Yes, its been over a month. So much for posting more often in the New Year! (Happy New Year incidentally!) I returned from Ecuador on Jan 11th and I’ve been extraordinarily busy since I’ve been back. Spending so much time in front of the computer screen during the day, the last thing I want to look at while at home is the computer! The fact that many of my faithful readers are on Facebook now is also keeping me away from the blog. Is it worth keeping up the blog when most people are checking Facebook anyway? I guess it comes down to what you have time make time to update!

Otherwise things are going well. The adjustment from 65-70F weather to the sub-zero weather in Chicago is taking some time. Having three weeks off also made it difficult to get back into the groove at the 9-5, finding motivation has been especially difficult. I do have to say that after our new Commander in Chief’s inaugural address I did feel impetus for this “new era of responsibility”. As such, I’ve been trying to find new ways to keep myself on task and organized.

I stumbled upon Thinking Rock through a friends recommendation of another piece of software Things, which at the moment is Mac/iPhone only. Both are based on GTD “Getting Things Done” philosophy – something that I find works very well with my short attention span, and my propensity for having lots of ideas that fall through the cracks. There is a fair amount of a learning curve getting going on it – and you have to be religious about its use. But it keeps things in good order and really forces you to think in a productive way about everything on your mind! If anybody has experience with the Mac/iPhone “Things” app – let me know what you think. It would be really nice to have the data accessible while on the move. The only option I’ve found for Thinking Rock is not very intuitive, oh, and I no longer use a Windows Mobile device.

Yes – after 3 solid years of service from my trusty T-Mobile MDA, I’ve finally upgraded to the world of capacitive multi-touch screens and 320×480 pixel resolution!! An iPhone you say? Nope – an Android DP1. Merry x-mas to me!! Thank you Katty!! :)

Now if somebody could just port Thinkingrock to the Android OS… anybody? anybody??

This year´s holiday celebrations have taken me to Quito, Ecuador with Katty and her family. Although we have celebrated Christmas before outside of Chicago, this marks the first time I am away from my family. Thankfully, I feel like part of the family here in Quito! Their traditions are a bit different than that of our family. The big family dinner is late on Christmas eve and the presents are opened at or after midnight. This doesnt exactly jive with Papa Noel (Santa) coming down the chimney in the middle of the night, so the Niño Jesus (baby Jesus) is the one that brings the gifts. Though apparently this is starting to change as Papa Noel´s presence is greater every year. That being said, its quite bizzare to see Santa everywhere in his full red garb and hat when its almost 70 degrees out!! Its a bit hard for the Quiteños to understand why I miss the cold at Christmas time, but it has been an ever present factor in Christmas most of my life!! Thought when I left Chicago it was -16F without windchill! Can´t say I´m missing that too much. But from what I hear, it was 60 in Chicago yesterday! Maybe sending warm thoughts actually worked??

view from Casa Salgado on Christmas Eve

I´ve been going from one family function to another as Katty has a huge family here in Ecuador. Lunch and dinners with 20+ people seems to be the norm! Of course, I can´t get enough of it because it reminds me so much of my family in Spain. It has also been great to get to know everybody in her family that much better! Each of these mini reunions are filled with food, drinks, conversations and laughter, they are such a blast!! I´ll come back with tons of wonderful memory and a huge panza (gut)!! I can´t complain that Katty´s family has so many good cooks! Speaking of, I decided to bring a bit of our holiday traditions to Ecuador. I made the vegetable casserole that we always have this time of year along with some christmas cookies – both were a huge hit!! I´m not sure if they were more impressed with the food or the fact that a man cooked it! Getting the proper ingredients was a story in and of itself!

My first week (of three!) has been great thus far! With the New Year´s celebrations around the corner, as well as trips to Cuenca and the Amazon, I have much to look forward to! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!!

via xkcd

It is the first of the month – I’ve always felt that it brings with it an air of change. In this case the physical change was fairly obvious as Chicago had its first real snowfall of the season. As the snow swirls around, it gets me thinking – what other changes are stirring?

So much for live-blogging the election! I ended up crunching numbers most of the evening for ICIRR, by the time I dropped off the laptops at my office and headed back to the Cultural Center – I could hear the crowd EXPLODE into cheers and applause!! My heart immediately started pounding and I ran as fast as I could back to the Cultural Center. They had called the election!!! My family had all come to meet with us and as McCain delivered his acceptance speech (where was that McCain during the election?!) tears started to well up in my eyes. It was actually happening!! At 11pm the event ended, so we rushed back to my building to watch his speech and see Grant Park bursting at it’s seams with people and energy! The noise was incredible – the energy palpable! We stayed on Michigan Ave until 1:30 in the morning, watching, absorbing and participating in the revelry!!

It has been too many years in the making – but this unprecedented change is exactly what this country needs! I was glued to NPR the following days and the national and international reactions gave me goosebumps! January can’t come soon enough!

Below is the result of the data that I was crunching during the election for ICIRR.

From Election Day 2008

I’m crunching exit poll data for ICIRR currently at their election headquarters at the Chicago Cultural Center. LOTS of data!! Interesting stuff! I’ll be sure to post their exit poll results when they are available!

From Election Day 2008

You can see the people lining up on Columbus and Michigan Ave! Apparently, they have been lining up since Monday! I’m going to the Chicago Cultural Center to continue volunteering and then to party with Katty and her fellow ICIIR workers! I didn’t sign up for the Obama rally on time – but I’ll be going outside to take pictures. I also hope to do and “after” picture when the rally REALLY gets going!

From Election Day 2008

I volunteered this morning with ICIRR to take pictures of other volunteers that were getting out the vote in Bridgeview, IL. Precinct 47 is a predominately Arab area – and the amount of young and enthusiastic volunteers was overwhelming! Most of them were going out to knock on doors, leave door hangars and in general to try to get as many people to their polling places as possible! They were also doing exit polls – and the data I saw was extraordinarily exciting! More of the pictures I took can be seen by clicking here.

We got back on Tuesday, with even more flight problems from American Airlines. Its a conspiracy I tell you!! Anyway, I’ve got some albums up from the trip. Pics from the wedding and a few other excursions to come!

Mexico Distrito Federal

Teotihuacan