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โพสต์
Everyday problems in Chile (30-day challenge)
Yes, this is another rant.
This week I received a package through Pullman Cargo, a Chilean company. I tried to check before where the package was to avoid a fruitless trip to Pullman's office, using the tracking code I got from the seller. I went to Pullman's website and tried to get the package status using the tracking code and, guess what! I got a beautiful "tracking code not found" error. I got a bit worried because the company that sent me the package through Pullman had already shown sloppiness, so maybe they had given me a wrong tracking code. Then, I tried to get information about my package calling to Pullman's call center. The first time I waited for five minutes. I did that like four times before giving up. I thought maybe with the COVID crisis, people weren't working in call centers (which is fine). Then, I tried to contact the Pullman's city office directly, using the telephone number I found on the same website. No answer. The call finished right away, like if the phone was unavailable. Finally, feeling defeated, I assumed that I had to go in person to Pullman's office. According to the website, the attention hours are from 9 am to 7 pm, so I went to the office at 5:30 pm. When I got there, I read a sign hanging in the office's door explaining that given the COVID crisis, the attention hours were from 9 am to 5 pm. You may understand that I was a bit frustrated at this point.
The next day I went after lunch and could get my package. So the tracking code was right, but for some unfathomable reason didn't work from their website. I told the entire story to the guy who was attending. You won't believe me what his answer was: he said it wasn't his job to keep the website up to date, so he didn't want to hear any complaints. He also told me that the previous telephone number wasn't working anymore (and gave me the new one) and that if I need to know the attention hours, I should go to check personally at the office. I asked him if it would be possible for him to email or call "someone" to fix the issue. I got a straight no for an answer. I added nothing else, gave him the polite-but-empty thanks of rigor, and left the place.
By the way, this is a private company, subject to the waves of the market, where innovation and fierce competition push the quality standards to skyrocket heights. Now multiply this situation by the thousand, and you will get a picture of why we have so many problems in Chile.
6
3
The mighty Kettlebell (30-day challenge)
I'm happy because today I got my two new 28kg kettlebells, after waiting for three weeks! Mastering this weight is a step closer to my quarantine goal of pressing and squatting with double 32 kg kettlebells. I tried to jump from 24 kg to 32 kg and was a total failure (I wishfully thought I could make it, but reality slaps you in the face xD).
A kettlebell is an iron ball with a handle, a deceivingly simple piece of equipment. I got acquainted with kettlebells only two years ago when I was looking for ways to improve my grip. Before that, I only had the usual implements in the typical poor man's home gym: a pull-up bar and a set of dumbbells. I'm not a "fitness" guy; I only try to keep a reasonably good shape, so my mates don't tear me apart in sparring (the maxim "technique over strength" is right, but there are nuances). So, while digging in forums and blogs, I saw praising to this implement. I wondered why all the fuss with kettlebells if it's just like a dumbbell. Happens that kettlebells are a different story, a surprisingly versatile tool that allows you to develop some movement patterns crucial for sports where explosiveness is needed. With kettlebells, you can do the squat, press, jerk, snatch, swing, among many other exercises. These compound movements are far better to train strength than the typical routine followed by your average gym guy who enjoys looking himself to the mirror.
What about powerlifting? As far as I know, that's a better choice, but it is more demanding. Go ahead with powerlifting if you are young, have time, have the equipment, and are willing to learn the technique. Powerlifting is a sport on its own. For an oldish aficionado like me, looking to get some strength to play more safely in their sport, kettlebells are good enough.
15 กรกฎาคม 2020
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Today's rant: don't worship people
For days, I’ve been watching a long twitter thread of a reputed software engineer, with thousands of followers, where he complains about being a victim of the so-called “cancel culture”. Fellow developers have criticized this guy because of his firm opinions about minorities in tech. Others, sharing similar ideas to him, have supported his views. No matter your stand in the subject, something caught my attention: people, even belonging to the minorities harshly criticized by this guy, giving unconditional support to him. And with unconditional support, I mean comments like “you’re the best” and “we love you”. What the heck is that? Please don’t misunderstand me; I’ve bought and read two books of this person, and I don’t pretend to “cancel him”, as many people ask. My point is about those followers, smart people working in big tech companies that behave like groupies.
A similar phenomenon happens in the martial arts world. I’ve trained in different disciplines since I was a kid, and I’ve seen this pattern again and again. People extrapolate the ceremonial behavior you should have in the tatami, that we keep as a tradition and enforces discipline, to all aspects of life. Instructors became “senseis” and their students treat them as enlightened Zen masters, with the authority to preach about everything in life. This dynamic is problematic because that kind of influence from an instructor over their students is the starting point to a cult-like culture inside academies (there’re enough stories about abusive behavior in the martial arts world because of this).
Please keep the experts in any field relevant in their area of expertize only. Well, that’s the rant of the day.
14 กรกฎาคม 2020
2
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Starcraft (30-day challenge)
Today, in a conversation about being an adult, I thought about things I enjoyed in the past, and I’m not doing anymore. You know, the kind of talk parents with young children and a mortgage have while having coffee and wiping their tears. Luckily(?) I live in a patriarchal society so, unconsciously, I’ve could keep many of my activities going on over the years, despite my new responsibilities, except for one: video games. And of all the games I used to play (no so many), the one I miss the most is Starcraft.
Starcratf is an RTS, acronym for real-time strategy. It’s about smartly managing resources, building an army, and crushing your opponent as fast as possible. There’re three races available: Zergs, Protoss and Terrans. Zergs are like insects: cheap and weak but overwhelming. Protoss are the opposite, expensive and robust units. Lastly, Terrans are the human race, a kind-of balanced option. I’ve always played as a Zerg (the hive rules!). When the match starts, you have a group of units and structures placed on one side of the map, with your opponent on the other. Your first units are workers capable of mining resources: minerals and vespene gas. With the resources you get, you have to build more units and structures. Each race has its own technology tree, where units and structures have different costs and prerequisites, so you have to be smart about what you build and when. I like Starcraft because the game can be complex in terms of decision-making and very demanding because your attention can be divided into different fronts (keeping your economy thriving, protecting your bases and attacking, sometimes in multiple fronts).
Maybe someday I’ll be able to play again, who knows :)
4
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Not in the mood (30-day challenge)
I'm tired and sleepy after an interminable day of work. I've been going at 100% pace (like my boss says to "motivate" us) for a few weeks, trying to finish a software system we are making at work. I have to write my text of the day for the challenge, but I'm not in the mood. I was going to just write:
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
But it would be cheating because it's a copy-paste xD
2
2
Unsustainability of insdustrial fishing (30-day challenge)
The other day I read an article about a transgenic salmon produced by AquaBounty, a North American company. AquaBounty is about to get permission to put in the market its product AquaAdvantage, a GMO salmon that grows in half of the time than a salmon raised with conventional methods. According to the article, the product is 100% safe, meaning:
- No organoleptic difference: the meat is indistinguishable from the natural one in flavor, odor, color, texture, etc.
- Factories far from the sea, river, lake, or any water body (to avoid the risk of escape).
- Barriers and security measures to limit the access to specimens and genetic material (you don't want any guy taking a fish as a pet).
- Only females without reproductive capacity (yes, I know this sounds like Jurassic Park, and we all know how it ends).
Independently of one's opinion about GMOs, an undeniable fact is the unsustainability of industrial fishing in its current form. People who live in seaside cities with a strong culinary tradition related to marine products are aware of the current ecological crisis that led many species to virtual extinction. Many species are no longer available in fishing markets, even since decades ago. You often hear the complaints of older people who tell about the size of fish, progressively smaller, in comparison to the past. There's no easy way out for this problem because you cannot feed an overpopulated world with good quality protein, at a reasonable cost, without devastating the sea or growing fish using techniques like GMOs. If you want to democratize the access to quality protein and not make it a luxury product, you will have to make a compromise. On the other hand, nobody wants to live a zombie apocalypse because of a GMO with an unforeseen effect on the human population (well, maybe some preppers actually would like that :D).
4
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Good stories with terrible endings (30-day challenge)
Have you ever watched/read a good story, with proper development, but with an awful ending? Is it a bummer, right? I have two examples to share that, in my opinion, were entertaining stories that went wrong in the end.
The first is the HBO series Game of Thrones, an adaptation of a fantasy(?) book trilogy. I'm not going to whine about Khaleesi's fate, or how Tyrion lost its edge in the last seasons, or how the most terrible and formidable foe of men was defeated in a swift. My objection is not about the script, but how fast the final events happened in the last season. Honestly, I don't have a background in storytelling or audiovisual productions, but to me, as a viewer, it seemed these people were in a hurry to finish, like if they were running out of budget or something.
The second one is Gantz, a sci-fi manga. It's about people who are "abducted" in the moment of its death, to play a kind of hunting game where the prey are aliens. Very bloody scenes, with some nudes, but the plot development justify the excesses :p. In this case, I have almost no complaints, it's just the very end: it's sooo cheesy. I wonder why the author closed the story like in a romantic novel. Disappointing.
5
1
The Chucao (30-day challenge)
The Chucao is a small bird that inhabits the rainforest of the south of Chile. The Chucao's fed of maggots, insects and seeds. You can hear its characteristic singing when walking by forests in Chiloé:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt63RacboSY
I have a special affection for these little birds because they remind me of my childhood. When I was little, I used to accompany my dad and uncle to the forest to sawing wood. Sometimes, when the chainsaw cut a tree partially rotten, larvae got exposed and you could see a Chucao close enough, feasting.
These were long working days, for the grownups, of course, because I just played around all day. I remember they made fun of me because I always was the first one starving at midday, asking when we were going to lunch.
Happy days :)
7 กรกฎาคม 2020
6
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Cleaning the woodshed roof (30-day challenge)
Last week my mother-in-law complained about a water filtering in the roof of her woodshed. Where I live, chimeneas are still the preferred way to warm homes, so people usually have woodsheds to keep a stock of dry wood for the winter. Today I climbed into the roof to check what the problem was. I thought that maybe a zinc plate got loose, usually the strong winter winds weaken the nails progressively until filtering happens. But it wasn't that. The woodshed is next to a quince tree (in fact, we harvested and made jam with the fruit of this season, in april) and surprise surprise, the roof gutters were clogged with a mix of leaves, mud and rotten quinces. With the amount of sediment, water wasn't running correctly and part of it was draining inside the woodshed by a wall.
So, I sweep the remaining leaves from the roof and, using a glove, started to clean the gutters. I almost filled a bucket of 25 liters with sediments. You have to be careful when walking in a roof of zinc plates. The rainwater makes the roof slippery, and falling would be a broken bone for sure. Also, you don't want to damage the zinc plates with your weight, you must walk where the plates are nailed, always with care.
Next year I'll try to be a better son-in-law and I'll clean the roof before winter.
7
2
Kefir (30-day challenge)
Dairy products have always been essential in my diet. Ever since I have memory, I began my day with yogurt, or porridge in winter, or a milkshake in hot summer days. Nowadays, my first breakfast early in the morning consists of Kefir with some fruit, oat or quinoa, seeds and honey; followed shortly after by an espresso (with that, I survive until the middle of the morning when I have a second breakfast).
I neven been fond of yogurt with flavors or added sweetness because I am used to mixing it with other stuff. Years ago, I was living in Santiago and bought my yogurt in the supermarket. I was often disappointed because sometimes I could not find plain natural yogurt without sugar or anything. My wife -girlfriend at that time- told me about a "naturist" grocery shop where natural yogurt was available near I lived. It was great, the real thing, but too expensive to my budget. That fact, along with a TV reportage in the news where experts questioned the quality of mainstream yogurt products, pushed me to find a better and cheaper alternative.
Enter the Kefir. Kefir is not yogurt, but quite similar. It is the product of a fermentation process done by a culture containing yeast and bacteria. It is more acid than regular yogurt, and it also could be less creamy depending on how much time you wait for it. The basic process of doing Kefir is fairly simple: put your culture in a liter of milk and wait. As the fermentation happens, you will see how the milk starts to separate in a thicken jellified mass and a clear liquid (whey). The more you wait, the more this separation progresses. The whey is rich in protein, but it is also what gives the acid savor to the Kefir, so you can discard it to get a creamier and softer Kefir. In summer, I make banana shakes with the whey not to waste it (not so tasty, but drinkable if you add honey and good before training).
I have been making Kefir by almost five years now and I am pretty happy with it. The downside is the extra effort you have to put, like with any homemade food: I have to do the same process at least twice a week to have Kefir every day. Also, you have to take care of the culture, it is like a pet. Every time I travel, my wife has to take care of my little fellows (same as with sourdough, but that is another story).
5
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