Explicit Exposure

Nines

2009-09-09T09:09:00.000-04:00

Things that happen once in a lifetime... posted on 09/09/09 at 09:09:09

Miserable Failure's back

2009-06-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

LOL, Google shut it down, but Bing brought it back:

I Still Don't Have A MySpace, but....

2008-11-11T12:59:00.003-05:00

...now I do have a Facebook.

I finally succumbed and, despite I fierily refused to open a Facebook account for a while, now I decided to give it a shot.

I've been too lazy to keep up posting to my 5+ blogs in the way I would have liked, as I sometimes lack of time (best excuse), a good theme to write about o simply interest of doing it. I hope this "Gossipbook" thing doesn't become another bad excuse to neglect my other chores.

Anyway, my plans with my fragrantly new Facebook profile go farther than just blabbing with old (and new) friends. I plan to use it to do real networking, trying to get my message to where it wouldn't be possible without its capabilities.

I'm still old school and I still believe email and IM are the best ways to get connected, but heck it's 2008 already and I have to move on.

Cerberus

2008-10-07T13:45:00.001-04:00

I saw this cloud formation and immediately found a resemblance with a dog, now I don't know if it may be a hellish or a celestial dog... or maybe Cerberus with two missing heads?.

Class of 2008

2008-04-22T12:57:00.001-04:00

My little Grad

Travelers of the South

2008-04-16T13:42:00.002-04:00

A couple of friends started the adventure of going from Bogota, Colombia to Miami, FL riding their motorcycles. Some friends joined them in California and rode altogether from the west coast to the east coast, arriving finally to Miami.

They kept a blog documenting all the trip, with detailed stories, photos and videos. Although it is written in Spanish, it's something worth to read.

Dos motociclistas salen de Bogota, Mauricio y Gonzalo, para el norte, en
Feb/28/2008. El primer trayecto, Bogotá- Panamá con sus motos en avión.
Recorreran Centroamerica por la via Panamericana,; en Mexico despues de
escudriñar la Peninsula de Yucatán y el centro del país (DF) entran por Baja
California a USA; Otro compañero, Jorge, sale de Miami, Fl hacia Los Angeles.
Simultaneamente, Laura, la hija de Gonzalo, se dirige desde NY a LA para
acompañarlos unos dias. Juntos van a escudriñar el oeste estadounidense, Valle
de la Muerte y Cañon del Colorado y finalmente hacer un "costa a costa" buscando
en Miami un vuelo de vuelta a sus origenes.

Link to Viajeros del Sur

She Played Like A Pro

2008-03-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

My daughter played Viola in a concert her Doral Middle School's orchestra performed together with the Miami Youth Symphony Project's orchestra.

Both directors, Mr. Custis Edwards and Mr. Alex Berti, marvelously conducted their kids to produce one of the best live performance I've ever heard.

Maybe it was just parent's pride, but for me these kids played like long time professionals.

Invention #4, directed by Mr. Curtis Edwards

Idylls of Pegasus, directed by Mr. Alex Berti

My most sincere congratulations to these two exceptional Directors and their magnificent orchestras.

More videos available at my YouTube Channel or after the jump:

Fables (part 1), directed by Mr. Curtis Edwards

Fables (part 2), directed by Mr. Curtis Edwards

Hungarian Dance, , directed by Mr. Curtis Edwards

Me Too

2008-01-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Soda Stereo... una eternidad esperé este instante.

2007-12-05T23:45:00.000-05:00

A decade ago, the best exponent of the Latin Rock movement, the band that inspired every other band in Latin America, decided to separate. Gustavo Cerati, Charly Alberti and Zeta Bosio couldn't withstand a single day together, they couldn't coexist any longer, they needed a break from each other and so they split, leaving behind 15 years of magical music, sold-out tours, platinum discs and millions of crying fans. Soda Stereo muted its voice.

De aquel amor de música ligera
nada nos libra, nada más queda.

Now, after a long decade, they revived our memories, they transported us to our recent past and made us evocate those wonderful moments in our lives, when we where younger, when we spent incredible nights just being ourselves, drinking beers and listening to Soda.

Golpean la puerta
Por décima vez
Es que falta alguien por venir
Cuando me suba esa cara de gaste
Y me baje el alcohol
Entre el alud podré asomar mi nariz
Y salir a la calle

The American Airlines Arena filled up with the best music any band in Latin America could only dream to produce, to play, to sing. Soda Stereo is back, and it doesn't matter if its voice mute again for another long decade, what we lived tonight was worth the wait.

Tarda en llegar
Y al final, al final
Hay recompensa
En la zona de promesas

Photos and videos after the jump...

Some Photos

Hombre Al Agua

Cuando Pase El Temblor

Persiana Americana

Y sin embargo esperas
Un laberinto sin sorpresas
Y sin embargo
Aun puedes abrir tu caja negra

Bugatti Veyron spotted in Miami

2007-08-16T15:32:00.000-04:00

Last week I was coming to my home when I saw something that caught my attention, a truck with the back door open and two rare cars in sight.

The car in the lower deck reminded me The King, the race car featured in Disney-Pixar's Cars, but it was only after I passed by that I recognized the particular B logo in the back of the car being transported in the upper deck of the trailer. It was a Bugatti Veyron!!!.

I circled the block and came back to snap a picture with my Treo's lousy camera. Don't blame me for the ugly picture, I tried my best.

You're invited, but we know you're guilty

2007-06-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

I got an invitation for attending the screening of Michael Bay's Transformers movie. What pisses me off is what is written in the ticket, a disclaimer that implies that they, the MPAA, Paramount Pictures and/or Cobb Theatres, just assumed I am already a criminal and I need to be scanned and profiled as one.

I know treating people like criminals is a common practice by the MPAA, and sometimes people attending the screenings are subject to all kind of degrading and abusive procedures, but anyway I will take the risk to go and "try" to enjoy this movie, despite my cell phone is a Treo 700wx and hence that instantly makes me a culprit.

The disclaimer (imputation?) textually says:

No recording of this motion picture, by electronic or any other means, is permitted. Your will be subject to search and inspection. Individuals entering the theater will be subject to physical search and inspection of their person and personal effects for recording devices and may be required to pass through a metal detector and/or subject to scanning via a handheld metal detection device. No one possessing any camera, recorder or any other device capable of recording sound or images, including without limitation camera-equipped PDA's and cellular phones, will be permitted to attend this screening.
This screening will be monitored for unauthorized recording. Anyone who uses a recording device or attempts to use a recording device during this screening will be subject to immediate removal, detention and civil and criminal prosecution. Any recording device (including its contents) discovered in the theater shall be subject to immediate forfeiture and/or destruction. Unauthorized recording will be reported to law enforcement, and nothing contained in this notice shall be construed to limit our available remedies and/or legal recourse, including without limitation a legal action for copyright infringement statutory damages of up to $150,000.00 per violation.

But Dad... it's not an iPod!

2007-06-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Daughter: Look daddy, that's the iPod I want.
Me: uhm ...
Daughter: It's the iPod video 30 gigs. I think I'll ask Santa for it, again!.
Me: Ok, but look sweetie, there are another brands. For example look at this one, pointing a Zune, it has a bigger screen, FM radio, wireless connectivity, and....
Daughter: But Dad.... it's not an iPod!.
Me: You've got your point.

SIDE NOTE: I have never bought an iPod or any other Apple product, because I'm an soft-core anti-Apple advocate (long story). I have dodged my daughter's requests for an iPod for the last 2 years, and I even bought her a couple of cheap MP3 players that she gladly accepted but later "conveniently" lost.
I think she'll finally get what she wants, despite all my futile efforts to dissuade her from having it.... Apple: 1, Me: 0

Fake Linux books, brought to you by Amazon.com

2007-06-04T11:44:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine just received a book he bought from Amazon:

It was supposed to be a book about TrixBox, a telephone system for Linux based on the open source Asterisk PBX, but what he got was the legit covers with a weird printing inside:

They were the same two pages from another book about emotional techniques for kids, repeating over and over again along the whole book:

Forbidden to Forget

2007-05-27T19:07:00.000-04:00

A free country died today, a dictatorship has risen.

Why FedEx is not knocking at your door

2007-03-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

It has happened three times this year. I ordered something online, they shipped it by FedEx and the driver just dropped it off at my porch without even bother knocking my door, even when it was evident there were people in the house.

This is unconfirmed, but I overheard two FedEx drivers talking between them, one telling the other a third driver had the record of effective deliveries at his route, with a hundred-forty-something deliveries in one day. After I thought of it, it made sense of the way FedEx delivers to my address. The only way they can achieve such high goals is by avoiding wasting time having the customers sign for accepting deliveries.

Let's do some math. Let's say an average park-drop off-continue routine takes the driver only one minute, that is, without knocking, talking with the customer and getting the signature. If you sum these, they will add up an average 4 minutes to their routine.

Let's suppose an 8 hours working schedule. If we take off the time driving around, of let's say 5 hours, it would leave 3 effective hours for deliveries. Now, if the whole delivery process takes only one minute, it would allow them, in theory, make 180 deliveries per day. Now, if the process took 5 minutes, that would reduce their effectivity to only 36 deliveries a day. Of course, this calculation is very simple and many other influencing parameters should be considered for getting a more real estimate, but anyway it somewhat illustrates my point.

I suspect FedEx's management is fully aware of it, and they maybe encourage (or a least suggest) their drivers to simply drop off the packages at the door and run away to the next. Even if the package is lost or stolen, their calculated costs of dealing with the angry customer and/or the careless shipper is much lower than not reaching their daily delivery levels. It's simple benefit-cost math, the lower the effectiveness in deliveries the higher the number of trucks and drivers they need to fulfill their goals; and that's much more expensive than paying the cost of replacing that $100 crap you purchased online or even the cost of being the second largest parking violator in San Francisco.

Wii Play with Letters

2007-02-25T22:50:00.000-05:00

I was reading the descriptions in the back of Wii Play's case and couldn't understand the Spanish description at first attempt. Then I realized there was a typo, or better said, a misplaced letter in the first paragraph.
Instead of:

na vez que empieces a jugar los nueve juegos rápidos y adictivos de Wii Play, U se te hará muy difícil dejarlos de jugar.

It should read:

Una vez que empieces a jugar los nueve juegos rápidos y adictivos de Wii Play, se te hará muy difícil dejarlos de jugar.

Is it possible the big N can't afford hiring someone fluent in Spanish for its QA department?

Wii Crashed 3 times in 24 hours

2007-02-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

My Wii crashed and/or misbehaved 3 times in the last 24 hours. Can this possibly be a sign of something worst to happen?

Last night, while playing Wario Smooth Moves, the main wiimote stopped working and with every button I clicked all I got was all LEDs blinking. I resolved it by taking out batteries and then resyncing the remote with the console (by pressing the red buttons in every of them).

Today, it crashed again. I was playing Wii Play and changed the disc to Wii Sport. While I was waiting the game to load I clicked Everybody Votes at the same moment my son started clicking simultaneously the 1,2 buttons on the two secondary remotes. The screen blacked out and remained black without responding to any remote. I had to unplug/plug the console, and everything seemed okey after that.

Later, trying to load Wii Sport again, all three remotes suddenly stopped working and I had to resync the main one to make it work again.

I don't know why this happened, but I hope it's just a bug in current WiiOS version and the big N is aware of it and will correct it soon. I started getting sporadic unresponsive remotes after the very first WiiOS update back in December, when I had only one wiimote. Now that I have three, this behavior seems to be more frequent. Could it be the console is broken?

All three remotes had brand new fresh batteries at the moment of crashes, so it discards battery problems.

Are you having the same issues? Let me know in the comments.

What Wii Need (or at least just Mii)

2007-02-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

Since I got my Wii, two weeks after its launch, I realized some minor features it lacked of, specifically related with saved games and memory management.

The Wii has a SD slot where you can back up saved games, but those games can't be saved or read directly to or from the SD card, only from main memory. This is annoying because you always have to copy your saved games to the main memory from the SD card, play from the main memory, save there your progress and then copy everything back to the SD card, not before having to first manually delete old files from the card, given no overwriting is allowed. All this procedure is really a pain in the back.

The reason why I'm raging about actual memory management procedures is because, in the Wii, is utterly easy for a 3 years old kid to delete all items from memory.

My toddler plays Wii, he has his own Mii and amazingly plays all Wii Sports and Monkey Ball very well. At his short age he alone turns on the Wii, chooses the channel he wants and plays the game disc currently inserted (the Wii resides high out from his reach to avoid him to change discs and damage the hardware). He plays at the Mii channel, the news channel, the weather channel and every other channel, including VC games.

The problems arise when he hits the configuration option and gets to the memory management channel. He usually deletes all saved games just for fun (remember, he's just 3) when nobody's watching him. Every time I'm around and realize what he's trying to do, I usually avoid it by telling him not to do so, just before he deletes anything. But if I'm not watching, he deletes everything.

The Wii only asks you once to confirm if you want to delete something, and then everything is gone. The only way I found to keep my info safe is by painfully backing it up to an SD card, but sometimes I forget to back it up and you can imagine what happens next. The worst occurs when I leave the card forgotten inside, he doubles the slaughtering.

Thus, this is my very personal petition to Nintendo, please, please... pleeeease, make the deletion of memory contents a bit more difficult.

In the way parental control can be applied for making the system ask for a Pin for accessing to some channels and options, please make us able to apply the same parental control to the deletion of memory items. I beg you to implement this feature as soon as possible, after I had to start playing Zelda from the beginning for the fourth time. Not to mention the pain I have suffered after I lost all my records and points in Wii Sports.

By the way, you should also implement harder ways to reset games in the Nintendo DS, just like in Nintendogs... because you know, my son assaults them too.

Thank you for listening...

I (almost) don't believe in ghosts..!!!

2007-02-12T14:09:00.000-05:00

This article appeared today in El Nuevo Herald from Miami. As the old saying says: Yo no creo en brujas, pero de que vuelan vuelan:

Las historias de terror solo eran parte de los mitos de las guardias nocturnas hasta que recientemente fueron renovadas las cámaras internas de vigilancia y entonces los monitores comenzaron a captar y a grabar, con nitidez y a todo color, el ingreso del gato negro y las extrañas danzas y cambios de formas del supuesto fantasma.

Todo, en efecto, comienza pasadas las 10 de la noche con la entrada del gato negro.

Here is the article in Spanish and google-translated into English.

The rip off behind DisneyPixar's Cars DVD

2006-11-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

My rage isn't against the movie, because it's excellent. Just read all the other reviews posted everywere and see what is other people saying.

My anger is against the rip off behind Cars' DVD marketing strategy. Why in this world this thieves at Disney didn't include an English and Spanish audio tracks in the same DVD, or at least included Spanish subtitles along with the English track. They didn't do it because they wanted to squeeze more money out from their loyal customers' pockets, and force them to buy two copies of the same movie, one in English and one in Spanish.

I never go to the movies at the theater because mi wife doesn't understand English. I usually wait for the DVD release and buy it for the enjoyment of the movie at home, playing it in my already expensive home theater system. Thus, if a movie doesn't have Spanish (audio or subtitles) I simply don't buy it. However, this time I had to buy this one because my kids.

My kids and I do speak English and we watch the DVD with English audio, given my kids prefer it that way. But when I watch the movie together with my wife, we do it with Spanish audio or at least with Spanish subtitles (yes, I commonly watch movies twice).

This time my wife felt very disappointed she couldn't enjoy this movie and had to conform to the very bad live translation I was doing to her.

I've bought every DVD Disney has produced and sold in the past 5 years, but a rip off like this makes me think in piracy as an option.... Did you hear that Disney?

Beach days in Autumn

2006-09-26T18:00:00.000-04:00

The north started to feel the first colds of another tough winter....
..... look how worried we're about:

Las Olas

Sep 24, 2006 at Fort Lauderdale, FL

Wii want one, wii are going to (hopefully) get one

2006-09-14T13:03:00.000-04:00

My next console is to arrive on November 19th, 2006.
Just can't wait for having it. :-)

Link

I Do Refuse to be Terrorized

2006-08-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

Finally somebody has the "cojones" to openly disagree against this overhyped new chapter in the war against terror, and explains why it all has just been a complete waste of time, money and an absolute lack of common sense. Bruce Schneier, you are my new hero:

"The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face, and not a particularly common one at that. And our job is to fight those politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn't make us any safer."

Stop watching news, stop listening to politicians, just live your life without fears. Enough said...

Link

Can you hear me now?

2006-07-20T00:27:00.000-04:00

Location: Downtown Atlanta, GA.
Taken on: July 7, 2006 at 6.27pm EDT
Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ20
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/1677721600 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
Cropped: No

Firehose

2006-07-17T22:34:00.000-04:00

Update: This is my entry for this week's Photo Friday Challenge: Common

Location: Downtown Atlanta, GA
Taken on: July 7, 2006 at 2.47pm EDT
Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ20
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 10.9 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/1677721600 EV
Cropped: Yes
Flash: Flash did not fire

Two Towers

2006-07-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

Location: Atlanta, GA, from the 20th floor of the Marriot Marquis Hotel.
Taken on: July 7, 2006 at 7.50pm EDT
Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ20
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 6 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/1677721600 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire
Cropped: Yes

Automotive

2006-06-16T19:30:00.000-04:00

My entry for this week's Photo Friday Challenge: Automotive (link# 370)

01:02:03 04.05.06

2006-05-04T01:02:00.000-04:00

Posted at the 1st hour, 2nd minute, 3rd second of the 4th day of the 5th month of the 6th year of the second millenium.

If you missed this unique moment, don't worry, you have a thousand years for preparing yourself until the next time :-) (via)

Geography Lessons for AP

2006-04-19T21:00:00.000-04:00

Today my RSS reader showed me something picked up from ESPN.com that caught my immediate attention. They were reposting a news released by Associated Press through their RSS service:

Immediately I noticed it was wrong because they were incorrectly citing the geographical location of my country of birth. All my life I believed that what I was taught in the school was correct, but now AP has shaken up the bases of my education.... oh no... who am I, where do I come from... I feel confused... the World is changing... heeeelp me!... (it's a sarcasm, if you didn't notice it).

Now if you happen to work for Associated Press and don't know where Venezuela is located either, then here my two cents for you, check your World Atlas and you'll be amazed those scribbles called Maps can be useful sometimes if you don't want appear like an ignorant. By the way Venezuela is in South America, not in Central America.

But worst of all are the editors from other newspapers who picked up the news, as they didn't realize the error either.

Fortunately, many other realized it and posted the corrected information, like ESPN.com:

ESPN.com - MLB - Record seven Venezuelan pitchers start in one night: "Seven Venezuelan pitchers started in the major leagues on Tuesday, setting a record for the baseball-crazed South American country where the achievement was heralded as a sign of its growing presence in the game.

Tony Armas Jr. and Gustavo Chacin got the ball for Washington and Toronto, respectively. Mets right-hander Victor Zambrano struggled in a loss to the Braves. The Angels-Twins game featured two Venezuelan pitchers: Minnesota right-hander Carlos Silva and Los Angeles right-hander Kelvim Escobar.

Felix Hernandez of Seattle and Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs also started Tuesday."

Anyhow, congratulations to all my fellow Venezuelan players in the Major League.

A Day In The Races

2006-03-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to races, the Toyota Indy 300 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Although I like motor sports, I am more fanatic of Formula 1 than anything else. I don't follow US motor sports because I think there are too many different leagues, categories and subcategories, and all them are sort of boring, mainly because the run in oval circuits.

Anyway, because I'll have to pass again this year the next Formula 1 US Grand Prix in Indianapolis due to economic shortages (I've been unsuccessfully planning to go since 5 years ago), I decided to try going to a motor race whose cars are the most alike to F1's: Indy Car Racing League.

I must admit it fulfilled all my expectations and I liked it. It's not Formula 1, but heck, it's the nearest and cheapest race I can go by now.

The sad thing of yesterday's race was the death of one driver, Paul Dana, which occurred in the morning practices, before I arrived to the motor complex. I never knew about his accident until the end of the race, when the announcer in the tracks's PA explained the reason why Danica Patrick didn't participate in this race. It was disappointing for me, because watching her was one of the reasons why I decided to go. Other than that, I felt very excited with the whole event.

I snapped some pictures you can see after the jump or by going to my Flickr album.

Ralph Schumacher's Formula 1 car. This is the car he competed with last year.

That's me :-)

My next car (hopefully), the new 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser.

The new FJ Cruiser's sticker price, wow!, well equiped under $30K.

The moment when the race started, after two warm-up laps.

In the far side of the track, Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio Castroneves from Marlboro Team Penske.

Dan Wheldon and Helio Castroneves battle in the last lap ina very tight, nose to nose finish. Dan Wheldon won the race for a difference of barely 0.0147 seconds.

Dan Wheldon congratulated by his pit engineers after winning the race.

Calling to Tranquility Base

2006-03-17T01:45:00.000-05:00

Here Men From Planet Earth
First Set Foot Upon the Moon
July 1969 A.D.
We Came in Peace For All Mankind.

This is my entry for this week's Photo Friday Challenge: Technology

oops, nothing else here...

Beware of the Australian (and others) Lottery Scams

2006-03-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I am not the originator of this scam; I am not the sender or even the victim. I just wanted to expose this scam to avoid other people from falling in it. I’m not an expert in this kind of thing, thus I will not respond to any inquiries about this or any other lottery scam. Information about legitimate lottery services can be found elsewhere on the Internet.

The idea behind this post is to educate the reader to recognize this particular scam, and avoid to be ripped off his/her money when trying to cash “free” money. Remember, in this World nothing is free, and much less money. Keep reading…

This is a true story: Recently a fellow coworker (I’ll refer
him as Steve to protect his privacy …or his stupidity?) showed us (to me and other coworkers) a check and a letter he received reportedly from the Australian International Lotto. The letter stated Steve had won US$95,000 in a random lottery draw, and to prove it they had enclosed a check for $2,850 for tax and clearance fee.

The check, reportedly issued by Wachovia Bank in the US, looked so legitimate that Steve went to a local Wachovia branch to verify its authenticity. Being there, he asked a clerk for verification and she told him the check was real and the account was also valid, but she recommended him not to cash it in there because he would have been asked and would have to answer too many questions.

After that he came to us, showed us the letter and the check and asked for advice. All of us recommended him to destroy the check and forget about it, citing the many scam cases perpetrated on these days and broadly discussed all over the internet. But the temptation of “free” money was too strong, so he decided to try cashing it. At this point let me clarify Steve is a hard working and honest guy, long time married, father of two and has a completely clean record.

Anyhow Steve went to a Check Cashing store and when handed the check to the clerk, she asked him to wait while she processed it. And here is when everything went downhill. It happened that the clerk called the cops and within minutes the poor Steve found himself handcuffed and sitting on the floor like a criminal. Fortunately for him, one of the cops who arrived to the scene knew about and had experience with these kind of cases and told everyone else Steve was just another victim of a shameful scam. Finally Steve just got a verbal reprimand and was left to walk out without charges, but scared to hell. Of course, “we told you” were the nicest words we later told him.

Now, let’s look the letter and analyze all the details that may indicate this was indeed a clear case of a scam. Unluckily I couldn’t make a copy of the check before he tried to cash it for analyzing it as well, and I only got access to this letter after everything related happened.

Anyway I’m not an expert, but this letter looks so clearly phony that anyone, but Steve, would have sensed the fishy smell. The letter has a plethora of grammatical errors, letter casing errors, misspelling errors, naming inconsistencies and some other errors I’ll further explain below. Please look at the image and find each occurrence being explained here:

Inconsistency Error: There is an inconsistency in the name of the institution. As far as I know, lottery services names are trademark, and they carefully avoid lawsuits by always using their correct names. In this case, the main title reads Australian International Lotto, but then in the first paragraph they instead use the word Lottery.
Grammatical Error: the sentence …that you have emerged ___ one of the winners… lacks the preposition as.
Grammatical Error: there’s an unnecessary hyphen in the number NINETY – FIVE.
Wrong Letter Casing: The word TAX shouldn’t be in upper case.
Wrong Punctuation: In the sentences ...more on that . As soon… the ending point is separated from the last word.
Grammatical Error: In order to make sense, these should be two sentences separated by a comma and not by a point, as well as the upper case letters are wrongly used: …receive this certificate. Please Contact…
Spelling Errors: bellow?, or maybe below.
Grammatical Error: Instead of being separated by a comma, the conjunction or would have been better to make sense: …to avoid unauthorized organizations, individuals contacting you…
Wrong Paragraphing: There shouldn’t be a carriage return at the end of the word ARE.
Wrong Letter Casing: The word lotto should start with upper cased U.
Inconsistency Error: How’s the institution called?, Australia Lotto Corporation, as in the final paragraph, or Melbourne Australian Lottery Incorporation, as in the green words in the watermark.
Unknown Address: When I googled for 115 Laurier Avenue, the only avenue I found with that name is located in Ottawa, ON in Canada and you can see in the satellite map it seems to be a park. Otherwise, the only place that exists in London with the Laurier name is Laurier Road which isn’t an Avenue. In the same way, the satellite map shows what it seem to be a residential neighborhood and not the building of a financial group. In addition, can anyone tell me what part of England the city of LOONDON is located at?.
Inconsistency in Fonts: All paragraphs in the letter have different font styles and sizes. Although not an error, it’s a professional mistake.
Unknown Financial Institution: When I googled Prudential Financial Group, it pointed to an institution located in the US, and not in the UK. In the UK the company with the nearest name is Prudential plc. Remember, trademarks exist to avoid confusion in brand names.

As you can see, there are so many signsi in this letter that would ring a bell of alert to anyone (but Steve) and clearly indicate this was indeed just another scammer trying to find a fish stupid enough to swallow the bait.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission gives these advices for consumers who are thinking about responding to a foreign lottery or other potential cross-border scams:

If you are a US citizen and you play a foreign lottery through the mail or by phone, you are violating federal law.
If you buy one foreign lottery ticket, expect more bogus offers for lottery or investment "opportunities." Your name will be placed on "sucker lists" that fraudulent telemarketers buy and sell.
Keep your Social Security, credit card and bank account numbers to yourself. Scam artists often ask for them during an unsolicited sales pitch.
Do not fall for a promise. Telephone solicitations that require an upfront fee for advance-fee loans, unidentified investment opportunities or prize promotions are against U.S. law. Furthermore, legitimate lenders do not guarantee a loan before you apply, especially if you have bad credit or no credit record.
If you do not recognize a telephone area code, check it out in your telephone directory.
The bottom line, the commission says, is to ignore all solicitations for foreign lottery promotions. If you receive lottery material from a foreign country, give it to your local postmaster or contact your state attorney general's office or the FTC.

However, if you were already or suspect you’ve been a victim of a scam, you can file a complain at EConsumer.gov, a joint project of consumer protection agencies from 20 nations.

In conclusion, all I can tell you are some recommendations based on pure common-sense:

Free money does not exist. Always, I repeat ALWAYS there is a string attached.
Never respond to any requests for advance payment.
Do not send any money or personal details to anyone who says that you have won a prize or anything else in a lottery or sweepstake that you have not previously entered. Such claims are almost certainly frauds. Always check fully any person or organization before sending anything to them.
Finally….How can you win a lottery or sweepstake if you never purchased a ticket?

Live long and prosper.

100

2006-03-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

I just realized my previous post was my post number 100 in this blog.... happy posting to me, happy posting to me, happy posting dear Mario, happy posting toooo meeeee... :-)

Eleven

2006-02-23T09:15:00.000-05:00

What they don't understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you're eleven, you're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open your eyes and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And you don't feel eleven at all. You feel like you're still ten. And you are, underneath the year that makes you eleven.

Like some days you might say something foolish, and that's the part of you that's still nine. Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mami's lap because you're scared, and that's the part of you that's five. And maybe one day when you're all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you're three, and that's okay.

You don't feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few days, weeks even, sometimes even months before you say Eleven when they ask you. And you don't feel smart eleven, not until you're almost twelve. That's the way it is.

You're eleven today. You're eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one, but I wish you were just one again.

Happy birthday my little baby girl, I love you very much.

Adapted from "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros (Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. Random House, New York. 1991)

The New TV

2006-02-19T17:35:00.000-05:00

Today I spoke with Fernando, one of my best friends of many years, and I learned just 2 months ago he started his own blog.

In the times when we were university students and we had plenty of spare time to waste doing nothing, we used to read, investigate and talk for hours about technology and how we would, when we had jobs and money, buy every new gadget in the market we weren't able to have at that time.

Well, time has passed (15+ years to be exact) and here we are, discussing again about today's technology and how all this tech wave has passed over us without having caught it. In one of his posts Fernando jokingly talks about the technification of love, and compares today's way of life with the live of just 20 years ago. It's worth to read, although it's in Spanish.

I can say I totally agree with him. Today's technology has changed the way we live, and has made us dependent of it. We can't conceive life without cell phones, digital music, internet, satellite TV and DVRs, and about this last I'll talk after the jump.

DVRs are the new ubiquitous technology. I confess I resisted it for a couple of years because, as it happens with every new technology, I thought I didn't need it, until I tried it for a first time. Now I don't know how I could have lived without it.

I have had DVR for just a week, and I love it. After more than 4 years being a loyal DirecTV subscriber, I decided they didn't deserve my loyalty anymore after they weren't able to give me a DVR without I having to pay more than $100 for the equipment and having to sign a new 12 months contract agreement. Call it a wrong customer retention policy. They give away new equipment to new subscribers, but we the old ones have to pay a hefty amount to get the same things.

So what did I do to that respect? I sent DirecTV to the hell and signed up with DISH Network.

I got a brand new equipment, for free, with a 18 months agreement. Heck, I would have signed the same contract extension with DirecTV if they would have given me free equipment.

Anyway, DISH's service is the same crap as DirecTV's, hundreds of channels and nothing worth to watch, but hey, at least I can record all that crap in my new flamboyant DVR. For now, I'll have to get used to the new channel numbering, but once that happens I definitely won't miss DirecTV.

My DISH Player-DVR 625 allows me to pause live TV, which I think is the real killer feature. I usually don't have much time for watching TV and when I do it something always happens that makes me stop watching and attend such other issues, call it phone calls, disturbing kids or bothering wife, you name it. The fact is that if you can't postpone such issues until the next commercial break, then you may lose the best part of the program or movie you're watching. And there's when the Pause button becomes handy. I know every single DVR in the world also has such feature, but for me it's something completely new and great. Isn't technology amazing!?.

The only drawback I noticed on this DVR 625 is that it "hangs up" very often and very easily. If you press the wrong combination of buttons on the remote, it stalls for minutes without letting you do anything. I don't know if this is a common behavior or a failure, so I'll have to research about it.

Cool new features for my DS

2006-02-15T11:47:00.000-05:00

I just read Nintendo is developing a bunch of new gadgets and features for the DS, which includes an Opera web browser and a TV tuner. The DS has built-in wi-fi and free wireless access in many places, and because it also has awesome stereo audio capabilities someone is already offering a 4 GB hard drive with a media player as well. (via I4U)

Future husband in training

2006-02-15T10:52:00.000-05:00

My 2-year old son just discovered the magic of his TV/DVD combo's remote control. He fights for it and cries when it's taken away from him. He raises and lowers volume constantly; pauses, forwards, rewinds, stops and resumes the movie endlessly, and the worst part is that he definitively enjoys doing it.
Trying to watch anything with him is such a pain.... now I know how my wife feels ;-)

Huckstering XBox 360

2006-01-24T23:29:00.000-05:00

I spotted this car near to a Game Stop store. It's definitely a non ordinary way to advertise high technology.
I have just one word of advice for this guy: eBay.

Btw, the blurring is mine, to protect the poor bastard's privacy.

Looking Ahead

2006-01-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

A new year has started, let's see how it evolves.

Boycott Sony Christmas 2005

2005-12-01T10:02:00.000-05:00

Don't buy Sony products this Christmas, they have to learn the lesson.
If you don't know why, then come out from under the rock you've been living the last 6 weeks and learn about it:

Sony Rootkit DRM Roundup
Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far (where all started)

Be a solidary shopper these Holidays, DON'T BUY SONY PRODUCTS.

Link

Taking a whit back from the giant

2005-11-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

I shop at Wal-Mart, as millions other people do. Over 70% of my monthly household expenses are made at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club, and I have never been given anything back from the giant... until today :-)

Today a coworker told me he wanted to buy a handheld console for her daughter and I recommended him to buy the Nintendo DS Nintendogs bundle, which was released in the US just three weeks ago, on October 24th, the same day Wilma hit us in South Florida.
I bought that same bundle at a local Walmart (where else :-) ) just a week later for $149.92 plus taxes, for a final cost of $160.41

Anyway, he googled a little and found the lowest price available was at Walmart.com, at an incredible price of $129.82. He asked me if I thought that price was ok, and I immediately told him to buy it, because that price surely was somebody's mistake. Well, he did it. He bought it.... and me too.

I couldn't resist the temptation for that price and purchased another one. With shipping and taxes added, it finally cost me $143.82, which is still lower than the list price. Now I can start growing fat twice faster.

Well, it happened they realized their mistake and, an hour after my order was confirmed by email as shipped, they marked it as "Out of Stock". (if they have already corrected the price, here's a screen shot with the original one)

Too late Walmart, I beat you... It's only a $20 difference, but for me it was big victory... and anyhow, you'll still get all my money for everything else :-(

Link

Front paged

2005-10-28T23:00:00.000-04:00

One of my photos about Hurricane Wilma's aftermath made it to the front page of Telemundo 51's news section.

From all the pictures I uploaded to their "Imágenes de los Televidentes" section, one of them was chosen for their front page.

You can see the actual picture here

All my pictures can be seen in Telemundo's galería de usuarios #3, however these are the direct links to each individual photo: ~~#6, #12, #14, #16, #43, #44, #45, #47, #48, #49, #50, #51 and #52~~ . UPDATE: They changed the number for many of the pictures, so most of them don't match now.

Now the legal yada yada...
These images are under a Creative Common license, and can be used freely as long as I'm mentioned as the original author and also get notified where and when it was used.

My little Angel

2005-10-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

This my entry for this week's Photo Friday Challenge: Delicate (link #221)

I've got the power

2005-10-27T13:00:00.000-04:00

The electric power has been reestablished in my home. I'm lucky enough my city's electrical infrastructure wasn't badly damaged as in other areas, and the power went out only because the protection switches at the power lines fired up.

I still have my phone line down, and therefore my DSL internet connection, but I hope they will reconnected anytime soon.

We still have a gasoline shortage with only a handful of open gas stations and we're still under a mandatory curfew from 8PM to 6AM. Besides of that, now my lifestyle is coming back to normal.

No power for a whole month

2005-10-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

I just checked the FPL Online Power Outage Status for my address and this is what it showed me:

Location: MIAMI, FL 33178

FPL is aware of the widespread power outages in your area and we are working to quickly restore your service.

Due to Hurricane Wilma, power restoration may take longer than usual.

This is today's update as Florida recovers from Wilma. Damage assessments continue, and based on what we know so far and on the ability to get additional out-of-state crews:

95 percent of customers will be restored by November 15th.

The rest will be restored by November 22nd.

Specific restoration dates for counties in South Florida and the Treasure coast will be announced on tonight's evening news and FPL.com.

We know being without electricity can be an inconvenience. We are working hard to restore your power as quickly and safely as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Holy crap, they'll have 95% of their customers restored by November 15th and the rest by November 22nd...??? F@ck, that's a whole month without power. I don't think we'll resist that long, it's been only three days and I'm already desperate.

We Survived Wilma

2005-10-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

Wilma has hit us with sustained winds of up to 111 mph and wind gusts of up to 127 mph.

It caused an awful lot of damage to the whole tri-county area (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach), but thanks God my home, my community and even my city of Doral only got some fallen trees and power outages.

We're OK. We still don't have power and, according to the authorities, we shouldn't expect it to be reestablished for a full week. This is bad, and it gonna be worst. Many of us, and specially me, didn't give this hurricane the right importance and didn't make the right preparations. Now, we're headed to a terrible week. I hope the FPL works faster and restores the power for the more than 6 million people. But meanwhile I'll start the chase for the ice, so I can keep the food inside my fridge.

~~Later today or maybe tomorrow I'll post some pictures I took in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma around the city of Doral~~. Here are some photos of Wilma's aftermath in Doral FL.

Here are some useful information for Miami-Dade county residents:
* Miami-Dade Emergency Operation Center
* Water and Ice distribution centers
* FPL Outages Online Status check
* FPL Toll Free number for reporting and checking outages status: 1-800-468-8243
* FPL Outage Numbers by County

McAwesome, McWi-Fi gaming at McDonalds

2005-10-18T13:00:00.000-04:00

This is fantastic, now we'll spend more time and money the next time we eat such delicious food at McDonalds (sarcasm here). According to BBC News...

Nintendo has joined forces with McDonald's to offer free wireless internet access in the US for its DS handheld games console.

The service means McDonald's customers will be able to play selected DS titles against other gamers around the globe.

Rivals Sony and Microsoft already offer online gaming on their game consoles.

Nintendo's online gaming service is due to be launched in the US on 14 November

Now all I need is my own Nintendo DS Mario Kart Edition and wait they start offering that service in any of the 6 restaurants nearby my home.

Link

Revolution

2005-09-16T17:54:00.000-04:00

If this will be real, I see it definitely coming into my future. It's simply jaw dropping.

Forget Xbox 360 or PS3, I'll embrace the Nintendo Revolution.

Link

Donate Now

2005-09-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

Please, visit American Red Cross and donate for Katrina's Relief Fund. You can donate any amount, starting from just US$5.

Also, you can donate by phone by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW (1-800-4357-669).

Thanks!

Yawn

2005-08-30T09:32:00.000-04:00

NOTE TO SELF: Don't ever again take two Benadryls before work... Yawn, I feel sleepy.

Katrina's hit

2005-08-25T18:00:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Katrina is currently hitting South Florida.

Katrina's eye landed in the borderline of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, moving west at 6 mph.

This is the closest hurricane I've been to, and thanks God it's only a category 1, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.

One

2005-08-19T01:22:00.000-04:00

This is my entry to this week's Photo Friday Challenge: One

Hidden ball trick, revealed

2005-08-14T02:37:00.000-04:00

Todd Jones relates with his own words how the hidden ball trick was successfully executed by Mike Lowell and himself.

Definitively, this is one of the best plays I've ever seen, and it's very interesting to learn, from first hand, how it exactly happened.

So I'm behind the mound. I grab the rosin bag; that's something I can do. Then I get the bright idea to make hand gestures to the catcher, like where I'm going to throw it once I get the ball hit back to me. Then I turn to Alex Gonzalez, our shortstop, as if to tell him, hey, if it's hit to me, I'm throwing it to you to start the double play. After I've done all that, the guy is still not off the base.

Now what do I do? Just at that time he steps off the base and, boom, Mikey tags him. It was perfect. The manager came out to argue, but there was nothing he could say. We pulled a fast one.

Way to go Marlins... but now try to make a better trick, win the wild card.

Link

Purple Rocks

2005-08-12T08:45:00.000-04:00

This is my entry to this week's Photo Friday Challenge: Violet

He also blogs!

2005-08-11T01:17:00.000-04:00

I already knew Todd Jones was one of the best closers in the Major League, but I just discovered he's also a blogger.

Let me introduce Todd Jones' Blog

Awesome, now he's one of my two favorite Marlins..!!! (the other one is Cabrera).

btw, my least favorite Marlin is still the same.

Link

Call them, they won't call you.

2005-08-03T14:00:00.000-04:00

This is a well kept secret that would lower your BellSouth DSL bill.

For new BellSouth DSL customers, the telephone company is automatically offering up to a $10 monthly average reduction in the price of high-speed Internet access service.

But existing BellSouth customers will have to take the initiative and make a call themselves if they want the savings.

''Technically, it is for new customers,'' said Nadine Randall, a BellSouth spokeswoman in Atlanta. ''Only if existing customers call in and choose to have the new pricing'' will the difference apply.

She noted, however, that a number of customers already have the lower price included in their plans.

Randall said that BellSouth decided to simplify its 21 existing prices for DSL services, which varied depending on other services chosen by the customer.

''Now there is only one price for each speed regardless of what services the customers buy,'' Randall said.

In theory, you have no longer be required to buy a bundle of products to get a lower DSL price, as they forced many people to do. I know people who bought their pricey Complete Choice local calls plan, the expensive Long Distance plan, a Cingular cell phone plan and even DirecTV with them, only to get an insignificant $10 discount in their DSL bill. :-(

If you have BellSouth as your DSL provider, just call them and save money.

BellSouth's number for the service is 1-888-321-ADSL (2375).

Link / Link

I'd rather be playing video games

2005-07-27T16:31:00.000-04:00

I, as the father of a tween girl, totally agree with LA Times Steven Johnson's opinion about Sen. Clinton's current hype against "Grand Theft Auto".

Kids have always played games. A hundred years ago they were playing stickball and kick the can; now they're playing 'World of Warcraft,' 'Halo 2' and 'Madden 2005.' And parents have to drag their kids away from the games to get them to do their algebra homework, but parents have been dragging kids away from whatever the kids were into since the dawn of civilization.

So any sensible investigation into video games must ask the 'compared to what' question. If the alternative to playing 'Halo 2' is reading 'The Portrait of a Lady,' then of course 'The Portrait of a Lady' is better for you. But it's not as though kids have been reading Henry James for 100 years and then suddenly dropped him for Pokemon.

Another key question: Of all the games that kids play, which ones require the most mental exertion? Parents can play this at home: Try a few rounds of Monopoly or Go Fish with your kids, and see who wins. I suspect most families will find that it's a relatively even match. Then sit down and try to play 'Halo 2' with the kids. You'll be lucky if you survive 10 minutes.

The great secret of today's video games that has been lost in the moral panic over 'Grand Theft Auto' is how difficult the games have become. That difficulty is not merely a question of hand-eye coordination; most of today's games force kids to learn complex rule systems, master challenging new interfaces, follow dozens of shifting variables in real time and prioritize between multiple objectives.

In short, precisely the sorts of skills that they're going to need in the digital workplace of tomorrow.

A lot of years ago, when my older brother was addicted to hear (as of today, classic) rock all day long, my mom always told him to stop doing that and find something less "mind destructive" to do. Later years, when I became addict to video games in my teen years, she repeated the same lecture to me.

My brother and I both graduated as Engineers, and we never "destroyed" our brains as my mom warned us.

That's why I encourage my daughter to keep playing the video games she like, of course, within the recommended ESRB rating for her age.

Link

Piggy bank parking meter

2005-06-30T15:55:00.000-04:00

I went to San Antonio TX last week, and after I parked my car in a public parking lot I had to use this not-so-modern-but-definitively-clever parking meter. No people involved, no ticket for the dashboard, no time metering and no technology at all. Just the good faith of the clients and the warning that your car would be towed if no money was deposited in the proper slot.
I left the lot with the doubt of how the owners would know the car currently parked in a given spot was the car that actually paid for it.... Weird, and only in Texas!

The Marlins to be leading

2005-06-09T08:30:00.000-04:00

My friend Julio has made an excellent statistical analysis (in Spanish) of the current positions in the East Division of the National League.

After an easy analysis (at least for him who is a Ph.D. in such thing) of the results up to yesterday 06/08/05, he concludes the Florida Marlins is the team who is the most likely to be leading their division, but has been victim of some random factors, like this for example, that have made them fall down to the bottom of the table. After his analysis, he concludes, in Spanish:

Como conclusión final podemos decir que esta división no está peleada, lo que ha sido es víctima de un azar incontrolado que ha dado cuenta de lo que debería ser un paseo en el parque para el mejor equipo del grupo, que sin duda alguna y tal y como lo demuestra su plantilla son los Marlins de Florida.

Google translated, and slightly fixed by me:

As final conclusion we can say that this division is not fought, but has been victim of a uncontrolled chance that has given into account of which would have to be a stroll in the park for the best team of the group, that without any doubt and as it is demonstrated by its rooster are the Florida Marlins.

I, as a Marlins fan, completely agree with his prediction: The Marlins will raise up to the leading position anytime soon.

Link (Google Translation)

How to get fast haircuts

2005-06-09T00:59:00.000-04:00

The barber shop I used to go ran out of business. There, I always had my hair cut by the same person, and because I wasn't the only one who thought she did a great job, sometimes I had to wait up to 1 hour to get serviced.

Today I tried a Hair Cuttery near home. When I entered I had to write my name in a waiting list along with the name of my favorite stylist. The list was quite long, with 10 people before me, but anyway I wrote down my name along with "any". A unoccupied stylist called me immediately and I was serviced at the moment, while other people had spent an hour of waiting.

I learned the lesson, next time I will not show any preference for getting fast haircuts.

Jun 1 to Nov 30

2005-06-01T08:30:00.000-04:00

Although the hurricane season already began for the Eastern Pacific, today officially marks the first date for the Atlantic Hurricane Season, which is really the one that concerns me.

According with the National Hurricane Center (capital letters are theirs):

TODAY MARKS THE FIRST DAY OF THE 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON... WHICH WILL RUN UNTIL NOVEMBER 30TH. LONG-TERM AVERAGES FOR THE NUMBER OF NAMED STORMS AND HURRICANES ARE 10 AND 6...RESPECTIVELY. WHILE CONDITIONS APPEAR TO FAVOR ABOVE-NORMAL LEVELS OF TROPICAL CYCLONE ACTIVITY IN 2005...AT THIS TIME IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CONFIDENTLY PREDICT THE NUMBER OF CYCLONES THAT MIGHT AFFECT LAND.
THE LIST OF NAMES FOR 2005 IS AS FOLLOWS...

NAME           PRONUNCIATION      NAME          PRONUNCIATION
-------------------------------------------------------------
ARLENE                            MARIA          MA REE AH
BRET                              NATE
CINDY                             OPHELIA        O FEEL YA
DENNIS                            PHILIPPE       FEE LEEP
EMILY                             RITA
FRANKLIN                          STAN
GERT                              TAMMY
HARVEY                            VINCE
IRENE                             WILMA
JOSE            HO ZAY
KATRINA         KA TREE NA
LEE

They predict "above-normal levels of tropical cyclone activity in 2005", but I only hope this year's season doesn't be as active as last year's... I definitely hated being canned like sardine inside my house.

Link

Grrrr... Blogger Sucks

2005-05-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

Blogger fried up my other blog.

They claim they're having a hardware-error-that-fu***d-up-a-percentage-of-Blog*Spot-users-
and-will-make-them-run-into-intermittent-trouble-when-trying-to-access-their-damn-blogs issue, that causes a nasty 404 Page Not Found to show up when I try to visit my blog.

Supposedly the problem occurred before 13:30 PST (05/24/2005), and they promised they'd have it corrected 2 hours later. Well, it's 20:00 PST, which means 4 and a half hours over their 2 hours estimate, and IT'S STILL DOWN!!!!

It's the first time something like this happens to me, but it's the second time in two consecutive months it happens to the blogger-sphere.

Now I started to seriously think about moving my blogs to a paid provider, given Blogger & Google are just like any other networks out there: they fail, and they fail hard. The only advantage on a paid provider is that when they fail, I can always call them para cagarme en sus madres.

I was defender to the death of Google, but all this just made me change my mind.

Goddamn it.... Blogger Sucks

UPDATE: At some point after 12 AM EST (21:00 PST) everything went back to normal, although we don't know for how long :-( ...but I still reiterate it, Blogger sucks!.

The hurricane season is here, again!

2005-05-18T14:35:00.000-04:00

The 2005 Hurricane season has just begun.

Here in South Florida we had a quite busy 2004 season, with 3 major hurricanes landing barely 100 miles from us, namely Charley, Frances and Jeanne; and some others that just skimmed our coasts.

It's again that time of the year when we start worrying about batteries and flashlights, canned food, and the amount of gallons of water that we need to keep stored. It's the time when we also check our windows shutters from having all their screws and bolts and when we have to fight bitterly at the Home Depot for getting enough plywood planks.

South Florida's people empirically predicts how active the next season will be by the amount of rain that falls on May. Last year's month of May was quite dry, with very few showers, and we all know what happened later. Unfortunately this year's May has also been very dry, with only one or two showers up to now, and the same empiric meteorologists are predicting another hectic hurricane season.

In that way, Miami-Dade county decided to exempt its residents to pay sales taxes on certain hurricane supplies from Jun 1st to Jun 12th, including batteries, power generators, coolers and some others. Anyway, I'll make use of this tax exemption for buying my supplies.

By the way, here comes the first storm of this season: Adrian

Good luck fellow Floridians

Link

Want your kid to be a slugger?. Pitch faster

2005-05-06T14:22:00.000-04:00

I will keep this in mind when I start playing Baseball with my little son.

'When you throw something slowly to a child, you think you're doing them a favour by trying to be helpful,' said Terri Lewis, professor of psychology at McMaster University. 'Slow balls actually appear stationary to a child.'

Link (Via Lifehacker)

Salutation

2005-05-06T00:49:00.000-04:00

Last sunday 05/01 I went to Fort Lauderdale to watch the 2005 Air&Sea Show.

The show was simply OK, without anything extraordinary. The only thing amazed me was this AA jetliner doing flyovers at low altitude and performing some not commonly seen maneuvers for a plane of this kind.

This is also my first attempt of using Flickr, which by the way I found...uhmm, let's say... futile.
Perhaps I still don't understand its concept, but it seemed to me it's more hype than anything.

Five times Five

2005-05-05T17:05:00.000-04:00

This happens once in a life time (well, actually twice but the same day).

Just for the fun of it, posted on 05/05/05 05:05 PM.

Happy Corona Beer Day... I mean... Happy Cinco de Mayo

Cheers

Smarter and healthier hangovers

2005-04-29T11:17:00.000-04:00

I knew it, I always knew it, drinking beer is proven to be beneficial for me, and here are the facts:

Now nobody will be able to keep me off my friday nights beer drinking galore. :-)

Crashing the revolution

2005-04-29T01:00:00.000-04:00

While more than 80% of Venezuelans live in an extreme poverty situation, people surrounding wannabe dictator Chavez display their doubtfully acquired wealth in the worst way.

In Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, the news Monday was the fatal crash which occurred Monday night, involving the sports vehicle, driven by Eudomario Carruyo, Jr., son of PDVSA and CITGO director Eudomario Carruyo, Sr.
...
The vehicle driven by Eudy Carruyo, son of Finance Director of PDVSA, Eudomario Carruyo, Sr., was a Lamborghini Gallardo 2005. This latest model has a value of US$175,000 and is purchased only by extremely rich magnates, lovers of speed and luxury.

Now, add to that the bond. Ouch!

A $100,000 bond was posted Wednesday for a man charged with DUI manslaughter in an accident that left him injured and killed a passenger. Eudy Carruyo was driving a Lamborghini on Crandon Boulevard in Key Biscayne when he lost control and his car struck a tree Sunday, police said. Passenger Tulio Belandia, 31, died at the scene. Carruyo was in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

That's an obscene amount of money, compared with Venezuela's newly announced minimum wage of only US$188 per month.

PDVSA is the state-owned Venezuelan petroleum company, and Hugo Chavez is a wannabe dictator who wants to establish in Venezuela his dictatorship by copying Cuba's communist revolution.

Link

Crime & Punishment The Florida Way

2005-04-25T23:34:00.000-04:00

I'm completely against this kind of actions. Children are always children and adults' punishments must never be applied to them.

A 5-year-old girl was handcuffed by police after she tore papers off a bulletin board and punched an assistant principal in kindergarten class, according to a video released by a lawyer for the child's mother.

But that makes me wonder. What would have happened if the video showed the assistant principal spanking the child? She would have been then crucified.
Sometimes this country's legal system is unhealthily extremist.

Link

Wild Wild East

2005-04-06T11:03:00.000-04:00

According to a new law, anyone in Florida carrying a weapon will be able to shoot you and then plead it was in self defense.
Now, along with your driver license and your proof of insurance, you'll have to carry a gun, because if you unluckily hit another car in the expressway, you'll never now whether the other driver will draw a gun and kill you alleging he felt his life threatened.
Only in Florida!

Link (via glassdog)

Playing with Google Maps 02

2005-04-06T09:24:00.000-04:00

I dare you to try guessing what the locations shown in the following maps correspond to:

Location 1 Disney's Epcot Center
Location 2 Disney's Magic Kingdom
Location 3 Downtown Disney
Location 4 Race Track at Magic Kingdom
Location 5 Kennedy Space Center
Location 6 San Marcos Castle, Saint Augustine FL

Hint: They all are in Florida

Killer Coke

2005-04-05T11:28:00.000-04:00

I'd rather drink Pepsi

"We believe the evidence shows that Coca-Cola and its corporate network is rife with immorality, corruption and complicity in murder. Since Coca-Cola consistently fails to live up to the standards for 'corporate responsibility' as set out in its own 'code of business conduct,' this report should be helpful to students, faculty and others seeking to rescind, not renew or not consider contracts with Coke."

Link

Playing with Google Maps

2005-04-05T11:05:00.000-04:00

I found two insteresting things with Google's satellite images, while playing with them. Note the following image from the Port of Miami, FL, which shows a boat skimming the canal and a staple shaped bit of dust. Google, next time send somebody to clean off your satellite's lens ;-)

Link

If you had wings

2005-04-05T08:57:00.000-04:00

This is how you'd see my tiny part of the World (click the Satellite link at the upper right corner).

Google has released a new amazing feature by incorporating satellite imagery to their already wonderful Google Maps.

"Have you ever wished you could see what someplace looked like before you got there? A house? A hotel? A freeway exit? We thought you might find it useful, so we've incorporated Keyhole technology into Google Maps and Google Local. Now when you type an address into Google Maps, you can click the 'Satellite' link and see a view of the area. You can zoom, move the view by dragging, and even resize the window just like the normal 'Maps' view. Looking for a new apartment or house? Type in an address you're considering, get a view from the air and, with a quick local search, find out if you can walk to your favorite Saturday morning cup of coffee. Thinking about spending time at the shore this summer? Search for hotels with Google Local and check out the 'beach' in 'beachfront.' You can even see driving directions with real images. We can't promise you'll never miss another freeway exit, but we do think that Google Maps + Keyhole gives you a great way to see and explore your world. But take a look for yourself and let us know what you think. "

But dear Google, I'm still waiting for the real shadow projection for the balloons.

Link

Selling your baby to marketers

2005-04-04T16:47:00.000-04:00

Today I read a post which talks about how we inadvertently sell our babies' privacy to unscrupulous marketers when, at the hospital, we sign some papers without even realizing what we signed.

A day later, the baby’s out, Mom’s recovering, and Dad is slightly less insane although even more paranoid, if that’s possible. A nurse enters the room to confirm scheduling for the baby photo. Dad expresses confusion, having misunderstood that a member of the hospital staff would shoot a Polaroid for the gallery on the nursery wall. In fact, the photo enterprise is run by a third party, Growing Family. They’ll shoot a picture of your munchkin, in exchange for his or her name and birthdate and your full name and address.

Does this smell like last month’s tuna salad? How many marketers do you think would be interested in knowing you just had a baby? Hint: all of them.

I remember the next day after my son was born; the nurse came in with a bunch of forms and papers for me to sign. Between those papers there was a "free photo opportunity" to be shot to our little cub that very same day. My lawyer has ever told me "don't sign anything you haven't read carefully and/or you don't understand", so I decided first to ask more details about that "free photo" offer.

The nurse told me she didn't know the details because she was simply instructed to pass that form along with the others from the hospital. If I wanted to learn more, I’ll have to wait for the lady who was taking the photos. Later, when that woman arrived I asked her to explain me the whole thing.

Instead of explaining me, she rather tried to sell me some "terrific photo packages" I would later regret I missed. Just because I am a wannabe photographer who's able to shoot way better photos than the ones she showed me, I declined her "fabulous offers". Anyway she took the pictures, and then she tried to convince me it was a kind of mandatory requirement from the hospital to sign those papers, and if I finally wanted the pictures I'd need to call or visit their website, but now the same packages would cost me a lot more of money… (Bullshit, I replied to my wife).

Finally the woman left the room clearly angry, but at least they didn’t get my baby’s info.

Link (via BoingBoing, via A Whole Lotta Nothing)

The Pope is dead

2005-04-03T01:07:00.000-05:00

God bless the Pope...!

Prepaid Lap Dances

2005-04-01T09:16:00.000-05:00

I read an issue of Prepaid VAR magazine I found in the lobby of a client. There was an article that attracted my attention, which was named "Prepaid Entertainment in South Florida", written by John Meyers.

According with the writer, the Tri-County Chamber of Commerce, which includes West Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, recently signed an agreement with a well known and major Prepaid Products Distributor in Miami, for creating and commercializing a prepaid card for the entertainment businesses.

Given the growth in the entertainment industry in South Florida, which includes the night life in cities like Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale, the huge hotels infrastructure and the recently inaugurated Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, it’ll be a success to provide and sell prepaid cards redeemable in any of their affiliated businesses. These cards will be accepted as a payment option, additionally to the traditional ones.

When asked about what kind of entertainment businesses would accept the cards, the president of the Chamber, Henry Stephen, replied.

“Now you don’t have to worry about carrying cash or your credit cards. All you have to do is buy a prepaid card and go to your favorite Dance Bar.
Absolutely all of our affiliates will accept them, from the little coffee shop to the adult club. You can use the card to buy a cappuccino and then use the same card to pay for a lap dance.” (the bold is mine)

These cards will use a Point Of Sale (POS) technology developed and owned by this Prepaid Distributor, allowing them to be recharged and redeemed electronically. The program will start on April 1st, only on selected stores, hotels and clubs.
Link

De la Rosa to replace Montoya

2005-03-30T09:35:00.000-05:00

Juan Pablo, all you can do now is competing this GP in your Playstation.

Team McLaren Mercedes confirms that Juan Pablo Montoya is unable to take part in the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix this coming weekend; as a result of an injury he sustained whilst playing tennis during the Easter weekend.

Link

McLaren's got rid off Montoya

2005-03-28T17:29:00.000-05:00

...at least for the next Grand Prix

The McLaren driver hurt his shoulder whilst playing tennis and could now be forced to withdraw from the forthcoming grand prix in Bahrain.

Juan Pablo, repeat after me... "I will not risk my F1 career by playing a sport I don't get paid for"... again, "I will not risk my F1 career by playing a sport I don't get paid for".... got it?

Link

Tune in BNN

2005-03-28T17:01:00.000-05:00

It seems venezuelan dictator Chavez wants to have his own CNN clone, which later he might want to rename as BNN (Bolivarian News Network), and make it free of all censorship.

Loose computer cables, laptops and a video camera fill a cramped hotel room where a team of journalists are laying the groundwork for a new television network that hopes to be the CNN of Latin America.

Link

The Incredibles Way

2005-03-18T13:44:00.000-05:00

I bought one of the five million copies of Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles sold the first day of its release. Although I had seen it last year, the very first day it was projected in theatres, I can say I better enjoyed the DVD, in such a way I’ve watched it 4 times in three days.

I'm not the kind of person who likes to go to the movies, making long lines to buy tickets, paying way overpriced snacks and pop corn, being annoyed by other people talking while you try to watch the movie in a dark, closed, dirty environment. I widely prefer to wait for the DVD for watching it at home.

It's needless to say The Incredibles is the best animated movie I've seen in a while. I liked Finding Nemo and I laughed with Shrek and Sherk2, but definitively I loved The Incredibles.

The DVD comes full loaded with extras you'd never see in a theater, and probably you'll never watch in the DVD either. However, what I really liked it comes with a Surround 5.1 Spanish dubbed audio track (and a French too) besides the standard English, which is a feature many DVDs lack of.

However, this is the first time I notice the characters don't sound so Mexican. I want to make clear I don't have anything against Mexicans. Many friends of mine are Mexicans and I think they are great people, but sometimes movie studios forget there are other Spanish speaking cultures, besides Mexican, living in this country. Just to give you English-only speakers an idea, imagine you liked to watch foreign languages movies and all of them were dubbed into English by Australians. They also speak English, but with a way different accent that may not sound natural to you. I laughed with Shrek, but it seemed it was dubbed by a Mexican slang-speaking gang. Monkey says so many slangs that I can't resist and end watching the English track with Spanish subtitles.

But The Incredible's Spanish dubbing is different. It was made with neutral accents and complete lack of slang. Good work Disney/Pixar, keep doing it that incredible way.

The Flu

2005-03-17T12:46:00.000-05:00

I've got the flu.

I spent three long days and nights of high temps, runny noses, itchy eyes, dog-like coughs, headaches and chills, in short, feeling like crap.

Then, after 3 days of hell and $150 in doctor's appointment and prescribed drugs, I started feeling better.

But now, my wife and my kids have got the flu.

They'll have to spend three long days and nights of high temps, runny noses, itchy eyes, dog-like coughs, headaches and chills, in short, feeling like crap. Not to mention the $150 x 3 in doctor's appointment and prescribed drugs I'll have to pay for them.

Goddamn flu..! :(

McBroccoli coming to a store near you

2005-03-09T10:55:00.000-05:00

Maybe their next addition to the menu will be a soybean meat Double Quarter Pounder with organic cheese.

Shifting the spotlight from french fries to fruit, McDonald's Corp. launched a new worldwide initiative Tuesday promoting healthy living — the latest effort by the world's largest restaurant chain to combat criticism of its food and business.

The "It's what I eat and what I do ... I'm lovin' it" campaign includes television ads, new packaging, an updated Web site and a fresh series of Ronald McDonald videos teaching children how to eat well and stay active.

Link

Ferrari

2005-03-08T14:56:00.000-05:00

The kid asks his father:
- Daddy, a Ferrari is a Red Car with a Horse, isn't it?.
- That's right my son, why?.
- Because I think I've seen one that just passed us by.

(These picture are from a joke email my brother sent to me. I don't know where these photos came from or who's shot them, but they were so hilarious it was worth to post them, nonetheless they belong to their owner, whoever he/she is ). Thanks Rafael.

The Risks of Blogging

2005-03-07T08:51:00.000-05:00

In some countries bloggers get imprisoned for what they blog. In this country, we can be fired.

Flight attendant Ellen Simonetti and former Google employee Mark Jen have more in common than their love of blogging: They both got fired over it. Though many companies have Internet guidelines that prohibit visiting porn sites or forwarding racist jokes, few of the policies directly cover blogs, or Web journals, particularly those written outside of work hours.

Simonetti had posted suggestive photographs of herself in uniform, while Jen speculated online about his employer's finances. In neither case were their bosses happy when they found out.

Link

F1 - Let's the races begin

2005-03-06T15:40:00.000-05:00

A new season of Formula 1 has started, the King of Motorsports.
Although I'm a fan of Scuderia Ferrari and particularly Michael Schumacher, after seeing this first Grand Prix in Australia I wandered whether Schumi will repeat last year's supremacy.
There are new FIA rules regarding tires and engines that tends to make the competition more equal for all the other teams, and more difficult for Ferrari and for Michael. But it doesn't matter, the championship has just begun and there are still 18 more races to go. Congratulations to Giancarlo Fisichella, absolute winner of this Australian Grand Prix.
Here are the race results:

1. FISICHELLA      Renault    1h24m17.336s
2. BARRICHELLO     Ferrari    +5.5s
3. ALONSO          Renault    +6.7s
4. COULTHARD       Red Bull   +16.1s
5. WEBBER          Williams   +16.9s
6. MONTOYA         McLaren    +35.0s
7. KLIEN           Red Bull   +38.9s
8. RAIKKONEN       McLaren    +39.6s
9. TRULLI          Toyota     +1m03.1s
10. MASSA          Sauber     +1m04.3s
11. BUTTON         BAR        +1 lap
12. R.SCHUMACHER   Toyota     +1 lap
13. VILLENEUVE     Sauber     +1 lap
13. SATO           BAR        +2 laps
15. KARTHIKEYAN    Jordan     +2 laps
16. MONTEIRO       Jordan     +2 laps
17. FRIESACHER     Minardi    +4 laps
18. M.SCHUMACHER   Ferrari    +15 laps
19. HEIDFELD       Williams   +15 laps
20. ALBERS         Minardi    +41 laps

An also a picture of the moment Fisichela crossed the finish line.

My Obsession

2005-03-04T14:03:00.000-05:00

My kids, my life, my obsession. This is my entry to Photo Friday's weekly photo challenge: Obsession

New premiums for Hotmail or just a bug?

2005-03-01T13:46:00.000-05:00

It seems yesterday Hotmail rolled out a new (?) version of the anti virus software they use to scan our emails' attachments.

It is a nice feature, but the problem is that now it's blocking every single attachment you receive with your emails, no matter it is a text file, a jpeg or whichever type of file.
Even I tried to download attachments from old messages I keep in my Inbox, and those also failed.

What does this mean? Is it just a bug nobody have yet noticed or, even worst, are they going to start charging premiums for the ability to download your own attachments?.
Hope they don't, because that would make an awful lot of people to stop using Hotmail and migrate to Gmail, which will also score another point to Google's internet supremacy over Microsoft.

BTW, I have 50 gmail invites left and nobody to share with. If you want an invitation, just write me to: explicitexposure [at] gmail [dot] com

UPDATE: Today (03/02/05) Hotmail fixed it. Good work guys!

Ten years since I

2005-02-23T01:00:00.000-05:00

Ten years since I long waited for you to come
Ten years since I saw you come into my life
Ten years since I loved you at the first sight
Ten years since I held you in my arms
Ten years since I showed you with proud
Ten years since I thanked God
Ten years since I thanked everyone
Ten years since I heard you cry
Ten years since I cried with you
Ten years since I cried for you
Ten years since I grabbed your hand and you grabbed my finger
Ten years since I brought you home
Ten years since I didn't sleep watching you sleep
Ten years since I feared that you had not woken up
Ten years since I rejoiced when you woke up
Ten years since I was kept awake all night every night
Ten years since I fed you when you were hungry
Ten years since I cleaned you when you were done
Ten years since I made you burp
Ten years since I rocked you in my arms
Ten years since I made you go back sleep
Ten years since I crossed the mountains with you
Ten years since I took you to your new home
Ten years since I suffered when you got sick
Ten years since I gladdened when you got well
Ten years since I gave you your baths
Ten years since I ironed your clothes
Ten years since I prepared your meals
Ten years since I smiled when you smiled
Ten years since I laughed when you laughed
Ten years since I crept alongside you when you crept
Ten years since I walked behind you when you walked
Ten years since I ran to you when you stumbled
Ten years since I could not even imagine living without you
Ten years since I became your daddy
Ten years since you became my little girl

My Maria Gabriela, when you look forward, ten years seem like an eternity. But when you look back, ten years seemed just like a sigh. Happy Birthday my baby, I love you very much.

Free Mojtaba and Arash!

2005-02-22T09:22:00.000-05:00

"The Committee to Protect Bloggers has set Tuesday, February 22nd as 'Free Mojtaba and Arash Day.'

Arash Sigarchi is still in Lakan prison in the Iranian city of Rashat.

Fellow Iranian blogger Mojtaba Saminejad has been released from prison in Tehran but still faces charges.

They have both been deprived of their liberty by the Iranian government for expressing opinions on their blogs. "

Freedom of Speech is the Right of all the people in the World. This is my little contribution.

Link

Poisonous Everglades

2005-02-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine went hiking and camping to Florida's Everglades and found this sign. It says:

WARNING.
Health Hazard.
Do not eat more than one Bass per week per adult, due to high mercury content.
Children and pregnant women should not eat Bass.
-----
AVISO.
Peligro Contra La Salud.
No se debe comer mas de una Lobina por adulto por semana, debido al alto contenido de mercurio.
Los niños y las mujeres embarazadas no deberán comer Lobina.

Creepy, isn't it?. And you thought going into the wild and fishing your own food would be a healthy experience for you and your family.

(Thanks Orlando)

Children 'harmed' by vegan diets

2005-02-21T10:52:00.000-05:00

That doesn't mean I have to give my children plenty of fast food instead.

Putting children on strict vegan diets is 'unethical' and could harm their development, a US scientist has argued.
Lindsay Allen, of the US Agricultural Research Service, attacked parents who insisted their children lived by the maxim 'meat is murder'.
Animal source foods have some nutrients not found anywhere else, she told a Washington science conference.
She was especially critical of parents who imposed a vegan lifestyle on their children, denying them milk, cheese, butter and meat.

Meat isn't murder, give your kids juicy steaks for lunch and they'll grow stronger.
Link

How the Sun shines for Google Maps?

2005-02-17T14:00:00.000-05:00

I've read many articles and reviews about Google Maps. It's quite amazing how these guys have made such great product using almost only common browser based programming.

While playing with it and looking at the way it pinpoints places on the map, I realized a little detail that got my attention... the shadows.

When you see a shadow it necessarily doesn’t mean we will have six more weeks of winter, but there must be a light source projecting that shadow. Thus, taking in account the maps show geographical locations then the more obvious source for this light is the Sun.

I'm not and astronomer or a scientist, as I stated before, I’m just a wannabe photographer who knows a little bit about lighting sources and shadows. I pasted a screenshot in Photoshop and tried to figure out the more I could about the facts that caused the projection of the shadows. (No publicity was intended for the places shown in this map, I just made a generic search within my city and that’s what came out)

As a fact, the light source always come from the opposite side of the shadow, so I measured the angle of the light source with respect to the cardinal points, and it gave me the shadow has a deviation of 43º from East to North (all calculations here are based on aproximated values), which means the Sun must be at 43º from West to South or, as is the same, 47º from South to West. I googled and found out this angle is called Azimuth.

Then, I tried to figure out what the elevation of the Sun was. I googled again and found a Shadow Length Calculator, which uses the height of an object and Sun’s elevation for the calculation.

Using photoshop, I determined the virtual height of the pin plus the balloon, and the length of their shadow (Note to Google: Your maps don’t show the scale ruler, so I had to copy it from Mappoint). From this, I could determine the elevation of the Sun was approximately 52º.

Furthermore, I wanted to calculate the date and time when the Sun was in that specific position, but I couldn’t find anything out there in the internet that let me calculate exactly those values, because they depend on the latitude, longitude and other parameters I barely understood. All I was able to determine was the time was in some moment in the afternoon and the date was when the Sun followed its winter path.

Finally, after my rudimentary analysis of Google Maps’ shadows in any given location, I found they are not being projected based on the Sun’s position for such specific place's latitude and longitude, neither for the current date/time in that place.... but that would have been a nice feature to be considered by Google.

click to see a bigger image

Note to readers: If you want to add anything to my analysis, or even correct something I did wrong, please feel free to write me to explicitexposure[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll post it with pleasure.

What's next?

2005-02-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

I started this blog two months ago with the intention of being a photoblog, where I could post my works as a wannabe photographer.

It started pretty well, posting one picture every day, but after all this time I ran out of previously taken photos and my daily posts just stopped. I haven't taken new photos ever since, and now I don't have anything new to post.

So, what happened?. Who can I blame for that?

Maybe I can blame all people's favorite excuse: lack of time!, or perhaps I should assume my guilt and blame myself for not paying this project all the time it deserves.

At this point I asked myself the question, what's next? what can I do to avoid this blog to die and be forever forgotten. The only answer I could think of was a change of scope.

I will post about everything I can, photography, gadgets, computers, technology, curiosities, cars, my photos, my kids, my family, my community, my city, my world.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Explicit Exposure has reborn.

Dusk

2005-02-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

Shot at Doral FL.

The Wrath of Hephaestus

2005-02-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Shot at Doral FL.

Pulling His Life

2005-02-04T01:00:00.000-05:00

Shot at Bayfront Park, Miami FL.

A Symmetrical Wall

2005-02-03T01:00:00.000-05:00

Shot at Downtown Miami, FL

Star Spangled Window

2005-02-02T01:00:00.000-05:00

Shot at Downtown Miami, FL

Reflected On Me

2005-02-01T01:00:00.000-05:00

Shot at Bayfront Park, in Downtown Miami, FL.