Vasili’s Blog

A Quick Update

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:29:48 EST

Yes, yes, I know, I know. I haven't posted anything in a little over four months. BUT I HAVE GOOD REASONS! School has basically taken over my life.

This month I have a lot of important things due and I'll be focusing on those primarily, so I won't even be having that much fun over my week-long break, unfortunately. Then for the next two and a half months, I'll be studying for all my tests in May, as well as spending all my other free time being the stage manager for my school's musical. All while I wait to hear back from colleges; April 1st can't come soon enough.

What I'm trying to say is that don't expect much to be posted here until the end of May basically (May 25th will be the best day ever). However, after that I'm more of less done until August when I pack up and go off to college. Then, you can expect a ton of new posts and content. I plan on doing a huge makeover of Duove, not just this blog. Food related posts will come back, I'll get back into coding, and a bunch of other things.

See y'all in three and a half months!

Caffeine

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:57:46 EDT

I wouldn't use the word addicted to describe how I feel towards caffeine. It's not that caffeine that I'm addicted to, it's more of the coffee and tea that it's normally found in. Now that stuff I can say without a doubt I'm currently addicted to.

Now, my relationship with coffee (more so than tea) is that I used to drink it almost everyday some years ago, but when I found out how bad it was supposedly for you I stopped drinking it. And then for a long time I rarely drank it because I almost grew to dislike the flavor. One of my teachers actually just tried coffee for the first time this past summer and he said it tasted like motor oil.

And then I had coffee one day sometime in the past six months. And I started to have it every so often so the addiction wasn't really there at that point. And then the summer hit. Oh boy did summer completely change my drinking habits towards coffee and tea. Everyday it was like ruitine to have a cup of tea in the morning, no matter what I was doing. With school, I could just make the drink and bring it in a thermos but I usually don't have time so throughout the entire day I'm craving either tea or coffee.

Chai is definitely my favorite tea, if we don't have that I resort to the Lipton but I could easily drink two cups of chai a day. Coffee on the other hand can be any number of things. Since my mom has an espresso maker I sometimes go for a cappuccino and other times it's an Americano, or if I just want the coffee I was used to as a kid I make instant coffee with hot water.

I'll end this quick rambling with a unrelated picture and a question. Are you addicted to any foods or drinks?

My Last First Week of High School

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 11:57:14 EDT

I swear that this blog isn't going to turn into a 100% school blog because that would get boring really fast for both you and me; school is just the only thing that I'm focusing my time on currently, and it's bound to get more intense soon.

When I got my schedule a couple weeks back, I really didn't think I was going to like it but I was pleasantly shocked by the second day. I can't think of one class that I don't like. I like everyone in all of my classes since a lot of them are with the same people as last year, we're a lot closer now.

Aside from lunch (which I thought I was going to hate), I would have to say my calc class is my favorite. No, I'm not some crazy person who loves my hardest class, it's just one of the only classes where I can see my friends. It's a super intense class but the teacher is great and keeps things light and fun.

I already have a decent amount of work but a majority of it is ongoing projects that I didn't work on during the summer. I'm supposed to have read two books for a 4,000 word research paper, as well as taken notes on them. I'll get to it... eventually. The paper is due in February so I have time.

I did relearn how much I love weekends. Even though I didn't get to sleep in this weekend because I had a walk/race/run thing on Saturday and my cat woke me up today, I like knowing that I don't have to go speak Spanish at 8 o'clock in the morning. Plus, I got to make bagels, something I haven't done since last summer.

New Look, New Focus

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:08:56 EDT

I can't decide if this is an aestetic downgrade or upgrade. I know I said my last design was minimalist, and it certainly was, but this design I have basically stripped everything. I put a huge focus on the typography, white space, and most importantly — the content.

I had a massive inspiration attack when I rediscovered Jared's blog. His pictures still completely own mine, but that's another story. The colors are my typical blue and red combination, along with a brown that I found on some random palette over at Colourlovers.

Speaking of red and blue, those are the colors of UPenn. As many of you know, I'm going to be starting my senior year very soon, as in next week. Everyone knows how important senior year is because it's when you apply to colleges and blah blah. That's one of the reasons I wanted such a simple blog design.

I really need to focus this year. I'll have very little for social things and hanging out with my friends. Not only will I be completely swamped with work because all my classes this year are college level, but I'm also stage managing for the plays this year. We have a meeting the first of school and then auditions are Monday and Tuesday the following week.

I don't have a problem with the work or being stage manager, I just have to budget my time more wisely this year. I want to try and break as much of my procrastination habits as possible because they aren't good. I'll be kissing my social life goodbye until May, when my final test from the evil Collegeboard is over. Oh god, just thinking about that day makes me so smitten.

A couple questions for you guys. What do you think about my new super minimalist approach? Are you excited for anything coming up like I am school? Isn't this the most adorable dog you've ever seen?

Free Columbia Wallpapers

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:25:52 EDT

I was playing around with some of my pictures from my trip and liked the way that these two pictures from Columbia look with a black and white action.

You are free to use them for personal use, do not redistribute for any reason. If someone asks where you got them, I would love for you to tell them about my site!

Enjoy!

Saying Goodbye

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:20:20 EDT

Saying goodbye is never easy. Whether it's to someone that you're less personally connected to or someone you're extremely close with. I know I've mentioned my best friend a couple times here, on Twitter, and on Snark before. His name is Thomas and I've known him for a little over a year but it seems like much longer. He's a year older than I am, and he left for college on Sunday morning.

We spent all day together and we had a lot of fun. We got lunch at this Mexican restaurant, playing a bunch of videogames at my house, ate dinner at his house, packed his stuff into the car, and just enjoyed the time with each other.

I had five going away gifts to give him. Throughout the day I would give them to him, starting with the least significant and ending with the most meaningful one.

There were two gifts that had a decent amout of thought put into them and that can be kept for a long time. The first was a friendship bracelet that I made him and also made an identical one for myself. The second gift was a keychain that I had engraved with the phrase "It's not goodbye, It's see you later" on one side and on the back I had "Your best friend, Vasilios". He didn't know I had the keychain until basically the last couple minutes when he was dropping me off at my house. Let's just say that it evoked a decent amount of tears from both of us.

I know we've all had to say goodbye at least once in our lives, I don't remember the last time I had to say it, to be honest. And because of that, I kinda forgot how hard it was. I know I'm still going to talk to him and we'll still see each other — whether it's me going down to visit him, or him being home on break. It's just weird having to say goodbye.

North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:17:54 EDT

I've been on vacation for the past three and half weeks in those three states, two of which are for college visits. This is going to be an extremely photo filled entry as I took around 250 pictures while on vacation; of course I'm not going to upload them all because 1) they aren't all good and 2) that's just too many pictures.

My first stop was Rahleigh, North Carolina, where I stayed with my cousins for eight days. We did a ton of things while I was there, including making lots of food and watching lots of Ugly Betty, as well as doing a 1000 piece puzzle of Time Square that glowed in the dark.

However, the main purpose of me going down there was to visit Duke. And let's just say I LOVED it. It's aestetically magnificant, it has the program I want, and the location is perfect because there are interships as well as being one of the most biochem/genetic based areas in the country.

From North Carolina, I flew back home and then less than 48 hours later I was in the car for five hours on my way to Cape May with two of my friends. This was solely a fun vacation for one week. I went to the beach everyday for a week and got super tan.

After another five hours in the car, I was back home for all of... 13 hours. Yup. Last Saturday morning I was back in the car for three and a half more hours on my way to visit my aunt.

The purpose of this trip was to visit UPenn, but my mom and I also decided to take the train into New York City and check out Columbia too. Columbia was very prestigious for me and kinda turned me off but I still enjoyed it very much. UPenn on the other hand I loved so much. It's currently a fight between UPenn and Duke for my top spot. But I'll save the college talk for another post.

It's hot, like really hot

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:23:36 EDT

It's really really really hot. Now, normally I don't complain about the weather but this year has been one of the hottest in years. I'm pretty sure we didn't even put the air conditioning on last year, but this year it's been on a couple times.

This week it's supposed to be in the high-90's the entire time, with today and Friday basically hitting 100. I was pretty much dreading this because my pool was still dirty (long boring story in which my brothers and I are just lazy) and I would have to sit inside and melt, even with the air conditioning. But thankfully it's clean! I went out this morning to check it and all I have to do is vacuum it and it should be good. Hurrah!

Now, I live in the Northest, New York specifically, and we have four very distinct seasons. In the summer it gets disgustingly hot and in the winter we get tons of snow that I love for Christmas and the first snowfall but hate all the other times, and just want it to be summer already. Two of the colleges I'm looking at make either summer or winter more extreme.

Cornell is located in Ithaca, New York and their snowfall is about... twice as much as what I get. Upwards of 6 feet of snow, doesn't that sound awesome? And the thing about Cornell is that the campus is HUGE, I mean like ENORMOUS. It's practically a city, which I don't mind since I enjoy walking, but in the winter I know it would be a nuisance.

On the other hand, Duke is located in Durham, North Carolina. They barely get snow (is that a good thing? I'm not sure yet) but it gets hot real fast down there. The humidity jumps up and you just want to live in your central air house or in the pool. However, I'm not going to be staying there for the summer if I do end up going to Duke, and I'll be coming home for Christmas break, which means I won't be escaping the snow that much. And a little side note, I'm visiting Duke/my cousins in North Carolina from July 26 to August 3, which I'm really excited for.

So yeah, just wanted to let the world know that New York has a heatwave and it's awful. I think I'll just live in my pool and drink iced tea. That sounds good.

Bread

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 11:26:58 EDT

There's no hiding the fact that I love to bake, but there's also no doubt that I love bread. Bread probably tops the list of things that I bake most frequently. It's just so simple: flour, yeast, water, salt. Four simple ingredients can make so many different types of breads just by using different techniques to let the bread ferment or shaping it (yes, there is a difference between round and not round breads).

The latest bread I've made was actually this morning, pane siciliano (it doesn't have a Wikipedia page and I find that slightly odd). I've had a container of semolina flour in my closet for the longest time; don't worry, it's still fresh and bug-free. Normally I just use the flour on the bottom of baked breads but I wanted a bread that had it inside.

Now, let me tell you, this bread likes to RISE. When I covered it to let it rise for two hours before I shaped it, it was pushing on the plastic wrap to get out of the bowl. It was exciting to see how active the yeast is, then again, it's so high 80's and yeast grows twice as fast every 25°.

Bread is a very easy thing to make and I definitely recommend every should at least try making it once. You don't even have to go for the harder three days breads (like this one), you can do much easier ones, such as Jim Lahey's No-Knead Recipe. I made that recipe last week and it was great!

Plus, who doesn't like warm bread out of the oven smuthered with butter?

Special Someone

Vasili (vasilios@duove.com) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 20:40:02 EDT

Everyone has a special someone in their life, right? It could be your significant other, or your mom, your dad, anyone really. It can be as simple as a friend sometimes. I have a friend like this and I'm going to talk about him for a second.

I'll begin by saying I've never really had a best friend, especially a best friend who's a guy, that just didn't happen for me. So last June when I started talking to him, it was kinda weird that he kept texting me. I talked to him at this playwright thing and then after that we were just talking everyday, but it was always him who started the conversation.

And over the summer, because of personal issues with both parties, we became really close. Like, the only other person I've been remotely like this with is my grandmother, and even her it's nothing like this. We've only gotten closer since then. Today was his graduation and he wanted me to be there so it made me feel good knowing someone actually wanted me to go to their graduation.

And then we fought. A little over an hour ago. And I don't know where we stand. I'm not really sad but I kinda am, nothing like I normally am sad. I'm a very independent person and if this is what he wants, for us to go our separate ways, then I can't stop that and I think I'll be able to do okay.

I usually sleep this type of stuff off and I'm happy I'm tired because it makes it easier to cope with the feeling. No picture for this entry, there's nothing I would want to post for it anyway.

Update: He did apologize. I knew he would, I just hate being mad and fighting. This isn't the first time that things have been this bad, I just felt like voicing my feelings this time.