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You know, I have some friends from Russia, whom I met during the course of many-a-project development. They are mostly programmers. They speak English. I Also speak English! They Speak Russian. I want to speak Russian! In the lines of “you always bring to yourself what you need” from the universe and from life. I miraculously encountered a new acquaintance who goes my the name of Ellie. A very smart girl who speaks English, Spanish AND RUSSIAN! I was so excited to be able to talk to someone (You may think I live in my little world, but NO!) who actually LEARNED Russian. Gives me hope. I hope it gives me help! Ellie, will you help me? P.S. Ellie, this pic will do for now, but you must send me a picture!!!
Pasos y Pedales is… Every single Sunday here in Guatemala city, one of the main traffic arteries (Avenida Las Americas AND Avenida Reforma) Are closed to vehicular transit. Instead of that, it gets populated by lots of families and running/biking/skating enthusiasts, to enjoy a sunny day (almost always) of leisure walking with family and friends. This takes place among many cultural activities, kiddy rides, and what not. It’s a whole family-fun-day-out experience. And it would not be complete without your Friendly Neighborhood Fire Fighters from BOMBEROS MUNICIPALES watching after the citizens… when they trip, fall or faint! This here is a picture from my first day patrolling the streets of “Pasos Y Pedales”. We did get to help a couple of minor bike related injuries plus I got a nice tan from being under the sun ALL DAY! Enjoy! (My Fellow fire fighter LETO is in the pic as well) Another pic… in the gallery.
My curious eye, ever wandering on anything funny… spoted these funny cards the other day. Most notably, you can find the “WOMAN’s REMOTE CONTROL” to command us men. What nerve! I wonder what our (men’s) remote to control women would look like? This is also a nice design for an actual CRAZY product I thought of “The Woman Commander 3000″ where the lady would wear a hearing aparatus and everytime the male presses a button, she hears a series of tones that, through training, tell the woman what to do!!! (Please DO NOT take any of this seriously! It was just an idea for one of those “As Seen on TV” ads.) So I leave you with the postcards: “Woman’s Remote”, “Early Pinatas”, and “Very Ugly Teeth” enjoy! Postcards here.
On a recent trip to San Jose, California, me and my buddy Derick Brol decided to pay a visit to those cool guys at Google!
“Actually we didn’t find something on a Google search and, since we were so close, we decided to go and ask them”
DUH! This was Derick’s idea of a great joke which in my opinion, really is funny! We were greeted by Google’s personnel in charge of attending visitors, and they explained to us all the details about our visit, all the things we could see and do. And by the way… these guys are ever-attentive to their fans, to greet them as they come in and, like in our case, to intercept them on the way to the visitor’s lobby. We indeed had a lot of fun! (not as much as we would have liked, though!) Now, for a very interesting conclusion to this story… read on!
I came across the reality of an idea I had for my new apartment: Make the doors a billboard! Place some interesting design, let’s say, for your dorm room, for the gym room, for the kitchen, that is allegoric or significant to the room you are entering! (This door in the picture was the door to the accounting department) It can be funny and outrageous and also can provide a space for you to write on. I saw this on Miami while visiting a supplier… take a look at the doors and the graphic design placed on them! Nice idea! Nice idea… DONE! All pictures here.
Ok, so… we didn’t exactly plan to have the ad published THIS DAY (March 13th 2008) BUT nevertheless some very proactive people at the company managed to get the ad (FULL PAGE, FULL COLOR) in the Guatemala’s leading newspaper!. It was a blast! The add is very peculiar, irreverent and very different. The goal was to make some PR and also attract some very different TOP TALENT from the local market. I think we will achieve our goal. Take a look at the Ad. (btw: Those are THE REAL PEOPLE that work at our company!!) Enjoy!!! look at the ad in the gallery .
The text goes like this: Talking about eBclosion (My Company): “We are a teenage mutant ninja company, made in Guatemala, that has grown over 400% in the last year. We have been 9 years in business, we have presence in USA, Mexico, All Central America, Brazil, Colombia, Spain and we are expanding to all Latin America this year. All our customers are leading multinational companies and WE WORSHIP GOOGLE!”
Today was a great day! The off road ambulance project hit the first milestone, as the vehicle came back painted TOTALLY WHITE!!! Also many of the repairs that needed to be done are already taken care of. This is great, we have a nice clean white vehicle to start with the other phases of the project! There more pictures in the gallery .
The idea behind the ORAAV (Off Road Ambulance Assistance Vehicle) is to have a fully configurable vehicle that can serve and assist in many of the first responders duties. This post is about the ideas for the different modules and is just a pointer and a reminder of where the project is headed. Read on to find about the ALS Modules, Fire Support Modules and many more!
Project update (01/2008): As of January 2008 the car has been in the shop (for phase 1) for almost 4 months! The guys at the shop told me they are “almost ready” now I have to come up with the bucks to pay them!!! :~ see the updated pictures from the shop here .
Last year I embarked in a very neat project, to turn an old ‘94 Grand Jeep Cherokee into some sort of ff road ambulance or emergency assistance vehicle. As soon as the idea entered my mind it started racing off with all the possibilities! I ended up with a very clear goal of what I wanted, from the white painting to the lights/sirens to the raised chassis for increased off roading. This post is about the plan, the project and some ideas I have on creating an off road rescue vehicle capable of transporting at least one patient under care! THE GOAL is very simple…
La siguiente es mi primera investigación de farmacología, si, mi PRIMERA. No habiendo tomado ningún tipo de clase en esta materia, pues me lanzaron a investigar este tema del 3er semestre del Técnico en Urgencias Medicas. Les advierto que esta investigación esta algo incompleta, (Sin embargo hay muuuchos links!!!) por el mismo desconocimiento del tema, pero estoy seguro que en unos meses regresare a revisarla y me reire de cuanto me hacia falta aun aprender de este tema. Los dejo entonces con mi investigación de los “Esteroides”…
Ahora en Varios Idiomas! Maintenant avec Autres Langages, Agora em Moitos Idiomas!
Last year was nice blogging year. If you recall my ideas on my first post I was undecided whether I should write my blog in English or Spanish. I decided for the former. And I do feel more comfortable writing and expressing my ideas in English, however I recently started my Paramedic course here in Guatemala’s Galileo University, and with lots of stuff to write about there, I thought it would be nice to write about all my paramedic stuff in Spanish, in order to share what I am learning with my fellow fire fighters and students, some of whom do not speak English. At the same time I have started Portuguese lessons, and so I will be opening a section for Portuguese written articles. My French is still in its infancy, when it comes to writing so we have decided together with my French coach that we will be writing a post in each weekly class. So there you go: This is the official announcement that Super Hector’s blog will go MULTI LINGUAL: English, Spanish, French and Portuguese! (English will remain my main language for the blog, my medical stuff I will try to do mostly in Spanish, and then there will be some nuisances in French and Portuguese, mostly to complement my classes!) So until next time…
Today was a historic day, as Guatemala embarked further into the electronic age by issuing the first legal and government sanctioned Digital Certificates for the legal signing of electronic transactions! We were so excited at the company, as we were the actual issuing agents of the first smart cards containing the first certificates for the first digitally signed electronic transactions! That was a lot of firsts! Here is a video from a local newscast, in which I explain our role in this historic happening! Enjoy!
Microtrends: The Small Force Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes. Like the incredible force released by a tiny little atom in a chain reaction, so is the impact of so called “microtrends” in our society and culture today. Heralded by books like “The tipping point” and “Megatrends” this EYE-OPENING book describes statistically small changes that predict cataclysmic change in the way our societies steer towards the future… Here is a list of some of the incredibly revealing “Micro trends” that are impacting us right now, and that warrant a complete change or and adjustment in our paradigms, or else we will be working with the “wrong map of socio-cultural reality”, at least for the western world. You can better understand the effect of these small forces if you read “The tipping point”. Read more to find out the seeds of the trunks of our new WORDL REALITY…
Wohoooooo!!! Finally the day arrived when we saw and heard our station’s call to action on a fire incident: One loooong ring and the red light commanded us to get aboard the fire truck, strap our turnout gear and haul ass to a still developing fire. Man, it was a kickass experience! A great learning experience and of course a full-thriller as my SCBA failed, and I was endowed with hosing the fire out in the last of the fare. A true adventure, but in the end is all about the people! We even made it to the news! Watch the video and read the details here…
In my nascent life as a firefighter there have been quite a few happenings: I did my practice rounds (while still a student) as a final step for graduation, I have posted here my final scorecard! I also GRADUATED! Then there is my first day in service in which a small initiation took place, I have also been to my first REAL fire (an actual firefighting experience!) and also I have some pics from my recent “Fire turnout gear”. I also got couple of pics from a “Fire helmetcam” experiment I am doing. So this update is PACKED! keep reading!
Graduation Day Finally arrived! November 12th 2007 I was invested officially with my firefighter helmet! The crowning of a whole year’s work and toil, every weekend, preparing to “serve our community” and humankind. The graduation turned out to be excellent and I got my 15 seconds of fame as I got interviewed by the news, my face and “blah blah blah” where broadcast to the whole nation on “Telecentro 13″ one of the top news shows in the country. There is much to say about the graduation, so I leave you with the complete video from my graduation, the video from the newscast , the emotions packed background presentation we had running while we where being awarded our diplomas and the bunch of pictures from that glorious glorious day… everything is inside….
Here is a video from my recent jumps at a Florida skydive zone. This time I took a turn at jumps 2,3 and 4 for my AFF certification. The thing is… I had some troubles with the maneuvers in jump number 3, and like my logbook says “Lost control at 11,000 feet” I really lost it… I shouldn’t have turned my legs inward!!! I started free falling at an accelerated rate… until at 4500, like my logbook says “Instructor reached him and pulled” Which basically means that my instructors performed a maneuver A-la-James-Bond, reached me in mid air, and pulled my chute open! Hector… remember: ARCH… ARCH!!! Enjoy the video.
This here post is a homage to the best friend ever: Rodrigo Botran. He recently got included in the book series “100 Historias de Exito, Guatemaltecos y guatemaltecas que soñaron y trabajaron para alcanzar su sueño” (100 Success stories: Guatemalans that dared to have dreams and worked to achieve them) This makes me so proud that someone finally recognizes just one side of this multi-entreprenuer, visionary fellow. Here I post my notes about this loooooong overdue recognition…
Well, the ORAAV Proeject has officially started!!! Today, the old, rusty and beaten down jeep Grand Cherokee was picked up by the boss of the local shop I hired to start working on the project! They are going to take care of Phase 1: Fixing a lot of issues in the car and returning it to me in pristine condition and PAINTED WHITE!!! It is a great day. The pictures are from my meeting with Javier Herrera (brother to a fellow firefighter) who will be working on the car!
December 07 Update: I have some great pictures of how the project is coming about. check it our in the gallery!
As graduation day approaches (I’m studying to be a fireman, remember?), we were sent to tailor our would-be-uniforms at the official uniform outfitting place, here in Guatemala. It is so exciting to have the impending sense that, in a few short weeks, we will be graduating as fire fighters and wear these great uniforms. Read more, there is a couple of pics, as usual….
So I took a weekend break to visit our very near active volcano “Volcan Pacaya” here in Guatemala. I was partly enticed by the sight of running rivers of lava, the kind you see in National Geographic! And so it was that I took a horseback ride up to the top and got to see these extremely amazing molten-rock formations and searing hot, radiating lava rivers. They were actually moving! Take a look at the pictures and some videos! It really felt like the freaking gates of hell!!!
Well, there have been so many activities here at the local firefighter school in Guatemala that I thought it would be better to create just ONE POST with some of the latest news. In this post you can find links, info and pictures about a subterranean rescue drill, a visit to the local dumpster and some ladder training.
The refreshing idea that “Ideas are today’s real capital and wealth” got substantiated and proved in this entertaining audio-book. Inspiring and enlightening, Seth Godin talks about a special breed of ideas that, when created and released upon our minds, become so contagious and so spreadable that they mimic the pandemonium created by viruses. These ideas are at the epicenter of marketing successes of many of our everyday liked brands, products and services. Great book. And as always Seth is one of my favorite authors! Get The Book.
In this post I want to talk to you about 3 excellent services that will maximize your reading time, will enable you to absorb and be exposed to as many new books and ideas as possible and if you love learning like me, these are pretty much “can’t-do-without” services. I am talking about Audible.com, Summary.com and Safari Books Online. Read on to find out how you could even finish 20 books in a weeks time!
You know, I have some friends from Russia, whom I met during the course of many-a-project development. They are mostly programmers. They speak English. I Also speak English! They Speak Russian. I want to speak Russian! In the lines of “you always bring to yourself what you need” from the universe and from life. I miraculously encountered a new acquaintance who goes my the name of Ellie. A very smart girl who speaks English, Spanish AND RUSSIAN! I was so excited to be able to talk to someone (You may think I live in my little world, but NO!) who actually LEARNED Russian. Gives me hope. I hope it gives me help! Ellie, will you help me? P.S. Ellie, this pic will do for now, but you must send me a picture!!! 
Warning: This is an extremely chauvinistic post!
which in my opinion, really is funny! We were greeted by Google’s personnel in charge of attending visitors, and they explained to us all the details about our visit, all the things we could see and do. And by the way… these guys are ever-attentive to their fans, to greet them as they come in and, like in our case, to intercept them on the way to the visitor’s lobby. We indeed had a lot of fun! (not as much as we would have liked, though!) Now, for a very interesting conclusion to this story… read on!
I came across the reality of an idea I had for my new apartment: Make the doors a billboard! Place some interesting design, let’s say, for your dorm room, for the gym room, for the kitchen, that is allegoric or significant to the room you are entering! (This door in the picture was the door to the accounting department) It can be funny and outrageous and also can provide a space for you to write on. I saw this on Miami while visiting a supplier… take a look at the doors and the graphic design placed on them! Nice idea! Nice idea… DONE! All pictures 
The idea behind the 
La siguiente es mi primera investigación de farmacología, si, mi PRIMERA. No habiendo tomado ningún tipo de clase en esta materia, pues me lanzaron a investigar este tema del 3er semestre del Técnico en Urgencias Medicas. Les advierto que esta investigación esta algo incompleta, (Sin embargo hay muuuchos links!!!) por el mismo desconocimiento del tema, pero estoy seguro que en unos meses regresare a revisarla y me reire de cuanto me hacia falta aun aprender de este tema. Los dejo entonces con mi investigación de los “Esteroides”…
As graduation day approaches (I’m studying to be a fireman, remember?), we were sent to tailor our would-be-uniforms at the official uniform outfitting place, here in Guatemala. It is so exciting to have the impending sense that, in a few short weeks, we will be graduating as fire fighters and wear these great uniforms. Read more, there is a couple of pics, as usual….
So I took a weekend break to visit our very near active volcano 
Well, there have been so many activities here at the local firefighter school in Guatemala that I thought it would be better to create just ONE POST with some of the latest news. In this post you can find links, info and pictures about a subterranean rescue drill, a visit to the local dumpster and some ladder training.
