Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Random titles
Factory-Only Niches
Member/Customer - Associate/Employee
From Pluto Water to Swiss Kriss
Pie Panties (Whereas the Oldest Cereal to Have Existed Was Only Instant)
Redundance: being watched
Hair Bands On the Floor Beneath My Bedroom
Member/Customer - Associate/Employee
From Pluto Water to Swiss Kriss
Pie Panties (Whereas the Oldest Cereal to Have Existed Was Only Instant)
Redundance: being watched
Hair Bands On the Floor Beneath My Bedroom
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Perfect for the last week of winter
It was forgotten, what the flu felt like. The bones are not as smarting so perhaps it´s only a cold. Of course my last day in a foreign country would turn out like this.
The only cold medicine at hand was the same injested into my body a couple of weeks ago. It is advised that person with diseases of the thyroid (posit loud faux cough here) should not take ¨GT¨ and that one should not take corticosteroids (cough)with it. When the medicine was taken two weeks ago, my chest received an hour or so of mild pain around the heart. It didn´t feel like an artery, but more like heartburn. But it cured the cold really fast.
The hot shower taken did not. After one efervescent tablet, the pressure is already building in my chest. A little bit.
Almost as if something had been locked away, kept down out of my reach during that whole time in Xela, now coming out violently.
Digesting my lunch is difficult. At best, one can observe all of the little details,the nuances of the movement of the food going down. People always respond to the idea perplexed. But it´s a good habit to get into.
It´s remembered now that the heartburn was preceded by super slow digestion. Urgh.
The only cold medicine at hand was the same injested into my body a couple of weeks ago. It is advised that person with diseases of the thyroid (posit loud faux cough here) should not take ¨GT¨ and that one should not take corticosteroids (cough)with it. When the medicine was taken two weeks ago, my chest received an hour or so of mild pain around the heart. It didn´t feel like an artery, but more like heartburn. But it cured the cold really fast.
The hot shower taken did not. After one efervescent tablet, the pressure is already building in my chest. A little bit.
Almost as if something had been locked away, kept down out of my reach during that whole time in Xela, now coming out violently.
Digesting my lunch is difficult. At best, one can observe all of the little details,the nuances of the movement of the food going down. People always respond to the idea perplexed. But it´s a good habit to get into.
It´s remembered now that the heartburn was preceded by super slow digestion. Urgh.
The lense of ¨Orientialism¨ in Central America
Back in Guate with Jessica´s family who are so insanely endearing and our conversations have provided a good metric in determining how well the Spanish is improved.
Miguel Angel Garcia still speaks rather slow when trying to explain things, perhaps because he wants to speak more in english, and because we are usually talking about things that bring out our differences. While watching CNN ¨En Español¨, he said something to the affect that Islam was a violent religion. He was responded to by my reminder that the media in the west doesn´t really give a fair representation of the middle east. But before the point was solidified, it occurred to me that the Koran does not condemn violence to the extent that the bible does. The words that came out of my mouth can be translated into the following: it wasn´t until the 13th century that christianity was given an intellectual justification for violence by St. Thomas Aquinas.
This noticably shocked him which provoked me into explaining further by contrasting the bible with the Koran. He then explained with great difficulty --which is still currently attributed to his kind accomadation, thinking that my listening comprehension is even worse than it is-- his catholic beliefs, mentioning the planets in the universe and taking a turn to an anecdote where the governmentin France once declared that God has died. It is almost suspected that he was going to follow that one up with bad luck that followed France. He was about to receive the question which surely causes rifts within many christian communities: does he believe in an interventionist god? If so, what does he not intervene in? But he received his seventh phone call from clients who want to stay at his hotel.
Miguel Angel Garcia still speaks rather slow when trying to explain things, perhaps because he wants to speak more in english, and because we are usually talking about things that bring out our differences. While watching CNN ¨En Español¨, he said something to the affect that Islam was a violent religion. He was responded to by my reminder that the media in the west doesn´t really give a fair representation of the middle east. But before the point was solidified, it occurred to me that the Koran does not condemn violence to the extent that the bible does. The words that came out of my mouth can be translated into the following: it wasn´t until the 13th century that christianity was given an intellectual justification for violence by St. Thomas Aquinas.
This noticably shocked him which provoked me into explaining further by contrasting the bible with the Koran. He then explained with great difficulty --which is still currently attributed to his kind accomadation, thinking that my listening comprehension is even worse than it is-- his catholic beliefs, mentioning the planets in the universe and taking a turn to an anecdote where the governmentin France once declared that God has died. It is almost suspected that he was going to follow that one up with bad luck that followed France. He was about to receive the question which surely causes rifts within many christian communities: does he believe in an interventionist god? If so, what does he not intervene in? But he received his seventh phone call from clients who want to stay at his hotel.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
For example:
What can for one person who is an object as easily as a subject
Is doable for all
The car sells itself, bread sells itself
and...it can be done (no human interlocutor intrudes upon the pure commerce)
surely not from brand USA
the self esteemer
Don´t make me say it with a straight face: yes it can.
What can? The aforementioned action
Is doable for all
The car sells itself, bread sells itself
and...it can be done (no human interlocutor intrudes upon the pure commerce)
surely not from brand USA
the self esteemer
Don´t make me say it with a straight face: yes it can.
What can? The aforementioned action
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Another random list
Would be curious to see the results of experiments testing how Guatemalan reflexes and peripheral vision compare on average to the average gringo; the side walks are very narrow here, which means that you have to be much more careful when passing somebody. The polite thing to do is walk on the edge, usually not more than three feet or less from the passing cars on the busy street. We also must take into account the cracks on the edges.
Smoking in public spaces with at least a roof or one wall is now against the law in Guatemala. And yet no one pays much attention to pollution from the many automobiles (many without mufflers) or the garbage on the street. Although it must be said that the city of Xela has a clean up crew that works a lot.
All of the great coffee from this country is exported.
While many families still prefer honey and other natural sweetners, we can say that high fructose corn syrup, referred to in lazy (thus deceptive) spanish translations as ¨jarabe de Maize¨ (corn syrup), has made a full invasion.
¨War of the End of the World¨ by Mario Vargas Llosa is currently being read. It´s a well told fictional tale based on the famous 1896-97 ¨War of Canudos¨ between newly empire-turned-republic Brazil and a very diverse but mostly religious group of peasants in Canudos in the north eastern state of Bahia. It´s written by a Peruvian and has been sighted by multiple critics as the ¨War and Peace¨of Latin America. Although it does not seem as philosophically or narratively ambitious--but don´t think that size has anything to do with it. It seems that Vargas Llosa has a penchant for revealing the futility and destructiveness that ideologies (and ideals)brings to individuals who hold them. It is wondered how much of this is in turn from his own ideological bent. We´ll see years later. It cannot be resisted that he had a falling out with the new Left almost 40 years ago (by extension many of his contemporary literary friends like Marquez), but autobiography should be resisted. So far his depiction of characters is flawless.
It was formerly assumed that only eccentric old men in twenty something bodies like my good friend Konrad (very much influenced by his Southern Kansas grandfather who never wore his work clothes into town)held the view that people shouldn´t run unless they´re formally exercising. After two and a half months in Guatemala, this view seems more widespread in the states. Here it is not ignoble to be an adult (and overweight) to be running from point a to point B. Local Guatemaltelcos do it here all of the time--that is to say they run in their regular clothes to get to where they´re going.
There is a certain body type of woman that always rides a scooter of Vespa in these parts. They are voluptuous, with big breasts, slightly big bellies and always wearing business slacks, if not the full attire and always wear their long hair far down. It is almost as if the shape of the seat and the space between it and the handle bars carved the woman´s curves. It´s really tantalizing.
In San Pedro Laguna it was discovered that the face was finally able to grow real sideburn hair! This is the kind of news usually told to a friend at random. In April of 06 it was armpit hair that was discovered, in August of 04 it was butt hair. It seems to have come in the wrong order. Is anyone else interested in comparing notes?
Still wanting to probe the subjunctive and the use of impersonal clauses with or without reflexive pronouns. It is also interesting that the passive voice is used so often and likewise with the refelexives, stores advertise themselves with their products rather than using themselves: ¨Se Vende tortillas¨ (tortillas sell themselves)
Poetics: more radically literal phrases have been translated from Spanish. There´s quite a lot of ¨accidental metaphysics¨ that comes out of it.
Smoking in public spaces with at least a roof or one wall is now against the law in Guatemala. And yet no one pays much attention to pollution from the many automobiles (many without mufflers) or the garbage on the street. Although it must be said that the city of Xela has a clean up crew that works a lot.
All of the great coffee from this country is exported.
While many families still prefer honey and other natural sweetners, we can say that high fructose corn syrup, referred to in lazy (thus deceptive) spanish translations as ¨jarabe de Maize¨ (corn syrup), has made a full invasion.
¨War of the End of the World¨ by Mario Vargas Llosa is currently being read. It´s a well told fictional tale based on the famous 1896-97 ¨War of Canudos¨ between newly empire-turned-republic Brazil and a very diverse but mostly religious group of peasants in Canudos in the north eastern state of Bahia. It´s written by a Peruvian and has been sighted by multiple critics as the ¨War and Peace¨of Latin America. Although it does not seem as philosophically or narratively ambitious--but don´t think that size has anything to do with it. It seems that Vargas Llosa has a penchant for revealing the futility and destructiveness that ideologies (and ideals)brings to individuals who hold them. It is wondered how much of this is in turn from his own ideological bent. We´ll see years later. It cannot be resisted that he had a falling out with the new Left almost 40 years ago (by extension many of his contemporary literary friends like Marquez), but autobiography should be resisted. So far his depiction of characters is flawless.
It was formerly assumed that only eccentric old men in twenty something bodies like my good friend Konrad (very much influenced by his Southern Kansas grandfather who never wore his work clothes into town)held the view that people shouldn´t run unless they´re formally exercising. After two and a half months in Guatemala, this view seems more widespread in the states. Here it is not ignoble to be an adult (and overweight) to be running from point a to point B. Local Guatemaltelcos do it here all of the time--that is to say they run in their regular clothes to get to where they´re going.
There is a certain body type of woman that always rides a scooter of Vespa in these parts. They are voluptuous, with big breasts, slightly big bellies and always wearing business slacks, if not the full attire and always wear their long hair far down. It is almost as if the shape of the seat and the space between it and the handle bars carved the woman´s curves. It´s really tantalizing.
In San Pedro Laguna it was discovered that the face was finally able to grow real sideburn hair! This is the kind of news usually told to a friend at random. In April of 06 it was armpit hair that was discovered, in August of 04 it was butt hair. It seems to have come in the wrong order. Is anyone else interested in comparing notes?
Still wanting to probe the subjunctive and the use of impersonal clauses with or without reflexive pronouns. It is also interesting that the passive voice is used so often and likewise with the refelexives, stores advertise themselves with their products rather than using themselves: ¨Se Vende tortillas¨ (tortillas sell themselves)
Poetics: more radically literal phrases have been translated from Spanish. There´s quite a lot of ¨accidental metaphysics¨ that comes out of it.
Slow and deliberate
More slavery to time is what keeps the alienation lit. Or rather slavery to the questioning of the perception of time (how much is available). Actually, the parinoia that has been there for what seems like forever is more culpable than anything else.
That is to say that no one else should be blamed.
Some of the fellow volunteers are extremely kind and generous in the information they offer and ask for. One in particular, Andrew from California, who at the beginning introduced himself as Andrès, has the most endearing disposition. If it were not for my more extreme circumstances, more big sibling instincts would have been felt for him. Instead, it´s the other way around. After being mugged at knife-point in the most dangerous spot in the town he expressed very sincere sympathy for me, as if my body and my idea of myself had been violated. After comparing host families, where it was indicated that Estuardo and Alejandra treated me merely as a guest than a member of the family, Andrew again apologized with sympathy as if my body and my idea of myself had been violated.
It´s not what he says. It´s how he says it. He just started Spanish and it´s been impressive how continuously he speaks it. More than anyone else, he will keep speaking it with non native spanish speakers...slowly and deliberately. Chillingly reminiscent of Miguel, my friend in Guatemala City with fragile health ...was also reminded of the way a childhood friend, Travis Stiffler, who taught me half of the dirty US english words, performed in street fights. Travis always appeared to be hitting like a slug if not an outright typical girl, but he actually packed a powerful punch. To my knowledge, he never lost a fight and not many would fuck with him.
Yes. Slowly and deliberately--also like my best friend and giant of a human being, Mauro Nobre. Mauro has a towering intellect and it is maddening to have debates with him due in large measure to the slow pace in which he speaks (that it is probably due in part that he didn´t pick up english until 17, past the peak of the brain´s plasticity, does not make it more acceptable).
Andrew walks, talks and dances very slowly without mistakes. His gentle disposition makes it seem as if he would not do much, but he was the most enthusiastic dancer in the whole bunch. His body willed itself around to salsa way more than mine. On his last night in Xela, at a table of twelve volunteers in a restaraunt/apartment house (amazing dutch styled curry!) he and Claire, this tall beatiful spunky nursing student from central Minnesota did some turns. It was strange to see them together, she and her long limbs and thespian constitution and he, shorter, low toned in his puffy beard, faded jeans that are baggy at the ankles and in streaky eyeglasses, moving like a patient with a terminal illness--and yet with such grace. While he did make some mistakes amid the attemp of familiarizing himself with her significantly longer reach, he obviously knows how to dance. And so gentle.
Even though there is only one week left here, Andres will be missed.
That is to say that no one else should be blamed.
Some of the fellow volunteers are extremely kind and generous in the information they offer and ask for. One in particular, Andrew from California, who at the beginning introduced himself as Andrès, has the most endearing disposition. If it were not for my more extreme circumstances, more big sibling instincts would have been felt for him. Instead, it´s the other way around. After being mugged at knife-point in the most dangerous spot in the town he expressed very sincere sympathy for me, as if my body and my idea of myself had been violated. After comparing host families, where it was indicated that Estuardo and Alejandra treated me merely as a guest than a member of the family, Andrew again apologized with sympathy as if my body and my idea of myself had been violated.
It´s not what he says. It´s how he says it. He just started Spanish and it´s been impressive how continuously he speaks it. More than anyone else, he will keep speaking it with non native spanish speakers...slowly and deliberately. Chillingly reminiscent of Miguel, my friend in Guatemala City with fragile health ...was also reminded of the way a childhood friend, Travis Stiffler, who taught me half of the dirty US english words, performed in street fights. Travis always appeared to be hitting like a slug if not an outright typical girl, but he actually packed a powerful punch. To my knowledge, he never lost a fight and not many would fuck with him.
Yes. Slowly and deliberately--also like my best friend and giant of a human being, Mauro Nobre. Mauro has a towering intellect and it is maddening to have debates with him due in large measure to the slow pace in which he speaks (that it is probably due in part that he didn´t pick up english until 17, past the peak of the brain´s plasticity, does not make it more acceptable).
Andrew walks, talks and dances very slowly without mistakes. His gentle disposition makes it seem as if he would not do much, but he was the most enthusiastic dancer in the whole bunch. His body willed itself around to salsa way more than mine. On his last night in Xela, at a table of twelve volunteers in a restaraunt/apartment house (amazing dutch styled curry!) he and Claire, this tall beatiful spunky nursing student from central Minnesota did some turns. It was strange to see them together, she and her long limbs and thespian constitution and he, shorter, low toned in his puffy beard, faded jeans that are baggy at the ankles and in streaky eyeglasses, moving like a patient with a terminal illness--and yet with such grace. While he did make some mistakes amid the attemp of familiarizing himself with her significantly longer reach, he obviously knows how to dance. And so gentle.
Even though there is only one week left here, Andres will be missed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
