Ka kei Ho

With a title like that is hard to make a connection, it seems as if it’s only three languages in isolation, and while that is true, it wasn’t why I settled on it as a title, instead, those are the languages of the last three films I have watched.

I am quite open to watch almost anything that is “good”. I am a bit picky, however, I trust imdb.com enough to pick the films I watch and rarely I pick a film that is below a seven. That’s as pretentious as my film selection process goes.

I have watched countless of films, way too many, so lately and more interestingly this year I haven’t watched many, so I decided to go a little wild and explore some obscure yet seemingly good films.

WARNING: SPOILERS, MAYBE.

I discovered three great films – each unique and beautiful in their own virtue.

The Norwegian film I watched goes by the name “A bothersome Man”, it’s the story of a man that’s dropped in a shallow and yet seemingly happy society. It’s a dystopia.

Dystopias have always – at least in literature, bored me to death. They are the epitome of a tragedy. Everything is great and yet the characters are not happy. They are as ironic and sad as it can be. It’s depressing, but a form of depression that I find shallow and enraging. Even though I can relate a bit to it. The whole idea messes up with me too much and so it’s hard to put into words why I feel rejection toward dystopias.

On the other hand, A Bothersome Man is so well done, so simple even though there’s no much dialogue (and I love dialogue!) that I must say I was happy to watch it. It was a perfectly balanced film and it succeeded to portrait some shades of truth about human nature and its never ending hunger for something that quite isn’t there. Buddhist, I believe, call it desire.

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The Japanese film was a beautiful documentary, that goes by the name: Jiro Dreams of Sushi. It was rich in picture and music. Philip glass played big part of the soundtrack, and I could recognize most of the compositions which is always pleasant. Besides the great picture and music it’s a story of persistence, endurance and passion. A love story between a man and its craft. It makes you realize the depths of obsession one has to endure to achieve greatness, it’s human and unpretentious.

The length of Jiro’s obsession is inspiring. This is a man that has been working and trying to perfect his sushi technique for over 75 years, and it seems as if there’s nothing else he would rather do. I can only wish to experience a similar level of passion and obsession.

 

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And the last one I saw was the turkish film, which I believe to be the best of the three. In english: “My father and my son”, in turkish: “Babam ve Oglum.”

Suffice it to say: It was crazy. It’s such a simple film, the picture is okay, the music is good and the story is sort of repeated. No twists, and not a wild plot. It’s a drama. It’s the film I wouldn’t watch. It’s predictable, it’s all that I don’t look for in a film, and yet… I liked it a lot. The acting is so tight that it’s impossible to not like it.

It’s enough to say that I even shed a tear towards the end. Totally out of character. I rarely get emotional in my personal life, and much less watching films – and I have watched a lot of them that are potentially sad and tear inducing, and yet, I only remember Babam ve Oglum to be the only film to provide me with such a rich and deep emotional response: a pure tear.

I was laying down on the couch, with my feet up and when the scene that made me cry a bit came up I had to sit straight and gain some composure. The last time I remember feeling like this was when el chavo from El Chavo del Ocho was kicked out of la vecindad. I was  about seven years old.

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I plan to continue to write these short and to the point mini-reviews. I don’t expect them to be read by many – if any, and rarely do I re-watch a film, however before watching these films I re-watched two films, again totally out of character and probably what made me look harder for films to watch.

However, the idea of reading these reviews if I happen to re-watch seems endearing to me, and maybe someone gets a good recommendation out of it.

P.S: I watched all the films with subtitles, which if you ask me is not recommended but I do believe it’s way better than voice over. I think it’s not recommended because I find that I lose too many visual details by reading the subtitles, but c’est la vie.

No es ningún secreto que la corrupción prolifera en el tercer mundo. En Venezuela, por ejemplo, la corrupción es un fenómeno socialmente aceptado. Un caso hipotético: José va a 90 km/h en una autopista en la que la velocidad máxima permitida por ley es 60 km/h. José conoce mejor que nadie la ley – es abogado. Hoy tuvo mala suerte, la policía lo pillo. Esto a José no lo alarma ni preocupa, ya que por experiencia piensa lo siguiente: No hay problema, chantajeo al oficial y me sale más barato que la multa y ni siquiera tengo que ir a pagarla, me ahorro la molestia, el tiempo y sobre todo el dinero.

Para José entonces fue muchísimo más fácil sobornar a un oficial y regatear para obtener un mejor precio comparado al precio dictado por ley. Un chantaje a precio de gallina flaca. Mediante este breve pero común ejemplo nos damos cuenta de varios problemas fundamentales sobre la creación de leyes y causas de la corrupción que agobian a esta sociedad. Problemas que discutiremos a continuación.

El Problema

1. Los límites de la ley son excesivamente conservadores.

El problema como tal radica en que las leyes vigentes no están basadas en la realidad. Las suposiciones de la ley residen en un mundo ajeno al real. Es entonces necesario ajustar la ley a la realidad social.

2. Los policías no son bien remunerados.

No es secreto que el trabajo de policía no es bien remunerado. Desde la perspectiva de un oficial de policía aceptar un pago por chantaje tiene sentido. En ojos del policía – que al mismo tiempo es ciudadano: La ley es inflexible e irracional ya que no se ajusta a la realidad social, permitiéndose entonces actuar de juez y cobrador.

3. El pago de multas es fastidioso y burocrático.

El cobro y pago de las multas debería ser realizado al instante. Los policías actuarían de cobradores. Así el estado es quien penaliza a quien infringe y los pagos y cobros son realizados directamente sin terceros ni aplazamientos. En caso de no disponer de dicho dinero entonces se daría una multa por pagar, como toda la vida.

La solución

Mi propuesta de solución es la siguiente: Primero es necesario reformar la ley para ajustarla a la realidad y segundo hay que mantener al oficial de policía contento, ofreciéndole un sueldo más alto e incentivándolo con castigos severos en caso de descubrir corrupción y del mismo modo, ofrecer incentivos en forma de comisiones –no muy altas– por cada multa levantada.

Es necesario hacer hincapié en el por qué los incentivos en forma de comisiones al imponer una multa no pueden ser elevados: No queremos que nuestros policías pasen de corruptos a cazadores de brujas, o peor aún: A plantar evidencia o atentar contra ciudadanos inocentes para lucrarse.

Desarrollar tecnología anticorrupción.

La utilización y desarrollo de tecnología anticorrupción es de suma importancia. Propongo lo siguiente: La fabricación de un dispositivo en forma de reloj de muñeca con las siguientes funciones y características:

Rastreo satelital: Para así conocer la posición del oficial de policía, de esta manera el cumplimiento de rutas de los oficiales queda registrado y está abierto a escrutinio profundo.

Grabador de voz: Debe ser activado durante el periodo laboral, por motivos de transparencia y del mismo grabar de manera automática todas las conversaciones entre oficiales de la policía y ciudadanos comunes.

Dicho dispositivo debería ser usado durante horas laborales de manera obligatoria.Se realizarían chequeos regulares de los registros con el fin de la transparencia y abolición de la corrupción.

Es necesario destacar que la creación de dicho dispositivo no sería una inversión excesiva y tampoco presentaría ningún tipo de desafíos tecnológicos.

El desafío para la creación y aplicación de dicho producto seria entonces convencer y hacer llegar esta idea a los políticos y jefes de policía.

Conclusión

Los policías y ciudadanos entonces están siendo obligados por la inflexibilidad de las leyes a actuar de manera inmoral. Es imposible cambiar las necesidades básicas y formas de la gente, pero en cambio las leyes e incentivos propuestos las podemos cambiar y ajustar a las realidades sociales.

José manejando sobre los límites permitidos por la ley fue solo una metáfora: No es un caso puntual – aunque si un caso común – repito, sin embargo, la metáfora que expone el problema es extrapolable y la solución propuesta, también.

Directores Generales de Movistar Venezuela,

Generalmente tengo bastante paciencia. A veces me detengo a admirar la genialidad de alguna que otra campaña de marketing y me digo: “que inteligente esta compañía”; por desgracia, con Movistar Venezuela no he experimentado lo dicho, sino todo lo contrario.

Movistar y sus directores de marketing me han motivado a escribir lo que a continuación será una carta que he decidido dividir en dos, (1) la queja, (2) la reforma.

La queja:

Todos los días recibo en promedio  tres mensajes de textos, todos con el fin de venderme algún juego de trivia o una “noti-promoción” que no me interesa en lo absoluto.

Asimismo recibo aproximadamente una llamada mensual, en la que intentan venderme alguna “mejora” a mi plan actual u ofreciéndome alguna “promoción”. Sepan que lo único que logran es amargarme el rato.

No quiero cambiar mi plan y tampoco quiero recibir noti-promociones ni ofrecimientos de jueguitos vía mensaje de texto.

Entiendan que mi número de celular es privado. Solo espero llamadas y mensajes de textos de mis allegados. Cada vez que me interrumpen con sus llamadas y mensajes de textos me hacen reconsiderar mi elección de compañía proveedora de telefonía celular.

La gota que derramo el vaso fue la última llamada que recibí el día de hoy, tuve que decirle a la operadora – que poca culpa tiene: “Por favor, dejen de llamarme, no quiero tener nada que ver con Movistar y sus promociones”.

La reforma:

Tranquilos señores de Movistar, no les voy a pedir que cambien sus formas; como usuario de su servicio entiendo que debo respetar sus decisiones como compañía, después de todo tengo otras opciones, es por eso que no les voy a pedir lo imposible. Mi propuesta de reforma es más bien una mejora a su servicio de atención al usuario.

Dejen que usuarios como yo, que no le interesa en lo absoluto las promociones que ofrecen ni los juegos disponibles vía mensajes de texto tengan la posibilidad de darse de baja de su plan de marketing salvaje.

Que su estrategia de marketing salvaje sea opcional para el usuario, que pueda enviar un mensaje al “333999” y nunca más recibir mensajes molestos de Movistar. Incluso estoy dispuesto a pagar por el mensaje de texto que envie para darme de baja de su plan de marketing salvaje.

Piensen en el beneficio. Abaratarían los costos de sus campañas de marketing. Tendrían un retorno más alto en su inversión – y es que solamente llamarían y enviaran mensajes de textos a aquellos que de verdad quieran recibirlos, los demás, como yo, no serían fastidiados y seguirán utilizando sus servicios, sin quejas o con menos quejas.

Espero que tomen en cuenta a sus usuarios y entiendan que el interés de una compañía como Movistar debería ser mimar y consentir al usuario para que así sean usuarios de toda la vida, y que así entonces se den cuenta que están alienando a algunos de sus usuarios con la agresividad de su estrategia de marketing.

Sinceramente,

Ka kei Ho.

Phuket is almost coming to an end and I feel like is too early.

Three weeks ago, Nathanael (another friend that I met in BsAs) joined Magne and I. He’s going to Malasya today so we played Chinese Poker the whole night and now, here I am, writing about how fast time goes by and how emotional I get about it.

Last time I remember wondering if I could get sick of the ocean, well, I haven’t, on the other hand I am not going as often as I was going but is fair to say that I go fairly often.

We have been frequently going to a restaurant named “Daily restaurant” which name I will never forget or Magne will never forget . One of the waitress is rather nice and has made her mission to teach us some Thai, sometimes is really confusing some people use different words for saying the same and when I ask I get mixed answers and it gets tricky, besides I think that I am probably below average when it comes to languages, seriously, even though I have a pretty good memory I don’t seem to learn a lot.

I don’t have a camera so I never take pictures (cheap excuse), Magne on the other hand has a camera but never takes pictures, he thought that it was appropriate though to have a memory of the place + our thai teacher .

I noticed some stuff that I found really interesting, Magne, Nathanael and I we are all using the same phrases and using the same words in general, at least when we talk to each other, I also noticed that I have many phrases that I probably overuse a lot or are my standard responses to many situations, I say “You can’t have everything in life”, “c’est la vie (such is life)” a lot… And now thanks to Nathe I can swear in Finish and I have no idea about what I am saying. I wonder if they have noticed that too… Magne just told me that he really dislike when I say “It’s not raining, It is only pouring water out of the sky”, I think that is one of my best ones… I probably have more that I don’t remember or I am not aware of…

In completely unrelated news, Connect 4 got considerably less interesting and even though I am probably not that good I am probably good enough to beat most new players. Nathe and I got into some trouble by playing connect 4, go figure, I rather not talk about it… Shenanigans.

There’s something about saying hello to a lot of people on the street, people that I basically see every day. Somehow I like that a lot, which I find extra weird, since for the most part I thought I wouldn’t like that, I am still impress to the fact that I learned to like salad, not only that, I learned to like bacon too, I had more bacon in two weeks that I had in my whole life, seriously.

I am going back to Hong Kong in 4 or 3 days I am not completely sure, it feels like I left years ago and it feels like I just arrived here, I think that’s what people call Nostalgia. Anyhow, It’s time to move. I am still figuring out what the fuck I am going to do next year and I have very mixed ideas, I thought I had figured it out but I am not sure…

I am very confused about some topics, such as: Politics. Hurts my head because I don’t know what to think and what ideology to support (assuming I have to support one, which most of the times I just do the easy thing: Play Devil’s advocate). I am happy with my decision of not voting in my country though, I wouldn’t know what to vote besides null, and what is the point of voting null anyway… Ugh, I have been educating myself and read The Republic by Plato, which was indeed a good start but there are still many interesting questions and assuming society must live life under a state then the way the state should be gets really tricky, judging by my behavior lately these days I think my brain got exhausted to think so much about this kind of stuff, lately I have noticed myself in a lazy loop which I think I have from time to time, is part of my “cycle” of life.

That’s it, time to call it a post…
(Nathe is gone by now)

I watched the whole thing, towards the end it was very painful, too spooky for my taste. I had to watch it until the end though, I really wanted to see how it ended.

The show basically was a bunch of people that got drop off on an island. The island was arguably paradise yet somehow almost everyone wanted to get out of it back to the “real” world. I was having a long walk in the beach and somehow I was thinking of that, what was so bad of living in a small community on an island? Why would everyone want to go back? Specially considering the background of the majority of the losties

Maybe it wasn’t at all about time traveling and the spooky stuff, maybe it was about how a lot of people overlooked paradise and somehow wanted back in a reality that people call “the real world”. Maybe I am just over thinking this and I have no point at all…

I have been here for maybe 5 days.

I would think of this place as a place I could live forever – might be because I just got here. I haven’t felt that with many cities though, I also came to the realization that probably a small town fits me better than a huge city. I guess it truly depends on what I have to do. That’s a very backwards thought; I had the impression that what I wanted was a huge city considering that my hometown was feeling small…I guess this is what people call “find yourself”.

The pros of being in a small town is something very significant: people are much more laid back, everything is much more slow, life is not a rush. I was listening to a podcast that said that people walking and talking speed depends a lot on the city (radiolab’s podcast) that got me thinking and well, considering that I have never lived in a city with tons of traffic besides Bangkok I think it makes sense, I really lost a bunch of time stuck with traffic, I probably shouldn’t say lost but it felt like it.

I am very biased right now and I can’t even think of the cons.

I doubt there’s more than 10k locals here to be honest, although there are many more close towns (~10mins drive) each have something different to offer, this town seems to be the perfect combination to make me want to live here forever, close to the beach, everything I need around is on a walking distance (restaurants, groceries stores, I don’t think I need much more). Almost every local have a decent idea of English, which makes communication much easier.

I get to live here until December 15 and I am already thinking about coming back, I guess this time overstaying is not an option; I want to keep my promise, one time. I was also thinking about Costa Rica because it might be similar but maybe I will hate the ocean after 7 weeks (doubtfully).

I went nuts, I ordered salad for the first time of my life and the next day I did it again, I probably can’t think of something more out of character than that… Not in the food department.

I am living with Magne a professional poker player that I met in Buenos Aires and thinking about it I haven’t had the urge to play poker but when I discuss hands with him I really want to play… Ugh. Is good that we have a similar sense of what living life is, our lifestyle is pretty much the same at the moment, I will like to brag that I manage to wake up earlier though. I also got pretty interested in connect 4, a game that seems very widespread here, just for entertaining sake, Magne crushed me pretty badly I probably lost like 9/10, I want to get better at it…

In other stuff, like a month ago I was reading 2+2 and there was this huge long thread about a guy who was a week away to be homeless and the 2+2 community decided to help him, people started to give him small jobs, one of those was to make a video hugging people and, at some point people just started to offer donations and I almost did that too until I read that one of his dreams was to have a website and help people so it was almost a no-brainer to offer him my help in that regards, Jared has been working on the website (all the content is his creation) and I gave some help here and there with setting up the website/design, definitely check Jared Huggins out, he has a very original and touching story to share with the world and fortunately things are getting much better for him.

Good luck Jared! I think if he gets picked to play The Big Game he has a decent shot of winning some money, I heard he was getting coach by people that are very good; Jared said he was going to give away a percentage of his winnings, I find that very brave.

I haven’t watch poker TV in quite a while and I got some urge to do it today for whatever reason, somehow I stumble on the Pokerstars.net Million Dollar Challenge, that I did hear from hmm, too many details. Anyway, I think the “pros” are either soft-playing or Daniel Negreanu felt a lot of sympathy for the star of that week.

This particular episode was pretty entertaining, a priest was the star of the show and that’s an interesting start considering the format of the show…

I will be a snob and explain some things:

The format of the show consist of three rounds, each round represent a prize, I will skip the first round because is uninteresting, once the priest won the second round he had 25k in his pocket, he could either take that money or play for 100k + a shot to 1mm, I was almost sure that the priest was going to take the 25k home but he impressed me and went for the 100k, to be honest anyone should take the 100k shot, 100% of the time if their goal is to maximize their EV and I don’t particularly think this is being greedy just smart.

The priest either have a 100% shot at 25k or if I were to guess against Daniel Negreanu he is probably 2:1 underdog, so he has  ~33% equity out of the 100k if he decides to go for it, which it is ~33k on Expected Value (EV). The difference is ~8k which is pretty big, around 31% more than “playing it safe” and taking the 25k.

From my point of view that’s the right decision some people might argue that picking a 100% shot on 25k is worth giving away 8k on EV or 31% of the prize. Keep in mind that I assume that the priest is going to win 1 out of 3 times, which considering the quality of play I could be dead wrong and he is likely to win a bit more which in theory means that he can possible be making much more than 33k instead of 25k, so it becomes even an “easier” decision to go for it. I am also not counting the shot to 1mm which I am not sure how it works, so all in all it would be a terrible decision not to go for it, at least from the perspective of maximizing the EV.

I am trying to think of reasons to quit and take the 25k but to be honest I would never do it and I would not advice anyone to quit. Just by playing you instantly win ~31% more. (33k instead of 25k). And that’s assuming you’re 2:1 underdog, in other words, that you only win 1 out of 3 times.

Here’s the first part of the show I really liked the jokes of John Thomas “Spider” Salley.

For what is worth and if it matters at all I think everyone played really bad, specially the last hand and this is the reason why I think there’s a chance is either rigged or Daniel Negreanu felt a lot of sympathy for the Priest, which is reasonable I guess…   /end of judgment