Holy Cow!

Last college lecture as an undergrad...today!

That's it. Next week finals and next Friday, graduation.

Good times, good times.

Wii vs PS3

When it comes to how I feel about these two. This article hit the nail right in the head.

J.V.

FAU STUDENT DIED OF OVERDOSE

Last night at the dorms. So sad.


J.V.


The link for the story is here.

Authority

I was taught to follow authority at home. It was reinforced later in the military.

I learned to question authority at College. Many of my personal heroes are people that went against the crowd and against the authority figures of their day.

There is a time when it's ok to question authority, like when people abuse their power to benefit themselves and to harm others, or when the government is not acting in the best interest of the nation, when an elected official is incompetent or corrupt.

When police officers abuse their power, the citizens must put them in check, that type of abuse should not be tolerated.

But when a guy is trying to instigate a riot and gets tasered for acting up, it's hard for me to sympathize, especially when he should know better.

Wii

A friend of mine somehow someway managed to get a wii before its release date, I just got back from playing raving rabbits. Oh man, it was good. Sorry Froyd.

The same friend, also has a PS3 but he got it just to get it, he was debating on selling it on ebay or playing it, I talked him into playing, I must say, I am disappointed in the lack of user-friendliness, the GUI is counter-intuitive and the thing was taking forever to load.

Something You didn't know Venezuela and the U.S. had in common

According to Euromonitor International Venezuelans and Americans drank 83.3 and 82.8 liters of beer per capita respectively in 2005. No other Latin American country comes even close. Yeah! Go Venezuela!

Venezuela is ranked 9th among the biggest Beer Drinkers in the world, now, that's something to be proud of. The US comes close with 10th place, but no one can touch the Czech Republic with 160.5 l/c, wow that's impressive.


*******EDIT********
I don't know if you noticed, but I was being very sarcastic.
It's sad that Venezuela is in the news when our lunatic president speaks or when the amount of beer we drink is calculated.

Happiness is..

...Sitting at a little coffee shop on campus, with a good cop of Joe, superfast wireless, listening to good music, and watching people walk by.

Life is good.

J.V.

Book I'm reading

I used to doubt the Theory of Evolution, but I realized that I never thought about it from a scientific point of view. That's why I am reading the Blind Watchmaker.

The big misconception about evolution is that things just happened by random chance. That is not the case. It's true, Science does not have all the answers to the origin of life. In fact, scientist don't agree on one Theory, but that is the beauty of science, in its purest form it is honest and testable. You can't just make up theories out of thin air and publish them, in order for them to be taken seriously they have to be tested.The theory has to explain and predict physical phenomena.

There is power in that. You and I trust science when we ride a plane. When we make a phone call and when we send an email. When we go to the doctor and take an aspirin. So, why not give evolution a chance?

J.V.

Hotmail sucks

Can't check my email, don't know why I still use hotmail.

Uhg

J.V.

Must.Study.Now

Homeworks and Lab reports. Final Exams. All coming up, I have to start preparing. I have to read hundreds of pages, solve and work out dozens of problems. Learn and Understand a bunch of concepts, some I will see and use again, others forgotten until I take the GRE or Graduate school. Go to class. Commute to Boca. Find Parking. Deal with Glades Road. All of that is going to end soon.


Four More Weeks.

J.V.

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

I am proud to announce that Martha and I are expecting one more member in the family.
Yes, she is pregnant. Due around May.

I've been holding back, I know, but, we wanted to wait before we announced it to the whole world.

We are very excited, and no, contrary to public belief this is the last one, I swear.

She is starting to show, this pregnancy is nothing like Anthony's, he sort of snuck in, unnoticed until it was imminent, we found out about it when he kicked Martha, but this one, she knew from the start. She has all the symptoms of a pregnancy and it is not pretty.

Overall, I can't complain. I was very scared the first time, and I was ok, this time I feel ready, like a battle hardened leatherneck ready for his next conflict, I say to the next baby: Bring it on!

(hope I don't eat my words later)

New Looks

New Looks

Nothing too fancy, my dream is one day to completely customize my page, but I have no artistic creativity...I kind of like this setting.

J.V.

A decision has been made

A decision has been made

My life is freaking crazy.

Let me explain,

A year and a half ago I started interning at IBM in Rochester MN. I fell in love with the company and the area. The job was amazing, challenging, great co-workers, the whole nine yards.

Then, last summer, a problem came up, there were no positions available in my department, I waited and waited, but no offer, so I applied for jobs at other companies.

Let's see, I applied to a bunch of companies all over the place, I tried Intel, AMD, Google and they ignored me.

Then I spread my resume in a couple of career fairs, and I ended up getting calls from some companies, I flew to New York city for Morgan Stanley, to Owego for Lockheed Martin, I also had an interview with NAVAIR and Raytheon in a career fair in Philadelphia and on campus. I also got offers from places I really didn't want to work for, out of professionalism I won't name them, but they were, how do I put it...not too realistic in their company sales pitch. But that's ok.

I also had technical interviews where they moped the floor with my ego, that includes Citrix and Hitachi, where I got stumped, and made me realize that I am not the hot stuff I thought I was.

Even though I don't believe in Karma, it keeps happening to me. When I was in high school I swore loudly that I would never date anyone from Peru...and then I dated a Peruvian girl for three years, I also said that I would never date any girl from our church, then I dated and Married a girl from our church, Last year I said I'll never work for Motorola, and yesterday at 5:40 pm ET I accepted a position with them.

The crazy thing is, IBM Rochester was my first choice, but it didn't look like they had openings for me, but, yesterday at 5:57 I got an email from them...offering me the position I had been waiting for.

A couple of months ago I would have taken the offer anyway, but now, I don't want to move away from Florida, it would actually cost me money, and I don't want to deal with that, unfortunately that's a factor that had to be considered, I would have moved and made the sacrifice back then, but not now when I have the chance to stay.

So I am happy to say that I will become a Motorolan, I think it's so crazy that I turned down an offer from IBM and Lockheed Martin, those were great jobs, but I am happy and I don't regret it now, hopefuly I won't regret it later.

By the way, My Boss in IBM, Gene, was the best Manager in the world, I have never worked with a better boss before, it makes me sad that I won't be working for him, but I look forward to my new job.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps

Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps

My Beloved Corps turns 231 today.

Semper Fidelis.

Decision

Decision

My mom likes to tell a little story about me:

When I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that had two bathrooms, one had a shower only and the other one had a bathtub only. One day she asked me which one I wanted to use, I hesitated, then replied “I want a shower”, so she takes me to the shower bathroom, then, after a couple of minutes of being in the shower I kept thinking about how nice a bath would be, so I said “I want a bath” Mom took me to the other bathroom, after that I changed my mind and asked her to take me to the shower again, at which point my Mother proceeded to whoop my ass in a very Latin fashion, the point of the story is, I am indecisive, specially when it comes to big decisions, this can be a character flaw. I never suffered from it in the Service because I knew that I had to make decisions in a timely manner, but when it comes to things in which I am allowed to ponder, I am bad, really bad.

Which takes me to today’s post, I want to take some time to discuss my decision making process. In which you will learn a few things about me.

It comes down to two choices, I have not heard back from the a couple of other companies; since I have to make a decision by next Monday, for all practical purposes they don’t count.

I have one offer from Motorola, in Ft. Lauderdale FL (my hometown) and an offer from Lockheed Martin in Owego NY.

It is not simple, it is not a trivial decision, and it’s killing me. So I will attempt to point what I like and what I don’t like about the offer, maybe that will help.

Why I like Lockheed Martin

1. I love what they do

Since I was a little kid, I had a fascination with aircraft, especially warplanes, I just loved it, I used to draw little diagrams of plane bisections, I was in love with those things, Dad used to tell me that I was going to be an aeronautical engineer, I love airplanes as much as I love computers, here, they want to use my computer knowledge to do neat things in the leading edge of technology, I always wanted to work on something like this, since I started college I wanted to work for a company that did the sort of thing Lockheed Martin does. I feel so psyched just thinking about it.

2. Owego NY is a good place to raise a family

Good education system,

Lower cost of living

I like the Northeastern part of the country.

I think that it’s good place to live.

Quality of life will be higher for us there

3. A chance to go to Cornell University

It’s not guaranteed, but I qualify to compete for a slot to go to the DLP program or something like that. The basic thing is that they would send me to Cornell University to get an MBA and a Masters of engineering simultaneously all paid for by the Company, but even if I don’t get that, they will pay for my Master’s degree at any University. I like that.

4. I really liked the Managers I met.

For all that it’s worth, my first impression of the people I’d be working with was very good. They were very nice to me, and they sold me the company really well, Lockheed spared no expense to make me feel comfortable, they paid for a rental car, two nights at a nice hotel and all the meals, not only that, but, they were so damn nice.

Why I want to go to Motorola.

1. It’s in South Florida

South Florida has been my home for 14 years, Most of my family lives here, most of my friends are here. And I know the area. Also, South Florida is paradise on earth, yeah, it’s overcrowded, yes, it’s expensive, but Ft. Lauderdale is one of the most beautiful cities in the US. Everyone wants to live here. All it takes is one visit, and you are hooked.

2. My Mother

My Mother lives here, I don’t want to break her heart. I know she doesn’t want me to move far away. I love the way her face lights up when she sees Anthony, she is never going to tell me not to follow my dreams, but it is hard for me to leave her knowing that I had the chance to stay.

3. My Sister

If I leave, I will miss my sister a lot. I want to see her get through college just like I did, I am very proud of her. I don’t want to leave her.

4. The Rest of my Family

My Mother in Law helps us out, my family on both sides always help us out with big or little things. Our Hispanic culture is very family oriented. Leaving my Family and my in Laws will be hard.

5. Motorola is not a bad job

To be honest, I never thought I would get an offer from them, most of the Electrical and Computer Engineers from the University of Miami, Florida International, Nova and FAU want to work there. Many apply, few are chosen, I applied there because I wanted to give Florida a chance, thinking that I was going to be ignored like most of my classmates, instead, they gave me a call, asked me to go interview the next day, and gave me a full day of technical interviews in which I happened to know all the answers to. If it wasn’t for Lockheed I would be happy to be there, hell, I consider myself honored that they made me an offer, they made their decision rather quickly, three days after the interview they called to offer me the job.

6. I have friend and family that work in Motorola

One of my closest friends in college works there, my cousin works there. Many classmates are there, many of my professors do research from them.

7. Motorola is the best engineering company in the area.

They have a good reputation here. Big company with good benefits, they offered me a salary that is about 5% higher than Lockheed. They will pay for my Masters degree, which I am want to get it from the University of Florida, one of the best schools in the country, it is not Ivy League but it’s surely the best engineering school in the state…besides FAU of course.

8. Moving will be a big hassle

If I sell the house I will lose money, it’s a buyers market and I doubt I will be able to rent it to cover the mortgage payments, so it’s a problem that I’d rather not deal with.

Overall, I would be very happy to accept the Motorola offer if it weren’t for the fact that I had my dream job offered to me at a different place. The bigger things stopping me from jumping to Lockheed Martin are my family and the hassle of moving there which I can avoid by just staying here, but it seems to me that those are not good reasons to say no to a great job. But I can have a good job that I sort of like, and stay here all the same, but my mind does not let me turn away from a job like Lockheed.

I want to thank Martha my wife for being so supportive.

For those of you that don’t know me, you should know that Martha and I fight, we get into arguments and stuff like that, I am telling you this because I don’t want you to get the impression that we are the perfect couple, however, she has been great in giving me all the support that I need and she basically says that she will go with me wherever I decide to go.

So that is my dilemma, writing this helps me understand well the issue, and it’s back to square one. I can accept the Motorola one because it seems like it’s a win-win, I mean, great company with a good reputation, great benefits and I can stay at home and avoid all the hassle, but, on the other hand, it’s my dream job…in NY, with a chance to get my Masters degree at an Ivy league school living like kings. So, what do I do?

I. don’t. know.

Oh my God! Rumsfield Resigned!

One more interview

One more interview

Today I am flying to Minnesota for another software Engineering position, on my way there I have a layover in Chicago, hopefully I will see my old friend from the Marines Kamran...but he might be too busy planning an invasion.

Anyway, I got to go to class...Just thought I'd post something today.

Ok, here they come!

Ok, here they come!

So, after more than 10 interviews with about 7 companies, I now have two good job offers, I still have one more interview next week and that should wrap it up. I have to make a tough decision, probably one of the most influential in my life. Joining the Marines was an easy choice for me because I did not think there were other options for me, ditto with joining the reserves, I got rejected to my first school of choice so choosing FAU was a no-brainer since it's the closest one to home. But this is a bit different, I want to make the best decision possible, but at the end I know that no matter where I choose to go I am going to regret not choosing the other ones.

It comes down to a Big Aerospace and Defense company in the Northeast, with a great benefits package in a low cost of living area and the biggest engineering company here is South Florida, they are both good jobs, they pay pretty good, they have good packages, in the Aerospace job I would be doing something extremely cool, interesting, challenging and classified. The job here is just as challenging but I don't see it as interesting as the other one, but it's here, I wouldn't have to move and deal with all the stress and I get to stay with my family. The job here pays a bit more but the cost of living here is higher.

At the end I know I can do well in either one, but I hate to say no to good job.

Ok, enough about that, I am here at home, I got to study for a test on Monday, other than that, life is good.