aluka

fr fr frrrrrrrrrrr

2009-06-08T17:51:00.002-06:00

I know I'm being cheesy.. sometimes I like cheesiness.. so here it goes:

SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

one of my favorite sonnets, as cliche as it may be.. but today i believe in it.. i'm heartbroken, so there you go, make a feast of me. i don't care..

todos los perros van al cielo

2008-05-25T17:35:00.004-06:00

es una tristeza extrana... talves porque no he estado cerca de la muerte... la ultima persona cercana a mi que murio fue mi abuelita, en 1999, y admito que yo estaba muy joven para darme cuenta de lo que pasaba... y por eso es tan apabullante darme cuenta del hueco enorme que esta dejando en mi un perro!!!! pero Baco fue el hilo que nos unia en la casa y todo tenia que ver con el, desde que yo me levantaba y el estaba por ahi, con mi hermana, a como rascaba la puerta cuando queria salir o llegaba mi mama o Andrea.. siempre me movio el rabito... aun cuando estaba enfermo con cancer...

lo trajeron a la casa en 1994, cuando yo tenia 14... y lo pusimos a dormir 4 dias despues de mi cumple 28... el me conocio por la mitad de mi vida hasta ahora..

ahora duele porque no puedo oir el sonido que hacia su collar cuando pegaba con las plaquitas que tenia, o porque hoy no ladro... esta enterrado en el patio de atras, a la par de Nemo, el gato que nos envenenaron...

y solo me acuerdo de ayer cuando mi hermana lo sostenia como un bebito y el se dormia y dejaba de respirar y el corazon le dejo de latir... le dije que iba a soNar con ardillas y huesitos... y oi a mi hermana pidiendole perdon... y se fue mi gordo y lo pusimos en una caja... estaba tan suave... sin vida ya mi pobre Baco..

y Dios!! es un perro y estoy atacada llorando... pero que falta me hace.. cuanto lo quiero de vuelta.. y de pedirle perdon por ponerlo a dormir y verlo morir.. ay gordito me perdonas??

para mi, todos los perros van al cielo (y los gatos tambien).. y ahi esta Baquito..

Baco (1 junio 1994 - 24 de mayo 2008)

con amor,
tu tia Ale

they are oh so back...

2008-01-29T19:19:00.000-06:00

best old news of the year so far (i should check my sources more often):

bran van 3000 released their third album last year, Rose..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hIkpjTS3Gk

(to listen to the first single)

they are the best... i had missed them oh so much..

the only downside to finding out about the release is that i'll have to wait for a while to get the cd because of course, how can i find bv3 in CR????!!!!

why i love language so much

2007-11-11T16:39:00.000-06:00

i heart cat and girl

a room with a view of DEATH!!!!

2007-09-16T12:10:00.000-06:00

god bless eddie izzard.

Thesis seminar

2007-08-19T19:56:00.000-06:00

I'll start a thesis seminar next Thursday..

Carlos Gardel

2007-07-14T21:20:00.000-06:00

Carlos Gardel's "Por una cabeza"

one person wrote: "Carlitos realmente cada día canta mejor." (Carlitos really sings better each day [FYI: he is dead])

Gardel is amazing.

1 of 5

2007-07-05T14:21:00.000-06:00

sometimes i like to check the suicide girls page, and today, something more than the look of those amazingly beautiful women caught my attention.

my adolescent, platonic, hollywood-esque crush's name was mentioned in one of the SG's articles: Wil Wheaton.

after appearing in many hollywood movies, star trek the next generation, and what-not, he is my favorite geek (and i do love geeks).

ok, so, the bottomline is: he wrote this next article.. and the shitty part is, i've only read one of the five books he mentioned, but i'm more of a nerd than a geek :-p

enjoy!!

Wil Wheaton's Geek in Review: Five Books Every Geek Should Read

Long before we wrote our blogs, long before we argued about the finer points of the Prime Directive on UseNet, even before we nervously waited for ASCII porn to download at 300 baud from Fidonet, geeks buried our faces in books.

Maybe it's because we were easily bored by television and movies (or without the Internet to facilitate arguing about them) or maybe it's because we were less likely to be tormented by a cool kid if we kept our faces safely buried in the pages of some novel, but books are important to every geek I know. We all have huge libraries of well-worn novels, often fighting for shelf-space with our action figures.

This week, I took a walk through my personal library, and picked out five mostly-sci-fi books that I think all geeks should read, if they haven't already. I chose these books for various reasons, including their contributions to the genre, how well they hold up over time, how fun they are to read, and how significant they were to me in my development as a geek. Those of you non-geeks who have a geeky significant other can also use this list as a starting point to eventually understand exactly why your geek looks at Google News and says there's a Seldon Crisis brewing, but this list is by no means comprehensive (Fahrenheit 451 and Flowers for Algernon are conspicuously absent, for example,) but I had to keep it concise; please add your own recommendations in the comments.

I, Robot
Author: Isaac Asimov
Published: 1950

Though published in collected form in 1950, the stories in this volume date all the way back to 1940. It is just astonishing to me that Asimov could come up with the three laws of robotics, and create so many different types of robots (domestic robots on Earth, science robots on Mars) at a time when the zeppelin had just been retired and airplanes were still cutting-edge technology. I'm not talking about canals on Mars, or fantastically spun tales of a journey to the moon—I'm talking about stories and creations that, sixty-six years and countless iterations of Moore's Law later, appear prescient and remain relevant.

Most of the stories in this collection deal with the consequences of the three laws of robotics, but all of them (notably Robbie) challenge the image of robots as one-dimensional servants with flailing arms and stilted speech. Asimov created characters readers could care about and relate to, and balanced the science with the fiction as well as anyone ever has.

Oh, and don't waste your time with the Will Smith movie, if you're expecting anything resembling a faithful adaptation.

Readers may also like: The Foundation Trilogy, The Caves of Steel.

Neuromancer
Author: William Gibson
Published: 1984

Its opening line is one of the most repeated and well-known in the geek universe, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Of course, when Neuromancer was written, that meant the sky was a dull grey color, perhaps broken in places by swirling eddies of darkness in the clouds, but if it were written today, it would actually mean the sky was a clear, bright blue color, creating quite a different mood in the heavens above Chiba, and for the entire novel.

While much attention has been paid to Gibson's prediction of the Internet, and his coining of the term "cyberspace," Neuromancer endures because it's a fucking brilliantly imagined novel. It's a tightly-knit, clever (without being too clever) story with smart dialogue, set in a very plausible near future. It's populated with characters that geeks love: they're smart, they're sexy, (they actually have the sex, too, and it's pretty hot) and they're cool. It's one of the few sci-fi books on my shelf that actually gets better with each reading, the same way Watchmen does, revealing new connections and uncovering new layers every time I open its cover and jack in.

Readers may also like: Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Ringworld
Author: Larry Niven
Published: 1970

Larry Niven's Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel follows Louis Wu, a 200 year-old man who's grown bored with life, as he is recruited by Nessus, a Pierson's Puppeteer, and travels with fellow human Teela Brown, and fearsome Kzin Speaker-to-Animals to the eponymous Ringworld, a solid structure one Earth-orbit in diameter, orbiting a star and teeming with life. After crashing on the ring's surface, Louis and his fellow travelers must find a way back home, and figure out exactly who built it, and why.

Ringworld is, like all of Niven's books, dedicated to exploring advanced theoretical concepts and may turn off readers who are intimidated or bored by so-called "hard science fiction." It also has a significant flaw (the Ringworld is unstable) that is so undeniable, he wrote a sequel in 1980 to correct his mistake (and the Ringworld's lack of stability.)

What I (and my unscientific poll of two friends) find so compelling about Ringworld is its sheer size and scope: with the surface area of three million Earths, it could be Science Fiction's original Big Dumb Object. But beneath the mystery of the Ringworld and the Engineers who created it, is a story that's compelling and engaging, and is just begging to be made into a movie.

And all the damn kids today who play Halo can thank Larry Niven; the game takes place on a structure that was clearly inspired by his creation.

Readers may also like: Tales of Known Space, The Ringworld Engineers.

The Hacker Crackdown
Author: Bruce Sterling
Published: 1992

In 1990, the Secret Service launched a series of raids called Operation Sundevil, a nationwide crackdown on computer hackers. A great deal of attention was focused on Phrack, an underground e-zine co-created and edited by Craig Neidorf, (aka Knight Lightning) who faced 31 years in prison for allegedly stealing what Bell South called the source code for its E911 service, valued at over $80,000. At trial, it was proved that the document was not source code, but was more of a memo about the service, and not only was it not valued at over $80,000, but could be purchased from Bell for $13. The charges were dismissed, but the case, and what was eventually determined to be an illegal raid of Steve Jackson Games, lead to the founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Bruce Sterling, one of the founding fathers of the Cyberpunk genre, and editor of the definitive Mirrorshades anthology, investigated both of these cases and the entire underground hacker and phreaker culture of the late 80s. The result of his research is The Hacker Crackdown, a highly-readable, comprehensive, entertaining, and fascinating look at the computer underground at a time before the Internet was widely available, when information was traded via "philes" on BBSes, hijacked long-distance phone chats, and in magazines like TAP and 2600.

The entire text of the book was made available, for free, by its author, and has been online in one form or another since 1994.

Readers may also like: Cyberpunk, The Cuckoo's Egg.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams
Published: 1979

Every single self-respecting geek in the world has read this book, at least once, likely more, and has also played the Infocom game based upon it, though many of us never got past the goddamn babelfish puzzle.

Douglas Adams' hilarious 1979 novel is the first (and best) of the five books in the incorrectly-and-unapologetically-described Hitchhiker's Trilogy, and introduced generations of readers to Vogon poetry, The Heart of Gold, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Marvin the clinically-depressed Android, Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and the ultimate answer, but not the ultimate question, to life, the universe, and everything.

Geeks love this book for the same reasons mundanes don't: it is filled with complex layers of satire and absurdist humor, and its confirms that the world is just not . . . normal.

Like I, Robot, there is a film adaptation, which I personally found quite disappointing and my wife (who hasn't read the book) found confusing. Your milage may vary, but I'd recommend checking out the original radio plays, or the BBC television series, if you want to experience HHG in some non-literary form. Just don't forget to take your towel with you.

Readers may also like: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Good Omens.

As I said, this is nowhere near a comprehensive or even definitive list of geeky reading, but all of these titles bring me joy every single time I pick them up, or even glance at them on my shelves while I'm looking for something else. They are all a big part of who I am today, and I suspect many of my fellow geeks can say the same thing about at least one or two of them.

Now tell me why I'm wrong, and tell me what I missed.

Wil Wheaton is a hoopy frood who knows where his towel is.

taken from: http://suicidegirls.com/news/geek/21847/

cero tolerance

2007-06-27T18:22:00.000-06:00

I know how bitchy i can be... in Spanish i'd call it to be "concha".. but i'm sick and tired of the work, of my work and of the.. brats.. but i know they are tired as well..

i'm going to have 3 weeks of vacations, starting the afternoon of the 29th.. i have tons and tons of homework to check, but at least i'll do it at my own pace..

tried to explaina "the road not taken" to 8th graders

i showed the 9th graders my "comics collection" (6 books, how lame).. it was nice and they were somewhat interested..

planning on teaching "romeo and juliet" to the 9th graders next trimester.. i guess i should put my act together.. yikes

that's all for now.. i know i haven't writen in ages, but today i decided to procrastinate when my headache started the moment i picked up a pen to correct a book report :-p

take care y'all

the reason why..

2007-04-29T18:09:00.000-06:00

i'm just spent.

Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

2007-01-29T10:04:00.000-06:00

AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

you get my point?

...we can be heroes just for one day...

2007-01-15T20:10:00.000-06:00

david bowie's song is utterly beautiful and i've liked for ages, but now it keeps ringing on my head because of my most recent obsession: the tv drama series Heroes.

my friend Xai gave the first 4 episodes on a disc, which he had downloaded... but it didn't work in my computer.. so i did the next best thing and watched the show through youtube.

and

i

love

it..

LOVE

IT!!!

why?

1. superheroes.. i grew up with (names used in Costa Rica): Mazinger Z, Capitan Raymar, los SuperAmigos (a.k.a. Justice League), Thudercats, the one about the falcons in space (what was the name??), Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc.
then el fo started lending me his comics: Justice League, X-Men, Sandman (he is a hero.. sort of), Astro City, The Inhumans, Watchmen, etc.
and hector hooked me on Crimson, Promethea, and more Allan Moore comics.
ok, these are all comics but, what better place for heroes than on the mass appeal of graphic novels and comics??

2. it is a sign of the times. i truly believe so. because a) we are waiting for the end of the world, one way or another.. the big trial, something that will attempt end this screwed up world.. and have someone bigger than us save it. and b) who doesn't want a superpower? for real..

3. the cast is amazing. i have to admit that Milo Ventimiglia lured me (i'm a big Gilmore Girls fan and i always rooted for Jess), but then.. wow, the rest of the cast is amazing..

4. the plot. it has kept me glued to youtube for hours... and i don't have such a fast internet connection, so it takes me a while to download a whole episode. i must admit that i have anticipated certain details about the overall plot, but as a whole, it is promising.

5. HIRO!!!! i love the character... he is the epitome of what is pure and positive. he struggles, he believes in destiny, he hasn't lost his faith and he is willing to learn. this is a clip from Masi Oka's appearance in a tv show.. ok, i know that i'm mixing character with actor, but i must admit that Masi Oka appeals to me just as much as Hiro.

http://www.heroestheseries.com/masi-oka-on-craig -
fergusons-late-show/

I HEART HIRO

I HEART HEROES

bits and pieces

2006-12-29T21:41:00.000-06:00

this is just for fun... Dave, Guy, you'll really like it:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2243176

apart from that...hmmm.. i just wanted to post something... i should post more often.. ok, here it goes..

1. i'm absolutely freaking out about the teaching gig.. for real.. i actually had a nightmare in which i call stupid one of my students.. that doesn't really bother me, well, of course it does, but it was just a bad dream.. what bothers me is... ok, i'll place it in the form of a question: do you think i make a good teacher? CAN I HANDLE IT FOR GOD'S SAKE????

2. it's been a week since the office christmas party and every working day someone has come up to me to tell me how cool my hair looked. ok, i know, i'll post a picture but, what, do i really look that bad in the office that i get some hairspray and some makeup and everybody notices me?? here are the pictures:

so, ok, i looked great, hehe... well, i had to... this is my last party at the office... but i didn't win the tv.. and someone stole the gift they gave us at the entry... bastards!!!

3. i think so much on the thesis... i'm literally stuck... should i be bold and wing it with the graphic novel topic (and if i choose it what would it be, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, what!!??), of play it moderately safe and go for Hallucinating Foucault?

4. the other day i saw Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie and i must admit that Daniel Craig makes a rather yummy James Bond (my picks were with Robbie Williams actually) and the movie is quite gripping and i got to see a Bond that my generation didn't know but would like to understand better.

so yeah, i guess this is it so far... i kind of lost thread, duh.

take care and good night.

now i tell you what i want, what i really really want

2006-12-14T13:12:00.000-06:00

wow, so it's been almost 2 months since i last posted... was very busy with work and the last month of classes... lots of papers and stuff to read and to do...

many things have happened...

i got a job. teaching english lit at a private highschool.

i'll start next year in february.

i told my boss that i was going to quit... i'll work just weekends during january and then my last day will be superbowl.

i need to get a car, re-learn how to drive and re-validate my driver's license.

so i was thinking on how i do get the things i want... and how sometimes i just don't..

like, i get the things i want to achieve for myself... but that's where things stop.

with time i've come to realize i'm a very stubborn person and that when i set my mind into something i'll end up getting it.. i've done it with courses, papers, jobs and even relationships.

so that's why i feel so frustrated when i cannot get what i want from people...

i've tried to live my life by one rule: treat others as you would like to be treated..

..it hasn't been working like that lately..

well, yes and no..

i guess that i have to take care of myself like that, alone.

when i was 6 years old....

2006-10-16T20:27:00.000-06:00

..i fell in love with david bowie..

..while watching "labyrinth"..

..and 20 years later, it remains my favorie movie..

..and bowie/jareth is as dreamy as ever..

Un diamante es para siempre

2006-10-12T13:04:00.000-06:00

Entre tu y yo

por El Norte

Esa chica enamorada
que me mira y no se aclara;
es la chica de mi vida,
es el sue¤o que buscaba.
Quise que me recordara, y que nunca me olvidara.

Entre tú y yo
un diamante es para siempre,
entre tú y yo
nuestro amor es para siempre.

Todo en ella me fascina
su mirada me domina,
cada vez que yo la veo
pienso cuanto la deseo.
Quise que me recordara y que nunca me olvidara.

Entre tú y yo
un diamante es para siempre,
entre tú y yo
nuestro amor es para siempre.

I guess I'm a recalcitrant bitch

2006-10-10T21:29:00.000-06:00

"please could you stay awhile
to share my grief
it's such a lovely day
to have to always feel this way.... "

ramdom thoughts of a compressed mind
deprived
hushed
controlled
weeping
vying

blue cuz that's the color of sorrow

not green, nosir...
that's the color of hope..

so, make your bet cuz yeah!! i'm still a bookie!!

i guess i've never had luck
or is it that i'm jinxed?

void

void

void

the little things that make my mood are gone..

apparently the whole country ran out of them..

so I dream of babies

and Italy

pathetic and butchy

i wear lipgloss to paint my insecurites

so my lips are sticky and shiny..
it is my secret weapon!!!

the song goes "i'm not okay.." hahaha

can't

you

see

it?

wishful thinking

2006-10-05T14:39:00.000-06:00

i want one... maybe on my shoulder.. maybe on my back..

gotta love cat and girl

2006-09-28T14:36:00.000-06:00

..oh, literary humor.. one of my favorites..

the practicality of learning English

2006-09-19T17:53:00.000-06:00

as an English student, this video was too good to not pass on. enjoy!!

http://www.glumbert.com/media/english

"c'mon toshi, c'mon!"

blah, blah, blah

2006-09-15T09:16:00.000-06:00

So, it's been a while since i last posted... i've been working 30 hours a week at the Quality Department at the sportsbook... it's exhausting and my ears hurt so much from having my glasses and the dj-styled headphones. Actually, i shouldn't be bitching about it... i need the money to pay for the credit card and for school, since this semester i'm not TAing so i don't get a scholarship. I also went back to the Lehmann bookstore for the consulting job, but only once a week for 4 hours, so i won't get much from that, and the progress seems to be going quite slow.

then yesterday i found out what the 2 courses the masters will have for next semester. one i already took, and the other, well, it's XX century poetry.... i'm not quite excited with the course, but it would be my last 3 credits before i start working on the thesis, so i don't know if i should take it or wait one semester to see what else they are going to give... i could work on my thesis during that time, but, well, first i should delimit my topic and that has proven to be quite exhausting.

but so far, the two courses i've been taking (a seminar on Bahktin, and a course on Hispanic literature in teh U.S) have been interesting.

Mariella is coming in december, to stay in CR for a month, so i'm looking forward going to Quepos with her.

i'm sorry but my mind is elsewhere and now my sister asked me to burn a couple of cd (before i go to work in a couple of hors) so i think this is it for now.

one month later

2006-08-18T12:08:00.000-06:00

so the highschool gig did not come through... oh well.. who has heard of a possible employee looking after the possible employer?? i mean, afterall, who--in their right mind--wants a real, serious, grown-up job? arggggggggggggg... well, if i want to get another piercing in my face, well, now's the time, i guess..

Spain was more than i expected, but as expected, it all went oh so fast... the highlights: Benicassim of course (minus the camping); seeing Mari's eye watering during the Pixies' concert; the homey italian dinners cooked by Ale, Mari's roommate; museums gallore, sharing a ciggie with Elisa; mexican dinner with Em and Anna; el Prado, Anita and her apartment in Madrid; and seeing Oscar at the airport.

of course San Jose is not Barcelona... it was great to spend some time there... i felt too serious in Barce, and i feel too couch potato here... i'm back in school and the two classes i'm taking are great and i'm super excited about them... i also went back to work at the sportsbook and i guess i'll be there for a while... the only plan i have, and well, i set my mind about it since before the trip, is that i seriously have to save money... now i have one more big incentive, but that's going to be a secret for now... but anyhow, saving money should be the smartest thing i should do now...

so that's life one month after departing for the old continent..

oh!!! and i have a new cellphone!!! a super cool motorola with itunes, hehe.. it rocks!! gracias ñoño..

barcelona and benicassim.... so far so good

2006-07-25T16:38:00.000-06:00

ok, so here´s the deal in a nutshell...

my flight from caracas to milan was delayed for an hour, which caused me to lose my flight from milan to barcelona, and to top things off, my bagagge was lost and got it back 3 days later...

but finally i got my bag at 11pm... just hours before i left for benicassim...

now benicassim...............wow as in WOWWWWWWWWWWWW

friday i saw PIXIES and THE STROKES.... pixies, can you imagine????????? my friend mariella was flipping out cuz she´s like her fan number 1...

saturday i saw MORRISEY and FRANZ FERDINAD and JAY JAY JOHANSON..........amazing music...

now, sunday.... i was alone, cuz my friends didnt but the ticket for this day... i went early cuz i wanted to see SHE WANTS REVENGE... they rocked!!!! i even think that the singer even saw me and pointed at me... well, dreams dont cost a thing....

then i waited some hours before the next comcert.... i made my moves and i was able to get to the second barrier (there was a problem during the pixies concert so they had to separate the public into 2 barriers)......... so the thing is that i saw DEPECHE MODE and PLACEBO almost first in line....

DEPECHE was amazin, they rocked the house big time... it even was martin gore´s birthday and everybody sang happy bday to him...

then PLACEBO............ my god.... they opened with "infrared" and i almost cried.... i had goose bumps..... brian molko and stefal olsdal were amazing.... i´m sooooooooo happy you cant imagine...

i took some pictures and videos during pixies, but since i was alone and didnt know where i was going to be during placebo, i didnt take my camera (i know, i know, i´m such an idiot)... but you can go to youtube and search for fib heineken 2006 and see some videos...

on thursday some of my friends are coming to barce so i´ll try to post later...

love y´all, take care.

..cuz i'm leaving on a jet plane..

2006-07-16T13:54:00.000-06:00

so that's it my friends, tomorrow i'll be crossing the atlantic and on thursday i'll be in Barcelona.

to say that i'm super exited is overrated...........

i'll miss my ñoño... (there are 2 songs that are stuck in my head: "secret smile" by semisonic, and lisa loeb's version of "leaving on a jet plane")

i'll try to keep you guys posted :-)

aluka goes to hollywood

2006-07-07T11:10:00.000-06:00

nah... i'm just kidding...

ok, so here's the deal... i haven't written in more than a month... so there's a lot to tell you guys...

officially, i finish the semester next monday when i present my final paper for my Literary Theory II class... and after i finish tabulating all the freakin' evaluations... so that's it, no more TAing for me, i-am-done... D-O-N-E!!!

i'll pursue something different... maybe teaching... college, highschool... who knows??

for my seminar on the novel i presented a project called "El comic como novela: una lectura bajtiniana de Watchmen de Alan Moore" ("The Comic as Novel: a Bajtinian Reading of Alan Moore's Watchmen"), which was great, i mean, now i know i can use Bajtin to prove that comics are indeed novels--in the traditional sense. And that had been my topic for my thesis... or at least what i wanted to do... but in reality, and this really sucks, it's a poor choice... because there's no one in the university, at least in Modern Languages, who could guide me (a.k.a. thesis advisor) and that my friends is trouble... so i was talking with this professor who has office in the same place as me, and she was advicing me to maybe choose a different topic, so i pulled out my plan B which was Patricia Duncker's Hallucinating Foucault. It is uber cool and interesting and it deals with obsession and, well, Foucault.. so, i'll see... i'll try to re-read it and see what i can do..

and then there's Barcelona... oh yeah, it's B day minus 10 days..

hope all is well with y'all..................

how i think my bday is going to go..

2006-05-20T09:38:00.000-06:00

"Someone call the ambulance
There's going to be an accident
I'm coming up on infra red
There is no running that can hide you
Cos I can see in the dark
I'm coming up on infra red
Forget your running I will find you"

--Infrared, Placebo

oh margot!! i'm 26!!

half-unemployed

2006-04-29T10:10:00.000-06:00

at least i was able to save the money for the plane ticket to Spain... because that's the big chunk of money for the trip... oh, i'm going ahead with the story... oh well, the thing is that i finished all i could do for now at Lehmann bookstore, and they'll call me whenever they need anything, so practically, i lost one of my jobs. I still have the sportsbook gig, but that's crap and i've found myself being a jerk with customers (the ones who really, really deserve it)... i get tired and as soon as i step into the office, i want to get out. this is the start of my fourth year at the sportsbook and i think that's enough... i hope i can change jobs when i return to CR on august.

and i have a new plan now... as soon as i return and in whatever job i will have, i'll start saving... not for a trip this time, but for either a) the bookstore, or b) an apartment.

i said before that i never plan ahead, or at least in the long run.. but i hope i'll make it this time.. i mean, this will take me at least a couple of years (the same that took me to save for the Spain trip).

so all i need is a decent job.. i even sent my resume to my old higschool, just in case they need someone in the future. and maybe the english conversation courses will call me to teach after august at the university. i wont be a TA anymore.. i need a real job please..

Spain!!

2006-04-19T15:24:00.000-06:00

ok, so there you have it... i'm going to Spain... from San Jose to Caracas, Caracas to Milan, and from Milan to Barcelona...

i'm terribly happy... i'm actually procrastinatingly happy (i just made up the word, which for me means daydreaming about the trip instead of studying)...

anyhow... i'll leave CR on july 17th and arrive to Barcelona on the 18th. Mariella is picking me up and on the 20th we will be at the Benicassim Festival.

I'll get to see some of my favorite bands (Placebo, Pixies, Franz Ferdinand, Depeche Mode) that i don't quite believe that i'll be there... this is so surreal... i'll get to see Brian Molko... omg..

after that, i'll go back to barcelona and hopefully, i'll see my friends from WAC: Anita, Anna and Elisa.

and of course i'll be with my Lela (en la matita, jaja).

then i'll head to Madrid so i can check up on the museums (i'm really looking forward this!)

then, on august 3rd i'll head back to Costa Rica.... looking forward to be back with my ñoño..

that's it for now... i should study, you know... but have so many other things in my mind right now (like, i just had an offer to work for the university for a conversation course--remember, i have 2 jobs already--, or that i'm reading Watchment so i can figure out if it's good enough for my thesis material, and of course, the never ending Bhaktin reading i've been dealing for the past 3 weeks..)

esmirandamiamor!

2006-03-31T16:06:00.000-06:00

los vere el domingo, felicidad total!!

"el destino me ha dado
corazones desequilibrados
tu palabra me nivela
y detiene mi caer"

--Don

yo amo mi ciudad

2006-03-13T20:10:00.000-06:00

porque a mi tambien me encanta San Jose, desde el Parque España con su fuente del conquistador, los churros de crema pastelera de manolos, mora books en el omni, aprender a esquivar gente caminando por la avenida central, la panaderia samuelito ahi por la parada de Tibas (y cuando hay plata, pasar por Giacomin por unas galletas de herradura o un masapan), la ruta que agarro siempre para ir a la Lehmann, o la que agarro para devolverme, Marito Mortadela y su dulce sabiduria (como cuando me pregunto que si tenia mama y al responderle que si, me dijo que la quisiera mucho), la avenida de adoquines sueltos, el edificio de correos y el camino al apartado postal 52-1000 san jose.. yo entiendo lo que luis chaves quiere decir.

a continuacion, el comentario de luis chaves publicado en la seccion Ancora de la Nacion del domingo 12 de marzo del 2006.

Lugar Común: San José

Luis Chaves
chaves.luis@gmail.com

El josefino y sus primos cercanos del Gran Área Metropolitana piden a gritos una capital donde se vean reflejados, una que les devuelva un poco de identidad, de autoestima...

Se dice que San José fue una de las primeras ciudades con electrificación en el mundo. Habría que investigar. Cierto o no, este es un dato anodino si se enfrenta al siguiente hecho: San José es la capital que más temprano apaga las luces. Una capital con horario de zona rural. Recientemente, sin embargo, diversas actividades culturales (Papaya Fest, Transitarte, Naderías) trasladaron y concentraron la atención y la energía de miles de personas al centro de Chepe. Por unos días, la antigua Villanueva dejó de ser una ciudad de paso.

Y la gente volvió a San José y ocupó sus aceras, reconoció sus sonidos, comió churros o boca de salchichón, tomó fotos mal centradas frente a monumentos ecuestres, pegó chicles debajo de los poyos del Parque España, tocó la nalga de la gorda de Monumental, tomó birras sin hielo, caminó incluso nueve cuadras sin montarse al carro o al taxi. Y la gente vio que todo esto era bueno. Solo bueno. Entonces la gente descansó.

Parece que el josefino y sus primos cercanos del Gran Área Metropolitana piden a gritos una capital donde se vean reflejados, una que les devuelva un poco de identidad, de autoestima. Aunque también puede ser que no se trate más que de un espejismo y que la aspiración del tico promedio de la urbe siga siendo un condominio cerrado cerca del mall. Pero por si acaso, aquí van once razones por las cuales San José centro debería convertirse en una capital habitada.

1. Porque -empecemos por lo obvio- aunque su apariencia, sus ruidos, sus olores, sus complejos y sus costumbres son las de una capital de provincia, San José es la ciudad capital del país.

2. Porque es una de pocas capitales en el planeta que se puede cruzar a lo largo y a lo ancho en menos de un día.

3. Porque el rumor tántrico de los bolsinistas en la esquina de Monumental es la verdadera música folclórica de Costa Rica.

4. Porque el arreglado especial de Chelles reduce los triglicéridos.

5. Porque el mural sobre plywood del bar Morazán es una genialidad y el salón de karaoke de La Vasconia es la puerta de entrada a una realidad paralela.

6. Porque en la esquina este de la Casa Amarilla está Ñ, la galería-bazar administrada por exintegrantes de la Selección Nacional Mixta de Nado Sincronizado. Una exquisitez.

7. Porque todos los buses llegan a San José. Trate en cambio de trasladarse, digamos, de Curri a Tibás. 8. Porque graffiti tipo "Chichi te amo demaciado" (cortesía de Sugar) o "Colacho fuma piedra" devuelven la felicidad hasta al misántropo más acabado.

9. Porque la única manera de combatir la paranoia colectiva alimentada y explotada por nuestro periodismo fascista es recuperando los espacios públicos capitalinos, sobre todo los nocturnos.

10. Porque si en todo caso uno llega a ser víctima de asalto, sabe que fue un compa con necesidades inmediatas y no a manos de un dueño de bar del Estado Separatista de Escazú que cobra dos mil colones por cerveza.

11. Y porque es preferible la muerte por asfixia antes que ir a tomar unas Pilsen a Cartago.

acceptance

2006-03-05T22:37:00.000-06:00

tomorrow i'll start a new semester at school. one more and two to go, in theory, so to finish the academic credits and start on my dissertation. with this thought on mind, i go to sleep thinking on how much i like to create things and on how much i need to create. perhaps taking the first step towards my thesis is dreaming, dreaming that in a couple of years i will have created the proof to the world and my academic peers and professors of what i am, and of what i'm capable. but it's a long, hard way.. or at least that's how i see things sometimes at the very beginning, at the verge of creation.. when i'm sitting in front of my computer, fingers aching to type, to pour down my mind... and i give thanks, because there were so many roads that took me to where i am, many people who guided me and pushed me towards here.. i wouldn't be nobody without support, inspiration and advice. my love to y'all.

mañana 14 y adelante. gracias amore.

personal devotionary

2006-02-26T14:15:00.000-06:00

drinking in LA -- bran van 3000 (glee 1997)

www.branvan3000.com

tributo y respuesta

2006-02-20T11:26:00.000-06:00

por esto es que me gusta tanto ver hgtv... quiero una casa.. pa' vos y pa' mi.. pa' los dos..

Casa - natalia lafourcade

Voy a proteger mi casa
cuando estoy ahí siento tranquilidad
y después pondré unas flores
en la mesa

Voy a cocinar un postre
le pondré manzanas de felicidad
para que te comas una
y seas feliz
todo el día
y me digas
que no puedes vivir sin mi

Voy a proteger mi casa
cuando estoy ahí te puedo consentir
como viene en las historias que te cuento

Para que cierres los ojos
y por fin tu puedas otra vez dormir
y al otro día me digas
que bonito, muy bonita, señorita,
yo no puedo vivir sin ti

Mi casa de papel
porque es el corazón
siento fragilidad
si no estas

Uhuuuuu....

Voy a cocinar un postre
le pondré manzanas de felicidad
para que te comas una
y seas feliz
todo el día
y me digas
que no puedes vivir sin...

mi casa de papel
porque es el corazón
siento fragilidad
si no estas...
mi casa de papel

porque es de corazón
siento fragilidad
si no estas..

remember, remember, the fifth of november...

2006-02-18T19:21:00.000-06:00

haven't seen it yet, but i just read the comic.. it blew me away..

worth the sweat

2006-02-07T14:54:00.000-06:00

greetings from the land of the slightly slimmer... haha, oh well, this is a post just to update that after a month and a half of going to the gym, i lost 1.5 kg of fat tissue.. for me it was like, wow... uhm, nothing much to tell, i'm getting my italian passport tomorrow... but first i have to go the university to enroll, go to a bookstore to get a copy of "pride and prejudice" (i already read it in spanish) and a pair of gym gloves.

apart from that, i think i'm actually a pretty boring person.

oh! and did i mention i got a haircut?

he's a fucking doughnut!!

2006-01-31T20:32:00.000-06:00

get a bloke dressed in women's clothes and dab him some make-up on. then add some ingenious and sarcastic humor. call him an executive transvestite. what'd you get? something you'll never forget. behold the power of eddie izzard..

tears for a japanese

2006-01-29T22:51:00.000-06:00

ok, so i just saw this movie on cinemax (the censored version to my disappointment) and i highly recommend you guys look for it. ok, it's kind of a tear-jerker, but that's how i like my movies. the cinematography is superb. and it takes place in Australia, so Guy, you should have seen it, maybe, i hope. tell me what you think.

Japanese Story (2003) with Toni Collette and Gotaro Tsunashima, directed by Sue Brooks.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304229/

bunny!!!!

2006-01-21T20:07:00.000-06:00

i guess bunnies can do gonzo reporting too.

http://www.frozenreality.co.uk/

when the heart aches

2006-01-15T22:01:00.000-06:00

i was creating this soundtrack.... it was like, you know, a list of songs that have parts of songs that mean something... that you give some special meaning or you believe they hold an answer, a key to feelings...

so i was assigning like referents to the songs, like, why they meant something for me.. and the list goes like this:

ani difranco - both hands: fear of feeling when things slip by you hand
damn yankees - high enough: regret after it slipped away
jewel - you were meant for me: miss you
lauryn hill - ex-factor: the hard times of being together
lisa loeb - leaving on a jet plane: being far away
portishead - only you: knowing me
semisonic - secret smile: you are mine
texas - say what you want: i feel the same about you
yellow card - only one: dont want to screw up
blind melon - mouthfull of cavities: when you are sad
los abandoned - como la flor: after you've left me
james blunt - you're beautiful: what would happen afterwards, when i'll see you on a bus
everything but the girl - missing you: yeah, i can be psycho too

BUT... in the end i realized that all i wanted to hear was this one:

high
by james blunt

Beautiful dawn - lights up the shore for me.
There is nothing else in the world,
I'd rather wake up and see (with you).
Beautiful dawn - I'm just chasing time again.
Thought I would die a lonely man, in endless night.
But now I'm high; running wild among all the stars above.
Sometimes it's hard to believe you remember me.

Beautiful dawn - melt with the stars again.
Do you remember the day when my journey began?
Will you remember the end (of time)?
Beautiful dawn - You're just blowing my mind again.
Thought I was born to endless night, until you shine.
High; running wild among all the stars above.
Sometimes it's hard to believe you remember me.

Will you be my shoulder when I'm grey and older?
Promise me tomorrow starts with you,
Getting high; running wild among all the stars above.
Sometimes it's hard to believe you remember me.

*****

don't want to cry myself to sleep tonight..

the truth about ale

2006-01-13T19:41:00.000-06:00

nothing much to tell... been going to work and to the gym, which is actually more fulfilling than what i had thought it was going to be... saw karl for a couple of hours the day before he went back to canada...

am i really that boring? gawd..........i have to do something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please help.

resolution

2006-01-02T09:31:00.000-06:00

bring out the best of me.

googled

2005-12-28T14:09:00.000-06:00

have you googled yourself? write your name in google and see what comes up? well, given that i have a rather unusual combination of spanish first name and italian last name, the chance to find me in the internet is quite easy. right now there are just 3 matches. one for an IRC email i wrote, one from a spanish club meeting when i was at WAC, and the first match is my name mentioned in a forum... a forum started by some of my classmates from highschool. it is not about me.. it is an immature rendering of highschool memories of some of the girls from our class.

ok guys, i know that it's normal to comment on people... it's just that you sound like dorks, your eccentric and over the top language sounds completely incongruent and silly next to what you are saying, which is borderline obscene... and you are really stupid to mention people with their full names because it is easy to track. and it's just a gruesome way to find out how you really thought of some of us.

hope that you don't find stuff like what i found about yourselves--or about your girlfriends--on the internet.

and guys, grow up, ok?

literary humor.. if you can see it

2005-12-28T14:01:00.000-06:00

hormonal but true

2005-12-27T13:14:00.000-06:00

Honestly -- Zwan

I believe
I believe
I believe
I believe the love you talk about with me
Is it true, do I care
Honestly, you can try to wipe the memories aside
But it's you that you erase

'cause there's no place that I could be without you
It's too far to discard the life I once knew
Honestly, all the weather and storms I bring
Are just a picture of my needs
'cause when I think of you as mine
And allow myself with time
To lead into the life we want
I feel loved, honestly
I feel loved, this honestly

I believe you mean the best that life can bring
I believe in it all
Honestly, you can try
Your heart is just as long as mine
Is it ours to let go

'cause there's not place that I could be without you
It's too dark to discard the life I once knew
Honestly, a single wrong is not enough
To cover up the pain in us'cause when I think of you as mine
And allow myself with time
To lead into the life we want
I feel loved, honestly
I'll make a joke so you must laugh
I'll break your heart so you must ask
Is this the way to get us back
I don't know, honestly
I don't know, this honestly

There's no place that I could be without you
Honestly

There's no place that I could be without you
There's no place that I could gleam without you
There's no place that I could dream without you
There's no place that I could be without you
Honestly

drinks and tamales

2005-12-26T10:05:00.000-06:00

the day after christmas. ok, nothing too special actually. i had a good time. on the 21st was the company's party, which was a blast, i dressed for the occasion (pix coming later), was feed good food, drank many sources of alcohol, had fun with Marco. then on christmas eve i worked early, went home, then went to oscar's mom's place. felt good, felt cozy, felt happy. on the 25th had to work from 10 to 7. i think i fell asleep at my station, but i had a tamal for lunch, first one this year. after work i went to a "chivo" (actually, it was a concert at someone's house) and had a zarpe (last drink) at a crowded heredian bar. today i tried to install a game in my computer, but apparently i suck with computers so it's not working. hope y'all had something good to look back from 2005, and something great to look forward in 2006. i know i have.

ok, so as i promised, these are some pictures from the party:

that's me sitting at our table

that's say, beca and me

and that's marco and me

non-stop

2005-12-19T09:00:00.000-06:00

i know it has been a while.... been busy, eventhough i'm on vacation.... oh well... beach, oscar's bday, work, last evaluations, chrismast gift shopping, trying to find a dress for the office party, oh well... i'm tired...

i'm so tired i could stay in bed all day...

and i'll have to work on the 24th, the 25th, the 31st of december, and on the 1st of january...

i'm spending oh so much money...

and believe it or not, i joined a gym.... i know this should traditionally happen in january, as a new year's resolutions but well, i decided to start earlier.

sorry this post is so lame, my brain is blah.

spoiler

2005-12-05T19:58:00.000-06:00

just in case you don't know the story...

D-O-N-E

2005-11-28T22:40:00.000-06:00

tomorrow... last class of the semester.... no mas... i'm done misters...

need time to read (some of the books i didn't read in class, i must admit)... need time to see friends... need time to do stuff... need time to create like i used to...

feel blue sometimes... it must be hormonal... i guess i need more chocolate then..

*sigh*

i should stop bitching, i know..

wish list

2005-11-26T20:00:00.000-06:00

coolest t-shirt ever..

http://www.scarygoround.com/shop-tshirts.php

the good things and the bad things about life

2005-11-25T19:15:00.000-06:00

the good:
-Reese's peanut butter cups
-jeans without stretch material
-being able to sew a simple hem
-a loving, better than anything boyfriend

the bad:
-people who don't pay their debts
-Laguna Beach
-trying to say something and not be listened to
-family quarrels

el mejor regalo que te puedo dar

2005-11-19T16:52:00.000-06:00

Por Ti -- Belanova

Yo se muy bien
que aveces no suelo decir
lo que mi corazon siente por ti
y se que aveces yo no estoy aqui
por ti pero te quiero confesar, a ti

Si mi vida ha de continuar
si otro dia llegara
si he de volver a comenzar
sera por ti

Si mi vida ha de continuar
si otro dia llegara
si he de volver a comenzar
sera por tu amor

Y se tambien que yo te puedo lastimar
perdoname, se que me suelo equivocar

Si mi vida ha de continuar
si otro dia llegara
si he de volver a comenzar
sera por ti

Si mi vida ha de continuar
si otro dia llegara
si he de volver a comenzar
sera por tu amor

uh uhh......
Si algo te puedo asegurar
uh uhh......
Es que mi vida la soñe contigo
eres todo lo que necesito
y aqui me quiero quedar

Si mi vida ha de continuar
si otro dia llegara
si he de volver a comenzar
sera por tu amor
ah ah......
por tu amor
ah ahhh.....

Sera por ti, sera por ti,
sera por ti, sera por ti....

anita & mari

2005-11-19T16:05:00.000-06:00

miss you my amiguitas...

Reader-Response

2005-11-15T21:48:00.000-06:00

"For the book is no longer a material reality. It has become a series or words, of images, of ideas which in their turn begin to exist. And where is this new existence? Surely not in the paper object. Nor, surely, in external space. There is only one place left for this new existence: my innermost self"

Georges Poulet, Criticism and the Experience of Interiority (1972).

"A literary text must therefore be conceived in such a way that it will engage the reader's imagination in the task of working things out for himself, for reading is only a pleasure when it is active and creative"

Wolfgang Iser, The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach (1974).

Taken from:
Tompkins, Jane P., ed. Reader-Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-Structuralism. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1994.

procrastinating

2005-11-14T19:38:00.000-06:00

i could be working on my final paper but hmmm... guess not.

http://www.nataliedee.com/091505/saddest-drawing-ever.jpg

el arte de las definiciones

2005-11-08T11:40:00.000-06:00

La gente habla, y muchas veces (a ver gente, todos sabemos que es cierto) habla sin saber.. y todo el mundo ahora esta armando un alboroto por algo que uno no puede controlar, y de nuevo es, la gente. Que se hizo un concurso para ver quien tiene el mejor blog del pais, tuanis, me parece una buena idea... el jurado es gente conocedora y entendida del asunto. Entonces, ¿por que quejarse del resultado del concurso? Los blogs finalistas tenian muy bien merecido la disticion, y se mostraban como buenos ejemplos de lo que es o deberia ser un blog. La votacion se la dejaron al pueblo. Y ni que uno fuera omnipotente como para poder llevar a cabo un plan "malefico" de controlar los votos. De que hay formas hay formas (y tendre que citar a la Biblia porque no queda de otra pero "El que este libre de culpa, que tire la primera piedra") pero no se puede señalar a un culpable exacto... al final, lo que hace cada uno en su casa, en su tiempo libre o hasta en el trabajo, es cosa de cada uno, y yo no puedo forzar al que esta a a la par mia a hacer o no hacer algo.

Entonces volvemos al titulo de esta entrada... las definiciones... y esto no se si es por el entrenamiento lingüistico que he tenido por 25 años pero si uno se toma el tiempo y hace su investigacion se puede encontrar con el verdadero sentido de las cosas, y no lo que uno cree que es. Ok. Entonces podemos decir que un blog es un web log; web significa red y log significa bitacora. Entonces blog = bitacora de red ( y entendemos red por la red digital). Pero no se puede caer en el error de pensar que una bitacora es un simple diario. Alla quedaron nuestros diarios de infancia con un candado para las chicas... para los maes no se como fueron o si tuvieron uno. Y si estas bitacoras se publican en la internet es para que todo el mundo las vea. Cada persona que decida tener un blog es porque quiere compartir algo con alguien mas, ya sea su vida, sus sueños, poesia, comentarios, opiniones, dibujos, fotos, etc. Personal siempre sera, a menos que sea ese spam terrible de pornografia o de ventas que a uno no le interesa...

Y ya para terminar, me parece que la seleccion del jurado de bloggos.org hizo bien y escogio dignos ejemplos de blogs ticos. Enhorabuena al ganador y muchas felicidades a los que no ganaron porque el hecho de ser finalistas dice mucho. Y no me parece que haya gente que se quiera pasar por encima a la decision del jurado en cuanto a la escogencia de los mejores blogs ticos porque si a ud. no le parece, entonces no vote, o hagale saber su opinion a los organizadores (todo comentario es bien recibido, me imagino), pero no caigamos en la hipocresia.

sorry to inform...

2005-11-07T08:51:00.000-06:00

vos sos mi preferido

personal joke

2005-11-02T08:49:00.000-06:00

http://www.catandgirl.com/

gracias a xai por mostrarme cat&girl... ich bin ein berliner!!!! jajajajajaja (eddie izzard rules!!!)

this is where i'll be..

2005-10-31T10:22:00.000-06:00

miss you lela.. ya te quiero ver y estar alla con vos..

potty trained

2005-10-30T10:23:00.000-06:00

it's no fun to spend a week--almost literally speaking--in the bathroom... but that has been my week... no fun at all mister... i was too tired to work, and when i could do some work, i had to do a lot... but i managed to give my last proofreading to the article i want to send to the Journal of Modern Languages (UCR) so i can speed up things and if they like it, it can come up in the third or fourth issue (that would be a year from now).

but good things happened... for example, oscar is among the five finalists in a blog contest (www.bloggos.org), so yeah, i'm happy for him.

and i've been very excited "planning" a future trip to europe next summer... but i need more logistics on that so i better not get ahead of myself.

i wrote a paper... a really crappy one but that was all i could in my current state of being... actually, i have to finish it today...

oh well, i guess i'm too drained to produce so smart remarks today so i better stop. i hope y'all have better luck than me.

bilingüe / bilingual

2005-10-17T12:37:00.000-06:00

cuando sueño / when i dream
lo hago en recuerdos / i do it in memories
no me dejaste dormir / you didn't let me sleep
aunque no estabas aqui / eventhough you were not here
sos un ñoño / you are a...
que mierda!!! / shit!!!
no puedo ser tan bilingüe como quisiera / i can't be as bilingual as i would like to

para vos ñoño

2005-10-13T18:09:00.000-06:00

Stay by Shakespeare Sister

If this world is wearing thin
And you're thinking of escape
I'll go anywhere with you
Just wrap me up in chains
But if you try to go alone
Don't think I'll understand

stay with me..

wishful thinking

2005-10-07T15:20:00.000-06:00

i should post more often... i should show you the pictures of my friends, talk about the books i'm reading, comment on the things i want to do...

about the pictures, i kind of suck at technology so you'll have to be contented that my all friends are great.

to talk about the books i'm reading... i'll take forever sometimes... or just a few lines on other occasions...

on the things i want to do... well, hmmmm... i could do that right now... i guess that i would like to have more spare time... or as i've said before, a job which is not 9-5 so i can have my own schedule... i would like to knit, and go back to sewing... oh, i miss it so much... eventhough i was no artist at that, i miss the planning and the effort and being able to see a final product... something that i created...

...i would like to have a job that pays me well... not a sportsbook... i dunno... i always picture myself as my own boss... and that's what we want to do, i guess... oscar and me... the store... it's our dream...

i don't want a fancy lifestyle... i just want my life... i don't covet cars or big houses or expensive stuff... i just want to have what's my own... ok, yeah, i admit it... i would like to have some nice things (clothes and shoes, how predictable) but i know that's a luxury...

...maybe all i want is a little bit of independence...

shit, i'm so spoiled...

bits and pieces

2005-10-05T13:18:00.000-06:00

in order to keep this blog to date.. here are some random thoughts:

please, please, please i want to publish in the Revista de Lenguas Modernas (modern languages journal for those who don't know spanish)... i was thinking on submitting the final paper for the italian renaissance class i took in WAC... i think i got an A- so, c'mon, pliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis

a ver como suena: giangiulio&barquerosuarez personal shoppers... hehe

i don't think i ever explained myself, or why this blog is in English, but well, it's because all my friends can understand it... i know it may sound conceited, but i do have many friends from other countries...

today in 3 hours i wrote 4 pages (just 3 to go!!) of my paper for the british survey class... whether they are good or not, it's really not my problem anymore...

i've been trying to include more pictures--or comic strips en su defecto--in the blog but i totally suck at technology and software applications...

look for this band (or download it if you can): "Riot Radio" by The Dead 60's... amazing...

best wishes and chocolate dreams for y'all

it's just dandy

2005-09-29T21:01:00.000-06:00

hello and greetings from the land of the sleepy... oh yes, i do need more hours of precious and intoxicating sleep, or rather, less responsibilities... but none is possible so i'll stop complaining.

uhm... yeah, dandism... it's just that i've been reading "the picture of dorian gray" for the second time and well, just check the pictures in this site http://www.dandyism.net/ isn't it just peachy?

well...uhm... i'm really tired so this can answer dave's comment from the previous post... besides, when i'm angry i tend to be cryptic.

take care guys. i'll try to sleep now.

hope and dissapointment

2005-09-27T22:47:00.000-06:00

don't you hate it when you wait and wait... hopefully waiting for an answer... because of something you actually started... why do you have to be so proud and stubborn?

chapter two: i think i fell in love with you..

2005-09-23T12:55:00.000-06:00

so yeah, i got a new job now... or rather, i have a third job now... sportsbook, TAing at the university, and now i'm a consultant for a bookstore... it sounds posh and it kind of is... if i really am in charge of deciding which books are going to be bought and send over here... of course, i want them all... specially the graphic novels and the craft books--i'm such a nerd.

apart from that... i've been thinking a lot about growing up, responsibilities and commitments... the first is unavoidable, the second i don't really want it, and the third i really want... it's kind of silly cuz responsibility and commitment go hand in hand... i guess it's that i'm not cut out for a 9-5 job.

about the title... i was just listening to a elvis costello song.

nu

2005-09-15T20:49:00.000-06:00

I almost shopped till i dropped... cuz i need a new wardrobe for my new job--but more on that next time...

lots of reading, even in the car... this time Jane Austen's Persuassion... funny and simple...

and downloading Andrew W.K. because he looks dirty and cool.

unable to be original, quoting Bowie

2005-09-06T13:45:00.000-06:00

amorciño:

If you say run, I'll run with you
If you say hide, we'll hide
Because my love for you
Would break my heart in two...

what the fucketh..

2005-08-29T21:20:00.000-06:00

long time no blogging... lots of reading, researching for papers... working long hours at the office... and some vicious downloading of music now that i have (insert angelic music) DSL internet connection.

i have a paper on Matthew Lewis's The Monk for next week, and another one on-probably if i indulge in some sort of auto-plagiarism from a previous paper-Chaucer's The Wife of Bath.

the thing is that if i don't worry about matters of the heart, of money or of friends and family... i worry about papers and spend my waking moments trying to come up with a topic.

it sucks. big time. but i guess it comes with the fact that i seem to be the eternal student...

so as my old friend will shakespeare once said, what the fucketh..

i wanna be adored

2005-08-21T21:11:00.000-06:00

my friends are gifted, truly gifted. and i love them for that. graphic artists, poets, photographers, critics. wow. and i want to be one of them. to, i don't know, wow people with what i do and inspire, because that is the reaction i have when i see my friends' work.

but i guess that it's hard to define what one is good at without sounding conceited.

i should study but i'm tired. i've been in front of the computer all day. i'll vegetate for a while.

maybe that's what i'm good at.

is shakespeare sexist or just plain sexy?

2005-08-13T21:51:00.000-06:00

greetings from the rainy and dark tropics--though not as dark as Conrad's. It has been a while since i last wrote and a lot has happened since... where to start... my lelis... she left for Barcelona more than a week ago and i'm still in denial mode, or just plain awareness that this was coming and i had been preparing for a long time. one or the other...

another major happening is the realization, a personal realization due to the harshest and most unpleasant terms, that i should keep my mouth shut or be real cautious on who i share my secrets. well, not secrets because it wouldn't be much of a secret, but just know what i tell people and who i tell whatever i do tell.

a lot of tears were shed and disappointment was the main course. on both sides.

classes started. i'm taking a British Survey class and a Gothic Lit class. a-ma-zing.

and my first week as the assistant for the Lit department went well, uneventful and i was able to tame the old printer they use in the office (amid my previous real nightmares).

so, this is pretty much it. i will leave you with just one question: is shakespeare sexist or just plain sexy? specially for those of you who have read your fair share of ol' will s.

hint: female characters in the plays, their development and relations with the male characters.

thanks and good night.

Ñoñez aguda

2005-07-28T12:59:00.000-06:00

Regret - The Get up Kids

Maybe I've forgotten
the name and the address
of everyone I've ever known.
It's nothing I regret.
Save it for another day.
It's the school exam and
the kids have run away.

I would like a place I could call my own,
have a conversation on the telephone.
Wake up every day that would be a start.
I would not complain of my wounded heart.

I was upset you see,
almost all the time.
You used to be a stranger,
NOW YOU ARE MINE.

I wouldn't even trust you.
I've not got much to give.
We're dealing in the limits and
we don't know who with.
You may think that I'm out of hand,
that I'm naive, I'll understand.
On this occasion, it's not true.
Look at me, I'm not you.

I was a short fuse
burning all the time.
You were a complete stranger,
now you are mine.

Just wait till tomorrow.
I guess that's what they all say
just before they fall apart.

what's up with interpretation?

2005-06-30T13:03:00.000-06:00

A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks, and stones, and trees.

William Wordsworth

cream cheese

2005-06-21T11:23:00.000-06:00

Funny how the mind makes connections… I heard “cream cheese,” so I thought about bagels, so I remember how many bagels I used to eat in WAC whenever I didn’t like the food they had at the cafeteria. I used to spread cream cheese on a regular bagel and then pour sugar on top of the cream cheese. I picked that up from my trip to New York, the idea of having sweet cream cheese. yummie!!

2005-06-15T09:56:00.000-06:00

marie y yo en peru... mae que merr, todavia esta aca y ya me hace falta...

cough

2005-06-13T09:47:00.000-06:00

so i'm kind of sick, coughing (not too much) and a couple of days ago--after 3 translation exams on a row--my whole body was aching. now, it's just my left shoulder that's giving me hell. and i still have one more class to finish, a literature one, and i'll be free!! but i'm going back to work (tomorrow) after, what, a month and a half of "vacations" (that i asked for so i could finish the semester). why can't i win the lottery so i don't have to work anymore?? why? why? why?

oh well.

ok, so what's new.. last week i went for the first time to the soccer stadium to see our national team against Guatemala. and we won, but it was tough. and it rained a lot. a lot.

and i got the job as the assistant for the literature department in the universitiy. it's just 5 hours a week, they pay next to nothing but i get a scholarship and the other professors will get to know me so i'm happy with it.

then marie is leaving, we don't know exactly when...

i guess this is it for now.

MIO

2005-06-07T11:43:00.000-06:00

Slow hands--Interpol

Yeah but nobody searches
Nobody cares somehow
When the loving that you�ve wasted
Comes raining from a hapless cloud
And I might stop and look upon your face
Disappear in the sweet, sweet gaze
See the living that surrounds me
Dissipate in a violet place
Can�t you see what you�ve done to my heart
And soul?
This is a wasteland now
We spies
We slow hands
Put the weights all around yourself
We spies
Oh yeah we slow hands
You put the weights all around yourself now
Isubmit my incentive is romance
I watched the pole dance of the stars
We rejoice because the hurting is so painless
From the distance of passing cars
But I am married to your charms & grace
I just go crazy like the good old days
You make me want to pick up a guitar
And celebrate the myriad ways that I love you
Can you see what you�ve done to my heart
And soul?
This is a wasteland now
We spies
Yeah we slow hands
You put the weights all around yourself
We spies
Oh yeah we slow hands
Killer, for hire you know not yourself
We spies
We slow hands
You put the weights all around yourself
We spies
Oh yeah we slow hands
We retire like nobody else
We spies
Intimate slow hands killer
For hire you know not yourself
We spies
Intimate slow hands
You let the face slap around herself

i know how hamlet felt

2005-06-05T11:12:00.000-06:00

indecision, my mate... hamlet dear, i know how you must have felt... never feeling 100% happy about the job... i guess it's my prerogative to look out for more.

on turning 25

2005-06-02T12:53:00.000-06:00

On turning 25

I’ve been planning writing this for weeks… I mean, a quarter of a century should be a landmark but now as I come to think of it, this is more of a recollection of all that has happened since I came back from WAC last year…

It was funny, you know, because at first, when I came back it was interesting to say “oh yeah, I came back last week, or two weeks ago, or last month” but then it was three months, six months, ten… until on May 17th it was one year… and that’s a lot… ok, so the funny thing is how my stay in WAC still tells me much about how I am and all the things I do.

So I went back home and tried to adapt, which was easy because I wasn’t away for long, and seeing my friends and family was great, though I still felt like I left a big part of me in WAC, or maybe all around the world where all my friends live.

I had a two month vacation, luckily, before going back to school and to my old job. I kept the tradition of going out on Thursdays with my friends to a bar called “Area City.” It is small, dark, filled with smoke, with good music, and the beer is cheap.

So life went on as usual. School, work, school… Actually, at the beginning of this year I took a second masters (yeah, I know, I’m crazy). And I have a boyfriend, Oscar. I am happy, he makes me happy, and being in a relationship with him makes me happy. I feel that things are so real now. (amorciño te amo)

So, for a while, I had been thinking about becoming a serious adult, you know, to have a real job. And I actually got one: full time at the Deposits Department in an Online Poker company. Really good environment and an incredible salary. But it just didn’t work out for me. I guess I’m not ready to be serious. Or maybe what the hell. I’m ok with my old job for now, and being a full timer would have taken time away from my studying so I guess I made the right choice.

I don’t plan to be in the sportsbook industry forever though. But I’m not sure if I want to be an English teacher either—I’m too nice with students. So I’m thinking of something else.

Then, my best friend Mariella is going to Barcelona to study. For three years. Of course I’m happy for her, and now I have the best excuse to include Barcelona in my future trip to Europe (when, I don’t know). But it hurts so badly, and literally, my heart is leaving for Barcelona.

I have never planned in my life. I’ve always studied, and that is what I’m good at, but I’ve never planned, I mean, I’ve never planned to be an English teacher or a translator. Anything can happen. And if I keep my fingers crossed, I might get a teaching assistance position in the Literature department for next semester. And that would be great.

So, this is my life. This is what came up in my head when I turned 25 (besides the monstrous hangover I had the day after my birthday). I feel like I’m in a transition mode, that I’m starting something new. I’m not saying that it’s happening just because I’m 25 but that it is happening. And I’m glad and scared at the same time. But I’m surrounded by the best people—eventhough some are so far away—and I have so many memories and so many happenings in my life now that all these things are making all that fear and joy worth it.

my heart is leaving for Barcelona

2005-05-31T20:45:00.000-06:00

si pues si... la lela se va ya ya casi... y yo con mis inconsistencias de tiempo para verla, con la U a cuestas y dispersa mas que nunca.. con dos puntos suspensivos porque asi es mas definitivo..