A Cry for Attention

After posting the Picasa link, I was trying to fall asleep when a thought occurred to me: am I crying out for attention? Why am I doing this blog thing? Posting pictures online? Do I just want people to look at them? Maybe leave me feedback/comments to let me know that they're actually looking? That I matter to them?

This wasn't (consciously) my intent when I started these online info sources. The blog was pretty much Sona-inspired. The pix came about by perusing Google's features. I think it's cool that I can post pix online and be able to see them from anywhere in the world (except computers hooked in through China!).

Maybe part of it is being able to share things with other people...I used to be able to share stories, pictures, music, alcohol, time, etc. with bunches of people all the time. I still like to share, and this seems like an alright medium to do so. I can't deny that I normally like attention, but I'm pretty sure that the blog/pix site started for other reasons. But maybe I'm just in denial.

Pix Online

You can go to http://picasaweb.google.com/fmj30cal and check out some of my pictures. One more thing that Google is giving people the power to do. I guess there's snapfish and shutterfly and those other things, but I never got into them. The downside of Picasa is that you have to download their software in order to upload photos to the web. I wouldn't label the software "intuitive," either.

Anyways...I hope to post only pictures that are good pictures (or funny or have some other merit) and I'll avoid posting 17 pictures of the left side of my face from the road trip this weekend.

Hope you enjoy.

Voseo

Hace unas noches, hablé con Paula por teléfono y la pregunté como se forma el voseo. No sabe las reglas, pero me dio ejemplos y puedo formar el presente (se usa la persona "tú" para todas las otras conjugaciónes) para verbos regulares. No veo una manera intuitivo para formar los iregulares.

Más o menos, funciona así: reemplace el r al fin de un infinitivo con un s y escribir un tilde sobre el vocal final. Nota: los argentinos no dan mucha enfásis en el sonido del s al final. Por ejemplo:
hablar: yo hablo, vos hablás.
escribir: yo escribo, vos escribís
correr: yo corro, vos corrés

Iregulares:
ser: vos sos
querrer: vos querés

verbos normalmente iregulares que no son en el voseo:
tener: vos tenés
venir: vos venís
hacer: vos hacés
salir: vos salís
poner: vos ponés

sin título

escrito el 17 de Mayo de 2005 en las escaleras de mi cabaña de Salango, Ecuador a las 2309h. escuchando las olas del mar pacífico.


Aguas tal vez de una orilla
lejos traversan a la mar
se introduzcan a arena
fina, caigando con ruido.

Como son del mar, regresan
a su hogar que sostiene
el mundo necesitado
siempre será el agua.

Benches and Stairs

I got a picture frame with 20 openings for Christmas. On New Year's day, I printed out pictures and filled up the frame with pictures of stairs and benches. If you didn't already know, I have a picture fetish for those 2 things. In fact, I had to reject some pictures of the same subject in order to keep my selection down to the number of available openings in the frame. It was only $4.10 @ Walgreens to get all 20 pictures printed out as 4x6s (I adjusted the size of the "good" part of the picture in photoshop first).

Pick #5

Brightest by Copeland, the first track from Beneath the Medicine Tree. It's infectious. Whenever the album starts, I have a hard time turning it off.

How Lobster Diving is Like Getting Laid

Recreational lobster diving can actually be done in shallower water by snorkeling, which is how I do it most of the time. Even without all the scuba equipment, the sport can still be expensive. Normally you have to go somewhere away from your home/work in order to do it. You either need to have a boat or know an accomplice with one. Then you have to spend money on the boat's fuel and anything that breaks in it. If you are going for more than one day, then you need a place to stay (which will more than likely make you shell out some dough). The legal limit is 6 lobsters per person per day. That means that even if you find a nice spot with 200 lobsters in it, you can only take 6 of them until tomorrow. After you add up all the costs, it turns out that the lobster sold in stores is actually cheaper. Just leave the work to professionals and the market system to leave you with high quality lobster...and you don't even have to risk swimming with sharks to get it.

For some reason, I have the perception that most people think highly of lobster. It's a great meat, and a little expensive. Refined. Tasty. Desirable.

How is lobster diving like getting freaky? Most people value sex...some of them might value it a little too much (I think they omit some of the costs in their mental cost-benefit analysis). People spend a lot of money (AND OPPORTUNITY COST) in order to get other people to get them off. Men will take women out to nice restaurants, buy them shiny rocks, and all kinds of other stuff in an effort to persuade the women to give it up. Turns out that it's probably cheaper to hire a professional prostitute. This leads me to the conclusion that there MUST be some other benefit to having a girlfriend/wife/hook-up provide the desired service rather than a random (or maybe not so random) whore.

Conclusion: something about the hunt, the challenge, the possible elusiveness of lobster (or chocha) makes the ones you catch yourself taste even better. Overall, they're worth more. One reason might be because you hand-selected your own catch.