Closed Chapter.

Just for the record...

Funny Firefox Add..

I found this image and I have to admit that's 110% full of creativity !

Here I was testing "Butterfly", a program to scan the "Cajas del Amor" inside the "San Jose de las Vegas" School.
Is in version number 2 now, and working like a charm..., it need lot of work though, but at least is helping us doing the hard work.

From left to right: My uncle Diego, Sampedro, Me myself and I.

Student ?? No more !!

Starting from tomorrow at 2:00PM (-5:00 GMT) I won't be any longer a student.., instead I'll be an engineer.
Tomorrow is my graduation !!! I'm just so happy about it !! It's just a big achievement in my life, something that I have dedicated plenty of time, nights, weekends, suffering, joy, smiles, laughs, hard work, hard study, uncertainty, feelings, emotions, experiences.... I could stand here writing for all night long and describing all what I invested, enjoyed and lived there..., but my conclusion is a huge thanks to my parents for giving me the chance to study, something that I enjoyed and appreciate more than anything.., just THANKS mom and dad if you read this someday.., even if I think that you won't !! I dedicate this graduation to you both !

If you want to see my graduation online you can do it in this url: http://envivo.eafit.edu.co (I just got 2 invitations by the way..., sad because I wanted my sisters to be able to go).

Salt Flats

This is a wonderful landscape.... I had the chance to go to the salt flats in Utah during the weekend while I was in Provo... It's just so awesome..., you can see how the sky and the earth get mixed in the infinite.....
Imagine that you're walking on a floor made just of salt..., salt that remained there after a lake dried out.

This is the place where speed records are being broken each year, in the bonneville international speedway during the sumer and beginning of fall.

I wish I just have had the chance to see one of those.

Almost graduated...

So I exposed my thesis, it went fine and I´m getting graduated on the 14th of December.... Finally another chapter of my life that´s being closed.....
Tomorrow I´m flying to Salt Lake City, Utah.., it´s a long flight though so I´ll have plenty of time to read a book called "The Human Interface" which I found quite interesting.

What New York Couples fight about !

I just got a couple of new albums from Morcheeba, and there´s this song called "What New York couples fight about" and I liked it very much. If you like relaxed and loungue music give it a try.

Programming Outside The Cube

"...........I don't quite know why I am writing this, but maybe it's because I spent most of 1997 working in a cubicle. In my current (new) job, I work in an office with natural light, comfortable chairs and music. I am experiencing new levels of productivity. ProgrammingOutsideTheCube Programming is a combination of art and science. However, some companies stick their programmers into cubicles. Cubicles lack privacy, are usually subjected to shared (and harsh) lighting, provide cramped working areas and generate an overwhelming OfficeDrone feeling. Programming is an intense activity that requires extended periods of quietness and concentration. Cubicle environments are noisy and distracting. Programming often involves brainstorming (whiteboards are historically one of the tools of choice). Cubicles do not support large whiteboards. Going from a remotely placed whiteboard to the cubicle workstation requires copying the contents of the whiteboard onto paper. This is time consuming. Programming often involves reading books. Books are best read with directed and controlled lighting (reading lamp, natural light over the shoulder, etc). Cubicles offer overhead indirect lighting shared by all. Books are also best read in comfortable chairs. Cubicle chairs are ergonomically designed for workstations (typing on a keyboard and looking at a monitor). Programming in cubes hinders creativity and productivity. Therefore, Take your programmers out of cube environments! Give them offices, or better yet, give them environments conducive to creativity. Ask them what their ideal environment would be. Feed them natural light (or if they want to be cultivated like mushrooms, give them a shadowy area). If the business sells software or the bottom line is directly affected by software, it is in their best interest to do everything to make sure that the producer of the software is given an adequate environment in which to produce. Artists do not work in cubicles, they work in studios. They need space; they need natural light. They need a muse. Scientists do not work in cubicles, they work in labs. They need equipment; they need whiteboards. They need inspiration. Programmers should not work in cubicles......"

Extracted from: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ProgrammingOutsideTheCube

La Fiesta del Bullicio

It´s a tradition in EAFIT (My university) where all the students that are getting graduated gather and party party and party.., throwing flour everywhere !!
This party starts at 1PM and ends veryyyy late.......
Finally I´m getting graduated.., I feel more from the other side now..., which is great..., a great accomplishment in my life!
I would like to take some pics there but I´m afraid if my camera will make it back, so I guess no graphic report at all..., however we get a cd with all the pictures from it.., so probably there would be something at the end.

Popular

I posted this video on YouTube on the 22nd of October, it's a party in Medellín with Erick Morillo (I just had an awesome time btw).., and since that date it has been viewed 711 times.., I´m kind of impressed by that.., some people has also wrote me asking me to send them the video...

This is the video if you want to take a look at it.

How will a WOW player look like in the year 2030?

(All credit to Pyxelated from Deviantart for the pic)

Long Night..

I thought that today was going to be a long night full of work, but I finished much faster that what I thought on a begining !
Some days has passed since my last post, but lately I've been just so busy with so many things going on here...., one of them, very exciting is that I'm going to Salt Lake City, I wonder why the name of it.... on the 28 of November until the 7th of December... The reason of the trip is work of course, but at the same time is good to change the work environment, see new people, talk a different language..., see different skyes.. and do some site seeing... There´s a place that I want to go and thats the "Salt Flats" whic are the salt planes where speed records are broken.., it´s such a weird landscape...
Last week went to Erick Morillo's party and it was awesome... On the 10th of novemeber Carl Cox is coming, I'm not sure if I´m going already...., need to gather the crew and then we´ll decide.
I guess that´s all for the momento !

Chao Pescado. (jajajajaja, that was funny.., if you read this then that was funny !!!)

Acrostico del día

Haciendo caso a la petición de mi querido lufer, aquí esta el acróstico del día:

Rojas "my friend" (Como dicen por ahí), la clave esta en:

Pez
Een
Rio
Canta
En
Buena
Elocuencia
Rayando
Anguilas
Rayando

Sent !!

I just sent it !!!

+2 - 1 = 1

Balance......, I would say that's my favorite word....., try to keep it above 0 and you will be fine....
Today I received 2 notices, one which is pretty good..., something that I was expecting long time ago, and a bad one that I was also expecting..., and that gets me angry with myself. I saw it coming and didn't do anything at all.... But at the same time I like the feeling of that bad notice.., it´s like an inner energy that came up from nowhere, but at the same time it is something that I don't like at all but helps me to get over it. It´s like a molotov cocktail of feelings..., kind of difficult to understand, isn't it ? I can't even decrypt it myself...
Emotions...emotions...emotions..., sooo good.. but at the same time soooo bad...

ONE CHAIN LESS...
Close the chapter and move on..

Green tea and all the benefits it has.

Recent studies show that green tea can help greatly in the process of losing weight. It does it by increasing the body's metabolism. If consumed regularly, it can help you burn as much as eighty calories extra. In a year, that’s about 8 pounds; you lose that much just by drinking, even without diet and exercise.
To further enlighten you as to how green tea works, read on below:

1. Green tea slows down the absorption of fats and regulates glucose. The same substance, cathechin polyphenol, restrains the transition of glucose into fats. By doing that, experts believe that green tea is an effective glucose regulator. It effectively prevents insulin spikes and slows the rise of blood sugar after every meal. Insulin, as specialists agreed upon, promotes the storage of fats as it deals with the body’s blood sugar.
2. Green tea has the ability to reduce appetite. Because green teas have regulating effects on the blood sugar, people who drink it are observed to eat food as much as 60 percent lesser than usual. This particular hypothesis was proven when green tea was injected into laboratory rats for experimentation. Researchers believe that it has the same effects on humans.
3. Green tea is a good alternative to coffee. If you drink tea instead of coffee in the morning or throughout the day, your body gets fewer calories in the long run. The sugar and the cream included in your daily cappuccinos add inches and bulges to the waistline. But with green tea, instead of accumulating fats, you are actually reducing its build up.
4. Green tea affects the bodily systems positively. A parallel research about green tea brings forward its overall effects in the body. The systems benefiting from it include cardiovascular, respiratory, circulatory, nervous, urogenital, immune, lymphatic, and musculoskelatal systems. With this, green tea shows to have a very broad effect on the body. Only a few types of food can boast of this characteristic.

La caja del amor

This is a social project in which I'm working on. I attached a video that explains what it is about, how it works, and how YOU can help.




If you want to send this video to somebody, use the following url:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ_YStOOe8s

What would happen if humans disappeared from Earth today?

Interesting Picture...

Perspective..

Perspective changes everything, doesn't it ?
This is my dog, Paco.., he´s a Golden lab.
I liked pretty much the perspective of this pic.

Casuality ?

Yesterday night I dreamt that a country detonated an atomic bomb inside the ground.., the blast didn´t affect anybody at all..., radiaton didn´t even leak.... Well, that was just a dream until this morning, when I realized that it happened in North Korea, here´s the new:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KOREAS_NUCLEAR?SITE=PASUN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Kind of cryptic, isn´t it ?

Cool Architecture !

Imagine this building, that moves with the wind..., changing it position every time, making almost impossible of ever returning to it´s original symmetry. Interesting, isn´t it?

Definetively the kind of place where I would like to live..

Learning...

Every single day that passes I learn something new... All my life I´ve been in a rush all the time...., it has taken me 25 years to learn that being in a rush won´t get me faster to where I want to go.. Taking enough time to do everything is what I need... In that way, I´m able to enjoy what I´m doing.., and best of all, do it very well....

mmmmmm............

Click !

Yesterday I went to see this movie with Adam Sandler called "Click", it was just so funny, I laughed just so much..., and I was amazed by the interesting message that the movie has..
It happens that Sandler gets a remote controller that allows him to do whatever he wants with his life, he can pause, forward and rewind it.... The bad thing about the remote is that it "learns" the user preferences, so if for example he start to skip all the fights with his wife, in the future he won´t have to do it, the remote will do it automatically for him and while it´s forwarding he enters in a kind of "autopilot" mode.... The guy is living the rat´s race, working just soo hard to get a promotion, so he starts forwarding things until he gets it, and he thinks that he´s life is perfect, then everything starts to forward automatically having as a result that he´s not able to enjoy anything at all...., he can´t have a fight with his wife or boss because the remote will forward it, same with the cars bottlenecks...., so sudenly he´s old and he´s dying, he has lost his wife and didn´t live all the exciting things of his life. The message was pretty clear to me.., has ever happened to you that you would like to forward your life until certain point ? Well, in my case I have ! Sometimes I don´t enjoy things as I should because I´m thinking on the future or willing to be somewhere else.... and I can continue listing things here all the afternoon... Life it´s about the "little things", about the details...., and that´what Sandler realize when he wakes up and finds out that he got another chance...
I highly recommend this movie...., normally I don´t like comedy movies, but this one was splendid.

Geopolitics..., even in windows...

Why isn't my time zone highlighted on the world map?

In the original release of Windows 95, you could change your time zone by clicking on the map, and the time zone you selected would highlight. Similarly, you could change your Region Settings by clicking on the world map. This was one of those little touches that made Windows 95 that much more fun to use.

But we had to remove those features within months of release, even though we based both of the maps on the borders officially recognized by the United Nations.

In early 1995, a border war broke out between Peru and Ecuador and the Peruvian government complained to Microsoft that the border was incorrectly placed. Of course, if we complied and moved the border northward, we'd get an equally angry letter from the Ecuadorian government demanding that we move it back. So we removed the feature altogether.

The time zone map met a similar fate. The Indian government threatened to ban all Microsoft software from the country because we assigned a disputed region to Pakistan in the time zone map. (Any map that depicts an unfavorable border must bear a government stamp warning the end-user that the borders are incorrect. You can't stamp software.) We had to make a special version of Windows 95 for them.

Geopolitics is a very sensitive subject.

Caught by surprise!!

My sister was watching some photos yesterday in one of those sites that takes millions and millions of pictures at parties arround paisalandia and then post' em on the web.....
So she called me and showed me this picture.., it was just so funny because I didn´t realize when they took it. Thanks god I´m a very good guy and wasn´t doing something "unsuitable".

Plain days..

Long time ago without posting something interesting.. These last days have been just sooo bussy , full of work and work and work.
I need to finish writing my thesis to give it on the first week of october, and to be honest I´ve been kind of lazy with the written document.., it´s just so boring to write how you did it and how you did aproach it...., and putting nice things just to make it look good..., I mean.., what´s the use of that.., what´s the use of a well formed set of words if they don´t look deep into the product that´s what they should be looking at !
I can´t wait just to give that document away and finally close that chapter of my life.
Yesterday I came with the idea of camping in "El Peñol", long time ago without doing it, and that place is just perfect! I like it very much... In the meantime I don´t have dates or anything at all, just the idea... brilliant !!!

Monthly usage limit reached

Aahhhh, it´s sad when this message appears on my yahoo launchcast not even at the middle of the month ! I guess I will have to start paying so I can use it for as long as I want because it´s a pretty sweet service.
Free everything, then pay for everything ! That´s the behavior of the web these days.. First they create the need inside you and afterwards, when you can´t live without it they start charging for it !

Táctica y estrategia - Mario Benedetti

Táctica y estrategia

Mi táctica es
mirarte
aprender como sos
quererte como sos

Mi táctica es
hablarte
y escucharte
construir con palabras
un puente indestructible

Mi táctica es
quedarme en tu recuerdo
no sé cómo ni sé
con qué pretexto
pero quedarme en vos

Mi táctica es
ser franco
y saber que sos franca
y que no nos vendamos
simulacros
para que entre los dos
no haya telón
ni abismos

Mi estrategia es
en cambio
más profunda y más
simple

Mi estrategia es
que un día cualquiera
no sé cómo ni sé
con qué pretexto
por fin me necesites.

-Mario Benedetti

Some "Proverbs" that I liked..

-Si quieres felicidad por una hora: toma una siesta.
-Si quieres felicidad por un día: ve de pesca.
-Si quieres felicidad por un año: hereda una fortuna.
-Si quieres felicidad por el resto de tu vida: ayuda a otras personas. Tu fortaleza y tu fortuna crecen solo en la medida en que las compartes.
-La felicidad consiste en ser gratos para otros: ese sentimiento libera sus dones y hace que te conviertan en el centro de sus afectos.
-Toda persona que es amada por sus obras vence la soledad.
-Allí donde otros encuentran incertidumbre, ella encuentra gratitud; allí donde otros encuentran indiferencia, ella es atendida con espontáneo afecto.
-Quien vence la avaricia abre las puertas de la opulencia.
-La fortuna tiene genero de mujer y solo se prodiga a quienes saben valorarla y no intentan encerrarla.

PermGen Space Error

I hate when I get this error at work !!!

Memoirs of a Geisha

This is the new book that I started reading a few days ago and I´m liking it just so much that I can´t sto reading it at nights.
I´m in the middle of it and I´m just amazed how fast I´ve read all of that pages.
The story is just amazing.., the only bad thing is that the chapters are quite big, and I don´t like when I´ve to stop in the middle of one. I liked very much the way the Dan Brown used to write.., keeping 2 or 3 parallel stories at the same time, being one chapter dedicated to one storie and so on.., and the best thing is that each chapter ranges from 1 to 5 pages at most, so it´s quite confortable to read because you don´t have to do it for long periods of time, of course that when you start reading you can´t stop, or at least that´s what happens when I´m reading a book.., I just enjoy them so much.

Nightmares again..

This week has been full of nightmares and I don´t like that because I wake up like if I didn´t sleep at all, just so tired.
I try to recall if there´s anything that I´m doing or eating or something that is producing this kind of dreams, but so far I´ve had no success at all !
Yesterday night I dreamt with a kind of evil guy who was wearing a kind of dentist clothes and every road I took he would appear in front of me and laugh...., and laugh and laugh.., somehow I knew that I was dreaming, so maybe I can say that it was a lucid dream.., but even though I was scared in this dream.

Cooking again ! : )

The maid decided to leave the house and my parents and I don´t want to get another one.., we´re just tired of having to deal with one after another and besides, we are 5 persons in the house, and if we can´t do the daily stuff by our own means then nobody can.
I like this, because for example at lunch I have time to cook with my mother, something that I like very much to do, my speciality are the salads.., sara my little sister is even eating them (She never used to eat' em). This reminds me when I used to live alone and cook everything for myself and once in a while for somebody else..., and I like the idea of cook what I´m going to eat because I can do it the way I like it..., and I can learn and/or find new recipes.

Jajajaja, Yasuri Yasuri Yamileth !!

Just in case you haven't been paying attention to the morning news, a big old bunch of Sony-made batteries in 4.1 million Dell and 1.8 million Apple laptops have been recalled due to safety concerns (i.e., they explode).Since we love and care about each and every one of you so very much, and would hate to see your laps melt off, we want to make sure you take the appropriate action and return those bad batteries if you've got 'em. From Apple, we're talking iBooks and PowerBooks, and from Dell - well, I'm not sure; you've got to enter you PPID to find out. Now get checking!

A million thank you !!

This was just sooooo funny, until what number can you wait ?? I did until 2,500.
Just press play !

End

Everything comes to an end, and yesterday I finished a book called "La rueda de la vida" written by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the book is a kind of biography and at the same time talks about the "dead" and the lots of experiences that the author has with it. Sometimes it just goes so "far" which from my point of view is not that good at all, maybe because I haven´t had that kind of experiences, however it´s a good and very interesting book to read.

Banana, Papaya and Apple!

I just erased a previous post that I did a few minutes ago, it was pointless !! The tea is already hot and the day is cold. Waking up for me on this kind of day is pretty pretty difficult, the fact of seeing my room kind of dark makes me want to stay in bed forever. BUT, then I have to wake up, so much things to do, and my back is killing me today.., if there´s something that I like and hate at the same time (bittersweet taste!!) is the change of routine exercise.... My knee in the other hand is again in pain, I even stopped jogging.., but nothing ! Therapy haven´t helped that much...

Killing intense black eyes !

I didn´t know that was one of the reasons !!!!

Comandante Dinko !

Hey Comandante, what´s up ? I know that you´re reading this because I have my "connections", but what about you ??? You can write me a line once in a while.., I promess I won´t get mad !!

Jajajajaj, there´s this video that I´m 100% sure that you´re gonna enjoy and laugh just so much..., it´s just sooo #"$#" I can´t find a word to describe it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KZMoM-V7QI

Monday Morning...

I can´t remember when was the last time that I had breakfast in my bed.., but today I did the exception..., and the best thing of all is that I turned on the TV and there was Dawson´s creek, my favorite tv series, it´s sad that now it´s over..., but it was good to watch it again even though if I already saw that chapter. That brought me a lot of memories, most of them good..., but closed pages of the book that my life is. Closed pages that are going to remain in that stage, but reading a few of them once in a while have a healthy effect on my life.

Beto, 5 days and there´s no signal of you...., I´m afraid I won´t see you again.... : (

Friday Afternoon

Finally friday afternoon. This has been a week full of work and some stress. Beto got lost in the farm (Beto is a Beagle) since 3 days ago..., I´ve done anything but calling to the farm every single day but there´s no track of the dog, I´m doing some posters to post in the most common places..., I hope we can find him.

In the other hand I have some plans for this weekend, tomorrow there´s a national paintball torunament in Llanogrande, I´m thinking on going, and in the night there´s this party at Lobby with Vitalic, I already bought my tickets !

Well, I´ll get back to work.., ll´be posting later.

wedding

So I got invited to Jorge´s wedding but still don´t know what to wear that day and still don´t know if I´m going alone or with somebody else.

I don´t know what it is..

This afternoon the rightmost finger of my left hand was tickling, now it´s gone but what I feel is a kind of cramp ....., but in my leftmost fingers of my left hand, can´t even type on the keyboard...

Instead of blaming DO something..

This past weekend I went to Carambolas for our monthly work there. It happens that we gathered 110 kids to show them a movie, it was "Nemo", they enjoyed it very much, most of them haven´t had the chance to see it before (Most of them doesn´t have a TV at home). However, after the movie we gave them something to eat, it was a piece of bread with "Zoom!", most of them were very educated doing the line and waiting for the others, but there was this kid in particular which didn´t had any respect for his friends, for the people that was there, not even with me.... He did the line three times, in the third I asked him very nicely to please leave the line because it wasn´t fair what he was doing, he yelled to me that this was his first time in the line, so I replied: No, it is not, please leave it... In the end the boy left the line and started to play very strong with his friends (It was a fight simulation I Guess), so one of his friends hit him a little bit hard, so he replies with a punch in the face of the other boy and then he throws him to the floor and hits him again.., in that moment I went and separated them..., I thought that the other boy was injured but he wasn´t.., and he told me that they were playing.., that did amazed me again!
I started to think about what could be the future of this violent kid, and to be honest I don´t see a clear one for him..., and I don´t blame him.., some of this kids have a lot of violence inside their families, fathers that hit their wifes, sons that hit their mothers or yell at them, kids that are the hole day in front of a TV without nobody who can guide him, kids who are the whole day on the streets sometimes surrounded by bad influences, kids that probably doesn´t receive a hug or a "I love you" quite often, kids that are missing love, kids that are missing comprenhension, kids that are missing affect, kids that are missing a family, kids that are missing oportunities..., kids that are missing everything...., so my question again: How can I blame him...? should be translated in: How can I help him? And the answer came inmediatly..., and it was what I was doing that day there..
In the other hand, when I was giving the food to this kids, there was a very particular girl which came, I recognized her and I asked if this was her second time in the line, she replied that yes, it was her second time, so I said to her that I wasn´t able to give her more food because if I did there would be other kids that wouldn´t be able to eat.., she understood. I finished my labor and went to the kitchen to drink something.., and after 10 minutes she came to the kitchen with 2 of her sisters and asked me again for a piece of bread.., so I started to talk to them and asked them if they have eaten something today, they said "no". The little girl was looking at the bread like the most precious thing on earth, I felt just sooo bad because in my entire life there hasn´t been not even one day where I have woke up and haven´t had anything to eat.. I took one bread and gave it to them but before that I told them to hide it and eat it somewhere else because otherwise the other kids would realize about it and then that wouldn´t be fair with them... This girl touched my just soo deep...

The picture above has one of the nicest views of Medellín.

Xbox 360 Platinum Edition for Sale..

Hey I´m selling my Xbox 360 Platinum Edition, in case you´re interested just drop me a line.

Quote of the day

"...The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do..."
-B.F Skinner

Chavez...Chavez....Chavez....

"Venezuela se arma hasta los dientes.

El presidente Hugo Chávez realizó una gira por varios continentes buscando armas y un puesto en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU. Y en contraste, incumplió su promesa de venir a la posesión del presidente Álvaro Uribe.

Una gira estratégica de dos semanas por Argentina, Bielorrusia, Rusia, Qatar, Irán, Malí, Vietnam y Benín, países ubicados en Suramérica, Europa, Asia y África, acaba de realizar el presidente venezolano Hugo Chávez. Quedó demostrado que el mandatario es un comprador compulsivo de armas y que no se detiene en su afán por conseguir un escaño en el Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas, ONU.

Después del ingreso, en forma improvisada, a Mercosur, o al Neomercosur, como lo llama, Chávez emprendió una ofensiva diplomática con escalas en cada país que consideró clave para enfatizar su odio a Estados Unidos y ascender en la escalada armamentista.

En su trayectoria dejó una estela de donaciones y apoyos financieros destinados a comprometer los votos para acceder a un escaño en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, en calidad de miembro no permanente, que le disputa a Guatemala. Quizás el último respaldo fue de Yayi Boni, gobernante de Bení, tras ofrecerle 2,9 millones de dólares para construir viviendas en esta empobrecida nación africana cuya población tiene un ingreso per cápita de sólo tres dólares diarios.

Chávez tiene puestos los ojos en el Consejo de Seguridad. Allí aspira compartir tribuna con las potencias mundiales, entre ellas Estados Unidos, toda vez que este organismo jugará un papel decisivo por las implicaciones que sobre la paz mundial tienen los conflictos de Irak, Medio Oriente e Irán y Corea del Norte.

La ofensiva diplomática y política, montada sobre una postura antiestadounidense y un rechazo tajante y ofensivo al presidente George W. Bush, era uno de los objetivos del periplo. El segundo motivo de la gira lo llevó a Rusia a firmar un acuerdo armamentista por unos tres millones de dólares.

Chávez compra armas sin medida. Ya había adquirido 100.000 fusiles Kalashnikov AK-103 y algunos helicópteros rusos el año pasado. Con su colega Vladimir Putin logró un "aliado de confianza" que le suministrará 24 cazas Sukhoi 30 y 53 helicópteros, convirtiéndose así en el principal abastecedor de Venezuela. Esta decisión está provista de complejidades logísticas, porque no es sólo reemplazar los equipos suministrados anteriormente por Estados Unidos, Francia y otros países por materiales rusos, sino que se produce un viraje de dependencia militar.

Estas compras, que ya suman 5.700 millones de dólares en dos años, contemplan también la adquisición de 12 aviones y ocho barcos patrulleros a España. Venezuela justifica su carrera armamentista. Chávez sostiene que su intención es prepararse para la defensa de una "eventual agresión" de Estados Unidos y lograr un equilibrio regional de fuerzas en vista del Plan Colombia. Desde 2005 el presupuesto del Ministerio de la Defensa registró un crecimiento de 31 por ciento y alcanzó unos 2.000 millones de dólares.

A su regreso Chávez encontró el vacío que está dejando su paradigmático líder Fidel Castro, por cuenta de su grave enfermedad. Ahora, en el plano interno, enfilará sus baterías injuriosas para ocultar las denuncias de corrupción, violencia, censura, en medio del fragor de la contienda electoral. En la región, arreciará su talante provocador, alentado por la condecoración del gobierno iraní y por la renovada dotación de sus fuerzas armadas. Y en Colombia, quedan las dudas por la excusa para no venir a la posesión del presidente Álvaro Uribe. Todos, motivos de preocupación continental."

This document was taken from http://www.elcolombiano.com.co/BancoConocimiento/V/venezuela_se_arma_hasta_los_dientes/venezuela_se_arma_hasta_los_dientes.asp?CodSeccion=6

Vitalic

Another awesome Dj is coming on the 19th of August (for more info www.vitalic.org), I guess I´m going !

Quote of the day

Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke.
- Lynda Barry

Pinned Down.

I was sitting at my desk and suddenly I started to receive an attack from somewhere.., they were shooting with a CO2 powered gun copper balls..., some of the balls entered right by the balcony... So I crouched myself and went to my parents room..., started to look arround and found the kid that was doing it.. I´m gonna be patient and won´t start any offensive at the moment.., however if the shooting persists I´ll have to "engage".

Speed !

I never thought of this before, but it´s quite usefull when you´re able to change the speed of your mouse (increase or decrease) with the hit of a button. I saw this quite usefull a few minutes ago while working with cmaps where I need lot´s of precision when designing my conceptual maps.., so slowing the mouse speed allows me to achieve this task very easy.., and when I need to move from one place to another I just increase the speed...

Raising money for a friend.

I´m raising some money for this friend of mine that is having some issues with his life, if you want to cooperate just give me a call.

It´s a pity to see this guy, just look at the pic.

Playing with Cryptonite!!

Those pictures below are real, those green things weren´t added with any graphical editor ! They were just taken as that !

Tip: It was with a Cryptonite stone !

Voodoo or Just Pain ?

Since yesterday I have a small pain in the left part of my stomach.., it goes and comes back, it goes and comes back.., it´s not that hard though but I can feel it.
It is only pain or somebody that is performing some voodoo magic over me? Time will tell, but if this pain isn´t gone by tomorrow I´ll have to go to see what´s going on.
Finally I finished reading a book called "The art of the war", quite interesting as I said in my previous post about this book, and I started a new one called "La Horrible Noche" which is a book that talks about how Pablo Escobar ran away from "La Catedral" (A Jail) and the most interesting part of it is that it talks about the political situation by that time, why the country did what they did with their politics and negotiations, why the narcotrafic hitted so hard the country and created a huge unbalance inside it. It´s not only a "book", it contains plenty of history which is kind of interesting to know because you can tie it to what you already know and understand more why things are the way they are right now.
It´s quite particular, because some of the philosophy that I read in the book "The art of the war" wasn´t applied by our politicians by that time and some of the tasks that they needed to perform went down because of that !
This book "The art of the war" is highly recommended to read by the international negotiators when they´re going to perform business with China and Japan, this is something that I didn´t understand at the beginning of the book, but when I finished I did and I would say also, it´s a book for anyone because everybody needs to make hard and difficult decisions throughout their entire life..
Today I´ll be finishing the book about Escobar run´s away and I´ll be starting another one called "La rueda de la vida", I´ll make some posts about it later on.

Real Dreams = Confussion !

2 years without dreaming about "that", and las night appeared again, I just woke up without knowing what to do, I almost broke my promess of opening that page of my life that was already closed.., that´s why I call lufer to ask for advice..., why him? Because he was the only person that went throughout all of that with me by that time... I was hoping to hear something else, because I wanted to, something inside me wanted to hear it, but in the other hand you were completely right...mental stability above everything...

"..I´ll see you in another life when we´re both cats..." Meaauuuuu..

Finally my first "cache" !!

While I was in Santa Marta I had the chance to go to the Tairona park, where I placed my first cache for the geocaching game (For more info go to: http://www.geocaching.com).

Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

The GPS coordinates for it are as follow: N 11° 18.897 W 073° 56.773

The place where it´s hidden is here:



This catch is located in the Tairona Park which is located in the city of Santa Marta, is just an awesome place. The cache is located in "Arrecifes Beach" in a rocky small mountain between the sea and the beach.., just to the right. You will have to climb the rocks to reach it because it´s on the top of it.

The cache is in a small box covered by a black plastic bag, inside it you will fin a log book, some pencils and 2 suvenirs that I left on it. When you´re on the top go to the border (To the North) that faces the sea and on it you will find a series of rocks (on the top), there is a small crack between 2 rocks, the box is inside it covered by some wood sticks and leafs.



And here I was.., getting ready to start my journey in the Tairona park.

If you are a fan of geocaching you can fetch more info about my cache here:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=60c15f29-c4c1-454a-a75b-f8d04dc6c889

Jack Johnson

I just downloaded all the Jack Johnson Albums, his music is very similar to ColdPlay, John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper and Jason Mraz.

"...Jack Johnson (born May 18, 1975) is a Hawaii-born singer-songwriter who has achieved commercial success and a dedicated following since he first appeared on G. Love & Special Sauce's album "Philadelphonic." The release of his 2001 debut album, “Brushfire Fairytales” further cemented his popularity. He has written, recorded, and released the albums “On And On” (2003), and “In Between Dreams”(2005). His newest album is entitled “Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious.."

BTW, my favorites songs are called "Banana Pancakes" and "On and on..".

Casualidad? - No English at all !!

El lunes salí de mi casa por la noche, bajaba por la 10, en el semaforo donde se junta con la inferior paré porque el semaforo estaba en rojo. Se me acercó un niño a pedirme plata, y le dije q no tenia, entonces me dijo que si por favor le compraba algo que estaba con habmbre, le dijo que listo....., seguí y me parquié en Carulla o Pomona de Pinar del rio, la verdad no me acuerdo exactamente cual de los dos es el que está allí. De cualquier forma no pensé que el niño fuera a ir, el caso fué que allá llegó...., empezamos a hablar y depronto nos dimos cuenta que nos conociamos..., la verdad yo no sabia de donde hasta que le pregunte que donde vivia y el me dijo que en "Carambolas"..., fué entonces cuando empezamos a hablar mas y me contó que la mamá (Luz Dary) trabaja cuidando los carros de el mall que sigue de pinar del rio, donde esta un alquiladero de películas. Ah, se me olvidaba, el nombre del niño es Alfonso. Me contó entonces que en la casa no tenian nada para comer, y que estaban pasando por una situación muy difícil. Yo me acordaba muy bien de él, porque la ultima vez que estuvimos en carambolas, en la carrera de observación que hicimos el llegó de un momento a otro y queria jugar..., obviamente le dije que se metiera a buscar unos tarros de "veneno" que yo tenia escondidos en la manga (Los tarros no eran propiamente de veneno, pero la actividad trataba de enseñarles a los niños los peligros de estos elementos). Son de esos niños llenos de energía y que de cierta manera lo cautivan a uno con solo hablar.....
Tenia los ojos rojos (Alfonso), fué entonces cuando me contó la mama que los tenía así porque les había hechado limón debido a que el día anterior en el local de alquiler de películas por la divina eucaristia le habian dado $2,000 para que echara un veneno y de cierta manera le había caído en los ojos..., le pregunté entonces que si lo que le había enseñado no le habia servido para nada? Y me dijo que si, que al principio no le hiban a dar guantes para echarlo, pero que el les dijo que sin guantes "nada de nada"..., entonces bueno, por lo menos de algo sirvió lo que enseñé ese dia.
Luego de hablar mucho rato y comprar algunas cosas para la casa de él llegó su mamá.., me saludo muy querida y luego de recoger a Alvaro los llevé donde cogian el bus.

After my first Yoga class..

Finally I can understand a class, got to know the name of each movement like the cobra, the grasshopper, the bridge, the mountain and so on.... It happens that my first Yoga classes were in Swiss-German, so I couldn´t understand a bit of what the teacher was saying..., even though I miss the teacher speaking in swiss-german because the names of the movements were nice to hear.....

Now I feel like relieved, like I can go slower on everything, like with no stress...., relaxed in other words.., something that I was missing since long time ago....

Latest book..

My latest reading is a book called "The Art of the War", kind of interesting though!! It has very interesting ideas and concepts that fit perfectly in your daily life.., I´ll post some of those later on.

Yoga !

This week I decided to start again Yoga classes, I like them very much (I´m sitting on a desk most of the day) becauase they help me to keep the balance of long hours seating in front of a computer screen.

Best Video Ever....

If you like paul van dyk just take a look at this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1344552963226490563&q=paul+van+dyk

ARRGGHGHHHHHHH !!!

I just called EPM which is my internet provider because my speed is not fast enough, I have 700kb/s and I´m getting just 89kb/s !! So I called and I´m just sourprised the answers that I´m getting from level 1 (The last guy that I talked with told me that the internet speed can´t be measured in bytes, only in bits, that bytes are only for storage!!!!!!!!!!!!!, I just asked him to put me with next level....)..., I´m just tired of having to call at least 3 or 4 times a week..., and the worst thing of all is that I have to go throughout level 1 people each time I call, they´re only following a procedure.., I know that.., but please EPM PIMP my internet connection or at least give me the speed that I´m paying for !!!

Rio Rayo..

This trip was to Federico´s farm, located in Taraza... It was just soooo hot, but most of the time we spent it inside the water or walking... I should have done this post before..., now I can´t remember lot of things that I wanted to write....

Water + Hot weather + River + Rocks = High probability of finding a snake.., however I didn´t find not even one though.... : (

Looks like I definetively need a sun burn....

This is myself jumping into an old mine hole..., it was just soooo high.., probably the highest jumpo I´ve ever done in my entire life.. It was awesome.

And this is one of the presents that the nature gives you once in a while.... I could have stayed taking pictures of it, but it was getting late..., translated into snake time !!!!!!!

Some of the friends that went to Rio Rayo..

It´s interesting to know that according to some studies and statistics that scientist have performed (National Geographic I think), in the hole world this is the area with the biggest number of lightings by square meter !!! Probably that´s why the name of the river ("Rio Rayo" which translated in english would be "Lighting River" or "Thunder River").

Confusion

Can´t decide what to do..., sometimes I want to or would like to, and others and I don´t..., the thing is: If I can´t understand myself sometimes, who can ?


BTW, I have a lot of things to post.., but no time, or at least not this week.

Sometimes it´s pretty hard to say: NO

I just got an employment offer with IBM as a Consultant, it was hard for me to say no, because the job looks pretty cool, plenty of opportunities to learn and also travel, but I like very much my current job and it´s heading to where I want to be in the near future....., so as the title says, sometimes it´s pretty hard to say: No thanks.

Graduation..

I was supposed to be graduated by now...., but things happen, and for a sumatory of reasons I didn´t succed.., I should have posted this weeks ago.., but I was trying to avoid the topic..., to think like if it didn´t happen at all. According to the director of thesis I was unlucky in the way things happened.., but I don´t believe in luck..., you just build your own road and what you find on it or not depends on the way you decided to build it.. if you want your road to have a bridge you just need to know where to look for a river, so you can build it.., if you want your road to have a tunnel, you just need to find a huge rocky mountain, so you can build it of course..., and I can continue writing things about the matter here... But what if in the middle of that construction something happens, something that wasn´t in your plans.., and something that affects very deep the direction of that road....., let´s say there´s an earthquake that pumps up a new mountain just in front of your road..., then you´ll have to build a tunnel.., something that you didn´t expected but that makes your road look "cooler" if you take that "problem" as an opportunity.... So here´s the point.., every bad thing that happens can be looked from 2 perspectives.., one good.., one bad... being the good in this case the one most difficult to achieve and to find.., but as my mother says: "When one door gets closed another gets open" and you´re so damn right about it...
So my friends got graduated last week....., and I felt those "bad" butterflies on my stomach that I hate just "so" much........, but well, now that´s in the past...
Taking a look at the way things are going I don´t thing I´m gonna get graduated on August, instead in December..., not what I expected but it works for me though.

Xbox 360

I just bought it 2 weeks ago, but I haven´t played that much.., I don´t know if I grew up and don´t enjoy it that much as I used to, or is just because I don´t want to get focused in another screen after work.., or maybe I don´t have the right game.., honestly I don´t know. It also has a bunch of cool features, like for example I can stream mp3 from my computer located in the other side of the house to my room, also videos and movies.., which is a cool feature... I guess I just need a cool multiplayer game..., and that´s what I´m gonna get.

Friendship

There´s a point where a friendship melts, get mixed and reborn again.., accepting defects and qualities of each one..., and it doesn´t happen quite often.

Backfire..

Sometimes helping people can backfire to you...., it just happened to me a few minutes ago and I hate when that happens.... Most of the times is because of the ignorance of people..., however that´s not an excuse..


Argghh

Esteban´s 25th Birthday

Yesterday was my 25th birthday..., somehow it was different, it started different and it ended different.
2 years since I didn´t spend one of my birthdays with my family, 2 years ago I was in Switzerland, last year I was in Balsillas with Natalia, and finally this year I spent it with them.
We had a great lunch, plus that they bought me my favorite cake from deli (Torta de Caramelo).., YUMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!.

Later on, I spent some time at open sky, it was also a great time, we even rented a narguila with apple essence, it just tasted soooo good..
Thanks to all who gave me a call and spent some time with me.

I just feel that stepping into 25 is going to be pretty interesting, full of challenges (more?????), and I also think that this new year that I´m starting to live is going to be awesome.., probably because it´s my lucky number??? jajajajajja, but honestly speaking I just have the sensation that this year is going to be packed full of surprises and new learnings.... Can´t wait !!!

PD: I´m leaving this saturday to Santa Marta.., and finally I´m going to get to know the Tairona Park, a place that I´ve always wanted to know.. Trip time is almost 13 hours... A little bit far, isn´t it ? And the best of all is that I´m going to have the oportunity to take awesome pictures, because the wilderness there is pretty different from here and all the places where I´ve been.

PD2: My foot is getting better (This is a pending story that I´ve to post here..), finally I can support it fully on the ground. ; )

Worthless Reality Show..

Yesterday I was watching TV with my mom, and between the switching of channels we started to see a new Reality from "Canal Caracol" a local tv station, which is being filmed in Costa Rica I think, and the 3 competing teams are divided according to their social status, as follows:

1.Los Afortunados (Or something like that).
2.Los Rebuscadores.
3.Los Llevados.

My question here is: What is this kind of crap giving to the society ? Is it helping somehow ? Because from my point of view the only thing it´s doing is higlighting more and more the different social classes that we currently have instead of trying to break the hole bewteen them..

So here are my biggest and honest congratulations to the people that created that Reality..., if you ever read this (I don´t think they will anyway...) please try to do something that gives more to the people instead of just making your rating go "high" and destroying others people work and efforts......

Irony..

Guess what.., I´m just eating a Toblerone right now... (Juanma thanks !!), I´m just loving this chocolate bar.., it´s kind of my favorite this days..., and the interesting thing about it is that it´s made in the land of chocolates or clocks where I was 2 years ago..., and I could have eaten lots of them..., but I didn´t because I wasn´t that magnificent chocolate lover as I´m becoming..... Arrgghhhhhhh.....

Milkshake

Today I´m trying a new milkshake recipe invited by myself, the ingredients are:
- 1 cup of milk.
- 1 full spoon of protein with chocolate flavor.
- 2 bananas.
- 1 twix (Candy Bar).
- 1 cup of ice.

Put it on the blender and it´s ready!!
I just tasted and it´s yummyyyyyyyyyy !!!

Esteban´s Time..

Normally it goes from 6:00PM until 8:00PM and it´s the most important time of my day, where I have no cellphone, no connection to internet, no fixed phone, no nothing...., just me.... , and plenty of time to thing about what I´ve done, what I´m doing and what I´ll do with every single thing that surrounds and affects my life .....
It´s also a time where I balance long computer hours with plenty of exercise at the gym.

Best of all..., no interruptions !!



Se Finito !!

Quote of the day

"I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light."
- Isaac Newton

Brigadas..

2 weeks ago we went to Carambolas for another session of our "Brigadas de la Salud y la Solidaridad" where we did some activities for the small and for the adults..



For the kids we did an observation race where we talked to them very much about the team work and at the same time we taught them about a wide variety of topics, and for the adults a series of awesome conferences about the family where they did a very nice paper work (specially the moms!).

In the other hand, we did a journey by the neighborhood where we visited a series
of people with different kind of illness, what allows us to get more sensitized with the community.
Its very sad to see these people in this kind of situation having in mind the poor conditions that they face every single day of their lifes.
All of us got a warm welcome by each one of them, we saw the happiness of these people when we came in...., they´re very lonely people...

We are definetively just soooooo lucky of living the way we live and how we live, because we could be occupying their places and their ours very very easily... Its just so sad that sometimes people just don´t realize how lucky they are because they´re always looking above their heads, but never underneath them..., and is much more what they´ll find if they look underneath that if they look above... Helping the people that needs us is very easy..., you just need to want to give soooo much without expecting to receive anything in exchange.., but believeme, with this people you receive 100 times or more what you give them, and is something that money can´t buy, your parent´s can´t give you..., is something that you can only gain it by yourself.

In the middle of it...

PVD party was just amazing...
I guess the picture can talk by itself.

Paul Van Dyk: Politics of Dancing Tonight..

Tonight.., at paisatown (Medellín) is PVD Politics of Dancing 2 !! This party is going to be awesome, I´m just listening some intros of the songs and they look quite amazing...., also having in mind that this is my favorite dj.., and my last party was 2 years ago with him in Zürich (Unforgetable).... It´s 9:00PM..., and I´m planning to be there at 10:30PM.. I have to work tomorrow (that´s the only bad thing), however I´ll make sure to have plenty of fun !

What I like about PVD is that he´s not only a "DJ", just take the time and read the following and you will realize what I mean:

Fear and Love..

I was listening to 40 gigs of music that a friend did copy to my hard drive..., and after listening soooooo manyyyyyyyyy songs I found this one called "Fear and Love" from a band called "Morcheeba" which plays a laid-back mix of fusion, funk, and blues (I just realized the name of it), however I used to hear this song very much while I was living in Switzerland, so today I searched for the lyric of it and here it is..
I think this song has applied to me in the past, in the present and probably will in the future.

Fear and love - Morcheeba


"We always have a choice
Or at least I think we do
We can always use our voice
I thought this to be true
We can live in fear
Extend our selves to love
We can fall below
Or lift our selves above


Fear can stop you loving
Love can stop your fear
Fear can stop you loving
But it's not always that clear


I always try so hard
To share my self around
But now I'm closing up again
Drilling through the ground


Fear can stop you loving
Love can stop your fear
Fear can stop you loving
But it's not always that clear


I'd love to give my self away
But I find it hard to trust
I've got no map to find my way
Amongst these clouds of dust


Fear can stop you loving
Love can stop your fear
Fear can stop you loving
Love can stop your fear
Fear can stop you loving
Love can stop your fear
Fear can stop you loving
But it's not always that clear"

Weird Dreams.

I keep having this weird dreams that are almost real, so real that when I wake up I get confused for a while thinking if what I dreamt I really did it or if it was just a dream.... There´s no problem with that.., the problem comes when you do bad things like in my dreams...., they stop being dreams and get converted into nightmares..... What´s the difference between a dream and reality ? Studies have shown that the same areas in the brain get activated whenever you´re seeing something or dreaming that something.., so another question here is: Which one is really seeing? The eyes or the brain ?? And again.., what´s the difference between reality and dreams ? The only answer that comes to my mind right now is that dreams are not as consecutive as reality...

Missing you..

Hey mom, it´s been just 2 days and I´m missing you like never...., even though I talked with you a few minutes ago. I know you´re having a good time with your friends on the beach and I like that.., because you were needing that space!
Probably I´ll be going also to the beach on July, hopefully everything will come up flawlessly..

Cooking Time...

This cooking has been the best of the best...., the food was just so great..., each one of us did a little part of it..., and the result was hilarious. I just received the pictures today and in the moment I saw them I started to feel hungry....

Beagles...

Theres a new beagle in the family, it´s called Beto. I think I already posted about him, I even showed a picture of him. He´s just so big this days...
Yesterday I went to the farm because of the father´s day and had lunch with my family, well, not all of it because sadly for this time my mother wasn´t here, and other memebers were traveling.., however it was a pretty good time. I took some pictures of Hugo, Beto and Salpina... Salpina is a dog from our neighbors but she likes very much to come to our farm. Her kind is of those dogs used to do agility (like in animal planet..), it´s just so funny...



PD: Can´t wait for the 25th of this month !

Paul Van Dyk !!

This Dj (My Favorite) is going to be playing here on the 25th of june on Plaza Mayor..., I already got my ticket.... This party is going to be awesome.

Cactus..

I´ve been looking for one for days.., well, actually not looking too much because I haven´t had enough time. I would like to put in on my desk, I like the green nearby the monitor, so if you want to have an awesome detail with me just give me a Cactus...

The Artist that my mom is..

She did this 2 paintings on the weekend and their awesome..., she´s just so good at it !!!
Mom, I really admire your work !!!For me the first one (Above) is like a plain on fire...., it´s pretty hugeeeeeee, like to put it on a living room.....

The second one is obviously a watermelon but what I like most about it is that is divided into 3 pieces...., giving it a very nice touch......
Again Mom..., congratulations !!!!!!! I liked them very very much.