Random thinking

Even though I come to an empty house, emptiness does not hurt like it used to. I lay down my weary head, with a smile on my face, feeling good about the life I get the chance to live.

Can’t help to feel grateful, blessed and whole. Sure… there are problems – work, money, and every now and then some “problems of the heart” (so to speak).

I think I’ve come to find comfortable with my being alone. I enjoy my work, my life, but most of all I really enjoy the family my girls and I have become.

Do I need someone? I don’t think I “need” somebody. I think the question is if I expect/want someone. The answer would be “yes”, in due time.

I’ve my ups and downs, just like anybody else does. But above all, I have a positive outlook on what’s to come. To be honest, can’t hardly wait…

Somebody I used to know…

Somehow I came across this song today (I actually listened to it on the radio, go figure!) and immediately thought of you – yes, you know who you are. And even though I didn’t really thought of you in an angry/resented way, it actually remind me of how you made me feel. Sad thing that now (if) I think of you this way… That’s life I guess…

Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it’s an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I’ll admit that I was glad it was over

But you didn’t have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don’t even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No you didn’t have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don’t need that though
Now you’re just somebody that I used to know

Now you’re just somebody that I used to know
Now you’re just somebody that I used to know

[Kimbra:]
Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I’d done
But I don’t wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn’t catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know

[Gotye:]
But you didn’t have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don’t even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No you didn’t have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don’t need that though
Now you’re just somebody that I used to know

[x2]
Somebody
(I used to know)
Somebody
(Now you’re just somebody that I used to know)

(I used to know)
(That I used to know)
(I used to know)
Somebody

How to be a man

OK, in full disclosure, tonight’s post was inspired by a column written by Duff McKagan (if you don’t know who he is, google his name, and get some GnR + Loaded CDs for God’s sake!).

For the past 4 years, I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster. The reasons as to why are my own, and not ready to share with everybody… only a hand-picked few know that story. Sorry… no such luck for you tonight.

Anyways, during such period of time I’ve tried to answer one question: “what do women really expect out of a guy these days?”. Sorry, no such luck there either. That question is yet to be answered; if I’m lucky enough, I’ll get to ask God sometime (not soon, though). But suddenly, another question arose: “what kind of a man was I?”. I don’t think I was a bad man per se, but came to the conclusion that I could’ve been a better man. After all, there’s always room for improvement. Not the obsessive kind of improvement where nothing ever seems to suffice, but the kind of improvement that leads to a better, more tranquil, happier life. And so I set myself out to be a better man, by achieving small goals that would ultimately allow me to achieve greater ones, and so on, and so forth.

Out of the blue, I got a chance to read a column published today by Duff McKagan on Seattle Weekly, and inspired me to write this entry: “How to be a man” (which is actually the title of his column. Sorry dude, if you’re reading this, I decided to borrow it). Now, here’s this bad-ass rocker with a ton of history and tales of debauchery and hard rock, that lived through a lot and came out of it a better man. Today his a husband, and father to two beautiful girls (same as me – the father-to-beautiful-girls part, not the husband one) and wrote a pretty decent book (It’s so easy… – do yourselves a favour and pick up a copy). Through his book and column he’s shown to be a pretty decent human being, that does not pretend to know it all, but instead recognises his limitations, honestly says he’s learning as he goes along this life, and shares the experiences he collects along the way.

Well, on today’s column he wrote down his point of view on what he thinks it takes to be an actual man, and I can honestly say I totally agree. Unfortunately, the definition of what a man is varies out there, and often times does not correspond to what a man should be. But really: what does it take to be a man?

Well…. read Duff’s column and get a peek on what I think describes what it takes to be a man. Out of every aspect he describes, I don’t practice any martial arts (currently; I did many years ago), and don’t do any charity work (not that I’m ashamed of it, but I ain’t so much into it. Hey, if you’re not gonna give it 100% just don’t do it, right?). Other than that, I can honestly say I pretty much fit the bill. I don’t say this in a cocky way; I say this because I actually feel identified.

So go ahead, check it out: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2013/01/how_to_be_a_man.php

Which leads me back again to the first question I wrote in this post: “what do women really expect out of a guy these days?”. By the looks of it, and my experience, not any of the characteristics described in the column. But that’s OK. Now I know I want nothing to do with the kind of women that are out there looking for what they consider “a real man”.

¿Cual es tu medida?

¿Cual es tu medida?.

Recomendada lectura… niñas, señoritas, señoras y demás…

Tales from the Genius Bar

I just read this on my digital copy of Macworld. It is an excerpt from the book “Tales from the Genius Bar”, and decided to share not only because it struck me on a personal level, but also reminded me of the importance of having backup policies in place. Me? I always keep three sets of backups: daily backup via TimeCapsule, monthly backup to an external hard drive, and a hard copy (DVD) of all my pictures and videos captured with either my digital camera or my iPhone. At close to 12,000 pics and little over 200 videos, one can never be too safe.

Enjoy….

TALES FROM THE GENIUS BAR

Editor’s Note: Stephen Hackett is a former Apple Store Genius. This is an excerpt from his ebook, Bartending: Memoirs of an Apple Genius (Hackett Technical Media, LLC, 2012; geniusmemoirs.com).

Hard-drive failures, like car crashes, are inevitable. Hard drives have spinning platters and fast-moving arms. Like all things with small moving parts, they are very fragile, almost designed to fail. As you can imagine, Geniuses have to give people bad news about their drives (and their data) all the time.

Her name was Susan. She was a middle-aged woman who had a 15-inch PowerBook with a hard drive that sounded like a tin full of rocks going through a clothes dryer.

Even though I could guess the problem as soon as I heard the grinding noise, I went ahead and went through the motions of troubleshooting it. I booted her PowerBook from an external drive, opened Disk Utility and … nothing. The drive wouldn’t repair and when I attempted to mount it, the machine locked up.

As I began to break the news to her, she started sobbing, and before long she was full-on crying. A little crying wasn’t unusual at the Bar, but this was different. I could tell she’d lost more than just a term paper or some work project. Susan was falling apart, right there in the Apple Store.

After she calmed down, Susan explained that her children had been killed in a car accident a few years prior. She had all the photos of her small children on the hard drive. Pictures from her pregnancies were gone. Photos of birthday parties and opening presents on Christmas were gone.

Watching her cry, I realized that she was re-living the pain of losing her children.

Like most Mac users at that time, she had no backup of her files. Even before the days of Time Machine, as a Genius, the natural tendency was to have a “tough luck” worldview when it came to data loss. It was easy to look at customers who lost data and not feel any pity, figuring that they had gotten themselves into that position by not having a backup of their data.

I operated with that mindset a lot of the time. I think it’s fair to say most Geniuses do. Obviously, in a case like Susan’s, none of that applied. To feel anything but pity and sadness would have been plain wrong. This woman had already been through so much, and it seemed cruel of the universe to have added this, too.

Susan’s appointment was a prime example of just how emotional being a Mac Genius could be at times. On one hand, I knew that she should’ve backed up the pictures if they were the only copies she had, but on the other, I wanted Apple to cover the cost of the repair and data recovery, just to make her life a little easier. Really, I just wanted to let this woman cry on my shoulder.

Sadly, at that point, my hands were tied. When a hard drive is in such bad shape, the only hope for retrieving the data is to send the drive to a hardware data recovery company. The process has a mixed rate of success, and is very expensive, but it was Susan’s only hope. She didn’t even blink when I told her how much it was going to cost her.

Against all odds, Susan’s story ended well. The company was able to recover her photos success-fully, and she came back in six weeks later for us to help her set up a backup solution for the future.

She was incredibly lucky that her data was recoverable, but I knew it was wrong to frame things in that light. Instead, I celebrated with her at her follow-up appointment. I was genuinely happy that she had the photos of her children back. We were able to connect on a personal level, despite the fact that the Genius Bar was, ultimately, a business. Her story could’ve been much worse—I’m just thankful it wasn’t.

—STEPHEN HACKETT

Four Simple Rules of Life by Jerry Cantrell

By now most people know that my all-time favorite band is Alice in Chains. I recently read the book “It’s so easy (and other lies)” by GnR bass player Duff McKagan, and he included a quote of something that – to me at least – came across as Jerry Cantrell’s four simple rules of life. So… without further ado:

Rule one: Shit fucking happens. Everybody walking the planet knows that.
Rule two: things rarely turn out the way you planned.
Rule three: everybody gets knocked down.
Rule four (and most important of all): after you take those shots, it’s time to stand up and walk on—to continue to live.

For some reason, they all made sense to me. So here they are… for you to read, and me to remember.

\m/

——–
Update: I originally wrote this note on Oct/16; just opened my WordPress app and found it as a draft, so I decided to publish it as it was left back then.

“Everything else is secondary…”

This quote from Steve Jobs truly expresses his vision and gift to us all:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembe…ring that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

La Promesa

Dime lo que quieras y repitelo hasta que lo creas
y prométeme que lo que queda es diferente,
sigue pordiosera y decide tu propia condena
y convéncete que lo que queda es para siempre

Porque a quien pretendes engañar?
a quien pretendes manipular?
no tienes miedo (no)
si tú apuestas lo que no puedo dar
devuelves lo que no puedo usar
no vale nada… (no)
y no me importa lo que tengas que decirme hoy aquí
no te creo nada, todo acaba,
la promesa que me diste antes de llegar aquí
ya no vale nada, todo acaba! (no no no)

Finge tu lamento y fabricate otro sufrimiento,
repiteme que tu palabra es suficiente
anda y gritá lo que quieras
no me quedo para ver como juegas,
esta vez me despido y hoy es para siempre

Porque a quien pretendes engañar?
a quien pretendes manipular?
no tienes miedo (no)
si tú apuestas lo que no puedo dar
devuelves lo que no puedo usar
no vale nada… (no)
y no me importa lo que tengas que decirme hoy aquí
no te creo nada, todo acaba,
la promesa que me diste antes de llegar aquí
ya no vale nada, todo acaba! (no no no)

(No te creo nada.. todo acaba!
ya no vale nada.. todo acaba NO NO NO)

Porque a quien pretendes engañar?
a quien pretendes manipular?
no tienes miedo (no)
si tú apuestas lo que no puedo dar
devuelves lo que no puedo usar
no vale nada… (no)
y no me importa lo que tengas que decirme hoy aquí
no te creo nada, todo acaba,
la promesa que me diste antes de llegar aquí
ya no vale nada, todo acaba! (no no no)

One in a million…

Once in your life you’ll find someone
To make it all so real
When it comes you will know
‘Cuase it’s like something
You never thought you’d feel

(And) sometimes you say to yourself
Is this really what i’m looking for ?
‘Cause only time will tell
if this is heaven or hell
To really know if you’re sure

I walk this lonely road
And I felt i’m goin’ nowhere
(And) some things I’ll never know
But I know why you’re the only one

And I’ll never find love again
Like the kind you give
Like the kind you send
‘Cuase you’re one in a million
One in a million… to me.

Baby you’ve got a certain way
of doin’ things that makes me feel
Like I’m someone
So don’t change the way that you are

I walk this lonely road
And I felt i’m goin’ nowhere
(And) some things I’ll never know
‘Cuase you’re a million and one

I walk the lonely road
And I felt i’m goin’ nowhere
(And) some things I’ll never know
But I know why you’re the only one

And I’ll never find love again
Like the kind you give
Like the kind you send
‘Cause you’re one in a million
One in a million to me..

No more lonely nights
I’m finally goin’ somewhere
And it’s all because of you
That I know why
You’ve always been the only one

And i’ll never find love again
Like the kind you give
Like the kind you send
‘Cause iou’re one in a million
One in a million to me

I’ll never find love again
Like the kind you give
Like the kind you send
‘Cuase you’re one in a million
One in a million to me

One in a million to me..
One in a million to me…
One in a million to me…

Golpes en el Corazón…

Buenísima letra… y buenísima canción, escrita e interpretada por “Los Tigres del Norte”… ha!

Yo te regalaba todo,
todo lo que me pedías.
Sin embargo me reclamas,
y te daba hasta mi vida.

Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Falsas promesas de amor.
Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Golpes en el corazón.

Yo te regalaba todo,
hoy reñimos y te olvidas.
Salí mal con mis amigos,
porque tu no los querías.

Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Todo lo perdí por
Pero tu…qué me has dado?
Solo me has hecho sufrir.

Para sanar las heridas,
voy a buscar otro amor.
Casi arruinaste mi vida,
golpeando mi corazón.

Yo te regalaba todo,
con mi madre discutía.
Me quería abrir los ojos,
perdóname madre mía.

Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Falsas promesas de amor.
Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Golpes en el corazón.

Para sanar las heridas,
voy a buscar otro amor.
Casi arruinaste mi vida,
golpeando mi corazón.

Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Falsas promesas de amor.
Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Golpes en el corazón.

Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Falsas promesas de amor.
Pero tú…qué me has dado?
Golpes en el corazón.