A Special Day

Over the course of the last couple of days my social periscope, both inside and outside of the firewall, has been down for most of the time, as I have been fully immersed on the IBM Simplify Jam, jamming away, with still nearly 7 hours to go!, on trying to figure out ways to help untangle IBM’s complexity. So far it’s been quite an amazing experience that I am hoping to have an opportunity to blog more about it in its due course. However, for now, I thought I would go ahead and drop by over here and share this blog entry, seeing how the Social Web out there had other plans for me for today: “Happy Birthday, on St. Patrick’s Day!“, they have all been, rather kindly and warmly, wishing yours truly over the course of the last few hours. Well, yes! it’s St. Patrick’s Day, although it is *not* my birthday. I lied!

I lied, because Facebook taught me how to and why I needed to; I lied on my date of birth, because apparently it’s one of the two pieces of data that folks out there would need to know in order to be capable of stealing my identity and pretend to be who they are not. And Facebook has done a wonderful job in reminding me time and time again why I need to lie about my birthday date. Even though I no longer have got an active account in FB. So that’s why, out there on the Web, today is a special day for me. It’s not my birthday, but it still is a very special day!

That’s right! March 17th, 2004, was a rather cherished day for me. Still is today, 7 years later! On that date I decided to be re-born and come back to life once again. It was very much needed and I still haven’t figured it out why it took me so long to realise about it. Over the last couple of months, during that year, yours truly went through one of those lifetime changing experiences, while he was still working and living in The Netherlands, that surely makes you think about things in general. You know, that kind of experience you all know you need to go through once in your lifetime. That kind of experience that helps you switch your priorities to what really matters. I am sure most of you folks can relate to that, as I bet that most of you may have gone through something similar in the recent past. Or it will come up eventually.

Well, to me, it was March 17th, 2004, when I decided to come back home and live in Gran Canaria, Spain. Actually, it’s not really my hometown. That’s up in the northern part of Spain (León), but for a good number of years it’s felt like it was, as I kept coming back, year after year, on vacation, for a good number of reasons. And 7 years later, I still feel like the first day. That’s why to me, today is a rather special day, one where I plan to celebrate it big time, not only because it’s St. Patrick’s Day itself, but also because thanks to that decision back in 2004 I managed to get things straightened up a bit, helping me land in my dream job, amongst several other things, including in my own personal life, that most of you out there who know me in real life already know about to some extent; specially, if you have come along to pay me a visit and see various of those reasons that helped me, back in the day, land in such a place as this tiny, precious, mini-continent, island.

That’s why today, in such a special day, I wanted to recover back a blog post I shared over here as well over a year ago and which clearly comes to detail some of the various different reasons why I decided to come and move to Gran Canaria, and why, after 7 years of living over here, I am still enjoying it, just as much as I was from day one! And here is why:

Nearly 7 minutes of pure gold! Nearly 7 minutes that can pretty well translate to what my life experiences have been like over here in those last 7 years. It’s funny, isn’t it? They keep saying that 7 is a magical number, or so they tell me, so I guess today will even mark for a much more special celebration. Yes, the video clip is in Spanish, with Spanish subtitles, but there are plenty of versions of it in other languages. Here is the one in English “Choose a grand destination, Gran Canaria“, in case you would want to watch it in that language.

And if you would ever want to come along and pay a visit, know that I will be more than happy to host you and show you around what plenty of folks know as the wonder mini-continent: Gran Canaria. I bet you will be enjoying just as much as I do myself, every day. Yes, indeed, happy belated birthday to yours truly!

Thanks ever so much, everyone, for those wonderful birthday wishes! They mean a lot to me, specially, when this one is the last one of those “3s” I have been enjoying, over the last decade, quite a bit! Thanks everyone as well for being part of it!