This week movies,

First of all, I sincerely apologize for neglecting the weekly leisure report. The reason behind this is

1. Stargate Atlantis Season 1-5, ****
   
   I read about this series on the internet a few months ago and decided to give it a try. I watched a good 100 episodes comprising the five years run of this Stargate SG-1 spin-off. It is true to the television series model of periodical repetition of a given structure; in this case, contact with a new culture, troubles due to this culture or the wraith, feeling of impending doom, and happily ending back in Atlantis. There's a permanent "do the right thing" discourse underlying the whole five seasons; one can even find an apologetic to militaristic interventionism in one of the last five episodes. What really caught my eye is the permanent feeling that everything is a satire and not an apologetic of such political endeavours. Then, it doesn't mater, it's just a tv series.
   

The Big Bang Theory third season is on the winter recess. During the missing weeks, episode ten and eleven were out and Sheldon got kissed, believe it or not. I'm telling this because the real surprise is the identity of the character whom kissed Sheldon.

The cobblestones (2005)

"Love doesn't exist," he said loudly to the new moon in the night sky. Slowly, his drunken steps took him away from the hlavná namestie. The outer rim of the staré mesto, with its tower gate, surprised him whispering to himself, "nevertheless, I wanna believe it does." A world away the girl he wanted to believe he loved was probably sleeping, trying to solve her own troubles.

It was a good day, why not? After the rain, the sun always shine the most, and the skies are the most beautiful shade of blue. "Such is life", he thought, "after the dark of the night the light of the day comes, once and again."

The stride built up momentum, and then he found himself walking with a smile on his face, and a proud stance on his body, "nevertheless, I wanna believe it does", he said to the cobblestones of the road.

The bus

She came in a hurry into the bus, a mess of boxes and bags. It took him a second to stand up and offer his seat to her; politely, she declined; gentlemanly, he asked again; honestly, she accepted. They crossed words, just a few. What came in excess, flooding the bus with the warm of kindness, were disguised smiles and stares...

The nightly ride...

It begins against a pinkish background; the sun is about to leave the sky. The students, here and there, some calmly others noisily, process slowly down the hill; a living flux. Tsing Hua is never empty, but always peaceful. The road turns into a trail; it is now when the nightly journey really begins.

An undefeated steep segment stays victoriously, it is possible to hear it whispering a welcome back in the gust. The wind stays, the steep slope's way to encourage those riding; don't give up... Just a few meters more... You will do better the next time...

The rest of the trail is silent, respectful; the ghostly walkers too; it is possible to smell the silence, to feel it crawling on the skin, to taste its herbal flavour, but hear it.

The night has come; the dark sky vault can be seen as the bamboo canopy is left behind; stars are hidden beyond our polluting photons, dreaming about that time when they could see those tiny beings that manage to hide their lives from them behind a resplandecent courtain.

Now it is possible to hear the silence, it croacks! Splashes! Flaps its dark wings on the sky and screeches!

This week movies,

This week, I can recommend the following movies,

1. Assembly, ****
   
   This film tells the story of a certain episode of the Chinese civil war between the People's Liberation Army and the National Army. A story about recognition for the death. Not our typical western war movie.
   


2. Man on Wire, ****
   
   This is a documentary about Phillippe Petit, the tightrope walker who cruised the abyss between the now destroyed Twin Towers of the WTC. A documentary about the ego, the plot, the ego, the friends and, yes, the ego.
   


3. Gomorrah, ***
   
   A movie about the Camorra, the Italian Mafia. Their modus operandi and modus vivendi. I found myself lost on this film at times; if you ask me, some of the stories just do not flow seamlessly into a whole picture. Nevertheless, an eye opener.
   


4. Idiocracy, ***
   
   This is a comedy and a satire. The first 3 minutes made me roll on the floor laughing. I know intelligence has nothing to do with genes but nevertheless it seems like just that is happening.
   

The ninth episode of The Big Bang Theory third season is out there and you will not believe what is happening in Wollowitz' life.

Thanksgiving 2009

I am thankful for this life, for the chance of roaming the earth in the arms of my beloved family, by the hands of my awesome friends.

The Giant Iguana, my bike, is ready, loaded with enough food for a day. It is amazing how cheap food is in Taiwan. The bill for water, fruit, orange juice, half a chicken, bread and a sausage was 382 NTD, a little bit more than 10 USD. The day is just about to start, the sea is waiting, always waiting...

Hsinchu is not Taipei, a left alone Lexus, its engine purring with nobody in sight, reminds me. Taiwan is not Mexico, an arms dealer shop which is empty of costumers makes me have the day nightmare of such a store back home...

Quality of life, city parks to sit and enjoy breakfast at the shade of a massive tree while a traffic department lady checks the cars for parking permits. Civilization, being able to bike without risking one's life enjoying statues here and there; unblemish statues, grafitti seems to be as foreign as it sounds. Hsinchu is not a big city, respect seems to be still a currency...

The fields, the city is left behind, come with a realization: Taiwan is a secesionist of China. Jet fighter patrols taking off every 10 minutes and landing accordingly make me thing about the surrealism behind living in a country that is not a country, at least not for the UN and the world biggest players. The war birds are as beutiful as dangerous. Fear is not up for the trip. This is a trip of peace, a thanksgiving tour...

A small town, Hsinchu Harbor, appears. Crisis, an unfinished highway stays in the middle of the river leading to a certain death if one were to follow it. It reminds me of the ghost mall and hotels in downtown Hsinchu City, another face of the same coin. There were always better times in the past...

The sea! The needle sting of sand blast off by the wind. The sea! Immense, surrounding everything, both peaceful and turbulent. A lively sea. At last we met windy Taiwan Straight. The sand is dark, the sea is brave, the wind is strong. I'm home. Beware me, shouts the sea, once you dwell on me nothing is the same...

The Harbor's park is lively, kytes flight up on the sky, families group around the jungle gyms, fish are taken out of the water by amateur fishermen, tandem bykes parading love around. It's a thursday in Taiwan...

17km await, flirting, promising time to think and the companionship of just the sea. The common sense tries to stop me as the batteries of the gps give up half way. Now it is time to get lost, in order to find something...

The sun sets on the horizon, wind turbines swoop, the mangroove stands still. Peace...

The way back flows, no need for senses, no need for maps, no need to trace your steps back. Just flow...

9 hours and 50km later I'm back home, thankful for this life, for this place, for this chance.

This week movies,

This week, I can recommend the following movies,

1. Synecdoche, New York, *****
   
   I will not brag about understanding this movie. I think art is about something like this. I could not consume this film, the story, the photography. I have left it apart to watch it sometime in the future, although not soon.
   


2. Surf's up, ****
   
   I like animation movies a lot. They are masterpieces of digital technique most of the time. This one is not a masterpiece, but it got me for the relax, you have to pursuit your dreams but you have to enjoy the ride, that is the ultimate source of accomplishment, not reaching the dream, feeling of it.
   


3. Choke, ****
   
   Sometimes, I like bizarre stories with an extra go beyond the bizarre twist. This film got to my hands precisely at one of these times. The story of a con-man son to a psychotic woman, Anjelica Houston, and the struggle for love and drive.
   


4. Cloverfield, ****
   
   This is a thriller. Great pace. Awesome storytelling. I am marveled by the storytelling. A scifi, a thriller, a love story. All packed in one and all not told in a straightforward manner. I really liked this film.
   


5. Pineapple Express, ***
   
   Do you remember Cheech and Chong movies? Well, this is something quite similar. Prepare yourself for a weed comedy. Plus there is a lot of times when continuity is just not right, or something just don't match, or you can see a glance of the film crew. Just like in the old Cheech and Chong movies.
   


6. 9, **
   
   As I was preparing to watch 9, my expectations grew. Surely, you can figure the result. I was disappointed. While this film is a masterpiece of animation with great storytelling, there's nothing else to it. At least I could not find it.
   

The eight episode of The Big Bang Theory third season is out there and it is great. Lennard, Raj and Howard go camping for the Leonids and have a not-consiously desired weed experience. Meanwhile, back at home, Sheldon has to overcome his driving issues in order to help Penny.

I love Tsing-Hua

The place is wonderful. As I enter the campus, the city is left behind. Every step taking me deeper into the green. A few minutes pass by and I am surrounded by the most beautiful shades of green.

Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University is located behind the 18 peaks mountain, the place with the highest altitude in Hsinchu City. That is around 100m above the sea level. The NTHU is located in the East District of Hsinchu, some 15km away from the sea shore.

The NTHU covers a small area, 105 hecatereas, if you compare it to state universities back in Mexico or in the United States of America. The campus has some fifty buildings in total, three beautiful natural ponds plus an artificial pond serving the experimental and teaching nuclear reactor. It also has two gardens, one being the Mei Memorial Garden in honor of the first presiden of the University and the other a butterfly garden, which I have not found yet. There is a 1km trail connecting the Memorial Garden with one of the ponds and you can get to the 18 peak mountain if you take a detour from this trail.

The architecture is magnificent. The buildings are huge; for example, The Institute of Photonics is located at the Electronic Engineering and Computer Science Building which is eight stories high, plus one or two underground levels, and has a footprint of about 3600 square meters. I think the Physics Building at our side is bigger and the Chemistry, the Engineering and the Management buildings are for sure bigger than ours, can you believe it?

Inside the campus, it is possible to find anything you could need on any given day. There are three food courts catering all kind of cousines, there is even a burrito stall at food court on top of the bookshop and below the international students center. I have seen a dvd rental shop, a copy shop, a fancy coffe shop, and a great, cozy coffe shop and second hand bookshop where people gather to play jazz or watch a movie on the evenings. The owner of the latter is a cool phylosopher who also plays the piano.

There is a convenience store somewhere near the dormitories. That is another amazing story. I am told that every first year student has a dorm room secured as soon as he enters NTHU and if he wants to pay for it. Alas, first year students have to serve as cleaning crews for the departments they are associated. Professional cleaners just do the toiletts of our buildings. Postdocs and students have to clean their own laboratories or offices. The offices of professors and the common areas are cleaned by the first year students.
Also, there are living facilities for some of the faculty; the ones hired in the beginnings of NTHU, some 50 years ago, have nice houses besides the campus; the latter hires have apartments at high rise buildings inside the campus. It seems it is a tradition here to die in office, like it happens with faculty in Mexico. Thus, the more recent hires get a monetary compensation for housing instead of an incampus apartment.

I know UNAM has a larger campus and an ecological reserve. The feeling is not just the same. Here, like in the Slovenska Academia Vied and the Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan, I am part of the greenery. I walk it every day. Yesterday, on my way to my office, I saw a blue crane or gull or stork eating a huge worm just by the arts garden and its rock sculptures, I saw an old couple feeding bread tothe white-orange and black carpes at the smallest of the three ponds and I saw my first white crane catching a black carpe on the same pond. Everyday, the Physics Building looms in the horizon, like a castle behind its river seen from the nearby forest.

Every day. Walking NTHU is feeling the green, watching the faces of the students talk, smile, enjoy. Enjoy! Furthermore, NTHU is a part of the community, the mother teaching her son how to play piano at the communal pianos in the music building; the adult ladies doing taichi and chikung every morning by the badmington court. the young men and woman learning how to swim at the swimming pool behind EE&CS; the old couples walking the trails for excercise and then relaxing at the benches by the ponds; the newly weds taking pictures at the shrine in the middle of the main pond... well, I guess you get my idea.

That is what a university is about, at least for me. I love Tsing-Hua.

This week movies,

This week, I can recommend the following movies,

1. Repo, The Genetic Opera, *****
   
   A self proclaimed Goth, but I would say Cyberpunk Rock Opera. Great music, great apocalyptic ideas, great costumes, the songs lyrics are not so great. If you liked Dr. Horrible, just watch this.
   


2. Boy A, ****
   
   The tagline for this film is "Who decides who gets a second chance?". Thus explores the film through the story of a teenager who has been in jail serving a sentence for murder. What is a second chance, in the end?
   


3. Iron Man, ****
   
   This is what Iron Man is about. Robert Downey Jr. at his best, is he acting? The best Marvel film shoot to day due to the great reinvention of the character. A possible reason behind this opinion is that I grew up reading X-Men and I know nothing about Iron Man.


4. Be Kind Rewind, ***
   
   An enjoyable comedy with Jack Black, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow. An old man reluctant to change, his VHS rental business, an old demential lady, and two stupid men. One of them manages to erase all the tapes, then they start remaking the films. I wonder if Jack Black can do some other type of character.


5. The Spiderwick Chronicles, ***
   
   If I were a 10 year old kid this could have got me sit through the movie pointing and yelling at the appearance of each of the aos sí and complain that there was a mixture of mythologies. Indeed, I was a weird child. In my defense, I had the normal dinosaur stage too.
   


6. Planet B-Boy, ***
   
   A documentary on breakdancing revival around the world and what it seems the most important breakdance competition in the world. I'm surprised about the importance of dancing for the Japanese and Korean competitors. Great moves, I wish I could do at least one of them.
   


7. Speed Racer, **
   
   The Wachowski brothers revisit the Japanese anime from the sixties "Manha Go". I grew up watching reruns in the early eighties, that is the reason for one star. It is a good reinvention of the old story, that is another start. As an exploration of new filming techniques it is an interesting proposal, but not of my liking.
   


8. The Ruins, *
   
   Another scary movie that happens during spring break. A nice touch is the location, a Mayan Pyramid in the Yucatan peninsula. I will say no more as it is quite predictable.
   

The seventh episode of The Big Bang Theory third season is out there and it is great. Wanna talk about family discussions and spoiling your child? I really wonder where all the events on the Koothrappali - Wolowitz relation will lead.

I have the best girlfriend ever...

Lydia wrote a calavera for me because it was All Hallows day.

In my home region, the Huasteca in Mexico, All Hallows day is known as Xantolo and the indigenous tradition is quite similar to the Irish Samhain: On november 1st, the date is fixed due to Catholic Missionaries influence I guess, as the days come shorter the dead are allowed to come back and roam the earth. We prepare for our dead relatives an altar with their favourite food and drinks. In order for them not to get lost, a road of cempazúchil petals is laid from the street gate to the altar.

By night, Xantolo is a huge party. Los viejos (spanish for the old men) start roaming the streets as they go to the main square. Los viejos are an ensamble of young men lead by a horn holder, half of them wearing male costumes and half wearing female costumes, nowadays women are giving the chance to participate too, who represent the death. They walk the streets from the graveyard to the mainsquare stoping now and then to perform a two line dance to a certain traditional tune played by a violin and a guitar. As the tune finishes they dancers break loose and start chasing children around until the horn holder blews the horn and calls them again to walk the street, I loved this when I was small. Truth be told I still love this now.

In the past, during our dictatorial periods, All Hollows days represented an oportunity to conduct political satire through verses known as calaveras. Also calaveras are written for those you care about. My girlfriend wrote me one for this Xantolo:

Estaba Blas en su hora de comida

saboreando arroz como de costumbre

cuando de pronto aparecio la temida

esa que dicen trae pesadumbre

La figura vestida de negro

comenzo entonces a hablar

no importa que estes en el extranjero

de mi no te vas a escapar!

Solto blas una carcajada

que hizo a la flaca enojar

no digas tanta pendejada

mi novia me va a rescatar!

Los dos me hacen los mandados

y a los dos me los voy a llevar

sirve que ya no estan separados

y juntos x siempre se van a quedar!

--- o ---
Here goes my free translation...

Blas was having his lunch hour.
Eeating rice as usual.
Suddenly, the dreaded,
that they say brings grief,
the black-clad figure
began to speak:
"No matter that you're abroad
you will not escape me! "
Blas laughed out loud.
This made the skinny mad.
"Do not say so much crap,
my girlfriend is going to rescue me! "
"The two of you do my errands
and the two I'm going to take.
Serve you well, that you are no longer separated
and together forever you will always be!"

This week movies,

This week, I can recommend the following movies,

1. Primer, *****
   
   Time travel paradoxes, too much time travel for me. I have watched it twice and I cannot get half of the paradoxes. I will give a third round.


2. Rachel Getting Married, ****
   
   It has the feelings of a documentary with all the camcorder feeling of the takes but it is a movie. I liked it, I always like them movies about families and their dysfunctional way of functioning.
   


3. Son of Rambow, ****
   
   Great movie about childhood friendship and the evolution of a pair of families coping with loss and religion, at leas one of them with the latter. Good takes, great combination of comedy and seriousness.
   


4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, ***
   
   Is this a chick flick or a dude flick? 14 years ago I was the dude, but without money and the girl was not a tv star, and I didn't get the very nice girl who changed my world, well you get the idea.


5. American Teen, *
   
   My first thought was that this was really a crappy movie, it didn't make sense at all. Then I saw the flash of a microphone. I went to imdb.com and realized this was not a movie but a documentary. My skin crawled just of thinking this could be an average high school in U.S.A.
   

The sixth episode of The Big Bang Theory third season is out there and it is good. I never thought Sheldon having such a prolific knowledge of football.

Awful, Beautiful Life...

I like country music. I like stories. With country music you can almost be sure you will be listening to a story, sad, fun, romantic, true, ficticious...

I was doing some algebra today; a not easy to solve problem, maybe one without a solution, as always. I Youtubed a playlist for "the best of country" and in between my favourites and well known songs from Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Mr. Cash, Keith Urban, Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Hank Williams Sr and Jr, well you get the idea, a song from Darryl Worley popped up "Awful, Beautiful Day"

Embedding has been disabled for the original video, which you can watch here.

This one just made me laugh myself out loud,

Embedding has been disabled for the original video, which you can watch here.

Well, it is time to stop working the problems I like and start doing calculations on those that pay the bills.

It's a beautiful life and now it is even better with Lydia at my side.

This week movies,

This week, I can recommend the following movies,

1. Apaloosa, *****
   I like westerns, and this has a nice twist to it plus Ed Harris, Vigo Mortenssen and Jeremy Irons.


2. Quantum of Solace, ***
   I like this new Bond, the transitional feeling of it, an evolving Bond.
   


3. Religulous, ***
   A very small survey of non-important people about religion, but I really value the comments from the two priests interviewed.
   


4. The Incredible Hulk, ***
   I liked this version more than the first one and I just love the idea of The Avengers they are making. I am curious about who is going to play The Captain.


5. Frost/Nixon, ***
   I do not have an idea about US modern history and this moved me to look for the original interview.


6. W, ***
   Ibidem.


7. Burn after reading, **
   I got to this one with high expectations, a great cast but it didn't deliver to me.


8. The Duchess, **
   This was weird, I'm not really sure what to think about it. I'm not sure if it was just a biographical portray, some kind of statement or something else.
   


9. Meet Dave,
   I did not find this one fun enough.

This week there was no episode for the Big Bang Theory for some reason unknown by yours truly.

Is industrious labour inferior?

I was taking a look at Forbes list of billionaires for the first time. I was really surprised that only five from the top twenty billionaires of the world are involved in manufacturing. From the other fifteen, nine owe their riches to retail, two to software, one to investments, one to steel, one to media and one to telecommunications. My surprise skyrocketed when curiosity took me deeper into the success story behind each and every one of the list and I realised most of their riches are due to speculation and trading, not to say that some just inherited. Suddenly, Veblen words where flashing in my mind [T. Veblen "The Theory of the Leisure Class" 1899, chapter three "Conspicuous Leisure"]

"For this class (the superior pecuniary class) the incentive to diligence and thrift is not absent; but its action is so greatly qualified by the secondary demands of pecuniary emulation, that any inclination in this direction is practically overborne and any incentive to diligence tends to be of no effect. The most imperative of these secondary demands of emulation, as well as the one of widest scope, is the requirement of abstention from productive work. This is true in an especial degree for the barbarian stage of culture. During the predatory culture labour comes to be associated in men's habits of thought with weakness and subjection to a master. It is therefore a mark of inferiority, and therefore comes to be accounted unworthy of man in his best estate. By virtue of this tradition labour is felt to be debasing, and this tradition has never died out. On the contrary, with the advance of social differentiation it has acquired the axiomatic force due to ancient and unquestioned prescription"

Or even worse, is productive work a curse?

Productive work puts a roof over our heads, food at the supermarket aisles, clothes at the department stores and cars at the dealers yet it is heavily underpaid and suffers from continuous exploitation [see for example "The Island of Happiness", Human Rights Watch, May 19,2009 or the different cases at "The World Report 2009"] . The last time I checked the curse was on the land not the men [Genesis 3, 17-19].

"(17) To the man he said: 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat. Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life.

(18) Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field.

(19) By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return.' "

Surely not the first nor the second question are to have a positive answer from any of us, then why it seems the other way? There's no one else to blame but us.

This week movies,

This week, I can recommend the following movies,

1. The Visitor. *****
   A college professor with no drive for life goes to New York to lecture about an article he did not wrote and finds himself a life and drive. A combined story about immigration in America and coping with losses and life as an adult.
   


2. The Reader. *****
   When it comes to WWII crimes, Justice, what is justice about? Retribution? Vengeance? Circus? What is our role before, during and after such events? Is it the work of a few men or the whole of society?
   


3. Milk. ****
   A documentary on the life of Harvey Milk, gay rights advocate in the Sn Francisco area in the 70's. Plus Diego Luna playing the Mexican drama queen, yes that's the fourth star.
   


4. Defiance. ***
   Modern era WWII movies are not just my kind of movies but this I didn't suffer. Based in a true story, Defiance presents the first year, out of four, in the woods of the Bielsky Otriad. The touch of Germans speaking German, Bielorussians speaking Russian is good enough to add an star. The photography is nice and some of the dialogues are witty.
   


5. Mamma Mia. *
   I like ABBA songs and I could not believe my eyes when I saw Meryl Streep, Stellan Skarsgård and Pierce Brosnan there; truth be told I could believe about Brosnan.
   

The fifth episode of The Big Bang Theory third season is out there and it is good. I thought the guys at Chuck Lorre could not get better than Sheldon and Raj solving a physics problem, but they did.

When words are not enough.

There comes a time, when the words of our own mother tongue are just not enough. The words may exist, surely they do as Spanish has a LARGE vocabulary, but lack the deeper impact attached to the foreign words though its own culture or just the personal experience...

Geceleri resmine baktım, olanları anlattım. Seni bir görsem diye diye (...) Okuduğum her cümlede, konuştuğum her insanda, gördüğüm her güzellikte, sen de varşın, sen hep varşın

Geçmişe duyulan özlem, birtanem.

It may be I got older; I got the Saudade.

What about responsibilities?

I find it impossible to leave this question behind. Every now and then I hear complains related to violation of some kind of rights: human, children, work, etc. I cannot be more supportive when these complains concern issues about torture, abuse, privation and the like. When they appear to be mere rants arising from the termination of graces, I cannot help thinking about responsibilities.

Does a right come with a responsibility?

The first thing that comes to my mind is the famous quote refering to the attitude of Voltaire, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." [Evelyn Beatrice Hall, "The Friends of Voltaire" p. 199 (1906)] It seems to me that every right comes with responsibility of protecting and providing it for everyone else without any condition.

I'm aware that a formal discussion on the topic should include a broad topic spectrum. Of course paradoxes will emerge when rights seem to compete, e.g. the right to life for the unborn and the freedom of choice for women. Then a most intriguing question emerges,

What is ultimately a fundamental right?

It is beyond my abilities such an analysis, thus let me say goodbye for today sharing two things.

Today, thanks to my brother RoFlo, I was looking at a caricature by Chanu [Ouest France, April 22nd 2009.] at the blog entrance "The perverse destruction of the school in two images, a design by Chaunu" ["La destruction perverse de l'École en deux images un dessin de Chaunu dans Ouest-France"], which provides a good reflection and analysis under the French perspective.
I dare to say that this analysis applies as well under the Mexican perspective.

Does the right to a good education comes with the responsibility to study and to respect our teachers? I think so [AMIT, originally from Save the Children Canada]

Now, I flee; it is past midnight in this half of the world. Good night!

Welcome to Hambrientos Vagabundos...

Hello all,

I'm here again trying to get the feeling of this blogging thing.

Right now it seems like I have managed to embed this blog and some others into my personal web page. I have also managed to embed Picasa's slideshows and maps from Google Maps, so you can follow everything in one single place: Hambrientos Vagabundos. I hope I will have the new design working in a few weeks.

Don't mind the mess, feel at home, relax, drop me a line. I can use the feedback, really!

See you soon with stories about living in Taiwan.