Nice device

Looking forward to the day this becomes widely available. Can you imagine? Not having to poke my fingers four times a day? This is awesome!

Check out this nice device, in the form of a watch, to monitor glucose.

Carta a mi Esposa desde el Cielo

Con motivo del Dia de los Enamorados, a dos dias de cumplirse un mes de la muerte de papa...

Hoy venia al trabajo manejando y pense como seria si hoy el le escribiera a mama una carta desde el cielo. Esto fue lo que me inspiro.


***********************************
Hace apenas unos dias que me fui.
Se que para ti,
Mas bien parecen semanas o siglos.

Hace instantes sentia tu mano
En la mia,
Y veia el retrato en la mesa
Lleno de alegria.

Hoy lo veo todo desde aqui,
Y te veo sufrir
Y no quiero eso para ti.

Se que sabes que llorar
Al ser partido
No es mas que llorar
La soledad.

Porque yo,
En realidad,
Nunca me he ido.

Estoy a tu lado,
A cada paso.
Estoy junto a ti,
Con ustedes,
Aunque no me puedan ver.

Que tal,
Si salimos esta noche
Bajo una luna rosada.
Con lluvia, o si prefieres,
A pasear por Roma
A la luz de los postes
De calles empedradas.

No pienses que me fui temprano,
Cuando te sientas sola.
Recuerda cuanto te amo
En todo momento y lugar.

Deja que te arrulle,
Con un canto silencioso
Y desafinado.
Deja mecer tu cabeza
Lentamente,
Mientras te beso en la frente.

O si estas cansada,
Buenas noches,
Vida mia.

Que en tus sueños
Me sigas sintiendo,
Como cada noche,
Callado, junto a ti,
Enamorado.

Diabetes progress

It's been a few days since I last blogged. It's been very busy. The baby being sick on one end, and lots and lots of work in the office, with the coming of the launch of the product I've been working on for almost a year now, it's been crazy. But it's been very good too.

Quite a few things have me very excited:
-I've gotten in contact with the lead researcher of a project in the University of Florida, who is conducting one of the largest (if not THE largest) study in the world, for children of diabetics, to try to identify the cause of the disease. We learned about him through a cousin of mine who is a doctor. We may volunteer the baby for it, if it can help, but beyond that, I will volunteer to help his team disseminate the word about the study, its progress, getting more people informed and involved with it, etc. using blogs, Internet Marketing techniques, etc. I am very happy to be able to do this.
-On the diabetes newsfront, I read about two things that are quite promising just this morning:
1) World-First Living Donor Transplant of Islet Cells a Success. The Islet cells are the ones in the Pancreas that are responsible for the production of insulin. Once you have Diabetes Type I (my case), the body begins to eliminate them and it becomes irreversible, to the point where you no longer produce any insulin at some point because all these cells are essentially gone. So the ability to transplant them back into a diabetic person is significant. Though it doesn't eliminate the cause, it does give an option to diabetics.
2) American Diabetes Association, Georgetown University to Release Report on Diabetes-Related Health Insurance Crisis. Those who know me, know this is not really THAT new. When I worked at my past job, I couldn't get insurance because they offered no plan and I couldn't get individual coverage because I was diabetic. Our only resort, and it was fortunate that Andreina was still in school at the time, was to put me under her University insurance. Otherwise, I would have been uninsured. Just to give you an idea of the impact of this, even with insurance, we spend somewhere over $1,000 in supplies, copayments and other diabetes-related items in the course of a year. If I recall well, for example, Lantus insulin (which I shoot myself everyday with) is about $90-$100 without insurance, and you need approx. 1 vial every two months. So, though this is not news, it is good that there's been more awareness about it. We'll see where this leads.

Well, nuf of diabetes for now. I am heading out to work for the day. Have a great weekend, y'all.

How touching. Moves you to contemplate in silence...

It is so impressive that I could find no other reviews about this album. But it is equally impressive that it is not better known. I just got a copy of it from a friend. He sent it to us in the midst of our grief for the passing of my father less than a month ago. When we popped it in the player, we could only hold our breaths and feel as if a musical prayer was being sung for him.

Susanna & The Magical Orchestra come from the same region of the planet as other grand acts full of melancholy come from: Scandinavia. And the voice of Norwegian Susanna Wallumrod clearly approaches the tonality and body of Iceland's Bjork's or Emilana Torrini, though more than once the whole sound they present strongly reminds of Canadian Jane Siberry.

Words do no justice to some works, and this is one case, where I feel that a silent review with a tear of joy shed in retribution may be more worthy of such a touching and spectacular work of art. In the meantime, I will simply stand and contemplate the night while I play it in the background.

If you want more background about them, read this BBC review.

The new meaning of songs

Today I was talking to a friend at work how songs, those that we like and sometimes even those that we hate, like many other things around you, present themselves in a new light to you when someone you love goes away.

Specifically, I was listening to two tunes: "Tan Joven y Tan Viejo", by Spanish singer and songwriter Joaquin Sabina, and "De Vez En Cuando La Vida" by another Spanish genius, Joan Manuel Serrat.


Tan Joven y Tan Viejo
Lo primero que quise fue marcharme bien lejos;
en el álbum de cromos de la resignación
pegábamos los niños que odiaban los espejos
guantes de Rita Hayworth, calles de Nueva York.

Apenas vi que un ojo me guiñaba la vida
le pedí que a su antojo dispusiera de mí,
ella me dio las llaves de la ciudad prohibida
yo, todo lo que tengo, que es nada, se lo di.

Así crecí volando y volé tan deprisa
que hasta mi propia sombra de vista me perdió,
para borrar mis huellas destrocé mi camisa,
confundí con estrellas las luces de neón.

Hice trampas al póker, defraudé a mis amigos,
sobre el banco de un parque dormí como un lirón;
por decir lo que pienso sin pensar lo que digo
más de un beso me dieron (y más de un bofetón).

Lo que sé del olvido lo aprendí de la luna,
lo que sé del pecado lo tuve que buscar
como un ladrón debajo de la falda de alguna
de cuyo nombre ahora no me quiero acordar.

Así que, de momento, nada de adiós muchachos,
me duermo en los entierros de mi generación;
cada noche me invento, todavía me emborracho;
tan joven y tan viejo, like a Rolling Stone.

---
De Vez En Cuando La Vida
De vez en cuando la vida
Nos besa en la boca
Y a colores se despliega
Como un atlas,
Nos pasea por las calles
En volandas
Y nos sentimos en buenas manos;
Se hace de nuestra medida,
Toma nuestro paso
Y saca un conejo de la vieja chistera
Y uno es feliz como un niño
Cuando sale de la escuela.

De vez en cuando la vida
Toma conmigo café
Y está tan bonita que
Da gusto verla.
Se suelta el pelo y me invita
A salir con ella a escena.

De vez en cuando la vida
Se nos brinda en cueros
Y nos regala un sueño
Tan escurridizo
Que hay que andarlo de puntillas
Por no romper el hechizo.

De vez en cuando la vida
Afina con el pincel
Se nos eriza la piel
Y faltan palabras
Para nombrar lo que ofrece
A los que saben usarla.

De vez en cuando la vida
Nos gasta una broma
Y nos despertamos
Sin saber qué pasa,
Chupando un palo sentados
Sobre una calabaza.

---
This is kind of tricky for those who can't read Spanish, but hopefully it will make you pick up a dictionary or ask a Spanish-speaking friend to translate these lyrics for you. They are that good!

These are, in a nutshell, two very sad songs, but they are beautiful at the same time. Specially the last parts of the second song (which I will translate here for you):

De vez en cuando la vida (Once in a while, Life)
Nos gasta una broma (Plays a joke on us)
Y nos despertamos (And we wake up)
Sin saber qué pasa, (Without knowing what happens)
Chupando un palo sentados (Sucking on a stick)
Sobre una calabaza. (Sitting on top of a pumpkin.)

That is a bit how you feel when you wake up the day after "all is accomplished", so to speak... like the chubby fish on "Nemo", wondering at the end of the movie "Now what?" (actually we were watching that movie last night, and it gave me a hard time, between laughs... because that movie we saw with my mom and my dad together, before Santiago was born, and it always carried that double meaning for me, where first Marlin was like my dad and I was like Nemo, and I felt the torch was being passed on to me, for me to become Marlin with che coming Nemo... and you want to make things better, than the "previous Marlin", but at the same time, there are so many things you want to preserve from your Old Man, so many things, that you forget there were any bad ones -if there were any indeed...)

I was reading last night or the night before that it is common for people who loose their loved ones, to only focus and remember the good things, and block away the bad characteristics. You know what? I have tried hard, and I still have a hard time finding negative traits in my dad. The only thing I could "blame him" for not having was a hobby, and even so, he sorta had one: baseball was his thing. Which is why I now wear his Boston Red Sox hat often.

Well... I am kinda dragging, but I didn't want to finish up this post without touching on the Sabina song, "Tan Joven y Tan Viejo". This is one song of retrospective, like looking back at life of a troubled man, a man who is embarrassed of portions of his life, but he doesn't bow and repent. Rather he looks up and says in the end "So for now, no goodbyes, my friends; I fall asleep in the burials of my generation; each night I invent myself, I still get drunk; so young and so old... Like a Rolling Stone", finishing up quoting Dylan.

It's tough to describe this song unless you listen to it, so I hope you give yourself the chance to do it, because you won't regret it. Even if you don't understand a word, I promise it will make you cry. Tears of joy or tears of sadness, but you will have a hard time escaping it.

So long for now. I should be back next week. For now, at least, I don't plan on posting much over the weekend.

As I write this, and over the course of the past few days, ironically I've been listening to a band called Arcade Fire, and their debut album "Funeral". Quite a somber title, indeed, but a great CD nonetheless.