When two of my greatest passions come together:BEST. VIDEO. EVER.EV...
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
It´s that time of year again...at least for me. I´m back to being hunched over my computer swamped with 10 Word files and what seems to be fifty billion Safari windows open as I simultaneously work on cover letters and just finding more jobs. Today I successfully applied to a few cool jobs that I´m hoping to get interviews / callbacks for, but immediately decided to apply to a couple of easy backups just in case. My backups usually amount to applying to work in retail or food service and I´ve been eyeing a couple of Barista jobs posted on GoodFoodJobs.com...
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Restaurant Name: Clover Fast Food (or Clover Food Truck)Location: Various (Clover HSQ - 7 Holyoke st, Cambridge. Clover MIT - 20 Carleton St., Cambridge....and like 6 others. You can check their locations at www.cloverfoodlab.com)Kind of Food: I say vegetarian, but they don´t like to call themselves that. So I really don´t know. Can we settle on delicious?Price Range: $5-$10 (seriously, if you spent more than $10, what on Earth did you order? The whole truck?!?!)What I ordered: CHICKPEA FRITTER. Repeat with me: CHICKPEA FRITTER. And Hot cider....
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Restaurant Name: TopolobampoLocation: 445 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60654Kind of Food: Mexican GourmetPrice Range: $25 - $90 per person (tasting menu anyone? I know I was tempted....)What I ordered: Trio Trio Trio (cebiche fronterizo, cebiche yucateco, seaside cocktail), Eggplant enchiladas, Classic Margarita.Comments: I was REALLY tempted by the tasting menus. They sounded incredible. The price for one of them (around $90) was offputting, but the thing that really drove me away from them was the amount of pork in the dishes. Really,...
Restaurant Name: The PalmLocation: 837 Second Ave, New York, NY 10017Kind of Food: SteakhousePrice Range: $30-$50 per personWhat I ordered: Signature crab cakes. Ceasar SaladComments: First of all, let me clarify that I´m a bit of a certified idiot. I went to a steakhouse and ordered the crab cakes, which were honestly not that great. There is very little food that I´ve encountered that I´ve had trouble actually eating and those crab cakes were definitely one of them unfortunately. Everyone told me to get the Chicken Parmesan (which would have...
Restaurant Name: PsariLocation: Suiza N34-41 y República de El Salvador (www.psariquito.com)Kind of Food: Mediterranean FusionPrice Range: $15-$25 per personWhat I ordered: Grilled octopus. Lady Psaritini.Comments: Best. Grilled. Octopus. EVER. I´m usually really picky about Octopus and tend not to order it because it is unusually chewy. I think that if not well prepared, it is easier to chew on an eraser than a piece of octopus. But Psari´s octopus is grilled to perfection. Crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. The grilled octopus...
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The sky is cloudy this morning - an endless gray cotton that stretches out beyond what I can see. At 6:30 am, the lights in the houses sprawling across the valley have still not died out. The fog has begun to rise above the mountains, leaving thick drops of dew stuck onto the green foliage in its wake. "Winter" here at the equator (or technically slightly north of it) has begun. I definitely prefer it to the ungodly heat and the Equatorial sun beating down on you that we were getting but two days ago. Part of me believes that the cloudy sky is...
Saturday, November 5, 2011
I came home today after a very long day (car decided to stop working, had to do some errands about town) to find a dead cat in my driveway. I was upset by this. My parents say it was probably the dogs that killed it because it trespassed into their territory. I mean, it wasn´t bleeding or anything. Just seems the dogs...I don´t know.Anyhow, I had to dispose of the carcass. I felt a mix of grossness and sadness. I´m a cat person and I can´t imagine my own cat, Luna, ending up like that. Just really upsetting all around. Anyhoo, my mother told me...
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
I´m burned. I´m just seriously tired. I´m starting to think that taking that extra week at work was a bad idea, but I need the money, so I´m weathering the storm. Except I´m not really. I don´t think. I´m at that point where I just don´t care anymore. And maybe that´s not a point I should be at. Part of me is just really frustrated that the company waster two and a half days of my time last week that could have been spent otherwise. The other part of me is just tired of having to come home to no personal time and work on another project. Right...
Friday, October 28, 2011
My Grandfather died two weeks ago.It feels weird to write that down. It feels weird to say it.It feels even weirder to think that it has already been two whole weeks. I suppose I´ve been absorbed in work. There has been a lot of it. And a lot of errands to run before I leave. I was the fourth person to hear about it in my family. First my uncle. Then my other uncle. Then my grandmother.And me.They couldn´t reach my father and they figured I could.It was a weird moment. I was trying to solve some logistical issues at work concerning the locations...
I went to the Daoist (or Taoist) temple in Quito yesterday (was unaware that there was one until last week) and it was quite an experience. I am forbidden to really talk about it because of the nature of this particular branch of Daoism but also because the experience itself was so intimate and personal that I doubt I would be able to truly describe it if I could. Taoism exists in several forms: the religious one, the life philosophy, and the pure philosophical canon. Yiguan Dao (the branch of Daoism the temple I went to belongs to) is dedicated...
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
It really is a shame that I´m stuck in Quito, Ecuador for Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays and I´ve always enjoyed making elaborate costumes. The last (and best) one I´ve made was Wall-E. My costume played "Hello Dolly!".You can´t beat that. This year (like last year) I´ll probably just watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas" again and eat more sweets than I´m supposed to. Wearing costumes to work or to anything other than a halloween party is strictly banned in Ecuador (so trick-or-treating is out) and I´m really not into going to discos,...
Saturday, October 15, 2011
That time I slumped onto the floor in late May has been floating around my head lately. That day, that moment, my knees turned to jelly and failed me and my vocal chords in so much pain they could not produce a single sound.Just a painful soundless cry of deep sorrow.And the sawdust that replaced my stomach - the heavy and airy sawdust that just existed there in lieu of my natural organs - had me gasping for air. It felt surreal.That single moment has marked me forever. As I try to explain - to understand - certain events in my life that led up...
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Restaurant Name: Las Hamburguesas de RustyLocation: Av. de los Shyris y Río Coca (Main) / San Luis Shopping (Valle de los Chillos) / Plaza Antara (Cumbayá), Quito, EcuadorKind of Food: Good Ol´ Fashioned American Diner Fare (Latin-American Style!). Fast Food.Price Range: $3-$10What I Ordered: Rusty Mix (Rusty Simple with Cheese, Curly Fries, Root Beer)Comments: Rusty´s is quite an institution in Quito. The place has been around since the time my dad was a teenager in the 1970s and has been run by the same eponymous owner since its inauguration....
Restaurant Name: Cactus Coffee & Salad BarLocation: C.C. Plaza Cumbayá, Junto al Autobanco del Banco de Pichincha, Ecuador. (www.cactusfood.com)Kind of Food: Healthy, Tex Mex, Italian, Sandwiches, World.Price Range: $6-$15 per personWhat I ordered: Chinese Chicken Salad, Caesar Chicken Salad, Tex Mex Wrap, Nachos, Chef´s Chicken Panini, Mummy Juice, Berry Blast Smoothie, J-Bay Juice, Baja Juice.Comments: One of my favorite places for a nice healthy and light meal that leaves you feeling full but not stuffed and definitely refreshed. For years...
Friday, September 30, 2011
Last year, in the aftermath of the 30S riots in Quito, I posted the following note on my Facebook account:"I heard the word democracy thrown around a lot today but I begin to wonder what it means, if we can define it because everyone seems to be defining it differently or not defining it conveniently. I heard the word oppressor thrown around a lot today and I begin to wonder what it refers to. Is the oppressor the one that monopolizes the media and de-legitimizes the voice of its detractors or is the oppressor the one that irresponsibly puts the...
Saturday, September 24, 2011
I. Hate. HATE. running.I cannot tell you how much I hate, abhor, detest, passionately dislike it.And yet despite of that, I´ve made it a habit of running every morning at 6 am for an hour. And today, I ran my first 5K race.No, I didn´t win. But I didn´t come in last either. I beat my personal record (from 60 minutes down to 53) and was able to finish without much trouble (excepting some minor burn in my legs). Tonight, I signed up for the We Run Quito Nike 10K for October 29th. Yeah, I´m slightly nuts.The reason I run, even though I hate it, is...
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
I was surfing the internet when some article mentioned Lisa Kudrow´s Commencement Address at Vassar College in May 2010. Being a member of that graduating class, and having been sitting in a white chair sweating through my nice dress and polyester graduation robe in the Poughkeepsie humid air to actually witness the event, it brought me back and made me reflect a little about what she said that day. To begin with, I vaguely remember people being kind of ambivalent about the selection of Lisa Kudrow as our speaker to begin with (my freshman and...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
So I got into a pretty bad discussion with a friend yesterday and decided to take my mind off of it by baking. Cooking and baking and exercising are usually my go-to activities when I feel particularly stressed or upset. Yesterday I decided to make for the second time, these Cherry Mud Cupcakes that I found in a cupcake book I bought way back when I was in college and spotted the book on sale at B&N for $3. I´ve made them before, and they came...
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Ecuador is currently undergoing a bit of a tumultuous transitional period. Transition into what, I am not entirely sure about, but it is nonetheless a transition. It started last September with the 30-S riots. It is the fourth major political upheaval the country has seen in the past 16 years. And the fourth Coup d´Etat as well. Yes. It was a Coup d´Etat. I will firmly maintain that it was a Coup d´Etat - it did not start as one, but the President turned it into one. I´m not a fan of the President. His methods are questionable, and he surrounds...
Saturday, July 30, 2011
I was perusing around JK Rowling´s official site (don´t ask me how I got there, let´s just chalk it up to a similar situation in which I ended up spending 4 hours on Wookiepedia) and came across this post:"Being thin. Probably not a subject that you ever expected to read about on this website, but my recent trip to London got me thinking...It started in the car on the way to Leavesden film studios. I whiled away part of the journey reading a magazine that featured several glossy photographs of a very young woman who is either seriously ill or suffering...
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Restaurant Name: AlmaLocation: El Monitor 188 y Quiteño Libre, Quito, Ecuador (+593) 22252248 Kind of Food: Contemporary / Latin-American Haute CuisinePrice Range: I honestly have no idea since we were invited to dine there as guests. But TripAdvisor says $18-$35.What I ordered: We had a especially created 10-course gourmet meal designed to be paired with 7 different wines. Among the dishes served were Duck Carpaccio with Passion Fruit Sauce and a side of goat cheese, Grilled Octopus, Crayfish-Avocado Salad, Grilled Tuna with Sichuan Peppers and...
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released in cinemas worldwide a week ago on Friday July 15, 2011. A 11-year story finally came to an end, and with it, the absolute end of childhood. I feel that it was the last threshold, the last marker that I needed to pass before full-fledged adulthood. It ended. Therefore I am, much like Harry, Ron, and Hermione, finally an adult. I´ve seen the film 3 times so far. Once on the Midnight Premiere, one a day later, and one last sunday. Last Sunday I saw it in Spanish. Which wasn´t bad. Haha. In...
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
I´ve been feeling a lot on the downside lately. Arguments with my family have been escalating and reached a climax recently. Among the things I discovered is that apparently, I´ve messed up my relationship with my dad a bit. It is a two-way street mind you, but it is there. And I´m angry and irritable and cold. I try not to be, but a lot of things have happened recently that have sparked those reactions. More notably, the fact that it seems like everyone has an opinion on the weight loss process I´m going through and they don´t hesitate about telling...
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
It has been a day of re-beginnings and good news. I started to train under the supervision of a Sports Medicine trainer today (I have a dual goal of losing some weight and also getting fit enough to be able to fence competitively again) and it went rather well. My ankle didn´t bother me, which is huge progress and the doctor said that I could start basic fencing training within a week if my ankle and fitness proved strong enough. Yay! Mind you, I still have to train with the trainer but I can also start practicing some fencing on the side. Which...
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Ewwww:(1) Was sitting on the bus coming up to Quito and found a used condom stuck in between the seats. Thank God there were a bunch of empty seats. Needless to say, I moved.Wtf?(2) The post-production guys downstairs must be bored out of their minds because they keep playing a technocumbia version of the Imperial March from Star Wars and singing along to it. It is amazing and hilarious. But also kind of wtf-inducing....
It has been a bit of a weird day so far and it is only 11:30 am. I woke up, as per usual, at 6 am much to my chagrin. My body has been getting used to early wake-ups but that means that on the days I don´t have to wake up early (like today) it usually means that it still wakes up early. Anyhoo, I dragged myself to my last session of Physical Therapy (yay!) and to my great delight found out that I can now jump without my ankle hating me. This is good mostly because I can now get back to training for fencing and hopefully compete again soon. The...
Sunday, May 22, 2011
I know I´ve been a little absent from my blog for the past week or so. That´s mostly due to the fact that I got hired for a job (as a freelancer for a project). I´m the 2nd AD for an Advertisement Production company and I´m working on a short set of 3 commercials that will be shooting (theoretically) on May 31st. It has been a bit of a trial by fire mostly because the 1st AD hasn´t been able to be around this week which means I´ve been doing two jobs and learning the system at the agency (which is different than film) at the same time. I think...
Monday, May 16, 2011
So, I figured I should post one of these because I´ve been listening to a bunch of cool stuff lately.Here goes:(1) Someone Like You (Adele) - Yeah. I jumped on the Adele bandwagon too. Can´t deny her voice is amazing. However, while everyone seems to be in love with "Rolling in the Deep" (which is the next item on this list anyways), I prefer "Someone Like You".(2) Rolling In the Deep (Adele) - Again, echoing what I said before....this one is good but not as good as "Someone Like You".(3) Codes and Keys (Death Cab for Cutie) - I just discovered...
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
So I was poking around the Fluid Interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab again (Grad school prospects are something I´ve decided to start thinking seriously about considering I will have to apply sometime in the next 2-3 years) and I watched a video for one of their projects Sixth Sense. It is a device that helps us interact with the digital and real world at the same time. I must say it is really cool - inexpensive (the guy says he wants to make the hardware open-source and that you can build your own for $300), environmentally-friendly, and with...
"It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful."Matilda, Roald DahlThat is the first sentence of the first book I ever read on my own. I was five and a half - nearly a month had gone by since my parents had moved us from the lovely rolling flat lands of wheat farms and airplane hangars of Wichita, Kansas to the depths of the Andes in Quito where the mountains rose like dark giants in the night - when my father brought...
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Hey!So I was reading January´s copy of American Cinematographer (for some reason Ecuadorian customs decided to hold on to my copies of this year´s American Cinematographer and just delivered them to me yesterday) and there was an interesting article about the cinematography and effects done for Ben Lovett´s music video for "Eye of the Storm" and how they were based on a short film called "The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello". I decided to check the short film out because "Eye of the Storm" is actually super cool. Anyways, it is one of...
Thursday, May 5, 2011
So I just came back from a concert with my string ensemble here. I must say that we were much better this semester than last even though half of our repertoire was cut because they only gave us 30 minutes to play (we were going to play Bartok and Granados and...and...ugh....the issues of playing with a string ensemble in a contemporary music institute...they think we´re boring and old-fashioned or something). I think we sort of bombed our finale, a custom composition that was stupidly hard (just the tempo was kind of ridiculous) that was given...
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Just spent 3 hours on Wookiepedia. There really is too much information on Star Wars out there...O_o.i.e. Did you know that Obi-Wan Kenobi was born on the planet Stewjon? Did you know that it is a tuckerization of Jon Stewart´s name? Did you know that Admiral Motti´s (the guy Vader force-chokes in A New Hope) full name is Conan Antonio Motti and was named after Conan O´Brien?No. You probably don´t.You probably don´t care either...See? I think I just reached Nerdvana...*si...
Monday, May 2, 2011
Yes! A plan! I´ve officially decided that come August / September I am getting my ass to NYC somehow. If I can get there sooner, I will. That´s the plan. I have a few loose ends to tie up around here during the summer, but once that is over it is NYC or BUST. Ha.No. Haven´t gotten a job yet.Yeah still owe the rents a ton of money for the trip.BUT job prospects in this side of the world are looking up. WO...
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
I just came back from a weekend at the beach. No. I didn't go to vacation. I went to work. I scored another gig with my aunt's travel agency. They were managing the operation for the Royal Princess from Princess Cruises and as always they needed responsible English-speaking hard working young people and they pay well and cover all travel and living expenses while we work so it really isn't a bad gig at all. The only problem with it is that these...
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