C’est moi

I’m Gabriela and I like people calling me Gaby because it is short and also a little less serious than Gabriela. However my friends don’t think the same and  give me unusual names Bagy, Gaby B, Baguette, Chapata, María Gabriela, T-shirt, hotcake, Bagyveva (which I don’t like at all),  Poppy (by the one and only bizcochips), and well I can keep going on and never ending.

I’m Gabriela and I love research. That’s one of my passions and since I had begun working in the area I knew that’s what I wanted to do one way or another. I miss working as a researcher and while I have been having fun doing other things, I would like to collaborate again in a research project. Hopefully, I’ll submit a paper about the 2nd. half of my master thesis soon.

I’m Gabriela and I love to go to art exhibitions and I want to go to the MoMA. I love almost every music genre but my guilty pleasures are R&B, jazz, and hip-hop. I’m always searching new artists and interesting music. I love movies from musicals to art films, and even the most simple ones. I adore romantic movies of the 60’s and I’m a big fan of Audrey Hepburn. I want to have a breakfast at Tiffany’s before I die.

I’m Gabriela and I’m a perfectionist. I love to do my job the best way possible and I feel awesome when I achieve something great, however this perfectionism has also been a nightmare as I lose my mind trying to make everything a success and I tend to have high demands about myself. In less than two years I have worked in a diversity of areas: research, teaching, software development, IT management, and UX, and I have loved everyone of them, with all their good and bad moments. Sometimes I think I’m wrong and I can’t made up my mind of what I want to be.

I’m Gabriela and I lived in France. It was one of the most challenging and difficult times so I decided to come back, I knew the whole situation involving my trip was not what I expected. It’s one of those decisions that even-though I don’t regret, I keep wondering what if. Sometimes I think I disappointed certain people that I respected professionally but it was my time to fly away and discover new things by myself. I think that my advisors don’t understand how grateful I am from what I learned from them, even if I didn’t go the way they wanted me to go.

I’m Gabriela and I’m headstrong. I tend to expect to much of things and get disappointed if they don’t became what I idealized. Once I made up my mind about something is very difficult that I change it. I don’t drink and I don’t smoke. Sometimes it makes me feel like I’m from another world because people think you are weird. I wish I wouldn’t compare myself with others and be happier with who I am, what I have, and what I have done.

I’m Gabriela and I’m a believer. I believe in God and I respect those who don’t, but  I could be more patient when other people doesn’t respect your beliefs. I want to have a stronger faith and be able to forgive people who has hurt me in the past. I believe in love and I fell in love in the most unexpected time.

I am Gabriela and I am a dreamer. I want to do so many things, more than what I have achieved. I usually think the best of people and while I have had several disappointments, I would not change my thinking because I have met the most incredible people along this journey. I love to help my family and friends, and what I value the most is to see them happy. I am passionate about my loved ones, and I stand up for them against everything and everyone.

I’m Gabriela and sometimes I feel different and numb.

All that glitters is not gold…

I had such a surreal experience. It’s one of these experiences that if you can write it in a book I am sure I will title it “You should think twice before you post trash in twitter” or “All that glitters is not gold”. Because well, you’ll never know when the person you threw trash about read your posts. Tsk Tsk. That is one of the reasons I keep thinking twice before writing something, but also, I keep on questioning the wonderfulness of social networks when there are no well-defined security and privacy policies.

Sometimes we have the belief that something recognized or respectful, beautiful or shiny, rich or valuable, is going to be the best treasure we could have. If we see it in a job point of view, human nature usually tends to look at bigger and more recognized companies as the ones that can provide best resources (monetary and professional). If we see it in a personal point of view, human nature tends to create stereotypes among personalities and capabilities that determine the valuable and respect certain person have. For example, a well-prepared person is usually the one that is respected the most.

But what human nature usually doesn’t recognize that certain qualities are not directly related with other ones. For example, a blonde person is usually related with dumb stereotypes, while there are too many blondes that have made such an impact in science, arts, etc. Another example, bigger and international companies (recognized or not) are usually the ones we relate to resource’s exploitation, ambitious, etc., while many of these companies are the ones that take care of their employees the most because they are their most important asset.

I figured out that school education and culture is not tied to professionalism and respect. You may be recognized in your area, have multiple diploma, and whatever you may want, but you cannot disrespect other people whether they have equal capabilities or not. Because, well if you don’t know it, any person deserves respect just because of who he/she is, whether he/she has the same intellectual, economical, or physical characteristics that you have. The most ironical part is that the person didn’t even understand which part was the one disrespectful.

I respect you. For this reason I spoke clearly which were my perceptions and my beliefs. For this reason, I don’t mind anymore about public displays of unpleasant comments on twitter. I know that “all that shines is not gold” so I do not mind what you write anymore, because well, I know who I am 🙂

All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgement old
Your answer had not been inscroll’d
Fare you well, your suit is cold.

“The Merchant of Venice” – William Shakespeare.

Sometimes you don’t see what people see…

Last weekend I was chatting with my friend GabyZu about how self-confidence is enforced or torn depending on our entourage or the situations we live in a certain time. Personally, there are sometimes when I have felt like I can conquer the world, but there are other times that, despite of recognizing my achievements (meaningful or not), I have felt blue and felt like my self-confidence is hidden in a deep hole where I can’t find it.

But, what is self-confidence and how are we capable to achieve a true self-confidence? Psychiatrist Raj Persaud considers that our self-confidence is directly related to the attitude we have when different situations are presented in life from time to time. A true self-confidence is entirely related to the ability we have to help ourselves to survive difficult problems, despite of succeeding or not.  Most successful and self-confident people have achieved their objectives and made such an impact around the world by just having the attitude and the courage to step up against the adversities presented over time. They have enforced their self-confidence every time they had a failure or a difficult problem they couldn’t work out. I seriously think that adversities are one of the most critical situations where we can measure and strength our true self-confidence. In difficult times we expose to the world what we are capable of doing and what are we made of.

There are multiple factors that make us lose or gain self-confidence through time. We can talk about physical conditions that make us feel blue and not capable of realizing something, but I guess it mainly remains in our mind. Human nature is so used to relate self-confidence with recognition, success, and popularity. These stereotypes alter the way our mind deals with problems and make us more perceptible to measuring our abilities with respect to other ones. This affects the way we perceive ourselves from what we really are and make us less confident than what we should be.

So, our self-confidence can be affected by a diversity of conditions, from the way we see ourselves as professionals with respect to our classmates, co-workers, etc., to the way we measure ourselves w.r.t. prettiness, intelligence, character to have a personal relationship with a certain type of person. It’s all a vicious cycle where every reaction is a consequence of our actions, and if we are influenced by these factors we certainly project no self-confidence which consequently produces that what we expect of ourselves is not achieved.

But, one of the most important consequences of these actions of self-confidence is related to the impact it produces in other people. If we are lucky enough, we may be able to project to other people what we really are and what we sometimes do not see ourselves. And I say that we are lucky, because then this projection of our real selves would be no obstacle to reaching that desired job, a worthy relationship, but also would allow us to interact with people that will make us see what is really inside us and make pop up our true self-confidence. But if you’re not lucky enough to project that, then we are in big big troubles, because many great opportunities can be lost. It doesn’t matter how much knowledge, experience, abilities, or even attitude we have if we don’t show that we love ourselves and we consider ourselves successful.

In my personal experience, I have had some critical times when I had feel a lost cause of self-confidence. I had known and know now that I have made so many important things that I’m so proud of. It may be little for some people or even insignificant, but for me they have been a result of what I wanted to become. I have been blessed with the opportunity to work both as a research and a professional, to publish articles in the areas I love of Computer Science, and even participate in a séjour in France. However, also I have been able to understand the stereotypes defined in the area that also make you lose self-confidence if you’re not well prepared. As many different areas, success is generally misunderstood as who has the most published papers within a group, who makes a relevant contribution, who lives in the most exotic place, who earns the best incomes among the group, and who is the most popular within the area. Sometime ago I let these aspects affect my personal perception of myself and it’s one of the things I regret the most. Achieving these “important” things is not worthy if you lose your essence in the process, and also as a proverb says “you can’t please everybody”. What really matters is to please yourself and be happy with the way you are.

Criticism will always exists. Some people would congratulate us for what we are and view our qualities without prejudice, but not all the world will do the same. Sometimes people will like us, and sometimes they won’t, and well, we’ll have to deal with that. I understand that now. I was so immersed in pleasing everybody and achieving the expectations people and myself set on me, that when I couldn’t do something right my self-confidence was lost. This attitude made me lose my way and I know that also made me lose some opportunities, and that’s what non self-confidence can make to you if you let it remain on yourself.

It has taken me sometime to realize that my errors and my successes have made me, me. And now, I don’t want to be anybody else, because even when I don’t see it all the time and sometimes I feel lost, I know what other people (my family, my friends, and others) see in me, and that I must be proud of what I can do now and what I will do next.

Talking with my friend, we conclude that sometimes we don’t see what people really see of us: how wonderful, capable, professional, beautiful, or interesting we are. We need sometimes people to remind us that we are worthy enough to have something, someone, or to do something. But I can conclude that we must not need to have other people to tell us how great we are, we have to remember it every time we wake up. Today is a wonderful day and I’m going to conquer the world.

xoxo

Pandora Box: Nobody does it like Adele

The first notes of a guitar starts to play followed by the amazing texture of Adele‘s voice singing “Rolling In The Deep”. As the track evolves her voice is perfectly merged with gospel voices and the sounds of a guitar, a piano, and the drums, making it clearly that the best pop/soul voice of our generation is back with a new album 21. From the beginning til the minute 3.48, the song immerse you into a strong Soul & Blues tune just the way the legendary soul stars like Aretha Franklin would have done. And well, you may say that nobody does soul and blues like Aretha, but Adele is surely reaching her spot as a diva of our generation.

Clearly, there’s a reason why Adele has achieved so much prestige and fame among critics and the general audience in so short notice and even won a Grammy for Best New Artist and Best Vocal Performance in 2009. Her voice and her abilities as a songwriter are impressive when you listen to any of her songs and you became even more amazed when you hear her live.

Adele made her debut in the music industry in 2007, when her song entitled “Hometown Glory” was released. I’m sure you have listened to this song before as it has been used in soundtrack of multiple series including Grey’s Anatomy. This track represents the first single of Adele’s album entitled 19 and gives you a broad panorama of what Adele can provide to music nowadays: a mix of pop ballad, soul, jazz, and alternative sounds. As you get yourself immersed in her debut album, you’ll find many jewels worth of representing a new era on British music. My personal favorites and suggestions for you to listen: “Hometown Glory”, “Chasing Pavements”, “Daydreams”, “Cold Shoulder”, and “Tired”.

One track I personally consider you should listen is the amazing rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love”. Adele’s voice merged with the sound of a piano is all you need for this track to express all the romanticism contained within its lyrics. Here you can listen to this track…

If you liked Adele’s debut album, I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed of her second album 21 which presents a more Soul, Rocker and Dark sound of Adele than what we have seen before. Just by hearing her first single, you know the wait of almost two years for a new album was really worthy. The lyrics, the music, and her voice are just brilliant with every track played once and once again. Even if you’re not such a fan of Soul music, I think you find interesting to listening to: “Rolling in The Deep”, “Don’t You Remember” (amazing acoustic), “Turning Tables” (you may have listened to Gwyneth Paltrow’s cover in Glee), “Someone Like You”, and “Rumor Has It”.

I hope you’d like my new music suggestions, just to give you a little taste of what’s to hear to Adele live, here’s her performance at the BRIT awards in 2011.

xoxo

A new week, a new thought…

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

– Theodore Rubin

Pandora Box: Hands All Over by Maroon 5

So, last week I was looking for new music for my iPod to listen, and checking the suggestions from Amazon’s Website based on my preferences and musical taste, they suggested me the latest album of Maroon 5, “Hands All Over“. I must confess I wasn’t such a fan of the band, I guess the only songs I listened were the ones played on the radio and the famous “Sunday Morning” of course because it belongs to the soundtrack of “Love Actually“, one of my favorite movies. The rest of their music didn’t catch my eyes as I used to think that there was something with their style that seemed too forced.

Well, that’s now a different story. When I first listened to Misery, I was sure this was the pop rock sound I would surely listen to start a good day. It’s catchy, funny and one of the songs you can’t get out of your mind and keep singing. Even if there’s no comparison with the “Hey, Soul Sister”  from Train, I guess it gets the same effect in me: put you in a wonderful mood. And, if that’s what Misery does to you, well the whole album is even better, mixing pop and funk sounds in songs like “Last Chance“, “Give Me a Little More”, “Don’t Know Nothing”, and “Get Back in My Life“.

Other song you should take a chance and listen is “Out of Goodbyes”. The merge of Maroon 5 style with the magnificent talent of country band Lady Antebellum makes sparks fly with this pop country ballad. If you like Lady Antebellum, I’m sure you’ll like this track.

Finally, by far my best recommendation of the album, it’s the cover of Alicia Keys‘ “If I Ain’t Got You“. It’s difficult that a cover does justice to the original track and I keenly consider that Maroon 5’s version is one that should remain in your iTunes library. Here the song for you to listen…

So, if you’re looking for a rock pop sound at its maximum expression and a full album mixed with interesting sounds from party, punk, and pure pop sounds, an R&B pop cover, and a collaboration with one of the best country groups nowadays,  this album is definitively the one for you. But also, if you’re a fan of Maroon5’s music I think you wouldn’t be disappointed with this album, which I consider not so far one of the best sounds in their career.

xoxo

Bonjour tout le monde!

So, I’m a newbie in all these things related to blogging and writing your own kind of journal, but as the Web is emerging as the current and trendy way to share information and maintaining updated all your friends, I guess I should give it a chance.

Also, I guess it’s an excellent way to diffuse all the things related to Technology, Knowledge that I’m so interested about, because my research spirit never dies and I would like to share what I have learned about Web technologies and what has been currently developing within technologies.

And what a better way to write what I think, like, see, learn, and beyond that by writing my own personal blog. So, if you like what you see, please be free to read me and share your comments and opinions.

xoxo