hiatus mode off
After Christmas, new year and a first week of 2009 worth forgeting I intend to come back to updating this blog in a somewhat regular basis once again.
It is not that I'm out of inspiration or anything, just that I've been writting stuff that can't see the light of day just yet.
Other than that there hasn't been much going on. Or has it?
2008 in review
Despite economic crisis and some personal dark notes 2008 has been an awesome year. Putting it in perspective is a hard task; too much happened.
Beijing 2008.
Until September everything in my life had olympic rings attached. Unlike some other projects, we had a due date written in stone: 08-08-08. Everything needed to be oiled and working by then. It was one-in-a-lifetime oportunity.
"Voices of the Olympic Games" was a fun and demanding projects I was ever involved with. I have written several posts about it all over the months. Here's a link to the tag "Olympics" in this same blog in case you want to read them all.
On the "lowlights" side of things: during the games my father got seriously sick and passed away the last thursday of Beijing 2008. Talk about messy weeks.
Public Speaking.
I am really fortunate. Some people think I'm worth listening to, and I was invited to speak at We Media Buenos Aires, WordCamp Buenos Aires and DigitalTalk. Hopefully I'm getting better at this thing of trying to share ideas, visions and experiences with others.
Oddly enough I think I get more out than I give back to this events.
Huge thank you to the people who invited me.
Lenovo.
It has been a crazy year at lenovo. Olympics, new product launches (such as the X300, the IdeaPads, NetBooks, servers... ) and a global crises.
I got a little bit more settled in my role within the company. I must admit I don't quite like "settled" and I will be looking at new ways to make me uncomfortable and drive myself mad soon.
Personal.
Despite the noted lowlight, it has been a nice year personally. The most important news is that I'm bound to become a parent in March.
There's still a lot that needs to be worked out. I really don't like living in Buenos Aires, particularly I'm not fond to raise a kid here (since I was able to grow up in the mountains and forests of Patagonia) and my apartment has started a self-destroy sequence some months ago.
Yet the good news is so overwhelming that all the problems and issues become secondary.
Also, in the "growing family" department I got to meet a "new" Brother. Life has some very strange twists.
Posting.
I haven't been posting too often to this blog. Yet I think there are a couple of entries readers might find interesting:
- This series of posts on mixing metrics, social media and maths.
- A post in April doing some futurology thinking if Social Media Marketing could survive a crisis. (Also available in Spanish at Mariano´s Blog)
- Then I put Social media in perspective Stating that it is not the center of the universe.
- Two pieces from this same month: on Influencers and on Shopping Processes.
Note: it is an interesting exercise to read thoroughly a year worth of posts to see how much rubbish I usually write and how little substance.
For 2009.
High expectations and profound changes. They will either happen or I'll force them to happen. Although responsibilities should increase with parenting the adventure and nomadic spirit within me is about to burst.
Talk the talk
Last Thursday I had the honor to attend "DigitalTalk". The best way I can describe it is as "endogamy-powered mini-TED".
Here's the dynamics of the talk: 20 speakers, no audience but the other keynoters, everything is recorded on Video for future release n the form of a blog. The only premise on what to talk about is that you have to "inspire the other 19 speakers".
Even though I had relatively little time to prepare my dissertation I decided to do something entirely from scratch, as opposed to recycling what I had already presented both on WeMedia and Wordcamp.
I did not speak about Social Media or the Online world in general, but rather centered my presentation on having ideas and sticking to them (and when to bail out!). I was rather pleased that the rest of the invitees had similar approaches.
It was quite an inspiring event. And I for once was thrilled by the fact that others think I can give an inspirational speech. It was also quite pleasing to be sitting "on the same table" as:
- Mariano Amartino (Uber Bin),
- Ariel Arrieta & Damian Voltes (Punto Fox)
- Alejandro Sas (Buongiorno)
- Andy Freire (Axialent)
- Adrian Herzkovich (Fox)
- Eduardo Mangarelli (Microsoft)
- Esteban Galuzzi (Intel)
- Federico Tessore (Inversor Global)
- Gaby Menta (AcroWorld)
- Gonzalo Alonso (Google)
- Gustavo Buchbinder (WebAr)
- Horacio Werner (Cisco)
- Juan Carlos Lucas (Innova)
- Juan Pablo Bruzzo (DineroMail)
- Leonardo Piccioli (OfficeNet)
- Martin Hazan (MRM)
- Martin Migoya (Globant)
I haven't got enough words to thank Mariano, Ariel and Damián for such a wonderful way to spend a Thursday.
Videos should become available at digitaltak.tv soon and I'll be posting comments and reviews / opinion on them as they are made public.
A couple of pics…
Got back home a couple of hours ago, downloaded a batch of pictures from the camera. There are some nice shots, but I still need to sort them out. Either way I thought I'd share 2 of them here and now. You can click on them to go to flickr and see the description n' stuff.
Going back!
This post should be posted while I'm going back to Buenos Aires. It has been a relaxing week; no snowboarding tho.
Tons of pics and some vids are to follow as soon as I get a chance to look at all of them.
Smarter posting about all this and that shall happen upon my return.
Reading Queue: History.
Back to normal reading, which means 3 to 6 books per month, hopefully. I seem to be inclined to read history.
This is a subject that I have been wanting to read for a very long time. I have always felt some sort of fascination with the arab people and culture.
It was the Arabs who allowed Europe to rediscover the ancient knowledge of greeks and romans. It was them who took math into a whole new era.
Yet so little is known or taught about them.
Historical Novel about Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known as "Caligula". Author Maria Grazia Siliato is an Italian archeologists who tries to bring Caligula back to life from a more humane and less-of-a-tyrant point of view. What drove the man to become a blood thirsty ruler? What lead to his assasination?
The emperor was surrounded by plots and plans to overthrow him. starting from his rise to power to his assassination at age 29, Caligula's history is rich in all sorts of plans within plans.
Crusades have been a passion of mine since I can remember. As a kid I remember regarding them with a certain romanticism. As I grew up and went from a naive and romantic vission of what they were to a more realistic and crude oppinion that passion grew.
One of my "dreams" is to write a historic novel that takes place in Istambul at the time of the second crusade.
This books ought to keep me entertained for a while.
Out and Away
I'm starting my vacation tomorrow morning. Timing couldn't be more perfect. Although there are still a couple fo days left till the Olympics close on Sunday I think the program can survive without me.
There has been a certain ammount of turmoil and unrest lately; time off is more than welcome.
I'll try to post every once in a while, maybe upload some pictures as well.
August
This shall prove to be a busy month!
For starters, there is a certain sports events happening. But I have talked too much about that already.
This weekend I'm traveling to mi wife's hometown
By the end of the month: vacation; 1000 mile drive to Bariloche and, hopefully (as in "if it snows", and "if ski passes are somewhat affordable"!) some snowboarding.
The 24th, my wife's birthday, not to mention my mother-in-law's and grandmother-in-law's.
I have to thank Augustus (the Roman emperor) who decided to name a month after himself and gave it 31 days instead of the 29 it used to have when it was know as "Sextilis" under the Roman Republic's Calendar. Those 2 extra days shall prove to be quite useful to fit all events going on this month.
I should be blogging more often
But I'm in a moment in life in which whenever I can drag myself away from my ThinkPad I just do so.
Hopefully madness will start to wear off and I'll regain part of my non-professional life back. I'm in need of playing my bass more, playing some sports, doing some reading (as in "books", remember?), doing a lot of writing and all that other fancy stuff that people do on their free time.
In the meantime the "Voices" site is now available in several languages.
Out and away!
Stack Overflow
Being of the assorted geeky type I can't help but using a programming analogy to describe my current situation.
There is too much going on right now, both on the professional as well as on the personal side of things. Fortunatelly a very high percentage of that is possitive (very!), but I still feel overwhelmed.
This accounts for me missing from this blog. That and that I have been preparing my spanish blog. After about a year since I started thinking / doing it I'm almost ready to launch. That is an example of the "copious ammout of free time" (as Tim would put it) I have had for the past 9 or so months.
I'm taking Friday off. Taking advantage of US's commemoration of doing some British ass-kicking I'll be away from my computer and doing some personal things. In contrast I'll be working the day Argentina remembers doing some Spaniard ass-kicking (July 9th).
I have not only neglected doing things but also thinking about stuff.
As the Governator would say: "I'll be back". Just wait till the Olympic games are over!