This Saturday was Abel Project's graduation. From 4 to 6 we would watch "Dead Poets Society", then from 6 to 7 discuss it (Carpe Diem!!!), then from 7 to 8 it would be the graduation ceremony, then from 8:30 on it would be the party at my house.

I didn't attend the Dead Poets Society part, since I had seen it several times, instead, a couple of the organizers were in the room next door discussing the elections in Mexico. We were debating about whether there should be a recount or not. The elections were the cleanest ever in Mexico, by a wide margin (I think they were much cleaner than the recent USA elections, which is not that surprising). Yet, the elections were extremely close, so AMLO wants a recount. At first I was on the recount camp, mostly because I think it will shut up the people that think there was fraud, but now I am changing to the no-recount camp because there is no hard evidence (yet) of a fraud, so the recount is not necessary and besides, AMLO won't accept the recount if he loses. His actions in the past two weeks show that he won't accept anything other than being named the president of Mexico. He lost fair and square, Mexico will have Felipe Calderón as president. AMLO should calm people up so that Mexico doesn't get any more alienated by AMLO's unfounded chants of fraud.

The ceremony was nice. I was at the presidium and I was very nervous of standing in front of all the student's parents as one of the main organizers of a project that had their sons (and daughters) under our wing for 3 months. Teofilo, the director of professional studies of Tec de Monterrey (the school that sponsors our project with classrooms and some logistics) gave a very nice speech. One of the students gave a speech too, it started bad (he was very nervous) but it ended with a very nice quote. David, who in my opinion is a great speaker gave some very nice remarks. I have a lot to learn from David on how to speak in public, he is truly great. Diana was the master of ceremonies and she ended the ceremony with a nice poem she wrote for the students. I thought that was very nice.

The day had been full of rain, hence we had to do the party inside my house. At the beginning there were three clusters of people, I was with the domino playing crew (I love domino), but then David wanted to get to hang out all of the project together. We played Truth or Dare among the 10 students that were left (4 didn't come and 2 left early). It was fun, although embarrassing.
We had some discussion about what Abel was about and stuff like that. The last student left at about 1:45am. Then David, Diana, Neto, Silvia (Neto's girlfriend), Omar, Hector, Bobbie and I were left. It was gossip time, which means making fun of Hector and me time. At about 3am, most left except David and Diana. They both stayed and extra hour of fun conversation full of anecdotes (this time my mom and sis, which had just come back from going out salsa dancing) were in the anecdotes. Fun stories about my dogs or fun stories about David and Diana's babies were the main topics of conversation. At 3:30 am, I got a call from Hector with extremely good news, which deserves another entry.
I went to sleep at a little past 4am.

Great day.

Perrito gave the first lecture today. He mistimed his talk and went over by 20 minutes, hence I had to cut my talk by 20 minutes, which was ok. While Perrito was talking, I was re-reading Pal Erdos biography (the book "The Man Who Only Knew Numbers"), and it was fun reading it again (I only read 60 out of the 300 pages in the two hours, but enough to enjoy it). I liked that I found some quotes that I have said in the past and didn't know where I got them from and the Erdos anecdotes are always fun to read.

I gave my talk on biographies and I was talking really fast because I was compressed by time and I get very excited when talking about mathematicians. I think my talk was funny, better than my recent talks. I lost a couple of people during my talk, but I had a couple very attentive and smiling throughout, which was really good. I had problems with remembering what things I had told them before (since many little things I give in talks, I have repeated. Like Gauss's sum story). I was content with my talk, although it could definitely be improved.

( Two Pictures of the Abel Project )

After the talk, David, Diana, Perrito and me went to Buzz Cafe. Neto said he would pick his girlfriend and join us, but he never arrived, showing how she had the pants on that relationship. The conversation was good. We checked a couple of things online, since the coffee place had wireless and both David and Perrito had their laptops on them. David was telling me how Warren Buffet will donate 40 billion (out of his 42 billion) to the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation. Great news for the world. Third place among richest people in the world is Carlos Slim, a mexican, the owner of Telmex. He hasn't done much charity with his money from what I've heard.
We were at the coffee shop for about 3 hours.

I had a great day. Watched both World Cup games: Germany-Sweden, which was boring (it would have been better if Larsson hadn't missed the penalty kick) and Mexico-Argentina. Between games, a couple of friends and me played SMASH. I love that videogame.

After that, I went to the Abel Project. I put a couple of episodes of Cosmos for the students and discussed the episodes. That Carl Sagan was certainly a great person for humanity, very productive, very insightful and did lots for science. I really admire him. The episodes we saw were "Harmony of the Worlds" and "Who Speaks in the Name of Earth?", really good episodes. The main idea of Harmony of the Worlds is to get out of them is to search for the truth and not get married to an idea. If the facts say you're wrong than accept it and move on. The other idea that episode has is to be skeptical of pseudo sciences, i.e. astrology. The second episode is about caring for our world, how we can destroy our world in a second. All the bombs thrown in WWII have the same power or less as a nuclear bomb (2 megatons). It also talked about the problems of fanaticism, a nice line is "Hipatia was stoned to death and stripped her skin out of her. Cirilo was canonized."- talking how Cirilo, the bishop of Alexandria encouraged mobs of christians to kill Hipatia, just because she was a woman of science.
The discussion with the students was also interesting, I love Abel Project because it always makes me reflect. This time it was about how we deal in discussions with other people. Why we get mad (or not get mad) while defending our beliefs. These types of discussions are really fun and enlightening.

At night, I went to the Sussie 4 concert. I hadn't heard from them, but Emmanuel and Lencho love them and I felt like going out so I followed. We were in line about an hour and then waited 90 minutes inside before Sussie 4 finally came out. The concert was great, I didn't stop dancing during the whole concert. I had a blast, and I liked their music. At the beginning I was really excited with the rhythms and stuff, but the last 40 minutes were just plain enjoyment.
After that, Lencho and I went to Chiri's Tacos. Lencho and I usually go to Orientales, but in the last two weekends we've gone to this one, because I love their Horchata. It is just so unbelievably refreshing, mmmmmm. I wasn't going to get tacos, then I decided for half an order, but after that half order I had to order the other half. Tasty.
Great Day.

The morning started with a call by Lencho "Let's go play racquetball" "No, I have to prepare for a lecture I'll give at 4pm".
Later I get woken up again by Lencho, this time at my door "Let's go play racquetball." "No, I have to prepare a lecture" "You're sleeping not preparing a lecture." "Yeah, but I'll wake up and work." "We need a fourth player, we'll play here in Juárez and only for an hour." "Ok, if that's the case I'll go".
Lencho lied, we went to UTEP to play and for two hours. It was very fun though.

The World Cup finally had some real surprises with Ghana beating Czech Republic 2-0 and USA almost beating Italy, the US played great. They have to beat Ghana soundly in order to pass, but they have a chance (although Ghana is looking very good, I don't know if the US can beat them).

The Abel Project was fun today. I prepared a talk, but when I arrived Neto had invited a grad student to give a talk on Game Theory. The talk was quite poor, he ran out of material 45 minutes in and it was supposed to be a 90 minute talk. I complemented his talk with some stuff to try to make it lengthier and I asked some questions, but after 20 minutes, I decided to just decide to ask the students how they wanted their Abel T-shirt and about how we will extend the project three more weeks. The second talk was given by Dr. Martine Ceberio (my AI professor) and she gave a very nice talk. She spoke very good Spanish (with a Spaniard style using vosotros) and the talk was quite interesting. The highlight was when she mentioned a recent paper where some guys figured out what the voice of the Mona Lisa was by analyzing the painting. They also tried to figure out Leonardo Da Vinci's voice, but they weren't precise because the painting they use to determine it had Da Vinci with a beard. The talk was cool. It was also fun to be in charge of the whole evening, having to get the guards to turn on the AC on the second floor, then getting a room with a projector, then getting the guards to open it and put the AC on. It was interesting all the little details that having a seminar entitles.

At night, Lencho and I walked to "Los Litros" (a lot of clubs and bars are near my house), and met Emmanuel and Karla. We went to a couple of bars and then to a Taco place. It was fun, I specially enjoyed the taco place and its Aguas Frescas, oh they taste excellent. I like that taco place because they serve the aguas frescas in mexican cups, not plastic or glass but some other material that makes it taste even better (I am very picky about how much worse stuff tastes on plastic than glass). The quesadillas were tasty (specially with the nice guacamole) and the horchata was delicious.

My internet connection failed from Saturday Night until this morning. I have to admit I missed the internet, not being able to check quickly whenever I had a random question was frustrating. Also, having to wait for the newspaper in the morning to see the day's news (like who won the Dallas-Miami game on Sunday).

Saturday the highlight was the Abel Project. We had a talk of how we have a choice to be happy or unhappy. In any discussion what other people tell us is just information whether they "insult" us is just a matter of how we interpret what they say. It is important to note that we should not feel bad for things out of or hands, we can control many things in our life, but we can't control other people. If someone is mad at us, we shouldn't feel bad. I don't feel good enough to explain the concept here, but the idea comes from the book "Choice Theory" written by William Glasser, a psychologist. In the project, we also discussed how we should enjoy living, and enjoy the people we meet and the people with love. The best memories in life usually have other people involved, as humans we interact with other people and we need it and enjoy it. I feel like I haven't expressed the idea as it deserved.
At night, I went to Mecenas Gallery to see an exhibition by a High School classmate. Nicia had invited me because in one of the paintings she was the muse. In the gallery I saw Enrique Vazquez, a childhood friend. I am a friend of his since I am four years old, because his parents are very good friends of my parents. I was glad to see him. I also enjoyed a Star Wars conversation with Xuxa (his name is Jesus), the guy that exhibited his paintings and drawings.

Sunday, the highlight was watching México beat Iran 3-1. México played well, but they have to improve their game for the tough opponents, the second goal was lucky because of a really bad mistake by the Iranians, and it came late. Another cool thing was watching Nadal beat Federer. Nadal reached 60 consecutive clay court victories, this is incredible. He's amazing. At night, we went to the movie theater to watch "Break Up". It wasn't bad, very predictable and a chick-flick, but I had a good time (probably because I was with my mom and sis).

Monday I saw a couple of fútbol matches: US lost 3-0 to Czech Republic, Czech Republic looks amazing, they have an astounding team, I would rank them top 3. In the afternoon, I went to see "Cry_Wolf" with my mom. The movie was surprisingly good, a nice thriller with nice twists, I also liked the main actress very much (I definitely have a thing for red-heads). At night, César came and we watched "Monty Python: Life of Brian" which was hilarious and "Man Bites Dog" which was also funny and interesting. "Man Bites Dog" is a really original movie, worth a watch, I recommend it, best movie I've seen in a couple of weeks (maybe even months).

Emmanuel told me on the phone "Have you bought the toga and stuff?".
I answered "No, nobody told me I needed it." "
"You need it"
"How do you know? You're not graduating?" I countered.
Last night at the Paulo party I asked Carlos and he said I do need it. But since, the graduation was today, there was nothing I could do about it, so I decided to arrive on my really good looking suit (I really look great on that suit).
The line at the bridge was really long, so I called my uncle and we crossed on foot. It was funny walking on the bridge on a suit and my mother and sister with dresses. My sister never uses short skirts (I have known of only one other night when she used one), but today she decided to wear one and here we are crossing the bridge where many guys can see her. A guy honked at her from far away, how did he notice she was wearing a skirt?
I arrived twenty minutes late and the tunnel was closed, so a police officer walked me in and then I told the people I didn't have a gown. They went to the bookstore, bought me one and lent it to me for the session. It was very nice of the organizers to get me one and not even charge me. A memorable experience to be the only one without a gown, I thought more people would have forgot or at least not known (like me). Well, I got the gown and was there.
For a time, I was preparing a talk I was giving that evening. I also talked to an attractive girl that was even more late than me. She said she slept early and went to the bridge at 8:30 am, but didn't make it (I went to the bridge at 9:30am, but walked). We talked for most of the ceremony, I was considering asking for her phone number, but I am very clumsy at that sort of thing. Weirdly, I actually know her number, since she repeated it incessantly to someone nearby, but it is worthless to have a number I won't call because I didn't get it in a normal way.
The ceremony was nice and it wasn't boring. Time passed really fast, then when we got out it was really cool seeing so many friends and family.
My dad, sis, mom, uncle, Lench, Annie and Fede (Annie = cousin, Fede = 4-year old son of Annie), went to Chili's and I ate like a pig. I ate a basket of cheese sticks, then a plate with a sirloin steak and a Monterrey Chicken (plus mashed potatoes and vegetables). I also had dessert, I really love the Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie.
We went to my father's apartment to have a glass of wine to celebrate. I was extremely tired because of all the food I ate and the fact that I only slept four hours (I went to sleep at 4:30 am after Paulo's party).

I went back home, and then drove to Tec de Monterrey to give a lecture on "Prime Numbers" at the Abel Project. I think I did a poor job at my lecture, I didn't tone it down enough for the audience. I lost most of the students at some point, I need to work on explaining ideas slower, how can I expect them to grasp harmonic series, Taylor series, geometric series and all that stuff in less than two hours. I won't do this lecture again in future Abel Projects.

Tonight, I will go out to a cafe to talk with Emmanuel, Lencho and other friends. Celebration time.