Happy Birthday to this,
Happy Birthday to this,
Happy Birthday to The Pompomist,
Happy Birthday to this.

Today The Pompomist celebrates its 2nd year anniversary. Even with my moving moratorium, readers have stayed loyal and I'm quite pleased with that.

Thank you for visiting and hope you come by for more!

Time Magazine recently published a very interesting article about the next 10 newspapers to fold or go online only. The Miami Herald is part of the list. This due especially to the drastic decrease of real estate advertisement. But worst case scenario it will remain online in English and Spanish.

Looks like they'll be around for a while.

A lot of stuff happened very quickly in March, and here’s the basic gist: I moved to New Jersey.

Sure, I had some idea that I wanted to move out of Miami, but this was something I wanted to do sometime in the near future, not in 12 days! But certain job opportunities within my company required for me to relocate immediately... March 9th to be exact. So after 13 magnificent years, I moved out of Miami.

But this doesn’t mean that I will never be back. Heck, I’ll be back in April to help my mother move to her new condo. And then again for Mother’s day. And then again possibly for my birthday, and over the holidays at the end of the year.

The last week in Miami and the first week in Jersey were rough. I slept about 4-5 hours a night, falling asleep after hours in bed, waking up occasionally, and then going back to bed and waking up hours before my alarm went off. But now things are slowly back on track... adapting slowly but surely.

It was no easy move, but ultimately easier than most. I moved to NJ/NYC… cities that I’ve been visiting monthly for as long as I can remember, where I have a lot of friends, where I have my father and siblings, and where I’m able to continue with the same job.

Plus life in NJ/NYC is superb: the bright NYC skyline from my father’s home in NJ, and in there, two million people on a tiny island. In there, they are living, they are eating, they are drinking, sleeping (and doing it too, haha), and in there some of my friends and relatives, my past construction projects, my museums, my bars, my walks.

I am missing Florida tremendously but I believe this change will be good for me physically, emotionally, mentally and professionally.

God knows very well what He’s doing.

Moving from Miami to New Jersey. This site will resume late this week, so stay tuned!

Thank you for your patience.

I actually re-discovered Roxy Music recently through a friend. To be honest with you, some of their songs are 'Holy molly! That's fenomenal!'. Other songs are mediocre.

This song in particular is one of the best rock songs I've ever heard. Just listen to the lyrics, the instrumentation... perfect to blast on the iPod or while driving.

I know, I know. The video is from 1974 and the band looks like they're ready for a Halloween party, but you know what? No matter what anyone says, I'm cool and awesome.

The New: 'Missing' - Beck

Beck is the master of music creativity and this song is from the 2005 album ‘Guero’. It’s laid back, smooth, atmospheric, and almost latin-flavored. Totally infectious.

Interesting New York Times article about scientific objectivity and political advocacy published a few days ago:

But climate change, like most political issues, isn’t so simple. While most scientists agree that anthropogenic global warming is a threat, they’re not certain about its scale or its timing or its precise consequences (like the condition of California’s water supply in 2090). And while most members of the public want to avoid future harm from climate change, they have conflicting values about which sacrifices are worthwhile today.

A scientist can enter the fray by becoming an advocate for certain policies, like limits on carbon emissions or subsidies for wind power. That’s a perfectly legitimate role for scientists, as long as they acknowledge that they’re promoting their own agendas.

But too often, Dr. Pielke says, they pose as impartial experts pointing politicians to the only option that makes scientific sense. To bolster their case, they’re prone to exaggerate their expertise (like enumerating the catastrophes that would occur if their policies aren’t adopted), while denigrating their political opponents as “unqualified” or “unscientific.”

Read the full article here.

Vivian Jin from WE Design informed us about their recently launched conceptual design competition in an attempt to rebuild a Chinese school in Sichuan province after the earthquake disaster last year.

WE Design is a non-for-profit organization of professional designers, architect, curator, artists, scholars, design students and business executives concerned with China's contemporary design development.

WE Design invites you to participate in this competition. It is open for designers and students with background of architecture, masterplan, interior, product design, fashion design and art. Click on the PDF competition poster to find out more.

The submission deadline for the Sichuan School International Conceptual Design Competition is 20 March 2009, so get the ball rolling!

To learn more about WE Design, visit their website at

http://www.wedesigngroup.com/

Don't understand the stimulus package recently approved by the senate? Here at The Pompomist, we are suckers for informational graphics. And the Washington Post has posted an excellent one that'll leave no questions unanswered.

Click the image for access.

The set-up is simple: a book, a lamp and a laptop. As soon as you open the book under the lamp, the pages take on a new animated dimension on the screen.

It doesn't have the same charm as a real pop-up book, but the end result is impressive nonetheless.

Via Cuarto Derecha

Today is Valentine’s Day: a day of romanticism and consumerism. Some people (mainly singles) dislike this day because is a reminder of their current romantic relationship status (or lack thereof). I personally don’t feel anything about it, but one thing is true and I think you’ll agree with me: this day is a celebration of love.

Yes, I’m single, but I’ve got love... not the romantic kind, but I'm loved by friends and family nonetheless.

As far as relationships go, I wouldn’t mind having a beautiful, fun and comfortable relationship. Having someone’s company and physical attention would be wonderful, as long as is not one of those suffocating, overwhelming, dramatic, no room to breathe relationships.

Maybe that’s the reason why I’m single: the fear of a consuming relationship. But I personally think is good to know what you want and don’t want in life.

I must admit that I get a little jealous when I see my friends in great relationships. Being perfect for each other and getting along real well… I’d love that. But the truth of the matter is, I’ve got love and I am in no rush of being in a relationship. That’ll come at the right time and when it happens, I’ll welcome it.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here at The Pompomist, a drug free magazine, we thrive to give you our most honest opinion on ads from around the globe.

Take a close look at this not-so-bright ad from Skoal. Here’s the scenario: three chicks looking at three dudes who came up with the stupid idea of jumping vigorously from a yacht to a shallow mass of water ('cause you know... water has to be shallow so the advertiser can display the girls’ bikinis).

I don’t know about you but I predict very serious injuries.

My favorite part of this cute commercial is the man adjusting the mirror at 0:43. Neat!

Ordos 100 project is a development of 100 villas located on Ordos, Mongolia. Each villa was designed by an architecture firm chosen by celebrity architects Herzog and de Meuron. The designers were asked to design a villa measuring of 1,000 sq. meters (or 10,763 sq. ft.).

This particular villa was designed by Multiplicities, a New York City based design firm. The structure is oval-shaped in plan with curved exterior walls made from black brick. The ovular form, called the Black Skin by Multiplicities, is bisected by an X-shaped central void that they call the ‘White Lung’ made from white quartz. All of the interior spaces are organized around this X-shaped void.

This design is product of some very interesting section drawings.

Via Sub-Studio

This month is Barbie's 50th birthday. She has gone through a lot of criticism for offering girls an unrealistic image of a modern woman. She inspired eating disorders, powerful careers, a closet full of the trendiest clothes, a metrosexual boyfriend and no interest on getting married or have children. Reason why barbie looks pretty good for a woman of her age.

Universcale is a really cool (Nikon-sponsored) web-based flash animation, that presents the relative scale of everything from the universe down to the smallest particles. Click on the image above to access.

Via Grow-a-Brain