Aug
17

Logtar En Español?

I was born in Cali, Colombia. A beautiful city sitting in between the Andes in the Cauca river valley. I grew up there and then moved to the US. I almost completed my high school education there, but once I moved to the US Spanish became my second language and English my first. I was in a new environment and I needed to learn quickly, I was to go to college here and I needed to not only be able to communicate but also learn, write papers, be a student.

I was young, so I had the opportunity to go to High School for a couple of years before going to college. This gave me a chance to learn English a little better before having to take on College. I was lucky to have some wonderful teachers and was able to write at a level that was acceptable for college courses and I actually did quite well. I think my only D during college came via one of my Cobol classes where I was accused of cheating because my program was not copied word by word from the teachers instructions… even though the program worked it was too similar to someone I did not even know… but that is a story for another day.

Since I started a web page back in geocities I had wanted to also communicate with other Colombians, but the Internet was not as global as it is today. I did however reconnect with my best friend from Colombia who ended up visiting his sister just a couple of hours north of Chicago. We were able to hang out after almost 5 years of not seeing each other, thanks to the internet.

When I started a blog I also met Bea from Bealog.com that is no longer up. Another Colombian connection that is slowly coming back, but has gone through some difficult times… but again I do not feel connected to a community. Via the blog I joined TOL a group of mostly Colombian bloggers that feels like a place I visit but besides the Clan that I am member of I feel like a visitor, mainly because I don’t write in Spanish. I have always wanted to write in Spanish, even the first iteration of this blog was going to be translated by me… but it did not happen and I still feel a little empty not being able to connect with other Spanish bloggers in the level that I would like to. Cielo encouraged me to do my first all Spanish podcast which I posted yesterday and I am hoping that it opens a window of communication with other bloggers… at the same time I would never want to alienate the English readers that I have by writing in Spanish and making them feel like they are no longer my sole audience.

Fabian has an excellent blog with wonderful topics, but at times when I go there (even though I can read a little French) I do not read anything that is not either in Spanish or English. It is not laziness as much as it is lack of time, because I know with a dictionary I would be able to read it… but it will require time, time that most people would probably not have if I was to write in both languages and not translate… but at the same time I have not translated any of my post in the past to Spanish… is that something that I should be doing?

I am still trying to figure out how I will strike a compromise with myself about writing here and maybe also having a Spanish version of the blog, or having the entries translated. I have a topic already picked for my first Spanish entry… I am sure I will translate it to English… but then from then on I am not sure.

Aug
16

El Podcast De Logtar 5.0 En Español.

this is an audio post - click to play

Primer Podcast completamente en Español. Cielo dared me to do a Podcast completely in Spanish. Have a listen see how much of it you can understand!

Aug
16

Gas goes up vs Israel Withdrawal

I had to stop for gas this morning before going into work. As I walked up to the pump I saw that the prices had now jumped from the 2.40s to the 2.70s. I was a little upset mainly because this weekend I will be going to Chicago and the gas there and back just became a bigger expense. I remember when it took 20 bucks to fill my tank, yes in my current car. Now it takes close to 40. I did not even fill up the tank today, just put 30 in. I started to think of the economy and where everything is at right now. Cielo and I were just talking about the so-called “Energy Bill” and how it did not do a darn thing for us. What difference did it make but make the oil companies richer?

Then I got back into my car and continued to listen to the Morning Edition on NPR. They were talking to a correspondent from the Gaza strip about the withdrawal. I am no expert on the Israel-Palestine conflict but it saddens me to hear about, it like any other human struggle where innocent lives are lost. Then on the same program they interviewed an actual young settler. It was a moving interview, she started to cry… she used one of the most powerful words in my eyes… she felt raped because of the people that were there to help them “move” were sleeping uninvited in a place that just yesterday she called her home. I then felt a little guilty about being so selfish and thinking paying more money at the pump was something to be mad about. I could not even begin to imagine what it would be like to be forcibly removed from my home of 25 years.

I have a glimpse at what it is to move from my home, but it was voluntary and not my government telling me you have until this deadline to move. A lot of young people are going to try to make the withdrawal as difficult as they can in hopes that it will deter Israel from doing the same thing in the West Bank. That is the plan though, to have Israel withdrawal from the West Bank happen also. I sure hope that this is the first step towards some peace between those two nations and not the spark that will light the conflict up even more.

, , , ,, , ,

Aug
15

Harry Potter Movie, New Footage released.

Harry Potter mania is in full effect at Logtar’s home. I am pages away from finishing book 5 for the second time and Cielo has finished book 4 and started 5. Today I found that Extra released Footage from Goblet of Fire movie. For those of you who cannot see Quicktime movies, here is a colletion of stills.

, , , ,, , ,

Aug
15

Catwoman (*)

Actors have to eat too, that is what I kept on telling myself while I watched this cat box that needed a litter change really bad. The only thing that I thought was somewhat salvageable was the work done by the stunt doubles. Maybe not, there is a possibility that it was all CGI.

I am not sure if the animators were actually proud of their work or not. If I was Halle Berry I would have been insulted by having so much of what I did be CGI work. I mean even a scene where she is just walking down a ledge was clearly CGI work. It was so bad that I spent more time trying to see if a scene was real or not.

Where to begin, it is hard to just start dealing with my anger at this movie, it must be done or I will not be at peace with the ‘movie fairy’. I am quite convinced that this movie was clearly green lighted by a movie troll.

Comic book movies have started flooding the silver screen. I have been very happy with most of the recent renditions from both Marvel and DC. This movie, however, shows us why sometimes a screenplay can be totally butchered and make nonsense out of an otherwise likable character. I am sure someone will come and tell me that this Catwoman was based on something other than the super villain from DC comics. Please don’t waste server space, and do not try to make it more shameful for the actors that had to deal with this piece of work.

I would have to write another review to fit in my thougths on the director and how much he really stinks like cat feces. I will however mention that the camera work was horrendous and his frantic use of angles that did not show any distinguishable action made it difficult to follow the movie. At the same time this could have been just the lead animator’s decision who should probably shared direction credit since more than half of the movie looked like it was CGI.

Lambert Wilson who by the way was born in France, and can be also see in the last two Matrix movies as the Merovingian did a dismal job trying to have a British accent. I am not sure if anyone from Great Britain will be annoyed by something like this, but I do get annoyed when I see actors portraying Colombians in a movie who are obviously of other nationalities. Their use of words never used in the Colombian flavor of Spanish makes me a little irritable because I am sure there are plenty of Colombians that could have played the part as I am sure that there was plenty of British actors that could have played the character in this movie.

Halle Berry is an excellent actress. Even thought at times I have questioned her sanity for some of the roles she has played, she does manage to always make the character the best it can be. This time I am sorry to say that she could not do much to fix the one bipolar nonsense that was Catwoman’s and Patience’s personality. I never even got a clear picture of whether one personality had any sense of the other… the whole plot did not help the story at all, it was just confusing.

Sharon Stone could have almost saved the day, but her lines were so badly written to be predictable that a Max Headroom version of her could have done the job just as well. Benjamin Bratt has never made my best list actors, but I’ve never had much expectation. He did however play an ok cop, but come on after years being a TV cop it would be difficult for him to mess up. He also stinks of cat poo since I blame him for letting them put a LIP PRINT as the evidence for linking Catwoman to Patience.

I do have to make an honorable mention here. This is what makes this movie a one star instead of a zero. Midnight, the at times CGI but sometimes real Egyptian Mau was the best actor in the whole movie.


buy at Amazon.com
.

Go to top