Israel Vasquez Jr.

His name is Cristian Israel Vasquez, born Febuary 1st at 3:25 PM at 7lbs.

Here’s a quickslideshow, as you can tell by the pictures, i’ve been tired and havn’t had much time to post pictures but his website http://www.cristian.bz will be up soon!

My thoughts on his passing at http://www.belizemusic.bz

He was a great artist, and he will be missed by all Belizeans

Yes thats right!! Huge Football News!!! For Belize and For the Verdes.

Verdes Leading the League, Featured on UNCAF’s Home Page

you’ve heard right, somehow after a couple dissapointing losses and  some draws Verdes gained it’s rythm and are now serious contenders for the top spot in the league.  It all happened when they won over local rivals Santels 2-0, with two goals from Danny Jimenez. Then they went on to rally a win in Dangriga, and to the Revolutionary Conquerors no less (the Belize team that won the Honduran Champions, Real Espana), once again with a hat trick from Danny 3-2. You know whats scary is that this guy went on local TV and said he’d score 3.. how’d he do it? and against one of the most difficult teams in the league?  They then beat Suga Boys Juventus at home 2-1. Unfortunately i havn’t been able to go to all the games, but I’ve gone to the San Pedro Game, the Juventus game and to what i consider one of the most controversial and exciting game VS F.C. Belize at the MCC Grounds in Belize. The game ended with a tie of 2-2 with verdes rallying back from a 2-0 deficit. In the end of the game, the F.C Belize fans got violent and wanted to go after the Referees for a late penalty call in favor of the Verdes. It also ended in a sad note as Verdes’ Striker Danny Jimenez was escorted out by the police, this seemingly for  a non football issue.

It was a productive visit, as the Team’s Manager Sergio Chuc came up to me and asked if i had posted on about the Verdes on the Internet. After confessing that it was me, he gave me a heads up about the UNCAF article which is currently featured on the home page (http://uncaf.net/portal/modules/futbolmasculino/item.php?itemid=159 )  He also mentioned that its the first time UNCAF has featured a Belizean Team or the Leauge!! Way to go Verdes, another hightlight to add to their history books!! I also managed to get a chance to speak to him briefly about an offical website for the team, so look out for this .. It might be in the works soon!! In the Meantime the unoffical website is at http://www.verdes.bz   where you can leave your email to be notified when the site will be launched.

 Belize World Cup Qualifier VS Mexico? Strong Possibility!!

If we can manage to beat St. Kitts and Nevis that is!! I think  if the guys begin to train now, they can certainly have a good chance at trying to beat St. Kitts  & Nevis which ranks at 159 in the latest fifa rankings. If we do win the home and away series we get to play against the #1 concacaf team Mexico!! Wow, what an experience for the Belize Men’s National Team. what do you think we could try to upset Mexico like out neighbours Guatemala did? I think its highly unlikely but it doesn’t hurt to dream. For more on the WCQ draws visit the UNCAF site http://uncaf.net/portal/modules/futbolmasculino/item.php?itemid=160

Well being a big fan of football, i was looking forward to the start of the Belize Premier Football League season. My first glimpse of the season came via an ad in the amandala stating that this year there would be 9 teams competing:

F.C. Belize - Belize City (last year’s champion),  Suga Boys Juventus - Orange Walk, Hankook Verdes - San Ignacio (My Home team!!), Revolutionary Conquerors - Dangriga (last year’s subchampion, they also beat Honduras’ Champion Real Espana in the UNCAF Club Competiton), Wagiya - Dangriga, San Pedro Dolphins - San Pedro, Santel’s - San Ignacio (My other home team, which is actually from Santa Elena town), Belize Defence Force - Belize City, George Town Ibayani - Mango Creek.

The first scheduled games for the tournament were: Suga Boys Juventus vs Belize Defence Force - People’s Stad., Hankook Verdes vs Wagiya - Norman Broaster, Revolutionary Conquerors vs San Pedro Dolphins - Carl Ramos, F.C. Belize vs Santels - MCC Grounds.

My biggest debate for week 1 was whether to stay in Belize City and watch F.C. Belize Vs Santels, mostly because i wanted to see the Santel’s team in action after failing to do so last year, and also Marlon Meza, the Belizean Messi! Being a die hard Verdes fan, my other option was traveling to cayo to see the Verdes Vs Wagiya game. I opted for my second option.

Verdes Vs Wagiya 

I was disappointed that Verdes lost 2-1 and gave away valuable Home points in their first game, but i definitely wasn’t disappointed with the Level of game play. This year’s team seemed to be strengthened by foreign players, there was a new left wing 17 a tall kid from Panama, a Central Defender #20, and in the forward line there was a new Brazilian kid with stylish orange hair and orange boots! There was of course the local guys, the Jimenez Brothers, Cheetie, Danny and Landy. The mid seemed strengthened with the presence of veterans like Ricey and another veteran player. Shamir Pacheco and other last year players complemented the defense.

The first half wasn’t impressive, both teams were getting to know each other, and to add to that the field was wet and slippery the effects of a slight drizzle. Nonetheless the goals did come, Wagiya scored first after what seemed lack of mark by the new defender the panamanian #17. Verdes then rallied back with Danny scoring his first goal of the tournament with some assist to his strong volley coming from the slippery conditions of the field.  Then came the biggest blunder fo the game from the Verdes goalkeeper. failing to launch the ball, a nearby forward stole the ball from him and went ahead to score. I think if it wasn’t for this verdes would have managed to draw the game. The inexperience of the new young gaoley showed and verdes paid for this. Having lost last year’s Goal keeper Johnson to the Visiting Wagiya.

The second half was a different story, some noticeable effects of changes began to show. The #17 defender was changed for a local talented kid Humberto in the left back, he was impressive throughout the game and would constantly travel to the mid and provide nice passes to either Landy or Cheetie up front. The front was also strengthened with the appearance of Landy Jimenez.  The second half was completely Verdes domination. The visiting team was constantly under pressure by some good display of football skills by Verdes. In short this type of football was enjoyable to watch. So even if they didn’t win, they showed the potential to play good football. They only lacked the finishing touch.. the equalizer. For a die hard fan like me, this was the best thing next to a win, they went down, but played honorable and enjoyable football, what the Brazilians would call Jogo Bonito.

Their upcoming game is with the San Pedro Dolphins in San Pedro, after watching their first game, i’m seriously tempted to make the trip and watch them play the competitive dolphins. In other unofficial news, the other home team Santels tied with the defending champs F.C. Belize, 1-1, I wonder if Marlon “El Matador” Meza scored?

A 50 year old man once gave me this quote, after explaining that he had worked most of his life as a pharmacist, never married, and had no kids. He told me that what the phrase means is to be in control of your life, and thus your destiny. Doing what you love to do and being in control.

The phrase kept nagging at me and was in the back of my mind for a while. After a while i forgot about it… and went on with my daily living, working, eating, and paying bills.  

Right after my birthday, I basically had a panic attack, a nervous breakdown you could say. I felt that everything i was doing didn’t make sense, i was constantly stressing myself out with school, work, financial situations. So i decided to quit everything and take a break, after all i hadn’t taken a break for over 3 years, no vacation, and the past summer i had spent working straight through.

 I took some time off, went home rested a while, read a lot of books, and basically just tried to de-stress myself. When i felt that i was de-stressed, i came back to the city, and basically things began taking shape, and am currently working on some life plans i had always wanted to work on.

While i still got to work, i feel I have more flexibility now, with my current work situation, and also flexibility with school. I’m basically doing what I want to do. Then the phrase came back to me, being in heaven is basically doing what you want to do, being able to steer. If its not being in heaven, then at the very least steering your own path in life is the closest to heaven you’ll get. 

Ok, before all the flaming starts… lets just say that at least in my country Belize, there isn’t. Seriously though… speaking about web design as it’s traditionally thought of… i can safely say that the web design business is dead.

So how do i come to this conclusion? well for starters here’s a short list.

1. Everyone and Anyone who is somebody in the business and the internet world already has a website.

2. Those that don’t have, are looking to get on the internet: fast, cheap and easy. CHEAP being the keyword here.

3. Everybody and their mom knows or pretends to know how to make a website.

The list could go on, but lets start here by dissecting point number 1… do you know of any company serious about their business that doesn’t have a website? I could almost bet half of my paycheck that the answer is no. Everyone and their marketing department have realized the power that the internet holds and have either created, are in the process of finishing or relaunching their website. The chances of getting a major website design project is almost slim to none, especially if you’re not an established company in your current market. Chances are as slim as Peter from Family Guy losing weight!

CHEAP or BUDGET Website Design

So what about the other people who don’t have websites? well this mostly consists of small, tiny or minute companies trying to leverage the internet to maximize their business’ as most as possible. They want to do this with as little or no money if possible and they want to this NOW!! so whats the problem with that you’ll say? Yes, somebody needs to service this market, after all even fat and ugly girls need some loving huh? Well the problem lies in that these small websites can take up as much time as a large project. How is that possible? Clients are far more aware of the internet now that before, they know what is a website, they know what is HTML, they know what is a template. And they certainly don’t want a template. They want complete, customized designs and websites with all the bells and whistles for $500 or less. No Kidding!! I’d rather go sell Panades on the corner than do this! O.K. well, i won’t really sell panades but my theory is that doing customized websites for small business can take as much time as working on a large project. Especially if the client doesn’t have content, and takes forever in getting it together, and especially if you don’t have a tried and proven web development process. You can be my guest and go ahead and offer them a full customized package, throw in the content, web forms, menu’s, site search, search engine optimization and hosting…You’ll go broke in no time and will really think about opening that Panades shop instead.

My third and last point… for now, Everyone and their brothers, their mom or grandma’s pretend to know that they can build a website. Heck, there’s even one guy here in Belize advertising “Web Design Classes in Frontpage” in the newspapers. Yes you heard right, FRONTPAGE, Microsoft Frontpage. I thought they didn’t make that software anymore?? jajaja Anyways my point is there is so much competition, everyone is willing to have a go at it and hack together a couple pages, slap some graphics and pictures, charge as little as the price of a good coffee and say they’re web designers. This isn’t bad you will say, as the best will survive. Yes, but they’re diluting and misinforming the clients and market. They make promises of grandeur for very little money because they don’t know or are ignorant of the process of truly creating a professional, intuitive, standards compliant website. This then affects the real professionals as they have to live down to the expectations of the clients and charge far less what they would normally charge.

So why am i being so critical of the web design business, when I myself am in it and have been in it for a while now? Well I’m just giving you food for thought, something that has been in my mind for a while; which i came about thinking while me and my boss were having a meeting about Search Engine Optimization, and he made a comment about this being a difficult business. Darn right, i thought… but do we get out of it? NO, don’t get me wrong, i didn’t say their is no money to be made on the WEB. Just traditionally as web design is seen, there is none, that industry is dead. This doesn’t mean however there are not other ways of making money by doing web work. There are, plenty of people are doing so.

And how do you ask? wouldn’t you like to know! I’ll leave that for my upcoming post. For now, keep this in mind, Be innovative, be different, and most of all Be A Trusted adviser.

If you would like to send me comments, your opinions or even hate mail, please feel free to email: rasiel at gmail dot com.

Been a long while since i haven’t posted on this blog. Too busy, Too Lazy or a combination.

Today i feel the need to write, to speak out my frustrations. Though while i feel i’ve been productive at work, and i feel i’m getting more organized as we go along. Today i felt tired, as i sometimes feel. I feel a lack of energy, the want to quit, even before the day is over.

Is it cause i’m trying to do so much? I juggle various things at a time, that has always been a thing with me. I lead a busy life in all aspects. Now with an extension to the family, and complicating financial situations… i feel too much is enough. At times i feel like quiting, not work specifically, but quit trying… but at other times i convince i can only go ahead.

At 23, i would have loved to have seen myself, firmly grounded, with the least a Bachelor’s degree, A good job that i love, and financially stable. Instead i find myself still attempting to finish the degree, constantly struggling and juggling my finances, and while i do have a good job that i love, i feel i’m somewhat underestimated and overlooked at times.

Well i guess there’s nothing much i can do but Vent, … its either quiting everything and going to the ranch to chill, fish and swim or continuing the struggle. I guess its just the burned out me at the end of the week speaking.