Today Historical Day

The Unites States has elected its first African-American President. What a landslide! An African-American President... something to be so proud of, the United States has gone a long way. Today depicts a desillusioned nation so tired of its present administration and completely ready to make changes.

Will there be a drastic change? Time will tell but I feel sorry for our new Commander in Chief. He has a lot to clean up but above all he must restore trust in this country again and this alone seems unsurmountable.
One thing that has always irked me is the biracial subject. Why do we consider him African-American when he is as much white? Why don't they address Obama as a biracial president. Why does one ethnicity takes precedent to the other when there is a 50% equality? I am still trying to wrap this one around my brain and no one has been able to explain it to me.
Everyone is celebrating such a milestone today and yet there is still a flipside to the story. One could embrace the tolerance but yet 50+ if not many more Millions of Americans are treated like second class citizens and discriminated against. Many propositions in this country backed by the Church appear to be passing and are stripping our citizens of the most basic right ... the right to marry and to adopt children.
I am not a proponent of marriage, but I strongly believe every individual should have the same rights, regardless of their race, gender, and sexual identity. Each individual in this country should have the right to marry should they choose to exercise the right or not. WHO has the right to discrminate against anyone?


Arizona Proposition no. 102 - Ban on Gay marriage - PASSED
Arkansas Intitiative 1 - Ban on Gay Couples adopting children - PASSED
Florida Amendment 2 - Ban on Gay marriage - PASSED
California Proposition 8 - Ban of gay marriage - PASSING


This is a really sad day for tolerance. Most of those propositions were backed by various churches, predominantly the Church of the Latter Saints (Mormons)and the Catholic Church. Since when does the Church has the right to get involved in politics? If they are going to do that, then they should be stripped of their non-profit status and start paying taxes like each one of us. This is sickening!
Like those African-American church folks raising money to give to those propositions.
Did time pass so fast that they forgot when they could not drink from the same water fountain as white people ... Did they forget all the discrimination that happened and is still happening today?
Just because today we have a biracial president doesn't mean that racism doesn't exist anymore. If one wants us to believe that ... who are they fooling?
Ok I get down my soap box and I bid good night. Today left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Last tuesday I laid in the hospital hooked up to monitors, oxygen up my nose and fluids coursing through my veins, thinking of my future and today one week later to the day, I lay here desillusioned about the human race. Oh Well...

Mexico

Everything seems to bring me to Mexico lately. I love the country, Guadalajara is one my favorite cities in the world and I am so glad that my job brings me there.

I was given a staff last week and it happens that they are located in Guadalajara. Therefore I will have to manage them remotely and fly down once a month. Although most of them speak decent english, I must become fluent in Spanish in the next few months. So they got me "Rosetta Stone" and I am on my way to master another language. I love downtown Guadalajara with its Spanish style buildings, its old churches that fill me with so many wonderful memories and the old ornate gazebo standing in the center of the plaza. I cannot wait to return.



Guadalajara is considered the birthplace of the Mariachi, although one can trace the originals to Cocula about 40 miles away. As I love Mariachi and Ranchera singers I always wanted to go to the Mariachi festival there but I missed it this year as it took place at the beginning of September. But I was lucky enough to live in a city that holds the second biggest Mariachi festival, San Jose.

The event lasts for the whole month and pretty much ends at the end of September with a large concert.I never miss it and this year was a tribute to women in Mariachi music, three in particular Lola Beltran, Lucha Reyes and Amalia Mendoza. While those legends are long gone, three contemporary women took their place, Linda Ronstadt, who is also the artistic director for the festival, Aida Cuevas, a world famous ranchera singer, and my most favorite of all Lila Downs, who has one most incredible voices in the world. The concert lasted four hours and was phenomenal.

Crazy Markets

It has been quite a week. The markets have gone crazy, The financial crisis is at its worse since the depression of 1929 and now we have the government wanting to bail out investment companies with our-hard earned tax money. What is wrong with ths picture? Wait a minute I never signed up for this!

Investing in the stock market and any other investment instruments has always been for speculation and was never a sure bet. Pleople do know the risks they take when they invest. If you cannot take the heat get out of the kitchen!

Money markets used to be viewed as secure investments and they used to be, but one must remember that is is still investing and are in no way a savings accounts.The largest money market in the world Reserve Funds with 65 Billions in assets "broke the buck" this week and that is very scary. People got scared because they had 1.2% of Lehman Brothers securities and they received redemption orders amount to 60 billions. If they reimburse all those investors at the same time, there is no way that they can provide full NAV $1 and NAV $.97 as they will have to sell all their lots at a loss, so now everyone is going to have to wait in line as they just filed for an extension with the SEC for settlement of unfulfilled redemptions in addition to the seven days they were already allowed.

Of course, get this, the minimum investment requirement for those fundsi s $10M, so guess who the government is helping bail out? you and me or the big corporations?
Here we go again!!!

Anyway once again this has been a crazy week, my project is coming to an end after 3 months next week. A new one will be starting and I cannot wait. Like my friend tells me it is good for me and will definitely keep me out of trouble and keep me mind occupied.

One good news, I have been waiting for the results of my tests and they came back negative, so no leukemia for me nor blood clotting for me. They had been monitoring me for six months and my latest tests had shown up various abnormalities in my blood. So today I am in the clear; even my cholesterol was normal. I guess working 16 hours a day lately has been good for me LOL... Just kidding.

Update

I haven't had the chance to write on my blog for a long time now and I just noticed yesterday as long it had been. I guess life has happened in so many ways. I have also noticed that I was still getting many visits, so I decided it was time to set time aside and continue writing.

Finally for the first time in my working career, I have found a job that I enjoy immensely... wonderful environment and an amazing boss who has been mentoring me and coaching me for the executive life. I cannot believe that I have there for close to nine months already and it has been quite a ride, exhilarating ... scary at time but what an elating ride. It was all worth it. I have grown immensely in the fact that now I know I can accomplish anything I set my mind to.

Believing and trusting have always been a constant struggle in my life, but I think I am slowly getting there. I still need time though.

The past couples of weeks have been difficult for me. Something everything could be so much simpler with pills or alcohol but I stand here exposed to the world and grappling at an uncertain future. I hope that with time I can fill the void and the emptiness that has engulfed my soul.

But when all seems lost, something comes to save one's heart. The puppy that I am babysitting found a kitten around the corner of my front door and little Casey came into my life... quite unexpectly. The two adore each other and are inseparable, I am now worried on how they are going to react when Yogi will leave. I guess like everything else, Life goes on and no one dies.

How the Corporate World Has Changed

The Corporate World has certainly changed since I first started working. I remember my first job on Wall Street when I had to rush to get to the office right on time to watch my manager look at her watch. I can recall the regimented hours and the obligatory overtime done to ensure that the big boss would see me after six when he would walk up and down the aisles. Today everything is so opposite. Staying late at work has the stigma that one is lacking organization and is unable to manage their workload in the eight hours they have allocated. The number one complain I hear is that many workers are being managed by their work instead of them managing the work causing them to spend most of their day putting out fires.

I must ascertain that I love the valley’s (Silicon) culture. I have my own hours, come in and leave when I please without having to explain why. I can work from home if I wish like I did today. I love being mobile, I find myself so much more productive and looking forward to every day’s new challenge. I can really do my work from anywhere. The only requirement put upon me is that I deliver and complete my projects by the required deadline. Of course my boss is free to call me at any time.

I have refocused my life to concentrate on my career again, it keeps me grounded and focused, which is what I desperately need right now. My new job has many challenges and hurdles, it is quite fast paced and one must keep up, but I enjoy it tremendously and having a great supportive boss is really the icing on the cake.

Yes, I must say the Corporate World has changed tremendously since I first started working… One can only imagine what it will be 10 years from now.

True Artists

I threw away my painting today, will donate my brushes and canvas to some school, which I am sure will make better use of it than I can. Some people are great painters and some are mediocre and I guess I am the latter, so there is no need for me to continue. Let the real artists show true beauty to the world. Someone was scared to give me their honest opinion and told me that they liked it when actually they thought it was a piece of shit. That really shocked me as I have always welcomed feedback and to be afraid of me makes no sense at all. Anyway, I am most likely acting juvenile but I admit I lost something along the way and there cannot be any beauty when there is no soul.

The Peace of Art

I used to paint a long time ago and one day I stopped suddenly. I can’t recall why or when but I never looked back. They say Art is the best form of therapy and I must say that I agree with that quote. I have put my soul inside each photograph that I take and today I did the same with a painting. I felt rusty, I even fought it, but at the end I created and I am basking in the peace that it gave to my troubled mind. I feel feverish in my passion, I feel it coursing through my veins and I must create. I guess the canvasses sitting against the wall will be filled with each of my senses very soon.

Happy New Year to everyone and may your desires and aspirations be fullfilled.