Mi primer cuento en español!
Un homenaje a Cortazar…. Un hombre racional en su absurdo.
“Pero cariño, nunca podré vivir sin ti. !Te quiero! ” le dijo con ojos tan grandes como la luna y tan brillantes como el sol. “Y no te lo digo porque hoy es día de los enamorados” agregó con su vos temblorosa. “Lo digo porque es lo que siento…tengo dependencia de tu amor”. “?Cómo que no crees en la dependencia afectiva?” añadió defendiéndose de esta mirada que no dejaba de juzgarlo. “Si me dejas, yo me arrojaré en frente del primer sistema inmunológico que pase”, Mientras que él hablaba y hablaba, tratando de comprobar utilizando un lenguaje romántico extraído del último CD de “los tigres del norte” que su amor era verdadero, ella lo miraba con poca admiración.
Para ella, la palabras eran demasiado importantes, y aunque no tenía más de 4 letras en su alfabeto de bacteria, los matices en las palabras le eran de gran importancia. En su cara pálida, ella veía un amor egoísta, una dependencia enfermiza más que la relación equilibrada como debe ser el amor verdadero. Estaba harta de ver que la pareja con quien iba a compartir su patrimonio genético para, quizá, tener un día una cría resistente a todas la vacunas, no pensaba sino en si mismo. La frase que le había dicho resonaba en su casi-cabeza de bacteria y le recordaba los prejuicios que tienen los humanos sobre su raza… Unos parásitos que siempre necesitan a alguien que les provea sus substancia vital.
“No!” ella le dijo, “Nunca seré tu parásito! Lo que espero de mi pareja es una relación equilibrada, donde los dos podemos realizarnos y no una relación de dependencia, como la que tu discurso pretencioso expresa!”.
Seguramente que tenéis curiosidad por saber cual era la causa de esta escena! Pues, todo empezó cuando le había dicho, una vez de más “Sin ti, yo me muero”.
Cannot reply or edit hotmail messages from Firefox under Linux.
If you are using the bundled Firefox version that came with your Linux distribution, you are probably wondering why you cannot reply to or edit emails under Hotmail after Microsoft’s most recent upgrade to their MSN Live platform. If after you log in, you wonder why you are presented with a list of download links for compatible browsers, Firefox being one of them, even if that is what you are using, then wonder no more.
Microsoft seems to be using the “general.useragent.vendor” variable to check the browser type you are connecting to Hotmail from. Under bundled versions of the browser this is likely to be something like “Ubuntu, SuSe, etc…”, which is, as you might have guessed, not what Microsoft is expecting. It suffices to change this variable’s value to “Firefox” to get things to work.
To change the variable’s value under Firefox 2 or 3, do the following:
1- Type about:config in you url.
2- Type the variable name ( “general.useragent.vendor”) in the filter field.
3- double click the actual stored value and replace it with “Firefox”
It is all about chances!
This is an excerpt from a book I got as a gift this weekend from a friend of mine. This same friend, who happens also to be a great writer, mentioned once that it was always a better hook for the reader when a text begins with something intriguing, insightful, maybe even provocative. Well The book she offered me does just that. The title is “Chances Are… Adventures in Probability” and even though I have only skimmed through the first few pages, I can already tell that I am going to have lots of fun reading it!
“We search for certainty and call what we find destiny. Everything is possible, yet only one thing happens–we live and die between these two poles, under the rule of probability. We prefer, though, to call it Chance: an old familiar embodied in gods and demons, harnessed in charms and rituals. We remind one another of fortune’s fickleness, each secretly believing himself exempt. I am master of my fate; you are dicing with danger; he is living in a fool’s paradise.”
I love my C8H10N4O2 (Coffea arabica, caffè, kahve, قهوة, būnn).
Right before I left on vacation this year, my colleague/soon-to-be-boss purchased a new espresso machine for the office. Before making the new acquisition, she brought a pamphlet for the Nespresso that she had tried few days before and whose espresso quality really impressed her.
I am no “coffee snob” but I had always doubted that any machine that uses pods/capsules could dispense quality coffee. I was consequently sure that the new machine would not save me the hassle of walking to other side of campus, where I have adopted the practice of acquiring my daily doses of adenosine blockers, for the non-negligible price of 2.54$/double-shot.
When we received the machine, it came with a 24 pod sampling set of arious roasts, aromas and tastes. I slowly savored my first Capriccio lungo while kicking back and listening to my Pink Martini CD. (Yes I Work very hard sometimes!!!)
Over all, I found that the machine made excellent coffee considering its price and that of the capsules. It is also very compact and extremely fast to cleanup. I would strongly recommend it for any office and if you don’t know which capsules to buy, I suggest Capriccio, Vivalto and Volluto!
By the way… here is the description for the cappricio capsules: “Capriccio is a full-bodied espresso, which is also creamy, mild and rich. Its crema is very dense and so delicate that it reflects the light.” As you might have guessed, the density of the crema is probably a little too much 
Tsonga, where did you learn to play tennis?
Up until yesterday, I never thought there was someone in the circuit who could annihilate the high hopes of Nadal in such an upsetting way as Tsonga did. I never thought I could see Nadal run hopelessly on a tennis court under the commands of another player. I thought that if Federer could not do it, no one else could. Some of us, do of course know that he is a mere human being and not an alien from the planet Matadoria. I have seen Nadal lose important matches, get angry, lose his game but I have never seen him so dispirited and hopeless as he was during the third set.
Tsonga was just perfect yesterday. His game was so diversified and overall complete. In addition to that, I find that the French player possesses something that a lot of athletes lack. Something that they don’t teach you at the tennis academy and which you are either luckily born with or will lack all your life. It is called elegance. A BBC reporter said in a match review that one of Tsonga’s drop-shots was so beautiful it should be on the cover on the Vogue magazine. This pretty much sums up many of Tsonga’s hits. Even his sprints across the courts showed a lot of grace. “How come it is so difficult to beat Rafa in past?” I though to myself.
I hope that Tsonga will play Federer in the final. I will be scotch-taped to the TV Saturday night (Hawaii-time) to watch the final, no matter who Tsonga is playing!
I got the picture here
Quelle histoire!!!
Vous avez surement entendu parler du pecheur qui s’est fait gifler par une demonne apres s’etre retourne pour voir qui qui l’appelait. Selon l’histoire, un pecheur d’experience, a moitie saoul, qui pechait a 3h ou 4h du mat, sur la pointe (rochers du cote est de la plage, a cote de la descente!) a entendu une voix appeler son nom. Lorsqu’il s’est retourne pour voir qui c’etait, le mec a recu un gifle sur la joue gauche et depuis, en plus d’etre paralyse, le traumatisme lui a cause un severe dysfonctionnement mental.
La derniere fois que j’ai vu Mokhtar (2001.. 11 ans apres), je l’ai supplie de me reveler comment ils ont fait pour nous pieger moi et Omar mais sans succes. Meme apres quelques annees de Koualab et de tchitine, je n’arrive toujours pas a comprendre comment est ce que ce coup a ete monte…. A moins que ca ne soit pas un coup et que la jenniya de Sidi-bouzid existe vraiment!!!!
Cold tolerance and EST assembly
A friend of mine just sent me an email saying that my name was mentioned in “Quebec Sciences”, a science magazine devoted to everything that revolves around science, in an article about wheat tolerance to weather related stresses. ( See here )
Read the rest of this entry »
Killer waves in Jaws
A crazy swell hit the Jaws surf spot in Maui few days ago. A friend who works at the Ocean research engineering department and who runs some jobs on our compute cluster told me that the legendary surf spot has seen waves with some 80 foot faces. Believe it or not but that is almost an 8 story building. Can you imagine the thrill of being chased by a mountain of water that can easily sink a ship. Just the thought of it gives me goosebumps — or “chicken skin” as they say here in Hawaii!
I was not surprised to read in the paper that Laird Hamilton and Brett Lickle were amongst the daredevils who decided to defy nature that day and caught some of the biggest waves ever ridden.
The picture is from Jaws the day before the big swell hit. I got the picture here.
Yeah, I am going surfing!
This is one of the nice advisory emails we get every time there is something happening on the Island. Notice the “CAPITAL LETTER” aspect of this message… humm!!! I wonder why????
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HONOLULU HAS ISSUED A
* FLOOD ADVISORY FOR THE ISLAND OF OAHU IN HONOLULU COUNTY
* UNTIL 530 PM HST
* AT 230 PM HST…RADAR SHOWED HEAVY RAIN AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS
ALONG THE NORTH AND NORTHEAST SIDE OF OAHU…FROM KAAAWA TO
TURTLE BAY TO NEAR PUPUKEA. HEAVY RAIN HAS BEEN PERSISTENTLY
DEVELOPING ALONG THE WINDWARD COAST…AND HEAVIEST RAIN WILL
OCCUR FROM KAAAWA TO TURTLE BAY.
* OTHER LOCATIONS IN THE ADVISORY INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO
PUNALUU…LAIE…HAUULA…
STAY AWAY FROM STREAMS…DRAINAGE DITCHES AND LOW LYING AREAS PRONE TO FLOODING.
RAINFALL AND RUNOFF WILL ALSO CAUSE HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS DUE TO PONDING…REDUCED VISIBILITY AND POOR BRAKING ACTION.
DO NOT CROSS FAST FLOWING OR RISING WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE OR ON FOOT.
TURN AROUND…DON/T DROWN.
THIS ADVISORY MAY NEED TO BE EXTENDED BEYOND 530 PM HST IF HEAVY RAIN PERSISTS.
Bonne nuit a tous!
It is 3:40 AM and tomorrow is a work day. what am I still doing this late, you might wonder. Nothing… absolutely nothing. I have been staring at the ceiling for the past 2 hours, I tried counting sheep, toads and even cockroaches. I sang lullabies and listened to some mercan dede but nothing has worked so far!!!
I knew that I shouldn’t have had the three extra refills of ice-tea at at 11:00PM. But I needed something to push down the rib-eye steak I had at Chili’s! Yeah, yeah, It was indeed too late for dinner but who could refuse a rib-eye steak. Heck, you could call me at 3:30 in the morning and offer me one and I would come running… If you were to add some nice and fluffy garlic mashed potatoes and some sauteed broccoli –mmm mmm mmm– I would even crawl to your place.
Let me tell you how these sleepless nights started. I always thought that sleep is a complete waste of time and when I first read that one could reach all sleep stages without having to waste the usual 6-8 hours in a bed, I became curious to know more about how I could squeeze in some extra, hopefully productive, hours into a day. I started by reading some reports that proved through experiments that the human brain/body adapt to sleep deprivation by entering the essential sleeping phases more quickly. “Heck,” I thought”, if boat racers, astronauts and even P.diddy did it, then why not me?”. And thus started my journey into polyphasic sleep AKA 30 minutes naps 6 times a day.
I was a wreck the first week. I had to go to work and “Pretend” that I was productive all in the name of wanting to be more productive. I was yawning all the time and had huge dark circles under my eyes.
The theory argues that there is a minimum of 14 days to a successful brain transition and that by oversleeping or not sticking to a strict sleeping pattern, one was not only delaying his adaptation period but also decreasing the chances of fully adapting and extending the agony.
I was not able to stick to my sleeping schedule and once I slept, I was not able to wake up on time, even when I set my phone alarm, the clock and the oven alarm. After few weeks, I started however feeling less tired and cranky even with as little as 4 hours of sleep.
I was almost there. There I was imagining the number of books I would be able to read during the extra time I would pile up by not sleeping. I could brush up on my Spanish, write more emails and maybe even start surfing early sessions with Henry. In the mean time, not sticking to my schedule, rendered me into a walking zombie, with a 286 processor as a
brain and a mere 4kb of available memory. I badly needed an upgrade!!!
By the end of the month, I was just bored. Reading was not helping since I did not grasp most of what I read. At night, when I was not on chatting, or browsing I was either writing useless code, or hacking!
By the end of week 5 I started to get bored… Very bored… annoyed to death. I was however still a little hopeful of a complete adaptation.
Week six was mentally challenging. Nights were very long and the days even longer. All I did was wait for my nap time and my productivity was down by at least 70%.
On my 6th Friday night, after a beautiful evening with a friend and during which I only practiced my listening skills since I was too exhausted to share my opinions, I made the sad decision to quit polyphasic sleep. It was enough for me. Basta, safi, ca suffit…barakkaaaaaaaaaa!
Since then, I was never fully able to recover. Once in a while, I wouldn’t be able to close my eyes all night long. And there are days when I still feel the urge to nap. I was not able to fully adjust because of my lack of discipline. Maybe one day I will try it again… I will make sure that I am ready to comply with the rules before I do. In the mean time, I am going to sleeeeeeeep…a lot. Dream and sigh and scream. I will go see Alice in wonder land before taking a shortcut and joining Ken in his magic vessel on a tour around the globe. I will snore and drool and turn around and snore some more. I will turn the warm pillow around and lose my sheets and get cold and curl up in my bed and wake and cover up. I will sleep some more and hopefully wake up to “three little birds beside my door step singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true” and when it’ll rain, I will wake up to toads in the canal screaming alliterations from hell. I don’t care, I would be fresh. I would have rebooted and emptied the trash can of my system and maybe even installed the updates that were made available.
Wow, it is already 4:15 and I have been writing this post for 35 minutes. Well I was also emailing friends in between, browsing through the 6000 songs playlist I inherited from my previous roommate Robbie who is now DJing in Oregon and also reading about Turkish music… (particularly about Sezen Aksu and the saz)
By the way, here is a little poem about sleep that I found while browsing during one of my polyphasic nights. It is by John Keats.
Bonne nuit a tous!
O soft embalmer of the still midnight,
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
Our gloom-pleased eyes, embowered from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close,
In midst of this thine hymn, my willing eyes,
Or wait the “Amen”, ere thy hoppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities.
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes, -
Save me from curious conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, bun-owing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And. seal the hushed casket of my soul.