The Fog and The Shapes in It

Mathew has dragged behind himself a long, floating, vaporous trail, fluffed and dense, light and ubiquitous. And thus, after the promised rain and floods failed to be delievered, a veil of freezing rain beads delicately from swollen skies of luxuriant silver fox furs and the dense fog descends upon us, like over a bride who walks blindly, wrapped in blissful ignorance regarding the good the bad, the delightful and the rotten scattered around her. Taking pictures becomes a futile exercise, clicking away at the furls of white immaterial halo, a milky solution splashed across the air, much like the slow, frozen breath of a man peacefully sleeping in a cold hut.

From the floor where everything was seen, nothing was seen, Argus Panoptes lost his one hundred eyes under a cosmic bridal trail. Helios, God of Watchfulness and Wisdom turns inside, and as light blinds and blends outside, opens Argos Panoptes' one hundred eyes to the insides, where the Styx flows alive, and carries death and life alive in a stream of humanity and the specks of nephilimic nature mingled in every man and woman. And thus eyes that can't see outside, turn inside, to a darkness that's no darkness, but fleshful richness.

Darkness sets heavy darkness in hearts up North, where the cold winds that cooled Annabel Lee's cheeks threaten to shun away the sparkle of life in their eyes. Paper words, bit and byte words tell me so. But in here the Algea do not touch our hearts, do not come with the change of the skies, the plunge of mercury bars. After much to see, much to picture, a swap of blank that erases the world before our eyes, leaving us on the fringe of material reality, introspection is the new place to go. In here the inner thoughts find other voices to conference with, and as banned pages flop softly, the words once prohibited, now hightened, flood faster inside and the artist leans heavily on the table before you, and as the pages wane away, the book reaches the end, his hand stretches forward fisting into your sleeve, pulling you closer to his face, and his wine stinky breath breaks on your nose in waves, spit splashing on your cheeks as his emotions climb excitement, formalities never observed as the confessions slowly come to the inevitable conclusion, remarks and anecdotes add up, and the bits and pieces that stick out slowly drip into the same bowl.

No big mysteries to be uncovered. Hatred, desdain, mockery, seedy sneers, dirt. No race is worth, no woman is worth, no person is worth, no ideal is worth, no religion is worth, no man is worth, no art is worth. And peppered over it words that collide into the matter perfect quotes are lifted from. Deep disrespect towards everything, in perfect anti-Einsteinian absolutism. Absolute hatred in the middle of which the nest of thorns has been found where the fishy can live to his heart's content.

Argos Panoptes widens his many eyes in realisation of the well known fact: wisdom often doesn't have to come from satisfaction, simply from thinking.

Sense Abandons Arguments

In the argument of children or childfree, I've come across a blog from a Catholic writer of quite a - how should I put it - radical breed. Naturally the man was absolutely against the Childfree Movement, and, from what I've got, childfree people in general. We were called "Evil". Hell, I haven't been called that since my slasher days, when Roo and I mastered the NC-21 level, when NC-17 was really NC-17, and not the badly worded PG-13 these days passes for R or NC-17 in the Fanfiction communities. But he wasn't aiming at my slashing skills and my hability to make any kink, no matter how impossible or sordid, to come out fluent and powerful, but to the decision, the personal decision people make to have no kids.

In a completely uninformed way, he labeled Childfree choosers, baby-haters and life-haters. Sure, I'm a Childfree chooser and I think babies are freaking ugly, but that doesn't make me a maniac, ax in hand, chopping children in the streets in the best Herodes personification. Lets step away in here from all those parents who mistreat or kill their babies, those mothers who have some children, let them grow and then kill the rest and keep them in the fridge, or the parents who lock in their kids, deprive them from social contact and rape them. Lets not go back to Austria and the torment of that poor girl who gave birth to seven of her own father's children, some of whom were brought up to the surface, some died and some were forced to live in a rat maze.

We'll also step away here from the arguments Childfree choosers and advocates made, asking the writer and his acolytes whether then the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa of Calculta and Jesus himself, were evil, for they had no children. Or the pointing out of the faith of catholic children sexually abused my priests protected by the Church.

No, the point here will, actually detach from the Childfree argument, and towards the argument itself.

At one point the topic went about how Childfree Advocates argued that there's too much people in the planet, and that the reduction of the population rates were needed in order to avoid mass deaths due to it. To this, Catholic acolytes reacted saying they "didn't believe in the Global Warming", and that "overpopulation is a myth". I was flabbergasted to say the least. The added comment that China was lacking of women due to the childfree people (Dude, really), was just a cherry on the top. Personally I wasn't aware of the fact that Global Warming was a matter of believe or Overpopulation. For me it was perfectly clear given the changes in the climate, these "crazy weather" blows, the augmentation in the hurricaine rates and the damage they are now causing. Flood, tsunamies, food shortages due to floods or drought, winters that seem more like springs, summers that take on bipolar bahavior, one day flooding the city and the next drying it to the bone. The ice of the poles is melting, the world is becoming warmer and warmer and you don't need the news to realize that, just look out of the window. What's there to believe or not?

As for overpopulation, lets start with the well known fact that the planet has the exact same size it has ever had. Might have gone from flat to round, but the size hasn't really expanded or shrinked. Well, except in Holland, where they do the leeves into the see to gain some more square miles to build on, but only they do that. The rest is the same size... when it hasn't been sucked in by floods or breaken off with earthquakes. However, now there's a freaking bigger amount of people on it. Look a the amount of people in the cities, the traffic jams, the number of people in the public transportation system, housing solutions - going upwards because sideways we won't fit -  the disappearing of free lands, forests, all of them being filled with buildings now and parking lots. And you don't believe in overpopulation? And this coming from people who believe in the devil and demons and such? For real.

Okay, let me get this clear: you believe in the existence of the Devil - Satan, Lucifer, Belzebub, Sam Winchester, Ozzy Osbourne, whatever name you give to it -  and its power, which in your believe is quite great, and to be feared, and his legion of demons... all of them which you can't really see, or experience, BUT you choose not to believe in things that happen around you and affect you, such as global warming and overpopulation. Really, where on Earth do you live!?

Or is it that perhaps the consequences of global warming and overpopulation (consequences at the same time of irrational consuming, environmental destruction and uncontrolled human population growth) are all the work of the Devil and his peers? Wanna add the financial crisis and the inflation to the Devil's tab too? And you'll take it as God's punishment for the world being the way it is, while you keep breeding like mice, consuming non environmental goods, plugging on all your electrical equipment, and disregarding recycling because "the power of prayer will help you", and those who suffer, in this shared planet for your irresponsible behavior, "had it coming because they made a pact with the devil"? We are a tenth into the XXIst century and this kind of Xth century mentality still spreads. It's almost as if Science didn't exist, as if all that has been accomplished would mean nothing.

Some acolytes happily sneered that Childfree choosers wouldn't breed and therefore wouldn't pass their philosophy to others, while others pulled their hair horrified that we would target their kids, that the public education system as corrupted, and we had leaked everywhere bringing our Evil Gospel to the classrooms. Some congratulated themselves of being smart enough and choose to homeschool their children, to keep them safe from the Devil. Then, how can you keep your children safe from the Devil, when you preach it at home? Sooner or later your kids will hit the road, will mix with the world, and then some of them will see what we all see.

At this point,  I realized that there isn't much sense in arguing. How could you argue with someone who would declare facts "void" because they "don't believe in them", and instead bring up all kinds of made up, factoids, and position their own misguided conceptions as truths? We are evil because they say so, and if we say "we are not, we are people like you, only we choose not to have children, and it doesn't bother us if you do", they reply "Satan is speaking through you", or "you are a demon trying to confuse us". We, simple people like them, are made into witches in a witch hunt that brings back the days of Salem. It's not even our words - AIDS as a blessing? Really? When radical conservatists said AIDS is the punishment of the gay, and God's way to get rid of them? - it's their twisted minds pinning their poisoned "arguments" and accusations, their fears on us, making us into something we are not.

It's sad when accusations come from those who are uncapable of constructing a decent argument, nor are willing to engage in an intelligent debate of the matters.

On a final notice, I have never known a single person who had become Childfree chooser on the bidding of others, particularly when society is filled with elements egging people to have children. I do have met a lot of people who got children by the pressure of society and lived to regret it. My point here is, we have turned ourselves into Childfree, so your church raised kids could also join our ranks, and no preaching from you will make them change their mind. It is a personal choice, based on what we see of the world and what we decided to do with it. We don't scare people out of having children, don't bully them like you do. We simply are, and support those of us who have taken this path and are being bullied. We stand next to them to tell them that it's okay and they are not alone. Do you do the same, or is your "Christianity" all about mistreating your peers in the name of the Lord? We do not judge your lifestyle and choices, so please give us the same respect.

It's a human choice, not the devil's work. Ease up and read a book.

Inspiration is Comming Close

I've e-mails to answer sitting in my mailbox, jobs to tackle piled on my work tray, letters to read and answer neatly lined up in my desk, and I'm not getting there yet. A letter I've been waiting for, which I finally received and read and to which I still have to reply is holding me back so far. It's a letter to my friend Hélène, from Belgium, with whom our correspondence flows partly in French, partly in Spanish. It's the French, naturally, what holds me back a bit, as I'm just not sure of it, it doesn't flow (at the begining) easy enough for me to feel comfortable, though as I know, just as being in Paris, once I'm there it's like I can't but think and speak and hear French all over. How long has it been since the last time I was in Paris? Too long for my soul, long enough to ache for it again.

But this is not about Paris, or French. This is about what's coming, and what's coming is October. Yes that month where I hit an emotional and inspirational peak, sort of an inverted Sebastian Venable, where is not three months of summer that feed the yearly poem that takes nine months to be written, but in my case October is the Peak Month, when by some reason I feel more inspired, almost assaulted by inspiration. The rest of the year I can write - though it has been a while since I wrote anything - but October is like the one month a year when the onslaught of the imagery and that pepperminty feeling sliding ribbons inside me is far stronger.

This month I wish to take the Muse's hand, hold to it and give up to her, follow her lead and write the sense away. A few projects are waiting there to be written, to be continued, to be followed and finished, and they have started leaking their fingers into the idle moments of my day. The scenes flutter again before my eyes, and I see over and over elements that should be written down in this or that work. They crowd my head, sweet and intoxicating, making me wish to be able to pick the right book and read more about them... but the book hasn't been written yet.

Am I an artist? I'm not fully conscious about it. Not now, at least. Am I a writer? Yes, I think so. I wonder sometimes what makes writers write. Do they really have something to say? It could be. For me, the things I have to say, I say through blogs and letters and my journal. The things I write, are basically the books I want to read, the stories I crave to find but haven't found so far. Does that make me an artist? It feels weird to think so, because I "craft" up for myself - sometimes on demand for my friends - but my pen writes for me. It's like the artist should have sex, please someone else aside from himself, but what I do feels more like masturbation: it's not for anyone else, isn't for a market or an audience, but to sate in myself what the broad market fails to provide for me.

Artist or not, October is coming down on me and soon I'll be enraptured by extasis and inspiration.

Again, Blogging for Childfree Rights

Today's entry has been inspired as an add-up to today's entry in Childfree News's "Love Thy Neighbour? Not with Kids". In it you'll read this story about distressed parents who live in a third floor with a "large balcony that's great for kids to play" (I can't possible imagine a great balcony for kids to play on on a third floor. Isn't that dangerous? Like kids could fall or something?). Their concern is that the neighbour on the first floor is annoyed and threatened with reporting their kids with the manager because, well, one day the three year old daughter of a friend threw lollies on her yard (when the parents realized they took away the candy from the kid), and then, when their kids were playing there - on the great third floor balcony with a rubber hardball -  10 minutes into the game the ball fell to the yard of the neighbour.

From the quoted text, it seems the parents are actually upset the childfree neighbour is so annoyed, as they put it clearly "Kids... what can you do?". My eyebrows went to my hairline. Was it for real? I mean, is it REALLY for real? There were no pictures of the great balcony in question, but it did got me thinking that if it was so that a toddler could throw candies from there, it shouldn't be all that child-save, as perhaps it should. But they are letting their kids play in there, so let's assume it's a safe place.

The question, coming from parents blew me away. What do you mean what can you do with the behavior of kids? How about EDUCATE THEM!? You know, when you tell your kid: "don't throw things at other people's properties" or "watch where you play with that". Or is it that they are going to let kids play with a bike inside and apartment? Well, any person with a bit of common sense should know that catch up, throw- away or jumpy, run-around games are not the better suited for a third floor. Just like you don't play music or the TV loud in an appartment, nor jump around on a second and higher floor, due to consideration towards the neighbours.

Kids throwing things on other people's yard is not an excuse. It's exactly the same as any other neighbour throwing stuff on other people's yards, or maybe some pet throwing things on other neighbour's yard. Just because it's a kid doing it, it's not an excuse when annoys other people. Parents must realize that they are responsible for the acts of their kids, they are responsible of educating them, and under no circumstance they should force other people to put up with them. Having those kids was their choice, not that of their neighbours, so they should del with it and avoid disturbing others with their offsprings.

However, sadly parents seem to believe that the world own them, and so everybody should put up with the annoying monkeys they keep at home.

You Are Good Enough To Die, Not Good Enough To Acknowledge

This is the position many societies in today's world seem to preach, and this is particularly what the US Army seems to say every step of the way to the gay community. Some heterosexual folk, like me, could say, don't be stupid, just don't go where you are not wanted. But then again the world is wide, the tastes are many and some folks really want to join the army or get married. And you know what? They shouldn't be denied to do so, specially if others can do it and it's not illegal for them. Or do you believe that John Doe can't think about marrying because he's... poor? Or Jane Doe can't join the army because she's... a woman? Or Annie Smith can't be allowed serve in the army because she's a cat person, or Pete White can't be allowed to get married because he likes porn.

Naturally, when it comes to someone being homosexual, it's not something as "meaningless" as prefering cats over dogs or porn over procedural cop shows, nor can it be compared with being poor or being woman, however - even though I'm not gay nor I know the full extent of homosexuality and the entire psycho-social matters it entails - I believe that being gay, straight, bisexual, transexual, pansexual or any other possibility on the scope shouldn't be a determinant on whether you have or not the right to marry whom you love or be who you are openly. With this kind of politics, you are allowing them to take on the hardships society has to offer, but deny them the rewards. (Well, tortures as marriage and serving in the army can be seen as a reward if you actually want them.) You are telling the gay soldiers that they can sacrifice their lives, they can bleed for their country, but their country is so ashamed of them, for the live they lead, that if they are caught practicing it, or if the rumor spreads that they are what they are, they will be plucked from their ranks. Oh yes, they are good to die... as long as they put on the mask and pretend they are decent, straight people.

Marriage, however, is in or out and last less than Britney Spears' marriages. You can, you can't... and the funny thing is that their RIGHTS, the same rights any straight person has - even anti-marriage me - are denied from they thanks to the machinations of a small group of bigot people who  - in the most Medieval fashion of all - consider their way of life against the will of God. Dude, God made them gay. And yet this truly retrograd group of nimrods can actually push Govenments against the right thing to do, to deny them this basic right.

Denying gay people their right to marry is like denying women their right to choose their partner. Denying them their right to be who they are while they serve in the Army is like denying women to look like women at work. It is stupid, it is useless and it's made only to "protect the sensibilities" of a bunch of people who, instead of protection needs education.

I trust - hope against all hope - that eventually reason will prevail and these battles will be conquered, ignorance in this area will be tackled and worked with to make them understand that "being next to a gay person doesn't make you gay, just like gay people standing next to straight people don't make them straight", that being gay is simply a matter of who you prefer to fuck, whom you rather marry, and not a "thing of Satan" that corrupts everything in life. Just like underneath the skin a black person is just as much a person with the same hopes and dreams as anyone else with any other skin color, and so a woman, regardless of her gender is a person as much as a man is, a gay person is a person too regardless who they rather sleep with.

The time to discriminate by differences is long gone, the time to learn and accept has long been here.

Babies

In the American edition of Marie Claire, not half as good as the Mexican edition, in my personal opinion - not so many social interest oriented articles, and too much of that annoying shopping catalog thing going on - an article by Polly Vernon about life as a woman who just doesn't want to have kids. (There's a nice reference to this article in a blog I just found. Here's the link.) She starts with the reaction of people to this choice, reaction I myself have faced often. First comes the "oh, you don't know what you are talking about" speech with all the "wait until you have your own kid in your arms! Then you'll ask how could you deny yourself the pleasure for so long".  When you stay rock firm on your position, the "there's something wrong with you". However, truth is that there's nothing wrong with us, and people should accept that instead of trying to force us into something we don't want. Bullying us won't make us any less, and the things that are told to us, to push us into motherhood, really, don't convince us.

For instance this thing about "you'll love it once you have it in your arms". And if I don't? If I still think it looks like some deformed, ugly, oversized rat that makes my skin creep back? Can I return it? Can I change it for a laptop? Get my money back? Often, also it isn't a matter of us thinking we wouldn't be good parents, as honestly I believe I'd be a better parent than many I see around me, it's just I don't want to do it. It's not fulfilling for me, it's not fun and it isn't something I look forward to.

The bullying Ms. Vernon is subjected to, put before my eyes a fundamental truth that roots deep in our modern society: "women with functional wombs have the duty to put such womb at the service of mankind and procreate". The only reasons accepted by society for you not to have kids is that you are barren or lesbian or too damned ugly to have any man near. But if you are a woman with a working womb, who can get a laid, it is your untold destiny to have children, to want children and find fulfillment, whether you want it or not, in them. You are told that motherhood is a "stage of life" that will make you complete, that you have to reach and live in other to get on with your life.

The amount of irrational arguments in this is amazing. Would you say that a teenager girl who gets knocked up and opts to have her baby is more fulfilled than a woman who decided to remain childless and takes her time to find her passion and follow it. I'm not saying that you can't live your life the way you want with a kid, that you can't build up a career with kids, but what I am saying is that you don't need children to be fulfilled as  a person and as a woman.

Also, as the person we are, we have rights over our own bodies, therefore the conscious decision to not have children should be respected, the same way as if we decide to have kids, or if we decide to be surrogates and have the children of people who can't have them by their own.

Calling us broken, immature and irresponsible is ludicrous, particularly when you consider the following facts:

1. Many orphans around the world are the product of irresponsible parents who take upon to have kids when they are not fit to look out for them. And lets forget the myth that most orphans are so because their parents died. No, they parents didn't want them, that's why so many children fill up the orphanages.

2. Immature parents may not give their children away, but they mistreat them, abuse them. Many children around the world suffer torture and abuse at the hands of the people that should take care of them, the ones that should love them, nurture them and teach them.

3. Many children are born not because their parents are actually ready to be parents, but to salvage a relationship, keep a partner, force a marriage or fulfill a request. These are children that are brought to life not as people but as tools. Also, when a woman gets pregnant to "fulfill her destiny as a woman", objetifies the child, making him or her into a tool towards her personal gratification.

People forget that children are not just babies and kids and rugrats, but people. Children are not some permanent pet that will stay with you at least until it becomes 18, and kids do not belong to their parents. Truth is that people -  whether they are parents or not - tend to elude responsability. They love authority, but fear responsability, and children put responsability on your shoulders. People who decide not to have kids have much more sense than many who choose to have them, because often we do measure up the responsability that bringing a new person to this life entails, and decide we do not wish to have that on our shoulders. Isn't that better than bringing an entirely innocent, helpless kid to this world and "see what will happen"?

Internet: charged by volume or time?

Recently, articles and remarks in the telecommunications industry point toward a change in the way the Internet service is being charged to the customers.After a boombastic liberalization of the hours you spent connected to the web, and the load you accessed on it, where flat rates lead the trend (in a lot of places, but not all, mind you), the speech is coming loud and clear, waging all kinds of unseeming reasons for a change towards volume charging. What does it means? It means that instead of paying, lets say $19.95 a month to AT&T's DSL Basic, whatever you download, at a given bandwidth 768/128 Kbps (first value is the downloading speed and the second the uploading one), the proposal is that you pay for each KB, MB or GB you download or upload.

The first reason for it, the nice one, is that the number of computers, handsets and whatnots hooking on the net, with quite high download and upload demands are putting a significant strain to the networks and installed equipment, and so a "rationalization" of it's use is needed. The second reason nobody has ever mentioned, and really, I believe nobody will, therefore this one comes out of my "pretty conspiracy-theory messed head", is that perhaps someone has seen the potential of skimming that this way of charging right now has. Work with me for a moment, would you? Think of this: when the internet was blooming, and blooming in earnest, sites weren't all that sophisticated, and people really just used the internet from their computers at home, hooked to it with cables, and well, many prefered to use the "cheaper" or "free" options such as using the internet at the office or at school, or at the local library. Cybercafes had their boom there, with all their hard-to-get, virus-poluted units.

The internet was important already in our lives, but we could live without it through a weekend, or until we've got home, until we came back from vacations or until the library opened again. If our internet service got too expensive we terminated the contract and sated our need for the web in other places, and it wasn't the end of the world. There were a few techno-geeks who could connect their PDA's to the hotspots and check their e-mails, but that wasn't the norm. So, in order to boots the consume of the Internet, operators decided to flat rate. Great idea. ^_^

People saw that that was good and started using more of it. It didn't matter how many hours a day you sat in front of the net, you would pay the same every month, so why not take advantage of it? Technology soon pushed it up, with better resolution and heavier pictures, sounds, videos and sites. Applications appeared and cluttered the cyberspace with better tricks, neater presentation and more Kbs you would ever imagine. The Internet jumped from the desktops and laptops confined to the office and home, to be everywhere. Internet met you at the coffeeshop, entertained you while you sipped your Frappaccino. It walks with you down the boulevard, keeps you company on the bus. The cyberworld evolved and reached everywhere, and soon you were blogging from the airport, tweeting from the taxi, Skyping while you go shopping, Facebooking as you wait for the elevator, checking your e-mails on the bathroom, reading the news in the movie before the film starts, perhaps googling the name of the director at the end of it because the movie was so freaking good you want to see more from the same genius. You decided to go beyond, buy yourself an e-reader, and now you download your favorite books in e-book format from anywhere. Get home, buy a load and leave it on your nightstand downloading. Like fresh bread, you wake up with an nice rack of fresh books to read. The internet got everywhere, and size didn't matter anymore, and after years of this, we've got used to it, invited it in our lives, made it more a part of it. And now operators want to change the rules.

Now, let me ask you one simple question: do you know how heavy this blog you are reading is? Do you know how you can check how heavy is? Because it's not only the letters and the links, but the pictures too. And what about the eventual video that appears here and there? Do you know how many Kbs are we talking about? Personally, I have no idea. And from here, what's the weight in Kbps of the sites you visit usually? How do you know how heavy they are? Most of us don't know. What is more, most of us have no idea how many Gbs we use in a month, or how to measure them. There's no counter, nor our operators put a counter anywhere for us to control that.

Now, before you click you should know how heavy the given site will be, and whether you can afford it or not. Kiss good-bye the $19.95/month you loved, you've got used to, because now there is no more. Think twice before refreshing your site because, yes, that's another download. And when the bills hit the proverbial fan, you'd be forced to either go bankrupt paying the internet that used to be affordable, or rescind your contract, and sell your fancy iPhone for a phone that does what phones are supposed to do: calls and sms. Cybercafes, and any place and option that opens up the chance to surf without regarding the volume downloaded or uploaded will rise again.

This way of charging, naturally will bring the number of visitors to different sites down, which would mean that advertizing in many of them would stop being an attractive business. Sites that bloom thanks to constant visitors and continued presence, as well as the use and download of apps will plumet. After all, it's not only a matter of buying the app, perhaps even giving away the rights over your personal data, but also paying the Kbs it weights. And well, for those staying online, advertizing, no matter how annoying, wouldn't be free anymore. Nope, they will be paying for every Kb those banners, pop-ups and flashy things weight.

I'm no engineer, so I don't know what kind of Ragnarok the current system is doing to the net, but I am an economist working in this Industry and I know what the proposed charging method could do. I also know that there are other ways to tackle the matter.

Some articles I read before all this started to take these proportions, said that it happened that certain companies (non mentioned in the articles) had no idea how much the flat rate was really costing them, nor had any idea how to measure it. In my personal opinion, that shouldn't be all that problematic, assuming they have an ordered, correct account of the costs associated with the service. If they don't, flat rate or per Kb, they won't know how much it costs, so no, this change is no solution, unless, of course, what they want is to skim the service fat and then leave a useless carcass, pulling people back to the time when we all watched TV, shopped in stores, communicated through phones and snailmail and read paper books.

189 Years of Independence... From Spain

As a penpal, I've been contacting native Spanish speaking women (I prefer penpals around my age, and we, ladies, are no girls, but Women), and though my favorites are the Latin Americans, are we all share a culture, and then, I must admit, the richness of South American cultures constantly bewitch me. However, I've also found some quite interesting potential penpals from Spain, with all their fun ways of speaking Spanish (even in written, they are so different from us! It's a complete hoot to read them!), and their fabulous culture.

Today is Independence Day, with all their Parades and celebrations, suddenly thinking of them is "strange", to say the least. I mean, we are making this huge party, nation wide party to celebrate that we are no longer theirs.

In here the celebrations, actually start from the 14th, around 6 pm, when the National Anthem is played and we all stand up and sing, and watch the Intependence Torch bring the fire of hope from province to province. It is one of those moments that really, really make you feel patriotic. All the buildings are decorated with the flag, people put little flags in their cars and decorate with them their workplaces. All patriotic songs are played, and we recover them in our memory, sing them again with the same fervor we had when we were young.

I've pictures of this, but since I'm stuck trying to upload a vid I did of the parade, which is why I have no bandwidth left for even the smallest picture ever. Probably you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see a couple of pics of it. (Later note: the vid failed, took too long to upload, so now I add a few pics.)

This year we celebrate the 189 anniversary of our Independence, and it has come with lessons, perhaps even wisdom. The Region is dipped in violence and turbulence, and this country is not the exception, and thus, as we celebrate our independence from Spain, we are held in many fronts by agression. Narcotraffic, crime and corruption in all levels. Our Governants surrender our country, without our concent, to other countries, like the U.S. and China, to foreing capital, like that of Industrias Infinito. We claim independence, freedom from the Spanish, freedom to be who we are, but we do not give the same right to the Native groups that originally lived here, whose lands we have looted and from which, like the Spanish, we have pushed them off.

Independent, really? And what had that independence done from us.

Hoops & Yoyo, how I love them!

Today is my boyfriend's birthday, and after a short call to greet him, I went online to procure him a nice e-card, because, after all, what's a birthday without funny birthday cards, right? Given that Hallmark had bowed low to Lord Money and was requesting US$0,99 for a card you can't really keep, I went seeking alternative solutions. However, no real e-card hunt can start without at least a passing look at one of my favorite sites: Hoops & Yoyo's. Their site went "Hallmark" in the past months, which meant it was out of the question for me in that regard, but I simply wanted to be there and remember the good ol' times.

Well, to my surprise, the site was free again! Free, free, free! Naturally I plunged in and reveled in all the marveous things they have. The wallpapers, the ringtones, the goodies, the cards... I don't know who made them change their mind, but thanks Hyne they did! As result I sent an old friend of mine an office card and so we are picking our tradition of "one-hoopsandyoyo-card-a-day". From their snappy replies to their coffee jitters, they are a bright spot in my day.

Have you Hoops&Yoyo today?

Nice & Sunny

Oh yeah, it's Friday. It's a freaking sunny day - too sunny for my vampiric eyes - and the weather looks fine, and Dad flipped on me regarding the morning ride to the office and the after work car shopping. Yes, I still have no car. Allegedly we'll go see the cars tomorrow, all of them Hyundai Accents, one of the most carjacked cars in this side of the Mississipi. Well, that I want to see. When I commented my good friend Carrie about the new car-of-choice, she wasn't impressed at all, but rather threw me one of those dismissing glances that say "so you are going to get one of those no-personality cars". Yep, I'm gonna get a no personality car, but then again, after the ordeal with the Monza, I rather have a no personality car, cheap to maintain (long live low maintenance!), than a pretty ride, Chevrolet to it (like Dean's Impala), but with a whiny EMO personality. I certainly don't want a car I'll end up calling "Fucking Edward Culled Drop Dead at Once". You know what I mean, the always problematic ride you enjoy tormenting, telling it how you gonna get it gutted, leave it in the slums to be dismembered and collect the insurance.

However let's stay focused, and focus now means that it is a sunny day. For how long I have no idea, but so far it's sunny. Just to make sure, I took pictures. Unlike my friend Dragonfly, I'm not really into the sky, but working at the 15th floor with a lot of glare from the windows, and unintended reflections of oneself and the surroundings, the sky is pretty much all you can picture. Pictures were taken at 7:30 am, and they weren't originally intended for this post - this post wasn't even in my mind then - but for my other great friend, Sartassa. She dropped me a mail wishing me a nice and sunny day. Well, it was sunny. It was so freaking sunny the sun was burning my eyes, shining right into them. Should have pulled a CSI Miami.

From that earlier picture you can guess there's a tennis club right next to us. Yeah, it's kinda mean to have people playing tennis, or swimming in the pool while we are here, in this awkward tower locked in working. At that time it looks so refreshing, you wish you could dive right into it.

Things in here haven't really improved, though with the new schedules it's much easier to get to the cubicle at starting time, or leave it. Well, for those of us who enter before 7 am. The 6 am shift (mine) is a true blessing: free and swift elevators, no crowds, easy, peaceful start, giving you plenty of time to prepare for meetings, or answer e-mails from the day before and have the project well advanced for when the boss comes in asking for it. And then, you leave at 3:36 pm, to everybody's bitter envy. I'm happy with the "flexible workschedules", but still that hasn't fixed the loooooong lines at the elevator at 7 am, from noon to 2 pm, or later on at 4:30 pm and all the way up to 5:30 pm, not to mention, the shaky elevators that crack worse than an old man's knees, which broke on regular basis, giving unsuspecting passangers a sudden "trip of death".

Once a coworkers was joking about them, saying that it was exactly like at the amusement park: you make a 45 minute line for a 5 minute that might end up with a shrieking surprise.

But this is a sunny day, so - again - let's try to keep focused. Sunny and nice, as even if I brought delicious Lebanese food, I'll go out with my coworkers to pig on Doc Brown's, a "gourmet" hamburger diner, which is really not so much gourmet as a Costa Rican version of what you see in Triple-D (Diners, Drive-ins and Dives), where you can build, and I do mean BUILD your own hamburger. You may want to stay clear from that option if you have no self control, or you'll end up with a HUGE hamburger that will finish you, chew you, eat you and spit you. These monsters can fill any stomach. Work is also nice and relaxed. Ain't low, but it's under control.

Got a call early morning from an area that wasn't willing to cooperate with us before on a project we had to evaluate. It was interesting because the job wasn't clean cut and had a lot of flaws that mostly come out from lack of checking - or beta-reading as fanfickers say - mistakes some fresh eyes on the document would have detected and corrected in a flash, and then some others that revealed lack of information among the parties and also unwillingness to walk the extra mile. When the document was sent to us for check up, well, I was fresh eyes and saw the mess, so I asked them for the extra bits and pieces, as well as a thorough explanation so I could see where are they coming from. I received ATTITUDE. Really. Comments in my face about how I evidently can't read (!), and no, I won't get the information they ask me, and I can't possibly expect such a thorough work, that I must stop putting up obstacles, should be ashamed of myself, and that my job is not to question their work (!), but simply approve it (!!). Oh, and since we are on the matter, who died and made my area the boss? (uhhh, the fact that we work directly with the CEO and we are "the last frontier" anyone wishing to pass a project to him shall pass?) This all without me ever telling them I think they are full of it, and I believe that not only their figures are bogus, but that their ideas for this project are a bucked of it.

So I did my job. I prepared the evaluation with what I had and included an extensive list of every single mistake I've found. My bosses liked my report, and sent it forward, not changing a comma. The report arrived to the CEO the 7th. The 8th they were "calling me", though I received no calls and my phone lets me know . The 9th I received a letter from the head of the given area, though the letter had to be returned because it didn't had the attachment, and it took them three hours to get it to me - which is when I received the letter, which in my opinion was predated.

Today - nice and sunny day -  I received a call from the Matron herself demanding me what was the status on the report. I tried to dodge her, but she insisted. Should have told her that I wasn't authorized to give her that information, that she should ask my boss, but instead, pressed and looking to "not spoil her the fun", I've told her only what she already knew.

"It says we didn't have the information we required to do a proper evaluation of it."

Oh, I could tell she was pissed off. Probably she plans to use the received memo to prove they did send me the information, only that's received two days after the finished report was sent to the CEO, and even if predated, I was mean enough to write on it the date AND the time, so no doubts would rise on that matter. It upset me how she evidently tried, to the last moment to undermine us instead of seeing in our intervention a chance to improve. Their defensiveness, their blunt attacking instead of working together, her prepotent declaring that she would back up the work of her people - only to change such a decided affirmation on the minute for "trust their work" - and evidently seeking to take us off the game. Well, we ain't going anywhere, particularly not now, when their strategies failed and we are here to stay. Oh yeah, and unlike they wanted it, us taking their methodology to work,  it will be them taking ours.

When I told my boss their schemes, he simply smiled amused and said that our reply was sent, it was done and they should have thought better before they brought their attitude problems to the table. He's right. So much could have been achieved with just a little of cooperation from their side. Hell, I was willing to do their job for them! Oh well, that's the power of pride used wrongfully.

This week, also I was informed officially that I was going to be promoted, and I received my paycheck notice - due for next week - with a nice sum. ^_^ First I wasn't convinced, because the number seemed familiar, so I checked the last notice and the amount was hardly higher! I felt ripped off! But after investigating a bit, I realized that the last paycheck had the "retroactive" of the last general raise, so... ^_^ My new wage is somewhat higher, so with my first promotion in 7 years, thanks to my Ultimate Favorite Boss, who is, BTW, the ABSOLUTE BEST BOSS (okay, maybe only second to the Non-Plus-Ultra RBF, who is the Saint Patron of Best Bosses).

Today, on this nice and sunny day I heard about this huge machinery moving its bowels again, and so we will be moved again, though mainly placed a scale higher - no mass promotions -  and add to it, I won't lose my Super Awesome Boss.

I've got two ultra fabulous pants and two ultra great sandals, and I'm wearing one of them with my brand new Naf Naf blouse, my hair is perfect, my life is even more perfect, I love my boyfriend, my penpals are all fabulous, I'm replying one of them and words pour out of me like you've no idea, the car business, though somewhat slow, is going awesome, the NFL is around the corner, I had a premium Happy Meal yesterday for the Children's Day, and so, in a nutshell, this was a great week, with an even greater Friday, as part all of a Great Life.

It's Awesome to be Me.

Bloggin' From The Mechanics

It's said that there's a first time for everything, and well, it might be right. I would never think I would from my phone, and yet here I sm, foing exactly that. It's a pain.

Anyway, today I went to see the Monza - The Monza - with our mechanic, Chucky, and based on what he said, I think I'm giving up my Chevrolet dream. :-( Boy, I feel so sad and disappointed. I think I'll get myself a new Naf Naf blouse, a new book and yummy food.