Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Ricardo Arjona - LFE

¡Hola! No he escrito por la filosofía española por mucho tiempo, y hoy yo escucho mucha música de YouTube. Ahora, tengo interés en los álbumes de Ray LaMontagne y Yusuf Islam, pero el artista de que quiero escribir es Ricardo Arjona. Él es un cantante guatemalteco que empieza a producir música en el distrito federal en México. Particularmente disfruto del álbum Santo Pecado. Al principio, solamente me gustaban las canciones "El problema" y "Minutos," porque fueron las únicas que yo había escuchado en una estación de Pandora. Más tarde, yo busqué el álbum en YouTube, y a mí me gustaba todo el álbum. Yo lo escuchaba cuando estudiaba por los examenes finales. Después de eso, no lo escuchaba por unos meses. Durante el verano, yo empecé a escuchar mucha música en YouTube, y encontré la lista del Santo Pecado. Yo empecé a escucharlo, y me gustaba más otras canciones también, como "Se fue" y "Vivir sin ti es posible." Todavía no sé todas las letras, ¡pero sí puedo cantar con el coro!

Si quisieran escuchar este álbum - sí, es en español, pero si quieren, puedo yo traducir las letras de una canción que les gusta; mándame - aquí es el enlace: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL38i2VzAVPgaDLNQd7mwCZA4oihZZ9y8l.

¡Gracias por leer! ¡Nos vemos el domingo próximo!

(See translation here)

Note to Readers

Just to keep you from unnecessarily checking this blog on Sunday and finding nothing, this week's Pic a Day will be moved to next Sunday, so I will have a two-week post on August 10. Why, you may ask? Well, I'm going out of town tomorrow (Tacoma - favorite city besides Rio Rancho - holla!), and I'll be gone until next Tuesday. I might even spoil you readers and post extra vacation pics besides the Pic a Day selections from my out-of-town venture when I get back...

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Pic a Day - 7/21 to 7/27

Mon. July 21, I love when authors write about dogs in stories
Tues. July 22, a trip to Rotary Park
Wed. July 23, I'll be going on vacation next week! (Holla!)
Thurs. July 24, guess what my new favorite album is...
Fri. July 25, the now-neat file cabinets in the band storage room
Sat. July 26, the little dogs hanging out in the one shady patch
Sun. July 27, I let this adorable little guy snooze a bit on my lap

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Pic a Day - 7/14 to 7/20

Mon. July 14, sunset clouds
Tues. July 15, before-pool selfie
Wed. July 16, reading Internet posts like "what"
Thurs. July 17, I think this might be considered teamwork...?
Fri. July 18, found some old temporary tattoos - decided to get stylish
Sat. July 19, I'm teaching her to love the camera... slowly

Sun. July 20, the golden-honey triplets: Toby (mid) trying to get Ivy (left) to hush up, and Diego (right) just wants some attention

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Pic a Day - 7/7 to 7/13

Mon. July 7, Russian keyboard stickers!
Tues. July 8, Annik took baby Corey to NYC
Wed. July 9, Tang for my Extant party
Thurs. July 10, Cordie the (Nintendog) boxer
Fri. July 11
Sat. July 12, there are four verbs for "to go" in Russian
Sun. July 13, Kona being a sassafras

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Pic a Day - 6/30 to 7/6

Mon. June 30, blind selfie (after an eye doctor's appointment)
Tues. July 1, Patch reading in the car
Wed. July 2, drawing soap opera webs (left is Y&R, right is B&B)
Thurs. July 3, pink and white lily
Fri. July 4, a Roman candle blur
Sat. July 5, Kona just kicking back and relaxing
Sun. July 6, this little girl fell in love with Wrigley, and now he has a home!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Independence Day, Vegetarianism Anniversary, and Random Thoughts

I want to start by saying happy independence day! If you haven't seen previous summer posts, I celebrate the second of July instead of the fourth of July, because the Declaration of Independence was actually signed on the second. Plus, I am weirdly semi-obsessed with John Adams, and he said that the second would go down in history, so I want to make him proud.

Today is also my second anniversary of going vegetarian! For anyone out there that wants to make that change but is still unsure, I just want to say that the first year is the hard year. I kind of forgot the second year, and while I lamented some things (mostly cheese products this year), it wasn't so much of a loss as it felt the first year. The first year is when it's hard, but once you jump through those hoops and get over all the hurdles, it gets a lot easier.

If you are wondering why I am restricted on cheeses, I consider cheese with rennet to not be vegetarian, because rennet is obtained by slaughter (the simple way of putting it). Most cheese contains rennet, but there are special vegetarian cheeses and products that use these, so being selective about cheese isn't a cold-turkey loss. Being really picky and selective also keeps you knowledgeable about what you eat. I have actually called Goldfish and Cheez-It, just so I could know if their products were safe for me to eat. Cheez-It is, but Goldfish is not. Sometimes companies don't know much about rennet, but it's still better to ask and find out what they do or don't know to be sure.

(Anyway. Enough rennet ranting. Just type "rennet" into Wikipedia if you're really interested in learning more.)

Random thought #1: I recently searched Ray LaMontagne's newest album, Supernova, because I knew he had released one this year but hadn't gotten the chance to look it up. When I first heard it, it wasn't what I was expecting, exactly, and even though I listened to the entire album, I wasn't impressed enough to want to look further into it. I searched his discography to see his other albums, and I was instantly hooked on God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise because of its country, folksy melodies and instrumentation. However, my interest in Supernova, was piqued again, so I listened through once or twice more. It was after that that one of the songs stuck in my head, so I kept pulling up the YouTube video and listening to it, which has now gotten me addicted. It is a rare thing to have to coax myself to like an album, but I am glad I gave it a couple more chances, because I do like Ray-Ray.

Random thought #2: my friend and I have been Skyping a lot this summer, and connect via voice call to team up for Minecraft Hunger Games. While I am normally ticked off by some of his behaviors and sayings, what he said in jest yesterday has made me unusually hurt and angry. I let most of his jokes pass with a laugh or return remark, because we always joke about some things. However, there are some lines which should not be crossed. (For me, it usually takes someone crossing a line before I discover a line was even there.) While I feel like it would enlighten you all if I shared what he said, I don't think I need to dwell on the particulars of it, and I don't need anyone else getting angry or upset by it. Basically, it was a joke about abuse that got too personal. I was really offended by it, though I only had weak defenses to put up against it at the time. I don't think abuse is something that can be joked or laughed about in any context. Not only that, it showed that he either a) doesn't know me at all to make such an ignorant remark, or b) knows me well enough to know it would strike a nerve. I ranted and gave myself pep-talks on why I was so angry about it, but when we called today, I said nothing about it, and I felt like I was being unusually harsh in my jokes. I don't feel like he said it to hurt or offend me; I agree more with the A option, that he didn't know what he was joking about or where it would lead. Today I formulated arguments and comebacks in my pep-talks, and in doing so got to more positive ground of the incident, so I am not as angry as I was just after he said it.

Have a happy fourth of July, everyone, and keep cool this summer!