Personal Weblog - Viewing Archives: February 2003

Burning Man

Stumbled across Burning Man from Mark's website. Images are interesting. Looks like an amazing event. I'd love to go. Not now, not ready for it. Maybe later in life. Looks very tempting though.

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

Moussaka

Here's my tribute to My big fat Greek Life which starts next week.

This Greek dish that I recently made is one of the most popular in Greece. It was even made into a movie a few years ago. It is pretty complicated to make so you will need some preperation and patience. I read somewhere of a vegitarian version of Moussaka but it does not have the authentic taste that ground meat has.

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Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 06:00 PM | Comments (1)

Iraqi Elite Forces...

Let's not forget that "taking out" Saddam means "taking out" many of these young children as well.

Armed Iraqi boys train at a military camp during their summer holiday, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2002 outside of Baghdad. Thousands of volunteers are undergoing a three-week military training amid U.S. threats to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.(AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed)

More Iraqi Photos

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)

No more eyebrows

Jasmine shaved her eyebrows yesterday. Remember, she's only 6 years old. She was just about to shave her brother's too when she was caught. What was she thinking? She had to go to school that afternoon. Well, you can imagine the reaction. She's not a happy camper right now.

She now thinks she's ugly. I'm trying as much as I can to convince her that her eybrows are going to grow back but she has no patience, "will it grow back by tommorrow?" she asks crying. Boy she has really learned her lesson. No matter how much I tried, I just couldn't help laughing the first time I saw her. Of course that made her start crying... Poor thing.

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 12:52 AM | Comments (1)

Blogwhore our Liz

Ok, Liz needs my help again. As I mentioned a while back she's taking part in Blogwhore, a blogging game that pits several people against each other in an all out blogging - survivor like - competition. Amazingly she's survived this far, with only the four of them left in the game. The final two rounds are happening right now so don't miss the fun...

brought to you by lizvang.com

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 11:53 PM | Comments (1)

Michael Jackson

Ok, as I'm typing this I'm watching yet another "special" on Michael Jackson. I just learned another "exclusive" that Jackson was associated with a gay porn director... cool. Why these American journalists feel that they have to respond to an exclusive British documentary with even more junk journalism is beyond my understanding. If I see another morphing video of the old Michael and the New then I'm going to puke! Day after day we've been bombarded with this. There is nothing left on television, that's why I stopped watching. Every time I turn it on I'm surrounded by Survivor, Bachelor, Bacholerette, Joe Millionaire, fear factor, pop stars, hot or not, bla bla bla bla... Trash, garbage mind numbing video...

There is one hope however, My Big Fat Greek Life (the TV series) starts Monday. Yeah!

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 11:02 PM | Comments (1)

Elvis Valentine

Well, the day after Valentine's and everything is half price. Picked up a box of tacky Elvis chocolates in the process...

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

Stop Laughing at me

Yesterday Jasmine started talking about school at the dinner table. I always try to get her to talk about what happened that day and let me know of anything interesting. Every day she talks about how boring school is...

J: School is so boring!
M: Why?
J: All we do is play play play. I wanna do some work. Why don't they give us some homework?
M: They will, when you're in grade 1
J: But I want work now!
...pause...
J: Daddy, today at school Cassie was mean to me. She said I couldn't be her friend any more.
...cry...
M: Why would she say that?
J: Because she asked me to trade shoes and I said no because hers have tielooshes (shoelaces) and it takes too long to put on because I can't tie my shoes fast.
M: Why are you guys trading shoes anyway?
J: Because we want to.
M: ok
J: I traded with her before when she had the shoes with the lines on them (velcro) 'cus it was easy but i didn't want to now.
M: Did you tell her that?
J: Yes I tried to but she just turned her back and wouldn't talk to me.
...cry...
M: Anything else happen in school that you want to talk about?
J: Well when I was at the gym and running i tripped and almost hurt myself. Everyone especially Niko was laughing at me. I don't like it when they laugh, it's not nice to laugh, it's rude.
...cry...
M: Well, did you tell them that?
J: Yes, but they wouldn't listen. Mrs. Cosley told them to go to the class room and put Niko in the "chair".

As I was sitting there having this conversation with Jasmine, my mind started to jump back and forth between Jasmine's little problems and my huge problems when I was her age. My how significant those "issues" were to me back then, how important it was to fit in and not be the tease and ridicule of my school. As I thought about this I realized that in reality, there was nothing i could do for her to help her get through these moments of embarasment or frustration. I could only comfort her and tell her that it doesn't matter. I can't fight her battles just as nobody could fight my battles as a kid. I actually didn't want anyone to do that for me since I had a huge ego and did not want the "embarassment" of outside help.

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 02:29 AM | Comments (1)

Superpower is Bankrupt?

Not that this really affects us Canadians but here's an article about the decline of the US economy and enormous defecit. It's kinda nice to see that while the US economy is going to the dogs, up here in igloo country, we still have surplus and continue to support a universal health care system that in fact just received aproval for a $17billion dollar injection. On the other hand, let's hope that the money will go to the right place...

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 01:39 AM | Comments (0)

Feel the Love

This is real, not a Saturday Night Live episode...

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 01:14 AM | Comments (0)

Seven

This past week we saw seven astronauts die during re-entry. We also saw seven teenage students die in an avalanche in British Columbia. The similarities are uncanny. The catch phrases that people used during the endless interviews were also similer.:

"The accident was a tragedy, we must now be with the families of the victims. There will be a period of mourning and we must find the cause of the disaster however we will go on, we will continue the trips (to space or to the mountains). All seven died doing what they love to do best.

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 01:09 AM | Comments (0)

Colin Powell

Colin Powell made his presentation today to the United Nations. We all knew that there was not going to be some dramatic display of proof that banned weapons exist in Iraq. Basically the weapons inspectors told us that they didn't find anything so Colin doesn't have more info than the inspectors on this. Todays presentation was mainly to show us that Iraq doesn't comply with UN resolution 1441. In not so many words Colin just said: "Hey guys, we all sat here in November and voted for this thing. We spelled out that Iraq was to show us all their banned weapons and prove they destroyed them or destroy them in front of the inspectors." He said:...

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Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)

LOTR 2 Towers

Well, for a moment there I thought it was not going to see this movie since finding a baby sitter was becoming more and more difficult. However thanks to Cathy and my cousin, we managed to make it. Thanks guys!

Yes, this is yet another review of a highly overrated film. To start off I'd like to say that I haven't read any of the LOTR books. I come into this movie without any bias or misguided devotion to a book and NO I am not a follower of the Tolkien faith. However from what I read on the internet it has a growing following which is now said to rival Christianity in it's scope. This movie is just that, a movie, and nothing more. It is just a medium that allows producers, actors, directors and various supporting crew members to generate income, pay bills and live their life (albeit slightly better than ours). It is also something that we pay money for to be entertained or enlightened...

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Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)

Columbia

It was just a normal day for me. I visited the laundry mart down the street. As I walked in I saw CNN on the TV screens. The caption read... space shuttle breaks up over TX. I was stunned. The news lately about the war on Iraq had completely washed out any other information on the fact that there were people still blasting into space with the goal of assembling an international space station. I feel sad for those astronauts. However I feel more sad that they don't receive the same amount of attention in our media as Britny spears or Christina anguilera. The main reason for the lack of attention is the fact that they don't make anyone money. These increadible souls should be the superstars of our generation not some skank who pulls her underwear on too tight.

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 11:37 PM | Comments (1)

Instamatic

When I was about 9 years old I was introduced to my first camera. It wasn't much to behold, however I had lots of fun with it and took my first experimental pictures. I'm trying to dig these up and when i do, they will be put up on my site. In the meantime, when i was on my last trip to Greece, I found that camera! I brought it back here in the hope of resurecting its use. Does anyone know if this film can be acquired anymore? It uses 126 film.

I'm impressed that it was actually made in Toronto. This is unheard of these days. Everything is made in far east countries (not that it's a bad thing). This camera probably dates back to before 1977. It was a free giveaway at the time by kodak sales people to retailers who sold film. My parents ran a variety store, so we got one. You'll be amazed at what you can do with a fixed focus camera. Especially this one since it used a larger format film canister than the later sub compact instant cameras.

Posted by Michael Aivaliotis at 01:14 AM | Comments (2)