Well its 1:08am local time, and its the 21st of May... so...

Every year in the 21st of May is my birthday. So is today.

And its a custom to serve confections when one has his/her birthday (or name day but that was a month ago for me) so here we go:

Sorry the sweets are over....

Or some cakes...

So are the cakes....

So...

Anyone's welcome... and enjoy... (even in your imagination... :P).

I am turning 19 by the way...

So I guess we are not all active in all places and usually our habits make up our image that is projected to others. And that's the trap of the internet actually. Have I fallen in it? Probably... :?

Well yes I know the only topic in which I posted up till recently were pointless religious arguments (mostly ranting, not even being able to tell if my contributions are appreciated or w/e), so I guess for some people I may be the guy who just comes here to argue because his life sucks, or because he has personal issues and lets of steam like that or whatever comes to anyone's mind. A user even thought of me as this hateful of religion person; some sort of fanatic against religion whose only purpose is to spew his bitterness on the subject... :? (well of course that user never said those things but who knows if he thinks about this? :? It is possible and although I hate it, I cant blame him).

But the question is: do people see me as too serious? I mean ok there are some people here who may know me a tiny bit better from other convos from MSN or blogs or casual union threads, but recently I am trying to stop wasting my time and wearing my soul with religious disputes and be more casual and I seem to not fit in. :?

Is it me? I mean I tend to get misunderstood or maybe people see me only as a person who debates religion or someone who cannot be casual. I admit my tone sometimes is not welcoming or as casual and I suck at jokes and maybe I cant communicate well with others but I try. :( I put tons of emoticons, I am, like, watching my every step and word and it just seems to tiring to try. :(

Yes I know I may be trying to much and this can show any one of you how much my social life is zero IRL, but I am doing my best..... :(

I tend to feel like whatever I say is redundant or un-welcome and that no one likes me in reality.

Its true I havent had a social interaction for years, having no friends at High School, closing upto myself and all, I really have lost touch and forgot how it is to have a friend or someone to talk to casually but I never think it would be this hard. Oh well.... :(

Well I hope people reading this will not think I am just a person with psychological issues...

And I hope I dont regret for writing this blog cause I dont like talking of those things so openly.

Oh well that was just a rant. Anyway... bye.

:P

So I have been tagged by Dark_Knight6 (Thanks! :D)

I spent like 3-4 days trying to find something interesting to put in those >10 facts about me and I hope I managed even a little. :)

And because I know some will be boring for you, I have bolded the "essence" of them...

So...

1. My favourite videogames are Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Spyro the Dragon series for the PSOne and Crash Bandicoot series for the PSOne. I like those games VERY much because they were original, had fantastic music (especially Rayman and Spyro) and they were just brilliant games which of course had horrendous sequels for the PS2 (except for Rayman's sequels which were fine). As for recent "adult" games I would say Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. I just love exploring castles. :P

2. My favourite movies/books are of course The Lord of the Rings. First as obvious for my age, I watched the movies. The Fellowship scared me like hell when I saw it in theatres (I was only 11 at the time :P) and one of my sisters who was sitting next to me told me when it was ok to watch, because I had covered my face with my hands. It was a thrill nonetheless at that point. So afterwards the whole universe, myth structure grew on me and I was more interested in it. I asked from my music teacher to give me the LotR soundtrack which I knew she had and listened to it endless times all the way through Junior High School. Later on I read the books and I am very positive that if it wasn't for LotR I would have no interest in literature in general.

3. Because of LotR at the age of 13-14 I started writing my own things. I have written some stories, poems and at the age of 15-16 I started writing what I thought it would become an epic poem at the likes of Illiad, Odyssey or the Anglo Saxon Beowulf (but I gave it up). After that later I started writing song lyrics (must have written more than 100), but I dare not read them now. I get embarassed. :P

4. I have 3 sisters and that makes me an only-son. Hehe. All of them are older than me and that makes me the "baby" of the family. Well.... not now, but it used to be that way a bit. I was a bit spoiled mainly because of other relatives, not my parents.

5. I was not part of the initial family plan. :P Meaning that my parents - once they got married - had decided to have only 3 children. But still though it wasn't because their first three were all girls that they then decided to have another go. Not at all. From what I have been told, one could say that I was conceived accidentally. :P

6. My favourite soft drink is Vanilla Coke (which has vanished from Greece :() and my favourite juice mix is 1/2 banana and 1/2 sour cherry. I am actually gonna have some juice once I am done writing. :P

7. From the age of 8 untill the age of 14 I was doing track regularly. I was part of an athletic club and through those years I have won 4 medals. Yay! :D One I remember was finishing in the second place in a 2km race.

8. One of my dreams (not an actuall goal though) is to move to New Zealand and spend my life there with my partner in life. :)

Anyway I can't find anything else that I can reveal from my life (some facts are kept hidden of course or some are only revealed to a few special people ;) )

So that's all folks. :)

And now I tag Theokhoth (this is a punishment for not commenting on people's blogs :x), DrSponge, AirGuitarist87, KOTORKicker and Genetic_Code.... :D

So today I went to pick up some more books for university from bookstores. I had gone on Thursday too and got many of them but I had to go again to take the rest. Now only 3-4 remain.

Anyway I will list them down here so that we can all hate them together! :twisted: Why hate them? Because many of them are huge, heavy and hard to carry around in the middle of Athens. :x

Here they are:

1. LATIN PHILOLOGY:

Latin Lexicography in Greece (that was a small book of 150 pages)

History of Roman Literature (this is two huge volumes of 1000 pages each!)

Cicero: Four Speeches against Catilina / The Speeches for Marcellus and Ligarius (that's a small book too with 200 pages but the pages are hardly separated, most of them are not cut and I can't open the pages :x. What bookbinding art is that!)

M. T. Ciceronis: Orationes In L. Catilinam Quattor (another small book with 100 pages)

2. ANCIENT GREEK PJILOLOGY:

Historic Grammar of the Ancient Greek Language (another big, hard-cover book of 500+ pages)

Xenophon: His Life and his Work (that's a regular book with 220+ pages)

Perfect Polity: The Political Reflection in Ancient Greece (another small book of 100 pages)

Xenophontis Opera Omnia: Institutio Cyri (a book of 400 pages of the original ancient greek text of Xenphon's work Institutio Cyri, but of small size so it wasn't heavy)

3. BYZANTINE PHILOLOGY:

Byzantine Literature (this is another set of 3 volumes of 450 pages each and of big size!)

Buzantine Historians and Chronographers (haven't gotten that book yet)

The Byzantine Millenium (another big book of 500 pages)

Exploration of the Byzantine Prose (a huge book of 1000 pages!)

The Birth of a Capital (in reference to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire; another huge book of 700 pages)

4. LINGUISTICS:

Theorist Linguistics: An Introduction to modern Linguistics

Modern Greek Word: Studies about the Language, the Literature and the Expression

5. MODERN GREEK PHILOLOGY:

Corpus: Theory of Literature (a book of 450 pages)

History of the Byzantine Folklore Literature (a big book of 350 pages)

The Poetry of Modern Greece


To get these books I roamed in Athens like everywhere: from Omonoia to any street you can name, then to Monastiraki (very close to Akropolis), only to find out that the bookstore there was not giving away books for universities and was redirected back to Syntagma and to Panepistimio to find out that the time when I went the bookstore was closed. Btw it was not only one bookstore I had to find but at least 10 of them all spread in Athens. That's why I went again today: to get those few (huge) books that where in this bookstore that was closed.

So for the most time last Thursday and today I was roaming Athens with a backpack which I would swear weighed five kilos to say the least. Oh and today all the books couldn't fit in the school-bag so I had an extra bag with two huge books. My hands were red by the end of it! :x

Honestly the administration of Greek universities and especially the one I go to, should be ashamed of themselves.

Not to mention the hilarious system of sending every student to collect his books from 10 separate bookstores, we were told that all the info we needed about the publishing organisations were in the uni's site. Surprise! Yes they were saying which books were published by whom, but no addresses. So I had to search the internet for every publisher. In some occasions publishers had no web sites and no info for them on the internet to be found. Some of their info were found be sheer luck. And to top that......

.....the first book of Linguistics is given out in the university itself. Fine? Fine! I go to the university, I ask them where exactly I should go. They tell me go the 6th floor and if it is closed go to the 8th (!). So I go to the 6th: closed. What a surprise! :roll:

So I go to the 8th and ask for info inside the Study Hall of the department of Linguistics: "Book? What book? I don't know anything sir..." Yeah....

I go back to the 3rd to tell them that in the 8th they know nothing. "Well they should know. They are supposed to know" *silence* I ask someone else in there and she tells me: "It is possible that the distribution of that book is over" (!) Me: "And when and how will I get my book now?" Her: "...hm... I don't know" (!) ............:x :x :x

It's like they are tormenting us in purpose!

Anyway, that's all. :(

This is my "news" blog. :P

I have changed my banner and blog header. Both are from a conceptual design of Lothlorien. It is a painting in other words.

I did some effects editing in Paint.NET to look more warm and cozy and ...tada! there it is. :D

Tell me what you think. :D

Here is the original picture.

These are some of my favourite lyrics from the Lord of the Rings Soundtrack. Not all of them are heard in one piece, some are just two words in a whole orchestral piece, but they are well written and touching.

___________________________________________________________________________

Orthannen im vi ol, coll e du

Or hiriath naur, na rovail mae sui 'waew

Man prestant i ardhon?

Cerithar aen illiad dim uthenin?

In a dream I was lifted up, borne from the darkness

Above the rivers of fire, on wings soft as the wind

What's happened to the world?

Is everything sad going to come untrue?

_____________________________________________________________________________

Caedo, losto. / U-erin davo.

Amman harthach? / Anim unad.

Le tug nach! / O hon u-wannathon.

U-moe le anno nad. / Onen a hon beth nin.

Gurth han ristatha. / Ta han narcho Gurth.

Gar vethed e-chunen, go hon bedithon na meth.

Lie down, sleep. / I cannot yield.

Why do you still hope? / I have nothing else.

You are a fool! / I will not leave him.

You owe him nothing. / I gave him my word.

Death will break it! / Then let death break it.

He has the last of my heart, I will go with him to the end.

___________________________________________________________________________

Dannen le, a u-erin le regi.

Rang ail le iestannen, lu ail le tegin na hen.

Gwannach o innen ului; u lu erui, ului...

You have fallen and I cannot reach you.

Every step I willed you on, every moment I lead you to this.

You never left my mind; not once, not ever...

________________________________________________________________________

The first piece is sang by opera soprano, Renee Fleming, in the piece "The End of All Things"

The rest are choral pieces from various tracks.

And have a nice February. :)

Hi, I'm gonna properly introduce myself.

I'm George from Greece and I'm 18 years old (and 7 months) and I'm currently studying on my degree in Greek Literature. That includes lessons such as Ancient Greek, History of Philosophy, Latin, Linguistics, Greek Literature (poets, writers etc) and other related lessons. But I'm more interested in Linguistics (hence the linguistic blogs!) and I'm more fascinated by Ancient Greek, Anglo-Saxon or Middle-English, Finnish and Welsh (those last two I've only seen some verses of poems but it was enough for me).

I get bored pretty fast, it has been remarked by some that my mood shifts swiftly (at the moment I'm a bit angry and frustrated), I don't like talking about myself (but it's the internet so that gives me some freedom) and......no, that's it for now.

I have three sisters (I consider this to be good and bad, depending).

I hate politics, I hate fake friends. I like honest and friendly people.

I like the Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's work in general (Lord of the Rings ignited my interest in languages in the first place - see Quenya!).

I'm not as a radical gamer as I used to be but I'm still trying to feel comfortable in my new house in Athens and I feel out of place right now.

And hey, I hope you like me. Feel free to PM me at any time (I'm tired of not receiving any:( ), or talk to me about anything (I'm a good listener).

Ok, here is the second entry on etymology which links English words to their greek origins.

Second word to track:

IDIOT (including IDIOM)

The word derives from Old French word "idiote", and the Latin word "idiota".

The source word is an ancient greek one: "idiotes" (as given in dictionaries but in modern Greek it is spelled "ithiotis" -th as in "then"-, "ιδιωτης")

Ιδιωτης (ithiotis) in ancient greece was considered the person who had no interest or capability to have a say in his own city's rule (in a time when Democracy was the political system in Athens which required every citizen to at least try to contribute in the process of making important decisions-in theory at least). In fact, an ithiotis was close to be considered an ignorant person or even criminal in the sense that abstaining from important issues he harms the welfare of his city-state (especialy in the case of Athens).

__________________________________________________________________________

Third word to track:

ANIMAL (including ANIMATION, ANIMATE etc)

The word derives from the latin word "animus" (temper, soul, spirit)

The stem in Ancient Greek is the word ανεμος (anemos = wind, breath, air)

The connection is also explained while finding the etymology of other words that mean "soul": "spirit" from L. v. "spiro" = I breathe or Gk. πνευμα (pneuma, actualy spelled "pnevma"= spirit that literally means "(a blow of) air".

I'll make another linguistic blog. Please consider me as a valid source as I'm greek and I know some latin and ancient greek. Off course I will also be giving certain links to more trustworthy sources. And tell me what you think.

First word to track:

STATION (including STATUE, STASIS, STATE, STATIC etc.)

The word derives from Latin verb "sto" (I stand, I am placed)

Some other forms: Present Tense: STO / Soupinum: STATUM / Infinitive: STARE

This latin verb obviously derives from greek words such as: στασις (stasis)= station/stop, σταδιος (stathios), στατικος (statikos), all deriving from the ancient greek verb ισταμαι (istame)= I stand, I am placed

Link 1: Online Etymology Dictionary

Link 2: University Of Notre Dam

This is my new PC. It should be delivered to me in a few days. I like it anyways, but I'm just showing off and expecting comments if you wish.

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz LGA1366

HDD: Western Digital 640GB WD6400AAVS Caviar GP Sata2

RAM: 3 x Kingston KVR1333D3N9/1GB DD3 1333Mhz

VGA: 9800GT 512MB

MOTHERBOARD: Intel BOXDX58SO

PSU: Thermaltake W0089 TR2 POWER 470W

DVD: Nec OPTIARC

These came in an Asus case along with mouse, keyboard, monitor (22"), speaker set and the gift was Far Cry 2 (I don't like the game so I'll give it or sell it even better to someone else). Oh, and if you think it isn't good please don't laugh out loud at me. I think I chose well...