Rivers on water
Giant Shrimp at the edge of the abyss.
Wikipedia Poster (and moto4lin on the pebl)
I found this really nice poster at FC-UNAM yesterday (sorry, mobile phone pic).
moto4lin (available for debian using apt-get install moto4lin) is a really nice program to connect motorola phones to linux boxes.
A couple of things that must be kept in mind:
- To connect to your phone moto4lin must be run as root (sudo)
- To configure moto4lin, it must be run as normal user
- You need AT and P2K vendor and product numbers for your phone. You can get this numbers by clicking "refresh list" on the settings window whilst running the program in sudo mode. (Of course the phone must be plugged)
- You might need to do one or more of the following (I own a motorola u6 pebl and I had to do both of them for the thing to work).
- change 'ACM Device' to /dev/ttyACM0
- The p2k product ID must be equal to the at product ID minus one.
- For this two changes to take effect you must enter them in the settings window whilst in normal user mode. You might also need to switch the mode to p2k, I believe this one thing can be done whilst in root mode...
Promises
I had to pass trough her office before getting home.
I know she's there usually by the mornings.
Yet, I promised myself I'd kiss her if she was there.
She wasn't.
Those weird promises one makes.
Those neat fantasies.
They might have no impact on real life, they are unlikely to become true, yet, they put a smile on my face.
What are you playing?
José Padilha's film, Tropa de Elite, portrays the dichotomy of modern societies. One the one hand, the real people who are out there working, killing, bribing, fighting, dying, and on the other the dream people, who are discussing Foucault, smoking pot and attending parties. The bridge between the two is, on the film, the system of drug dealing. And as some of the characters go from one world to the other, it is impossible not to realize what group one belongs to.
I don't really know who came up with the term chairo, but I once knew this gal who would very well fit into this category (I always thought her adidas sportsware were reminiscent of her aristocratic past, but it seems it was just normal chairo stuff). Allow me to tell you two episodes I lived with her, which quickly came to my mind when watching this excelent movie.
1. One day, she said that all policeman were thieves, that she didn't felt at all secure with one of them around. I asked her why and she proceeded to tell two stories of middle class friends of her who were detained by the police only to be robbed. After a couple of seconds, she accepted that both of them where rather high on drugs when it happened.
2. In accordance with the life style she pursued, she was an occasional user of illicit drugs. Yet, she was always alarmed when drug-related violence emerged in the country, and said she was very much afraid that the drug-lords would take over the Mexican political system.
Of course, with the extremely cheap production of ammunition now a days, every little joint she made gave those very same warlords enough money to buy a 7.62x39 round and use it against each other, and possibly Innocent by-standers, or to load it into their AK and threaten with it a city mayor, lawmaker or police officer.
It all made me think, what are we playing? we go around pursuing a lifestyle or another, and never touching or stopping to see how we affect the real world. That which is valuable to us is solely dreams, socially imposed dreams of popularity, of having a good time, of being beautiful, trendy, up to date with culture, buena onda, socially responsible, ...
As some of you might know I hang around at the school of science at UNAM, and there, where future scientists are supposedly in formation, that pursuing of illusions is very frequent. Most people don't see their scientific labor as the most exciting part of their present lives, while we consider education important for ourfuture, what really moves us is the pursuit of socially created valuables.
I believe that science and art are just as real and important to society and culture as any other field. But we are not scientists, we are middle-class youngsters trying to be trendy in some way or another, at least on week ends, it is that which occupies our minds. It's not about having fun, it's about fitting in.
We are not real people doing real stuff to make this world better. We aren't really in pursue of knowledge, we are just fooling around.
Let us wake up.
(A legitimate question would be "and what the hell? I want to be a chairo just as much as you want to be a scientist? it is my right to pursue any dream I want" Yet, there is problem with socially and commercially driven life styles.
They damage other people. On the one hand, as mentioned above, the use of recreational (pfff) drugs harms society, kills people, makes peasants work for drug lords, etc. On the other hand the use of money to pursue something as unproductive as a lifestyle damages the economy and makes people's lives more miserable. You think I'm going to far? go ask the 9-year old boy who assembled your adidas jacket, or the 15 year old pregnant girl who soldered your ipod or your motherboard, or the peasants who are nearly slaves to produce your starbucks coffee...
And chairos will pop up and say "well.. that's why I'm a chairo and listen to music of "resisting cultures", buy fair trade, use biodegradable soap and go see every expo that features photos of indigenous people having a bad time.
That so called respect for the poor and the humble is, when combined with driving a car and using expensive perfumes, no different from the colonialist attitude of the English Victorian period. Back then, the people indigenous to the colonies were all seen as rarities and it was trendy, among some, to go and watch them at freak shows, or photograph them so they were known to the world, or listen and dance to their "primitive" music and see in it anthropological interest. But by the middle of the afternoon, sip some delicious Ceylon tea, and smoke some neat American tobacco, and by evening get high on some nice opium. Back then the colonial system of oppression was necessary to maintain many life styles, including that of supposedly anthropological interest in the colonies.
150 years later, the system of globalized oppression, cheap labor, corruption, drug dealing, arms trading, etc. is necessary to maintain many life styles. Including, but not limited to, the chairo style. )
Refri
Eran otros tiempos, eran otros lugares, eran otros ánimos.
Eran dias de lluvia, y de calor, como los que corren hoy en la ciudad de la esperanza, pero con más insectos, con más flores y con más comida enlatada. Eran los mejores tiempos...
Era un departamento con una recamara y muy cerca del equilibrio termódinamico, es decir, un desmadre. En un principio no habia un refrigerador , nos levantabamos temprano e iba yo a la tienda por un poco de jamon, pan, refresco y varios frutsis congelados, y desayunabamos en la cama, emparedados y pan dulce. Eramos jovenes y atrevidos, no necesitabamos cafeina para coger el resto de la mañana, y para vagar por la ciudad por la tarde y la noche.
Ibamos juntos al autoservicio, comprabamos muchas latas, muchos dulces, refrescos rojos, y repelente de insectos. Y un litro, oh si, los buenos tiempos, un litro de picadillo y muchas piezas de tortillas de trigo... no había refrigerador pero sí un horno de microondas, y esos eran los mejores burritos del mundo. Esos eran los mejores días.
Despues hubo un refrigerador, y una lavadora. Ella iba a la escuela y yo me despertaba temprano para prepararle desayuno y empacarle un almuerzo triangular que tambien incluia dulces. Y mientras se bañana yo tomaba las letras magneticas del refrigerador y las acomodaba para tratar de formar, como en un crucigrama, el mayor número de palabras que nos recordaran que eran, en efecto, los mejores días.
Durante el día yo jugaba con mis 7 CDs de Debian.. aprendí mucho esos días.. sin internet, logré poner a funcionar todo el hardware, los dbms y los compiladores e interpretes que según yo eran necesarios para una vida saludable y llena de retos intelectuales. Encender el radio y escuchar la radio de la UAEM me hacia sentir que, mientras jugaba con dselect o releia a Gibson, iba en una ruta subiendo por avenida universidad hacia el auidtorio de la torre.
Una vez vi baraka en ese auditorio.
Otra vez subí a la biblioteca buscando un libro de cálculo y termine leyendo sobre los rollos del mar muerto.
Otra vez ocupé una compu a su nombre y codifique en un emacs remoto por ssh.
Durante la noche bajabamos el colchon al suelo y cada noche dormiamos con una orientación diferente.
Esos eran los mejores tiempos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)