Sunday, April 17, 2005

Its a great sport!

What a weird feeling that is. Its a mix of "Go! Go! Go!" with a little of "Oooooh!" and "damn...!". Im talking about my short experience with lacrosse. Today while I was flicking the channels on the tv I came across a lacrosse match, and well, I had heard about it, but what I saw was noooothing like I had imagined!

First of all, there are a bunch of sweaty guys with sticks, tossing a small ball like the size of a tennis ball, and well, seems like everything is allowed, EVERYTHING... I had seen fights in hockey, but man, during the two minutes that I watched the match there were easily 4 fights, one after the other, it was a free-for-all! Man that gets you going! Specially when the goalies run against each other, jaja! They can barely move, but they can swing!

Secondly, the scores where unbelievable, it was like 17-10 or something, and no, its not like NFL scoring, but more like hockey. I mean, it goes in, it counts as one. It is exciting to see someone score, in almost any game. Not in the Ping Pong or Tennis sense where it is one after the other and it is needed to finish the match, but more like going from zero to 17 in 4 quarters and someone is swinging its stick at your face all the time.

Lacrosse is very like hockey, its played in a small closed rink, they go up and down pretty fast, the goalies are protected from any angle possible, they all carry sticks with a net, and they fight every so often. In spite of all that likeness, they do not use skates and they are not on ice - although it would be pretty fun if they were on ice WITHOUT skates.

Lacrosse has a lot to offer, it is a fast game, with a lot of scoring, tumbling, pushing, hitting with the stick and fist fights - its an adrenaline fix! Put in some buddies and beer and you´ve got a great evening!

ps- After the adrenaline had subsided I changed the channel. Some minutes later, I got curious again, so I changed it back to the game, jejeje, they were fighting.

Friday, April 15, 2005

Quote of the day!

This day, I really have acomplished a lot. I found another way to "how not to do salsa", I spent nearly 4 hours studying for this GMAT (what is it with roots anyways?) and I found a great quote of the day: "If it aint brok'n, break it and leave it." It's kinda like live and let live, carpe diem, just do it, and every other phrase that gives you the idea life is great and you should go outside and try new things. Thats because thats what i wanted to do all day while studying.

for those apple lovers, tiger is comming soon! we gotta have it!

jav

who you lookin' at?


brownie attitude
Originally uploaded by javomzt.
Are you talking to me? Cause I dont see anyone else here so you must be talking to me...

gotta se taxi again. I love that flick!

jav-out

Thursday, April 07, 2005

my photos

all my photos from now on will go on flickr. The address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/javo/. I will still use the .mac acount for my photojournalism. The flickr account is just photos in general.

cya

pictures

For all of you who actually read the post about the strike, here are the pictures- homepage.mac.com/ja.vazquez/PhotoAlbum8.html

Enjoy!

javo. out!

Quote of the day

"If police come charging against you, its probably not a good time to light up a cigarrete."

This I saw when this striker girl was about to light up when the shield banging started and everyone pushed her and she lost the cigarrete. Luckily the police stopped a few feet from her and she was able to recover the cigarrete and lighted up finally - ready to continue chanting.

disruptive measures

As some people know (cause i´ve told them), some students are on grève (strike) because some funky gray haired dude decided to move some funds to other things instead of scholarships. Big deal, its only 103$ million dollars. Anyways, the strike has been going on for some good 6-7 weeks in some Universities and colleges (cegep´s as they call them here) and lately they have been getting, well, disruptive. Their measures have been to disrupt the economic industry - so basically, every industry - by blocking streets, and things like that. Recently they got (yet another) offer from the government as to solve the problem, and well, the good guys said yes, but that it still has to be put on a vote by the whole student body - as if that were to do anything. Most students are potheads polisci (political science) hippies that just are against everything. Well, enough for an introduction, ill say my thing. Today they decided to "disrupt" the square victoria 800 building, where casually its where my blond works. She called me and told me about the grève in her building, so i just grabbed my camera and ran to it. There they were, blocking the elevators, just like the people I saw 3 years ago marching against bush and his war. All anarchist punk rocker hippie style looking. Some even smoking pot in the elevators (how rude, they didnt even share!). Anyways, so the first hour it was more like a party, dancing with their bongoes and guitar and flute and trumpet, all laughing and yelling things in french, while some high profile lawyers, ceo´s, vp´s and average joes and janes (probably pissed because they couldnt get to their offices) where arguing with the students, who would just start saying that its a free country, there should be free education, free food, free sex, free pot, no work, the government should pay for everything... well maybe I exagerated a little bit. I will try to stay bias here, but both sides should get their fair share. After a while of playing around and sleeping and burning, the police formed a line outside the building, probably 100 officers in their helmets and shields, ready for action. The evacuation process wouldve been simple, if the non-strikers wouldve left the building. But hey, everyone wanted to see some action! Protocol calls for a warning - order - to leave the building. Ha, it was like "We cant hear you! Sing louder!" And with a quick procession of bangin shields the police entered the building by one entrance, forming a line almost across the hall, facing the students. Shouts, spits, even flying plants could be seen in the gap that was left between the antagonic parties. One order, advance. So there they go, banging again the shields, pacing forward telling the students to go, "f@ck la police!" was the reply (I understood that!). Little by little the students were backing up, not without putting a good fight. I think I saw someone trying to hit a police officer, and well, that IS a crime and in that situation they can get arrested, so there he went, escorted to a police car (sorry but i cant feel bad for this guy). The police made their way accross the lobby and like cattle being moved around the students where between the door and the police. Option one, exit, option 2, exit with a broken nose. Tough decision. By then I had already moved outside that exit to get some shots. I heard some shields banging, and saw some students running. Theyre out of the building. On the manouver I saw a bystander (didnt look like a striker) fall because of some weird hole next to the door (now i do feel bad for him as it seemed to me he was just an observer). More things flying, words, sometimes sentences, sometimes orders could be heard. Until the banging started again, jajaja see them run! Police running after them (not touching them of course, but then again no striker stood still) There might have been some tear gas shot (i thought i heard something but didnt look like gas anywhere) and I am almost positive there was some pepper spray sprayed (fun funny). It was time to go home. They are all out of the premises, all out in the streets, so police just made sure they would go out of sight by following them.

I do not say that it was the best way - either to protest or to evacuate - but i do feel the police did a good job. Now its time for those workers to go work extra hours and hope they have not lost (a lot of) money by this "disruption". I can see the non student supporters changing lines here. It is not the first time, and aparently it wont be the last. It felt good to see the action in first row though.

Soon ill have pictures.

javo - out.


find more about it in greve.qc.ca

What a nite!

Well, friday nite we finally went out to a club. More than a club, it was like a small latin salsa club place that you would probably find in the outskirts of barrio antiguo in monterrey, but it was a good nite. The main reason of the outing, was shawna´s dance teacher end of term presentation. So, there were a lot of beginners, some intermediate and 1 or 2 advanced students performing different types of dancing, and I mean different. First was the beginners bellydancing, then the advanced belly dancing, then the cha-cha mcgill margaritas made their appearance and cautivated the whole audience, not for their looks, or abilities, but more for their loveliness. I mean, wouldnt you find it cute to see your mother and 7 of her co-workers dancing cha-cha? There was swing, there was rock&roll there was a transexual doing exotic dancing... what da @·$|@#¢∞!? Yup, it really made me feel funny, bad funny, to see this adam´s apple carrier with boobs bigger than most people I know with the skimpiest little skirt you could possibly imagine a hooker wearing, but, other than those moments where the guy-lady was flashing people, it was a great nite. I had fun, I realized that most of the poeple dancing belly dancing and salsa were not either oriental or latin, but more like chinese, afro-american, and whities. I mean, it was like watching william hung doing john secada moves, but overly exagerated, jaja! But others, well, I just watched in awe and wished I could move like that.

next thing ill do is get some salsa lessons. Definetly.

javo-out