I won’t miss you.

You were a shitty year all over. Seriously.

And now that you’re leaving, I’m ill, with a throat that feels like a bag of rocks and a cold sore on my lip the size of Mount Doom, with my grandpa at the hospital recovering after surgery and my parents dead tired, bouncing between our home and the hospital, and a car whose poor right side has been scratched all over due to my amazing parking skills.

You won’t hear me complain, 2009. Why bother. There are millions of people with problems far worse than mine. Actually, billions.

But begone, ok? I’ve had enough with you.

2010, bring it on. I’ll kick your ass all the way to Patagonia if I need to.

Happy New Year, everyone. Be healthy, mkay?

Yesterday was one of the most emotional and surreal days of my life.

Surreal enough to get me writing again.

After three years of work and some months of preparation, I quit my job at Phaistos Networks.

It’s been a real pleasure to work with the great people there. I’ve gained friends I could not hope for. I’ve learned more stuff that can fit my tiny brain. And I’ve got the kind of precious experience that comes from working with really talented people that are passionate about what they do, at all times.

Needless to say (and as much of a stuck-up bitch I seem at times), things got pretty emotional. I’ll miss working there, but it was time for me to go on.

A new path, exciting as well as totally terrifying, unfolds now in front of me.

Expect that in the next few months, you’ll see some more of me.

Stay tuned.

Traveling to France was one of my childhood dreams.

I think every little girl that grows up with romantic visions of Paris in her head feels like that. Six years of awesome french lessons with Mme Angèlique didn’t help either – I always wanted to go to France and I wanted it bad.

This year, after a series of unfortunate events, my dream came true. Some random thoughts about Paris, in no particular order:

• French people are nothing like the sour, narrow-minded, impolite blurry vision I had formed in my head. At least, most of them. They’re seriously polite (I’ve lost count of mercis and bonjours) and willing to help you, even if you’re a (*gasp*) tourist. Funny fact: one of the guards at Eiffel Tower talked to us (quite fluently) in Greek, explaining prices and options. How cool is that?
• Paris is the most beautiful European capital I’ve been to, and one of the best-looking European capitals. Simple fact.
• I think I spent as much time over earth as under it. Paris métro is HUGE. And smelly. “Our” line, line 14 (St Lazare – Olympiades) was one of the cleanest and most civilized, though.
• Monmartre was kinda disappointing. So touristic and full of people. Exploring it under 35 degrees Celsius didn’t help, either.
• I’m afraid I didn’t really like French cuisine, eventhough I’ve not tasted much of it. Advice: when in doubt, never order andouillette. Trust me. Unless you like raw kokoretsi.
• …on a different note, Paris was a snacker heaven. Croissants, paninis, sandwiches, slices of pies… oh my!
• I *love* walking kilometres around the different neighbourhoods and exploring the city in ways no tourist guide would ever allow. That’s what I did in Rome and that’s what I’ll do in my next trip.
• Another fact: in some restaurants in Paris, Coke (or other sodas) cost way more than a glass of french wine.
• I must be the only tourist that lived in Paris for a week and didn’t visit the Louvre museum after all. I’m unique!

À bientôt, Paris!

I’ll be back to check the rest of you, for sure.

P.S. On a (somewhat) related note, what’s wrong with Italian people and english? Seriously. They’re so foreign-language-agnostic it becomes offensive at times. There was this pesky Italian tourist in Eiffel Tower elevator that kept correcting the French elevator girl when she was making announcements in italian. I felt like clubbing him in the head.

Warning! Silly post ahead.

You really think you can get anyway with just being a designer / developer in real life and be done with it?

Think again.

‘Cause you’re utterly wrong.

What today (a vacation day, mind you) had in store for me:

• Placed an online order for my dad and sis new PC because of course, I know better about this stuff.
• Created some fancy photo slideshows for Michael, as I’m the lucky one having a Mac which makes creating all kinds of cool stuff a breeze.
• Responded to my little cousin’s questions on why I can’t help him install cracked games on his brand-new PSP. Try explaining firmware downgrade to a kid and then come back here and tell me “pff”.
• Was patient while family was bugging me again to call Tellas support and ask for a technician to come and check our faulty line. Did not make it today, will probably call again tomorrow.
• Ordered online a slew of tickets for my trip to Paris (ouch, pocket).
• Sent about a gazillion e-mails concerning various pending stuff that must be completed before my vacation.
• Wrote a stupid post on having too much on your head on any given day.

All that in just a few hours. And my job title is (supposedly) Web Designer. What?

P.S. Some uncle will probably call me and ask my opinion on his new fancy ironing board sometime soon, I can feel it.

Today marks the first day of the smoking ban in Greece, at least as long as public enclosed places are concerned.

I won’t go too much into that. I’m definitely pro-ban. I just want to say this:

It’s sad (not to mention pathetic) to see all grown-up people acting like my 9-month old niece when I take one of her toys from her. I’ve seen drug addicts with better attitudes than some of the smokers out there (and I mean it).

If you’re in a closed place and you smoke between non smokers, you suck. If you moan and whine about the smoking ban in everyone around, you suck and you don’t have anything exciting to do with your life. If you decide to follow the ban but light a cigarette in an enclosed place as soon as you see another one do this, you suck and you have absolutely no personality.

Will this ban have any kind of luck in Greece? Probably not, because we’re one of the most dont-fucking-care-about-others nations in the whole wide world.

But some people have got to learn to play by some rules, someday.

If there’s one thing that absolutely puts me off as a character trait, that’s the tendency to brag.

Ever since I was a kid I hated that. When mom was bragging to other moms about our grades and they were bragging back to her (ain’t that what all moms do?), all I wanted is to smash everything in the room just to get their attention to something else. You’ll never hear me brag, only as a joke.

Unfortunately, Internet brings out the big fat ego in most of us. From well-toned teenagers in Facebook to over-the-hill nerds that are too proud about their latest venture, bragging is everywhere. Cannot escape it, really.

Being of a highly critical nature, even (and mostly) to myself, I can’t help but feel absolutely pissed off at times. I’ve seen good people brag about a random thing, I winced and I never looked back. People that I liked and of whom the work I admired. I’ve given my fair share of chances, but this goes on. And on. And on.

So, no more chances. If bragging or showing off is your truc, you’re getting off my list*.

Eventhough I’ll keep some people that ended up being completely ridiculous and just make me laugh. Laugh is good.

So the next time you’re about to spread some bragging wisdom in Twitter, please, take a deep breath, shut the fuck up and go back to work.

* Oh noes! The agony!

Wow, the second call to designers in just a few days. It seems that someone needs some advice.

You know the famous burnout syndrome, or if you don’t know, you’ve seen it around. People working and working till they drop dead on their mental tracks. Everyone has a different way of expressing it but it’s there – you just can’t go on anymore like this.

What’s your advice for confronting stress-induced routine and burnout, both in your work and personal projects?

How do you face the all-too-familiar feeling of being useless and empty?

Or if you never felt like that – how in God’s name do you do it?

I’m really interested to hear a bit more from my fellow designers – or not.

Photo courtesy of jurvetson

Just for today, I’ll borrow the context of Michael, just because. So no web dev tonight, people, this blog post is all about driving.

Driving for me is a guilty pleasure. I love driving – alone. No passengers, no other cars on streets, just me and a country road. Now that’s fun.

Insert any other human factor (especially my fellow citizens – Jesus, those guys don’t know how to drive for real) and most possibly, you’ve got a totally pissed off Sug.

I shout and curse a lot while driving, especially if I’m already pissed by something else. At times, I don’t have any problem to come out and face any driver that gets into my nose, and that, believe me, is a curse. I’ll someday get my ass kicked, but oh boy, I’ll have my fun first.

So what really puts me off while driving?

• Drivers that endanger themselves by quickly getting in your way, just to stop abruptly a few metres later. Oh how I loathe this.
• Drivers that don’t keep their lanes and don’t know that left turns are supposed to be open and right are supposed to be closed.
• Stupid fuckheads that use other directions’ lanes to get in front of me. I won’t ever let such a guy get in front of me, as much as my driving teacher would toot at my aggressive driving.
• Drivers behind me that flick their lights to make me go to the right lane, eventhough the right lane is jam packed with cars. Duh.
• Drivers that park in such ways that they block my car. More often than once I’ve been tempted to scratch their sides with my keys till rust oozes out. Really.
• Women. Especially women talking on the phone. 90% of women can’t drive properly, and that, ladies, is a fact. I don’t exclude myself from this.
• Drivers that go so, so slowly you want to gouge your eyes out from sheer boredom. They see that green light and almost deliberately they slow down, the light turns to orange, they actually get through with a red light and you’re left banging your head on the steering wheel.
• Pedestrians that don’t give a damn about blocking the street while talking with someone else.
• Bicycles and motos that behave like cars, occupying the whole street and going slow like a snail.
• Shopkeepers that moan about me parking my car in front of their stores, on a public street. La la la, can’t hear you.

As you can see, I’m not your typical frustrated girl driver. I never get frustrated while driving. I only get mega-pissed.

Pic by lovely Mareen Fischinger. Incidentally, that’s the look of my sis everytime she gets into my car. But she’s such a wuss.

Disclaimer: This post serves more as a constant reminder for myself. A reminder that I have to finish this redesign and move on to more important stuff.

Here are some thoughts that surfaced after working quite a bit on this blog’s new design:

• Wordpress is one of the easiest publishing suite to work and design with, if you happen to know your way around PHP. I don’t get ExpressionEngine and probably never will.
• When in doubt, go with the simple.
• I love MgOpen Modata.
• If you keep yourself totally unable to do anything creative, force yourself. It’ll work.
• Stop blocking yourself, trying to achieve perfect. Perfect will come over time.

I promise I’ll get it out soon. I’m an awfully slow designer, when it comes to my stuff. You can find some more previews on Flickr.

…that’s me.

On a related note, I hope you have a blastin’ holiday. I hope I will too.

Best wishes, y’all.