Mercurial

Ari lies?

Via Mark Kleiman, a report on Mr. Flescher eliciting laughter from the journalists that cover the White House. They couldn't take so much shit in one day.

Friday Five

1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)?
Blogs. Isn't it obvious?
2. What is your favorite novel?
Snow Crash. It is about this guy that has a blog - (The metaverse is a blog).
3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)
Pedro Salinas.
No quiero que te vayas
dolor, última forma
de amar. Me estoy sintiendo
vivir cuando me dueles
no en ti, ni aquí, más lejos:
en la tierra, en el año
de donde vienes tú,
en el amor con ella
y todo lo que fue.
En esa realidad
hundida que se niega
a sí misma y se empeña
en que nunca ha existido,
que sólo fue un pretexto
mío para vivir.
Si tú no me quedaras,
dolor, irrefutable,
yo me lo creería;
pero me quedas tú.
Tu verdad me asegura
que nada fue mentira.
Y mientras yo te sienta,
tú me serás, dolor,
la prueba de otra vida
en que no me dolías.
La gran prueba, a lo lejos,
de que existió, que existe,
de que me quiso, sí,
de que aún la estoy queriendo.
4. What is one thing you've always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?
I read pretty much all I want.
5. What are you currently reading?
See my blog - on the left side, at the bottom. And Kiln People, Leadership Challenge, Advanced Economics and Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos.

Bloggin survey

Cristian would like to know how much time do you spend blogging.
It is even starting to cut into my personal relationship time.
Does it count when I am trying to convert my friends to blogging? I am now like the missionaire of blogging around here.
I am fearful of the natives, though.

Driving

JP is driving 80 mph. We are goig to see Daredevil.
A car in front makes us slow down to 60 mph.
jp: Dude! Whats this!
me: that would be an old lady driving.
jp: she's slow!
me: she is an old lady driving ten miles above the speed limit.

Ten minutes later, and five traffic lights later, old lady passes us.
jp: there is a moral there.
me: I don't want to know.

To MBA or not to MBA?

I had an interview at a local private university. I am going for an MBA, just because, you know, I have 50.000 that are making a hole in my pocket. And lots of time.
Interviewer: Name one of your defects.
Me: (I can't believe she is asking me this) I tendd to be a perfectionist (I can't believe I am answering this!). immediately I clarified that I tend to get bogged down in details. She didn't give time to tell her about my need to know everything, or my need for attention, nor the fact that I blog and get very little sleep, or that I am looking for an MBA there just for the women.
Anyway, I still need the $50.000.

27 hours of sex

Juan Carlos Montaña wrote a play called Sex:

It features four actors, two men and two women, and there is no intermission in the entire performance.
The actors eat, sleep and have sex during the show, while the audience is free to come and go as they like.

The end of the world

Sir Isaac Newton predicted the apocalypse by the year 2060.

Sir Isaac Newton predicted the world would end in the year 2060, according to theories uncovered by academics in Jerusalem.

I (am) was in love

Wondering about moods today, and why I am feeling like this, when suddenly stumbled upon this by Tony:

they dont tell you when youre little that true love will haunt you and follow you around years after its gone. not just trippy little trails of a magical time, but full on bursts of feelings that release the endorphins and trigger the synapses and spin the wheels of madame lady luck that line up jackpot, jackpot, jackpot.

Weather as punishment

Bad weather in Texas

Seven years old

I was the most serious seven year old you can imagine. Perfectly combed hair, shiny shoes, best student in class. Respectful, never a bad word, never a tantrum.
I would receive my Christmas gift, a book on mathematics and algebra, which of course I read with avid delight. Another one, this was about physics and chemistry.
I was an extremely preocuppied boy, politically correct, against smoking - my mother and father both smoke, my father did eventually stopped - and severely worried with social justice and environmental campaigns.
I don't remember much about that time. I was always reading magazines, wondering about how the world worked, how things came to be, what was happening around me.
But I don't have many memories about that time. My second grade teacher, Pedro Romero. My second grade graduation day, held in a 300 year old building, a lot of history. Staying in formation at the school yard. Going to the movies to see some Atlantis movie. Going to a screening of "El hombre de Maisinicu", a cuban communist movie, and being surprised at the chants and reactions of the spectators: I didn't know whether to join, be scared or disgusted at that loud, uncouth mob.
I knew a little about everything. I was brilliant and fierce.
I was also shy and angry. I scratched my face all the time. I could not express emotions.
It was towards the end of the year that I started to lose my faith in the "system": I was denied of my first place prize because I didn't obey some stupid rule that did not apply to anybody but me.
Probably that saved me from myself.
Life was easy after realizing I didn't have to be perfect.

Mental models

On boxes and arrows, this article about
Mental Models.
Any representation of reality, and any other expectation about reality depends on the way we manipulate the data that we receive, and the way we enmesh that info on our previous experiences and interactions. Any mental model is then, by definition, an over-simplification, a set of rules that we expect to hold true independently of setting and situations.
It is easy to navigate information categorized according to proved models, and that is what we do all the time, be it designs or concepts.
I would posit that the most interesting models are those that present the same information according to new rules, as if to say, there is a new interpretation of the meanings of that reality.
For example, instead of talking about power laws, we may talk about differential equations and detect relationships within the data presented, identifying new information.
The same applies to navigating structures, such as Net, databases or even social constructs. Our perception of these all depend on how well their structure can be represented with previously adopted structures, without losing meaning in the translation. I would like the translation of a social construct here on the page, by which I would then validate my pages the same way we validate and interact with people.
Which mental model is then appropriate for navigation?
I need a redesign fast.

via Anil

No more pain

The New Scientist reports that the different way people perceive pain is based on their genetic makeup:

People with a particularly active form of COMT were hardier, whereas people with a lazier form felt pain more acutely. Those with both forms of the gene, one from each parent, experienced intermediate pain, the researchers found.

Of course, to compensate, I cry when I get nostalgic, or remember loved ones. But then I eat chocolate ice cream, and everything is allright again.

Billiken!

In my previous post I mentioned this magazine, Billiken, which I thought had disappeared.
It is online! I am seven years old again!

This or That

From Christine, for this week:
1. Holland or Netherlands? It was new year's eve in Amsterdam and I was walking along the WhateverStrasse with some friends. Some guy tried to rob money from a friend and I jumped to defend her. Unluckily for me, I started an argument, whereas the guy just broke my jaw. It is Netherlands. But hey, now I have a cuter chin.
2. Emu or Ostrich? There is an animal of the Argentinian pampas, the ñandú, similar to the ostrich but, as I understand, much more intelligent. The gauchos use boleadoras to hunt it down. That it was all I read in Billiken, a long forgotten magazine for children with curious dispositions.
3. Biff or Happy? The cultural reference totally escapes me. Biff, from “Back to the future”? Happy, as in the Seven Dwarfs? Happy as in the smiley – but then, which smiley would be biff. On a more darker note, anny political references to GW would refer to Biff, you know, meat eating texan, so happy seems to be a better answer. Peace and all.
4. Quincy or Braintree? There was this evil villain, Brainiac, who would fight Superman, and who will always fail due to a technicality. Quincy was the predecessor of CSI, Jordan and the rest, but I don't remember much about it – only that this was a good guy with a lot of interesting questions. And that you shouldn't sing in the hot tub, you may die. Culture by TV, what do you expect.
5. Cassius Clay or Muhammad Ali? M Ali could have been the most hyped one, but George Foreman is alive and kicking and selling. Sad but true. Somebody was telling me, “life is an endurance event, not a speed one”. They were right.
6. Instabul or Constantinople? Constantinopla. Colombian historian Mauricio Obregón said that the West never understood fully how much we all lost when Constantinopla fell into the hands of the Mahomet II. Regardless of its name, it is one city I want to visit before Bush decides to recapture it for the West. By the way, the description of the battle sounds pretty much a “Shock and Awe “ strategy, complete with pleads for peace and help, the bizantine discussions over help or war, and the siege of the city. Nothing changes.
7. Pig or Swine? Ping or Swing? Too much time blogging, I think. Nevertheless, were I to own a porcine pet, I would certainly prefer Babe, the shepherd pig. On food, though, it has to be lechona tolimense.
8. Barf or Puke? The Barf and Puke was a very famous pub in medieval London, the one that served the most potent ale in all the kingdom. So strong was it that all its patrons left intoxicated, their discomfort and pain explained to their friends like so: “I have just been to the Puke” or “To the Barf”, which then quickly became synonyms for what occurs when you have too much to drink. Of course, the pub disappeared, but its legacy continues with us til this day. I am feeling sick, though.
9. Potatoes or Spuds? Papas rellenas, papas fritas, papas chorreadas, papas con queso, papas cocidas, papa sabanera, papa tocarreña, papa de la que deshace, papa criolla, papa en ajiaco, papas si pontifices no, papa yo quiero saber de donde son los cantantes, papa salada, a pelar papas, asi fue que empezaron papa y mama. Papa.
10. Squeeze Box or Accordion? ¡¡Acordeón, ay home!! Have you heard Carlos Vives, or Shakira, even Bacilos? Acccordion, my dear friends. “Ya tiene su diosa coronada”.

Greenspan vs Bush

Brad DeLong starts with an accurate description of Bush's economic policy, or lack thereof, and then proceeds to make a scathing simile with a failing Ottoman empire, one in which power is held by those that have access to power through internal machinations and devious practices.
Much more important than just the anecdotical quality of the description of the Topkapi Palace at 1600 Pennsylvannia, is the situation by which Brad identifies the riff between the economicst camp championed by Greenspan, and those that oppose esoteric ideas such as fiscal policy and sensible taxes.
Further on, there is the issue of the invented economic report, as Brad reports here, as reported by Newsday and Salon.
Point: What are we going to do? Impeachement, anyone?
Not so much the fact that he was blatantly lying and citing inexistent figures to support a highly unpopular proposal, but that so far nobody has taken the president to task, asking about his methods and responsibilities. It seems that once president, there is no more accountability for actions and omissions.
Obviously, Bush still believes in Enron as its spiritual guide, Congress in his pocket and the Dems a vote of silence.

The four horsemen

Just so I remember where was it. Max identifies their true vocations:

Save your bile for the Four Horsemen of the Ablogalypse: Reynolds, Sullivan, Johnson, & den Beste.

America, this is going to get worse

MeFi cites the Washington Post story about how the biggest manufacturer of duct tape donated $100.000 to the Republican Party in the last elections.
America, it gets worse.
Drug manufacturer Wyeth donated $739,772 to Republicans in the past elections, as reported by Open Secrets.
Wyeth is the manufacturer of Preparation H.

Wait for Tom Ridge's next suggestion.

What happens to censorship

Mark Morford writes about the true origins of Saint Valentines's Day, and its relationship to the Roman Lupercalia. And he concludes:

So. Buy those giant red balloons from Safeway. Nab that $29 heart-shaped diamelle necklace from the Shane Company. But don't forget to acknowledge that deep-down, gnawing, sly urge you're doubtlessly harboring to rush out into the streets and wait for the laughing naked boys and get yourself gently lashed with bloody goat skins and then go have sex. Just like the pagan lust-monkey you so wish to be. You go, Lupercus.

An elegy

Mark Kleiman Mark Kleiman laments his father's death, and honours his memory in a beautiful way.

MT woes

I have been disconnected for three days, primarily chasing a young dancer turned mosaic artist, and trying to convince her that "blogging" is not a bad word, after all, and salivating over dreamgirl's long legs, also trying to distribute the blog meme.
I am still the only one around that blogs.
And now, woe is me, my MT won't ping, and I don't have the latest update yet.
If a blog gets updated in the forest, and nobody gets pinged, does it make a sound?

On church and war

AKMA explains the tremendous burden a soldier carries when renouncing their responsibility not to kill a human being.
But he also considers the warrior as defending as just cause:

There may be no room for pride in war, only penitence; there may be no room for pre-emption in war, only response. (A righteous combatant will not strike a first blow, because she or he doesn’t know that the adversary actually is a combatant until the adversary starts the fight.)

Explaining about blogging

I have been trying to explain to my friends all about blogging, and how interesting this little community is , and how deep emotions go. No matter, they don't seem to get it.
I need a blogging evangelist, somebody to help me spread the idea, a missioner to convert all these infidels, pagans that laugh at my idea of spending countless hours at my computer, reading about other's lives and posting my own revealed truth about politics, war and the freedom to communicate what I had for dinner.
No, my friends insist on going out to party, and drink beer and hang out at those places where fun may be had. The poor souls.
Borders is not any help either. The books by Meg Hourihan or Rebecca Blood are all gone, and there is nothing to suggest that there was once a big revolution by which everyone posted their whole life on the net, where everybody and their bosses saw it, and where whole lives were changed: Dave to Harvard, dooce out of her job, and the like.
Someone even dared mention the word fad, to which I politely responded that Justin has been blogging since 1994, and he is still going on.
Perhaps I should show them my blog. Then again, not, since it is this detachment what allows me to examine myself and them in front of everybody else.

Art and War

Via Caterina, this essay from The Crisis Papers about the current trends in artisitc expression, and the reaction of our beloved leaders:

One problem with authoritarianism -- whatever brand comes along: Stalin's communism, or Hitler's fascism, or Islamic Talibanism, or whatever we're moving into in America right now -- is that it makes art more delicious and tempting.

Another battle

Kane has recently received some bad news. I am wishing him well, that he may recover. That he may have the strength. Kane, know that we will be reading and willing to give a hand.

Aserejé

Jason was wondering about the macarena, but I consider much more relevant the Aserejé, or the Ketchup song for you the uninitiated.
Actually, the group is the Ketchups, they are the daughters of a very well known Flamenco singer, "el Tomate". The tomato.
At any rate, everybody has been asking what does it mean, aserejé?
The story is that Diego goes to a bar, asking for a song that he doesn’t know, but he can sort of sing. The DJ, his friend, plays it , of course, and we all have party and fandango.
Since we wanted to dance it the other day, while drinking tequila, and finally deciding that dance was not exactly high on the priority list for us, we promptly went into a much more animated discussiona bout the possible origins of the song, and what kind of weird and strange Arabic language is that "aserejé". We were not off the mark, actually.
The aserejé is based on the phonetic transcription of "Rappers Delight"!

I said a hip hop the hippie the hippie
to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop
the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie
to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat
"Rapper's Delight"
Sugarhill Gang, 1979

Aserejé Aserejé ja de jé de jebe tu de jebere
Sebiunouva majabi an de bugui an de buididipí
"Aserejé"
Las Ketchup, 2002

Now, let's dance.

The revolution will be (duct) taped

Fresh from iddlewords, somebody making sense of all the instructions we have been receiving these last weeks.
Are these instructions propertyof the USA government? Then, the people? Can we deface them, for the sake of parody, thus exercising fair use, or are they copyrighted? Is the DMCA applicable here? Is the poor person that came up with this going to spend the rest of their days in Siberia Alaska?
What a great nation this has become.
Via Patrick.

Friday Five

1. What is your most prized material possession?
My mind. But I lost the manual.
2. What item, that you currently own, have you had the longest?Same. And it is showing.
3. Are you a packrat?
no. maybe. Can't find and answer around here, too much stuff.
4. Do you prefer a spic-and-span clean house? Or is some clutter necessary to avoid the appearance of a museum?
this looks like the back room of a museum, you know, where they keep the furs of twenty polar bears, three barrels full of whale, old bones, petrified birds, a collection of shells and thousands of leaves.
5. Do the rooms in your house have a theme? Or is it a mixture of knick-knacks here and there?Yes, a theme. It would be storage by stratification.

Do not shut up

Neal Pollack is encouraging everybody that holds views on the war to shut up.
Of course, I find that most of his tirade goes against the thousands of voices protesting the war, but that would be me. I fear when somebody tries to limit my right to denounce oppression, tyranny and reckless wars. But that would be me.

the differences in their political views reduced to a choice between the grilled or potted shrimp

via shawn, from a discussion in MeFi

Bush declares Jihad

Or sort of. When Bush resorted to absolute "evil vs good" descriptions, and decided to assign theological categories to his comments and policies on world peace and politics, he made an excellent candidate for a Nobel peace prize. I understand that Ben (You will excuse the familiarity) seems a little bit apprehensive about a trip to London, but actually, the comment that draw my attention was that of Bush being so religious and sanctimonious here. Let us not think about separation of church and state. Not even about whether Mr. Hussein has WMD, whatever those might be, or explosives given to him by Mr. Rumsfeld, acting as an agent for Mr. Bush The Intelligent (No chance of confusing them). Trifle matter that of USA inability to pay for the war, afford this tax cut, and revive the economy.
What really bothers me is that self-righteous stance adopted by Citizen Bush, defending the same values of which he himself has made a mockery, such as freedom, democracy and equality. Now, though, as we prepare to enter this war ? because it will be all of us, willing or not ? we have to endure the Chairman's speeches, and accept his benevolent smile and wisdom.
It wouldn't surprise me to see a 50 feet poster of Bush's face.

Bono for Nobel?

Lugar and Nunn may have the most impressive task, but Bono wears cool glasses, so he deserves the Nobel prize.
Hell, if that is the criteria, why not GWBush? Or, for that matter, Saddam! Oh, wait, Saddam has a mustache. Not cool.
Now I get it.
Welcome to the attention economy.

Superficial

I am the first result for a Google search on enrique iglesias, homes in florida and california
ewww

antiwar protests

Pictures from the antiwar protests, via BirdMadGirl. I am stillsurprised and awed that so many people demonstrated against this incoming war. More surprising, even, is that the sorry excuse for a president that they have in DC is refusing to acknowledge that.
Question: Bush can ignore the American voter. He doesn't care. However, will Blair and Aznar risk their premiership by going against what their constituents have demonstrated?
Here, there are already differences, friends for and against the war - I hope that we still are friends.
Got to buy my duct tape. Not for plasticizing my apartment, but for after this civilization collapses, it should come in handy.
Tom Ridge watched too much "MacGyver".

Can't believe this is for real

Because, come on, this has to come from the sickest and most depraved mind. Oh, yes, I forgot.
I was going to put a link, but then I remembered their Patriot Act.
Now, if you want training so you can help your neighbors and friends when choking on a pizza, or after a car accident, both much more realistic scenarios, got to the Red Cross site. But do not go to the "watching you" security office.

They told me

Somebody told me that there would be days like this.
Listening to Silvio Rodríguez, tears in the eyes,

Soy feliz, soy un hombre feliz/y quiero que me perdonen, por este día, /los muertos de mi felicidad

Blogger vs Google III

I am predicting various effects of the acquisition of Pyra by Google:
a) The *.blogspot.com weblogs would ping all the popular notification sites, ie weblogs.com and blo.gs, as well as their assoicaited ones: blogrolling.com, blogstreet.com etc.
b) Access statistics would be available to the bloggers.
c) Google is not going to push their content through their search engine, but surely is going to provide the means to make these content makers much more relevant, or at least increase the chance of being noticed. Expect a campaign.
d) Shirky's power law discussion will be much more relevant with the increased arrival of new bloggers to the Bsphere.
e) Although entrance barriers will be diminished, getting noticed is going to be much more difficult. Expect to be inundated by comments within the next six months.
f) Us slackers that blogged about war, power laws and Sesame Street quizzes will find increased competition for attentions, forcing specialization or at least a distinct theme for the most popular sites.
g) Expect all the free services to which you were accustomed to start charging a price for services.
h) New blogging celebrities, as instapundit and the like fade from poublic attention, due to increased fierce competition.
i) Continuing on Joi Ito;'s description, expect an increase in local blogs (creative groups).

This or that again!

Always Tuesday, the day to go to Leon's, and to answer her questions.
I love the opportunity to write this quizzes that appear from time to time in the B-sphere. They allow a little bit of self-exploration, hidden beneath innocent looking questions such as “bread or butter” and the like.
Probably because I don't know myself, or because I enjoy following maps and exploring this things.
Here they are, anyway.
1. Black or white?
Black clothes, but love the white. Coffee must be black. Chocolate must be black- the darker the better. Black humor was easy at times, but now I stay with the lighter jokes. White belt in a lot of things – shameful, actually. Black ink when writing, and yes, there are such things as white pens. My hair is black, my conscience, well, white because lack of opportunity. The walls of my apartment white, almost hospital white. Magic, white I suppose, although I do not practice. Race, Hispanic (which is an ethnicity, I know), but the census thought me as white.
2. Plaid or stripes?
Plain. Dark. Colors.
3. Paperback or hardcover books?
Love hardcover, eternally bound books. The ones that last forever, and can be read one million times, bequeathed to your loved ones, carried with the appropriate gravitas, used as an offensive weapon -figuratively and literally – and held when reading in bed.
4. Color or B&W printer?
Printer?
5. Golden oldies or the newest tunes?
Newest alternative most obscure tunes. Hate Clearchannel and their bland pap. Loved Audiogalaxy, for their marvelous ability to unearth wondrous music. Loath kazaa, that only offers same old same old.
6. Ice cream: in a cone or a dish?
Sugar cone, baby.
7. Bath or shower?
Shower, I am in a hurry! Unless you want to take it with me.
8. Are you outgoing or shy?
Who, me? *blush*
9. Answer the phone when it rings, or screen calls?
The phone rang?
10. VCR or TiVO?
None. DVD, occasionally.

Google vs Blogger II

kottke has the perfect insight on this relationship:

Democracy as Emergent

Further on Joi Ito's paper on open democracy as an emergent phenomenon, I would like to point out some ideas brought by the discussion that Cory brings about in this link on the different urbanistic paths taken by Portland and Vancouver vs Seattle.
The efforts of the planners are simply to experience what occurs in a city with high population density, and a lot of possibilities for interaction between its inhabitants.
Remember the idea that Richard Florida was championing a few months ago, about tolerant cities being vibrant ones. Let's further that idea with the concept of emergence within an open group, and we may have one of the characteristics of a truly dynamic system: we need interaction between those tightly knit units, the creative networks, but we also need fragmented and porous boundaries among social networks.
Part of the attraction of the qualities of emergent behavior is that, while the rules being clear – high density, high participation, mobility of ideas, feedback, small distributed agents – it is often very difficult to implement those, if not downright impossible. To witness, consider the central planning policies of any government and the results it brought about, vs the decentralized growth and maturity of systems that exhibit this behavior.
My point: the social experiment of increasing interaction and density in Vancouver and Portland has, implemented all of those characteristics enumerated above, and as a result of this both cities benefited in growth and quality of living.
This points out one interesting conclusion: whereas complexity and self-organization can not be dictated, it is possible to set up the proper conditions in which those characteristics will emerge within a system, but, as Kevin Kelly explained, the overseer of said system must release any thoughts of control over it.
And this very clear and recent example brings me back to the points made about democracy on the internet, or any other collaborative media: the high level of interaction and trust based reputation that the system exhibits right now may act as an advantage for the democratic total, even in relation to highly complicated decisions, but it is necessary to protect, maintain and further refine the conditions that the system needs to operate. Mainly, when participation is limited to a central nod or previous approval from authorities – even in the case of perfect openness (As an example, consider the story about google-watch.org, which didn't appear using Google until after a few days after it was blogdexed) – the system breaks down; the result is a resurgence of alternative communication channels, but with increased noise, and dissolution of trust.
In order to have a functioning democracy using the communication tools that the internet provides, such as blogging, SMS, moblogging, wifi, and the like, it is necessary to expand their reach and make them include every possible stakeholder, allowing them to interact, with access to the results of any decision, even when the voting is taking place. This direct participation in the affairs of the government may not be to the liking of many totalitarian regimes, but direct civil participation could prove invaluable to preserve an open, democratic society, while protecting the rights of every one involved and ensuring the politically stability of said social group.

On a small bridge in Iraq

Via Joi Ito, the news about a new book about Iraq and its people:

Please see the pictures of the Iraqi people and their lives.
Those are beautiful pictures.
Can we bomb them, the people just like us?

Craving honey

Thw worst thing about being snowed in without cable nor TV is realizing that I am craving carbohydrates, and there are none here.
Luckily, I was able to find the last tablespoon of honey I had.
To do tomorrow: get to Whole Foods, and BUY food. High priority To Do.

Savvy finance

Reading Dorothea's description of her attitude towards personal finances made me remember my own sad and depleted coffers. I am an Economist, with capital E, but somehow I missed the part where it said"do not indulge". Every time I go close to a bookstore, boom, the latest best seller, or a management book, or a couple amgazines. All in all, though, it has gotten better: I used to splurge in things such as an Indian cotton hand dyed cover for my bed, or Japanese designed plates, or Norwegian glasses.
All of those are now in a box, somewhere in Colombia, while I do well here in the USA. Funny how an unexpected relocation would throw a light on the superfluousness of material posessions.
Not that I am doing particularly well - my salary must double before I even consider it enough, and I need to get medical insurance (Even driving to work seems like a Russian roulette), but those are all things that I will get thisnweek or next. Except for the double salary thing. That will have to wait a little bit longer.

North Korea and war

Now CNN carries a story about North Korea's rhetoric about war and how it will "win nuke war" if confronted by the USA.
Leaving aside the possibility of glowing islands, what is exactly acomplished by this posturing? I mean, beyond oil and the respect of allies and enemies alike.

Google expands

Check Ev's description of his life chenge, following the news thath Blogger was acquired by Google. I went and did a little research on Google corp. news, and found that they are looking for people! Google Job Opportunities demand, of course, that you are in the 0.0001% of your class, an MBA or MSc before 20, and an IQ of 150 minimum.
How would they check references? Cross-googling?
Anyway, I love MT.

Amazon recommendations

I had always wondered at the accuracy and fast response of Amazon's recommendations. Happens that they use Item to Item Collaborative Filtering. Kept me thinking of Google and Pyra - searching the trail instead of the links.

Which Sesame Street secret are you?

The Count's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

It started with a simple affection for counting and
the terror it induced in others, didn't it?
But now it's turned into a full-blown life-
consuming chaotic nightmare of order,
repetition, zealousness, and perfectionism.
You used to be so grand, but now you find
yourself obsessively worrying over the littlest
things--like, maybe if you don't check the
light switch at least once every two minutes,
the electricity will go out (and damnit, you're
a vampire--that shouldn't be a problem!), or
maybe if you don't wash your hands until your
seams are coming out, you'll get some fatal
disease. Get yourself some treatment.


Which Sesame Street Muppet's Dark Secret Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Quiz from Quizilla via glovefox. Send some love to her.

Space elevator

Perhaps a space elevator is what we need these days:

A space elevator - an alternative to rockets and shuttles - would consist of a 100,000km ribbon of super-strong carbon-based material.

Snow outside

Just snow and ice outside, and the day ended already. A cup of tea and a few cookies.
Let the world go by without disturbing me.

Blogging vs Google I

On light of the recent news that Google is buying Pyra, and with it Blogger, Blogspot and all that is associated with it, and the very sad news that Salon will be disappearing after February, I have a question: Is Google going to corner the market in hosting services for bloggers? There may be a huge migration from the Salon servers to other ones, and for those that can not afford or do not want the complications of their own domain, this seems a serendipitous alternative.
And of course, Bloogle (Will that be the new name? It is already taken) will have access to the 1.1 million bloggers already out there, and surely they will swamp services as weblogs.com or blo.gs with their pinging and updating, bring up the need for a more robust indexer of blogs – a clear opportunity for Google.
As Matt Webb is saying, they are building The Memex:

They've got one-to-one connections. Links. Now they've realised - like
Ted Nelson - that the fundamental unit of the web isn't the link, but
the trail. And the only place that's online is... weblogs.

Peace rally

The reports from all the cities indicate that yesterday's was an unqualified success, what has already been termed the largest coordinated peaceM protest in history.
Whereas I am not confident that the Pentagon or the White House are going to levitate just yet, it sure gave GB and Blair a time for thought. As the BBC reports:

Playwright Harold Pinter made a rare public speech, saying America was "a country run by a bunch of criminal lunatics with Tony Blair as a hired Christian thug".

Connect or die

Since canceling my DSL connection for being horribly expensive, I have remembered the main reasons why I had it in the first place.
Given that:
a) Assuming my time is worth, say, US$50 an hour, every time I connect using DSL I save about 1 hour.
b) Even if my time were to be worth only $5 an hour, getting a DSL connection would save me US$150 per month.
c) I haven't been able to sleep well, since surfing using a dialup is akin to watch paint dry, and demands time.
d) Since the only free time I have is between 8pm and 4 am, I forsake sleeping in favor of surfing.
e) My work and social life are suffering because of that.
I conclude that
1. Spending US$50 per month in a DSL connection is actually a good investment.
2. I will connect NOW.
UPDATE: Connected, and surfing fast! Ahh, the pleasure of a smooth connection.

For them.

My thoughts for Robyn and Todd. That they may find the peace and tranquility in their hearts.

:)

Go say hi to Fredo, who is most nice.

Office Stress Relief

I have to post this, via one girl's life

1. I can see your point, but I still think you're full of shit.
2. I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to
pronounce.
3. How about never? Is never good for you?

4. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in
public.
5. I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to worship
me.
6. I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.
7. I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.
8. I don't work here. I'm a consultant.
9. It sounds like English, but I can't understand a word you're
saying.
10. Ahhh...I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again...
11. I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.
12. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.
13. I have plenty of talent and vision, I just don't give a damn.
14. I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.
15. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.
16. Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of
view.
17. The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
18. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
19. What am I...Flypaper for freaks??
20. I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant.
21. And your crybaby whiny-butt opinion would be...
22. Do I look like a people person?
23. This isn't an office; it's hell with fluorescent lighting.
24. I started out with nothing and still have most of it left.
25. Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.
26. If I throw a stick, will you leave?
27. Errors have been made; others will be blamed.
28. Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.
29. I'm trying to imagine you with a personality.
30. A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.
31. Can I trade this job for what's behind door #1?
32. Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
33. Nice perfume. Must you marinate in it?
34. CHAOS, PANIC, AND DISORDER---my work here is done.
35. How do I set a laser printer to stun?

Friday Five

Go check them here
1. Explain why you started to journal/blog.
At the beginning it seemed an interesting thing to do, keeping my opinions and my bookmarks somewhere else much more concrete than the fleeting conversation at the local Borders. But late last year everything changed, and I found I had to write, to remember myself and others. So I did.
2. Do people you interact with day to day or family members know about your journal/blog? Why or why not?
No, they do not know. I am reluctant to share this thing with them too much goes here, and although they know me and pretty much what I say here is obvious to them, I enjoy being able to keep this separate and open. Besides, I tried to share this “mania” with them already, with disappointing results.
3. Do you have a theme for your journal/blog?
I write to write.
4. What direction would you like to have your journal/blog go in over the next year?
Become famous, develop a huge fanbase, travel the world giving conferences and meeting fellow bloggers, be cited on every other blog and have mine at the top ten of Technorati. In other words, I want to be Doc Searls. Failing that, Justin Hall.
5. Pimp five of your favorite journals/blogs.
The close, brave, personal ones: Dawn, Bea, Ailina, Elaine and, of course, the Doc.

Don Giorgio Bush

Meg explains the attitude that many have towards France, in this transformation of the bush as a Padrino:

"Some day, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me."

San Diego on bloggin'

The SD folks are a little bit uneasy about this whole blogging thing:

It's a homely little burp of a word: blog. And it describes a means of expression that, on its surface anyway, is as cutting-edge as cave painting: the diary.

Animatrix

via
Wes, the Animatrix. Go get, download, enjoy.

Where is the morality?

This letter from Charlie Clements explains what he saw in Iraq, and the stupidity of this coming one:

UNICEF estimates that 500,000 more children died in Iraq in the decade following the Gulf War than died in the previous decade. These children are part of the "collateral damage" from the last war.

BlogLogic

Just because it is time we shared in public - even more: Blog Logic, via Heath and Doc.
MetaBlog?

Newspapers

Spent a long time looking for a familiar newspaper here:in Todays' Front Pages
via eCuaderno

Two months

Monday was the second month since my mother's death. I have resisted the urge to write about it, because, well, I do not want to sound whiny. And other excuses.
At any rate, I have been thinking about her a lot. Asking her things, her advice about car maintenance - My father doesn't drive, so driver's ed. was up to her – listening to her insistence on taking a job teaching, her occasional remark about kids and the like.
I would be mentally preparing the subjects that I am going to talk about when I call her – and then I would remember that I can not do that anymore.
Speaking with Frank about his job interview, I can not but remember her suggesting what he's going to do.
I do miss her. Sometimes the sadness cries and circles above my head, trying to come down – yet it doesn't happen. Sometimes it is only a background memory, a noise that interrupts my thinking and messes up my concentration.
I spoke with my father today, an he is still coping with a pain I cannot measure: “She died 62 days ago” he said. He is counting the days, man, he is living through that as if every day that passed meant another mountain, his voice not being all that clear anymore. I want to hear more but the communication breaks and we are both so tired and sad that it is difficult to maintain a coherent conversation.
February eighth was their anniversary.
My brother, the one still in Colombia, is silent about the whole deal. He has always been quiet about emotions, much more than me, the transparent one, but now it is almost worrisome.
It is difficult to accept her departure, because there is so much to tell her still!
I would have argued and done whatever it is that I wanted, but I enjoyed her conversation, now I realize. I had plans to show her where I worked, debate plans for university and the various merits of staying in this town, introduce her to my friends, getting to talk about nothing that we had not – could not in these last three years.
My mother – she is much better now, I believe, yet her absence hurts.

Posters for peace

Via Elaine, this poster which can be found here and here

Byrd on War

I found the speech of Robert Byrd via bittergirl, and I tell you, I am glad that there are still voices of conscience being heard.

To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war.
Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing.

She is traveling

Dreamgirl is traveling this summer to Nepal, and me, computer freak that I am (her words), promptly offered my services in one of those zany ideas; weblog the whole thing, document it, post your pictures here, make everybody know about what you and all your classmates will be doing. She would be reaching a far more numerous community, making her name and stating her case for the huge amount of things she is going to encounter there.
Of course, I do not sell well, or she was tired, or this being Valentine Day she had other things on her mind.
Still have about a month to convince her.
Still, how difficult is it to make people embrace technology – even when it is not so tech? It is just a journal with software, if you do not take into account the internet. And, even so, we are still talking about viral marketing, because there is only a small probability that her pictures are going to appear in USA Today – although they might, she is that good – so there is no need to be shy or anything.

Vote for her

This lady of the blogosphere, this restrained voice, this paragon of shyness, is asking in her demure voice, to go vote for her.
You now you wannna, as E would say.

HomSec Alerts

I don't know what's the difference between my politics and my humorous categories. At any rate, algorhythm was talking about the Orange Marmalade alerts, as posted in Boing Boing

Orange alert = BASE jumping:

Thanks to our SuperSecurity Whatever Office, we can now go BASE jumping without incurring in hefty fines or the like.

Pray

Pray for Robyn and Todd.

MT 2.6

Yay! Woot! ¡Viva!
movabletype has released its version 2.6!
I have been checking their site twice a day lately!
OK, now kids, remember. BACKUP!

Iraq is complying

At the beginning of the story, it seems as these missiles were the evidence of Iraq's continued research on WMD.
But further on,the BBC article says:

But what is going to be more controversial is the sourcing of this evidence - it seems that the inspectors learnt about the new missiles from data provided by the Iraqis themselves.

MusicBrainz

And this seems to be your MP3s on MusicBrainz
Are these people for real? Who sponsors them? Am I being paranoid? Were the RIAA to get all the names and numbers from all of ... them file swappers, they could do worse than to set up a honeypot site that could look similar to this, getting stats, connections, filenames and market research from its potential copyright infringers.
So I am to deferr my registration until this gets certified via the web and the blogs. Meanwhile, I can deal with the CDDB just fine.
Yes, just because I am paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you.
via Hack the planet

Photo of the Columbia

According to CNN, the picture of the last moments of the Columbia was not taken with the high quality imagery equipment available at Starfire, but with the cheapest, low-tech parts available:

Instead, it was taken by Starfire Optical Range engineers who, in their free time, had rigged up a device using a commercially available 31/2-inch telescope and an 11-year-old Macintosh computer, the researchers said.

Reviving old tensions

BBC: Japan threatens force against N Korea:

Japan has given a warning it would launch a pre-emptive military action against North Korea if it had firm evidence Pyongyang was planning a missile attack.

Walking

It seems that I will be walking this Saturday: NC Peace Hub

Spell Gun

If the Sousas ever even hint about buying a SUV, or buy clothes at sweatshops, or eat food that destroys the environment, I will personally make them eat their stupid contempt for a simple word.
And, little Chloe, you have to learn how to spell gun, and then atomic bomb, mustard gas, democracy, human rights, torture, exploitation, and vegetables. You may not like them, but you have to eat them.
It's life.

I am the little blue dot at the left

Student debts

But of course, Bush can not get identify with this, since his own experience is that of a little spoiled brat with all the money and the connections. Why should he worry about student debts??

Eliminating the debt racket wouldn't be difficult. Calling off the invasion of Iraq, for instance, would save an estimated $200 billion---that's six years of fiscally emancipated youth right there. Eliminating last year's $1.5 trillion tax cut--money that would have gone to rich people who won't miss it--would pay off everyone's student loans for the next 50 years.

Chicken Little Bush

N. Korea has missile that could hit U.S.

...has an untested ballistic missile...

Vonnegut and PPs

It is a tad late that I link to this interview with Kurt Vonnegut, but here it is:

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable.

Weak as I am

Every time I went singing, or in my music appreciation class, the teachers, directors, professors etc. would remark on the structure of the opus being studied. All of them would equal it to an orgasm, basically saying that it would build up, explode, and then subside.
A friend remarked a few days ago that her record is 70 orgasms in one night.
If you listen to the melody of “Weak as I am” you’ll notice that it builds and keeps on going, hitting the same phrase eight times, before exploding and finishing.
This is for multiorgasmic singers.

Skunk Anansie

Lost in time I can't count the words
I said when I thought they went unheard
All of those harsh thoughts so unkind
'cos I wanted you

And now I sit here I'm all alone
So here sits a bloody mess, tears fly home
A circle of angels, deep in war
'cos I wanted you

Weak as I am, no tears for you
Weak as I am, no tears for you
Deep as I am, I'm no ones fool
Weak as I am

So what am I now I'm love last home
I'm all of the soft words I once owned
If I opened my heart, there'd be no space for air
'cos I wanted you

Weak as I am, no tears for you
Weak as I am, no tears for you
Deep as I am, I'm no ones fool
Weak as I am

In this tainted soul
In this weak young heart
Am I too much for you

In this tainted soul
In this weak young heart
Am I too much for you

In this tainted soul
In this weak young heart
Am I too much for you

Weak as I am
Weak as I am
Weak as I am
Weak as I am, am, am

Weak as I am
Am I to much for you
Weak as I am
Am I to much for you
Weak as I am
Am I to much for you
Weak as I am
Am I to much for you
Weak as I am

Crab a la mode

A poor crab goes around, minding its own business, 6000 feet deep, and finds a robot making a 3 mm cut in a pipe. Hilarity ensues.
Via Sebastian.
Paella, anyone?

This or That

From Cat Lady,
1. Bacon or sausage? Banana
2. Eggs: scrambled or not? Organic oatmeal
3. French toast or regular toast? Skimmed organic milk
4. Pancakes or waffles? Organic honey
5. Mufins or bagels? Water
6. Coffee or tea? Coffee, Colombian
7. Juice: orange or grapefruit? Free Range Orange, the fruit
8. Hot or cold cereal? Cold
9. To put in cereal: bananas or strawberries (or some other fruit)? Just milk – or water
10. Eat breakfast at home or at a restaurant? Home. At a restaurant I would go for the brunch.

Hispanics left behind

Hispanics are being left behind at an alarming rate: Only 16% Hispanic high schools students are likely to attend college.

Hispanic students are more likely to go to college part time than non-Hispanic blacks or whites. They are also more likely to attend community colleges, lured by cheaper tuition, more flexible schedules to accommodate outside jobs, and courses in fields like computer science and nursing, which offer a quicker path to a paycheck.

Preparedness and terrorism

The Homeland Security Forces observe a man that dares to speak freely on his cell phone. Later on, he proved to be a traitor

"It's a different world that we live in now," said Carol Hall, a Red Cross program manager on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. "I think after Sept. 11 that this is something that is prudent."

Telemadre and cooking solutions

Telemadre is a new idea from a group in Madrid Spain, by which unemployed housewives, mostly empty-nesters, cook homemade food for young professionals that a) miss their home cooking, and b) lack either the time or the abilities to cook a decent meal.
You just set up your account, call them and get your food – along with advice, “eat more veggies”, talk about when you are going to marry and how beautiful is your new girlfriend – is she the definite one?
The idea is superb, and frankly, highly co-optable. I want somebody cooking for me ajiacos, arepas, sancochos, and asking when am I going to marry.

How To Be Doc Searls

If you, like me, have a new blog, and want more traffic, fame and chicks knocking on your door, you could do worse than follow this advice from Dave Pollard:
1. Give the market what it wants. So, I will be an antiwar blogger. That may be in demand as soon as gas hits $2 per gallon.
2. Be really patient anyway. OK. Are we there yet?
3. Don't copycat. But it is OK if I quote? Extensively?
4. Learn from your successes, your failures and your customers. That may actually reveal something about me that I don’t want to know.
5. Join a club and network like mad. That means work. I am lazy. Calvin is my hero.
6. Blogging is one of the rare 'businesses' that isn't a zero-sum game. You want to dance with the beauty of the school, and the answer is “be yourself”.
I will be patient, then, o Zen Blogging Master. Who is Dave Pollard anyway?

Colombia again

Y cada vez que leo de mi país me entra dolor, rabia y tristeza.
Ahora, a Vega, diciendo

Y ahí vamos, contemplando las ruinas de un país que esta perdido en un laberinto de muchas infamias juntas, de los "no nos podemos rendir ante los violentos", del debate bizantino sobre como derrotar a todo aquel que perturbe la tranquilidad, del esperemos que esto se mejora, del "con este presidente si van a cambiar las cosas", del pan y del circo de los reinados de la belleza y de la nostalgia anticipada de los que se fueron y que decidieron no volver, y de la mucha gente mala que no debió haber nacido nunca, que sigue aquí y que no sabemos que hacer con ella.

Not fast enough for you?

If you want to enjoy your SimCity, you better own a Cray, otherwise, the response might be a tad sluggish:

Scott Evans agreed. The Dallas-based IT manager recently purchased SimCity 4 thinking that his Athlon 1900 with 1.5 GB of memory would be more than adequate. Instead, he found that after playing for a while, the game ran so sluggishly he could no longer enjoy it.

not spam

Checking my email today - 200 msgs, NOT spam!
Ugh - going to be a long week.

Blazing Sadles

We – all the group here - were watching movies at Frank's house tonight. Of course, after much deliberation and a little wine, we settled on Blazing Saddles. Just for the heck of it, you know. So it comes as a serendipitous surprise that I have found references to the movie here, as in “we don't need no stinkin' badges” and the other here, as in “it's twe, it's twe”.
By the way, dream girl still smells great – and I keep her smell in my mind. Sniffing fetish, probably.

Advanced GeoURL users

Found a little note about the possible evolution for the common GeoURL.

"Instead of having just tourist information, the system would be open," says Swedish researcher Fredrik Espinoza, cocreator of an experimental tool called GeoNotes. "There would be much more social activity." Espinoza's vision includes a filtering system for retrieving GeoNotes that have been posted by friends or other trusted sources, like the buddy list of Instant Messaging.

Bill O'Reilly said wetbacks

Did this guy just said that? Did he actually called Mexican nationals wetbacks?

We'd save lives because Mexican wetbacks, whatever you want to call them...

They are OK

ewan was talking about writing as therapy, blogging as an answer.
I don't know why I write here. I am checking my stats, and wondering about traffic, how it is cheap yet, and how if I were an corp exec I will be allover my ass “write, bitch”, getting to do more, touching more people, disputing the bigwigs, so as to make a name for myself. I don't know, trashing Bush and his trail followers.
However, doesn't matter how I try, it doesn't come out that way. Much to my surprise, writing here is much more important for regarding what I am and how I live my life, what my values are, what I want to be, than anything else.
I don't think a therapy like that, although people have remarked on a difference they see.
Much more as an open introspection, one in which I can not bullshit myself much, because my readers -you, you and you- won't allow it. Or because, whenever I get a pain deep enough to burst my brain, a comment will come, a hand will appear and make the day easy and livable.
And I will find my direction again.
What is it, that writing here is so powerful?
I have been writing since I was six years old. Or five, I don't remember. Mostly things for my courses, thoughts that were alien to my experiences and my desires. Writing was an exercise left to my intellectual brain, a careful consideration of facts and conclusions to be presented.
Journals, as well, were deep and abstruse: Thousands of words tangled on a 36 by 24 page, a poster full of small phrases, an undelivered letter that never made it, one that regretfully did.
But always, and for the most part, that personal journal was virtually hidden behind thousands of notes, grades, reports, books, the daily accumulation of magazines, pictures, souvenirs and scraps of everything.
Once in a lifetime somebody would rescue those, read them and either, like my mother, keep silent, or like my father, pack them where he could have access to them again.
Once a teacher told me to write, so as not to repeat myself. One of the first tales I read was about a storyteller that would die the day he repeated himself.
I write so I don't die, I think, not the physical death but that other, more frightening death, of the mind. Just to see myself in the mirror of the monthly archives, as in a Borgian library my categories all mixed up, but with my thoughts there.
My traumas – I don't know whether to post them yet. I appreciate other people voicing their own, because - that's who we are. Humans, with history and memories, good and bad.
I keep this thing anonymous so as to be able to go down the street – this is a very small town – and not have to face the consequences of writing here, not so much the red face but the stare of others. Or write about my love for a dream girl and subsequent disappointment, and still be able to keep my smile when I see them at the café, and focus enough on what they are to me as friends to enjoy their company. She still smells great, she still is gorgeous, she still likes her feet tickled.
Writing here is not so much a therapy but a truth device, a mirror upon which I have to put myself, the readers out there my witnesses to my own life, much as I am to theirs.
And this is why I can't just trash Sullivan: he has never commented here, he has never been this blog friend that I have found in many other people.
My brother and father are OK, by the way. Thanks for asking!

The wild wild west

When AKMA proposes that these two buffoons go to their corners and solve their problems hand to hand, it makes sense:

If Saddam knocks George out, the US leaves the Gulf and we let the inspectors do the work that the UN has commissioned them to do, without browbeating the UN to start a war that only the US wants to start. If George wins, Saddam steps down and the UN oversees a peaceful transition to a new, hypothetically-democratic regime.

Bomb in Colombia

Just after being all serious about the Columbia, I read in Bea's about the horrible news from Colombia. A car bomb exploded near a business club, killing 20 and leaving and least 100 wounded.
My brother lives close by. My father has his office close by. I used to walk by that club everyday in my way to where I worked.
This sad country, torn, broken, its hopes trampled by everything from war to depression. Death has become a daily thing, something that numbs the senses and has to be dealt with in an efficient manner: forgetting, denying, hardening.
Life is precious, we used to say. A fundamental right. What is the point of all that rhetoric ? bombs keep killing innocent civilians, the country paying with blood for an addiction that is not its own, for fake ideologies, pain piling upon tragedy.

Stop

No more dream girl. Whatever it was that existed there is now definitely gone. I had this certainty, in this moment everything was right.
But it has been a complete waste of time, a pursuit of something that never was.
Beautiful smile, lovely laugh, don't even get me near that place anymore.
I can't say that I was deceived, yet a t the same time, I can not stay here anymore.
This town is getting smaller, the roads too open, the space lacks that human sense.
Already I know I am going to miss her.
I am looking for my space, my place. Have a lot to do, big plans and a lot to study. To remain orbiting around that fake true smile, looking with closed eyes at her while other caresses her hair – not me.
Yes I am hurt. And her smile was true.
Where did I go? Why? Nothing here makes sense, it was not supposed to be like this. I repeat myself, here, now, this instant is what matters, yet I can not but hear her voice, “see you later”.
No more. I am tired of going after illusions, chasing after things that lack entity. Hopefully staying there, trying to be more than what I am and feel, giving what I am – what for.
That was a nice diner today, and I enjoyed the company of everyone. I am going to miss them as well. Not much sense of going there, knowing that the things are so twisted now, that every corner of a word will be hiding meanings and threats, that her voice carries another bell, that much more than complicity seeps under the table, staining consciousness and rendering the night hostile.
I should have learned by now to protect this little lights from these storms. Stressed now, shoulders aching, mouth clenched, I drove fast, away from that place. Pain everywhere, physical, as if to mask that other wound. Who do I blame?
What is this, a smirk creeping on my face? A false smile, a satisfied remorse? I still know that she was never here, she will never be.
Easy answer, concentrate on what is important now, what gives me life and keeps me awake. Forget distractions, promises, lures and siren songs. Find what is real.
Ulysses has nothing on me, that I have to endure that siren and smile, be polite, and forget for an eternal second her mouth, her hair, her eyes. I have to smile and choke the words. Keep walking, and the ropes that tie me to my mast are all internal. Ulysses, when are going to arrive?
My hands are getting colder, my whole body hides from that sound, those words. It can't be true, I tell myself, I try one more hand at being hopeful, a last concession to a hope that simply won't float.
No more dream girl.

Queda prohibido

Foro Chat.ya.com Mediterráneo en Viajar.com

QUEDA PROHIBIDO.
de Alfredo Cuervo

¿Qué es lo verdaderamente importante?,
busco en mi interior la respuesta,
y me es tan difícil de encontrar.
Falsas ideas invaden mi mente,
acostumbrada a enmascarar lo que no entiende,
aturdida en un mundo de falsas ilusiones,
donde la vanidad, el miedo, la riqueza,
la violencia, el odio, la indiferencia,
se convierten en adorados héroes.
Me preguntas cómo se puede ser feliz,
cómo entre tanta mentira se puede vivir,
es cada uno quien se tiene que responder,
aunque para mí, aquí, ahora y para siempre:
queda prohibido llorar sin aprender,
levantarme un día sin saber qué hacer,
tener miedo a mis recuerdos,
sentirme sólo alguna vez.
Queda prohibido no sonreír a los problemas,
no luchar por lo que quiero,
abandonarlo todo por tener miedo,
no convertir en realidad mis sueños.
Queda prohibido no demostrarte mi amor,
hacer que pagues mis dudas y mi mal humor,
inventarme cosas que nunca ocurrieron,
recordarte sólo cuando no te tengo.
Queda prohibido dejar a mis amigos,
no intentar comprender lo que vivimos,
llamarles sólo cuando les necesito,
no ver que también nosotros somos distintos.
Queda prohibido no ser yo ante la gente,
fingir ante las personas que no me importan,
hacerme el gracioso con tal de que me recuerden,
olvidar a toda la gente que me quiere.
Queda prohibido no hacer las cosas por mí mismo,
no creer en mi dios y hacer mi destino,
tener miedo a la vida y a sus castigos,
no vivir cada día como si fuera un último suspiro.
Queda prohibido echarte de menos sin alegrarme,
olvidar los momentos que me hicieron quererte,
todo porque nuestros caminos han dejado de abrazarse,
olvidar nuestro pasado y pagarlo con nuestro presente.
Queda prohibido no intentar comprender a las personas,
pensar que sus vidas valen más que la mía,
no saber que cada uno tiene su camino y su dicha,
pensar que con su falta el mundo se termina.
Queda prohibido no crear mi historia,
dejar de dar las gracias a mi familia por mi vida,
no tener un momento para la gente que me necesita,
no comprender que lo que la vida nos da, también nos lo quita.

With thanks to Bea

Vanity Fairest of all

Listening to the NPR interview of Dame Edna, you can not but wonder at her incredible ability for sarcasm and her profound insights.
However, Dame Edna fumbles in her advice about learning Spanish:

"Dear Torn, Forget Spanish. There’s nothing in that language worth reading except Don Quixote, and a quick listen to the CD of Man of La Mancha will take care of that. There was a poet named Garcia Lorca, but I’d leave him on the intellectual back burner if I were you. As for everyone’s speaking it, what twaddle! Who speaks it that you are really desperate to talk to? The help? Your leaf blower? Study French or German, where there are at least a few books worth reading, or, if you’re American, try English."

No war, from Natsuko

Of all the people advocating for peace, none other than Natsuko

The Powell is sent in order to carry the water. As for him it is large: the conscience which gives the impression of the person then he takes that order. That is that role. In play of stage, he ends with respect to the thing where every good human everyone does the thing in other things.
Him: "Being to be before several months, if the Powell is in the team, the people must be correct!" You think!
Certainty, there is a supermarket on the sun. RIGHT!
...
After the public has known, if, making the opinion for the Iraqi war has died being the large quantity to be hard, if Whitehouse has died has known the large box which stacked the load, now, him, interest another item, it was soon grasped to the tidbit best the large box which stacked the load dying. The myth of the necessity which stacked the load of the large box which is supported between war of this " terrorism. "
Yesterday, bin Laden. Today, George Orwell!

Viernes Cinco

1. What did you have for breakfast this morning? If you didn't have breakfast, why not?
No breakfast at all. I haven't had breakfast in more than two months, a situation that I assume has to do more with a general sense of ennui than with the common “I don't have time” excuse. I don't feel like having breakfast. Just coffee.
2. What's your favorite cereal?
Organic oatmeal. It tastes like cardboard, has the same consistency, and probably the same nutritious value. Perhaps that is why I don't like breakfast.
3. How often do you eat out? Do you want that to change?
More than I should, specially when friends decide it is time to go out and party. I will rather cook. Hey, I usually don't cook! However, when I do it the results are pleasing. Much to my surprise.
4. What do you plan on having for dinner tonight? Got a recipe for that?
Thai food, from the book of recipes my long lost friend Api gave me. Of course not! I am not going to cook unless forced at gunpoint. Probably nuke something or other, or cave in for a japanese restaurant. Popcorn at the movies, the way everything is going.
5. What's your favorite restaurant? Why?
Royal Thai. Mmm delicious.

why do we?

We all are reluctant to shed our masks and protective armor, and prefer to hide that little spark that materializes in form of a journal. We reserve our judgments, and in doing so finally forget to make any. We behave so politely, that we lose our curiosity, our wonderment, our ability to question.
The blog allows us to be utterly political, fanatic and tasteless. We don’t have to care, and at last there is an avenue to express anger, elation and ennui. At the same time.

Traveling

I am trying to convince the dream girl to start her own blog. She is an awesome photographer, and will be traveling this summer to ignote lands, backpacking and taking pictures, and mostly without access to internet connections,– or for that matter, running water.
It is just an attempt at knowing extreme cultures and comments though the eyes of another person.
I would like to see her changes from being a foreigner, detached, to being immersed into the life of the country she is going to visit.

Orcas

I went out of my prescribed budget conservatism and ordered a beautiful plush orca for the dream girl.
Now I am stuck, chasing names and looking for ancient Inuit traditions and meanings. How do you name an orca, if you are trying to veer away from its ominous representations? It is a fearsome predator, and as the jaguar, that is why it was chosen by various cultures as object of admiration and worship. At the same time, the orca is gracious in its strength and sheer imposing presence.
What am I trying to say, having that as a gift?
Anything for the dream girl.

More Iraq

I can't but feel that this is an extremely demagogic discourse, a rehearsed argument in favor of industry, phrased as if it were for the people.
I have never found "the people".
Give Us a Chance to Build a Democratic Iraq

Those are excellent reasons for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. As we all know, there are other powerful reasons, too — most notably the desire of my people to be free from repression and to plant the seeds of democracy in soil that has for too long been given over to tyranny.

Diccionario

Los nuevos términos propuestos por el Vega, con comentario social incluido:

trackbaquear v. Al escribir una entrada en un blog y querer desesperadamente ser tenido en cuenta por otro weblog (preferiblemente los que tienen mayor trafico, nadie trackbaquea a un blog impopular) uno puede pinguear el sitio con el objeto de robar camara por un momento.

Most convincing

Now Powell, the most credible face on Bush government, comes up with evidence of Iraq's weapons program. Let's not even talk about the possible fabrications in the presentation, or what happens if Bush and company have been saying the truth all along.
What do we do now?

patience is a virtue?

Work has been slow lately. I have been advised to be patient, but of course, being me, I have plans to be CEO already.
And that is the point: Why are you working at a corp. if not to exert your own professional abilities to the best of your capacities, and in doing so, make a change?
A lot of people talk about retiring, making compromises, doing less, taking it easy. I do not see myself like that. Yet, I wish I were more competitive, considered for a faster track or more demanding positions.
I have been advised to be patient. Yet everyday I have to walk knowing that I can do better than a lot of people over there. Of, it is painfully obvious that in some respects I am still learning, and that I need a much more definite presence before even going halfway where I want to be.
Yet, is it possible to maintain a goal during so many years? It is not a speed race, but a long distance one.
I am off to read about Lance Armstrong.

On nanopublishing

Dan Gillmor barely hints something about nanopublishing, just a tease.

One of the most interesting visits was with Nick Denton, who is making me a believer in a variation some are calling "nano-publishing" -- tiny Web-based operations that take advantage of economies of scale in a variety of ways.

War against drugs - again

Much of the war against drugs is fought against the ones that have no recourse to justice, or a very blind and twisted version of it. This time, the victim is a person working for a medical cause:
From Dan Gillmor, the insane war against drugs:

The sheer meanness of the Bush administration's generals in the War on (Some) Drugs has never been clearer than in their pursuit of Ed Rosenthal. This man was working under the auspices of the city of Oakland, dispensing medical marijuana to severely ill people.

Health?

Meg Hourihan talks about health insurance, and it seems a good idea to think about getting mine, too.
It will be just about $100 per month.

Understanding visual info

Info on organization and perception when designing, from Luke Wroblewski:

Whenever we attempt to make sense of information visually, we first observe similarities and differences in what we are seeing. These relationships allow us to not only distinguish objects but to give them meaning.

Verna Allee interview

Jay Cross interviews Verna Allee, author of The Future of Knowledge, in which she melds, from what I get, management, systems theory and complexity, yet she accomplishes this with remarkable success. Jay says:

Verna’s methodology involves mapping value exchanges among nodes in a networked system. She looks for patterns, helps constituents negotiate the amount of value going in and coming out of each node, and models the entire system. This is not something for the feint of heart; she described mapping the service function of a very large telecom outfit in a couple of hours.

BIG is better?

Making fun of the NYT idea of the Internet, as reported by the WSJ and as the Head Lemur understood it:

As the ad unit began to fill the screen his anticipation began to mount. The Vibrant, Pulsing, Engorged, ad unit began to fill the screen, the scrollbar Erupted on the right hand side of his screen promising More. His head began to pound with the urge to consume and conquer this wild new ad unit.

Now I understand

Now I am feelings pang of guilt over my words yesterday.
The truth is we can not watch, we can not allow ourselves to become desensitized to tragedy and death. It is not a matter of number or justifications. Death is always going to be deeply felt, but also a very personal tragedy, and for those of us that invest our hopes in others, in a future, we have to allow ourselves to feel that pain, and to grieve and accept the sadness that curses through our soul when someone else goes away.
I have to allow myself to feel the pain it brings.
I am feeling sorry the most for the families and friends of the astronauts, but also, on reading and reflecting, share a enraged pain with all the people that was so horribly surprised that Saturday morning. The explorers, we are not just pining our hopes on them, or our dreams, but we also identify with fellow humans, people like our neighbors and relatives, that are willing to pursue a goal, to give themselves totally for that higher objective.
I have trouble reconciling these feelings, a false strength against a sad echo that reminds me of my own death and frailty, but that also connects and allows me to see how human and alike are we all.
William H. Keith Jr., in the short story “Fossils”, celebrates the stubbornness of the species, the incredibly tenacity of the Homo Sapiens, but most of all, that quality that allows us to see and feel and share ourselves with the people around us. We grieve, I grieve, because their death is as mine.

Sorrow and the media

Bea apologized for her remarks following the loss of the Columbia.
I don't think she had to.
Without getting into details of how warped an sketchy are we Colombians, as an acquaintance told me last night, suffice it to say that a long history of violence has made us more critical to a media that speaks of this sad loss as a tragedy, and then makes the whole situation into a spectacle for ratings.
We all suffer when we see death. We have tears in our yes when listening to the news of the Columbia, thinking of the families, the twelve children, of the astronauts.
I think that I can include Bea here, we were disgusted to know that the government won't pay for the well being of those families – that they had to resort to the same fund that helped the Challenger families.
But, at the same time, a voice inside asks about all other tragedies to which we have been witnesses. And we can't do but wonder.

Thin out

Remember when I was wondering whether I had lost 16 pounds in 20 days? Happens that to be that the scale is working well: I am off 20 pounds now.
I have also three very elegant wool suits that don't fit me anymore.

This or That

1. Morning or night person?
Night person. I get to work while still asleep.
2. Heavy or light sleeper?
Like a rock.
3. Remember your dreams or not?
Yes, in color, nuances, emotions, smells and voices. Sometimes even mathemathical expressions.
4. Do you need a lot of sleep, or just a little?
I used to think that just a little, say 6 hours a night. Lately it is down to 4 or 5, and not much fun.
5. Do you need something like a nightlight or TV to sleep, or do you prefer complete darkness?
Darkness! Curtains drawn, sounds muted, radio and TV off.
6. Flannel sheets or some other kind?
Cotton. 250 thread count.
7. One pillow, or more?
No pillow, thankyouverymuch.
8. Bedroom door opened or closed at night?
Used to sleep with open door and windows. But it is too cold lately.
9. Wrap yourself into blankets like a cocoon, or just cover yourself with them?
Wrap before falling asleep. Wake up with blankets all over the place. Sometimes it is just the bed, no blankets at all.
10. Alarm clock: wake to music or buzzer?
Cell phone alarm, buzzer and whatever I can find. To no avail, I am afraid.

Humorous

Before I came here, to the USA, I was if not the life of the party, at least its cynical conscience. I laughed a lot, made fun of others and myself, and my sense of humor was both a social tool and a relief from the patently absurd.
It all changed when I arrived here. Suddenly, my mental images are not good anymore, the silences surround me, and the description of another possibility loses its charm, the sarcasm is misunderstood, and the joke fails.
It is not just the cultural difference. Hear Bea speak.
Now, trying to cope with this foreign culture and language, the ideas do not flow, and rather stay in my brain, stagnant, trapped like animal outside their natural habitat. I can even see their eyes, looking and pleading for help, as if by some extraordinary effort of will I could rescue them from the morass of misunderstandings and lack of context. Every phrase has to create its own universe, and every word received has to be part of a definite context.
I become serious and dull. Or the answer would come later on, in Spanish, in English, a brilliant latecomer that missed the party.
It is not age, Bea, but that we miss the encouraging echo of our childhood friends' voices, the ones that understood about Abelardo and Archibaldo, those friends that knew about the giant papayas, the same ones that simply enjoyed the description of a guanábana. There is no translation for this nostalgy.

Attacking Iraq via Shock and Awe

Prentiss found this link to an explanation of the Shock and Awe strategy that the White House seems to be considering to attack Iraq: 400 to 2000 missiles during the first 48 hours, completely demolishing the enemy's infrastructure, while utterly demoralizing its army.
The book, which is online, says in chapter two:

To the degree that this example of achieving Shock and Awe is directed against military targets, it requires skill if not brilliance in execution, or nearly total incompetence in the adversary. The adversary, finding front lines broken and the rear vulnerable, panics, surrenders, or both. Hitler's campaign in France and Holland and the seizure of the Dutch forts and the occupation of Crete in 1940 are obvious illustrations. The use of Special Operations forces in significant numbers is an adjunct to imposing this level of Shock and Awe.

Don't hurry

Elaine says:

Don’t hurry me into history.
Let me wander this labyrinth at my own pace.
Let me dream or walk or dance
in this now moment,
this lulling silence.

Dinner

A group of friends and I had a dinner last night, all Mediterranean food. It was delicious.
At some point, I was playing with Ana's phone.
- “As long as you are not callling long distance?”, she asked.
- Just playing here, I said.
- “Yes, you will be calling your mother long distance from my phone!”
I sighed, and wondered whether Anas's phone had a direct live to Heaven.
Then I smiled.

Who am I?

which edward ii-era historical figure are you?
this quiz was made by Caitlin

Oh, so we explore

Oh, I love her writing and her sense. However, on this particular issue I have to take exception.
We all agree that this sad accident, costly in emotions and feelings and hopes, is shocking news.
However, we cannot back from space exploration just because of that. It is not the machine the one that goes up there and explores, it is not the rocket the one that discovers. It is, and will be, a person.
We have always been explorers, discoverers, we are always taking our lives , our families, our hopes, to those extreme environments. We, humans, adapt, and after that we become natives, and we make that place ours.
We go because we like to move. That is why we skydive, or race cars, or become police officers in NY.
We have to explore. Our species is curious and brave.

Fading lives

Of course, coming from Beatriz, a little perspective, with the news of the loss of 40 lives in a train wreck in Zimbabwe.
My prayers for all.

Another sad day

The loss of seven lives, the pain to their families, the shock we are all suffering.
My condolencies to the families.
Washington Post article

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe: "They dedicated their lives to pushing the scientific challenges for all of us here on Earth. . . . A more courageous group of people you could not have hoped to know."

CNN article

Switcheroo

algorhythm links to this article on a security expert switching to Mac, thanks to all the security issues with MSFT products. It seems that their development cycle is : update, patch, pay, update, pay, update, pay, patch.
Bill Gates, singlehandedly, has done more for Linux than anyone else. He must be proud.

Nigerian Urgent Assistance

Got this in the email today:

You may be suprise to receive this email since you do not know me. I am the son of the late president of Democratic Republic Of Zaire,President Mobutu Sese Seko, ( now The Republic Of Congo, under the leadership of the son of Mr. Laurent Kabila ).

Job shift overseas

Are high paying jobs going overseas? This article on the new Global Job Shift, is simply showing that, despite the relative advantage of the USA and Europe in the past years, all knowledge is simply a commodity that ends up being traded at the best price:

The truth is, the rise of the global knowledge industry is so recent that most economists haven't begun to fathom the implications. For developing nations, the big beneficiaries will be those offering the speediest and cheapest telecom links, investor-friendly policies, and ample college grads. In the West, it's far less clear who will be the big winners and losers. But we'll soon find out.