en espanhol

71 posts under this tag.

the beginning of the beginning 2
0
0
8
Jul
16


It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all that the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening… All this world is heavy with the promise of greater things, and a day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars.

H. G. Wells
Es posible creer que todo el pasado es solo el principio del principio, y que todo lo que es y ha sido es solo el crespusculo del amanecer. Es posible creer que todo lo que la mente humana ha logrado jamas es solo el suenho antes del despertar… Todo este mundo esta cargado con la promesa de cosas mas grandes, y el dia llegara, un dia en la interminable sucesion de dias, cuando seres, seres ya latentes en nuestros pensamientos y escondidos en nuestras ingles, habran de erguirse sobre esta tierra como se yergue uno sobre un banquillo, y habran de reirse y estirar sus manos entre las estrellas.
First read it at Alcor’s epilogue. It has kept me in thrall since.

(Alcor’s website, apropos, has a wonderful, content-rich website. See, for instance, their detailed FAQs on cryonics or Mike Darwin’s rousing, impassioned Why we are cryonicists)

Lovers 2
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0
8
Apr
07

No creo que ganen tales o cuales caballos porque les apostamos, sino que les apostamos para legitimar mejor nuestro deseo de que ganen, de que el ganar los haga nuestros.

..no deseamos a nuestros amantes por su belleza, sino que deseamos que tengan belleza para asi poder justificar nuestro deseo.
Fernando Savater, A caballo entre milenios, emphasis mine
I don’t believe these or those horses win because we bet on them, rather that we bet on them to better legitimize our desire for them to win, for them to become ours in their winning.

..we don’t desire our lovers for their beauty, we rather desire that they be beautiful so that we may justify our desire.

I can barely believe that this blog has been up for 2 years already (!) and I had’t yet posted this quote, which is one of all my all time favorites.

You killed him, you killed him... 2
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0
8
Jan
17

La cultura del terror/4

Fue en un colegio de curas, en Sevilla. Un ninho de nueve anhos, o diez, estaba confesando sus pecados por vez primera. El ninho confeso que habia robado caramelos, o que habia mentido a la mama, o que habia copiado al vecino de pupitre, o quiza confeso que se habia masturbado pensando en la prima. Entonces, desde la oscuridad del confesionario emergio la mano del cura, que blandia una cruz de bronce. El cura obligo al ninho a besar a Jesus crucificado, y mientras le golpeaba la boca con la cruz, le decia:

Tu lo mataste, tu lo mataste…

Julio Velez era aquel ninho andaluz arrodillado. Han pasado muchos anhos. El nunca pudo arrancarse eso de la memoria.
Eduardo Galeano, El libro de los abrazos
The culture of terror/4

It happened on a school run by priests, in Sevilla. A boy of nine years, or ten, was confessing his sins for the first time. The boy confessed he had stolen caramels, or that he had lied to mother, or that he had copied from the neighboring desk, or maybe he confessed he had masturbated thinking on his girl cousin. Then, from the darkness of the confessional emerged the hand of the priest, brandishing a bronze cross. The priest forced the boy to kiss the crucified Jesus, and while he punched his mouth with the cross, he said:

You killed him, you killed him…

Julio Velez was that knelt Andalusian boy. Many years have passed. He could never tear that from his memory.

Juan Alazan 2
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0
8
Jan
12

A Spanish version of Mika’s Billy Brown. Apologies beforehand, I just have this hobby of translating songs—if the mood strikes one day I may even hurt your ears with my French version of Gloria Trevi’s Hoy me ire de casa


Update 15/January/2007:

Billy Brown

Oh Billy Brown had lived an ordinary life.
Two kids, a dog, and a cautionary wife.
While it was all going according to plan
Then Billy Brown fell in love with another man.
He met his lover almost every single day
Making excuses for his dodgy holiday
(Unto religion that he said and duty found
They didn’t know his faith was earthly bound)
Juan Alazan

Oh Juan Alazan vivia una vida primorosa
Dos ninhos, un perro y una esposa fastidiosa
Aun cuando todo iba yendo acorde al plan
Juan Alazan se enamoro de otro galan.
De ver su amante ningun dia se perdia
Haciendo excusas por tan locas correrias
En cierta religion nueva y extranha.
Lo que no sabian es que su fe era mundana.

Brown…Oh Billy Brown.
Don’t let the stars get you down.
Don’t let the waves let you drown.
Brown…Oh Billy Brown.
Gonna pick you up like a paper cup.
Gonna shake the water out of every nook.
Oh Billy Brown.

Juan… oh Juan Alazan
No te dejes por tus estrellas tumbar
No te dejes por las olas ahogar
Juan… oh Juan Alazan
Habra que desdoblarse como carton
Habra que sacudirse el agua de cada rincon.
Oh Juan Alazan.

Oh Billy Brown needed a place, somewhere to go.
He found an island off the coast of Mexico
Leaving his lover and his family behind.
Oh Billy Brown needed to find some peace of mind.
And on his journey and his travels on the way,
He met a girlie who was brave enough to say,
When they made love he shared the burden of his mind.
Oh Billy Brown you are a victim of the times.

Oh Juan Alazan tenia que huir a cualquier sitio.
Encontro una isla costa de Puerto Rico,
Dejando su amante y su familia por detras..
Oh Juan Alazan solo buscaba paz mental.
En aventuras en su larga travesia,
Conocio una chica que valiente le decia,
Cuando hacian el amor y el desahogaba sentimientos,
“Oh Juan Alazan eres una victima de los tiempos.”

Brown…Oh Billy Brown.
Don’t let the stars get you down.
Don’t let the waves let you drown.
Brown…Oh Billy Brown.
Gonna pick you up like a paper cup.
Gonna shake the water out of every nook.
Oh Billy Brown.

Juan… oh Juan Alazan
No te dejes por tus estrellas tumbar
No te dejes por las olas ahogar
Juan… oh Juan Alazan
Habra que desdoblarse como carton
Habra que sacudirse el agua de cada rincon.
Oh Juan Alazan.

[...]


[...]


Brown…Oh Billy Brown.
Gonna pick you up like a paper cup.
Gonna shake the water out of every nook.
Oh Billy Brown.

Juan… oh Juan Alazan
Habra que desdoblarse como carton
Habra que sacudirse el agua de cada rincon.
Oh Juan Alazan.

Oh Billy Brown had lived an ordinary life.
Two kids, a dog, and a cautionary wife.
While it was all going according to plan
Then Billy Brown fell in love with another man

Oh Juan Alazan vivia una vida primorosa
Dos ninhos, un perro y una esposa fastidiosa
Aun cuando todo iba yendo acorde al plan
Juan Alazan se enamoro de otro galan.

Que puta..? 2
0
0
7
Dec
06

Que puta entre sus podres chorrearia

por entre incordios, chancros y bubones

a este hijo de tan multiples cabrones

que no supo que nombre se pondria?


Salvador Novo en Un Marof,
poema que forma parte de Sátira,
su colección de diatribas

podre = pus

incordio = tumor

chancro = ulcera sifilitica

bubon = ulcera sifilitica, particularmente en las ingles

Abejita Libertaria 2
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0
7
Oct
14

Hace ya casi un anho de la FIL y yo apenas subo este cuentito que tan simpatico se me hizo. Libertarianismo para ninhos.

«En el pais de la colmena,
el guardia para a la abeja:
“¡Su carné!
¡El permiso de zumbar,
el permiso de volar,
el permiso de libar
y el permiso de melar!
¡Pronto y deprisa!”

Y a Abeja le da la risa:
“¡A ver!
¡Su permiso de silbar!
¡El permiso de multar!
¡El de parar a la gente
y el de ser tan repelente!”

En el pais de Colmena
¿quién se ríe?
El guardia, la abeja y yo.
Y este cuento se acabo.»

Darabuc, La vieja Iguazú

La Tapatia 2
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0
7
Oct
14

Via Richard, un bizarrisimo video local: La Tapatia de El Personal. Producido por alumnos del CUAAD WP, el video es practicamente una guia sui generis del centro de Guadalajara.

Nos subimos al par vial
visitamos Catedral
la pasee por todo el centro
nos clavamos muy adentro
vimos bicis, vimos motos
y en la calle muchos jotos…

Ah, no se, es tan malo que es bueno… Ademas de que siempre es raro ver cultura local capturada en medios como el video y la musica.

Civil 2
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0
7
Aug
12

Que magnifico ensayo este de Gabriel Zaid sobre la palabra civil. Que meticulosa recopilacion de tantas hebras de significado. Que claridad y que erudicion—de la buena.

Históricamente, civil ha servido para distinguir una nueva realidad por oposición a otra, de la cual emerge. Según lo que adjetive, puede significar: no astronómico, no de la corona, no eclesial, no en especie, no estatal, no exterior, no familiar, no militar, no natural, no noble, no penal, no religioso, no salvaje.

Gabriel Zaid, Civil

Espanhol llano 2
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0
7
Jul
12

Espanhol llano es espanhol escrito sin acentos, ñ (que se suele sustituir por nh, nn o simplemente n), dieresis o signos de puntuacion iniciales (¿¡).

Perfectamente inteligible para hablantes del dialecto ortografico dominante, el espanhol llano entra en auge a la par que el teclado, cuya dificultad intrinseca para escribir caracteres especiales se vuelve el argumento original a su favor. Hoy en dia las razones para usarlo son enormemente variadas.

(A more detailed explanation to follow, it’s just that I had to get this out—too much brain crackELZR already and this idea had been within for way too long.)

Improv'd Daily! (PLBRS, Uruban) 2
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0
7
Jun
22

PLBRS.com – Super Poderes Lexicos

Finally, after complaining for more than a year about its terrible interface design, the first sketch of a new interface for RAE’s Spanish Dictionary is now live. Expect service to be bumpy and patchy since the algorithms are still green but things will get better soon—daily!

The main improvements over DRAE so far are:
  1. Definitions load in the same page, stacked newest on top, which means you effortlessly keep a history of lookups. Very handy.
  2. You don’t have to type a word’s accents (or its ñ’s) for PLBRS to grok what you mean—99% of the time (the other, harmless 1% is made of words like LÚcido and luCIdo, where there is ambiguity). This effectively solves the original complaint and brings tears of joy to my eyes.
  3. Various simple format improvements that make things more attractive, more compact, and easier to grok.
  4. That silly tilde (~) used in phrases to stand for the entry word is now actually replaced with the word. In general, DRAE is full of abbreviations that may have made sense for the print version but are a confusing, pointless legacy in digital expanses. They’ll go away in the next couple of days.

Been getting a lot of ideas from Ninjawords—a very cool, very fast English dictionary. Check it out.

gdl.Uruban.com – web local

Asked on Wikipedia’s secret, Jimbo Wales, recently remarked,

“We make the web not suck.”

and I found it a very fitting answer and possible second slogan to the whole project. The best way I’ve found to describe what I want to do with Uruban is by adapting that phrase,

Uruban is about making the local web not suck.

It will be a wiki, a local encyclopedia, a local yellow pages, a local guide (not just a tourist guide). The place to find the menu of your neighborhood taco stand or the nearest Tejuino selling carts, movie listings of all theaters or places to get a hooker, cafes open late at night or drugstores that print your photos in an hour. It will be the city digitized and digested, given a common, comprehensive, and always updated interface. Above all, it will be local, hyperlocal.

So that’s the dream. For now I had to get myself to start and so I just transcribed a list of all churches in the metro area and their Sunday mass hours (I needed them when my grandfather was staying here and it disappointed me to no end they weren’t online anywhere). Expect bits and scraps of content added in the next couple of days and a full featured wiki (I’ll probably use MediaWiki) in a week or so.

Hope you like these two and please do tell me your first impressions-what works, what doesn’t? are these things at all helpful to you?

Thanks.

22 and 23/jun/07

Bad time management. Sorry. :)

24/jun/07

Plbrs
  1. Better Definition Structure. Definitions are now grouped visually under grammatical category (like, say, all the definitions of the word as a noun, and then all those of it as an adverb). They’re already grouped sequentially in the original dictionary but it’s all very redundant and clumsy (every definition has the grammatical category indicated at the beginning). This is a big improvement. Try it out by searching for “correr” in both plbrs and DRAE.
  2. Expanded Abbreviations. Most abbreviations are now automatically expanded, which works wonderfully in most cases though there are still several fringe cases like “usado o usada o usadas o usados”, which will be corrected tomorrow.
  3. Improved the simple design. Added a “definir” button, a neat magnifying glass icon, made topbar type smaller, and chose slightly better color combinations. Moved slogan below and added a small explanatory sentence. Added Improv’dDaily and NotReality icons.
  4. Improved status reporting. Now besides the loading image a message appears saying that your query is being searched. If multiple queries are being currently searched all of them appear in the message.
  5. Improved Not Found message. The query you were looking for now appears on the message (duh!)—thanks chemito! Message trimmed. Added fallback link to a Google search for your query.
Uruban
  1. Much new content! 8 new places added, together with photos and descriptions. It’s all terribly paltry and sketchy but it’s a beginning.
  2. Improved design. Gave the website a blue-green color scheme and generally beautified the whole thing. Added Improv’d Daily link.
  3. New copy. “Enciclopedia Local” is the new main slogan, “Haciendo que la Web Local No Apeste” the subslogan.
Remember to hard refresh (Ctrl-R) to see the most recent changes!