Mother's Cake

Summer 2014

One more long motorcycle trip brings me to my beloved Austria for one more time. I'm staying outside Innsbruck at a generous friend of mine and one coldish night after a few drinks out he takes me to a friend of his. We enter an artistic place where we are welcomed by the host, named Arno, with a warm smile that stayed on through the whole night. I chatted with this guy about music so he decides to bring out a guitar from a case, very similar to the ones Santana usually plays. It had a great fretboard and felt really nice in my hands. I appreciated his move so the music chat went further. I told him "you know...the kind of music I like is must have the groovy heart of Led Zeppelin, you know this fat meaty drums but also with some explorative progressive attitude." He smiled in agreement and told me " You have to listen to Mother's Cake". I kept the name on my phone to check it later and he talked about that band a bit more, including the fact that since they were new local heroes at Tirol he decided to make a mocking band with friends of his called "Father's Cake". Singing was among his talents. I left his place with a warm heart and next day I continued my trip which would take me up to Sardinia and then back to Greece spending so much time on ferries that I really appreciated the fact that back in the day I had a tent with me to use on board. I was keeping it in place with neodymium strong magnets out of a hard disk:

 When I got back home I rushed to check that band out in my sound system and...I couldn't thank Arno enough. Top notch stuff.

Arno shocked us when he passed away a year later (2015) and ironically enough it was me that learned it before my friend who couldn't believe the news. We will all leave this world one day but the music will always be here.

Why did I recall this story? Blame Youtube's algorithm that brought on my screen this masterpiece:

Girls 'n Boys, come have last year's Mother's Cake and do yourself a favour to also check the rest of their albums:

Back to the roots?

...kinda...if roots is this blog of mine. Not out of nostalgia (though we're all vulnerable to "her"). It just seems that my relations with various social networks ended up more or less like my relations with all my ex girlfriends...not for the same reasons though :)

My "career" started with a very short period on FB. This was way before the global FB hysteria (more than a decade ago). A friend insisted that I should join and after a couple of months I knew I should leave it behind. Some creepy terms and conditions about the photos, invitations from my schoolmates about all shorts of BS and not much interest in general helped me decide it's over. Back in the day you couldn't just delete your account but only deactivate it. FB was sued about that and gave this option later if I am not mistaken. This was enough for me to hate the whole thing and Mark himself really made me sure about that.

The first social network I joined and used for good was the good ol' Myspace. This poor thing was maybe just unlucky to be the first one. Opened the road for the next ones, had all the social features needed, only to become an internet ghost later overtaken by less decent platforms.

After Myspace I started this blog of mine in the beginning of 2011. FB hysteria was already counting a few years and everybody was asking my FB. Most of the times their reaction to my reply "I don't have FB" was as if I have said "I don't have a cellphone". It's the same people who made an ass like Mark multibillionaire, they created a thing like "you're not on FB=your are not alive" and now they cry for their "lost privacy". At least Jews didn't vote for Hitler...you know what I mean...

I was more than happy to see Google joining the social game mid 2011. Not because I am brand patriot (though I could with all the help Google maps have offered me as a travelling biker all these years) but an alternative is always good to have. And G+ was a better one when it started. More good looking than FB with all the social features needed. Too good to be true? Unfortunately. For undisclosed reasons (if you know more please enlighten me) Google started desocialising it bit by bit. They took out the Photos to a separate app/site, they separated the messenger as well (Hangouts) and after years of castration they led it to a dead end. A petabyte of WTFs is not enough to comment this.

I must mention at this point two of the greatest things I ever discovered around the net, social related. One was Jango, around 10 years ago. Amazing free internet radio, customizable with social features and interaction between members. It was playing all day long in my house. I discovered so much great music and great people in it and I even uploaded my tracks (it hosted independent artists too). One more "too good to be true". At some point they stopped its social features and substituted them with FB login, castrated it and I don't even (want to) know how it ended up. The other great thing, a true game changer is Couchsurfing. It is the platform I use the longest time (11 years by now) and it's a hospitality exchange site. It is not as good as it used to be but mainly because of the abuse of the users themselves and less from the abuse of the new owners. Well, when it comes to people they know how to ef it up big time :) However, the nicest ones are in it. You just have to be picky to find them.

Lately I got proposed Mewe.com but I find it missing basic stuff and I have no time to wait when/if they fine tune it. I wonder why they even decide to release an unready thing. I mean...it's 2018...

Now begs the question...why the Fuck we evolved so much technologically, only to not be able to see any of the above good things survive as nicely as it used or could. Maybe because we didn't evolve as much on the rest...

So...with this and that...back to my blog ladies and gents :)

DIY: Car seat

My driver's seat foam was worn and its cover needed sewing so I decided to try repairing it (first time I ever modded a car seat).

I put a foam pad on the bottom (from a playroom floor tile),

and a same one (white this time) on top:

The cover was sewed by a specialist but it was a PAIN IN THE ASS to put it back.

Main problem was that the foam was worn and couldn't hold the mounting rods of the cover. I had to repair some spots with silicone:

I used zip ties instead of hog rings. Almost every upholsterer (original included) does the opposite but I prefer the fully adjustable nature of zip ties even though I just went full tight everywhere:

...and ready:

Not 100% wrinkleless because the foam can't hold the cover's mounts as it used to do but it is WAY much comfier with the pads I added. Zero cost, one day job, makes me and my butt happy :) Oh, I gave 5 euros to the guy for sewing though he barely asked any money.

DIY: Gear shifter

Do you recognise this piece?

Yes it comes from a watering hose. Would you ever imagine fixing your car's stick shift using this? Probably not.

My car's shifter was way too loose lately and I decided to disassembly it and see how its bearings are like. Guess what? They were not even worn out..they were GONE. Without even a trace. New ones are cheap but not so easy to find so in order to fix it on the spot without delay I fabricated my own out of the piece pictured above. So...here it is:

My gear shifter needs two so I had to make a pair and file them down to size. Here's one in place:

Both before installation:

All in place:

I can't transfer you the difference this makes. You should have put your hand before and after. Literally, I smile like a kid at its first boner every time I shift gears. It's way more accurate and tight and I am so glad to see my gear box feel totally brand new. I wanna go one step further now: change the gear knob, already ditched the original cause it is VERY heavy and I suspect this makes the bearings wear faster though it makes shifting smoother. New one would be lighter and shorter cause I like the racing feel the stick has now without a knob at all. All gears feel so close to each other. NICE!

Ορυκτός (και μη) πλούτος

Δυο λόγια για μερικές φωτογραφίες που τράβηξα πριν λίγο καιρό στο Σούνιο.

Το παρακάτω κτήριο είναι γνωστό ως "Παρών" διότι εκεί έδιναν το παρών οι εργάτες των ορυχείων πριν ενάμιση αιώνα περίπου προτού εισέλθουν σε αυτά.

Η είσοδος της συγκεκριμένη στοάς βρίσκεται πίσω από το νεαρό πευκάκι:

Η στοά είναι ανοιχτή και προσβάσιμη αλλά το σκοτάδι και η έφοδος των παραδοσιακά φασαριόζικων Ελληνικών οικογενειών (λόγω αργίας) δεν μου επέτρεψαν να τραβήξω βίντεο. Θα προσπαθήσω μια καθημερινή.

Αυτή είναι μια αλλαγή οχημάτων (από το δεξί στο αριστερό) που αν στο επιτρέπει η φυσική σου κατάσταση ο Εθνικός Δρυμός του Σουνίου θα αποζημιώσει τον ιδρώτα σου και με το παραπάνω:

Για το λόγου το αληθές:

Η περιοχή είναι απίστευτη πρόκληση για εκτός δρόμου μοτοσυκλέτες αλλά όσο και να τις αγαπώ δεν διανοούμαι ούτε καν να προσθέσω στην απολαυστική ησυχία της φύσης τον ήχο μιας εξάτμισης και παρακαλώ να κάνετε και σεις το ίδιο. Περπατήστε, πάρτε ποδήλατο ή περιμένετε το υπέροχο μέλλον των ηλεκτρικών οχημάτων που θα μας σώσει από την ηχορύπανση των εποχούμενων ανεγκέφαλων.

Τα απομεινάρια του παρελθόντος που συναντά κανείς στην περιοχή αυτή είναι δύσκολο να τα προσπεράσει αδιάφορος. Από δεξαμενές νερού μεταλλευτικών πλυντηρίων του 19ου αιώνα (με την περιμετρική σκάλα που ξεκινά από δεξιά)...

...μέχρι το αρχαίο μεταλλευτικό εργαστήριο του οποίου ο χώρος και η τοποθεσία είναι συγκλονιστικός:

Έξω ακριβώς από την περίφραξή του συνάντησα αυτή την πέτρα:

Σε πρώτη ανάγνωση ενδεχομένως δεν βλέπει κάποιος κάτι ιδιαίτερο. Δείτε όμως ότι είναι ανεξίτηλα μαυρισμένη λόγω χρόνιας έκθεσης στη φωτιά που σημαίνει ότι αυτή η πέτρα ήταν μπροστά στη μεταλλευτική δραστηριότητα των αρχαίων Ελλήνων. Το χρώμα της δεν κατάφεραν να επαναφέρουν αιώνες βροχοπτώσεων.

Κλείνω με ένα λουλούδι και τα λέμε στο επόμενο: