pogoism

Been listening to this song a lot recently, sums how I’m feeling pretty darned well…

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this means the fifth of May in Spanish. It’s not really celebrated much in Mexico, really just in the state of Puebla, but has come to be somewhat of a Mexican heritage day in the US, like St. Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest. According to Wikipedia:

The holiday commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.

While outnumbered, the Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army that had known no defeat for almost 50 years. However, Cinco de Mayo is not “an obligatory federal holiday” in Mexico, but rather a holiday that can be observed voluntarily.

Anyway, yesterday, Alonso and I headed down to Sparks to the Cinco de Mayo event there (organized by the Nevada Hispanic Services). To be honest, it wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting a big old festival, with dancing and stuff, but alas, no. It was more corporations flogging their products and services to Hispanics and lots of food – nachos, tacos, corn, Mexican candy… yummy.

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After Cinco de Mayo we went to the Grand Sierra Movie theater to see Watchmen. Alonso has been wanting to see this for ages, and I’ve been hesitant. It’s not really my kind of film – I don’t like action or sci-fi movies, and I assumed this would be both. Long story short, Alonso didn’t like it, and I loved it. Having said that, the story took quite a while to develop, and some of it felt redundant and didn’t really add much to the overall movie. Gran Sierra, by the way, is a great place to see a movie – We only paid $3 each (I’m not sure if it’s that all the time, though), and they have couches!

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I had to submit a date my final day of work last week, which made me a little sad. This whole placement, which I didn’t really  have much time to look forward to, is all coming to an end. I’ve got my final project to be working on, tying up all the loose ends, and before I know it, I’ll be back in Belfast in final year. Speaking of which, house (well, apartment) hunting, is proving to be trickier than we thought. All the great places are for June rents, and whilst I’d be happy to pay for 1 month that I’m not going to be there, there’s no way I’m paying 3. *sigh* I guess it’ll be okay in the end…

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And finally… if you’re one of the few people who I personally know, and you a) can’t remember pogoism.com and b) don’t subscribe via RSS, you can find this blog at joel-riley.com

Which is much easier to remember :)

If you don’t like Facebook meme type things, don’t click the following link. If you want to find out some useless rubbish about me, go right ahead :)

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I love podcasts. I love listening to them at work, and I love learning things that aren’t necessarily science. So, imagine my delight when I discovered that you can download nearly all previous TED talks as a podcast!

Wait, what? You’ve never heard of TED? Oh, ok. Well, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a conference held every year which invites speakers from various fields to talk about their work. Topics range from science, arts and design, politics, education, culture, business, global issues, technology and development, to entertainment. Go check them out at ted.com.

Here are some of my favourites of the ones I’ve watched so far…

Majora Carter: Greening the ghetto

Laurie Garrett: What can we learn from the 1918 flu pandemic?

Emily Levine: A trickster’s theory of everything

In the past when people have whined about changes to Facebook, I’ve always rolled my eyes, and secretly wished they’d shut up and just try to adapt.

With the latest Facebook change though, they’ve actually removed a vital function (to me, anyway) – the ability to see *all* users updates and statuses. Before, when I clicked on “friends”, I was presented with a list that showed all my friends’ statuses updates, and a link to show me recent updates.

Not any more! Now all I get is a screen with “lists”, which I can’t really be bothered to organize, as I have 250-ish friends, a form to “find my friends”, which I’ve never been able to get to work on Safari anyway, and “suggestions”, where it suggests I “fan” banal things like “i hate low battery!” [sic] and “The Smell of Petrol”.

I’ve tried to find a way to get me back to all my friends updates, with very little luck. I might be missing something painfully obvious, so if I am, feel free to comment me!

Rant over.