Πρώτο χέρι

Ολοκληρώθηκε το πρώτο χέρι βαψίματος στο…ιστολόγιο 🙂 Απο εδώ και πέρα προχωράμε σε χρώμα νέον μπλέ το οποίο συμβολίζει την…Geeky πλευρά της προσωπικότητας μου. Η όλη διαδικάσία ήταν λίγο πιο επίπονη απ’οτι ελπιζα μιας και αναγκάστηκα να επεμβώ στο style sheet του Hemingway-ex theme ώστε να βρώ που βρίσκονται τα χρώματα για τα links και τα navigation bars. Το πρώτο ήταν ποιο έυκολο απο το δεύτερο μιας και το navigation bar έπαιρνε το χρώμα του απο εικόνα (κάτι το οποίο δεν ήταν άμεσα προφανές.) και σαν αποτέλεσμα η εύρεση μου στο style sheer για το χρώμα #FF9900 δεν έδινε αποτέλεσμα. Τυχαία το ανακάλυψα κοιτόντας τον φάκελο με τα images που περιέχονται στο theme. Μια μικρή επέμβαση με τον καλό μου φίλο, το gimp, μου έδωσε το αποτέλεσμα που μπορείτε να δείτε απο πάνω. Προσπάθησα να επιτύχω ένα ηλεκτρικό μπλε χρώμα αλλά δεν είμαι σίγουρος κατά πόσο το καταφερα. Προτάσεις βελτίωσης δεκτές (κώδικες RGB ακόμα καλύτερα 😉 )

Άλλες αλαγές που έχουν συμβεί/συμβαίνουν είναι η δραστική μείωση των categories που χρησιμοποιώ με συνδυασμένη χρήση tags μέσω του Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin. Αυτή τη στιγμή οι κατηγορίες μου αριθμούν κοντά στις 40 (απο ~120) και ελπίζω στο τέλος να απομείνω με περίπου 15, χωρισμένες σε 4 υπερ-κατηγορίες. Ακόμα προσπαθώ να αποφασίσω ποιος είναι ο αποδοτικότερος τρόπος συνδυασμού tags & categories. Μέχρι τώρα η ίδέα που έχω είναι τα οι κατηγορίες να παίζουν τον ρόλο των “φακέλων” που δίνουν την δυνατότητα στους αναγνώστες να δουν τι γράφω για ένα συγκεκριμένο θέμα. Παραδείγματος χάρη η κατηγορία job, παρουσιάζει όλα τα posts που έχουν σχέση με την επαγγελματική μου ζωή, άσχετα εαν μεταξύ τους τα posts έχουν σχέση. Η ίδια κατηγορία βρίσκεται στην υπερ-κατηγορία The Life Quotient, η οποία περιέχει όλες της κατηγορίες – και κατα προέκταση τα posts – που έχουν να κάνουν με την “Πραγματική Ζωή” μου (κοινώς, Real Life).

Απο την άλλη, τα tags προσπαθώ να τα χρησιμοποιήσω σαν προκαθορισμένα searches κατα κάποιο τρόπο. Κοινώς είναι ένας τρόπος για να βρεί κάποιος posts για ένα συγκεκριμένο θέμα. Έτσι χτυπώντας το tag [tag]Site-Updates[/tag] μπορεί o αναγνώστης να βρεί όλα τα κείμενα μου στα οποία σχολιάζω τις αλλαγές του Ιστολογίου μου. Επίσης τα tags είναι υπεύθυνα γισ τα related posts που μπορείτε να δείτε στα αριστερά απο κάθε post, και παρουσιάζουν μια λίστα για γρήγορη μεταπίδηση σε άλλα άρθρα που έχουν παρόμοιο θέμα. Αυτός είναι και ο κύριος λόγος για τον οποίο κάποιες κατηγορίες δεν είναι tags (πχ pictures). Εαν το έκανα αυτό, τότε όλα τα post που είχαν το tag pictures, θα φαινόντουσαν στα related posts, άσχετα με το γεγονός οτι οι εικόνες δεν δημιουργουν σχετικότητα. Επειδή όμως δεν έχω ανακαλύψει ακόμα τον τρόπο να εξαιρώ συγκεκριμένα tags απο την λίστα αυτή, πρέπει να χρησιμοποιήσω κατηγορίες.

Ένα άλλο πρόβλημα που αντιμετωπίζω με τα tags είναι το σύννεφο απο δαύτα το οποίο μπορεί να δεί κάποιος απο το navigation bar. Εκεί φαίνεται το συνολο απο κάθε tag χωρίς να αφαιρεί τον αριθμό (η και ολόκληρο το tag αναλόγως) απο τα tags που βρίσκονται σε private posts. Δεν είναι μεγάλο πρόβλημα αλλά είναι ενοχλητικό παρ’ολ’αυτά. Ίσως η λύση να βρίσκεται στο documentation του UTW αλλά δεν έχω βρεί ακόμα το χρόνο για να το διερευνήσω.

Μια άλλη αλαγή που θέλω πραγματικά να υλοποιήσω είναι η χρήση του navigation bar εώς drop down menu, όπως εδώ. Αυτό θα μου επιτρέψει να ξεφορτωθώ την λίστα απο pages στο navigation bar καθώς και το άσχημο hack που έχω κάνει ώστε να φαίνονται κάθε φορά οι εσωτερικότερες σελίδες (Βλέπε inwards). Δυστυχώς, λόγο του Penguin Migration και του εκτεταμένου Ναρκισσιμού, μου έχω πήξει στα pages τα οποία θα μεγαλώσουν ακόμα περισσότερο σε αριθμό μόλις ανεβάσω και όλα τα side-projects μου. Εαν έχει κανείς καμία ιδέα πως να το επιτύχω αυτό θα το εκτιμούσα να την ακούσω.

Τελευταία αλλαγή που έχει γίνει είναι η χρήση ενώς καινούργιου tag εν ονόματι [tag]Planet LGU[/tag] με το οποίο θα ταυτίζω τα άρθρα τα οποία μπορεί να έχουν ενδιαφέρον για την ελληνική κοινότητα του GNU/Linux και του ελέυθερου λογισμικού. Ο Λόγος για τον οποίο δεν θα χρησιμοποιώ την κατηγορία Free Software πια είναι διπλός. Κυρίως δημιουργήθηκε ένα πρόβλημα με το λεξιλόγιο που χρησιμοποιώ όταν έχω ψυχολογικό φόρτο. Ο Σίμος που είναι ο διαχειριστής του νέου πλανήτη αντιτίθεται στην εικόνα που παρουσιάζω για τον Ελληνικό χώρο του ελευθερου λογισμικού και σαν αποτέλεσμα ενώς απο τα τελευταία posts μου, αφαίρεσε το feed μου απο τον πλανήτη. Μετά απο μία συζήτηση που υπήρξε, υποχώρησα στην τωρινή απόφαση μου. Θα συνεχίσω να γράφω όπως επιθυμώ στο γενικό ιστολόγιο, αλλά σε ότι λαμβάνει το tag “Planet LGU” θα γράφω…κόσμια. Αντιτίθομαι σε αυτή την αναγκαιότητα αλλά δεν έχω όρεξη να αναλύσω το γιατί τώρα. Σε επόμενο άρθρο ίσως.

Ο Δεύτερος λόγος για τον οποίο χρησιμοποίησα καινούργιο feed είναι γιατί δεν θέλω να στέλνω στον πλανήτη μόνο άρθρα που έχουν άμεση σχέση με το ελεύθερο λογισμικό. Πολλές φορές γράφω κάτι γενικού ενδιαφέροντος το οποίο με ενδιαφέρει να παρουσιαστεί σε μεγαλύτερο κοινό ώστε ίσως να προκαλέσω μια συζήτηση ή απλή σκέψη τέλος πάντων.

Σχόλια για το νέο look του site, ή για οτιδήποτε άλλο δεκτά και επιθυμητά.

Ich war lernen…

I probably killed the above phrase, but I meant to say “I’ve been learning”. Unfortunately I’m not advanced enough to say: “I’ve been studying German for two hours now”, mostly because I have no idea how to use the noun “Studie” in the present (Stude?)

Whatever. As I said I’ve started learning German finally. Yesterday I bought the German for Dummies book as well as the Oxford German-English pocket dictionary. Today I finally sat my lazy butt down to actually use them.

Right now what I’ve discovered is that German is like a mix between English and Greek which is amazingly fortituous since I am fluent in both languages. I can already pronounce some of the German consonants combinations that don’t exist in English (like “ch”) and also am familiar with most of the Enligh vocabulary which is quite similar to German (if you exclude words like “After” of course 🙂 ). Furthermore, the Germans use noun genders that – lucky me – almost always match the Greek relevants, so I already have a basis on when to say Der, Die or Das, although in some cases they differ, as in the “Hand” which is neutral in Greek but male in German (silly Germans, why are your hands male?).

Also, some of the grammar doesn’t make much sense if your translate it in English, but in Greek you can actually recognize how it works because of the similar ways the two languages use the present to signify future or past – as well as other similar grammatical structures.

I’ve also got Arnoc on ICQ being my personal tutor which just means that I’ll end up learning words like Steel and Panzer first of all. The rest won’t matter 😛

Beltane

So [tag]Arnoc [/tag] piqued my interest about the yearly gathering he is having with his friends which he likes to name it after the Gaelic holiday, Beltane. As far as excuses to have a barbecue with your friends go, this is not half bad, although it doesn’t mind to remember that this is also the Labour day as well.

[coolplayer]http://www.dbzer0.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=647&g2_serialNumber=3&.mp4[/coolplayer]

We didn’t have any maypoles or flowers but we did have quite a lot of Mead however, and I even brought a little mead_sm.jpgbottle of Jaegemeister that a friend of Arnoc’s almost drank by himself 🙁

We also had quite a lot of BBQ but unfortunately, due to the fact that the ECB restaurant had an all-you-can-eat day I was pretty stuffed already and I couldn’t enjoy the fine souvlakia that were around, or the horrible cucumber salad 😛
Time passed and people were starting to ask for a fire show. I was itching to test my new [tag]firestaff[/tag] so I gladly obliged them. There was just the perfect place in the back garden for such a thing.

[coolplayer] http://www.dbzer0.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=653&g2_serialNumber=2&.mp4 [/coolplayer]

We continued during the night with drinks and discussion and even some dancing around the fire on Pagan Dancethe music of Ensiferum if my memory does not fail me. Generally it was a good time and we finished at about 12:30.

It was around that point that I discovered the most ugly bird sitting on the tree and hooting. It was the owner of the place who snuck in and climbed on while no one was looking. Fortunately that ugly bird drove us home so we were spared having to wait for the last train in the cold.

Took five vids (but no pics) that you can find in the gallery now.

Good times

Annoyance

It greatly annoys me that Night Clubs around here won’t allow me to take my Glow Staff with me. It’s just a frigging Glow Staff, what is the problem with it? I’m not going to kill anyone with it, just dance. It’s also light and not suitable for assault (as it would sooner break than hit hard)

Now, the Final Destination doorman allowed me in with it, the last time I was there but I believe it was mostly because he’s learning to play it as well and he recognises me as a regular. Even then, he told me not to dance with it, even if the stage was empty. What the hell? I’m not going to tear the stage down with a glostaff!

It’s amazingly stupid. In London they would allow even metallic staffs inside but not here. Paranoia.

Yesterday I went to U60 where some friends had gathered after Speak Easy. By amazing luck, I decided to take a taxi which brought me to the place as they were getting some cool air. As luck would have it, one of them had reserved a guest list pass for a male friend of his that didn’t come so the option was still open. He let me take it and I ended up saving at least 8€ or 14€ (Damn those places always seem to charge amazingly high). Nice enough place but with such repetitive music I could only truly enjoy it with the staff. I went ouside and asked the doorman

“Hey, can I ask you something. I’m thinking of bringing a glow staff next time, is that allowed?”
“What’s that?”

I point to the blue led he has running on the back

“Oh, a stick for light?”
“Yes, but it’s about *this* big”
“Sorry, not allowed.”
“But it’s just for dancing, why?”
“It’s just not allowed!”

Now, I don’t think there’s an actual rule. “No big sticks allowed” because I do not think there are many people bringing those around. It must be a case of preemptive cancellation. You know, when they stop you doing something because they’re not familiar with it.

In this case, it just stops me from going to the place again since the only reason to do so would be to use the staff. Although there were many beautiful girls around, the music just doesn’t cut it for long exposure.

Very annoying.

Slumber

Last day, while I was about to leave work I started getting that annoying uncomfortableness you get when you’re starting to get ill. I informed the team leader that I might be getting sick and went home…

…and slumbered

I seriously got on my bed, read a book for about 2 hours and then slept until next morning. Then I got up, went to work, they saw me looking like shit, sent me back and I slumbered again until now.

1 day lost. What could be better…

Embedded vids

Yes! With the help from the coolplayer author, I’ve managed to rid myself from Youtube. Now I can embed videos directly from the gallery. It seems it is just enough to put the video’s download link within the coolplayer tags and the plugin does the rest. Unfortunately the only way for me to get that link is to use mplayer’s embedded “Get url” option to get it and even then I must edit the final link and replace the garbage in the end and the file type (ex .mp4)

I’m not certain if Andor used another way to get the necessary link, but I don’t want bother him too much with questions. I’ll look around and see what I can find. For now, since I know the format of the link, I can just change the ID of the file and enter the correct extension and I’m done.

PonytailYou can see examples in my previous blogposts, let me know if you see any problems

Now all I need is some way to put the coolplayer vids on the side as floating, similar to aligned pictures like the one on the left. That would be just awesome.

Underground gigs

I’m starting to like the Metal scene in Frankfurt more and more. Yesterday I met with Maubi to go to a little gig of a few underground bands at Die Halle that was organised by FFM-Rock. Initially we though the price must have been 6-8 €, judging from previous experience. I even though that for 5 bands it might go as high as 10.

I did not expect it to be just 5 FUCKING EUROS! Five!! That is, 1€ per band. And the beers were at 2€ each! Two!! I don’t have enough exclamation marks for this shit!!!
The bastards at the Harley bar in Thessaloni charged us 15€ for 2 bands and the beer was something like 4€ or 5€! Bastards!

Moving on

Smiling MaubiInitially we met with [tag]Maubi[/tag] at the underground station at 20:15 where he informed me that two others would join us. I do not remember their names now bur needless to say, they were familiar faces from the Final Destination.

We got on the train where they proceeded to speak mostly in German. To pay them back I started filming them 😛 I even managed to finally get a pic of Maubi for my called ID.

[coolplayer width=”352″ height=”288″ autoplay=”1″ loop=”0″ charset=”utf-8″ download=”1″ mediatype=””]
http://www.dbzer0.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=594&g2_serialNumber=2&.mp4[/coolplayer]

We arrived at the concert hall, (die halle heh) at about 2:15 and as I expected, they knew everyone around.

[coolplayer]http://www.dbzer0.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=600&g2_serialNumber=2&.mp4 [/coolplayer]

The place was a regular bar and there must have been about three dozen customers. As you could probably listen in the previous video they were doing the sound check when we entered.

ChiabolaThe First band that was playing were Chiabola. I did not think to take a video of the band at that point so you’ll have to be happy with this picture only 🙂

What surpised me about them was that only one member of the band had long hair, something usually common in Nu metal bands. Their music however was quite good, reminding me a bit of Paradise Lost in their newer albums. They only played 3 or 4 songs if I remember correctly.

Force Trankill in action

The next band, Force Trankill, was the one that had Maubi’s two guitarists from his other band, Everfest. They were playing progressive rock, and without wanting to sound biased I must admit that they were the ones I like the most. Of course, this is not to say that the other bands were not good, Force Trankillquite the contrary. I was amazed at the quality of the bands I saw for just 5 euros!

The singer was probably one of the reasons why this band sounded so goo. This is the same singer that I saw in a previous [tag]gig[/tag] I went to. Maubi told me that band was his other project at which point I started wondering if everyone around here two pet bands as a pastime.

Another FriendI believe I have to also mention that the whole environment was really cool. Although I hand’t really spoken to many people by that point, everybody seemed friendly and a girl regular even promised to help me get a flyer of the gig.

The area in front of the stage was not packet and I had enough space to move around and take photographs and videos. That is not to say that people where not head banging and stuff.

Crystal Crow SingerNext on the stage were Crystal Crow, of which the singer I had noticed outside just because he was wearing a bandanna exactly like mine, as well as a leather trench coat, like me. When he went on the stage, I just knew he had stolen my idea (if I ever became the frontman to a band that is 🙂 )

Crystal Crow in actionI must say that they were pretty good. The singer could grab both the high and the low notes and used a guttural voice similar to old school Sentenced. Their songs were a bit melancholic and dark-themed as well which was a good change from the rest.

I think this might be a band worth looking into in the future. I’ve been meaning to find another darkware metal band as a replacement for the now disbanded Sentenced.

Liquid Horizon The next band on the line was Liquid Horizon, a clearly progressive act with quite a melodic undertone. The singer, as you’ll be able to see from the vids, was also the Guitarist which imho is a no-easy fit when you’re playing prog.

I took two videos of these dudes mainly because I run out of space on my mobile phone and had to move some files around.

Big Chief DrummerFun fact. During one of the songs, due to the beat that sounded similar to native american rythms, the drummer put on a feather headress for the whole song. Nice touch 🙂

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At this point, our other friends had already left because they were tired, leaving just me an Maubi. Fortunately I had already started talking with various people around the place, including the owner who even bought me a drink. During my conversation with the owner, I asked him directly, how could he manage when he was charging such low prices for entry and drinks. He explained to me that it was quite difficult in the start, where he almost closed down, but now that people have learned the place and more gigs are happening.

You know it actually makes sense. Bands don’t come to play here for the money and as such don’t expect a high income (perhaps 10 euros). This in turn allows the owner to charge low entrance and drinks which brings more people to the scene. These people then promote the bands using word of mouth (like I am doing currently) and even buy the bands’ own merchandise. In the end everyone wins, unlike Greece where everyone was losing.

ScenesAnyway, now the next band was on the stage, going by the simple name: Scenes. We had already been told by enthusiastic people around there that they were the best of the lot and as they started doing the soundcheck I could see that the singer would make a good performance.

Scenes in actionI was not dissapointed. The singer was quite the frontman and their music was quite enjoyable really. Although it was not not the band I liked that night – and there were a few people headbanging on the front row, which goes to show that I was probably in the minority – I must admit that for an underground band their music was quite impressive. They reminded me quite a lot of Queensrÿche.

Unfortunately at this point it was time for me and Maubi to head out as well in order to catch the least train so we couldn’t really see the whole gig. We said our goodbyes, I received my flyer as promised and I vowed to return for more 🙂

Ahem, just one more time…5 FUCKING EUROS!!!1!one!

New staff goodness

So I’ve finally received my two new Staffs from Firetoys and I’m really really giddy about it :). I ordered them last Friday night, they were posted on Monday morning and they arrived on Thursday morning. Now that is quick! Unfortunately we hit a snag when they didn’t find me at my place and left me a notice. Trying to call them back, to my dismay I discovered that they did not have anyone who could speak english and there was no way to communicate. Fortunately for me, my dear colleague Cyrus did me the favor of calling them for me and after a short discussion they arranged to leave them at the shop next to my place. Next day when I returned from work, they were already there. Oh Joy of Joys!

I ordered two staffs from the shop this time. Initially I didn’t want to shop from firetoys again since the last time I got one of their products, it broke within a month and I’m not really happy with the replacement I received since it has bent and twisted to a bad enough level to make it diffuclt to use.
However the initial choice I had in mind, te POOKaToys, has closed down their shop for some reason and the Home of Poi has a very small selection of staffs and no Glostaffs. The other sites I checked either were more expensive or had a small collection as well.

 

My New Contact FirestaffThe first item I ordered was a contact [tag]Firestaff[/tag] with two wicks. Specifically I ordered this model because I wanted something sturdy and good for practicing contact moves.

The staff itself is the heaviest I’ve ever used and it is also amazingly sturdy. I can simple throuw it in the air and see it vibrating as it goes. This makes it a bit difficult for throws but on the other hand, during the training I did today I discovered just how much of a difference having a good staff does.

Where before I had trouble performing a simple Steve roll, just in one hour today I almost performed a perfect Halo-360, which was pretty amazing for me. The extra inertia of the staff, along with the fact that it doesn’t tangle in my hair anymore (as the silicone grip used to do) makes contact moves amazingly easier than before.

[coolplayer]http://www.dbzer0.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=591&g2_serialNumber=3&.mp4[/coolplayer]

I practiced for two hours and I think I have finally began to make progress. I still have to practice with the new weight, balance and longer shaft but that should be the easiest part.

The other staff I ordered was finally thr GloStaff (Glow Staff) that I always wanted. Yes, I’ve got very carnal reasons for wanting such a staff 😉

This one one is the smaller sized one I’ve used (just 140cm) as well as the lightest. The shaft is very thick which makes it difficult to do finger spins and the weight makes it a bit unstable for contact moves. I believe I can counterbalance those with a lot of practice. It still looks absolutely amazing in the dark!

[coolplayer]http://www.dbzer0.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=618&g2_serialNumber=3&.mp4[/coolplayer]