Some days, I feel like listening to country music at Atlanta Blue Sky . Although by personal experience I can confirm one will find country music only makes REAL sense when driving through long distances on the US. There it fits, it is appropriate and provides your personal soundtrack to the trip. And when the journey is far away in the past, listening to the soundrtrack helps you in a little time of evasion and escape in front of the computer.


Hay dias en que me apetece escuchar musica country en Atlanta Blue Sky . Aunque por experiencia personal, puedo afirmar que solo se le encuentra el verdadero sentido a la musica country cuando viajas en coche a grandes distancias en Estados Unidos. Entonces el country encaja en la situacion y parece tu banda sonora personal del viaje. A veces, cuando el viaje ya queda muy lejos, escuchar la banda sonora ayuda a evadirte en una pequenia escapada delante del ordenador.



The weather today:
Partly Cloudy
21C
UV Index: 4 Moderate
Wind: From the West at 13 mph
Dew Point: 10C
Humidity: 49%
Visibility: 6 miles
Barometer: 1,010.8 mb

A day to remember and celebrate. Today at 4.00pm the IRA ended its armed campaign. Here it is the complete text of the IRA statement


Un dia para celebrar y no olvidar. Hoy a las 4 de la tarde, el IRA ha depuesto las armas. Aqui esta el texto completo (en ingles) de la declaracion del IRA .



The weather today:
Partly Cloudy and Windy
22C
UV Index: 6 High
Wind: From the South Southwest at 26 mph
Dew Point: 17C
Humidity: 74%
Visibility: Unlimited
Barometer: 1,005.8 mb

There wont' be a referendum to change the New Zealand flag. The NZFlag.com Trust , who was running the campaign did not get the 270.000 signatures they needed to go ahead. Telecom , who was supposed to help them to mail the petition to NZ homes, has withdrawn its support. How nice, Telecom, very nice of you!! There we are again. Again. I have written to Telecom telling them exactly what I think. You can do that by typing your letter: here
The official communication was the following:

"27 July 2005

Dear NZ Flag Supporter

We are writing to tell you that this week the NZFlag.com Trust will issue a press release saying that it will be withdrawing its petition for a Citizens Initiated Referendum on changing the New Zealand flag.

Currently we have around 100,000 signatures and we have until October to collect a further 170,000. However, it is clear to us now that we won't be able to reach that goal within the constraints of the Citizens Initiated Referendum Act and with the resources available to us.

While we have clearly been successful in lifting the level of debate on this issue, throughout the campaign we have failed to ignite people's support to a level where they have been prepared to work on behalf of the campaign. Our biggest failing has been not motivating enough people to a level where they would help us collect signatures - in short, we have never developed a proper distribution/collection system simply because we have never marshalled the manpower.

We had thought we had addressed this when Telecom had made an offer to mail the petition to all 1.4m households in New Zealand in August. New Zealand Post agreed to provide freepost so people could return the petition forms at no cost to themselves, also supported by New Zealand Post and Telecom outlets. This would have provided us with the distribution network we so clearly needed for the campaign to be a success. A less than 10% response rate, which we felt was achievable, would have seen us reach our goal.
Unfortunately, in an unexpected move, Telecom withdrew their support for the mail out last week, which means we no longer have access to that distribution network and do not believe we have a viable alternative.

We can celebrate some successes. The issue of whether New Zealand should have a new flag is now in front of the public and we know from polling around New Zealand that generally there is more than 50% support for change. The difficulty with a Citizens Initiated Referendum is translating that support into signatures. Given the continuing trend in favour of change it is probable that, in time, the flag will be changed.

While the time may not be right for change now, we said at the beginning of the campaign that if the outcome resulted in no change, but resulted in New Zealanders debating the country's national identity, then that in itself was an achievement.

Thank you for your support of the campaign and for helping to raise the flag for the people of New Zealand.

Yours sincerely
The NZFlag.com Trust

No habra referendum para cambiar la bandera de Nueva Zelanda. Venga, que la sigan confundiendo con la de Australia, como siempre, justo lo que queriamos evitar. La organizacion que recogia las firmas necesarias para la peticion, la NZFlag.com Trust me comunica que no han recibido 270.000 firmas, lo minimo necesario para que la peticion se considere legal en NZ. Telecom , la empresa de telecomunicaciones que les habia ofrecido su apoyo para enviar la peticion por correo, de golpe y porrazo les ha dicho que se retira y que no les ayuda. Muy bonito, seniores de Telecom, pero que muy bonito. Asi que se acabo. Pues he escrito a Telecom, diciendoles exactamente lo que pienso! A quien se anime, podeis escribirles: aqui .
Esta es la traduccion del comunicado que he recibido esta maniana :

"27 Julio 2005

Estimado/a partidario/a de la campania bandera de NZ:

Lamentamos comunicarte que esta semana la organizacion NZFlag.com Trust emitira un comunicado de prensa informando que retiramos nuestra peticion a Referendum Iniciado por los Ciudadanos para cambiar la bandera de Nueva Zelanda.

En este momento contamos con 100.000 firmas y aun tenemos hasta Octubre para recoger 170.000 mas. Sin embargo, consideramos que no conseguiremos el numero deseado de firmas para acogernos a las normas de Referendum Iniciado por los Ciudadanos con los medios con los que contamos actualmente.

Aunque hemos tenido exito en elevar el nivel del debate sobre este tema, nos ha sido imposible convencer a la poblacion hasta un nivel en que desearan colaborar en la campania. Nuestro fallo ha sido nuestra incapacidad de motivar a la poblacion para que salieran a recoger firmas - en resumen, no hemos sido capaces de desarrollar un sistema adecuado de distribucion/recogida de firmas al no tener suficientes colaboradores.

Estabamos convencidos que este problema se habia solucionado cuando Telecom nos propuso enviar la peticion a los 1.4 millones de hogares en Nueva Zelanda en Agosto. Correos de Nueva Zelanda acepto darnos categoria freepost para que los ciudadanos no pagaran ningun gasto de envio al devolvernos la peticion firmada y tambien contabamos con la colaboracion de las tiendas Telecom. De esta manera, contabamos con la red de distribucion necesaria para asegurar el exito de la campania. Con tan solo recibir un 10% de respuestas, lo que nos parecia relativamente facil, nos hubieramos colocado cerca de nuestro objetivo. Lamentablemente y de manera totalmente inesperada, Telecom cancelo su apoyo la semana pasada. Ahora nos encontramos sin acceso a la red de distribucion y no encontramos ninguna alternativa viable.

Hemos tenido cierto exito. El debate sobre si NZ debia considerar una nueva bandera esta ahora en manos del publico y, por encuestas que se han realizado, sabemos que, en general, contamos con mas del 50% de la poblacion que aprueba el cambio. El problema principal al tratar de iniciar un Referendum Iniciado por los Ciudadanos es el numero necesario de firmas y como conseguirlas. Sabiendo que la mayoria de la poblacion desea un cambio, es muy probable que, en un futuro, se cambie la bandera por otros medios.

Aunque no hayamos llegado al momento adecuado para el cambio, ya dijimos al principo de la campania que si el resultado acababa siendo negativo, lo considerariamos un exito si, al mismo tiempo, habiamos logrado que los Neocelandeses debatieran la cuestion de su identidad nacional.

Gracias por tu apoyo a la campania y por ayudarnos a ondear la bandera de los ciudadanos de Nueva Zelanda.

Muy cordialmente,
The NZFlag.com Trust


The weather today:
Mist
18C
UV Index: 1 Low
Wind: From the East at 6 mph
Dew Point: 17C
Humidity: 95%
Visibility:2 miles
Barometer: 1,006.4 m

What a great idea! The Times is giving one audiobook for free every week. This week's book is Lemony Snicket's fantasy novel : A Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) narrated by Tim Curry. Follow The Times instructions or get it directly from here : Audible .

Idea genial! The Times regala un audio-libro gratis cada semana durante un mes. El libro de esta semana es la novela fantastica de Lemony Snicket : A Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events) narrada por Tim Curry. Para los que quieran una manera entretenida de praticar ingles y gratis. Seguid las instrucciones en la pagina del The Times o directamente en : Audible


The weather today:
Cloudy
16C
UV Index: 1 Low
Wind: From the East at 7 mph
Dew Point: 11C
Humidity: 74%
Visibility:Unlimited
Barometer: 1,010.2 mb

From now on, I'm looking upwards! At the end of the day, it doesn't cost anything to try... According to an article titled "Just look up to find happiness" published in The Sunday Times yesterday:
"In the study, researchers tested volunteers to find those with the strongest pessimistic and optimistic traits. Then the volunteers were asked to perform various cognitive tests while looking downwards and similar tasks while looking slightly upwards.The results showed that the pessimists performed best while looking downwards, the optimists best when they looked upwards.
It is possible that such postures can actually reinforce the moods that caused them, so people with pessimistic or depressive tendencies are perpetuating them through directing their gaze downwards".

A partir de ahora, yo miro hacia arriba! Total, no cuesta nada probar...
Segun un articulo titulado "Mira hacia arriba para ser feliz" publicado ayer en The Sunday Times :
"En el estudio, los investigadores realizaron tests para determinar rasgos positivos y negativos entre los voluntarios. Despues se pidio a los voluntarios que realizaran varios tests cognitivos mientras miraban hacia arriba, y tareas similares mientras miraban hacia abajo. Los resultados demostraron que los pesimistas alcanzaban mejores resultados mientras miraban hacia abajo y los optimistas mientras miraban hacia arriba.
Es posible que dichas posturas refuercen los estados de animo que las causaron de buen principio. Asi pues, los pesimistas o con tendencias depresivas estarian perpertuando sus estados de animo al mirar constantemente hacia abajo".


The weather today:
Cloudy
18C
UV Index: 1 Low
Wind: From the North Northwest at 14 mph
Dew Point:14C
Humidity: 80%
Visibility: Unlimited
Barometer: 1,002.4 mb

Today I found out about adopting cyberpets like the duck above. You can adopt a customized pet (llama, bunny, cat, hedgehog, etc.) for free for your blog/website from Bunnyhero Labs . Oh and if you don't have a blog/website, you can always add it to your browser by following the instructions. Try other code options if you cannot see your pet after pasting the code to your blog. For pasting here as a blogger post, I had to use the "livejournal, deadjournal or greatestjournal" option. Try clicking on Flap the Duck above. It will open in a new page where you will be able to make Flap move around with your mouse and by clicking the mouse, Flap will quack too!



Acabo de descubrir como adoptar cyber-mascotas como el pato de arriba. Podeis adoptar una mascota personalizada (llama, conejo, gato, erizo, etc.) gratis para vuestro blog/pagina web en Bunnyhero Labs . Y si no teneis blog/pagina web, siempre podeis aniadirlo a vuestro buscador, siguiendo las instruciones. Si no veis vuestra mascota despues de pegar el codigo, pobrad otras opciones de codigo. Por ejemplo, para colgar la mascota aqui como un post de Blogger, tuve que usar el codigo para "livejournal, deadjournal or greatestjournal". Haced un click en el pato Flap. Os llevara a otra pagina web donde podeis mover a Flap con vuestro mouse y, con un click, oirle...cuack, cuack!



The weather today:
Partly Cloudy
18C
UV Index:3 Moderate
Wind: From the North at 6 mph
Dew Point: 14°C
Humidity: 76%
Visibility: 7 miles
Barometer:1,016.6 m

Scotty (James Doohan) died yesterday. Who will "beam us up", now? Snif.

Murio Scotty (James Doohan). Quien nos teletransportara ahora? Snif.

The weather today:
Partly Cloudy
19C
UV Index: 3 Moderate
Wind: From the Northwest at 13 mph
Dew Point: 12C
Humidity: 65%
Visibility:Unlimited
Barometer: 1,021.0 mb

I have just found out about Geocaching (pronounced 'geocashing')today. I quote from Wikipedia : "Geocaching is an outdoor sport that involves the use of a Global Positioning System ("GPS") receiver to find a "geocache" (or "cache") placed anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small, waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure". Geocaching is a unique take on an earlier game called Letterboxing in that it uses two recent technologies, the GPS and the Internet. Participants are called geocachers.
The sport of geocaching was made possible by the "turning off" of the Selective Availability of the Global Positioning System on May 1, 2000. The first documented placement of a cache with GPS assistance took place on May 3, 2000 by Dave Ulmer of Beaver Creek, Oregon. The location was posted on the Usenet newsgroup sci.geo.satellite-nav. By May 6, 2000 it had been found twice and logged once.
Geocaching is growing rapidly in popularity all over the world. As of July 18, 2005 there were 183908 active caches in 215 countries posted on geocaching.com"

I would love to try Geocaching. And the geographer in the family would love it too. We dont' have a GPS receiver though. Whem is the next birthday then?....



Hoy he descubierto el Geocaching (se pronuncia 'geocashing'). Cito del periodico "Esta combinacion de juego tecnologico y deporte recuerda a la clasica gincama: un jugador esconde una caja con chucherias y baratijas y los otros jugadores han de descubrirla mediante pistas. En el geocaching se dan a traves de internet la longitud y latitud del punto donde se encuentra la caja (o cache), junto con una pequenia descripcion y una pista de donde puede estar oculta. El jugador que decida buscarlo necesitara un sistema GPS con el que localizar el punto a partir de las coordenadas.
Para registrar un cache hay que darse de alta en la pagina de Geocaching.com , donde hay cientos de propuestas. Lo siguiente es bautizarlo e introducir las coordenadas del lugar en el que se ha escondido y un pequeño texto con alguna pista para llegar a el. Al localizarlo, se debe coger y dejar en el un objeto y registrar el hallazgo en el cuaderno que esta dentro. Finalmente, el jugador ha de anunciar en la ficha del cache en la web que lo ha encontrado y aniadir cualquier comentario".

Me gustaria intentar a ver que tal es el Geocaching. Y al expert@ en geografia de casa tambien le gustaria. Pero no tenemos sistema GPS, que mal! Mmmm.....cuando cae el proximo cumpleanios?...


The weather today:
Cloudy and Windy
21C
UV Index: 1 Low
Wind: From the West Northwest at 22 mph
Dew Point: 16C
Humidity:73%
Visibility: 7 miles
Barometer: 1,020.3 mb

This website is plastic fantastic! : Vintage Vegas Postcard Museum

Esta pagina web es fantastica! : Museo de Antiguas Postales de Las Vegas

I have an announcement to make! Yesterday.... come on, don't you guess?.... Yesterday.... come on, you should have an idea on what I'm about to say... Yesterday.... ha ha ha! Sorry, as I was saying... Yesterday... I bought the last Harry Potter!!! Don't say I didn't give you warning, I had been posting clues for a whole week. Ha, what a laugh.


Anuncio importantisimo! Ayer..... venga, no lo adivinais?.... Ayer.... vamos, tendrias que saber ya que de va..... Ayer.....ja ja ja! Perdon, como decia.... Ayer... compre el ultimo Harry Potter! No digais que no avise, ya habia dejado caer pistas por aqui y por alla desde hacia una semana. Ay que risa.


The weather today:
Mostly Cloudy and Windy
19C
UV Index: 4 Moderate
Wind:From the West Southwest at 26 mph
Dew Point:13C
Humidity: 69%
Visibility: 7 miles
Barometer:1,016.9 mb