De recuerdos, de memorias

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Un recuerdo como flecha malvada
penetra mi sien destrozando mi concentración,
y como mis labios ya no tocan la tierra
recojo mis añoranzas y empieza la canción.

Nada es igual, pero todo equivalente,
siento la brisa moverse y saboreo el aroma.
Siento las vibraciones de las cuerdas
novatas y estúpidas, pero no, no es broma.

De sueños quietos y azules salen
voces que acarician pero no saben escribir;
entre prismas y señales veo jueces, muchos,
perplejos que dicen sin saber que decir.

Una sonrisa que sabe a naranja tangerina
quiero; tanas cosas, tantas cosas quiero,
sentir mi camisa, al caminar, rozar mi espalda.
Cuando recuerdo las cosas que tengo, no muero.

Los recuerdos, las memorias, no confundas
el presente; nunca nos deja, se ríe de nosotros.
El tiempo va lamiendo su camino a nuestros cerebros
para palpitar después, expresiones en nuestros rostros.

Todavía queda suficiente alcohol para soñar,
no para no recordar, sino para interesantear.
Hacerlos, hacerlas, mientras más pueda, interesantes.
Tu cree lo que quieras; déjame, la verdad, saborear.

Jamiel Almeida Taveras
2012-01-13

10 Things I Know to be True

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Cleo Abram posted an interesting “conversation starter” on TED.com conversations, here’s a link to the thread: We can learn by exchanging and discussing our own lists of “10 Things I Know to be True.”

This post, as the author mentions, is inspired in this TED talk: Sarah Kay: If I should have a daughter …

In this post, she says (as the title states) that we can learn if we share those few things that we KNOW are true. Yes, nitpickers will say “knowing” is subjective to beliefs and blah blah. I’m not interested in those comments, if you want/like just share 10 (or whatever number) of the things you know to be true, and let-be or learn from the few things that other people know.

Here’s MY list, in no particular order:

  1. Anyone can learn something even from the least expected people/things.
  2. Not everything that’s useful is fun, and not everything that is fun is useful.
  3. Action trumps words and thoughts.
  4. My perception of the world probably isn’t 1:1 to reality, but probably neither anyone else’s.
  5. Everything in the course of this lifetime, good and bad, has an end.
  6. You can’t describe a taste or a smell very effectively.
  7. Happiness doesn’t depend on what you have.
  8. The greater the expectations, the greater the effort you have to put into; you get what you put into something.
  9. “Some people like to make life a little tougher than it is” from the song: Tougher than it is by Cake
  10. The veracity of a statement does NOT depend on the who’s uttering it.

The post by Cleo Abram reads:

After listening to Sarah Kay’s beautiful speech and poetry, I tried to write my own list of “10 Things I know to be True.” I learned one thing immediately: I don’t know much. I learned a second thing more slowly: that’s okay! I tried to distill my limited understanding of the world into this list, without being overly philosophical nor literal.

One thing I know to be true, but that is not on my list, was that Sarah Kay was right when she said that if you share your list with a group of people you will find that someone has one thing very similar, someone else has something totally contrary, another person has something you’ve never heard of, and still another has something that makes you think further about something you thought you knew.

So let’s share ours, and find out! What do your lists have on them?

Here’s mine:
1. Fiction can, at times, feel more real than fact.
2. One person, with a good idea, can change our world.
3. There are things about our universe that we will never understand.
4. #3 is not an excuse to stop trying.
5. Everyone has a story worth hearing.
6. There is always another side to the story they tell.
7. Questions can sometimes teach more than their answers.
8. Children can sometimes teach more than their parents.
9. Everyone should travel.
10. No one’s truth is universal.

Byte the bullet

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Note: Yes, I know the phrase is “Bite the bullet”, but this puppy’s name is Byte, so shush!

(ltr) Rex, Milo, and Byte

Here’s Byte with her new friends at her new home, it was extremely fun and awesome to have had such a wonderful puppy. It fills my heart with gloom having to let her go, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet. I know she’s better off now with her new friends and having a new home; that gives me solace.

Apache Authentication: how to add an exception to a subfolder/url

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This is for cases in which we have an http_auth’ed area on our site like “http://foo.bar/site/”, and want to use “http://foo.bar/site/public” that does NOT have http_auth, and that can deliver content freely.

Note: This can be put to work on django using <Location> on httpd.conf. (Thanks Jorge for the pointer)

There are a couple of ways:

  1. directly on the httpd.conf
  2. on an .htaccess

To learn about how to set up authentication, check Authentication, Authorization and Access Control on Apache 2.0 Documentation site.
Assuming we have our “/site” (http://foo.bar/site/) using http_auth with a code similar to:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "SUPER SECRET ZONE"
AuthUserFile /path/to/httppasswdfile
Require valid-user

As you might (or might not know) this can be used in a <location>, <directory> or any other Configuration Sections.

And now, for the good stuff you came to read this post for: Satisfy.

What does it do? By itself, nothing. What it does is specify if ANY or ALL conditions should be met. So if we create a sub-folder “/site/public” (http://foo.bar/site/public) with an “Allow from all” it will still try to do the authentication (ALL conditions).

This example, assuming a .htaccess file on the sub-folder “public”

Order Deny,Allow
Allow from all

Solution: Add “Satisfy Any” to it.

Fixed:

Satisfy Any
Order Deny,Allow
Allow from all

Of course, “Satisfy” clauses can be added wherever a condition can be added, so we can also specify this for a <Location> for a “child” url for example.

Your logs are your friends (part deux)

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Note: This is a followup to my previous post on this topic: Your logs are your friends

A nice(r) way to perform the logging from the phone to the sdcard without typing into a terminal emulator is following these steps:

  • Install GScriptLite (nl.rogro.GScriptLite) from the Market (needs root for our purposes)
  • Create a new “script” with these contents:
nohup logcat -f /sdcard/logcat.txt -r 1024 -n 60 -v time &
  • Run the script whenever you want to start logging

Your files will be logcat.txt* (on your sdcard).

Caffeine & my all-nighter-early-wakeup-mix

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Disclaimer: DON’T BE STUPID. Read what caffeine does to you and KNOW how to dose it. It’s a drug, and causes tolerance, dependence and withdrawal. Be smart and do NOT abuse it. It’s always better to time/program yourself and still get your full night’s sleep. Nothing can replace it. And do yourself a favor, don’t do this often.

Given a scenario in which I’m still awake for whatever reason at 04:30 on a Monday-Friday (which means I’ll need to wake up in 1h30m if I went to sleep then and there), I have two options, either I go to sleep and be refreshed a bit, or just skip the whole thing and be a zombie for the rest of the day, which is 18h. I’ve explored what happens to me when I’m sleep deprived, and those effects are undesired. I can do a couple of things to wake up early if I’m going to sleep less than 4h, although most are VERY unreliable and will wake me up after I’ve had 3h of sleep at best (I know myself that well).

One of the things I can do to go to sleep between 04:30 and 05:00, and still wake up at 06:00 in time to give my dog some food and water, do my morning exercises, check my emails and whatnot is have my “all-nighter-early-wakeup-mix” (to give it a name). It is a kind of “caffeine nap” but adjusted to my body’s metabolism and caffeine tolerance.

The mix goes like this:

  • 1x 200mg caffeine tablet (this one is what does the trick, the rest is optional, and kind of a comfort food :P )
  • 8oz. of Milk
  • 2tbsp. of cocoa powder
  • 1/2tsp. of vanilla extract
  • 1/2tsp. of salt
  • 1/2tbsp. of sugar (if the cocoa powder used was unsweetened)
  • powdered cinnamon to taste

Good, so you’ve downed a pseudo-chocolate-milkshake and 200mg of anhydrous caffeine. Now you’re ready to sleep 1h to 1h30m and still be able to hear and wake up with your regular alarm IF you have a metabolism like mine.