Thing #11: Make a difference - Get your school involved

I got an award that was presented in front of my School. You just need to wait for it.. and in doing so you can finally kill two birds with one stone! "Make a difference - Get your school involved" is finally done.

Thing #100: Meet someone famous

I have already claimed this thing done, but why not claim again? After all last time when I met Diego Luna he did even not ask my name. Well this time I got the record straight! I recently attended one of Malcolm Gladwell's talks after which I bought two of his books. After waiting patiently in the line for a few minutes I approached him and said... "Hi!". He started signing the book only to stop and ask for my name. I knew his. He knew mine. In my books this is called an introduction and consequently justifies me claiming this Thing done properly this time!

Thing #18: Win Something & Thing #68: Take Part in a Tv show & Thing #100: Meet someone famous

I was thinking of what to post for Thing #18: Win something and two stories came to mind, one which involved winning prizes in radio shows. That reminded me of Thing #68: Take part in a TV show. Interestingly, television is the only media I have not featured actively in one form or another. Well I have been mentioned I suppose and even appeared randomly! So, as I always had a passion for radio, I thought to put forward those prizes I won back in... 1994 (yes that's correct, 15 years ago) in a local radio show. I even remember, a couple of the questions, .e.g. one asked where is the Atomium. Piece of cake!

To win my other prizes though I had to put far more effort than just use my trivia knowledge. So I prepared my submission for this competition and went to the night of the awards full of confidence. I even prepared a speech.. just in case! Anyway, I arrived at the gala, sat down and had a look at the programme which listed all the competition entries... only to find that I was not listed! I was disappointed to say the least trying to come up with why that would be the case. Anything from my submission did not reach them to I was THAT bad! After a minute I thought I should at least enjoy myself. So, to cut the story short, I enjoyed my dinner, while they started announcing the prizes one by one (similarly to the Oscars). I was very surprised to listen to the presenter announcing that I was nominated for one of the categories. I thought to myself that's better than nothing. Even better than that, was that I won the second prize in that category! By that stage I was thinking this is not as bad after all and how can it be when your hopes are crashed as mine were originally. Anyway, they continued with the prizes and got to the last one, which was the overall award. I was surprised (but not as surprised as the first time) to find out that I was nominated again. Second time lucky and I got to win tho overall prize! Not bad considering I was not even mentioned in the programme.

Replaying the evening in my head while writing these few words also reminded me that the overall prize was presented by Diego Luna, an actor who had recently played in the 'Terminal' with Tom Hanks. So, I suppose I can even put that forward for Thing #100: Meet someone famous (an update on this can be found here)

It's Christmas Every Day

From Wikipedia:

Andy Park, is an electrician from Melksham, Wiltshire, England, who styles himself "Mr. Christmas" after having celebrated Christmas day every day since 1994.

In 2001, Mr. Park estimated that since he started celebrating, he had got through 30 artificial Christmas trees, 10,000m of tinsel and 10,000 balloons, at a (then) estimated cost of £100,000.
Each day he eats breakfast (turkey sandwich and mince pies), then goes to work, until returning around at lunchtime to eat a full roast turkey dinner before watching a recording of the Queen's Christmas speech, sherry in hand. In 2006, it was reported that the Queen had politely declined an invitation to broadcast her speech from his house.

In an interview published in 2006, Mr. Park was quoted as saying that over the previous 13 years, he had consumed 4,380 turkeys (one a day), 87,600 mince pies (20 a day), 2,190 pints of gravy (half a pint a day), 26,280 roast potatoes (six a day), 30,660 stuffing balls, 219,000 mushy peas, 4,380 bottles of champagne, 4,380 bottles of sherry and 5,000 bottles of wine. However, in 2001, he was warned by his doctor that the diet was affecting his health after his weight increased to 19 stone (121 kg).

In 2005, he released a single entitled "It's Christmas Every Day", with a video featuring Mike Reid and produced by Andy Whitmore. There were suggestions in the media that much of the information was an attempt by Mr. Park to attract publicity for the single.

On 15 December 2007, in an interview on the BBC Radio 4 program Saturday Live, Mr. Park confirmed he was still celebrating every day. On 25 November 2008, the Daily Mail reported Mr. Parks had to change his celebrations somewhat due to the credit crunch.

Thing #81: Research Your Family Tree

Finally! I got around to do a bit of research and come up with about 80+ family members spanning 7 generations using a software programme I installed on my PC a few months ago (always proactive eh?). These cover about a time frame of 130 years, albeit most of them are as expected in the second half of the previous century. Still, it was interesting to see the past unfolding in front of me, even if this only involved scratching the surface. Good enough though to claim Thing #81 done!

Thing #7: Prepare yourself for fame

It's too late to 'prepare' myself for fame (although I could have claimed I was born ready - what a cliché!). I am too old for that. The question is now whether I became famous or not, which as always got me thinking: How do you measure fame? It turns out, I am not the only person who thought about it and there is even some research on this. For example, Schulman and Boissier came up with this (notice this was published in the Annals of Improbable Research Online a site worth-checking).

Actually rewinding my thought recording tape, the very first thing that came to mind was not whether I was famous or not (we all now the answer to this - after all you are reading my blog!), but how do you deal with not becoming famous when you grow up. It is very harsh to wake up one day and realise that your dreams have not materialised. Yours dreams were filed under 'I don't-know-what-happened' and will probably stay there. You are not going to be someone 'special'. You will not even claim your 15 minutes of fame on TV... you get the picture.

Well, not everyone needs to be famous. What matters more is to be important for those around you, those who care about you. That's something you don't appreciate when you are 10 years old and fame seems like a priority. If you are 10 and reading this keep on dreaming, but remember one day you will wake up and you will not be 10 anymore. You've been warned!

Thing #94: See your name in print

I have seen my name in print many times (and yes I am modest for those who don't know me!). I have published a number of articles and book chapters, wrote a thesis many pages long, even saw articles about me in local newspapers. Getting something though in a national paper was a first and by achieving it I can happily claim Thing #94 done and put to bed. Next step will be to get in Wired (if the editor reads this please leave a comment and I will get back to you - Thank you).

Thing #87: Learn to use long words

I am Greek. And Greeks are used to long words. In fact their names are usually very Greek and make everyone say: that's Greek to me. That's what Xenophon Zolotas (economist and prime minister) (warned you about the names!) stated in one of his historical speeches:

"I always wished to address this Assembly in Greek, but realized that it would have been indeed "Greek" to all present in this room. I found out, however, that I could make my address in Greek which would still be English to everybody. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, l shall do it now, using with the exception of articles and prepositions, only Greek words."

And then we went on..

"Kyrie, I eulogize the archons of the Panethnic Numismatic Thesaurus and the Ecumenical Trapeza for the orthodoxy of their axioms, methods and policies, although there is an episode of cacophony of the Trapeza with Hellas. With enthusiasm we dialogue and synagonize at the synods of our didymous organizations in which polymorphous economic ideas and dogmas are analyzed and synthesized. Our critical problems such as the numismatic plethora generate some agony and melancholy. This phenomenon is characteristic of our epoch. But, to my thesis, we have the dynamism to program therapeutic practices as a prophylaxis from chaos and catastrophe. In parallel, a Panethnic unhypocritical economic synergy and harmonization in a democratic climate is basic. I apologize for my eccentric monologue. I emphasize my euharistia to you, Kyrie to the eugenic and generous American Ethnos and to the organizes and protagonists of his Amphictyony and the gastronomic symposia".

Being able to read and actually understand what he is talking about qualifies me for Thing #87.