Pat's Blog

Goodbye (though maybe not forever)

2007-09-28T21:09:00.000-03:00

As it has become pretty obvious, I don't have the time or the willpower to update this blog anymore. So this is the end of it. I was this close to deleting it altogether, but showing some respect to those who have visited this blog during its life time, It'll remain online but will no longer be updated for the time being.

Thanks everybody!

Pat.

PS: For more updated news on what I'm up to, you may visit my fotolog at fotolog.com/arg_pat

Upground

2007-07-16T14:25:00.000-03:00

A really cool band from East Los Ángeles to check out, Upground plays a mix of different latin rhythms, some ska, singing in a crossover of Spanish and English.

This is their website.

Movies of the Week

2007-06-22T08:30:00.000-03:00

City of Violence

DOA

K-9

Raising Cain

Spartacus

Movie of the Day 6

2007-06-16T20:23:00.000-03:00

City of Violence

Movie of the Day 5

2007-06-16T20:18:00.000-03:00

Hail Hail Rock 'n' Roll

Movie of the Day 4

2007-06-12T19:38:00.000-03:00

Hide and Seek

Movie of the Day 3

2007-06-11T21:25:00.000-03:00

Darkman

Movie of the Day 2

2007-06-08T13:59:00.000-03:00

Because I Said So

Movie of the Day 1

2007-06-07T07:24:00.000-03:00

Breach

Little Dreams

2007-06-02T19:12:00.001-03:00

I hardly ever remembered my dreams. Yet recently, whenever taking a nap in the afternoon (it doesn't happen when sleeping at night) I wake up and remember the weirdest dreams so vividly. I can't remember any specific ones right now, but I do after waking up. And also aftern naps I wake in most awkard positions, usually with my whole body crunching my left arm, which is totally numb for a few minutes.

Is the dreaming related to me sleeping on my left arm?

NEW IDENTITY

2007-04-22T21:23:00.000-03:00

So seeing that the "Nederlands" part of this blog has been completely neglected for ages, a change of name seemed suitable. So don't freak out. It's the same rubbish with a different name.

PS: I had to type "identity" three times in the title of this post to get it right. Doh!

Where's Boo?

2007-04-22T21:18:00.000-03:00

Why is it necessary to close caption a kid's show for pre-school kids who won't even be able to read the close captions?

Also, I found it particualrly insulting and a dichotomy in itself that a captioned song invites (presumably hearing impaired) kids to sing along.

2007-02-15T21:33:00.000-03:00

I kinda felt like writing here. It's been a good day. My Sup called me to inform mi that I'd received a rise (shit, I still keep mixing up "rise" with "raise"), so now I'm a little less poor... or a bit richer, if you want. Not that I'm earning lots more. Actually, of all the possibilities, the rise was the minimum amount I'd expected. I'm still to improve my productivity, so I guess it's OK.

After last week's pseudo-Big Brother work days at the office, more money sounds promising. Let me elaborate: One of our clients (a big fish in the movie industry) had an emergency so we were all commited to work for as long as it took to get the job done. In my case, that was a 15-hour shift on Thursday and a 11-hour shift on Friday. I'm still trying to recover from that. At some points it did feel like BB, all of us locked up in the office, eating there, and even contemplating the possibility of sleeping there if need be. Well, at least we could go out, not like the BB people. Anyways, I also made some big bucks with all that OT. (I can see two lovely plane tickets in our future... no further comments).

Changing subjects, Nightboat is back to practices. We're working on a bunch of new songs we're very optimistic about. Also, we're getting a lot of "air play" in YouTube (watch our vids...and leave comments!!), and we've reached over 2000 plays in our website. Yay!

OK, that's all for now.

To go...

2007-02-03T00:05:00.000-03:00

We were staying at a hotel in San Diego whose name included the word "Sea" but which I don't remember exactly. I do remember it was on Prospect St., though, in front of a Vons supermarket. It was 1989. I was 9 years old. I'd only been learning English for 2 years at the time, and though I could handle the Present and Past tenses quite well, I hadn't quite grasped the idea of what it meant to be able to actually speak to somebody in a foreign language.

So there we were in our nice hotel on Prospect St. and one morning my mum had this brilliant idea and said to me: "Why don't you go to that café across the street to get us a cup of coffee and a cup of tea and bring it back here?"

I initially freaked out (Who in their right mind sends a 9-year-old alone to buy coffee and tea in a foreign country? Yeah, my mum).

And so there I went, all by myself, to the café. I approached the counter and asked one of the guys there in my then rusty English: "One tea and one coffee, please." So far, so good. The guy seemed to have understood what I wanted. And then came the dreadful reply:

"To go?"

What?? What did he just say?? Honest, I had no idea. The guy stared at me and must have repeated those devilish words like 5 times... I panicked. I didn't know how to react. But suddenly... something clicked inside my head: Yeah, right! To go! To take it away!!

"Yes, yes. To go!"

And so he handed me the paper bag containing two plastic cups, one with coffee and one with tea. I paid the bill and I left. I got back to the hotel. My mum was proud of me.

That was the very first time I spoke English in a daily-life situation and for actual communication.

P.

Home Sweet Home

2007-01-21T16:45:00.000-03:00

We've been home for a week after our vacation in the province of Cordoba. We came back with one camera less and with lots of beer added to our luggage. Now we're slowly getting back to our routine.

Hightlight of the week: We'll buy a new refrigerator today!!! (one with a freezer, yay!!!)

2006-10-19T21:50:00.000-03:00

Booohhh! I think I messed up the blog's layout by trying to add some YouTube videos to a post. Darn it! It looks OK on Firefox, but all messed up in IE (well, no wonder, it's IE!). Anyway, I'll try to fix this crap if I can... (HOW?!)

Football!

2006-10-01T12:32:00.000-03:00

So we did play the tournament. I won't elaborate on our performance (3 loses, one tied match and 3 injured players in our team, myself included), but it was lots of fun.

You can see a picture of my team here. I'm the one wearing a gray cap.

A little bit of this... a little bit of that.

2006-09-20T22:49:00.000-03:00

Recent movies I've worked on:

"The Paper"
"Exiled"
"The Great Waldo Pepper" (Robert Redford, Susan Sarandon and....Margot Kidder!)

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Currently working on the translation of an episode of "Tiny Angels 2000"...you really don't wanna here what this is about.

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"Weeds" is back! (no, I'm not smoking pot). I've started downloading the second seaon. If you they don't broadcast this series in your country...DOWNLOAD IT! It's a must!

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I'm playing a soccer tournament next Saturday (go figure!). Believe it or not, I'm playing for Brazil. Yup... Of all 32 teams available for the tournament (emulating the last World Cup) the team I'm in chose to be Brazil (I can't object. I was the last addition to the team).

Frustration

2006-08-11T22:20:00.000-03:00

Today I arrived at the parctice room we rent by the hour only to find out that no music was coming from the inside (ie: there were no bands practicing) and that nobody would open the door for me after I repeatedly rung the bell. All that, plus the fact that all the lights were off lead to only one conclusion: for some reason, the place was closed.

Five minutes after my arrival, our keyboardist showed up and was as surprised as I was. There were no signs on the door or any notes so that we would at least know what was going on. I've been renting this practice room for over 2 years with both my bands and this is the first time I ever ind the place closed.

Our first thought was that maybe someone had died and that was the reason they were closed. And yet, it is customary to leave a note on the door when such things happen.

A few minutes later, our bass player arrived too. By then, we'd already phoned the guitarrist and the lead singer and told them not to come. Everything was very upsetting because 3 of the band members live out of town and travel to the city especially for the practices.

I should note that neither of us had the phone number of the place. Stupid of us. On top of that, I didn't know the password for my home answering machine, so I couldn't retrieve any possible messages the owners of the practice room might have left me.

And so we left and I came home. They had in fact left a message on my answering machine: They were closed because they'd had problems with the city government. You need an authorization to open a practice room, because of the noise, the music and all that. I can only guess that's what this was all about.

So that was it. The whole situation was very frustrating for us, because we missed a practice we were very much looking forward to.

----

PS: Not all posts can be cheerful and optimistic, huh?

World Cup Stills (III)

2006-06-30T16:45:00.000-03:00

Game Over.

Groupie Dirt

2006-06-19T18:02:00.000-03:00

Not long ago I found this website where you can read the stories of groupies of several of the world's most famous musicians and groups. Not really highly educational reading, but quite fun non the less, especially if you know the groups involved.

For those who don't know what a groupie is, here's a definition from the Urban Dictionary:

"A young woman, often under age, who seeks to achieve status by having sex with rock musicians, roadies, security, and other band-related guys."

World Cup Stills (II)

2006-06-16T20:13:00.000-03:00

Argentina 6 - Serbia & Montenegro 0

World Cup Stills (I)

2006-06-15T19:29:00.000-03:00

"During the World Cup, Mastercard suspended not to jinx our squad.
Please, use American Express or Visa."

* Thanks to Campeón for the tip.

Blurry Pat at Work

2006-04-28T21:47:00.000-03:00

Een Ander Zijn Geluk

2006-04-22T21:27:00.000-03:00

Een heel interessante film die ik een paar daggen geleeden heb gezien op het Bafici 2006 (Internationaal Filmsfestival van Buenos Aires). Er wordt niet veel op deze Vlaamse film gesproken, maar dat vind ik niet nodig omdat de film toch heel goed is.

Hier staat het link naar de officieele website

Busy people don't have time for blogging, snif!

2006-03-11T11:01:00.000-03:00

Geesh! I've just realized my last update to this blog was on Jan 7! Kinda makes sense, though. After that, I went on holidays and upon coming back home, I bumped into my new job. Bumped is an appropriate choice of words, I guess, since I had almost no warning. Anyway, the new job is as a subtitler and closed-captioning editor for an American company. Really cool job, I must say. How could I ever complain if I spend my working hours watching movies? Hahaha.

The other big piece of news is that my new nephew, Roman, was born yesterday. Everybody was convinced that it was gonna be a baby girl, but I always had my doubts.

Unforgettable: Duran Duran in Buenos Aires (FINAL VERSION - 3RD JANUARY, 2006!!!)

2005-12-05T22:12:00.000-03:00

It's been two days since the Duran Duran concert in Buenos Aires, but I still find myself at a loss for words to describe how I feel. I still can't believe it. Kind of the same feeling I had when I saw A-ha live in Brazil, but somehow stronger, cuz this time it was here, in my country, with my people. They were two magical days. I got more than I could have ever hoped for, and I feel my musical dreams have finally been fulfilled. Most might think that what I'm saying is utterly stupid, but those who are fans of a music group, singer, actor, athlete, will probably understand what I'm trying to say.

During the next few days I'll update this post with an account of what happened during those two days, and some pictures, if possible.

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Update - 20th December

Well, it took a bit longer than planned, but who said moving houses was easy?

OK, here goes the first part of the report, before things start slipping off my memory:

Friday - 2nd December

I obviously woke up early (who can sleep with such excitement going on?). Well, actually I was woken up by an SMS from someone in the mailing list (I'm not dropping names) saying she'd introduced one of DDs songs at a show in one of our most important FM radios. Good thing, just to kick off the day. I didn't get to do any serious work during the day at all. Around mid-morning, I called one of the guys who'd gone to the airport to welcome the band and he confirmed that they'd arrived safe and sound and that they'd signed autographs and taken pics with everybody there (lucky those who made it there!).

At 4 pm I met a group of fans at the Luna Park stadium and we started walking together towards the hotel where the band was staying. On our way there, two girls joined us. They recognized we were fans cuz two of the guys (from Uruguay) were wearing home-made DD t-shirts. These girls had been hotel-hunting for the band all day, and were just thrilled to know we had first-hand info of where to go. And off we went...

Upon arriving at the hotel, the security guys greeted us with a warm "You can stay here, but across the street. We don't want you to block the entrance to the hotel (small ugly entrance, that is)." So we set ourselves to stay accross the street. It was quite an interesting time we spent there, meeting more fans as they gathered (though there were never more than 25 or 30 fans there). There were fans from Uruguay and Chile too, who'd com especially for the show. It was nice to meet some fans I knew in person and to get to know others with whom I'd chatted and SMSed actively during the previous weeks and days.

However, waiting was boring, and since we were close to the river, it was getting chilly as the sun set. So we decided to try and contact the band, to see if they could come out and greet us. After some discussion with the security guys at the hotel, they agreed to let us send a note to the band. Some guys wrote it and yours trully translated it into English. We gave the note to one of the security guys and just hopped he'd give it to the band. We were all grown ups, quiet people, so there wasn't going to be much trouble.

Finally, at around 8 pm... The miracle! I turn around and see John Taylor [JT from now on] (bass player) and Roger Taylor [RT from now on] (drummer) walk out of the main entrance, no security, nothing. Just the two of them and their sax player. I rushed accross the street (with the rest of the fans rushing after me) and got JT to sign my special edition box set of the bands latests release, "Astronaut". Yay, one autograph! For those who don't know the band, JT is like a god to most fans, so everybody gathered around him. I was one of the first people to get my autograph, so I stepped aside to let the other people get theirs. And then I see RT just standing alone accross the street with a "oh, come on, John, hurry up" look on his face. Andy Hamilton (their guest sax player was with him). So I crossed the street and approached him. The following mini-dialogue took place:

Me: Hi, Roger. I'm a drummer too.

RT: Really? Cool! Give me this. I'll sign it for you.

Me: Thanks, man!

And then I stepped aside again, as the other fans had already spotted RT and were approaching him. What more could I ask for? Having had a brief exchange with the guy that's been one of my main reasons to start drumming. (One of the Chilean fans there got a real cool pic of me and RT, but I haven't been able to get it yet).

And so they left off for dinner, walking...... And we all just stood there spellbounded in amazement. I phoned my mum to give her the news (she was more pleased and excited than me!) and my bf to tell him I was definitely not gonna be able to meet him that night (Poor thing, my baby, trying to be understanding to his crazy gf!)

But we still wanted to meet the rest of the band. So we decided to stay. I think someone at the hotel felt pitty for us, cuz they came and told us that the rest of the band would be going out for dinner at 10 pm. And so we waited.

Sometime around 9:30 pm, a taxi arrives at the entrance and we see JT and RT getting off it. Newly arrived fans and some TV crew approached them (so did I too, again, honest). More autographs and pictures, while I did my job positioning myself next to RT while he was being interviewed by the TV crew. So some of you may have seen a hysterical girl in an orange Netherlands coat waving at the camera. That's me! JT and RT finally managed to squeeze themselves into the hotel and everybody calmed down for a bit, while some asked the taxi driver for some info (He asked us who the fuck were these guys (!?) and that they'd hired him for the next day too. Some really don't know how lucky they are!) and others (myself included) tried to instruct the TV crew about who the band were, in fear that they might say god-only-knows what bullshit about them on TV.

At one point, the vans that took the band everywhere arrived, and we started talking to the drivers, who were really cool and promised us some exclusive pics they'd taken of the band. Just before 10 pm, some Brazilian guys arrived. They'd just been to check the place for the concert (some 3 blocks away from the hotel) and couldn't believe their luck when we told them the band were staying there and they were about to go out for dinner (lucky Brazilians alright!).

So..... at 10:30 pm, Simon Le Bon [SLB from now on] (singer) came through the main entrance, and after telling everybody to keep quiet, that they'd sign autographs for everybody, he started signing. I was the first one to get to him (again), and after carefully signing my box set, he asked me if he could keep my marker to sign the rest of the autographs (OF COURSE YOU CAN!) So I stepped aside and let him do his signing job. The bad thing is that, while I waited to get my marker back, I missed Nick Rhodes [NR from now on] (keyboard player) and Andy Taylor [AT from now on] (guitar player). When I finally got hold of someone's marker and tried to approach NR, he was getting on his van, and his security guard not quite nicely asked me to back off (darn, do I always have to argue with security guards?!). By then, SLB had done all his signing and was looking for me to return my marker (how thoughtful of him!). And so I got my marker back (which I'm obviously never gonna use again!) and the band left in their vans...

And so we all left too..... totally excited, pinching ourselves and ready for the big concert of the following day. Some of us went for some pizza and then we all headed home.

So far, the account of the first day. I was certain all the way that I'd meet the band, and my confidence and patience were rewarded.

Coming up soon.... the concert!

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Update: 6th January, 2006 (yes, it's a new year!)

Finally, what you've all been waiting for. The review of the concert.

Saturday - 3rd December

Unlike what I'd predicted the night before, I could hardly sleep that night (no wonder, right?). So, at 7 am I was up. With nothing better to do, I decided to start getting into the atmosphere for the night and sat down to watch the Live from London DVD (one of the fans at the hotel had given me a copy the day before. Thanks!). The morning passed by painfully slowly. At 3 pm, I met Andrés. We went to a cafe to have a cup of coffee, planning to head to the venue afterwards. At around 3.30 pm, the rain started pouring (ouch!). We obviously didn't have any umbrellas or raincoats with us, but the kind waitress at the cafe provided us with some plastic bags to, at least, protect our cell phones and wallets. And so we caught a bus and headed towards the venue. On our way there, I got a call from one of the fans, who'd managed (God only knows how) to get himself into the venue before the gates were opened and was hearing rumours that Duran Duran wouldn't play with such bad weather. Oh, oh! Trouble!

Anyway, we arrived at the venue (it was still raining heavily) and managed to spot some of my friends from the mailing list. We stood at the queue and started waiting (in the rain). We were pretty close to the gate (some 300 people in front of us). So we decided to take turns with the guys to wait, and we went for another coffee at a posh cafe in front of the venue. While Andrés and I were having our cups of coffee, one of the girls in the queue phoned me to say the gates were opened. So we hurried back to the queue to join the rest of the group.

At about 7 pm we managed to enter the venue at last. Our original plan was to see other bands at the side stages (remember this was a festival, so there were lots of bands playing) and to head towards the main stage when the first of the three acts performing there (Erikah Badu, Babasónicos and Duran Duran) started playing. However, when we checked the field in front of the main stage, we saw this big pool of mud, cuz the ground hadn't been covered with any plastic or metal sheets. The place was a pig sty! If we wanted to be close to the stage, we'd have to stan in front of the pool of mud. Else, we'd have to stay behind it, close to the sound tower... too far away from the stage. I wasn't negotiating on that point, so we decided to skip the other bands and stay in front of the stage.

The main problem was that there was a two hour delay in all the schedule, so while Erikah Badu was expected to start her show at 8 pm, she started it at 10 pm, actually. Needless to say we were all soooo pissed off, tired of waiting, soaking wet, muddy..... a total mess! We obviously didn't give a damn about Erikah Badu. All we wanted was Duran Duran! Me made that clear to her, boo-ing all her songs and yelling for Duran Duran with the top of our lungs. After what seemed an eternity, she finally ended her show. One done, one more to go.

Now was the time for Babasónicos. The real mess started here, cuz this group has a big teenage audience, who started pushing to get close to the stage. At that point, I was, let's say, one person away from the stage (that is, I had one person in front of me). There was lots of jumping and pushing until finally Babasónicos got the heck out of there.

Yes.... the time had come!!! But first, we had to wait for Duran Duran's gear to be set up on the stage.... it took for ever, really! (How many times do you have to tune a bass, for God's sake?!). Finally.... at 2 am!!! Duran Duran went onstage..... mind you, I was in the first row by then, and had lost Andrés in the crowd (we didn't meet till after the show).

It was totally amazing, undescribable!!! I tell you people, I cried during the first 5 songs, singing to the top of my lungs and pinching myself, cuz I really couldn't believe it. The crowd was superb, singing "Olé, olé, olé, Duran Duran!!!" all along the show. Non-stop. All the time. I think the band felt that, cuz they played possibly one of their best shows ever. The playlist was basically a greatest hits list, but I loved it. When they played "Hungry like the wolf" (my all time fave DD song) I thought I'd faint.

Sometime halfway through the show, a thick fog covered everything (we were next to the river, and it was almost 3 am by then). It gave the show a very London-like, surreal atmosphere. I was about 5 meters away from the stage, with SLB and JT playing right in front of me. Geesh, that wasn't my initial plan. I wanted to be close, but I never dreamed I'd be soooo close! It was perfect, PERFECT!

Here's the setlist for that night:

SUNRISE
HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF
PLANET EARTH
UNION OF THE SNAKE
I DON'T WANT YOUR LOVE
COME UNDONE
TASTE THE SUMMER
THE REFLEX
CHAINS
ORDINARY WORLD
NOTORIOUS / I wanna take you higher
GIRLS ON FILM / Groove is in the heart
SAVE A PRAYER
NICE
RIO
--ENCORE--
A VIEW TO A KILL
INSTANT KARMA (By John Lennon - First time they ever played it live)
WILD BOYS / Wild Girls

All in all, a perfect (though totally unexpected weekend). A dream come true. And by the look of things... we could have a second part in 2006 or 2007!!!!

I'm Moderator at Cold As Stone!!

2005-12-02T10:49:00.000-03:00

I'm happy to tell you that yesterday I've been appointed Moderator at the Cold As Stone website. It's a responsibility, but I'm happy about that!!!

Duran Duran in Buenos Aires!

2005-12-02T10:28:00.000-03:00

I should be working right now, but excitement is growing higher. Sony BMG has volunteered the flight and hotel info for the Duran Duran arrival and stay in Buenos Aires. I can still hardly believe that a record company would do that! But they did. Some of us are getting together this afternoon to go and greet (hopefully) the band at their hotel. Welcoming them at the airport would have been a safer bet, according to Sony, since they specifically stated that the band is looking forward to meeting their fans at the airport and will devote some quality time to greet everybody. However, going to the airport has two major drawbacks:

a) It's far away, and without a car, the bus trip takes ages.

b) Pilot and technicians stirke that's been going on for over 8 days causing mayhem at all airports.

That's why I went for the hotel option which, even though it's not certain, it's safer for me. Yet, if Sony volunteered the hotel info, it's cuz they expect us to show up there. So I'm pretty confident that we'll get to meet the band today. YAY!

Concert-wise, the official website confirmed a 2-hour set. Amazing!!!!!

Sad news...

2005-11-24T13:10:00.000-03:00

I've just heard the news that one of our dearest Unilang members, Simon, decided to take his own life a few days ago. These are devastating news for all of us, and all my love goes out to his family and close friends in these hard times.

I'll always remember Simon as a lovely friend, and I enjoyed our chats immensly, though I never got the chance to meet him in person. I will always hold my deepest admiration to him and his skills to learn languages. He will always be my role model as to how to pursue my own language studies.

I underestand that not all of us are as strong to cope with rough times, and I trully hope that Simon finds the peace he was looking for wherever he is.

All my love to you Simon,

Pat.

More info on Duran Duran at the Personal Fest

2005-11-05T11:45:00.000-03:00

So we're getting a clearer picture of it at last. Duran Duran's still playing, but only on Dec 3. We're getting Simple Minds as closing act on Dec 2. Not bad, but we're probably going on Dec 3 alone. Too bad Chick Corea hasn't confirmed. I was hoping to be able to see that as well. No tickets available for sale yet, but expectations are growing high! The updated list of bands is here.

A-Ha - Analogue.... I've got it at last!!!!!

2005-11-03T22:39:00.000-03:00

Yessss, kiddies! Going on with this extremelly exceptional music season for me, I just got A-Ha's Analogue at last! I won't state my sources, of course. Let's just hope it'll be available at the stores soon.

The album's quite "strange" for an A-Ha album, they seem to be changing the style, though the usual touch is still there. Some lovely ballads co-existing with crazy guitars and up-tempos... I haven't listened to the album much yet, though I'd heard poor-quality versions of most of the songs in it already. I give an extra point for the vocals in this record. The arrangements are beautiful, and more complex than in previous albums. The lower points are: a) the drumming, totally lame and grooveless. Not the stuff I like, definitely. b) some of the mixes are just so noisy you can't hear the voices and it's just a whole mess of noise.

I'll give some more detailed impressions after I've heard it a couple of dozen times. :-P

Duran Duran in Argentina!!!!!

2005-10-30T23:22:00.000-03:00

Yes, yes, yes, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Duran Duran's the main act at the upcoming Personal Fest in Buenos Aires on December 2-3, 2005!!! If you don't believe me, click on the link, or take a look at the picture below.

I am HAPPY!!!!

Verhuizen!

2005-10-21T23:58:00.000-03:00

Eindelijk gaan we verhuizen. We hebben het appartement van en vriendin van ons gehuurd. We zijn van plan om in december te verhuizen, omdat we moeten een paar dingen voordat doen (wat meubels kopen, etc). Eigenlijk weten we niet of we samen gaan verhuizen. Of alles met de nieuwe baan van A. goed gaat, dan verhuizen we samen. Anders, verhuis ik alleen.

Nu een klein beschrijving van ons nieuw appartementje: woonkamer, keuken, badkamer en twee slaapkamers (eentje gaan we als werkkamer gebruiken). Veel ruimte voor ons twee, denk ik.

Leuk, niet waar? Ik zal gauw wat foto's uploaden.

Dreams of Glory

2005-10-08T13:30:00.000-03:00

Last night, the bf and I were talking about dreams. I can never remember any dreams. Too bad. Lack of imagination, perhaps? Well, funny thing, I had a dream last night, and I can still remember it! Basically, the dream went on like this: I was at this place, dunno if it was a pub or what, with my band's singer. There was a TV set there. All of a sudden, a videoclip starts playing on the TV screen. It was Diego Torres singing one of my band's songs. Something of a cover version of the song. We went like "wow, Diego Torres" is playing one of our songs! How can that be! We weren't quite thrilled about his version, but we were shocked about the whole thing. Right then, two guys approach us, saying that they're producers, that they've been listening to our band (where?! we haven't played live in over a year, and we obviously don't have any released albums), that they like what we do a lot, and that some othe artist - I think it was León Gieco - would like us to be his opening act during his next tour. Geesh, I don't think our music has anything in common with León Gieco's or Diego Torres'!!

OK, crazy dream altogether, but it does make some sense, cuz we're going to play our first gig in over a year next week, with the new lineup and all (at last!), and during our last practice we talked about how much we liked the new arrangements we'd made for the song in question, with a new guitar solo at the end and stuff.

Those were my dreams of glory last night...

Bruiloft!

2005-10-02T22:46:00.000-03:00

Mijn vrienden P en R gaan trouwen! Leuk, he! Maar we zijn ons een beetje verrassend toch want ze hebben altijd gezegd dat ze willen niet trouwen. En ik ga "witness" zijn!! De bruiloft wordt op 26 oktober gevierd.

Heel uitstekende nieuws!!! Ik ben blij!!!

End of the week....

2005-09-30T22:18:00.000-03:00

Yet another week (and another month) has come to an end. It's been a busy week, and I'm exhausted. I worked everyday (including the weekend) since last Friday. Today, however, I didn't do any work. Today's Translator's Day, so I might as well get a well deserved rest. Actually I only remembered it was Translator's Day cuz I started getting greetings from my colleagues. And, this is my first official Translator's Day, cuz now I'm graduated and I have my diploma... ;-)

Andrés and I played tennis against a Brazilian couple. We obviously lost big time (3-6, 1-6), but it was real fun. The couple, Vanessa and Fernando, were real nice, and we're hoping to keep in touch. They're going back to Brazil on Sunday.

Since real tennis was not enough, I'm gonna go play Virtua Tennis against Andrés now. I hope I do better this time!

A-ha's "Analogue" Cover

2005-09-27T21:30:00.000-03:00

Here it is at last! The cover of "Analogue", A-ha's upcoming CD:

Public MSN Adresses

2005-09-26T23:13:00.000-03:00

In Argentina, like in almost every other country in the world, I guess, MSN Messenger is THE messenger of choice for almost everybody. Virtually every Internet user has an MSN account these days. Lately, I've noticed that some people seem to be open up to receive MSN messanges from anybody, literally. These people (for some reason I assume it's teenagers) write their MSN addresses (or Hotmail addresses) on public places, like buses, pieces of paper they leave at bars, public restroom doors and so on. This may, however, not be their main MSN or Hotmail address, but nevertheless, what makes them do this? I'm really tempted to copy some of these addresses and start sending messages or emails to these people, to see what they really want. I don't know if this happens in other countries or cities, but it does happen a lot here. The interesting thing is that the addresses do not normally come together with some "pick-up" frases like "Girls (or boys) send me a message" or "I'm looking to meet girls". They're just there, alone. Of course they could be fake too.

Another strange phenomenon of the Internet era, I guess.

Lego Me!!!

2005-09-25T22:23:00.000-03:00

Some of you may not know this, but I've always been a huge Lego fan. My parents bought me my first Lego set when I was 2, and I got several more sets until I was 11 or so. My Legos are probably the only toy I keep and will keep for ever. I remember I used to love building this specific type of house, which I built and rebuilt hundreds of times. Always the same house. The battery-operated train was cool too. Well, thanks to Chris Doyle, I can now know how I would look if I were a Lego girl. You can also give it a try and see how you would look.

Here's the result:

Is that cool or what?!

New season, new looks...

2005-09-23T00:58:00.000-03:00

Yeps, as you can all see, I've changed the looks of my blog to something with a bit more light. I wasn't happy with the previous template, and the beginning of Spring was just the perfect excuse for a change. I'm not planning to do these dramatic changes often, as I lost all my customizations (including my tracker, which I had to reinstall).

Scenes of the Cell Phone Life....

2005-09-17T19:01:00.000-03:00

The world is crazy, real crazy. And cell phones add up to it. Here's a Saturday afternoon scene:

I get up from a lovely 2 hour nap, switch my cell phone on and find the following message:

that you are dating someone i'm really happy about it i hop you're very happy bye kiss i love you

I click on message options, look for the sender and find an unknown cell phone number (from my city). I pressed "Reply" and answered:

Who are you?

I get this answer:

who are you tel me your name

So I reply:

No, unless you tell me who you are

I receive:

I'm nora and you

By now it was high time I clarified the scene a bit so I replied:

Patricia. Do I know you?

Two minutes later, I get a call from my new-found friend, Nora. Here's our conversation:

Nora: - Hi, I'm Nora, the messages girl. Where did you get my number?

Patito: - Where did you get mine? I started getting sms's and I replied to them to see who they were from. Someone must have gotten your number and started sending messages. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Nora: - Mmmmm OK, no problem.

Patito: - OK, then. Bye.

Nora: - Bye.

Oh well!I don't know who the heck this Nora is, or why she's upset that I'm dating my Andrés. ¿A secret fan, maybe? Or maybe a friend or a sister of a secret fan. Who knows...

¡The world is crazy, real crazy! And cell phones add up to it. ....

Pat.

P.S: This is a translation of the original message in Spanish I posted at our joint forum.

Nederlandstalige Filmen

2005-09-17T17:38:00.000-03:00

Hoi!

Sinds een paar maanden ben ik wat Nederlandstalige filmen aan het downloaden. Heelas zijn hier in Argentinië bijna geen Nederlandstalige filmen in DVD te koppen, dus downloaden wordt mijn einige keuze. Hier is een lijstje van de filmen die ik al heb:

Meisje (BE)

Kruimeltje (NL)

Soldaat van Oranje (NL)

Spoorloos (BE)

Turks Fruit (NL)

De Tweeling (NL)

Een hier zijn de filmen die nog niet gedownloaden zijn:

Rent-a-friend (NL)

Zus & Zo (NL)

Amsterdamned (NL)

Lang Leve de Koningin (NL)

Schatjes (NL)

Vet Hard (NL)

Alle aanbevelingen zijn hartelijk welkom.

Pat.

Alle foto's uit www.imdb.com

The Next Blog

2005-09-14T12:47:00.000-03:00

After finishing translating a nightmarish 1984 education show called "Feeling Yes Feeling No", you basically don't want go back to work straight away and start with the second part of that nightmarish show. Lucky you, Blogger's got this feat which is perfect for you to waste your time online doing something other than browsing or chatting: The Next Blog button. Yes! You've got it too! Right there on the upper right corner of your screen, at the Blogger home page. I couldn't resist the temptation and spent like half an hour browsing through random blogs. Some people do have interesting things to say. Others -like myself- just ramble on.

Now, after visiting all those blogs of people of the world talking about the world, I wonder: We must be real lucky to have time to waste blogging, like I'm doing right now...

SPAM in my blog?! (Part II = problem solved)

2005-09-08T18:12:00.000-03:00

Lovely! I found this option I hadn't seen before, where you can enable word verification on your comments and prevent automated systems from sending SPAM comments to your blog. Problem solved, I guess!

SPAM in my blog?!

2005-09-08T17:27:00.000-03:00

Those regular visitors of this, my little corner in the web, who also read the comments may have noticed the high percentage of SPAM COMMENTS!! Geesh, I thought that that was exclusively for emails, but everytime I see my comments I'm surprised...

Dear SPAMMERS: How about giving us a break? We know you need to sell your products, we know you have nothing better to do in life, but pleaseeeeeeeeeeee go and do something more useful than posting nonsense comments in people's blogs!! No offence intended...

Pat.

Don't want to go to bed (Part II)

2005-09-07T23:39:00.000-03:00

I've just remembered yesterday I got an email with the tracklist of the upcoming Live 8 DVD. It has a good selection of the best acts in the concerts. Too bad A-ha is not in that list, and there's only one of Duran Duran's songs. I was hoping for a bit more of that. I'll surely get the DVD, anyway, cuz I have te Live Aid one.

OK, I'd better hit the sack now. Tomorrow's a busy day.

Good night.

Don't want to go to bed (Part I)

2005-09-07T23:28:00.000-03:00

Shit, I should go to bed, but I don't feel like it. So what do I do? I write something in my blog. This is modern, I wonder what previous generations did when they didn't want to go to bed (and they had nobody to join them in bed at that time either, otherwise they'd (and I'd) be happy to go).

Sooo.... I end up typing some nonsense here, which is funny, cuz writing is the last thing I'd normally do. Creative writing, that is... I write (or type) other's texts all day long. So, what did I do today: I worked, as usual, I finished downloading yet another Dutch movie (Turks Fruit) for my mini-collection of Dutch films, spent some time with Andrés, attended my Dutch lesson, came back home and worked a bit more, until now. Funny thing: While scanning Turks Fruit to see if the quality of the download was good, I could only spot scenes of a naked couple in bed. Geesh, did I end up getting a porn movie? The characters spoke too much, so it was definitely not a porn movie. Should be interesting to see a young Routger Hauer, though, I guess... I haven't watched it yet.

Uploading pics...

2005-09-04T21:40:00.000-03:00

Last night at Chevechita's we tried to upload pics to our blogs. She took a pic of me with her cell phone. Here it is:

You can see me and Chevechita's dog, Magu.

Hopefully, more pics to come soon...

Which music I'm listening to...

2005-09-01T17:23:00.000-03:00

Browsing through others' blogs can be quite productive, really. Browsing through this blog of a fellow A-ha fan, I found the link to this cool program, which creates an online playlist of what you're listening or have been listening in your media player. Cool, isn't it?! Here's what I've been listening to (you may also find the link in the Links section of this blog).

A-ha's Analogue and Holy Ground - rocking on

2005-08-31T22:55:00.000-03:00

In the middle of a shitty day, something good... for me. I got two more new A-ha songs, "Analogue" and "Holy Ground". "Analogue" totally kicks ass! Man, one of their best songs ever!! I wasn't really impressed by "Holy Ground", though.... I also got some extra videos and the demos CD which I didn't have.

Rock on!

Soldaat van Oranje

2005-08-31T22:48:00.000-03:00

Vandaag hebben wij bij onze les een deel van de Nederlandse film Soldaat van Oranje gezien. Volgens mij is die heel leuk, maar ik kon bijna niks verstaan. Onze lerarees vertelde aan ons over de film zodat we kunnen tenminste een beetije verstaan... hehehehe!

Ja, dit is mijn eerst berichtje in het Nederlands.... ;-)

Depressed: Not moving out :-(((

2005-08-31T14:58:00.000-03:00

Lots of people use their blogs to vent their frustrations, well I'll use mine for that too. For those who don't know the story: My bf and I had plans to move in together. A friend of ours was gonna rent us an apartment for a minimum fee, so everything was settled. She needed the money, we needed the place, it was great. We'd been day dreaming of this for months, not buying any stuff for our new place, but finding out about prices and really looking forward to it. Our friend (the one renting us the apartment) even gave us a coffee maker as our birthday present. That was to be our first new house appliance. You might be wondering "if everything was so great why haven't you moved to that apartment already?" The answer is quite simple: We were just waiting for my bf to sign his new contract at work, which was to take place today. We were not going to move anywhere if we did not have a good financial backup (that is, his job and mine). Everything was going great at his work, he was learning a lot, enjoyed the job and the company seemed to be pleased with him, but.... I'm sure you've guessed it already: They refused to sign him a new contract!!! In other words, he was fired, and is now unemployed. To say that we're upset and depressed is to put it mildly... WE'RE SO FUCKING UPSET AND DEPRESSED WE CAN BARELY BREATHE!! All our dreams shattered in like 2 milliseconds. We won't be able to move out now, cuz we can't make ends meet with my income only. My friend does really need to rent that apartment, and it was awfully nice of her to have waited for us. But now she'll surely rent it to someone else, which I think is the right thing for her to do. Some might thing we could just go and look for another apartment, but I'm afraid that's not possible, cuz rents are so terribly high right now that we can't afford paying a regular fee, let alone if he's unemployed. Not even if my bf got a new job right now, unless he earned a fortune, which he won't, cuz he's just making his first steps in the business (computers and stuff).

So, that's it... life is shit, and I hate it!!!!

A-ha's "Cozy Prison" and "Keeper of the Flame" + arguing with a jerk at CAS

2005-08-30T22:35:00.000-03:00

Today I got bootlegs of two more new A-ha songs, "Cozy Prison" and "Keeper of the Flame". I like them both, but "Cozy Prison" rocks. Definitely a hit. BTW, me (and others) getting these bootlegs caused a major chaos at the CAS forum, which lead to some jerk insulting me (I was right, I know more about copyright stuff than him) and him getting banned from the forum. I made him see that posting lyrics of an unreleased song is as illegal as posting a bootleg of it (he'd posted the lyrics), which didn't keep me from downloading the bootlegs of course :-P Yeah, yeah, whoever knows me can confirm that I WILL buy the album.

I've got the songs, I was right, he's out. I won! ;-)

Hurricane in New Orleans

2005-08-30T22:27:00.000-03:00

I was just reading on the paper (sorry guys, it's in Spanish) about this guy in New Orleans who decided to stay in his apartment while hurricane Katrina wiped clean the French Quarter. Takes a lot of guts, I guess. The guy lives on a 4th floor, apparently, so he's probably likely to make it through. You can read all about it on his weblog. I wouldn't dare staying here, though... I'm on a 7th floor with no tall buildings whatsoever around. Just a light breze feels like a hurricane here, let alone an actual one. Last week we had a pretty heavy storm and I had to cover my comp to prevent it from getting wet by the rain that sneaked through my bedroom window. Shit that! All the stuff in my balcony flew all over the place, including a table, which made such a noise that scared the shit out of me, really...

A-ha - Celice

2005-08-27T13:34:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I got a cd-quality version of "Celice", A-ha's new single, from their upcoming album "Analogues". I'm not naming my sources though, cuz some fans do get upset when you get stuff off the Internet, thinking that one might not buy the album when it's out...

I must say I quite like the song, it sounds quite different from what the band has done before. The arrangements are are quite simple, and the up-tempo beat is great. Also, I can't help relating it to a song by my own band, which sounds pretty similar... What can I say... we're great, aren't we?! LOL!

Opening Post

2005-08-25T18:37:00.000-03:00

Hello!

Welcome to my new blog. Since Andrés decided to create his own blog to post stuff he's interested in, I decided to create my own as well, and leave our joint blog for posts in Spanish. Basically, the goal of this blog would be to have a place where I can write stuff in English and Dutch. Since it's easy to start with something one knows best, this first post goes in English. My Dutch is still too rusty, so the posts in it will probably be rather hectic and full of mistakes. Should anyone wish to leave any comments to correct language mistakes in my posts, feel free to do so.

That's all for now.

Greetings!