In The General Direction

I'm really trying to steer my mind and my attention away from topics that would really be too polemic to publish on the internet (and yet take pages and pages, an almost old-school-chapter-lenght sections from my journal). I follow (and am quite really to unfollow) some bloggers who are quite set on antagonizing and breeding trouble just for what seems to be the pure like of it, rather than actually using their free space to spread their general thoughts about life; so obviously I don't want to be like them.

I've noticed how a lot of people on the net, blogger, twitters, facebookers and others like them tend to seek attention through fighting, antagonizing and wearing anti-values and flaws (characteristics traditionally labeled as flaws, and those also I consider flaws) as their banners and flagstaffs. "Problematic", "Attention Whore", "Drama Queen", "Antisocial", "Unstable" just to mention a few. Given the fact that I am 35, my first question to myself is: "Am I too old already of this is awfully wrong as it is?". Well, 35 doesn't make people "too old", but it does make us "chilled", if not wise yet ("Wise" is the lable you are awarded with past the 40's, if you've proven to be worthy of your stars). My generation fought some old values, and we reclaimed characteristics from the "flaw" category and got them into "virtues". I myself have reclaimed "pride" as a virtue and placed "humbleness" as a flaw. (Humbleness in the archaic sense, not in the sense of simplicity and discression, which I hold up as virtues.)

It's youth prerrogative to turn the world upside down, question structures and proposing their own new structures, and we did that and our parents did that, but I can't but wonder, is this time going on the right direction? After all, what's good in corny and in making a fuss about everything and getting depressed all the time? 

Oh well, hopefully they will grow out of it, just as some of us grew out of some of our most outrageous proposals.

A new week, labor week is starting from tomorrow on, and I've my appointments with coworkers to go over some projects with a very fragile future, which doesn't make me very happy, specially since I've a problem-person in the team, more concerned with skipping work and fully commited with undermining activities. At the office we have a lot of those. We call them "The Nos". There are Miss No, Mr. No, Mrs. No, Ms. No... and in large quantities of them.

Last Friday I worked an extra hour finishing a document, which I've rewritten so many times it's madness. What got to me the most was that in this last modification I had to add a lot of things from the original documents, to leave it pretty much as it I would have taken the original documents, and simply made for them a cover. Why wouldn't they say that from the beginning?? Oh, I couldn't just do that now because the changes made before had to remain, so I had to find new places for things, make sure nothing is doubled and on top of that write the "in between" text to make everything match. Not like they would read it. People don't read documents that exceed the 5 pages. This has 83 (down from the original 133, since I had to remove the annexes and add the info into the body of the document). Hopefully on Monday I won't see that project again.

On Monday too I'll meet a good friend of mine at one of my favorite places in the whole planet that's not a bar. Yeah, such places exist. I know! I can't believe it myself either, but's totally true! I would say that we are going to fangirl about the latest Supernatural episode, but it hasn't been uploaded yet, so probably all we'll speak on the matter is "Oh ewwk! Sam married tick-pin Ruby!".

I was speaking with my uncle Jón, and he mentioned that life can suck sometimes. Like I said to him I remember for myself now as Monday comes dangerously close: life sucks if that's the way you choose to look at it. So I hope you all had a great weekend and Happy Monday to all'ya! (really, there's no Sarcasm in that last phrase.)

My Third #pintotour

Today was one of those few Sundays when I wake up early. It wasn't because I had insomnia, but because I had plans: I had an appointment with other Twitters from Costa Rica. As in the other Twitter appointments I've attended, this was a traditional breakfast, marked with the hashtag #pintotour. For anyone who has gone to one, this symbol and nine letters mean an appointment to make friends and spend a great time always at a great location.

Today's location was a restaurant called Chubascos at Fraijanes. This is located in the province of Alajuela, close to the Poás vulcan. I had no idea how to get there, and so I arranged with my best friend Mario to meet in Alajuela at 8 am to grab the bus to Fraijanes. Now, in order to get to Alajuela at 8 am I had to wake up at 6:30, which I did, get showered, dressed and up to go. It was one of those few days where I actually woke up on time, and got out of the bed right away. Could just hope it was the same for work ~ However, as it happens often for me, I forgot that on the weekends, particularly on Sundays, buses tend to hold to a much more "lax" schedule, so the freaking bus wasn't showing up in the Heredia-Alajuela direction even though two had gone in the opposite direction.

The day, however, started sweet, calm and smiling, like any day that promises to be simply great.

Bar La Palma, on my way to the bus to Alajuela 

A bus stop on my wa to Alajuela

...and this is Alajuela

...and this is the bus stop... half of it.

Like some sort of goofy tourist, I went on taking pictures of just about anything in the attempt to catch the feeling of the day at the other end of my objective. The daily landscapes and motives flashed beautiful before my eyes as I happily rode to my appointment with my 140-character friends. I was a bit sad because @sancarlena77 wasn't going to be there, and hoped to meet @Amaretto, who at the end never showed up. :-( However I was happy because I was going to see Mario again, who was supposed to bring me the information from the Tecnológico de Monterrey about the Economics Postgrad Programm. - Mario forgot it, so we'll have to meet again this next week. -

We've got to the bus stop of Fraijanes Lake, before which a line of local tourists in flat shoes, jeans, shorts and cotton clothes waited with their backpacks filled with hard boiled eggs, sandwiches wrapped in paper napkins and stashed in ziploc bags, bottles of beverages and maybe here and there a homemade beverage poured in a reused bottle of soda. In Costa Rican tradition these low budget local tourist are known as "comehuevos" or "egg-eaters" due to the fact that back in the day when there weren't so many choices of carrying food without it getting spoiled, many of them brought loads of hard boiled eggs for lunch. The bus left the station on time, but kept loading more and more people on the way, and all of them packed up with the distinctive egg-eater clothing and backpack.

 On the way

23 Km to Poás Vulcan

...and still on the way... 

the trip alone proves to be so amazing!

in moments like this you say: Costa Rica Rocks!!

Mario and I talked on the way about a hundred and one things from politics to what's great in Korea and so. We pushed our cameras out in the window and took more pictures of just about everything out there. It basically didn't matter where we pointed at, everything was an amazing objective and HAD to be captured. I asked him over and over, taking the chance presented by the #pintotour and the picture taking, to revive his blog, Dankenzon for All, which I really love, and I'm not just saying that. In my heart a little candle of hope lit up, as he might, perhaps, write again there and I'd be reading him again.

Finally, with a 15 minute tardiness, we arrived to Chubascos, where only the Sosa Siblings were sitting at a tiny table. The whole entourage was beyond magical. Tall trees and fresh mountain air, with a small, gentle meadow stretching for the view. The ragged, spotty shadow the branches and leaves made gave such a delicious sunny-fresh feeling to everything, it was like wrapping yourself in sun scented clean blankets. The Sosa siblings sat at the terrace twitting their fingers away, silent and acompanied by two white mugs of black coffee - no sugar. Francisco's smile picked up the race with the sky, so bright and shiny and delightful it was, and Evelyn, well, Evelyn was plain beautiful, gracing the place like a delicate princess with her sweet face, beautiful hands and graceful gestures. The waitress approached us (at our bidding, I shall add) and asked us how many people would be coming, to decide how many tables to put together. I found it a bit rude that she said it would be senseless to put together four tables just for four people. The words had barely left her lips when twitters started pouring in. They came in couples and trios as they met in the entrace, some taking a moment to take a few pictures for the Twitpic, or their own blogs and sites. There was @AceCostaRica and his calm, nice manner, and his wife, whose youthful charm always hit the note of every gathering.

Felipe was also there, phone-camera in hand taking all the official pictures of the breakfast. Julian came with his wife, and set the stronger note of the gathering, with pointier remarks and faces to match them. He's amazingly expressive.

 

The table is set!

 

And set both sides!

Four tables soon proved to be little and we squeazed closer together. Three menues for thirteen people were hardly enough, so many took pictures of it and consulted it from their iPhones. As I looked around the table, and so many iPhones were flashing in the hands of the twitters, it made me think about the company I work for and their position about this handheld. A matter of decitions made up there can't really dictate what happens on the daily life. It made me also wonder about the rest of the Public Sector and how far from reality our Government falls. 

This is the kitchen, or part of it

Laughter came along the menu as Mario did the honors of reading it for the benefit of all. Most of the presents ordered "pinto", while I, true to my custom, ordered a HUGE tortilla, fried eggs, sour cream and a coke - no ice. I sipped my black coffee happily while the Sosa siblings picked on me asking me how come I come to a #pintotour and have no pinto. The coke raised a few eyebrows again, but I hope it will stop being strange after a few more #pintotours, which I hope to share with them in the future.

HUGE Tortilla (handmade) and platanos 

Yay! Food! Delicious, yummy food!

The food was to-die-for, even though we had to wait for it until we were famished, starved and ready to dive head first and wolf up the whole thing. It was somewhat unpleasant to have to wait so much for the food, but then it proved to be so much it kind of made sense that they sarved us before hand. It was just DELICIOUS!!

The waiting and the eating was peppered up all over with talk, comments and an enriching exchanges of opinion. Mario shared his theory about why the Middle East was so important to some, tying it to the Summerians and lore on allien intelligence manipulating mankind. It did raise a few eyebrows, others joked around, - me among them sorry to say, but I'm not much of an OVNI fan - and others simply cheered when Mario's food finally arrived. It was actually the only meal received with a round of applause. Pictures were made as we had fun, and we all just felt awesome.

The crowd grew close, homely and those of us who didn't knew each other before were soon following and sharing like life long friends. Each of these meetings offer always such a nice, friendly, civilized environment, open and polite and always leaves you with the distinctive desire of sharing more. This was not the exception, and how would it be, when you meet so many nice people!

Oh Man...

There's a coworker in the building who lives quite close to my place, who from time to time offer me a ride, either to the office or home. He's a nice guy, a bit strange in some things and my absolute opposite in thinking, philosophy and believes (among other things), but nice. He used to work at different private companies, and, since when traveling together people often happen to speak to each other, he often tells me about is life in the "Private Sector". I, myself, have had a few "moments" in the Private Sector ages ago, once working 20 days in December (in the past millenium) at a department store (quit because though I was doing it for the fun of it, to get the experience and know what was it about, being forced to stand over 12 hours - chairs were taken away  and if we were caught leaning against a wall or a rack, a counter, we were scolded - with no payment for the extra hours  - and as the 24th came closer the 12 hours grew to 16 and it was said that the last day would grow to over 18 - it stopped being fun) and before that, for six months at an Import-Export small company in Hungary, but neither of them would I consider "significant". They were small jobs, for short periods of time (though many people have even shorter labor periods...) so I wouldn't say I've got the scope on the Private Sector or the hang of it.

My thing, since I started working for real (as in seeking to develop and validate myself as an Economist) instead of working for the fun or for economical survival, I've been working for the Public Sector (which may change once I move to Hungary), and so this is what I know and what I can speak for. As so, and as a Public Employee, I usually hear comments from some of my friends and acquintances, as well as from other people, about just how the Public Sector promotes the inefficient use of resources, or how cheap they are, how prone to corruption and so on, and instead how awesome the Public Sector is, where the company gives you all the newwest, best, most modern things because they don't have to get the budget aproved by everybody, how everything happens fast, and you get your supplies fast, how you can spend all you want in business trips, how they will send you abroad to take part of super expensive seminars and don't bother about the costs of it. How what matters is how good you work, and not how god your connections are. In other words, the voice rolling around is that in the Private Sector those who work hard and improve themselves, evolve and keep pushing are the ones reaping the rewards, while at the Public Sector, once you are in, you are in and you get dumb, lazy, don't care, get nothing of quality, are surrounded by stupid, lazy people who get there basically because they have someone some place high.

After working in two different Public companies, a bank and now a telcos, I can tell you that indeed the public sector has many inefficiencies, such as the difficulty of making a swift decision, and the level of politization that goes on. People in the public sector have a very stable job, which means that they must basically murder and blatantly rob, terrorist style, in front of broadcasting cameras, the Government to MAYBE be considered to be fired, though probably they will simply be asked to resign, and it will be up to them if they do so. To put it very, very simple, I'd say that this is the picture, in my eyes, of the Public Sector:

+ Positives

• A stable job, from which you'd be hardly fired or demoted.
• Salary is often fix and competitive at least on the average level (save a few cases, often lower positions)
• Benefits from social warranties, such as vacations, holidays, periodical wage raises, recognition of years worked, academic diploma, health plan, company doctor and other extras.
• Allowed to form and/or join a Union.

- Negatives

• People isn't really incentivated to do their best or do their job at all
• Due to the amount of benefits, often people bring in family and friends, creating tight, exclusive groups that destroy the general environment.
• High levels of political influence, particularly at the higher levels, where most of the decisions must be taken.
• High rates of vertical organization, with more superiors than people actually doing the job.
• Slow rhythm of work for everything.
• Huge waste of resources.
• Formation of "work feuds" where a boss of a given area keeps all the data for the area and doesn't share it within the company.
• Corruption and deviation of resources.

Now, disregarding the positive side, the negative points, and some more, were often fended by the Private Sector as to why the Public Sector should be eliminated (among other reasonings, which I won't be listing here, basically because I don't agree with them, and that would send me on an extensive exposition about why the Public Sector should be strenghtened and centered on socially sensible areas). However, as I've been listening to the stories my friends and acquintances tell me, not only my coworker, the Smurf Rider, and more and more the horror stories surface. Abusive bosses, cuts on spending, and what's worse, firings at the order of the day.

From the Private Sphere I hear about people getting fired simply because a boss wanted that position for a friend, or because they spent too much, too carelessly and when it came the moment to fix the problem, they did so by cutting costs in work force. More and more private enterprises forbid the Unions among the workers (because Hyne forbid they would dare to demand rights!), are pety with spending on maintenance or replacement of equipment, deviate resources and keep a lot of useless people on the payroll. I have heard about women fired for being pregnant (so that they don't have to pay for the maternity leave or wait for her - and here in Costa Rica it's only four months), have heard of people being appointed to go on a seminar abroad, people who doesn't even speak the language, and then the actual work being handed to someone else. I've heard of the vandalizing of the work station and working tools of a worker while he or she was on vacations. I've heard of denying of vacations and even companies that force their workers to work every single day of the year, and making them take the holidays, such as New Year and Christmas from their vacations (but just one of them, the other MUST be worked). People hired only for less than three months, then fired and rehired so that they don't pay their social security, nor their socially rightful benefits, nor they get raises.

These widen my eyes, and as I look at the list of the Public Sector pros and cons, I realize the Private Sector has many of the cons (maybe even all of them in some cases) and the pros are inverted to their respective cons and added to the con-list (-). I look at the "Enterprise and Success in the Private Sector for Dummies" and "The Secret" type of books that lay heavily on the ideas of change and be-your-own-boss, that promote risk as a virtue and something to look for, the need to always have more, never stop and keep forever struggling instead of ideas I hold up such as stability, confidence and security. Because one thing is if you change your job, if you build up in it and grab the opportunites, and another when you can be casted out, fired on a whim, as the result of someone else's failure. I look at the picture before me, the representation of the macro labor market and I wonder, why would any worker willingly go to the Private Sector when their few chances and social warranties lay in the Public Sector?

I remember my best friend, a lawyer, who for years spoke ill of the Public Sector and swore that she would never work there because it was agains her personal philosophy. In over ten years she has been fired more times that I can count and each time the buffets and enterprises where she worked refused to pay her, which often mounted up to a year of unpaid salaries plus termination compensations. In ten years she has never been outside of Costa Rica and has hardly gone anywhere on vacation. She, her husband and her daughter live with her parents and in quite a visible poverty. She has a University degree higher than mine, makes less than half of my wage (her home income is less than my income), and live in constant worry about the next month's paycheck. How is that better than being in the Public Sector?

Truth is that, from the point of view of the salary man, the Public Sector is better. Some private companies can be better and far better than public companies, but not the average. I support the private sector as a way for people to offer other solutions, to start their own companies, to freelance, to learn and give it a try, but I don't pay homage to a sector where ill can be dealt because their ethics, does and don't are not "legal matter". If a public company deviates resources, it can be prosecuted, if a private one does so, it's okay, it's private and it can do with it's money as it see it fit. And so with the workers.

It would be good if people were to wake up from the publicity-induced world of opium dreams and would take a moment to see the reality and draw their own conclusions.

Thoughts about Going Green

In Costa Rica "going green" could be understood in a very, very bad way, as it could mean, that you are turning in favor of the currently ruling political party, a sick, corrupted strain of neoliberal breed no decent human being would ever willingly choose. However, I'm not poundering the thought of going that green, but rather eco-green.

Perhaps you remember, perhaps you don't (in which case you could simply scroll down...) but last week I wrote an entry about our planet (that in which I said Haiti is actually the scale model of the world), and though it had bleak points here and there, it ended up with a list of things you could do to make the difference. From it and through many sources (now from the Zümm too) I received a lot of support and positive comments from my friends, which got me thinking some more. Currently I'm reusing the plastic bags I have and carry around flax, ecofriendly bags for my groceries and on general, for anything I might need a bag for through the day. On Saturdays I visit the local market, where you can buy fresh veggies from the farmers, and as much as I can, choose the national product over the imported one, the green over the genetically or chemically enhanced. I'm still not there in the selective garbage thing, but I'm getting there.

The thing is that a few items from my list made me think that perhaps, as the proposal of them, I should take the idea in my hands and seek ways to make it happen. Among the ideas I choose to start with, there's the idea of gathering with friends, and the friends of our friends to make our own flax ecofriendly shopping bags, (not so likely to happen... at once), and organizing plant-a-tree picnics. This last one, I believe, could have a better acceptance, since you can make it really fun.

I'm putting the idea out there for my friends to consider it (after all it's easier if more of them participate), and will start checking with the local authorities about rules for planting trees and were could we do it. Also will try to contact different organizations, environmentalist organizations and Universities to seek some capacitation on how to plant different trees (I'm actually a poor gardner), and perhaps also get some trees donated for the cause. It's a lot of work, but I hope to get more people involved and the idea spread.

Kari told me in Europe there are Gardner Guerrillas, which are groups of rouge ecologists that pick a place and plant trees, regardless of whether they have permission to do so or not. Well, I don't wanna do something like that, but I do hope to do it within the legal system, in an organized and fun way.

Taking care of the planet doesn't have to be a boring, hard and fruitless thing. It can be fun and rewarding. It doesn't need to be something others do, eco-maniacs do, but it can be something you do. Would you like to do it with me? :-)

This Nice Valentine

Who would have EVER imagined that I would write a St. Valentine's entry? Not me. Then again, who would have imagined that I would last over 13 months with the same dude and still say: "Man, I love that Son of a Bitch" (no pun intended!). Life does turns and goes in very, very interesting ways, now does it. However, the basic, the medular things don't change: I'm still me and I still believe in the same ideals, and probably will always believe in them. Don't believe in Cupids shooting arrows of love at people and all that crap codependant, irresponsible, immature people talk about when they talk about love. Really, someone should shoot them dead.

Like many other St. Valentine days in me life, (if not all of them, but I think not), I spend this day pretty much on my own, sending messages to my friends and thinking about my friends. I guess then some things are hard to change, and when for me St. Valentine is the day to think about friendship, that's pretty much what I keep doing even though now I have a mate. But the day to celebrate love, which is often seen as that thing that pretty much makes sex to be bond to one person only, nah. That phantom is way, waaay overrated! The day to celebrate the weak bond that ties two people to an enslaving situalion, where once the lust starts to fade away (assuming there was sexual lust to begin with), each party feels entitled to demand from the other part a series of benefits and compensations for the services provided so far and still in providing, no matter how consensual, mutual or already unexisting they are. Yes, I'm basically a Halloween-Person myself, so sue me.

Either way, and aside from lust, love and explotation, I was thinking about St. Valentine as the day when you celebrate "love" and why people don't take one of these St.V Days to celebrate their selfesteem. How about that? Instead of making it a "sad day" because they have "no one" or a "Love Sucks" because their heart has been broken so many times, what about making it a "Day of Love because I love myself so fucking much"? for instance, I've a load of work to do with my thesis, but I am gonna celebrate this day with my favorite person in the whole universe: Me. Now, it is a rainy day, or looks like it's gonna rain bad, so I'm not taking meself out, but organize something absolutely fun, like stay home, eat lots of chocolate ice-cream, watch my favorite movies and favorite series (which basically ressume to Supernatural, thank you). I started it already with Supernatural's latest Episode, "My Bloody Valentine" (odd too, because Jensen Ackles recent, and so not successful, but shameful movie had the same title, and in there his charater was totally ripped off from Supernatural, only smashing Sam and Dean into one single mangled, thorn character), which was angsty, even if it contained a very ill managed slashy line, and which clearly will flow into a next episode of Dean-goes-Twilight and pushes Sam away because "he can't go on like that". Hate it when they pull the EMO line.

Later on I plan to do a feet-spa, and maybe even make myself a facial or something. I'll simply indulge my little whims and spoil myself. What will you do Today?

Happy Valentine to all, and Be Your Own Valentine!

Haiti: The World's Scale Model

After the earthquake that leveled Haiti, this tiny Island, always known for aspects such as extreme poverty and voodoo, had become a shining spot, a topic of more and more blogs and blog-entries (has gotten a few of mine as well), political speeches, rescue plans, economical plans and even religious (and moronic) speeches. Pictures of the devastation, of people hurt and corpses flood the media from every angle to the point where I'm almost expecting my penpals to include a note or two on the subject in their next letters or e-mails.

The thing is that the other day I was thinking about Haiti, remembering all the crap mentioned by Mr.Pat Robertson (that stuff about how Haiti deserves this, and how it is their fault because they made a Pact with the Devil), as well as other matters related with the subject, the huge movilization of the US, the taking over they are making, in order to get things done, the condemnation it earns from other governments that see this an attempt of the US to take over the country and so on. Well, as I was mulling on the matter, thinking about what's happening in this country, I started finding paralelisms between Haiti and the rest of the world. Corruption, governments that exploit the population, strangle them in poverty even of the land itself could give so much. Natural disasters beating it up and other people basically stealing their richness, exploiting the cracks in the system for drugs, for hiding, for human trafficking (here thinking about the 33 "orphan kids" - and while it's 'still to be seen', for me it was a huge mistake, an unforgivable mistake to try to take the kids out of the country, particularly through illegal means, and take them from their parents) and so on.

It hit me that the world, our "so much better" world is actually the same, on a different scale. Natural disasters are hitting us everywhere. Tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, climate change, snow storms just to mention a few. Corrupt governments are found basically everywhere, and I'd dare to say that some places even have a surproduction of corruption. The things that happen here, in the whole planet, in this age are things that a few years ago we thought completely unspeakable. At some of the things I find in the papers I can't stop but think at my history lessons, at how I was shocked that people in the Middle Age didn't fight,weren't outraged, how they didn't just kill the people imposing those hineous rules, and now here they are and I see the people hardly react, hardly be heard. We have food shortages, and problems with adequate access to food (given how fresh products are often more and more expensive, how farmers in less developped countries are pushed out of the activity thanks to the importing of mass produced, genetically altered, heavily subsidized products from much richer markets, which on a whim can move from food to biofuel producing suddenly cutting off the food supply of quite a huge portion of the world, in favour of cars), education deficiencies, problems with adecuate and timely access to health care, just to mention a few.

I wonder if the Illuminated Spokepersons of the Baptist Church would then say that the World has made a Pact with the Devil, but one thing I would agree in the face of this global case is that, yes, we did brought this upon ourselves. By patronizing corruption acts, by allowing ourselves to be charmed by shiny promises and empty words, by not looking deeper, by not questioning, by becoming lazy and careless. We brought this upon ourselves for not being careful, for thinking that "waste" is a right born out of economical priviledge, instead of looking at it as a crime against the planet. I'm not talking here about the kid who won't eat all its veggies, to whom its parents say that he or she should eat and look at the poor kids who have nothing to eat.  I talk here about the use-and-throw of stuff, the amount of garbage we produce, the consumist need to have more, to replace for the newest, for feeding our wastebaskets more than what we feed our pets.

Haiti isn't a poor little country sharing the Hispaniola Island, because they can't even have a whole Island for themselves, plagued with stupid people that doesn't know how to do things well. No, Haiti isn't like that either because "that's what happen when all you have are black people" (like something I heard some extremely illuminated coworker of mine, with far more insulting words I won't repeat here), or what happens with "Non-Christians", or "people with poor-mentality" or whatever other excuse you want to hold up to basically say that "it won't happen to us". Haiti is the world's little scale model, a fastforward window to where are we going. Haiti is just as beautiful and full of opportunities as our planet. Haiti has a very beautiful language--- just as our planet (well, I'm a full pro-French and I hold French up high, but that's not the point here), and their people are as beautiful, good and heterogeneous as the rest of us, and what happened to Haiti, what's happening, is also happening to the whole planet, to each and every one of our "much better" countries. And you know what? We are going to get leveled. So WAKE UP PLANET and let's do something about it. Not just pep-talk and plans and blog-entries and Tea Parties. No more finger pointing and using the crisis to defend "our righteous thesis and standing point", but lets roll up our sleeves and work.

No idea how? Here are some ideas I have:

1. Prefer fresh products, nationally produced or those produced by countries that also buy our products. If we can't get fresh products for any reason, let's plant them! Yeah, perhaps it's easy for someone with a garden, or gardening skills, but what about people living in an appartment? Well, you can also do something. Have you heard about "plants in pots"? Sure, maybe not an orange tree or a corn plant, but how about your own herbs? Oh, keep it legal, so unless you live in Holland, do not plan your own cannabis.

2. Recycle, reuse all you can and reject products that would only litter the planet. Carry your own bags, for example, and reject the plastic bags at stores. You can go further and even avoid buying at places where you know will enforce the use of unnecesary bags (those that have check points and you have to leave the store with your bag sealed).

3. Talk with your local authorites about places where you can go plant trees, and the types of trees you can plant there, and organize a "greentour" one day with your friends and/or family, or with yourself, or as a date (Guys, this is an awesome way to conquer a chick!) to go plant a few trees. You can totally combine this activity with a picnic! (No plastic at the picnic! So sandwiches in reusable paper bags or wrapped in napkins, natural beverages in reusable containers, lots of fruits, cheese and natural treats for all, and carry always a small bag (or maybe a few for slective garbage) and don't leave your garbage on others!

4. Print less. Think about lending from friends or the local library instead of making copies if you can.

5. Get unplugged. Turn off the computer, the TV, pull everything you don't need from the electrical socket as much as you can (okay, the fridge gara stay). Read during the day, go outdoors, open doors and windows instead of putting on the fan and the air conditioner. Take advantage of the natural light, and if the way your place doesn't allow so, you can always trick in a little bit of light with mirrors! They are completely energy efficient, carbon neutral, and work since the ancient times! At night, from time to time, prefer "mood lighting" with candles and other choices that do not involve electricity or an intensive fossil fuel use.

6. Wake up earlier and get to bed earlier too. The night is pretty, but lets take advantage of all that natural light.

7. Always prefer recycled things.

8. Buy things that will last, be careful with them and don't replace them unless they've stopped, really stopped working. Avoid with this the "fashion" products. Clothes, accesories, devices and all those flashy things that are good because they are new and the "latest". Just think about the space, and all the garbage you will start producing once they are not "in" and you have to replace them. Not to mention all the good money thrown into the garbage.

9. Don't drive unless you really-really-really-really-absolutely-no-way-of-getting-out-of-it have to. Walk, go with a bike, after all it took you a good while and a lot of falling, bruising and crying until you finally got to do it and it would be stupid that now that you can do it, you won't; or take the public transportation, because that's why it created it for. All of them work!

10. As much as you can, apply the DIY: Do It Yourself. If you are insecure, still go ahead! You'd be amazed at all the things you can do. :-)

This are just ten idea, small ideas you can apply wherever you are, but I'm sure that you can find more and more and more! And hey, if you want to share them do so! I'd be happy to hear about more ideas! So, roll'em up and lets get the party started!

Elections Day

Finally, after months and months of continuous political advertisements, after headaches for the way the officialist party shamelessly skim money and start the campaing way before it should (instead of 7 months before the elections, they started AGAIN two years before the elections), we've reached the final day, the final stage: E-Day. Probably this will be my last Costa Rican election, and I'm kind of sad I didn't took it a step further and signed in to work at the voting places as a member of the PAC (Partido Acción Ciudadana - Citizen Action Party) or Frente Amplio (Wide Front).

Since it has been a couple of hideously hot days, these last ones, I decided to go vote early. As so I talked to Kari, so that we would talk afterwards, sometime around noon for me, 19h for him. My parents... well, Hyne knows when will they go, specially now that my Dad got sick. Great day to get sick, if you ask me. Knowing them, I knew they would take around forever to get ready and go, and most likely go when the Sun is as high as it can be, and as burning as Israeli illegal weapons. So, I woke up around 7 am, washed my hair (though skipped the Keraflex step this week, or I would be stuck in the bathroom forever, and heat would caught up with me), dried it and took my Breakfast of Champions: Béres, Fresca and a bowl of ChocoZucaritas.

After that, armed with one of my tiny backpacks (I only have two, actually), packed with glasses, my journal, wallet with ID, pen, book, agenda and keys, I left to the bus station to go to our old neighbourhood. I never changed my address after we moved here, and that was like seven years ago. Now it would have been a bit late for that.  On my way to the bus station I walked by my old high school, a place I hate like barely anything else in my life, an the school where my cousins studied, and where one of the works. These were all set up for the votations, with people from the different parties here and there, and kids dressed up in t-shirts of the different parties, working (for free) as guides to take people to the respective voting boxes.

 

Bus from Frente Amplio

 

Streets closed for the elections.

 

Frente Amplio (Yellow) and PAC (Red and Yellow) side to side

There was no lack of assholes, like some guy in a 4WD that slowed nex to me and "offered me a ride". is he stupid or what? No! When he insisted, I stopped, took my sunglasses off and told him to get lost or I'll be calling the police. As the car speed up and got lost, I couldn't stop wondering about what this country has become and how is it possible that some people will actually vote for things to continue down this road (those who vote for Laura Chinchilla, the current president's chosen one). Well, when I've got to the bus station, I realized that there was no bus station. Hell! They moved it! So I went looking for it. As many things in this little town of Heredia, the Major decided to move things to a "better place" which basically means, moving them to an area with higher criminality rates. Why is that good, I'd never understand. Anyway, I didn't need to get to the bus station, as the bus was coming my way in a traffic jam, which came out handy, as I simply signaled it to stop and got on.

Bus to Los Lagos

The bus rolled around slowly towards the old neighbourhood. It reminded me the time when I used to live there, and went to the University or to school. It felt fun. I wouldn't live there again, but it did reminded me a lot of good things from back then. It had kind of a "back home" feeling wrapped all around. I called my brother to ask him if he was going to be there (as there was a plan of him voting early and then leaving to Parrita so that his wife can vote too). He was there, at the school where both of us used to go, and so he waited for me.

 

On the way to our old school to vote.

 

The tent of PAC outside our old School

 

The note I've got with the Voting Box number I've got.

At our old school, once we knew at which box should we go (we alway go to the same one, since the assignation of boxes go by last name alphabetical order), we talked over how shall we vote. We were both determinated to chose the presidential cadidate of PAC for president, and then decided whom shall we pick for lawmakers and majors. Then we went in and voted. For the first time ever, we voted with crayons. This year the Election Supreme Tribune decided to provice all voting boxes with orange coloured crayons, some special ones that don't stain and have many other special qualities. Truth to be told, I felt a bit like back in the kinder garden. It was so think and so cool, it made me want to have my own crayons! Last time I used some was in the University, when I used crayons to highlight texts (they last longer, have more colors, do not stain, don't leak to the other side of the page, have always the same strenght in color and are much cheaper).

At the PAC tent I've got some bumber stickers, and that made me quite happy! ^_^ I know, silly me, but what can I say? Neither my brother nor my Dad put bumber stickers on their cars, yet I've got a few to stick on notebooks, dossiers and so on.

After that I accompanied my brother to buy bread and walked home with him.I spend some time in his place, our old house, and then he brought me home, where I sat down to write this entry and talk with my boyfriend on Skype.

I'm not sure if my candidate will win, I hope he does and Costa Rica gets a change, but we will know only tomorrow... maybe today around 20 h.

A Whisp of Charm

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               (¸.·* Some days ago my friend Dragonfly wrote about being happy, about making the decision of being happy. I liked that entry a lot because it basically said that you are happy when you DECIDE to be happy, when you let yourself to be happy. I know, for many it sound strange, but this is the way it is. It's a topic I've written about over and over almost to the point of either becoming booooring, or publishing a series and becoming the new Depak Chopra (which is insulting, just by thinking at it). I liked her entry, above all, because it was very empowering, not only a declaration of control over her own happiness and her own life, taking it away from the hands of those who influence her, push her out of where she wants to be, but also a declaration of responsability over her own life and happiness. So existentialist! (And by now you all know how crazy I am for Existentialist Philosophy, right?)

It's this responsability that lacks from so many people, from so many aspects of their lives. Those who love to show off (popularly called "attention whores"), who at a meeting would engage in a lot of tasks to look good, pretend they know so much, they do so much, but then deny vehemently they've agreed to this or that and either come up with all kinds of excuses or (the worse kind) place the blame on innocent stand-byers. Those who make a lot of plans, have big ideas, but then leave the actual work on other people's shoulders, those who compromise and compromise and then always prepare an excuse, an escape goat instead of simply keeping up their commitment. Also the people that believe they have no inherence in their own life, or act as if they had no power upon it, and everything is other people's responsability. Their feeding, their sheltering, their clothing, their transportation, their studies (and the subsequent homework, classwork and exams), their job in all its extent, their mood, their happiness, their "chances at love", their chances to have a family, the upbringing of their children... and so on. Just think about it: the men and women that actually expect their significant other to provide for everything, or cook-wash-clean for them. In modern days women can work and support themselves, and men have no obstacle to wash their clothes, cook their dinner and mop the floor, so why to displace the responsability? Or the case of the parents that leave the responsability of rising the kids to school. If the child is insolent "it's not their fault, because that's what the kid picks up at school".

Yeah, I see heads nodding there. You do know a few of those cases, right? The "dying of sadness because he/she doesn't love me", the "they are making my life miserable", the "people is so mean because nobody would help me", the "I dumped my last lover because he/she wouldn't pay my phone bill". And the funny thing is that all of them have a "perfectly reasonable explanation" about why they are right.

But what happens if you use all that energy spent in seeking responsibles and making up excuses to ACTUALLY make yourself happy? How about chosing yourself as the responsible of your happiness, the responsible of your life, the responsible of your job, the responsible of your finances?

And how about making yourself the responsible of the magic in your life? Yes, be responsible of enjoying your life to the fullest. Find the things that give you joy, that make you happy, small and big, and make yourself responsible of grasping every single opportunity to enjoy them. How about that? Many people claim that life is plain, a "river of sadness and pain" and that there's no magic in life, but only in the stories in books and tv. Well, magic is there, you only have to wish it. Don't you think?

The Time That Makes You Age

I thought it had been ages since I last wrote in my blog, but then I saw the dates and I realized it hasn't been so much time since the last time. So, why was I feeling like it had been a loooong time ago? (I haven't written in my personal, paper journal in real ages, yet that one doesn't feel like it's as neglected as this one.) I've been thinking about writing for a long time now, making this huge list of topics I could write about, such as politics, the result of the political debates in Costa Rica (which would have been a post in Spanish, and where I would simply say what everybody can see: Otto Guevara is a bully, someone without ideas that makes himself notice by attacking others and imposing himself over others the way a spoiled five year-old would: rising his voice and stomping over others, denying evidence and calling everybody liars. Laura Chinchilla is to fragil to be a President, and has blatantly said that she pretends to keep things going the way they have so far, laying about poverty indexes, environmental protection and security), abortion laws and how utterly hypocritical I see "pro-life" movements in this regard. I mean, sacrificing the life of the mother for the sake of an unwanted children? And what kind of life with that baby have? What protection after being born, when children get killed and abused and the prepetrators hardly get caught, and even if they do, they get a few years or a slap on the wrist? Put them in the system to give them in "adoption" when many of those kids end up on the streets stealing and now murdering as well? Then there was the topic, the eternal topic, of bullies, who harrass others about their appearance, the nosy people you can hardly shot off who constantly want to get their stupid noses in what's not their business, and the matter of people who's so emotionally poor that actually sacrifice feelings and love for an abusive Sugar Daddy.

These may sometime be topics to develop in here, but right now the topic is Time.

People often think of time as that hideous thing that makes them age, gives them gray hairs and wrinkles. Time turns the future into past and so it rushes taking away your chances, burdening you with debts in every aspect of your life. Financial debts you've taken to be able to buy this or that, opportunity debts because you were so busy doing this or that that you couldn't take the chance to travel more, enjoy more, learn more, get that degree, apply for that job, write that book, paint that picture, sculp that statue, compose that song, go to that concert, see that movie, meet that person, help those people, get a dog... Debt of peace because you were so busy worrying about everything, even things that weren't your responsability or yours to worry about, things that were out of your capabilities, that you couldn't change even if you wanted, and yet you worried as if you were the only one who could do something about it. Debt of emotion, because you didn't love enough, you didn't show it enough, you didn't hate enough, you never told that s.o.b. to fuck it and stick it up where the Sun shines. Debt of emotion because you were busy wasting your emotions and stupid things, senseless things and events, while you let go by the things that did matter. (Before I get the string of e-mails about how no emotion is a waste, I'm meaning here the case where you put all your hate and love into a friend's life, acquintances and you make it the center of your life, or you fall deep into a series or a band, and forget about the fact that your own life also needs emotional attention.) Debt of words never said, debt of things never listened at, debt of things never seen, debt of things never shown.

Time doesn't do this to you, but you do this to yourself. And so, as we collect bills of life debt for many things, all of them because we are too busy, we are too worried, we are eaten up by our own life, which we suffer instead of live, time, which does nothing but go happily on its merry way, seems cruel, whil the only cruel ones are us. We scramble our lives and make them unlivable, and as we busily collect all these debts, they collect on us, aging us, often before age. Have you noticed how married people often seem older than single people? Because they collect more life-debts. (Naturally happy, accepting couples age slower.) Rising the kids right, which for many often means to be over the kids and yell at them, engaging in jealousy games, debts, insecurities, how to make ends meet by the end of the month, pay bills... Appearance obsessed people also ages faster. They may put on every available cream of the market, be regulars at gyms and spas and have hard, lean bodies, but their hands, eyes, necks wouldn't lie: they become much older than what they really are.

Someone said: "Age is a matter of mind over matter: if you don't mind, it doesn't matter". I'd say age is age and it's stupid to carve off the years because your age doesn't make you old, but the way you live does. I've known people younger as me, and as much as ten years my juniors, who look at least six years my seniors, and I ain't a fresh spring flower! In this past days I have had too many things in my head, and since yesterday I've developped a nasty migraine (I'm going to the company's doctor, so don't worry), but as I sat down to write this entry I realized that it was as if I were trying to live two weeks in three days, and that's a great way to get a lot of life debt and age unnecesarily. So I learned an important lesson here and I wanted to share it with you all: don't allow yourselves to be overwhelmed, and find that slot of the day where you can get rid of your life debt, where you can smile and rest and feel like a million bucks.

Happy Monday to Everybody!