MySpace.com
|

rss
|
iniciar sesión

lunes, febrero 04, 2008

Former Wikipedians, check this out

Former Wikipedians, check this out: citizendium.org. This strives to do what Wikipedia does, but with more checks and balances. No anonymous twinks here; you can only contribute if you share your real name with them.

I think this can very well become an excellent Wikipedia killer!

- Sam

16:34

0 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

0 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

jueves, enero 24, 2008

Being a real man

Categoría: Vida

I have been thinking, since this morning, about what it means to be a "real man", "manly man", or, to quote a 1970s disco song "macho man".

There is an idea, both in American and Mexican culture, of someone being a "real man". What this means is fairly consistant:

Not being emotional available. "real men" do not talk about emotional issues, act like machines that don't have feelings, and certainly never cry

Real men are physically strong and great warriors. In John Ringo's books (one author who I respect greatly because he has a good idea what a real man is about), the heroes are always remarkably accurate shooters and willing to risk their lives to protect civilians

Real men are very sexual with women. Real men are able to seduce multiple women. In Latin American culture, a real man will, even if he is married, have other femal sexual partners. A "real man" has a large penis and can always get a large erection whenever it's time to have sex. "Real Men" are never gay (this is a problem in Latin culture, since bisexual men are not honest about their orientation, and spread diseases like AIDS). This stereotype is ironic; most sexually promiscuous men generally have sex with other males, in addition to many females.

Real men are frequently associated with the military. This is because a warrior is a very strong example of a "real man", and because the military culture places great value on being "macho".

"real men" frequently drink heavily, and can consume a large quantity of alcohol with little visible effect. I think alcoholism is frequent among "real men" because they don't have healthy ways of expressing their emotions

I have been reading some military science fiction over at baen.com. Because many writers are people who have served our country, there is a strong military streak and the heroes are often idealized models of "real men".

I think there are positive and negative things about the "real man" image. I would like to be a "real man", of course, but without the negative baggage such as suppressing emotions, being sexually promiscuous, and drinking heavily. I think a real man faces their fears and doesn't let their fears stop them from doing what they need to do. I think a real man has integrity; they do what they say they will do. I think a real man will help others selflessly, either by trying to save their lives, or by being emotionally supportive.

So, what do you guys think. What does it take to be a "real man"? Do you think it is a good thing to be a "real man"?

- Sam

12:15

1 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

2 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

martes, enero 22, 2008

I’ve had the worse headache for the last 12 hours

Categoría: Vida

I have had the worst headache for the last 12 hours or so.  It's in the right side of my face, between my nose and forehead; it feels like someone is drilling in to my head.

I got about 6 hours of sleep last night.  I think I need to take a nap this afternoon.  Thankfully, I only teach at night on Thursday and Fridays, and this week only Thursday.  So, life is good.  :)  Now, if only this headache would go away...

- Sam

13:53

0 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

0 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

jueves, enero 03, 2008

Playing spades

Over Christmas vacation, my stepfather's in-laws were in town.  Since there were four of us in town, my stepfather's side of the family taught us how to play spades. One interesting variation, which one person assured me was the standard 3-player version, is as follows:

You shuffle and deal the deck as if playing a four-person game

There are no partnerships; each person plays to win by themselves

One set of 13 cards dealt are never played; after bidding, 13 tricks are played by the three players

My sense of this variant is that there is more luck involved; which is probably a good thing for a social game. I feel it's a little better than the more commonly cited "17 cards per person" version; it's a bit of a pain to handle 17 cards in one's hand. I also invented my own 3-handed version of spades:

All of the clubs are removed from the deck

Each player gets 13 cards

No partnerships

This was only played for one hand; my sense is that traditional spades players have a bit of a harder time bidding tricks in this variant.

We had a lot of fun playing spades over vacation, and now I'm back to Mexico; the red-eye flight leaves tonight.

13:35

0 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

0 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

sábado, diciembre 29, 2007

2007 in summary

I'll post an index of my blog entries for this year before the end of the year.  In the meantime, here are my answers to one of those silly bulletins:

1-Did you kiss anyone?

Yes (see my profile picture)

2-Did you date anyone?

See my profile picture.

3-Are you going to kiss someone when the ball drops?

Sadly, she's going to be in Mexico and me in the US.

4-Did you lose any friends?

Yes; a friend of mine got a new boyfriend, starting using drugs again, and stop responding to the myspace messages I sent her.  :(

5-Did you gain any friends?

Yes; my girlfriend for starters, and also a couple of other latinas.

6-Did you do something new?

Yes; I flew from San Diego to the Bay Area instead of road tripping it.  Beautiful view of the Bay Area, all the way from Santa Cruz up to the bay bridge as we were doing the landing approach.

7-Did anyone important to you die?

Yes, Maxmilio the owner of the place where I get my clothes washed in Mexico.

8-Did you change?

Yes.  Melita is the most serious girlfriend I have had my whole life.

9-Are you happy with the year over all?

Yes; I got my first real serious girlfriend; I got my FM-3 which makes staying in Mexico a lot more convenient; and I made a lot of progress with my geek project, MaraDNS.  One resolution for 2008: Finish MaraDNS and move on to an open source program for playing Gin Rummy.

10-Whats the best thing that happen to you?

Melita.  :)

11-Did you fall in or out of love?

In love.

12-Are you happy the years almost over?

Yes; 2007 was a great year, but 2008 should be an even better year!

13-Are you going to change something about yourself next year?

Yes; I'm going to finish MaraDNS 2.0 and spend less time geeking out and more time socializing.

14-Do you think 2008 will be a better year then 2007?

Yes

20-Did you go on a summer vacation?

Yes; I spent a month in California this summer, visiting family and friends.  This was a mega road trip all the way from Puebla.

22-Did you get into a fight?

In real life: No.

23-Did you leave the country?

Which country?

24-Did u have a good birthday?

Yes.  My girlfriend and I had pizza at Domino's pizza in Puebla's zocalo (town central square).

25-Did anyone in your family get married?

Nope.

26-Do you think you grew?

Yes.

27-Did you dye your hair?

No (this is such a chick question.  I'm a guy.  I don't dye my hair!)

28-Who do you think you were on the phone with the most?

Depends on what you mean by "on the phone".  I sent a zillion text messages and received a zillion text messages from my girlfriend.  I also called up family from Mexico.

29. Did anyone sing to you?

Nope.

30-Did you sing to anyone?

Kinda, sorta.  My co-workers convinced me to do Kareoke at the big company Christmas party.

31-Did anyone tell you they loved you?

Just about every SMS text message from my girlfriend has Spanish words to that effect.

32. did you go to the hospital?

No, thankfully.

33-What did you drink and eat the most?

I ate beans, rice, tortillas, and drank OJ, tang, and tea.

34-Did you change your top atleast 8 times?

Nope.

35-Did you change your profile over 10 times?

Nope.  I changed the profile picture once, but have kept my "summer pool" design all year long--even while in northern California enjoying the noerthern California cold winter.

36-Did you change your default atleast 20 times?

No.  Once, maybe twice.

37-Did you get a tattoo?

No, h--- no.

38-Did you vote?

No; can't vote in Mexico.

39-Are you going to make a new years resolution?

Yes: MaraDNS 2.0; move to downtown Puebla; and to make sure I get hired full-time where I'm working now, or, if they won't, get a lot of other gigs.

40-Did you stick to your new years resolution from last year?

Yes.

41. Think you'll date someone in 2008?

I have a girlfriend.  This will hopefully not change in 2008.

42. Where will you be when the ball drops?

To be honest, I don't know yet.  I have a couple of plans in mind; I'll be somewhere around San Diego.  As an aside, I can remember where I was at every ball dropping since 1992:

1992: Pleasanton, CA
1993: Livermore, CA
1994: Danville, CA
1995: Livermore, CA
1996: Pleasanton, CA
1997: San Francisco, CA
1998: Santa Cruz, CA
1999: San Francisco, CA
2000: San Francisco, CA
2001: San Francisco, CA
2002: San Jose, CA
2003: Fresno, CA
2004: Fresno, CA
2005: Pleasanton, CA
2006: San Diego, CA
2007: Lafayette, CA

43. Do you think you will make new friends in 2008?

Yes, oh yes

44. Are you hoping to meet someone special in 2008?

Nope.  I've already met her.

45. How do you feel, another year has passed you by?

2007 was a really good year, and 2008 looks to be an even better year.

- Sam

01:57

0 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

0 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

miércoles, noviembre 28, 2007

Maxmilio’s story

Categoría: Viajes y lugares

I have had the pleasure to know the nicest man who has been washing my laundry down here in Mexico for over a year now. His name is Maxmilio.

Normally, I just talk to him briefly; I bring in my laundry, we weight it, and they change about 50 cents a pound (12 pesos per kilogram) to wash it. Maxmilio also did some other things; they have a line of clothing they sell, and he even rents out apartments.

One time, I stayed for a few minutes to talk to Maxmilio about his family. He has family in the US; a lot of people down here do (keep in mind that California was once a part of Mexico). He used to be in charge of a factory, where they designed and made clothing sold to J.C. Penny in the US.

Well, then, like a lot of companies in the US, J.C. Penny decided to stop buying their clothing from Mexico, and now buys their clothing from China. So Maxmilio had to shut down his factory; now he just owns a small laundromat (and some apartments behind the laundromat).

Well, I last talked to him a little over a week ago. Well, today I went to the laundromat top pick up my clothing. I asked about a blanket I requested from them; they told me that blanket was not forthcoming because Maxmilio had just died this week, and his wife was in no condition to work again.

It seems that Maxmilio used to smoke. Even though he quit 20 years ago, the damage to his lungs was permanent and took many years off of his life. So, if you smoke, please quit now, before you die too soon that way Maxmilio did.

17:18

1 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

1 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

jueves, octubre 25, 2007

Everyone in the family is OK

I just got off of the phone with my mother, and everyone in my family in San Diego is OK, and no family member's houses were burnt. My neices, as it turn out, are enjoying beautiful Palm Springs--I wish I was there! In addition, my mother isn't 100% sure, but her church seems to have been spared (It was right in the middle of the fire and a lot of houses around it were burnt). My mother has a friend whose house was spared--but the rest of her neighborhood is now ashes.

Anyway, keep your prayers up, but my immediate family is OK.

- Sam

17:50

0 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

0 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

martes, octubre 23, 2007

San Deigo fire update

Categoría: Noticias y política

I am letting everyone know that no one in my family is in danger from the San Diego fire.  My mother and stepfather have already evacuated and are currently in Pasadena; my sister and nieces should also have evacuated by now.

It also appears that the fires will not burn any family member's houses.

Everyone's OK, but your prayers are appreciated.

God bless,

- Sam

11:14

0 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

0 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

lunes, octubre 15, 2007

Bill Gates denied entry to Nigeria

Categoría: Viajes y lugares

OK, so I read today that Bill Gates had some problems entering Nigeria. I'm not surprised. I was, the other day, talking to someone who traveled to Nigeria. When he was at the airport, the official there told him that his visa paperwork was no good, and that there was a $2000 (US) fine for entering Nigeria with bad paperwork, or he would go to jail. His paperwork was fine; they told him this because they simply saw him as a rich American, and wanted to extort $2000 from him.

When he was in the country, every time he was at a checkpoint, a guy with an AK-47 rifle would demand alcohol (Whiskey, usually) or cigarettes from him. The first time this happened, he didn't have any and they harassed him for hours. He very quickly learned to have alcohol and cigarettes on him at all times, in order to pay off military personal at checkpoints.

Nigeria is just about the worst place to travel to.

09:30

0 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

0 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

martes, septiembre 18, 2007

Robert Jordan R.I.P.

The legendary author of the epic Wheel of Time series, Robert Jordan passed away this Sunday. He died of a rare blood disease with the name amyloidosis. He is the author of the legendary Wheel of Time series.

I was first introduced to the series in the summer of 1992, when I got some books to pass the time on a plane as I was flying to Washington DC. I loved the books so much that, later on, I read the books to my blind roommates out loud because I was sick and tired of them watching TV all of the time. We had a lot of fun reading the books together, and I was able to go through all of "The Eye of The World" with them.

Later on, I had the pleasure of meeting him at a 1998 book signing. I remember driving all of the way to Half Moon Bay just to see him; since fewer fans were willing to drive so far, I was able to talk to him briefly about the lovely experience I had reading his books out loud to my former blind roommates, and about the chess variant briefly mentioned in one of the books. He was a very lovely person to talk to.

It was good I drove so far; the next book signing, in San Jose, was a standing room only crowd and I would not have had a chance to talk to him one-on-one the way I did in Half Moon Bay. I will never regret making the road trip to Half Moon Bay.

I thought his disease had gone away, and that he was OK. How sad that it was not so.

To quote Billy Joel, "Only the good die young".

- Sam

P.S. Technical note: Because of some grrr updates to the MySpace code, some of my older blog entires look a little messed up. I apologize for any inconvenience; it's a real pain to develop here, since MySpace essentially controls the CSS and the old hack I used to use to hide their CSS no longer works.

12:58

0 Comentarios

(Comentario) |

0 Kudos

Traducir

Con la tecnología de

Inglés

Albanés

Árabe

Búlgaro

Catalán

Chino

Croata

Checo

Danés

Holandés

Estonio

Filipino

Finlandés

Francés

Gallego

Alemán

Griego

Hebreo

Hindi

Húngaro

Indonesio

Italiano

Japonés

Coreano

Letón

Lituano

Maltés

Noruego

Polaco

Portugués

Rumano

Ruso

Serbio

Eslovaco

Esloveno

Español

Sueco

Tailandés

Turco

Ucraniano

Vietnamita

Publicaciones más antiguas
|
Publicaciones más nuevas

Sam

Sam Trenholme

Última actualización: 16/02/2010

Enviar mensaje
Mensaje instantáneo
Enviar por correo electrónico a un amigo
Suscribirse

Sexo: Male

Estado: Casado

Firma: Escorpión

Ciudad: Puebla

Estado: Puebla

País: MX

Fecha de inscripción: 07/07/2005

Archivo de blogs

[Más antiguos

Más recientes]

Ene
Feb
Mar
Abr
Mayo
Jun
Jul
Ago
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dic
/
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
/
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
2036
2037
2038
2039
2040
2041
2042
2043
2044
2045
2046
2047
2048
2049
2050
2051
2052
2053
2054
2055
2056
2057
2058
2059
2060
2061
2062
2063
2064
2065
2066
2067
2068
2069
2070
2071
2072
2073
2074
2075
2076
2077
2078
2079
2080
2081
2082
2083
2084
2085
2086
2087
2088
2089
2090
2091
2092
2093
2094
2095
2096
2097
2098
2099

>

Vínculos patrocinados

Domino Anti Spam

Domino Spam Blocker Server Based - Free Trial
www.maysoft.com

Acerca de nosotros |
Preguntas frecuentes |
Términos |
Política de privacidad |
Consejos de seguridad |
Informe sobre contenido inapropiado |
Publicitar |
MySpace International ▼

©2003-2010 MySpace.com. Todos los derechos reservados.

Cerrar

Las Américas

Argentina

Brasil

Canadá

Canadá (Français)

América Latina (Español)

México

United States (English)

United States (Latino)

Asia y Oceanía

Australia

Chino (tradicional)

India

Japón

Nueva Zelanda

Europa

Austria

Bélgica (Nederlands)

Bélgica (Français)

Dinamarca

Finlandia

Francia

Alemania

Irlanda

Italia

Países Bajos

Noruega

Portugal

Polonia

Rusia

España

Suecia

Suiza (Deutsch)

Suiza (Français)

Suiza (Italiano)

Turquía

Reino Unido