That is what it felt like this morning trying to drive in the freezing rain. I have only experienced this kind of driving a couple of times and it is quite scary. Midway to work and almost 1 hour of driving a route that takes most days 20 minutes we headed back home and I decided to telecomute. Be safe out there.
I am not sure why, but besides a couple of post on phishing and password security I have never really gotten into posting technology related stuff. However, I like this product that is about to come out quite a bit.
It’s the new Optimus keyboard, a fully programmable keyboard that has many applications. It will be awesome for gaming, but also Photoshop or any other programs that use shortcut keys. I can finally program Spanish letters to the keyboard, so that I don’t have to type 4 keystrokes just to get a ñ. The language applications are very impressive, just think of what it could mean to a language major or a translator. I think it will also really help people that use multiple software packages and do not memorize the keyboard layout for shortcuts. Let me know if you think is cool or not.
Michael announced yesterday that this week is National De-Lurker Week. It is kind of midweek now, but what the heck… Post a comment people! or use the places in the website like the Guestbook and the GuestMap.
Spanish – Español
Michael me dijo ayer que esta semana es National De-Lurker Week(Semana Nacional de sacar a los que se esconden y no dejan comentarios). Ya estamos a mitad de semana, pero no importa… Digan algo, comenten! o usen uno de los lugares en el sitio como el Guestbook (Libro de entradas) o el Mapguest. (Mapita de entradas).
Michael tagged me for the latest and greatest meme.
The “rules” indicate that I should add this portion of text so here you go; enjoy.
The first player of this game starts with the topic “five weird habits of yourself,” and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says “You have been tagged” (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.
1. I consider the bathroom a library.
2. I Like to listen to the radio when I am in the shower.
3. I don’t take the same way home every single day.
4. I like to sing in the car, and when I do and there is someone in the passenger side I tend to turn away from them while I sing.
5. I have to take off my watch when I type.
Hopefull they are not too weird, for my victims I choose:
April, Nitoxxx, Kamilo and Evil_Atari
One of my fondest memories of my family in Colombia and growing up was the Sunday afternoons at my Grandma’s. I have only one sister, like most of you know, but I also grew up with 2 male cousins that were like my brothers. Every Sunday our whole family gathered for lunch and then spent the afternoon laughing at jokes, telling stories and just being a family. The kids would get money once in a while to run to the corner store to buy junk food. I also spent a lot of time listening to my Grandpa. While my other cousins got bored after his first story, I would stay there and listen to everything he had to say. A lot of what I believe in life everything from education to work ethic I learned from stories my Grand Father told me.
Family structure in the United States is completely different. While some of the human interaction is also centered on meal times, everyone’s busy schedules makes these times of getting together very short and lacking of real conversations. A dinner for example, does not involve sitting down afterwards and sipping coffee while you carry on a conversation. Something that I always saw as a bad thing in Spanish culture was people dropping in unexpectedly. Your family friends will show up in the afternoon and bring some kind of pastry to share over coffee. I used to think this practice was somewhat intrusive and inopportune at times, but now I miss it. I would not mind having some of my friends show up at my door and ring the bell to spend an afternoon sharing old stories.
I think therapy is a wonderful tool to help people with their mental health and overall wellbeing. I also think that our societies need for therapy should tell us that we are losing our sense of community. Our families do not communicate in an effective manner. I blame it on our schedules that leave little or no time for conversation beyond every day life monotony.
I watched an episode of CSI last night that showed how a cult had committed mass suicide. When we all heard about Heaven’s Gate it made many question how could people do something like that. I say it is actually very simple; our society is creating people vulnerable to addiction, brain washing and unhappiness. Our society has beat up the family structure to the point that the term broken family is part of everyone’s vocabulary. We all know someone that is from a broken family or currently part of one.
Do not get me wrong, I know that even from the worst background someone can overcome and be happy, emotionally stable and have a great life. I also understand that from the best family, or what would appear from the outside to be that (tere is really no perfection when it comes to humans), someone can be unhappy. What I want to discuss is how we as a society have forgotten how to communicate with one another especially at a family level.
Every day more and more kids get their values from peers, daycares, TV, and even the Internet instead of their parents. Morals and values seem to be something you read in an old book. In a lot of cases it is due to the fact that many Mothers have had to join the workforce instead of raising a family. While I am all for woman being equal, I believe that there is no one better equipped to raise a family than a mother. I am sure a lot of stay at home Dads do a wonderful job, but I believe that we need the old family structure do make a make comeback.
While I don’t think having a strong family will solve all the problems we have right now, I do believe it will help. I think that therapy would be provided by your family structure instead of having to pay a professional to help you. Some people do need the therapy and someone neutral to help them out, but where did we take a wrong turn and created so many enemies inside of our own “family.” I have met so many people that cannot stand their blood relatives. I also have plenty of issues with the family that I have living here in the US. It is so sad that what used to be a word that comforted me so much has lost a lot of its core meaning. I know it is not as simple as the cliché, “can we all just get along,” but that families have to learn how to get back to being the cornerstone and basic foundation of our society.