~pperalta

Last weekend, the family and I went out to Smolak Farms in North Andover. There were quite a number of people there enjoying the great weather and the selections of pumpkins, apples, and raspberries.

As you can see, Isaac had a great time!

So it appears that I was Blog Tagged by Mike Levin so I have to come up with 5 things about me that won’t completely bore the audience.

1. I am the first in my family to be born an American citizen. Everyone that came before me was born in the Dominican Republic.
2. Some cool stuff I did in high school: I wrote an award winning literary analysis for Richard Wright’s Native Son. By award winning I mean at the Volusia county school district level, not Nobel or Pulitzer level I also participated in the Florida High School Programming Competition as a high school junior at Deltona High. I was the only junior on the team; the rest of the guys were seniors and were light years ahead of me in ability. We came in third place in the state, not bad at all. We did not return to the state finals my senior year; we were beaten out by DeLand High by 1 point!
3. I’m a big fan of dancehall reggae and helped DJ many parties by the Caribbean Club at my alma matter Stetson University.
4. I have a fascination for urban rail mass transit, especially the New York subway system. My wife calls it a “near autistic” obsession. I also love maps and as a child would study any map that I could get my hands on. These two interests have given me an uncanny ability to describe, sometimes in excruciating detail, where every subway line goes, what color it is, etc. Looking at the subway maps for some of the other US cities that I’ve visited has given me an appreciation for how horribly complicated the NY system is and how intimidating it must be for those not familiar with it.
5. Some other careers I may have considered other than software development:
   • High School Teacher. I may actually consider doing this someday after this software gig is up and I can afford the drastic pay cut.
   • Lawyer or law enforcement. Watching way too many hours of Law & Order has made me a decent armchair lawyer. Working in a forensic computer lab would also be pretty cool.
   • Civil Engineer. Must be that fascination with maps.
   • When I was much younger I wanted to be a pilot or astronaut. Strangely enough my interest in flying and space shuttles peaked after the Challenger accident (when I was 9 years old.)

So now I’m supposed to tag five other people, but I doubt that my blog has that many readers other than the spam bots.

In this months issue of Men’s Health, they rank 100 cities for angriness. The criteria includes the following:

• percentage of men with high blood pressure
• rates of aggravated assaults
• numbers on workplace deaths from assaults and other violence
• traffic-congestion
• speeding citations

And the winner of the angry city sweepstakes? None other than Orlando, FL!

This ranking prompted an article in the Orlando Sentinel, as well as lots of commentary on the Sentinel blog. A quote from the Sentinel article:

“How can they say that of a city as beautiful as ours?” Salvagio asked. “Haven’t these people been to New York City?”

New York ranked 57 in this list, to the disbelief of many. I have not lived in NY for many years, but I do visit often. I don’t believe that New Yorkers are angry people (with the exception of most token booth clerks); I think that they are impatient. If you can adjust to the pace of life (or in some cases thrive on it) I think that you can do quite well there. Many people do, and they could not see themselves living anywhere else. Many don’t, and thus either can’t wait to get out or already have and have no intention of ever going back. That being said, New Yorkers can be quite helpful and courteous; in fact it ranked number one among world class cities in courtesy in this Reader’s Digest test.

Orlando seems to have a mix of both extremes. On the one hand, you have people that are impatient, especially while driving. They are easy to spot; those are the people that change lanes every few seconds to gain a few inches, run red lights, and tailgate. At the other extreme are those that drive on the left lane at the speed limit or below regardless of the traffic situation, and those that take 5 seconds to notice that the traffic light changed. So what we have is a mix of impatient, clueless, elderly (no offence to older people but their reflexes and eyesight aren’t what they used to be) and lost tourists all sharing the same road. There is no real public transportation to speak of so you must drive. All of this can lead to a bad driving experience. People are also not themselves behind the wheel of a car. It is much easier to flip the bird when you’re in your own car rather than doing it in someone’s face who you’re sharing a sidewalk or subway car with.

Something else that may have contributed to this ranking: crime. If you think that Orlando is safer than New York, think again!.

On NPR’s All Things Considered last Friday, I enjoyed the story about the “Adult-Proof” Ringtone. A British inventor created a device called the “Mosquito teen repellent,” a device which emits a very high pitch sound that can only be heard by people under the age of 20. This device was put into place by a shop owner who was having trouble with unruly teenagers hanging around the front of his store. It didn’t take long for some of these kids to figure out that the same frequency could be used as a ring tone for cell phones. This gave high school students the ability to text message each other during class, and everyone (but the teacher) was able to hear the ring. Despite one’s opinion on whether students should be texting each other during class, this is a great hack. Even Howard Stapleton, the creator of the original device, had to admit that this story “brings a smile to my face.”

This posting is a little late, but these are pictures from when I, along with my wife Maria and friend Omar, went to the World Baseball Classic in Orlando about 7 weeks ago. We saw (and cheered on) the Dominican Republic play against Italy. This was a game that featured quite a bit of offense, especially from the Dominican team. Although I (and just about everyone else in the stands) enjoyed the home run display by the likes of Albert Pujols and Adrian Beltre, I was somewhat apprehensive about this team depending so much on the long ball. As I was afraid would happen, it led to their demise vs. Cuba in the semi finals. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed watching these games, especially seeing the styles of play by the various countries. I was really impressed by the strict discipline of the Asian teams, especially at the plate. Latin American players in general (and Dominicans in particular) tend to be a little impatient at the plate and swing at pitches that should not be swung at.

Small tangent: I’m thrilled that my hometown Mets are first in their division thus far, but I’d like to see Jose Reyes get on base some more. As of today he has an on base percentage of .296 for the season and .303 lifetime. Those are not good numbers for a leadoff man, especially for someone with as much speed as him. I’d love to see more plate discipline from the likes of him.

Anyway, here are some pictures at the game:

Jose Reyes leads off

Big Papi takes a cut

The crowd representing…

The enthusiastic victory celebration

Me and Omar enjoying the victory