Soaked cereal...

I came home late after watching a movie, and since there was no food and I was hungry I took a bowl of cereal, I went to my room and turned on my laptop, I started to chat with a friend and before I knew it my cereal was all soaked. Even if the flavor doesn't change it feels weird, like if I was eating something else, well, it was still good, but I technically swallowed my cereal instead of chewing it.

This Thursday I went to the movies with my friend Michelle, we got just in time to the theater, bought the tickets and went straight to the room... well, we went the wrong way at first since we didn't even check in what movie hall was our movie, when we got to our seats I realized I still had my backpack (they don't let you get inside with backpacks here if they let you in the U.S. or the U.K.)... and we had the tickets intact, there was no one at the entrance to collect it.

We could just went in without paying... besides the girl who sold us the tickets and the guy from the snack bar, there was no one else, the hall was almost empty, there was only two or three more people besides us.

After the movie we went to eat... but I can't remember the name of the place :P, and after that we went for a pair of smoothies, they were awesome, and it was an awesome day (I wanted to write this since Thursday, but for some reasons I wasn't able to until today :P)

Late late post...

So, I just got home, it is 4 am and I was talking with Sergio outside my house since like 1 am, we went to play pool with another friend and 2 friends of Sergio, it was fun and we had a very good time... and that's it.

Wow, this might be my shortest entry since ever :P

Nothing is certain but death and taxes...

I was going to post about something else today because today was an awesome day, but after my meeting with the "Colegio de Psicólogos" I was a little depressed and very angry, at the beginning of this year our institution received government aid to found some projects, these projects were not meant to be lucrative, they were (and still are) to help people, specially people with low income.

Today our president confessed something no one would ever suspect, that the institution had a debt of almost 1 million pesos in taxes from the money the government invested in projects (like 40% of the money the government gave), the only reason the board knew about it was because the accountant told them, because the contracts didn't say anything about this taxes directly, and that it was the better option for the accountant and the institution to tell them before it was too late to know, there is still time to get that money (from sponsorship, donations and some other ways) but it will be hard.

Another bad part was that two projects that I had here will be either postponed or abandoned,  but I will write about it later, I already fall sleep for some minutes ago with my computer still on and a noise woke me up :P
Still it was an awesome day.

You wont get my hair

Today I accompanied my sister to visit one of her friends from school, I know her from the times I visited my sister in school to help her as a patient or when I had to go and pick up her to go home.

I have always talked very well with this friend, but there is one thing that always freaks me out a little, but at the same time I really like it, it is that she always compliments my hair, but not only that, she is always touching it too, and telling me that she wants to get a lock of hair, she knows that I won't give it to her, but every time I see her she asks me for it, or tells my sister to cut me one while I sleep, it is flattering and funny and a little scary at the same time, but all in all I really enjoy talking with her, she is crazy :)

Well, nothing much today other than the usual and this visit :P

Work, work, work... scrubs, work...

So today I was catching up with some work I want to present at this Thursday's meeting (Colegio de psicólogos), but since I still have some time and I am not so late I was procrastinating hard, every time I was stuck or bored I put an episode of Scrubs (that's the show I am watching right now since I haven't watched it all) and then got back to work. It sucks because I know I could have it done by now if I wasn't so lazy, I know I'll have it on time, but I would like to have it right now, but knowing me I'll probably finish it this Thursday.

Well, I'll work tomorrow again and will try to finish it, but I just know that I will get distracted again :P

Stiff Neck...

...that really sucks, since yesterday my neck has been hurting because I got home late and I forgot to adjust my pillow, I was tired and just wanted to sleep, know I can't turn my head around without feeling pain, and I can't lay comfortably in bed either.

Speed test 2.0

Last month I wrote about my ISP and that they said that we were going to have an upgrade in our speed, it never happened, well, at least not until yesterday, but I had to call to Telmex CS for it, I explained everything and asked if it was going to happen, since they called us and told us that I wanted to know what happened.

Apparently our area wasn't covered by that upgrade, but since they already told us about it they would give it a try, and that it should be done before 72 hours, that should had been this Friday at around 2:00 P.M., I wasn't at home that day, and when I got home I didn't checked anything, I didn't had a chance yesterday until around 3:00 A.M. (well, it was already Sunday :P), and boy, was I happy to finally see a decent speed.

I mean, most of the times I really don't care about the speed, most websites load quickly enough as to not notice that much change, but when I am streaming something, or I want to upload a video it really makes a big difference. Glad I made that call, I almost gave up on that :P

Speed test from last month

New speed

Unexpected gift...

Last week while at Michelle's house I saw that this south park figures near her computer, I was watching them and said that they were really cool (south park is one of my favorite show), she asked me if I wanted them and I could not resist to say yes, she gave both figures to me, but I forgot them in her house, yesterday she gave me the figures again and made me put them in my backpack so I don't forget them again (seriously I have short term memory problems :P, I almost forgot them again). 

Garlic and paprika bread...

It had been a long time since I baked some bread, and since I was going to eat at my friends (Michelle) house I decided to make some. This time I made some Garlic and Paprika bread, I woke up earlier than normal to do it since it takes some time to prepare the dough and let it rise.

It took me a few hours to make this bread, but only like 2 of real work, while it was rising I decided to watch Doctor Who, but I really didn't like the series so much, I watched like 6 episodes, but in the end I decided to watch something else other time.

This is my third time making this bread, and I must say that it tasted awesome the first time, and this time it was much better and it took me less time to make it. I took half to Michelle's house and left the other half in my house, in both places they liked it, that really made me happy :).

Ok, so here is the recipe if anyone wants to make it

Ingredients:
(dough)
900g of flour (triple zero if you have access to it, I used all purpose flour since that is the only one I can get here, but it worked)
520ml of milk (or soy milk for my vegan friends :P)
60ml of water
15g of oil
20g of salt
40g of sugar
30 or 40 grams of fresh yeast

(topping)
1/2 cups of butter (or vegan butter)
2 tbsp of garlic powder
4 or 5 garlic cloves (or as much as you like)
paprika

Ok, so the process to this bread is easy, first of all get all the ingredients of the dough in a bowl big enough to hold more than 2 times the quantity of dough it is already holding, it will rise very much.
If you knead by machine it only needs 5 to 10 minutes (15 to 25 if done by hand), until the dough feels silky smooth and has a sticky consistency just enough to stick to your hand (a little) but not enough as to not be able to remove it from your hand.

Let it rise until it has doubled its size, and while this happens prepare the garlic by slicing it thin, then fry it until it looks caramelized (it should be done at low heat so the garlic won't burn and/or get bitter), also add your garlic powder to the butter (melted butter) and mix them. You should have 3 containers, one with the butter and garlic powder, another with the fried garlic and the last one with the paprika.

After this is done and the dough has raised you should make small buns with the dough (it is suggested to make them weight like 20 or 30 grams, but it is a pain to weight them, so just try to not make them too big, they will rise again), each bun should be passed through the butter, then garlic and finally the paprika. Then it should be placed in a loaf pan (which should have wax paper so the bread won't stick to the loaf pan), it doesn't matter if the buns do not cover all the areas in the loaf pan, they will do it after they rise. Also, after each layer of buns you can add some butter from the one you are using to give it a little more flavor. After all the buns are in place use the remaining butter in top of the buns.

After all the buns are placed in the loaf pan you should let it rise again (it is your choice to let it rise as much as you like, just bear in mind that if you let it rise too much it could fall from the pan, I let it rise like 1 1/2 hours, but that is your choice), after that you should make a support with some foil (so the bread won't fall while in the oven).

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, when the oven is ready put the bread in and let it cook for about 40 minutes. After the time has passed you can get it out of the oven and let it cool for about an hour (or if you can't resist take some buns and let them cool apart). And that's it, it takes some time, but it is easy, and it goes well with many things (today I even ate some with cold coffee and it was awesome).

Almost done...

Today I worked again with the bikes I wrote yesterday again, I was checking what parts were in good condition and which ones were not, if I need to buy something or what can I use and repair on my own before investing money in it.

So far it looks that I will not have to invest too much (for the moment), the spokes and the rims are in good condition (well, I had to take the rear wheel from the other bike, but two of them were alright), they are aligned well, I had to change the Rear Derailleur from one of the bikes, it needs new tires (the ones it had are too old). The breaks are in good condition, I just need to adjust them, that's easy, I had to change one of the pedals, the chain is in good condition too, just needs to be oiled. I need the front light since it is broken, but for the moment I don't think I will be using it in the night, so it can wait.

Maybe next week I will finish it, when I buy the new tires, then I just adjust the breaks and it will be ready and alive again.

Old bike resurrection...

So, I had this bike from many years ago that I haven't used in a long time, well, actually there are two identical bikes, but none is in good shape to use it as is. And I decided to repair at least one, I took them and cleaned them and was trying to figure what was the problem with each one, but I didn't try so hard, the heat was killing me and I had other things to do. I will continue tomorrow with them and see what I can do, if I can repair one and what should I need to buy or fix. Or if none can be saved start saving to buy a new one :/

Ask and thou shall receive...

...an answer that you never expected.

So, one of my sisters and I went with my mom to buy some food (well, my dad and my other sister were there too, but they went to buy something else and pay some bills) my sister and I get along pretty well and we always annoy each other for fun, today was no different, at some point we were asking my mom questions but not getting answers, she just laugh with us :).

Later we started asking questions about our births and everything, who was planned and who was not, who was an accident, who was adopted. She was saying that everyone was planned or expected and I asked her "No, really, one of us had to not be planned", and her response was that I actually wasn't planned, LOL, I love my mom, she said it so natural that I just laughed XD, she told me that the IUD failed and she got pregnant with me. That's what I get for asking too many questions.

I love her honesty and that no one in my family would care about something like that as to make drama out of it, just make fun until something funnier happens.

Competitive...

One of my sisters and her boyfriend were playing Marvel vs Capcom 3, a fighting game, I don't like nor dislike this kind of games, but must of the times I prefer not to play them (except for smash, that game is awesome with four people that know how to play), I used to play them though, with my brother, but it has been so much time since that.

Well, I just went to the dinner room to get some water and my sister asked me if I wanted to play, I refused, but then her boyfriend asked me if I wanted to play a reta with him, my competitiveness just made me say yes. I haven't played this kind of games in many years, and I have not used controllers for some years now (keyboard + mouse FTW), so I thought that I would lose in a minute.

Well, to my surprise I won and it was a decent fight, after that my sister wanted to play with me too, and I just crushed her :P (no mercy), and then her boyfriend again, lol, I was having so much fun, then I handicapped myself by using random characters and I lost. After some more fights my brother came by and wanted to fight me too, I won just by luck with him, he is so much better than me at this kind of games. I had so much fun, and after some fights things got more balanced, I still won most of the times, but I wasn't just crushing them.

I think I was there like an hour, and I just went for some water :P, it was worth it, jeje.

BTW, this same thing happens with my other sister boyfriend too, but he plays smash and most of the times I have no mercy either :P

Tea

For the last months I have been drinking tea at least once or twice a week, I wasn't a big fan of it some years ago, even though I really liked to drink from time to time some. I have been developing some taste for it and have tried different kind of teas, and since I decided to reduce the amount of Coca cola that I drink (only under certain circumstances), I see it as an alternative.

The end of an era...

Today I watched HP7 second part with Mari and Sergio, and after so much time it is finally over. The movie was cool, I really liked it, though I must say I was a little disappointed, but not with the movie, it was great. I heard that the new trailer for Batman Dark Knight Rises was going to be shown in this movie (maybe it was just in the US), but instead we got the trailer for jet another Twilight movie, that was lame...

I think that for a moment some girls were all excited and screaming when the trailer started, but since no one followed them they shut up.

Well, I'll have to wait for the trailer (The Batman one, not the other one :P) to be put up on youtube or somewhere else.

Public Transportation

One thing I really hate here in Juarez is public transportation, not only are the drivers irresponsible, do not follow transit rules, race each other, have the units in a pretty shitty state, are smelly, well, they have many problems.

Today I had to take a bus in the morning, I usually try to get early to the hour I might need to take it so if the first that passes just decides to not pick me up I still have the chance with one or two more or take another one and change somewhere in between, well, today I wasn't that early, I actually had to take the first one that passed or I would be late.

Lucky me it passed not more than 2 minutes after I got to "the bus stop", but not so lucky, it was almost full, well, I took it and was pretty uncomfortable and I was near the entrance, some people got out and some got in and I was able to get a little farther inside. More people got inside the bus than the ones that got out, and after each stop more and more people came in, I don't really know how so many people got in, it was pretty full when I took it and most of the stops were so more people could get in.

That was for more than two thirds of the ride, at the end I had my right arm sore because of the uncomfortable position and the effort I had to do so I would not fall because of the driver.

Books...

So, a friend lend me "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" today, I know that Stephen King is a great author, but I have only read one book of him and only watched a few movies, I don't remember when (many years ago), Sergio lend me "The Long Walk", great book, I really liked it, but I am not a novel person, even though, I want to read this one, and maybe later some other, but only time will tell. Right now I am reading a Mark Twain book and I am enjoying it, once I finish it I will continue with Stephen King.

City underwater...

Well, today I spend most of my day downtown and it didn't rain here, at least not as much as it seems it rained all the way home, when I was going home at first there wasn't much water in the streets, but once I got to certain point (near Rio Grande) it was somewhat flooded, but just a little, but once I got to the "Parque Central" area it was as always flooded, the traffic was all slow. It took me almost double the time I normally would do to get home, all because this part near the "Parque Central" that always floods, and naturally all the traffic is slow as hell.

Torchlight...

In the last week I have been playing this new game (well the game is old, but I just bought it last week) by the name of Torchlight, a hack and slash dungeon crawl action RPG game a la Diablo, I am enjoying it very much, though not as much as I did with the original Diablo or Diablo II, I was obsessed with those games like ten years ago :P

Like most RPGs as you get quests that you must do in each level while you progress, this game is not different, the main plot starts with the main character being send to some mines near the town were you start the game (Torchlight) to search for the mentor of a sage that disappeared near the mines. Well, the story is not the main attractive of this game, but the likeliness with Diablo, and what made it so addictive.

Here is some footage that I recorded just a few hours ago:

Pictionary...

Today I hang out with Sergio and Mary... our plans wa to either to go to skate (Ice skating) or play pool, unfortunately we weren't able to do it :P

But there is always something else to do.... like this, just don't try it at home,

Well, maybe not the best example of what you can do when you are bored, but it kept us busy for some minutes. Later we played Pictionary with Pelon, Claudia, Daniel (I think) and another guy (I really can't remember his name), it was very cool (BTW Mari, Sergio and I won the game). Some of the drawings were really hilarious and other were just weird, some were easy, other... just didn't make sense, but all in all, and even though we were not able to do what we wanted, we had a great time :)

Mari's interpretation of a trophy and nose picking

My drawings of a martian and an Anteater (I think that the drawing in the middle was a black sheep, but it wasn't mine).

Trying new things...

As I already wrote, yesterday I tried a new recipe, but this time was different, most of the times I cook things I know I like or that I think I will like, though, this time I wanted to make something for my friend (the one from Chile), but the problem was that I didn't know any recipe from Chile, but thanks to Mr. Google I found some good ones.

I read some and decided what I would do, my choice was "pumpkin Sopaipillas" a fried pastry that is made near the central part of Chile, this was easy (except for the pumpkin part :P), but I have to admit that at first I was a little confused because the recipe didn't say how much water was needed, while I was kneading I looked for more recipes of the same dish to see if it was right, but all of them were the same, the last one I read said that it doesn't need water because the pumpkin has all it needs, it took some time for all the flour to incorporate to the dough, but in the end the recipe I read was right, no extra water was needed if made correctly.

This dish is served with "chancaca sauce" (chancaca=piloncillo in Mexico) and it gives it an awesome flavor.

I have to admit that I wasn't sure if what I had made was right, I mean, it looked like the ones in the photos, but I had never eaten or seen something like this in my life, well, they passed the Chilean test, my friend was very happy when I gave her the Sopaipillas and said that they tasted like the ones her mom makes, and the sauce was good too (though it was too liquid), that really made me happy :) and that's one of the things I love about cooking.

If at first you don't succeed...

...use a bigger knife.

So, today was my first time cooking some pumpkin (I'll write tomorrow what I did with it :P), I knew it had a hard shell, but no one told me how hard it was, I thought it would be like a watermelon or maybe a little harder.  At first I picked a thin but sharp knife and thought that it would be easy, well, wrong, when I was trying to cut trough it I thought for a moment that it would break if I did a wrong move, so I did the best thing I could think of, picked a bigger and stronger knife, it felt weird because I knew it was not cutting the shell, but breaking it, well, it got the job done and I continued with what I was going to do. But still, it was too damn hard, and thankfully there was not an accident while cutting it :P

The little things that make the difference...

I was playing with Google+ and made a post, after I published my post I received a notification that I could edit it, this is something I have always wanted in Facebook since I sometimes forget to do a spell check or don't notice anything wrong (attention deficit ftl :P) at first, this might not be a big addition, or a deal breaker, but it feels nice to know that you can just edit something without having to delete the whole post.

Opportunities...

Today I went to the "secretaría de salud y asistencia" because someone told me that there might be job opportunities for psychologist there, I updated my curriculum to list the new courses I had attended in the past months because since I do not have that much experience working it could help me a little than not listing them.

Well, to tell the truth it was almost a waste of time, they were not receiving any job application or curriculum for the moment, but they will in august which is a good thing, I will give it a try next month. I will continue searching in other places.

After that I went to the "Centro Colegiado" which is an institution founded by the "Colegio de Psicólogos" to give some maintenance to the computers there, well just one. Every time I come here I stay and talk to any one that I know from here, either a friend that works full time here, the president of the "Colegio de Psicólogos" or the treasurer (the two last were my teachers in school).

I was talking today to the treasurer and told her that I went to the place I mentioned at the start of the post and the little misfortune I had there. After that she asked me if I had any experience in vocational/education guidance, and I actually have some and I really like that area, in my three semesters in practices it was the one I worked the most since I had to do the work of three persons (I did not say that last part :P). 

Well, she proposed something to me, since no one in the institution has taken that area and I like it, I should make a proposal for a work project, it will be lots of work for me in the next month and if I make it right it will be much more work after that, I am so excited because of this. But I will still be looking for a job, I need a permanent one, this will only be for some seasons. I am still waiting for a reply to another job application I made last week in another institution that is only accepting members of my college, but the responsible was on vacation >.<.

Well, long post, I will leave you with a fantastic song for today, enjoy.

Unsubscribe... *click*

I spent some time today to unsubscribe to many YouTube accounts and websites. I did it because I either no longer watch/read them or I am no longer interested in them. I left like 40 YouTube accounts in my channel, but only like ten of them upload regularly, I do not know know how I managed to get so many subscriptions there, but at least I will not get so many updates in my channel now.

In respect of the websites, I really didn't have that many subscriptions but I made the decision to not visiting them anymore because I feel that I could be doing something more useful for me with the time I wasted with some of them. I bid farewell for the entertainment that I had with them, but I have to let them go :P

...and then I realized that it was already night

Today was a total waste of time, I watched movies almost all day, I mean, I did some things, but nothing important.  

One of my sisters rented some movies yesterday but I had no time to watch any of them. Since I had nothing important today I decided to watch one of them, it was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, it was good, I have been wanting to read the books (from the millennium trilogy) for some time and now that I watched the movie I want to read them more. 

The second movie I watched was actually the continuation of the movie, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and I really liked it too, unfortunately I did not found the third one, I do not know if it has been released here in Mexico, but now I want to watch it. 

The third and last movie I watched was Inglorious Basterds, and after this movie finished it was already night, I started to watch the first at 11 in the morning and finished past 8, totally worth it.

Portobello Mushroom Burgers...

Yesterday my dad bought some Portobello mushrooms because he wanted to eat some. Since yesterday I did not had time to do anything I used them today. Since there was some burger bread that no one was going to use I decided to make some Portobello Burgers. It was the first time that I prepare them, even though I knew how to do it from a long time (I watched a BBQ program in PBS some time ago and they made something similar).

I marinated the mushrooms, prepared the "grill", cut some vegetables and in a few minutes they were done. I thought it would take more time, but it was quick and easy. My dad and I liked them, it had a good taste and texture, it did not feel too different from a normal burger.

Also, while eating, my dad was watching the game between Mexico and France, I just watched the last minutes though, and the last seconds were awesome, I do not know who was the player that made the goalkeeper waste time, and I think it was a cheap trick (not wrong, just cheap :P), but it was freaking awesome XD.

This feels nice...

So, for a little more than two years I have only used dress shoes for walking instead of tennis shoes since I had to go "presentable" to school and my professional practices, I never found it uncomfortable, not even when I walked long distances, and I forgot about tennis shoes because of that, I had only a pair that I used in my home, but that was it, I never went out with them.

Yesterday I bought a pair again after so much time and I can feel the difference, they are more comfortable than my shoes.

Also, I am hearing Pain of Salvation once again, I love this band so much, specially the lyrics.

Blurry vision...

Today I went to watch the new transformers movie in 3D, it was cool and long :P, though, this post is not about the movie, I always have a little problem when watching movies in 3D, I can either use the 3D glasses and watch the movie blurry (well, actually it is mainly the subtitles) because I can't focus well, or I can watch it blurry with my prescription glasses :/ (well, I have never opted for this one :P), or I could try a third option, using both glasses... well, it isn't a good Idea, I did this some time ago and it was uncomfortable and I got a headache .

There should be a better option for those of us who wear glasses...

Not enough...

There is a problem when someone buys a 10 litter bucket of water to prepare some "agua fresca" and it isn't enough. Well, my mom bought it to make some "agua de jamaica", we love it here, and since every time she prepares some, it just disappears she decided to do that much.

To tell the truth, I never thought it would be enough, and I was right thinking that. I wen't out today and before leaving there were like 7 litters of it. I got home late and there was only a 2 litter jar with less than half a litter, it didn't last a minute. Oh, I love the taste of home made "agua de jamaica", specially how my mom makes it because she just uses the right amount of sugar to make it just a little sweet and conserve the taste of the "flor de jamaica".