Author: Frank

Music…

Ojalá Que Llueva Café

Ojalá Que Llueva Café

Juan Luis Guerra 4.40
and Words

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
Que caiga un aguacero de yuca y té
Del cielo una jarina de queso blanco
Y al sur una montaña de berro y miel, todo el mundo
Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh, ojalá que llueva café

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
Peinar un alto cerro de trigo y mapuey
Bajar por la colina de arroz graneado
Y continuar el arado con tu querer
Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I closed the 1980’s, I spent it neck deep in engineering school.  To maximize my education dollar, I packed my semester as close to eighteen as I possibly could.  The University of Miami charged one flat rate for full-time student tuition, that ranged from twelve to eighteen credits.  I came to a conclusion when I arrived as a freshman.  They charged the same whether you take four classes or six, so I might as well take six.

Packing my semester this way had its own set of consequences.  Even as my local friends joked that Miami was ranked the number two party school, it was far from my experience.  I never attended a frat party, or any party actually on campus.  Only once did I step into a fraternity house, and that was to meet one of my classmates to work on a project.  Having endured bullying in middle and high school, I developed a figurative allergy for conformity, and even popularity.

Continue reading “Forget men, let it rain coffee” →

Music…

In The Dark

Don’t Say No

Billy Squier
and Words

Life isn’t easy from the singular side
Down in the hole some emotions are hard to hide
It’s your decision, it’s a chance that you take
It’s on your head, it’s a habit that’s hard to break

Do you need a friend?
Would you tell no lies?
Would you take me in?
Are you lonely in the dark?

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

In my early childhood, the closest we got to personal music was a boombox.  Generic gray boxes with cassette players, radios, and extending antennae filled the room with tinny sound from reels of magnetic tape.  Back then, the only headphones you could get were bulky over-the-ear units that resembled the Princess Leia hairdo circa A New Hope.  These ‘portable’ units had battery compartments that housed a half-dozen D-cell batteries.

Upon hitting the 1980’s, the Sony Walkman transformed how we consumed music.  Suddenly, we could each listen to music individually even among others.  It was a package small enough that we could reasonably carry with us.  However, my family was poor, and I could not afford the price tag of a Sony Walkman.  As such we often shopped at the Thunderbird Swap Shop, where we found off-brand and irregular items.  The point of compromise was a knock-off cassette player that I found at one of those vendors.  No warranty, of course, that vendor may not be there the following week.

Continue reading “Will you love me in the dark?” →

Music…

Bring Me To Life

Fallen

Evanescence
and Words

How can you see into my eyes like open doors?
Leading you down into my core where I’ve become so numb
Without a soul, my spirit’s sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home

(Wake me up) wake me up inside (I can’t wake up), wake me up inside
(Save me) call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up) bid my blood to run (I can’t wake up) before I come undone
(Save me) save me from the nothing I’ve become

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Shortly after the turn of the millennium (yes, I know how that sounds), a song got persistent airplay.  I mean this literally; it was played consistently on the radio.  The radio station pumped that music through the airwaves and into the radio, which I listened to most frequently in my car.  I spent many evenings driving the Western Washington freeways for just the feel of the road.  Naturally, the music added to that bliss.  Mostly, I played my own music.

Occasionally, I tuned the radio.  I darted back and forth among half a dozen preset stations in the car.  The radio DJ’s will normally announce the name of the song and artist either immediately before or shortly after the song plays.  Strangely, for this particular song the DJ’s persistently neglected to mention either one.  One station very maddeningly simply referred to it as ‘the song’.

Continue reading “Finding ‘The Song’” →

Music…

Unstoppable

This Is Acting

Sia
and Words

All smiles, I know what it takes to fool this town
I’ll do it ’til the sun goes down
And all through the nighttime
Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah, I’ll tell you what you wanna hear
Leave my sunglasses on while I shed a tear
It’s never the right time
Yeah, yeah

I put my armor on, show you how strong I am
I put my armor on, I’ll show you that I am

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Professionally, I’ve always worked as a computer geek.  It started in 1991 when I came to Microsoft.  As such, we had no official dress code; they didn’t impose any restrictions.  Most dressed comfortably.  For me, that mostly meant jeans or shorts and t-shirts.  Occasionally, I wore tank tops.  Other times, I wore long pants (like khakis).  However, the shirts that amused me most were the superhero shirts.  Afterall, who wouldn’t want to be a superhero?

Over the years, I’ve attended my share of meetings.  Naturally, we occasionally chatted about topics other than work.  During one such meeting, we observed as I wore a Superman shirt, and a teammate wore a Batman shirt.  As we packed up our belongings to leave that meeting, I made a suggestion in semi-serious jest.  I said, “We should coordinate a day when we all dress like superheroes”.

Continue reading “We are superheroes” →

Music…

Prometimos No Llorar

Colección de Oro

Palito Ortega
and Words

Habíamos prometido no llorar
Perdóname
Quizás esta sea la última vez que nos sentamos a tomar un café juntos
Quizás es la última vez que nos vemos así que tratemos de estar bien por favor
Me quiero llevar como recuerdo una sonrisa
Por favor no llores más

Te acordás aquella tarde que nos conocimos
Fue muy lindo conocerte
Y fue muy lindo todo lo que pasó entre nosotros, pero
Ya pasó

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I lived in the sunny island of Puerto Rico, I first heard of Palito Ortega.  I watched him in a movie in our tiny black and white television.  This aired in the early 1970’s, so there was no means to record it to watch at a later time.  This movie moved me, and I remember vividly to this day.  Besides being an actor in this film, he also sang the title track to the soundtrack.  That said, I’ll reserve writing about that song and that movie for another post.

However, that movie started a trend of our listening to Spanish music in our home.  Subsequently, my older sister became fascinated with different artists and would buy the music for each artist.  This music was often in the form of records.  We collected these large two-dimensional square-foot boxes, filled with music, emotion, and now memories.  We played them through mechanical boxes with needles onto a tinny speaker.  The records, often marred with scratches, rendered the music with similar imperfections.

Continue reading “The profound sadness of one coffee” →

Music…

Cuts Like A Knife

Cuts Like A Knife

Bryan Adams
and Words

Drivin’ home this evenin’
Coulda sworn we had it all worked out
You had this boy believin’
Way beyond the shadow of a doubt, yeah

Well, I heard it on the street
I heard you mighta found somebody new, yeah
Well, who is he, baby? Who is he?
And tell me what he means to you, oh, yeah

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I performed astonishingly poorly on my freshman year in high school.  While I definitely could’ve gotten better grades, I basically didn’t care.  I spent much of that year ditching school, though doing nothing of consequence.  It’s not as if I spent it doing drugs or the like; I honestly can’t tell you how I spent that wasted time.  Interestingly, I do have an educated guess as to what triggered that disastrous year, but I won’t bore you with that today.  It was really by pure chance that I only failed one semester of one class (World History); I could’ve done a lot worse damage.

However, once I started my sophomore year, my trajectory drastically shot upwards.  I discovered that I could easily remember details from the lessons; all I needed to do was attend class.  I only missed one day of school that second year; that day was after a bike accident.  Those grades were slightly elevated by my class selection (fewer honors classes), but not by much.

Continue reading “Lessons in the classroom and beyond” →

Music…

You Belong With Me

Fearless

Taylor Swift
and Words

You’re on the phone with your girlfriend, she’s upset
She’s going off about something that you said
‘Cause she doesn’t get your humor like I do

I’m in my room, it’s a typical Tuesday night
I’m listening to the kind of music she doesn’t like
And she’ll never know your story like I do

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On a weekend afternoon, we finish our shopping at the local Trader Joe’s.  The modestly sized market sits a few minutes from our home.  Some employees recognize us and greet us.  They often play 80’s music, which consistently brightens my mood.  While we don’t spend a whole lot of time in the store, I’ll spend the short time, anticipating the next track, and furiously trying to recognize the song as quickly as possible, much like my own personal game of Name That Tune.

Today, their music threw me a curve.  They played a song that I didn’t immediately recognize, though it certainly sounded familiar.  A woman’s voice sung clearly and optimistically.  I no longer cared that I had lost this little mental contest, I needed to know.  I had an educated guess, but the response from Shazam confirmed my suspicion.  This was Taylor Swift.

Continue reading “Swift Integrity” →

Music…

High Enough

Damn Yankees

Damn Yankees
and Words

I don’t want to hear about it anymore
It’s a shame I’ve got to live without you anymore
There’s a fire in my heart
A pounding in my brain, it’s driving me crazy

We don’t need to talk about it anymore
Yesterday’s just a memory
Can we close the door?
I just made one mistake
I didn’t know what to say when you called me baby

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I tumbled through my fifth year in engineering school at the University of Miami.  To be completely honest, I encountered obstacles with my senior project and took a little more time.  Though with that extra year, I took the initiative to pick up a second major of computer science, and a minor in psychology.  On that last year, however, I coasted compared to preceding years.  Specifically, I needed fewer credits per semester to graduate.

The University of Miami had one rate for full-time tuition (12-18 credits), thus the price for tuition was effectively the same for four classes versus six classes.  I regularly packed my semesters with 16-17 credits to maximize my tuition money, but this also meant that I would regularly take one or two more classes than my classmates.  Hence, I kept a very full schedule and worked three days most weekends.

However, choosing to pack my schedule in this way had its own set of consequences.  It was easier to ace a class when we had enough time to dedicate to it.  Getting four A’s and one B (versus just four A’s) meant that I could get 25% more classes, but it also meant that my GPA would be 3.8 instead of 4.0.  The more demanding the semester, the more my GPA suffered, but I refused to drop a class.

Continue reading “My last year as a student and my roommate” →

Music…

One Night in Bangkok

Chess

Murray Head
and Words

Bangkok, Oriental City
But the city don’t know what the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world
In a show with everything but Yul Brenner

Time flies, doesn’t seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boards in it
All changed, don’t you know that when you

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I wrap up high school, I find myself attending a state convention.  In this particular case, it’s a mass competition between many schools in Florida.  On this multi-day trip, we packed those days with many events.  I will compete in three events.  They hold this convention for Mu Alpha Theta annually.  However, this is the first time my high school has attended since I started.  Our teachers and sponsors slowly increased interest in these competitions from one to the next.

They certainly did.  It all started with one announcement over the intercom, “Anyone interested in participating in math contests, should attend this particular meeting for information.”  Truthfully, I made up my mind already, I simply needed information on the logistics.  I didn’t yet know how I would do, but it’s not just about winning.  Years later, I continue to participate.

Continue reading “The foreign and familiar art of competition” →

Music…

It’s Not Love

Under Lock and Key

Dokken
and Words

I told you I had to leave
I had my reasons
I said that it hurt to stay
The way that I’m feeling

(It’s not love) that left you standing
(It’s not love) that left you cold
(It’s not love) misunderstanding
Only a mistake, there’s nothing left to take

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On my sophomore year at the University of Miami, I moved to an apartment on campus.  My college career started the year before, as I settled into Pearson Hall, one of the dorms on the edge of campus.  Over the course of the past year, I formed friendships with a number of classmates and neighbors.  As we finished our freshman year, we got an opportunity to sign up for an on-campus apartment.  Initially, one of us signed up for the apartment and penciled the remainder of our names.  The rest of us learned through word of mouth and subsequently rushed to the housing office to verify our names.

During my years of study, life became a series of obstacles to navigate.  My attention shifted from working for money to logistics about school (like where I’d be living) to learning my field and passing my classes.  Having addressed the ‘where I’d be living next year’ problem, I could focus on the other issues.  Though honestly, as the summer approached, my main focus was to work in order to save and sustain myself through college.

Continue reading “Afternoon Delight” →