broken-hearted (or lungs) blues

i am broken hearted
i went to the doctor today
'cause i have a swollen finger
probably a spider bite he said...
but then he got to listen to my lungs

and oh boy!
my oxygen levels are really really low
from a normal 300 points
i got 120...
i saw it coming
i've been wheezing a LOT and having to
use my fast inhaler almost twice a day

and i saw it coming too
i am allergic to the Gatos, i knew it
no matter how much benadryl i take
or how many times i wash all around my home
when you are asthmatic, you are asthmatic
and when you are allergic to cats, well, you are
and not much can't be done

so... i am so sad and confused
not to mention tired

dunno what to do about my beloved Gatos
who i finally seem to have taken care of
to a point where they feel OK, with a home
and not living in the alley
but now this...

i am on Corticosteroids (QVar) inhaler for 2 weeks
and having to use my allbuterol inhaler for a while

and i must find a solution to deal with the cats
i could move to a place with 1 bedroom to
leave them outside my room
(i live in a studio now)
but also, they love this place so much
they are able to go out (most of the time they
are outside my house...)
and they got attached to this place more than to me
although by now they roll over & purr
when they see me...

as my mom & my best friend said
some illumination might fall to my head
(and lungs) and i will have to make a decision
to move or how to deal with the cats sooner
than later

or in the meantime, and thanks to my new
friend blogger's inspiration Diatton
of listening to some incredible blues
i could well write the "asmathic & the cats"
blues...

to all my friends who i owe replies
comments, etc. please bare with me
i am stupidly busy at work these days
taking a class, and fighting with myself
to get some air in my lungs...



here some info on asthma, that i should
read
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec04/ch044/ch044a.html

cleanDesktop

nothing like a clean desktop
to start working on...
i hate having tons of files' icons
dragged into my desktop
yet it gets clutter easily
tonight, i cleaned it and created
icons for my 23hq's fotos
for my blogger files, and even one
for my friend perro's CD design
[click on the photo for a closer view
of my little folder icons]



if you'd like to customize your folders
by changing their icons
here's this helpful/quick page
that transforms .png files
into .ico files, so you can recreate
folder's views or upload as favicons
on your website
http://www.convertico.com/

the Literary Gato

i've been enjoying very much reading
The Awakening, yet, i had to stop 1/2 way
even if it's a short book 'cause
i've enrolled a CSS class at Mesa College
so my reading time is taken my technical reading...

but it's good to know that Herr Gato likes my books
this is about the 4th time that i leave a book on my bed
and he goes and lays right next to it
i think he likes the warmth and smell of good literature
oh! i've found another authentic Literary Cat!

California dreaming becomes California nightmare

first we became broke
& now
we are on fire
again!

is this the end of the Golden State?
glad i've enjoyed for almost 10 years now
living here
'cause the dream is coming close to an end
it's more like a nightmare everyday

and then again
when i see how wasteful American people have become
claiming expensive technology to survive
that we cannot afford, use cell phones and flat screen TVs
but not for productivity but for "fun"
& then eating all the crap we can and see around
and driving over-sized cars in the freeways
living in houses full of empty luxury but lacking
education and morals... men caring about having money
but not on how it is obtained...
women with fake nails, and over-colored hair
and stupid men falling for them, and their boobs that
are huge, but fake...
as all seems to be in the US these days
even if one is not so religious
one feels compelled to think
is this some sort of ala Sodoma-Gomorrah punishment?
since most of the people are now lacking some
goddamn common sense!!!
maybe we are getting what we deserve...
or as Ignatius J. Reilly would say in one of my favorite
American novels of all times, people seem to be
lacking "theology" and "geometry"

read the excerpt:
Several of the outfits, Ignatius noticed, were new enough and expensive enough to be properly considered offenses against taste and decency. Possession of anything new or expensive only reflected a person's lack of theology and geometry; it could even cast doubts upon one's soul.'
~A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

not sure, but hey! hope you've enjoy the fun
and wasting while it lasted you, 'cause now
we are as screwed (or worse) than any 3rd world country

and it's useless to blame the government, or the institutions
or the weather, or anybody else...
at the end, the only ones responsible for all this are
ourselves!!! (this stupid thumb-opposable human race)
which seems never to learn from its mistakes
A Confederacy of Dunces we indeed have been
when i read about assholes such as the idiot of
Kim Jong Il (should be Ill)
and other members of this race, i look at my cats
and apologize to them for being another human
oh if i had feathers or fur, probably i would be
more natural and healthy/helpful to this Earth...
and i wonder
why Dinosaurs became extinct? with their big bodies
and small brains they seemed to handle much better
this wonderful planet Earth than we do now-a-days
i say, let the roaches or the ants, or the bees
we are killing, rule this world!
they do know organization and hard work much better
than most people walking on the streets these days
and are much more considerate too!

anyhow, the scenes from Los Angeles on fire
are devastatingly sad, hoping that we Californians
can rescue the little that is left...


downtown Los Angeles and its cloud of smoke from the surrounding fires

extreme heat in San Diego, are we all going to melt away here?

only a few words
since my computer is on one
of the warmest spots of this little home
i'll let the images talk



since Friday, we, here in San Diego,
been having this extreme heat wave

the whole summer has been on the cool side
some hot days, but with cooler evenings, etc.
but as August finishes, comes along the hottest month
for Southern California, September


these are the monsters of Sun
who are keeping us down and hot

today is the last day of August and
it's so damn hot!!!



here poor Herr Gato
trying to take a nap and cooling off by some ice pacs
i left for them on the floor
i have a very small portable air conditioner
which i've been leaving on at the Mega-Cool setting
supposedly it cools off the room to a 64°F temperature
well, even with it blasting off
the temperature inside my house reaches up to a 86°F
about 30°C... i feel so bad for the gatos
trying to keep them cool, but i am afraid
we all have a headache and feel like wasted pieces
of hot rub...



here a copy/pasted section of our
**Special Weather Statement**
Statement as of 6:01 PM PDT on August 29, 2009

... Continued very warm through next week...

The dome of high pressure over the southwest responsible for our hot
weather the past few days will drift east and weaken slightly
through Monday. However... while temperatures will be a few degrees
lower... it will still be very warm with highs well above average for
this time of year.

Greatest cooling effects through Monday will be in the coastal zones
from a shallow marine layer where highs will range from the upper
70s at the beaches to the low 90s a few miles inland.

Farther inland... away from the cooling effects of the marine
layer... it will remain very warm. Inland valley highs will range
from 95 to 105... the lower deserts from 108 to 113 degrees... and the
upper deserts from 95 to 105. Mountain highs will range from 85 at
6000 feet to near 100 in the foothills.

Looking ahead to next week... the heat wave will continue through at
least next Thursday as the upper high rebuilds over the southwest.
Cooler weather is forecast over the Labor Day weekend as a trough of
low pressure moves across California.

Prevent heat exhaustion and heatstroke by avoiding strenuous
activities during the hottest part of the day. Wear light-colored
and loose-fitting clothing and drink plenty of water. Never leave
people or pets in enclosed automobiles... even for a short time.

The Kennedys

the death of Edward Kennedy



brings back the memory of this
legendary family
if you are interested in American politics
or, like me, are just fascinated by world history
watch this chapter of PBS's American Experience
on The Kennedys
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/kennedys/



rather interesting & a hopeful yet tragic part of our history
[a complete version online, watch]

Friday night at Ibiza West Studios, Saturday back from Orange Country on the train

the Pacific Ocean thru the train window

a good weekend starter
drove to Garden Grove, Orange County
to meet the DJs friends
and other music aficionados
beers, salsa & chips, great conversations!
music, of course
hand-selected, played & recorded
ala DJ from OC & San Diego styles
my little set was...

Set August 21/09

• Lali Puna – 50 faces of
• Kraftwerk – Spacelab
• Barry White – Love’s Theme
• Medeski, Martin and Wood – Uninvisible
• From EBTG’s Back to Mine/The Ananda Project – Cascades of Colour
• Kruderremixes’ Bebel Gilberto-Tanto Tempo
• Georgia – A hundred birds
• Lali Puna – Toca Discos
• David Bowie – I am a D.J.
• The Velvet Underground – Lady Godiva’s Operation
• Brian Eno – St. Elmo’s Fire

Saturday morning, thanks to Amtrak trains
traveled from Santa Anna Ca to San Diego
and this through-train-window view of
the Pacific Ocean for almost two hours
that the trip took
California is bankrupt, but still beautiful
living here...

tv & kitchen piece

TV watching


kitchen piece

i haven't photographed much lately
lack of time and/or
the automatic focus of my dslr broke
{not that i use it all the time, yet is a bit
challenging/strange/frustrating
to work with a known broken apparatus
specially one loves so much...}
so...
uninspiring scenes
and another hundred lame excuses
i hide under my procrastinating sleeve
not to post photographs as often
as before

but the truth is...
42? well, not really
the truth is that i set for myself
higher standards, the latest photos i have on 23
are of stunning sunsets, or skies
and they are stunning not because of my photos
but because they were, regardless of who photographed
so now i feel sort of bad to post silly photos
also the standards of the site have become so high!
almost every photograph is a piece of art
& i feel silly to post less than very good photos...
so, the material i have these days, is from indoor photos
from my dirty kitchen, or my swollen feet
or of cats asleep, and home messes

i haven't been to walk on the beach or the park
or anywhere too interesting for that matter
so i just don't post, until tonight when i thought
enough!!! after all i started posting randomly
unimportant and not very stunning pictures
and i had so much fun with it!
nobody commented on them, so maybe i had more
freedom to post anything no matter
how stupid, blurry, or with low quality it was

so tonight here, not on 23, sadly
and 'cause i don't have 4 photos in a row
as i've been posting always on 23
always at least 4 photos at the time
since the beginning of my posting there
in late 2005
(a bit, or a lot of an obsessive rule
i have NO plans to change...)
therefore gladly here in this ranting
stupidity chronographed
one bad moody picture
or two, from my home scenes
uncompromisingly bad
unresistingly blurry
bad-lighted orange
here we go...
as posted above
{with a very Nike attitude
of just do it...}

ah!! the pleasure, of not having to please no-one!
specially/mainly one-self...

the good, the bad, the sad, and the OK

after a little battle with myself
last Saturday, i went to the YMCA again
working it out finally, after almost a year
of living the sedentary life
only walking but highly eating, mostly seating...
but i am back to healthy me
so far, 3 days of 35 min on elliptical machines
and 1 1hr pilates class yesterday
so sore today!
that's the good!
&
the bad...
the automatic focus of my alpha 100
is broken!! oh well
guess i will have to manually focus
in the meantime i have time to fix it

another good
via Facebook i have found many of my
beloved old friends from Mexico City
the sad...
since Saturday, i haven't been able to connect
too busy at work, too busy at life to spend
any computer leisure time
and working out in the evenings gives me time
to pretty much take a shower, make dinner
chase the cats, and to zzz again
when going back to the gym
my days are full, wake up between 6.45 or 7am
make breakfast, prepare lunch
at work by 8.30 or 9am
until 5.30 or 6pm
then home to change
to the gym and home again at 7, or 7.30pm
shower, prepare dinner and/or grocery shopping
then it's 9.30 or 10... read or watch a little TV
talk on the phone with Perro or/and mother
and then by 11 off again
without turning on the computer, otherwise i can get
there for hours

weekends, exhausted from this train of life
i get lazy on Saturday mornings
and then the cleaning begins, at least 3 loads of laundry
since the cats share the space with me and i am allergic
my bed sheets and rugs must be washed and changed weekly
tons of dishes to wash since i have to cook most of my meals
'cause of the migraines...
sometimes i do have a couple of hours to walk to the Park
or catch a movie on the big screen or on DVD and read a bit more
or around town, again the grocery shopping and
preparations to survive the coming week eat most of my weekends

so it is here the sad survival of a single lazy woman on a
high-strung society... if it were for me
i'd read the whole day and eat meals in a restaurant
but i guess for that one would have to be a millionaire

i've been working/living at this pace for the last couple of years
but this year that i've been having to cook my meals
and taking care of the cats, the amount of free time is reduced

since February, when i took a long weekend to get an MRI
in Mexico and had an awful weekend then, i haven't had a single
day off, except when i have to take time off 'cause of a migraine

my next vacation will be one week on Thanksgiving
since they are closing the office, so i must accumulate vacation time
so they don't discount those days from my pay check...

last year i took a 3 week vacation to go the Grand Canyon
and i am still paying my debt of NO free time since then

but anyways, even if i complain of the lack of free time
i do enjoy my little hectic busy life
better to be busy than to be unemployed with tons of free time...
i too, been there!

ah! and to complete my business... i have enrolled
a Cascading Style Sheet class
at the Mesa Community College
only 3 units, so i won't be as hard as learning German
which was 5 units per semester

i do like the sound of life going on around
even if it leaves me little time to play with
my photos at 23, or to rant at this my blog
or to reply at Facebook

as we say in Mexico,
Hay mas tiempo que vida
there's more time than life

The Awakening, Kate Chopin

after reading I Me My's review of
Kate Chopin's The Awakening
i remembered that El Perro's father
gave me a used copy of the book
i went looking right away for my copy
which i remembered very well
mostly for it's cover...
fair enough, after all i am a designer
so colors and shapes stick to my brain
easier than plots or names


[front & back of my old used copy, rather cool!]

and i just happen to be
"in between" books
so after reading I Me My's compelling review
i am making it my next book to read

and i already have 2 favorite parts of the book
the lower back cover design
[pictured above]
and the pencil-written price of 1 dollar