I love to listen to NPR on my way to work. I have an hour long commute, which would be OK if I could listen to NPR the whole way. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes into the commute, I go over a Monument Hill and suddenly I get competing signals from the other NPR station in Denver which broadcasts at the same exact frequency as my local station. It turns out that both stations have signals strong enough so that I have interference all the way up to work. Argh!
I've been filling up my time with some Podcasts and/or books on tape...these have been filling in pretty well...but I really want to hear the news in the morning. I've been stuck with this dilemma for a couple months...that is, until now.
Last month I installed Ubuntu Linux on my computer. The nice thing with Linux is that it comes with a whole bunch of extra programs that help you do what you really want to do. Today on my way home from work I had completely run out of things to listen to on the road. So, instead, I spent the whole time in complete silence thinking of what I could do to fix my situation.
At first I thought up an idea to connect an FM radio to the input jack on my sound card and then have my computer automatically record Morning Edition from 5 to 6 in the morning. Then I thought, "wait, you moron, KRCC provides an audio stream, see if you can record that instead". I did a little research, installed a couple of utilities, and voila, I can now record Morning Edition every weekday morning and have it ready to go on my iPod when I'm ready to leave.
There will be no procrastinating the next time my station holds a fund drive. This extra service that they provide is not cheap and it is allowing me to listen to one of my favorite shows.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
The weather's always changing
It's been really hot in Colorado Springs this past week. Just checked to see if it would be changing at all:
Oh boy! It's going to change by one degree on Thursday! I can't wait!
Oh boy! It's going to change by one degree on Thursday! I can't wait!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
For your listening pleasure...
Black Stacey by Saul Williams. I just love this song...smart lyrics, great beat, makes you think. What else do you want?
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Bye Bye Boing Boing
I had to do it. I had to remove Boing Boing off of my RSS feed list. Too many posts...too little time to read them...must remove from Google reader...
Tito's Visit
Last month my nephew visited us for 10 days. We had a great time with him and we're pretty sure he had fun as well...he's now talking about coming out to take a look at colleges in Colorado!
Finally, here are some pictures from his trip.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Is this the new Big Brother?
I'm not sure if I'm the only one thinking this, but is Google becoming the new Big Brother?
Why am I thinking this? Let's list off the "free" services Google provides:
Search Engine
Gmail
Google Maps
Google Earth
Google Documents
This Blog along with the rest of Blogger.com
Google Moon
Probably a lot more things that I don't know about, say...Google Laundry Service
One of the things that you'll notice when you sign up for Gmail is that it points to the Google Privacy Policy page in the terms of service. From what I understand, this page is the overarching Privacy Policy for most Google services. The statements that get my attention are the ones about the Log information and User communications. It basically says that they are storing a whole bunch of information about you including the e-mails you send. It just takes a slight shift in the culture at Google in order for these free services to change into more sinister data collection techniques.
The thing that really freaked me out was when I used Google Maps to put in an address and it came up with a high quality street view picture of the address I was searching. Holy crap! Someone from Google walked down that street and took a whole bunch of pictures...enough pictures so that you could go back and forth down the street and swivel the perspective. These guys are everywhere!
The one thing that is keeping me from completely jumping off the Google bandwagon is their sense of humor. At one point, if you zoomed in enough on Google Moon, it showed a whole bunch of swiss cheese. Unfortunately, they took that feature out. However, they still are offering jobs for working on the Google Moon Base, the Googlunaplex. Check them out here. While there are still people at Google which have this kind of sense of humor I'm OK with them keeping my information. However, once they get rid of that site, I'll know that the tide is turning and I'll have to cut all ties with Google. That will signal the change from the friendly big brother who keeps you out of trouble and will play catch with you to the mean big brother who will snitch on you for picking your nose.
Why am I thinking this? Let's list off the "free" services Google provides:
Search Engine
Gmail
Google Maps
Google Earth
Google Documents
This Blog along with the rest of Blogger.com
Google Moon
Probably a lot more things that I don't know about, say...Google Laundry Service
One of the things that you'll notice when you sign up for Gmail is that it points to the Google Privacy Policy page in the terms of service. From what I understand, this page is the overarching Privacy Policy for most Google services. The statements that get my attention are the ones about the Log information and User communications. It basically says that they are storing a whole bunch of information about you including the e-mails you send. It just takes a slight shift in the culture at Google in order for these free services to change into more sinister data collection techniques.
The thing that really freaked me out was when I used Google Maps to put in an address and it came up with a high quality street view picture of the address I was searching. Holy crap! Someone from Google walked down that street and took a whole bunch of pictures...enough pictures so that you could go back and forth down the street and swivel the perspective. These guys are everywhere!
The one thing that is keeping me from completely jumping off the Google bandwagon is their sense of humor. At one point, if you zoomed in enough on Google Moon, it showed a whole bunch of swiss cheese. Unfortunately, they took that feature out. However, they still are offering jobs for working on the Google Moon Base, the Googlunaplex. Check them out here. While there are still people at Google which have this kind of sense of humor I'm OK with them keeping my information. However, once they get rid of that site, I'll know that the tide is turning and I'll have to cut all ties with Google. That will signal the change from the friendly big brother who keeps you out of trouble and will play catch with you to the mean big brother who will snitch on you for picking your nose.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Comments on Friending
I'm finally getting around to the posts that I promised myself I would write when I got more time...
Over a month ago, Ryan wrote a post about how he's been getting a lot of friend requests on Facebook and Myspace lately. One thing that he notes is that he's gotten a couple from people he didn't expect. I'll have to say that I was probably one of them. He's a couple of years older than me, we didn't really hang out in high school; in fact I completely forgot that he played bass (which is obviously a huge part of his life). The thing was, when I saw his name linked with some of my friends, I said "what the hell, from what I remember, he's a nice guy and he plays the bass to boot, I'll friend him". I ended up doing that with a couple more people and before I knew it, I had people that I never thought would be friending me sending me requests. It gives me a nice warm fuzzy to be known. =)
Now, I'm not kidding myself. Many of the "friends" aren't traditional friends by any sense. For a large percentage, it's just of way of saying "Hi, I know you. I'll look at your pictures and see what you've been up to. You can contact me if you want, but no big deal if you don't." However, it's not always like that and I enjoy the random e-mails that I get from people who do more than friend me and read my blog.
High school for me, like Ryan, was not my favorite 4 years. While I don't ever remember being shoved into a locker, I do remember various incidents of people throwing/pushing me. The more memorable ones are:
- Pushed into the pond at the Helmer Nature Center (actually happened before H.S. but I'm still counting it)
- Thrown, repeatedly, into a pool
- Thrown into the bushes
- Pushed into a garbage can
In full fairness, I have to admit that all of these incidents with the exception of the pond involved horsing around with my friends and I gave as good as I got. However, I still remember that you pushed me into the pond Katie Coakley and Monica Williams, and I will never forgive you...just you wait...bwaa ha ha ha! Oh crap, how lame is it that I actually admitted that two girls pushed me into a pond. I'm going to go hide in a locker now.
By the way, Ryan, I own a Samuel Shen carved bass as well. I don't get to play as often as I like, but I love the rich sound that it makes when I'm playing competently.
Over a month ago, Ryan wrote a post about how he's been getting a lot of friend requests on Facebook and Myspace lately. One thing that he notes is that he's gotten a couple from people he didn't expect. I'll have to say that I was probably one of them. He's a couple of years older than me, we didn't really hang out in high school; in fact I completely forgot that he played bass (which is obviously a huge part of his life). The thing was, when I saw his name linked with some of my friends, I said "what the hell, from what I remember, he's a nice guy and he plays the bass to boot, I'll friend him". I ended up doing that with a couple more people and before I knew it, I had people that I never thought would be friending me sending me requests. It gives me a nice warm fuzzy to be known. =)
Now, I'm not kidding myself. Many of the "friends" aren't traditional friends by any sense. For a large percentage, it's just of way of saying "Hi, I know you. I'll look at your pictures and see what you've been up to. You can contact me if you want, but no big deal if you don't." However, it's not always like that and I enjoy the random e-mails that I get from people who do more than friend me and read my blog.
High school for me, like Ryan, was not my favorite 4 years. While I don't ever remember being shoved into a locker, I do remember various incidents of people throwing/pushing me. The more memorable ones are:
- Pushed into the pond at the Helmer Nature Center (actually happened before H.S. but I'm still counting it)
- Thrown, repeatedly, into a pool
- Thrown into the bushes
- Pushed into a garbage can
In full fairness, I have to admit that all of these incidents with the exception of the pond involved horsing around with my friends and I gave as good as I got. However, I still remember that you pushed me into the pond Katie Coakley and Monica Williams, and I will never forgive you...just you wait...bwaa ha ha ha! Oh crap, how lame is it that I actually admitted that two girls pushed me into a pond. I'm going to go hide in a locker now.
By the way, Ryan, I own a Samuel Shen carved bass as well. I don't get to play as often as I like, but I love the rich sound that it makes when I'm playing competently.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Geeking Out
Reason's why I'm particularly geeky at this very moment:
1. I'm writing on my blog on Saturday night
2. from the Ubuntu Linux OS on my computer
3. which I just installed today
4. and configured as a dual boot machine so that I can still play games on Windows
5. while wearing my glasses with only one temple
6. and having to look up "glasses" in Wikipedia to find out that the things that go from the front of the frame and hang over your ear are called "temples"
7. and writing an extremely long run-on sentence but writing it off as OK since the sentence is in list format
8. and thinking it's a good idea to link to Weird Al Yankovic's White and Nerdy YouTube video is good way to pay homage to this geeky post.
OK, I'm going to go have a beer now and see if that makes me any cooler.
1. I'm writing on my blog on Saturday night
2. from the Ubuntu Linux OS on my computer
3. which I just installed today
4. and configured as a dual boot machine so that I can still play games on Windows
5. while wearing my glasses with only one temple
6. and having to look up "glasses" in Wikipedia to find out that the things that go from the front of the frame and hang over your ear are called "temples"
7. and writing an extremely long run-on sentence but writing it off as OK since the sentence is in list format
8. and thinking it's a good idea to link to Weird Al Yankovic's White and Nerdy YouTube video is good way to pay homage to this geeky post.
OK, I'm going to go have a beer now and see if that makes me any cooler.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Yo Soy Boricua
Translation: I am Puerto Rican
My brother called me up a couple of weeks ago to tell me that he is engaged. Awesome! One nice perk is that they've decided to get married in Puerto Rico next June, so that means we'll have a reason to fly there next year.
I always get really psyched whenever I get a chance to go back to the island. It's where I was born and I've spent more than a few summers there while I was growing up. For me, it's a time when I get a chance to visit my relatives and get back to my roots.
One thing that always bugged me while I was growing up was that I never really felt Puerto Rican. The linchpins to my argument were (1) I barely spoke/understood Spanish and (2) I didn't necessarily look Puerto Rican. No matter how much my mother and sister tried to convince me, I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was different from other Puerto Ricans. The killer happened about 5 years ago was when my niece said to me "you're not Puerto Rican, you're too white to be Puerto Rican". I was dumbstruck, I couldn't say anything...she hit the nail on the head, it was the fear that I had lived with for all my life; stated out loud, in broad daylight in Durand Eastman park, in a 12-year-old's voice. I was too white to be Puerto Rican.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I finally resolved this dilemma. It was my brother's 40th birthday and I decided to fly down so that we could celebrate his birthday together. His favorite place to visit in Puerto Rico is a small town called Boqueron. Boqueron is on the South-West corner of the island, about as far away as you can get from San Juan. As we were driving to Boqueron, I kept hearing a song over and over again on the radio. At first I didn't like it, it was kind of slow and sounded a little sappy to me. I stated this opinion and all hell broke loose in the car. The song was Preciosa by Marc Anthony. This version of the song is basically the unofficial national anthem for Puerto Rico. My brother and sister spent the rest of the drive explaining to me the meaning of the song. As embarrassing as that was, it was one of the first times that someone actually spent some time to explain to me the finer points of my own culture. It's a car ride I'll never forget.
For the rest of the time in Boqueron, I kept hearing the song over and over again wherever I went, you could depend on hearing it at least 2 times a night when out at the bar. As I listened to the song more, I started to catch some more of the lyrics, and get a feeling of what the song meant to me. About halfway through the song, there is a distinct change in the tempo and the beat. I found out later that the original song was written in 1947 by Rafael Hernández and that this extra section at the end was an added update to the song. However, it's this part that spoke to me the most, here is a rough translation of the particular lyrics which really hit me:
Because it's now that I understand
that regardless of what happens
I will always be Puerto Rican
Because wherever I walk
Because I carry it in my blood
Because of my parent's heritage
And with pride I repeat
I love you Puerto Rico
I finally understood. It didn't matter that I hadn't lived in Puerto Rico for most of my life, it didn't matter that I looked white, it didn't matter that I spoke Spanish with an American accent, none of it mattered. There are parts of me that make me different from the people around me in suburbia: I am Puerto Rican and I always have been. The part that floored me was when I realized, specifically because these lyrics had been put into the song, other Puerto Ricans have the same doubts that I do about "feeling Puerto Rican". There are a lot of us who have moved off island, who don't speak Spanish well, whose friends may not even know that they are Puerto Rican. Finally, I'm not the only one.
It's been a couple of years since that epiphany. Whenever I start to get doubts about myself all I have to do is put on this song and sing along as loud as I can. I usually will do this 2 or 3 times in a row. My favorite part is singing the lines "Yo te quiero Puerto Rico". I can't wait to be able to go back and do this with other people.
Here is Preciosa, one of my favorite all-time songs:
Preciosa by Marc Anthony
By the way, part of "going back to my roots" is that I now go by the proper pronunciation of my name. It's Luis as in the name of the city "San Luis Obispo, CA" and not Louis as in "St. Louis".
My brother called me up a couple of weeks ago to tell me that he is engaged. Awesome! One nice perk is that they've decided to get married in Puerto Rico next June, so that means we'll have a reason to fly there next year.
I always get really psyched whenever I get a chance to go back to the island. It's where I was born and I've spent more than a few summers there while I was growing up. For me, it's a time when I get a chance to visit my relatives and get back to my roots.
One thing that always bugged me while I was growing up was that I never really felt Puerto Rican. The linchpins to my argument were (1) I barely spoke/understood Spanish and (2) I didn't necessarily look Puerto Rican. No matter how much my mother and sister tried to convince me, I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was different from other Puerto Ricans. The killer happened about 5 years ago was when my niece said to me "you're not Puerto Rican, you're too white to be Puerto Rican". I was dumbstruck, I couldn't say anything...she hit the nail on the head, it was the fear that I had lived with for all my life; stated out loud, in broad daylight in Durand Eastman park, in a 12-year-old's voice. I was too white to be Puerto Rican.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I finally resolved this dilemma. It was my brother's 40th birthday and I decided to fly down so that we could celebrate his birthday together. His favorite place to visit in Puerto Rico is a small town called Boqueron. Boqueron is on the South-West corner of the island, about as far away as you can get from San Juan. As we were driving to Boqueron, I kept hearing a song over and over again on the radio. At first I didn't like it, it was kind of slow and sounded a little sappy to me. I stated this opinion and all hell broke loose in the car. The song was Preciosa by Marc Anthony. This version of the song is basically the unofficial national anthem for Puerto Rico. My brother and sister spent the rest of the drive explaining to me the meaning of the song. As embarrassing as that was, it was one of the first times that someone actually spent some time to explain to me the finer points of my own culture. It's a car ride I'll never forget.
For the rest of the time in Boqueron, I kept hearing the song over and over again wherever I went, you could depend on hearing it at least 2 times a night when out at the bar. As I listened to the song more, I started to catch some more of the lyrics, and get a feeling of what the song meant to me. About halfway through the song, there is a distinct change in the tempo and the beat. I found out later that the original song was written in 1947 by Rafael Hernández and that this extra section at the end was an added update to the song. However, it's this part that spoke to me the most, here is a rough translation of the particular lyrics which really hit me:
Because it's now that I understand
that regardless of what happens
I will always be Puerto Rican
Because wherever I walk
Because I carry it in my blood
Because of my parent's heritage
And with pride I repeat
I love you Puerto Rico
I finally understood. It didn't matter that I hadn't lived in Puerto Rico for most of my life, it didn't matter that I looked white, it didn't matter that I spoke Spanish with an American accent, none of it mattered. There are parts of me that make me different from the people around me in suburbia: I am Puerto Rican and I always have been. The part that floored me was when I realized, specifically because these lyrics had been put into the song, other Puerto Ricans have the same doubts that I do about "feeling Puerto Rican". There are a lot of us who have moved off island, who don't speak Spanish well, whose friends may not even know that they are Puerto Rican. Finally, I'm not the only one.
It's been a couple of years since that epiphany. Whenever I start to get doubts about myself all I have to do is put on this song and sing along as loud as I can. I usually will do this 2 or 3 times in a row. My favorite part is singing the lines "Yo te quiero Puerto Rico". I can't wait to be able to go back and do this with other people.
Here is Preciosa, one of my favorite all-time songs:
Preciosa by Marc Anthony
By the way, part of "going back to my roots" is that I now go by the proper pronunciation of my name. It's Luis as in the name of the city "San Luis Obispo, CA" and not Louis as in "St. Louis".
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
A Sweet Book
Just got finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It's an Orwellian novel set in 2010 with a high-school senior as the protagonist. Let's just say the novel rings very true for this day and age.
The best part, you don't even have to go out and buy the book in order to check it out. Cory Doctorow is so uber-cool that he has the book available for free on his website. I read the first couple of pages and drove right down to Barnes & Noble to get my own copy. Follow the link for the free version.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
