User:Etz Haim

This is a disambiguation page; that is, one that attempts to guide you through the crossroads of space, time, life, and knowledge. Since you followed a link here, consider yourself blessed. Remember, the question is more important than the answer.

Etz Haim may be one of the following:

the "Tree of Life", an archetype and a symbol of all life on Earth,
a benevolent spirit dwelling inside Wikipedia,
or the material form of the latter, being Niko from Thessaloniki, Greece.

You are most welcome to post your thoughts, comments, messages, etc. on my talk page.

To-do list

Jewish Holocaust of Thessaloniki: The tragic series of events that led to the extermination of 49,000 Thessalonikan Jews during the Second World War.
- Rabbi Svi Koretz, the leader of Thessaloniki's Jewish community before and during the war.
Athens Polytechnic uprising (expand): The November 17, 1973 uprising of the students of the National Technical University of Athens, the first major step to overthrow Greece's military dictatorship and restore democracy.
Holocaust of Chortiatis, the second major tragedy of Thessaloniki during WWII.
Avraam Benaroya
Xenos / Philoxenia

My contributions

Griko-related: Griko language, Salento, Grecìa Salentina including its towns, Bovesia, Ghetonia and Aramirè.
Locations in Greece: Kozani (my birthplace), Drama, Grevena, Edessa and little bit on and about Thessaloniki including Ernest Hebrard.
Greek language: Polytonic Greek script and Monotonic Greek script.
Greek art: Dionysis Savvopoulos, Maria Farantouri.
Education in Greece: National Technical University of Athens, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (my alma mater) and University of Macedonia.
Greek politics: Manolis Glezos, Alekos Alavanos, Movement of Free Citizens, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Maria Damanaki, Nikos Konstantopoulos, Vassilis Leventis, Communist Youth of Greece, OAKKE, Rainbow Party.
Greek history: Panhellenic Liberation Movement, Democratic Defense, Moisis Michail Bourlas.
Eastern Orthodoxy: The Eastern Orthodox views on Christian views of homosexuality, Onuphrius, Venerable.
Jews in Greece: Yevanic.
Computer technology: AWStats, Sweep audio editor.
Medicine: Molar pregnancy.
Seismology: Vassilis Papazachos, Panayotis Varotsos and VAN method.
Various: The mythology section on Milky Way, Tetovo.

Contributed graphics

The location map of Grecìa Salentina and Bovesia, also seen on Griko language.
The party logos of New Democracy, Panhellenic Socialist Movement, Synaspismos, Popular Orthodox Rally, Movement of Free Citizens and Rainbow Party.
The photos for Manolis Glezos, Alekos Alavanos, Dimitris Avramopoulos, Maria Damanaki and Nikos Konstantopoulos.
The screenshots on AbiWord, Audacity and Sweep.
The Mamatsis clock tower on Kozani.
The coats of arms for the Grecìa Salentina towns.
The Byzantine icon on Onuphrius.

Miscellaneous

Technical know-how on e-mail, Wikipedia:Sound and Wikipedia:How to keep image file sizes as small as possible.
Maintenance work, such as creating links and organizing categories.
Aesthetically improving the layout of pages.
Editing and inserting Greek text where appropriate.
...NPOVing and adding a media link on Vassilis Leventis.

Languages

I'm a native speaker of Greek. I also speak English, French and my own pidgin version of Spanish with Thessalonikan Ladino influences. I'm able to read and understand several European languages, especially Romance languages like Italian and Portuguese.

I have a powerful obsession with English words that have Greek etymology and loan translations from Greek to English; to see what I mean, take a look at this.

Technical information

My operating system distribution is SuSE Linux 9.0 and my browser is Mozilla Firefox 1.0 (get the update). I use AbiWord and OpenOffice.org for my word processing and spell-checking (uh... not always, so double check my articles for any mistakes).

For graphics and image processing, I use the GIMP, version 2+, and Inkscape 0.39. I don't contribute GIFs to Wikipedia, I convert them using ESR's gif2png. My favorite digital audio editor is Audacity. Since mp3 is patent-crippled, I encode sound clips to the Ogg Vorbis standard, using a low bitrate to conserve space and bandwidth. See also Wikipedia:Sound.

NEW: For power user technical tips, go to the Tech Corner.

I'd like to learn how to use a geographic information system to create maps on my own.

Acknowledgments

Adam Carr, the author of many Greece-related articles thanks to whom my to-do list is significantly shorter.
Andy Carvin, for licensing his photo galleries from his journeys in Greece under Creative Commons.
Bruno Fracasso for granting me permission to use the Italian coats of arms from his site, and the designer artist Massimo Ghirardi.
Offline acknowledgments to Nikos Sakellarios of the Rainbow Party for the useful information he provided.
All the people who have contributed to my work here and from whom I have received positive feedback.

Quotes

In Ladino:

"No vos espantech fijios, yo esto aqui. No es nada que la gente esta avlando no vos sikleesh. Es una ermosura, onde vos vas ayir. Tomando ropas godra con vosotros."

In English:

"Don't be afraid children, I'm here. Nothing that the people is talking about should upset you. It's a beauty, where you are going. Take warm clothes with you."

These are the actual words of Rabbi Svi Koretz before the Holocaust, as preserved in a testimony by Anrietta Molho. The Jews of Thessaloniki were oblivious of what their fate would be in the Nazi death camps.

Dual licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License version 2.0
I agree to dual-license my text contributions, unless otherwise stated, under Wikipedia's copyright terms and the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license version 2.0. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under the Creative Commons terms, please check the CC dual-license and Multi-licensing guides.