*Restricted to the Gregorian Solar Calendar. Variations between time zones and cultures may apply. Batteries not included.
Yup, it's January again. (I didn't really see you soon, did I blog? :S ) Month of beginnings, according to the Gregorian Calendar. Did you know it's still Christmas back in the 'ole Julian Calendar? I just found out that the only difference between these two calendars is that, in the Julian calendar, a year is considered (on average) 365.25 days long, and in the Gregorian Calendar, it's considered 365.2425 days long. Cause of all the leap-year rules and stuff. Summary of leap-year rules below:
(The last rule ROCKS!!! It allowed me to have uninterrupted 4-year intervals between ALL of my birthdays (so far), even through our last transition between the milennia!!)
What differentiates 365- and 366-day years is, of course, whether they contain February 29 (YEAH!!!!) as one of their days. So that's about it. It's now January for most of us "modern" citizens of the world, Christmas for Old-Style Orthodox churches, and month 12 of the year WuZi according to some online chinese calendar converter I found on Google.
Speaking of January, there was a venetian guy who painted the following:
and named it "January". I guess it depicts winter-activities... I like the realism achieved by it. Except for the guy (angel?) coming down in a cloud at the top. And for the fact that it only seems to apply to northern-hemisphere areas, of course.
Wikipedia also told me that the name "January" comes from Janus, the roman god of doorways, beginnings, and endings, and that also based on that name is the word "janitor", who nowadays is supposed to take care of halls and doorways. Sort of.
Anyway... with a new year comes with a new life. Really? No, not really. But it does come with lots of anthropocentric reminders of a lot of cycles occurring all around us - the changing seasons, avian migratorial patterns, non-human-animal reproductive and behavioral cycles, annual taxes, anniversaries of special occasions and holidays, more reminders of our constant aging, and more.
This annual renewal has also persuaded me to resume my blogging again, for which I am glad. Many months have passed since my last entry, and many formerly-fresh experiences have now faded into the blurry past. Quite a shame too, since I've had an intense last few months in several aspects. But I've restricted myself not to post about some of those aspects here, so some will be excluded.
Looking back through my blog, it seems I've neglected to even mention some of my main events. Well, I believe a summary will have to do for most of it:
As part of the dev team for one of our projects last year, I got to travel to several different parts of the country:
I traveled to Scranton, PA 2 or 3 times during the summer (during which we stayed at the Hilton, which was very nice because they had an indoor, bigger-than-most-hotel-pools swimming pool next to a big hot tub, an awesome breakfast buffet every morning, a piano for everyone to play on the second floor directly over the lobby, and it was immediately next to a GREAT nightclub called Olympus or something like that, where under the influence of Red Bull I would talk and dance my stress and nights away with all these tourist New Yorker girls that seemed to party there every weekend with flashy dresses and fashion styles) for a major deployment on a new facility. One of the remarkable memories about that facility was the time when we went into the facility's freezer area to perform tests and to replace a piece of hardware. It was COLD in there. -20F is enough to make your bare nose freeze from the inside almost instantly, numb the tips of your extremities in under 3 minutes, and activate your inner survival instinct after 10, right around when a dizzy brain and the loss of balance make you wonder if you'll still manage to reach the EXIT door in a conscious state.
The city and countryside around it were nice, but not truly spectacular, so I took very few pictures of the place. I think having forgotten the camera back in Austin, TX was also an influencing factor. There was only this one foggy, humid morning during which I looked out the right car window, and the forest to our right appeared to be smoking with steam. "Smoking Trees" was my thought, and I posted it on my GTalk status for several days.
The next important deployment I went to took place in Memphis, TN, even though our hotel was located in Southaven, MS. This deployment took a little less than 2 weeks, and it happened right before my first trip to Pittsburgh, which I believe is more thoroughly narrated in other entries. I also passed through Chicago to visit my family too, and though I ended up paying an extra $200 to get back from Pittsburgh... oh well, that's another story.
So one of the deployment places I haven't yet blogged about is Concord, NH. We were (so very) lucky to arrive during the Fall season, because it is then that the trees' leaves there change colors and render a magnificent display for everyone to admire. I don't think I can describe it well enough with text, and as you know, a JPEG is worth 2^10 words, so:
Blurry picture of colored trees minutes before landing:
Felled leaves next to Louis' legs:
Nice combination of colors next to Dimitris' Pizzeria:
And now the ad:
*More pics available at http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/FireTrees
So the deployment itself went very smoothly. The customer was happy, we got to rest almost-decent amounts of time each night at the hotel, and I was even able to return to Austin two days early before Halloween. Everything was good. There weren't any nightclubs next to the hotel, but there was a fancy restaurant called "The Common Man" with a rustic theme that served quite delicious meals and breakfast buffets, where we sometimes went to feed our hungry selves.
If I recall correctly, the second deployment to NH was the first leg of a two-stop tour through two facilities, the second of which was located in Longmont, CO. It was still technically Fall, I believe, but what was falling this time was snow and rain. The air was usually at about 20F, and I got to walk outside while it was 11F. It became an important nicety to warm up the car for everyone else several minutes before we drove off. Weather must've been colder/moister this winter than on past winters because, on the day we left for Colorado, there were reports everywhere about hundreds of thousands of people in New Hampshire having outages due to broken power lines all throughout the state, leaving them in danger of freezing (to death). One night we left the facility, and it was stinging cold and raining. Oscar, Jason, and I got into the SUV, and the windows were all covered in ice. Jason and Oscar buzzed down their windows, and the layer of ice outside remained intact, making a perfect ice window. They didn't seem to think it was very impressive, because then they just smashed the ice down, and then buzzed them back up. Too bad I didn't take a picture - it was really cool (truthfully).
So after Concord, NH came Longmont, CO. We flew off on Dec 12th in the morning, and when I found out I had a layover in Chicago, I called my dad and asked him if he could come over to the airport for about an hour so we could meet for a lil while. And he did! So we met, hugged, bought some milk and chips to eat, talked for about 40 minutes, and then I ran off (really) to catch my second flight going to Denver, CO, only to find out that the flight had been delayed and that there really wasn't that much reason to run like I did.
When we got to Denver, CO, we went outside, suitcases and all, and waited for the Budget shuttle to arrive. It took a LONG time to get there. I'd say at least half an hour - we saw at least 2 shuttles from every other rental car company pass by before a Budget shuttle picked us up. We were cold and bored, but at least we were happy, as shown by the following picture:
The CO deployment was even smoother than the NH one, and we even received praise and thanks from the facility workers in the form of comments like "Now I love my job". That was good to hear. However, what I remember the most about this trip is the scenery. Boulder, CO itself already has an impressive landscape, with the Rockies beside it and everything. But then it SNOWED. And the whole world was covered in WHITE. And it was AWESOME!! (See below)
It was AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. Snow-White
trees.
*See link for more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/WholeWhiteWorld
After the NH-CO tour, I came back to Austin, stayed here about a week (during which I went to karaoke with a lot of people from work and had a great time eating lots of homemade pizza at Nicole's Christmas Eve party), then flew away and visited my mom and my dad and my brother and my aunt and my uncle and my cousin and my dad's pet dove and my aunt's pet dogs in Chicago and went running to the lakeshore with two of my bros and went all the way up to the Sears tower's skydeck to see the view and spent some nice family time with all of them for about five days. I spent a considerable amount of my time in Chicago reading "Pillars of the Earth" and playing Heroes of Might and Magic III with my bro, but I also watched some Redbox movies (Ironman, Wall-E, Stardust) with the rest of the family while we ate cookies and chips and drank coffee with milk. I spent New Year's Eve peacefully with my mom and dad. It was a fun week overall.
The night before I left back to Austin, my sister (who's been travelling around the world and who was in Vietnam at that time) called and surprised us saying that she would be back in Chicago the next morning. "How coincidental", I thought, and so I went with my dad and my bro to pick her up at the O'Hare airport and tell her "hey" before I left for my flight back to Austin at the Midway Airport. It was nice to see her again too.
So then, let's see... I came back to Austin, spent my weekend away, and then... vacation time was over. Office time came again. And so... I've been coming to the office every day since then. And... that's what happened. More or less.
I also ran about 7 miles two nights ago because I had gained a lot of weight. I now weigh 166lb, and though that's an improvement on the previous 169 (13^2), it could still get a lot better.
So, I know, this blog entry was kind of sloppy. But I'm kind of in a hurry. Maybe some parts of it will be refined afterwards. But for now, it'll have to do. Bye!
P.D: For anyone curious enough to wonder what this entry's title means but not curious enough to figure it out for him/herself,
Yup, it's January again. (I didn't really see you soon, did I blog? :S ) Month of beginnings, according to the Gregorian Calendar. Did you know it's still Christmas back in the 'ole Julian Calendar? I just found out that the only difference between these two calendars is that, in the Julian calendar, a year is considered (on average) 365.25 days long, and in the Gregorian Calendar, it's considered 365.2425 days long. Cause of all the leap-year rules and stuff. Summary of leap-year rules below:
| Example | Applies to |
|---|---|
| The year 1801 contains 365 days. | Gregorian, Julian |
| The year 1804 contains 366 days because it's a multiple of 4. | Gregorian, Julian |
| The year 1900 contains 365 days because, although it's a multiple of 4, it's also a multiple of 100 | Gregorian |
| The year 2000 contains 366 days because, although it's a multiple of 100, it's also a multiple of 400. | Gregorian |
What differentiates 365- and 366-day years is, of course, whether they contain February 29 (YEAH!!!!) as one of their days. So that's about it. It's now January for most of us "modern" citizens of the world, Christmas for Old-Style Orthodox churches, and month 12 of the year WuZi according to some online chinese calendar converter I found on Google.
Speaking of January, there was a venetian guy who painted the following:
and named it "January". I guess it depicts winter-activities... I like the realism achieved by it. Except for the guy (angel?) coming down in a cloud at the top. And for the fact that it only seems to apply to northern-hemisphere areas, of course.Wikipedia also told me that the name "January" comes from Janus, the roman god of doorways, beginnings, and endings, and that also based on that name is the word "janitor", who nowadays is supposed to take care of halls and doorways. Sort of.
Anyway... with a new year comes with a new life. Really? No, not really. But it does come with lots of anthropocentric reminders of a lot of cycles occurring all around us - the changing seasons, avian migratorial patterns, non-human-animal reproductive and behavioral cycles, annual taxes, anniversaries of special occasions and holidays, more reminders of our constant aging, and more.
This annual renewal has also persuaded me to resume my blogging again, for which I am glad. Many months have passed since my last entry, and many formerly-fresh experiences have now faded into the blurry past. Quite a shame too, since I've had an intense last few months in several aspects. But I've restricted myself not to post about some of those aspects here, so some will be excluded.
Looking back through my blog, it seems I've neglected to even mention some of my main events. Well, I believe a summary will have to do for most of it:
PA & NH & CO Deployments!!
As part of the dev team for one of our projects last year, I got to travel to several different parts of the country:
I traveled to Scranton, PA 2 or 3 times during the summer (during which we stayed at the Hilton, which was very nice because they had an indoor, bigger-than-most-hotel-pools swimming pool next to a big hot tub, an awesome breakfast buffet every morning, a piano for everyone to play on the second floor directly over the lobby, and it was immediately next to a GREAT nightclub called Olympus or something like that, where under the influence of Red Bull I would talk and dance my stress and nights away with all these tourist New Yorker girls that seemed to party there every weekend with flashy dresses and fashion styles) for a major deployment on a new facility. One of the remarkable memories about that facility was the time when we went into the facility's freezer area to perform tests and to replace a piece of hardware. It was COLD in there. -20F is enough to make your bare nose freeze from the inside almost instantly, numb the tips of your extremities in under 3 minutes, and activate your inner survival instinct after 10, right around when a dizzy brain and the loss of balance make you wonder if you'll still manage to reach the EXIT door in a conscious state.
The city and countryside around it were nice, but not truly spectacular, so I took very few pictures of the place. I think having forgotten the camera back in Austin, TX was also an influencing factor. There was only this one foggy, humid morning during which I looked out the right car window, and the forest to our right appeared to be smoking with steam. "Smoking Trees" was my thought, and I posted it on my GTalk status for several days.
The next important deployment I went to took place in Memphis, TN, even though our hotel was located in Southaven, MS. This deployment took a little less than 2 weeks, and it happened right before my first trip to Pittsburgh, which I believe is more thoroughly narrated in other entries. I also passed through Chicago to visit my family too, and though I ended up paying an extra $200 to get back from Pittsburgh... oh well, that's another story.
So one of the deployment places I haven't yet blogged about is Concord, NH. We were (so very) lucky to arrive during the Fall season, because it is then that the trees' leaves there change colors and render a magnificent display for everyone to admire. I don't think I can describe it well enough with text, and as you know, a JPEG is worth 2^10 words, so:
Blurry picture of colored trees minutes before landing:
Felled leaves next to Louis' legs:
Nice combination of colors next to Dimitris' Pizzeria:
And now the ad:
*More pics available at http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/FireTrees
So the deployment itself went very smoothly. The customer was happy, we got to rest almost-decent amounts of time each night at the hotel, and I was even able to return to Austin two days early before Halloween. Everything was good. There weren't any nightclubs next to the hotel, but there was a fancy restaurant called "The Common Man" with a rustic theme that served quite delicious meals and breakfast buffets, where we sometimes went to feed our hungry selves.
If I recall correctly, the second deployment to NH was the first leg of a two-stop tour through two facilities, the second of which was located in Longmont, CO. It was still technically Fall, I believe, but what was falling this time was snow and rain. The air was usually at about 20F, and I got to walk outside while it was 11F. It became an important nicety to warm up the car for everyone else several minutes before we drove off. Weather must've been colder/moister this winter than on past winters because, on the day we left for Colorado, there were reports everywhere about hundreds of thousands of people in New Hampshire having outages due to broken power lines all throughout the state, leaving them in danger of freezing (to death). One night we left the facility, and it was stinging cold and raining. Oscar, Jason, and I got into the SUV, and the windows were all covered in ice. Jason and Oscar buzzed down their windows, and the layer of ice outside remained intact, making a perfect ice window. They didn't seem to think it was very impressive, because then they just smashed the ice down, and then buzzed them back up. Too bad I didn't take a picture - it was really cool (truthfully).
So after Concord, NH came Longmont, CO. We flew off on Dec 12th in the morning, and when I found out I had a layover in Chicago, I called my dad and asked him if he could come over to the airport for about an hour so we could meet for a lil while. And he did! So we met, hugged, bought some milk and chips to eat, talked for about 40 minutes, and then I ran off (really) to catch my second flight going to Denver, CO, only to find out that the flight had been delayed and that there really wasn't that much reason to run like I did.
When we got to Denver, CO, we went outside, suitcases and all, and waited for the Budget shuttle to arrive. It took a LONG time to get there. I'd say at least half an hour - we saw at least 2 shuttles from every other rental car company pass by before a Budget shuttle picked us up. We were cold and bored, but at least we were happy, as shown by the following picture:
The CO deployment was even smoother than the NH one, and we even received praise and thanks from the facility workers in the form of comments like "Now I love my job". That was good to hear. However, what I remember the most about this trip is the scenery. Boulder, CO itself already has an impressive landscape, with the Rockies beside it and everything. But then it SNOWED. And the whole world was covered in WHITE. And it was AWESOME!! (See below)
It was AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. Snow-White
trees.*See link for more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/antoniojl/WholeWhiteWorld
After the NH-CO tour, I came back to Austin, stayed here about a week (during which I went to karaoke with a lot of people from work and had a great time eating lots of homemade pizza at Nicole's Christmas Eve party), then flew away and visited my mom and my dad and my brother and my aunt and my uncle and my cousin and my dad's pet dove and my aunt's pet dogs in Chicago and went running to the lakeshore with two of my bros and went all the way up to the Sears tower's skydeck to see the view and spent some nice family time with all of them for about five days. I spent a considerable amount of my time in Chicago reading "Pillars of the Earth" and playing Heroes of Might and Magic III with my bro, but I also watched some Redbox movies (Ironman, Wall-E, Stardust) with the rest of the family while we ate cookies and chips and drank coffee with milk. I spent New Year's Eve peacefully with my mom and dad. It was a fun week overall.
The night before I left back to Austin, my sister (who's been travelling around the world and who was in Vietnam at that time) called and surprised us saying that she would be back in Chicago the next morning. "How coincidental", I thought, and so I went with my dad and my bro to pick her up at the O'Hare airport and tell her "hey" before I left for my flight back to Austin at the Midway Airport. It was nice to see her again too.
So then, let's see... I came back to Austin, spent my weekend away, and then... vacation time was over. Office time came again. And so... I've been coming to the office every day since then. And... that's what happened. More or less.
I also ran about 7 miles two nights ago because I had gained a lot of weight. I now weigh 166lb, and though that's an improvement on the previous 169 (13^2), it could still get a lot better.
So, I know, this blog entry was kind of sloppy. But I'm kind of in a hurry. Maybe some parts of it will be refined afterwards. But for now, it'll have to do. Bye!
P.D: For anyone curious enough to wonder what this entry's title means but not curious enough to figure it out for him/herself,
45^2-4^2= 2025-16 = 2009
which is the number that sets the tone for this entry.
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