Finding myself

This is a very personal post and at the same time is a post that I think could be what I guess some of us have experienced in our lives: the need to find yourself, to find what you are going to do with your life, where you are going to be, as they say, in 1, 5, 10 years.

This question, so cliché, I know, but so true to me right now. I'm writing this before I forget, I'm writing this here because I know few people will read it and I'm doing it because I need to reflect about it and the only way I know I can do that is writing.

I feel overwhelmed. I have felt helpless for a long time now, so inadequate to do what I need / want to do, but still longing what I don't have. And today, the feeling that it's only in my hands the key to change all and give a turn in my way (a 180 degrees turn) makes me feel overwhelmed.

I don't even know where to start. I know I need to heal myself and erase that sensation that I can't do what once I feel confident to do. To be able to take care of myself, to do the best thing for me and then the rest will take its place.

But I feel so alone. I mean, I know I have friends who are there, who can help me in some things, but I can't put the whole burden in them. And the company I have, the person I need the most I don't think it's ready to even understand why I want to change things.

What to do? I need time to think about it. I need to start believing again in who I am, what I've done before and what I feel it's ok to be and to do.

I need to find myself, soon. Life is so, so short, certainly. I can't let all to happen to me, I have to do something to make things happen the way I need it. And I so need it. I have to find my strength.

Why I will stop doing FF... for a while

Image via CrunchBase

As everybody who has been using Twitter for a while, Friday is the day when people does #Followfriday or #FF, a practice where you recommend people you consider valuable to other people who follows you.

This is done so you can meet different people, with similar ideas, or maybe with different ideas, but with that make your timeline interesting and makes you see a new perspective.

At the beginning, doing #Followfriday seemed like a great idea, but now, that I follow 3291 people and 3607 more follows me, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to do justice to everyone.

First of all, I follow people that have made laugh, think, see new ideas, learn new stuff, open my mind to things that I would have never seen that way if they didn't make me open my mind. In that sense, I think eveyone can be recommended.

Now, recommending them it's difficult because you have to put in a brief sentence why you think they are worth following. How do you do that with 3200 persons?

As I said before, it wouldn't be fair. If I make a list (like " #FF @person1 @person2 @person3" ) I'm not providing a good reason for those who follow me to follow the people I'm recommending. And even when I do it like that, it takes a long time. If I did #FF giving a reason for every person I follow or follows me, I would finish next Friday!

Then, maybe the description I'm using to recommend this person is the best, but maybe they don't think the same (I have the suspicion that once I made someone feel uncomfortable when I did this inadvertently).

Also, people that makes conversation, that answer my tweets, have certain advantage, because I can easily find an accurate reason for doing #FF, but as I said before, this doesn't mean that people I don't talk frecuently aren't worth recommending.

Besides, I think so many tweets with #FF in them are considered spam for those that doesn't follow this practice.

And last, but not least, time is a great factor. When you're working 8 hours, commuting 4 more, and without an smartphone to open Twitter, it's really difficult to do a #FF.

So, I'm looking for a new way to do #FF (today I'll do it in a post, later, outside Twitter) and I'll stop recommending as I did before. I'll thank your FF if you want to do it, if you don't want to because I'm not doing anymore on Twitter, I'll understand.

My goal is to make this a little more inclusive, recommending different people every time (or at least I'll try to do this) and maybe for a reason they want me to recommend them. Besides, if you know any tool, site or new idea to do Followfriday, I'll thank you if you can tell me about it.

P. D. I wrote this very fast, if you find any mistake in content or in my spelling or grammar, feel free to tell me.

Mexicans and its fight agains taxing the use of Internet

On Monday night Mexicans began to use a hashtag (#) on Twitter, #InternetNecesario, meaning "Internet is a Necessity". This hashtag was a form of protest against a new tax for telecommunications in Mexico, including Internet.

This hashtag pretends to show anger against this measure, since the Mexican government says this tax is made because Internet is a luxury, not a necessity. Mexicans who use the web to work, communicate, research, learn and many other uses disagrees with this idea.

According to the blog Isopixel, citing the World Bank, an increase of 10% in broadband availability has been shown to help developing countries to climb a 1.3 % of their Gross Domestic Product.

It's impossible not to see that Internet is a tool that makes information easily available, gives people a window to see what's outside their countries, and helps people to have all kind of opportunities they didn't have before because they can increase their education, their chances to do business, etc.

Why our government doesn't seem to see this? Because they are more concentrated in getting money for their particular agenda, but increasing taxes they only slow our economy. And taxing Internet is the worst kind of tax they have ever come up.

I hope this online protest has some influence in the lawmakers decision today, in my blog in Spanish (http://detras-de-mi-cristal.blogspot.com) I posted the letter that I wrote to one of this congressman (the one that represents my district) hoping more people protest and see that they are working for us, not against us.