Cool Article.

JuanE sent me yesterday this article, I found it quite cool and interesting.

Many of our problems come from within our own minds. They aren’t caused by events, bad luck, or other people. We cause them through our own poor mental habits. Here are 10 habits you should set aside right away to free yourself from the many problems each one will be causing you.

Stop jumping to conclusions. There are two common ways this habit increases people’s difficulties. First, they assume that they know what is going to happen, so they stop paying attention and act on their assumption instead. Human beings are lousy fortune-tellers. Most of what they assume is wrong. That makes the action wrong too. The second aspect of this habit is playing the mind-reader and assuming you know why people do what they do or what they’re thinking. Wrong again, big time. More relationships are destroyed by this particular kind of stupidity than by any other.

Don’t dramatize. Lots of people inflate small setbacks into life-threatening catastrophes and react accordingly. This habit makes mountains out of molehills and gives people anxieties that either don’t exist or are so insignificant they aren’t worth worrying about anyway. Why do they do it? Who knows? Maybe to make themselves feel and seem more important. Whatever the reason, it’s silly as well as destructive.

Don’t invent rules. A huge proportion of those “oughts” and “shoulds” that you carry around are most likely needless. All that they do for you is make you feel nervous or guilty. What’s the point? When you use these imaginary rules on yourself, you clog your mind with petty restrictions and childish orders. And when you try to impose them on others, you make yourself into a bully, a boring nag, or a self-righteous bigot.

Avoid stereotyping or labeling people or situations. The words you use can trip you up. Negative and critical language produces the same flavor of thinking. Forcing things into pre-set categories hides their real meaning and limits your thinking to no purpose. See what’s there. Don’t label. You’ll be surprised at what you find.

Quit being a perfectionist. Life isn’t all or nothing, black or white. Many times, good enough means exactly what it says. Search for the perfect job and you’ll likely never find it. Meanwhile, all the others will look worse than they are. Try for the perfect relationship and you’ll probably spend your life alone. Perfectionism is a mental sickness that will destroy all your pleasure and send you in search of what can never be attained.

Don’t over-generalize. One or two setbacks are not a sign of permanent failure. The odd triumph doesn’t turn you into a genius. A single event—good or bad—or even two or three don’t always point to a lasting trend. Usually things are just what they are, nothing more.

Don’t take things so personally. Most people, even your friends and colleagues, aren’t talking about you, thinking about you, or concerned with you at all for 99% of the time. The majority of folk in your organization or neighborhood have probably never heard of you and don’t especially want to. The ups and downs of life, the warmth and coldness of others, aren’t personal at all. Pretending that they are will only make you more miserable than is needed.

Don’t assume your emotions are tustworthy. How you feel isn’t always a good indicator of how things are. Just because you feel it, that doesn’t make it true. Sometimes that emotion comes from nothing more profound than being tired, hungry, annoyed, or about to get a head-cold. The future won’t change because you feel bad—nor because you feel great. Feelings may be true, but they aren’t the truth.

Don’t let life get you down. Keep practicing being optimistic. If you expect bad things in your life and work, you’ll always find them. A negative mind-set is like looking at the world through distorting, grimy lenses. You spot every blemish and overlook or discount everything else. It’s amazing what isn’t there until you start to look for it. Of course, if you decide to look for signs of positive things, you’ll find those too.

Don’t hang on to the past. This is my most important suggestion of all: let go and move on. Most of the anger, frustration, misery, and despair in this world come from people clinging to past hurts and problems. The more you turn them over in your mind, the worse you’ll feel and the bigger they’ll look. Don’t try to fight misery. Let go and move on. Do that and you’ve removed just about all its power to hurt you.

Extracted from: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-virtually-instant-ways-to-improve-your-life.html

Long time...

Long time without posting...... So much things have happened..., moved to a new house outside the city..., a place that by the way I like just so much.., the weather is like Bogota (15 to 20 degrees all the time) and that moving was taking almost all of my free time.., packing, getting rid of things that I'm not using any longer, organizing, and packing, packing, packing and packing...
Settling down takes some time....., I even have boxes without unpacking...
Getting used to the weather has also been a challenge, but now it's under control.
Also other aspects of my private life have had very big changes..., not easy to overcome all of them though..., but I did them for the best and my last intention was to hurt anybody but me.
I'm kind of speechless today...., so I'm not writting anymore.

Quieres un Margarito ?

Hey Burro, el video esta una caja completa, de donde lo sacaste?

Wrong email?

I googled my email today and found this entry.., and I'm quite sure that I didn't write even if I was drunk or something because there are words that I don't even know.

"...ah ya no mas argentinuchos todos son unos prepotentes, arrogantes, creìdos, chilangos, nacos, y sus novias, esposas, hijas, etc., son unas garnachas, osea tienen cerebro de guacamole, huelen a ajo y parecen una cebolla, ya dèjense de creerse los meros machos porque no son ni faldita, maradona su ìdolo es un drogadicto y un homosexual, al igual que el 99 por ciento de ustedes. si otro mexicano quiere unirseme a esta lucha, que me escriba a esteban8A@gmail.com y les damos a estos robacanecas lo que se merecen, chilangos!!!......."

test

<span xmlns:t="http://tapestry.apache.org/schema/tapestry_5_0_0.xsd"><t:select t:id="monthSelect" t:value="month" t:model="monthsModel" t:validate="required" onChange="Dodo.Utils.fixDayList('${clientId}');"/> <t:select t:id="daySelect" t:value="day" t:model="daysModel" t:validate="required"/> <t:select t:id="yearSelect" t:value="year" t:model="yearsModel" t:validate="required" onChange="Dodo.Utils.fixDayList('${clientId}');"/></span>

New Template

Finally google allowed me to migrate my blog to their new version.

Sleep Adjustment - Gain 10 days per year

10 days extra per year, and if you live for 70 years that gets translated into 700 extra days, does it sounds interesting?
I was reading the web and found this interesting article (http://www.dumblittleman.com/2007/05/sleep-adjustment-gain-10-days-per-year.html)...., I agree in the 20 mins power nap and with the lying in bed is not sleeping...

"On Dumb Little Man I have mentioned (several times) that I am generally awake each morning at 4AM. While that time may seem inconceivable to most of you, the simple idea of at least waking up earlier in general should be easy to swallow.

From 4-6 AM, I simply get a ton of things done. In fact, I'd argue that I get more done from 4-6 AM than I do from 8-Noon. No matter what I decide to do, it's uninterrupted simply because no one else is awake and functioning. It's purely a time for knocking out tasks (work or home related), reading, project work, planning, etc. It's great.

My life was not always this way, I used to be the guy that stayed up late and woke up with barely enough time to shower before work. So, how did I change that? It's actually pretty simple, I installed a regimen that I have now followed for years. On average, I believe that I have given myself an extra 5 hours per week or (do the math) an extra 10.8 days per year to get stuff done.

Lying in bed is not sleeping: 10:00 PM was my previous bedtime. Frankly, I chose that time because that's when my parents went to bed when I was a kid. I had no real reason for it. What I found was that I would watch the news and then end up lying in bed for an hour pondering and stressing.

In my belief, the key to extending your days is to lie down when you simply cannot ponder any longer. If you are drifting off at the computer, while reading, or watching TV, it's time to get to bed. Your bedtime should and will vary from night to night. Let your body tell you when to sleep as opposed to the following the 8-hour rule. Really, how good is that rule if you a laying in bed awake for an hour?

Rise and Shine: No matter what time you to go to bed - you're alarm should go off each morning at the same time, 7 days per week. When I started this self-programming, I chose 4AM and today, regardless of the time I hit the rack, I am up at 4AM without an alarm. I have gone to bed at 2:30 AM on occasion and still gotten up automatically at 4:00 feeling good.

Sleepy at Noon?: We've all heard the some countries encourage lunchtime naps. Well, me too. For lunch, I eat a sandwich and when possible (and only when I feel tired, this is not daily) I take a power nap that lasts all of 20 minutes. Instead of sitting at my desk for lunch, I will hop in the car and head to a forest preserve, behind a strip mall, etc. I eat, and then turn the radio down for a quick nap (set your cell phone alarm). I wake up totally refreshed. It's actually kind of eerie because the energy I have after this little midday nap easily trumps the energy I had in the morning.
These 3 simple things have created a self-adjusting alarm clock inside my body. Since I wake up at the exact same time each day, my body knows how to adjust. In the evening, it will (through drifting off) tell me to go to bed earlier if in fact I am tired. On the flip side, if my body has the energy, I can write on this site or do whatever until 1AM if I want. This is essentially due to a hormone release that happens internally. I am programmed to be drowsy when I need to be and productive when I don't.

Think about what you could do with this added 5 hours per week. I am not implying that you have to be up at 4AM, but if in fact you find yourself "trying" to fall asleep or watching TV for hours at night, this may be something for you to try."

Pessimism ???

This year the Colombian peso "COP" has been gaining value against the dollar, but in every magazine and newspaper that you read inside the country it says something like: "The dollar went down to $2.000 pesos for example, or the dollar went down $20 pesos..." and I can continue writing and writing things like that..
We all know that this phenomena is good for certain industries and disastrous for another's. For example, I'm being affected because of the revaluation of the peso, anyways.., my question and my post is about this: Why the concept is being written as something bad instead of something good?? A headline like this would definitively help:
"The peso won $20 pesos", or "The peso beaten the dollar in $34 pesos" should be used instead... even if it's not as good for some industries as for another's.
The conclusion here is that a positive writing produces a positive thinking inside us, while a negative writing produces of course a negative thinking.

Business Idea.

I've been offering some of the paintings that my mom does in the city, not too much luck.. So this idea came to my mind.., create a page called something like artistasindependientes.com, where independent or part time artists could post their arts and paintings, then people could log into the site and browse them.., having of course the chance to buy them...

PVD again..

Can't believe it.., Paul Van Dyk again in medellin!!

My favorite tool.

Today I was replying to some post that a guy did on codeproject.com asking for a tool that could allow him to model and understand a huge piece of somebody's else code.
So I suggested him to use my favorite tool, the one that I use on a daily basis: Cmaps !

This was my reply:
"...Most of the times I use a tool called "cmaps" (Conceptual maps) and let me tell you that I've tried a lot of knowledge modeling tools, but this one is terrific. Most of the times before facing a coding session I create myself a road map to clarify and polish my ideas about what I'm going to do. And not only for coding, when I'm reading a book I also use it to keep track and get a better understanding of what I've read... I also have used it for when I'm reading somebody's else code and it does a pretty good work. i highly recommend it to you.

You can get a copy from here: http://cmap.ihmc.us/

Just picture this: The tool was sponsored and is sponsored by the US navy for the single reason that they needed a tool that allowed them to teach faster to the soldiers in the aircraft carriers. (Having one single soldier for a year in one of this ships costs a LOT of money).
The tool allowed them to teach a 10% faster !! Just imagine that you could have a soldier 11 months instead of 12, and that each month per soldier is US 1,000, and imagine you have 1,000 soldiers, how much money did they save ?? Interesting !!!....."

Anyways..., this tool works in the same way the neurons work inside the body !

Doodling...

If there's something that I recommend is doodling...
Do
Our
Ophera
Ddue
Long
Itinerary
Never
Goes

Makes no sense though..jajajjaja

Ideas is what I have !!

That's my conclusion....

Nevado del Ruiz..

Last week we traveled to Manizales, and there we went to "El Nevado del Ruiz" which is a volcano. Getting to the snow was a big challenge having in mind that it was at 5104 meters above sea level. You could barely walk 1 minute without feeling your hearth beat going at 167 bpm, but it was definitively worth it. Eduardo and Velez got sick of the height (Puking and headache included in the pack).

After getting to the 4400 mts again we headed to a region called "El Cisne", a place that's located at 10 kms from the "Nevado del Ruiz" and at 4138 mts. The landscape going there was just incredible.., it was like being in another world.., the rocks were red, dust everywhere.., it was a complete desert (but a cold, very cold one).

After some hard core driving (having in mind that almost all the time was a huuuuge hill to the right of the road, and that there was a turn called "La curva del putas" (Guess why..)) we arrove to "El Cisne" and popped up our tents. Sleeping there was hard !! I couldn't get warm at all, in fact nobody could...

The next day, we woke pretty early and headed up (walking) to a place called "La laguna Verde", the name comes from the fact that the lagoon has a huge amount of azufre (highly toxic).

When we got there we had to wait like 30 mins to be able to see the lagoon because there was just soo much fog.

After a cold night and a couple of amazing walks we went to thermal waters and got a very nice time there...

33 rules to Boost your productivity

I read this and found it very interesting.

1. Nuke it! The most efficient way to get through a task is to delete it. If it doesn’t need to be done, get it off your to do list.
2. Daily goals. Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions. Set targets for each day in advance. Decide what you’ll do; then do it.
3. Worst first. To defeat procrastination learn to tackle your most unpleasant task first thing in the morning instead of delaying it until later in the day. This small victory will set the tone for a very productive day.
4. Peak times. Identify your peak cycles of productivity, and schedule your most important tasks for those times. Work on minor tasks during your non-peak times.
5. No-comm zones. Allocate uninterruptible blocks of time for solo work where you must concentrate. Schedule light, interruptible tasks for your open-comm periods and more challenging projects for your no-comm periods.
6. Mini-milestones. When you begin a task, identify the target you must reach before you can stop working. For example, when working on a book, you could decide not to get up until you’ve written at least 1000 words. Hit your target no matter what.
7. Timeboxing. Give yourself a fixed time period, like 30 minutes, to make a dent in a task. Don’t worry about how far you get. Just put in the time. See Timeboxing for more.
8. Batching. Batch similar tasks like phone calls or errands into a single chunk, and knock them off in a single session.
9. Early bird. Get up early in the morning, like at 5am, and go straight to work on your most important task. You can often get more done before 8am than most people do in a day.
10. Cone of silence. Take a laptop with no network or WiFi access, and go to a place where you can work flat out without distractions, such as a library, park, coffee house, or your own backyard. Leave your comm gadgets behind.
11. Tempo. Deliberately pick up the pace, and try to move a little faster than usual. Speak faster. Walk faster. Type faster. Read faster. Go home sooner.
12. Relaxify. Reduce stress by cultivating a relaxing, clutter-free workspace. See 10 Ways to Relaxify Your Workspace.
13. Agendas. Provide clear written agendas to meeting participants in advance. This greatly improves meeting focus and efficiency. You can use it for phone calls too.
14. Pareto. The Pareto principle is the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of the value of a task comes from 20% of the effort. Focus your energy on that critical 20%, and don’t overengineer the non-critical 80%.
15. Ready-fire-aim. Bust procrastination by taking action immediately after setting a goal, even if the action isn’t perfectly planned. You can always adjust course along the way.
16. Minuteman. Once you have the information you need to make a decision, start a timer and give yourself just 60 seconds to make the actual decision. Take a whole minute to vacillate and second-guess yourself all you want, but come out the other end with a clear choice. Once your decision is made, take some kind of action to set it in motion.
17. Deadline. Set a deadline for task completion, and use it as a focal point to stay on track.
18. Promise. Tell others of your commitments, since they’ll help hold you accountable.
19. Punctuality. Whatever it takes, show up on time. Arrive early.
20. Gap reading. Use reading to fill in those odd periods like waiting for an appointment, standing in line, or while the coffee is brewing. If you’re a male, you can even read an article while shaving (preferably with an electric razor). That’s 365 articles a year.
21. Resonance. Visualize your goal as already accomplished. Put yourself into a state of actually being there. Make it real in your mind, and you’ll soon see it in your reality.
22. Glittering prizes. Give yourself frequent rewards for achievement. See a movie, book a professional massage, or spend a day at an amusement park.
23. Quad 2. Separate the truly important tasks from the merely urgent. Allocate blocks of time to work on the critical Quadrant 2 tasks, those which are important but rarely urgent, such as physical exercise, writing a book, and finding a relationship partner.
24. Continuum. At the end of your workday, identify the first task you’ll work on the next day, and set out the materials in advance. The next day begin working on that task immediately.
25. Slice and dice. Break complex projects into smaller, well-defined tasks. Focus on completing just one of those tasks.
26. Single-handling. Once you begin a task, stick with it until it’s 100% complete. Don’t switch tasks in the middle. When distractions come up, jot them down to be dealt with later.
27. Randomize. Pick a totally random piece of a larger project, and complete it. Pay one random bill. Make one phone call. Write page 42 of your book.
28. Insanely bad. Defeat perfectionism by completing your task in an intentionally terrible fashion, knowing you need never share the results with anyone. Write a blog post about the taste of salt, design a hideously dysfunctional web site, or create a business plan that guarantees a first-year bankruptcy. With a truly horrendous first draft, there’s nowhere to go but up.
29. 30 days. Identify a new habit you’d like to form, and commit to sticking with it for just 30 days. A temporary commitment is much easier to keep than a permanent one. See 30 Days to Success for details.
30. Delegate. Convince someone else to do it for you.
31. Cross-pollination. Sign up for martial arts, start a blog, or join an improv group. You’ll often encounter ideas in one field that can boost your performance in another.
32. Intuition. Go with your gut instinct. It’s probably right.
33. Optimization. Identify the processes you use most often, and write them down step-by-step. Refactor them on paper for greater efficiency. Then implement and test your improved processes. Sometimes we just can’t see what’s right in front of us until we examine it under a microscope.

Extracted from http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/05/33-rules-to-boost-your-productivity/

Mountainbiking..

Last weekend did with poveda mountainbinking. We started from Oviedo, then went throughout Envigado until "La Catedral" which is the place where Pablo Escobar built his famous jail (Getting up there was hard, everything was a hill and I wasn't in the best shape plus that it was raining), now you can't see anything of it, except a new house that was built above it (Honestly, I wouldn't have built in that zone..., kind of bad energy though).



The zone up there is now a Natural Area, so it was kind of funny to find a goat in the main gate as a pet.
She was looking into our stuff trying to get something to eat, we gave her some banana but she didn't like it at all.

After a short rest we continue biking, and this time we started to go down the mountain using as road what is widely know in Colombia as a "horseshoe road" or "camino de herradura". It was full of mud everywhere, we could hardly bike on it... After a couple of hours descending from 2,147 meters we arose the 1,500 meters in Caldas (pretty far away from medellin considering that we were tired, hungry and wanting to get home). My ass was in pain after that kind of muddy down hill.

After another rest, we started heading towards Medellin. Considering that we were in Caldas our shortest path would include passing by "La Estrella" followed by "Sabaneta" then "Envigado" and finally "El Poblado" to get to our beloved destination.

The funny thing is that when we were arriving (1 km remaining aprox) poveda's bike got a deflated tire !! We were so tired that we decided to walk instead of changing it...., after a hundred of meters we found a gas station were we replaced the tire and filled it with air.., then we continued our journey.., and finally we were able to say: "Home...., Sweet home...".

New music

I got this new remix of "Guns N' Roses" called "Bossa N' Roses", if you ever had the chance to listen to "Bossa N' Stones" you'll like this one..

Finally...

After blogger went from beta to a stable version I've been trying and trying for months to upgrade my account with no success. Finally..., today, I was able to move them..., now my blogs are stable !

Quote of the Day

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
- Ernest Hemingway

Crystal waters..

Last week I went to San Andres, a Colombian Island and I was completely amazed by the ocean there.. When I saw it colors the only think that came to my mind was that I wanted to get into the water and do some snorkeling on it...., have you ever seen The Beach movie ? If so, that's how it looks...







The sand of the beach also had a pretty nice color.., it's not like the conventional sand that you find in the coasts...., it's the kind that you only find on islands.. This one was melt with broken coral, something that gave it a very particular look and feel.

Brendan came with me to the trip, we had a pretty cool time there.

Google hoaxes

".....Google has often adopted a light-hearted approach in a variety of circumstances. The most popular instances of Google Humor are the April Fool Jokes. Google has had a tradition of perpetrating April Fool's Day hoaxes....." Extracted from wikipedia.

So google made 2 hoaxes this month:

Gmail Paper
At about 10:00 PM Pacific time (where Google has its headquarters) the day before April 1, 2007, Google changed the login page for Gmail to announce a new service called Gmail Paper. The service offered to allow users of Google's free webmail service to add e-mails to a "Paper Archive," which Google would print (on "96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum") and mail via traditional post. The service would be free, supported by bold, red advertisements printed on the back of the printed messages. Image attachments would also be printed on high-quality glossy paper and be postmarked with their message, though MP3 and WAV files would not be printed. The page detailing more information about the service features photographs of Ian Spiro and Carrie Kemper, current employees of Google. Also featured are Product Marketing Managers of Gmail Anna-Christina Douglas, and Kevin Systrom.




Google TiSP
Google TiSP was a fictitious free broadband service supposedly released by Google. This service would make use of a standard toilet and sewage lines to provide free Internet connectivity at a speed of 8 Mbps (or up to 32 Mbps with a paid plan). A user drops a weighted end of a long, Google-supplied fiber-optic cable in their toilet and flushes it. Around 60 minutes later, the end would be recovered and connected to the Internet by a "Plumbing Hardware Dispatcher (PHD)." The user then connects their end to a Google-supplied wireless router and run the Google-supplied installation media on a Windows XP or Vista computer ("Mac and Linux support coming soon"). Alternatively, a user could request a professional installation, where Google would deploy nanobots through the plumbing to complete the process. The free service would be supported by "discreet DNA sequencing" of "personal bodily output" to display online ads that relate to culinary preferences and personal health.

(Information extracted from wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google's_hoaxes).

Jajajaja, thats funny, so I sent the jokes to a couple of friends and those where their answers:
Juanma
[16:35] Esteban 8A: esa gente de google esta como tesa, mira esto
[16:35] Esteban 8A: http://www.google.com/tisp/
[16:35] Robert: pa ver
[16:36] Esteban 8A: y este otro producto esta tambien muy sobrado
[16:36] Esteban 8A: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html
[16:36] Robert: ushhh
[16:36] Robert: estan bien heavys
[16:36] Esteban 8A: si o q!!
[16:36] Robert: regalando banda inalanbrica banda ancha
[16:36] Robert: q tal
[16:37] Esteban 8A: increible o q !
[16:37] Robert: pero fijo debe ser unicamente US + Canada
[16:37] Robert: de eso tan bueno no llega a Col

Robert
[16:35] Esteban 8A: eo, esa gente de google cada dia me descresta mas
[16:35] Esteban 8A: http://www.google.com/tisp/
[16:35] JuanMa: a ver home lacra
[16:36] Esteban 8A: y este otro producto esta tambien muy sobrado
[16:36] Esteban 8A: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html
[16:36] JuanMa: aay marica como asi
[16:36] JuanMa: estan dando internet gratis?
[16:37] Esteban 8A: increible !
[16:37] JuanMa: ush !!
[16:37] JuanMa: y en donde es?
[16:37] Esteban 8A: en la usa !
[16:37] Esteban 8A: :(
[16:38] JuanMa: no pero es increible a lo bien
[16:38] JuanMa: quedo perplejo
[16:38] JuanMa: y que velocidad daran?
[16:38] Esteban 8A: 8mbps
[16:38] JuanMa: omg
[16:38] JuanMa: ush!
[16:41] Esteban 8A: viste el del papel ?
[16:41] JuanMa: estoy mirando como es la instalacion

Poveda
[16:46] Esteban 8A: Viste los nuevos servicios de Google?
[16:46] Andres Poveda: Si home, pero no los entendi.
[16:46] Esteban 8A: Pues guevon, internet gratis, y el otro te envia tus correos impresos gratis.
[16:46] Andres Poveda: ah si?
[16:46] Andres Poveda: Q calidad
[16:46] Andres Poveda: Esa gente casi no tiene plata


The final conclusion is, you don't really know what to Expect or not expect from google this days.

Quote of the day..

"....Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success..."
-Christopher Lasch

Quote of the day..

Yes Picasso, I agree with you...
"..Action is the foundational key to all success...."
-Pablo Picasso

Piedras Blancas

This weekend I went with naty, caro and Poveda to do some camping in "Piedras Blancas" natural reserve.
The landscape was awesome, also the time we spent there. There was anything but rain though.., however it made the experience quite different.
Below some pics..

A nice picture of the landscape. In the end you can see a lot of fog inside the

trees.

Spending a quality time at night...., always a good deal....

A message of my first cache !

This is an automated message from Geocaching
You are receiving this email because you are the owner of this listing.Location:

Colombiadogracer couldn't find Tairona (Traditional Cache) at 3/17/2007Log Date:

3/17/2007
Well, I thought I could nab my first FTF ever with this cache, but not so. I climbed up to the top of the rocks overlooking the perfect Arricefes beach, and with a squad of 4 peeps checked every rock crack there was to find on the northern (sea facing) spur of rocks.
The GPS wasn't much help, with a 100 ft error ring.

We found what would have been good spots, but nothing there. While we were up there, we were nearly getting wet from water spashing up; so my best guess is that the sea washed this one away before it was ever discovered by another soul. Still worth the view to get up on those rocks - though we were warned that climbing up on those rocks is OFF LIMITS in Parque Tairona and if you are caught doing it you can get thrown out of the park. Anyway, I might advise other to just let this one go...

Don't want to forget about this..

I'm posting this because I found this sentence so clever that I don't want to forget it:
"...As long as there is an industry with a lack of knowledge and ignorance about prices and performance of products, there will exist a profit zone for portals of this kind...."

Amazed !

Normally when you have 2 computers you just use 2 keyboards and 2 mouses, or if you have a switch you can use one keyboard and one mouse.
I have 2 computers on my desk and it's just so confusing sometimes to use one keyboard for one thing and the other one for something else...
Today I found a little application that is called "Synergy" (You can get it from here: http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/).
I'm speechless with it.., once installed and configured I just use one mouse and one keyboard and when I move my mouse to the border of the right it jumps to the other monitor (not impressive yet if you're used to work with dual view) which is the other computer..... A great tool for productivity....

This is the product description:
"Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all.”
"Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s)."

Camping weekend.

Last weekend I went to "El Penol" with the crew, it's about 1 hour and a half away from the city and there's a nice dam. We went very late to bed though.., but had a wonderful time there..

Finally an image that descrbies this feeling..

Have you ever heard the term: "I feel like if I have butterflies in my stomach?"
Well, I guess this picture is worth more than 1000 words.

Bilderberg Club

Yesterday I finished reading this book, it talks about the globalization and the new world order, what's behind it, who's behind it, consequences that it will bring in the future and how to stop it.

It also shows wars, conflicts between contries and world circumstances from a very different perspective which in my opinion makes a lot of sense and made me realize that maybe the world is not what I think it is, that it is not ruled by the kind of people that I think it's being ruled... However, I'm not going any deeper into this rabbit hole, but if you want to, and beleiveme it's worth it, read the book.

How to get things done.

Dedication, absolute dedication, is what keeps one ahead-a sort of indomitable obsessive dedication and the realization that there is no end or limit to this because life is simply an ever-growing process, an ever-renewing process.

Creative pic

5 Simple Ways to Make the Most of Your Intelligence

".....Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if you never use your brain, or abuse it with harmful chemicals, your ability to think and learn will deteriorate.
Here are 5 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more productivity out of the old gray matter.

1. Minimize Television Watching - This is a hard sell. People love vegetating in front of the television, myself included more often than I’d like. The problem is watching television doesn’t use your mental capacity OR allow it to recharge. It’s like having the energy sapped out of a muscle without the health benefits of exercise.
Don’t you feel drained after a couple hours of TV? Your eyes are sore and tired from being focused on the light box for so long. You don’t even have the energy to read a book.
When you feel like relaxing, try reading a book instead. If you’re too tired, listen to some music. When you’re with your friends or family, leave the tube off and have a conversation. All of these things use your mind more than television and allow you to relax.

2. Exercise - I used to think that I’d learn more by not exercising and using the time to read a book instead. But I realized that time spent exercising always leads to greater learning because it improves productivity during the time afterwards. Using your body clears your head and creates a wave of energy. Afterwards, you feel invigorated and can concentrate more easily.

3. Read Challenging Books - Many people like to read popular suspense fiction, but generally these books aren’t mentally stimulating. If you want improve your thinking and writing ability you should read books that make you focus. Reading a classic novel can change your view of the world and will make you think in more precise, elegant English. Don’t be afraid to look up a word if you don’t know it, and don’t be afraid of dense passages. Take your time, re-read when necessary, and you’ll soon grow accustomed to the author’s style.
Once you get used to reading challenging books, I think you’ll find that you aren’t tempted to go back to page-turners. The challenge of learning new ideas is far more exciting than any tacky suspense-thriller.

4. Early to Bed, Early to Rise - Nothing makes it harder to concentrate than sleep deprivation. You’ll be most rejuvenated if you go to bed early and don’t sleep more than 8 hours. If you stay up late and compensate by sleeping late, you’ll wake up lethargic and have trouble focusing. In my experience the early morning hours are the most tranquil and productive. Waking up early gives you more productive hours and maximizes your mental acuity all day.
If you have the opportunity, take 10-20 minute naps when you are hit with a wave of drowsiness. Anything longer will make you lethargic, but a short nap will refresh you.

5. Take Time to Reflect - Often our lives get so hectic that we become overwhelmed without even realizing it. It becomes difficult to concentrate because nagging thoughts keep interrupting. Spending some time alone in reflection gives you a chance organize your thoughts and prioritize your responsibilities. Afterwards, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s important and what isn’t. The unimportant stuff won’t bother you anymore and your mind will feel less encumbered.
I’m not saying you need to sit on the floor cross-legged and chant ‘ommm’. Anything that allows a bit of prolonged solitude will do. One of my personal favorites is taking a solitary walk. Someone famous said, “All the best ideas occur while walking.” I think he was on to something. Experiment to find the activity that works best for you......"


Extracted from http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/5-simple-ways-to-make-the-most-of-your-intelligence/

The Simpler, the complex it gets !

Yesterday I came to the conclussion that the simpler an interface is, the complex it gets underneath it's face.
"...Simplicity (In the user side) and complexity (In the development side) grow in the same direction when designing an interface....."
-Esteban 8A.

Humane Interface

Yesterday I finished reading a book called "The Humane Interface" written by Jef Raskin. As a fan that I'm in designing interfaces, I have to say that this book was great, it gave me lots of good insights, theory that I didn't know about UI design, and something awesome about this book is that it doesn't talk only about technical stuff, instead it goes up until the human psycology, ergonomics and cognetics.
I took note of everything I found interesting. I have to put them in electronic format and then I will upload them here, so if you are interested in UI design they can give you good insights as the book did with me, however I highly recommend the reading of the book.

Today also started a new book called "The Bilderberg Club", it talks about the conspiration in government, politics and economics around the world.., can't tell too much about it right now, but I'll be posting some insights later on.

What Is Intelligence, Anyway?Isaac Asimov

"What is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me. (It didn't mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP - kitchen police - as my highest duty.)
All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so too. Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests - people with intellectual bents similar to mine?
For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.
Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron, and I'd be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.
Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?"
Indulgently, I lifted by right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, "Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them." Then he said smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many?" I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you." "Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn't be very smart."
And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there. "

Extracted from http://www.haverford.edu/writingprogram/Asimov.html

Habit

I am your constant companion;
I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am at your command.

Half of the tasks that you do you might just as well Turn over to me and I will do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done.
After a few lessons, I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great people and the regret of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine but I will work with all its precision Plus the intelligence of a person.
Now you may run me for profit or you may run me for ruin.
It makes no difference to me.
Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will lay the world at your feet.
Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

I am called Habit!

-Author Unknown

Sooo real..

Sometimes dreams can be so real that they can even scare you... Yesterday night I had one of those.. I ask myself once in a while if dreams are maybe another world in another frequency.., something that we can't see, but we can feel and live inside it when we fall asleep.... I wonder what would happens if person "A" dreams with person "B" and person "B" dreams with person "A".., is there any chance for them to get connected in their dreams ??

Sometimes I wake up, and my eyes hurt (I guess is the REM (Rapid eye movement), this phase occurs when we dream)..., probably because I'm a dreamer.., and luckly most of the times I do remember what I dream about.

Throwing cargo...

I remeber one time when I wrote something about throwing cargo from a very slow boat..., then, after a while of dumping and dumping it became a fast one..., it was sad though to throw all of that into the sea a forget about it..., but in the other hand it allowed the boat to reach it destination... That's how my life is this days..., I'm throwing cargo out of it.., cargo that I don´t need and I d0n't want any more.., and I feel good about it.., sometimes I feel Nostalgia, but it's all right.. And as always: No pain, no gain!!

Jo jo jo...

I was organizing my old pictures and found this one..., pretty funny though... 

Business Idea

A couple of months ago I came with this idea of building a gym where the energy that you spent on the machines could be gathered, and in that way the gym would pay you instead of you paying them. I decided to google it though and found pretty interesting stuff..

Information extracted from: http://www.whynot.net/ideas/134

"Always thought generators could be put on all the exercise equipment(ie weight machines)....all that energy working out creates a lot of potential energy that gets lost as kinetic energy(I think....). For example, a weight machine could be pushing a generator instead of dead weight, or simply have a turbine that runs when the weights are let down...people still get their workout and we use a little less electricity. Anyone gifted in electronics know if this is economically feasible?"

"An Olympic-class athlete on a pedal bike can produce 350 watts. If he pedals for 3 hours, he will produce 1 Kilowatt-hour. Out here, a Kilowatt-hour from the electric company costs $0.07. So having a gym of say 40 Olympians all pedalling at top efficiency for a full hour would yeild a revenue stream of (40)(0.35)(0.07)= $0.98 . Less than 1 buck per hour. A solar cell array on the roof would be a much better deal."

"Well. The only difference would be hydrogen fuel cells would be involved. You can have these huge gyms where fitness freaks would transfer energy on treadmills and the like which would transfer power to fuel cell banks. These banks would allow transfer energy for other use. The best part is that you would get a discount on your gym membership depending on how much power you transfer to the fuel cell bank."

"I think this idea is fantastic. Although considering the economics mentioned above, building a system to do all of this would be expensive and have no real return for gym.
My exercise bike now at least powers itself, you pedal to make it light up."

"Following up on the comment SVE, Oct 10 2003, the numbers sound small, but scale them up into monthly or yearly savings. He estimated 350 W/bike. Assume one bike investment by a gym. But let's say the utilization/day is 8 hours (this is a busy gym) so 8 hours * 30 days = 240 hours/month of usage. To calculate the monthly savings at ~$0.07/KWhr, do this: Cost/month/bike = (0.07 $/KWhr) * (240hours/month) * (0.350 KW/bike) = $5.88/month/bike. Generating $71/year/bike in electricity could justify the additional capital expense required for such a bike. I'm taking a wild guess that the extra cost over a traditional exercise bike might be $200 so this could have a return in a few years. And of course, we're all not Olympians, so cut the yearly savings in half to normalize us all!."

Jajajaj, and this was pretty funny but interesting if you want to loose weight:
"Props to Barry. There is a device you can purchase now for the average office worker. It creates an break between the power on your monitor, and to work, or use your computer monitor you must keep pedaling. It has variable speed adjustment too so you dont have to pedal like an olympian to get work done, but you still are excersising to generate some electricity for your monitor."

HOW TO: Move To New York City Sane And Not Broke

I found this interesting article at: http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/howto/how-to-move-to-new-york-city-sane-and-not-broke-226540.php and found that it doesn't applies only to New York, instead it applies to almost any city (most of the times outside your home country) that you decide to move to.

"You pay $1650 a month rent for an apartment. What do you eat? I am barely getting by with $425.00 a month for a house. I understand it is New York but I have always wondered how New Yorkers manage to eat after paying huge rents each month. I have never been to NY so I cant say much but I have been told that New York doesn't pay that much more than other cities do. Do you have to have 50 roommates in a one bedroom apt to make it or what?

How does one move to New York and survive? "

Here's how...

First, ask yourself...

DO I REALLY NEED TO MOVE TO NEW YORK? Answering no to this is the easiest way to avoid the inevitable hassle and heartache of. New York City is a glittering emerald slut, full of potential and promise, but it can also be a total bitch. Nightlife is down ever since they enacted that cabaret law. The city's conduits of power are increasingly rusty and incestuous. Parts of the city are becoming, or already are, Disney versions of themselves, like the Lower East Side and Times Square, respectively. There's lots of other great cities in the world. The Bay Area has nicer weather. Philadelphia has dirt cheap rents. Even so, New York is awesome and is still the capital of the world for many a human endeavor. Let's move!

TAP PERSONAL CONTACTS. The easiest way to move to NYC is to have a friend, or a friend of a friend, who will let you crash in their apartment until you get your shit together. Be cool and offer to help out with rent as much as you can. If you're broke, maybe offer to clean up the apartment really nice all the time.

SCOPE OUT THE RENTAL MARKET. Determine where you would like to live and how much you can pay. Personal finance gurus recommend spending no more than 25% of your expected salary on rent. Realistically, you may have to spend up to 50%. But if you lock yourself into a high rent so you can live in "the cool spot" you may end up spending all your time inside your stupid little apartment cause you can never afford to go out. Think smaller and cheaper.

On this note, Brooklyn is a nice, cheaper-than-Manhattan place. Fort Greene and Carrol Gardens are good spots to look at in Brooklyn. Rents are relatively affordable, amenities are there, it's not too far from Manhattan, and they're fairly safe. Living near but not next to housing projects is a sure way to get more apartment for your money.

If you must live in Manhattan, Upper Upper West Side (past the 100's) has become affordable. There's places to be found on the more easternly points of the Lower East Side.

Cruise Craiglist for the going rates in your desired area(s) for 2+ roomies. Hone in what rent you think you're going to be paying each month. This number will rule your life.

SAVE Five times your expected monthly rent. To move into a lease, you will probably have to put up two month's rent + security deposit (usually another month's rent). There may even be a broker's fee, which is at least another month's rent. You will need the rest of the money to feed yourself and not feel like a loser. Stuff it in a high-yield online savings account, like HSBC or INGDirect.

DUMP YOUR JUNK. You probably don't need about 90% off what you own. Hold a yard sale. Donate. Digitize everything you don't need a real-world copy of. Put stuff in local storage. Throw it away. Whatever you do, just get rid of it. A good goal is reducing your belongings to an essential wardrobe, books, and your "tools of the trade." For most people this means a computer. For you it may be a welding torch. Shipping costs. Space in NYC is at a premium. Less stuff means less stuff you don't have room for.

LINE UP JOB PROSPECTS. Send out feelers and resumes before you arrive. Tap those personal connections. Let people know you're coming. If you went to college, call up the alumni office and see if they can hook you up with former students in New York. Monster.com has never done anything for us. Craigslist has. Don't get discouraged if people don't initially seem that interested in you. Tons of people say they're going to move to New York but never do, so NYC veterans learn to take a policy of, "I'll see it when I see it." That's okay, just start cranking the wheel on getting a cash flow going as early as possible.

MOVE. Go Greyhound. Fly coach. Drive yourself. U-Hauls and the like can be expensive over long distances, so its cheaper to ship your stuff freight with a trucking company like ROADWAY and then get to NYC by other means. If you've already reduced everything to two pieces of luggage, bonus.

Once you're here...

DO MASLOW. Take care of your pyramid of needs, working from the bottom up. If you have a choice between doing something at the top of this pyramid, versus something at the bottom, do the thing at the bottom. Not taking care of your needs at the bottom will thwart your attempts to do the ones at the top.

At the same time, maybe you will have to eat only one box of pasta a day so you can afford to go out for social drinks. That's fine, just don't make it a habit, or you may end up begging for quarters in Union Square.

GET A JOB. Even if it sucks. You need to make money just to tread water. Our first job was as a bike messenger. In winter. Saner folk go the temping route. Atrium is a fantastic temping agency. Tell them Ben Popken sent you. If you refer people to them who stay on for a few months, you get a small finder's fee.

LEARN TO ENJOY SOLITUDE. It's easy to feel lonely in a city of a gazillion people. That's because you are alone and no one wants to talk to you. Be prepared to have no new friends for at least a year. Be prepared for people who say, "Oh, we'll totally hang out once you're here," and then stand you up even after you set a date. Everyone's got crazy schedules here so "hang out with the new guy" may rank pretty low. Be glad people do this, so you can scratch 'em off your list before they have time to really disappoint you.

BECOME AWESOME. Whatever your deal is, be it your job or your hobby, get really good at it. You will have lots of free time to work on this because you have no friends. Socializing is often centered around people who have "your thing" in common, so it helps to be dedicated and skilled in it. This is for both personal satisfaction, and that other people will take you seriously if you're taking your thing seriously.

TUNNEL. Use the resources of your current crappy job to get you your next, better job. With the money from bike messengering, we bought clothes that made us look presentable for the temp agency. Between directing phone calls at the temp job, we blasted out hundreds of resumes that eventually landed us a job at an online marketing firm. While at the online marketing firm, we started an advertising blog on the company's behalf that ended up getting us a job with Gawker. Now we're tunneling towards building a six-month emergency cushion and doing more personal creative projects.

DON'T MOVE BACK. A lot of people quit New York less than a year after moving. That's a personal choice, but if you're trying to be in New York, obviously leaving it is not a viable solution. If things get so hard you want to move back, ask for help from family and friends. Evaluate the choices you're making, the things you're buying, and see where you can cut back. Realize you're not going to get that super-star job right off the bat (see: BECOME AWESOME). Stiffen that upper lip. Or cry. Whatever you need to do, just don't move back. Life is hard. Welcome to it.

— BEN POPKEN

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...