(Greek) Parallaxi… σε κάνει να νιώθεις, «άλλος άνθρωπος»
by Apostolos on December 26, 2010
Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.
(Greek) OC Θεσσαλονίκη #20: Τέλος χρόνου…
by Apostolos on December 25, 2010
Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.
(Greek) Η Αλίκη στον θαυμαστό κόσμο του Δρ. Παρνάσους
by Apostolos on November 20, 2010
Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.
Reuse & Conquer: The CSS full screen DIV issue
by Apostolos on October 10, 2010
The day I discovered the existence of CSS my life as a developer changed. It appeared to me that studying CSS would open a door to a feature enhanced and yet faultless WWW. I spent some time learning the basics, getting to know the philosophy behind this technology and, as usual, experimented a little on some of my little guinea pig projects.
By the time I had reached a pretty good level of CSS understanding, at least good enough to be able to provide quick fixes for the majority of web platforms (WordPress, Joomla, etc.). Then a big load of work emerged and the learning procedure had to stop.
Several months later (a.k.a. yesterday) I came across a quite interesting revelation. I probably needn’t to learn anything else…
Now that’s what I call a coincidence
by Apostolos on September 19, 2010
Sunday the 19th, 2010, 5:15 pm. I decide to have a break and prepare myself a “cup” of coffee. After that I return to my room to continue my work. Since today I am visiting one of my BFFs (this BFF in particular) to do some work together, probably followed by watching “Burn Notice“, I decided to take my netbook with me, to work in parallel.
Unfortunately my friend’s router is not wireless enabled, therefore I have to use an Ethernet cable. Since my friend didn’t have a spare one and neither did I, I had to check in my dusty spare part boxes. After some thorough research… hurray! Here’s an Ethernet cable. A small one nonetheless but still, an Ethernet cable. So I put it on my desk and then…
THE HORRIFYING COINCIDENCE!
5+1 gifts for my 25th birthday
by Apostolos on May 23, 2010
Rumor has it that even with no money, the Greeks will find a way to celebrate and have a good time. In this spirit (except for the lack of money) my friend Kostas and I celebrated our name day and birthday respectively, yesterday, at a traditional Cretan tavern in the heart of our hometown, Thessaloniki. Dear friends honored us with their presence and, although I intentionally invited them the last minute to give them no time to buy gifts, in the end of the night my hands were full with bags. Thank you guys! You’re the best!
As you’ve probably already understood I’m very proud of my presents and thus I’ll share them with you. Read the rest of this entry »
Getting out of the swamp
by Apostolos on February 14, 2010
Once upon a time there was a guy. A greedy guy. An excellent professional but greedy guy. Hardworking person, excellent professional… but greedy guy. Well you get the point.
Being all the above, as you might have imagined, led to a great deal of work. Hours of work on a daily basis. Hours of interesting work though. Not errands or other tasks that lead to self-destructive feelings. Just tones of interesting work :)
After following his work-acholic schedule for several months, one Sunday, completely out of the blue, he decided to give himself a break. He worked until 04.00, as usual, slept for about five hours and, when he woke up, got dressed, got inside his car, and left.
It was about 12.00 when he reached a nearby forest. He parked his car and entered. Wandered for a while and found himself standing on a glade. He sat down and ate a big sandwich he had prepared and drank a bottle of milk. Being not hungry any more, he continued his walk to the woods. He was now far away of his car but he didn’t seem to care. He kept walking.
It was about 17.00 when he reached a strange place. There were trees but also a lot of water. And mud. A swamp. He had heard that swamps can be very dangerous places. This swamp though, was strangely attractive. He wanted to enter. Explore it. A couple of movies came to his mind and he had a plot made up for himself at no time.
Without further thought he entered the swamp and started walking, to reach the other side. He was trying to have always a tree to grab in case he started sinking. He was doing well when the trees ended and only mud was ahead. He now had to make a decision. Either continue and have faith, or go back.
He then realized that the biggest part of his life was exactly like this walk in the swamp. Always trying to follow the safest path. No challenges. No risk. He felt predictable. Common. Annoyingly common. So he went ahead.
After a couple of steps the expected happened. He started sinking into the swamp. At first he impulsively tried to stay on surface but soon he realized he was only making things worse. So he relaxed and waited. After a couple of minutes he understood that by the moment he had stopped fighting he had not sank at all. Slowly he started to practically swim to reach a nearby floating piece of wood. A few moments later he had grabbed the wood and confidently was approaching solid ground.
It was almost 20.00 and the hardworking person, excellent professional… but greedy guy was sitting to the ground of a dark swamp, covered with mud and dirt, speculating on his experience. Suddenly, he had a revelation. He stood up and left.
Next day, our friend woke up, as usual, at about 06.00. Washed his face, dressed up and left for work. He stopped, as usual, to buy coffee and after that went to the company. There, he went straight to the manager and handed over his resignation. The manager, stumped, asked him what had provoked a decision like this.
“I decided to join the company as a partner” he said and smiled. I’ll come back next week to present my ideas to the boss. “You got to be kidding” said the manager. “For ten years you worked as an employee. I don’t see how you can afford becoming a partner. But even if you can. Why now?”. “I do have the money” said the so far hardworking person, excellent professional… but greedy guy. “As for your timing question… something happened yesterday, that made my day…“
Waldeck – Make my day
I own a «Corked, a memoir» copy. And it’s signed!
by Apostolos on January 26, 2010
Lately, good things happen in my life. As a matter of fact it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to tag the current period as “a series of fortunate events”. Therefore, since I haven’t updated my blog for some time now, be prepared for a combo of “good things happen to my life” posts.
Today’s article has to do with a “late Christmas present” I received some days ago. Miss Kathryn Borel’s “Corked, a memoir” (if you don’t know what I am talking about have a look here). To cut a long story short Kathryn kindly sent me a copy of her first book as a gift. I’ve already started reading it and, as expected, it is a really interesting work. Want to know what the best part is? It is signed! (you can find exhibits below…).
Drinking wine… with Kathryn Borel Jr.
by Apostolos on October 27, 2009
( You can find the original post of this article, in Greek, to www.newsfilter.gr. No plagiarism, it was posted by me as well! )
«Corked, A memoir», by Kathryn Borel Jr. A book about herself, her father and… wine. The history about a journey to the province of France, wherever wine is produced. A journey with two destinations. The initiation of the daughter to the secrets of wine, and therefore her father’s.
Kathryn Borel Jr. was born in Toronto, Canada. Her father was a hotelier. She has a younger brother. She spent her first years living in various hotels to finally settle in Quebec, Canada. Later, personal reasons made her return to Toronto, where she still lives. She works for Canadian Broadcasting Company making food and wine reviews in print and for radio. She is the author of the column «Indignities». «Corked. A memoir» is her first book to be published.
Apart from her exceptional writing skills and her special pen, I find Kathryn Borel being a really interesting video persona. You can see for yourself in the videos that follow where you’ll find Kathryn prologizing her brand new book in a rather playful way.