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Handling uncertainty

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I hadn't noticed how flexible I tend to be regarding uncertainty, and how much of that is due to my upbringing.  Don't get me wrong: I don't like knowing whether my plans will work either, but I don't let it worry me, since I'm too busy doing those things I can actually do.

Maybe it has to do with growing up in a society where not everything is provided "as is", and you have to learn to improvise as you go.  The problem with Mexicans is that they (we) tend to improvise too much, while others are much more inflexible.

Makes things interesting, that's for sure.

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FIFA date wrap-up

Finland 0-2 Serbia

Horrible game by the sinivalkoiset.  Serbia deservedly won at the Finnair stadium.  Finland's midfield couldn't create any meaningful plays and resorted to that old trick of desperate teams: the long ball.  When your best hope of winning a Euro 2008 qualifier is an out of form 36-year old (regardless of whether his name is Jari Litmanen) you know you're in real trouble.

Belgium 1-2 Portugal

The third defeat in a row for the diables rouges means they are also out of contention for a spot at next summer's tournament.  Belgium visits Helsinki next Wednesday, where both teams will be thinking about the road to South Africa already as they have nothing to fight for.

Mexico 4-0 Iran

The Mexicans, playing without some of their key Europe-based players, beat comfortably an also incomplete Persian team at San Luis Potosí.  This match, in preparation for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa América, also served as the presentation with el Tri of Uruguayan-Mexican striker Nery Castillo with the team, putting an end to speculation that he could play for Greece (where he plays) or Uruguay (where he grew up) instead.

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Last.fm review

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You may know by now that Last.fm was recently bought by CBS.  I confess to being quite a late adopter of the service, even though I had heard about it many times before.  In my case, when I was working, I didn't have time to listen to music on my PC so often, and when I started studying my internet connection was really bad.  Now both conditions are set, and I've started using last.fm (my profile here). 

The whole idea of the service is very simple: just continue listening to your music, and we'll make a profile.  With that information we are able to show you other artists that you might like, connect you to other people that share your musical tastes, and even allow you to stream the music you like in your webpage, blog, MySpace or Facebook profile.  You can even look for concerts near your area (I've found a couple I didn't know about that I'm now planning to attend).

There are a couple of things that I haven't yet found out how to do, that bother me a little.  The first one was just adding all the times I've previously listened to a song in iTunes before adding the last.fm application, as I think that would have helped to build a much more accurate profile.  The second one, which I believe is possible but haven't yet tried, is adding (scrobbling) the tracks played in my iPod.

If you listen to your own music often and would like to find more, this is really worth trying.

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The gap between X & Y

I know that Wikipedia cannot always be taken seriously or as more than a gateway to further original references, but I found this entry that ties in with my previous post.  It attempts to define a gap generation that crosses the chasm between Generation X & Generation Y.  That's exactly where I am, as I was born between 1974 & 1985.

One thing that really struck me is that it mentions that the musical tastes of people in this category tend to match those of Generation X, but their attitude towards life, work and everything else tends to match those of Generation Y.  For most of those issues, I either declare myself guilty as charged or know plenty of people who fulfill that criteria.

Still my largest source of anticipation is how will workplaces cope with the differences in values between those currently about to retire and those currently entering the workforce.  The next 15 years will be very, very interesting.

I recommend to read the articles quoted as sources of the Wikipedia entry.

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Attracting the twentysomething worker

Found this article at Lies' blog, and it is very, very interesting.

Maybe some of the difficulties I had at work before were due to this generational differences.  Maybe it was just differences in character and objectives, but nevertheless I found it really insightful, as some of my work colleagues behave the same way.

Regardless of what the article says, no, I don't involve my parents in absolutely every decision in my life.  They raised me to be independent.  And yes, I'm getting married soon, so that also goes against the trend explained there (then again, I'm 26, which is closer to the current average age of marriage in the States).