My geeky Valentine

(nerd alert)

Written on the blackboard in our office kitchen

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
if you were a null hypothesis
i would fail to reject you.

The house at the village

My friend KatoYdata beat me to this, but i did took some awesome pictures at the old house of KatoYdata's grandmother at the village, when we went for a walk during my Christmas stay in Cyprus.

And i suck at taking photos. I really do. So taking one or two good ones, is something isn't it? Especially when the photos are of something so usual and so unique at the same time as a traditional house in a small village of Cyprus.  

                                                                                                    

Traditional pot alignment in the kitchen. There is no Cypriot of my generation who has grown in a house not owning at least one of these flowery ones. 

A traditional oil lamp hung on the kitchen wall (just like my grandma's).

Erykini's 4 stages of dealing with setbacks

Step 1. the existential questioning

Thats where you wonder why? why me? why now? why did it have to happen/not happen/happen this way? Why couldn't it just work?

Caution: if this step continues too long it will inevitably end up to re-thinking the possibility of the existence of a divine creature, that has decided to torture those who dared to doubt his/hers existence. Also this step is necessarily accompanied with emotional eating, and as emotional eating is not usually focused on salads and fruits, it can end up badly.

Step 2. the self-blaming

As an atheist you cannot reaaally blame God for your misfortune, and due to your trait tendency towards depression, you will eventually blame yourself either because it is indeed your fault or... you will find something you did badly. its not that hard anyway.

It includes calling yourself bad names (but not self-whipping due to lack of religious belief as already mentioned) and even greater amount of emotional eating (by now you need to refill the nutella stock).

Caution: whereas step 1 was pretty much an internal thing, now you are whining to all your significant others (this can also end up badly)

Step 3. the Self-pity

After waking up from the self-beating, you realize how pathetic you actually are for doing all that self-blaming and all that eating. So feel sorry for yourself and for reacting this way, which leads to even more emotional eating (and that's what we call a vicious circle. Delicious but vicious)

Step 4. (this part differs according to the situation)
a) something happens and you are forced  to actually DO something for the problem (or your friends make you do so cause they cant stand your whining)
b) you eat so much that you feel bad and you decide to fight your misery and do some on-line work out exercises (shake your hips to lose weight). Exercise increases hormones in your brain (i cannot remember which) that make you feel less miserable, so you actually carry on your life/whatever you were doing despite the setback
c) nothing happens and one-week passes by. After one week of self-pitying you are ready to do anything to make it stop. And the problem is solved.

The best description of my PhD progress..

Came to me today in English:

"Its like dragging a corpse to the finish line"

Relationship birthday cards ...

Relationship loves cards.

Maybe its all that time spent as a royal mail employee. 

Or just the love for written expressions of feelings. 

I should know something about that.

Over three years i got more cards than in a lifetime.
My favourite of all is that birthday card, which is not a birthday card. That one describing an escape from life (isn't that maybe the most romantic venture of all?) :

Can we?

Shall we?

One day.

Very soon.

Let us go away together 

just you and me.

Call in sick and go to the sea and hold hands all day.

Eat out sandwiches on the train. 

Get drunk on fresh air and come home tired and never tell anyone...

EVER.

Not knowing why, i remembered this today, i suppose because i am indeed growing up beside the relationship or because Paolo (and the Vipers) is another piece of beauty out there in the world. 

This world has reached to that point...

...where you feel guilty for being happy. 

Open to interpretation

New Orleans (french market)