It’s not even 9:00 AM yet and I already spilled a big mug full of coffee all over my office and myself. Damage was mostly contained and all equipment was spared. The only thing that worries me is the smell that may be left behind. Will it stay or will it go?
This has brought me a first hand appreciation of why office carpet looks the way it does. You can’t stain it, you just make it even more colorful. Get a glimpse over this older post.
It can only go uphill from here.
National Instruments Latin-American Picnic (by Jaramillo)
(gigantic version here)
On Saturday, all (ok, not everyone made it) Latin-American employees of National Instruments got together for a little and absolutely non-official get together complete with BBQ’ing, kite-flying, high performance beach volleyball, and more.
I thought I already knew everyone, or at least a large majority… but I actually got to meet a lot of new people I didn’t know, especially those who started at the company recently.
It was a lot of fun, even though the meat I bought for grilling tasted like rubber (but it was soooo cheap).
We had people from Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Spain, Dominican Republic, the U.S… None of the Brazilians or Venezuelans showed up, the cowards.
Since I’m the one who started the whole thing, got the list of people together and sent out the invitations (although Nestor helped out a lot finding a really nice place to have it), I hope everyone had a great time and we can do it again soon.
Note to self: Don’t fall for the low meat prices. Buy good stuff next time.
For years I’ve kept a big thing of Old Fashioned Quaker Oats in the kitchen on my floor, at work. Some people take the liberty of taking some oatmeal, sure. That’s ok with me. They sell this huge box at Costco for $5 dollars that will last me for months. It’s so cheap I’m seriously considering buying a horse. I’d call him Mr. Ed, most likely.
Today, a strange thing happened: My big thing of Old Fashioned Quaker Oats was missing! Why would anyone take it? It makes no sense. It’s freaking oatmeal! It’s like stealing candy from a baby, except it’s not candy and I’m not a baby.
Right now, I’m trying to decide what to do about this terrible ordeal, and for that, I need your help.
No. Not the TV Show.
Like every damn year, we make it to the playoffs only to lose on the next game. It’s like Mexico in the World Cup. And I feel like I was run over by a herd of dewbacks (wow, that reference made me even less appealing to women – better shut up and go to sleep).
My parents were here this weekend (until yesterday). Coincidentally, NI-Week (THE virtual instrumentation conference) opened yesterday.
Since my parents have been asking me for six years what it is that I do, and I have been unsuccessful at explaining it to them, this was a perfect chance to see it firsthand. They signed up and got their keynote and expo-only pass (free!).
I think they enjoyed mostly enjoyed the speeches and the demos, and even understood parts of it. The best thing is that after 6+ years of asking me what it is that I do for a living, they will finally stop asking (and that’s not because they now understand).
I will update with a photo if they ever send
Current season record: 2 wins, 1 loss.
Faithful readers of this blog know of some of my past sports-related incidents, specifically this one and this one.
Well, to my surprise a couple of weeks ago I was tipped of a photograph of myself in the elevator. Now, ever distrustful of elevators (and airplanes, cell phones, computers, and all things technological) as I am, I always use the stairs to go to my sixth floor office so I hadn’t seen said picture.
The number of people alerting me of the photo grew. I finally (after 15 seconds) caved in to curiousity and went to check it out. This is the photo (click for larger version):
It turns out it isn’t really me, I have much nicer legs.
Last Wednesday, Dr. T and Mark Finger took me and other co-workers for lunch to celebrate our 5th (or 10th or 15th) anniversary working at National Instruments (three months after the fact, but we’re all busy people with no time for trivial things like celebration lunches and updating a blog, right?).
It feels like yesterday when I sat in a room with Rafa Castro interviewing for a full time job as a software engineer in the far-away land of Austin, TX (380 miles away to be precise). Now I’m actually expected to know what I’m doing!
In the photo you can see me. To my right is founder and CEO Dr. T. Claudia Lorente is the third from left to right in the first row. I joined her group recently and I hope she won’t yell at me too much when I mess up.
I must say, the past five years have been a blast here in Austin and at NI and I gotta thank Dr. T and all of my coworkers for making it possible and allowing me to learn tons of stuff while having fun. For those readers who also happen to be financial analysts, I give you a graph that shows the historical revenue of NI. Draw your own conclusions
Who’s this handsome, manly, helmet-toting, badge-flashing, Segway riding, tucked-in-polo-wearer hunk?
That would be no other than MKX® main writer Marcos Kirsch.
Today at the expo floor of NI Week 2006 I got a chance to take a Segway for a spin. I did not fall. It’s actually a lot of fun, especially with the added thrill of letting go of one handle and do the thumbs up long enough for Gustavo to take yet another blurry photo.
Now, try to keep your clothes on, ladies. If you think the helmet makes me look good, you should see the napoleonesque jewfro conceiled underneath.
Oh yes, the inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen himself happened to be there as well, delivering today’s keynote. He spoke about innovation, DEKA, and more importantly the FIRST initiative. Very interesting stuff.
