Hi5

Oh! Time flies!

Many-many-many years ago, when I was a little kid (and everybody was expecting me to become the great man... that I'll never be), the only way to have friends from other countries was not Internet... - Of course! There was no Internet back on those days (and not even PCs on every home as now... will my kids believe that???) -. So, if you wanted to have an overseas friend, all you could do is to PAY for the privilege to an institution called IPFS - The International Pen Friend Service that sent you in response (by snail! - i.e. surface mail) a list of other kids who wanted to have friends from your country... It's funny to see that they have a web page now. I suppose they don't charge anymore for their service!

Anyway, modern times had changed that concept (forever) and nowadays if you want to have a new friend you just use MSN Messenger (or any other messenger) and use the search option. BUT, you can never know if the person who is contacting you is who he (or she) pretends to be. Is she actually the nice 15-year-old girl she says she is? Or is she rather a 40-year-old-lolita-complex-man pretending to be a girl?... That's why a new idea is now flourishing: friends-networks. Now, if you want to have a new friend, you just have to contact a friend of a friend of a friend (up to 5 or 6 levels) on any of those networks. This will result on a REQUEST for that person to accept you on his/her list. If the person trusts on your friends network, he (or she) will accept your invitation, and now both will be able to interact. Is it safe enough? I'm not sure. But is the same as in eBay: the more positive reviews you have, the easier it'll be for others to trust you.

BTW, I have just opened a Hi5 account. Anyone there, just contact me by sending an invitation, and I'll see if I decide to trust your profile...

Gmail

A Gmail account? Anyone?

Just drop me a line to my gmail address and I'll send you an invitation. Don't leave messages on this page: guess my address and you'll win a free gmail account!!!

My curse

I was quite busy this weekend. I mean, not that I was working from sun to sun, but still busy. You know, sleeping late (yeah, that usually keeps me busy), running some errands, looking (and buying) some new furniture, and receiving some new friends at home. So, I couldn’t watch either the Peru-Japan soccer match on TV (by the way, Peru beat Japan 1-0) nor the Monaco F1 race in which Michael Schumacher lost… again!

I’m not a sporty guy, but I surely like to watch some sports by TV. Soccer is a South American must, so I’m usually waiting with expectation to any official match of my national team. Unfortunately, we’ve been done really bad this last year, so now it’ll be kind of difficult for us to get to Germany 2006… Too bad, ‘cause this will mean that Peru hasn’t gone to the World Cup in almost 24 years!!! Last time I saw this happening (Spain ’82), I was 9 years old…

And Formula 1? I don’t exactly know how I happen to like it. I just do. It probably has something to do with the old stereotype guys-like-fast-cars. Anyway, I was hoping to go to Suzuka this or next year (I’m still hoping that) to watch Schumacher win… and he’s not winning anymore!!! Gosh!

I starting to believe that I’m cursed. Don’t ever ask me to cheer your team… it may start loosing…

Boring, boring!

Awwwwwful!

Japan TV is sooooo boring...

It's good there's a TV4all page over there (as well as BitTorrent) so we can watch some decent TV here... Now, music isn't that good either. J-Pop has been largely overestimated, and it sounds to me "as good as Televisa-made music".

Pilar made a big deal on me when I decided to bring all my CDs to Japan. It's true, they used to occupy a lot of valuable space at home, but now that she decided to accommodate them on two nice wooden shelves, they are not only not hindering our way, but actually they look nice!

Anyway, I wouldn’t be able to survive here without those CDs. I have ripped them all and I have them on my laptop, but anyone who loves music will understand me when I say that there’s nothing as putting the record on the player, with your own hands, after looking for that specific one in your private collection.

One nice discovery that Pilar made (which has improved our musical condition here) is that our favorite Peruvian radio station (Doble Nueve) has a web page… and is on the air!!! (on the net???). That’s good ‘cause even if you have many records, you can’t always listen to the same stuff day after day, can you?

Japanese people, of course, don’t find TV and music as boring as us gaijin do, but they’ve grown with them, don’t they? They’re used to both! If you plan to come here, don’t forget to bring your most beloved CDs, DVDs, and try to invest (quickly!) on a nice computer with internet connection. You won’t survive otherwise…

Venta de armas chilenas a Ecuador...

Cuando el mentiroso pastorcillo gritó por tercera vez “¡El lobo! ¡El lobo!”, nadie le creyó… aunque esta vez se trataba de un lobo de verdad, y no estaba bromeando como las veces anteriores…

Cuando el Gobierno de Toledo grita viento en cuello “¡Chile le vendió armas a Ecuador durante la guerra del Cénepa!”, todo el mundo lo acusa de estar fabricando una cortina de humo (como las que nos tiene habituado) debido a su baja popularidad y los problemas internos.

Esta vez, sin embargo, el pastorcillo-presidente dice la verdad…

Dense una vuelta por El Comercio (versión ecuatoriana) y encontrarán mayores detalles de la transacción, narradas por la parte ecuatoriana (el mismo ex Jefe del Comando Conjunto de las Fuerzas Armadas Ecuatorianas, quien está en la clandestinidad).

Pero se llevarán una sorpresa… No sólo Chile vendió armas a Ecuador, sino también Argentina (aunque ellos se burlaron de los ecuatorianos, ya que les enviaron fusiles usados que ellos mismos habían dado de baja en su ejército). Brasil, el Garante que faltaba, fue el país puente que usaron las naves ecuatorianas para regresar a su país con las armas recogidas en Chile…

Es cierto, me gustaría dejar estos problemas atrás y que se inicie una nueva era de paz y amistad con todos nuestros vecinos. Y si se hubiese tratado sólo de Rusia (que también les vendió armas durante el conflicto) no me hubiese hecho muchos problemas. Pero tratándose de vecinos nuestros, y además Garantes del Protocolo de Río… pues creo que la nota de protesta está bien puesta. Chile va a seguir negándolo (ya que se trató de una operación secreta, y por lo tanto no hay pruebas explícitas, como facturas o guías de remisión), pero ya sabemos de qué pie cojean: ¡lo que sea por un par de fajos de dinero!

Por cierto, deberíamos haber enviado una nota de protesta similar a Argentina. Su caso es similar, sólo que los argentinos no nos producen tanto escozor como los chilenos, ¿no? ¡Pero si estuvieron metidos en las mismas maniobras sucias!

En fin. Veamos qué pasa. Espero que Toledo no vuelva a pecar de débil y cobarde como cuando la huelga de arequipeños o la de los transportistas, y que se mantenga firme en esto. Alemania ha logrado redefinir su posición en el mundo, luego de pedir público perdón (innumerables veces) por los crímenes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Es probable que quienes están ahora a cargo del Gobierno chileno no tengan responsabilidad directa en esta operación de hace 10 años, pero les ha caído en las manos una papa caliente, ya que la misma responsabilidad no ha dejado de estar en el Gobierno del país sureño. Lo mínimo que esperamos es un público reconocimiento de haber actuado mal, así como disculpas formales. ¡Ah! Y juicio a quienes en Chile orquestaron la operación, como ha ocurrido en Argentina con los miembros del ejército que enviaron el lote de armas (usadas) a Ecuador.

Veamos qué ocurre ahora…