The Day After Yesterday

Microsoft Careers Website down

2009-01-24T13:55:00.003-04:00

Tried to access the website and got this error. I can't believe they have forgotten to schedule a log shrink job, or maybe it was not enabled. And why are they showing their undies like this, shouldn't errors be kept to local debuggers only? Nonetheless, major blunder.

Seagull Attacks Young Child

2008-05-23T00:09:00.003-04:00

So this guy has his kid hold up a french fry...check out the story on iphonesavior.com:

http://www.iphonesavior.com/2008/05/iphone-hero-sna.html

Algo nuevo

2008-04-28T10:02:00.004-04:00

Que bueno que puedo postear desde el trabajo ya. A veces se me ocurren cosas aquí y cuando llego a la casa ya se me han olvidado.

Acabo de recibir buenas noticias. Aparentemente tendré un perro nuevamente. Hace tiempo que no tengo perro y realmente no sé cual será el sentimiento, además de felicidad. Estoy seguro de algo: tendré cosas que hacer por un tiempo. Los perros jóvenes no son muy diestros en esperar la hora de salir para hacer sus necesidades, y este ni siquiera podrá salir por un tiempo...así que todo será un trabajo de entrenamiento que hace tiempo no llevo a cabo. Y los perros son buena compañía. A ver que nombre me invento, por ahora creo que Paco.

No Puedo

2008-04-19T11:51:00.009-04:00

No sonreir si sonries
Sentarme si bailas
Voltear la cara si me miras
Soltarte cuando estas entre mis brazos

Quedarme tranquilo mientras lloras
Dejarte caer en un abismo de sufrimiento
Verte sola en una isla de angustia
Entender que te llenas de tristeza

Olvidar que existes
Dejar de soñarte
Estar tranquilo si no estas
Pasar los días sin ti

Mujer

2008-04-14T19:17:00.003-04:00

Empieza igual que todos
Entre llantos y sonrisas
Bajo una gran luz resplandecente
Donde todos son desconocidos

Aprende como se vive
Entre unos que quieren
Y otros que odian
Y peor aun los que envidian

De repente confusión
La curiosidad mata
Cambios rapidos
Nuevas experiencias

Vienen unos que otros
Algunos malos
Otros peores
Finalmente uno bueno

La felicidad mas grande
Es producto del dolor aun mayor
Sonrisas incontrolables
Llantos de satisfacción

Vive entre dias azules
Y otros grises
Entre nubes redondas
Y puñales de papel

Se admira y adora
Hasta el fin de su vida
Deja atras huellas
Que nunca se deshacen

Termina igual que los otros
Entre llantos y sonrisas
Bajo una gran oscuridad
Donde no hay nadie más que ella

Mujer

Duele

2008-04-06T20:50:00.003-04:00

Duele cuando me hablas
Cuando no tambien

Duele cuando te sueño
Cuando no prefiero no dormir

Duele cuando estas
Cuando no aún más

Duele cuando me quieres
Cuando no siento que muero

Duele cuando me miras
Cuando no entro en ira

Duele cuando me tocas
Cuando no se me cae la piel

Duele cuando mientes
Cuando no preferiría que lo hagas

Duele no tenerte
Y asusta pensar que duela más al tenerte
Pero igual, el dolor más dulce
Es tener a quien quieres

Slaves in the South

2008-03-08T15:15:00.003-04:00

Slaves in the South lived better and were happier than they would have been in Africa

This statement is outraging. Of course the slaves would have been better in Africa. Yes, they had food, yes they were given some sort of shelter and yes they had a 'job' in the South, but, did they have liberty? NO! In my opinion liberty is the most important issue in the whole slave deal. If they were paid for what they were doing, and let go spend their lives and money how they preferred when out of their jobs, then they would have had a better life in the US (but then they wouldn't be slaves).

Dreams

2008-02-26T23:25:00.003-04:00

I had a dream once
A dream of being a superhero
Like Superman or Robin maybe
But as dreams flow so did my life
Dreams changed from time to time

I had a dream once
One that is now evidently not possibly becoming
And yet I had another dream
That as others dissolved in reality
This dream has not been accomplished

Today I have on mere dream
And that is to be with my loved ones

Happy Valentines ;)

2008-02-14T20:55:00.002-04:00

Nice video here to wish y'all a Happy Valentines!

SMSCity

2008-01-28T21:14:00.003-04:00

Probé esto porque mi hermana insistía en que podría enviar más de un SMS por día. Estos arabes se han dedicado a armar una base de datos de correos descaradamente. Luego la venden por cientos de dolares, sin esfuerzo...

Te inscribes
Le dices que NO QUIERES CORREOS DE ELLOS NI DE SUS PANAS
Te das cuenta que solo puedes enviar UN SMS POR DÍA
Si quieres enviar más tienes que comprar créditos...o invitas personas. Por cada correo que refieras (no les interesan las personas, ojala ellos que te inscribas con 10 correos diferentes) te regalan 10 créditos (los cuales no sirven ni para mandar "hola").
Intentas salirte y te das cuenta en "Settings" que hay un cotejo escondido que dice que permites que te manden correos, ellos Y sus panas.
No hay forma de salirse en la página.
Le escribes para que te saquen y te preguntan que porque. Tu correo sigue dando vueltas en manos de promotores que lo venden.
Respondes y dices que de verdad no te interesa y que eliminen tu cuenta.
Finalmente te envían un link para que elimines tu cuenta. El link es único, usa un hash.

No ingresen a esa pendeja por Dios, dense a respetar.

Felicidades

2008-01-26T11:32:00.001-04:00

Una vez más a mis amigos seguidores de las Aguilas Cibaeñas. Espero que de aquí a 20 años se harten de lo mismo (ellas y los Liceistas) y alguien decida hacer algo por la competitividad de la liga...sino simplemente se quedarán esos dos equipos.

Warm Up 2 - US Civil War

2008-01-19T14:31:00.001-04:00

Which side would you have fought for in the Civil War?

The Union. I consider they had the real reason to fight, slavery. The South I believe was fighting for it, and I am strictly against slavery. Also, the South's actions were those of wanting to obliterate a country, the United States of America because they thought slaves were much more important than their country.

No comments about this one, same view as when I wrote this.

Warm Up 1 - Freedom

2008-01-17T20:53:00.001-04:00

My senior year US History teacher had our class write down what he called "warm ups". These were meant to warm our heads up and get ready for class. Some have some good ideas that I still wander around with in my head. Here comes the first one:

What does it mean to be free?

To be free is to be able to action in the way you prefer to do so, you have the privilege and liberty to perform in any way you like. This "freedom" does have restrictions though, probably why we are not living like animals. These rules are called laws.

To be free is the ability to do what you want

My idea of freedom has changed or maybe I could not express it right back then.

Freedom is not an ability, its a right granted at birth. This right can be exercised in the manner one decides. One does not lose freedom but rather loses the right to exercise freedom where other people can, the civilized or controlled. One's freedom can only be lost at death.

Warm up written on Aug/28/2001

Dataportability

2008-01-15T22:28:00.001-04:00

The future of your data lies here, hopefully. Join @ dataportability.org and share your ideas.

DataPortability - Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.

Anuncio Aster

2008-01-03T21:40:00.001-04:00

Este es probablemente el anuncio mas raro que haya visto en mi vida...creo que me da miedo verlo muy tarde en la noche.

Debajo de mis Párpados

2007-10-27T11:46:00.001-04:00

Conozco una casa
De paredes rojas y puertas azules
Ventanas amarillas y techo verde
Conozco cierta casa

Aquella casa solo existe
En un mundo extraño
Donde las cosas parecen ser reales
Pero jamás se haran concretas

En esta casa viven personas
Una de ellas me causa gracia
A veces hablamos
Otras veces andamos

Andamos y compartimos
Cosas de este mundo extraño
Saltamos de lugar en lugar
Sin idea de donde iremos

Aún estando en un mundo extraño
Quisiera permanecer ahi por siempre
Pero este mundo es tan fragil
Que desaparece ante sonidos de aparatos

Siento satisfacción
Porque aun no teniendo esa persona
En un mundo real
Siempre la tendré en un mundo extraño

Sonrisas de Grafito

2007-10-27T11:29:00.001-04:00

Un gigante cortó papeles
Uno en forma de hombre
Otro en forma de mujer
Los cortó y los miró

Un suave viento sopló
El gigante debil fue
Dejo libre su creación
Los dejo ir en el viento

Aquellas figuras volaron
Y tomaron vida
Pensaban que bueno era vivir
Sin ataduras mas que el viento

Se dejaron llevar
Donde el viento los llevara
Tomados de la mano
Con sonrisas de grafito

Sobre rios y montañas
Mares y oceanos
Entre nubes y estrellas
Vez en cuando con las aves

Volaron tan lejos
Que nadie pudo contar donde fueron
Llegaron tan lejos
Que nadie supo donde quedaron

Llegaron más allá de los sueños
A los límites del universo
Nunca voltearon atras
Jamás los volverían a ver

Figuras

2007-09-24T13:58:00.001-04:00

Dentro del bosque
Encontre el cielo
Desde debajo del foliaje
Encontre la luna brillante

Figuras desconocidas
Bailaban sobre el fango
Traslucencias del foliaje
Iluminado por la luna

Escuhé una voz
La voz del viento
Que acariciaba mis orejas
Que soplaba tu cabello

Intenté tocarte
Quemabas del frio
Reias pero no se oia
Sonreias pero no podia verlo

Las figuras bailaban
Sobre tu rostro
Surfeaban sobre las olas de tu cabello
Saltaban sobre tu cuerpo

Diste vueltas
Me ignorabas
Volvias y me mirabas
Mirabas como lloraba

Las figuras se cansaban
Intentaban seguir
Pero no llegaban alcanzar
Su fuente de vida

Al desaparecer la luna
Desaparecieron las figuras
Desapareció la voz
Y volvió la realidad

Cellophane

2007-07-28T17:58:00.001-04:00

Running to never land
Leaping through cloud shot hills
Filled with chocolate mud
And ice icing topping

Shoes torn and untied
Toes warm and not denied
Tears frozen upon cheeks
Heart blasphemous with rage

I see where this heads
Towards never before and never again
Cellophane me to my bed
Dont let me wander off to my dreams

Flying through dragon breath
Propulsed by a bi-extinguisher motor
Clipped an angle off a star
Attached the angle to the moon

Pirate ship with no oars
Pull the water away from you
Lively storm the sky above
Make the rain fall in love

I see where this heads
Towards never before and never again
Cellophane me to my bed
Dont let me wander off to my dreams

Come ride with me
On this multicolored flying fish
Through memories and thoughts
Come ride with me until the end

Yes

2006-11-06T22:10:00.001-04:00

You cannot batter good fruit from a badly nourished plant or expect a building to exist suspended from the sky until you can construct its foundations.

How about them Yankees?

2006-10-08T11:49:00.001-04:00

The US$200,000,000 team lost to the Detroit Tigers in a first round playoff series. I am much impressed at this, and happy at the same time. I dislike the Yankees. Congratulations to the upcoming Tigers. Steinbrenner should reconsider using money on the team, 200 million dollars would have saved a lot of people in Somalia.

Tangent

2006-09-30T11:01:00.000-04:00

Edging seems sufficient
Barely stirring certain points
In allusion to one single point
Never beyond evident boundary
Your touch resents from advancing
Your sight certainly remains outside
Vision, merely a useless expression
Prompt to abandon who breaks the frame
Quick to embark who distinguishes nothing
And take away without exploring
Tangent stroke on a circle
Never knows what lies beneath
Never interested in what lies underneath
Never beyond evident boundary
In allusion to one single point
Barely stirring certain points
Edging seems sufficient

Estrella Fugaz

2006-08-28T23:51:00.001-04:00

Una vez callo una estrella
Callo a un vacio en el espacio
Aquel vacio en el firmamento
Que dejaban todas las otras estrellas

Cae en mi oscuridad
Ilumina mi alrededor
Haz que me sienta como una estrella
Haz que yo sienta tu presencia

Bailemos
En el polvo de oro que desprendes
Caminemos
Cuando este polvo ya no exista

Olvida que alguna vez eras estrella de aquellas
Olvida que caiste encendida
Mira alrededor y daras cuenta
Que tu brillo aun se refleja en mi sonrisa

En mis ojos
En mis manos
En mi alma
Por siempre

And this is nice too

2006-08-19T23:52:00.001-04:00

This is what seems to be Google's replacement for MS Word: Writely. I found this on the same day I started receiving messages that my OS is counterfeit and I need to get a genuine version. This is another step closer to removing MS Office from my computer, hopefully someday I'll be able to remove this POS OS from the computer without hassling, hip hip hurrah for Google!

Nice

2006-08-13T16:11:00.001-04:00

This is a timeline that shows all GUI since it was conceived. Notice how many times Microsoft re-launches it's OS with different names to disguise version changes, which imply their OS constantly need huge fixes.

Check it out

Bueeno

2006-07-04T22:29:00.002-04:00

Nadamas falta que los ladrones se inventen una religion para justificar sus acciones...

Show Me

2006-07-02T16:45:00.001-04:00

Last night I dreamed of you
Felt you in my arms
Head upon head, hand in hand
Delusion that didn't last

Rushes to the heart
Blocks to the lungs
Sillyness to the stomach
Nonsense to the brain

Show me
How to dream that dream again
Show me
How to prance on the yellow brick road
Show me
How to knit that feeling back into me
Show me
What it is to be content again

Today I have not seen you
Not heard of you
But the sun that sets
Offers hope that I'll hold you tonight

Warning Sign

2006-06-19T23:02:00.001-04:00

I was at a hardware shop with mom about a week ago trying to find random stuff for the apartment. While searching for some plumbing related device we ran across the water heater section. I was impressed to see some huge water heaters and tripped around with my sister and her problem using all the hot water in a single shower.

There was something that really caught my eye, it was a warning sign. It wasn't just any warning sign, it was the most terrifying warning sign I had ever seen. On one side of the sticker a kettle-shaped object steaming "flammable vapors", and the same was steaming out of what looks like a water heater.

For some reason both of these flammable vapor steamed out onto a person, and looked like they had actually caught fire. And the person was on fire as well. And it looks like a Black person as well.

Something must be wrong with the warning sign; nobody will buy something so vile and dangerous. I would at least not make emphasis on the person burning up to death.

Cuando ya no pueda mas

2006-06-13T23:09:00.001-04:00

cuando ya no pueda mas
enviare un grito a los demonios
invocare fuerzas y gateare
hasta lograr saciar mi sed

cuando ya no pueda mas
seguire como si pudiera mas
no creere que no hay mas
nadie mas podra mas

cuando ya no pueda mas
olvidare lo que es mas
intentare hasta desintegrarme
recordare por lo que existo

cuando ya no pueda mas
y haya intentado tanto
mis alas me elevaran
me llevaran sobre todo

cuando ya no pueda mas
me dare cuenta que siempre pude mas
que siempre pude hacer mas
pero nunca intente olvidar lo que es mas

Si

2006-06-12T23:28:00.000-04:00

si el cielo fuese rojo
el mar tambien lo seria
el fuego fuese azul
el agua amarilla

si deseo que el cielo fuese rojo
que el mar consumiera mis lagrimas amarillas
que durante las noches frente a esta roja sabana liquida
el fuego azul calentara mi alma fria

si tan solo pudiera sentir un suspiro
si tan solo pudiera sentir el aire que respiras
si tan solo pudiera tocar tus labios
si tan solo pudiera sumergirme en ti

quizas entonces seria feliz
quizas mi alma no fuese tan fria

entonces seria el mar azul
porque el cielo es azul
el fuego rojo
y mis lagrimas inexistentes

Peliculas

2006-06-11T22:09:00.000-04:00

Hace un tiempo iba a Higuey con mi familia en un autobus de la compañía SICHOPROLA. Siempre es una experiencia ir en el autobus, siempre pasa algo, alguien pasa...lo que sea, los viajes son interesantes. Estos autobuses tienen una televisión para entretener a las personas que viajamos en ellos debido a que estos viajes son bastante largos. He ahi el problema...

Las personas que deciden que peliculas mostrar en el autobus son las mismas que conducen y cobran en el viaje. Estas personas tienden a ser de bajos niveles de educación, por ende, poca moderación en muchos de sus actos. Existe una altísima probabilidad de que en el autobus hayan niños, y la misma probabilidad de que se haya escogido una película no apta para niños. Casi siempre se escoge una película de guerras entre pandillas, peleas por cosas robadas, peleas por dinero, peleas por drogas, se coquetean con escenas sexuales entre otras cosas.

No creo que sea apropiado que niños esten viendo películas de Jackie Chan peleando por su vida en vista de que un policía corrupto lo quiere asesinar luego de que hiciera un desorden en un hotel donde dos prostitutas se daban vida con un diplomático y drogas, ayudando a una prostituta que quiere salvar a su niña que puede ser asesinada en cualquier momento por el policía corrupto. Eso no es correcto. No digo que pongan The Little Mermaid, pero si hay películas más apropiadas.

Cement Carrying

2006-04-22T10:57:00.001-04:00

This morning I had the chance to see one of the most health harming jobs I could ever imagine next to mining under the ground for coal.

I was standing beside a hardware store waiting for some dumbass to show up and help me carry the propane gas tank to the propane gas plant and have it refilled. During the time I stood there a truckload of dry cement (still in powder form) arrived. Hurriedly, a pack of men stripped down to what I would call their cement carrying clothes. Men in real short pants in crazy ass colours, long sleeve shirts with no less than one hundred pounds of cement on them, no shoes in most cases and some sort of shock absorber on their heads...something like a cloth folded into five or a plastic bag or something.

After stripping down to their work clothes, some dude on top of the truck started to haul cement bags onto these guys heads. But it wasn't just hauling, there was a technique to all of this. He would set up a pile of three bags on the edge of the truck bed, the guys would approach the edge, and he would literally slide a bag over the pile onto the guys' heads. Some just let the bag fall onto them, others had to stop it and catch their step.

Regardless of the way in which they caught it on their heads, each bag propelled cement dust into the air. They wore no protective glasses, mask or anything. Cement dust was all over their faces, in their nostrils (this is very harmful I believe), mouths, necks, legs, arms...everywhere! Someone who performs this task at least once a week must have a short life, no doubt.

Buguili Buguili

2006-04-17T20:44:00.000-04:00

Como habia dicho anteriormente, no todo lo que jugabamos en La Romana se jugaba en otros pueblos o ciudades (como les quieran llamar). Ademas de la Bolita del SIDA, existía otro juego que llamábamos Buguili Buguili.

El BB era un poco más feroz que la Bolita del SIDA. Se parecía mucho al futbol americano, pero sin sentido aparente además de querer violentar las leyes físicas de los cuerpos humanos.

Se escogía a una persona que se "quedaba" lo que era muy particular de estos juegos. Los que no se quedaban se alineaban como si fuese una línea de ataque u ofensiva en futbol americano. Se acordaba sobre el punto donde tenían que llegar los atacantes, regularmente unos 50 - 70 pies de donde se alineaban. El que se quedaba se guardaba una posición de defensa a unos 20 pies de la meta.

Los atacantes se asignaban un número desde el 1 hasta la cantidad de personas que jugaban sin incluir al que se quedaba. Luego de eso se daba señal de que se estaba listo para empezar. Las personas se alineaban aleatoriamente en referencia a sus numeros. El que se quedaba entonces llamaba números del rango establecido. Si llamaban al número que le correspondía entonces debía correr e intentar llegar a la meta.

En esta situación podían pasar dos cosas:

El defensor podía intrercepetar al atacante antes de que este llegase a la meta. Si lo lograba llevar al suelo entonces el atacante pasaba a formar parte del equipo defensor, o LOS que se quedaban.
El atacante llegaba a la meta y vociferaba BUGUILI BUGUILI salvajemente. Esto señalaba el inicio de una estampida parecida a la que ocurrió en Jumanji, sólo que esta era de humanos. El o los defensores debían tratar de parar a la mayor parte de los atacantes llevandolos al suelo. Esto significa que si te llevaban al suelo, de inmediato te tornabas a llevar personas al suelo...terriblemente divertido.

Obviamente, si llegaban todos los atacantes a la meta. Lo que no recuerdo era como se decidía quien defendía luego. A ver si me refrescan la memoria, dejen comentarios.

La Bolita del SIDA

2006-03-22T22:06:00.000-04:00

Todo el mundo tuvo una niñez, mala o buena, y durante esta niñez todos inventamos muchas cosas que a mayor edad no podemos comprender porque las haciamos en aquel entonces.

Compartí mi niñez con unos personajes muy creativos y con fuertes indicios de ser violentos. Como todos los niños dominicanos jugabamos el 'topao' (juego que consiste de correr de uno que es el que 'se queda' y evitar que este te toque, porque entonces 'te quedas tu'). Lo unico fue que distinto a todos los niños dominicanos, nos cansamos de correr unos detras de los otros y buscamos una manera de no tener que hacer esto.

De ahí nace "La Bolita del SIDA". El nombre es algo cruel y quizás no sea políticamente correcto, o socialmente correcto (quien sabe), pero en aquella edad solo distinguíamos entre galletas de chocolate o de vainilla. Esta 'bolita' fue confeccionada varias veces por los que jugábamos el topao. Se confeccionaba de la siguiente manera:

Buscar todo el papel de aluminio posible, los restos de las envolturas de los panes que llevabamos de almuerzo.
Buscar la piedra que iría en el centro de la 'bolita', la esencia de esta.
Colocar la piedra en el centro de los papeles de aluminio, corroborar todo de manera que quedara una esfera improvisada con la piedra dentro.
Colocar un nivel de servilletas (no se porque).
Amarrar todo con cinta adhesiva, masking tape (makintéi) de manera que todo quedara bien apretado.

Cuando uno lanzaba esta 'bolita' podía alcanzar velocidades peligrosas y lugares peligrosos en el cuerpo. La idea era que no tuvieramos que correr atras de las personas, sino lanzarle la 'bolita'. Objetivos adicionales incluían: lesionar al contrario, poder escapar antes de salir lesionado en un contraataque, no dejar que te pegaran la 'bolita' de nuevo.

Feelgood Again (literally)

2006-02-21T12:29:00.001-04:00

This is the outcome of assisting to good places and knowing many DJ's, finally.

While Joe, my sister and I waited to be seated at our favourite restaurant yesterday, two dudes showed up at the valet parking in an incredible black Mercedes S-Class. The passenger popped out first. At first impression I saw an huge african american that wasn't too familiar with the site. Out of the driver's side popped a smaller guy, looking too much arab to be dominican. Automatically I thought this was some kind of mixed international mobster party just arrived. They strayed over and stood beside us to wait as well.

Joe, my sister and I were heading out to a party at the Colonial Zone after dinner where DJ Charles Feelgood would be playing.

Anyways, our party of three was having a nice conversation about something I do not remember and I noticed the huge guy had some familiar tattoos on his arms. I could not remember off the top of my head where I had seen these, but I had definetely seen them. I stared for a while, doozing off from the conversation with Joe and my sister, and all of a sudden I knew...this was Charles Feelgood himself in front of us. I pointed and said: "Feelgood right?!". He smiled and acknowledged my statement. I told him we were heading out to his party after dinner, had a 5 second chat and then proceeded to what I was doing. I told Joe and my sister of what all of that was, Joe took stance.

Minutes after Joe was talking with Feelgood (whose real name is Charles Feels we learned), sharing information about New York. I was amazed of what was happening and simply didn't have much to say.

We were seated inside the restaurant after a while, Feelgood and the guy who had booked him (Eddi from Soline Entertainment Group) were still waiting. A while after somebody was knocking on the window beside where we had been seated. Feelgood was inviting us to seat with them, but we had already ordered and had part of our food in front of us.

We ate and jabbed about what had happened. When we were almost done, Charles comes up to our window again and is trying to say goodbye. I quickly signalled at him for an autograph, he asked me to come outside. I jerked out with a pen and piece of paper in hand.

Once outside, ready to have the piece of paper signed, he says: "I'm not going to sign that...", I look at him astonished, then he continues "I'll put you on my invitees list and give you a signed record, write your name on the piece of paper and I'll hook you up." I didn't think, wrote my name +2 on that piece of paper and gave it to him. Went back inside and told Joe and my sister of what had happened. This was un-bel-iev-able.

We showed up at the door of the venue. Some dude asked for a ticket or if I wanted to purchase tickets. I told him that I was on the DJ's invite list. He started to look me up on the local DJ's list. I told him that I wasn't on that list, that I was on Feelgood's list. He looked me up, and effectively, I was there, the only one on that list.

We were given free VIP passes. We hung out with the DJ. We danced all night. We met many people. It was goddamned crazy. And in the end, I was handed down an autographed LP (David Guetta's "In Love With Myself"). Awesome.

Sunday 4am

2006-02-12T04:00:00.001-04:00

Its 4am, sunday morning, rain is falling, some light music and my friends hollering at each other trying to get one single game of poker. Hugo the cat walks past me and runs away upon my glance. A quarter cup of Malibu Rum with pineapple and some weird mix of juices glances back at me. It is quite late, I have done nothing for the last couple of hours other than talk much nonsense and drink some, with some micro-naps between hours.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day again, have to study for a calculus test, program for a while, write for another subject and get enough sleep to get through the week.

Running my tired hand through my head I realize that once again I'm thinking, the only reason why I have not gone to sleep. Thinking and missing, like the sky starts to miss the sun at around 6am. It's 4am.

Hugo the Cat

2006-01-21T17:40:00.001-04:00

My italian friend has a cat, his name is Hugo (named after his father). Hugo was very shy, or so we thought, when he was young. Turns out that he really was some kind of xenophobic freak who only likes to hang out with his owner when absolutely nobody is around. Hugo likes to eat electric chords (celular phone charger chords and computer monitor chords for example), shits everywhere, scratches people with his dangerous paws and eats everything he finds in his path which I have learnt is a very wide path and high path.

On a recent vacation, Giorgio had left Hugo at Casa de Campo. Hugo's rampage in Casa de Campo ended when he ate a poisoned rat. He didn't die of the poisoning, but had to be treated and suffered a severe nervous rack, wasn't even able to land on his four feet when thrown off a table. I guess that will show him about eating random things.

Giorgio also has a dog, his name is Nando. Nando has failed dog school twice, the second time his teacher quit on account that the dog would not pay attention to anything. My stance about this is that Nando suffers of canine ADD. Nando eats rocks, jumps randomly, doesn't pay attention to golf cars even after they have hit him and...what else do you need? Nando is an exceptional friend though, he plays with everything and everybody.

Nando and Hugo are cool.

Sense

2006-01-13T21:51:00.001-04:00

Happiness was near I thought
Nothing else could I ask for
Never more would I need more
Everything had been handed to me I thought

Seasons came and went
Moons became wholes and holes
Tides did as they were meant
All during which I was not a whole

If minds create images
Of great kingdoms and mighty men
Then it shall not be strangled
At creating immeasurable gem

My eyes see a gold
Before they would see diamonds
Trained have I these precious lens
To appreciate things as they really are

Friends are friends and will always be
Physics and calculus will not tell you so
Reality and logic of human kind shall treat you best
Show you what people ought to be

Recognized this, minds change
Diamonds become gold
Kingdoms become villages
Love becomes obsession

I will not pursue
What I shall not have use
If it already there
Providing what I need

I found a box with your name on it
Sighed, exclaimed and crashed
Will put it away with everything else I have kept in that sense
Only keep what matters

I am a whole
Things are as they should be
Please do not be scared
I am in one piece

Morning People

2006-01-10T23:00:00.001-04:00

People tend to be very quiet during the morning, incredibly quiet and trendy. Everybody walks on the streets like zombies along the same lines they had walked the day before, the one before that and all the days before. People drive their vehicles the same route everyday, dazed but aggresive without notice. I'm quiet, trendy and dazed and expect everybody to be that way to keep harmony in the environment...obviously that is not the case.

Every morning somebody disturbs the "morning spirit" by wreaking havok upon our comforting silence and paradigm. Every morning somebody has something to shout out, something to move around too much, something to ask for at a vulgar time, a plastic bag to hustle through for no reason at all and an endless line of things that can annoy one's peaceful morning daze.

I don't enjoy morning people too much, they should like work at night so they do not avoid us non-morning people. Life during the first hours of the morning would be so much easier and peaceful, hence making the rest of the day nice and shiny.

Consequences of an 100 dollar disco

2006-01-01T21:25:00.000-04:00

Nobody but the owner and his friends show up at the place.
The disco has to close down at 2am on a New Year's party.
Everybody stays at at bar close to the disco, out under the new year's sky.
People drink a lot, nobody really dances much.
It rains...on the people.
Drinks start to get scarce.
Children make you nervous as shit with their stupid fireworks.
Refound feelings emerge, those you thought you had left way behind.
People fight and the bar is forced to be closed down.
You forget every other moment from this night when you realize that at the end, when the first sun has come up, you are with your true friends...nothing else matters.

Thanks guys, happy new year.

Dejá Vu

2005-12-11T17:29:00.001-04:00

We all think we have had these, I personally have believed to have experienced at least one every week, those moments where things happen at certain places and you are pretty sure you have experienced the situation before in all senses. Most people have had these and thought we have been in some kind of parallel universe which of course is something we only see on TV or at the movies.

I have been reading up on the phenomenon and have come to the conclusion that most of the ones I have experienced have not really been a real dejá vu. There are things that are much more logical and attached to our own world's physical rules that explain the phenomenon.

One of them explains that we have been at a certain place, and done something at that place maybe once in our lives for an incredibly short period of time (3 minutes for example), something that became insignificant in a day where we had many other things in mind, yet when we have a more significant time at this place our mind recognizes the place yet we do not remember having been there. It's a recognition we cannot understand, due to the fact that we had been at the place for such a short time and had not paid much attention to anything, and done such minimal things at the place that we do not remember exactly why we had been there. This is a way of discarding the occurrencee of the phenomenon, but how come we think we are doing the exact same things? We just recognize the place! Well, we ONLY recognize the place, we don't even know what we had done there, why we had been there or when or nothing..Soo anything that happens at this place that you 'recognize' will seem to have happened before.

That one was enough for me to consider forgetting the dejá vu as something paranormal. Another reason given to all I read was nerve canal alterations, or alterations in the communication through these. The eyes are connected to the brain through separate nerve strings, which should carry similar information in most cases (unless you are blind from one eye or prevent vision from it.In some cases people can bend their eyeballs in opposite directions to extents impossible to others as well). The information does not necessarily travel at the same speed/rate through both canals. This means that a difference of 1 thousandth of a second between the reception of information from one canal and the other could create some kind of distorted output from the brain, what could be interpreted as a dejá vu. The brain renders one image first, then the other and the way you assimilate what you see may be strange.

Misconception can always play a role as well. We may have experienced things similar to those we experience in present time and juggled up things incorrectly. This is less likely to happen, and would easily be replaced with the first concept I explained in this post.

Regardless of all this, I still believe that once in a while we experience a real dejá vu, something that is really and truly impossible to have happened in the past. This, however, cannot be proven unless we recorded every single thing we did during each and every single minute of our lives to check back and see if this had not been something we had done before, a place we had been before for a non-significant amount of time and exclude the possibility of our mind having played tricks on us.

Staring at the Ceiling

2005-12-02T21:27:00.001-04:00

Dim as usual
Light flickers unusually
Sound of dashing air
Silence of a screaming soul

Barely visible
Through the cascade
That has carved gorges
Upon the face’s face

Hope
For a blemished heart
Dismay
For who embraces this heart

To wonderland and back
Analogous atmosphere
For the ceiling was there
Yet the cascade had been absent

El Bucabaina

2005-12-02T18:07:00.000-04:00

Hace días estuve en el estadio de pelota viendo a los Toros ganarle al Licey (CUIDADO CON LOS TOOOOROOOOS!!) y los que estaban conmigo y yo nos dimos cuenta de una cosa, además de que el Licey tiene muchos jugadores feos, nos dimos cuenta de que lo que en los Estados Unidos y muchos de los países que no son el de las maravillas es un Busca Bates o Busca Bolas en nuestro maravilloso país es el Bucabaina.

El Busca Bates es aquella persona que está presente durante los juegos de un equipo, al que pertenece por lo regular y tiene la función de buscar los bates cuando los jugadores se embasan. El Busca Bolas tiene función de buscar las pelotas que salen fuera de juego pero que quedan dentro del terreno.

En nuestro país estas dos funciones se juntan en una sola, que no es algo raro, sale más barato y hay que dar menos comida en los viajes. Lo que si es irregular es que esta persona tiene que buscar TODO lo que le pidan; pelotas, bates, cascos, guantes, gorras, zapatos, cerveza, pizza, romo, agua, tierra, tabaco, palomitas de maiz, jabón, hierro de poner en el bate para practicar en el círculo de espera Verizon...lo que sea. De ahí entonces el nombre Bucabaina, para mantener la BB que usa en su chaqueta.

Esta industria genera alrededor de 7 empleos en nuestro país, si le interese comience a buscar cosas rápidamente en su casa, luego en el patio y quizas pueda practicar en un play de softball...busque cosas aleatorias que nadies buscaría si de verdad estuviera jugando para que tome buenas tácticas y suerte!

Tricked

2005-11-26T13:59:00.001-04:00

I arrived home from my friend's house today and grabbed a package of Guarinas which would be like Dominican Oreo's. Opened the package and started eating the cookies. The first one didnt have filling, neither had the second and just then I realized none of the 4 cookies had filling. I had been tricked and didn't even bother calling the toll free number to report that because I would just get pissed off beyond belief. I forgot about the issue three minutes after, at least the package was not empty right...

I guess sometimes we feel the same way as the cookies must have felt, empty. Yet we have to appreciate ourselves as we are, and I tell you, those cookies were delicious without the filling, I guess we can be delicious human beings even when we feel empty.

By the way, tomorrow is my birthday, again. I'm going to be 21, steadily heading towards 30...it's kind of scary now, not what I believed it would be some 10 years ago (guess I tricked myself into this), but it's all cool :]

Sorrow

2005-11-20T16:33:00.001-04:00

The sky was always radiant
Golden clouds and sparkling seawater
Brilliant green carpet over the ground
Fields of tulips and sunflowers

Shadows overcame the brilliance
Golden turned opaque and stale
Brilliance turned into numbness
Endless non-vegetative masses

The tears that landed Earth’s numb skin
Quickly turned to giant trees of melancholy
Birth to spiritless foliage
And bright mischievous fruit

Fruit of this fruit was loneliness
Endless loneliness and fret
Futureless hope and will
Within one dark and gloomy world

Slim Jim Commercial

2005-11-14T22:31:00.001-04:00

Whoa, this is some funny stuff people. Watch this video first, then keep on reading:

Slim Jim Video

Ok, why was he shaking his fingers like he has no control over them? Those sunglasses...can he actually see? WHOA?!...hold on, I thought people opened lockers on their hinges...I guess he REALLY needed a SLIM JIM (!!!).

Hilarious!

And then...

2005-11-11T18:20:00.001-04:00

Abacus has been closed, just as I was criticising everything except Abacus last weekend. This just makes matters better...what the hell am I going to do for my birthday?

Mein Kampf

2005-11-11T18:10:00.001-04:00

Dim alive as Boolean = personAlive(folo)

While alive = True

stabPerson(folo, liver)

kickPerson(folo, stomach)

punchPerson(folo, head)

runOverPerson(folo)

misleadPerson(folo)

takeAdvantage(folo)

Loop

End While

Farewell to a Supreme Being

2005-11-10T21:44:00.001-04:00

This is a final goodbye; one which most of us thought would come many years from now, to my school's former physics teacher and self proclaimed Supreme Being, Mr. Anthony Bowman. I have learned of his death through one of my friends, putting forth shock before everything, nostalgia and eventually some kind of sadness.

Mr. Bowman was always keen to make his class a pleasant place to be even when it was almost impossible to find some physics lessons the least bit interesting, he would find a way to make it an experience every time around. His teaching skills were questionable, his intelligence and knowledge about the class where unmistakably remarkable though. Without doubt, his class was one we would look forward to always that we didn't have any unfinished homework.

We will forever remember Mr. Bowman as the Supreme Being, the guy with the huge black glasses and red cheeks on those 8am classes on Mondays, the inventor of the Noise vs. Work Being Done Theory ("I hope the noise been made in this room is directly proportional to the amount of work being done!"), the explicit explanations (GARDEN HOSE), the man who could run across the science lab in three seconds flat without tumbling anything over, the equipment use prohibitions and class expulsions (well, those were exclusive to Krudo and Enrique) and everything else I have failed to mention but that will remain in our memories for life.

Mr. Bowman, farewell, I hope the sky is the colour you always hoped it would be, goodbye from me and all my high school classmates, "PUH!"

"We will continue being friends".

Random Clubbing

2005-11-06T14:04:00.001-04:00

Last night, to celebrate Giorgio's birthday (which was actually on Thursday), we had gone out to eat at TGI Friday's, which was really fun when we had finally been seated. Birthday parties are strung out incredibly loud by at Friday's in the Santo Domingo, these guys have all kinds of racous instruments and sing incoherent phrases to resemble a "Birthday Merengue".

Anyways, we had (or Joe had) that we needed to change and expand our ways to have fun...ie: not go to the club we always do, Abacus. This idea is essentially interesting, riiiight. Two clubs, two interesting reasons on why we should continue going to Abacus.

The first one is a cheesy place called Praia ("beach" in portuguese). Its too goddamned small and it was packed. There was a "waiting line" outside the door, with a dude whom hardly spoke coherent spanish saying something about nobody being able to enter the place. I guess the people who showed up in fancy cars are not included in "nobody", not sure how that works because they managed to get in...which is not strange, clubs have their standards...but this was not about standards, this was about being packed to the roof...not clear.

We left the portuguese beach towards Blanc. This was worse. Some kid had a birthday party at the place. We arrived at the place when the kid coincidentially was yelling at the bouncers about the people being allowed and not being allowed into his party. We were not allowed in, and stormed off pissed after talking to some people at the door.

That was our night, Friday's was wonderful :]

Tiësto uncrowned :]

2005-10-31T19:13:00.001-04:00

And finally, after many years of nonsense, Tiësto has lost the crown he held for three years as "The Best DJ in the World". He was truly one of the best DJ´s in the world some time ago, but never should have been considered the best, rather the best commercialised. Other guys like Andre (ATB), those two magnificent men who form Deep Dish, Steve Lawler, John Digweed and many others have been lesser commercialised, hence less attention, but always mantaining higher standards in music.

Tiësto´s redundant beat, the same one he started back in 2001 or so, the same back beat that was predominant in Flight 643 and Lethal Industry (which were great, won´t say the opposite), is the same one he uses in every single thing he produces or remixes.

And his ego is annoying, he became a royal bitch, he played for himself, not for the crowd, or I unfortunately appreciated this experience twice.

Regardless of everything, he´s off and PVD is on, hopefully next year trance will be off the top of the list...finally.

Job

2005-10-18T23:47:00.001-04:00

I've recently changed my job, moved out from call centers (finally) to working in something related to my career. After two years working in call centers, of which one year I spent working for Parago Customer Service and the second (with around 6 months rest in between) for Language Line Services I realized that these jobs really stink.

First of all, one has no liberty at all. The headset is your headcuff and it is consistently emitting shocks to remind you that you ought to stay in your slave position. One has to remain in a single place for the complete shift, listening to people's problems, remarks, claims, wonderland stories, Chinamen excuses and all sorts of stuff which one could care less about.

Monotony increases as you take more calls until you reach a point where nothing people say matters, you have a response for everything, even when the customer speaks Arabic or Chinese or who knows what. While working for Language Line Services I used to interpret (ie:translate) recorded statements about automobile accidents for various insurance companies like Allstate and State Farm. It was always the same, I even knew when the Spanish speaker was not going to understand and was prepared to make him understand.

The eternal wait to be promoted somewhere just to realize that the zenith is two steps from where you are now, not something I'd see as a life goal.

Don't get me wrong though. I did gain a lot of life experience working at call centers, specially Language Line Services. These centers pay good money for Dominican standards (certainly crap for US or European standards) and provide excellent benefits for their workers: dental, vision and medical insurance, bonuses, transport and food subsidy and some other minor details.

Nothing compares to working with the things you have learnt in university, feeling like that money has actually paid off and will be coming back to you soon. I now work for an outsourcing logic solutions company by the name of Conexics, outsourced to the biggest beer company in the country and part of the biggest business group in the country: Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana and Grupo Leon Jimenes respectively.

I do have a squeaky and horribly constructed chair, but ah well...nothing is perfect.

Rain

2005-10-13T20:24:00.001-04:00

It has been raining for three days now and it doesnt look like it's going to stop. It's nice for a while, when I'm sleeping for instance, but I hate waking up to a darkened sky and endless array of water falling. And then the mud, the wet grass, the smelly stray dogs and everything else that gets horrible when dampened.

Driving in rain becomes horrible as well, more horrible than usual. Streets become rivers and vehicle cemeteries, which in turn cause eternal bottlenecks...everywhere. Rain sucks.

Male Loyalty

2005-10-08T23:47:00.001-04:00

Guys have some ways around things which are maybe not always logical, or maybe not necessary. Male loyalty to some things are entirely stupid and unnecessary for example, and then many of us have problems being loyal to their spouse.

Here are two cases of unnecessary loyalty:

Loyalty to mechanics: guys always think they have to keep the same mechanic for their vehicle forever. This is a problem, in most cases. There may come a time where you do not feel comfortable with your mechanic anymore, maybe you purchased a top-of-the-line vehicle and he really does not know how to work with it. You insist on him taking a look at it once in a while, but he really does not give you an impression of understanding everything under that hood. And then comes the dilemma, how to change without making him feel 'bad'. This is male delusion, your mechanic will probably feel relieved that you don't take the vehicle over to his shop anymore...who likes dealing with pressure without knowing how to act? So I guess this is not hard to overcome. Don't stop waving goodbye or tilting your face away from him, go over to his shop and have a cold beer while you express your satisfaction obtained from his services.
Loyalty to the barber: this is harder. Your barber believes there should be loyalty and in many cases sustain wars with other barbers or barber shops to keep clients. This is more like a money issue for them though, they don't really love your hair and become excited everytime they see your overgrown sideburns. You are not obliged, under any circumstance, to keep seeing the guy who can't really see anymore because he's quite old (and keeps snatching scissors right at your ears) because you think he'll feel bad. If it is your father maybe it is something that you need to consider twice, otherwise, change your barber or barbershop. It is not a good idea to change barbers within the same barber shop, they will probably have discussions over you in front of you (remember it's all about the money, not about loving your hair) which will not help. In these situations it is better to avoid your ex-barber because giving explanations as of why you changed to a barber can be strange or end up in discussion (and they will ask), in any case, do your best not to hurt their feelings...make something up, something related to work or school and they will 'understand'.

Why I made "The Switch"

2005-10-02T15:23:00.001-04:00

The reason I changed from Crest to Colgate is the continued tendency of yellow stains to appear on my teeth, which are not particularly pleasant. Well not really, hehe, this post is about me switching from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox.

I was going to post something which I have forgotten about now earlier and for some reason Internet Explorer (to which I will refer as IE hereof) would not allow me to access my blogger.com account, something about cookies not being active and all sorts of other crap. I checked my options, which I had not changed in ages, and everything looked fine. Blogger.com's recommendations I had already gone through, the last one said: Get another browser, with a link to Mozilla's site. I had been thinking about it for a while, and had read about how horrible IE7 is going to be, so I downloaded Firefox.

When I did this the first time, Windows would not allow me to install the software, check this out.

Had to download it again, and then it worked, and here I am, using Mozilla Firefox. It's great, I'll keep IE for tests when developing ASP projects, but nothing else. Thumbs up for Firefox!

Blah

2005-09-25T23:48:00.001-04:00

Spent 15 minutes of my life looking at the ceiling, didn't find anything new...hopefully next time I'll have better luck.

Why folo?

2005-09-24T23:22:00.001-04:00

Well, it all started when the guys and I were in 2nd grade. Every single game we played seemingly needed to end in either a discussion or fight...or somebody entirely disgusted at the class. I was never quite an agressive kind of kid, everybody called me by my name and never tried to initiate any discussions with me. I did play, but played in a relatively less savage way.

They had to do it, they had to find a way to tick me off. Name calling was an incredibly efficient way to do so, specially if it had to do with genitalia for some reason. Someday they picked it up and started calling out: folololo que tiene rolo en el bimbolo! which means: folololo who has rolls on his dick...basically something absurd but made a 7 year old child get really upset.

With time the name reduced itself to what it is now: folo.

Today was Monday

2005-09-20T00:15:00.001-04:00

Had a rough time getting out of bed because I knew I'd lose my 50 dollar bonus for missing the day at work, all because I messed up with my homework.
Had a fit with a mosquito that was dancing around my left ear after mom went to work and left me laying down, light on and fan off...had already missed work.
Woke up nervously at 9, turned the computer on.
Worked around code all morning, ate with mom, worked with code all afternoon. Talked to Camensita and Krudo.
Messed up couple of times, lost time and ended up not doing all the homework. Realized I had not done my italian homework, messed up there too.
Arrived at school and felt lost again. Thought about my friend.
Found my friend after class, where I had dropped my celular phone again...not good. Had an argument because I acted stupid some days ago, it was a Monday too. I had messed up.
Realized I really need a laptop, lost some points in Web Programming class.
Found out the transmission on mom's car broke down, not good.
Wrote in my blog to remind myself and everybody else Monday's suck.

Prison Inmate Wedding

2005-09-16T15:35:00.000-04:00

I was reading the Dominican news today and besides all the normal economic and social problem articles I found an article about a couple of prison inmates getting married. Somehow these two persons have managed to find love and well, the female is already expecting a child.

The wedding was made right at the food court of the Najayo Women's Prison (Cárcel de Mujeres de Najayo) where family members and witnesses gathered as well as the Attorney General of the Dominican Republic with others high rank prison executives.

What have I to say about this...hopefully it will work out and when Mr. Familia leaves in five years (in jail for violation of the law that controls drug use, Ley de Control de Drogas) WILL wait for Mrs. Perez who will be let free in ten years (in jail for homicide). How can we assure of this, if both have broken laws and are in jail for doing so, how can we assure that they will not break this legal marriage? It's really not my problem, and I wouldn't worry too much about it, just seemed a bit funny that an assasin and a drug dealer/consumer declare oath before a lawyer.

My best wishes to the new couple!
-------
http://www.diariolibre.com/app/article.aspx?id=43992

Imperfect Square

2005-09-01T23:41:00.000-04:00

If sunflowers were named such,
Why do they grow on Earth and not on the Sun?
If Mercury came from where it name suggests,
Why do we have Mercury in all our temperature tests?

If women were from Venus and men from Mars,
Why do they live here, and not in their homes?
If Uranium were from so far,
Why do we have thousands of nukes ready for war?

If the skies were kaleidospic,
And the ground sweet smelling,
Maybe then we would be in utopic
Land; where nothing is wrong, because nothing is right.