I watched this movie on a plane recently and was very pleasantly surprised. Without giving away the essence of the plot, I can say that the first 5 minutes are the best, most touching opening sequence I have seen in a movie in the past 5 years at least.
All posts by chivacongelado
Fog
This time of the year it is very common to get foggy days in southern Finland. I find them very interesting because the combination of setting with metheorological phenomenon brings to my mind images of Viking longships raiding the marshes and woods of the lands of the Fenni.
A friend of mine did share a story of Vikings rading a warehouse full of precious animal furs near the town of Nokia, which is where it takes is name from (noki being “soot” and sable being as black as it). Somehow drunken barbarians warriors attacking a town for its pelts sounds pretty funny to me.
This brings me to another point: every once in a while I feel like the Arab guy in The 13th Warrior. Par for the course for a southerner living in these northern lands 😉
Leaves
TEDx Helsinki
TEDx Helsinki was organised this year as a local mirror for the wonderful, famous TED talks. The event was quite good overall, even if the level of the talks was a little uneven. The only problem they had was with misleading marketing in one important aspect: while their website and the registration process was in English, 80% of the event was in Finnish with no translations, which meant those attendants who didn’t master the language of Aleksis Kivi (and there were quite a few), were given a cold shoulder from the get go.
This was one of those situations where I was really glad to have learned the local lingo. If you are interested to know more about the event, you can check twitter or Anssi Kela’s post (in Finnish).
Update 18.05.2010: Videos from the presentations here, here and here (in English).
#InternetNecesario
Mexican public finances are not in the best of shapes given the economic crisis and the extremely difficult year so far for the country, so in their budget proposal for the next year Congress has proposed to raise taxes on pretty much everything instead of trimming down public spending further and closing useless ministries and bureaucratic institutions.
One “small detail” that has gotten pretty much every Mexican netizen riled up is a raise of 3% on telecommunications, including the use of internet, as Congress considers it a “luxury good”. Great way of stifle the development of the nation even further, especially when comparing it to what is going in in places like Finland where brodband access is a right (which doesn’t mean it’s subsidised by the state). Here in Finland it is understood that connectivity brings economic advantages and growth, unlike our prehistoric Mexican politicians.
Tacos in Stockholm
I had heard that a proper Mexican taquería had opened in Stockholm recently, and this week I had the chance to visit. As in any such places back in the land of nopales and chilangos, they don’t serve any of the elaborate traditional dishes like mole and such (which doesn’t make their food any less good), focusing on the humble taco in its varieties. They prepare bistec, pastor and a variety of quesadillas, as you can see in their menu and they even have a tortilla making machine.
The reviews have been very positive, and I’m glad as the food is great and the real deal. I wish them well.
The conversation model of project management
When I was a student in Mexico, in order to help my parents pay for my education I also had a scholarship/financing deal with the school, which meant I would do some assistant work in one of the departments. A friend of mine was working in school administration, and I joined in. There I had was trained on a technique that has helped me throughout my career.
Instead of just thinking of managing a project solely through deliverables, reviews and milestones, this focuses on the human component and the conversations that you as the project owner have with your stakeholders and contributors. Therefore, you focus bit by bit on closing (completing) those simultaneous conversations to get closer to your specified goals.
It probably sounds obvious and even a little bit simplistic, but turning its tables on the process to work through the people rather than focus on the task on its own is an approach that has proven time and again to be effective in the ocassions when I’ve used it. It also helps us “touchy-feely Latin types” to use our strengths to deliver, and builds strong personal relationships with your team.
It’s getting colder, and it’s only October
The price of fame
By now everybody and their mother have heard about the “balloon boy hoax“: a kid was feared to have flown away on a balloon kept in his family’s back yard who garnered huge media and law-enforcement attention until it was found that first he was not there in the balloon and then that it had all been staged.
More than anything, I think it is a commentary on the length to which some will go in order to attain “fame”, even at the cost of everybody else. They got their 15 minutes, but could end up with a 2 million USD fine and 6 years in jail.
500 Euros & the mafia
Recently read an article in a Mexican business magazine where they mention that the 500 euro bill is the darling of the Italian mafia. The simple reason is that while transporting a million dollars in 100 dollar bills cash would need a portfolio or bag weighing up to 10 kg (as previously seen in Hollywood), a million dollars in 500 euro bills would be much more easily concealed and weigh less than 2 kg. No wonder they are starting to find these in seizures in Mexico, Costa Rica and Russia.
I mean, I have never seen even the 100 Euro bill being used normally in the street, much less the 200 or 500. Given that the larger the denomination the larger the bill, 500 Euro are pretty much a purple papyrus 😛