Just as I do every year, I sat down to write this post. I found it particularly difficult; you see, it was not a good year. I always try to focus on the bright aspects of the year that passed. This year is difficult.

I do have a few bright things to report however …

My children, as always, keep on making me very proud. When I think that they can not make me any prouder, they up the anti. What can I say, they are indeed my heros.

My wife … well … she is my pillar. She is my support and, together with my children, my inspiration. I love her. No buts or ifs.

My friends. While this may have been a hard year, I am one lucky guy when it comes to friends. I have some good solid friends. They have been there for me when I needed them. They have provided support, encouragement and growth.

2009 has been a year of terrible disappointments for me in many areas, but, no matter how I dice it or slice it, I have good people around me and reasons to look forward to the future.

In the last couple of weeks, just like in the last weeks of every year,  people around me could not wait for this year to end – partially because they share my disappointments and on their own right their year has been hard. I was of the opinion that I did not want it to end because I was not sure 2010 would be any better. Interestingly, now that I have written this post, I am looking forward to 2010, when before I did not. Sometime putting your fears down on paper (or a file on a computer as in this case) is the best healing.

Happy New Year. May 2010 bring happiness and prosperity.

When I was a child I wanted to be a Theoretical Physicist. Maybe the fact that Albert Einstein was somebody I looked up to might have had something to do with it. However, looking back into it, he was an influence but not a determining factor. My father had a bigger hand in what I wanted to be in addition to my own curiosity. I remember clearly playing, as a child, that I was an interstellar and time traveler. It was not, however, your standard child play … it was more mental.

While my childhood is long gone and I have abandoned many of the topics that interested me then, Theoretical Physics remains an interest. I do not have the required time to pursue it in the manner I would normally do something that interests me – all time consuming – so I stay at a very high and abstract level; conjectures, theories, mere ideas and imagination.

Two very basic and important elements in Physics are Time and Space. These elements can also be understood as concepts and used as basic building blocks. One small disclaimer, while I believe that Mathematics is a Universal language – and by it I mean Universal in the cosmic sense – I will not use it as part if this writing. I would like to say that is because people will not be able to follow, but the truth is that I am way too rusty in it.

Some definitions first:

Space

1 A continuous area or expanse that is free, available, or unoccupied : a table took up much of the space | we shall all be living together in a small space | he backed out of the parking space.
• an area of land that is not occupied by buildings
an empty area left between one-, two-, or three-dimensional points or objects : the space between a wall and a utility pipe.

2 The dimensions of height, depth, and width within which all things exist and move : the work gives the sense of a journey in space and time.
• (also outer space) the physical universe beyond the earth’s atmosphere.
• the near vacuum extending between the planets and stars, containing small amounts of gas and dust.
• Mathematics a mathematical concept generally regarded as a set of points having some specified structure.

Time

The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole : travel through space and time | one of the greatest wits of all time.
• the progress of this as affecting people and things : things were getting better as time passed.
• time or an amount of time as reckoned by a conventional standard : it’s eight o’clock Eastern Standard Time.
( Time or Father Time) the personification of time, typically as an old man with a scythe and hourglass.

When I think of space I think in multiple levels. Just like the definition above, I think of the standard mathematical construct – a point in space is defined as 3 points, one on the x plane, one on the y plane and one on the z plane – I guess I can not escape my training. I think about the laws of Physics – two objects can not occupy the same space concurrently (but that is in 3 dimensions). I think of the house I live in, the office I use every day, the car I drive. I also thinking about distance. The distance from my office to my home, from my home office to the bedroom, and so on.

But the space that concerns me most is the distance between celestial bodies, such as planets, stars and galaxies; similarly, the distance between atoms, electrons, protons, neutrinos. The full understanding of these spaces are key to understanding Physics and thus, the Universe. Often times I ask people what kind, or what size, of a space they can hold in their heads. The most interesting one was “from here to the door”. I though the person was kidding, but it was true. He could only “imagine” the distance he could “see”, which was from where he was to the door. The interesting part was that he fully understood the question and the concept I was after. The rest of the answers were a combination of confused looks to small distances. The reality is that by-and-large people did not comprehend the question and/or have a limited way in which they think about the subject. Not everybody is bothered with such triviality.

When I ask the same question of myself the answer is very different. I can keep in my mind, in my imagination, in my consciousness, several million light years. I know it sounds not only presumptuous but strange. I can travel in just instances across large expanses of the Universe. I can see it in my mind and I can feel each meter going by. But what I can not see is the details.

I can see planets, but not if the planets are inhabited. I can see the color of their atmospheres but not the content. I can bounce from sun to sun and feel their warmth. The Universe is enormous. And the several million light years that I can keep in my mind are but just an tiny portion of the Universe. The Universe is infinite; so a few million light years means nothing. So, proportionally speaking, I can keep in my head not more than “from here to the door”.

While space is something in the “here and now”, time is a different story. Presented to the same “space” question but in regards to time, all people I have asked are at a loss. First, they do not understand the question. After I explain, they do not understand the concept. The question/concept is simple: How long a time can you “remember” and/or “perceive” in your mind.

I can keep billions of years in my head. However, unlike space, I can not travel through time. I wish I could, but I can not. The past is in the past and the future is yet to occur. I am not in particular a student of history. I like history as it serves the purpose of providing a somewhat of a context for understanding events, their cause and effect and how current events are influenced from past events. But history is hardly a means to “travel” to the past.

So, what do I exactly mean by saying I keep billions of years in my head? I feel that I have a good understanding of time and how events have a potential for unfolding. I do not claim, and I want to be clear about this, that I have a full and precise understanding of how events unfold, but only a full understanding that events do unfold and there are ramifications – this is obvious. The question I often ask is: If I could go back to the past and change something, would I now enjoy my children? The cold answer is “most likely not but I would have other children to enjoy”; or “my reality would be different so it does not matter”. And I also want to be clear that I love my children more than anything.

Extend the above simple example to prehistoric man. Or even beyond. What would have happen if a rock that fell to the left had fallen to the right when the primordial soup had first come together. An extra Carbon? Maybe Silicon? And beyond? What was there beyond … if The Big Bang Theory is what happened what happened instances after or before? And finally, what was there before the big bang?

Similarly, what does tomorrow hold in store for me? And in 10 years? What about my kids in 50? Or great-grandchildren in 100? Humanity in 1000? And how will the Universe look in 1 Million years? And that is where I stop, believe it or not. I keep questions in my mind, events with different possibilities and cause and effect from before the alleged Big Bang to 1 Million years in the future. As I said: Billions of years. After that my thoughts become confused, diffused and all together incoherent – you can argue that it is my general state of being, but … hey, pot shots later please.

An important question: Do I subscribe to The Big Bang Theory?

The important answer: Absolutely not.

Surprised? I hope not. When I was about 13 I had my first formal Physics class in High School. In grammar school Physics was a part of Math and Science. Argentina at the time had a different school structure than now. Grammar School was between 6 and 12, and High School between 13 and 17 or 18 depending if you went to a Normal or  Technical school. In class we were explained The Big Bang Theory. In its simplest terms the theory states that at one moment there was a singularity, like a dot made by a pencil and the next moment it expanded to our current universe; and in the expansion process, big amounts or energy were released, thus, BIG BANG!!

Most of my classmates did not really get it. However, being in a technical school they took is as dogma. A few of us scratched our heads. Half of us had come from a very strong religious background. So, the teachings of The Bible came to bare on  the discussion that ensued. The other half – I was amongst this second half – had come from a strong science background. For a time the discussion was monopolized by the religious folks. They brought up some good points; of course, all based on religious views. The teacher was somewhat of an ignoramus and could not intelligently or eloquently discuss The Big Bang from a religious point of view.

Eventually the religious chatter gave way to the science geeks. The teacher was a little better prepared for us than for the other students. But not that much more. My chief argument was that “while the creationist views did not make much sense in general given fossil evidence across multiple subject” – somebody said background radiation? – “The Big Bang Theory did not make sense either in spite of the fossil evidence” – again, background radiation anyone? – “How can a singularity no bigger than a pencil point be so dense as to “pack” all the necessary “matter and energy” to spawn the Universe? And what was there before the Big Bang – “NOTHING” would just not cut it.” The teacher was dumbfounded.

There was no conclusion to the discussion and it soon died out as the teacher continued with the lesson. What a wasted opportunity!!

The basic principle of the conversation remained with me to this day. Evidence needed to be found to support the theories, including creationism. I embarked on a life long venture to discover the evidence. I started with religion; I was foolish enough to think it was the easiest and most accessible. We will leave that for a different blog post.

Science, while still lacking, provided many of the answers I was looking for. But not all of them. To this day “modern” Science lacks the same depth that religion has achieve over a much longer life span. But it will get there and I suspect religion would not be anywhere close.

I do have to say that I have a great deal of respect for religious people, specially the ones that can carry out a conversation in “scientific” terms – and even better if there is some libation fueling the mood. Being able to have faith is enviable.

What do I propose as an alternative theory? For starters, the Universe has always been and will always be. While it may sound as a cop-out, I feel very strongly that from a logical point of view it makes more sense. Consider Einstein’s conservation of mass and energy: No mass is lost but transformed; no energy is lost but transformed. No matter how dense a singularity can be, in my wildest imagination I can not conceive it to have as much mass as the imaginable Universe has – not to say the rest of the Universe, the un-imaginable.

What I can imagine is all of the celestial bodies’ and their gravitational field synching up and attracting each other. This occurred a long time ago; trillions and trillions of years ago, if not more. We now observe the Universe expanding, but to an observer on those times, the Universe would have been contracting. As the bodies got closer together, their collective gravities started to tear the bodies apart further increasing the overall gravitational field and accelerating the bodies to each other converging in some “Point” in “Space”.

Again, from an observers point of view, it would have looked as a very dense singularity  and relatively speaking, possibly as a “lead point”.

At some point in time gravity was so strong that all bodies collapsed on each other creating a massively dense – not only mass but also energy in the form of gravity – conglomerate of bodies to a point that stored and potential energy in the system became so large that it needed to be released. And this release is what has become known as the “Big Bang”.

Maybe I need to restate what I previously wrote – it is not that I do not believe in the Big Bang, but that I think the theory is incomplete and erroneous in its assumptions from a timed events point of view.

There is another point that needs to be brought up: What is the definition of “ … some ‘Point’ in ‘Space’”? In other words, how is this point expressed and what is its dimensionality? And again … that is a topic for a different post.

Further Reading:

http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/big-bang.html

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/06/13/thinking-about-time-before-the-big-bang/

http://www.tomcoyner.com/before_the_big_bang_there_was__.htm

https://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm

Is it getting old or becoming old?

When I turned 43 all of a sudden I realized my age. It is not as though 43 is really any older than 42. What hit me was the fact that I was over 40. I am officially entering my midlife. I am no longer amongst the youngest in the room, but amongst the oldest. The world does not belong to me, but to the generation biting at my heels.

40’s is the new 30’s – is that a new Mathematics?

The other day I was at a doctor’s office and the nurse was helping a 93 year old gentleman complete his paper work. A male nurse cracked a joke, all in good jest, about the gentleman’s age and how he would like to get to that age. The gentleman interjected:

– Getting old sucks!! In my case nothing hurts, I am healthy and get around mostly on my own; but there isn’t anybody around anymore.

So .. With 43 years, soon to be 44, under my belt, what gives?

When I was young my father kept on saying that the world belonged to the younger generations. His generation had had its chance and now the baton needed to be passed. I never fully understood it. How did the world belong to the younger generations when we did not have any say in ruling the world? He was a little older than I am now when he said that.

Now I am beginning to understand. It has to do with our potential and how we “waste” it. One day we wake up and the potential is all gone. I wake up every day and have begun to check my potential. There is a good amount left, but as opposed to earlier in my adult life, I know now that it is not infinite.

The world does belong to the younger generations. And I am still part of the “younger” generation; but soon – maybe sooner that I want – it will be time to pass the baton to my children. I see them grow and develop. I see them expand their minds and become whatever they desire. I see them correct my facts and expand in details that I have long forgotten – yet updated. I want to scream because I am so proud of them.

I think in my case it is a little of both, getting old and becoming old, but as a function of getting wiser and more intelligent. And also as a function of my children.

2008 has been a hard year for me. Not hard in the sense of bad, but hard in the sense of long, with comings and goings, hardships and uncertainties, a number of disappointments and many changes. And through all the year’s developments, my wife and kids have been there for me. I am one lucky guy.

The year started well enough with the new job. Zumbox is live so I can discuss it openly. Zumbox is an alternative to the traditional postal service. The best way to explain it is in the following manner: “95%+ of the mail you receive in your mailbox starts life electronically; why print it”. There are a number of efficiencies that are gained by using Zumbox; one of them is the environmental impact. Now, I do not mean to sound too eco-friendly, so I will present the environmental impact from a cost savings point of view: No printing saves not only trees, but money. And postage is a fraction of what the postal service is. To make matters even more attractive, there is no need to have a bunch of warehouses for mail sorting and staging, etc.

We spent the whole year building the product; starting with product definitions, graphic design, technology strategy, software architecture, modules design, systems architecture and design, implementation, so on and so forth. It was not always easy, especially during design changes, but we pulled through and we have an incredible product. The first version of the product was launched on 08/08/2008. It was a private beta from which we learned a great deal. The second and current version was launched on December 10th. And … you ain’t seen nothing yet!!! We have a bunch of product enhancements and features in the pipeline.. We are now on our beta period. Being part of Zumbox is very exciting. We are changing the world. Or a least a part of it. We also have an incredible team.

On July 15th we moved from Torrance to Thousand Oaks. We had been living in the South Bay for the last 12 years. I liked it a lot. I had built a good set of friends and my wife’s family, all of it, lives there as well. Family gatherings were easy. Not only friends  and family where close by, but business associates as well. I was finally rebuilding my consulting practice. Taking the job in Westlake Village meant at least a one and a half hour commute each way. It killed not only my emerging consulting business but time with my kids and wife. Not to say that part of getting the job was predicated on moving. So we moved.

Finding a suitable house was not easy. I must have seen over one hundred different properties. Some of them too crappy. Some of them too expensive, etc. And from the subset I selected, my wife had to choose one. We finally set on a nice property in Wildwood. A nice double cul-de-sac with an awesome back yard and good neighbors. We decided to rent and the renting process was too painful. I am not going to go into details, but let’s just say, it was not a pleasant experience. The actual moving was not so bad. We took a few weeks to pack and then, all in one day, we moved.

Now … the house in Torrance needed to be rented. My wife wanted to sell, but with the financial markets the way they were, selling was not a good idea. Not only that, I wanted to have an income property anyway.  The house needed to be fixed before it was rented; and a job that was supposed to take a week and a few thousand dollars ended up taking over a month and several thousands of dollars. In the process I lost two prospective renters that would have paid well. I guess it was not meant to be. It took us a while to rent the house but we finally did to a very nice couple. All the while until it was rented, we were paying rent and the mortgage. So … the house was finally rented.

There were a series of similar experiences through the rest of the year. I really do not want to go into them. They all, so far, ended well and we are the better for it; but each experience took a little bit out of me. And each taken little bit, I have not gotten back yet. I guess what does not kill you makes you stronger.

On the people side of things, I was disappointed by a few people that I held in high esteem and regard. People that shared most of my values or so I thought. It makes me truly sad. I think about how I felt about these people and the energy I invested in building a friendship and how that was wasted. It is not that I was expecting something in return. My expectations are more about longevity and familiarity. I am sure they are as disappointed in me as I am in them. Still, it does not change how I feel… life goes on.

Not all was doom and gloom … There are a few experiences that transpired this year that are very good …

I had stayed in touch with an ex-boss of mine. We fished together, got drunk together, and went to Mexico together and always had a good time. We always discussed that we needed to work together again. Finally the opportunity arose and I was able to hire him. Pat is not the easiest guy in the world, but he is an awesome person and I am glad he is my right hand. He had a hard time this year as well and I did the best I could to support him and stand by him. Hopefully it helped.

I reconnected with Ron. When Pat and I worked together, Ron reported to Pat and I reported to Ron. Ron and I had also a grand time back then. When I moved to Thousand Oaks, I moved only couple of miles from Ron and of course, we resume our friendship. Ron and Georgia are great; and both my wife and I feel very lucky to count them as our friends. Now … I did not know Ron is a musician. When I was a kid I spent 3 years at a music conservatory. And throughout my life I have been on-again-off-again involved in music. From very involved to not whatsoever. When Ron and I reconnected, he reintroduced me to music and ever since I have spent a great deal of time playing and studying guitar. I focused for a while on blues; now, I have also added classical. Music has always filled my heart with joy. This time is no exception. I am even somewhat teaching my children. I have to thank Ron and Georgia for it. Now … the draw back of my music obsession is that I have spent no time with photography or writing. But … it is still a creative outlet for me and that works.

Kort and Debbie … well … I really enjoy them. We became friends through our daughters.  Our connection is also music. They are great people so I feel that the connection through music is an excuse to hang out and a common point. If that connection did not exist, I still would feel the same way.

The move to Thousand Oaks has not been bad; as a matter of fact, it has been very good. It has changed a great deal of our behavior and daily activities. My wife loves it. We have cultivated great friendships. My workmates are good and intelligent. My boss – Bob – is also very intelligent and we enjoy some good discussions. My kids are flourishing and both are in the school’s honor roll. Not only that, they are really much happier than they were before.

But for as good as the move was, we now do not spend as much time with Dan and Sheryl. I miss them. Both have helped us in ways that I can not begin to thank them or replay them. And not just this last year … ever since we met them. I wish we could see them more often and spend time with them.

On a completely different note .. I do not want to forget to mention Guido. Last, but not least. I am not a faithful person. I do not blindly believe in anybody or anything, except for my wife and Guido. Beyond him being my business partner, he is my FRIEND.

So, in closing … during this year I have experienced a good share of hardship and uncertainties. Financially, it was also a hard year but I began to recover towards the end of the year. And needless to say, the economic downturn did not help. But it was also a year filled with good experiences as well. A year of reconnecting with all friends and fulfilling certain wills. A year of meeting new folks that enrich us daily. A year of hard work with some big wins.

Happy New Year to you all. May 2009 bring only good things.

Fabian E. Schonholz

For a while now, I have been concerned with Ethics and Morality. What they mean,  how they relate to each other, how humanity interprets and implements them, whether they extend beyond humanity and planet Earth, the history of Ethics and Morality and how they have evolved through time. Ethics and Morality did not start with Greece and the classic period, but for all accounts, at least as far as I know, the concepts were formalized then.

I have spent a few weeks now reading definitions. In the original version of this post, I had included a few of them. But then the post became too technical and about definitions rather than discussion and intellectual investigation. Moreover, I encountered contradicting definitions from different sources. I am enclosing a summary of the encountered definitions since they provides a frame of reference for the rest of the post:

• In one set of definitions Ethics was defined as the study of Morality, while Morality as the study of Ethics.

• A second set defined Ethics as the study of Morality and Morality as “the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior”.

• A third definition defines Ethics as the study of “what is good and what is bad and how it applies to behavior” and Morality as the study of Ethics.

Now you see the problem. The first definitions create a circular reference. It defines one in terms of the other and provides no scope as to what the true nature of these words really is. The second and the third are in direct conflict with each other. One defines Ethics in terms of what the other defines Morality.

My concern with these concepts goes beyond definitions, meanings and interpretations. I often argue that humans as a specie has yet to develop intellectually. We lack vision and imagination to truly incorporate time expanses of trillions of years and distances of billions of light years. And along those limitations, we lack the capacity to understand the true nature of the universe. Moreover, we have developed this limitation in the tongues we speak and write.

I try to think outside the box. I try, with some level of success, to think beyond the intellectual limitations inherent to humanity. Not because I am more intelligent, but because at least I recognize the limitations are there and I attempt to break through them. At the risk of sounding conceited and arrogant, if Einstein did it, so can I. In trying to break through the limitations I often try to organize concepts in hierarchies. Proof of my limitation is that I have started to think in trillions of years and billions of light years, while time and space are infinite; and no matter how I reconstruct my hierarchies, I can not visualize and internalize this infinity. But slowly, I am getting there.

Ethics and Morality are part of this thinking outside the box and organization. Just as Mathematics (I will argue the universality of Mathematics in a separate post) and mathematical concepts are true here on Earth, as in the Moon, Alpha-Centauri or 100’s light years away in any direction, other constructs and concepts must be as well. So, if the concept of  1 + 1 = 2 here on Earth or 10 Billion light years away holds, so does the concept of Good and Bad. However, before we can define this concept we need a framework.

Looking back at the summary of definitions above, I subscribe to the second one:

“… defined Ethics as the study of Morality and Morality as ‘the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior’”

This definition provides a workable framework for the way I see Ethics and Morality. Ethics is an abstract concept while Morality deals with specifics. In other words, Ethics is a theory, a collection of ideas and concepts that describe esoterically a state of being, while Morality is the implementation of the theory. There is no weight in Ethics. There is no judgement in Ethics. There is no bias in Ethics, just the description of how to build a system of moral values, whatever these values may be. On the other hand, Morality is all about weight, judgement and bias. Morality is the implementation of an ethical system.

The table below is provided as an example of other conceptual and implementation associations in the hopes that it will clarify the argument above:

From the definition and table above I have established that Ethics is a theoretical construct while Morality is its individual implementations. Thus, what follows is that there is more than one morality, which indeed there are.
If we want to think of Morality as a complete concept, whether or not as an implementation of Ethics, we need to think of it as a collection of individual moralities. These moralities, in the majority of cases, are based on religious or cultural basis. We can consider a Christian Morality, which in itself could be considered a collection of individual moralities following the different Christian splinters (Roman Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, Church of England, etc.) Similarly, a Jewish Morality may follow an alike pattern and be a collection or moralities in the same form as Christian Morality. So on and so forth. (But, outside of religious based moralities, what other moralities can we find? We will come back to this later.)

These moralities all deal with specific behaviors. In the case of Judaism, in particular within the orthodox communities, there are 613 Mitzvoth (commandments) that must be followed and observed. A portion of these are regarding good: “You Shall”, and a portion regarding not good:”You Shall Not”. These commandments are the basis for a behavior and the compendium of moral codes. Yes, I am equating commandments to behaviors, but that is exactly what a commandment is: a discrete behavior. A commandment is a quantifiable action and the collection of quantifiable actions represents a behavior(s). I will assume that Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, etc., follow a similar pattern of commandments and behaviors. Furthermore, while I do equate commandments or compendiums of moral codes to behaviors, I am not equating religion and dogma with morality. This distinction is important.

Does Ethics deal with good and bad? Or Good and Evil? This is an important question. In my opinion no it does not. However, when discussing Ethics we normally fall into discussion of good and bad, Good or Evil. Why is that? Because our inability to maintain a level of abstraction. Based on the above definition: “ … Ethics as the study of Morality …” we can clearly see another reason why we fall into identifying Ethics with good and bad, Good and Evil, it seems implicit in the definition since Morality is defined as the study of good and bad “behaviors”. What seems implicit, it may not be.

Athenians and Spartans shared the same logical bases and by at large the same code of Ethics. But their moralities had points of difference. While Sparta condoned euthanasia, Athens repelled it. The moralities of the two city-states where based on the same set of religious beliefs, the same set of logics, same philosophical backgrounds and bases of governments. However, Spartans, based on their needs supported the systematic disposal of undesirable genetics traits by killing new-borns that did not measure up. Today, we would consider this practice evil. But that would be our morality speaking and not Ethics.

To summarize

• Ethics is the theory of actions and behaviors that can lead to good and bad, Good and Evil. However, it does not label any of the identified actions and good or bad, Good or Evil. It also deals with the concept of good and bad, Good and Evil but does not create an association between actions and these concepts.

• Morality creates associations between actions and behaviors and good and bad, Good and Evil. These associations are normally built in the context of religious dogma and culture.

• Ethics is universal. Since it does not deal with associations, the concepts can be transposed to any part of the Universe without loosing validity.

The exceptions that prove the rule

There are two questions that I will not answer, but are pertinent to the topic in this post:

1. When we talk about business and the concepts of good and bad, we discuss them in the context of Business Ethics. However, isn’t this the case of a mislabeled morality?
2. Is “truth” (not THE TRUTH) part of Ethics or Morality?

For the nerds like me out there … classic newsgroup post. Very cool.

Click here for post

“Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”

Sometimes I wonder …

Klaus Holzapfel of the Movie Bakery is running an online charity for Christmas based on videos they put together. It is easy to participate: Just go to their site (http://www.moviebakeryinaction.com) and watch the videos. You can also sponsor a video. He is donating the proceedings to a few of the children charities.

Enjoy!!

I could not resist sharing this compilation video. It is TOO funny.

Was Hitler ever a good boy? I mean, when he was an infant, was he proportionally as evil as he was as an adult?. I am sure that there is information available describing the early days, when he was a young and loving lad; information about his childhood and how he tortured that poor little dog that he loved so much …. But I am not going to go into it at all. It is not my intention to defend Hitler, so if this post sounds as though I am defending him, please, not to worry, I really really really am not.

On Halloween my family and I went to see a musical called Wicked. First of all I have to say that I despise musicals, very much like I am annoyed going to Disneyland or going to a carnival. But I enjoy my family having fun. I see these things that I do not like … no … that I can not tolerate, through their eyes, the enjoyment of my children and happiness of my wife, and in that, I find the way to at least, sit through a play or enjoy couple of days dealing with long lines to get on a ride for 5 minutes.

Wicked is the behind-the-scenes story of the Wizard of Oz. It starts with the Good Witch telling everybody that the Wicked Witch of the West is really dead. She is reminded that they were roommates and friends in high school or the university and the story develops from there. In the original story, the witch from the west is evil and full of hate. But was she? Or was just the way she was portrayed? In the musical, she is shown to be good and kind and intelligent and a very good and gifted student; she is also shown to have some deep personal issues related to how her family treated her. But in essence, she was a nice lady.

Events happened; she gets a bad rap; and she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. But at the end, it is a love story and she is wicked, but in other ways than evil.

There were some parts of the play that I enjoyed. The scenography was awesome. Some of the music was good. And some of the dialog was funny, specially the references to the Wizard of Oz. As I was fighting boredom – in between watching my kids eyes growing bigger and bigger – the question occurred to me: “Was Hitler Ever A Good Boy?” Here you have a young lady that was portrayed to be evil but in reality, it was a government conspiracy. Maybe the same happened to Hitler …. Not!! I can not think that somebody like that could have ever been good.

If you look at history, there are a great many cases where personalities are portrayed in different lights. Are those lights accurate? Are we getting the real representation of who these people were? There is always some obscure evidence regarding these historical figures that present them in a different context than popular belief. And as time goes through, and new “historians” inspect the available “evidence”, they come up with complete different theories and justifications.

In the end, in many cases, we will never really know.