Sayonara 2008

El fin de año siempre se aparece como la gran oportunidad para mirar atrás. Sirve como pista para la auto-reflexión. Esta vez lo siento como un gran reloj de arena que está por vaciar una de sus mitades, y espera ansiosamente que una mano lo venga a voltear.

Me parece más curioso aún que no es un sentimiento privado, sino más bien, es una actitud compartida. Las ganas de despedir el año recordado sus sucesos se vuelven un acto colectivo. Desde las interminables listas de lo mejor del año (discos, libros, fotografías), hasta los noticieros que recuerdan los sucesos más imporantes, pareciera que el ser humano divide el tiempo en pedazos porque necesita gozar de los finales. O será que en realidad, lo que anhelamos son los recomienzos?

Para mi este año trajo muchos y profundos cambios. Por ejemplo, finalmente terminé la carrera y con ello me quité de encima mi propia piedra del Pípila que me mantuvo pesado durante años. En ese sentido, este fin de año me siento más ligero que nunca... pero llegará enero y habrá que planear un recomienzo. En qué? Todavía no sé. Por lo pronto, confieso que yo sin duda necesitaba gozar de un final, y este año me trajo un auténtico final feliz.

Y ya que estamos en esto, le cedo la voz a un experto:

"It's funny. I can look back on a
life of achievement, on challenges met,
competitors bested, obstacles overcome.
I've accomplished more than most men,
and without the use of my legs.
What. . . What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?"

The Final Countdown!

After 7 long years of playing the character of a student at various universities and institutions of higher education, I have finally entered the final phase of my bachelor's degree. In exactly two weeks, I will attend my last ever undergraduate lecture and my university experience will come to an abrupt stop. For those of you who know me and understand what this process has meant, you will agree when I say that I never thought I'd see the day...

But before embarking on a long "what does it all mean?" post (which, I assure you, will eventually come), I have to prepare for the most excruciating couple of weeks of my time at UBC: I have to write 4 term papers (>3000 words each), give one presentation, conduct one interview, and battle through the last Econ problem set. If all goes well and I'm alive and breathing when this is over, I promise I'll at least make some t-shirts with the legend "I survived the bachelor's degree" (which you will be able to purchase here). Anyway, wish me luck, or the least amount of all-nighters!

El número 100

And here it is. My 100th post. One hundred times of saying farewell to silence. To voice my opinion. To try and share my thoughts and feelings with the outside world. To connect or reconnect with those I've met in the past or will meet in the future. One hundred times of venting my mind in binary code instead of paying for a shrink.

I would like to thank (here goes the Oscar acceptance speech), first and foremost, my mom and dad for never leaving any embarrassing proud parent comments. Vancouver, for always saving the day with a pretty view when there is nothing to write about. Miriam, because without her, the "comment" links would be truly lonely. The Ubyssey newspaper, for ignoring the fact that I reprint their articles without permission. My friends who hate my guitar, for giving me the necessary courage on Wednesdays to upload yet another painfully corny song. My roommate, for his fine taste in cheese. Fred Herzog, because without him I wouldn't have had my most narcissistic moment in cyberspace. The Republican party, because without them there would be nothing truly important to oppose. Seattle, for attracting the dozens of bands that we get as rebounds, giving me a chance to brag about some uber cool evenings. And last but not least, special thanks to God, because by not existing, he/she/it provides yet another excuse for random blathering.

And today I feel that I'm exactly where I want to be.

Nanaimo Scuba

I went for my first cold water dive yesterday! I've been a member of the UBC Aqua Society since last October, but I was too fearful of the cold water during the winter to even try it. The idea of diving in rainy winter weather had no appeal to me whatsoever. I heard tales of people riding the boat to the divesite in their Goretex jackets with hoods and gloves, freezing with the wind and hoping to jump in the cold water as soon as possible. To me, diving has always been about flipflops, sunblock and my swimming trunks. Thus, the sunny weather of this past week just made it irresistible to go for a dive.
The dive site was the bay of Nanaimo, in Vancouver Island. We took the ferry and planned the dive while enjoying the beautiful views of the mountains. I reviewed signals with my scuba buddy Grant (the "international" scuba signs needed some translation) and learned that Jacques Cousteau loved to dive in this area.

Our first dive was a tugboat shipwreck at a maximum depth of 25 meters. As I soon learned, diving in the summer is terrible in terms of visibility. The warm weather causes algae and plankton to grow, so once you begin descending, the water looks yellow and green and you can't see further than five meters. (Dang! I guess I'll have to learn to dive with a drysuit in the winter.)

The wreck was interesting but not spectacular. You had to be literally on the boat to see it...and to me, the best part of a wreck is to see it lying on the seabed from a distance, and then slowly approach it. Once on the boat, we explored the inside of the main control room and peeked into the hull windows. We were told a large octopus lives in the boat, but we didn't find it.

(I got a little nostalgic of diving in the Caribbean... you either wear a short sleeved 3mm wetsuit, or you go with just your swimsuit... here, I had to use a 14 mm wetsuit with gloves, hood, thick boots, etc.)

The second dive was at a wall that is next to the Saskatchewan shipwreck. Again, the visibility was terrible but it was beautiful to see enormous white anemones and giant starfish. I was surprised that the starfish here have more than 5 arms! There were also hundreds of minuscule starlike creatures crawling on the bottom and many sea cucumbers feeding on the rocks.

(click on the pics to enlarge)

Forget Obama

Look, I've got certain information, certain things have come to light, and uh, has it ever occurred to you, man, that given the nature of all this new shit, that, uh, instead of running around blaming me, that this whole thing might just be, not, you know, not just such a simple, but uh--you know.

(You might be wondering what on earth I'm blathering about.)

And I'll tell you what I'm blathering about! I got information--new shit has come to light and--shit, man! The Dude and Walter are running for office!














Well sure, look at it! The Nam veteran and the bum, in the parlance of our times....what a pair! I mean, hasn't it ever occurred to you, dear readers?

(Much obliged, Diana)

Dude's script.

Sun Run!

Yes! I participated in the largest 10k race in Canada. The organizers counted 59,000 athletes and I counted more than 10 bands playing live music while we ran along the empty streets of Vancouver with the mountains as a backdrop. After starting at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the route took us on Georgia Street towards Stanley Park, then through a couple of streets until we were running next to the beach and into Burrard Bridge. Then I got distracted by the people cheering and the masses of runners until I realized I was crossing the Cambie Bridge and into the finish line at BC Place Stadium... 52 minutes and 12 seconds later.

One of the things that I adore about races is the instantaneous silence that takes over the streets after the first kilometer (once you leave behind the speakers and noise at the start line). You're suddenly surrounded by hundreds of quiet huhh haaahh huuuh haaahs and the incessant tapping of rubber soles on the pavement. It is at this point that you realize you're really doing it, that you're really a part of this enormous group of people that defied the cold air and gathered for a morning of sweat and lactic acid. As any concert goer or sports fan knows, being part of a mass is empowering.

But the beauty of a race like this is that it's not about competition (unless you're part of the front teams) because almost anybody can run 10k. Unlike a marathon or a triathlon, a 10k race is also full of non-athletic people that show up simply to be a part of the race, knowing that they too can make it to the finish line. This gives the race a different tone of camaraderie, a certain air of equality. The race becomes a collective exercise in personal achievement. And that's what made me keep on running.