I consider myself to be intelligent, but I also know that intelligence is useless without applying it. In my professional life (as well as anything that I do), I am a hard worker and I always strive to give 100% in everything that I do. I hold to the expression "any job worth doing is a job worth doing well". If I am going to put my time and energy into something, I am going to see it through properly; otherwise I am just wasting my time and energy. Therefore, I take pride in everything I do and I do everything to the best of my ability.
Time is the most valuable thing that we have and we need to take advantage of it. To take advantage of our time, it is important to work doing something that you love. Many people work to make money but don't have the time to enjoy it, this is counter-intuitive. Enjoying what you do is key to a "successful" lifestyle, not just making money (although money is nice to have too).
I love to learn and I know that learning is the best use of my time. I believe that if I am not learning (and enjoying what I am learning), I am wasting my time. While studying Applied Linguistics to become a teacher, I not only learned how to be a good teacher but also how to be a good student. By nature I am interested in everything and that drives my desire to always learn more. My curiousity has helped me to achieve success in everything that I do professionally and personally. The desire to learn is what drives me to get up in the morning and processing what I learn helps me sleep at night. I firmly believe that if you're not learning, you're dying.
Growing up, my father was a carpenter and an architect so we had a woodshop in the basement of our house. I spent a lot of my childhood in the basement making things (including my own toys or boxes to store my toys). Among other expriences, I believe that this largely shaped my desire to be creative and build things. I get a lot of satisfaction out of planning a project, executing it and seeing the desired result in the end. This has played a big part for me becoming a web developer. I really enjoy the creative process of building web sites and web apps from the beginning to the end. I read a quote recently that really got my attention: "Be a creator, not a consumer". Every day people are consuming more information and entertainment online; I want to be a part of creating it, not only consuming it.
I love listening to music and I am a music collector. I have an
extensive collection of music; music that I grew up with, music
that friends have told me about and music that I have acquired
while travelling. My love for music goes hand-in-hand with my
love for travelling. While living in Colombia for 4 years, I was
fascinated by the abundance of music and rhythms that come from
Colombia. I became especially immersed in the local Champeta
music, which is a Colombian/Afro-Caribbean music that is hard
not to like.
In addition to listening to and collecting music, I am a DJ and
I play guitar. I'm not sure which came first, being a DJ or
a music collector. Either way, the two obviously compliment each
other well. My favorite music to DJ is Afro-Caribbean music
(Reggae, Soca, Champeta, etc.). The songs that I play on guitar
are mostly by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jimi Hendrix. Below is a
link to a video of me DJing.
watch DJ Ryke Video
While living in Barranquilla, Colombia, I was involved in the
opening ceremony of the Barranquilla film festival (FICBAQ)
playing live music accompaniment for a silent movie called
"Maria" by the Colombian director Enrique Grau. I performed in a
band doing scratch DJing and sound effects. Below is a link to a
video of the performance.
watch FICBAQ Video
I grew up speaking English and after finishing my undergraduate degree, I decided that I wanted to take some time to really learn Spanish. I was determined to not just learn Spanish but master it. After learning some Spanish, my interest in language let me to teach English and get a masters degree in Applied Linguistics at UMass Boston. Once I completed my masters degree, I lived in Barranquilla, Colombia for four years teaching English and polishing my Spanish. While living there, I learned Spanish and Costeñol (caribbean style Spanish). Learning Spanish as well as I did gave me supreme confidence that I can learn anything as long as I put the time and effort forward. I am now fluent in Spanish and I have studied Portuguese. Most recently I have learned JavaScript which although not a human language, I still consider learning another language. While learning JavaScript, I found that computer languages are more similar to human languages than I had thought. All languages, human or computer, fascinate me.
I like to take pictures. I am definitely a hobby photography and I take pictures with my phone; however, I really do enjoy taking pictures to capture beautiful scenes and moments. All pictures on this site are taken by me other than the pictures that have me in them.
I love to travel because I love to see and experience new
things. The world has so much beauty and I want to see all of
it. Travelling also allows me to experience other cultures and
ways of thinking. I often learn new customs while travelling
that I can adapt to my own lifestyle. I believe that this helps
me improve who I am as a person and always continue becoming a
better person.
Another aspect that drives me to travel is that I never know
what I will see or experience next. Travelling excites me
because of the unknown aspect of going to a new place. It's
nice to see something that is beautiful, but to be surprised by
it is even more delightful.