Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Break Free

A week ago, I had a tattoo on my right wrist.
"A man chooses, a slave obeys" reads the tattoo, that has a chain in the middle, the one the main character from Bioshock (the videogame that inspired my tattoo) has, but with a broken link instead of the original intact chain.

















                                                                                                                                                                   I love Bioshock, mostly because it's not just a game. It makes you really think at a degree no other game does. It mixes gameplay with narrative in a way no other game ever has; it makes both equally enjoyable, so much that one can argue that it merges them. It really makes you think about choices, in a way only a game can. The point here is not the videogame and especially since I don't want to spoil anything (All three Bioshock games are more than amazing, you should definitely play them) I will not continue to talk about the game.

Here's what I wanted to share with you. I decided to tweet a picture of my tattoo, along with an obvious pun ("here's what you made me do"), to the writer and creative director, Ken Levine, who retweeted it
The tweet really took off, with hundreds of retweets, favorites and people were tweeting about it and it was also retweeted by Irrational Games, the company behind Bioshock.


People started tweeting at me, saying they liked it and wanted to have exactly the same tattoo, with the exception of the occasional assholes who tried to say something smart and hateful.

Let me stop what I am saying for a bit to explain a point that you need to understand in order to continue reading. I always wanted to have a tattoo on one of my arms/wrists, but I was afraid to do it. Afraid of what other people would think of me if I had a visible tattoo, afraid that I wouldn't be able go get a job, etc. That was the story I told myself. But as time passed, the idea became more compelling to me. I was afraid to do it. So I had to face my fear. I vowed to never have a tattoo without a special meaning; and this one was the perfect example. Not only because I wanted to show love to the Bioshock universe, but most importantly because to me it symbolizes my ultimate freedom and my choices. Facing my fears. And what better way is there to display such a thing, if not for the fear itself? That's why I chose to have that exact tattoo, in that exact spot.
Again, the point in this post is not the tattoo or Bioshock or Twitter or anything of the sort.
The point is that we are all so afraid of being who we really are, so afraid to do what we want, because the world wants to keep us small. The world, our society, our family want us to be a certain way. So, we end up spending our whole lives, being afraid, letting people belittle us, letting them guide our decisions. We choose to live in fear because we don't feel we got what it takes to face it. I'll tell you the same thing I told someone on twitter who wants to get the same tattoo, but is scared.



Again, this is not about tattoos. It's about us. Who we are. Where we are going, as people. It's 2014 and people still see things as small as tattoos as something that show who you are, if you're a nice person or a killer or something. They still think that getting a job is a matter of having tattoos or not.  They still let things that are outside of themselves seem too important, instead of realizing that all valuable things in our lives are within us.
What I want to say is that we don't get to live forever. We have a journey. I believe that on our journey, we must decide to take our own paths, make our own choices. No matter what anyone says or thinks. If you are living a life just to please everyone else, you won't ever be happy.
Stop being afraid!
Are you afraid? Go do the things that scare you; it will make you feel more powerful than ever.
What I hope to do is help people break free of what's holding them back, in order to really live the lives they want for themselves. This is what I want to dedicate my life to, helping people, inspiring them, making them think for themselves, as the game that inspired this tattoo makes you think about choices.

The tattoo is not important to me. I didn't have it just so I can show it to people. I did it because I want to be who I truly am. Whether I chose to have it as a tattoo or not, it doesn't matter.
What matter is what I really believe, deep inside of me. Not what is showing on the outside.
Thank you for reading this and remember;
"We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us."
~Bioshock~



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Monday, March 24, 2014

Poem : Cor Leonis

Hello, once again, dear reader!!!!! I wrote this poem, which is the first free-verse poem I've ever released and wanted to share it with you! If you really want to find out the meaning behind the poem I think you must (!!!!!) check out the poem on PoetryGenius with verified annotations by myself.
I suggest reading it here while you play the song I've embedded here and then going HERE to read the explanations and really understand it. The title is in latin and it means "heart of a lion".

Go on, read it below!






"Look At The Stars" by TsaoShin




 He walks proud,
his head tilted upwards,
pointing to the periwinkle blue sky,
the roof of his kingdom.
And as he walks,
the earth shivers and shakes,
the trees fold in half,
the mountains wither, 
the bones of all the lost souls
dance underneath the ground,
as if to salute him.
And they all bow, oh,
how they bow to his divine presence.
The world around him shrinks, 
as if his intimidating presence is the sole reason 
this petty world exists.
The air pushes against his mane,
who is darker than the darkest night,
and his paws, 
stronger than a lightning striking a tree,
move and craft a path anew.
So he moves, exerting his majesty,
oozing power and confidence.
His breath is like fire, 
burning everything it touches,
burying it into infinity.
The crimson red of his fiery eyes, 
whose stare threatens everything it touches,
as if even fear itself is afraid of him,
seem to light the world on fire.
His gaze is fixated on the sunset that is falling over his land
and yet its' greatness does not belittle him,
as if the gods give him praise 
by painting the greatest of all paintings, 
only to entertain and cater to the needs of his fierce soul.
And in all the chaos of the universe,
the only sound that can be heard 
is the beating of his powerful heart,
which seems to give melody to the world,
as if it's a theme to march to,
nothing but his heart, 
that holds infinite power and wisdom.

And yet, as one day his presence will be gone,
not all will be lost, he will never be forgotten,
for his existence leaves a mark upon the world,
a mark that eyes can't see, that ears can't hear,
a mark that is left only in the bravest and most sincere of hearts, 
and that will exist only as long as bravery and courage 
flood the hearts of men,
those who have infinite power, 
yet choose to lead others to no harm,
who have the option to hurt and destroy, 
but choose to stray from such choices,
only to lead others to freedom and love and happiness and power and knowledge,
only to free others of their burdens and show them the path to greatness.
And only men who choose to lead their own path,
only men who choose to risk it all, no matter the consequences 
only men who fight with passion,
only men that look fear in the eye but don't lose their minds,
men that proudly move against the crowd,
will ever know what it feels like,
to have the heart of a lion.


If you liked this, share it and come back once in a while for more (also, become a follower of my blog below!
Hit me up on Twitter @CostasDetroit to tell me what you think!
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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Reading And Writing Books : Present vs. Past

Image from venturegalleries.com


Books. Who doesn't love books? I probably can't answer that, because I don't actually know if you do. But I do. I love books. I love writing. I love laying down on a beach and reading a good book as the sun is slowly being buried inside the sea and the moon rises. I love going on vacations and spending time observing my surroundings, learning new things and possibly writing about/integrating some of the ideas/knowledge/inspiration that a trip may offer me into my own work. I love going to coffee shops with my laptop, sitting down and writing or reading for hours on end. I love meeting new people at book events. I love sharing things that I write with other people and I love it when they tell me their own opinion on what I write. I love listening to music and using it as fuel for the fire of inspiration.
I write about many things, ranging from reviews about places, books, videogames etc. to poetry and literature. I love reading and writing wherever I am. 
In my opinion, it's a great time to be alive for someone who loves reading/writing. Technology is really making everything much easier to access.

Now, let me start from the beginning of my story.
I love reading a physical copy of a book. A year ago, I didn't exactly understand why anyone would pay for an ebook when the physical copy is much more amazing (nothing better than smelling the pages of a new book, right?) and it is so much better for a collection. You may be able to relate to that. 
Image from Amazon.com
When I actually bought my first Kindle book, my whole view on ebooks changed. Yes, I had read more than 20 ebooks previous to buying my first kindle, so I wasn't new to this kind of reading experience. Or so I thought.
Let me explain why I think Kindle is SO unbelievably amazing. 






    Image from kateevangelistarandr.blogspot.gr
  1. The prices of the books are so good. Daily and monthly deals, updated versions, collections, special offers and many other things make kindle books so tempting and affordable. You can literally buy a book with 50 cents.
  2. You get it immediately! You buy it and within seconds you can start reading it. Many of you won't see how that is so much different from buying a physical copy (even though you can buy an ebook without having to actually go out of your home). The reason is that I, for example, read books in english. Here in Greece, although many bookstores sell books in english, some books are hard to find or you have to order them. Kindle has put an end to my frustration of finding a book I want to read. I actually had to wait months at a time before my order arrived through the bookstore.   
  3. One of my favorite features : it can sync across all your devices! That means, if I am reading a book on my laptop and I have to go out, I open the app on my smartphone and I can continue reading exactly where I left off! It also syncs all of your notes and highlights. It's really simple to use. It doesn't matter what kind of device you have; a tablet, a smartphone, Macbook, a desktop PC, Android, iOS, OS X, Windows etc. because you can download the free Kindle reading app on all of your devices and have all your ebooks synced across all of these devices.
  4. Another amazing thing is the cross buy. That means that you can buy a physical copy of a book and an ebook and audiobook. 3 or 2 in one. What I usually do is buy an ebook and buy the audiobook (which is very very cheap if you already own the ebook of the same book) because I love this feature called Whispersync for Voice. This feature lets you switch from ebook to audiobook or read and listen to a book simultaneously. It syncs to the last page you've read so, if you are sitting on your couch and you are reading an ebook on your laptop and then you have to go to the gym, you plug in your headphones and just listen to the audiobook on your smartphone! You can switch between audiobook and ebook so smoothly and it's a pretty amazing feature, because you can get the best of both worlds! That way it's easy to highlight and take notes (which is pretty useful to me, since I re-read all of my books a lot of times and I want to be able to do that) because you can have them on all of your devices.
  5. The magic of technology. Tap on a word you don't know and it will give you its' definition.
The 2 apps you will need for this are Kindle and Audible. You can download both of them for free. If you sign up for Audible, you get one free book of your choice (click on the link above) and then you pay 15 dollars/10 euros per month for a Audible Listener Gold Membership which gives you :
  • one credit/free audiobook every month
  • 30% off any purchase 
  • a free audio subscription to The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.
If you want to switch between ebook and audiobook you have to make sure the book you want to read has an available audiobook. First, you buy the ebook and click Add Narration. You will pay a small fee for getting the audiobook (it's usually less than 5$) or get it for free if you haven't spent your monthly credit.


Image from Wikipedia

Now that we got the topic of reading books covered, what about writing books? Technology made writing a lot easier, too.
I am currently working on many different projects (a book, multiple poems and sort stories, reviews etc.) and I use some of them on my blog, but I keep most of them to myself (I don't want to actually share everything I write, not because I don't want people to read it, but because I don't want to simply give away all of my efforts for free). 
I use the yWriter app for my PC, Pages for my Macbook and Writer on my Android phone. 



Image from : shevdon.com
yWriter is a free app (created by a writer) which is magnificent for writing a book. You create characters, give them descriptions, goals etc., you create locations, choose viewpoints for each scene and you really have a lot of tools at your disposal. Chapters are divided into scenes which you can easily move to another chapter and you can see how many words you have written, set a daily writing goal (for example : 5,000 words), back up your projects and export them. It's a cool app, but I don't use it that much anymore because I use my Macbook. 






On my Macbook, I use an app called Pages (it costs 18 euros). It is a very good app, with a lot of features but it's a lot different from yWriter. Pages is an app mainly for creating publishable books and ebooks, so it has a lot of designing features. It's simple to use (although I'd advise you to read the manual before you start to use it.) and you can have creative control over everything; from whether the pages will be numbered with numbers or symbols, to exactly what the header and footer will look like! 
In my opinion, the best way to write a book is use yWriter for writing it since it helps you be more organized and focused on the content of the book, then export and copy-paste it to the Pages app to create your book, add a cover etc.


Writer for Android is a simple, dumbed-down writer app. You basically just write. There's nothing more to it than that. The reason I like it is you can transfer your files from you phone to other devices and its' very simplistic interface makes writing childs play.



Since I covered both reading and writing, I will finish this post with publishing.
We live in 2014. It's easy to publish a book. Amazon lets you upload your ebook and makes it available on the Kindle store within a matter of days. Blurb is also a great app that lets you design and publish both physical and digital copies of your book but you actually pay for every single book, while with Kindle Self Publishing, you don't pay anything, but a percentage you and Amazon agreed upon will be extracted from your book sales. What I like about KSP is that you can also make physical and audiobook copies of your book available for sale. Although both options are great if you want to make it all alone,  it surely doesn't give you the coverage that a publishing company does.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it. 
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