West Side!

I really like Portland. It has been raining everyday, but still. I have fallen in love with this city.

It is the opposite of Florida in almost every aspect. Yet I feel like I could live here. Of course, I would stand out as an outsider, there aren't that many Venezuelans here. But, with all the coffee shops and all the cool little neighborhoods. Who wouldn't like to live here?

I am staying at a Place called Ladd's addition, in Hawthorne, and it's just so nice. The people, the architecture, the culture. It's amazing.

We go back to FL tomorrow.

J.V.

Oregon

That's where I'm sitting right now. We did a surprise visit to Joel, a friend of mine from Iraq, he is a photojournalist that just published a book, A night of a thousand stars and other portraits of Iraq.

We flew to New York right after the graduation ceremony. Then we caught a plane to Portland Oregon, where it has been raining on and off.

It's nice, yesterday we saw a bit of snow in the Coastal Range mountains, and we saw the Pacific Ocean (first time for me), we had salt water taffes and a taste of Oregonian food.

Today I plan on going to some big bookstore, supposedly the biggest technical bookstore in the country. I'll try not to go wild in there.

So, life is good right now. I have to find a part time job when I get back, since it's going to be three more weeks before I start my job, I would like to catch up with my reading. I plan on finally reading the brothers karamazov, and I,Robot. Besides the latest book by Richard Dawkins and Carl Hiaasen. On the plane I finished reading Iwoz, the story of the founder of Apple Co.


Ok, that is all for now.

I finally graduated

I finally finished. I am at the FLL Airport, Flying to New York.

I can't believe it. I am DONE!

Such a great feeling.

Next Stop. Corporate America.

See you soon.

J.V.

Iraq Study Group report (full text PDF) is here.

Speaking of being a Geek

I think this is hilarious, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer's music video. He is very passionate about developers.

developers developers developers developers
developers developers developers developers
developers developers developers developers
developers developers developers developers

It does not feel so bad to study for a class that I actually like.

The final for Data Communication is tomorrow, I never thought that network theory could be interesting. But, I am geek like that.

Stressed

I didn't think this week was going to be stressing, but it is. It's not the finals, it's when all kinds of small things pile up at the same time that I get like this.

One thing I hate about myself is that I became an asshole when I am stressed out. There is no excuse for acting like that and I know that is something to watch out for. When I am stressed out, I get mad easier, and I say mean things to people that are close to me.

Admitting that is hard for me.

I am trying to be nice.

I am sad that Venezuela will have Chavez as president. I get mad at people that think it is a conspiracy, I don't know, they might be right, but they don't have proof. I truly believe that if the majority of Venezuelans wanted him out he would have been out by now.

Of course, the theory that the elections were rigged and that there's no way that he could have won by 61% makes perfect sense. I admit it is naive to think that the current government would not cheat on the elections. But, face it, we lost. Chavez is staying. Let's get over it.

Also, I did not vote, I could have voted, but I didn't. My fault.

My car would not start, the cat got sick, my wife is not feeling well, the chemistry final was a tough mother, I had a huge headache yesterday, today, I don't have a headache but it has been a hectic day. I have to cram for my Data Communications final on Thursday, it will be a hard test, but at least it will be on a subject that I enjoy, plus, I am sure it won't have a bunch of unfair trick questions like the chemistry final, that pisses me off so bad. I mean, one thing is to test if you know the material, another thing is to ask ambiguous bogus crap on a multiple choice test. Crap that wasn't on the book and that was never covered. Or subtle word play, that type of thing pisses me off so much because it's not fair. Of course complaining about it to the prof only makes you seem immature or lazy..oh well. I guess I am done ranting.

J.V.

Chavez wins re-election

Shit.

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.