Handy Utility for Spanish Characters

This is a great little utility that makes it easy to create accented vowels and other textual characters needed when typing Spanish on a US keyboard.

E.g. ¿  ¡  á  é  í  ó  ú  ñ

http://www.onehourprogramming.com/spanish-accents/

REAL food, finally

I have decided it's time to put the gastrointestinal system to the test....or at least quit treating it like a delicate baby.  I got a lunch recommendation from a wise gringo at the OLL yesterday.  I had a batter-fried chili rellano stuffed with a spicy, shredded chicken mixture, beans, a salad, tortillas, rice, ice cream and Coke for $45 pesos (~$4 US).  I think it was the best meal I've had in Oaxaca so far.  I think the place's name is Isabella's but I'll do a proper write-up after my second visit.

Futbol Practice

Five PM at B's soccer (i.e. futbol) practice.  Yesterday and today have been mostly cloudy with only occasional rain....though last night it rained from about nine until midnight.  This was the time I was walking back from Chedraui in Colonia Reforma.  This is a new store in OAX....though there is an older one down south towards Plaza de Valle near Cinco Senors (i.e. "5 Senors").


This new store is very unlike the other retail stores here.  It has wide aisles, bright lights, a large selection of goods from groceries & liquor to household wares and electronics.  In other words, it looks like a new Super Target in the USA.

Now the items available aren't totally inclusive of everything a U.S. Super Target would carry.  This is (Southern) Mexico, after all.  But the prices are cheaper than any place else we've found, and they have "American" items we usually take for granted but which we mostly do without here. E.g. kettle potato chips, mayonnaise withOUT lime, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  Though at eighty-eight pesos per pint we're keeping our craving under control for the time being.  $7 US is too rich for our blood....for now.


All the Wal-mart Haters in the liberal gringo crowd (as well as some natives) must dread this "big box" entry into OAX.  As if Sam's Club wasn't bad enough, now comes a homegrown (i.e. Mexican) "Mom-and-Pop-Shop Killer."  I myself felt homesick on the walk home.  :-(

Futbol Practice (still)

The main soccer field that B's team normally practices on has been claimed by a semi-formal adult game today.  Average player age is probably in the upper twenties, but this could lead one to miss the fact that there are guys in their forties and maybe fifties out there.  The love of futbol is strong here and these guys play hard.

For today B's team is pushed off to the side, stuck in one end of the track oval behind the south goal of the adult game's field.  This lack of space means running drills for the boys with hardly any ball work and NONE of the shots-on-goal they like second only to actual game play.

The refreshment vendors (i.e. jugos y raspados) work the area heavily.  I knew I was a clean freak and touchy about my food but OAX has a way of constantly reminding an American about food hygiene unless you are TOTALLY ignorant of germ "theory."  So much food out and about everywhere you go.  Vendor carts, taco stands, old ladies selling tamales door to door, and restaurants with furnishings ranging from no chairs/tables to fancy glass and modern, steel dining sets serving fancy multicourse dinners.  The options (and respective Mexican naming system) is beyond my grasp.  Are our food prep and dining practices cleaner? OH YEAH!  But how much of my sense of discomfort & risk is due to the fActual hazards and how much to the American inclination for illusory "cleanliness?"  I.e. out of sight, out of mind.

Having been here two months now and having had many meals at decent non-gringo restaurants, none of our family has had any GI issues.  So it seems we are being way too cautious.  And, almost every time I walk by one of the sidewalk taco shacks surrounded by locals munching down these "lunch & late evening only" treats I admonish myself for listening more to my fears than to my stomach and my nose who are in solid agreement that the aromas from the taco stands are some of the best smells of OAX.

Beggers Breakfast in the Shadow of the Church

I'm sitting by Santo Domingo church killing time until my "art class" with my art instructor, Humberto (http://humbertobatista.com/) starts.  I just bought a coffee for twenty-five pesos (~$2). My class starts at ten AM and I got donwn here to the centro around nine AM since I walked to school with M & B and then caught the bus from there.
      About eight people sit near me in a group.  Three (or more children), two men, and three women - all indigenous (i.e. non-hispanic, "indians") sit on a blanket sharing a meal.  It looks to be cheese, fruit, and bread (queso, fruto, y pan). My guess is they are here to sell goods to the tourists on the streets. This breakfast  is probably the start of the work day - and if they're lucky one of at least two meals they'll get today....if work goes well for the gang. Typically the women sell small, hand-carved wooden objects such as toothpicks, combs, tortilla spatulas, and spoons.  The children will sell gum, candy & cigarettes.  The men? Perhaps, paintings done on small pieces of found cardboard or maybe woven goods such as hammocks.  Note that despite my title for this blog, it's very unlikely that any of them will beg.  The vast majority of the poverty-stricken here do their best to work for their income.  The job itself may be only a tiny notch above outright pleas for money - e.g. standing at intersection "washing" motorists windshields, selling chicklets of gum for a peso each, selling extremely-cheap, plastic toys they purchased in bulk  - but outright begging seems reserved to those with handicaps (e.g. legless men without wheelchairs, women with retarded children).  I prefer to interpret it as a poor nation with a strong sense of pride and work-duty.    My time-killing cappuccino probably cost more than the meager meal they share amongst eight.

NOTE:  I approached the group after writing the entry above and asked one of the men (as best I could in my crappy Spanish) if I could take their picture.  As best I could understand he wanted 100 pesos (~$10 US).  I declined  - a bit shocked by the price and ashamed I couldn't speak enough Spanish to make sure that I understood correctly).  Minutes later I regretted my greediness. 

No No sex and very minor Rock n Roll...which leaves us....DRUGS

Ongoing allergies or a head cold has me investigating the Mexican farmacia:

1) Dexbromfeniramina = Dexbrompheniramine = antihistamine. Was once available as Drixoral in the USA (i.e. 6mg plus 120mg of Pseudoephedrin)

2) Fenilefrin = Phenylephrine = alleged decongestant, but there are claims that oral phenylephrine may be no more effective as a decongestant than a placebo.

3) Ambroxol  =  mucolytic. Used in the treatment of wet cough

4) Oxeladina = Oxeladine. Highly effective cough suppressant. Non-narcotic.  Thins mucas.

5) Clorfenamina = Chlorphenamine = antihistamine with lower than usual sedation (compared to other  first generation antihistamines, that is).  US brands: Contact 12 Hour, Tylenol Cold.

6) Benzonatato =  Benzonatate= Cough suppressant. Non-narcotic.

7) Loratadina = Loratadine = Claritin 10mg in the USA, a second-generation H₁ histamine antagonist (aka anti-histamine)  $u19/sixty 10mg at http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-wal-itin-24-hour-allergy-tablets/ID=prod5484053-product  (note that Claritin-D, Wal-itin D also contains Pseudoephedrine HCI )

8)  Pseudoefedrina = Pseudoephedrine HCL = Sudafed and assorted (mostly old formula) brands.  E.g. http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-wal-finate-d-4-hour-allergy-decongestant-tablets/ID=prod6007959-product

9) Diclorhidrato de Cetirizina = Cetirizine Dichlorohydrate = Zyrtec  (note that Zyrtec-D also contains Pseudoephedrine HCI )  ($p108/ten 10mg or $23/60 10mg at http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-wal-zyr-all-day-allergy-tablets/ID=prod3869284-product)

10) hidrocloruro de difenhidramina = Diphenhydramine HCI = Dimedrol in Mexico, Benedryl in the USA. About $u0.10/tablet 25mg at http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/walgreens-wal-dryl-allergy-relief-coated-mini-tabs/ID=prod2502003-product

11) Paracetamol = Acetaminophen

12) Tradol, Veldrol = Tramadol, Ultram, Tramal = powerful analgesic, controlled in US.

Long paths, short memory

I keep forgetting the way to get Windows to take long filepaths.  I.e. use a \\? prefix.

E.g. "\\?\C:\SomeLongFilePathThatGoesOn\Forever\And\Ever\And\Ever\And\Ever\...."

For details see  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247%28v=vs.85%29.aspx#maxpath

Myths of the Flash Killers (i.e. iPad and Jobs)

Heard some claim today that Flash usage on Web sites had dropped 50% since the iPad came out.  Run the numbers yourself at the HTTP Archive:

     http://httparchive.org/interesting.php#flash

(e.g.
     "Now:"
          http://httparchive.org/interesting.php?a=All&l=Sep%2015%202011#flash

     "Then:"
          http://httparchive.org/interesting.php?a=All&l=Nov%2015%202010#flash

Seems that the rumors of Flash's demise have been greatly exaggerated.




In the subsequent research on why Apple (i.e. Steve Jobs) so dislikes Flash I found this very sage article from Jeremy Allaire (of Coldfusion, Homesite, Macromedia fame)

     http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/05/the-future-of-web-content-html5-flash-mobile-apps/






Also read a Flash developer's assessment of why Flash doesn't and shouldn't work on any touch-based device (e.g. iPhone, iPad, Android tablet of your choosing). 

     http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/02/20/an-adobe-flash-developer-on-why-the-ipad-cant-use-flash/

I wished I'd read it before I spent an hour getting Flash to work on the wife's Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (though it got her the video she wanted so I guess I can ignore Daniel's mostly valid yet non-video-player related points).  BTW, there is no relation between Daniel Dilger and yours truly....that I am aware of, at least.

Here a gringo, there a gringo, everywhere an aging gringo...

As I've previously mentioned, coming to Oaxaca and doing a blog is considered cliché by the more experienced ex-pats already here. At times, such opinions make me hesitant to even bother. I stumbled across this fellow Oaxacan's blog today.

http://yaxchibonam-retiringinmexico.blogspot.com/

Over the course of her time here, she’s already touched on many of the same observations I have had and that I figured I’d eventually post about in one way or another. I haven't met her (that I know of), but I can tell from some of the people/things she mentions that she (like many gringos here) seems to run in the same circles here that I do. E.g. A&T’s Thai-food home restaurant, the Oaxaca Lending Library (OLL) (http://oaxlibrary.org/ ).

It seems that most of the expats here are retired liberals - i.e. aging hippies and intellectuals (with the requisite overlaps and antitheses one would expect from such types). Some of our awareness of this swarm of people of course comes due to our friends, D & P, who originally hosted us in Oaxaca de Juarez, and who continue to provide highly valuable assistance to us. They surely fit the bill for retired, intellectual hippies...though they are only liberal in the original sense of the world, being libertarians not leftists. Nonetheless, their age and involvement with the OLL put them well in the mix of this expat crowd I and Yaxchibonam refer to. I can’t imagine she doesn’t know P.

With B's school we have met fellow residents more our age...though I still seem to be the token "right wing nut" here (WHY, WHY, WHY is it so hard for leftists to understand the libertarianism is NOT right-wing or conservatism ?!?!?). And of course, one of these is also doing a blog. If looking at these Oaxacan Visitor Blogs from a publishing standpoint, supply exceeds demand.

I guess I'll hang my hat on the fact that I'm just continuing my pre-Oaxacan blog and sticking with the same theme (i.e. rants and observations), just from a different geographical location. Ergo, don’t look to me for a day-by-day blow of An American Visits Oaxaca And Is Charmed and Schooled By The Welcoming Natives And Their Wise and Ancient Ways.

Anyway, outside of these blogs, I've noticed that there is a strong inclination for foreigners (when talking amongst themselves) to comment in the negative about the new culture they find themselves in. Much headshaking and “Can you believe they….” types of comparing of notes. At first I thought it was just human nature to focus on the strangeness and loss of familiar things/ways. Now I suspect it is a bit of commiserating and bond building (i.e. the old “Us v. them) for strangers in a strange land.

Yes, there are many travelers who seem to be in a perpetual state of awe and wonder about the new lands they are visiting/living in. Or maybe we just haven’t shared private gringo-only time with them. Regardless, from what I've seen, almost all of those native-ways-are-great types are enamored with a past or subset culture, not the primary, contemporary one they're in at the time/place of their observations/praises. For example, due to the relatively untouched indigenous cultures still visible here in Oaxaca, much of the praise for "life in Oaxaca" is actually praise for the remnants/trappings/displays/performances of such cultures (e.g. Mixtec, Zapotec) and NOT for the current culture as displayed daily in the city of Oaxaca de Juarez. E.g. taking an automobile ride to go take digital pictures of Mixtec weavers who gladly accept your Mexican pesos in exchange for a blanket means you’re in a NON-Mixtec culture. It’s a bit like going to Disney World and thinking you’re exploring space when you go to Space Mountain. Or wearing your Goretex snowsuit to visit Alaska and “experience the oneness with nature.” Hyperbolic examples? Yes. An analogy with truth at some level? Yes.

What really bothers me is that much of this strikes me as the romanticism of "ancient ways" and a willful blindness to the cultural evolution swirling about us. As if the “race” has been run and, sadly, the better contestant was cheated of their rightful win.

“Oh, if only the evil conquistadors had left these fine peoples alone, how wonderful all would be here and everywhere. Surely the pains of our times show the evil seeds they were sown from. If ONLY we can stop and learn better ways from these few remaining, simple but wise peoples perhaps we can save ourselves. Anyone need a refill of organic, fair-trade, Zapotec-raised coffee from San Pedro Pochulta?”

NOT to pick on Yaxchibonam, but note the different perspectives applied to these two posts of hers:

http://yaxchibonam-retiringinmexico.blogspot.com/2011/04/road-trip-to-santiago-apoala-easter.html

versus...

http://yaxchibonam-retiringinmexico.blogspot.com/2010/05/shopping-downtown.html

Not in any way excusing the Spanish for what they did to the natives here, but is a culture that has very high levels of illiteracy, malnutrition, and infant mortality any more worthy of praise than a “Byzantine” one?  I realize that Yaxchibonam isn’t making such a direct comparison. Furthermore, it’s quite clear that she is aware of her (poor) mood on that hot shopping day. And it’s obvious she is a kind, caring soul who should not be harshly judged by that honest blog post. I appreciate her sharing her opinion of the maddening merchant practices. The title of her post shows her self-awareness of its inconsistency with her normal perspective of life in Oaxaca de Juarez. Yes, we are all a spectrum of perspectives, opinions and mood. So I don't think her inconsistency is unusual or any more grievous than the same as displayed by every other human, yours truly included. And besides it's another Oaxacan cliché to observe the plethora of dichotomies here (or in Mexico in general).

But being well aware of my VERY limited exposure to the people and customs of my new home, not to mention the language gap I am forced to observe across, I feel obligated to speak up for the underdog (i.e. MODERN times and modern methods) while trying to strike the right balance so I don't come across as yet another ugly American (or French, or Canadian or other "gringo") who sees the new land only in the terms of its failure to be his native land and then proceeds to do nothing but lambast, bitch, and moan about the current land he's in. Go home, Yankee!

Yes, the natives wear ornate hand-made clothing that NOBODY I know could make if their life depended on it. Yet, they pile the whole family onto a single, well-worn moped and drive to the market to sell chapulines so they can save up to buy a tv to put in their one-room, adobe hut – sorry, “house.” Who says you MUST get indoor plumbing before getting TV? Silly first-world consumers.

Other than those isolated islands of small tribes/peoples, humanity is an amalgam, constantly being stirred….and ever more rapidly thanks to handy inventions like radio, TV, airplanes, color printing…and the latest easy-to-decry, the Internet. And that mixing is not only ongoing and ever-present in our perceptions/observations, it in turn synthesizes whole new “flavors” into the mix.

So, I'm trying to blog observations and tales of what life (as we experience/observe it) is like here so I can assess and later recall these experiences and, maybe, share these with family, friends, and others who have any interest, all within the aforementioned constraints. I’m NOT trying to paint an “objective” picture of Oaxaca nor share with you all the wonderfulness of Oaxaca de Juarez, Oaxaca, or any other slice of Mexico.

As with all things in life, one should avail oneself of the multitude of opinions and measurements available before making a conclusion. I thus urge people interested in Oaxaca to seek out the many blogs and other such Web sources to learn about life here. I’m just calling it from where I see it, and thanks to wonderful “modern” inventions such as electricity, satellites, the Internet, etc., I am able to do so in a way that lets me…like countless other expats in Oaxaca de Juarez….serve it up fresh to you.

Creepy Crawlies and other things to guard against...

When we came down to Oaxaca for our ten-day scouting trip in July, our hosts/friends Don and Patty warned to us to keep an eye out for scorpions...e.g. to not leave clothing on the bed or floor and to check all shoes before putting ones ten little piggies in.  Other than the occasional (outdoor) rattlesnack, what does Colorado have to offer in the way of pesty-creature training.  Oh, the Black Widow and mythical Brown Recluse spiders, perhaps?  Well at first it seemed that we had left safe lands and entered into a terrifying realm where a late night trip to the bathroom could result in a terrible arthropod sting and a trip to the hospital (or, if a retainer had been paid, a HOUSE VISIT from your doctor....I shit you not, Doctors here never got the elitist indoctrination of their Norte Americano bretheren and still gladly travel to your casa when you're ill. Anyway....).  So we checked our bed and pillows every night, always shook our clothes and shoes out before donning them, and only stood up on the floor at night with a light on to ensure no pests were prepared to ambush us.  We saw nothing the entire time.

So when we went to rent this house in San Felipe del Agua (SFDA) we asked about scorpions and other such dangers.  The owners assured us they "rarely" saw scorpions and the deadly snakes stayed at the very bottom of the property. Deadly snakes? Excuse me?  WTF!?!?

So when we arrived here in on August 16th we renewed our shoe smacking and clothes shaking practices.  But days passed without any scorpion OR snake sightings.

What we DID see were other items to fear instead:

1) Mothra:

The moth on the left is a "normal" sized moth...like a typical Miller moth common to Colorado.  The moth on the right startled us when it flew into a window screen of B's room one night.  Sounded like a small airplane was running into our house.

Obviously, a strict diet of anabolic steroids and sugar cane, coupled with a steady workout routine lifting cinderblocks daily has lead to SuperMoth's six inch wingspan.  I bet the bats have to take out knife and fork when they catch and eat one of these babies.  Anyway, after our initial fear subsided (and a few pictures were taken) we dropped Mothra from the Fear List...at least until one gets stuck in our hair some night while walking outside.  Like moths everywhere they just can't help themselves when the electric light calls to them. 

Oh, they come in other flavors (i.e. colors), too. E.g. tan, white, grey.  The body sans wings is about the size of my thumb, typically.  Wingshape varies, too. Size? Always BIG.  Bet they're fun to hit at 100KPH on a motorcycle (and machismo prrevents one from wearing head or eye protection, it would seem).

2) Spiders:  Our landlord (via a post-lease signing email) had also warned us that we would see spiders but that was life in this part of the world.  He told us that the housekeeper would kill the bad ones and show us which ones were harmless (and thus to be left alone to hunt pests).  We discovered some of these the first night we arrived at our new SFDA:

Those first two photos are of a small "Wally" spider....at least that is what I call them as they seem to prefer walls, hanging there fang-down waiting for their next meal.  They are VERY fast when they decide to move.  They are very flat with black and white/grey stripes running across all parts of their body.  Additionally they seem to be territorial, as each night we'd see the same Wallies pretty much hanging out in the same wall spots.  They are gone when we wake up, but return every night.  Or at least they did until we discovered our next spider type....

I came out of the bathroom late one night and found one of these guys crawling across the bedroom floor headed straight for Mer's shoes.   These two following pictures came from the next one we discovered a few days latter during the day.  It is smaller than the first one we found which was probably 150% the size of this guy.

Now I thought these were Wolf spiders, but now I'm not sure.  They don't match this photo of a (Mexican) Wolf spider nor any of the others on the list: http://www.mexicovacationtravels.com/family-travel/commom-eight-legged-natives-of-mexico.html

The legs of the Wolf spider look much thicker than these guys.  Anyway, the next night or so Meredith called me in to B's room where she had gone to check on him as he slept.  There a few feet above his bed on the wall it's up against hung one of these big-assed spiders.  Maybe 3.5 inches, oops, 9cm across.  Mommy decreed it was to be an extermination not a relocation.  SPLAT!  Quite a mess it left on the wall. 

So the next day we ask the housekeeper (in our VERY limited Spanish and her somewhat limited English) what level of the danger this spider poses.  I'm afraid she misunderstood our concerns as the next few days saw the disappearance of all the Wallies plus many sites of chemical massacre (e.g. large areas scattered with hundreds of dead ants, more moth bodies than usual found in the morning in the areas under the porch lights).


3) Finally after almost a week here I went out one morning to carry the trash to the trash collection area (worthy of a post in its own right, I assure you).  When I picked up the trashbag I found this underneath. I.e. a very sluggish and small scorpion.  Once again that is a clothespin for scale.  I was surprised how small, slow, and hard to kill this little guy was. The photo is out of focus...perhaps I was shaking.  :-)

 Now into our fourth week here we've all gotten pretty lazy about checking our shoes and such.  As with all things, given some time, the strange becomes familiar and thus the new scary becomes the boring and overlooked.

eForm PDF for Mexican Immigration "Formato Básico" form

While working on the (further!) paperwork for our Mexican immigration visa (FM3) I came across these handy resources, including an English translation of the Formato Básico form (that is a PDF eFrom that can be filled out before printing).

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1975-visa-and-entry-requirements-2011-immigration-update

http://rollybrook.com/living_in_mexico.htm

http://www.rollybrook.com/Formato-Basico-English.pdf

Oh, and my other recent handy tool: "Spanish Caps Lock" a stand-alone executable for easily getting at those Español characters such as (á, ñ, ó) without having to mess with Windows ALT codes. Very handy!
http://www.onehourprogramming.com/spanish-accents/

Español Banking Terms for your Mexican Visa Efforts

Well this (i.e. http://costablanca.angloinfo.com/countries/spain/bankterms.asp ) was a start but some of these are wrong and some may be regional to Spain instead of Mexico (as needed for our Mexico VISA application/processing).  Thus my list of banking statement terms translated to Spanish from English.  I.e. DSD's translation of his bank statements from English to Español.  YippieKiEh, Motherfuckers!

English	Spanish
Account Number	Número de cuenta
Amount	Cantidad
Assets	Activos
ATM & Debit Card Withdrawals	ATM y Retiros Tarjeta de Débito
Balance	Saldo
Balance Summary	Resumen de saldo
Balancing Your Checkbook	Cotejar tu cuenta
Beginning Balance	Saldo Anterior
Card Purchase	Compra con Tarjeta
Card Purchase Return	Devolución
Card Purchase with PIN	Compra con Tarjeta con NIP
Checking Account Summary	Resumen de la cuenta de cheques
Checks Paid	Cheques Pagados
Continued	Seguido
Credit	Crédito
Customer Withdrawal	Retiro de cliente
Date	Fecha
Description	Concepto
Deposit	Depósito
Deposits and Additions	Depósitos y adiciones
Electronic Payment	Pago Electronico
Electronic Withdrawals	Retiros electrónicos
Ending Balance	Saldo final
Fees	Honorarios
Fees and Other Withdrawals	Honorarios y otros retiros
Free Checking	Cuenta gratis de cheques
Page 1 of 6	Página 1 de 6
Primary Account	Cuenta Principal
Savings Account	Cuenta Ahorros
Service Fee	Pago por Servicio
This Period	Este periodo
Total	Total
Total Assets	Total de Activos
Transaction Details	Detalles de la transacción
Transfer	Transferencia
Withdrawals and Other Fees	Retiros  y otros honorarios