daBlog by goddess101

Marianne Williamson

From Marianne Williamson’s Return to Love:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

The Movie Spoiler

Most people who know me know that I’m an avid movie lover, who loves going to the movies and feasting on hot buttered popcorn. I had even logged that I saw 26 movies in a movie theater for one month!

However, given my current lifestyle (doing a lot of programming, and lack of funds in general), I hardly go to the cinema anymore—only for the occasional Harry Potter movie and random independent flick. But, I can’t help but still be interested in the newest films, as I adore watching trailers on the internet and can’t help but have the need to know what happens in these movies. So, what to do?

In comes themoviespoiler.com to the rescue. This is a website that gives complete, detailed, non-biased summaries of all the goings-on in today’s hottest movies, right up to the credits. Most of the spoilers are very up-to-date, particularly for the more popular movies, as spoilers are written and submitted by regular moviegoers. I did, however, have to wait 2 weeks for the Basic Instinct 2 spoiler to be posted (I guess no one really wanted to pay to see that one!), but all in all, it stays current. Movies that come out Friday will generally have a spoiler ready the following Monday.

So, instead of waiting for the video, I say go to themoviespoiler.com, cuz even fluff like Scary Movie 4 may not be worth the trouble.

Madrid Impressions

Ah, it’s been 2 days since we returned from Madrid, and I’m already knee-deep in helping cilibrar switchout his computer’s motherboard. But while I’m busy installing Linux, I want to take a bit of time to jot down some of my impressions of Spain’s capital.

First of all, like her sister Barcelona, Madrid is a city that sleeps just as the dawn breaks. Restaurants open as late at 9pm and close at 2am, right when the clubs start hopping. The young and not-so-young comprise the masses who twist and turn the night away to the spicy beats. As they dance, in their hands are either a cerveza (beer), a cigarette, or a lover with whom they are not shy to engage in passionate public displays of affection. A lot of smiling, laughing and healthy perspiration from everyone, as, unlike many of the clubs I’ve frequented in San Francisco, they are there to dance. Sure, there were the occassional Lolitas hoochying their way into the hearts of incoming prowlers, but all in all, the energy was high.

That is the essence of Madrid right there… enjoyment at its most pure—pleasures in food, drink, music and people. In one restaurant, for example, we spent hours chatting away, sipping sangria, as plates of tapas were delivered to our table without the pressure of having to packup and leave for the next customer. Another time, we simply people-watched at one of the major squares as we enjoyed our ice cream cones. Ah, simple pleasures…

Not to say that Madrid is without its tourists attractions. We saw the palace where the royals apparently live. We checked out an Egyptian tomb (why it’s there, um, I don’t really know!). We walked into a catheral, which many Spanish consider to have the ugliest paintings ever. lol We also took a walk in the city’s botanical gardens, Real Jardin Botanico, which had hundreds of species, including a California redwood, a palm tree, and a collection of cacti transported from various parts of the Americas. On our last night, we had a meal at Botin, which had specialities such as roasted suckling pig and baby eels (which were a whopping 119 euros!). I had the former, which was only ok, because it was rather plain—basically a slab of pork, served with its fat and skin and a couple of potatoes. However, the restaurant is notable for a couple of things. One, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the oldest restaurant in the world. And two, it has excellent service. (We also joked that its customers may also be the oldest in the world, because we were surrounded by diners at least twice our age! lol)

Of all the touristy places we visited, the Museo del Prado was where we spent the most time. It’s like the Louvre in that it’s supposed to be one of those museums that you can’t do in one day. However, we went through quickly, stopping only to see the pieces that really interested us. A couple of pieces popped out at me. The first was Peter Paul Rubens’ Tereus Confronted with the Head of his Son Itylus.

We couldn’t really make out the Spanish description too well, but I looked it up on the internet and learned it was based on a Greek myth, in which wife is pissed that husband slept and maimed her sister, therefore must have revenge. Hall hath no fury like a woman scorned!

The other piece that stood out was Goya’s Saturn Devouring his Son (which was also depicted by Rubens—about as horrific but not as grotesque). Perhaps the most well known of his Black Paintings series, this piece depicts another Greco-Roman mythological scene, in which Saturn (aka Chronos to the Greeks) eats his children so they may not revolt against him (just as he lead his brothers and sisters to overthrow their father to become king of the gods). What’s with these myths and their cannibalistic themes? ( I also wonder if my carnivorous eating pattern on this trip is what attracted me to these paintings!)

Other interesting tidbits about Madrid? The subway is pretty good and very clean. We rode it at least twice, and only needed to wait for a train for 5 minutes at the most. (We went to the station after our Segway tour, and I almost forgot how to use the stairs for a brief moment! lol) The air in Madrid is horrible. Everywhere smells like smoke. Interestingly, the tap water is very tasty. The floors of tapas bars are often covered with used napkins… looks like a pig sty! They really love their salted ham here… there are tons of “Museo del Jamon”s (museums of ham), where legs of ham are hanging from the rafters to be sold for 8 euros/kilo.

All in all, a great time in Madrid. I’ll come back, but maybe with a box of laxatives. lol

Segwaying Through Madrid

The most fun I’ve ever had on two wheels has got to be touring around Madrid on a Segway HT. cilibrar, college buddy and I saw a bunch of tourists on these amazing balancing transporters Saturday morning, and cilibrar just had try it. We got the name of the touring company convieniently placed on the back of these contraptions like a license plate: MADSEGS.COM, and made a reservation for 3 for that afternoon. We had to cancel the same day tho, cuz Madrid was cursed with a sudden hail storm, but we finally got around to doing it today and it was a blast!

It took only a few minutes to get the hang of it. We got a chance to practice awhile before we started, learning how to move forward, backward and turn. It’s very cool, because it’s all about leaning into the direction you want to go. Steering is done using the left handlebar: turn it left to go left and right to go right. You can stand still on an incline and even move quite fast uphill. Stairs were no problem either, as long as they had a wide plateau and weren’t too steep. In no time, we were doing figure eights and spins like a skater. It’s that intuitive!

We got a lot of funny reactions from the people on the street, as we were touring mostly on sidewalks. The most common was the staring, as it probably looked like we were a bunch of circus performers who knew how to balance real well. Most people gave us plenty of space to pass them, as I’m sure we were quite intimidating figures; I even saw one older man attempt to protect his wife from our oncoming traffic. Several times, we had to stop so that our guide could distribute fliers to interested onlookers. (We even made somewhat of a publicity glide through an outdoor restaurant.) The most interesting reaction came when a woman in her 50s who was clearing having trouble walking, either from touring too much or some physical disability, yelled in Spanish at us as we passed, “Why don’t you pick me up!?”

Highly recommended. Some might be turned off by the €60 price, but it’s well worth it. Our guide, Antony, Scottish-born but raised in South Africa, was very personable and regaled us with lots of historical tidbits about the sites we glided through. The tour also includes stops where you can take pictures and enjoy a free refreshment at a cafe about two-thirds into the ride. Antony will also take pictures for you on his camera which he later uploads to his site and provides you with a link so that you can download them yourself.

Quite frankly, tho the tour provided plenty of amenities, riding the Segway provided most of the thrill. Antony, who probably sensed that we were all thrill-seeking technology freaks, gave us plenty of time to play and experiment. We each had an “I’m king of the world” moment, gliding with our arms extended to the side and leaning forward. At that moment, the $4700 price tag for one of these babies didn’t seem so bad.

Earthly Delights

cilibrar and I are having a grand ol’ time here in Madrid visiting an old college buddy of his. I had no real plans coming out here except to just eat my way through the city, as I often love to do when visiting a new place. So far, we’ve done what was to be expected: gorge ourselves with tapas and guzzle down Sangria. It’s pretty funny. Last time we were in Barcelona, I was all about “Let’s eat tapas.” So, cilibrar insisted that I not be so adamant about getting tapas this time around. I asked him, well, what do you want to eat while we’re in Spain? And he said tacos. I told him, well, that’s like going to England and wanting to eat hamburgers! So, the moment we get to Madrid, cilibrar asks college buddy, “So what do you eat here?”, college buddy replies: tapas. lol

Well, our second day here, we’ve already had tapas at least twice… and they were delish each time. We both now have a new respect for the finger food.

This morning, we had the most amazing breakfast, chocolate con churros. Traditionally, churros are seasoned with cinnamon and sugar, but these churros had no seasoning at all. But that’s okay, cuz we had a nice mug of melted chocolate to dip them in! YUM YUM! The place was called Chocolateria San Gines, and that was pretty much the only thing on the menu. My goodness, I was sweating up a storm by my third churro (they give you a healthy helping of 6 for only €3), but wow, talk about a heart-clogging exercise in self-indulgence!