happy 40th anniversary Internet dear

a day like today, but 40 years ago
the Internet was born
with a broken message: LO
the 1st message was supposed to be 'login'
but one of the computers crashed
sounds familiar?

today the news is all over, well, the internet
a self-celebration
and following back steps comes
the 1st attempt of connecting 2 computers
through a network, the ARPANET
y
i read it all a while ago
on a book my friend perro lent me

[ highly recommendable if you are interested
in knowing how is it that now-a-days you can read
posts like this, a couple millions more
and counting... then meet people online, and in my case
to actually have a job
(i spent about 80% of my time at work
writing HTML and CSS and plenty at home
surfing, reading, writing, posting, uploading,
downloading, eExisting...)]

ah yes, the book is
Were Wizards Stay Up Late:
The Origins Of The Internet
it's very exciting to read about
the guys who were able to transform
human communications forever
& why such a project was intended for

and i just realized, '69 is my birth year too
i am as old as the internet...

and i think there's no cooler way to celebrate
than to visit Kevin Kelly's superb project
The Internet Mapping Project
[don't skip reading his soulful eIntroduction]

he has collected 'sketches' or 'maps' of the internet
on his flickr site for a while now
these sketches go from cute & funny to bizarre
and you can even download, sketch,
and submit yours here!
a few of the maps, click to enlarge
and read the age, occupation, and hours
the drawers spend on the internet
very interesting!









and here you can see all the 113 Kelly has so far

Ligeia, pumpkins, y gatos

high winds and cold weather
doesn't sound like San Diego
but it has been like this the past two days
and i am immensely happy about it!
i finally get to wear a sweater for the 1st time
in about 8 months...

and the weather matches the October Halloweenesque mood
so I've running some of those infamous October errands
like reading Allan Poe's short tales &
getting a cheap, small & rather cute pumpkin for $1.99 at Von's



and i am not sure if to cook it and munch it down
or to carve with a silly face like last year
[halloween 2008]
although it's sad to keep it away from herr Gato
who is rather enamored with it



he's not supposed to climb on this table
but since the arrival of the pumpkin
every time i leave the house and come back
i find him sleeping by it
i moved the pumpkin
and the napping cat followed it
so funny!
my guess is he likes the smell



and on breaks and to break away from
obnoxious everyday issues
i've been reading this classic Allan Poe's tale
Ligeia
I read it many many years ago
I was a teenager, 12, or 14? maybe?
and I read it in Spanish
so it is pretty much a brand new story for me
and the old English style
it really takes you for a few minutes
away from it all, trying to understand and make sense
of all those complicated English sentences and especially
to imagine those scenarios that mister Poe so
delightfully narrated... by the time it all makes sense
you realize the obscurity of the matter handled
here here free eBook a simple & sober .txt file
courtesy of the wonderful Gutenberg Project
and you might as well read the whole compilation
where this story appears, Famous Modern Ghost Stories
selected by Dorothy Scarborough, Ph.D.
Lecturer in English, Columbia University
New York, March, 1921.
yes!! 1921, so old classic tales
really, you should...
enjoy!


Ligeia illustration
~by an author whose name i don't know but who has
a great illustration of Allan Poe's creepy tale in Google images

don't cage the hen that feeds you

little advice on how to make the burden less
on the animals we abuse every day to feed ourselves...
of course i could help more if i were a vegan!
but since i am not, at least i buy eggs from cage-free raised hens

i am claustrophobic myself, so i can only imagine what it's like
to spend one's lifetime inside a cage, let alone
putting tons of eggs for those ugly two-legged, loud-speaking
animals to collect them every morning and engorge on them
boiled, fried, or on muffins and pancakes...

so no posts, bad mood days, ah but a tea advice & more blah

i've been rather moody the last couple of days
called in sick 2 days
migraine (under control)
but still... &
tiredness, bad mood, and general down-lowness
all mostly courtesy of the jerky thievery
landlords & owners of the roach motel
the placed is rented
but they are trying to take advantage of me anyways
returning a misery of all that i gave them

so yeah
blah blah blah
gray gray gray
angry tired & a mess
thank God i remember
there is a whole long life
of mine before and after this sordid
episode
and at the end it will be all a silly post

and sure, i am not taking it
am going to the small courts claims
ah! i will for once test the American legal system
hooray????

so like with many other bad episodes in life
a smudge of grayness among the blue skies
of one's life

yeah, they might take advantage of me
but at least i am me and not them
heh heh

and then i opened one of these
philosophical tea bags


ah sighs!

[and the word you don't read complete
'cause of my dry finger is 'reason']

The Fun Theory

this is cool!
be patient though
& download the video (by pausing it)
before watching it all
... it's that slow :(
worth watching, or not?
i truly hope so
not me, but you
shall be the judge



[via http://www.rolighetsteorin.se/en/]

achieving Nirvana, the furry way

after reading Dr. Jay's from Yoga for Cynics
The Cat Story, i remembered this photo I took
from herr Gato a couple of weeks ago

I was wondering how long it took
Paramhansa Yogananda to become a Yogi
and how much discipline and control one has
to exercise to become a bit relaxed
let alone to be a little enlightened...

and yet herr Gato seems to achieve Nirvana
pretty much every time he naps around...
maybe he's getting all of Paramhansa's knowledge
by osmosis, since he likes to sleep by his book



as i told you before, he loves to nap
around books, funny fat blond cat this herr Gato
everyday i am liking more his literary relaxed style

October 07

today, October 7, is my favorite aunt's birthday
my aunt Margarita
so it's Thom Yorke's b-day too
one of my favorite artists
notice that i didn't say favorite singer
i think he's actually not a great singer
but his conceptual mind
has mesmerized me (& millions)
for years now
his interesting solo album
The Eraser proved what he can do
without Radiohead
as the allmusic.com review says
it's intensely focused and steady...
and visit his website too
TheEraser.Net

here some of his solo & live performances


and sure, a Radiohead song too

these very dark days for me
feeling weak against roaches, sickness
asthma, allergy, and over all
selfish human behaviors
sure i wish i was too
bullet, human & roaches
and broken heart proof too



this is not the 'official' video of the song
but i feel it fits the tune...

Limb by limb and tooth by tooth
Tearing up inside of me.
Everyday, everyhour, wish that I was..
Was bullet proof

Wax me, mould me
Heat the pins and stab them in.
You have turned me into this, just wish that it..
Was bullet proof

So pay me money, and take a shot
Lead fill the hole in me.
I could burst a million bubbles, all surrogate..
& bullet proof (slowdown, slowdown, slowdown)
Bullet proof (slowdown, slowdown, slowdown)

new apartment gone awry

i canceled the lease in the about-to-be-my-home
'cause i found roaches in the fridge...
saw them one night right before moving in
& after having signed the 1-year lease

now i am
dealing with getting back my in-advance month of rent
and deposit
then these are
busy. strange. hectic. confusing
times

yet i am OK hopeful to get
at minimum my deposit back
and some of the month-rent money

and even if i hate courts
somehow i wouldn't mind taking the matter
to the small claims court
i feel strong and would love to face
the guys that were supposed to be my landlords
they were prompt to reply on a weekend
when they wanted my deposit and rent in advance
but they sent the contractor to talk to me
and didn't reply my phone calls when i canceled the deal

tonight, i wrote many e-mails to those landlords
and talk to a jerky one for over 30 mins on the phone
& for a calm smiling mexican, i feel i did pretty well
my broken accent and surely many English mistakes
but i wasn't intimidated at all...
i was fighting for my rights to live roach-free!!!

specially inside a fridge!!

and yes!! they were right
moving sucks!!

promise to reply to the lovely comments
when i am less pissed off

and oh human deals,
here we go

mister Blue Jay

so this is one of the things
i feel i could miss from my old house
although i am already planning
to put a bird feeder at my new place


[click on the photos to enlarge, it's worth, he's a pretty guy]

ahh mister Beautiful Blue Jay here
i looove their mocking sounds
so loud and irreverent
and they are such beautiful elegant guys
of course they take dives at the cats
and people, they are a little too territorial
but wow! their blue feathers are some of the
loveliest shade of blues that nature can produce



and these Californian Jays are actually
Western Scrub Jays
beautiful moody guys