Geeky Update (Nokia, Saga, TR, Malazan Empire)

I've mentioned in one of my previous posts that I've been following what’s been happening to Nokia. I used to be a fan of the company. They are were the biggest multinational technology corporation based in Europe. Their products were ground breaking. Nokia released phones with front cameras, QWERTY keyboard, smartphones and touch screen phones way before Blackberry, Apple or Samsung even dreamed about them. They used to have a very good understanding of future technologies and dominated the market for many years. I used to proudly own their products.

That was up to the point when their new CEO took charge, Stephen Elop. I’m not going to go through Nokia’s downfall. I went through most of it here. However, not completely unexpected, the news arrived that Nokia was sold to Microsoft! Elop who used to work as the head of Microsoft’s Business Division before jumping to Nokia in September 2010 probably helped MS buy Nokia phone division cheap. Just check Nokia’s share prices for these last years. It’s a shame though.  I feel for the all the people who lost their jobs recently and for those who will lose it in the future. The evil Empire Strikes back.

On another different tone, I’d like to introduce to you the world of Saga! That’s a graphic novel for adults created by Vaughan and Staples. Vaughan is the writer of things like ‘Y: The Last Man’, the ‘Runaways’ and co-writer of the TV series ‘Lost’. The plot of the story can be described as ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in space with aliens, warlocks, robots, ghosts, mercenaries and all the rest. It’s about a young couple from two different worlds in war (tech vs magic) trying to escape with their new-born child. It might sound a bit unoriginal, but believe me the art, characters and storytelling is exceptional. Saga is now an award winning series and I would recommend it to anyone with a desire to read something different than what mainstream Marvel or DC have to offer at the moment.

What’s next? Oh, yes. PC games! I’m in the process of finishing ‘Tomb Raider’. Yes, the remake of the old platform/shooter. The development company did wonders at bringing Lara Croft to the new era. Keeping the same approach of having a female heroine trying to solve simple puzzles by climbing here and there and moving stuff around while shooting baddies and evil fauna works perfectly well. Unlike other disappointing remakes like SimCity (oh, what a waste of money), the publisher Square Enix manages to create a likeable character that evolves through the game trying to escape the island of Yamatai. The island itself of course holds many secrets waiting to be solved and sets a visually stunning setting for Lara’s adventures. If you liked the old Tomb Raiders, I guarantee you you’ll like this one too.

Finally, I couldn't finish this geek update without a book reference. So, I'd like to introduce to you the world of the ‘Malazan Book ofthe Fallen’. That’s an epic fantasy series written by Steven Erikson. OK, so it’s not a single book. It’s many. Ten books to be precise that consist this series. For the time being I’m going through number 7 (Reaper’s Gale) but I have to say it’s really good. For those who don’t know about epic fantasy, try to think ‘The Lord of the Rings’ or ‘Game of Thrones’ and empires, witchcraft, demons, various peoples, gods and all that.  

I’m trying not to read all books one after the other. I read other stuff in-between. I finished beforehand ‘American Gods’ by Neil Gaiman! That was also a good, interesting, read but I shouldn't divert from my main topic. The Malazan Empire holds many dark stories, twists in the plot and of course many different characters and point of views that make the books not that easy to read. Lots of people criticise the author for the number of characters with tongue-twisting names, the variety of locations and the deities involved.

At first, they story looks a bit problematic and lost without a true purpose. There are way too many characters with their agendas. Especially if you’re reading the first book and you’re unfamiliar with the author’s ways, it seems pointless. What I have to say is hold on. In every book that I remember there is a closure of some shorts, even if there are some cliff hangers for the future issues. It all makes sense in the end. To give you an idea the book I’m reading now has more than 1,200 pages and a list of points of view that’s very difficult to count. I’m loving it though and I can’t easily put it down.   

That's what my geek little bizarre world is all about these dates. Not sure how interested you are, but I'll keep you posted nevertheless...

Random thoughts Wednesday

Last Sunday our new lodger arrived. It hasn’t been a full week since she’s been here, but I have to say that everything has been going quite well so far. She loves her new room and seems to be adjusting quite well. She also seems to get along very well with JJ. They knew each other, but not that well.

This Sunday it’s my birthday and I’m having a few friends over our place on Saturday. It’s not going to be a massive party, just some friends meeting for drinks. What better way to spend a birthday than with a massive hangover, right? I’m also planning on offering some nibbles / finger food. It’s been a while since I last organised something like that. I hope it goes well and people will have fun. Typically, I learnt today that there are planned underground engineering works this weekend and by tube station will be closed! Fortunately, the one before my stop will be open. It causes a bit of inconvenience, but I hope not too much and people will attend.

Recently, there was an offer on Amazon, about a book published by the eggheads of the TV show QI. I had to buy it. I just love trivial knowledge. How can you progress in life not knowing that kangaroos have three vaginas? Or ignoring the fact that earning more than £14,000 a year puts you in the 4% richest people of the world? Talking about perspective…

Speaking of Amazon (wow, this turns out to be an advertisement for them), I was happy to learn that they joined forces with other colossal companies like Google and Facebook against cancer, forming a collaboration with British charity ‘Cancer Research UK’. Although I wasn’t able to get lots of information on this matter, it appears that a new smartphone application will be released soon that helps the battle versus cancer. We’ll see…

Reading material

Recently I finished reading a book called ‘Before I go to sleep’. I think it was a best seller here and in the USA. It’s highly enjoyable and well written. It’s about a woman with amnesia, trying to cope with her life and discover her past. There are some secrets buried there and not many things make sense to her. I’m not giving out any big spoilers, but a huge part of the book is about the importance of memory and life experiences. It’s about how our personal history, choices and familiarities really define us and our personalities, that, and the importance of the heroine’s diary. That diary is her source of information and doorway to her past, the same way our blogs sometimes are for us.

I don’t generally have a good memory. I forget dialogs, names and situations. However, I’m happy to have this blog and being able to go back, at least for the last 3 years that I’ve been writing, to check about events and people from my past. I hope to be able to keep on writing, even if I have changed since then and my writing with me. Its nice taking trips back in memory lane for a short while, in order to refresh some memories and relive situations.

I’m in the process of creating some new memories of a lifetime by travelling to Africa in a few days. I’ve done my first round of sorting out things I’ll take with me, last weekend. It’s fascinating separating summer clothes again like t-shirts, shorts and bathing suits when it’s so cold outside, here in London. It will be weird going from 2 degrees Celsius to 30 in two days. Most likely I’ll get a cold when I get back. Hopefully, not when I’m there...

I also spent part of my weekend reading about South Africa and watching youtube videos regarding the places we will visit, including the Elephant Park. If we manage to see some of the things I’ve reading/watching it will so great. ‘JJ’ bought a proper SLR camera as well and spent the last days learning in detail how to use it.

Going back to some of my older posts of this blog, I found out that I used to post various cartoon strips, like Garfield. So, in order to fight this Monday’s blues, here are some cartoons:

 

Favorite Books

While doing my military service in Greece, I had to learn how to kill time. There are many occasions when there is absolutely nothing to do or allowed to do. After lunch time, each soldier is allocated an evening or night service and till that time comes you just wait. Normal recreational activities are not allowed. You are not in holidays. In addition, it is better to stay out of the way of the superiors because if they catch you slacking, they will order you to do something, just for the sake of it. There is always something that needs cleaning, tidying up or even painting. So, it is better to remain quiet, mostly hidden in parts of the barracks were not many people pass. Even when my service time came, there was some more waiting.

You see, in the army, during peace, at night time what I was mostly ordered to do was guard. I needed to spend 3 shifts of two hours each, outside a military warehouse, barracks or an outpost in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t a chance that the ‘enemy’ would attack, so to be honest, I only had to wait there and look alert if the night patrol would show up to make sure I wasn’t sleeping. During these times I had to find ways to entertain myself. Especially the 2 – 4 in the morning shift when everything is quiet and still and I felt so sleepy, it was a torture. What I started doing was replaying movies that I recently watched scene by scene in my head, or create Top 10s.

I was thinking top 10 lists of almost everything. My most favourite one is my top 10 list of books I would gladly reread for any reason. I keep updating this list constantly in my head. The books found in it are not what you’d call masterpieces in the classic term, but they are books that made an impact on me for various reasons. Here it is in random order:

1. Book Thief 
2. The life of Pi
3. The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy
4. Blink
5. IT
6. Me talk Pretty one day
7. Extremely loud and Incredibly Close
8. The lovely bones
9. Magician - Raymond E Feist
10. 1984

Books that didn’t make the list:
Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A story. I loved it when I read it decades ago. I fear that if I read it now it will lose its magic.

The song of Ice and Fire. That’s amazing storytelling. There are unforgettable moments in these books. However, at times it was dragging soooooo much I wanted to kill myself. If an updated edited version comes along, I might give it another try.

Bookworm…

Yes, that’s me. I have a soft spot for books. Ever since I can remember, me and my brother, we had a big bookcase in our shared bedroom with lots and lots of books. I remember collecting Disney comic books, ‘Asterix le Gaulois’ or Popeye. We also had some books of Greek mythology, Grimm’s Fairy Tales or Aesop's fables. Both my parents encouraged us and frequently read to us stories.


After I grew up a bit, I had a saying in which books I had to read. I remember visiting my small bookstore of my home town and I had this lovely tickling sensation of anticipation to find my next book. At first I loved writers like Enid Blyton, Penelope Delta and then Agatha Christie. Growing up I switched to classics with breaks of writers like Stephen King or Tom Robbins when I also discovered Marvel comic books.

Reading comic books was a bit of a struggle. My mother hated them. She insisted that I should be reading proper books and not ‘junk’ as she called them. She was saying that comic books are not educational and for unintelligent, uncharismatic and uncultured people! We had a ‘war’ going on in the house for years when she was throwing away every comic book she could find hidden in the most bizarre places of the house. I know that I lost some great value editions of the ‘80s and ‘90s like that. Other people in their teens hide porn; I was hiding ‘X-Men’. It’s a bit sad, I know, but true! However, she didn’t manage to get this idea out of my mind.

lost in 'Limbo'

Growing up in a small town, I didn’t have many options and the available stores were limited. I remember vividly in one of my first visits in London, I was amazed by the multi-storey bookstores and dedicated places like ‘The Forbidden Planet’ where I could find anything I needed to satisfy my geek self. Even now, I can spend ages browsing through selves, checking books and deciding what to get. I don’t think I’ve read lots of books compared to other people. OK, I might not be as knowledgeable as ‘Stephen Fry’ for example but who cares? I only wish I could remember more of the books I’ve read in the past.


My love for reading is unquestionable. I also believe that it is very important, if not essential to a man’s growing up. It broadens your horizons. It can be educating but very entertaining at the same time. That is why I was very surprised to read that ‘one in three children in London doesn’t own a single book’! A research indicated and I quote that:

‘The study also found almost 40 per cent of those aged eight to 17 live in homes with 10 or fewer books – although 85 per cent of those aged eight to 15 own a games console, and 81 per cent have a mobile phone.‘

And for that, the only people to blame are the parents. It’s not like books are hard to find in a place like London. These children do not live in the middle of a desert or a rain forest. The reason I was extra happy for the success of books like ‘Harry Potter’ or even the ‘Twilight Saga’ is the fact that it was making youngsters read. However, apparently that wasn’t enough. Of course I'm not saying that everybody should finish 'War and Peace' but...

I love this satirical article by 'The Daily Mash' called: 'Books Making Children Gay' (If you read it don't take it seriously, it's the Mash after all)

Rumbling Thursday…

Thank you for the book recommendations. I’ve ordered the ‘Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story’, ‘London Triptych’, ‘Geography club’ and ‘A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)’. These books will keep me occupied for a short while.

I’ve always wanted to read the Geography club since as I’ve mentioned in the past I have a thing for Maps, Cartography and geography in general (Yes, I am a geek). I am so going this Sunday to the exhibition in British Library called the ‘The Magnificent Maps’. It’s the last day this Sunday but I can’t go earlier. The ‘Game of Thrones’ I’ve heard is a really nice Fantasy book.


Funnily enough, ‘MadeInScotland’ also suggested to me a book called ‘The Pope is Not Gay’, by Angelo Quattrocchi. That comment was never added to blogger and the email I received had the following warning:


I really don’t know why I can’t get rid of this warning even if I click on ‘Show Content’. That reason alone is suspicious. Of course Microsoft is not the best company when it comes to tolerance and freedom of speech.

By the way, ‘MadeInScotland’ raises some really interesting issues regarding the Pope and his UK visit, if you’re interested.

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Yesterday, we went to watch ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’. It follows exactly the same steps as the previous movies. Milla is an awful actress and the plot is very predictable. However, the whole thing manages to appear entertaining. Not having high expectations of course helps. We got our pop corn and buckets of Coke and sat comfortably to be 3D entertained.

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I’ve been quite productive the last few days and I am really enjoying it. My new schedule includes waking up at 6:30, going to the gym approximately from 7 till 8 and then going to a coffee place for breakfast to study Java before going to work. I simply don’t know how long it’s going to last though. Going out after work (gallery, cinema etc) is reducing the hours of sleep I’m getting.

Today, I didn’t go to the gym or to study because I have my personal torturer in the gym this evening. This is the first time I’m going alone! It will definitely be interesting. Most likely, I’ll be in pain tomorrow…

Opening night…

It was really fun yesterday at the opening (at least for me).

‘JJ’ was slightly (a little bit more than that) stressed before the opening. He was going on and on about how his stuff is shit and how they will start throwing tomatoes, broccoli and various other vegetables, fruit or eggs at him. It was all quite entertaining. I did my best to calm him though.

Surprisingly, the place was quite crowded. To be honest, I didn’t think it was properly advertised and promoted. I feared that only friends and relatives would be there but fortunately there were lots of people. A couple of glasses of wine eased JJ’s nerves and I think he started enjoying himself and the attention he was getting. We stayed there for almost three hours since JJ had to talk to potential buyers and do some PR. I was happy chatting to some people, noticing what artists wear these days (always fascinating), having some wine and food.


(I’d like to make a comment here. When organising an event like that, please do not serve pork ribs! It’s not really easy to eat and people are stuck with bones and greasy hands and faces! )

I was told that I look better than my portrait (always nice to hear) especially since JJ’s work is surreal and cubic, resembling Picasso’s portraits.



Out of the ten artists taking part in the exhibition, two managed to sell something. One of them was JJ! I was so happy for him. He needed a confidence boost since he wasn’t painting much recently. I probably take much of his free time and he hasn’t painted in ages. Funnily enough the portrait he sold was the one I had in my living room. Now, I have an empty space that needs to be filled. I’ll make him paint me something nice that he’ll probably exhibit next and maybe sell (yay!!). I want to help him create a proper portfolio of his work and set up a nice website. The other alternative of course is to use online galleries that mostly work with percentages of the things sold.

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Changing the subject, I am trying to find some nice gay related books to read. Can you please advice? I’ve read a couple books like two written by Hollinghurst but I can’t say I found them that great to be award winning material. I’ve also read ‘The City of Night’ which I also didn’t like. Preferably, I’m looking for a biography (Is the one written by Amaechi or Barrowman any good?) or a nice book with gay characters (is the ‘Geography club’ readable?). I’ve read the ‘A Home at the End of the World’ which I found decent and the ‘Night Watch’ by Sarah Waters. Thanks