Monthly Archive for July, 2006

Las Vegas?…it’s the Romance Capital of the World

Published
by
Gustavo
on July 29, 2006
in Random Thoughts
. 8 Comments

I’m not ashamed to admit it…Adam Sandler’s The Wedding Singer is one of my all time favorite films. If you have yet to see I highly recommend it. It’s hilarious!! I mean who doesn’t like making fun of the 80’s?

Robbie: [Linda shows up for the first time after failing to marry him] You’re late.

Linda: [sighs] I’m sorry… I just couldn’t do it.

Robbie: Well, if you need more time, I guess I could wait.

Linda: No… I don’t need more time, Robbie. I don’t ever want to marry you.

Robbie: [takes a deep breath, sighs] Gee, you know that information… really would’ve been more useful to me yesterday.

Linda: I’ve been talking with my friends the last few days…

Robbie: Oh, boy, here it comes.

Linda: …and I think I’ve figured out what’s been bothering me. I’m not in love with Robbie, now. I’m in love with Robbie, six years ago. Robbie, the lead singer of Final Warning; I used to come watch you when you were in your silk shirt and Spandex pants, and you would sing into the microphone like you were David Lee Roth.

Robbie: I’ve still got the Spandex; I’ll put ‘em on right now.

Linda: The point is, I woke up this morning and realized I’m about to get married to a wedding singer? I am never gonna leave Richfield!

Robbie: Why do you need to leave Richfield? We grew up here. All our friends are here; it’s the perfect place to raise a family.

Linda: Oh, yeah - sure! Living in your sister’s basement with five kids while you’re off every weekends doing wedding gigs at a whoppin’ sixty bucks a pop?

Robbie: Once again, things that could’ve been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!

By Any Means Necessary

Published
by
Gustavo
on July 29, 2006
in Society
. 13 Comments

Concerning slavery, Americans never invented it or instituted it – we inherited it, and with such great discomfort that anti-slavery activists were far better represented among the founding fathers (Franklin, Adams, Hamilton) than those who made an active case for slavery. David Brion Davis, the Yale professor who’s written magisterially about the history of the peculiar institution, makes clear the positive role of the American Revolution and its ideals in giving life (after many millennia of slavery) to the abolitionist movement around the world that ultimately put an end to this savage oppression. The United States, in other words, played a unique, prominent role in ending the institution, but played no role in establishing it.

Who freed the slaves? Not Abraham Lincoln, that’s for sure. Slaves freed themselves. What, you think that black slaves needed white abolitionists to let them be free? I think not. Slaves, whether they were white indentured servants or slaves imported from Africa had taken part in numerous uprisings which unfortunately are hidden away from mainstream history. They make slaves seem as though they are these docile beings that if it wasn’t for Lincoln they would have continued to be slaves. Give me a break!

As for the U.S. playing a prominent role in ending slavery…how so? By eliminating slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation but then allowing the south to institute Jim Crow laws that essentially denied former slaves any rights for another one-hundred years. Is that how?

A.L. Standings

Published
by
Gustavo
on July 26, 2006
in Sports
. 5 Comments


There are plenty of games left in the season, against the AL East and of course with the hated ChiSox and Twinkies. It should be a good run to the finish. The pennant chase is on and the Tigs are a part of it…I love it! Go Tigers!!

The Orange & The Green

Published
by
Gustavo
on July 25, 2006
in Central Valley, Health and Random Thoughts
. 5 Comments


Porterville is a strange town but it grows on you and you learn to love it. That’s why I see familiar high school faces all of the time. People try to leave but they always come back.

In town the main spot where everyone goes jogging, running and walking is Veteran’s Park. Veteran’s Park was built around Porterville’s water treatment facility (where toilet water becomes drinking water once more). Basically one corner of this ‘central park’ is a shopping area and the rest is a park. It even has a cool helicopter monument commemorating veterans that fought in previous world conflicts on the north side. Anyhow, there is a dirt trail that is supposed to be used for running through the park. Well, nobody uses it and instead they use the sidewalk that surrounds this 2.5 mile section of town. Wouldn’t it be great if the city council decided to insert rubber sidewalks to accommodate all the runners, joggers and walkers? It would really look nice alongside that skater park that is being built on the west side of Veterans Park. I’ve seen this many times before. In a part of East L.A. runners/joggers/walkers exercise around a cemetery and the surrounding sidewalk has rubber inserts, much like the material that is found on stadium tracks.

Why can’t Porterville do the same. Maybe I should run for office. Rojo the politico.

The African Presence in Mexico

Published
by
Gustavo
on July 14, 2006
in México
. 9 Comments


I’m not much of a podcast listener…other than a few NPR subscriptions (we don’t have an NPR radio signal nearby). Anyhow through NPR I found Latino USA. It’s a very informative show dedicated to issues affecting the Latino community. As an undergrad I took a boatload of CLS (Chicano-Latino studies) courses and one of the areas that always intrigued me about Mexican history was and is the mestizaje of our mother country. We all tend to believe that it was simply a combination of European and Indian blood, failing to acknowledge the important influence of the African and how Mexican mestizaje is really a combination of three…el indio, el negro y el europeo, much like most of Latin America.

In Chi-town, at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum there is currently an exhibit on this topic. I hope that the exhibit makes its way to the left coast. I’d love to check it out.

» Latino USA Podcast: African Presence in México

Eight Days A Week

Published
by
Gustavo
on July 10, 2006
in Random Thoughts
. 14 Comments

Is it just me or does Carlos Mencia suck? Maybe it’s an acquired taste but I just can’t buy into “beaner” and “wetback” jokes. I cringe whenver I hear those terms. I really don’t think we want those words becoming part of the American vernacular.

Check out another way to incorporate flickr into your site. It looks real good in my opinion. I gotta figure out how to make it match somewhat my k2 theme or maybe I should just leave it as is. (Update: Brett has hooked me up! Thanks!)

When Zizou went billy-goat on Materazzi I figured it had to be something very harsh that was said. This incident reeks of you know what…that thing that FIFA was trying to stop. As for France, I never ever thought they would get this far in the tournament. In the first round they looked tired and Zidane looked his age. It was a good run by the French but unfortunately they fell short.

I tend to listen to a lot of AM radio and I just find it irritating how the majority of Americans feel disdain towards futbol. There is not enough scoring they say. There is no clock stoppage. There is too much flopping (like baseketball doesn’t have it…it’s an artform I say). I say they just dont understand it. Oh well. Billions of fans around the world can’t be wrong.

We’re at the midway mark of the baseball season and my Tigers are in 1st place. Just a few months ago I almost jumped ship after Tram’ was fired…and now they have the best record in all of baseball. It feels like back in ‘87 and ‘84. I can remember that far back! It feels good. All these years of losing have not been in vain. I know that the Tigers are long shots to win it all but they have made so much progress I really don’t have anything to complain about. Jimmy Leyland has done an awesome job with this team.