Fireweed - Patrick Watson cover

brazilian, mexican, canadian

not persons, only connexions

L'homme invisible (invisible man)

Better than CSI

Just finished reading the book I talked to you about a few posts ago. L'homme invisible, by H.G. Wells. I'm on a book diet at this moment, since I decided not to go to university and come to Mexico for a year, and stupidity is not an option. The book was amazingly easy to read. It's short and adding to that, Wells is an artist of showing you the parts in the book when you can brain fart, so when it gets important, therefore interesting, you get nose rashes your head is so close to the book.

Why is this a bad ass book
Imagine a CSI show in a book, mixed up with the awesomeness of Star Wars. Why this awkward mix? Because it's, in a first place, a police chasing an invisible man, but also a book where, like Jules Verne's book, Wells talk to you about the science behind it. The Vernes/Wells era is the begining of science fiction, where they wrote books about going around the world and going through it, about seeing the end of the universe and seeing through the flesh of a man. That's the cool part about it because it makes us notice, reading those books now, that we are on the other side of their 'frontiere'. The things that were inimaginable at that time are common day things now. The other thing that makes this book really fun to read, is that I haven't seen the technique used by Wells in this book since watching some old shows of Colombo with my dad. What I mean by that is that compared to CSI and all of those shows that I hated and still hate now, Colombo would tell us the who, what, where, when of the murder or crime, it would be the first scene of the show. The rest of the show would be us being in the mind of Colombo and looking at the exact same things he is looking at, however still not seeing the little details that makes him crack the case at the end of the show, even if we know what was the murder. That's the art in Colombo and L'homme invisible, is that they show details about the crime, but those details are in the fine area between way to obvious and not sufficiently there. Now a days, CSI and all of those shows just don't show us the details that are important, they just scared us and put suspence with horrible music and dark blue backgrounds, and at the end of the show they say 'oh, we forgot to tell you that the guy actually had a gun with him'.
But to return to the book I read. Where was I? oh yes, the Colombo comparasion. So; like in Colombo, the first thing you learn (it's the title) is that the guy is invisible. However, it takes the whole book for us to follow the path taken by the other caracthers in the book, how they founded out he was invisible. I mean, the last paragraph of the book, is the physical description of the invisible man, because after dying, his skin gets its color back. In a metarophical and literal point of view; we are slowly and with our hearts pounding in our chests, waiting to see what's going to happen; taking off the bandages off the face of the invisible man, seeing his true personnality, his real body. And this could only have happened with the surgery-like precision and delicacy of Wells, the author of a book that I reccomend to all the fans of CSI, Colombo, Star Wars, Star Trek, Jules Verne and any other kind of police/science fiction books or movies that ever existed.

If I'm looking for connections, art is my plug

George Condo

black and white...and colors

'But you can at least take a camera, shoot a viral. Huh?'

-<(Technology)>-

Maybe what I meant in the ZAMM post by the verb 'facebooking' wasn't only meant for the internet, maybe it was meant for every kind of technology or object surrounding us (by that I mean from the internet, to the car we own, to the shoes we wear). I feel like technologie is too big of a part in our lives comparing to the quality of the relationship with have with it. Technologie is all around us, and we're damn scared of it. It's too cold, without life.Now we have 2 techiques to fix that. Avoid technology or improve our relationship. The first technique is superficial and only temporary. I've seen people talking about how books are better then movies, however books are still technologie.
So now let's talk about the second option wich is working on the problem on a more fundamental level. Let's surround technologie with ourselves, instead of the other way around. When was the last time we painted on our shoes, wrote in the book we are reading, fixed our own washing machine. We don't do that, we're scared of it, we have to much respect for technology, always forgetting that it's actually not that complicated. And when their is respect, their almost always fear. I remeber my aunt telling me that the youth is way better with computer then before, but we have no clue how to write codes and create programs. The basic you know. That's why we are so scared of it, because we don't know what's inside of it. So if we do a metaphor between every type of technology and a computer, let's break open our computer, look inside, ask us what every part does, fix it, break it, change its color, add something to it. So now we wont be scared of touching our computer, because now the computer is part of us, its listening to what we say, it has nothing over us, even if it can do operations and work better and faster. But that's what we created it for, no?

'I just needed time alone with my own thoughts'

This is the result of putting 'Monster' from Kanye West, on repeat mode.

Big Sean - Too Fake feat Chiddy Bang

My Mexico, My Converse

Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenace

How it all started
This story all started the morning before our great expedition to la Malinche, a moutain in Puebla, Mexico. All the exchange students were wainting in the parking lot of a grocery store in the middle of Puebla, for a bus which would arrive 2 hours late. I don't remeber who or why, but either me or Cullen, the exchange student who gave me this book (http://culleninmexico.blogspot.com/), mentioned the holy two letter organization that ruled our passed few years in school, IB. An organization which brain washes us in to thinking that we are smarter then every one, but on the other hand, they give us a very very very critical mind. That's why non-IB students hate us.
The moment that followed was joined by the exact same feeling you get when you see a good friend you haven't seen for a long time, and that you really didn't expect to see at that moment, at that place. Just imagine two guys screaming 'OMG, OMG!!!! IB!!!!OMG!!!!!!' and nobody else around having one clue how important this encounter was important for both of us (me at least). It was followed by a lot of discussions about our grades (IB students will always be the same, always comparing), about the classes we loved/hated, about TOK(philosophie class), and a lot of other really, really nerdy stuff.
After the great week-end that was la Malinche, I went sleeping at Cullen's house and he showe my the book, Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and he explained to me the whole mission behind it. He and his girlfriend both wrote in the book, there thoughts, there agreements/disagreements and ideas for improvement. I had to do the same. That dude had an awesome idea and he wanted me to be part of it. I call it 'facebooking'. A verb wich means creating a community around something (in this case a book). Doing around the book what facebook did to internet, giving it life. Now this book wasnt only a bunch of page, and it wouldn't only be important to you, it meant something to somebody else, what you wrote will mean something to somebedy else.
So I agreed.
The Book
This book is actually two books intertwinned in each other. One is a people book, about a father and a son going across the United States of America on a motorcycle, the second book is about the reconciliation between technology and beauty, between classical thinking and romantic thinking. The best way to explain the point of the book is by how the adventour of me reading the book started. The book (which is technology, on a low level but still not so different form a computer), is reconciliated with beauty not because it talks about pretty stuff (Pirsig, the author, says it should be on a more fondamental level), but because what Cullen ask himself, his girlfriend, and later me to do, brought beauty into the book, Quality. Now the feeling I had reading the book was not the one of touching cold metal, but the feeling I had jumping in the waves in Acapulco. The book is, literally and symbolicly, reconciliating the people that fixes bikes,and the people that ride it across the United States. I'm not going to get into the details, however this book changed the way I see stuff on a lot of levels. Now, every time I think, I always make sure my thoughts are of Quality, but also simpler, easier to understand.

Conclusion
Hard to understand, but worth exploring and searching for answers. Recomended to the courageous and to the one ready to search hours on wikipedia for some explanation on the examples that Pirsig gives.

''This week has been a bad massage, I need a happy ending, and a new beginning''

mi casa es tu casa

Family

Yo...received my camera today :D. I've been doubting for so long if I wanted one, and now that I have it in my hand, I regret buying it... IM KIDDING, I love it, dont know why I didnt bought one before. Its a nikon D3000 if anybody cares.

But the subject of this post is about family, not camera. Today, I read the blog of an american living in puebla, if I have the permission to quote, she said "I always wanted to be able to say 'no, I cant go out tonight, I'm chilling with my family'." And this couldnt be truer for me. This is the aspect of my life that will be changed the most by this country, a country still undefinable for me. Back on subject, I spend half of my week ends with my family here, and by family, I mean cousins, aunts, the whole package. And I love it. Im noticing that the only person, and Im so lucky to be able to say this because I know people that cant say the same about there family, but the only persons that will always be there for me, are my family. Even more, I'm bassing my best friends on my grand pa and my dad, taking my sense of humor from every men in my family, my need to travel from my aunt and sister (wich is in france right now, I love her), my sis also influences my taste in women, and her taste in men influences my style, because I to, want to attract woman like my dear sister. All of that just to say in Canada, I have a 10000 friends, but I mostly only have memories in commun with them. Here, my circle is way smaller, wich also mean way tighter. I want to do with my life, mostly with the help of the smallest and best circle I have, my family, what favebook is doing to tge world, wich means creating circles around you, opening the world around, but knowing that the quality of someone is based on the quality and not quantity of his friends. And the best quality is most of the time founded indside the family's house.

Ex: I know a lot of kids that only see their parents 2 times a year, its completly innecceptable in the culture that Im surrounded by right now (and believe me, mexico has a very strong culture, it surrounds you at every corner, in every plate and in every family). I think the point is friends are there for you, and they might understand you, however you dont notice it, but they almost always slowly slip away. Onve again, Im very lucky to be able to say this, but my family will alaways be there for me.

p.s.: I choosed "l'homme invisible" for the next book I'm reading.
p.s.2: I next posts will be: pics from my new camera, explaning the book I just finished and the adventure behind it, what's going to happen in the nxt few months, and my adventure of "la ruta de la independancia"

From Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

p.332 'Yout want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally'

I just finished the book today (next post is about the whole adventour behind it) and it's an awesome book. Would love to follow it with something philosofical again, but I don't have one under my hand right now, and the itchiness of reading is to powerfull. However I have a few options to read, starting tomorrow. Stories of the Cuban Revolution (in spanish), Le petit prince (in spanish), L'homme invisible (in french), Tueur sans gages (in french) and Le Roi se meurt (in french).

The only reason why I want to go to Madrid

Starting

 Bonjour tout le monde, hello everyone, hola a todos. Just finished creating my blog, like you know by now. It's called the me and I in time. I still don't know what the ''t'' means. The adress is also the perfect explanation of what this blog is all about. For the title, gumption, it's a word I still don't know how to describe so much, except for the fact that I like it. They talk about it in the book I just finished, Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Book reccomended by my good friend Cullen O. Brown. It could also have been called, pour maman (wich means in french, for mom) because I'm pretty much doing it for her since she is worrying so much about me being in Mexico right now. Don't worry mom, I'm all good. Also, I had the idea of creating this blog when I wondered where am I going to put the pictures of my new camera (long story, but I still don't know if it's a nikon D3000 or D3100, that info will be posted soon), since the people that care the most about my pics; family, are not on my facebook, sorry dad. So here we go, hopefully I wont become lazy and I'll actually post some stuff: pictures, videos and funny thinking about depressive subjects.

p.s.: sorry to all the french community that this blog will be in english.