A friend of mine read my post As you set out for... and asked me - what do you mean by "love is the journey, not the destination?"
For me this means that the most enjoyable part about love is the everyday life. When I transform myself to be a better partner, when I do something to improve myself and then the relationship I am living the best part of love.
And I think this is true either when you have a partner or you don't. I believe that, if I am expecting to find one day the right woman for me, I have to be prepare for that. So I am preparing now to be the right man. And that for me is love, for me and for my future partner.
As I told her, her own journey, of which she has left a record on her diary, is a proof of love, no matter the end, the destination.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
We were cavers once…and young (IV)
South Wales Weekend (October 2002)
Saturday (Fun day)
Go caving and know the country! Yeah! But be sure that somebody reserved a place for you in one of the cars. Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (OFD) cave has a welsh meaning in its name, maybe different to its meaning in my impressed mind: an amusement park. And again with the perfect guide for a pleasant trip according to our kid’s curiosity (L, L and me) This cave has muggy passages where, if like me you don’t use gloves, your hands could become pottery with little warm. You will be happy in its long tunnels for run, run, and run and run…and fall in the stream underneath if the guide doesn’t stop you.
There I also had my first post-caving enjoyment because there’s no better place for share your cave impressions that a warm pub for put you fast in the best alcoholic mood. I also learned what sleeping in a hut means but the future deserved me more surprises.
Sunday (Work day)
I joined the Tim’s video maker team along with L, T and E. Following a different trip and comparing with that the day before I felt like visiting the roof of the amusement park, ending the trip with the filming of a rescue practice (some caves are crowded). Of course, the presence of all those rescuers couldn’t be ignored and T, E and I decided to make a fast visit to the stream, flowing with the water, running along those black walls made of razor blades up to a fabulous water fall. There I learned other lesson. Why shoulders were made for in a cave. Thanks T!
Saturday (Fun day)
Go caving and know the country! Yeah! But be sure that somebody reserved a place for you in one of the cars. Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (OFD) cave has a welsh meaning in its name, maybe different to its meaning in my impressed mind: an amusement park. And again with the perfect guide for a pleasant trip according to our kid’s curiosity (L, L and me) This cave has muggy passages where, if like me you don’t use gloves, your hands could become pottery with little warm. You will be happy in its long tunnels for run, run, and run and run…and fall in the stream underneath if the guide doesn’t stop you.
There I also had my first post-caving enjoyment because there’s no better place for share your cave impressions that a warm pub for put you fast in the best alcoholic mood. I also learned what sleeping in a hut means but the future deserved me more surprises.
Sunday (Work day)
I joined the Tim’s video maker team along with L, T and E. Following a different trip and comparing with that the day before I felt like visiting the roof of the amusement park, ending the trip with the filming of a rescue practice (some caves are crowded). Of course, the presence of all those rescuers couldn’t be ignored and T, E and I decided to make a fast visit to the stream, flowing with the water, running along those black walls made of razor blades up to a fabulous water fall. There I learned other lesson. Why shoulders were made for in a cave. Thanks T!
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Poverty in Britain
New study reveals true levels of poverty in Britain
According to David Gordon, co-editor and Professor of Social Justice at Bristol University: "The only way to end poverty within a generation would be to embark on a serious policy of redistribution. At the beginning of the 21st century, the UK is one of the most unequal societies in Europe. In order to reduce poverty and social exclusion the Government needs to reverse this redistribution to the rich, and, at a minimum, return to the levels of inequality in income and power that existed in the mid-1970s. This would see poverty and social exclusion reduced by at least half."
According to David Gordon, co-editor and Professor of Social Justice at Bristol University: "The only way to end poverty within a generation would be to embark on a serious policy of redistribution. At the beginning of the 21st century, the UK is one of the most unequal societies in Europe. In order to reduce poverty and social exclusion the Government needs to reverse this redistribution to the rich, and, at a minimum, return to the levels of inequality in income and power that existed in the mid-1970s. This would see poverty and social exclusion reduced by at least half."
La 69.G (apologies...but for a version in other languages of this post try the translation bar above)
!Y este va para Juan!
?Que cual es mi interpretacion de la cancion "La 69.G" de Sabina?
Pues bien Juan, asumiendo que la connotacion sexual de 69 y punto G no te son ajenas dejame preguntarte, ?cual es tu estacion de radio favorita? En Mexico, durante muchos anyos me desperte escuchando Monitor, cuando estaba en Radio Red FM 88.1. O recuerdo a la estacion Alfa 91.3...
Asi para mi, La 69.G de Sabina es esa "estacion de radio", pero aun mas, ese lugar, esa frecuencia, esos cuates, esos compas, ese momento para relajarse y pasarsela bien.
Sabina es un buenazo para las metaforas y para describir la vida cotidiana. ?Alguna vez has buscado refugio en la almohada y esta te ha dado la espalda? ?Donde buscas refugio cuando te cansas de crecer, cuando los problemas y retos de la vida cotidiana te acosan, cuando los suenyos tardan en venir?
Para algunos es la television...para Sabina es la 69.G.
En Mexico ha sucedido que una cantina, un bar toma el nombre de "La oficina". Uno tiene que recordar esto cuando las estadisticas nos dicen que la gente pasa mas tiempo en su trabajo que en la casa :)
Por eso Juan, y por Sabina, escogi ese nombre para este lugar. Asi que bienvenido, pasale, ponte a gusto y gracias por haber firmado el libro de visitas.
?Que cual es mi interpretacion de la cancion "La 69.G" de Sabina?
Pues bien Juan, asumiendo que la connotacion sexual de 69 y punto G no te son ajenas dejame preguntarte, ?cual es tu estacion de radio favorita? En Mexico, durante muchos anyos me desperte escuchando Monitor, cuando estaba en Radio Red FM 88.1. O recuerdo a la estacion Alfa 91.3...
Asi para mi, La 69.G de Sabina es esa "estacion de radio", pero aun mas, ese lugar, esa frecuencia, esos cuates, esos compas, ese momento para relajarse y pasarsela bien.
Sabina es un buenazo para las metaforas y para describir la vida cotidiana. ?Alguna vez has buscado refugio en la almohada y esta te ha dado la espalda? ?Donde buscas refugio cuando te cansas de crecer, cuando los problemas y retos de la vida cotidiana te acosan, cuando los suenyos tardan en venir?
Para algunos es la television...para Sabina es la 69.G.
En Mexico ha sucedido que una cantina, un bar toma el nombre de "La oficina". Uno tiene que recordar esto cuando las estadisticas nos dicen que la gente pasa mas tiempo en su trabajo que en la casa :)
Por eso Juan, y por Sabina, escogi ese nombre para este lugar. Asi que bienvenido, pasale, ponte a gusto y gracias por haber firmado el libro de visitas.
Gym and my love for...
This morning I thought of a good friend. This as a result that I have been trying to go regularly to the gym (as a New Year's resolution ;) and haven't been able to do it. Of course I do other stuff :) Went to the swimming pool, play badminton and indoors football, cycling everyday, etc. But no gym.
Then I thought of my friend and his one or two hours per day in the gym. I wondered "how could he do it" Then I remembered his boyfriend...
Back in Mexico, when I was a kid, I liked one of my neighbours, a pretty but dull girl. I started doing exercise with my mates. It was the age of the challenges and there was an even more powerful motivation: to get the love of someone.
:) Tricky thing to find the motivation to love oneself eh!..
(unless your name is Gargola! ;)
Then I thought of my friend and his one or two hours per day in the gym. I wondered "how could he do it" Then I remembered his boyfriend...
Back in Mexico, when I was a kid, I liked one of my neighbours, a pretty but dull girl. I started doing exercise with my mates. It was the age of the challenges and there was an even more powerful motivation: to get the love of someone.
:) Tricky thing to find the motivation to love oneself eh!..
(unless your name is Gargola! ;)
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
‘Teaching’ in non-human animals
First demonstration of ‘teaching’ in non-human animals
“According to the accepted definition of teaching in animal behaviour, an individual is a teacher if it modifies its behaviour in the presence of a naïve observer, at some initial cost to itself, in order to set an example so that the other individual can learn more quickly.
‘…true teaching always involves feedback in both directions between the teacher and the pupil. In other words, the teacher provides information or guidance for the pupil at a rate suited to the pupil’s abilities, and the pupil signals to the teacher when parts of the ‘lesson’ have been assimilated and that the lesson may continue.’
“Tandem running in Temnothorax ants meets all these criteria and thus qualifies as teaching.
“…the process is highly intermittent because the follower is dictating the speed of the lesson by stopping frequently to consolidate its growing knowledge of the path that it has taken.
“Tandem leaders pay a cost because they would normally have reached the food around four times faster if not hampered by a follower. But the benefit is that the follower learns where the food is much quicker than it would have done independently. Tandem followers learn their lessons so well that they often become tandem leaders and in this way time-saving information flows through the ant colony.”
“According to the accepted definition of teaching in animal behaviour, an individual is a teacher if it modifies its behaviour in the presence of a naïve observer, at some initial cost to itself, in order to set an example so that the other individual can learn more quickly.
‘…true teaching always involves feedback in both directions between the teacher and the pupil. In other words, the teacher provides information or guidance for the pupil at a rate suited to the pupil’s abilities, and the pupil signals to the teacher when parts of the ‘lesson’ have been assimilated and that the lesson may continue.’
“Tandem running in Temnothorax ants meets all these criteria and thus qualifies as teaching.
“…the process is highly intermittent because the follower is dictating the speed of the lesson by stopping frequently to consolidate its growing knowledge of the path that it has taken.
“Tandem leaders pay a cost because they would normally have reached the food around four times faster if not hampered by a follower. But the benefit is that the follower learns where the food is much quicker than it would have done independently. Tandem followers learn their lessons so well that they often become tandem leaders and in this way time-saving information flows through the ant colony.”
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Claire Bertschinger
The Red Cross nurse who inspired Sir Bob Geldof’s Live Aid
"Behind every war, every refugee camp, every famine are the invisible working people no one sees. Not the journalists, who get all the attention, but the nurses, the doctors, the logisticians necessary to try to end the agony of masses of people who were simply born in the wrong place and the wrong time. It was Claire Bertschinger, a nurse for the ICRC, who brought the world's attention to the starvation in Ethiopia, to the men, women and children who were dying in droves at her feeding centre in Mekele. If not for her, there would be no BBC cameras, no Live Aid, no Bob Geldof, and no outpouring of compassion and comraderie that restored one's faith in humanity, if only for a few minutes. Bertschinger's courage is matched only by her conviction; her tireless effort to comfort the hungry and dying is a beautiful story that needed to be told, and more importantly, needs to be read." (Janine di Giovanni)
To know more about her you can see the BBC interview or read her book “Moving mountains”
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Are children interested in evil?
A post in the Blog Publico about the play for children The Ogreling by Suzanne Lebeau gave me the opportunity to express some thoughts.
As a review says:
“The Ogreling” tells the troubling tale of a six-year-old ogre who lives alone in the forest with his mother. Under her doting care, he is oblivious to his cruel heritage as the son of an ogre until he starts school, where the sleeping monster within him awakens and hungers for flesh and blood –especially that of young children! The ogreling decides to confront his inner demons by undergoing three tests, the outcome of which will seal his fate as either boy or beast. The author Suzanne Lebeau explores the permanent battle between the forces of good and evil which inhabits everyone throughout this story, for after all, ogres may not only exist in children’s tales…
In the above-mentioned post, Mariana points out what seems to be the comment of Susana Lebeau, that: “Children are interested about the evil represented in the adults and the evil that exist on themselves. That is something that they understand by themselves. It is the adults who feel themselves perturbed and fear the crude stories of the imperfection of the world.” I understand this as a critic to the overprotection that the adults have on children, moved by their own fears, without realizing that children understand and are curious about it.
If children understand in some degree the evil in the adult world then, are those “naughty”, “bad behaved” and “hell” children only the reflection of what their parents are, but without the control of the conscience and the adult rules that the later have?
With the showing in the media of the abuse to children, may it be that the modern parents develop a fear to the interaction with their children? This may be especially in “developed” countries where a possible traditional role of the family seems to transform quicker nowadays.
As a review says:
“The Ogreling” tells the troubling tale of a six-year-old ogre who lives alone in the forest with his mother. Under her doting care, he is oblivious to his cruel heritage as the son of an ogre until he starts school, where the sleeping monster within him awakens and hungers for flesh and blood –especially that of young children! The ogreling decides to confront his inner demons by undergoing three tests, the outcome of which will seal his fate as either boy or beast. The author Suzanne Lebeau explores the permanent battle between the forces of good and evil which inhabits everyone throughout this story, for after all, ogres may not only exist in children’s tales…
In the above-mentioned post, Mariana points out what seems to be the comment of Susana Lebeau, that: “Children are interested about the evil represented in the adults and the evil that exist on themselves. That is something that they understand by themselves. It is the adults who feel themselves perturbed and fear the crude stories of the imperfection of the world.” I understand this as a critic to the overprotection that the adults have on children, moved by their own fears, without realizing that children understand and are curious about it.
If children understand in some degree the evil in the adult world then, are those “naughty”, “bad behaved” and “hell” children only the reflection of what their parents are, but without the control of the conscience and the adult rules that the later have?
With the showing in the media of the abuse to children, may it be that the modern parents develop a fear to the interaction with their children? This may be especially in “developed” countries where a possible traditional role of the family seems to transform quicker nowadays.
Monday, January 02, 2006
We were cavers once…and young (III)
Mendip Day Trip (October 2002)
Mendip Hills, my first caving in the UK and it was strange, no need of single rope technique (SRT), just helmet, light, suits and wellies. The game that I played: be swallowed by a lobster and, like Jonas in the Bible, escape from its dark interior. Fortunately for that “hell” I had the best Dante’s Virgil personified in the couple R-E. Extra points: As the co-pilot of captain T I had a taste of that other maze that takes you throw Cheddar, Wells, Petty and our hut with the excitement of be travelling in a tight one-line-road-for-two-cars or in the “wrong” side of the road (Shit...what’s doing in the right line that car approaching!!!..oh!, I see, we’re in the left)
Mendip Hills, my first caving in the UK and it was strange, no need of single rope technique (SRT), just helmet, light, suits and wellies. The game that I played: be swallowed by a lobster and, like Jonas in the Bible, escape from its dark interior. Fortunately for that “hell” I had the best Dante’s Virgil personified in the couple R-E. Extra points: As the co-pilot of captain T I had a taste of that other maze that takes you throw Cheddar, Wells, Petty and our hut with the excitement of be travelling in a tight one-line-road-for-two-cars or in the “wrong” side of the road (Shit...what’s doing in the right line that car approaching!!!..oh!, I see, we’re in the left)
Libros, books, poemas: Mostly Harmless
'I know that astrology isn't a science,' said Gail. 'Of courseit isn't. It's just...
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