My first three weeks at RBC were interesting and, err, intense, firehose-drinking type of intense. Due to the nature of my projects I think I won’t be able to blog much about them here, but I’m still planning to blog regularly about other random things, so stay tuned, regular readers of “The bamboo raft” (yes, I’m talking to both of you, Bernie and Bénédicte).
My plan to restart blogging this weekend practically went belly up when my Bell Sympatico service started misbehaving on Friday, with my connection dropping every few minutes or so. Blogging offline was never my forté, as I sadly admit that not having immediate access to stuff like Twitter, Wikipedia and Dictionary.com breaks my rhythm.
So let me (re)start with a post loosely themed on Father’s Day. Three weeks ago, my son found this very old photo of me, taken when I was a 4-year-old:
He looked at the picture a bit surprised, then pointed to it and said out loud: “Ootash” (that’s how he calls himself).
I tried to explain, “No, that’s daddy’s picture when he was almost your age”. He vehemently disagreed, “No, Ootash”. There was no way on Earth that I could convince him that it was not him there.
Then I showed him this picture taken during my first week at IBM, back in 1996:
– “This is also daddy, many years ago.”
– “Não.” (that’s “No”, in Portuguese)
– “Yes.”
– (laughing) “Nãããão.”
– “Then, who’s this guy?”
– “I don’t know.”
After some more digging, I found these two pictures that clearly show why my friend Alexandre Neves says that a paternity test will never be required for “Ootash” and me. The one on the left also shows that my taste in clothes has always been top-notch.
Skip three weeks now. Yesterday, I was talking to my mother in Skype and, despite the frequent disconnects, I managed to tell her the story above. When I showed her my IBM picture, she commented: “You were so thin and elegant! And where is all that hair?”
Suddenly, finding that “Dont Go Bald”, “Bald Products” and “Bald People” are all following me in Twitter didn’t feel so bad anymore. Can that Ed Ulbrich guy help me here? 🙂
An almost belated Happy Father’s Day to all dads out there!
The bamboo raft 
Great story, Aaron!
It is hard for kids to fathom their parents being younger. It’s actually a pretty complicated concept, I think.
I don’t want to contradict your mom regarding your lack of elegance. 🙂 But I do know that your clothing is always well pressed, FWIW. That’s pretty close to elegant in my book!
Nice to read the bamboo raft again.
It is funny to see that kids are the same and as it is said they are right. It is not you, it is one of you. (hope it make sense in English).
Very nice post specially for father’s day.
I didn’t meet you in person, but I’ll side with “Ootash” on saying “nooo” to the 1996 picture. That can’t be you. 🙂
He looks just like you! =D
Oops, sorry for never responding to the comments!
Bernie, I gave up on ironing my shirts. Now I’m addicted to Brooks Brothers no-wrinkle shirts. As I don’t need to pack any more, they just go directly from the dryer to the closet.
Béné, good to see you here again! Agreed, kids are always right, you just need to think like them to realize that they always make sense.
Denilson, I wish I had a nickel for every comment I heard about losing hair and working at IBM when people saw that picture!
Sacha, poor guy, I hope his mother’s genes can fix course before he gets to adulthood.