The winter has arrived

 

2 weeks, that’s the time we will have between semesters and  its our winter vacations, depending on the person that could be a short period or not, maybe we had that different perception due we are back to presential classes and till now we didn’t had a significant long strike. I will use the first week for business, I had to travel to the south to see some familiars and their fields, even in winter there is still work to do, and one of them made a greenhouse (sort of)  two weeks ago, and that also mean that they need to be careful with fungus, and what crops they decide to grow.

About the second week, I would like to rest and sleep the more the better, and if is possible meet with some old friends.  Due my work in weekends and the university, I usually can’t reunite with them, and yes we can’t forget the quarantine, but they also are busy with their own life so there is the chance that the meeting wouldn’t be possible. But the thing that I need to do is the seasonal cleaning. Yes this sure doesn’t sound very exiting, maybe I could try watching a movie , but going alone to the cinema its boring.

Things to do

 The truth is that  from some time I make a list  of things to do per day or week,  to be more organizated due the mix of social life, the university & part-time Jobs. So technically I have a list for all the days and the one for the next 10-15 years that I made in 2016, I will focus in the first  half of the last  one.

-Finish the university: From the examples of friends and family I learned that the percentage of dropouts in the first years of the university skyrocketed cuz most tof the young adults  weren’t sure of what to do, picked something and after one or two semester   they had the realization that they had no vocation or it wasn’t  like what they though, and there is the  mental health factor. But I’m currently one year  and some months apart from the graduation.

-Learn how to swim: I almost drown at 7 years old , till this day I don’t  know how to swim properly , I know how stay afloat for like 8 minutes and barely swim in a  “dog- frog style”. In this sumer I would like take a course.

-Learn how to drive: I don’t like cars, even when 6 of my close family members worked with cars, but to work  and in case of an emergency its important to know how to drive. I would like to get a license before the next summer , and twice per month a cousin is teaching me how to drive in a square, 3 days and 0 crashes (:D)

-The fear of dentist : After find out that I had tolerance for anesthesia  while being in a procedure, I got a trauma in the dentist. The smell of fluor or the sound of that drill-like tool scares me . While in the covid quarantine  a psicologist friend helped me to confront the fear , the only step that is left is to talk with other dentist to understand that they are humans and no evil butchers.

Scary or Funny

 My oldest memory of a cartoon in the TV is  the “Looney Tunes”& “Tom & Jerry” , yes there were countless other kid shows  at that time , but I’m more fonded of the comedy cartoons  along with the scary ones like “Scooby-Doo” or  “Courage the Cowardly Dog”, yes we had cable until 2003. As I grew up , the free time was less and also the signal was bad where I lived (this was around  2003-2006 ),  there where only 2 Tv Chanels : The 4 &13. The 13 had cartoons in the evening (The simpsons and Futurama), the 4 had cartoons only in the morning while I was in school. Time pased and we moved to Santiago(the cable returned) and I start watching some series like “ Supernatural & How I met your mother”(the first one ended after 15  years  not so long ago its currently in HBO MAX). Just recently I started “re-watching” old series that I didn’t like that much when I was more young, like “31 minutes”  or “Samurai Jack” , this time I could apreciate it better and I felt ashamed  for that, a good friend tought me how value old shows and series : the trick is to be aware of the production context and the limitations they had at the time, that’s how  I meet “The Office” & “Scrubs” I love those shows (this without considering that they are goldmines of memes )

Philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka

Back in the day, during the first week here in the university, the professor of “practice 1” give us a list of “The books that every graduated should know”, some of them told the history of the agriculture in Chile and the world, “The green revolution” and “The One-straw revolution”. I didn’t know the last one so I started reading about it, and the author: Masanobu Fukuoka. Sadly, he died in 2008; his deeds and teaching had advocacy for a conservationist and ecological type of agriculture, this also was part of his philosophy “the ultimate goal of farming is not growing of crops but the cultivation and perfection of human beings” .

One of his most remarkable works was the perfection of the “seed bomb”, this an old technique used till this day to regenerate desertic & eroded lands, it consists of a mud ball filled with different kinds of seeds which provides suitable conditions for the growth of the future plants.

 

Someday, if possible, I would like to pay respect in his grave. 

Repair the world!

 A proffesor once said that the profile of the graduates of this university is a mix of “Jack of all trades” and a “odd-job man”, but that in the core we are aplicated ecologist,  because we can link all the seven branch , that are in the undergraduate program with the ecology ,  and if you add the antropologic and cultural factors we meet the requirements to help the world, like in this two examples .

Due the economical restriction to Rusia and the consecuent  cut of the natural gas suminister  the whole  fertilizer industry is in stop, and we can see the effects in South Africa,  Peru and Brasil(we had a lack of phosphorous compounds and the nitrogen increased their cost), this lead to a bad yield,  of this compouds is skyrocketing the risk of a lack of food in global scale; this could be remediated with agroecological practices that ensure the regular yield (compost and such).

Another big problem is the deforestation and erotion, we all can see those mountains dry  since decades ago, the lack of rain is to blame but also the intervention of people, even with that , in the span of a few years that condition can be fixed , but currently the initiatives to doing that are almost none.

Where to go?

 1-Antartica:  Just to clarify,  I would like to go  (Alongside with the north pole) but not as a tourist , because normaly you  can only see the border of the continent, the icebergs and some seal or penguin. But if you are a researcher you can get a different and most complete perspective of the place , like a professor of the university who goes with regularity because she is a specialist in paleobotany.

2-Grand Canyon:  I remember that in a documentary , that i watched  while being a kid,  explained that for centuries (prior the English invaders arrive to the continent) lots of natives tribes like the navajo survived and lived  there , it was  harsh to belive that , and im sure that being there would make that feeling more stronger  along with  respect and admiration. 

3-Petra: Photos and videos help, but seeing how those structures were made thousands of years before by hand, makes you valorize what mankind is capable of.

A sea of clouds

In higschool our Art teacher made an experimental subject  for a project "memes and clasic art", the objetive was a more friendly aproach to  classic paintings and hints to recognice their author by their technique. It resulted in  very sacrilegius and humorous memes, mines where simplistics tho. Years after that ,and mostly due work experiences , I could experience a  scene similar to the  paint but in real life twice!. The paint  is Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818 )by Caspar David Friedrich, and the first time I impersonate the paint was in the Costanera Center half year before the "Sky Costanera" was open for public;  to reach there you needed take two elevators  and one day , while working in the parking , he invited us for a ride, it was winter and we  where above the clouds an amazing view !!. The second time I had to travel to Valdivia very fast for work , it was my very first flight, and  a while after the launch and the turbulence , we could see the "Sea of clouds" , a wonderful view .

(A classical art meme )