El Sol me Llama

De verdad que ha sido dificil imaginar el frío y la lluvia que azota a Boston mientras hemos disfrutado de días de ensueño aquí en Annapolis. Mi creatividad se ha recargado y he podido pasar el rato con mis chicos y mi esposa en un descanso bien necesitado y diré yo mismo, merecido.

Hoy, la tecnología reemplaza a mi máquina de escribir Royal quién fuera compañera de mi imaginación durante tantos años… Aquí con una laptop me siento en el sol sin preocuparme de los papeles voladores, desgusto un café, miro a los pajaros retozando en los cielos y me pregunto cuál será mi futuro en los próximos meses. Siempre he sido muy aceptador de los que el camino me traiga y no me quejo del que trazado, pero ahora he puesto más empeño en labrar mi destino con miras a los años que me quedan antes de retiro. Hay que dejarse de jugar, de soberbia y realmente sacar relucir las armas que tengo.

Veremos en dónde aterrizaré, sé a ciencia cierta que mi estada en Boston es temporal, que realmente no hace falta aguantar frío y un clima caprichoso que se ceba en los huesos de uno. Adoro el Norte, pero de repente un ajuste hacia el sur no nos haría mal a todos…

Vacaciones – Por Fin

Y aqui estoy escribiendo sandeces en mi blog. Es dificil describir mi estado de animo – hy tantas cosas que quisiera hacer hoy, pero se que solo lograremos algunas. Nos encontramos en Annapolis. Hoy espero ir a la Academia Naval a mirar el lugar en donde potencialmente ira mi hijo mayor a estudiar. Me encanta ver la emocion que el siente de estar aqui en esta bella ciudad.

Ilancito esta tratando de aprender a caminar, y se agarra de lo que sea para caminar por la casa. Ya pronto lo veremos en accion. Es un nene muy alegre, y quisiera que su madre le diera mas atencion. Son muchos los errores que se cometen en la vida.. Yo se que tambien he sido culpable de no pasar tiempo con mis hijos, por lo que me alegra pasar esta semana con ellos! Anoche salimos a caminar y realmente me senti bien con mis dos muchachones yendo al muelle a escuchar musica improvisada, comer helados…y simplemente disfrutar la noche veraniega…

Food: Portion Distortion and how America Dies on Dunkin Donuts

I read a disturbing leaflet at my gym concerning the fastfood industry practice of manipulating portions. Truth is, I see these games at the supermarket with weights (if the per roll price is too steep they change to per 100 on paper, per LB might change to per 100 gr)… In this case I went to the McDonald’s website to get some digits on a typical value meal…

Quarter Pounder With Fries: The QP is 4 oz by itself – The website reports that a serving is 6 oz with all the goop: 410 calories, the fries are another 380 calories, 210 calories for a regular Coke…all this Medium and taken from their website which contains a very good section on putting together your meals (regardless of quality) – they are disclosing what you are stuffing. It is up to you to deal with it, I am still not convinced they are presenting totals as opposed to portion totals (a smaller amount equal to 1/4th of what you are actuall eating). Okay, so 1000 calories without a refill on the Coke… Keep that number in mind and lets go back to breakfast with Dunkin Donuts: Using their website I found…

Supreme Omelet on a Croissant: 530 calories with a whopping 300 from fat! (blame the Croissant on this one…)

Say you are not as fond of eggs as I am – 380 calories on a Sesame Bagel with a sensible 70 cal from fat (15-25% of your total), slap on some cream cheese and you end at 570 calories!!!!

You need to wash it down with something, how about Coffee? Only 15 cals if you can do D&D coffee with out sugar, but if you are like most of us, some cream and sugar is in order: 120 cals!!! that is for a tiny 10 oz cup, so say 150 for the 12 ouncer, you are now at 720 cal for breakfast and hit 1720 by 1 o clock…

A 25 year old Man, 5′8 and 180 lb would only need 2500 cal daily to sustain a healthy diet (source: healthychoice.com), a Woman, 2100 cal… So going home and having some dinner (assuming you work all day)…  say a nice salmon fillet with rice would only set you back at around 300 cals and guess what, you  ended at the mark. The problem is that people seldom adhere to 3 meals through out the day… I am no expert, but if you hit the coffee twice at the office, you added 300 cal to the total. Get another Coke instead of water things add up more. A quick energy bar can be 200 cals… So, do we blame the supplier? Do we blame individuals for not taking responsibility and learning more about what to eat instead of following the cars to the take out window?

I am going to expand on this section – I need to find out totals on typical Latin American breakfasts… I suspect the total will be less than the D&D options…

Therapist

Disturbing that the word can be read as The Rapist. Any more out there?

Are You a Reaper?

My wife works in a large company… and as you well know many of these companies have been forced to scale down on the amount of staff in their offices. While many people will focus on logos when they hear of a lay-off… have you ever given thought that there are people that are given the unenviable task of delivering the bad news to the employees at a given unit. So upon hearing that “the Reaper” had visited my wife
s office I could not help but shudder thinking what a crappy task that is. I have laid off people, yet it was through the course of normal business. People saw me everyday and having meetings with me was not an uncommon thing. But when a specific person that never interacts with you shows up and leads five people out of the office with a couple of security guards…. that gets you noticed – thus the moniker, that while not too creative, designates the way she will now be perceived from here on. Her arrival this week created tension, tears and of course thoughts of her last visit. This time she took care of one person… not without causing a great amount of emotional devastation to those remaining.

In a way, it is like being in a cage…awaiting to be the next chicken cast into a boiling pot. A bad feeling for an employee – yet have you given thought that perhaps the Reaper has her own feelings, did not go to college just to fire and lay people off. Human Resources is about so much more, so it is sad that in these days some HR staffers are viewed as messengers of doom and death.

Part of this is the cowardice of corporate executives to take this task upon themselves – i.e. sit down with employees and give them the news personally.

When I was laid off two years ago, my boss sat down with me in a one on one meeting. It was shocking, yet I got it, it was not easy for him – and it has never been easy for me to lay off people, but I would not delegate the “dirty deed” to HR just out of respect to those I have lead.

If you are a Reaper, remember the feelings of the people that have formed a bond with you. Respect their reactions and offer your support. None of this should violate mandates to avoid lawsuits, etc. It should affirm your place in this World as a Human, not a messenger of death.

Chavez Anuncia Nuevo Orden

Y porque esto siquiera califico como noticia? Es triste que la gente escuche lo que este bribon tenga por decir. Es un delincuente que habla como si estuviera sentado en una mesa jugando domino, medio borracho.

Boost Mobile and its last ditch effort

Moribund Boost Mobile is trying to catch some market share by throwing a Hail Mary without any receivers. The Irvine based MVNO (that means they do not own their own network, rather they use Sprints old iDEN network). If you remember how bad iDEN was during the Nextel days and then how it died out with Sprint’s engineers hammering nails into the towers, then you know that the $50 dollars is not buying you much.

The intent is to be disruptive, sabotaging MetroPCS’ impending launch in Boston and New York, something that is already starting a huge buzz as signs and banners are popping up in these metro areas. Both Boost and TMobile will start to engage in lies and create myths about MetroPCS in desperation to keep their shrinking customer base.

As a customer you should question why they are not using the CDMA network? Why is Boost even around? MetroPCS has a JD Power award for customer service, Boost?

MetroPCS, according to engineers in the know is building a large network, a network that will catch the old, rickety iDEN bound Boost with its pants down.

High Cost Domestic Cars Must End

They cite National Security as a reason to save the big three. Leftists denounce Republicans for NOT saving Capitalists… topsy Turvy, Cambalache!!!! Craziness… Passenger cars can be built by the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Germans, Swedes… I do not care. Quality, a good price is what I need. National Security? Let GM build the Humvees that get blown up because the lack bottom armor. No big deal, specialize, I said it before. It is a good thing. I will not pay for UAW bloated hourly wages just so they can keep these jobs. Efficiency will bring better cars.

Why do we not have Green Cars? Why? Is it just the stupid ass executives fault? American Motors died owing to worker intransigence, will it happen again? Will it be the Tri-fecta?

Pocky-Stan Still Needs To Deliver

So Pakistanis have delivered some middle level combatant from the Lakshar Ola Homicidal group that massacred hundreds of innocents in Mumbai but really failed to anything else. The fact that Pakistan has nuclear capability is already an issue. They have been openly duplicitous on the Afghani border. If you really focus and think about it, Pakistan is a double agent working with the US. The Indians have every right to mistrust them – they are not going to get rid of A-Qaeda or Lakshar or any other militant groups anytime soon. It is apparent that the  Pakistani officials and military are beholden monetarily to terrorist interests.

I certainly hope that the fire they play with will burn them. And then that they burn in hell (or what ever version they might believe in or should choose to believe in).

Illinois – Land of Lincoln or Land of Corruption?

Arrogant, Stupid, Pitiful, Bad Haircut – Governor Rod Blagojevich has shown what many of his fellow Illini pols are made of. The FBI officer made a comment about IL being if not the most corrupt state in the Union, a strong competitor.

Why did it take so long to clean up? Why are there others he is aware of? (arrest them!) How many more scandals can we expect Mr. FBI?

First ex-Governor Spitzer and now this clown. Arrogant (oh, I said that) and vindictive. This man will go down in history with many epithets, his greed and drunken ambition did him in. Perhaps he thought he was above wire taps and other crude surveillance techniques? Selling a Senate seat…. just begs to ask: How many have been bought?

Will Caroline Kennedy be given Hillary’s seat just because? How is she more qualified than Fran Drescher? Really, she is just a Kennedy, many of them drunkards, philanderers and some great statesmen. Is she buying the seat?

Time to clean up America my friends. These guys belong in Venezuela as supporters of the Chavez regime along with mediocrity abettors Sean Penn and Danny Glover. Perhaps banishment to Cuba for corrupt pols is a better punishment. Screw them all.