An ant has no quarrel with a boot

Since the last post i understood something. It is not always easy to wear your winner's hat. It's practically impossible. I have endured some tough days lately. But i have found out that it is ok to wear your neutral hat instead.

I have also been pretty tired and full of assignments so in my free time i end up sleeping, cooking or playing some Guild Wars 2 with my friends.

My favorite course ended. Entrepreneurship. I don't know if it is sad that the course i enjoyed the most so far in this master's is from a completely different faculty. Anyways in the last session we ended up having a discussion about a case. A successful UK company wanted to expand internationally and more specifically target the US market. They wanted to diversify and we had to choose from 2 ideas.

1) Make some new cancer diagnose equipment
2) Invest in the plasma lamp industry

80% of the class including me decided to go for the plasma lamp, because it offered less risks, low investment, was a good industry and it looked profitable. The other one was interesting too but they had to battle a few colossus like General Electric.

As the case unfolded and a certain individual managed to make me laugh and look at her with confusion and understand that some people are just not your type or not the person you want to be, i had an epiphany. I told nobody but i wanted to change sides and go to the medical equipment side.

You see, there was a drawback with the plasma lamp. Something that every potential entrepreneur, or intrapreneur must consider. You need a license, or a patent for your idea. And if even the simplest thing is being controlled or involves a behemoth like in this case 3M you are done. If your product is innovative you are most likely done, because they will crush you. They have the power. They can influence laws, politicians, the industry itself, the trends, the future.

I had a flashback on the Avengers movie. "An ant has no quarrel with a boot". See our plasma lamps here are the ant and 3M is the boot. So that is one thing to take into consideration when you get in a business or you want to materialize an idea.

Part number 2 then. I read about Fernando Alonso, the famous F1 driver suffering a serious injury in a crash recently. When the doctors asked him who he is or what is his job, he said that he is a kart driver that wants to become a formula 1 driver sometime in the future. Boom, suddenly he was back in 1995, the last time he drove a cart. He forgot he drives for mercedes or his 2 world titles.

Which brings me to my next question. During that memory loss, i wonder how he felt when he learned that he had more than achieved his dream of becoming an F1 driver. That he was contracted by the biggest names in the industry and won two world titles with them.

Imagine yourself 10 years ago. Maybe 15. I am 26 now so that would make me 10 years old back then. How would you rate yourself now? Did you achieve what you wanted? Did you change your mind or get lost along the way? Was it something childish or did you pursue it with passion and determination?

I for one have changed a lot during the decades. I remember i was courted to be a doctor or a lawyer by my father for a long time. I almost believed him or i lied that i would become one. It was disgusting. I never wanted to be anything like that. He only told me that only money is worth and that i would have a job where i would sit, look at a few smelly old patients that would give me money and then i would tax evade like everyone and have a huge house and a fancy car. Well you know what, fuck that shit. I remember writing a school essay in 6th grade. I wanted to become a scientist and help people, do research, make a difference. So i guess i have achieved that, i am now an environmental scientist going on to become a specialized engineer in water resources.

I also remember the pressure and the strength i had to find to endure a lot of things at home and at school. I remember another very short paragraph that we had to write. That period i was so engrossed in football that i wanted to become a footballer. We were also supposed to write why we wanted to do that and why not. I wrote that i did not want to become one because i "could break a leg or something". That was a god damn blatant lie. Because i wanted to write that nobody would approve and i was being influenced. And then my teacher told my mom she was disappointed at me and my selection. How embarrassing that felt. Always with a massive weight of expectation just because you are a good student. Do not become what your parents want. Become what you want. If you want to take over the family business and your interests align with theirs then that is great. But do not become miserable just to justify a parent's ego just because they think they know better than you.

It's just the unconscious emotion that makes them turn you into what they could never become and shape you in their own way. Suggestions are great, don't get me wrong. Of course telling your kid that a medical career or lawyer or scientist is a good one where people respect you and you earn a lot of money. But what if you suck at maths or physics? What if you are a natural for history or philosophy? Why let that go to waste to do something that you might never achieve or be unhappy for life?

So in that sense i became what i wanted back then. I had other dreams, like robotics or nanobiology. But i was also a realist and found out that i was better at other things. Things that also intrigued me while they also set me up for a nice career.

But while i managed to escape from that poisonous influence i was intoxicated with there are other things i am just shaking off for the past year. The army obligation is done. Reshuffling my friends is done and only those who are worthy remain and shall remain. I am doing well in my masters. I have someone very special to care for. But my complete independence remains to be conquered and this makes the next 12 months even more crucial. But as i always said, never back down. It is your obligation to stand up when you get knocked down.

With that it is time to go to bed again. I will leave you with a sunny picture of my neighborhood. We are enjoying a great week here. Until next time...

Goodnight Sweden

A trip down memory lane

Hi. Welcome to another episode of Kostaswhinesalot.

I spent 2-3 days in complete solidarity after Friday's pizza marathon with Dimitris and Spyros which was not really a marathon. During these days i was actually productive in some sense. I completed my business plan for Entrepreneurship as well as a group assignment we had. I did the writing and my group members really liked it! Yay! Which makes my life much easier for the following 1.5 month, as the deadline is on March 9 and there are no exams.

Way to go Meowth!

Apart from that we were "blessed" with more good news from Greece, as one of our dogs died from rat poison today. More on that topic and how horrible human cruelty on animals can be later. I also watched a lot of HearthStone and CS:GO tournaments during the weekend to kill some time. I studied some hydrological processes. And i watched terrible movies and some shows that brought back many many memories.

I will go down on memory lane first. During my winter vacations i visited the house of a relative of the Fox in Espoo in Finland. We were talking and during that the kids were either ramming our heads or watching some sort of cartoons. With horror after 30 minutes we found out that the cartoon was supposed to be PacMan, armed with a terrible plot and terrible CGI. I thought on Friday, what happened to all the shows i used to watch as a kid? They looked so cool, so maybe that show looked cool to the kids now too!

I fired up on YouTube my finest childhood memories. First i watched some episodes of Dragonball. Hilarious, action paced, incredibly hard to follow, like a Michael Bay movie with tons of explosions, only not crappy and without slow motion. Then i spent almost the entire weekend watching Voltron: Defender of the Universe. I ended up watching 61 episodes of the GoLion version. There were some moments that looked idiotic and predictable now that i am all grown up, but i found myself absorbed as much as i was a little boy, watching the first two episodes on a VHS time and again. I still remember the sounds of victory, or when the blazing sword came out of those robot lions, ready to punish those evil Robeasts. There was a blend of action and morals, effects that i still value greatly compared to shitty CGI, nice fights and humor when it involved space mice and their leader Cheddar. Which reminded me that the evil witch in my house ate all my 8 slices of cheddar the other day. Nooooo not the cheddar!!!

Then on this glorious Sunday of February 2nd i remembered how cool Power Rangers looked. It was one of my favorite shows back then 20 years ago along with Goosebumps. Wow do you remember these two?

I got really curious so i watched the 1995 movie of Power Rangers. Oh my god what a mess. Terrible script and lets not talk about the CGI. I know CGI was so premature back then but even the TV show looked better. It was atrocious from the monsters and especially the giant robots. The only great part was the villain, who was absolutely hilarious. Which brings me back to today's cartoons. What do we have now? Is there any iconic cartoon left worth watching? What is your opinion?

Moving on i don't know why but i prefer watching professional players play HearthStone more than me playing lately. If you take a walk in Twitch you will find countless of random players, from good to bad. Some of them are terrible casters, some make you sleep, some make you giggle all the time like Amaz does. Some actually read the chat and respond and that is hilarious. But i think i keep going back there because of Twitch chat. That thing is stupendous. Every player has his own fan base and if their favorite streamer is not streaming they just go into another famous player's stream and cause mayhem. It is absolutely fun. Thousands of players spamming every second, people writing lines like "I am gay but no one will notice here!", riot, take some salt, asking the streamer to roleplay so when their character takes damage in game they pretend to take damage in real life. It is worth a visit. I was watching another bearded guy playing a shitty zombie apocalypse game called H1Z1 (which sounds like the H1N1 virus...) and for every sub, kill or death he drank more beer. The end result was ridiculous as he was smashed beyond imagination.

To end this, i watched a review and played a game considered to be one of the worst ever made, a game that has become so viral and being so bad its good. It is called Hong Kong 97. The plot is incredible. It starts with some text that greets you with the phrase: "The year 1997 has arrived. A herd of fuckin' ugly reds. are rushing from the mainland". Then it shows you the picture of a man that looks like Bill Clinton, telling you, the player to eliminate 1.2 billion Chinese. Oh you are supposed to be Chin, a relevant of Bruce Lee. There is nothing to talk about the gameplay, you just shoot some bad guys, avoid picking up things because you die instantly and then you face off with a giant head. I haven't laughed so hard since i reviewed Baboon Simulator.

Which brings me to the original topic. Last week we tackled why people hurt each other. Now it is time for why do people hurt animals. Animal cruelty is reaching a peak in Greece it is disgusting. In this occasion the cause seems to be accidental. But we have seen so much poisoning of poor animals all over the country. On my back yard right outside my home a whole pack of cats and dogs were poisoned withing a few months. Another one was shot with a shotgun in the rear legs from a hunter. We saved that one. A stray unknown dog with an operation that cost more than 500 euros. Back at thessaloniki there was a massive poisoning of dogs in Touba when i had my own little one there. A golder retriever named Alfie died in front of everyone slowly and painfully. I remember in the shotgun case the animal welfare organization that is supposed to help lied to me, telling me that the operation had a 10% success and would cost over 1000 euros. Just to save the money. I might as well turn into a vegan in the end.

New month, new week ahead of us tomorrow. Brace yourselves for the ride.

Goodnight Sweden.

This is Rallou. She was only 3 months old.

The King is happy - All hail the King!

I have a great sense of excitement for the past few days.

The weather is still great, i love the snow, the day is becoming bigger and i am starting to come out of hibernation. 

Was i complaining about the lack of friends before? You know what? I have all the friends and important people i need. I have Katerina, my dearest friend of all in Kalamata. We have few discussions due to the distance, but i know and she knows that we are here for everything the other one needs. The same applies to our mutual friend Aggeliki. She is always so happy when i am there and so sad when i leave and she has nobody to make those horrible sexist jokes i do. Afroditi has her own struggles with her new life and i miss the fun we had in those ridiculous greek night clubs. And here i have that Portuguese baboon Jaime. He has helped me so much and i would give my left arm and right leg for him (could i give just a kidney mate? I am too handsome for 1 leg and 1 arm! :D). And i have the best friends in Thessaloniki as well, were Xaris is my savior during New Year's and Mary and Viktoria are the best friends, travel partners and sisters a man could ask for.

Tack sa mycket then friends! Thanks for getting me through these tough times here.

What about the boring classes i had last semester? Oh these are gone too. Yesterday for the first time in my life i approached the professor of Entrepreneurship, Katarina Lundqvist and told her that i have not been excited for a class for over 10 years. I felt like i was the jury or a lawyer in an important case or a soap opera called "Just or Unjust" learning valuable and interesting things, historic facts about business that i love and i was handed the freedom to choose a project to write about, a project that excites me and stimulates me. It was very interesting how most people there were dressed so formally or like going to a fashion show coupled with ties and suits and an apple computer.

The semester started yesterday and i got in touch with my other 2 classes and especially the one today was so interesting, the professors so cool and the historical facts great. I learned the story behind the L'Aquila earthquakes of 2009 and the ongoing trials, or how i successfully researched the storage of nuclear waste in the crystalline bedrock under Sweden and Finland. I am also one step closer to moving to Turku with my beloved Fox. My life could not be more exciting right now.

A new beginning, a new hope.

Well there is one thing! I love your comments, i want them! I want your suggestions and your criticism! So drop a nice little comment below, leave a like, follow, subscribe, it is all in the panel on your right!

Since i am all feeling pumped up and happy right now i will provide some info that someone that lives in Uppsala or in Stockholm might find it useful. I had to go to Stockholm the other day and i needed to know what is the cheapest way for me.

I have a monthly student yellow card that is valid for the whole of Uppsala up to Arlanda airport. That is 550 crowns per month, or around 60 euros. I would stay in Stockholm a day or so, so a 24 hour pass would suit me well. Therefore, a 130 crown SL card lasts 24 hours and is valid for every transport in Stockholm until Arlanda. So if you have one of those monthly cards, a 24 hour, 3 day or weekly card in the respective city will be enough and will help you save some costs!

I am gunning up for my project in entrepreneurship, which will most likely be the way important people managed to secure capital for their economic ventures when they were actually broke. What else to expect? I am trying not to read the news anymore because all i see is things like how rich women party in Iran, or how a radio show can help you sleep with 3 pornstars and one of them looks like a combination of the Golum and the Bigfoot and the woman with addiction to breast implants. Or how innocent women are shot in the head in the name of Islam, or the orgies that happened in the Vatican or Monasteries. The last thing i read was that a man went on stage with his girlfriend and performed oral sex on her on stage during a Dead Kennedys concert. That was on the Huffington Post. Entertainment and news coverage on its finest. Good grief.

Is there something else to say? Nah i was just so excited i wanted to share my thoughts with you all! Help me grow more!

Goodnight Sweden!