Vimeo – $60 a year for extra features, and the ability to upload up to 5GB of video a week. Vimeo > than youtube because there’s no cap on file size or length, whereas with youtube you’re limited to something like 1GB or 10 minutes, whichever comes frist.  I decided to go with this to suppliment my Kodak Zi8, as I plan to upload my class lectures here.  

Another guy in the class and I both had the idea at the same time, but this is the first time my two current professors have been recorded.  As IT Gurus, I could see their minds racing when I asked if I could put the files online.  One said it was okay, the other is thinking about it because he wants to write a book from his slides.  

One of the interesting things about the program is that it’s not really focused on using technology.  None of our classrooms are “smart” and they don’t demo or really talk about this program or that program.  It’s kind of a mishmash as the students are left to their own devices to solve problems and understand things the way they want.  About half the class doesn’t bring a laptop, and I’ll bet of the half that do, they don’t use it to take notes.  Maybe after working with technology all week, everyone is just like “Fuck that.”  

LogMeIn Pro^2 (squared?) – $12 a month for some cool dashboard features, FTP style transfer and music streaming.

I find myself not wanting to deal with multiple locations and desktops while I’m studying at Wai’s place, so I’ve decided to kind of use her barely capable computer as a thin client to my home computer.  

It’s actually not too bad, although I still do word processing and Excel on her computer.  The music streaming is pretty cool though, and after about 10 seconds of shaky buffering it’s solid.  In the future when she gets some kickass speakers, I look forward to streaming my music to her place while I’m there.

Written in 1989 by Laura Esquivel as a monthly serial, Like Water for Chocolate reminds me most of English classics like David Copperfield and Jayne Eyre. The book follows Tita, an unlucky girl who is fated to take care of her mother until she dies.

But unlike the oriental notion of filial piety, Tita is forbidden to marry or love. Her fate is made even crueler by the fact this isn’t some crazy Mexican thing, it’s just something her cunt of a mom made up.

Plot wise, Like Water for Chocolate is a basic Bildungsroman coming-of-age story, no surprises there.

Stylistically, Like Water for Chocolate uses food as a major theme. Tita is an excellent cook, and the food she prepares has strange almost magical powers.

At one point, her passion is made into a Quail with Rose Petal dish that her sister Gertrudis eats. Gertrudis then becomes so damn hot and bothered that she strips off her clothes, takes a shower (which explodes because of all the steam), immediately runs away naked, is picked up in the field by a handsome revolutionary, and embraces him on the back of the horse as they ride away into the war.

There’s also a Chicken Tornado.

So it comes as no surprise that Esquivel’s masterpiece is aimed at women. It’s not a particularly steamy romance novel, but some sections are intense. Men play rather un-important supporting roles, mostly acting as characters for women to be married to. The book begins every chapter with a recipe, and also takes a little time out to explain folk home remedies.

I didn’t find these sections too long or boring, they were only two paragraphs at the worst. Similarly difficult was the fact that Like Water for Chocolate is originally a Spanish language book. I don’t think much was lost in translation. The biggest problem any American is going to fully understanding the backdrop of the Mexican revolution.

Still, the book is a romantic, fantastical, and interesting read. The reading went by quickly, I think I finished it in 4 days or so. I liked it, though it’s hard to recommend to this group. Let me just say that Like Water for Chocolate is what we should have read instead of David Copperfield, you might not of ended up hating books so much.