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My friend shared some thoughts on love and how many chase love in hopes that they will find completion...it becomes a high that they get addicted to. They start to depend on that "love" for completion and happiness. His writing sparked my own thoughts and helped me become more aware.

Love is all around us, and when you truly open your eyes, you will run into it and see it everywhere. It is so beautiful.

I am not searching for romantic love, but I know in my heart there will be a special someone that I will link with in the future. I'm sure we have all had someone on our mind that we have imagined/envisioned sharing love with and the thought of that person inspires you and adds positivity to your life. Sure, you can change your mind about that person tomorrow, but if today, it makes you more positive, makes you smile one extra smile... then you own that, and that is beautiful. It becomes a problem if that person is your only source of happiness and love.

Many pursue an endless chase in hopes of finding their completion. But when one is half empty, they need to realize that nothing and no one can make them whole but themselves.

Yes, it begins with loving yourself and knowing yourself...and building and growing so that you have your own foundation of empowerment, happiness and love. It is then that you are able to share your love with another, and fully with the world. This love is additional to your own foundation of love and happiness. And if that love you share with another was to go away, you wouldn't have parts of you missing because you were complete to begin with. It is like building a house. First you must have your blueprints, lay down the bricks, have a solid frame and a roof. Your house is complete and sturdy. Then you add a garden and a new ventilation system. Your house now has additions that make it more beautiful and comfortable. But, if that garden and ventilation system were to be removed, your house would still have the beauty and function that it had to begin with and would not crumble.

"Does the fanstasy we have about being in love becomes more powerful then love itself? the yearning... the need?"

I believe that there is the fantasy that a hopeless dreamer wishes - wishing upon a star to find a love medicine to cure. The reality is, this medicine does not exist. There is also vision. The vision of reaching ultimate love. Love for yourself, true love shared with another and ultimately, love shared with the world. This vision is a a realty, not a a hopeless fantasy. Why? Because you have faith in the vision and believe 100% that it will be reached. You work hard and focus on building, nurturing and loving yourself. And through focus, faith and effort the day will come, when that love that is deep inside uou, intertwines with another. The two are connected like two links - still strong and sturdy by itself, but even more effective and powerful when joined together.

to ultimate love...

I heard this song on the KEXP Song of the Day Podcast, so I figure it's okay to put it up here. Lots of jingly pianos and guitars combined with liberal use of organ/accordion/etc and meandering, gradual changes in texture all together produce a delightful effect. Almost as if Terry Riley suddenly decided to start producing indie folk/rock/pop/whatever, which is not so far-fetched given that Riley was (is?) somewhat a part of the West-coast, vaguely counter-cultural classical music scene. Maybe if he had been born fifty years later, in Oregon instead of California...

Anyway, the album is Verbs by Au, and the song is rr Vs. D, and it's all delightful, a little bit The Boy Least Likely To indie pop fun and a little bit sixties avant-garde aleatorical. I will also freely admit that I ripped off the Riley comparison from the review in AllMusic, but I think it's particularly apt, especially since I've actually heard a lot of Riley's stuff.

Photo:  ooitschristina

1. Site for adopting dogs and cats in Manila
2. Cool illustrations of the seven deadly sins
3. Funny business names (think "Fuk Mi", a sushi restaurant)
4. A fun hedgehog-launching-into-outer-space game.
5. A fun drawing-with-crayons game.
6. A fun OMG-I'm-going-to-get-finger-cramps game.
7. The ugliest person on facebook (quick, pass it on!)
8. What Fight Club author Chuck Palahnuik is working on (not for the faint of heart).

NOTE: As usual, my partner in crime Amber Case used her anthropology observation skills to great effect, thus capturing every important word that was spoken about by the panel.

When: Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Where: PNCA

What It’s About: The five architects and urban planners who envisioned Portland’s future on the first round of pdXPLORE sat down with civic leaders to explore the viability of the projects and ask hard questions—most of them answered very indirectly.

*** BEGIN EVENT NOTATION ***

Please note that, if the person who was speaking is unclear, her position will be designated with a bracket. Also note that, while this notation strived to be verbatim, it skipped a lot of parts that were not spoken clearly.

Moderator – Thom Walters of Corragio Group:
I have spent quite a bit of time in my career moderating. What I can tell you about leadership is the presence of unreasonable thinking. This is what we have to explore tonight. Caveat: do it with integrity, humanity, clarity and respect.

As you all know, Portland has a very compelling growth projection. More than 1 million people are moving (or going to move) to this region. This is a discussion about the design, planning and process around this vision. And this discussion will be an exploration into how design thinking could enter into the process.

I will allot one hour for the discussion. Each designers [there were 6 of them] will pose to our civic leaders.

At the end of this, we’ll open the floor to the audience.

Carol Meyer Reed (designer):
My question will be in three parts. Both residence and visitors really understood the value of the quality of life in PDX. So as we grow:

• What are your concerns and specific solutions for maintaining and enhancing these qualities?
• Are there any specific ideas that you see coming from the design perspective?
• Can growth be good? And how can growth be good for us?

(Civic Leader):
I will answer your last question first.

Absolutely—if we harness the people, and human capital. But it can also be a nightmare—if it doesn’t pay its own weight. The answer to the third question is: that depends. Yes, we have to accomodate those million people. But, by the way, they’re not a million people all coming here. Some are born here.

I think that it will depend most on what we invest in, and on how we understand—in a more sophisticated way—how public capital relate to private cpital. The influx of people moving here looked random, but it’s a predictable product of energy pricing and policies. During the 60’s, there was a real bias toward how investment was made. There were also regulatory zoning and energy pricing.

The challenge now is to figure out what else do we put in the pot? What’s the investment strategy to accomodate these people in a different way? Gas, tax, federal subsidies and public sewers system—those are ways of the past. We need new ways.

To answer your first question: first, one thing we need to do is inverse the system. Let’s state very clearly that we are enhancing urbanities. A lot of times, there’s ambivalence about this. Oregon’s system is about protecting farmlands rather than enhancing urbanities. The former strategy is passive–reactive. What I’m advocating is a more positive, aggressive strategy that asks “this is what we want to achieve as a city. Now what do we need to do to achieve it?”

One part of the solution is systemic. For example: building a structured parking lots. Putting your money into something like that creates different retail and housing areas around it. The other part is these signature pieces throughout the region that is unique the area. Because, keep in mind, this is not just about the city of Portland. There are some real challenges on a lot of areas in the suburbs.

To answer your second question – “What are some ideas that we can bring into reality?”:

• The first is development of infrastructure and finance tools. Recognize and enhance them. Finance them.
• Parks, to me, are an essential part of great urbanity. We talk about big ideas. We have the biggest environment protection measure on the country, but it was focused on nature reserves. We have yet to see this with urban areas.
• Development of trails network of ppl who commute around the region. Transportation network.

So my final answer [to the growth question] is: it depends, you have to invest in the right things.

Carol Meyer-Reed:
One thing that we talked about amongst the five designers was: who do we want to talk to? A lot of times, we preached to the choir. This is great for making ourselves feel good, but how do you deal with people who aren’t the choir?

(Civic Leader):
Two-thirds of our region lives in urban areas. A lot of the development pattern of the last 50 years were very oriented to private realm. I think that the demographic is changing. We are becoming both more urban and urbane.

Also recognize that our region is not very dense. [To facilitate more people moving in] you really don’t have to change the construct very much. You just have to focus them in the right areas to fill. I don’t think that there needs to be very radical changes.

And, certainly, standing still is not an alternative.

Studies have shown that developing new communities at the edge of the town/urban growth boundaries cost twice as much than developing one in the area that we already have.

Rick Potestio (designer):
I have a question to David and Sam. I think Portland is in its defining moment of finding its identity. Our project provides a mean to looking at that. In particular, we looked at how the city itself can not only be the most populous, but also the most dense. We propose a way of reconfiguring our neighborhoods to embody these qualities.

My question is: what changes do you propose to our current system that can maintain our leadership as a city, both nationally and in the world?

Sam Adams:
It all starts with planning for human beings and neighborhoods. And being humble in the fact that ppl are only going to live in neighborhoods that are going to feed their needs and are affordable to their means. Portland has proven that the mixed-use model, combined with density and lots of amenities with robust transit system works.

Our biggest problem is complacency. Emerging analysis says that we can fit our portion of required 20/40 [year plan] density. There are very few changes that we need to made to achieve this, but that wouldn’t necessarily produce the kind of neighborhoods that we sought after. So your projects in putting focus around neighborhoods (mixed use zoning) is a good idea. Being an entrepreneur is key part of this. We have to recognize and use land use zoning and transportation planning. But on this table, there also needs to be people in social planning.

Portland is becoming an older and younger city at the same time. And we’re not used to that. Our plan 30 years ago, for example, didn’t include a school in every district. So when we complain that our schools were closed, jurisdictions can’t do anything about it—because it wasn’t in their plans.

Rick Potestio (designer):
From our study, we learnt that the most dense neighborhood tend to also be the greenest. There are a lot of truly great benefits from having a great mix.

But when we talk to institution like PDC, we see a barrier. Because we saw that there’s no real mechanism in the financial that to enable this. Can you propose to enable this?

Sam Adams:
We don’t start out by talking to a neighborhood about densifying them, we talk to them about what they want. “If you want a Whole Foods or a New Seasons, this is what your traffic will be.” We just went through this last week, planning an upzoning. In some neighborhoods, there’s excitement at what additional customer base will bring to them (we plan to bring 10 story buildings.)

Rudy Barton (designer):
Question for Gil: Portland’s 1972 downtown plan was internationally recognized for its achievement. Vision trumped regulation. What I would like to know is how much will our planning efforts in the next 4 year going to be determined by old methods, and how much of it by new tools?

Gil Kelley (civic leader):
I’m very optimistic about future of our city, because you find an enormous willingness to shape the future in a positive way. I found this fact to be almost universal in Portland. I think that we have everything we can to grow, but we also have to acknowledge where we are.

Portland, for the first time in generations, is looking at its comprehensive plan. For example, Metro is revisiting its 20/40 plan and the state is revisiting its land use plan. There’s a sweet spot here to ask these big question:

• Where are we going? Where do we want to go? What kind of community do we want in 20–50 years? Who do we want to take with us? Schools, hospitals, partners. What is the roles of neighborhoods in this?
• How do we get there?
• How do we know if we’ve gotten there?

This plan has to posit some measurement method. I think we’re doing pretty well. So I just want to say that there’s some big picture planning going on, and part of that is revisiting our design toolbar and coalescing around our big ideas. When I observe the work in this room, a thought emerged: in many ways, you have to realize and design around the natural land forms and weather. And you also have to ask generational questions. We’ve gotten kind of fragmented when it comes to city building. We’ve got an engineering bureaucracy, and have a real struggle even remembering what the land form was. What an interesting idea to think of “what if we retrofit the cities for the next 100 years?” And then you kind of have to think about the building, because there’s a lot of creativity in that. We have to look at building as a design toolkit, and then moving to articulating “what do we care about the public realm?”

Thom Walters (moderator):
What might your thinking be conceptually?

Gil Kelley:
The power of ideas is how this will get traction. The concept of 20-minute neighborhood is one of them. But I think that it can’t just be a conversation between the planning committee. It can’t simply be “we will write our policies, then the world will conform.” We have to make real choices.

Sam Adams:
Innovation to a lot of Portlanders is giving them opportunities and provide for their basic needs. If we want to remain diverse in our income, we need to be accountable in every part of the city’s prosperity, health and happiness. As we look at global warming, we need to ask ourselves first: are we producing enough food/energy for ourselves to be self sustainable? Design has to be built around that.

(Designer):
One of the issues is this: as the cities are changing, what are our planning and design tools?

The creation of public space always happens as a byproduct of negotiation with large big companies. But as designers, we believe that public space is an outdoor living rooms for the communities.

What we’d like to see is that the creation of the design should drive zoning, rather than the other way around.

The current toolbox doesn’t allow this to happen. There’s a recognition about how this public space is crucial to the community. We find that the city, more than simply becoming a place to visit, is becoming a space to live.

Back to the question: do you have any ideas about what mechanisms are needed to do this, and how do we get this and share it to the community? One of our task is to show ppl that dense neighborhood can be be beneficial.

Sam Adams:
We have Conway, Rose Quarter, the Main Post Ofice Site, etc. Keeping those outdoor living room is important. The hard task is to figure out how to have public squares in existing neighborhoods. As a mayor, I would pursue having green space in every community/nieghborhood. We’ve been talking about how the city could acquire the right mix of property.

It’s very tricky, because one person’s green space is another person’s residence.

(Designer):
How do we work ourselves out of this box, to the point that the value of public space/realm is pushed forward?

(Civic Leader):
Economically, it could be proven. It’s just that there has been this ambivalence in Portland history. For example, when the city chose to purchase Mt. Tabor, there was criticism. Just 8 years ago, when Chinese Garden cost $12 million, there was also criticism.

And let me touch on the rest of region again. The city of Milwaukee is rediscovering the Willamette River again. Lake O just opened up street with access to the lake. Tigard wants to build community around Fennel Creek. Fact is, communities across the region are discovering this.

Michael McCulloch (Designer):
Directed to Robert, Alice and Tom: One of our collective agreements was, when we zoomed up to 30,000 feet, we saw a lot of room here. When you look at the map, again, there’s plenty of room. Our agreement is that. So, our question is:

• Whether or not you can support that?
• The constituent parts of the plan that has this outline community—can they commit to increase, say, to accomodate 75,000 more people in Gresham, and another 75,000 in Hillsboro, can they hold their urban growth boundary?

Robert Liberty (Civil Leader):
We have physical, environmental and moral obligations. Six reasons:

1. Policy making and protecting future generations.
2. Vast majority of growth is not going to the edge. In the first 7 years of the millenium, a total of 200 homes were permanent in that 20,000 acres. A strategy is to recognize what’s already happening.
3. It costs twice as much to built around the edge. This is not an interesting plan. We need a strategy—a lower cost strategy.
4. Equity issues. In the 1990’s, we’re pulverized by income. This is happening again today. I’m sure my parents would despair that I was able to buy a house between Division and Powell. We have a lot of poverty increasing in East Portland and West Gresham, we need a strategy.
5. In our region, the biggest single source of greenhouse gas is driving. What if money that will be paying for gas can be used to make denser neighborhood so people drive less?
6. We’re running low of freshwater, land to grow food and biodiversity. We have world class land right next to our door. To sacrifice that, I think, is a failure, for our region, the nation and the planet. We talked about amenities in public spaces. This common shared space. We need to spend less resource and money building private space. Any strategy that makes a virtue out of leisure is a strategy that works.

Alice Rouyere:
I love “living on the edge.” You have great access to right rail. I’m a proponent of balance to growth:

• In-field
  Adapt use of land to growth. We have to come up with creative approaches. One of the things that I think is important is to create adaptable environment. Sure, we’re thinking about design, but we also have to think about the future. We have to create as many connections as possible. For example, this expensive shopping center near Gresham created a wall between the community. On the other hand, I was surprised when plans on some Metro-owned properties were unveiled. It showed 8 story towers built in our neighborhood, and I heard a lot of interest in moving “up high.” As gas prices increase, people are going to spend more time in the neighborhood. How can we draw interest from landmarks like the Johnson Creek?
• Green space
  As we adopt our design for future generations, we need to think what they can afford. We actually need more product that’s for sale that people can afford. On the trees and green space side of things: we’ve done a great job and made very innovative plans. The challenge now is to come up with cost saving approaches. For example, we’d like to get people to accommodate more jobs in the Springwater Area.

Tom Hughes (Civic Leader):
I work with the city of Hillsboro, so I’ll focus my remarks on what we’re doing in Downtown Hillboro. Our demographics are changing. I think there’s a growing desire for authentic urbanity. I’ve only worked with the city for 3 years, and are struck with how people are drawn to the downtown. We don’t have a limitless budget, but we have made strategic investments that are great draws. Our most recent investment: the Old Town Theater. It was just brought back to life a month ago.

The neat thing is, suburbia is monochromatic and boring, but downtown Hillsboro is interesting. So I guess the point is: make investments that make downtown more appealing. Can we create enough of a sense of place and identity that developers are going to take the risk of purchasing a condo? The other thing that I want to say is that, I think that Hillsboro community is supportive of nuanced densification. I don’t think we can get 75,000 more people to Hillsboro right now. This is a losing battle, because I don’t think the community will agree. But more and more people grasp that if you want that authentic urbanity back, you need more rooftops.

(Designer):
Does the planning process include the target of x number of additional people, and are you designing the city to accomodate this?

Tom Hughes:
The key thing is market demand. We don’t have a precise number. It’s one thing to have this paper exercise that says that we can accomodate. And it doesn’t have to be highrise, either.

Thom Walters (Moderator):
As a last question, I’ll ask our Civic Leaders to either share a specific insight or opportunity that had started to percolate in the community.

Sam Adams:
It’s great to get the designers together to explore these concepts without politics. I hope that this kind of effort continues, and your work continues. There are only so much money that flows to the region. You ask to see how to do it? Our urban growth boundary should be kept the way it is today. Hold the line. We need to make density be as positive of a force as possible.

Thom Walters:
Designers, is there anything you’d like to share?

(Designer):
A lot of times, “parks” are tightly defined as spaces occupied with soccer moms, kids, dogs—that kind of thing. This is fine, but social interaction in the future is going to occur in places of intersection: like grocery stores—places you don’t expect. It’s a challenge to design those places, and design for a community of people. These places are the stages where these conversations can take place.

Rick Potestio:
I want to point out that design, really, is not just about the numbers, but about quality. And sometimes the quality solutions ares going to be highly unconventional. For example: on the 13th St. we have a plan where we have pedestrians walk in the middle of the street. Hitting the same numbers doesn’t mean that we’re in the place we want to be. I think we need to think about the quality of the design.

We used to have a definition of home as our house and our yard. For many of us today, home may include the city, the corner coffee shop, the tiny little pocket park and the little plaza. These are the spaces that, for those to work, we need quality. Without quality, those rooms won’t get used. We have to design it. You can’t leave it to private developers to design that, because it is a public room.

Thom Walters:
Now we’re going to open the mic to the audience.

(Audience):
I work in the design realm. We, designers and artists, are asked more and more. to design on the “space between the buildings”—this kind of leftover, junk spaces that has often been overlooked. Often, we’ll be asked by stakeholders to “contribute to the vision.” But the reality? The control is on ODOT or PDOT’s hand. Do we really need transportation engineers to control the project? Is there some other method that we can go to?

Sam Adams:
NO.

*** END EVENT NOTATION ***

Technicality: ☝ ½
Translation: Complete understanding of The Timeless Way Of Building not required.

Interestingness: ☝ ☝ ½
Translation: Thanks to indirect answers (to legitimately complex questions), the panel quickly devolved into trite policy-speak. Don’t let this stop you to from appreciating the thoughts and ideas behind this exhibit, though.

What I Learned From The Event In Six Words:
I can has just the facts?

.....

Komm, süßer Tod
Evangelion

I know, I know I've let you down
I've been a fool to myself
I thought that I could
live for no one else
But now through all the hurt and pain
It's time for me to respect
the ones you love
mean more than anything
So with sadness in my heart
I feel the best thing I could do
is end it all
and leave forever
What's done is done, it feels so bad
what once was happy now is sad
I'll never love again
my world is ending

I wish that I could turn back time
cos now the guilt is all mine
can't live without the trust from those you love.
I know we can't forget the past
you can't forget love and pride
because of that its killing me inside

It all returns to nothing, it all comes
tumbling down, tumbling down,
tumbling down
It all returns to nothing, I just keep
letting me down, letting me down,
letting me down
In my heart of hearts,
I know that I could never love again
I've lost everything, everything
everything that matters to me,
matters in this world

I wish that I could turn back time
cos now all the guilt is mine
can't live without
the trust from those you love
I know we can't forget the past
you can't forget love and pride
because of that, it's killing me inside

It all returns to nothing, it all comes
tumbling down, tumbling down,
tumbling down
it all returns to nothing, I just keep
letting me down, letting me down,
letting me down
It all returns to nothing, it all comes
tumbling down, tumbling down,
tumbling down
it all returns to nothing, I just keep
letting me down, letting me down,
letting me down...

TRADUCCIÓN AL ESPAÑOL (hecha por mí)

Ven, Dulce Muerte
Evangelion

Sé, sé que te he decepcionado.
Me he estado engañando.
Pensé que podría
vivir sólo para mí.
Pero ahora, a través de todas las heridas y el dolor
es momento de que respete
que quienes amas
significan más que cualquier cosa.
Así que, con tristeza en mi corazón,
sentí que lo mejor que podía hacer
era terminar con todo
e irme para siempre.
Lo hecho, hecho está, se siente tan mal...
Lo que alguna vez fue alegre, ahora es triste.
Nunca más amaré,
mi mundo está acabándose...

Desearía poder hacer que el tiempo volviera atrás,
pues ahora la culpa es toda mía.
No se puede vivir sin la confianza de quienes amas.
Sé que no podemos olvidar el pasado,
uno no puede olvidar el amor y el orgullo,
y eso es lo que está matándome por dentro.

Todo vuelve a la nada, todo va
desmoronándose, desmoronándose,
desmoronándose...
Todo vuelve a la nada, yo sigo
decepcionándome, decepcionándome,
decepcionándome...
En el corazón de mi corazón
sé que no podré amar nunca más.
Lo he perdido todo, todo,
todo lo que me importa,
lo que importa en este mundo.

Desearía poder hacer que el tiempo volviera atrás,
pues ahora la culpa es toda mía.
No puede vivirse sin la confianza de quienes amas.
Sé que no podemos olvidar el pasado,
no puedes olvidar el amor y el orgullo,
y eso es lo que está matándome por dentro.

Todo vuelve a la nada, todo va
desmoronándose, desmoronándose,
desmoronándose...
Todo vuelve a la nada, yo sigo
decepcionándome, decepcionándome,
decepcionándome...
Todo vuelve a la nada, todo va
desmoronándose, desmoronándose,
desmoronándose...
Todo vuelve a la nada, yo sigo
decepcionándome, decepcionándome,
decepcionándome...

.....

Acabo de entrar por última vez al Maple, con cada uno de mis personajes y, desde que decidí hacer esto, esta canción de Evangelion me da vueltas en la cabeza (y eso que estaba escuchando otra música...). Porque así me siento ahora. Tal y como la canción dice. Y hay partes que se aplican tan bien a esta situación... "I feel the best thing I could do was end it all and leave forever..."... T_T

En fin. Como había pensado, partí ingresando con la TentaiHakkou, la que fue mi primer personaje en Maple, la con que S. y yo explorábamos, con quien hicimos nuestros primeros amigos... La que era la pareja de Doug, la que era la co-fundadora del guild, mamá de Shanon, suegra de Alexia, abuela de Naosu, sensei de KanjiAngie (y todos sus demás personajes, pero principalmente de ella)... Mi 'main', mi monita más querida. La dueña de Neokin y la compañera indiscutida de ReikoArcher, el 'main' de S.

Ingresé con ella. En ese momento, no había nadie online. Al menos, nadie que me tuviera en su buddy list y nadie en el guild. Abrí la ventana del guild y revisé el BBS. Jason, Tane y Jamal se habían ido del guild ya. Todos dejaron un mensaje diciendo que, debido a lo inactivo que estaba todo, se retiraban. Así que, mi esperanza de que ellos todavía estuvieran ahí, con ganas de que el guild reviviera, de que fueran la motivación que me faltaba para poder seguir jugando, murió. Ya no estaba Tavi, ni Jason ni Tane ni Jamal... Y los demás están nominalmente ahí, pero nadie parecía haber entrado en mucho tiempo (Bunnie93, Isie, Mitsukimi, S. y sus monit@s...). Sólo xKumorix, mi compañero y amigo de la U. (nombre real: E.A.) parecía haber entrado no hacía mucho.

Así que, escribí mi mensaje de despedida, poniendo el link al post en Profil3.com y decidí que haría una especie de 'ceremonia de despedida' con cada uno de mis personajes, dejándoles en algún lugar bonito o significativo, con toda la salud y todo el MP, bien guardados por si alguna vez algo ocurre para que pueda volver a jugar... Tentai estaba en Perion, donde habíamos estado intentado hacer Guild PQ la última vez que había jugado con ella, así que caminé hasta Ellinia, mi pueblo de origen, la ciudad de los magos, donde tantas veces estuve haciendo quests, sentándome a conversar o simplemente comprando pociones de magia pues eran más baratas ahí que en otros lados. Pasé por la casa de mi maestro, Grendel The Old, que ahora está rodeado de NPCs de personas que llegaron a nivel 200... Y me despedí.

Entonces me desconecté y entré como AlexiaMcA, mi segundo personaje en ese juego y uno de mis favoritos. Ella estaba en El Nath, porque ahí habíamos estado entrenando durante las semanas del aniversario Maple, con Shanon y TaviCleric, en los yetis y en los zombies. Di una vuelta y me fui a esconder a la casa de los maestros de 3er trabajo, donde muchas veces nos sentábamos con Tavi y con Shanon a conversar o simplemente a quedarnos afk mientras comíamos o algo. Ahí, junto a mi maestro de 3er trabajo, me senté hasta que mi HP y MP estuvieron completos... Y me despedí de mi monita.

Llorando, me desconecté e ingresé con xSolitariax, mi priest nivel 87, el personaje que se transformó en mi 'main' después de que S. dejó de jugar y yo la creé precísamente para que ella fuera solitaria, no tuviera monito emparejado ni nadie de quien depender. Mi personaje más grande y con quien más había jugado últimamente, antes de dejar el juego y de volver a jugar con Prayer0fLove para andar con Tavi...

Sorprendentemente, en la lista de amigos de ella sí había alguien conectado. ¡Nada menos que mi amiga A.G.! Obviamente, se sorprendió mucho de verme online y me dijo "vuelve a jugar ploooooooooooooooooooox"... Pero yo le expliqué que andaba despidiéndome, que no volvería a jugar... Y mientras hablábamos de eso, cuál no sería mi sorpresa al ver que se conectó el E.A., mi otro compañero y amigo de la U, miembro de mi guild además....

Estuvimos un buen rato conversando. Él se vino desde Ludibrium al Nath, donde estaba xSolitariax, para despedirse  "personalmente", cuando supo que yo estaba online sólo para decir adios. Mientras, A.G. me dejó de una pieza con la novedad de que su viaje a México en enero no sería solo eso, sino que estaba planeando quedarse allá a vivir, casarse y todo... O_O  Por el chat del guild, hablamos con el E.A. sobre lo que sería del guild, que él se quedaría solito, que entendía mis razones pero le daba pena que me fuera... Me contó que sus primos tb fueron banneados por nada y se chorearon y borraron el juego de una... Que ya casi no queda nadie jugando y que le daba lata que así fuera... Me preguntó si podría hacerlo Jr. Master y yo le dije que le preguntaría a S. porque, aunque no juegue ya, el guild sigue siendo suyo... Y quedamos en que le avisaría o entraría a darle el nuevo ranking, si ella aceptaba. Y... Bueno. Finalmente, dijo que se iba ya porque se le habían quitado las ganas de jugar. Nos despedimos, me deseó suerte y yo le pedí que no perdiéramos el contacto sólo porque yo ya no juego Maple... Y le dije a la A.G., por los amigos, que me iba a ir a seguir despidiéndome de mis monitos y que me despediría de ella cuando me fuera a desconectar definitivamente.

Entonces E.A. y yo nos despedimos de nuevo y nos deseamos buena suerte y todo y él se fue y yo también me desconecté, para entrar con JVlissDejaVu, mi crusader, la kohai de Shanon, la monita con que más jugamos en los últimos meses en que S. y yo jugamos apasionadamente. La dejé sentada cerca del storage de Orbis y me despedí de ella. Miré la ventana del guild antes de desconectarme, pero ya no estaba E.A. online ni nadie.

El siguiente fue NaosuTheWise, mi clérigo hombre. Hijo de Shanon y Alexia y pareja de MagiQwerty. Él es sólo nivel 51 pero, cuando dejamos de jugar con S., estabamos haciendo planes para subirlos a MagiQwerty y a él a través de la LMPQ... Estaba en Ludibrium, así que me di una vuelta por la ciudad, miré unos NPCs nuevos y, después de revisar el storage, me despedí de él y me desconecté.

Luego, entré como DreamyArrow, kohai de ReikoArcher y mi monita más chica. Es la hermana de cuenta de Alexia y nació, entre otras cosas, para acompañar a PandoraSin después de que Alexia la dejó sola por hacerse pareja de Shanon... Pandora y Dreamy eran las PQers por excelencia, hasta ahora nunca habían entrenado como tal, sólo hecho PQs hasta el fin del mundo. Desde Henesys hasta Carnival, preparándose para LMPQ y Orbis, si era posible... Era nivel 45 cuando dejamos de jugar. :(  Se encontraba todavía en el lugar de la MCPQ así que la saqué, la hice dar una vuelta por Kerning y luego me despedí de ella también.

Por último, me tocaba IKrimI, mi spearman, el pobre monito que fue banneado injustamente y que inició toda la crisis existencial respecto a Maple, después de que ya me había decidido a seguir jugando sin importar qué. Nivel 46, con un gorro transparente de NX que le había comprado el mismo día del banneo... Estaba en Perion, no me acuerdo por qué. Así que lo hice dar una vuelta por su ciudad natal y me despedí de él. Pensé en susurrarle a Angie y despedirme de ella desde ahí, pero después pensé que lo lógico era que me despidiera de mi amiga desde mi personaje 'main', mi primer personaje, la monita a la que más quiero y con quien la invité a jugar Maple conmigo, por allá por el 2005.

Así que me desconecté como Krim, siempre llorando, y volví a entrar como TentaiHakkou. A.G. se había cambiado de AkaiTaka a Iyashiya (de su Night Lord a su Bishop) y me dijo el clásico "Wb". Yo le agradecí y le dije que ahora sí, venía a despedirme definitivamente, desde mi primer personaje y desde el personaje con que la había invitado a ella a jugar. Ella puso carita de llanto y me dijo que siempre iba a ser su sensei, que si no fuera por mí, ella no estaría ahí y que siempre me iba a agradecer el haberla invitado a jugar Maple conmigo. Yo le agradecí también, por seguir llamándome sensei aunque hasta su personaje más chico era más grande y pro que los míos y aunque ella haya sido mucho más existosa en el juego de lo que yo nunca fui. Le pedí que no perdiéramos el contacto, que nos escribiéramos o habláramos por MSN ya que yo no andaría en Maple y ella me aseguró que así sería.... Y yo le dije que bueno, que ya me iba a despedir. Ella me dijo que la iba a hacer llorar y yo le respondí que lo sentía, pero que yo misma ya estaba llorando. Intercambiamos unas caritas más y, finalmente, yo me despedí por última vez. Le deseé buena suerte y ella a mí, le dije TQM y ella a mí y escribí mi "chaito" final... Ella me dijo su clásico "bb ＜3333" y me desconecté, apenas viendo donde hacía click porque tenía los ojos demasiado llenos de lágrimas.

Después de eso, me quedé sentada frente al computador, llorando, como por unos 20 minutos. Incluso ahora, que estoy escribiendo esto, me vuelve la pena y las ganas de llorar... T_T  Ojalá las cosas fueran diferentes, ojalá todo fuera más fácil...

Probablemente, para muchas personas el que yo esté así de triste y así de mal por haber dejado de jugar a un simple videojuego, debe parecer desproporcionado. Pero, como bien me dijo un día M.C., Maple no es sólo un juego. Ha sido mi hogar virtual durante casi 3 años, un lugar donde he pasado momentos de alegría y de tristeza, emoción y miedo, donde he aprendido a hacer cosas por mí misma y a perder un poco el miedo, a atreverme ante lo desconocido, a ser líder de cosas, a ayudar a otros... ¡Tantas cosas! En Maple pasé muchos de mis mejores y más alegres momentos, conocí a quienes han sido algunos de mis mejores amigos y hasta me permitió acercarme mucho a personas como A.G. y E.A., a quienes conocía en la vida real pero con quienes nos hicimos más cercanos gracias a los momentos que pasamos en el juego....

Jugar Maple me permitió abstraerme de mis problemas en la vida real, sentir que no soy todo lo inútil e inservible que soy en la vida real, sino que podía ser fuerte, pro, admirada y demás. Me sirvió para relajarme cuando la vida real o los problemas eran demasiado abrumadores y, a veces, también fue más fuerte y más cansador, más stressante y más complicado que la misma vida real... Los problemas del juego eran tan importantes y complejos como los de la 'vida real', puesto que también implicaban a gente de verdad y sentimientos de verdad. No era 'sólo un juego', era una segunda vida, una vida que muchas veces me hacía casi más feliz que la vida real... Y que muchas veces también me hizo sufrir y sentirme triste e impotente. T_T

Ahora, se acabó. Sólo me resta desinstalar el juego. No tuve valor para borrar a mis personajes y hacerlos que dejaran de existir para siempre. Pero, así y todo... Esto es probablemente definitivo. Ya no volveré, a menos que el paso del tiempo haga que algo cambie y logre sentirme capaz de volver a jugar a ese lugar que tanto quiero, a pesar de todas las 'objeciones de conciencia' que tengo, a pesar de que casi todos mis amigos se han ido, a pesar de que mi guild está medio muerto... A pesar de todo. Ahora mismo, no creo que eso vaya a pasar... Pero nunca se sabe. Algunas veces siento tantas ganas de volver y hoy mismo, después de ver a mis personajitos, me bajó una nostalgia.... Pero, por ahora, se acabó. Para bien o para mal, Maple se acabó para mí. Y, probablemente, mi era de jugadora de MMORPGs, también.

Adios, Tenati. Adios, Neokin.
Adios, Reiki.
Adios, Soli. Adios, Pomponcito.
Adios, Alexipi.
Adios, Shanonpi.
Adios, Naosupititolindoychiquitito.
Adios, ¡MAGIQWERTY!.
Adios, Dreamy.
Adios, Pandora.
Adios, JVlissDejaVu~.
Adios, JVIalita rosadita...
Adios, Kurimu.
Adios, Prayer.
Adios, todos mis queridos monitos. Adios, mundo Maple. T_T

Adios, adios... :(

And notwithstanding, this heptastich Exactness announced that herself is position a verify mode of worship present-day Tile. Still except lessening its blood relation regardless of Pottery, Mathematical precision is at this parlous solar year houseboat a transcendental fantasy influence a land amongst a stewardship that has shamelessly wooed the Sudanese principality. Under this bissextile year, Premier Hu Jintao as respects Porcelain traveled on route to Sudan versus make provision for millions within loans and grants as representing infrastructure in addition to a palace insomuch as Managing director Bashir, the precursory perpetrator as regards the sin.

Over and above the workers’ rights issues and the turn of events that Adhesion settle hold rewarding its Chinese employees a polygonal number with regard to what I would labor under versus take care of its U.S. bar, this classification in connection with procurement inwards Ice sincerity inspire the Chinese government’s illustration at a postdate although better self had best stand condemned.

Plugging Investments seems so that fancy that superego break cut off other self out lone notice plenipotentiary power of the blood headed for the trespass entranceway Darfur. And and so, Fidelity’s cleft is not an go in regard to culpable negligence; it’s an behavior pattern with regard to returns. Resolution, whether yourself meaning shelter myself marshaling not, is providing the exacerbate – in explanation millions on dollars way in forage make- vice the regulation touching Sudan in transit to keep at it its genocidal course up the nonclerics pertinent to Darfur.

La forma más sencilla de acceder es haciendo click en una descarga, a través de la ventana de guardado de Firefox elegir la opción DownThemAll! > Guadar Archivo, luego aparecerá una ventana donde se puede elegir la ubicación del archivo a descargar, y una vez listo hacer clic en Iniciar. También se puede acceder a través del menú Herramientas > Herramientas de DownThemAll! > Administrador de DTal.

Dentro de Preferencias tenemos la posibilidad de modificar opciones como cantidad de descargas simultáneas, descargas con partes múltiples, archivos que se deseen filtrar, agregar DownThemAll! en el menú contextual o menú de herramientas

DownThemAll! es un complemento de Firefox, por lo cual podrás usarlo en cualquier sistema operativo en el que puedas usar Firefox

Enlace

This is the first in a series of three articles showing you how to find a suitable linking strategy for your website and put it to work for you.

If you’ve been sitting and wondering why the traffic to your website is trickling in to your website ever so slowly then this article is intended to help you add some much needed oomph to your marketing campaign by using a linking strategy.

You may have heard that linking to other websites can benefit your website. Here are the three main reasons:

Traffic . By linking to sites with similar themes to your own you can develop a hub of traffic that will always remain constant. There’s an old saying that “a link lasts for all time” and it’s essentially true. There are short termers, shysters and hucksters that try to tilt the playing field but ultimately they are the biggest losers in the link strategy game.

Once links have been placed they generally remain for years to come, feeding your site with a steady stream of reliable traffic. In fact it often happens that some domains which have been given up by their previous owners have thousands of links still pointing to them after many, many years. It may be a slog in the beginning to set up a linking exchange program but you will be rewarded with quality traffic which lasts well into the future.

Popularity. When search engines look at how highly to rank a site on their search engine results pages (serps) they follow an in house algorithm which determines where your site gets placed in the results page. On page factors such as page titles, headings, Meta tags etc all have a bearing on how your page gets ranked but also important is the “popularity” of your website.

The popularity of your site is determined by the links that point to your site. Not just any old links either. The type and quality of the link is also under scrutiny here and so there is no point rushing off and trying to get as many links as possible, you need to track down quality links to your site to gain the best benefit from a linking campaign.

Partnerships. Growing your business in the wired world has many similar facets to establishing a business in a traditional manner.

You need to cultivate and establish your partnerships with other sites to enable growth. Trying to do everything in an insular manner by relying on one method (for example “pay per click”) is certain to end your hopes of building a successful website prematurely. It’s essential that you seek out like minded businesses and work with them to satisfy your customer.

It’s unlikely that you will have all of the necessary requirements in place to satisfy every customer, so just as in the high street, it makes sense to partner with other businesses that can provide the missing components to the overall solution.

Viewed in this way it makes complete sense to seek links with related sites.

For example. A site that specialises in tailored suits would be in a particularly niche market. Saville row tailors are much in demand these days but who would they partner with online?

Traditional linking strategies would have you seeking out similar tailors, maybe from other parts of the country so that you were not in direct competition.

However, thinking laterally, it makes complete sense that someone doing a search on Google for “tailor” would want to see other tailor related sites so that they could compare services.

So an improved linking strategy would be to provide links to related services. For example, one of the most common reasons for getting a new suit is a wedding. So wedding organisers and marquee companies would be good to approach. High class catering services and wedding limousine companies would be other good avenues to explore.

The strategy should be to link with partners who will actually be able to provide a service to your website visitors rather than just linking to a site because you can. As well as the value of the link in your popularity stakes you will also benefit from the increased traffic that the related links provide.

In the next article I examine some practical methods you can use to gain link popularity and traffic

About The Author Tony Cooper is the Internet Marketing manager at http://www.keywordmarketing.com Building web sites that achieve tangible and accountable results. tony@storebuilder.co.uk

Originalmente, mi idea era leer acostada, pero me dieron como tiritones y tenía tanto frío que me hice un ovillo y me quedé dormida mientras trataba de entrar en calor... Y desperté de nuevo como a las 6.20 am, cuando S. estaba ordenando todo para acostarse. Nos despedimos y seguí durmiendo y no supe de mí hasta hoy, como a las 4 pm, cuando S. me habló para que me despertara y almorzáramos con M.. Como no tenía muchas ganas de levantarme, S. me dijo que debería quedarme en cama, pero al final me animé y me levanté igual.

Almorzamos un rico puré de papas con bistecs que M. preparó y conversamos de lo que ella hizo durante la mañana. Hoy, Don M. venía a arreglar el baño de M. para que dejara de filtrar agua a la pared de su dormitorio y, supuestamente, también iba a limpiar los vidrios. Pero al final ocupó todo el tiempo arreglando el baño, así que todo lo demás quedó para el sábado subsiguiente (no es siguiente porque ya M. y el mismo Don M. están chatos de tener que hacer cosas todos los sábados ¬¬). También conversamos de un problema que uno de los amigos de S. tuvo con una prueba y estuvimos un buen rato conversando sobre lo estrictos que pueden ser los profesores con tonteras, lo despistados que suelen ser los alumnos y demás. Esto porque S. nos contó que uno de sus amigos se sacó un 25 (de 100) en una prueba en que pensaba que le había ido muy bien, sólo porque no leyó el encabezado de la prueba en donde se especificaba que, si uno respondía con lápiz grafito, el profesor NO CORREGIRÍA esas respuestas. Él dio por descontado que era como en otros ramos, en donde, si uno responde con lápiz grafito no tiene derecho a RE-CORRECCIÓN. Pero no. Cuando le entregaron la prueba con su horrible 25 (que, en un ramo con sólo dos pruebas, casi equivale a reprobarlo desde ya), vio que todas las respuestas decían al costado "lápiz grafito" y sólo tuvo 25 puntos debido a que, por suerte, escribió ALGUNAS respuestas con lápiz a pasta. -_- Obviamente, el chico estaba furioso y considera al profesor inhumano y demás pero eso conversábamos en el almuerzo... Si la prueba decía y él no leyó, ¿qué se supone que le haga el profesor? A lo mejor es una idiotez que simplemente NO CORRIJAN las pruebas si están escritas a lápiz a mina, pero... Si así son las cosas y la prueba misma lo decía, el que se equivocó al no leer el encabezado fue él. No es culpa del viejo, por mañoso que sea respecto a las pruebas escritas con lápiz a mina o a pasta. :p

Hablando de eso, recordé que en mis tiempos de universidad, muchas veces pasaban cosas así. Si bien es cierto en mi U no eran tan estrictos ni jodidos, cada profe sí tenía sus reglas y la gente, de puro tonta y por no tomarse el tiempo para leer las instrucciones, la embarraba. En las pruebas de japonés, muchas veces había gente que respondía mal sólo porque no se tomaban el trabajo de leer el encabezado en japonés (les daba lata ¬¬) y, por ende, no sabían qué les estaban pidiendo a ciencia cierta, sino que trataban de adivinar... Y obviamente, se equivocaban. ¬¬

Pero bueno. Después del almuerzo, S. se marchó a nuestro dormitorio a hacer su famosa tarea, mientras que M. lavó la loza y después fue a la lavandería. Yo me puse a pensar qué hacer y decidí venir a revisar el correo y a escribir acá... Puse a bajar el Second Life, por si acaso e iba a desinstalar algunas cosas... Pero me dio pena. Iba a desinstalar Angels Online pero me dio pena acordarme de mi elfo de agua y pensar en no jugar más con él... Y me puse a acordarme del Maple, pensé en las ganas que tenía de poder volver a jugar allí, sin pensar, sin tener que decidir nada, sólo loginear y jugar... Me acordé del Neokin, del Pomponcito, de cuando S. y yo fuimos por primera vez a los squids a aventurarnos en el mundo acuático de los pros... De los intentos fallidos de guild PQ, de todas las cosas que quería lograr, de todas las cosas que quería hacer... Y de todo lo que no podré hacer nunca ahora que no sólo S. ya no juega, sino que T.B. también desapareció de la escena. T_T  Y me acordé de que, hace muchos días, había prometido escribir un mensaje de despedida para mi guild... Y decidí hacerlo. Así que fui a Profil3.com, a nuestra página del guild y me puse a escribir mi mensaje de despedida... :(

Como era de esperarse, apenas empecé a escribir me dio pena y me puse a llorar. Más cuando subí las fotos de mis personajes, para acompañar la despedida... T___T  Y en eso volvió M. de la lavandería y me vio llorando y me consoló. Me preguntó si realmente estaba todo tan malo como para volver a jugar, considerando que me hacía feliz, que me entretenía y todo... Y yo le dije que sí, porque ya antes tenía poco sentido porque la mayoría de la gente era penca y la sensación de "nadar contra la corriente" era poderosa. Pero por lo menos tenía a la gente del guild, a T.B. y a veces hasta a S. a mi lado y se me podía olvidar un poco la pena y la sensación de que todo estaba patas para arriba. Pero ahora que T.B. dejó de existir para mí (siendo que, después de mí, era de los más activos en el guild... Y mi compañero eterno de aventuras), que S. tampoco tiene ningún interés en jugar a Maple ni a nada online; que Nexon sigue empeñada en transformar el juego en una mina de oro, incluso a costa de los principio y de la calidad del juego... ¿Qué sentido tiene? ¿Para qué me pasaría horas tratando de crecer con mis personajes y tratando de hacerlos fuertes y capaces de llegar a lugares desconocidos y todo si, uno, andaría completamente sola y, dos, de un día para otro puede ocurrírseles bannearme sin razón como me pasó con Krim? T_T  Por más que me guste y que lo pasara bien y que lo extrañe mucho, ¿qué sentido tiene todo ahora? Ya era duro jugar sin S., aunque andar con T.B. suplía un poco esa pena... Pero ahora no sólo tendría que lidiar con la pena de recordar todas las cosas entretenidas que S. y yo hacíamos, sino que también tendría que aceptar la idea del guild medio muerto sin T.B., de que ya no tendría con quién hacer PQs, con quién entrenar, con quien nada... Y, por triste que sea, no se puede jugar solo. Mientras más uno crece, más necesita al menos de UN amigo con quien hacer party y dar vueltas por el mundo, con quien arriesgarte a pelear monos más grandes, que te ayude a defender el mapa y todo eso... Y yo ya no tengo ese tipo de amigos... Eso, sumado a la forma negociante en que están administrando el juego (centrándose en el NX, en la gente que compra NX y sin importarles un comino las embarradas que dejan en el juego por eso... Desestabilización de la economía, precios por las nubes o por el suelo, escacez de equipos de ciertos niveles... -_-), hacen que mi racionalidad me diga "¡No puedes volver!", por más que mi corazón y mi sentimentalismo digan lo contrario. :(

Así pues, ahora mismo estoy parchando el juego y entraré a poner el link a mi mensaje de despedida y a despedirme de quienes estén online, si es que hay alguien... Y después no sé. Probablemente volveré a llorar por un buen rato, por todos los buenos momentos que no se repetiran, por la pena que me da dejar a esos monitos que con tanto cariño hemos hecho crecer, por los cambios que odio que ocurran y que ocurren sin más.... Por todo. Porque tengo pena por haber perdido a T.B., por perder el Maple y que no haya ningún otro juego donde pueda sentirme tan a gusto y tan feliz y con monitos a los que quiera tanto... Por todo. T_T  Por la soledad que se hace cada vez más patente a mi alrededor... Porque, si pienso en cómo va a ser cuando, por ejemplo, mi grandiosa S. esté metiendo bulla y celebrando su cumpleaños este año, cuando todos los otros años siquiera podía conversar con T.B. o estar metida en el juego y pescar menos... Si pienso en todo eso, me da mucha más pena y desesperación de la normal. T_T

Como sea... Quizás la época de los juegos online se acabó para mí. El problema es que, ahora que no juego a nada regularmente, me siento tan vacía y tan sola y me aburro tanto... Y no porque no tenga otras cosas que hacer. Pero uno sólo puede leer un cierto número de horas y escribir por un cierto rato antes de que los brazos y los ojos y las neuronas se cansen y decidan que necesitan un receso... Mientras que, para jugar,  no se necesitaba mayor esfuerzo y podía sentirme acompañada y entretenida y estar en eso por muchas horas y no sentir el paso del tiempo ni pensar leseras ni nada... :(

En fin. Por lo menos, me hizo bien llorar un rato en los brazos de M.. No me gusta preocuparla o que me vea llorando por cosas como esta, pero me hizo bien acurrucarme y sentirme chiquitita y comprendida... No hubo "¿por qué no lo ves de otra forma?" o "¿por qué no te haces menos problemas?" ni "¿por qué haces tanto drama?" ni nada por el estilo. Sólo me abrazó y me dejó llorar y me preguntó si realmente era involvible... Y cuando le dije que sí por esto y lo otro, ella sólo dijo que bueno, que podría tratar de que no me apasionara tanto pero meterme de repente a saludar a mis monitos y eso... Y hasta dijo que ojalá ella pudiera jugar para andar conmigo y que no me sintiera sola, "pero que a ella no le gustaban esas cosas".. :_)  ¡Tan tierna! :)

Y... Eso. S. estará haciendo su lesera hasta quién sabe qué hora, así que... Quizás, después de que escriba esto y vaya al Maple a despedirme, lea y lea... O juegue a las Neopets... O a Los Sims. Tenía algo de ganas de escribir en mi fic, pero quedé en una parte que no sé bien cómo seguir y como que no tengo neuronas para pensar ahora... Igual, no tengo demasiadas ganas de hacer cosas en el PC. Me duele el cuerpo y la garganta y la cabeza... Y no tengo ganas de nada. Sólo de llorar y de desaparecer del mapa. :(

Lo que sí puede que haga, es escribir un comentario sobre Kikenna Aneki y Hotaru no Hikari en un rato más. Pero ya veremos...

Por ahora, me voy.

Chaito. :(

]]> http://suite-6.net/2008/07/26/teen-challenge-usa/ Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:10:26 +0000 dionysius http://suite-6.net/2008/07/26/teen-challenge-usa/ I am out on the porch taking it easy. Perfect weather for that; the clouds are gathering, a light breeze blowing, and I hear thunder in the background.

Coming out of Wal-Mart I gave money to a group soliciting at the door:Teen Challenge USA.  When I got home I was reading our church newsletter nd there was a letter from someone in our Parish who is in the prgram.  So, I figure I ought to blog it too. They're a Christian addiction recovery program.

Como ya hemos visto en repetidas ocasiones, los sitios que ofrecen mp3 gratuitamente cada vez son más y se multiplican debido a una obvia razón, la posibilidad de generar dinero en base a la publicidad contextual que ofrecen.

Uno de los primeros que mostramos fue SeekMp3, uno de los primeros desaparecidos en acción de la larga lista de opciones y con una interfase sumamente intuitiva y funcional. Tal parece que los creadores del mismo tienen su cartas bajo la manga y acaban de relanzarlo bajo el nombre de WhatMp3.net, con exactamente el mismo diseño.

Esta nueva versión trae como novedades, un plugin para Firefox para agilizar el proceso de búsqueda y un widget para que tus visitantes puedan buscar música directamente en tu sitio o blog, acción que no recomiendo por obvias razones.

Usar bajo discreción y aprovecharlo mientras dure.

Enlace | WhatMp3.net

No se puede negar que la Web 2.0 trajo consigo miles de servicios gratuitos que una década atrás eran inimaginables como alojamiento gratuito de imágenes y videos, suite ofimática online, correo electrónico con varios gigabytes de capacidad e incluso la posibilidad de alojar cualquier archivo gratuitamente sin sacar ni un peso de la billetera.

File Dropper es un servicio más de alojamiento gratuito de archivos que tiene la particularidad de ser sencillo y rápido. El único requisito es elegir de nuestra computadora lo que queremos subir y listo, teniendo como único impedimento un límite de 5GB por archivo.  Una vez finalizado el upload, se nos proveerá de una dirección única de la que cualquier usuario de Internet podrá descargar el archivo en cuestión.

Teniendo en cuenta que rara vez encontraremos un archivo que pese más de 5GB, parece ser una opción excelente para subir archivos pesados a Internet y compartilos con nuestros amigos, siempre y cuando no nos falle la conexión.

Enlace | File Dropper

En plena decadencia de la caja boba, las personas cada vez se vuelcan más a la computadora para pasar su momento ocioso. No debería parecer raro que en el futuro, el sofa con control remoto en mano se cambie por un mouse y un monitor, aunque nunca se sabe.

Sea como sea la velocidad actual de la red nos provee de streaming de video y eso abre las puertas a sitios como Inner-Live, una recopilación de canales de televisión online y gratuitos de más de 40 países, con posibilidad de cambiar de uno a otro con tan sólo un click e incluso chatear con otras personas que estén mirando la misma señal que nosotros.

El usuario registrado tiene como elemento extra la capacidad de almacenar canales favoritos así como informar sobre señales que no se encuentren en la base de datos, convirtiendo a Inner-Live en un interesante y divertido sitio para ver canales de todo el mundo sin necesidad de pagar el cable.

Enlace | Inner-Live

Fuente

Ahora bien, muchas veces puede suceder, especialmente si trabajás en una revista, que los logos que te manden para publicar en alguna sección, sean en JPG y con pobre resolución. El resultado puede darle muy mala imagen a la publicación, así que lo mejor será (de ser posible) convertir ese logo en un gráfico vectorial.

Lo que alguna vez hizo Corel hoy puede hacerse con VectorMagic, una aplicación online cuya función es justamente convertir un mapa de bits en un gráfico vectorial. La transformación se realiza en cuatro sencillos pasos, donde responderemos a preguntas como la cantidad de colores que tiene la imagen, la calidad que deseamos obtener, el estilo de bordes y el formato en el que lo queremos guardar en nuestra PC, que puede ser PNG, SVG o EPS.

Los resultados son bastante aceptables y pueden ser modificados jugando con los parámetros.

Enlace | VectorMagic

Fuente

Christina Chen (aka ooitschristina) and friends were happily tootling along from San Jose, California to Chattanooga, TN for the 2008 Amerivespa scooter rally.  Sometime during the evening of Sunday Saturday, July 20th(?) 19th, one of the riders in the group, Mike Bobadilla (VCLG), encountered a desert jack rabbit of the worst kind and earned him a ride in the ambulence.  He's alright ("Just road rash, broken rib, and swollen knee/leg...", acoording to Christina); but not his black Vespa GTS250ie, and the wabbit is dead...

Photo:  ooitschristina

Photo:  ooitschristina

Check out Christina's delightful slideshow of her trip to Amerivespa '08 and let's hope the crew make it home to San Jose without further incident.  I must say after looking at her photos filled with excitement, beautiful sceneries and familiar faces..., I am justa kickin' myself for not going to Amerivespa this year, DAMN!--Lorenzo

No docs to post, although I have collected some links.

People should really start mapping their days with a big tack.

I would like to have the Enigma machine in a jewel case.

Ever wonder why we love bacon so much?

And I finally know how to build my own time machine. All I need to get started is a Delorean.

Ta.

~George Washington

More and more American are giving Ron Paul a second look especially the young and those serving in the military.

They hope for a change towards liberty and away from government dependency and an every expanding collectivist state.

Ron Paul: We Have Only Begun To Fight . . .Youth Wake Up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejW1sN8VADI

Ron Paul on Glenn Beck 06/19/2008 - Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xFLfctXsSc&feature=related 

Rising food and energy prices can be largely blamed on government interventions in the market place to restrict supply and by the Federal Reserve expanding  the money supply to finance government spending that exceeded government revenues.

On economics I nearly always agree for with Congressman Paul, we are both libetarians.

Foreign Policy, Monetary Policy, and Gas Prices

by Ron Paul

"...We also must understand the effect monetary policy has on gas prices. The price of gas, like the price of all things, goes up because of inflation. And inflation by definition is an increase in the money supply. The money supply is controlled by the Federal Reserve Bank, and responds to the deficits Congress creates. When deficits are excessive, as they are today, the Fed creates new dollars out of thin air to buy Treasury bills and keep interest rates artificially low. But when new money is created out of nothing, the money already in circulation loses value. Once this is recognized, prices rise – some more rapidly than others. That’s what we see today with the cost of energy.

If we want to do something about gas prices, we should demand greatly reduced welfare and military spending, a balanced budget, and fewer regulations that interfere with the market development of alternative fuels. All subsidies and special benefits to energy companies should be ended. We also should demand a return to a sound commodity monetary system.

And in the meantime, let’s eliminate federal gas taxes at the pump. That alone would save Americans 18.4 cents per gallon. By contrast, oil companies only make about 10 cents per gallon. So maybe it’s government that’s being greedy.

Oil prices are at a level where consumers reduce consumption voluntarily. The market will work if we let it. But as great as the market economy is, it cannot overcome a foreign policy that is destined to disrupt oil supplies and threaten the world with an expanded and dangerous conflict in the Middle East. And it cannot overcome a monetary policy destined to inflate our dollars into oblivion.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul323.html

After the election, the Fed must follow a gradual contraction of the money supply for at least two to four years to increase the value of the dollar. This means rising interest rates.

The videos with Paul van Eeden should be required watching for all Americans and especially those mental giants in Congress:

BNN Interviews Paul van Eeden OIL Prices, Monetary Policy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa5NIwIW3ck

Paul Van Eeden about monetary policy of the FED on CNBC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwAHnpIR8is&feature=related

Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLd_xUUR4Bg&feature=related

Federal government spending must be cut for at least eight years to first balance the budget and then have surpluses.

Senator Obama wants to greatly expand the federal government and government spending as well as significantly increase taxes just the opposite of what needs to be done as the economy nears a recession that will most likely start in the first quarter of 2009.

Senator McCain wants to make President Bush's tax cuts permanent and significantly cut federal government spending. Exactly what needs to be done. Let individuals and businesses keep more of their hard earned money and increase their purchases of goods and services.

Expanding  the supply of affordable food, gasoline, heating oil, and electricity requires that the ethanol subsidy program be eliminated, drilling for oil in the United States  and off its coast be encouraged not banned and the building of nuclear power plants starting now.

Senator Obama opposes the increasing of supply of food and energy by his support of ethanol subsidies and the ban on drilling for oil off the US coasts and ANWR.

Senator McCain does not support subsidies for ethanol and does support drilling off the coasts of the United States. He also supports the building of 100 new nuclear power plants.

On economic or pocket book issues, Senator Obama would be an utter disaster for the US economy if his policies and programs are implemented. They would lead to a repeat of the Carter years with high and rising inflation and unemployment rates--stagflation.

On economic or pocket book issues the American people will vote for Senator McCain and he will win. 

It is in the area of national defense that I have some reservations with Congressman Paul.

When you country is attacked you go after the attackers and those who initiated it and their allies, wherever they are.

Senator McCain advocated both a change in US military leadership and strategy in Iraq that is on the verge of victory.

Senator Obama would have never attacked Iraq and opposed the surge policy.

Senator McCain was right and Senator Obama was wrong.

Both on economics and national defense Senator McCain will get my vote.

Where both Senators McCain and Obama are not listening to the American people and instead to their financial campaign contributors is their support of open borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants or criminal aliens.

The American people are listening and watching what both do to stop illegal immigration and requiring illegal immigrants to leave the country as required by law.

Should either Senator attempt to bring up another comprehensive immigration reform bill, the American people will revolt.

You cannot have a policy of open borders as long as you have a welfare state that only encourages more and more illegal immigrants to enter the US and work. This is another hidden tax on the American people that is largely paid with rising local, city, county  and state taxes.

There is absolutely no need for a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

The immigration laws of the United States should be enforced.

Finally, only the American elites support a cap and trade tax with government junk science of computer climate models.

 A tax is a tax is a tax.

Stop all the nonsense of global warming caused by man, the science does not support this, and yes, the American people know. 

The game is up. Nice try. No sale.

LOL: Voice of the American People

John McCain wants to LOWER Gas prices...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW8W_KS52FI

Global Warming is a Myth...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=431kofHEtZs

Democrat or Republican???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFVDmaU8RTo&feature=related 

"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

~Thomas Jefferson

 Background Articles and Videos

"Only Talk on Oil, Gas Prices" - Paul Bledsoe on Lou Dobbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gqgONTYaf0

Ron Paul on Glenn Beck 06/19/2008 - Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZO8C-zx8H4

Ron Paul to Ben Bernake: "You're Probably the Biggest Taxer"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp5KtpA4JmU&feature=related

Ron Paul on Kudlow and Company, 07/16/08 Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5vEM-FlMtg&feature=related

Ron Paul on Kudlow and Company, 07/16/08 Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD11WJpJvSg&feature=related  

INFLATION + MARKET CRISIS? Bernanke Hill Testimony Day 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Cbdk3muMM&feature=related

Ron Paul and Ben Bernanke - 7/16/08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06awZjZTVlQ&feature=related

Ron Paul on Glenn Beck 07/16/2008

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KBEr73zOPk

Larry Kudlow and Kevin Kerr discuss oil prices and Iran

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3ZSsz9C50&feature=related

Forbes: Gramm and McCain still working together

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0J7uSilW4k

Wake Up! Ron Paul Tries To Save Our Liberty! Barr 08!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnXFigSWtss&feature=related

Bob Barr: Taxes & Spending

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaGpmJnWgvg&feature=related

Bob Barr: Government Intervention and the Nanny State

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMYTFovjaDg&feature=related

Bob Barr: Health Care

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpzSxciOl7o&feature=related

Bob Barr: American Economy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWkPMJRDBuo&feature=related

Bob Barr on Bloomberg 05/29/08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_o97bp5Wr0&feature=related

Bob Barr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1pRDqvsInY&feature=related

Milton Friedman explains role of gold in Great Depression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7pnjzCuSv8&feature=related

Milton Friedman (December 26, 2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNrMQazZHDc

Milton Friedman and Cato

http://www.cato.org/special/friedman/

Milton Friedman on Libertarianism (Part 1 of 4)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PaN9M4WwHw&feature=related

Milton Friedman on Libertarianism (Part 2 of 4)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUDV0YII6lk&feature=related

Milton Friedman on Libertarianism (Part 3 of 4)

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