Corta de PeloYet time again for another haircut. I really should be taking our clothes to the laundromat and then working on a website, but procrastination is so sweet and it’s been a while since I’ve really gone down the list of all the blogs I read.

Before that though, my girlfriend just recorded her first podcast yesterday and it’s up and ready for download. Our plan was to record the podcast together and keep with a bi-weekly format where I’d talk about what’s been going on in the States, we’d choose a song, and we’d pick a theme for the show. We agreed that the first podcast would be on the life of Sade and Sadism in general. I couldn’t believe how much time she put into it – reading all of his books and a couple biographies of his life.

I learned a lot, but it was pretty obvious that I wouldn’t really have anything to contribute besides my gringo accent, so the first podcast is all hers. If you speak Spanish, you should definitely check it out. And even if you don’t, listening to podcasts in Spanish is a good way to learn and practice the language. Just a few days ago I was listening to the Spanish language podcast, Los Blogueros and someone had sent him a comment saying they were learning Spanish by listening to the podcast.

Alright, let’s look at what’s going on with my cyberhomies.

mariMari – is back from her museless, job seeking, blog break (my muse took a vacation at the same time) and is back in strong form. She just landed a job as a legal analyst for the California state public defender and will be assisting in death penalty appeals. She’s got a great post explaining to her pro-death penalty father in Spanglish about the new job.

seydSeyd – hasn’t been blogging too much lately, but I’ve gotta admit, I find most of my goodies on the internet thanks to his del.icio.us account. He’s got the internet covered and he’s all over the place. He’s already got a blog set up on Ourmedia (which I’ll probably be using to host our podcasts from now on) and Yahoo 360°. Seyd’s also the blogfather of the potentially incredible site MTYBlogs.com, a directory of blogs here in Monterrey. It needs a little upkeep though and I’m hoping that Seyd and I will be able to work on it together soon.

elenamaryElenamary – has posted her first interview from her Latinos in the Midwest series. I think it’s a great idea and I hope she records them in the future and makes a podcast out of the interviews. There are a few people I’ve met here in Monterrey that I think I might try to interview for upcoming podcasts. Right now I’m interviewing Moreno for the May podcast.

cindy and alfonsoCindylu – has by far the biggest blogosphere cheese. I can’t believe this. In fact, now that I see it was posted on April Fool’s Day I’m becoming a bit suspicious. But here we go: Cindylu and HP are a couple! Marx and Adam Smith walking hand in hand. And look how freaking cute they look together. Crazy shit. You see that heart in the upper right hand corner of Cindylu’s blog with the arrow through it? Well, who do you think shot the arrow? That’s right, call me cupid. You know what’s funny? The past few weeks I’ve been thinking about the blogger debates and how I need to keep up with my part. So first I need to write about gay marriage, but then I was planning on asking HP and Cindylu to both guest blog and debate school vouchers on here. But now I’m scared their “debates” will be full of cheesy romantic compliments instead of some real intellectual blood. Anyway, I’m really happy for both of them. I’ve never met Cindylu in person, but HP is definitely one of my carnales and I’m hoping they come down here before Monterrey gets too hot to pay me a visit.

dailytexicanDaily Texican – is surprised to see some tit. I agree with him. It’s definitely a cultural thing. When I was in Africa it became completely normal to see a woman breastfeeding her baby in public and it didn’t even catch my attention after a while. But if I were to see the same thing in the States or even here in Monterrey, it would catch me off guard. The same is true of seeing two guys kissing. Back home in San Diego (at least in Hillcrest, San Diego) I’d probably hardly notice two guys kissing in public, but if I were to see it here in Monterrey, I’d be absolutely shocked. It’s all what you’re used to. I say the closer we get to human nature, the better (which is why I fart in public as much as possible).

xoloitzquintleXolo – has been all over the map lately. What’s he got up his sleeves?

lizaLiza – has done a very good job relating the Pope’s death (only thing on Mexican television) to the Schiavo case. She also wrote beautifully on what actually killed Schiavo in the first place. Some top notch writing here:

Pope John Paul had at some point of his last hours, a feeding tube inserted through his nose. I was speculating about this decision with my husband last night. Nasal feeding tubes are used only temporarily. To have inserted such a tube on the Pope was clearly done with the intent to ease his death and not save his life to the point of keeping him in the limbo of a “persistent vegetative state”.

Which means that some time within the past 72 hours that nasal feeding tube was taken out, and the Pope was left to die in peace yet with no sustenance.

The Pope had riled against the sin of “euthanasia by omission” years ago; but on the same breath he warned of trying to keep people alive at all costs –in other words, of playing God by not letting nature and God’s will to take its course.

chandrasutraChandrasutra – explains why ad agencies hate blogs. I’ve been thinking recently about adding small ads to the archives just to help cover hosting costs. Anyway, the beauty of the internet is it helps cut out the middlemen like ad agencies. eBay is really the ultimate model of what a market should could look like. Consumers should be in direct contact with producers in a public and transparent environment. Laura and I were talking a couple nights ago about trying to go down to Chiapas for a few months sometime this year or next. She was working with a coffee collective down there a couple years ago and I’d love to help get coffee producers in touch with coffee buyers around the world using the internet. Just outta curiosity, if I were to do something like that, you guys would be down with putting ads on your blogs for a 10% cut of what’s sold right?

elizabethElizabeth – has a really funny post about living in an increasingly conservative country. Luckily it’s not quite as bad as her dream yet.

gustavo rojoSpeaking of Gustavo AKA “El Bofo” – he taught me that the Caifanes (one of my girlfriend’s all time favorite bands) were named after the Spanglish phrase “que fine es.” I thought that was pretty cool.

thivaiThivai – as always has the best links for progressives and anyone else wanting to learn more about how the world works. This week he points us towards NPR’s seven-part series tracing the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. This looks like some really good stuff. I only wish NPR would release their audio files in mp3 format so someone could make a podcast rss feed with the content.

elenitaMy dearest Elenita – where have you gone?

prentiss riddleIf you were able to sit down and have a beer with any blogger in the blogosphere, who would it be? Tough question and my answer would probably change every week, but this week it’d have to be Prentiss – his tag line is “aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada,” but it seems to me it’s much more like “aprendiz de todo, maestro de todo.” He’s been everywhere, speaks everything, knows everything … and I’ve learned to stop being surprised when his head pops in on some discussion on some site with sagacious insight. I haven’t played with Yahoo 360 too much yet, but he seems to be on spot with his review. When it comes to social networking, I only have patience for one site now and that’s Flickr. All the other ones like Friendster, MySpace, and Orkut I’ve lost patience for. I still answer friend requests that come through, but I’m not even sure why since I never log on to the site again. I understand that Friendster and Myspace now have blogs and you can update your photos and search for new music and yada yada yada, but Flickr is just so much smarter and easier to use. Anyway, if you’re looking for some quality content, skim through Prentiss’ archives. And also, if you’re interested in Information Architecture, check out his IAlog and del.icio.us account.

woojWooj – talks about something I never had the guts to: the real reason I was forced to come down to Mexico. I’m so glad my comrade in arms is safe and well and still spending way too much time to make the funniest posts in the blogosphere.

mykeMyke – needed a gmail account and Gustavo came through. Myke’s also been on a meme kick lately.

Holy shit! How’d it get so late? I gotta go do the laundry or my woman’s a gonna whip me when she gets back. I’ll finish this tonight.