le fabule destin de me

Around (half of) the World with 732 Euros

2008-03-26T10:53:00.041Z

Ok, finished. I have just booked the last flight for my trip to US. Total cost? 732 Euros. And all this being inflexible about the dates (I searched for exact dates), choosing decent departure time (after 10.45 am), choosing decent airlines (British Airways, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, United Airlines) and booking all the flights in less than a month in advance. A great help was the search engine Travelocity.com, which seems to be quite professional and cheaper when compared with other similar search engines I tried the last days.
Here is the break down of the prices and the routes that I will follow:

-> London-New York (377E round trip)
Departure this Saturday, 29th of March
-> New York - Houston (127E)
Friday, 4th of April
-> Houston - Austin - Los Angeles (54E+78E)
Monday, 7th of April
-> Los Angeles - New York (96E)
Saturday, 12th of April
-> New York - London
Wednesday, 16th of April

732 Euros is the amount of money that somebody earns working 45 hours in a simple job in London, such as a Receptionist in UCL's Language Center (hourly rate 16,21Euros with the current exchange rate Euros/Pounds). Which is one week's work plus 5 hours overtime :)
Not a UK resident? Come to London for a month - unless you are restricted by Visa issues - and find a job, it is so easy. Upload your CV in monster.co.uk and they will quickly contact you with a couple of job offers, specially fitted to your skills.

This makes me wonder, whether our 'life goals' and 'life dreams' like a trip to the other part of the Atlantic are so difficult to achieve, or they are just a state of mind. Why do we unconsciously put such kind of barriers to what we want to achieve? A first approach to the solution of this riddle will take place in The Book :o)

Oh, and for those critical thinkers who object by saying that a trip is not only the ticket fares but also the accommodation, please check the couchsurfing.org site. You stay for free and enjoy the company of a local, whom you have chosen according your preferences, by browsing the personal webpages of the couchsurfing community members :o)

Or maybe traveling to America is a long trip to a far away destination? Distance. Another mind concept. Los Angeles - New York are two cities 5 flying hours apart. This is less than the time needed to go from my city in Greece, Thessaloniki, to Athens by the normal speed train. 1oo years ago a long distance trip was to go from a village to the next one.

Or maybe the preventing reason was the lack of knowledge that this kind of trip is possible? Now you know it is possible. Do you want to do it? Probably yes. Will you do it? Probably no. Why?

So, the barrier is neither money, nor distance nor time nor ignorance; the barrier is called mind. But what's the real reason behind this reaction of our mind against our will? Maybe inertia? The fundamental property of the matter to resist to any attempt for change of its current state? Mind is also matter? What's happening around? What prevents us from flying? Am I getting crazy or is this a part of a starting-being-rational procedure for the first time after a long period of hypnosis?

Btw, all these remind me also of the Tag Heuer advertising campaign of 1995, which was very striking for a 14 year old young man; I stumbled upon it in Newsweek which my father was bringing at home from a colleague (no, I was not a prodigy child reading Newsweek from the age of 14, I was just having a look at the caricatures and the ads:) You can have a look of more nice campaign photos at the official Tag Heuer site

To be continued:)

Facebook Garage London

2008-03-06T01:21:00.019Z

Last November my friends Michele and Vito started the implementation of an idea for an environmental community driven site: greenester.com (will soon be ready- hopefully:) Of course nobody knew it. Of course, we wanted to make it known. How? By exploiting the viral character of Facebook applications, a common practice lately:). So I became a Facebook developer. And last week I received an invitation to attend the Facebook Garage event in London.

Today I went there. It was hosted by Sun Microsystems. It started very good; with canapes food. Then came the pizzas. Then they opened the beers. And then came the belly dancers. I am joking, no belly dancers. Just a girl announcing the begining of the session.

Geeks like fun. So they started with a new anti-Facebook Anthem from YouTube (or YouTunes as we hear in one of the Obama Girl's videos:) After some not-so-interesting speeches, at least for me- we had a break. During it I was approach by a young woman, who showed interest in what I am doing and then asked for my email. No, she didn't want to date me, otherwise she would ask for my phone number, right? Right. I am in London, and I think this is called head hunting or something like that. I told her that I am writing a book, but she didn't seem to care much, because then she asked me if I know php:)

The second part was more interesting, dealing with some legal issues. The case study was the bad people from scrubulus application coping the scrabble game. Finally, the results of a poll application were shown, which was conducted online in real time during the event. "I think that Applications on the site are useful for" was the name of the application, and the winner was the option "nothing" with 54%. The message was clear: we, the developers, had to make useful applications. This was in harmony with the next speech about the Rambo Application. It was created for Sony pictures for the promotion of their movie. The interesting part was an analysis of the 'success' parameters that make an application viral, which the wannabe developer can enjoy at the last picture.

After it finished I got one more free Becks and I went home.

PS Talking about viral spreading, it made me a great impression what happened yesterday after publishing the post on the breaking news about the arrival of the new Asus eee; the last 3 months I had 300 hits on my website. Between 10:00-12:00 yesterday they launched to more than 500 , and after 12:00 almost nothing. Maybe because then the CeBIT started, providing more up-to-date information about the eee. Any ideas?

It's here! (almost:)

2008-03-04T10:28:00.012Z

Finally what I (and many more) was expecting: the 9 inch Asus eee. Today it will be officially announced in CeBIT in Germany. At first sight it seems more beautiful that its 7-inch predecessor and with enhanced specifications at a whooping price of 399 Euros. It comes with an 12 GB flash memory which is -as English people say- fair enough, as well a 1 GB RAM, and screen resolution 1024x600. Estimated date of arrival: mid 2008. More details will flow the internet during the next hours, when the CeBIT will open its doors; a good information resource is the engadget site, where I saw the happy news some minutes ago (I woke up this morning and I had a burning desire to search for any news related to the 9-inch eee release :)

PS Sorry, no girls in this post, but this thing is sexy per se ;o)

Obama Girl

2008-02-27T01:07:00.008Z

The elections in the USA this time are not boring at all! They are getting even more funny and, thanks God, even hotter! On the right you can see the more influential supporter of America's first decent candidate resident of the White House after Michael Dukakis back in 1988. You can also enjoy one of the videos of the Super Obama Girl here; and another one, a Matrix Version, here. May the Force be with you! (referring to both:)

Live at least 55 seconds per day

2008-02-22T03:38:00.016Z

Yes. And the DIY manual for the maximization of this time will soon be released :)
Btw, the video is nice!

eee

2008-02-21T10:01:00.011Z

My prayers (and the prayers of many computer owners out there) were finally answered!

Some months ago the Asus eee was released. The first time I saw it was in the hands of a professor from Imperial College, during a project meeting at Cambridge back in December (ohhh what an honor- btw he was one of the professors who I contacted while searching for a PhD position in 2006, and he didn't even reply to my email; but he is cool and funny anyway:) This guy was excited about his new gadget, and my friend and flatmate, Michele, shared his excitement, wanting to buy one for himself also; but I told him it is too small and he would ruin his eyes (...). Then I saw it again at PC World near my university. In January I had a clearer mind; 7 inch laptop at the astonishing price of $299! the catch: no optical disk drive and a flash memory instead of hard disk drive, which constrains the memory to 2GB (also available in 4GB and 8GB for a bit higher price). This is bad, right? No! It's great news! this means that I can play squash with this machine without it getting hurt (ok, regarded I am not veeery cruel with it:) Moreover, I can also plug my new baby from Western Digital, which so far rocks; 250GB in your palm for just £80, and prices are dropping.

I will wait for the new model of 9 inch eee to be released with the 8GB memory, since I can still have my MacBookPro 3GH till April. Btw it is still alive, but for some reason I feel that I will return it to the University in a semi-dead semi-alive state, just like the Schroedinger's cat.

Soap Operas?

2008-02-20T12:02:00.004Z

Some minutes ago I was happy to learn where the name "soap opera" comes. I will explain.

The last days I fell in love with Audi R8. to get some up-to-date info, I consulted -what else- Wikipedia. There I found out that this supercar is based on the Audi Le Mans quattro concept car, which was based on the earlier Audi RSQ concept vehicle. The latter was specially designed for the movie 'I, Robot' as a 'product placement'. But what was a product placement? Ok, it is something intuitive, but I wanted to learn a bit more. So again in Wikipedia I read its definition, as well as the origins of this way of marketing:
"In early media, e.g. radio in the 1930s and 1940s and early TV in the 1950s, programs were often underwritten by companies. "Soap operas" are called such because they were initially underwritten by consumer packaged goods companies such as P&G or Unilever."

Interesting, right? :)

Picadilly Circus + Microwave=L.F.E. (Laugh for ever)

2008-02-06T01:26:00.002Z

Our microwave at home doesn't work properly, so we had to buy a new one sometime. The prices here in London could justify the decision for buying a brand new one.

After I finished work at UCL's Language Center today, I went with Ilias to this Korean videoclub-supermarket-restaurant I have mentioned in another post, for dinner. Then we decided to go for a walk to central London, Soho, China town, etc. Then we said, let's eat an ice-cream. It was so cheap, just 2 pounds for a great italian gellato. Then we decided to go to a pub. We chose O'Neills. There, we realised that we had been to the same place exactly one year before, just after I arrived at London to start my PhD. So this was a kind of anniversary. Then we continued to a club in Covent Garden. Free entrance before 10 pm, double vodka red bull for 2.5 pounds, great music and a marvellous selection of residents. I love this city. Then just before midnight we decided to go back to catch the last underground. On my way back, I passed from Tesco, and I entered to buy a microwave. Just 22 pounds. And then I walked from Leicester Square to Picadilly circus with this on my head (it was too heavy to hold it in my hands). It was a funny night, many people laughed, me included.
Does it make sense? Who cares
Frank

Just because I was challenged :o)

2008-02-04T15:14:00.000Z

In a previous post I addressed some health issues about eating processed meet. But my friend Nikos was not convinced. So I return now with 'Health Issues Reloaded' (TM) . The junk monkeys did a quite good job to communicate their message for the need for healthy eating. Just to mention that this is a UK production; I really start to like how english people do their job, and I understand why this country does well (they can't be perfect anyway, but they are in a good way:)

Beauty lies in simplicity...

2008-02-04T11:37:00.000Z

Some people don't take life seriously. Good for them. And good for us that we are shown the way. Drive them crazy Frank:)

The Party

2008-02-03T11:25:00.002Z

Today is my birthday. Yesterday I organized a Party (Birthday+ByeBye PhD celebration), the way I have learned during the last years of my life as a member of BEST. To keep it short, the Party rocked. The last people left at 04.30, far beyond the initial estimations predicting the departure time around midnight (The last underground runs at 00.15)

In the acknowledgments for my Party's success I have to include my favorite software for parties VirtualDj, my all-time-classic music collection for parties, a multi-color-light turning-around ball that I bought for only 20 pounds yesterday, the 20 liters of homemade cost-efficient sangria, the 1 liter liquid bomb made by mixing Ouzo Plomariou, honey from Chalkidki, cinammon and cloves (a.k.a. ouzomelo), and also the great promotion of The Party through 8 specially designed flyers from Guarani, a Brazilian friend in Berlin.

PS The queen is mine, I sent it as a reminder to my friends one day before the launch of The Party:)

"To milon tis eridos"

2008-01-16T15:51:00.000Z

I didn't manage to publish a paper while I was a PhD student. Anyway, I am thinking of publishing a book. I think it will be a best-seller in Greece and it will raise discussions. Maybe everything is in my mind. Maybe not. Time will reveal everything:)

PhD

2008-01-14T00:13:00.000Z

Happy End

The Mathematics of the new Economy...

2008-01-13T23:56:00.000Z

... or as we say in Greece, "To afentiko trellathike". Or maybe not?
I just booked a return flight from London to Berlin for 25 Euros. And this is in less than a month in advance, during the Berlinale period when the prices are supposed to launch at new heights. The reason behind these ridiculous prices is a mathematical model called "Price Discrimination". And then some people say that Mathematics isn't behind everything... they are just jealous of us...

Appetite for Salami? Well, think again:)

2008-01-11T03:45:00.000Z

I found a guy who did an interesting macro photo job. It is not scientific though, it is based on the feeling that the pictures produce to the watcher. After this experience I don't think I will eat any kind of processed food (at least until I will go back to Berlin and enjoy the delicious curry Wurst:)
And I can bet that Nikos will not be that affected by this revelation anyway and continue shop from Lidl his favorite stuff

London and "28 Days Later"

2007-12-25T04:14:00.000Z

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

2007-12-24T16:03:00.000Z

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

2007-12-23T23:48:00.001Z

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

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

2007-12-15T04:02:00.000Z

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

2007-12-14T13:10:00.000Z

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?

2007-12-13T23:01:00.001Z

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

2007-12-12T20:05:00.000Z

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

2007-12-11T21:37:00.000Z

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

2007-12-10T19:39:00.000Z

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

2007-12-09T03:58:00.000Z

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

2007-12-09T03:27:00.000Z

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!

2007-12-09T03:17:00.000Z

patisa se ena link tou blogger katalathos, kai mou eipe theleis blog?
apantisa katafatika, opote, namaste ki emeis stin megali oikogeneia twn apantaxou bloggers