ZipCars!

As most of you know, we don't drive a car. We walk/bike to most places. I had a moped I use to get to work when the weather was clear and I worked at the data center, about 12 miles away. But anyway, that is not the point!

ZipCars! It is a company that does community car sharing. Similar to car rentals, but a whole different approach. You pay a sign up fee of $50 and then it is $7/hr or $60/day and it includes gas and insurance and 180 mi. We have used it to go to chicago for weekday concerts(have to come back same day) and for going to pick up Geli's work shoes like 13 miles away.

It is painless and simple! We have a car if we need it, and other people use it when we don't. The closest car to us, which is less than a block away, is a Honda Civic hybrid. Even using it many times a month, it would be less than the cost of owning one. Especially once you factor insurance, gas, maintenance, registration, inspection, etc..

Ideally, it would be great not to drive. And we almost achieve that. But this is a good way to not own a car and still be able to get away every now and then. Truth is that this would even work for many people that have no objections to owning a car, if you need it only occasionally. You have it there when you need it, but no car maintenance, payment, insurance, etc. I know it sounds like a commercial haha but it really is that cool and painless.

Oh! And you get into it with a card, no keys!! How cool is that?!

There I am opening the car with the card! haha

And it is a worldwide program, with cars in London, so maybe we'll rent one while we're out there :) I'll have to learn how to drive on the wrong side of the road!

The speed of light!

I recently read "A briefer history of time" By Stephen Hawking(in record time!), which is an updated and shortened version of his 1988 book "A Brief History of Time". And it was an awesome book! 


But perhaps the part of it that really struck me, was the part where he talks about how we(humanity) figured out that light is not instant. Because, from what we can tell, in our everyday life, light is as good as instant. 


But as most of us know, light, like everything else, takes time to travel, and has a set speed. So this guy by the name of Ole Rømer figured it out in 1676!!! He noticed that the eclipses on Jupiter, were not happening at regular intervals. And as was already known at the time, eclipses always happened at regular intervals. That is how many ancient civilizations, inlcluding the egyptians and the mayans were able to predict eclipses here on earth. They can be predicted because moons orbit their planet at a constant speed, so we can predict their location at any given time. So when he was observing the moons of Jupiter, he noticed they did not occur at regular intervals. It was almost as if they would speed up and slow down at different times. But all known orbits at the time had a constant speed. He realized that as the earth and Jupiter were moving towards each other, the eclipses would 'happen faster'. And as Jupiter and the earth were moving away from each other, the would 'happen slower'. This was puzzling. So he concluded that the reason this was happening is because the light traveling from Jupiter to earth was taking longer to arrive when we were moving away, and less time when moving towards each other! So it wasn't that the moons were speeding up and slowing down. It was that the light had to travel further at times to get to us than at other times. It may sound simple to us now. But if we try to remember that we haven't always known that, it is quite amazing, to me at least. That this guy discovered something that is not obvious to any of us in our daily lives, and most certainly not to any of them back 334 years ago! 


Just for fun, here are some times it takes light to travel from:


Moon to Earth                              1.3 sec
Sun to Earth                               8.3 min
Alpha Centauri(nearest star) to Earth      4.4 years!
Across our galaxy                          100,000 years!
From the Andromeda Galaxy to Earth         2.5 Million years!! 


So apparently, we have learned a lot from Jupiter! I can think of 2 major things right away that revolutionized astronomy. Galileo, in the 1600's confirming that the Earth was not the center of the universe(the catholic church didn't like that!), and that not everything revolved around the earth. He was the first to notice that Jupiter had its own moons, and that they clearly rotated around Jupiter, so clearly, not everything was rotating around the earth. And Ole Rømer realized light was not instant while observing Jupiter. 


So, in conclusion, Jupiter is awesome! I was able to see it when we went stargazing on Saturday Aug 14th to the Bong Recreational Area(that's what the park is called! haha) under really dark skies(for Milwaukee/Chicago area, I remember El Paso skies being darker in the north east and east montana). 

This is more or less what it looks like through my small telescope! 

We looked at it long enough to see one of the moons hide behind Jupiter. And there was some guys there with awesome giant motorized telescopes that had GPS and auto locate objects in the sky! They were awesome! I will get one! Sometime...

I am a dreamer...

As some of you know, I usually don't care much for lyrics. Not sure why. Maybe it is because I have never really liked(or understood) poetry. Or because the music is usually so amazing, that I don't really bother to look into the lyrics. And I am terrible at understanding what the singers are saying usually, no matter who the band is. But there is one song, whose lyrics are so awesome, that I couldn't help but notice. Not just the song, but the lyrics as well. Actually, especially the lyrics. 


Imagine by John Lennon


Imagine there's no Heaven 
It's easy if you try 
No hell below us 
Above us only sky 
Imagine all the people 
Living for today 

Imagine there's no countries 
It isn't hard to do 
Nothing to kill or die for 
And no religion too 
Imagine all the people 
Living life in peace 

You may say that I'm a dreamer 
But I'm not the only one 
I hope someday you'll join us 
And the world will be as one 

Imagine no possessions 
I wonder if you can 
No need for greed or hunger 
A brotherhood of man 
Imagine all the people 
Sharing all the world 

------------------------

I especially love the way A Perfect Circle plays it. I think has a much darker tone, which unfortunately, is more in tune with what reality is. 

Here is a link to it on YouTube...you'll have to put up with the ad if you want to see the official video. Else, just YouTube it, and there are tons of others that haven't been taken down by the record label(yet). 

APC - Imagine

These lyrics represent a large part of my views. I like that :) And yes, I'm a dreamer...But I'm not the only one. 

Concerts!

Okay, so these are a couple months late, but I still wanted to say something about them! So here it goes:


Porcupine Tree - 4/30@The Riviera Theater in Chicago


Wow...Mind blowing! They played the whole "The Incident" album, which took about an hour. This was the 1st half of their set. And I have to say I really like seeing an album live, performed in its entirety! Not only does it bring up memories next time you hear it, but it gives you a whole new way of 'looking' at the album. This album is a great one, and seeing it performed live was impressive! After this, they took a break. 

Porcupine Tree

They returned to play a mix of their older songs. About another hour. They did not play 'Arriving Somewhere But Not Here' my favorite song of theirs, off the 'Deadwing' album. But that is the only thing I would change! 


The set list:



First Set: The Incident
Occam's Razor
The Blind House
Great Expectations
Kneel and Disconnect
Drawing the Line
The Incident
Your Unpleasant Family
The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train
Time Flies
Degree Zero of Liberty
Octane Twisted
The Séance
Circle of Manias
I Drive the Hearse


Second Set
Hatesong
Lazarus
Russia on Ice
Anesthetize
Stars Die
Normal
Bonnie the Cat


Encore:
Blackest Eyes
Trains


All in all, mind blowing concert! To this concert I went with Geli and my work buddies Matt C. and Kevin(who we kinda dragged to last minute haha). Oh and parking was like $2(meter parking, and you can pay with a credit card!) hahaha fools are those that pay astronomical amounts for parking! We had to walk a couple blocks, but we never mind that. 


Them Crooked Vultures - 5/18@The Aragon Theater in Chicago


So this one was a special one. I have been a Dave Grohl fan for as long as I have been into music and hadn't seen him live! I thought back in 2002 that I was going to! He did the drums for the Queens of the Stone Age 'Songs for the Deaf' album and I went to go see them, but he did not drum for them during the tour(it was nonetheless one of the best concerts I have been to!) So this time, when I heard that Dave Grohl on drums, Josh Homme(QOTSA) and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones were teaming up, I had to check it out! I bought the album and really really liked it. So when they were coming to Chicago, it was a no-brainer! We had to go! We bought the tickets over a month ahead of time, and Geli got a job and started 5/17 once we had the tickets and this was in Chicago! But we decided this would be worth not sleeping well....

Dave Grohl pounding away!

Them Crooked Vultures

The performance exceeded my expectations(as if that means anything! haha). They are technically a 'super group'. But in their dedication to what they do, they are a world apart. These guys reminded me what passion for what you do is! You could tell from the way they were playing and enjoying the show that this is what they want to be doing! It was great! They only have one album. They could have just played that, collected their cash and taken off. But they played for about 2 hours! Extending songs, jamming, and just enjoying themselves musically. It was a very enjoyable performance to witness. John Paul Jones is an integral part of this band, he even played keyboards and sang a song on his own at some point. A very interesting show. And I finally got to see Dave live! So much energy to his drumming! 


Setlist: 



No One Loves Me & Neither Do I 
Gunman 
Scumbag Blues 
Dead End Friends 
Elephants 
Highway One 
New Fang 
Bandoliers 
Interlude With Ludes 
Mind Eraser, No Chaser 
Caligulove 
You Can't Possibly Begin To Imagine 
Spinning In Daffodils 
Reptiles 
Warsaw or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up 


This time it was just Geli and I :) and we took a ZipCar to Chicago! Parking again was only a couple dollars at the meter! 

Intense concert week! (Triple concert review!)

This last week was full of concerts!!! We had not been to a concert in over a year probably! Although we had seen some comedians(like Eddie Izzard), but no musicians. And just this last week(in 8 days, to be precise) we saw 3 unique and awesome concerts, all in their own way.

Friday March 26th, 2010 - Stone Temple Pilots at the Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, WI


I was very excited to find out Stone Temple Pilots was back together, on tour, releasing a new album(out in May), and coming to Milwaukee! I have liked them for a long long time. They were never one of my favorite bands, but I have always liked their music, and they were gone for years, and what seemed like it would be forever. I had even seen Army of Anyone, which was the Deleo brothers from STP + the singer from Filter in El Paso and that was cool, but it was no STP haha. So this was something I was definitely looking forward to. "Tab the Band" was the opening act. And they were good, best I can describe them is a 50's Rock and Roll band with a modern sound. It was enjoyable. Then STP came out. Here is the set list they played:

• Vasoline
• Crackerman
• Wicked Garden
• Hollywood Bitch
• Between the Lines
• Hickory Dichotomy
• Big Empty
• Sour Girl
• Creep
• Plush
• Interstate Love Song
• Bagman
• Huckleberry Crumble
• Sex Type Thing
• Dead and Bloated (Partial)
• Lounge Fly (Partial)
• Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart

It was an awesome concert. Scott Weiland was talking gibberish and mumbling in between songs, but I had never seen him before, so I didn't know if that's just how he was. For the most part, he sang well and I didn't think much of anything was wrong. Then Dead and Bloated started, and it all went to hell...They must  have been about a minute and a half into it, and then Weiland was just lost. He kept singing the same verse over and over, even when it was time for the chorus. The sound man tried to fix it by lowering the volume of his microphone, but there was no hiding it. The Deleo brothers kept trying to go back to the part Weiland was singing, but they lost Eric Kretz(drummer) in the process. They even completely stopped to see where Weiland was at, and then tried to play to what he was singing! Weiland was completely oblivious to any of this(or so it seemed) he just kept on singing and dancing like nothing was wrong.The band just gave up...The band(except for Weiland) was clearly pissed. Robert Deleo removed Weiland's ear monitor and yelled something in his ear, and then they started 'Lounge Fly'. It started well. But then again, about a minute into it, Weiland got lost again, and just kept on singing. The rest of the band desperately tried to salvage the song. The Deleo brothers stopped playing, and let Eric try to find where Weiland was at, and then they tried to play along to weiland, but it was a disaster. The band left Weiland on stage, and he kept on singing like they didn't just destroy two songs that they have been playing for almost 20 years!! Finally Weiland got off the stage, and I don't know what they did back there, but they came back on and played 'Trippin' and they played it pretty well, especially considering what they had just done to the previous two songs! This is just sad and pathetic, all at the same time. I mean I feel bad for the rest of the band that they have to deal with this at this point in their careers. But at the same time, they should not be putting back together a band that cannot deliver. We must have spent over $90 on the 2 tickets, and while they did give an almost complete concert, a professional, international band should not be doing this. It is unprofessional and unacceptable. I really like STP, and Weiland is an awesome singer, but man, what a loser. You have one of the dream jobs of the world. Lead singer in a world-class rock band, and you can't get your shit together. I mean, he is no kid, he must be well into his 40's...but anyway, enough about Weiland. Despite the mishaps, it was an overall great concert! I am really glad that I got to see Stone Temple Pilots :)

Tuesday March 30th, 2010 - Puscifer at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, WI

Okay, this was a show that we decided to go to because we were curious. We were almost not gonna go. I had heard a few of the tracks on their website, and it was interesting. I noticed my taste in music is beginning to broaden. On the album, they have a lot of electronic sounds and samples. Something that would have immediately turned me off from the band a few years ago. But I would listen to their music they have up on their website at work while I was working and it grew on me. We ordered their CD, and gave it a listen. I still had no idea what to expect live. Just Maynard with a keyboard/synth and a DJ? A couple musicians + Maynard? I really had no clue. And I was in for a surprise. Neil Hamburger opened the show, a comedian(anti-comedian actually haha). And his jokes were so abrasive and tasteless that it was funny. He must have done 15 minutes of RHCP and Anthony Kiedis jokes, a good 5 minutes of Courtney Love jokes and he also had the time to do some Madonna, 311, and I don't know what other jokes. And he also destroyed anyone's attempt at heckling, this guy was something else haha I have never seen anything like it. Then Puscifer came out, and wow...

It was like a huge Saturday Night Live show, but with a band playing to most of the skits. There was 7 musicians total, of which there was usually 4-6 playing at one time. A female singer that took center stage with Maynard, the Primus drummer, and some other musicians that I was not familiar with their other bands. It was almost as if there was a movie/skit going on and they were the soundtrack to it. There was a couch and tables, and a laptop on stage(front and center) that the musicians that were not playing during a certain song would sit at and drink some wine.
And the TV that Maynard and the girl would sing behind were really cool. 

The music was just amazing. I would never have guessed it, but this is one of the best concerts I have ever been to. It was that good. In Maynard we trust lol. What a contrast from what I had just seen the previous Friday. At least when it comes to being a professional.

Saturday April 3rd, 2010 - Judgement Day at Ronny's in Chicago, IL

We first saw Judgement Day open up for Dredg last year here in Milwaukee at the Rave and it was nothing short of mind blowing! They were impressive, and different. They are an instrumental trio. Violin + cello + drums = greatness! They just released a new album that they put out themselves(check them out at stringmetal.com, like really, go!) and were on a national tour. So we decided to get some bus tickets and make the trip to Chicago to go see them. These guys are not on a label and from talking to Anton(violinist) at the show, they are not looking for one, which was very interesting. This show was at a local bar, your normal local venue. I had not been to a local type show since I was living in El Paso over 2 years ago and played w/Scenic Drive. It was cool to see another one again. A girl singer/guitar player opened up. Then there was a band called Girls in Trouble from Brooklyn, NY which was very interesting. They had no drums(except for a bucket bass drum), a stand-up bass, an accordion, and 2 girls that would play violin, guitar, and these little bell/xylophone type things. What I found most interesting was the subjects of their songs! They wrote their songs about the atrocities that happen to women in the bible(Judges 11 was one of the stories). I mean, that sounds like something I would write about! I never expected to find a band fronted by girls that wrote about that! Then this local band whose name I do not know played, and reminded me of Alphabetter a little, except much heavier. And then Judgement Day came on. And wow...they are such an awesome band. 

I really wish they had more of a following wherever they went, they really deserve it. But we can't even get Mari and Sergio to go to the show in Las Cruces!! So I can see why that happens...they didn't play as long as I would have liked, but it was an awesome show nonetheless!


Here are a few videos of the show as recorded from our camera haha

There was an couple issues on this Chicago trip. One, it was raining when we left Milwaukee, so we changed into our waterproof/snow boots(something we never needed in El Paso lol). And well, one of my boots had a malfunction and a part of the insole gave my foot a blister so it made it uncomfortable to walk haha. But we still walked the 10 or so miles around Chicago. The other issue was the hotel...we finally made it to a hotel near the downtown bus station around 3am and the hotel that Geli got an online rate of $80/night for was actually $125...this was after stopping at a couple more on the way that were also outrageously expensive. We were way too tired and decided to pay it anyway. It was Sophie's birthday on Sunday and we didn't want to be completely exhausted, sleepy, and moody on her birthday. It still feels like such a rip off since we were out by 9am. But oh well, it was still an awesome trip! 


As far as restaurants go, we ate at 3 places. One was Karyn's on Green which was awesome! An all vegan fancy restaurant! It was delicious. Then the after the show plan went awry when the restaurant we were going to eat at was closed. Well the place was open as a bar, but the kitchen was closed.  And vegan in Chicago is a common term, and even those restaurants that are not vegan friendly are familiar with the term, which is more than can be said of El Paso for example. When you go eat in El Paso as a vegan no one has a clue what that even is! It is funny and sad. But at J. Wellington's in Chicago they were very nice and despite not having anything but fries that was vegan(they also had a tofu burger, but the breading was not vegan)they offered to cook something up for us. They ended up making us some sauteed tofu that was not breaded with onions and tomatoes. It was really good. In the morning, we were too tired to look for a restaurant and we were short on time, so we just got a veggie Mediterranean sandwich from Panera and a couple bagels. Then off to Milwaukee we were :)

These last 8 days were awesome! Concerts we will never forget! A nice break from routine is always welcome. And now, we have Porcupine Tree on 4/30 and then Them Crooked Vultures on 5/18! Those should be stellar performances as well!

Finally...

It took me a long time, but I finally feel like I know what I want. I feel like I finally know what I want to be when I "grow up". Like I finally know what I should have been looking for in life all along. Like I finally know what questions to ask. I feel like I finally know what I am passionate about...


Okay, so I'm "grown up" already, at least physically I am. And some of these are obvious to some people. But they were not to me. I had to search and learn to find what really interested me. When I was younger I was really into music, but I did not see a stable future there. I was good at math and science, but nothing was overly interesting. I really don't think I cared about much. I was just cruising by. What a waste of time(at least academically) that was...


So where do I start? Well, the easy one. What do I want to be when I "grow up"? Quick answer, a scientist. An Evolutionary Biologist, to be precise. Science enhances your life everyday in countless ways. I want to be part of that discovery. Researching what we don't know, or learning more about what we don't know much about. Astronomy comes a close second. But I think despite both being fascinating, Biology is still a bit more interesting to me. What can be more fascinating than the study of life?! Haha, I know most people don't agree. But that's the whole point, now I know what interests me.  

Does this mean that I hate where I am at, or what I am doing? Not at all. I like IT and it is also interesting. And I am doing well in IT. IT is just not as interesting as Biology now is to me. I just wish I would have known this when I was 17! haha But I was a foolish teenager. For some strange reason, I took pride in not reading! 

I did everything I could to get out of reading, whether it be text books, novels in English class(Cliff notes were enough to pass most of the time lol), or anything really. I did the least amount of reading I could to get by. I am pretty sure that is why I never felt very interested in anything I was doing. And now, I don't have enough time in the day to do the reading I would like to! I spent my whole time at school(minus the last year at NMSU) with the wrong mentality. I will most likely go back to school sometime in the near future. It shouldn't take me a full 4 years to get a degree, considering I have my basics and plenty of math and science courses from my electrical engineering days. Even if it does, I will enjoy learning this time, and I won't fight it, or see it as a drag. I look forward to it. For now, I will continue to learn about Biology, Astronomy, Technology, and whatever else I can. 


I have changed a lot in the last few years in many respects...

Door to Door Rocking!

I'm not sure why, but a few days ago I was remembering how Paco and I came to hear of Tenacious D. We first saw one of their HBO specials and immediately liked them. In case you do not know who Tenacious D is, it is a comedy rock band(more like a duo), consisting of actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass. And the HBO specials is  all we heard from Tenacious D for a long time. I recorded all the episodes on the DVR and we enjoyed watching them a lot! The sasquatch episode was probably our favorite! Paco figured them out on guitar, and he and his friend Greg would go door to door rocking to people's houses! I was never brave enough to go with him. 

I want to guess that this was sometime in 2004 maybe? Paco was developing his drum skills at the time and was beginning to feel confident about his drumming. And in the sasquatch episode, they recruit sasquatch to play drums for them, except he sucks and ruins the songs. And since the way they do the episodes has an autobiographical feeling to it(the D's rise to power, as they call it haha), I think Paco interpreted that to mean that they were seeking a drummer, and they had not succeeded. He was making a plan to see if he could somehow audition for Tenacious D and be their drummer! Since they seemed like a band that was not very popular(everyone we talked to about Tenacious D had no idea who they were), it seemed somewhat plausible that this could be the case. Obviously, we knew very little about Tenacious D at the time!

We really liked them. I am not sure why we never bothered to check to see if they had recorded any albums. I guess we didn't really take them seriously? haha Then one day I was at Best Buy, and I saw that Tenacious D had an album! So I immediately bought it, and started listening to it in the car on the way home. And wow! To my surprise, pretty much all the songs had a full band to them! Bass, drums, the works! I had to call Paco and tell him the this, so I did. He was a little bummed out of course, but what cheered him up was that the drummer they got for their album at least was none other than Dave Grohl!! In case you are not familiar with who that is, he was Nirvana's drummer, and is also the guitarist and singer for Foo Fighters(now he is playing drums for Them Crooked Vultures, good stuff! Check them out). So I mean, to be fair, he never had a chance haha If they can get Dave Grohl for their drummer, they were not struggling to find one, at all. 

I am not sure why this came to mind recently :) good times though!!! Good Times indeed! 

The Moon!!!

So I have known for a while, as most people probably do, that we only see one side of the moon here from earth.

But it was not until last night that I finally "saw" how and why! It was so exciting!! haha I know, I'm such a geek! It was very discouraging at first because I read the 1st sentence about it in an astronomy book we have and it was really hard to picture what the book was saying. Here is that sentence:

The moving sun
Because earth spins on its axis every 23 hours 56 minutes, but also moves more than 2.5 million km along its orbit in that time, each point on our planet's surface must spin a little further each day to return to the same point in relation to the Sun - and as a result, a full 'day' in solar terms takes 24 hours.

This was one of those things where I read it, I understand what the words mean individually, but I do not understand the concept it was trying to explain. But then I thought about it a lot and discussed it with Geli and used a soccer ball and a beach ball as visual aids to act out what the book was saying and it worked! It made sense. I mean, that sentence specifically was not talking about the moon, but it was the key to "seeing" what the book was trying to explain. It is no longer a fact I accept because I'm told, but now I understand why!! It is a very liberating feeling. I understand the difference between an earth day and a solar day now. I will definitely be reading that book now. 

The reason we only see one side of the moon is because it takes the same amount of time for the moon to spin on its axis as it does to complete its orbit around the earth. Again, it is one of those things that, at least for me, I had to use the soccer and beach balls to be able to visualize and understand it. And the reason that the moon's orbit and rotation times have synchronized is because of the earth's gravity constantly tugging at the moon. Understanding this really felt like some sort of epiphany haha. 

the 2 sides of the moon

It is a very satisfying and fulfilling feeling, at least for me, to understand the world around us the best I can, and to continually learn more about our world and our universe.


I hope to be able to use the telescope a lot more this year. We have a lot of things to look at and learn :)

Impossible client request...

So the other day at work I get this client who had no idea what she wanted, yet I still was able to resolve her issue. This is more or less how it went:>


Me: "VCPI this is Jesus"

Client: "Yes, I think I just deleted something by accident, can you help me get it back?"



Me: "That depends on what it was and how it was deleted. What did you delete?"

Client: "I don't know".



Me: "What do you mean you don't know?"

Client: "Well, it was on my screen, and now it is not, can you bring it back?"



Me: "Well, what was it? A Word document? A Spreadsheet? An email? A webpage?

Client: "I don't know"



Me: "What was it for? What were you doing with it? Did you create this file?"

Client: "I don't know. It was a spending file I think" (she worked in the Business office, so that didn't help much, although at this point I was pretty sure she didn't create this file, since she knows nothing about it)



Me: "Do you know where you got this file from? Was it in the facility or global shared network drives? In 'My Documents'? Where did it come from?"

Client: "I'm not sure. So can you get it back?"



Me: "I need to know what it was in order to try and get it back for you. I can't get something for you if I don't know what it is"

Client: "Well, I was looking at it and then it was gone."



Me: "Yes, but what were you looking at? I realize that it is gone, but for me to get it back, I need to know what it was you were looking at."

Client: "I'm not sure, because I had just opened it".



Me: "Okay, let me shadow in on your screen."

Client: "Okay"



Me: **Looking through her desktop**

Client: "I really hope you can find it, because else, my boss will be upset at me"



Me: "So did your boss send you this file?"

Client: "I think so"



Me: **Opens up her email** "What is your boss's name?"

Client: "Wanda"



Me: **Looks for emails from Wanda with attachments, shows her the most recent one, which has a spend down spreadsheet attached and opens the spreadsheet** "Is this the file you were looking for?"

Client: "Yes!!!!!!!!! It is! Thanks so much! What happened?"



Me: "I'm not sure what happened, but there it is. My guess is that you just viewed the file in Outlook, without saving it to your desktop, and then forgot that it came in the email"

Client: "Oh...okay. Thanks!"



Me: "Have a good day"





I think she should have given me a tip for this! haha I mean I found what she was looking for and she didn't even tell me what it was! No waiter can do that! Usually I wouldn't even have started looking for something that the client can't even tell me what it is. I don't even know why I started looking, so I kind of surprised myself there. I guess I was in a really good mood or something.


In conclusion, I think IT staff should be able to get tips! haha Because, as you will probably agree, this request was not one that she could reasonably expect someone to resolve for her.

Treachery! No taxation without representation!

Okay, so maybe this is more of a rant than a blog...but still, I feel that this is a treachery! How quickly this country forgets the ideas that it was founded on. Although in this case, I feel it is not forgetfulness, or even hypocrisy, but actual treachery! I'll explain...


As most of you may or may not know, Angelica and I are at odds with the ways of this country. Unfortunately, this is with most of the things this country does, at least the main and probably most important ones in our view. We disagree with its approach to health care, which to make things short should be a human right, not based on insurance, employment, money, pre-existing conditions, but on your health-care needs. <---Period. Of course I don't feel comfortable in a system that devotes such a huge part of its national budget to "defense" which is actually more like "attack". The educational system in this country is a joke(not a very funny one). So is its environmental policy(this one is also not funny). Separation of church and state is headed backwards instead of towards a true separation. This country places corporations before people. I can go on and on....the point is, that unlike most people that just talk and talk, we actually wanted to do something about it. GET OUT! Yes, we want to move out of this country. You hear people say "If you don't like it, get out!". And that is exactly what we want to do. Except, here is what is really treacherous. And I quote from the IRS.gov website:

"If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules for filing income, estate, and gift tax returns and paying estimated tax are generally the same whether you are in the United States or abroad. Your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside."


I don't know if you follow the treachery of what this means. But it is saying that even if I live in ANY other country, and work for a foreign company, the US still taxes me just because I am or was at one point a US citizen! What???!!! This country went up in arms because of this very same principle! The United States fought England because they were being taxed, but not represented! No taxation without representation!! There was a revolution in this country over this!!! That was one of the slogans!! Did they forget this already? How is this any different? If I am living in Mexico, France, Costa Rica, Canada, the moon, doesn't matter. The US is no longer representing me, so why are they taxing me?!?!?!?!?!?!?! And get this, it is illegal to denounce your US citizenship for tax reasons. what?! Is hating most of what this country stands for a valid reason? And yet another catch. Even after you denounce your citizenship, you are still responsible for paying the US taxes for 10 years!!! And of course the US has income tax treaties with over 42 other countries. Now, both the IRS and the foreign taxing authorities can exchange information on their citizens living in the other country. What this means is that if I choose not to pay the US taxes when I move away, the local authorities may choose to arrest me for "tax evasion" and turn me over to the US...

Can anyone explain to me how it is fair to tax someone you don't provide anything to?! "If you don't like it, get out of this country!" doesn't really work when you can't get out of this country unless you want to pay double taxes! This is really upsetting...why does the US get away with anything it wants?! Why is it so hypocritical? Or is this seriously just ill intentioned? How does it seem acceptable to violate the very same principles you take so much pride of being founded upon? And what can be done about this? Can laws that screw the few people that are leaving this country even get the necessary legal push behind them to be changed? This affects no one that plans to stay in this country...which is like 99.999% of people in this country. This country won't even change a healthcare system that is hurting millions, how can this possibly get any attention?! This really makes me consider becoming a "rebel" and living under the radar of the US. I utterly refuse to pay the US taxes when I am no longer here. Why should I?! If anyone can please rationally explain why it is my duty to do so, please do! I am trying to make sense of this, but I can only conclude that this is a treacherous country...and I truly wish I was not part of it.