June 28, 2005

In the tropics

Category: Personal — @ 4:58 am

I am back in Puerto Rico, this time for longer than my most recent visit. I have never found that I was much of a blogger over the summer. The heat robs me of most of my motivation and this is doubly so in PR. When you function as someone else’s brain, and spend most of your days dealing with errands, the last thing I want to do in the evening is email or “actual” work. I have net access in the garden and though I am under a gazebo-like structure, it does not protect me that much from the heat, torrential rains that have come nearly every day, or scavenger mosquitoes that awaken soon after the rain stops.

I did wake up at 5 am this morning and finally got to a slew of email that were piling high. I think to get any work done while I am here I am going to have to wake up very early. The net connection is faster, the bugs are not as bad, and there is no one around :-)

June 23, 2005

The tiny pleasures of life

Category: Personal — @ 6:28 pm

The really tiny pleasures of life.

1. I love salsa music. What I love more is that many salsa songs start with an ultra-cheesy somewhat dramatic yet subdued opening and then within 20 seconds, BAM, they switch over to soul-shaking lyrics, cheese left behind. (Marc Anthony is a perfect example of this).
2. I love taking the lint out from the dryer filter. For some odd reason it gives me enormous satisfaction to do so, so much so I love it when the dryer user before me leaves he/r lint for me to take out. There is something about the uniformity and softness of laundry detritus that I find aesthetically pleasing, especially to touch.
3. I love these weird haircutting sudo-scissors that don’t really cut hair but thin hair. I don’t understand how they work, but I am thankful they do, otherwise I would be donning a poofball on my head.
4. I love hopping and bouncing in the ocean water. Boing.. boing, duck wave, boing, boing. I would love to see a bunny rabbit swim and boinnnng in the ocean but I think it would drown. I would love to know if bunny rabbits can swim.
5. I love ducks. I want a pet duck. The problem is I like to eat them too and I hear they poop all over the place. Can a duck be potty trained? And could I really refrain from getting hungry and roasting it after I get mad that it pooped all over the bathroom floor? Best not to get a pet duck even if I love them.
7. I love ocean bioluminescent animals. The color is nothing short of stunning. Ocean water and stars in sky, miles apart, also seem connected by resonating light.
8. I love the smell of basements, and plado.
9. I love waking up really early like at 5 am after a good night’s sleep. It rarely happens but when it does, damn, you know that there is just something *right* about arising early.
10. I love that my mom’s neighbor in PR has wireless and I can “surf” in the garden. I hope he keeps the access open.

June 21, 2005

A sense of roake pride

Category: Wholesome — @ 4:50 pm

It is strange to find out what may spur a personal sene of pride. This morning a link to the wfmu (a really great station coming out of Jersey City, prolly my next home) blog was brought to my morning attention and alas, there was a picture of me karaoking with my favorite karaoke partner of all time: Linda “Big Mouth” Graham. When I saw the picture, a sense of strange and usual pride (but pride) welled deep inside of me. I was so happy to see a picture of me karaoking during the best night of my karaoke life, representing the core of what I think as exquisite karaoke joy. I guess the picture has made itself to other websites.
The pictures came as a reminder that I have denied myself this pleasure, mostly because I can’t handle bar smoke (it gives me sinus problems). I went from weekly karaoke in SF to basically none in Chi-town. As much as I am going to miss this city, I look forward to moving east where I can once again belt it out, smoke free

June 18, 2005

Geekabration

Category: Chicago,Tech,Wholesome — @ 11:03 am

Come celebrate the Debian release with those from Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area. Here are the details and we will be enjoying what is probably one of the nicest views of the city.

June 16, 2005

Linux distro’s, visual representation

Category: Humor,Uncategorized — @ 8:05 am

brilliant

June 15, 2005

Les temps d’Indymedia

Category: Politics,Tech — @ 7:57 pm

Over a year ago I took some time off from my dissertation to write an article on Indymedia. The editor kept pushing me to write more and the next thing I knew, it balloned out to nearly 40 pages. Since then, the Planet Work journal has not published another issue, which is a shame. But recently, the article has taken on a new life, thanks to the translation work of a prolific French writer Anne Querrien over at Multitudes (and as usual thanks of course to Patrice R :-) ). This version is not only in French but a little shorter than the original.

For those who read French, the Paris IMC (note their *really* nice banner) folks put the full Multitudes article up on thier documentation site. If your French is strong (or even weak, who cares), the entire issue, which is on alternative and post media(s) (Blogs, radio, peer to peer) looks really good. I look forward to receiving it in the mail and taking a stab at my weak French (perhaps more like my: non-existent-I-recognize-words-because-of-Spanish-French).

June 14, 2005

.com to go out da door

Category: Other — @ 7:27 am

If you get to this site via .com or write me to hh.com, I am not renewing the domain or address. As of July it won’t work anymore.

Latin America creeps to the left

Category: Politics — @ 7:12 am

I went to a fairly well-off high school in San Juan Puerto Rico for 14 years. I actually failed the enterance exam (I could not draw a house or talk properly with the psychologist) but they let me in anyway and I guess it turned out all right. Despite the fact that the school served the upper crust of society, many of the teachers were fairly liberal or flaming leftists. In retrospect, I can’t quite understand how the school’s board, composed of a small collection of San Juan’s business men, lawyers and doctors (and perhaps one or two ladies) ever let this happen but I am glad they did. During my tenure there, I had 2 years of Puerto Rican history with a Puerto Rican Independista who pretty much loathed the United States, and its “eeeemperialism.” I still hold a great love of following Latin American politics and it has been interesting and exciting to see various LA countries creep over to the left side of the spectrum. One of my PR Linux buddies, Pedro, wrote up an excellent overview of the current situation, the American response, and also placed it within a longer historical perspective. It is a great read: U.S. in the O.A.S. and its Relation to Latin America

June 13, 2005

Nye’s Polonaise

Category: Wholesome — Biella @ 7:54 am

I just got back from a wedding in Minneapolis. At the end of the celebration we ended up in bar of extremely unusual proportions, Nyes : an “extremely dangerous” polka band in one quarter, piano karaoke bar in another, glitter naughahyde furniture a top of deep red carpeting, waitresses and bartenders from a different era, and a motely mix of patrons. I dare say that it is worth a 7 hr drive from Chicago just to go there, for one night…

June 9, 2005

Whose walls, whose art, whose secret job?

Category: Chicago — @ 10:35 am

From the Wooster Collective, Buffing becomes an inside job:

As more advertisers incorporate graf and street art into their campaigns, more graffiti writers are taking to the streets to protest against it. But in many cases, there’s an interesting twist to all of this.

The artists who are defacing the ads, are also the same artists who created them.

Here’s the situation: A large segment of the most hardcore graf and street artists also have day jobs to pay the bills. Who doesn’t. But many of them now work in traditional ad agencies or design shops. Their identity on the streets is kept secret in the workplace…