Notes by Farouk Rojas

Today I remembered what I believe is a moment from my childhood: sitting in the front seat of my father's car, driving on the highway.  I think we were going north.  Back when I was a child highways in Mexico were smaller than they are now.  Most of the roads were two-way, and the grass grew tall at the edge of the road.  

I remember the green of farmland as far as my eyes could go, meeting the darkening blue of the sky; the smell of the air preceding rain. 

On the other side of the car, where my father sat, the sun was setting, and the sky was clear.  Sunset was imminent so I could make shapes with my hands and see them projected on my side of the road. 

We had a 1975 Ford LTD and the air conditioner almost never worked.  We would always keep the windows open on the highway.  

But what I remember the most is how well I was taking it all in.  It was as if I was soaked in the world: the colors were vibrant, the smells so penetrating. I was completely open to it all.  Judged nothing.  Expected nothing. Worried about nothing.  I was there, and the dirt was as important as my mother's long black hair.  The world was beautiful and there was nothing to do about it.

My father would be humming church hymns as he drove, perhaps to calm himself down, as driving made him nervous.  He had the blue sky in his voice.

If you don't like the view from your window, check this option for relocation:

"We wouldn't be surprised if there is life on this planet," said Stephane Udry, an astronomer on the project at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

You are out of luck if your car's warp drive is not working.  

Check out this post @ The Movie Blog. 

Is it fair for movie theaters to charge you $10 for a movie and then show you commercials?  Would movies be more expensive otherwise?  Would you pay more for a commercial-free movie?

Long ago, there were no commercials at the movies.  

What do you think?

[through digg.com] 

Yup, you can read a whole book online, for free.  Google has scanned the whole Moby Dick—a very thick book by Herman Melville—and made it available online.  Too bad you don't look intellectual while staring into your laptop in a coffee shop.

By the way, Herman Melville is the great-great-great-great uncle of Moby, famous American songwriter, musician and singer.

One of my favorite architects, Frank Gehry, in his book Gehry Talks, said:

"The approach to architecture should be like science, with breakthroughs that create new information, not the repetition of old ideas."

He was talking about the process of developing the Nationale-Nederlanden Building (1992-1996) in Prague, Czech Republic.

The building is also affectionately called "Fred and Ginger", because one of the towers evokes the shape of a woman's dress, and they both seem to dance.

This was an exciting discovery for me.  While using the Last.fm application on your computer, and listening to the "Neighborhood" station, you can click on the "Playlist" button to add the currently playing song to a personal playlist. 

Once the playlist is long enough, you can play it from your personal profile in the last.fm website (click on the "Play in software" link) and enjoy listening to full versions of only the songs you selected.  You can't control the order, but it's all the music that you like, exclusively, and commercial-free.  Nice.

A friend recently needed this.  What you do is that you hold the mouse button while you are booting up the computer. 

Restart the machine and when it's coming back, press and hold the mouse button (or the touchpad button) until the disc is ejected.  

I just tried for the first time to play the first chords of Debussy's "Clair de Lune" on the piano.  Tough little assignment.  Turns out I first need to figure out where to put the fingers correctly, in order to be able to make the jump to the next chord.  It is quite a debate for me to spend time learning this piece, vs. all the other things I could possibly be doing, but I love it, and I think the experience with the music will help me in general.

I'm sure it's better for me than watching Grey's Anatomy, although I do enjoy the acting very much.