Instant Karma

"The endangered" by Jorge Luis Borges

It is love, I have to hide or flee. Grow your prison walls, like a fearful dream.

The beautiful mask has changed, but as always the only what I want with my charms, the exercise of the letters, vague learning, learning the language used to sing the rough northern seas and their swords, the serene friendship, the galleries of the library, common things, habits, the young love of my mother, the military shadow of my dead, the timeless night, the taste of sleep?.

Being with you or without you is the measure of my time. And the jar breaks on the source, and the man rises to the sound of birds, and have darkened that I look through the windows, but the shadow did not tell me peace traitor.

It's, you know, love, anxiety and relief to hear your voice, the hope and memory, the horror of living in the future. It is love with mythology, with its little magic useless.

There is a street corner that I dare not go. And encircling armies, hordes (this room is unreal, she has not seen). The name of a woman betrayed me. It hurts a woman in the whole body.

If You’re Homeless In Japan, Here Are Your Options

I see this post in the wonderful blog Tufugu

My advice is you to read that blog, Its great

Japan’s jobless rate is currently at 5.2%, which is a record high (way better than America’s, but still). There is a 15.7% poverty rate, one of the highest amongst industrialized nations. 15,800 people live on the streets of Japan (according to the government – in reality this number is probably higher with 10,000+ in Tokyo alone). To sum things up, things aren’t all that great, and the recession is hitting Japan pretty hard as well. If you are poor in Japan, however, there are a couple of interesting options for you. Better than living with the monkeys, anyways.

Capsule Hotels

There was a great article NYT article recently on capsule hotel living, but here’s the summary of it. Originally, capsule hotels were created to be a place for drunken  salarymen to sleep if they stay out too long and miss the last train (or just don’t want to go home). It’s a place to sleep, it does the job, and it’s pretty cheap. You only get a small space (i.e. a capsule) that’s around 6.5 feet long and 4-5 feet wide. There are no doors (just screens) and you get a TV, clean sheets, a pillow, and a roof over your head. Certainly not a posh hotel, that’s for sure.

Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510, the capsule hotel showcased in the article, started noticing that people weren’t just staying the night… they were staying weeks, and then months. After realizing this, they gave people discounts for paying for a month at a time, and the government even gave the okay to use these hotels as physical addresses, which helps the jobless living here land interviews.

The capsule hotels do have public areas, lockers to rent, public baths, sinks, and more – so it’s not all that bad. The actual capsule area is mostly for sleeping, plus you get a tv to watch. Here’s the kicker, though. You might get around 30 square feet of space, yet it costs around $640 a month. Ouch. To put things in perspective, my tiny apartment is 550 square feet, exists in San Francisco (one of the most expensive areas to rent in the U.S., behind NY), and costs a little over twice that much, yet I’m getting around 18 times the space, plus my own bathroom, kitchen, washer / dryer, etc. Capsule hotels are not cheap, but they’re still cheaper than renting an actual apartment.

Unfortunately, even with the “reduced” prices that a capsule hotel offers, a lot of jobless people run out of savings and have to hit the streets. I gotta say, though. There are a lot of pretty clever homeless abodes in Japan, which makes it your second available option if you end up homeless in Japan.

Getting Your Very Own Blue Tent

Although it sucks to be on the street, I gotta say, if I was going to be on the street, I want to live in one of these. Although not all of them are blue, when you’re passing various parks in Japan, you will often see Japanese tent-societies, and some of them are actually pretty fancy. I’ve heard of some having internet access, even. In the image above, you can see plants growing, a bicycle, and more. There are homeless societies that work together to make money by growing vegetables / crops, put their money together to buy food in bulk (so they can get more for less yen), and more.

This particular shelter has windows!

Since the 1990s, when the Japanese economy went bad, more and more of these tents have appeared all over the place. Japan’s always had trouble admitting that there is / was a homeless problem (Japan has always been proud of its “classless” society, at least in the past), but now it’s becoming enough of an issue that people are taking notice and doing something about it, which is great. Homeless levels still aren’t anywhere near what we see in America, but it’s good to nip the problem at the bud. The BBC has written up a great “news in pictures” article about the homeless in Japan. Definitely take a look if you have the urge.

Living In a Japanese Internet Cafe

Another trick that’s becoming pretty popular, mostly amongst younger folks, is staying in Manga / Internet cafes. Many are open 24 hours, give out free drinks, have showering facilities, and offer privacy. It’s not like the Internet cafes you see here – many facilities offer people their own individual, private rooms, and for $15-$25 a night, a reclining chair (instead of a bed) ain’t all that bad. Plus, while you’re sitting there wishing you could sleep, you can read manga, surf the net, or watch videos. Eventually you’ll get so tired that you’ll be able to sleep, maybe. Keep those free drinks coming!

So there you have it. If you ever find yourself in Japan for the long-term, and are running out of money (and have no source of income), one of these will probably work out for you. Then again, there are always hostels, which are also pretty darn cheap, but why would you want to stay in a hostel when you could do one of these? There’s always beach-bumming in Okinawa, too, though you’d have to figure out how to get there.

P.S. Which one is your favorite? i.e., if you had to live one of these lifestyles for a month, which would you choose? Personally, I’d go with #2 and live in a tent society. Seems like it would be really interesting to meet all kinds of new people and be a part of a community. The other two are a bit too “separate” for me to really dig. Speaking of Digging something, you should Digg this article!

25 things that happen in Spain even though they are starting the second decade of the twenty-first century:

Culture Minister our country has led the great movie Mentiras y Gordas. - With what moral authority we laugh the governor of California?

From the sofa look at the social upheavals in other European countries to the social cuts that "recommend" to exit markets where they put us, here as much any question arises when the right to bottle or downloaded so on nose (the universal complaint in relation to the law Sinde, where illegal churro would be reduced to "nooo as mcierren seriesyonkis m dying!" and other gems with spell downward trend).

The two dominant parties are passed from time to time by the parliament to drop the last witty insult occurs to them to provide "the opposition" rather than sit and propose solutions from different points of view to build this country (with the electorate behind them-see above-this is not unusual).

Only one thing I have been, are and will always agree, and that is that, although not very democratic, election law is fine as is, given that 97% of Members (appointed by the system) agree (I love Captain Obvious).

"Constitutional reforms? With what it takes to win an election, to get courts to dissolve and call referendums. Better than the Magna Carta and virgin pure continues another 30 years when they have flying cars and everything just give us truth.

We anchored in the medieval monarchical model, still carrying the stigma of the nobility and continue with a privileged Catholic Church is hiding behind an inflated number of followers who actually brings it too loose to be baptized, but by making him follow their babies "because it is very nice" (see point 2 again).

If you are a naive dreamer of those who venture to try to remove myself of so much sect you find yourself lost in a sea of bureaucracy, not civil, but divine, and procedures can take years because the paperwork is in heaven and earth and pigeon Nobody wants to lose members when there are subsidies involved.

There is corruption and tax holes everywhere, so much so that, if listed on the national territory all the money that escapes tax havens, pensions could climb to 80%. (Estimated Arcadi Oliveres, from minute 7).

However, we face a drastic reduction of the welfare state why they want us to understand that it is necessary to delay the retirement age to maintain the pension system (see above ¿¿¿???) and also Of course, since life expectancy has increased and the population is aging - which you can not argue, certainly fight corruption detract much income parties who apparently need to win elections - Reflection: no would be sufficient to political mileage they would increase pensions and enclose a few sausages?

In contrast, the gentlemen who sit on the floor, not every day you should of course, to be 7 years old working in politics I have done.

Here we can see their colleagues working on 9 March last year.

Most people assume these and other outrages without offering much resistance (item 2) and on the eve of elections, is convinced that the only option is the "vote" (aptly named, indeed, if look at point 4), because otherwise "win bad." The truth is that evil always win and always lose all.
In all these respects, the people, again, referred to in paragraph 2, they know nothing. For your own sake, do not ask about the life of the Big Brother Kiko or Belén Esteban, boldly called "people's princess", because they could fill several pages of a book (with difficulties in spelling and punctuation, but to stop content).

If you are a tourist and you come to Spain with no idea of Spanish, you're lost. Die of starvation before anyone can tell you in English, the location of the nearest source.
When they finally meet someone, the first and probably only learn of Castilian be absurd phrases like "I ate tol'potorro." This food and grandmothers is the only thing cool that we have in our country.

If you're small, you are ahead at least 3 or 4 changes of curriculum before they get to college, and once there you'll catch at least one more. There will be changes aimed at improving the quality of your education, but to overthrow those who did those first.

As there is also likely, statistical (point 2), your parents are assholes and you're a little idiot in power, you will be aware that your popularity depends on the number of subjects in suspense, and meanwhile your parents will tell milongas such as "we do divide without a calculator and it's very difficult ", to which undoubtedly will give you the reason and, indignant protest, the blame will be the teacher and the following plan of education prohibit transactions with pencil and paper, because things are very difficult for children 14 years and parents are those who vote.

If you manage to finish the compulsory education vaguely remember that you have come to study 15 different times to the Catholic Monarchs, but Franco and Transition (The what?) You have not heard or speak.

"I do not" think, "do science." You can try, but knowing you'll come to some engineering Gothic kings and a few jarchas and songs of memory, but with no idea of how a simple structure or elemental compound formulated correctly.

If, however, you do letters, will serve only to realize how sad is the ignorance in the world and particularly in this country, so piénsate well if you want to be a humanist depressed and unemployed before starting.

In college you probably have the pleasure of meeting a stomach ulcer of a sympathetic teacher, bleeding every time a student spends his subject, and leave you very clear that all 500 students are useless and lazy while the coffers gives college large sums from student pockets by way of fourth, fifth tuition and calls for grace.

Also try to make you think (re-read point 9) that the rate rise is inevitable because the system does not stand and fight like that school failure is because students are lazy and useless when the batteries will have to pay for pay tuition and a half.

When you think you've been saving these pitfalls and have 5 degrees, you've gotten out of ignorance to your place of birth seemed Having A for, and even know a language with a median flow, you have to do work worthy of any contacts page find a job and attend mediocre rise useless impotent real lucky enough to sleep on a mattress and put tickets in the holster of a fat man with the wad Mercedes necessary to have a desktop where you put the shoes.

Mercedes, by the way, parked in two rows, the bastard, and will skip the pedestrian crossings without many scruples about the unwritten rule is for vehicles of a certain cylinder, through which can pass through the lining that kind of things.

In the worst case, the fat bastard will send you a fine, hopefully, will cause him to choke on a barnacle, but laugh, because the seafood will be worth triple what will tip the state.
Finally, if you're caught by the same do not think that you will pay in proportion, and if you have very bad luck and has bundled a fat enough to go to jail, in which case you are a bastard but no luck, new hall will attend will be powerless to leave the unfortunate bastard covered at the expense of other hard workers, to be diverted all public funds that may have to grab an account in the Cayman Islands in order to afford bail, counsel for Satan and the 28 houses where he lived for the rest of his days in a tiny village registered as indigent.

Source Reflexiones de una esponja

If you sound good, you look good

Or how to promote a music school...

Cubans celebrate today the anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution

Cubans celebrate today the anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution with the challenge of reaching new heights in 2011 from a strategy based on efficiency, productivity and savings.

For the inhabitants of the island, this event occurred on January 1, 1959 marked the realization of the dreams of justice for those who gave their lives for over 100 years of struggle to achieve true national independence.

Once installed in power, the revolutionary government began dismantling neo-colonial political system, law enforcement bodies were dissolved and guarantee to citizens, for the first time, the full exercise of their rights.

Public administration was sound and misappropriated assets were confiscated and, thus, eliminating such practice from the republic.

The arrival of the Revolution was the dignity of man as the center and motivation of the revolutionary leadership, which promptly took the necessary transformations.

In that sense, a measure which was a milestone was the Agrarian Reform Law, adopted on May 17, 1959, which abolished the large estates to nationalize all properties over 420 hectares, and gave the property land for tens of thousands of peasants.

Other transformations of the new government helped to put an end to racial discrimination, gender, illiteracy, and guaranteed the right of citizens to education, health and sports, among other benefits.

The year ahead will be marked by a strategy of saving, import substitution and efficiency of compliance with investment commitments.

In terms of export plans, you must increase the physical production of items that have prices in the international market and institutions should further discipline, better preparation and comprehensive analysis in all sectors about the processes investors production and export.

Saving is considered a crucial weapon to ensure the fulfillment of economic plans, in addition to providing financing for projects to continue in 2011.

Another priority will be to increase the numbers in the food production-a timely topic in the guidelines of the socio-political realignment is necessary so that the whole organization on this front, always taking into account the conservation of resources like water and fuels.