pariahdog has left 18 comments

pariahdog comments on homeowner/renter/computer insurance in Colombia

Thanks guys. Especially tomtom33. That's exactly the kind of detailed answer i was hoping for. I really appreciate it. And yes I would love to get the name of the current company as well. You could pm it to me if you would prefer. Are these companies in the yellow pages? If so, would they be under 'seguridad'? Thanks again for taking the time to help me out. I do wish you didn't feel the need to assume the worst about people before knowing the facts however. Wouldn't it say "last edited by pariahdog on [date]" at the bottom if I had edited it? Maybe it doesn't work that way here. I never really saw the point of that system of informing people about edits until now. It's a reminder to check everything twice for grammar and spelling mistakes before posting anything on the internet so you don't have to edit it and thus cannot be accused of making changes. I have only lived in Colombia for 3 months, but that was long enough to leave me with the impression that Colombians are the friendliest people on the planet. I am going there mostly because of this. So I wouldn't be saying anything bad about them. I have a very high opinion of them in pretty much every respect. I tend to dislike most people and want to avoid them. I really prefer to be alone most of the time. Colombians are some of the few that I don't feel this way about. And I have traveled widely and lived abroad in a few other countries. So I do know the difference. at droble77: I don't need the PC for work per se, but the kind of (unpaid) 'work' I do at home (game programming) does greatly benefit from a bleeding edge system. I just do it for fun but it is by far the most important thing in my life. I spend 90% of my time in front of a computer and I woudn't have it any other way. And I don't see it as an 'investment' at all. I do realize that computers, especially bleeding edge computers hugely drop in value within months. As someone guessed the reason I am so worried is that I have never had a computer even remotely as valuable as this new one. To give you some idea of my income bracket, my last job was bagging groceries at a supermarket until I was fired. The one before that was washing dishes at a fast food restaurant. I was just recently turned down applying for a job bagging groceries at another supermarket. I seem to be nearly unemployable. Jeje. So no. My use is definitely not professional. In my dreams maybe. I don't even have a high school diploma, let alone a university degree. I am typing this on a 1.13 Ghz Pentium 3 with 512 MB (PC100). I haven't (fully) upgraded in a very long time. Maybe 8 years or something. And I have had to save quite a while for my new system, and I still had to pay for some of it on credit. And it is so small (uATX) that it would be easy to walk off with. There are so many expensive components packed into a super small package. It is the only valuable thing I will have however. No TV, stereo, or even much furniture (just a bed, a desk, a small table and a couple of chairs). The computer is actually small enough to fit in a book bag (mochila) I think. I could take it with me everywhere I went, but I think that would actually be less safe and of course a major PITA. So far (in 3 months) I was pickpocketed once, but I was a little bit drunk and tired and walking home alone late at night (very stupid). And while I have never been mugged in my home town of Boston, I have been robbed a number of times while traveling in Europe (mostly Romania and Holland). This is not to say that Colombia is 'safe', but it certainly didn't seem very dangerous to me. Although I do tend to avoid going out at night, especially alone. Colombians actually seem comparatively honest to me. Much more so than Cubans for instance who I tend not to trust at all after many bad experiences.

pariahdog comments on homeowner/renter/computer insurance in Colombia

Wow. la campina. jesus. what the hell are you talking about? I never even said that Colombia was dangerous. Lay off the drugs. Especially while posting to the internet. Most people have alarm systems and lock their doors here in Boston. Lots of Colombians have told me personally that in Bogota your house getting robbed isn't a matter of if but when. I assume they are exaggerating. But still. So talk to them about it if you have a problem with that. tomtom33, what do you mean by the way it 'reads now'? Are you implying that my post was edited and that before I was insulting Colombians? Actually you came the closest to actually giving me an answer. Do you know the name of the insurance company? Is homeowner's insurance easy to find?

pariahdog comments on Gringos in Colombia: An Object Lesson

Very well presented. Clever.

pariahdog comments on No Country for Old Men... probably the best movie ever made (Per ColombianoGringo, this may contain spoilers)

Shouldn't it have been called "No Country for the Elderly"? I thought 'old man' was politically incorrect nowadays. Great movie though. Definitely one of the best of the year. So visually arresting. I love so many of the scenes, but the trucks in the desert scene was really a visual feast. I am definitely a Coen Bros. fan. I also loved Fargo. This one is definitely going to make my 'must buy on blu-ray' list. Cool it with the spoilers guys. There may be some people reading this thread who haven't seen it. This has been an unusually good year for films.

pariahdog comments on

Where are you from? Just to help me out with my stereotyping. Have you ever left your country before? Do you still live with your mother?

pariahdog comments on Blu-Ray in Colombia?

You laptop people amaze me. I really don't like those things. Instead I would recommend something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106227. Except newegg doesn't ship internationally. So you would have to find it someplace else. It's too bad the broadband internet in the Philippines sucks so utterly. Otherwise I might recommend just downloading the recompressed hidef files from The Pirate Bay. I suppose that is the strategy I will try to use myself if I can manage to get a decent broadband connection in Bogota. Otherwise I might consider ordering a drive like the one above along with a whole bunch of blu-ray discs. And as for the Colombians waiting for the Chinese pirated versions of hi-def discs, that would be an interesting development. I wonder if I would actually be better off with one of those $50 xbox drives in that case because it seems like China is hoping to have their own standard based on HD-DVD. I may have to pick one of those up due to this possibility. Basically whatever the Chinese decide to do about hi-def format copying is what the entire third world is going to be following. So it would be like Blu-Ray in the first world and HD-DVD in the third. I guess the chinese professional pirates would have to re-encode the original blu-ray discs to HD-DVD first though, since all the major studios are of course going with Blu-Ray. The problem is that those chinese pirate discs are utter rubbish. Even on the rare occasion that they play all the way to the end, the quality is so low. I've seen VHS tapes that looked better. (The ones that are labeled "DVD-9" are always good for a laugh as well.) And I'm not even talking about the bootleg cinema recordings (which actually seem sickeningly popular in Manila). I would like to think that they would improve their QC if they went with blu-ray, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

pariahdog comments on finding quiet in bogota

Thanks for all the replies and thanks for the tip, jonas. I sent you a pm. Those pics are funny. Latin America can definitely be loud. The only other Latin American country I have spent a lot of time in was Cuba (a total of about a year). For some reason, I didn't have so much trouble there with noise leaking between apartments. Maybe it's because the buildings in Havana are just so old that they built them to a different standard in those days. Or maybe it was because it was so easy to switch apartments after the first night or two if there was any noise problem at all. One of the few quiet apartments that I lived in (in Boston) was also very old. I already have lots of earplugs. I am about to buy like 1000 or so more. My favorites are actually Howard Leight Max or Laser Lites. They are just so much more comfortable than the others I have tried and the less comfortable ones don't seem to work any better. I couldn't find any good ones in Bogota. I sleep with the NRR33 Max earplugs every night anyway. It looks like it is also possible to get a custom ear plug that is reusable. It doesn't really do any better than NRR33 but at least it saves a lot of space and may be even more comfortable than the expanding foamies. Ear plugs don't really solve my problem though. Like I said the problem is more of a psychological nature. It bothers me that my neighbors can still hear me even when i can't hear them very well. Also I find when I wear my plugs for long periods of time during the day I can start to get a little worried/paranoid about what I'm *not* hearing. Hehe. I guess I should have been born in Colombia. Then I am sure I wouldn't care about it. I was almost afraid to explain my problem (why I didn't like my nice apartment) to Colombians. Needless to say they didn't usually 'get it'. So I just said that there was too much noise in the building, which was a true but very incomplete answer. As my best friend often tells me. I'm like a little mouse, afraid of my own shadow or my own footsteps :). I guess I just want to be invisible or something. Those insanely loud trucks that drive by with their loud advertisements bothered me, but not that much. And traffic noise is easily blocked by earplugs and not that big of a deal to me. My desire to tiptoe in my own apartment and whisper on the telephone (which I didn't actually do) was much more significant. I hated feeling like I needed to sneak around my own apartment. When I didn't walk quietly enough the neighbor's dog would bark viciously at me through the wall. Also try to imagine a meek, shy person dealing with all this. And as for the basement idea, I like it, but I don't think they would let me. Maybe I could just buy a small lot and build myself an underground bunker with like a concrete trap door with leaves or grass and maybe one of those fake dog poop things glued to the top of it. I also wouldn't have to worry as much about my house being burglarized because they first would have to find it! That idea would really appeal to me actually, except that colombians would be certain that I was completely loco, and I don't really want to buy property in colombia. I don't really want to stay more than 2 or 3 years.

pariahdog comments on Fed acts to protect financial system; Where Does This Come To An End?"

Looks like some birds are flying home to roost. So scary that we even have something like a Central Bank. Adam Smith would be rolling in his grave. If the dollar drops much lower I may not be able to afford to live in Colombia. Has it occurred to anyone else that the very fact the Fed was willing to take such drastic action might seriously spook the few foreign investors still interested in anything involving the US economy? If the Fed believes that our situation is really that dire, maybe some people are going to believe them. Me, for instance. This is seriously scary stuff. I have to wonder if the USD is even going to be considered a hard currency anymore. If I had any money to invest I might consider buying gold if it weren't for the fact that that ship has already sailed. Perhaps buying Colombian pesos would be a good investment. I guess this should also scare Canadians. It seems the Canadian dollar is not far beyond in this freefall.

pariahdog comments on The Kindle - Online Books

I don't think it's supposed to 'work' as intended outside of the US. That is it doesn't allow you to order and automagically download books. Being an incorrigible pirate I tend to download most of my books nowadays on emule in pdf. I'm so evil. I do like real books very much but it is highly impractical for me to drag them to colombia. ebooks all the way. Especially now that I finally made the jump to LCD monitors. Much easier on the eyes for text than CRTs. There is no comparison. I now actually prefer reading an ebook on my computer to real paper. I am not that young and find that a bit unsettling. I wonder if we won't even have paper books in 10 years. Actually I generally do prefer real paper books, but I read a lot of 1000 page computer books and I find it almost impossible to study them comfortably due to their weight. I looked for some book holders, but the ones that actually seem to do the job are very big and expensive. I was tempted by the kindle but it is just too expensive and the fact that it doesn't do its automagic downloading outside of the US is a real turn off. The screen also seems kind of small compared to a laptop screen. Although I don't own a laptop, I could almost buy one for the price of the kindle.

pariahdog comments on cheapest spanish schools in bogota?

Thanks so much guys! I'll make some calls soon to try to get some prices. Anyone know if the nacional uni has summer classes? I also heard from a colombiana that I would probably be considered about middle class there as well. Well not much I can do about it. It's enough for me. At least I won't end up with a gold digger type of Colombiana. And teaching English beats the hell out of bagging groceries at the Safeway. I guess being able to speak clear RP American English is about my only useful skill. About the rent: I know it might seem high to some of you, but I want to rent an actual house in Bogota. Yes, I know how rare they are. I had already found a perfect one though a friend of an acquaintance. (1,200,000 unfurnished). I didn't grab it fast enough, and now it has been rented. I am really not sure what to do about the situation. For an apartment I wouldn't pay more than 400,000 or maybe 500,000. Estrato 3 or 4 only. Maybe a studio. But I don't really want one anyway. The house ends up costing even more because I will surely also have to buy a motorcycle or car (and I can't afford a car).

pariahdog comments on Spanish classes really valid for student visa?

at JChrisusa: Do you recall how much it was? As for some of the other comments, I would very much like to study Spanish. That's why being able to get a visa that way seems almost too good to be true. Glad to see that my local source was wrong. I don't speak it very well and I could use all the help I can get. Actually I usually end up spending most of my time in Colombia studying spanish from books anyway. I would say at least 50% of my waking time in Colombia was studying spanish last time I was there.

pariahdog comments on cost of electricity per KWH

Just want to thank everyone for taking the time to answer my question. You guys are great. Especially Robert Jorge and webmanco. Gotta love an actual scan of a utility bill. As for the concern about my low income, I spent 3 months in bogota last summer so I think I have some idea of the basic costs. I should be okay. Although things could get kind of hairy if my rent gets up into the 1,500,000 range, and it might. I am guessing that my new computer system could easily break 1 KW of power (9800GTX tri-SLI 5 Ghz quad core phase change cooling). Also I would love to be able to use a space heater at times. So if i can manage to rent in estrato 4, I might get about 12 cents per kilowatt hour. That is about twice what I used to pay in Malaysia but a few cents less than I would be paying here in Boston. So to run a 1kw computer or space heater 24/7 would cost about $85 (USD) a month. Actually running that uber computer all the time would probably lessen the need for a heater.

pariahdog comments on To Gringo or Not to Gringo

I was just about to post about this. Sorry, but the Colombian girl thing is a myth. If you are good looking you will be able to get a good looking Colombian girl, just like you will be able to at home. But you will not find any (significant) advantage on arrival in this country. Take it from somebody who has been asking out pretty Colombian girls left and right. There may be some (very theoretical) advantage, especially if you have movie star looks, but if you are an average or below average looking guy, forget it.

Although I cannot speak for cities outside of Bogota (where I am), there are not that many pretty girls here. Probably about the same per capita amount as wherever you live. The whole Colombia has the prettiest girls thing seems to be a myth, at least in Bogota (everyone says that Medellin and Cali and even Cartegena all have more pretty girls though.) So they are sufficiently rare that they are in very high demand and nearly always have boyfriends (that they are happy with) or are married with children. I am guessing that you will find that as few as 1 in 10 of the pretty girls you meet will be single/available.

However as I said, if you are a good looking gringo, you should have no problem finding a very beautiful Colombian girlfriend if that is what you want. Just don´t expect her to want to leave Colombia with you (another myth). I am still searching for the mythical ´from zero to hero´ country where average looking or even ugly guys can have a beautiful girlfriend, but as far as I have seen this mythical country does not seem to exist. At this point I am about at the end of my search.

pariahdog comments on There's a rumble going down, and gentlemen, you are invited...

sinvergüenza I may be the individual she is referring to. I did send her a PM to discuss her offtopic posts in proud_canadian's thread.

So you want to discuss these issues publicly huh? How can you be so shameless as to start your own thread about it? I really don't understand people like you. Or maybe I do but wish that I didn't. What is it that makes you so important as to start a thread like this on what I can only assume is not your own web site. Are you the kind of person who talks loudly on your cell phone during a movie? I think you are behaving in a selfish, grandstanding, self-important, and inconsiderate manner. IOW, just like a child. Does the whole world revolve around you? Maybe we should all start new threads in reply to PMs that have little or nothing to do with Colombia and everything to do with ourselves. Of course, that very arrogant, self-important nature of yours is what makes it so enticing to argue with you. I guess it makes you a worthy target, a tempting enemy combatant

I have no hope whatsoever that I could convince you of anything. And it certainly doesn't matter to me what you believe. Believe whatever you like. I have seen far more irrational or ignorant beliefs. I just think some of your points in that thread should be answered by someone. Some of them *were* answered, but some ideas were left to stand unchallenged. That's just not right. Frankly I'd prefer if someone else would do it. I don't have time right now. I am actually packing for Colombia. At least that's what I should be doing.

I am not shying from a public debate. I just thought it inappropriate to do so on this website. But I guess that's up to the moderators to decide. Not my call. I am certainly not going to argue with you on your own website/weblog. That would be ridiculous.

BTW, the title of this thread is so classic. I am starting to wonder if you actually exist, as a real person, off-internet. It seems almost too much of a parody of a certain type. If it is an act, may I suggest that you are overdoing it a bit?

pariahdog comments on Why don't gringos learn Spanish?

not 100% in the head Never attribute to malice or laziness what could easily be attributed to mere stupidity, a quality of which there is no great shortage in this world. There are two kinds of people. People for whom learning and speaking (non-native) languages is easy. And people for whom it is a near impossibility.

I am squarely in the latter camp and I can vouch that my lack of Spanish speaking ability has nothing to do with laziness or arrogance. I studied Spanish all the time when I was 'in country'. We are talking 4-8 hours a day of memorizing words from homemade flashcards, studying grammar rules, translating english prose into Spanish to the best of my ability, and practicing speech with locals.

I did learn a lot. I wasn't fluent by any means, but I did have around a 3500 word vocabulary and could conjugate the few verbs that I did know pretty quickly. I still could understand virtually nothing that was said to me which I can only blame partially on the Cuban accents. But I could talk a bit. And guess what happened after I left and stopped studying every single day? That's right. Hablo casi nada espagñol ahora.

Having observed people who could attain some fluency in a language, including a vocabulary of 7000-10000 words, in less than 6 months without opening a book or endlessly poring over flashcards, I would argue that there is an essential difference here. Call it intelligence if you want. You will get no argument from me there as I think memory is a major component of what we loosely refer to as intelligence. But the issue is more essentially one of memory (duh?, ahem).

People with excellent memories are able to pick up second (and third) languages fairly well, but there is a certain kind of ability that seems to mark out those who are truly gifted. Auditory memory. The ability to remember and then repeat/mimic exact speech sounds.

I used to have an African Grey parrot who could perfectly imitate voices and sounds. Individual voices, and coughs, throat clearing, door squeaks, phone rings etc. Some humans are pretty good at this sort of thing as well. And these are the people who can pick up foreign languages quickly, efficiently, and with virtually no foreign accent. I envy such people. A lot. I hate having to learn and re-learn the same material over and over again.

Now, if I moved permanently to a Spanish speaking country the situation might be different, but it would still take me at least several years of daily studying. I would have to make language study the absolute center of my life. So for those of you who don't get it that is why so many people living in foreign countries cannot speak the local language. For many people it is really, really, really hard to do.

pariahdog comments on A gringo pick up line

I definitely think Latin guys are more aggressive. Some of the stuff I've seen in Cuba... But too many of the lines are just laughably corny or stupid/predictable. Exactly the kinds of lines that would get American girls to roll their eyes or just ignore you.

I think the *average* latin american guy is better at pickups than the *average* american/canadian/british/aussie guy. My problem is I'm too sensitive to rejection. I've hit on like 15 girls in one day with street and store/mall walkups, but those rejections (explicit or implicit) start to get me down after a while. I did some approaches with my Cuban friend in Havana and the rejections didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. I didn't get the slightest sense of discouragement, not so much as a sigh, after a whole bunch of rejections. I guess it's just more a part of their culture. More normal. He really seemed to have a healthy attitude about it. Most good looking guys I know would never do street pickups. It would seem too unseemly/desperate. And maybe too much work. Maybe it's more of an ugly guy thing here.

But then the other problem I've seen with piropos is they don't seem like a serious attempt. I mean, how could any girl respond to that? It also goes against so much of my cultural training as an American. It's so hard to unlearn all that 'politeness'.

I've rarely heard lines that sound intelligent or clever. One of my favorites has always been "If I told you that you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?". I doubt that would translate properly though. In a way that doesn't lose the double meaning.

pariahdog comments on Beating the Odds

I think some of you are naive. There is no magical lie detector that is going to tell him what's going on inside his pretty little Colombiana's head. Skulls are opaque. You can't see in there. Some people can act. Some people can act really, really, well. Especially when large sums of money are involved. Until you've seen it you might not want to believe that it could happen to you. Maybe other people could be fooled, but not you. You could sniff them out. Sorry, but that's not how it works in the real world.

I don't know anything about Colombia. Never been there. But I have lived in Cuba for about a year and have seen and heard about lots of situations like this. Different countries. Different cultures. But maybe the dynamics are similar. Usually not only the immediate family, but the neighbors as well, are all in on the 'scam'. So it is not so easy to expose the lie. Meeting her family is still a good idea though, because maybe some of the family are not so great at acting.

A good investigator might be able to help. If you could find one. He could check if she had ever been arrested for prostitution, but that's not what you really want to know. The fact that her family and friends will all be in on the secret would make it difficult for him to get the story though. But through some wily social engineering it might be possible.

The Colombian agent could try to get to know one of her friends and find out about your situation in a nonspecific, subtle way, without blowing his cover. For instance he could bring up a similar story to yours to see if she volunteers some info about her friend who just happens to be in a similar situation. Needless to say the agent must be good at acting.

In a place like Cuba there might be a chance of success just because, especially in the smaller towns, there is a whole lot of chismoso going on and there is a very strong 'us vs. them' dynamic where Cubans will be loyal to each other, even complete strangers, over a foreigner (aka 'Yuma'), even if the foreigner is a very close friend of the Cuban. You might call it solidarity.

Or you could try electronic surveillance. If she has a computer you could put a keylogger on it to catch her emails and/or email passwords. If she has her own computer it could represent an absolute treasure trove of info. My god, just imagine instant messaging. An old fashioned phone tap on her phone. That would be perfect. Enough to catch pretty much any green card seeker (or whatever) talking to her mates. You could set up a digital recorder (like an mp3 recorder with a large hard drive) at a remote location. You could also install long term room audio bugs in her wall outlets or better yet build one into a gift like a clock or boombox or DVD player or something. There is also something called an infinity transmitter which would allow you to call from your home country and get room audio. The old ones used various methods with regular phones, like suppressing the first ring and then calling back within a certain time window to connect to room audio. The newest ones are basically disguised GSM cell phones with a microphone. You would certainly find out whatever she really thinks of you with 100% confidence. After that you'd be able to trust her like she was your kid sister. If you want to find out more about the electronic surveillance angle just PM me. Although my knowledge is at least a decade out of date, I could give you some pointers or even schematics.

This kind of thing is just like one of those Mastercard ads. Being able to trust that her motivations for marrying you are pure truly is priceless. Well, unless you hate working as much as I do. Then everything has its price.

You could also just use common sense. If you are a good looking guy then there is probably nothing to worry about since she would probably be with you even without the new passport or the extra money. If you are ugly like me, then you know it has to be for money and/or citizenship issues and act accordingly (i.e. with extreme prejudice).

pariahdog comments on Nose Plastic Surgery In Colombia

snout carving Just be careful. My pooch was screwed by a plastic surgeon. Didn't significantly help my nose, but left me with grisly scars. Go for the 'closed' surgery for sure. Only go for 'open' if every scar you've ever had has healed perfectly. Perfectly. At the risk of repeating myself, make sure that you can slash yourself with a razor without a visible scar in 6 months. If you can't do that no worries. Just do what you can with closed surgery. Nothing screams PLASTIC SURGERY! like scars at the corners of your nose visible from several meters. Remember sometimes you get the bear. And sometimes the bear gets you.