There's a fancy shopping center in this city in which there's a kiosk where they sell indian food prepared in a luxury hotel nearby. If I have the chance, I like to buy something to take back to my apartment and eat. Usually it's mushroom mattar. The reason why I do that, obviously, is because they really make it very tasty.

Hey, but last night I bought that, and it tasted like shit! I finished eating it just because I hate trashing food, but it was so bad I had to wash it down with Sprite! And even then, to compensate for the culinary damage, I had to aleviate the pain by going to MacDonald's (even though I'd made a resolution a long time ago not to).

I'm never ever going to buy that thing again! It tasted like it'd been prepared at a different restaurant altogether. If they can't keep their quality constant, I'm not patronizing them.

Fucking country of liars. I've lived in four countries in two continents, and everywhere there're people who tell lies, and telling a lie is bad in any part of the world. But the way they do it here has a special flavor, and it very much disappoints me.

In other places, when people tell you lies, they just do it whenever it's convenient for them, when they see they'll get some advantage for doing it. Here they tell you lies even when there's no need at all! Even with friends, when you're together, they'll tell you all kind of stuff to make you happy for the few minutes you're together. But then when everybody has parted ways, little of what was said or promised is respected.

First they make you happy by telling you that they'll help you in this, or that; we'll go together there or there and have a great time; we live in a wonderful world; you believe all that crap and get happy! Then when time passes, you start to realize that they were just bullshitting you. For which purpose? I don't know. They just don't need to tell me lies like that, but they do.

Sad, but even my brother does that to me.

And I don't understand why he tells me those kinds of lies. He knows me very well. Whenever I tell him I'll do something for him, even when I say it very casually or looking kind of absent minded, I ALWAYS KEEP ALL OF MY PROMISES.

He likes to tell me wonderful stuff. But the few times they actually come true, I hate to say, usually I payed for it at least indirectly.

Penis advert blown all out of proportion

Penis enlargement anyone? This is really funny. Well, the lady who's advertising this is actually telling the truth. If you buy her package you'll never have to see a small penis again. The package contains a magnifying glass!

My American friend sent me another link to an article written by a right extremist. It's full of blubber (or is it blabber?). Instead of being a single threaded, coherent succession of ideas, it's more of a bunch of angry and random accusations against common sense.

At one point it even says (talking about the occupation of Iraq), "No one likes to occupy a country.".

I wrote back to this American guy, "So, for when are you proposing the US should withdraw from Hawaii?"

Perhaps I should've added "and Oklahoma?"

Last night I went to watch "Cold Mountain". Nice story, and quite moving sometimes. But I really liked "My Life Without Me" a lot better. And it was also a far cry from "Gothica". Halle Berry was beautiful as ever, but the story kind of sucked.

After the movie, I headed to take a look in the Red Light zone. Gee, I'm still pissed that they closed the S&M place just one week before I'd made up my mind to pay a visit! I'm not sure I can truly enjoy whipping and hot wax dripping, but I had gotten really curious.

Like I said, I headed for the Red Light zone, walked all over the place. Gee, those girls really looked bored... and truly once you've seen one of their shows, you've seen them all. They're just standing on a stage in the center of the room, holding on to a pole, and shaking their bodies just a little bit, to the rhythm of the music. A few of them are good looking, most of them are regular looking, and another few are even chubby and/or old!

I just can't get out of my mind what my American friend said about the French being so jealous, fixated on America that they even define themselves as something-American, like "Paris, the anti-Washington".

I'm like, Dude, the French guys I know are in general way more sophisticated than the Americans I know. Why would they look to America with envy?

You mention "French culture", and the first thing that comes to mind is the Louvre Museum. You mention "American culture", and Britney Spears pops to mind.

If you ask to mention French food and beverage, Cordon Bleu and Champagne would probably be the answer. Ask the same thing about America, and it's BigMacs and Coca Colas that come to mind.

Ridiculous.

This thing he said took me by surprise. I'd never heard that before, and since I couldn't believe it, I tried to find references to it in Google. I didn't find anything. If you know of any website I could read about the French defining Paris as the anti-Washington, please let me know!

Fuck, how disappointing.

Just two days ago I read in the newspaper an article about the city's first and only "fetish bar". The reporter didn't go very far into explaining what went on inside --perhaps because there seemed to be very few customers at the time of his visit--, but it was enough to make me very curious.

Actually, I'd read about this bar many months ago. I'd seen its advertisement in the same newspaper, but didn't feel attracted nor anything.

This article really picked my curiosity, then yesterday I spent a lot of time trying to find more info on the web, and made up my mind to pay a visit tonight Saturday.

How disappointing it was to come back home and read in the very same newspaper that the bar had been raided and closed for who knows how long!

What a shame! On Thursday they publish a field report about the bar; and on Friday they publish in some weekly column (of the very same newspaper) that the previous Tuesday it had been raided by the Ministry of Interior!

Arrrggg!!!

The problem was that these guys went to inspect every single corner of the precinct, and on the top floor they found a bed and some unused condoms. They use that as evidence of prostitution, and therefore are entitled to close the place.

Shame on you! The place had been in business for a year now. Why can't you wait just one more week before you do your publicity stunt?

Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online

This is unbelievable bullshit.

A few days ago I was exchanging e-mails with a good American friend, and added that from his previous e-mail, I sensed that he was a supporter of George W, the "missunderestimated", the "master of low expectations", as described by himself.

Next thing I know from him is he's writing me a long e-mail full of arrogant American bullshit. He says that if he were in Iraq or North Korea, he'd be praying everyday for the US armed forces to come to his hometown.

How much stupidity! And this is coming from a highly educated American! Yes, their leaders might be terrible criminals, but I say leave Iraqi problems to the Iraqis, and Korean problems to the Koreans. Who told you that you're blessed with the wisdom of the universe and you have the right stomp your feet whenever you like to make the world dance to your beat?

He even sent me a link to the article that you see above this blog entry. He suggested me to read it, and I did. It's so full of falacies. I'm surprised a Master's degree holder could fall for that.

On top of that, he bitches about the French and the German. At one point he says that the French define Paris as a function of Washington, in the form of the "Non-Washington". Excuse me, but I've been searching Google for a while, and I can't find any reference to that. Maybe he heard that from "a single, non confirmed source" like happened with some of the WMD claims?

Hey, what a cheesy thing they did to my computer last week!

I went to my brother's office, and needed to print something from my laptop. I'm not supposed to know the passwords and stuff like that, so my brother's secretary asked for help to the IT department to come and configure my computer to be able to use the network's printer.

This is something I've personally done in the past in five minutes in my previous workplace. First came one guy, and couldn't do it. Then he called for help, and between the two of those guys couldn't do it even though they took more than two hours. Then they took away my computer cause they needed the help of yet somebody else... and about five hours later they finally gave me back my computer.

Three guys from the IT department joining forces for five hours! What a shame! I wasn't able to do much that day, since they had my computer for most of the day.

But what is worse is what I discovered today... They had disconnected my firewall and didn't tell me anything about it. Then this morning when my anti-virus runs, it detects 17 files infected by a worm!

Shit, a couple of days ago I was watching BBC news, and they were reporting about some Jewish settlements that will have to be abandoned by order from the Israeli government. At one point they were interviewing a female Jewish settler.

This lady said in English that she was disappointed with this order because in the Bible it says that that land belongs to them. Therefore, she doesn't see why they have to leave the Gaza Strip.

I thought "you said 'in the BIBLE it says'?". Well, in the Bible it also says that the Jewish people are the ones responsible for the murder of Jesus, right? And Jesus was not simply murdered by you guys. You chose to do it in an unusually cruel and humiliating way. You nailed him to the cross, rather than simply chaining him as was the custom then. You even added a crown of fish bones to the package. And you invoke the Holy Bible to justify your occupation of Palestine?

Ha! If some Israeli government official read this blog entry, I'm sure he'd label me "anti-semitic", "anti-jewish", and all that kind of shit they use to avoid debating anybody who has some critique to make of them. Well, I'm not anti-jewish, mind you. I'm anti-occupation, anti-land-grabbing-wall, anti-palestinian-oppression.

Funny tactic they have... anybody who has something to criticize about them is because they are anti-jewish, and therefore not worthy of spending their time debating. How cheesy.

The miracle of reproduction: A couple of days ago I went to the supermarket and saw that they were selling a new product. It's freeze dried mango strips. Very nice. They haven't added anything to the mango, they just dried it and sealed it in a very good looking bag.

Although quite expensive, it was being sold at a small discount and I thought I'd get one bag anyway. I took only one bag, and indeed I payed for one only... but when I arrived home, what a surprise, I had two of those in my shopping bag! Spontaneous generation does happen! Or should I call it "The Miracle of Love"?

Last Saturday I went to the movie theater. I went to watch "My Life Without Me". I think it was a rather low-budget film. The only famous face I could recognize was Deborah Harry, the singer of Blondie. I was curious to watch it cause I thought I heard somewhere that one of the actresses was nominated for an Oscar.

What a nice surprise! Very touching movie, I was very moved by the story. Beautiful.

For those of you who don't know about it... it's about a young woman, Ann who's got a very un-promising life ahead of her. Apparently, she got pregnant while still in high school, didn't get higher education, lives in a trailer home with her two daughters and husband (her happy little family is the only bright thing in her life), works in a cleaning crew, her husband is unemployed, etc.

One day she faints and is taken to the hospital, where she spends the whole day. The doctor then tells her that she's very seriously sick and only has two or three more months left. Ann was alone with the doctor when she was told this, and decides not to tell her family. In the middle of her shock, Ann goes to a diner to think alone. Then grabs a pen and starts to write a list of things she'd like to do before she dies:

Tell her daughters several times each day that she loves them. Find her husband a new wife that the girls will like. Visit her dad in jail (she's never done that before). Record birthday messages for each girl for every year until they turn 18. etc., etc.

Try to watch it!

Google News

Funny, I'm checking the Google News website (my homepage), and two different news media present the same news with titles that give you different first-sight impressions: The Seattle Times and The Scotsman

See for yourselves:
Detained Afghan teen got good food, few questions at Guantánamo
Guantánamo boy: US stole a year of my life

If this is representative of the difference in reporting between news media in the US and abroad, it's no wonder that Americans think of themselves as "the nice guys", while many other people elsewhere think of them as abusive.

"Oh, but why do they hate us? Why do they want to come and kill us?"

Blatant arrogance and ignorance from many people of the self-labeled "leaders of the free world". Sad.

Oh, I just can't get out of my head that white woman I saw on a BBC news report. She was talking with her Southern accent about her son going to war in Iraq. She said that her son "had gone to war in Iraq so we could be free."

I'd like to ask her... free from what? The only way you're going to be free from your own stupidity is that you start learning to read and use that ability to study world history and read news from diverse media, not just Fox News.