Iraqi Poet Anwar Al-Ghassani

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Making Fun of Yourself!

Browsing in Old Papers

Today, in my office at home, I was moving some old papers from their worn cases to new ones I bought in the afternoon. While browsing in them I found a diary entry dating to Sunday, July 1, 1979. That was in Leipzig, Germany, at a time when I had finished my doctoral thesis and was waiting for its presentation (which took place on September 13). It was some two years after I met my wife Ana Mercedes, a year after our marriage, and six months before Ana and I left Germany and went to Costa Rica for the first time.
The first two lines of the entry read as follows:
Today, I decided that starting tomorrow I will solve two problems: I will quit smoking for good and I will start writing on each and every day.
Twenty-seven years later, I read these lines in San José, Costa Rica, and realize that I am still smoking and altough I write more frequently than I did in the past, I am far from being able to write on daily basis.
I discovered how naive I was at that time to make such drastic decisions without sufficient preparation. The paradox became evident and I started laughing at myself and my past decisions.
My daughter Munira, who was with me at that moment, asked what was it what I was laughing at. I told her and we laughed. Then I went to my son Manuel and told him of my absurd but interesting discovery and we laughed.
It is not only healthy to laugh at one´s stupidities, errors, illusions and futile decisions, it also help to learn how to make better and realistic decisions the next time around.

Ideas for poems - Caracas: I couldn´t touch your soul / I didn´t walk in your lanes.

Software jumble, software Kuddelmuddel, software Flohmarkt, and last but not least, the software garage…
After some cutting, welding, tweaking, adding and pasting I got the digital clock and date applet working (see top of sidebar).
I also added a style code to paint the scroll bar and spent hours adjusting this socalled classic template I got from WordPress (it was pretty crude upon arrival - still needs a lot of adjustments and changes).
I thought, it would be nice to think about software in garage and jumble market terms. It adds flavour and pleasant informality and makes working with software like going for coffee, ice cream and a chat with a friend at the nearby cafe.
Yours,
The Software Wizard ………

(Note from Abu Jassim: psst….psssssst!! Well, it is okay with all that stuff of coffee, tea, cakes, ice cream and a chat with a friend at the nearby cafe. I am his friend, but please, don´t believe him. He is not a SW wizard. I am telling him that all the time, but he is stubborn and doesn´t listen to good advice !!!).

How much land does a man need?

The above is the title of the famous short story of Leo Tolstoy.
I am writing a piece about my vision of a home in which I make references to Tolstoy and his short story.
Please come back soon to read the full entry.

(Photo: wikipedia.org)
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
(b. 9 September 1828, Yasnaya Polyana, Russia;
d. 20 November 1910, Astapovo, Russia).

I read the following teaser at a blog hosting site:

This is the place to be, if you are not here, you are not cool.
I rephrase it as follows: you are now at this blog and reading these lines. If you do not come again, then maybe that is because you are not cool. I have no final judgement. I am only saying, maybe… …..

Just to see if this message will be sent to me today, at the end of the day. Just to check whether the email subscription option is really working.
Insert a photo:
 
Hey, hey, hey, I am also changing the name of the default category from Master to something like Master-NoteBook or just NoteBook. Of course, that is “notebook” because of the lower-case mania of the CSS template I am using. Will change this feature at some date? you bet.  Stop it. I have to quit. I should be doing some lecture preparation by now and not indulging in such lovely thinking and creating at random……. Boy, we are still at this harsh world, we have not yet arrived at your paradise!!!

Diego Arias, one of the talented students of my course “Communication and New Technologies II” at the School of Mass Communication Sciences, University of Costa Rica, is the first to send me his blog address.
Right now, other students are creating their blogs as well, an option for their individual course projects.
Click here and subscribe to the feeds of his blog:  http://diegoarias.blog.com/ 
I think soon I will have to create a category to display addresses of other student blogs.