Yet Another Sunday Post Julio 19, 2009

Sorry guys but I’ll write this post in English, you know how it is, when you feel like Englishing, just write it in English
It’s raining now, and it has been since yesterday’s evening. It had been a long time since it last rained, and it reminded me howit was to see the things you see all the time suddenly different.

Well enough about rain, though there isn’t really much to say. I’ve been trying to avoid doing anything university-related for this last two days, I don’t want to be more tired at the end of the holidays than I was at the beginning. It’s been kind of hard, since when you are doing trivial things like reading some forgotten blogs or playing some game or talking with someone, guilt creeps upon you, guilt that says “why aren’t you studying now? you have four exams ahead”.

That being said, I’ll lay out my current home-cultural activity (since the city has not much culture to offer, and I don’t have much will to hunt for it)

Concerning music, I’ve been liking more and more Les Cowboys Fringants (their album Break Syndical is amazing, and En Berne turned out to be a very good song) and Rilo Kiley (The Absence of God makes me feel really comfortable, totally recommended). At the same time I’ve found out that I don’t like Josh Woodward’s songs that much, they’re not my style, although Inertia and Memorized are ok.

In the TV shows side, a bit of The Simpsons and ol’ beloved and almost forgotten Daria (lalala you’re standing on my neck… you’re standing on my neck!), I remembered how cool that show was.
In the movie front there’s been no action in the last weeks.

“What about books?” you ask (well probably you don’t, but let me think you do), well, I started reading A Tale of Two Cities a couple of days ago, and realised Mr. Dickens was funnier than I had imagined, though the vocabulary used is pretty complex.
I’m also reading about Knowledge Engineering, a very interesting subject, but from a not so interesting book, so we’ll see what happens.

 


 
And that’s pretty much all there is, I went back to reading xkcd, seeing some good photos taken by this guy and taking my own, with the low quality you can always expect from me, of course

Graffitti

 

Plaza de los naranjos

One Week of Abstaining From Music Agosto 7, 2008

Hoy volví a escuchar música, después de 7 días de abstención voluntaria. Cualquier persona que escuche música regularmente pensará que no estoy en mi sano juicio, y generalmente tendría razón, pero no esta vez.

Todo empezó hace dos años y medio, cuando formateé por primera vez mi computadora, y perdí por primera vez y durante una semana los drivers de sonido (debido a que los tipos que me vendieron la computadora tomaron prestado para siempre el CD de la motherboard). Durante esa semana estuve bastante molesto, pero al recuperar los malditos drivers y volver a poder escuchar mi preciada música me di cuenta que las mismas canciones que escuchaba antes sonaban mejor.

Algo parecido pasó los dos años siguientes en las vacaciones de Invierno, pero por entonces dejar de escuchar música no fue ni voluntario ni involuntario, solamente me olvidé por dos semanas. Y otra vez, todo se escuchó mejor.

¿Coincidencia? No.

La gran mayoría de las personas, en especial en mi edad, escucha música todos los días, una porción importante del día, y mientras hace otra cosa (me incluyo). Pero de esta manera la música se convierte en ruido ambiental agradable, y cuanto más escuchamos una canción, por más que nos guste, va perdiendo la fuerza que tuvo la primera vez.

Por eso cada tanto hago una pausa, pienso, y vuelvo a escuchar la música con otros oídos, recibiendo lo que los que se esforzaron para hacerla me quieren transmitir.

Esta vez, la primera canción que escuché después del lapso fue 1000 and 1 de Teen Heroes (banda de la que hablé en un post anterior). El resultado: muy bueno.

La reacción de las personas a las que les dije esto fue primero rascarse la cabeza, y después decir algo como “¡no!¡no puedo vivir sin música!” (una reacción muy parecida a la que tienen cuando les digo que no como animales, pero eso queda para otro post). Pero yo les digo que se queden tranquilos y prueben, es solamente una semana, ¡y la vida es un papel borrador después de todo!

 
In English:

Today I listened to music again, after 7 days of voluntary abstinence. Someone who regularly listens to music will think I’m insane, and he/she would be right most of the times, but this one is not the case.

Everything started two years and a half ago, when I formatted my computer for the first time, and also for the first time lost my audio drivers for a week (the guys I purchased my computer to borrowed forever the CD of my motherboard). During that week I felt pretty annoyed, but when I got back the goddamned drivers and listened to my beloved music again, I realized that the same songs I used to listen before now sounded better.

Something similar happened on the two following years, during Winter break, but then my not listening to music was neither voluntary nor involuntary, I simply forgot to during two weeks. And again, everything sounded better.

¿A coincidence? No.

Most of the people, especially my age, listens to music everyday, a large part of the day, and while he/she is doing something else (I include myself). But this way, music becomes nice background noise, and the more we listen to a song, the more weaker it becomes.

That’s why every now and then I take a break, think, and listen to music again, with other ears, receiving what those who put so much effort to make it want to transmit.

This time, the first song I listened to after the break was 1000 and 1 by Teen Heroes (band I talked about in a previous post). The results: awesome.

The reaction of people I told about this was first to scratch their heads, and then say something like “no! there’s no way I can live without music!” (a reaction very similar to the one people have when I tell them I don’t eat animals, but that’s another post’s subject). But I tell them to relax and try, it’s just a week, and life is a draft after all!