Vacation, day 7

If you are the type of person who likes museums and monuments, then Washington D.C. is the place for you. I think they must have 10% of the world's marble here. There's so much to see here I don't think it's even possible to try.

Today we visited Arlington National Cemetery. The place is huge. It's sobering to see all those tombs, although not every person that's buried there was a serviceman that died in battle, there's a lot of Generals, military spouses and their children. I wonder what are the guidelines to be buried there. I saw quite a few low-ranking people who died of old age and were buried there.

The changing of the guard was interesting. I don't know but, military shows don't really impress me that much anymore. I just didn't feel that impressed. I still feel respect for those buried there, but I could not wait to go somewhere else. I also wanted to see where the Iraqi veterans were being buried, but since I don't know anyone that's buried there, I felt it was none of my business.

One place in D.C. that moved to tears (yeah, I cried) was the Holocaust Memorial. I couldn't believe what human beings are capable of. It's something worth seeing, we need to be conscious about these things. They do a good job of showing you and making you think about the horrors.

It's very ironic that walking out of the museum I saw the front page of today's Washington Post, and this story was there. What a crazy sad world we live in.

I still have hope though, we will be better than this in the future.

Anyway, I better get back to my "vacation", Don't get me wrong, it's very nice, there are some things that I have to get used to. I'm my daily life we put the kids to bed at around 8:00 PM and then Martha and I have the house to ourselves to take care of household chores, watch some T.V. and/or study. Now we're all crammed in one single hotel room, and we don't get a break from the kids. They won't go to sleep until all the lights are off and the T.V.s and everything is turned off, so we have to watch them. They are still too young to be left unsupervised, leave them alone for two minutes and you can have the freaking building on fire or something. (yes, they are that hyper) anyway. I must go now. More later.

J.V.

The Soul of a new Machine

My Christmas gift this year is a book about Computer Chip Engineers back in the day. (Late 70's) This book describes the struggle a team from Data General goes trhough to get a project "out the door". It is probably the best documented Computer Project of its day.

It is funny to see that even though the field is constantly changing with new technologies, companies come and go, other things remain unchanged. Pardon the cliche, but I am having a good time seeing my profession through the eyes of a journalist. Even though it's not a technical book, it describes a lot of detail of the computer Engineering profession in layman's terms. Great Holiday read.

Bad ass book I look forward to reading

There are a lot of books out there about the War on Terrorism (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc) But I don't think there's anything as well written as this. So far I've heard good things about it, so when I saw it at a bookstore, I stared reading the first couple of chapters, it starts with a pretty vivid description of the Marines in battle in Fallujah 2004. The narrative takes you there. It's amazing. I won't write anymore until I get it and read it. But if you have read it, let me know what you think.


J.V.

Trip Up North

We drove today, we drove and drove until we got snow. I was going to write a long post about how awesome it was. But after uploading the pictures to facebook I am too tired to write. Just enjoy a sample pic.

The Smithsonian rocks!

Man, did I love it! Today I went to the Museum of Natural History and the Aviation and Aerospace Museum and it was great! I felt like a kid again. If I would have come here when I was 13, my head would have probably exploded of hyper-excitement.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

So tomorrow is looking like a combination of Miracle on 34th Street and the movie Twister, we have searched the weather channel and found that some little town in Pennsylvania is expecting snow in the morning. We are going to drive out there. We will get on the car, listen to the weather, and find the snow!

Yeah, I know, we are crazy. It's all for the children. ;=)

Anyway, I am pretty tired, I am being lazy and I didn't put up the pictures we took. Just imagine D.C. in its winterly glory.

J.V.

Day One: Smithsonian Museum

Today we are going to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I've heard lots of good things about the place. I hope the kids like it.

It's raining today, it's not as cold as yesterday, but I don't think I want to be outside taking pictures. It's seven in the morning and the sun is not even out yet.

Arrival at Washington D.C.

We made it. Got here 30 minutes ago. The last 20 miles was bumper to bumper traffic. What's up with that? Aren't all the government workers home for the holidays? Anyway, life is good, we're hungry, tired, excited, happy and grumpy at the same time. The kids are doing ok as well. They've discovered the joys of riding an elevator, and riding in that thing they have in hotels to put your luggage. They take pleasure in the little things. There's nothing wrong with being a kid when it comes to that. It takes so much to please an adult, you know? Like a whole elaborate trip to the nation's capital ;-)

Anyway, we are liking the weather, it's out of the ordinary. Well, I got to go and get situated.

So long.

J.V.

YES!!!

Just found out I passed my Noise in Linear System class. I got a B. I was shooting for an A, but given how hard the exams were and how much I struggled with all the homework, I am pretty satisfied with the B. I am glad all that effort paid off. The vacation feels that much better now.

About the vacation

I am in a hotel room in Wilson, North Carolina, the kids are still sleeping, and we're about to get ready to go. We have about four more hours of driving until we get to D.C.

Anthony just woke up. Scratch the part about the kids sleeping. The kids have been doing good this vacation. Gaby got a little fuzzy last night in her car seat, but I can't blame her, because after being in the car for 12 hours I was the same way, but I wasn't the one crying on top of lungs. Other than that, they have been remarkably well behaved. I hope I am not speaking too soon.

Did I mention that it's cold as hell? Last night the car thermometer read 28 degrees F. We hope we get to see snow this trip. The kids really want to see it. Well, at least I know that Anthony does. I don't know what Gaby wants yet. She seemed just happy when she was eating.

Well, I got to go get some breakfast in the lobby. Hope ya'll are doing good. I am heading towards the Nation's capital.

Peace out.

J.V.

We've escaped Florida

I am not sure how far I am from Virginia, all I know, is that it's colder than your usual Floridian evening. Life is good.

J.V.

It's vacation time!

Yes! I am finally done with school for now. And we have two weeks for vacation. You'd think we would chill out, and relax for a while, but that's not how we do it in the Villalta's. Instead, We are going on a road trip to Washington D.C.!

You might ask yourself, why? And the answer is: "just because". We always wanted to go there, that's all. We want to see all the museums, the monuments, the marine barracks (ok, the last one was my idea), the library of congress, experience some cool weather, and get away from it all. We are going to take tons of pictures and it should be good times.

School Blues

I am doing my best to deal with the fact that I am not doing that well in school. What sucks the most is that I am doing the best I can, is not that I am procrastinating, or that I don't find the material interesting. Au contraire, I studied my ass off, and yet, I think I failed my last class. I don't know for sure yet, but there's a high probability.

That hurts, it stings, it burns, it sucks, I can't explain it. There's a part of me that likes a good challenge, but I know that I am losing, so I don't know whether to pull out, or keep trying. Maybe I am a bit over my head here, but I didn't think so.

So here's the full story, I am by trade a Computer Engineer, which means that I am hybrid, half Electrical Engineering, half Computer Science, we're supposed to be EEs that can write code.

Now, when I got admitted to UF. I was accepted to both the CISE and the ECE departments. I had to choose between a Computer Science and an Electrical Engineering Masters. I chose the latter. Even though I work as a Software Engineer, I want to get the background for Digital Signal Processing, because I work with Radio Technology. So I thought, that I'd be in good shape with a MS from the ECE department.

Last Spring I began with an Operating System class from CISE. I thought it would be an easy A. But there were so many assignments, and the tests were tough, Martha complained to me that we were not spending any time together, and overall it was a humbling experience. I expected to do much better, but I ended up with a B.

So my next class, Foundations of Digital Signal Processing, was supposed to be better, I supposed that if there are no programming assignments, How hard could it be? Just to make sure, I called the advisors to ask if there were any prereqs, and they all said no. So, I dove in.

Boy, was I wrong. The DSP class had some math that I didn't have, I tried in advance to study convolutions and transforms, but I was rusty on the complex plane, and I had no idea what they were talking about when they brought up stuff from Matrix Theory and Linear Algebra. In retrospect, those things would have been easy to learn, and I could have done much better if I tried to do more problems, but I concentrated in knowing the theory, which I think I have a good grasp. But I got a C+ in that class. Which means Motorola won't reimburse me. (credit card company: $$CA-CHING!)
What makes things worse for me, is that for everyone else in that class, it was an easy course. I justified it by noting that I do have a full time job, and a full family to look after. But still, I wasn't happy about getting a C.

So, enter the fall, and with it, a course that's supposed to be hard, in the first line of the Syllabus, the prereq was "strong mathematical skill" the name of the course, "Noise in Linear Systems" a math intensive class that involved Probability, Statistic, Calculus, Matrices and Linear System Theory. I had taken two classes that covered Probability, but I just could not hang. I mean, I would come home from work, help out around the house, and then sit down to study everyday working day until 11:30 PM the earliest, sometimes I'd stay up until 2:30 AM. During the weekends, I would do at least half a day with my family, and the rest of the time I would be studying. The whole month of December was spent studying for the final. And yet, I think I have been defeated, I know I could get a C for all my effort, but I C doesn't cut it in Grad school, I need a B average to graduate, and I don't know if they are going to put me in some kind of probation or something. Not to mention the fact that I won't get reimbursed for the cost of tuition.

Ever since I was in high school, I had never made some much effort towards a goal and failed like this. It's a humbling experience, I now know, that I am not as clever as I thought. That my math skills are lacking, and that I need to know when to cut my losses.

On a side note, when I was in high school, I was in the baseball team, I was never that good, even after trying and trying, I realized that I would never be good enough to play in college. So I quit. After that, I've never quit anything I wanted to do again.

However, if I get another C or below after the next class I am taking, (Digital Communication) I am quiting, I might switch from ECE to CISE, but I just might quit altogether. I am tired of getting my ass kicked in these test. I am tired of spending all that time studying and not reaping the rewards. However, I am not sorry I took these classes. I loved the material I learned, I think I understand the material as good as anyone else. Maybe I am deluding myself on that one. But I do like the material, In fact, I think the mathematics behind Information Theory and Signal Processing, is nothing short of beautiful. It's amazing how it all works. I loved it when I had those "aha" moments, when things come together and they MAKE SENSE.

However, failing it's too expensive. But in the other hand, I really don't want to leave school until I have a Master's degree. At the end I know that I will get a Master's degree. It's just that right now, I am down, I will come back strong after the break. I better get that A.

Things to do Today

There's a lot of stuff we have to do today, because we have a big day tomorrow. Right now Martha is in bed, she's feeling a bit sick from yesterday's Christmas party. Gaby and Anthony are watching the movie Cars downstairs, and I finally got a minute or two to sit down and write down a sample of what goes through my head everyday.

Blogging the trip

I don't want to make a promise I can't keep, but I think it would be a blast if I blog our trip. Hopefully, it will work out that way.


Ok Folks that's all for now, I needed to get that rant off my chest, I feel better now. Take Care, be good to each other.

J.V.

Life

Now, for the nihilist, existential thought of the day...

The Butterfly Effect

It's amazing how sometimes one small decision can have so much of an impact.

This has happened to me many times, one example would be how one day, this was long long time ago, I had just gotten out of marine corps active duty, and this was my first weekend back, I decided to go to church, the one my parents went to, I was late that morning, who knows why? but, when I walked in the church it was packed, and the usher found one seat for me, in a crowded pew, right next to a young lady...Martha, and the rest, my friends, is history.

Bed Time

I don't know what's up with these kids, they used to go to sleep at 7:30 PM, now it's almost 9:30 and they are still running around, even after we bathed them, dressed them, fed them, read to them. I don't know where these kids get all that energy from.

Any ideas? My cousin recommended this book to me. But pretty much all it says is that I should follow a routine, and we are doing just that, but the kids somehow fell out of that this week. I wonder what could have caused it. This week is no different than any other.

I am thinking about starting a new blog.

They say write what you know.

I know a thing here and there about computers and engineering, I'd like to write about it.

I like to to think and talk about politics and religion, but those things can get people in trouble. Plus, I really don't like to write about stuff I don't know much about.

I'll keep this blog alive because I really had good times writing in it. I stopped because I don't want to reveal too many things about my personal life. Plus, it's weird to always write about myself, and writing my thoughts on things I don't know much about is pretty pointless after all.

I do like self-reflection. But I rather keep it private. I don't like the whole world to know all the things that go through my head. Plus, the bloggersphere is already filled with such nonsensical, blog noise. I don't want to do that.

I know that writing a technical blog is not the most exciting thing in the world to most people, but I like it, it's what I want to do.

However, I still believe in the power or rational thought to make this world a better place.

So long. Good night.

J.V.

People, be wise about this election. Think before you vote, please.

J.V.

Out to the movies

Last night we saw the Dark Night, I liked it, it had many Moral lessons thrown in, and I couldn't help to notice a lot of parallels between Gotham city and post-911 America.

It's funny, last year after being kind of disappointed with disturbia, I swore off going to the Movies, too much hassle, too expensive.

But the other day we went to see Wall-e and we liked it. So now we are giving Hollywood another chance to win us over.

Heath Ledger was excellent as the Joker, tremendous performance. What a waste he had to go so early.

This morning I am tired as hell, we went to bed at 3:00 AM, that's because we watched the movie in freaking Kendall ! (we met up with friends down there, Kendall is in South Miami, about 40 miles from us) My mother in law watched the kids, but she was in northern Broward, so we ended up driving close to a hundred miles. What a night.

The Mission today, study, get homework done, study some more, and in between spend quality time with the kids.

J.V.

Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch

Just read in the news that he has died today. Very sad, he was a good man.

His last lecture at Carniege Mellon was very touching.

J.v.

Multitasking

Multitasking

The Mission: Monitor my email inbox at work, Make sure the kids stay alive, review for my exam, prepare lunch before 12:30 when Martha comes back from School.

I don't know how Martha does it, but today I am staying with the kids, while trying to get ready for a test, and keep my job! Let's see how it goes.

So far, so good, people at work don't come in until later.

9:26 - Martha just left to go to class, Anthony tried to run to the door but the floor was wet and he slipped backwards and fell on his back, he's fine, just shocked, he still has not learned the whole slippery floor concept I guess. He goes back to watching T.V. I keep having connection issues with Motorola. VNC is very slow.
I am reading about State-Determined Systems and it's all greek to me, both literally and figuratively speaking.

More updates later.

10:59 - Things got hairy at about 10:00 AM, upon checking my email I saw that I needed to merge files (not fun) merging files is tedious work, basically when two programmers make changes to the same file, you now have three versions of the same thing. To Merge is to reconcile the differences with a version that contains all the changes. In a C files this would be trivial, the issue is, we use a Tool called Rational Rose, this tool stores everything in XML format, which is hard to read, if you make a mistake merging two XML files, well, may God have mercy on your soul, because it's hard to catch an error. Anyway, I was doing that when suddenly the kids started to cry, I don't know why Gaby was crying, but Anthony wanted to watch "Mickey" but the Disney Channel(s) were not showing anything that resembled Mickey Mouse, so I had to convince him that watching Discovery Kids is what he wants to do anyway, then he tried to catch my attention by un-plugging MY Mouse from the USB HUB, I had to asses the situation, fast. So then, I gave him his coloring book and started lunch, while mentally going over the steps to merge all the files correctly, at this point, UF is out of the picture, I'll have to study tonight when the kids are asleep. Things are under control now, I merged the file, (it was a one line change) Lunch is almost ready, and Anthony is delighted since I showed him how to draw his own hand by placing it in a piece of paper and tracing around his fingers.

Status report, all quiet on the home front, all suspicious activity contained, standing by for back up to arrive.

The last post is an excellent example of what happens when I don't get enough sleep...I ramble.

Sad thing is, that is what I probably sound like in real life.

J.V.

Studying

I've been sitting here, staring at my notes for an hour, I am too tired to keep studying. Yet, I am wide awake and can't go to sleep. Don't know what to do. So, by default I am here writing, blogging, if you will.

By the way life is good, I stay busy, I get up, change diapers, get ready for work, commute, get to work, make coffee, read my email, work on whatever is going on at the office, (lately is fixing bugs in the code) and then get home, have dinner, put the kids to bed, and then study until I can't anymore. Somewhere in between I check my facebook account, and browse reddit.com to see what's new in the web. During lunch I socialize with a few friends from work, I call it the Lunch Mafia, we get together and discuss a wide range of subjects, everything from College Football to Theology.

I always think about how much better I can make this blog, but there's always something going on with a higher priority.

Right now I can't do anything else. But apparently I am too tired to write.

Well, about a month ago I found a facebook group for the school I used to go to back when I lived in Venezuela. Suddenly I started talking to people I have not seen in many years (16 years to be exact) I left Venezuela when I was 13 years old, and it's funny that some people remember, not all, but most, and talking to them again is great, I don't know, this sounds crazy, but it feels like things make sense, to be able to talk to people that belong in the past gives life a sort of continuity, you see, I've met a lot of people in these 29 years I've been around, but I have changed circles dramatically, my early friends were in a city in Venezuela called Puerto La Cruz, then I came here and when to high school in Lauderdale Lakes, where I met people that were different in every way, I made friend from Jamaica, Haiti and Florida, as well as people from all over Latin America, throughout high school I only knew a handful of other Venezuelans, so I felt very foreign. Then, when I joined the Marines I had my second culture shock, I was surrounded by, well, marines. Young men from all over the States, mostly from the South and Blue collar states like Ohio and Texas. These guys made me feel like a total outsider, I really learned a lot about people and about myself those days. I must say, that was something else, I am glad that I left home to see the world and to meet all these people from different backgrounds.

Anyway, I am going to stop writing now, I am going to hit the "Publish Post" button and that's that. Good night.

J.V.

Unicorns are real!

So they have found a single-horned deer in Italy. That's weird. What else are we going to find?


Speaking of Unicorns, I just read a very interesting article about Art and Computers, some computer whiz figured out a way to put together possible the world's biggest digital photo.

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial day people.

Let's catch up

As you may have noticed, I blog a lot less these days, and it's not for lack of wanting to post. Is not that I don't have anything to write about, au contraire...I have too much stuff going on, and I don't get a chance to sit down and type a blog post, before some small emergency comes up, as we speak, we've left the kids downstairs and we are up in the bedroom, this is very uncommon since we usually give the kids full attention, so, let me walk you trough a typical day in my life.

It all starts early in the morning, I have my alarm set up for 7:00 but I am usually up a lot earlier, Martha gets up at 6:00 to go running, around 6:30 I am up and getting ready to go to work, this morning routine involves a lot of steps, including changing diapers, making coffee, getting dressed, taking a shower, (not necessarily in that order) I usually leave for work around 7:30, my drive to work is 10.9 miles and it takes me 32 minutes on average, 32 minutes of %$###@#$%^&& South Florida traffic. Then I get to work.

Now, it's funny, I love what I do, but work is still work, when I am there I get immersed in whatever I am doing, and it's like I have two lives, my regular life, and the life as a motorolan. I like working there even though it's stressful. Maybe because I am constantly learning new things, or because I work with good people. But at the end of the day, I am tired, and ready to go home, on the days that Martha has school, I leave around 4:30 PM in order to get home at 5:00, I make sure the kids don't kill anybody or themselves from then on, while Martha goes to class, everyday it's an epic struggle to get both kids ready to go to bed. At around 8:30 PM, I sit down and I either log in to work remotely, and/or I listen to my lecture online, and I try to do my homework, currently I am taking Foundations of Digital Signal Processing, with Dr. Taylor, he's the best teacher I've had at UF so far.

Martha gets back at 9:30, we usually talk about the day, we try to pick up the house, and I try to finish doing homework and stuff, depending on the workload, I go to bed anywhere from 11:00 to 1:00 AM, and then I go to bed to pass out and repeat until the next day.

Usually, I browse the blogsphere and delight myself reading from all you crazies, that usually happens at work when I am waiting for a build to finish, or when I am catching up on email.

So there you have it, I am leaving a lot of parts out, but sums it up. I wish I'd blog about all the things that come up at our lunch table at motorola, I sit with a bunch of guys who love to argue as much as me, we all run our yaks and get to discuss all kinds of subjects ranging from politics, science and technology. It is not unusual for one or more people to disagree on something to the point where one of them has to do a google search in order to produce evidence for an argument, it has happened more than once. That keeps things interesting.

Anyway, that's all for now. Got things to do, places to go, etc etc.

Be good to each other please.

J.V.

5 years ago

I remember sitting in a chow hall at base in the middle of the Jordanian dessert. The TVs were tuned to Fox news, we were watching the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I honestly thought that our Unit wouldn't go in. Little did I know, less than 6 weeks later, I would be in Baghdad. And I will take part in this chapter of World History.

I really wanted to believe we were doing something good for the world. I am not so sure anymore. But those were my intentions. Right now, I really hope we can bring the troops back home, heal our country. Somehow stabilize the Middle Ease without violence.

I know that's a dream, but who knows? When I got back I felt guilty that the war did not hurt me like it hurt some of my fellow combatants. I felt confused when it came to the people of Iraq. I loved them, I hated them, I feared them, I pitied them. I met some of them, ate at their homes, showed them pictures of my family. I also raided homes in the middle of the night, snatching human beings to be taken for interrogation. I shot at human beings. I saw people die. I saw blood, and for that, I hate fucking war. I hope the human race can learn not to do that. I wish we could eradicate violence. I know, I know. It's a naive dream. But whatever. That's only my opinion.

5 years. What can we do now? Will the government learn from the mistakes they've made? Will the Iraqi people forgive our wrongs and remember the goodwill we tried to bring?

Anyway, I got to go. I have stuff to do. Thanks for reading.

J.V.

Wow

I just realized that someone born in 1990 is now old enough to vote.

That just made me feel like an old man.

Hillary?

Really Florida? are you serious. Oh well, FLA doesn't count for the Dems anyway.

Good job McCain.

And what's up with Ron Paul?

IF you are in Florida

Go vote. No excuse.

DUDE

Is this commercial awesome or what?

Bummer

I had quit the Robotics team.

It was too much. I feel really bad, but school and work are taking up most of my time.

Stuck doing homework

So on Tuesday I freaked out, why? I opened up my UF inbox to find that a Homework had been posted, I said to myself, cool! my first Grad-School project...well, that sucker was six pages long, just to explain what I have to do, and to top it off, I had to read it a couple of times to comprehend just what the hell they were asking me to do. Basically I have to write a program that simulates multiple tasks running at the same time, kind of what happens when you have multiple windows open in your PC.

My problem is that I stress out about this things, when I look at a problem and I don't know what to do about it, I get restless, this whole week I've had this homework in the back of my head and today I am resolved to getting it done, it was so bad this week that I actually had a dream about it. In my dream I am teaching Anthony how to program Java so that he could do my project while I'm at work,

ME-"Anthony, you have nothing to do all day, here, let show you how to implement Intrinsic Locks and Synchronization"

ANTHONY-"OK Daddy"

ME-"Great, Mua Haa Haa Haa(evil laugh)"

I woke up alarmed at myself, but I actually considered it for half a second...but nah, he's too young, and I don't want to raise a little hacker anyway.

So this is Saturday for me folks. Just me in the Monkey House doing some homework.


J.V.

Little pearl brought to you by the web

As those of you who've seen my facebook profile know, I am a big fan of aphorisms, you can get me to read any random disparate rant if you just put it in a list. But enough about me, I found this list of tips from someone who just turned 50, I really liked it, so I will post it here.

"50 things I've learned in 50 years, a partial list in no particular order"

Good Bye Bill

Back to school again

Well, it had to happen, my vacation days are over, and I'm back to school, after a year hiatus I felt the familiar pang of my first day of class, only that today, there was no long drive to campus, no hassle looking for a parking spot, no rush to get to class to get a good seat. I am a distance student at the University of Florida, the good ol' FLA Gators (which they sucked this year in football btw...lose to Michigan? really? come on!) Anyway, so today I had my first lecture as an official Grad student. It feels no different than my two years ago to be honest. I got a little anxious when I heard that I had to write a research paper. I thought to myself...shit! I forgot about those! I was never good at writing those things. Oh well,

ROBOTS!

My favorite thing about writing software...you guessed it, I get to play with Robots.
I get to mentor a local high school team to design, build, test and compete with a Robot. Here's the competition kickoff video:




We are going to go to Orlando, New Jersey and Atlanta to compete against some very smart people. It's going to be a lot of work to get a robot to do all those things, but it's fun work. I look forward to it.

The Fam

Anthony is getting so big so damn fast, he's pretty smart for a two year old, but so far he uses his wits to get his way, I can tell that we are going to have our hands full with that one...where does he get all that stuff? I've got to wonder..was I that bad? I don't think I was as crazy as him.

Gaby rules the house with an Iron fist. I think she's so spoiled, but I can't help it. It's easier for me to discipline Anthony, but it's going to be hard to do with my daughter, good thing that Martha is there to balance things out, I know that Anthony is always going to be Mama's boy. And that's ok, I still have so many things that I look forward to doing with him. I have about 11 more years until he's a teenager and then things will get rough. Hopefully if we do things right the first years, puberty and adolescence won't be so bad.

Good books

Right now I am working on War and Peace. Little by little I'll get trough it, I got it for Christmas and I didn't think I would have the time to read it, but I could not help myself and I started it. If I had more time I could read it in a month, but since I am kind of busy I am reading it at the leisure pace of roughly 15 pages per day, at that rate I will done by late April, just in time for finals.

Over the break I read The Idiot, excellent tragedy by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Also I read an interesting book about the Bible: Misquoting Jesus.

Well, it's back to work tomorrow.

So long.