Oct
13
This long weekend has been relaxing and beautiful, just what I needed before I tackle two back-to-back work projects. There’s one down, though, and it was supposed to be the most stressful (knock on wood): we survived it just fine. During the entire project, I would look at the snooty academics I’m forced [...]
Sep
24
A very happy 19th birthday to Mathgeek — or, as he is known in certain circles, “The” Mathgeek. We’ve come a long way from that chilly Mexican night in which the kiddo was born; we’ve come a long way from the newborn baby with the impossibly long fingers, the red face, the nearly bald head. [...]
Aug
18
♦ My old employer, code name Dyn-o-mite!, recently had a national magazine do a flattering profile on them. It took all of my restraint to not post a comment on the online version of the story – corporate clients and industry personalities alike were lauding the products that my old company produces as top-notch [...]
Jun
15
My father’s father left the family when my dad was only five years old. From that moment on, my dad had the potential to become just what his father is: irresponsible, lacking empathy, unwillingly to face life’s realities. Instead, my father became a stand-up man and the best father in the world.
Because of [...]
Jun
04
This past weekend in Michigan is easily defined: fun.
Mathgeek’s Graduation: He’s free! Mathgeek graduated with highest honors from high school, ready to tackle the next challenge: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I took the kid out for lunch on Monday, offering what I hoped was good starter advice for a new college [...]
May
27
In the course of the past week, many people have asked me if I fear this new realm of the 30s that I entered on Sunday. My answer is no — when you’re carded on a regular basis, the actual number fails to make an impression on you. That and the fact that I have [...]
May
26
Yesterday was my 30th birthday. It was a low-key day, luckily in the middle of a glorious three-day weekend. Family and friends sent their birthday greetings with good cheer, IP made the day all about me, and I mused to myself that 30 actually felt no different than 25. Except that I’m [...]
May
24
Little Brother Mathgeek, the future MIT alumnus, finished high school this past week. Congratulations, Mathgeek! You are now free from all the rampant idiocy of our old high school, never again to have to sit in class next to the truck pullers, the FHA obsessed, the “gentry” names of our town, the kid [...]
Apr
13
When I was writing fiction – and I took my time writing seriously – I was always struggling for an idea of identity. My biggest ambition was to write an entertaining yet enlightening view of what it’s like to live in the upper Midwest as a Mexican child, the only Mexican child in that [...]
Mar
15
My little brother, Mathgeek, just got into MIT.
Sweet!
So proud of you, kiddo.