Things have been kinda rough the last week or so. Today a friend of mine noticed I have a lump on my neck... BLARGGGG!!
... glad to be going home this week, though :) Read More...
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Like you'll never see me again
It may be cliché, but it usually takes something drastic for us to change.
Today, one of my friends died. Just like that.
He was running a half marathon and sometime near the end, his heart gave out.
It's also cliché to say (or pretend) that you're living life to the fullest or like it's the last day of your life when you actually expect to have another day to continue. Another day to finish what you started. Another day to tell someone you love them for the first time, or remind someone that you do. We need to do it at least every now and then.
[Alicia Keys - Like you'll never see me again.]
If I had no more time
No more time left to be here
Would you cherish what we had?
Was it everything that you were looking for?
If I couldn't feel your touch
And no longer were you with me
I'd be wishing you were here
To be everything that I'd be looking for
I don't wanna forget the present is a gift
And I don't wanna take for granted the time you may have here with me
'Cause Lord only knows another day is not really guaranteed
So every time you hold me
Hold me like this is the last time
Every time you kiss me
Kiss me like you'll never see me again
Every time you touch me
Touch me like this is the last time
Promise that you'll love me
Love me like you'll never see me again
Read More...
quotes + change
cleaning up my profile, I'm posting my old quotes. It feels like an appropriate time to do some re-adjusting, re-evaluating, re-tweaking.
"There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.
- I just called my dad (in Pakistan) and after the election, no more death to America!
- Everyone shut up! I'm calling CNN
- I thought all your parties were drunken orgies
- They can't all be perfect
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
- My family did not escape communist China so that I would end up living in a quad
I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written word, especially if I have to say something about myself or my work... Whoever wants to know something about me - as an artist, the only notable thing - ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do.
Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.
Cuando deseas algo con todo el corazón, todo el Universo conspira para que realices tu deseo.
-- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist"
Read More...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
++
"there is only one thing you can do
when women get hysterical.
run.
as hard as you can."
~Leandro
I had only just realized that I haven't updated the blog with anything of substance - or anything for that matter. Time seems to fly by... And now I have less than a month in Europe and still feel like I have so much more to do. Fortunately, I'll be leaving on my "big" trip this weekend - Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Rome. Should be fun, hehe.
This will also be the first trip I make on my own - up until now I've always been with friends from school (which has been awesome), but we've all gotta travel our own paths and I suppose it's time for me to go my own way - though fortunately I'll be staying with a friend in Paris and in Amsterdam I'll be staying with a cousin I haven't seen in over 9 years!
One of the best things I've found through travelling is the amazing array of people and stories. I've been in a writing mood and written a bit about it, but I need to polish it, it's not ready for prime time yet. I need to get ready for prime time, particularly since in the last phase of my internship I'll be writing a research paper that my boss wants to get published... It's a daunting task - I've never written anything as long or complex (unless you count my personal writing, but that's different...)
Anyhow, I've taken a long enough break already. Time to get more San Sebastian sand out of my computer and get back to writing. Then again, I'm not sure I'll be getting back to writing... a wise man once said, "I'm not a writer, I'm a re-writer". I can identify with that.
[Gym Class Heroes - 7th Period: 7 Weeks]
Monday, June 30, 2008
thank you
If you know me well enough, you know that I can at times hyperfocus on something and forget everything else around me. That can be a handy skill when studying, playing music, creating something, or getting things done at work.
Unfortunately, it's not such a useful quality when you're rushing to get out of the bus to get to work and you end up forgetting your camera in the bus and then chase it down Terminator-2 style until the next stop a few blocks down the road... I wouldn't recommend it, but it's a good warmup and it really gets the adrenaline going...
When I caught up with the bus, a fine Spanish gentleman came down from the bus smiling. He must have seen me running after the bus, realized what had happened and saw the camera and handed it to me.
He or someone else in the bus could have easily just taken it and I would have never known who did it.
I like it when my faith in humanity is restored or reinforced.
Thank you good, honest people of the world.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
just a thought (David McCullough)
I can fairly be called an amateur because I do what I do, in the original sense of the word--for love, because I love it. On the other hand, I think that those of us who make our living writing history can also be called true professionals.
Read More...time is relative
I was taking a break from work and sorting blogs I used to frequent to see if anything relevant's been going on and re-found the golden nugget that is stuff white people like.
Being in Spain has warped my sense of time a bit. This is a country where time is often a very subjective matter given that siesta time is from 2-ish to 5-ish depending on the store, and most stores open at 9am-ish and bars and other places close at 4am-ish or whenever people get tired and want to go home (6am-ish). Needless to say, when I go back to the states I'll take some time to adapt to going out at 10pm instead of midnight, and bars and clubs closing at 2am as opposed to 4am or 6am...
Anyhow, bigger chain stores and franchises stick to scheduled and posted times much like their counterparts in the States, but smaller shops are a very different ball game. What's surprised me a bit is that it sometimes extends to business. For example, I've been to a few meetings and seminars and other functions where people arrive on time, but things get started 5 to 10-ish minutes after the hour and people use that time to chat and mingle until things get started. In a sense, it reminds me of MIT, where we start classes 5 mins after the hour and end them 5 mins before the hour. The one exception I've found to the 10 minute-ish rule are meetings with executives from other companies... perhaps it's the fact that things are more formal when several executives are involved as opposed to meetings within the company.
With this difference in time perception and cultures in mind, I found a particular entry that made me laugh. A lot.
White people love: Being Excessively Early For Events, Classes, Meetings, Work, Parties, Etc
White people will frequently show up to various events 15- 35 minutes early for no reason at all. A favorite quote used to explain this phenomenon is “Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable”. What this means and why they live by this quote no one really knows, but it is a mantra that white people frequently recite to themselves every morning, as means or ensuring their timeliness to whatever function, they will be attending.
There is only one exception to this rule, which is when there is a limited supply of something that is deemed ultra-important by the white community, such as concert tickets, computers or other sale electronics, or reality television spots. White people may show up, 8- 24 hours early, instead of the normal 15-35 minutes, for these special cases, even if it means sleeping on the street in middle of winter (which is also referred to as camping) and foregoing “non-essential” things such as showering, brushing your teeth, and even eating...
Monday, June 23, 2008
Barça
This weekend at Barça was pretty sweet. I finally got a tan, got to see La Sagrada Familia - one of the most impressive and beautiful buidlings I have ever seen - and got to hang out with some awesome people. Unfortunately, I left the a710is (I have to come up with a name for it...) with most of the really good shots at Azadeh's place, so I'll have to wait 'til next weekend to get those but sometime this week I'll be posting pix from the sd800is.
After a 7hr+ ride, Tylor and I made it to Madrid safe and sound but the ride was a bit bumpy. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep and at some point I woke up to Tylor's head on my shoulder, I thought it was kinda weird but was too tired to care and went back to sleep, haha.
The bus station for the Barça/Madrid bus is in the same building as the bus to work, just in a different level, so we went straight to work. We made it to the office at 8am. I'm sure it's the earliest we've made it to the office and the current task is trying to stay awake and productive...
I've really become a bit of a coffee junkie since getting here and hazelnut coffee is the greatest thing ever... even if it comes out of a vending machine, haha. Or maybe it is so because it comes out of a vending machine.
Read More...
Friday, June 20, 2008
sweet setup
I'd be tempted get one of these sometime... but for now my SD800is and A710is will do, they make random snapshots more convenient :p
Anyway, off to Barcelona for the weekend!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
respect
It's no secret that I have what some may call a man-crush on Kanye West. His beats are good, his lyrics are some of the best, he's got an ego, and the fact that he's from the Chi helps too.
As a football (soccer for y'all) goal keeper, though, Gigi Buffon personifies what I want to be when I grow up.
I felt nostalgic when we played Saturday at el Retiro with some new people. It reminded me of street soccer with my cousins in the rain, soccer games during recreo, high school tryouts, penalty shootouts... I was dead tired after the game, but it reminded me of how fun it is and how much work it takes to play well. I have to emphasize playing well because what's the point of simply playing? Anyone anyone can play, but anything worth doing is worth doing right. Fortunately, I should get plenty of chances to play right around here. I watched the Italy-France match at an Italian bar and it was awesome to be surrounded by people so passionate about football again.
Sometimes, since coming to Spain a strange feeling overcomes me. Even though I'm halfway across the globe from home, I feel like it's a homecoming of sorts.
Sometimes.
[Lupe Fiasco - Hustlaz Song]
Friday, June 13, 2008
argentine haiku... or something
"you have to stop smoking.
drinking is the answer.
to all your questions."
~Leandro
argentine thoughts
One of my roomates is an Argentinian chef. He's surprisingly good at it, but English is not his forte, so he comes up with the funniest lines.
I speak spanish with him, but even then he's hilarious so I think it's more his hilarity transfering over to English...
"I'm so happy for the happiness I'm feeling"
best work email. ever. (so far)
De: RRHH [XXX@tid.es]
Enviado el: viernes, 13 de junio de 2008 12:20
Para: XXX@tid.es
Asunto: [General] JORNADA INTENSIVA
Os recordamos que el próximo 15 de junio comienza la jornada laboral de verano con los siguientes horarios:
* De lunes a viernes:
Entrada de 7:30 a 9:00 horas
Salida de 14:30 a 16:00 horas
--
We remind you that the coming June 15 marks the beginning of the summer work schedule:
*From Monday to Friday:
Enter at 7:30am to 9:00am
Leave at 2:30pm to 4:00pm
--
The schedule includes an hour for lunch.
Random (and common) coffee breaks are not included...
[The printer hum along to the sound of a thousand excel printouts]
ni modo
So after my big rant yesterday about music, today I don't have to worry about it distracting me.I forgot my headphones...
Maybe it's better this way, bye bye Beethoven.
[Listening to: Black Eyed Peas - Like that (in my head :p )]
Read More...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
perdido en translation
Coming to Spain I expected to speak Castellano (Spanish) most of the time. Since I've been hanging out with Tylor and met a lot of fellow Americans, I've ended up speaking far more English than I thought I would. On top of that, and to my surprise, most of my co-workers speak pretty decent English (for not having lived in an English speaking country) and some, like my tutor, speak it rather well. Granted, I'm working on the business side of things and English is the de-facto standard and Telefónica is a rather big multi-national enterprise so it shouldn't come as a total surprise, but the quality and quantity surprised me nonetheless.
Anyhow, since I've been reading up on papers and reports to get familiar with what's going on in the bigger picture, I've been doing all of my reading in English. I don't mind it at all and it makes sense because the papers are written in English. I like listening to music while I work, so thankfully I brought along most of my tunes in my external drive and load what I like best to my laptop at work.
This multilingual environment has become a bit more complex than I first imagined: I was reading English, listening to people's conversations in Spanish around me, listening to my music which switches randomly between English and Spanish (featuring a small selection of French, German, Italian, and Japanese), while trying to write down notes and emails in English and Spanish...
Just dealing with one language is tough enough and at times like these I understand and appreciate why multi-core is an awesome concept for computing... but then you have to worry about making sure everything else keeps up with the cpus - the bus, ram, hdd... haha, I can be such a geek.
Anyway, since Mozart's my homie, today I decided to eliminate a layer of complexity and listen to music without words. After all, my job is to optimize methods, reduce waste, and increase efficiency, haha.
I'll have to load Beethoven, Rach & Tchaikowsky for tomorrow, but at least I have Prokofiev, Chopin, and Daft Punk to accompany Mozart for today.
For now, some T-Pain will do, though.
[Currently playing: T-Pain - Bartender ft. A-kon]
Read More...
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
rest [or lack thereof]
Yesterday and today I've been feeling a bit more tired than usual. Yesterday I attributed it to the lecture on approximation methods, today... I have nothing to attribute it to - at least nothing as obvious.
Since I've arrived so much has changed that it'd be difficult to attribute it to a single thing anyway.
I was running on "MIT time" so I had a hard time going to sleep before 2-3am when I was home (Chicago), then I came over and switched time zones (+7 hrs) and didn't sleep for a day and then slept for 7 hrs and then didn't sleep for 2 days (save a nap) and then there was the weekend... maybe it's the lack of sleep catching up to me, but that's not anything I wasn't used to in school.
Now that I think about it, though, I think the biggest difference may be the food. Except for the paella we made the other night, I haven't really had a good filling meal - oh yeah, lunch at tid is pretty sweet and only 2 euros, which is dirt cheap for the quality of the food we get. Anyway, aside from the one really good meal a day, I haven't really been eating much. I also ran out of power bars (which I brought with me from the states :p ) so now I don't have my random snacks anymore. I gotta go to a supermarket and buy fruit and other random snacks and find something other than sandwiches to make on a regular basis 'cause going out all the time's gonna get unnecessarily expensive fast.
I also miss working out. I miss the gym!! I haven't been in one in... 3 weeks? Man, I feel like I'm wasting away. I mean, I've been doing pushups and all that good stuff without weights, but now I feel like I'm going through some sort of workout withdrawal. Gotta add a gym search to my to do list.
Hmm, I just rambled on a lot, but at least it means I'm not sleeping, hehe. alright, I feel a little bit more alert now, hmm, I think now I understand why people here (and in all offices, really) go on coffee breaks so often. I guess I should've had coffee instead of juice.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Back to school...
I signed up for a data mining seminar at work and to my surprise, it's actually just an implementation of 6.041 (prob + stats) so naturally I became sleepy after the first half hr of the chat, haha, j/k :p
But in all seriousness I think this is stuff I've done in a pset last term... the theory is a bit dry but rather simple, but what I like is the fact that it's being implemented , particularly the implementation for image denoising, which I find rather cool given that I'm a bit of an image junkie... LOL this guy keeps talking about matchmaking and how we haven 't made any advances on it in the last 50 years and how we could use algorithms such as his to improve on it, haha... I wonder why he's so interested on the topic :p
Friday, June 06, 2008
true friends
just came back from watching the celtics pound the lakers. it was awesome even if most ppl at the bar were rooting for la and gasol.
while there, i think i might've presenced the most touching act of friendship i can remember.
girl 1 - *points at girl 2* we gotta get her laid.
girl 3 - why?
girl 1 - she was w/ this guy for 6 years and just got out of it
girl 3 - oh, ok
would your friends go that extra mile for you? :p anyhow, what's a gentleman to do but help a damsel in distress? haha
i also just realized i might be in a room w/ nine fair ladies... spain just keeps getting better
i still need to find an appartment, though
[pix later, posting from pda]
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Faithful
I like to take Sundays to reflect on what's been going on over the weekend, re-evaluate and see where I'm at. Have I been doing what I want to do? Why have I not or how did I accomplish it? What has changed? Static goals and unwavering goals in a dynamic world don't always make sense.
But some things, some ideas, and qualities should stay the same. In an ever changing world, maybe it's these unchanging qualities (or those that change ever so slowly) that are the essence of ourselves.
I like this song a lot... and now I've realized I've been posting more about songs than pictures, probably in part because I haven't been out taking as many pictures as I would like to and have been listening to music and trying to study instead. It's alright, though, I've found a few gems.
Common - Faithful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsZdXpgifo8
"I just want to encourage each and every person that's out there to just stay faithful.
Faithful to the most high.
Faithful to yourself and what you believe in.
Faithful to your art and your culture and your people."
We all need to hear this every now and then.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
I wish you music to help with the burdens of life, and to help you release your happiness to others.
It's nice to take a step back, remember the little things, get out of a constraining mind set and look at the big picture. Right now I'm not so sure I can really do that, around this time of year everything seems so important and there are so many things going on that it can be overwhelming.
I had an interview for a job in Spain on Friday and I'm excited about possibly spending the summer there. I'd be working 6 hours days instead of the standard 8 hr days so that's a plus, hehe. The work's also interesting and will be a nice change of pace from school. But I have to get through finals, essays and the rest of this week... here's to finishing the term on a high note.
[Title borrowed from the big bee - Beethoven, video: Daft Punk - Digital Love]
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Classic
The song may have been out for a while, but it's new to me... it's also one of the best songs I've heard in a while. The original one's ok, but this mix is great... it could be because I'm a sucker for good strings, but it's still good.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Free advertising
I was watching Charlie Rose recently and noticed that he has a black eye! It's not like it's easy to miss, particularly because it's on Charlie Rose! He just strikes me as the type of guy who would get into a heated debate or discussion, but I just can't imagine how or why this man could get into a physical fight.
It turns out he decided to fall face first instead of dropping and harming his MacBook Air...
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Injury report, "Soriano scratched with fractured finger"
I was just catching up on my Cub reading and was a bit concerned about Soriano's finger fracture, but it turns out he'll be back in less than a week. In the article they also point out a few other injuries. A sore shoulder's nothing out of the ordinary, an irregular heartbeat could be some serious stuff, but being punched in the face and a twisted testicle?!
Lord help the Cubs...
[I don't think this post needs a picture...]
Thursday, February 28, 2008
hdtv!
I'm finally getting an antenna to watch HDTV(!!). While I was looking for info on HDTV over the air (OTA) signals, I found a sweet site that lets you know what channels are available in your area and even suggests what type of antenna you may need (though no specific vendors/brands).
AntennaWeb.
[Picture: replica of the Eiffel tower in Las Vegas. The original tower was (is?) used as a radio antenna.]
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tim!
I just found out that Tim (no. 6 in the picture), an old vball teammate, won the MIT-Lemelson prize!
Read More...
Sunday, February 24, 2008
iTunes is finally good for something.
I don't know how I hadn't heard of this song before.
"My favorite girl wanna leave me
just 'cause I got a girlfriend"
Friday, February 22, 2008
there are just no words...
I know some people are opportunistic, and that we should look at the bright side of things, but a Recession Special?
Really?! (54clothing)
funniest blog ever?
It's similar to Black people love us, but I think this one's funnier: Stuff white people like.
[<-- Mark!!]
Don't try this at home
If you know me, you know that I'm two steps away from becoming a full-blown vitamin water addict (a.k.a crack water). If you didn't know, now you do.
Although some of the flavors have a medicine-like after taste (focus, b-relaxed), some of them are awesome (power-c, energy, XXX, etc.). With that in mind, I figured I'd try the "vitamin energy" drinks, and the results aren't pretty, or, more importantly, tasty. Try some Monster with cough syrup and you'll get something close to this... At least I'm not so sleepy, but I'm not sure it's because of the energy boost, or because my taste buds are crying.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
I want those flashing lights
As it is, the video's not really impressive. But as far as I can tell it's supposed to be a multi-part video (Remember R-Kelly's "Trapped in the closet" Parts 1 through 500,000?), but we'll see. These people are assuming a multi-part video as well, but they don't list sources or anything else to back it up :-?
Man, I've been up for a long time already, but there's still plenty to do today. I guess I'll nap at some point.
Official video (can't embed it, though). Read More...
cleaning up (quotes)
Addendum:
Originally, this entry was about "cleaning up" my profile and putting up random quotes here. It seems that Google thought these were quotes about actually cleaning up, though. So I've added a few quotes about cleaning up :)
"My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance."
~ Author Unknown
"Please don't feed the dust bunnies."
~ Author Unknown
"A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"It's just music.
It's trying to play clean
and looking for the pretty notes."
~ Charlie Parker
"Housework is something you do that nobody notices until you don't do it."
~ Author Unknown
"One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop."
~ G.M. Weilacher
"Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy."
~ Author Unknown
“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing”
~ Phyllis Diller
"Black is practical. It always looks clean and fairly neat.
It's certainly simple.
It's cool.
It also makes you look thinner."
~ Christopher Walken
“He who wants to change the world should already begin by cleaning the dishes.”
~ Paul Carvel
“The gift of the... novelist is to turn the cleaning of a closet into an inventory of love and loss.”
~ Marilyn Gardner
"I always clean before the cleaning lady comes. If not, when I come home, I can't find anything. Cleaning ladies are always hiding things you leave out."
~ Celia Cruz
"If you want to have clean ideas, change them as often as your shirt."
Francis Picabia
---
Original post:
My (facebook) profile's getting cluttered, so while I narrow down my "favorite" quotes, here's what I have now (for posterity's sake):
There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.
You just gotta make sure, whatever you do, that you're using the money to chase the art, not the art to chase the money.
Today is tomorrow's yesterday, so if you’re putting it off till tomorrow, then why not do it today? For then you will have done your deed yesterday and you will have today free.
-- Edward Coley, Photographer 1980
Q. I tried spraying my pants with Febreze... but the smell always comes back. What should I do?
A. ... I read that Febreze is rumored to be harmful to pets. The rumor may be unfounded, but if your pants are toxic to your pet, what are they doing to your ass?
Los Goles se hacen, no se merecen.
(Goals are made, they are not deserved.)
-- Football Axiom
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather, the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
"Cuando deseas algo con todo el corazón, todo el Universo conspira para que realices tu deseo."
-- Paulo Coelho
"With Great Power comes Great Responsibility"
-- Spiderman's Uncle (Uncle Ben)
"To play [music] without passion is inexcusable!"
-- Beethoven
Kyle: Aren't weekends just the best?
Kenny: When you're unemployed, weekends are meaningless.
Kyle: Right, right...
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
Too early...
Just a few minutes ago, before I hit snooze for the 4th time, I thought of an amazing idea for a new post. Now, I have no idea what it was. Maybe that's a good thing since really bad ideas sometimes sound good when you're sleep-deprived. At the same time, I can't help but wonder, what if I just forgot the greatest idea I've had (for blogging, at least)?
Here's to hoping laundry might get my creative juices going. The nice thing about being up this early is that no sane person does laundry at this time of the day.
Oh yeah! I got my tickets through UPS yesterday!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Lunar Eclipse!
Tonight's lunar eclipse will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2010, so check it out:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Pro Nails
Lately I've felt that I haven't heard anything new or good for a while. So I recorded some music vids from mtv2 (thank you Vista Media Center) to see if there's anything or anyone worth checking out. Not surprisingly, most of the "songs" were not what I was looking for, but I found a gem:
I thought that by now the worm and the moonwalk would have lost their "woah" effect, but seeing the finger-worm and finger-moonwalk is very... different, heheh. This is probably the first song I've heard about getting your nails done, and, all things considered, it's not so bad - way better than glorifying booze and 22's.
It's also the funniest music video I've seen in a long time - at least as far as commercial music videos go, 'cause Peanut-Butter-Jelly time, in its many incarnations, still tickles me in an indescribable way...
Read More...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
