So...

what's the point, anyway?

why struggle to achieve anything, when you can make no difference? So many people living their lives quietly... Don't they know, anyway, humanity will eventually disappear, like tears in the rain...


ΥΓ νιωθω μηδενιστης σημερα...
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Some days are (much) better than others

Luck (or the laws of probability if you prefer) is a funny thing. My girlfriend had her birthday on Saturday. I was thinking to buy her

a) a book I really like but which is not easy to find in Barcelona in English* (Junky, William burroughs)
OR
b) a bicycle
OR
c) tickets for the U2 concert in Camp Nou
OR
d) a new home cinema system (I know it sounds stupid, but she really hates what the germans call the cable salad (Kabelsalat) that comes with normal home cinemas such as the one we have, so I wanted to buy her one with wireless speakers)

Well the U2 tickets you can basically forget about. The concert was sold-out in one day (!) and I have been searching in ebay since, there is nothing under 120-150 euros... (I like them but not enough to pay 300 euro... 300 euro is a trip to Ibiza!)

Bicycle, well I like mountian bikes and she likes "Holland" bikes, so that was a problem too... (I can not buy her something I don't like!)

Home cinema, it was a good amount of money and I couldn't decide which one to buy anyway.

And the book, well as I said it was not easy to find. I tried Amazon but it would need a llooong time to deliver to Spain. But my luck was about to change!

Friday afternoon I went again to Fnac** to check the home cinemas. As I was browsing throught the English literature, what do I find? JUNKY, the last piece they had! Of course I bought it immediately. I came home and I found my girlfriend waiting to go get a bike which was her gift from her mother! Ha, thats nice I thought.



Next day she wakes me up early and of course she wants to try her new bike. Normally I am very lazy, but it was her birthday... So I take Alberto's bike and we go to the beach. On the way I recognize that the idea of a bike in Barcelona is great. There are so many nice places you can go quietly and nicely... And because of the bikes we could go far away from the central beaches, which is great, since they are cleaner and less crowded. We enjoyed a nice swim and I was thinking this is a nice day. But it was going to get better!

You see quite close to this beach there is a new shopping center, which we decided to visit. Sure anough upon entering it, I see on of the home cinemas I was contemplating to buy, on offer, for FNAC partners! We go immediately to the "FNAC partner desk" to become partners and what do I see!?! They are selling 2 tickets for U2 which were being kept for the manager of the shop, but were cancelled 5 minutes ago! The price: 62 euro each! Hell, I can not believe my luck. I ask the guy if it is a joke and he says: no, we just put this sign and it is 100% for real!

wham bam I buy the tickets immediately. We become Fnac partners and I go to check the home cinema system. I find out it has every single thing I want (DivX, wireless rear speakers with a very small elegant receiver, good quality sound, even a FM receiver) plus a USB port for using memory sticks to use jpeg and mp3 files! Sweet... Unfortunately they tell me you can not play DivX movies directly from the USB port, but only from CDs and DVDs. (Who knows why?) We buy it, take our U2 tickets and get happily on the way home.

Arriving at home after such a full day, I start playing with the new stuff. I check if the home cinema can display subtitles for the DivX files. It does! (great for my spanish non anglophon friends). I decide to push my luck. I put avi files in my memory stick and rename them with a jpeg extension. With everything going well this will work too I reckon...


And guess what! The DVD player is tricked into believing it is a file it should play, but recognizes correctly that it is a video file. IT WORKS!

Unbelievable, in about 24 hours I got everything I wanted, plus more!

What did I learn?
If your girlfriend wakes you up to go to the beach, DO IT!
If you do not know what present to buy, BUY THEM ALL!
If you feel things are going well, push it all the way!

*and of course this book has to be read in English!
**for the Greek guys: remember the name. It is a nice french chain of bookstores-Cds-electronics coming very soon to Greece too.

PS the similarity of the title with the U2 song is intentional of course. Its lyrics are actually not that bad...
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