A couple of months ago, I was made a very interesting offer: Move to Bangalore, India, in order to be the Technical Lead of a new R&D team being formed at the office over there.
It wasn’t an easy decision, but after lots of deliberation with my family, I decided to accept.
This will be a three-year stint that could be extended, starting in the fall. We’re very excited and looking forward to eating lots of Indian food.
Further information on exact date, farewell party, and so on will follow.
Yesterday morning I exercised my newly acquired right to participate in the American democratic process.
This year’s choice was especially difficult, since none of the candidates is a demagogue that praises brutal foreign dictators, denigrates women, brags about sexual assault, demonizes immigrants from my country, denies scientific knowledge, nor provides a platform for white supremacists to come to crawl out of their holes.
The process was exceedingly easy. Voting station was in the library by my house. All you had to do is follow about 200 signs like the one below, positioned 12 inches apart, to the polling station. Only two people ahead of me in line.
You vote on these machines that were probably state-of-the art back in the Bill Clinton vs George H. W. Bush. Not hard to use for me, but definitely something that would confound my mom. Doing a write-in must be especially rough, kind of like typing on a new Apple TV. Good thing “Mickey Mouse” is not that long of a name.
Conveniently located in a corner outside the library: a taco truck! Delicious!
After almost 15 years of living in the United States, following the law, paying taxes, not bringing drugs, and not killing nor raping anyone (I assume I am one of the good people) I have joined my wife — also a naturalized American — and son — true born Austinite — in being a citizen of this country.
Now I need to find something to do with this newfound status, like voting. I haven’t been keeping up… is that coming soon? Who’s running? Any suggestions?
Marcos’ Naturalization FAQ
Will you lose the accent?
Yes, I will now stop faking the foreigner accent.
If Mexico plays against the US in a soccer match, who would you root for?
Mexico.
Where did you get that lovely purple / pinkish shirt?
Macy’s.
Hello loyal fan base, I’m back to bring some life into this blog! Today I’m here to report on the family’s experience with Hellofresh. I originally heard about Hellofresh on Groupon, and I was immediately intrigued. Raising a toddler and a husband is no easy work, so anything that helps make our life easier is appreciated. I purchased the Groupon, signed up for our allotted three meals and eagerly awaited their arrival.
The box was impressively packaged, with the meat and poultry encased in ice packs on the bottom and the rest of the ingredients in boxes on the top.
The first meal that I prepared was steamed salmon with jeweled couscous and yogurt. What’s nice about this company is that all meals are promised to take approximately 30 minutes to prepare – very helpful for weeknight dinners, because who has the time or energy for any more than that? You are also provided with pre-rationed ingredients, so you don’t have to bother with measuring anything. Their only caveat is that you must have salt, pepper and olive oil on hand – easy enough, these are staples in most households anyway.
One issue that I had, and I fully acknowledge that this is my personal preference, is that they don’t include how to prepare the ingredients under the “ingredients” section but rather include it in the directions. I tend to have a more stressful cooking experience when I dutifully heat the oil in the pan, as per step 1, but then must finely chop a whole bunch of vegetables (step 2), as I am racing against an overly heated pan full of oil that stinks up the house and jumps all over the countertop. Granted, I could have read ahead and gone rogue, chopping and preparing in whatever order I damn well pleased, but given that the whole point is to save time, I didn’t.
Other than this issue, I had an overall great experience. All three meals were delicious, took the promised 30 minutes to prepare, and spared us the headache of having to pre-plan meals for the week and purchase specific ingredients. The portions were great, as both Marcos and I felt satisfied and full at the end of each meal. Despite the fact that the non-Groupon rate is a bit pricey (it comes out to approximately $10/person/meal), we ordered another box about one month later and plan to treat ourselves every once in a while by ordering more. And to be honest, given the fact that their rate includes the packaging and shipping, it’s really pretty reasonable.
If you want to try it out, you can get $40 off your first meal (which is more than what we saved with the Groupon) by using our referral code: VQ84HL. Happy eating, and stay safe out there!
Quick doodle, 0.5 mm BIC mechanical pencil.
From twelve-time Iuval winning director.
With the guy sitting in the back for like a second in Velma is Living.
Coming soon for your binge watching pleasure.
(the cocaine is fake, but the mustache is real)
It’s been one year since the posting frequency on The MKX® dropped dramatically even though an extra staff writer was added at the same time. What’s the reason?
It’s the best and the most fun reason in the world. It’s also the same reason why I sleep less, my back constantly hurts, and the Plaza Sésamo theme song is stuck in my head.
Below are some photos of the reason. See Ilán in his birthday suit (not naked) right before his first sugar rush:
Mega-Party photos may or may not follow.
For reference, here’s the mom who also happens to be the most attractive one in the family:
He’s close. Very close. We’d better finish the baby proofing soon.
Favid Dinkelstein (not his real name) tipped me off on the fact that I now dominate the results of Google Image Search for the term “jewfro”. Go see for yourselves, I’ll wait.
Ok, I am not the first result. But close. This may be my biggest accomplishment ever. I beat notable jewfros included but defnitely not limited to:
In order to commemorate this, and knowing that Google will surely tweak their algorithms until I’m off the list because I don’t use Android, I took a giant screenshot which I have annotated and post here for posterity. Click on it to zoom-in.
