Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A.A. - Estoy vieja II (Being old II)


Mi sobrina de 3 años con su mamá:
subiendo las escaleras me dice mi pequeña de tres años: "Aaay mamá cárgame" y yo le pregunto "Porqué? No puedes caminar?" "No", responde ella en voz de quejido. "Porqué no puedes caminar?", pregunto yo, y ella me responde "Por que ya estoy VIEJA!!!" jajajajajajajajajaa

Esta niña está aprendiendo demasiado bien de lo que oye de los adultos!

Translation:
Climbing the stair my 3-year old girl tells me: "Aaay mom, carry me". I ask her "Why? You can't walk?" "No", she moans. "Why can't you walk?", I ask. She replies "Because I am OLD!!!" 

I feel like this girl is learning too much from what she hears from adults!

Monday, November 28, 2011

A.A. - jugando a ser Marthelo II (playing Marthelo II)

Mi sobrina de 3 años con su mamá:

Mamá jugamos a que eres Marthelo? "Aaayy Marthelo eres taaan precioso y me ayudas a lograr tantas cosas!!!" (Como qué cosas le ayudará Marthelo a lograr????? Hacer btortillitas de plastilina? A pintar huellitas con pinturita dactilar???? O quéeee!!!!) Esta chamaca es INTENSAAAA!!!
Qué miedo... (!!!)

My 3-year old niece tells her mom:
"Mom, do we play that you are Marthelo?: 'Aaayy Marthelo you are soooo cute and you help me reach so many goals!!!" (Point at which I wonder which things Marthelo helps her do ??? play-dough little balls or colored fingerprints drawings???? Or what!!!!) this kiddo is INTENSEEE!!! 
Scary... (!!!) 

Have a good week!

 

I really liked this "message today". Again, very appropriate for job hunting season. 

I didn't get to try the tea; it was meant for someone else... who didn't seem to like it much :-)


Sunday, November 27, 2011

Revolución de las conciencias (no translation, sorry!)

Sheridan habla en su última columna sobre los nuevos andares del honorable candidato presidencial Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Resulta que ahora trae como principal objeto de inspiración "La Cartilla Moral". Escrita por Alfonso Reyes, es (cito) " un breve texto escrito en 1944 a solicitud de Jaime Torres Bodet, titular de la SEP, para acompañar la campaña alfabetizadora de [...] Manuel Ávila Camacho, un presidente muy interesado en la moral de la patria."

El texto pretende resumir las opiniones más importantes al respecto, como aquéllas de los griegos clásicos (para los que fueron al ITAM, si uno la empieza a leer, inmediatamente vienen recuerdos de las clases de Ideas I). Y si uno busca en google un poquito más, parece que han llamado al texto "la versión mexicana de la cultura universal." No encuentro la fuente. Pero volvamos a AMLO.

Sheridan piensa que el párrafo favorito del candidato es "aquel en el que Reyes dice que "la satisfacción  de obrar bien es la felicidad más firme y verdadera. Por eso habla del 'sueño del justo'. El que tiene la conciencia tranquila duerme bien." Para "obrar bien" y dormir bien es menester "educarse para el bien", alcanzar la "moral de los pueblos civilizados (que) está toda contenida en el Cristianismo".

"Obrar bien" - "Obrador bien". Comienzo a imaginarme un buen slogan... De entre todas las personas, ¿Con qué autoridad moral llegan los políticos con estos discursos? La realidad supera cualquier telenovela de Televisa. Pero esperen. Debo ser buena y no pensar mal de las personas de primera instancia. Esto es lo que AMLO le contestó a Aristegui cuando le preguntaron qué le inspira la "Cartilla Moral" (cito también de la columna de Sheridan):

"Tolstoi escribió muchísimo sobre esto. Hay mucha filosofía sobre esto. Martí hablaba mucho de esto, de la importancia del amor y de la felicidad, de no apostarlo todo a lo material y, en efecto, Alfonso Reyes escribió esta cartilla moral. No recuerdo, Carmen..., el título es 'Cartilla Moral', pero sí sé que es un decálogo, es lo recuerdo bien, he leído el documento y lo vamos a difundir porque es interesante. Él habla en ese documento de que es una especie de constitutición moral, fíjate qué interesante: es una constitutición, no como la nuestra, pero es una constitución que tiene que ver con la moral."
Sheridan termina con broche de oro:
Bien dicho, con franqueza y sin vanidad (que no sea un decálogo, carece de relieve).  Es una de las lecciones de la 'Cartilla Moral' que mejor leyó el candidato es la que avisa del peligro de tomarnos 'con demasiada solemnidad, porque ello esteriliza el espíritu, comienza por hacernos vanidosos y termina por volvernos locos."
Para los que tengan curiosidad del documento original, la pueden encontrar aquí.

Friday, November 25, 2011

"The Promised Land"

I am indulging on the newest New Yorker's cover. By Christoph Niemann. 




Here is an extract from some comments he made to the Huff Post:

"The debate should be about how can a country benefit from immigration. America depends on immigration. The discussion will be more valuable if it is focused on benefits". 

"I draw a parallel between current immigrants and early settlers -- the hope is that it will provide context, to help keep things in perspective." 

Also The Economist had an article last week about the benefits of diasporas: usually immigrants are very hard workers, with high aspirations, and create good support networks that help boost economic growth. Not only they send money back home, but they also get more educated abroad and bring back that knowledge to their countries of origin. I quite like the closing paragraph of the article

As for the old world, its desire to close its borders is understandable but dangerous. Migration brings youth to ageing countries, and allows ideas to circulate in millions of mobile minds. That is good both for those who arrive with suitcases and dreams and for those who should welcome them.

Also from The Economist, here is a nice chart that shows where are the Chinese and the Indians outside their own countries. There are "more Chinese leaving outside mainland China than French people living in France." And only about 22million Indians live away from home.


Thursday, November 24, 2011

A.A. - ¿le dices? (do you tell him?)

Mi sobrina de 3 años y su mamá:

Confesiones de "chicas" en el baño: "Ay Mamá, Marthelo es taaan lindo!" (me dice mi pequeña de 3 años) Y yo le pregunto: Y se lo dices? Y ella me contesta: "Claaro!!!" A lo que yo un poco intrigada le pregunto: Y él qué te dice? "AAyyy Anna Aurora eres taaan elegante!"

¡La nueva generación de chamacos!

My 3 year-old niece and her mom:


Girl talk in the bathroom: "Oh mom, Marthelo is sooooo cute!" (my 3-year old tells me) I ask her: "Do you tell him so?" She says: "Of courseee!!!" A bit curious I ask: "And what does he say?" "Ooooh Anna Aurora, you are soooo elegant!"
This new generation!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy (and safe) Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving season in America, and everybody is thinking of turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce... I am taking the rest of the week off in California, so you can expect less posts this week as well (sorry!).

While all the newspapers are stuffed with both classic and innovative recipes, I leave you with a video that I received from the Columbia University staff about the Dangers of frying turkey. State Farm is an insurance company; it's in their best interest to minimize the number of claims for burned down garages due to frying turkey accidents. Only in the U.S. :)


Happy Thanksgiving!!

A.A. - ¡Paleta! (lolly pop!)

Anécdota de mi sobrina de 3 años contada por su mamá:

Mi hija: mamá quiero una paleta por favor. YO: toma. ELLA: esa no quiero, quiero con vainilla y fresa, no pura fresa. YO: es la única que tengo, la quieres? ELLA: NO!!!! Quiero un paleta. YO: esa es la única que hay. -ELLA: esa no quiero! Paleta por favor!!! YO: no hay otra! ELLA: paleta con vainilla !!!!... y después de 15 minutos de la misma alegata se hace un silencio de tres segundos seguido por "qué complicada eres, Mamá".... Jajajajajajaja

Y tenía que ser niña... :)




An anecdote from my 3-year old niece, as told by her mom:


My daughter: "mom, I want a lolly pop, please." ME: "here". HER: "I don't want that one. I want with strawberry and vanilla, not only strawberry". ME: "It's the only one I have. Do you want it?" HER  "NO!!!! I want a lolly pop". ME: "This is the only one there is". -HER: "I don't want it! Lolly pop, please!!!" ME: "There's no other!" HER: "lolly pop with vanilla!!!!"... After 15 min of tantrum there is a 3-second silence followed by "you are so complicated, mom".... hahahaha


She had to be a girl!

A.A. - un abrazo (a hug)

Anécdota de mi sobrina de tres años contada por su mamá:

Estoy Absorta en mi lectura y derrepente escucho la vocecita de mi nena que me dice "mamita necesito un abrazo"... Me derretí...
Quién no se derrite ante tal comentario...

Anecdote from my 3-year old niece, told by her mom:


I am engrossed in my reading when suddenly I hear my daughter's little voice that tells me: "mommy, I need a hug"...
*Sigh*


The last sentence in Spanish means, literally, "I melted", although I am not sure that would be the appropriate expression in English (?). In any case, who wouldn't melt after hearing those words?

Monday, November 21, 2011

A chart of money

Check out this graph by xkcd about the different dimensions of money. Be sure to zoom in to appreciate all the details. You may have to use the link to the website to be able to do it.



Sunday, November 20, 2011

Capitán America (Captain America)

(via montt)

English translation: 


Today in: Superheroes with denomination of origin issues.


"Oh, yeah? Well, let me tell you that I am Captain America around here."




This comic is particularly meaningful to me because using America to call the U.S., or Americans for gringos just didn't seem right. I mean, if I was born in the American continent, I am also an American, right? I know, I know... how would we call them otherwise? Gringos is definitely not politically correct. BBC used to have a nice way to fix this ambiguity of terms. They used to* split their News sections into continents, calling The Americas what in Spanish we are taught as America. I am sticking to that one, and I will not mind calling Americans, Americans.

*Currently the subdivided the Americas into US & Canada and Latin America. 

La Liste

Lately I have been enjoying listening to songs both in French and Italian. I am afraid that if I study Italian too much I will forget what's left of my old French... or even English! I can't seem to conjugate verbs properly these days.  Anyway, so I naively listen to Carla Bruni hoping it won't fade away so fast from my brain... I guess there is only so much space in my spongy brain for new stuff :-).

But hey! Carla Bruni is so 2002. So here's a song (from 2009 I think) that grooveshark kindly recommended me with their "radio" function. I like it a lot:


Many of the items in the list of the song are actually in my list of to-do-things... :-) Happy Sunday!


Saturday, November 19, 2011

Losers' song

Sorry that I have been so delayed with my posts. I am still feeling pretty tired after coming back from the conference and there is a lot to do before the Thanksgiving break (which I am taking off, of course! yeay!!).

What I have for today is somehow funny. It all comes from this link. It is very well known that Columbia University literally sucks in sports. I have only been to a basketball game and it was pretty shameful. (American) Football is no exception and here are some irrefutable stats: they lost to Cornell for 62 points, 37-0 to Dartmouth, and 44-21 to Albany, among others.

It turns out last weekend at Cornell we were losing again when the music band that is meant to cheer for the team at each game (tough job!!) came up with the following lyrics to the traditional "Roar, Lion, Roar" song:

We always lose lose loseby a lot and sometimes by a littlewe all were winners at the start,but four years has taught us all the value ofjust giving up, cause we really suckwhy are we even trying?we always lose lose losebut we take solace in our booze.


As a result the band is now banned from marching the finale (!). I agree that this is definitely not the best sports spirit, but I still found the lyrics funny and creative.  What do you think?

Picture from source of news.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

How do you treat yourself in times of stress?


It's almost midnight and I am in Charlotte, North Carolina at this major conference. I slept 2 hours yesterday and even though I am super tired, I can't sleep. Too many things going on.

How do you treat yourself in times of stress? I exercise regularly (my yoga lessons are sacred), but sometimes I need an extra punch. I recently discovered one that does wonders. I look for sources of laughter. Not just giggles, but real laughter... best if I cry. So if something makes me laugh, I just let myself go into the feeling... it kinda spreads all over the body. Nice feeling to counteract against stress!

The other day watching a couple of episodes of The Daily Show and Colbert Nation did the trick. I LOOOOVE them. But now, in this conference (and also last week) the best has been to be with my good friend, Rouba. We shared office during the PhD for 3 years and we became really close. She's always very funny and positive. I love that we can be so open with each other and laugh at pretty much anything. This is definitely the best way I have found to treat myself. Thank you, habibteh!!

How do you treat yourself?

(image via Rum For Tva)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

A.A. - jugando a ser Marthelo (playing at being Marthelo)

Mi sobrina de 3 años con su mamá (contado por mi prima):
Mi hija: Mamá, jugamos a que tú eres Marthelo? (su "esposo")Yo: okMi hija: Marthelo, mira yo soy tu princesa porque traigo mi pijama azul y mi boca pintada y yo te quiero, por eso eres mi príncipe, eh Marthelo?Yo: ok (cortándole las uñas y sin voltear a verla)Mi hija: Mira Marthelo mi amor, tengo un moco (diciéndolo con un tono tan romántico)Yo: jajajajajajajjajaaj plop!!!!!!!
 Imagínense salir con algo así en una cita. Lo máximo. Me recordó a una anécdota que leí en uno de los n blogs que leo,  A Cup of Jo. La chava contó que una vez estaba en una cita con un chavo con el que estaba saliendo y de repente, así de la nada, el cuate salió con que "tenía un bigote muy lindo." Jajajajaja. La pobre se traumó y cuando llegó a su casa se lo razuró!!

Aprovecho para avisar que me voy de conferencia mañana. Espero estar de vuelta en el blog para el 20 de Noviembre. Igual después a lo mejor baja un poco la frecuencia de los posts porque el trabajo va a aumentar mucho de aquí a... no sé... mucho tiempo... ¡Espero estén disfrutando su fin de semana!


My 3 year old niece with her mom (told by my cousin):

My daughter: Mom, do you want to play at being Marthelo (her "husband")?Me: okMy daughter: Marthelo, I am your princess because I am wearing my blue pj and I am wearing lipstick and I love you. That's why you are my prince, eh Marthelo?Me: ok (this I say while cutting her nails without even looking at her)My daughter (in a very romantic tone of voice): Look Marthelo, love, I have a snot!Me: hahahaha plop!!!!!!!

This sounds like a perfect dating deal breaker, doesn't it? It reminded me of one that I read on A Cup of Jo, one of the (many) blogs I follow. When she was younger she was dating a guy who, completely out of the blue, told her "you have cutest little moustache". Hahahahaha. Joanna was so shocked, she shaved it when she got back home!!

Anyway, I will be gone for a conference next week, during which I will be super busy... Hope to be back to regular posting by Nov 20th. It's all steep uphill from now until... umm... I don't want to think about it. I hope you are enjoying your weekend!


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Occupy Academia

Utterly. Awesome.



Curiously enough, I don't quite like Cecilia's blog (pun very much intended).

In your (jelly beanie) arms

Have you seen this video? It's cute and very creative, isn't it?


What I had not watched was the video of the making of the video. I thought it would be cool to see how they did to put so many jelly beans (288,000 of them) into nice frames one after the other. I assumed Kina Grannis was filmed with a green screen behind separately and then they had put everything together. But oh, no! She was actually there, with the jelly beans. Every. Single. Frame. (2,460 of them). Take a look:


The production of the video took more than 2 years, the shooting of it more than 1. Did you see how the creative producer gives her instructions on how to pose? I would have not lasted for more than 3 days... and that's a maybe. I like her. I like seeing passion for a project. And I also love her make up :-).

Lifecycle video - Life is short. Live your dream

The video doesn't really say anything new. It's about things that we need to be reminded of every so often. It's easy to get carried away with the flow, and stop paying attention to what really makes _you__ happy.

It's ironic how hard it is to live up to our own and independent expectations instead of everyone else's. I am trying to do it as a daily exercise: do more things that make __me__ happy. Only then I am able to make other people happier.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Log in

I am not good at blogging from my smartphone. I had an app for that (free, because I use Android), but it didn't work too well and I ended up uninstalling it (which might have not happened if I had had to pay for it... :-P). So then I read stuff in it that I like, but can't share them on my blog. grrrr. These things make me grumpy... 
Anyway, the point being that with the latest Christoph Niemann post I remembered I somehow missed to link to one that was published on September 30th. It is called Log In, and as its name suggests, is about passwords. 
I used to think that I was OK at remembering them, but now I find that I am not only forgetting them but it's also happening at a non-decreasing rate! I wonder what will be of my brain after I have a child. I may start forgetting my usernames, or even worse, my name itself :-). I blame it all (because I always have to have a scapegoat) on the password managers of modern browsers. They make our brains lazy :-P. Or is it just that I am getting old? Am I alone on this one?
Anyway, as usual, here is a sample from the illustrations, but please do take a look to the full post. I love the pet... and the sheriff...  and Niemann :-).

Christoph Niemann - Log In
Christoph Niemann - Log In
Christoph Niemann - Log In
Christoph Niemann - Log In
Christoph Niemann - Log In
Christoph Niemann - Log In
Christoph Niemann - Log In
Christoph Niemann - Log In


P.S. If you are about to create a new password, here is a cool xkcd comic about how to generate one. Made me feel a bit stupid... :-)

Christoph Niemann illustrates the NYC Marathon

In case you didn't see it in the news or some other blog, illustrator Christoph Niemann made a sequence of illustrations of the NYC marathon while he was running it. On top of that, he was tweeting each illustration live @abstractsunday and @abstractsunday1 (at some point twitter didn't let him upload so many pictures and he head to create a new username).

Look at the full sequence in Niemann's blog in the NYT Magazine and share a giggle.





UPDATE: I just found a picture of Niemann in action in NewYorkology! :)))



Sunday, November 6, 2011

Pierre Cardin - fashion to the people

I just read a brief note about Pierre Cardin in the BBC Magazine. It's brief and to the point: the man is 89 years old, lucid, and controlling a fashion empire. I am not very knowledgeable about designers; to be honest, the name "Pierre Cardin" seemed to me like such a classic, that I thought he was dead already. It's an inspiring story. Really. And he's right, out of all the other major designers from the 50's and the 60's, he's the only one that didn't sell his name to a multinational. He became one of them. I let you read the article. If you are in a rush, though, here are some fun facts:

  • From humble Italian origins, Cardin moved to Paris with his father when he was 2 years old, fleeing from Mussolini. 
  • He began his career by making costumes for film-maker Jean Cocteau (who is that guy? I so wished it said Jacques Cousteau, even though it doesn't make any sense ;-) ). 
  • He never smoke a cigarette in his life (!!!); he never did drugs.
  • I never new he was famous for Space Age creations. Some of them don't look so futuristic anymore... or I am also becoming more adventurous in fashion ;-).
  • The reporter who interviewed him describes him as rather scruffy. This could sound a bit contradictory to his profession, but as the reporter well points out, not to his origins.

Cricket Fighting

There are not many animal fights that are object of betting and big markets that I can think of other than dog fights. Today the NYT features an article about a more than a 1,000 year-old tradition: Cricket Fighting.



A bit of History: 
It first started within the walls of the palaces of the Tang Dynasty (sometime between 618 - 907) and later popularized. It was banned during the decade-long Cultural Revolution that ended in 1976 and now it is undergoing a revival by younger Chinese men that are eager to maintain ancient traditions.

Some numbers: 
Last year more than $63 million was spent on crickets (!!!).  
Connoisseurs claim they are able to distinguish up to 260 different kinds of crickets.

A diet like Michael Phelps's: ground shrimp, red beans, and goat liver. "The truly spoiled might enjoy the occasional herbal bath, and a maggot or two just before the big fight."

Curious world we live in.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Artsy to-do list

Sometimes the silliest things make me smile :-)


(via swissmiss)

A.A. - Qué vas a ser de grande (What will you be when you grow up?)


Le preguntan a mi hija de dos años: "Tu qué vas a ser de grande?" Y ella contesta: "Vieja!" jajajajajajajajajajaja

Esta frase es de Marzo 10 de este año. La tenía guardada por ahí y se me había olvidado publicarla. Parece muy adecuada para estas fechas en que ando buscando trabajo :-).

Este fin de semana tenemos puente, como decimos en México. A ver si lo aprovecho para lavar ropa, limpiar el depa e ir al súper... ufffff, sólo de pensarlo me emociono jajaja. ¡Feliz finde!
Somebody asks my two-year old daughter: "And you, what will you be when you grow up?" She replies: "Old!" 

Event though this phrase is from March (my niece is 3 years old today!), it seems very adequate for these days in which I am looking for a job. While there is so much uncertainty around the job market, at least I know I will be old with probability 1 :-).

We are having a long weekend over here (Election Day). My plans include doing laundry, washing clothes, and do groceries. Exciting, isn't it! Happy weekend!

Picture from here.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Spherical Cow

A.A. - ¿dónde te vas a sentar?


‎"Mamá te vas a sentar aquí conmigo o allá sin migo"
Jajajajaja esto me recuerda a mi Filippín... a veces me sale con frases como "sí, todo portigo" :)))... la pequeña diferencia es que tiene 10 años más que su edad es 11 veces más la de mi sobrina :))). (gracias a mi prima por corregir mi typo. Ya estaba quedando yo como asalta cunas jajajajaja)

I am sorry, here there is really no translation available. I can only offer some grammatical explanation (boring alert!).  In Spanish we have one word to say "with me", but if you want to say "without me", the word breaks into two, and the last syllable is dropped. My niece kept it, making it sound very funny :). Are there similar things in English? Would love to know... 

Better cotton

I found this article today in the New York Times: Levi Strauss Tries to Minimize Water Consumption. The article tells about how the company is worried that if water becomes too scarce, their whole business could be jeopardized. And so... 
... to protect its bottom line, Levi Strauss has helped underwrite and champion a nonprofit program that teaches farmers in India, Pakistan, Brazil and West and Central Africa the latest irrigation and rainwater-capture techniques.  It has introduced a brand featuring stone-washed denim smoothed with rocks but no water. It is sewing tags into all of its jeans urging customers to wash less and use only cold water.

But actually, Levi's is not alone. Pepsi is also saving water by sanitizing water bottles with purified air instead of water. Also, I quote,  "[...] Ikea, the Gap and Adidas, founded the international nonprofit Better Cotton Initiative to promote water conservation and reduce pesticide use and child-labor practices in the industry."


And how is the sales doing? According to their Chief Marketing Officer, jeans that were advertised as low water consuming sold faster than regular jeans. Some customers, like me, never heard of the initiative before. The company, curiously enough, is trying to convince people not to wash their jeans as often too. As photographer Mr White puts it


“As long as you don’t get dirt on them, don’t do a lot of strenuous activity in them and — sorry if this is a bit vulgar — be sure to always wear underwear, you can really go a very long time between washing,” he wrote.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

A.A. - amor por el abuelo

Fuimos a casa de los abuelos y al irnos de regreso a nuestro hogar, mi hija empieza a llorar y a pedir regresar y me dice: ¨Mamá NECESITO a mi abuelo, mira mamá, lo necesito ya viste? Lo necesito, porque no puedo respirar sin él¨ Uta! la chamaca sí que heredó las dotes histriónicas de la familia!!!!!!

Que conste que esas dotes no vienen de nuestro lado de la familia ;-)

 We went to our grandparents' and when we were on our way back home, my daughter starts crying and asking to go back. She said: ¨Mom I NEED my grandpa. Look, mom, I need him. Can you see? I need him because I cannot breathe without him". OMG! This kid did inherit the histrionic traits of the family!!!!

Just  wanted to make clear that that is not my side of the family ;-)

A.A. - ¿me amas?

Me dice mi hija: "Mamá, te amo,y tu me amas?" "Claro", le contesto,y señalando mi pecho le digo "Mira, te amo con esto (corazón)" y ella me pregunta: "con la bubby?" jajajajajajajajaajja

Y entonces yo me pregunto, ¿a qué edad empezaremos a entender en abstracto que el cuerpo tiene órganos y que además, atribuimos el origen de nuestros sentimientos a uno de ellos?

 My daughter tells me: "Mom, I love you. Do you love me?" "Of course", I tell her and pointing at my breast I tell her  "Look, I love you with this (the heart)" and she asks: "with your bubby?"

:))) When do we start thinking of body organs more in abstract? I would guess that it happens when we get sick and we are able to localize the pain very well... Otherwise... ?