Stargazer

Party time in the sky! It started on Nov 24th with a Venus, Jupiter and crescent Moon Conjunction and continues tonight Dec 13th with a Venus, Jupiter and Full Moon conjunction.
Astrologically speaking, this triple conjunction of the planet of Love and Money (Venus), of abundance and generosity of spirit (Jupiter) and the Moon (emotions, feelings, psychological make-up) is in general an auspicious aspect. However, it doesn't tell the entire story. The Dec 12th Full Moon in Gemini forms a rather threatening square with Mars in Sagittarius and together form a second square with the opposition of Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces. Two oppositions squaring each other form a "Grand Cross". Anger (Mars), accidents (Uranus), health (Gemini) and money (Saturn) generate issues boiling under pressure. Take care, everybody!

Riots in Greece

What's up with that?
People outside Greece wonder whether the horrendous ("accidental") police shooting of a teenager can really cause such fuss. If anyone knows Greeks and their (recent) history, one knows that Greeks just don't tolerate fools. At the same time, Greeks don't tolerate anarchy and, yes, a part of this has been taken advantage by the anarchists groups in Exarheia (Athens). But if you know Athens like I do, what's new!
The police shooting in Greece brings to mind a similar police shooting in London a few years ago. Again, an accident by the police. Again, no apologies given initially as the Brazilian guy was thought to be one of the terrorists the police was going after. But because he was not a UK citizen, the matter could not close as easily (or "accidentally") as it opened. There were protests and international intervention and inquiries. One must wonder how the UK government would have handled it if the police had accidentally killed a UK citizen...

CFP CoNLL-2009

The Thirteenth Conference on Computational Natural Language Learning (CoNLL-2009) will be held in Boulder, CO, USA on June 4 and 5, 2009.

And because I love good ol' Greek music...

Here's a treat...

And a personal attempt at translating the lyrics in English:

If you are a small cranky rock
in a desert
if you are a lonely cyclamen
on the top of a mountain
if you are a forgotten star
in the sky
how do you want me to know?

If you are night-time rain
falling in the ocean
if you are boat smoke
in the sea
if you are an old drawing
on a church wall
how do you want me to know?

If you are a thorn
in my heart
Me loving you so
How do you want me to know?

(Greek lyrics by Kostas Karidis, music by Spanos and singing by Karalis)

Temple Bar

Temple Bar is the reason people from all over the world visit Dublin.
Besides the innumerable pubs, bars and clubs, Temple Bar is simply gorgeous. Check my pictures and you will see what I mean :).

Here's a typical corner in the Old Town (aka Temple Bar). Watch the gorgeous wall colors:


In this picture you can actually see the canal at the far end of the cobblestone street:


I just love it how almost all Temple Bar streets end at the face of beautiful old buildings:

Saint Patrick's Cathedral

Although I posted pictures of the buildings in the vicinity of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, I realized I didn't post a photo of the Cathedral itself. I promise to post a good one soon. /blush

and one more...

One of the Christchurch Square buildings:

Christ Church Cathedral

I find this architecture food for the eye :):



The Christchurch Cathedral (dating back to the eleventh century):

Dublin Ireland

/hihi Last month I mentioned that I moved to Dublin. /shock
I wanted to show you some pictures so here goes.
This picture shows both the Christ Church (or "Christchurch" as I see written here) Cathedral and the surrounding buildings (and traffic) of the square:

No clue what this guy is doing in my photo. He was just passing by when I pressed the button /hmm.

The gorgeous old building below is close to Saint Patrick's, a couple of blocks down the road from the Christchurch Cathedral shown above.


Here's another gorgeous building at the corner of Patrick Street and Bull Alley Street in the vicinity of St. Patrick's Cathedral:

Check out the lamp post in the above! /omg I think it's very pretty!

More to follow soon! :)

John Grisham

The man knows how to write! His legal-world thrillers -categorized under Crime in the popular Irish Hodges Figgis bookstore in Dawson St- are not the only genre he can work on apparently! I recently had the pleasure to finish 'Playing for Pizza'

and I was very pleased. It made me laugh out loud (I mean really /wahaha) and a la typical Grisham way, I didn't want to leave it aside until it was done and over with! My current Grisham adventure includes 'Skipping Christmas' and so far, I'm sold. :D