Category Archives: Austin

Life in Austin: Update (not worth reading)

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There is a time in every blogger’s life when you simply don’t have much interesting material to post about, so you decide to create a post about the last few things that have been going on. Unfortunately this is not the first time I do this, so feel free to drop some hate comments and show me your love and appreciation.

Last week I was recognized in my company with the ‘Engineering Excellence’ award which is given to about 8-15 engineers every year. I was pretty happy with the award because it motivates me to keep working hard and doing a good job at work. (Note to self: update resumé)

Last weekend it was Claudia Lorente’s 30th birthday which she celebrated at her place with a fabulous cricket game. A lot of friends were there and I had a great time. The day after was Gabriel’s bday and we celebrated it in my house. I hadn’t had a party in my house in a while and I figured I could have one. The party was really fun, lots of friends, alcohol and dancing until 5am. The next morning I had to play soccer with the NI Eagles and we beated team Black Star 2-0. There are only two games left this season and it looks like we have a chance to finish 4th or 5th place if we win the last two games. Right now we are in 7th place.

I already did my taxes which I still need to send, including a big fat check that I wish I didn’t have to pay. I was surprised how quickly I did my taxes. Either after 6 years doing taxes you get better at it, or TurboTax has became much better, or I just don’t care much about them anymore that I don’t triple check everything. I think it is the combination of those three.

I’m jealous of two friends (Eva Noyola and Natalia Uribe) who are going to Portishead concerts in London and Munich. So far I haven’t seen anything about them coming to the US.

Life is good…

Molotov: YoFo NoFo ZaFa FoFo

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I have seen better Molotov concerts in Austin, but none the less this one at ‘La Zona Rosa’ was really good too. They played many songs from the first album specially the ones with XXX lyrics. They also did some jamming and played snippets from a few covers like Eye of the tiger (survivor), Smells like teen spirit (nirvana), Enter Sadman (metallica) and Higher ground (rhcp stevie wonder).

Carlos Gaviria visits Austin

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The president of the colombian political party Polo Democrático Carlos Gaviria was one of the speakers invited to the XXVIII Annual ILASSA Student Conference. His speech was basically a critique of the current government because it claims that Colombia has a strong democracy while he considers that many aspects of Colombia’s situation (like the high percentage of poverty) are clear signals that Colombia doesn’t have a democracy but instead what he refers to as a sudo-democracy.

I think Colombia does have a democracy, but it has many flaws. As he recognizes, there is not a country in this planet with a perfect democracy and Colombia by no means is close to have that.

Even recognizing that Uribe has many flaws I sincerely think Colombia is better today than how it was 6 years ago. And after hearing Gaviria today, it gives you the impression that this is not the case and that Uribe is the devil itself following a master plan to be a dictator. I honestly believe that this is not the case, and I definitely don’t want Uribe to be reelected again.

Show me your teamwork

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I spent all day yesterday at the 2007 Challenge organized by First Lego League (FLL) organization which is a Robotics contest for kids using LEGO Mindstorms. The day was very fun and the team i was coaching, the Pond Springs Pioneers finished in 19th place out of 60th teams. But the best thing is that our team got a 2nd place in the ‘Teamwork’ award and we got a nice LEGO trophy.

PondSpringsPioneers

KVUE news was covering the event and they said they were going to post pictures and videos later this week.

Miss Venezuela visits Austin

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Not exactly… instead Los Amigos Invisibles came to Austin for a concert at Antone’s. Earlier that day I went with Cetrulo to the Mexican consulate in downtown to obtain a permit to cross the border and go to Monterrey to the long time awaited concert Me Verás Volver 2007 and that is when Cetrulo took the picture above this text. If you want to see pictures from the concert, make sure you visit Marcos’ blog.

ACL 2007 wrap up

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Update: Pictures available here.

You gotta love Austin. The festival this year was great.

I arrived with my friend Luis on friday around 4:30pm and the first band we saw was Queens of the stone age. I had already seen them two years ago when they opened the NIN concert in San Antonio and I really liked their show so I wanted to check them out again. The show was great with lots of energy. It was a great start.

The second band I saw was Gotan Project. This band is awesome. The band has a pianist, a bandoneonist, a clasic guitar player, 3 or 4 violinists, a singer and two DJs. Their music is a fusion between tango and lounge music and its incredible.

Björk was the last artist I saw on friday. She was great and had a large group of musicians playing with her. Her voice is amazing and she totally gives herself to the crowd.

On Saturday I got to the festival around 2pm. I saw the band Augustana which was pretty good and then I saw Blue October which was great too. I really like their song Hate me. Then I went to see the Colombian band Aterciopelados. I was really close to the stage wearing my ‘aguadas’ hat and my colombian flag. It was a great show with lots of energy and dancing. The crowd loved them and they did 3 extra songs at the end after we screamed ‘otra!’ a few times. This normally doesn’t happen at ACL. Bands are not supposed to play longer than what is scheduled, but since they were the last band in that stage I suppose it was ok.

Muse was the last band I saw at ACL since I didn’t make it on sunday. I really really really like Muse and the sound great live. They totally made up for the White Stripes who decided last minute not to come to the festival.

The only dissapointment of the festival is the fact that I couldn’t bring my new camera. I really wanted to take nice photos but I brought my point and shot camera and the pictures aren’t that great but I’ll post them soon anyway.

To summarize, the 3 shows I liked the most were:

  • Muse
  • Aterciopelados
  • Gotan Project

August update

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Blogs turn very lame when you dont post regularly. Recently I haven’t had anything exciting to write about, so my blog has been falling into the lame category. This post is just to summarize some of the things I have been doing recently or that I’m going to be doing in the near future.

Party, party, party

After coming back from New York, I’ve been going out a lot in Austin. I have too much fun going out with friends and last night was the first friday in a loooong time that I stay at home, and it wasn’t even because I didn’t wanted to go out, but because I could not get my friends to join me and I decided to stay at home and take it easy.

Moving to a new group at National Instrumenst

After being in the Integration Services group at NI for almost 6 years, I’m going to be transitioning to the System Configuration Services group around September. I’m very excited about the transfer because I’m going to have new challenges and opportunities ahead. This group develops the ‘Measurement & Automation explorer’ application which helps users configure NI’s software and hardward among other services.

NI Week 2007

NIWeek starts next week and it means listening to great keynotes, having breakfast at Las Manitas, meeting with friends that work in other NI branches but come to Austin for NIWeek and in general being excited to be part of NI.

Wedding at Puerto Escondido

My friend Eva is getting married in Puerto Escondido, Mexico and I’m traveling there between August 15-19. Marcos is not sure if he can come because he is waiting for some paperwork related to his green card process. I hope he can make it though.

Facebook fever

Social networks is something that has been arround for a few years. I have accounts in hi5, friendster, mySpace, LinkedIn and recently signed in for Facebook. My experience with FB has been amazing. The website is very well done usability wise. Very elegant and simple, but powerful. I already have lots of friend connections and its great to know what is going on with their lives. Social networks are not meant to replace physical human interaction, but to enrich it. I highly recommend that you give it a try.

Austin City Limits 2007

Yes, I’m an idiot. I didn’t purschased my ACL wristband on time and now I’m going to have to wait for a last minute deal, hoping that someone can’t make it and wants to sell the wirstband to me. This year’s line up is amazing: Björk, Queens of the stone age, White Stripes, Killers, Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, …

Me verás volver 2007

Soda Stereo one of my favorite rock bands in the world is doing a tour after their last tour ‘El Ultimo Concierto’ 10 years ago (1997). I’m going to see them live in Monterrey, Mexico on November 9th!