Saturday, August 05, 2006

El mar eterno

Ustedes recuerdan la película La Profecía (The Omen), donde se presentaba al anticristo como el famoso Damian Thorn y de la cual recientemente se hizo un remake mediocre. Hago alusión a esta cinta porque en una parte hacen una interpretación de un pasaje de la Biblia, haciendo una metáfora sobre la política como el mar eterno, de donde saldría "La Bestia".

Bueno, podemos decir hoy en día que eso no esta tan lejos de la realidad en la política ecuatoriana, no se alarmen, no estoy prediciendo que "La Bestia" saldrá de nuestro lindo Ecuador, pero hay algunas bestias de menor rango que si las tenemos en nuestras tierras y al alcance de todos. Acojo este tema porque ya se acerca el periodo de elecciones, y como cada cuatro años, estos seres tratarán de seducirnos, cautivarnos y hasta enamorarnos para que hagamos una cruz al lado derecho de su rostro en la papeleta. Y como siempre, nuestro querido pueblo ecuatoriano votará por el que más ha salido en televisión o por aquel cuya cancioncita le de vueltas en la cabeza. Y comenzará aquel proceso cíclico en el que luego de un poco más de 20 meses, se estarán preguntando porque votaron por ese o aquella, y querrán que los indígenas lleguen a Quito para corregir el error que cometieron.

No es de asombrarse que los partidos políticos no tengan el menor reparo en postular personas que no tienen la menor idea sobre política y leyes, lo que si es de asombro, es el número de postulantes con este perfil que hoy en día se presenta en la palestra. Andrés Pellacini, Gabriela Pazmiño, Carlos Luís Morales, Luzmila Nicolalde están entre los figurines de pantalla que hoy se candidatizan a honorables diputados, y hablando de honor se me olvidaba Henry Carrascal, aquel ex periodista que está acusado de estupro, vaya joyita. No olvidemos que han sido tentados Alfonzo Espinoza, Andrés Carrión y hasta Vito Muñoz.

Mi pregunta es, ¿no es evidente que las elecciones son solo un juego de popularidad del que somos victimas todos? Para aplicar a un empleo debemos hacer concursos de merecimientos, evaluaciones psicológicas, pruebas de conocimientos y dar constancia de nuestra honorabilidad. Pero los cargos públicos son los mejores empleos que hay, no debemos hacer nada de estos engorrosos trámites, simplemente salir en TV, radio o lo que sea, y esperar que algún partido político nos haga la propuesta, y listo, las mejores vacaciones de tu vida..... perdón, tu nombramiento como diputado.

Es una lástima que los que en verdad pensamos nuestro voto seamos la minoría, y el resto que tiene sus infaltables tardes reguetoneras con "A Todo Dar", se encarguen de hundir más al país cada cuatro años. En fin, esto no es un mail para sugerir a este último grupo que medite su voto, porque asumo que están muy ocupados viendo el trasero de las modelos, pero es una forma de desahogarme, puesto que como lo dice la Biblia, este es el "Mar Eterno" y nunca cambiará.

The World Cup is over

As this article's title says, the FIFA World Cup is over and I have some bitter-sweet feelings about it, I'll explain why:

First, Ecuador's performance is historic, yes, we achieved our goals in Germany, getting to the second round with two victories in a row without any problem. But I think we could have reached even more, because that defeat against England left me with the feeling that we could have defeated those wussies. I would have loved to see Edwin Tenorio put his elbow on Beckham's pretty face, in front of his wife Victoria, but well, not all dreams come true. Also, it pissed me up that people were celebrating that defeat, I know that the team played well and we only lost due to a lucky shoot from Becky boy, butcelebrate a defeat, come on!!!! That was just a prove that in our country people doesn't loose a single ocassion to go and drink like dumbs, even if there is no reason for. :S

Now talking about Argentina, it was a pitty that such a good team lost against the germans that actually got too far with that team (semifinals), and all beacuse Pekerman blew it when he changed Roman and didn't put in Messy. That's the kind of choice that hurts the rest of your life, and Pekerman is going to remember that every night, waking up sweating and trembling, asking himself "Why in the name of God I didn't put Messy on the field?". Well my friend, you'll have a lot of time to think about it.

About Brasil, I don't have much to say, I didn't want them to win the Cup, and it happened. The only thing I regret is that Ronaldhino was a shadow, I thought he was going to shine, or at least play like he does in Spain, but what adissapointment!!!

And finally, the champion, Italy. There are lots of things in life that are unfair, like when your mouth is completely dry and the f$ck$%g Coke machine swallows your only coin, or when you pass hours looking for "the" shirt for that incredible date you have on night, and suddenly the as%&$le in the store tells you they only have XXXXXXXXXXX large. or you study 24 hours a month from the 10 tousand page Finance book, just to figure out the day of the exam that the most valuable question is taken from that excersice they made in class the day you got sick!!!!! Well of all those cases, nothing is comparable to what I saw in that final game. France was way more superior than Italy. When italians figured out that France was more, they did the only thing they do well, DEFENSE, there were times when I saw EIGHT italian players in their own area, MAN, those guy are really queer :S. Zidane's expulsion was fair, he fell in the trap like a child, but he deserved more, and it would have been that way if it wasn't for Buffon. And when the penalties took place, Italy had the advange beacuse of their fabulous goalkeeper, although nor Barthez or Buffon ever guessed where to fly on all shoots, It was just Treseguet's bad luck to shootthe marc, and it was it, a great sample that not always the best gets what he deserves. And for all Italian players, I wouldn't have celebrated a championship won with all guys defending and with those anti-football tricks that have Italian trademark.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Ecuador in Germany, an uncertain future.

Last game between Ecuador and Macedonian, raised a lot of doubts about the possible future of the national football team (not soccer, because the game's name is from England, years before the stupid so called american football appeared) in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

I know it is not time to put the blame on someone, but I think headcoach Luis Suarez made a mistake in that last game. This last game should not be used for further tests, he had to play with his best men in order to show that Ecuador had a defined opening team. Instead of that, he changed some "key" players and put others, for example, the goalkeeper Mora (who had a terrible game with Colombia) was changed with Villafuerte, who didn't prove to be in better conditions. I think both are good goalkeepers, I trust Villafuerte a little more, but the headcoach must have had the "man" for this key possition already decided, and not show us that he is still doubtfull about this.

Another doubt that Suarez showed us, is the right lateral. He opened with Neicer Reasco, who have had good games with the "tri" but in these couple of preparation games, he hasn't showed us all that awesome game that he shows when playing for LDUQ. I know that no player has bougth his place, but we all know what Ulises de la Cruz means to Ecuador at deffense and attack, so why not play with him, the only answer is that Suarez doesn't want that any of his titular players could get injured.

I can write about a couple of possitions more, but it would be useless, because at this time, no one in Ecuador knows what will be the openning team against Poland.

We all have a little of coach inside us, and I'm not the exception. For that reason, i'll give my opening team:

Goalkeeper: Villafuerte, has more experience and is stronger. Rigth lateral : Ulises de la Cruz, he is the best in that possition. Central deffenders : Ivan Hurtado, he is ecuadorian last line of deffense - Geovani Espinoza, he is tall and can fight with Germany and Poland's big men. Left lateral: Paul Ambrossi, he has great technique and has great offensive, but lacks some deffensive. Deffensive midfielders : Edwin Tenorio, he's the warrior in the middle field for Ecuador - Marlon Ayovi, has great anticipation and is a good assister. Offensive midfielders : Edison Mendez, is the best middle distance shooter it the team, and great assister - Antonio Valencia, is more a compound player, has great ball recovery, and also is great offensively talking. Forwards : Aguntin Delgado, he is ecuadorian all time best scorer, no more to say - Ivan Kaviedes, he is very irregular but when he is "on", he can change the course of a game.

Some of you would not agree with this formation, but I think is the best Ecuador has, and Ecuador should play it's classic 4-4-2, because the team knows how to play this formation with eyes closed.

At the end, Luis Suarez will have the last word, I hope that all these doubts be thrown away with that first game, and Ecuador show the world why is playing two consecutive World Cups.

Good luck boys!!!!!

With Rosenrot, they keep kicking ass!!!

Rosenrot is Rammstein's last disc and let me tell you, it is good. Still has some tracks that I didn't like (Te Quiero Puta is one of them) but there are five songs that I consider, are pretty cool.

All these five songs are kind of slow, except Mann Gegen Mann, which is fast and hard. Wo Bist Du has some awesome keyboards and has a very catchy chorus, Feuer und Wasser is a ballad that has some nice guitar playing, Rosenrot (the disc title song) is cool too.

But there is one song that surprised me a lot, it is "Strib Dicht Vor Mir (Don't die before I do)" which is a ballad too but featuring an english singer from some group called Texas. The combination of this chick's voice with Till trademark vocals results pretty cool. The rest of the tracks are good but nothing remarkable.

I think that Rammstein shows some new melodic face with this disc, although it still has some brain shaking tones. Anyway, as I mentioned before this is a must have for any Rammstein fan, and if your're not, still it's a good buy.

The Godfather 2

Francis Ford Coppola definetly created a masterpiece with "The Godfather", the most famous history about italian mob families. Based on a novel by Mario Puzzo, this film is an inmortal classic, not only for the monsters of acting involved (Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall,James Caan), the excellent history and the great direction. No , this film merges all this things and makes a movie that will be watched over generations and bring the same feelings over and over again to it's watchers.

I consider this one of my favorite films and have watched it like a dozen times. However, I beleived that the sequels of this movie were simple films made because of the success of the first one. I watched Godfather 3 and thougth that was good but not even close to the original. Then the second one was passed on TV, but I never got to see it complete, because it was too long (That was what I Thougth). But this weekend I saw it on a DVD shop and said to myself "let's see it once for all". Guys I have never underestimated a movie so much like this one. This is definetly a worth sequel for the first one, especially because of the "flashbacks" that bring the story of how Vito Corleone got to the top of the mob world.

Vito is interpreted by an enormous Robert De Niro, which for this paper won an Oscar. The history of Vito alternates with the events that came after the first movie, with Michael Corleone as the leader of the family and his attempts to bring family businesses to legality.

When I finished to watch this movie, I felt very impressed because of Al Pacino's acting, it was so powerful that I even got to feel what Michael Corleone felt after killing his own brother (Sorry for the spoil :( ). Don't missunderstand me, De Niro was excellent at his perform and he deserved his Ocsar, but Al Pacino showed in this film that he is a master of dramatic interpretation.

The film is 3+ hours long, but beleive me, every second is worth watching, if you haven't seen it, take my advice and rent it, or better buy it, because this is a film every 7th art lover must have. I still consider the Godfather to be the best of the three, but the second part is definetly on my "Best of all time movies" list.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Ecuador is "Oxy...dado".

With the new goverment anouncement about the contract expiration of Oxy, there have been plenty of complaints, especially from business groups for a possible dialog termination with EEUU about the TLC (Tratado de libre comercio in spanish).

And Washington has given it's veredict, there will be no further TLC dialogs with Ecuador, because of the Oxy problem.

Reading this in the news, makes me wonder, Isn't it possible for a third world country to expell a Huge Oil Company like Oxy?. Didn't Oxy violated it's contract when they passed a great percentage of actions to another company without ecuadorian goverment permision?. Didn't Oxy administrators know that if they violated the contract, the company would be expelled without any compensation?

And the mother of all questions? What the hell does this have to do with the TLC? Why Washington has to make declarations of a problem between Ecuador and Occidental?

All this makes me believe that Hugo Chavez is somehow rigth when he refers to EEUU as the empire. They really put it's big nose in every single place on earth. If you doubt it, ask Iran about EEUU preasure to end it's nuclear program or ask Iraq about the massive destruction weapons never found after the war.

And all these gentelmen that complain about what ecuadorian goverment has done to Oxy (ohhh poor baby), they only think about all that money they will have to pay to export their products to the empire. In other words, they want to keep kissing EEUU ass and they want that all the rest of ecuadorians do the same, in order to saver their pockets.

It's a shame.

At last I finished DMC3!!!!

Now I can erase one line from my "Things I must do before dying" list, and that's completing Devil May Cry 3 in Dante Must Die mode. Gosshhhh, this really was one of the most challenging games I've ever played, and I've played plenty of hard games over my long gamer history.

Maybe the guys from Campcom took it too seriously when they readed the complaints about Devil May Cry 2 and its total lack of challenge, but nevermind. This game is really awesome, with some flaws like the "too cool" behavior of Dante in the movie scenes (not to mention the too many times used "Yooohoooooo" :S ), but as the missions progressed, the action got better and so the story.

When I first finished this game, it was on normal mode and it really took me a while to get used to the controls and the fighting styles, but once you do, is only you and your skills against the demons. Of course until you get to play DMD mode, which is insanely difficult, not because the enemy's AI is harder but for the amount of damage they take when they devil trigger. In the previous two games, you had a considerable time to kill each enemy before they devil triggered, but now it's absolutely imposible to kill every enemy without at least one activates DT, and trust me, they really can handle much more damage in this state, in a way that when you finally get to kill it, your fingers can´t move because of the cramps!!!! Another flaw is the ranking mode, it's absolutely stupid, you have to kill every enemy in two seconds and you must do it with style :S I don´t know what were they thinking, but it's totally wrong. If not, please tell me who in corn sake could make an SS rank on DMD mode on mission 18. If that guy exists, then, let me tell you, you're the MAN!!!!!

Well as a hardcore gamer, it was a duty for me to not be overwhelmed by this, and finally I reached the top of the mountain. As I mentioned before. this is a great game, not the "best of all times" like some reviews I've read, but it's quite good. Still Devil May Cry 1 is my all favorite from the series, but this is worth to try.

PD: The final boss, Vergil, is one of the hardest I've ever find, you'll know what I'm taking about when you fight him on DMD mode ......

Back after a little break

Hello to anyone who reads my blob. I have beemn out of sight for a while for reasons out of my hands (The f..$&$&%$&... net administrator blocked almos all pages) but now I'm goin to stay in touch more frequently.

So back to work :)

Monday, January 09, 2006

Un nuevo año

Hola a todos en este nuevo año, he estado un poco alejado de mi blog ya que tomé unas merecidas vacaciones para los días de fin de año, y me propuse mantenerme alejado de las computadoras durante mis días de descanso.

Pero bueno, de vuelta a la rutinaria vida laboral, aprovecho para ponerme al día leyendo mis correos y escribiendo algunas reflexiones que tuve durante estos días.

Este año viene lleno de espectativas, algunos acontecimientos importantes tendran lugar durante estos 365 días, como las elecciones presidenciales, el mundial de futbol, la posible conformación de una asamblea o lo que fuere, en fin, por lo menos el año no empezó con un desastre como el del tsunami del año pasado, eso ya es algo.

Personalmente tengo algunas metas para este año como todos, pero la mayoría estan dentro de los objetivos materiales, y es por eso que me pregunto, con cada año que pasa, ¿que ganamos aparte de autos ,casas nuevas, arrugas y dolores en la espalda? ¿Acaso nos volvemos mejores personas obteniendo maestrías y doctorados en el extranjero? ¿Esta la humanidad evolucionando o nos deslumbramos con los espejismos de los avances tecnológicos? ¿Nos casamos y tenemos hijos porque queremos perpetuar nuestra escencia como humanos o solamente para evitar la censura de la sociedad por no cumplir con una etapa "natural" de la vida?

Frente a todo esto me entra la duda, ¿cuantos de nosotros nos sentamos apartados de todo y reflexionamos por lo menos una hora, sin pensar en las cuentas que hay que pagar o en los problemas de la oficina, sino solamente con nuestro propio ser como única compañía? ¿Acaso tenemos miedo de encontrar quienes verdaderamente somos, por eso nos distremos en el materialismo?

Bueno, creo que son muchas dudas para un solo día, por el momento tengo una meta, trataré de no prender tanto la televisión y encender mas mi cerebro, a ver si poco a poco me descontamino de tanta intoxicación consumista.

¡Que tengan todos un feliz año!