It's funny one year ago I was talking to an American friend. She's got a good heart, but is so sadly misled.

We were talking about the inminent war with Iraq, and I said that I thought that seemed to me more like a smoke screen to cover up Bush's bad performance in economy. She got really angry and said that "No" because the facts about the WMD have been confirmed, and she has the right to have her government protect her life blah blah blah. She was very excited and very blatant about the US military going to attack (even unprovoked) such a small country because it was a serious danger to her life if they didn't. I wonder what does she say now. Would she be pleased to be footing the bill for the giantic army stationed in Iraq in search for non-existent WMD and with no exit plan? And I must say this is a lady who was a bit tight on money and fearful of losing her job.

The same goes for the other American guy who was telling me about "the facts about the Iraqi WMD". He added that in the aftermath, he'd firmly oppose the Frech, the German, and the Russians to participate in the reconstruction because those were the guys profiting from Iraq's WMD program execution (according to him, they were providing the parts and technology). So, he'd oppose them participating in the reconstruction cause they'd be making even more money out of a "mess they helped to create". Now it's the US government that wants those three countries to provide men and money to help clean up a mess they opposed creating in the first place!

Isn't it amazing? I heard in the BBC that half of the world population lives with just US$1.00 a day. I think "survives" is a more appropriate term.

They also said that some cows in Europe receive a US$2.00 daily subsidy from their governments, just because they exist. Isn't that contrast obcene?

And then Bush spends US$1,000'000,000.00 each week to keep his troops in Iraq. And why were they sent there in the first place? To rid Saddam of his weapons of mass destruction cause they pose an inminent and unacceptable threat to the Americans' way of life. Okay, five months have passed since the war ended... where are the massive amounts of WMD that Saddam supposedly possesed? Not even minute amounts have been found.

What a waste of money. If Bush has money to burn like that, he should make better use of it. Instead of using it to overthrow bad rulers abroad (that's the Iraqis problem, after all), maybe he should implement a universal medical insurance system for his own people, or improve the school system in the States.

... or even better, if he has that much money to burn, why not feed the hungry and cure the sick in the developing world? Or help demine places like Cambodia and Afghanistan? Or invest in medical research?

Oh well, it's American taxpayers' money anyway.

This is not good... A good old friend of mine quit his job, moved to Frisco, and with some friends of his started up a software company. I remember him saying that they were poor, but sounded quite enthusiastic nevertheless, as they released several versions of their stuff.

But yesterday I checked their website (New Iron Systems), and all of its links bring you back to the homepage. Even the download link brings you back to the home! What happened?

He's an American, but he's a nice, nice guy. Too bad nobody around our bunch of friends understood his "funny" comments. One day I even had to ask him (with no sarcasm intended): "Oh, so you mean that in the States they consider you to be a funny guy?"

Ah, I really wish we can meet again someday.

Ha-ha! I thought that yesterday I'd have to go to the Ministry of Labor to get my work permit, but the girl in the office went by herself without me. She probably thought I'd be more of a drag if I tagged along. I did offer my company, but I really didn't want to go as it is so freaking hot and humid outside.

So to celebrate my saving all the uncomfortable sweat, last night I treated myself (in reality, should've treated HER!) to a cheapy dim-sum restaurant that I found by chance. Although very humble, I think it was part of a chain cause all of the workers were wearing a uniform with the name of the restaurant, which sounded too grandiose to be just that one room place.

The way it worked was, you just come in, and take a look at their refrigerated showcase, point to the little baskets that you want to eat, take a seat, and after a few minutes, they bring you your food freshly steamed.

The servings were quite small, and the sauce was already mixed (and a bit too acid for my taste). But all in all, I liked it. I may go again tonight!

This reminded me of a friend from Puerto Rico. One day I met him right after he'd come back from visiting his own country, and was telling me about this wonderful "dim-sum" thing he'd discovered in his trip to Puerto Rico. He was telling me that it was some sort of Chinese food, and tasted sensational. And with an air of sophistication, dared to ask me if I'd ever had dim-sum. And I was chuckling "Dude, I went to China in person and had dim-sum made by real Chinese people!".

Today I got my userid and password so I can access my high school class' website. Pretty neat. I think the guy who put it together didn't write it up from scratch, but used some tool special for this (no need to reinvent the wheel). It's got a message board, a well organized and comment enabled photo album, etc. Pretty neat!

In my high school we used to be three groups per year, and each year the groups wouldn't vary, for the most part. In this website I found a more or less current party photograph of one of the "other" groups in my class, and I just couldn't recognize any of the faces. I was astonished. Those guys were just a bunch of total strangers to me.

Funny... especially when we were approaching our senior year, everybody used to talk very enthusiastically about "integration" and "friendship" between the three groups. I used to tell my self "Why am I not so interested? Why does it look like I'm the only one not very much concerned about "integration"?".

Now I just don't care, and I think it was all just some sort of motto. I think friendship is something that should be let to develop naturally. And as a result of that, it is usually pretty strong. If it's force-fed into your mouth, it just doesn't work or it's very superficial.

Last Saturday I went to the movie theater to watch a Japanese horror film called "Ju-on" (呪怨). Pretty scary. And like "The Ring", which was also Japanese, you don't know how did all that mess start in the first place. You don't know where are you safe. And you don't know how can it all be finished either. Very creepy.

The nice thing about this film is that I was able to recognize the park in which two of the characters have a brief chat. The park with the wooden bridge and rental boats in the background is truly a stone throw away from my friend's house in Tokyo!

From his apartment, you just cross the street, cross the parking lot, and right there is the wooden bridge!

And the next scene, that happens in a restaurant, is at the western restaurant at the opposite side of the pond from my friend's place! I've never been inside that restaurant, but was able to recognize the sign outside of it.

That bitch ex-schoolmate who asked me to delete her from all of my address books to avoid a virus in my computer passing on to her (because I won't be aware anymore of the dangers out there that she was "kindly" letting me knwo with her chain mails), sent me yet two more chain mails. And she'd said that she'd delete my address from her address book. What a fucking liar.

One is a request to say a prayer for the health of the Pope (and to pass the e-mail to all persons in my address book). And the other one is yet another or her virus warnings that is veeery important and urgent to pass on to everyone I know.

This girl doesn't understand that I don't want chain mails in my inbox neither with nice subtle language nor with german style bluntness. No wonder she can't find a good job. I bet she doesn't understand the meaning of the job ads either.

abc7.com: Bush: No Saddam Involvement in 9/11 Attacks

How terrible and sad that the Americans, who think of themselves as some sort of special children of God, get things so wrong. And how did they get things so wrong? From the sneaky language used by their democratically elected leaders.

If they ever go to court or somewhere to justify their actions, they can certainly say that they "have never claimed that Saddam Hussein had either direction or control of 9-11". Of course they haven't.

But the way they word their speeches, putting close together the words "Saddam", "war on terror", "WMD", "Al-Qaeda", etc., makes it sound like they are one single problem with many branches.

No wonder nearly 70% of Americans end up with that missconception. If their president is as brilliant as Bush, imagine how the rest of the population might be.

I have a deep feeling of lack of purpose. It's been more than one year now that I quit with the intention of starting up our own business with this guy.

Before quitting, we'd talked so much, experimented so much, learnt so much, and in preparation for our venture, I'd spent so much money on computer hardware, software, books, and many other required things. For reasons too boring to explain, I haven't been able to use any of that since I quit.

I've been in a limbo ever since cause I even returned my apartment and in practice I left all I had in my country so that we could embark in this adventure.

Ever since, the other guy hasn't even quit his job yet. Every once in a while he helped me find somewhere to stay. He also finds stuff to keep my mind busy, etc.

But none of that feels like what we had talked for so long. Now it mostly feels like I'm just a drag (not an associate), and I'm just around waiting for the grace of his attention. None of the serious stuff we talked so much about have made any significant progress.

Well, I'm probably not a drag anymore. That's because I followed him to this third world country thinking (missled?) that this time while we do something together and get something going, he'd finally quit his current job, which he's been saying forever that he hates. And now, he's going back to the States, while I'm here let's say stuck.

I was very weary of not spending too much money from my dwindling savings on learning the language (in case I don't stay here too long), or in the work visa paperwork. But somehow when these freaking issues seem to start moving... oh, he's going back to the States.

Wonderful, isn't it?

Why did I follow him till the end of the world? Because this is not a regular Joe, he's a truly special guy, a pleasure to work with. But as of lately I just feel very left behind and pretty much like a drag.

Before coming I remember him saying he'd do this and that for me to help me adapt to this country. Not that I'm a baby in need of pampering, but a man should keep his word, shouldn't him? I think that among all those nice offerings, only one came true.

Perhaps it's the local culture of telling you nice things while they're facing you, even if they're plain lies. I've never done that kind of thing, and I've always fulfilled my offers to this guy.

I feel conned by MTV-China, and it happened twice in less than twelve hours. Last night before I'd start my ritual of local language self-study, I decided to flip the channels once again and found that MTV-China was broadcasting the pre-show to the MTV Music Video Awards which happened a few weeks ago in New York. I'm not in the States right now, so I wasn't able to see Madonna kissing Britney and Christina, and was thrilled that this would be my chance.

So what happened after the pre-show? MTV-China had the enlightend idea of just finish it there, and follow it with a totally unrelated program about karaoke. What kind of reasoning is that? They show you all the artists coming in to the Radio City Music Hall, and a couple of music acts taking place in front of the Rockefeller Center to turn on the heat, then all the announcers are telling you to stay tuned because the main event is to start in a few minutes and it's going to be real hot! And then... what you get is some chinese karaoke?

That was very disappointing. And to top it off, they repeated the same routine this morning when I was getting up. Totally senseless.

Well, on the other hand I can say in MTV-China's favor that yesterday I also saw a very moving music video. It was by a chinese female singer whom I have no idea what her name might be. I wasn't paying attention to the video at first, but then when I noticed, wow.

In the video you only see this young female singer in a plain house with a young man. Both of them are in their early twenties. The interesting thing is that the guy appears to be in a coma, but still the girl takes very good loving care of him. She pushes his wheel chair to the veranda so he can get some fresh air and sunlight. She cooks and then pulls an armchair next to his bed so she can have dinner in his company. She cuts his toenails. She shaves him. She cleans his body with a wet towel. At the end of the video she just lays on top of him, pulling his arms around herself so that she feels like she's being hugged by him.

I didn't understand any of the lyrics, but found those scenes to be profoundly touching. I think that's true love and loyalty.

Fuck, I hate it when people leave their telephones in speakerphone mode while waiting to be attended, letting the whole office listen to that annoying tune from the other end of the line.

I guess the lady in this office who does that doesn't notice how annoying is that to other people because she's the only one who does it.

Today I was able to chat with an old high school friend for the first time in several weeks. We'd lost contact for many years, and then I think last year somehow we found each other, and have been chatting every once in a while.

Very nice guy to talk to. Who would've thought? When we were in school we used to give him a very hard time. I don't think anybody hated him, but everybody did think that he was totally uncool for being so religious, and used to constantly pull his leg for this.

After we finished high school, I knew he'd joined some religious college, but then I wasn't aware of what else might he be doing. Then when we regained contact, I found out that now he is in a rather high position among the clergy in our hometown!

When I chat with him there's no trace whatsoever of offence nor rancor. I admire that. Instead, he shows a lot of patience and good listening (or chatting) skills. Wow, I thought that in that college they'd only teach people to be "christian extremists", but this guy really turned out to be a better person.

I'm not religious, but I enjoy talking to him.

Killing Arafat as Official Policy Is Denied

It is my humble opinion that the Israel government need not be embarrassed to have such a policy in place since the US (the leaders of the free world) also has and even practices something similar. The killing of Uday and Qusay without a trial was exactly that, wasn't it? If it's good enough for the US, it should be good enough for Israel too.

This is amazing:

ABCNEWS.com : Doubts Drag Bush Back Down to Earth

If you didn't have patience to read the whole thing, I'll tell you which is the amazing part. At one point this article from America's ABC News says that "especially since two-thirds see the war in Iraq as part of the war on terrorism". They are talking about the American participants to its poll.

So, this is clear proof that even the citizens of the self-proclaimed "leader of the civilized world" can get it so wrong. There has never been proof that the Iraqi regime supported terrorist groups, so how can this well extended belief be explained? I think it can only be thanks to the low level of education of the listener combined with the sneaky language used by its leaders: the constant use of the words "Iraq" and "terrorism" close together within the same sentence.

Take a look at this article...

Ananova - Shop robbers argue over demand note - flee empty handed

Isn't it amazing? The US is the country that attracts the largest number of foreign students. People think that they've got the best univiersities in the world, etc... still these things happen.

Before I ever visited the States for the first time, it would've been impossible for me to believe a story like this. But then I went, and spent quite a long time working with the locals... I found that even some people in important positions were ridiculously "challenged".

Colin, Colin, Colin... so the progress in Iraq is "very very impressive", huh?

Tell that to the relatives of the Iraqi policemen killed by friendly fire. Man, I don't think it's enough to say "Oops, sorry". You forgot to say that the responsible people will be held accountable for this tragedy. That would be normal procedure in the US, right?

If something similar happened in the streets of Chicago or LA, just saying "I'm sorry" wouldn't cut it, would it? But at the end of the day, who cares, right?

What really matters is that America has control of Iraq's oilfields, and that Halliburton was able to secure several contracts even without competing for the projects. Nice Donald!

I wonder if I was infected with Malaria the last time I went to that horrendous place. Last Saturday I had this terrible headache combined with dizziness and general muscle pain, and sometimes mild chills too. It was so bad I didn't go out the whole day, the same on Sunday, except that on Sunday I did go out for dinner at MacDonald's. I checked WebMD, and I think the only symptoms I'm missing are nausea and fever.

Is any of these the cause of any of the other? Or is this just a coincidence? Since I was feeling pretty bad, I didn't eat almost anything over the weekend. Perhaps not eating made things worse.

Also, this morning I noticed I have some reddish/brownish dots on part of my chest, and even on my face if you look carefully. I only noticed them this morning, but they could've been there since Saturday.

According to WebMD, depending on which Malaria parasite you have, if left untreated, it may lead to permanent damage or even death, or you may recover by yourself in one week to one month.

Since I don't have a medical insurance valid in this country, I'll leave it to God's will.

I'm bothered... every once in a while I randomly check other blogs... and the two or three that I found happened to say something about muslims were really terrible, as if muslims were some sort of barbarians. This is not right.

And for those of you who are wondering, I'm not religious. But I'd say that I was raised in a catholic environment, and didn't meet any muslim person until the age of 24.

Yeah, before that, just by reading and watching the news I'd get the impression that those guys were kind of stuck in some unexcusable, retarded way of thinking.

But then I started to meet and make friends with several people of that religion, and found them to be people just "like us, the civilized guys". Some of them are serious guys, some of them are funny, some dress a bit differently, most of them dress "like us, the civilized guys".

The only difference was perhaps that most of them would not drink even beer, and also, that most of them would pray a few times a day, and they don't eat pork either. But that was all. Otherwise, they're just like us: they usually become hungry three times a day, and then they need to go to the toilet, in winter they need to dress thicker clothes, sometimes they fall in love, sometimes they get angry, and so on.

I never saw any of those guys treating women badly. As a matter of fact, some of these guys were veeery popular with non-muslim girls. I never saw any of them carrying dynamite. I probably never even saw them carrying a quran.

So my point is, it bothers me how one-sided are some people's opinions about those guys who happened to be born so far away from us. Yes, they were born and raised in the opposite side of the world, where they speak and dress differently. Does that make them bad? Do they have to start to speak in English and wear jeans so that we feel more comfortable?

If that's the case, wouldn't that justify a degree of hatred from them towards "us" because of the continued support to Israel's occupation of palestinian land? "Us" meaning the christian crusaders who donated arab land to the jews? "Us" from the same neighborhood as that christian extremist Pat Robertson? "Us" who attack Iraq for its oil while giving some bullshit excuse, but then turning a blind eye on Saudi Arabia and North Korea?

See, if Iraq and North Korea are both mistreating their citizens and threatening their neighbors, how come only Iraq is attacked? Some people, especially in the muslim world, might be tempted to jump into the conclusion that it's because of the oil and because of their religion, right? Wouldn't that cause widepread rescentment?

I think we shouldn't put all muslims in the same one bag and all christians in some other one bag. Although I'm a great admirer of things American, I am certainly not in the same team as the "misunderestimated" president Bush. None of my muslim friends have anything, aaanything in common in Osama Bin Laden except that they claim to be of the same religion (but obviously, Bin Laden is either not a good practicer or perhaps hasn't read the quran lately). Whatever that guy is doing, you cannot call it islamism, period.

Oops! Suddenly I feel happier! I got a phone call and it seems I'll get layed today!

I'm kind of lost. I quit my high paying job more than one year ago with the intention of creating something of our own with my brother. Even though I knew I was going to be without pay for a long time, I spent a large amount of money preparing for that, buying a nice computer, all of the necessary software, and even furniture.

I had to return my apartment, and live (or take refuge) at friends' places ever since. I've been patiently waiting for my brother to quit his job. I followed him to this country because I thought this was it, we were finally going to start up something. He help me set up "for the time being" with a low paying but good willish job with one of his friends, and now he tells me he's leaving this country?

He's leaving this Sunday, and yesterday in the afternoon he called me to meet. As usual, I went to his place, had a smoke and then he said that he had to meet some friends for snooker and if I wanted to join. Since he said he wanted to see me again before he leaves, I thought it'd be too cold to just leave after just 30 minutes, so went with him to his snooker appointment.

He starts to play, people start to arrive (all of them complete strangers to me)... and then in the middle of the game he receives a phone call and quits the game, leaving me to play in his place. This doesn't make sense. I don't even remember him saying good-bye, he just asked me to take his place in the game and left.

Oh, and did I mention that I didn't get to use my computer nor the furniture nor anything during the time since I quit my job? Oh, and one more detail, he hasn't quit his job either, even though in the year 2001 he was saying that March 2002 was his limit. We're already in the second half of 2003.

I don't know, sometimes he seems to be very thoughtful, some other times it looks like it doesn't matter to him. I've always kept my part of the deal, while he keeps on changing... with good reasons, but changing nevertheless. I honestly cannot remember one single thing I might have told him I'd do for him and then I didn't keep my word.

Last night I went to get a haircut. I went to the same cheap place as usual. But even though they charge me a fraction of what they charge in Japan or the US, the service is more elavorate: First they wash my hair, then cut my hair, then wash again, and then retouch and comb with gel and hair dryer.

In Japan I payed three times as much, and they didn't wash my hair, they didn't even used to comb it at the end! Their condition to do it at such a "reduced" price, was that whatever they do, it has to be finished in 10 minutes!

In the States, I think I payed about five times as much in the cheap places. The service was friendlier and not as rushed as in Japan, but still they didn't wash my hair either.

So what happened last night is that I got this idiotic girl to attend me first. I go first to the counter and ask for a haircut to the person sitting there. She turns her head to the girl standing next to her, telling her something in the local language... and her eyes continue blank, as if in the middle of a dream.

After this girl is woken up from her day dreaming, she washes my hair and leads me to the chair to get the hair cut. Somebody else is going to cut my hair, but she passes me two picture books (like they did in previous times) so I can choose a model to my liking.

So I open the first book, and what an idiot! Not only all of the guys have a fluffy hairstyle that is clearly not even remotely close to my personal style, but they've also got hair that is longer than I have! How can I possibly get one of those haircuts if my hair is already shorter than theirs?

I proceed to check the second book, and man... this is a book full of girl hairstyles!

No wonder this is a third world country.

This blog thing is starting to get addictive. I starting just a couple of lines to test how it works, and now I'm writing it fairly often. But I wonder how do these guys make enough money to pay for electricity, to buy new harddisks, and their own paychecks? I haven't seen yet any advertisement from anybody else but from themselves.

Anyway, I just got an e-mail from an old friend. He's been studying for several years for his bar examination so that he can practice law as a true attorney. I think this poor guy has been spending too much time inmersed in his books. You know what he writes me?

He said that lately he gets invited to his friends' weddings kind of often... blah blah blah. And then he continues saying that after getting married the problem of having a balanced diet would be solved(?) So, is that his idea of the purpose of getting married? To find a full time personal cook?

I think he needs to smoke something or get laid, maybe both.

And one more before I close for the day: I saw this joke in the "Dilbert" comic strip a couple of days ago in the newspaper. It reminded me of one of my ex-bosses and thought it was very funny.

Dilbert's boss comes to his cubicle and says: "I read that some company invented a way to carry broadband Internet over the power grid".
In the next scene, the boss continues telling Dilbert: "I want you to find the way to carry Internet signals over the sewer lines".

Believe it or not, that is the level of intelligent management I was subject to before I quit! Oh Dilbert Dilbert... amazing, but I've really experienced in my own old work place those kinds of situations.

I just got a phone call from my brother. I'm surprised cause I saw him last night, and when that happens, I usually don't know anything else from him until the following week. He said that we might get together tonight again. My little head is already tickling thinking of what might happen!

Man, I've noticed that there's a stray dog that is always waiting for food at a particular food stall near the office. It's so cute to see him waiting patiently while the lady finishes cooking! If you leave the office at around 5:00pm, you'll see that dog sitting next to the cart, and facing directly to the lady's chopping board. He's not trying to interrupt the lady nor steal meat from her. He's just there very calm, with his tongue hanging from one side of his mouth, and his eyes fixed on the meat! He's probably 50cm tall, mostly white with a few dark brown spots. How I wish I could adopt a dog or a cat, or both!

How I miss my dog! Well, she wasn't really mine. I was just taking care of her for a while while my friends were gone abroad. But what a fun dog she was! She'd been adopted by the age of two, she was a "pre-owned" dog, and we didn't know what her original name was. That's why it was so difficult to: 1. Teach her new tricks, and 2. Make her come when we call her new name.

Still, I was able to teach her two new tricks! First, I taught her to roll over (how lovely!); and second, I taught her to go outside by herself when I say "toilet!" (very convenient!). When I'd spend too much time in front of the computer, I remember she'd come to me from behind, climb on me by putting her two fore paws on my shoulder, and look at me in the eyes, like saying "why don't you play with me?". Other times, if there's enough space on the sides, she'd rest her chin on my lap, and look at me in the eyes, like saying "what time are we going out for the walk?".

Yes, that dog is certainly man's best and unconditional friend.

Here's one more reason to hate Britney.

She's pretty? Yes! But I hear a good part of it is not thanks to her mom, but thanks to the plastic surgeon's knife. She sings nice songs? Yes, some of them are cool. But I've got the impression this is not art, just the product of some pop idol factory. Plus, she's got such a poor taste when it comes to dressing. She usually looks cheap. Such a beautiful girl, what a pitty.

Another one is Christina Aguilera. She's not as good looking, but she also chooses to dress pretty awful outfits. I guess that's part of showing their own individuality... as opposed to Japanese pop singers!

Yes, happy lovely smile!

How I hate those assembly line Japanese pop singers. Way too sweet for my taste, but quite popular in Japan.

In my taste, and nobody is required to agree with me, Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch, Pink, John Mayer, Allanis Morrisette, Daniel Bedingfield, Norah Jones... all those guys are way way cooler than the rest. What I admire most of them is that they write their own songs! Isn't that cool? Like John Mayer, he probably hasn't finished high school yet, but has already won a Grammy with songs written by himself! And Norah Jones, who also won a Grammy with her beautiful CD, and she didn't even need to dress like a slut!

That jerk Bush pisses me off. I heard his address to the nation on Sunday night, and he keeps on using the words "terrorism" and "Iraq" in the same sentence. Yes, terrorist incidents are happening in Iraq, but the way he talks makes feeble minded people (and there're a lot of them even in the States) to think that in some way, Iraq supports terrorists, and that's the reason why it's important to go kick Saddam's ass.

No. There's no proof Saddam's regime supports in anyway any of these groups. Saddam's government was secular, whereas those groups are God crazy.

These two problems are just happening at the same time, but it's not like one is the cause of the other, dude. Plus, if he's so concerned about dictators who oppress their own citizens, and on top of that are a threat to their neighbors... why not go after North Korea? Or China (anybody ever heard about Tibet)? Or Russia (what ever happened with Chechnya)?

North Korea? Too bad you guys don't have oil. If you don't have oil, we don't care about your citizens' human rights, plus you've got nukes, haven't you? Umm, unless Rumsfeld's Haliburton buddies find something they could possibly make money of in North Korea. I wouldn't know, gotta ask him directly.

What the hell is Bush doing first behaving like an arrogant brat, destroying Iraq, even without the blessing of the "irrelevant" UN, and now begging the UN to issue another resolution so that others contribute money? Where are those WMD that were so dangerous to the freedoms of the Americans? You need patience and time to find them? Funny Bush didn't have time nor patience for Hans Blix. I don't understand why Bush says it is the "responsibility" of other countries like France, Germany, etc. to contribute to the reconstruction of Iraq, if they didn't destroy it in the first place. They were even opposed to the unprovoked attack of that country.

You show up unwellcome in somebody's house without invitation, break stuff searching for something, and then "Oops, sorry. I didn't find what I was looking for."? And then you say it's the other guys' responsibility to contribute in the clean up? I don't think this kind of reasoning makes sense in any planet.

Just came back from a medical exam for my visa paperwork. Did it in a private hospital because "it's going to be better". I'm not sure in which sense were they telling me it was going to be better. They didn't make me wait a lot, which was good (but could've been a lot faster I guess). But the exam itself was a joke.

First they measured my blood pressure the old fashioned way. Since that was a private hospital, I thought they'd have the machine, but no, a nurse did it with a stetoscope. And apparently, my blood pressure was so high that she couldn't believe it, measured it about three times, and then asked if my blood pressure is usually high.

Then I went to see the doctor, which was an old lady. All her medical test consisted in asking me a few simple questions, and listening to my torax with her stetoscope. She asked me if I had TBC, STD, and stuff. She didn't ask about my family's medical history, nor whether I smoke, drink, etc. Unbelievable. She just asked by mouth, and when she asked if I had any venereal illnesses, I thought perhaps she'd take a look. Not even that.

Then she asked me to get some X-rays, which I did. Then went back to her office, she filled the medical certificate form, and that was it.

On one hand it was good that it finished so easily, but on the other hand, I was astonished at how lightly they took it. I had skipped several things cause I thought they'd take blood and urine samples! Good thing that at least I drank water.

Another funny thing that happened is, the doctor spoke crappy English (but man, I don't blame her, this is her country, and I should speak her language). Her English was really a lot worse than mine, yet she dared ask me if I understand English! Ha!

Once I went to another medical check for similar purposes, and there the doctor (who was male, and had a female nurse helping him) made me lay on his examination table, pulled down my pants and started to examine veeery patiently my dick and my nuts. He was even pulling them to the point they were starting to hurt a bit. At one point he was even asking me "to make force". I didn't really understand what he meant with that, but now I think that perhaps he meant he wanted to see a hard-on? Hard to believe, but what else could that be?

Buah, Saturday afternoon and nothing to do. I came to the office even though I don't really need to. I came just to be in an airconditioned place where I can access the net for free.

I thought later this afternoon I'd go to the park to continue reading "Brief Encounters", but it's very cloudy outside and it looks like it'll rain. I wish there was a sunny place, warm and dry (right now it's cloudy, warm and muggy) where I could go spread a towel on the grass or sand, and take a sunbath while reading in the nude. I feel more comfortable naked than with clothes on, and that's how I spend most of my time when I'm in my bedroom.

Maybe I'll go to a bookstore and try to find a book to learn the local language once and for all. Many people say it's wonderful to be here... but I think they haven't considered it how it is when you don't have a lot of money. Well, I could be worse, it can always be worse.

I ran out of stuff to smoke. It's no fun. A couple of days ago I saw in a store some vanilla scented tobacco. It was nice, but I bet that once you light it up, it doesn't smell of vanilla anymore. Like the cherry scented one I use. At least to me, it only smells like cherry when it's not burning. Once it's burning it smells just like any tobacco to me.

Fuck, my brother said he might ask a certain local young guy to join us in a new venture we might go into. I always support him with all of my time and money in any idea that might sound good to me... like last year when he flew this same guy from across the ocean. We had some other business in mind, and we wanted to have him participate. Man, I volunteered to pay for his airticket, for his hotel room, for a good part of his food, not to mention the non-monetary stuff that I did for him. As usual, I did all that without advertising that it was my money, my initiative nor anything, I just did it. Then I don't know why that guy gets the idea that all of that was coming from my brother's wallet or from my brother's heart, and turns to me to say "I think you don't care about me". I'm not kidding, he really said that. I'm not raising one finger to help that guy anymore.

What a bitch, this schoolmate just got angry at me, and she doesn't even realize that it's all her own fault. Poor girl, I've got peace of mind; if she wants to be unhappy, that's her choice.

What happens is that she is a serial chain e-mailer. She's been sending me lots of chain mails for quite a while. But since we're good friends, I just delete them without much fuss. But this year I came to a point that I really got tired of those things, and started by letting her know in a subtle way that I don't enjoy those things. She didn't understand the message even though it was delicately conveyed (and I'm the guy, she's the girl!). So each time I made it more straightforward... until today when she sent me about three of that shit. One was a virus alert, another one was an alert of Hotmail accounts about to be cancelled, that kind of crap, and they all ended with the classic 'please forward this message to all of the contacts in your address book'.

So, I once again, but this time very much to the point, explained to her about the e-mails that finish with that telling line. Of course I didn't write any insult nor anything that would be offensive. But this girl replied to me that okay, she won't send me more of those messages, but to be on the safe side (since I won't be aware of those dangers anymore) she wanted me to delete her address from my address book and my msn and all other records, and she would do the same thing with my addresses in her records.

I don't have msn, and I don't have her address in my address book either in the first place. But I won't tell her that.

So after getting my visa, I inmediately took a taxi to take me to the bridge and cross the border. I had gone to that country just with the purpose of getting that freaking visa, and fortunately it had taken me only two days. But in order to enter that country, I had to pay US$30.00 for a tourist visa! And it's valid for only 15 days! And they have nothing interesting to show! What a nerve!

Anyway, I crossed the border quickly because that other country is boring to death. Then I went straight to the bus terminal to get a ticket to come back here. The nice buses were going to depart within four hours... but I had tried before the not so nice buses that leave earlier... I was better off waiting the four hours.

Fortunately I had another Lonely Planet book. This time it was 'Brief Encounters', about love and/or sex stories during trips. Kind of fun. At one point I got tired of just sitting there, so I stood up and took a short walk.

Then when I was crossing a street, I saw a stray cat, a beautiful cat I'm sure must've been somebody's pet. I usually stay away from stray animals, but this one was way too cute to just walk by and forget. Save for a brown spot on its forehead, it was all whitish. I was standing two or three meters away from this cat, and when I noticed it, I leaned towards it, and greeted him 'heeellooo kitty!'. Then instead of running away, he walks towards me, then between my feet, kind of trying to rub his body against my ankles. He had such a soft and thick fur! Then he walked one or two steps in front of me, and layed meowing belly up like demanding to be tickled, which of course I did. How can I possibly resist that?

Then I take a step back, and the cat repeats the whole ceremony. And again I tickle him. And once again. How nice! That cat lit up my whole day! And he was quite clean and well fed, and didn't look sick, and wasn't afraid of people. Yeah, must've been somebody's pet.

I'm back! What can I say? I didn't get the type of visa that I wanted, but at least this time it really looks like I'm on my way...

It just makes me mad that I was conned by the bitch at the consulate. This is how it happened:

Two months ago I got from this same consulate a paper with a list of documents that I have to submit to them in order to get my visa. So after gathering all the papers, I went again last Monday, stood in line, presented my papers to one officer... she looked at them for two or three minutes, and then she said they were all okay and to please go to the next window.

I went to the next window, and when my name was called, the lady in this second window would charge me a fee that does not correspond to the visa I was expecting. So I try to ask her some questions, like what is missing, or why am I not getting the one I want, stuff like that. All this bitch is able to answer to me is that WE cannot answer to those questions here in this city, YOU have to go back to our country's capital city, and find out by yourself. Period.

I leave the consulate very angry thinking that this can't be right, so I go back, and talk to the girl who had first told me my papers are all right. What a difference five minutes and 2 meters separation make! This girl answered with patience and a little smile all of my questions. I can't believe the witch sitting a few feet away from her, just a couple of minutes before had told me that THEY cannot answer those questions in that CITY. What a jerk.

Who would've thought... This trip is ending up much better than I thought it would be!

Well, I won't be getting exactly the type of visa I came here for, but they explained me why... and what can I do? I won't get into an argument with the visa guy. At least they're giving me something that's kind of close, and that they say can (and in fact has to be because that's the normal procedure) be changed in a latter day to the one I want without having to come abroad again. I hope they don't change me the story again when I go back to the other public office.

But the reasons why I say this stay is getting to be a lot better than my previous one is:

1. As soon as I crossed the border, I went straight to the consulate, and got served in little more than one hour, as opposed to last time that I crossed the border only to find that the consulate was closed for TWO working days due to ONE national holiday. And when it finally opened, I had to stand in line under the tropical sun for four hours!

2. As a result of that, I will stay in this country for only one night instead of three, which cuts costs.

3. This time I decided to skip common tourist 'attractions' such as museums and temples, and instead went to a place where they do 'traditional massage' and 'herbal sauna'. This was so good I now think this is the best thing to do if I'm stuck in this town again.

The massage was good. You'll have to excuse my ignorance, but I didn't get which part of it was local and traditional. It just felt pretty good to me, but nothing out of this world. Then the sauna was sooo nice! I spent two hours coming in and out. This was all done in a hut on the way to a temple. It's located in the suburbs, but there's so much vegetation around that it looks like part of the forrest. Then there's this elevated hut (perhaps so that the snakes won't climb) without walls except for the walls of the changing room and the sauna. It was all very pleasant save for the mosquito bites. This herbal sauna smelled inside like chamomille, but the guy in charge said that today he'd put about twelve different things.

4. The bus ride was also better than my previous experiences in the same line. Even though this time the bus was older, the seats were much better cushioned and really reclined as they should, plus this time the TV was in working order!

Oh got to tell you. The bus company guys didn't find any better thing to show us than a Hollywood horror flick. I think the title of the movie was 'Ghost Ship'. I didn't recognize any of the actors, but the producer was Robert Zemeckis, the same as 'Back to the Future'. This film has the grace to begin with a scene where you see a ballroom full of people dancing when a 'strange hand' moves something so that one of the metal wires that is holding some heavy stuff breaks loose and goes through the whole room cutting in half all of the people on the dancing floor. You get to see the wire going through them like a hot knife cutting butter. I wonder why couldn't the bus driver play for us something more appropriate like a busjack or a major highway accident instead?

On the not so bright side though is the fact that the consulate guys had the wonderful idea of changing the visa fees last week! Now they charge ten times (yes, TEN times) as much for the one I intended to get. Fortunately I was still going to be able to pay, although I'd have had to tighten my belt a lot. But then when they told me they'd give me the other visa, the fee was less than half of that. I wonder why they advertise the price of that visa in the first place, if they say that they cannot issue it in that office.

Anyway... it started raining a while ago, so I think I won't go to the river to watch the sunset. What should plan B be?

Funny, should I bitch about my brother's call today? Last week he'd said he'd call me 'tomorrow', meaning on Thursday, but he didn't call until a while ago. I guess that's the way it is when you become rich and famous. Like I said before, I'm always available to him, like a little pet dog is always available to play with his human masters. I don't understand, is it the heat and the high humidity? Or is it the spicy food? I hear people here tell me a lot of things, but very few of them actually come true. This is a truly widespread practice in this part of the world. Should I follow the local custom and start to misslead people telling them I'll do this and that for them, make them happy while they're talking to me... and then plead insanity and don't do shit?

Sometimes I'm very tempted, but that's just not the way it's supposed to be. And I don't think I'm much of a "rule book" guy, I just want people to say what they mean and mean what they say. I don't think that's asking for too much... unless you're in Japan!

I learnt the hard way that in Japan they consider it kind of 'unsophisticated' when adults cannot do this mindreading task. For one thing, both parties in the conversation would have to have the same background to be able to communicate in this mysterious style. That doesn't work for me.

The bottom line is, I wasn't very excited about my brother not keeping his word. I think that even the rich and famous should have a better memory about these matters.

By the way, I got confirmation that it's okay for me to travel tonight to that dreadful border city to do my visa paperwork. So probably there'll be no entry in this blog for a few days. I think I'll be writing again by Sep. 8th. Sorry to you, my millions of fans for not keeping you posted in the next few days.

Oh, I forgot to mention that he brought with him a beautiful Vaio laptop computer. It just made me more and more eager to get my hands on my new ThinkPad!

Shit, my new laptop will come with built-in wireless Ethernet, but in this country Internet connection is shitty. I don't know anybody who has broadband here, let alone wifi. Incredibly they all work with just a telephone line. I wonder if they truly think that's the way to go into the 21rst century.

As far as I can tell, I won't get to use the wireless Ethernet until my next trip abroad, which will be who knows when. (This week's trip to do my visa paperwork doesn't count!)

I don't want to be offensive, but the place where I'm going to do my paperwork is more like a boring town where there's nothing nothing nothing interesting to see or do. Museums? The only museum in sight is the Revolutionary Museum full of communist decorations. Historic temples? There's one temple about 200 years old perhaps, which is in a pittiful condition, very small, you can see it all very well in 20 minutes (no kidding). The other temples are 20th century reconstructions made with bricks and cement, so they don't feel 'historic' at all. Movie theaters? The only one I found looked as if it had been closed for many years. Shopping centers? None. Road intersections with traffic lights? I saw perhaps two or three in the whole city. Good restaurants? None, only a few smallish, non impressive. I'm not shitting you guys, the previous time I was there I really had a hard time choosing a nice postcard to mail to my friends. They did have many postcards on sale. But it was extremely difficult to find one with a nice picture that you could boast about having visited, something that you could show to people and make them want to visit there too. How sad.

Interesting weekend. My friend came, we were chatting and stuff, and somehow the conversation turned into him wanting to have a massage. I really don't understand this because I don't think the massages that they offer here are that extraordinary. The thing is that he wanted to visit massage parlors to find one where he can choose the girl who gives the massage. As far as I know, massage parlors that let you do that are really brothels. So since I thought that search was pointless, I was starting to get impatient after the fourth visit 'just looking, searching for real massage, not sex'. Surprisingly, the fifth was indeed a place where you could have just that. It actually looked just like the other brothels, but the service inside, he tells me, was just massage. Good for him. But me, I just got tired of walking in this freaking muggy heat and only looking.

He already left, but he'll be back in a few weeks cause he just went to a nearby city to attend some business he has there.

Otherwise, not much happened. As usual, he was very deep in his thoughts, taking pictures, and stuff. Not a lot of grilling questions for me, fortunately.