Showing posts from August, 2013

Our new home

We're excited about finally having moved in. :-) After a year of renting, we're finally in a place of our own again! Just in time for the baby in November. :-)

This is our new home in the Metropolitan, in San Jose, Costa Rica. :-)


Access hallway

This is the exercise room. Akhem... it's the kitchen.

Living room and dining area

Master bedroom

Master bathroom

My office, slash battlestation! In this pic, sporting the one YouTube video I was able to load.

You can stay here if you visit. :-) There's a bathroom as well. Sorry about the queen bed; king didn't fit into our previous apartment. Besides, no one comes to stay, anyway!

Little guy's room! No baby furniture yet, but we have a stroller. Worst case, he can sleep there. ;)

So the rows are even, a bonus pic of the stroller. All the relatives want to see that. Included free of charge is also a curious cat, sporting a shaved tail of the latest fashion.

The doghouse: ICE / Kolbi mobile internet

We finally signed up for smart phones and a data plan. Good thing we did - we just moved to a new home, and we'd be stuck without internet access if it wasn't for that.

But the 2 Mbps they promise... It's not there. If you're lucky, you get the speed of a 28.8k modem. YouTube videos? Fuggetaboutit. The only time I've successfully loaded a video was around lunch time, when apparently demand drops as everyone goes to chow.

Quick, someone sue ICE for misleading consumers, advertising speeds 20 times higher than what they provide!

Oh wait - they're government-owned. *sigh*

Letter to Ellie

Sunshine raised the point that I'm coming across as a cold rational machine, devoid of feelings and empathy. Thanks for sharing that perspective; I do appreciate it. It leads me to think about who reads these posts. It is friends, as well as strangers. Perhaps some of the friends would appreciate if I wrote more about what's happening to me, on a more personal level.

So, without further ado... I can bad poetry, too. :-) This is what went down with me recently...

Letter to Ellie

Your skin is fair, your eyes are bright

your cheeks are delicately freckled

you smile at guys, you're a delight

you relish to invite and beckon.

Hand on your thigh, it pleases you

you're in his throes, no matter who

the pleasure high, it's best when new

he comes and goes - bid him adieu

for love has pain, and that's not for you...

You abhor thorns... but love roses.

The trip was long, and we got lost

as passion pulled us together

we went through pain, it was worth the cost

I'd do it a…

HIV infection risk

I'm not sure if sharing these statistics is a public service, or a disservice:

On the one hand, it's a service. Even if your partner in a one night stand happens to be HIV positive, infection is a lot less likely than people assume. There are other viruses to think about, including HPV and herpes, but those only really make a difference to people whose alternative to sex is living in a convent. If you've had any significant number of sexual partners, you've been exposed to various HPV strains, and most people get some kind of herpes in their lifetime. There are bacteria, but for the time being, if you get tested, they can be detected and cured.

So, the fear of STDs is overblown. People in general could have a lot more sex than they currently do, and with more partners.

On the other hand, sharing the above statistics might encourage people to have more unprotected sex. If that were to happen, then STDs would spread more, and then intercourse would in fact become riskier…

The loneliness of sticking to reason: My abhorrent beliefs

So apparently, I lost someone I thought was a good friend - the first one I had made in years - because I made known my true feelings about a sensitive issue, and did so in a rude manner.

It didn't help that I apologized. The offense was there. The rude way I phrased it didn't help. But even if I hadn't, it was laid bare that I hold a view the other person considers disgusting, and it's a view that impacts her greatly. Combined with other differences we'd had, it sealed the end of that relationship. I'm now minus one passionate romantic interest; and, more painfully, minus one friend. Leaving me at... a low number around zero.

It's always been difficult for me to make friends. In first grade, I was pinned down on the floor, and beaten by a group of classmates for sticking to what they thought were preposterous claims. I insisted that the Sun is a star (they believed differently), and that 100 times 100 is 10,000, not 1,000.

It's gotten worse over the ye…