As a good geek

I celebrated this day unknowingly —maybe because every day is Geek Day for me :P
That day I watched the movie 17 Again, and I got more geek jokes than I’d normally like to admit. But now, given that it was Geek Pride Day, I’m going to stick to the Geek Rights posted below by emiliakaarina :)

See more progress on: celebrate Geek Pride Day (and Towel Day) on May 25th, letting all my geekiness run wild and free - geeks rule!

Paletería El Carmen in Puebla

A few weeks ago and again a couple nights ago, I went to the “Paletería El Carmen” just a few blocks south of the zócalo in Puebla. After the concert, my friends and I were thirsty and they suggested we stop there. I had the most glorious tamarind water ever —just a tad sugary but with enough acidity. Delicious and refreshing!
So two days ago, I repeated the experience by myself. The next day, chatting with the women at the crafts workshop I attend at a friend’s house, I told them about it. Turns out it’s the most famous place in Puebla to have ice cream, popsicles, and fresh flavored water.
The freshness and flavor of their products make me wonder why we choose to consume bottled soda and other beverages when we can have the real thing.

See more progress on: buy locally

2010.05.27

• Rain!!! Much-needed rain to balance out the scorching noon sun.
• Spending the morning with my good friend M at her workshop doing crafts.
• Getting a lot more sewing done. It’s taking me longer than I wish it did and most items that were cut 20 years ago obviously don’t fit now as I was a smaller size back then :( But now that I’m on a roll sewing, I don’t want to stop until I’m done with all my fabrics…

See more progress on: enjoy life

2010.05.26

• My friend M called me this afternoon to meet this evening in Puebla to attend the free concert of the Spanish flamenco cantaor Diego El Cigala. I wouldn’t have known otherwise; I thought that the festival was over, but apparently they have another one now. I am so happy I went. He is fantastic and has a great voice plus a very charismatic personality. The main square was the most packed I’ve seen for a concert, and I didn’t find a decent viewing point except from backstage. I never met my friends —too many people—, but the trip was totally worth it: an awesome concert by such a renown international artist.
• Finishing a few sewing projects. I still have a loooong way to go, but little by little, I`m getting it done.
• A call to the consulate to check on my document status. They’re concerned because others’ papers that were submitted after me have already arrived, but mine… not just yet :S She told me she would see about it and that hopefully it will be in before two weeks…

See more progress on: enjoy life

2010.05.25

• My side vision thought there was a hummingbird in the tree in my garden. I rushed for my camera, and swiftly came back to the balcony to find not a bird but two dragonflies in love… enjoying spring ;)
• The first real rain of the season finally poured yesterday. With the sun at zenith, it has been very hot lately. So refreshing to have some clouds and rain. The excessive pollution hasn’t receded, alas :(
• My aunt called me early to say she was two minutes away from my house to pick me up to treat me for breakfast at a nearby restaurant. I barely had time to put some earrings! What would my surprise be that the minute I went in the restaurant, a long-lost friend recognized me. She’s one of the top five people I’ve been meaning to find. I was overjoyed and so was she. We have 18 years of catching-up to do!

See more progress on: enjoy life

2010.05.22

• The sun at zenith. Living in the tropics, I’ve known this happens twice a year, but this is the first time that I go out at the time of day to be aware of it and take a few photos. I actually missed the day when the exact zenith happened (the 15th), but it really is still at almost zenith, and you can pretty much see no shadows —except when you bend over a bit to take a photo. Very cool experience.
• Running back home on my walk with Uma and the neighbors’ dogs; a sudden rain fell on us. It was funny how it started raining, we all looked at each other, and all turned around and followed my lead of running.
• Watching Wall•E. I saw the trailer a couple years ago, but never got around watching the movie. A great love story where the animators make the characters express so much what words cannot.

See more progress on: enjoy life

Haiku #33

Rich cactus flower
becoming succulent fruit
delicious tuna

See more progress on: write haiku on fridays

Happy belated birthday, emiliakaarina!

Sorry I missed it. I hope you had a wonderful birthday full of adventures and much love :) Happy, happy 23rd birthday!!!

^{I know your hair is no longer green, but since you’re currently photographing doors, I thought of making an ecard for you with a little collection of green doors from my town ;)}

See more progress on: wish emiliakarina a wonderful, full of adventures birthday on May 19th

Happy very-belated birthday, CrunchyBread!

Very, very late for your birthday, but not without the best wishes for a unique, wonderful, and colorful year ahead :)

All the best!

See more progress on: Help CrunchyBread celebrate her birthday on April 25th in a way that's as unique and wonderful as she is

Happy belated birthday, Solena!

A tad late but with the best wishes that you have a wonderful year ahead. I particularly wish you a lush garden with many delicious veggies, beautiful flowers, and happy sunflowers ;)

Again, happy birthday and many more!!!

^{Here’s a sunflower for inspiration from my town :)}

See more progress on: On May 16th, wish Solena D. an ass-kicking, garden-growing, idiotbossless, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The List

First draft: not in order of any kind (priority, time required to accomplish, time that has been in my to-do list), but I just wanted to have it out to revise it later; just to have a visual idea of what needs to be done:

1. Revise Uma’s papers and requirements for travel
2. Vaccinate her and apply anti-flea product
3. Revise and update CV
4. Finish reading “The Secret” and return to neighbor
5. Finish watching VHS movies and return to neighbor
6. Clean seeds from ceiba cotton
7. Make paper out of the ceiba-cotton fiber
8. Make postcard for 43T
9. Set up goal for exchange, collect addresses, write, and send
10. Renew driver’s license or get international one (evaluate what’s more convenient at this point)
11. Decide fate of broken washing machine (recycle, advertise as broken on CL, convert into turning wheel for ceramics?) and act upon decision
12. Take down and clean up garden; give away plants
13. Bind my thesis and give away
14. Check about reprinting high-school diploma
15. Pick up letter at bank
16. Exchange photos from Cuetzalan trip with organizer (I took his; he took mine) before the semester is over
17. Make photo calendar for aunt
18. Make photo frame for aunt
19. Make 2 kaleidoscopes for aunt & for M
20. Finish binding journals and books
21. Recover photo attached to glass; find out techniques so it doesn’t get damaged
22. Measure frames and cut non-reflective glass to said sizes
23. Decide on garage sale or used-stuff market
24. Make acupuncture appointment and go
25. Finish up stuff in pantry
26. Decide fate of vacuum cleaner (fix or sell as is) and act
27. Purge design portfolio and photograph it
28. Digitize VHS and Betamax tapes; find out how and get cable or whatever; give tapes to aunt or sell at g. sale
29. Digitize audio tapes
30. Contact 5 friends I haven’t contacted so far here
31. Purge magazines
32. Cut up all fabrics; sew, sew, sew
33. Decide on yarn and return unused to aunt
34. Decide on sewing machine (trade with mom, aunt, sell?)
35. Fix all the stuff in the “to-fix drawer” or else sell/give away as is
36. Go through papers, notes, etc., in black case; review all things that must be done before I leave
37. Recover my little ice chest from C and my board games from A
38. Have A pick what he wants from the “out” pile; rest goes to g. sale
39. Decide on bowling and roller skates
40. Go through compilators and purge
41. Backup 43Places, Lists of Bests, and All-Consuming
42. Write down summer plan and budget
43. Clean up Life List

See more progress on: achieve 43 things that nag and eat away at me so I can be free of them and feel smugly pleased instead :)

2010.05.15

• An artist date to the sculpture exhibition of Joaquín Conde. The exhibition was interesting to see as it was made with recyclable materials and mixed media, but it is not the kind of art I enjoy. I found it somewhat violent in its use of metal and wire that wrap ceramic bodies. It is a good effort that the university puts up this historic building for free exhibitions for people to attend in this small town.
• I haven’t gone out much lately, so it felt great to be out and about a little today. It was not more than a couple hours as the sun was scorching —I believe it will be at the zenith sometime in the following week. Just before I entered the sculpture exhibition, the brass band began to play across the entrance of the church across the street; very-loud firecrackers accompanied the celebration. When I came back out, more firecrackers were launched on cue when the congregation began cheering the Virgin inside the church. With bicycles coming and going, and people walking around the main square, it all added to the general atmosphere.
• Coming up with The perfect Margarita for me: delicious, refreshing, aaaaahhhh!

See more progress on: enjoy life

Margarita

In my quest for a better margarita cocktail, today I tweaked my previous recipe, and this time, it came out fabulous! For my taste, this one is it.

3 oz Tequila Cuervo Tradicional (this one is my favorite for margaritas, and if it’s chilled, much better)
1 oz Controy (orange liquor —in my opinion, better than triple sec)
3 small limes, their juice (smaller than the pic)
1 small orange, its juice
2 oz sugar syrup
4 ice cubes (optional: crushed)
1 dash Grand Marnier

Shake well and serve (optional: in a glass with salt on the rim). Serves 2.

See more progress on: try a new recipe every week

Thanks to saraband's inspiration

I’m taking this goal a bit farther: from 10 to 43 things.
I know I have way more than 43 things, but, in accordance to this-month’s objective of mindfulness and keeping it simple, I’ll do just that to come up with my list.

See more progress on: achieve 43 things that nag and eat away at me so I can be free of them and feel smugly pleased instead :)

Done, done, done!! ::doing the happy dance::

The top 5 cms took me for-ev-er. Decreasing with cables was hard to figure out. It did not come out perfect, but it looks very decent. If I clean out my pattern jottings, I might even think about submitting the instructions to a pattern company —hmmm… I’ll just put this one on the back-burner…
I thought of adding a pompom on top to camouflage any imperfections, but frankly, I don’t think it goes with the hat’s design —besides, I doubt my brother would like it.
I’m so happy with the final result because he likes this shape of hat. It will be such a surprise for him :)

See more progress on: knit a hat

2010.05.11

• Last night’s fireworks. Nice, brief display just a couple blocks away from my house. At least this time they were sparkling and not just stupid noise from firecrackers that plagues our days —and nights. Uma wasn’t too happy about them either way. On a side note, it’s incredible that no matter where you point your camera in this town, you’re always going to cross your path with cables.
• Catching up with my brother, and talking for an hour or so. Big, unexpected news that he’s taking a new job. We also talked about my ever-changing plans, but it sounded as Plan L might happen sooner than later. Aaaaahhhh, I need to get my butt moving if this is really happening…
• The air feels a lot less polluted than in the past weeks. It’s not great yet, but a lot better.

See more progress on: enjoy life

2010.05.10

• The first rain of the season. Not only will the dryness be less so, but a lot of the accumulated pollution of the last weeks is fairly gone. So much pollution has had me down lately and has impacted negatively not only on my diminished participation here, but also in accomplishing goals and just getting things done. Hopefully these rains will lift my spirits.
• My brother had another birthday over the weekend. We spoke briefly yet warmly. Our connection was poor, but I’m happy that we have a very close relation, and we keep in touch very regularly.
• A mini spa hour with a mini pedi & mani. I was inspired by K~’sentry of giving up a spa day, but I suggested to do a less-ambitious goal and try instead half-day or a couple of hours only. Of course, a spa day would be great, but an hour was OK —better than nothing—, but I’d like to add another couple hours during the week.

See more progress on: enjoy life

2010.05.04

• My brother sent me a photo where he’s wearing his new sweater I knitted for him. It fitted perfectly. And it arrived just in time for the few last days of lousy weather Seattle has been getting lately. So at least he’s getting to wear it a little before the nicer weather comes.
• Although I’ve been feeling rather lousy lately —and I could’ve easily make an excuse to not go out (as I’ve done previously)—, I decided to get out of my funk and attend the last event of the “Festival Barroquísimo” in Puebla. I had arranged to meet with my good friends M & I. Yet, I felt that ultimately I had made an appointment with myself, not only as an artist date but that I owed it to myself to get out of my rut, and that can only happen when you get out and make things happen. It was the closing concert for the three-week-long festival and Baaba Maal would be performing. He and his band were outstanding, and they had everyone on their feet dancing to the great rhythm of their songs. I’ll be posting about this later on. I’m just so happy I did leave home to have this experience and not regret later on the things I didn’t do —such as the cello octet that performed at the Cathedral of Puebla the week before :S
• After getting a ride back home from the concert, I told M & I to wait in the car so I could bring back to them a present I had for them in my house. I had finished a garden journal that I bound by hand, and I presented it for them for their first garden they’re growing this year. They were very thankful and took the opportunity to invite me again to do a little more work in their garden, which I happily will :)

See more progress on: enjoy life

Lousy week #2

I improved 1% over the last week, but it’s still within failing territory :( Despite my said moment of clarity —which, given its ephemerality, I can’t even remember it—, I see that my recent forced change of plans impacted negatively not only on the bootcamp but in my overall peace of mind as well.

The good news is that I see that drinking two liters of water a day has become an established habit at 99% (just plain water, and not counting other liquids such as tea or fruit water). So at least this is a small accomplishment that it’s worth acknowledging. Also, I’ve reached 87% effectiveness of avoiding junk food and soda.

Onto May…

See more progress on: April Bootcamp: Springtime Two-A-Days