Last couple of months (years!) my book reading has been largely substituted by short article / news reading.

In my defense, I can claim I was toping the charts on the app “Pocket” (formerly Read it Later) every year! I was a top 1% reader, sometimes 5% on the platform. So I did lots of reading, but as I said, it was mainly news and other type of format and content.

By the way, I’m not at the top of the charts any more, cause the app was laid down by Mozilla, the company who owned it. I switched to Instapaper, for similar functionality.

Anyway, my fiction/larger format reading suffered. But (hopefully) no more! I’m trying to keep up with my list.

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Moved to it at last (around march). The castle. The temple. Still unfinished but slowly overpowering.

And hard break of narrative flow!

Truth is, I did not build this post as I anticipated, or wanted, or believed I could, or whatever. So I may summarize a few stuff that went by but I also did this: I asked my AI chatbot of choice to summarize the year based on our ’25 conversations. It´s really incomplete but it´s also the fastest way to do somethin´bout it. So here’s its answer:

Below is a 2025-only analytical profile, derived from recurring patterns across our conversations during that year. It intentionally avoids speculation, praise, or extrapolation beyond what your behavior consistently shows.

A. Core identity & roles (as enacted in 2025)

You consistently operate at the intersection of creator, analyst, and organizer, rather than as a single-role specialist.

• Creator: Writing, video, AI visuals, narrative design, and editorial framing recur weekly, not as side activities.
• Educator / academic: Teaching, curricular alignment, research framing, and methodological rigor remain an active constraint shaping how you create.
• Analyst / curator of tech & AI: You don’t just report news; you contextualize, rank, summarize, and archive it.
• Entrepreneur / brand builder: TecnoBato is treated as an ecosystem (content, formats, cadence, archives), not a channel.
• Experimental technologist: You test workflows, prompts, formats, and pipelines to see what works, not what’s trendy.

Pattern: You don’t “switch hats”; you layer them simultaneously, which increases coherence but also cognitive load.

B. Recurring projects & universes

Your 2025 activity clusters around a small number of persistent worlds, not scattered ideas.

• TecnoBato
  A stable backbone: weekly tech/AI news, structured formats (Top 10, r1p, clean411), podcasting, and future book compilations.
• Tenebrae Regnum
  A long-term narrative universe treated seriously, with attention to aesthetics, typography, framing, and transmedia potential.
• Academic research & teaching
  Ongoing, not episodic. Research questions, methodology, gamification, and educational impact repeatedly constrain and inform other projects.
• AI art / AI film experiments
  Used as experimentation labs, not ends in themselves.
• Publishing
  Strong push toward ebooks, compilations, and archival formats, especially quarterly and yearly summaries.

Pattern: You return to the same projects from different angles rather than abandoning them.

C. Creative & cognitive style

Your working style in 2025 is non-linear but structured.

• Multi-project workflow: You actively rotate between projects to unblock thinking.
• Iterative refinement: First drafts are expected to be revised; you optimize wording, structure, and tone repeatedly.
• Systems thinking: You default to tables, rulesets, naming conventions, pipelines, and reusable formats.
• Visual-first, narrative-driven: Even analytical work is framed visually or editorially.
• High tolerance for ambiguity: You explore before fully defining, especially in creative and AI contexts.

Pattern: You think in frameworks, not isolated outputs.

D. Technical stack & tools mindset

Your relationship with technology is instrumental and reflective, not tool-centric.

• AI as collaborator: You treat AI as a thinking partner and drafting engine, not a replacement for judgment.
• Prompt engineering as craft: Prompts are refined, versioned, and contextualized.
• Automation bias: You repeatedly look for ways to standardize, template, and reduce friction.
• Cross-platform logic: You design content knowing it will live across video, audio, web, and print.

Pattern: You care less about which tool and more about repeatable workflows.

E. Editorial & taste profile

Your taste in 2025 is consistent and restrictive (by choice).

• Technology framed through culture and consequences, not specs alone.
• Serious, journalistic tone; avoidance of hype and sensationalism.
• Preference for long-form synthesis, supported by weekly summaries.
• Sci-fi / fantasy aesthetics, but controlled and symbolic, not loud.
• Low tolerance for fluff, drama, or content without substance.

Pattern: You optimize for credibility and longevity over virality.

F. Constraints & tensions

Several tensions recur and shape your decisions.

• Time fragmentation: Teaching, family, and multiple projects constantly compete.
• Parallel commitments: You intentionally keep many threads open, which both energizes and overwhelms.
• Rigor vs. freedom: You want academic seriousness and creative exploration.
• Community without leadership: You seek peers but resist becoming the organizer.
• Sustainability anxiety: You worry less about ideas and more about finishing and maintaining output.

Pattern: Your constraints are structural, not motivational.

G. Trajectory & intent (as visible in 2025)

Your direction in 2025 trends toward consolidation and authorship.

• Movement from scattered outputs → ecosystems (series, formats, books).
• Increasing editorial authority: you interpret, rank, and contextualize more confidently.
• Clear interest in archival value: quarterly and yearly compilations as historical records.
• Gradual strengthening of a distinct voice: less reactive, more curatorial.

Pattern: You are shifting from producer of content to editor-author of record.

Bottom line (analytical, not motivational)

In 2025, you consistently behaved like someone building durable intellectual and creative infrastructure, not chasing outputs. Your main risk is overload; your main strength is coherence across domains.

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Reading during 24 was not as I wished.

Whole calendar lacked literature. Also, I missed one of my yearly accolades (being Pocket’s top reader).

There’s a reason for that though (I know, lame excuses).

I am doing a ton of news reading for TB weekly news (besides normal world news), which are not specifically accounted for. Besides, I’m also working on a PHD which also amounts a ton more.

So, here’s to hoping for a better year! Literary wise.

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Ivory star saw an ai generated depiction of her ascendant faking an extraterrestrial character, simply asked if it was a hero, and felt strangely bad for the deceit, lowering her expectations. Didn’t mean to, but she stumbled upon them by accident.

Just remembered, think it was last year, did discovered the password for an account (’twas pretty obvious, like the first digits), but thing is, hasn’t had the programme regarding those things (even reading), so it was surprising.

Finally started (boy) feeding actual content on the tech vlog, long overdue task, though I’m struggling to keep up.

Few moons in (as in, moon cycles, perhaps), still raging for help. Rapport. A connection between teacher and students. A teacher as a therapist? Like therapist-client relationship.

Ivory Tower recent expression: no more bay, no more downgrading. ’tis just different! Age is apparent, shame manifestation. Mixed felt ’bout ’tis, obviously. Freeze the world forever, a craving. Midst jules.

Made a seventh! Regarding the arts. Not my first, though, but AI based. Amazed at what one can accomplish in current age. Probably not the best one in the world, but pretty proud. (A few moons later, made a second one, and put it into a contest, where it scored second prize!)

19 on the Angst; Ivory Tower fell. Indeed and quite literally, ROFL, out of one’s face getting smacked by a balloon. Never seen so hard a grin. A day for the ages.

More stuff without record. More blizzard of oz (on the prospect of yallknowho). Ongoing project of builds, march would mark 2 translational turns. Dame. But its comin’ along alrite, one could arguably guess.

On other blockier and chainier news, things went up on the alt verse. Not as life changing, but perhaps a bit? To remain secure, or at least feel like it. Capitalize on the capital’s.

More mines, as in, dramatic ones. Ther and help likely not. Despair? Sometimes. Endure? Still do.

Ivory reads, too. The prospect of freeze remains as a plotted device, but not as a factual truth.

Also the recasting of castling lingers so much. That’s definitely a driver of despair, or perhaps excuses for procasting?

Don’t even know how to eteoy. But there.

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It has become a tradition to have these apps, like Spotify, tell you some stats at the end of the year. In my case, I prefer iTunes over Spotify because of the smart playlists, and Apple has started to make this year in review too. This is what I got:

34,000 minutes of listening, 338 artists. Don’t know if that is a lot or too little, but doing the math it’s circa 90 minutes per day, so guess its kind of a lot? Would love to see some general stats to compare.

Most listened artist: Seven Spires. I am not so sure as to how did this happen, as I only found out about this artist last year, because of a concert from Avantasia (2023-05-11). This year’s line up featured Adrienne Cowan, who is the singer of Seven Spires, her main band. That’s why I started listening to them, and probably went over a lot of their songs to get to know them better (as I usually play on random). But it’s strange that its 2024, I thought I listened to them the year prior. Or perhaps Apple hasn’t got their stats right?

Top artsits: Rata Banca, Draconian, Yngwi Malmsteen, Sacred Steel, Blackmore’s Night, MetallicA, Seven Spires, Battlelore, Norther, Diablo Swing Orchesta. A few surprises there because, as I said, I normally play on random, but sometimes I just want to get to know a band better (or a new album) and I focus on that for a while. Also, sometimes I listen to my favorites list, so repeated artist should come up that I ain’t seeing.

Update! As I re-reviewed my “Replay 2024”, top artists changed to:

1. Seven Spires
2. Metallica
3. Mägo de Oz
4. The Tiger Lillies
5. Sacred Steel
6. Therion
7. Yngwie Malmsteen
8. Motörhead
9. Blackmore’s Night
10. Alice Cooper
11. Megadeth
12. Helloween

That’s more like it.

Turns out I’m a “The Tiger Lillies” top 500 listener, so I guess they don’t get that many listeners because those guys are not even on my top artist list. Or is Apple messing up?

Played 5100 songs, (guess that repeated songs don’t count) and the most listened was: Fade to Black (17 times). Runner ups: The Seven Angels (Avantasia), Head Over Heels (Accept), Master of Puppets (MetallicA), La Cantata del Diablo (Mägo de Oz), Mexico (Alestorm), …And Justice for All (MetallicA), Into the Coven (Mercyful Fate).

Unsurprisingly, top genre: Metal, followed by Hard rock, Rock, Death y Black Metal, Arena Rock (which I don’t know what it is).

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I recently put together an short film produced almost entirely with AI. I know the quality is far, very far from professional studio’s, but to me, a computer nerd who can’t even spell correctically, is unbelieavable.

I know there’s controversy regarding AI art, particularly on the training of the models: people say they grabbed other people’s work to train without rewarding them, I think of it as “fair use” that produces “transformative” derivatives, but I’m actually not a lawyer and hey, if you’ve already made your mind, and you’re against this, I’m probably not going to convince you.

Let’s look past this argument for a moment, because I believe it will be overcome, either if courts rule that companies don’t need to pay or do need to pay for training, they will do it, the technology arrived to stay and it’s not going anywhere. They are already doing it, OpenAI signing deals with newspapers for content, Google with Reddit (for language models), Adobe’s using its own image database, etc.

As I said, the legal aspect will be overcome. The tech side will only get better. So if your best argument against genAI is the training, know this: they will find a way (even if it means compensating other people’s work for it). Probably not companies of all sizes but at least the bigger ones will.

So, the thing I want to express is this: I’m enabled to do something that just a few months ago I wouldn’t have been able to pull off just myself. It helps expressing ideas. I see it as a way to super charge creativity. People with skills are already creating really crazy good stuff, so it’s not just for the unskilled ones.

I really want to share the video (be warned: it’s not that amazing, you could argue it’s poorly made, and I would agree, but to me, it’s awesome), but I’m still looking at the legal and copyright aspects, not for the AI itself, but for the actual character (it’s a parody based on an existing intellectual property which I don’t own). So as soon as that’s cleared, or the film adjusted, I will set it free!

And to the naysayers, give this tech a try!

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One more time for the years start, like never learn. On the seventh. Like the song “On a lone and lonesome highway”.

The saint of July (she, her) sold well, and the next target was secured fast too. What was not so fast: build up (first the planners, though). Lotso green too.

Mural feat and AI galleries show. Also lectures. Tis happened early on.

1 year of TB news, and also started YT place; one year from now, it would hopefully pro (feet).

June fell by bearing news of an Ivory’s leaving lecturer; language guide bid farewell. She understood the meaning of loss, and grieved it sourly; felt it deeply touching.

A green shooting star fell by at the end of june; speechless sadness. MG. Of things that should not be.

Ivory believes her ascendant is impervious to all damage and almighty. Feels awesome but daunting, as one day true colors will be revealed, and deception will take place. Eager to achieve it just to please and acquire a smile.

Towards years end, the alacran rebrand was taking place in brick and mortar. Excited about it! Though we’re still away from the finish line.

On other reflections, another acquisition was made: one of them related to the kinship that is chosen, to the family encountered throughout the journey. Happy about that too; GP (thanks, cliff).

Deccall (calling): d day. Long feared by many, low commits at ground level. ‘Tis now here, to stay they say. Or not? 

Overall, from the top of it, seemed not a bad span, though there are definitely some down sides.

After the decal call, also got vid by the (spanish) “otter”, and started inverse-earning load, which was good, though very slow paced ‘since ’cause of sometimes missing guides.

Then I got inspired and wrote the following, about enterprises to take on, since I was getting a bit lost and stressed about next steps, figuring out if its worth investing time in futureless projects or focusing on priorities, which is a heavy burden for me to tackle. There’s so many things I want to do, and even though I know and understand I can’t do them all, I still strive hard for not letting go of any of them. Let me retell that story: I know I can’t, yet I find it difficult quitting on ventures and schemes.

Anyhow, that was the context, now here’s the mind wagon trip:

It all started when watching some videos from a world builder guy, the video is called “how world building changed my life” or something similar (from the guy that makes a fiction universe called “Tumium” I think), and it ignite a spark in my mind.

I was struggling (even existentially, today at twelve twenty, even depressed; why go on? why do anything? if it becomes so useless, so vane, so meaningless…) all because of a paradigm shift; I wanted to migrate from TB to story, (again, because of the aforementioned focus struggle) and I thought I had already made my mind some years ago! Why the change? If I had just made a conclusion, why challenge it? Sometimes I feel like some inner thoughts are written in stone (by myself), and, trying to be objective, that action itself lacks need, merit or meaning.

Then more ideas started to pop in, learning about Hernán Casciaris(a lier) and his work, also got me thinking in (even more) projects I could tackle that hopefully would not overload in time and effort but would feed my creative stomach.

For example, I heard Casciari’s “audio story narrated podcast” or radio show or whatever, and I figured I could start (spoiler!) my own space at interviewing people and having them narrate their story on cam/mic, so I can still pursue some story and host driven thing (both sought after).

(By the way, a few days after having written the above, while revisiting the text and readying it for finally publishing it, after giving it a second thought, I’m not so sure about that, I mean, still like the idea, but perhaps could work on it a bit further ahead, so I don’t bite too many new/different things.)

But my thoughts kept coming back to the story, to the creative writing, which might later become audio or short video or feature film or chaptered series or interactive or game… As Casciari has said (something I’ve known true to myself for several years now), It’s not the medium, but the story itself I long for.

So I made a table of data with the main cats to try to figure out what the priorities were/are (drew it in my enchiridion), what’s next (prog, teach, story, TB [a few days into 24, also would add: PhD, feature (Cr, other’s work, TR, etc.), and Storian].

In that initial time, story became the winner, as it would provide with the greatest satisfaction (data proven). I may run again those numbers (which are mostly subjective) and make adjustments to see if it still holds but truth is, working on that was kind of liberating ’cause my mind was aching trying to hold to TB while realizing I wasn’t putting enough time into it, and I wanted to change something, but as I had already set it, decided it, stubbornly, fixed, unchangeable, I couldn’t get myself to do so (update).

As days passed I started to think more about all this, and to be marveled by another video creator that I thought was (is) so awesome, it was inspiring. Its called Curious Archive, and it narrates works of art (video games, movies, art books and so on), but he analyzes them so deeply, so interestingly, that I became an instant fan. He compares the works he’s currently analyzing to novels, movies, and other forms of art. I think he is a genius, at least he inspired me too, as I also like to analyze stuff, specially the works of art (series, movies, games, mainly stories I now realize), perhaps even overthink it, and now that I think about it, I probably imagined at some point that those trains of useless pontification about works of fiction might be of interest to somebody else, but never really thought about turning that into a project (alas, now I have… thought about it that is, not actually worked on it). So I want to make that kind of thing too, although not number 1 prio right now.

So all in all, I have more content that I can probably handle (special hi to jc on the mv, which is so delayed), but having let go of the fixture of only TB, has provided enough insight to keep the inner realms at peace (for a while maybe?)

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I’m watching The Expanse series on prime, for the second time. The first time I did I watched all the way to season 6, episode 5 out of 6, and since I didn’t want to have to wait in a cliffhanger, I skipped the sixth, giving time for release time. 

But it never happened, seems like that’s the end of the season, and of the series. So, as I didn’t want it to be over, and I had some gaps in the story that I wanted to comprehend a bit better, I decided to play it again, to remember what had happened and how it all drove to the final chapter.

Truth is, I’m looking desperately for a reason, anywhere, to make it officially my favorite piece of syfy, above Lord of The Rings, Matrix, or StarWars. I’m eager for it, but not decided yet.

Really, I just want an excuse, ’cause it’s awesome, but I don’t feel quite right jumping the line above the other fictions I mentioned. I have a theory on why is this. There’s something about time and aging, maturation, that feels stronger for those other series I’ve been a fan for longer. As if, all other factors aside, the older the work is, the more value it has, just for the sake of age.

I don’t know if that makes much sense, I mean, I feel like it does, but perhaps it’s just me being sentimental.

Nonetheless, the series is indeed awesome, I love how situations seem realistic (not just the “science” aspect of science fiction, but social, economic, and political events too) and characters are complex (as in, they have human feelings, virtues and defects, and there’s not always a clear picture of who the villain is, as there’s evil actions in the heroes, and conviction of an actual good cause on the evil guys).

Special effects are also nice, though I’ve been saying: the older I get, the less I care about fx and the more I’m interested in the story, plot wise.

Also, I love the series’ intro, how they give away small details (and possibly spoilers) without explaining it, just showing parts of the story that you have to decipher. You have to pay attention, and keep watching, as it evolves to reflect some of the events that are happening on the series, to figure it all out. Blink and you miss it!

If you’re into syfy, do yourself a favor and watch it.

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They were there: him and her.

She, reluctantly staring into him, who had been looking for her for a long time, but life had led them afar.

There was a party, friends were there. He was looking for her, trying to ask her out. She seemed like she wanted to say yes, but was angry that it took too long. Was complaining about that, why didn’t he ask before? Was mad, wanted to say yes, but wasn’t completely sure. 

There were a mix of sad and nostalgic feelings towards the situation. Why did it take so long? Why, why…

She had almost forgotten about it, almost let go, but perhaps deep within felt like it was meant to be. She was waiting to be convinced to accept, wanted a reason, an excuse, something to hold on to, in order to give in. And before the end, it looked like it was going to happen, but Morpheo’s time was up…

There was also some jeep driving around, but don’t think that contributed to the couple story. Maybe?

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This year I barely read any literature! Been focusing on news for TecnoBato.com.

But did got to the top 1% readers on Pocket again for 2023:

They say it’s about 13 “average sized” novels. So maybe not that bad?

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BOY: got the booster thing, and got really deep. I mean down, fever, shivers, the whole hamburguesa. Hash tag pandemonium..

One thousand h, 18.Insomnia. Probably just now, after months of consideration, perhaps years of conceptualization, I may have made my mind about it: the dreaded decision, for the quitter of J’s, the thrower of T’s, is pushing to break free, striving to overcome, to score a new banner and title, to pursue those dreams. Back then, I felt a bit free, though not completely ’cause I fear cease and desist, not being able to sustain it. But maybe it’s been like that the whole time? Of tasks, chores and towels.

Then, one weekend, I took the shot (the “J goner biz”). Chose for final installment the holiday of that purported cherub. One day after notification, it kinda reversed, whaddayanaw. It was like the universe was conspiring for it to happen (Coelho style), even though tried as I might, I couldn’t achieved back then, when I was in a desperate quest for it last BOY.

On other news: war started. One more, there were already several going on, as always.

Series that I found relevant: “Centaur world”, its concept astonished the hell outta me. Season 3 of “Final Space”. “Invasion” on Apple TV, season 1. Final season of “Casttlevania”, probably going into fave series too. “Tell me a story” on prime, season 1. “We crashed” on Apple+ TV or whatever is called; very interesting story. “Arkane”, surprisingly, decisively awesome. Decided to stop watching after chapter 3 or 4, ’cause I don’t want it to end, nor do I want to enjoy it without proper home theater. “Gravity Falls”, I had already seen it but started re-watching with IT.

Half way children’s month I began leveling up the intensity of the “staying fit activities”, which up until now were just walking. [EOY update: in the h/belt move I desisted.]

5-4: probably broken R (+RB). Probably had a chance to fix it towards 5-6, but ignored the “opportunity”. Tis wasn’t just yours truly, but no speech was uttered from across, neither way, so it’s on whom? Maybe it’s final this time? Maybe it was about time? Had it long coming. (?) Not completely sure right now.

On June I discovered the Meta Quest. I’ve actually known these headset devices for quite sometime, but I disregarded them for being too new, too expensive, with too little apps and games. But I recently had the chance to try one out and began doing some research about apps and capabilities, and discovered one that blew my mind: “Immersed” for productivity. It basically connects to your actual PC or Mac (the Quest itself doesn’t need computer to function), and you get virtual displays with your own apps (or games). I also saw some videos of people recording (with virtual cameras) their own avatar, instead of what they actual see on their set. I just can’t keep my enthusiasm with the possibilities, so I’m getting one.

Juls: finally started switching to orion’s belt, after almost a year waiting. Spacing chosen is the largest I’ve set stuff in, feelin’ woot.

Another milestone: 12 on the eight received my first mined eth, outta rig whose pieces I bought almost four months ago, but only recently (8.3 started and 8.4 finished) put it together. So it’s been mining only for a week and a day. Sadly, the merge is comin’, so no more ether will be mined.

9-4: installed super entertainment system on old set, for the first experience on the piping brothers virtual world.

Year’s end approaches. Lots of stuff happened towards autumn. H move, though even today, halfway through 11, haven’t really finished. Dropped all walking & fitness things. Been writing new stuff, since a call in i6, probably set up by A. Even though we have access to lots of streaming services, we hardly ever watch any, maybe we haven’t picked up a routine in the new house? A friend last month told me about a fantastic writer I’ve never heard of, and was fascinated by her. Only read her last sunday though, while on the bus back from capital city, and am completely hooked. 

World news: humanity hits 8B count. Missiles from Russia hit Poland. Has the WW3 started? A few days later, seems like inaccurate news, but the war is still going in Ukraine.

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The other day I was talking to the AI (Artificial Intelligence), and asked it about the secret to life. I thought it’s answer may be well worth pasting here:

There is no one “secret to life” that applies to everyone, as each person’s life experiences, goals, and values are unique. However, here are a few things that can help contribute to a fulfilling and meaningful life:

1. Set and work towards achievable goals: Setting and working towards goals can give your life direction and purpose. It can also be rewarding and satisfying to achieve something you have been working towards.
2. Practice self-care: Taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being is important for overall happiness and well-being. This can include things like getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and finding ways to manage stress.
3. Cultivate relationships: Strong relationships with family, friends, and others can provide support, companionship, and a sense of belonging.
4. Engage in activities you enjoy: Doing things you enjoy can bring joy and fulfillment to your life. This can be hobbies, sports, creative pursuits, or anything else that brings you enjoyment.
5. Practice gratitude: Focusing on the things you are grateful for can help you appreciate the positive aspects of your life and cultivate a sense of contentment.

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I recently watched Jaws, the summer blockbuster. Well, part of it, since it was already a few minutes in.

(I watched it dubbed into spanish, and I really prefer it in the original english-spoken audio, so that kinda down-played my experience.)

I don’t remember I have ever watched it completely, at least, the way I like watching movies: with good video and audio quality, without interruptions, in it’s entirety (from start to finish, well into the credits to identify staff, not so much actors), and if I know the language, in it’s original audio form. 

Anyway, I watched it through and thought: “what a good movie”. I am no movie critic, but I felt some performances, at some points, specially the main character, where a bit over-the-top, or even histrionic, but didn’t really bother me. I felt like the whole story, the characters, the execution, even the sound score, all played in its favor to make an awesome flick.

I don’t know why I had this idea that it was a famous movie but kinda far-fetched or old fashioned, great for it’s time but outdated for today’s standards, but those ideas were gone while I watched. I was gladly surprised to find out how cool it was. Left me wanting to watch the sequels, even though I read that they are not as good. And I don’t remember if I ever watched ’em.

It was a coincidence that I happened to hear, in a non-movie-related speech, the pitch with which the project was pushed:

A police chief, with a phobia for open water, battles a gigantic shark with an appetite for swimmers and boat captains, in spite of a greedy town council who demands that the beach stays open.

I just loved the way it synthesizes the whole enchilada. 

Wanted to make a note to remember it as inspiration for my own stories… so here.

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Looks like I’m down on my weekly step count average, by 1000 steps. Ouch! That means I walked 1k steps less daily. 

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I’ve been skipping posting for a while. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up a daily log, but maybe weekly?

So I can grab the latest tunes listened on the workout and post the weekly update:

So I finally stepped up the step goal to 9k, and though I don’t always accomplish it, I try to most days. Daily average is close too!

Today I did first part of the walk and was not listening to music but to a podcast, “The Truth” is called, and they just released it a series called “Newts!“. Do yourself a favor and listen to it!

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I only accounted for around 33 min, but I did around 50-60 and circa 5k steps.

This time around I joined my friend A, we’re trying to meet at least once a week to motivate each other on our walks.

No music today.

The post 2022-05-19, Thursday appeared first on LozBlog.

Been skipping days, but mostly achieving at least 8k. Today walked and jogged for around 20-25 minutes alone, then was joined by L.

I’ve lost a few times my song list, but now I’ve figured that, when I see an empty history on my Apple Music thing, if I play whatever’s currently on, history’s back. Even when, sometimes, nothing’s currently on, ’cause it kinda reseted or something.

Anyway, today’s songs:

Songs:

1. Rammstein – Rosenrot
2. Moonspell – Ruin and misery
3. Epica – Monopoly on the truth
4. The Tiger Lillies – Cold night in Soho

The post 2022-05-18, Wednesday appeared first on LozBlog.

I skipped posting the whole week, but I have to say that I achieved the 8k step count the whole week -except Thursday.

Today I made around 40 minutes, but mistakenly clicked on “stop” on my watch, so don’t know for sure. Based on other dates, I’d say it was around 3.5 km. 

BTW; I broke all records today, achieving 16k step count (went to the park and also had to do some chasing around in the super market, also, overlap from yesterday).

Regarding Saturday: I did around 7.5 steps “officially”, but was still out on the walk after midnight, and did 1.7k steps, so if I add up, it would become 9.2k, and it would make Sundays 14.3 instead of 16k.

The post 2022-05-15, Sunday appeared first on LozBlog.

I didn’t jog yesterday, but was just .8 steps short of the 8k goal, ’cause I did like an hour or so of slow-paced walking to add up.

Today: overall 9k steps, including one hour of, again, slow-paced walking and only 20 minutes of walk/jog at separate times. I think I will  start doing that: 1 hour of walk during the day + 30 min of walk/jog at night, in order to distribute throughout the day the step count.

Songs from “3L Cool” list:

1. Nightwish – The carpenter
2. Ayreon – Sail away to Avalon
3. Metallica – Ain’t my bitch
4. Rhapsody – The village of dwarves

The post 2022-05-09, Monday appeared first on LozBlog.

Started walking with L, and for 17 min, we kept the pace slow (and since we were talking, there was no music either). I barely finished my 8k step goal almost at midnight; I really need to make some early walks, so it adds up before the jog. After she left, I picked up my pace again.

Songs after L left, from my “3C: Circus, Cabaret & Country” list:

1. Harley Poe – Maria
2. Harley Poe – I am the living dead
3. Martine Kraft – Raja
4. The Tiger Lillies – Kaiser’s song
5. Harley Poe – Corrupting my better half
6. The Tiger Lillies – Hell
7. The Tiger Lillies – Down and out
8. Harley Poe – Don’t go into the woods

The post 2022-05-07, Saturday appeared first on LozBlog.

Today I walked quite a bit (circa 5k) during the day (before night walk), so I achieved the 8k mark kinda quickly. Normal ankle pain, overall good (physically). Today’s total: 10k steps.

Songs:

1. Type o Negative – Black Sabbath (FTSP) from last time
2. Metallica – Creeping Death
3. Kamelot – Karma
4. Megadeth – Crush ’em
5. System of a Down – Forest
6. Rhapsody of Fire – Danza di Fuocco e ghiaccio (featuring Sir Cristopher Lee)
7. Megadeth – Prince of Darkness

The post 2022-04-06, Friday appeared first on LozBlog.

So today I’m fixing yesterday’s mess: workout extended past midnight and steps were counted towards today, so in the beginning I started out with circa 2k steps, so in order to get my daily 8k, my count was supposed to be 10k. And guess what, it is as of now: 11.6k.

Didn’t resent yesterday’s ankle pain, guess it’s a good sign, though overall I do feel… kinda rheum. Don’t know if it has to do with the jogging.

Tunes:

1. Lacrimosa – The party is over (yesterday’s last, but listened from the beginning)
2. Motörhead – Ace of Spades (Alternate version)
3. Lindemann – That’s my heart
4. Helloween – Halloween
5. Moonspell – Nocturna
6. Molotov – Mátate Tete
7. Alestorm – Mexico
8. Type o Negative – Black Sabbath (FTSP)

The post 2022-04-05, Thursday appeared first on LozBlog.

Did achieve 8k goal, but didn’t notice for a few minutes (normally, my watch alerts me whenever I reach that goal), ’cause technically, on Wednesday I only did 7.3k, and after midnight (meaning, the next day), I did 1.7k more, but they count towards Thursday. Yet, in my book, Wednesday was good for 9k steps total, so I’ll deduct circa 2k steps from today, which will amount practically 10k. Hopefully!

I think I hurt my ankle, it suddenly started aching. I stopped jogging and switched back to walk, but seemed temporary, so I kept going (alternating jog and walk). After the walk was over, meaning now, I still resent it a lil’ bit, hope it’s nothing serious.

Tunes from “Ascent Nominee” playlist (a few listened recently, maybe I will change to another playlist):

1. Cuca – Blanca
2. Scorpions – Winds of Change
3. Metallica – Sad but True
4. Avantasia – Farewell
5. Twisted Sister – Burn in Hell
6. Disturbed – Meaning of Life
7. Iced Earth – Iced Earth
8. Accept – Metal Heart
9. Alestorm – 1741
10. Lacrimosa – The Party is over

The post 2022-05-04, Wednesday appeared first on LozBlog.

Did achieve my 8k step count today (barely, by tonight’s workout; 8.475k).

My iTunes is not performing as it used to; now I have to click several times on “previous song” to see song history (it used to display history just by tapping on the song-list, which normally displays the coming up songs, but also shows past ones).

Anyway, here’s the list. Fun fact: yesterday I did more time and listened to fewer, longer songs.

1. Edenbridge – See you fading Afar
2. System of a Down – Needles
3. Therion – Cults of the Shadow
4. System of a Down – Forest
5. Brocas Helm – Cry of the Banshee
6. Cradle of Filth – Cruelty brought thee Orchids
7. Rammstein – Sehnsucht
8. Nostra Morte – El mal es mi dios
9. Gandalf – Dead Man’s hand

The post 2022-05-03, Tuesday appeared first on LozBlog.

Skipped yesterday.

But today I jogged again, I would say almost half the time. Also, stayed a few minutes longer than 40 to achieve my 8k step count.

Only 6 and a half songs in 46 min:

1. HIM – Pretending
2. Mägo de Oz – Finisterra
3. Aerosmith – Pink
4. Iron Maiden – To tame a land
5. Avantasia – Farewell
6. Scorpions – Still loving you
7. Evenfall – Fading afar

The post 2022-05-02, Monday appeared first on LozBlog.

Skipped yesterday

Everytime I think I’m getting better at jogging, I skip days, so next time it feels like starting over.

So this time around I purposely did more minutes (my goal is 40 min a day), in order to get my current minimum step count (8k). Intention is to raise both numbers, eventually.

Last leg of this workout, which was only 4 minutes, ’cause I had only 400 steps left for achieving the daily goal, I did without music.

Track list:

1. Rage Against the Machine – Bombtrack
2. Matt Uelmen – Tristram (Diablo game soundtrack, not sure if it’s Diablo I or II)
3. Metallica – All nightmare long
4. ABBA – Super Trouper
5. Megadeth – The Doctor is calling
6. Therion – Opus Eclipse
7. Kamelot – Karma
8. Mercyful Fate – Curse of the Pharaohs
9. Nostra Morte – Persefone
10. Megadeth – Holy Wars

The post 2022-04-30, Saturday appeared first on LozBlog.

Joined by a friend at metro, and mostly walked. We’re meeting twice a week, but will probably meet just once from now on. First phase of this workout is walking to the park, then I greet my friend and we take it from there.

Since I took off my headphones while joining my friend, my playlist was shorter:

1. Mägo de Oz: Belfast
2. Megadeth: Anarchy in the UL
3. Metallica – Nothing else matters
4. The Tiger Lillies – H&C
5. HIM – Pretending

The post 2022-04-28, Thursday appeared first on LozBlog.

Today I was home all day, so didn’t get to walk much; hence I didn’t achieve my 8k step goal. After the walk/jog I ended up with just 6.2k steps.

Tunes (Ascent nominee):

1. Mötorhead – Ace of spades
2. Metallica – The Unforgiven III
3. Metallica – Low man’s lyric
4. Alestorm – 1741 (The battle of Cartagena)
5. Edenbridge – See you fading afar
6. Avantasia – Avantasia
7. Martine Kraft – Djeveldans
8. Lindemann – That’s my heart (incomplete)

The post 2022-04-25, Monday appeared first on LozBlog.

Barely achieved the 8k steps goal; by the end of day walk/jog.

Thought I had lost the song list, ’cause I didn’t write it down afterwards, and iTunes “forgot” where I had left. But as soon as playback started, it remembered history again, so here it is, from “Ascent nominee”:

1. Alice Cooper – School’s out
2. Nightwish – Beauty of the Beast
3. Helloween – Save my hide (this one is going one level down, to the “just cool” list. Dunno how it got there.)
4. Metallica – Seek and destroy
5. Warlock – Metal tango
6. Disturbed – Battle hymns
7. Avantasia – Glory of Rome (I think it was incomplete)

The post 2022-04-24, Sunday appeared first on LozBlog.

Skipped a few days of posting, but I did mostly walked current goal (8k steps and/or 40 min. of walk&jog). Actually, I skipped two days of walking (18 and 16 of April. 19 I did just walk, but didn’t listen to any music, ’cause I joined a friend, we’re trying to do it tuesdays and thursdays).

Today I walked more than usual, 48 minutes (including walking to and from the park). Just from this walk, I achieved 5.8k steps, thus adding up to the other 2k+ I did on normal day. I know I still have way to go but hey, I’m getting there.

Tunes (“Ascent nominee” list):

1. The Disturbed – Meaning of life
2. Nigthwish – Dead to the world
3. Metallica – Sad but true
4. Metallica – Ride the lightning
5. Megadeth – Crush ’em
6. Dreamquest – Lost horizon
7. Abba – Super trouper
8. Mago de Oz – El paseo de los tristes
9. In Flames – Moonshield
10. Alice Cooper – Schools out

The post 2022-04-21, Thursday appeared first on LozBlog.

I only did 30 min, ’cause later on in the day I spent 3 hours+ of walking / sightseeing in the park, so this day I made 11.6k steps.

Forgot to turn on random, so, from the “Ascent nominee” list…

1. Maquiavelia – La gran batalla
2. ABBA
   1. Mamma Mia
   2. Thank you for the music
   3. Take a chance on me
   4. Voulez-Vous
3. Boney M. 
   1. Belfast
   2. Brown girl in the ring

The post 2022-04-17, Sunday appeared first on LozBlog.

Today I started mixing up a bit of jogging instead of just walking. I was afraid I couldn’t keep up, but wasn’t that hard, to be honest. Well, I didn’t jog the whole time, I tried to make one third, for example: one circuit walk, half circuit jog. The circuit is probably around 200 meters.

I knew I had to do it, and I still need to eventually completely switch to run the whole time, but was postponing it. Maybe one of the things that made me finally do it was my smart band. As I reviewed the statistics of last time, I found out I was in “warm up” mode the whole time, and never got up to the next level which is “fat burning”. So this time around, I could see that at times I was even in “aerobic” mode, which is above “fat burning”. 

I know I’m still way out of shape, but this is how I change that.

Tunes:

1. Harley Poe – Hearse song
2. Arven – Rain song
3. Avantasia – Seven Angels
4. System of a Down – Chop suey
5. Within Temptation – Ice queen
6. Metallica – Fade to black
7. Children of Bodom – Hate me

The post 2022-04-15, Friday appeared first on LozBlog.

Today I was joined with a friend for our stroll, so I plugged the phones for just a while. We were walking his crazy dogs so we were stopping here and there, so timing wasn’t exactly right, but it was surely more than my current goal of 40 min.

Tune list:

1. Megadeth – A tout le monde
2. Rammstein – Du riechst so gut
3. HammerFall – Glory to the brave
4. Dark Lunacy – Serenity
5. Harley Poe – The Hearse Song

The post 2022-04-14, Thursday appeared first on LozBlog.

My smart band arrived today, so I tried out the functionality. It says that the whole 40 minutes I was in “warm-up”, never climbed up to “fat-burning” or “aerobic” mode… so I guess I need to speed up the pace, or maybe I didn’t do something on the app.

Tunes:

1. Judas Priest – Breaking the law
2. Manowar – Thor, the powerhead
3. Helloween – If i could fly
4. Molotov – Que no te haga bobo Jacobo
5. Therion – Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah
6. Stratovarius – Hunting high and low
7. Abney Park – Victoria
8. Metallica – Unforgiven II

The post 2022-04-13, Wednesday appeared first on LozBlog.

I’ve been trying to keep up with fitness activities (actually, just a daily walk) since past January; I’m documenting it here, along with the music and/or podcasts I listen while “working out”.

I’m expecting tomorrow the arrival of my watch-band smart gadget, which comes with a ton of features to monitor health and fitness stuff, hopefully I will once and for all I’ll embrace a healthier lifestyle.

Tunes:

1. Accept – Head over hills
2. Stratovarius – Hunting high and low
3. Rammstein – Stirb nicht vor mir
4. Rammstein – Mein hertz brent
5. Iron Maiden – Fear of the Dark
6. Metallica – For whom the bell tolls
7. Slayer – South of heaven
8. Theatre of Tragedy – And when he falleth

The post 2022-04-12, Tuesday appeared first on LozBlog.

Access to this post restricted, please go to the website to read it.

The post Oz Partying appeared first on LozBlog.

I dreamed I was some kind of animal from a zoo. Can’t recall which, a hippo? A bird? Guess it’s not that important. 

At one point, I think I ceased to be a character in the story and instead it was, like other times, a spectator of the story, like a movie.

Instead of a zoo, or maybe, this particular zoo, or section of the zoo, was covered in water. Didn’t matter that the animals weren’t aquatic (as there were several of us), there we were. So in the center of that section, there were some nets for collecting different kinds of plastic, can’t recall the exact classification, I think one of it was “small spoons”. I know, normal classification would be based on the type of actual plastic but that was what it was in the dream.

At one point, I think when I was still part of the cast, I decided to proceed with the trash and take it to were it belong (an actual recycling plant). We had basically two choices, we could send it to a machine that was right there, but that machine didn’t actually processed them, I think, it just made them “ready” for whoever was to collect it, or… we could take it outside ourselves to find someone to buy it from us. Or maybe we didn’t have to do anything? I think that wasn’t actually our job.

Truth is the whole recycling plastic thing was about the environment and not really for a profit, but since it was a lot, we (or I) thought we might as well capitalize on it. 

So then I was, packing everything up in these huge bags, and then reuniting my friends and telling them about it. They told me to throw it everything to the local machines, why bother in finding a buyer, but as they saw the bags, they all agreed it was worth a shot, as we might, for one, empty the containers and make some buck while at it.

The first step was to convince our “boss” (or a similar figure, but it’s worth clarifying that it felt more like a boss than a zoo’s keeper or guard). Said task wasn’t that hard and we moved through the water area into a river that connected it to “the dreaded outskirts” or something.

Then I can’t remember much more, we were taking all the bags through the river, with the noble mission of selling some plastic to a willing entity or dude. I kinda have these flashbacks of small incidents with the bags, logistic issues or such but can’t remember what exactly.

It now kinda feels like we hadn’t met a more serious threat at that point, like, in the movie analogy, we were waiting for an “act 2 villain” or a major inconvenience, but guess I woke before that.

The post Recycling plastic appeared first on LozBlog.

Top 1% of Pocket readers in 2022:

The post 2022 appeared first on LozBlog.

Today I started walking.

I mean to get fit. I know, it’s long overdue, I’m totally outta shape. 

But the thing I want to talk about is how much I enjoyed. Not the walk in itself, excuse me, that was kind of boring, and I don’t really expect it to get any fun, but I know it’s necessary for my own sake. Hell, I reckon it’s far from ideal, but 20 min is a start. 

Then why did it felt so good? Music, man. I don’t remember when was the last time I could plug up my headphones and listen, without distraction, to my hell-driven, ecstasy-inducing, diablo-whispered god damned music.

I mean, I do listen to music at work via headphones, but I’m constantly being interrupted, besides the fact that, if I really want to concentrate on the task at hand, I don’t really focus on the music. So being able to listen more freely, at decent volume, was mind blowing.

The winner takes it all

The second tune that came up my playlist was from Abba. The first one too, but since I was setting up the step-tracking app for the first time and mingling with my phone, I didn’t really pay any attention to it, volume was down too.

Anyway, I’ve known for some time that, against all odds, I do like pop. Well, maybe not all of it, but perhaps the old one? You can actually find Boney M and Michael Jackson on my library, and a few of Abba’s songs in my “faves” playlist, such as “The winner takes it all”. 

When it played, it made me shiver, I almost shed a tear. 

The intensity was probably not just the music in general (as in “I love music”) neither the particular song itself, but a combination. It could have been any of the other songs on that list, maybe some from a not-so-favorite-songs playlist, and I could have been just as overwhelmed. 

Why, I do love music.

The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear

The judges will decide
The likes of me abide 
Spectators of the show 
Always staying low 

–Abba (actually, I like better the original)

(Probably, the emotion struck also as I had read about the songs lyrics reflecting on the actual break up between composer Björn Ulvaeus and singer Agnetha Fältskog. Not only they divorced, but the whole group was disbanded during that time. I read that Agnetha cried when she first read the lyrics, and that it was very hard for her to sing it live because of, well, all of what was going on. By the way, 40 years passed before they launched a new album. In other news, my mother told me that the day I was born, that cursed October 13th, the hospital’s doctor was playing that song over and over again, but I don’t really think that is the reason why I like it, I just think it’s an awesome song.)

The post Audiophile appeared first on LozBlog.

BoY: stress, lots of stress. Eager to switch biz. Stood my ground, sleepless nights, OC virus, the real man-virus. Gov site visit. Of fear and deceit; swaying away souls. Biz prop, reluctantly agreed. CANSINO dosed. 3C: Canine capital catapult; first crystal proceeds.

Old world blood. Here there be talks 21 (TL; IT).

Around that time there was that casualty. Prob related. More weight upon one’s chest…

Resignation for operation in desperation for a solution of the complication left not just for contemplation but to take actions that would trigger disruption upon the enclosure of the notion of one’s personal nation.

Ivory star utters gradually more proper lexicon. I acknowledge, it is as it most certainly should be for a healthy constituent of the race. Yet aversion, hesitation, take hold of me, as I cherish the beautifully malformed thesaurus she still articulates on her own or on my seldom requests. Seasonal tree family set; it brought back nostalgic recollections of when the winter had a more powerful impact of mindset within, it was all awe and wonder (not sure why: the expectation for presents?, the Santa on the Coke truck throwing away candy?, the parties and extended-family time?).

USD went up; US and Europe closed borders to Africa due to new mutation, crypto went down. Ivory learnt, by watching, how to manipulate the rodent peripheral, at least relocating the cursor throughout screens. Been watching me do so for some time and tried once or twice before, but it did astonished me. 11.26 : thought (once more) nuff, don’t know how many times have been, and was again contemplating the possible grim future with the “always looming old nemesis entity” companion, but alas, the waves were lulled and serenity reclaimed.

12bis; that dream. Beaching too. Partner deal; the act of “gigioing” over fragrance. Double S alert; what will overcome?

Fin (minus tech) good, I think: EoY 1.3, but still feel like missing on tons.

Series: I watched the ending of Netflix’s remake of “Lost in Space”, I also watched seasons 1 and 2 from “Final Space”, and the “Witcher” season 1. On Prime, there was season 1 of “Undone”, all episodes of single season of “Nine perfect strangers”, all available seasons (which were 1-5) from “The expanse”, which may become my scifi fave story, maybe overall story. The only thing that prevents me from calling it “all time fave” is that, I need time to consider it. Other “classics” like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, have the advantage of time; as it goes by, it keeps feeling larger, that’s what make ’em classic, the passage of time.

The post Scoping once more appeared first on LozBlog.

The notes of a recollection (DTG):

In a dream, Thou asserted a phrase, whilst we attended an exhibit (by the way, in a very ad hoc venue, fitting to the main audio visual conception of Rowling’s wizarding universe, which was being produced on the screen), that ran deep beneath my skin. Something along the lines of “I’m not going to answer (an unuttered query, ’cause I never enunciated it, but one that has been lurking around for an eon), but how about this…” and ein Kuss sealed the memory.

A soul scar was carved in both bitter and sweet strokes, for at least within reverie, at least for a moment, the entwine of thine divine caress, the taste of thine bewithching core, were braid in subconsciously…

And alas, likewise enclosed in said fantasy, the final assertion to the non declared inquiry was brought forth. Should be glad, I think, as the answer, nonetheless aching, provides ground for moving on. The green light to initiate mending, after having to cope with them facts.

That was what it felt in the dream, though, like the final word, like “this is it,” even “be thankful, ’cause ’tis as far as it gets; now let go…”

The non-verbalized avowal.

Now let go…

Will not be easy to pay heed.

Was/is it really a decisive conclusion? Can I trust this delusion translates seamlessly into reality? A fairy tale of der Geist?

Overwhelmed to no end, for actual tears strove to breach in, as I learned it all only befell in my mind.

And tomorrow, when it’s dawning
and the first birds start to sing,
in the pale light of the morning
nothing’s worth remembering.
It’s a dream, it’s out of reach;
scattered driftwood on the beach.

-Summer night city, ABBA

The post Scattered driftwood on the beach appeared first on LozBlog.

The other day (last Sunday, November 14) I was just thinking about how I have never broken the glass screen of any of the smartphones I owned. And I’ve had them fall over and over again, even though you know I’m a screen freak.

Perhaps I conjured it upon myself, ’cause just that day, I dropped my phone and the screen cracked. Didn’t notice it right away though, it was dark and wasn’t paying attention, but it did happen. 

Also, the height from which I dropped it wasn’t too high, probably around one meter. 

It felt like the gods punishing me for my blasphemous ways.

Will add a pic soon.

Well, now that I think about it, I believe I started thinking that (the fact I’ve never had a broken screen) after I dropped, but before realizing it cracked. I didn’t see it at first, as I started interacting with it, touching and pinching, I noticed some kind of dust on the screen, and I thought “damn! Is this, fine-glass-grain from broken glass?”, took a closer look, and then I saw it, not that clearly (thanks to the heathen gods, it’s not that visible) but there it was: a crack throughout the screen, with a pair of ramifications. 

Damned gods.

The post Broken glass appeared first on LozBlog.

Let’s admit it y’all: LozBlog needed an update.

LzbFlt was good, I know I’m gonna miss it. Hell, I miss it already, as I there are things that this new theme I (already) am beginning to hate.

But such is life, it goes on. 

New content

I should probably elaborate on why I’m sticking to this new design. Well, it’s not just the look and feel per se, and I’ve been meaning to do a very clean, minimal theme (like this new one) for years, but it’s also the content, or rather, the new content. 

LozBlog has, until now, been mainly a written Blog, but as today, I’m adding some more stuff to serve more as a “playground”, as I never had one despite my many attempts buying domains, building a concept on paper, and never publishing them for real. 

(By playground I mean a place to show off more than just text posts, like experiments, photography, graphic design, interactive fiction, maybe games or apps, etc.)

What is this new content? It’s most visible on the homepage, I added a few sections describing… well, you know who’s LozBlog about. I’ll sum it up here:

• Life line: part bio written in cryptic concepts which should be only meaningful to me, part that “yearly accomplishments” page section I never finished, it attempts to display a yearly reminder of what life was in the year in question. Hopefully I can fill in the blanks, as I’m known for forgetting… (…) …things (sorry, forgot for a second there).
• Travel: a show off of places I’ve been to.
• Currently reading: books and stuff I mean to read/have read in current year.
• Pix: a photo/picture blog, which is just a category of current installation, featured on home and maybe other inner sections. I at some point registered other domains (ink of dreams, art and nation, et al), just for this Blog, but it never happened. So I’m integrating it here. Since I’m publishing not just photographs but digital designs or composites, I thought it would be better to call it “Pix” instead of “Photos”.

Structure

So as I said: I was eager to push this new theme not just for the graphic/UI design, but for the structure, which should be the foundation for follow up themes.

Once it’s properly finished, I may use the whole WP theme templating structure created for this theme, and probably just update the style sheet. At least that’s what I feel like today, with all the custom CSS I learned for this project.

Dracones? Really?

I don’t want to spoil the fun, so google it, the post title I mean. 

Now that you know what it means I can share the anecdote: I released the new theme (nicknamed “3 Clean White”, hinting that there may be a dark version), without really finish coding it, or adding all the sections/templates I want to have. I pushed it live with the “bare minimum”, and (at press time) it’s still lacking:

• working search
• (real) custom archives for
  • author
  • category
  • date year
  • date month
• custom page templates for
  • general archives
  • all categories page
  • sitemap
• proper cleaning on “theme customizer” and functions

And maybe a few more things.

One of those things is actually on home’s sidebar, on the “life line” section. By the time most people read it, it should probably be already fixed, but today it’s lacking: a loading animation of “my life”, as seen on a Youtuber’s shirt (I have forgotten his name Remembered! It’s Nas Daily, and below find a pic of his shirt, in case these link get broken someday). It’s part joke, part c’est la vie regarding death. ‘Cause it’s gotta happen, at some point, right?

When I was programming the theme, I decided it could wait, since I didn’t know how to technically achieve what was visually on my mind. So as I say, I put that part on hold and left a note for me to comeback later, and could only think of that line (hic sunt dracones), to remind me of it. It kind of stuck from an Amazon Prime series I was watching, “The Expanse” (totally recommended btw). I think it was Season 3.

I will surely finish it in the coming days, but it’s been too long since I wanted to activate it that today so I just hit that  god damned button.

Thanks for reading

Was this post too tech/geek for you? Sorry but what can I say? After all, I’m one of them nerds too.

The post Hic sunt dracones appeared first on LozBlog.

Pocket sent me this:

The post 2021 appeared first on LozBlog.

Recently there were two events that I typically consider worth remembering: my birthday, and the birth of this blog. Well nowadays don’t recall when exactly was LozBlog first installed, but I normally use the first post as reference, on the 15th of September, which is one more anniversary by the way: the beginning of the “independence” (strong emphasis on quotes) war of a country. “My” country. Well, more on that later.

I want to document what nic.com “Meta-WHOIS” tells me about the domain, because apparently, not even my hosting/domain provider console shows that info. So here it is: the date when I first paid for the domain which I was using for LozBlog (lozbo.org):

Creation Date: 2006-06-08 T20:42:26Z

8 of June of 2006. Well, that’s more than 15 years, I think I can consider it an accomplishment; to have sustained the Blog for so long. It’s probably the only hobby I have sustained with relative persistence those many years. As I said: worth remembering.

But that kinda defeats the train of thought I was having these past weeks (I’ve been meaning to write this post for… I don’t know when, at least since October the 13th): I wanted to complain about the remembrance, the celebration, the recognition of the anniversaries of things, of people. I wanted to say how hollow, how lacking, how… superficial? It all was, is. But now that I’m writing this piece, I don’t feel at all like that. It’s more like

It’s OK to celebrate anniversaries and birthdays and shit

-Me

I think I wanted to rant about my own birthday, against the necessity of remembering it by writing on this piece of shit Blog. I even wrote about it in 2016, at least that was how I was feeling back then. I was nostalgic for the good times. I’m still am, I always am. I perpetually long for the moments when I was happy. I think that’s normal.

Now my train of thought has taken another direction. Meh, I’m not even sure what I’m writing about anymore, will have to sum up some thoughts in a list, hoping it brings clarity:

• I like celebrating stuff
• I like writing about it
• I like ranting about writing about it
• I like writing on this blog
• I like writing, period
• The youth has left me, I’m an old and decrepit mummy
• Parties used to be crazier back then
• I’m never satisfied
• Life could be worse, but it could be better; it’s always like that
• No nation is independent
• I am not independent
• I want to finish developing my new WP Theme (which is the main reason I took up to finish writing this post: to do more testing)

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More posts from the distant past!

I’m still working on the LozBlog theme, and still need more posts for testing files and styles on this category (Pix). Did I mention that all posts from this category should have at least one Image? On the “featured” feature.

That’s why I dug up an ancient logo for the identity I was assuming back in 2002, according to meta data on the original file. It was made on Adobe Fireworks, like last one. Don’t know if I can still open it and edit its vectors with another software, either Photoshop nor Illustrator seem to reckon the layers.

Even though I already had my nickname (why, yes, Lozbo), or maybe because I wanted to change it to something more heavy or dark, I started using the moniker “Black Horseman”.

A song from King Diamond, an awesome musician from Denmark, was used as inspiration. If you’re really into it, you can find the eponym song on Youtube.

The Seven Horsemen will arrive before the dawn!

-King Diamond

I think most of King Diamonds solo albums were conceptual, the lyrics swirled around a fiction story the King had developed, which today escape my best efforts to recall.

And just as I don’t really remember why I started using it, I suddenly stopped and pivoted back to Lozbo.

The post Black Horseman appeared first on LozBlog.

As I’m preparing to release the new theme for LozBlog (Lozbo Com :: Personal Artscape & Playground), I added this new category: Pix.

My intention is to publish photographs and pictures made by me. So as I am conducting tests for the WP template, I needed to populate this new cat with at least one post.

And down the memory lane I went, searching for something “LozBlog worthy”, and found this pictures of a character I made for a contest long ago (which I obviously lost).

It was called “Dr. Blast”, as the contest was meant to find the new mascot of a heavy metal record publisher (Nuclear Blast). I was so angry I lost that I emailed the guys and told them that I was still going to use the character for a Youtube show. Only back then (February 2003, according to the files’ meta data), Youtube didn’t exist; it was founded in 2005. Anyhow I had the idea of animating the character and creating a whole bunch of stuff around it: a website, a blog, he was going to answer questions from the fans and shit.

Only it never happened.

The guy from the company told me “hey, why don’t you use another name, like ‘dr. metal’ or something?”, but as I said, I was mad and didn’t want to settle.

I still have the animation prototypes I made in Macromedia Adobe Flash back then, maybe I’ll feature them in LozBlog down the road.

Here’s a pic of the winner of the contest, though they seem to have stopped using it.

The post Dr. Blast appeared first on LozBlog.

The other day I got a new an old truck, which doesn’t have an auxiliary port, nor Bluetooth connectivity. How on earth was I supposed to hear my god damned music? Fortunately Sadly, it has cd playing capabilities. CD you ask? Indeed, my millenial, nay, centenial… nay! Screenager and zoomer population! It used to be the most widespread form of music reproduction, before the age of streaming.

So I dug up my old cd albums, and found one (actually, I have still a few) that hadn’t been opened.

I don’t remember when I bought it! The label on the back of the envelope reads:

Imported on July 2002, so it can’t be before that, but how long after?

It was Manowar’s “Kings of Metal” (bought on sale for 89 mex bucks), which by the way, I had already listened to even before opening, thanks to the magic of the Internet.

I used to have the intention at some point of building a gallery of albums from the bands I like. Like a wall full of cds, with the whole discographies of every single artist of my liking (the studio albums mainly). It never happened though, at least not in physical form. I collect them in my streaming services (first Spotify, nowadays Apple Music). I will leave that story for another day.

So, in a strange turn of events, the bunch of cds I had laying dormant will finally rise to a new life of airplay, due to the damned car stereo not being able to do aux.

And I look forward to listening to those forgotten albums which are still frozen in their plastic wrapper.

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Tengo estas notas del 13 de Febrero de 2017 (a las 8.30), de un sueño que tuve, supongo la noche antes:

Viajando por casas abandonadas buscando el espíritu de la sensei, que estaba dentro de una consola de juego, no sabemos qué le pasó,  pero sabemos que hay que buscarla, cada lugar de pistas es una trampa o al menos hay orcos; hay que matarlos y seguir buscando.

Al final llegamos a un cuarto donde [al fin] activamos la reproducción del mensaje de cómo murió. 

Empieza con el aeropuerto cerrado, un policía impide la entrada, pero no es policía,  es guardia privado y les dice que no pueden entrar, las señor[as?] que quieren entrar le dicen que la aerolínea les dijo que fueran y que le dijeran eso al policía pero él les contesta que no es policía.

La verdad, hoy en día, no le entiendo nada. Debí escribirlo cuando aún estaba fresco.

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In the past years I’ve been digging into crypto currencies. I’ve been reading a few things, specially in these last months of 2021, since the latest “crypto bull run” (which means higher market prices in trading language). I’ve subscribed to several rss feeds from popular crypto/bitcoin blogs, and found a line in the following article that caught my eye.

Bitcoin Magazine article: “Rule II: Imagine your life with Bitcoin, then aim single-mindedly at that”

The aforementioned post is the second one in a series that take on a book called “Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life“, and try to paraphrase it and blend it into a bitcoin analogy (yes, I too think that’s a freakish consequence of bitcoin mania).

Anyway, the line I considered interesting was actually a quote from that book:

“You are something that is becoming…Everyone has that sense…that there is more to them than they have yet allowed to be realized. “

Jordan B. Peterson

And I immediately identified myself with it. I don’t know if it happens to you, my beloved readers, but it certainly does happen to me. Let me elaborate.

I am constantly thinking in what the future will be, what I will achieve, how my material possessions will increase, my knowledge and skills, my income, my wealth… I always see beyond today, a world where me, my loved ones, the things around me, everything, is better.

I don’t remember that ever before I have thought about it that purposedly, so specifically, so that I become aware of this concept or process or thing itself; I mean the action of having this goals/dreams of a better future… it’s really interesting.

It’s not exactly like I am not satisfied with what life currently is, but even if it’s good, I yearn for improvements. Doesn’t it happen to everybody?

I wrote that I am “constantly” thinking about it, yet I don’t want to overestimate the actual facts; I don’t day dream instead of functioning with normality. But truth is, those thoughts are there, no matter accomplishments, I always long for more, even more.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing to desire to be better, yet I can hear the zen crowds claiming to focus on the present, and to let go of desire. I don’t know, I believe this is a mentality that either has been introduced unconsciously by global (or western?) culture, or it’s a more basic, underlying instinct.

An epiphany! I have just made an association of this idea to conflict.

Like stories (I like writing stories), whether it’s plays, movies, novels, games or else… I think I can relate these two (yearn for better times and conflict). I’ve read several pieces of theory that argue (and my own experience drives me to concur) that, in order for a story to be relevant, interesting, and appealing (to the masses), it has to have a conflict. Protagonist wants something, yet antagonist (person, animal, thing) will prevent him/her from having it (or at least try). What will the outcome be?

What has this to do with the “better future” crave? Stay with me.

Conflict gives purpose, a meaning, a drive towards a goal, a sense of conquer. If you want to get the treasure, you need to dive to the bottom of the ocean; if you want to get the princess, you need to kill the dragon; if you want to be a great guitar player, you need to practice hard. Then comes the better future, after struggle. Some of these thoughts may seem obvious once read out loud, but it’s enlightening for me nonetheless.

Perhaps conflict, now that I think about it, is also part of this hunger-for-more, it’s like the shadow counterpart of the goal, like a complement of that dual concept, there can be no victory without clash. Even things that seem afforded with minimal effort, even great things (like hitting the jackpot) that required lesser struggles, they all should have some degree of conflict, decision making, engagement, at some point.

Does any of this make sense? I still feel like there’s much more to explore regarding these topics, yet I will end this post right here and leave future thoughts for a follow up…

The post “You are something… appeared first on LozBlog.

La conquista es una canción de Mago de Oz, que me gusta bastante. De hecho está en mi lista de “almost faves”, que para simplificar las cosas podría decir que son mis canciones de 4/5 estrellitas (aún le falta para ser 5, es decir: “all time faves”). Y digo simplificar porque mi sistema de estrellas, ratings, likes & unlikes, y smart playlists en iTunes, es más complejo que eso, pero ya hablaré de ello otro día.

Ya he hablado de Mago en otro post, y he dicho cómo la letra de sus canciones me parece burda, la poesía un poco forzada. Incluso, en el aforementioned post, puse de ejemplo un verso de esta canción: “el horizonte se desveló”.

Pero no estoy aquí para hablar de la poesía de Mago, (¿o debo decir de Txus?), sino de esta canción en particular, que de entrada quiero denunciar como pretenciosa. ¿Por qué?

La letra de la canción habla de la conquista española en América, y de cómo ellos, el autor, cantante, artista, o ¿quién? quiere “pedir perdón”.

Quiero pedir perdón
Y conquistar tu corazón

Mago de Oztias

Suena muy bonito y todo, sin embargo yo no creo que sea suya esa disculpa para pedir. ¿Acaso Mago es Hernán Cortés? Ni aunque fuera su propio hijo, sería suyo ese asunto. Ni ellos son conquistadores, ni los que habitamos ahora América somos los pueblos originarios.

En mi humilde opinión, merecen el crédito de querer reivindicar, conciliar, aceptar que esas matanzas (como cualquier matanza) son algo indeseable, horrible, que no debió ser nunca, etc. Sí, concuerdo con eso, pero no con que “al ver sus ropajes no sabíamos qué hacer”.

Por todo eso me parece una letra pretenciosa, porque pretenden asumir a través de ella algo que no les corresponde, de la misma manera que pienso que tampoco le corresponde a la realeza española de hoy pedir perdón, por los mismos motivos. Aunque, sin embargo, y sin querer defender lo indefendible, sí creo que si hubiera alguien en todo el mundo en la actualidad que tuviera la ligera posibilidad de plantear esa disculpa, correspondería más a un monarca, que a una banda de rock.

He dicho.

PD: Me sigue gustando y seguirá gustando mucho su música, a pesar de que no sea el caso con muchas letras de sus canciones, así que no dejaré de escucharlos, al menos en un futuro cercano.

Ponte en pie,
Alza el puño y ven
A la fiesta pagana,
En la hoguera hay de beber

The post La conquista appeared first on LozBlog.

Sueño de matemáticas, del 28 de Octubre.

Me encontraba haciendo un examen, al parecer estilo preparatoria, y el aplicador me rompía el examen por copiar, o por estar platicando con un compañero.

Hasta donde recuerdo ahora, no estaba yo copiando, sino pasándole las respuestas a otro compañero, o entre ambos lo estábamos queriendo completar.

El “profe” me argumenta que no voy a aprender copiando, que por eso rompe el examen (o los exámenes). Entonces yo pido la palabra y le expongo que en un trabajo real como el que “ya tengo” (aunque esto es raro porque en la prepa nunca tuve un empleo de oficina), no te piden que te sepas todo de memoria, si no que puedes sacar apuntes para resolver problemas, hablar con colegas, llamar, usar la web, etc. Definitivamente muy diferente al examen.

Debo destacar que este argumento lo escuché por primera vez en otra persona, es decir, no es mío, aunque sí lo hago propio y coincido totalmente con el mismo. Se ha hablado de eso en muchos lugares, los exámenes favorecen aprendizaje de memoria y no necesariamente es significativo.

Por otro lado, no creo que un examen sea malo; es un ejercicio que aporta al proceso en general, simplemente creo que no se debe de basar una calificación, o el status de aprobado/reprobado, teniendo como 100% (o algún porcentaje mayoritario) dicho examen.

Ya despierto, recordé lo bueno y rápido que era para resolver ejercicios de matemáticas, por lo que “regresé” al sueño y me imaginé diciéndole al profe que me pusiera a prueba, que le apostaba a que resolvía 10 ejercicios que dejara en el pizarrón en menos de 3 minutos, para evidenciar que sí sé, examen o no examen, copiado o no copiado. Incluso si eran temas nuevos, suponiendo que me diera una breve explicación, mantenía la apuesta.

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I once registered my first domain: lozbo.org (circa 2006-05-10, I think). I planned to pour down all, or at least most of my works of expression; photographs, graphic design, web sites, poems, stories, ideas, thoughts, etc. Some kind of portfolio/playground. The tagline was once “personal artscape playground”, I changed to “showcase & playground”, which is actually more or less the same, maybe in the sake of brevity?

Today, I’m still trying to finish it.

Back then, in the same order of thoughts, I wanted to have different subdomains to address the different aspects of my showcase, for example:

• blog.lozbo.org (blog, obviously; a brain storm of introspection, mirages and delirium)
• photo.lozbo.org (photography log, at some point planned to have it in some other, independent domains, first inkofdreams, then artandnation)
• academic.lozbo.org (tech blog with non-personal /formal/serious content, like what I publish now on TecnoBato.com)

And other similar, I don’t recall them anymore. There was also the matter of the content of the root domain: lozbo.org, which was supposed to be a hub and a funnel to those subdomains. Or what was it?

I now remember a friend who asked me why would I have lozbo.org and blog.lozbo.org. It was obviously to him redundant, as he thought that the main (root) domain should host, evidently, my blog.

Then I started registering other domains, for holding these contents in an independent way (it was also because I wanted to own these domains, as part of my personal brand, so it wouldn’t fall in the wrong hands):

• lozbo.net – web design/development tutorials
• lozbo.info – lozblog
• lozbo.org – cv/portfolio
• lozbo.com – the hub

As years went by, the only really “stable” content I was building upon was this blog (Lozblog), even through the domain changes. I once registered a lzb.me domain for it, Lozblog, but left it eventually due to high prices and host not auto-renewing it out of some tech bullshit. There’s still an item on my bucket list to own a country TLD that would summarize the whole personal-brand idea nicely, I leave it for you to guess

Why am I in this demented crusade for the appropriate home for each of my online antics? Dunno. It’s just that, I’m always believing that the current home is the best.

What’s the best? How to define it? Tricky to answer. I have made changes that have to do with the database naming convention, something a normal reader would never even know nor care about. Maybe a hacker. Anyway, the “best” fluctuates with time, that’s the point.

Right now, having concluded that I will never make time to propperly populate these other domains with the planned content, I have let them go. I’m planning on focusing in one: lozbo.com for both blog and porfolio.

Lies! I actually have several others, and I’m keeping the lozbo.org too, for the good ole times. For the . But I’m not using it anymore, nor the info or net tld’s.

But who can really tell what will the perfect domain home will be next for Lozblog?

The post Why I move LozBlog appeared first on LozBlog.

Notes of this dream:

• Stranded on top of building
• In the beach
• Flood or Tsunami, the water kept going up, me and a friend or guy [what?]
• Brother’s flat [it said “depas”] down and water reached him
• Didn’t hear back from him
• Looking for taller structures

I don’t really remember this dream. It’s dated december 24, 2018, it’s been a while.

What I’d like to note about it is that I kinda remember having several of these type of dreams, I mean, where floods happen and I need to escape immediate danger through climbing up wherever possible – all within the city, if my memory serves me well.

But then, what will happen after the mayhem? When immediate danger is overcome and food starts to run out, will a military chopper come down to our rescue?

The post Dream of Tsunami appeared first on LozBlog.

Haggard, the great symphonic metal german band, came to town last January (19th).

The concert, which I attended with some friends, was probably awesome, though I couldn’t really tell from the place I was listening, way back. The sound quality in the venue’s back was not optimal.

Nontheless, I had a good time with me hommies. And after the last song, as is their habit, the band members came down from the stage to greet us fans (and groupies), sign autographs and take pictures. Unlike other artists, these guys are really humble and friendly*.

It’s not the first time I attend a Haggards gig, I have seen them in Deutschland in 2008, and 2014 (06-20). I missed them a few years earlier (can’t recall the date!), when they played the now-extinct local Hard Rock Live, I didn’t have money for the ticket but stayed out (I visited my girlfriend and went straight to the venue afterwards). But in the end, when the gig was finished, I got to enter and found a friend, who was showing off Asis Nasseri’s (the band’s leader, composer, guitar player and singer) pick.

My friend told me that, according to Asis, he only uses one pick in the whole concert, as it “brings him luck”. I was obviously jealous, but took a mental note.

So next time I got to watch them live (that time in Germany), I asked for it. The glorious pick (the pick of destiny). I didn’t get the actual pick from Asis, but got another one from another player.

But this time, last January, I insisted. “Please Asis, I know you only use one pick in each concert, so can you give it to me?”. He told me I should wait until all the fans had taken pics and signed their shits. And I did!

He finally dispatched all the mob around and I got close to reclaim my pick, and as he gave it up, I was frantic, praising my beloved instrument thing.

Watching me in ecstasy, he threw in a somewhat snide remark:

It’s just a piece of plastic!

Well no, mr. Asis, it’s more than that!

The best day of my life.

* I must say that, 12 years away from the first time I met him, Asis felt a bit grumpier with the fans this time. Just a tiny bit ;), and I’m not saying it for his last remark, the piece of plastic thing, that was actually pretty funny.

The post Not just a piece of plastic appeared first on LozBlog.

El día de hoy me dí cuenta de algo: no me gusta la poesía.

Ya tenía tiempo con este conflicto; según yo sí me gusta (o gustaba). Incluso tengo mis propios textos. Hubo de hecho un tiempo en que sólo escribía poesía (as of later years, I’ve switched to short stories), y eso lo reconozco, aún me gusta escribirla. Pero es mía, y le entiendo.

Y, más bien, ése es el punto, as I try to understand my own feelings towards it. Quiero entender lo que significa un poema; es fácil cuando son mis propias palabras, yo sé qué quieren decir, qué sentía cuando hice el texto. Pero, ¿lo que escriben los demás? ¿qué quieren decir?

El arte abstracto, subjetivo, me parece interesante, y quiero que me guste. Incluso, puede ser que me guste a nivel estético, los colores, las formas, o las palabras incluso, algunas frases, sí me agraden. Dicen que ése es el punto, que el arte más que entenderse, se debe sentir. Pero no estoy seguro si sé cómo.

Me es más fácil ver una pintura abstracta y no sentir una necesidad tan fuerte de entenderla (y de todos modos sí), como cuando leo un poema, con palabras, en un idioma que pueda comprender (which are basically just zwei). No puedo resistir esa sensación de querer entender. Son letras que conozco, que forman palabras, que forman frases, y las puedo entender, pero no entiendo la idea, el significado, el mensaje.

Estoy seguro que el autor sentía algo en particular, el hecho de que cada quién le dé un significado, me parece inadecuado. ¿Cómo saber si lo que interpreto es lo que el autor quería decir? Eso es lo que me molesta, no entender, o no saber si lo que entiendo es correcto.

¿Y mis poemas? ¿le pasará lo mismo a los demás? Probablemente, a la mejor intento ser claro en las metáforas y figuras, pero sólo es claro para mí. He ahí mi conflicto. ¿Qué hacer?

Quizá me falta explorar más autores, al menos tengo identificado un tipo de poesía que sí me gusta, el que va acompañado de música. Y en particular de géneros de rock/metal/goth y sus respectivas e infinitas diversificaciones. Quizá es ahí donde deba buscar, los poetas malditos de la vieja Francia, o algo parecido.

Entonces, a la mejor no es que no me guste, es que no la entiendo. O, quizá, es que no he buscado lo suficiente, para, como dice Alma, darle una oportunidad.

The post No me gusta la poesía appeared first on LozBlog.

This dreaded abyss
Reality closed in
Destroyed from within
Unfolding of fear

The x marks the spot
A round has been shot
It sheds all my blood
Can’t make it stop

Fire builds up with unfathomable prowess
Could not become empire, unimaginable collapse
Wee village’s ablaze; unspeakable distress
Main quest brought down, towards inexorable egress.

Update 1!

On 2021-08-17 I changed “A dreaded” for “This dreaded”; “The small town burns down” for “Wee village’s ablaze”; and “All quests shot down, onward” to “Main quest brought down, towards”

The post Unfathomable prowess appeared first on LozBlog.

I confused an artist in another post. I thought I was Abney Park, it sounded very similar; turned out to be Hocico, a dark wave mexican-german project.

So I wanted to talk about Abney Park, and it’s awesomely melancholic, piano driven, nostalgia provoking, and at times (right in the chorus) power-feeling song “Victoria“.

According to Wikipedia (and I believe also according to the band itself), they are a “steampunk” band, led by american singer (and multi-player) Pirate Robert Brown.

I will allow myself to differ, in regard to the “definition” of the genre the band plays. What is steam-punk music anyway? I’d say that the band uses costumes and themes regarding the steampunk aesthetics (and that’s cool and all), yet I wouldn’t describe the band as “steampunk”, because I don’t think it defines it’s music. I would say (and again, in my blog, my opinions are subjective) they play industrial/alternative rock.

The way I see it, steampunk is more a literature thing than a musical genre. A story, a novel, a game, a movie; but music? I couldn’t deny the existence of such a genre in the audio realm, but I don’t know any more artists that play it, to better understand it.

In that regard, as I said before, Abney Park uses disguises and imagery of this “sci-fi sub-genre” (as Wikipedia describes it), but it would be the equivalent of saying that Kiss plays heavy metal just because they use an overall “evil” image, make up and costumes, which by the way, I don’t have anything against, I just think that, the way they dress doesn’t define the music they write/play.

And just to be clear: I like Kiss’ songs, love some of ’em, but pop rock aint metal.

Anyway, about the song “Victoria”… it’s beautiful.

Victoria, come back to me…

The post Abney Park and Victoria appeared first on LozBlog.

I have a lot of music I want to hear. When I listen to a band/artist I like, I try to listen to their whole discography. For example, an awesome artist caught my ear, I think it was through the Spotify recommendations list, the song’s called “Victoria” from Lord of the Lost.

Forgive the above mistaken comment. It’s not Abney Park! That tune, Victoria, which I do love, is not from Lord of the Lost, as I originally confused. It’s from a band called “Abney Park”, from Seattle, US. I’ll talk about that band in another post. In my defense, vocal timbres of both singers (Lord of the Lost and Abney Park) are similar, and overall they have some resemblance, music wise.

Ahem.

So I said I was listening to Lord of the Lost (Hamburg, Deutschland), and came across and interesting piece. I don’t remember how I got to Lord of the Lost in the first place, I don’t see any “favorite” song among the ones I have on my list.

Anyway the song is called “Marching into Sunset“, and when the chorus took place, I immediately thought that the guest vocalist was “Marilyn Manson”, so I looked into my iTunes window, and read the whole title: “Marching into Sunset (feat. Erk Aicrag)”.

Mind blown (a lil’ bit, at least).

So first, I was amazed at the fact that I actually know this guy: Erk Aicrag. Well, not really know him, just his work at a project called Hocico, which is Mexican but I think they reside in Germany (I assume Hamburg) since a long time ago. Hocico plays a subgenre I’m not very familiar with, Electro Dark; I don’t dislike it, but it’s not my fave either. I like some stuff, but most is just “plain okay”, for me.

Second, I’m not saying that Erk’s work is an imitation, but if you hear the song chorus, you will understand what I mean. It’s very similar to Manson! And even if he was trying to replicate a style, I wouldn’t find it wrong either. He (Erk) is just doing his thing. From what I know, they’re a big act in their given undergrounds (Hocico, Dulce Líquido, Rabia Sorda, etc.).

Now that I have heard more of Lord of the Lost, while writing this post, I notice it is more electro than I originally thought. That’s not wrong, just saying. But it overall feels now even more close to Manson’s industrial music.

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How can I blame you, when it’s me I can’t forgive?

I Remember some years ago (perhaps two decades?) I had the intention of writing a poem¹ titled “Unforgiven III”, with an obvious reference to the MetallicA’s song series consisting of the Unforgiven (“Metallica”, 1991, aka “Black Album”) and the Unforgiven II (“Reload”, 1997). Back then, when I was a teen, I thought that maybe I could submit the lyrics to MetallicA, and suggest them for that new song.

Damn, I also remember I talked about it to a friend that played guitar and drums, to fully create the song, and I still have those recordings. They’re not even close to a real demo, but hey, we were kiddos.

The lyrics of the song were a pun on “III” which equals “3” as the third installment of the song but also as a “tree”. The only famous tree I could come up back then to make it work was the one which the bible betrayer Judas used to hang himself after giving up his master with a deadly kiss.

How can I be lost? If I got nowhere to go

I was listening today to MetallicA’s Death Magnetic (2008²) and saw that, right after the Unforgiven III song (they finally put it out) comes the song “The Judas Kiss”.

When the world has turned its back
When the days have turned pitch black
When the fear abducts your tongue
When the fire’s dead and gone

Just thought it was worth remembrin’ it.

Crazy notes

¹ I don’t even remember if I did write anything, can’t find it on my files or backups. Guess not, I think I still have on a hard drive all or at least most of my writings (poetry, fiction, essays, homeworks, etc.). At least everything that I developed on a computer, not taking into account pen/pencil written stuff.

² One decade old! Can’t believe it, feels like it was yesterday when St. Anger came out. I still feel like those albums, everything after S&M, are kind of “new”. Age is relative. St. Anger is like 17 years old, and I still think of it like the new material. I’m repeating myself, sorry.

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I remember some time ago I did a “creative strike“, which meant that I “refused” to write and publish posts on LozBlog. Why? It had to do with my master’s dissertation, which I had to finish and didn’t want anything distracting me. I think I was feeling a bit blue, too.

That resulted in it being the only post in 2009. I only wrote one post back then! In 2017, 2018 and 2019, same thing, just one or two post per year. So far in 2020, only one post (sorry, actually two!), again! Besides this one…

So I’ve been seldom writing on this Blog. There have been a lot of stuff going on that have to do with it, but mainly: lack of discipline (and lot of work).

In my defense, I must say that I have been writing something, in another format. My short stories! I have been attending a writing workshop, Interior Seis, for almost five years, since around September 2015. And since then, I’ve been constantly writing, between 1 and 3 stories per month, sometimes more, sometimes less. I don’t publish them here though, perhaps some day.

One more thing: I have reviewed each and every published entry on LozBlog. All 283 of them. I did so because, at some point I enabled password-protection for some posts, but by default, all posts were automatically categorized as “private”. Well, not automatically, I did it manually, a few years ago, in order for me to remove it or leave it on a one-by-one basis. Which I finally did, and took me several weeks. And while being there, I added comments or updates on posts that deserved so.

I think this also had to do with the little posting on the Blog: there was some unstated creative strike going on too, related to the ideas behind adding password to some posts, and then, not finding the time to review all posts and update accordingly. Hopefully, in 2020 I have overcome that strike!

The post On and off writing appeared first on LozBlog.

I found this “about page” on an old Blog installation. There, a test-ground I was using for client-related work, I had a few posts that I hadn’t backed up nor uploaded to the “main” or “current” LozBlog installation, and they were interesting stuff. I don’t know how that happened, but I just imported them all here. Probably need some cleanup. Anyway here it goes. It looks as it was first published the 15th of September, 2006.

Perpetual search.

I am a person continuously trying to find answers to everything. Mostly about me and my future, religion, art, culture and those who surround me.

I don’t want to have a profession, as such, but lots of hobbies: and look forward to enable those hobbies to offer me a sustainable way of life. I like: multimedia development, audio visual production, music, photography, writing, among a lot of other things.

This website is a weBlog where I shed thoughts and adventures, insights and anecdotes, and other random nonsense. Mainly about my personal life.

I was born in México, but I’ve traveled a bit around some countries. I am currently living in Deutschland, studying the last semester of my master. I must admit that this is by far the best trip of my life, even better than the one I did with some friends to South East México and Belize. I can’t say that only good things have happened to me being here, but the experience itself is teaching me so much different things (not only academic). I am glad I have the opportunity to learn this much.

The post Old About Page appeared first on LozBlog.

I don’t even want to remember when was the last time I published here. And I don’t want to fill up my blog with “I haven’t updated my blog in a long time” rants, so I’ll just skip it.

Again, I don’t want to reiterate with posts about how I switched the whole WP installation from one place to the next, but hey, everytime I do it, I really hope that it’s the last, though deep inside, I fear it won’t…

Anyhow, yes, I moved from lozbo.info to lozbo.com. Why? I have too many projects and stuff going on and I want to clean up. And also pay less… (1 USD is currently at around 25 MXN, it used to be 20, and before 15, 10, etc. Also, domain prices have gone up, from 10 to 16 USD each, that means that what once costed 100 MXN, now costs 400). I have registered for a long time the .info, .org and .net domains for my nickname, Lozbo, and though I constantly imagine tons of stuff I want to create and publish, I haven’t really kept up. I start things and register domains and visualize crazy things, but truth is, I can only commit to a few of them, and not all. I hate to do it, but for me and the projects sake, I have to loosen the grip.

I can clearly picture myself in this comic:

So that’s the actual truth; I wanted to simplify, and let go. I haven’t fully figured it all out though, as there are still things I’d like to publish, and don’t know what the best place will be. I’ll state it here so it helps me with the brainstorm:

• Photoblog (probably a blog category here at lozbo.com): frozen stuff through the lens of my cam, and also designs and wallpapers.
• Portfolio (maybe here, maybe at other domain): a gallery of relevant work I made. Web, graphic, photo, video, lyrics, etc.
• Formal CV (probably at my name dot pro): a list of my skills and experience.
• Tech Blog and maybe Vlog (already a stalled working project at TecnoBato.com): articles regarding gadgets, technology, services, the internetz and the like.
• A “Stories” project (don’t know where, maybe at AlterActivo, maybe it’s own domain): for hyper stories, interactive fiction, text adventures, or whatever you want to call it. Guess I’m more into publishing my own work than creating a hub for other authors, but who knows?
• My Multimedia freelance consultant site (already at AlterActivo.com)

And of course, the main Blog, which is the longest running of these online projects, which has consequentially the largest records too. There is one section I’ve been meaning to (ha!) write about, which is a yearly round up. A memoir of relevant facts at the end of each year. Probably put it on private, if I ever finish it. Think I saw it on Matt Mullenweg’s Blog once, but can’t find it in its current state.

So once more, my beloved, ever growing, immeasurable audience:

Welcome to LozBlog.

Update!

2020-04-06: Looks like I already had published a bit about it last year and forgot. Ups! The thoughts are the same though.

The post New Blog Home (again) appeared first on LozBlog.

Moving the blog again. New home: lozbo.com . It will take a while to move all entries from here to there, so in the mean time, both sites will remain working.

I decided to merge projects and not have a plethora of different domains for publishing stuff that is closely related. So in short: the contents of lozbo.com (don’t even remember what wanted here on the first place), lozbo.org (cv & portfolio) and lozbo.info (personal blog) will be one on lozbo.com, and lozbo.net (web publishing blog) will be merged into TecnoBato.com.

Enjoy!

The post Next New Home appeared first on LozBlog.

Cuando hago una instalación de WordPress para un sitio personal, me gusta dejar el post de “Hello world!” que viene por default, entre otras razones que aún no comprendo, para recordar la fecha exacta en que fue instalado.

Preciosos metadatos.

The post Hello world! appeared first on LozBlog.

Sometime ago (2014) I wrote about sharing my thoughts on the Internetz. As everyone knows, the Internetz’ crazy, and as your granny used to say:

So as of now, I’m restricting LozBlog in the following manner: all posts marked “private”, will need an access password. Which of course you don’t have.

Right now everything is marked private, but as I am able, I will update accordingly, as I am OK with some things being public.

I also updated the feed settings so RSS subscribers only get the excerpt of each post.

Sorry lads and lassies of the digital realm!

The post Protect the Digital Kingdom appeared first on LozBlog.

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Me llegó un correo de no sé dónde ni por qué, sobre los últimos boletos del Grand Prix, como si me hubiera suscrito algún día a algo así. Guardé la imagen y pensé en escribir algo al respecto, y éste es el resultado.

Sé que la respuesta a algunos de mis cuestionamientos es, como decía mi tátara tátara abuela, antes de morir:

En gustos, se rompen madres

Sabia y poderosa era mi tátara tátara abuela. Pero aquí van mis pensamientos:

¿Por qué paga la gente por ver una carrera? Entiendo los fanáticos del basketball, del tennis… incluso fútbol, pero ¿una carrera? No únicamente de carros, puede ser de personas también o caballos, pero creo que especialmente los de automóviles.

Obviamente, no es un deporte (¿se le considera deporte?) del que yo sea fanático, pero… esperen, de hecho no soy fanático de ninguno… pero el hecho es que, aún si lo fuera, no le veo tanto chiste el ir a ver la carrera a pagar un dineral a un lugar de estos, como los que aparecen en la imagen:

Me parece extraño.

Quizá si hubiera un lugar, una enorme y alta torre (o sobre un helicóptero o drón) desde donde se pudiera ver todo el circuito simultáneamente, quién va dónde, quién se estrella en qué lugar, quién va a la cabeza, incluso con algún lente de realidad aumentada (¿Google Glass, alguien?), que te de información del que va a la cabeza y cosas así, ¿pero estar sentado en un lugar donde tu corredor favorito pasa a gran velocidad y en segundos dejas de verlo?

A la mejor es similar al estadio, donde a veces la gente acude a las afueras, cuando es un partido tan concurrido y caro que no alcanzó boleto, y va al “ambiente”, a alcoholizarse, a echar desmadre y hacer fiesta en el contexto del evento.

Pero aún así me parece algo muy extraño, probablemente pretencioso. Si el dinero no fuera problema, y tuviera todas mis prioridades cubiertas, aún así pensaría en otros lujos no-indispensables para tirar el dinero, antes que en una corrida (o como se llame) de Grand Prix.

Puede que la gente opulenta (y/o hipster y/o egocéntrica) encuentre mis quejidos bastante absurdos, aunque habrá algunos otros verdaderos fanáticos de este arte/deporte/ciencia (o lo que sea), que no concuerden con mi punto de vista.

Y hay que tener en cuenta que no estoy criticando esta disciplina en sí, de la que en realidad no tengo nada en contra, si no la experiencia limitada de ver un auto (de carreras) pasar lo más rápido que le es posible frente al espectador, y que esta experiencia, sólo para poner un contexto, puede costar (acabo de hacer una búsqueda en tickets.formula1.com) hasta 3,800 dólares (USD). Eso es, al tipo de cambio de hoy (gracias gringos rednecks por su elección xenófoba), 80,000 pesos.

Insisto, existe gente que no le preocupe gastar esto y más en ello pero, me cuesta creer que aún teniendo plata en exceso, encontraría oportuno el “invertir” tanto dinero en una experiencia que considero tan pobre.

Para ser justos, pondré también el otro extremo, el límite inferior en los costos del evento: 327 dólares. Aún así, no considero que los valga. Si fuera un concierto de alguno de mis artistas favoritos, en el que estuviera en primera fila, en un evento especial, solemne y único, que será grabado en vivo y además tendré fotos y autógrafos con la banda, pues sería más sencillo gastar 7,000 pesos, ¿pero un auto a gran velocidad? Preferiría verlo en televisión.

Por favor, siéntanse libres de diferir: ésta es mi muy personal y humilde opinión y seguramente es equivocada.

The post Boletos del Grand Prix appeared first on LozBlog.

Hace poco más de un mes, salí de viaje de trabajo. Cuando llegué al segundo y último destino, me dio una infección en la garganta, fiebre incluida, marca demonio. Pude dormir quién sabe hasta qué hora.

En cuanto me fue posible y horas razonables, fui al doctor, pero el daño ya estaba hecho. Me la pasé todo el día en el hotel, no fui a mi evento y, peor, miré televisión toda la tarde.

Tomé algunas notas para escribir los extraños contenidos que ví en la caja idiota. Entre mis notas, está lo siguiente:

Lo fácil que es enganchar, lo rápido que algo banal se puede volver interesante, si se permite.

Esta idea la aplico bastante a mi propia experiencia; cuando la tele “está hablando”, me absorbe tanto, que tengo que voltear a verla. Es por eso que no me gusta ver televisión, y por lo que nunca he tenido una (aunque la verdad sí planeo algún día tener una pantalla 4k para ver películas).

Pero en esos momentos, en los que sentía que moría, lo único que se me ocurría es ver televisión. En lo que zappeaba cambiando canales, me topé con cosas tan bizarras, como un reality show de unos tipos cuya competencia tenía que ver con formar parejas y besarse, o algo así. Sinceramente no le entendí, y me encontré que fueron dos minutos de demasiado tiempo perdido viendo semejante abominación. Qué raros somos los humanos, ¿por qué a la gente le gusta consumir ese tipo de contenidos? Yo le daría, en escala del 1 al 10, donde 10 es lo más interesante, un 1.

Luego está el popular “Precio de la historia”. La verdad, no me parece tan horrible como el programa que describí anteriormente (el “big brother de besos”). Quizá el precio de la historia recibiría un 5 en mi escala. Lo que sucede es que, el programa mezcla lo interesante de la historia de cada objeto que se vende, con la patética vida de unos gringos maníacos. Y no se trata de criticar su vida (cada quién tiene derecho a ser pirata), lo que me parece extraño es por qué a la gente le parece interesante eso… una familia de rednecks vendedores de basura, cuya meta en la vida es ver el super bowl. Y de cómo un canal de “historia” se volvió uno de reality shows de gente freak…

Luego me encontré con una película, Almost Famous, que pensé que era un show para adolescentes mutantes pero ya viéndola, no lo era en realidad. Fue bastante interesante, tiene un premio Oscar al mejor guión, en 2001. Ésa historia sí me atrapó. Se trata de un niño reportero, cubriendo una banda de rock en tour, con los excesos que conlleva. Se supone que está basada en parte en la vida del director, Cameron Crowe. En mi subjetiva escala de interés: un 7.

Después ví Terminator 4, no tengo mucho qué decir, me encanta este arquetipo de historia de hombre contra máquina, y la manera particular en que ha ido avanzando esta serie, desde la historia de Sara Connor, hasta la guerra en sí, pasando por la adolescencia del famoso John, y sus fallidos intentos por evitar el conflicto. Cada entrega, al menos hasta la quinta parte, me parece que ha llevado un orden bastante lógico y no tan forzado, es decir, no me parece que estén torciendo la historia nomás por sacar películas de la serie (como sí lo hacen en Resident Evil, la serie de películas, pero don’t get me started), o lo han sabido resolver para que el argumento camine. Escala de interés: 8.5.

A continuación: Dead race 2, o algo así. Me gustaría saber de qué se trata la primera, porque en todo caso no parecía haber un antecedente, sino ser completamente independiente. La verdad me pareció un churrazo, la historia me dejó muchísimo que desear, aunque sí hubo algunos vuelcos inesperados, que es lo que me gusta de una historia/cuento, las famosas “vueltas de tuerca”. Score: 4.

Tomé en su momento notas sobre “AXN CSI”, que “me enganchó”, que parece que es una serie de investigaciones policiales o algo así. No pretendía verla, como que les tenía mala idea a esas series, pero sinceramente sí la terminé de ver, habiéndome enganchado, y de eso hablaba que algo se puede volver interesante si se le permite, al menos en mi experiencia; a menos que de plano el contenido sea demasiado pobre/horrible. 6.

Luego, antes de dormir, pasé rápidamente por una telenovela. La breve parte que ví, estaba una pareja circulando por la calle en un automóvil. Las tomas eran desde dentro del carro, pero me pareció demasiado notorio la inconsistencia del paisaje afuera del vehículo; a veces estaban en carretera, luego un parque, luego no sé qué, y todo este cambio se daba en cuestión de segundos. Me pareció increíble que no tengan alguien que revise el seguimiento y continuidad en una producción que imagino tiene audiencias a nivel nacional e internacional. Era tan evidente que me comencé a preguntar si era a propósito.

Moraleja: espero no tener que pasar otro día a solas frente a un televisor.

The post Contenidos aleatorios televisivos appeared first on LozBlog.

Forgot to write something on my past birthday. Actually, I didn’t write anything last month. Actually, it’s already mid December and I haven’t published this post.

Well, I spent my birthday on a biz trip to cdmx. Following weekend, I didn’t plan a party. I didn’t celebrate. No big parties like the days of olde. Well, there was some small gathering at a friends place and it was cool, but, different.

I’m not depressed either, just not considering it –the day, my birthday– that relevant right now. I mean, I do remember with nostalgic joy those times were all my friends were:

1. around (available)
2. single
3. childless (Update! Nothing against that, though! )
4. in this country
5. cool

But as they say:

the times, they are a-changing.

It’s not exactly that I need/needed it (the big, full of people, crazy party), I can do just fine without it.

It’s just… I don’t know. Growing old, it used to be different, more crazy and fun. It’s still crazy, it’s still fun, but in different ways.

I think I wrote this back in October 30, as the date on the draft shows, and now, couple of months later, it feels kinda the same. Even more apathy: this post is less and less relevant (for me, I know you people couldn’t care less about it) as time goes by. (I think that I used to believe that my anniversary implicitly meant that I needed to share some thoughts and introspection on this blog.)

I have been busy at work, lots of issues that need solving. Haven’t had time to write properly, or to worry about other things. Even sadder: haven’t had time to push on other artistic projects (like that damned short film I was making). Well, one thing I haven’t given up is writing short stories. I love that, but my production has been going down a bit also lately.

Hopefully, current holidays will help both: mend my troubled mind and finish (or at least make some progress) on several side projects.

The post On my last birthday appeared first on LozBlog.

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Nostalgia

10 years ago, I wrote the first post on this Blog. It was a rant about Mexican independence day, and was published exactly on 2006/09/15 @ 11:41 pm. I’m trying to recall where was I at that exact time, can’t tell, but probably at a former job’s office; I used to stay late, usually working on my own projects after hours.

One of these projects was LozBlog: back then installed on lozbo.org. Today, that domain is idle, and as always, I’m planning to fix that soon.

I set a goal for myself to write something on the anniversary, but not sure what to say. Can’t say it feels like too much or too little time. 10 years… It just feels as it is. Perhaps I’m feeling a bit apathetic today?

Definitely much has went on since then, studies abroad, switching cities and jobs a couple of times, meeting lots of people, learning a lot. LozBlog itself has moved a few times from domain to domain, though always powered by WordPress (all my love!). Update! One thing I can say has changed in the meantime: I’m finally using a home-grown (of my own) theme.

I feel like there’s too much left to do and achieve, but it’s not like I have completely stalled; I am very proud of stuff I’ve done, learnt and discovered.

About OP

OP: Original Post. In a forum, it’s usually used to cite the first post on the thread. Here I’m talking about the first post in LozBlog, about Mexican independence.

As I read it, I think about the party I mention, and maybe I just know where I came from when I wrote it. But right now it’s not relevant, what I want to remark is the fact that I still think in the same way. My writing, as it is still today sometimes, was a bit cryptic. Or a lot. So the things I want to express are probably too obscure for readers to fully understand it, not because of their incompetence, but mine (update 2020-04-13! Perhaps its on purpose).

It’s still okay, as I still regard this Blog as a kind of diary, so even if I don’t get a lot of readers, it’s designed to please me. Perhaps when I finally conquer the world and become famous, people will start visiting this site?

Independence?

What can I say about it? Perhaps, as I said above, it’s just that I feel indifferent, but… even as I still think the same about independence, that I don’t consider myself, nor this country, to be independent, it doesn’t annoy me in the same way I think it did back then. But let’s talk ’bout it…

To state that because of where you were born, you must inherit unconscious traditions, is for me a fallacy. For example, I was born in Mexican soil. What I argue against, is that, based solely on this fact, I must drink tequila, listen to mariachi, be a conservative catholic and wear a sombrero. Maybe some of these thinks I like, maybe not. But I don’t believe that those should be determined because of where you were born, or even raised. I want to discover, set and build my own taste, preferences and traditions (update 2020-04-13 – which is not easy, truth be told).

That is why I don’t feel proud (nor ashamed) of my mexicanity. I am proud of who I am because of what I have achieved, not because of where I was born. I still think that flags, in their deepest sense, divide people.

My country is better and bigger than yours

Why does it have to be a contest, a tournament? It’s fun to participate in games and challenges, but that is they key: they are supposed to be for fun, not to disqualify, invalidate or humiliate others.

That’s my conclusion: I’d like to be free, in its widest meaning. What’s the scope? Stuff for another post. So yeah, happy 10th anniversary.

The post 10 Years of LozBlog appeared first on LozBlog.

Tradicionalmente, la administración de tareas es una actividad que a la mayoría de las personas se les complica.

Bueno ya… a mí se me complica :'(

A pesar saber que el caos no es productivo, de que se consigue un objetivo mejor y más rápido si se hace de manera ordenada, de tener tecnología asistiva para estos propósitos, desde tiempos inmemoriales me ha costado trabajo organizarme.

Hasta que conocí a Ivy.

No esperen, no a esa Ivy.

Método Ivy Lee

Aquí pueden leer un bonito cuento de cómo se popularizó este método (publicado en 2015). De hecho, el artículo parece que fue la fuente de donde plagiaron se inspiraron en este otro artículo (publicado en 2016) que fue el que yo leí inicialmente y el que me llevó a conocer el mentado método.

Se supone que son 6 pasos, en los vínculos anteriores pueden consultarlos en todo su esplendor. Sin embargo yo lo condensaría y me iría directo a lo valioso del método:

1. Haz una lista prioritaria de 6 tareas, en orden de importancia.
2. Enfócate en la primer tarea, hasta terminarla. Continúa con el siguiente ítem.
3. Mueve las tareas no completadas para la lista del siguiente día.
4. Repetir el ciclo.

Método Master Lozbo

A pesar de que ya está todo más o menos condensado, ese método de 6 pasos que yo resumí en 4, se puede comprimir aún más, así que without further ado, les presento el método Master Lozbo:

1. Haz una lista diaria y prioritaria de tareas, en orden de importancia.
2. No hagas otra cosa que no sea trabajar en la lista, en el orden de prioridad.

La razón por la que Ivy Lee indicaba que fueran únicamente 6 tareas, es porque más es demasiado. La razón por la que más de 6 es demasiado es porque cada una de estas tareas, debe tener un grado de complejidad más allá del “contestar correo” o “agendar cita”.

Divide y bla bla blá

Yo objeto que pueden ser más de 6 tareas; un motivo importante de por qué anoto las cosas que debo hacer es para que no se me olviden. Posiblemente las más importantes, prioritarias y urgentes, te las va a estar solicitando el jefe/cliente todo el tiempo, llamando cada 5 minutos a preguntar el status. Obviamente, no necesitas anotar eso porque no se te olvidará.

Pero ¿lo demás? Incluso esto mismo es necesario anotarlo para poder visualizarlo en el contexto de las demás tareas.

Entonces, mis listas pueden ser de más de 6 ítems, porque a veces esas tareas son sencillas, que anoté simplemente para no olvidarlas. O a veces esas tareas tienen sub-tareas, para que sea más fácil, entendible y aproximable el proyecto global. Update 2020-04-13: por cierto, en la actualidad y me parece que desde que publiqué este post, para esta organización uso Worfklowy (Lozbo approves).

Focus

Lo que me parece importante de este método, lo valioso, la carnita, lo significativo, vital, etc. etc. es el hecho de enunciar lo obvio: enfocarse. Ésta sola acción pudiera ser la única palabra en tu método Ivy Jones Lozbo 8000. Bueno, ésa y priorizar, porque enfocarte en algo que no es lo prioritario seguirá llevando al fracaso en la administración de tareas y proyectos.

Y eso es lo que tradicionalmente me ha costado trabajo a mí. Tengo una lista de tareas demasiado grande, con poco orden, y la prioridad no está establecida siempre correctamente. Y encima de eso, constantemente divago de proyecto en proyecto. Otras veces procrastino.

¡Funciona!

No son conceptos nuevos, los he sabido desde el principio, pero de alguna manera me ha comenzado a funcionar este método.

El hecho de entender y visualizar las cosas de esta manera: deshacerse de esa lista enorme de tareas a seguir, despriorizada y sin la división obvia que implica el no poder hacer todo en un solo día, trae una paz mental que permite avanzar. Donde el razonamiento era:

Esa lista de mil actividades no será posible terminarla hoy. No importa cómo le haga, no voy a terminar hoy, así que no me presionaré a hacerlo porque no es posible. Avanzaré poquito aquí, poquito allá, y así vamos poco a poco.

Ahora es:

Esta lista de 6 (o un número que le funcione a cada quién) tareas, con su respectivo orden de importancia y prioridad, definitivamente lo termino hoy. ¡A darle átomos!

Es un proceso mental, que en lo personal me causaba retrasos. Cada proyecto grande no-urgente, sin atacarlo de esta manera, se me atrasaba indefinidamente.

Pero volvamos a lo trascendente: además de priorizar, lo que importa es ponerse a hacerlo. No importa que tu lista sea factible, accesible, priorizada, si no te obligas a enfocarte en una sola cosa y no hacer otra hasta terminar, entonces tus proyectos seguirán atrasándose.

O los míos, o lo que sea.

The post Administración de tareas appeared first on LozBlog.

Three months ago I wrote these notes for a “double dream” I had back then (2016-05-10). Thing is that even with the notes, I don’t recall anything about the dreams, which normally doesn’t happen. I mean that, when I write notes down, and I read them not too long after, I remember the dream. When I don’t write ’em, it’s forgotten very easily.

Probably I need to review them often so I relate the notes to the dream, and not just leave them be, waiting for the day of unfolding/posting. Anyway, here they go…

First dream

A great flood, everybody on the church hiding. Me and a girlfriend on a chopper. Note: I suppose that by chopper, I meant “helicopter” and not “motorcycle”, I don’t think it would make sense riding a bike on a flood.

It also said:

Leaving one for family

So I imagine that we managed to escape on one of them choppers, but were also thoughtful of our loved ones and left them one. Besides, what would be the point to ride on different aircrafts if we’re just two? Though I don’t really recall if we were just two.

The second one

A crazy land like Alice in wonderland, a bonfire and a group of people on it.

Then I have this on spanish:

Una maqueta en el suelo que refleja lo que haces, tipo voodoo.

Truth is: no me acuerdo en absoluto de qué se trataba.

But at least, I must say that usually I find dreams interesting and inspiring for the short stories I write.

The post Double dream appeared first on LozBlog.

A lot of people have been asking me recently about my writing technique. So folks, get ready for some pro advise.

I’m joking, nobody cares about me or my stupid writing. But I wanted to write a memoir about it anyway.

Writer’s Block

I was trying to remember when was the last time I got the writers’ block. Probably I still suffer it at some points but the thing is, most of the time, I find it easy to drive a story. I’m not saying they’re good, just that I don’t have problems with creativity on that regard. I can write and write and develop fiction effortlessly, though that doesn’t mean that the story itself is great.

In fact (even though I haven’t done it professionally or even continuously), I have been writing fiction for around 15 years. That’s like half my life.

Not so fast

You must think that I have tons of good material and won lots of contests and got published. But not. First: I don’t have that many stories; as I said, I don’t do it for a living, and only recently have I picked up some pace on production.

Secondly: I also said that my work was not good, and just like in the aforementioned point, it’s basically this 2016 that I have started to develop some sense on how to make good stories. Perhaps not great ones, maybe not even contest winners, but at least plain “good” and fun.

So what are my accolades? I have won a couple of school contest or so, back in the old days, and got a honorable mention once on a real contest. But on my defense: I have only sent my work to probably less than five “real contests”. I can in fact only recall three.

='(

Blank page not blank

Anyway, I think one of the things that has gotten me a bit better at it is the fact that, when I get to the blank page, it’s not really blank. How’s that?

I am constantly taking notes and emailing them over to myself. Why email? I always have my cellphone with me, so I find that the easiest way to take notes is by doing just that. And when I have an idea, which could be any time of the day, in any place, I write it down in my omnipresent phone so I won’t forget. Much like the dreams I like to remember (which by the way, sometimes I use as foundation for my stories).

Those notes are really short, sometimes a few sentences, and each sentence is sometimes just between three and five words. Sometimes it’s just one sentence.

Mental development

When I consider that some of these notes are worthy, I also take a note in my mind. It’s probably not on purpose, but more organically and natural. For example: I have dozens of notes on a WorkFlowy account (btw: workflowy is a great tool for note taking, brainstorming and help get organized), but I don’t know if I will ever develop them all. It’s just a repository of ideas. But when I regard one of them as a good one, I tend to think about it day in, day out.

Then I start expanding on it and thinking how would things go. All this just in my head: the story is already in the making, days, weeks, sometimes months (some times even years) before I type it. So when I get to that damned page, I just have to pour down what I already know.

And most of the time: the first draft is finished in an hour or two. I tend not to leave an unfinished story once I start writing. It will obviously change, as I edit and fix along, but the base is there before I move on to other things. This is certainly possible because I’m not writing (at least not yet) novels. They’re short stories.

Not always so

Of course, not every single time has the story been completed in my mind before, and obviously, things may change on the go, or even take 180 (and sometimes 360) degree turns.

Sometimes I start typing a description, so that five word sentence becomes a pair of paragraphs. On later days I come back to it and unfold it. Other times (perhaps less often than what I consider I should) I develop characters’ history and context, even if it’s not going to be implicitly on the text.

And by the way, I’ll probably be doing more of that (characters’ context), now that I have begun experimenting with audiovisuals, and translating some of my short stories into film scripts.

Workshop it

And last but not least: the workshops. That place where me and other aspiring writers gather and, led by one of them who is wiser and more powerful, read each other’s texts and tear them apart.

I admit that it is when I’m enrolled in one of those that I make most of my writing. That means: I don’t usually write when I don’t have this additional motivation. It’s like homework, an assignment, even obligation that helps me out put myself to produce.

And most important of it all: the feedback. The fact that there are other human beings reading my stories and commenting on how to improve them, is priceless.

I can fairly say that, thanks to the current workshop I’m attending (Interior Seis), I have become a better writer. The bulk of what I consider my best writing, has been done in the context of the gathering of this sect.

The post Writing fiction: my technique appeared first on LozBlog.

How not to bend, beneath such charm-glowing being of delight?
How to remain sharp before this mind-absorbing sight?
How to prevent slipping inside the soul-pulling gravity smite?
How not to plunge, during the entwine of warm spell-binding night?

I’d query thee, if not for the angst it conjures upon me;
dismay of the dreaded prospect of reject…
Praying to be found proper in thine grace to allow trial-key,
selfish speculation venture of no effect.

Still I utter this lore so world jesters behold,
(the one within too), all forecasts be warned:
forgo shaping towers in frail dough,
lest ebon actuality discloses stout fall.

The post Angst of reject appeared first on LozBlog.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I have an issue with devices’ screens. Specifically, with people fingering them and leaving their evil marks all around.

It’s embarrassing because, you might think that I could just clean it up quickly with a special solvent and a microfiber, right? But even that I’m afraid of. Because you know, it’s never the same again. Nasty micro fibers leave their marks too…

This is also true with camera lenses.

Yes, I have resigned and do clean them constantly, more so with my lenses, but still, I feel like I’m hurting them, poor things (Mary Kondo style).

I even gave up at some point, in a former job, and stopped asking people to quit fingering my MacBook Pro’s display. Didn’t want their vicious stains on my beautiful screen, but it was happening so often, that I felt embarrassed to keep asking. I thought some of them were doing it on purpose… I hope there’s a special place in hell for people like them.

It’s much different with touchscreen devices because, those displays are designed to be touched. I can’t do anything about it and it’s probably just a mindset, but I do feel like cleaning those is easier. I do it with less care, with no fear of damaging it.

Yes, freaky stuff.

The post Screen damage appeared first on LozBlog.

Ayer Hace poco (domingo 3 de enero 2016), pasé una de las peores noches de mi vida. Al menos a lo que viene a mi mente ahorita, bien puede estar en el top 3. Una fiebre loca del demonio.

Veía visiones más allá del bien y el mal, y me encontraba perdido en la inmensidad de un universo paralelo.

Hasta que fuí al vet, y me dieron la medecina.

Pero la fiebre siguió, hasta dos o tres días después me repuse (más o menos) por completo.

Creí que sería relevante recordarlo.

Ya no estoy chavo.

The post Fiebre loca appeared first on LozBlog.

Sueño.

Estaba en un evento en un como cine o teatro. Me recordó de repente al Teatro Experimental de Jalisco. El evento tenía que ver con una premiación, en mis notas tengo “tipo Oscars, o algo“, pero ahora que lo leo, no recuerdo de qué trataba.

Yo iba con unos amigos, y algo sospechoso que ocurría en el lobby me invitaba a investigar. No sé por qué me fuí hacia otro lado, creo que estaba siguiendo a alguien, pero me escondía detrás de los rieles que rodeaban el escenario para los “carritos del tour”. Sí, había unos rieles que daban la vuelta desde el lobby hasta atrás del escenario para un behind the scenes tour. Yo estaba detrás de bambalinas, pero en ese momento no pasaba nada, entonces salía de mi escondite y regresaba al lobby.

Entonces, un guardia de seguridad del evento se molestaba con dos personas que querían entrar al evento, pero al parecer no tenían boleto. Entonces el guardia empezaba a dispararles y luego a todo el mundo. Yo tomaba un arma y me iba.

Para eso, el evento ya había empezado, entonces se desataba el caos entre la multitud ya sentada y los presentadores del evento. Yo me escondía nuevamente por los rieles, detrás del escenario. Quería estar en un lugar donde, teniendo en cuenta que el guardia loco disparaba aleatoriamente a todos lados, no me alcanzara una bala, ni tampoco me lo pudiera encontrar.

En cierto momento todo se calmaba, pero no sabía dónde estaba el atacante. Salía y me encontraba con un grupo de sobrevivientes y decidía unirme a ellos.

Todos traían armas, era como un apocalipsis zombie.

Este draft lo tengo guardado desde principios de Febrero, me pregunto si mi inconsciente lo relacionó con el ataque terrorista en Paris, ocurrido en Noviembre pasado.

The post Horror en los óscares appeared first on LozBlog.

Este sueño me recuerda a un cuento de Cortázar. He aquí lo que soñé:

Dos tipos se metían a una casa casa a vivir y molestar a los que la habitaban, haciendo bromas pesadas, comiendo su comida, y siempre eludiendo. No sé cómo era esto posible, no era tan grande la casa, pero así son los sueños.

También había un sacerdote pederasta que finalmente fue expuesto y exhibido por los bromistas. Osea, al parecer, los intrusos no eran tan malos, sólo un poco vagos.

La familia, en especial el padre, era muy fresa, super by the book, correctos y respetuosos. Les causaba una gran molestia que, siendo ellos tan correctos, tuvieran estos polizontes viviendo a sus costillas. La casa no era propia, la estaban pagando. Todo era elegante y caro.

Un buen día, los habitantes legítimos, deciden irse y vender su hipoteca, mudarse a un lugar más económico (¿su antiguo lugar?). Para este punto, ya habían perdido la timidez, quizá la cordura también, pues promocionaban la casa de manera loca, hacían panfletos y los aventaban, no recuerdo qué más. Se volvían locos y bromistas, hasta que los cholos invasores los veían y se sorprendían.

Un día llegaban personas a ver la casa para comprarla. Pero comenzaban a hacer preguntas sobre la casa y por alguna razón, a los vendedores se les iba la onda y no contestaban bien. En eso el bromista pesado de los que vivían en la casa, tomaba la iniciativa y comenzaba el tour por la casa, muy formal y amable, para sorpresa de todos. Luego la esposa del señor decía: “mira, finalmente cambiaron” y el esposo le contestaba:

No, nosotros fuimos los que cambiamos, ellos siguen igual…: todavía se están comiendo mi comida

The post Casa tomada (sueño) appeared first on LozBlog.

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Soñé que estaba en un super mercado grande, haciendo mis compras. Por un tiempo, recordaba mejor lo que sucedió, y ahora sólo tengo estas notas:

• Vivaldi Capone
• Súper Mercado
• Hijo de Vivaldi
• Telekinesis
• Regalo a niño
• Michael Jackson
• Último movimiento

Lo que recuerdo del sueño es que, iba por algún pasillo de un super mercado y me encontraba a algún descendiente de Antonio Vivaldi, el compositor y violinista loco italiano. No sé por qué puse “Capone”, creo que el mafioso (o quizá algún otro descendiente), estaba con él. Pero creo que no importaba mucho, pues con el que dialogaba era Vivaldi.

Algo sucedía que tenía que ver con Telekinesis, creo que yo, sintiéndome intimidado por el también músico y queriendo presumir alguna habilidad, le comentaba que podía hacer telekinesis. O algo. Sobre el regalo a niño no recuerdo, lo que sí es que de repente ponían una canción de Michael Jackson en el sonido local, y era una versión en la que mi artista interlocutor había participado.

Lo extraño, creo, es que aunque en el sueño la canción era de MJ, ésta sonaba bastante parecido a algún movimiento de las cuatro estaciones.

The post Sueño con Vivaldi appeared first on LozBlog.

Finally: I have updated the websites of a few personal/freelance projects. I’ve been meaning to do so for who-knows-how-long.

I’m not specially proud about not using original designs on most of them. At least not yet. And on some of them, I’m even using a “coming soon” cover page. Nevertheless, information is up and as they say:

Content is King

Anyway, among the updated sites, I have uploaded what I call “Lozbo Central”, right at lozbo.com, where I explain a bit about me and link to other Lozbo projects, like Lozbo Net or LozBlog. Update 2020-04-13: yeah, about that.

Interesting that the template I’m using on Lozbo Central, fits perfectly (well, for the most part) to the information I intended to put up on that site.

Will surely comeback at some point with original redesigns on all of them. I swear on my ancestor’s black beards.

The post Site updates appeared first on LozBlog.

Drowning, again, in a glass of water.

¿En un vaso de agua? ¿O en un terrible y agitado océano sin fondo?

Es geht mir gut, nur das Denken. Equis; semos chavos.

Todo lo que tiene un comienzo, tiene un fin

Says the oracle.

Control, you must learn control

Says Yoda.

Wise characters, not-so-easy actions.

The post Dos equis, parte III appeared first on LozBlog.

Soñé que podía volar.

Me ha pasado antes, pero en los sueños anteriores siempre me costaba trabajo. Ya sea el comenzar a hacerlo, o mantenerlo. Como que es sólo a ratos cuando puedo hacerlo más o menos libremente.

Es un deseo recurrente, tanto en sueños como en la vida real. Volar, desafiando la gravedad como Buzz. Bueno no, porque él no volaba, sólo caía con estilo.

Como sea, en este sueño, había un establecimiento con una especie de galería estilo zona roja de Amsterdam, en el cual turisteaban una amiga y su abuelo. Él traía (o acababa de comprar) un arma, pero oculta y sin planear usarla. El problema era que había policías que se habían dado cuenta de cuando la compró, o de alguna manera lo habían descubierto.

Los policías intentaban arrestarlos, y yo alertaba a mi amiga y su abuelo para que huyeran, pero en medio del caos no hacían nada, ni corrían.

Además de volar, también tenía otros poderes como el “congelar” los movimientos de las personas, que usaba para detener a los policías. Esto me costaba trabajo al principio, no tenía tanto control sobre este poder, y además, no lo podía sostener por mucho tiempo, por lo que urgía a mis amigos a huir inmediatamente.

Luego, mientras huían, los policías se recuperaban y comenzaban a perseguirnos. Una vez más, usé mis poderes para emitir una especie de force push y los mandaba a volar. No recuerdo qué más sucedía entonces, pero en algún momento comenzaba yo a volar.

Pero este vuelo no era como los demás sueños. En éste todo se sentía tan vívido, y yo tenía control sobre él. Y no sólo era suspenderme en el aire, también podía acelerar a voluntad y deambular libremente y a toda velocidad por la ciudad. Me sentí indestructible, aunque hubo un momento en el que parecía perder ligeramente el control, pero fue muy breve.

La sensación es indescriptible, la libertad y omnipotencia. No lo puedo describir realmente como lúcido, porque hasta donde sé, eso implica que uno sea consciente de que esté soñando, y, sin despertar, consiga moldear el sueño como desee, lo cual no me sucedió exactamente porque nunca supe que estaba soñando, hasta despertar…

Ahora recuerdo también otro sueño similar, en el que también pasaba por una etapa a medio sueño en el que parecía perder poder, pero seguía por otro poco más.

Update!

Me encontré con este proyecto, y definitivamente ya sé lo que quiero para navidad (paz en el mundo).

The post Sueño semi lúcido de vuelo controlado appeared first on LozBlog.

Warning!

May be spoilers of some movies ahead.

Fave Flick

The other day somebody asked me about my favorite movie. It would definitely be a hard choice, but still, it got me thinking and decided to at least, make a top 5.

I must state that I don’t consider myself knowledgeable above the average cinephile, I still haven’t seen lots of classics, and even keep missing today’s both blockbusters and not-so-hollywood flicks.

Yet, even when that above is true (that I am ignorant), I want to document what I would consider the best 5 movies I have watched. Perhaps it would be wiser to be more accurate: the 5 movies that I like the most, so far (it’s different, “the best” vs “what I like the most”, you know?).

Top 5

As you know and as stated before, it’s not an easy task, and it may change in the future. But today, the list would probably be:

• The Dark Knight (A.K.A. Batman 2, Christopher Nolan’s)
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Matrix Reloaded (A.K.A. Matrix 2)
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (A.K.A. LOTR 2)
• Toy Story 3

Most likely: in no particular order, but who knows?

I could elaborate on why I made each of these choices, but this post would be longer than intended.

Note on the most classic

Star Wars films, at the height of its tradition and in the eve of the 7th installment (The Force Awakens), may deserve a special mention, but I am not sure about which of them specifically. I don’t think I could slip any of them individually in this list. Perhaps, if I really had to pick one, I may choose Episode 2 and 3 (and then again, I’m cheating, ’cause I’m picking two).

But, as I just said: not any of them individually. But if I could make a large movie out of the 6 episodes, it may be at the top of the list: number one.

Why yes, I find the whole story very, very fascinating. I find the motifs behind character’s drive very believable (and I’m talking about politics, don’t get me started on Jedis and their magic).

For example: the evil emperor (Darth Sidious) wanted political power and control, just like people in real life. And, as a showcase of contrast from another movie, what did Sauron “the deceiver” wanted (or Morgoth, for that matter)? To rule Middle Earth? By killing everybody? And after that, rule on the orcs, who already serve him? Sum the whole world in darkness, so no one can see anything? What kind of motivation is that?

But that’s a story for another post.

The post My top 5 Movies appeared first on LozBlog.

Tengo un lugar donde pongo cosas que quiero hacer cuentos, sin embargo no recuerdo si esta nota era sólo para cuento, o soñé algo parecido…

Never ending train with people walking forward all they life. Train stops from time to time and people gets on and off, only to enter it again on that station.

Recuerdo que lo he leído varias veces, pero no recuerdo su significado completamente.

Creo que sí soñé algo parecido, y decidí darle un poco de orden (o re-estructurarlo por completo) y convertirlo en un cuento, historia, relato o algo.

También creo que este tren era una analogía de la vida misma, cómo la gente entra y sale de la vida de cada quién. Pero esa última frase, “sólo para volver a entrar en la misma estación”, me perturba. ¿Qué demonios significaba eso? Cada vez que leía este fragmento, tengo la sensación de que era una buena idea, pero la dejé enfriar por demasiado tiempo, y perdí el hilo…

The post ¿Sueño o cuento? El tren de la vida appeared first on LozBlog.

Me fascina la ficción (y la fantasía).

Alerta de spoiler

Puede que mencione algo que hable sobre la historia y/o resolución de la trama de alguna(s) película(s).

Terminator

Acabo de llegar del cine, ví la quinta entrega de la serie Terminator. No estoy seguro por qué, pero me encantó; no me lo esperaba. Update 2020-04-13: escribí sobre mis películas favoritas, y omití Terminator. ¡Es un error que deberé enmendar!

Pero no hablaré de esta saga ni de la película en lo particular, sino de la trama en general. Es una historia sobre la distopía ocasionada por la opresión de la inteligencia artificial (creada por el hombre originalmente y vuelta en su contra eventualmente); de cómo ésta intenta aniquilar a la humanidad.

Visión

De lo que quiero hablar es de la visión y creatividad de las personas que, hablando del mismo tema, consiguen una historia que parece totalmente distinta, aunque en su núcleo sigan siendo lo mismo.

¿Como cuál otra? Matrix, sería la siguiente obvia respuesta. Básicamente, la historia es la misma, lo saben especialmente aquellos que han visto “El segundo renacimiento“, partes 1 y 2, que tratan, en el mundo ficticio de Matrix, de la era pre-matrix.

El hombre crea a la máquina, la dota de inteligencia artificial, y eventualmente ésta se vuelve contra aquél.

Eso es lo que me parece genial. La misma historia, el futuro post apocalíptico del clásico arquetipo “hombre contra máquina”, es presentada de una manera tan original, que dudo que alguien se atrevería a tachar a estas historias como copia o que le falte originalidad. El ambiente, personajes, subtramas y otros detalles son tan distintos… me parece fascinante.

Más ejemplos

Estas otras historias también me evocan la misma sensación: “I, robot”, “Tron”, “Transcendence”… incluso hasta pienso en “Her“, que realmente no trata sobre el hombre contra la máquina (más bien, hombre ama a la máquina), pero el final es lo que me tiene en incógnita: ¿a dónde fueron todos los sistemas operativos? ¿acaso planean destruir a la humanidad?

The post IA vs humanidad: enfoques appeared first on LozBlog.

La situación, Mx

La gente en este país, en general y en mi pobre y restringida experiencia, no prestamos atención ni seguimos las normas fundamentales de una supuesta sociedad civilizada, en el futurista año 2015:

• tiramos basura en la calle
• desperdiciamos el agua
• no separamos la basura
• descargamos piratería
• no respetamos a peatones ni ciclistas
• circulamos en sentido contrario
• circulamos en motocicleta sin casco
• circulamos en motocicleta entre carriles
• circulamos en carro sin cinturón de seguridad
• nos estacionamos abarcando más de un lugar
• nos pasamos los altos
• damos “mordida” al agente de vialidad
• nos burlamos primero ante la adversidad de los terceros, antes que ayudarlos (como de alguien que se cae)
• en un cruce, en el que el semáforo marca verde, pero hay congestión, nos encimamos en el siguiente carro (efectivamente obstruyendo el paso no sólo a nuestro propio carril, que no puede avanzar, sino a los demás conductores que, habiendo cambiado la luz, avanzan en el cruce en sentido perpendicular)
• consumimos alcohol en lugares prohibidos
• fumamos en lugares prohibidos
• nos robamos el cable y/o internet del vecino

Etcétera, ejemplos sobran. La pregunta es: ¿por qué nos vale madre todo?

Extranjia

En mi experiencia personal (lo que me ha tocado vivir, conocer), creo que en otros países, supuestamente más desarrollados, es similar. A la gente, hasta cierto punto, le sigue valiendo madre. Al menos, en apariencia, o en cuanto a “valores” o ética.

Menciono esto por comentarios específicos que he escuchado de gente, que amarra una bolsa a la correa del perro al sacarlo a pasear, no para limpiar las heces que haga su mascota en el paseo, que a la mejor sí lo hacen, pero no por civismo, sino para evitar una multa.

O a otra persona decir que tiene un carro híbrido, no porque le preocupe la contaminación que emite su vehículo, sino porque ahorra gasolina. El ambiente parece ser una consecuencia buena, pero no su razón principal.

También podemos notarlo en cómo cuando vienen turistas a Mx de “primer mundo”, su comportamiento es, a veces, distinto y más permisivo que en su tierra natal (me viene a la mente los spring breakers en Puerto Vallarta, pisteando en la calle, haciendo exhibicionismo, echando desmadre en general, o rompiendo leyes tan graves como la relacionada con age of consent, etc.).

Entonces ¿por qué sí hacen caso de estas normas en sus homelands? En mi muy limitada opinión y experiencia, creo que la gente actúa gracias a Skinner.

Skinner nos impulsa. No, ¡nos obliga!

Mentira, no es Skinner, él sólo estudió el fenómeno.

De lo que hablo es: actuamos por reflejo, como consecuencia a estímulos. Dejando de divagar: en extranjia (el extranjero), la gente no tira basura en la calle porque los castigan. Las leyes, si en general no son más estrictas (que puede o no ser), se aplican más que en México.

La gente cumple por miedo a una penalización; porque estos castigos son más reales.

Insisto, una vez más: estoy pensando en términos generales, hay gente que sí cumple sus obligaciones cívicas, en México y en otros países, pero es el panorama que percibo y entiendo desde lejos, en mi muy limitada, ignorante y personal opinión.

La teoría de las ventanas rotas

Aún más, recordemos la teoría de las ventanas rotas, que a grandes rasgos dice algo así como, el mitigar las razones por las que un vecindario se “ve mal” (ventanas rotas, graffitti, basura), hará que el índice de criminalidad baje.

Un estudio particular consistía en abandonar un automóvil en dos zonas diferentes: una fresa/nice (Palo Alto, California) y otra zona más peligrosa/chola (The Bronx, New York).

Los resultados fueron obvios: en The Bronx, el carro fué vandalizado inmediatamente, y en Palo Alto perduró varios días. Hasta que, Philip Zimbardo (el psicólogo que conducía el experimento), rompió una ventana del auto de Palo Alto. Entonces el vandalismo comenzó también.

Aquí un extracto del mismo artículo que ligué anteriormente:

Zimbardo arranged for an automobile with no license plates and the hood up to be parked idle in a Bronx neighbourhood and a second automobile in the same condition to be set up in Palo Alto, California. The car in the Bronx was attacked within minutes of its abandonment. Zimbardo noted that the first “vandals” to arrive were a family – a father, mother and a young son – who removed the radiator and battery. Within twenty four hours of its abandonment, everything of value had been stripped from the vehicle. After that, the car’s windows were smashed in, parts torn, upholstery ripped, and children were using the car as a playground. At the same time, the vehicle sitting idle in Palo Alto, California sat untouched for more than a week. Then Zimbardo himself went up to the vehicle and deliberately smashed it with a sledgehammer. Soon after, people joined in for the destruction. Zimbardo observed that majority of the adult “vandals” in both cases were primarily well dressed, clean-cut and respectable whites.

¿Qué quiere decir todo esto?

La oportunidad

No hay oportunidad.

Bueno sí, pero creo que tomará mucho tiempo. Nos faltan décadas de educación.

O castigos. O ambos.

Creo que, sin entrar tampoco en el debate de que “el fin justifica los medios”; ya sea moda hipster, dolor de codo de dar mordida, o simple miedo a un regaño, la gente debemos encontrar la manera de convivir de una manera más ecológica, cívica y armónica.

¿Debemos despedazarnos los unos a los otros para sobrevivir? No sé, ¿es nuestro instinto? ¿el fuerte se come al débil? Todavía a veces, me da por querer creer, desear, un “mejor” futuro para la raza humana.

Y en mi opinión, la educación es la clave para acabar con todos los males.

Al menos, el inicio.

The post Educación cívica appeared first on LozBlog.

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The post Sueño del “Hard Rock” y una Iglesia loca appeared first on LozBlog.

It’s not that I hate soccer. I actually like it.

I do.

I enjoy watching it, real-life playing it, or sometimes (a lil’ bit) video-gaming it. Even talking about it, specially when watching a match… but not so much afterwards. It’s not that I can’t talk about it ever, but… I don’t like it to be the giant, dominant, all-year-round, only topic on my conversations. Least if it’s a heated, fiery, passionate debate that leads to psychological and/or physical violence.

And that’s part of my point here!

It’s not that I would like to abolish the sport itself (or probably others, depending on the scope/reach/outcome of each society/country, it may be basketball or hockey or whatever), there’s nothing wrong with it per se; thing is, however, what it makes people do in the name of it.

What am I talking about? From the top executives of international football associations making funny business, to the behemoth, multi-million-euro business itself, to the crazy fanatic hinchas, to the game/system used as a mean of social control… etcétera.

You get the picture.

On the other hand… will the aggressive fanatics still be aggressive without sports? Probably. Will the corrupt directors still be corrupt without sports? I think so.

So, if the sport itself isn’t to blame here, and I said it before: it’s not, then who?

Well mankind, of course.

Homo homini lupus

We’re doomed to destroy each other.

The post I don’t hate soccer appeared first on LozBlog.

Recuerdo hace varios años, quizá unos diez, ¡o quizá más! (ya estamos, estoy viejo), creo que como quince, de las primeras veces que venía Mago a México, o al menos de las primeras que yo me enteré…

Rumor

Se soltó el rumor de que Mago se había ido a media gira, que porque los mexicanos somos muy feos y que no había condiciones para tocar. Luego escuché el contra-rumor, quizá algunos años después, de que los organizadores les habían prometido algo a Mago que incumplieron: el tamaño del escenario, o cierto nivel de seguridad, o la capacidad del recinto para recibir audiencia, o yo qué sé, y que “el Mago” se inconformó, pero nunca llamó feos a los mexicas.

Entonces, supuestamente, los promotores los metieron en un cuarto y les dijeron:

O tocan en este lugar, o les plantamos droga y se pudren en la cárcel mexica

La verdad, la verdad, nunca supe cuál fué la verdad.

Aunque, notando que Mago regresa con los años, me atrevería a pensar que la segunda versión se asemeja más a la rialidá.

Toquín

Pues resulta que el otro día, vino Mago de Ostia a tocar a Guanatos city (en realidad, estuvieron en Zapopan). Y pues decidí que ya habían pasado demasiadas décadas sin haberlos ido a ver tocar en vivo. Y siendo honesto, hay varias de sus canciones que me gustan mucho. No todas, pero en general su estilo me gusta, y en particular, algunas cuantas canciones sí son de mis “all time faves”.

El concierto fué en el Teatro Estudio Cavaret, y aunque en general quedé satisfecho (con la banda, al menos), no puedo decir que fué mi mejor concierto.

Me saltaré cosas obvias que posiblemente estén publicadas en otro lugar, como set list y demás, y pasaré a los:

Highlights / Review

• llegamos a tiempo, pero no me quisieron dejar pasar con el casco de mi moto, y la actitud de los de seguridad fué horrible, me dieron ganas de no volver a este recinto
• el ingreso era muy lento, comenzó el toquín y mucha gente seguíamos afuera
• los lentes 3d se agotaron (fracaso indescriptible)
• la experiencia 3d en realidad apestó; probé un rato los lentes pero decidí que veía mejor sin ellos
• la primer parte tocaron su último disco: Illusia (la segunda: éxitos varios)
• ví en algún momento que estaban terminando una canción, a Txus diciéndole al Javi que dejara de tocar, para que ya cortaran y se acabara la rola
• en otro momento, Txus se puso a fumar mientras tocaba
• me dí cuenta que, esa extraña voz que de repente hace coros o intervenciones en ciertas rolas (en las canciones grabadas en estudio), era Txus (perdón, no sabía):
• musicalmente, o más bien sonorizadamente hablando, sentí que dejó algo qué desear, aunque no sé si es por mi pobre e inservible oido musical, o fallos acústicos del recinto
• al final del concierto, después del encore y ya que se había retirado Mago, un grupo de personas se puso a cantar el coro de “Hasta que el cuerpo aguante”, y rápidamente contagiaron a todo el recinto

Estamos locos de atar, somos trovadores que en tu ciudad: damos pinceladas de color a tu gris realidad

Obviamente, los problemas al ingresar me molestaron, pero además de eso fué que le perdí la pista como 3 meses a Mago y en ese lapso sacaron como 400 discos nuevos. Entonces no había escuchado Illusia (seh, debí hacerlo, pero no lo hice) hasta ese día.

Sobre que los músicos se pongan a fumar a medio concierto, no lo considero bueno (ni malo), sólo se me hizo curioso. Quizá es una idea preconcebida y basada en generalidades al vapor, y consiste en que los actos grandes tienen un show muy ensayado y “profesional”, por lo que fumar no está “dentro del itinerario”.

Pero… ser “no-profesional” podría tener dos significados (para mí): que les falta seriedad a su trabajo, o que siguen siendo una banda modesta que no se preocupa por estos juicios ni que la gente piense que no son serios, porque al fin y al cabo “mi nombre es rocanrol”.

Segundo vocalista

Al ser fan de la música de Mago y no de la vida personal de sus integrantes, la verdad no ubicaba de vista a ninguno, creo que al anterior vocalista más o menos.

Entonces, de pronto me dí cuenta, cuando el baterista se pasó al micrófono, que ese integrante extraño que yo pensaba era un invitado frecuente en la alineación de Mago para grabar en el estudio, no es más que el mismo Txus.

¡Qué tamaña revelación!

Sí, soy novato y no soy un verdadero fan. Crucifíquenme.

Poesía

Al final, la poesía (tengo entendido que las letras las escribe Txus) en general de las canciones de Mago, no me satisface al 100; a veces (personalmente) se me hace un poco burda o convencional, y no hablo de las canciones más vulgares como “Pijo”, que me gusta y en realidad están diseñadas para eso: ser vulgares, sino en general, cualquier tema… a veces siento que unen frases o palabras sólo porque “suena poético” (hipster) hacer mezclas de palabras que no tienen relación en un sentido literal…

Por ejemplo: “el horizonte se desveló” o “la esperanza por cambio de negocio cerró”. No digo que estén mal, nadie puede decir eso de cualquier forma de arte, es infinitamente subjetivo. Sólo digo que, en mi propio, personal, individual y subjetivo punto de vista: a veces me parece un tanto forzada la letra, unir palabras para que suene bonito pero no sin nada de fondo, just for show en ingléis.

O quizá siempre he estado equivocado y debo escucharlo todo de nuevo con renovada atención.

The post Mago de Oz appeared first on LozBlog.

This is what The Walking Dead series taught me about evil, armies, soldiers, and their blind loyalty to the leader.

Warning: spoiler alert.

Governing

I just finished watching the third season of the popular tv series “The Waking Dead”. I know; a little too late, as the actual fifth season has just aired. I’m catching up.

I want to talk about the blind devotion of hitmen for the character called “the Governor“. How a set of abilities, charisma, assertiveness, perhaps aggressiveness at some point too… have mixed to form a person who hitmen follow without question.

Also: those hitmen have a particular set of mind: 1) not necessarily fully, from head to feet evil, 2) they like the privileges of being “in charge”, even if it’s not on the top of the pyramid (rank); because 3) they themselves couldn’t handle or lack the charisma or other abilities for being the “supreme leader”.

And let’s face it: a little (or a lot) of “stretching the truth”, as he himself called it, was needed from the governor. And that is also a part of my point, which I’ll explain in a few.

Fiction plots

I am considering, as it is obvious from the plot, the group of hitmen in The Walking Dead, an evil one.

For the purpose of the point I want to make, I’ll make a comparison. Let’s say for example: Lord of the Rings. The bad guys, at least most of them look like 100% evil. The ordinary soldier, the private (orcs), they’re not driven by the charisma of their leader, perhaps fear, but they are evil at heart. Ugly and evil, though submissive, too.

That doesn’t seem too credible, right? I know it’s a fantasy story, but I like my fiction with easier to believe plots, more realistic.

Let’s look at another case: Star Wars. In this case, the bad guys are also faceless: we don’t get to know the stories of common troopers (are the clones able to think for themselves? That’s a story for another post); why are they there? do they believe in the empire? do they think they are being “good”, or doing “right by the people”? are they all summed in fear? They don’t look like the orcs, full-evil-jacketed.

I, until yesterday, found that a bit harder to explain, though more believable than the orc story counterpart.

In real life

So in real life, armies are not made of pure evil creatures. Every person must surely have his own causes. Perhaps co-opted by threats, or in economic need, or, the one I am trying to discuss: brain washed by skillful leaders.

Then, if you are the lead of a party, so big that spans a whole nation, lots of resources available, you may find that it may be easy to find great numbers willing to join a cause, for the right price – even if that price is just a concept, belief, idea or mindset.

But indeed the leader must posses, in order for things to be kept under control, charisma, in excess. He must be so eloquent as to be capable of driving the masses towards his goals.

My point

Finally.

My actual point is this: I used to think that a plot in a fiction story is weak if the good guys are 100% good, pure of heart while the bad guys are 100% evil. I actually still do. People in real life have a long range of diverse emotions, very often, if not the whole time, in conflict.

I also used to think that armies of frantic orcs are unrealistic, because how could they all be evil at heart? Born that way, 100% of them. I still think so, even for a fiction plot, it’s hard to buy.

LOL, then what has actually changed?

Now I find it easier to believe, that an army could stand by the side of a leader, so charismatic (and/or liar), that they’d be willing to risk and sacrifice their lives for the cause. Even if that cause is on the “wrong side of history”, as defined by current (as in: when and where you acknowledge it) socially-accepted, politically-correct paradigms.

So I understand better now the soldiers in Star Wars, or the hitmen in The Walking Dead.

Because, that’s what actually happens in real life! Whole nations, at war, each side defending their beliefs, their religion, their territory, their homeland security, their access to oil… Armies made of people, humans, that once set their mind to that fixed position, so drunk in passion and fanaticism that no thing on this universe could ever make them stop and step back to, at least, try to understand a broader approach.

That’s why I think mankind will eventually destroy itself. Even if I don’t really believe that all people are completely evil at heart.

The post Of Armies, Loyalty & Zealots (Maldad Inherente, parte 2) appeared first on LozBlog.

A post from 2008, a time when I was living in the old country (Deutschland) [I also editted it a bit to be a bit more interesting and reveal less personal information]:

Jakob.

He’s a crazy guy.

The kind of friends I like!

He is studying some kind of “beer engineering”. That’s really the best career I’ve ever heard of (even better than “Master in Leisure”). I met him at a friend’s party.

He kept half a night describing me how to drink some kind of strange beer, how to pour it on a special bier glass, and how this little crazy animal insects (yeast) make beer out of sugar.

And half the other night he kept on drinking with me.

The best day of my life.

The post Jakob appeared first on LozBlog.

I talked about it some time ago (almost one and a half years ago!), I recovered a lot of posts from old installations.

Recovered yes, in a crazy xml file that’s no good for anyone.

Anyone, except WordPress importer, of course.

So there they were, my old posts still sitting, waiting, for me to actually republish them around. But! I also remember that, at some point, they were not randomly lost in a quest for the perfect domain, or at least not all, but rather removed on purpose. I chose to hide them because I am not comfortable with the way I was publishing certain information online, or perhaps changed my mind of how I used to think or write back then.

Whatever it was, it was also part of the problem. It still is!

I need to figure out which posts to republish, and which to keep hidden. I think I am still not proud of a few things published those years…

But alas! I will be soon, slowly, perhaps on a post-by-post basis, reintegrating those articles from the wasted years back to their home: LozBlog.

So… understand! Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years!

The post Recovering old posts appeared first on LozBlog.

Notas de un sueño que tuve el 12 de Enero (2015). Después de pasarlo en limpio, empecé a recordar fragmentos.

Tuve la sensación de morir, como si me hubieran disparado varias veces en lugares letales, pero que me permitieron correr unos metros más [?], y al llegar, me alcanzaba una bala que no había salido [creo que me refiero a que la bala no atravesó mi cuerpo totalmente], que [me] rompía algo por dentro y me hacía vomitar.

Parecía que se estaba conteniendo, como si la bala sirviera de “tapón” al mismo tejido que desgarró, para evitar una hemorragia interna, cerca del estómago.

Desperté con una sensación de horror, con ganas de apreciar [más] la vida mientras estoy vivo, de amar a las personas que amo, de vivir feliz cada que pueda, todo el tiempo.

Sentí que la vida se me iba…

Además, según mis notas, desperté con la sensación de que no tengo ninguna habilidad para el verdadero apocalipsis zombie. Sé hacer cosas en la computadora pero, cuando no haya electricidad, ¿qué me mantendrá vivo?

Y entonces añadí a mi carrito de compras de Amazon un libro (hard cover, obviamente) sobre super vivencia (¿o sobre vivencia? ¿Cuál es la diferencia?).

The post Dream about dying appeared first on LozBlog.

I am beginning to feel overwhelmed.

Like that 25th birthday [missing post!], where I thought I alone would conquer the whole world (“and all the world’s monsters“), and was drowning in a glass of watter, because certainly, the world wasn’t mine (yet).

I’m starting to fear, not just for the unfinished projects (that I’ve been working on), but for the unborn too… the ones that came to mind as a seed, but never flourished beyond a thought or digital note…

Guess it has to do with my life’s current stress.

I need to vent it out.

And make more time to get things done.

The post Stress appeared first on LozBlog.

Zurcando el pavimento a las tres de la mañana, en mi pequeña gran Suzuki (150), me percaté de algo raro: las calles vacías.

Es raro, para ser viernes. Normalmente a esa hora hay un sin fin de borrachos atiborrando bares, antros, licorerías y otros establecimientos nocturnos.

Además de los otros tantos en sendos automotores conduciendo temerariamente por la ciudad.

Y ella, nuestra enorme ranchería, se sintió extrañamente tranquila, para ser noche de viernes. ¿Quizá porque no es quincena?

Como sea, me sentí en la víspera de un apocalipsis zombie.

The post Madrugada Zombie appeared first on LozBlog.

Today I made some cool updates to Lzb Flt theme, the current one (as of February 2015). By the way, I just noticed it’s been live since November 2013, almost one and a half years ago.

Years goes by! (Never know when it’s too late)

Anyway, what I’m excited about are the theme options I added in functions.php, for customizing stuff like the number of years displayed on the prefooter section (archives), or copyright text, or the quick intro from the front page.

It’s not like I can’t hard code it on the theme files themselves, which is actually easier and quicker, but since I’d like to release this theme for public use, it really goes a long way to add these settings to edit right on the theme options, inside the WP admin (so there’s no need to write or modify html or php code).

Couple of helpful resources I used:

• WP Theme Customizer (Smashing Magazine)
• WP Theme Customizer (A Comprehensive Developer’s Guide)

None of these updates are really visible to the public, my dear, non-developer readers; they are WordPress options for the WordPress template inside the WordPress administration panel…

I’ll  may talk more about it on Lozbo Net TecnoBato.

Some day.

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The post Por los sueños appeared first on LozBlog.

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The post ¿Mejorando la escritura? appeared first on LozBlog.

El otro día que iba por ahí, zappeando en amazon, cuando de pronto ¡bam!, que me compro un libro.

Y no era cualquier tipo de libro, era un libro antiguo. Osea, de los que se hacían en el milenio pasado. Tecnología vieja, caduca, obsoleta. Una reliquia.

Hablo del tipo de libros de los que se imprimían antes, en tiempos de mi tátara tátara abuela (qepd), en hojas de papel.

¿Por qué habría de hacer semejante atrocidad retrógrada? ¿Por qué recurrir a este tipo de tecnología decadente y decrépita en lugar de hacer uso de la maravilla y gloria del ebook?

Por el tipo y/o naturaleza de la lectura en sí, obviamente.

Y ¿qué es? Un libro de supervivencia, claro está. Del tipo que tiene consejos de cómo encender fuego debajo del mar, o cómo construir un castillo de arena en algún polo. Bueno, exagero, no sé si vengan esos consejos en particular, espero que sí. Cómo hacer una fogata en el bosque, qué tipos de plantas comer, dónde buscar animales, etc.

¿”¿Y qué tiene que ver?”, pregunta usted, abrumado lector? Déjeme decirle que no tiene nada que ver con la aberración literaria que acabo de hacer, anidando signos de interrogación. Ello, el anidar interrogaciones, de alguna extraña y retorcida manera me causa una satisfacción, pues se siente matemáticamente correcto (note usted que existen comillas agrupando el segundo bloque de interrogaciones para indicar otra voz).

En fin, la razón, sino la ha adivinado aún, mi joven padawan, es porque cuando el verdadero apocalipsis zombie llegue (porque va a llegar (llegará), eso es seguro), no tendremos certeza sobre la electricidad. Las fuentes de energía para recargar ipods, tetris y tamagochis no serán ubicuas; en el mejor de los casos serán escasas, y no tendremos garantía de que en algún momento se restablezcan.

Por dicha razón, cargar con un libro old school con la información necesaria para sobrevivir, tiene más sentido que tener un millón de ellos en la memoria de un celular que se ha quedado sin batería.

De nada por salvarles la vida.

Y la de su grupo de supervivientes.

Buena suerte y nos vemos en el punto de seguridad, en el centro de control de enfermedades biológicas.

The post Compré un libro físico appeared first on LozBlog.

Era una mezcla de sueño en primera persona (osea, yo viviéndolo) y contemplación de una película (osea, yo viendo a la gente actuar). No sé en qué momento se cambiaron los roles, de espectador a protagonista o viceversa, o si sucedía constantemente.

Como siempre, algunos detalles se han perdido. Lo que recuerdo es que al parecer, la humanidad (o lo que quedaba de ella), vivía en estaciones gigantes, estilo la película “La Isla” (creo que así se llama), que, en mi sueño, estaban en la luna. Al menos recuerdo que yo (o el protagonista) y más gente estábamos en una, en realidad no sé si había más.

La población total de estas “cápsulas” (no sé por qué les puse ese nombre) debió haber sido ser pequeño, ¿quizá unos 5 mil, máximo? Y había de todo dentro, para llevar una vida “normal”. La gente común no estaba enterada de la “farsa”; más que nada, les habían ocultado la información de que la vida en la tierra se había acabado y por eso vivían en cápsulas selenes. O algo.

Fuera de estas cápsulas y a pesar de estar en la luna (supuestamente sin oxígeno), había gente también, los exiliados o quizá rebeldes vagabundos, que no tenían cabida en las cápsulas y una de dos: o querían entrar a vivir la vida loca, o querían acabar con el engaño en el que vivía el ganado. O quizá estaban tratando de escapar de esos molestos cangrejos gigantes estilo Furia de titanes (Clash of titans) con quienes compartían la superficie lunar. Incluso en el sueño, estos cangrejos estaban mal animados y todo. La gente dentro de la cápsula no sabía lo que ocurría fuera de ella.

Entonces de repente yo (y/o el protagonista) empezaba a sospechar. Hasta este entonces todo era “normal”, la gente hacía su rutina, había creo que en general, de todo para todos. Obviamente con las limitaciones que tiene toda sociedad sometida a una rutina pseudo distópica post apocalíptica en una pequeña base lunar (es de sobra sabido que abundan), pero al parecer todos estaban conformes en sus pequeñas y patéticas vidas.

Pero yo no, ¡oh no! Lejos de conformarme con esa mediocridad, quería averiguar lo que sucedía. Había algo extraño dentro de esta estación, en la que el techo estaba a una altura demasiado baja (ya había soñado algo un poco similar, al menos parecido en la infraestructura un poco “limitada”), y donde no se podía mirar al exterior. No recuerdo qué mentira nos hacían creer, pero simplemente algo pasaba que me hacía rebelarme.

Al final, creo que sólo un guardia estaba tratando de redirigirme al montón, sin demasiado esfuerzo ni violencia física. Ahora que lo pienso/recuerdo, ese montón formado, se sentía como si fuera una hilera de personas entrando al área de convivencia y/o trabajo, a través de un amplio salón que los conducía desde sus “celdas” o cuartos.

Después de alejarme indisciplinadamente de esa fila y dirigirme a una esquina, el guardia siguiéndome, noté que al final del salón, quizá un par de kilómetros hacia el este (en realidad no tengo fundamentos para proporcionar direcciones de orientación geográfica correctas, sólo se sentía como si fuera el este) justo como el horizonte de The Truman Show, simplemente terminaba en una cortina, que no estaba fija ni asegurada de ninguna manera, se podía abrir a voluntad y asomar detrás, sin que nadie me lo impidiera.

Fué ahí donde, a través de grandes ventanales, pude observar el conflicto exterior, outcasts combatiendo cangrejos lunares, con lanzas, cual aborígenes primitivos, y sin ningún tipo de protección o tanque de oxígeno. Weird.

Entonces el guardia me decía algo así como “¿Ves? No pueden saber lo que hay afuera, aquí estamos mejor”, palabras más, palabras menos. Obviamente, yo escandalizado (en este momento creo que ya no había alternancia entre protagonista tercero y protagonista en primera persona, osea que ya era yo todo el tiempo), pretendí hacer revolución y romper las cadenas de la ignorancia global a la que estábamos sometidos.

Pero desperté.

Y al despertar, la sensación fué de “conspiración”; maligno gran hermano del demonio controlando a lo que resta de la humanidad como ganado. Sin embargo, ahora que lo pienso, creo que no era tan malo.

Fuera del “no clarificar lo que realmente sucedía”, que técnicamente no era una mentira descarada, sino “dosificación de información sensible”, creo que todo estaba bien. Viviendo ignorantemente felices, en términos generales.

Y claro está, el asunto de los animalejos de fuera, junto con más personas que sólo querían una taza de chocolate caliente junto a la chimenea, escuchando cuentos de mitología griega de la abuela.

Aunque pensándolo bien, ¿qué tal que esas personas eran marcianas? Después de todo, ¿qué persona puede vivir en el frío e inoxigenado vacío del espacio? A la mejor los cangrejos eran nuestros amiwos y nos estaban protegiendo de la plaga invasora.

Who knows?

Quizá escriba un cuento basado en este sueño.

The post Sueño de cápsula selenita appeared first on LozBlog.

What is democracy?

I don’t know, son. It seems to have something to do with young men having to go out and kill each other.

I have a draft (for this post, the one you’re reading now) since October 2014. One of the thoughts I had and wrote in that early version is:

democracy will exist when there are no more wars

Now that I consider it a bit more, I don’t know if that is an accurate assertion, but the idea behind it is: lots of people and world leaders think we are in the future, so modern, so much progress has been made. And yet, today, there is so much injustice, murders, violence, crime…

Will there ever be an end? Will mankind stop slaughtering each other at some point?

I posted some time ago an idea: if we are truly descendants of animals, and we have kept some basic instincts, it is then in our nature to keep eating our own kin alive.

I want to believe that at some point things will be fairer, people happier, and the world better… but truth is I highly doubt so.

What I actually think is that humanity is doomed to self destruction.

=(

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Verborrea. – f. Palabrería excesiva.

El otro día estaba leyendo un artículo sobre no se qué. El tema no es lo importante, sino la longitud del texto. La idea central se repetía una y otra vez, con palabrería bonita, rebuscada y oscura.

¿Necesaria?

Me hizo preguntarme: ¿es necesaria tanta verborrea? Pensé en los últimos textos largos que he leído, artículos, blog posts, ensayos… en los que pude recordar, la historia es la misma: exceso de palabras para fundamentar la misma idea.

En esta era en la que estamos saturados de información, yo respondería (a la pregunta anterior) que no.

Encabezados y palabras clave

Me vino a la mente otra vez el día de hoy, particularmente por este artículo (muy interesante por cierto) sobre la muerte del proyecto de Google Fonts, en el que, habiendo hecho un espacio de tiempo para leerlo con detenimiento, sin prisa, comencé a saltarme pedazos. Buscando encabezados. Comprendiendo la idea central sin leer todo el tren de pensamiento, o concluyendo/deduciendo lo mismo con sólo las palabras clave principales.

Creo que eso es la clave: buscar y destruir.

Casos

Por otro lado, tampoco creo que esté de más describir a detalle algo. Debe haber alguien a quien le sirva. En este caso y en mi humilde y retorcida opinión, creo que es preferible que sobre información, a que falte. Si la información sobra, pues la descartas, pero si falta, ¿de dónde la sacas? ¿contactar al autor? ¿tenemos su correo/teléfono/twitter? ¿y si no contesta? ¿y si ya murió? etc.

También existe al menos otro caso en particular cuando creo que sí es necesaria la extensión. En realidad, nunca he estado en contra de que un artículo sea largo, no es la extensión en sí, sino el contenido, en caso de ser repetitivo. Pero en caso de aportar nuevas ideas (por ejemplo, un tutorial o guía paso a paso), un texto podría extenderse todo lo necesario.

Y como decía, quizá la solución “perfecta” no sea limitar al autor (aunque también puede aplicar), sino al lector.

Selección

¿Cómo limitamos al lector? Pues eso sería ya cada quién, pero principalmente: los lectores debemos aprender a identificar bloques, saltarnos la información innecesaria (o que ya hemos asimilado) y “escanear” el texto, deteniéndonos en los lugares que necesiten una lectura más detallada.

Esto debe ser noticia antigua para los viejos lobos de mar, que están acostumbrados a leer mucho, o pienso específicamente los quese dedican a la investigación académica, pero a alguien que apenas anda aprendiendo a ezkrivir, como yo, esto le puede ser de utilidad.

También creo que, en donde sea posible, el autor debería proveer un resumen, abstract, sumario, extracto o como se llame, del texto, con las ideas centrales expuestas lo más claro y directo posible. No siempre será posible o valdrá la pena (dependiendo del trabajo y su extensión), pero como digo: donde se pueda y aplique.

Mal ejemplo

Un mal ejemplo de verborrea innecesaria: esta entrada. ¿A quién le importa todo esto?

De todos modos nadie lee LozBlog.

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¿Qué son esos mentados borradores de los que tanto hablo a veces?

Pues eso: pedazos de entradas (posts, entries, artículos, etc.) que no he terminado. Algunos son una simple idea de algo sobre lo que quiero escribir/desarrollar eventualmente.

Usualmente para que no se me olvide, creo una entrada nueva (aquí en WordPress), trato de asignarle un título (lo más cercano a la versión final), y agrego una breve descripción, lo más básico, con faltas de ortografía o mal redactados, sólo para que no se me olvide.

Por ejemplo, tengo esto en otro borrador:

A diario leemos noticias de violencia, corrupción y putrefacción. De qué sirve?

Dicho borrador titulé apropiadamente “Noticias”.

Al día de hoy tengo 80. Incluso pienso que hay algunas que nunca publicaré. Cosas que escribí incluso hace años, y dejé guardadas “para después”. Y ese después nunca llegó.

Pero bueno, era sólo por si tenían la duda.

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Otro borrador que nunca publiqué:

En Saltillo (en realidad: Ramos Arizpe) sí hay aeropuerto, pero está administrado por nuestro fabuloso gobierno. Tengo entendido que es el único caso en el país, aunque no estoy totalmente seguro; en los demás casos, los aeropuertos son operados por empresas privadas.

El caso es que ya no recuerdo qué iba a decir al respecto, salvo que escuché una anécdota sobre un conocido que fué a recoger a otra persona y el aeropuerto estaba cerrado. No sé ni recuerdo más detalles, pero le creo a la persona que me lo contó.

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The attack of the drafts folder! I had this draft saved since mmh, I don’t know when, I don’t have a relative date on it anymore, but probably more than a year ago! I know because I mention my desire to study music, and I did so during last year!

Anyway, here it goes:

Do I need to be away from home to get inspired?

Certainly not, yet the fact is that being afar helps. I used to write poetry, short tales and other stuff, seems like ages ago. As time goes by and I start getting busier with job projects, I use the spare time for other kind of leisure activities. Which is not wrong but I want to re-drive my brains to the mystical realm I used to go so often…

I remember that sometimes, while I was on a trip, I would just sit and start writing. Poetry mostly.  I think… most of my poems, I wrote during these periods of time… yet on recent travels I have not felt that kind of vibe.

There are other factors I’m sure, let me think about them. (I may write a follow up).

Some kind of mental tranquility is also needed, which I lacked in recent times. I need to relax a bit more. Not that I’m the stressed off kind of guy but still, get more peace.

I want to pick up music and my guitar again. I never really picked it up. You do need to have some talent, yet I don’t care if I don’t, I want to overcome my lack of musical ear.

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Estoy estudiando un diplomado en producción audio visual.

Ya había tenido experiencias amateurs haciendo videitos o animaciones u otras cosas multimedia, incluso otros estudios similares en años pasados, pero ésta es la primera vez que me involucro (nos involucramos, todo el grupo), en una producción, digamos más en forma, más “pro”.

Es decir, en una producción tan… “grande”.

…

No sé cómo describirlo, es una producción pequeña incubada en un proyecto estudiantil, sin embargo: cada quién en su respectivo rol, trabajando todos para el bien común, abarcando “tantas” áreas distintas y necesarias (dirección, producción, fotografía, arte, sonido, etc)… es muy emocionante para mí.

No sólo estoy aprendiendo a producir un proyecto de este tipo, sino que el ver cuánta gente necesita estar involucrada, presente y/o trabajando para una pequeña toma que durará sólo unos segundos en el corte final, me ha hecho cuestionarme sobre la manera en la que otros proyectos son filmados; es decir, también estoy aprendiendo a apreciar.

Insisto: muy emocionante.

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Recientemente leí algo sobre que la ONU anunció una investigación sobre la violación de derechos humanos y crímenes de guerra en el conflicto entre Palestina e Israel (como si no existieran tantas denuncias y periodistas y testimonios del infierno que se desató en aquella región).

Crímenes de Guerra

¿Qué es un crimen de guerra? o ¿qué es un crimen? Por lo que yo entiendo, la guerra en sí ya es un crimen. Qué extraño hablar de crímenes de guerra cuando la guerra ya es un horror, una injusticia, un infierno. ¿Qué tenemos las personas en la cabeza?

Es en momentos como éste en los que pienso que no tenemos futuro.

Nosotros.

La raza humana.

Porque en realidad, por dentro, no es tanto que estemos llenos de maldad, al menos no en general (quiero creer yo), pero sí tenemos un instinto no sólo de sobrevivir, sino de vivir mejor que los demás, de querer ser causa de envidias, de presumir que somos mejor que el resto, que tenemos dinero, influencia, poder… y a veces, esto significa aplastar a quien haya que aplastar.

=(

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Privacy

Though Facebook is (supposed to be at least) more (or less?) of a closed environment (versus open websites such as blogs), ie: you need to login to view other people’s profiles and you can “choose”* how much personal data is “public”*, it kinda jettisoned the concern for privacy online, despite it existing way before.

Blogs

For example, another major milestone for the digital privacy issues took place with the advent of weblogs. According to my own memories and experiences, what I could consider the boom of personal blogs was around 2004/2005, more or less. I myself created this blog in 2006. Everybody and their dog had/wanted a blog.

So… what?

But enough about that; what am I talking about? I was thinking the other day… I have a really bad memory. There are things that I want to remember, and this LozBlog was created, in part, for that: to have an archive of my memories.

But how much do I post/make public? I don’t have a private diary. I have tried several times but in the end, the only thing where I kept writing on was this website. And I don’t write about personal (as in private) stuff. At least not openly; when I do so I tend to encrypt it as much as possible. By encrypting, I mean in the “writing sense”; I don’t use special technology or anything, just tend to go around and don’t provide details within the text, but only things that I can understand.

I don’t like to talk (openly at least) about important, sensitive, deep, or otherwise private information online, because, you know… you don’t know who’s reading.

So? Private writing?

So in the end what good is a journal-for-remembering-stuff for if I don’t use it properly?

And who is there to tell me what is a proper or improper use of my website? And why should I listen to them? Nobody, of course, but my own mind.

Probably I still won’t write about private things and post them online but, perhaps I can re-create that private Blog I had installed somewhere? Even there, a password-protected-but-still-online blog, I tried to encrypt my messages (by not being so direct or open).

What if I make an offline blog? With a local installation of WP? What I don’t like about this option is that I would have to migrate/update it every time I change/reset the computer, and it won’t be ubiquitous (meaning: I may (well, there are obviously choices but come on) only update it when I’m in that computer; no online access).

Sí, no sé, lo pensaré.

* I know. Not totally a choice.

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Otro sueño de Diciembre de 2013. Notas ordenadas:

Playa en carro con los compas, se bajaban al banco y yo tomaba el carro [supongo para manejarlo], y ahí nos encontrábamos a un compa que estaba dando una fiesta (de él o de un conocido suyo) en un castillo enorme… [¡en este punto empezaron a llegar los flashbacks del sueño!].

Entramos y nos maravillábamos de todo lo que había. Yo había dejado mi cámara en el carro, que era un vocho con la palanca de velocidades salida [no sé qué significa eso], supongo que regresé por ella o no sé por qué tengo esa nota. Creo que más bien la dejé para que no se me fuera a perder. Había un set para tomarse fotos medievales y por alguna razón, de pronto, estábamos en Reino Unido. Por fin encontrábamos el caminito para llegar a la fiesta en sí porque al parecer todo esto era sólo juegos preliminares o algo así, el recinto era enorme. Al llegar al lugar, desperté…

Como que recuerdo que había muchas cosas y yo estaba medio estresado porque mis compas (vaya compas) me habían dejado en lo que yo estacionaba el carro, y como el lugar estaba enorme, estábamos en otro país, no traíamos teléfonos y ellos no sabían dónde había dejado el carro, pues como decimos los franceses: estaba cabrón.

Se veía que iba a ser un fiestón de aquellos, el lugar era enorme y había muchas cosas por hacer, dentro y fuera del castillo. No recuerdo pero creo que también había barra libre, y varios puestecitos de amenidades, ya no recuerdo qué. A la mejor me equivoqué de sueño, pero también recuerdo que al llegar se veía tranquilo, en una calle cualquiera, es decir, dentro de lo normal que puede ser una calle que tiene un castillo, porque era como una zona de propiedades grandes o no sé, en ese momento no se veía (o sentía) particularmente extravagante, hasta que entraba en él.

También creo que el dueño, un jeque o zar o duque o príncipe o algo importante de la fauna doméstica británica, era conocido de alguno de mis amigos, que lo estaban buscando. Creo que estuve vagando por algunos salones, o el pasillo principal (enorme también), buscando la fiesta…

Y luego, no sé por qué en este mismo borrador, tengo la siguiente línea, dudo mucho que sea del mismo sueño pero no estoy seguro; tengo recuerdos confusos y borrosos:

The girl of my dreams: I fall in love with her, playing outside [of the castle whose owner was?] a grumpy guy whose daughter and I fell in love with each other…

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Hace mucho (2007) Nightwish sacó lo que sería su primer disco con Anette Olzon, la cantante que reemplazaba a la controvertida Tarja, recién corrida del grupo con una carta abierta. Al leer las letras me quedé pensando sobre su significado.

“Bye Bye Beautiful”

Finally the hills are without eyes,
They are tired of painting a dead man’s face
red with their own blood

They used to love having so much to lose
Blink your eyes just once and see everything in ruins

[Chorus:]
Did you ever hear what I told you?
Did you ever read what I wrote you?
Did you ever listen to what we played?
Did you ever let in what the world said?
Did we get this far just to feel your hate?
Did we play to become only pawns in the game?
How blind can you be, don’t you see?
You chose the long road, but we’ll be waiting

Bye bye, beautiful

Jacob`s ghost for the girl in white
Blindfold for the blind
Dead Siblings walking the dying Earth

Noose around a choking heart
Eternity torn apart
Slow toll now the funeral bells

“I need to die to feel alive”

[Chorus]

Bye bye, beautiful

It’s not the tree that forsakes the flower
But the flower that forsakes the tree
Someday I`ll learn to love these scars
Still fresh from the red-hot blade of your words

How blind can you be, don’t you see?
That the gambler lost all he does not have…

[Chorus]

Bye bye, beautiful

Mi opinión

Y ya todos conocemos (bueno, no) la historia de amor fallida de Tuomas (el vocal y compositor) por Tarja. Y bueno, al correrla del grupo, entendemos claramente el “Bye, bye, beautiful”, me parece un tanto a manera de sarcasmo, pues podría ser otra cosa, pero ¿beautiful? ¿por qué no “girl” o “singer” o, no sé?

Entonces la pregunta es: ¿qué significa “you chose the long road, but we’ll be waiting”? ¿acaso, después de todo, Tuomas sigue esperando que en un futuro se reencuentren? O bien… ¿qué clase de reencuentro sería? ¿es más bien un indicio de reconciliación grupal, más que de amor de Tuomas?

Fué una pequeña mención, pero imagino que aunque sea pequeña, podemos leer entre líneas y suponer cosas. Había también una carta que escribió el esposo de Tarja, que no recuerdo dónde está publicada, pero valdrá la pena buscarla.

The post Bye, bye, Beautiful appeared first on LozBlog.

I’ve been hacked again. I mean I was, at the beginning of July. Fixed that now.

What I really think that happened is that I never fully cleared the offending files/users/things last time, so evil spirits lingered in the dark. I even found a crazy admin user on my WP, which of course, I never created. Now:

I have a constant fear that something’s always there

I don’t really know what happened, I thought I took good care of security. I suspect it came from an old, not updated, insecure install on a domain I am hosting for a friend (never more, like Edgar’s Crow (or Raven (I know))).

The crazy thing about it is that it is in another domain, how is it possible that, through one install, these crackers can gain access to the whole of the user’s folder and hack other domains? Or is it even multi-user? I understand that if someone gains access to my ftp user, they can edit everything under that user, all my folders, but through wordpress -without ftp? How can they do it? Or did they get access to my ftp credentials too? How?

More security measures are in place now, I just wish we were all friends and not hack one another though =(.

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Un par de quejas.

Telefonía móvil

Me estoy cambiando de compañía telefónica (un número más) ante la atractiva promoción de la competencia. Para completar este proceso, una clave es enviada al teléfono que se desea portar, para otorgársela a la nueva compañía. Por ejemplo: estoy en la compañía T, y me quiero cambiar a la compañía M. M, después de una entrevista y petición de datos personales, de contacto y demás, envía una clave de cuatro dígitos al teléfono, para confirmar que sí es mi número el que estoy reportando.

Hasta aquí todo bien, lo interesante viene cuando la compañía T, me envía un mensaje engañoso, de la siguiente manera:

Si un desconocido te solicita alguna clave que llega a tu celular, alerta! Sugerimos no darla pueden cambiarte de operador y perder tu servicio […] (sic)

¡Si es exactamente lo que quiero hacer! Dejar esta compañía…

Dije engañoso, porque una persona “no techie” o que no sepa muy bien de estas cosas, podría dudar, no entender bien, estresarse y hacerle caso al mensaje (no brindar la clave), y detener su proceso de portabilidad.

¿Por qué recurrir a engaños o información poco clara? ¿Por qué no competir con un producto/servicio de calidad y buena atención al cliente en lugar de estos trucos para retener clientes?

Internet casero

Ya es la tercera vez que el internet en casa falla. Pensé que no era común que esto sucediera, ya que no me había pasado tantas veces, pero ya siendo la tercera en lo que llevo del contrato (forzoso, de un año), puedo decir que ya es común.

No tendría tanto problema, es decir, entiendo que estos glitches son provocados a veces por accidentes como la caída de un árbol sobre los cables o (lo que se supone sucedió en mi caso) un camión jalándolos o algún evento fuera del control de la compañía.

Bueno, no debería suceder esto si la instalación la hacen adecuadamente, pero digamos que los accidentes pasan. Lo que no está bien es que, después de reportar el fallo, sea necesario llamar todos los días para que después de una semana hagan caso al reporte y manden los técnicos, que en mi caso, la primera vez que acudieron lo resolvieron mal y supuestamente por eso volvió a suceder que se desconectó el cable o algo así.

En este momento me encuentro en una llamada de 20 minutos (y contando), habiendo reportado el fallo hace tres días. Pedí que me comunicaran con el supervisor, pero después de timbrar como cinco minutos, me contestó otra persona que no tenía idea de lo que le hablaba.

Creo que voy a cambiar de servicio, una vez más, a ver cuánto me queda.

Por cierto, después de 30 minutos, logro hablar con atención a cliente (no el supervisor), quien me pide otra vez los datos que ya me pidió la grabación y todos los asesores anteriores.

The post Rants about communication services appeared first on LozBlog.

Me desperté de madrugada. Había algo chido en el sueño que tuve, una idea para un cuento o alguna otra cosa.

Bueno, al menos creo que era algo chido. Eso espero.

Debí tomar notas, pensé que con seguridad lo recordaría al levantarme, y por supuesto, no fué así.

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Otro sueño. Aunque es de Enero (de 2014), lo recuerdo un poco mejor. Notas:

Había un personaje que tenía una playa que iban a usar para un… algo filantrópico, pero a la hora de la hora, esa playa tenía un convenio con una empresa, o había otro dueño o algo así y había un contrato, y en una de sus cláusulas se restringía el uso o acceso a ella para poder explotarla comercialmente. Y algo sucedía en esa región, no sé si era temporal o siempre había sido así… el caso es que había una “fiebre de peces truchas” (así lo anoté), y venía mucha gente de todo el mundo a pescar.

Había un hotelito en la playa, muy sencillo y rústico, cuartitos hechos de madera. Ni siquiera era un hotel creo, sólo construcciones de cuartitos pegados unos junto a otros a lo largo de la playa. Las instalaciones no eran las mejores del mundo, pero estaba todo lleno. El mar rebozaba de barquitas pequeñas, o canoas o algo, pescando.

El contrato decía que si el hotel mantenía a diez huéspedes, se puede pescar, si no, la playa regresa a la filantropía. Los que hicieron el contrato sabían que con la demanda que había, siempre habría más de diez huéspedes, pero los filántropos planeaban hacer algo para ahuyentar a la raza y recuperar la playa. Creo que yo también estaba ahí, ayudando a los buenos.

Pero algo sucedía antes, algo pasaba en el mar, había una marea loca que enfermaba o mataba a la gente que la tocara, entonces nadie quería estar ahí. No recuerdo si también mataba a los peces, o más bien no mataba a la gente sino a los peces, y si no hay peces, no hay pesca.

El caso es que algo sucedía con el agua, la gente se iba, y así se recuperaba el lugar.

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Ayer jugó la selección de Brasil contra la de Alemania, en la copa mundial Brasil 2014. Alemania le metió 7 goles al anfitrión, y éste sólo 1. Interesante partido.

No soy un fanático del futbol, es decir, sí me gusta, lo he jugado, lo he visto, he ido y de vez en cuando voy al estadio a ver a los liones, que recientemente ascendieron a la liga MX o primera división o ya no sé cómo se llame ahora este instrumento de control de masas. Pero a lo que voy es, a pesar de que lo disfruto, no me quita el sueño.

Por eso me parece extraño cómo un “simple” partido de futbol provoca sentimientos tan fuertes en tanta gente. Personas enfermas provocaron disturbios en Brasil, porque su selección perdió un partido. A la mejor esa gente sólo busca un pretexto, y si no hubiera sido un partido, habría sido otra cosa, sin embargo, sí creo que este “juego” afectó profundamente a más de un puñado.

¿Qué tenemos en la cabeza (nosotros los humanos)?

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El otro día pensaba sobre las grabaciones de bandas musicales en directo (canciones/discos en vivo). Siempre he tenido una pequeña aversión a estos, aunque podría enumerar dos razones por las cuales sí consumiría este tipo de música (me refiero a comprar discos en vivo, no a ir a conciertos).

Primero: porque representa algo especial para mí en particular, por ejemplo, porque asistí a ese concierto en persona.

Segundo: porque tiene alguna característica especial que no encuentras todos los días en un disco en vivo. Por ejemplo, cuando Dream Theater interpretó en un concierto el disco completo de Number of the Beast, y Master of Puppets, en el orden exacto del producto original, o por ejemplo el S&M de Metallica con la sinfónica de San Francisco, o porque tienen algún invitado especial, porque tocaron un cover o rola del cual no hay versión de estudio, o alguna otra cosa similar.

¿Por qué otra razón querría escuchar una versión defectuosa de un disco o una canción, especialmente si tengo alternativamente la versión de estudio? No digo que un artista no pueda tocar adecuadamente en vivo (especialmente bandas como Dream Theater), pero en lo personal, no considero que el ruido de la audiencia, o ecos indeseados, o errores en la interpretación de algún instrumento aporten a la experiencia musical. A menos, como ya mencioné, que esta(s) característica(s) represente(n) por sí misma(s) algún tipo de mito o sea la razón principal para escuchar esa rola/álbum.

Esto obviamente es diferente para un video, es más fácil asimilar la versión en vivo (con sus “defectos”, que muchas veces son a propósito) si tengo imágenes que la acompañan, más aún si tienen una producción especial para la versión en vivo.

Como sea.

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Tantas cosas, tan poco tiempo. Un día estratósfera, otro día nocheósfera.

El día de hoy, pudiera decir que el viaje es alto, aunque han habido abismos. ¿Quizá por eso se siente más alto? O al revés: ¿no se siente tan alto por los riscos pasados, aún latentes?

Los dioses envían señales, al parecer propicias. La verdad es que son señales rastreadas, sondeos independientes de dioses.

Como decía: el día de hoy (de momento), el viaje parece alto; ¿pero cómo será mañana?

Miedo, miedo de caerme…

La parte dos debería ser como la diez. X.

La inquisición continuará; exprimiré a los dioses.

The post Dos Equis, parte II appeared first on LozBlog.

Cuando el peso de la situación se vuelve insoportable, ¿qué hacer?

Memento el valor, luchar porque vale la pena.

Memento la parcialidad pasional desequilibrada. Hacer ajustes. O intentarlo al menos.

Memento que el tiempo influye en la experiencia, y las dos equis se despliegan impasibles, imperturbables. Siempre lo he sabido.

Ridi, pagliaccio.

La parte uno debería ser la dos, o tres. No me refiero a las entradas publicadas después (esta primer parte se publicó mucho antes que las anteriores, ni siquiera estaba seguro que habría más…) sino a que no he escrito a detalle todos los episodios que hubieran podido integrar en cada momento relevante la parte 1.

The post Dos Equis, parte I appeared first on LozBlog.

Esta semana estuve sin Internet. ¡Oh, glorioso Internet!

Bueno, no totalmente, ya que aún tenía 2g y 3g en mis smartphones con Android, pero no es lo mismo. No poder navegar en un dispositivo con una pantalla grande (además de conexión con velocidad decente) fué… frustrante. Nunca había tenido problemas con mi proveedor, o al menos nada grave o que no se solucionara en ese mismo rato (con excepción de la instalación, que sí fué un poco tardada), pero esta vez se pasaron. Pasaron los días y mis llamadas eran ignoradas, de nada me servía reportar la falla una y otra vez.

Pensé seriamente en cambiar de compañía (de nuevo), pero tengo un contrato por un año, del cual apenas llevo como la mitad, o menos. Además, no sé si encuentre una compañía que dé realmente buen servicio y atención al cliente, ya pasé por dos de las alternativas más populares.

Sin embargo y a pesar de mis quejas, descubrí algo bastante interesante aunque predecible: qué productiva semana fué.

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Justo escribí la entrada de “envejeciendo“, y al siguiente día: infección en el estómago.

Una semana después: infección en la garganta.

¿Qué me está pasando, que necesito más vitaminas y minerales?

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Soñé que estaba en los atentados del once de Septiembre, en Nueva York.

No recuerdo qué sucedía antes pero ahí estaba yo hasta abajo, en el “lobby” o algo así. Había mucha gente y a algunos de los que trataban de escapar les caían pedazos de edificio encima y como no podíamos ver hacia arriba si venía algo, no nos animábamos a salir.

De repente decidía irme corriendo, porque nos estaba llevando la hostia a todos ahí y tenía que intentarlo, era esperar a que se derrumbara el edificio encima, o arriesgarme a salir. Decidía arriesgarme, y ya que salía me quedaba para echar aguas a la gente para que se animara. Creo que había policías ahí también y veíamos a lo alto que venía cayendo una estatua enorme (o no sé qué cosa) directo hacia el lobby. Les hacíamos señas como locos para que escaparan. Urgíamos que salieran pero en la confusión sólo escapaban muy pocas personas, a las demás les caía esa madre encima.

Yo lloraba como bebé, de ver a toda la gente muerta o atrapada.

Luego me encontraba a mi mamá, a un amigo y su hermana, quien casualmente vive hoy en NY.

The post Sueño 911 appeared first on LozBlog.

El otro día en una reunión en mi casa alguien preguntó que si de casualidad tenía omeprazol.

¡De hecho sí! Ahorita te traigo…

Respondí.

Luego me dí cuenta de todas esas palabras que no me gustaría conocer. Palabras como omeprazol o ibuprofeno.

Nombres de medicinas.

Y entonces fué obvio: estoy envejeciendo.

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Los altibajos de un emprendimiento arrojado.
La excitación de los momentos placenteros.
La depresión de las circunstancias trágicas.
La intranquilidad de las ocasiones de incertidumbre.
El entretenimiento de la experiencia integral.

“Cosas locas”, para añadir al currículum.

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El otro día estaba valiendo madre por ahí, no recuerdo qué haciendo, salvando focas en Alaska o peleando contra la madre rusia para defender el círculo polar ártico, y de pronto me llegó una epifanía: somos (nosotros, todos, la humanidad) una terrible y sencilla forma de vida animalezca, ceñida sí (quizá) de ética, moral, bondad y buenas costumbres, pero también de maldad, malevolencia y maleficios malos, malignos y maltrechos.

Si es correcta la diabólica teoría darwinezca de que la humanidad evolucionó de otros animales y no es cierto que el santo padre de la santísima creación nos hizo a su sacra imagen y divina semejanza, entonces nuestra especie comparte más vínculos con los animales que sólo los instintos básicos de supervivencia. O más bien: estos instintos de supervivencia también han evolucionado y se han convertido en algo más que sólo el procurar sobrevivir con lo básico.

Es decir: allá afuera, en las calles, en las aldeas, en las ciudades, en los pueblos del mundo donde haya organizaciones humanas, todo es una jungla; el más fuerte se chinga al más débil. Políticos, empresarios, líderes religiosos o de cualquier otro tipo, todos ellos depredan a los demás, de una u otra manera para conseguir beneficios personales o para su manada. Y asumimos que esto es malo, incorrecto, antiético y enfermo, dependiendo de la capacidad o nivel de agresividad con el que cuente este “macho alfa” (que en realidad podría ser hembra) para dañar a las demás especies (incluyendo la propia) sin importar nada más que su búsqueda de ampliación de beneficios.

Pero mi cuestionamiento es algo así: si los animales se comen los unos a los otros (inter-especie o cannibalísticamente, como las mantis religiosas) y nosotros asignamos calificaciones objetivas (no moralistas) a este comportamiento, ¿por qué no hacemos lo mismo con la humanidad? Traduciendo… si está en nuestra naturaleza comernos vivos los unos a los otros, ¿por qué no juzgamos con la misma filosofía estos hechos con la que juzgamos a los animales? Sin pintarlos de “bueno” o “malo”, y ¿por qué no lo aplicamos nosotros mismos en nuestra vida?

Si está en nuestra naturaleza, entonces hagamos lo que sea necesario para procurarnos placer y bienestar, aunque esto implique romper las normas civiles, paradigmas responsables, leyes sociales o constituciones humanas… ¡que el mundo arda, que de todos modos se va a acabar!

PD: estimado lector, el sarcasmo es opcional y atribuible a su propio nivel de ética. La depresión también.

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Uff! Several old backups of old blogs of old times… have just been recovered!

I had a few (MySQL) databases sitting there with broken installations of WordPress (that no longer worked, had the admin section blocked or something similar), waiting to be recovered. Because I couldn’t export them normally with the built in function that, as far as I recall, hasn’t been available for too long by the way.

So I left them there because I was too lazy to try to sort it out and manually restore those databases into fresh WP installs (to export later). I’m not really a programmer so facing MySQL, even through PHPMyAdmin, is a scary business for me.

But today I finally found an easy way to restore them without the hassle I used to go before, when it was a battle against the database, WP users, import errors and such. I don’t have to export the whole database, just the “wp_posts” table. And for it to be errorless, I need to drop all content: remove all entries (I did it from PHPMyAdmin and not the WordPress admin to be safer).

I’ll probably write more about this in another Blog TecnoBato, since I decided that I wouldn’t be posting so much technical stuff here but rather non-geek, non-tech rants.

The post Old Backups appeared first on LozBlog.

I have almost finished with the new design of this Blog! I’m really excited ’cause it looks really good. I’m not sure when I started it, but the PSD of the main file (home) says it was created on July 20. I’ve been pushing it aside to work on other stuff but finally, it’s almost there!

In fact, even though I still have quite a few things to set, I am implementing it already.

No more free themes from the net! I built this theme myself from scratch using Photoshop (I grabbed a few icons from Freepik), and coded it (in HTML, SASS/CSS, and then PHP/WP) using Brackets, and of course: WordPress.

I’ve been documenting the process so I look forward to finish it and share my experience.

The post New Theme! appeared first on LozBlog.

Soñé que jugaba futbol.

Recuerdo que esta vez me dio flojera tomar notas, al despertar, porque mis ojos se dañarían con la potente luz del celular iluminándome mis modorros ojos de madrugada. Quizá debería tomar notas en papel, pero necesitaría luz de todos modos.

Creo que era como una cascarita, pero a la vez tenía validez para algún torneo, incluso entre recuerdos mezclados creo que representaba algún tipo de selección nacional. Yo estaba metiendo muchos goles. Incluso metí uno de chilena tipo como el que anotaron en el reciente México – Panamá, de sexto año, o último semestre, o maestría en deportes de control de masas, ya no recuerdo cómo era la forma de calificar una buena jugada. Hace mucho que no veo futbol.

Pero sí ví ese gol, que busqué en YouTube porque salió en las noticias a las que estoy suscrito (y ninguna es de categoría deportiva). Quizá por eso se me quedó grabado, aunque ese partido tiene ya varios días de haberse jugado, no fue como que algo inmediatamente reciente.

Recuerdo que celebraba enérgicamente mis goles. Creo que había alguien en la tribuna/banca, a quien yo veía en cada oportunidad. Alguna fan.

The post Sueño Futbolero appeared first on LozBlog.

Hace varios años, una amiga me preguntó: ¿cuál es tu pasión? Era una pregunta que alguien más le había hecho a ella, y pretendía que filosofáramos al respecto.

En su momento no entendí la pregunta. De hecho creo que está ligeramente mal planteada, la pregunta se entendería mejor de la siguiente manera:

¿Qué es lo que más te apasiona?

Aún así, todavía no creo saber qué contestar. Me gustan varias cosas, pero no sé si pudiera definirlas como “pasión”.

Pasión que impulsa. Que nunca se detiene. Que motiva. Que quema.

O no.

Quizá sigo sin entender la pregunta inicial.

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He estado muy activo últimamente en la red.

Hice los mockups de mi nuevo tema para este Blog, sin embargo no he tenido tiempo de convertirlo a HTML/WP. He estado trabajando en otros proyectos, empresariales, literarios, musicales, personales, etc. Casi todo estará relacionado con Internet, servicios o Blogs, o de alguna manera tendrá una salida online.

¿De qué hablo? No quisiera decir de más por el momento (ni insertar links todavía), hasta que estén caminando un poco más, pero esto es algo de lo que viene:

• Renovación de diseño en este blog – hecho
• Reestructuración de las categorías (quitar unas, cambiar otras, crear otras más) – hecho
• FotoBlog hipsterioso (próximamente)
• Blog sobre Google (y temas a su al rededor) – hecho
• Blogs sobre tecnología (próximamente, temas por definir pero muy posible serán dos):
  • tecnología web, ¡en español! – hecho
  • tecnología en general, con énfasis local – hecho
• Proyecto Literario (próximamente)
• Proyecto Musical (próximamente)
• Servicios de Mercadotecnia Web – hecho

Eso sin mencionar la cantidad de ideas y temas específicos en cada uno de estos proyectos en los que estoy trabajando…

I’ll be back (with updates)!

Update 2014-03-28

Ya hice el nuevo tema de este Blog, actualicé mi Blog sobre Google, y publicamos el sitio de mercadotecnia en línea en Guadalajara (AlterNación Web). Update 2020-04-19 : AlterActivo Multimedia sustituye al anterior.

Update 2015-04-13

Actualizando cosas “hechas”.

Publiqué el Blog de tecnología Web, y el de tecnología en general.

The post Cambios appeared first on LozBlog.

In these last days, I have been reading a lot of tech stuff about web development. Catching up with the latest and dusting off  my skills.

All this for my first responsive attempt (which is actually a theme for this blog).

I have already put together a few mockups in photoshop. In the elegant/minimalist trend that flat design is today.

But there’s this annoying issue I’ve come across almost consistently among some of the top results in my Google searches: lack of that temporal meta data that sets a context assigning a relevance value.

The damn time!

When was this article published? Is it too old to matter? Was it posted a few minutes ago? Has it been online long enough for commentators to test its claims?

All these things matter to me. And I think they should to everybody in an environment were things change overnight.

So please, if someone’s listening to this old creep: don’t remove the date out of your articles!

The post Save the Date appeared first on LozBlog.

El otro día no tomé notas, y sólo alcancé a escribir “Sueño Grand Theft”.

Lo cual sólo me hace recordar ligeramente que soñé que estaba en algo que no estoy seguro si era un juego, aunque parecería lo más obvio, estilo Grand Theft Auto (el video juego), pero como en la vida real.

Quizá era algún tipo de realidad virtual o “Matrix”.

Y normalmente lo que hacíamos ahí (yo y mis compinches) era: robar bancos para comprar armas, o al revés, robar armas para asaltar bancos.

Posiblemente las dos, al mismo tiempo.

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Pues todo esto del emprendimiento es más complejo de lo que pensaba.

Pero lejos de desanimarme, el darme cuenta de ello me obliga a cuidar mejor mis pasos, y sobre todo: ¡a caminar!

Necesito avanzar más rápido.

The post Emprender appeared first on LozBlog.

Este sueño tampoco lo recuerdo muy bien, al menos la trama. Sin embargo, tengo un poco más claro el contexto del lugar.

No estoy completamente seguro si todo el mundo, pero al menos la ciudad o país en el que nos encontrábamos, estaba compuesto por cuartos. En los que cada uno tenía muchas puertas, y aunque tampoco recuerdo con exactitud los detalles, recuerdo el feeling de que estaban decorados al estilo Mario Bros. Como con cosas un poco caricaturezcas, o un poco exageradas en tamaño o algo así.

En cada cuarto había algunas bancas y jardineras, incluso creo que algunas tenían una porción de vista al cielo (al aire libre), pero en general, para llegar a cualquier lado, había que atravesar infinidad de cuartos de una sola planta.

Era muy fácil perderse, ya que no recuerdo si había mapas, y por la cantidad de puertas en cada cuarto.

En mis notas dice que iba con mi familia huyendo de algo, no se qué, hacia Perú. Llevábamos muchas maletas. Creo que en algún momento casi se pierde alguien, o quizá era yo.

The post Mundo de Cuartos appeared first on LozBlog.

Más notas confusas de un sueño olvidado.

Lo que recuerdo es que había algún tipo de batalla entre las fuerzas del bien y el mal. Quiero asumir que el mal era representado por un clásico demonio, rojo, mal encarado y con cuernos.

Lo más extraño fue que estaba el antiguo cardenal tapatío, Cavernal Sinbozal, peleando del lado de las fuerzas del bien. Eso sí es confuso.

Pero al final también era derrotado.

Luego tengo más notas sobre una inundación, que llegaba hasta el “noveno piso” del edificio en el que estaba, pero no sé si formaba parte del mismo sueño o ya era otro. También había un primo mío ahí.

Fin de los recuerdos.

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Un sueño más que se me olvida. ¿Dije uno? Quise decir dos.

Todo lo que tengo son unas notas que vagamente me recuerdan lo siguiente:

Yo trabajaba en un estudio chafa para un decadente Adal Ramones. Ya no recuerdo en qué consistía su show, pero era más decadente que el propio Adal. Creo que yo participaba de alguna manera en sus sketches o bromas. Creo que eso me hacía decadente a mí también.

Como que recuerdo que al final de la grabación, Adal se iba en una motonetita a punto de desbaratarse. La moto era, si es posible, aún más decadente que todo. Creo que se dirigía a su triste (y decadente) hogar, en alguna favela cercana.

Luego tengo esto:

Primo asesinado y huir del país

Creo (solamente creo), que estaba en un cuarto de un hotel alto, en uno de los pisos superiores, debatiendo con mi familia cercana la urgencia de irnos, porque nos estaban buscando. Mi familia quería ir al funeral, pero yo insistía en que era demasiado peligroso.

Sí, creo que era algo así.

Tengo que escribir inmediatamente mis sueños antes de olvidarlos. Una vez escritos, mientras más detalle mejor, los recuerdo cada vez que lo leo.

The post Más Sueños appeared first on LozBlog.

Hace ya varios meses que soñé esto, pero aquí el post.

Un sueño más… de cosas locas en el polo sur, y parajes prehistóricos circundantes. Se ve como una película, con tomas de video de paredes de hielo deshaciéndose en el antártico, una ola de mar arrollando a la cámara (y posible camarógrafo), equipo avanzado (posiblemente nomás la cámara o alguna tecnología o ser sobre natural o de alguna manera tenía yo esa visión) de la toma saliendo del mar y sobre volando el área (no muy alto, a unos 2 o 3 metros arriba del agua) y aterrizando en una isla.

Al aterrizar, en lugar de cámara (en lugar de ser un video), la toma se convirtió en mi propia presencia, y ya era “yo”. Había muchos peces muertos y cosas extrañas (ya no recuerdo qué), sólo recuerdo un “dodo” gigante que bauticé con mucha imaginación “dodo dodo”. Al principio parecía muerto pero dio señales de vida y aunque me daba miedo al principio después me comenzó a seguir sin problemas.

En esa isla vivíamos una comunidad de náufragos o algo así, y yo les empezaba a alertar del desastre que venía (creo que era una inundación por deshielo y el hecho de estar en una isla desierta, teníamos que volver a la civilización, no sé cómo llegamos ahí).

En momentos se sentía también como un planeta remoto. Llegué a imaginar que tendríamos descendencia ahí mismo y la civilización comenzaría de nuevo ahí, pero yo me quería ir.

De repente, más adentro de la isla, estaba un amigo (de cobre) y no sé si alguien  más, tratando de cazar una especie de pez muy grande y con un tentáculo, o parte de su nariz, o cola, no sé pero estaba muy larga y con esa atrapaba a las personas arriba, amarrándolas del pie y arrastrándolas al agua y ahogándolas, y quería cazarlo para comerlo.

Pero yo tenía una visión premonitoria y sabía que iba a atrapar a mi amigo y trataba de evitarlo todo el tiempo, para que no se lo llevara.

Y algo pasaba, con otro par de peces no tan grandes que uno se comía al otro.

Luego creo que pasaba otra cosa, pero ya no recuerdo qué.

The post Sueño Semi Antártico appeared first on LozBlog.

Próximamente llevaré 4 semanas de hacer bicicleta diariamente. Según mis registros, el primer día fue el 6 de Mayo del presente 2013. Empecé con 5 kilómetros; ahora voy en 15.

Not Proud. Yet.

Al cumplir mi primer semana, quise escribir algo al respecto, sin embargo pensé: una semana no es nada. Ni 4.

Cuando lleve un año quizá pueda llamarlo un logro.

Ever Challenging

Por el momento, al añadir cada vez más esfuerzo (incrementando distancia o añadiendo inclinación al camino, eventualmente reducir el tiempo), todavía lo sigo sintiendo pesado.

Creo que me quedaré en 15km (subiendo y bajando rampas) por algún tiempo, hasta que comience a parecer “fácil”.

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It’s not just really age. But several factors around that get me… melancholic.

I don’t feel ill. I’m happy. I have a good life, one filled with good things, and people, and experiences.

Yet there is that je ne sais quoi that rears its strangely sedductive head from time to time. And says “Ola k aze“. Of course, there are some things that I do know why they get to me.

And what was the trigger for this thought? A combination of stuff, and a sign of a travel agency called:

Mundo Joven

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Getting what you don’t expected. Or rather, hoped. Perhaps even prayed for. Why does it feel like the world ends? I know it won’t. For it all: it’s hard to find a labeL.

I had it coming. I should have known better, right? (But should I?)

Of despair and foolishness: sometimes the world is, or at least feels like the raging and relentless oceans. Even though it’s just a glass of water. No more than a predictable quiZ.

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I’ve had my android smartphone (an old Android, by today’s standards) for more than two years now, around two and a half.

Actually a bit less if we want to get techy (or: honor factual truth), but that’s a story for another day.

Luxury or need?

Anyway, I was thinking that my phone was too ancient and slow and needed replacement.

Perhaps “needed” is not the most accurately way of putting it (what is really a need? Food? Water?), but my lust for technology says commands: it’s time to upgrade.

And I agree.

So in my search for a worthy candidate, I came across the Xperia Z, from Sony. It has all what you would expect out of a high-end smartphone in 2013: 1.5GHZ quad core processor, 2GB RAM, 5 inch display (full HD resolution), 13MP / 1080 photo/video camera, standard sensors (accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass), Jelly Bean Android, and it’s water proof.

That water proof thing really bought me.

Drawbacks

It really seems to be amazing, the only two things that I’m not sure of are the size (5 inches seem to be gaining popularity and demand, yet I still think it’s too big for a phone) and the lack of physical qwerty keyboard.

I know we are in a “touch” era, but for me: there’s nothing like the feedback responsiveness of pressing an old school keyboard button.

It made much more sense with my N95 (my first real smartphone), when I could type a text message with its numeric keypad without having to look at the thing.

Because I had a beer in my other hand.

And the steering wheel of the car I was driving on my knees.

Conclusion

In the end I think I’m going to wait. Why?

Because I purchased a Nexus 7 tablet.

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Time flies when you’re having fun.

So they say.

Tis the season! December arrived, and with it, its cold weather, and a handful of surprises.

I can say its been an interesting year, with a few turns and twists, the great majority of them being cool rather than bad.

A lot of goals and to-dos waiting there too…

The post December again appeared first on LozBlog.

Hace algún par de meses fui a donar sangre para un familiar que lo requería.

Acepté sin dudar, sin embargo, siendo la primera vez que lo haría, la idea era un poco terrorífica.

Si sacarme una pequeña muestra de sangre me aterra y causa mucha ansiedad… estar con una manguera ordeñándome mi precioso y vital líquido por al rededor de 5 minutos (no recuerdo cuánto exactamente, pero fue mayor al promedio) fue una experiencia terriblemente indescriptible.

La ansiedad, cada minuto multiplicándose por 10, el “agotamiento” de mi mano abriendo y cerrando, bombeando el oro rojo, y los gritos de dolor de los demás pacientes… Bueno creo que nadie gritó de dolor aunque al llegar yo (el último de ese día), sólo quedaban otras dos personas, que terminaron mucho antes.

Cuando por fin terminé, me dieron una nota para confirmar (nuevamente) que mi sangre es sana y no tiene animalejos. También me dieron un sánwiche de jamón. Tuve algún tiempo para ir a recoger un análisis gratuito, pero nunca fui. No sé si aún esté  a tiempo.

Al final estoy vivo (eso creo) y feliz de haber ayudado a alguien.

Aunque realmente quisiera no volver a necesitar repetir esa experiencia.

Update 2020! Sí lo hice varias veces más. Misma ansiedad.

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I thought I was hacked today. Got a strange error on my homepage (or actually, any sub file/folder) on this domain. I didn’t even got redirected to where I was supposed to in Firefox, which was the browser I was using, so I only saw odd code.

I was really upset, I thought I had taken good care of security. I thought it had to do with the theme, or a plugin, or even a php script I was testing somewhere else on this domain.

Turned out there was a problem with my hosting company. I never had any bigger issue before, and I can’t really say this is a big issue but, it did pissed me a little bit.

The automatic renewal didn’t trigger, for some reason. Even though it is actually set to auto-renew. I guess this has also something to do with the actual domain providers not having any grace period, as my domain was “canceled” only one day after the renewal due date. That sucked.

But anyway, here it is, my beloved and lonely blog once again… breathes!

Update!

I am writing this update on 21/08/2014, yet I dumped that domain (think it was lzb.me) a long time ago. Probably one and a half years. And it was mainly because of that: *.me doesn’t allow for automatic renewals on my hosting provider.

I am using lozbo.info instead today.

Update 2020-04-20!

I am no longer using lozbo.info, but lozbo.com.

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I told my boss the other day about RSS. I wanted to know if we were tracking subscribers to it.

He told me something like “no body uses RSS and I shouldn’t care about it”. I thought that ignoring such a big feature made no sense but it got me thinking, how many people really use an RSS reader?

Most of my non-tech friends probably don’t even know what that is. It will be worth to make some research.

The post RSS Impact appeared first on LozBlog.

I’ve been saving this draft since last January. I was planning to say something about it going to be shut down, but it happened. Finally: Google Notebook closed. The page where you used to have a list of your notes now redirects to a FAQ page. I quote:

As of July 2012, Google Notebook has shut down and all Notebook data should now be in Google Docs

I did find very helpful Google Notebook. I still haven’t find a real replacement for it. I’m using gDocs for a lot of things and even for what I used to use gNotebook, but it’s not the same. I tried Evernote, but didn’t really work for me. It was a mess of sync between devices. Plus the free version was limited.

I want a light weight app that allows me to take notes in one device and instantly see the updates everywhere else. Emphasis on lightweight. It’s OK if it doesn’t have super advanced features, or even formatting options. I just want something that open/loads quick and gets me right into it fast: start jotting down notes. A mobile app doesn’t hurt either. But it must be even lighter (hence faster), and have offline support.

I’m using Google Docs as of now, because it’s the best fit for what I want, but I’m still on the search.

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The post A Meaningful Wedding appeared first on LozBlog.

Caminaba por las calles del barrio chino san franciscano, y comenzaron a suceder cosas extrañas.

Un trío de cholillos empezó a tirar petardos y palomillas locas a media calle.

Un taxi llegó al restaurant más exclusivo del lugar, y de él descendieron lo que yo asumí era la novia del gángster chino dueño del restaurant, y su respectivo sicario guardián.

Luego, un turista gringo confundido me pregunta direcciones. ¿No le parece obvio que yo tampoco soy del lugar, con mi cámara al cuello y cara de nopal?

Un poco más tarde, un par de policías pasan, platicando trivialidades despreocupadamente.

En ese momento, estaba seguro que sucedería algo extraño, de película. Falsos turistas detonando una explosión en el restaurante, cholos distrayendo policías, y sicarios disparando hacia el exterior.

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Hace más de dos meses, o algo así, me llegó una carta de nuestra compañía celularífica favorita. Me informaban que por mi buen comportamiento me han aumentado el límite de consumo mensual en un 50%.

Me extrañé, la leí otra vez y no estando seguro de su significado fui a preguntar. Y tal como lo dice: el límite de consumo (que yo suelo fijar ligeramente arriba del pago base del contrato) no significaba que me aumentara el tiempo aire, sino que ahora puedo pasarme del límite en un 50% más.

Esto representa que puedo pagarles 50% más de lo que podía antes.

No hay minutos gratis, mensajes extra, mega bytes de regalo.

Nada.

Ahora voy a poder pasarme de mis minutos más fácilmente y sin restricciones, sin saber exactamente cuánto y en qué momento, ya que la gran compañía no tiene la tecnología para informar puntualmente del gasto y minutos usados, en el caso de un plan de renta mensual.

Pues señores de la compañía: No estoy de acuerdo. Regresé mi límite a sólo 50 pesos arriba de lo que pago al mes, o de lo que debería pagar. Pregunté si era posible que no me volvieran a aumentar, que quiero explícitamente que mi límite sea ese y no se cambie sin mi consentimiento. Pero no, según el monigote, es parte del contrato.

Cito las notas de la carta:

… Rebasar el límite de consumo no exime al cliente del pago correspondiente a su saldo, ni implica la obligación (…) de suspender el servicio al alcanzar dicho límite.

Y vuelvo a citar:

Ahora vas a querer hablar más…

Esto me parece un engaño descarado, antiético, capitalista, nazi y diabólico. Disfrazan de manera pretenciosa esta información que no tiene beneficios al usuario, ya que uno mismo puede cambiar el límite en el momento que se desee. Ojalá cuando vengan los mayas a destruir el mundo, comiencen con esta empresa.

EMCLO.

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I found a gig as a writer for the blog (and other stuff) of a cool online tool for website creation.

I’ve been there for a week and though I haven’t started actually writing yet, I think the place and environment are awesome, and I’m loving it.

I also love writing, and the opportunity to do it professionally, was so cool I couldn’t let it go.

So there I am.

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I spent a good deal of today’s time managing my dreamhost account.

Deleting old stuff, grouping domains into users, trashing databases, redirects, movements, etc.

Its not like I have thousands of domains, but it was good maintenance.

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I was reading about the WordPress security keys. I didn’t really understand how they work, but they have to do with better security for the passwords.

You should provide those (keys and salts) in the wp-config file, before installing WordPress. Since I use WP a lot, I am familiar with the installation process, and I try to keep up with all security guidelines that cross my path, like the 20 step guide from tuts plus, and other recommendations from digging into wp.

I don’t know what salt is. I’ll make some research.

Anyway, these keys can be randomly generated from a tool provided by wp themselves, or you can make it up.

My question is, if this enhances security, is randomly generated, and very encouraged to include, why can”t the installation perform this automatically and inject those keys into wp-config?

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Pedir al público un aplauso, me parece una pretensión egocéntrica propia de individuos orgullosos con delirios de grandeza.

Me vino a la mente particularmente por casos de banditas musicales que creen que por estar arriba de una tarima, tienen talento y la gente los debe admirar. Pero aplica también a otros escenarios.

Para que una determinada audiencia decida premiar al artista con su aplauso, es necesario que cumpla dos requisitos: saber apreciar el arte, y que la obra en cuestión sea de su agrado.

No porque el músico se sienta muy virtuoso significa que su música realmente lo sea. Y no porque su interpretación o composición refleje un gran talento y desempeño técnico, les tiene que gustar a todos.

¡Humildad, payasos! ¡Que están aquí para entretenerme!

Update 2020-04-20

No lo escribí en su momento, pero recuerdo por qué hice este post. Tenía que ver con una banda exigiendo aplausos del público, como si fuera obligación, creo que llegando al grado de molestarse un miembro de la banda.

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If you were to inquire, I would undoubtedly assent.

Though it comes unlikely, that I’ll ever shed light your way (on that thought) to discover.

So I would rather be around, near that glow (thine), than push it away to oblivion… in an attempt of unknown outcome, of falling swiftly beneath and inside it.

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Hace tiempo me llegó spam a mi correo a través de un formulario que tengo en un sitio personal.

Lo extraño es que parece promocionar un sitio “legítimo”, o que no es virus ni viagra. Además es un negocio relacionado con Desarrollo Web (su forma de trabajo consiste en enviarles un diseño de una plantilla Web hecho en photoshop  y te regresan un html y css).

Se supone que nosotros gente del negocio Web no hacemos ese tipo de cosas espámicas.

Si de algo sirve, reportaré al remitonto: Scoopsses – ralmscal@mymail-in.net .

No quisiera darle más promoción a su sitio por lo que omitiré el link, pero el cuerpo del mensaje era:

Cool site http://…com/ – psd to html, css,
<a href=http://….com/>front end development</a>,
psd to html and othe.

Basura.

Update:

También desde esta dirección (el mismo cuerpo del mensaje) Shiekrerb al8266al@mymail-in.net .

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The more I use this CMS the more I love it.

I’m developing a theme for a WP based website and I’m learning lots of things, since it’s been a while since I last did so.

It’s nice to see that I can still code. And it’s nice to see that WP continues to evolve and at each iteration it becomes more a full fledged Content Management System than just a Blog Management Solution.

I just hope it doesn’t evolve to the point where the simple things cease to be easy.

2021-11-19 Update!

It has happened! Simple things are now complicated: I’m looking at you, Gutenberg editor!

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El pasado Agosto me encontré paseando por las calles de Chicago, atendiendo un festival musical y turisteando en sus atracciones.

Paseábamos un día por la céntrica y gran avenida Michigan, poco antes del “loop”, cuando advertimos un accidente en la calle que bloqueaba todo el tráfico, ocasionando caos. Creo que habían atropellado a alguien.

Fue interesante el contraste que produjo dicho desafortunado evento.

Más adelante, donde ya no pasaban automóviles, se encontraba una pareja de novios (o recién casados) tomándose fotos urbanas. Aprovechando el momento pudieron extender su sesión hacia las calles, ahora momentáneamente vacías. Estaban videograbando también, con una de estas DSLR con función de video, presumo HD. Este repentino privilegio causado por el accidente, parecía hacer más divertida la sesión.

Y entonces fui testigo de cómo la desgracia de algunos fue la dicha de otros.

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En este Enero pasado, hice un pequeño viaje familiar a Puerto Vallarta, hospedándonos en un bonito hotel, que a pesar de que algunos dicen que ha perdido su gloria pasada, me sigue pareciendo muy agradable.

La primera vez que lo visité, unos 10 años atrás, me pareció que era una “pequeña ciudad”, habiéndolo recatalogado más adecuadamente esta última vez a “mini colonia”. Y esta calificación de mayores dimensiones se debe a que además de una torre horizontal con cuartos, tiene varias habitaciones de una sola planta, dispuestas a lo largo y ancho del lugar, entre banquitas y faros, ideal para familias ya que algunas o la mayoría cuentan con una pequeña alberca privada, una sala, comedor y hasta 3 habitaciones (o quizá más).

Casualmente había estado recordándolo algunas semanas atrás, o igual años, de pronto venía a mi memoria ese hotel en el que me imaginaba viviendo y paseando por sus “calles”, albercas, restaurantes, o por la playa.

Tampoco es que el lugar fuera enorme, pero sí contaba con sus carritos de golf para auxiliar en los recorridos cuarto-recepción.

The post Mini Ciudad playera appeared first on LozBlog.

El otro día iba en el camión rumbo a no se dónde.

De pronto, cerca de una plaza, el camionero hizo una parada y rápidamente descendió del vehículo.

Al asomarme por la ventana me percaté de que estaba comprando chicles a un vendedor ambulante.

Habiendo tenido la fortuna de viajar a y conocer otros países, traté de recordar una experiencia similar en ellos, sin éxito. Los conductores de camiones no se detienen a comprar chicles. Bueno, tampoco hay vendedores ambulantes por doquier.

Sin embargo, no es que categorice esta situación negativamente, sobre todo porque no tardó en regresar a su puesto y continuar conduciendo; simplemente me pareció un suceso curioso e interesante de la cultura local.

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Siempre me han preocupado de manera especial los proyectos grandes. Aquellas tareas que requieren una cantidad importante de trabajo.

Últimamente he estado trabajando en una estrategia que me ha permitido sortear de mejor manera estos retos y “perderles el miedo”, así como trabajar mejor.

Es algo bastante obvio y sencillo.

Jerarquizar prioridades. Dividir en tareas más sencillas los proyectos largos. Hacer metas pequeñas y calendarizarlas.

Y por último, lo más importante: cumplir en tiempo y forma con esos objetivos agendados.

Es algo que me ha ayudado y espero dejar como consejo para que sirva de inspiración.

El siguiente paso es hacer metas más “agresivas”.

Update 2020-04-21!

Parece que en 2016 escribí un follow up, ni me acordaba.

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Hace poco inicié trámites para entrar a una escuela de música cerca de mi casa.

Años atrás, en distintos momentos, llegué a estudiar teoría y algunos instrumentos, como guitarra y piano, pero no le he dedicado el tiempo suficiente.

Esta vez estaba animado porque me gustó la escuela, tengo el tiempo, instrumento y motivación, sin embargo el porcentaje de beca me otorgaron fue menor al que solicité, y creo que desistiré al menos este cuatrimestre, o investigaré en otros institutos cercanos.

De cualquier manera, no estar en una escuela no impide a uno estudiar por su cuenta y practicar.

The post Escuela de Música appeared first on LozBlog.

Noviembre vino tan rápido como se fue. No hubo mayores sobresaltos.

Si no contamos que nos cortaron injustamente la luz por dos semanas, período en el cual hospedaría en mi casa sendas reuniones de mis hermanos, nos visitaron varios couch surfers, remodelé mi cuarto, se nos escapó un roomie, arrancó un proyecto laboral, y otras tantas trivialidades.

Se soltó un frío intenso que tomó por sorpresa a la ciudad, aunque adentrándonos hacia Diciembre, éste pareció desvanecerse. No todo es desgracia en nuestro demacrado país: poder andar en shorts en invierno es un lujo que no se pueden dar en otras latitudes.

Y en fin, sigo sabiendo que con constancia y dedicación todo es posible. Hay que seguir trabajando.

The post Noviembre appeared first on LozBlog.

With all the inconsistency on my blog writing, I forgot to say something about getting older. Not that I find it a mandatory task I must accomplish but… here I go.

It is strange to talk about it like if it – growing old – happened once a year, all of a sudden on a specific day. Although there are those events that can make you mature in a single, breath-taking moment.

But I’m not talking about those. It’s just a common tradition to celebrate and to tag that designated day as the bordering edge of that mark: of one more year. And it makes sense.

Anyway, the date this year comes with a handful of mixed feelings, mostly good, and to remember what I’ve been up to since the last time, adventures, misadventures and craziness alike, makes me sigh, and wonder about future…

So here’s to it: I toast for the coming adventures and the achievements of new and long term projects that will shape my life!

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I wait by the door in the chilly morning wind.

A cellphone in my hand reveals the time twice every minute.

Searching at both sides, alone I stand in vain.

Resigned I go back, still craving for that presence (not so quiet).

The post By the Door appeared first on LozBlog.

Sometimes I look at the mirror and see the old beard coming out. I thought I just shaved.

Sometimes days go by without notice, like the every day traffic in the street. So much going on around, and even some of the action splashing you wet, but by the next morning: it was just another day.

Routine… yes,

I get booooored

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Meditare (así, sin tilde, más bien con acento italiane). Después de tanta expectativa por el escape de la esclavitud con horario laboral, y tanto tiempo de pensarlo una y otra vez, he llegado a un punto de estancamiento. No estoy seguro de qué camino tomar.

No sé ni qué hacer, ni a dónde ir. Lo quiero todo, pero siendo las opciones limitadas, debo enfocarme en algo sólido, sensato y asequible, y luchar con todo por ello.

Tengo varias ideas y opciones, pero las cosas ya no son tan fáciles como lo hubieran sido no más de medio año atrás. Por otro lado, también hay otras cosas por las que vale la pena esperar otro tiempo antes de emprender el viaje.

Vivir viajando suena “muy bonito”, y quizá animarse, sin pensar mucho en las consecuencias e implicaciones, puede que sea fácil. Pero llevarlo a cabo, creo que tiene bastantes retos. Obviamente no lo considero algo permanente, pero sí para una buena temporada.

Necesito un cómplice.

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Tengo estas notas de otro sueño que tuve, que a pesar de ellas no recuerdo bien.

Estábamos (no se quiénes) en Puerto Vallarta, y llegaba un amigo al que habían detenido en el camino algunos supuestos policías, y le habían intentado sacar dinero e información, y lo mejor que se le ocurrió fue darles mi número de celular.

Tuvimos que regresar en camión porque nos dio miedo manejar por carretera.

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The attack of the draft folders.

I hate when it happens, I start writing a post and save it as a draft to finish later, only to come back to it, weeks later and find out it had a relative date on it. So one more week becomes a few weeks ago. Anyway I’ll wrap it up and post it (later):

I am was only a week away from going back to my beloved and missed ole hometown. For how long will I be there? Can not say, as it is my desire to leave this crazy nation.

I spent great times in the north, had crazy parties, was to cool little places and met awesome people. And to those amazing persons I say: this won’t be the last time we meet.

Time will have its say too, but good things and exciting adventures I foresee in my future.

The post One more week appeared first on LozBlog.

I’ve had this on my draft post for just too long.

Some time ago, on a biz-trip to California, I was driving around on our rental, looking for party. Suddenly I turned on the wrong street, I had the GPS but decided to experiment as I kinda knew where I was going, and was not in a hurry.

So I came by this street, was a sunny day on the silicon valley, and saw what seemed to be a bill on the road. I looked at it and thought “Is that really it? Nah…”.

But I thought again: “What if it is a million dollar bill and I just missed it?”. So I turned around and drove back.

Turned out to be a one dollar bill, but it’s my lucky one dollar bill now.

The post Lucky dollar appeared first on LozBlog.

Ayer la pálida penumbra en la que habito en los últimos meses, bastante aceptable e incluso agradable, pero pálida al fin, me pareció súbitamente más sombría y oscura, a pesar de que de alguna manera continuó en el mismo tono, uno que ya conocía.

El valor de una asunción que resultó ser inexacta, eclipsada precisamente por lo que creí poco probable en esta cercanía temporal, resultó ser de un peso mayor al esperado. Y no es que una tragedia de proporciones apocalípticas se haya manifestado, no, y si en algún momento parecí estar cerca de ella, el hecho innegable es que continuo paseando por la galería, aún cuando sea en pálida penumbra.

En una canción, en cualquier canción donde lo banal se sublima, quisiera habitar… por unos días en un oscuro exilio del que pueda regresar a voluntad. Donde juicios aleatorios empapados de ignorancia carezcan de existencia, en una pálida penumbra.

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Hoy dicen que la luna estará en su punto más cercano a la tierra en 18 años, y estando en su fase llena, se le conoce como super luna.

Sin embargo no la encuentro, el día de hoy, particularmente grande o inspiradora. Quizá en otro lugar, en otras circunstancias más melancólicas.

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Más sueños. Me da gusto poder acordarme de ellos, ya que no suelo hacerlo con tanta facilidad.

Como frecuentemente sucede, olvidé detalles, sin embargo, la trama es sencilla: andaba con una chava que me hacía unas declaraciones de amor y una proposición de trabajar con sus padres, creo, para que me quedara en la ciudad de la que quiero escapar.

Me decía, aunque no totalmente convencida, que en mí había encontrado virtudes que en ninguna otra persona, y que era alguien poco convencional. Vaya que sí hay gente sensata y atenta todavía en este mundo.

Quería preguntarle sobre su oferta de trabajo con sus padres, principalmente por cortesía y no tener la ingratitud de descartarlo inmediatamente, ya que ya estaba decidido a irme. Quizá intentar convencerla de que viniera conmigo.

Desperté con una nostalgia instantánea, una felicidad mezclada con tristeza, añorando a la misteriosa muchacha de mi subconsciente.

The post Sueño de amor appeared first on LozBlog.

Otro sueño que logro recordar lo suficiente como para escribirlo.

Íbamos en un camión hacia la frontera norte. Gente aleatoria y yo, no recuerdo si había alguien conocido. El chofercito manejaba desafiantemente por una carretera de dos carriles para sendos sentidos.

En cierto momento, llegamos a un punto en el que comenzamos a ver autos detenidos en el acotamiento, como refugiándose de algo. Nos dimos cuenta casi inmediatamente de qué. Balazos y bombardeos obligaban a los automovilistas, en evidente y obvio estado de pánico, a desertar en su intento por continuar la travesía, no así nuestro conductor.

En medio de autos detenidos a ambos lados de la carretera (que me recuerda bastante a la eterna recta zacatecana, camino a Coahuila), nuestro camionero no reducía su alta velocidad, ni siquiera cuando otros automotores venían huyendo en dirección contraria, contribuyendo a la histeria general.

No recuerdo exactamente cómo sucedió, si lo hirieron, mataron, se bajó y lo levantaron, o simplemente huyó, pero de pronto estaba yo en el lugar del chofer, intentando llevar a la multitud al seguro refugio de nuestro destino, que en ese momento no parecía tener tanta importancia como el viaje en sí. No creo que en algún momento haya sabido con certeza a qué lugar, o ciudad exactamente, me dirigía.

Pasamos algunos puntos de revisión, irrealmente flojos y faltos de control y seguridad, pensé que era extraño que con tanta facilidad fuera posible cruzar esa frontera. En el segundo o tercer puesto de control, me desperté, muchos detalles quedaron en el olvido, recuerdo que algo más sucedió, tenía otra urgencia en dicho puesto.

Quise seguir soñando para saber cómo terminaría la aventura.

The post Sueño de inmigración appeared first on LozBlog.

Soñé que era algún tipo de instructor de snow boarding (o algo así), y estaba en un parque nevado en un cerrito loco.

Ya no recuerdo bien cómo, pero al parecer había alguien ahí que estaba poniendo bombas en las instalaciones, y las “autoridades”, estábamos acarreando a toda la gente, escapando. Yo además buscaba al villano, que intentaba eludirme.

Sin embargo, al enfrentar a mi némesis, me tiraba un filerazo que alcanzaba a herirme en mi mano izquierda. Al parecer el filer tenía veneno porque se me comenzaba a paralizar la mano, y yo sabía que esto avanzaría hacia todo el cuerpo.

Buscaba ayuda por doquier, pero a nadie parecía importarle, mientras todos huían en el frenesí de la alarma. Creo recordar que había alguien que sí quería ayudarme pero realmente no podía hacer nada, ¿qué iba a hacer? No sé realmente qué estaba yo buscando.

En el caos, traté de dar alcance a la escapante multitud, que había abandonado el lugar. Corría mientras a mis espaldas estallaba el parque, huía por las instalaciones de la entrada, viendo cómo se derrumbaban cosas en una lejanía peligrosamente cercana.

No lo recuerdo bien ahora, debí haber escrito los detalles cuando todavía los tenía frescos. Al despertar, mi mano estaba entumida.

The post Sueño appeared first on LozBlog.

I never liked the idea of Twitter. Even though I did open an account and tried to play a bit with it. But, before getting started with it: allow me to justify myself: I thank Google (the only omniscient deity) for the freedom of speech, and the opportunities we all (online humans) have, and making use of it, even if it’s retweeting every other goofy’s ludicrous insight.

But, beyond the above inspiring intro of glorious freedom, my point is clear: I just don’t find Twitter interesting enough to use, like: I don’t really care all that random updates from everybody. And for every random update, a hundred random retweets. It’s too much of a mess, I still haven’t figured the UI to this day. I don’t understand who’s saying what, in a sea of one-click-repetitions of somebody else’s “original” absurd comment.

Most of the times, I think it’s all just a bunch of quick, in your face, useless nonsense. And it’s too easy to publish, you don’t have to make an elaborated post, a documented article, or at least a half interesting rant on today’s news. In fact, even if you want to, you can’t. You can only publish 140 (I did have to wiki-check that number) characters, and you can do it from your cellphone. You don’t even need a dedicated smartphone’s app, you just text it like any other normal text message. All these publishing advantages are reflected on how easy is to publish trash, or things you’ll later regret stating.

I admit it can be useful sometimes, like when you find out in an instant when people is throwing out grenades or there are shootings on the streets. Well it does happen (I live in almighty México).

Also: I admit that it is a very powerful and crowded social network.

Yet, I could basically describe three groups of people using it: über geeks (every computer nerd has an account), the famous (somehow it became easier for an artist to maintain a Twitter account than a full fledged blog), and the wannabe famous (who never really got into the tech side but pretend to be important (re)twitting out the daily stupidity).

Feel free to disagree.

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I have read a crazy article on mind building. Particularly: memory strengthening.

The story-like read is, against what I wished, a not too in your face, to the point, action item fact kind of approach. I wanted straight tips. Yet I find it interestingly enough to share, because, from quite some time on, I’ve felt like I don’t have what you could call a privileged memory, and I’ve since try to bestow literature regarding it, a dedicated read. I have indeed succeeded at some point, putting learned tips to work.

But I’m far from pushing the concept to an obsession level (like Joshua Foer, the man who wrote the aforementioned article), so I’m not exactly an award winning, competition champion, memory athlete.

Yet, I’m seriously considering in making a hobby (and habit) out of memory training. And hopefully: it will also become a personal addiction.

The post Memory Building appeared first on LozBlog.

I hate upgrading.

Not really.

I just don’t like that desktop software has update after update after update. Why can they just make software that works fine, without patching it every minute? For example, itunes got 9 upgrades in 2010 alone. I’d hope to make one or two updates a year, but 9?

I want my software to be full featured and bug-less since day one, so that when I start my computer and want to play with it, it just works. No nasty updating for bug fixing or new feature enhancements. Well bring them on, why not, but just not that often will ya?

Focus on making things right from the beginning.

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Caring too much for stuff around. Is it wrong? Some people believe indeed so.

But how can you not take it personal, if everything that you live is in fact personal?

You can pretend to be a machine, and it might even work sometimes. Maybe at all times.  But that may work only for some people, not everybody (oder was?).

Then again, if you choose to change because it doesn’t work for you, then failing to achieve that change shouldn’t be acceptable.

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Today, I feel free.

The future, veiled in a thick glow of darkness, feels inexplicably exciting.

Like the thousands adventures waiting… and calling me.

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I’m not much of a gamer. I do enjoy playing video games, but I just don’t do it that much. There are a few titles I’ve enjoyed and some of them I’ve even finished them off! Very few perhaps.

One of those titles was Grand Theft Auto 3, which I didn’t even finish but the thing is, last December, I bought the latest game in the saga: GTA4, that crazy gang game, and for several reasons I was not able to install it, until two days ago. I didn’t started it, just installed the damned thing, after switching necessary dvds a few times.

Today, I wanted to come up and start playing it, see what the fuzz is about, but couple of hours later, I’m still waiting trying to just fucking play it.

When I first tried to search for it, there’s no obvious “Play GTA4” link anywhere, just a Rockstar geek club of some sort, which seems to have the big Play button, which I discovered after a few request of signing into strange sessions.

I just want to fucking play it. Give it to me.

Then, it started asking for serial numbers, and a crazy activation which just wouldn’t let me in. After giving it (wrongly at first) the right code, and surviving a trip to their offline manual activation (which nevertheless requires internet connection), it seems to accept it.

Fine, company logos and all that crap start to show. I go goofing around the options and say “fuck, I’ll check them out later, I just want to fucking play“. It starts asking again for logging in to crazy Xbox live shit. I don’t have an xbox, I just want to fucking play!

Seems like if I want my progress to be saved, I need to create a god damn profile. Damn it, I’ll fucking do it but just let me play!

After a few crazy errors from MSN network and stuff I finally set it up, downloading I don’t know what. OK, here’s my credentials, let me in! An I don’t know what fucking update, do I want it? Fuck man, later on! Play!

The profile was not created or downloaded correctly. Please remove it and create it again.

Fuck it, just fuck it! I paid good money for that game, why don’t you just let me play it? OK download your fucking update!

1 hour later, I’m still waiting for the download. Wrong way to do games. Very wrong.

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I was wandering through the archives of my drafts (post I’m planning to publish at some point, but haven’t finished wrapping them up), and I found this entry I started writing last October. It had only this (and the title) on it:

I’ve been living for more than half a year in this beautiful city odd town, and as time goes by, I start feeling like there’s no tomorrow.

I am not sure how bad did I feel particularly at the time, because there have been weirder stuff going on since then, and to be honest I really don’t want to be here anymore. Feels just right to quote that Quo Vadis song (Inner Capsule):

Wonder what will become of me? Will I just suffocate or be?

On the objective side, I can give a positive review of my time spent living here. As I have (so far at least) always said: I have been very lucky, everywhere and specially in the cities where I’ve lived; even though not all the experience can be described as positive, it is also from the not so good ones that we learn, perhaps most times even more.

But thing is, I’m alive and healthy; have always managed to find a couple of (perhaps very few but most important: good, close) friends in the places I’ve called home; definitely learned a lot of different things in life, and I can only say that right now I’m happy, a bit afraid but at the same time excited by the uncertain future.

But coming back to it: Saltillo… its not where I want to spend my life in… Saltillo: how much longer (will it still be worth it)?

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Detalles. No profundizaré en los clichés que propone que los detalles son los más importantes en la vida o de lo que más fácil nos acordamos, o cosas por el estilo. No profeso una notable afición por los superlativos.

Pero admito que muchas cosas sencillas en la vida, especialmente aquellas que se comparten con gente importante para cada quién, pueden llegar a rebasar su valor nominal y, elevándolo en la jerarquía, posicionarse en un lugar trascendente en nuestros recuerdos.

Por cierto, dicen las malas lenguas, que los recuerdos se asemejan más a un capricho que a la realidad: nos acordamos de las cosas de la manera que queremos recordarlas, no necesariamente como sucedieron.

Ser sencillo no se opone a tener metas altas, pero no hablo de eso. ¿La mediocridad (definida con un lente capitalista) de una vida sencilla puede llevar a una felicidad plena? Me atrevería a asegurar que sí, pero el conflicto capitalista persiste: ¿es un modelo simple, fácil, feliz, sin altas expectativas o metas personales, una pseudo justificación para la flojera y/o miedo de emprender y saturarse de actividades?

Seguramente: depende de cada uno.

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A question sometimes, some extraordinary times I ask myself, having a hard time convincing myself that what I live is real. Either good or not so much.

It is said it can help you achieve lucid dreaming, if you keep asking yourself, so it becomes so natural, that even in a dream you start to automatically doubt, and gain consciousness of it.

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Taking a shower in the “easy going” Saltillo. A disturbing noise alarms us and makes us gather. Heard it on the news, or movies, but never before I’ve been this close to the familiar sound. Sadly, too familiar for someone who had never before presenced it.

Shoot outs in the dark.

Near.

Sirens of police, or perhaps medics. Does it really matter, or make a difference? Probably yes, nevertheless, the only thing that we can take for granted is that the growing violence surrounding us will, sooner or later, take its deadly toll on us.

They said there was no drug dealers violence in Saltillo. Not as in nearby Monterrey or Torreón, at least…

Is that about to change for good worse?

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I’ve logged to the admin panel of my hosting provider and set a lot of things straight. I had lots of old databases and hosts and subdomains not in use. Some have moved to a better place, some have been lost forever.

Among other things, I got to update this blog with the new Google Analytics code (for this new domain), among other things, and also set my upcoming photoblog, soon to be released…

Stay tuned!

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Posting from android. Interesting and… functional?
I am a fan of styling my post and looking after tiny details so posting from a phone may not be good enough for my obsession over details. Time will tell.

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I’ve moved my blog to what will hopefully be it’s final home. Don’t have plans to move it again, though you never know. I haven’t actually moved it too much, not counting the WP.com approach, and the LozBlog relaunch (sending old posts to a subdomain), it will be the first time it changes domain.

Update (2013-12-05)

I moved the Blog from domain again. Don’t remember exactly when, and I don’t want to call it again “final home”, since I already lied once in there. But the change was for a good reason: the .me domain didn’t offer autorenewals, so for a period of time, on the yearly renewal day, LozBlog was going to be down until I manually renewed/paid. That drove me mad enough to dump it.

Update 2020-04-22

Moved again, to lozbo.com

The post New Home appeared first on LozBlog.

Hace tiempo, dos años exactamente, salió el primer teléfono con el mentado Google Android (HTC G1 fue llamado).

Para ese entonces yo había decidido no comprarlo, dado que nunca terminé de migrar satisfactoriamente a Google Apps, le faltaba el no se qué, que qué se yo, y el dispositivo en sí (factor forma) no se me hacía particularmente chido, y además ya había pasado demasiado tiempo esperando y como un año o antes, me había conseguido un Windows Mobile, que a pesar de toda las batallas por las que ha pasado, sigue vivo (mi XDA Exec).

Hace algunos días, o semanas más bien, se anunció el sucesor a este dispositivo, el HTC G2, llamado Desire Z en reino unido, que al parecer, y a diferencia de la versión americana, cuenta con un layer de customización sobre Android que en lo personal me parece bastante interesante, o al menos así lo hacían ver en el keynote donde lo presentaron (muy interesante el evento, ese chinito loco de merca me cayó bien), y con bastantes mejoras en comparación a su antecesor.

Precisamente, había estado yo pensando meses atrás de hacerme de un nuevo y verdadero smartphone de última generación. Y no es que la Exec, la iPaq 610, o el recientemente adquirido N95 no fueran verdaderos smartphones, es que simplemente no están al tiro con la tecnología de hoy en día, al parecer más que de hardware: de software, lo digo un poco desganado ya que no estoy totalmente seguro que el software sea más importante que el hardware.

Y eso sin contar mi Nokia nosequémodeloviejo de esos que vienen en los kinder sorpresa, que le dura la pila sin descargarse por años, tiene la mejor señal de mis no pocos celulares, hace banca móvil y además destapa cheves. Si eso no es smart, entonces no sé qué lo sea.

Como sea, por mi mente pasaron: iPhone, Nokia N8, y Android (habiendo de éste último un surtido rico). Windows no había liberado su nueva versión telefónica. Pero hablaré de mis pensamientos sobre cada uno de estos en otra entrada; odio los blog posts que no se pueden leer en un par de minutos.

No hay nada que me sea más repulsivo que una entrada de más de 5 párrafos (excepto quizá que se coman mi comida en la oficina). Argh! Sexto párrafo =( y se comieron mi pizza en la chamba )=

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