Posted by Raul on May 9, 2013
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Let’s see…it is said that math is everywhere and in everything. I know that for sure since subtraction is always present in my paychecks, while addition is always present in my payments.
Then division is an integral part of relationships and multiplication seems to be the essence of stress.
And as soon as life advance in the body, the more complex calculations are part of the process, leaving the mind occupied with calculus of the like, in an incremental sequence that strongly resembles a geometric progression.
Being good at number’s math is not so difficult, but dealing with life’s math is another equation! LOL 
Raul
Posted by Raul on April 26, 2013
About a week ago I went to see a Queensryche show here in Denver. This band plays progressive heavy metal rock, and was very popular in the 80’s Perhaps the main characteristic was the strong voice of the singer that used to resemble opera. I say used to because although the sound is somehow still there, the voice is no more. It was sort of frustrating to see this band with the original singer without voice anymore, and the sounds and energy of the songs very reduced, but at the other hand it was very emotional for me to be there and see them live, even if it was at their dusk.
What happens is, in the 80’s I was in my 20’s and living in my country (Chile), so if you consider, a South American country at the time that no internet or cell phone existed, all these bands were known by their songs played in the radio, and very seldom there was the chance to see a music video. The only information you could get was by one picture and about five lines of text in a magazine, so you read it a thousand times as to trying to get every possible drop of information out of it. Those bands were like mystics things you knew existed but would never had a chance to see. Europe and the United States were like other planets in a faraway galaxy that could not be reached in a lifetime.
About 30 years later I have the chance to go to a show of one of those bands, and even though a few of them are not even the shadow of what they used to be, for me still it is very emotional to have them in front, playing their music, the same I grew up with.
When in the middle of the concert, I tend to see around at the people congregated for the show and it seems so strange when thinking that probably most of them (being about my same age) did see the band 20 years ago when they and the band were young. At that moment I can’t avoid feeling somehow like a visitor from another planet who is seeing things for the first time, and is walking among those who have a long time connection between them.
At one hand is that strange feeling of not pertaining to the whole scene around, and at the other is the emotional feeling of having in front one of the bands that I’ve been listening to their music for such a long time, but never before had the chance to see live, so feeling like I did travel to another planet after all!
So far I had the chance to see shows from Rush, Iron Maiden, Brit Floyd, Reo Speedwagon, Stix, and now Queensryche, and I keep an eye in who is coming next to try and get there to see live some of those extraterrestrial beings I knew existed in some faraway galaxy but never had the chance before to be in one of their shows.
Life has so many turns!
Raul
Posted by Raul on March 21, 2013
Surfing the net some time ago I don’t know how I came up to the above picture, but it brought fond memories of my childhood.
It was one like that…the typewriter machine my father used for his work and the letters that were sent to family. My first steps in the world of writing without the problems of controlling a pen to create decent shapes to the letters in a piece of paper.
A five years old child changing the outcome in the adventures of the many characters in children’s TV of the time.
Then the attraction for machines transferred to the basic maintenance and cleaning of the trusted typewriter that, with its familiar clac, clac, clac, brrrrrrr, chingggg!, provided hours of entertainment to a child spending time alone.
A sticking tape, dirty typos and twisted typos arms that got together without returning to the seating position. An easy to remove cover, some stained napkins and dirty fingers later, the trusted machine was ready to keep going for another couple of hours.
Nostalgic memories now about an outdated artifact for the actual times, and yet, fond memories that remain.
I wonder (because I don’t remember) what might have been of that beloved (for me) typewriter machine.
Do you have beautiful memories of some artifact used in your childhood? Something that doesn’t exist anymore, or doesn’t have any use nowadays, yet it was very important in your childhood, and makes you smile when you remember it?
Raul
Posted by Raul on May 16, 2011
Chirr-chirr-chirr-chirr (Sound of a cricket)
I know…sometimes I can be really sarcastic!
Raul
Posted by Raul on May 3, 2011
It can be an empty fridge; it can be just being bored; or maybe tiredness of finding the same clothing in the closet; the thing is…it’s shopping time!
When I was a child, one of the games we had was to make a small hole in a box (like a shoe box) and from a set distance trying to get little crystal marbles in the box by giving them a little impulse, just enough to get them rolling to, and inside the box through the little hole.
Now, when remembering those times, I feel I was playing “Publicity Expert”
Like a superior being, watching from above, finding a way to make those little marbles roll to, and enter the store to shop.
But the rolls have inverted…now I am the marble slowly rolling to, and inside the box. How the hell did they do that?
I suppose to be the superior being with amazing capabilities, controlling the game of my life? How did I become the tool they use, to make me do whatever they want?
Practice makes perfect, or at least better. I got good enough at getting those little marbles inside the box. Now I am the marble being good enough at getting inside the store!
Shit!
A society of marbles, slowly rolling by the gentle impulse given by…
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody controlling this thing?
Are we, small marbles, being gently pushed? Or are we just “suggested”, so we fall. Like inclining the surface on which the marbles stand, and letting them roll on their own to their happy demise.
Like a crystal marble that prides itself in its shiny composition, yet is externally controlled by unknown forces, denying with it its own power to float in space, magnificent, unmovable, amazing.
When I was a child I used to play getting little crystal marbles through a small hole in a box. Little I knew I was witnessing society from the eyes of a publicity expert in the world of adult life.
Raul
