Two jobs

For those of you following closely embeddedrelated and the other related sites, you might have noticed that I have been less active for the last couple of months, and I will use this blog post to explain why. The main reason is that I got myself involved into a project that ended up using a better part of my cpu than I originally thought it would.

edit - video of the event:

I currently have two jobs: one as an electrical/dsp engineer recycled as a web publisher and the other as a parent of three kids. My job as a web publisher affords me a lot of flexibility with my schedule, which I am really thankful for as it helps me do a much better job as a parent.

Last year I decided to join the after-class program of the school attended by my daughters to teach, as a volunteer, a basic gymnastic class to a group of 15 kids (including my daughters - of course). I used to be a gymnast myself, so it made sense to me to share my love of this sport with a group of children.

When I introduced the class to the kids, I said we would try to put together a small show at the end of the school year, to be presented in front of the whole school, so their friends could see how much they improved.

Then spring came, and although the gymnasts-to-be had improved quite a bit considering the limited means and time that we had, they were not really good enough to come up with a gymnastics-only show that would impress their friends.

So my wife and I started to think about how we could do some kind of show with the kids, that could use some of their newly acquired gymnastics abilities, but without making gymnastics the focus. And that's how we came up with the idea of doing a clown show.

So we started practicing some funny routines with the kids and my wife shopped tirelessly to find costumes for all the 15 little clowns.

We did the show in front of the whole school last June and it was a success. So much that the school principal asked us to consider doing it again in the fall. The kids were very enthusiastic at the idea of performing again and we liked the idea of improving the show, creating some decors, and maybe raising some money for a good cause?

We jumped and decided to go for a couple of presentations on November the 17th. We printed 800 tickets and started to sell them to friends and families. All the profits would go to the local hospital and the fight against cancer.

We managed to sell more than 700 tickets, for a profit of $2,700 that went to the Tree of Hope.

Everything went smoothly and it seems like everybody who bought a ticket had a good time (except maybe for one baby who kept crying during the second show - maybe I scared her a bit with my clown outfit).

Now that we are done with this project, you will start hearing from me again on a more regular basis - as I plan to launch many new sections/features for the *related sites in the near future.

Here are a few photos of the event.

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