Photos don't lie, except when they want to.
Mid 2007
(busily building beard)
Mid-late 2007
(saluting my British friends)
Very late 2007
(betraying my Cherokee & Castillian heritage)
Early 2008
(looking quite youthful for someone in his mid-30s)
31 comments:
Wow, what a change! Looks good too! :)
Thanks Mandi :)
I was going to ask if that's your son, but I guess it's more likely to be your fella. Except the heritage bit is intriguing me.
Metamatician, for some reason I can't fathom (probably a misunderstanding between me and Lorenzo), I had assumed you to be female. I understand now that your not, which makes the above comment inappropriate. Sorry.
Lol, no worries "Seattle Boy".
I'll be a woman if you want me to. Rex has me do that sometimes.
Oops, did I just say that??
Haha female! That's very funny.
However, I'm afraid you've made a serious faux pas Meta, similar to farting in in a French patisserie. Never, ever advertise the fact that you may have something on your upper lip that looks even remotely like a moustache. As Rex and Lorenzo will concur, a fair bit of commentary has been exchanged on the subject with L. even taking out membership to mine and R's Moustache Haters of the World Unite society (or something like that) Quick! Shave it off and we'll let you join for a modest fee and throw in a free Bic for the month of January only. :-)
(I get away with this sort of impudence because he knows I love him really.)
> Lol, no worries "Seattle Boy".
Oh Lord, have you been over there too?
I think you look really cute.
Quite youthful indeed - you have less grey hair than me and I'm in my early 30s. The current image would have to be my fave - short hair good; bushy beard, bad. I'd normally concur with Mags on the moustache front but yours seems to suit you.
Please explain the Castillian (and the Cherokee) heritage. I thought you were joking before but having seen the photos I've changed my mind. ?Hablas espanol? (grr, no upside down question mark or tilde - squiggly thing over the n -on my keyboard)
Hee hee, interesting misunderstanding with Maalie.
It's easy to confuse Maalie. But hey, a little of what you fancy etc. etc.
Lorenzo.
Wow, so many comments, so much time.
Mags: The moustache will not be coming off. I'd be happy to share with you in private some pictures of me clean shaven (which my mum naturally prefers) and I just don't look right. But please explain to me your hatred of the lip caterpillar and maybe I'll become enlightened and change my mind.
In all actuality, if whoever I'm dating prefers me with facial hair, then I'll sport it; if not (which hasn't happened yet), then I'll lose it. It all comes down to sex, just like with animals and their manes, coloured feathers, probosci, etc. SEX baby.
Maalie: You betrayed your alter ego because even though you deleted your first post, I still got it in my email, and my brain put three and three together. (And somehow got seven, but that's beside the point.)
I've got the short black skirt by the way... I'll just pack it away in case... you know.
Clara: Thank you! My favourite comment of all! =)
Raelha: Por supuesto. Pero no con fluidez, exactamente. I speak a sort of Spanglish that the construction workers and fast food people understand, but I'm afraid in Spain I'd be looked down upon, especially without my use of the Vosotros (et al) form, my probably vulgar terms for things (el carro, not el auto), and my accent, though I can do the lisp thing if I'm around other Spaniards. I've a good friend in Colombia and another in Barcelona, and it's fascinating to see the difference between their speech and slang. I also have and in-law from Brasil and a good friend from Portugal and I spent some time learning basic Portuguese from them, it's a strangely beautiful language. I speak German at least as well as Spanish, am presently working on learning French, speak some phrases in Russian since I spend some there (before the wall fell!), and speak no English at all. I guess I love words, and so love languages.
My father is half Castilliano, his father pure. His mother is half Cherokee, which means I'm an eighth. On my mum's side I'm German, English, and Irish. Talk about a mix! I look like my pops in terms of complexion and so forth, but I got all the genes for depression, sensitivity, bad stomach, and antisocial behavior from my mum (as well as lots of good things like my love of words - we play full-contact Scrabble when we get together). My brother is fair-skinned like her, but acts more like my dad!
Lorenzo: How's that diet coming? You know, the DIET?
Thanks all for the comments. This is fun!
There are other pictures of me scattered throughout the blog, but in particular April, May, June, and July 2006 seem to have an abundance of self-portraits, photos taken by me of other things, and even some of my drawings, paintings, and computer art (such as fractals). Check out those months from the handy-dandy sidebar if you're curious.
One gripe: When the purveyors of this fine, free blogging site changed from version 1 to 2, it screwed up a lot of my careful formatting, mostly in my older posts like 2005-2006. So if the fonts seem big and clumsy, it's not my fault. I swear! Someday I will get around to going through the whole blog and giving it a consistent (and perhaps different) look - but for now, feck it (as Rextopher might say).
Full-contact Scrabble? Hmm, sounds interesting.
That's a lot of language. I only have French and Spanish, a little Italian - it's easy enough to understand when you have good Spanish (as is French, but the grammar's worse. However, if you can cope with German grammar you shouldn't have a problem), tho' I have to make an effort not to speak it with a Spanish accent, some Catalan, and the odd phrase in Welsh. I can only say 'Cheers!' in Russian - and Japanese. It's yet to come in handy. What were you doing in Russia? Secret Agent?! This would explain all the languages and the different images. It sounds intriguing.
Have you been to Barcelona? I lived there for four months in 2000 and got to know the place fairly well, and not just the touristy parts. It's somewhere I could keep going back to.
Rex and I play full contact Scrabble all the time. The trouble is we keep losing the all the 'O's :-)
Mags, Hahaha. I don't think you'll get the chance to see my "O" face if we ever play Scrabble. You know... Oh.. OH.. OHH!!! Yeah, you know what I'm talking about...
Raelha, I've never been to Bar"th"elona, would really like to though. I was in Russia cos I won an essay writing contest for my school/county and got to go with a handful of other "student diplomats" from other scattered schools to a city in the Ukraine called Cherkassy. We saw Moscow on the way in and out, and took field trip down the Dnieper river to Kiev and Odessa. Stayed with host families. It was a wonderful time I'll never forget. I even kissed my first girl there (real kiss, not a peck on closed lips)!
I also got to see parts of Yugoslavia before it was torn into 3 or 4 countries by war - Belgrade (Beograd) the capital then and now capital of Serbia I believe, and Zagreb, now the capital of Croatia I believe. Some amazing things to think I did and saw before the "stuff" hit the fan in Eastern Europe.
I understand a little Italian too, more written than spoken, like you said because it's so similar to Spanish. And I understand written French partially (or can make a good guess at times, especially with the help of cognates) for the same reason. But the French swallow the endings of everything, turning 17-letter words into a single syllable, so I'm still struggling with the spoken part.
You sound quite apt with languages yourself! I like Catalan, though I've no idea how to speak it, it looks and sounds like a neat language though. Linguistically I've very interested in it, Aragonese, Galician, and especially Basque, since it (they) are very isolated languages and I know at least Basque has no relation to any other language in the area. Along with Finnish and a few other bizarre languages I don't even think it's in the Indo-European language family at all, though I could be wrong. Plus I hear their bread is yummy.
You are from Wales, correct? Whereabout, if I may ask? Do you have the accent? =D And how is it you came to migrate to Spain and know so much about their language and culture? You look very non-hispanic in your picture, not that that means anything, it's just I don't think you were probably there visiting relatives and thought, 'this looks like a lovely place, I think I'll live and teach here.'
And I'm only 35, which is technically the latter 30s, but just barely, and I'm only 35 a few weeks ago. Just across the midway point. =(
I think you're very handsome - last photo awesome. Like the flowing hair, but the short "do" is the real you.
I´m having trouble keeping up with all my own comments here, there and everywhere. All this prolific posting is making me very confused - ´Hmm, now where did I leave that particular comment?´
Right, to set the record straight I am not Welsh, but English (50% Yorkshire, 25% Essex, 25% Cheshire) - from near Manchester, not too far from where Lorenzo currently resides. As soon as I had the chance I escaped to university which happened to be in Cardiff and I spent 10 years in S. Wales on and off. It was where I was living before I came here. So I don´t have the accent but I did pick up the intonation, apparently. My mum once confused my Welsh, male, housemate for me on the phone.
In a nutshell, I studied Spanish (& French) at school and uni. Then I went to live in Galicia for a year before going back to university for my MA - York this time - in Spanish history. After that it was back to Cardiff for a PhD on the Barcelona anarcho-syndicalist movement (where I met Maalie´s son and daughter-in-law, I´ve yet to meet his grandaughter). However after five years of not finishing it and deciding that academia wasn´t for me I gave it up and moved out here with Matt - he´d always fancied Portugal but when he met me the plan changed to Spain due to my language skills. The original idea was to go to Cadiz/Huelva province in Andalucia, but after a whirlwind tour we decided it was a)too dry (we wanted a huge vegetable patch) and b) the houses were too expensive. Asturias was plan B. Matt´s dad (who is also 100% English) lives here and we´d visited before and liked the place. I´m so pleased we did come here instead. Bar a few minor hiccups all has gone well so far and I can´t imagine living anywhere else.
The Russia trip sounds wonderful for many reasons, not just the exotic first kiss. What an experience to have at such an impressionable age.
Good luck with Basque, I´m not brave enough to attempt it. Although, I do like the fact that Bilbao in Basque is Bilbo.
And 35 is mid-thirties, you´re still a spring chicken. Happy belated birthday.
"Metamatician, for some reason I can't fathom.....I had assumed you to be female"
Ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! Yo, Girl Pants! How's ya boyfriend in the mirror?
Sorry man, but that was feckin' priceless.
We'll dine out for a week on that one.
Re soupsieve. The single issue action group is W.A.M.B.A.M.
Women and Men Blatantly Against Moustaches. to view some discusion, http://lorenzollama.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-ancestors.html
I could set out a set of do's and don'ts on lipfuzz, but when unaccompanied by other facial hair, the bogeycatcher is a defo DON'T.
We may be able to swing a permit if you keep the stubble, seeing as your a mate and all. But as soon as the stubble catches up, do the beard thing or maybe just 'Bic and Go'
Unless of course, you wish to be refered to as Groucho for the entirity of 2008.
Anyhow, 'mi animal domestico es un burro' so I'm off to shovel shite.
When I've done that, I've gotta pop into the nearest French patisserie to rattle 'les fenêtres', Rexy stylee.
bee coool
p.s. your a comely wench, sorry, chap even with the hirsute look.;-)
So the goatee or beard was fine but the heavier moustache is a no-no. Weird bunch of cunts you are. Maybe I WANT to look like an 80s porn star, how do you know?
Weird indeed. That's why you like us.
Oh and I'm glad you thoroughly enjoyed taking the piss out of me for Maalie thinking I was a woman. That's a right setup is what that was and you're far too clever to have hit that "softball" as we say here in the Free States of America (FSA).
You should have let the obvious opportunity slip by and shocked everyone, then gotten me good on something no one would have suspected. But I suppose it was too good a setup (scenes of Gallagher smashing watermelons in his comedy act come to mind).
I may be a wench but I'm YOUR wench, Rex dahhhling. 'Nother lager, ya lout?
And Mags, I don't make faux pas's (how the f do you pluralize that?). Whatever I do sets the trend that society then follows, making a fox pass an impossibility by definition. It's like when I show up at parties: that's when the party starts. When I leave, it's over. You need to come correct next time or don't come at me at all.
Raelha, thanks for the explanation and for setting me straight about you being Welsh, or rather NOT being. Hope it wasn't an insult. Then again I don't know your full name, it could've be Rachel Llewellyn for all I knew! Actually, I do know your name but I'll keep it secret. Thanks again for the interesting background. We can always switch to Spanish if these other plonkers get too uppity and put them in their rightful place, which is at the children's table with crayons and a paper tablecloth in the case of one synonymous dinosaur who frequents this blog.
Meta,
Hmm, you know my full name? Have I left it carelessly lying around or have you got it through some nefarious means? Actually, I´m not that bothered, just curious as to how you came by it. I didn´t come here to hide from MI5 or anything like that. I´d be quite happy being Welsh, some of my best firends are, and it´d be another language to add to the collection for a start, so no offence taken at all.
I told you, my CIA contacts and Mr Fish... just kidding, I saw it in amongst the comments from some of your friends on your blog. Raelha is a concatenation of the beginnings of the two words. I wasn't trying to snoop, just reading the blog and the comments. In fact, I think I know everyone's full names here.
My name is Justin by the way but I think everybody pretty much knows that. I'm the first in a long line stretching back to before infinity on the male side of my family NOT named Rafael, or Ralph the last couple generations. My dad never liked his named and swore he would name his son something different. Thus, Justin.
It was quite a rare moniker at the time and there are hardly any Justins my age here in California at least (there are of course a very few here and there). I was always the only one in my grade and sometimes even my whole school. Now every other kid and his sister is called Justin. Oh well. Children can be eliminated.
Raelha is actually the first two letters of my first name, second name and surname. I´ll leave you to figure it out. I´m still puzzling over those song lyrics. Ah, and a subtle change to your mid-late 2007 image caption, but wasn´t Lorenzo born in Wales?
No figuring out necessary, like I said I saw your full name already on your site. First and last anyway, not middle. If you don't believe me I'll email you! Don't worry, I'm not a stalker or anything. :)
Ooh, and now you're in your mid thirties.
I'm sure you're not a stalker, it's not like I'm Britney either. I didn't realise the surname was on there. No matter, anyone who emails me gets it anyway - the surname that is.
You age well!!
Wow, Quads! Which one are you?
I'm the fifth one.
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