Panorama Point

Martha contemplating the view slightly above Panorama Point on Mt. Rainier. Approximately at 6,900 ft above sea level.

Surfs Up!

I took this series of pictures while I was in my honeymoon in Hawaii. I needed to adjust the lighting on the pictures so they would all match, but I'm tired and need to go to bed. Maybe some other day.

Jumping a wave.

Banking for the Poor

Today, Ili and I had the privileged of going to see last year's Nobel Prize winner Dr. Yunus. Dr. Yunus was invited to Microsoft to talk about his work on microcredit and how he was inspired to create the Grameen Bank which gives loans to the poor without expecting any financial gain. It truly is a great idea that has now helped thousands of people across the world to come out of poverty and improve their life style.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus

Dr. Yunus was invited to fit in with Microsoft's annual Giving campaign. Employees are encouraged to donate throughout the month of October to nonprofit organizations in the US and across the world. Microsoft will then match the employee donations dollar for dollar. Besides donating money, we are also encouraged to donate time and help with local organizations. Last year's Giving campaign raised over $72 million.

It's good to work for such a large company that is also socially minded and recognizes it's ability to help across the world. Social responsibility is something that is usually ignored by companies and I certainly think it's something more companies need to do.

The Grameen Bank, which Dr. Yunus founded in the 70's is a purely social-business; it doesn't seek to make a profit, only what it needs to exist. It's not a charity it doesn't give anything away, therefore it doesn't create a dependency, yet it helps people raise themselves out of poverty and lead a better life.

Answering employee questions after his talk.

To find out more about microcredit, Dr. Yunus, the Grameen Bank and the Grameen Foundation, follow the links scared around this post.

It was Bill Gates' mom that suggested he start the Microsoft Giving Campaign in 1979.

A Proposal

Today was a very special day. On the pretext of simply a nice walk in a garden, I took my girlfriend Martha to the Japanese garden in Seattle. After walking around and taking some pictures, I proposed to her while we were enjoying the view in a small hut. After a few moments of total surprise, I was relieved and so happy when she said yes!

Neither of us are much for the big and fancy, so I thought the quiet and peaceful Japanese garden would be perfect for the occasion. While the spring flowers have long gone, the autumn colors were fantastic.

Space and Rocket Center

I spent the long Labor Day weekend in Huntsville, Alabama with my girlfriend Martha. About the only interesting thing to do in this town is visit NASA's Space and Rocket Center. It has a fairly good museum about NASA and in particular the Apollo missions. In the first picture, I'm standing bellow the thrusters of a Saturn I rocket replica.

Dwarfed by the Saturn I rocket

In this picture, Martha touches the tip of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. See this location in Live Maps.

Touching a point of history

Kite Fest

This weekend was the Seattle Kite Fest. It was held at Magnusson Park just north of Seattle with a nice view of Lake Washington. Frankly, I was very disappointed. I was expecting to see dozens of cool kites crowding the sky, but there were hardly any. Most were plain hand made rectangular kites. It seems that the event is mostly for kids, but I would have expected at least some cool kites. This dragon was just about the only neat one in the sky. See this location in Live Maps.

Dragons do exist

Friday Night Racing

Friday night racing at the Velodrome in Marymoor Park. See this location in Live Maps.

ISO 400 | 75 mm | f/4.2 | 1/400 sec

ISO 400 | 165 mm | f/5.3 | 1/250 sec

ISO 400 | 66 mm | f/4.2 | 1/200 sec

Busy Sidewalk

A busy Saturn afternoon in downtown Seattle.

ISO 500 | 200 mm | f/5.6 | 1/200 sec

Tamales

Tonight we went to Coyoacan to buy tamales for dinner. In this bad picture, you can see the lady taking out the tamales from the pots they are heated in. See this location in Live Maps.

Country Music

Hey yall! Here is some good ol' country music right next to the first Starbucks ever. Them sure know how to pick a good tune. See this location on Live Maps.

Drummer Boy

I went to downtown Bellevue to see the new movie Deja vu. As I crossed the sky bridge from the parking lot to the movie theater I heard drumming, trumpets and Christmas music. Since I only had my camera phone with me, I could only take a picture of this drummer that was closest to the bridge. It was actually rather cool, because the entire block was lined up with drummers and a couple of trumpets on both sides of the street. They also had fake snow coming from the buildings.

See this location in Live Maps.

Tow-Away Zone

Today I went to Pike's Market in downtown Seattle. I saw a lot of interesting stuff including a group of people gathered around a Tow-Away sign. I fail to see why they were all gathered around this post with the sign. Can't they read? It clearly says "No Stops".

See this location on Live Maps. See more pictures in my Picasa Album.

Window Cleaning

Stepping out to get some lunch at the cafeteria, there were some guys cleaning the windows. Rappelling of a building and swinging around looks like fun.En mi camino a la cafeteria, vi que estaban limpiando las ventanas del edifio. Columpiandose del edificio parece divertido.

Fall in the Rain

As I was driving back to my apartment from the post office I quickly stopped by the Microsoft campus to take a couple of pictures. This first picture is looking down 36th Ave. into the campus. See this location on Live Maps.


This second picture is of employees playing flag football in the rain at the fields on the Microsoft Campus. See this location on Live Maps.

One day, one picture

I've decided that I'm going to take a picture of something different each day and post it to my blog. So, seeing that it's almost midnight and I can't go outside to take a picture, I took a picture of myself standing infront of the mirrors in my closet.

Changing Hotels

Next morning we looked around for hotels. We found one that was a couple of blocks from our first hotel. This hotel turned out to be a lot better and we got much better service. Something good about this hotel is that it is right in front of the Central subway and bus terminal, so we can go anywhere in the city from here.

This hotel also has internet in the room, but it turns out we have to pay for it separately. What's up with that?