Semana de Ingeniería

Yes, only the title is in spanish...

Rant post!!!

Every year, my school organizes an event that lasts a whole week called... yup, you guessed: "Semana de Ingeniería". First time I heard of it, it intrigued me, cause for a whole week, there were going to be lots of lectures, presentations, conferences, courses and stuff like that, and all of them about Engineering, wow, that's so cool, for the school to care about its students, provide them with lots of conferences about different subjects... Yes, in theory it works, there's absolutely nothing to lose, it's free, you go, you learn something, or get a better grasp of something you knew and be happy.

Well, lots of things work in theory... IF AND ONLY IF SAID THINGS ARE EXECUTED PROPERLY!!! I can't stress that enough... rant approaching.

This is what I think is wrong with the school's and students' approach to it:

1. First, since all the conferences and stuff are during class hours, most of the teachers don't give class that week, so we can attend... well, no, turns out most students don't want to attend to ANY conference or courses, that speaks bad of the students, if you are studying it should be because YOU WANT to, so you should do everything in your power to gather all kinds of knowledge.

2. So, how would you prevent that??? By FORCING students to go. They give out stamps for every conference you attend, so teachers don't give class, but DEMAND you show them your stamps the following week. So what happens??? People start attending conferences they don't even know what the fuck it's about, just to get a stamp to show the teachers, why should one care about that? Cause classrooms (where most conferences are given) hold average some 35-40 people, 95% of which are there just for the stamp, not for the knowledge.

3. The persons giving the conferences are not very well picked. I once assisted a 3-day course about time-management which felt like a total waste of time (oh, the irony). The woman up front didn't know what the hell she was talking about, she made a presentation very poorly made that not even herself understood very well, questions were answered very vaguely or not answered at all, she gave no examples or hypothetical cases of when to apply what she was talking about. Some conferences are not dynamic, cause most of the people aren't really paying attention, so the person up front gets discouraged by that fact.

4. The school makes NO EFFORT to make students want to go to those conferences other than forcing them. If you don't go, the teachers take it like you missed a couple of classes, thus lowering your final grade (why assistance to class gets graded is beyond me, but that's a topic for another rant). They barely let students know when it's starting or what conferences and courses you can go to.

So, all in all, I like it cause it's a week off school. I do not attend it since last year, cause I don't agree with the school's approach. I have told teachers in the middle of the class about how I feel, and how they can help spread the word about it... they couldn't give less of a fuck. Literally this is one response I got "Mira, a mi me van a pagar de todos modos, y no voy a dar clases, así que mejor ven y traeme tus sellos". That's what made me start thinking.... how superior education in México is really fucked up.

Independent life...

It has been exactly 4 weeks and 1 day (yes, if you count, it is Aug 15th, Mari's bday, haha) since I moved out of my parents house.

At first it felt weird, mostly cause I always thought I'd move out 'till I got out of this "beautiful" country. But I wanted some taste of independence. I had tasted it already 3 and a half years ago, but got cut short cause some asshole stole my car and couldn't get to work, so I needed my mom's car, and thus I had to move back to my parents.

So, I knew what it felt like moving out of the house, and what it felt like moving back in, I most definitely was more comfortable at my parents, all the utilities, internet, computer, good food, and the company of my family... so I thought: "Ok, I now what it feels like living on my own (at some degree at least), I know what my parents go through with the house expenses, and I know what it feels like not being able to depend on somebody else to solve or help solve your problems, it's all me... so, why would I want to get out of my parents' again???", and for sure, that was my way of thinking for over three years...

Then came august 2010... I started feeling the itch of moving out again, I now had a better grasp of life than before, I'm more experienced, and had spent lots of time thinking about independent life.

The first couple of weeks, it was rough, they cut the water cause they hadn't paid the bill, we had no stove, no fridge, no air, no internet, nothing... It was then that I thought: "Why DID I do it???". I mean, I wasn't really regretting it, but more like wondering, I knew what it was going to be like, what I was going to leave behind... and still decided to do it... maybe just to see the expression of people when I tell them I moved out.

I got home, and it felt weird, like when you sleep over at a friends house, and you can't stay asleep for more than an hour at a time, I got sick real bad, we didn't have good food, only potatoes, and that was it. WORST OF ALL, I did not eat meat for a good 4 or 5 days... that is NOT acceptable.

So... why am I still here???

First of all, we signed a contract, so there's no way back so easily. But more importantly, cause I am honestly enjoying it. I like the responsibilities, I like being "broke", I like administering money for groceries and rent and utilities. I like being a couple of blocks away from school, I like being able to do what I want when I want, and lots of things...

But most of all, I open the door... and I know I'm home. That sounds corny as hell, but it's true, and I know it's only been four weeks, but it's something, I'm going to host a party next week (never done that), I'm going to pay rent with money actually saved throughout the month, I have a fridge (tiny :P), a stove, water, internet (yes, that is a necessity to me), company of good friends, I have it all :D.

What would the world be like...

...if there was only one Internet Browser.

Ok, so I'm going to be talking about 5 "main" browsers, well, 4 cause I have only used Safari once, but it is one of the "main" ones.

Lately, since I've been forced to remake a webpage (they sent me the design, I just made sure it looked like it), one of the things I needed to be aware of is that the site is visited mostly (oh, surprise) by IE users.

So, here's where it all begins...

First, there are a couple of places where I needed to make round corners, should be easy enough, right??? Just specify it and done... well, no... cause if you put 'border-radius: x;' in css stylesheet, guess what, only Opera and Chrome react to it, you need to specify another line for when you're using  Safari, and another one for when you're using Firefox... don't even know how to make it work in IE.

That's two additional lines of code for it to work... and that's just to make round corners... now imagine to build a full-fledged web app from the ground up, and have to make sure it works on most browsers, that's time and work spent on something that could be better spent on designing or developing the app itself.

But here is where it gets real...

Obviously, like everything else, there needs to be competition, so there will never be only one... if we didn't have an IE, modern browsers would amaze us less than they do, if there was no Firefox, other browsers wouldn't try as hard on having great Extensions/Widgets/Add-ons, if there was no Chrome or Safari, other browsers wouldn't try as hard to make the browser as fast as humanly possible, if there was no Opera, well, there would be less innovations that are implemented in various other browsers. (I'm only saying what comes to mind, I know each browser is not tied down to a single possitive thing). But from those mentioned, there is one we can do without and be a good thing... yes, IE.

It's not that I hate it with all my guts (which I do), but as many big companies do, they want to do it their own way *cough*Sony*cough*, and that's what makes it very hard to develop for, either you develop for IE in mind, or for a good browser in mind but with tweaks every now and then so that the essence is not lost in IE...

I'm not saying it should dissappear cause it won't, just make an effort to be competitive and not rely on computers having it installed by default.

I would like a browser that has the simplicity of Chrome, the Extension gallery of Firefox, the many innovations of Opera (please, mouse-gestures by default!!!), and... well, I don't know what I want from Safari, but I'm sure there's something... and blend it all together in a single browser, haha... well, a man can dream... a man can dream

A new year begins...

And with it always come certain things that define the beginning of a year (for me at least).

For starters, school, I always like to return to school in winter better than summer, don't know why, in summer vacation's longer, but I don't really like summer, maybe that's why. And as with every new semester comes the thought that never fails to be there: "This semester I'm going to do great"... yeah, I've said that before, and I'm saying it again this time, it just wouldn't be the start of school without that mentality. Always eager to meet new people (even though I mostly take classes with people I already know), eager to meet the new teachers, see if they're not just there filling a job, but maybe they want to teach their knowledge...

Another thing that helps define the new year is the feeling of thinking this is going to be the best year ever, and again, that feeling is there, guiding me through the start of the year. And that feeling brings some friends along, like, the "I'm going to lose weight" dude, then there's the "this year I'm accomplishing more than last year" person... I think we all know him, and with me always comes the "I'm not getting in any more debt" friend... that up till now I've always been kind of ignoring, only said hi to him on my way to meeting the other ones... but not this year, I think I might get to know him better than ever.

And as of the past 3 years, I look forward to the superbowl... but not because of the game (even though I do watch it with my dad and brothers), but because I've made sort of a tradition of shaving my mustache and beard every superbowl, haha, yeah I know, that's a stupid thing to make a tradition of... but I feel good, it comes with a certain mentality that I like to embrace, kind of like a new start... yeah, it's void of sense... but I still like it.

But with all that said... I really do think this is going to be a good year, more so than previous years... why???

1.- World Cup, always exciting to see and follow from finish to end
2.- I'm done with Basic Sciences subjects, and I'm full into Computer Science in school (yup, took me this long, but hey, not my fault)
3.- I like my job
4.- Hell, 2009 was just an average year for me, and that almost instantly makes the next year a little bit better, haha
5.- Thanks to Angelica, I'm going to start saving up money (haha, even though I shouldn't be proud of something that I should have been doing for a long time, still, I suck at saving money)