how well do you know your world

This was totally fun:

QUALITY="high" bgcolor="#000000" WIDTH="625" HEIGHT="500"
NAME="TravelerIQ" ALIGN="middle" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"
wmode="opaque" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"
AllowScriptAccess="always"
FlashVars="gamexml=http://tiq.travelpod.com/cgi-bin/witw?SessionID=00-traveleriq-game1&gameswf=http://tiq.travelpod.com/bin/flash/witw-00.swf" >

brought to you by TravelPod, the World's Original Travel Blog ( A TripAdvisor Media Network partner ) 

Beat my score of (ok well the "IQ") 120... though some of the stuff is random. And they have Concepcion, Chile on the wrong place in the map. Like, where Valparaiso is. Someone doesn't know their South American geography...

what the frak is going on?

SO COOL.



And yes it's a commercial. I don't care. I love Battlestar Galactica. It's still cool.

travels are fun

So. Long time no post. I know.

The spirit hasn't moved me.

But the spirit has returned, in the form of my lovely sister who is living in the Netherlands. She just set up a blog and I'm looking forward to reading it. And for those of my readers here who have um stuck around, you should check it out. Because my sister is cool.

another great piece by gloria steinem

Women are Never Front Runners, by Gloria Steinem

I'm voting for Senator Clinton despite my brother's attempts to change my mind. I'll defy my demographic by NOT voting for Senator Obama. And with this article the New York Times has started to make up for their hiring of William Kristol... but they aren't quite there yet.

space + earthquakes + chile

I don't usually have a lot of time on the computer while I'm here, but since I was waiting up for S to get back from work, I found myself reading a lot of, well, random stuff. However, this is really cool - a view of northern Chile from Space:

(from solarviews.com)

And then I started reading about theories about how the Andes were formed, the Peru-Chile Trench, and more about earthquakes! What is too bad is that most of the information out there is really basic (that is, stuff I've known since I was little) or very specialized, that is, pages full of seismographic data that I don't have the tools to make sense of. Why is there no middle ground? I don't have the background for the specialized stuff, but the basic stuff is, well, basic. Alas.

ah 2008

New Year's at the beach and wedding anniversary celebrations are fun.

In case you were wondering, of course.

merry almost christmas

I had forgotten how bad a hangover I get from too much pisco. Let's just say that it totally sucks. And I now recall why I only drink pisco in small amounts. Ouch.

Apart from that, good times are had by all in this neck of the woods. It's crazy hot, people wait until the last minute to shop, and we're doing (we being my mother in law and I) a cross-cultural Christmas Eve dinner - I think they are a little freaked out about the sound of the Green Bean Casserole, but they'll come around once they taste it. Or I'll be eating a lot of green beans.

I also just read a quick book that an aunt lent me (yay totally exciting) called Bonsai (Alejandro Zambra 2006), I'm still not sure what my reaction to it is. But it was a random book to read, and everyone knows I love that.

Merry Almost Christmas!

christmas shopping

We were woken up a few days ago by another earthquake - it was longer (about 40 seconds) than the first one but not as strong. Really, it was annoying, because it woke me up.

My Christmas shopping is all set! We had to cop out for one of the family members and go for a gift card, mostly because there were so many options and we couldn't decide! But I'm pleased with it being done and having everything set under the tree, even though oddly everyone here wraps presents in bags, and not gift bags like you think in the U.S. but rather bags made out of wrapping paper. Yeah. It's good for odd shaped things but still.

And S still has some shopping left to do for Christmas. Rather, for me. He's kinda cute about it. Actually, really cute. But he is really cute basically most of the time, so no surprises there!

woohoo an earthquake!

I know, I know.

I felt an earthquake yesterday! And it was higher on the Mercalli scale than a 3 and on the Richter than a 4. I'm actually pretty excited about that. Because I think earthquakes are really cool. Seriously.

They'll be even cooler if it has the weather effect my mother-in-law says they do, namely that the weather changes. And that it will be cooler. I like the sun and whatnot, but when there isn't really A/C anywhere, I vote for less heat.

chile's great minus the dog

It's still quite lovely here. I'm enjoying the sun - today was especially pleasant given that I didn't feel as if I were in a sauna of my own creation. And this in a place that has nearly no humidity in the summer.

S and I are having a very pleasant time. Unfortunately, their dog is really annoying. I shouldn't hold it against him, since he's still a puppy, but I really don't like dogs. There is no way that we will have a dog if I can help it. The dog is cute when he's not near me, but all he ever wants to do is play... which is really quite annoying.

But other than the dog, it's quite nice. :-)