Wednesday 7th of May 2008

I can’t help but sympathize

Orlando Urdaneta habla sobre el Facebook, buenísimo:

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhavb8WMpCg

Tuesday 24th of April 2007

La Miel

I guess this is a good reason to write again. So *clears throat* errr, this is what happens when you´re sitting in the Park and for some reason you have a teddy bear in your backpack. Don´t ask.

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IuP8u1ojGs

Tuesday 21st of February 2006

Commuting is a lot of fun

Running baby: Someone witty did this at the Acacias metro station.

Heading to work this morning, I incrust my headphones into my ear canals for my morning hearing loss session, and as soon as I step out of the gate of my building, Luetin by Underworld starts playing. I remember Flowers for Algernon. I made the mistake of not changing my MP3s in my player while I read that book last June and now I guess it´s ingrained into my head. It makes me remember how great that book is (thank you Heather!) compared to the shitty one I´m reading right now. I really don´t like to give up on books, but I´m comtemplating doing just that, it´s that bad.

I´m wearing my new bright yellow and orange Converse shoes. They obviosly don´t match. It looks as if they they would be reflectant; and who knows, maybe they are. I´ll have to try them at Gris next friday. I turn left at the Glorieta de Embajadores to catch the Cercanias (yes, those commuter trains from 3-11) to Atocha. I´m standing almost on the the edge of the sidewalk waiting for the pedestrian light to go green. I have a young lady to my left and a man in with a beige leather jacket on my right. Suddenly, I´m being pushed. I languorously turn and I see this old woman trying to squeeze herself between me and the young lady. I take a small sidestep to the left, my eyes meet with the young lady´s and we share our “what in the world is wrong with this woman?” look for a fraction of a second. Menopausal woman plants herself in front of me. She has gained a whole 40 centimeters of advantage on us. The light turns green. I sidestep around her left, take three steps and I´m again ahead of her.

What was the point of that? Making me waste more sole of my shoes by making me sidestep her once to let her through and twice to pass her once the light turned green? -Maybe she´s upset that she doesn´t own obnoxious bright yellow shoes.

I get to the station, the train arrives as soon as I turn left after the last set of stairs. The good thing about peak hours in the morning. The ride to Atocha is good. Not a lot of people. After a few seconds people start getting up to queue in front of the door. I start counting the seconds.. 1, 2, 3.. 10, 11, 12.. 34, 35, 36.. after 38 seconds we arrive at the station. Everyone is standing, a few people have almost fallen because they have nowhere to hold on to since they decided it would be a good idea to stand in front of the door before the train arrives. I go up the stairs in Andén 8, walk towards Andén 1, go down the stairs and wait for the train. The train takes about a minute to arrive. The people standing in the door for 38 seconds are right next to me.

Doors open, people wait for the incoming to get out. Eventually the people on the front start peeking inside to see if no one else comes out. Then they take that first step. And like penguins orderly coming out of the sea one after each another to embark on their yearly mating journey, we all follow that first step with amazing synchronization. We´re even walking a bit like pinguins, wobbling our steps. you have to, in order to not step on the back of the feet of the person in front of you. We´re in fast, the train is packed, It doesn´t matter if you´re holding onto anything, you won´t fall, there´s people all around you and you´re squeezed in the middle of them. I feel a newspaper on my back. I smell Chanel 43 on my left, Acqua di Gio on my right, tutti frutti shampoo in front of me. At least most people in the morning smell nice and clean.

After two stops we get to Nuevos Ministerios. I´m lucky today, I arrive in the Andén that´s in the same floor as the Metro connection. I swipe my abono twice, once to get out of the Cercanias and again to go inside the Metro system. I wait for the metro in line 8 to arrive.

Line 8 is fun. It goes to the Airport, Barajas, so you get a lot of foreigners with their oversized suitcases, It also goes to Campo de las Naciones, so you also get a helping of office yuppies.

Metro arrives. I get in, lean on the opposite door from where I came in. I start looking at traveling people coming in, struggling with their bags, while the suit laden yuppies look in disgust at them. I see a cute lady in front of me. I scan her bag. “CCS - MAD” reads her tag. She hails from Venezuela. I look at her and ask “cuanto tiempo sin una Reina Pepeada?” with a smirk on my face. A Reina Pepeada is basically an arepa filled with avocado, chicken, potatoes, carrots and mayo, popular in Venezuela. She answers “y sin Chicha!, un mes!”. I smile. I know my ride is going to be fun now.

It´s amazing how fast time goes by when you´re having a fun brisk chat. In no time It´s my stop. I tell her I must go and start heading towards the door, she says “espera!” and quickly tells me her email address. “escríbeme!” she adds. -”vale!” I reply. Doors close I wave once more, grab my pen, write down her address in my arm. How juvenile of me. I keep on walking.

I take my regular shortcut to my building. The only bad thing about is that there´s this little walkway that barely allows for two people walking one next to the other. Normally everyone who takes this route is on their way to work and is walking fast, sometimes there´s no such luck. I see this mid aged woman coming from the opposite side from where I am. She´s heading towards the entrance of the walkway. I know she´s going to take it. She picks up her pace and gets there first. As soon as she´s in, she plants herself in the middle as to not allow anyone past her and slows down to a crawl. I take it for about 15 seconds and then I let out one of my loud raccoon-shriek-monkey noise things that I do. I use this technique in the Metro stairs when moronic people are standing on the left and not allowing people by, always works. She turns around in horror and looks at me as if I had just killed a baby. She steps to the side and lets me by. I say “Gracias!” and pick up my pace. Maybe I´m an ass.

I get to my building. Go up the stairs 3 floors. Turn right, then left then left again. I say good morning to everyone I cross paths with. I arrive at my desk, I sit. Turn on the ThinkPad.

Now that was fun.

Thursday 19th of January 2006

My amaranthin duel

A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.

Time. Another Salvi-year is about to pass and I still haven´t been able to stop time. Maybe I should change methods and instead of trying to stop it, I should try to reverse it.

This last year has been very interesting. It brought about many changes and while it took away many precious things, it also gave me in return some others that I never knew were there to be had in the first place. I feel in general it has been all for the better and I can definetly say I am content with the way that things are going. This is good.

The other day we where touching the subject of Asian culture, as we seem to do every other day, and Jorge mentioned how some Asian countries see death in a totally different way than we do in the Western side of things. While they embrace it, we mostly seem to just fear it. I myself am penitent of such a sin.

This spurred another of my google searches and I´ve come accross some interesting faux passes related to death and funerals:

China

• Giving someone a timepiece as a gift. Traditional superstitions regard this as counting the seconds to the recipient’s death. Another possible interpretation of this is that the phrase “to give clock” in Chinese is “song zhong,” which is a homophone of a phrase for “attending a funeral.”
• Never stick your chopsticks into your rice and leave them there. This looks like sticks of incense in a bowl used to honor dead ancestors, and such a symbol of death is extremely offensive at the dinner table.

Japan

• Sending a New Year’s postcard to someone who suffered a death in the family during the past year.
• Holding anything with chopsticks by two people at the same time, or passing an item from chopsticks to chopsticks is considered very impolite, as it will remind bystanders of the Japanese funeral ritual. Sticking them into food (and especially rice) has similar connotations.

Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, and Poland

• Giving somebody an even number of flowers. This should only be done in funerals.

Right.. back to the issue at hand, this saturday it´s my birthday once again, and once again pretendo pasarmelo pipas. :D

Sunday 25th of December 2005

The aftermath

After much talking, joking and other irrelevant to the issue at hand activities, food was finally served. I was pleased:

Here´s a closeup of the beauty:

Presents? -Apart from some very sketchy Gianni Versace male thongs and flavoured condoms, I got two custom made button down shirts, a pyjama set and a Peruvian apple cactus. My mother says it´s anti-radiation. I digress.

Saturday 24th of December 2005

Arepa hanabi

December. As of yet, this has been a very “bleh” christmas season, not bad per se, but nothing noteworthy either. Last year wasn´t that great either. This year did yield many changes in my life, and I think for the good for the most part. Which is good.

I left Madrid yesterday. I am once again in the Gallaecia, or how the Spaniards insist on calling it, Galicia. :P -Hopefully I´ll see some of this turned into this and then I´ll get to eat it.

The 22nd was Jorge´s birthday (here´s a picture of him constipated). I got him one of the new style Saint Sagittarius action figures. He was putting it together the next morning before I left for work and while they are still stylized in a very anime-ish way, they seem so much better than the old ones. Although give them 10 years of use and I assume they´re going to end up just like the old style ones. That is, you look at them in the wrong way and it crumbles into pieces.

Anyway, I have to go do stuff in the Kitchen. I assume I will later be uploading pictures of the food, so, until then, I leave you with a Kathy moment:

[22:43] Kathy Owens: ride of the valkyries just came on..i gotta go chase my kitten for a mintues
[22:44] Salvi: oki
[22:44] Salvi: you´ll have to tell me what´s that
[22:45] Kathy Owens: we have a little game
[22:45] Kathy Owens: when “the ride of the valkyries” by wagner comes on i chase her around the apartment
[22:45] Kathy Owens: it started when she wouldnt stop biting me one day and i chase her around with a mop, this song was on
[22:45] Kathy Owens: so when it comes on random its time to chase kittens
[22:46] Kathy Owens: i dont think she likes the game
[22:46] Kathy Owens: but i do
[22:46] Salvi: you´re crazy

And oh, Merry Christmas everyone! :D

Tuesday 22nd of November 2005

Warped reflections

I don´t exactly know what the title of this post is meant to convey this time, but it defines how I feel in some way. I´m not going to elaborate since, honestly, I´m not really sure of “it” myself. I believe today makes 19 days since I´ve been back in Madrid. A good friend of mine told me she was “going back to reality” when she left Spain, and, while I think my experience has been more diluted than hers, I seem to understand a bit better what she meant. Good thing is, I think I am content with “my reality” at this point. There´s only a few things that bother me, and really, in the grand scheme of things, they´re just trivial.

I shouldn´t even be thinking about such things. I did make a point to just let things flow as they should, but sometimes I question my own reasoning and resolutions. If you think something is worth it, should you not fight for it? should you let it go? should you just wait and see what happens? should you just let it flow by itself?

I had resolved to do the latter, but now I´m wondering, can you really, ever, let it flow? events are not water, they don´t flow, they happen because they were made to happen. You have to flip the switch in order to turn on that antiquated incandescent light bulb. The electricty that flows through it´s wire filament is what actually makes it light up. You don´t inavertedly flip that switch either. You do it because you can´t see in the dark.

When is something you want worth fighting for? when is it not? is losing something worth the slight possibility of gaining something else which you´re not even sure it´s better than what you´re losing to begin with? -The more I try to learn about myself the less it seems I know myself. The more I try to understand, control, plan, and generally “figure out” life in itself, the more it all seems to slip from my grasp. When I close my eyes, if i´m not exausted, in which case i just fall asleep, I seem to ponder about all of this incessantly.

I was once in a beach in Venezuela, my aunt Lucia took me. I believe it was in Taguao, and I seem to recall I was 12 years old. I started swimming towards the ocean. I normally stop when I´m no longer able to touch the bed with in my tiptoes, but for some reason, this time I didn´t. I kept on swimming forward.. or backwards? or sideways? -anyway, I kept on paddling for what seemed quite a bit, until I turned around and the beach seemed small and I couldn´t make out the people anymore. I have no idea how much of that was me being far away and how much was the fact that I needed glasses soon thereafter. I just stood there for a minute or two, and then, abruptly, a wave engulfed me, it carried me down to the bed of the ocean and spun me into a ball while carrying me towards the beach. I tried to move, kick and wrestle. Very stupid of me really, all I did was waste more oxygen. It of course did nothing. The wave caught me off-guard, so I wasn´t able to draw my breath, but I held what I had for as long as I could, but there was a moment there when I felt I wasn´t able to hold it anymore. I was going to open my mouth and let it in. A second afterwards I was expelled out on the beach, full of scrapes and bruises. I drew some air. I got up and procceded to play with the sand. I didn´t give the whole thing any further thought, other than “damn, this bruise right here hurts”.

That second while I pondered on opening my mouth, my foolish little self thought I would die if I did. That second seemed to never end, and I got the urge to think about my life up to that time. The thing is, it wasn´t clear. I didn´t get a flashback, I didn´t see millions of pictures representing moments of my life, I didn´t see anything. It was clear and quiet. I dare say reassuring and comforting in some level.

I didn´t know it then, but I think I do now. Up until that time, I led a happy life.