San Antonio is hands down the most culturally unique major city in Texas. From the Riverwalk, to the Tower of the Americas, San Antonio has multiple varied distinguishing landmarks. But what has ultimately defined these landmarks is the rich history behind them all, and their ties back to San Antonio history. KENS 5, my favorite local news station recently went HD, and for about a week they were running promos and teasers just like the one below:

I'm a kid -- and being that I'm a kid one of my most frequented sites if Facebook (if not Change.gov). Facebook is perhaps one of the best social networks out on the web if not for it's elegance, or web 2.0 sheen, but because it's navigation and framework are simple, and because there aren't superfluous features that no one is going to use buried within menus upon menus.

I have to admit that I started off as a "MySpace whore." I was a seventh grader who had decided to talk to his friends outside of school more often and use other means of communication besides his cell phone. MySpace was ok for about a year and then I noticed myself slowly and slowly stop using it. Mostly, because the friends that I had built up over the past year were attending a different school (I moved -- and moved schools). At that point, I had no time for MySpace nor Facebook.

It was only about four months ago, at the beginning of this school year that I really began to utilize MySpace even more as the friends that I was now making in high school would be with me for the next four years, and I would like to build long-term relationships for years to come (wow, that sounds really deep). But, as I began to utilize MySpace somewhat back to the extent which I had used it in seventh grade (heck, sending bullitens on MySpace helped fuel my web-strategy while running for class president), I didn't seem to be getting enough out of it. Pages took too long to load, I had become self-obsessed in getting the code just right for my profile to look just the way I wanted it to, and the ads plastered all over the site were just annoying and I really wanted to get back to a simpler time! (See photo below)

With all of these ads out of the way, I turned to the only other widely used social network among my college friends, Facebook. Granted, I started off with just a few college friends, and a few CNETers, but my friend base eventually grew to include the majority of my friends from Comm. Arts! Turns out that when you go to a magnet school where kids are extremley tech-savvy, and are die-hard Apple fanboys/girls, they're more likely to use Facebook.

This year, thanks to NORAD, my sister and I were able to track Santa in Google Earth! It was great being able to have a constantly updated KML feed with Santa flying from major city to major city. Perhaps the best part was it felt like you were a top-secret government agency spying on somebody and about to engage in a covert mission, when really you're just an average joe tracking everybody's favorite holiday icon. This is great -- the power and ease of use of Google Earth really gives somebody this feeling, and I'm super excited to have been able to share it with my sister and the rest of my family this holiday season.

Did you track Santa?

I uploaded this late last night (around 2:25AMish), and never got around to writing a post about it because I fell asleep. Well, here goes:

From the YouTube Page:

It's officially Christmas, and Richard would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas to all!

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View other episodes of the vlog at richardescobedo.blip.tv, or for all of Richard's videos, log onto www.youtube.com/richardescobedo

I would like to welcome my cousin's Angel and Veronica to the blogosphere! I got them both signed up for Twitter, and they have both been addicted to it for the longest time. More recently, during Thanksgiving Angel signed up for a blog over at Blogger, and she's been utilizing it quite a bit. I even made her a nice header:

• Check out her blog over at angelelaine.blogspot.com
• You can also follow her on Twitter - Her username is "AngelElaine"

Now it was just today that I found out that Veronica signed up for a Blogger account and unfortunately I don't have a blog header for her just yet -- but don't worry, she's already "tricked it out' with some musical styling from The Cutest Blog on the Block. The best I can do for now is a quick screenshot:

• Take a look at her blog over at whenwehearoursongontheradio.blogspot.com
• You can also follow her on Twitter - Her username is "Melwanders"

Capturing parts of your screen in OS X is super easy -- and with the ability to select a certain portion of the screen, an icon, the dock, or practically whatever you want, this ability comes in handy quite frequently. I figured since I do capture so many things on my screen weekly, I'd share a few of them with you. The following pictures are in no specific order, and I don't exactly remember what day I took them on... but anywho, enjoy!

Hands down this has to be my favorite screen cap from the entire week! It's from CafePress' Homepage, and it features T-shirt designs ranging from insulting Rod Blagojevich shirts to poking fun at the President-Elect and the soon-to-be First Lady (No pun intended). Hands down, the CafePress is very creative and not afraid to speak their mind!

 

http://vlog.richard-escobedo.com - The weather is everything but Christmas-like in San Antonio, as Richard rants about global warming. And no, he does not mention the weather... at home, anyway.

If you don't know, my brother is currently in Boot Camp (Marine Corps Boot Camp, that is) at MCRD in San Diego, CA. I wish him the best, and to all of the other men and women serving have a great holiday season.

A California court recently ruled that good samartians who act as the lady in the situation mentioned in the video are not governed nor protected by California's Good Samaritan law.

This BUGS ME.
Why is that only in America, people go un-punished for murder, yet when you try to help someone in a situation in which they are clearly helpless, they can turn around and sue you for negligence.  I am profoundly disturbed, and somewhat scared to know how this precedent will affect future cases of this nature. I personally wouldn't care whether or not I wound up paralyzed if somebody saved my life. I value my life much much more than I do the ability to move. Don't get me wrong, I covet this gift, and am very grateful that nothing has been done to compromise this and understand how much something like this could potentially change a person's life.

Bottom line, I would want somebody to do the exact same thing for me regardless of how it would leave me in the future.

Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and I as a somebody who has the ability to move all parts my body clearly cannot understand nor comprehend the feeling that somebody who is paralyzed is enduring. But, what ultimately ticks me off is how they're doing it for financial gain. Money is not going to make things better, money is not going to give you the ability to walk again. What will it do? Well, I'm not sure, but personally it's just wrong and it's ultimately taking advantage of the system.

What are your thoughts on this? Comment or e-mail me. 

Immaculee Ilibagiza shares her miraculous escape from the genocide in Rwanda and how faith helped her get through the ordeal. This is just another  anecdote of how profoundly terrible the Genocide in Rwanda was.