Some you all may have heard about the difficult situation in Mexico these days. Monterrey has generally been immune to some of the kinds of corruption that is endemic in Mexico, but it is visiting them with a vengeance now. We just learned this morning that the Mayor of the pastoral little town where my brother-in-law lives with his family about fifteen miles out of Monterrey has been kidnapped and murdered. We have many friends in and around that area who have been touched by the war that is occurring there. You can read a little bit about it here.
Month: August 2010
Yesterday was a busy day full of new things for all of us. Of course, just to make things more interesting, the battery in the car died and we had to have AAA come to bring us a new battery for the mini-van. Then, as I drove to work, I noticed a TON of cars backed up at the entrance to Wake Tech. There were about four wrecks that had occurred. I quickly called Lorena to tell her to take the back route to the college. Fortunately, she was not at the entrance to the college already because, it would have taken her an extra half hour if she would have tried to get through the front entrance.
Still, the kids got into their first classes without too much hassle. They met some old friends from the YMCA swim team and made some new friends. I think they are going to do just fine. My job went well, too. I have a very difficult challenge for the first two-three weeks of the job, but that is expected with this type of work. My new title is Senior Research Engineer and I have an absolutely killer new computer with two screens (7.5 performance score). It turns out my work is only a couple of blocks from a little dive restaurant and carniceria that hand makes their own corn tortillas. My new boss, Igor from Russia, who is my old friend from my job at Centice took me to lunch there. That is the place that sells arrecherra, the excellent, but probably not so healthy, Mexican style cut of meat that is so good for grilling. I have good feelings about my new job.
Friday was my last day of work at Centice. It was one of my best work experiences ever. The people there are absolutely stellar people in every way. Their technology portfolio is formidable. I am looking forward to what I am confident will be life-long relationships with our tight-knit crew there. All the best to all of you. Your future is bright.
In the mean time, I have taken a new position at a company named Bioptigen. Bioptigen makes Optical Coherence Tomography retina imaging devices. I was pretty embarrassed to have to be corrected by my friend (and boss for three years at Centice) about the name of the new technology that will occupy my waking hours for the foreseeable future. Thank you Prasant. I will work on the images accumulated by these devices. It is bleeding edge technology in a very exciting application arena to which I believe I have something important to offer. And this all helps the doctors do their jobs better. We will see.
Kelly and Christian will be both starting their full-time college careers on Monday morning at Wake Tech Community College. Their first (and only) class together this fall is Differential Calculus. Kelly should be talking about that in her blog over at Betty Blonde. Kelly will also take Biology II, American Literature I, and Beginning Volleyball for a total of twelve hours. Christian’s classes include the Calculus, Biology I, Western Civilization I, and Beginning Golf. We are all very excited.
As for blogging, I am now ready to fire things back up while I am thinking about new directions for the blog in addition to our new job and educational directions. Kelly will be doing her blogging over at Betty Blonde now as she and Christian spin up their efforts for the new phase of that comic strip!