Mentioned in linux today

Ha!! It seems I made it onto “linux today”, although this was some time ago.

Is it Holdup or Held up?

Is it just me or is English on American television just awful?

During an episode of Smallville where Lois’ sister scams the gang out of 50 000 dollars, a sentence caught my attention. That sentence was, “She’s been holdup in her room all day”.

I don’t know if they use the same writers but since then, I’ve heard it on Scrubs, too. Well, I’m sorry to say but according to the New Oxford American Dictionary “holdup” is a noun as in “stickup”, “heist”, or “burglary”, and not a verb.

Kerrie asks about Chilean girls, food, & riding whales

My “bestest” friend Kerrie asks about Chilean girls and piercings, Chilean food, and my whale riding –as she rightly should, considering I moved from Canada to Chile two years ago. I frequently get these sorts of questions from curious friends, so I thought I’d address them here.

As for girls with piercings here. I don’t see them very often, so I don’t think they’re popular (piercings not girls). About wearing sandals, do slippers count? I wear them every morning after getting up. I did recently get my whale driving license. Have you ever seen the last version of the movie Dune? Well, now you know what whale riding is like … fantastic and exhilarating!!

I think icebergradio.com sucks!

IcebergRadio’s OS X support is terrible!

They are resistant to having their service heard on the widest possible range of platforms. This is
ridiculous. It’s like a tv station wanting to be solely watched on Sony television sets, and assuring it stay that way. You’d be out of luck if you had a Toshiba or any other brand tv!! The music was great, but their disregard for maximum interoperability is atrocious, meaning they’ve consistently shown they do not care about having their music heard by Mac users. I don’t have memories of getting it to work on Gnu-Linux, either.

Journalism/Literature degree vs. a college journalism education

During a graduate class in methodology, I recall my professor Dr. Willie Braun saying that our literature degrees weren’t worth anything unless we produced some kind of tangible product that benefited society. (At least, this is “how I remember it”.) Of course, he was referring to journalism. He even booked a (Edmonton Sun? or Edmonton Journal?) newspaper writer to give us a class presentation, although she never showed up.

Why did Dr. Braun bring up journalism? Well, we had to hand in tiny articles, summaries or abstracts, that were more akin to journalism articles than our minimum 14 page argumentative MLA essays. Now a lit. degree does not make a journalist, then again a journalism degree doesn’t guarantee substance in any area of knowledge –just that you can “try” to effectively communicate and water concepts down to a high school and elementary reading levels. I’m intrigued by this, in how one explains complex concepts in a simple and precise manner, without butchering those concepts or patronizing readers.

My “adored” unsolicited calls from TELMEX

Dear TELMEX,
I know that you’re very interested in my business. That’s why you have your nice representatives wake me up in the mornings and call me late evenings. Not to put you down, but you must really be hard pressed to call me repeatedly after I’ve turned you down a straight three or four times. I’ve told you I’m NOT interested in “phone to cell” plans.

Pedantic and Prescriptive Editors

Well, I handed my article in (to a FLOSS magazine) after getting a reminder from my editor. I guess I can now look forward to the eventual petty arguments on grammar usage, format, and maybe variant spelling occur … as I recall from the time I handed an essay in to Axis Mundi, a scholarly journal written by University of Alberta undergrads. No, I’m not writing for them.

Academic Nincompoops & Job Searching in Chile

One of the irritating factors about living in Chile is dealing with the pseudo-academic nincompoops when looking for a job.

Regarding an add for an academic job that does not mention where to send one’s CV , I called the “For more information call …” number listed.  I’m pretty sure  the department head (directora) picked the line up (her voice gave it away).  What I got was an unprofessional,

“Hello, why are you calling?”. Given her tone and informality, she may of just as well phrased it, “Hello, why the hell are you calling?”.

“I’m calling about the job advertisement.”

“And you want to know … what … where to send your CV?”

After that statement, I thought I had a real genius on the other end of the phone.  I answered, “Sure, that would be helpful.”.

But before receiving any information I first got interrogated with (what I’m pretty sure is an illegal interview question), “Where are you from”, as if my origin mattered.  I thought to myself, “Is this job only for people of a certain ethnicity, or race?”.

Breaking into my Neighbour’s Wireless Network

My Chilean neighbour accused me of cloning his lap-top’s mac address and trying to log into his wireless router.

Out on the Night with Steph and Marlén

Seems I made it onto someone’s blog again,

Maurice Cepeda

This is licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License. All brands mentioned are properties of their respective owners. By reading this article, the reader forgoes any accountability of the writer. The reading of this article implies acceptance of the above stipulations. The author requires attribution –by full name and URL– and notification of republications. Photos are property of their respective owners.

Ever Held a Gun to a Bunny?

You know I have friends and family on fotoSomething.com (wordpress doesn’t allow the publishing of this site’s domain name), so I sometimes check these postings out. Every once in a while I stumble upon photos that impress me in one way or another, such as this one,

Stephanía Gutmann, my Friend the Mooch

Seems I made it onto Stephanía Gutmann’s fotolog.

Don’t read anything into the stared corners, or maybe you could but as far as I’m concerned there isn’t anything there. We refer to this Stephy with descriptive words such as “balsa” (slang and equivalent to “mooch”), which refers to that lovable friend that always shows up empty handed –even if they agree to help out in potlucks.

Canadiana Music

I’m not sure why I started writing this entry (some time ago), but I gather it had to do with being away from my Canadian home for over a year and longing for Canadiana.

Noteworthy in my opinion, is the classic
Stompin Tom Connors

Not so classic but good,
Jim Cuddy

Newer artists include,
Ron Sexsmith
Rufus Wainwright

Windows, a Victimized Hip Culture

In the years of his PC computer use, my younger brother got caught up with the “build your own custom computer, install pirated Windows and save money” movement. While I, at the time, recommended he buy a mac, he was told they were over-rated and expensive, thanks to his Windows karate friend named Jeremy who always thought he knew better. (If I recall, you could get an 400MHz G3 IBM processor in a second generation iMac, while Intel made lowly 200MHz processors on which Windows ran.)

Well, the “build your own computer mindset” lead to stability problems, presumably due to a lack of hardware support in the way of frequent system crashes that didn’t let up until Windows XP, which –by that point in time– ran slow on my brother’s ageing machine. Adding to his continuous stream of problems, lately, he has all sorts of trouble with his Windows installed laptop. He associates his Hotmail problems (he has problems receiving emails) to the fact that he runs a pirated copy of Windows. Because of this, he can’t update his system, either. So, his OS is a security powder keg waiting to happen. Not too impressive considering that he does intelligence gathering on the middle east for a think-tank on this setup.

Show Stoppers, OS X vs. BSD & Gnu-Linux

I hate how Free OS critics attempt to undermine projects by mentioning that little things here and there don’t work or configure easily on BSDs or Gnu-Linux distros as they do on Windows or OS X (yes, I know what it’s based on). They list them as “show stoppers” as in they stop users from taking up these other OSes. In response, I’ve compiled a small list of OS X failures. Keep in mind, this is not comprehensive at all, but just to make a point.

Wild On!

I’m just watching some old hashed up Wild On episodes with gorgeous women, not that there was ever a lack thereof. I have an ex, that never liked the show. She even threatened to leave my pad if I didn’t change the channel. When she realized that I didn’t run to change the channel. She reiterated the ultimatum and clarified that she would leave if I didn’t change it immediately. I never understood why, and –when I enquired (that same night)– she said she didn’t know either.

Edubuntu to the Rescue of Underfunded Chilean Schools!

Okay, reading a couple of articles –that mention the implementation of Gnu-Linux as a low cost saviour to an underfunded school with low processing powered computers within Chile’s under funded school system– really sets me off into a barrel of laughs.

Santiago Dancing Queen

I spent part of the summer in Santiago, where my cousin took me around to to sample the night-life. We happened to go to a strip that was reminiscent of Strathcona’s Whyte Ave. in Edmonton. Anyway, we met up with my cousin’s friend, who just happened to call him. Of course, she was partying nearby with friends, most of which were accompanied –except for a gorgeous tall and dark brunette beauty. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five. My cous’ hitched up with his friend, who has a crush on him. I was introduced to the lone beauty and it was suggested I ask her to dance, not that this was stopping her –she seemed to be doing fine all by herself on the dance floor. If there’s one thing you can say about her it’s, “The girl sure likes to dance”. She was pretty but wasn’t my style –really. I like my girls to look healthy, forget the anorexic model look.

Despite a painful groin injury and some pulled muscles, due to some un-sportsman-like low blows at your “friendly” Santiago Kick-Boxing club, I had limited movement but sucked it for one night on the town –with the help of some heavy duty analgesics. Well, we danced sporadically as I excused myself to rest my injury, giving way with tunes I could not dance. While I excused myself she told me I shouldn’t feel obligated to dance with her because she could dance alone all night long. We went through this spiel about four times. I got the impression that she was emotionally vulnerable and explained that the sole reason for my departures was because I had an injury, and because I couldn’t dance tropical tunes (“you see, I’ve grown up in Canada”). In an attempt to avoid her any emotional turmoil, I offered her conversation at a nearby table. She refused and I walked on over to where my cousin flirted with his friend.

When I arrived at the table, I turned to see that my “dance partner” had virtually disappeared (with one of her female friends, I later found out). I thought it odd that she would disappear, unless she felt rejected (it was the third or fourth time I’d stopped dancing to stand by the table). I was starting to imagine the worst; She suffered from low self-esteem and I had repeatedly injured it.

Protected: Chilean Carrete (Party)

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Socialite

First I was invited to the Tribute to Gonzalo Millán, and now it’s Sonja San Martin’s photography exhibition I’ve been invited to attend.  Also, “Cucao: Luces y Colores de Chiloé” happens on Tuesday May 29th at 7:30 pm at the Marta Colvin hall, an extension of the U. of Bio-Bio (Chillán).

And this Friday there is a theatre play I’ve also been asked to attend. Participating is the beautiful local actress Carmen Paz. It seems I’m quite the social bug after breaking into the artsy crowd with my presentation at Millán’s tribute. Well, perhaps it’s not a matter of breaking into a new crowd as much as the old crowd remembering an old hack.

Blond or Brunette?

Seems I settled down to having a steady girlfriend. The curious thing about this is that while I was in Canada, I made it a point to date girls that looked Latin or might pass off as so (dark brown hair, big brown eyes, etc). Now that I’m in Chile, I hooked up with a white girl –with sandy brown hair (considered blonde here)– and hazel eyes. She’s reminiscent of the local stereotypical huasa (that’s her family’s background too).

La Oveja Electrika

I been hanging out with some old friends, one specifically with which I used to play in a pop/rock band name T.E.M. when I was a teenager.

His name is Luis Toledo and known by various aliases such as Bambach, and Viti.

Anyway, I left for Canada –where I worked, finally graduating from university– our bass player Nando Burgos entered the social work force (he also got married had a family), Roco our singer had to repeat school, but at some point Viti regrouped with others and formed La Oveja Electrika¹ (or La Oveja Eléktrica²) with Wii Cazanova on guitars and vocals, Luis Toledo on bass and background synths and electronic drums, sometimes including Mauricio Contreras (El Chupete) in on drums. Don’t ask what Wii and El Chupete are short for as few probably recall (I know that a “chupete” is a pacifier in typical Chilean Spanish, probably from the verb “chupar” which means “to suck”. I guess if one were to follow this line of thought, El Chupete, means “Sucker” or “The Sucker”.).

Flaky Women

I seem to be a magnet for flighty women (with sexual identity crises). I mean in Canada there was Jody (that wished to be called Sandra [pronounced "Sondra"?], only to change her mind back again); before her, there was a blond that could have been a partial albino given her degree of “blondness”.

To elaborate on one of them, I honestly can’t remember the blond’s name. What I do remember is that I met her at a house party held by skater and punk friends. Most everyone at the party were my brother’s band members, high school friends, and past junior high school classmates (of age anyway).

I hadn’t even noticed her as I was deeply engrossed in conversation with two dudes with red mohawks wearing leather jackets, black patches held with bobby pins, and knee-high Dr. Martins. Maybe it was the Big Bear because we compared our big noses and each was bent on convincing the others and achieving consensus on whose was larger. We probably debated the matter for hours while we covered the finer details, as each presented his supporting evidence.

It was within this setting where the blond’s friend asked me twice to walk on over to the living room and talk to the blond. I was flabbergasted at finding a shy Canadian girl. I recall being told, “Just talk to her”. Upon acting on this, I heard a loud female voice yell out, “Get your frik’n hands off of my girlfriend!!”.

Help Fund Maca’s Summer Vacation

The strange thing I still find about girls here in Chile is that they don’t seem to have much against using their feminine charms for cheap and quick gratification. I find my reactions ranging from the humorous to the offensive, as this is reminiscent of what’s been called the oldest trade in existence.

The Huaso From Temuco

The following pertains to my trip to San Antonio a few weeks ago.It started out when I and my cousins were waiting for my mom in San Antonio. This was going to be a long day for errands, dealing with Chilean Customs (Aduana) beaurocracy in trying to get my things from a container that was flagged (more on this up and coming).

Salutations From El Canelo

I spent the day yesterday getting a tan