Jun
18

Teamwork

Not too long ago I saw a TV show about video games. It highlighted that new multi player games that allow a user to be part of a team with specific tasks helps build the teamwork mentality.

I started to think of my corporate world experience and the more and more I thought about my past experiences the more I saw that teamwork is often talked about but seldom really implemented.

We live in a very individualistic society, and no matter how much corporate America tries to sell us the idea that there is no “I in teamwork” we still don’t get what that really means.

At the first opportunity people try to make themselves look better, or when there is blame to be passed around the finger pointing begins. There is the exception of the person that for some reason likes to take the fall, but because of their strong character they get a get out of jail free card every single time.

I think the breeding ground for teamwork is sports, but this country has diverted from actual keeping score for kids to everyone is a winner. I think this further enhances the notion on every kid that they are the best and they have to fend for themselves.

Life can be cruel at times, as can work environments, but a good team behind you is what gets you through. In life it is your family and friends when they selflessly rally around you when you need them. In the corporate world when something goes wrong and the team does the best it can to make the project work.

Maybe multi player video games will help people understand that every role in a team is important and it is ok to just be good at one thing. Maybe sports at the little kids level will start keeping score again; Because in a society of only winners, everyone ends up being a loser.

Jun
16

Hunter vs Gatherer

Even though this has nothing to do with Thom Hartmann’s Hunter vs Farmer theory about the origin of Attention Deficit Disorders, it is an interesting read and somewhat related. This rant is more about one of the differences between my wife and I, that could also be talked about in a battle of the sexes way. I hate shopping.

I do not mind going to the store and get groceries, or even go get a book while 100 people are in line, however the whole window shopping, see if this purse goes with these shoes kind of shopping drives me nuts. So I started to think of me as a hunter and Bea as a gatherer.

I go to a store with a list of targets in mind. Mind you, I have been looking for a copy American History X at the used DVD store for a while, but a hit list none the less. Once I enter, even if I am just browsing I have things in mind that I want to find. Even at my favorite electronics store, I can only browse for so long.

When my wife browses, time stops for her and a trap 70′s superhero shoe style starts running in my head. We have tried to split up and go on our own little trips through the stores with ill effects. I spent 2 hours at a store that I had already browsed the first 15 minutes, while my wife was just getting started. She only had time to strategically locate what earrings go with what sunglasses.

I think this is a basic difference between man and woman. No matter how busy a woman is, she is diverted to her gathering ancester the minute she sees shoes. Do the test, take your significant other shopping at a shoe store and set them free. You will have looked at, sport shoes and dress shoes isles and she will just have started at the shoes that are not made out of hemp but still called Mary Janes.

Jun
13

Fridays Feast For Meme Haters :)

This Fridays feast is dedicated to my favorite Meme hater, Meesha and also to Brad, who this got XO’s panties in a bunch by letting us all know how we make him not want to blog :) keep on fueling :) keep blogging :) Keep Linking :) KEEP IT REAL.

Appetizer
Do you consider yourself to be an optimist or a pessimist?
Optimist, the glass is always half full of milk.

Soup
What is your favorite color of ink to write with?
Hrm… I have loved to write with a pencil my whole life a lot more than pens… but I guess if you make me pick one, it would be blue.

Salad
How often do you get a manicure or pedicure? Do you do them yourself or go to a salon and pay for them?
I cut my own nails… so I guess I do it myself. I have gotten a manicure before and it was not a bad experience… pedicure I have not done but might have to try that soon.

Main Course
Have you ever won anything online? If so, what was it?
Not really… not yet… the only thing I have really wanted besides an IPOD was a logo and I did not win. QQ

Dessert
In which room in your house do you keep your home computer?
All of them? I guess the two main computers are in the living room/dining room… but there are laptops and puters upstairs too… now that I think about it… the wife has 4 puters now and I only have two… hrm.

Jun
11

A Mi Sobrino – To my Nephew

English Version

Yo se que hoy cumple años y aunque se que todavía no puedes leer esto quería escribirte esta carta para capturar todos los sentimientos que tengo en mi corazón. Se que en unos cuantos años aprenderás a leer y espero que veas en estas palabras que tu eres una personita que haces mi vida mucho mas feliz.

Una de las cosas que mas me duelen en tu primer año es que no pudiste conocer a mi Abuelo. Como mi suegra dice, el fue el personaje de mi vida. Mucho de lo que soy yo como hombre hoy se lo debo a ese viejo que en mi opinión se nos fue muy pronto. Aunque tu tienes a tu abuelo, mi Papa, cerca y de el podrás aprender muchas cosas, te lo digo de todo corazón que “Toñito” como le decían a el donde trabajaba, fue alguien que como tu cambio mi vida. De mi Abuelo aprendí que la verdad es algo poderoso y debes siempre seguirla. De mi Abuelo también aprender que el Estudio es lo mas importante, porque lo que sabes nadie te lo puede quitar.

Espero que yo de alguna manera te pueda hacer llegar todas las historias que tengo en mi mente, algunas vividas con el, otras contadas por el. No esta con nosotros, pero mira lo bonito que es el circulo de la vida. Ahora te tengo a ti para que me acompañes. Te vi hace poco y tu sonrisa con solo dos dientecitos me enterneció el corazón bastante, y espero verla muchas otras veces a medida de que vallas creciendo.

Quiero que sepas que aunque no este cerca de ti geográficamente, te tengo cerca de mi en mi alma al lado de tu hermanita a la cual quiero que quieras tanto como yo quiero a la mía. Espero que todos tus sueños se hagan realidad y se que llegaras muy lejos en esta vida. Dios quiera que yo este aquí para ver todos tus logros, pero con el mismo amor que mi Abuelo me lo dijo a mi, te lo digo a ti… “Yo Creo En Ti.”

Read more…

Jun
10

Missing home

When I say that I miss home, I refer to Chicago the most. That is where I have spent most of my time as a reasoning being. Even though I spent my childhood in Colombian, most of my forming years were spent in the U.S.

While that makes me very American in some of my thinking and the way I approach things, I never forget my heritage or where I come from. When I came home every night from school, I remember that Colombian food was always on the table. The weekend barbecues always had Colombian music playing in the background, and it was even here in the U.S. that my Mom taught me how to really dance Salsa and Merengue.

I am Colombian, that is where my roots are and it has been five years since I have been back to my country.

The first time I took a trip back I had to go visit the grave of my best friend who died in a tragic car accident. The last time I took a trip down, my Grandpa was sick… this time he is no longer with us and I will most likely go visit his grave. That was one of my biggest fears about going back, that people would have changed so much or just not be with us anymore.

Life is about that, it is about that change. Two of my closest friends are pregnant right now and the cycle of life begins once again. Our families seem to shrink and grow with every passing year, and life continues its course.

I am not nostalgic, I am very excited about the trip I am about to take to Colombia in the coming months. I am visiting my country of origin with my wife, someone that happens to be from the same city I am from, someone that I met here in North America but with the same South American roots I have. I get to meet her family for the first time and make my family instantly double.

I admire the people that move away and come back to the place they were born, I even admire those that stay right where they started. I feel a kinship with those that have moved away and had to adopt other ways of living, because it is not an easy thing to do. The world alien bothered me at first when I moved to the U.S. but slowly but surely it felt very fitting to what I experienced when I got here. I am not an American and not an alien anymore, but I still hold my days as a non English speaker close to my heart.

Even though Kansas City is slowly becoming our new home faster than any other place I have been, I still say I am from Chicago or Colombia. Having great friends come into my life make that transition to calling this place home a lot easier… at the same time harder to leave if we ever chose to do that in our (my – my wife thinks she is a penguin) quest to live with no snow.

I am missing home, I am missing Colombia, partly because my little escape place has been taken way… but mostly because I cannot way to be back there to see so many people that I have not seen in a long time… it has been more than 15 years since I saw some of my classmates… even 20 when you count the grade school ones.

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