Category Archives: in english

in english

Moscow

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St. Basil’s Cathedral

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

A couple of weeks ago we spent a long weekend with friends in Moscow (photos here). The city has very beautiful areas and downtown is just amazing.

One thing that surprised me was that clearly the current price of commodities has done wonders for the local economy and you can see it everywhere you go: people dress better that what I saw 7 years ago in Saint Petersburg, the city looks clean and frankly it’s not the cheapest place on Earth.

Another interesting thing was that we were there while the situation in Georgia was developing, and the points of view in the local media were completely different from what you see in CNN or even the BBC.

Finally, as stupid as this might sound, it was very comforting to get past the usual stereotypes and just notice that the people over there are just like everybody else 😉 .

en español, in english

“Truth is cool but unattainable”

What happens when you mix George Soros' "The Age of Fallibility", Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World" and Mexican movie "Y tu mamá también"?  You end up realising that in the end they might not be so far away from each other.

Basically, their main tenet is that absolute truth is non-existent and we can only reach approximations.  Furthermore, we have to be aware of this fact whenever we are constructing our visions of reality, as assuming they are "true" will only cause us several problems: with the policies and attitudes followed by society, with our use of science and technology, and with our understanding of ourselves.

in english

Book-reading in the commute

As astonishing as it might be to my American readers (if any, heh), I don't own a car… even if I actually enjoy driving very much.  The reasons for this are many:

-I can, meaning there is quite decent public transportation where I live.
-It means I do a fair amount of walking; something very welcome given that I don't have that much time for exercise anymore
-Owning a car is a pain as you need to pay taxes, take it to servicing and of course the price of oil is not what it was (can you imagine having to pay almost 8 dollars a gallon or 25 Mexican pesos a litre?).
-I get to reduce my environmental footprint which is regardless quite high given my frequent traveling.
-Most importantly, I get to read on the commute.

If you know me (or read me), you have realised I absolutely love to read, and will go through pretty much anything that falls in my hands sooner or later.  Even if it ends up being about a heavier subject it will definitely help me relax, and give me a different perspective to what I probably had before, which is something I crave endlessly.

I've noticed that I'm reading something close to a book a week when not traveling, and half of that when on the move.  As is usual, some of the impressions gathered from those books are to be shared with you here.

in english

Busy days

My dear readers may have noticed that this blog has been rather quiet during the past month.  The reason for it has been extremely simple: very hard work going on, which leaves very little time for many other things after taking into consideration the need to also spend quality family time.

This doesn't mean that your humble writer has not had stuff in his mind to write here, as you will soon see…

in english

Did Texas ever leave Mexico?


Fiesta in San Antonio

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

Yes, of course it did. The structure of the city is typically American, built around the car, and of course the American and Texan flags fly everywhere you look. Furthermore, you will find that Texans are very, very proud of their heritage and to be respected, of course.

However, in a recent visit to San Antonio I was surprised by the huge Mexican influence in the place, as can be seen in the photo to the right and in these other two. I was also rather impressed by the Spanish-language proficency of people not of Hispanic descent, and the amount of Hispanics in the city was quite large. I was wondering if it was always like this given its geographic location or if this is a recent change.