Fun.

How to best describe how I'm feeling:

Imagine your bones. Imagine your bones wanting to rip out of your muscle and skin and bang themselves repeatedly onto a wall until they break. That's how much my bones ache. Wee.

So last night I got about a total three or three and a half hours of sleep. Between the dogs barking, my continuous sneezing, the headache, the bone ache, and the tooth ache, that was all I got. So I've decided that next time, I want to have sleeping pills. I really am considering it since three hours of miserable sleep vs eight hours, I think we have a clear winner.

By the way, I am fully aware that I'd hallucinate. But I'm beginning to think that a few minutes of seeing normal lights look like disco lights and having a full night of sleep, well. I'm willing to risk that. 

So, to that person you see barely hanging on, be kind. Don't say, "I slept in! TILL TWELVE!" Because that will make that person most probably want to kill you. Or at least, produce extensive bodily harm.

I hate it when I have sick posts, because it makes me feel like a whiner, but you know what? When my body decides to get sick, it gets sick in the most spectacular of ways. For sure.

Idiocracy, part 5,000

So I was browsing Endi.com to see if there was any relevant news when I spot on the most read "Sangrienta noche de boda," which means bloody wedding night. The subtitle of the story was "man shoots wife for her not being a virgin." And as I read the story, I could not stop myself from getting angrier and angrier. Basically, if I had run across a gamma ray, I'd probably already be She-Hulk. And on my way to that place to rip that motherfucker's dangly gonads off.

It just brings out and puts right into the spotlight the hypocrisy of religion, society, and the people that believe in such. Sure, we need some degree of order, but not this extreme kind of patriarchally chauvinist type of order. Was the man a virgin? Probably not. Then why does the girl have to be? What is it with this insane level of obsession, this need to possess the woman entirely.

Listen, I have no problems with people being virgins. Hell, it's wonderful. You don't have to worry about sexually transmitted diseases, about getting pregnant, about getting checked down there all the time. You don't have to engage in any of that! But I do have problems with people being virgins for reasons that just don't make sense. 

When people bring God into this, that's when it really pisses me off. Look, I respect your beliefs. Or, at least, I do my very best to try. But when you spout fanatical and patriarchal poppycock, it's really quite difficult for you to make your point without looking like a loon. Do you really know that God exists? Has he/she/both/it told you that he wants you not to engage in the mattress mambo because that will make you evil? 

Again, I try to respect people and their beliefs. After all, everyone is entitled to believe what they want. One of my closest friends has chosen to be a virgin until she gets married and, hey. That's great. That's her choice. I have problems with the reasoning behind it, but she has made her choice with those ideals in mind and we are still friends. I'm not going to kill her. Though if she deprives me of alcohol again, I might. Kidding.

The same applies for having sex for the wrong reasons. You're bored? Get some sort of hobby. Wait a while, for sweet mother of a monkey's sake. Wait until you've got your head on straight and at least some sense of responsibility. Have sex when you are willing and ready to assume the load it entails: sexual health, contraceptives, the physical, emotional, and psychological consequences, the risk of getting pregnant. If just reading that sentence makes you break out in hives and scream bloody murder, you're not ready to engage in the act of intercourse.

This may read like a rant. It probably is. It's just that when I read these things in the news, I wonder what kind of world we live in. And if I ever want to bring a kid to a place where these things happen. It makes me furious to think that there are places in the world where a woman has to be covered head to toe. Where a woman is "appraised" because she hasn't been touched by another man. Sweet Noodly Appendage, why? 

And I'd like to point out that I am not referring to any one religion in particular. Most religions are guilty of this kind of prejudice.

For those of you who would like to read the article, here it is. Be warned, it's in Spanish though:

Click.

What is this, Typhoid Mary?

I'm sick.

Again.

Sweet mother of the almighty lord of peanut butter, WHY.

I think this is the 11th or 12th time I'm sick this year. This year. It's not even been six months in, and I've already been sick more than ten times. I don't know the exact number since I stopped counting at ten.

I got sick during Christmas, after Christmas, around Valentine's, on the way to New York, in New York, when we got home from New York. I quit counting, I give up. 

So now I'm attempting to rest, but when I'm sick, I really can't rest because it's a very light sleep. And I suck at sleep. I'm one of those vampiric creatures of the night that needs absolute quiet and absolute darkness. I can't even sleep with the light of the alarm clock, I have to cover it. So sleeping during the day, not really going to happen. So I guess it's either try to plough through the concert pictures (if Tsuki the dying Powerbook can handle it) or try to walk to town (if I can handle it without passing out in the 100+ degree weather).

Crap. I'm running out of Ricola.

Damn, it's pixelated.

Tacuba Dance.
Originally uploaded by chromachord

Until I finish ploughing through the pictures (every time I try to view them, my computer goes insane; I might have to restart it), here you have, for your viewing pleasure, a little video of Café Tacuba performing at the rock festival that took place last saturday in Aguadilla.

For those of you who may not remember or know them, Café Tacuba (sometimes called Tacvba) is a Mexican rock band that started out in...1989, if I'm not mistaken. They were really popular in the 90s and they've played Coachella 3 times. They dabble into a lot of genres and it's all just great fun. Check them out and if you need any help understanding them, either Babelfish it or ask me. :P 

So, without further ado, Tacuba Dance! Spot the chicken mask and watch out for that Karate Kid kick at the end. Enjoy! :)

Good Finds: Old Navy

So I decided to share this with you because, honestly, these sandals are great. They're from Old Navy's leather collection and they're only 19.50! (I sound like an ad, oigh.) They, as you can see, have studs, but not in an overly dramatic way. They remind me of a pair of Marc Jacobs flats from a few seasons ago. Aren't they cute?

Despite being hilariously broke (as in, when the bill comes, I will have to ask my mom for the 19.50 to pay for these), I put in an order for these puppies in the Soba Noodle color, size 11 (because I have skis for feet, awesome). If you're interested, they're obviously available on OldNavy.com, but check your local store to see if they brought these in already. :)

Jeez, I sound like an ad. Oh well, just wanted to share this cute find for summer. 

(I, of course, realize that the menfolk that read my blog could usually care less about fashion and might already be convulsing. Just don't die out on me.)

Viva Puerto Rico?

For some reason, I feel compelled to explain that this picture does not, in any shape way or form, represent some sort of political statement or view. I just liked the composition of the shot. 

Magueyes & Ponce: a photo essay.

The rest of the set is at my Flickr. Just click on the badge at the right!

Do not adjust your monitors.

This is actually a new layout. As Tovi so artfully pointed in the previous post's comment.

So, to show off the new layout (and to make up for lack of content) I'll post pictures later from a recent trip to La Parguera and Ponce. :D

Wee.

(As usual, graphics by moi, code by Damian.)

On the way home...

...saw kitty hanging around rat almost bigger than he is. Obviously, kitten did not desire to eat rat. Kitten only wanted to play with big rat. Still, I found this hilarious. 

Maybe it was the wine.

Hm.

Dear Jehova's Witnesses:

All those pamphlets you leave at my house? The dog eats them. Not because I give them to her, but because she takes them from the fence and rips them apart. Yum.

I'd like to think that this is because, like her "mom," she is a rebel at heart and she challenges the conventions of organized religion like I do. But I acknowledge that it's probably just her canine pupper instinct to seize anything inanimate and shred it to bits. Still, one can hope.

Local color.

8
Originally uploaded by chromachord.

So last night I experienced what could only be described as local color. I went to a place that I consider to be a den of despair, a lair of darkness, a root of evil. I went to...El Colegial.

Yes, I did go. And I took pictures because I've rarely been in those types of places. I think I could count the times I've gone to pubs/bars/places of ill repute? on one hand and still have fingers to spare. But still, go I did.

I'd just seen Iron Man and I was riding high on the awesomeness of the movie, the fact that I don't have to take classes anymore, and that, hey! CINCO DE MAYO! What better excuse to imbibe tequila in lethal amounts. (Well, I only had one tiny little shot. I am not an alcoholic.) So, off to El Colegial we went.

It wasn't a horrible place, but it was kind of...iffy? Shady? Scary? We played a round of pool (which Damian didn't lose but I didn't win, such precise terms, no?). It was fun, but I don't think I'd go there anymore...

By the way, I've got to tell you all, I'm loving the way Flickr blogging arranges the post layout. Yes, I am.

And, as a final note, not that the movie needs promotion or anything, but go see Iron Man. I will not wax poetic about how great Robert Downey Jr. is as Iron Man or how good Jeff Bridges is as Obadiah Stane or how weird it is that Gwyneth Paltrow has curves now. No, I will not tell you all of that. (I sort of just did though.)

Go see it!

Procrastination: an unappreciated art form.

DSCF7576al
Originally uploaded by chromachord.

What I should be doing:
-working on my Philosophy of Teaching statement for tomorrow. Oops, today!
-working on my part of the presentation for later on today
-e-mailing my thesis director
-brainstorming for possible proposals

What I am doing:
-watching What Not to Wear and The First 48
-editing and uploading pictures to Flickr
-looking and adding pictures to Faves in Flickr
-writing this post

As you can see, even though I am less than 24 hours away from being done with class (and with having to take class!), I will not renounce my practice of the refined art of procrastination. Viva la sloth!

To distract you from my laziness, here, a pretty picture of one of the baby frogs in my yard.