Gitpod: Cloud Dev Environment That Saves You Time


In the good old mainframe days, professionals may have used a “dumb terminal.” This terminal had enough power to execute input and output tasks with a user, but the deeper magic happened on more powerful main frame computer. In 2023, student makers may have a Chromebook, a great inexpensive laptop for academic computing. In common cases, it’s hard do larger dev projects on the laptop alone due to limited speed and capacity. Over the past six months, I have enjoyed using Gitpod.io, a cloud based code editor and development environment empowering devs with high performance, isolation, and security. With gitpod, a dumb Chromebook workstation becomes a robust dev machine for web development and data science learning.

Gitpod.io is a powerful online Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that allows developers to write, test, and deploy code without the need for local installations of software. Gitpod.io is built on top of Git and leverages the power of Docker containers to provide a lightweight and fast environment for developers to work in. For makers familiar with Visual studio code, you’ll find the Gitpod experience very inviting since the tool builds upon the user experience of VSCode. I have used many of my favorite VSCode extensions for .NET, nodejs, Azure, and Python with Gitpod.

You can start a new workspace with just a few clicks, and it automatically clones your repository, installs dependencies, and sets up your environment. This means you can start coding right away without having to worry about configuring your development environment. When teaching new skills to developers, this benefit becomes very helpful to mentors or workshop organizers.

Gitpod.io also provides a range of features to make the development process more efficient. For example, it has built-in support for code completion, debugging, and code reviews, as well as a terminal that allows you to run commands directly from your workspace. In the past week, I have focused on learning new Python data science environments. (PyTorch) Using a easy github template template, I had a fast, web based, Python environment running quickly. I also appreciated that the Python notebooks worked well inside of VSCode.

https://databaseline.tech/zoose-3.0/

Gitpod provides a generous free tier to help you get started. If your software team needs more time on the platform, they offer reasonable pay plans. I hope that you consider checking out gitpod.io for your next web dev or data science project. In many situations, having access to a high performance coding environment through a browser helps the flow of your creative project.

To learn more about the origins of this cool tool, check out this podcast with the founders of Gitpod. Their CTO, Chris Weichel, does a good job talking through the benefits of Gitpod for professional software teams and saving pro devs time.
Chris Weichel talks about GitPod time saving in the enterprise

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Make music with code using DotNet Core

Curious about making music with code? As a software engineer and music guy, I have enjoyed seeing the connections between music and computers. The first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace predicted that computers will move beyond doing boring math problems into the world of creative arts. If a problem can be converted to a system of symbols, she reasoned that computers could help. She used music as her example.

In previous experiments, I have explored the ideas of code and music using TypeScript, NodeJs, and Angular. You can find this work here.

After looking around GitHub, I found a really cool music library for C# devs. I’m hoping to use it to create tools to make quick backup tracks for practicing improv. It’s just fun to explore electronic music, theory, and computational music. Make sure to check out the blog post by Maxim. ( the author of DryWetMidi ) It’s a pretty comprehensive guide to his library.

What is MIDI?

MIDI stands for musical instrument digital interface. (MIDI) Under a file format like WAV or MP3, the computer stores the raw wave form data about sound. The MIDI file format and protocols operate an conceptual layer of music data. You can think of a MIDI file having many tracks. You can assign different instruments ( sounds to tracks ). In each track, the musician can record songs as many events. MIDI music events might include turning a note on, turning a note off, engaging the sustain pedal, and changing tempo. MIDI music software like Garage band, Cakewalk and Bandlab can send the MIDI event data to a software synth which interprets the events into sound. In general, the MIDI event paradigm can be extended to support other things like lighting, lyrics, and other stuff.

DryWetMidi Features

  • Writing MIDI files: For my experiments, I have used DryWetMIDI to explore projects for making drum machines and arpeggio makers. I’m really curious about using computers to generate the skeleton of songs. Can computers generate a template for a POP song, a fiddle tune, or a ballad? We’re about to find out! DryWetMIDI provides a lower level API for raw MIDI event data. The higher level “Pattern” and “PatternBuilder” APIs enable coders to think of expressing a single thread of musical ideas. Let’s say you’re trying to describe a piece for a string quartet. The “PatternBuilder” API enables you to use a fluent syntax to describe the notes played by the cello player. While playing with this API, I have to say that I loved the ability to combine musical patterns. The framework can stack or combine musical patterns into a single pattern. Let’s say you have three violin parts in 3 patterns. The library enables you to blend those patterns into a single idea with one line of code. Maxim showed great care in designing these APIs.
  • Music theory tools: The framework provides good concepts for working for notes, intervals, chords and other fundamental concepts of music.
  • Reading MIDI files: The early examples show that DryWetMIDI can read MIDI files well. I’ve seen some utility functions that enable you to dump MIDI files to CSVs to support debugging. The documentation hints at a chord extraction API that looks really cool. Looking forward to testing this.
  • Device interaction: DryWetMIDI enables makers to send MIDI events and receive them. This capability might become helpful if you’re making a music tutor app. You can use the music device interaction API to watch note events. The system can provide feedback to the player if they’re playing the right notes at the appropriate time.

Visions for MusicMaker.NET for .NET Core

In the following code example, I’ve built an API to describe drum patterns using strings.
The strings represent sound at a resolution of 16th notes. Using the “MakeDrumTrack” service,
we can quickly express patterns of percussion.

IMidiServices midiServices = new MidiServices();
var service = new MakeDrumTrackService(midiServices);
var command = new MakeDrumTrackCommand
{
    BeatsPerMinute = 50,
    FileName = fileName,
    Tracks = new List<DrumTrackRow>
    {
        new()
        {
            Pattern = "x-x-|x-x-|x-x-|x-x-|x-x-|x-x-|x-x-|x-x-|",
            InstrumentNumber = DrumConstants.HiHat
        },
        new()
        {
            Pattern = "x---|----|x---|----|x---|----|x---|----|",
            InstrumentNumber = DrumConstants.AcousticBassDrum
        },
        new()
        {
            Pattern = "----|x---|----|x--x|----|x---|----|x--x|",
            InstrumentNumber = DrumConstants.AcousticSnare
        },
        new()
        {
            Pattern = "-x-x|x-x-|-x-x|x--x|-xx-|xx--|-xx-|x--x|",
            InstrumentNumber = DrumConstants.HiBongo
        }
    },
    UserId = "system"
};

// act
var response = service.MakeDrumTrack(command);

Using the ArpeggioPlayer service, we’ll be able to render out a small fragement of music given a list of chords and an arpeggio spec.

var tempo = 180;
var instrument = (byte)Instruments.AcousticGrandPiano;
var channel = 1;

var track = new ChordPlayerTrack(instrument, channel, tempo);
var command = ArpeggioPatternCommandFactory.MakeArpeggioPatternCommand1();
var player = new ArpeggioPlayer(track, );
var chordChanges = GetChords1();  // Am | G | F | E

player.PlayFromChordChanges(chordChanges);

// Write MIDI file with DryWetMIDI
var midiFile = new MidiFile();
midiFile.Chunks.Add(track.MakeTrackChunk());
midiFile.Write("arp1.mid", true);

In the following method, the maker can describe the arpeggio patterns using ASCII art strings. The arpeggio patterns operate at resolution of sixteenth notes. This works fine for most POP or eletronic music. In future work, we can build web apps or mobile UX to enable the user to design the arpeggio patterns or drum patterns.

public static MakeArpeggioPatternCommand MakeArpeggioPatternCommand1()
{
    var command = new MakeArpeggioPatternCommand
    {
        Pattern = new ArpeggioPattern
        {
            Rows = new List<ArpeggioPatternRow>
            {
                new() { Type = ArpeggioPatternRowType.Fifth, Octave = 2, Pattern = "----|----|----|---s|" },
                new() { Type = ArpeggioPatternRowType.Third, Octave = 2, Pattern = "----|--s-|s---|s---|" },
                new() { Type = ArpeggioPatternRowType.Root, Octave = 2, Pattern =  "---s|-s-s|---s|-s--|" },
                new() { Type = ArpeggioPatternRowType.Fifth, Octave = 1, Pattern = "--s-|s---|--s-|--s-|" },
                new() { Type = ArpeggioPatternRowType.Third, Octave = 1, Pattern = "-s--|----|-s--|----|" },
                new() { Type = ArpeggioPatternRowType.Root, Octave = 1, Pattern =  "s---|----|s---|----|" }
            },
            InstrumentNumber = Instruments.Banjo
        },
        UserId = "mrosario",
        BeatsPerMinute = 120,
        Channel = 0
    };
    return command;
}

The previous code sample writes out a music fragment like the following.

If you’re interested in following my work here, check out the following repo.

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Getting Started with PhaserJs and TypeScript

Curious about building 2D games with web skills? In this post, we’ll explore tools and patterns to use PhaserJs and JavaScript to make engaging 2D games. We’ll cover tools to make experiences with our favorite language: TypeScript.

Reference links

Related links

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Easy 3D scanning tools for iOS in 2022

The task of making 3d models for games can feel daunting. In 2022, we have many tools to rapidly creating 3d models using scanning methods. I’m amazed how this robust computer science and computer vision technology has become accessible to makers and creatives. Let’s say you need to create a 3d model of a statue and 3d print a copy. In our post today, I wanted to connect our readers to a wonderful app called Trnio and a few others. For IPhone and Ipad users that have ARKit, maker can create impressive 3d models by recording a scan of their target objects or capturing pictures. The following video outlines the process for Trnio.

Under the hood, 3d scanning works by exploring each frame and computing the estimated camera position of the device. Using the camera position and feature points extracted from the frame, the system can do analysis of the movement of feature points over time. Using algorithms that extract 3d structure from motion, the app can estimate a model of the 3d object. Really cool stuff.

When testing this application with my kitchen table and few other car parts, I found the app easy to use with notable results. You can inspect some of the results of scans on SketchFab.

https://sketchfab.com/trnio

In the more recent editions of iOS devices, users have access to LIDAR scanners on these devices. The LIDAR sensor provides depth information more robustly to algorithms increasing 3d model quality. Fernado Herrera does a nice review of a few other scanning options that leverage LIDAR. He mentioned that the LIDAR scans worked best on large structures. I appreciated his comments on Qlone which focuses on scanning smaller items using a QR code template. The reviews looked a bit mixed on the app stores though.

We love to hear from our readers. If there’s another tool that you love for 3d scanning, please share in the comments. If you make something cool, please share that with us too!!

Related apps:
TRNIO

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Quick start for Phaser 3 and TypeScript

As I have time for small project experiments for myself, I decided to explore new developments with Phaser JS. In general, Phaser JS seems like a fun framework to enable novice game makers to build fun 2D games. The javascript language has become a popular choice since the language exists in every web browser.

What can you build with Phaser 3? Check out some examples here.
Tetris
Robowhale
Fun Math Game

In this blog post, we walk through building a small space shooter game.

As you start Phaser JS development, many tutorials walk you through some process to setup a web server to serve html and javascript content. Unfortunately, plain JavaScript alone does not guide makers to create well formed code. In plain Javascript, coders need to create stuff in baby steps. In this process, you should test stuff at each step. If you use a tool like Visual Studio code, the tool provides awesome guidance and autocomplete for devs. It would be nice if tools could improve to help you find more code faults and common syntax mistakes.

The TypeScript language invented by Anders Hejlsberg comes to the rescue. The TypeScript language and related coding tools provides robust feedback to the coder while constructing code. The JavaScript language does not support ideas like class structures or interfaces. Classes enable makers to describe a consistent template for making objects, their related methods, and properties. In a similar way, interfaces enable coders to describe the properties and methods connected to an object, but does not define implementations of methods. It turns out these ideas provide an increased structure and guidance to professional developers to create large applications using JavaScript. When your tools help you find mistakes faster, you feel like you move faster. This provides great support for early stage devs. TypeScript borrows patterns and ideas from C#, another popular language for game developers and business developers.

I found a pretty nice starter kit that integrates TypeScript, a working web server, and Phaser 3 JS together. Here’s the general steps for setting up your Phaser 3 development environment.

Install Visual Studio Code

Install NodeJs and NPM

  • NodeJs enables coders to create JavaScript tools outside of the browser.
  • npm – When you build software in modern times, tools that you build will depend upon other lego blocks. Those lego blocks may depend upon others. The node package manager makes it easy to install NodeJs tools and their related dependences.
  • Use the following blog post to install NodeJs and NPM
  • Installing NodeJs and NPM from kinsta.com

Install Yarn

  • Install Yarn
  • Yarn is a package manager that provides more project organization tools.

Download Phaser 3+TypeScript repository

On my environment, I have unziped the files to /home/michaelprosario/phaser3-rollup-typescript-master.

Finish the setup and run

cd /home/michaelprosario/phaser3-rollup-typescript-master
yarn install
yarn dev

At this point, you should see that the system has started a web server using vite. Open your browser to http://localhost:3000. You should see a bouncing Phaser logo.

Open up Visual Studio Code and start hacking

  • Type CTRL+C in the terminal to stop the web server.
  • In the terminal, type ‘code .’ to load Visual Studio Code for the current folder.
  • Once Visual Studio Code loads, select “Terminal > New Terminal”
  • In the terminal, execute ‘yarn dev’
  • This will run your development web server and provide feedback to the coder on syntax errors every time a file gets saved.
  • If everything compiles, the web server serves your game at http://localhost:3000

TypeScript Sample Code

Open src/scenes/Game.ts using Visual Studio Code. If you’ve done Java or some C#, the code style should feel more familiar.

import Phaser from 'phaser';

// Creates a scene called demo as a class
export default class Demo extends Phaser.Scene {
  constructor() {
    super('GameScene');
  }

  preload() {
    // preload image asset into memory
    this.load.image('logo', 'assets/phaser3-logo.png');
  }

  create() {
    // add image to scene
    const logo = this.add.image(400, 70, 'logo');
    // bounce the logo using a tween
    this.tweens.add({
      targets: logo,
      y: 350,
      duration: 1500,
      ease: 'Sine.inOut',
      yoyo: true,
      repeat: -1
    });
  }
}
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Happy New Years: Excitement for 2022!

Happy New Year friends! On this beautiful New Year’s day, I wanted to reflect upon some lessons from 2021 and learning opportunities for 2022. In 2022, we will continue to focus on ideas that help students love learning through exploration, making, and tinkering. As parents, we dream about helping our kids become the best version of themselves. It’s been fun to see how “maker education” and project based learning at home has encouraged growth in families.

Lessons from 2021 and learning at home

At this point, I would like to give a huge shout out to our teachers and professors who have served through this pandemic. We are so very thankful for the ways that you’ve invested in our kids and helped them to grow. They have helped our family adapt to learning from home for a significant portion of the year. Our kids did return to a traditional public school setting in the fall. We’re thankful for all the efforts of the staff and teachers to mitigate the concerns of COVID while fostering a positive learning environment.

At the Rosario home, I have tried to pay attention to hot spots of motivation and curiosity. If the kids start tinkering on the piano trying to figure out the Avenger’s theme, I’ve tried to make myself more available to encourage their musical exploration. My kids still enjoy creating their own music with Bandlab. We’ve also encouraged a good amount of traditional art with the kids. With the kid’s interest in Pokemon and Anime, they’ve become curious about drawing in this style. It’s been amazing to see the lessons they’ve learned through various drawing teachers on YouTube. Given that dad works as a software developer, it’s wonderful to see the kids engage in coding and building software. In future blog posts, we look forward to unpacking some of our more fruitful Scratch and Unity 3d tools. If your middle schooler or teen shows interest in video game development, the team at Unity 3D have continued to evolve their learning platform to be relevant to student creators. As a big kid myself, I’m still glad that our family enjoys Lego building together.

Related Posts

Trends to watch for 2022?

  • Space and wonder: I personally believe our SpaceX and NASA programs give our kids a sense of vision and potential. Over the Christmas break, the kids and I took in documentaries from NOVA on the Mars Perseverance rover and related missions. It’s so amazing the progress of our space programs in the past year. I do feel that the exploration of our universe and space travel helps keep a sense of awe and wonder about our world. It’s good the meditate upon how wonderfully complex and beautiful creation is.

  • Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality: In 2022, I look forward to exploring apps, trends, and tools that empower students to create XR experiences. I still continue to love the XR platform used for teaching and learning. It’s been fun to see the kids explore the International Space station in VR. In yet another experience, the Obama family unpacks the history of the white house in VR. I love that platforms like CoSpaces have started to empower young makers to build VR experiences with block coding. ( cospaces.io/edu/ )

  • Robots: My oldest son has expressed tons of interest in deep sea exploration. I have a feeling I’m going to start learning about playful games and simulation experiences to help him explore this. He’s found a very cool game called Subnautica that explores some of these ideas. In Subnautica, you are trying to survive an alien deep sea world using your resourcefulness and exploration skills. I do think that sea exploration using robots is really interesting. We look forward to explore trends and tools related to DIY IoT and robotics.

We are very thankful for our readers. Please know we pray for the very best for you and your family in 2022! If you have some cool projects that you’re doing with your kids, please drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you.

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Block Coding Activities for Your Young Maker

Blockly

Hello! Hope that you and your family are having a great summer! Like many families, we’ve tried to find fun and constructive ways to engage the kids through the summer while they’re out of school. One of my friends asked me if I had any fun maker activities that involved coding. In this post, I wanted to give a shout out to a few things that have engaged my family.

Dance Pary 2019 from Code.org

One of my kids has become very motivated through the art of dance. With that in mind, I introduced her to this fun “hour of code” lesson from Code.org. In this lesson, makers become connected to block based programming while directing cartoon dancers. In the early lessons, students learn to trigger dance moves based on keyboard events. I find that students become very engaged with good music. These lessons enable students to design their own dance party to various popular songs. Check out Dance Party 2019 from Code.org. Please know that you can find many more engaging hour of code lessons from Code.org with your kid’s favorite characters. They’ve currated lessons that involve Minecraft, Frozen, Lego, and more.

CSFirst from Google – Digital Story Telling

In the maker education community, Scratch has become a cornerstone tool for teaching students to code. The gallery of Scratch.mit.edu enables you to review a broad range of stories and games built by the community. Scratch offers students a general purpose platform for creating games and interactive experiences. Google has put together a pretty cool set of lessons to guide students through their initial interactions with Scratch. Lessons involve experiences with art, digital story telling, and game design. My kids have enjoyed some of the game design lessons.

Check out Google CS First.

Makey Makey

Makey Makey

As artists and makers, we enjoy the process of creating something new from something old or familiar. The Makey Makey makes this possible. Makey makey is a USB device for your Mac or PC enabling makers of all ages to experiment with human computer interaction and inventing. The Makey makey interface enables you to design playful circuits and switches. The following videos describes the Makey makey in great detail with example experiments.

In our family, we’ve enjoyed playing with musical instrument building, controlling Minecraft with fruit, and constructing novel Nerf gun targets.

If you’re looking for project ideas with step by step instructions, you can check out the following link from Instructibles.

https://www.instructables.com/howto/makey+makey/

Related Posts

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Make Unity 3D Games To Amaze Your Friends!

Hello makers! Like many in the computer industry, I had the dream of learning how to build video games. When the math class seemed difficult, I found inspiration to move forward since I had strong motivation to learn how to build video games someday! Unity 3D and their amazing community of game creators have created powerful opportunities for curious makers to build games that amaze your friends. From my first encounters with Unity 3D, I felt that they have done a good job of educating their users. In the past few years, I greatly admire the new strategies they have created to engage learners in their tools.

The idea of “modding” has engaged generations of gamers. (Thank you Minecraft and Roblox!). We’ve become used to the idea that games setup a robust environment where you can build big and crazy things. In lots of games, you’re placed into a position of saving the world. (i.e. you’ve been given a motivation to do something bigger than yourself that’s fun). The Unity 3D “microgame” tutorials provide students with the basic shell of well crafted game experiences. In this context, the Unity 3D team have created tutorial experience to gently guide learners through the Unity 3D environment, programming concepts, and their system for building Unity “lego” blocks. In this experience, you get to select your adventure. Do you want to build your own Lego game? Do you want to make your own version of Super Mario brothers? You can challenge yourself by building a cool kart racing game. In the videos below, I wanted to give a shout out to the Lego action “game jam” and the Kart Racing tutorials.

I always enjoy learning new Unity tricks from other developers. It has been fun to pick apart aspects of these games. In the newest Kart racing tutorials, you can also learn about the newer machine learning capabilities of Unity 3D. ( ML Agents ) It kind of blows my mind that these ideas can now appear in tutorials for early stage coders. As I’ve tested these experiences with my kids, they have enjoyed creating novel kart racing experiences and environments. My older son has enjoyed customizing his own shooter game.

Make sure to check out Unity 3D’s Learning index here: https://learn.unity.com/

If you make something cool, please share a link below in the comments!

Your First Game Jam: LEGO Ideas Edition

In this edition, you will discover how to build a quest in your LEGO® Microgame using the newly released “Speak” and “Counter” LEGO® Behaviour Bricks. Learn step-by-step with a special guest from the LEGO® Games division and our Unity team to create your own unique, shareable game.

Build Your Own Karting Microgame

It’s never been easier to start creating with Unity. From download to Microgame selection, to modding, playing, and sharing your first playable game, this video shows you what you can accomplish in as little as 30 minutes!

For detailed step-by-step Unity tutorials, check out

The Official Guide to Your First Day in Unity playlist.

Related Posts

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Christmas Ornament Ideas Using Origami, 3D printing, and Laser Cutting

Like many other families, we really enjoy creating DIY Christmas ornaments. We collected a few inspirations for ornaments made with 3D printing, laser cutting, and origami. Hope you find something that inspires you!

Interested in Building Your Own Christmas Ornament using a 3D printer? Check out my getting started video here. In this video, we’ll help you build simple objects in just 5 minutes. TinkerCAD.com is crazy fun for makers of all ages. Keep in mind that your local library sometimes offers free 3D printing services.

You can find many more origami ideas here on PInterest.

Posted in 3d printing, creativity, making | Leave a comment

How Mom Sparked a Growth Mindset in Our Families

Hello, family. In my post today, I wanted to reflect upon how our mom has loved and inspired her family through her life. I hope these stories of my mother, Belen Rosario, might offer motivation to other families. At InspiredToEducate.NET, our mission is to help students love learning through creative projects and exploration. Writing this post helped me understand my root system and personal curiosity for the power of learning and how a learning mindset can grow communities.

In my own way, I hope this post helps me and my family meditate on the life of my mother Belen. On Nov 20th, 2020, my mother celebrated her birthday into heaven after a challenging battle with cancer. I’m so excited that she’s finally at peace. I praise God that she enjoys the light and comfort of our heavenly Father and the amazing jam session of praise with all the saints and angels.

For my brother and I, we have been so blessed to have a loving mom and dad. Let’s be real. In the Rosario home, we’re not unlike any other family. We have our imperfections and vices. I, however, feel that my mom, Belen, lived out some of the best qualities of a Catholic momma. I hope I can foster her legacy of being a good Catholic parent.

My mom encouraged a spirit of generosity: Belen was born on Christmas day in 1945 to a loving family of teachers in the Philippines. Belen actually means Bethlehem in Spanish. My grandfather Pedro taught her family about the enabling power of learning. Grandpa Pedro had the vision of enabling his daughters and son to live a thriving life, but lacked the financial means to provide university education to all of his children. According to the family stories, Momma worked very hard in her schooling to explore the sciences and eventually earned a B.S. degree at University of Santo Tomas in Manilla in the Philippines. As she grew as a professional, she would live a modest life and send money back to her family. As a young adult, she earned an opportunity to immigrate to the United States which strongly needed medical technologists skilled in chemistry. She knew that making a transition to the US would take her away from her family in the Philippines, but knew that it would create greater opportunities for her and her larger family. My mom and my wonderful father Moses met while they both worked in a medical lab in New York. As I recall my mom’s words, she says “I’m not sure why this young guy kept following me around.” They, however, fell in love and started their family together. My mom and dad have always encouraged a spirit of generosity. They sent money back to the Philippines to help fund the education of her siblings. We’re proud of our momma who helped her family members earn degrees in engineering, medicine and finance. Mom’s story captures the best of the American dream. She came to the US with a spunky drive and educational opportunities. She converted those assets into a beautiful life for herself and opportunities for her family. I have loved hearing stories of how mom and dad helped Tita Gloria and Tito Ernie jumpstart their marriage and life in the US. While we didn’t have a lot, my mom and dad have lived out the “go giver” attitude to help friends in need. #ProudOfMom #ProudOfDad

Keeping the faith: One of the most precious gifts that mom and dad gave to us was the gift of faith. My mom and dad made great financial sacrifices to make sure Francis and I had the best in Catholic education. I also had the opportunity to attend Jesuit High school in Tampa, one of the finest Catholic schools in town. Given that we grew up in Florida, we grew up with the legends and stories of watching the space program. (from Apollo and to the Shuttle program) I can recall fun stories of my dad leading us through fun slide shows of exploring space. From my mom’s side, she did a great job of encouraging our curiosity in science. If we wanted to learn about something, we had a cool encyclopedia and tons of other educational materials so that we could explore our curiosity. Many people put science and faith into different boxes. We were blessed with a family that encouraged the wonder of science and understood that God’s hand orchestrated every detail. While we weren’t a perfect family, we learned the value of our faith, the habits of prayer, and the beautiful rituals of our Catholic faith. These habits have helped us shape our hearts for the Lord. As the family faced the trials of cancer for my mother and brother, I kept seeing my mom turn to Jesus and calling upon the mercy of Momma Mary through the rosary.

Fostering creativity and music: Great art and technical work requires the discipline of incremental practice, trial, failing, and persistence. I feel like Francis and I learned these lessons through our family culture of tinkering, art and music. My dad created opportunities to get early exposure to computers and their creative power. My first experiences with a computer gave us exposure to creating art on a computer or simple code experiments. My brother and I had robust opportunities to learn and explore music. We enjoyed our opportunities to learn violin, piano, and sing. ( And mom loved to sing!) To be honest, when we started playing violin it sounded like we were killing cats. Not sure how we progressed beyond that. At some later point, we gained enough skills to join our music ministry at Christ the King. Some of my favorite memories involve me and my brother getting to serve at 5:30 pm contemporary choirs, sharing music at the carnival and serving in youth ministry. My mom and dad largely supported the strengths of my brother in performing and visual art. It’s been cool to see his passions lean toward creative digital fabrication and digital media. On a personal level, I didn’t realize it at the time, but these became pivot points for preparing me for future work in music ministry later in college. I know these experiences helped us gain a growth mindset for our respective careers.

Toward the end, I helped my mom reflect upon the influence of her life. I talked about Pam and Wilson who met while serving in my campus ministry choir at UCF. Like many beautiful stories, Pam and Wilson fell in love through their shared passion for Christ and music. They have a beautiful Catholic family that I cherish. Since those precious years of being a founding member of Ccmknights.com and OviedoCatholic.org, hundreds of students have changed their lives because of their deep encounter with Jesus in these ministries. Holy men and women have decided to give their lives to Jesus as priests and nuns. Generations of Catholic families will continue to be born. My mom has beautiful spiritual grand-children because she planted the love of God and music in my heart. To return to the simple teaching of Mother Teresa, can loving your family truly change the world? It’s a great hypothesis for families to consider. It’s a hypothesis that we consider testing with our loved ones. I know our family will always be proud of our dearest Belen.

While we’re sad to lose momma on Earth, we’re excited for momma for her birthday in heaven. Can’t wait to hear the stories of her meeting Jesus, her mom, dad, and other dear ones in heaven. We’re so glad that she now enjoys a glorified body, the love of Christ, and no more pain. Excited to seek Lola Belen’s intersession. Saint Belen Rosario … Pray for us!!

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