God of War Diaries

I'm Not A Happy Camper Today

Escrito bilingue, este escrito se repetira en Español:

Next Friday I have an appointment with a specialist at Temple Hospital in Philadelphia. Two months I’ve been waiting for this appointment. As luck will have it, the hospital went on strike today . Employees are asking, among other things, for pay raises, better health insurance, and tuition benefits for their children. Temple Hospital prefer to pay from $2,800 to $10,000 a week to "scabs", those willing to replace the striking employees. What is wrong with this picture?

If my appointment is rescheduled I am not going to be a happy camper.

Version en Español:

El viernes proximo tengo una cita con un especialista en el hospital de Temple aqui en Filadelfia. Hice la cita hace dos meses. Tengo la santa suerte que hoy los empleados del hospital se van a la huelga . Lo interesante de todo es que el hospital no quiere dar su brazo a torcer en lo que los empleados piden, pero prefieren pagarle a los rompe huelga, ofreciendoles entre $2,000 a $10,00 dolares semanales. Increible.

No voy a estar muy contento si me cancelan la cita el proximo viernes.

Hidden Agenda, A Post - Revolutionary Game

Everywhere we look in the world today, people are protesting, there is injustice all around us. I am sure you’ve read about the angry republican tea parties, an anti health care reform folks who traveled to the White House to protest against the vote. Earlier today a man in Philadelphia was arrested for posting a YouTube video threatening to kill a politician and his family. Pennsylvania man arrested for alleged threats.

For some strange reason as I was reading about the protesters, something reminded me of a post I wrote a couple of years ago on another site. It is  about a text based computer strategy game I purchased back in 1988 for my first 5 ¼ inch floppy driven IBM PC titled Hidden Agenda.   It was the best political simulator game at that time. I think the program was also used for political economist students to learn “first hand” how much pressure involves running a country.

Here is s brief game sypnosis: this is a political game that deals with a wide variety of issues of governing a nation-state. In the midst of the Cold War, you are the newly-appointed ruler of a South American country whose ruthless dictator was recently overthrown by a coalition of three political parties with disparate ideologies. One member of the coalition was very Marxist, another member was for slow progressive reform, and the other group is composed of wealthy industrialists and bankers who were fed up with the dictator's rule. As the leader of the new government, you must choose your cabinet from members of the three political parties, and your goal is to improve the country as much as possible during your three years in office assuming you don't get overthrown or assassinated in the process.

Just like any new presidency, the game starts the day you are sworn in into office, the media asking questions regarding the economy, domestic issues and how your administration will be addressing them. You need to pick your cabinet next...

The fascinating aspect of this game is that it evolves depending on your decisions, your interaction with others. One thing I learned very early is that it was extremely difficult to please everyone. On one hand you want to please the majority of the people, while also trying to please the members of your cabinet and the other three political parties. One of the reviewers said, “How can anyone balance the interests and influences of conflicting groups and organizations within the country? Too many concessions to one side of a dispute can lead to the disenfranchised party seeking extra-political redress such as an insurrection. Over reliance on one faction can leave the government vulnerable to a coup d'état.”

Getting involved in politics it’s a no win situation, you can’t please everyone. And unlike the game, politicians in real life have to live for the rest of their lives with the consequences of whichever decision they make. I am sure some politicians wish they could just “reset” the game off and on and start over again.

Catholic Officials Defend Pope Benedict XVI - Victims Say Church Covered Up Abuse Cases

A new report suggest that Pope Benedict XVI failed to report child abuse, for years. An article came out today on my local paper where the Vatican is defending how they handled molestation cases. I personally think the Catholic Church needs to take their collective heads out of the sand and face the music. They are defending the indefensible.

One case in particular, alleges that Rev Lawrence murphy sexually molested more than 200 deaf boys  at the St, John’s School for the Deaf in Wisconsin. The article states, “Some of the allegations became public years ago. But they got renewed attention this week after documents obtained by the New York Times showed that Murphy was spared a defrocking in the mid-1990s because he was protected by the Vatican office led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

 Keli Goof a commentator at the Huffington Post  says and I quote, "People of faith should -- and do -- expect more of our religious leaders, especially when these same leaders continue to try to dictate the morality of others.”

Who do the Catholic Church think they are? Do they consider themselves above not only the law but above God?

I agree with Keli Goof when she suggests boycotting the church until pedophile Catholic priests get prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I wonder, will either of these hypocrites be in heaven?

UPDATE: Saturday, March 27, 2010

U.S. Courts allow sex abuse cases against Vatican to proceed in rare legal move

Estudiantes en Puerto Rico ya no son fracasados gracias al Dept de Educacion

En estos dias el professor Mario Nuñez de Vida Digital , y Elco Lao de Peripecias Politicas  escribieron en sus respectivos blogs sobre el fracaso estudiantil en Puerto Rico al tomar una “Pruebas Puertorriqueñas de Aprovechamiento Académico” suministrada por el Departamento de Educacion en la isla.

Elco Lao menciono “Lo lamentable de todo esto es que las autoridades escolares no hacen nada por remediar la situación educativa porque no tienen la voluntad de hacerlo. Las pruebas que utiliza el DE para medir el “fracaso” tienen el propósito de que SE DOCUMENTE EL FRACASO… El DE no quiere remediar el problema porque SUS ADMINISTRADORES SON EL PROBLEMA.”

Lo que Elco Lao y el professor Mario Nuñez no sabian es que el Departamento de Educacion en Puerto Rico al ver el rotundo fracaso de los estudiantes en estas pruebas ya tenian un “Plan B”.

Para ellos no perder los fondos que provienen de Estados Unidos por tanto estudiante colgao’, el Departamento de Educacion les proveyo a cada estudiante de escuela publica en Puerto Rico el libro titulado Hacking for Dummies . Y para esos estudiantes que no tienen mucho tiempo para leer el libro por que se la pasan todo el dia jugando Playstation, tambien les incluyeron el Hacking for Dummies Cheat-Sheet .

Con esos dos libros, y para que el proximo año escolar sea un completo exito,  nuestros fracasados estudiantes puertorriqueños simplemente hacen lo mismo que hicieron esta semana unos estudiantes en Haddonfield New Jersey. Ellos se infiltraron en el sistema computarizado de la escuela, cambiaron sus grados y dias de asistencia. .

En un comentario una persona dijo, “We're teaching them well. They are learning at an early age to prefer cheating to doing honest work.”

En otras palabras, ¿para que pasar trabajo cuando pueden hacer trampa cambiandose las notas sin tener que estudiar? ¿Que te parece Cholito?

Who Will You Become? A Video Game and Blogs Analogy

Have you ever tried a role playing video game? If you have, you know at some point during the game your character will be killed. If you have saved your level of play, you probably know when you die you can always go back and start from the beginning, have a new lease on life.

If you were offered the option to have a fresh start, a new lease in the blogs so to speak, knowing what you do now about the blogs dynamics, and your good or bad experiences dealing with bloggers. Would you like to go back and change anything about your participation in the blogs? If you have the opportunity to go back to your first day of blogging so your entire experience could be more enjoyable, would you? If you said yes, what would you do different?

In 2004 when Fable first arrived in the market, I fell in love with the game’s real world analogy. If you've never heard of Fable, let’s take a look at the game basic premise. You begin as a child and have the option to assume the role of a boy or girl. The game develops or morphs according to your actions. Every action affects your character appearance, you can look good or evil based on how you treat the characters you find while traveling thru the villages. And depending on several decisions you have to make during the game to show your “good” nature, or “evil” nature, and by what you choose, is how you’ll become, which dictates how the world will be when you finally grow up.

Your good deeds can make your avatar look more noble to the townspeople, and cause them to praise and respect you when you enter their villages. The world will seem bright and happy and people will flock to you with shouts of praise and admiration. In contrast, your evil deeds can make your avatar look threatening to people and cause them to fear or shun you.  The world around you will react negatively to you in every town you visit.

Everything I just described, how the player travel from village to village interacting with people, and how people react to you as a player can also be applied to us here in the blogs.

We create a profile to participate in the blogs. And depending how we interact, treat and are perceived by other bloggers in our blogging community, our entire blogging experience should allow us to enjoy or regret our participation in it.

As we know, the blogs are made up of people from different backgrounds, there is a difference of personalities and character displayed by each blogger. As we surf from blog to blog interacting with others, sometimes our personalities and opinions clash with each other.

For many reasons, in some corner of our blogging community there will always be conflict, there is no end to the so called blog wars. And as it happens in Fable, when we’ve been here for a while, all of us gain certain reputation, we can be perceived by others as good or bad people.

Sometimes the troublemakers leave, the majority of times the nice people leave first. Months or years later they return under a different handle to exact vengeance, to settle a score. Some are so embarrassed they prefer to blog without disclosing who they were before. How many people you know have quit, gave up on the blogs, deleted their profiles, to show up sometime later under a different handle?

Again, just like Fable, usually when their previous handle is disclosed, depending how they behaved or treated others, they are accepted or rejected in the blogging community. This game, just like real life, evil actions have consequences, and those bloggers that in the past have chosen to be troublemakers, they can create hundreds of profiles, and have “a new lease in life”, but they will forever be rejected in the community.

What I like the most about Fable, is that the game can make us feel like we have a real impact on the world and its people, just as we feel sometimes interacting with the great people we find in the blogs. And as Xbox Richard Mitchell says, “playing good character takes more discipline and ends up being more fulfilling in the end”

Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush Split, La Comay says she is dating a puerto rican...

Yep, you heard me right, Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush split after 3 years. She realized that she can’t live without Kofla, her Puerto Rican lover. He is her first, her last, her everything! You know how it goes, once you go “Rican” you never go back!

According to SuperXclusivo and La Comay, Kimmy and Reggie the off-and-on couple, decided to go their separate ways a few days ago, and agreed not to discuss the split in public.

In the meantime, Kimmy and Kofla were spotted making out, I mean dancing last Sunday at the Hiram Birthorn Festival Nacional de la Salsa in San Juan.

According to La Comay Kimmy is shooting the second season of "Kourtney and Khloe take Puerto Rico” while traveling around the Enchanted Island with her Rican cabana boy.

Rumor has it that Kimmy and Kofla are on their way to Palmas del Mar Masters Golf Tournament where Tiger Woods will be announcing his return to golf.

Keeping Up With The Kardashians....in the Enchanted Island….stay tuned….”que bochinche”…

Must Love Dogs - Who Let the Dogs Out?

What happens when you end a relationship and pets stay behind? Has this ever happened to you? About ten years ago my girlfriend at the time told me her 10 year old daughter wanted a dog. I personally don’t like dogs, prefer cats, but we discussed and explained to her daughter the usual “minor” details about taking care of a pet. In simple terms, this is not a toy, it is a huge commitment, who will be responsible of taking care of this dog? Did I mention I don’t like dogs?

We know a lot of children treat their pets as toys, once the novelty wears off they don’t bother paying attention to them. Against my advice my ex-girlfriend bought the dog, a Shih Tzu.

Initially, her daughter and Princess, the Shih Tzu, were inseparable. As expected, as time passed by neither one of them had time for Princess. So I ended up responsible taking care of  the dog.  In the morning before I headed to work I took her out for a stroll to do her business.  And when I arrived home in the evening I had to feed Princess and out for a stroll. Did I mention I don’t like dogs?

After a couple of days of this routine Princess started following me around the house. She sat outside the bedroom door when I was using the computer, outside the bathroom door when I showered. And when I was watching TV she would just sat next to me. Even though I'm not too fond of dogs, I didn't mind. My ex-girlfriend and her daughter got jealous that Princess preferred to be close or around me. What did they expected? They didn't realized that they barely spent any time with the dog. We again talked about sharing the responsibilities of taking care of the dog. They would spend a few days with Princess, and after a while ignore the poor thing again.

When our relationship ended, nothing to do with the dog, I  took a day off from work to move my stuff out of the apartment. After I finished loading the truck I decided to take Princess out for one last stroll. I felt sad, even though I don’t like dogs, I knew I would never see Princess again.

Certificado de Nacimiento - Robo de Identidad - El gobierno de Puerto Rico no esta diciendo toda la verdad

En el mes de enero de 2010, el inepto gobierno de Puerto Rico lanzo un comunicado de prensa anunciando la aprobacion de la ( ley 191 de 2009 ) la cual esta vigente desde el 1 de enero de 2010. La ( ley 191 de 2009 ) anuncia que efectivo el 1 de julio de 2010 el certificado de nacimiento de todos nosotros nacidos en Puerto Rico sera obsoleto y tenemos que comprar uno nuevo. Comunicado de prensa.

Segun alega el senador McClintock, los cambios surgieron cuando el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de los Estados Unidos ( Department of Homeland Security ) hizo contacto con el Departamento de Estado en Puerto Rico respondiendo a la necesidad de "proteger" a los puertorriqueños de robo de identidad y fraude. McClintock y el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional.

Tengo que preguntar, ¿si el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de los Estados Unidos (Dept of Homeland Security ) esta tan preocupado por protegernos a nosotros los puertorriqueños a que no nos roben la identidad, porque no aplican esa misma ley en los cincuenta estados de la union? 

¿O es que los del Dept. of Homeland Security no saben que mas de 37 millones de ciudadanos americanos han sido victimas de robo de identidad en los ultimos cinco años? Si miramos las cifras de el año pasado 11 millones de americanos en los estados de la nacion fueron victimas de robo de identidad y fraude.

¿Podria alguien explicarme como los puertorriqueños, segun alega McClintock, provoca el 40 por ciento de TODOS los casos en Estados Unidos, cuando 37 millones de americanos han sido victimas de robo de identidad y fraude y en la isla solo somos 4 millones de personas? Yo nunca fui bueno en matematica, pero estos numeros no cuadran.

En el estado de Nueva York hay una de las mas grandes comunidades en todos los Estados Unidos de Irlandeses immigrantes indocumentados. Se estima que en Estados Unidos viven sobre 50,000 Irlandeses ( Irish ) indocumentados. Mas de 30,000 de ellos viven en NY. Irlandeses en Nueva York.  Tengo que preguntar, ¿porque el estado de Nueva York no les exige a sus ciudadanos que necesitan un certificado de nacimiento nuevo? No quiero pensar que sea porque los Irlandeses son blancos, rubios, ojos azules, y hablan perfecto Ingles. ¿Verdad que no?

De acuerdo al Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos ( Department of Homeland Security ), en los Estados Unidos hay mas de 10 millones de indocumentados, muchos de ellos de raza blanca, Italianos, Irlandeses, Alemanes, etc. Tengo que volver a preguntar, ¿por que los Estados Unidos no les exige a sus ciudadanos viviendo en los 50 estados de la nacion que necesitan un certificado de nacimiento nuevo? ¿No es suficiente que 37 millones de sus ciudadanos hayan sido victimas de robo de identidad? Estadisticas de Dept of Homeland Security. 

Esto de los certificados de nacimiento me huele como a gato encerrado. Al hacerle preguntas sobre los cambios el Senador McClintock contesta que ellos fueron hechos porque el gobierno federal se acerco a ellos para notificarles el alto aumento de robo de identidad y fraude con estos documentos.

Lo interesante del caso es que el Senador McClintock no pudo garantizar que los fraudes de robo de identidad dejarán de ocurrir aunque sí aseguró que estos reducirán. Senador McClintock no da garantias. ” Vuelvo a hacer mi pregunta, ¿si no hay garantia que los fraudes y robo de identidad dejaran de ocurrir, cual es el proposito de la nueva ley? ¿Por que solo se aplica en Puerto Rico?

Para nosotros que vivimos en Estados Unidos, se nos sugiere que podemos aplicar para un nuevo certificado de nacimiento por correo.  Los requisitos para la solicitud son, "llenar y firmar la solicitud. Enviar fotocopia de identificacion con retrato que no este vencida. Solamente son aceptables Licencia de Conducir y o pasaporte. Enviar giro postal de $5.00 dolares o sellos de rentas internas por cada certificado solicitado. (Copias adicionales en la misma solicitud $4.00 dolares."

Pregunto, ¿como la persona que reciba mis documentos en Puerto Rico esta seguro/a que yo soy quien digo ser? Vamos a suponer que yo soy un indocumentado y en el pasado he comprado un certificado de nacimiento, digamos por $5,000. Y con ese mismo certificado he obtenido una licencia falsa en cualquier estado de la nacion. ¿Quiere eso decir que si yo (indocumentado con un certificado de nacimiento comprado en el pasado) envio una COPIA de mi licencia de conducir, y $5.00 dolares, en un par de semanas yo recibire mi NUEVO certificado de nacimiento? 

Si yo obtengo mi certificado de nacimiento despues del primero de julio, y solicito multiples copias, ¿como se evita el fraude de identidad si yo decido venderlo, se me pierde o me lo roban? ¿Y que pasaria si mis documentos se extraviaran en camino a Puerto Rico? ¿Como yo puedo estar seguro que los documentos que estoy enviando por correo a Puerto Rico esta vez van a estar debidamente protegidos?

Esto hasta un ciego lo ve, todo es una excusa barata. En mi opinion, el nuevo certificado de nacimiento debe ser gratis. No es culpa de el pueblo puertorriqueño la negligencia con la cual el gobierno de Puerto Rico ha manejado esos documentos en el pasado.

El proposito de este embeleco del certificado es para que el inepto gobierno de Puerto Rico obtenga una ganancia neta de millones de dolares mas de nuestro pobre pueblo. Coño despierta Boricua!!!

Para obtener un certificado de nacimiento este es el enlace,

Solicitud de Certificado Nacimiento por correo

Pagina Oficial Gobierno PR - instrucciones para la solicitud

 

NOTA AL CALCE:

Nuevos Certificados de Nacimiento Cayeron en Fraude

 

 

Spies Among Us

I was reading an online declassified report from the Korean War about more than 200 alleged wartime crimes committed by the United States armed forces against Korean civilians or “people in white”, the color worn by most Korean civilians.

According to the declassified report it was impossible to identify in those villages who was a North Korean, South Korean, or guerrillas. Since in many cases enemy troops were disguising themselves as civilians they were all regarded as possible enemy. I am sure in today’s war soldiers face the same issue, how can anyone differentiate friend or foe?

Reading this story reminded me of one of the most fascinating chapters I’ve read in a magazine called “Secrets of the Civil War”, the story of Sarah Emma Edmonds. Sarah Emma Edmonds biography. I think we can say she was the first known cross-dresser in the history of the United States.

This is a woman who at age 17 escaped from her small town. Her tyrannical father had arranged a marriage for her with an older widower without consulting her, so she escaped. She was so determined to make a living that soon afterwards she answered an advertisement for traveling booksellers. She had no choice but to disguise herself as “Franklin Thompson”. Remember, in the early 1800’s women were considered second class citizens, passive, submissive, and domestic. Back in those years, society required women to accept their positions in life “willingly and obediently”.

Apparently, she had made such an amazing “cross-dressing” job transformation that after witnessing the horrors of slavery, she decided to join the Union army and help their cause. Surprisingly she passed the only obstacle to her goal, the physical exam, it consisted only of a hands examination.

She basically lucked out because her commander considered “Franklin Thomson” to have effeminate qualities, so she was assigned nurse’s duty. The commander didn’t want to use a “valuable” soldier from the ranks for that duty.

According to history, as a soldier she went voluntarily in many clandestine missions behind the enemy lines disguised as an Irish woman hauling goods and as an older black woman. She used “silver nitrate” which she rubbed onto her face and hands to give her the dark look. According to her memoirs, she conducted her spying activities, while maintaining the “Frank Thomson” identity. In other words, she fooled everyone, North and South, by pretending to be a man who was pretending to be a woman.

Unfortunately for her, in 1863 during the war “Franklin Thompson” contracted Malaria. She disappeared/deserted the Union army because getting hospitalized would jeopardize her to be “discovered or outed”. Once she found herself in the deserter list and facing court martial, Emma had no choice but to allow “Frank Thompson” to “die” for good. According to her memoirs, she spent the rest of her war years as a female nurse.

It was refreshing to read about such a strong, resilient and courageous woman who played such an important role. I cannot imagine the societal pressure she must have had to endure most of her adult life keeping her gender a secret, especially during the civil war.

So if in the early 1800’s a woman successfully fooled everyone, for years, and played the role of a male soldier during the Civil War, for spies today with so much technology available the sky is the limit.