In the jungle, the mighty jungle…

We are in the middle of a series of events for the family. Yesterday were Mediana (as Tim0n) and Pinka (as Nal@) in “The Li0n K1ng”; produced by the school (will had a lot of responsibility preparing all the actors; kudos to him) and my niece Sobrina’s (Polaco’s daughter) graduation ceremony from elementary school.

Today it was Sobrina’s graduation “party” (luncheon in a big old house, French style) and tomorrow is Pinka’s birthday party (who surprisingly will have a “The Li0n K1ng” theme! But, I think the lion won’t be happy).

My mother is here, visiting her granddaughters; with a great effort from her since she was here three weeks ago during Patita’s presentation (in the church) and next Monday is my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary.

So is celebration over and over again.

A good change after I forgot to pay the kids’ tuition and my wife could not get the report cards on time (and she felt slightly ashamed because that happened in front of all the other moms; sorry!).

Too many things happened (and are about to happen) during this week; from the month-end-closing activities at work to the preparation of the presentation and parties on the weekend.

We also had our monthly therapy session (couples therapy) and in there my wife recognized that she dislikes our therapist. We are going to skip the next session (since we will be on vacation; road trip to Central Mexico and going back through the Baja! 2 weeks of driving, walking, talking to the family! It’s going to be great!!) and return to session last week of August; it will be interesting.

We closed the month at work really close to our target. My boss will be happy, and after reviewing the next two months schedule we are in a far better position for hitting all monthly targets and the quarterly target.

I am not as tired as I was at the beginning of the week and even though this week will start with tiring activities; I looked forward to next week. Mediana and Pinka will be at school on Monday (6th year graduation) and at the movies on Tuesday (a treat from the school, for the effort they made towards a great performance yesterday). On Wednesday we are planning to have them join a “summer camp” at the French Alliance (we are pushy parents and want them to start learning French) but we are not sure that will happen. In any case, I will be reporting what happens.

See you around.









(This picture has nothing to do with this post; it is that I forgot to mention that I saw it at the entrance of the customer I went to visit in North Carolina; I wonder if is some kind of hospitality sign there!!)

Lies, lies and more lies

For no reason whatsoever, everybody at my job feel sick. From stomachache, headache, dizziness, etc. I just feel tired. Still.

We had visitors today. They came from Buffalo, NY. We were complaining about the weather and on of them started laughing at us. Of course, from where he is from it is COLD (not to say freaking COLD) up there. He also did not have lunch with us. Did not want to eat or drink anything we had for them. The other guy did. This is the second time that I find an American not wanting to drink water (even bottled water from US!!) in Mexico; the other guy (on my previous job) brought 5 gallons of water with him, so he could drink during the whole week he stayed in Mexico.

For lunch we brought tacos from “Asadero Yaqui”; a place similar to “Asadero Sonora”. They use SuK@rne meat and hand made tortillas. Add some carrots and red onions in vinegar, guacamole and salsa and you will have some of the best tacos in Tijuana (but it is debatable; everybody have their own opinion about tacos). I actually rate them in second place; the reason is that I love “Tacos Poblanitos” (the one in front of Morelos Park, be careful because there are maybe around 2459 Tacos Poblanitos in TJ). And the guy did not eat any of them. His loss.

Today I am expecting to hear from my brother-in-law regarding the car that they find after two years stolen. It has been a month since I started pursuing the recovery of the car, and seems like finally we will get it back. Originally they said the car was there; then they could not find it; then offered to swap for another car (without papers, very suspicious!) and finally the car was found and is in the repair shop (on their dime!) before returning it to us. They mentioned the car will be ready today; I am thinking more of Saturday or next week. In any case, the car will be ours again. I am thinking of selling it right away; let’s wait to see what happens.

The day started strange; my wife complained about me not helping her with the breakfast this morning. Funny, because the breakfast is my responsibility; it is something I enjoy doing. It brings memories of my father giving us breakfast and then taking us to the bus stop at 6:00am when I was attending Jr. High School; that some of the things I usually do not remember of my father, because I remember better that he arrived home at 8:00 pm to sit in front of the TV and he was not to be bothered; but I appreciate now the time he put on the breakfast and the ride (1 Km away from the bus stop, it saved us 10 to 15 minutes every morning!).

So, my wife complains because I did not help. Actually is the other way around; I forgot to THANK HER for her help. I want to make a point of this, because breakfast is MY deal. Thank you Bonita (when you read this).

It has been a long day; I am about to go home. I may post something else later.

See you around.

Back to reality

OK, the heat wave seemed to have passed (or is it the “to-freeze” setting on the air conditioning here?).

I’ve felt exhausted like never before. I am from Sinaloa, where in summer you can get your good 45º C (116 º F) in a sunny day (just after the raining season, in June/July) and I’ve driven to Mexicali, where there is no raining season and only sun and heat, in a car without AC in the summer. So what the hell is happening here? I’m starting to think I am getting old.

Or maybe, just maybe is the additional 3 hours it took me to get back home on Friday night. ½ hour when the plane in NC had to wait on the runway before take-off (when we pulled off the gate 5 minutes early!). Or the hour and half we had to wait in Houston between waiting for the thunderstorm to clear and disembark and waiting for the delayed plane with 15 passengers going to San Diego. Or maybe the hour I waited in San Diego airport before getting confirmation my suitcase did not arrive (this after in NC the guy in the counter gave me this “priority” tag for the suitcase to make it appear faster on the baggage claim; both of them first time, I’ve never before had delayed luggage).

Or could it be the 4 hours I got to spend in a theater without AC on Sunday afternoon; during Mediana’s dance presentation (which was very good, let me tell you!).

I do not know. But that is the main reason I have not posted lately. My brain has been deactivated because of the combination of being tired, lazy and the ambient temperature.

But hey! I’m back.

So, after yesterday I finally got the new SENTRI sticker for my wife’s car (took me about 45 minutes to cross the border and 1 hour to get the sticker) I got to work. There was a mess; this is end of the month week, and if you remember last month we are in no better condition this month. We already lost 13% of the sales this month because of a defective part and we can not recover this amount. Bad news for my boss.

Later today, I got a complain from IT regarding one of the guys in the warehouse; who decided, that it was a good idea to visit some porn websites during work hours and using the “secure” connection we use for the transactions with Massachusetts. He will be fired, and that is no good; because he will be the second person to be fired because of that in the last three years. Not good at all for the rest of us (do not worry about me: 1) I do not visit prohibited websites [at least during working hours!] and 2) I use a public connection while posting). Anyway; people behaves that way; but got me thinking. Do people abuse their job “perks” as revenge against feeling abused? I need to investigate. I will be reporting later.

See you later.

How much do I hate business travel? Let’s count the ways

In case you are wondering where I am, let me tell you (in a minute); if you don’t; stop reading then!!; what the hell are you doing here??

Well, y’all; I am in Asheville, North Carolina (did you notice?). On business trip. Have I mentioned I do not like traveling on business? There are many reasons, but the main one is that I can not sleep properly in any other bed than mine, with my wife at my side. I know it sounds corny, but I really can not.

There are other reasons, like spending more than 12 hours in airports, planes and rental cars. In the three companies I have worked for; I had to travel on business multiple times: to Asia and South America; to Chicago (every month, even on winter! It’s freaking cold!!) and now to the East Coast (Massachusetts usually, now to a customer site here; twice in the last three months).

And there is also the nagging feeling that something can go wrong back at home while I am out. Like today; my car broke down. I have my wife’s car in San Diego’s airport. So, she does not have a car for tomorrow. Blagh!! (I think I will start using some profanity in my blog; but in Spanish…) Que la chin…!! (nop, I could not do it yet).

Anyway; I did not want to travel this time. We have a customer, who usually is very quiet. But lately, they have been a little on the warpath. Corporate got involved and I have to be here; we had a meeting today, 2 hours to review the new way the want to score our performance as supplier; with an unexpected twist; there is a section where we can score their performance as customer. This is a really novel and exciting idea!! I am so looking forward to it; because I can raise hell for them if we do not get the right score!!! (I feel a little vindictive now, it may pass later). Tomorrow we will continue the meeting at 8:00 am, finishing at 1:30 pm and giving me just enough time to drive back to the airport and take my flight back to San Diego.

Back to the “I did not want to travel…” part. Remember; I believe there are no accidents; I broke my “Dingleberry” phone yesterday. Which means I have no 24/7 access to my email. Which means I do not have a way of knowing what is going on with the people I work. Which means I have an excuse for later to say; “see, that’s exactly why I did not want to go” to my boss. Later, I got busy with other things and I got to the airport 5 minutes before my departure time. 2 minutes before departure time I was in the security gate (it was empty, I was the only person trying to get to the departure gate; it was strange). I arrived to the gate at the same time they were paging me. There was no escape for me; I got in the plane. 11 hours later I got to my hotel.

During the flight (and while waiting in Houston for my second flight) I finished reading “El pintor de batallas” and started and almost finished “Water for Elephants”. So it wasn’t that bad. I started changing my attitude and decided that I will enjoy the trip. So far it has been better than I have told you (like the meeting; it was interesting!) and I had a good dinner (Italian food; a nice-to-good/great place called Carraba’s) and great conversation with the people I met here. I look forward to tomorrow; but there was one thing I wanted to do and couldn’t.

This blogging thing has been a source of surprises; specially related to people that get involved in the stories and problems I have been reporting here. One of them lives close by (relatively speaking; it is a 5 hours drive from here) and I wanted to meet him, but did not have the time on this trip.

(s)wine, next time I come here (and I am pretty sure I will come back) I will make better arrangements to meet you and thank you personally for the feedback and the friendship (*). Until then…

See you around.

(*) Of course it could happen that you go to Tijuana first; in which case you will be more than welcome.

Sundays are good (sometimes)

June 15th is an important date. Flor’s birthday; Salvaje’s birthday; Father’s Day (this year) and it is the anniversary of my graduation from college.

I finished college 18 years ago. Those were really good times for me, I though it was going to be really difficult to feel like that again. Curiously enough, yesterday I was feeling like never before. For some reason I started reading some of Discworld novels again. There is one that the first time I read, did not really liked enough to warrant a second look; but now, for no reason it was calling me. It is “Small Gods”.

The main character is a novice in the church of Om; his name is Brutha. He found himself in the interesting position of being the only one that can hear Om; because people have forgotten about him, Om can only take the shape of a small tortoise. The story is full of irony, satire and all the fun Terry Pratchett pours into his novels. But there was something really surprising for me, since I did not see it the first time. This novel is full of compassion. The hard complete compassion that is required for people lacking… anything. And in this book there are many of those. Especially Bruthat’s antagonist, Vorbis.

Anyway, I read it and reread it several times, trying to get the most of the message written on it and finally I could not read it more. I would start crying when reading. Even now when writing this I feel the need to cry.

This is extremely unusual; not that a book makes me cry (Porthos dying in the last part of “The viscount of Braggalonne” made and makes me cry) but that just by remembering it I want to keep crying… I had to close my office door now.

I tried to tell the story to Bonita yesterday, and started crying, she was surprised, but let it happen (which was really good). I felt so alive… and after that really enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

Family from both sides visited and stayed for "carne asada" (barbeque); we had some beers (Pacifico, because of the weather) and I got a little tipsy. My wife was bothered by it a little bit, but I think it was OK. We started watching “The Godfather”, but it was late and went to bed.

This morning everything looks great; good weather; Vicky, Mediana and Pinka woke up early and got ready on time for work and school. Bonita and me slept a little more than usual, but got out of the house in time. Good start of a beautiful day.

I got into a discussion with somebody from work on Friday, but he called me just now to patch up things and propose a solution for a problem we have (which is what I wanted since Friday, so I got it!)

Things are moving; and if they are moving we can then steer them. I know this is just a beginning (of many that exist) and we will hit some lows, but with the right attitude everything improves.

See you around.

Getting back to the saddle.

Well, the weekend was full of those moments that make life so interesting. After not getting enough sleep Friday night, we were (rudely I would say) waked up by my mother-in-law at 6:00 am, when she arrived at my house to give her car a wash. After several annoying noises I finally got up and asked her politely to keep it quiet. She was embarrassed but not enough to stop completely. My wife and I started laughing after that, because we could have made such a big problem out of that, it was just not worth it.

After Vicky’s comments (and all other comments that followed!) we were expecting her to be mad at us. We knew she was upset when she commented, but for her it was a way to vent her frustration; so she was back to her normal charming self. My wife wanted to have breakfast with her, but schedules prevented that (Mediana’s rehearsal, Pinka’s medical appointment and Vicky having to go to work).

We left the house, took care of the kid’s activities and left to US for some shopping. Pinka’s birthday party is coming and Sunday was full of celebrations (Father’s Day, my sister-in-law Flor and my wife’s friend Salvaje’s birthdays) so we needed to get some things before we run out of time.

We left Mediana and Pinka in Tijuana, they did not want to go shopping (what a surprise!) and it was just Bonita and me. We talked, a lot. About Vicky, empathy, getting offended and life in general. It was really deep conversation and we had a great time.

When we came back, Vicky and Bonita went out to have lunch and talk. I stayed home, ordered some sushi for me. My brother and his family arrived and my niece Patita was in her “I like my uncle” state which is so good. We talked and waited 20 minutes for everybody else to get back. Patita and Joseantoñito love Mediana, so when they saw her their faces beamed and they ran to give her a hug. They stayed for a while at the same time we were preparing for a round of “Continental” with my in-laws. We played, had a good time; and at the end of the game, Vicky said to my wife “ok, let’s finish this and start again in a blank slate”.

So, yes. Vicky and Bonita (me too) are leaving bad feelings behind (where they should be) and looking forward to improve their relationship (and all relationships they have by extension). So it was a great way to finish Saturday.

See you around.

Selective memory or selective amnesia?

When I was dating my wife (13 years ago) a family friends invited us, together with my brother-in-law and my mother-in-law, to spend a weekend out of town. We went to a ranch located between Tijuana and Tecate, in the mountains.

The day we were coming back started raining. Because if there is heavy rain you would be trapped in the place until the road is OK to drive and that could take several days. In the rush of getting out of there we pack some of the things in one car and started leaving. After 5 minutes we noticed nobody else was following us, so we stopped and my boss (who would be my “compadre” some years later) and me went back walking to see what was happening.

The other car had humidity in the ignition system and we had to wait and find a way to dry the thing. We walked to the house and on our way back, we saw a bull up the hill. We were walking perpendicular to the bull, and the people in the first car (where my mother-in-law was) could not see us because of the hill. Suddenly, my “compadre” yells at me “RUUN!!” and takes off. I followed him, never looking back and waiting for him to stop and tell me is a joke. He never did. His father-in-law was fixing the other car, but had a complete unobstructed view of the thing. When we walk past him I thought he was having a heart attack; he was laughing so hard. He still tells the story and laughs. In any case, he was the only witness; but now, my mother-in-law swears she saw it too (even though it was impossible for her to see anything at the time).

She knows the story at heart (having heard it so many times) that she actually thinks she was there watching when it happened.

Same thing with anybody. Hear a story so many times and finally you would be there, even if you weren’t.

It works the other way around; my wife hates this story when I tell it: “the second time I asked her out we kissed at the end of the date and then she told me ‘Are we dating now?’ So I never asked her to be my girlfriend”. That is what I would say, because I think it makes the story more interesting; but is not exactly what happened (for the record, I did ask her) but sometimes even I get confused because at some moments I am not sure what really happened ;^)

Anyway; why the hell am I writing at 4:00 am in the morning? Well, I woke up at 3:30, my wife woke up too (but I did not do it!) and I had a message warning in the shackle I carry from work (called a Dingleberry by my previous boss) so I read Vicky’s comment on one of the posts and started thinking about how to answer. The I read (s)wine’s comment and I decided to get up and answer both.

I have not yet. I wanted to write something else first to take my mind and wake up completely; now is 5:30 and there is nowhere to go. You can follow my trail of thoughts in the previous and this post. But I am not convinced yet of any answer. I will do it now. Let’s see how it goes.

See you around.

(Ir/Sur)reality

I lived in Sinaloa with my parent until I was 17. I moved to Guadalajara to attend college. And I never thought of this before until I arrived to Tijuana, but I'd never met a divorced couple in Sinaloa. I knew of the “casa chica” (mistresses’ house) that some people had, or other families people I knew had, but never of anybody divorced.

The same way with parent-child relationships. I was never aware of the kind of problems that really exist in families. Living with my parents, brothers and sisters was an exercise on how not to communicate. I do not think my parents did, but most of my brothers/sisters lived with (at least) two personalities. In the town my parents still live none of us could do no wrong. Drinking, driving, going to the movies; any activity we did, it was reported back to my parents (they were school teachers, all the town knew them, or so it seems!) Any toe out of the line will be treated as a mortal sin. And even I was hurt at times by my parents talking about disappointment, I knew two things: 1) I was not doing anything really wrong and 2) my parents cared and loved me.

However, I attended High School and Jr. High School in Los Mochis (45 minutes away) and since there were no buses between my town and Los Mochis after 8:30 pm, if I was going to a party I have to stay overnight. Problem solved, I could do anything I wanted, since my parents never knew. My brothers did the same thing (except one of them, who did it at home and therefore is known as the party-goer/bohemian brother).

Finally going to Guadalajara was a eye-opener. I lived with relatives (my aunt, sister of my father) and they had a similar attitude against going out and having fun (partying especially). For a while it was back to square one, but I had the process set this time.

That was one of the things I did not want to do to my children. I would like them to have a clear personality, not that they don’t hide something from me, but I would like them to try not to do it or to feel comfortable not doing it. In any case, it does not work properly. But hell, we try.

See you around

After.

Three weeks after I posted about how my wife Bonita and my daughter Vicky are interacting lately we found ourselves again in awkward territory.

At that time, we decided that we should not depend on Vicky’s availability for things we could handle ourselves (getting a nanny when we needed to do something at night; cooking breakfast and getting a hairdo for the kids; running some errands, etc.) That strategy had mixed results; we could not do some things we wanted and we got surprised a few times by Vicky doing some small things for us without asking her to do them.

In any case, things have not improved. Vicky is still playing the “if you did not do that for me, why should I do it for you” role which is so frustrating in so many levels. In the other hand; Bonita and me are getting tired of not getting enough “kindness” from Vicky and the fact she is showing (and teaching that way) her sisters some attitudes we do not want Mediana and Pinka to have.

Yesterday was the latest example of this. When leaving from my job, Vicky called me to see if I could pick her up; I said yes and we drove home. I had to run some errands and on our final segment of the drive I called Bonita to let her know we were on our way. She asked me for a fruit salad; I refused to stop and buy it and Bonita asked me to convince Vicky (you see the word!?!), to prepare a veggie sandwich instead.

I told Vicky about it and she was not thrilled to do it. She complained about it but, when we arrived home I had the understanding she would do it. I had to get back to where we went (I forgot my agenda there!) and when I came back Vicky was having dinner. I asked about the sandwich and she said that she would do it. 15 minutes later, while I was having dinner (some leftovers from lunch) I finally asked Mediana to make the sandwich.

Bonita got there and she got upset. I understand the logic; to make a sandwich takes around 5 minutes; all the vegetables were ready to get it done. Why didn’t Vicky do it? Bonita left to get the salad (after all, that’s what she really wanted) and after 5 minutes Mediana and Pinka commented that her mother was exaggerating!

I did not like that. Why would they judge what other person does? I do not do that (or I try not to do it); my wife does not do that; it only leaves Vicky as the person judging. And I do not want Mediana and Pinka to be judgmental. I want them to hold their ground with their opinions; but not stubborn or fanatical about anything. So, I talked to them, questioning why they thought of that and finally they said, “well, I do not know how my mom felt” which I took advantage of to say: “yes, and that is why you should not hold judgment on other people actions”.

I hope they got it.

And I hope Vicky gets it. Life is what it is. You can not change the past. You can change the present, and the future. But it means you have to change. That is the challenge I am presenting to Vicky now. Because I want her to be the best she can be (in her own eyes, not mine!), not a person that whines and feel bad about how things were (especially since there is no way to change that).

I mentioned before; you are here because of what other people did and what you are doing. And all of those decisions and combination of actions brought you here. Could you be better? Define better. You would be different, not necessarily better. Go on with life, then. Take advantage of the way life changes when you change your attitude about it. One is always young enough, brave enough, and even sometimes stupid enough to do it. It only takes this: you wanting to do it.

See you around.

Beer with me.

OK, being a true Sinaloan, I like beer. I started drinking beer since I was 16. Yes, under the legal age, and yes, I would not have my daughters do the same, I am that kind of parent (some would call me hypocrite, but you should ask Vicky my point of view, at least she agreed).

In Mexico there used to be only two big beer companies: Grupo M0delo and Cerveceria Cuauhtem0c-M0ctezuma. Until a few years ago they had the complete beer market in Mexico; now there are more options being local microbreweries (Tijuana and Cucapah come to mind) and some good additions to the current leaders (like Casta).

Most of the brewing done in Mexico comes from German influence, because in the XIX century Austrian Duke Maximilian was named Emperor of Mexico. He brought master brewers from Germany and that is how Mexican beer started.

Most of the beer sold in Mexico is pilsner or pale lager beer; Corona, Tecate, Carta Blanca, Modelo, Estrella, the Light versions of them all, Dos Equis (XX) lager, Montejo, Tijuana Guera, Mexicali, Cucapah Triguena, Bohemia, Pacifico, etc. The best are Bohemia (if you like your beer hoppy) and Pacifico (of course, since is from Sinaloa! But you have to get the one brewed in Mazatlan). If you are in Tijuana, Tecate or Tijuana Guera are OK.

There are some darker beers; Negra Modelo, Victoria, Leon, Indio, Dos Equis Ambar, Tijuana Morena, Casta Morena, Bohemia Oscura, Cucapah Oscura, Nochebuena (for Christmas season), etc. Again, I like Tijuana Morena the best (draft version, not bottle), but I would drink any of those or Pacifico if there are not any dark beer.

However, last year, KC (sales rep of the company I work) invite me to taste St0ne beer. Man, I was slapped silly by the hoppiness, but once it passed I got hooked on it (I am not ashamed to say I now moved to the “Darker side” of beers). He got me samples of the Imperial Russian St0ut (10.8% alcohol; dense, black beer; almost solid), the X Anniversary (very similar to the Arr0gant Bastard, with higher alcohol content) and the Vertica1 Epic (070707 version; citrusy flavor). I tried all of the regular brews (Pale Ale, IPA, Levitati0n, Ruinati0n and of course the Arr0gant Bastard) and ender up liking most of them (Ruinati0n has a very distinctive bitterness that is way past me).

I attended the XI Anniversary party (in the brewery) and sampled several more beers (there were 32 breweries showcasing their products, I liked the Belgian beers and some German, Mexico was represented by Tijuana, Cucapah and Modelo); I specially liked the XI Anniversary Beer and the St0ne Nuclear Cheese spread (they have a bistro in the brewery); good times.

Anyway, in September there is the XII Anniversary party; I think you will find me there.

See you around.

Catching up

While waiting to get to work I was thinking of three potential posts I want to write about; the first one was religion (I went to mass yesterday, after a while! No, I did not burst in flames), the second one is about beer and the third one was a music review.

I will skip religion; I vented in my Spanish post already, so the edge is gone. I need to review and recall the indignation I felt yesterday at the priest to make it worthwhile.

Beer…. (imagine Homer Simpson saying it…) OK, I will do it after I make my comment on Kaki King’s records…

I finally have a complete opinion of three of Kaki King’s records. I am missing one of them (“Legs To Makes Us Longer”) but it will do.

And we start with: “Everybody Loves You”

OK, I think this is the most representative CD of her style;
“Kewpie Station”, “Steamed Juiced Little Bun”, “Carmine St.”, “Close your eyes and you’ll burst into flames”, “Joi” and of course “Everybody loves you” are to showcase her talent.
However I liked better #4 “Night after Sidewalk” and #10 “Fortuna”; I am more in sync with them.
“The Exhibition” and “Happy as a Dead Pig in The Sunshine” are OK; a little too happy for me.

So, I liked 2 songs out of 10. Another 2 get an acceptable rating. 6 can be good for guitar-music lovers. It gets a pass.

“Until We felt Red”

You can hear the maturity (or the pressure from the manager to be more accessible to the public) here.
The disc opens with “Yellowcake”; a nice melody with a tamed guitar and a nice surprise; her voice. She has a nice voice; not a GREAT voice, but it meshes with the music very well.
“Until We Felt Red” which has no lyrics and a change of pace in the guitar, it’s OK.
The most complex of the songs in the disc “You Don’t Have to Be Afraid”. I love the first 4 minutes of it, then changes pace and theme and I am close to hate it, I don’t get it completely; it loses me at the middle.
“Goby” is OK; good enough follow up a little jazzy.
“Jessica” is more my kind of song; she sings again; I liked it.
“First Brain” is a good exercise on how to play the guitar “punteando” (I do not know how to explain it in English, but it means using your fingertips to pull a string at a time very quickly).
“I Never Said I Love You” is darker than anything I’ve heard from her. I think dark jazz, whatever that means.
“Ahuvati” is in the mood of “First Brain”, same style; but does not get me anywhere.
I liked “These are the Armies of the Tyrannized”. It has some of the darkness of “I Never Said I Love You” but with more hope and liked it better.
“Second Brain”. It is much better than the first; the metallic sounds are the difference.
“Soft Shoulder” another “liked” song. A little bit of discordance at the beginning, OK.

So; I liked it better than the first one. 13 songs, 6 or 7 that I liked, this is getting better.

“Dreaming Of Revenge”
Strong start with “Bone Chaos in the Castle”. Nice continuation with “Life Being What It Is”, “Sad American” is not so good, I liked “Pull Me Out Alive” (interesting music video too); “Montreal” is really good. “Open Mouth” is interesting; the melody seems to repeat in “So Much For So Little” but in a darker way. “Saving Days in a Frozen Head” and “Air and Kilometers” are feel good songs.

Overall, the best of the three.

So, here it is. I would recommend “Dreaming of Revenge” and selected songs of “Everybody Loves You” and “Until We Felt Red”. And if you get August Rush OST, look for “Bari Improv” and “Ritual Dance” too.

See you around.

Realistic or surrealistic?

Some days I cannot believe Tijuana. There are many things I don’t like about living in US, but some others I admire. Particularly the way information is available when roads are being repaired. This morning I had drive around a couple of road repair areas and took me more than half more minutes than usual to get to work. Of course, they closed the main road and then one of the side roads that would have got you out of there. This is Tijuana (and I love the city).

Whatever

I just want to say good night to all of you.

I may not post anything until Sunday afternoon or Monday afternoon.

Just reporting my mother is visiting this weekend, to attend my niece Patita's presentation in church (catholic tradition for children three years old).

We've just arrived from San Ysidro, bought a lot of clothes and some trinkets (a tea infuser for my wife).

We have no kitchen, they are rebuilding it after 10 years of use and abuse.

My wife did not like the new faucet I got for the kitchen, so we need to buy another one (I do not know when).

We had dinner at Pamp@s and enjoy it a lot; even my wife who is not eating beef at this time (she is in a "vegetarian" phase).

Because of a hoax email chain (* I think) Vicky has decided not to go out this weekend; she is only visiting friends living 5 minutes from here. We agreed.

I'm tired. I'm tired, I have to thank the spelling check, but even then is difficult to understand and autocorrect "anthpoer" (I still do not know how I type that).

See you later.

(*) In the email, there is a warning to people going out from June 5th to June 7th to avoid some places, since there is a group of "Zetas" (military type group in the payroll of the Gulf Cartel) that vowed to kill people attending some areas of Tijuana. In any case I will wait until tomorrow to say everything is safe.

Steady Eddie

I can be opinionated; but rarely passionate about anything. There are very few things that get me riled up or to which I would react (patronizing and people not listening are two of them). At the same time I dread to recommend a book/film/TV show/restaurant/etc. I do not know the reason, but I think it has to do with sharing information about me (my tastes and what gets me ticking).

In that sense I rarely allow me to feel the deep excitement/disgust when something gets me. I am shielded by my own set of thoughts that prevent what I call a “loss of control”. Not that I never do it; but I feel like I am always a little too much calculating risks/rewards. I am a gambler in that sense; try to keep my emotions out of play. Even when I am upset (and acting up), I am always thinking in the background: “what should I do next, to make it more effective? OK, let’s hit the car.” Or something like that.

(S)wine’s comment got to me this morning. Not because I felt offended by it or anything like that. It was more the chain of thoughts that the comment started. I like to be liked. Not only that; I like people to tell other people nice things about me. Like saying I am intelligent, or different or special (but not in the educational way!) or thoughtful, etc. So when I read the comment, I immediately started thinking about explaining myself (and did a little) to try to stop him think less of me.

After a while, I started asking me “why?” The main reason of this blog (or any blog for that matter) is to write your opinions and your comments and your thoughts and if what you say resonates (either harmonically or not) with other people they will let you know. Then, why should I be so concerned about liking (or not) Stephen King? Does it really matters? I think not (but I am not sure… My “emotional needs” are acting up again…)

In any case; I have liked some of the books of Stephen King (The Stand, It and the Dark Tower series specially); then in a sense I like him. Some others (like the short stories in general) I have not liked, I do not know what to make of it.

All the books that I have read and finished I have liked. The ones I did not like I did not finish them (but there are very few). Of course, I always try to find something to like in everything I do; I am not sure this is the sane thing to do (this means I do not want to argue about it, I really think THIS IS the sane thing to do); but it works for me. That sometimes that way of thinking had led me to shovel shit for days, well the showers you take afterwards feel great! So, I am not sorry (even if I want to say it!) to disagree or to have different opinions. I am trying to embrace this difference (it's DIFFICULT!!!), which I think is OK.

See you around.

Read at your own peril... (Updated)

I found it!!! Here it is.

This G00gle thing is GOOD!!

Read at your own peril...

One of the benefits of having parents that like to read is the number and type of books that were available when I discovered I enjoyed reading.

In that sense, my parents were very open regarding which books I could read. Everything available. There were no hidden books in the house. If it was there, it could be read. At the time, my parents were really fond of Irving Wallace and Taylor Cadwell (I remember reading Wallace with some concerns because of the “sex activity” descripted in those books, now I find it funny).

Then, I moved to Guadalajara with my uncle and aunt (*). My uncle has a HUGE library of Science Fiction. One of his collections was a 40 tome anthology of Science Fiction (Ed. Bruguera by theme; racism, fantasy, humor, fugitives, heroes, etc.). I had the opportunity to read Asimov, Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Silverberg, Zelazny, Poul Andersen, Gordon R. Dickson, Harlan Ellison, George R. R. Martin, James Tiptree Jr., Ursula K. LeGuin, and many more. I LOVED IT!. My infatuation with Sci-Fi started there.

From it, I developed an interest on fantasy/terror (Fritz Leiber, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft (**), Robert Bloch, Stephen King, etc.); and then I rediscovered Paco Ignacio Taibo II. I had read “No habra final feliz” (No happy ending); when I was in Jr. High School, somebody lent the book to my dad and I took advantage and read it; I could not stop reading it, and later look for it but did not remember the author, only the character (Hector Belascoaran Shayne); so when in 1987 the FIL (Feria Internacional del Libro; International Book Fair) started in Guadalajara, I started attending. In 1990 Taibo was there to introduce some new books (I think “Cuatro Manos/Four Hands” and "Sueños de Frontera", "Amorosos Fantasmas" and "Desvanecidos Difuntos") and I was there during a conversation when he explained why Belascoaran was an Engineer working in a “maquiladora” before he decided to be a detective (private eye). Getting to know him and starting to buy almost every book he had wrote was the same thing.

From Taibo I got the Mystery/Thriller love going; that got developed when I moved to Tijuana and started buying books in English (I had some from Guadalajara, and I was used to read them in English; but they were really expensive there). I stopped buying books for a while (and stopped attending the FIL from 1996 to 2003) until finally restarted my commitment and started reading Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, and then (because I bought some books in Spanish that were on sale) Terry Pratchett.

So far I have been enjoying the ride. However these days I have been listing my books I have found more than 100 books I have not read; some of them are in “mint” condition. Shame on me! I will fix this (hopefully), before buying more books.

See you around.

(*) One of the first books that I started to read in Guadalajara was “La clave esta en Rebecca” (Ken Follet); and my uncle told me the book may not be suitable for me (I was 17 at the time) because of the sex written on it. Later on I discovered he had several of Xaviera Hollander’s books. REALLY INTERESTING!!!

(**) My father had this very old book with stories based on H.P. Lovecraft "universe" and one of the stories was called "El Guardallaves"; the book has several missing pages and I never got to finish the story. Even now I do not know the author or the original name of the story; if it rings a bell; please, please help me!!!

P.S. I forgot to mention that during 1991 to 1994 I also bought a lot of books of Erotica; under one collection from Alcor (“La fuente de Jade”). [Maybe I am ashamed of mentioning this].

Spoiler alert

I just noticed that I am spoiled.

I mean I “knew” I am spoiled, I just never before accepted.

I hate to wait for things to happen. I have no patience for unknown (and sometimes known also) people to do their duties/responsibilities/what-is-required from them.

Of course at the same time I am a procrastinator. My wife is perplexed by this apparent paradox; she feels the duty to ask me the question: “how can you complain about this when you do the same?”

I do not know; the only reason I can offer is that sometimes I do not like people who ask me to do things for them. Even if that is my responsibility/duty/etc.

But, the latest example of that was last Friday. Pinka had an injury in her right ankle. We took her to the hospital. There was only one patient in the Emergency Room. We were to wait for the general doctor (first) and then the orthopedist (second) to take a look at Pinka and give her treatment. Usually this is a 15 minutes wait. Yes, it is a small private hospital where my wife gets preferential treatment since the Insurance company makes sure she is happy with them (she is the HR manager, thus has the power to change companies if she does not like the service). This time there was no doctor, and when the orthopedist arrived (45 minutes later) he said there were too many people in the room and he was nervous with so many people and we needed a different room.

I just hated the comment. I care about the manners of a doctor; but I care more about timeliness. And it got me thinking that we give too much respect to the doctors, and teachers, and authority figures. And maybe we should not (or maybe I just think that because I feel superior to most of them [;^)], I don’t know).

In any case, I can see some doctors that are too arrogant with the people they treat. I stopped hearing a radio show (“The morning show” with Mario Alberto) because he invited a gynecologist who called women that called the show “mujercita” (little woman). I do not know if this was supposed to be a tender name to make them feel comfortable, but I just HATED the term. I hate when people patronize me (or others too; however I sometimes do it. Shame on me!).

So, I understand that part of the problem is we still see doctors, teachers, police (maybe police not), etc. as the elders in the community (magic is involved!! authority is involved!!) but in the other hand; Where is your will, duty and responsibility to yourself when you give others authority over you? The doctor will treat you, and help you get well. The teacher will help you learn. The police/judge/congressman/etc. will help you strive in this society. But, relying only on them; and blaming only them when those activities fail; it will mask your own shortcomings.

I am sensitive to this theme today. The whole Pinka’s accident has got me thinking and reviewing some of my whole conceptions.

That I am almost sure the injuries to Pinka are related to something else makes it not easier. My wife asked her therapist about people who somatize (because we were thinking about Pinka having three “major” medical issues in the last three years) and he mentioned about “Bioenergetic” and “Corenergetic” which are some investigations about how you body reflects your emotions. (He also mentioned that she may be having relationship problems with her father [this means I have to do something about it!]).

Personally, I have always believed that you can heal yourself; however many times you need some external help (doctors here). But if you really believe (and this is really difficult, because we are programmed not to) and take advantage of the help, then you can heal yourself. It happened to me when I was 16; I was sick and they told me it would take a month to be OK again, but I was up and running in 1 week. My aunt later told me that this was because I was afraid of needles and since I was getting a shot daily, I was healed after only one week. Whatever, it worked. I don’t know how to apply this to Pinka; except where I can work in my relationship with her.

I am ranting now; have to stop a little. This will continue.

See you around.

Final

To think I had not seen a “futbol” (soccer) match in several years…

Sunday started with my parents’ phone call; mi sister read about Pinka’s accident and called them to tell them about it. They wanted to check on her and confirm it was not a major injury (it wasn’t) and to talk to her a little bit. My father told me my aunt from Guadalajara (where I lived the first five years I lived there) won one of the cars from a bank promotion; she made the guys really sweat it to give her the price because she did not believe them.

We then took advantage of an early wake up call and took off to the new “Pretty Plaza” mall; we had not been there since they opened the B0rders and wanted to go browsing for a while. Vicky was not here, she went to Rosarito yesterday for... (after Maria's comment confirmed my amnesia) a party with her best friend and stayed there until Sunday'a afternoon.

We got there at 10:00 am, of course everything was closed; we did not remember they open at 11:00 am on Sunday! We got a wheelchair for Pinka with the help of a very nice lady that arrived early for work (Pinka can navigate with the crutches, but it is tiresome for her after a while [and for me soon thereafter!]) and stop at the St@rbucks for some coffee.

After that we shop a little and then headed to B0rders; got hungry in the way and stop for lunch. We got some books for the kids (Black Beauty, Anne from Green Gables, The Complete Jane Austen books) and headed home after that.

Remembered there were almost no groceries at home (we lost the fridge on Thursday, but was returned [repaired] on Saturday… hey!!! Thursday!!) and stop at a small store that sells many “organic” foods. Got seeds, some snacks, fat-free and soy milk and a six pack of “organic” beer (I have to post about beer!).

Arrived home and there is no Vicky; continue adding books to my list (I am at 290!) and then, while surfing the TV I ran into the futbol final (soccer)!

I have a confession to make; I am an America fan. For a while, when I lived in Guadalajara I considered polite to have also a Guadalajara team and since I could not follow neither Chivas (sworn enemy of America!) or Tecos (they are sponsored from a different university than the one I attended) I decided to follow Atlas (which is supposedly the team with the most faithful fans in Guadalajara, if not Mexico). But after I moved to Tijuana, I did not follow “futbol” enough. Most of my friends here are Chivas’ fans (and interested only on Chivas’ matches) and America’s matches (in 1995) were at 10:00 am on Sunday (and after a night in Sr. Fr0g’s, who could wake up that early?). I had not watch “futbol” since then.

So, I did not have a personal interest in the match; except for the courtesy to will and Maria (they are Santos fans) and also my wife’s relatives that lived in Torreon and follow the team; I decided to cheer for Santos. I got into the game really late; only watched the last 15 minutes, but being the final, it was do or die! Santos was ahead 1-0; and just like that Cruz Azul tied the game. The first leg of the home and away match ended with Santos having advantage of 2-1, so if Cruz Azul scored again the match would go to overtime. Of course if Santos scored the match would end almost immediately. Really exciting last 10 minutes; I do not know about the rest of the match, but what I saw was really interesting. I missed the burned hand incident too; I would have to read about it.

Congratulations to Santos!

See you around.