No pasa un mes sin que nuestro flamante director general de Tráfico no nos obsequie con una guinda más de su pastel de despropósitos. Hace un año con gran ruido mediático hizo un plan especial para la moto que se ha quedado en nada, y desde entonces ha seguido con su política habitual de ataque frontal al segmento de las dos ruedas.

La última, hacer que paguemos más impuestos si nuestra moto tiene más de 100 CV. Se supone que el Impuesto de Matriculación es eso, un impuesto, gestionado por el Ministerio de Hacienda, pero ahora parece que se pueden utilizar como medida de castigo, como si se tratase de una multa. Y encima se trata de una medida absurda digna de su absoluto desconocimiento del sector más allá de obviedades que, como ésta, encima son falsas.

Hacer pagar más impuestos va a obligar a los fabricantes a proponer versiones de 100 CV que, como existen en Francia, ya están disponibles, y claro, al igual que en Francia, modificarlas para quitar la limitación será cuestión de 10 minutos. Son ganas de liar, de fastidiar gratuitamente a un segmento que da de comer a muchas personas en un momento en que vienen mal dadas. Por eso es importante que la manifestación del día 8 sea un éxito, que nos concentremos todos a los que nos sea posible y que desde fuera se vea que estamos hartos de ser perseguidos por este señor que sabe de motos menos que nada.

Pero aunque hayamos usado un titular un tanto agresivo, también tenemos que tener presente que de la imagen que demos ese sábado va a depender nuestro éxito y el retorno que de la sociedad en general obtengamos. El día 8 nos tenemos que ir todos juntos a luchar por nuestros derechos, y el primero es no ser perseguidos. Y encima sin motivo.

Pepe Burgaleta

Day 1. As I approach my school all the guys are hanging by the smoking area, and once they see me all hell breaks loose..all commenting on how I was dressed up, wearing the black dress shirt and pants with my fancy tie, when they all start commenting on my "Sexxy" appearance..lol. Now we all go in and meet are instructer, who talks and explaines and tells whos doing what and assigned us are position for the day, when we find out will be at this position for the whole week, which I get to be the bartender which was a relief, since I've been a bartender before and I had exp.  The next day as we come in begin are instructore shows us what we need to do to start the day. As we polished silverware and glasses, folded napkins and then placing everything in the proper manner, I helped, but all I had to do was brew tea and coffee and polish a few dozen highball glasses..fun!!!

When the 1st few customers walk through the door, The anticipation of making my first drink was nerve racking...yea right, but to make a my first cappuccino or espresso it was going to be interesting and when it happened it seemed like I was doing this forever. Then the next day I had to make them for all the people in the kitchen..Laci!!! As the week goes bye I become a master at making all the beverages that's on are menu  and I say to myself,  Damn I'm a Natural lol.

Now the second week I become a server and my nightmare begins..lol. So I ask fellow classmates on what pointers I needed to know on what to do and not to do. when one said to me, imagine you being the customer and how would you liked  to be treated, so I figure I guess I could be nice and put on a fake smile when greeting people. so when I got my first customer and their friends,  I approached the table with this feeling of what to say and will it seem nice and professional, I say "Hello my name is Roland and Ill be your server today, can I start you off with a beverage" Sounds lame and dull but it worked. So after getting that out of the way, I felt at easy and things just took off from there.

So as I took on more customers and filling orders, I was told that I was slacking on replacing and changing silverware for each course, but I caught on after that little comment?. I will say in the beginning i wasn't pleased that I would have to serve, but when we had the customers fill out comment cards.to my surprise there were really good comments, so maybe I'll go and become a server and do this for a living...lol.. not a chance. it was a good learning experience and I'll say its not easy...Thanks Tim!!!

"The end is built into the beginning."

Synecdoche, New York marks screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) directorial debut. Now in my mind, the talent that distinguishes a talented writer from a brilliant one is not the act of creation, but the editorial process of killing pieces of the art. What Kaufman lacks in editorial restraint he more than makes up for with a morbid, haunting depth that transcends the categorically idiosyncratic films which he partnered with Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze on previously. Without the strong arm of an experienced director to make cuts, Kaufman meanders around his themes, perhaps carrying the film out an extra 20 minutes (the movie clocks in at just over two hours) and probably losing half the crowd in an ending more unwieldy than an M. C. Escher print.

Yet, for all of its flaws, Synecdoche, New York deeply moved me.

The plot is as inexplicable as the way it made me feel, but I concede. Once again, Kaufman's pathetic doppleganger antihero is Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a theater director in an unhappy marriage in Schenectady, New York. Time is eroding quickly-- he awakes to a radio interview about the month of September marking the beginning of the end, and then remarks the milk dated October has expired. Even worse, Caden himself is eroding. His pupils won't dilate. His stool is bloody. His cheeks develop pustules. His salivary glands dry up. Caden, rightfully so, assumes death is neigh. When his wife Adele Lack (Catherine Keener) takes their small daughter with her to Berlin to become a famous painter of micro-cavases and never returns, his desperation and isolation is palpable. Time begins to deteriorate, as Caden almost falls for Hazel (Samantha Morton), then Claire (Michelle Williams), then wins a MacArthur genius grant. Determined to finally create something meaningful, he stages an untitled play for no audience with myriad actors based on the only real truth Caden knows: himself.

If this all seems meta, well, it is. The old adage that writers can only truly write about what they know smacks of egoism, but Kaufman acknowledges his own crippling solipsism by eventually universalizing his favorite conceit. Caden's warehouse is home to a massive replica of his existence in New York, with hundreds of actors replicating his entire life. Naturally, he hires an actor to play himself, another to play his lover, and another to play the actor to play the actor. Unable to get out of his (Kaufman's? Caden's?) own head, he finally widens his lens: "I know how to do it now. There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due."

As Caden ages, his obsession with death, time, and meaning catch up to him, and welcome clichés ensue: Like the one where you acknowledge that your life is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second. Or the one about wasting your time waiting for a letter, or an apology, or a meeting, to change everything, but even if it comes, it never will. How about the one where you admit that most of your life is spent being unborn or being dead. And the one where you grow old, and everyone you know dies, and so will you. Nothing will remain. Everything will change, but remain unmoved.

There is you. There is your life. There is a set. There is someone playing you, playing that actor, who you are in love with.

At this point in the film, I was unabashedly crying. The older woman next to me was sobbing. And this is where Synecdoche, New York really succeeds. It is not sweet and quirky like Eternal Sunshine, or as science-fictionally satisfying as Being John Malkovich. It is a film that expounds upon the debilitatingly aching sadness of mortality, about the complexity of love, the mania of art, and the isolation of time.

"I don't know why I make it so complicated."
"That's what you do."

The opportunity to position his campaign as an alternative to radical socialism has passed. Now, he finds himself depending on his pro-life, second amendment, and pro-war national security positions. Three or which are not resonating with the center-left that he has been courting. Unfortunately, his ‘maverick’ style has placed his campaign in the isle instead of reaching across it. The result is that voters on either side of the isle are becoming indifferent to his campaign.

On the other hand, Obama has made no concessions regarding his base electorate and has only moved far enough right to fall short of completely socialized healthcare. Obama’s strong support in the left and center have been due to his consistency regarding the democratic platform. If a voter wants to know what Obama stand for, all they need read is the party platform. This consistency of message is resulting in some center-right movement into the Obama camp.

If McCain is going pull out of this nose-dive, he will have to take drastic measures. The measures would most likely add to the growing perception that McCain changes his policies more often than his Depends® undergarments. He is going to need to start with an admission that he was drunk for the past month. He will have to ask the fiscal conservatives and free-market capitalists to forget everything that he has said and mark it up to bad advice and Heineken®. He will have to convince them that the conservative McCain is back in control and the socialist McCain has been entered into rehab. Short of that, we will have to wait four years and pray that the Republican Party can get a clue about why moderates would vote for them. I’ll make a suggestion… fiscal conservatism and smaller government.

¿Quién no ha soñado alguna vez sobre lo que va a pasar mañana, o el año que viene, o dentro de 30 años? Hoy sabemos que el futuro puede ser “adivinado”, o debería decir mejor, vivido. La cuestión principal radica en la “prisa” que tengamos por conocerlo.

La humanidad viaja continuamente en el tiempo, lo que sucede es que viajamos en una única dirección y a razón de un segundo cada segundo (desde ese punto de vista, el viaje en el tiempo existe). Es evidente que los sucesos del año 2023 los conoceremos dentro de 15 años y lo que vaya a suceder mañana lo sabremos mañana. Pero el dicho popular avisa que las prisas son malas consejeras. Y aún así el ser humano busca la manera de adelantarse al futuro y conocerlo hoy. Una persona sensata hará caso a las pruebas científicas (y a su propia experiencia) y se conformará con esperar e invertir su dinero en algo provechoso, pero un ignorante igual tiene prisa e invierte en los autodenominados videntes, astrólogos, mediums y toda esa jarcia de engañabobos.

La rama más antigua del árbol de la ignorancia es la astrología. En la los primeros tiempos del hombre éste se daba cuenta que en el cielo aparecían astros con diferente comportamiento al resto de “luces” de la bóveda celeste. Cuando Mercurio se hallaba en su cenit puede que hubiera librado una batalla con éxito, de manera que sería “legítimo” preguntarse si la próxima vez que ese planeta tuviera esa posición le traería la misma suerte. Con el tiempo, el hombre, observaba que otros astros formaban conjunciones y oposiciones y podría ligar los acontecimientos cotidianos a esas circunstancias. Había un astro – la estrella Sirio, la más brillante del hemisferio norte, excluido el Sol- que siempre aparecía por el horizonte en la misma época (como todas las constelaciones) pero que servía a los egipcios para organizar su agricultura. Las crecidas del Nilo y la aparición de Sirio iban íntimamente ligadas. La época de lluvias en Centro-África quedaba lejos de su conocimiento pero el binomio Sirio–Agua era evidente, así que ¿por qué no intentar descifrar las demás combinaciones de los astros del cielo? Un hecho natural era convertido en sobrenatural y, aunque su base era errónea, ¡la predicción era correcta!

Pero el tiempo ha pasado y ningún astrólogo predijo el momento de la desaparición de su propia civilización. Y llegamos a la era de las comunicaciones. Ahora es cuando proliferan los astrólogos de guante blanco o los videntes de salón. Si tienes la mala idea de regalarles tu dinero, ellos te darán consejos, jamás certezas. La prueba la tienes en cualquier horóscopo que leas. Cojo uno al azar y leo: “cuidado con las indigestiones; hoy no te dejes agobiar por el entorno” ¡faltaría más! Piense en estas últimas frases. Son muy comunes en los horóscopos de los astrólogos, esos que, si les mandas un dinerito, te envían tu “carta astral”.

Me encanta oír a esta jarcia de pícaros decirte cómo la situación de Júpiter influyó en tu personalidad en el momento de tu nacimiento. El único efecto que podría provocar es el gravitatorio, y ni eso, porque la matrona que asistió a tu parto ejercía mayor efecto que el sistema solar junto. También me encanta oírlos defender tan desahogadamente que ellos se limitan a “interpretar” conocimientos muy antiguos, que ya están escritos desde Ptolomeo. Se nota su propia ignorancia al hablar de conjunciones planetarias de Marte con Saturno, o de Urano, y no digamos ya cuando hablan de Neptuno o Plutón. Urano fue descubierto en 1781, y Neptuno y Plutón hace “cuatro días”, pero ellos hablan y hablan y hablan. Charlatanería no les falta, ya que es la mayor herramienta con la que engañar a los incautos.

No voy a mencionar aquí la prueba de los gemelos. Uno muere a los cinco años fulminado por un rayo y el otro tiene una larga y próspera vejez. Ambos nacieron al mismo tiempo. Los mismos planetas “regían” su destino. ¿Sigo?

Pero yo me pregunto: ¿si hay tanto vidente o astrólogo en las televisiones con sus consultas, es que hay tanto ignorante que utiliza sus “servicios”?. La respuesta me asusta, pues está claro que sí. Y viendo que toda esta jarcia de embaucadores vive (y muy bien por cierto), será porque cada uno tiene su extensa clientela de tontos en busca de sus “consejos”, lo que nos da como resultado que la ignorancia sigue presidiendo la vida de millones de personas. Y eso no es bueno para el avance la humanidad.

Por eso, cuando algún “adivino” me pregunta ¿de qué signo eres tú?, mi respuesta es siempre la misma: soy OFIUCO (nacidos entre el 30 de noviembre y el 17 de diciembre). La cara que me ponen refleja el cortocircuito de su única neurona.

Apparently, I am not the only one with this problem. The good folks at http://virscan.org/ have a solution that allows you to upload up to a 10MB file and have it checked by many different virus scanners.

There is a wireless access point scanning tool that I used called NetStumbler that does not work with Windows Vista at the time of this writing. However, I found an alternative tool called VISTUMBLER. Unfortunately, when I try to run it, McAfee detects an apparent trojan and deletes it!

Not convinced, I uploaded that application file to get the consensus of the 38 scanners in the list. Here is what they say about my little file in question: 7 of the 38 say that there is some sort of problem with the file.

I am not presuming to make a recommendation to anyone as it relates to virus scanners, but I am proposing that you make yourself aware that

a) false positives are real

b) services like virscan allow you to at least get a consensus of what the major virus scanners think about your potential problem.

In the end, each individual computer user (at least in the home), is responsible for the safety and welfare of his / her PC.

Tags: PC, SaaS, Scanner, Security, Service, Virus, Web 2.0

       I have been listening to talk on Bloomberg television and I have not heard a single good thing anyone has to say.  About the best thing I've heard the words "deflation", but I have a feeling that this is not really a good thing, denoting more a complete deflation of the market and the dollar, and the economy's ability to rebound with anything even remotely resembling quickness. 

      Hell, the Bank that I keep my money in, Sovereign bancorp, was bought out a day or two ago by Banco Santander, and despite the fact that BanSant has been called one of the better banks in all of Europe, It's stock dropped 12.76% today.  When one of the strongest banks out there loses that much money despite being "strong"  I've got to wonder whether it would in fact be better for me to keep my money in my mattress or a strong box...or with the pitiful state of my finances, a coffee cup. 

     I'm not an economist, I'm just a guy who sees the world seemingly falling apart, and everyone out there who could do something about it made powerless by the negativity that's out there.   Let's all hope that this is the bottom.  I'm not counting on it, but i am hoping.

       That's it for the money crap.

     Onto Politics.

     The Big debate is tonight.  John McCain has promised to bring up William Ayers tonight!  YEEHAAAA!!!!  The economy is reeling, America is going broke, so isn't now the perfect time to bring up BULLSHIT? YESH!!! Because isn't now the time to focus on one working relationship forged early in the political career of one candidate?  I agree that light should be shined into all the dark corners of the lives of the candidates, but haven't we done that in this case already? I've read about this plenty and known about this for months.  I've written about this both here and on EL-CO, as have a great many other people, so it's not like this subject hasn't been scrutinized a length.  Obama's handled this before.  It's not a big deal for him tonight if it comes up.

      The people who have an issue with Ayers and Obama are the people who want to have an issue with Ayers and Obama, as far as i see it.  And if you are looking for a reason to dislike Obama, aren't you in reality already there, disliking him?  Seems a bit silly, doesn't it.  It's OK to just not like a candidate, you don't really need a reason.  Trust me when I tell you most people do it like that, no matter what they tell you.  They think with their gut and not their brains, and it's only after they've decided they don't like one candidate or another that they come up with rationales for disliking them.  At least that's the way it looks from here. 

     Enough debate stuff.  I promised a follow-up on the speaker wire disaster from yesterday.  Here it is.

       I bought the RCA to bare wire stuff at radio shack. Not surprisingly, it didn't work.  The reason is that The TV just isn't set up for individual speaker systems.  Wish i had known that earlier. If I had a home theatre system It would probably be fine, but seeing as how it is just a few speakers, there simply isn't any way to accommodate it.  Like I said, I wish i had known that earlier.

     Dammit.  I must've blown $30 on crap for the speakers, and for what? Nuttin.  Great.  Just Great.

       A Video and then I am done.

     Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman talking a few weeks ago.  Before the first failure of the Bailout package.  The one John Boehner called a crap sandwich.   The Best part of this here happens at around 5:11 into this 6:25 video.  He blames the whole economic crisis on Alan Greenspan and Phil Gramm.  Ouch.

     That;s it for me.  Gonna go play a few thousand notes on the guitar and get ready to watch the debate.  Later!

Today's Nuggets:  I want people to take thought about their condition and to recognize that the maintenance of a free society is a very difficult and complicated thing and it requires a self-denying ordinance of the most extreme kind. It requires a willingness to put up with temporary evils on the basis of the subtle and sophisticated understanding that if you step in to do something about them you not only may make them worse, you will spread your tentacles and get bad results elsewhere.    Milton Friedman

When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions.   Baron D'Holbach

Ya conocíamos magazines digitales desde hace tiempo, pero ahora la plataforma Issuu nos brinda a todos la posibilidad de publicar cualquier PDF a nivel mundial, tanto publicaciones personales como profesionales.

Es difícil medir la potencialidad de webs como ésta; supone poner una maquinaria virtual de producción y distribución editorial al alcance de cualquiera con algo que decir o mostrar.

Tiene además interesantes opciones de calificación, suscripción, personalización, embed objects, etc.
Las editoriales tradicionales pueden encontrar algo interesante y muy positivo publicando aquí, revistas de distribución gratuitas, avances de publicaciones, etc. que pueden llegar a un público muchísimo mayor, incluso —por qué no— toda una línea editorial pensada para este soporte y sus potenciales suscriptores.

Me ha llamado la atención cómo se ha incorporado aquí el manido efecto flash "pageflip", que se ha refinado para dotar a la visualización del pdf de un feeling especial, haciéndolo muy atractivo y con un zoom ágil para la lectura.
Un efecto incluido por cierto en el nuevo Indesign CS4, donde se puede exportar directamente en formato Flash. Lástima que no tenga tanta calidad.

Una buena manera de hacer presentaciones y ojear magazines de todo el mundo ;)

Enjoy!

So, my youngest sister and I were living in California where it was sunny every day. She came over one afternoon and we decided to go to a matinee. Driving out from the neighborhood we ran into friend Norma. She asked where we were going and one of us blurted out "The mall!" and the other "The beach!" Simultaneously, of course.

Norma said "You're going to the movies. I'm calling your mother!" Of course we were both adults at the time, well out of college and working.

When I lived in Brooklyn with no air conditioning, sometimes I went to the movies twice on a really hot weekend day. Movies were paid A/C!

So, even the neighbors knew of Mom's prohibition. Who're they going to tell now? I have to go get more ice and lie down until I can take more pain medication. Ow.

My son Jason, in Eretria.

Ο γιος μου Ιάσονας, στην Ερέτρια.

Kevrekidis Photography at deviantART 

©2008 Jordan Kevrekidis

So without any thought of food (no lunch, even yogurt) I'm taking my painkillers and lying down with an ice pack on my chipmunk cheek. Better a root canal than this, and I still have to go back next week and do it all over again!

So, it's not fun being Dee today. The dog doesn't seem to mind and is on the bed sleeping right now. She didn't like the thunderstorm earlier but I know she wouldn't have wanted to go out in the rain.

Just checking in and might write more later on. Take care, Dee

Os Prêmios Literários dividem-se em quatro categorias: Prêmio Lucilo Varejão, destinado ao melhor livro de ficção (novela, romance ou contos); Prêmio Elpídio Câmara, para a melhor peça teatral; Prêmio Eugênio Coimbra Júnior, ao melhor livro de poesia; e Prêmio Jordão Emerenciano, concedido ao melhor livro de ensaio. O vencedor de cada categoria receberá o valor de R$ 5 mil e terá, ainda, a obra inscrita no programa editorial do CMPC, desde que permaneçam inéditas para publicação, até a concessão da premiação subseqüente. Os autores premiados receberão certificados emitidos pelo Conselho.

Comissões julgadoras compostas de três membros indicados pelo CMPC se encarregarão da escolha do vencedor de cada um dos gêneros literários e poderá outorgar até três menções honrosas, caso em que também serão fornecidos certificados, não havendo, entretanto, publicação destes trabalhos. Os resultados dos Prêmios Literários Cidade do Recife serão divulgados no dia 13 de novembro deste ano, no Diário Oficial do Município e pela internet no portal da Prefeitura do Recife. Os livros vencedores serão editados pela Fundação de Cultura Cidade do Recife. O regulamento completo do concurso pode ser conferido no site.

Door: Michael van den Beld

Als ik kijk naar het verschil van tussen de originele spellen en hun digitale varianten is er een duidelijk verschil. Het verschil zit in de behoefte die deze spellen vervullen. Zo zijn de bord varianten echte gezelschapspellen die je met vrienden of bijvoorbeeld familie rond de tafel speelt. Daarnaast zijn er de computergames die vaak singleplayer zijn en niet in een sociale behoefte voorzien, maar het puur van de entertainmentwaarde moeten hebben.

Het feit is dan ook dat veel bordspellen zich niet makkelijk laten vertalen naar computerspellen, simpelweg omdat het sociale aspect vaak verloren gaat. Monopolie is een goed voorbeeld hiervan. Dit is een spel wat ik liever rond de tafel speel dan met zijn allen voor de buis. Daarentegen is het warhammer wel gelukt zowel met de RTS game (realtime strategy) als met de MMO game (massive multiplayer online) die op de computer zijn uitgebracht. Het is niet lastig te verklaren aangezien de fantasy wereld van warhammer zich uitstekend leent voor digitale spelconcepten.

Zoals ik in de introductie al aangaf kunnen beide soorten spellen mij uitstekend vermaken. Echter niet ieder bordspel komt dus goed uit de verf op de computer. Gelukkig is er nog altijd het bord om op terug te vallen!

Yeah! The little Hermione Granger, as she is known on Harry Potter, Grew up. And she is so classic on this editorial for Italian Vogue. She was wearing very sexual dresses, which make she more woman than a girl.

When we are outside of a photoshooting we may imagine that it is easy to do, what it's not true. She explain, how difficult It is. "I was terrified of ripping, getting mud (as we shot outdoors), cake, a prop, or anything on the dresses!" she tells to Vogue UK. "I felt like I was learning a whole new set of rules to a new game - just like shooting a film. Mark encouraged me to become a different person or character for photograph and so they all tell difference stories. So, in the end, I combined two loves: art/fashion and acting."

The shoot was made by photographer Mark Seliger. Click on the photos below to see them on original size.

]]> http://wirelinx.wordpress.com/?p=249 Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:43:00 +0000 wirelinx http://hamroaawaz.com/2008/10/15/somali-tourists-demand-refugee-status-in-nepal/ About 35 Somalis, including children and women, on Wednesday afternoon demanded the refugee status from the Nepal government. They sat-in nearby the Kathmandu District Administration with some placards on which they wrote their demand for refugee status as well as waive-off of their overstaying fees in Nepal. Some of them even came to the UNHCR’s care and maintenance office at Hanumansthan in Kathmandu. However, the UNHCR based in Nepal did not have any information on this.

A Somali youth, 19, (he called himself Abdul) said in broken English that they were from war-tattered Somalia and wanted to get the refugee status from the government of Nepal. A Somali lady, 24, could not speak English. She tried to explain in Somali itself but in vain. Yet her acting showed that she belonged to a well-to-do class in Somalia. Most of the participants in the sit-in program looked prosperous and excited. This reporter could not contact the immigration sources that could give some responsible information regarding the alleged involvement of immigration officials in earning commissions from rich Somalis. However, informal sources claim that international brokers, collaborating with their Nepali counterparts with much experience in refugee business, have been bringing many Somalis into Nepal. A Somali boy whom this reporter had met in Kathmandu in 1996 said that his intention was not to stay long in Nepal but to move to Europe or America for better opportunities. Admitting that he was from a rich feudal family background, he demanded with this reporter meals and drinks in five star hotels and expensive restaurants while he had refused to enter ordinary restaurants.

Nepal government so far does not have any policy of accepting refugees other than Bhutanese and Tibetans.

By : Mohan Nepali
October 15, 2008

Source : Associated Content

Poverty means different things depending on the color of one's skin, gender, political persuasion, age, or location in this planet. According to the generally accepted definition, "to be poor is to be deprived of those goods and services and pleasures which others around us take for granted".

Very broad I must say and simply a bureaucratese to be helpful in giving us an idea of what is poverty in real life.

It is the deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty).

This one may sound complete and encompassing but it does not distinguish between absolute poverty and relative poverty.

These sanitized definitions that are used in policy-making by people in the government do not give us a believable images and realities of how it to be poor. It is not just about not eating a full meal three time a day or not having access to clean drinking water or the absence of a roof that will protect from sun and rain, poverty is also missing the opportunity to grow as a person, leaving your loved ones to find employment in a foreign country where dogs are treated better than you. Poverty is that look of pity (imagined or real) from people as they stare at your despicable clothing which you cannot manage to change because you have to prioritize some other things.

I will not talk about how it is to be unable to eat a square meal in a day, or not to go to college because of lack of resources to have a university degree, or the lack of decent housing. These ideas of poverty have been overly exploited and romanticized by media that caused us to be overly-familiar to it and therefore take them as part of life or ignore them altogether.

I knew my family is poor when I took my first plane ride. I was thirteen years old then. Although I never considered myself as an envious teenager but when I saw my fellow students who were comfortable inside the plane, walking around, using the lavatory and looked at myself feeling so uncomfortable because I've never ridden a plane before, then I've realized a very simple truth that I used to have a hard time contending with - my family is poor and will never afford to allow me to ride a plane going to places I've dreamed of going. I had to secure myself with the seat belt because I was so scared more of the fact that I've never been inside an airplane before than the fear of the plane crashing.

The years following that experience were nothing different. I had a chance to stay in Makati Intercontinental Hotel, Manila Peninsula, and hotels in Europe, where the price tags are simply scandalous in my opinion, a taste of the luxury of sleeping on a bed softer than I could imagine, and then going back to my apartment in the university and sleep on a bed with mattress that barely dulled the hard plywood on my bed. It's going to Europe for free and confirming more the fact that I am poor and a trip to Europe is as elusive as the moon had it not been for some foundations who think that the content of my brain is worth the round trip plane ticket, equivalent to a year of hard work of my parents in my third world country.

These opportunities given to me, aside from giving me a different perspective of my world and my role to play in it, they also made me feel that I am poor. For poverty is not only about the absence of basic necessities but also the psychological torture of receiving scholarships, staying in five star hotels, and free international trip, and realizing that you would never have afforded them. What if I was not lucky? What if I was not in the right place at the right time? Will I ever experience these opportunities. Never. I simply do not have enough money to pay for them, to have them because I am poor.

Caylee needs to be found and we should not lose focus on HER.

(Thanks, George!)