Archives For Life

Blog Action Day!

October 15, 2007 — 1 Comment

Don’t worry! It’s still Blog Action Day! – This year I join to talk about  something related to the environment!

The main problem in Lima (besides from dangerous streets) is pollution. I remember arriving from Vancouver, and leaving Jorge Chavez International Airport and suddenly feeling light-headed and dizzy on the way home. I think it is quite amazing to breathe the amount of carbon dioxide that Limeños breathe each and every day.

Which brings me to my topic! Now, if for some odd reason I end up being president for a day (which Julyssa would refuse, because she’s the first female Peruvian president for like ever) – what would I do for the environment (in Lima anyway)?

Drastic measures are needed. Garbage burning is part of what gives that particular stench while walking around town, so first – we could implement recycling laws that give economical rewards for those who do, this would make garbage picking more efficient. Take biodegradable rests and use it as compost, glass should be reused as well as carton and paper. Plastic could be used to create and better roads, like in India (The Hindu).

Studies by the Indian Roads Congress and other bodies has found that when plastic waste is melted and mixed with bitumen in a particular ratio. Roads laid with plastic waste mix were found to be three-times stronger than conventional roads. Rainwater does not seep through because of the plastic in the asphalt. And as each km of road with an average width requires over two tonnes of polyblend, using plastic will help reduce non-biodegradable waste.

Vehicle regulation would be 150% more strict than it is now, and over 50% of cars circulating in Lima, including the majority of public transportation, emit black smoke that would normally not pass any other country’s testing. This will decrease the number of cars circulating the city, therefore diminishing the gas emitted in the atmosphere… we would not only have less cars, but less people committing transit infractions and participating in strikes because they don’t want to pay their tickets.

As president, I would encourage people to buy green vehicles (e.g. Hybrid cars) by decreasing taxes and insurances, and increasing the ones of oil-motored cars and those who don’t pass the environmental testing.

Man, I just wanna get rid of cars in Lima.

I would also better not only roads, but also streets and sidewalks. Encourage people to walk more, though I would also need to tackle safety in the streets. So be sure to know that I would be harsh on people who break the law by mugging others… not to mention other crimes.

Anyway~~

How about using cow feces, a.k.a. cow poop, for energy? Haaretz News‘ got something about it.

Biomass. Last week a Granite Harcarmel group firm said it has invested NIS 40 million in a facility that can burn 600 tons of cow feces a day, mainly to rid the world of unwanted byproducts and secondarily, to produce power by creating steam.

We coud also begin plans on creating Green Homes, though they are %25 more expensive than regular homes – we could just dump this price difference to other home owners who are screwing more and more with the environment. Lol’ now I’ve passed from being serious about this, to joking about it… be for sure, it’d be nice to start implementing the Green Life solutions despite the price.

So think about it, leave a message if you feel like it. That’s all I can type for today.

Deezer embedding test

October 14, 2007 — 1 Comment

I’ve seen a few clicks wondering about embedding Deezer. Personally, I haven’t got any trouble embedding it, but I haven’t tried actually posting IN a post. I have noticed that Flash embedding sometimes broke my layout, and I have no idea why. In this post I will be testing a few ways of posting the Single Song Player, and the Playlist.

Single Song XHTMLclick here – this is the code pasted in a 1.0 Transitional XHTML.

<div style="top:0px; left:0px; width:180px; height:45px;">
    <object data="https://www.deezer.com/embedded/blogplayer_3.swf?
    path=69370&color1=000000&color2=000000&color3=000000"
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="180" height="29">
    <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
    <param name="movie"
    value="https://www.deezer.com/embedded/blogplayer_3.swf?
    path=69370&color1=000000&color2=000000&color3=000000" />
    </object>
    <a href="https://www.deezer.com"
    style="border:none;margin:0;padding:0;">
    <img src="https://www.deezer.com/embedded/footer.jpg"
    alt="free music" title="free music" border="0"
    style="border:none;margin:0;padding:0;" />
    </a>
</div>

The single song player is in fact faulty. Trying now the URL linking – here

I saw my first episode of Brazil Next Top Model. Yes, the Top Model fever made it to South America. At first sight, BrNTM had really great aesthetics… so I just had to give it a peek. First, the colors are very ‘hot’ right now, with blacks, magenta and cyan… so it was hard not to be attracted to the brand.

Brazilian super-uber model Gisele Bundchen was to host, but declined – instead BrNTM’s got Fernanda Motta, who gives the show a whole lot different look than it would’ve gotten if Bundchen had accepted. Fernanda’s got dark thicker eyebrows, darker hair – she kinda reminds me of Amanda Peet. Anyone else think so? Check out her pic in the BrNTM’s site (here). She’s got a lower voice, than high-pitched Tyra Banks, who… let’s face it, has given ANTM a woo-ha-ha vibe to the show… so in the end, BrNTM seems a more serious version of America’s…………. Next…. Top…… Model. lol’

Technically, I don’t like BrNTM’s editing… seems a bit choppy at times, and sometimes it lengthens shots and *snores* – yeah, that’s basically it. While I was watching the episode, I couldn’t wait for the scene to end and get it over with. This first photoshoot was a bit boring too, and I guess I must’ve missed this bit in the subtitles, but some of the shots were f-ugly.

Judges have no personality. I’m sorry. I didn’t care much about what they were actually saying because they said the same thing over and over – I’d much rather watch Mrs. Jay talking to Tyra and Nigel… okay, Twiggy falls in the “same thing over and over” category. However, they did seem to be ‘harsher’ in their comments than the American version… kinda like how Janice Dickinson would say something, only LESS FUNNY and LESS ENTERTAINING. They would be better off showing us a report card with a checklist to see if they make it or not.

Contestants… I dunno if it’s because it’s my first time watching, but they or most of them seemed similar to me. I think there are like 2 that I can actually remember how they look. Livia, and Erycka – other than them, I can’t remember their faces or won’t tell them apart. There were like two others that had pretty faces, one of them reminded me of a friend… needs hmm, more variety?

On the subtitling part, this is on Sony – I feel like I missed a lot from the show from the subtitles. I’ve no idea why, but it is what it is. Better subs? Or maybe I’m just not used to hearing much Portuguese, but I’ve seen films in Portuguese and I know there are better subtitles than the ones you’ve been showing me, so don’t go there blaming my ability to read subs, because I know I’m good at it.

Overall, I’ve still to make my mind about this. I will probably give it another shot, but it needs to be less slow, less boring, and please keep the Brazilian Soap Opera vibe to a minimum (yeah, saw the commercial for next week’s episode). And of course, BrNTM in the end could be more talented and more serious, but THAT DOESN’T MAKE GOOD TV VIEWING.

Here is the shortlist:

  • Better editing.
  • Cut boring shots short.
  • Add spice (a.k.a. personality) to the judges, or…
  • Change jury to a simple checklist… check!
  • More physical variety to the contestants.
  • Better subtitles.

Witches!

October 13, 2007 — Leave a comment

Witches is on Boomerang right now! And it’s official, Angelica Houston has to be the most wicked and most horrifying witch there ever was in the history of witches on screen.

I remember when I was a little kiddo and caught a glimpse of this film on Panamericana Television, and I got like major nightmares with that one scene of all the women turning into bald scary looking witches with long fingers. Freaks me out still. I just saw that bit again, and it looks so freaky… even when I have it on mute haha.

I haven’t gotten around to reading the book, which I have researched for the sake of getting a decent-sized picture of WitchAngelica Houston, but no such luck. I remember the film had a happy ending, though the book doesn’t… this caused like a breach between the author and the production – I thought that was worth mentioning.

I miss the good old days of puppets and animatronics.

**EDIT**

I thought it was worth to mention Michelle Pfeiffer in Stardust. She was pretty freaky in that movie too, but doesn’t come close to Angelica Houston. Michelle Pfeiffer plays an evil very very old witch – but Houston plays an evil old and deformed monster… lol – I tell you, freaks me out.

I just discovered Christophe Maé’s music – how cool is his album, Mon Paradis… searching for a less pricey copy of it through amazon ::crosses fingers::

Love singing along to it hahaha… though I do not understand most of it, xD … for sure I’ll be adding a new French category. I’ll be recollecting the albums lyrics because they are all scattered around the web. This is the tracklisting:

  1. On S’Attache
  2. Mon Paradis
  3. Belle Demoiselle
  4. Parce Qu’on Sait Jamais
  5. Ça Fait Mal
  6. Art et La Mannière
  7. C’est Ma Terre
  8. Maman
  9. Ma Vie Est une Larme
  10. Va Voir Ailleurs
  11. Mon Père Spirituel
  12. Spleen

Continue Reading…

A little more blogging!

October 11, 2007 — 2 Comments

October 15th is Blog Day or something… and we are supposed to get talking about the environment that day. Oh yeah, blog day is a day when all people could blog about this one topic… I think it could be interesting, yet I really don’t know what I could talk about relating to the environment, so if you’ve got an idea, let me know.

Also, I re-started watching America’s Next Top Model Cycle 7, which has just began last week in Latin America through Sony Entertainment Television. So people, if you get Sony – tune in every Wednesday at 8pm Chile/7pm Peru Colombia and support CariDee, AJ, Megg, Megan, Michelle and Amanda! Lol’

I’m gonna show-off and say “zomg! I still can’t believe Megan left a message in my MySpace” haha – she’s awesome! Megg also sent a short message, so Rock ON!!!!!!!! ^^

Also began watching The Tudors, season 1, on People and Arts – I missed the episode on Sunday, and the repeat seemed like it was censored because it kept on going to commercials at weird intervals. It was okay, though… I was expecting more. I guess I’m gonna feel like this with The Other Boleyn Girl, which is a shame – it might be a better read, than watching it on screen.

I’ve also been meaning to watch Weeds, I’ve seen the first 2 or 3 episodes, and it was really good. I was looking for the DVD, and it was really cheap, but it turns out season 1 of Weeds is only Fullscreen, instead of Widescreen – and Lionsgate has no plans on re-releasing this as a Widescreen DVD. STUPID LIONSGATE. They just want $$, so people that don’t wanna buy the Fullscreen DVDS have to get the Widescreen Blu-ray discs – now, I haven’t even started buying neither HD or Blu so I won’t start just now.

There, I said it! I so wished I could get to do some more concert photography… Here are some of my latest faves on concert photography!

Continue Reading…

Check out these pieces:

My thoughts on Deezer

October 4, 2007 — Leave a comment

Okay, last night I had a whole idea of posting a really elaborate post on Deezer, which I have just begun to use. Mainly because I had some complaints about using their upload function… more than anything else. But now, I’m just too lazy to take all that trouble of screen capturing and showing you what bothered me, and alternatives.

My main pet peeve was that I had to open a brand new tab/window to upload and browse at the same time. Maybe I’m just kinda silly, but the first track I tried uploading failed because I went to my “new playlist” while it was uploading hahaha. Oh, silly me~ So yeah, after that, I did the whole tabbing thing, but it made the upload transfer even slower. :(

Now, the upload experience was a pain in itself. Some tracks will go through, and some would begin but never make it… all the time, it seemed like the interface froze, and had to restart again and again. Until I finally called it quits. I successfully uploaded like 6 tracks out of the 12 tracks I had chosen… in like 5 hours or so.

I don’t think their upload function works really well, because it doesn’t let me know at what speed my mp3 is uploading, and at what percentage or how many kbs its uploading. It was really frustrating at times, specially with the freezing of the uploads… Moreover, the multiple uploads didn’t really work. 2/3 of the tracks never make it past the middle of the bar, and it went back to frozen.

I read some comments on it, because I was looking my problem up online, and it seemed I wasn’t the only one with uploading problems. I think there are a lot of users who won’t be sharing their music due to this issue, and I should include myself in!

Up until now, the most satisfactory upload feature has been that of Flickr. I love it. Haha… It lets you upload multiple files, lets you review your files, and then lets you begin your transfer. It shows you a progress bar that is constantly moving, and one by one, they begin their upload. Just simple.

What’s Deezer good for? Sharing playlists, finding music and probably listening to music, though it does take a few tries to get the song play fine because sometimes it takes time buffering, and sometimes it even just plays a second or two and skips to the next. I will still probably use this for a month or two… or maybe a bit more, until it finally gets screwed up like Pandora did. Yes, I am complaining because Pandora is now country restricted. It is funny that of getting digital music country restriction, yet I can purchase stuff off of anywhere on the net.

I should also add my comment on some of the add suggestions for a next release. I read on their forum that people wanted an application for Facebook, as well as other mambo-jambo features, which I think will complicate Deezer. I like Deezer how it is, simple, easy and useful. No users, no “check this user’s taste in music”, no “compare your taste in music” crap. Deezer, KISS! Oh yeah, I know it doesn’t really work on mySpace or probably other sites, but please… can we hmm promote proper Flash embedding?

<div style="top:0px; left:0px; width:180px; height:236px;">
 <object data="https://www.deezer.com/embedded/widget.swf?path=1559967〈=
 en&autoplay=true&id=627896" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
 width="180" height="220">
 <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
 <param name="movie" value="
 https://www.deezer.com/embedded/widget.swf?path=1559967〈=
 en&autoplay=true&id=627896" />
 </object>
 <a href="https://www.deezer.com" target="_blank"
 style="border:none;margin:0;padding:0;">
 <img src="https://www.deezer.com/embedded/footer.jpg" alt="free music"
 width="180" height="16" border="0" style="border:none;margin:0;
 padding:0;" title="free music" />
 </a>
 </div>

Gracias,

Amy’s going!

October 4, 2007 — 1 Comment

To Bjork’s concert… at least, for the time being. I’m still keeping a close watch… you know, in a country like mine- you can never say it’s a done deal until it’s a done deal. hahahaha.

Here’s a picture of my dorkness;

Amy's a dork, but she's going to see Bjork