till table football, full of inflated balls even "welcome" balloons for the newcomers.
2) 5 star restaurant: I had to stay for ages in front of the buffet applying some old-time-classic linear programming knowledge in order to maximize the pleasure of the chosen food, baring in mind the size limitations of the human stomach. Limitations regarding cost where relaxed, since everything was for free.
3) race track: I have ridden a Segway along with my friend who is working there, without any accidents while maneuvering through the workstations on the floor. I am lucky that my friend, Giorgos was not around to inform them about my charismatic talent to destroy any kind of hardware on my way.

It was fun, thanx Michele for the invitation!

Your child is clever? Great! But don't praise it for this gift

Why?
you will learn tomorrow, now my flatmate wants to surf the internet!!!

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Do you have some free time for laughing? Then lean comfortably on your armchair, and enjoy this post about a not so typical greek family planning to go to a wedding (hope you can understand greek to read it :)

Some like it Hot

No more deep thinking for today, just a break to enjoy the simplest things in life:
Enjoy the UCLA undie run that took place yesterday (Ilia I envy you!)

Can I attract the London Opera?

In a previous post, I made a reference to the Law of Attraction. In a nutshell, this theory suggests that whatever you think of, you attract it. This can be the case for either things that you really want, or things that you don't want at all. I will illustrate this theory through an event that its final phase happened today.

The story starts back in September, when I decided to have a visit to UCL's Fresher's Fair. There I received a leaflet about the scheduled activities of UCL Student Union throughout the Year. Among them there was one in December that I didn't want to miss for anything, the Ballet of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" at the London Opera House. The reasons were 3:

1) The Opera of London is a "must visit" place for a person who is considering himself cultured (for any comments on this, feel free to use the button "comments" at the end of the post:)
2) The Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker was the first cd I bought in 1996 (not that much because of my delicate taste in music, but because it was given for free with a magazine)
3) ₤15 for a London Opera performance is a special offer and I cannot resist to such offers.

So I decided to go.

But because I am the king o procrastination, I went to get the tickets in November. Result? They were sold out. After some msecs of self blaming I asked to put my name in a waiting list. "We don't have one, but we can create. But don't expect anything, since people have already bought the tickets and we don't plan to buy more"
- She convinced me that giving my name was something meaningless, but I did it.
-After a week I went again to the Union to ask for any cancellations or whatever. She couldn't even find the waiting list...
-2 days ago I went again to the Union for another reason, and I asked again an internal staff member for any chance to find a ticket. The answer was disheartening...
-Today I passed again outside the Union, and a thought crossed my mind "Today is the day of the Ballet, If only I could have a ticket..."

After 2 hours I received a phone call "Hello Mr Moustakas, are you still interested for a spare ticket for today's Ballet?"
I jumped from happiness, I went to buy the ticket, and in 3 hours I was sitting inside the Opera enjoying the Performance, which by the way rocked even if it was classical!

I don't know if this is something related to this New Age theory of the Law of Attraction, but it seems to follow its basic principle: "believe and you will receive, without the need to know how". An objection would be that all this is judged a posteriori, so what about if I wasn't lucky enough and I never received this ticket? Does this mean that the law of attraction doesn't work? This theory is also similar to Paolo Coehlo's Alchemist saying, that "believe in something and the whole Universe will make a conspiracy so that you will have it". Or even the saying of Jesus when he did his miracles, that "I didn't save you, but your own faith did".
So is it everything a matter of faith? How come this theory be supported from so many different sources? As for me, even if this is not true since it is not yet scientifically but somehow empirically proven, the least somebody can gain is practicing his faith. Because like anything in life, faith is a virtue that can be practiced. And then use it for anything he wants to achieve.
Believe it or not; it is a matter of faith anyway:)

Optimism vs Pessimism

I had an hour ago an interesting discussion with a Hungarian friend of mine, while eating in an underground Korean Videoclub-SuperMarket-Restaurant.

Bence: I am optimist.
Me: I used also to be . But somehow the last two years I think I am flirting with pessimism
Bence: I think it's a matter of rationalism. Using logic you can prove that things are not that bad.
Me: I think you are right.

Now I am back in my office, and I have an objection to this dialog. Maybe it's not a matter of rationalism, it's a matter of choice, and then of course exercise and stick on your choice. Why? I will explain with an example, which reminds me of a similar example given to an introductory course of the Silva method I attended 8 years ago.

Today I had a call from my mother, complaining that my brother was suffering in the army, because he had to stay awake 4.00 am to 6.00 am to assure that the dorms were secure from the enemy (...) (In greek: skopia) And she thought that he might catch a cold and suffer more. This is quite rational, though pessimistic. On the other hand she could have thought that by this way he was trained to be tough and to survive in his life under any circumstances. Both these thoughts are rational, but the first made her sad, while the second could have make her happy. This is in accordance actually to the cognitive behavioral technics, that suggest that our thoughs control our feelings, not the facts per se.

One might say that if we think about the worst case scenario, this could motivate us to take action in order to prevent something bad to happen. But in many cases, like the one above, we can do nothing to prevent it. So we choose to worry 100% for something with 1% probability to happen, that makes 99% of unrealistic worrying plus 1% of unhelpful worrying.

This is something that somehow many of us do, without realizing it, since we were trained to think so for many years. The first step would be to understand the situations where such thoughts take place. The second step would be an enormous effort to start thinking about the best case scenario even when things seem to be a disaster. It will be a self challenging task, but the result justifies the effort.

Preferential attachment

Mias pou kanw epanalipsi twra diafores methodous montelopoiisis diktuwn, (as einai kala i viva) epesa pali sto montelo twn Albert-Barabasi, pou xrisimopoioun tin arxi tis preferential attachment gia na eksigisoun tis katanomes power law x^-k pou sunantwntai sti fusi. Auta ta kinezika sungentrwnontai apla se mia frasi pou oloi gnwrizoume oti antikatoprizei tin pragmatikotita: "the rich gets richer" kai eksigei giati to 80% tou ploutou brisketai sta xeria tou 20% tou pluthismou, i giati kanw sullogi apo upotrofies pou erxontai i mia meta tin alli. (Gia mia alli ermineia tou fainomenou sas parapempw sto "The Secret" mia hollywoodiani prospatheia na ginei ebraios gnwstos enas allos nomos, o Law of Atraction, gia ton opoio tha milisw mia alli fora).
Ekei pou thelw na kataliksw einai oti enw eixa apogoiteutei nomizontas oti eixa xasei to treno tou eunnoumenou 20%, diabasa sto Biblio "Linked" tou Barabasi, oti to preferential attachment exei kai merika parathurakia pou sou dinoun tin dunatotita na anadeixteis, akoma ki an den eisai Goliath. To paradeigma pou dothike itan auto tis Google, pou katafere kai anaduthike anamesa apo gigantes sto eidos tous opws i Inktomi, i mixani anazitisis pisw apo tin Yahoo. Xwris na eiselthw se leptomereies gia to pws to katafere i Google, (an to kanete Google tha breite sigoura) tha epimeinw se mia arxi: O nomos tou preferential attachment an kai statistika isxuros, den isxuei panta, kati pou sunithiza na pisteuw palaiotera. Auti i diapistwsi einai idiaitera xrisimi se obsessions tou tupou, "an ola pane straba, na perimenw na mou erthoun ki alla" Protimw na efarmozw ton nomo epilektika stis periptwseis pou ola pane kateuxin, kai tin eksairesi tou otan den blepw fws sto tounel.
Auta me tin proodo sto PhD, an kapsw perissotera egefalika kuttara prospathwntas na epituxw peraiterw paromoies filosofikes proektaseis basizomenos sti theoria diktuwn, tha eiste oi prwtoi pou tha to parete xampari.

new woman on the block

Kai san na min eftanan ola t' alla, na sou pali o Dimitris se nees erwtikes peripeteies -oxi pou tha emena idle estw kai gia ligo. Kai to onoma autisaf ra. H mana mou pantws pou tis eriksa to uponoumeno ean tha dexotane gia nufi islamistria, to pire elafria legontas kali kopela na nai ki oti na nai ... arkei na milaei ellinika. Pantws einai antraki, wraia proswpikotita, kai me sumpathei idiaiterws.
To be continued

diamonds are forever/viva lasts forever

Simera eipa na ksekinisw gia pollosti fora tin sugrafi tis baibas (aka viva)
Prosthasa mia seira stis idi uparxouses 4 selides. Aurio tha ginei to breakthrough me tis apopeira sugrafis mias olokliris selidas. Opsometha

peri xrwmatwn

Molis paratirisa oti ta xrwmata tou kaskol mou tairiazoun polu me ta xrwmata tis fwto pou epeleksa gia background. ti exete na peite? Perimenw duo eidwn sxolia, me basi to fulo sou agapite anagnwsti:

Οι γυναικες εχουν το γονιδιο του συνδυασμου των χρωματων. Ξερουν ποιο χρωμα ταιριαζει με ποιο.
Οι αντρες σκεφτονται οτι αφου το κοκκινο ειναι ωραιο και το πρασινο επισης, γιατι να μη βαλουμε δυο ωραια χρωματα μαζι.

credit: blackhumor.gr http://www.blackhumor.gr/more_content_keimena.php?s=3&c=17&mid=235

Me geia!

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