Category: Musings

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Walt Disney World Adventures In January Two Thousand Nineteen!

I love to work! In fact, I consider myself a workaholic! But, several times a year, I book a trip out of state, to force me into another “state” of mind. This month, I’m in Orlando and I also booked a trip to Amsterdam to attend a friend’s wedding later this year in July .

I wouldn’t say I’m a HUGE DIsney fan, but I must say I have a great time anytime I’m at a Disney amusement park. Do I have a Disneyland Pass? Yes! Hmmm… Maybe I’m a bigger Disney fan than I thought I was? So, what am I doing in Orlando? Well, it just happens to be my birthday weekend, so why not travel across the country to visit the Magic Kingdom?

I usually work from sunup to sundown, and maybe a few hours beyond that. It’s coming to my attention that maybe this isn’t the norm for most people. I always, ALWAYS travel with my laptop, so I can sneak in some work when I have a spare moment. An extra bonus about traveling to the east coast, is that I’m now 3 hours ahead of California time. It makes me feel so responsible when I can reply to emails and phone calls 3 hours earlier than normal. It also makes it easier when I return home to hit the gym early in the morning.

I took the redeye from LAX to MCO. I was marveling at the ease of travel these days. In the past, I would beg a friend to drive me to the airport, but now a shared ride service like UBER or LYFT make it super convenient to travel around town.

A friend of mine in Los Angeles always complains about how hard it is to meet new people. I find it interesting that I always meet new people and it usually feels very spontaneous. As the saying goes, it takes 2 to tango, so I know the mathematical equation needs to start with 2 people. Or maybe, it just needs to start with 1 person, and that person is YOU.

I can rely on the OTHER person being open to meeting new people, or I can take responsibility and be in the “vibration” of wanting to meet new people. By taking the initiative, it makes it so much easier, because now I can just be ready to talk to anyone who is willing to talk to me.

Oh boy, this may sound like so much new age mumbo jumbo. I must say that it simply falls into place when I’m in the right vibration. Tonight, after taking the whole day off to wrap up a project, I was pleasantly surprised to meet an outgoing gal and her friends while visiting THE EDISON in Orlando, (which is modeled after THE EDISON in downtown Los Angeles).

My new friend, who shall go by the code name “J” approached me and said hello. We danced a few songs and then I met her friends, and then she met my friends, and it turned into a HUGE dance party. Now, I can chalk it up to coincidence, or I can give credit to my friends and our fun loving attitude and seizing the moment. =)

It’s still the beginning of the year and if you want to meet new friends, the first step, is to be open to the idea of meeting new friends. I consider myself an introvert, but I have learned to be more outgoing by practicing being outgoing. I took baby steps; talking to people in an elevator (which is always fun and potentially against the rules), talking to my cashier in the checkout line (as long as it’s not too busy), striking up a friendly conversation at a bar, or even volunteering time at a local food bank and talking to fellow volunteers. Sometimes, the conversation can be stilted at first, but it gets easier with practice.

Whatever you’re interested in trying more of this year, practice by doing more of that thing. I have found that www.MeetUp.com is a great resource, especially when I’m visiting a new city. If you want to explore the outdoors, join a local hiking group. If you want to start running, sign up for a 5K run. They can usually direct you to local training groups. If you want to explore new dining experiences, join a local foodie group, and if none exists, start your own and see what happens.

Many years ago, I had a dining club in my neighborhood and it was fun sharing my dining experiences with my friends and their friends. By special request, I’ll be starting up my dining group again very soon, so If you’re in Los Angeles, I would love for you to join me.

Good Luck on your adventures!

Cheers!

TofuAlan

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Done Is Better Than Perfect

This has been an exciting week for me! It’s the 2nd week of the new year and I’m still (mostly) on point with my 2019 goals and intentions. I’ve read and made my bed daily. I’ve hiked Inspiration Point twice and I’ll probably go again this weekend. My daily steps need some help, but I did log in 24,000+ steps yesterday while swing dancing at Lindy Groove in Pasadena, CA.

I have been voraciously consuming the podcasts from Side Hustle School and I ONLY have 582 more to go until I listen to all the past episodes. Today, while listening to episode 588, Chris Guillebeau mentioned a quote which electrified me. The quote was: “Done, is Better Than Perfect.” A quick google search and the quote has been attributed to, Sheryl Sandberg.

Done, is better than perfect, really resonated with me. As a perfectionist there are many times I find myself frozen when I’m so close to completing my goal or project. Ever since I was a child, I would have a paralyzing fear of not doing my work perfectly. This has been an issue for me my whole life, but when I heard the quote today, I suddenly felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

Currently, I have about 20-25 work projects which need to be completed this month and I was feeling overwhelmed with the amount of time I would need to complete everything perfectly. When I applied the quote to my work, I suddenly realized I could still do Grade A work without the pressure of making it Grade A+ work.

I do amazing work! I’m really good at what I do. That’s not just an idle boast. Because of my perfectionist upbringing, I have really honed my skills over the years. One thing I am very aware of though, is that the time needed to bring a project from great to perfect can be an additional 30-35% of additional time.

Many times, I would look at the competing work in my industry and I was baffled at the projects which would pass inspection. If you compared my projects to similar projects done by someone else, you can definitely see the difference. When my “competition” was getting hired for more work than I was, I was profoundly, perplexed. I questioned one of my long time clients about why I wasn’t being hired as often. He said, “because all I need is a quick sketch, and you’re trying to create a photorealistic oil painting worthy of a classical master.”

In my effort to, “just get it done,” I’m happy to say that I had an idea for a “Side Hustle with my buddy Frank. We were talking about it last year, and I decided to just make things happen. I stayed up late one night and built a prototype for our website with some sample products I thought we could market. Now, to select a handful of products we will actually be selling on our website.

It feels good to have it DONE. Well, in reality, the website is nowhere near perfection, but it’s created and just needs to be refined over the next year. Normally, I would have wanted it to be be perfect before I let it go live. I know I am a work in progress, but I see the value in getting the job done instead of getting the job done PERFECTLY!

Best of luck to getting your work DONE this year. I’m excited to work on www.FrankAndAlan.com this month and to completing at least 15 of my other projects over the next 2 weeks.

Cheers!

TofuAlan

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Wishes Come True, It’s All Relative and We Bid Farewell To 2018!

It’s hard to believe that it’s already the last day of the year. It seems like just yesterday I was writing my new goals after hiking to the top of Inspiration Point. Note to self, dust off your hiking shoes and get ready for the beautiful view from Inspiration Point TWICE this week.

As I look back on the year, there were a lot of great things which happened. I met some fantastic new friends, I reconnected with friends from my past, I read a lot more books than I did in 2017, The Burrito Project expanded across California in 5 major cities and I was able to launch several new businesses.

On the flip side, there are quite a few things with LOTS of room for improvement this year. While managing 5 seperate businesses, I felt bombarded by phone calls, email & texts which were seriously limiting my productive work time during the day. I thought outsourcing all of the communication to someone else was the answer, but it created more problems.

In an attempt to wean myself off social media, my phone and almost all electronic communication, I attempted to have my assistant(s) return my emails and phone calls for me, but too much fell through the cracks. I ended up creating more issues with my clients and friends due to non communication which could have easily been prevented with a simple phone call.

A new business coach recommended creating boundaries with a time schedule for when I returned phone calls, texts, emails and participated in social media. I’m excited to put this tactic to the test this year, so expect to hear from me more consistently. It’s difficult to give that personal touch when it’s not me giving that personal touch. I guess sometimes I need to learn things the hard way.

It’s all relative, so beware when you compare yourself to other people. I like to have an idea of what’s going on around me, but I prefer to focus within, versus without. One of the reasons I like setting goals is to see how I measure up to my past performance and accomplishments. I’ve always liked setting goals which make me stretch, but I also sprinkle in some simple goals just for fun.

Some of my simple goals are making my bed, reading for 30 minutes a day and spending 15 minutes a day organizing something in my bedroom or office. One of my goals which I need to actively work on to complete is reaching 20,000 steps per day with my fitbit.

Some friends tell me I should set my daily goal to 6,000 or 8,000 so I’m guaranteed to hit it everyday. Although I’d love to hit my personal target EVERYDAY, and that is my continued goal for 2019, I’d much rather miss my target goal of 20,000 steps and settle for 16,000+ steps. For comparison, my friend is completing his/her goal everyday, while I only hit my goal a few times a week. Now, when you compare actual steps for the week, I’m usually in the lead. I’m twice my friends size, so maybe I should be hitting 25,000 steps per day. It’s all relative! =)

If you’ve had a chat with me this past year, you probably know I love cryptocurrencies and will chat crypto almost anytime and anywhere. I was analyzing the market in 2017 and I officially entered the market in January 2018. I made my first purchase of bitcoin on CoinBase and while I was waiting for my bank transfer to go though, BTC dropped from $15,500 to under $12,000 in the 7 days it took before the transaction was complete. That was the perfect introduction to the volatile world of cryptocurrencies for me. Wow!

Despite that almost 25% drop in BTC value, I was even more curious and started mining bitcoin, dash & ethereum. Among my fellow crypto enthusiasts, we would talk about missing the opportunity to buy BTC at prices below $10,000. Well, as luck would have it, bitcoin has been below $4,000 for most of December 2018. I guess wishes really do come true. Thank you Santa for the HUGE sale on BTC. These low prices have more than made up for the high prices I paid earlier in the year! Yes, bitcoin is about 20% of what it was a year ago in December 2017, but for comparison, BTC is 4 times HIGHER now in December 2018, than it was in December 2016. I guess everything really IS relative. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Mining is no longer profitable with the price of BTC so low, but trading has been very nice to me. It just goes to show, when one door closes, another door opens. I’m excited to be trading bitcoin and etherium over the next year and look forward to turning on those mining rigs again when the price rises to a profitable level.

As we bid farewell to 2018, I hope you learned a lot this year and can apply your new knowledge to the next 365 days and beyond. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Cheers,

TofuAlan

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Leaders Are Readers

I think I first heard the phrase, “Leaders are Readers” when I was a teenager. I didn’t think much about it, except that I liked that the phrase rhymed.

I loved to read so it wasn’t much of a stretch to read more books, but maybe just an encouragement to read different types of books. Summer was my favorite time of year because with my extra time, I could bury my nose in all my favorite summer reads and maybe add a few new ones after finishing my favorites. I always had a copy of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with me on summer vacations and I loved to peruse the libraries of the cabins we stayed in or the shelves of books whenever and whenever I would see them.

Libraries were fascinating to me. The ability to travel in time or to far flung places just by cracking open a book. Both my parents would take me to the public library as a child. I loved the smell of books, the rows and rows of tall domino like shelves stuffed with all sizes of books and periodicals, and the reverent quietness which most people had at the library. The hushed whispers and the rustle of turning pages felt like church to me.

My Uncle Jimmy loved to read too and I remember how excited he was to share his growing library of books on tape. He lived 12+ hours away from me and he listened to lots and lots of books while driving. I thought listening to books was interesting, but I loved the tactile connection I had to the pages when I was reading a book. Years passed and soon my friends started using a Kindle (or other electronic device) to read. I still loved reading with a physical book in my hand, so I never adopted the new technology.

As I started working more and more, I found I had less and less time to read. I read several books a week as a kid and now I was lucky to squeeze in a few books a year. I was driving a lot more for work and as much as I resisted it, I started listening to Audio Books. To be honest it felt like I was cheating, and I often felt like I should go read the physical book later when I had the chance, but those chances were hard to find. I finally embraced this NEW way of “reading” and I’ve been excited to add more book titles to my audio book list.

I recently discovered that I could get audiobooks from my local library and depending on the app I used, I could borrow up to 15 books a month for FREE! Audiobooks easily led me to various podcasts (which took me years to finally adopt) and now I’m a voracious listener. It’s standard for me to have an audiobook or podcast on and I usually only pause it when I’m writing or if I have company.

I heard a lecture by, Jim Kwik, the brain and learning expert, and he said leaders  and CEOs read 4 to 6 books a month. At the time that I heard that I was reading 4 to 6 books a year if I was lucky. He broke down the time needed to read an average book and for most books, 45 minutes a day of reading will do the trick. With an average reading speed of 200 words per minute and the average book containing 64,000 words, with less than an hour a day of reading I knew I could get back on track to reading a book a week.

There are so many skills I need to learn and improve on. If I’m to be a better leader for The Burrito Project and in my other businesses, I know I need to expand my thinking, mindset and knowledge. Books are magical! I can read a book in a week which is filled with lifelong knowledge and insight from an authority in their field. These life lessons and professional tips can be learned from a successful person who is willing to share their mishaps and gems of truth. Books can be a timesaver because the knowledge of a lifetime is condensed into a book which can be read in days. I’m great at making mistakes, but reading is a way to learn from other people’s mistakes and hopefully save myself some grief.

Last week, 5 new business books arrived in the mail. I’ve already finished one of the books and I started on the 2nd book this morning. On this Star Wars Day, I’m reaffirming my commitment to reading, expanding my consciousness and learning the skills I need to become a better human being, businessman, entrepreneur, speaker and leader in my community.

May the 4th be with you!

Cheers!

TofuAlan

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Earth Day, Spring Flowers and Beautiful Buzzing Bees

Thank you Google and Dr. Jane Goodall for the Earth Day google doodle message.

“It’s April 21st and everybody knows today is Earth Day
Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to whoever’s being born..” These lyrics from, Dramarama, always echo through my head when this date is near.

It may be argued that the date of April 22nd is the actual official date of Earth Day, but I have no need to split hairs on this distinction and strive to live every day like “it’s 1999″…. Wait, sorry, that’s a different song! As much as possible, I strive to live everyday as Earth Day. Our everyday small choices can create a large impact over time.

I have been a vegetarian for over 2 decades and being a quiet vegan is my simple way of being kind to Mother Earth. I love that many people I know have adopted Meatless Mondays, a simple step creating diversity in their diet and making their meals intentionally and thoughtfully healthier. If you haven’t yet tried this with your family, here are 2 “green” facts I found interesting.

If everyone in the U.S. went meatless for just one day we would save 70 million gallons of gas–enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare.

If everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just 1 day a week for a year, itโ€™s like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road. (source: Environmental Working Group)

As a Southern California resident I understand our dependence on cars. Driving is a way of life ingrained in many of us who live here. If a change in my diet can help offset my driving miles, then I think of it as a small price to pay for the pollution I may be creating. I also try to limit my solo driving as much as possible and attempt to carpool when I can.

Whatever you do on this Earth Day, thank you for being mindful of your impact on our society and our global community at large.

I was visiting my dad earlier this week and when I walked up to his front door I was welcomed with a beautiful array of flowers. There were bright yellow daisies and a few noble purple ones decorating the garden.

Daisies and sunflowers always bring a smile to my face and can lift my spirits if I’m ever feeling low. Thank you Mother Earth for the joyous treat in my day.

Among the daisies were some buzzing bees. I have always been fond of bees. My first bee sting was in my adulthood and that was by accident. I stepped on a bee while enjoying a picnic in the park. I heard a podcast today about the importance of bees in the pollination of our food crops and the fact that it’s getting harder to do so because of the declining bee population every year.

I guess it’s appropriate on Earth Day to contemplate the symbiotic relationship of humanity with the earth and the impact we have on our planet and it’s ecosystems. It’s possible that our actions in decades past created an imbalance in our ecosystem through the extensive use of pesticides and fossil fuels. I love that there’s a social movement around the globe with greater importance placed on the preservation of the environment.

On this Earth Day I raise my glass to everyone who in their unique way is making a positive difference in our world. Thank you to the bees for their part in keeping us fed and to the flowers which bring sunshine and color into our lives.

Cheers!

TofuAlan

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Wearing Green While Enjoying Pi Day!

It’s not easy being green, sings Kermit the Frog. That may be true, but I love wearing the color green!

Many of my favorite articles of clothing have been green. I had an velvety green vest with mesmerizing green buttons I picked up at Aaardvark’s when I was in high school, I had a wonderfully patterned green shirt which I wrote about in a creative writing class in college, and I have a snazzy plaid green bow tie which I wear any chance I can!

My favorite shade of green is chartreuse, but I enjoy most shades of green! This Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day, so you can be sure I’ll be wearing as much green as I can… at least in the evening, because I’ll be at a business conference during the day. Ahhh… The perfect place to wear the green bow tie. =)

Today, is one of my favorite days of the year! Pi-Day!

I’m not sure exactly why I love it so much, but I’ve always been fascinated by Pi since I was a young child. Maybe it’s because I also love PIE and they sound the same! Mmmm… Pie! =)

As you may or may not know, I am an ordained minister and this past weekend I was able to officiate a wedding for my childhood friend. There is an exchange of rings between partners. The rings are said to be a symbol of eternity. They have no beginning and no end.

According to Wikipedia, the number ฯ€ is a mathematical constant. Originally defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, it now has various equivalent definitions and appears in many formulas in all areas of mathematics and physics. 

I find it amazing to think that there is a mathematical constant, and just like these wedding rings whose circumference is worn around a ring finger by a married couple, the rings are a symbol of something constant in their marriage.

So far as I know, the number Pi goes on FOREVER!!! That’s another crazy thought and hard to wrap my head around. Pi does start with 3.14 and continues on forever. So just like Pi, which has a definite beginning, it has no end, maybe I’ll start wishing newly weds Happy Pi Day and may their marriage and love last FOREVER… and ever and ever and EVER…

Now, we can have our Pi and eat it too!

Cheers to you!

TofuAlan

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Freaky Fridays and Siamese Twins

I woke up early in preparation for a long day of meetings at 3 different Building Departments; Long Beach, Garden Grove & Los Angeles. At first I was thinking of going for the super comfortable Relaxed Friday look, but at the last minute, I changed my mind and chose navy slacks, a dark blue shirt, a burgundy sweater vest, red vans and a bow tie to complete the outfit.

My first meeting in Long Beach went perfectly. Only 2 items are pending from the contractor and I’ll be pulling the Building Permit for the project at my meeting next week. My 2nd Long Beach meeting was rescheduled due to the building official being out sick with the flu that’s been going around these past few weeks.

As I was walking to my car and thinking of lunch, I received a call from one of my best friends, who also happened to be in Long Beach. We picked a spot for lunch, Seabirds Kitchen, one of my favorite vegan places in Long Beach.

We had a fantastic lunch and were able to catch up with each other’s lives. The funniest, or possibly the freakiest thing about our lunch was the fact that we had perfectly coordinated outfits.

She was wearing blue jeans, a burgundy blouse with matching sweater and to make the coincidence even more fantastic, she was wearing red shoes. What are the odds of us picking the same colors?

I like when these sorts of coincidences happen. Not only were we both in Long Beach at the same time, but we even dressed like we were heading to a Sadie Hawkins Dance.

After lunch we parted ways with happy smiles and the rest of the day went swimmingly. I hope you’re lucky to have some happy coincidences this month too!

Cheers to you!

TofuAlan

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Bitcoin Mania and Hashrate Opportunities within the BlockChain

I have watched bitcoin rise in value from a few pennies per bitcoin coin (in 2009) to now over $16,000 per bitcoin (as of today, December 26, 2017 the value was $16,198 per bitcoin). It’s amazing to see such an idea gain traction and take hold in the world in just a few short years.

Is this our century’s gold rush? Another “dot com” chance we may have missed a decade ago?

I was watching a show on Netflix and I learned that one of the characters in the series made his family fortune during the gold rush, not by finding gold, but by selling supplies to the miners who were searching for gold. The idea struck a chord with me. Supply the miners with what they need as they pursue their fortune, and your fortune will be made as well.

Over the holidays, I noticed the buzzword of the season was bitcoin. When I asked people what they knew about bitcoin, the answer I heard most often was “I don’t know much, but I wish I got onboard earlier.” It seems like so many people want to be involved with the cryptocurrency market, but many feel like they have missed the bandwagon.

I think that the bitcoin value may be a bit inflated, but because of the nature of bitcoin and its ease of use internationally, it will only grow in value as awareness grows in this country and within the different sectors of the world.

Do I think it’s a safe investment?  I’m not a professional investor, but I’ll tell you that I’m going to jump on the bandwagon this week. I want a piece of this currency because I think this will be a widespread, legitimate alternate currency within the next few years.

Even today as I went to lunch with a friend, we used venmo to split the check. It was an easy and simple “virtual” transaction which transferred funds between each other. As this type of transaction gains familiarity, bitcoin will make more and more sense within the worldwide market, since bitcoin can be used easily around the globe.

As I’ve been looking at the cryptocurrency market, it seems that the safest way for me to enter this market sector is to join the blockchain mania through mining. Through mining I can leverage the power of hashrate and earn bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies through a mining contract.

One of my favorite quotes from the 1989 movie, Field of Dreams is: “If you build it, he will come.” When I am focused on an idea or a goal, I notice that the answers to my questions seem to fall in place right in front of me. Earlier this week, I started writing down my longterm and shortterm goals. One of my long term goals is to get my pilot licence. Today, as I was chatting with my Lyft driver, it turns out he is a flight instructor at my local airport. Was that coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I welcome the information.

Another goal was to enter the cryptocurrency market before the end of 2017.  As I was investigating several options this month, one of my business partners (who I “randomly” met in an elevator at the Building Department earlier this year) brought up cryptocurrency and I learned about a company which sells hashrate for cryptocurrency mining. This sounded like the perfect answer to my question. After hours and hours of research, I decided that this is the company I’m going to partner up with.

I joined a TEAM who are pooling their resources to sell hashrate for cryptocurrency miners. Sell to the miners what they need and we can profit as well. It seems like another answer has fallen into my lap.

If you’d like to learn more about mining cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin, Ethereum & Zcash), and what hashrate can be used for, feel free to reach out to me.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2019: When, OmniaTek and Neo Mine Tech. both closed their doors, I kept my eyes and ears open for a company which looked reputable and I could trust with my hard earned money.

I’ve done some mining with HoneyMiner and I am happy with their services. It might be more cost effective to just buy BTC from an exchange, instead of mining it, since the current price is so low (currently hovering at $8,000 as of September 2019).

I’m also aggressively looking into Cloud Token 2.0 as a potential company to utilize for arbitrage crypto trading. I downloaded a free wallet and I’m trading some BTC using JARVIS. If you’d like to test out their products with me, please join me for the ride.

Cheers!

TofuAlan