[//edwin||reyes\\]

I am fortunate enough to have three windows in my bedroom… and this is what I get to see every day… A Pear Tree in two windows, and a Plum tree in the other…

My privacy is priceless… My quiet time is priceless… and even still people manage to disrupt such pricelessness…

Recomienda a alguien que esté visitando tu zona:

1) un sitio para comer

Se me olvido el nombre del lugar. Este fin de semana pasare por ahi para darle la direccion… Es un lugar Ecuatoriano que sirve ceviche y una comida buenisima… Localizado en Brooklyn… Esta noche o mañana le averiguo el nombre…

2) un sitio para tomar una copa

¿una copa de que y con quien?

3) un rincon

El Rincon Musical

4) una tienda

Urban Outfitters, ahi consegui una chancletas jevisima para el verano por 4 peso…

5) una escultura o museo

El Museo de Historia en NYC.

Happy Birthday Nicole!!!

hoy logre hablar con ella.
ella me hacia falta ya.
ella se encuentra bien y a la misma vez,
ella me dice que yo le hacia mucha falta.
todo esta caminando bien con nosotros…
y me alegra poder compartir los momentos que comparto,
con ella.

I’d like to take the time to thank the girls from BonchesSociales.com for providing a list of 9 quesitons and putting me on the “Spot” for my first interview… I was flattered by the gesture and as always, I wish them the best of luck!

Yankees Alex Rodriguez: 3 HR’s and 10 RBI’s paved the way for a 12-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. A 3 run home run… good lord, the man was on fire… All that as I try to forget about their 4 game loosing streak a few days ago…

I’m starting to wonder if Blogging is “Good Business”. Personally I maintain this Blog just to keep in touch with reality, I may also use it to vent personal stuff that really shouldn’t matter to anyone but myself, and my most recent use was to make some money off of it with Google AdSense. Don’t get me wrong, I basically had about 20 bucks in about a month, which is more then enough to host this site for free if I want to. Not to mention that it was to my surprise that people were actually clicking on the advertisements. But then again, you get a check from Google when you reach the $100 mark. Maybe I’ll reconsider and put it back up.

The type of business I’m talking about is the marketing and public relations aspect of Blogging. Creating visitors from external sources such as the NY Times, The Daily Record, big name websites such as Yahoo! and so on and so on. I don’t have the slightest idea on what the rates are for internet marketing, so if you tell me that the cost of advertising on a web site is in the range of $2-4,000 for 3 Months is a “good price”, I’d have to look at you kind of funny because there’s no way I’m coughing over any money. I assume you would need to have the income/resources to support that type of advertising campaign and it’s certainly not something that you can simply jump into unless you have the funds readily available.

Then we have web-designers that have jumped into the Blogging world in hopes of cashing on this crazy phenomenon. Web designers that have obviously looked at the business aspect of Blogs and created a market for it. Nothing out of this world in my opinion. I will say one thing… “Build It, And They Will Come”…

When Amy Fisher finished writing her memoir about shooting her lover’s wife, she told her agent not to send the manuscript to New York publishers. Instead, Fisher, who made headlines in 1992 as the 17-year-old ”Long Island Lolita,” turned to iUniverse in Lincoln, Neb. The company charges authors several hundred dollars to convert a manuscript into a book and make it available for sale online.

Fisher’s ”If I Knew Then,” which came out in September, is probably the first sure-fire success to start out under the imprint of a so-called self-publishing company. (Other self-published books, notably ”The Celestine Prophecy” and ”The Christmas Box,” became best sellers, but their success was a surprise to the publishing industry.)

Self-publishing companies like iUniverse have been growing rapidly in recent years, displacing old-style vanity presses and competing with the number of titles produced by traditional houses. AuthorHouse in Bloomington, Ind., which leads the pack with more than 23,000 titles, sold approximately one million volumes between 1997, when it started business, and 2002; in 2003 alone, it sold another million volumes, mostly through online retailers, according to the company. Amazon would have some catching up to do to get to those levels; on the other hand, since it has nearly 47 million customer accounts, the potential growth for its print-on-demand business is obviously enormous.

The difference between traditional vanity presses and modern print-on-demand publishing is essentially technology. Instead of expensive offset printing, which mainstream publishers use, print-on-demand relies on a glorified digital printer. The top three self-publishers — AuthorHouse, iUniverse and Xlibris, based in Philadelphia — all use the technology, and introduced a total of 11,906 new titles last year, according to R. R. Bowker’s Books in Print database. By contrast, one of the few remaining old-style vanity presses, the 56-year-old Vantage Press in New York, produces between 300 and 600 titles a year.

Meanwhile, for as little as $459, iUniverse will turn a manuscript into a paperback with a custom cover design, provide an International Standard Book Number — publishing’s equivalent of an ID number to place the book in a central bibliographic database — and make it available at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and other online retailers. (Vantage charges anywhere from $8,000 to $50,000 for a limited quantity of copies, some owned by the author and the rest warehoused by Vantage.) [NY Times]

Automation Direct will be loosing it’s customers very soon. Autotech-Viktron Group (AVG), the manufacturer of Directsoft products has launched a subsidary company which allows them to sell directly to the customers. Automation Direct was the only distributor of Direct Soft Products over the last 7 years. Apparently AVG prices are much lower with the subsidary company so it may cause Automation Direct to lower it’s prices, loose thier customer base, or all together run them out of business…

Ya que tanta gente me comenta sobre Fire Fox, aqui va…

hahahaha… Como tengo dos hermanas, los mmg que se consiguen se ponen a llamar desde las 9 de la mañana aveses. My mom is getting fed up… hahahahaha… ahi agarro el telefono y le dijo de to a uno! que maldita risa!

How much rent do you pay in NYC?

Salary: $30-40K
Rent: $750-$1000
First Floor Studio in Harlem: $400
First Floor Studio in Bedford Park, Bronx: $400
Fifth Floor 1 BR APT in the East Village: $750
Second Floor 1 BR APT in Inwood: $950

Salary: $50-$60K
Rent: $1,250-$1,500
First Floor 1 BR APT in Park Slope, Brooklyn: $1,325
Third Floor Studio in the Upper West Side: $1,495
Fourth Floor 2 Room Studio in Alphabet City: $1,300

Salary: $70-$80K
Rent:$1750-$2,000
Fifth Floor 1 BR APT in the Upper East Side: $1,995
11th Floor 1BR APT in Brooklyn Hieghts: $1,900
Fourth Floor 2 BR APT in Washington Heights: $1,750

Salary: $90-$100K
Rent:$2250-$2,500
(I don’t know about you but, I’m getting jealous right about now)
Third Floor 1 BR APT in Soho: $2,200
Fourth Floor 1 BR APT in the West Village: $2,400

Salary: $100-$120K
Rent:$2500-$3,000
Third Floor Loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: $2,800
Sixth Floor 1 BR in the East Village: $2,650
Tenth Floor 1 BR w/Balcony in Battery Park City: $2,725

Open You Wings Pary… for more info visit: Las Chicas De Bonches Sociales.com

1) ¿Te levantas al primer toque del despertador? ¿O eres de los que apagan el snooze una y otra vez?

No way jose! Comienso a las 6:30, despues a las 6:40, 6:50, 7:00 y a las 7:10… AHI es que me levanto…. hahahahaha

2) ¿Desayunas antes de salir de casa, o prefieres dedicar esos preciosos minutos extra a dormir?

Oye eso… desayuno? que es eso y quien lo sabe cosinar?

3) ¿Te echas una siesta al mediodía?¿Te gustaría pero no puedes?¿O tienes una incapacidad fisiológica para ello?

Eso mismo… me gustaria pero no puedo… Bracuta! Que envidia

4) Si sales de marcha, y te vas a dormir muy tarde (pongamos a las siete de la mañana), puedes dormir ocho horas seguidas (o más)?

Yo estaria despierto a las 10 de la mañana o antes por la claridad que hay en mi cuarto… Cuando tenia cortinas oscura bloquiando la claridad yo podia dormir hasta las 5 de la tarde, pero esa baina no es productiva!

5) Por la noche ¿es un placer meterse en la cama, o alargas la velada hasta la madrugada, aunque tengas que ir a trabajar/estudiar al día siguiente?

Depende de como dormi la noche anterior. Ah! Y si me tomo un vaso de Lipton Ice Tea ahi me quedo despierto hasta las 5 de la mañana!

I forgot a bunch of personal stuff at work… Sorry… Things that are of great importance to me none-the less… I simply don’t understand how I managed to leave them. One of them was my daily planner and the other two were emails. I don’t know about you guys, but the minute my time is up at work, my time is up! I’m out the door before you even think of going home…

What a ruff day! Luckily the people I work with have not put me directly under pressure. I have been working on a Taper Tension problem with a Rewind Machine for the last 4 days. This is honestly the first time I attempt to solve the problem and it has been a huge struggle. I’d say that being able to program specific functions of the machine such as Touch Panel Recipes, Taper Tension and Drive Speed addressing are amongst the most tedious tasks… Especially when you are starting from scratch. It may be a piece of cake for someone who has programmed PLC’s for the past 20 years. But damn! I’ve been at it for about 4 years now and the type of problems I’ve encountered are ridiculous. Tomorrow I plan on sitting down for a few hours, finish up the program, load the program and finally… “tweek” the program…

Wow, it’s been a long wait, and an even longer one since we have set an official launch date for our site! Thats right!

MAY 14, 2005

That same day, May 14th, 2005 we will also have a site launch party for all Dominican Bloggers here in NYC. I will keep you posted on Time/Location/Activities…

We are also in need of Logo’s… If you have a design that you would like to submit, please email it to idea@blogsdominicano.com… There are no cash prizes but your logo will be displayed on every page of the site

Translation
¡Wow! ah sido un camino largo, y más largo sera porque hemos fijado la fecha oficial para el lanzamiento de nuestro sitio! ¡Lo Puedes Creer!

14 de MAYO de 2005

Ese mismo día, Sabado, 14 de MAYO de 2005, también vamos a tener una reunion de Bloggueros Dominicanos para el lanzamiento del sitio aquí en NYC. Lo mantendré informatdo sobre el Tiempo/Localidad/Actividades para ese dia…

Tambien estamos de necesidad de un insignia (Logo)… Si usted tiene un diseño que usted quisiera someter, mandenlo via email @ idea@blogsdominicano.com… No hay premios en efectivo pero su insignia será exhibida en cada página del sitio

Bueno, I just finished emailing Sandy Reyes from DileNoALaYola.org becuase I just finished reading this article on A Boat Carrying 17 Dominicans That Capsized Off Of PR. I had the opportunity to meet Sandy just last week at the Dominican Times April Release Party. He was a very nice guy and I honestly respect him for his efforts in believing that there is some type of help for these people that decide to hop onto that boat to cross the Atlantic.

My email started off with a few questions… what is the organization all about? Is it a non-profit organization teaching people what its all about? Where have you gotten your research from? Have you gone to your congress leaders and presented them with your findings? Do you have any political leaders supporting the idea? Why have you decided to create T-Shirts with “Dile No A La Yola” and are now selling them? Is the money supporting programs in the US, DR or PR that have a similar goal for preventing this from happening? Have you considered writing to the President of DR or US? What do you do for a living? What made you decide to educate these people? How are you doing this? What are your goals other then simply saving ONE life? I wish you would save Hundred of Thousands of Millions of lives… etc…

I simply want to know more about something that I know nothing of and hopefully the answers he provides will allow me to better understand him as well as the orgainization. Personally, I think that the idea is great and I can’t wait for the answers…

Someone may think that I’m badgering him with questions that have the great answers in front of my face, but until you know more about the person and thier background, you only know half the story…

Update: I have recieved Sandy’s reply… read more below.

(more…)