Wow! I always thought that my birthday was sometime in June, but apparently I’m a Capricorn and my birthday is in January.
Category Archives: Misc
Microwaves
This week I purschased a new microwave oven (Sharp R-1505LK) because apparently my old microwave oven was leaking. My old microwave (Kenmore) was a gift from a former housemate and it was about 10 years old. The way I figure it was leaking microwaves was because when I turned it on, my Dish Network signal will be lost. The tv will show a blue and gray text message telling that the communication with the satellite was lost.
I read on the web that microwave ovens can affect wireless networks, cellphones and other devices and not necessarily have to be leaking. But the only way to find out if my microwave was leaking, was purchasing a leak detector and I didn’t wanted to do that. Since my kitchen originally had an over the range microwave oven installed that never worked and that I removed, I decided it would be better to buy one and take advantage of the fact that the microwave wont be using any countertop space. Besides if I ever sell my house, I would probably buy a microwave so the kitchen looks better, so I decided to buy it and enjoy it now.
About the installation of the Sharp R-1505LK
The installation wasn’t very easy. My friend Jeronimo helped me out, but it took us about 3 hours to install it. What screwed us was the fact that the microwave comes with a piece of paper that helps you to make the holes in the wall for the screws that will hold the microwave. Well, the holes in the piece of paper dont match the holes in the mounting plate. So we had to drill back a few holes. I’m going to email Sharp and let them know about this. Besides that, the microwave looks very good.
Merry Christmas from the Ugly Elf!
This year ugly Santa is not gonna be able to wish you a Merry Christmas, but instead he is sending one of his Elves to do so. You can even watch the ugly Elf dancing!
Trip to Spain: Episode II
In case you wondered about how expensive is to go to Spain for 2 weeks, here is my expenses report so far:
- Plane tickets (Austin – Barcelona) $676
- Health insurance $30
- Plane ticket (one way Barcelona – Madrid) 47.9 €
- 1GB SD memory for my digital camera $24.99
- Refurbished iPod shuffle (present for Carolina my host in Barcelona) $35
- Bag (my previous bag was destoyed after my last trip) $50
- New shoes (my old shoes had holes in the sole) $50
Things I haven’t bought but I know that I will:
- Backpack ~ $80
- Peanut Butter ~ $5 (Caro is crazy about peanut butter)
- Haircut ~ $15
I also got my self a new American Express Blue credit card, because I heard that they give you the best conversion rates when you use it outside the US and I bought some Euros at Wells Fargo.
Itinerary version 1.0
This is my first attempt to define an itinerary for the trip.
Nov 17: Barcelona
Nov 19: Flight Barcelona – Madrid
Nov 22: Toledo
Nov 23: Granada (meet with Caro)
Nov 24: Cordoba
Nov 25: ?
Nov 26: Barcelona
Nov 27: San Sebastian (not sure about this)
Nov 29: Barcelona
Nov 30: Austin
[Update 11/09/2006]
Expenses update:
- REI Lookout Backpack $80
- Flight Madrid – Granada 10 €
- Flight Granada – Barcelona 72.90 €
- Hostel Rambutan Guesthouse 59.94 € (2 nights / 2 people)
Itinerary version 2.0
Nov 16: Austin – Barcelona
Nov 17: Barcelona
Nov 19: Flight Barcelona – Madrid (4pm)
Nov 22: Toledo
Nov 23: Flight Madrid – Granada (1:30pm) (meet with Caro in Granada)
Nov 24: Granada or Cordoba
Nov 25: Flight Granada – Barcelona (6:40pm)
Nov 30: Austin
I just got an email from my friend Idoia Irigaray, a girl from San Sebastian that I met in MedellÃn about 6 or 7 years ago because of CVX. Initially I wanted to go to San Sebastian to see her but the tickets from Barcelona are expensive (~200 €) and I don’t have much time, but the good news is that she is going to be in Madrid the same days as me, so we are going to see each other over there. Is going to be so much fun!
Trip to Spain: Episode I
[Update - 10/24/2006] : My visa just got approved! 
Pa’ España me voy! Joder!
A few months ago, I was chatting with my friend Carolina Vásquez and I was telling her that the next three places I would like to visit for vacations would be: Australia, Spain and the southern part of south america (Argentina, Uruguay and Chile). Since she is living in Barcelona, Spain she told me that I should go and visit her and the idea sounded really good. We talked about it a few more times and then I decided to get serious about it and started looking at flight fares and convinient dates to travel. I talked to Johnny Kings since he is doing his PhD in Barcelona asking him for some advice and he sent me a link to the Spanish Consulate in Chicago where I found the different requirements for the Schengen visa. The list of required documents was quite long, but I started collecting everyone of them.
Last week I got all the documents ready and I planned a trip to Houston last sunday, to go to the consulate first time in the morning. In Houston I went to Ikea and bought my self a nice wine bottle organizer and a frame for a Guillermo Velez painting (Caldo de Pollo) that I had on a very cheap frame. Then I met with my friend Carlos Marchani who is going to be moving to Norway in November and then I went to David Levinson’s apartment where I stayed.
On Monday morning I got to the consulate at 9am when they open and there were 5 people already there. The consulate was a very small office and by 10:15am I was done. The women in charge told me that I should now in about 10 to 15 days if my Schengen visa was approved or not.
Hopefully I will be posting again in a couple of weeks telling you good news.
If you have been to Spain I would highly appreciate if you post a list of places/events/food I should try over there.
Ole!
Water Skiing at Lake Travis
Mom! I’m on TV!
Mamá triunfé!
Here is my first short film that I did using my friend’s handycam (Sony DCR-HC46). Ok it is not a short film, it is just me showing you my house in Austin.
Sorry but I speak spanish in the video.
The video format is MP4 (requires QuickTime), the size is 22 MB and the lenght is 10 min.
My first story on AgoraVox!
I was contacted a few weeks ago by AgoraVox, a news web site based on blog entries from authors all over the world. They wanted me to join their community and since all it was required from me, was to allow them to use content from my blog I accepted and joined them.
Today I got an email from them saying that they have published the entry I posted last night about the World Cup final.
Cool! 
Beer tribute
My brother Juan David has created a tribute to the world’s oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage: Beer.
Happy Holidays
Another year that’s almost gone!
I’ve been very busy lately getting things ready so I can go to Colombia for vacations, so that’s why I haven’t payed much atention to Chichinea. I’ll be going next friday and I’ll have two weddings next weekend: Diego Reyes and Alexandra are getting married on saturday and my cousin Alejandra is getting married on sunday. Then I’ll be staying in MedellÃn until the 26th.
What better way to say goodbye to 2005, that showing you some cool statistics on the visits that Chichipanguanorrea has gotten over the last 6 months! (I know is lame, but I don’t want to show the same ugly Santa I did last year!)
Statistics June – Dec 2005
Total Unique visits: 12098
Top Browsers
Explorer – 51.85% 
Firefox – 30.21%
Safari – 10.17%
Top OSs
Windows XP – 69.28%
MacOS X – 10.82%
Windows 2000 – 8.68%
Top Countries
United States – 83.20%
Colombia – 3.72%
Mexico – 1.98%
Top Visited Pages
A message from Forrito and Pingorocho!
Chichipanguanorrea revamped!
Daniel Jaramillo
Top Origins
www.google.com – 207 – 13.88%
spaces.msn.com – 132 – 8.85%
turmeque.blogspot.com – 103 – 6.91%
www.google.com.pe – 96 – 6.44% (Gracias Peru!)
search.yahoo.com – 92 – 6.17%
www.blogscolombia.com – 71 – 4.76% (Colombia Tierra querida)
marcos.kirsch.com.mx – 68 – 4.56%
caimanlandia.blogspot.com – 67 – 4.49%
www.google.com.co – 53 – 3.55% (Otra vez Colombia Tierra querida!)
search.msn.com – 52 – 3.49%
Top keywords
pingorocho – 183 - 8.30%
tacuba - 80 - 3.63%
cafe - 76 - 3.45%
jaramillo - 70 - 0 3.18%
forrito - 65 - 2.95%
daniel - 58 - 2.63%
aguardiente – 38 - 1.72%
medallo - 30 - 1.36%
I’m amazed about how many hits I get for Forrito and Pingorocho: Top visited page and top 1 and 5 keywords!
Just because you asked for it I’ll post the ugly santa again!
