Two-thousand miles is an incredibly long distance away from home, but that’s where I find myself living.

When I started studying for my first certification I had hopes it would be the catalyst for a new career, but I never thought it would eventually lead to a relocation across the country to Seattle.

It’s not an opportunity I expected nor planned to happen, and it went from potential outcome to reality much quicker than expected.

It wasn’t the first time that the prospect of relocating here had come up, and I was admittedly skeptical that it would ever happen. But it went from a maybe to a, “this is actually happening” seemingly overnight.

In a strange way, it seemed like this was always destined.

I’m not sure if it was my mother or father, but I recall one saying over twenty years ago that they didn’t expect me to stay in San Antonio, a statement which ended up being prophetic.

San Antonio doesn’t have an abundance of technology jobs, and if that was my interest it really felt like to progress I would have to eventually leave.

So when a really fascinating opportunity presented itself, it was a no-brainer that I would need to make this leap.

The challenge is that it required sacrificing quite a bit.

I would need to leave behind my house, my friends, and most difficult of all, my dog Piper who would stay with my mom. Seattle is not an inexpensive place, so I would go from living in an actual house to a studio apartment. Even moreso, that studio apartment would end up being more expensive than my house.

The move was challenging. From the moment it was a “sure thing”, I had about four weeks to prepare. This includes selling items I didn’t need, placing all my items in storage, prepping my house to sell (and inevitably rent out), procuring an apartment, and planning out the logistics of a major move.

Even with everything planned as best as I thought, lots still went wrong. Even though I had been sure I was ahead, so much more work needed to happen. Deciding what to take, asking for last minute services to trim trees, patch drywall, and then painting walls.

I had to really scrutinize what belongings would stay in San Antonio and what would make the cut to ride along in my RAV4 up to Seattle. As selective as I thought I was, I still packed too many items and had to make last minute decisions on what to leave behind.

I had planned to leave at 5am, but even with scrambling, I had much more work that needed to be completed and left at noon. This led to a difficult first day of driving where I was going on 4 hours of sleep and didn’t arrive to Phoenix, my first stop, until 2am absolutely exhausted.

But three days of driving, I had arrived at my destination. I signed my papers, and started moving my select belongings from my RAV4 to my apartment and started my new life in what feels like a new world.

Reviewing my previous year and performing a look-forward is a practice I’ve come to enjoy. Even if it comes a few months late (which for this year happened for good reason) it’s something that I spend quite a few thought-cycles on. I think about what I accomplished the previous year, if I met my own goals set from the year before, and I think about what it is in the coming year I’d like to focus on.

Truthfully when I looked back at last year’s entry, I hardly accomplished what I set out to do. When I reflect about a theme for what last year was about “Baselining” describes it perfectly.

Home Improvement Phase

In what will eventually become an ironic thought, I had a thankful approach that a job I was up for in Washington state fell through. Moving to Washington would have likely meant giving up my house, a yard, and a place for Piper (my dog) to play. This spurred a bit of a renaissance in trying to do things at my house to “make it nicer.” Especially being that it had been about ten years since I had moved in.

I spent a great effort repainting the outside of my house, by myself. Painting is not something I enjoy doing, however the results speak for themselves. There is no better way to improve the way something looks with the least amount of investment than to give it a fresh coat of paint.

I also did something I wish I had done sooner, got a patio cover built. I spent quite a bit of time researching types of grass, and working to revive the grass in my back yard. I even spent a bit of effort self-installing a reverse osmosis water filter.

By summer, I enjoyed sitting under the patio and watching Piper play in the yard.

Travel

In 2025 I didn’t quite get to take personal travel for recreation, but I did get to travel for work while also building in some time for exploring.

A few places I was able to visit was Boston, Tulsa and Dallas… Granted the last one isn’t that far from me.

In traveling, particularly for work, I’ve developed two rules of thumb that have served me pretty well.

• Book the earliest flight out possible, and the latest flight back. This maximizes the amount of time that can be spend exploring, trying new restaurants, or making time for an activity.
• Don’t try restaurants that you have at home. No chains, no well known eateries, eat somewhere you haven’t heard of.

In doing these I was able to make time to find cool spots for plane spotting in Boston, and even find the best pizza I’ve ever had in Tulsa (of all places.) The year before this rule helped me find an amazing hiking spot in Idaho and cool things to do in Spokane.

Quality Time With Piper

Dogs are our best friends, and I don’t want to not mention Piper when reflecting on my year before. So many great moments were with her, from the walks, dressing her up as a Pope for Halloween, and all of the quiet support. I had even purchased a book with activity ideas, which some worked better than others.

Professional Development

When considering all I listed as my goals from the year before, there was one I was able to meet. By the end of the year, I was promoted to an IT Support Engineer II at my job. To me this was such a great accomplishment, I remember my first day of work at this job being incredibly intimidated and having imposter syndrome rear its head constantly. I never could have imagined how much I would be able to learn and grow.

This leads into the look forward…

Part of the reason this entry is later than I would like is also part of the growth and professional development angle.

By the end of the year a unique opportunity arrived that would occur early 2026. The idea of having a role as a Network Support Engineer within a new organization and in a new city was too enticing to ignore. And so I actually write this from a restaurant called “Dough Zone” near downtown Seattle, where I’ve been living since mid-January.

This coming year, I really have just one goal, to make the most of the opportunity. I’m not sure how long this phase of my life will be where I’m able to work in an interesting role in a really interesting place. That means learning all I can, improving where I’m able, and exploring all the things there are to do in Seattle.

There’s an alarming trend quietly reshaping the internet, and it lies at the crossroads of three unsettling ideas.

First, the Dead Internet Theory—the notion that most online activity and engagement today is driven by bots. Some dismiss it as a conspiracy, but we’ll come back to why it might not be so far-fetched.

Second, the rise of Artificial Intelligence. I know, everybody’s exhausted by the AI discourse—but bear with me.

And third, astroturfing, the manufacturing of fake grassroots movements to make fringe ideas or small groups seem massive and organic.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a step back.

When Nothing Online Feels Authentic

Like many people, I’ve developed a habit (or rather, addiction) of doomscrolling on social media. And the deeper I go, the more I have to ask how many of these posts originated from real people.

Every social media platform has its own set of unique issues. Facebook has AI posts that are very clearly engagement bait - an AI image of somebody with a deformity, or down on their luck, with a statement like “Nobody wished me Happy Birthday sad face“

Instagram now has plenty of AI or artificially generated videos, and its algorithm keeps you scrolling much like TikTok’s.

And Twitter (not calling it X), is another beast entirely. It used to be that you could sus out fake accounts due to the “egg” profile photo and excessive numbers at the end of a profile handle, but now, posting about any hot topic will likely draw the ire of some hyper-fanatic.

But in my opinion, the latter platform has grown increasingly suspect, particularly in the last few years. When any controversial event arises, it almost seems like there’s a concerted narrative pushed by numerous accounts with very generic names. There are countless accounts that define themselves by a single platform or ideal. It really makes somebody question how can people be that increadibly one-dimensional, and how can someone be so terminally online that they have accumulated tens of thousands of posts, and thousands of followers with those same one-dimensional ideals.

I think the truth is that while sure, there are some people out there so dedicated to a principle that it defines them so much that they can post something essentially every few minutes of each day, but that would be an incredibly rare edge case and that there must be something more at play.

Intersection of Automation and API’s

I’ve recently been spending quite a bit of time studying and developing my ability to use Python. As somebody who works in IT, the idea is that you ALWAYS have to be developing a new skill or ability. With the advent of automation, being able to develop a script to accomplish a task is a differentiating skill. One core tenet of automation is the ability to program repeatable actions to be able to be a force multiplier. In this way, one person can accomplish the tasks of many.

A concept many in the technical space are familiar with is that of an API, or Application Programming Interface. When us humans need to use a piece of software or a service, we need to go through a cumbersome set of steps, such as logging in, clicking around, giving directions, etc. An API is a way to develop a program, or code, that can interact with another program or service, without the need for these human interfaces. In this way, they can operate much more efficiently.

Instead of logins and passwords, many web API’s use tokens. For the layman, think of this setup as a VIP backdoor where instead of needing to log in to complete an action, your script can simply reach a special endpoint with a token and perform a desired action right away.

The Goodest Dog

Enter Piper.

Personifying your pet with their own personality and human characteristics is something I think everyone does, and my personal head-canon for my cockapoo Piper is that she’s just an incredibly positive, hyper-religious, naive force for good in the world.

I couldn’t think of a funner project than to create her own little artificially intelligent persona on Twitter - so I went to work.

The easiest part was creating an account at https://platform.openai.com/. Here, I was able to create my API keys, and load $5 into my account so that I can make API calls to generate tweets based on any prompt I gave it.

Similarly, I then went to https://developer.x.com/ to create a developer account for my dog persona - in which case I gave her the handle @PiperIsGood and also created my API keys.

I decided on a very simple program loop. Every two hours, Piper would roll a random number, which would determine the tweet prompt that was fed into OpenAI’s API.

For example, here is an excerpt if an 8 was rolled, which would ask for OpenAI to generate a tweet in support of the homeless.

        elif num == 8:
        print("Rolled Homeless Support Tweet")
        prompt=f"Craft a wholesome 140 char religious tweet from a cockapoo dog in support of the homeless"
        response = openai.chat.completions.create(
            model="gpt-4o-mini",
            messages=[
                {
                    "role": "user",
                    "content": prompt,
                }
            ],
            max_tokens=50
        )

This in turn, would cause OpenAI to return a payload that looks like this:

ChatCompletion(id='REDACTED',
	choices=[Choice(finish_reason='stop', index=0,
	logprobs=None, message=ChatCompletionMessage(content="
	🐾✨ As a cockapoo, I wag my tail in support of the
	homeless! 💖 Let's share warmth & kindness, for every soul
	deserves love. #PawsForHope 🐶🙏", refusal=None,
	role='assistant', audio=None, function_call=None, 
	tool_calls=None, annotations=[]))], created=1746370017, 
	model='gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18', object='chat.completion', 
	service_tier='default', system_fingerprint='fp_129a36352a', 
	usage=CompletionUsage(completion_tokens=43, 	
	prompt_tokens=26, total_tokens=69,
	completion_tokens_details=CompletionTokensDetails
	(accepted_prediction_tokens=0, audio_tokens=0, 
	reasoning_tokens=0, rejected_prediction_tokens=0), 
	prompt_tokens_details=PromptTokensDetails(audio_tokens=0, 
	cached_tokens=0)))

This payload can then be stripped, and then fed into Tweepy’s API with the line api.create_tweet(text=tweet_content). Note that most of the heavy lifting on this code was performed when the API object was created, which is where the API keys and other attributes were defined.

From here, if we were to go to Twitter, our Goodest Dog has then tweeted:

Semi-Dynamic Interaction

Having an online persona for Piper was admittedly pretty cool, but seeing her post online to nobody doesn’t really go beyond the “neat party trick” category. We have a foundation to work with, so now let’s add a little bit of extra interactivity.

In version two of the Piper bot, a dice-roll of ten will now call an added function to check her feed, pull in the first tweet at the top of the feed, and then feed it into the OpenAI API with the prompt of "Craft a wholesome 140 char response a religious cockapoo dog would give to the following tweet: {tweet}".

The code itself to pull in a tweet is not complicated, to make the script fairly modular, it was added as it’s own function:

def get_first_feed():
    response = api.get_home_timeline(max_results=1)
    print("Tweet Piper is Responding to:")
    print(response.data[0].text)
    return response.data[0].id, response.data[0].text

A reply flag was also added throughout the script, so if the random number generator landed on the reply case, it would flip that flag to true, which would then signal the post_tweet()function to know that this is a tweet that replies to an existing tweet, and would know to also use the ID of the original tweet in it’s post.

def post_tweet():
    tweet_content, reply, id = generate_chatgpt_content()
    print(f"Posting tweet: {tweet_content}")
    if reply == False:
        api.create_tweet(text=tweet_content)
    elif reply == True:
        api.create_tweet(in_reply_to_tweet_id=id,text=tweet_content)

Now this added functionality yielded some… interesting results…

Firstly - I’m always surprised at how dynamic her responses are. In almost every post, the response seems almost organic. You wouldn’t really think that an AI would be at the point that given something as simple as a tweet, it could have the creativity and the context to draft something relevant. I also think it’s interesting to call attention to the “Post Activity” button on the bottom. The Piper AI simply commenting on a post was able to get 1.2K impressions by riding on the coattails of another post. That’s 1.2K people that saw her tweet.

West Texas Travis

It was concerningly easy to put together a simple script that makes semi-organic seeming posts online, and this leads to to the third part of the thesis - that it can also be trivially easy to steer public opinion.

Enter Travis.

To nearly every person who uses Twitter online, Piper is an obviously fake profile. Though we don’t know who is on the other side of the screen we can likely rest assured only a strange person would sit behind a computer at all hours and post imaginary tweets from the mind of a dog.

What if, the same logic behind her account were attached to something quite a bit more tangible - with a face as recognizable as our own, with a seemingly common backstory. It was incredibly simple to even fake a profile picture, San Antonio is a very common tourist destination to anybody in Texas. This actually would provide somebody skeptical with some grounding in the real world.

Travis has a similar setup, except Travis’ color is firing off the occasional tweet about West Texas Wind Energy, Country music, and being very open about his political affiliations. He even shares Pipers ability to respond to tweets about current events.

One of my theories was that if left alone long enough, Travis would eventually become accepted by other bots and start to gain their followings and engagements, which, did not take long.

Not only do those tweets look familiar, but, I spy a Grok watermark.

And it wasn’t long until he began to get interaction from real people…

And for a set-it-and-forget-it script running at all times, with a 10% chance of engaging with other accounts, he slowly but surely gained followers. Most, if not all were clearly not from real accounts, however to anybody taking a quick glance at a profile, it lends initial credibility to what is basically an account that could be weaponized to help push an agenda. A web for any unaware person to get caught up in, thinking they are a part of a movement.

The original idea was to push this as far as possible - purchasing a verified profile badge to lend even more legitimacy, and increasing the amount of engagement to expedite the follower count. Something I did not expect was how well this account actually performed, and while I think this experiment at this scale is ethical as far as a proof of concept in it’s theory, I have major concerns at the current time in scaling further.

Selling Shovels

West Texas Travis could be of any political affiliation. East Texas Travis could be used to influence a democratic primary, or even far-left activist agendas. I also believe that this is not only a known problem, but one that is profited on as well.

While reading, you may have asked yourself - if the idea and experiment was to gauge engagement, why was there only a 10% chance to reply to one tweet every two hours? Wouldn’t you want to create a script that is constantly engaging and posting?

Well, let me introduce you to API Pricing.

Many API’s online are free, and most will rate-limit to avoid congestion at their endpoints. And because services can be expensive to maintain, some API’s may carry a premium as well.

Twitter has a very interesting API setup. For free, you can only create 500 posts in a month. At roughy 720 hours in a month, divided by 500, that’s about a post every hour and a half. This limit matches their rate-limit - you can only make a post 17 times per 24 hour period.

However, the free-tier allows you to only read about 100 posts a month. This is incredibly limiting. Refreshing your timeline probably pulls about 30 posts, so imagine you can only do that 3 times in a month period. This is why the reply function only scrapes the top post without even bothering to look at the others.

For $200 a month, the lid is blown off of most of these limits. You could post 100 times in 24 hours per user (1667/24 hours per app), read 15K posts in a month, access DM functions, and get access to trends.

This price almost seems too strategically placed for this type of use case. If you were attempting to create fake personas online, $200 a month seems like a pretty strategic price point to be able to create 2.4K posts with potentially a heavy amount of influence.

In Conclusion

Many are very aware that not everybody online is real, and with the proliferation and ease of access of sophisticated AI tools this problem only seems as though it may get worse. To my knowledge, there aren’t any laws, regulations nor guardrails in place or planned to attempt to curb this problem. I couldn’t even begin to theorize what palatable regulations would even look like. In my honest opinion, social media has been so damaging to society that I believe that all social media profiles should be verifiable to traced back to the person or organization behind them, but that would not be politically feasible.

The scripts here were cobbled together in mere hours, and placed on my GitHub at https://github.com/rodriguezmarkd/SimpleTwitterBot. For now, awareness is likely the best antidote to this issue.

The concept of a temporal landmark is something that we all intuitively understand, but rarely effectively use. The term itself was something I had never actually heard of until reading “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing” by Daniel H. Pink. The book itself is a great read, and no big revelation, but temporal landmarks can be Mondays, end-of-months, birthdays, decades, or really anything to demarcate the passage of time. Used effectively, they can establish fresh starts, create periods to track progress and be a great tool for staying motivated.

One exercise I value is the idea that at year-end, I don’t make “resolutions”, but I like to do a look-back at what went well, what didn’t, and then set achievable goals going into the next year. This is much more effective than broad, non-specific platitudes. I think that since starting this practice, I’ve been able to make transformative changes and meet goals that several years ago I wouldn’t have thought feasible.

Looking Back

For a variety of reasons I won’t get into, I didn’t perform this exercise last year so I don’t have a meets/did not meets comparison against goals.

When I look back at this year, all I can think about is that this is the year I lost my father. There isn’t enough I can say about my dad and his impact on my life that I could articulate in a few sentences. His guidance, empathy and determination truly defined the textbook example of what a father should be, and I can’t understate how lucky I was to grow up with him as a role model and a dad.

One of the things I always remembered about my dad growing up was that he was always studying. I remember being present for his college graduation. I also remember him years later, converting his closet into a study room and locking himself in for hours a day to study for his professional engineer exam. I write a bit of studying, personal development, and have talked about tackling certifications but my dad had always shown me what working hard looked like, and he was able to do that while never sacrificing time with his family.

I could go on and on, there’s so much positive I can say about my father and what he meant…

…

In the early part of the year I was fortunate to be selected for some special projects for work that were stretch opportunities. I was able to put into practice many of the networking and automation skills I had learned, which was such an affirmation that the time I had been investing in my own development was well used. In fact to be able to look back at where this journey started about 5 years ago to now is just incredibly astonishing.

I was also able to pass two certification exams, the DEVASC 200-901 to achieve the Cisco Certified DevNet Associate, as well as the ENAUTO 300-435 to round out my Cisco Certified Network Professional, which is something I’ve been trying to achieve for years.

I also met most of my financial goals I had set out for myself this year, and I do think that I did a much better job of maintaining a more positive work-life balance, which is something I have struggled with in the past.

Looking Forward

And that brings me to my priorities I’ve set for this coming year. The overarching theme for this year is more of refinement rather than a complete change of behavior.

Get Organized

I’ve always felt as though I’m an organized person but in reality when I assess my workflows, I have the equivalent of drawers of post-it notes stashed digitally across numerous apps and my e-mail platforms are a mess. I’ve always admired people who have methodologies and systems of color-coding and organizing.

To attempt to rectify these shortcomings, I need to do the following:

• Establish a source-of-truth tasks app to ensure that I track to-do’s that are important
• Find a way to keep notes and record-keep in a long-term sustainable way.

Get Healthy

Now, I know this isn’t a S.M.A.R.T. goal on the surface, but this is in service of a larger change. The late 30’s really seems like this crossroad where you can tell who makes an effort to take care of themselves, and who does not. As much as possible, I’d like to put off lifetime medications as much as possible, and it sometimes feels as though the Standard American Diet works against that goal as much as possible. To that end, my goals are as follows:

• Shift to 50% Whole Food Plant Based Meals
• Limit non-social restaurant-fast food meals to once bi-weekly.
• Leverage the above goal to track progress and create data.

Professional Goals

Lastly as always I need to have a few professional deliverables as well. The idea here is to establish a personal brand as well as tangibly drive my career forward:

• Establish and maintain a social media presence.
• Progress into a new role by EOY 2025.
• Complete the AWS Advanced Networking Speciality by 05/2025.

If you have even a passing knowledge of the IT Field, there’s no doubt you’ve heard of the CompTIA A+. For many of us, it was the entry point that kick-started our IT Careers.

For those who may not be aware, the CompTIA A+ is what can be considered an Entry Level IT Certification. You attain the A+ by passing two exams, typically an 220-xx01 and a 220-xx02 where the x’s denote the current series of the exam. Currently CompTIA offers the 220-1101/1102 with the 1201/1202 launching in Spring of 2025.

One exam is colloquially referred to as the “hardware” exam with the other a “software” exam, although there are numerous exam objectives for each that may not fit in that bucket.

To avoid burying the lede, my short answer to the titular question is, yes, the CompTIA A+ still has value, and may likely always have value, but there are some very important caveats to that yes though.

Yes: You’re A Career Changer Without Formal Experience

In my opinion this is where the CompTIA A+ has the most value, and this is the bucket that I fell into.

I passed both of the exams in 2019 while I was working as a Manager at a local Theme Park. I did not have any formal IT Experience, however, I would have still considered myself pretty technical. I had some prior programming experience, I had built my own computer, had a passing familiarity with how networks worked and had a pretty decent troubleshooting acumen.

I initially started (but never finished) college coursework in Computer Engineering before I pursued a budding career in Hospitality, but I needed something to validate that knowledge to recruiters and to get past HR Screeners.

This is where a credential like the A+ shines.

I was able to pass both tests by following along with Mike Myers’ video series on LinkedIn Learning (then Lynda.com) for free while taking notes, and then reviewing those notes with flash cards.

No: You’re Looking to Make Money, Fast.

And this is where the rub comes in, and where I think a lot of people have mismatched expectations when coming into IT.

There is almost no path in IT where you are going to make a ton of money at the entry-level.

(Note: Software Developers can make pretty good money post-grad but I wouldn’t consider those IT.)

Many pursue IT careers thinking it’s a way to get fast tracked to six-figure salaries, and they quickly find out that entry-level jobs are not very lucrative. This disconnect creates tons of animosity, frustration and disappointment.

There’s an entire industry of boot camps, degree and trade programs who need to create the illusion of the magic certification that makes you highly sought after where one can then command any salary, but the reality is far from that.

The truth is that IT is a grind. You’re going to get your A+, get an entry-level job, need to continue learning, get involved in projects, and essentially claw your way to better opportunities.

To continue with my personal experience, I took a significant pay cut to change careers. My goal was to get a foot in the door, continue learning, and to soak in all the information I could. The good news is so far that mentality has served me, and countless others well as our careers have grown.

Maybe: You Don’t Have Any Job Experience

A strong resume will have a mixture of experience, credentials and education, with experience trumping all. Even a career switcher may have some customer service and leadership experience that could offer transferrable skills.

If you are in High School and have the opportunity to get the A+, I would absolutely say to go for it. But I would also say that you should be looking to get some customer service experience with any job on your resume, and then look to pivot to something more technical as soon as possible.

No: You Currently Have an IT Job

Lastly, I do not believe that the A+ will provide value if you are already in an IT role. The A+ can provide a great amount of validation for skills to get a candidate past the HR Filter and onto the Hiring Managers’ desk, but if it isn’t listed as a “Minimum Requirement” on a job listing, your current job title will likely be enough. I would even go so far as to say if you currently have IT Experience, you may want to have an additional certification to show growth beyond Help Desk/T1 support. Here I would recommend a Microsoft/Cisco/AWS certification depending on where you want to specialize.

Other Thoughts

There are a ton of training programs out there but in my opinion, unless you are enrolling for free I wouldn’t pay out of pocket for an A+ only course.

As I’ve alluded to earlier, Mike Myers has a great video course that’s fairly comprehensive, and there is quite a bit of free material on YouTube. Any video course and a textbook should be able to get most across the finish line given good, diligent study habits.

There are also plenty of study groups and subreddits with like-minded individuals studying and taking the exams. Many are even willing to share and compare notes, which can also be used to reinforce what you’ve been studying.

With long-term career goals in mind and realistic expectations, the A+ can be a great way to launch an IT Career.

Hi, as you can probably guess by the name on the header, my name is Mark.

Like many people stumbling onto this blog, I have a huge passion for technology and IT in general.

And also like a lot of people, this was not my first career.

I originally had a very long (like, 15 years long) career in Hospitality and Management. It was my first job and because my career kept progressing, it soon became my primary focus.

I even eventually stopped going to college and just focused on work.

But as is usually the case, I eventually wanted to do something else and felt like the IT field would be a great place to transition into. The problem was that though I considered myself pretty technically literate, I didn’t have any tangible credentials.

I put out numerous applications, but never got a single callback or interview.

After researching and doing the cursory forum reading, it became quickly apparent that certification is huge in the IT field. I had always had this perception that certification was this huge hurdle that required a massive amount of experience and that the testing process was cumbersome.

Even thinking that, I decided to set out for the CompTIA A+. I would work my usual job within Theme Park Management, and then in my free time watch Mike Myers’ A+ video series on LinkedIn Learning, ensuring to take notes and review.

It wasn’t long before I felt like I was ready to book my first certification exam, a process that frankly was much easier than I thought. I took my CompTIA A+ 220-901 (the current iteration at the time) and breezed through it. I’ve never considered myself an academic or great student, but something about the content was engaging since it can directly apply to something I was actually wanting to learn.

And with that, my cert-chasing addiction started. My sights were then on the 220-902, which after another several weeks I passed to complete my A+.

Armed with my A+ and plenty of Customer Service experience, I renewed my job search.

And this time was different, I actually started receiving interviews for entry-level roles, whereas before I was hearing nothing. On my second interview, I received my first IT job offer, a Technical Support Specialist at a local school district.

Admittedly it would be a pretty large pay decrease from what I was making before. I was living alone with a mortgage and other bills, but I knew starting over in a new field would take some trade-offs.

I accepted the role with the plan to cash-out my 401K to make ends meet with the idea that I would try and speed-run the launch of my career by learning all I can, and fast.

So right away when starting, I had to choose another certification to pursue. I always thought networking was interesting, so the CCENT (which has since been deprecated) seemed like the obvious choice. And so I got a subscription to CBTNuggets, bought the OCG Certification guide, and in all my downtime, studied. If I had any downtime at work, I was reading the pdf version of the textbook, and if I had downtime at home, I was labbing and watching the video series.

And so I eventually passed the CCENT.

Then the CCNA.

Then the Sec+. Then the P+.

Then the pandemic happened. Somewhere along the way I got a second job at Walmart at the height of the pandemic, working two jobs and studying. The second job actually paid for me to finish my degree.

Then in May of 2021, I received a job offer with my current place of work at the time of writing, a FAANG company. This has offered several levels of career progression, incredible hands-on experience with all kinds of network devices, topologies, and servers, and the opportunity to integrate with numerous teams and projects.

Since then I’ve also received my AWS Cloud Practitioner, AWS Solutions Architect Associate, ITIL 4 Foundation, Cisco DevNet Associate and I passed my ENCOR which is the halfway point to my Cisco CCNP.

And that leads me to now.

I’ve realized that I have a massive passion for networking, as well as a desire to pay forward those experiences as I’ve found that many in this field have had similar paths. If something I share can help even just a few people, then it would be worth the invested time.

But also I feel like sharing has a great personal benefit as well, particularly when it comes to technical knowledge. One of the best ways to solidify your understanding of concepts is to teach them, which is what I plan to also do here. Some topics will be to review things I’ve learned and forgotten, while others will be to share about things I’m learning now, particularly in the field of automation.

So thank you for reading and joining me on this new adventure, and I’m looking forward to getting to work with other people who are passionate in this community.

While studying for the ENCOR has its fair share of technical information and labbing that needs to be done to fully grasp the technical details of how networks work, there are also conceptual ideas that can be really difficult to keep straight.

One of the early things that trips me up are differentiating some of the early hardware and software switching mechanisms from the names to tables and other vocabulary. This can be tough because of the amount of 3 Letter Acronyms and similarity between names and concepts.

I think when it comes to this, it makes more sense to start with what the MAC Address table and TCAM are.

The MAC Address Table is stored in what’s called the CAM, or Content Addressable Memory. It’s used for very fast lookups, and is called Content Addressable because you search by the content itself. The MAC Address Table maps Interfaces and VLANs with MAC Addresses. One limitation is that CAM lookups can only match based on exact matches. The CAM Table is populated by examining the source MAC address of frames it receives on its interfaces.

The TCAM is the Ternary Content Addressable Memory. Ternary by definition means three, so matches can be made based on 0 (true), 1 (false) and X is do not care. Items in the TCAM tables are stored in a VMR format for Value, Mask and Result. Because masks are heavily used in IP routing, Quality of Service and ACLs, TCAMs are heavily relied on.

The Routing Information Base (RIB) is essentially the routing table and is built from routing protocols and directly connected routes.

So after vocabulary, you get into the actual processes themselves.

Process Switching is the process by which a router makes a forwarding decision, calculates the cyclic redundancy check and rewrites the header of each frame before sending it off, which can be taxing to the CPU.

Fast Switching only interrupts the CPU for the first packet it receives, but then creates a cache in hardware that can be used by all subsequent frames.

Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) is another (proprietary of course) switching mode that’s supposed to be even faster, and is differentiated also by building two other tables (and in turn two other vocabulary terms to remember):

• Forwarding Information Base (FIB) - Built from the Routing Table (RIB) and has the next-hop IP address for each destination in the network.
• Adjacency Table - Built using the ARP Table, and has each directly connected next-hop IP address and their next-hop IP address.

Remembering the FIB and Adjacency table as subitems to Cisco Express Forwarding helps keep them separate from all of the other items in my mind.

So to map it out, it would look like this:

To say that we all rely heavily on YouTube for entertainment is probably an understatement. Doing a quick Google search for "Top YouTube Videos by View Count" yields results that put the top videos in the billions of views. I personally don't even watch traditional TV or streaming services, but I do have a YouTube Premium account that I use daily.

YouTube is great for fresh content and even for staying up to date on industry news. Usually I'll watch tech videos, and I follow some niche personal finance and economics channels fairly regularly.

But, one niche I've never followed is skating. I am not a skateboarder, nor have I ever taken any interest in the hobby. I still don't.

But ten years ago, a video was released that to this day I still consider my favorite.

Set to Patrick Wilson's "Adventures In Your Own Backyard", Kilian Martin: Altered Route is as much a short film or a music video as it is a skating montage. And that's what makes the video fascinating.

The entirely of the video is filmed in the abandoned Lake Dolores Waterpark off I-15 in California. For a short form video, it quickly gives great context via a car ride on a dirt road with an actual, vintage commercial playing on the radio telling us where we are and what to expect.

As the radio fades and the melancholic music starts playing, we are shown some incredible establishing shots of an abandoned park with many theme park staples still around, down to the red and white checkered food trays on the ground. From here, the rest of the video is a skating performance that's more akin to a ballet than it is to "Tony Hawk Pro Skater." It's a unique and creative style that suits the accompanying music, setting and cinematography perfectly.

One call out that has to be made are the past-day/current-day transitions that show the park as it once was, compared to what it is now. These are fascinating in their own right, and really elevate the video as a whole.

As the music winds down and the sun sets, we're left to wonder if the video might even be worth a second viewing. It's an incredibly well made short film that was created with a clear vision in mind, was well storyboarded and executed perfectly. We may also wonder what happened to the water park and want more information.

On one of my road trips, I hadn't even actually planned to visit Lake Dolores. As it turns out, trekking from San Bernardino to the Grand Canyon, I noticed that my route took me fairly close to the Mojave National Preserve.

Remembering the into to the video, I wondered how close I would come to where the park was located, and if it would be feasible to stop by. Also as it turns out, stopping by the park would only be about an hour and a half delay. Having always wanted to see the park in person, it was an easy choice to make.

As stated in the intro of the video, even in the present day, the park is located in the middle of nowhere. Located just off the highway, it's small and unassuming enough that if you're not paying attention, you'll pass it up.

The park itself isn't difficult to get into. At the time of visiting, there wasn't a fence blocking the entrance, just some sizable rocks that are easy to climb over. The park itself is still fairly walkable. Since the filming of the YouTube video, there's a noticeable increase in graffiti which as much as I typically dislike it, it does add some character to the place.

After doing a bit of walking around, I decided to get my drone in the air to take a few aerial photos of the park.

I'm always really worried about being in isolated places (especially abandoned ones) by myself so I didn't get too bold with my walking around. I regret not checking out some of the slide areas and getting some shots of some of the iconic spots in the Kilian Martin video.

It was a pretty awesome and unexpected place to visit. Had it not been for the introductory sound clip used in the video, I probably would have never thought to see if it was nearby.

Up until this year, I had been fairly regular with publicly posting an annual review of the year before, along with some forward-looking statements for what I'd like to accomplish in the coming year. While this exercise can feel a bit naive and, for lack of a better term, basic, it was more borne out of wanting to keep myself honest. I always thought that if I stated something publicly, I was much more likely to hold myself to actually making it happen.

And I'm not sure if it was because of this practice, but I feel like I've had a really successful run the last several years.

• In 2018, I ran a full marathon, something I never would have thought I would do.
• In 2019, I got my A+, and left my job of 15 years to pursue a new career.
• In 2020, I got my CCNA, Sec+, and in reaction to the pandemic (and a few other things), I picked up a second job at Walmart. I also started school again.
• In 2021, I got a new job and I graduated with a Bachelors degree.

It's really hard to think about the last year and to try and pick out a singular major win. While the prior several years felt like there was one peak accomplishment that I could point to, this last year felt more of a continuation of the years before.

Professionally, there was a lot to be proud of this year. Coming into this year, I had spent 6 of the 7 months at my new job on the overnight shift. In January I was able to hit the ground running when I was back on day-shift by getting involved in several projects, and I felt like I was really able to continue to grow while contributing to the team. In May, I was able to obtain my AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification (which was something I was studying as a bit of an extracurricular to take a break from networking) and by October, I was able to get a promotion to Support Engineer. This was something I would have never thought possible when I took the leap into this new career a few years prior, and it seemed incredibly far away when I started this job a year and a half ago. To say I'm grateful for the opportunities I was given would be an understatement.

From a personal standpoint, I don't think there was much exciting this year. There wasn't a non-work trip to write home about, nor any major accomplishment. I did unfortunately need to say bye to the Honda Civic, but that is more of a detriment because I was hoping to make more strides in paying off debt. In some ways, there was actually a bit of regression on a few fronts. If anything, I think this year was more about being a pet parent.

So, what does that mean going forward?

There are lots of opportunities. I think my roadmap can be broken down by the following.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

• Reduce overall debt by 10%
• Achieve the CCNP Enterprise Certification
• Be in a dedicated Network Engineer type role by EOY

Fuzzy Goals

• Be in the same type of shape athletically as 2018.
• Build more of a work-life balance.
• Revive my yard.
• Make at least one trip.
• Stop looking to the past.
• Be more intentional.

The overall direction of this year should be to not push for any major individual accomplishments, rather to synthesize habits from the years before and put them into practice.

I have tendency to beat myself up over mistakes from years' past, and I think this years theme really needs to be to focus forward and appreciating the now.

While I do have career goals (as everybody should), I think if I end this year with a feeling of peace and optimism, that will be a big win.

In most places around the world, seeing a lake on the map can bring many things to mind. Lakes are often used for recreation such as swimming, boating, jet-skiing, fishing, and other similar activities. Lakes can also be a great place to enjoy a nice view and relax.

The South Eastern portion of California is notoriously dry, something that a California outsider like myself did not expect. I was surprised to see some of the giant sand dunes along Interstate-8, so much so that I even took a bit of time to check out the North Algodones dunes out of curiosity. Those frankly turned out to be pretty amazing, it was like stepping into a scene from Star Wars or Lawrence of Arabia.

Per recommendation from a friend, after leaving the dunes I went to go check out Salvation Mountain which in itself was an interesting visit, but after feeling like I had been in one dry area after another, taking in the sights at a lake sounded like just the change of scenery I was looking for.

If you look at the Southern California area in Google Maps, it's apparent that the Salton Sea is an oddity out of place. Surrounded by desert, there's no other body of water anywhere close to it. No rivers, no other lakes, it stands alone. The only stream of greenery nearby flows from the south of the sea, likely from using the lake as a source of water.

Driving through Niland was the first sign that something was amiss. What should have been a thriving lake town felt aged, deserted, and wilted. It had a similar feeling to the dusty abandoned West Texas towns that were forgotten in time. There were signs that the town was once thriving. There were husks of diners and shop fronts, but all had been essentially destroyed. You can see this even now just by taking Google Street View and perusing Main St. What I didn't know at the time was that on the other side of Salvation Mountain exists Slab City, an unincorporated colony of nomads, which in itself interesting. I'd probably never visit it myself (nor would I recommend it) but it's worth the quick Google Search to learn a bit about its existence.

Driving up the dry 111, it's increasingly clear that this isn't your ordinary body of water. Docks that have been closed for decades, abandoned camping areas, and closed and abandoned businesses litter the roadside. There is clearly a story here, the hints of a once-thriving area that's been lost and forgotten. Eventually, just off the road there was a sign, "Bombay Beach." This seemed about as good as a spot to turn in as I would find so I made the left turn down the unkempt road.

What I was greeted with was one of the biggest surprises yet. Dilapidated houses, some still sadly occupied, next to others that had been destroyed. Crumbling roads just slightly better than dirt roads. I had visited a lot of places on my trips, but Bombay Beach was probably the one place that though I didn't sense imminent danger, I felt the least safe.

As I drove to the back of the (for lack of a better word) development, the destruction of property has become increasingly more prominent, until you reach a road that borders a long-running levee. After finding a gap in the levee, you can then reach the other side.

On a hot summer day, you can expect hundreds of lake-goers participating in all kinds of activities but on the other side of that levee, there wasn't another soul in sight. Even taking a moment to scan the feature image of this page which was taken by drone on my visit, there isn't a single person out on the lake. What instead greets you when you walk out of the vehicle - one of the worst stenches I've ever come across.

I'm generally not somebody with a weak stomach; it's one of the few times I've gagged at the smell of anything. It's hard to describe what the smell was, people have described rotting eggs or a strong sulfur smell, but this was much worse. Walking around, the sand had a distinctive crunch to it. One of the other immediate observations is the shoreline is unusually far from the road, the waterline is a few hundred feet out. The receding waterline can also be seen from the feature image on this page.

Because most of my trip was logged in a continuous Snapchat story for my friends, I decided to make a quick landscape pan to post to my feed. Upon checking the filters, there was actually a custom overlay for this area - the words "Salton Sea" over a picture of fish bones. Putting two and two together, I realized that the crunchy sand I was walking on wasn't actually sand.

The area was disgusting, and I was actually ready to leave as soon as I got there. Before heading out, I decided I would do my due diligence and get my drone in the sky for a quick flight for some video, and then head out.

Driving out of Bombay Beach, I noticed that at one intersection two, rough, appearing residents seemed like they were sizing up my vehicle as I was approaching. To be honest, I didn't even stop at that intersection, I just drove out. The roads were so rough my car actually bottomed out, but at that point, I was just trying to leave without incident.

I continued on my way up the 111, passing large farms and actual greenery along the way. I eventually stopped at a Del Taco in Mecca to grab some food and regroup. I couldn't process everything I had seen, it didn't make any sense. How can there be such a large body of water that smelled so awful? This area had clearly once been a tourist destination what happened to cause this area to deteriorate so much? It was a mystery that needed some deep diving.

To summarize a long and fascinating history, the area lies within the Salton Trough, which is a tectonic basin with the lowest point being referred to as the Salton Sink which is the second-lowest elevation in North America.

The entire region (not just the current Salton Sea but even the nearby towns) was once the home of an ancient prehistoric lake, Lake Cahuilla. This lake has had a history of forming, and drying up, with the most recent drying period being around the 1500s. The lake was formed through runoff from the Colorado River, as its course would sometimes change from earthquakes and other tectonic activity.

The current iteration of the Salton Sea was actually formed from a man-made accident in the early 1900s, where again, the Colorado River was altered to flow into the Salton Sink. From here the Sea has had a troubled history. It was maintained by runoff from the river to be used as irrigation for crops and had even become a tourist destination in the 1950s. Numerous developments had even sprung up in the area as it had become sort of an oasis in the desert.

In the 1970s, a series of storms had damaged the area considerably, which included washing out a large number of pesticides from some of the nearby farms into the lake. The salinity and harsh makeup of the lake also means that tilapia are a few of the only fish hardy enough to thrive, sometimes a bit too much. Due to the lack of predators (outside of birds), the tilapia explode in population, and because the lake is standing with without inflow or outflow, the lack of oxygen in the summer heat can result in massive annual dieoffs that contribute to the awful stench.

As I continued on, I found myself listening to the audio of a few YouTube documentaries on the subject to learn more about the area and its history. There's a really interesting (albeit somewhat dry) documentary embedded above that I watched (or listened to) in its entirety as I drove that evening.

The area is an ecological disaster without a feasible solution. I've kept up with updates on the area here and there since visiting, there's been a few proposals but not much has come to fruition. I would eventually like to return if only to satisfy my morbid curiosity to see if it has decayed further.

If you ever find yourself interested in it, dig down the rabbit hole yourself. I had no idea someplace like this even existed.

There's a feeling I think we have all experienced at one point or another.

We undertake a project for any variety of reasons. Something doesn't work and we have the desire to attempt to fix it, we decide that we want to remodel and change something, or maybe we are searching to build something new entirely.

The process always plays out the same. We recognize a problem, in our heads we roadmap a process with a loose idea of what the end looks like, and then we dig in. We start to dismantle the pieces, tear into the drywall, drill holes, and ultimately make a mess.

Then there's always this phenomenon that occurs right in the middle... As we look around, pieces around us, a startling feeling starts to creep in.

... I'm in way over my head.

Depending on the stakes, this feeling can directly lead straight into mild panic. For some, it's at this point that help may be called, somebody is looked for to solve the problem for us.

Maybe for those oriented as problem solvers, this is when the situation is analyzed. The objectives are revisited, problems are inventoried, and we begin to draw out a modified path forward.

And for some, this might be a window of opportunity to build something new. The challenge of improving and building better; creating something that looks different than what came before it.

Mistakes may have been made a long the way.

With the hindsight, there were things we likely would have done differently.

But at that moment surrounded by the drywall, debris, and scraps of something once standing, nothing looks like it did when you started this endeavor.

That's the challenge you wanted; to have the chance to put it back together better than before.

Optimistic likely isn't the word that people who know me would use to describe my personality, but even then, I'm not somebody who believes in bad days. For all of the talk of 2020 being a "bad year" I wouldn't personally describe it as such.

I don't write much (and not nearly as much as I wish I did.) As I've reflected on how I've pivoted and changed major portions of my life these past few years, I've felt that I've also equipped myself with the ability to adapt and overcome challenges along the way.

And sure, we have all experienced difficulties and hardships this past year. There isn’t anything unique in my experience that is honestly worth telling. I recognize that many were worse off. Many lost jobs, loved ones and battled major health problems, and I’m grateful to have not experienced any of those issues this year.

But in keeping to my own traditions of self-accountability and reflection, I think it’s important to continue that practice if only to continue to provide a vehicle for growth.

The first challenge of which came mid-February when on the way to a morning run, I collided with a deer at around 6 in the morning (or to be more specific it collided with my car by darting in front of it.) On its own, this isn’t a major event. For most, something like this would barely be an inconvenience. Call the insurance, get a rental for a while, be done with it. What I didn’t know at the time was that this would begin a chain reaction of events that would alter the trajectory of my year.

Mid-February was about the time that the pandemic began to pick up steam. If you followed any sort of international news, this was the time period that Italy was witnessing a wide-array of panic buying due to their imminent COVID lockdowns. Realizing it was only a matter of time before the unrest they were seeing worked its way this way, I encouraged friends and family to get what they needed in anticipation of supply-chain issues.

What transpired in the following weeks is likely to be the most fascinating events I think we will ever experience. I vividly remember visiting Costco three weeks in a row.

Week One: I made a Costco run to do a larger version of my normal shopping routine in anticipation of avoiding stores for awhile. At this point, stores felt normal, but you could notice that a small number of people were buying water, grains, and dog food.

Week Two: As the overseas situation had worsened, I again made my way to Costco to stock up on items that I felt would be hard to get once people started to react. I bought bulk rice, water, canned goods, and yes, one bulk pack of toilet paper. At this point, it was the last week in February and probably one out of every five shoppers had full carts of water and non-perishables. I had strongly encouraged my parents to get what they needed.

Week Three: At this point, panic buying had arrived. I had neither the desire nor the need to make any additional purchases, put curiosity again brought me to Costco to see the public reaction. The atmosphere had changed drastically. The store was packed to capacity, but despite the increase in shoppers, the store was quiet and filled with tension. Everybody had full carts and a very small minority of people were wearing gloves, which at the time seemed like an overreaction. Before leaving, I went to the Food Court and ordered two large slices of Costco Pizza. The first weekend in March would be the last time I'd be able to do that.

March 6th was an important day for a variety of reasons. This was the day that I would receive my car back from the shop after the (first) incident. This was also the last day I would be able to enjoy post-work happy hour with co-workers. Most importantly though, this was the last workday before Spring Break, making it the last "normal" day of the year.

Spring Break would be another pivotal week, both publicly and personally. March 11th would see Tom Hanks announcing his positive COVID test. Not too long after, school districts would announce the suspension of "on-campus" learning for the remainder of the school year.

The evening before bars and restaurants were to close, I went to wander downtown, which would become another running theme for the year. It was absolutely fascinating to see how empty the streets were. This was before "social distancing", "limited-capacities" and permanent closures. At the time, I thought this would be the only time I would see my city in a different light. While Spring Break typically meant that the Riverwalk would be busy with tourists, at this moment it was absolutely vacant.

I figured it would be the last time for awhile I would be able to visit one of my favorite bars, Jet-Setter. Before leaving downtown, I went to grab a quick drink. As with the Riverwalk, this bar was also vacant. Not a single person other than myself at the bar.

Not too long after this evening, I would again cause a significant amount of damage to my car. I remember exactly what I was doing. I was within two miles of my house, checking the COVID case counts on the Worldometers webpage, when I strayed a bit too far out of my lane. I hit the curb where the drainage area was, and caused a significant amount of damage to the wheel support area under the car. Frankly, it was the dumbest things I've probably ever done, and writing this here is one of the first times I've been open about this publicly.

Being that this was the second time in as many months, I didn't want to create another insurance claim. I would later find out that the damage, while not initially bad aesthetically, totaled to about $4,000 in under-the-hood damage. This would prove to be quite the problem and was a perfect storm of issues. To be frank, my new career path didn't leave me with any sort of income to deal with an unexpected expense that high. The "quarantine" phase of the pandemic had just started and there was a huge amount of uncertainty about job stability for months to come.

While that problem was manifesting, my workload at my job had changed drastically. While we had always been there to troubleshoot and support educators, the pandemic had created a seismic shift in what our role was. With in-person learning paused, education was starting to shift into a virtual learning model. This meant that tens of thousands of learning devices needed to be put into the hands of students across the district. With a single days notice, we reported to work with the direction to round up any device on campus, inventory it, stage it, and have it ready to distribute.

Those devices were then transported to hub campuses where we then teamed up with our peers across the district, and began the herculean effort to coordinate and deploy devices to students in need. This was foundational to the transition to virtual learning, and playing a part in this effort during a pandemic was one of the most rewarding professional experiences of my career.

As that effort wound down, we slowly transitioned to a "work-from-home" model of supporting educators and students via alternative means. The school year was also winding down, and I still had the issue of a car repair bill, and an overall cash flow problem. I was burning through my 401k much faster than I had anticipated. The job market took a major hit, unemployment was at an all-time high and there were talks of cuts in every public sector of employment. This was about the time that grocery stores were continuing to see a huge amount of sales volume. Places like HEB, Lowe's, and Walmart announced that they had ramped up hiring efforts to bring in additional support that was needed due to the pandemic.

Seeing the opportunity present itself, I took a second job at a grocery store. In hindsight, this may have been the best course of action I could have taken. I submitted a job application the first week of April, was called for a phone interview a week later, and two days later I was sent out to operate a register after only witnessing two transactions.

In a strange way, my previous work history had set me up for a high level of success between balancing both jobs. Working a salaried management job, I was accustomed to changing priorities and the sporadic long weeks. Having worked primarily retail my entire life, I was mostly able to pick up from where I had left off at SeaWorld. My days from April onward consisted of logging into one job during the day, and then in the evening logging off, eating dinner, and then heading into Walmart.

Seeing the ebbs and flows of the occasional supply shortages between toilet-paper, cleaning supplies, meat, and even coins from the perspective of a grocery store was a unique experience. I've been able to work not only as a cashier, but I monitored store traffic and taken counts at the doors, sanitized carts, pushed carts, and eventually settled into working at the Service Desk. I've been able to witness fights between shoppers, shady customers, and people become irate over $0.03 in change. It's been an experience that has furthered my perspective while being incredibly rewarding in numerous ways.

As it turns out, Walmart also had an excellent tuition assistance program for permanent employees. The only issue was that I had been hired as a temporary associate at the start of the pandemic, which typically were on a 6-month term. Through my initial first few months, I had felt that I had shown value by bringing experience and reliability to the front-end team, particularly during an unusual period. I thought I had learned quick enough to make myself worth keeping on as a permanent employee, and I had expressed interest in staying on indefinitely to take advantage of the program. Shortly after expressing that interest, I found that I had been converted and became eligible.

The ship had sailed on attending in-person school for a variety of reasons. One being that I now have a full-time career, and even more so now that I'm working a part-time job. Southern New Hampshire University had an online Information Technology Bachelors of Science Program that seemed like a great fit. They transferred over most of my credits from my previous course work, the school operates on 8-week terms, and they had a brick-and-mortar campus to lend itself to legitimacy. By late-June, I had enrolled in two classes, an Introduction to Scripting course and IT Fundamentals. By the end of the year, I would have completed 7 courses with a GPA of 3.904, with an anticipated graduation date of 10/2021.

This wasn't without its drawbacks. As my primary job transitioned back to a regular on-site schedule, I opted to maintain my usual work schedule that I had during the work-from-home period and summer break. This meant that I would be on-site for one job, and then have an hour in between heading to the other job that I would be working for 20-32 hours a week. From August until the end of the year, free-time would be non-existent. Between a full-time job, a part-time job and coursework, time-management and self-discipline were absolutely critical. "Free-time" outside of my 60-72 hour work weeks now consisted of studying, cleaning, and sleeping.

There's so much that happened this year. That doesn't even touch on the rioting that took place in and around the country this year around May. The morning following one of the more eventful nights, I walked downtown to see an interesting juxtaposition. There was a heavy amount of damage; broken windows, vandalism and spray paint. But on the other end, the community had come together to start to pick up the pieces and clean the damage. Even San Antonio Spur Lonnie Walker IV was out there handing out water and talking to normal people. I had even witnessed him take part in a prayer with a downtown business owner.

I don't think there's ever been a point in time where I worked harder, yet received so much in return. I've never felt so appreciated and thankful for the opportunities that I have. If last year was about learning, then this year was about executing through uncertainty and finding a way to make it work.

I'm not sure what the next 12 months will bring. None of the societal root causes of any of our issues have been addressed. A more contagious variant of COVID making its rounds, we are sitting at record high case counts and there is likely to be more political instability on the way. Half of the country seems to deny a problem exists while also denying the vaccine that promises to solve it.

My biggest takeaway is a lesson that I should have learned a long time ago. I had a VP that used to say that when things got difficult, to "control what you can control." While I may have heard that mantra, it wasn't always one that I was the best at practicing until now. In a year where I felt like I came in with a good plan, a lot outside of my control happened. Instead of throwing out the plan in frustration, I adjusted, course-corrected, and can say that I'm exiting this year much better positioned than when I entered it.

Regardless of what happens moving forward, I'm confident that by assessing the situation, figuring out what I can control, and executing on that, I'll be poised to figure a way to make it through whatever challenges I face this year.

Accountability can come in a lot of different forms. For some people, it could strictly be a professional concept where somebody else holds them to account through disciplinary measures. Others can have their own methods of motivation, using metrics such as weights, calories, or even time.

For all of its pitfalls, I've realized that social media can be a strong motivator for me personally. If there's something that is critical for me to work towards, I'll post about it through Facebook or Snapchat. As the end of the year has approached, for as little as I've utilized this particular platform, I've found myself dedicating a lot of mental energy thinking about what I would say about this year. The fact that I've done this for two other years has helped motivate me to make sure to continue that practice for a third year straight.

Granted a lot of what I've written in the past has been deleted (either through technical accidents or intentional purging) but this process has been instrumental in creating sort of a roadmap for the following year. In that spirit, instead of organizing this year's post by accomplishments, I feel as though it would be better organized by what I learned.

Learning to Roadmap

Interestingly, this iteration of the blog started with an impromptu, unplanned midnight trip to California. Absolutely nothing had been planned, not even the trip itself. As the next two years went on, I learned to not only set goals, but to follow through on them. Last year's big goal was that I wanted to finish a full marathon, but I had also had shorter goals of getting back to a goal weight, which required sticking to a diet.

This year, I knew what I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to Begin a New Career in IT. Building on prior learnings, this goal would require a thorough plan.

SeaWorld had been an amazing place for me. It helped me grow in numerous different ways, and was absolutely formative to who I am today. I met a lot of outstanding people, many of whom I hope stay in touch. If I'm honest with myself though, after 15 years, I had burnt myself out. At the stage of life I found myself, the annual grind of a theme-park season, as well as the weekends and holidays spent working, while fun, were no longer appealing. In choosing to do something different, I had to ask myself what I wanted to do for the remaining 30 years of my career. Because I had always had a strong skillset when it came to working with technology, setting a goal of getting into IT was an obvious choice. But at 31 (now 32), with only SeaWorld on my resume, it would be tough to find an entry-level role.

To find a job, I knew I'd have to appeal to recruiters and hiring-managers. To do this, I decided to Pursue IT Career Certifications to make that transition possible. I began in March by studying for what's called a CompTIA A+ Certification, which required passing two exams that had to be taken at testing centers.

Learning to Be Disciplined

One thing I've never been good (but I had improved vastly on) is being disciplined. When you are self studying to pass exams, with no set date, and no penalties for not trying, it can be understandably hard to motivate yourself to study. To push myself, I followed the common knowledge approach to achieving goals: beginning with the end in mind.

For each test I've passed this year I researched the average time it took for most to pass the exam, put a test date on the calendar based on that time, and I created a spreadsheet accounting for each day leading up to the exam. I then take any learning materials, divide out the number of chapters (or videos) by day, and fill out the spreadsheet accordingly. To hold myself to account, each day I would check the sheet, and mark off the number of days left. As I completed each video, and read every chapter, I would then do the same. Using this method, I Passed 3 Exams; the 220-901 in March, 220-902 in April, and the ICND1 in November.

Learning to Take Risks

Armed with a stronger resume, I began the job-seeking process, putting my name in the hat for numerous IT positions. Understanding that I had zero experience in that field, I knew that I would be looking at entry-level positions. I also understood that this would likely come with a reduction in pay, which would require me to utilize my 401k to bridge the gap – a risk that can't be understated.

Ultimately I had two interviews, SWBC and NISD. Skipping details, when it was all said and done, I was more than happy to Accept the Technology Support Specialist Position with NISD.

Leaving a job you've had for 15 years is difficult, and even moreso when you're leaving your comfort zone to pursue something completely new. You're giving up familiarity, established relationships, and a knowledge of how things work to put yourself in a position that you know little about.

In the end, I absolutely enjoy what I'm doing. The job itself has such a wide variety as to always be challenging. Besides the usual troubleshooting one would expect, I've been able to coordinate small projects, develop promotional videos, do some minor web-mastering, as well as conduct small-scale training. The people have all been great, and overall this has been a rewarding experience. This job has utilized so many transferrable skills that SeaWorld had helped me develop, and there's no way I would have been successful without my time there.

Looking Forward

Looking to next year, I'm already continuing to roadmap and figure out what my next steps are. I'm currently studying for the ICND2 which I'm hoping to pass late-January.

While my main goals in 2019 were fairly professional in nature, I still was able to have fun. Though I didn't get to travel this year, I Saw Quite a Few Concerts, including John Mayer, Bad Suns and Max Bemis. I may not get to travel in the coming year for some not-so-obvious reasons, but my goals are pretty straight forward.

Obtain a CCNA, Network+ and Security+.

Get back to running and be able to complete a half-marathon.

Write here twice a month.

Oh, and I'd like start learning guitar.

First things first... I realize that I need to post more frequently than my semi-annual updates on what I’m doing. I also realize this post is coming about 27 days late; but bear with me, I’ll get better. I promise.

After going back and reflecting a bit on my post that I did last year to close out 2017, I really wanted to keep the theme of yearly reflections going. If that year was “The Year I Finally Did Stuff” then I feel like this year could be categorized as simply, “The Good Year.”

The Beto Campaign

I was going to open this paragraph by saying that this deserves a post all on it’s own (and maybe eventually it will get it’s own) but truthfully I’ll feel this way about all of these categories.

The Beto For Senate campaign was a huge part of my year. I don’t remember when I first heard about Beto, but I know that in late 2017 I was watching a lot of his live-streams on Facebook. To me, he was the antithesis to Donald Trump, which was refreshing and comforting at a time when I started to question the sanity of the people around me.

I saw his campaign grow, and in late January, I drove an hour and a half to Austin to hear him speak at a 2 am event. That isn’t an error. Beto had a 24-hour-straight livestream event with events around the clock. Even in the early morning hours, he was still able to pack the restaurant with energetic supporters. Continuing on with my previous years’ theme of just doing things, I decided to get involved. After voting in the primary, I finally registered as a Democrat (fun fact, I considered myself a Republican in High School, and then a moderate after that), attended the county party convention, the state convention, and even volunteered and block walked. I attended events near me, and even tried to do my best to get my friends to vote. Beto didn’t win, and that’s okay. I met a lot of great people, some of which who came from out of state to help!

The Keto Diet

This is one I actually have written about.
I had steadily gained weight over the last few years, and I found myself coming into 2018 weight 150 pounds on the dot. I had grown fairly complacent with my appearance, and my regiment of exercise wasn’t cutting it. I did Keto for exactly 4 weeks, and hit my goal weight of 135 pounds. Controlling my eating wasn’t something I thought I’d be able to do, especially to follow a diet that gave up carbs and sugar.

Spurs Courtside Seats

I had actually written about this one before as well. Seeing the Spurs play from the first row, center court was something that I had always wanted to do, but really ddin’t think I’d get the chance to. Low and behold one fateful day, I was browsing Stubhub and found a single ticket, Row 1, directly in the middle of the court. To make a really long story short, it was a pipe dream at first as the ticket started at $1,200, but over the course of the day the ticket continued to fall as nobody was purchasing it. Finally 3 hours before the game, the ticket price fell to $500 and I jumped on it. Quickly l changed my clothes, called some friends to brag, and was on my way. The whole experience was pretty awesome.

The California Adventure 2.0

I’ve actually yet to talk about this one in detail, but I will soon enough. After the catharsis that was the impromptu trip to California I had taken last year, it was guaranteed that another had to be taken. I had felt like there was so much stuff I didn’t do the first time around, so I made sure to plan this one out a little better. Some of the things I made sure to see were SeaWorld San Diego, La Jolla, The Pacific Coast Highway and the Golden Gate Bridge. Amazing trip.

The Full Marathon

This is a story that needs telling. After some setbacks and not believing I’d be able to complete it, I finished a full 26.2 mile marathon. I think it was one of the proudest things I’ve been able to claim. Nothing beats finishing the grueling course to hear your name called out at the end. I’d like to think that I’ll complete another at some point in my life, but there’s some other challenges I’d have to get past first.

Let's just get this out of the way first.

Giving up carbs is hard.

As somebody who eats rice and bread with most of my meals, spending a month following the Keto (or Ketogenic) Diet was no easy feat.

What is the Ketogenic Diet?

When your body runs out of glucose to use as energy, it enters a state of ketosis where your liver begins to metabolize fat into ketones. The Keto Diet is a guidance of macros that allows your body to remain in this state to take advantage of its fat burning mechanism. Typically, the goal is to consume 65% of your total calories from fats, 30% from proteins, and 5% from complex carbs.

Why would I do this to myself?

Over the past few years I had watched myself slowly increase in weight from 135, to 150 around late December. I tried to increase the amount of physical activity I would do on a weekly basis as well as modify how much I ate, but what I found out the hard way was that there's no way to outrun a poor diet.

I had briefly considered Keto before, but quickly dismissed it thinking I could never do without all of the carby foods I was used to eating. My typical lunch at work was a sandwich with chips, for dinner I would often pizza, and if I did cook, usually it would include a hefty side of steamed rice.

On a whim, I was researching online looking for diet tweaks to implement to help myself train for a half-marathon was a month out. I again came across Keto on a website, and after reading about it a bit, I decided to give it a second thought. I did a bit of cross-research, found a subreddit (r/keto) to see what experiences people had, and I also found a grocery list and meal plan online. After a bit of reading, it was decided, I would attempt to follow this meal plan for a week to see what happens because, why not.

The Trial Week

I can't say that the first week was super difficult and caused a lot of suffering because that simply wasn't true. The meal plan actually starts out with a "Keto Stir Fry" on the Sunday night before the diet actually starts, kind of as a warm up. This is most likely because the meal plan is set up in a way to where your breakfast is usually some variation of eggs and the lunch is the dinner from the night before. On this diet, you will be eating a ton of eggs. The meal plan I was following prescribes a couple of eggs for breakfast every single morning.

There wasn't much change the first two days, and for the most part I kept it under wraps that I was trying something different. I was even going home during my lunch hour as I wanted to avoid any question as to why I was all of a sudden bring a lunch now.

By midweek, I was dropping a lot of water weight. One of the most surprising side effects though was that through was that I never felt hungry. This is more than likely because fat helps you feel satiated, and being that this diet is pretty high in fat means that your meals feel more satisfying.

I didn't really experience what most could call the Keto Flu. As your body transitions away from running on glucose, many people experience almost flu like fatigue that can last for a few days. There were some events I came home tired, but that was the extent of my experience with it.

In the first week, I ended up dropping a total of 5.8 pounds and actually decided I kind of liked the results I was seeing.

Some early learnings:

• My body wasn't really retraining much water. When I would carry around my usual water bottle, I would need to use the restroom pretty frequently.
• I was having some difficulty finding a source of electrolytes. Gatorade (and the like) were out of the question as they are loaded with sugar.
• My skin looked great.
• My anaerobic exercise performance suffered pretty significantly. When working out, I felt like I was running on 'E.'
• I wasn't running much since I did feel a bit tired after working. I chalked this up to being on an adjustment period.
• My social life also kind of took a hit since I wasn't able to go out for dinner/drinks/lunch as I was typically able to.
• I was doing A LOT of dishes from all of the cooking I was doing at home.

Weeks 2-4

In the subsequent weeks, I sort of hit a groove which is why they are easy to group together. Rather than follow the meal plan onward into week 2, I found a rotation of 5 meals that I enjoyed that were easy to remember how to cook. I actually began to intermittently fast, where I would skip breakfast, eat lunch around 11, have dinner about 7, and then not eat again under dinner the next day.

While I did stay away from traditional sugars and sweets, I did come across 'Halo Top' ice cream as well as the Atkins line of low sugar low carb desserts. I would allow myself an allotment of each a week basically as sort of a reward for sticking with the program.

I still found myself eating a lot of eggs, and I was taking a daily vitamin to try and get some of the nutrients I couldn't have been missing out of on a strict diet. I was difficult to not cheat at times, and even my parents were really questioning (and to an extent I was as well) whether or not what I was doing was actually healthy. The main thing really keeping me from cheating on the diet is that there really isn't room for error. Having a carb-filled meal could kick me out of ketosis, and I'd have to start the two-day initial process over again.

I began get back into my normal workout routine. The jogging was fairly easy and I found that I had enough energy to easily finish my usual runs. The weight lifting is what suffered. I dropped my usual weight-load and my in-between set recovery time seemed a bit more labored. The goal at this point wasn't really to get stronger, but more to maintain the level I was at previously.

The Verdict

I think that this diet worked out fantastic for me. After the adjustment period, it was really easy to get into a groove and really understand what I could and could not eat. The fact that this diet also relies on consistency and adherence builds in an anti-cheat mechanism. Basically, I knew if I ate a meal that didn't follow the guidance, I would do days of damage rather than messing up a single meal.

I ran well, I slept well, and I felt great. I also saved money by not eating out at all. I would recommend this to anybody trying to lose weight, and tone up. I would not recommend it to somebody trying to gain strength. I found it possible to maintain what I had, but building muscle while on keto, while possible, would be quite difficult.