Spiro's Blog

A foggy day in London town

spirosmichalak — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:40:28 +0000

This picture has pretty much repeated all through August and now into September.

Quiz: why is there a grey cloud at 22:00?

(hint: sunset is at 19:31)

The worse of Britain

spirosmichalak — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:28:39 +0000

One big reason why I’m on my way outta here…, again…, never, ever, ever to return … for longer than a few days…, go on, a week max…

The reason? The BBC of course. Pathetic, apologetic, irrelevant finally.

Τόση δημοκρατία έχουμε να δούμε από τη χούντα

spirosmichalak — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:49:55 +0000

Very funny article here, in Greek. The graffiti: “τόση δημοκρατία έχουμε να δούμε από τη χούντα” is written on walls in Athens. It’s funnier in Greek, but in English it means “we haven’t seen so much democracy since the dictatorship”. I think it translates funnier in Spanish: “No hemos visto tanta democracia desde la dictadura”, with a heavy does of sarcasm.

Pillage before bankruptcy

spirosmichalak — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:09:12 +0000

The best quote on the Greek parliament’s vote of confidence for Prime Minister George Papandreou – and thus his austerity plan:

“This is not a program to salvage the economy, it’s a program for pillage before bankruptcy,” said Alexis Tsipras, head of the small opposition Left Coalition.

taken from here: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

Greece, please default, now!

spirosmichalak — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:54:16 +0000

The Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has asked Greeks to support further austerity measures or the country will face a “catastrophic” default.

“The consequences of a violent bankruptcy or exit from the euro would be immediately catastrophic for households, the banks and the country’s credibility,” said Papandreou as he appealed to the opposition to support him in a confidence vote, while addressing the Greek parliament, Reuters reported.

I love that he said that. It will be catastrophic for households (which the austerity measures are anyway), for the banks (great) and the country’s credibility (…? huh?). Yes, I would vote my confidence in him to do exactly what the banks want him to do.

Max Keiser rallying the troops in Athens

spirosmichalak — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 17:55:34 +0000

Hello World

spirosmichalak — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 09:14:27 +0000

BE A PLAYER

spirosmichalak — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:14:33 +0000

This picture was taken yesterday (Saturday) morning, at Picadilly Circus. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It’s from my shitty mobile phone of course, hence the superior quality…

Picadilly Circus, London, 2nd Oct. 2010

Bodog is the company I worked for in Málaga. On my first week there, I went for lunch with some of my then new colleagues and ended up sitting across from a Swedish guy, who was pretty high up in the company, and was one in the long list of my superiors, to whom I on occasion was required to report directly to, despite the software company (as you can see here on my friends and former colleagues Christo’s blog) advertising itself as having a flat management structure…

So, anyway, I was chatting to my new boss and he asked me what I was hired to do at the company (Riplife Gaming Technologies) and I told him I was going to work developing the C++/MFC poker front end. I asked him what he does and he said… “Well, basically, I’m a player”. I immediately thought “wow, and a wanker to boot”, I mean, who calls themselves a Player? As it turns out, he meant he was a poker player (a professional one) who got involved in the online poker software racket because of his expertise. As it also turns out, he wasn’t a wanker, but a nice guy and his use of the word was just a misinterpretation from me.

In that case, what does the ad “BE A PLAYER” mean? Oh, I get it, it’s from the clever marketing people in Canada. It has both meanings. They are fucken’ awesome these marketing people, I’m glad we’ve still got them and they didn’t heed Bill Hicks’ advice.

The best of Britain III (2010 edition)

spirosmichalak — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:10:58 +0000

Back in London, for the foreseeable future. Gotta enjoy what there is here and it’s not the weather, neither the food.

I had never heard of this guy, Micky Flanagan, until today, but he’s good. And this routine is pretty apt for me right now.

And this one is just fucken’ funny. Respect!

Friday the 13th, August 2010

spirosmichalak — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:05:28 +0000

Woke up yesterday in Edinburgh and the temperatures read: Edinburgh 14, Málaga 33, London 15… Got back to Málaga in the evening and went to a friends leaving do, with a bunch of people from my previous company, in Los Alamos, just before Torremolinos, in a chiringuito (a beach bar), drinking on the sand until 1 in t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops… I’m gonna miss this place…

Probably moving back to London, for a bit… Here’s a great interview with one of my heroes, John Pilger, in London:

Oh, and I am also going to password protect this blog because I’m tired of people searching for “prostitutes in Bariloche” and “Greece porn” ending up on my totally kosher wholesome pages.