Jul 26, 2007

"Family day" the GOP way

Thanks Jarek (again) for sending me this odd information....

As the readers of my blog know already my heart is not with the republican party. Is not entirely with the Dems either, but if I have to choose I would go Democrat. Why? Thousands of reasons... but here is one more, as if I need one more.

From my point of view, a "Family Day" should be something where you spend a good time with your kids and where they can learn something USEFUL not something lethal. Obviously, the party that is all for the "right to bear arms", don't think this way. So....quoting:


BOSTON (Reuters) - A planned Republican fundraiser in New Hampshire aims to promote gun ownership in America by letting supporters fire powerful military-style weapons -- from Uzi submachine guns to M-16 rifles.

The Manchester Republican Committee is inviting party members and their families to a "Machine Gun Shoot" where, for $25, supporters can spend a day trying out automatic weapons, said organizer Jerry Thibodeau.

"It's a fun day. It's a family day," said Thibodeau of the August 5 event. "It's quite exciting."


Really? That is your idea of a Family Day? So I guess that is what the Columbine and the Virginia tech shooters were going through...just a bad family day...
If you want to read the whole story, here it is.

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Jul 20, 2007

...And We Got Married!...

Yeap yeap yeap. Believe it or not, in July 18th, we have gone too far and we...uhm, ehem, we got married!!!

Crazy, just crazy. Glenn may say the same, but considering this is his second attempt to such craziness he can't say he didn't know what it was about. Me, poor me, I have been avoiding such committment for a long long time, but finally I surrended.

Here is the best picture of the happy couple:


For those of you 100% anglos that do not know who she is, (I guess you all know Kenny from South Park), her name is Mafalda, she is more or less my age and is an extremely famous argentinian cartoon that has been a success in Latin America and Europe for many years and has been translated to several languages, including Greek and Chinese.

I always wondered WHY it was never translated to English. Anyway, I had her name as one of my nicknames when I was a child and with some good reasons. Not only her mother and mine have the same name, Raquel, but according to a Wikipedia short definition of the character, she is "an approximately six-year-old Argentine girl with a strong political view of the world and a proverbial hate for soup. Her political stance, which she often demonstrates by aphorisms, is centre-left wing and highly pessimistic. The comic strip revolves around her and her friends' everyday life focusing on small insightful incidences; Mafalda herself is smart, witty, polite yet quick-tempered, strong-minded and curious, which is a frequent source of concern for her father as he often finds himself confronted with embarrassing questions. Mafalda's relation with her friends and family is warm but studded with criticism, she also acts tomboyish at times (...) and wishes to work as an interpreter for the United Nations when she grows up."

Well, when I was a kid, around that age I would ask typical "Mafalda questions" to my parents. One that my mother has written down in her little black book of "Sandy weirdness", was: "Mom in this country is it required to get married?" (I was more or less 5 years old).

Good thing it wasn't required, what allowed me to avoid getting married for all the wrong reasons (because you have been dating this guy long enough or because you are old enough to "settle down" or all those horrible excuses) and stayed happily single until this other weird guy shaked all my convictions (starting with my promise to myself of never marrying an engineer) and got me to say "I do" and "Si quiero"..., because I couldn't help it but to say it in both languages!


PS: If you want to read a little more about Mafalda, you can first read a description of the characters in Wikipedia and then read the very very few ones that have been translated to English (I suggest you start from the bottom of the page up to understand it better)


PS2: My biggest difference with Mafalda is that I do love soup! (in almost everything else, we are pretty similar)

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Jul 19, 2007

Hommage to Kurt Vonnegut

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over.
Out on the edge you see all kinds of things
you can't see from the center."
Kurt Vonnegut


This is a collaboration/suggestion sent by Jarek Janio, a friend that I have not met yet that lives (and teaches) in California.

I am glad to follow this suggestion to pay a tribute to Kurt Vonnegut, because while I admit I haven't read Vonnegut's novels, I have read some of his short stories, essays and interviews and I enjoy immensely his sense of humor.

Some of that sense of humor is clearly shown in an interview with the Rolling Stones, being one of my favorite parts:

"...Vonnegut starts coughing, clearing his throat of phlegm, grasping for a half-smoked pack of Pall Malls lying on a coffee table. He quickly lights up. His wheezing ceases. I ask him whether he worries that cigarettes are killing him. "Oh, yes," he answers, in what is clearly a set-piece gag. "I've been smoking Pall Mall unfiltered cigarettes since I was twelve or fourteen. So I'm going to sue the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, who manufactured them. And do you know why?"

- "Lung cancer?" I offer.

"No. No. Because I'm eighty-three years old. The lying bastards! On the package Brown & Williamson promised to kill me. Instead, their cigarettes didn't work. Now I'm forced to suffer leaders with names like Bush and Dick and, up until recently, 'Colon.'"

He was still writing for "In These Times" until his death, early this year. Here is their tribute to him: Thank you Mr Vonnegut

He disdained everything about the Iraq War. The very notion that more than 2,500 U.S. soldiers have been killed in what he sees as an unnecessary conflict made him groan. 'Honestly, I wish Nixon were president,' Vonnegut laments. 'Bush is so ignorant.'"

If you want to read more from him, here you can find a small collection of his latest articles.

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Jul 17, 2007

How much is too much?

I was waiting for the official press release (even if I knew this beforehand) and it finally came today: Fox International Channels bought another Latin American company based in Bs. As., Argentina, being this last one Digital Ventures, the "mother" company of Directa Network, InZearch, Afiliados Hispanos and Performa Network.

If to that you add the fact that Fox International Channels also bought ClickDiario, you have the biggest online ad network in LatAm in hands of just one company.

I am glad for the sellers, I am sure this will help the development of their companies, but I can't help it to be a little scared with such a big adnetwork in hands of just one company...

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Jul 13, 2007

3 x 1 (and is not Earth, Wind and Fire)

Today I received via email the lead to a very nice european commercial (thanks Paulo!). A really good ad, apparently produced by Nordpol Hamburg for Epuron.

Nice and weird ad, as it is in English but apparently filmed in France or Belgium, with an actor with a heavy accent, that looks like a crossover between Charles Chaplin and Frankestein. Very good choice in casting --here is the ad:



While seeing it, it reminded me of another commercial that I like a lot that is part of the Ecoimagination campaing that GE is running here in the US. This is an ad that was filmed either in Chile or in Argentina, in the South, no doubt. You can ever hear the kid talking about "El Abuelo". Check it out:



And while the GE ad is lovely, from the first time I saw it, it reminded me of a third ad, this time an ad for our national airline, Aerolineas Argentinas. The theme is different, but the concept is almost the same. Judge by yourself:



I wouldn't say that GE copied the Aerolineas ad, but I believe it was "heavily inspired" by it... don't you think?

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Back to "Work"

Como sospecharán, no considero my blog un "trabajo", pero es verdad que lleva su tiempito.... media hora, una hora o a veces me engancho mal, y son dos o tres horas por noche.

Para los que no lo saben, esta semana y media sin postings se debió a que estaba de "vacaciones". No vacaciones del blog, sino de las de verdad, de visita en Baires.

Visita de raje, para ver a mis viejos aunque sea un 'yatito'... una semana y un día que no alcanzaron para nada porque encima algo me cayó mal y me pase toda una noche vomitando y con fiebre, o sea, al dia siguiente era una piltrafita y todo actividad quedó cancelada hasta nuevo aviso. Me repuse de eso y zas! me resfrie, asi que una porquería todo.

Y tuve la "suerte" de ver Buenos Aires nevada el dia que -supuestamente- me iba...(dicen las malas lenguas que nevó en Buenos Aires porque nosotros decidimos casarnos, si sera mala la gente che!) pero tuve la desgracia que la nieve paralizó literalemente Ezeiza, asi que mi vuelo no salio hasta el dia siguiente, por lo cual pase casi 24 horas en Ezeiza. By the way, 'taría bueno que alguien les diga que si no te van a dejar esperar en la zona de embarque (como me pasó a mi) que a menos hagan asientos mas comodos en la planta baja, no saben que linda la noche en asientos de metal!

Asi que llegue un día mas tarde, me perdí el recital de The Police para el cual teniamos entradas y me agarré en el avión con una mina que decidió que la postergación de un vuelo era motivo suficiente para un ataque de nervios. Todo un viajecito!

Pero aca estoy de nuevo and I am back to work. Y no hablo de mi trabajo cotidiano sino de este, este raro "trabajo" de poner por escrito aquellas cosas que se me cruzan por la capocheta, o que me aparecen en mi bandeja de entrada o que... que se yo, que aparecen.

Back to "work" :)

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