The true origin of my name, Tanai.

I have always had this romantic idea about the origin of my name. I’ve told the story to pretty much everybody.

I usually say that the reason why I’m called Tanai is because I have crazy parents. I usually say that because my dad is an anthropologist, he once knew about some mythological stories of the Polynesia. The story that my dad told me is about a boy that left his hometown, located in an island from the South Pacific, to find fresh water somewhere else because they’ve been living for many years in a terrible drought. Tanai travels around the world overcoming incredible perils and hardships. He finds the fresh water and civilization, so he ventures back to his native land to tell his people, now being many years old… but when he arrived, there was no one in the town: everyone had died! With the exception of one old lady, the lady came to him and called his name, Tanai. Tanai meant, according to my dad, the Sea Walker.

However, the true story might be a little different. The reason why my dad called me Tanai was not because of a mythological story from the Polynesia that he heard in some of his anthropological studies. I’m pretty much sure now that he found it in a movie he watched: this movie is called the “The Voyage of Tanai". It was released in 1975, and was directed by a man called John Latos.

I’ve tried to find this movie, a clip, a trailer, anything… but it seems pretty rare. It doesn’t show up in the imdb database, there’s nothing in youtube, only a couple of second hand VHS tapes in amazon. The director does not register either in the imdb and it seems that it was the only movie he made. I did found a synopsis of the movie, this is it:

Tanai, a young Polynesian, sets out on a voyage to obtain soil to plant a breadfruit tree, symbolic of survival to his people. Through storms and rushing tides, Tanai visits some of the most spectacular areas of the world. He battles the Philipino mud people, confronts Easter Island's bizarre ancient sculptures, and fights thirst and hunger. His amazing voyage takes him to the remotest corners of the globe, but the voices of his ancestors guide him on. Upon his return, Tanai must face another challenge of the Modern world—the relocation of his people.

That’s the original source of my name. My dad didn’t tell me he got it from the movie… I’m sure he didn’t tell my mom either.

I wish I could watch this movie though, sounds really interesting and might have touched my dad deep enough to want the name for his son.

How to tie your shoelaces

When we are kids, at some moment we are taught how to tie our shoes. Usually, you cross the laces one over the other, make a loop with one lace and then you wind the other one over the loop, you pass it underneath making a second loop, then pull to tighten the knot, and it’s ready.

But for some reason, no one taught me how to tie my shoes. I figured it out on my own.

So I remember that fateful day when I needed to tie my shoes but I didn’t know how. I was then at the kinder garden, probably 3 years old. So after some trial and error I came up with a not very conventional way to tie my shoes, a technique that I’ve been using ever since until this very day, unaltered, for more than 25 years.

What I did then, after crossing, was to make two loops at the same time, and then cross one loop over the other one!

I remember that instant, so perfectly, as if it just happened yesterday: such an epiphany, the great happiness of unaided discovery.

Super

―Frank, The Creeping Bam is just this, like, fantastic phrase, you know? And I wasn't gonna tell you before, but it's my favourite.
―Oh, it's very good.
―You're lying.
―I don't need a kid sidekick.
―Are you kidding me?
―No!
―Look what happes to you when you don't have a kid sidekick. You get shot by people. Frank, you team up with me, and I swear to fucking god that we will take those cocksuckers down that stole your wife.

I loved that escene! Wonderful movie. Too bad Boltie died.

The Top 5 things Colombia is known for.

Since I left Colombia almost seven years ago, as an expatriate, I’ve had the chance to meet and talk to literally thousands of people from every corner of the world. When I say that I’m from Colombia, almost always people react in a positive way… then they think a little and say whatever they know about Colombia. So these are the top 5 things people first say about Colombia:

5. In Colombia a lot of women have plastic surgery (read: breast implants).

4. Colombian coffee.

3. Colombia football: typically Valderrama, Higuita, and the murder of Andrés Escobar.

2. Shakira.

And, lo and behold! In position number one:

1. Cocaine and drugs!

YAY!!

I would say 90% of people I meet, the first thing they say after I tell them I am from Colombia is some lame joke about cocaine. It ranges from calling me a drug lord and a relative to Pablo Escobar to the following:

Tanai: Hey, where are you from?
Random Person: I’m from XXX, and you?
Tanai: Colombia.
RP: Wow, Colombia!!! [Excited, big smile… think for a second]
RP: Cocaine!!!
Tanai: Yeah! I get that one all the time. [Then I lean in and whisper to his/her ear]
Tanai: How much do you want?

It usually gets a big laugh. Truth be told, I don’t give a fuck.

Nonetheless, everyone I have met that has been to Colombia say wonderful things about the country and their stay in there. So, it’s not so bad, not bad at all!

The Obsession by Charles Baudelaire, sonet

Great woods, you frighten me like cathedrals;
You roar like the organ; and in our cursed hearts,
Rooms of endless mourning where old death-rattles sound,
Respond the echoes of your De profundis.

I hate you, Ocean! your bounding and your tumult,
My mind finds them within itself; that bitter laugh
Of the vanquished man, full of sobs and insults,
I hear it in the immense laughter of the sea.

How I would like you, Night! without those stars
Whose light speaks a language I know!
For I seek emptiness, darkness, and nudity!

But the darkness is itself a canvas
Upon which live, springing from my eyes by thousands,
Beings with understanding looks, who have vanished.



Charles Baudelaire
Translated by William Aggeler
The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)

Natural fears

I have not been myself lately. I notice I’m changing. I notice my mind is changing. I’ve noticed myself doing a few things that I’ve never done before, that could've never occurred to me before. It’s my brain rewiring itself. It’s scary.

The thing is, who the hell are you? Have you always been the same person? Do you think you can change or are you the kind of people that think you should be accepted just like you are? Like Bridget Jones or something…

Have you ever thought that you could be better? That you could accomplish bigger things? That perhaps you could be a little more open minded? Perhaps you could procrastinate less and be more disciplined? Perhaps you could look a bit better, get cooler clothes, or a bit more original hair cut for a change? Perhaps you could improve your relationships? Perhaps you could be a better lover for your partner? Or a little less stubborn and conflictive, perhaps you could be a bit more understanding? Perhaps you could take bigger risks and break through the comfort zone to take advantage of better possibilities?

Sounds awesome, huh? It seems not so difficult all of a sudden? To become a better person, the best of who we are!

Do you even think about it? That you could be better than who you are right now? That you could change for the better of yourself and your people?

Do you want to be a better person?

Do you know what it takes to become the best of what a person can be? It's not a matter of going to university and reading more books. It's altering and reshaping the damn brain, it's a behavioral thing.

I’m changing, I can notice it, I can feel it.

I’ve changed before… if you know me, if you’ve read my blog before you should know about that. The thing is, that then, even though I wanted to change, I kind of wasn’t aware of the process… when I noticed already a lot had happened. But now I’ve grown more mature, I know myself better, and I can see me in the process of transformation.

However! That “the best of what a person can be” is a EXTREMELY relative thing. It is subjective to a person’s history and life experiences, a person’s personality, a person’s way to see the world. In here, “the best” actually means a state of complete satisfaction with your own self, a place of no regret, of harmony. The concept of harmony is also EXTREMELY relative for the same reasons.

I’m scared. Because I’m like a bat. Yeah, like a lost bat. A lost bat that has been flying on a sunny day… but dusk is approaching. The sun is caressing the horizon. And I’m hungry, I’m really hungry. It was a really hot and sunny day. I’m fed up and kind of cranky… The sun and the daily creatures have made me upset, I’m on the brink of rage; the day was ignominious, those diurnal creatures offended me. I have to settle the score, I have to set things right. The first blink of the brightest stars is piercing through the darkening sky. I might lose control blinded by the exhilaration that the forthcoming night promises. The cooling air infuses new power to my wings and to my heart, and I like it. It’s been too long of a day. I fear I might go berserk tonight. No, I will go berserk, I know it. Welcome to my Kingdom of Night.

The Code of the Samurai or the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shiesuke

I’m in the search for wisdom, and this search led me to a book called The Code of the Samurai or the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shiesuke; a book that was written about 400 years ago. Is there anything to learn from the ancient Samurai class of Japan and the code of the warrior?

Reading the little book, two things hit me hard. The first one is at the very beginning of the book. The author opens the book saying the following:

"One who is supposed to be a warrior considers it his foremost concern to keep death in mind at all times, every day and every night, from the morning of New Year's Day through the night of New Year's Eve.

As long as you keep death in mind at all times, you will also fulfill the ways of loyalty and familial duty. You will also avoid myriad evils and calamities, you will be physically sound and healthy, and you will live a long life. What is more, your character will improve and your virtue will grow."

Isn't it counter intuitive? Isn't it a beautiful piece of wisdom? Then he goes on explaining like this:

"Here are the reasons for that. All human life is likened to evening dew and morning frost, considered something quite fragile and ephemeral.

If people comfort their minds with the assumption that they will live a long time, something might happen, because they think they will have forever to do their work and look after their parents―they may fail to perform for their employers and also treat their parents thoughtlessly.

But if you realize that the life that is here today is not certain on the morrow, then when you take orders from your employer, and when you look in your parents, you will have the sense that this may be the last time―so you cannot fail to become truly attentive to your employer and your parents. This is why I say you also fulfill the paths of loyalty and familial duty when you keep death in mind.

In any case, when you forget death and become inattentive, you are not circumspect about things. You may say something offensive to someone and get into an argument. You may challenge something you might as well have ignored, and get into a quarrel. [...] You could lose your own life, get your employer bad publicity, and cause your parents and siblings difficulties.

When you always keep death in mind, when you speak and when you reply to what other say, you understand the weight and significance of every word as a warrior by profession, so you do not engage in futile arguments. As a matter of course you do not go to dubious places even if people invite you, so there is no way for you to get into unexpected predicaments. This is why I say you will avoid myriad evils and calamities if you keep death in mind.

People of all social classes, high and low, over eat, drink too much, and indulge in their desires to an unhealthy degree, all because of forgetting about death. This puts strain on their internal organs, so they may die remarkably young, or else become sickly and invalid.

When you always keep death in mind, even if you are young and healthy, you already know how to take care of yourself. You moderate food and drink, avoid sexual addiction, and behave prudently. As a result, you are physically sound. Because you are healthy, you will live a long time.

When you assume that your stay in this world will last, various wishes occur to you, and you become very desirous. You want what others have, and cling to your own possessions, developing mercantile mentality. When you always keep death in mind, covetousness naturally weakens, and to the degree a grabby, greedy attitude logically does not occur. That is why I say your character improves."

It makes a lot of sense to me. We are not Samurais, but we are somehow warriors in the battle of life; and as the Samurai had an employer or master he was willing to give his life for, our master should be our dreams we fight for, the path to our fulfillment. So let's do our best today, because our life may not be certain in the morrow.

The second part that called my attention a lot is about the heart of the warrior and when this gets corrupted. The author compares the heart of the warrior to a white jacket that gets dirty with use... the heart of the warrior might get dirty with time, because of bad habits and practices. So he says:

There is a variety of detergents used for cleaning white jackets. Similarly, there are various practices that are like detergents for cleaning the heart of warriors. What are these practices? They are loyalty, duty, and courage. There is dirt that is removed by the detergent of loyalty and fidelity, and there is dirt that is removed by the detergent of faithfulness to duty. When the stain remains stubborn even after washing with loyalty and rinsing with duty, then you use the detergent of courage, and make a determined effort to scrub it clean. This is the warrior's ultimate secret of cleaning the heart.

So if in the battle of life and in the battle for the accomplishment of your dreams, you lose your way and your heart becomes dirty: you must remember to be loyal to your goals and believes, to your path; and always be dutiful with regard to them, do whatever it takes to get there. But if everything fails, when you are losing all hopes, then use courage, remembering never to give up, never. That is the warrior's ultimate secret.

Portrait

just a few words
a whim of prose
a speech and a whisper
three poems
of youth

a flower
the rain

My path and career choice dilemmas

I have always felt that I'm destined to do great things. That my path has always led to a higher destination. That my life is there for a greater cause, a life far above average in every way. I don't know if everyone feels like that, I guess you never really talk about this because of what people might think: "don't be ridiculous!" Some might say. I don't really know why I have felt this way, perhaps because my parents inculcated it in me, unconsciously and unaware, by the way I was raised, by the way they talked to me, by the way they gave me freedom, by the way they encouraged me, by the way they treated me, perhaps they trusted me at a deep subconscious level with the dreams they could not achieve. Or perhaps I feel this way because I have felt not average, unfitting of my surroundings, maladapted to the environment I was born, socially and intellectually. I have no idea.

At school I did pretty average, I was never at the top of the class or the best student. As a matter of fact, during a time in high school we were graded with numbers and rankings were published every three months; my personal best, on a class of more than forty people, was a modest fifteen place and a couple of times I went way below average. At university I did not do any better, I was not at the top of the class either, just alright, I didn't get a Magna Cum Laude, I didn't graduate with honors. On the other side, however, I never had to repeat a year at school nor I failed a single class at university, which allowed me to obtain my undergraduate degree at twenty-one, an age when many European students are just starting to decide what to study. Not that it makes me a genius or superiorly intelligent.

I went to Sweden to start a PhD; I guess that alone does makes me a little exceptional compared with most Colombians of my same age range. In my lab in Sweden I was the youngest member for quite a few years, which could be considered a little exceptional too. On the other hand, I did not do particularly better than any other PhD student in my lab, I had five publications in my thesis, quite OK, but actually most of PhD students that graduated before me had more than five publications in their thesis. I did not publish in the best journals, I did not discovered anything particularly amazing either.

So why do I get this feeling? Why do I want greatness? What is this fire that burns within me?

I was having a conversation with my old supervisor in Sweden. I was telling him that soon I would start looking and applying for a job to continue with my science career after my contract in France ends. I mentioned a few labs I was aiming for, some of them were pretty famous labs (if there is such a thing as a famous lab in this world), or as he called them "super top laboratories". He implied that in order for me to apply to such kind of labs I should have been "mega successful" in my postdoc, to put it in his own words. I have done as usual, quite averagely... funny enough. He said to me that I should identify and know at what level I am and aim for that level and try to position myself there—sounds quite reasonable. He said to me that it is better to be a big fish in a pond with smaller fish than a small fish in a pond with bigger fish.

It, of course, has made me think and reflect a lot... what kind of fish I am? Am I a small fish or am I a big fish? What is my true level? What is the best I can achieve? What is my potential? How do I compare with most people? How do I compare to Einstein? How do I compare to Darwin? How do I compare to Beethoven? How do I compare to Shakespeare? Can I be like them? Do I have what it takes to be like them? Were they actually that different from most of us? What was about them that made them great? Do I have that in me? Can I handle the best laboratory on Earth? Can I come up with great scientific ideas that could change the world? Or am I just an average twenty-eight years old guy, destined to live an average life, to marry an average looking woman averagely smart, and live in an average house, send my kids to an average school so that they can have average lives and work average jobs? Is that what it is? Am I being foolish?

I refuse average, I reject average. I want greatness, I want the best, I desire it. I must not give up until my word has been heard, until my influence has been felt, until my full power has been exerted. Like the Japanese said, there is no genius that a disciplined, diligent, and hard working mind can not overcome. What I lack in geniality I'll made up in discipline and patience. If I’m not disciplined and patient then I'll become. If my personality gets in the way then I'll change. If I make mistakes I'll correct them. If my mind is too narrow I'll broaden it. If my resolve is too weak then I'll make it stronger. If I walk astray this path I've chosen I'll find my way back. If there are insurmountable obstacles I'll overcome them with immeasurable tenacity. And if I find enemies on my way I'll defeat them, because I shall not give up until I have reached my destination. I'll not give up, I'll never give up my dreams. I'll always aim a step higher, always a step higher. That is my way of life, my choice, my path.

Save Earth!

Life on Earth is threatened by a terrorist invading species from an unknown planet in the furthest reaches of the Milky Way and you are the only one that can save us! Your mission is to decode the following encrypted message.  Once you have decoded the message, send the original text to Emperor Tanai, supreme ruler of the Solar System, so that he can defend us from the aliens with his extraordinary superpowers.

What intelligence has discovered about the code is this:

The decoded message is written in English and the encryption works similar to a genetic code, with only three different nucleotides (numbers) encoding for twenty-seven different amino acids (letters). However there's only twenty-six letters in the English alphabet!

Please save us! Save us!

This is the encrypted message:

202022012000202100111012000022001201000010120111012000202120000011012201202200120221
000202022120201012000210021110221000001112011000011210111002000022210111001112201

022120212000202022012221000011001200012000202120000010001110110000120210200
000002012001210202100020210110000021001110001220221000202022012000111100110102221
000212001221

022120212000001002201210200011000001112011000011012121110120200001002110012

202022012000120112012000001112011000120112110221000202200210012000112001111012
000120020000202022012000021001110001220221000100201000202022012000002001112001112001
000212001221

202022012200012000100201000112120202022100112021000111120200012
000011012110100010100120210201000202022001112000202022012000201212012012202
000002001112001112001201000020200120111000121110001112012202
000011100121110120011120010210201

100112000202012112000011001221201000212012000212100110110
000011100201100112202012021200001202012000202022012000201120110001200
000201221201202012111000212100202022000120210200000001112202100111001202202012200
000111100201201100110012201

202022012000111100201201100110012201000001200012000120200002100202100112021
000202022012000121110001112012202000202022012221000010001110110
000112012121202210112012

20120221012110001100002221011100111220100000221200102200102200102200