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If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution

Below are the 25 most recent journal entries.

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  2008.05.09  18.24
Of life and vermin

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. -- Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

 
 


 
  2008.04.24  23.03
You know you've had enough to drink when...

You know you’ve had enough to drink when... you have been using mutt and vim with capslock on for half an hour and have even managed, quite confused though.
Heh.

 
 


 
  2008.04.18  22.27
You people break my heart

Some come, others kind of go.

I warmly welcome the new 19 developers (great female ratio there!) and humbly ask the rest of us to support the new blood carriers. If they made it through this, they are surely worthy of our cause and will probably accomplish a lot more if us, the old farts, make it easier for the ones to come in the future.

Where do I join the Debian elderly club?



Music: Life of Agony - Weeds
 
 


 
  2008.04.15  12.35
The absurd farce

It happens that when I get burnt out by Debian (I might blog about that later, but then I just might not) I am forced to face the real world just to learn that Debian was not so bad to begin with. Oh, the irony! I need to smoke more so that I spend less time involved in this crap nobody can change. It is hard enough to change Debian, I don't even want to think about the rest.

If you want to understand the world crisis you are living in...


 
 


 
  2008.03.31  12.43
Release Goal goal-recommends: Final help needed

Slow sunday afternoon? Choose a release goal and work on it!

Yesterday I focused on the goal-recommends issue: No unmet recommends relations inside main. I worked from 18:00 pm to 2:00am, aprox, and 32 bugs were closed.

16 Non Maintainer Uploads, closing 21 bugs:
* delo  (Closes: #378221, #414389, #416161, #452953)
* gpib  (Closes: #430998)
* php-net-smtp (Closes: #369273)
* rpc2 (Closes: #377829) (NMU Overriden by maintainer)
* rvm (Closes: #377410) (NMU Overriden by maintainer)
* smooth-themes (Closes: #379195)
* xmltex (Closes: #429564)
* acpitool (Closes: #436637)
* asciidoc (Closes: #452470)
* chasen (Closes: #363196, #452474)
* cl-screen-sbcl (Closes: #436641, #460444)
* cpufreqd (Closes: #436647)
* denemo (Closes: #439929)
* lacheck (Closes: #448911)
* sablevm (Closes: #346071)
* ddcontrol-db (Closes: #436649)

Filed for removal, will close 3 bugs:
* digikamimageplugins-doc (Closes: #448904)
* free-java-sdk (Closes: #429306, #401492)
* php4-apd Filed for removal by KiBi (Closes: #418319)

Orphaning uploads, closing 2 bugs:
* xcin2.3 (Closes: #276885)
* gnochm (Closes: #429304)

Packages only present in oldstable, closing 4 bugs:
* eagle-usb-utils (Closes: #448905)
* zd1211 (Closes: #378725)
* python-pysnmp4 (Closes: #377075)
* lessdisks-terminal (Closes: #361939)

Bugs marked fixed but never properly closed, closing 2 bugs:
* araneida (Closes: #436638)
* gtk2-engines-murrine (Closes: #430999)

That leaves a total of 2 bugs remaining to finish the release goal:
* #436650: syslinux: Please build (at least a subset of) syslinux for all arches
* #448890: bioperl: recommends packages not in main (pending, serious)

These don't seem trivial to fix, anyone dares to step in?

(Updated: Monday, March 31 2008 17:50)



Music: Milesart Orchestra - Time For Peace [Joan Ribas Musical Mix]
 
 


 
  2008.03.05  20.38
Debian-Women-es @Fosdem 2008


Debian-Women-es @Fosdem 2008
Originally uploaded by Amayita.
Fosdem 2008, a little gathering for the Debian-Women Spanish chapter. There were probably more Debian related women from Spain than men this year. The world upside down!

On other news, my mum was diagnosed skin cancer today. Life sucks. Hard.


 
 


 
  2008.02.21  17.04
Where is Wally?

Where is Holger?

And BTW, I am going to Fosdem.

FOSDEM, the Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting

Edit: If you don't understand this post's title, find out about Wally


 
 


 
  2008.02.12  14.04
Für mich soll's rote Rosen regnen

Thank you for introducing me to Hildegard Knef and Amy Winehouse. You know who you are. Specially for the Extrabreit version of Für mich soll's rote Rosen regnen (It shall rain red roses for me). It takes me to the verge of tears.



Mood: full
 
 


 
  2008.01.27  00.10
Héctor's Birth Day

Today is Héctor’s birthday. We celebrated with his family and a couple of close friends. He cooked a wonderful meal for us (he is a great cook) and we had a very nice afternoon, despite having a flu (again!) and a very runny nose. I am at this very moment preparing a sponsored upload for Carlos, one of the close friends who attended. He will become an excellent Debian contributor some day.

I got Héctor a couple of cookbooks for his birthday, but much to my surprise I received a brand new server from him (late Xmas present, but I am to blame for the delay). I can now get rid of this damn noisy and slow thing that sits under my desk, aka ænima. This has been a faithful server for many years and I think it deserves to be donated to the local hacklab, as I believe it can still be of use.

I hope I can put all this CPU power to good use in my Debian QA work (which I am slowly coming back to).

Héctor has been my best friend for almost 10 years. We also are co-workers at soitu.es now. He was the one who made me believe that I could contribute to Debian and that I should apply to become a Developer (although Santiago Vila was actually the first one to spot me). He was the one I run to when I felt like dying shit after my “divorce”. He is still the one I run to most of the time when I need support or advice, and he has this wonderful way of making me feel safe in this scary world. Even though we naturally don’t agree on a lot of stuff, he does his best to respect my eccentricities, and I always carefully listen to what he has to say. I am very lucky to be his friend. May this friendship last many, many more years. Héctor, keep rocking!

 
 


 
  2008.01.08  01.33
Back to life, back to blogging

Since September 19th I have been mostly offline and unreachable. This was due to having started a new job in a wonderful new project: soitu.es, an online newspaper with a strong focus on Citizen Journalism: citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,” I must mention the master mind behind this all: Gumersindo Lafuente, one very well known journalist in Spain. On the other hand, working with Raúl Rivero, not the Cuban poet but the technical soul of the project, is something I would pay for, and I get actually paid to learn from him! Too bad he doesn’t digg Debian :)



The site was finally launched during Xmas, and we are all less busy, so despite having what I call “the weekend flu” (that only affects me during the weekends, but I never feel so bad that I need to miss work during the week), I am back to normal, If you thought I was quite MIA, keep in mind I was not one of busiest ones at work! Launching such a project takes a toll on everyone, though. I set up a Flick set for my new workplace: Amayita’s Soitu.es Flickr photo Set, in case you are curious. There is also an official Soitu.es Flickr Photo Pool.

Today is a holiday in Spain, due to Día de Reyes, when kids usually get their Xmas presents here. As I am fully recovered from this weekend’s flu (today is Monday after all), I had some spare time and my cats got a nice present too: A DIY scratching post. There is a WTF column in the effing middle of my kitchen, so after some cardboard, a wall stapler, sisal rope and a bit of round and round the column... This pic shows the result:



Two happy cats and a sisal scratching post.


I couldn’t resist filming a video, available on YouTube: This scratching post is now mine! - No! Mine! - I’ll get you!



Mood: accomplished
 
 


 
  2008.01.01  00.00
Still remains - Stone Temple Pilots

Our bed we live, our bed we sleep
Making love and I become you
Flesh is warm with naked feet
Stabbing thorns and you become me
Oh, Id beg for you, you know I’ll beg for you
Pick a song and sing a yellow nectarine
Take a bath, I’ll drink the water that you leave
If you should die before me
Ask if you can bring a friend
Pick a flower, hold you breath
And drift away...

She holds my hand we share a laugh
Sipping orange blossom breezes
Love is still and sweat remains
A cherished gift, unselfish feelings...
Oh, Id beg for you, you know I’ll beg for you

Happy Gnu Year, Holgi! You know I’d love to be there with you :*



Mood: loved
Music: Still remains - Stone Temple Pilots
 
 


 
  2007.12.02  01.17
I want to have your child

I want to have your child

 
 


 
  2007.11.05  14.01
Hermanos...

El general en jefe del ejercito libertador del sur Emiliano Zapata Manifiesto Zapatista en Nagua

Hermanos nosotros nacimos de la noche
en ella vivimos
y moriremos en ella
pero la luz será mañana para los más,
para todos aquellos que hoy lloran la noche,
para quienes se niega el día.
Para todos la luz,
para todos todo.
Para nosotros el dolor y la angustia,
para nosotros la alegria de la rebelión
para nosotros el futuro negado,
Para nosotros la dignidad insurrecta
Para nosotros nada

Nuestra lucha es por hacernos escuchar y el mal gobierno
grita soberbia y tapa con cañones sus oídos,
nuestra lucha es por un trabajo justo y digno y el mal gobierno compra y vende cuerpos y vergüenza,
nuestra lucha es por la vida y el mal gobierno oferta muerte como futuro,
nuestra lucha es por la justicia y el mal gobierno se llena de criminales y asesinos,
nuestra lucha es por la paz y el mal gobierno anuncia guerra y destrucción.
Techo, tierra, trabajo, pan, salud, educación, independencia, democracia, libertad,
estas fueran nuestras demandas en la larga noche de los 500 años,
estas son hoy nuestras exigencias.

 
 


 
  2007.06.28  12.53
Breakfast

There is a topless Argentinian dude in my kitchen making pancakes with dulce de leche for breakfast. Yes, that’s nueces!

 
 


 
  2007.06.14  20.50
I found out!

Now I know what’s a proper way to wear a kilt, tactilewards!

 
 


 
  2007.06.10  19.59
Dear Lazyweb

In case you were wondering, the question is: can you see whether Phil is wearing any underwear under that lovey kilt from where you are seated?

 
 


 
  2007.06.08  11.44
Consumers Are Killing the Welfare State

Consumers Are Killing the Welfare State. Some excerpts, if you don’t want to read the whole thing:

The average shopper at Karstadt, Metro and Lidl is a downright globalization fanatic. He compares price and service and always goes for what’s cheapest. In doing so, he destroys massive numbers of jobs in Europe -- including, eventually, his own.

Nowadays, almost everything money can buy can be produced without the extra ingredient that we call the welfare state.

Indeed, 75 percent of the world’s population has no unemployment benefit. And while this may put workers at a disadvantage, it certainly provides a boost to their product sales. It is the workers alone -- and not the products they produce -- who must bear the risk of illness, poverty and aging. In the West, exactly the opposite is true.

Many who considered the social market economy to be the final stage of history are now being forced to admit they made a colossal error. Capitalism has, thanks to a global labor and finance market, increased its range, while the social safety net has lost ground. The market has gained power, speed and apparently also inevitability. But the social triumph of yesteryear has faded. Indeed, capitalism is going back to its roots.

 
 


 
  2007.06.07  23.45
Walking Around


Sucede que me canso de ser hombre.
Sucede que entro en las sastrerías y en los cines
marchito, impenetrable, como un cisne de fieltro
Navegando en un agua de origen y ceniza.

El olor de las peluquerías me hace llorar a gritos.
Sólo quiero un descanso de piedras o de lana,
sólo quiero no ver establecimientos ni jardines,
ni mercaderías, ni anteojos, ni ascensores.

Sucede que me canso de mis pies y mis uñas
y mi pelo y mi sombra.
Sucede que me canso de ser hombre.

Sin embargo sería delicioso
asustar a un notario con un lirio cortado
o dar muerte a una monja con un golpe de oreja.
Sería bello
ir por las calles con un cuchillo verde
y dando gritos hasta morir de frío

No quiero seguir siendo raíz en las tinieblas,
vacilante, extendido, tiritando de sueño,
hacia abajo, en las tapias mojadas de la tierra,
absorbiendo y pensando, comiendo cada día.

No quiero para mí tantas desgracias.
No quiero continuar de raíz y de tumba,
de subterráneo solo, de bodega con muertos
ateridos, muriéndome de pena.

Por eso el día lunes arde como el petróleo
cuando me ve llegar con mi cara de cárcel,
y aúlla en su transcurso como una rueda herida,
y da pasos de sangre caliente hacia la noche.

Y me empuja a ciertos rincones, a ciertas casas húmedas,
a hospitales donde los huesos salen por la ventana,
a ciertas zapaterías con olor a vinagre,
a calles espantosas como grietas.

Hay pájaros de color de azufre y horribles intestinos
colgando de las puertas de las casas que odio,
hay dentaduras olvidadas en una cafetera,
hay espejos
que debieran haber llorado de vergüenza y espanto,
hay paraguas en todas partes, y venenos, y ombligos.
Yo paseo con calma, con ojos, con zapatos,
con furia, con olvido,
paso, cruzo oficinas y tiendas de ortopedia,
y patios donde hay ropas colgadas de un alambre:
calzoncillos, toallas y camisas que lloran
lentas lágrimas sucias.


Pablo Neruda


 
 


 
  2007.05.31  01.21
It's that time of the year again

It’s that time of the year again, and I have this silly smile on my face again: Next Friday I will be landing in Edinburgh, just before Debconf officially starts.

2007 has been a bit difficult so far, but I know Debconf will recharge my batteries and I will, again, get intoxicated with the enthusiasm of my fellow DDs. I always find inspiration, motivation and nice technical challenges during Debconf and anticipation fills my heart with warmth.

 
I’m really looking forward to seeing the dudes and dudettes again. Hug you in Debconf!


Ganneff Hugging


 
 


 
  2007.05.15  16.45
Fallin'

(Insert Fallin’ lyrics from Teenage Fanclub & De La Soul from the Judgement Night Sound Track here)

 
 


 
  2007.05.02  12.22
The no impact man^Wfamily

If everybody on the whole planet decided to commit suicide, which in a way, they have, would it be the right thing to do to not join in? What’s so great about trying to be right if it keeps you separate? It seems like there is something precious that has to do with holding yourself above or not just joining in and being part of. I don’t know. I’m suddenly realizing that this whole project could be pretty damn hard.

The “No impact man” is a family’s project to try not to cause any environmental impact on the planet for one year. It involves a very radical change in their lifestyle, as they live in Manhattan. The blog describes their struggles as they gradually move from one goal to another, from reducing their trash generation to absolutely none, declaring war to tree-killing junk mail and plastic bags, only eating local produce, thus giving up coffee and sugar (which the wife specially resents), no cars, buses or elevators, being hit by a car while riding his “second-hand new” bike (no new purchases are allowed)... to composting their own waste and giving up all throwaway products, including toilet paper. All this in Manhattan, with a toddler!

While I completely relate to their goal, and being myself quite picky about the way I consume, having changed my most used light bulbs to low energy ones (even though I hate the resulting light colour and quality), turning off all electronics that have a led while not in use, not owning a car, avoiding public transportation in favour of walking as often as possible, and being obsessive about recycling, I keep a 24x7 powered on desktop and laptop, my lights are turned on much often than the average house (my place is very dark), I drink tea that comes all the way from Africa (Rooibos), I want to fly all over to Hamburg every weekend (but I can't afford to), and I have not gotten around to insulating my electrical water heater.

Yet, I live alone, in a small place, and my use of resources is still quite rational, for a geek. (Take a look at the WWF Footprint Calculator: I am living as if we had 2.52 planets to support us. Although I am below some of the world average figures, we obviously only have the one!).

It is both inspiring and off-putting to see this family’s effort, as it looks like an interesting experiment that I am surely going to follow, but one I would myself not be able to attempt. Many people believe their small little efforts will not change anything, but I disagree. Every little effort makes a difference when you look at the global picture, still this problem is not easy at all.

In case you need some motivation to rethink the way you live, watch Who Killed the Electric Car?, An Inconvenient Truth, The End of Suburbia or Darwin's Nightmare.

To quote the “no impact man” in Deeper sickness, better cure: “A psychiatrist friend, Stephan Quentzel, went so far as to suggest in conversation that environmentalism could be like a new religion that binds us together with a sense of common purpose and greater meaning”.

 
 


 
  2007.04.08  15.41
Hummm, let's break everything up again!

So Etch is out, can we go back to breaking sid more often? I really really miss it!

 
 


 
  2007.04.08  15.33
Congrats!

Sam, for your new, shiny DPL hat :)

And to the rest of us... Etch is out now! Congrats!

 
 


 
  2007.04.06  15.27
Mine do it every night

A cat helped spare a family from death by carbon monoxide poisoning by jumping on the bed and meowing wildly as fumes filled the home, the owners said.

Eric and Cathy Keesling told reporters that their 14-year-old cat, Winnie, played a crucial role in saving their lives March 24 after a gasoline-powered water pump in their basement caused the odorless but deadly gas to build up.

About 1 a.m., Winnie began nudging Cathy Keesling’s ear and meowing loudly. “It was a crazy meow, almost like she was screaming,” said Keesling.

Winnie’s caterwauling and jumping persisted until Keesling finally climbed out of bed — and realized she was nauseous and dizzy and couldn’t awaken her husband.

Paramedics found the couple’s 14-year-old son, Michael, unconscious on the floor near his bedroom. The Keeslings were taken from the home in oxygen masks and treated for carbon monoxide poisoning; they soon recovered. The cat was unhurt.

I have no idea what dangers Jazz has already saved me from, but either at 4:30 or 6:00, sharp, this happens every night in my bedroom.

 
 


 
  2007.04.04  21.10
What really is in their mind



 
 


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