It dawned on me yesterday that I generally write me blog with a lot of piratisms. The personal pronoun ‘me’ instead of ‘my’ fr’instance. Makes sense, given the number of pirates from the West Country…
Anyroad, I’ve been working like a good’un the last couple of days. Between fixing OSCommerce to work on the latest version of PHP on the server, actionscripting away at the Flash site which is now weighing in at around 2.7meg, even knocked off a Sp-En 900 word translation last night. And still had time for a bit of scrabble and played a fine few games last night on SINGLE mode. There are various options for choosing your opponents. Which dictionary you’re going to use. SOWPODS is the one for Brits, Aussies, Kiwis and the occacional Canadian and TWL is the American one. Then the type of game you’ll play, VOID, where the computer checks your word is valid and if it ain’t then you get another go, SINGLE, where you can put any word you like unless you’re challenged by the other player, and if it’s not valid you miss a go and variations on those themes. And of course the length of game. Anything from 3 minutes a side (which I can usually do, but need my caffeine) to 1hr. Anyroad, I prefer VOID but last night had a really enjoyable 5 SINGLE games with DrJen, an Australian. SINGLE can be a bugger because I have the American words stuck in my mind from playing on my PDA and so you think everything’s hunky dory then you’re challenged and you end up losing. Surely ‘oafing”s a word… apparently not, though. Anyroad, I’ve still got a 4 figure rating at the end of the day so all’s well and that…
Not sure what today will bring, but I’m guessing my laptop will feature prominently. I still try to get out even if it’s just to get tacos or coffee. Maybe a jaunt downtown. Back to LALAland in the v.near future for a week or so I’m going to enjoy walking while I still can…
Yesterday was Mother’s day in Mexico. It’s a huge thing. First off, everyone made their excuses and left work at middayish to head off to crowded restaurants all over town. No one was without roses they’d either received or were about to give. In Gigante the usual musak was replaced by someone urging everyone to buy mother-related goods (tortillas, white wine, cleaning products…) and businesses closed up early. I didn’t even have to stand on the bus home for once. One of these days I’ll post about Mexican phrases involving the word “madre”, but first I want to dig out El Laberinto de la Soledad, cos Octavio Paz has some pertinent things to say if I recall correctly.
Last night I barbecued again cos Sarah was coming round for some webdesignery advice. For some reason it didn’t turn out that well. I should pay more attention in the meat isle to what I’m buying. In fact they should have pictures of what your meat should look like when you’ve cooked it on the labels, to help men choose whether they want arrachera or milanesa… Never mind. Sarah brought us a bottle of diamante negro tequila, which is potent but fragrant with the agave. As a digestif it did a good job of cutting through the culinary dubiousness we’d eaten.
My Aguascalientes photos got linked to by an Aguascalientesian (made that word up, hidrotermico?) and he let me know. Which is nice, so in the spirit of reciprocity, here’s a link to his blog.
And finally, just for Sarah who can’t make embedded video play on her laptop, here’s a “mamada” I saw on the internets about Star Wars’ emperor on the phone… You come for the self-absorption, but you’ll stay for the lo-res comedy…
Cherry coke, indeed.
Found out what a dental cleaning appointment is today. Can’t say I’d recommend it. They seem to have removed the protective layer of plaque that was holding my teeth together and now my teeth are all shiny and smooth. Seems like a stealth attempt to americanise me if ever i saw it. Anyroad, had a long day at the office. Stu’n’anne’eddie messengered me and we had a little chat, they were staying up late, the rogues… anyhoo. i cooked a pizza, watched an old episode of angel and played a bit of guitar and soon enough, Sita’ll be back after a hard day’s sociology. huzzah.
Thought I’d have a go at this blog malarkey, who knows where it may lead… Not quite sure who my audience is here, though I suspect it may be just me. it’s like writing a diary in email form to yourself, but knowing anyone could read it stops anything personal getting on here, so it’ll just be my eating & telly habits then. righty, hasta pronto and cheers.
After seeing no cheap BBQs at yard sales, charity shops and Fred Meyer’s we went to Lowes for a new one, then spent the best part of 2 hours assembling it in the garden. Things went faster once I found a hidden bag of screws under the dog.
Leif and Sudarat came round later and we had a well pleasant evening of Sita’s cooking, local veg and tales of squirrel hunting up north.
We ended with an ’80s music trivia DVD game, which I got for $4.99 from Goodwill (seemed more fun than Bibleopoly)
Hope our neighbours were okay with screams of Kajagoogoo at around midnight…
Been well busy. As of this very minute, here are our plans…
Tonight: Flickreros Tapatíos Despedida round Aranza´s
Tuesday: Photography course, last day… Presentation
Wednesday: R&R, packing, goodbying
Thursday: Packing, Down the pub. To be decided.
Friday: Cancelling internet, cable, phone, water, gas. Paying bills, Behrnard´s arrival at Amour Fou
Saturday: SIT 2007, drinks at Famosos Equipales
Sunday: Packing, furniture distributing, handing over keys, final quiet despedida at Chop on Av. Mexico around 8pm.
Monday: Hit the road, probably Culiacan, possibly further
Tuesday: Nogales and beyond… Immigration fun.
Wednesday: Arrive in L.A. Reunion with la familia (+ Atticus)
Thursday: Unpacking, packing, shopping…
From this point on things get vaguer:
Fridayish: L.A. fun
Saturday: L.A. to Oakland
Sunday: Unpacking, getting Sita installed in her temporary office
Monday: Buy a new computer which works (expect a lot of blog silence in the interim)
Tuesday: Packing for England
Wednesday: Leave for UK from SF.
Thursday: Arrive in UK, bus it to Taunton…
3ish weeks of catching up with lovely peeps in Taunton + Bristol + (possibly) London
Back to the States. Immigration fun.
New Year´s Eve and all that…
Find job / set up business. Take it as it comes.
There´s still furniture up for grabs, and also some new satisfied customers pix. Tell your friends!
I have to say that I haven’t, but at least 900,000 Brits per year have according to this spurious report (in Spanish). That’s why, if you ever move to Mexico, pick yourself up a pay-as-you-go phone from OXXO or similar for about 20 quid (40 bucks) and buy fichas (credit) every now and again to keep it juiced. They’re sturdy, have a long battery life, come with Snake preinstalled and once you work out how to turn off Spanish predictive text you’re laughing.
So of late there’s been a bit too much navel gazing going on so this post is an attempt to redress the balance by sharing some links away from the agaveweb empire…
I really enjoyed this article on 10 common photography mistakes. Most of them are pretty self evident but when driven home with good examples it’ll make you think before your next trip out with a camera. Next time I’m in an agave field (Saturday, I think), I’m going to try a fair few shots lying on my stomach… Also found some good advice for taking group shots.
One of b3ta’s finest moments is this picture evidence showing evolution to be lie. Behold the Microsoft Big-assed-table, Chilean Lake Missing, and The Onion’s back on form too.
And this just in today, JWood’s coverage of El dia de los Locos in San Miguel de Allende, is great. Especially the Osama bit. Well worth a read, today and every day.
Alright, self-absorbtion should resume with the next post prob’ly. A bientot.
