Miyazaki

Com haureu pogut observar en els meus darrers tweets, m’he tornat un fan de’n Hayao Miyazaki. Vaig començar ja fa uns anys, per la recomanació d’un amic (gràcies Tonino!). Aleshores vaig mirar Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, El Castillo Ambulante. Algunés en castellà, altres en anglès, per practicar l’idioma que estava aprenent. Després ho vaig deixar, i varen quedar oblidades al disc dur.

Enguany he ressuscitat la meva passió, mirant totes les pelis en VO (així com toca!). Si puc, intent aconseguir els subtítols en hiragana (sil.labari japonès), per així saber exactament que diuen. Per entendre necessit mirar-ho altre cop amb subtítols en castellà o anglès.

De moment he mirat (títols en romaji i per ordre de visualització):

• Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi, 2001
• Gake no ue no Ponyo, 2008
• Hauru no ugoku shiro, 2004
• Tonari no Totoro, 1988
• Mononoke-Hime, 1997
• Kaze no Tani no Naushika, 1984

La que més m’ha agradat és la de’n Totoro, per la seva simplicitat i bellesa. I potser la que manco la de la princesa Mononoke. La trob massa llarga. La que vaig mirar ahir també me va encantar. Darrera té un missatge ecològic. Hem de cuidar el nostre entorn per sobreviure. I és veritat. La naturalesa ens ho ofereix tot, i se recicla constantment. Tots els “bitxos” vivents hi juguen un paper. Crec que m’he enamorat de na Nausicaä…

Recoman a tothom que se’n miri almanco una, encara que no li agradin els dibuixos animats. Els dibuixos no només són per nins petits! Algunes son molt infantils, com la de’n Ponyo, i altres tenen una trama més complicada, però totes ensenyen algun valor. I la majoria són la mar de divertides!

さよなら！

PS: per cert, en cas de que els Reis Mags (o Sinterklaas) llegeixin el meu diari, m’agradaria molt llegir els manga de Nausicaä en japonès.

Squeeze i Shu: primeres impressions

Oups! Se me va passar de publicar aquesta entrada. La tenc com a esborrany des del 14 d’octubre! =:O

No me puc queixar. De moment tot (*) funciona a les mil meravelles. He pogut instalar la Squeeze sense CD-Rom, directament des del port USB, i ja he afegit els meus programes favorits i configurat una mica l’entorn de treball. El que m’agrada és que els drivers de la Nvidia duen una aplicació de configuració del servidor X, on pots canviar tots els settings imaginables. A la fi puc treure profit de les 19″ del meu CRT, amb una resolució de 1600×1200 a un refresc de 85Hz. Nomes he hagut d’engrandir les fonts per llegir text. Les imatges i els videos es veuen perfectament.

Ummm… Ara veig que he de canviar el layout del teclat per poder escriure accents, i caràcters japonesos. Després només me faltarà afegir Shu en el meu programa de backup setmanal.

La veritat és que dues setmanes després, encara me falten motles coses per provar. El problema és que seguesc utilizant el meu sistema portable, Geb, per engegar l’ordinador. Allà hi tenc la Lenny, i va tan bé… que me fa peresa passar-me a Squeeze.

Res, crec que publicaré aquest mini apunt ja. Total, com el títol diu, només són les primeres impressions.

Au!

(*) almanco tot el que he provat.

Caught in a spider web

Update: during the week I found the spider making its web again. It was very interesting, and I watched it for a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, I had to leave to work. Today I found some information on how they build a web.

Last Sunday morning, when I was leaving home to go to the Karate Dan exam, I got trapped on a spider web. Yes, literally. It got me by surprise, and it took me a while to take off the pieces of web from my face. I had even some on my glasses!

I was lucky, and could escape, but when I came back, I found a fly that wasn’t so happy. A spider was having a nice meal!

PS: the Karate training of last week with Sensei David (7th Dan) was very instructive. I learnt a lot of things I will practice the following months. It will take me some time to master them.

World Food Day

Last Friday was the World Food Day. Today, together with some friends, we have discussed about this issue. Millions of people die every year of starvation, even though there is enough food on the planet. I guess this is one of the eternal problems without a clear solution.

All my friends know that I can’t stand throwing food away. Even if we cannot “send” them the leftovers, I think it is a matter of respect towards those who have nothing. Giving money for charity, and contributing to food banks is a good way of helping, but I always feel that we can do more.

Sometimes I feel frustrated. When I am in a supermarket, I always wonder what happens with all the food that people don’t buy. The truth is that I don’t really wanna know, because I guess that they throw it away. Same happens with bread that is not consumed.

“Quina gran pèrdua!”

Maybe we can do something to help, other than giving money. I think the best solution is to change the ways things work, even though I realize that is a bit “utopia”. For example:

• Buying fairtrade products. Actually, I’m already doing this, and I’m proud of it. I always choose coffee with the FairTrade seal, and maybe I could start with chocolate. It costs perhaps a little bit more, but it is worth.
• Eating less meat. I’m not gonna turn vegetarian, but we don’t need to eat meat at every meal! Twice or three times a week is enough. I only eat an “entrecôte” occasionally, and then I really appreciate it! Rest of days, fish, and small portions of chicken and pork (like ribkarbonade). Maybe I should eat more beans.
• Buying clothes and other things where you know money is going to help. I think that is more difficult to accomplish. I must confess that I usually go for the lowest price, unless I want my purchase to last for long. Then, I go for quality.

Well, I know, we cannot change the world in one day (not even in years), but slowly we can make changes ourselves. We are the consumers, aren’t we? Just to be aware of the problem is already a great step, and to make a continuous contribution is the second big step. One punctual action doesn’t help much. Make it part of our everyday life.

Ai… I’m too idealistic…

PS: BTW, yesterday I finally repaired my bike, and I also improved my backup system! Hurray!