Japi's Blog

Barack Obama 30 minute ad

I know a lot of people criticized the 30 minute commercial that Barack Obama chose to run tonight in all the major television networks... but I just watched it and I was happy how it was presented.  Barack showed several families telling their own stories.  These are regular people who have the same challenges that many families around the US are experiencing.

Here's the 30 minute ad so you can decide for yourself:

Ron Howard Supports A Candidate

I used to love watching Opie (in the Andy Griffith Show) and Richie Cunnngham in Happy Days... and Ron Howard has become a great film maker since... He is supporting Obama so I really like this video from Funny or Die.... but even if you don't support Obama, you may enjoy watching this, it's fun!

Michelle Obama at the Convention

The first day of the Democratic National Convention had a little of everything...

• DNC Chairman Howard Dean opening the convention to a very small crowd (I guess attendees were still flying in)
• Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaking
• Caroline Kennedy introducing her uncle, Ted Kennedy
• Ted Kennedy's inspirational speech
• a touching video voiced-over by Michelle Obama's Mother
• Michelle Obama introduced by her brother
• and a great speech by Michelle Obama

She was eloquent and had a real strong presence on the stage.  At the end of her speech, her daughters came out - then a beautiful exchange between them and Barack (via Satellite from Kanasa City).... just wonderful!

I can't wait to see the rest of the convention!

My New Job - Houston Market Manager at Group O Marketing Solutions

I've had several friends and family ask about my new job.... and a dear friend suggested I post it here so I don't have to keep repeating myself <grin>.

So I left Schipul after four amazing years of learning, growing and producing. I enjoyed the work more than any other job I've had - the people there are brilliant, the work is challenging and fun and I am certain their future is extremely bright!! I will bleed Schipul burnt orange or Tendenci maroon for many years.

It took me a few months to get the right offer from the right company - Group O Marketing Solutions.

Group O was founded in 1974 by Robert Ontiveros, originally named Bi-State Packaging which was started to sell packaging materials and equipment to manufacturers. The company has grown to over $350 million per year and was recognized this year as the 20th largest Hispanic-owned company in the U.S. by Hisoanic Business magazine.

Group O is based in Milan (pronounced mīˌlän), Illinois and has three divisions:

1. Marketing Solutions
2. Packaging Solutions and
3. Supply Chain Solutions

I was hired by Group O Marketing Solutions as a Market Manager for Houston. I have been tasked with putting together and managing a team of salespeople to market and sell a product for a major telecommunications company... one that has three letter in its name and two are repeated <grin>.  We can use its name when we talk, but not in print.

I have an amazing support team that is helping me put together the team... everyone I've met and worked with are very intelligent, hard-working and fun, so I feel great about this job!

Our goal is to build and grow the business in Houston and San Antonio the next 4 months so that we will be offered additional markets in Texas and eventually around the U.S.

I am extremely excited about the opportunity in front of me and the trust that Group O has placed in me. I will continue to inform of my progress as we meet and beat the numbers... the goal is to have a productive team of 50 here in Houston and 30 in San Antonio in the next few months.

Sorry if I can't say more than that, but if I gave away too much info, I'd have to take all of you out and I wouldn't want to lose my small fan-base <grin>.

San Antonio Zoo ROCKS!!

I recently visited San Antonio and had a couple of hours to spend at their zoo.... I love visiting zoos!

Since my previous employer, Schipul - The Web Marketing Company, created the Houston Zoo Web site and I've had the opportunity to visit it several times, I always compare it to the other ones I've visited.

So far, I've visited zoos in Chicago, National Zoo in Washington D.C., New Orleans, Caracas (Venezuela), San Antonio and Houston.

Well, out of the zoos I've visited I really like the Houston, D.C. ... but my favorite zoo is now in San Antonio.  I have yet to visit the San Diego Zoo, which I hear is mecca!  But the San Antonio Zoo could teach the Houston Zoo quite a lot.

In most cases, I was just a few feet away from the animals.  The animals were all very active (not sure what they do, but it's true).  The habitats were unbelievably beautiful and fitting for each type of animal.  I really enjoyed visiting it even though I was unable to see it all.

I've been visiting the Houston Zoo for over 20 years and have seen amazing improvements... but after seeing their counterpart just 3 hours to the west, I was amazed by the difference.  I actually shouldn't have been surprised because San Antonio has always had a strong focus on tourism - starting with the creation of the river walk in the 1940's - THAT'S VISION!  Who was thinking about tourism in Texas in the 1940's???

If you are ever in the Alamo city, you should definitely visit the San Antonio Zoo, I highly recommend it.  Now if I could just get them to become a Schipul client.... hmmm :)

If you want to see some of the photos I took at the San Antonio Zoo, go to my Flickr page: www.flickr.com/photos/japi14

Obama's First Presidential Campaign Commercial

Barack Obama released his first commercial for the Presidential Campaign.  It re-introduces Senator Obama to the public. 

I hope it opens people's eyes and hearts to the message of his campaign.... the minute-long spot shows the democratic nominee in an honest and calm demeanor.

Senator Obama's campaign also announced today that they would not use public funds for the Presidential run.  He is the first Presidential campaign to forgo these funds since the early '70s when this funding was established.

Obama's campaign has over 1.5 million individual donors and most of the donations are of less than $100.  By using only donated funds, Obama's campaign does not have spending limits. 

Maybe I'm naive or there's something I don't understand, but by not taking public money.. isn't this good?  Senator McCain is slamming Obama for this move... but the Republican 527 groups will be spending quite a lot of money to run negative ads - this move allows Obama to be able to match the money spent by these groups to be able to counter those ads.

It's going to be a very interesting campaign.

Body of War - A Powerful Documentary

Ellen Spiro (a friend of my brother Joaquin) and Phil Donahue have produced and directed a powerful documentary called Body of War. 

It is the story of a young man, Tomas Young, who joins the military to fight the evil doers and is wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.

Here's a synopsis from the film's Web site:

"Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. Body of War is a naked and honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart and soul of this extraordinary and heroic young man."

Watch the preview below:

And Now For Something Completely Different - a laughing baby

To temporarily interrupt my political blogposts... I decided to go with Laughing Baby!!

It's awesome because I have the exact same reaction to ripping paper... LOL!

Dr. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

My niece, Adriana Perez, sent me this and it's amazingly inspirational.

Dying professor, Dr. Randy Pausch knows he is dying. This video will leave you thinking when it's over. Take 10 minutes of your time to watch it. It would do us all some good.

Biggio - leadership, selflessness, sacrifice

Craig Alan Biggio, my favorite Houston Astro (Major League Baseball Team) and one of the most amazing ball-players I have seen play the game of baseball.

Craig was born on December 14, 1965 in Smithtown, New York... less than 5 hours from Cooperstown, New York where he will eventually be immortalized at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

I've been attending baseball games since I was very young.  My father used to take me to games in Venezuela to watch our favorite passtime (Yes, baseball is Venezuela's most popular sport!).

I used to watch my team, Los Leones de Caracas (Caracas Lions), battle against Navegantes del Magallenes, Cardenales de Lara, Tigres de Aragua, Aguilas del Zulia and Tiburones de La Guaira.  Venezuela's league has added some teams since that time... but that's the old-school group of teams!

My Leones had a mix of Venezuelan players (some Venezuelan major-leaguers) and American Major League players - usually young (up and coming) players trying to hone their skills in Venezuela's Winter Ball League.  Some names from the past who have played in Venezuela include: Rod Carew, Dave Parker, Pete Rose, Cecil Fielder, Andre Dawson, Ken Forsch and many more. 

Every Venezuelan player who has been a major leaguer started their career in the Venezuelan League.... including Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio, current White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen, shortstop David Concepcion (member of Cincy's Big Red Machine), magical shortstop Omar Vizquel.

So... with that, I wanted to set the table that I have seen and enjoyed a lot of baseball.  I've watched great players and others that I'd like to forget.  I've enjoyed fantastic playoff runs and heart-breaking seasons.  Through many of these years, there was a constant and his name is Craig Biggio.

My favorite baseball player of all time is Craig Biggio. 

He played his career with the same team, played the game the right way (run out every ball, play hard every minute) and generously gave his time and money to his favorite charity, The Sunshine Kids.

Biggio ended his career with 668 doubles (5th on the Major Leagues all-time) so it was PERFECT that his final hit was a double to complete an amazing career spanning three decades (from 1988 to 2007).  Here are his hitting and fielding statistics (from www.Astros.com) :

Hitting Stats:
SEASON	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	BB	SO	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	AVG
1988	50	123	14	26	6	1	3	5	43	7	29	6	1	0.254	0.35	0.211
1989	134	443	64	114	21	2	13	60	178	49	64	21	3	0.336	0.402	0.257
1990	150	555	53	153	24	2	4	42	193	53	79	25	11	0.342	0.348	0.276
1991	149	546	79	161	23	4	4	46	204	53	71	19	6	0.358	0.374	0.295
1992	162	613	96	170	32	3	6	39	226	94	95	38	15	0.378	0.369	0.277
1993	155	610	98	175	41	5	21	64	289	77	93	15	17	0.373	0.474	0.287
1994	114	437	88	139	44	5	6	56	211	62	58	39	4	0.411	0.483	0.318
1995	141	553	123	167	30	2	22	77	267	80	85	33	8	0.406	0.483	0.302
1996	162	605	113	174	24	4	15	75	251	75	72	25	7	0.386	0.415	0.288
1997	162	619	146	191	37	8	22	81	310	84	107	47	10	0.415	0.501	0.309
1998	160	646	123	210	51	2	20	88	325	64	113	50	8	0.403	0.503	0.325
1999	160	639	123	188	56	0	16	73	292	88	107	28	14	0.386	0.457	0.294
2000	101	377	67	101	13	5	8	35	148	61	73	12	2	0.388	0.393	0.268
2001	155	617	118	180	35	3	20	70	281	66	100	7	4	0.382	0.455	0.292
2002	145	577	96	146	36	3	15	58	233	50	111	16	2	0.33	0.404	0.253
2003	153	628	102	166	44	2	15	62	259	57	116	8	4	0.35	0.412	0.264
2004	156	633	100	178	47	0	24	63	297	40	94	7	2	0.337	0.469	0.281
2005	155	590	94	156	40	1	26	69	276	37	90	11	1	0.325	0.468	0.264
2006	145	548	79	135	33	0	21	62	231	40	84	3	2	0.306	0.422	0.246
2007	141	517	68	130	31	3	10	50	197	23	112	4	3	0.285	0.381	0.251
Career Totals	2850	10876	1844	3060	668	55	291	1175	4711	1160	1753	414	124	0.363	0.433	0.281

Fielding Stats:
SEASON	POS	G	GS	INN	TC	PO	A	E	DP	PB	SB	CS	RF	FPCT
1988	C	50	---	---	323	292	28	3	0	3	---	---	---	0.991
1989	C	125	---	---	792	728	56	8	6	9	---	---	---	0.99
1989	OF	5	---	---	15	14	0	1	0	---	---	---	---	0.933
1990	C	113	---	---	609	546	54	9	4	7	---	---	---	0.985
1990	OF	50	---	---	121	111	6	4	0	---	---	---	---	0.967
1991	C	139	---	---	963	889	64	10	10	13	---	---	---	0.99
1991	2B	3	---	---	14	5	8	1	1	---	---	---	---	0.929
1991	OF	2	---	---	1	0	1	0	0	---	---	---	---	1
1992	2B	161	---	---	769	344	413	12	81	---	---	---	---	0.984
1993	2B	155	---	---	767	306	447	14	90	---	---	---	---	0.982
1994	2B	113	---	---	570	225	338	7	63	---	---	---	---	0.988
1995	2B	141	---	---	728	299	419	10	78	---	---	---	---	0.986
1996	2B	162	---	---	811	361	440	10	76	---	---	---	---	0.988
1997	2B	160	---	---	863	341	504	18	108	---	---	---	---	0.979
1998	2B	159	---	---	764	318	431	15	92	---	---	---	---	0.98
1999	2B	155	153	1351.1	812	370	430	12	117	---	---	---	5.33	0.985
1999	OF	6	3	25.1	7	6	1	0	0	---	---	---	2.49	1
2000	2B	100	99	852.2	471	183	282	6	57	---	---	---	4.91	0.987
2001	2B	154	152	1344.2	680	280	389	11	86	---	---	---	4.48	0.984
2002	2B	142	140	1236.2	673	313	352	8	88	---	---	---	4.84	0.988
2002	OF	1	1	9	1	1	0	0	0	---	---	---	1	1
2003	OF	150	150	1313	336	326	9	1	1	---	---	---	2.3	0.997
2004	OF	149	149	1225	263	250	4	9	0	---	---	---	1.87	0.966
2005	2B	141	141	1172.1	662	250	396	16	82	---	---	---	4.96	0.976
2006	2B	129	127	1062	559	219	334	6	80	---	---	---	4.69	0.989
2007	C	1	1	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	4.5	1
2007	2B	114	111	936.2	468	191	267	10	54	---	---	---	4.4	0.979
Career Totals		2780	---	---	13043	7169	5673	201	1174	---	---	---	---	0.985

photo courtesy of Jeff Balke