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Showing posts from February, 2007

Texas Association of Builders BBQ

Texas Association of Builders BBQ , originally uploaded by shainelee . The Texas Association of Builders threw together this big event. The food smells delicious, but the line is incredible. I'm better off buying lunch than waiting for a free one. There is much to do today. UPDATE: I forgot we had lasagna in the fridge. I microwaved it and had it for lunch.

No burn

My first stop, after breakfast, was at the committee coordinator's office. Last night's recording did not burn right on the CD. I could not get the CD to play back this morning. It's not a loss. The hearings are recorded on hard drive before burning. They can hook up to the recorder and burn another copy. Last night I noticed my keyboard was gone. I learned this morning that it was intentional to prevent problems. I don't think the keyboard and CD problem are related. I've had a few CDs fail to burn properly at home, they now function as coasters.

The first of many

The first of many , originally uploaded by shainelee . Tonight was the first of what I expect will be many long days at work. Roughly, it was a 14 hour day. The morning was pretty exciting as we prepared for upcoming appointments and Rep Peña's activities for the day. I kind of got sucked into Committee work earlier than expected, but I suppose the need was there. We did what needed doing. The hearing ended a while ago, but the committee work is not done. We have to start preparing for next week already. So far, we have over 200 bills in the criminal jurisprudence committee. Given the amount of time available before the end of session, there is no way we can hear all of them. Tonight, the Chairman mentioned setting up subcommittees to allow a hearing for as many bills as possible. I agree that the need is there. What immediately comes to my mind is that it will complicate the process of organizing the hearings. We would have to juggle multiple timetables to perform certain

AARP for utility Reform

AARP for utility Reform , originally uploaded by shainelee .

Going to BarCampAustin II

I recently got an email from Jennifer Navarrete of the Morning Brewcast . She alerted me to an event that will be held here in Austin on March 9th and 10th. I think I'll be attending. Here are some copy and pasted details. Bar Camp Austin II - March 9th-10th 2007 BarCampAustin II will be held around SXSW Interactive in March 2007. whurley is currently making venue arrangements and looking for sponsors. If you know any individuals/projects/companies that would be interested in helping support this event, please send contact info to barcamp at whurley.com I'm not 100% certain what BarCamp is, except it has geeky undertones. Naturally, it beckons for me to attend. It's tech related and that's enough for me.

St. Mary's

St. Mary's Originally uploaded by darkmarty .

Questioning Faith

St. Mary's Originally uploaded by darkmarty . Recently, Rep. Peña posted a blog entry about the discovery of a tomb that is said to contain the remains of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary (his mother), and the son of Jesus and Mary M. If this is true, which I don't know if it is or isn't, then I think many people will find themselves questioning their faith, or not. I guess it depends on how you believe. Let's just say that we can conclusively prove that Jesus et al were in that tomb; and we can prove it through DNA evidence. I'm not saying that it has been proven or that it will be. I'm saying, let's just play out the scenario. I've had issues with this in the past. I can see the possibilities in my mind's eye. There will be those who refuse to accept the truth and will call this a trick of the Devil. There will be those who will be devastated for having believed in Christ's death and resurrection, only to find out that it never happened.

Headed for Austin

Headed for Austin , originally uploaded by shainelee . After another pleasant day with my family, I'm back on the road to Austin. Today, I spent some time helping my mom pick out a computer at Best Buy and then installing it. She just signed up for Road Runner and her old WinMe computer could not cope with the demands of broadband acess. I also networked the connection so that Mrs Mata can share the Internet connection. One of the computers is connected through ethernet; the other has a wireless connection. Once all that was done, Mom got onto YouTube, which was almost impossible on dial-up. My job was done. I spent my last hours with my in-laws. We celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday at Danny's in Sharyland. Afterwards, i picked up some of my meager belongings from home and hit the road.

Time with my people

Time with my people , originally uploaded by shainelee . It is always a pleasure to spend time with my people. The day started slow. There was no rush to get out of bed in the morning. I spent some time with the boy and the girl. Mrs Mata and I have done a couple errands together. The great thing about this visit home is that t weather got its act together and gave us a glorious day. We essentially hung out at home until the afternoon when we went to a family birthday party. My son had a little incident in which he got whacked in the head with a piñata stick. Poor little guy was going to cry but I distracted him with the candy that fell. He occupied himself picking up candy while I observed the lump on his head. I sent the daughter for some ice. He'll be fine. After the party, we went to my in-laws to pick up the van. He knows a guy who did the bearings and breaks for $40. Total cost was $100. I took the van for a test drive and am satisfied with the result. The day was so

Catching up with events

I haven't had time to blog lately. I'm off on a little personal time today, so I thought I'd catch you up on the latest. We had our first criminal jurisprudence hearing on Tuesday. I helped in the preparation and clean-up. During the hearing, I witnessed all the testimony as I have a front row seat by virtue of operating the audio recorder and keeping a log of witnesses. Up in the Chairman's office, things are much the same. There are many calls, many visitors, and much work to do. I've been saving money left and right. I'm going home again this weekend. I'm in a win-win deal where I brought a car up to be serviced and I left mine to be serviced back home. That sounds odd, but it works out well for all involved. While I was home, Mrs Mata pointed out that I'm a little squishier around the middle. I'm going to have to practice a little more self-restraint at the receptions. All-you-can-eat is not the same as eat-all-you-can. I have heard several sugg

Home for the weekend

I can feel the pace picking up at the Capitol. Things are starting to get busier, especially with the Committee. I spent yesterday getting stuff to make packets for the upcoming hearing. I spent considerable time getting a badge to allow me to purchase supplies and copies on the committee account. Sensing the increased pace, I realize that some things will fall by the wayside if I don't attend to them now. One of them being visiting my family. I decided to take a gamble and drive home with the noisy wheel bearing. After work, I hit the road without stopping at the apartment. I topped off the tank at Wal-Mart and bought some nuggets to tide me over on the drive. Before leaving Austin, I called my roommate to let him know I'm going home lest he worry I've disappeared. The reason I decided to gamble getting stranded is that I've often held back because of what "might" happen. I figure that if anything is worth the risk, it is seeing my people. I am also concerned

Getting outta here

Getting outta here , originally uploaded by shainelee . I'm heading out of the office now. I was doing a little preparation to be ready for my work on the CJ committee. Gina, our committee clerk, split up the duties amongst herself, Anne, and me. We have clearly defined duties and responsibilities. In my case we have settled on split duties between the Rep Pena's office and the committee. I'll be doing half days at each. Talk about getting a great opportunity. The only aspect of legislation I won't experience is being a rep myself. I've mentioned before that I'd rather shoot my dog than be an elected official. Back to the point, I'm getting a well-rounded experience in this session by working both offices. NOTE: I fell asleep typing this in bed last night.

Damian stop spying on me

Damian stop spying on me , originally uploaded by shainelee . I saw this note on a window while returning to the office today.

Different Mindset

I look forward to working in the Committee Office later today. It requires a different mindset from working in the member's office. In the member's office, work is basically reactionary. Individual pieces of data come in and you deal with them individually. Different inputs require any number of different outputs. The committee office is different. You have, essentially, the same item coming in daily and produce the same outputs. This allows for some processing efficiency. You can take random, staggered inputs and produce batched outputs. Each item gets individual attention, but in a dependable, organized fashion. I'll be jumping back and forth between offices for now and will work with both environments. The contrast should be stimulating.

Clerk Too

That title was a pathetic attempt to allude to one of my favorite movies, Clerks II. My other favorite is Clerks. The whole point of my feeble effort is to share the news that I'll be working with the Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence more closely. Due to the volume of bills expected to come through, Gina wants to be sure I'm up to speed when it comes time to have all hands on deck. I'm glad to be able to help out. Gina, the Committee Clerk, and I share a common vision to establish a system to brainlessly get bills processed without error, much less a point of order. I am glad to have the opportunity to work with somebody who understands setting up and working with systems. I told her that it gives me a warm feeling in my heart. Gina understands teamwork. My current job as scheduler is up in the air. I refused to call the Rep "Mr Chairman" and kiss his ring, so it's off to the salt mines for me. Seriously, we have not settled on it yet. Being a House staffer

Mission Grapefruit

Mission Grapefruit , originally uploaded by shainelee . Isaac, Ed, and Gabe from Rep. Kino Flores's Office are preparing to distribute grapefruit this morning. They brought two truckfuls. Later, we had other people stop by the office with more gifts from Mission.

Caught between two systems

Caught between two systems , originally uploaded by shainelee . Yesterday, we focused a bit on getting the first CrimJur Committee Meeting going successfully. It only took a day for a pile of work to build up on my desk. I was fried last night after the Mission Day Reception at the DoubleTree; I wasn't up to working on the pile. It's the sort of thing you do when you are full of energy. I got to work around 6:30 this morning and started working. There is a GTD wiki I've been using. GTD is a system by David Allen that allows you stress-free productivity. This isn't some sort system you buy for $300 and use out of guilt for paying so much. Allen lays out the system in his book, Getting Things Done. It's up to you how you implement. Going back to my original train of thought, I've been using a client-based wiki that uses the GTD methodology (it was free at tiddlyspot.com). It fits me very well. My only concern is that it is in one giant html file and is no

Mission Day at the Capitol

Veronica de la Fuente , originally uploaded by shainelee . The photo seen here is Veronica de la Fuente. She is the Governmental Relations person for Hidalgo County. We met this evening at the Mission Day at the Capitol reception. This is the only good photo I got at the reception because the lights were dimmed in the room. My phone doesn't do too well in low light. In any case, I am from Mission, Texas. The closest rep to where I live is Rep. Kino Flores; however, I live in Rep. Veronica Gonzalez's district. And, I work with Rep. Aaron Peña. Being that my hometown was present, I could not miss this event. It seems that several Reps could not miss the event either. We had, at last count, about 7 Reps present. Senator Hinojosa was busy in Committee, so regrettably, he could not attend. I should not be, but I still am surprised that Mission is able to attract so much attention to themselves despite being a small town. I guess I'm biased, but I love my home town. Tomo

House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence

House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence , originally uploaded by shainelee . This is the view as I headed out of the room. I decided to take one last photo of the Committee.

Testifying before the committee

Testifying before the committee , originally uploaded by shainelee . I sat in on the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence for a while and listened to witnesses. It was interesting, but I decided to go back to the office and watch from the computer. This was the committee's first meeting of the session.

Texas Police Chiefs

Texas Police Chiefs , originally uploaded by shainelee . This morning while doing errands to get the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence ready for its first meeting, I came across this group of Police Chiefs from around the state posing for a photo. They were posing for another person, I just walked by and took a shot between takes.

New Food

This evening, Alex and I went to Dobie Mall for a bite to eat. He wanted to eat Chinese, so I remembered that there was a Chinese restaurant there years ago. The closest we found was Oma's Kitchen, which has been there many years too. Except they don't serve Chinese food. I did notice that they have kimchee soup. I don't like kimchee all that much; however, a soup made with it was intriguing. I fully expected to dislike the soup too. This soup was served with a side of steamed rice and extra, cold, kimchee and bean sprouts. I loved it. If I weren't stuffed, I'd have finished everything. The cold kimchee was still nasty, but the soup brought a smile to my face. I love spicy, hot foods. It even made my nose athletic; it started running more than mere sniffles. It's just a short walk to the UT Campus from the Capitol. I'm definitely going back to try more dishes. Dobie has an Indian restaurant and a Greek restaurant. There's other stuff; but those are my ta

I think I'm getting sick

I think I'm getting sick , originally uploaded by shainelee . Today was a good day in terms of the number of visitors who came in and the quality of work I did. Even my Rep was cooperative in working with the schedule. This was a good Monday, mostly. The only downer is that I am getting sick. It started off with irritated eyes and sniffles. I've worked up to a slight dry cough and more snot. I would take pseudoephedrine, but I hear that it's tough to get these days. I will have my revenge by sharing my illness with the very people who made up the rules that make it difficult for me to feel better. I believe in fairness; we should all be miserable.

Ready to Go Riding

Trek 4500 , originally uploaded by GuySwarbrick . On my last trip back to the Rio Grande Valley, I brought my bike with me. It's a Trek 4500 mountain bike. You may be thinking, are there any mountains in the RGV? No, it's a valley. There are, however, places where you can go riding to hurt yourself. I have issues with riding in traffic and prefer to ride on trails. I haven't been riding since I brought the bike to Austin because I did not bring my helmet, light, or a lock. I could have just bought the lock, but I have a prodigious talent for falling (flying?) off my bike. Thus, a helmet is useful. Also, at the time that I intend to ride, it's still dark, hence the light. If I go riding later in the morning, I'll be in the morning traffic, which is more excitement than I want. One of my challenges for riding to work was that I did not know where to park my bike. I asked House Parking, and they told me where I could put my bike. It's near the exit I norma

Easy Saturday

I did nothing today. Just stayed at the apartment and watched TV. I woke up at 4 this morning and could not go back to sleep. By the early evening, I've been dragging a bit. I'm turning in early. I was going to see our Chief of Staff, James, at a gig he and the band he plays with had tonight, but I'm just not motivated to do anything. Early this morning, I spoke with Mrs. Mata. She would like it if I go home this coming weekend. She says the kids are a bit affected by my absence as well. They would also like it if I were to go home for a weekend. It's a bad business decision to mess with the budget like that; however, I care for these people and would like to provide them the comfort of having me home for a weekend. If anybody is headed to the Rio Grande Valley this weekend, I would appreciate sharing a ride there and back. Alternativly, if anybody knows where I can change a wheel bearing cheaply in Austin, that would also help. I don't feel comfortable taking a lon

Edinburg Day

We started off Edinburg Day by meeting in the Rotunda. The plan was originally to meet on the South steps of the Capitol, but it was raining in the morning. Some of the Edinburg delegation took a tour of the Capitol while others went to see a Senate Finance hearing. Later, everybody gathered up in the gallery of the House Chamber to see the Edinburg Day resolution get adopted. Before adopting that Resolution, however, Rep. Peña adopted a resolution for Elias Longoria, Sr, a well-respected member of the Edinburg community. Some of Mr. Longoria's family was present to witness the resolution being adopted. Afterwards, Rep. Peña and Rep. Gonzalez adopted the Edinburg Day resolution. I stole a quick pic while the Senator and Reps were posing with people from Edinburg. They were posing for the Senate photog, not me. This is why they are not looking at my camera. From the Senate Chamber, we went out for a group photo of the entire Edinburg delegation. It took some time to get everybody to

El Paso Day

Last night, I went to the Margarita Madness reception held for El Paso Day at Serranos . This reception was up there with the Reception for Laredo Day. It was huge! I met a lot of people who I had not met before, which is the mark of a good reception. Of course, there were plenty of the other people whom I have come to know from these events. In the previous post, the Farias boys recognized me from the blog, which amazes me that anybody reads this. So, I took their pic and posted it. In any case, the reception had a huge turnout. The margarita lines were very long. I'm going to post some pics I took on my phone. Some aren't that great, but what do you expect from a camera phone? Here is Rep. Chavez. It's not the most flattering pic, and I apologize for that. She and the gentleman next to her were moving around and my other pics had blurs or looked worse. These are other Border Reps, Guillen, Gonzalez, and Peña. Here is Philip Song. I met him the other day at the McAllen Day

The Farias Boys

The Farias Boys , originally uploaded by shainelee . I met these gentlemen tonight at the El Paso Day Reception. It was Margarita Madness all the way. Seen here are Clifton Walker, roger garza, and David Shank.

Highs and Lows

Highs and Lows , originally uploaded by shainelee . I'm starting this post on the low note because I'd rather end on a high one. There's no sense feeling bummed out after blogging. So, here goes. This morning, I dropped the ball on a couple of things. I won't give you the details because it involves more than just me. Furthermore, the details don't add anything more to the basic fact that I messed up. Some people can't admit to making mistakes, which makes it impossible to learn a lesson and do better. In my case, I'll accept that I messed up. In my experience, leaders don't shift the blame to their team. Having been a boss, I know that when we fell short of expectations, it was my fault for not doing a better job of preparing us for the task. I consider myself a leader of sorts in this session, so it is incumbent upon me to accept responsibility. You know the rule, share the glory and take all the blame. Leadership is about serving your team (n

McAllen Day

Alex and James , originally uploaded by shainelee . Today is McAllen Day at the Capitol. Many McAllen leaders are up in Austin to share McAllen's Legislative Agenda. We had the good fortune of attending a Luncheon they put together and will rejoin the group tonight for their reception. Here is our intern, Alex Hernandez, and our Chief of Staff, James Lampley. They are holding a frame given to the office by the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, we think.

Bringing the Family With Me

babyhomer , originally uploaded by shainelee . Mrs. Mata and I were chatting on the phone the other night. We do that because we are married and, even after 12 years, we fancy each other. I raised the topic that our being apart this time around is different from the one time years ago when we were recently married and I came back to Austin to go to school at UT. What is different this time around is that we used to talk on the phone once a week, ten years ago. Long distance calling was expensive. The best rate was from Sprint at 10 cents per minute. So, for a one hour talk, I would spend a bit over $6. We did a lot of letter writing because paper and postage were cheap. This time around, we chat a great deal on the phone because we both have mobile phones. We could probably survive without them, but they have become so convenient for getting things done. There is one drawback to being so connected, however. The only record of our love and devotion to each other is the number of ph

No Hanging Folders

Files , originally uploaded by shainelee . I got fed up with the hanging folders in my desk drawer, so I took them out. They make it more cumbersome to keep files organized. Without them, I don't have to keep shifting folders around every time a hanging folder gets full. In addition, when you add up the room that the hanging folders use up, they create more clutter than they help alleviate. They just had to go.

Over the weekend

Desk View , originally uploaded by shainelee . I haven't been posting, lately, I know. Usually, I'm a quasi-religious blog poster. I don't know what's got into me, or out. I've been unplugged lately. I went to Wal-Mart a few days ago and bought a bluetooth earpiece to use with my marvelous new phone. I thought that it would drain the battery because of the dual radio use. In all, the phone has three radios, I think. There is the GSM radio for phone service, the radio for WiFi, and the radio for bluetooth. The opposite has happened. My battery actually lasts longer. I think I know why. When you use your hands to make phone calls, you think about your phone and play with the features. When you are hands free talking, you don't mess with your phone hardly. I think that may be why I haven't posted. As a result of not fiddling with the phone, I don't drain the battery with processing and turning on the backlight. I'm also not reminded to post. So

Senator Hinojosa and Alex

Senator Hinojosa and Alex , originally uploaded by shainelee . Here is a photo of Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa with Humberto "Alex" Hernandez. The Senator had a get-together for RGV staffers at Serrano's on Red River. I enjoyed meeting his people and seeing people from the other Reps offices. Our intern, Alex, took the opportunity to ask the Senator for a photo, which he graciously agreed to do.