Condensation, part four

Carrying on …

August ended. September began and … there’s just so little to say about it, really.

We celebrated my father’s birthday with an ice cream cake. The same good old ice cream cake we always buy, which tasted exactly the same as the first time we bought one. Hopefully, it’ll never change.

My father had to change some batteries for our backup power. Power outages have become a bit more frequent, so having backup power that lasts a tad longer is a good thing. Not that candlelight is bad, but it’s best to avoid the possibility of fire. There are few places around the apartment where a candle will burn safely.

What else … oh, right. On the 21st, I had to go to college. Not for class, of course, but to apply for re-admission so the system would be open to me for the next –and final– term. Turns out that I don’t need to apply for such a thing because I’m all out of subjects. All I had to do was fill the upper half of a form, applying for a monograph. After that, I walked around a bit to see if anything had changed, and met with some of the people who hang out near the Coffee Store tables area.

Besides all that, and apart from getting a haircut, I stayed at home (I know, surprising). Slept a lot, ate little (but enough) and not much else was done that month.

My mother’s been bothering me about those courses I’m supposed to do, to earn my remaining hours. Turns out that I’ve got less hours than I previously thought. While in college, I asked the lady there if it was possible to know how many hours I had at the moment. She did a quick check and said … 42. Forty-two. Not just the answer to life, the Universe and everything, but also way more hours than I previously guessed. Perhaps they’re just giving them away to those who are close to graduation or something, but the remaining eighteen hours can be covered by just one course, or a few free (or cheap) conferences that take place on campus.

That was September … and October isn’t over yet. Given that there’s a similar level of activity this month, I could sum it up in a post as short as –or shorter than– this one.

However that may work out, reader(s), I leave you with a semi-decent view of a September half-moon.

Until next month time.

A longer night

Following from the previous post … the power company had told us that things would get back to normal at around 5:30 in the afternoon. After much waiting in the living room, I sat on the rocking chair in the balcony, a chair that’s probably much older than I am. Anyway, I waited, and just at the time when we’d get our power back, I heard a loud BOOM! which came from up the street. Some people who were passing by our building looked back to see what had happened, but I didn’t bother going out to check. After all, we get all the luck (not!).

So, Leoni left, my sister arrived and we (nephew included) sat in the balcony as we waited for others to get here. My sister called the power company so ask about our service. My mother did the same, and they both repeated this action every time we ran out of things to do, talk about or make fun of. Something had happened, and we were going be left in the dark for much longer than expected. Yay.

The only one who seemed very amused by the situation was my baby nephew, who is easily entertained. I still held on to the camera, and was looking for things to photograph. At the same time, my mother wanted me to make photos of the nephew laughing. Good thing they no longer ask me for that, as it’s more than enough to have an actual baby at home in addition to dozens, hundreds of photographs that no one looks at once they’re out of the camera.

As we had to save our backup power, we had to keep all the lights off. No one felt like cooking in the dark, so we ordered pizza. Delicious pizza, which we downed with Red Rock, a local brand of raspberry-flavored soda (or pop, for those who call it that). We didn’t have ice for it (everything melted!), so we ordered the coldest they had. The cold eventually went away, but we didn’t mind and gradually finished the two-liter bottle before midnight.

After dinner, most of us went back to the balcony for a while, and I was eventually left alone with the camera. I didn’t want to be anywhere else (in the apartment, of course) because I couldn’t bear the heat. Eventually, it started raining, with some thunder and lightning here and there. I tried my best get a good shot of the rain at night (using the flash) but I didn’t get much of a result. After a long while, and close to midnight, my mother told me that I shouldn’t be in the balcony at such an hour and I was forced to be inside.

I’m not sure how everyone else managed to sleep with the uncomfortable heat. We had to keep the fans off, of course, and having the windows open didn’t help much. I stayed in the living room for a bit, and took a picture or two. My sister came out and decided to sleep on the living room floor (on a blanket). Before I made the decision to go to bed, because I just didn’t want to sleep, I noticed that we had a bit of running water again, so I filled up every bucket and large container I could find, so others wouldn’t have to in the morning.

Thankfully (?), the power came back at about 9:30 in the morning. Turned out to be a 27-hour blackout, and some of our refrigerator food had spoiled.

Strangely, the power bill keeps coming higher and higher. More and more, it seems to me that they charge us extra for power outages. What a way for things to work! Wouldn’t you agree, reader(s)?

Rust, dust and pancakes

So, my camera didn’t die, after all.

Is it completely fixed? I just don’t know. My father had the bright idea (no sarcasm) of putting the camera in the oven and presto!, even the flash works again. It’s overexposing some photos with it, so it’s a good thing that I avoid it.

Now, college … while the What Goes Up poster thing has brought me joy, college adds far more weight to the other side of the scale.

Three classes a week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I can’t decide which of the three classes is the least exciting, and I don’t know how well I’m doing in any of them, as I have done so little since this term began that it seems I’m just going there to wait until it’s time to come home. The lack of excitement in college scares me a little, because I might be getting a sample of what might be the rest of my life if I don’t work hard for what I really want.

The finish line. Graduation. Diploma. They’re so very close, calendar-wise, but the days are endless. The weekends are supposedly long, but they seem to fly by without me doing anything. That Blender idea I had earlier in the week has faded away. Not completely, but I’ve only got a vague image of what I originally wanted to do. That’s what I get for not sketching last Saturday, when I woke up early thinking about it, and spent the better part of the day picturing the final render.

I don’t know whether to go for a thesis next term, or wait until January to do a monograph (which is apparently much easier, but I’d have to wait). We’re being taught how to make a thesis in that seminar class, sure, but it seems there’s quite a lot of research and formality involved. And research, in this country where so much of it is forgotten or seemingly thrown away, doesn’t really spark my interest. I wonder if one does a thesis for a degree in animation? That’s gotta be fun.

Anyway, weekend has finally come for me. I was given the assignment of designing the signage for the Plaza del Conservatorio. Yes, that place. It was I who picked it, actually, because this assignment is for next week and other choices were much farther than I’d like to go. I probably won’t have to go anywhere, though, as I know the place well, and I’ve got more than enough photos to create a virtual tour of the place (hopefully that won’t be an assignment).

While college has been rather disappointing thus far since the term began, and while I’ve been thinking that I haven’t actually done anything worth any points, I hope to finish this one with decent grades. I just want to be done with it! I also have to do a couple of additional courses elsewhere, in order to complete sixty hours of “professional aptitude” needed for graduation. I’ve got about twenty of them covered by that encounter from last year and some free talks that I’ve attended. I was hoping I’d cover the remaining hours doing free stuff, but they’re too few and far between. Older students (those who entered before the 2004 changes) don’t have to do this, so it’s relatively new annoyance.

Again, the weekend is ahead of me. It should be better than the last one, given that I kickstarted it with a nice pancake dinner. I also made pancakes a couple of nights ago, but I had to use honey instead of syrup (thinking that it had been thrown away), but it didn’t taste bad. I reminded me a bit of honey biscuits. Just a while later, my brother found an unopened bottle of syrup that I had been searching for. Argh!

So, I gave pancakes another try. Now, the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Maple syrup may have expired in 2008 (that’s why I thought they threw it away), but I didn’t mind. Being unopened and all, and being full of preservatives, it doesn’t seem to be affected by time. It could probably stay “fresh” for much longer. I should buy a bottle and throw it in a time capsule to see how long it will last.

Okay, enough randomness from me. I’ve got a weekend to sleep through of work to think about. Enjoy some virtual pancakes:

And enjoy your weekend, whenever it may start for you.

Alone in a crowd

I was forced to cave in to the temptation of going to this year’s book fair.

Okay, not really. The only reason I had to go was to renew my ID (which is why I got a haircut earlier in the week) and, because the JCE supposedly had a small stand where they’d be taking all the data (from the old ID, birth certificate, etc.) and ID photos at the fair, I took advantage of that instead of having to elsewhere in the big, scary city. And there I went yesterday (Saturday).

So, against my will, I went to the freaking “book fair” at Culture Plaza and not without grabbing my camera and throwing carefully placing it in the bookbag. If I’m going there, might as well get some photos.

I got into the fair by one of the southern entrances. Right outside Culture Plaza, as usual with this yearly thing, the place is full of food and souvenir vendors hoping to cash in on all the money that’s going around. The one-way avenue that runs here becomes a more difficult one to cross, as cars try to get through the crowd with not much regard for those going from one side to the other. Something must be done about the crowds and vendors outside, but I doubt anything will until someone gets hurt. Oh, well.

As I expected, there were far too many food stands inside, all crowded, and the book stands (which should be the focus of the whole thing) don’t really have a chance of sticking out. My father had given me directions for the JCE stand, so I didn’t have to walk much or ask for directions. It wasn’t so much a stand as it was a two-level pavillion, with some air conditioning.

I had to wait for a few minute before I –along with other three– was directed to the second floor, which was very empty compared to the first. They must have expected the crowds to come pouring in to get their IDs renewed, but all that space was going to waste, probably due to the stolen focus of the fair.

When my turn came, I gave my old ID, two phone numbers, fingerprints and … I wish the photo part had taken less time. The lady was telling me to look into the camera, turn a bit to the left, to the right, head up, head down, do a somersault — okay, I made up that last one. But there was “a problem with the system” (face recognition or something?) and she was trying over and over again, even asked an assistant to try and get the photo for her. I couldn’t stay in the same position for long, and even the guy who was next in line  stepped in to help me (what the hey?).

After several tries, the lady told me that there was a problem and pointed me to this guy, also named Omar, who would give it a try with the data-taking. Again, same thing: old ID, phone numbers, fingerprints, signature (which the lady didn’t take) and the photo took only a couple of tries. Thank goodness. The only piece of data that’s missing is my blood type. I have no idea what blood type I am. I’ll have to pay a visit to the lab near the hospital for that, and apparently deliver the result to wherever they’ll be giving away the new IDs, so they can put that in right away. Sheesh.

When that was done, I thought about going home, but not without taking a look around the place, to see if the whole lack-of-focus situation had gotten better since the last book fair I had attended. I don’t recall attending last year’s, so it was probably the year before when I last went.

Well, the situation seemed very unchanged. Probably worse, as people were going for the food and the souvenirs, and several book stands stood without an audience, even with the supposed bargain prices they would have this year as a consequence of the bad economy. There was a live TV show, airing a book fair special. As soon as host Hermes Meccariello announced that they’d give a “fancy, state-of-the-art” laptop to the best reader, the crowd started to gather around the small live set. Takes a prize to get people to read, it seems (and that’s a very sad thing, book fair people).

After walking around a bit, I went into the Museum of Modern Arts, where Harold Priego (of Boquechivo fame) was presenting several of his works. So, entrance was free and I walked around, camera in hand, to get some good shots of the place. But that’s something for the next post.

Plenty of photos were taken there, but it was time to leave. I got out of the museum, and walked around some more, to see other parts of Culture Plaza that have been taken over by the crowd. Like I said, the book stands were plenty, but only the major ones had more dedicated signs that stood out from the rest. The comic book and children’s books stands had their audience, but I didn’t see many grownups walking around book in hand, or even a quiet place where one could sit down and read.

A couple of wrong turns after that, and after going through what seemed to be the biggest food district of the place, I managed to reach the southern gate from which I had come in. Almost got myself run over while crossing. My fault, in part, but the line of cars was endless and none wanted to give way to one pedestrian. So, I made a run for it and skipped over and around the food stands and quickly headed home.

The book fair ends today. Even though I’m constantly hoping that they move most (if not all) the food stands away from the books for next year’s fair, it doesn’t seem like things will change any time soon, with all the praise for the event I’ve been reading on the papers. Maybe I’ll just skip the next two or three and keep myself away from the crowds, until the better book fairs from long ago make a triumphant return, if they ever do.

For now, this post ends.

The long, boring darkness

Monday was one of the most boring days ever! The power company is evil, very evil. The night before. I slept little the night before that boring day, partly because there was a small incident with the sink. Not caused by me, because I avoid trouble, but my brother has got his share of bad luck. Good thing we all acted quickly before the whole apartment got flooded. It’s a rather old sink in a rather old apartment, anyway, so it probably could’ve happened to any of us . I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner!

So, that night, I slept little. In the morning afternoon, after waking up in those uncomfortable sheets that just don’t fit the bed, and after eating and watching an SVU episode I’d already seen (reruns can be evil), I tried to sleep some more, but the power company wasn’t going to let that happen. At around 2:30, the power went out. No big deal, of course. After all, it would be strange if it never happen in a country that’s been suffering from a power deficit for over three decades. I continued to sleep for a short while, thinking that the power would be back after a few minutes.

Well, it wasn’t. Our backup power quickly ran out, for some reason, and I was forced to turn off the fan that that was aimed at me. This, together with the lousy bedsheets, made my attempt to sleep a very uncomfortable one. It was useless. I had to get up. I sat on my bed for a bit, walked around the apartment, went to the patio to look at the plants, walked around some more and finally sat down in the living room, where Leoni was taking care of my baby nephew until my sister came home from work. While Leoni went to change, I sat there trying to keep him from crying. I’m good at that, but I tend to quickly run out of games, and he quickly loses interest in whatever new fun thing I come up with.

After Leoni got changed, we decided to open the balcony door. It’s a glass sliding door that we keep closed so the dogs won’t bark at anyone who stands there. The three of us sat on the balcony (the baby in his stroller, of course). I had the camera in my hand, and started making photos of him. I snapped a few with his hand reaching towards the lens. My sister seemed to like those. As the light started to fade, I began aiming the camera at the evening sky. Not soon after, after 6:00, my sister arrived, and Leoni left. After taking her time to freshen up from having walked all the way home from work, she sat on rocking chair where Leoni had been sitting, and we continued to be bored, I continued to press the camera shutter … until my brother arrived.

So, it became four of us, getting bored, although the baby seemed mildly entertained by it. Finally, my father arrived, and all five of us just sat there. It was a bit crowded and, other than for playing with the baby, we remained silent. This was getting very ridiculous, so my father called the power company to complain about this blackout. They said that they had received two complaints from this area, and that the power had been out since 6:00! Just an hour or so, really? We’re all pretty sure that it had been gone for much longer than that (remember, 2:30). They also said they were sending a “brigade” to fix the problem. Holding our breaths for those wouldn’t be a good idea.

After the call, we moved away from the balcony. My siblings and I went to our rooms (two rooms, and they’re connected). We complained a bit about what was going on. Turns out that this Monday is the opening for the “book fair”, and the President was going to be there. Did they leave us in the dark so they could power up the event? Because it was starting to seem that way, reader(s).

A while later, my sister, the nephew and I sat in the living room, making each other laugh. We came up with an idea for a TV show where this high-class character would say the Word of the Day, consisting on traditional Dominican slang. It seems I came up with the funnier stuff, as she laughed out loud with the words and examples I provided. My nephew was laughing, also, but he probably had no idea what we were talking about. When my brother came home, after doing some shopping, he just rolled his eyes at our concept.

After a while, we got tired from the word thing, and went back to the balcony. Our father went to sleep, my brother was making (his) dinner and my sister was trying to get her son to sleep, while I tried to snap more photos of the darkness outside. She was annoyed because the power hadn’t come back after all this while (but I was the one with more right to complain, having been here all day), so she put the baby in his crib and went to call again while I sat on the rocking chair, making more photos for you people.

My brother and sister had each bet on when the power would come back. He said 8:30, she said 9:00. It finally came back at 9:20, so they both lost (didn’t bet anything, anyway). I rushed to the bathroom to take a much-needed shower. My brother had cooked plenty enough for the three of us and, while I hesitated to try his cooking (siblings cooking? = oh, noes!), I gave in and quite enjoyed it. Sautéed squid with garlic and not sure what else, with fried plantain slices (plantain is a staple of the Dominican diet).

So, while the day ended well, I hope I don’t have to live through another one like it in a very long time.