Japi's Blog

Poema #1

Poema #1

Desesperado por tenerte en mi brazos
Si solo un momento tendria
Mi amor, tuyo entero seria
Llenando tu vida de besos y abrazos

Mi alma, sin ti, pierde
Mi mente, sin tu recuerdo, siente un dolor profundo
Mi pasion, contigo, arde
Mi corazon, con tu amor, se me llena el mundo

 

Tintos - A great Spanish restaurant in Houston!

I was recently driving in the W. Gray & Shepherd area during lunchtime after a sales meeting and saw a restaurant that caught my eye... Tintos on 2015 W. Gray @ Shepherd.

I'm a huge fan of food... but I LOVE Spanish food.  

I have fond memories of enjoying delicious slices of jamon serrano (Spanish cured ham) and manchego cheese while drinking a rioja (wine from La Rioja region in Spain)... and listening to beautiful Spanish guitar pieces like: Concierto de Aranjuez.  I have never visited Spain but in my native Venezuela, we have many "tascas" that will provide an amazing ambience that takes me back to the motherland I've never known. 

So... I was very excited to see Tintos and was definitely impressed by the whole experience.  The decor is beautiful, you truly feel like you are in another country, the music is just right... and, of course, the food is MARVELOUS!  Chef Alberto Alfonzo (who lived in Venezuela many years) got it right!  

I have visited other Spanish restaurants in Houston and they were nice... but this is my favorite as the fine whole dining experience was perfect.

I highly recommend that you visit Tintos... I am looking forward to going on a Sunday for brunch soon.

Network Marketing Recommended by Robert Kiyosaki

I recently read the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki.  I highly recommend the book since it opens your eyes to strategies that can help you learn to make (and keep) money.

The book has helped me better understand the TRUE difference between an asset and a liability... it sounds simple enough, but a lot of people will buy a liability thinking it's an asset... read the book, it's great! 

The best network marketing I have encountered is the one I am currently working: Shop To Earn.  I have come to this conclusion for several reasons

1. Shop To Earn offers all the stores and brands you already buy
2. Shop To Earn's structure is simple (no director, diamond, silver, executive, etc...) you grow your network, you make a lot of money 
3. The network is not limited to a specific generation of growth 

Here's a video by Robert Kiyosaki where he suggests network marketing (or multilevel marketing) as a great tool to generate large amounts of money quickly.

San Antonio Zoo ROCKS!!

I recently visited San Antonio and had a couple of hours to spend at their zoo.... I love visiting zoos!

Since my previous employer, Schipul - The Web Marketing Company, created the Houston Zoo Web site and I've had the opportunity to visit it several times, I always compare it to the other ones I've visited.

So far, I've visited zoos in Chicago, National Zoo in Washington D.C., New Orleans, Caracas (Venezuela), San Antonio and Houston.

Well, out of the zoos I've visited I really like the Houston, D.C. ... but my favorite zoo is now in San Antonio.  I have yet to visit the San Diego Zoo, which I hear is mecca!  But the San Antonio Zoo could teach the Houston Zoo quite a lot.

In most cases, I was just a few feet away from the animals.  The animals were all very active (not sure what they do, but it's true).  The habitats were unbelievably beautiful and fitting for each type of animal.  I really enjoyed visiting it even though I was unable to see it all.

I've been visiting the Houston Zoo for over 20 years and have seen amazing improvements... but after seeing their counterpart just 3 hours to the west, I was amazed by the difference.  I actually shouldn't have been surprised because San Antonio has always had a strong focus on tourism - starting with the creation of the river walk in the 1940's - THAT'S VISION!  Who was thinking about tourism in Texas in the 1940's???

If you are ever in the Alamo city, you should definitely visit the San Antonio Zoo, I highly recommend it.  Now if I could just get them to become a Schipul client.... hmmm :)

If you want to see some of the photos I took at the San Antonio Zoo, go to my Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/japi14

Guy Kawasaki at The Houston Technology Center

Guy Kawasaki came to Houston yesterday evening to give a talk at The Houston Technology Center.  I had seen him give a talk called a couple of years ago at the NTC 2006 in Seattle and it was fantastic!  So I was very excited about the event.

I was not dissappointed... Guy was phenomenal, gracious, hilarious, brilliant and just freakin' AWESOME!  His presentation was called "The Art of the Start".  Guy was amazingly gracious in staying wayyy longer than anyone expected. He took every question and even went partying (from what I understand) with some local Kawastalkers (no need to name names). <grin> 

Guy also showed us alltop.com which is a site that covers a variety of interesting topics... he specifically showed us:

• http://career.alltop.com/
• http://moms.alltop.com/
• http://egos.alltop.com/
• http://twitter.alltop.com/
• http://humor.alltop.com/
• http://adoption.alltop.com/

We've posted some pictures of the event on the HTC Web site.

I was also really excited to run into some old friends and met new ones... here's a short list of some of the folks I encountered last night (sorry if I missed anyone):

1. Erica O'Grady
2. Christine Selleck
3. Imelda Bettinger
4. Laura Mayes
5. Tracey Lee Wallace
6. Monica Danna
7. Holly Gunn
8. Kelsey Ruger
9. Richard Yoo
10. Dwight Silverman of The Houston Chronicle
11. Marc Nathan of The Houston Technology Center
12. AND I GOT TO MEET.... are you ready?... Jenny Lawson... The Bloggess!

Since several other folks have blogged about this event, I wanted to do something slightly different.... I decided to copy and paste a bunch of the tweets that were posted on Twitter during the event.  Some of them are obviously funny, others you have no idea what they mean... but here's the list, enjoy:

1. she's in beta with our second child
2. Laura Mayes of skirt has been called out several times... Freakin' awesome
3. Most people think rich and smart parses to smart. No. Most of the time it parses to 'lucky'
4. There is no reason for the survival of Apple but that there is a benevolent God
5. 2 kinds of bozos. rich and famous are the most dangerous bozos. rich/famous usually parses to lucky
6. Don't let the bozos grind you down
7. Find the influencers. the higher you go in most orgs, the thinner the air. harder to support intelligent life. CX0 are dumbest people who sucked up the longest. smartest are the influencers. not ultimate decision makers
8. i believe in god because there is no other explanation for the survival of Apple than a benevolent god
9. seed the clouds ... how you make the rain. "let a hundred flowers blossom". plant fields of flowers
10. Sales fix everything
11. Embrace your evangelists
12. embrace your evangelists... people who get it and want to help you because they believe you/they are making world a better place
13. don't ask someone to do something you would not do
14. lower the barriers to adoption. flatten the learning curve - "plug it in and it works
15. Hire people who are better than you
16. hire better than yourself ... that's very hard to do, but everyone knows they should do it
17. apple hired me because they were willing to ignore the irrelevant
18. hire infected people - infected with a love of what you
19. 10/20/30 rule of powerpoint - 10 slides is optimal number of slides in powerpoint presentation
20. holy grail of marketing - provide something only you can do that provides high value
21. All you white people look alike

So there's the list.... and if you ever have the opportunity to watch Guy Kawasaki... do anything and everything (even slashing someone's tires) to be there.... he's worth every second!

Glenn Beck - America's Addiction

I had a the pleasure of meeting Glenn Beck about 3 years ago on a visit to Philadelphia when he was doing his live, nationally syndicated radio show.  The opportunity came about because his radio show was looking to use our Tendenci software.  Glenn was very gracious and sat down to talk for about 10 minutes during a break on his radio show.

I came across an article he wrote called "America needs a 12-step program" which describes how the government used to be afraid of the people... and now it's the other way around.  He suggests a six-step program to get the country back in the hands of the people:

1. Admit we are not powerless.
2. Believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.
3. Decide to take our power back.
4. Make a complete and fearless moral inventory.
5. Admit our wrongs, and our rights.
6. Be ready to remove our defects.

The article is dead-on target! We DO need to take back our government.

Body of War - A Powerful Documentary

Ellen Spiro (a friend of my brother Joaquin) and Phil Donahue have produced and directed a powerful documentary called Body of War. 

It is the story of a young man, Tomas Young, who joins the military to fight the evil doers and is wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.

Here's a synopsis from the film's Web site:

"Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. Body of War is a naked and honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart and soul of this extraordinary and heroic young man."

Watch the preview below:

Last Speech by Dr. Markin Luther King Jr

40 years ago today Dr. Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, TN.  He was a great American who has left a legacy of peaceful resistance against inequality and injustice which is still alive.

His final speech (see excerpt below) sounds prophetic as he mentions that he is not worried because he has been to the mountaintop.  He continues to state that he would prefer to live a long life, but that he's not concerned about that. 

It was a very sad day for the world to lose such an amazing and valiant human being.

Pale Blue Dot - by Carl Sagan

This is an amazing video which leaves you thinking of our importance and lack thereof.

It's in English and has Spanish sub-titles.

Don't Push The River, It Flows By Itself

Ruby Sinreich was the facilitator for a session called "Don't Push the River, It Flows by Itself".  With an interesting name... the idea behind it is to allow social networks to flow and naturally evolve.

Use and organize networks by the power of the individual which can grow to a large wave of support for a particular cause or goal.

What makes a network effective:

1. Strong social ties -personal relationships, trust, awareness.
2. Common story - shared values, collective narrative, language and words that resonate (tagcouds).
3. Dense communication grid - online and offline: blogs, e-mail, IM, phone & SMS, face-to-face, twitter.
4. Sharing culture - Opensourcy: data, information, skills & expertise, money, space (meeting rooms).
5. Network awareness - feeling like a member, knowing what the network is for.

Some of the takeaways include:

1. A better understanding of the different social networking sites and how to use them
2. How social networking can impact the nonprofit world
3. Strategies on how to use this medium for outreach and advocacy

Ruby is a wonderful and confident speaker - she is very active in the social media universe which is obvious in the delivery of this content.