Monday, December 6

I am happy!

Upgraded my PC two days ago... Athlon 64!!!! Everything is now lightning fast. More text will follow, but do look at the pics. They are worth the effort :))

(note to self: relink pics)

Friday, November 5

Technology - we all use it, right?

But how many of us can actually keep up with the damn thing? I remember the time of simple comparisons: there were two numbers we all understood - processor family and clock speed. Say, 80386 running at 33MHz, or a 80486DX2 @ 66Mhz, and so on. Life was simple. There were distinct successors in graphic adapters - Hercules was replaced by a CGA adapter, then EGA, which expanded into VGA (wow look at the colors!!) and then there was SVGA and life ceased to be simple.

Enter Pentium and different bus speeds, multipliers, overclocking and the whole industry became a cruel race. Most of us mortals just couldn't keep up with the changes, unless we devoted ourselves to it full time. Different standards started to compete for market dominance (remember VLB and PCI? I do. I had bought a VLB motherboard along with an S3 graphics adapter which I was sooo proud of, and then PCI won.)

Recently (last 5 years) there are so many chipsets, clocks, buses, whatevers to consider when you are looking to buy a new piece of hardware, that it becoms an arduous task of researching sites like anandtech and Tom's hardware (thank you for your existence) and asking your guru friends for reccomendations.
Just now I witnessed two of my colleagues engaged in a discussion which digital camera one should buy. The abundance of features even in such a simple item as a camera has become so vast, that you can't simply go out and buy one, without fearing that within a few months it will become obsolete. OK, such speedy progress is good, right? I suppose it means that we get better and more interesting gadgets sooner, but in a few years we will need to incorporate some sort of tech-class into elementary education in order to have consumers competent to operate (even understand) those new toys.

And I don't even want to begin talking about Asimov.

Thursday, November 4

Tuesday, November 2

Colours

This morning I felt like I did in Thessaloniki a couple of years back... You see, I had cash flow problems for the past 10 days, and yesterday I got paid. This means that now I can buy smokes, go out on my lunch break, and be a happier individual in general. The situation reminded me of times in Greece when we ate spaghetti or potatoes since we couldn't afford anything else, and then shoveled gyro down our throats when we got cash...

Another thing that happened this morning (It is now 0930):
I was passing by a store that sells kids' school stuff, and the window was filled with pink bags, pink notebooks, pink book covers, pink shoes, pink _______, (you name it - it was there and it was pink). Sad. I mean, I understand that pink is/was the "in" color this season, but we have to draw a line somewhere...

Still no word from John. I'm worried. Thinking about calling his mum or dad...

Monday, October 25

Yet another update (YAU)

Heh... Just noticed that I listed two previous entries with a wrong date... 2003 instead of 2004. Corrected.

Anyways, now I'm in Afirma FCB, and in a month's time I'll know if I will be staying here. The agency is OK, the people here are nice and I can say that I enjoy my time here. Still.

As for D17, finally got in touch with Dejan, he wrote that he is in Thessaloniki now, 9-5ing somewhere behind a desk... I'll give him a call later on. John has taken to disappearing now. How strange. Can't reach him by phone (perhaps he is in Turkey), but I don't see him on MSN either, and he isn't answering my e-mail...... Who knows. Maybe he joined the foreign legion. Riiiight.

I planned to buy a motorcycle these days, had a great offer, even found where I could borrow the cash for the down payment.... I was sooo happy. Suffice it to say that the bitch spoiled my plan. Man. I need to move out.

Monday, August 30

Here we go again...

I got laid off... My services are no longer required. The vacation season is over, I filled in for people who were away, and now... hasta la vista, baby. Anyways - I was told that there's not enough work, some arrangements didn't work out like they were supposed to, etc, etc... Back to the job hunting stage. All my plans are messed up. I was planning to move into a little flat downtown, but that'll have to wait. I could have spent the summer on Crete, if only I had known.... Eh...

D17 update:
John is occasionaly in Turkey, visiting his new girl, Nasli. When I was working, I used to run into John every now and then online, and he'd be asking "have you updated your site yet?", and I guess that, since I said I'd do it like that afternoon (I'd say that every time), an update was in order :)
Dejan has dissapeared. No replies to e-mails, he's not answering his phone.... I wonder. Last I heard from him was that he was banging this Swedish or Norwegian or whatever girl, and thinkig of eloping with her... Who knows. D, man, if you are reading this, drop a fucking note!!!
As for myself and girls, I had a little adventure which ended as easily as it began... The little tart actually thaught that she could make me jealous by playing hard to get *after* we were already in a relationship... Dumb kid. Right now, I'm seeing this girl I first met 'bout a year a go, and had my eye on since then. Fortunately, she's 2 years older than me, so I don't expect any immature bullshit from her... I'll keep y'all posted.

Saturday, May 22

Update

OK, it's been a while since I posted anything new here, but as you'll see, it was for a valid reason...
Since I returned to Belgrade, I've been looking for a job and feeling generally miserable. No cash, no energy (nemam ni 2 evra ni energije) stage had overpowered me and I spent around 4-5 months just slouching around my room and occasionaly going for a job interview... Man, that period sucked. If it wasn't for my twice-a-week CS matches, I'd have probaby gone absolutely mad or something of the sort. Another bright point was this certain person who was in a similar state to mine, so we could relieve each other's tensions... Unfortunately, she took of to Turkey to make candles.

However, just before that, I finally found a job! I started working as an Account Assistant in IDEA Plus Communications, an advertising agency here in Belgrade. Needless to say, my psychological state improved vastly as a consequence of that. I started actually spending time around people, and earning money. The downside of going to work is that now I don't have the time to go out as much as I could before when I had no money to go out with, but there you go... Overall, I am really satisfied. The people at work are great, the atmosphere is excellent, and smoking is allowed. I am still in the test-stage - the first 3 months are something like a probation, after which we'll see if I will become a full-fledged member of the staff. Sure hope so.

Over the course of the next 2 months or so, I will finally relocate to an apartment of my own, away from my parents. This is the last thing that I have to do before I can say that a certain stage of my life is over, and I cannot express in words how much I am looking forward to that...

As far as Dialetti 17 crew is concerned, John is in Thessaloniki having mad fun ;) studying away and generally living a student's life... good for you mate, enjoy it while it lasts! Dejan is on Crete, working and generally living a "summer is great" life with his g/f.... Nice, innit? I'll sure as hell try to get to Crete when I get the chance later this summer... perhaps in August...

Well, there you are for the time being, I really don't know what else to put down.... if something pops up from my stale memory, I'll post it. Until then, enjoy this picture of a cute friend of mine from elementary school who I ran into at a friend's b-day party a week ago....

Saturday, January 3

Well... there we go. New year.

Lots of fuss. As usual. Much ado about nothing. Did I mention I don't like these holidays? Everyone is supposed to be happy because of a date change. Riiight. I want to find a religion which does not celebrate anything in this period. A friend of mine said I should try some African tribe that celebrates only victory... Maybe it's a good idea - lots of nice scenery there, good for riding a bike.

One of the things that happened while I was on Crete last summer is that I got hooked on bikes. I remember when Johnny was showing me some magazines about bikes, and I told him something along the lines of "Johnny I don't care, I am not into bikes." That was before I rode one on a regular basis. Mind you, I still don't know much about the racers and the likes, since I'm not into those crotch rockets. Something like this Africa Twin on the photo would be just fine... (no shit?)

These are two of the bikes I used to ride on Crete. I was fortunate enough to work in a bike rental store called Easy Ride located in Plakias on the south coast of Crete.