Well I’m currently transitioning from Chile to Brazil. I hopped on a bus and rode for 36 hours to Porto Alegre, Brazil. I’ll be staying with the Blumes for a few days and then head to my new home (for six months) of Rio de Janeiro.

Very soon I will be putting something up about my parents’ visit and my trip to Peru with my friend Robert. In the meantime, check out some of the photos on flickr.

It began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and spread across the globe. Today at 8:30P (your local time) cities around the world will participate in Earth Hour by turning off their lights to raise awareness for energy conservation. I am happy to say Chile has committed to participate in this global energy-saving event.

Be a part of the action and turn off the lights and unplug all non-essential appliances to show your support for government policies to take action against global warming. The Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009 will convene soon and this is one way you can show your desire for change.

Learn more at Vote Earth.

So do you understand what “mark to market” or “toxic assets” mean? This week’s episode of This American Life provides a basic overview of banking and how the U.S. and world economies arrived to where they are now.

Some of the provided statistics:

Bank of America and Citigroup have 25% of U.S. deposits and are they are not doing, supposedly, so hot.
The top 20 largest banks have 90% of U.S. deposits.
Household debt to GDP has been 30-50% until the 1980s.
It reached 100% (i.e. Americans owe more than the entire economy produces.) in 2007.
When was the last time it was that high? 1929.

Listen to or download it (free download until the next episode is posted).
If you enjoy the show that much, subscribe to the free weekly podcast.

Woo! It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything and originally I was going to post this two weeks ago but I kind of messed up my blog management system. Well all is well now. Thank you Jeff.

Enjoy.

Scribd

Take a break today (in the US) and tomorrow (international) from the endless consumption. Shop less , live more.

So a few friends and family knew that over the past three weeks I have been training for the Nike 10K in Santiago, but most did not. I found out about it through Carlos, a friend I met a month ago working in the kitchen at a youth retreat. I then proceeded to look up training plans and tips for running a 10K and discovered that one should take, at least, double the amount of time I had to prepare for the run. Well I was committed, although I never, disappointingly, officially registered to participate to run. I thought that I was going to reach the finish line crawling but, no, with all the others around me running it made me want to keep going. It didn’t hurt that we were 10,000+ runners.

It started off as any other run I had done, but it sank in that I was in it around the fourth kilometer and by the time I reached the fifth I was already thinking about where I would just start walking but then there was the hydration booths. They were placed right before we were to cross a bridge to double back (the course was a loop along the Mapocho River in downtown Santiago) oh and the boost and confidence those cups of Powerade and water gave me were immense. The kilometer markers seemed to be farther apart, but once I saw the finish line I knew I was going to complete it.

As I said, I did not officially register to run, thus I neither got the official Nike shirt nor the wearable chip to record my exact running time, but I did take a glimpse at the clock as I took off and, obviously, when I finished and my time was about 57 minutes. It was really exciting and makes me want to do it again.

Running along the Mapocho River

Erica, Garrett, and Carlos

The medal

If you are in to running I would highly recommend the site MapMyRun.com. It provides tools for measuring distance, mapping your course, logging your progress, and more. It’s free too.

Blah! I feel nauseated just thinking about it.

“Jaqueca” is a form of saying “severe headache” in Spanish. If you have known me for sometime then you might have been around me when one of these (a migraine) hit me. Well I’m going to try to keep my dinner down as I explain what these are like.

First – blotchy vision, white spots
Second – sensation of something pushing one of my eyes in to my skull
Third – feeling of nausea and heightened senses (smell, light, etc)
Fourth – throbbing/pulsating feeling in head, dry heaves
Fifth – vomiting
Sixth – relief but a sore head for the rest of the day

*This all progresses over about an hour and a half.

Well that was my day yesterday. They happen without warning probably twice a year. I used to think whenever I thought about past migraines that it would provoke one so I would quickly change my stream of thought to avoid such outcome.

Express Your Vote
FedEx Express is offering free ballot return from Singapore, China, New Zealand, Australia, and several other countries in Asia — see the countries. In other regions they are being offered at a highly reduced rate. You must sign up at the Overseas Vote Foundation website for this service; it has been developed by OVF and FedEx and is only provided by the organization.

Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot
Since the ballots have been sent out very late in a couple of states due to late primaries (particularly NY and Massachusetts), OVF provides an emergency ballot (FWAB) on its website. The Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) is an emergency ballot if your regular ballot does not arrive. OVF has an online program to generate the FWAB. It will pull up the candidates running for federal office according to your zip code. Check out Hey, Where’s My Ballot? (YouTube)

Still not registered?
You can still register to vote in some states. In addition, some states accept the FWAB as a simultaneous voter registration application and voted ballot. Register here.

I like podcasts and one of the best music podcasts available is from the CBC Radio 3. I can’t stop listening to the podcast from three weeks back. One of my favorite songs from the podcast is the following. A super song.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The Sound by Human Highway

Subscribe to the CBC Radio 3 podcast via its RSS feed.

*The quote in the title is from MP3 blog Wolves, Hawks and Kites.

el setlist

So I saw a poster for an upcoming The Hives concert a few weeks back and I thought to myself, “Oh! I enjoy the music of The Hives. I shall consider attending.” Well the final decision to go was made about 7P last night, two hours before the band hit the stage at a theater across town. So I get some information on how to get there and get home afterwards, run out the door to catch a bus, and arrive at the department store where Ticketmaster has a counter. So I kindly ask a clerk where the ticket counter is and am politely told, “At the end of that line.”

Madonna tickets had just gone on sale. There would be a wait. A long wait.

So I consider just giving up, but then get the idea “Well I can still go down to the venue and see if there are tickets on sale there.” I get there right about the time the band takes the stage and purchase a ticket for lower than what I would pay at Ticketmaster (no fees).

It was a great show. Pure energy from all band members and a superb Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist (pictured above) taking a decent stab at Spanish. It sure blew away the only other concert I have attended while in Chile – Robbie Williams (I accompanied a friend, i.e. FREE).

Absolute great fun.