India 2008

India was very different than we expected. Although it is a poor country, we found happiness, beauty and very kind people. It is a colorful country with an interesting history, cultures and religions. We could only visit one of the 28 regions, Rajasthan (which I guess it is one of the richest regions), plus New Delhi and Agra (Uttar Predesh). The main itinerary was:

New Delhi - Mandawa - Bikaner - Jaisalmer - Jodhpur - Ranakpur - Judaipur - Pushkar - Ajmer - Jaipur - Agra - New Delhi (and some other little stops in other cities)

We visited a lot of forts and temples and we learned a little bit about their languages, cultures and religions. I wish I could post one day all my new knowledge about India:

• The peculiarities of their religions are quite interesting. Very different religions (hinduism, islam, jainism, buddhism, etc.) coexisting together in a same society. Many different gods; Allāh, Ganesh, Hanuman, Krishna, or even no gods. Many different doctrines, points, philosophies, symbolisms, etc. Beliefs that don't leave you indifferent. I was impressed by Jainism religion, I liked it :P.
  
• Culture: It is incredible how there are still concerted marriages among people of the same caste, so you don't know your wife/husband until the day of your wedding (bad luck if you don't like her/him), or to be obliged to work in a certain area because of the caste you belong to.
  
• And it is always fun to learn a new language and to try to speak it to local people, just to see if they are able to understand you. It is an universal truth that if you try to speak in their language, they will look at you with different eyes, they will probably smile and be more kind to you :D.
  

In short, too many things I wish I never forget ... We are lucky we have some pictures to remember them all :P:

However it was a fantastic trip, we also found some other things not so nice to see:

• Traffic is one of the most shocking things in India. It is totally uncontrolled, nobody respects anything, there are a lot of accidents and the drivers blow the horn all the time (just to try to avoid them). Paradoxically they respect the 80km/h speed limit in motorways (Thanks GOD!!! :D).
• Cleaning: All the cities are completely dirty, there are no bins and sewers are normally air-opened. It would be "easy" to put some bins in the street and to offer a dumpster service just to clean the streets a little bit. I think the cost would not be very high. The real problem is to try to get people to use them.

As I have said before, I think we have been in one of the richest regions of the India, so I guess the country has some other bigger problems than traffic and cleaning.

"I had no shoes and complained, until I met a man who had no feet".
Indian Proverb

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India 2008 - Some little videos

The trip to India gave us time to visit a lot of cities, forts, temples and to live many experiences difficult to capture in little domestic videos. Anyway, we think it was worth it to try ;P.

Enjoy them:

Crazy Motorways

Camel Safari

Jagdish Temple at night

Monkeys Temple

Arjun!!!!

Ranakpur Lake

Last day of the trip :(

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Sólo YO tropiezo dos veces con la misma piedra

Sólo YO tropiezo dos veces con la misma piedra… :S Pero prometo que de la próxima vez no pasa!!!

Fix You by Coldplay @ Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi - 06.09.08

DioS!!!! Hasta se me ponen los pelos de punta!!!

“Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.”

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India2008 Sneak Preview

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Mind, Meaning and Cause: so What if I like Röyksopp?

M'agrada Röyksopp, i què?

Some Videos:

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Coming Soon: Summer'08 Special Post with pictures of San Fermines, Roses, Lloret, Platja D'aro, Eivissa (Ibiza).

Pictures Special Trip to India next October...

Espanya!!! Tots junts per un mateix objectiu!!!

¡Podemooos!, ¡Podemooos!, ¡Podemoooooss! ¡Sííííííííííííííí!

Quien iba a pensar que este grito que al principio me parecía ridículo ahora se haya convertido en uno de mis favoritos. El ¡Podemos! nos ha liberado definitivamente de la dinámica negativa de la selección, nos ha hecho olvidar el pasado y eliminar antiguos fantasmas, y nos ha llevado a un nuevo horizonte, un equipo de ensueño, que juega casi a la perfección y que a vapuleado a cualquier rival que se le ha puesto por delante. Sin duda la selección española ha sido muy superior a cualquier otra selección en esta Eurocopa 2008.

Una Eurocopa que ha sido una de las más vibrantes que yo recuerde. Los amantes del fútbol no podrán olvidar momentos míticos ya para la historia:

1. El jogo bonito de Portugal
2. El partizado Turquía – Rep. Checa, ya para los anales de la historia deportiva
3. La electrizante Holanda
4. El Italia – Francia
5. El España – Rusia por partida doble
6. El gol de Villa en el Suecia – España
7. El Croacia – Turquía, nueva hazaña de los turcos
8. Tifón Arshavin en el Holanda – Rusia
9. Los penaltis del España – Italia y los momentos posteriores, con el periodista de Cuatro entrevistando al Rei casi llorando. (no tiene precio).
10. El Alemania – España y las 48 horas posteriores.

y 11. Ver jugar a Xavi, Iniesta, Senna, Cesc, Villa y Silva juntos... No tiene precio

Ahora a por el Mundial 2010 :P!!!

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Best Civ4 quotes - Part II

Mining: "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." - Confucius

Meditation: "Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back." - The Buddha

Polytheism: "Not at all similar are the race of the immortal gods and the race of men who walk upon the earth." - Homer

Masonry: "It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls." - Aristophanes

Horseback Riding: "If you speak the truth, have a foot in the stirrup." - Turkish Proverb

Writing: "True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read." - Pliny the Elder

Mathematics: "If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics." - Roger Bacon

Currency: "Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it." - Publius Syrus

Drama: "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. " - William Shakespeare

Optics: "One doesn't discover new lands without losing sight of the shore." - Andre Gide

Philosophy: "I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law." - Aristotle

Bureaucracy: “Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.” Oscar Wilde

Banking: "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." - Thomas Jefferson

Nationalism: "A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him." - Napoleon Bonaparte

Printing press: "What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind." - Wendell Phillips

Military tradition: "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." - Sun-Tzu

Economics: "Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe." - Albert Einstein

Steam Power: "You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bon-fire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense." - Napoleon, on Robert Fulton's Steamship

Physics: "To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction." - Isaac Newton

Medicine: "As to diseases make a habit of two things - to help, or at least, to do no harm." - Hippocrates

Combustion: "Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car." - E. B. White

Refrigeration: "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." - Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Plastics: "I just want to say one word to you. Just one word: plastics." - Calder Willingham

Genetics: "Soon it will be a sin for parents to have a child which carries the heavy burden of genetic disease." - Bob Edwards

Robotics: "The real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do." - B. F. Skinner

Fusion: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Scientific method: "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei

To see the first part click here.

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1000 visits!!!

Kiops' Blog reaches 1000 visits. Congratulations!!!

Since it was created in 4th October 2007, it has received a lot of visits from all around the world, specially from Europe and America.

Thanks to posts like "The Anchor", "Experience it again!", "Post Remember", "What else is there?" or "What does the song Gabriel by Lamb really mean?" the blog has reached 1000 visits and 1964 hits, what means I am not talking alone.

I hope to continue blogging for a long long time and receiving visits and interesting comments.

Thanks to everybody.

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Best Civ4 quotes - Part I

Fishing: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Lao Tzu

Hunting: "If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both." - Native American Saying

Sailing: "You can't direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails." - Unknown

Archery: "Do not throw the arrow which will return against you." - Kurdish Proverb

Metal Casting: "And them that take the sword shall perish by the sword." - The Bible, Matthew

Literature: "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." - Sir Francis Bacon

Alphabet: "Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world." - The Buddha

Compass: "The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

Constitution: "No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, or in any other way destroyed, except by the lawful judgment of his peers." - The Magna Carta

Fascism: "The great masses of the people... Will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one." - Adolf Hitler (Misatributted)

Engineering: "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Music: "If music be the food of love, play on." - William Shakespeare

Paper: "I cannot live without books" - Thomas Jefferson

Assembly Line: "People can have the Model T in any color - so long as it's black." - Henry Ford

Education: "There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance." - Ali bin Abi-Talib

Replaceable Parts: "The whole is more than the sum of its parts." - Aristotle

Biology: "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

Liberalism: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin (paraphrased)

Gunpowder: "You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word." - Al Capone

Democracy: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." - Winston Churchill

Corporation: "Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility." - Ambrose Bierce

Communism: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." - Dom Helder Camara

Ecology: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" - Native American Song

Artillery: "Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl." - Frederick the Great

Electricity: "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles." - Thomas Edison

Industrialism: "There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible." - Henry Ford

Computers: "Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window." - Steve Wozniak

Mass media: "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." - Oscar Wilde

Future tech: "The future will be better tomorrow." - Dan Quayle



So, What is the most interesting quote for you?

Play it!

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Discover

"I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real.

No one knows what it's like
to be the bad man, to be the sad man.

No one knows what it's like
to be hated, to be fated to telling only lies.

I wear this crown of thorns upon my liar's chair,
full of broken thoughts, beneath the stain of time.

What have I become? My sweetest friend.
Everyone I know, goes away in the end.

And no one knows what its like
to be mistreated, to be defeated,
To feel these feelings..., like I do,
and I blame you!

But my dreams, they aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be.
My love is vengeance, that's never free

I remember everything, the feeling disappears
You are someone else, I am still right here.

And you could have it all, my empire of dirt.
I will let you down, I will make you hurt.

...

What have I become? My sweetest friend.
Everyone I know, goes away in the end.

I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel
I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real.

If I could start again, a million miles away
I would keep myself, I would find a way."

Behind Blue Eyes' Limp Bizkit Vs. Hurt's Johnny Cash

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