I got the *smarts*

I learned recently that my research project on distributed MPPT for solar panels is going to be involved with Xcel Energy's Smart Grid City project. I feel luckier than ever to have ended up in Boulder now, I feel like what I do is relevant. Most importantly, I feel relevant, it is like the opportunity to impact today's society is now palpable.

The information on the Xcel Energy link above doesn't really get into the specifics. Here's a white paper, which also isn't very helpful. Mostly because Xcel probably isn't sure how they are going to do this, all they know is that they want to :-) and so do I. So yeah, sorry about that, I'll give you more information as it comes along, for now enjoy the wavering green bars in the video.

I'm on spring break right now, but I'll probably be going to the lab everyday this week. School has been keeping me really busy and I just had the week from hell. But being busy also comes with this notion that you are getting things done, and that is a wonderful feeling. My summer plans have finally concretized too (can I say that? is that grammatically correct?). I am going to stay in Boulder instead of going to California. I still plan on going to visit Salt & Pepper for a long weekend sometime in May though, so get ready for total anarchy. I am also planning on going home for a little while to attend a friend's wedding, and see the parents... the usual, I <3 going home.

The main reason I am staying here over the summer is because we want to build a small array of solar panels and use our converters. Then test the full system so that we can submit a paper for a conference next year *trumpets and horns*. I really am happy that I get to stay here, summers in Boulder simply can't go wrong. California would have been really awesome, mostly because I'd get to hang out with with all the people I know there, all my brilliant, successful, beautiful friends. But I am a bit relieved that I don't have to work with "real" engineers. Grown-ups intimidate me, specially the professional kind.

I'm going to leave you with some music from my friend Armando's band, Gaêlica, celtic music madness.

Obama Vs. Hillary

As much as I would like to see a woman president, I am convinced Hillary Clinton is not the one for me. I can't vote in this country, so I'll admit to not really following politics very closely (if at all). Anyways my friend Weissman sent this out, it was pretty interesting and a good summary:

Here's a blog entry comparing the bills the two senators have proposed, which ones have passed, etc. It seems more revealing than comparing their voting records, which are extremely similar.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633

Second Semester: a month in review

I don't quite despise this blog, but I do wish it were waaaay more interesting than me ranting about my uninteresting life. But hey, at least Steve and Anthony read it, right?

Spring semester started exactly a month ago. I am taking three classes and two of them are labs, which if you're an engineering student, know that they are 3x the workload compared to a lecture-based class. I hate being constantly busy and tired, did I say tired? I mean exhausted, drained and I'm barely getting any research done. But I am also really enjoying the classes, I swear, I am learning tons! but sometimes learning is a rocky road... you know?

When I came back from my California trip my advisor was rather unhappy with our industry sponsor, now they got some beef over IP. I really respect my advisor and definitely agree with him, but it makes me a little uncomfortable because I also like our industry sponsors and I am still interested in the project... One of the engineers from the company is coming down next week (or maybe the one after) so we'll see what goes down...

On a brigther note, I passed my prelim exam!!! this is the PhD qualifying exam, over which I suffered enormous amounts of stress. I am sooooo glad it's over now. I am not 100% sure that I want to get a PhD, but it is nice to know that the door remains open :-D And I have to thank my friends who were so supportive every step of the way, always asking me how it was going, how I was feeling, always making me feel like I was smarter than I really am, you guys are awesome! I passed!

A couple more updates: My advisor got me an undergrad assistant! I was like "huh?". I'm not sure what to make of it, maybe he thinks (or should I say "knows"?) that I'm not getting enough research done, or maybe he just wants to speed it up a little, I don't know. The point is, this guy, we'll call him "Scott" seems nice and smart and all that, but he shows up like EVERY FRIGGIN DAY asking me what he should do. Every day is the same answer, but he just doesn't get it. I tell him "Oh, I'm working on this Bill Of Materials, when it gets approved and sent out you can start doing schematic and layout, but I'll let you know when that happens". Does he think I will forget to let him know??? Anyways, this went on for 2 weeks and finally the BOM got approved and he can probably get started on Monday. I am going to have to coach him a little bit, which is a completely new feeling for me, I have never thought of myself as anybody's boss, or mentor, or teacher for that matter... I fear for that poor boy. Did I mention he got me a Valentine's day card that he made with the laser-cutter in the department? It has two lions and a big red-heart in the middle. Actually is a pretty sweet-looking laser-cut card, I can't deny it.

Let it be*

Look at me. Now look at yourself. Look out the window. Aren’t we beautiful? Our youth, that is. Isn’t it blossoming just right? Aren’t our souls rich, ripe, sweet? Aren’t our eyes overwhelmingly deep?

I know how you think. You are sitting in front of a computer reading this, and you forget the world is at your fingertips. We own the world. We are the world. Can’t you tell people turning their heads every time you walk into a room? Can’t you feel the looks like freckles all over your skin?

My dad seems to think I should be cruising through school given all the amazing resources I have available in this “digital age” and all. What he doesn’t realize is that it takes that much more work to stay updated with current events, to read email, to check the news across the globe, the weather, to keep up with my friend’s blogs, to synchronize my phone with my pc, to remain an interesting well rounded human being, to discover new music, to make statements, to have opinions, to discern, to believe, to create, to be different, unique, original, to be the future.

Don’t you realize that when my parents, your parents, try to give you their opinion (and I mean “opinion” not “advice”) they are only trying to sabotage you? They are jealous, old, and don’t know the first thing about how hard it is to be you. What they do know, is how wonderful it is to be you. They want that, and since they can’t have it, they try to make you be like them. They want you to get a job, they want you to raise a family, they want you to find a pretty little house with a guest bedroom for when they come visit.**

Haven’t you noticed just how tight your skin is? How straight your back is? And with what ease you can walk up those stairs! Seriously, please take a minute to appreciate your own existence. We are conscious. We have it all. We deserve it. We give it back. That is how awesome we are.

Even though I can easily handle the wait, I am anxiously looking forward to the world you and I will build together. It will be fair, fun and new. It will be interesting, because that is what is owed to us. We are not here to take, we are here to make. We are social, smart, healthy, kind. We are young. We are imperfect, we are human.

Come with me. Let’s give ourselves. Let’s make an imperfect world together. Let there be light, dark. Let there be chaos.

*I don’t expect anyone to make any sense of this post. I’ve been reading too much of this and taking too many cold meds.

** Let it be noted I am not making any generalizations or assumptions about people’s (nor mine) actual parents. I use the term parents for all those generations that came before me who simple don’t get “it”.

Winter chronicles

I'm back baby. The semester ended and I was on the slopes the next day. I am trying to learn how to snowboard this year and Kyle was around to help me. The first day was awful: I fell often and hard, I literally ate snow. My tail bone still hurts when I sit on the floor, but it isn't as bad as it was the next day. Every muscle on my body was sore, particularly upper body (from lifting myself up every 20 seconds). I won't get into the details of my mediocre attempts but let me tell you I'm not giving up yet! I am going to spend New Year's in Vail with my friend Anabel from high school. I'm really excited because I love her and her family and I just know it is bound to be barrels of fun (and pain). My goal after three days of practice is to be able to go down a green slope smoothly and hopefully not fall when I get off the chair lift (that bitch is tricky).

This year I spent Christmas with my favorite Coloradans: The Bushes! They are a really fun family and I really lucked out with them this year. They were really sweet and welcoming and I hope I can return all the attentions one day. We made vegetarian Christmas Lasagna on the Eve and Mr. Bush cooked us a nice Tom on Christmas Day after he performed the infamous "Turkey Dance".

Busy little bee

I know, I've been out for over a month. It has been a busy month and very uneventful at that. No more bike rides or hikes :-( work, work and homework. I went to visit Aubrey's house in Colorado Springs... we celebrated Halloween (hopefully more pictures on that later)... what else did I do?? Oh yeah, I celebrated thanksgiving with Thurein and Tim + friends, that was fun... I'm going to stop wasting your precious time. Finals are in couple of weeks and Anthony is coming visit :-) hopefully I'll bounce back after all that.

HALLOWEEN

Highway US-287

Earlier this week Kyle told me about how one time he biked to Fort Collins to see his buddy Tony. Whenever my friends come up with something cool they can do, I always think to myself "Well if they can do it.... so can I".

I really love my bike and I really love riding it. It gets me places much faster than walking! Anthony taught me how to ride a bike when I was 19. Before then I'd always been too scared to do it because I fell when I was little and that left me traumatized. So I have 19 years of cycling to catch up on and I feel like I'm finally off to a good start.

Meet Betty Blue: She's loyal, she's light and she's FAST. She's my Giant OCR3 2006 18-speed road bike. Our goal: bike 20 miles from Boulder to Longmont, Colorado and back. Kyle had told me the ride was flat and easy, but having never lived in Illinois, he has a terrible misconception of the term "flat". What he really meant was that there is no altitude gain between Boulder and Fort Collins, but in between there are tons of rolling hills that you have to bike up and down. It was killing me. I took several breaks during my trip, sometimes I stopped when I got to the top of the hill to catch my breath and also to be able to look back at the landscape.

The ride between Boulder and Longmont was most enjoyable. I saw farms, horse ranches, snowy mountains, all in the ever changing shades of fall season. It was gorgeous. I took Arapahoe avenue and went east until I hit US-287, then north all the way. After 1 hour and 15 minutes we got to Longmont. Piece of cake for Betty, so when we got there we decided that Fort Collins could not be too far ahead, why turn back now? I already knew that if I survived the trip to Fort Collins, I probably would not be able to make it back. Luckily Kyle was going to go up there anyways to have lunch with his buddy Tony, and this time he was driving, so he agreed to give me a ride back home.

Longmont was a nice little city, it has a very cute downtown and for some reason there is a liquor store in every block. The next town after Longmont was Loveland, which wasn't very lovely at all. It gave me a general feeling of emptiness and unhappiness and I got yelled at by some dumb bitch in her car who told me to use the sidewalk instead of the street. My problem with that is that the sidewalks were terrible and my crotch was hurting bad enough already. So I took the sidewalk whenever it look like it was in good enough shape. The views between Longmont and Loveland weren't as pretty and I got bored at times, but that only made me pedal faster. After I got through that craphole, Loveland, I kept saying to myself "I'm almost there, just a few more miles" I was REALLY tired at this point and for some reason my left fingers and left toes were going numb and cramping up. My speed diminished significantly when I was going through Loveland, I knew I was pushing my body to the limit, I don't usually exercise like this. But low and behold, as I was barely making it up this last stupid hill when my legs were near giving out, I see the sign I've been dreaming of for hours: "Fort Collins City Limit". So of course I stopped to stretch, drink some water and take a picture of Betty next to the grand prize. I felt like Lance Armstrong, I had done it. I kept going a little longer after that because I was supposed to find a good place to get picked up by Kyle. Bikes weren't allowed on the street in Fort Collins so I had to take the sidewalk and that slowed me down a lot. I went passed a huge strip mall and several car dealerships, finally I found a gas station with a nice little bench were I could settle down and stretch properly. Kyle got there a little later and we went to lunch with Tony.

Total travel time: about 3 hours and 20 minutes (several short breaks included, and slowing down whenever going through city traffic).

- Giant OCR3 2006 road bike: $599.99

- Schwinn youth size helmet: $16.99 at Target

- Registration fee at CU's bike station that allows me to do regular maintenance on Betty: $10

- Granola bar and Camelbak: FREE, I stole them from Kyle

- Riding my bike for 45.9 miles: priceless

Here is my route. If you want to attempt this (and I can't think of anyone who couldn't, I mean I did it, and so can you) remember to bring lots of water, some energy bars in case your sugar goes low, put on sunscreen and always wear a helmet! safety first! And of course you should have your cell phone and some money in case you get a flat or get into an accident or something. Yay me!

Bridging the gap

Why is it that sometimes you have to move across the world from someone or something to finally appreciate them?

I don't really know why I do this, but in the end I am an optimist. When I leave a person or a place behind suddenly my mind destroys all the bad memories from that place, and lets the good ones hang out. I have moved a total of 6 times in my life, starting from the day I was born (My parents were living in a city called Maturin, but they drove to Caracas when my mom was due because that is where her gynecologist was, the same day we left the hospital we were driving back to Maturin).

If there is one thing I learned is that it really does get easier every time. Not only easier, but it gets better. When I know I am going somewhere new I actually start looking forward to missing the old place. I look forward to calling my friends so we can exchange stories and convince each other of visiting. As much as I hate moving, I also love starting things from scratch: a new bedroom, new routines, new friends.

My friends are such an important part of my life and so I want to dedicate this post to them. My friends make me who I am, in all aspects, they are the essence of my soul and my life would be far less meaningful if even one of them was missing. Somebody once told me that I used the term "best friend" too loosely, he obviously didn't know my friends. And just so that you can be really jealous, here is a list of names that make my life richer every day:

Rodri: My oldest friend, literally, I have known him since the day I was born. He is my older brother, life guru and accomplice. Probably one of the smartest, sweetest and most genuine kids I know. And one of the few people that really understands me because he knows exactly where I come from (duh, he was there with me). I am really looking forward to becoming old and bitter with him.

Meli: The sister I never had, a beautiful woman inside and out. Smart, charming and incredibly huggable. I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. I love you :-*

Octa: She is my most inspiring friend. She is unstoppable and lives everyday with such passion, it is simply contagious. She is a brilliant aspiring doctor and I would trust her with my life any day.

Luis: You are my knight in shinning armor, a guardian angel if I ever had one. He also gives the best hugs. Please don't ever leave me.

Anthony: What can I say? I'll always be your little carrot, and you'll always be my little cabbage. This man is bigger than his dreams, and his dreams are huge. There is nothing he cannot do, and there is nothing I can do to stop him. I've learned so much by your side, nothing would be the same if it weren't for you.

Parisa: Intelligent, sexy and strong. She is everything I am looking for in a partner. The only problem is that we're not gay. I can talk to her about anything from World War I to Buddhism to pimples and cramps and everything in between. I love all your advice, I would be so lost without it. When I'm around you I feel awesome by association.

Steve: I wanted to make an honorary mention to you. This guy is a rockstar/superhero/genius/coffee addict/wine connoisseur . He gets as much pleasure from learning as anyone else would from chemical experimentation. His books are his crack, and his computer is his crack house.

Aubrey: French academic by day and French diva by night. I am so lucky to have met you, Colorado wouldn't be half as fun without you (and Happy Birthday!!!).

Last but not least I should also send out a big thanks to my parents because one happy day in September of 1984 they decided to give me a shot at the world. You guys are the best parents I could ask for and thanks for giving me such an awesome brother too.

Butterflies

You know what I love? I love getting worked up over trifling matters. It’s fun, and somehow it reminds me of how lucky I’ve had it so far. But today I will talk about one specific matter that I have been contemplating this week: to date, or not to date.

Despite all the bad press that “first dates” get, the beginning of a relationship sometimes can be the highest point of that relationship. So I say, enjoy it.

Not only you are making a new acquaintance and gaining experience in the field, but first dates allow you to rediscover yourself through the eyes of someone else. Sometimes you forget that you really like that one song, or that you have been meaning to read that book, or maybe that you don’ t feel really strongly about that particular political candidate.

Now, let’s not forget about all the fun times and effort that goes into preparing for the event. All least on the girl side, this is usually how it goes (although I am sure it applies to many guys too):

1. You must gather as much information as possible about your potential date. You will ask the person that introduced the two of you and you will try to access his facebook profile (yes, you will). Don’t get me wrong this isn’t like a screening test, it is simply human nature (or is it girl nature?) that we are curious about what turns our life is about to make.

2. In order to have a truly successful first date, the two of you must have interacted prior to the grand encounter. By that I mean that hopefully you met at a party, or were introduced by a close friend, or maybe you are taking a class together. This provides a solid foundation of compatibility because you already have the one thing in common. Otherwise, your first date is really more like a blind date, and that is an entirely different playing field.

3. Yes, girls will spend countless hours trying to figure out what to wear to the date and there are many strategies to follow, to each girl her own. The perfect first date outfit must be casual but not too casual. One of the most important things is that it has to be comfortable. You don’t want to spend your date thinking about how much your feet hurt or how long you have been tucking your tummy for. The point is to look pretty, but not hot. You want your partner to be interested, but please, leave some room for imagination. Besides it is probably better to surprise them with your sexy self later on if the relationship flourishes.

4. Where you end up going for the actual date does not matter too much. Just try to keep the conversation flowing with whatever pops into your mind. Try to stay away from risky conversations (like say… religion or government), but if you can’t then do your best not to sound too offensive.

5. Unfortunately I don’t have any post-date advice. I can’t tell you when it is appropriate to call or if it is best to email or IM, and I certainly can’t tell you when it is too soon to get intimate because there is probably no right answer to any of those questions. In any case, if there is certain chemistry between the two of you, you will probably know when it “feels” right. Now you are on your own.

Am I shallow for thinking about all this? I don’t think so. I think it goes unsaid for many people, but I have gotten to discuss it with some of my best friends. Which brings me to one of the most fun parts of going out on first dates (no matter how they went): we get to go through it all over it again when we are telling our friends :-)