Posts filed under "lifestyle"
Due to the fact that I got married, moved to Beirut and still don’t have internet access, update on the ‘Kode have been kept to a minimum (also internet at work blocks my website, so that’s been a bit of a pain as well, trust me I would love to discuss what’s been on my mind).
Add to the fact that I’m off to Malaysia for my honeymoon and well things will probably remain pretty quiet until after I get back towards the end of June. Hopefully we’ll have a phone line, proper internet and we can start calming down and getting down to the job of creating.
Save as WWF - This is a great idea,…up to a point. At work, I need to print things out, although I am probably in the minority. At home I’ve not owned a printer for many, many, many years.
Today is a slow day. Three days off, I’ve decided I’m not going anywhere today, except maybe to the supermarket (and that I’ll do pretty early today). The rest of the day I’m going to spend reading, writing, drawing, coding, in different bursts.
One of the things that I’ve realised is that I can do certain things in bursts of up to an hour. I have to train myself to be able to actually accomplish something, anything in a hour, because honestly after that initial hour things get a bit stale. On the odd occasion that I’m actually engrossed in what I am doing and moving forward, then obviously I should continue (if of course I can do it), but after that first hour I should just move onto something else and maybe come back to it.
You know that time inbetween creating something and not finishing it, you reflect, ideas keep coming to you and you have this thirst to complete it, because your time is limited on it. You’re feeding the thirst and hopefully that will mean that you’re also more productive in the long run.
Shifting towards something a little more personal, the biggest part of 2010 and the most impactful.
Even with all of the other things going on in my life, the biggest thing to happen to me in 2010 was that I rediscovered my life, and by that I mean I finally found the person I want to share my life with. It wasn’t easy getting here, I’ll tell you that much, and I honestly wasn’t even actively looking for it and it landed in my lap, with a little help from me. The funny thing is that for ages it’s always felt like this was all inevitable, and yet not a day goes by that I’m not thankful that I’ve finally found Yasmine. The even stranger thing about this is that I’ve also completely forgotten how it felt like to be single, where you didn’t have someone that genuinely deeply cared about you in that way (don’t get me wrong, the love from my family and friends in Greece and England is beyond words and questioning, but this is different).
In life you can never have everything, and when I moved over here, I knew that I was giving up a ton of stuff, but crucially I was also getting something that I can never get in England, and that’s family, mine and Yasmine’s. Once again this is a double edged sword but it’s one that I am extremely grateful for and really enjoying at the moment.
I love the fact that I don’t really have to cook, unless I really want to. I like the fact that I am generally taken care of in that department completely and totally. Be it my future mother in law, Yasmine, my aunts, whatever. I like the fact that I don’t have to iron, except on the rare occasions. I love the fact that the country is small and I can get around relatively easily.
I don’t like the banking sector in the country, nor do I like the stupid traffic in Beirut. I don’t like the insane drivers, nor how they force me to act while I drive on the road either. I do like the weather generally, although I do actually wish it would act like the seasons. We really honestly didn’t feel any autumn, nor are we honestly feeling the winter either. I guess this is all part of the global warming effect which I should discuss in more detail in the future.
My moving over to Lebanon and taking a job at PDP from Arup was a major one. So far it’s given me exactly what I expected, although the size of the project and time frame that I was given to complete a project I have been working on, for 4 months of my time here, was certainly unexpected. It’s not been fun and it’s stressed me out in a way I didn’t expect. It wasn’t an issue of getting everything correct or forgetting something, it was an issue of maintaining a good level of work in a very tight timeframe, with junior engineers, while I tried to learn the way in which things were done in this office.
There are a ton of things that I want to institute in the office. Something will take a good long while to get them going, while others will be more immediate to implement. The best thing I learnt while working for any company is the following:
Don’t ask for permission…rather ask for forgiveness
Do it first and then claim ignorance later. It’s not like you’re trying to upset anyone, rather trying to push any company forward is a tough thing that takes persistence and time and effort to change something that many people don’t want to change.
Feeling drained after that long trip to Syria yesterday (and back). It’s the first week where I don’t have a deadline at the end of Friday. I have to issue something minor, but by and large it’s not that tough a week. Thank fuck. It’s been pretty damn intense these last few weeks/months, but we’ve come through, and people are relatively happy with what we did.
There are elements that we could do further, edit, change etc, but ultimately we’ve done a pretty solid job for the 3 months work we’ve completed. Now I’ve got to haul my ass out of bed and take a shower and get outta here. Can I be bothered? Can I fuck.
Just got back from Syria for a day meeting. Apart from the long trip and the limited food (they never feed us at these meetings, which is FUCKING annoying), one of the most striking things about this meeting, is the number of languages on the table. Five of them. German, English, Arabic, Russian and Turkish.
Seriously, I have been in soo many meeting over my time, but never anything quiet like this. I’ll have some more thoughts on Syria in a minute, this being my second time, and me basically having an understanding of what to expect from the place.
Well, clearly the country just bypassed the whole autumn thing and just instantly went to winter. The temperature is still on the high side, but at least it is chucking it down. The thing is that in Lebanon when it rains, lets just say, it’s definitely not fucking around. We are talking buckets, we are talking Noah type rain here.
My only issue, and it’s a small tiny one is the noise that comes from my neighbour’s buildings and the piss poor job they do of securing their shit. The wind is a howler and it’s not forgiving in the slightest.
That is pretty strange. I just was looking at the traffic logs on the site and I noticed a really really strange trend. At the start of the year I was seriously moving back up in terms of traffic. June was an epic month but I think that’s mainly attributed to the fact that I had a spreadsheet hosted here for the world cup and that generated a ton of traffic from Google.
But after that month there is this unbelievable drop of nearly 1/5 of the visitors. I mean even the months before this epic month were not as low as that. Did I change anything between the two months? Well for a start there was a less posting on the site? The ‘Kode is not like other sites where I basically post 3 or 4 times a day and have a super specific niche. The site is a personal blog that talks about all sorts of random pop culture items.
There is a ton of those on the web nowadays, but the question is finding which ones have got a unique voice, and that’s actually incredibly difficult to do. I neither have the time, nor do I feel like I am part of a community of people any more. Blog comments don’t exist any more, or no one really uses them as much as they used.
I guess it’s all a matter of perspective, and I don’t mind the smaller readership, it’s kind of fun to be honest, because I can go back to being as foul mouthed as I want without having to worry about anyone taking offence (or maybe less so than I would normally), it’s just what the hell happened in July to drive EVERYONE away :).
The plan is, and lets see if I can keep this up, is to give at least 2 posts a day. Sometimes they will be links, other times it will be longer based posts on things that i enjoy or am going through, lets see if I can keep this up.brok
So yesterday I made to purchases. The first was the Pogo Sketch stylus. The second was Brushes. The obvious reasoning is to start making a comic on my iPhone. I know probably not the best medium for this thing. Maybe getting an iPad for that sort of thing would be better, but I’m not getting a first gen iPad (that’s another post for another time).
I’ve actually have several drawing applications on my iPhone, but I’ve found that Brushes is the best for actually creating, even if the icon sucks many many balls. Adobe Ideas doesn’t provide you with enough options for the brushes (you have one), and Sketch Pro (from Autodesk) I found to be incredibly annoying with it’s unresponsive zooming in and out. This is a major issue on a small screen as you’ll be doing that a lot to get the finer details. Also the layer system on Brushes just works nicely and five layers should be about enough to deal with things.
All of this is my attempt to create a daily comic from my iPhone. I’m going to try and build a few weeks worth of material (don’t even know what I’m going to be drawing at the moment) but hopefully it’ll be fun while I continue to toil away at my other comic book work (on the 7th page of my second draft, slowly but surely people, slowly but surely).
One of the things that I’m hoping to cut by at least 20 minutes is my commute. Currently it takes between 38 and 40 minutes (including parking). The part which took the most was actually from Saida to Beirut which took a little more than originally anticipated. In contrast once I was in Beirut the drive to Dora area took no more than 4 minutes or something silly like that.
Truth be told I can live with that kind of commute for a little while. I’m guaranteed a place to sit, don’t have to wait for the next train to come along. Don’t need to be squeezed getting on and off. No sweating like a bastard because it’s 35 degrees down there in the summer. Sure I get the odd asshole who cuts me off, or yells because he thinks the road is his own and can go anywhere he damn well pleases (without indicating), but it’s a small price to pay. The commute is about 10 minutes more than it used to be in London.
One of the things I’ve done is actually started downloading some audiobooks and lectures that I’ve been meaning to listen to for ages. As I wanted something relatively light, I’ve started with the first Harry Potter audiobook. After many many years of people TRYING really hard to get me to dip my toe in this universe, I’ve finally taken the plunge thanks to Stephen Fry’s amazing voice and reading abilities. To be honest with you, I wish he’d read all of my audiobooks. The man is amazing at it. I’ve heard about 3 chapters so far and it’s all very predictable so far and really can’t see what all the fuss is about.
Let’s finish the first book, since at least then I can claim to have given it some of my time before I write it off. Let’s just say the concept has never really appealed to me.
It’s 5:55 in the morning and I’ve just woken up to get ready for work after 6 long months away from a regular gig on the basis that I was on sabbatical. You don’t change your life all that often, but right now that’s exactly what I’m about to embark on.
I’ll probably be blogging more often and maybe doing a compare and contrast between life over here and life in the UK. The first difference at the moment is that rather than waking up and getting ready to go to work by walking to the Golders Green tube station, I’m waking up and getting ready for a 28 minute drive to Beirut.
Not sure which is better, which is worse, but what I do know is that it’s completely different and there is something of a novelty issue associated with it. Wish me luck everyone.
So I’m sitting in Athens International Airport, on my way to a new life. 6 months ago it would have been soo easy to simply nod my head and continue to stay as if nothing had changed for another year. Another missed opportunity. Instead, I said that I would first try and see what was outside the British borders.
I found the sun, family, food and a great deal more. I found a different way of life, which would allow me to actually start thinking about more than the next couple of years. The strangest feeling is that I’m going back to where I was born, but never lived. For years, it was the language, some customs and the summers that kept me feeling Lebanese in any way. For the most part I’m not Lebanese, but in many other respects I’m 100% Lebanese because oddly enough, like me there are MILLIONS. Well that’s not completely true. There are millions of people living outside of Lebanon that can claim in one way or another to call themselves Lebanese, but those that return to start a new chapter in my life? There can’t be millions, there can be thousands…maybe?
I do plan on doing a range of things over the next few years and I’ll be talking about them in a lot more detail on this website. It’s been the one of the few constants in this transitory period of my life and will be playing a very important role in the coming years as well.
To all those I left behind in London, I love you all, I will miss you soo much. 10 days was definitely not enough but we’ve got a lifetime to catch up.
It’s been 6 months since I started my sabbatical on 23rd of October 2009. Without a doubt this single best decision I’ve ever taken in my life was to press pause, take a step back and review where I was and where I wanted to be.
The plan for the sabbatical was actually very fluid. When I was asked what I wanted to do with the time off, my general response was that I wanted to take some time to calm down, work on my graphic novel and see the family. That was actually all true. Most of my family questioned my decision to start work on my graphic novel in Saida, Lebanon. I’ve lived all my life in a major city, Athens & London. Saida is anything but a major city. It’s a village. Made of concrete. With little in the way of excitement. What the hell was I doing?
I was taking the time to sit at my desk, do some drawing, live in my own apartment, look at the Mediterranean every morning, run on the beach, avoid public transport, see the family, eat some good food, discover a whole new city. I was changing my routine. How long was I going to last? I wasn’t sure. What was interesting to me is that every month I kept extending my stay, against all odd. What can I say, the place has an irresistible charm. Other elements in my life also started happening (but I’m not ready to share those just yet, but needless to say I’m very happy with the way things are going on that front).
So I decided to look at the option for staying here would be. Could I find a job here? The truth is I did the interview rounds in March and April of this year. It was an amazing period for me, only because I’ve NEVER done a real interview apart from the one I took when I was trying to get into Arup. The difference of course is that i was in a unique position. I wasn’t looking to leave Arup because I didn’t like the place. The places i was going to interview had to basically CONVINCE me that I wanted to join them. I wasn’t looking for a way out of Arup. I was looking for a way into Lebanon. The thing was I wasn’t willing to compromise.
Finally after several interviews and even spending an entire week in the office, I’ve decided to take a position at Pierre Dammous and Partners. It’s a small practice and feels more like a family than anything else. The great thing about it all is of course that I have a great opportunity to actually start building something around me. It’s interesting in contrast I suppose to Arup where things take a bit of time and have to go through a greater hierarchy (the nature of a large organisation no doubt - although it does it much better than others).
So in a nutshell, I’m moving to Lebanon, having never spent more than a month, I’m now poised to stay here for the next few years at least. It’s a massive transition for me which bring a great deal of opportunity for me.
So what did I actually achieve during this period off? I gained a great deal, no doubt, but what did I actually CREATE? Well most of these are documented in a fashion on this site. For my own benefit I’ll list them here.
Aitus Moralis - This was my focus until the end of March. I would work on it for at least 6-8 hours a day. It wasn’t as intense as I would have liked it to be, but I was learning how to do this. The final outcome is the first draft of the entire graphic novel, character descriptions and environment descriptions. I’ve also begun design many of the characters (of which there are over 50 in this the first of the series.
Logos - I finished off a couple of logos in the time off. These were mainly side projects that I wanted to do. I did a Habari logo (which obviously wasn’t adopted, but was fun to make). I did a ViaSound logo for my friend Yanni (not sure if he’s using it). I finished a Vivid Creations logo for my cousin Yahya (who I know is using it, and has used it in a great way).
POP4 - I completed several pages of this little idea of a comic. It’s still on the cards to continue, however the truth is I need to get into a rythm, with work and life in general, which I don’t have. The concept is simple, split an A4 piece of paper into 4 vertical panels. Spend 1hour a day on each panel. Don’t think about it before hand, don’t think about it after it’s done. The whole point is to get some art done, in an hour. I stopped the routine as I was working on Aitus Moralis, but I will be getting into this hopefully once i get back to Lebanon and start work again.
Broken Kode - I completed this design that you are looking at right now. The thing about this design is that it’s actually pretty solid (in my mind at least). So much so that every time I go to mess about with it, i end up going back to this single column, completely minimalist design. One of the great parts of this design is that I have been concentrating on the content itself and created a framework for myself to actually bring the content to the front. The illustrations page is one i am very fond of.
Family Portrait - This was a really fun side project. With the house being renovated in Lebanon, there was an empty door which we decided to try and do something about. The solution was to have a stained glass portrait of the family. It took me something like 3 months to finally get the drawing done (after many failed attempts) but the final outcome is unique.
Artwork - I did a decent amount of artwork at the start of the sabbatical, which ultimately I won’t be able to use (maybe in the making of companion book to Aitus Moralis). However one of the greatest aspects of this sabbatical is that I FINALLY achieved my own style. No more am I a bad copy of such and such artist. You can see influences sure, but I strive for my own path now, which has been a long time coming. My main weakness at the moment is facial expressions so I’ll be doing a lot of drills in the coming year to sort this out, because it’s a terrible weakness which I have to resolve.
There is soo much to talk about, and even more to show. The coming year I will be beaming the ‘Kode from it’s second spiritual home. It will no longer be out of London as it has been since it’s start, but rather from Beirut.
Overcoming Creative Block - Some excellent ideas in there. One of my favourites (which I’ve not tried yet, but was actually thinking about that today) was the idea of going to a local university art library and just snapping or photocopying things from old journals to get inspiration and creating a physical drawer or scrapbook with ideas in there. I know I’ll be requiring a lot of inspiration in the coming months.
So today I went to Bank Med to open myself a bank account here in Lebanon. For all you people outside the country, shit happens very very differently over here. Some for the better, other for the seriously fucked up.
The first that you realise, is that you actually have a bank manager. You have a problem, you have an issue you want to deal with, a transaction you need help with, here is a name that will provide you with the information you require. He knows all your information, he knows where you live, how much you make and generally where you are. In a country the size of Lebanon (fucking tiny) your bank manager knows a great deal.
In London, I’ve never had to speak to a bank manager…since I opened my account back in Nottingham in 1997. This lack of Bank manager for your mortgages was one of the things that the government lamented was missing and part of the reason for the economic depression.
Where was I? Oh yeah, back to my bank account. So I’m about to sign up and the guy tells me a general clause that I have to sign. The first is the fact that I’m not allowed to take with me the terms and conditions of my new bank account. I’m sorry, what the fuck? You want me to sign an 8 page document, and you don’t want me to take a copy to review at home later on, or for me to understand my rights? Nope, you cannot. This is ‘confidential’ information by the bank and for the bank? Obviously you’re allowed to read through the thing and the guy will get you a coffee while you wait. The pertinent points of course is that you get a SECRET ACCOUNT. As in, nobody is allowed to get into it, not the government, not anyone, well at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe, except I can’t tell you because that fucking information was not given too me.
The other thing of course that made me stop was the bloody way in which I was made to sign another form which basically allows the bank to keep the cash ‘frozen’ in the account for 6 months if it’s over $100,000. Ok, what the fuck is that all about? Not sure, but the value of money wasn’t written on the form. Seriously, as if it was some big secret.
Trust me, it won’t be held for smaller values, just for monies over $100k.
I left the bank with an account, but with little information regarding my rights as a client or as to what my fees would be and what I would require to pay, interest rates etc. In a way I feel cheated. Cheated because I have no other option but to open a bank account in this stupid fashion. It’s not just BankMed that does this, it’s most (if not all Banks over here) or at least that’s what I’ve been informed (Bank Audi is just as elusive with information, except they charge you for EVERYTHING).
I’ll stop moaning about this, just thought I’d share today’s experience. Merry Christmas everyone, hope everyone has a great one.
So I finally got internet connection today, and this is my first post in Lebanon in over 5 years. So what do I think of the place so far? I’m not going to complain because honestly if I wanted to complain, this list would be absolutely massive. Instead I’m going to focus on somethings that I’ve noticed so far, and over the course of the time I spend here I’ll sniper attack dumbfuck assholes that annoy me (trust me living here for 2 weeks has made me encountered my fair share of supreme idiots).
One of the things that I honestly was looking forward to is the Lebanese winter instead of the dark and dingy British winter. We used to come here years ago during December, and it was always warmer and dryer than Greece, so I thought I’d be getting much of the same. Not so. If you’re in Lebanon in the winter, bear this in mind, it rains. It rains a fucking lot. Tropical rain. During the night. Honestly it CHUCKS it down. But then yo get some sunshine in the same day while it is raining. When this happens, people say:
Lucifer is washing his wife.
Not sure where this comes from to be honest with you…these Lebanese say some fucked up shit. Hopefully the rainy season is over and I can except dry and sunny weather for a few weeks.
Honestly this is the biggest issue right now. At first I would get a headache every time I used the car. Everyone has their own set of rules that they drive to. The deviations that always make me want to get out and give them some PROPER road rage is when they decide to drive in the opposite direction of traffic. Yeah you heard right, the opposite direction. You’re travelling at 80km/h on a ‘highway’ and suddenly you see some dumbfuck driving towards you playing chicken.
There are specific rules for roundabouts here as well. He who comes from outside the roundabout has way. You can also use the entrance of the roundabout if you wish to do a quick U-turn. This saves you the time going around the roundabout. Where’s the police? They’re eating falafels. Seriously. The stereotype of the big fat American cop eating donuts can be seen here as the not so fat, idiot cop eating his falafel. I don’t blame him, they taste AMAZING.
Which kind of brings me onto the food. All the above is made tolerable because of the food. It’s a miracle that most Lebanese aren’t completely obese considering the amount of amazing food and sweets and delicacies we have over here. Honestly you’d be hard pressed to find a more original and inventive food culture anywhere in the world. I’ll be going over these in detail over the next couple of weeks/months/whenever because I honestly think that they deserve proper mentioning.
So far it’s been interesting, but hopefully tonight I also get to spend some time in the house and start drawing and writing again and from tomorrow we can start seeing other parts of this country and getting an understanding of what it all has to offer. Stay tuned.
Times Skimmer - Great idea and implementation of digesting the top news stories according to categories etc. This is what Google News should be like.
Open House London - Every year in London, the Open House event happens, where you get to visit different buildings that are usually closed to the public; and every year I end up going NO WHERE. So I think this year will be different, even though it’ll be damn close to the deadline (I’ll have to see how close I am to completing and use this as a treat). Between the 19th and 20th of September.
onedotzero_adventures in motion - Great listing of the upcoming events and screening at the onedotzero ‘festival’. I’m definitely eyeing up to go to the Mary and Max screening.
http://www.brokenkode.com/onedotzero_adventures-in-motion-bfi
Anime All Nighter - Held between the 23rd and 24th of October, this year’s list looks like a pretty solid one. Better grab Jackie and Fern and tell them to book that Saturday/Sunday off.
How to get that perfect shave - Some good tips in there. Like shaving after a shower (or making sure you wash your face in hot water for a few minutes) and the use of a badger brush.
Eat Real. Eat Local. - Great little info-animation which probably describes something similar in most western countries around the world.
le cool magazine - Fantastic newsletter of all the great things going on in your city that you didn’t know about. Well put together, brilliant stuff.
Kuniyoshi - Saw a poster for this on the tube the other day. Definitely going to this.
Life can sometimes feel like one big massive MISSED opportunity. Currently that’s all I can think about. Everything that I’ve wanted to do, everything I’ve wanted to have, everything I’ve wanted to be, everyone I’ve wanted to be with. Which decisions were the important ones that got me here. I think about where I am and the road I took to get to this position.
I try to get some sleep but these thoughts keep haunting me; which then reminds me of Bobby Gaylor’s Suicide. My favourite line from that song is definitely ‘sleepless summer nights that seem to go on forever’. I hate those fucking nights. I hate these fucking nights.
I feel like I’m walking underwater most days.
My biggest hate however is thinking like this because I have a lot to be thankful of. I’ve been at a pretty strange place in my head; all I want to do is get over this dark period, however all I can concentrate on is where I missed.