Dream Essence´s Digital Land

Tomorrow I’ll shave and then catch the plane

June 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment

For whatever reason, I hadn’t open this pad in too long; it was even about to get lost in the last moving out. For any cause, I was about to buy into the idea that writing myself out was something for “whenever you have some spare time”. But I just hung my old Vans on a power wire, and I can’t think of anything more poetic other than giving “Confieso que he vivido” by P. Neruda to someone who leaves to find on the road. Tomorrow I’ll shave and then catch the plane, and I’m pretty sure, from that moment on, work and everything else waiting for me at home will weight enough so as not to keep on top these pieces of lived poetry I’m trying to put in words.

We live in such a digital world, where distances are often but anecdotes and where the possibilities of exchange are such that not giving it a try sounds like really stupid. Yet I hope means don’t keep me away from the real ends and, whatever cool Skype, SVN or the wiki’s are, I never forget it’s persons what really matter and, even more relevant, the satisfaction of an accepted paper or a new project is not a replacement for the print-leaving feeling you experience when six prople get out of their day-to-day lives for a few hours to say goodbye.

Tomorroww I’ll shave and then catch the plane. In my bag I’ll carry “Confieso que he vivido” with me; my sneakers, however do not fit in anymore but theirplace is filled with the names of all the people that, thoughout the last tenmonths, have made me feel “thank you” has way too few letters. Tomorrow I’ll shave and then catch the plane.

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Manana me afeito y cojo el avion

June 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Por la razon que sea, no habia abierto este cuaderno en demasiado tiempo; incluso estuvo a punto de perderse  en la ultima mudanza. Por algun motivo, ya casi estaba convencido que es de escribir lo que llevas dentro era algo para “cuando tienes tiempo”. Pero acabo de colgar mis viejas Vans en un cable de la luz, y lo unico mas poetico que se me ocurre ahora es regalar “Confieso que he vivido” de Neruda a alguien que parte para encontrar en el camino. Manana me afeito y despues cojo el avion, y estoy seguro de que, a partir de ese momento, el trabajo y todo lo que me espera en casa pesaran demasiado como para dejar a flote estos retazos de poesia vivida a los que intento dar palabras.

Vivimos en un mundo digital en que la distancias es muchas veces mera anecdota, en que las posibilidades de intercambio entre personas de diferentes rincones del planeta son tales que no intentarlo suena a estupidez. Aun asi, espero que los medios no me desvien nunca del fin y que, por muy fantastico que sea Skype, SVN o las wikis, no me olvide nunca que lo que de verdad cuenta son las personas y, mas importante, que la satisfaccion de un articulo aceptado o un nuevo proyecto no reemplaza la sensacion de dejar huella que sientes cuando seis personas salen de sus rutinas para decir adios.

Manana me afeito y cojo el avion. En mi bolsa de viaje llevare conmigo, orgulloso, “Confieso que he vivido”; mis zapatillas, sin embargo, ya no entran en la maleta, pero su lugar lo llenan los nombres de todas las personas que, durante estos diez meses, me han hecho sentir que “gracias” tiene demasiadas pocas letras. Manana me afeito y cojo el avion.

Junio 2009

]d[

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Songs along the road…

April 20, 2009 · 2 Comments

Just back from a weekend in Santa Barbara (re)visitting Charlie with the GeoDa crew. It’s been terrific; not only the weather couldn’t have been better in that beautiful corner of the world but the circumstances and some of the conversations we´ve had (enhanced by a few beers and a couple of bars) have made me realize how lucky I can feel of being sharing parts of the road with these guys.

This year is something really special for me in so many ways; the set of ideas, lifestyles and mindsets I´m being exposed to is making an effect on me I think (hope) will last for long. Also, I’m discovering parts of me and aspects of travelling I didn’t expect I’d encounter. For the first real time, this’ coming at a cost sometimes, as it’s not always as happy as Canada, as exotic as Korea or as perfect as Sweden. But like someone’d say, there’s no free lunch.

I know I haven’t written much about it here, and I’m afraid this’ not gonna change in the short run at least. I don’t know if I’m getting worse in putting my feelings down on a paper, it they (my feelings) are getting too complex for me to really understand them so as to write about them or just that I’m still too close to the tree so as to be able to picture the forest, but the truth is I don’t get the right words. That doesn’t mean I’m not feeling or I’m giving up on keeping track of my own life and way; not at all.

I was thinking how I could give those interested a sense of what I’m going through and, as many other times in many other situations, the right answer is music. Songs have the power to connect people, points in time and experiences in a way that very few other things I’m aware of can do. As a music-addict, what I listen to probably tells more about me and my state of mind that any other thing. If you think like that and get curious, you can take a look to the last tunes that came through my ears on my last.fm profile. But part of the magic of songs is also that they sometimes do get your feelings perfectly unveiled, even when the author wasn’t thinking of you while writing the lyrics or doesn’t even know you exist at all (most likely). Taking advantage of such property, here’re just three tunes that really encapsulate what I’m going through these days. I hope you like them, feel free to post your own current soundtracks.

  • The first one is actually the one that got me writing this post. Very recent stuff from my very most favourite swedish band.
(...) I remember when it felt like we had no agenda
no plans had a pad and a pen but
still it felt like we freestyled with life
improvised living on the b-side of life
like our lives was a hidden gem
all those things you had to mattered little then
so young seeing through all those games we play
and i still kind of feel the same way today
(...)
  • The second one goes for all spanish speakers. Really positive stuff that really reminds me how lucky I am for being able to be living this moment:
Y conseguí mi sueño, gracias a mi inconformismo,
 se que muchos enEspaña no pueden decir lo mismo,
 pasta, egocentrismo, su espejismo no me acuna,
 trabajo en mi pasión, esa es mi fortuna.
Y se que no hay vacuna pa esta enfermedad,
 pero estoy contento,
hice las pases con migran enemigo el tiempo,
 hoy vivir de esta libreta es oro, lo corroboro,
colaboro, y hago bolos por el globo (...)
  • The third one is also spanish, not that positive and I guess it’s the other side of the coin. For all the times I felt those lyrics even before I knew they were writen, and for all the nights I’ve played it over and over on my headphones while trying to fall asleep and thus getting rid of that feeling of loneliness and far-ness, this song’s made its way to the top 3.
(...)
ni si ganas ni si pierdes,
dinero, mujeres, nada compara si la soledad te muerde
he visto mucha pasta y mucha necesidad
he visto sitios donde las canas salen solo de entrar
Acuérdate bien, siempre, si vives dignamente,
da gracias, dale de comer bien a tu gente (...)
  • And this list would be unfinished if I didn’t add this one here; because I always keep it in my mind, because it’s been rounding my head ever since I discovered it, because I bring it on whenever I feel the weird one, the outlier, and makes me feel better. And because…
 I mean, I love to travel, I hate to fly,
I want to go, but hate goodbyes...

April-2009

]d[

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Pix + life Update

April 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment

So, after ten days on the road (Vegas for a conference + the Grand Canyon and Santa Barbara + LA for fun), I finally got back home last weekend. It was a really great and fun time realizing how beautiful this part of the Earth can be and having great times with old and not that old friends… Vegas was good enough for once, but I don’t think I’ll be back to that place for a long (not my style at all; the Grand Canyon was… grand; Santa Barbara was gorgeous, I got to run and ride a bike and it was really beautiful, plus the host was just perfect; and LA was the best end for that week, checking out how’s life for my man Ago around a few rolls of sushi@the sushi house, as it’s becoming a tradition every time I pass by town. Here are the pictures of the great days:

Vegas+The Grand Canyon
Santa Barbara+LA

All in all, it was a great break off work but now it’s over. I got to Tempe last sunday and the past week has been a sort of lost one: I fell sick so I couldn’t do much but let time go by… Anyway I think I’m feeling better now so hopefully next week will be the real come back, start up and speed up of things. Time’s running out and I gotta run faster!!!

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Walk around the hooooooooooood…

March 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment

For a long time, I’ve been meaning to get back to my hobby of taking pictures and alking around human places. Finally, las sunday, I managed to grab my camera when the sun was about to go down, in that moment of the day when the light is just magic, and go out for a walk. I just went through the same streets I pass by every morning, but it’s amazing how much you miss when you don’t walk! Serve yourself, I hope you enjoy them…

Walk around the hood

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Switching from Kangaroos to Elephants…

February 17, 2009 · 1 Comment

Right when I’m getting done with my adventure on kangaroos, here it comes the next one! This time is not about writing a paper about the farthest away from home country but about actually going somewhere. The GeoDa Center I’m visiting this year is starting now to work and collaborate with the Nature Conservation Foundation in India; the main purpose is to try to bring spatial analysis tools into wildlife conservation to help understand and manage the relationship between humans and animals. It is meant to be a long term relationship with a lot of results expected, but one of the first steps made to start walking down this road is the celebration of a two-day long workshop on spatial analysis and techniques for grad students and scholars to take place at the NCBS in Bangalore in July. I was offered to be part of the team which will go into the field and teach the course and, before the offer was ended, I had already said yes. So, if all goes as expected, next July 14th. I’ll get on a plane to Mumbay and spend 10 days in one of the countries which for a long time was on my to-go list but never actually found a good excuse for. Teaching at one of the cutting-edge centers for biological sciences in India seems like a good one, doesn’t it?

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Bikes, tulips and wind mills…

February 8, 2009 · 2 Comments

I’ve been working on and behind this idea for quile a long time, but it hasn’t been till these late days that it hasn’t come through, so I didn’t wanna post anything till now. Anyway, here is the official announcement: it  all seems to point to me spending four months from September to December 2009 at the Department of Spatial Economics of the Free University in Amsterdam. Same as I’m doing now at the GeoDa Center, I’d spend four months in the capital of the Netherlands writing part of my dissertation.

It is certainly of great excitement for me to have the chance to live for a short while in one of the most beautiful cities I’ve evere been to, one of the most bike-friendly and one where I still keep very good friends from my days in Sweden (not only there but also very closeby). Considering life  outside the university here in the desert, and how much I like European cities, it will be a fantastic experience to wander and discover all the tiny coffee shops, small and cute streets and the channals. And last, but not least at all, it won’t be the paperwork nightmare the US was now about a year ago, which is something I’m coming to appreciate :) I can’t wait for that!!!

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California rushing…

February 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I just got back home after a weekend in California: on friday I got on a plane to LA where Ago was waiting me to take for a drink and later for dinner; I think there are moments to make history and others to remember it and, if you manage to combine both in the right composition, it’s perfect. This one was one of them to remember and so we did around tons of great and cheap sushi in my already preferred place in LA, a very small and humble restauran run by five japanese where decoration barely exists but reggae is in the air and sushi is delicious.

As we say in Spain ” good, if short, is double good”, the following morning I got up real early and headed over the airport to continue my “revival” tour: it was time to San Francisco and the great times and people spent in Korea now a year and a half ago. A couple of koreans from the summer school happened to be in the city and we arranged a weekend there, so Katie would come up from Orange county and I’d go from AZ. It was really short and unplanned but the only fact that it happened already made me happy. We ate tons of asian food and sweets and chatted all over the weekend; I spent the night at my friend Jesus’ place and this morning, after mexican breakfast, I got on a plane, again.

It’s been really short, just like a dream, just like memories are, they come and go and the meantime in between is what really matters and makes life great; but it’s been the perfect way to forget about the desert and work for a while and, considering the month now just finishes (coming back from Spain, moving to the new apartment, rushing to finish work with no success…), it was just perfect. Here are the pics although there are not that many; I usually get very lazy about taking pictures, specially when people I am with have cameras (not difficult if you are with four asians…). Anyway, serve yourself:

Weekend in California [Korea remember]

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Delayed pics

February 2, 2009 · 2 Comments

Just trying to update the picture storage in here. Right before coming back home for Christmas, the great David invited us to a tamale-making party at this place. Tamales are typical mexican food based on corn hash, meat and fat (alright, I didn’t say much to differenciate it…) which are usually made at that part of the year. We gathered something like ten folks and worked cooperatively (hereby the joke of “kibutz”) to make up to 400 of them in a few hours. Here is the proof:

Mexican Kibutz [Tamale making party]

Also, during the month back home, I had the chance to travel to the (my beloved) Pyrenees a couple of times; one with the family and the other one to visit Angel, a friend of mine who’s actually living and working up there in Sallent de Gallego. One of those mornings I grabbed my camera and went off for a walk, here is a little bit what it looked like:

Christmas in Spain

]d[

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Update

January 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I know I’ve been pretty absent for the last two months, but I guess a pretty crazy month back home for Christmas and a really hectic back to the desert with the post-Chistmas depression and a paper to be re-done make up for a good excuse, if that can be accepted :)

Christmas back home was good, pretty stressing and with some sad parts, but it was nice overall. Meeting friends, eating good and travelling around the beautiful part of this world where I belong. What else can I ask for?

Anyway, I just wanted to drop a few lines to update my life for those interested:

  • I’ve moved from the house where I lived during fall to a much closer one and it’s turning out to have been a very good decission, now I live in a smaller place but way closer to “life” (it’s closer to the uni and to downtown), which is good when you don’t have a car.
  • I’ve arranged a trip to California for next weekend: I’ll fly out on friday to LA, have dinner with Ago and spend the night there and, on saturday morning, I’ll get on a plane to SF to have remember weekend with some friend I made in Korea. I’l post the pics and more once back home.
  • I’ve missed home like hell and I’ve (am) worked my ass right off.
  • And I’m still learning and happy…

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