Random Thoughts

University of Puerto Rico in Humacao band, ready for a concert

Today, I will visit the past. In a few weeks’ time, Universities in Puerto Rico will celebrate a sort of Olympics-type competition called Justas de la LAI (Liga Atlética Interuniversitaria, or Inter-university Athletic League). As expected, most of the bands will participate. This year we, the University of Puerto Rico’s Humacao Campus Marching Band, got the chance to go for the first time and participate with the other bands (Mayagüez and Ponce campuses, along with another one I’m not sure which… I’ll update this later!). We each have to make our entrances with our teams as we would do by default in any random activity we do but the different part about all of this is that we will have a sort of intermezzo made of a few members of each of the bands. Today is the first practice for this intermezzo; it will be held in UPR Mayagüez Campus.

Now, here’s the thing. I studied for one year in the Mayagüez Campus. I loved it. I came to Humacao Campus for my second year and didn’t stop praising the Mayagüez Campus for nearly three years! I never felt I was a part of the Humacao Campus until just recently… and still have doubts. What I was studying there is so much more like me than what I’m studying here. Surely, one changes course over time and, since life works in mysterious ways, I now have a love / hate relationship with what I’m studying… but that’s not what I wanted to talk about here.

Yesterday, while working, I told my boss about this, that we’re going to visit El Colegio (as it’s called). Her reply? “Do come back, please. I don’t want you to fall in love all over again. We need you here.” Right… I hadn’t thought about that since she said it. Crap! But, you know, I’m trying not to worry. I’m going with *my* band. This band has certainly become a family to me. If I have to say something that makes me go to college happily, that I do my best in and actually enjoy… well, it’s got to be the band.

But, I don’t know, I’m just here rambling. Don’t know what got into me. I’d surely love to feel like this more often because I actually get to blog, hehe. I don’t know, I just feel weird. Hehehehe.

It is now 5:34 AM and I am getting dressed to go to college. The band will leave to Mayagüez (located in the west side, the other part of Puerto Rico) at 6:30 AM. It’s normally a two-and-a-half hour trip… but since we’re going in a bus, I think, it’ll take lots of time longer. Yes, I’m prepared: iPod is fully charged, with new games and the whole of the Watchmen graphic novel series in the Photo Gallery (lol); I’m also thinking of taking my Electric Circuits book to do exercises… you know, just for the heck of it. But, I don’t know, I’d surely fall asleep since I’m so tired.

Okay, I will call this a blag: blah-blah-blog. Take care, all!

Do you have any experiences in life that are something like mine? Are you afraid to go someplace that might make your feelings go on a roller coaster ride?

It seems the new fad in Facebook is to create Notes with 25 random things you can think about yourself and tag your friends so they can learn a bit about you. Well, I did one of those a few days ago. I was so bored, I ended up writing a couple more than asked for. Just for the heck of it, here they are:

1. I have three “first names”: Raúl Antonio Mario. Raúl is for my father, Antonio Mario for my grandfather on my mother’s side, Domingo Antonio Mario.
2. I’ve worn glasses since I was in first grade, if I’m not mistaken.
3. I once had light blue glasses which I considered being too girly for me. I was in first or second grade. I’m not sure if I lost them or “lost” them.
4. The oldest memories I have are of the day my grandmother on my mother’s side had a heart attack. I remember being at the entrance of her house with some family and neighbors calling my grandmother’s name and her not answering their calls. Dad climbed onto the wall where my grandmother’s room’s windows were as if he were Spiderman: “Está ahí, está en la cama, está ahí”: she’s there, she’s in bed, she’s there. House door was taken with with an axe, I think. Then she was carried away to the hospital. A neighbor of hers a couple of houses down carried me while I saw the ambulance drive away. This was the first day I ever played with LEGO bricks. I was four to five years of age.
5. My shoe size is 13. I’m actually a 12.5 but since that size doesn’t really exist in stores I have to buy 13.
6. I’ve been using computers for ~17 years now.
7. First OS I ever played around with: MS-DOS.
8. I remember telling my mother about what I wanted for Christmas and seeing her type away on the computer. I was amazed at how fast she typed. I was ~5.
9. Computer OSs I’ve used: MS-DOS, Windows (3.11, 95, 98, 98 SE, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, 7], Mac OS [7, 9, 10.0 beta, 10.0, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5], Linux [Ubuntu 6.06-8.10, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, gOS 1.0, Fedora Core 8-10, Damn Small Linux, Yellow Dog Linux, Linpus]. I don’t remember others.
10. I’ve owned three computers: two desktops (Dell, Intel Pentium I 200MHz, 32MB RAM, 2GB HDD, Win 2000; Dell, Intel Pentium 4 HT 2.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, Nvidia GeForce FX5200 128MB, Win XP Pro) and one laptop (MacBook [2,1], black, 13.3″, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM [currently at 2GB], 120GB HDD).
11. I love kids.
12. I’ve worked at my college’s summer camp three times already and am shooting for a fourth one this summer.
13. I play bombardino or baritone horn. It’s a type of brass instrument. I’ve been playing it since ~2001.
14. I’m learning to play the sousaphone and tuba. I will be the sousaphone for the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao marching band.
15. I learned to play music with maestro Germán Peña Haddock. I also learned a bit from maestro German Peña Plaza, his father.
16. I’m a self-declared geek: band geek, technology freak.
17. I love Star Wars.
18. For years I’ve dreamt of designing a car. Pagani brought my dream to reality when they released the Zonda: just like I had dreamt it! (RIP, Zonda)
19. I suck at fighter games.
20. I love zombies.
21. I hate receiving spam. Email, IM, text messages, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blog comments, phone calls. I hate them all.
22. I love dragons.
23. I love capacitive touch screens; hate resistive touch screens.
24. I would love to own an T-Mobile HTC G1 with Google in white.
25. My current workstation is an IBM ThinkCentre connected to a 17″ IBM ThinkVision CRT monitor. This is the longest time I’ve used an IBM computer.
26. I used to want to work for IBM. And NASA. And Lockheed Martin. Now, I don’t know where I might end up.
27. I love Twitter. I’ve been using it for two years now.
28. I love movies: comedy, action, animated, kids, horror.
29. I passionately love cars.
30. My all-time favorite cars, in random order, are: Ferrari F430 Scuderia, Koenigsegg CCX / CCXR, McLaren F1, Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 V-Spec II / Nür, Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, Lamborghini Murciélago LP640, Caparo T1, Ariel Atom, KTM X-BOW, Porsche Cayman S, Porsche 911 GT2, TechArt Porsche GTstreet / GTstreet R… and the list could go on.
31. I never really liked the beach until I snorkeled in Culebra island on July of last year. Fell in love with it.
32. I’m a photography hobbyist. I’d love to practice more and become a professional photographer.
33. I have four cameras of my own: two film SLR (Minolta and Yashica), one digital point-and-shoot (Sony) and one digital SLR (Nikon D60, my precious).
34. My favorite colors are red and black.
35. My favorite colors for cars are bright red and dark / gunmetal grey.
36. I want to learn how to drive a Formula 3 car (yes, I said it right, Formula 3… Formula 1 is another thing).
37. I want to build my own kit car. My eyes are glued to Factory Five’s GTM Supercar, Type 65 Coupe and ‘33 Hot Rod. Incredible kit cars.
38. I type really fast when I’m on a comfortable keyboard.
39. I love orange Tic Tacs. I don’t buy them anymore though.
40. My favorite sodas are: Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Coco Rico, Malta India, Sprite, Coca Cola, Cherry Coke (I miss it so much), A&W Root Beer, and Old Colony pineapple.
41. Whenever I’m at a hotel, I love to go fill up the buckets with ice cubes.
42. I’ve only eaten one Krispy Kreme doughnut. I fell in love with it.
43. I always have to drink a glass of water after brushing my teeth.
44. I love chocolate: milk, dark, white, almond. I like them all.
45. I sometimes wish I had the power of the Force. Yup, I’m a geek.
46. There’s been Internet at home since December 27, 1997.
47. My first wireless Internet experience was with a Mac and an AirPort wireless modem.
48. Some of my favorite video games are: Left 4 Dead, Portal, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario Kart 64, Re-Volt, Gran Turismo 4, and Phantasy Star Online.
49. I started my first blog back in ~2001, following a recommendation by Alejandra Reuhel aka. Miss Narco / n3cr0phelia.
50. I hate it when people change lanes without using their turn signals.
51. I have a 16GB first generation iPod touch I like to call Satisfaction. It’s named after Benny Benassi /The Biz hit song, Satisfaction: “push me, and then just *touch me* til I can get my *satisfaction*,*satisfaction*,*satisfaction*,*satisfaction*,*satisfaction*”.
52. I want an iPod classic in which I can carry all my music collection (and others) around.
53. I’m compulsive with my Mac’s Trash. I can never see papers on the icon, so I empty it out constantly.
54. I’ve met some of my best friends *through the Internet*. That includes you, Awilda.
55. I love black and white photography.

More to come.

This is the beginning. It is not the ending.
It is a new part of my life.
It comes and goes. Swings and flows.
Kind of like working with a putty knife.
Let me be explicit. Don’t worry, I won’t be illicit.

The year 2009 marks a new step in my life, a new beginning. This blog is a small part of this. I will be doing weekly posts as a minimum –life and schoolwork permitting– to try and pick up on blogging. I’ve had a few blogs but I’ve never been one to blog much. Just like I decided to pick up on reading again (I was a huge fan of books as a kid), I’m going to learn and experience other fun or important things to do:

• Blogging, as previously mentioned.
• Reading books, as previously mentioned.
• Monthly vlogging, which I will embed here.
• Twice a month, provide definitions for words I find interesting.
• Keep up my photograph a day project… which reminds me: I’ve got the pictures for the first four days but haven’t uploaded them! I will link to that blog when I have the pictures up.
• Learn about XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript.
• Start a podcast… although not quite necessary, it’s a project me and some friends have been talking about for a few months. It will probably be a video podcast.

I will be updating this list as these things happen, so keep your eyes peeled. It will appear (or does already, by the time you read this) on the navigation bar on top of my blog.

Thanks go out to Nicole for providing me with hosting space and setting up my blog. You go, girl!