I saw that Raam posted his 2009 resolutions, so I’m inspired to post mine. 2008 wasn’t the year of bad decisions, it was the year of inaction. It wasn’t the worst year I’ve ever had, but I let some things slip by that ended up screwing me or derailing my plans months after. I can’t let that happen in 2009.

Recently the New York Times ran an article saying that people never keep their new year’s resolutions, the corollary being that one shouldn’t even try. I’m comforted by the fact that these resolutions aren’t triggered by the new year, but because of two events: losing my green card, and cleaning out my old MIT papers. Because of the troubles and thoughts those brought about, I want to make two habit changes, and hopefully everything else will follow from that.

Habit Change #1: Knock tasks out of the park right away

I know at some point in my life I know I have to start living the “executive lifestyle”: Wake up at 4am and don’t stop working until 10pm. This is a transition that will take a really long time, so I’m starting out with a relatively small change: “batting tasks out of the park as soon as the pitch comes.” It’s a baseball metaphor my dad used once and it’s always stuck with me. The most successful people I know always do things immediately - no second-guessing, no scheduling to do it later. I have a tendency to put bills in a pile, to assume that certain processes will take weeks when they could get them done in one day, to procrastinate on easy tasks until one day before the deadline.

It took me a long time to figure it out, but I know with certainty that the reason why I put things off is because I don’t like bad outcomes. When I lost my green card I should have renewed it right away, but on the application to replace a lost card there were the big fat words, “IF YOUR APPLICATION IS REJECTED.” So I told myself I didn’t have the money to get it done (it is an expensive process though) and I put it in a pile and didn’t think about it. I also convinced myself early on that since it would take a long time I wouldn’t be able to go back home. Once I did send in the application there were no issues, and in fact, getting a new card is a quick process (about a month and a half). However, I didn’t have it by Christmas time and I didn’t go home and I spent one of the crappiest winter breaks ever. Letting the pitch go by burned me. Lesson learned.

Habit Change #2: String together good days

They say change takes 21 days, but I like to thing that change is kinda like bowling. In bowling, you could have two games with the same amount of strikes, but the game that has the most strikes back to back gets the most points. Stringing together “good days” builds momentum, and one’s more likely to have the motivation to work hard after a day of work than after a day of rest. I know this because I’m always really wired the day after taking a test - after spending a week studying I still want to study some more.

Go back to MIT

Over the winter break I cleaned out all my old papers. It’s something that I hadn’t done in 3 years. I’ve moved a lot since, and a pile of papers grew into a couple of bins. I found some important documents and evidence of times and places where I made mistakes, but what angered me the most were the dates I saw on the MIT documents. I found registration forms, tests with really good scores, tests with really bad stores, and it was kinda sad. If I were to tell 19-year-old me what I’d be doing now he’d be shocked. I don’t feel like I haven’t done anything the last 3 years, but I do feel like I’ve moved without direction, Time has gone by just so fast, and I have no idea how it happened. I’m so angry that I’ve let so much time slip away. This is also an area where not knocking things out right away has burned me. I have a requirement to fulfill before I go back and since I haven’t done it it looks like it’s going to screw me for the spring semester.

Back when I was in middle school I was afraid that I would be homeless. I just didn’t know how I was going to have the motivation to maintain my own life.  Now I realize that I’m smarter and I can work harder than most people, and even without trying and never finishing MIT I’ll be more successful than even most college graduates. I think that’s been the problem. I’ve had a very easy life and I haven’t felt the need to make changes, but I don’t want to walk that path anymore. After MIT there will be even more school to go through, so I have to get this done.

Become a US Citizen

Losing my green card showed me how vulnerable my stay in the U.S. is. Even though I was born in Mexico, I grew up here, my life is here, English is my first language and other Mexicans don’t think I’m Mexican, so might as well make it official. I’ve been procrastinating on this for too long.

Get back my social life

Another thing I’m not sure how I let it happen, but over the last 3 years my group of close friends got reduced to Andre and Ravi. I’ve been looking back at my high school yearbook and old pictures from MIT and I realize that I used to be gregarious. Now I’ve been demure, pissed off at new people for some reason and kinda boring. I like soccer, clubbing, concerts, playing guitar with other people, snowboarding, etc… I haven’t done those things in a really long time.  Happiness is a state of mind, but I realize now that I’m not the kind of person who can turn it on like a light switch (and yes, I know lots of those kind of people, they’re annoying and they work at Starbucks). That means that I have to invest my time in those things that will make me happy.  After all, that’s what life is for.

Get back in shape

In high school, I used to run a 5:20 mile and my best time for 3-miles was 18:24. It’s so sad that I’m nowhere near that. My weight is probably the second, if not the first, issue that I need to fix this year. I’m still not sure what my workout routine is going to be, but I’m going to be meeting with a nutritionist this month. I had a checkup last November and my doctor was amazed by the fact that I was so healthy, because by first impressions I really shouldn’t be. He also told me, in a very, very Indian way, “You will stop eating rice, you will stop eating pasta, you will stop eating starches, and you will start eating better.” It was kinda like Yoda was speaking to me. To paraphrase, “Do, there is no try”. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to give those foods up completely (I love Indian rice), so I plan to eat better during the week, and then eat less reasonably during the weekends.

Travel to Japan and start using Japanese more

私は　今年の夏に　日本へ　行く　つもり　です。　十五かげつごろ　日本語を　べんきょうしています、でも　私の　日本語　わるい　です。　それで、　毎日　べんきょうする　よてい　です。

And lastly, Build Wealth

I started to save money last year because I want to go to Japan, but I’m starting to realize now how crazy it is to through life without a safety net, and I’ve been tempting fate ever since I left home for college. What happens if for some reason I’m laid off, or if something happens to my dad, or if something happens to my family in Mexico? Currently I’m not prepared to handle any of these scenarios, and that’s just insane. I’m also really tired of being without money at the end of the month.

So those are my “resolutions”. I think if I’m able to accomplish these things 2009 will be a very exciting year.

The artist that I have been listening to the most lately is Shinichi Osawa. He’s performed previously under Mondo Grosso, but lately he’s been releasing music under his own name. He’s also produced tracks for many Japanese artists, including Eri Nobuchika. I’m listening a lot to the Prayers and Radio remixes. Prayers took me a while to get used to, but I can’t stop listening to it now.

Clazziquai Project - Prayers (Shinichi Osawa remix)

Felix da Housecat - Radio (Shinichi Osawa remix)

Digitalism - Pogo (Shinichi Osawa remix)

Anna Tsuchiya - Ah Ah (Shinichi Osawa remix)

Shinichi Osawa - Maximum Joy

Eri Nobuchika  - Lights (Produced by Shinichi Osawa)

Eri Nobuchika - Sing a Song (Produced by Shinichi Osawa)

Mondo Grosso - Hikari

Mondo Grosso - Shinin’

Earlier this year I wrote about the cleverness of the Obama campaign logo in the post The Genius of the Obama Campaign Logo. As the election got closer, my post was linked by conservative blogs and forums, and my poor little blogpost got hit by a storm of ignorant and racist comments, which you can read below. One site in particular, American Thinker, generated the most traffic via this article, so its readership is responsible for most of these comments. If you ever feel like exploring the thoughts of a deranged mind, read American Thinker.

I’m surprised to see how intolerant people can be. There’s no trace of rational thought in these comments. These aren’t conservatives lamenting a liberal shift in politics, these are ignorant people hateful of anything different. I’m just glad that these people are having a crappy day (and possibly a crappy 4 years) now that Obama has won.

Well, enjoy your free speech, cause now your comments are saved for posterity. A lot of these comments criticize the symbolism of the logo, so it’s helpful to read them in that context.

The Comments:

Wow, symbolism and everything in a political logo, gee that blows my ignorant mind completely.  Personally, I think if you turn it sideways it looks a lot like the crescent and star symbol the muslims use to symbolize their religion.  Oops, it doesn’t have a star–but it has stripes, and our flag has stripes, and our flag also has a star, so I think he’s rather ingeniously and subtly telling us he really is a muslim.  Gets my vote.

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Perhaps it’s really the sun setting on a killing field plowed with bloody rows?

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I see Obama’s campaign logo as somewhat of a prophecy. If he is elected and chooses to passify our foes, such as the president of Iran, the logo tells us what will happen to our country. The whitespace represents the rising mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion over our country and the red stripes represent the blood of all the American’s killed by the bombs.

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I think it looks like a communist rising sun..Or like my friend said is that a nuclear explosion?

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I love the logo; its genius is the way they hide the swastika, yet keep in line with Obamas political mentor, Adolf Hitler, I can’t wait to see it flying over the White House.

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Ok first off you have to remember the blooper: Not saluting the flag.
Second you have to think about what the man said,” I consider myself a citizen of the world”
Thirdly He removes the American Flag from the plane that is his campaign vehicle for the presidency of America.
Now he’s giving speeches with that bloody Obama flag with the American flags in the background!!
This is America with one flag not two.  Will this symbol of his stop If he becomes president?  I have to say no.  This symbol will be his “symbol” of change.
I think the new york ballots had it right Its not Obama its Osama!

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I believe the correct interpretation of the logo is this.  The half circle(crescent is white).  The sun is yellow the moon is white.  Allah is the moon “god”.  In other words Islam is rising over the United States.  That is the change Barack Obama is planning on bringing.

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Looks like a remake of the weather underground logo to me.  with a crescent moon to boot.

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Obama should have used a logo more representative of his views - the hammer and sickle perhaps.

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Why not be truthfull and incorporate the marxist, hammer & sickle, or the muslim, cresent & star? Silly question. Truthfullnes from babykillers. From the “party of death” who see nothing wrong with sticking a spike in a baby’s skull and sucking it’s brains out.

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To better understand the logo I think one should look at the Kenyan flag.

All sources agree the black on Kenya’s flag, symbolizes the color of Kenya’s people: black. But that’s not racist, is it? The green is Kenya’s agriculture. The red is the blood of Kenya’s black people who defeated their white colonial rule. The white is peace. The round shield and spears represents Kenya’s pride and tradition.

And the Obama logo is above on this page.

It appears to be a cross between the O from Obama’s name, which, of course is the bright shining sun in the center of everything, and the flags of the US and Kenya, plus more. The colors, red, white, and blue obviously are from the Amercian flag, and the round center and stripes of the logo show something of the Kenyan flag. But on the Obama campaign symbol, what do you think is symbolized by the three curved red stripes over only the white on the bottom? BHO says its the sun over the plains of
of America’s farmland, which would make sense if he were again immitating the Kenyan flag, which uses a wide green strip for its farms and has no sun, but these are red stripes, over white, so I think it looks a lot more like something to do with fighting whitey.

I think what someone said above about the curved lines may represent a sickle, but is it a farmer’s sickle, or is whitely about to get cut down and
harvested by the sickles of the reaper Obama?

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IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THIS LOGO, WE SHOULD ANALYZE WHAT EACH SYMBOL REPRESENTS,
PLAINS = FARMERS,
IN COMMUNISM: SICKEL = FARMERS

IF THERE IS A SUN RISE, THERE WAS A SUN SET.

COMMUNISM WAS THE SUN SET. NOW IT IS RISING UP AGAIN, OVER AMERICA. LOOK INTO IT.

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I heard Obama say this symbol was the rising sun, supposedly to represent hope. Japan is known as “The Land of the Rising Sun” and the “rising sun” flag is the military flag of Japan. So, this symbol may be new to the US, but not a new symbol. It doesn’t show respect to the US disparaging our flag and recreating his logo from another countries emblem.

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I agree it’s genius, well-made, recognisable and unique. Just one problem. It reminds me of the Coat of Arms of former Communist/Socialist states in Eastern Europe. Is he trying to tell us something….?

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The Rising Sun is a symbol of Indonesian Islam–check it out yourself. It is used as a symbol of Allah. When Barack Obama was young his mother married a man in Indonesia and they moved there–Barack then became Barry Soetoro–check it out yourself. At the time in order to go to school there, one had to be a citizen of the country–Barry Soetoro became a citizen of Indonesia. To become a citizen of Indonesia one had to renounce any other citizenship–check it out yourself. These are all facts–check it out yourself. One cannot be President without being a natural-born citizen. One cannot be a natural-born citizen once it is renounced; you can become “naturalized.” There is no record of Obama becoming “naturalized.” He may not even be a citizen of the U.S.A. Check it out yourself.

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The white space in the middle looks more like a mushroom cloud surrounded by a padlock - I understand it completely
>>So what the logo is trying to say is that there’s a new morning sun (a hope, change) rising over America, and that Obama is it.

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Know what that sounds an awful lot like.

Isaiah 14:12

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
As a designer . . . Obama’s symbol has always bothered me.

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It is an O rising up over an American flag that is lying down over the ground!

What is the feeling it conveys? Overseeing. Change to the US. Not a fix. Something new. OK — so what is the new thing? How new are we talking? Moving away from the constitution and capitalism? How radical a change are we talking about?

Since when has a “rising sun” conveyed change? How is Obama in any way connected to the plains of the us?

Ask yourself: What is more important here the “O” or the flag?

I think that this symbol borders on arrogance. Arrogance is not a great characteristic for someone who is running for president.

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For those of you who love Obama’s logo; Will you allow it to be tatooed on your right hand or in your forehead? Will you fall down and worship that logo? Will the logo be on a one world currency?

Think people, look at your posts!

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:” Revelation 13;6

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Think people, think … looking back at history, how many leaders have risen to power using logos to represent idealogies? How many great civilizations have been fooled by a “trojan” horse? How is it that apparent unknowns have risen to power? How many nations have been lulled by idealogues? Since when is it an American dream that regardless of wealth or poverty, everyone should have it all? Is that the American dream? To take from those that have and distribute to those that have not? JFK put it best: And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. Since when do great statesmen, presidents need to be “branded”, packaged, and marketted? A man’s work reveals his worth and we then choose him as leader … Think people, think you who are young and look for a great future, think you who are old and have sacrificed your youth, think hard and long about your choice on November 4th and let your vote decide.

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Obama is the antichrist. His use of the rising sun symbolism is a pointer to him being the reincanation of Lucifer son of the morning who became satan the deciever.

Repent Jesus is coming soon to take the church. Titus 2 v13

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Obama’s logo is the new swastika.
“I saw a sterling lapel pin on a man yesterday that was clearly the Obama logo - it looked so elegant and understated.”

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. . . not an american flag. It’s just . . . it’s just . . . Who do we know who has a personal logo besides . . . Prince?

It is — I would imagine — a way of getting away from an unfortunate name for a presidential candidate — “Obama” . . . so close to “Osama” . . . it begs bad blogging attacks. Creating a logo that replaces name recognition . . . the opposite of what any other political campaign would try to do for it’s candidate.

Yes the design chops show but . . . it really shows that if you throw a lot of money at something you will get something really really clever — but not appropriate. A personal logo is not appropriate for a presidential campaign. It is a tad arrogant.

again — worth repeating —

. . . have you seen this logo plopped into the US seal? You don’t find this disturbing??? Maybe it is too abstract for you — but for me it does not represent the “change” I was hoping for.

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Hey Get an Education -
Why don’t you? There’s a little more to the law there. His mother has to have been IN RESIDENCE for 5 years AFTER the age of 18 for Barack to be considered naturalized! Since she was only 18 when he was born, it isn’t possible. Therefore, if he was born in “timbucktoland”, than he is not eligible! The Supreme Court has ordered him to supply the necessary documentation by December 1st. This selection isn’t over yet! All he has supplied so far was an obviously fake “certificate of live birth” which DOESN’T mean he was actually born in Hawaii, even if it was real.
And I hope you aren’t black, because you would be a very ignorant “african american”. Timbuktu, or Tombouctou, is an African city of significant historical importance.

I’m currently trying out FriendFeed, it seems interesting, and a much easier approach to creating an RSS feed for my social app activity. You can follow me here, http://friendfeed.com/mlava. So far I’ve added this blog, the tumblr stuff, twitter, and digg. This app is a bit scary, it even tracks my digg comments. I better start being careful of what I say online penis!

In other news, I’m probably going to stop posting pictures on Picasa, and start using Flickr. It just seems more beterer.