Just short and .... sweet?

Al ver mis entradas en la bitácora me he dado cuenta que hace mucho tiempo que no escribo en el idioma con el que crecí. Pues aquí esta mi esfuerzo por escribir aunque sea un poquito en español. Hasta he tomado el tiempo par asegurarme de que los acentos estén donde se supone. Quizás vestigio de criticas pasadas a aquellos que no tenemos el beneficio de un teclado en español o no hemos tenido la necesidad de aprender los códigos ASCII para escribir como Dios manda.

Pero esos son otros temas. Estamos en el tiempo de cuaresma y he tratado de meditar en lo que pasa a mi alrededor tanto como dentro de mi. Las memorias que no puedo dejar atrás, los retos y las oportunidades que se me presentan día a día. Es increíble la manera en la cual tu vida puede cambiar de un día para otro, y aun así hay que seguir adelante.

You are on the internet

I have to admit it, sometimes I do "google" my name to see what I can find out there. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of data that is collected about everyone and posted online to accessed. Even some people have developed entire business to provide this data. Nonetheless we have to be coginzant of this fact and beware of what information you post online. You never know whom might be reading; I know it goes against this whole speech-individuality thing but certainly what you post online can come back to hurt you (or maybe help you launch your celebrity as some hollywood types might have found). Bottom line... if you do not want poeple to know... don't post it online.

Sanity does not want to come back

Well, the teacher's union strike is on full swing already the newspapers report of bruises and cuts as well as arrests. As expected the government moved to decertify the union. You do not have to be a gifted legal mind to know that the actions of the union are illegal and unconstitutional. I sure hope that union leaders had given serious thought to the potential consequences to their actions. Granted 27 months of negotiation without a contract is long enough. I truly wish that this situation can be solved in a timely and safe manner for eveyone's sake.

Of faxes and other things

Granted, one of the interesting things about being an " IT guy" is that you cannot complain that your days are really boring. Case in point: our fax server and sending faxes overseas. So it happened that I could send a fax across the street but not to another country and the fax server gave out transmission confirmations but it did not actually saved any fax messages. In the end the problems were caused by misconfiguration in the analog phone gateway and the fax server database. One more example where the lack of documentation can cause a lot of problems. Until next time... D

Special interest o los grandes intereses

Seems like every politician trying to bring themselves some time in the spotlight speak of special interests o los grandes intereses as they are frequently referred to in Spanish; as if could impart a halo of populism into their campaigns. Don't get me wrong I am no fan of lobbyists and those that thrive in backroom dealing. We have to be honest with ourselves. Sometimes those special interests fill very important roles in our society. Let's agree that abusing power, economical or political is wrong no matter what. Nonetheless we all serve a purpose in today's economy. You can be a laborer or an entrepreneur. Just because your situation did not particularly allowed you to become an entrepreneur it does not give you a right to criminalize those that take the risk and open their own business.


There are actions that can be pointed out as wrong on both sides of the aisle. For example labor unions often fail to recognize the competitive pressures that we live today, on the other hand corporations look for creative ways to have taxpayers to bail them out of pension obligations and in effect shun their responsibility with current and former workers. In a perfect world I would say that working out a compromise could be achieved if both sides agreed that the issue at hand is not what we want to get or what we'll have to give up; rather the negotiation point should be how could we work together in a mutually beneficial agreement. Workers on one side could continue to have a job while corporations can continue to fulfill their obligations to owners or shareholders.

The same holds true for civil servants. The current threat of a strike in Puerto Rico by the teacher's union could potentially bring chaos to a system that serves over a quarter of a million students throughout the island. I have friends that are teachers and I agree that their working conditions are borderline inhumane in some cases, but you cannot negotiate with threats. Resorting to a strike, although their prerogative is not the best course of action. It might force some concessions, nonetheless the union is negotiating with a state that borders into being bankrupt. Just a little dose of common sense can help you see that their demands although warranted, are timed badly. I do believe that Puerto Ricans deserve the best education possible, and that in a strong education system lays the foundation for our future. Let's take a moment and reflect what can be done and be realistic, for our children's sake.

Welcome to the civilian world

After spending 8 years in the military, I have to admit that reincorporating to the civilian workforce has not been without surprises. First, it took a fully bilingual, experienced MBA over 6 months to find a position where I decided to relocate. I imagine that if I was living somewhere else the story would have been different maybe not. What I can say is that I got my first taste of how ruthless corporate life can be. A little after two weeks after I started my worplace was sold to another company and plenty of missteps have gotten into the way. Still, I remain hopeful. I have worked hard to achieve a lot and I am not afraid of taking on new challenges. Let's see what happens next...

Un nuevo comienzo

Hello, it has bee a while since I have written anything. Work, family, personal changes, life, I can think of a million excuses but I have been thinking about several ideas to write for some time now. Well, anytime is as good as any. This will be my fist attempt at returning to write as I used to.

The last three years have been of great changes in my life, a year in a war zone, my dad passing away, a divorce, leaving the military, finishing my MBA, and last but not least getting married again. It has been a roller coaster, but it has shown me what I am made of. If there was anything like a trial by fire, I believe the last three years could qualify.

See you around.

D