Family Update
A few pieces of news from Bolivia.

Good news: My brother Miguel started a website for the cafe he opened, check it out. O Mundo Cafe. It looks like it will be a pretty sweet site, good job Miguel.

Bad news: It looks like the political scene in Bolivia is getting worse again. This is not a good thing since Miguel is still living in the capital and trying to run a small business somewhat dependent on tourism. Check out this article, which happens to be written by Miguel. Southern Exposure.

Other news: I am excited for this weekend. The family will be in town. Raquel is coming with my parents and bringing little Valerie. Tamara is bringing Novali and it will be fun to get the kids in the pool at the hotel. The Centellas family are all swimmers, my mom lives in the pool and loves to get her grandkids in the water. Valerie I doubt has been swimming yet, I think I had Novali in the water at this age. We will see how it goes.

Look for pictures soon.

Sports and Salsa.
I normally do not write much about sports... it was freshment year at WMU when we beat University of Michigan in basketball. It was huge, the whole campus got pumped. We went to the big dance (NCAA Tournament) and won our first game. The excitement on campus was awesome. Then we lost... however to Stanford who went on to make it to the final four. So we felt good.

Well folks, the Broncos are doing it again. According to ESPN we will get an 11 seed into the tournament, this will not be official until tonight, but for sure we will be in the dance. Makes me wish I was back on campus; going to BW3s to watch the game, eating wings, spilling beer from the excitement of each basket, and having a good time. Good luck Broncos.

Salsa, those who know me know that I love to get out and dance Latin music. I am not overly good at Salsa, actually I suck. I love Merengue, and Bachata for sure and I can make my way around the Cumbia circle a few times as well. The GVSU Latino Student Union brought a live 11 piece Cuban band last night. The dance was called Havana Nights. The band was great and since it was all Salsa music it forced me to get out there and work on my Salsa skills.

Profundo (from Wayne), Cruceño, Pupillo, and Samoza.

The Cuba place in town served the dinner, it was good while it lasted

It was the first time in a while I think I chilled with the GV bros. This semester has been so hectic I have had little time to chill and relax with them. It was also cool to hangout with some other CSAL grads. Von, Kim, and Andrea never got out on the dance floor. Shannon and Kacy didn't even stay for the music... shame on you two. Ken and Heather ventured out on the floor later on though. Next time everyone is dancing.

Sunil and Lindsey from DZ on the dance floor.

Santi making announcements, repping SLB.

The band, called Sabrosura (translates to flavorful or feels good)

Profundo was part of an ad hoc Capawera expo during the bands intermission.

Great night. After the dance we chilled in the Kirk (yes Carleen, the Kirk) and relaxed and laughed more then I have in a long time. Today is a work day, I have a ton to do. So I am making a pot of coffee and getting started on my to-do-list... and my guilty pleasure for the day will be watching ESPN to see what the Bronco's final seed will be into the big dance...

Yeah... oh yeah.
Typical day. Too little sleep, too much to do, too few hours left in the day. It is not even 8 AM right now and I am feeling the crunch. My trip over spring break is really pushing back a lot of things I needed to get done, and upon my return I have had some bad luck.

First issue. Dead Palm Pilot. Yes it died... and I have not backed it up since I got my new laptop (December 2003) and I have lost some pretty important stuff I fear. I had trouble using my palm with this new laptop, hence why I wanted a new Palm. However, now my Palm is not working and I am left with nothing.

Second issue. Graduation. Most people have told me to go ahead and do a race (if the NX 2000 is ready) on graduation day instead of sitting through a boring graduation ritual. However, the letter in the mail telling me I failed my graduation audit... not good. I know it is because my practicum remains unfinished... I am trying to get it done, seriously. However with what time in my oh so free schedule will I get it done?

Third issue. Undermotivation. I really don't want a real job, or the real world in general. "I don't want to work... I just want to bang on my drum all day! ... " I think those are the words. I love that song, and no I don't play drums. It was the morning radio theme song on my Kalamazoo radio station. I need a good dose of that in the mornings again.

So there is my list. Let me switch gears, it will cheer me up.

OREGON IMPACT! Yes it rocked, I am still trying to keep the energy from the weekend going. To add to that excitement I was accepted as a facilitator this summer for UIFI (a program of the NIC). I will be doing session two.

Here are a few shots from Oregon. I will be doing a slide show of all the pictures I took for Oregon and send them a CD. I still can not say in words how awesome it was to be there.

It was a really beautiful campus.

Opening night group activities.

Large group sessions.

The facility was awesome, and so was the food.

The place is a famous basketball camp.

I love playing four-square!

Every night we found tons of ways to amuze ourselves.

The chair game, not sure the official name. It was fun!

The closing committment circle.

The Oregon mountains surrounded the campsite.

I want to apologize for not commenting on blogs lately. I will get more time this weekend and get caught up on all my reading (yes Becky I will read for thesis to). I am hoping to get a ton done this weekend and I will start next week on a better foot and really start to tackle all the big projects I got going on right now.

Seven Days and Seven Nights
I was just on the road for a week. A few days in Chicago at the beginning and then I saw Novali again this morning on my way back. She was a little sick but still excited to see me. I wish I could have stayed for another day.

In between the time with Novali was my Oregon trip. I wrote a little about it before IMPACT, and now the weekend is over and I got great stories. I was very impressed with the students and how they reacted to the program. It was very invigorating to see young new members to a Greek community so excited about making changes and developing their chapters. It has given me more energy.

We had a great facilitation team and I know I will get to see many of them again for the Western Region Greek Association conference in April. So that will be a cool reunion.

Now I am back, I came right from Chicago to CompuCraft and I am so tired but trying to get some work done. I am really going to be playing catch up this week with a few large projects (thesis, practicum, GVSU Greek survey, WRGA, etc).

Back to work... ah...

Yep... its rainy.
So it was as rainy as I had expected. I got into Eugene, OR last night and it was rainy. On top of raining on my parade the airline decided to lose my luggage as well. Which after being in airport for like 10 hours... it was the last thing I wanted to go wrong.

Carly picked me up and we got some food at this great place, good Cheesy Tomato soup (I heard it is John Hockman's favorite, I will have to tease him that I got some) and catching up with Carly. Then we met some friends of hers, Patrick (who loaned me clothes for the night) and Karen. Once again I was reminded how small the Greek world is. They all knew Erica who was an Alpha Chi consultant from CMU (Karen was an Alpha Chi consultant as well) and I had a Hefeweizen, which is the beer of choice for West Coast folks.

Tomorrow we start the IMPACT weekend. I am excited. Today I am catching up on a few things and I wanted to take some time to post a few blog pics from my time with Novali before heading out here. So here goes.

I got to Chicago late Monday night, the rainy storms slowed me down. Tuesday we had the entire day to ourselves! The Gomez family just moved and they are right by a Target and a small shopping center. So we walked over there. We had fun hanging out in the Dollar Store and buying food at Target. She says the funniest things right now and watching her make decisions about what to eat is interesting (she wanted eggs and french fries for lunch). We had a ton of fun.

Coloring the book my parents got her. She has artist skills.

All the bunnies she made me buy. One for abuela... one for Tia... one for Mami...

Tuesday night we went to a BW3s. I have not been to one since last time I went with Andres and my dad in Lansing. It was fun to see one that was more of a family style location. Tamara and her sorority sisters like wings really spicey... I am a big wuss and just get the Southwestern ones...

Putting on her coat.

Hands in the pockets... scarf on.. ready to go.

Well speaking of wings, I got to run. Time to eat here... I am still thrown by the whole time thing. I know the time thing will kill me when I get back to Michigan and try getting back to work right away. Like trying to work on the thesis...

Momo, Momo, Momo... pass me a tissue.
Despite being sick... I needed to get some car work done. My new steering wheel has been sitting around for a while and this week I got the last part I needed to do the install. So Wednesday afternoon... I got down and dirty and worked on the ride. It felt good, read further for more info on the install (I started writing this blog a few days ago and just now finishing it).

Epsilon Chapter Retreat
I was in Kalamazoo for the last two days. I went down on Thursday with Ramon and Ramiro to see the WMU gang at Club Soda. The place is the same and it reminded me of some good times. Colleen, Marcie & Ismael, Zandy and I ended the night with a trip to The Big Burrito. I can't belive Zandy has been at WMU for nearly a year and had not been there... Hermen you need to visit more and take your sister out.

Friday we ate breakfast at Theo & Stacy's, and then we had our first meeting. It was awesome to get us alums together with the Brothers. Later we took a break and headed to the mall. It was funny watching 6 Betas go sale shopping. We got some sweet deals at Marshall Fields and then ate in the food court. It was fun clowning around and hanging out. We restarted the meeting over at Geo's place for a few hours and then shot pool at Bilbo's Pizza.

Friday night we went to Wayside for a Mardi Gras party. Reymall snagged a great table and we watch people trip over a loose piece of carpet for a while and ate some fries I never paid for.... yeah! We ended the night with a trip to Steak & Shake. In a matter of 2 days we managed to do all the things we used to do in Kalamazoo. Oh yeah, and today on my way home... got some Qdobas!

Now I am home, I need to do laundry and get ready for a busy week of traveling. Monday I am heading to Chicago to spend time with Novali. Then Wednesday I fly to Oregon. I need to get things organized because once I get back I will have a lot of close deadlines. I also need to keep fighting off this cold... Fun fun fun.

Back to the car story from Wednesday...
When I bought my car it had an older steering wheel in it, no airbag anymore. I have been wanting to get it replaced. I installed a Momo Thunder Wheel and hub kit. The things looks great and really pulls all my Momo accessories together (shifts knob, brake handle, seats, floor mats, and leather shift boots).

The steering column torn apart.

The messy wires.

I was still not able to get my horn to work. I needed to get the wheel back on (since I drive this car everyday) so I did not have a lot of time to mess with the wires. I am going to read up on what it will take to work out the horn and do it once I get some more warm weather.

She looks great!

Rub-a-dub-dub... sweaky clean.

After the install I ran over to the car wash and got her nice and clean. It was a mini-Love Your Car Day. I had to take advantage of the warm weather.

What was sad is that I noticed a rust spot coming back on my car... just a small one. I love my little NX, I hope she does not require more body work soon. Either way I got to get her ready for racing this summer. Speaking of racing I have a quick poll.

I graduate on April 24th. That same day there is a race with my Car club, actually the first of the year for my group. Should I skip commencement? I rather my family come out and watch me race on my graduation day and be out in the sun then sit inside a stuffy arena and watch me get another folder with no diploma in it. Ideas? Suggestions?

I am sick... where's my travel agent?
I have been busy... but the pile of stuff is getting manageable. However, now I am starting to feel a little bit sick. My throat is scratchy and I am feeling under the weather. Yes I said under the weather. This is the worst time for me to get sick, I am on a roll and I need to keep things running. Hopefully the vitamin cough drops Becky gave me help!

Okay so I need a travel agent folks. I travel a lot, more then the average bear. I the last 90 days I have been out of the country, to Texas and to Chicago countless times. I already have a few big trips planned for this year, Hollywood this coming fall, Orlando this summer, and San Francisco twice. Well yesterday I got a call and the University of Oregon wants me to fly out and help facilitate an IMPACT Weekend there. I did one of these for the University of Texas - Arlington and I loved it. This program is put on by the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC, if you visit their site, click on educational programs, then click on IMPACT, I am on the testimonials page) and when I attended as an undergrad it mad a big difference on views of Greek Life.

My next trip will be three weeks after that when I travel to San Francisco for the Western Region Greek Association Conference (WRGLC). I am excited for that trip, I love the San Francisco area. During all of my business trips I plan in some time to visit and have fun. I have two extra days planned in Eugene, OR and three extra days in San Francisco. I recommended Becky for a conference staff position and she will be there in San Fran as well. Who doesn't want a free trip to the West coast?

Also tomorrow night I am heading to Kalamazoo. My chapter is doing a little retreat on Friday and I want to go early and go out. I think some Salsa with Colleen and Marcie, the Gamma neos, is what the doctor ordered for this cough I am developing. I will see Rey again and Vic better come out, along with the undergrads and for sure everyone's favorite masters student, the Geo. Good times and good way to kick off spring break!

Spring Break is two and a half days away...

The Weekend Report
Last week was stressful. On top of my school work and jobs I had to prepare presentations for this weekend and get things my stuff finalized for the thesis focus group. Now things are over and the focus group is running as I write this... we had a good student turnout and I want to give a huge thanks to Jose and Gaby from MSU for coming to facilitate the group. THANK YOU!

(MGCA) Conference was awesome! It was a great networking opportunity as always and my presentations all went well. Thanks to Aaron Haight and Michelle Guobadia who both presented with me and the Miami University for asking me to be part of their panel discussion. Having the faculty demarkation on my name tag was just plain out cool!

Out of 1600 attendees... Santiago and I were the only Betas.

The GVSU delegation at the final banquet.

While there I also had a quick board meeting for the Western Region Greek Association. The conference we put on is getting close and we have a lot to do... I had an awesome experience at MGCA doing research for WRGA. I got to be in the AV booth and help with their final banquet. Being in the booth with the headphones and helping with all the equipment was a great learning experience. The AV at WRGA is going to rock this year!

The highlight of the weekend was getting to hangout with Novali. She was not too keen on meeting new people there and so we did not stay with the GVSU group. We had fun getting some Mexican food and she showed me some new art work she has done. I love posting her pictures by my desk at work.

Placing her order, she loves reading the menu.

She has this dress that she loves to put on... as soon as we got home she ran to grab it.

I got her PJs on... and like a good little monkey she wanted to jump on the bed.

Laying down with Papi and trying to sleep.

Friday night went out. That week was Angel's (Novali's uncle) 21st birthday and Tamara and I threw him a party. I wanted to help as a thank you for the times he watches Novali and has been a help. We went to Transit a Latin/Hip Hop club in Chicago. The place has three rooms, one with Latin music, another with new Hip Hop, R&B and Reggae and then the final room has slower and older Hip Hop music. The place has a great atmosphere. Happy Birthday Angel.

Angel and Tamara.

Tamara and her friends all came out.

Reymall came out and we chilled like always...

Rey doing his thing..

The focus group is still running right now... Becky is stressing over if the tape recording will work. I am wondering how much longer it will take. We are both procrastinating and not looking forward to the paper we have due this Tuesday for our Career Guidance class.

Spring Break is one week away...

Off to MGCA
This will be my fourth year attending the Mid-American Greek Council Association (MGCA) Conference. I attended twice as a student at Western Michigan and this will be my second time attending as a professional with GVSU.

This year is exciting because I am presenting and facilitating. Not only am I presenting, but I am doing three topics! I am doing one called "Your Council Dot Com", which is a program about why Greek councils need websites, ideas for building them, and resources to help them realize their online potential. I am doing one program with Aaron Haight, my supervisor at GVSU, called "My Culture, Your Culture, Greek Culture" which is about commonalities between Greek organizations and ideas for collaboration. My final presentation is with Michelle Goubadia who is a Zeta Phi Beta from North Carolina and that is called "Stepping, Handsigns and all those Shrieks: what's it all about?". That program will be fun! It is about the traditions of culturally based Greek organizations and how groups can respect the differences.

The University of Miami-Ohio Greek Life office has asked me to participate in a discussion with their students on Friday morning. I will provide the viewpoint of a member of a historically Latino fraternity and involved on the national level. I am pretty excited about this because it is something not normally done at MGCA. I am glad to be involved in this trial run. If I end up living in Chicago as planned I would like to get more involved with the MGCA Conference.

So needless to say I will have a busy weekend. I also will steal time away to see Novali of course! The last two years I took her with me to dinner with the Western Michigan crew. The GVSU group went to a rowdy bar for Friday dinner and I really didn't feel right taking Novali. Steve no longer works at WMU so I am not sure what my dinner plans will be this time.

Snowboarding update: I think I seriously injured my shoulder. It is still very sore and it has been three days now. I have a bad feeling that I might have really hurt something there... when I get back from Chicago I will have to get it checked out.

NX 2000 update: In a prior post I mentioned I had not talked about my car in a while. Now she is headed back to the shop... boo hoo... I am not sure how but I managed to crack one of my rear rotors. I have cross-drilled race prepped rotors.

I gave her a wash this week.

The cracked rotor.

I always figured I would blow one in a race... like I did my exhuast... not while tooling around Allendale! I have to make a special trip with her to Holland, MI to take her back to my shop. Not many places are willing to mess with my custom brake set up. If it was not so cold I would try it myself! Team PLP really needs a garage...

Whoa... lots of updates
A lot has happened in the last few days. First off my team did not win the GVSU CSAL Case Study Competition. I had a good time and learned a ton. Mike made a great partner and even though we did not spend a huge amount of time on the presentation I think it was awesome. I wish all three judges would have stayed awake for the presentation though...

The team in action.

Striking a pose with Mike.

On Friday I also got my pictures from Monsters, Inc. on Ice with Novali. They turned out pretty good. Go to Novali's website to see all the pictures. Novalí

It was great to watch the show with her.

She loved the $10 snowcone.

Saturday was the best valentines day I have had in a long time. I slept in, cleaned my room, then went out. Becky called and wanted to get some dinner. So Ramon and I headed out to Grandville. The lines at places were crazy, so we decided to go to the mall. I returned a few shirts to Banana Republic (I hate trying stuff on) and then ended up finding some awesome old guy shoes at the Buckle and a new Fossil watch. We ended up eating at Qdoba's. Then I went home and cleaned the bathroom (it is my turn in house duties). What a day.

Becky talked me into snowboarding today. It was something I wanted to try when I was younger and was a skater. I did not know anyone who did winter sports really. It is an expensive sport and I was all into my soccer once I got into high school and lost interest. We went with Tommy and his girlfriend Laura. I did not really dress for the occasion but it was fun. I am in a world of hurt right now from falling on my butt, my knees and twisting my arm pretty bad. Despite the pain I want to try it again, maybe I won't end up so sore this time.

Taking a break. I usually landed on my butt and would rest before trying to get up again.

Trying to ride down the hill. Notice the snow all over my jeans?

This weekend was relaxing, and this week will be fun. I am presenting three different programs at MGCA and am looking forward to have the "Presenter" tag on my name tag! Sam's all grown up.

And their off...
At 12:00 PM today the GVSU CSAL 2004 Case Study Competition kicked into high gear. Teams were randomly assigned this year and the competition looks great. We have 24 hours to come up with a solution to a case dealing with higher education administration. My team (I got paired with first year grad Mike Slocum) presents pretty early this year.

Last year Becky and I won this thing and took the $500 prize. I also won the national Order of Omega competition with Shawna in December 2003. So I have a lot of pressure to perform. I am trying to not think about that, I am doing this for the fun and hopefully $500. The excitement of the competition is there and it has gotten me excited. Too bad I work all afternoon and Mike has class tonight. We will have little prep time tonight.

I just want to wish everyone luck tomorrow. It will be a ton of fun.

Weekend
I had some good travels the last few days. I got to run over to Detroit for some potential client meetings. I did not land any new business but it was a great trip. I got to run into some old friends over there, namely my good friend Megan! We met over in Birmingham which is one of my favorite places in Michigan. We had a great lunch and caught up on everything that has been going on in our lives. She is working her way up the Banana Republic ladder at Sommerset Mall and I am avoiding the real world at all costs. It was a great time over on the east side of the state.

Then it was off to Chicago cause it is my weekend to see Novali. My chapter Brothers also were heading out there to hangout and relax and celebrate Gary's birthday. I picked them up on my way and we went to Chicago to meet up with Rey. Friday night they went to Transit, a club in Chicago, and I went to sleep cause I had to take Novali to Monsters Inc. on Ice in the morning.

Monsters Inc. was fun! At first I think Novali was confused. Being only two she did not understand that this was not the movie she is used to watching. After time to adjust, and once the annoying people in front decided to sit down, she enjoyed the show. She got a Monsters Inc. coloring book and had a blast.

Then we went to meet some of Tamara's sisters at the Cheesecake factory. The Brothers were supposed to come as well but they fell behind and then decided not to come. Before dinner Novali got to watch her mom try on make up at the Estee Lader counter in Marshall Fields and then played hide-and-go-seek with me in all the clothes racks. I pretended I could afford a $250 Armani dress shirt and then we went to eat. Grisel and Veronica met us for dinner. It was nice to see them again. Grisel is getting married this summer so I got to hear all the exciting plans.

Then finally I met up with Brothers again. Rey, Gary and Ismael met with us over to club Red No Five. We had a good time. Some Brothers from the University of Illinios-Chicago were there and we danced, some drinks, and caught up. The club was fun, not what I had expected, and there was nearly a fight outside between the bouncers some people they would not let it. I kinda watched to watch the bouncers boot the guys out cause they were holding up the line and it was cold out... but we finally got in. Cover was too high (20) for a regular looking club with a pretty bad DJ. Drinks as usual cost twice as much as in Michigan, but us Brothers had a good time either way. Hurting for funds today... but that is alright. A little Greek food after the bar and then hit the hay.

Red No 5

The basement

In the morning I went out to Mt. Prospect (suburb north of Chicago where Rey lives) and picked up Gary and Ish. We had lunch with Rey at Denny's and then rolled out back to Michigan. It was a fun weekend. We got to have fun, talk a little business, and I got lots of time with Novali.

What was sad though was on Sunday morning when Novali heard me say I was leaving she got all sad. Generally leaving is tough for me cause I wish I could stay more with her, this made it worse. She got all pouty and did not even want to kiss me goodbye. Saying goodbye is so hard to do... two weeks and I will see her again.

OutSight Design & Consulting
It was one and half years ago that I decided to start my own company. Originally I just designed some websites, shirts and other promotional material for some WMU groups I had worked with during my undergrad time there. It has started to grow into something much more and I am really excited for my newest client and some future opportunities. I signed a new client with the Michigan Medical Billers Association (MMBA) and have started doing website development for them. I am heading to Detroit for some meetings tomorrow with another potential client and a new t-shirt vendor. Some cool things are happening for my little upstart company.

Last year I designed a lot of different shirts with a few different vendors, did websites for engineering companies, a real estate property, a few other fraternal sites, and lots of t-shirts. I have gotten involved with some other types of marketing materials as well and even done some consulting on application support.

Here are some samples of what I have been up to lately, click on the text below each picture to visit that site:

My Home Page.

WRGA

CompuCraft

WMU Betas

Home 4 Sale

GVSU Greeks

Prototype Express

Shirts for SLB, SLG, GVSU, etc.

I really enjoy working on all these different type of projects. It makes life a little more interesting and keeps me doing diverse things so I do not get tired of doing the same thing. It also means I get to travel a little more as well, can't beat that!

For your technology needs... please email me at sales@outsightdesign.com