Another Earthquake

Today 18/08/06 I woke up from deep sleep at 13.13 exactly from an earthquake.

I was too tired to get scared or get up and I just kept on lying there counting the seconds the earthquake lasted. From the time I woke up I counted 8 seconds. A long but weak earthquake I thought! The USGS site has not updated yet (last update 18.8) but the EMSC has and it was again in Albania 4.1 Richter.There were actually 3 earthquakes from 13.12 until 13.23.

Lost and Found

Five years ago I forgot on the train two posters that had accompanied me since I was in high school. It was a frustrating experience because I had spent almost my entire teenage time looking at these posters on the walls of my room. There was nothing great about them actually. They were just regular space posters, my favourite one depicted the solar system.

For a long time I remembered them but knew that it was impossible to get them back.

Lately I decided that I have finally settled down in a place (!), feeling a bit like Odysseus who reached Ithaka... and I thought I have to get some cool stuff to decorate my room. My speciality is to fill every spare corner of the walls with posters but in this house my room is so empty. Unfortunately there is nothing worth buying on this island and, well, thank god we have the internet :))!

While searching for space posters I actually found a copy of the solar one that hung in my room!

Click to view it.

Another Earthquake in Corfu

Scary. Another earthquake occured two minutes ago and the lamp is still swinging in the air. It was again loud but not that loud as the previous one. It shook a bit more I think though. The exact time was 12.20 AM

There is much seismic activity lately, I hope we should not expect greater earthquakes.

Edit: The first site to have info on this earthquake is emsc-csem.org. I was 4.8 Richter strong.

Peace in Lebanon

I first heard about Lebanon when I was reading the book "The Book of Mirdad" by Mikhail Naimi. It is an excellent book, with an interesting spiritual story, filled with many symbolical and mystical hints. Mikhail Naimi came from Lebanon and I read in the introduction of the book that he also knew Kahlil Gibran. That was another author and poet I loved, who came from Lebanon! His "Prophet" let me dream and carried me away in a world of peace and brotherhood. Where the mystical is the answer to all unsolved mysteries of our universe. Where love is the key to heaven's door. Gibran's Letters to friends, and his own illness and personal suffering touched me in a peculiar way.

A couple of years ago I met someone from Lebanon online, a meeting that flourished into a long lasting friendship. He is an artist who has also deep knowledge of computers. One of our common interest was also the objective study of various religions.

Last summer I also met an Israeli student who was touring through Greece in the airport of Athens. We had a 4 hours non-stopping chat and I almost missed my plane! He was a nice guy!

Now I usually dont watch tv, nor read the news online. And yet one pleasant sunny day I switched on the tv and saw something which made me look pale from the shock:Israel is bombing Lebanon, many people die and others are leaving the country. I saw israeli soldiers stating with fanatism that they will win this war. I saw death and fear in bombed parts of Lebanon!

As I was watching the news I remembered both of my friends and for a moment I got lost in a daydream. The tv screen blurred and I saw the cute student from Israel throwing bombs at the intelligent artist from Lebanon. Immediately I brought myself back to reality, shoke my head and tried to decided what was sicker and more absurd: my imagination or the real facts?