señales

10 señales no climatológicas de que la primavera está a tres pasos de llegar a la ciudad:

1. Ya se instaló el vendedor de flores justo a la salida del metro Farragut West.

2. A un costado de él, está el chino que toca el violín con un amplificador.

3. A unos metros de ellos, hacia el norte, está el que vende gafas de sol Pradah, Trendy, Tucci y Versache.

4. Hay varios desadaptados sociales que salen, a pesar de los 3 grados centígrados, en sandalia (flip-flop, chancla 'ahorca-pollo').

5. Los transeúntes te sonrien al pasar.

6. Abrieron la terraza del 9o piso de mi edificio.

7. Los ojos y la nariz me suplicaron por la medicina de la alergia (misma que fue adquirida).

8. Los restaurantes comenzaron a sentar comensales en las mesas de patio.

9. Me llegaron por correo los catálogos con las colecciones primavera-verano.

10. Se acerca mi cumpleaños... :)


Lo que me tiene más feliz (fenómeno directamente correlacionado con el clima) es que los cerezos están floreando a todo vapor... y eso me pone feliz, muy feliz.

balancing

Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship –a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he’s a little of both. We gallop through our lives like circus performers balancing on two speeding side-by-side horses –one foot is on the horse called “fate”, the other on the horse called “free will”. And the question you have to ask every day is –which horse is which? Which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it’s not under my control and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort?

There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction. There are certain lottery tickets I can buy, thereby increasing my odds of finding contentment. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I eat and read and study. I can choose how I’m going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life – whether I will see them as curses or as opportunities (and on the occasions when I can’t rise to the most optimistic viewpoint, because I’m feeling too damn sorry for myself, I can choose to keep trying to chance my outlook). I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.
Elizabeth Gilbert


In all true honesty, this is a heck of a balancing act. Mastering my own horse (and jockey) demands relentless effort. Chances are one day -hopefully, eventually- I might get it right. In the meantime, I keep falling for trial and (multiple) errors :)

mind the gap!

lo que uno puede hacer con estadisticas, y estadisticas animadas!

Al entrar al sitio de Gapminder, la primera parada obligada es el video de Hans Rosling (casi 20 minutos). Luego, hay que darse una vuelta por Gapminder world para maravillarse con las estadisticas que presentan. Claro, todos sabemos que la economia mundial se acelero a partir de la primera mitad del siglo 20, pero han tenido tiempo de ver la velocidad del cambio si uno analiza la "historia" del mundo? Mis favoritas (por obvias razones) son las que reflejan avances en indicadores sociales.

Si, este posteo fue traido para ustedes por su nerd tradicional :)

con humor

Un poco de humor en el preambulo de la partida :)


Top Ten Reasons You Know You're Working at an Aid Organization Headquarters – According to David Letterman

You know you're working at an aid organization headquarters if...

1. You just had a pre-meeting to discuss your strategy planning session for the new initiative to reduce poverty by increasing access to safe water/credit/food/health care through fair and equitable distribution to those with the right to said good or service through engagement with duty bearers in the government and other stakeholders and civil society organizations.

2. You just repeatedly slammed your head into your keyboard after spending the last 20 minutes trying to get your Skype conference call between Port au Prince, West Bank/Gaza, Delhi, Nairobi and New York to work only to fail miserably.

3. You realize that you can no longer squeeze into your cubicle past that cool hand-woven cloth from Mali, the wooden mask from Congo, the elephant figurine from Thailand and the rug from Afghanistan.

4. You just completed an annual report to your donor explaining that you're very sorry that you only managed to accomplish 2 of your 14 objectives due to sudden onset of war, drought or an invasion of futuristic nano-robots.

5. You just finished explaining to the donor that you are likely to need a two-year extension and an extra $200,000 to hire an independent consulting company to come up with a plan to fight off the nano-robots, carry out said plan and then finish up the original activities.

6. You realize that you just used cheers, karibu, Insh'Allah or namaste in casual conversation despite the fact that you are neither English, Kenyan, Arab or Indian.

7. You realize that your favorite and most frequented cafe is located in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

8. You just finished depressing a volunteer caller from the Red Cross for the 12th time this year who reluctantly agreed that you are not eligible to donate blood because you just got back from (fill in malarial region here).

9. You're pumped with antibiotics more frequently than a cow in a concentrated feeding operation.

10. You tell yourself it's not failure if you turn it into a lessons-learned document.

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