Make it count...

So, as I have said before, I haven't been able to write anything since I don't have internet in the house I am staying at, and since I need to get to know the city before I start to look for a job I have been out most days, so I can't take my laptop and go to a cafe or something like that.

The only time I have had internet has been when I go to one of my aunts house, both times I have been here I had to make it count, I don't want to abandon the classes I have been taking, so I have to download the material for them when I come here, and if I can present the exams for it, it isn't easy since I am not at my house where I can find a corner and hide, I need to spend time with them, specially since I haven't seen them in like 10 years.

So today I presented my two exams of this unit and I am downloading videos for other classes, the good thing is that I have like 3 weeks to present the next ones, so I might have internet before that.

Btw, the reason I don't have internet here is not because we can't pay for it, but because an uncle made a mess in the house, we need to pay like $175 dollars in a debt to cablemas and then make a new contract, or pay more at telmex, it a mess that we shouldn't take care of, but if we want to stay here, it's the best thing we can do to have internet :/

No photos today, I forgot the camera, but next time I'll try to post XD

Face your deepest fears...

There are times when you need face your deepest fears, grab your balls and say fuck it, I'll do this or die trying, this Saturday was that day, I went to a park here in Monterrey that has a bridge, made out of crystal. 

Not only was it a bridge, it was freaking made out of crystal, I cant even cross a pedestrian bridge without getting a little anxious, now imagine that but ten thousands times worse.

I won't lie, I almost died, after I finished crossing it I was sweating like crazy (although, it was very hot in here and I had already walked like 5 km, and I did some exercise in the park.

So yeah, I wanted to write this Saturday more about this change I wrote in my past post, but I don't have internet in my house right now, and the only connection that I have been able to hack doesn't work, probably because my neighbor hasn't payed it >.<

I am living now in Monterrey, I needed a change in my life and I saw an opportunity here, I didn't think much about it, just decided it and two weeks later here I am, I just told my parents and Sergio first, and a few other friends later, it was a hasty decision, but so far things work better that way for me.

I have been enjoying it very much, last time I came here was back when LOTR: The Two Towers was out in theaters. And next week I'll start looking for a job.

Arriving somewhere, but not here...

So, today I made one of my biggest changes in my life, I won't say much, just look at the pictures.

Freaking allergies...

I hate them, this past week I have been feeling pretty crappy because of my allergies, some days I can't even run because of nasal congestion and I sneeze like hell if it's windy.

This sucks...

Old habits too...

Today Sergio and I were supposed to work on our video game, but since we started playing Diablo 3 again, we are kind of obsessed with it, so I pulled an old trick that we used back when we were in school to play without remorse.

Back in the day when we had to do team work, before getting together one of us would try to do most of the work so when we got together, we would have time to play video games (usually smash). Most of the times we didn't have any problem, or at least I don't remember having trouble because of that.

So, today before going to Sergio's house I tried to finish at least two things that I had assigned, and I did, so when I got there, I had no remorse for playing all day video games since I already had done some work.

Btw, it isn't always like this, it's just that we have made so much progress in the last days within the game that we needed to show ourselves how much we can do playing together.

Science experiment... in the kitchen

For the last two weeks I have been working on making a sourdough, today was the first time I used it for making bread, it has been a pretty interesting experience, first I tried to make a starter with all purpose flower and it didn't work, after a few days it smelled awful and it didn't start to show any activity of yeast.

After that I decided to start all over again, but this time I decided to try two ways. One of them would start with only whole wheat flour and water, and in the other one I put a little bakers yeast with the flour and water. In just 1 day I could see some activity in the one that I added the yeast, and the other had a little activity too, but it was to small.

After a three days the one with the yeast started to develop pretty well, it already had some alcohol smell. The one that had only flour and water started to show some more activity and it was already starting to rise.

At the fifth day the one with the yeast was already starting to double its size in just a few hours, so that one was ready to bake, and the other one was catching up, so far there isn't much difference between the two of them, just that the one that I didn't use yeast has a stronger smell, but that might be because of the container.

So, today I used the sourdough that had yeast to make some bread, and it taste so good, even though I, as always, forgot to put salt in it, I seriously have a problem with salt.

I leave here some pictures of the development of my sourdough, it has been a really great experience and I'll try to make some bread with each sourdough to see if there is any difference. So far I can tell that it really makes a tastier bread than using bakers yeast, and it had a better crust and was fluffier, but it might be other factors there too.

Energy Boost...

This past months I have been feeling a little tired, sometimes physically, others mentally. Several months ago I didn't have a problem working when I was tired since I would just drink something to give me that energy boost and then recuperate with some sleep, but back when I started working out seriously I stopped drinking coke, and I have never been fond of energy drinks, and I try to use the minimum sugar I can in coffee and teas, so I no longer have that either.

I remember a "smoothie" that I used to drink when I started college, it was cucumber, bell pepper, celery or something like that, it was weird, didn't taste awful, but it wasn't good either, but damn, it worked, but I don't know if it was real or just a placebo.

The only thing that I have found is to stand up and walk a little or getting distracted for a few minutes, but still it doesn't beat sugared beverages or caffeine. So yeah, I have been in need of an energy boost that isn't sugar/caffeine based.

Bad trip on a manatee idea balls pool...

While I was preparing breakfast this morning I was hearing the tv. Usually I don't care what they talk about, I don't really like watching tv, specially talk shows or other crap like that, I just need the noise.

So, there was this segment about pregnancy and the guest started talking about auras and shit like that, it was boring, but it really caught my attention when the guest said, and I quote "Babies are affected by the aura of both parents from 5 years before conception", or something like that, I was just like WTF!!!!?!?!??!?

I don't care that people believe that, but letting someone on national television say that is a complete different thing. The worst part was that the host of the program was so interested in the bullshit the guest was saying that she might now be a believer, along with many other watching the show.

I really wonder how people come up to this things, do they use drugs and write this shit down while they are on a bad trip? Do they have a manatee idea balls like in south park? Or what, because I can't thing of a way for people to come with that kind of shit and believe that it is true...

Ok, enough for one day... no more tv for me for a couple of months.

Grade...

Yesterday I finally got the results from the first course I finished at Coursera, I was surprised that I received a document certifying that I finished it, and although it isn't that big of a deal, it will go well in my resume.

Lets see how many of those I can get for this year :P

Mental Breakdown

So, the lasts days have been rough, Saturday and Sunday I had to study for two exams I had and one of them took me like 4 hours of work to finish it, I literally finished it today at 2 am, but it was worth it. This time was for a class of finance I am taking, some parts of it are easy, but other require some knowledge of accounting and that's why it took me so long to finish them. I like to know what the hell I am doing and not just use the right formula and get the numbers I need, what does that numbers represent and how can I use them.

So yeah, that is why I didn't write the past days, that and because I have been very busy with other things here at home, but I'll write about it later, so now I feel like I am going to get some rest before my head explodes.

So here are a few examples of what I had to do in the first exam, they are the easy ones, I have some spreadsheets for other problems that took me much more time.

Whiteboard vs agenda...

For the last month or so I have been writing every morning the things I want to get done that day in a whiteboard. Since I tend to get distracted very easily if I don't have a clear objective of what I have/want to do, I had to force me to do this to get more organized and get things done.

I have found that it works for me better than an agenda since it is done on a daily basis, and no matter how much I try, I end forgetting the agenda or not following it as I should, although, I do try to use it to schedule important events.

Studying in bed...

Yesterday I was taking one of my online classes and I decided to watch the video of it on my bed since I was a little tired of being on my chair. It was like 10:00 pm and at first it was pretty comfortable, but after a few minutes I couldn't stop closing my eyes like I was falling sleep... after the video ended (it was like 25 minutes) I couldn't recall anything from it. It sucked, I thought that I was tired so I decided to go to sleep, but I couldn't, so I decided to watch an episode of a series I am watching and 4 episodes later I realized that I still wasn't sleepy, so I tried to watch my class again before writing my blog... and I fell sleep... with my laptop still on. I woke up at 3:00 am and still I can't recall anything from that class, studying while in bed sucks.

Honor Code

Yesterday I had my last exam for one of the courses I have in coursera, it was a closed book exam and like I said in another post I had to study to learn the terms used during the class. The teacher said that it might have multiple choice and fill the blank questions like it had in some quizzes.

Before starting each course you have to agree to the honor code, in which you make the compromise of not giving the answers to other students and not cheating.

It really isn't easy, I thought of opening my notebook a few times, specially when the question had answers in which you had to select the best one, but in the end I was able to finish without checking my notes, and it was harder that I thought, I never liked cheating in school, and I don't see me doing it right now, but the notion that if I do it no one will know is so different than getting caught by a teacher and can make me doubt myself.

Doing a system restore...

Here I am, it's past 1 am and I am trying to repair a laptop from my sisters friend, I thought that I would do it quickly since she told me that it only had a problem while booting, well, it has been already like 2 hours since I started and I haven't had any real progress.

I don't even know what happened to it, after the laptop finishes with the loading screen it will just stay with a black screen and the cursor and I can't do anything, I already tried doing a system restore and nothing, it tells me that it had errors. After reading several websites I read that the best I can do either restore it with a backup or reinstall it, and since it doesn't have a backup, I'll have to do a clean install.

So, yeah, pretty shitty night right now, but work is work.

Taking notes...

One of the things that I hated most when I was in school was taking notes, it was tedious, boring, and most of the times I could find better information in a book or anywhere else.

A few months ago I enrolled in Coursera.org to take some classes, and for the first time in my life I have been taking notes even though the classes are through videos and I can download the slides. This time I felt that I really needed since the classes are in English and I don't have the technical vocabulary for it, and the final exam of one of the courses will require filling some blank spaces with specific words that the teacher used, and since it will a closed book exam I need to remember the exact word :/

The classes that I am taking are Smart Growth for Private Businesses and Introduction to Finance, and they are pretty good.

I suck at titles...

So, here I am, trying to start my new post in the 365 project and I got stuck at the title, I suppose some things never change, though, I must admit that over this past months I have continued with many things that I was doing.

One of my biggest achievements over the last year is that I am working at least 5 days a week, and I don't want to stop doing it, so far I have dropped a little more than 17Kg, I am at the point where it isn't painful anymore, at least not as when I started, today I ran more than 2 Km without stopping, although, I usually run more than that, between 3 and 4 Km each day, but in 3 sessions.

June 2012

December 2012