Wednesday 25 April 2007

Appreciation II

Sometimes you can't appreciate just how awesome a personal situation is unless you have some crappy personal situations to compare it too. I'm not going to make this a long deep thoughtful post because I don't feel I could do it justice. But the sweet short and condensed version is that I was having a crappy experience regarding lawn mowers, overgrown weeds and the city code enforcer. Sparing you all the excruciating details, I found a new appreciation for my neighbor Charles and my other neighbor Glenis. They probably will never read this but I just wanted anyone who does read this...those guys ROCK! :D

Also, my wife is having some crappy experiences healthwise (don't worry, nothing life threatening, but still painful). But without these crappy experiences we might not fully appreciate our friends the Smiths, the Sanders, the Pickers, the Maddisons, the Gootches and our extended families...all of these people ROCK too!

When I woke up this morning two hours earlier than normal to take my kids to the dentist, I was a grumpy, crabby, self-centered mess. I had no idea that the day would end with me feeling so appreciative. Thank you everyone YOU ROCK!

Saturday 21 April 2007

Food for the thought: Your next president

Although I'm not an american citizen, I must say that the elections in Oscar's country affects mine too (and I dare to say pretty much the planet). Considering this and the fact that there are already pre-candidates asking for your vote (and money) I should suggest to look after the less known, yet popular "extra" candidates and their plataforms:


Cthulu: The Older One from the fabled Necronomicon and from the Myth's fame. His plataform is easy "Cthulhu for President, why vote for the lesser of two evils? " Basically the whole world will become a playground for his alien desires, driving mankind to madness (not a hard task I have to say) and eating the survivors as meal. For more info about this, check his particular stances in topics such as foreing policy here:


General Zod: You remember him from movies such as "Superman II" and tv shows like "Smallville". Well, apparently he has realized that is easier and less hassle to conquer the world through the presidency than by sheer force. Just becasue people is already paying tribute. Here is his plataform for more information




Finally a personal favorite from the NAFTAline team: Lord Darth Vader of the Sith. True, he lost the race four years ago, but he is relentless and strong willed so it is to expect that he is going to run again next year. His plataform: Rule through terror. And we know that in his hands, terror is an effective tool. Just have faith on him (or else). Here is more info about his plataform for the 2004 that probably will have some tweaks to face the new challengers.
So those are the options, now tell me than they aren't better choices than the current ones. This is NAFTAline in another service to community.

Wednesday 18 April 2007

Screwing the Planet: A Global Warning

I just finished to see another movie, one that would make difficult to sleep tonight. It not an horror movie, but it does forsee a possible scenario wher Erath will be devastated. Is not a commercial movie, but a documentary, one that probably most people in USA have heard of: An Inconvinent truth, by Al Gore.

Now I know that Mr. Gore has been receiving tons of critics lately due the fact that flying is polluting and he has been doing it a lot. But that doesn't means that he is wrong. The message of his slideshow is clear, we are going straight to hell (literally) and we are running out of timeto push the brakes. No one in the planet can reduce to zero his/her environmental print (unless is dead and even then...), but can be reduced significantly, so Mr. Gore is probably compensating the CO2 from his travels by other means.

Going to the topic of the movie, probably one of the mental images that made me more sad now that in years before, was the polar bears drowning because the North Pole is close to be a large pool. Think on this, just because some Oil magnates want to change his carpet in his mansion, he made you to consume more fuel. This is in agreement with the automobile industry (at leats the american one), that says that only by manufacturing bigger cars, they can compite with other companies (which is a lie since most of american car companies are in big troubles) they can keep the economy, so they offer you only cars that can burn more fuel in one day that all of your medieval ancestor in all his life span.

So we are killing polar bears just because a bunch of fucking greed bastards want more money than they will be able to take with them to the tomb. Is that fair? And in case some of the readers don't care about polar bears, monarch butterflies or penguins, I just want to remember two things: Hurrican Katrina obliterating New Orleans and the Tsunami in South Asia (remember my last post about superstorms not being feasible? Guess what? Katrina was just the sample). If they death of thousands of people and the thousands of displaced survivors with the raising potential of new and old diseases cleaning those zones in a war-zone like scene doens't make you to change or at least consider the issue, hell is a worthy place.

Why hell? Because with the raising of the temperatures in an exponential way (more in the last generation than in all human history), that is what we are transforming Earth into. Don't let politicians to confuse you: there is a general consensus among scientifics that Global Warming is real. Politicans just want to misdirect your attention because it hits them where it hurts: their pockets.

I can go and go and go in this subject and I probably will, since is the topic of my PhD and something I take very serious. But I will save more bullets for tomorrow (when I will post some links with advices of how to reduce you environmental print). Just wanted to finish saying that we are in the last meters of a global destruction race, but we can still change the direction, we have the tools, the knowledge , we just need the will to do it.

QuickTips For Guys: #1

If you ever buy flowers for your wife or girlfriend, give them to her in the morning. That way she'll have at least eight hours while you are away at work to romanticize about how wonderful you are. If you give them to her in the evening when you get home, she'll have the visualization of you sitting around on your fat butt drinking beer in your boxer shorts. Surprisingly, that doesn't achieve the same effect.

Monday 16 April 2007

Does God have sex?

It's a simple question, but the answer...

If we were created in God's image, then I assume he has all the right parts. If this is the case, who did he, or does he, have sex with?

Lets see what the "net" says.....~time lapse~.....Well I looked extensively for 10 minutes, and found very little. :)

It was brought up on one forum that God had sex with Mary, but I really don't think that's how it happened.

So, what do you think?

My theroy is, God is such a perfect being that he already knows every feeling, therfore has no need for sex, or any other pleasure.

But still, if he has no need for it, where did he come up with the idea? At any rate it was a damn good one!

Survival skills after a natural catastrophe

Tonight (or last night, depending of the time zone), I was watching in tv a rerun of the movie "The Day after tomorrow". That, coupled with some of the stuff I have been reading during the PhD about how pollution is changing the global weather and the balance of power and needs; and a call from my parents last week about a strong earthquake felt in Mexico, left me thinking on how it would be to live the day after a massive natural catastrophe hit the place where I was living at that moment.


I realize that the premise of the above mentioned movie is far fetched and almost impossible to occur. But they said something similar 20 years ago about the climate patterns and now we have the Niño effect. I'm not saying that a massive superstorm will occur, but one can't also say that it never will happen. There is a lot that we ignore about how our planet works and we are so ignorant and/or stubborn to realize that we are not the omnipontent owners of the blue sphere, so I wouldn't be too surprised if tragedies like the Tsunami in Asia in 2004 happen again (a tragedy of which curiously enough, several people around the world dreamed (as in a dream at night, not as a wish) days before, but that is topic for another post).

Following that trail of thought I was musing about how prepared we are or in this case I'm to face the aftermatch of a global phenomenon that change our world and civilization (could be a new Ice Age, an global rise in the temperature producing scarcity of water, the rise of the the sea level covering massive portions of continental land, nuclear winter or biological war aftermath).

Obviously depending the type of event, would be the actions to take, but I guess that the first element of a basic survival skill kit would be the will to survive. Most people that have survived accidents have stated that what helped them to make it through the ordeal was the belief that they will survive, either by the help of a superior power or by sheer strenght of character, maybe a mix of both. The second basic skill would be humility; to learn from our past mistakes, to realize that we are not alone and that we need to work togheter with other survivors. Also some basic knowledge in science and common sense would be useful. During the tsunami event in Asia, people from remote, tribal areas fared better than people from cities, due the communal knowledge, like being watchful and understanding the behaviour of animals (probably the best alarm in the planet). Mother Nature is a wise (yet rude) mistress and she provided the animals with enough common tools to survive these kinds of events. Basic science can help us to keep a average level of health and to cope with different situations (like how to insulate ourselves with makeshift elements in order to deal with a sudden drop of the temperature).

Is a fact that any hunting, survival and even combat skill might come useful (now buying the bow and that katana doesn't sound as stupid as I though first). But maybe the most important paired with the will of make it to another day, is how to be ready. I'm not saying that we need to build a nuclear shelter like during the Cold War, but just taking basic previtions that even goverments (or at least in the case of Mexico) suggest, like having the important papers (such as passports and IDs) in a safe, accesible place, getting canned supplies and emergency kits (medicines, radios, maps, torchs and other stuff) ready for any event.

That should work for the intial days, but I still keep wonder how would be the life after that. Hollywood movies portray either a grim world or a world with hope. I think that both extremes are unreal, in face of how humanity can be its better ally or its worst enemy. Culture would change and the meaning of civilization as well as our paradigms will shift to go along the new situation. Probably a return to basic ways of life would take precedent over the amenities we have grown used to.

This is such a rich topic to keep talking for days, specially when you have a vivid and overactive imagination like mine (I'm already making plans in my head of hunting with my bow and getting a street dog as companion to fence any thug). But right now, my main concern is to evaluate if I'm ready to deal with this kind of situation (specially being far away from home like now) and what I do need to improve and if my life experience and general knowledge will be enough. I guess that is time to get in shape again and get in contact with my future clan.


Sunday 15 April 2007

My Modeling Career Begins

Last Friday marked a very important day for me...the beginning of my modeling career. It wasn't a carefully calculated career move, it was one born out of necessity.

I was designing a newspaper ad to let people know that this is the last weekend that Girl Scout cookies would be available for sale until next year's sale. The headline read "Last Chance to Catch Girl Scout Cookies!" and the accompanying picture was of a Girl Scout cookie running away from a hand making a grab for it.

Making the cookie running away was easy enough, I used a real picture of the cookie and drew legs with running shoes on it. The hand was another story though. I searched for over an hour through clipart cds and looking on Google for a photo I could use of a grabbing hand. The pictures I found just didn't work for me. Either they didn't look like they were "grabbing" or they looked like they were from a horror movie. (Not appropriate for a Girl Scout advertisement.)

Rather than waste any more time looking for a picture that would work, I decided to make my own. I broke out the digital camera and snapped off a few pictures of my own hand and within a few minutes my ad was complete. Last Friday, my hand appeared in several newspapers in Washington. A new career was underway.

If you don't think that someone can actually make a living this way, I'd just like to remind you of a certain J.P. Prewitt, a famous hand model played by David Duchovny in the biographical film Zoolander. Hand models have appeared in Hollywood movies, therefore they must be real. But don't worry, when I become rich and famous I won't forget all the "little people" who I met along the way. Like old whats-his-butt...and that other guy...you know...the ones who contribute to this blog. Their names escape me at the moment but they know who they are, and they would have an open invitation to come visit me at my SoCal mansion. (As long as they make reservations in advance with my secretary and fill out the appropriate paperwork and insurance disclaimers.)

Green Arrow Movie

This week has been reported (http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/778/778978p1.html) that David Goyer is going to film a Green Arrow movie. David Goyer is known as the writer of the superb "Batman Begins" and as decent director (Blade II and Blade Trinity). His latest project, aside "Dark Knights" (sequel of Batman Begins) script, was the failed movie of The Flash with Ryan Reynolds as Flash. But there are four catches in this project: the movie is not going to be called Green Arrow nor something similar, but Super Max; is going to be like superhero-meets-prision break; Ollie would be GA just for the first ten minutes and the rumor is that Brad Pitt will play Ollie.

Here is Goyer's idea: "He's Green Arrow for the first 10 minutes of the movie, and then he's arrested and his secret identity is revealed," Goyer told Wizard. "They shave his goatee and they take his costume and send him to prison for life, and he has to escape. It's like Alcatraz, and he has to team up with, in some cases, some of the very same villains he is responsible for incarcerating in order to get out and clear his name. Of course, tons of people try to kill him while he's in there. We've populated the prison with all sorts of B and C villains from the DC Universe. For the fans, there will be all sorts of characters the hardcore comic book junkies will know, but they're all going to be there under their human names and no one is wearing a costume, but there will be a lot of characters with powers and things like that."

Now here is my opinion: is not secret here that I love GA as much as Supes so hearing the news of a movie is unreal (heck I even have a bow and practice archery because of that). However I have mixed feelings. Goyer is a decent director as I said earlier, but I prefer him as writer than director, he is better at that (but I guess that Christopher Nolan is out of question and Kevin Smith will be in the project just a technical consultant). So while I think the story will be good, I not feel so sure about the rest of the movie.

Second: Brad Pitt? Don't get me wrong, he is a good actor (when he wants to be anyways) and "Fight Club" is a proof of that and that he can play a badass. However I'm not crazy of him being Ollie. Don't ask me why, maybe is just that I like a lot how Justin Hartley portrayed Ollie. But I guess that since GA is not a big name in the mind of the public when they hear of superheroes, Brad Pitt's name can secure the box office.

The story idea: well although the Prision Break aspect is strage, I can say that in GA context makes sense. He is an urban, street level superhero, like Batman, so pitting him against his archenemies in a prision is a fresh take in a comic-to-movie wave where everybody (aside Superman Returns and sequels of Marvel movies)) is telling origins stories. Besides as IGN said, seeing at Ollie making a bow and arrows with scrap material in a prision and beating the crap of supervillians at bare hands is going to be quite cool.

As I said, the idea of a movie sounds cool and I want to see it, so a part of me is really glad (a movie of GA is like a geek dream of me). However the other part of me is sad because that means that WB is going to clamp the idea of a GA series like Smallville with Justin as the lead actor and that maybe we are not going to see anymore GA in Smallville. Unless DC and WB use GA's tv version as a marketing tool for the movie and the he will be back at SV. Who knows?

Thursday 12 April 2007

Mergers

The past few months, the term "merger" has been sitting heavily in my mind. The company I am currently employed with operates on a charter from a larger entity. Last year it was decided that our company will have to merge with a neighboring franchise in order to be effective and keep up with the times.

Unfortunately, that means there were some redundancies in the staffing structure, including my position. So from my point of view, doing a full scale job search and facing the predicament of unemployment as the sole income earner in our family, the word "merger" carries a negative connotation.

Perhaps it is for this reason that I find so annoying the business of merging the names of celebrity couples to form one singular Hollywood train wreck. Brangelina. Bennifer. Tomkat. Who officially approved this style of defiling the English language? I don't remember there ever being a bill brought before Congress, or as some might now call it, the Represenators or the Senatatives. And yet it's caught on like wildfire.

It is all the rage now to blur the lines between male and female. If you are involved in a relationship you are fair game. Even those with short names are not immune. Viewers of NBC's The Office take the masculine character Jim and the feminine character Pam and turn it into the hermaphroditic "Jam". Blech. And as my NAFTAline collaborator, Winged Lion, pointed out a few days ago, even Superman is not invulnerable to these attacks on his manhood. Fans of Smallville are witnesses and sometimes even the perpetrators of the brutal feminization of the Clark name. Chlark, Clois, Clana...lets just make Superman's costume hot pink why don't we?

I don't know if I speak for my fellow NAFTAliners, or Wingoscunk, as we sometimes call ourselves, but I personally feel that this name-merging is a scourge that must be stopped. Jamming two words together never leads to an end result that is respectable. Stop the presses! Did I just imply that the celebrity marriages of Ben Afflek, Jennifer Lopez, Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, etc. are respectable!!? What am I thinking? I'm sorry, please disregard everything I just said.

P.S. As a side note I just wanted to announce that after two years of intellectually deficient performance, I've decided to delete my Oscar the Grouch Myspace account. Anyone who kept in contact with me via Myspace can now find me at my new account, run jointly with my wife, Glory. Or as some people call us, Osclory. Or Gloscar. Whatever you prefer.

Before you were born, your brain was female.

Well well well, guys, take a look at this article from Mens Health.

I know it sounds trippy, but it's true, and if you want to understand the mysteries of the female brain, you need to accept it. Throughout the first 2 months of pregnancy, every embryonic brain is wired for girlhood. If that embryo has female genes, its brain will continue to develop with little interruption. But in a case like yours, all hell breaks loose in the third month, as a pair of extremely tiny testicles begins to send squirts of testosterone through your developing body.

As the hormone enters the nascent brain, it will arrest development in certain regions and stimulate growth in others--notably, the ones that govern your sexual appetite.

That's just the beginning, for after you're born, the sex cabinets in your male brain just keep expanding. Indeed, the portion of your hypothalamus that governs sexual pursuit will grow larger and stronger until you reach adulthood. Scientists are unsure of its exact size in humans, but in other mammals, it's known to be as much as seven times larger in males than in females. It has been estimated that the sex circuits in a typical man's brain light up once a minute--much more often than a woman's.


I guess we men were the first mutants. Now where are my superpowers?

Tuesday 10 April 2007

Can you hold please?

Can someone please explain to me why some folks answer the phone and say, "Can you hold please?" and then put you on hold before you can answer? I feel like hanging up every time this happens to me, honestly, it's just plain rude.

Can you imagine if this type of thinking spilled into other facets of life? If people asked questions, but then just went ahead and did whatever they thought you wanted before you could answer.

"Welcome to McDonalds, would you like the Big Mac Special? That will be $4.95"

"Do you feel like sex tonight, honey? WOW! That was good!"

"Can I have a bite of your candy bar?...BURP man that’s good stuff."

"Do you want to go out on a date with me? I'll see you at 8."

Friday 6 April 2007

Public service: Save Smallville from Clana

This might be odd, but is just a small announcement: there is a petition online:

http://petitionspot.com/petitions/STOPClana/%20

To stop Clana (Clark drooling for Lana) in Smallville, before the show turns (even more) in a teen drama. Bring on the superheroic stuff and Lois. IMO this show is about Superman before being Big Blue, not a superpowered lame Dawson's Creek. If you notice the best episodes of the last season are those where the plot of being a superhero was in the front, had better audience than the lame emo-Clark pining for Lana. I think is time to save the show from its own doom.

I need to stop before I write a 20 pages rant... well I'm going to do it anyway, but right now I'm busy with PhD stuff. So go and sign. Your show needs you.

P.S: Dear reader, you will notice that I'm a canon supporter in this case (otherwise known as Clois), so there is no love here for Clana or Chlark. I do however enjoy Chloe character as sidekick.

Thursday 5 April 2007

I Did Something Stupid Today (IDSST) : Part II

It must be contagious. I just had my own stupid moment a few minutes ago. My wife forwarded me an e-mail, which came as an attachment, from the kids' school. It was a document that we needed to print out and keep for reference. My wife's e-mail simply said, "Print out and bring home please." I opened the attached e-mail from the school which contained another attachment...the actual document to be printed. I hit reply and typed a message for my wife that said, "Will do, smootzy-poo." and sent it. After printing it I started to close the many windows that were now open on my computer. When I got to the e-mail from the school, a horrible realization struck me. A quick check of my "Sent" e-mails confirmed it. I had written "Will do, smootzy-poo" to the secretary of my kids' school. It looks like I was flirting with a school employee.

New Section: I did something stupid today

Inaugurating a new section today at NAFTAline, we have: "I did something stupid today" where the stooges will share when they do something really stupid that is worthy to be here.

So as first issue in this topic I will share that I did something stupid today: I bought an archery set. Why it was stupid even when in the coolness book having a bow and actually using it is in the top levels? Well maybe just because I actually need to save money for things like food, accomodation and medicines, instead of spending it, by being dragged by one of my crazy friends who wants me to teach her how to use it (when I just have six months learning proper archery). Never travel with a shopping crazy-deprived coffee scottish vegan to a sport store... or any store in any case or your wallet will regret it. However you will have tons of fun and excitment, that is for sure.

Well, as I said in my post about wanting to fly like Superman, since I don't think I will suddenly develop kryptonian powers, I can go for the Green Arrow route.

I have the bow and soon the skills. Now I need the money, which I spent a part of it. That is why this was stupid in some way.

PDA

Speaking of getting old and losing your mind...the little missus and I went out last night because it was one of those occasions where we had a volunteer baby sitter (Grandma's are wonderful!) and we jumped at the chance to hit the karaoke bar. No, WE are not getting old and losing our minds, I'll get to that later.

Things were kind of slow when we arrived at the bar, in the karaoke room only the guy who emcees the karaoke and his wife/girlfriend? were singing. Everyone else was in the main part of the bar watching baseball. I actually kind of like to arrive when its slow, it gives you a chance to try out a new song or two and get warmed up for when it gets hopping.

So we each took turns singing and listening, my wife looks beautiful and I have my arm around her. Now I have to explain, neither her nor I are very big on Public Displays of Affection (PDA). Putting an arm around a shoulder or quick pecks on the cheek are comfortable when there are strangers around but anything more risque is pushing it. But when we are in the comfort of our own home and the kids are asleep...yeah baby! Ahem...(cold shower).


Unfortunately, as I was reminded again last night, not everyone is as uncomfortable with PDA. and it seems that when blood alcohol level is raised and inhibitions are lowered, instances of high-level PDA increase. This is exemplified by the elderly couple that showed up later on. It was the old codger's birthday and his wife got up to sing him three or four verses of "Happy Birthday To You" with the help of some of her younger drunken companions (daughters maybe?). It wasn't pretty.

Now don't get me wrong. I can appreciate someone expressing their feelings for another, especially when its old people who have had long lasting marriages. And it was obvious that this woman did not care what other people thought as she stood up there cackling out the notes...she was going to sing this song for her man and that was that. It was an unselfish act on her part, probably done out of love, purely for the benefit of the old man. And while the quality of sound was not good...was not really even listenable...everyone in the bar had a smile on their face, I think we all were somewhat touched by the gesture. It was very sweet.

But WHY oh WHY!? Why did they have to go and ruin the moment? As soon as the music stopped she walked back to her table and for the next several minutes, Ma and Pa Kettle proceeded to lick face. There was more tongue there than at a KISS concert. Now I'm a person who looks away and goes "eeeeeewww" during a movie when two attractive movie stars are sharing a screen kiss. Imagine how much more queasy I felt to see two old and shriveled senior citizens licking each other's moustaches and making out like teenagers.

It was gross but there is humor in it too. At some point, people "mature" to the point where they no longer worry about impressing people or looking "cool". It's like they become the opposite of a teenager. Except that they still make out.

Wednesday 4 April 2007

Falling Apart


The morning of my 30th birthday I woke up and I hurt. My elbow was throbbing, my knees were creaking and when I finally dragged myself out of bed, the bones in my feet were crackling. That was about a year and a half ago and it turned out to be just a coincidence. It was a relief to know that I didn't magically become an old duffer on the morning of my 30th birthday. My elbow was fine the next day.

Fast forward a year and a half and I have to reconsider. A little over a week ago my eyes had trouble focusing. I was seeing things double and it gave me such a headache I had to lay down. The double vision eventually went away but still a week later, my eyesight is not as sharp as I remember it being. Of course it might not be my eyes getting worse, but my memory getting worse. Maybe my eyes were always bad but in my senility, I've forgotten.

And a week before that, I was walking around the house barefoot and stubbed my pinkie toe on the coffee table. I didn't see it there...aha, a clue...my vision IS going bad. But I should have remembered that the table was there...so maybe it IS my memory that is going. *SIGH* Do you understand my predicament. I'm not sure what is going on, I feel so confused. Is that an early sign of Alzheimers?

I was just starting to feel back to normal again, getting back into my "youthful" groove, when I suffered another case of my body failing me. I was biting into a tasty taquito when I felt a click back in my jaw. I spit the bite out into my napkin and reached back into my mouth with a finger. I felt what I thought was a piece of tortilla chip stuck in my gums and scratched at it with a fingernail. Something shot out of my mouth and onto the floor.

Immediately I knew something was not right. My tongue, which for the last 20+ years has had an intimate relationship with my molars, caressing thier smooth enamel covering, was now greeted with a harsh jagged reality of a roughly cracked tooth. I was in disbelief, I was imagining I should be in lots of pain but oddly, there was none. Except for the roughness of the broken tooth against my tongue, I wouldn't have known anything was different. I was in denial until I got on my hands and knees and searched under the table and found the piece of tooth.

The lack of pain can probably be attributed to the fact that the tooth might have been dead already and was just hanging out for appearances sake. I wonder how many other body parts I have that are like that. My eyes, my memory, my teeth, my toenails...Oh yeah, I almost forgot: When I stubbed my pinkie toe, the toenail came clear off. Again, thankfully there wasn't a lot of pain, just another dead body part waiting to come jarred loose. I don't know what is more worrisome, the fact that there are parts falling off my body or the fact that I meant to mention the toenail incident three paragraphs ago and it completely left my mind.

Maybe its a merciful gift from my Creator that the mind is going along with the body. If I remembered more about what my body has gone through, I might be more stressed out about it. I guess ignorance really IS bliss.

Monday 2 April 2007

A Little Bit of Fun

Seeing as how my last few entries have been purely dry and educational, I'm giving you a break and posting something simply for fun. Enjoy!

Video Game Memories?

I had a thought this morning. Do first person video games create the same memories as actually doing something in person? Now before you call me a kook just hear me out. Think back to a time in your life that you remember well, but something at least 10 years ago. Do you remember how things looked, the layout of an old apartment, the interior of a favorite car? Now think back to a first person shooter game, do you remember walking into a room, where things were (if you did it a couple hundred times you most likely do:) ) a broken chair, blinking light?

Now let’s fast forward to the future, let’s say I’m an old man, I’m starting to confuse things. Is it possible that I will remember being in the army because of playing Battlefield 2?
“I remember the day we were pinned down in a little town over in the Gulf of Oman, I was down, but the field meds patched me up good. So I pressed R to reload my rifle, and we kicked the shit out of em!”
“Grandpa, you were never in the war.”
“Listen to me sonny, I remember it like it was yesterday, just like the time the Aliens landed and we sent them packing.”
“Grandpa, that’s was just a video game.”
“That’s no way to speak to a War Vet; you kids today have no respect!”

So, what do you think? Am I crazy, or are we really rotting our brains with all these video games?

If I could fly like Superman

That has been my thoughts since Sunday morning, when I had to take my flight back to UK in order to continue my pursuit of a PhD (which btw, might have no real application, but the tittle is nice when appears before your name).

I have been travelling from almost 18 hrs. Why so much you could ask. Well for once, I'm not a millionarie (I barely survive witha scholarship in one of the most expensive countries), so I had to take a flight with a stop in order to be able to pay it. A few years ago I would do it by KLM, the dutch airline, but Air Canada offered me a better deal this time. So I went from Mexico City to Toronto and from there to London. Basically I can say that I've been in Canada, even if my vistis was reduced to two hours in the airport lounge. In any case the flights were nice, the food decent and it even arrived 15 minutes earlier.

But those 15 min. were waste by a rookie custom worker who made annoying questions and the bus, who arrived to the airport two and half hours late (something similar happened to me when I was going to take the flight last Christmas) and took the panoramic route, so I alomost missed the bus connection to my current town. Luckily, the company hold the other bus until my arrival and I managed to get to Loughborough at a decent time. But by that moment I had travelled and waited and wasted almost 2 days. And don't even mention the jet-lag or the change of altitude or teh fact that my luggage could make it as test for the olympics of weightlifting.


So that is why I wish I could fly like Superman, becaus ethat emans that I shoudl have his other powers, therefore I could carry my belongings with one hand and cross the Atlantic in a few minutes. I just need a GPS (since I lack of sense of orientation and I don't want to be lost in the middle of the ocean). It also would allow me to be with my family during weekends and eat healthier than now. And if I needed more or less clothes I just need to fly back. And for free!!! So yeah, that would be nifty (and much, much better than teleportation, which is basically a death by subatomic cloning... more on that later).

But unless I suddenly develop kryptonian powers, I guess that I need to travel like everybody else. Maybe I can go with the Oliver Queen way, since I already practice archery adn I just need to win some billiosn to have my own jet. Oh well I need a better plan now, about how to make tons of money.

Sorry for boring you with this, but I hoped that this entry should end the attention hog of the dictionary. Damm you Webster :P.

Attention Hogs

Did you ever have that one friend who no matter what the situation ALWAYS had to be right in the middle of it? If it isn't all about them, they try to make it about them. Like say for instance, the coolest thing that ever happened to you just happened and you're all excited to tell people about it and then along comes the attention hog who spends the next hour telling about something similar, only way cooler, that happened to them five years ago.

What kind of barren, hollow, unfulfilled life must someone be living if every waking moment they feel the need to push their presence to the forefront to be noticed by others. Maybe they are oblivious as to how pathetic it looks to sacrifice their dignity seeking only the approval of the people standing around them. I find it absolutely rebarbative.

That's the Merriam Webster Online word of the day:

rebarbative • \rih-BAR-buh-tiv\ • adjective
: repellent, irritating


Don't you find it rebarbative when someone is so desperate for attention that they'll think of anything just to have an excuse to talk about themselves. I know a guy like that. ATTENTION HOG! Even stooping so low as to hog to himself five entries in a row on a blog that is supposed to be a collaboration. And its not like he even has anything interesting to say...he's just regurgitating words out of the dictionary to hear the sound of his own voice. Ugh. Rebarbative indeed!