Ode to the Moon

Pale Moon
lover's dream
peot's nurse;
the stars wink at you
but eternally you stand
to remind us of love
and dreams.
Dream on, people,
the moon is high in the sky
looking at you
telling you that love is real.

Written 22/01/1993

Time

Time will crawl
but never on the feet
of puny mortals
Time plays with
humans.
Time knows she's
in control.
Never will she give
an inch of her territory;
and her territory is death!

Written 08/11/1992

More poetry...

The following articles will be some of my own poetry written a long time ago. Admittedly they are not very good, but I don't want to lose those poems, so I am putting them here.

Re-reading them, I see how bad, how corny some of these are... I think that the only one that I truly like, is the one that I wrote after reading the full saga of Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock. Elric is one of his best characters, and I loved every one of those stories.

Lesbian Vampire Killers

If you thought that this was porn, and specifically lesbian porn, you couldn't be further away from the truth. What is this movie about then?

It is supposed to be a comedy, a satire of Vampire shows and movies. Nice try but no go. Not bad, but I did not laugh at any part. maybe sneered or smiled a bit.

The movie has it all: corny dialogue, the chosen one, a priest, a virgin... and lots of women scantily dressed and pretending to be lesbian vampires!

However, there is something lacking. The dialogue was there, the setting was really good. I cannot blame the director, I thought he did a good job. Paul McGann is excellent as the Vicar, and I thought that he needed someone else to act alongside.

Neither James Corden [Fletch] nor Matthew Home [Jimmy] really were up to the task. There was something missing from their acting, and at times it was like they were bored with the whole movie.

The basic story itself is quite good and has a lot of room for comedic situations, which I felt were not delivered. Or as I said poor acting made some of the jokes and in-jokes invisible to the audience.

My take on it is: a lot of undelivered potential. The main actors were a very bad choice for this movie. Watchable? Yes, with friends, appropriate commentary, some alcoholic beverage of your choice, food [preferably take out]. You can laugh at the expense of this movie, but not with this movie.

Blasphemy in Ireland; The new law is a blow to humanism and secularism.

I was appalled when I heard about the new blasphemy law in Ireland. And here I thought, that despite the religiousness of a lot of Irish people, at least the government was secular. But I couldn't be more wrong. The new blasphemy law, fines anyone who blasphemes against christianity with a 25.000 (twenty-five thousand) euros!

This is a very dangerous law. It is a law that brings Ireland back to the days of the Spanish Inquisition, back to the days when even saying that the Earth revolves around the Sun, was blasphemy. Where do you draw the line? Why is it that religions are the only ones to cry "Blasphemy" every time someone uses their critical thinking and logic to dismantle their irrational claims?

This is a law that limits individual freedoms, the right to free speech. People have a right to free speech, and if they want to blaspheme, that is their right! Why do the religious find it okay to bash homosexuals, for example? And then, they will find it blasphemous to reply to this hate-mongering? How about the oppression of women in many religions, including christianity? Would it be okay to say that in the Bible god is a misogynistic prick? Which is backed up by evidence, from the religious holy book? Or it will be considered blasphemous?

How many books and movies have blasphemy in it? A lot of them. And if fundamentalists have their way, even science will be affected by this irrational and dangerous law. Evolution is considered, only by the religious, and especially the fundamentalists, to be a controversial subject. That man evolved is considered blasphemy to the fundies, even though the scientific evidence for evolution is overwhelming. And that is only one of the sciences that can be affected by the law.

And what is next? Would teachers be affected in their teaching of evolution, of the Big Bang, of everything that is contradictory to the holy book of christianity?

Ireland is paving the way back to irrationality, dogmatism, oppression, through this law. Because blasphemy is one important stepping stone backwards to the time of the Middle Ages, and the times of the Spanish Inquisition.

As a response to the new law, the Irish Atheists have put up in their blog 25 blasphemous quotations from famous people, including Jesus Christ, and are asking for everyone's support so that the new law can be repelled:

25 Blasphemous Quotations

The Chronicles of Riddick

A while ago, I bought this movie on Blu Ray disk. I had liked Pitch Black, and knew that there was a sequel based on the character of Riddick, played by Vin Diesel.

I watched this last night, and in many ways I thought this is D&D in space. Why? From various names, like necromongers, elementals, etc. to the story, there are many things that reminded me of D&D and the Dragonlance novels at times.

The story is nothing new; there was a prophecy, and a chosen one, who happens to be Riddick. He is also one of the last remaining people of his race, the Furyans, and the one to kill the bad guy.

I would like to have seen more of the universe of Riddick; while I think of it as an adaptation of D&D worlds into space, it has potential. I liked the concept of Crematoria, from the few planets that I have seen. I think there may be more interesting stories to be told in the same universe.

Let's go to the acting part of the story. I have seen worse acting than Vin Diesel's. I must say that he is fine in such action movies; not an Oscar perrformance, but a decent one for an action packed movie. And of course he does have a deep voice which I really like, and Diesel's quite handsome.


Dame Judy Dench is always an excellent actress, and you can see the difference immediately. Even at small roles such as this, Dame Judy Dench makes a difference with her performance.

All in all, this movie is not a bad movie. It is the kind of movie to just relax with, and let your mind rest. 2 hours of almost non-stop action, Vin Diesel for the ladies...

Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

I love Discworld. I love Terry Pratchett's writing. I just finished the 11th book of Discworld, Reaper Man. What happens when Death has to die? What happens when a new Death does not promptly appear?

Death is dying. Our beloved character in Discworld is given a few days to live, and sent to Discworld as a skeletal human, to live the rest of his life.

Funny, satirical, and this book is a celebration of life on all aspects. It shows how some people even while alive, may in fact not be living their lives at all. This is what happens to Windle Poons, a 130-year old wizard, who is dying. He dies, but there is no death to take him, so he enters back into his own body. His adventure starts, and Windle, in those last few days, actually lives! He thinks, he listens to what people say to him, and despite being dead, feels alive.

Death on the other hand, starts to understand life. Even though he knows the rules, he breaks them and saves a little girl's life. Death shows how cunning he is, and how he escapes the new Death and reclaims his own place in the Discworld and in our hearts.

I am sorry about Terry Pratchett's illness. I do hope that he can fight it for some time to come, and continue to give us more books. Terry, we all hope for the best.

Happy New Year 2010

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year 2010.

There are a lot of things that I am hoping for, and not just for myself. I do want to see a better world being made, and want to see the end to senseless wars, religious oppression, famine, poverty... More money for scientific endeavours and research and less money for armaments and wars. More money to help people in need, better education for the children wherever they may be.

No more wars on science, after all science is part of our daily lives. From pharmaceuticals to computers to modern cars, all those have come from science.

Please abandon religion, abandon dogmatism, misogyny and racism. Think critically and humanely, think logically, use your empathy towards other people and sensibility.

Avatar - James Cameron

The movie opened on Thursday the 18th of December in Greece. My friends and I wanted to see this movie, and we managed with some difficulty to get tickets for the early evening screening last night. After watching the movie, I can fully understand why this movie is a hit and why it was so fully booked. In fact I would like to go and see it again.

Let:s just take things from the beginning, and start from the script of the movie. A solid scenario, it has no contradictions, no corny love story! After the disaster of New Moon, I did not even want to go near a love story.

I liked the script, it is well structured and well written. The story keeps the viewer interested throughout the movie, and does not have any bad moments.

The story itself sounds simple, but there is more to explore... Jake Sully [Sam Worthington] is a veteran marine, crippled in some war on Earth. He is sent as a replacement to his twin brother on Pandora, an Earth like moon of a gas giant, named Polyphemus, orbiting one of the stars in A Centauri. Pandora is inhabited by a race of humanoid aliens named the Na'vi, which are bigger, stronger and more resilient than humans. In order to communicate with the Na'vi, humans have grown avatars, human-Na'vi hybrids called avatars. Each hybrid is genetically compatible with just one human host, the host whose DNA was used for the hybrid. What do humans want on Pandora? They want unobtainium, a mysterious element which is very very rare and very very expensive on Earth, but is abundant on Pandora. So, the science team led by Dr. Grace Augustin [Sigourney Weaver] has the task to learn about the natives and try to get them to cooperate. But things are not what they seem to be, neither with the Na'vi nor with the human-avatar connection.

I am not going to say any more of the story of the movie, go and watch it. Just one last thing. Humans have destroyed the Earth, and they are seeking now, because of greed, to do the same on other worlds.
One word on the love story of the movie, which is well tied with the script, with no corny lines, or anything that might look out of place with the rest of the script. This is solid story-telling from the beginning til the end of the movie.

As far as acting goes, I would definitely say the best acting in the movie is done by Sigourney Weaver. I loved her character, and the way Sigourney portrays Dr. Grace Augustin, and how the scientist and humanist side of the character are shown throughout the movie.

A second best, in my opinion, has to be Zoe Saldana, as Neytiri, the Na'vi woman that rescues and teaches Jake the way of the Na'vi.


Sam Worthington as Jake Sully is quite good throughout the movie with a few excellent acting moments. I especially loved the beginning when he records how he got to Pandora, his voice being that of a sad man, who has almost given up, and how this changes throughout the movie. Another excellent moment is before the big battle, when Jake speaks to the tribe of the Na'vi, as Torouk Makto, and the last moment I have picked is at the end, when Jake speaks about his birthday.
I also love the soundtrack of the movie. It is well suited to the film, made for the film, and part of the film. However, I was able to listen to it during the movie, without being distracted by it. Part of this movie's magic, and one OST I will definitely be buying, probably online.

The best part of the movie is its stunning visuals. You could say the visual effects, but there is something more here. I fell in love with Pandora, with the Na'vi people, with the trees and the Ikran, with the Tree of Life... One of the moments I was stunned by the beauty of it all, was when I saw the night of Pandora, with the bioluminescent life forms.

All these images, from the beautiful nights to the hovering mountains of Pandora, have been burned into my memory; and Jake Sully, our protagonist, will have to see and not just with his eyes, but with his heart and he will have to use his avatar body to the fullest, to survive, to love and, ultimately, to save the Na'vi people.

This is one movie that I really enjoyed, I rode with Jake and Neytiri on the Ikran, I cried with the Na'vi, I fought with the Na'vi, I fully immersed myself in the world of Pandora.

I see you

Blogger problems

Blogger is having serious issues. I am a European user and half the time, I cannot access blogger. I am thinking of moving both blogs, this one and the greek one, to my own website.

I have to think about this, and find good hosting and cheap prices. The problem with moving is the number of posts, which is not too bad in this blog. But in my greek blog, I have 80+ posts and they will grow by the time of the move.

Originally I had opened this blog as a test site, but lately decided to making it a proper blog, and write as much as I can.

I will have to make a decision before the year is out, if problems with blogger persist.