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Gaga does a GREAT concert and I believe that this one at the National Stadium is close to sold out. Gaga focuses her concerts and music on disenfranchised young(er) people. The blood has nothing to do with anti-Catholic imagery.
Often her songs speak directly to young people who don’t fit the norm of commercialized “beauty”, are often bullied and ridiculed. Those folks have responded to her music by the millions worldwide and are happy to call themselves “Little Monsters”.
Tom:
Thanks for posting this great video! Chris and I had fun watching, especially the beginning. Some years ago, when we were considering buying in the [i]gorgeous[i] Orosi, we walked across the bridge in the rain. Just across on the right is an amazing little restaurant. There, they wrap fresh trout around a long stick and deep fry it…YUM! Amazing crispy skin and tender, tender fish….thanks for refreshing our memories![/i][/i]
My dad used to say that the one thing he just couldn’t abide were folks who were “stupid on purpose”. Like father, like daughter.
Unfortunately, there is so much “stupid on purpose” going around the world that getting exercised every time I hear (or tried to respond to) willful stupidity would leave me in a constant state of pissed-off.
You can’t push rope uphill.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]Has anyone ever seen sueandchris (Sue, actually) and sprite together? Are they one?
[/quote]Shoot…don’t even know who/where she is!!!!!! Sue….the one and ONLY Sue…
[quote=”2010pensioner”]Don’t get caught up in the population projections as our species has proven very efficient at culling our herd. Enjoy the awesome weather, family, and friends. Pay attention to the world around us and always learn. Never despair however for there will always be doom…just around the corner :wink:[/quote]
Circumstances have conspired that will lead us to leave our beloved Costa Rica. I have been contemplating how I will spend these last wild and precious times (apologies to Mary Oliver)
I think that I will spend my precious last weeks in Costa Rica filling myself with the cacophonous sounds of birds and the critter noises: roosters, the slither of the iguanas and snakes, the beetles clicking, the vast rush of the wind through the Guanacaste trees, the actual feel of the clouds when they bend low and slide through the house……the smells of the ubiquitous woodsmoke from thousands of tiny fires outside of homes. The roar of the waterfalls and the ROAR of the BIG earthquake as it traveled toward us. I will fill my lungs with air fresca and my eyes with a million blooms. I will listen and listen and listen to the sounds of the children in my barrio laughing and their parents greeting me and sharing a joke. I will go to the coast and stand in the velvety warm surf and greet the great ocean. I will eat all the foods I love both common and exotic.
And when I have done and put all I can into my open, (now-Tica) heart I will close it up SO very tight.
When I leave and return to a land where half the birds have fallen silent, and the voices of children are shut inside their houses, where neighbors barely know who lives on their block, where “designed landscape” is celebrated and wild-scape often destroyed, where native critters are met by exterminators, where the government of the land actually believes in “clean coal” and chants “drill, baby, drill”, where there will never, EVER be enough stuff to fill billions too many empty lives and empty hearts………well……..I’ll still have the lightening of Pura Vida locked inside me.
And [i]whenever[/i] I can, I will come home to Costa Rica. Is the end to “too damn many of us”? Oh, we are for sure going to get whittled….but will it be fast enough for some tiny voice that is just about to go silent? Probably not.
[quote=”camby”][quote=”DavidCMurray”]camby, you’ve not said where you live now, but every place has its hazards. If it’s not earthquakes all along the Pacific rim, it’s wildfires all over the west, it’s tornadoes in the midwest, or it’s hurricanes in the entire eastern seaboard.
Yesterday’s earthquake injured and killed fewer folks than most such tragedies in the U.S. True, the one located near Poas three years ago was much worse but, as compared to the losses occasioned by Hurricane Katrina, it was small potatoes.
So c’mon down and see what the good life is all about.
[/quote]Live in NC, USA
wife is very nervous about leaving the country, in part due to health issues, in part, that USA mentality the C/S america is poor and shoddy…….still want to come, but need to make sure area I planned to stay/visit is not too terribly damaged, planned to come 3rd week of October….Playas Del Coco area…[/quote]Well first, October is the craziest, rainiest month of the year…not the month I’d choose for my first visit. Better would be the middle of November. But here are some thoughts for your visit….show her the “Hollywood” part of Costa Rica in Escazu…go stop at the outstanding CIMA hospital and grab a starbucs on the Avenida de Escasu. THEN go up to the Peace Park for a great way to see “lots” of Costa Rica in only two hours. On the way to the Pacific drop into Atenas, a great little Costa Rican town with a good supply of expats living happy lives. Eat in Atenas at Antano’s and be charmed by the young owners. Don’t just huddle in a beach community and think you’ve seen much of Costa Rica! Good luck and may your wife be utterly charmed!
But someone with your exemplary qualifications could be a real benefit to various Costa Rican organizations as a [i]volunteer[/i]! If continuing income is not a factor, you could be as busy as you wished helping in any number of ways in this lovely country.
David carefully covered the requirements for residency here….the “perpetual tourists” that I know are experiencing some real hassles in remaining here. Please read the previous posts on this site and contact a good immigration attorney here for information that is crucial before you consider a permanent move to Costa Rica. Good luck!
I won’t comment on the general environmental impact of a new canal zone….but I am sure it would be wretched. What I can say is that cruise ships are HUGE poster kids for environmental degradation of the oceans. I won’t go into the statistics here, too many sites would offer those…but these things are awful for the oceans. Water use, sewage drops in the open oceans, noxious chemicals…and the list goes on. And they are getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
And let’s not even START on the “culture of food” on these things………yech!
Bill:
I sketched up a “French Campaign” style bed frame to our needed specifications and had my iron guy fabricate it to my specs. I even added extra legs down the middle to provide more stability for the mattresses.
Gorgeous outcome and only $350.00 U.S. If you don’t have luck with an outright purchase, try this avenue. There are usually great ironworkers in every little (and big) town! Sue
[quote=”Dazu”]Does anyone know of a shop for matting and framing artwork on the Nicoya Peninsula? Also looking for a reasonable interior designer on the Nicoya Peninsula.[/quote]
It might be much more sensible to find a good designer in the Central Valley area. There are far, far more sources for materials here, cheaper AND it should only be necessary for your professional to go once to your Nicoya property. Expect to pay a trip charge but you should save hundreds, if not thousands on the cost of furnishings. Your designer should ideally charge you by the hour and NOT mark up all of your purchases. That is the most economical way to work with a good designer! Good luck!
[quote=”Scott”]Can you tell me more about the ‘ spinal decompression machine’ Sue?
Scott
[/quote]
Scott:
People with back and neck issues are sometimes suffering with collapsed disks. The spinal decompression machines are sort of like a very high-tech “rack”. Your neck or back are VERY slowly stretched with a time and weight amount decided by the doctor. This allows the “soft” material/nerves that is being compressed to slip back into place. This effect can last for some weeks or some months.
I have a permanent neck injury and this is the first thing outside the unpleasant option of prescription narcotics that has provided serious pain relief for me. This was recommended by my pain management doc as additional treatment.
To my knowledge, this is the only machine available here in Costa Rica.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]Dr. Sashe Ellison and his wife, Dra. Alejandra Rodriguez, both chiropractors and both of whom speak perfect English, have offices just half a block to the north off Sabana Park in San Jose. The office is on the same street as a large (and very pricey) barbecue restaurant on the corner.
The Sabana Park office phone number is: [b]2231-6719[/b].
The Atenas office number is: [b]2446-3457[/b].
[/quote]Just wanted to heartily second this recommendation of Dr.s Ellison and Rodriguez. Have been working with them for some time AND they have a spinal decompression machine in their San Jose office……..thank goodness!!! Just terrific professionals.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”smekuly”]scott
please dont tell me about the pain you experience because i have this mental image of you being a commando invincible guy and this changes everything :D:D:D:D[/quote]
He’s not as tough as he makes out, smekuly. I once offered him lunch at Taco Bell but he said he couldn’t handle it.
Maybe now that the pain meds have kicked in . . .[/quote]
Good pains meds can make everything so comfy and rosy….even for a super-tough Scottish guy!
Here is another suggestion: Before we left the U.S., we purchased and downloaded a program called “Identity Cloaker”. What this company does is “cloak” your location, so for instance, you choose the server you want such as one in the U.S. to show that your computer (and you) are still located in the States (or elsewhere). This adds an extra layer of security while you are doing banking and has the benefit of allowing you to stream movies, etc. as if you were still in your homeplace.
Never and I mean NEVER use a free WIFI space to do your banking. This is true anywhere and should be observed in CR. Some folks I know buy little, cheap netbooks and ONLY do their banking and secure computing on this device. They NEVER get on the net for anything else and this provides amazing security for your banking. No games, no chat, no Facebook…nothing whatsoever but secure, password protected financial transactions.
No bad guys can download anything onto this netbook because you NEVER use it for anything else. Think of this as a sort of inexpensive, electronic checkbook.
