Life changing events

This has been an amazing year. It's hard to say one thing that has stuck out from the rest. It's had its ups and downs bit overall I'd say that it's been very good.

Work has been great, the new house is very nice and my fiancée is a great girl. The best.

It's on sleepless night like this one where your kind of start to think about how life is changing. In a couple months I will be cohabiting. No longer will my mess be mine alone to deal with!

Recently I've been picking up some pretty basic cooking tips that have proven to be quite effective though I haven't been able to go all out since I don't have a real stove, oven or fridge. There's no furniture nor anywhere to put most things.

Soon that will change, though, and a great amount of culinary experimentaion will begin!

Well, I will continue my feeble attempts at sleep! I leave you with a picture of me and my ossobucco (great stuff!).






- Seth Mariscal, enjoying life since 1982.

A Time to Sell, a Time to Lay Low

So a lot of things have been going on, things I can't really write about, but things that have affected my life none the less. I've been bouncing around houses lately (thanks for opening your homes to me!) and am working on selling my and my dad's cars.

I've come up with a bit of a "marketing strategy" on Facebook for promoting it amongst my friends since I don't feel all that comfortable giving strangers a way to contact me. I've found that being safety-conscious in Guatemala is a literal lifesaver. It's not enough to be a "tough target" as they say, since there is a great deal of serendipity involved. Wrong place wrong time is a harsh truth that entirely too many people have come to meet in this country (though I'm sure we're not alone in that!).

These past couple of weeks have been really bad. Two, Three, Five violent deaths a day for two weeks piles up quite the body count! So many people gone, poof, just like that. Children left fatherless, Parents left childless and wives left widows. It breaks my heart to think of it. It surprises me that the police usually find the occasional evil-doer much the way a blind squirrel finds the occasional buried nut.

It can get especially frustrating because with all the killings that have gone on lately, the only person that they've managed to arrest for murder was a guy who killed a thief who was in the middle of robbing a cellphone in the middle of rush hour at gunpoint from a motorcycle. When citizens step in to pick up the slack where police are either unable (or unwilling) to do so are, of course, summarily and thoroughly punished.

Such are the frustrations that one must live with in a country such as this. But in the midst of it all we all find a way to live our life. Live it fully and cherish it completely for we get but one life to live and must make the most of it. Do all you can, love all you can, give all you can and when your time comes you will go with a smile of satisfaction and with peace in the knowledge that you have given it your best and made God (and Mom) proud.

Capgemini Guatemala Photo Contest

Photo Contests are fun for me. I don't usually go into it to win, I just like participating and checking out what everyone else puts in. I happen to be blessed with some truly gifted friends so I don't usually see my pictures as being anything exceptional.

This becomes somewhat of a problem as I happen to have friends and acquaintances who are very gifted in several different things so pretty much anything I do OK, I know someone who absolutely ROCKS it. Like in Photography, I compare myself to the likes of Ivan Castro or Freddy Murphy and of course, I pale in comparison.

So you can imagine that usually when I join photo contests, that's what I have in mind as a good photograph. So when I submitted my pictures, I basically did it just because it seemed like a reasonable thing to do seeing as how it's a great hobby and I enjoy it quite thoroughly.

Now try to picture my shock when I hear that I won. 3rd place. Yup, I took 3rd place with this picture.

It's a little something I took when at Lake Atitlan with Susan and her co-workers.

But that wasn't all. I also took 1st place! Yeah! 1st & 3rd place! Very exciting stuff, let me tell you. Now, there wasn't any prize money or anything like that, just the fun of participating (and winning hehehe) but also 12x15 prints are hanging up on the executive floor for everyone to see. Including me. Which is fun!

Here is the winning pic.

ATCK

It's been a while since I've talked to anyone about being a TCK (Third Culture Kid) or now an ATCK (Adult Third Culture Kid). Today somehow the subject came up with my fiancée and it took me back to when I was first finding out about it. A TCK is not a complicated concept. The first culture is the "Passport" country, the country that your folks are from (also where you passport says YOU'RE from!). The second culture is that of the country where you grew up (Spain, in my case) and when you throw the experience of the two together, you get a unique "third" culture.

No two are alike, though they are all similar in many ways. David Pollard was one of the really big names on the subject, especially in a list as short as that. I didn't actually realize that I was any different from other kids until I read about it and that suddenly made a lot of past experiences much clearer.

Now, as a functional adult, I have a job I really like, I am engaged to a beautiful, wonderful woman that I absolutely love, I'm working on my MBA & MMK and am enjoying life immensely. But I am still different. I am lucky enough to work in an environment where I'm not that different and my fiancée was actually the one to point that out.

This is a subject that I could go on and on about but I think this is enough for now. I guess the point of all this is you may find TCK's in the times and places that you least expect it.

Do you know any TCK's?

A look at the new year

It has been a good year filled with so many life altering changes. I got engaged to a wonderful woman, we bought our first home and have a great job. I am very grateful to the Lord for all of the wonderful things he has given me in 2009.

But now I look at 2010. This is a year with even greater challenges but even better rewards. This is the year I get married, furnish our new home and transition to working in communications once again. It’s easy to be blinded by the silver lining but it’s important to remember that as you move up, you are just in position for the next step. As soon as you stop giving your best, you will stop growing. No matter what you do, people are watching and either you are being productive or not.

So when you look at 2010, I encourage you to look at this coming year as an opportunity to shine, to start pouring your best effort into everything you do and prepare to be amazed by the great things that happen when you do. Even if it is just the satisfaction of a job well done, which should be your main reason in the first place, there is always something great to be gained by giving your best.

The Beginnings

The cold pre-dawn chill seeps through the walls and into my sheets. Not even the few hours of sleep shielded me from waking to the frosty sensation that envelopes me this early morning.

There's something to be said for waking up with the cold. It wakes you up faster than a shot of espresso or a slap in the face. Suitcase, toothbrush, the sudden realization that I haven't packed. We're off to the lake today!

I know it was a little bit long for a preamble to such a short announcement but really, it's just another of the great things that have been happening. I'm engaged to a wonderful and beautiful woman, we just got our mortgage approved for our future home and I got the dream job that I had applied for.

They say that good and bad things come in clusters. After the last couple of months, I'm almost inclined to agree! I wish you all as many blessings as I've received and that you'll pass it along to someone else who needs it.