To: my bike’s thief

MÉXICO-2009

Este será un verano lleno de actividades.

Comparto con todos ustedes mi itinerario:

3 de Julio.- Vuelo Helsinki-Madrid-Cd de México.

4 de Julio.- Llego a Cd. de México a las 6 de la mañana.

5 de Julio.- Estoy en Querétaro.

6-10 de Julio.- Viaje a la playa con la familia.

11 de Julio.- Boda de Maribell al medio día y cena de primos por la noche.

12 y 13 de Julio.- Estoy en Querétaro.

14-31 TOUR MEXICO 2009.

Día 1 (M 14.07)	J&A llegan a Cd. De México
Día 2 (Mi 15.07)	Querétaro. Centro histórico, Convento de la Cruz
Día 3 (J 16.07)	Bernal, Tequisquiapan, Querétaro (N)
Día 4 (V 17.07)	Querétaro (N).
Día 5 (S 18.07)	San Miguel (N)
Día 6 (D 19.07)	San Miguel – Dolores – Guanajuato (N)
Día 7 (L 20.07)	Tlaquepaque, Guadalajara (N)
Día 8 (M 21.07)	Tequila, Guadalajara (N)
Día 9 (Mi 22.07)	Patzcuaro, Morelia (N)
Día 10 (J 23.07)	Morelia, Querétaro (N)
Día 11 (V 24.07)	Cd. México  (N) Bellas Artes, Zócalo,  Chapultepec, Reforma.
Día 12 (S 25.07)	Cd. México (N). Museos, UNAM, Templo Mayor (Aztecas)
Día 13 (D 26.07)	Cd. México (N). Teotihuacan, Basílica de Guadalupe.
Día 14 (L 27.07)	Cuernavaca, Taxco, Acapulco (N)
Día 15 (M 28.07)	Acapulco (N)
Día 16 (Mi 29.07)	Acapulco (N)
Día 17 (J 30.07)	Acapulco, Querétaro (N)
Día 18 (V 31.07)	Cd. de México

1-3 de Agosto.- Estoy en Querétaro.

4 de Agosto.- Vuelo Cd. de México- Madrid-Ginebra-Helsinki.

5 de Agosto.- Llego a Helsinki a las 11 de la noche.

6 de Agosto.- Regreso al trabajo. (Casualidad o no un 6 de Agosto fue el día que llegue a Finlandia 2 años atras).

El viaje fue todo un éxito.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049597&id=100902255&l=7a8e8d9a39

April and May 2009

April and May were hard and busy months. I needed to prepare for 3 examas and work on 4 projects beside the normal 7.5 hours of office work.

During the eastern break, Annukka and I went to Turkku to visit her Aunt and Uncle. It was a really nice and realxing weekend in the middle of the hard times at school.

One of the biggest happening in Tampere if not in whole Finland is Vappu (May day) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpurgis_Night#Finland . Freshmen “Fuksi” get baptise and become “Tekkari”. Last year I bacame Tekkari after be dept in the Tammerkoski (the river of Tampere) and this year we just went to see how the Fuksis were dept in the cold water.

The rest of May occured normally, just full of material to study, and project to develop.

March 2009

March was a month of birthday parties.

My life has got used to the high load of work from university and office. and I have managed to arrange some free time to spend with friend. During March Rhawi (a friend and office colleague from Brazil) , Annukka and Tommi had their birthdays and their respctive celebrations.

The company where I am working organized a recreational happening and took us to a Archery evening. I had never practiced archery before and I was expecting to have a really bad performance. But once that I had the arrow ready in the bow and I realesed the string I realized that I wouldn’t be as bad as I had thought.

More photos in facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043677&id=100902255&l=a086c9ccd7

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044195&id=100902255&l=00f6193897

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044196&id=100902255&l=f4f35e1849

to hector (verb)

English

Etymology

From Hector, character in the Iliad.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)^{help, file}

Verb

Infinitive to hector

Third person singular hectors

Simple past hectored

Past participle hectored

Present participle hectoring

to hector (third-person singular simple present hectors, present participle hectoring, simple past and past participle hectored)

1. (transitive) To intimidate or dominate in a blustering way.
2. (intransitive) To behave like a bully; swagger.

source: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hector (Accessed March 2009)

The origins of the verb “to hector” keep puzzling me. My reading of Homer’s “Iliad” suggests that Hector was a decent chap, not too prone to bully other people (at least by the battlefield standards of the day). In fact, Hector’s nemesis, Achilles, looks more like the quintessential bully. The verb does not show up in other languages. Somebody screwed this one up?

The origin of hector is indeed an interesting question. The usual sense of the word in modern English as as a verb meaning ‘to bully or harrass; to act in a bullying manner’. Rather clear example: “At both ends of the escalators, attendants–usually scowling harridans in blue–hector and berate any passenger who steps out of line” (The Atlantic, February 1998).

But as you correctly note, the character of Hector, the greatest Trojan hero in the Iliad, is quite the opposite of the implied stereotype. Ironically in that poem, the victorious Greeks are generally portrayed as petulant children, while Hector is not only a brave warrior but also a devoted family man; you will recall the famous scene in Book 6 where he behaves with great tenderness towards his infant son Astyanax, who had been terrified by the plume on Hector’s helmet.

Indeed, in late Middle and early Modern English the word hector was used generically to mean ‘a valiant hero’.

But in the mid-seventeenth century, London was plagued by a violent street gang who called themselves “the Hectors,” fancying themselves gallant warriors. The other residents, less thrilled with the Hectors’ hooliganism, started using the name as a noun referring to a swaggering bully. At around the same time the word developed the familiar verb sense ‘to bully or harrass’.

In Greek the name Hector literally means ‘holding fast’, after a verb ‘to have; hold’.

source: http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/?date=19990706 (Accessed March 2009)

Other links to “to hector” definition:

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=hector&dict=enes&b=Search

http://www.yourdictionary.com/hector

http://www.bartleby.com/61/10/H0121000.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hector%20verb

Video of Tampere City.

Les comparto este video, es de la cuidad en la que estoy viviendo (2008)

I share you this video, it is about the city where I am living (2008)

Tampere Tourism Video.
See the best bits of Tampere in six minutes.
TV-Production Petri Merta Ky 2007.

Video taken from:
http://www.tampere.fi/english/tourism/

Domino Cubano vs Domino Mexicano

Todos hemos pasado alguna tarde de amigos jugando Domino cubano no?

Pues para mi sorpresa en Finlandia también tienen domino cubano, pero resulta que se llama Domino Mexicano, me gustaría saber por qué?

February 2008

February is a month that I really like. And the last weekend of February is every year expected with anxiety to celebrate my birthday.

On the first week end I went to Riihimaki for second year in a row to the already traditional RYGAR party.  A party organized by some friends of Tommi. This time the party had place in a Bowling (btw did you know that Finland was one of the first countries were Bowling was played ever http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling). In my team was Tommi, a good Bowling player girl that I cannot remember her name, and me. We ended up in the second place of the tournament, in a exciting final shot. After the official RYGAR party we continued having fun in several local bars of the city.

During that weekend I stay over at Tommi’s place, and his family really kindly prepared a nice dinner and gave me a gift because of my upcoming birthday, I was not really expected it so It was a really nice surprise.

The next weekend was St Valentin’s day, and like my anniversary with Annukka is on the 16th we decided to celebrate that weekend. We spend the evening in city center. Unfortunately I did not make any reservation and all the nice restaurants were full, but luckily we got a place in Plevna a German style bar-restaurant.

In the last week of the month, David came to visit us from Germany. He arrived on Wednesday. That day he was a little bit tired cos of the trip, so we just had Sauna and dinner. On Friday Esa, Rodolfo and Elise came from Oulu. We spent the day in city center because even though they had already been here last year, the weather this time was quite better for hang around the city. On the evening we just went to play pool and save our energy for the next challenging day.

On the 28th I hold a party for my birthday. In the morning (afternoon) we went to DUO (the small shopping center of Hervanta) to buy every thing was needed for the party. The party officially started at 6pm, and Buffalo game also started. From 7 to 8pm we had sauna, and then we continue the party. A lot of people came, and I got a lot of gifts: Movies, Finnish books, sauna stuff, cups and a lot of nice and usefull things. THANK YOU EVERYBODY. The arty went really OK, but I fail to many time in the buffalo and therefore around midnight I needed to mennä nukumaan hehehehe. The day after with a slightly hang over we went again to citycenter to have luch. We ate a really greasy and hot (for Finns) Mexican Platter in Hook that healed my hang over.

More pictures on facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043075&id=100902255&l=3bbeaa5e29

Drinking game with cards

CARDS DRINKING GAME

Thanks Romeo for teaching us this great game.

2. Take two (you need to drink 2 sips/shots)
3. Give three (you need to drink 3 sips/shots)
4. Drinks bitch (you are responsible that everybody has a drink in every moment.)
5. Girls drink (women drink a sip/shot)
6. Guys drink (men drink a sip/shot)
7. Sevens (you start counting from 1 but it is not allowed to say multiples of 7 nor number that have 7 within. ie 7, 14, 21, 17 etc.)
8. Social drink (everybody drinks a sip/shot)
9. Thumb master ( you can put your thumb on the table at any point and everybody should also put it, the last one to do it drinks a sip/shot)
10. Related word (everybody need to say a word related to the word the previous person said. If you think the word a person says is not related to the previous you rise you hand if there are more than 3 risen hand the person who said the word drinks a sip/shot).
J. New rule ( you can impose a new rule ig No pointing, no names, no numbers, no word “no”, etc.)
Q. Queen of Touch Down (like thumb master but you rise both hands and shout Touch down)
K. Category (words of the same category like names of countries, brands of beers, etc.)
A. Waterfall.

Buffalo game Rules

The rules are very simple, and involve which hand you may use to drink with.

1. You can hold your drink with either hand, but may only drink from it with your non-dominant hand. If any other players spot you drinking with your dominant hand, they call Buffalo on you and you must finish your drink as quickly as possible. If you hesitate to finish your drink, the other players will usually proceed to make a ruckus chanting “Buffalo!” and banging on the table until you finish.
2. If you call a false Buffalo on somebody (call Buffalo when they are actually drinking with their non-dominant hand), you are obligated to finish your own drink. Special care must be made when drinking with left-handed companions due to this rule.
3. Once you begin playing Buffalo, you are playing it for the rest of your life.

Buffalo game – Special Situations and Exceptions

• Those who are completely ambidextrous may choose which hand is considered their drinking hand when they begin playing, but may not change their minds later.
• Playing Buffalo applies to all alcoholic drinks. When doing shots, since finishing the drink in your hand is not possible, a second shot must be consumed if the shot is done with the dominant hand.
• Buffalo does not extend to non-alcoholic drinks, as calling Buffalo on somebody drinking a hot cup of tea could have disastrous results.