And I've got a coat tail left to ride:.

If everything goes as planned this semester I'll be graduating from my master's degree. To be honest, I liked the whole idea of being back at school, and having academic challenges. In some aspects, it's less demanding than being in a work environment, but the advantage is that you've got plenty of time to specialize on the things that you find particularly interesting, even if they're not business wise. Research for the joy of research!!:.

Now the question is, what's next?. As Morpheus said, everything begins with choice, and right now the options are pursuing a PhD or going back to the industry. To be honest, there's one more variable, to stay in Mexico or to look for opportunities abroad. I haven't decided anything yet, but neither did Neo till the end of the movie =):.

Although my heart's in Mexico,
my muñequita,
abre tus ojos!

By withstanding the indifference:.

Back when I worked in QuarkSoft I could afford two hours for meal, those were good times!. Anyway, a couple of friends and I used to have meal in just one hour so we could go to a nearby place to play Call of Duty 2!!, that was real life!!. After an hour of killing each other we would come back to work with renewed energy, which in the end was a good thing for the company. They wouldn't let us play in work hours, but one day we asked permission to use the work computers for a so-called night of blood and war, where we could play Call of Duty on a Friday's night. It was a huge success!!:.

Well, tomorrow I'll be attending a new edition of the night of blood and war, with two original members of the very first one. They have they're own company now, and best of all, they recognize the value of letting your employees relief stress by killing everyone else in a harmless videogame:...I can feel the adrenaline already!!:.

The loneliest people,
Were the ones who always spoke the truth,
The ones who made a difference.

Y así ha sido toda la vida:.

This time of the year is perfect to make an analysis of what we've done so far, and also to laugh and learn from our errors. For instance, two years ago I came back to Mexico for Christmas and I was supposed to go back to Barcelona on January 1st, the problem was that on the the eve of New Year's dinner I lost my wallet, with my work permit in it. This was pretty bad because the airline asks for it before letting you get into the plane!!, so I ended up celebrating new year's on the police station, asking for some paper to prove that I had lost that other damn paper...worst night ever!!:..the good part was that a couple hours before I went to the airport, someone found my documents, not the wallet but the documents, phoned my sister and made my day!!:..

Las promesas están donde te las dejé,
pero hoy no puedo volver a lo que antes fue.

The ideal architect:.

The ideal architect should be a man of letters, a skillful draftsman, a mathematician, familiar with historical studies, a diligent student of philosophy, acquainted with music, not ignorant of medicine, learned in the responses of jurisconsults, familiar with astronomy and astronomical calculations.

Vitruvius, De Architectura (25 BC)

Is this the kind of life you want?:.

In this age of programmers' underestimation and slavery it's good to see that some people are actually doing something to change this. Recently I've been in touch with some members of a little company named IluminaTI, TI standing for Technology Innovation, whose purpose is not to exploit it's members but rather acknowledge their value. Some might say that traditional companies state the same in their missions, but in reality for most of them we're just a thing, not a being. If I were not about to start a full-time master degree, I would definitely work with them!!:.

This new way of thinking has gained momentum thanks to companies like Google, and smaller ones like Fog Creek. It's great to see it can be successfully applied here in Mexico:.

Do we ever try?
We're keeping it automatic
I'll be listening until you fade.

Exsonvaldes

Was the be all and end all:.

I'm finally back to freedom!!. Today I went back to the office to give them back the computer and all that, I signed the renounce papers and also told them about the things they can improve, the motivations for my decision and I think it all went right, without bad feelings or anything like that. I'm glad for the way things worked out, now I'm ready to move on:.

I almost forgot, I'm Spotify-enabled again, awesome!!:.

I had seen, I had touched,
I had tasted and I truly believed

Sleight of hand and twist of fate:.

This I had posted before, but it's perfect for the occasion:.




See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

U2

Common passed on this beat:.

I've communicated my renounce, and now it's just a matter of time before I'm free again!!:.

Last week's traffic was nothing compared to what I've suffered these days, I mean, three hours stuck in traffic is not only insane, it's heartless. But at least I try to read some books during the journey. Now I'm reading about Calculus, though I have to admit that the approach used to explain the concepts is not very appealing to me, talking about economics, human resources and stuff like that. This is because this is one of my sister's books, but it's OK as long as you remember that this is just another way to see the world!!:.

Now everything I'm not, made me everything I am.
damn, here we go again.

And I tell you it don't mean jack:.

Good day at the amazing Texcoco, though there's no much you can do outside I really enjoyed hanging around with my family. Today we even tried some of that english tea that I brought home, and to our delight it was really good!!:.

Today I was also supposed to start working again, but because of the influenza paranoia I'll have to postpone that till May 5th, well, at least I had the chance to see where I'll be working, and all I can say is that it's really far from my house, I can only imagine the mess it will be around that area once the traffic is back to the apocalyptic Mexico city!!:..

At worst I feel bad for a while
But then I just smile
I go ahead and smile

Quizá no fue coincidencia encontrarme contigo:.

There are days when things don't go out the way you expected, and today was one of those for me. First of all the Red Ring of Dead made it's way to my loyal Xbox, and as today I have a useless piece of Microsoft hardware!!.

I was preparing for some good vacations back home, but then someone at everis phoned me to tell me I was expected at some Telefonica project several days ago, say that again!!, and so I had to phone the project manager and ask him what was I expected to do. As a result of this I'll have to go to the Santa Fe zone next Thursday. It's good because I'll have the chance to keep improving my programming skills, but I'll warn them that I'm not eager to be exploited in any way the consultancy world is used to:.

I was looking forward to watch the Barcelona-Chelsea match, but it wasn't aired on public TV...and what's more, they didn't win and Rafa Márquez will surely miss what's left of this season:..

Esa sonrisa traviesa que vive conmigo,
se que pronto estaré en tu camino.

The birth and death:.

Well, the influenza paranoia is at its maximum, and because of that I won't go back to work till May 6th!!. A good chance to focus on my exam preparation, just let us hope I won't get infected, though truth be told I don't really think the situation is as bad as the media says it is, there's something else going on though:.

The best replacement for Spotify is definitely 'imeem'. Though it's more in the style of last.fm, here you can create and share playlists, listen to songs you've heard previously, there are no time restrictions and the catalogue is huge, really huge!!, finding some jewels that would otherwise be very difficult to listen to:..long life to imeem!!:.

Great weekend with my family and colleagues. It was really nice meeting again with some of my high school friends, it's been more than seven years since we left school and we still hang around from time to time, I'm glad for that!!:..

of the day.

A mi lista de obsesiones:.

It's official, I'm doing nonsense at work:...some HR stuff, but the good part is that it gives me time to prepare for the exams to come.

Today it was all about Statistics, using the superb book from the Head First Collection. Amazing how you understand things that as a young student you thought to be utterly complicated, but then again, it's all about the approach you take to see the logic and beauty within:.

I don't have complete freedom to surf the web at work, so I had to use myspace.com to listen to good music throughout the day, an excellent alternative by the way!!:...talking about myspace.com, try and find some time to listen to these two bands, the best you'll hear in a long time, trust me...

• MONO


• Explosions in the Sky

Pero el mío es raro
y aunque esté desordenado
es impermeable al dolor.

Against your rules, against your skin:.

So far I haven't liked my job, well as a matter of fact I hadn't have any job at all!!:..it's simply not my style, anyway I'm getting ready for the master's exam, which is one of the reasons I came back, not to be fooling around with this consultancy world!!:.

And you said
It was like fire around the brim
Burning solid,
Burning thin the burning rim

I did before and had my share, it didn't lead nowhere:.

Well, it seems I'll be getting more vacations than I first thought and it won't be till next week that I'll go back to work....I don't really liked that, specially not the way the company acted in this whole thing, but they're in the consulting business, it's in their nature to act this way:...I should really move on before I start acting like one of them!!:.

Today I started playing with Google's App Engine support for Java, and I have to admit that it's a really interesting idea, to leverage your server environment to this enormous architecture and care about what you know best, the code:..but then again, concerns are raised as google apparently defies standard-compliance and support for an open environment. It's a recurring problem, big companies trying to redefine standards to suit their needs, but no one should ever forget that if Java has made it this far it's due to community support, a compatibility-standard-loving community (to some extend) by the way!!:.

If I told you things I did before, told you how I used to be
Would you go along with someone like me?
If you knew my story word for word, had all of my history
Would you go along with someone like me?

Just like you said it would be:.

Well, tomorrow I'll start working again, I'll do my best but I'm skeptical about consulting firms in general, nonetheless it's a good chance to improve my programming skills!!:.

And now a piece of the amazing Concierto encanto, by Pau de Nut:.



And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky

Damien Rice