My favorite books from 2022

 Of all the books of 2022 I'd like to call out the ones I enjoyed the most or consider important enough to mention

Best Fiction of 2022

(notice that this are books that I read in 2022, it doesn't mean the book was *published* in 2022)

Patternist Series by Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler is probably the most under-rated science fiction writer of all time. Every thing she has written is freaking good. 

Seed to Harvest starts out with two immortal beings that meet in the plains of Africa in the 16th century, then they travel to America before the Revolutionary War. The first book of the series starts as the story of a power struggle between our two protagonists. The thing that stands out is that as the series progresses the books and characters start to change in a way where each book could stand on its own until the end where it all comes together. 

My favorite thing about this book is the depth of the characters, there are no good or bad people, just people who act according to their views, goals and fears. It's an excellent exploration of power and gender. 

Billy Summers by Stephen King

Reading Stephen King is like watching a movie, you sit back, relax, grab some popcorn or a snack and let him take you on a ride. The main character was a Marine that was deployed to Ramadi, Iraq in the year 2004 and for some weird reason I can relate to that. The plot and people are good, and yeah, I cried at the end of the book, don't say I didn't warn you. 

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

This is a story set in America in the 1950's two boys go on a road trip in search of their mother. This is like reading the classic Odyssey but it's in the States instead of Ancient Greece. Gorgeous writing, good characters, the plot is okay but the point is the journey, not the destination. 

Most Thought-Provoking books from 2022

The 1619 Project created by Nikole Hannah Jones

A collection of different essays that expands on the NYT series.  This book caused conservatives to lose their shit because it dared to question the established myths that we tell ourselves about America. 1619 explores the legacy of Slavery in the United States and explores how much it shaped our country, our history, our culture. 

The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power

Who is Peter Thiel? That's the question this book attempts to answer. It does a good job at it, but what makes it thought provoking for me is that Silicon Valley has this reputation of being run by a bunch of hippie bleeding-heart liberals and the truth is quite the opposite. 

How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

This book confronts the current big issues of our time and offer the reader a sober look at reality. Where does the energy we consume come from and where does it go to. What does concrete and steel production have to do with climate change (spoiler: a lot) 

I must say that this book is a bit depressing, there are a lot of complicated problems with no easy solutions. This is the stuff that doesn't get talked about as much on the daily news because it doesn't have catchy sound bites, but it's worth knowing about. I'm sure John Oliver in HBO does a good job of covering these type of things. Anyway, this is an important book, if you want to be an informed citizen, you should know what's in this book. 

Most Useful books of 2022 (For me anyway)

Peak Mind: Find your Focus. Own Your Attention. 

How to pay attention and be present in the moment. The answer: A tried and scientifically proven way to improve mindfulness: Using Meditation.

Fun fact about this book, I picked it up on impulse when I was at Chicago O'Hare Airport, the opening paragraph caught my eye and I bought it and did not put it down until I was done with it. I really liked the author's voice, it's like she's having a conversation about this stuff with you. 

I must say that I can struggle with paying attention and being in the moment, but without this book I would be much, much worse. 

Success Under Stress: Powerful Tools for Staying Calm, Confident and Productive When the Pressure's On. 

This is one of those self-help books, so I got this book for free, there was like a big stack of them at the Blackfoot building in Seattle back when it housed the EC2 team (back when I worked for EC2) I picked it up, started reading it, went like, meh, and moved on. However, I picked it up again after reading the book on paying attention. I started to slowly read it and do all the exercises in the book. There are a lot of sections that I still think are BS, but there are some gold nuggets in there disguised as tautologies. I like the section about having clarity of purpose and understanding one's own Horizon point. 

It's 2022 and I'm back! Again

 Hey, so I've decided to go back to writing on my blog. Writing here has helped me sort things out for myself, I've been going back to my old posts and I must say that I'm glad I didn't just delete the blog. 

This thing here is just going to be me putting whatever comes to my head, there's no thread or order or purpose other than to help me organize what's going on in my life at the moment. 

If you are still reading this, um, thank you? 

Anyway, since my last post a lot of stuff has happened so I wanted to write one of those posts to catch up on the latest. 

Let me go in chronological order

2016

Trump's victory in the 2016 election was a surprise. I didn't think he was going to win, so I spent a lot of time and energy trying to make sense of it. How did it happen? I read a lot of different explanations but after a lot of digging, and a lot of reading I understood the obvious reason. It's racism. Maybe I should explain myself, list the books make the argument, I might or might not. If I do, it would be entirely for my own benefit, I know better than to think I can change someone's mind on the internet about a subject as touchy and explosive as this. 

I have put a reading list at the end of this post if you are interesting in knowing more about how racism got Trump elected. 

2017

Jolyne came out as trans to us. It was not easy or simple for any of us, but our first reaction was "we will love you and support you no matter what" and that was that. I set out to understand everything first before making decisions. 

In 2017 we had a big trip all of us went to Europe. We flew to Spain, visited Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona. Then we took a train to Paris and finally London. 

During the trip the Unite the Right Rally happened in Charlottesville, as well as the attack in Las Ramblas Barcelona, I was meeting with my cousin in Barcelona in Las Ramblas the night before the attacks happened. 

2018

In 2018 I started working for Amazon. This is something that I had wanted for a long time. It felt like a big win for me. I have a lot to say about working there, it's most definitely the best job I've ever had but it's the most challenging.  

In the summer Martha and I took a big trip to Budapest. 

2019

In 2019 we bought a house! Buying a house in Seattle is hard. We got lucky we found something we wanted after years of trying and failing we found the perfect house. Well, nothing is perfect but this is the only place we saw that we both said "this is it, this is the one" as soon as we walked in. 

In 2019 we got Petunia. I didn't want a dog, but now this dog pretty much owns me. 

Amazon sent me on work trips to Vancouver, Canada, Toronto, Madrid for a couple weeks and Brisbane, Australia. 

Martha planned an awesome trip for the whole family to Munich during Octoberfest. 

2020

We started the year with a trip to Copenhagen with a brief stay in Iceland late February early March, this is right before the pandemic started in earnest in the US. We thought we were going to be stranded in Denmark but we made it back and then Covid started. 

This is the year I decided to learn to ski so that I could go with Gaby. 

During the pandemic I made bread, beer and learned to mix cocktails. 

Jolyne started her transition after months of therapy, the change in her personality was like night and day. It's like she is living her life as her true self and wow I have absolutely zero doubt that it was the right decision.  

2021

Went to Jackson Hole WY during the winter break. 

Went to Orlando FL for 2 weeks during summer break

At work I started working for a new team. I became part of AWS Fargate. 

In November I went to Fort Lauderdale thanks to my sister the city of Tamarac put my name on the wall of Tamarac residents that served overseas, although technically my zip code was 33071 when I was deployed, it's close enough. My name is engraved in the park at University and Southgate. My sister is big into Girls Scouts so there were some people there from her troop. I can't say enough nice things about my sister she's been nothing but nice to me (well, most of the time) since forever. Thank you Caro. 

2022

Winter break we went to Park City Utah to ski

In April Amazon sent me to Dublin, Ireland I took Martha with me it was a good trip, a few days of being a tourist and then work. 

In the summer we want back to my homeland, no, not Venezuela, Florida silly! We went down to Disney World for a few days. 

In October it was my 20 year Anniversary. I am the luckiest man alive for having this amazing woman as my wife. 

In the fall I almost burned myself out working. I was doing too much at once. 

My dad was diagnosed with a very treatable form of cancer, I freaked out anyway. 

Wife suggested I take a month off work. So I took November off to spend time my family. The outcome was the most memorable vacation of my life. I had an awesome time disconnecting from the office and connecting with my family and with Florida in general. I gotta say the vacation was too good because it has taken me a while to get back into the normal rhythm of life at work in Seattle.  

Now it's December and it's back to normal life. I have my personal goals and things I'd like to do next. 

1. Improve as a person. Yeah it's sound corny or whatever, but it's the truth. I can always be a better person, a better father, husband, brother, co-worker and citizen. My intention is to always strive to grow. 

2. Professionally, I want to get promoted, I want to become a Principal Engineer at Amazon. 

3. I want to write. Write more, write better. 

A brief Summary of my Readings

I read a few books since 2016. I have done what I like to call "Rabbit hole explorations"

If you are interested in my full reading list, you should check out my GoodReads and friend me there. 

Understanding Racism and Trump Reading List:

- The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story 

- White Fragility: Why It's so Hard for White People to talk about Racism

- Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History

- Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

- Fear: Trump in the White House

- Why we're polarized

- What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays

- Born A Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

- So You Want to Talk About Race

- The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America

- Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

- How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future

- Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy

Silicon Valley and Capitalism Rabbit hole:

TODO (I'll add a separate blog post)

How to improve myself Rabbit Hole: 

TODO (I'll add a separate blog post)

Understanding Trans* reading list :

TODO (I'll add a separate blog post)

Okay, I've run out of time, rather than set this aside to get back to it on some later time, I am going to just publish what I have. I'll finish the reading lists some other time. 

What I've been up to these days. (Technically Speaking)


Before I answer that question, I must tell you how I got into Computer Engineering in the first place.
Let's go back, way back, late nineties back, I was a young NCO in an infantry battalion in the U.S. Marines, I had these grand plans, I had all my life mapped out. My life goal then was to be the first Venezuelan born USMC General. For real. I had a few things that stood in the way, one, I was not a. U.S. citizen yet, and another minor thing, I didn't have a bachelor's degree, yet. So the plan was for me to get into the MECEP program, anyway, that's a whole other story, but for now I must tell you that back then I was planning on studying law. Yep, I wanted to have a law degree. This was before I totally understood what it meant to go to law school and pass a BAR and all of that. In any case, in the marines we were allowed to take college courses for free (yes, for free) as long as it didn't interfere with your mission, you could do it. You needed permission from the CO, but you could do it. So, I did, I took College Algebra, Intro to Sociology, Intro to Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Park College on board the USS Austin. I bet you didn't know that Navy ships had college courses, yes, we do, or did back when I was in. So in the Criminal Justice course I totally and completely lost my desire to study law. Our Justice system seemed, well, unfair. I just thought that I would be the world's lousiest lawyer. And frankly, I didn't want to go to school for that long.  I just wanted to get a degree so I could be on my way to OCS and become a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps, so school was more of a means to an end. Once I figured that I didn't want to be a lawyer I had to figure out what I was going to do. I took the aptitude exam and got Cop, FBI agent or CIA whatever, I thought the FBI was cool, but I knew in my heart that's not what I really want, that's when I picked up a career guide and saw that engineering was a well paid profession. Could I be an engineer? I thought, I remember my father told me that he started in Mechanical Engineering before dropping out and then going on to study accounting. I remembered how much I liked math, (I actually used to think that I was pretty damn good at math actually) and I also remembered how much I enjoyed programming my first computer, I used to have an old thing running Windows 3. I learned to write BASIC programs in 6th grade. This was the year 2000 and I was completely unaware of all the things going on in Silicon Valley at the time. But I had heard a lot of about Y2K and the .com bust. So I thought it would be cool to be a Computer Engineer, not Computer Scientist because I wanted the title "Engineer" it sounded so, well, professional, serious, rigorous. 

So back to my point, back in the day I thought that Computer Engineering was about building websites, I had effing clue what was coming. I learned about how processors worked, all the way down to the metal, literally. I learned about Circuits and about Discrete Mathematics and some programming in C, and some other neat stuff like Operating Systems and Networking. But I didn't learn anything about the web. I took a course on Network Security, and Cryptography, but I ended up doing an internship at a chip design team, and then I ended up doing embedded firmware after I graduated.

So finally, two years ago, I am in a team doing web services, that's what I've been up to. Yeah, I know it took a long time to get to this, so if you are still with me, thanks for reading (hi mom!)

So yeah, I am now finally doing something that I've been wanting to do for a while. I am doing Ruby on Rails for the most part. Although my team does a bit of everything, really.

In order to get better I've been reading "The Well-Grounded Rubyist" by Black Manning, hands down the best Ruby book I've read.

Another thing I've been working on is how to become a real-life hard-core algorist. For that I am slowly working my way through "The Algorithm Design Manual" by Steven Skiena.

I am still in Chapter 1.

The first chapter talks about the mindset of the algorist (a person skilled in the design of algorithms)
things like finding counter examples, proving correctness of an algorithm and proving things using mathematical induction.

Yeah, about that,

I've been stuck with the concept, yeah, back in school I did all the homework and passed the test back when I took Discrete Mathematics and Stochastic Systems. But, I feel like I just memorized how to work a family of contrived problems and I didn't really, like truly, deeply learned what proving by induction is all about. On the surface it still feels like magic. I mean, Induction seems kind of simple:

Suppose you want to prove that some property about any integer is true,  say, "n times (n+3) is always an even number" you first prove it for a base number 1, then you prove it that if it's true for then it is true for that base number plus 1 then it is true for all the numbers.

What I am still wrestling with is, how in the world do you know it is proven? How do you know you haven't made a mistake? The set of all natural integers is so freaking large, how do you know there isn't a counter case somewhere.

Obviously I still have some work to do. It may seem like this concept is so far removed from the practical world of actually building programs that do things that people find useful and valuable, but indeed it is very much related, here's why:

Induction is Recursion and Software is Recursion.

Yes, that's right, Recursion is just about doing the same step incrementally until you reach the base case. Most problems and algorithms in Software can be modeled as recursive objects.

Permutations? Recursive objects.
Sets and Subsets? Recursion
Graphs? Recursion
Trees? Are you kidding? Recursion
Strings? Delete one element from a string, what do you get? A smaller String. Strings are recursive objects.

So if you understand Induction, you understand recursion, if you understand recursion you know how to model most algorithms.

10 things I love about Seattle and 10 things I don't like about Seattle

Love

1. Scenery: This state is freaking gorgeous. The snow-peaked mountains. The Puget Sound, the rivers, lakes, the parks, Mt Rainier. It's a beautiful area. San Juan Islands, Ferry to Bainbridge, wow, it's overwhelmingly pretty. Specially for me coming from the Tropics, this is very different from what I grew up with. 

2. Coffee: I live within walking distance of Vivaci, Ladro, Torino, Victrola, Vita, not to mention Starbucks Reserve and more. Good stuff

3. Tech Scene: There's competition for hiring the best software engineers, the big companies like Microsoft and Amazon cannot pump people fast enough. There's tons of smaller companies too and all the big players like Google, Facebook and Uber have offices here, if you can code, you work and live here and not have to pay the high cost of living of the Bay Area.

4. UW: The University of Washington is an great organization, the campus is beautiful, and the ties to the tech industries feed the private sector with world-class talent.

5. City Life: Good restaurants, museums, all kinds of cultural festivals in the city center, there's always something to do here. 

6. Pho and Teriyaki. Enough said. 

7. Nerds and Geek Culture. So there's a lot of scientist and engineers here, so, yeah, there's a lot of geek stuff going on, and it's plain awesome. I've never lived in a city where being a geek was the norm. 

8. Dog Friendly City. You can take your dog anywhere. There's a bulldog meetup, there's tons of dogs everywhere, there are more dogs than kids in Seattle. 

9. Weekend things with the kids: Hiking RattleSnake Ridge, Chilling at GasWorks Park. Going to the IMAX theater at the Pacific Science Center

10. Safeco Field and Century Link: Going to see the Sounders and the Mariners. I heard the Seahawks are good too, I just haven't had a chance to catch an NFL game yet. 

Needs Improvement

1. Traffic. Probably the worst thing about Seattle is it's traffic. I am not one to complain since I don't have a very long commute. (My office is a 2 minute walk) But still, the way the city is structured plus the lack of a solid public transportation infrastructure make Seattle one of the worst places to drive in the United States. 

2. Pacific North West Passive Aggressiveness. Seriously, wtf? People here are the opposite of, say, New Yorkers, they are nice to you and yet cold to you at the same time. This one warrants more in depth analysis. Just know that people here are...different.  We have met many nice people here, but the funny thing about that they are usually other transplants from the East Coast. Our closer friends here are mostly Floridian, although we've met nice people from Utah, California, Oregon and even Australia, but we're yet to be close friends with any native Seattleites, what gives? 

3. The Weather. It doesn't bother me a lot, but I'd be lying if I said that sometimes the constant drizzle doesn't get old. It's one of those things that you don't think about much as you go about your day, but last week when I was driving back from San Francisco, we had nice weather all the way, until we literally crossed the Washington border and bam, that annoying drizzle again. Maybe I am writing this because we had a brutal super rainy winter, but thankfully the weather has been nice lately so it's making up for lost time. When I first moved here a friend told me that locals just pretend like the rain is not there. That trick actually works most of the time. When you've been driving for 10 hours and want to get home safe, the PNW drenching drizzle is the last thing you want to see on the road. 

4. I-5. See traffic, it's so bad it needs its own entry. 

5. Homeless problem. Man, there's a big problem with homelessness in Seattle. You will see a lot of people on the parks, streets, under the highway, every where. 

6. Drug and Crime. It's not Chicago, it's not the Bronx, Hialiah, nothing like that but, there's a lot of car prowling and petty theft.  It's not uncommon to see used syringes laying on the sidewalks or on the public parks. 

7. Anti-tech sentiment: Amazon has transformed South Lake Union into a hub of mid to high rises with a bunch of new office buildings and a bunch of new rental apartments, as a result, rent has gone up and many people resent it, I totally get why people would get upset if their rent goes up, but the way they express it is by lashing out against programmers and transplants, because we must be the cause for everything that's is going wrong in Seattle. It's ironic that the same people who preach about tolerance and understanding and against stereotypes loves to stereotype the typical tech worker as self-absorbed, boring, white, privileged "brogrammer" when in fact, these companies are introducing a lot of diversity to the city. We transplants are helping the economy and are, for the most part, making Seattle a better place. 

8. House Prices: While it's not as bad as the Bay Area, it's getting there. You can still live quite well out of the city, but then you'd have to deal with traffic. See points 1 & 4.

9. Your vote doesn't count as much. We're all liberals here, so what's the point of voting? the vote has been decided already. If you are a conservative here. Good luck with that. 

10. They don't have a Publix here. (This should have been on top of the list)

 

How does one live a good life?

This is a good question. I don't want to sit here and ramble a long answer. Part of the reason I am forcing myself to write once a day is to improve my communication abilities. 

When it comes to our desires and our feelings there are two different parts that compete for control. There's the "impulsive" brain and then there's the "reflective" brain so to speak. There's a part of you that is concerned about the here and now, it's the part of you that craves to binge-watch netflix, order pizza, sleep, it's the part of the brain that just want to feel good now. It's associated with the primal desires. It wants to eat, sleep, have sex, be entertained. Then there's the part that wants more than that, it wants you to be better, that better can be different things. Maybe you want more money, more fame, more power, or you want a goal that you care deeply about, like building that bike shed, or running that marathon, losing 20 pounds, or helping the needy, or whatever. 

A good life is when you can satisfy both halves, when you can have a good balance between both sides, also, the goals that you pick matter, it turns out that there are things that are not fulfilling, once you have a certain amount of money, more of it won't make you happier, so what does?

It turns out, the old philosophers were right, improving your character makes you happy. Specifically, The 24 character virtues outlined by Martin Seligman: I recommend you take a look. 

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/classification-character-strengths-virtues/

 

Why I had stopped blogging and why I want to start again.

I stopped blogging ironically because I wanted to write better posts. I wanted to share with the world something worth sharing. The problem is, the tasks seemed so daunting that I would just give up before even starting.

I guess I am just giving up on that and just want to just write whatever comes to my head. Is not like that many people read this anyway.

So what would stop me for writing is that I wonder what would I write that people would want to read?

My life is not boring, but it's not really that unique.

So I'll share with you what's important to me. I strive each day to be better than I was before. But what does that mean? Well, I try to be a better father, a better husband, a better engineer and a better person. I am not always successful, but I try not to make the same mistake twice.

So for the past few years I've been working on that, learning what it means to live a good life, and learning what it means to be a better person. There's actually a lot that has been written about that and I maybe I'll get around to listing them.

Another big theme for me has been the quest for being a good software engineer. I have a lot to say that as well.

How to be stupid in the Internet

Rule #1. Have a Narrow Point of View

Never consider or try to understand things through viewpoints other than your own. Of course your point of view is the only one worth considering. It's the right one!

Rule #2. Be very emotional.

The more emotion, the better, anger is best. After all, is good to be passionate, so the more anger, the better, this leaves out other pesky ways of thinking, like rationality, and logic, who needs those? Make sure you get offended easily.

Rule #3. Never Change your mind. 

Never, ever, under any circumstances even entertain the idea that you might be wrong. That's what weak people do, absolute certainty is the way to go. There is no way others could be right, and you could be wrong.

Some unexpected things I've seen in Paris

EDIT: I was going through my blog drafts when I found it.  I wrote this a year and a half ago when Martha and I went to France to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. I couldn't sleep, wrote this and forgot about it.  I thought I put it up anyway.


It's 5:30 AM in France, almost midnight in Florida, can't sleep, can't blame it on the time difference..anyway, This is the list of weird things I've seen in Paris

 1. A group of 10 people dressed like where is Waldo walking around looking at a map

2. 2 little kids almost separated from their parents who were at a sight seeing bus, bus driver did not want to stop, even though the kids were small and the parents were telling the driver to stop. Wtf?

 3. Inside the metro, a group of people dressed like a fruits, they had a whole fruit salad going on, strawberry, banana, and something green, not sure if peas or what.

 4. A police foot chase, near the bridge of locks, the cops were chasing a girl, by foot, car and boat.

5. Not as many Americans as I expected.

How do you Break the Spell?

I read somewhere, I don't remember where or when, a story about an old lady in 18th century Scotland, (or was it Ireland? England?, doesn't matter where) the thing is this lady's son went out on a fishing boat, and the boat didn't come back, it may have been a storm, pirates, a fire on-board, something happened, bottom line, the ship sailed and it was never heard from again.

After some years, in these situations most people give up on hope on ever seeing their loved ones, but not this lady, she would assert that her son was still alive, she had no reason or evidence that would support her belief, but that didn't stop her. She just knew that her son was out there, alive, somewhere, and it was only a matter of time before she got to see her son again.

I can only imagine what it is not to know what happened to someone you love. I put myself in that lady's shoes and can see where she is coming from. You want to keep the hope alive, you don't want to face the unthinkable, the worst case scenario, the excruciating pain that comes from losing your son.

Perhaps she thought that her son was in some tropical paradise, they wrecked with no way out of it, and settled in with the natives, had 10 kids, and was living a happy life secluded from Civilization. Most likely he drowned in a bad storm, who knows? The question is, which version would you rather believe? The lady, let's call her "Mary" chose to believe the version that made her feel better, not the one most likely to be true. Who can blame her?

As more and more years passed it become more apparent that the son was probably not coming back and Mary would not see her son again. But then, one day, 27 years later, a stranger showed up to Mary's town claiming to be her son.

I can see the commotion, the excitement, he's back! Our Mary was right all along. But then things turned ugly, the guy claiming to be Mary's son, had no resemblance at all to him, the more they town people got to know the guy the more apparent it became that he probably had heard about Mary's story and wanted to take advantage of her.

But Mary saw things differently, she was so happy that her son was back and she thought that the town people were jealous of her happiness she wanted to believe that her son was alive so badly that she ignored any signs that it was not him. He didn't look the same, did not act the same, it was a complete stranger, but she could not see it.

My question is, if you care about Mary, do you make her see the truth or do you let her be happy the way she is?

The answer depends, is she really happy? or does she know, deep down that her son is gone? What if she really believes it? Who are we to interfere? Do we draw the line when she starts to make bad decisions? When others start to take advantage of her faith to gain favors? Do we draw the line when she starts hurting others?

Is it wrong to let her live her life in such delusion? Is it wrong to make her suffer and shatter he hopes?

Some say no, let her be happy. I can relate to that, live and let others live, as long as she is not harming anyone else, that's ok.

But others would say, well, if you care about her, if you really have love, concern and respect for that person, the dignified thing would be to help Mary face reality with courage and strength, help her grieve her loss and move on with her life.

The right answer should be somewhere between those extremes, you can't make a person see reality if they don't want to. You have to let people have the freedom to make their choices as long as they are not harming anyone else. You can provide guidance if they ask for it. But you can't go around telling them how wrong they are.

And that's kind of how I feel about atheism. I see people believing in all kinds of stuff that I see as superstitions, as something slightly above Santa Claus for grown ups. But I can't go around telling people that, especially if they don't want to hear it, if they don't want to question their beliefs. I used to take for granted that since I am always trying to question what I think its true, I thought that others would do the same. But that's not the case, in fact, most people would love to share their beliefs with you, but not the other way around.

But, sometimes, faith can have its consequences, when it goes to extremes, let the law take care of it, otherwise, education will solve the problem, since religion has evolved a lot since the elighqment, I think that it will eventually go away on its own now that we live in the age of information, thanks to the internet, curious minds will have access to other people with the same questions, and ignorance while it may never go away, it will be mitigated effectively.

How is that for a self-delusion?


J.V.

A tale of two robots

It was the best of teams, it was the worst of teams.

One robotics high school team had all the resources it needed, it had an excellent teaching staff, involved parents, a bunch of smart kids, and adequate funding to go to three Regionals. Let's call this school "A.

Another high school robotics team had enough funding for only one tournament, it had a handful of kids, one teacher, and no parents, not a lot of support, not a lot of evident motivation. Just some kids and a volunteer. This team started building their robot only days before the competition (As opposed to weeks before, which is what A did) Let's call this school "B"

Both robotics team were sponsored by my employer. A few of my co-workers and I spent some time helping out these schools.

One school finished last place in the tournament, while the other ranked 14 out of 63 and played in the quarter finals in the Regional competition. Guess which one won and which one didn't?

If you guessed school A. Guess again. School B made it to the second round. While school A, with all the great kids and staff didn't make it.

I've been trying to figure out why for the past couple of days.


Is it talent? School A had a bunch of smart kids, some of which will probably be accepted to Ivy League schools, a big chunk of them will go to the University of Florida's college of Engineering. So what happened. Was it the way the team was managed? Was there some kind of systematic problem with school A? Was it luck? God? The Liberals?

Although winning is not the most important thing in these Robotics competitions, it does raise an important question. How do you put together a winning robot? How do you get these teams to win?

First let me explain what happened.

Rebound Rumble is this years Robotics Game. In order to win,two competing Alliances compete to score as many basketballs into their hoops as they can during a 2 minute and 15 second match. Each alliance consists of three robots. The higher the hoop in which the basketball is scored, the more points the Alliance receives. The match begins with a 15-second Autonomous period where the robots operate independently of driver input. Baskets scored during this period are worth extra points.




The match ends with robots attempting to balance on bridges located at the middle of the field. In Qualification Matches a team scores extra points if they try to balance in the center bridge with a robot from the opposing Alliance.

Robot A was designed and built to do all the tasks in the game, it had a camera that talked to the processor in order to perform computer vision. It would scan the image it was fed for targets, then it would determine the distance to the target and figure out how much current it needs to send to the rollers that will make the basketball shoot.

Robot A also had an arm controlled with pneumatics that was going to bring the bridge down in order be able to get on the ramp.

Robot B could only do two things, it could move, and it could shoot, there was no time spent trying to get a camera vision thing, it spent no time trying to have a ramp mechanism.

Robot B however, had one thing that Robot A didn't have, it had a student that could drive that robot like it was nobody's business. Not to say that the drivers for Robot A sucked or anything, they were adequate, but Robot B's driver was good, it made no mistakes, and it had a sense of where to put the robot. It knew how to use what it had to get the most out of the game. Robot B had strategy, it could do a couple of things well, and it stuck to it. The team knew strategy, the team was able to build a shooting motion that was repeatable enough that it could land a ball in the basket time after time once it found the sweet spot. Robot B also got lucky, but I'd say that it manufactured its luck.

Did Robot A make any mistakes? perhaps it did. A lot of effort was put on making a mechanism to lower the bridge that was never used and was not crucial to winning the game. As a result, no time was spent on perfecting the shooter. The pit for Robot A was full of well -intentioned, talented people, but, nobody brought up this fact until it was too late.

Lack of vision? foresight? perhaps lack of leadership?

Probably a bit of everything. You need both, you need the talent and the leadership to set direction. You can have a bunch of talent but if nobody knows where to go, you will not get anywhere.

Well, that's all I have for now. I got other stuff going on but remember, be good to each other ya'll.

J.V.

5 Reasons why Mad Men is one of the best TV Series Out there

I am not much of a TV watcher. I came across this show by pure chance. My wife was watching it one day and it immediately caught my attention, at first I tried not to watch it, but now I am totally hooked. This show is different from what's out there.

The show itself it's about Don Draper, an advertising agency executive at Manhattan in the early 60s. We see the life of an ad man in his office and his home. We see the glamour and the culture of those days. Beautiful people with an authentic 60s feel, it has the drama you'd expect from a TV series, but, there is more than meets the eye. And not all it's as it seems.


I love this show because it has depth. Every episode resonates with profound issues, but it's not overly done, it's subtly inserted in the dialogue. It's things like the scene when Don and Pete are discussing how to sell more Lucky Strikes Cigarettes you are both appalled and rooting for the Ad agency. It's like a study on human nature. And entertaining at the same time. All the characters have depth, they are real with their imperfections.


1. Bets the desperate housewife

She's attractive, educated, and represents what a lady was supposed to be like in that era. She is also depressed, and she doesn't know how to deal with her cheating husband.

2. Peggy the career woman

She wants to be like the guys in the days were sexual harassment was an everyday thing. She is just as talented but has to work twice as hard to get noticed. She also had an affair with one of the guys at the office.

3. Joan the bitchy secretary who runs the office

She's attractive, and bitchy, but also has a tender side to her.

4. Don the man who started life again '
The main character of the series. Can't decide whether he is a good guy or a bad guy. He is a cheating bastard, seems to have no values, and yet, I can't help but wish him well.

5. Campbell, the man who has it all, and wants to kill himself

Perhaps the mirror image of Don, he has no social grace, unlike Don who is smooth, displays naked ambition just like Don, but he doesn't know how to get his way.


For a TV show, it's not bad at all.

J. V.

Vacation Time!

So here I am, sitting at home relaxing. Work at the office will be there when I get back, so finally I am taking the best kind of vacation, time off, with no plans, no hassles, just me at home, doing nothing in particular. Martha is at Gaby's school volunteering, so I am going to go for a run to the park, I'm running fairly often these days, last couple of times 3.5 miles, today I am shooting for 4 miles.

I am exited to be volunteering as mentor for a high school robotics competition, FIRST with Terra High School, it's my first time doing it, so it should be interesting.

I want to finally start making android and iPhone Apps, but I just don't have the time, every time I do have some spare time I do spend it sharpening my technical skills, there are a few books I want to get trough before I spend time doing projects, I think the best way to become a good engineer is to actually make cool things, like robots, mobile apps, and such, but before I get there, I want to get the fundamentals right, so I am trying to get trough that first.


Anthony is showing interest in robots, but then again, what kid doesn't? I am trying to figure out the best way to show him and teach him the ropes without turning him off of it. He wants to do all these things but he's too impatient, he wants to do everything the first day. I can understand that because I used to be the same way, I need to show him the virtue of patience and perseverance, but not sure exactly how to do that.

Another thing I got planned for this week is to finish reading Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, I have noticed that my Spanish has been on a decline lately, and when I think about it, it's a shame that my heritage would be lost in the next generation, my children already refuse to speak my mother tongue even though they can definitely understand most of it. So I think that it's worth the effort to teach them my language. Anyway, I am reading Don Quijote, and it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be, when you know what's going on, it's actually a funny book.

I've read a few really good books lately, I finished Steve Job's biography, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and Phil Dick's Minority Report and Do Androids dream of electric sheep. Each of these books is awesome in it's own way.

Steve Jobs taught me the value of good craftsmanship, when making things, (and engineering, in essence is about making things) engineering students are taught to provide functionality. For a product to have quality is must be functional, it must not have defects, it must do what it was designed to do, optimizing the available resources, not wasting materials, time, energy or cost, but for Jobs that's a "stupid" way of looking at it. For him, design is an art, the creator and designer must pay attention to how an artifact makes the user feel, a designer must get to the essence of the product, and make something beautiful, something that will delight the user, we engineers must make something useful, elegant, tasteful and ...yes, beautiful. This combination of technology and art has become cliche lately, with the fame of apple products it seems like a fad, but there is something profound to it, it makes sense, engineers just don't pay attention to beauty and it shows.


There has been a lot said about Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, so I don't want to try to give a complete review, but
this is a psychological story before psychology was invented, in this novel, a crime was committed, but the mystery is not who did it, but why was it done? Was it a feeling of alienation? was it madness? social conditions? lack of god? depending on who you are and your convictions, you will get a different answer, the protagonist Raskolnikov has something that everyone can relate to, and yet, he is the strangest character of any novel I've ever read. Reading this was torture, yet I couldn't stay away from this book I had to read it till it was done.

I read Crime and Punishment and Steve Jobs biography for education and personal growth, to gain some wisdom and what not, Phil Dick's novels are for pure pleasure, after reading The Lord of the Rings and Neal Stephenson's Anathem and being underwhelmed I declared myself Not.A.Sci.Fi.fan, but Phil Dick is changing that, although I can't get over his unfortunate last name. The dystopian worlds he and Asimov created are luring me back to the Sci-Fi realm. Reading Asimov and Phil D. is better than watching any Hollywood movie. A good book is to a movie what sex is to masturbation, movies are ok, but the real thing is way better.



So that's it for now, I am going for a run, I might give another vacation update, or not.

J.V.

10 years later

My life was changed by what happened this day 10 years ago, like everyone else that was here then.

I was 3 weeks into my second semester at FAU. I had a quiz that day, I was going over my notes when my Mother told me that "we're being attacked"

I turned on the news. Saw it. I cried. I felt it coming. I knew it. I knew what was going to happened. And it happened. Less than two months later my reserve unit was activated, less than two years later I was in Iraq.

When the Army gave 2 weeks to go home in December of 2003 I bought plane tickets to go with my wife to NYC, it was the first time back to the city since it had happened. I saw the hollowed ground. I cried again.

When I finally got back from that long deployment and decided to become a full time civilian, I made myself a promise that I will move on, that I will not let these horrible moments define who I am. I have failed and succeeded at the same time.

I failed because my involvement in the war has defined my identity. I am, and always will be a veteran of Iraq, that cannot change. I still think about it, some things I cannot forget, it happens less and less often now, but every once in a while I find myself scanning the roofs, looking around for suspicious looking stuff out in the streets as if I was driving in Ramadi. I fail because I can't help myself and I bring it up. But anyway, I promised that I would move on, acknowledge what happened, and then move to a new phase of my life.

That's the part I like, I came back and did what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a computer engineer. I wanted to have a normal family, own a house, have a career that didn't involve putting up with B.S. I did all that. For that I am thankful.

So that's what we need to do. Acknowledge what happened 10 years ago and move on, do the next thing. Continue making the U.S. the best country in the world to live in. Life goes on. Live free, prosper, persevere, be industrious, create, do remember, but don't live in the past, there's no need to scan the roof, the boogie man is gone.

J.V.

The Art of Parenting, an Introduction to the Fundamentals

I was reading a blog post from a friend of mine that I met in the Army. He's about to become a father and he's writing about things he has to do from now on, it reminded me of the days right before Anthony came to the world. I was so scared, I knew that I didn't know what was coming, I was worried about being a good parent, about doing it right, it was exciting times, stressful, so many uncertainties...I know exactly what you are going trough Eddy, you want to do it right.

So do I. I don't want to say that I got it all figured out. It has been six years, (well, it will be six at the end of September) and I must confess I still worry about whether I am doing it right. But I got a few principles that I think will help.

The #1 thing is your kid has to know that he/she is loved.

That's it. That should be easy for most people, but somehow that point gets mixed up or forgotten. If you love your kids unconditionally, no strings attached, if you can do that, that's half the battle. Be there, give em lots of love.

There has been a bunch of psychological studies

Teach the kids how to think for themselves

Critical thinking is tough, it's easier to just tell your kid what to do, but not why he's supposed to do it. Why be polite? Why wash your hands? Why go to bed early? Why pick up after yourself? It can get tiring, but a person who is used to reasoning will be able to make wise decisions later.

Instill a sense of wonder in your kids

That one is easy, kids are naturally curious creatures. I love it when they asked me questions like, how did the earth get here? How come we have eyes? (they have seriously asked me that) In many ways, reality is so much stranger than fiction. I love to tell them that there are many things that we don't know yet, and maybe when you get old enough you can get the answer for the rest of us. It would be a crime to kill their curiosity with a bunch of easy answers to stuff we honestly don't know.

Show good character

This is a tough one, I would like my kids to show integrity, courage, compassion and all of that, but the only way to do that without lecturing, is for them to see it in yourself. Kids are acutely aware of what you parents are doing. They may not get everything yet, but they can pick up when there are discrepancies between what you say and what you do. Make sure that you practice what you preach, or else you will be teaching hypocrisy.



That's it. Not a lot of rules to remember. It's not easy, but if you keep those in mind, you'll be ok.

J.V.

Is paying Taxes Patriotic?

The other day at the lunch table somebody was making fun of Vice-President Joe Biden for saying that paying taxes was patriotic. [1] This sparked one of our famous lunch time debates, I agreed with Biden, I think that paying taxes is a patriotic act. There was a this guy at the table a big Ron Paul Fan Boy [RPFB] his head almost exploded when I said that paying taxes is patriotic.

So, I am going to go a bit deeper into whether paying more taxes is patriotic or not.

First, I'd like to begin by stating explicitly what I did NOT say:

1. I didn't say, and I don't believe that everyone has to pay more taxes. I think that people should pay in their proportion to their ability to pay.

2. I didn't say that the more patriotic you are, the more taxes you pay, or that the less taxes you pay, the less patriotic you are.

3. I do not agree with blindly giving more money to the government.

What I did say is that I think that paying taxes is a patriotic act, just like voting, volunteering, or serving in the military.

So later, my friend the RPFB asked: if paying taxes is patriotic, then was Obama being un-patriotic when he increased the budget deficit?

My first reaction to this was to question the intention of RPFB, why ask such a dumb question? but then, I remembered that a long time ago there was a greek philosopher who went around asking questions like that, and he made a lot of people angry as well, his name: Socrates.

Now, I am not saying by any means our RPFB is in the same league as Socrates, but I think his question addresses deeper concepts and deserves an answer.

Well, first we have to understand what does it mean to be patriotic, right? I looked it up[2] and Patriotism means devotion to a country. So it means being dedicated, devoted, loyal.

Now, I'd would like to point out my personal opinion when it comes to loyalty and patriotism, I think it's OK to love one's country, and it's ok to serve. But one must be wary of those who invoke patriotism, and loyalty in oder to ask you to do something, you may or may not want to be taken advantage of.

Take your patriotic person Joe, he's a patriot, he loves his country, he wants the US to win the war on terrorism, he enlists in the Marines, he goes to Afghanistan, he dies in the war, was he patriotic? A lot of people will agree that he was a fine fellow, a patriotic, brave young man that deserves the highest honor you can give a person by making the ultimate sacrifice for the nation. Now, what about the leaders who decided to send him to war, are they patriotic for making him die?

Now, Suppose we have two Generals, Gen A and Gen. B. we have General A on the ground, and he makes a blunder during a battle that costs his Divisions to get decimated, thousands of troops die as a consequence of his decisions. Is he more patriotic or less patriotic than General B, who planned out a clear strategy to win without heavy losses in human life?
I think you'd agree that General B is no less or no more Patriotic than General A. Although willing to fight and die for the US maybe considered patriotic, sending marines to their death is not necessarily a patriotic act in itself.

I see paying taxes to a lesser extent the same as willingness to die. Just like we need patriot Joes to defend the country, we need taxpayer's dollars to run the country. The difference is that paying taxes is a not a voluntary act, also, paying taxes may not get you killed by an IED.

Is willingness to give more money patriotic? Yes. Does that mean that a policy where you ask for more taxes is a more patriotic policy? Hell no. Well, it depends on the details, but as a general statement, not necessarily so.

Now, back to the Obama question. is he not being patriotic? Maybe, maybe not, his sense of patriotism is a value, a sentiment, just like Generals A and B, they may both be patriotic but one made a mistake and one didn't. Is General A less patriotic if he didn't win the war? Or because he failed at his task?

Suppose, that Obama made a huge mistake with the deficit thing (I don't know if he did or not, both Republicans with Bush and the Democrats with Obama doubled the budget deficit, why? I don't know, there must have been some kind of a good reason for doing so, I just can't comprehend it) does that make him less patriotic? Nope, I don't think so, unless he did it purposely to harm the country, nope I don't think so.

So in conclusion, willing to make sacrifices is a patriotic sentiment. Asking people to make sacrifices not necessarily. Causing people to make sacrifices because of a mistake, not necessarily related to patriotism.

That is all.

I hate my last post

But I am leaving it there, I hate it because it makes it sound as if I know how to deal with people, like I am better than anyone else at doing that. I don't like it because to me it comes across as preachy and I am better than thou, etc, etc. And the look for the best bit sounds corny and cliche.

I'll be honest, I do strive for that, I do try to use a positive filter to figure out what others actually care about, and to try to see what's good about the other person. I do that to overcome my natural tendency to notice the opposite. It's too easy for me to find faults in others, it's easy for me not to care about what others do, and in a sense, that's the way we all are, it's the natural state of things. However, I like to be conscious and tuned to what's going on around me. Not because I am paranoid or not satisfied with myself, it's just that it's one more way to better myself, I know that my social skills could be better, so I try to work on them.


I do think that when you only notice the bad things about people and when all you do is point out other people's shortcomings, it makes you a more miserable person, not because others would want to be around you (although that's also true) but because on the inside you'll always have bitterness. I think that life is way too short to concentrate in all the crappy things, for what? Is good to live with your eyes, ears and mind open. To perceive everything and not live in self-denial, but concentrating on the negative makes you ...unhappy.



I felt like I needed to clarify that.

J.V.

The Secret to dealing with others

"Hell is other people" -Jean Paul Satre

It's simple, other people are just like you!...except when they are not. You see, people can appear complicated, unpredictable, irrational, sometimes moody, cruel, and sometimes, just plain assholes. But guess what, it's all your fault. Yeah, it's your fault you're mad and frustrated, because nobody but you can really determine how you will react to other people. You see, you can't control what others will do, but you can control how you react to what other people do.

When I said that other people are just like you, I meant that everyone is just worried about their life, their problems, their issues, their hobbies, their habits, their friends, their family....just. like. you. What does that mean? They are not noticing that thing you care about, because they are too busy caring about their own business.

(Wow, this posts is starting to sound like a Self Help, Dr. Phil kind of thing....I am sorry, that's really not my style)

Let me shift gears a bit, change the tone, and finally get to the point.


There's this trick I've been trying to do that works wonders when dealing with others. It does not create miracles, but it makes a huge difference when applied correctly.


Put yourself in the other person's shoes.

You've probably heard it before, it's cliche even. However, it works, when you think about it, it only makes sense when trying to communicate you must think of the message, the receiver, transmitter, and the context. If you don't understand why your boss is a bit flustered when he replied to your email, or why your kid is in a bad mood, or why your wife is mad because you didn't take out the trash, then, you are not paying attention. That can cost you.

But I've added a little twist to that rule, I've noticed something about the people I admire the most, they never complain about others. I notices that real leaders always bring out the best in people. So it brings me to my second rule:

Look for the best in people.

That one is easy to say, hard to do, if you are like me, it's easier to notice other people's defects than your own defects, it's much easier to know your own virtues than to see other people's.

You se, everyone is good at something, everyone has something that they care about. Looking for the good instead of the bad puts me in a better frame of mind, I get less annoyed with people, when I try to see things from their point of view, assuming the best.

Now, I know how this may sound, it may sound too optimistic, too naive to assume the best in people. But it's a better way to live, you have to know how to not get hurt by others, but if you are paying attention you'll never have a problem.

If you know me at all, you'll notice that my social skills could be better, but compared to how it used to be, I have improved a lot, I am naturally self-conscious, and I was raised to mistrust the whole world outside your own family.


Anyway, I have to cut this short, gotta go take Anthony to get a haircut...he starts school Monday.

J.V.

Leadership the Marine Corps Way

Note: I was thinking about this as I was getting ready to go to work, instead of putting it off for later, I decided to write this all down now before completely forgetting about it. I noticed that when I get an idea for a blog post, it's never the same if I write it a day or two later than when I write "when it comes to me" Anyway.



The other day I was going trough my stuff looking for an old book, when I stumbled across my old notebook from the War, in it, I found minutia that's completely irrelevant now, checklists, packing lists, contact numbers for my guys, plans for raids an other combat ops. But one thing that got my attention was what I wrote on the first page right after the cover:








It's Titled "Principles of Leadership"

As you may or may not know, I had some sort of transformation as far as the way I look at the world and life in general, what it comes down to is that I must be one of those true to the core bleeding heart liberals down underneath, not because I can't pull a trigger, that's pure non sense, I am still a marine, and always will be, I know what I can do, and I know what I did out there, but one thing that nobody can stop me from doing is noticing the level of injustice in this world. That changed things for me, the truth is, there are people who go trough life feeling immense suffering, some of it their own doing, but not all, the thing that got to me was seeing children in the mess, the only fault of their own was not having the common sense to be born in a country like ours. How could they have been so dumb? oh that's right, you can't choose that. So seeing the whole spectrum of suffering made me change the way I see everything, a paradigm shift, so to speak. If you know me, you know what I think about religion, politics and that whole mess.

However, someone asked me, if I still buy into the whole "Honor Stuff" from the marines, for some reason, the question got to me, the answer is yes, I do, why wouldn't I? but the way it was asked rubbed me the wrong way or something, I don't think it was ill-intentioned, and the person that asked does not know me personally. So it's ok, I forgive any actual or imagined transgression. It's no big deal, really. But I do want to list out the thing that will never change, and I want to point out what I think it's the best thing about the Marine Infantry. Their training philosophy, which I am grateful for, and the reason why they say you are always a marine, because the values they teach can stay with you forever.

The Marines invests in their people

Besides the obvious physical conditioning and outstanding rifle marksmanship, the most important measure of a marine in the grunts, is his character. They of course do not phrase it that way, they like to call it "leadership". What it means, is that every marine is responsible for his own character development. Every month there is an evaluation done by his supervisor in which all the leadership traits are individually scored, but the thing is, leadership is built in the culture.


I just want to point out that the page in my journal represent my take away from my time in the infantry. This guidebook applies to everyone. So I thought I'd share it here. **edit: Just realized that this comes from an Army manual, but the marine corps version is pretty much the same**



BE

(a) Technically and tactically proficient, can accomplish all task to standards
(b) Posses professional character traits, Courage, Candor, Competence and Integrity


KNOW

(a) Four major factors of leadership and how they affect each other. The led, the leader, the situation and communications.
(b) yourself and seek self-improvement. Strengths and weakness of your character, knowledge and skills. Continually develop your strengths and work on overcoming your weakness.
(c) your soldiers and lookout for their well being, train them for the rigors of combat, take care of them.


DO

(a) Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions
(b) Make sound and timely decisions
(c) Set the example
(d) Keep your people informed
(e) Develop a sense of responsibility
(f) Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished
(g) Build the team
(h) employ your unit in accordance with its capabilities



The point is that these skills are transferable to all aspects of life. It's up to the individual to work on these though, some people go trough 4 years in the grunts without "getting it" but, it is part of the environment. Something that I strive for. It comes from the there. For that, I am thankful. I am proud of the Marine Corps and the Army as well, for that reason. The work ethic they posses is unparalleled.

That is all.

J.V.

Finished Reading Code Complete!

If there was a book that every programmer must read, it's this one. I heard about it back in the day, I bought it 5 years ago, and I managed to finally finish it last night right around midnight. It took me a while because some parts were tedious, and because I wanted to take my time to absorb the content. This books talks all about the craft of software construction, everything from how to write requirements to how to lay out blank space...seriously! there's a great section about the pitfalls of using pointers, how to debug, but my favorite parts were the philosophical dialog about commenting that included what good Socrates would say if programming was around in ancient Athens. The part about programmer's character was also an splendid expose of what a good programmer must act like. It should be mandatory reading for everyone in the industry.

This link to stackoverflow shows the list of books that every programmer should read, not surprisingly it's a the top of the list.

I live my life in a quiet , constant struggle deciding what to do.

There are 4 things that I want to spend most of my "free" time doing.

1. Quality time with family

2. Read books for pleasure

3. Read technical books to "sharpen my saw" and improve technically

4. Do my own projects, work on the things that are interesting to me.

I spend most of my time doing #1 and #2. #3 and #4 suffering, lagging behind. I want to do something about it. It's tough because I can basically always sit back and do 1, and 2. (No, not that #1 and #2, jeez) 3 and 4 require a higher degree of concentration and a large amount of time. I can't just write code in 15 minute intervals. I need to figure out a way to do squeeze technical improvements into my schedule.

The importance of a sense of purpose

Since graduation, I've been reading a lot of good books just for the fun of it. However, I am starting to feel like I need something else, like a big project. A few months ago, (actually, now that I think about it, it was more like a couple of years ago) I was thinking of a startup, after taking that entrepreneurship course at UF, I prefer to do project that won't consume my whole life. Something like doing apps or creating a nice web page. Learn a few programming languages a year, write a serious, interesting tool or application. That kind of stuff that requires some effort, but can be put down in case something else comes up.

I enjoy myself more when I have a sense of purpose in my day to day routine. For me is simple, yet not easy. I live in constant struggle to better myself. I understand that I have limitations, but I strive to get past them. How do I better myself? By working on my character, by working on being a more decent human being, specially to those that are close to me. I attempt to understand what makes a good husband, to be a good parent, and a good friend, this is difficult, yet it's important. In fact, I consider this The Most Important Thing.

The other personal challenge I have is that I want to become number one in my field, that's also a difficult task, being an engineer is hard enough, being a great engineer requires constant effort, it's not enough to do one's job right, one must also push the boundary.

So that is the reason for my inner struggle, on one hand I have this engulfing desire to better myself, on the other hand, there are pleasurable things that I can be doing that don't necessarily help me improve but that are just as important. Spending time with my family doing nice things is super important to me. Watching movies, enjoying a quiet dinner with Martha. Curling up with a good novel. Playing soccer with friends, all these things sum up to what I call "the good life"

That's all I have.

J.V.

What I've been Reading Lately

After graduating last April I promised myself that I would blog, write android and iPhone apps, read a bunch of technical books, contribute to the next Linux Kernel release and to GNU Radio, create a startup business, publish some papers on cognitive radio, perhaps invent and patent some new Signal Processing Algorithms, find a cure for Cancer, etc. Instead, I've been consumed by the pleasure of reading with my kindle. That thing is too sweet, it's easy to carry, and I have a plethora of books to choose from. I feel super guilty for not doing the other things I promised myself to do. I still want to do all those things, but, I have been spending more time with just the family, but I can see how I can fall in that pattern forever without doing anything else, which is not bad, I really love how I've gotten to actually have a social life, but, anyway, I am getting off the subject, here's a list of books that have been consuming my time lately. When I am not working, or being a parent or husband, I have been reading these:


Christopher Hitches's Memoirs Hitch-22.

Hitch talks about his life, he's quite a complex person, you might know him from his articles in Slate.com or Vanity Fair, no matter who you are, he goes out of his way to make sure you disagree with him on something. he was a staunch communist in his youth who later has been leaning more and more to the right, he was a supporter of the invasion of Iraq, thinks that Ms Thatcher was sexy, and is one of the new-atheists four horsemen. I am halfway trough this book, I like it, it's entertaining and all, but it's not one of those books that leave you with anything other than good entertaining. I feel like I've been having a long conversation with the author. I want to finish the book so I can get to other books, Christopher Hitches was diagnosed with stage 4 Cancer late last year, so he probably doesn't have that many books left in him. I will miss him.


Cooking for Geeks.

O'Reilly books published a how to cook books for people like me, I am geek not because I am a computer-oriented person, but because when I get into something I like to go a bit deeper into the subject than the regular person, a geek is never satisfied with knowing that steak is done when its internal temperature reaches135 degrees, he has to know why 135 is important, he has to know what happens down at the molecule level, he wants to know the technical name, the hows and the whys, that way, once he reaches a fundamental understanding of the physics and chemistry of the process of converting raw ingredients into a tasty and nutritious meal, he can get conformable in the kitchen, this book is meant for the geek in us. It tells you the science behind all the crucial steps in cooking.
One of the things that the books spells out from the beginning is the distinction between the different types of cooks, you've got your Giving cooks, you know, the people who love to cook at thanksgiving, so they can share with the whole family, they usually stick to known good recipes, and like to please everyone. Then you've got your Healthy cooks, who know the nutritional value of everything, and who will sacrifice on taste in order to eat healthy. Then there's the methodical cook, who will follow the recipes to the letter, and who will never deviate or experiment, there's the Innovative who will make up stuff as he goes and the Competitive who will cook to impress. Most people who cook will have some of these traits, but one usually dominates. Personally I am outside my environment in the kitchen, but when I think of how I would like to be, I think I'd be a mix between the healthy and the innovative, but in reality I'm more like the methodical, whenever I do get into the kitchen, I just follow the recipe word for word, I would have no idea what to do if I was missing an ingredient in the middle of making something. Martha, in the other hand, is a true natural, she just knows what to do, she almost never makes a mistake, and everything she makes comes out the way it's supposed to. I, on the other hand, can never make two pancakes that look or taste the same.
I'm hoping to change that, if anything I want to prove that I can do it.



The Age of Wonder

I was in the middle of reading this book when I was preempted with Hitch22 as a father's day present, actually, It was Infinite Jest that interrupted this wonderful book, but I am getting ahead of myself. This is a colorful and utterly absorbing history of the the men and women who gave birth to the Romantic Age of science. This book was featured in the New York Times best books of 2009. So it caught my attention, it seems like such an obscure topic, so I decided that it must have been superbly written if it caught the attention of the ny times. So far, it's very good, the author did his homework, researching the stories to the last available details, it tells us about Joseph Banks in Tahiti, Herschel's discovery of neptune, the first planet discovered in modern era, the rise of the balloon era, that's what I've read so far, it swallows you and takes you back to the times when we started to push the limits of our knowledge of the world, if you think about it, we went from flying biplanes to flying to the moon in less than 60 years. The scientific method has been that powerful in shaping our world for the last couple of centuries, this book covers a piece of that tale.


Infinite Jest

The first time I heard about David Foster Wallace was when he killed himself back in 2008. I read the article in the new york times and moved on, I read about how he got famous after writing Infinite Jest, how it was one of those "masterpieces" and "magnum opus" and all of that. It wasn't until last December when I read "A supposedly Fun Thing that I will never do again" that understood the magnitude of his genius. This man went on a cruise, wrote about it, and made me laugh and depressed at the same time! How he does it is amazing, he gets to the bottom of things and analyzes and dissects, exposes people's behavior in a way that makes you rethink the way you see the world.

Infinite Jest took some effort to get trough in some parts, but, it was worth it. There were some passages in there that just gripped me and shook me, and made me want to put the book down, and just digest what I just read. He put a lot of stuff in there that by itself would have been enough to make it a great novel, but all together, it was too much, an overload, so brilliant one needs sunglasses to read it.

There's stuff in there about what it feels like to be chronically depressed, he describes it as nausea of the mind. Just like your picture how your stomach feels when you want to throw up, that's how your mind feels. I don't want to butcher his words, I just want to say that knowing how he took his life after his depression drugs stopped working, when he writes about a character being depressed, he knows what he is talking about. The stuff about drug addiction, depression just take your breath away, then you have his humor, his irony and wit. I don't recommend this book to everyone, but for me, it was worth the thousand pages.


Code Complete


This is another one of those books that are very long and hard to get trough, it's not because its badly written, but it because technical books require complete concentration for me, and that's hard to get, this book is essential reading for every software developer out there. I am two thirds of the way done, but, I started reading this book a long time ago. I have all these technical books queued up to read, but I can't read them until I finish this. This is a great book, it talks in great detail about every relevant aspect of software construction, it hits every stage in the process and gives awesome insight. The main reason why it has taken me so long, I have this book in pdf in my PC, it's not in my kindle, and I don't have a hard copy of the last edition, so the only times I get to read this is when I make the conscious effort to allocate time for it. I want to finish this book soon so I can get to other tech books that I've been meaning to read. I want to make myself an expert in assembly, processors, DSP, and languages. That's about it.



Political Science from the Yale Department

oyc.yale.edu features course material that's open to the public, I just finished reading all the transcripts for Moral Foundations of Political Science and now I am working on Capitalism: Success, Crisis and Reform. Like the geek that I am, I want to get to the bottom of politics, I am trying my best to approach politics with a scientific and objective mind, and to get to know the whole spectrum of political ideology, that way, when I listen to a liberal, I know what the main points behind that side is, same with conservatives, and everything in between. I want to understand our government, our economy, and what's relevant and what isn't. It's a big thing, but everyone should have some understanding of what's going on in the country.




That's all

So that's about it, I have not even touched on what I have pending in by books to read list. This post covers what I am currently working on. Now I can see why I have not had time to do any of the other things in my list to do's. Anyway, I am going to bed, I am feeling super buzzed because I tried this new Florida IPA called Swamp Ape, this thing packs a punch, and my light weight body can't handle it. So, that's it for now. Be good to each other people.


J.V.