Thanks for stopping by! You’ll notice that I’m not your typical Dominican from Paterson, NJ living in San Francisco. Try to blog every Tuesday, but you know, life happens. Please follow on social media.
I wanted to compose a playlist of my favorite songs in the decade of 2000-2009. Songs in this playlist remind me of specific moments in my life. This decade was and remains the most consequential one for me.
I started building this one before the pandemic began. I’ve been working out on and off, sort of like blogging, but recently it has taken off and does not show signs of slowing down. This playlist helps get in the zone.
I was angry for a good chunk of 2020. So my anger inspired me to get a playlist I could listen to. I really shouldn’t be feeding my anger, and should be looking for ways out of it, but f**k it. I also use this playlist sometimes to workout; just so that I can get a bit more angry.
What’s a list of playlist without one to dance to. Ratata is a Dominican word, it’s closest equivalent would be it’s lit, or dope. In any case, it’s a good playlist to dance, clean your house, or if you just want to listen to some good music.
I have a pet peeve that I consider it to be a idiosyncrasy of our midwestern and/or western American society. Whenever I walk in somewhere and I’m greeted by the employee, or I am walking by someone and they say to me “Hi, how are you?” I’m not referring to the one that’s genuine, I am referring to that robotic and repetitive one some people have. You’re rarely or ever going to hear this in the North East cities.
My first job was Cashier at McDonalds in downtown Paterson. That McDonalds is probably the busiest one in the entire city; specially on days where they’re special events going on in downtown. Anyways I like how straight to the point we were, it was something like “Welcome to McD, what can I get for you?” When I moved to Utah, one of my first jobs here was Supervisor at Carl’s Jr. A burger fast food joint that is mostly out here in the western states. At Carl’s Jr. we had to greet customer “Hi, how are you today?” Why? In all honesty I did not care for the emotional or mental wellbeing of the customers, nor did they come to Carl’s Jr. for a wellbeing checkup; they came here to eat! All I cared for was making sure I got their order right, which would led to the customer being satisficed on the way out. Some customers were cut off guard by me asking them how are they? Most answered, “fine, or good” and went straight to their order. They all knew I didn’t care how were they, so why bother asking it? It’s all business at the end of the day.
Anyways, continuing my rant. Same goes for those folks who you’re walking by and say hi to, and they ask “how are you,” but in a fast and not genuine way. This annoys me, can’t we just stick to hello, I know you just said how are you because it’s programmed in your brain to say it.
There, got that out of my system.
TL;DR You want to annoy me? Ask me how I am doing in a non-genuine way, or better yet, say have a nice day like how Carlin does in the video below.
One of my first jobs in Utah was at a call center. I was providing technical support for a telco that has a major presence in the east coast. I could relate with a lot of callers since I partly grew up in NJ. Whenever I was asked where was I, and I responded Utah almost everyone responded with joy of how beautiful this place is; I want to say about half of those folks had been out here to ski or snowboard. I responded by saying I haven’t done either, and every one of them would insist I get out on the slopes. I had seen the license plate slogan “Greatest Snow on Earth.” I thought that was all promo, but came to find out later on, it may well be the greatest snow on earth.
I had only been in Utah for a year, and didn’t have many local friends. Most of my friends back then were folks similar to me. They were either Dominican, out of state students, or both. I was dating a Dominican student at the time and we both had not been either skiing or snowboarding. For my first time in the slopes I decided to go with a skiing lesson, and she decided to go with a snowboarding lesson. Man she looked so cool. From her boots, the board, and just about every piece of gear she wore for snowboarding. I was jealous. Add to that the fact that my skiing lesson was a disaster. I was not taken up on the lift, because I could not make it pass the damn kiddie hill you go up using a handle tow. It also could’ve helped if I had wore the appropriate clothes to lesson. I decided to just casually go up there in my jeans and hoodie. Luckily the instructor lend me the jacket you see in the image above.
I was eager to go up to Sundance again, but this time I wanted to snowboard. I waited until the beginning of the 2011-2012 season to go again. This time I got hooked. Not only did I have a blast, I also got to get on the lift, fell miserably to the ground getting off the lift, but made it down the slopes in one piece, bruised of course. My second time I went up was with my cousins when they visited me for Christmas in 2011. I kept going up like 2 or 3 times a season and slowly progressed. I was a bit frustrated with my progress, I wanted to start shredding like a pro. I signed up for a snowboarding class during my last year at UVU. Because I was working in the mornings I had to take my lessons at night. Let me tell you something about night skiing, there’s a reason why it’s cheap, specially in Sundance, because it’s rough. Most of the time the ski runs are icy, and once the sun sets it gets really cold. This however proofed to be the best setting for me to learn. I didn’t become a professional snowboarder like Shawn White, but I did get good, really good. So good, that me and my cousin, Randy, decided to venture out into different resorts throughout the state and region. We had a blast out there.
Once I got really good at snowboarding I then came to realize why every single person I had told I lived in Utah loved this place. We do indeed have the greatest snow on earth. When you’re snowboarding through on it, on a powder day, one of the best feelings ever. It’s like you’re flying. Do yourself a favor and get out there!
TL;DR if you’re reading this and live in the Rocky Mountains, close the browser, and hit the slopes, ASAP. You will not regret either snowboarding or skiing.
It was the beginning of the 2015 summer. I was in Chicago for a school competition. I was representing UVU in the Cybersecurity category at the National PBL conference. I didn’t think much of the conference, but loved that I made it to Chi-town with a free plane ticket and hotel. Little did I know I would have a breakthrough during this trip.
For some time I was struggling in school, like bad, really bad. From Spring 2014 to Spring 2015 I had failed 90% of the credits taken. And this was supposed to be my LAST YEAR OF SCHOOL! What was I thinking? Lots was going through my mind. Let’s backtrack a bit. When the Spring 2014 semester began in January 2014 I was told my job was going away and I had to relocate within the company. The company I was with took really good care of me, and kept me employed all the way up until the perfect job found me. This however seem to distract me, a lot. I couldn’t focus in school. Couldn’t focus in life, and just didn’t have the energy to keep going within me. When I got my new job I was living in Orem, and had to relocate to Salt Lake City. The commute was, well, it sucked because the freeway was always under construction.
Utah County, the land of never ending freeway construction…
Some TV Repairman
A year or two after I first moved to Utah I had my TV repaired at a shop in Salt Lake. The repairman asked for my address and when I said Provo, he replied “Ahhh the land of never ending freeway construction.” Back then I didn’t think much of it, but in retrospect I’ve been in Utah almost 12 years as of this writing, every single year the freeway has been in construction in Utah County. Anyways the commute between Salt Lake and Orem was 2 hours roundtrip by car and 3 hours in public transportation. I had to go to both cities regardless of where I lived because my school was in Orem, and I was not about to transfer to the U for my last year. This commute killed me. Was so tired that I wasn’t working or studying effectively.
Here I am, back in Chicago in 2015. I am looking at my teammates from school, all the other folks with their shit together. So one day while in Chicago I decided to go explore the town on my own. I sat at this edge of Lake Michigan and it just all hit me. I began reflecting and while sitting there drew up a plan in my head on how to finish school by the Summer of 2016. The plan was not perfect, I was at risk multiple times of having fall off the rails, but I held strong. The plan was simple:
I decided to take a small step back from work, kept my job, but worked from home for a year
Moved across the street from school and devoted most of my time and effort towards it
Cut out video games and other distractions that were unproductive
What was it that pushed me to work and focus on my goals? Was it peer pressure? Was it that I was right near the end, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel? Drive for a better life? I don’t know. All I know is whatever it was, this change set the foundation for a far better and more productive life. It’s always beautiful to look back, and see how the big picture came to fruition.
It’s where I sat to reflect for hours
TL;DRwas lost, confused, but somehow found it within me to get my shit together. To this day don’t know what was it.
This book is quiet the gem. I’ve been following Ray Dalio for some time now. He’s constantly on CNBC and other financial programs, and has some good YouTube videos about basic economic concepts. There was lots that I liked about this book. I constantly kept tweeting words that inspired me that Ray Dalio used throughout his book. I really liked how Dalio real-world examples of the principles explained in his book. He founded Bridgewater, a hedge fund company, and constantly references how the principles helped him overcome certain situations in the workplace. Some principles have even helped Dalio personally. He doesn’t open up too much in the book about his personal life, but he does tell a few stories and how we was able to navigate through them.
What I Disliked
Towards the end of the book the principles can start to get a bit repetitive and conflicting in a few areas, but not many. I wished Ray Dalio had talked a little more about how he navigated through the various financial crisis he’s had to deal with. The book definitely left me wanting to know more, and study these crises in more depth.
Whom would I recommend this book to?
Anyone with asperations of doing better in their current workplace. They’re lots of ideas and tools that Dalio provides that can be implemented right away in your workplace.
