Cherry Blossom Life?

It’s Autumn already yet, Northern Greece is unlike California during September where maple trees aligning the American roads look like on fire of their yellow-orange colors; it’s fiery scene amazed me and it’s one of the things I love the color of Autumn in USA. By now, pine scent surrounds Escondido city while here in Filyro, the site is green because of them. The mountainous region of Greece is at the moment, field in array of greenery that when strike of the sun’s grace, someone like me can conclude it is one of the best scenic views I have seen in my life…

While tracking the road to reach Thessaloniki center city, driving in a curvy downhill road could scare some people that’s why they would miss the scenic view of the mountain side:
the sea view at dawn during summer, or the warm summer quarter moon filling the half side of the half-shape ocean, or the-after-rain scene seeing the mountain earth-tone abstract figure glittering of diamond dust. One could also missed over-looking a part of the Mediterranean ocean with it’s Daylight Stars …sparkling afloat freely and my mind fascinated by it’s sight, doesn’t realize it’s only a 2-minutes scene.

I remember the town of Escondido City, small yet peaceful, where I used to walk in my coat in middle of August, overlooking the maple trees… their thorny fruit stepped upon. The road is a burial of chlorophyll-less leaves; a sight that makes me feel wanna embrace it, sleep upon it, and change the title of Bon Jovi’s song to , ” Bed of Autumn Leaves”.

A part of me says that I love Autumn in California, a part of me says that “i love Autumn in Thessaloniki” too, because I am finally able to spend it with my bestfriend and soulmate for the second time around… and looking to the future of spending it with him for the rest of my life…

This is all that matters.

I think I am running out of english vocabs so I’ve been inferior to write an entry in my several blogs online. So far Friendster has been the busier blog compared to others.

I have mentioned long before in my previous entries that me and my husband are movie enthusiasts. But the sci-fi genre is his specialty. As well as other stuff he can learn in regards to computer by just doing them by himself, so we would end up not wanting a computer technician to tell us what to do or help us unless it’s something serious like a computer washed by flood (maybe?) but definitely not when it is attacked by a virus.

Alright, well we’ve been busy these past few days watching some movies. And after changing his vista OS to Windows xp, there seems to be always a disadvantage and advantage between the two Operating System. *sighs*
Oh well, in short, every movie we have to watch will have different resolution. The audio settings had to be adjusted here and then cos not all free movies got good audio or vid copies. I find myself eyeing my husband intently while he’s being busy scrolling his mouse, not to mention I have to keep away from the hanging surround speakers at the back of our couch especially when I’m adjusting the window curtain there. *chuckles* So much gibberish to what my point of this blog. Readers would probably wonder where I am going, but letting you know, this is Nessy or Nessy San. So I can be all over the place. Some old habits cannot be changed, or if it will, in a slow process. That’s why as time passes while I’m typing the english words here, I have to stop to think of a simplest word to describe what I should be writing but I forget them.

Let me begin from the start. Or probably , wherever I start talking irrelevant topic.

Uh.uh

Well as I was saying, or I am trying to say,
I admire my husband next to my eldest brother *manong* for being “keen” and “particularly - obsessed” with what they love doing. My husband who is naturally gifted for a good memory and IQ and passion for computers somehow reminds me of my big brother. But of course they both have their weakness: women. Ahaha, I’m talking about me! The me who is not particularly intelligent, a freak, a between-cultured-and-non-cultured personality, blatantly honest, impatient, and random ladybug, is a pain - in - the - ass to them, but, I wonder, how could they live without me who is the light and dark of their worlds? *laugh evilly*

This is just one boring blog again that talk about my rants and raves and…uh not to mention, the dramatic effect of some movies on me?

Let’s see… I remember the seem-endless adjusting of the audio set up by husband got to my nerve, at some point, but with a sensitive hearing as his (yeees beware of music composers!!! They are daintly , tedious beings, grrr) , he cannot be blamed if he isn’t satisfied with it. He had to try several video players and kept the good one as well as, also reminding me that some videos downloaded online have different set -up so u have to use a “certain” vid player to play them. And etc etc… *dizzy for a second* OK, so finally audio is done!

And zooom… i have to cut some events, im excited to say that I cried while watching “District 9″ !!!!

Yah yah this is what I wanna talk actually, but since I’m a natural blabber especially when I am comfortably - not - sleepy yet, so hear me out!

District 9 is a new sci-fi movie made by a director whom Peter Jackson financed $30 million to make this movie. For a low budget movie, this director made a fantastic debut in the film industry. Congratulations! (whoever you are, i forgot your name…and im lazy to search now.)

Hubby and I were quite anxious to watch it but since cinema resolution and audio here is NOT appreciated by us, we decided to wait till a good quality one comes out for free DL online. Excuse me, yes I am talking about “piracy” online.

Why not watch a screener or camera version when it is available, because:
1. It destroys the atmosphere of the movie. Unless you are so cheap enough and has the balls to watch it first so u can tell people you have watched it ! yeeee! er. yeah? yey for you, but you missed the fun of watching a good quality movie, dude.
2. Bad Video/Audio is terribly a no-no for me and hubby! Eyes and ears irritation!
3. We rather wait for the Reviews and Ratings online to see if it’s a “good”, or non-watchable movie. Advertisements or trailers will only lead you to disappointment after finding out the movie sucks (which is common this year) . Take the film industry as a shopping store. It has thesame objective and the product you choose is best chosen if it is recommended by many people, don’t you think so? 4. If there is an HD copy of the movie, even bluray, count as in! They’re preferrable to watch if you have an HDTV. Just a little tidbits of cables and wires to insert on computer and tv, you’re fine rather than watching it in a laptop. Believe me. It’s more fun. ^^

And yesterday, Russian Dvd copy of District 9 was out! So hail to Russia in order to prevent piracy in their country they are the first ones to release a dvd of the new movies. Unfortunately… mostly, they have bad audio but District 9 from yesterday was adjustable. Erm..it actually has the audio of a cinema, probably the one who put the audio in the dubbed Russian dvd has an audio code from an english speaking country cinema. Ok where else? America of course. But thank you! We have enjoyed the movie so much. It was an unexpected sci-fi story plot. Star Trek as my hubby said, was stuck to its classic series, yet this one is inventive .

District 9 is one recommended BEST SCI FI movie of this year, so watch it in cinemas (and i tell you cinemas in SM CIty Iloilo has a better cinema resolution than in Thessaloniki, *_* )

In the end, I could not help but cry. It’s just beautiful eventhough it disgusted me, which made the movie more “realistic”. MAde me bite my fingers and pillow and… teary in the end. This is sci-fi movie indeed; it isn’t fantasy, but shows the reality…

My husband told me I cried because I cared about this movie. Who won’t be? Im not saying it is a drama movie! But yeah..it got something like that within, yet, it’s just so amazingly done, thought out, and original out of the blue this year. Action pack, drama - ok, grossiness; you’ll have loads of it, and a different world which is not USA or EUROPE. So dude, watch it in good copy to get the most out of it!

Search for that Russian copy now ^^
Just… learn to adjust your audio settings for a more enjoyable time. If you got cables to connect to your pc to a huge tv screen, the better *thumbs up*

Patience is a virtue indeed. ^_^ worth the waiting hihihi.

I want to make a blog about the churches I went to in the past month, but I scrapped my Flickr photo-hosting site account, and what I found are old pictures I made during my first time in using Adobe Photoshop (APS).  It brought back funny memories. These are the pictures which I took during the wedding of a great friend, Manang Jovy, who’s one of the bestfriends of Manang Julie. Here goes what I had kept in Flickr!

My picture with my three favorite cousins
on my Mom’s Side:

My Friends, @ work before I left ‘pinas.

My Koochie…

The Bookmark I made about Koochie. My First Try.

Some Wedding Pics I took: (not-edited)

Hehe, these are it!

I’d like to share a poem as well:

Photographic Memories
© Karen E. King

I went through all our old photographs
memories made over thirteen years

Pictures worth a million words
that bring my soul to tears.

I study each one carefully
replaying the memories in my mind

looking for clues of what the future would hold
and the heartache it would leave behind

Smiling children, visiting new places
a canoe trip, a wedding, the park

How could we have known that summer day at the Lake
how quickly our bright lives would turn dark

Birthday smiles and Christmas mornings
Putt Putt golf and a day at the beach

So carefree and not knowing how soon
happiness would be out of our reach

Our passage through life captured on paper
If not for the photos would soon disappear

Fade out of our minds like the love in our hearts
bittersweetly remembered through the years.
View Here: Photographic Memories - Memory Poems - Family Friend Poems

Nothing spectacular. Some of them just - bugs me.

1.  I lost something precious from my mom… I can’t recall what?

2. Race issue: Macedonian Language in a more Slavic Origin Country? We’re talking about the country who call themselves as “Macedonians” and telling the Greeks that “Alexander the Great is not a Macedonian” nor Greece (Northern Greece where I live now) is not a Macedonian territory/origin. This is from the people that lives in FYROM. aka. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and some people that do not know Ancient History, whether because they did not go to school or just do not know which valid material of History Books they are reading.

I cannot believe that there are people who still argues about the authenticity of Greeks and Macedonia. Even the Cyrillic Language is being understood. Haven’t they heard of the Byzantine Era? Probably they do not have internet too, or if they had, what kind of information they may have read is a HOAX.

When you start emphasizing to them of the history background they just say to you, “No… Greeks erased the ancient stones that Macedonian Language were written and wrote it of their own.”

Something funny about this modern Macedonian Language. When you actually say Macedonia, you remind of yourself of Alexander the Great. And he’s a Greek aka from Hellas as what Greeks were called before the Turkish occupied them and call them as “Greeks” which basically means, “slave”. But up until now in their Greek dictionary which may have been modernized so that you don’t have to use those “ae” and many “o”s accentuation, “Greek” word  do not exist in ancient times, but “Hellas” does.

This Macedonian Language is basically a mix of other languages. Byzantine Empire has their “good” benefits because Orthodox Missionaries started going to other territories outside Greece to help educate the people of those places. By giving them a language; a mix of Ancient Greek and of their own that is now called “Cyrillic Language”. Shouldn’t they be grateful of this rather than acting like as if they have made it on their own without the help of those Orthodox Priests.

Note: of course “Greek” word do not exist in ancient times, it is called “Hellenic” or Hellas as a country.

The Macedonian Language refers now to the language used by the people who has a nation- identity crisis after being thrown here and there, but had lived in the Hellenic Republic (Greece) during the Byzantine empire,

- were actually Slavic people in origin. They have mixed with the people of the country and have accustomed around the Greeks for centuries. After the Turkish occupied the country, they were like orphans; they were lost where to settle down because they may be Slavic in origin but they are Greeks in culture so they do not know where to settle down. Bulgarians who is their nearest brother, had tried to occupied them, and other slavic coutries conflict they have tasted. After centuries passed, their roots have expanded and now they are in one country called, ” Republic of Macedonia”.

These are some of the arguments a person from that “Slavic - origin country” talked:

1. Asking why Greeks are still using ancient alphabet letters?

2. Talking about that his alphabet has been used for a very long time so the Greek and Russian alphabets derived from it?

3. Greeks are “nigah” and been “fucked” by Egyptians so they became “white”.

4. Greeks are propagandists.

Crap.
Hoax are the stories of their claim that they’re Macedonians by origin.What pride to they have in this claim? And thanks to the UN. OR whoever is the politician that is behind this propaganda of FYROM aka Rep. of Ma.ce.do.nia.

Check this Website for More Information: http://www.greece.org/Themis/Macedonia/history.htm

I may not be Greek in origin, but I’m married to a Greek and iLL be a citizen of Greece soon, so afterthen,  I may claim that I’m Greek, but come on… im not really Greek, check my genes. So freedom of speech. Freedom of idiocrasy. Anyone can claim whom they want to be, but at least be true to yourself when it comes to the “truth”. Do not claim what you are not.

–END of Blab–

ALL PHOTOS ARE TAKEN BY ME.

On the 2nd week of August, my husband and I went to one of the Ancient ruins around the city. A fanatic of ancient sites, I love sharing the infos, just like it is best to share the most-delicious peaches in the world to my old friends in Philippines, (it’s not like I have traveled to alot of places, haha, but, yes I found it in Thessaloniki, ^^).

I will be taking some lines or paragraphs from the brochure that was given to us at the site, because I myself can’t recall what’s in there.

For a start, you enter the site for F.R.e.E.

That day, the ground was a bit moist from last night’s rain. There was a person painting varnish on the entrance fence where an excavated area has been opened. We were met by a foreign site personnel who handed us the brochure.

Imagine this is Summer in Greece and in the news there were almost 3 million tourist in the Northern region. Thanks to the Balkan countries who do not have good beaches or no beaches at all because they come here, hehe. But amazingly, they weren’t that many that day. They’re mostly at the beach resorts. There are foreign faces roaming around the ruin set. The foreign-guide had to remind most of the site visitors not to go on “that” and “not here sir”, and “please go this way”. I did not hear any Greek language from them. Well this project is basically co-financed by the EU and the 2nd & 3rd CSF.That’s why the personnel from that site are mostly foreigners.

What is this ancient site about?

It is an ancient agora, the administrative centre of Roman Thessalonike, covered an area about 2 hectares in the heart of the city. Construction began at the end of  the 2nd AD on the site of an existing agora of the Early Imperial period.

The agora complex was discovered in 1962 during excavations on the site which the Hebrard plan, after the fire of 1917, had designated for the new law courts. In 1966, under extreme pressure, the then inspector of antiquities, Fotis Petsas, restored the only intact column found there, and this initiative determined the agora’s fate, because in 1969 the area was declared an archaeological site and its name was changed from Dikastirion (Law-courts) Square to Archaias Agoras (ancient Agora) Square.

A part of a hellenistic bath has been excavated.

It was abandoned during the 5th century, transferring the city’s administrative functions to Galerius’s palace complex and the buildings in the agora were plundered of their stone or converted into rain-water cisterns.

The complex was organised around a rectangular paved area. Three sides were lined with 2-storey porticoes with a double row of Corinthian columns giving access to public spaces.

The south portico rested on a double, vaulted structure, part of which was underground (cryptoporticus).

Further south, along the entire length of the cryptoporticus, was a row of shops facing onto the ancient commercial street along what is now Philippou street.

Market Streets: (they closed the alley area so we cannot go down to see what’s in there)

Mini theater: Odeion

Entrance:

A view of the small theater from outside the site:

A view of the surrounding areas from the mini-theater (from the toppest):

Outside the wall of the mini-theater:

In 1996-97 the cryptoporticus and the odeion began to be used as venues for cultural events. At thesame time following archaeological investigations and development work, two underground spaces were opened along Olymbou Street, where the portable finds from the agora can be classified and occasional exhibitions held. There found too are refreshment rooms, lavatories, and two underground rooms have been opened.

If you have added me as FS friend, you will see more photos from the ruins that I took even days after the 1st visit. I will be putting them up in due time.

More personal pics of mine and hubby:

This blogpost is on prior editing because I’m in a hurry to publish it. Ill pick up more details Sis Ceres!