Gym and Mood

I am a moody and melancholic guy. I can get a bit sad just by seeing a kitten meowing for food. When something really sorrowful happens I can get in a melancholic mood for days in which I overeat, gain weight and so on. At least I’m usually in denial with a few kilos gained so that doesn’t lead to a downward spiral if I can get over it soon.

I wasn’t always like that though. As a little kid I remember myself being hyperactive, always running and going places and never feel sad. Well most children are that way but I’m pretty sure I stopped being that sad-proof not as a teen but as soon as I stopped moving due to studies and so. I was stuck in a house with no exercise. I did see walking with a friend, as a way of feeling better but I thought it was mostly speaking with a friend and not the exercise itself.

I then noticed it a few years ago after going to the gym for months. My melancholic moods were less and less common. I was then thinking that I was feeling better as I was looking more muscular and feeling more attractive. And when I wasn’t working out for days it was usually in exam periods or when I was sick so I though my melancholies were because, well I was studying, or was sick! Funny thing is that I knew about endorphins and how they work but knowing something and experiencing something is not the same of course.

When I’m working out regularly, I feel better and feelings of anxiety or sorrow are less intense, even when there are a lot of things in mind. I have countless examples of going to the gym with no will to do anything than stay in bed and leaving the gym full of energy with my worries just a blur in my head. It changed my life not by improving my appearance but by being an escape, a way to feel better when everything else, friends love interests, even family fails. 

I ❤ U Gym!

Evolution or Devolution: Doctor Who and Torchwood progression

I constantly find myself coping with change. Loving or hating it, change is always there and most of the time there’s nothing you can do but embrace it. Change is also the best remedy for boredom and for someone like me it’s a fairly useful one. For TV especially, change is always better that a stale continuation of the same scripts or worse, cancellation of a show in its prime. Of course that doesn't mean that change is always easy to accept or that every little detail can be seen as an evolution. But devolution is already considered an obsolete term in biology so why should It be valid for a series?

Two of the shows I wanted to watch since I heard about them but never found the chance, were Doctor Who and its spinoff, Torchwood. They are maybe the most famous shows from the UK and of my favorite genre, Science Fiction. Both of them have also changed significantly since their first episodes (I’ve never watched the old Doctor Who series so I can't really write about them) and that’s the main focus of this post.  

Let’s start from the beginning.

As always, I started watching the opposite way, with Torchwood, and I fell in love. The characters were lifelike and really interesting (a rare combination) and the script was really mature and at least for the first season quite raw. When I found out that the third season was only five episodes I felt betrayed. I thought I had more to watch and five were so few, but fortunately all of them were great. They were also very different. In the first two series every episode had a different plot (except for 3 interconnected episodes) and the third series (Children of Earth) had one unified plot. It felt really different but again the same. It was a little slower paced and had a lot more minor characters with their lives and aspirations, but again it was the same series, the same core.

Then some time (and several Doctor Who episodes) later, I watched the forth series, titled: “Miracle Day”. My first thought of it was that Americans have invaded Torchwood’s production team. All these American actors felt different. Not just their accents but their style of acting. It was always my belief that British actors are usually on another league with better face expressions and so on, and I finally had my proof. The scenes filmed in the UK felt like the Torchwood I remembered, when in the US it was like, let's say Warehouse 13. Thankfully Jack and Gwen were there to remind me that I was still watching Torchwood but I wasn’t that convinced for the first episodes. The direction was definitely American, and so was the script development and everything except Jack and Gwen who felt like strangers or guest characters. Nevertheless I still craved for more and with every episode’s end, I anticipated the next one (still waiting for the last!). I guess I still love the series (not that I had any doubt) and not only it beats not being able to watch it, but if there is a season 5 without the new characters or no new season at all, I’m going to miss the new ones as much as I will miss the rest of the characters. Because with every episode this American invasion became more and more Torchwood and the new characters are now part of it. Sure I would also love a return to Wales and maybe have more than one plot per season but Miracle Day is a part of all that make the series so dear to me and I definitely want more of that.

Doctor Who is a very different case. To begin with it didn’t change that much. For the casual viewer only the Doctor has changed, but that is for the second time since 2005 (or, well, tenth), and his companions, that change almost every year. Also the newer episodes are of a higher production value with better sets and special effects which can only be seen as an improvement. But what has really changed is everything. The head writer and executive producers changed and with them of course the whole direction. The format though is the same. Everything that made a Doctor Who fan love it is still there. That is of course because the current head writer, Steven Moffat, has already written several episodes for the series during the Russell T Davies era of the show. Those episodes were also some of the best, so when Davies decided to leave the series Moffat was the best choice. Under Moffat direction, Doctor Who feels more imaginative, spectacular and limitless, but for me this is under a price.

Because what never seemed to amaze me in Doctor Who, was how real it felt. No matter how many laws of physics were defied, no matter how impossible everything truly was, you always thought: “Yeah. That could happen someday”, or “It seems about right”. You could always see how what everything you were watching affected the people in the show and felt like that what you saw was definitely a part of a bigger picture. That’s why it felt almost real. You could see yourself and your family, in your home, try to shelter yourselves from poisonous gases, or alien invasions and then saved in the very last moment by the Doctor. This is not the case for the fifth season and onwards. The Doctor is now like an alien Peter Pan taking his companions in different versions of the Neverland (Actually his first episode reminded me of the film Hook).

Another issue is how the episodes are bound together. In both Doctor Who and Torchwood there were always just subtle hints of the “big bad” to come, really easy to spot but also easier to miss. Most episodes had little clues part of the script and what bound them together was revealed in the last episodes. In Moffat’s Doctor Who this connection is always there forcing you to see it. In most episodes it is cleverly imported to the episode script but sometimes feels out of place. Should the crack in time for example really be shown in every episode's end?

The new Doctor is lovable and adorably clueless but he doesn't seem as a continuation of Tennant’s and Eccleston’s Doctors. He is like a previous version of theirs just a few regenerations before. He is not only oblivious of every major Davies character (where is Martha, Donna or Jack?) but of almost everything that he did in previous seasons. The only familiar face in Moffat's creation, is River Song, one of my favorite characters but also a fairly new one. On the other hand having a totally different Doctor is not bad and could be revealed that he is not that forgetful of his past adventures in future episodes.

No matter the issues I have with new seasons, I still love it and sometimes the stories feel more mature and thought provoking than the Davies' version. Change is, after all, good especially if after Davies there was no Doctor Who. The show is still at its finest with maybe a brightest future coming. I would just like to see a familiar face. Jack is just around the corner and someone should keep an eye on Martha and Mickey anyway.

Change is always hard to accept and never what you accepted but after all it's here to save our favorite series. Whether it's a cash infusion from a foreign country or a necessary change of direction, if that is what keeps the series on air, let it come. Just keep the core of the series the same and leave something to be familiar with. If the script is good we'll always come back for more!

Not Another Meaningless Blog Post

I really like writing for my blog. Every time I make a new one, another piece of me gets out in the open. I can share my point of view about something without interruptions in my chain of thoughts. I hate, though, writing about things that I find trivial, and I don’t think it’s that important to have my point of view shared about every single issue. That’s why; sometimes it’s hard to find something that by my standards is worth writing about. Furthermore, after the Easter posts about change, I was still in the state of trying to adjust to new parameters. So, I decided not to spam the blog with more posts about routine or change and I think it’s for the better (In an alternate universe my unlucky readers have already stop following my one hundredth post about how I think I overcame the change followed by a post of how wrong I was about my previous post :P). Not that one about not writing normal posts is better but anyway. Hopefully I find something more interesting to write next. Till then!

Same old routine...

Though I really hate changes in my routine, I usually adjust quite fast. When a part of this routine get washed away, I have an almost foolproof practice keeping me from knowing the change. In the beginning I usually focus in what has remained unchanged. Being a person that constantly nags about how little time he has this can be fairly easy at least for some time. I just fill my time with what I was unable to do before and try to have a full day. This actually works sometimes when my I get used to this “new” routine and forget everything that’s missing. When this can’t be achieved and something is still missing, a trip can help. A completely new routine helps me forget I lost something from my normal one and then come home refreshed. But when the trip is not possible I try to find things I used to like but never got the time to do. Like some games I wanted to play years ago or going out with people I lost touch with. Not that this advice always works but it surely makes the first days quite easier.

Just before…

Once again I found myself without a specific subject to write about in my blog. These FAQs are written depending on what I hear from my friends so I can’t see a new post real soon. So I’ll talk about Easter. The two previous Easter holidays found me in Germany with my cousins. Even though we followed only a few traditions and mostly been for walks or shopping I had a blast. This year though due to my work schedule I’m stuck in Greece. I’ll definitely follow more traditions but I already miss my time in Germany. In addition a dear friend of mine is leaving the next days to take on a master degree. So I must find new ways to spend my holidays because the Christmas’ ones won’t suffice. I hate goodbyes and next week will be hard on me. Thankfully, though, my brother and a cousin will arrive from Crete in the same timetable, helping me pass the time. I’ll stop nagging now knowingly leaving my past quite erratic but you’ll get used to these kinds of posts. I wish everyone traveling home or to new places have a nice trip.

   
P.S. I know the photo is from the Easter Island and not something festive but I believe it fits better the post’s spirit.

FAQ Part 2

It’s about time to continue my truly useful (?) FAQ.

Disclaimer: This FAQ’s opinions are personal and by no means should be taken as true for everyone. If you think they are not useful for you, feel free to disregard them. But if you follow them, I won’t be responsible for any side effects. Every human being is unique after all. My A different point of view can’t harm anyone, right?

Question: What is OK to share with my significant other:
My belief is that honesty is really important for a healthy relationship but there are things better left alone or at least said in a proper way. Due to the answers being gender specific, I’ll use M to point to male answers and F for the female counterparts. Easy to follow, right?

1. The ex.
F. For women there’s a simple answer. Don’t mention him, ever. Just, you know, stay away from the subject. We really have no interest in knowing anything about him. Just let us believe anything we like. We will figure out by ourselves how awful he has been to you, how he couldn’t satisfy you etc. If you still want to tell something, you can reinforce our believes, and maybe we won’t mind. But to be sure stay silent.
M. Once again you don’t know what she wants from you and of course you’ll never will, but anyway. At the beginning of your relationship a negative mention or two of your ex may or may not be useful. It’s really nice for her to feel more important than any other woman in your life. Phrases that can help include classics like: “You are the only woman that…”, “You are the first that…”, “My ex was nowhere near you in…” and can help you out of difficult situations. Just don’t overdo it. Another risky approach I don’t really endorse is using casually your ex’s name in skills your girlfriend isn’t that good to make her try harder. This is of course extremely risky as well as totally stupid and every girl can see through that. Finally I point once again to keep the mentions to your ex to a bare minimum. If you aren’t capable of doing so, not only you are not over her but your current girlfriend knows it too.

2. The mother:
M. Never mention her. There are only rare cases of good relationships between your moms and your girlfriends. In these cases you’re safe. But for everything else a single notion of your mother’s cooking or cleaning skills will get you with little fail to an out of nowhere fight. 
F. The girls can mention their mothers any time, keeping in mind their mutual liking.

3. The Father:
F. Actually most fathers have come to terms with the idea that someday their precious little girls will consider someone else as their man of their lives and keep a nice relationship with him. If you find yourself in this situation, feel free to mention him. But you should also keep in mind the advice for men and their mothers. In the same way stay clear for mentions like: “My father drives better than you” to stay away from trouble. If they, on the hand, have a rocky relationship to start with, not mention him at all.
M. Finally an easy suggestion. Speak about him anytime, unless she keeps calling him “pervert” or “creep”. If so, stay clear.

4. General suggestions:
Already mentioned, honesty is at most importance in a healthy relationship. In usual cases you must be able to share almost every detail without issues. Just keep in mind that there is a time for everything so try to find a proper moment for telling her/him you news or stories from your past. To be sure find times with no anxiety. Finally, if you’ve read this FAQ to find a way to tell your loved one about an infidelity or misuse of her/his trust I can’t help you. Your issue isn’t the way to tell her/him but what you’ve done.

FAQ Part 1

In order to continue my FAQ for friends and family, an idea from http://lifehacker.com/,  here’s a translation from my previous post.

The first step is figuring out your situation.

1. How awful do you feel?

Α. I’m not that awful, just, you know, a little down.
What do you mean “a little down”? Just get out of the house to get some fresh air and see some people. And that’s that.

Β.Dude, I don’t know, I’m not well.
OK you should repeat the A scenario. And maybe you should call someone first to feel a little better and hopefully have someone drag you for a walk or some coffee.

C. I’m awful. I don’t know what to do next.
I don’t think I can persuade you to leave the house, so call someone to talk a little then watch some series or a movie, play some video games etc.

D. I hit rock bottom...

You are not reading this right now. You think you do but you are lost in your thought so you are not reading. So I won’t write anything truly useful. But if I’m wrong let’s start by counting the cracks on the wall. If you finished, continue by counting the tiles in the floor or the bathroom wall. Finished already? There are a lot of things to count. Hopefully you won’t run out till you fall in the above categories. In the meantime why don’t you do something almost productive like wash the dish or do the laundry? Too much? OK, back to counting…