We have all had dumb moments, I have plenty of clumsy moments, definitely got that gene from one of my aunts. Martial Arts did help my reflexes quite a bit, but overall if a glass is sitting too close to the edge it is only a matter of time before it goes down. Heck just Friday I spilled about half of my chili on my lap when I was over at Spyder’s but I managed to get it only on my pants and not spill it all over the couch.

I have been taking the CSV off brand of Ariborne which is basically a vitamin C table that also has other stuff to help boost your immune system. I am trying not to get sick before or after my next surgery which should be happening some time in December if all goes well.

I have taken alka-seltzer all my life, it works and it does not taste horrible to me. It does not taste good either, but it helps with everything for hangovers to bad tacos or too many good tacos for that matter. So I can say that I have experience with effervescent medicine.

I have been taking this airbone thing at my Mom’s request for a little bit over a week and it does seem to work well. No problems so far, but then this week I had a dumb moment.

I was walking around our place picking up stuff and turning lights off before going upstairs. I poured a glass of water and dropped the tablet. Went to the living room and did a couple of things then came right back to the kitchen. Here was my mistake.

All the other times I had watched the airborn do its thing, I recognize the color of the water and saw it dissolve. There is always a little left but nothing that cannot be dealt with… but living it alone was a bad idea.

I came back and saw what to me looked like all liquid dissolved airborne. I did not see that in the bottom almost the full table had not dissipated completely. Mind you this thing is about the size of a quarter. So I chug this thing full force, and when i realized that it was still almost intact it was too late, it had already lodged on my throat.

I tried though about spitting it back out, and that is what I should have done. The force of the liquid would have surely dislodged it and I would just have spit it back out… so here my dumb moment continues. I think well, give it more water it will dissolve.

Now it starting to hurt, and even though I am not choking or panicking yet I am getting close to it.

Glass full of water and no change on it, just discomfort, so what do I do… more water… and then some more. Thankfully by the third glass full of water it dissolved enough to go down my throat and it did not hurt, but yea… I am feeling pretty dumb right about now. I did not even tell Bea about it, I am sure I will hear about it as soon as she reads this.

So lets hear them, or rather read them, share one of your dumb moments with us!

I get the whole Christmas thing and how non Christians might be somewhat uncomfortable celebrating the whole Jesus was born day… wait, have any of the atheist I have ever known not taken that day off? hrm…

So sure, we say happy holidays now (I say Happy Christmas because of Harry Potter) to be politically correct, but why can’t we say happy thanksgiving. I have been told 3 times today, Happy Holiday… and I am like, what? Happy Thanksgiving! its a Harvest Holiday… everyone eats… everyone should celebrate that without being offended.

What is it, turkey haters, PETA activists? they would be offended by being lumped together with the meat eaters of the world? They would be offended that there is a holiday to give thanks for the things we have?

I don’t get it… I will call it turkey day, because turkey is tasty! and well also because I think it is good to count our blessings and give thanks!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Yesterday after lunch at Pepper Jack Grill in Oletha, the phillies made us all a little gassy. I am personally not a fan of belching in public, but never though it was solely a cultural thing. During college one of my friends took great pride on burping in public at any opportunity and embarrassed all of us while we were at dinner in some of the restaurants we frequented. A burp is at times not something that you can control, but you can certainly control some of the volume if you chose to. Back in Colombia, one of my school mates could say the whole alphabet and is still the loudest person I have ever heard. I went to the wikipedia to see if they had anything on the etiquette and this is what they said:

In many parts of the world, audible burping is not much appreciated and is therefore considered to be somewhat impolite (although generally not as much as flatulence). However, in other areas it can be considered a sign of completion of a meal or a form of applause for the cook. Sometimes, children and teenagers engage in burping contests to determine who can produce the loudest burp, the longest burp, the most guttural burp, the burping of words, songs, or even the alphabet.

After a couple of loud belches on the drive back, and walking into work, I said something. I am personally not offended by it, but one of the worse smells other than a fart is smelling someone else’s burp. That is just something I don’t enjoy. Corey then mentioned how he has noticed that most foreigners are uncomfortable with public belching and I agreed. I added that I find it somewhat rude, but I think it is mostly because of the embarrassment I felt when my friend in college will do it next to a family having dinner. However, it is no worse than when an f-bomb falls out while in a restaurant without realizing there are kinds in the table next to you. (which I have done in the past)

Personal space is one of the most complicated things I have to deal with. Even though I grew up overseas, I have also adopted some of the personal space rules from here in the US. I have a weird mixture of rules about it that can make things fun sometimes.

Last night we went out to watch Monday Night Football, and also got to catch some of the KU basketball game. The manager came over to check on our table and motion to put his hand on the back of one of my friends, but then hesitated. I could not let the opportunity pass to give him a hard time so I said, don’t touch him. We had fun harassing the manager the rest of the night and it was all fun, but it got me thinking about personal space.

When it comes to my friends, my personal space goes back the level it is acceptable in Colombia. I am actually ok with my friends hugging me and sitting next to me at a movie theater. However, the same does not apply for strangers. It irritates when someone that I does not know me comes and pats me on the back. But I do know it is a mixture of what its ok in Colombia, where we are a lot more “touchy feely” and the more conservative US way.

In conclusion, it is totally ok to hug me if you are a friend, just don’t burp or fart while doing it.

I love being part of this organization!

Don’t miss the 2008 Singles Auction benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters! In 2007, over 400 people attended this great event and it was the most talked about charity event for weeks.

KC Magazine has selected 24 of the hottest singles in Kansas City to auction off once-in-a-lifetime date packages.

These date packages are great for a group of friends, a married couple looking for a great outing or a single looking to mingle!

Regardless, whether you plan to bid or not, join us for the best party in Kansas City.

Advance tickets are $25 and tickets at the door are $35. So be sure to purchase early.
Tickets include 2 drink tickets and entrance into the auction.
VIP Tables also available.
After Party will be held at Mosaic. First come, first serve.

Click here to check out the Singles being auctioned off and their amazing date packages.

Before anyone wants to take my man card away I want to say that, one I am back to about 100% so I can probably hurt ya, and two, next Monday we are going to go drink beer and see football. Yesterday I got tickets for the midnight showing of twilight for Bea and I go see it. While I was being nursed back to health Bea gave me the first book in the series to read and I was hooked.

Simple writing, compelling story, almost comic book like action got me hooked. I ended up reading all of the books in probably a weeks time. The characters all have some flaw that even when they are immortals make them very human.

But I guess everyone wants to hear about the movie… and I am going to have to be a harsh critic. As a standalone movie, it fails. To fully appreciate the plot and understand the characters behavior you have to read the book first.

A movie goer will be dissapointed by a movie that will feel very slow in some parts and then too fast in others without any transition.

That said, the movie was cast flawlesly. The actors do an excellent job at delivering lines that everyone that has read the book was waiting to hear. There was attention to detail and many of the locations looked very close to what I had imagined them. However it did not have the wow effect that the Harry Potter universe did when the first movie came out.

Bella, played by Kristen Stewar was amazing. She played a very complex character who has the least amount of good lines since most of the book happens through her narration. She comes off likeable without being cheesy, a real person rather than the cartoon most trouble teenagers seem to look like in todays movies. She is a great actress because even though you have seen her in plenty of movies, each character stands on its own. She was in Zathura, Jumper and Panic Room.

Edward played by Robert Pattison who you probably first saw in Harry Potter playing Cedric Diggory plays the perfect vampire from the books lore. He has the best dialogue which he used to stop the hearts of every girl in that theater. I was amazed that there was actually no screaming during the movie, kuddos to all the tweens.

Taylor Lautner played a good Jacob, but his role does not really develop until later on the books. I hope this kid goes through a huge growth spur and can play the rest of the movies which I am pretty sure they are going to make.

The special effects in the movie worked quite well. Visually it did its job. The biggest misstep was the music. Even though the score was not bad, there were plenty of opportunities missed to use excellent songs. I think it would have made the slow not drag so much.

I give the movie two stars because the source material is some of the best I have ever read. Once you read the book, see the movie, it will be very entertaining. If you have not read the book, then be ready to feel like you are missing tons of stuff when you watch it.

I have had the opportunity to meet many of the acquaintances I have made online. Very soon after meeting me you will know that I am a people person an love making friends. I honestly believe that everyone has a story to tell, a lesson to give, an experience to share. I find people fascinating and love to make those connections with them both lasting and true. However, the older that I get, the more I learn that some people just don’t appreciate those connections as much as I do.

I spend a lot of my time thinking. My work requires me to solve problems and find ways to present data in a meaningful way. I find self actualization vital to my well mental health. The moment I stop trying to become a better person I feel like a puddle of stagnant water. Last week I had come to the realization that there were several people that were affecting my self image that really should never have that much power. Some people’s perceptions really affected me more than I was ready to deal with.

In my need to make connections with others I became a laptop with no firewall, and in today’s world of viruses I cannot afford that kind of vulnerability. Some people might not even realize how infected they are by fear, intolerance, or just plain ignorance and before you know it they have full access to your hard drive.

Life is not defined by others, it is defined by our choices. Take some time to evaluate who is in your inner circle right now. I am talking about the ones that truly matter or and what they think or say really affects you. I bet you that before the end of the exercise your circle might get smaller and smaller.

There was a point in my life where I trusted a very limited number of people with my thoughts and feelings. During that time I considered just dissociating completely from everyone I knew and just starting all over somewhere else, the thought back then seemed like such a good idea.

I have come a long way from those dark days and have been lucky enough add a lot of people to the circle of people that actually help shape my self image. The most important addition is obviously my wife and without her I would probably be a hermit. I have also been blessed with some awesome friends that accept me for exactly who I am and are getting to know the real me, and not some caricature of what they think I should be.

True friends keep you honest and are always happy to tell you the truth but never try to change you. People who are not happy with their own life are never good judges of what your situation is. Just because a person is good at something, it does not make them a subject matter expert on everything in life. So be careful about what people in that situation say about not just you and your life, but just life in general.

The most surprising thing about my inner circle is how much bigger it keeps on getting. The closer people get to me, the more they shape my life, the happier as a person I become. That is not to say that some people have completely been removed, but overall I am way closer with a lot of those connections than I ever thought I would be. I used to think that losing a friend was a huge personal loss. The reality I have found is that you never lose a true friend, you only find out that someone was not your friend to begin with.

Thanks to my employer I had the opportunity to attend the Get Motivated Seminar at the Sprint Center this past Wednesday. My favorite speaker was Colin Powell who spoke about leadership, but I also liked Krish Dhanam a lot, I will have to write about him some time soon. There were many more speakers and I actually missed Rudy Giuliani, but one of them had such a great message that I wanted to share it with you guys.

Her name is Tamara Lowe, and she is a great speaker. She might come off as a little cookie to some, a little to Christian for others, but when she was talking about motivational DNA I was pretty impressed.

Many people think they know how everyone around them is motivated. Motives are probably the easiest thing to guess on, but probably the hardest to guess right. Some people are as cynical as to believe that for most people it boils down to money, sex or power. Funny enough, that is not the whole truth, and with her little method you can find out quite a bit about how people are motivated.

I took the online test and came up with the following.

Logtar’s Motivational DNA Type is PVI
(Production-Variety-Internal): The Visionary

Visionaries are persistent, energetic and confident. They are able to organize people and projects. Visionaries exhibit strong leadership potential and react quickly to crisis. Creative thinkers, Visionaries have the ability to craft a vision and get others excited about it. They enjoy working on multiple projects at the same time and like to be involved in exploring alternative concepts. Farsighted and imaginative, Visionaries are good at finding original solutions to difficult problems. Visionaries enjoy change and thrive under pressure. They have the ability to shift gears and turn on a dime. They are confident in their ability to master new skills. Visionaries enjoy challenge and desire personal growth. Visionaries want to know that their work matters and desire to “go where no man has gone before.”

PVI Motivators: Inspiring work environment, opportunity to originate and initiate ideas, peer respect, credit for work accomplished and a strong sense of mission.

PVI De-Motivators: Rigid structure, routine, delays, time-consuming details and bureaucracy.

The funny thing is that it is very accurate. I think this is a great tool for managers to read their employees, or sales people their potential customers. I ordered her book and plan on reading it. The simple online test gives you more than the usual; it actually gives you some tips on how to get motivated right now in ways it will work for you. Take the test, I found it quite useful.