DFCN - June 05

06-27-05

Session A is over. Tomorrow I start my last two classes in college: Computer Graphic Design and Advertising. Should be interesting and it seems to complement pretty well with my plans right now. This past weekend, all I did was work, almost died after eating 4 Excedrins within 2 hours (never try that).

Down at the National Mall is the Folklife Festival, come and check it out. The two Pablos are there to give you a hand and perhaps free food.

Because I've been considerably bored around here (Fairfax, VA) I've been going to the movies quite a bit as you can see.

Movie	DFCN's Rating (0-10)	DFCN's Comments
Madagascar	7.5	I compare these cartoons to 'Finding Nemo', so that being said, Madagascar was indeed funny, just not comparable to Nemo.
Cinderella Man	8.5	Good 'true story' feel-good movie. The 2 pablos cried and applauded during the movie. Seemed more like a bullfight than a movie.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith	6 (9 for Angelina)	Fully action-packed movie, perhaps TOO action packed. Nine points for Angelina though! Good explosions, so-so story.
Robots	7	Again, another poor intent comparing to Nemo. Robin Williams is good nonetheless. Light and funny as are most of these movies.
Bewitched	0.01	It's a NO-GO!
The Longest Yard	7	Never saw the first one. This one however is simply hilarious.
Crash	8.5	Ah, good movie. Depicts the racism situation that invades this country (US). Good eye-opener for anyone.
Layercake	7.5	The movie looks pretty good, I just didn't understand most of it. If english is not ur mother tongue, truts me, this will come to you as quite a challenge. It looked good though. From the same producer of 'Snatch' and 'Lock Stock and Two Smokin' Barrels'.
Batman Begins	0.02	Slightly superior to 'Betwitched' but not quite there yet. Apparently there's no good recipe on how to make a decent Batman movie.

Here are just some random pictures I've taken lately. Not that I've taken a lot lately, but hey, it's better than absolutely nothing!

Some guy riding to work

Pablo runs over our boss Chris

Standing alone

Stairs to...heaven? Nah, our warehouse in SE.

06-22-05

CTC Takes a step. After much work, and long nights, the business plan for Come To China is finally over along with the presentation and a short video I presented with my partner (Anthony James) in my Business Management class. Here's the short promo-video:

A short promotion video (.wmv format)

Come To China is actually starting to work pretty well. With 6 clients since our inauguration about 2 months ago and more to come in the upcoming months, we're not doing a bad average considering the little amount of marketing. Remember to email me if you have any comments on the service or website.

Session A is almost over. With only 2 finals left (one on Thursday morning and the other Friday night) I shall start Session B next Monday. Two classes: Graphic Arts and Advertising. Both are very applicable to the business we're getting into.

Alright, that's it for tonight. Have a good weekend.

06-18-05

Is time passing by? Yes, just not fast enough. I have kept myself busy amidst work and school. What is my job here in DC? I work with a non-profit organization called Guest Services Inc. I started working with them when I first moved to the DC metro area, about five and a half years ago. They are contractors with the National Park Service and are in charge of several Marinas in town, tourist food and retail kiosks, kayak and bike rentals, ice rinks during the winter, and then there's my division: Special Events. Our unit is based off of a huge warehouse in South East DC, to be more precise, the place where you can find all the gay bars in town. Summertime is our peak season since there's the most tourism, hence outdoors events. Our two main events are the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (starting this year on June 23rd), and the Le gg Mason Tennis Classic (where I've had the chance to watch Roddick win his first major tournament, and the privilege to pee next to Andre Agassi). These two events are the big money makers. In the middle we hold small one or two day events which usually result in terrible losses. However, because of the contract with the National Park Service, we have no other choice than to run these events.

By the Washington Monument

After I worked my first summer with GSi, I thought I should share the wealth and fun of this job with my closest friends in Colombia. They got a working visa through an agency and were here shortly after. Since then it's been a hit, the word has spread in Colombia and ever since, we get about 5 or more students coming to work and go back home with several thousand dollars to be invested in their future.

The job is fun and the bosses are great. You couldn't ask for a more relaxed work environment. So this is what I do in my spare time, work in events. We set them up, break them down. In de middle, there's a little bit of everything. You will learn anywhere from cash managing, logistics, wrapping hot dogs, driving trucks, forklifts and Zambonis, to the most important, what it is like to serve the public. Being out there, dealing with people's attitude and complaints while still preserving a big fake grin on your face is perhaps one of the toughest parts of the job. Well there you go, a great way to see Washington DC while working in it, GSi is for the most part always looking for young students willing to work hard and have fun all year round. It's already worked for at least 15 of my friends.

CLICK HERE TO SEE A FEW PICTURES

(I'm testing new ways to make slideshows)

06-01-05

Summer School. I haven't written any updates or taken pictures in a while now. You might be wondering why (or maybe you don't really care), but the reason is simply lack of interesting material. What is interesting however, is to notice how when I come back to the life I had for almost 4 years before I left to China, where everything is familiar, I run out of interesting things to say. This doesn't mean that life here is boring, it's just that there aren't that many things that make me open my eyes on a daily basis as it happens in China. After a year and a half living in Beijing, everyday when I walked out to the streets of this unknown civilization, I never ceased to be surprised at all the differences that separate the world I grew up in and the one I keep on growing in now.

So what's summer school like? Weird. No wonder classes are scheduled in between September and May, because for the most part it's COLD! Nobody wants to study when it's nice and hot outside. Today in my nonverbal communication class, we were precisely learning about how weather affects people in physiological ways. How the lack of sunlight can really depress someone. Seems like we need light just as much as plants do. On the other hand, people in warm or hot areas tend to be more relaxed. No wonder North Americans usually retire in Florida and the people from the coastal regions in Colombia (especially the Caribbean), have a reputation of being slow and lazy as opposed to people from Bogota which are more speed and time oriented. Could it be because they stand 2,600 meters over sea-level?

Good things about summer school: umm...well....oh yea, I've heard professors are much more relaxed and liberal, not only during the class time but also when it comes to grading. Fewer people in the classrooms makes the education more individualized, and we all know that's better in terms of absorbing the most information.

Bad things about summer school: like I just said, weather is nice outside and you're in a classroom taking notes. No real time to work full time and save up some money. Most food spots around campus are closed, so we're limited to Burger King, a fake Chinese fast food place and Subway imitations.

I'm living in a shared one bedroom apartment on campus. The place is actually not bad at all and my roommate, Kenneth, is a cool, clean and organized guy. Unfortunately last night he came back home with the good news: "daniel, I have mono, so you might want to stay away from me". Great, I usually hear about someone who has a cold and automatically become sick. Then, after telling me he's ill, he also warns me that when he has a cold he usually snores a little bit. I think that's cool, no biggie. He gets into bed, and I kid you not, 45 seconds later, it's like he mutated into a lion. Wrapped in my bed sheets like chicken in a soft taco, I retract into a fetal position to avoid the sub-zero temperatures at which our room is kept, and try to cover my ears in order to fall asleep. My attempts were all futile.

Well, due to some technical problems with my camera, which will be solved shortly, I haven't taken any pictures. But they will come soon enough. In the meantime, I have played a little with the website, and now, not only I can make picture galleries, I have opened a new DFCN Forum! There you can register, and post your comments, whether it is about the website itself or just anything in your mind related to the content in it, or whatever. Give it a shot, so far it's just me! :(

Here's the link (which is also on the Main Menu on the home page): http://danielmontejo.com/phpbb