Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Epic trip to Juárez...

This weekend I visited Juárez for the first time in like 5 months, I had to met my first niece and the first granddaughter of my parents, she was born three weeks ago and since I was doing good with my finances and found some cheap tickets I decided to go, although I just went for the weekend so I wasn't going to have much time to meet friends.

I just saw Sergio and another two friends that I really wanted to see, although I wasn't sure if I was going to see them or not since I really didn't have much time. I arrived Friday at 4 pm and left Sunday at 7 pm, I arrived at Monterrey at 12 am and got home at like 2 am and I had to get to work on Monday.

Since I wanted to spend a good amount of time with my friends and my family I didn't have much time to rest. I met Sergio on Friday like at 10 pm and I went to sleep at 4 am and then I had to get up at 6 since I was going to met another friend in the morning, we got together at around 9 am and I got home at 2 pm, then I spent time with my family till like 5 and went out with my other friend, we went to eat then went back to my parents home and we played video games till 5 am and then went to sleep, we slept till 12 pm... well, she, I slept till like 9 and then was trying to rest but couldn't get to sleep, lol. After that I accompanied her to a near mall since someone was going to pick her up there at 2 pm and after that I went home and spend my last hours with my family.

This weekend I really pigged out, I arrived here and bought pizza, then with Sergio we went to eat some tacos and I drank a coke. Then in the morning I went with a friend to eat at a restaurant, we ate an omelette and then a yogurt ice cream. When I got home I ate some pizza and then with my other friend we went to eat sushi, but it wasn't just sushi, we ate some ramen too and some dumplings, some tea and prepared sake (next time we will try sake without anything else though :P), and after that we bought some chips to accompany us while we played The Walking Dead, after more than 6 months we finally finished that game, it was awesome, we played from 11 pm till 5:30, then we went to sleep. Since I woke up earlier than my friend and I was hungry I decided to make some breakfast, I prepared some Eggs in a basket for us, but she was too tired to wake up and eat, lol. So I decided to wait till she woke up to eat them with her, in the mean time I went with my parents to eat some barbacoa and then went to sleep again, or tried to rest at least.

I took a shower later and when I came back my friend was finally waking up, we ate breakfast, talked a little and then I left her with her friend that came to pick her up.

When I got to my parents house I spent time with my family and ate some more, my sisters husband brought me some menudo, I seriously don't know how I was able to eat so much, but I was pretty sure I was going to get a little sick since I really don't eat anything like that here. Said and done, when I arrived at my house in Monterrey I had a stomachache, luckily I didn't get sick, it was just my body dropping all of that, lol.

Outside all of that, I too wanted to come to pick some things that I asked Sergio to buy through amazon, a backpack, a pair of headphones, a onesie for my niece, a water bottle (a portal water bottle :P) and an induction cooktop.

I asked him to buy these things there since I can't really get anything of that quality here, I have seen backpacks twice the price and half the quality, I haven't seen induction cooktops here worth buying and so much expensive than the one I bought, headphones... well, they were cheap and since I already was buying I said, why not? and the onesie I bought for my niece I didn't find anything like it here, same with the water bottle, they just don't sell that kind geeky things here in México.

So yeah, that was my past weekend, hopefully I'll go again in December, at least that's the plan, I was dying of tiredness on Monday, but it was all worth it.

17" laptop backpack, holds more groceries than my other one :P

Haven't used it since I don't have pans that work with it :P

My trusted friend in science, this bottle makes water taste better, it's made with science and love :P

Monday, August 19, 2013

My first Raspberry Pi experience...

This weekend I finally was able to work with my Raspberry Pi, I had one in my job but my boss and I use it as a server to make tests. But this weekend I asked him for one to use and he gave me an old one that he had there. I wanted to start working with its IO part because this project will require communication with other hardware through it.

My first challenge was to turn on a led, and it really was a challenge since I haven't worked with electronics in years, I didn't even remember how to connect the led, where the resistor should be, the color code of a resistor, nothing, so I tried to be as careful as I could be so I don't end burning something.

Turning it on was easy, I just connected it directly one of the pins that is always on (the 3V3 pin) and ground and it turned on, my next challenge was to test if I could control one of the IO pins to turn it on and off, so first I read how to do it, I connected everything accordingly, connected to the Raspberry through ssh and ran some commands to test it, I was able to turn it on and off, it was cool.

The next step was to turn it on and of from a program, so I had to write a script to turn it on and of when I pressed a key or something. It was already to late so I didn't finish that, but I'll try to do it before the weekend. I did get to write a script to manually turn it on and off with just a function, but it was far from where I wanted it.

All in all it was a great experience, even if it was just play with a led, but hey, that's how it all starts, once upon a time I just learned how to do a "Hello World" and now I have a job thanks to that.



Monday, August 12, 2013

The aftermath

So a week already passed since my little adventure, it took me a whole week to really feel better. All week I had pain in both my legs and feet and they feel alright now, except for my toes, like I said in my last post, I injured both big toes, it was so hard that yesterday I literally was able to remove the whole nail from my left foot, the toe from the right one seems like it will take some time before I'll be able to do it, but judging from how it looks it will fall off.

It didn't hurt, but now that I don't have it it does hurt a little, specially when I wear shoes since they are a little tighter than my tennis.

Well, so far that's the only bad thing that happened from that, the good is that I feel like I could do much more, right now I feel like I want to start doing more things, and I'm thinking in start running again and get into a marathon, a 5km one to start, I wanted to go to one that will be this next Sunday (august 18), but I don't think that I'll be able to make it because of my feet. Maybe if I have not removed my nail, but well, that gives me more time to prepare to the next one, I think there is another one in september.

Anyway, I have been feeling pretty good, and everything has been going awesome, this weekend I finally was able to save some money for me since I already paid for most things that I needed, only missing a few minor things that can wait, so starting now I'll finally start saving for my laptop (and probably a tablet) :D

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Fision mallada, promesas rotas y publicidad engañosa...

Es media noche y despues de haber descansado la mayor parte de la tarde he perdido el sueño, mis pies me están matando, no aguanto mi espalda, tengo mis hombros adoloridos y un calor que no me deja descansar agusto. Todo esto es la consecuencia de una aventura que tuve hoy, probablemente una de las cosas más pesadas, arriesgadas y satisfactorias que he hecho en mucho tiempo.

Mi pequeña aventura comenzó este sábado (03 de agosto) a las 6 de la mañana, me levanté, me bañe, comí mi desayuno y preparé mi mochila para salir, una vez que todo estaba listo me aseguré de saber como llegar a mi primer destino, revisé las rutas que podía tomar y donde tomarlas para no equivocarme, una vez que llegué a mi primer parada pedí direcciones para no equivocarme y estar caminando sin rumbo, llegué a una gasolinería y me dijeron como llegar, así que me encaminé llegué a la caseta donde comenzaría mi aventura (aunque olvidé tomarle foto).

Una vez que pasé la caseta tuve que caminar aproximadamente unos 600 metros cuesta arriba para llegar al inicio real de mi camino... desafortunadamente esos primeros 600 metros me sirvieron para darme cuenta de la poca condición física que aún tengo, al llegar sentía mi corazón muy acelerado, no cansado, pero si me faltaba el aire, eso no me pareció un buen signo, pero aún así decidí continuar.



Hoy, por primera vez en mi vida, intenté subir una montaña hasta lo más alto, más de 4 o 5 km de camino de subida en ángulos no muy amigables ni para subir ni bajar, caminos hechos de tierra, piedra, cemento e incluso algo de tierra. Un camino en el cual podrían haber osos (al menos eso me han dicho), insectos no muy amigables como avispas y arañas, cienpies y no se que más...

Uno de los caminos lisos, una inclinación de unos 40 a 45 grados (creo XD)

Despues de haber descansado un poco en la base del cerro y recuperado el aliento decidí continuar, y desde un principio me pude dar cuenta que no sería un camino fácil ni rápido, pero la vista que se tiene desde unos pocos metros es espectacular. A pesar de que me agité mucho al subir a la base, me pude dar cuenta que ya me sentía más agusto, que no me faltaba tanto el aliento y que estaba subiendo relativamente rápido, al menos más rápido que otros que al principio me llevaban la delantera. El camino que seguí, y que sigue la mayoría de la gente está rodeado de arboles, así que no se puede ver mucho en ocasiones, pero hay lugares donde la vista es espectacular, mi primer parada para tomar fotos de la ciudad fué a unos 700 metros del camino (casi todo el camino está marcado y hay lugares donde te indican que tanto llevas recorrido), cada vez que tenía oportunidad tomaba una foto de un punto más alto para ver la diferencia.

Foto tomada a la 9:16, no se que altura era esta ya.

Foto tomada a las 9:23

A pesar de que se veía tan alto en esa toma, aún me faltaba mucho camino por recorrer, a esa hora del día se sentía perfecto el clima para poder subir sin que el sol molestara, estaba medio nublado, pero conociendo Monterrey, no puede confiarce del clima. Así que aceleré un poco el paso.

La pequeña punta roja que se ve en la parte más alta es el lugar al que me dirigía.

Como el camino es algo pesado, en ocasiones tomaba descansos, desafortunadamente no hay lugares donde sentarse mas que en el camino, en la primera mitad del recorrido se puede encontrar mucha gente, familias, amigos, parejas y gente que va sola.




Despues de poco más de una hora de camino llegué a la primer mitad, o al menos eso es lo que creo, hasta esta parte es a la que sube la gran mayoría de las personas, hay una plataforma plana o el techo de una construcción (no pregunté que era, jaja), y desde aquí se puede apreciar gran parte de la ciudad y tomar unas fotos panorámicas espectaculares, al llegar aquí me entro la duda de si podría subir hasta el pico, ya me sentía un poco cansado y quería regresar, mis piernas ya sentían la tensión con cada paso, pero no lo hice y continué subiendo, a partir de este punto las cosas se pusieron más interesantes, había menos gente y se sentía una tranquilidad sorprendente.

Foto desde la mitad de la plataforma por que me da vértigo acercarme a la orilla...

Foto desde la orilla de la plataforma, sentado, por que fuck mi vertigo, jaja, y menos gente en la imagen


Al continuar mi camino me encontré con una gruta, pero no supe si era seguro entrar o no, no me quise arriesgar por que no había nada de luz y no había gente cerca, despues de pasar este punto, por fin pude ver la punta otra vez, ya se veía más cerca, pero aún faltaba mucho recorrido. Recorrido que se hacía más pesado con cada paso, la inclinación era mayor en algunos puntos y más peligrosa, además de que se encontraban más insectos y lagartijas, y había menos lugares donde se podía descansar.








Despues de aproximadamente 3 horas de caminar por fin pude llegar hasta la punta, aunque no se que es lo que pasó que solo encontré una reja para entrar a la antena, despues de llegar ahí decidí comer algo y descansar un poco antes de comenzar mi camino de regreso, cumplí mi meta de llegar a la parte más alta, aunque la verdad me sentía tan cansado que quería quedarme ahí a descansar mucho más, pero el día comenzaba a ponerse más feo, el sol comenzaba a quemar y no había mucha sombra, así que era hora de regresar.







Con esto es con lo que se encuentra uno al llegar a la parte más alta del cerro...


Al comenzar a bajar me pude dar cuenta que esto no iba a ser más fácil que subir, un paso en falso y te puedes caer, golpear y rodar por el camino, si comienzas a bajar muy rápido y comienzas a correr, va a ser dificil detenerte, así que hay que tener mucho cuidado.

No había bajado mucho cuando me encontré con una señora que venía justo detras de mi, me preguntó si había llegado hasta arriba y que si había ido a "las cruces", le dije que solo me había encontrado con la reja cerrada, y me comentó que se puede llegar a un punto muy padre donde se alcanza a apreciar la verdadera belleza del cerro y la sierra, pero que es algo peligroso por que no hay un camino, hay que irse por la orilla de las instalaciones de la torre, y agarrarse muy bien para no caerse.

En este punto, yo estaba muy agotado, todo lo que quería era llegar a mi casa, nisiquiera quería bajar, iba a ser muy pesado bajar todo lo que ya había subido, pero ya estaba ahí así que que demonios, fuimos los dos hasta donde llegué y me dijo por donde nos ibamos a ir, me fué guiando para poder llegar, desafortunadamente en esta parte no pude tomar fotos por miedo a caerme, en verdad es un lugar muy peligroso si no tienes mucho cuidado, un paso en falso y es game over, al llegar al otro lado de las instalaciones en verdad pude apreciar lo que me decía, es una vista mucho más espectacular que cualquier otra foto que tomé, ya estando ahí nos tomamos fotos para poder vernos en esa parte tan alta, y para tener evidencia de nuestro logro.










La vista que se podía apreciar desde este punto valió la pena todo lo que sufrí para subir, pero al bajar, la verdad no me esperé que fuera a ser aún peor, para nada lo pude hacer con la misma velocidad, sentía que iba a paso de tortuga, aunque al final hice casi el mismo tiempo que tardé en subir. Cada paso que daba era más y más doloroso, sentía ganas de quitarme los tennis de lo adoloridos que sentía mis pies.

Al comenzar a bajar solamente me quedaban aproximadamente 2/5 del agua y gatorade que había traido, así que tuve que racionarla muy bien para que me alcanzara lo más que pudiera, llegar a la plataforma que se encuentra a la mitad del camino fue un martirio, pero ahí apenas conemzaba el dolor, aún faltaba la segunda mitad y de pasada caminar hasta donde tomaría el autobus para regresarme a mi casa.

Mientras bajaba la segunda mitad del recorrido me di cuenta que iba en realidad muy lento, mis piernas se sentían como fideos, con cada paso sentía como me temblaban y descansar ya no me funcionaba, el sol era insoportable, y cada vez que veía una señal de la distancia que me faltaba por recorrer me hacía sentir mal, el sol estaba tan fuerte que no podía ver claramente, tenía que mantenerme enfocado en donde estaba pisando.

Al llegar a la base me sentí en verdad muy feliz, y caminé lo más rápido que pude a una banca que había ahí y me senté por un buen rato, aunque la verdad es que no me ayudó mucho, ya no estaba recuperando fuerzas, no me sentía agitado como cuando estaba subiendo, ya no tenía energías para continuar, y mis piernas comenzaban a fallar. Al bajar por la calle, de regreso a donde pasaba el autobus, sentía mucha sed, ya tenía rato que el agua se había acabado el agua y mis labios y garganta se sentían horrible, así que lo primero que hice fue llegar a un oxxo y comprar una botella grande de agua y una soda grande...

Despues de comprar eso me fuí a la parada del autobus, pero el que debía de tomar se estaba tardando demasiado, y el primero que pasó no se paró, así que tomé uno al azar, pensé que me dejaría cerca de donde quería llegar, pero para cuando me di cuenta ya estaba muy lejos, quise tratar de ver donde estaba, pero por alguna razón el 3g de mi celular no se quería conectar, al llegar a un lugar que de plano no conocía me bajé y le di un reboot a mi cel para ver si ahora si se podía conectar y buscar como regresarme.

Al conectarme me di cuenta que si estaba muy lejos, pero por suerte un autobus que pasaba por ahí cerca me dejaba cerca de donde tomaba el que me deja por mi casa, así que lo tomé y ahora si iba seguro de regreso, pero aún así cada paso que daba seguía doliendo, estaba en verdad muy agotado, caminaba como zombie.

Terminé llegando a mi casa como a las 5 de la tarde, y lo primero que hice fue meter la soda al refri y me fuí a acostar un buen rato. Al quitarme los tennis y los calcetines me di cuenta que tenía un montón de ampollas, nada grave, con la excepción de dos cerca del tobillo, en la parte exterior del pie, eran tan grandes como mi pulgar completo, y que al parecer me lastimé las dos uñas de los dedos gordos de cada pie.

Despues de reventarme las ampollas y descansar un rato me fuí a bañar para refrescarme, me sentía todo pegajoso por tanto sudor, aunque fue una tortura por las ampollas, me ardió como si me pusieran limón en una herida, solo espero que no me arda así por mucho tiempo, y que las uñas de mis dedos no se me caigan como me pasó en enero con las del segundo dedo de ambos pies (al bajar de peso también me adelgazaron los pies y tuve que comprar tennis más pequeños, y esos me quedaban al principio justos, pero las primeras veces que corrí me lastimaron ambos dedos y despues de unos meses se me calleron ambas uñas, pero voliveron a salir :P).

Una vez que me sentía más descansado decidí a ir a comprar algo para comer, como acostumbro los sábados, hoy me compré una hamburguesa doble y papas fritas, pero en verdad no tenían un sabor nada especial, no he encontrado por aquí un buen lugar para comer aún. Mientras comía disfruté de la soda que me había comprado, despues de un año por fin volví a tomar, y se que dije que ya no tomaba soda, pero esta ocasión lo ameritaba, mi regla para la soda es no tomar a menos que sea una ocasión muy especial, y creo que haber subido hasta la punta del cerro lo amerita, esta fué una de las cosas más agotadoras que he hecho en años, y no creo que la repita pronto, tal vez el próximo año, pero no es seguro, jaja.

Y así es como termina mi pequeña aventura, espero la hayan disfrutado :)

Friday, July 19, 2013

Hello World...

In two weeks I'll start working in a new project, it'll be a python based web app, I know something of python, but not enough, and I feel pretty confident about the web part. The problem that I have is that I don't know if I'll have to install everything from zero, I know that I'll be working with some RaspberryPy, so I have been working on the console a lot more.

For the past 24 hours I have been trying to configure an apache server that can run python, since I don't that much about server configuration I screwed up a little, so I have been doing everything step by step. An hour ago I finally got a hello world from a python script, so now I only need to get a web.py (a python web framework) app running and (I think) everything else will be easier.

I'm pretty exited because of this project, and because I'll have to learn many new things.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Classics...

A few months ago I finished watching the new Doctor Who series, I really loved it, but I felt like I was missing something, I know the old series are that, old, they started back in the 60's, so they aren't easy to find, I knew that they were in the US Neflix, but I just recently started to proxy the hell out of it, and naturally look for the old Doctor Who episodes, unfortunately they aren't in order, there are separated in collections, so you can't watch the whole seasons, I tried watching it, but unfortunately they lack continuity (although they are interesting), one collection had the first doctor and the next had the second, the next one was with the three of them.

Luckily I found a torrent that had torrents for each season, I already downloaded the first season and I must say that it is great, I'm really liking it, probably not as much as the new series, but enough to know that I'll waste a lot of hours in there, lol.

This isn't the only classic I'm watching right now, for a long time I wanted to watch the Star Trek series and after watching Star Trek: Into Darkness I decided that it was time to do it, I found that Netflix has the original series so I began to watch it there, I'm almost at the end of the first season. Each episode I find it more and more interesting, although I laugh every time William Shatner stares at the camera, like he is trying to seduce it, lol.

All in all, I have been watching these two fabulous series and I can see why they are still to this day so loved.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Stressed...

Things went well this week, I already have my bed and refrigerator in my house, and this next weekend I'll move there, I just need to buy some pans and a electric burner, and some other things to cook. But it didn't go smooth. First of all, this past Thursday I had to go to my house because a guy from Telmex was going to put the line for the internet, I had to leave work for an hour, I got there before him and when I got there I noticed that the chain that holds the bars had two locks, and the owner only gave me keys for one, I tried to call her, but her cellphone was unreachable (she told me that she worked in a basement where there was no service).

When I was looking at the lock a kid, I suppose a neighbor, told me that he had a similar lock, that if I wanted to try with his keys, and I told him that they probably wouldn't work, but he went for them anyway, I tried but they didn't work, the kid was asking me things like if I was going to live there, and... some other things that I don't remember :P, he was a little to social for my liking, lol.

When the guy from Telmex arrived I told him about the problem, and that if he could go there again but on Saturday, since I wasn't sure if the owners could go and remove the lock, he said yeah, no problem.

Later that day at my work I was talking with a friend there and told her about what happened, and she told me that it was probably that kid, I didn't want to believe it, why would a kid do that. Even later I received a call from my landlord because I sent her an email about what had happened, she was pretty confused, she told me that she only put one lock, but that she and her husband would go later to remove it.

I was a little stressed because of that, that same day I paid for my bed, I bought it on mercadolibre, supposedly the manufacturer was the one selling it, and I could either pay in cash when I received what I bought, or pay with "mercadopago", I decided to pay that way since I don't like to have money with me, a little big mistake on my part, the contact they gave me (a hotmail email, not even with the name of the manufacturer) told me that I had to mark the sale like it was already finished and that I had received whatever I bought, I was a little hesitant, because it could be easily a fraud even if the seller had many good reviews, luckily it wasn't, but it made me think a lot before doing it, I made a bet, but next time I buy there I'll either pay in cash or wait till I receive it.

That stressed a little too, but what ever, if it was a fraud that's what I get for not taking precautions, I had to take a taxi to go home when the guy from Telmex was going to install my connection, and I didn't realize until later that I didn't have money for the bus for Friday and Saturday, I was thinking of asking my parents or Sergio, or someone else, anyone, more stress, lol, I asked my brother, I sent him a sms but he never replied, I waited till night to ask him in person, and when he got home he lend me some money, he saved my ass, lol.

Friday went like a normal day nothing there, except that my boss sent me an email that we were going to have a meeting at 1:30 on Saturday, and at that time my bed was supposed to arrive, I tried to contact the... contact from the manufacturer and asked if it could be delivered later that day, a few minutes later I got a reply saying that yeah, it was rescheduled for later.

On Saturday I had to be available to go home if the guy from Telmex called me before 1 pm, at that time my landlord was going to be in my house since her and her husband were repairing some things, so they could make sure the line was installed. Unfortunately I got the call at 12:00 pm, so I had to leave my job, I didn't even told my boss, just the receptionist, and I had to take a taxi or a bus, the first thing available. While I was there I called my landlord to check that the lock had been removed, I should have done that before, but I did it just at that moment, she told me that it had already been removed, but they put another one, and that her mom was at the house (she was cleaning the house), so she could attend the guy from Telmex, I went there anyway just to sign the papers that it had been installed, did that and got back to work, it took me like 35 minutes, luckily when I got there I noticed that my boss's car wasn't there. So probably he didn't notice.

When I got there I had to make a call to the guy who sold me his refrigerator, but I just noticed that I never disabled my internet connection that I used to get the names of the streets to tell the taxi to go. It used all my credit (or whatever it is called, lol), I asked if I could make a call to a cellphone from there but the phones from the office are only for land lines, I had to ask a friend there to lend me her phone, she did, and I called to confirm that I was going to buy it from him, and told him that I was going to be at 3:15 at my home, he already had the directions to it.

Later then I was at the meeting I told you, and it lasted a little longer than expected, till 3:00 pm, so when it finished I rushed to my home, when I arrived there my bed was already there, same as the modem (although it didn't have internet, I'll have to check that tomorrow), and the repairs were almost finished, I only had to wait for my refrigerator, a few minutes later the guy called me, that he was on his way but was trying to ask me for directions, I told him that I'm new here, so he was thinking how he could get here, luckily my landlord's husband knew pretty well the area, so I lend him my phone and gave him directions.

He got there and the refrigerator was actually bigger than I thought, it looked pretty well too. So we got it inside the house and I paid him, and that was everything for the day, my stress levels went to normal again. I laid some minutes in my bed, and after 3 months of sleeping in a couch it was glorious, but I had to go, I still had to go to watch a movie and to buy groceries and a hamburger so bad that it would kill me if I ate one each day, lol.

I went to the movies, saw Despicable Me 2, I liked it, then went to buy groceries, and got home at 9:30, then went for my hamburger, and laid while watching Doctor Who (the classic episodes) and chatting with my sister and a friend.

It was stressful, but in the end everything went fine, oh, and my landlord told me that it was the kid that put the lock, that he was trying to help them remove it and that he was a little scared, lol, that little devil, I'll have to keep an eye on him XD

And today I am all achy from my back and legs for everything I did.

This is the view I have near my new house

My new bed before I removed the wrapping

My 5 cubic foot refrigerator