Well it's sure been a long time since I did an update! It's pretty easy to write new things when you're a tourist and moving often and there is something new each day. Now I've pretty much settled into a new life here, don't have to move at the end of the month, but unfortunately of course need to return to Canada all too soon. It would be nice to stay here!The tourists have swarmed into the city. It's jampacked with people everywhere downtown. Traffic has actually gotten crazy here. It all started at the beginning of the month, when the energy just shifted, like driving down the highway and smelling a bad smell. But luckily after a week or so things settled down into a more manageable chaos. It's actually kind of fun at times. And it's still a fantastic place to be. And I can always run down to the Mexican areas, where the gringos never dare set foot, for a break.
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Last weekend I was out with a friend sitting at the bar in a local restaurant trying out their margaritas. Another woman came and sat beside us and I started chatting with her. One thing led to another and I mentioned something about my shamanic work. She said, okay, what part of my body am I having trouble with? So I told her. She said "holy sh*t" and I said I'd give her a freebie and that she would notice a change in three days. After that she invited us to her housewarming later in the week.
On Monday I watched a bolt of light travel across hyperspace and charge her up. I thought, "that's pretty cool". On Thursday I met up with my friend at the housewarming. The host said that she'd had a great energy all week except that the original physical problem was still there. I told her that's because she was sitting behind the bar at the time and couldn't see her completely and she did have an important shamanic issue which I cleared just then. In the meantime she had told her friends all about me and so later in the evening a number of people asked about the work I do and one person booked sessions for her and her friend. Two more seemed to want to but I wait for people to ask of course.
Very difficult issues have been showing up with clients though. I'm a little concerned and am even afraid to name the problem in this blog because it is so sinister. If it is what I think it is, it would indicate deliberate actions have been taken on people when they were young with very harmful results. I also find it difficult to shift this condition with what I currently know. After encountering this situation, the work that I used to think was advanced now seems very simple. I worked with a woman on the weekend and just laughed and chatted through the whole session because it was so easy to work on someone who didn't have the difficult problem. Anyway she was so happy with the work that she recommended me to her friends.
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The Spanish work is coming along slow and steady. It's been just like learning anything that is taught in school, the information you really need isn't there. I spend a long time doing internet searches trying to find what I want to know and have to glean the true information from bits and pieces that I find in different places. I have a feeling that everyone who writes about learning Spanish has studied Spanish in school and presents it in the way that they were taught. It's as if they can only see the language in the way that they were shown it and have no idea how much information is missing. At the same time very simple concepts are overexplained. Of course, people come up with many different ways of rearranging the items inside the box. But it's still the same box, and still the same items.But I do have days where I can pretty much get into the flow and speak a little faster. I had a great conversation with my tutor this week. And the my friend's story that I wrote about before was discussed entirely in Spanish. Then of course there are days where people take me for a newly arrived tourist because my speech is so stilted. I need a good map in my head of how to construct the language. So this is what I'm working on. At least I came up with a way to diagram irregular verbs that makes it very clear. My tutor says it took them three years to teach all that in school and I fit it on one page of a little notebook. Everything is so simple when you deviate from the stupid systems that are taught and observe the true language patterns.
Stupid systems, I guess that's a pet peeve. On the other hand discovering truth and true patterns is a passion. So it's not all bad. If everything already was there it wouldn't be as much fun to discover how things really work. My friend Reggi wrote, in the context of learning energy work, that some people are trailblazers and others prefer to wait for someone else to do it first. I guess I'm a trailblazer and have always been in some ways, both in energy work and in the field of learning.
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Social life has been active lately. After the shift last fall I've been much more social. I'm still not sure what happened. Of course part of it is not being in school all day and getting burnt out from the demanding social environment there. But my hermit days appear to be definitely over. Wheras I used to relish being alone for days at a time now I find even one night alone to sometimes be a challenge. I'm happy to have Mexican friends now, especially female ones. I did eventually find my wanton tutor from way back when and she invited me to this big dance event on the edge of town where I was the only gringo in a hall of hundreds of people. I felt like I was in a movie. We had a great fight at the end of the night too. Gotta love those feisty latinas. Interestingly I didn't see her again until a few days later when I bumped into her while with another woman. My social life these days swings between synchronicities and antisynchronicities.
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A few days ago I also finally got up the courage to write a big post on the Matrix board again, this time only indirectly about physics. Well of course after that the information jamming cranked up again. The phone went out and so did the internet. My landlady has returned to New York (where her thick Bronx accent won't stand out as much) so I'm pretty much in charge of solving problems here. I went down to Telmex and used my broken Spanish to find the elusive account record and get someone to come down here and fix it. The internet has taken a few tries. Also strange things continue to happen when I walk about town, almost approaching the bizarre, such wierd confluences of events that I can barely believe they're occurring around me. Some are even dangerous now, which is new as these wierd things never used to be dangerous. If something ever happens to me and it appears to be an accident then please believe that it wasn't.
But for the most part things are happy and I feel safe. I've been more courageous and eating street food and eating at Mexican greasy spoons. There's some fantastic food there. Here are a couple of photos:
4 comments:
glad i dropped in and took a few minutes to read the last few postings. i am super glad you "got over the hump" with the language. alot of people don't (myself included).
i am curious to hear more about how to master the irregular verbs. write your learn-to-learn spanish book !
Don't know much about your hocus pocus -- but I do know this:
“When you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you.” Nietzsche
We must give up our fear of engagement and of honest communication to move forward.
Barn
Hey -- while you're down there -- ask anyone if they like the Mexican cartoon "El Tigre". Cool art and pretty funny --
http://www.ytv.com/programming/shows/ElTigre/characters.asp
Barn
Additional blurb: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tv/review-el-tigre-nickelodeon
When I first heard the series pitch a few years ago, I was immediately impressed by its concept and the dramatic possibilities it presented: the adventures of a young superhero (El Tigre/Manny Rivera) whose father is a superhero (White Pantera) and grandfather a supervillain (Puma Loco). As often as El Tigre fights villians in the show, he must also do battle with his own conscience and learn to distinguish between right and wrong. Does he cheat by his using his superheroic powers to win a soccer (sorry…futbol) match? Does he steal people’s pets and then return them to collect the reward money? Does he spend the family’s guacamole fund to buy a tattoo maker? These are the type of issues that young Manny struggles with in the series.
The series rarely broaches the deeper inner character turmoil inherent in such a setup, those fuzzy and exciting grey areas that fall somewhere between good and evil (I know, I know, it’s a kids show), but there are other levels of richness to be found in the series. Among them is a nicely fleshed out relationship between Manny and his best friend, Frida; a standout is the episode “Adios Amigos” where Manny makes the decision to stay away from Frida in order to protect her from harm, and the ensuing pain that it causes both of them. First and foremost though, the show is designed to entertain, and there’s no shortage of fun throughout. One of the show’s highlights is the stream of deliciously silly villains that El Tigre has to contend with: early episodes have included Dr. Chipotle Jr, General Chapuza and his grandson Che, Sartana and Titanium Titan. It’s a south of the border rogues gallery worthy of Dick Tracy.
Artistically, El Tigre clicks on all fronts. What is particularly impressive is how the visuals channel Mexican folk art without turning it into a caricature. It absorbs the bright rhythms, shapes and feeling of vernacular and folk art, and through digital means, transforms it into something new and exciting. Part of that new and exciting translation comes from how far the production pushes the use of Flash. El Tigre offers hands down the most dynamic implementation of Flash I’ve ever seen in an animated TV series, seamlessly combining the cinematic possibilities more commonly associated with 3D CGI alongside the organic appeal of drawn animation.
The show is intensely stylized but it is not the random styling one finds in most contemporary animation. The various pieces of the puzzle fit together well and form a compelling overall visual point of view. This includes tight energetic direction by Dave Thomas, lush color and background design by Roman Laney and Tod Polson, the eccentric and endearing character design sensibilities of creators Gutierrez and Equihua, and the artistic contributions of an almost too-good-to-be-true crew including Gabe Swarr, Fred Osmond, Chris Battle, Steve Lambe, Ray Morelli, Katie Rice, Sean Szeles, Joseph Holt, Luke Cormican, Ricky Garduno, Dave Knott, Gerald De Jesus, Eddie Trigueros, Fred Gonzales, Denise Chavez, Aaron Horvarth and Katrien Verbiest.
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