Portait of the Artist As A Young Man With Squid on Head

Portait of the Artist As A Young Man With Squid on Head
Originally uploaded by Pablo Mercado.

squid.us

I like this foto that some flickr user named tcserpa? uploaded...

IMG_0140.JPG
Originally uploaded by tcserpa.

Houston Dynamos Season Opener

The Houston Dynamos season opener is this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. I'm on call the entire day, but i'm going to try my best to get out there. Ethan is going, anyone else going?

Check out the seating and ticket prices.

Young Gabriel

Could not post this in the comments,
Chavez reminds me of a young Marquez.

My Antonio

THE NEXT 60 MINUTES ANCHOR???

this is the child who makes my heart sing.
this is the jacket that looks great on the child who makes my heart sing.
this is the morning that the jacket was worn by the child who makes my heart sing.
this is the photo taken in the morn that the jacket was worn by the child who makes my heart sing.
this is the smile captured in the photo taken in the morn that the jacket was worn by the child who makes my heart sing.




This is Adolfo Fidel Chavez, IV who is three years old.

Neue Wohnung (New Apartment)

Again it's been a long time since I've posted anything here, but in the meantime some of you have seen and commented on the pictures I put up on flickr. As you might have guessed, we just moved into a new apartment (actually a really old apartment, built around 1912). I really like the comments that have been written, Paul and Carolina. And just for clarification: "Wohnzimmer" means living room, "Aris Zimmer" is Ari's room, and "die Küche" is the kitchen. Anyway, we really like the place, and we're almost finished getting everything unpacked, set up, and liveable. (About time, too: we've been here for a month and a half now, but these things take time.)
On another note, we're planning to come to the States this summer. If everything goes as planned, we'll fly to San Antonio around the end of July and stay at my mom's for a while. Then off to LA for a mix of research in film archives and libraries and more touristy stuff. If I get some extra funding from the people who pay my dissertation scholarship, we might make it out to New York or maybe Chicago, too (again, there are a couple of relevant research opportunities). Maybe we can meet up with some of you while we're in Texas. I'll keep you posted about the plans for the trip.
Hope everyone's doing well.

Tides

I return to this blog with the ebb and flow of an ocean tide ... swelling up over a hunk of sand, disappearing behind a dune for a while, only to re-emerge full of frothy rememberances ...

Yawn -- I'm tired. Oh, so tired in that deep and selfless way that only another parent can understand. It is satisfying to pour so much of yourself into the daily care and cultivation of a child. It is also exhausting and seemingly endless, as the days slip into each other and you no longer remember when or how it felt to push the snooze button, to luxuriate in the bath for nearly an hour, or to sit and make intellectual conversation about things wholly unrelated to Elmo, daycare, diapers, or sippy cups.

Sitting down to write you now is a little luxury -- one that Anthony makes possible by his willingness to -- oops, have to go, my boy is calling for "mama" ... or "mo-mah" he says drawing the letters out with deep longing for me. I love my baby boy...

ON THE BIG FIELD

WELL,

I AM PLAYING SOCCER WITH A COMPETITVE TEAM FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE COLLEGE. LAST NIGHT WAS OUR FIRST PRACTICE GAME AGAINST ANOTHER TEAM.

I HAVE BEEN PLAYING SMALL SIDED GAMES WITH SMALL GOALS ON A SMALLER FIELD FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS AT LUNCH TIME.

I HAD FORGOTTEN HOW BIG A REAL FIELD IS AND HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE ON IT.
I FELT A BIT LOST BUT AM LOOKING FORWARD TO REGAINING A LARGER PERSPECTIVE.

I NEED TO START RUNNING.

Spotted: D3

In front of Whole Foods this morning I ran into Mariana Fernandez (David Fernandez’s sister). She works at GSD&M (right across the street) and although I pass by there every day between 8 and 9 I had never run into her before. But today was my lucky day, and so when I spotted her I stopped to say hello and, amazingly, she informed me that David is in Austin! In fact he was at that very moment enjoying a cup of coffee over at the Seattle’s Best!!

I popped over to Seattle’s Best and sure enough there was good ol’ D3 sipping on a cappuccino. Apparently he had called me earlier this morning, but due to my extremely be-slumbered eye blearyness I failed to register the call.

Anyhow he is here on a one week break from school and will be spending most of it up in Temple visiting family. Before I split I did get to spend a few minutes checking out some of his sketches and animations- Dang does he have some fantastic looking work! I hope he gets his portfolio-website ready soon that y’all can see what I saw! Great Stuff!

George Mason in the Final Four

Amazing!!! I used to live just down the street from GMU. Back then it was considered a commuter school, just a notch above a community college. Dang, and now they are headed to the Final Four!!!!!

My Birthday Wish

I wished with all my heart and with all the cartilage in my knees that today would be the day that I put in a goal. I mean, how perfect would it be to score a goal on my birthday? Especially since it has now been 20 years since the last time I scored in an official game. I played so hard. But it was not to be. Instead of a goal I got yellow card (a pretty bad call, in my opinion) and a slightly strained, possibly torn LCL.

The game was fun though. We were down two players and the other team had like ten substitutes, so all in all a 1-nil loss was not too bad. I had a great time because I got to play mid-field the entire game, and I was so goal-crazy that I never ran out of energy. Plus I played extra-aggressive which was fun because, well, totally taking dudes out with a sweet slide tackle or shoulder-charge is, well, fun.

I think next weekend is the last game of the season. There is some kind of tournament that we are supposed to take part in, but the league is so disorganized, it seems, that the details on it are still unclear…

She's number 3!

IMG_0127.JPG
Originally uploaded by tcserpa.

diana participated in a fun run here in h-town today and placed third! i feel compelled to include the fact that she is still number one with me.

Heat Vision and Jack

The 30 minute pilot is about an astronaut (played by Jack Black) with a medical secret who is on the run from the evil Ron Silver and the rest of NASA, with the help of a talking motorcycle called Heat Vision (voiced by Owen Wilson).

Oh my gosh this is so funny!

The Bubble 2.0

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.

—Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide)

Katerina Fake (of Flickr fame) claims that it’s a bad time to start a company. Yikes. I think that I disagree with her. But even if I did not, the crazy thing that makes my head spin is that the atmosphere that engenders this kind of statement (all the web 2.0 hype and acquisitions, the high demand for web-developers (we had far fewer responses to our recent solicitations for PHP contract programmers, than 2 years ago), etc and etc) makes me feel like I am riding high on the Internet Roller Coaster again, just like 6 years ago when I worked for that doomed dot com.

This high on the Roller-Coaster feeling is mostly a nice feeling because, like many people, one of the things that stresses me out more than anything is Job Security. For years and years after the Dot Com Crash I felt unemployable, and if I was working, I felt that at any minute I could be back on the streets and scrambling along with 5000 other contractors for the one measly development job on Craig’s List. These days my skills are in high demand. It is great. Recent history tells me it won’t last, but for the moment my Job Security Anxiety is somewhat quelled, leaving me with surplus anxious energy to spend on other worries...

Houston Dynamos

I am a little late on this one, but it looks like the Houston MLS team will be changing its name from the Houston 1836 to the Houston Dynamos

Paper Lantern 1.4.31

Fixed a minor bug that was causing the application to crash when closing a blog post window. The problem was caused by improper handling of the NSWindowWillCloseNotification.

I hope to eventually incorporate something like Sparkle so that updates to the app will happen automagically…

The brave and adventurous can find the latest version here.

RFP

I have about a dozen punctured bicycle tire inner-tubes. It seems like something neat could be made with them (besides a water-balloon launcher). Any ideas?

PayPal Mobile

Neato!

hello everyone

s'been a while
okay - here are tricks

i am working like a fiend since they fired forehead girl and since it's tax season - speaking of tax season - i did some cool new things this year - i actually utilized the cafeteria plan for medical and childcare expenses - we LOVE saving money

adolfo has severe mamitis and does not want to be away from me for any amount of time - at the same time he has a newfound bond with his dad and does not want to be far from him either - i am so proud of my little boy for taking care of his little broken self - and he annunciates clavicle so perfectly

killy started his new gig and is like a child in a candy store - gleeful and renewed - i'm so happy for my loverly husband -

my pregnancy has been no fun this time around - maybe it's nature's way of watching my weight for me (don't think i'll reach the whopping 200 like i did last time) - but i'm always - as in ALWAYS - nauseated - always - and tired
i finally went shopping for some pregnancy clothes and was feeling pretty good about myself for a while - but nothing beats a little girl company once in a while

girls
let me know when you're around
i'd like to see someone sometimes

Ok, this seems the ridiculous

TABC agents and Irving police swept through 36 Irving bars and arrested about 30 people on charges of public intoxication. Agency representatives say the move came as a proactive measure to curtail drunken driving.

link

Thanks, Todd, for pointing this out to me and ruining my day.

IMG_0109.JPG

IMG_0109.JPG
Originally uploaded by tcserpa.

this is an experiment with macro and slow flash. i like using a very low iso, but this photo was taken in the early evening, so it was kinda dark. so i hit the slow synchro flash option and came up with this. it is a detail of a nice tag near my neighborhood. see the rest!

hoo-ray!

i consider this very good news. i wonder how long it takes for a new IE to get adopted….

Wacom: Graphire or Intuos?

I have been considering getting a Wacom tablet for some time now; I may be ready to bite the bullet. I do have a question to put to you designer types who may have used these gadgets:

Graphire or Intous

I will be using this doodad primarily for doing the drawing. Is it worth the extra 100+ to get the Intuos over the Graphire???

Pablo Recommends: Orishas

For good times check out any Orishas album. I have “A Lo Cubano” and “El Kilo” and my weak knees are weaker from what the rhythm and the ritmo do.

Soccer in South America

Check out this video from the Boca vs Quilmes match that we caught at the Bombonera last week; It will give you an idea of how thrilling it is to watch a match in a country that is passionate about soccer: 6 MB AVI

Chappelle's Block Party

I saw Dave Chappelle’s Block Party last night; despite being exhausted from an overnight flight, and a grueling soccer match, I was entertained so thoroughly by this picture that my sleepiness slipped away and was forgotten.

See this one at the nearest Alamo Drafthouse. It is really funny and wonderful…

Happy First Day Of Spring!

The thunder and storm cleaned up the weather around here, and today, the first day of spring, is beautifully blue-skied and sun-shiney

About Goodmail

You've Got Goodmail - New York Times:

I agree that pretty soon sending most e-mail will cost money, but I think that's only right. It costs money to guarantee quality and safety. Moreover, I think the market will work, and that it will not shut out deserving senders, if we only let it work freely.

I wonder why nobody is drawing a parallel between Goodmail and the proposal of telcos to charge content providers like Google to send content to users? It is different than offering QOS (Quality of Service) for some traffic. I've been following the Goodmail thing for a while because of work, but this post by Dave Winer started me thinking about it again.

Maybe if email cost money, people would send more regular letters?

no_nukes

no_nukes
Originally uploaded by tcserpa.

i got this screen when making up an RMA for my dead hard drive and found it amusing. i am just glad that Hitachi is on the case. no bad actors would ever presume to lie...on the internet...to Hitachi!

I get very creeped out when I read stuff like this

proactive arrest policy

About 30 people were arrested there, and virtually all their cases are now sealed, indicating that the charges were either dismissed by prosecutors or dropped after six months without further incident.

from the nytimes

best. purchase. ever

so, it finally happened. one of the drives in my wonderful, lovely, Miglia MediaBank HS-R external hard drive enclosure crashed. died. gave up the ghost. kicked the bucket. after several heart-pounding seconds of sheer panic i regained my composure and decided to trust the technology.

one quick trip to MicroCenter (which is next to a hotel where a guest had a bleating sheep in a trailer) later i had a shiny new drive to slide into the now vacant tray. i formatted that drive, popped it into the enclosure and watched it go about the business of copying all of my precious, precious files onto the new disk.

while i was waiting i made this little movie. so far we are at 86% rebuilt. i have not had the nerve to open any files, but my fingers are crossed and i will keep you posted.

87%

Emergency Room Visit: $150 / Broken Clavicle: Priceless

Last night, Adolfo IV broke his clavicle. Once we had taken the test (at about five weeks) i started to look for another job - we need to get ahead on bills before another baby shows up; i've got to get the cavalier back on the road; i've got to repair the fence in the back yard, buy a new a/c unit, replace these drafty old windows, and the carpet. At the same time, things were becoming maddening at Adolfo's school. Everyday we were getting reprots of him not listening, or hitting, or shoving, or being difficult. Our calls to have adolfo moved out of his classroom, that was filled with 2-year olds, went unheeded. Finally, the morning of Carol's ultrasound, i had a discussion with the Director of the school which resulted in our removing him. That is a very condensed version of what happened. It is not easy to put into words how angering, frustrating, and maddening that call was. Later that same day carol and i met at Park Plaza hospital for our ultrasound. When we finally see each other we fall into each other's arms out of sheer frustration. Swirling in our heads were so many questions that neither of us had the answers to - we had to find a new school, quick. how much would it cost? how would we get him there? who was going to take the days off to search? more importatnly, why was adolfo freaking out? why was he not listening? Of course in the midst of all this Carol was having severe 'morning sickness'. She had been puking up everything she put into her body. She had no energy, headaches constantly. Throw in to the mix that she was having to take days to take her father to his numerous doctor appointments in the midst of tax season, which made her employer very unhappy. The stress was mounting on Carol. Her OBGYN sensed immediately that something was wrong and asked us if we were allright. We vented to him together. It was liberating and very comforting to know that we had that sort of availability in our doctor. He went so far as to recommend a school next to his private practice. ... to be continued....

Scott Mercado @ SXSW

Holy Crap I almost forgot: My little brother will be playing with The Black Heart Procession starting today @ SXSW!!!

Here are the when’s and the where’s:

1. March 16th Austin, TX Emo’’s
2. March 17th Austin, TX Sound On Sound
3. March 17th Austin, TX La Zona Rosa 21+
4. March 18th Austin, TX Cedar Street Courtyard

Wow, the US is Ranked FIFTH in the WORLD!!!

Just below Argentina??? Amazing!!!!

By FIFA

The Price Of Freedom is an Informed Enemy

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/03/15/bloggers_journalists.html

new camera!

new camera!
Originally uploaded by tcserpa.

i am soooper stoked to have this ultra-shiny new bundle of super-dense technological radness.

now all i gotta do is get independent hosting for starepod.com so i can use zenphoto to make my own galleries.

2066

In the year 2066 I will be as old as my grandfather is today. I made this realization talking to my little sister last night. We were talking about retirement saving plans and whatnot and I was pulling some hypothetical year out of my butt that is a long time from now. I thought of 2040. Then I thought about it some more and my grandfather is 93. I'll be 33 this year, so 2006 plus 60 is 2066. It blows my mind because 2066 seems like some science fictional time in the future. Todd, Taggart and I chatted about it this afternoon. The chat is on the work computer so I can't cite it right now, but at some point I said that there better be space travel and moon resorts by then.

Vamo', Vamo' Argentina!

I will be flying out to Buenos Aires this afternoon. I will be in Argentina for 10 days. I will be staying here. In case something comes up I can be contacted at this number: +54-11-4805-1948.

I should be on-line as well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TODD!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TODD!!!

Amazing Game

While waiting the eternal wait for my app-server to boot up I started watching this video. The game is called Spore and it looks to be astounding…

phun with photoshop

Hoo-ray phor photoshop. a neat little orb thing with cool glassiness. kinda makes me think of a handy blogging app…

happy birthday to me.

so—i bit the bullet and got myself a brand new camera. i have been without for quite some time and am really excited to have one again. I am also exploring repair options for the ailing s230 so l’il D can have a dedicated camera of her very own. although she keeps referring to it as the hand me down camera.

i hope i get it by thursday so i can get some sweet picks of the jiffy lube franchisee conference and extravaganza!

posted with Paper Lantern.

Paper Lantern Update

I fixed a minor bug in Paper Lantern. Blogger.com now returns a “205 Reset Content” status when a post is updated through the Atom protocol. Blogger.com used to send a “200 Ok” status for this operation.

The latest version of Paper Lantern can be downloaded here

I also added a ‘keywords’ field so that you can tag posts with keywords (for use with metaweblog protocol blogs, like typo, or typepad NOT blogger.com)

Do like Tommy Lee Jones' sad, bulbous, crease-crossed face?

If so, then you will love The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. I caught it at that Alamo South last night; I found the movie to be—a little heavy-handed. It was not a bad film, nor was it great. It was just-ok.

It's Official

Incidentally, this ultrasound was taken the same day that i had an upsetting phone conversation with the director of my son's school resulting in my removing him from that school, which threw carol and i into a frenzy of school searching. There is some good news, however: we found a new school closer to the medical center (walking distance from MDACC); and we discovered that Adolfo was accepted to St. Ambrose Catholic School for next year's 4Pre-K program (August).

I'm leaving out so much of what has happened this week. It has been truly taxing.

Checkout the cute muñecas my friend Azul is making...

SXSW

Anyone coming into town for the SXSW ?