A piece of peace

..a long time since the last post.. I can say "I haven't had time to post" or "I didn't feel like it" which are partially true, but I rather like not to waste my time looking for a reason.. :)

Many things had place in my life lately.. good and bad ones, but I feel the balance of them all is highly possitive!! so it makes me think and feel that all the bad moments where there just to learn more about this life, enjoying every moment, which led me right here, right now..

I cannot tell everything that I lived this past few months, 'cause they were so many things.. so I'll mention just some of 'em..

A great guest I had some weeks ago left Spain to continue her trip in France. Now she is in Thailand, enjoying life as she always does! Yes, I'm talking about Libby, whom I share many great moments with!!. I hope to have time next year to see her again.. she became in one of those people I would always want to spend my time with.. talking, learning, sharing experiences and perpectives and also having fun!!

More guests! (I really like that, I'm considering managing a hostel in the future..). A few weeks ago my friend Luciano came to Europe to give some tech talks, so I could enjoy some time with him here in Madrid and we made a very nice trip to Morocco! Here is the resulting photo album!. What can I say? I liked Morocco very very much!, we met great people there, we lived a bit of their culture and had a lot of fun thinking we were making a great deal while we were being "robbed" shopping!! ;)

I started learning german again!I want back the level I had once! Luckily I have a great exchange teacher, who helps me with those things I cannot learn from a book.. :P and I'm also discovering how good Spanish teacher can I be! ;)

Right now I'm trying to change some little things of my life (as usual, otherwise would be boring), but in this case, I'm living the process not as the path to reach a goal, but instead, as an enjoyable journey..! I'm mostly happy with my life how it is right now!! So that's a great time for a change, when I can take decisions with a clear mind, from a comfortable position..


Readings:
I started reading Cryptonomicon (Neal Spephenson), I'm reading now the 2nd book of the trilogy, I think it is a must-read novel for every geek.. ;)

I finished reading the book The Art of Loving (Erich Fromm) which I got for just 1€ in a used books shop while I was looking for another book.., and I think that is one (if not the) best book I've read so far. Maybe because of my position in life, my questions, my feelings.. Anyways, I highly recommend it. Everyone should read it to understand at least those concepts of love needed for this world to be better..

Loosing a diamond..

..while too busy collecting stones..

Refocusing on getting back the lost time as I did my entire life, I feel I forgot a bit about the important things. Discovering oneself is one of the most difficult tasks a person has to face. To help myself in that process, I got two very popular books that I'm very anxious to start reading: The Art of Loving (Erich Fromm) and Your Erroneous Zones (Wayne Dyer)..


Taking advantage of this half tranquil sunday, I've organized and uploaded some pictures. I really enjoyed to live those moments, I hope the pictures show at least some of what I felt then!

In order of appearance..

The splendour and glamour of some young souls having fun in Madrid..

This tuesday gathering in the same date I was born (different year, of course)..

And a very nice trip to the city of Porto (Portugal) with my friend Libby, whom I spent a great time with! (the pictures say it all)..

MAD in MAD

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!""

by Jack Kerouac

I am my aims

What does a goal mean in life? As I think I commented already in another post, a goal for me is a checkpoint very useful to meassure how much we grew in some topic.

So now, (maybe bc is after my b-day) I think it is a good moment to check my list of goals I had for this year..

* Stability [done!]

I'm leaving in Madrid since about 6 months ago (March 17). Here I'm working at IBM and living on my own in a very peaceful and comfortable place. I also made some new friends whom I spend many good moments with! :) This doesn't mean that I will be stable for a long time.. I just reached a point of certain stability by this time..

* Visit a country I've never been to [done!]

I'm just back from Porto, the 2nd bigest city of Portugal. I was there for 3 nights, which I think is the perfect amount of time for that city. It was very good to know a different european country and its similarities and differences with the rest.. Now I want to start planning my next trip!! :D

* Read > 6 non-tech books [done!]

Well, I can check this one as done.. I was reading some very interesting non-tech books which gave me different perspectives in many areas.. which books? mmhm.. let me think..

"The science, its method and its philosophy" by Mario Bunge
"Eve's_Diary and other tales" by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka: Mark Twain)
"The Sickness Unto Death" by Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
"The Zahir" by Paolo Cohelo
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche
"El perro del hortelano" by Lope de Vega
"Fuenteovejuna" by Lope de Vega
and I'm reading now "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare, which is very complicated for me, so I will take my time to finish it.. ;)

* English certificate (maybe FC) [discarded!]

Nah.. not a goal aymore.. I think I've improved my english very much during this year. I can say almost everything I want to say in the way I want to say it, which is my way of meassuring how much I've grown. Now I'm focusing on diferences between cultures more than the language itself.

* Define job position and growth [work in progress..]

This is a hard one.. I wanted to do that here in Spain, but I found a very tough market and the impossibility to grow as much as I would like in my career. Now that I'm more stable I think is the right time to focus on it more, but for now it will remain as not reached.

* Appartment [done!]

I think I wanted to say here that I would like to have an appartment for just myself, cause in Argentina I was living temporarily with my dad and after that, when I came here, I was staying at my aunt's. Well, as I mentioned before, I got this one done.

I will start working on different goals for the next period (maybe rest of 2008 and 2009)..