Personal

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009

2008

So, it's goodbye 2008. Hello 2009.

You know there is no actual difference between one year and another. Time knows not such boundaries. It is only our small brain that needs delimitation. Tricks that let us cope.

Looking back at the last post I made in 2007 I could foresee how 2008 would turn up. And 2008 was a great year for me. I almost feel ashamed for saying that. What with most people, my country, the U.S.A and the rest of the world seem to be slip-sliding into hard, very hard, times.

Last year I got back on my feet in terms of health and finances. I had no big health problems and took better care of myself. The money poured in and I started pampering myself. I practically spoiled myself rotten! I bought a new car, a new computer. I even gave in to the big corporate machines and bought an iPhone, and an XBox!

2008 was so good I even... (dare I say it?) made some friends!

m.p.: My XBox Live Gamertag is afreytes add me NAO!

The year wasn't without trouble. Though it's the sort that I tend not to discuss too much on the blog. Suffice it to say, that I started to do things in a different way. I took the path less traveled by; though where that may lead me I still don't know yet. (Yes, I know it sounds gay but I'm not that desperate yet! Hahahaha!)

2009 on the other hand...

2009 is a big, BIG, question mark. I'm not confident enough to predict what's going to happen this year.

What I do know is that I want to take even better care of my health. For that I need to lose a few pounds. And to do that I need to start exercising. Yup, I've just set myself up for failure.

Another thing I really, really, want to do is travel. There's half a hackneyed plan to go to PAX2009 so I might just do that. If that doesn't fall through then it's Canada. I really need to get off this island and see someplace different. I will either not want to come back ever again, or start to really appreciate what I've grown up with.

Third thing, I need to dilucidate about my work conditions. I'm a consultant for a an insurance company and I may be offered a regular job position sometime this year. However, with the current economic conditions, the job offer may not be as sweet as I would hope for. If I refuse the offer I may be asked to leave for good (I know it doesn't make sense, but that's the way things happen where I work). If that happens I'm pretty sure I will have to start looking overseas for a job that pays as good as the one I currently have.

Well, there is one thing I'm pretty sure of.

2009 will be a very interesting year...

the information soldier comes back in 2009!

Lost In Translation

Internal... Joke?

Photo_090408_003
System... slow?
Communication... good?
Hard... coded?
Data... loss? (Data very very lost!)
Administration... stupid?
Migration... bad?
Documentation... exists?
Self... validation?
Exception... handling?
Knowledge... transfer?
Copy... paste?
Project... plan?
Access... denied?
Backup... procedures?
Database... rebuilding?
Application... security?

I Feel Like Destroying Something Beautiful

Destroy

Narrator: I felt like putting a bullet between
the eyes of every panda that wouldn't screw to save its species.

Narrator: I wanted to open the dump valves
on oil tankers and smother all those French beaches
I'd never see.

Narrator: I wanted to breathe smoke.

Tyler: Where did you go, psycho boy?

Narrator: I felt like destroying something beautiful.

I Fall Apart

This is me, This is me. What do you see?
This is me, falling apart...
This is me, thinking of you
Wishing that you, wanted me too
But it doesn't happen, I don't want it to happen
Because in the end,
I fall apart

This is me, This is me, telling the truth
Like I always do, like I always do
This is me, telling you secrets
The ones that I swore, I wouldn't reveal
I know, I know, that I'm a bad man
Because in the end,
I fall apart

I try, I try, I'm trying so hard
To live, to work, to grow in your mind
I wonder, I wonder if it doesn't matter
If the stars in the sky, really do happen
We live, we love, we touch one another
But what will we do,
when all falls apart?

I tell myself, I must be better for you
But someway, somehow,
I keep getting worse off.
Remember, remember, remember the pieces?
The ones that I told belonged just to you
I don't know where they are
But I know you don't have them
Because in the end...

I fell apart

Things I Write On GTalk

I've been developing quite a few friendships using Google's instant messaging program GTalk. Conversations range from the technical to the trivial, from the sublime all the way into the nasty.

I would like to put up here some of the stuff I say privately hoping that some of you may appreciate it.

Of course, the identity and responses of my interlocutors will remain private (unless they choose to reveal it in the comments) and I hope they forgive my copypasta... (http://www.urbandictionary.com is a wonderful thing, use it!)

If you want to talk to me through GTalk, you can do so through Gmail Chat or downloading and installing the full GTalk program (http://www.google.com/talk/), it's all free. Once you got the app or the GMail account search for an option that says "Add Contact" or just "Add" and put my address in it afreytes [at] gmail [dot] com

Without further ado, I leave you with the following:

Reading your message about Lilo & Stitch made me remember something:

When I was a teen I didn't always want to be home because my father was an alcoholic. He wasn't physically violent but he was mentally abusive with everyone in the house.

Anyway, when ever I didn't want to go home right away I went a couple of houses down to the house of my sister's godfather...

They took me in like any other family member, gave me food and advice... And my sister's godfather taught me how to play "oriental" Dominoes... For years I spent countless nights playing that, and he was a master of it!

From this big crotchety chair he would trounce us all!

He died years later... But in my teen mind I guess I didn't feel the loss at all... Until some months later "madrina" (his wife) pointed to my sister's godfather's chair and told me to pick the chair up "Put it round back, where I won't see it."

So I did, I picked it up and went around the back of the house... And when I put it down I felt it... All the loss and sorrow that I could not identify before, that I wasn't mature enough to recognize... And when I put it down I felt weak and had to grasp the arms of the chair so as not to fall down into it...

My vision was blurred

It was the second time I ever cried for a dead person...

I know it's not a feel good story, Im sorry. But I'll try to make up for it in a few seconds

You see... even though we may miss people and family they are always with us if we honor their memory... I really believe in this even though I am not a religious person...

Just take into your heart the good things you have learned from them... and in your situation... I think you will do well to remember that even though you are leaving... I am sure they will be there for you when you need it...

That is all...

No Puedo Dormir

Aníbal Vega Borges Dirige El Transito

No puedo dormir...

No hay nadie a quien molestar en el twitter. El GTalk esta desolado y el Skype... El Skype me ha fallado desde el principio. Entonces facebook, que se ve muy bonito pero tiene la mente cerrada, solo sirve para ver como mis antiguos compañeros de escuela se ven igual de feos que yo... Ahh, time! The great equalizer!

Me puse a entretener el cerebro sacando cuentas. Del tiempo que gasto a diario trabajando, y como voy a cambiar eso esta semana ya que el jefe está molesto por que los consultores están llegando tarde. Nada, que el regaño al fin y al cabo redundará en gastar una hora más en tapones al día... Y una hora menos en el trabajo.

No entiendo porque alguien preferiría que sus empleados lleguen quince minutos más temprano y que trabajen una hora menos al día. Pero bueno, en la vida no todo es lógico.

No, me equivoco. En la vida muy pocas cosas son lógicas.

Ya mismo tendré que salir al tapón diario, y gracias al jefe, experimentar todavía más de esa peregrinación especial por las calles de Puerto Rico. Hay personas que me dicen que en otros países guían peor que aquí. Ninguna de esas personas lleva diez años guiando de Toa Alta a San Juan...

Es que al igual que mi casa, donde las sillas y sillones no son para sentarse, en Puerto Rico las carreteras y los expresos no son para los autos móviles.

Donde no hay hoyos inmensos, hay reductores de velocidad que retarían a cualquier atleta olímpico. En temporada de escuela los padres sobre protectores ponen a sus hijos en peligro parándose abruptamente en medio de la calle. Los chamacos y nenitas, por aquello de que nadie puede hacerles daño, se tiran a cruzar las calles sin mirar. Mis preferidos son los tumultos de madres que no trabajan y se quedan frente a la escuela bochinchando, pero igual ocupando el espacio por donde se supone vayan los autos. Mas adelante otro tumulto, esta vez de trabajadores que están ligando a las susodichas madres. Hombres burdos y de cuerpos anchos que tienen una palabra soez rápida en la boca, a veces me gustaría saber que es lo que comen. Y que hay de esos policías; uniformados que de muy mala manera aspiran a dirigir el transito? Así como los policías aspiran a dirigir, hay otros que aspiran a moverse siguiera: Algunos porque el auto está tan viejo que a duras penas puede moverse; otros porque ellos mismos están tan viejos que a duras penas pueden ver lo que está pasando en la carretera. Si, lo sé. Algún día me convertiré en uno de esos viejolos en un carro destartalado. Pero por lo pronto, no me quedo yo libre de pecado, soy uno de esos "conductores agresivos" de esos que guían rápido y hacen cortes de pastelillo... I don't like it; any more than you men...

Que no daría yo por un teletransportador de esos de Star Trek que me enviara inmediatamente al trabajo y por la noche a la vuelta!

Pero no. Hay que joderse para llegar al trabajo. Y hoy tendré que joderme una hora completa más. Y todo para llegar quince minutos mas temprano...

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