… and trying to make this thing work as i want it to work; making it look as i want it to look.

I have way too many things running around in my head at the same time. I need serious time management skillz to organize my ideas.

When was the last time i wrote something worth while? It seems like ages ago. (more…)

I stole this image from the Newspaper!

So, they wanna change the name of DIABLO to JESUS HEIGHTS.  What a dumb thing to do, and quite… QUITE the example for stupid narrow mindness to be expected here in this country.  Some years back, the whole area bordering the actual Panama Canal was controlled by the United States.  Technically, it was like US soil and what not.  Some famous people were born HERE in Panama, but are Americans -and not Panamanians, yada yada O.J. didn’t do it, M. J. was poisoned and if you gently touch the underside of a frog’s penis, it will turn into a prince. WHATEVER!

My point -today- is that, dumb moves like that A) Suck huge baby chunks; B) Most likely wont Stick… and C) No one Gives a flying fuck in the end.

Y’see, there is a Rule of Thumb here in Panama that states that “The more BIBLICAL the name of a community, the more DANGEROUS and HOSTILE it is.” Proof of these are: La 24 de Diciembre, Santa Librada, Concepcion, Samaria, Santa Ana, San Felipe, Santa Marta,  San Miguel, and as an added bonus Pan de Azucar.  Making a BROAD generalization here, all this areas are kinda hostile and have a high crime rate.  It is safe to assume that a large number of thugs, crooks and low-lifes live in these areas amidst the most humble and decent people who dwell there too.

Then there is DIABLO, located right next to the Balboa Port and the Canal Itself.  I’ve been to Diablo a few times.  Hell (no pun intended!), technically, i used to work in Diablo a while back.  It is a quiet place, where nature intertwines with the dwelling areas… where you can hear the birds chirp, the monkeys howl, and the pot heads laugh.  Quite the diametrical opposite of those other communities, and quite the logical progression, if we follow the after mentioned Rule of Thumb.  In Diablo, you will find either old people or pot heads -in it’s vast majority, and once again a BROAD generalization- so you could chalk Diablo up and one of the most quiet and SAFE places to live, in my humble opinion.

But it turns out that, for the last 12 years or so Diablo has no longer been Diablo. They changed it’s name to JESUS HEIGHTS right after the US left the Panama Canal Area, and some of the old people complained that they didn’t want to live in a place named after “THE EVIL ONE”! <-Please note i use quote marks here, thank you.

This was a news story i read in a local Newspaper today, and it befuddled me enough to rant about it as i have.  The funny thing is, as i mentioned before, NO ONE CARES and still call it DIABLO, and most likely will still call it DIABLO for years to come.  Proof of this, is our “Parque Hector Gallegos” and the Avenida de los Martires.  The former is popularly known as “Parque OMAR” (in honor to Omar Torrijos) and the next is known as the 4 de Julio Avenue: a good place to get Tranny Prostitutes, if that is your cup of Tea.

I like Diablo.  It has that mix of old American Colonialism, enough green areas, and it’s quiet. Too Quiet.  In fact, aside from the Annual Cayuco Race, the only cool thing that has ever happened there is a ZOMBIE INFESTATION back when the canal was being built. I shit you not! Read the Story HERE.

Diablo was. Diablo is and Diablo will be. ‘Nuff Said!

*I Found the Mythical BUCKET of METAL!*

I’m gonna go on a limb here and state that to me, the definition of a weekend, is when you stay up past your bedtime and/or sleep more than you usually do. By proxy i can assure you that last week, my weekend started on Monday.

Monday was the world release of God of War 3, and we had the chance to go and score a seat at the event. We hung out, got bloody popcorn, free soft drinks and took a shitload of pics. I ended up hitting the sack circa 2:00 AM.

Tuesday is the night we have our Dungeons & Dragons sessions. Somehow, Tuesdays have become the high point of my week. These statement alone must tell you tons more than what you need to know about my social life… or lack of. Anyhow, a group of us gather at my place and we play late into the night. I really enjoy this sessions; not only is the party well balanced, we as players each bring something unique and different to the table… and we drink like motherfuckers. If it is not a few bottles of wine, it is a case of “Heinies” and a few Energy Drinks to keep the creative and nerd levels high. Too bad they don’t sell Mountain Dew here anymore. If they did, it would be a DORK-A-THON of unheard proportions.

Last Tuesday we did a bit of Role Reversion and instead of being a player, I took the reins of the story and DM’ed the session. the rest of the Guild (Did i mention we also have a Guild?) seemed to like it, and enjoyed the session as much as I did. Here i sit, at work… itching for it to be Tuesday already so we can complete the session, as we had to cut it in half: It was already 2.45 when they reached the “save point”. Time i ended up hitting the hay? 3:30 AM.

Wednesday dawns upon me, and like the previous days, i wake up at 6.45 to get ready to work. Being a corporate monkey has a serious drawback to all these fun and games: you have to wake up early, and that sucks -regardless of the fact you just went to bed like 20 mins ago. After work, i hung out with a friend from work and ended up in the movies. By this point i was so sleep deprived that i dozed off a few times during the movie; the good thing is that i had seen it already, and i was just hanging out with my friend. She liked the movie, and i didn’t snore: it was a win-win situation. I ended up going to bed around 2:00 AM.

Thursday came and went without making even a tiny little bleep on the radar… cause i died. I woke up to come to work on time, and went home as usual. I got home, sat on the bed, took off my shirt and passed out. It was around 7:00 PM.

I woke up Friday, at 7:30 and came to work. After work I was trying to make my way to this Mexican Wrestling event they had going on… but since getting a cab here in PTY has become an epic adventure of insurmountable proportions, i decided against it. I went home and took a shower, and made my way instead to our local Shenanigans branch. I ended up having stale -and warm!- green beer in honor of it being St. Patrick’s somehwen during the week along with my spicy wings. After that, those of us who didn’t wanna call it a night went to the Isthmus Brewery and had us some REAL beer while GRENDEL played in the background. I am not too sure about this, but it seems i dozed off in the table at some point -nothing as hardcore as when i died during Chinese breakfast on new years, mind you!- and we called it a night circa 3:00 AM. I went to bed Circa 3:40 AM.

Saturday reared it’s sunny head and i came to work. Normal human interaction was possible thanks to the left over energy drink i found in my fridge that morning. As i went out i took a detour through the park, and ran into my old friend The Morinoko, and ended up getting hooked on slack-line. Let me tell you, it fucking rocks my socks off and then some! It was the first time i did this. Hell, it was the first time i SAW what slack line was! I thought it was something related to rock climbing. The truth is something altogether different. The sad news is that we had to cut that session short due to the rain. I made my way to the mall, and had some lunch and then headed over to the City’s Old Quarters, to check out the MACRO festival.

*Caution: When Fashion, you MUST look like the guy on the right.*

Now, the MACRO festival promised a few expos and what not’s… so we decided to make it over there early -circa 4:00 PM. As we got to the place, we got stuck in the most fucked up traffic jam i’ve been in in recent months, so we did a U turn and parked a GAJILLION miles away from the event and walked there. When we got to the actual place, there was no expos. The only “expo” was a bunch of pics hanging from a tree. That was it! to top it off beers were at $3.00 a can… i wanted to shoot myself in the eye with a wooden spoon.

After a while of walking around the Old Quarters with my friend, and running into Tepuy at the Festival Caribe -the Panamanian version of the Advertising world Oscars, or something like that- we made it back in time to see the start of the fashion runway.

“Let the Fagotry begin!” i shouted out loud, gathering irked looks from the nearby onlookers, as i was under-dressed from the fashion point of view. fuck, i think my friend and i were the only two people on that Plaza that were not “FASHION” that afternoon.

A few hours later, i ran into another friend, who supplied the info that in the other corner f the plaza they were selling $0.65 beers a can. So i proceeded to get wasted while the Dj spun some records and i hung out with the people that had gathered for the Sr. Loop gig later that night.

A shit load of beers later, and after mingling about the gig started and got stopped by the police. Apparently the whole thing should’ve blown off by 11 pm, and the band started playing @ 10.45 more or less. After realizing that they would have a RIOT in their hands, they let the band play a while longer… and we had a very cool gig. I went home and died circa 2 AM.

I was supposed to wake up early Sunday to do some laundry and meet my friends for some more Slackline. Like i stated before, i got hooked on it just the day before… but i was so sleep deprived, and tired that i was dead to the world untill about 2 pm, when i woke up and made my way to a friends house to get my NERD on, playing Mutants and Masterminds.

Closing off the night, i ended up at the movies, saw Shutter Island… liked it a lot and then stopped for some late night nom noms before hitting the hay at… circa 2:00 AM as well.

So i have been corrinchando way to much this last week. Have not done too much work on the greatly overdue comic -don’t worry… i am RETCONING it- and i am in serious need of some R&R.

So, how was YOUR weekend? Mine was fucking EXCELLENT.

*Thank you for playing! Come again!*