Archive for the 'Ricky' Category

“Honestly, I couldn’t be any happier.”

Published on January 10, 2011 in Ricky and Stories. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

It’s been a week of firsts for me. I’m writing this post from the comfort of my grandparents’ home in Florida. It’s the first time I’ve visited them since they moved down here many years ago. After finally working up the motivation to pay them a visit, to get myself down here, I took my first flight on an airplane!

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel when I finally took my first flight. Despite delays in taking off, the security theater of the TSA, and the trial of sitting in front of loud children, I absolutely loved the experience.

Up in the Air

I starred out the window admiring the sky for about an hour before I felt the need to even think about doing anything else. During that hour, I would not stop smiling and laughing. After years of relegating myself to the Northeast, I finally gave myself permission to go on a vacation, and it started with an experience I couldn’t have imagined.

My description may sound ridiculous to veteran fliers. One day, I may take the rush of a takeoff, the subsequent arial sightseeing, and the warmth of the sun on my face for granted. That day isn’t today, and while I’m still excited about it, I’m capturing that joy. Perhaps years from now, this post will help me remember the novelty of what then seems mundane.

As I work hard to become skilled and savvy enough to permanently break out of the Northeast, I’m going to be able to do all sorts of things I wasn’t able to do as a child. This summer, I’m proud to say I’ll be interning at Apple in Cupertino, California — a longtime dream of mine. In conjunction with the daily excitement of running a successful business, I’m never bored and always reaching new heights.

Recently, in describing these circumstances to a friend I hadn’t seen in years, I got excited and let this slip:

Honestly, I couldn’t be any happier.

In the week and a half since I said that, I’ve been desperately searching for grounds to retract that statement. If I’m going to drop words like those, I really have to mean them.

Despite my best efforts, my search turned up empty. I’m in a great place right now, and I’d like to thank you for your help getting here.

277 Days

Published on July 14, 2010 in Ricky and Tech. 1 Comment

After 277 days of flawless power, there was an interruption of service at my house. For 75.9% of a year, my little PowerMac G4 Cube dutifully served files and routed traffic. This post is in memory of its record uptime, cut short by a lack of electricity.

Summer Breeze

Published on July 5, 2010 in Ricky. 2 Comments

I’ve been busy. Life is complicated, overwhelming, and hopeful. Much has changed, and much remains the same.

I’m done with the first leg of my summer journey, and I’m mostly pleased with how things turned out. Seeking to avoid the pain that comes with idleness, I decided to move to Medford, Massachusetts for the month of June and work a few web design jobs.

My primary job (40 hours a week) was doing front-end development for a social entrepreneurial startup with a few students at Harvard University. They’ve got a long way to go until launch, but I’m very confident that the project will be successful. It was a pleasure to work with individuals who grasp both web technology and social responsibility. I learned a lot during my time with them, and was sad to leave.

My second job was polishing TuftsBlogs.com, Tufts University’s Undergraduate Admission’s blogging portal, which I built over the last year. I’m pleased with the functionality and aesthetics of the site, overall, and look forward to see how Tufts’ social media strategy continues to pan out.

Finally, I was working for myself. My (recently incorporated!) business, GetchaBooks.com, is less than a month away from launching its next big iteration. My cofounders and I have been working hard to build a killer platform that takes the frustration out of textbook purchasing. We’re currently seeking beta testers and motivated students at schools across the country to help us spread the platform. If you’re interested, check out www.getchabooks.com to sign up for more information.

As you could imagine, working three jobs can be pretty stressful. At times, I felt overwhelmed. Nonetheless, life was awesome. It was exhilarating living away from home, without the burden of classes, completely managing my own time between days jobs, entrepreneurship, and socializing. I was efficient and effective, waking up each and every day with a purpose. I learned things every day, and had complete control of my life.

In that respect, my summer gamble has been a complete success. There were difficult life moments, including a bicycle accident, an incredibly sketchy Craigslist exchange, and a painful breakup that’s tested my character and personal identity. With the support of my friends, I’m working to overcome the obstacles that linger. Despite these problems, after a month of economic self-sufficiency, I’m confident I can succeed in this world. Now that I’ve done it once, I can do it again, and it feels great.

I’m back in Dover Plains, ready to embark on the second leg of my journey. Throughout July, will be director of the Dutchess Community College’s Computer Academy, the computer camp-classroom hybrid that I’ve been working at for the last three years. In addition to managing the Academy, I’ll be teaching a new introductory programming course, taught in Ruby, and something I’m calling “Future of the Web”, a crash-course in web design with a focus on features of the HTML5 spec.

My July will be a radical adjustment from the freelance lifestyle I’ve been living in the last month, but I embrace it with open arms. Education and access to information have always been important to me, and I’m really excited to directly contribute to the lives of children once more.

When the month is over, I plan on returning to Medford, just in time for a Keane concert in Boston that I’m super excited about. After the elation of the concert fades, I’m unsure if I’ll take on any jobs. My August priority is ensuring that GetchaBooks successfully relaunches, but I haven’t yet gauged how much of my time that will take. Certainly, I’ll figure it out.

Regardless, I will bring to August what I brought to June and hope to bring to July — sincerity and focus. Having tasted the lifestyle of a free spirit, I’m content with my life.

Thanks for taking the time to keep up with it, and take care.

Reflection in Decimal

Published on December 31, 2009 in Dover, Ideas, Ricky and Tufts. 0 Comments

People have a lot to say about the upcoming year. I’ve been monitoring the #10yearsago hashtag on Twitter. If you cut through the noise, there’s a lot of interesting stuff there – examples of humanity. Collectively, we like to reflect on change and the passage of time, especially when we hit our arbitrary big base-ten milestone years. There’s no harm in that, and I am no different.

Ten years ago, I was nine years old. My family had not yet moved to Dover Plains or even to Carmel, the community I lived in before moving to Dover. I spent most of my time playing video games, and struggled in school. I had a hole in my ear drum that prevented me from taking normal showers or swimming with my friends. Never had I operated a modern personal computer. A good deal of my mental energy was absorbed by jingles on TV, some that celebrated a new millennia.

In these ten years, I studied, worked, laughed, and cried. I took hundreds of standardized tests, met many people, and spoke dozens of million of words. I grew closer to some people, and drifted away from others. I had my fair share of heartache, but publicly and unashamedly fell for a beautiful woman at Tufts University.

Although that brief story seems pretty special to me, I bet it’s unremarkable to you. With some luck, your story has similar themes of progress and development. After all, a lot happens in ten years. In these last ten, many of us became completely different people, with something still recognizable from our pasts.

I love looking back every once in a while. It’s comforting, and I benefit as a person by remembering who I was, where I came from, and who helped me get where I am; it’s that benefit that pushes my evangelism of journaling.

If you’re not already taking a few moments a day to jot down what you’re thinking, you’re not really getting the full benefit of these collective, reflective moments. Although I’m not an expert on memory formation, I know you’re missing a lot if you don’t write stuff down. To reflect on what remains in our heads over a long period is incomplete; leave notes to yourself to piece together a more complete narrative.

Entering this new year, give journaling a shot. If you’re celebrating the dawn of a new decade tonight, remember to remember it.

A Major Decision

Published on November 6, 2009 in Ricky and Tufts. 0 Comments Tags: .

Hello world!

If you see me in my daily life, you know this by now. However, this blog community is neglected, and it’s time for some loving.

I’m about 90% sure that I’m going to attempt a double major of Computer Science and Political Science at Tufts. I think those two majors pretty much sum up the intersection of my interests in this world. Sure, there’s no cohesive element between them, and I’m fairly certain that a focus on one diminishes my focus on the other, but thinking about this double major makes me happy. That’s what matters, right?

I’ll likely be declaring this soon, but there are a few details to work out. We’ll see what happens.

Eight Years

Published on September 10, 2009 in Ricky. 0 Comments

It’s easy for me to do a lot of thinking when the eleventh of September approaches. The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, now eight years ago, had a profound impact on my upbringing, and the country as a whole. I recall (and remember that I was eleven years old at the time) my mom and her friend contemplating how to get down to New York City from Carmel, New York, where I lived at the time, to see how they could help. Trained as a Registered Nurse, my mom was frustrated when the media urged citizens not to travel to the city to help.

As I went to sleep that night, I knew the world had changed forever. However, I was at an age where I was not old enough to fully grok the implications of that day, as it happened. The course of events that was set off has dictated national and international politics from that day forward, and obviously, stole loved ones from the people of the United States and the world. Living so close to the city, I still get emotional when I think about the day in terms of personal and human tragedy, rather than history and politics, and I’ve brought myself to tears in writing this post.

Today, feelings are complicated, as the grief and ramifications of September 11, 2001 are swept further into the past. The United States will never fully recover from the attacks, and they’ll be with me for the rest of my life.

I cannot help but recall a powerful experience I had in my high school two years ago. A year ago from today, I reposted my recounting of that experience. I’ve elected to repost it again, because I find its narrative compelling.

I had an intense experience this morning, and I’ll never forget it. At Dover Middle/High School, HS Student Council members have to say the pledge and read the morning’s announcements each day. This month is my assigned month (and some other people’s), and I had an additional duty this morning. Directly after saying the pledge, I was to instruct the student body to remain standing for a moment of silence to remember everyone impacted or stolen from us six years ago.

While reciting the pledge and this unique announcement, I became very emotional. I was certain that I would be fine before doing it, but upon saying, “I pledge,” I felt immensely sad. Completing sentences was painful, and I’m amazed that I was able to finish the task without stopping completely.

It was obvious that I was troubled by the task, but people were kind enough not to say anything to me about it. I wish I didn’t have to do that this morning. To a much greater extent, I wish no one had to.

The fact that no one ever commented on my emotional stumbling over the pledge that day resonates with me. Those moments of shared understanding are rare and powerful.

…

If you’re looking for something else to read today, I highly recommend this post from Christopher Penn.