Día de los Santos Inocentes

Las noticias de Reformado.com, Beckham por fin fichó por el Barsa, FIFA le da el FIFA World Player a Zidane y se lo quita a Cannavaro, la federación de Jai-Alai denuncia a Nintendo por plagio del Wii son algunas de las que han dado vueltas este 28 de Diciembre, Día de los Santos Inocentes.

Pero si las creen, es su bronca.

Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!

Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

I bump into this issue from time to time (this photo is from Helsingin Sanomat), so I guess I have to tell my audience about it. The long rant that follows simply boils down to this: Tex-Mex is not Mexican food! The first time I saw hard-shell so-called tacos was in Europe. The only truly Mexican brand of chillies on sale here is "La Costeña", all others are European or American copycats.

Most of the food on sale in "Mexican" restaurants outside of North America (there are honourable exceptions, but they're few) is unknown to a Mexican, including such things as burritos (which are only found in Northern Mexico, if at all) or nachos with cheese. Those things to us are like a salmon burger would be to a Finn, or mussels with cheddar to a Belgian.

I don't deny Tex-Mex can be good food, just please don't call it Mexican. You have no idea how much you're missing. The funniest thing is that now in the States you can get proper Mexican food, but in Europe we're still stuck with the Americanised adaptation (just like the differences between rodeo and charrería).

Winter sunsets over Hanasaari

Were one of those things that I hadn't noticed that I missed so much from Finland. Pity it is so difficult to take a picture.

They're afraid of me...

One of the funniest things that has happened to me in Brussels is that when I find Finns in the street and talk to them in Finnish, they get scared as hell. Why? Because I sure as hell don't look Finnish, so they don't know what's going on.

At least with the younger generation that's not such a big problem anymore, but I sure hope it'd change.

UNICEF Smurfs ad

It is not difficult to see why this ad was so controversial in Belgium. However, I quite like it. We should keep in our minds those who are less fortunate than us, especially at this time of the year.



The text at the end reads: Don't let war destroy the universe of children.

Mandando mensajes de texto a México

No sé si la situación sea diferente con Movistar, pero al menos con Telcel no puedo mandar mensajes de celulares de otros países a números Telcel. Eso me parece muy raro ya que puedo mandar a números de otros países, e incluso haciendo roaming en México me llegó a pasar que recibía y podía mandar mensajes con mi número finlandés de un amigo con un número de Singapur tomando vacaciones en Nueva Zelanda, pero no podía recibir y mandar mensajes a mi papá con un Telcel en el cuarto de al lado.

¿Cuándo van a conectar su SMSC (la parte de la red de GSM que manipula los mensajes de texto) al mundo? ¿Realmente necesitan convencimiento sobre el modelo de negocio, dada la cantidad de mexicanos que vivimos fuera del país que podríamos causar una explosión en el uso de los mensajes de texto internacionales?

Infraestructura telefónica en México

Esta mañana me dí de topes otra vez con la infraestructura telefónica mexicana. Dado que soy uno de los 20 millones de mexicanos que viven en el extranjero, quise hablarle a mi familia a las 00:00 del 25 de diciembre para desearles feliz navidad. Dado que en Finlandia eran las 08:00 a.m. del mismo 25, que mi llamada saliera no fue mayor problema... el problema fue que entrara. Intenté dos números de celular y uno fijo, y durante quince minutos no hubo ni cómo. Recibí mensajes de "Intente más tarde" en finés, inglés, sueco, español y uno hasta en chino. Cuando por fin mi llamada pudo entrar a alguno de los celulares, me mandó inmediatamente al buzón de voz ambas veces.

Con razón el país ha perdido negocios de call centers para América Latina, si la red no puede ni siquiera manejar las llamadas de navidad.

Merry Christmas!

Helsinki Complaints Choir

Small country syndrome

Heard from a Finn who had just visited Costa Rica:

"Costa Rica felt somehow similar to Finland. Also a small country, right after asking where are you from they would turn to "How do you like our country?"."

I'm not so sure it is exclusive from small countries, but it is true that at least in Finland everybody asks you that.

Lordi Cola

Lordi Cola, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

Picture the scene: I'm in Finland after a while, go to the supermarket and find Lordi Cola. Then a kid around 8 years old stands in front of it, and starts singing "Hard Rock Hallelujah" with a French accent...

Priceless!

Back in Finland

For the holidays at least. Feels really nice actually to be here. I understand the language and the people much better.

Hair colour scales

One thing that has caught my attention for a while now is how people see hair colour differently. For example: many people in northern Europe would describe my hair colour and my eyes as black, whereas in Mexico or in Africa my hair colour is brown, and so are my eyes. Same thing with blond, many people that I would consider blond really don't think of themselves as blond, and vice-versa.

Being nordic

I was in a class the other day, and the teacher asked "Who here is from the Nordic countries?". All my friends turned around and looked at me. Should I have said yes, or no?

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

Another post in the Rock en Español series.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs is a group of Argentina that became very famous in the 90's with their eclectic mix of rock, ska, jazz, tango, samba and big band. They had many members, but their singer and co-leader was Vicentico, who has since gone solo, the other leader being Sr. Flavio. They released many albums, but reached continental notoriety through their single Matador (Vasos Vacíos, 1993), whose video is below.


Other videos available in YouTube are:
Strawberry Fields Forever (Rey Azúcar, 1995) A cover on The Beatles.
Mal Bicho (Rey Azúcar, 1995)
Calaveras y Diablitos (Fabulosos Calavera, 1997)
La Vida (La Marcha del Golazo Solitario, 1999) This is a great video, and a great spoof.

More information, as usual, from Wikipedia.

Carl Sagan

Wandering through Technorati while taking a break from studying International Economics I found the Carl Sagan blog-a-thon. Many in my audience will probably not have the slightest idea about who this man who died 10 years ago today was and why is he important, so check out Wikipedia.

In Mexico, where I grew up, I don't think they ever broadcasted the Cosmos PBS series, but I was fortunate enough that my school had bought the tapes (yes, tapes, after all, I was 8 or so at the time). Also at the same age, I received as a birthday present the book "Comet" from a neighbour. It was a present I devoured, and made me realise that science can be as much fun as science fiction (even though later I discovered I don't have the patience to be a scientist myself). During the following years I bought Cosmos, Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Pale Blue Dot and The Demon-Haunted World. I also joined the Planetary Society as a kid, with which my name went to Mars in the Mars Pathfinder (I'm not currently a member, but plan on rejoining). He is one of two persons (the other being Isaac Asimov) that planted firmly in my mind the idea that colonising other planets is what our species needs if it wants to survive (all this before global warming and the terrorist threat became the issues they are now).

He died on December 20th, 1996 after a long battle with mielodysplasia. Even though he didn't believe in God the way I do, my prayers are with him and his family ;-) .

How was your 2006?

I was checking out some forums I post in from time to time, and they had a thread about your personal highlights for 2006. I have to say that it got me thinking.

This year's gone in a blur! Below my highlights of this year that is about to end:

1. Family & friends are all healthy and doing well.
2. Still with the same girl for the last 6 years and loving every minute of it!
3. Got a lot of recognition at my job, but still went on study leave.
4. Travelled quite a bit: Chilangolandia (Mexico City), London, Dubai, Tokyo, Tel-Aviv, Berlin, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Barcelona...
5. Moved to Brussels from Helsinki to start a masters in international business. Enjoying it immensely! This city is great, and I needed a change.
5.5. I've found a different side of myself, and got in touch with my creative side (even started a blog).
6. Started another couple of languages (# 7 & 8). I still speak them like crap, though...
7. Met a lot of interesting people, but still keep in touch with my old friends.
8. Reconnected with some people I hadn't seen in quite a while.
9. Learned to cook sushi! And chicharrón en salsa verde, hehehehe.
10. Discovered new music (Nortec Collective rules).

Don't know what life will bring next year, but that makes it even more exciting. I have no idea about where I'm going to live after I finish my degree next summer, and you know what? No problem!

TIME magazine person of the year: You

With 2006 being the year of Web 2.0, it was bound to happen. Head over to TIME.com to read the articles.

Mexican hand gestures

I've been asked so many times about certain things I do that I decided to explain.

1. Extending and contracting your index finger while all others are contracted means yes.
2. Extending your index finger and then moving it from side to side while all others are contracted means no.
3. Extending all fingers, then taking the tips of them to your forehead with your palm facing you and doing a movement outward of about twenty centimetres means thank you.

Update: The video is available here.

Use Sunscreen and the Generation Gap

Two questions:

1. Are you inspired by this video, or just completely bored?
2. Are you below, or over 30?

There's an answer here somewhere...