Irma L. Olguin Jr.

“i can’t believe it’s been nine years. does anything ever feel any different? can you pinpoint a difference between the third year and the fifth? the second and the ninth?” – beth Answer: The difference is, the number of things I remember gets smaller as I forget more and more about him. This truth feels shameful, and brings heartache. The number of things I treasure gets larger as what I do remember becomes more precious. This truth brings pride and a will to share my memory of him. From time to time, I write about my Dad on this blog. He died on January 13th, 2003. If you didn’t have a chance to know him, well, I wish you could have. And if you did, then I hope you join me in remembering what he was like. All his obnoxious ways, all his quirky habits, … Continue reading →

Isn’t it funny how we use all these means of mass communication when so often we have an audience of one in mind? Tweets and status updates, blogs and away messages. We offer up random, but carefully worded nuggets of information about ourselves; pictures of places we’ve been, and things we ate, people we’re with, things we like and dislike. We vaguebook, we allude, we’re passive-aggressive, and yet, so much of it is with the hope that a specific person is paying attention. And when you do see it — as has been my hope all along — I’ll show that I’m embarrassed and take on a, “What, this old thing?” attitude, though I smile behind my hand. I’ll feign surprise, but be secretly thrilled. My nonchalance might even amaze you. Silently, I’ll wait for you to bring it up. I’m holding my … Continue reading →

This post is scheduled to publish on Thursday, but I’m writing it much earlier than that. In fact, if you’re reading this on Thursday the 3rd (or even Friday), there’s a good chance I’m still sedated from the surgery I had that morning, so let’s hope the “Scheduled Post” feature is working properly. As you all know, this was a difficult decision. All the finalists and lots of the other applicants deserve this money, but I had to choose just one. To do that, I really had to examine the reasons WHY I wanted to do this in the first place. Talk about some uncomfortable moments for ol’ irms. After a bit of denial, I came to the conclusion that I decided to give away this money for two reasons, both selfish: I want to be the catalyst of someone’s good … Continue reading →

About a month ago, I announced that I would be giving a thousand dollars to someone who could demonstrate that money would make the difference between doing something awesome, and not doing it. I thought, it would be a neat & fun way to give back, and to encourage those that are out there trying to do stuff, when often, it’s so hard to do stuff. It was a small gesture. An idea. Much to my surprise, people started pitching in and that thousand dollars soon became $2,100. One of these applications is about to get much more than they bargained for. $1,100 dollars more, in fact. Applicants were spread throughout the world (the power of the Retweet strikes again), which was another surprise to me. AND even better, not one of the applicants blamed a poor economy for not being … Continue reading →

UPDATE 6: Another generous and anonymous donation! This is now the “Two-Thousand One-Hundred Dollar Scholarship For A Doer”. UPDATE 5: Even though the deadline for applications has passed, people have not stopped being generous. Thanks to another anonymous donation, this is now the “Two-Thousand Dollar Scholarship For A Doer”. Now, that’s awesome! UPDATE 4: ”I just want to be a part of changing a life in a simple way.” – Anonymous. We are now the “One-Thousand EIGHT-Hundred Dollar Scholarship For A Doer” UPDATE 3: We are now the “One-Thousand Seven-Hundred Dollar Scholarship For A Doer”, thanks to a strictly anonymous giver! UPDATE 2: Stephanie Tinsley Schopp is throwing in another $100. It’s now the “One-Thousand Six-Hundred Dollar Scholarship For A Doer”. Thanks, Stephanie! UPDATE: Since announcing this initiative, two different people have come forward and would like to add to the pot. Therefore, the “Thousand Dollar Scholarship For … Continue reading →

Well the term “bum” is derogatory, but I was just trying to get your attention. Now that I have it, I want you to think about the last time this topic came up between you and your friends or you and your family and remember just how hostile a few of them got. Maybe you’re the one that’s hostile. Maybe you say, “Piece of shit should get a job. I have a job. I work for my money.” I don’t blame you. In fact, I appreciate that you have a job because, it means that you and I have at least one thing in common: we work to pay for stuff we want and need. That’s important, because that’s how our country is run. It’s a pretty good system, all things considered. Still, people tend to get heated on this point, … Continue reading →

CAUTION: Very nerdy stuff below. Non-nerds need not continue. Short answer: Check your disk space. Problem If you’ve ever had this error: Warning: mysql_connect(): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock’ or it’s command line cousin: ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock’ You’ll know that googling the problem turns up a number of suggestions to recreate the symlink or to reinstall MySQL. Solution For me, the problem was disk space. One of my log files was HUGE and MySQL wouldn’t start because of it. So I just had to locate the offending file, get rid of it, and MySQL fired right up.  If you’re running Ubuntu you can do a little du -s -m * to see a listing of files in any directory that’ll have the file size (in MBs) right next … Continue reading →

Firstly, how about a big fat round of applause for the likes of Rob Walling and Mike Taber? They put on one rockin’ conference for self-funded startups. If you didn’t go, that was a bad decision. Don’t make that mistake next year. For, like, the amount you spend on bottled water each year, you could have listened to and learned from ONE-JILLION smart people talking about startups and what to do/not do with them. How’s that for value? (Seriously: 11 speakers, and 105 interesting attendees. Andrew Warner, Hiten Shah, Ramit Sethi, and Patrick McKenzie among them.) Here’s some stuff I learned that you would have learned if you had gone to Vegas instead of playing with Instagram filters at work: Test your stuff, but don’t waste your time testing. Email is not dead. Don’t let TechCrunch fool you. Investment, booooo. Bootstap, yay! Tomato juice … Continue reading →

In a recent conversation, all of the following were said to me — about me, if you must know. I had to post them because they’re both funny and sobering, and I just don’t know what to do with this information:   Knowing how shitty someone can think, but knowing they’re a good person, that sets the bar really high.   Really?   That’s the shitty great part about you.   Note: Not a compliment.   I don’t know anyone else that can do such a shitty great thing, that’s such a great thing.   Tell me how you really feel.   There has to be another way to say it so I don’t have to call you shitty anymore.   I sure hope so.     Thanks, Ryan. For the tea and conversation.

Almost exactly 8 years ago to the day and hour, I, tired from not sleeping and feeling outside of myself, got on a plane in Detroit to come home to Fresno. I’d been at work when my brother first called. Dad was in the hospital, he said, but not to worry about it. Probably just the flu, he said, and dad didn’t even want him to call. He was going to get a shot in the butt of something strong and flu-killing and then he’d go home and sleep it off. That was January 12, 2003. Roughly 2 in the afternoon in Ohio, where I lived. Last I’d talked to him was a week before. Sunday. I used to call every Sunday just to check in and make sure they remembered me. Dad was sick then too, had taken some … Continue reading →