NATH@N KINKA.DE

When I finished my Peace Corps assignment in Belize back in July of 2005 I went to Guanajuato, Mexico to study Spanish for a semester. Guanajuato is a charming and interesting city, no doubt, but I found myself longing for the tropics, greenery, palms, open spaces and ocean. I was also madly in love with a Panamanian woman I had met in Belize. So sitting in my rooftop apartment I wrote the following song. I had almost forgot about the song and yesterday I was somehow reminded of it and I post it here to document the words and chords so that I don’t forget it again. I actually did end up going to Panama, where I lived and worked for a little over a year. What is perhaps most interesting of all is that this song and the sentiments it expresses are just a valid this very day as they were 3 years ago. Now I find myself in San Francisco, an interesting a pretty city in many ways, but tropical locations are now more or less a part of my identity, so you can basically substitute Panama for Florida in the song below.

(G) Dreamin' of a city by the deep blue sea
(C) Dreamed the mountains here were closing (G) in on me
Dreamed I was hikin' on a jungle trail, (A7) morena walkin' next to (D) me
(G) Then I dreamed of the boats and the sun and sand
Every(C)thing seemed fine to (G) me
Then I (G) woke up to the sounds of (D) busy street
Lord, (C) south is where I (D) need to (G) be ...

[chorus]
(G) Catch a plane, catch a boat, or a (F) bus I (C) hope
(C) A run down to Pana(G)ma
A brown-skinned girl and a sail unfurled is (A7) what I hope to (D) find
(G) A view of the ocean, escape from commotion
A (C) cold drink in the warm sea (G) breeze
I've got to find a way to get down there, to the (C) shade of a (D) big palm (G) tree

[bridge]
(F) Then I stepped outside and took a (C) look around
(Am) I nearly got run (G) down
So I (F) stumbled my way through the (C) bustling day to (G) get to my (C) destination
Did the (F) same yesterday as I'm (C) doing today
There's (D) got to be a better (G) way ...

(G) So I planned and I schemed and I wrote and dreamed
I (C) worked my mind night and (G) day
Then I realized for sure that there's just one cure
You've got to (A7) throw it all to the (D) wind
(G) You can storm, you can drum 'till kingdom come
But in the (C) end it comes down to (G) chance
I've got to (G) wakeup to the life that is (D) driftin' by
Lord, (C) leave this place up (D) in the (G) sky

[chorus - slightly altered]
(G) Catch a plane, catch a boat, or a (F) bus I (C) know
I'm headin' south to Pana(G)ma
(G) A brown-skinned girl and a sail unfurled is (A7) what I hope to (D) find
(G) A view of the ocean, escape from this commotion
A (C) warm kiss by the cool blue (G) sea
I've got to find a way to (D) get down there, to the (C) shade of a (D) big palm (G) tree
Yeah, more(C)nita standing (D) by the (G) sea
To the (C) place I (D) want to (G) be .... (C)(G)

My work laptop is a Dell Inspiron 640m. Ever since I upgraded it from Ubuntu Gutsy Gabon to Hardy Heron I was getting some really annoying beeps from the machine when waking from suspend. The beeps were proportionally loud to the systems volume setting, and sometimes the beeps were so loud that they startled other people in the office. I took a quick look in System -> Preferences -> Power Management and found under the “General” tab an option labeled “Use sound to notify in event of an error.” I unchecked that box and now the beeps have gone away. However, it’s interesting to note that when I re-checked the box to make a positive control for the experiment, the beep didn’t come back. I haven’t looked into that further, but in any case I’m glad that the beeping is gone.

When it comes to pop culture I frequently feel like I’m on the outside looking in, but the glass is filthy and I can barely make out what’s going on inside. But here are a couple things that have greatly enhanced the quality of my life that were shared with me by Asheesh.

• The invisible series at icanhazcheezburger.com is hilarious, especially the invisible text message breakup.
• ROFLCOPTER. Some great animated ASCII art exists for this topic.

Now that I’ve got this absurd domain, I figured I might as well put something up. I’m not sure whether I’ll actively blog here or not. I suspect that I’ll post, like thousands of others, bits and pieces and use the blog as something of a personal repository of interesting things I come across that I want to be able to search or recall at a later date.