Carlitos y Rafa con Glenn Rice

Carlitos y Rafa con Glen Rice, originally uploaded by iamrafa.

Hoy nos conseguimos a Glen Rice en un restaurant y nos sacamos una foto.. Glen Rice es uno de mis jugadores preferidos de sus tiempos con los Hornetts... chapa, gracias por la foto

In Cannes Atending MIPTV 2008

I had the opportunity to go to the MIPTV 2008 conference in Cannes earlier this month. It was a great experience to learn more about the TV Distribution industry and to do some business for venemobile.

Cannes is just a little beach town in France, but it is one of the main spots in Europe for conferences and events. I had a really good time and enjoyed great food. I hope to get the chance to go back with Gina next time. I took just a few pictures.

Mobile Advertising

This is from a pannel I participated on last year at the "Contenido Móvil Américas 2007". The pannel was about new trends in Mobile Entertainment and this video is about the part when we are discussing Mobile Advertising. My argument is that until the medium (mobile) proves that it can drive sales for the advertisers, it will not become an viable advertising medium. I think it will happen, we just don't know yet how.

En Guatemala con Mayo Vega

Tuve la oportunidad de ir esta semana a Ciudad de Guatemala para unas reuniones de trabajo. Me reencontré con mi buen amigo Mayo Vega al cual no veía desde hace 18 años. La pasamos muy bien, me mostró la ciudad y tuvimos tiempo de conversar y ponernos al día.

También tuve oportunidad de salir con Juan Carlos Garavito de WAU Guatemala y su familia. Guatemala me gustó muchísimo y la gente es muy amable, espero tener oportunidad de regresar con la familia.

¡Disfruten las fotos!

My Stint in Taekwondo

I just edited this video from 2000 when I trained and compited in Taekwondo in Phoenix, AZ. My conditioning is far from when I was a Karate black belt in Venezuela. However, I still managed to use my experience to win the tournament's All-Around Championship.

Ashihara Karate Exhibition 1992

This past weekend I transferred this VHS Video to my computer and was able to edit this 1 hour Karate presentation to a 7 min clip. I added music because the original audio was almost totally lost. This Karate presentation was performed in Caracas Venezuela in the Summer of 1992. It was a tribute to our Shihan Adolfo Corredor. Participants were Senseis: Rafael Garcia, Luis E Garcia, Luis A Garcia, Celestino Ricci, Jorge Ramos, Jorge Ponce and Sempai Carlos Tata.

When Facing The Unknown

Today during my lunch hour for some reason we started a conversation about experiences and reactions when facing death. It sounds like a morbid conversation, but it was not, it was more like a story-telling type of conversation, even funny.

The person who started, told the story when in December 1999 she was living in La Guaira Venezuela and she went through the devastating fast floods that virtually wiped out the city. She was living in a small building, she was with her family and as the rain did not stop and power was lost, they could see from their Penthouse apartment how arms, legs, cars, houses were coming down the street. At one point she just realized that it could be it, that she had a good chance of dying. She thought that at least she was with her family and took a Bible and just waited. A few minutes later, she changed her mind and ran to the very top of the building where she waited for hours until a military helicopter saw her swinging an orange shirt and came for the rescue. There were 34 people in the building, half of them where elderly and there was pregnant woman, so the helicopter took that first group and she was saved in a second trip.

Another person told his story of the time he was swimming at the beach and got caught in a very bad under current and kicked him far from the shore. He tried very hard to go back as the waves were hitting him, but without luck. At that point he just stopped and thought: OK, I guess this is it, and stayed calmed. However, he then realized that shouldn't be it and he tried harder again to get out and was able to get to shore unharmed.

I then told my story: It was a few years ago; I was flying from Miami to Mexico City. I was preparing for a very busy schedule in Mexico so I was working like a maniac during the flight. About half an hour before landing, the Captain announced that the plane was having difficulties with the Hydraulic System and that we would probably have a bumpy landing. I didn't make much of it, since he sounded calmed. However, he made the announcement in English, and most of the people in the plane didn't understand it. The flight attendant took her turn at the mic and said that according to what the Captain just said, it was going to be dangerous landing and that all family members should sit together. So, PANIC IN THE PLANE! People started praying, changing seats, some of them cried.

I seriously was still calmed, and told the people around me what the Captain said and kept working. When we started the descent, I put all the papers away in my briefcase. At that moment, as I saw the fire-fighter trucks and ambulances waiting for us in the sidelines, it hit me, but just for a second. I thought, well this might be it, but I can’t do anything about it. I don’t know how to pilot a plane, so nothing was under my control. In that second I thought of Gina, we didn’t have kids at the time, but just the week earlier I had signed a Life Insurance. So I thought that Gina would be OK after all, she is a professional, we had some money in the bank and with the insurance policy she probably would have enough to start over again. She probably would go back to Wisconsin, I thought. I also thought about my parents and my siblings, nothing in particular, just thought of them and we landed. The lady sitting next to me grabbed my arm and started crying hysterically. The planed stopped and the Captain announced that we would get off the plane right there because we could not move anymore.

Since the landing was not that bad after all, I didn’t make much of it, again. I called Gina and told her that we had bumpy landing and made fun of everybody. Two weeks later, we received an apology letter from American Airlines and a $500 voucher. At that point we did realize I went through something serious.

We never know how we are going to react when the unexpected comes. I like to think that if I knew how to pilot a plane, I would have tried to take control.