blogging to stop talking to myself

Between a pineapple and time

2009-02-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

I was peeling a lovely tiny pineapple in the downstairs kitchen of our building and said to my colleague laughing: this pineapple is more skin than pineapple! He said, well, you could peel it differently. You can cut the skin thinner and then the pineapple will get lots of “eyes”, then you can take those eyes out one by one with a knife.

I thought of me taking the little eyes one by one and remembered we used to do that when as children we were served a round slice of pineapple with the borders full of “eyes”. We used to bite them off and eat the rest of the piece. And then he said: but it takes a lot of time and time is more valuable than pineapple… time is money! And then he walked away.

I thought… time is not more valuable than a pineapple! - It depends for whom. The people who spend their days shelling the kernels from the maize cob to sell them per pounds in the open market came to my mind. – For people who have little money to spend in food and a pineapple is a weekend delight, time will not be more important than a pineapple, the pineapple deserves the time spent in saving as much of its pulp as possible.

Then it hit me… “time is money” The sole thought of such an affirmation made me angry. Time is not money… money is paper with some given value. Time is infinite. Time has been here before we did, before money did and will be here after we are gone. Time was here before we realized its existence and will be here when we actually understand its nature (if we ever do). Time is not money, time is time, time is eternity.

Violence Epidemy

2008-09-21T05:31:00.000-07:00

It's the second time this week that I come to read and hear that 1 in 3 women are beaten or violated around the world. That's an incredible proportion!! What's it hidden behind this fact? Why so much gender hate? Where are the vestiges of ancient civilizations where women and their feminine attributes were honored because of their capabilities to bring life?

I kept thinking and thinking on this amazing numbers, I could not believe that the range was so vast… I thought that if the number of people suffering this kind of abuses was so large, I should know a lot of cases. So I started thinking on my surroundings. I tried to recall the people I knew from whom I've heard stories of rape and violence (mental and physical violence), and the result was terrifying, 1 of each 4 women I knew had told me about a violent or abusive story.

I was angry at the injustice of this reality and at myself, for not having realized earlier its enormous impact. For thinning that a “group hug” or some words of consolation might mitigate this fact. Angry for not had being conscious of the magnitude.

I suppose this is the first step for change. See it, grave it and change it. My home country as much as other macho-societies needs to bring this to a public and honest dialogue where specially women but also men can share openly this tragic stories and bring light upon this dark of abusive anonymity.

In sharing this stories is where the end of this chain is, because being informed is a step to being conscious. Hearing and sharing the horror of the victims is our contribution to never let their stories repeat again.

De esas Pocas Personas que Admiro

2008-08-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

Of all those few people I admire, reads the title.

Con el tiempo he aprendido a perderle el miedo a la opinión publica y a los cyber-copiones, que anteriormente creía, podrían apropiarse de mis escritos y arrebatarme la propiedad intelectual de mis ilusiones y vivencias.

También contribuyó el hecho de que, en un asalto de psicosis, un antiguo conocido se torno en un desconocido desquiciado quien creyó que al eliminar todas mis creaciones virtuales, visuales y semi-literarias, rescataría de alguna intrincada manera un lugar privilegiado en mi corazón, el mismo que desvalido tras la pérdida se refugiaría en el perdón y el amor, hacia quien había demostrado tras tamaña acción, la calidad de su pasión.

Había perdido todo lo que tan cuidadosamente había creado en los últimos 6 años. Creaba para recordarme a mi misma (ya que la memoria nunca me ha sido muy fiel) de mi vida y mi pasado. Toda creación era una metáfora alegórica y bohemia de un hecho verdadero. Así recordaba yo, la situación misma con lujo de detalles y la sensación que esta me había producido. Así me divertía creando al mismo tiempo que le peleaba al olvido, dejando los hechos grabados. Pero el olvido me había a tomado por sorpresa atacando repentinamente por la retaguardia, usando por instrumento la paranoia de un pobre romántico alienado.

Muchos meses después, aun incapaz de recobrar el amor al arte, la sed por el detalle y las ganas de crear (que hasta hoy no recupero en su totalidad), decidí que si alguna vez volvía a crear, debería buscar un lugar más seguro donde guardar mis memorias escritas, pintadas, fotografiadas, ilustradas, filmadas y animadas. Finalmente decidí que el Internet sería un lugar más seguro contra la pérdida y el olvido, aunque esto significase desprenderme de mi total potestad sobre las obras y exponerlas a la critica ajena y hasta al hurto de los que no encuentran sus propios medios para expresarse.

Así empecé, sin mucho entusiasmo ni ganas a publicar lenta y cautelosamente algunos escritos triviales en un blog. Poco a poco, fui venciendo mis prejuicios contra el dominio publico de las creaciones humanas. Me di cuenta que la copia no es mas que la forma mas elevada de halago y que si solo una persona guardaba uno de mis poemas, antes tan celosamente guardados, este estaría más cerca de la inmortalidad y más lejos de la destrucción y del olvido. Entonces cree otro blog y otro más, hasta uno en el que publico sin censura todo lo poco que me quedó en papeles de lo que solía ser mi pasión por la poética.

Y así fue como finalmente empecé a escribir con menos temor a la crítica y más amor a las palabras, sin perfeccionar mis notas, ni dudar por un segundo en nombrar a las personas cuyo arte y cuyas letras admiro, por que al pasar sus links a otros, también bloyo ayudo a inmortalizar estas obras en la memoria de unos cuantos.

Sin embargo, no todas las obras merecen ser inmortalizadas sin antes tomar en cuenta la acción que demanda su esencia. Algunas nos llaman a la acción, y aquí también, la divulgación es prioridad, el arma más potente siempre ha sido la información.

Este es el caso de un blog tan grácil, tan real y tan humano como el de la cubana Yoani Sanchez, quien lucha con puño y letra contra la cobarde veda de información y comunicación que sufre Cuba. Yoani sufre esta discriminación en carne propia, ella no publica directamente sus artículos sino a través de amigos en el exterior, ya que su blog se encuentra vedado en Cuba.

Ella cuenta simples pautas sobre la vida diaria en Cuba, y así sutil pero tenazmente le quita la máscara a la realidad de su país.

http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/

Siempre he creído el narrar es vivir. Que la verdadera muerte no es la muerte del cuerpo, sino el olvido, y que si no contamos nuestra historia de grandezas y faltas, corremos el riesgo de que se vuelvan a cometer infamias, y de que el espiral de la vida se convierta en un circulo, del que nunca salimos y que nunca se acaba.

Así pues, aquí esta ella para contarnos los suplicios de la gente común, en un país donde un solo hombre piensa poder controlarlo todo, y que con la intención primera de traer bienestar a muchos, termina por descalabrar la vida de todos. Estas son el tipo de verdades que todos debemos conocer, para concientemente evitar (a toda costa) que alguna vez se repitan.

Some Thoughts on Stalking

2008-08-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

It's crazy to think that one in 5 women are victims of stalking. It's like saying one in 3 people are obese in America (except that the last ones -in my opinion, have infringed this upon themselves).

From all the different types of stalkers, one particular type caught my attention: the Paranoid Stalker. It's said that this one is by far the most dangerous one, because he lives in an inaccessible world of his own invention. He can not be reasoned with and usually thrives on threats, anxiety, and fear, and basically, you cannot communicate with a him (a paranoid) because he is likely to distort everything you say to support his persecutory delusions, sense of entitlement, and grandiose fantasies.

This kind of stalking derives from a former relationship. So most stalkers are ex-partners who developed an obsession during the relationship or shortly after the break up.

A great number of this offenses are never reported to the police when they first occur, since the fresh broken ties of the relationship prevent many women to accuse their ex-former lover, thinking they could appeal to his feelings, but ignoring that you cannot appeal to his emotions – he has none, at least not positive ones.

Stalking is a terribly annoying situation to deal with, and certainly the word "victim" puts the offended in a helpless position. However, stalking is a severe crime in most countries, and I can definitely imagine why. It makes no sense that some individual shows up with obsessive tendencies and propensity to paranoid thoughts, and as a wondering decease, watching his environs for the first unwary person, who will have to pay for the encounter with years of harassment, aggression and vengeance, all for a delusional not-corresponded love illusion.

The paradox is that the abusive and paranoid ex-partner blames it all on his stalking victim. As far as he is concerned, she recklessly and unscrupulously wrecked a wonderful thing they both had going.

I still have to think of a conclusion, the matter is that this fact is something to keep in mind. Not everything can be terrible if the stalker accepts that his behavior is unacceptable. It doesn't happen often, but while many stalkers view their actions within a delusional framework and therefore see no need to get help, a few do actually do approach professionals. I feel these individuals have well ingrained values and through the veil of obsession, recognize that angry and vengeance thoughts affect terribly oneself first and then the others. But these people are the minority of stalkers, those who actually have a sense for beauty, who appreciate (and are grateful for) their lives, who have some respect for themselves, the others, and take responsibility for their lives and their actions.

Unfortunately, the rest of stalkers need others to interfeer and take action, since they on their own, are not able to live and let people live in peace and joy.

India's Gulabai Gang

2008-07-22T01:25:00.000-07:00

In this place where woman have no rights to education and are married to have children before they reach puberty, living with no voice and being victims of abuse, this gang brings hope, support to individual cases and a very touching/inspiring story. Women together for their rights and a better future.

The Girl Effect

2008-07-15T02:32:00.001-07:00

For those who search dispearely for the activity of others to interfer and difame

2008-07-07T05:23:00.000-07:00

Something interesting to digest, which might increase your emotional intelligence:

"The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another... some of these situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others, but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardour which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse from the horror of our own injustice."

Adam Smith
"Turgid Truth"
Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759

Reboot10

2008-06-30T02:51:00.001-07:00

Reboot10, originally uploaded by Charles Nouÿrit.

Yes, I did go to Copenhagen and I did presence many of the lectures at Reboot10 in a conscious state. I found pictures to prove it and I'm glad (since I know I was spotted sleeping during one of the lectures, and the photo will be blogged soon). This photo here, will serve me to prove I was awake in most of them :D

Cholo, una definicion en poema

2008-05-22T05:05:00.000-07:00

de Luis Abanto Morales

Cholo soy
¡y no me compadezcas!
que esas son monedas que no valen nada
y que dan los blancos como quien diera plata.

Nosotros los cholos, no pedimos nada
pues faltando todo, todo nos alcanza.

Déjame en la puna, vivir a mis anchas
trepar por los cerros, detrás de mis cabras
arando la tierra, tejiendo unos ponchos
pastando mis llamas;
y echar a los vientos, la voz de mi quena.

Dices que soy triste, que quieres que haga
no dicen ustedes que el cholo sin alma
y que es como piedra, sin voz sin palabra
y llora por dentro, sin mostrar las lágrimas.

Acaso no fueron los blancos, venidos de España
que nos dieron muerte por oro y por plata
¿no hubo un tal Pizarro, que mato a Atahualpa
tras muchas promesas bonitas y falsas?

¿Entonces, que quieres, que quieres que haga?
que me ponga alegre como día de fiesta,
mientras mis hermanos doblan las espaldas,
por cuatro centavos que el patrón les paga.

¿Quieres que me ría?
mientras mis hermanos son bestias de carga
llevando riquezas que otros se guardan
¿Quieres que la risa me ensanche la cara?
mientras mis hermanos viven en las montañas,
como topos escarba y escarba,
mientras se enriquecen los que no trabajan.

¿quieres que me alegre?
mientras mis hermanas van a casas de ricos
los mismo que esclavas
cholo soy ¡y no me compadezcas!

Déjame en la puna, vivir a mis anchas
trepar por los cerros, detrás de mis cabras
arando la tierra, tejiendo unos ponchos
pastando mis llamas;
y echar a los vientos, la voz de mi quena.

Déjame tranquilo, que aquí la montaña
me ofrece sus piedras, acaso mas blandas
que esas condolencias que tu me regalas
Cholo soy ¡y no me compadezcas!

photo by cavernicolasfelipe

http://flickr.com/photos/66468173@N00/2468899527/in/photostream/

Micro-Interactions and Fuzzy Agencies

2008-04-25T02:16:00.001-07:00

This is an interesting speech at Interaction '08 with examples about moving brands beyond typical marketing campaigns into a "micro-interaction" model; and about a company model in which the distinct positions blur into each other to reveal the real potential in that overlap of functions.

Some escencial things new companies that come from old failures should mind

2008-04-18T02:06:00.000-07:00

I found this posted at 37 signals and it reminded me of some funny incidents that happened at the office I'm working at (not "for"), related to eating earlier than 12:30 (which was the established rule) and getting a bottle of wine taken away from Kim's hand (while she was looking for beer) with the remark that "you can only drink on Fridays"...

The post was about Maverick: The Success Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace,

Treat employees like adults:

We simply do not believe our employees have an interest in coming in late, leaving early, and doing as little as possible for as much money as their union can wheedle out of us. After all, these are the same people that raise children, join the PTA, elect mayors, governors, senators, and presidents. They are adults. At Semco, we treat them like adults. We trust them. We don’t make our employees ask permission to go to the bathroom, nor have security guards search them as they leave for the day. We get out of their way and let them do their jobs.

Surprisingly, someone has to write about it! so that some individuals with management-delusional* behaviors realize the rest are adult people too, not children.

* In Ecuador we used to call these people "the clowns who perceive themselves as the owners of the circus"

Looking for the similarities rather than the differences on the description of my job title

2008-04-18T01:32:00.000-07:00

By chance I ran into a description of my job title, and while reading it I thought it was as vague as I had intended it to be when I gave myself the nomination. I didn't want to be called an Information Architect, because I'm not only that. I'm also not a Concept Developer only, neither am I a Interaction Design solely. Experience Architect was the best name I could find to not describe me as anything specific, so that I could do all the things I want and like under the umbrella of a name no one really understands.

Here are some of the descriptions I found:

The Experience Architect is that person relentlessly focused on creating remarkable individual experiences. This person facilitates positive encounters with your organization through products, services, digital interactions, spaces, or events. Whether an architect or a sushi chef, the Experience Architect maps out how to turn something ordinary into something distinctive—even delightful—every chance they get.

Later, more clarification:
1. Interaction Designers are User Experience Architects. They are the primary role responsible for writing scenarios.

2. Business Analyst is also responsible for writing scenarios but less from a perspective of design and more from a perspective of goal writing (where the scenarios come from) and ensuring the scenarios meet the goals of the customer. It's entirely possible for a Business Analyst to not write a single word within a scenario but they should know it well.

3. Business Analysts are the knowledge people. They understand the priorities, the functionality, the domain and provide a bridge between the user experience and technical design.

4. Business Analysts are the primary role to write functional requirements. They could write them side by side with a solution architect or with strong collaboration but they are ultimatly responsible for functional requirements.

5. For domain modeling. I imagine a BA and SA sitting side by side building it together. Both should understand the technique.

(little note: still, me, as an experience architect play all these rolls, we just charge differently per the knowledge of each role)

... tired of researching, I'll conclude this post later

Happy Birthday Rubencitos!!!!

2008-03-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

Don't send a lame eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

We're Having Fun After All

2008-03-17T07:59:00.000-07:00

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Swimming Like a Fish

2008-03-01T14:59:00.001-08:00

La cancion de esta noche

2008-01-29T05:21:00.000-08:00

Why don't we just stop and help each other?

2008-01-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I walk passing central station, both in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and I can't help noticing how everyone walks in their own imaginary bubble, avoiding all reality around them.

Some are too late to get to somewhere, so they rush through places having no time to notice their environment, some others are too busy, they have their phones on and the whole world around them is switched off, some are just too scared to notice, so they walk quickly, with a concern face on them, always looking at the ground, and a lot of them just don't care, so they walk with their headphones on avoiding eye contact and any other human distraction.

I stop and the whole movie seems to roll around me. I see people who have to go to the airport and struggle incredibly to get their big bags up the stairs while the rest pass by them pushing them, going over, avoiding them, skipping their bags for a centimeter, getting inpatient, moving their heads in disapproval, but no one helping. I see the starving man who looks with his watery sad eyes inside the garbage can, and the guy who comes and throws half of his hamburger in the trash bin, rather than giving it to the man in his hands... I'm afraid he didn't even noticed the man. I see the musicians endlessly playing their melodies in the harsh winter while everyone walks by trying not to see or listening to their own tunes. I wonder if they ever thought about the man standing always in that sharp cold.

And then I wonder, why can't we just give a hand to someone else, given that all humans have such an amazing capacity for compassion. How can we see the faces of pain, hunger, anger and fear scattered through that world of strangers around us, and fail to notice it? We are all prepared to help, why don't we then?

Why do we rather absolve into ourselves to not notice others? Have everyone forgotten the strange complacency that one feels when helping others? We are indeed naturally altruistic and prepared to enjoy altruistic actions. Is that we have lost our compassion or is that we are just so overwhelmed with everything else that we can't pay attention to life and to the world anymore? I wonder if we will ever start noticing, if we will ever stop focusing on ourselves and start seeing others, if we will ever again pay full attention to the world, if we will ever gain back our emotional empathy and take the opportunity to help others... if we will ever just have time for it.

Life and Dead

2008-01-08T01:46:00.000-08:00

Por primera vez experimento en carne propia la alegre y casi satirica capricho de dios y el mundo, siempre engendrando y siempre matando. Un buen amigo muere y con el parte de mi corazon, pero sin darme aun el tiempo para el luto, dos gemelos entran en el mundo chillando y alegrando la vida de mis amigos y regalandome un pedazo nuevo de corazon.

Interminable el encuentro del universo con todos sus atomos e indescriptible la resistencia del corazon que pareciendo fragil siempre se vale del tiempo y de contradicciones para seguir viviendo

New Manolismos in Spanish v_2007

2007-12-14T00:54:00.000-08:00

Eres una uva floja esperando en el agua tibia

Is there really a "world of men"?

2007-12-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

Reading a blog post from Susan Mernit, "Women and Tech: Earn vs. Have" where she comments over another post from Shana Albert entitled Social Media and Gender issues come back to haunt me in which this last one says "The issue is my past insecurities of being a young female professional in a man’s world. I earned my spot then and I will keep trying to earn my spot in the Social Media world now as well".v To which And Mernit replies in disappointment: "While I respect her point of view, the big bing that went off was this: Why do women continually feel they have to earn a place in the world? Why don't more women recognize that they have a place, and the challenge is just to keep it, or to expand what you have?". I can't avoid wondering how "a world of men" might feel like... I never felt I lived in a world of men, and definitely never felt that I had to "earn a place" in between a space "ruled ?!?" by men.

In any case, when I think about my working experience and life in general, trying to recall the problems that I have had when working on projects, at school and generally at work, those have mostly involved women. Women who (as I perceived it) have fallen in a strange trap in which they think they need to prove they have got the ruling scepter and need to bang it against the floor for others to acknowledge they have got "power", and then (maybe unconsciously) became some sort of powerful witches who travel around surveillant, in their power brooms. Women who think they live in a men's world, definitely do... they create it themselves and suffer from it, fighting until exhaustion against their own monster, and dragging other women to it, along the way.

I can only think that as women feed machismo, inculcating it themselves in their own male children, they also feed "the men's world" by (instead of living in a men & women's world) trying to fit into their perception of a world which is men's.

My indifference to brands and branding

2007-11-27T00:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder, whether my indifference to brands makes me an alien in the advertising and marketing world. Yes I use a Mac, no, I didn’t choose for it. Yes I’ve seen that movie, no, I don’t know the name of the actors. Yes, I like that sweater, no, I don’t know where the brand comes from. Yes, I have one of the latest Nokia phones, no, I don’t know when it came out or if its better than the iPhone. Yes, I like good food, no, I don’t have a favorite restaurant. Yes, I like a lot of music; no I don’t know the name of the band, nor the label. Yes, I know a couple of good designers, a couple of good musicians, a couple of good writers, a couple of good people; no, I don’t really know about the ones in hype. Yes, I care more about what is happening around me and around the ones I love, no, I don’t like watching news, they have biased opinions, show mostly tragedies and pain, create fear and play the world according to the interests of a few (they should be called “The Bad News Channel” Tragedy to your Home). Yes, I believe there is too much advertising going on everywhere, no, I don’t support any anti-advertising campaign. Why? Because by supporting one cause you are supporting the other. It’s inevitable; by talking about anti-advertising, you are talking about advertising. Yes, I could know all what is hot, no, I don’t really want to know who all those glossy people are. Yes, I think some of they look very pretty, no, I don’t think l will look like them by using their creams, but yes, I could look like them if I want to… after all, I’m good with photoshop too.
Now I wonder… have I instinctively become the nightmare of all marketers as I used to be for all religious priests and preachers? I don’t believe in their Gods and therefore, I can’t really be controlled by them. Their sacred images are only representations of what I suspect they hope or fear (which is the same at the end). I guess I haven’t fell in the myth which says that knowing about popular people and brands is “general culture”. But I also guess I’m the only one who thinks of it that way. I am becoming used to see the astonished/disappointed faces of those colleagues of mine who can’t believe when I say: no, I don’t know who you are talking about… But yes, I’d like to hear about that theory.

How can I then be of any use to the advertising world? Well… Por que a mi me importa un pito si el mundo funciona a pilas, con kerex o a gasolina.

24112007005

2007-11-24T09:42:00.001-08:00

24112007004

2007-11-24T09:27:00.001-08:00

A lil something I found... and obviuolsy liked ;)

2007-11-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

A discipline is something you follow.

A practice is something you do.
Neither defines what you are
And that’s the important distinction

From presentation: Architecture for Conversations:
What communities of practice can mean for IA

In the faces you see, you see just who you need.

2007-11-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

Having an interesting chat with a good cyber friend of mine, who (as we said that night) finally had a face; I had to recognize that the people you meet are the people you need at a specific moment (in another moment/circumstances, you wouldn’t let the same people into your life). Sometimes you are too good, and then you will meet evil in the sake of balance. And you meet people who are in your same level, if you’ve learned something then you will pass to a new level where again, you wouldn’t let those people into your life again. I started reviewing each one of the people I knew who actually caused my life to derive in another direction. I was trying to create a picture of them, of how I used to perceive them, to then draw from it what I was in need of or, what was my situation in those days. It seems that in times when I was stronger and more stable I met wacky people who shook my life unstable, so that I would have to repair it in a puzzle building mode (I can think it must have been a good thing at the end… but, mnnnn, only learned to keep away from those kinds), and in the times when I was kinda naïve I did meet many smarty pants who went around life thinking that they could get away with everything and stepping over anyone who would cross their road and was apparently less smart (or less careless I would say). I could think that the lesson would have been to find a balance between being socially naïve and socially smarty pants, but I only learned that I could be more me-first-minded, but that I like a lot more to be a we-all-minded, that I enjoy collectively creating something and to have the trust of people who can see through me (not so many dare), rather than being a wisecracker individual. And I also met very good and extremely dedicated individuals who dedicate their lives to social and ecological causes, and I learned that one is not here to save anyone, but rather to help in their own and particular way… some will safe whales, but that doesn’t mean that the ones who eat them don’t help in another way. Well… this post is becoming too long and I still keep on remembering more and more people, and I guess it’s true, in the faces you see, you see just who you need.

Between Balance and a Lost Passion

2007-11-17T01:36:00.000-08:00

“Everything happens for a reason” say most of the people, and generally for good. Life usually seems to have played wrong (hard) on you, but at the end, it brings you to better places and brighter states. Usually, I agree. Not because of the analogy of it, but mostly because there is nothing else you could have done. You could have only done what you did, because the interaction between you and the particular circumstances of a specific moment, made things and events happen. And for some reason, I deeply believe that somehow, life brings you always towards what is best for you. Out of a conversation with a friend, I had added to my belief that everything happens also in the sake of balance. If you are too good, you will meet evil to internally find a better balance. Then I stopped for a minute and thought about those creative people who have had their creations lost or destroyed all in one event… were they too focus on creating? Were they creating too much that they needed to face destruction to learn that… nothing is eternal, although everything is? Then again, we browsed in our memories for friends who had passed through those kinds of situations and none (can’t remember the exception) had ever taken back his/her creative activities of pursued any further the talents that were victims of that lose. Some of them, being excellent at what they used to do, became couch potatoes and, as almost all of them, dedicated their times to completely different activities.

The Dutchy Dutchiest Mentality Proven Wrong

2007-11-15T07:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have to admit that I use “Dutch Mentality” in the title in a friendly way, as in a way to make fun of cultures and countries (which I think we should all do in order to laugh about our differences rather than fight for them). And, generalizing is not really my kind of approach, neither my intention in this post. I can’t affirm that “Dutch people” are in a certain way, because there are only collective characteristics that apply to a group of people but still don’t apply to all members in the same way.

Anyways, reading some of Greek philosophy I couldn’t help but think of the Dutch. In Ecuador (and then again, I refer to my experiences there) what you usually do when you have been assigned to do something, you look for the person that is collectively known as “the master in the subject” and you request their help to resolve your issues. But also, when you know that someone has done something or knows something you would always ask and avoid the waste of time that would be to try to find it by yourself, or do the research all over again. What I mean is that you would always ask people to just “teach you”, tell you how, when and where, rather than try to do it by yourself. We say, we don’t want to “re-invent the warm water” and we never try to do complicated things in our own, we gather everyone who is needed (and sometimes some who are not needed but are good company)

Dutch people in the other side (and this again, is my personal experience in Holland) reply to most questions: Have you look for it in Internet? Have you try books? and the friendlier ones say: mmm, I’ve got some links that you can check up, or give you the titles for books.

In my first year in here I thought, but… but, It would take you 5 minutes to explain me, why do I have to go and do all the research and spend 2 or 3 hours in it, just for the sake to do it by myself?. Later I thought that maybe that approach is better for learning to do stuff by yourself, gather more knowledge and become more independent. Now, the independent part is never sounded totally convincing to me. Why would you want to be independent if we all work together better, by complementing each other when we all collaborate to put the puzzle together by doing the single chores we are talented at? But then again, someone told me once: “maybe that’s why we’ve become a first world country and you guys are a third” (although we are a second world country). Sounded reasonable, maybe we were not independent enough.

But recently, I was reading nice article that talked about the Greeks. They used to laugh at people who did complicated things all by themselves. The ones who tried to do it all by themselves were considered “idiots”, for the simple reason that it’s just easier to solve a difficult problem in a group than alone. They thought that doing stuff collectively did always led to better results; and, it was easier and more fun than doing it alone.

Hurray for collectivity!!

* the article I read was from... mnnn InformationArchitects.jp?? not sure, i'll be back with the correct info. I should note the addresses and names of the articles I read, since my mind loves to remember concepts and usually fails to remember details :)

The Daily Paradox: A Complicated Description of Simplicity

2007-11-14T01:58:00.000-08:00

Browsing through internet and reading some blogs, I found a "simple description" about IA and UE. I read it many times trying to match it with my definitions, and couldn't avoid thinking: Isn’t IA and UE all about presenting meaningful information in a friendly and structured way which is easily findable, accessible and understandable for all users?; and if that is what the discipline is really about, shouldn't the "description of it" match the standards of its practice?

This is the "simple description" I read:
"Composition means gathering elements of meaning and emotion from the environment, the audience, and in one’s self, applying what one knows and feels about experience, and then expressing not so much a solution as a creation. the process of composing has rules by which it’s conducted, but the actual composition of a work – including an environment that provokes desired experiences – remains a personal feat and something of a mystery.

The natural next step will be for designers of experience to integrate and apply the methods of scoring and wayshowing concurrently, Thus creating places, not only in the physical world but also in the virtual worlds of knowledge and understanding, that reveal themselves in the same way that a musical composition is heard. This is composing for experience."

by Bob Jacobson

... It's beautifully expressed, but somehow I need to read it and re-read it again to grasp the real essence of it, so the experience of this description (to me) is: I thought I got it, but when I thought about it, I didn't... and I got lost somewhere in the middle of the story, although it had a pretty romantic end

The Life Chasing Game

2007-11-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

Why is that whenever you look for (try to get) something, it goes away? It happens in relationships (apparently very often) but also in every event of life. Having realized that, I had stated that I was just not looking for anything anymore, neither was I deciding what to do nor planning. My thinking behind it was that if you decide, you then chose one way or another, left or right, but if you don’t, you will always stay in the middle. It’s a matter of acceptance, confidence and trust. Once I had realized that there was nothing that could happen to me if I did not get a visa, if I did not qualify for a master, if I lost my job, if I had to leave a country and even if I lost whom I love, I came to a moment of brightness in front of my eyes in which I saw my worries and could only laugh. I was being afraid of something I didn’t know, something that could come and could be better than all.
Then I realized that while I was thinking (for months, after overcoming a painful incident) that this empty sensation I felt time to time was due to the lack of something (after all, emptiness means that something “is” missing), what it really was, was the incorporation of another feeling that I didn’t have record of previously in my life: “fear”.

In any case, talking to Thieu, in one of our multiple “mix-of-topics-and-subjects-that-return-to-the-same-starting-point-to-diverge-into-many-more” conversations, we talked about this life chasing game. The understanding came refreshing. People who look for something; who try so badly to get something and cling into things, are people who think they don’t deserve those things; and that’s why they try to get those things with despair, because (thinking) knowing they don’t deserve it, makes them so afraid they won’t get it or if they have it, so afraid they will lose it. And that is why chasing doesn’t work. People who chase things have sabotaged themselves. They have hijacked their brains unconsciously and think they don’t really deserve what they are trying to get.

Tierra Lejana

2007-11-07T13:19:00.001-08:00

Tierra lejana, tierra que floreces y mueres en mi alma
a la que abandoné hace 6 años y la que aún sigo abandonando
mientras este corazón te entierra bajo mi olvido
con todos esos otros muertos que se quedaron en tu suelo prolífico.

Llueve y llueve tras las ventanas del tren
como si esa lluvia viniera del cielo, para limpiarme la soledad que deja el destierro.

El amor tan intenso que te tuve patria mia,
se vuelca a un amor humano por mi cultura y la cultura de todos aquellos hermanos
que tan diferentes parecieron cuando aun en casa y que hoy son tan cercanos de raza;
Y en un amor por un paisaje mágico y maravilloso
(al que aprecio tanto por que ya no es mió,
pero por el que siento un orgullo casi viciado
de saber que aunque no es mío yo desciendo de él,
como desciendo de los indios y de los montes y los prados).

De tanto cantarle al aire solitario de mi casa me he vuelto un pájaro soprano
le canto con las entrañas las sonatas que mi memoria saca del subconsciente
le bailo con las caderas como si siempre las hubiera meneado,
burlando mi pasado en el que nunca bailé los ritmos hispanos
y sacando de la sangre, el calor de cualquier latinoamericano.

Recuerdo la fe que le tiene mi gente a un Dios en el que yo no creo,
y no se como contarles que esa fe inculcada solo nos ha traído desgracias.
América Latina necesita un camino nuevo,
las heridas son profundas y trascienden en el tiempo,
a esas no las curan ni los llantos, ni los silencios,
ni un Dios "bueno", que niega el pan a los indios y a los negros desde el cielo.

Angeles, Julio 2007

Which one came first, the “meet the deadline approach” or, the “quality delivery”?

2007-11-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

Is it really an academic thing to have to take some extra time and deliver something that shows quality rather than something that meets the client’s deadline? I heard [the wise words] of the head of my department “clients forget late deliveries, but they never forget bad deliveries”, and I felt it was right, because it fit into my view of what seems appropriate within the corporative world. But for a project manager, that is just an “academic approach”, which is not acceptable behavior in the business world [I undertand their point of view, their job is after all, to manage resources to deliver stuff on time]. Nevertheless, I felt a military approach to things, and I couldn’t avoid asking myself: Are we trying to create an environment similar to the not-so-long-gone industrial age in which our work is to produce like machines, rather than in a more hybrid, informal and conversational environment that nurtures ideas and drives innovation?

I’m totally conscious that both approaches need to meet in a middle point where deadlines are as important as good and innovative deliveries, but non should be –in my opinion- more important than the other. And there is where I stand.

P.s: I had to deliver stuff on time, and I've got to admit, it was not a bad solution, but not nearly close to what I know we could have delivered within 2 more days. At the end, it was just a "worked out concept" delivery.

Web Ethics for the Sane and the Naughty-Wanna-Be

2007-11-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Some people seem to find an easier way to say certain things in a chat room or by e-mail. And until a certain point, especially for people who would rather write than talk, it becomes a perfect helpful medium. But some others seem to use the web as a kind of mask where they can cowardly shield behind and misbehave. They feel [envalentonados] to say and do things they would never dare in person. I had met once someone who in person was a very kind and gentle person, but that unfortunately turned into a scary online stalker. He would write so many seriously terrible and harsh things on many of my public profiles and file sharing applications.

One day I finally decided to write him an email and ask him for a personal meeting, so that he could say everything he wanted to tell me, offline. He never showed up. His first reaction was panicky; an email with a kindly written excuse and apology. I noticed that for him, getting new accounts and posting terrible comments in my profiles to provoke me, had become his new game, a kind of naughty killing-time (part time) hobby. Part time because every 3 weeks the stalking would peek and then disappear for another 3-4 weeks.

We kept up a conversation for a couple of days in which he was very keen on knowing what I had to tell him, and I was just reaffirming him that he would be the one doing the talking, that the meeting would be just a way for him to get off everything he has in his chest on my face. After a prolonged dialogue, it became clear that there was no real need to meet in person; but once he felt safe again, it didn’t take more than a couple of days for him to pick up his old habit very quickly again.

I think this kind of behavior is not only childish and unfair, but also very unethical. I would say that offline and online, the same rules of communication should apply, and before you write something to someone, you should be honest and ask yourself if you would really say those same things to their face.

Favorite Internet Quotes

2007-11-05T02:26:00.000-08:00

If you have a website that is not user friendly, you have an unfriendly website which basically means that you lack manners. The specialists use that word (”user friendly”) so often that they forget that “friendly” actually is an ethical term.

"The Electronic Gentleman"
Information Architectures Japan

Do we write to remember or to construct?

2007-11-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

When we write down personal stories and our everyday lives in offline diaries, do we write to later on remember or to construct an image of ourselves for ourselves to identify with now? or, do we ultimately do it as a way to leave a trace/proof of our existence in the world.

Online diaries and web presence is different I guess. In those, the main objective is to create a public image of ourselves, and to leave instant trace.

Diaries and personal blogs interest me because in many occasions by reading them I understood more of who I was, by the words of another.

P.d.: I got thinking on this theme from reading a blog entry from Ana (overpills)
http://halfbakedmedia.com/ana/?p=19

My Favorite Sets of Words

2007-10-09T02:32:00.000-07:00

And all of the angels have sold their souls for a set of new wings in anything gold

Auctions of the day... Aproveche!!

2007-08-30T01:13:00.000-07:00

I'm moving to Amsterdam soon and I have got a couple of things that I thought I could put up for auctions so that I can get some extra money to cover the moving expenses.

FOR SALE:
1. My consciousness (almost new, used it once or twice - was worth a lot back in the day) - for sale or for rent
2. Amnesties (in multiple sizes)
3. A couple of differences which are not averages (in the original boxes and with 8 months warranty)

Place your bids here

oh! and be quick!

Summer Times

2007-04-01T05:23:00.001-07:00

summer times, originally uploaded by silvana and one angel.

Summer will be here soon again!!
Nice memories and music festivals... the latin sunday was fantastic last year.. tango was in the air and oh yes, way too much parting and wine that at the end was never enough.

We're getting ready to start in this picture... Bartje is listening carefully to the instructions and off we were... to dance!

Photo by: Marcel Bosch
http://www.mtabosch.nl/