12.24.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:16 pm by Leopoldo
Walking down the central square of my college one day I saw a guy I did know but recognized. I did not know who he was, did not know his name nor where I knew him from. This was not unusual, the part of my brain that is supposed to remember names and faces has never quite worked quite right, but the odd thing is that whoever he was I knew I really liked him. Liked him… a lot.
I did not think about it until a few days later I ran across the guy in the school Library. Once again there was no name or association but once again I felt that warm appreciation, the sensation that this was a good person. Someone I liked. Someone I admired. Someone I was happy to see and wanted to see again. A bit disturbed by the lack of supporting information I started to systematically rack my mind for some identity… some relation or association. Workmate? No, I had trained most of the people at the school’s computer lab and made an effort to remember their names and faces, with limited success granted but that was unlikely. Past roommate? No, as bad as my memory was with some effort I could recall the names of people I had lived with. Classmate? Possible, but why would I be so fond of the fellow?
A couple of days later I saw him again and the mystery was resolved. At the cafeteria he asked me, as he had for the better part of the year, what I would like on my burrito. Chicken, cheese and extra salsa. Thank you… From the bottom of my empty stomach, thank you.
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12.11.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:56 pm by Leopoldo
Fire, water, kicks, bullets… all kinds of things in slow motion
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=20698
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10.07.06
Posted in Uncategorized, Food at 10:15 pm by Leopoldo
Last Wednesday, some friends and I visited Bar Pastiche (http://portland.citysearch.com/profile/41544861/portland_or/bar_pastiche.html) for their ‘Cider House Dinner’. We had originally planned on doing the dinner the previous Wednesday but Pastiche cancelled out on us because they had not received a replenishment of Cider. The group was put off by a morning-of cancellation of a dinner that had been planned and reserved a good many weeks beforehand and of the original 9 only 4 made it to the re-scheduled dinner.
The menu consisted of salt cod in scrambled eggs, chorizo, a cod in pepper skins dish, a hunk-o-steak, quince and cheese for dessert and as much cider as we cared to put down with the dinner. I disliked both cod dishes and thought it a bad idea to repeat such a strong ingredient in a five-dish meal. My companions liked the cod with eggs but hardly anyone touched the cod with pepper skins. Both the chorizo and the steak were delicious. We all eagerly slurped chorizo juice from the plate with hunks of bread and ravished the steaks. The quince and cheese provided a nice end to the meal. The cider was good, but not great. It was appropriately dry but not very flavorful, which in some ways was good as it did not detract from continued consumption throughout the meal.
Overall I would recommend this meal to any interested in a meal meant to be eaten slowly and during a good conversation.
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03.28.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:43 pm by Leopoldo
Spend a day in Asia and you will inevitably run into Engrish, those not quite properly translated phrases. Engrish can be weird, can be odd and is often hilarious. One of the funnier examples was a sign in the bathroom at the Top North hotel that stated ‘Please do not put garbage in stool’. I am not sure what the original sentence was, but it sounds like a campaign against junk food. Of the daily examples I saw probably the most enigmatic was these three lines written on the back of an entry ticket for a Wat in Bangkok:
Please dress up politely.
Do not clime the rail.
Do not dangle any doll.
The first line makes sense, they really don’t want you waltzing around the Wats with tank tops and sandals, it is just a request for respectful modesty. The second line when put into context translates to ‘Please do not climb to the top of the towers even though there are railings in place’ or something to that effect. But the third line? I have spent days trying to figure this one out and I’ve come up empty. Anyone out there have a clue what ‘Do not dangle any doll’ could possibly mean?
I assume most Engrish is the product of a translation produced by a non-native speaker with limited understanding of English grammar. I do however have to wonder if Engrish might on occasion be produced as a sort of practical joke. I mean, come-on, think about it, imagine someone is paying you to translate a sentence and they will never be able to tell how accurate your translation is. Now imagine they stiff you on payment or just irritate you, or you are just feeling a bit devilish that day. Wouldn’t you be tempted to mess with the translation a bit? I would.
For more examples of Engrish visit: Engrish.com
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12.06.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:00 pm by Leopoldo
… I miss my brain the most. It is a sort of a mixed blessing. On Monday night as I headed out of the office and to my car I noticed my Tungsten T Palm Pilot was missing from the coat pocket. Figuring I must have left it on my desk I decided to head on out and retrieve it the next day. Well the next day has come and gone and the above mentioned device, which I nicknamed ‘my brain’ because while I cannot keep track of phone numbers, appointments or other info, my brain can, has failed to materialize. Woe is me though not fully woe as the three and a half year old beasty was sort of dying on my anyway. The good news is that Palm has a new bit of hardware for me to salivate over: the Palm TX. The TX is really just a Tungsten 5 but with (drum roll please… WiFi! Yup, I am already a heavy hot-spot browser and the idea of being able to connect anywhere there is an unprotected network… well lets just say it makes me smile.
A bit of PDA Porn
The bad news is that having been unemployed for some while I am hardly in the position to be buying tech toys. I am pretty sure the palm will be bought though; after all I am really nothing without my brain.
Now, if I can only figure out a way to get me one of them pretty little Video iPods…
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08.12.05
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:22 pm by Leopoldo
As any regular visit has probably noticed the FilmRoar and GeekRoar (previously called The Lion’s Den) web sites have both gotten a new look. I am still playing around with the styles and presentation but am pretty happy with the look and function of both sites. The new pages load with different URLs (except for the home pages) so if you have any links you might want to update them. I left the old pages behind for the sake of not breaking old links but they will not allow comments any more. If you want to leave a comment just search for the same page on the new site.
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