Gaby's picture

It just hit me, I have TWO kids man, Two freaking kids! What am I going to do to keep myself sane? Dunno, it was interesting before, now it's just crazy. Thanks to all the family and friends for all the help so far. I have no doubts things will turn out OK.

My concern is, will I be a good Dad? It's hard for me because, I am so lost most of the time, I live inside of my head, pondering about useless things, it takes effort for me to keep my head on reality. That's why I rely on my wife so much, she's good at this type of things. But she cannot do this by herself, that's why I need to pay attention, my theory is, teach them the skills they will need to make it to this world, I will talk to them about everything my parents didn't talk to me about. I want to give them lots of love. That's it. It's live and learn baby.

This reminds me of my favorite quote by Kurt Vonnegut:

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Anyway, that's it for now, there's a bunch of people in the room, so I better go.

J.V.

Long Day

I am going to spend the night here at the hospital. It has been a long day, driving back and forth, I still have not had a chance to upload the baby pictures to the laptop. I think it's awesome that we have a wireless connection, I also realize how long it's been since I used to write regularly in the blog. But as it happens that means I'm busy.

Lately I've been trying to get through the books I mentioned earlier last month. I am almost done with Nietzsche, Yesterday I got the new book by Douglas Hofstadter. It's titled "I am a Strange Loop" So I can't wait. It's supposed to be about the same thing that The Eternal Golden Braid is about. I've written about that book before. It's one of my favorites.

So that's that.

On a completely unrelated matter.

This story.

My first reaction: are you kidding me?

It's Titled the Dark Side of Diversity, written by Pat Buchanan, what surprises me is not the level of bigotry, but that people actually listen to such drivel. His argument basically is that only immigrants do bad things, completely ignoring um, reality. This is sad.

Gaby is here!

1:55 PM EST in Coral Springs N.W. Hospital.

I thought it would take a lot longer, so I went home to fix myself lunch, when I got back, she had just come out, I stepped in literally one second and half after later, I almost missed it! But I was there.

I can't believe it. I grabbed the wrong cable at home, so no pictures yet. She looks a lot like Martha. Wow, this one was quick!

So there you have it folks. We are one big happy family. Thanks Loralee and Natasha for the comments.

More updates later.

We are having a baby today

We are inside the hospital room right now. I can't believe there's a Wireless connection. If I had brought the usb connector, I could be uploading pictures live.

Anyway, we are doing good. She's getting induced today, which was not how we thought it would happen. But so far everything is fine.

That's so cool. Gabriela comes to the world today.

*****UPDATE #1 9:35 AM EST

Contraptions every 2 minutes. On a scale from one to ten, she says she's feeling a three. The room is not a big as the one we had in Minnesota, but, I have a nice couch to sit on. Hell, I am even tempted to log in to work... but I won't, I took the day off, dammit! I am not a workaholic, I swear.

Martha is comfortable and watching T.V. I am reading a book next to her. I feel relaxed and happy. Everything looks good.

*****UPDATE #2 11:25 EST

Is it wrong that while my wife is going through labor I am blissfully surfing the net? she does not seem to mind, she's watching ER on TV while the nurses seem to be the only ones that care about the fact a baby is coming pretty soon. But the peace and quiet will not last forever. My Mother-In-Law (God bless her) is coming over soon. I love her and everything. But this place will be anything but quiet after she's here, two's company, three is a crowd. But that's cool. That probably means I won't post much after she gets here.

I have no idea how long this will take, when Anthony was born, Martha was in the hospital at 9:00 AM and he was born at 7:00 PM, Gaby seems to be taking her sweet time, I can't say I blame her. Knowing what awaits her in this world.



J.V.

Pictures from Last Sunday

I think I have found a new Desktop background Pic. Anthony is growing so fast. He understands it when we speak to him, but he doesn't speak back yet, he gives two-syllable answers that could be interpreted as talking...but he's not having conversations yet, that's ok, he's not even 20 months old yet, so he's doing just fine. The funny thing is, this guy has a well defined personality. To me is incredible how early and how fast kids learn.


The Beach in Marco Island was awesome, we had a good time until Monkey got tired and wouldn't take a nap at the beach, so at 4:00PM we had to go. It was nice while it lasted.

Books I'm reading

I want to read these books at least two times each. I want to understand every sentence and for the last two apply its knowledge, they represent some of my biggest passion in life, I've always been fascinated with man's search for the truth, I am slowly building my understanding of this world by studying the minds of great men that were in this quest. Minds that were infinitely greater than mine, Giants whose shoulder I am struggling to climb on.




Today I am reading Nietzsche. I got started this morning and I am already in Love,
I was hooked as soon as I started reading. Just take a look at this small fragment found in only the second page.


"...The errors of great man are venerable because they are more fruitful
than the truth of little men..."

Holy crap, I can't describe how I felt when I read this, I had to put the book down and ponder on this for a minute or two, how true this is. Reading Nietzsche is giving me pure delight, is like riding a mental roller coaster.

Code Complete

I want to be the best Software Engineer that I can possibly become, which means to learn the methods and Techniques for software construction, these things one cannot learn by reading alone. You have to do it. I see my programming skills growing at my job and I am very happy about it. Knowing how to program is just a small part of making it in the Corporate world, that's why there are many great programmers that get fired while mediocre programmers get promoted. Software Construction is about people, and technology. You have to master both, people are harder to figure out, but technology is a perishable skill, I strive to never stop learning, and there's enough stuff out there to learn.

Auto

I've always been interested about how things work. Specially airplanes, and cars, to me machines are as amazing as computers. Engines are where we engineers get our names from, and reading this book has awaken an interest about what's going on under the hood of my car. The thing that's more amazing to me, is that I can understand it! I thought that I wasn't mechanically inclined, but it's only because I have not tried it. I can see cars as a serious hobby in my near future, all I need is a new set of tools....I don't know, maybe my birthday, or father's day?

Just a thought.

Kurt Vonnegut is dead

I'm sad, I liked his books.

Story.

Naples,FL

Yesterday we went to the Naples Zoo.






Then we went to eat by the pier.







After that we walked around.




So that was yesterday. Let's see how it goes today. We are sharing a room with my cousin her husband and their kid, who is three weeks younger than Anthony. We are supposed to go to the beach. But, when we travel in big packs like this, there's no telling in what will happen next.

J.V.

Weekend plans

Yesterday went to the Marlins game, Man they took a beating from the Phillies. But it was a perfect night for baseball.

Right now we are about to take off for Naples.

More Later. I'll take my laptop.

The plan is to spend all Sunday at the beach. We'll see how that goes.

J.V.

I got this email today:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: anthonyfloyd@onemailuk.co.uk
Subject: BANK UNCLAIMED DEPOSIT
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:29:55 +0200
>Dear Friend,
>
>I am Alan Burnet, The credit manager of Hsbc Bank Uk. I have a proposal to discuss with you, concerning an abandoned fixed deposit account valued $24.6 Million dollars.
>The owner died without a next of kin. I am contacting you now to have you presented as the next of kin since you bear the same surname with the account holder.
>
>
>After we have secured the funds into your account, I intend to share with you 35% for you and 50% for me, 5% set aside for expenses while the balance 10% will be donated to Orphanage.
>
>After the sharing, you will assist me invest me own share in Real Estate, under your supervising.
>
>Please contact me if this interest you and I will provide you with more details.
>
>Thank you.
>Regards,
>Alan Burnet

To which I replied:



Wow!!! no way dude! I'm rich! Wooohoooooo!!!!!

Sure, man, I'll do whatever you want. oh my God, just let me know what information you want!

I wonder who actually falls for these things, apparently a lot of people do, since they would have stopped doing this otherwise.

Play Ball!

Baseball season has started. May the best team (the Marlins) win!

Later today Florida will beat Ohio state. I will watch for my amusement.

Anthony

Crazy like always. I can't keep up in this blog, with so many things going on.
This weekend we went to the beach, for the first time this year. This means that the summer has arrived, along with baseball, longer days and pretty soon, afternoon showers. For those of you not familiar with South Florida weather, please know that the months to come visit are October through March, the weather is nice and mild. The hot months, well, it pretty much rains everyday. Which makes going to the baseball game an act only for the true faithful fans. All 17 of them.

So that's what I've been up to lately.

I'm back!

Funny that I write only when I have time, and when I have time, that means that I am not:

Being a Dad or,
Working or Studying.

I've been caught up doing a bunch of stuff, I am finally producing code at work, which is very exciting for me. Two weeks ago I was assigned a tasks that involved creating software that didn't exists. To me that's as good as it gets.

On the home front I've been doing a lot of home improvement and a lot of reading. So I have not been online as often as before.

War Journal

Today among other things, I cleared up a storage room we were renting in order to save some money, one of the things I found was a Journal I kept when I was in Iraq. I was browsing trough it reading my thoughts four years ago. It was an interesting read. To say the least. It's amazing how much I've changed, and how glad I am that things turned out ok for me. I feel so crappy when I think of all the people who weren't so lucky. The journal is filled with a lot of boring details, but I found some goodies in there.

Should I share?

Before I write an entry, I should share that before going to war I considered myself an "open-minded Christian conservative" I came back from Iraq an atheist, and I had reservations about the war, but I kept them to myself, this entry dated July 2003 was written when I was feeling total despair, we thought we were going to go home very soon, and we found out that it wasn't the case, things were going from bad to worse as far as the attacks were concerned, in Iraq, I had a lot of time to think about stuff, that's probably the reason why I had such harsh change of "life-perspective"



Wednesday July 2 2003
Ar Ramadi, Iraq

There are many ways in which the human soul can feel pain. Suffering, frustation, despair. There is of course, physical pain, There's stress, there's also the pain that comes after having lost something that can't be brought back. There is the pain that comes after someone close to you betrays you. I am not too fond of suffering, I am not afraid of it, but I realize that thorughout my life I have tried to avoid activities that lead me to it. In my mind the worst way to suffer is to have your life taken from you and yet still be breathing. It's a tease to have my life on hold, I live with the hope that i will get it back, but setting my hopes on a quick return to a free life is giving me pain. Buddha said that pain comes from desire, If one eliminates desire then pain will go away, but how can I stop desire? If I do that, then I am giving up all that I am. I am Martha's husband, I can't stop my love for her, I want to be with her as many problems as that brings, I want to be in school, that's one of my goals, I want to be a professional, have a degree in Engineering. But this place is keeping me from it. The Army is giving me pain, I am taking it, I've been taking it and there's nothing I can do about it. They say the 15 of July now it's July 30th, on Jun 29 they said no more River bathing ( we used to go to the Euphrates) luckily we got that back, but how long are we going to be here? the MAX time is still too far away, 6 more months of this is too fucking long, but I am completely helpless against all the events that are dictating my life. I don't care about IRAQ, what are we, trying to help them? they don't want our help! they want us out of here, they want to kill us, and what are getting from it? why exactly are we here? Are we doing anything that's "Good"? I hate to admit it, but we (the U.S.) are wrong, we are the bad guys here. We are not doing anything constructive, we are not helping Iraq and we are not helping ourselves. If there is a greater good for the US from this whole fiasco I fail to see it. on my level it's ridiculous, we are NOT accomplishing anything, presence patrols? what the hell is that? And that's not mentioning the "raids" TCPs (traffic control points) in which we disturb the "innocent" and all we do is make more enemies as if we weren't hated enough. I personally don't believe in the "innocence" of the people we see, for all I know they could all be plotting to kill us all, but there is no way to catch them all, and our attempt is a joke. We don't know who is where. We are here risking our lives for nothing, that's in my level as an NCO in Bravo 1-124th but as whole, how exactly is the US benefiting from all this? Hmm I better stop before they get me too. And all I want is to carry on with my measly life, get my things done, I am just hoping that all of this is over August? Sep? Dec? it will be worth all my troubles, my wife will still be there hopefully, I could resume my education, get a good job and move on, have kids, have fun, learn about this world of ours, maybe write a book someday, I read Farenheit 451 by Ray something, I forget, but it brought a great impact, wow, I cannot say enough about it. I completely agree with him, I share his point of view. I enjoyed reading it. I want to be writer, I should have known before, I know now.

It's amazing how the mind works. throughout our stay in Iraq I have never been afraid of the Iraqis, even after being at the mayor cell (middle of Ramadi) after they shot an RPG at us. Many grenades were thrown at our compound, shots fired, etc. etc.

NOW I FEAR.
Mortar rounds. they fired at us last night and the night before that, It's been at the back of my mind because I don't want to think about what it means to be defenseless against mortars. How do we shoot back? they missed but it was closer than the last time.
It was the loudest boom I've heard, I heard mortars before, I am after all a mortarman, but never this close to me. I heard they caught one guy, but they think there's more. I didn't tell my wife about any of this and not planing to either.


***


This was before IEDs became popular, I think the first one was in the end of July, but the Mortar rounds were scary. Funny I forgot all about this entry, I don't remember feeling this strongly against the war, this was in a moment of frustration that I wrote this. I am thinking about typing this journal and sending it to my friend Joel to see what he thinks.

best of craigslist : I cant believe I did this

best of craigslist : I cant believe I did this

Now, this is funny.

Martha had a 3 minute laughing fit at this one.

Got to love craiglist.

J.V.

I've been challenged to a throw down

I say bring it! One insightful blogger has questioned my fighting skills, strength and virility, by noting that a sixty year old woman and I have one thing in common, we both got sent to the hospital by a crazy kitty.

Well.

I'm here. Give me your best shot, old lady!

Costa Rican coffee and Chilean wine

Is what life is all about.

This week in the web

Interesting: This piece by Wired magazine about famous faked photographs.

Funny: MC Plus+, Chip Hop. Programming Rap! Any Geek would appreciate this.

J.V.

Memory Repression: A myth?

Those of you who know me, know that I am a skeptic, I try not to be too dogmatic, at the same time, I don't want to be gullible, that's why I was a little upset at that document The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Anyway, today I was reading this site called Skepdic, and it's filled with goodies, I read the first chapter of a book about critical thinking, in it, I found this passage:


Even more controversial is the case of repressed memory. Some psychologists believe that a person can
experience something extremely unpleasant and then almost immediately forget it. Many years later another experience may trigger a recollection of the horrible event. Many people forget things and intentionally repress memories of unpleasant experiences. But all the evidence on memory
supports the notion that the more traumatic an event, the more likely one is to remember it.
(Schacter 1996).



Now, I saw some crap in Iraq that I rather not think about, nothing like seeing my best friend blown to pieces, (all my friends came back alive) but, I saw human suffering at the worst degree. I did see human bodies blown to pieces, and I saw what bullets do to the human body. I remember all 4 IEDs that me and my crew survived. But I noticed that I've forgotten many details pertaining some incidents and other memories are foggy.

There was one incident in particular that I had forgotten the details about. But when I talk to some of my friends they say "Hey, remember whe..." and I honestly didn't!

So does this mean that I have been lying to myself? Deluding myself into thinking that I forgot?
or maybe these things were not traumatic enough to be forgotten.

I am very lucky that I seem unaffected by it. The worst thing I ever had was nightmares and they went away within the first year. Most of the time they weren't even that ugly of a dream, I'll just be back in Iraq chatting with old friends. Sometimes I'd be in a firefight and I look beside me and there's Martha with the cats. But dreams are like that, just a brain dump. Nothing to it.

Now I am confused, I am supposed to remember these things for the rest of my life. Apparently I am lying to myself.

J.V.

Amirah the Psycho cat finally lost it.

You are not going to believe what happened last night. The family cat attacked us!
I don’t mean a scratch and run. The thing went wild and was trying to take my life. No kidding.

Let me start from the beginning. I came home from work, started dinner, and all was good in the world. Around 6:10 Martha came home with Anthony, I saw that he was playing with the car keys so I took them from him and then I said,

“Anthony, you have so many new toys, why don’t we go and play with them?”





I grabbed the new Talking Teddy that his grandma gave him. As soon as the thing started talking, the cat wigged the hell out. I was in the living room, she was in the kitchen. All of the sudden the cat comes running from all the way out there, and jumps on me and starts scratching me! She’s growling and moaning loudly and every time I manage to get her off, she comes back again. She stops attacking me and then goes for Anthony! As soon as I saw her leap for my son, I knew the cat was done. Thankfully Martha was quick to grab Anthony, the cat scratched her instead. I kept on screaming “Go upstairs! go upstairs Martha!” and she kept saying, “I can’t! I can’t!” she couldn’t move because she was trapped between the wall and the crazy cat. I grabbed a piece of plastic to move the cat, and managed to open the screen door to the backyard and get her out.




I was full of scratches in my legs and arms. Shocked was the best word to describe my condition though. We noticed she had been acting weird these couple of days. We did not know it was going to get this crazy, she was always a feisty cat, but she never made any acts of aggression like this. It’s crazy.




Getting her inside of a cage was another story. It was an effort and a half. My sister (who is really good with animals) came to the rescue, we had to get her inside the house and had to use a thick blanket to grab her and get her in the cage, she was not a happy camper. She was shaking the cage so bad we thought she was going to get out. We drove to the Humane society and dropped her off. I still feel so bad for her. We may never find out what really happened to make her do this.

After that I went to the hospital to make sure I didn’t need a shot or something, the cat was current in its vaccinations and so was I, the Dr. prescribed antibiotics for me. My sister and a nurse kept laughing at me, I got my ass kicked by a cat.

The Lost Tomb of Jesus

So I am watching this documentary right now. And I can already point out a discrepancy.
There is a Biblical reference to Jesus' family tree. According to the documentary, Matthew Ch 1 refers to his paternal family line and Luke Ch 3 refers to his maternal one, problem is, the Bible actually refers to both of them as being the paternal side, which is a contradiction because the names don't match.

Here are the facts.

They find a tomb, they are sure it belongs to the first century A.D. the names inscribed are Jesus son of Joseph, Mary, and Jose the brother mentioned in the Gospel of Mark somewhere. Skeptics point out that these are all common names, believers point out that statistically speaking the odds that a family with names that match the family of Jesus, (A guy named Jesus with a Father named Joseph and mother named Mary, with a brother named Jose) seems too small to be a coincidence, therefore it is highly unlikely that it is a coincidence.

Updates coming soon

***Update****

They also claim to have found Mary Magdalene, but, the actual name written is Marieme, (not sure about the spelling) the same name in the Gospel of Philip, a Gospel that was excluded from the Bible by the Catholic church in the fourth century.
It seems that the odds of this tomb not being the Tomb of Jesus is one in six hundred according to the documentary.

***Update2*****

Interesting fact, Christian tradition says that Saint Peter was cruxified upside down and buried in Rome, the exact location of his tomb being what is now called the Vatican, underneath St. Peter's Basilica, but, in a Franciscan Church in Jerusalem they found the real bones of St. Peter....

****Update3*****

The Jesus in this tomb and the Marieme (Mary Magdaleme) do not share DNA so they are definitely not related, so, for them to be together in a family tomb, they were most likely married, this can explain why the Gnostic Gospels were not included in the Christian Bible, because according the Gospel of Judas and Philip, Jesus and Mary Magdalene were more than just friends.

There are some that think that Mary Magdalene went to France pregnant with Jesus' child, finding her body in Israel debunks that Myth.

My Opinion

It seems that this is strong evidence that this belonged to Jesus, but I don't know if you can be 100%, with these things, you cannot be, if anything, to me this gives the Bible a little more credibility.

A brief commentary about ethics

Sam Harris' book The End of Faith raised an interesting dilemma. The age-old question of whether morals are absolute truths or relative truths.

I tend to disagree with the Moral absolutism theory, I personally think that it's arrogant to think that one culture has a monopoly on the truth. It's so easy to see an error in somebody else's way of thinking and to proclaim yourself as morally superior. Not only that, but, how do you know that you are not wrong? How can you check and test your theory? In other words, how do you know you are right?

However, I have a big problem with moral relativism, the thought that there are not absolute truths, that it is all relative to the culture in question. Take for example the practice of honor killing in the Middle East. Out there it is considered a norm for family members to kill women in their families that have been raped, in order to preserve the "honor" of the family. This practice, has got to be wrong, it violates human rights, and yet, under the theory of moral relativism, the wrongdoers are acting in a moral way. I find that unacceptable.

Sam Harris suggests that there are universal truths about morality but we cannot understand their source at this time. It appears that we are naturally "wired" to be this way. (an in depth explanation is in the book, I just don't want to get into it for briefness sake)

Can there be universal rules of morality? I don't have a strong argument against it. I just think that societies dictate who gets to be wrong or who gets to be right. In this society it seems perfectly normal to believe there is a God out there who reads our thoughts and hates homosexuals and blasphemers, but if a person claims that God sends them messages in Morse code trough the rain, they are considered crazy. The same group of people who have no problem believing that The Red Sea was split in half, or that God sent 10 plagues to Egypt to make a statement. So what does that say? There is safety in numbers. If you believe what everyone believes you are ok, if you happen to think different, prepared to be challenged. That's just how it is.

But I am not messing with religion today. I am just wondering about the right way to think about what is it that we ought to do? If there are rules that apply to all humans, who has the authority to say what they are?

THINK.


I want to see the documentary on Jesus's Tomb, I want to see what the fuzz is all about. For a non-religious person, I seem to pay a lot of attention to these things.

J.V.

Addicted

I am seriously addicted to coffee, it doesn't help that I make Cuban Coffee twice a day at work, the stuff Martha brought from Costa Rica is so smooth and yet packs a heavy punch, it's truly delicious Central American goodness. why are the things that are bad for you feel so good?

Anthony

Just put the little Rascal to bed. He's a funny guy, he swears he can talk, but he's still mumbling for the most part.

South Florida

I wonder, do we really have a bad reputation here in South Florida? I know we are nothing like the rest of the United States, but is it that bad? I live less than 10 miles from the Hotel Anna Nicole Smith died, and, sometimes I feel embarrassed that I am a Floridian, but, 99% of the time, it is really good in here.

My biggest gripe with Fl, is that there are not enough local bookstore like the ones they have in Oregon, I wish there were more coffee shops like that. They copy everything from the Northeast or the Caribbean, everything except that, do they really think that nobody likes to read and have coffee down here? Well, to be honest there's plenty of Barnes and Noble but, it doesn't feel the same way.

Having said that, the Barnes and Noble in Coral Springs is my favorite hang out spot, I forget all my troubles when I'm there browsing through the Philosophy or Science section, if I ever become rich that's what I'd have, a whole library, from wall to wall full of good books.

Nextel

The phone the company gave me just stopped working, for no reason at all, the phone is just fine, but I have no service, oh well, Motorola giveth and Motorola taketh away.

Amirah

Amirah, the psycho cat, the Hannibal, Chuck Norris, and Kill Bill of all cats, seems to be pregnant, her, um, nipples, are all big, and she is acting weird, now there are two pregnant females in this house, just great.

Martha

Martha is on a Soduku rampage, she's done 8 in a row..and counting!
It doesn't look like she's stopping any time soon. This is what we do for entertainment. TV is just too normal for us.

Me

I am just tired right now, I am going to lay down and read, later I plan on finishing that bottle we opened last week. Tomorrow will be another day.

J.V.

A day in the life of a Floridian Engineer

05:00 Cell phone alarm sounds, hit snooze button
05:34 Roll out of bed, get ready for work.
06:00 Tell Martha that I love her, while she still sleeping, her answer is some mumbling that could be interpreted as "me too"
06:04 Go to work.
06:05 Come back in the house...can't find car keys.
06:09 Go to work for real
06:35 Get to the Motorola site plant, run 2.5 miles on tread-mill (sp?)
07:15 Shower (short workout today)
07:45 get to my cube
08:00 Read pages of documentation, code, etc, etc (work)
09:00 Prepare strong (expresso cuban style) coffee at my cube
09:15 People come over for fresh Costa Rican coffee brew, (Martha brought some from her trip)
10:00 Boss stops by and gives me more work. Basically I have to become an "expert" in this particular chip that we have to program, for those of you technically inclined, it's a chip that converts analog signals from the air into digital signals that the CPU can process.
11:59 Go to lunch with Co-workers, topic of conversation? Embarrassing dating moments, to protect the innocent, I will omit details...but it was good times!
12:59 Get back to work, Make more coffee, a guy came by my cubicle to introduce me to an engineer that's a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marine Reserves, this guy is totally the opposite of a Marine Gunny stereotype, I imagined some crusty old guy with a coffee mug attached to his hand, but not this dude.
02:00 Meeting. Listen to managers talk about the schedule, and talk briefly about my role in the project. Rest of the time spent drawing intricate triangle shapes in my notepad.
02:45 End of meeting.
03:00 Read code. lots of it.
04:45 More reading.
05:25 Leave work
05:45 Home, take out trash, fetch the mail
06:00 Go outside talk to the neighbor, who also happens to be a former Marine, he deployed attached to my old Battalion a year after I got out.
07:00 Have Dinner, Anthony managed to get spaghetti in every part of his body imaginable. Yes, there too, no, don't ask me how he did it.
07:45 Give Anthony a bath.
08:00 Put Anthony to bed.
08:30 Write blog.
????

Cats do the darnest things

The cats, Moha and Amirah, know how to open doors, and it's downright annoying. We'll be sitting there watching TV and whatever when suddenly the door opens and it's one the freaking cats walking up like the own the place.

Amirah would kick my ass if I even think about opposing her. Moha is a little more laid back, but, I
think the inmates are running this ayslum here.

J.V.

Jose 1, Ipod 0

Ha! I got my Ipod to work!

The solution? Pure magic of course, I just left the ipod plugged in before going to work, and when I got back, voila! my whole music library was in it. No kidding.

I'm sure there's a rational explanation for this, I just don't know it.

Book Crisis

Ever since I finished reading Brothers Karamazov I have not been able to finish any book I start, I tried reading Code Complete, a book about Software Engineering, it's a good book, but I can't get into it, it's hard to read it like I read a good novel. Then I tried doing a junk read just for the heck of it, I tried Michael Crichton's State of Fear, I could not keep reading it. Next I tried a science fiction novel called Ringworld, I got 100 pages into it and then lost interest.

Today I got two new books from amazon, hopefully they won't suffer the same fate.
I have Sam Harris' The End of Faith, and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. They look promising. More later.

My losing battle with Ipod

I am a music addict.

I've been a recreational ipod user for the last two and a half years. I first got into mp3s back in Iraq, I mean, everyone was doing it and I saw no harm in it.

Two years ago I was given an Ipod. I was happy and I thought I had it under control.

Then about a month ago, I dropped and killed my ipod.

The withdrawal symptoms are horrible. So I went out and tried to fix the problem. The thing is, Apple Inc makes fixing an ipod as painful as possible so you just give up and get a new one. Which is exactly what I did.

I figured, hey, let's get the upgrade. Not so easy, said apple inc. I spent 3 hours last night trying to get this thing to work, Itunes sees my ipod, downloads a song or two and then freezes. I tried every single step in the support web page, no lie, I restarted my computer at least 10 times. Deleted and reistalled Itunes twice, messed with local settings, hidden files, windows services, the whole works, and yet, it still acts up, I was up until 40 past midnight trying to get this thing to work. I am late for work this morning and pissed as hell. Why can't stuff just work?

So, I am an ipod addict, but Apple is failing at giving me my fix. Whose fault is it?
Them for giving me a faulty product or mine for buying it in the first place?

Incredible

Anthony has just shocked the hell out of both of us. We're sitting there having breakfast, and Martha tells his 17 month butt to stop playing around and Anthony, get this, he replies by telling her to shut up!

He is so young, that I don't want to be too strict, in the other hand, his personality is so strong, if we don't put our foot down he will be driving us.

Parenting is so hard, because basically you only get one shot at getting it right.

Anthony is more than a handful, now he can kind of talk. Oh man.

We'll see how it goes.



J.V.

Oh Boy

There's controversy coming our way. James Cameron has made a documentary where he claims he has found Jesus' Tomb...apparently, he's done his homework, rounded up a team of experts, and it's going to hold a press conference to reveal the news.

I can see that he's doing this to get the publicity, and who can blame him?

What makes me uncomfortable is that it is going to spark a lot of debates, and people are going to start saying stupid things.

Myself I don't take the Bible literally, I am not a religious person, or a man of faith. I read the Bible often, but I don't agree with a lot of "Christian teachings" furthermore, I don't believe there is a God, not in the way that most people believe.

I don't like to think of myself as an Atheist, that only says what I don't believe, not what I do believe. I like to think of myself as a Secular Humanist. I believe that we can better understand our Universe through reason, without the use of Supernatural explanations. Furthermore, I believe in having compassion for our fellow man, I am against human suffering, and I don't need to fear a hell to do what I think is right.

I believe this is the first time I mention my beliefs (or lack of) here.

Awkward silence

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, let's greet this with an open mind. The first thought that came to my head when I read the news was: FAKE.

But I want to hear the facts, and make my own judgment. I know that even if they can proof beyond any doubt that they have the body of Jesus H. Christ Jehova Jr. Social Security Number, DNA and what not, is not going to stop Christian people from believing, never. Even if God himself showed up and told us to stop believing in him, I think that we will. We want to, we need to. Life is too empty without a meaning, we don't want to accept that this is it. There's no afterlife, there is no heaven or hell, just today.

I understand why we want to believe in something, facts and reasons will not get in the way. I know. I get it. I've been there.

I don't know what I am trying to write here, it's late, we just finished watching a movie. (The Departed, Two Thumbs up!) but I feel the itch to write to the net.

So I think I know why we believe, I think I know enough to make my informed opinion.
I used to be afraid of letting people know how I feel about God, especially since I have a Christian upbringing. My uncle is a Pastor, my Mother works at a Seminary.

But, I can't help it. That's the way I see it folks. I don't want to lie anymore. I am not afraid anymore. I am not what I believe in. I am still the same person.

I've told my sister, and I've told two of my cousins, I need to tell my parents, and I need to tell my uncle the Pastor. I want to get this out of the way.

I love my Christian family. I love many things about the church, but not enough for me to defend it. I am not on their side. I don't have any hard feeling for any believer either.

I am going to stop right now. I need to go.

Good day.

J.V.

Life

It's so funny that now there never seems to be a good time to write on my blog, I am at work most of the day, and I can't blog from there, and whenever I get home there's always so much going on.

The sad thing is, I have a bunch of things to write about, and I don't simply because I don't have the time. It's a shame.

Like tonight for example, we found the most charming, little wine shop not far from where we used to live back in Coral Springs, near the Mall, apparently it's been there for two years now. The owner was there and she was so nice, I bought the best bottle of wine I've had so far, and it was only $14.00. Which is a lot less than the crap you can get a Publix.

So after we put Anthony in bed, I lighted some candles in the living room, popped a CD to soften the mood, and had a glass of vino with my fair lady, she only had a sip because she's pregnant. But I was able to simply sit back, relax and savor one full glass of the red gold.

Everything was perfect until I tried to get up, I guess I did it too fast...I managed to hit furniture that wasn't even in the way. I am the biggest lightweight on this planet. "A cheap date" is the way I see it.

I am going upstairs to sleep it off. That was one strong glass of zifandel.

J.V.

Windows, Unix, and other bad ideas

I feel like a total traitor, back in my old IBM days, we used to get everything done with perl scripts, I lived in the AIX Unix enviroment and the only time I ever got close to anything resembling MS, was a windows emulator we had so we could check our email (Lotus Notes didn't run on Unix back then). We were develping with VHDL, but we hacked everything with Perl, sort of like God himself. Doing so used to give me that smug feeling that's so common among the Condescending Unix Users.

Now everything has changed, Motorola uses Windows for everything, we have a code repository that's Unix, but everything is synchronized with Windows almost seamlessly, and now all I do is click, click all day to get things done, gone are the days when I had to write handy little scripts to do get things done.

The thing is, I feel like I am more productive in Windows (gasp! OMG! I just did computer blasphemy!) but it's true, with windows I just DO stuff, I don't have to sit there figuring out how to do my job. I am actually spending my time solving engineering problems, instead of trying to figure out which command to type in the prompt. I know is different for everybody, that's just me.

As a result, I just don't use Linux at home anymore, I don't feel like playing with it anymore. I am tired of things not working, I don't feel like using my spare time trying to figure out a cranky Operating System. So, I drank the Kool-Aid and stayed with Windows. How sad.
However, I embrace being pragmatic over being dogmatic.

Speaking about Dogma, I recently discovered David Plotz's Blogging the Bible series. Good reading.

Today Martha and Anthony come back from Costa Rica. More later.

I can't believe Anna Nicole Smith is dead

Poor thing, she was only 40. Sad ending to a sad life.

MIAMI!

The past four days have been all about sports in South Florida for me. Thursday Night it was the NHL's Florida Panthers at the BankAtlantic Arena, Friday I saw FAU's baseball opening game against Mississippi Valley (Won 8-1) Saturday night we saw the University of Miami's squad lose against Mercer, and today I watched the big football game at my friends. I wanted Chicago to win, but, oh well, I lost my $10. You owe me, Chicago!


As you may know, I love baseball, not as passionate as I used to be, but, I go to games whenever I can. Now that I have a little bit more time, I plan on splitting time between my Alma Mater (FAU) and the ranked Miami Hurricanes, it's two completely different experiences even though it's the same damn sport.


FAU has a small baseball stadium, they need to get a bigger, better one, but, since nobody goes to watch them, they won't be getting one anytime soon. But, I still like it, the hot dogs are the best in this side of the galaxy, and the atmosphere is very laid back. We actually chatted with the Head Coach before the game, they are so cool.

UM has a decent stadium down in Coral Gables, and of course since it's UM they have a fan base, and more people go, but, they are not nice down there, it reminds me of New York fans, you know, the type that cheer went the visiting team does something bad..
but, you can't beat a nice Saturday evening watching top notch baseball.

When I was in high school, I dreamed of playing baseball at the University of Miami, but I never got recruited,well, I did get recruited by a different organization, but I didn't play any sports for them.

Brothers Karamazov

I finished reading it the other night. Wow. It was not the type of book that I usually read, but I feel it was worth the effort.

Many things are peculiar with this book, the whole story is narrated from a third person's point of view, and even though the story is "serious one" the tone of the story is light, I laughed out loud in some parts, of course, my wife no longer thinks I am sane, but, whatever.

The other thing, I think Dostoevsky covered the whole range of human characters, he was able to portray so many different ways of interpreting life so convincingly that I can't tell whether he is an atheist, Christian, Communist, conservative, or what, the only thing that I can see is the effect the loss of his 4 year old child has on this book. The last chapter specially made me feel the pain he must have felt more than a hundred year ago.

You can tell a good story when it transcend the time and place that it takes place. This is a prime example.

Well, It's way past my bed time. So I will go now.

J.V.

What's the matter with me?

I just don't blog anymore!

Please bear with me. To me this blog is like that old treadmill that sits in your house, you see it everyday knowing you should get on it. This is how I practice writing for that book that I will write someday....But, I don't like to write just about myself and my boring life, mostly because:

1) Nobody Cares
2) I feel uncomfortable sharing stuff about my job.
3) Nobody Cares
4) Personal stuff can always come back and get you.
5) Did I mention that nobody cares?

I don't think my life is boring. But I don't think I have the talent to narrate mundane events in a way that would make people want to read it.

I would like to write about the things i am passionate about, but, I am such a lazy bastard these days, by the time I get back from work I am so spent, I don't feel like taking the time to write on my blog. But, out of respect for the blogsphere, I will not quit. I will keep going, I will make the effort to bring you what I think is good.

So, you may ask...what are you passionate about? Well, I am glad you asked yourself that question my dear reader, because, I am about to tell you.

These are the things I like to talk about:

Software Engineering.

This is a fascinating subject, but, I don't feel qualified enough to write about this subject yet, I am too new and anything I write would be stolen from someone else. Plus...who else cares? (that reads this blog anyway)

Politics

I somehow manage to piss conservatives and liberals the same, they both think I belong to the opposite side, and they may be right, because I am neither of them...
anyway, this topic will make me a bunch of enemies, do I really want that?

So I don't know. I am having a blogger crisis.

What I'll do today, is, point you to some interesting things I saw on the internet today:

Some interesting things I saw on the internet Today

I read a pretty good debate between best-selling atheist Sam Harris and pro-religion blogger Andrew Sullivan, who, I might add, wrote me an email one day...(OMG!)

Also, today I learn where the term Cancer came from.

I read a great story today (after work, of course) The Last Question, by Isaac Asimov, the author of I, Robot. Great stuff!


So, that's all for now, I have 30 pages left on The Brother's Karamazov, so I want to finish that tonight.

J.V.

The Truth a Web Experiment

Q: How do you know whether something is true or not?



J.V.

Working for Motorola

Last week I started my new job as a Software Engineer and as you can imagine it's been an exiting ride. I don't feel as lost as I did when I started interning, after all, I am still here in Fl, a familiar place, with a bunch of FAU friends, My Team is cool, they have a Super Smart dude that's showing me the ropes. I have a lot to learn, I thought writing code will be enough, but I have to know how Radios and Cellulars work, I mean, down to the last detail. Not to mention reading hundreds of documents, specs, data sheets and such. The first thing I did was read the Marketing Requirements Doc and then sign up for a bunch of Motorola classes. My hands are full and I haven't written a line of code yet.

The Family is Good

One more baby coming! crazy good times.

Time

I don't know how I am going to do my Masters, I am so tired when I get home from work, that's because I am now going to the gym. I gained a lot weight over the Christmas break (I wonder why) and I am so out of shape. My first day at the Gym I joined a group doing spinning bikes, they were all older ladies, so i was like, oh easy, I'll warm up with them, 15 minutes later I was huffing and puffing, seconds away from passing out, I couldn't even hide it. I bet the old ladies were laughing at me. But, I'll be OK. Today I was doing better. I feel like back in the Corps, when we used to PT in the morning before working.

So that's life these days, there are a bunch of books that I want to read, but I haven't finished reading the Brothers Karamazov just yet. I'll get there.

that is all.

J.V.

conscious

A good friend of mine gave me great words of advice today:

"Life is an amazing thing, more amazing the more conscious you become"

I couldn't agree more. So I am sharing it with you.

Thank you.

Happy New Year.

That is all.

J.V.

Saddam is Dead

They hanged him today. I feel mixed emotions. I have no doubts he did messed up things. Crimes against humanity and what not. I just have this thing in my gut that tells me this is barbaric. Why not life in prison? Or something like that? Did he get a fair trial? Oh well. Better people have been executed before.

J.V.

WTF, Chavez Person of the Year?????

Jon, you must be behind this.

Hello Bloggers Everywhere!

Like 99.999995% of the time, I have nothing insightful to add to the blogger world, but, out of habit, I am updating you with information about my somewhat-boring-sometimes-crazy life.

As you may know, I now have a bachelors degree, I just took a badly needed vacation to the left Coast, I mean, West Coast. And I am sitting at home without a job until January, something that I must admit, enjoy very much, not that IBM was a bad place, but it is nice to sit around and just...relax.

Relaxing

Which I am doing in my own way. If you know me in person you know that I can't just sit still. So I've been staying at home cleaning, fixing and organizing stuff. I have cleaned and organized most of the house, and it's going to take a little bit before I can say that I am "done" and there's nothing else to do around the house. It's quite therapeutic to take a chaotic closet and turn it into a Marine Corps regulation wall-locker. Don't get me wrong, I am by no means a neat freak, but I don't like messy rooms, they bother me a little bit.

Announcement from both of us

Martha and I have a reason to be happy these days, we are expecting a baby girl in May. We have told everyone NOT to give us anything until Martha is at least 7 months along. I have so many things to look forward to. Basically I have gone from being a college student to being a Family Guy.

Grad School

I promised Martha that I would wait a year before going back to school, but, I feel a great desire to keep going and getting my Masters ASAP. But, I will remain true to my word and I will give it a rest. I will try to never stop learning new things though, I am studying for the GRE, and I am trying to review the things I am going to need for my new job.

I am thinking about either doing long-distance internet degrees with The University of Florida or Georgia Tech, or doing it locally either back at the Alma Mater or the University of Miami. I don't know, it depends on what is more convenient.

Reading an awesome book

Kamran, thank you for recommending The Brothers Karamazov, it is one of the best books I have read, I am still at page 76, but each chapter is filled with magnificent thought-provoking narrative. I like that.

I've been Thinking about God

And the Bible and the Virgin Mary, and all the Saints including Santa Claus and other Superstitions, why are we so credulous? Because we want to believe in something.

I'm looking into all that.

Merry Christmas, Hannukah, Kwuanza, Winter-Solice, and Holidays in General

Hope ya'll have a good one. I have to vacuum the bedroom.

J.V.

99% of the people you will meet in college

Oh this is so accurate is funny. I must admit (with some embarrassment) that I was a "Major Elitist".

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.

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.