causalities

My lazy nature -> hitting the snooze button, twice (1)

My ’sluggish’ nature -> Taking time preparing and having breakfast while daydreaming. (2)

(1) and (2) -> Missing, by two minutes, the bus to Sunnyside (3) That bus was, of course, on time.

(3) -> Wait for the bus, that was of course around four minutes late, to Brentwood.
Once in Brentwood, ten minutes wait for the c-train to arrive.

At Chinook, realize that there is a service disruption -> Impatiently wait for the shuttle bus  to start moving.

At Canyon Meadows, get off the shuttle bus and take the c-train again.

Arrive way too  late to Somerset station -> Hiking party gone :’(

Stating the obvious:  Lazy nature = No hiking.

 

First laugh, then think

Since 1991 the Ig Nobel prizes, organized  by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research (http://improbable.com), are given  for “achievements  that first make people laugh and then make them think”. For example:

1991 PEACE. The Pepsi-Cola Company of the Phillipines, suppliers of sugary hopes and dreams, for sponsoring a contest to create a millionaire, and then announcing the wrong winning number, thereby inciting and uniting 800,000 riotously expectant winners, and bringing many warring factions together for the first time in their nation’s history.

1996 PHYSICS. Robert Matthews of Aston University, England, for his studies of  Murphy’s Law, and especially for demonstrating that toast often falls on the buttered side. [REFERENCE: European Journal of Physics,vol.16, no.4, July 18, 1995, p. 172-6.]

1999 SOCIOLOGY. Steve Penfold, of York University in Toronto, for doing his PhD thesis on the sociology of Canadian donut shops.

2003 PSYCHOLOGY. Gian Vittorio Caprara and Claudio Barbaranelli of the University of Rome, and Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University, for their discerning report “Politicians’ Uniquely Simple Personalities.” [PUBLISHED IN: Nature, vol. 385, February 1997, p. 493.]

2006 ACOUSTICS: D. Lynn Halpern (of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, and Brandeis University, and Northwestern University), Randolph Blake (of Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University) and James Hillenbrand (of Western Michigan University and Northwestern University) for conducting experiments to learn why people dislike the sound of fingernails scraping on a blackboard.

2008 ECONOMICS PRIZE. Geoffrey Miller, Joshua Tybur and Brent Jordan of the University of New Mexico, USA, for discovering that professional lap dancers earn higher tips when they are ovulating.

*** And this year, three Mexicans were awarded the Chemistry prize : -) Congratulations!

CHEMISTRY. Javier Morales, Miguel Apátiga, and Victor M. Castaño of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, for creating diamonds from liquid — specifically from tequila. [REFERENCE: "Growth of Diamond Films from Tequila,"  arXiv:0806.1485.]

*** More about this year’s Ig Nobels:

 

DFctuoso III

Last year it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Central University Campus of the UNAM (Autonomous National University of Mexico) is a very interesting place to visit, better done by foot to get the feeling of its size.

Ha, I thought this post was going to be the longest because I am very, very fond of the campus.

I guess it’s because you have to be there to get the vibe. Some pics I took 2 years ago, are here.

 

DFctuoso II

Downtown is another favorite, in my case more by circumstance than by choice. I lived there around 9 years but downtown is by far more interesting that the other two neighborhoods I’ve inhabit so far.

So, you are at the Pino Suarez metro station and you want to buy, say a pair of shoes… jump off the train, go out the station and walk along Pino Suarez Avenue where a lot of shoe stores are located. But if what you need is a book, remain underground because there is a pedestrian tunnel where almost all the editorial houses have a stand.

No matter the choice, eventually the Zocalo square will be the next destination. A good display of the two worlds that collided during the Spanish colonization is there. Remains of an Aztec temple and the Cathedral are side by side. Some pictures, here. Close by, there is an interesting museum (Museo de San Ildefonso) with top class exhibitions all year round. There are also murals by Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. (Filler note: Free entrance on Tuesdays).

Other constructions worth seeing in downtown are the Palace of Fine Arts. My suggested route to get there is to take Madero Street and maybe stop by the Temple of La Profesa -common temple but it was the headquarters of one anti-independence conspiracy in 1820 . On the same street, is the Palace of Iturbide -where the first “emperor” of the independent Mexico lived; now owned by a bank but sometimes holds exhibitions of mexican craft.

After visiting the Palace of Fine Arts, there is also a chance to go to the National Art Museum (Filler note: Free entrance on Sundays. This is the case for almost every museum in Mexico City) or to the Palace of Mines (there is a permanent exhibition of Inquisition torture instruments).

Downtonwn is my choice for shopping. Almost everything can be found somewhere. Either from shops or street vendors.

As mentioned, pics here, here and here

***

If taking a walk on the wild side is appealing, there are a couple of places worth trying (they are not in downtown itself, but close). From the Palace of Fine Arts walk north on Lazaro Cardenas Av. Expect to find some kind of suspicious looking bars, shops and fellas along the way. The destination is the “Plaza Garibaldi” where mariachi bands are playing, most of the time waiting to be hired for a gig. (Filler note: a cousin likes the pozole served in one small restaurant inside a food market next to the plaza. I totally agree with her).

From there, keep to the north and turn east at Rayon Avenue. Need a cheap electronic device? Or maybe some bootlegs or knock offs, or the devil knows what? Tepito is the place.

(Filler note: the same cousin claims that a more tasty pozole is sold there. I haven’t had the chance to try it. When we went, the joint was closed. Next thing was to get out of there as soon as possible -necessary precaution since we are not from the hood- of course trying to look all the time cool and street savvy. When I lived downtown the family used to go there probably once a month and never felt unsafe; definitely, times have changed).

So, better going back to safer territories and buy something at the bakery “La Madrid”:

 

DFectuoso I

Due to popular demand (actually, just one person asked -and most probably only out of courtesy), some posts will be in english.

Mexico City is home. Big, noisy, confusing, contrasting (clean and dirty, poor and rich, ugly and pleasant, pessimistic… and you get the idea). Always the capital. The spanish conquistadors founded the capital of the New Spain over the ruins of Tenochtitlan.

Now, I prefer to call it DFectuoso (may be translated as “defective”). Mexico City is the Federal District (Distrito Federal -DF- in spanish). The previous mayor (or maybe it was before his time?) named it La ciudad de la esperanza (The city of hope) and the current mayor, Ciudad en Movimiento (City in motion).

***

In the following 3 or 4 posts including this, I will mention some of my favorite places. The Cineteca Nacional (National Cinematheque) is one of them. It is probably the joint of choice to find interesting movies not so easily accessible in the commercial circuit (although lately they also show some hollywood crap). It has 8 screen rooms with different capacities (from 40 to 500) and it is near the metro station Coyoacan.

(Filler note: The very first movie I saw there was Kieslowski’s Blue)

 

Robert Priest 2

The kiss I just missed

The kiss I just missed giving you wound up later on another mouth, but by then it had become a little cold and cruel. It wanted to be just burned off in sunbursts and cleansed of its longing. It imparted only melancholy. Where it goes now I don’t know. Probably to be used and used in other mouths. Each time worn down a little more like a coin to its true longing. Perhaps it will reach you then from some impartial lover -from some dispassionate goodbye- like a stem cut from its rose.

The kiss that didn’t make it to your mouth made it instead to Toronto, for I could not be rid of it in Palo Alto. It stained my lips even in Mendocino. In a Triumph Spitfire I could no by singing out the window leave a long burning stream of it hissing in the blue air. It has become an irreconcilable wound now. A grand comparer. It lands on lips in a regular autumn but it will never be severed from its mouth. I wash it in water -it is there. I wash it in wine -still it is there . Drunken then, singing your name, mouthing it hot and burning into my mind it has shown me its red edges, its arms and legs that didn’t go round. It has talked to me sadly of clothes, of beds it didn’t lie down in. What a weeper! It has dragged me under rain. Indelible. Indelible. Wants to go finally to the graveyard of old kisses, each one with its denied rose strolling ghostly over. Each one with its sunset nova quenched in amber on its headstone. O each of its stopped explosions driven down to juice in some white withering berry there.

 

Robert Priest 1

How to pray to a toilet

To pray to a toilet is very easy
if you are literate.
Simply write your prayer down
on a piece of paper
and place it in the water
at the bottom of the toilet
Say
“Our toilet”
and flush