Pablo Averbuj

Anniversary

Nearly a year has come and gone since I started keeping this page. Guess not much has changed since I started. Hard to believe it’s only been a year, so much has happened. Hard to believe I’ve already been up in DC for almost 3 months. Seems like I’ve been here for a year. I’d say it’s been a great year. Spent alot of time with my friend Vlad. Visited the family in Argentina. Took a couple of vacations. Took up a new job
in a new place. Got lots of new hardware and toys, and of course, Elian Gonzales was sent home. And yet somehow Vlad hasn’t been deported. It’s been a good year indeed. So what’s in store for the year ahead? Hopefully some weight loss, some good experiences, and just as much boredom.

Moving

It seems odd that I haven’t written in so long comsidering that so much has happened in a relatively short period of time. First I’ll address the easy stuff. I went on a Disney Cruise at the beginning of june which ROCKED. Fun times to be had by all. The best part of the cruise is Disney’s island in the Bahamas called (Castaway Cay) which is absolutely gorgeous. Nothing short of heaven on earth.

Now the complicated stuff. I’m effectively in Washington, D.C. for at least the next 3 months. I’ve taken a job up here with a REALLY cool company called btask.com and the place is very beautiful. It’s a fairly small town called Alexandria which is very historic looking. I rented a 2 bedroom apartment on the Potomac River and a few blocks from work so I look forward to biking/walking to work regularly. Aside from that there isn’t much more I can say. I haven’t had a chance to go sightseeing. I’ve mostly been locked in an office the whole time banging out code. At any rate, I’ll keep the world (or the insignificant subset thereof) up to date on happenings around here as the chance appears. Thanks for reading.

Interview

It’s 6:15am. I haven’t slept all night. I have an interview in 7 hours and before then I have to go to the bank and the DMV, and afterwards I have to drive 5 hours to Gainesville. This is going to be a rough day. I can’t see how I will get any sleep before I get to Vlad‘s place tonight.

At any rate, I’m totally thrilled with my hair. There is one spot that is being very non-compliant with my wishes for it to not stick up, but i think once it grows a tad longer it’ll be fine. It has been so long since my hair would dry before I leave the bathroom. It’s also wonderful not having my hair fall into my food, or whip around in the wind into my eyes. I haven’t gone swimming yet but very much look forward to doing so once I get back.

Also, I was on the phone with Vlad today when he needed my car tag so he could get permission from the parking nazis for me to park it at his place when he inquired about my personalized plate. I wasn’t counting on receiving it until July so I sent him my temporary one. Low and behold less than 5 minutes later as I walked out to get the mail, what should I find in my mailbox but a postcard from DMV saying they had received my tag! Thus tomorrow I have to drop by and pick up my tag.

On an unrelated note, I’ve added a new page to the boredom section regarding my favorite channels on TV. Extremely boring but I couldn’t think of much else to do at this hour. Signing off.

Haircut

Today is quite the day. I have cut my hair from having a long pony tail to now a shorter, more managable hairstyle. Here are some quick before and after snapshots from the black and white quickcam. I kept the tail as a memoir of sorts, we’ll see how long it lasts. It’s a pretty thick stem of hair. Maybe I’ll take a snapshot of it later too. We shall see.

Website

Time for another entry. I’ve spent the last few days redesigning my mom’s company’s website and I think it came out pretty well. I also got to do some work on this site and added all the alt tags to the images so it’s looking very nice in lynx/w3m again. I really was very reluctant to add the images since my goal was to not use any, but there’s only 6 or so now and they’re all fairly small. Trade-off I suppose. Other than that, I haven’t been doing much else.

I haven’t been getting much sleep which is annoying. And I’ve had a pain in my jaw for two weeks now. Only hurts when I open my mouth all the way to take a bite of a sandwich or such. Still, it’s painful and annoying. Also updated the ‘work’ page since I don’t have any now.

Elian

I was awake at 5am today watching FOX when regular programming (which is probably too generous a term for FOX) was interrupted by news of the Elian Gonzales raid. I was so happy I couldn’t contain myself. I promptly called Vlad and after getting him awake enough to understand the events taking place, promptly turned on the TV and tuned in. He called his parents and so forth. Very exciting time. I can’t even begin to explain how absolutely ecstatic I am about this action. Anyone who has ever had to deal with INS knows that in this case they have done about 9.99e1000% of what they would normally do for any typical immigrant. They are swift and fair. Basically, they don’t screw around. I’m surprised their patience lasted this long. The amount of B.S. coming out of the “Cuban Exile” community is staggering. Anyway. We now return to your regularly scheduled editorial.

After reading the previous entry I’ve since found out I have made no great discovery. There are several movies made about Pitcairn Island with titles that are various mutations of the words “mutiny” and “bounty.”

I have also resigned from Cybergate. My last day physically there was 3/31/00. To say I’ve been bored would be an understatement. I can hardly find anything to keep me busy. I’ve been reduced to compulsive cleaning. I’ve also been trading quite a bit but I’ll refrain from commenting on the market. You think with so much time on my hands I’d update the page more often, but the truth of the matter is that I don’t have much to update with. I have also ordered a vanity plate from the DMV. I successfully accomplished this after spending no less than 8 full days in line. However, just as soon (i.e., 3 months) a license place “PABLO A” should be awaiting my visit at my local DMV office.

Since I have time while I watch Elian news, I’ll update you on my pocket situation. I have too much stuff in my pockets. My pants, when fully armed and loaded, weigh no less than 40 lbs. The usual contents are keys, pager, cell phone, wallet, palm pilot. So I’ve decided to lighten my load. The first step was to reduce my key chain. I now only carry two keys: the one for the car, and the one for the house. Everything else is only used like 2 times a year. The next step is to get rid of the pager. I’ve prepaid 3 months so I’ll ride that out, but I haven’t gotten a page in quite some time. Maybe once I have work I’ll feel differently. So that leaves me with light keys, cell, wallet and pilot. It’s a nice improvement at least.

I think I’ve babbled enough. Hopefully when some significant news occurs I’ll have something new to add. Best wishes.

Pitcairn

I just found the COOLEST thing I’ve ever seen on the net. It’s a fight between the people on Pitcairn Island over who gets control of the .pn TLD. The first paragraph sounds boring but keep reading. There are like 50 people on the island and there are only like 4 last names (see the scan of the petition). I need my own island. Anyone wishing to give or sell their island, please contact me.

Back

Vacation is over and I started back at work on Monday, only they forgot to tell me that our department had moved to the third floor. It would have been nice of them to tell me this, send me an email, something. But no, I get there on Monday and someone else’s stuff is at my desk. I go to check my boss’s desk and his stuff is gone too. Finally someone informs me where we have moved to and I have to go hunt down my cubicle. Before I left on vacation noone had told me this would be happening, so I had left all my drawers locked. Apparently, the new idiot at my desk was unhappy with this and had the facilities guy unlock my drawers and he moved my stuff elsewhere. I got the day off today because it is my birthday so I spent the day doing errands more than anything. Haircut, truck service, mailing stuff, phone calls, stuff I never get the chance to do. Fortunately, I got alot done, and when I did it was still 9:30am. I guess I must have woken up early. On another note I have to upload my journal from the trip, but I need to proofread it first also. When I put it up it should be in the ‘Musings’ section.

Argentina

Vacation time! I’m leaving tomorrow morning from MIA to my home city of Buenos Aires, Argentina for 2 weeks. Haven’t even started packing yet but I have a nifty list of things to take. I’m not really excited yet. Mostly dreading the trip to MIA. It’s a crappy airport in a crappy city (Miami). Once I get there I’m sure the excitement will be peaking.

Customs at EZE (the airport in Bs. As.) is messed up. It’s like a lottery. You get your bags from the spinning luggage things and form a line. There is a big red button on a column at the front of the line. When you get there, you push it. If you get a green light, you go through the easy customs lane (just a few questions). If you get a red light, your bags get inspected. Makes sense? My feeling is it’s rigged. If you look rich or suspicious, you get a red. Or if the guy is horny and there’s a cute chick traveling alone, RED. Other than that, I really can’t figure it being a good system. Maybe they use it to maintain certain levels in lines. If it’s too busy, you get greens until the queues start emptying. When there’s a spot in a “slow” lane, red light comes on.

At any rate, traveling isn’t the greatest thing. It’s an 8 hour flight. Very boring. Very bad movies (last time I think we had The Negotiator and Home Alone 3). I guess The Negotiator isn’t that bad. That’s all for now. Be back in 2 weeks.

DVD

So I bit the bullet and bought myself a new DVD and TV. Man… for anyone who tells you that DVD’s are just a better picture quality doesn’t know what they’re talking about. IMO, the BEST feature I’ve seen with DVD’s is the multiple soundtracks. What they do is have normal sound tracks (English, French, etc) and then they have special soundtracks which are, for example, the director’s feature-lenght commentary, or several people involved with the movie. And when you’ve seen a movie 100 times, this adds an extra dimension and little trivia facts for minds to store. At any rate, I’m thoroughly enjoying my new system and along with the TV upgrade, I rearranged my place so it feels alot roomier and have spent a great deal of time cleaning.