dias

Speaking of luck, I don't have any good luck in dating. I approached a Russian girl this afternoon, her dance class finishes just before mine starts. I knew she was fairly young, she looked about 20 years old with make-up, I am not into that young gals but she looked at me very intensely all the time so I thought what the heck. I asked her how old she was pretty quickly as I had a feeling she might not be 20. She was 15!! I was like ok you are too young, have a good evening. I need a bit of good luck in this part of my life because I don't see light in the tunnel. Problem is, now that I am satisfied with my career and I don't inflict such pressure on my self anymore, other aspects of my life resurface. Now, the need to find company has increased dramatically suddenly. Probably when I prioritized work this need was suppressed. I don't mean only sex, I mean company. I need some providential celestial intervention to disperse the bad luck.

No such luck, I have to rely solely on good fortune! I never believed in "luck", I always believed we define our future with our work and our decisions. Not anymore. There is such thing as "luck", it's fortuitous circumstances that we have no control over (like when we have bad luck). Both good luck and bad luck exist. Usually for good things to happen it's a combination of work/action/preparation from our side + favorable circumstances. But sometimes there is also pure luck that we don't have to do anything. For instance, there is a radio station I listen to when I drive here in Athens, they call random telephone numbers, they ask you to tell them a phrase they mention on the radio throughout the day and if you tell it correctly you win 250+ Euros. Last Christmas they called me and I earned 280 Euros hehe. Ok it's not a significant amount but hey I didn't do anything! I always thought that it's either a scam or there is absolutely no chance on earth they would call me. But they did. And they did air the chat we had on the radio. I was driving with my brother late at night while listening to this radio station a couple of days later. I said to my brother "I think I know this voice, it reminds me of someone" He replied "Oh yes that's you"! LOL. Since then I started believing in luck. This is why participated in the lottery. Imagine that!!!

It does seem the internal relocation option is valid. The are requirements like working on a project for at least 13 months and have great references and such. I did fill in the relocation preferences form. I want to prepare them from now. That also means that aside from doing a great job I need to foster good relationships with my colleagues. It has to be more than the typical pleasantries unfortunately 😕. Not my thing. I don’t like the kissing butts corporate sh*t. The only thing that saves me is that people can see I am somewhat ambitious and I could help them in the future. Anyway, fingers crossed. I also applied to the green card lottery. You never know. Ha imagine that!

Yay! I am the first from the newcomers to land a project. I passed the final interview today. Damn, 6 interviews in total. 3 to get hired and 3 to find a project. And 5 of them were technical. It was the most difficult hiring process I have ever experienced.

Can’t meet a proper gal. The ones in the dating apps are usually nutcases. I have tried approaching girls outside (even on the street), got turned down immediately even though they were looking at me intensely. It seems everyone just wants attention. Not that I can relate to the culture or have anything in common with most people but I try now and then. It gets lonely sometimes.

Well, I can't do anything right now since I am in. The only thing I could do is to tell them that they should have mentioned during the hiring process how things work when you are already hired. What is the point though? The HR told me this is how it works(fullstop). Telling them it's unprofessional won't benefit me right now. It's not the first time the interviewer omits information about the job, it's pretty common actually, I just roll with it every time because, well, this is how things work. I talked to another engineer who joined with me and he had the same concerns. What is going to happen if you don't get into a project anytime soon? Do you get booted? Then I conversed with the manager again about this issue and he reassured me there is no such case blah blah... Go figure. We will see tomorrow in the 3rd interview.

This new company I joined operates so differently. The selection process they have is absurd, there is so much screening. Once you get hired (which is not easy), you have to do 2 more technical interviews in order to be placed into a project. This is the first time I hear about a company interviewing people when they are already in the company. Ok I understand it's a big company and they want to make sure the client is satisfied with the consultant. Nonetheless, It's something they should have mentioned before they hire you, it was an intentional oversight. Most candidates would not agree with this process that's why they omitted this part. Essentially, how it works is, the company has many projects with different clients and, you as an engineer, you have to internally apply for some of them. The client interviews all the engineers who have applied and selects the most suitable one. Therefore, you compete with your colleagues about the position. It's like searching for a job again. I am pretty sure people who can't find a project are let go once the probation period is over. Grrr, this should have been mentioned before they hire you. I have done already 2 interviews with the client, but of course, he wants a third one. Like ***? I am not going for a CEO job. Jeez.

Finally 1K subscribers with this video. 1K subs in one year is nothing realistically but I am pretty happy about it. Still have a long way to go to be eligible to monetize the videos but the channel served the original purpose of getting a better job 🙂

Greece is a beautiful country, it does have a huge issue though, the people are crap. I mean worse than the rest of the world. It is difficult to find more boring and neurotic (at the same time) people and I have conversed with many many races. My generation is, in general, a bitter disappointment. Absolutely no personality (always hiding in a crowd), nothing interesting to say (well, you need to do stuff to have something interesting to say), extremely rude with no social skills (unless we count behaving like a neanderthal interpersonal skills), single digit IQ at best most of them, pretentious without any substance, lazy as f*ck, no wit whatsoever...I can go on and on for hours. I have traveled a lot and have met plenty of people from all walks of life so I know the ceiling is low for the majority but here the ceiling is the floor. The worst is that they are boring. Be an as*hole but at least be interesting in some way. When you find someone interesting you try your best to keep him/her around because you will never find another one again. It is so frustrating to not have options. I really hope the relocation to the US happens in the future.

Yesterday before I slept, between this stage of being half awake and half asleep where you have dreams but you are also conscious simultaneously, Norwich conjured up. I dreamed myself walking on the cobblestone streets there, the streets I used to walk when I lived there. It was quaint. I remember it was more provincial and less cosmopolitan than Liverpool and I didn't like it that much for that but I made good memories there. Hmm, strangely it's the only place I miss from the UK, it's not Liverpool that much. I don't know why. If I went back to the UK I would have preferred Norfolk to anywhere else. I guess I liked it was peaceful and serene.

Now this is crazy indeed. It was going to happen at some point but it's different when it is actually happening. I think there was a movie in the 80s with Sylvester Stallone who transfers into the future and he was using apparatus like that. This is not a movie though.

Grrr this nagging need to travel is resurfacing. Years ago I thought I wanted to travel to escape from my problems and whatnot but nope. I am very happy and satisfied with my life right now and I still have a huge urge sometimes to take the first plane and go somewhere (anywhere really). I know it will subside in a week or two and then resurface again in a few months. I don't believe this feeling will ever go away.

As strange as that sounds, not at all. I never felt any romantic/physical attraction from my side (although one of them is objectively good looking) and I am confident neither did they. One is single and one is not but I never felt any urge for something more. However, I do enjoy their company a lot, we laugh a lot. We still have one party left together next Friday which is my last day. I will try to maintain contact now that I am leaving...usually communication fizzles out with time when you leave the company. That's life. We have a good time as long as this friendship lasts.

The other day I went to the office dressed in my street-wear and everybody was looking at me hahahaha. I don't care, what are they going to do now, fire me? hahahaha. I think I mentioned before about the two female colleagues I get along great. We had so much fun this day, we turned the office into a playground. How unprofessional hehe. They are as witty/frisky as me, we have the same sense of humor and we tease each other 24/7. The only time I remember laughing that much with someone was in high school. One would think it would be easy to find someone with the same sense of humor but this is definitely not the case. Not many people are witty and playful in a good way. Some don't get it at all, some are slow, some enjoy the banter but they don't reciprocate the tease so it does not last, some find it offensive....

It was fun, essentially it's a combination of aerobic and acrobatics. I am not sure I will continue with the break dance though as it was very taxing on my knees. Even when I do squats (with light weight) my knees don't hurt but yesterday they killed me. I will continue with the hip-hop, it was not as demanding. Plus I don't have time for both, there is a busy year ahead of me.

I try new things from time to time to get outside of my comfort zone. I went to a hip-hop dance lesson yesterday. I will attend a break-dance lesson on Thursday and then I will decide which one to start doing for the rest of the year. Generally speaking, I don't like dancing at all except for hip-hop and break-dance which I used to like a lot as a kid but never tried it. I thought I might give it a try now. In the company's party I made some moves and the girls told me I have potential with lessons/guidance. I don't know if that was just a compliment (more than likely) but why not give it a try for fun? I think the dance teacher got a bit frustrated with me. I told her I am a newbie she needs to show me the steps slowly. Instead she did a whole bunch of steps very quickly. I am like what the heck? How am I supposed to follow this? If someone who hasn't coded in his life came to me, I wouldn't start coding like I normally do, I think it's pretty reasonable that you go step by step. Jeez...Let's see the next lessons. I suspect the new job will be very demanding so I would have time only for hip-hop lessons or break-dance lessons but not for both. I want to see how it will be on Thursday.

I understand, I have the same problem with my gmail account. You can do a mass delete when it comes to promotions, socials and junk folders but not on the primary section. The primary section always has emails you need to keep and there is no option to delete based on title, sender etc. It's very frustrating I know. There is a relatively easy way to mass delete selectively using code. I've been thinking about building a small app to do it. I am sure there are plenty of apps on the web (probably with no free version) as the code is available on the internet and you just need to put the pieces together. I might do it at some point. When I do I will send you the code to run 🙂

I don't take dating apps seriously because 1) I don't get any decent matches usually, you have to be average looking to get matches it seems. 2) Many of them are either boring as hell or dumb as hell or both. Yesterday I was chatting with a girl and at some point I asked her "are you from Crete originally? you look like you could be from Crete" and she replied "No I am Greek". Like ***? Imagine you are in NYC and you ask someone "are you from Colorado?" and he/she replies "No I am American". Then I told her we could meet at the city centre in the most popular spot you can imagine, and she replied "I don't have a phone it's broken how are we going to recognize each other?". I am like we are talking on FB and we have pictures of each other, it would be easy to recognize each other, we don't have to be Sherlock Holmes...She replied "why don't you come with your car and pick me up?" I am thinking she is dumb alright but she still knows what a chauffeur is. I said ok, I will pick you up. I thought at least I might get some. She replies "but how are we going to recognize each other?". I am like yeah picking you up with a car does not solve the issue. I stopped replying after this, I can't deal with single digit IQ not even for p*ssy. If it wasn't for her reply about Crete I would believe she played dumb.... Only in real life I have met normal girls. I need to get back to the game the old school way.

Hmm I don't know. Yes and no. I guess I like the chase otherwise I wouldn't do it. On the other hand, I like creating/building more than chasing. In a way I will always be chasing something better. I can't imagine myself becoming stagnant, only the thought is suffocating. I like changes. However, from this point onward I won't be chasing the wave anymore. I will continue getting better in whatever I am doing as this is who I am but I will wait for the wave to find me. I reached the point where I am satisfied with what I am doing. Yes I would love to be running a company right now instead of being an employee but given we live in reality and not in an imaginary world, I am satisfied with this job. I have high standards and I expect more than average from myself, now that I got it I will enjoy life more. In theory, it's better to have this attitude from the beginning and not to wait to attain something difficult. In theory always. I am quite happy with my life right now and I believe the future is going to get even better. I know I am in the right path when I have this feeling of anticipation that the future is going to be better than the present.

I find the way this guy speaks a bit irritating but he is quite interesting and smart.

I never chase anyone else's ideas only mine. It was more of a rhetorical question because I had a discussion when bro was here about this new job. I told him "my current job is like a hobby, they are paying me a good salary for doing my hobby" and he said "you know most people dream to have a job like this one". It is true. Do I enjoy having a comfy well paid job? Yes and no. I do enjoy it, I do enjoy drinking my coffee by the sea while I am on a call. Yes I like that. Forever though? It's ok for a period of time but that's it. I love the sea, I love the sun, I love nature and working from wherever I want is a blessing. However, how many times can you enjoy the scenery before you get bored? Some people never get bored, I do, I have too much creativity to only enjoy life as a passive passenger. In IT everything changes so fast, if you want to stay in the technical department you need to keep up with new technologies otherwise you will be left behind. Would it be bad to stay at a company with boring projects and old technologies for years? No. Not for most people. It's not for me though. It's in my very nature to move forward in all aspects of my life. I hate stagnation. I can't stand it, it makes me miserable in the long term. I thrive in changes albeit getting outside of your comfort zone and putting work is difficult.

Work is slow since I am leaving next month. I decided to go to my favorite cafeteria to work. The weather is not that hot anymore, it's quite pleasant. When I arrived in the morning it was almost empty, the best time to drink your morning coffee. I had all the cafeteria on my own with only a take-away coffee of 3 euros. I even did a YouTube video. The lower level of cafeteria is so close to the water that you can literally jump into the sea. You can go for a 10 minute swim and get back when you have a call (which I did) and you don't even have to get out of the water lol. And I am not on an island or the countryside. I am wondering, is this the ideal life? Is this what most people have in mind when thinking about the "perfect" life? Having a good paying job working from the beach somewhere in the Mediterranean? If that's so, I guess I am living the best life ever. Although it's easy to get bored, as long as it lasts it's great.

I only informed the head of department, the HR and some managers, not my colleagues yet. I had a call with the head of department, he suspected something was "wrong" when I messaged him that we need to talk lol. For half an hour he tried to persuade me to stay claiming if it's only the salary we can fix this and that the other company is not as good as it sounds etc etc. There is a shortage of good engineers in general, the companies can't really afford to lose good engineers. By good I mean having the right experience + being professional, not some unique gifted person. I politely declined as I don't want to burn bridges. Turns out in life you never know when you might need someone again. Case in point, I had to reach out to people in my previous companies to get references. I kept communication with a lady we worked together in Liverpool 3+ years ago. I asked her for a reference, she agreed but when she received the email from my soon to be employer she ceased contact for 2 days and didn't read my messages (which was the first time happening as she was always very quick to respond). I am not sure what happened there, she might got jealous or something as it's a really good job. I had to literally beg her to respond. She eventually did send the reference but for 2 days I was stressed as f*ck. You never know in life. I really hate depending on people and I truly hate begging but since I live in a society there is no other way. Which is the reason I don't want to move to managerial positions as I would depend on people 100%. As an engineer I produce practical value, I depend much less on people, although I can't ever be 100% independent no matter how skilled I am. Anyway, all's well that ends well. I start in October. Hopefully, it will be a good environment with interesting projects. I am still positively surprised I got this job. I always thought I am never lucky. Turns out I am and I am grateful for this. For once, the stars aligned for me too.