Media Maraton

I would not have believed it, had I not seen it with my own eyes. It’s amazing how experiencing something, even in the second person, can completely change your ideas of what’s possible. When I was visiting Machu Picchu a few years back I had this feeling, where wonder and confusion collide and even in your imagination you find it difficult to recreate. Someone told me we’re so far removed from the possibilities of man power, en masse, that we can’t really picture how stones were moved up there without machinery. In a weekend a few firsts I was happy to experience that feeling a few more times.

On Thursday night I finally managed to find my way into a futbol game, but perhaps not as you’d imagine. We played at a place called Futbol Cinco and there were ironically four fields. They were located in a former warehouse in a well-to-do neighborhood. Two fields on each of two floors with parking on the ground floor. The group I was a part of paid for an hour on the field and has it reserved every Thursday at 9. I think this is an idea waiting to happen in the US. Where, in Atlanta, could we find a location ripe for such a proposition? You need a structurally sound building and a crowd looking for places to play (places there are lit, dry and warm well into the night after work). Hmmm, maybe somewhere on Buford Highway, but I could also see something like this occupying the second and third floors of some space in Atlantic Station, make it all sleek with lots of walls of glass so people outside can watch and the fields can be used for anything, indoor football or futbol, field hockey, etc. B. Leary, call me.

On Saturday I went for a tour of a few parts of the city with a friend from the university. We started from my place in the south and headed north on Transmilenio. This is Bogotá’s Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) modeled after a similar system in Curitiba, Brazil. If you’re in a traffic-choked US city or in a planning program you’ve probably heard the term thrown around. I had heard much talk of it in Atlanta, but this was my first time aboard for a ride. It works like a subway with buses running on dedicated routes. In Bogotá you enter the system at stations and pay a flat fare to go anywhere the system will take you. I have to see that it is very clean, efficient and pleasant. Also, it’s far cheaper than putting in subway infrastructure.

For lunch on Saturday we went to a Bogotá landmark, everyone knows it, and everyone knows it a little bit differently. It is actually just outside Bogotá in Chia and it’s called Andres Carne de Res. There is little I can do to describe it, expect to tell you that it was enormous, loud, delicious, exciting and I could have spent another 3 hours there. Jorge, who took me, told me that all told the restaurant employs an estimated 1,000 people; that includes cooks, waiters, parking attendants, actors, musicians, admin, etc. I went for lunch and every account I’ve heard since labels it a completely different brand of fun after dark, but I would say it’s a great time whenever you go.

I finished Saturday with a Futbol game in the city. Bogotá has two teams, Santa Fe and Millonarios and Jorge is a huge Santa Fe fan. Unfortunately, the home team lost to the defending league champ from Medellin, Nacional. But I did hear a lot of bad words and got to experience my second South American live game. The first was in Buenos Aires two years ago. In both case I did not have a camera. In Argentina I thought better to leave it in the hostel not knowing where I might get tickets and this time I was advised that it might get confiscated because it contained batteries that could be thrown.

All of this was a the day before my first running event, the Bogota half marathon (and 10K). It also happened to be a day after I re-ruined my left ankle playing basketball. When I got home from my day out on Saturday I removed the soccer sock that I had tied around it for compressions and it looked like, well, like this. I took what little ice I could scrounge up and started RICE again. I had felt good most of the day but when I saw this I had second thoughts about running on it. For two days I slept with it raised, actually with both of my feet raised, as I sleep in a tapered sleeping bag. On Sunday it had evened out but was still a bit big, still without pain. So I went for it.

My goal was to finish in under an hour and it took me a grad total of 57:30. I felt good about it. At first it was slow going as the streets were packed with people and there was little room to make any moves, but that actually made the trip go by faster. Also, the first 5K wound through tight streets and there was no way to see how far you had to go when you looked ahead. Toward the finish at Parque Simon Bolivar, the buildings disappeared and you were offered a clear view of thousands filling the street for the next kilometer in front of you. Around 40,000 people participated in this one, now I can start thinking about the full 21K next year.

By the end of the weekend I had to completely alter my understanding of so many things. Maybe we could play soccer at Atlantic Station or build a subway with a bus. I still couldn’t understand who would throw batteries at a sports event (Ohio State Fans). Maybe I could even run a marathon, or at least a half; IronMan is still a long lost Inca capital for me.

Bogotá Media Maraton
Marathon Pics
Andres Carne de Res
Santa Fe Futbol
Transmilenio

From Gelato to Garbage

It’s amazing how a small alteration can completely change your concept of something. A simple demonstration of this came to me today as I fought off the midday ice cream craving I’m forming. Ice cream, the words, the thoughts, the object itself, likely bring about certain feelings of enjoyment, memories of deliciousness, maybe your mouth begins to water. However, add one letter and you get lice cream. Feelings of desire turn to repulsion. But, how could we make this energy flow in the opposite direction and turn the figurative crazy monkey into crazy money.

I began to think about this as I worked on my project with perceptions of parks in neighborhoods. In the case of perceptions the correlations with other, more measurable factors, are almost always weak if they exist at all. One reason is that the ways we form perceptions differ from person to person. Likewise we all form perceptions using different pieces of information including personal history. In my analysis safety is one aspect we’re considering for its ability to confuse or change the relationship between what really exists in our neighborhoods and what we think is there (and consequently what we use and enjoy, or don’t). A criminal incident in your neighborhood will likely affect the amount of time you spend outside around the neighborhood, what facilities in the neighborhood you use and your freedom to act as see fit in your immediate surroundings.

Even if the incident happened to someone you don’t know, on a street you’ve never been on, and the person was caught it is likely that something about the way you think of your neighborhood changes. The incident will be there in your mind. Suddenly the actions of single person have economic implications for shops in the neighborhood, stress implications for the residents, activity implications for the kids. Public policy is interesting to me as it might be a way to influence or even make decisions (by no means involving only a single person) that affect people’s lives positively.

A couple important problems come up before we arrive at the Utopian future you may have already begun to imagine. In both, the analogies used above break down. First, the actions resulting from a decision for expenditure of public monies often take place over years, not hours like a crime. Second, figuring out exactly what people consider to positively affect their lives is difficult and again, entirely personal. But sometimes it's more fun to examine smaller decisions that went the other way.

Two minor examples of odd decisions (either for the benefit of the public or not) have caught my attention and both involve garbage trucks. The first is an example from the private sector in Atlanta. Perhaps you’ve seen the bright pink DreamSan trucks making their way around town. The second is here in Bogotá, where when you hear a familiar xylophone rendition of She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain it’s likely the trash pickup and not the ice cream man. In each case, someone has tried to change the way that we think about this negatively perceived, though very necessary, service. Are they doing any good? How would we determine it, if they were?

Dreamsan Sanitation

20 Julio

In a recent post I mentioned briefly that I’ve been exposed to some new Colombian media since arriving. Over the weekend I added to my repertoire, so to speak. Sampling the nightlife, the recreation and the television of the country.

Friday was a holiday, Independence Day. More than anything else, the day seemed an excuse for the country to show off its military, which is not to say that this is a departure from the habits of other countries. In the build up to the day I heard about parades and street closures as well as annual (rumored) guerilla attacks on cities. None of these happened (in Bogotá at least). On the day before, I talked a bit with a med student who is also in the Navy, or La Armada Nacional. He gave me the full scoop on exactly what was going down. Normally Bogotá is the place to be for a military man on Independence Day, however, this year thousands of servicemen from every branch were invited to festivities being held on the Colombian island of San Andres. He told me to make sure and tune in on TV to catch the pageantry.

And I did briefly. Then later I caught bits and pieces of the recap on the news and discovered that the decision to move the party was a thinly veiled affront aimed at Nicaragua. (hear me) San Andres Island is really far away from Colombia; so far away that it’s close to Nicaragua. So far, in fact, that Panama and Costa Rica don’t even try to get involved. So what better way to passively escalate the international tension then to amass military forces on the disputed territory for a Colombian celebration? I think this remote (relatively inconsequential) island situation is much more interesting than the Argentine-English dispute that keeps popping up in the news. At least Colombia is claiming an island in the same hemisphere.

Aside from the news and military operations, I have had the chance to sit down in front of the TV and catch some other offerings. The first thing I have noticed is that there are certain things you can always find. Soccer, a game show, some Latin music and movies. I think I’ve seen more MLS coverage here than in the US (and the same amount of Red Sox games). Granted, this week saw David Beckham’s debut against Chelsea. On side note, the most impressive thing about this event was the turnout and the enthusiasm of fans at a soccer game in the US not involving a Latin American country. Leave it to LA to get celebrities (or as they’re called there, governors) to a soccer game.

Ok, back to the TV. I have to say that I am impressed with the selection of movies here. I can almost always find something that I could easy sit in front of and forget my troubles for two hours, though I refrain. The game shows are actually pretty interesting. Sure they have who wants to be a millionaire but they also have this twisted game show where people undergo a lie detector test backstage. Then they are brought out in front of the cameras and their family to reveal all. They are asked questions from the backstage interview and they have to say whether or not they are true. They are always true, and that is what troubles me about the show. It is not so much a test of wit or skill, rather it is a contest to see who is willing to be dragged through the mud with their family in tow. I only caught a glimpse tonight (I think it’s on everyday) but a guy outted his best friend who is gay. The other day they were asking a woman questions about whether or not she was making up excuses so that she did not have to go visit her mother who was sick with cancer. A women’s voice comes in and always states “es verdad”.

On Saturday night I made it out to Zona Rosa for my first taste of the nightlife and what the kids are calling Aguardiente. A night out in Colombia must consist of dancing of some kind, and there are several types. Everyone seems to know the many different types of music which sound about the same to me (gringo): salsa, meringue, regaton, cumbia, vallenato, currulao... Before I sound too amazed at the finely tuned ear of the Colombian people I should say that it’s like this everywhere. If you know jazz you start to get really picky, about bop, cool, acid, lounge, new age etc. Likewise, you won't find too many of my peers calling Kanye, gangster rap. Electronic music is definitely like this; "techno" encompasses a lot more for some than it does for others. In any event, the sustained exposure to the Latin vibes gave me a chance to being to pick up on the subtleties. My personal favorite right now is salsa but young people here think it’s a little too old fashioned and I blame Tito Puente.

San Andres Island
Colombian Reality TV Game Shows
Aguardiente

Jungle Friend

When you're in a new place, meeting people who will never see your life as it normally exists, pictures are a great way to show them who you are and more literally who your friends and family are. After going through my pics with a few new friends I have stumbled upon a couple of gems featuring my cat. I understand it might seem a bit weird to have photoed a cat, but bare with me; these make me laugh every time I see them.

I can't figure out who he's a fan of, but FILA is apparently part of the audience that ESPN (or in this case FOX) hopes to attract with all of its Yankee's - Red Sox games each summer. Watch how he moves around to get comfortable and looks back as if to say "keep it down, there are wildcard implications here". I wish I could say he does this all the time, but he's decided that TV is pedestrian and now he just reads books.


I thought this one would land him in the care of animal control and it still may. Somewhere along the way (in the frenzy of a pet shopping spree) we formed the idea that the house was too cold for our pets and instead of making everyone a little more comfortable with the thermostat, we'd help FILA out by getting him a vest made for little dogs. This picture is during one of the 5 minutes the vest was in action before being returned. I know all too well that his posture is an affirmation of what we already knew; this was a stupid idea. The house is warmer for it though. (please don't take him away, animal control)

I have more but I'll stop there. If you know this cat and have any comments or funny stories of interactions with him, please share. Stories form allergic parties who view cats as satan-spawn need not submit.

Exito

I first heard about Exito on Friday when I asked someone where I might go to buy a pair of socks. I figured that there must be a small tienda or slightly larger, more specialized footwear store or even an entire district not too far away. In Colombia, like many other cities in developing places, the density is impressive and most people walk so it’s not uncommon to be able to find what you need in a short trip. As I hinted at, sometimes you see guilds pop up. Down the street from me exists a strip of about 20 optical shops in a row. In old Hanoi the streets still retain the names (and some of the shops) of the businesses that reside there. If this type of thing exists and it’s a specialty item, like glasses, a lengthier trip will often be made to take advantage of the market forces and the expertise. But this is socks.

Saturday I went on a hike through the countryside with a group here at the University. Many students carried plastic bags to hold their lunches and garbage as the day went on. Many of the bags said Exito on them, including one I had grabbed from home that morning. Now my interest was piqued, Exito seemed to be a staple of Colombian commerce and something I should see first-hand.

Sunday I stumbled upon Exito. I was walking down the main street and passes what looked like a renovated building (about half a block) that was being made into a mall. As I passed I saw the sign for the parking garage in the signature yellow. In this regard it reminds me a bit of Ikea with their blue but what people most often relate it to is Walmart because they carry everything from food to appliances, car parts and even socks. While that is one good reason that Exito is Wal-mart, there are several good reasons for why it is not. First, I walked there. Second, I had to enter the pseudo-mall and then go up an escalator to enter the store, which was not immediately visible from the street. Third, I had to go up more escalators to get to the second floor. This is what a Wal-mart would look like if they tried to put one in Manhattan. The fact that they’ve adapted their store design to fit into the dense urban fabric already would get them kicked out of Sam’s club faster than the Walton’s make their next billion. They are also set as anchors in the new malls that Bogotá seems to abound with. Finally, Exito is not the cheapest of the cheap. Colombians think it is surprisingly expensive (n=1).

A couple similarities do exist. As I said they carry everything from bananas to baby clothes to refrigerators. I went in looking for socks but found myself walking past a sad wall of HDTVs with nothing to broadcast in HD. Static-y programming looks the same in HD. Also, there are examples that resemble the US, big box, counterparts. I am interested on whether the design of the stores has evolved and they are moving away from the stand alone big box or if it’s just opportunistic. Also there are others following suit. Carrefour is one similar store that I have only seen through car window, standing alone, across a sea of parking. I have also been told of a Home Depot mimic called Home Center. I remember similar stores in Santiago, Chile. The fact is that in many cases the old, downtown sections of these cities remain dense, grid street patterns of development with multiple uses, however as the cities expand, people gain wealth, cars gain prominence and the scale of things change. I think paying close attention to these different development patterns is like reading the rings of a tree.

I have heard why I should hate Wal-mart and of movements to stop them from coming into neighborhoods, but maybe that’s just the way things are going. A lot of people do shop there, but is it because they have few other choices? Also, with everyone driving their cars is the big box thing so bad. What if we completely rethought the way we designed and arranged shopping centers? Take the mall in DC as an example; nobody has ever thought to come up with a pejorative term for those ‘big box’ monuments and museums that are all over the place. Of course I’m being a little extreme and the Mall doesn’t exactly plentiful parking… getting items from the store to your car or home could be troublesome but people could play kickball between Office Depot and Petsmart. Others could relax next to the reflecting pool that abuts Best Buy and Lowes. Just an idea. Of course, when we start making monuments out of shooping centers we have bigger problems. But sometimes it already feels that way.

Frontline had a really good episode on Walmart awhile ago, it can be seen here:
Frontline Walmart Episode

Radiolab

The sudden lack of familiar media has exposed me several new things in the last two weeks, not the least of which is a bunch of new unfamiliar Colombian media. However as hard as old habits do die, I have turned to some of the Podcasts on my computer to catch up on months of NPR’s Health & Science briefs as well as some forgotten episodes of This American Life. Now I’m keeping up with my subscriptions to such things and also finding some new ones and I must say I am impressed at the breadth of topics covered and the availability of so much information that this relatively young media (Podcasts) affords us.

If you listened to last week's episode of This American Life on Who Can You Save? (and you probably did given that it was the most downloaded Podcast that week) then you no doubt were introduced to Radiolab. Señor Glass, as he’s known down here, played an excerpt from Radiolab’s show on Morality and also gave it a resounding endorsement. Now, I know that some people treat finding the next ‘it’ thing like a race (against their own friends), but I subscribe to the ideology which says that the important is to know why you think it's 'it', if you eventually do find it. So even though it’s in its third season, now’s as good a time as any to give it a listen. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

I have been trying to catch up on episodes back at my apartment where we don’t have broadband internet. The Podcasts are a great way listen to new media offline, meanwhile my roommate probably thinks I never listen to music, just news. I have been involved in a weeklong love affair (sorry Lauren) with this show. And I don’t think I’m alone because guess what was the week’s most downloaded Podcast last I checked. But why is this show so interesting; so 'it'. First, it's good radio. The two hosts, Jab Abumrad and Robert Krulwich (who has his own short NPR science Podcast) are enthusiastic, honest and creative. The way they unravel curiosity around the subject using audible performance to accompany the sound bites from their interesting contributors (Oliver Sachs, Steven Johnson, Alan Rabinowitz, etc.) adds to the stories, relevant as they are. Finally, it asks big questions about being human, about having feelings and thoughts and instincts. And to investigate those questions it turns to the scientific experiments designed to test such things, the history of the issue, and the real life experiences of people (ie This American Life).

Here is a clip from a show on memory that made me question what I really remember about some seminal experiences in my life.



So give the program a listen and tell me what you think. If it’s not like I said, it probably had something to do with how my brain interprets things differently than yours, or the way I constructed the memory of the show. Of curse to find out why that is, you’ll have to listen to more of the show.

New Features

Before I left I told people to stay tuned to the blog for updates on how things are going, what I'm up to, and new signs, etc. It seems that some of you are checking in on me and even leaving commets!!!!. Perhaps you're new to the blog or just trying to get up to speed (aka vargocity). As such I've tried to add some features that you should be aware of.

Comments: AS I said I have been recieving more comments lately and also responding to them. Unfortunately I do not know of a way to notify you that your comment has been noted and a retort submitted. I will be looking in to this.

Visitor Info: This is found in the banner to the right of the posts. By clicking on the see who's looking at this link, you can see where people are visiting from, and when. Only the last 20. I'm looking for better options. The Lovehardsteins told me that Sitemeter is better and I'm starting to believe them. If I change there will be a link in the same place on the right.

Labels: I recently went through my posts and relabeled all of them. At the end of each posts and perhaps soon in the righthand banner you can find these labels and by clicking on them you can be swept away to all the posts with the same labels. If you're new to the sit and to me then this could be a great way to catch up on old posts that you missed.

Widget: Mac users can download a Vargocity widget for Dashboard. It doesn't do much except give you a behind the scenes way to keep up and make you computer much much cooler. You'll have the widget that nobody else has, or has even heard of.

More: There are also Favorite Posts and my running profile, which are both on probation. We'll see if they last. If you go to check out my running history (and are not immediate family) you may be way too interested in me.

While I am faltering in comparison to the Army of Park Slope stay-at-home authors who come up with all sorts of coolness in their spare time (I'm working on incorporating outside.in), I am putting in some effort. I hope you enjoy and recipricate.

Happy Planet

During a discussion about the project I am working on here in Bogotá, the professor here introduced me to a document produced in the recent past called the Happy Planet Index (put out by the The New Economics Foundation. It describes itself like this:
The Index is built from three different indicators, two of which are objective: life expectancy and the ecological footprint – a measure of our use of environmental goods and services. The third indicator is people’s subjective well-being, or ‘life satisfaction’. (It should be noted that the was people report their life satisfaction corresponds to objective facts such as their mental and physical health.)
They’ve set the target for 83.5, yet the highest is 68.2 attained by the island(s) nation of Vanuatu. The lowest is Zimbabwe’s 16.6.
The Happy Planet Index came about in a discussion about some life satisfaction questions that are part of a questionnaire we’re using for our analysis. Olga, wanted to show me the one-sided responses they’ve received to a question about how many times the respondent has been sick in the last 30 days. Over 60% said zero days. I thought and still think it’s in part the form of the question but she then pulled up the Happy Planet Index report to show me how ‘happy’ Colombia apparently is. The country is THE highest in South America, and arguably the best rating overall with a score of 67.2.

#1 in Asia? Vietnam. Hmmm, all places we (US) have a history with and that (for us) carry a stigma, and all places I’ve gone to spend some time. But the answer must be a bit more complicated than that. Neither of those points was mentioned in the report. To be certain, if you’re renowned for poverty, overthrown puppet governments, or drug wars and then you start to experience some economic recovery then those improvements are likely much more noticeable and the people in those places can get happy about that. Of course that doesn’t explain the whole ecological footprint segment. I expect that the footprints are both are getting larger. Olga told me that Colombia has been able to keep large amounts of the country naturally preserved. This in part is because of paramilitary, nonetheless those places aren't being developed.

I think both Colombia and Vietnam have significant natural resources and their governments have done some things right. Bogotá, or at least its leadership has taken steps to give a better life to citizens. This speech from one of the city’s most famous major’s lays out some of the logic behind his actions to improve equality and quality of life for the city’s citizens. He even talks about economics of happiness and its role in public decision making. It doesn’t sound like typical politician speak. Or is it becoming more common. Quality of life rumored to be an asset for attracting economic development. You’ll even hear it in Atlanta when people like to bring up the abundance of trees and lack of cold weather. The Beltline is expected to preserve and even enhance this ‘quality’ of the life in the city. And in both of these cases it seems the power and influence of mayors may be on the rise.

But, back to the Happy Planet Index… Where is the US? Keep in mind that we’re probably at a point where incremental increases in national prosperity matter less to us individually but we scored a red 28.8.

Signs

I have an affinity for signs. I love to think about symbols and how they are interpreted; how they’re designed to convey a certain message and the way that message comes to be associated with the image, even for those who may have initially responded differently. As I see these interesting signs I often wish I had a camera with me to snap a shot and post them here so that I could see what other people think. Luckily in Bogotá it’s one of a few possessions that I have and I can easily remember to leave the house each morning with it in my bag. Plus, there’s a lot of new stuff that I wanna capture and possibly relate to you (the reader) later.

Also, if anyone happens to be on Briarcliff just north of Ponce and has a camera handy, please get me a shot of the Hungus Amongus sign. It's a traditional yellow diamond with the silhouette of a man with a cane and a rather disgusting, albeit distinguishing, physical feature. I'm surprised it hasn't shown up on isawitonponce yet. If you take a picture of it and send it to me you'll receive a free vargocity t-shirt.

For example take this gem I caught outside the front door to my building. At first it looked to me like one of those pictograms from a game show on which they reveal the big picture piece by piece. For example, envision this… 2 - [wasp] - [rowing implement] – [tied rope] – 2 – [wasp]These little puzzles call upon a creative spark equal to that normally reserved for dealing with vanity license plates. But I doubt this sign is trying to tell someone “iron, blender, pot” This image is far more utilitarian. It’s advertising the services of a small shop run out of the space right next to it. As best I can tell it means they'll repair small, household electronics. Of course I'm keeping my eyes peeled for more like it and accepting suggestions for alternate interpretations.

Although this is not a sign exactly it is one of those funny things I just wanted to share. It looks like Snuggles, the fabric softening bear, but I'm guessing it's actually his more free spirited cousin. Anyway, at least she's found work down here sponsoring a line of breads.

New Apartment = New Shoes

My preparation for this trip has been less than rigorous. As such, packing properly could be an impossible, if not aimless, task. My suitcase included a complete electrical adapter kit. However, one little visit to any of a number of websites may have told me that the outlets in Colombia are the same as in the US. Better safe than sorry in this case.

One important thing that I did think to look up before leaving was the weather. Being equatorial, individual regions of the country enjoy fairly consistent weather throughout the year; weather that one might assume to be very warm. However the weather in Bogotá is not hot at all. As I type this it's about 2PM and a cloudy (semi-damp) 63 degrees. I really enjoy it so far but have slight issues with the cold floors. Having not been in a developing country for about 2 years I must have forgotten the ubiquity of construction materials of choice. And, truth be told, once again I did not give much thought to what the accommodations would be like before arriving.

Which brings me to the real purpose of this post, to provide some insight into my living arrangements. I am living in Central Bogotá which is also, paradoxically located on the eastern edge of the city adjacent to the mountains. It's very near the university where I am working (Universidad de los Andes). It's a rather young private university (less than 60 years) but is independent of both the church and the state - a rarity for Colombia and South America and universities in general. So far I am impressed with it and am gathering material for a post in the near future about some of the impressive architecture. More importantly my apartment is about a 5 min walk from campus (++).

Also, I have a roommate, Adriana. She assisted me with finding the place and provided some other housing options before I arrived. She's a student in industrial engineering and is originally from Cali. She's been helpful in showing me around school and helping me find where to buy groceries, etc. It's also good to have someone around to try and speak Spanish with. I think I'd go nuts if I was living by myself, but she could very well be thinking that have a gringo around will get old fast, who knows (+).


Prior to my arrival she warned me that she had an extra room but no bed or closet. Partially on the advice of my professor here, I said no problema and arrived with a sleeping bag. At the last minute I left my sleeping pad at home to make more room. Again, I'm not sure what I expected but I can not state it more clearly than to say the floors are very hard, flat and cold. Thankfully there is the couch to sleep on while we wait for an air mattress from a professor (|).

With sleeping arrangements taken care of haphazardly, I can now focus on food. Space is at a premium here (as I should have known) and thus there is little room for food, let alone food for two people. We split a tiny fridge and I am realizing that much of the food I enjoy eating needs to go in the fridge. I miss my big American fridge at home. Nonetheless I am figuring out my way around this new kitchen (though not turning around in it) and discovering what I can prepare and what might be considered a little too daring. So far I have been motivated to make meals for myself at home since I don't know anyone else and am still figuring out the neighborhood. Plus, I have my limit for eating out alone (|).

The only thing I can think to give a negative rating so far is the shower situation. Adriana has tried to explain to me how the hot water heater works. It's really my fault for not having figured it out yet. Like last night she had turned it on and asked me to turn it off in 20 minutes. She told me it was so she'd have hot water in the morning and she wouldn't be running the gas all the time. Because running the gas for an hour is like using 12 light bulbs for an hour. Cool, makes sense and I'm down with the energy savings vibe but I have no idea how she knows when to turn it on and when there's enough hot water for a shower. When I got in there this morning well after she had gone to a 7:30 AM Saturday class there was not any hot water. I'll work on getting to the bottom of this (-).

I feel like I should have known better what to expect but I guess it's a reminder that you have to walk a mile in another man's shoes and wipe your feet on the same entryway rug as him before you truly know his way.

DEK...? WT"F"

You can know something for a long time before you finally fully realize what it means. This period of less than complete awareness of a situation is usually described by people who have just won the Super Bowl or have experienced the passing of someone close to them. It usually goes something like, "I’m waiting for it to hit me" or "it hasn’t had time to sink in yet." Later they find themselves at Disneyworld or they open a drawer to come across an old picture and awareness is heightened.

Yesterday I had a moment like this as I embarked for South America. Though I have not formally introduced it in a post, I’ll be in Bogotá for the summer working with researchers and their data to develop my thesis. I knew I was going but it doesn’t always set in that you’ll be in a foreign place until you are confronted with some of the differences. The Avianca plane that carried me from Ft. Lauderdale to Bogotá provided this (see left) subtle hint that there was no tuning back and gave me a deeper understanding of exactly where I was. Ironically it did this by confusing me. I thought I had the sign figured out but I asked someone today why there was a “K” and they had no idea. No worries I had the aisle.

One thing that becomes very clear with a fair amount of travel is that the same books keep popping up over and over again. On each of my flights yesterday I was sitting one seat away from a woman reading ‘Wicked.’ Maybe I’m jumping the gun here, but when I was traveling several times a week for work at Akzo, it was the DiVinci Code. That thing was everywhere (they had everybody on that case). Maybe it's because they only sell certain books in those airport magazine stands. If someone gives you one of those books as a gift, they probably picked it up, last minute, at the airport.

In any event I arrived safely, found my accommodations and have since begun my work.

Robobots & Convincicons

Tuesday night I went to see a sneak preview of the new Transformers movie. Save the fact that my seat was two away from the outside wall and one row from the front, it was pretty entertaining. At first I thought the perspective was going to make me ill, but ultimately it was the humor that was most disturbing. However, this is not a movie review (this is), rather it is a re-visitation of my fascination with advertising.

Transformers prominently features two major product lines that obviously made huge deals with the studio. The movie is like a big commercial, which is becoming more and more common these days. It's almost exactly like this picture except that car shouldn't be German. I don't wanna ruin it for you but one's a car company and one's a computer manufacturer. Watching the movie I was more interested in some of the more subtle product use. For example, when the noticeably un-nerdy and, for some reason, Australian code breaker from the NSA decides which media to use when transferring the most important sound in the world (which disappears from the plot) how does she choose? Something tells me there's more to her portable disk of choice than meets the eye. I couldn't resist, and neither could the screenplay writers.

One particularly interesting aspect of this use of film as advertising, is its use for personal/group publicity. For example, when sports jerseys are worn in films, whose name will appear on the back. Did Clinton Portis' agent get on the phone with Spielberg and make that happen? Or was it just because the story was taking place in Washington and they probably don't sell a lot of John Hall jerseys? There's a particularly interesting scene that gets at these deals in Thank You for Smoking. Nick Nailer is meeting with a Hollywood executive to strike a deal that will feature a lead man smoking in his next movie.

Maybe this sort of thing has been happening for ages. Actually, that is most likely the case. As long as there have been things to sell, there have been people trying to sell more of them to us. It is somewhat ironic that it took this movie to help me see - or at least motivate me to write about - how advertising is transforming entertainment.

John Hall's agent... you'll be hearing from me.

iPhone

sending post from iPhone at apple store. Had to.

A Pacific Trip to the Atlantic Coast

I am not sure if anyone else is running into this problem but this year has been abnormally bad with ticks (for myself). I've found three in various places on me so far. Though none following our trip to Connecticut, the area perhaps most infamous for the insect. The latest came during a trip to the Georgia/South Cackalack coast over the weekend.

I suspect it hopped aboard during one of a couple hikes around the marshes of Skidaway Island State Park. Our first clue should have been the deer we saw when we pulled in to find a site. In any event, after the ride down there without A/C and following an incredibly hot, yet remarkably dry (see our camping record) night we were in desperate need of showers which would not come until several hours later.

After rising early on Saturday and making a second trip out to the Skidaway Narrows, we decided we'd try and make it to Hilton Head and get some beach exposure before heading to Savannah. Neither of us had ever been to Hilton Head but had heard a great deal about the place. Lauren from her mother and me from the hoards of high school classmates who sought the place out as a spring break destination. I was very surprised to see some of the attention put into sculpting the island's development, which I can only imagine was a rapid and entropic process hesitant to be wrangled. The island has its share of retail including big box stores like Lowes and Best Buy as well as outlet stores. These merchants line the large main road (highway) through the island. However, all the stores are barely visible from the roadway. They are accessible via smaller service roads that line the main road but are hidden behind large stands of tall pines. They've managed to maintain some of the area's attractiveness while adding businesses and limiting access points. It's almost like a boulevard but there is no parking on service roads. The parking lots are also didactically interesting (if that may be said). Again, large tress have been preserved and provide shade for the cars.

As an example consider these two gas stations I snapped in passing. The top from the main route on Hilton Head Island. The gas station barely visible and, in this case I think the service road runs on the opposite side of the station and the division provides enough room for a landscaped bike/ped path (not that it's used). The bottom gas station is something we're probably all more familiar with. This example comes from somewhere in SC, AKA Juarez, MX. Of course there are a number for reasons we see both approaches and HHI is not perfect (I'm sure we could get the flaws of developing ecologically sensitive barrier islands at all), but it is good to see real-life case studies for how things can be done differently and hopefully better.

That said I do not want to get into all the ways that Savannah's Historic Review Board manages to have it's way in the city's growth and rejuvenation while the surrounding coast gets gobbled up. I like what they've done but think that those in the historic district could be leveraging their power to ease some pressure on the coast. Regardless, I always enjoy my time in the old city. We stayed in a wonderfully restored bed and breakfast thanks to a wedding gift given to us by friends from Atlanta. It even had showers, or as I like to call them, the watery grave of the Skidaway tick.


All in all it was a great weekend to get away from all the video games, gutters (which are finally back up), and possible injuries that Atlanta offers. It was a also a fitting way for Lauren and I to spend our last weekend together before I leave to Colombia (where ticks are not one of things you have to worry about).