Digital Radio in Sydney

Well folks, these holidays aren't going any faster.
The days outside are cold and wet, meanwhile college is overrun by American tourists who have the interesting pattern of disappearing during the whole day and coming back to college at 2 AM after a time out in the city. And boy, they sure are loud.

Anyway,
My computer has a TV tuner, and so I am able to watch digital TV, which is slowly but progressively catching speed and becoming better and better. Many national broadcasters are now offering HD quality channels. And they bring out new channels quite often too, it's great to see how I'll be killing time these holidays.

But I do not fully endorse TV viewing, I actually enjoy radio a bit better than TV. And as per usual I tune in to SBS everyday to listen to the Spanish broadcast. It's great to listen to something in my native language often, for I really don't want to lose practice and appear as a total foreigner when I come back to visit.

But radio in Australia is changing as well. Not long ago, digital radio has been introduced to the market, and very quickly a lot of radio stations\ appeared or transferred to digital to offer quality broadcasts.

And one of them that has really captured my attention is SBS Chill, a digital exclusive broadcast featuring nothing else but great chill-out and world music. And one time I even heard a bit of Latin Drum 'n Bass. How awesome is that? It really makes my day. I haven't enjoyed listening to a radio station in such a manner since Radio Bondi FM was good. Sadly, I don't have a digital radio (as of yet), but I can still tune in through the website. And what is good is that the broadcast does not rip a large chunk off of my bandwidth and yet still have a sound quality a bit superior to a 128 kbits MP3.

I really enjoy it. Check the SBS Chill site to have a taste of it. Good times.

Keep on chillin'

Bokeh studies

It's been a while since I last blogged. I'm on holidays now, so I've been busy on a few things. I really want to take more pictures though.. here are a few that I took on a night in the city.

Exams...

The end-of-semester examinations are here...
I'm getting to the point that I will freak out.
But I'm sure that at least I'll pass everything.

So I won't be on during this week.

It's sooo bad and unfortunate that we've started tests right when the World Cup begins. It's been quite good so far however, I'm really looking forward to see how North Korea competes against the big guns Brazil and Portugal. And I hope Mexico can at least pass onto the next phase.

See you soon in a bit.

New Blog - Nuevo Blog

It's been a rather long time since I blogged in Spanish. And given that I've realized how active Spanish-speakers are on the internet, not only worldwide but in Australia as well, I've decided to create a blog where I write in Spanish. It will be similar to Dot Counterpoint Dot, but not as artistic, I suppose. It will be mostly focused for Spanish-speakers in Australia and those who live abroad and would like to know more about this country.

Once it's up, I'll see how I adapt myself to own two blogs at a time.

----------------------------------------------

No me acuerdo muy bien de la última vez que escribí en español de manera prolongada desde que terminé el bachillerato. Por eso decidí crear un blog escrito enteramente en español, donde comparto similares historias que escribo en Dot Counterpoint Dot, pero son, más bien, específicamente escritas para hispanohablantes y para aquellos que viven aquí en Australia. Veo que hay bastante actividad de parte de personas que bloguean en español en el internet, así que decidí unirme a ellos con la creación de mi nuevo blog.

Todavía no está listo, pero ahí les va el link:

Mi Vida en Sidney

Progressing onto the Golden Gate Bridge

View Larger Map

Another Facebook group has been formed in response to the anonymous guy's postcard from San Francisco.
This time, people are gathering at the Golden Gate Bridge to paste print outs from all of the comments posted in the other group, as well as other messages.
This just keeps on showing how many awesome and beautiful people out there are willing to help someone. I'm impressed by how massive this has become, and I express my respect and admiration to everyone who has so far been involved.

Esta noche...

... rezaré.

Please don't jump

Every Sunday I check PostSecret, a blog where postcards with secrets of anonymous senders are posted. It's a blog about the beauty and sadness of our humanity; and it always makes me sad when I visit it, it makes me laugh every time, it makes me feel empowered, it makes me filled with awe, it makes me recoil in horror, it makes me feel guilty, it makes me feel human.

Today, an anonymous sender from San Francisco had his/her postcard featured.

The postcard has since sparked a lot of reaction from the internet. Emails poured into the PostSecret website in response to the postcard. Twitter reported the creation of a Facebook group in response to this. Since its creation, more than a 1000 people have sent messages pleading the sender to not jump, to give a chance to life and to a better future.

Ending one's own life is the worst mistake one can do, ever. It will not solve any of your problems at all. It will not make the world a better place. Choose life, and you will see the beautiful and great things that you would have otherwise missed out on. I've been there. And I know how hard it is. I've pulled myself from the pits of darkness, and good things have happened to me! But, please man, or gal; please do not jump. For there are many good things in life to come. There is hope. You are not alone. And you do belong. It may not seem so, but there's always a place where you belong to. And if life seems sad and dark to you, at least realize that all it takes is making a few good decisions, sticking around with your friends, letting them know of your problems, and getting help to solve those problems. And you will feel like a million bucks. I do not know you, but please, at least know that there are people out there who care and are willing to help you. I care. Please, for your future's and life's sake, do not jump. BE STRONG. CHOOSE LIFE. DO NOT JUMP.

Please share this link. Join in, and send a message.
Let's just hope that this guy is still around with us, and is aware of what people from all over the world are writing to him, showing him that people care, that he is not alone and that there is hope to solve his issues. It's incredible how the internet just connects such beautiful people to do such wonderful things.

God bless.

Vivid Sydney 2010; curated by Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed

Hmmmm, I knew I should have had a bit more control over my ISO that night. But hey, it was raining, foggy and windy. But regardless of that, the projections are animated! HOW AWESOME! Thanks Laurie and Lou for the show.

Double Rainbow

¿Sabías que...

... todos nosotros estamos hechos de polvo estelar?

On humanity... and Earth

"So tall... and we built those things?!"

And so we did.

6.8 billion of us over 148,940,000 km^2.

And it's only been, what... 200,000 years?

And we are already sending people out in orbit around and out of our Pale Blue Dot.

And we are already driving our planet to destruction.

Who would have thought that we would even evolve in such a way in the cold vacuum of space?

Heck, who would have thought that we would even exist? For all that matters, Earth's own existence, our own existence and evolution, is a miracle.

Oh cuánto extraño a mi hermano!

Hoy estuve chateando con mi hermano en Facebook.
Está aprendiendo español, y tenía una gran duda sobre cierta conjugación de los verbos, en específico sobre las palabras ponerse, llegar a ser, convertirse, quedarse, volverse, etcétera.

No soy el experto en gramática del idioma español, (él está aprendiendo el castellano) pero aún así intenté explicarle algunas cosas. En fin, una fracción de la discusión fue así:

P: han intententado ensenarmelo

pero

JODER!

es tan dificil

Dejame dar un ejemplo


N: Adelante


P:espera

llegar a ser es como

MIERDA!

no

eso no es


N: Jajaj


Y vaya que me reí, ese chavo ya aprendió un chingo. Y solo han sido 7 meses desde que llegó a la Península Ibérica. Voy a rezar por él hoy.

Another discovery

Wow, I've been going discovery after discovery these past weeks. All because of the Vivid Sydney Festival.

This time, it's something quite different as well. It's a band of throat singers called Chirgilchin. These guys come from the very heart of Central Asia, at the very southernmost tip of Russia near Mongolia. The guys themselves don't look Russian at all, but a bit Mongol I suppose. Their music is very entrancing because it is just something that I've never heard before in my life. They use their throats to take advantage of resonant effects of the passing air when they exhale. In other more descriptive words, they practically whistle with their throats.

Now, it's not really your normal kind of whistling. But rather of a very bizarre kind. Instead of air resonating from within the mouth, like normal whistling, throat singing uses the entire air tract from the mouth, larynx and voice box to resonate air. Just listen to it:



I just find it really interesting how charmingly happy those guys are with their music, even if it sounds so weird.

I really thank Vivid Sydney for introducing me to this kind of stuff. Every month I realize how much music I really want to buy, and I sadly look at myself in my present economic situation. Go P2P for the WIN.

It's always the same story, all the time

Well,
I believe I have put myself once again in doubt of myself.
What a neurotic, existentialist hedonist I am.

I guess I don't know where I'm heading to, what's my next step.

Of course, there was always a direction to go to. There was always an arrow pointing to the barren lands of Down Under, but once I got here and finally picked myself up from the shock of coming to these quirky lands, I am not sure where to go anymore.

The arrow should be pointing somewhere,
but I don't know where.
Heck, I can't even see if there is an arrow anymore.

Sometimes I get the feeling that my life will end soon.
It is not an expression of suicide, fear not. Please. Enough of that stuff anyway.
But I just can't imagine myself graduating from university. Or even getting my career on track, or even owning my own car and house. Getting married, having kids. Paying mortgage, paying debt (my worst nightmare). I just can't imagine myself doing it!
And I have this feeling that somewhere along the line, I will never get to do those things. It is foolish of me.

It sounds just weird, but I just wouldn't know how the hell to do things. I finally can drive legally (fuck yeah), and started uni, but there is just quite a range of things that are assumed as common for Australians of my age that I cannot even do, that I may have no idea about.

It's always been like that, even when I arrived here, I had no idea of how to deal with things, partly people, but mostly about how different things are run here. And I always feel disadvantaged in that respect.

And I know it's bitchy to comment on this sort of stuff online, and even specifically on my blog. But what the hell. That's the first thing I found when I came into my room. Gotta get my head a bit organized. Then I suppose I can sleep a bit better at night.

New discovery

Hello people.
I am in much better health than before, but I'm still not fully 100% back.

Just today I discovered a Japanese band: Boris. What a band name. And yes, by Japanese I don't only mean that they are awesome, absolutely insane to the extent that our western music standards of craziness are nothing in comparison to what those japs do every single day and consider the norm. Yep, you guessed it, they are from Japan. Damn! What a surprise...

Ok, no. They are something quite extra special, since they were invited to be featured artists in the Vivid Sydney Festival run this year. I discovered them in a brochure of the festival during breakfast. It featured all three members of the band holding double-necked guitars. And I thought: "Wow, that looks soo cool. I wonder what their music is like." I checked their MySpace site, and listened to their tracks.

I got blown away by firstly listening to this one:


And then, the floodgates open and I am completely entranced by the incredible sound they produce, even if they only have three members, even if there was actually only one double-necked guitar (the poster was deceiving!!):


I'm now addicted to their music. In less than 13 hours. It has been incredible!! I'm already considering buying music from my free-shipment music shop site of preference. Wow, damn, wwwwooooww!!! Really hot stuff right there.

And yeah, now I'm trying to get a job. The barista option is too unstable, too unfrequent, perhaps the nightfill shifts may come in handy once again. God it's that time coming back again.

I'll see ya peeps later, keep rocking.

10 days of rain

It's been quite a while since I last posted.


Winter is approaching fast, and the air is crisp and tight around us.
And it has been raining down really hard. It's a bit too wet for a Southern-Hemisphere autumn in Sydney.

Sometimes it seems that the sound of water is a glimpse of the voice of nature.
Droplets pounding gently on the car, while you wait inside for someone.
The splashing from our feet onto puddles.
The fine touches of rain onto our face.

But sometimes we forget about what it all means.
Of course, our immediate minds focus on heading to shelter.
But that is nothing in comparison to the magnitude of the world.

Some say that water has memory..
and that it holds special powers.
Don't you see how sometimes, all that we need is a shower or bath to get us relaxed?
And sometimes, where urbanization has sprawled over ancient water routes, floods go through those same spots again without failing.

It's been raining too much.
Now I'm sick.

For some reason I feel like listening to Moby.

And those three words

This is possibly one of the most interesting music videos I've seen in the past months. The music, an interesting mix of house and pop, with a very slight hint of trance, is pretty cool. I normally look at "commercial" music as tasteless, but I guess I just take things in music with a very biased perspective, but every now and again, there is some good stuff out there. Of course, and taking into consideration the present nature of the artistic world at the moment, some of the music that is currently popular is just outrageous and ridiculous.

I guess what got me in this video is the visuals. The splitting images, the blending of the camera shots, and how everything seems to sit so naturally in place even if the cameras move in opposite direction, makes this video quite pleasing and engaging to the mind. It's like a diptych, but just with video. The creative part of myself is trying to piece the things together, trying to form some sort of meaning out of the plain but odd room featured there, with the people twirling around and with the very plastic appearance of the singers. But it may just not have any sense at all. Meh, it happens. It's art.

No fue tal y cómo lo pensaba

Cambio de planes!
Aquellos interesantes cambios y momentos que pensé que iba a tener quizás no van a suceder dentro de algo de tiempo. Y quizás con otra compañía, alguien diferente.

Al menos ya parte de mis broncas se han resuelto,

y estoy ocupándome de más y más cosas: exámenes, tareas, etcétera. Muchas cosas como siempre. Sabía que la universidad iba a ser algo laborioso, pero creo que mis estimaciones al principio eran más inferiores a lo que en realidad estoy haciendo en la actualidad.

Lo bueno es que mis opciones se han abierto otra vez. Y de nueva cuenta vuelvo a aquella fase existencial del "pues, me gustaría salir con alguien". Te podría contar en cientos de palabras lo que mi mente está interpretando de mi presente estado, pero no tengo el tiempo (y quizás tú no tendrás el tiempo tampoco de leer).

Pero, ahora me pregunto, ¿a quién le estoy escribiendo?
No importa, el blog deberá seguir adelante, de pie, y creciendo con más nuevo contenido.
Cuídense todos.

Cuando el silencio impera y solo las miradas hablan

Su propia belleza

define un color único y propio.

Sus curvas demuestran la verdadera promesa.

No sé a quién le debo rezar

cuando la luz cambia de curso alrededor de aquellos contornos.



Translated excerpt from "Quiet Now", by Daedelus

Ballads of the distances and times pt.1

Sometimes,
there is just fog all around you


and you can't see what is ahead,



sometimes you can't even see your own hands,




Ver mapa más grande


but you just can't stop going forward.

There could be a sharp bend right ahead.
Or a blockade. Or a dead end.


And you can't stop thinking about it.


Your                      mind
    overflows
             with
                 the
                    fear
               about
            the
absolute               unknown     .             


But regardless of that,

you should stay on the road.

And keep charging forward through the mist.


Grip the
tar
mac

and feel       
the         wind
brushing by you.

Let it
tell you where
everyone's destinies
collide and fuse;

where life begins and ends,
and where you lie
in the event horizon
                        
of
your own       miraculous,     brief  
                                            and
                                            impermanent
                                            existence.