Random
There was this story of a HIgh School principal here in Guatemala that was American and was giving a speech to the whole school. Someone said something flattering about him and he goes, "Estoy muy embarazado." He was trying to say he was embarassed, but embarazado means pregnant, which means he told the school he was very pregnant. Laughter ensued. But today I read a line in a book where embarazado was used in a context having nothing to do with pregnancy. So I looked it up and lo and behold, the first definition in the dictionary is "estorbo", which means something that gets in the way or is bothersome. So the word for pregnancy in spanish also means bothersome or in the way! How very appropriate...that is until they are born and then they are adorable...

Iraq
A very bleak - yet insightful - article about soldiers waiting outside Fallujah.

Various
The porn industry is going through a major crisis as two performers have been diagnosed HIV positive. Most companies have decided to postpone production for 60 days to contain the outbreak, but it seems the virus has already spread. It seems the virus was contracted by one performer in Brazil, where apparently 96% of the prostitutes there are HIV positive.
Read the details here and here.

This is something really scary, this is the adult industry's worst nightmare. Essentially no one can work because that's the whole basis of the industry...having sex.

How scary. And sad too, it seems one of the first performers that has tested positive had been in the business for 3 months and is 18 or 19 years old.

A lot of moralists will laugh at this (and conservatives too) but that's wrong. These people have HIV, something that kills millions of people around the world. This is not a God's punishment for their sins", so I hope O'Reilly and company don't start in on this line of attack.


All this talk of Iraq and Israel and so on and so forth makes me really sad for the people of Afghanistan that were promised to much and now are stuck in misery again. Plus bin Laden is still ticking. Pisses me off too, to be honest. And the phrase "cut and run" has gotten so old so fast.

The number of soldiers staying in the Army is falling just as the demand is increasing in Iraq.

I wish I was back in boston to hear the booing of AROD when the Yankees and Red Sox rivalry gets underway today.

Politics/Jessica Simpson/Maxim/Cellphones/Anger
Another book is due out telling us what Bush was really thinking before the whole Iraq thing hit. According to the book, Bush had plans to go into Iraq less than 2 months after the US went into Afghanistan and didn't tell all everyone on his security team.

I don't know who is the brains behind Jessica Simpson's career decisions (it's obviously not her), and why they let her do this reality show that she's on. Yeah she's getting crazy amounts of exposure, and her first single is kind of catchy. But...I can't stand her, and because of it, I can't listen to any of her music anymore, I just can't, no matter how catchy or good it is. To think that I'm listening to the music of someone so stupid, so useless, so utterly annoying and spoiled just drives me nuts and so she's out of the loop (right next to Britney Spears and Shakira).

And then I find out she's Maxim's Hottest Chick of the year or whatever they call it. Those who know me know I DETEST Maxim and everything it stands for (Cosmo too, I don't discriminate). So add that to my current feelings for her and my hate towards both Maxim and Simpson soar. It's the fault of people like those behind Maxim that super hot chicks get so far in this world despite the various amounts of them who have nothing else to contribute to this world. I'm angry and so I'll stop before I get too nasty.

Have I mentioned how much I hate cellphones? Well I do, and most of the smug fucks that have them (which, invariable, means everyone).

Damn I'm angry today.

Search Engines
Check out this cool article on 3-D web searches. You sketch what it is you're looking for (the shape) and the search engine finds things that are similar to it. Cool.

Reading
You'll notice that the book I'm reading right now is about baseball, well that's because I'm trying to finish up this project of translating a bunch of baseball information I have into spanish and summing it all up and then giving it to my coach here to work with the youngsters. There is so much information that no one has ever heard of here and that if I had when I was coming up would've sped up the "getting better faster" process.

It all started with my Priority List that I did. Instead of dabbling a little in all my "projects", I made a list of three things and put them in order. THe baseball book is number one, then is the Guatemala book, then is a short story (I don't know how short it will be) called Frozen Time. This way I can't do anything else until I finish whatever is at the top of the list. It help get things done and keeps me from getting overwhelmed. So far so good. Thanks to Claudia (cosiiita) for the insight that drove me to create the Priority List, I highly recommend it.

Cubs
The Cubs are going through all kinds of injuries, Mark Grudzielanik (spelling?) is out for 2 weeks with the same thing Prior has, and who knows when he'll be back, although he is throwing off the mound already (achilles tendon).

Remlinger still hasn't come back, although Macias is well on his way. Andy Pratt (the guy we got for Juan Cruz) was sent to AAA Iowa in favor of Beltran, who was doing well down there.

Choi is doing well for the Marlins, he has 4 homeruns although his average is pretty low, I'm sure he'll come around.

Iraq prank
This picture has been causing quite a stir but if you look closely at the big version it's pretty clear it's a fake. Some local Muslims are not happy. But it is a fake since there is another version going around that says "My country got invaded and all I got was this lousy sign". I haven't seen that one, but maybe it could be the original, who knows.

Fox News
Just caught the last segment of the O'Reilly Factor and I noticed something that I think is kind of sad. He had a guest on and they were discussing how Fox News beats the "crap" out of CNN every night, during primetime. They were saying how CNN didn't believe anyone could dethrone them before Fox News came out. So they were pretty much basking in their glory, and O'Reilly was asking the other guy (who was promoting his book on that subject) why CNN hadn't been able to come back and beat Fox News after three years or so.

The other guy, along with O'Reilly, kind of mocked CNN and their futility, saying that the guys over at CNN don't have personalities that give their points of view while giving their news.

It's funny because the guest calls O'Reilly's show "opinion news" and starts talking about something else. O'Reilly quickly corrects him and says his show is "news analysis" and not "opinion news."

You get the impression, and correctly so I think, that Fox News is after ratings. That's the goal. Win. Beat CNN and everyone else. Refreshingly enough and unfortunately enough, CNN doesn't see it that way. They just give the news, no opinions mixed in. Fox News laughs at this, since they see that giving their opinions gets ratings, not just reciting the news monotonously off a teleprompter. People want controversy, exaggerated statements, and so on.

And Fox News is right. They are simply giving us what we want. And we are watching it. I'll admit it, I hate Fox News, they are laughable. Every time they say "Fair and balanced" I chuckle and wonder at the balls these guys have to say it. But I watch much more Fox News than CNN. Fox News isn't news, it's entertainment, and that's what we want.

Let's see how long CNN will hold out, bless their pure, journalistic hearts.

Campaigning
I just realized that whatever party discovers specificity first will have won the elections. It's really simple. Haven't you noticed how everything that is said about the campaigns is so vague?

"We will improve this and stop this."

Then the other side writes it off as jargon because it doesn't say how it's going to accomplish it. And they're right, but then they proceed to do the same thing.

I can understand that being specific means making a stand, and if the people don't like it then it's really hard to back out of it. But really folks, we're all grown ups. It feels like these campaigns are in high school passing notes that say "do you think he likes me?" Just do something already and stop pussyfooting around. The first party that says, "OK here it is, this is how we will do it, precisely and exactly." Boom, the American people will jump on it, and what's the other side going to say?

"I like you only if you like me" ?