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04-24-2003 12:13am I am working. I feel the need to work and keep myself busy to keep from thinking about other things. I am not sure if it will keep me from thinking about the wrong things or solve my problems but it will certainly make me productive. I think I have found someone to make music for the project I am currently working on at a minimal cost or so I hope. We shall see. I am suppose to meet with him to see whether he he can provide me with music that will match the scenes and the mood of it all. In all honesty, this journal is here so I can rant and rave in hope that it will make me feel better and figure things out in my head. Thus, I give ou a picture of what I am feeling right now.
 Have you ever seen a stagnant pool of water in the middle of a forest? When you see it from far away, it seems beautiful and calm and if you are lucky, you may even see a deer timidly approach it to take a drink of fresh water. However, as you approach closer and closer to this small body of water you begin to hear the mosquitos flying through the air. As you get to the edge of the pond a stench seems to rise from the water. Where does this stench come from you ask yourself? Where did all of these mosquitos come from you wonder? It all comes from the water because it is at a stand still. There is no current, no breeze of air to let the water breath. Nothing new comes in and nothing new comes out and it festers. Any questions? I feel like the pond and I must open my horizons and get my new ideas out and get new ideas in. I feel as if I must broaden my horizon for ever since moving here, my brain has turned to mush. I am no longer using or expending my mind and it is driving me crazy. However, I don't like to see myself like this so that is why I am bringing changes to my life. 04-22-2003 3:13am
 Happy belated Easter to everyone. I actually did not get to go to mass but I did say a prayer. I thanked God for all of the opportunities that he has given me and for the well-being of all of those that I love. How odd that I would even be mentioning God with a capital “G” in my weblog. I always thought that I would be the last one to do so. Especially since that accident that happened back in my high school days at Chaminade. Yet, here I am with what little faith I have left just looking for trouble in an unknown backyard. On Easter evening, I ran into some friends and we went to this bar/restaurant called Rios in San Pedro. As we sat around this round table on the outside patio of the restaurant in front of three glasses of beer and a pitcher we began to talk about many things and about nothing. As the night passed by under the cool Costa Rican night we somehow ended up at my house for more drinks and a smoke. It was then, that the wheels began to roll and the passion and the dedication of old returned home to this old man. The discipline shall remain and beware of the dust that will follow my path to my dreams. Watch as I make my dreams come true. I am not making very long term plans because I do not want to think too far in the future. I do want to do something that I have always wanted to do and that is to make short movies and start and independent news agency. Why not here and why not now? The way I see it, I have a year to accomplish this and a year is plenty of time. I have with me a few highly motivated people that are as hungry as I am. And so I ask myself, what more do I need? Exactly…
04-19-2003 2:14pm Since this website is about yours tuly, I thought that I would share some more information about my likes and dislikes. Today's topic wil be my favorite asian actress. Let's hear it for miss Linda Park!!!. As the majority of you know, I am a Star Trek fan and a few years ago when my Trek buddy Kevin from Coca-Cola told me that they were coming out with the new Star Trek series called, Enterprise, I was all over it.
Ok, maybe I'm not that big of a Star Trek fan since I had to have a friend tell me about the new Star Trek series when it first came out but that is not the point. The point is that I like Star Trek and that I think she is a very talented person. Anyway, she plays Hoshi Sato on Enterprise and she is plays a linguist genuis on the show. OK, so that's it for this week's edition of something new you may or may not have known about Frederick. 12:30pm Woke up a bit late again today. I was actually pretty tired because of the night before last. I didn't write anything about it in my last entry because I had other things on my mind but yes, had a little get together last Thursday and the two girls that were there were such bores. The only we accomplished that night was drink all of the stocked up alcohol which meant that last night, there was nothing to drink. However, today we are once again able to buy alcohol!!!
Everything is still quiet in San Jose however, things are not as quiet as the past two days. Life in San Jose is slowly starting to come back. One thing I have ben asking myself is whether the McDonalds in the U.S. have the "mini mac". They just started selling them in the McDonalds in San Jose. A Mini Mac is a Big Mac except that it is smaller and only has one beef patty and two buns with the secret sauce and some lettuce. Yes, the fast food restaurants are more or less the same in the U.S. as they are in Costa Rica except for a few different things on the menu. For example, they do not sell mash potatoes and gravies at KFC nor do they have biscuits at McDonalds.
I put the above picture on the left to tell you a bit about the habits of Ticos. I took this picture while I was trying to answer of of nature's call. So yes, it was taken in a bathroom. You see in Costa Rica, when people go do a number 2, people do not throw there used toilet paper in the toilet bowl. Instead, they insist that you throw it in a trash can nearby so the toilet paper won't clog the toilet. Talk about disgusting. I don't know about you but I am spoiled from being American and I just have a hard time taking a dump in a public bathroom when I have a heap of smelly and colorful toilet paper next to me(Just be glad that I didn't post a picture of that in this entry!). I just feel sorry for the person that has to empty the trash can. From what I hear, they don't even do it everyday. Bon appetit!!!! 04-18-2003 1:19pm Easter Weekend is about to start and all of these images of the past are starting to flood my mind. Memories that will always bring a smile to my face and life to my eyes. There is not an exact age or time frame for those memories but that is not important to me. What is important is that that we were all kids and loved Easter. We probably loved Easter for the wrong reasons. The wrong reasons as we or at least, I did not celebrate it because Jesus Christ rose from the grave. No, it was for a different reasons. Don't get me wrong, our family did go to mass for Easter and we were in general good little Christians; however, it was more of a ritual for our household to go to mass for Easter then anything else. No, what I loved about Easter was the chocolate!!! Once mass was over, we would have a big happy feast at our house. Sometimes with friends and relatives and sometimes it would just be our family. We would get back from mass and while we all waited for dinner to be ready, us kids would just play games and have fun while getting dirty in our Sunday's best while the adults would just talk about whatever it is that adults talk about and get dinner ready. Once dinner was over, our parents would take out these chocolate bunnies that had been hidden for weeks in my parent's closets for fear that we would find them and eat them before Easter arrived. Now, I'm not taling about those little chocolate bunnies the size of a fist. I am talking about a chocolate bunny the size of a small dog!!! In between mouthfuls of chocolat, my brother and sisters would always talk about which part of the bunny is the best. I can still picture us with a glass of milk in front of us and our lips covered with sweet tasty chocolate. Just laughing and enjoying this great chocolate holiday. My older brother would say that the best parts are the ears because they are made of solid chocolate while the rest was hollow. I would say the eyes and the nose because it had some type of candy on them to make it look realistic. My parents on the other hand would get for themselves Easter eggs with a rich chocolate shell and filled with different flavors like peanut butter, strawberries, nougat and so on. My dad would take the egg out of its colorful Easter wrapping and cut each of us a slice. Yum, my mouth is just watering at the thought of a peanut butter filled chocolate egg. We were hungry for chocolat but we never ate it all in one day. Not that we would be able to if we want it to since we are talking about a lot of chocolat here. We would eat a good amount but would save the rest of it for the next day and the next day. The name of the game was to make the chocolate lasts for as many days as possible because you never knew when would be the next time that our parents would buy us sweets. By saving it as lons as possible, that was guaranteed chocolat!!! The thing that made the chocolate so good was not because it was fancy. We weren't eating Godiva chocolate or anything expensive. What made it so good to eat was because growing up, my parents rarely bought us sweets. Heck, the cereals we ate were always the healthy stuff. My mother would never buy us the cereals that were loaded with food colorants and chemicals dipped in chocolat and sugar. No, we would always eat the raisin brand, corn flakes, etc... So it wa a treat that we were able to eat chocolate without having to sneak it in the house. But the most important reason was because we were a family eating and laughing together on a joyous holiday. This is what makes great memories and this is what I miss about the Easters of my youth. 04-17-2003 1:58pm Last night I bought some beer to get ready for this weekend. Not that I am an alcoholic or anything but I am slowly trying to get ready for the weekend since they will stop selling alcohol for three days. Beer of choice, Costa Rica's own Imperial. I am so bored right now. I woke up somewhat late this morning aroun 9:30am. Didn't get a very good night of sleep because the mosquitoes were biting and I had to hide under my covers so they wouldn't bit me but then, it gets hot after a while. It's not really them biting me that is the worst part. It is hearing that annoying buzzing sound next to your ear. Argh, I can't stand it. I suppose that it is the price of living in a 3rd world country. And then, around 4:30am the phone rings and it is just a stupid drunk girl looking for attention. I need to call her sometimes to bitch her out So I am up and not doing anything productive except helping the Tico coffee growers by drinking a few gallons of coffee. Extra strong no cream. I do have to admit that Tico coffee is very flavorful. Probably some of the best coffee I have ever drunk. In other news, I also found out that Sister Susan had some health problem on her trip to Vietnam and had to be flown back to the U.S. I hope she is alright and even though I have never met her except maybe when I was but a baby in war-torn Vietnam, I feel a kind of bond to her because she was there in the orphanages and helping out in taking care of all of us adoptees and during Operation Babylift. I know that it is a routine operation nowadays but I still worry. 04-16-2003 8:55pm Lately, I have been following the case about Katrina Leung where she is accused of being a double spy. I am really not sure what to think about the whole story. Many news agencies have written about the matter and for some odd reasons, it just doesn't add up. Here are a few links that may help you understand the story better:
Hopefully more evidence will shed some more light on the matter but I always thought that spies were low key people and she certainly was not. She was actually a very strong community oriented business woman who was a known activitist in the Chinese community, a GOP party member, and was part of many councils in Los Angeles. I really can't say she whether she is guilty or not but I just hope she doesn't end up like the original Mata Hari. Why? because Mata Hari may have been innocent in a time were people were looking to burn people at the end of WWI. 10:41am Here is an article I had read a few days ago and I thought it was news worthy considering that this is part of the start of wars throughout the world. I got it from the AFP.
Which brings me to an other point about the large companies.(God save my soul I love The Coca-Cola Company even though I know what it does and what it has done. yes, I use to work for them. Just think about it this way, we have about 59 companies that have been doing illegal trading with Iraq and various countries that are under embargo. Whether an embargo on a country is right or wrong I will not discuss it at this moment but keep in mind what else goes on in these large companies. If they are willing to break an embargo, what else are they willing to do to make a buck? Check out these websites to see the full story.
04-15-2003 10:36pm What a wonderful day. It is warm and sunny(but then again, isn't it always here!), I can hear an ice cream vendor outside my window and my laundry is hanging outon the balcony. my cup of coffee is just the right strength and temperature and I got a good night of sleep. What more can a man ask for?
It's little things that make living abroad so great. This morning, I went to buy tomatoes because I needed them to cook lunch and I was bitching to myself how the price went up. As I walked home with my bag of tomatoes. I realized how silly I was because if I was back in the U.S. I would have paid alot mor for them. LOL, the price for my tomoatoes today was actually 150 colones for 2 kilos which is really cheap if you think about it since it cost me less then 50 American cents to buy them. How the joys of travelling.
These past few day San Jose has been very very quiet. You see, in Costa Rica, the people are very religious in certain things and one of these things are holidays. Since Easter is next weekend here they call the week of Easter Semana Santa or holy week. I am not exactly sure what they are suppose to be doing religious-wise but I noticed that the majority of ticos end up going to the beach for the whole week. Oh yeah, on a sadder note, I won't be able to buy any type of alcohol for the whole weekend because if Semana Santa as well. 04-12-2003 1:00pm Glad to hear that all of the U.S. POWs have been accounted for. I am happy yet still sad for all of the people U.S., Iraqi, British, and everybody else that was hurt or killed by the war. I also read an interesting article from www.arabnews.com you may be interested in reading. Hamza Dushgani is the author of this article and even though Imay not wholly agree with him. He certainly seems educated about the matter and does have a way to make his point across.
One thing that I am tired of hearing about is how the governments of France, Russia, and Germany keep making political statements wanting this and that. An example is right now they keep criticizing the coalition troops telling them that they need to keep people from looting and vandalizing the cities. Gee, don't they realize that the coalition forces already know that? Don't they see that they are already making and implemting plans to do just that? But of course they have to put in there 2 cents so they can seem like the good guys. So they can seem like they are the people keeping an eye on things to make sure that all of the Geneva Convention rules of engagement and war are obeyed. It makes me sick to see people acting like they are righteous by making TV appearances and having meetings to discuss these problems to make sure the coalition forces do not cross the line. If they cared so much, why don't they have troops down there to keep the looters away? Probably because it is easier to criticize then to spend their own money and soldiers, MPs whatever to keep things at peace. Yeah, they talk big but if they are so righteous, where were they when all of the Iraqi people were living under an oppressed regime in fear of Saddam? Where were they when this village in the Congo was massacred in March? Where are they now? They talk but I see no actions. People do not want words. They want action. 11:19pm
As to the war well, I'm actually getting annoyed with all of those protesters. I am sure that most of them mean well but wh do they keep changing their perspective and their demands? First they are anti-war and now they are no longer anti-war but anti-occupation. Gee, I wonder why. Is it perhaps because they finally took notice that many Iraqis were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein? Or was it perhaps they realized that the it was good to free all of these children from Saddam regime jails? or was it perhaps after they saw on the news all of the atrocities that the Saddam regime had commited?Anyway, here is an interesting article on the web about anti-war activists.
This last article is in French so I hope you can read it
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