Carlos Estrella

Category: Weekly Updates

  • 2022 Week 6

    Week 6 in the books, so what happened?

    Work

    Week 6 of and it was quite the hectic work week, started the week off with news that Citrix (the company for which I work) is going private, the largest take private tech transaction in history.

    Had to  work late multiple times this week, mainly due to me having to get involved in better understanding a new part of the business and the backend data that supports it. This has put somewhat of damper in my plans to get through 36 audio books this year; I should however be able to get back on track with this soon. Now being involved on business intelligence for multiple parts of the business has been a bit tricky to balance my time between them, but  I feel like I’ll get the hang of this soon enough.

    Car

    Over nearly a year I had bug to buy another car so I can work on it, instead I’ve now decided to just work on the car I have and forgo having to spend 10-20K on the acquisition of another. So I went over the car to see what’s it

    going to need.

    • New radio
    • Backup camera
    • Door belt molding
    • Tires need checking, and alignment
    • Upgrade fuel rails
    • Spark plugs
    • Suspension, will probably need upgrade
    • Paint repair
    • Metal intake manifold
    • Probably new throttle body
    • Thinking of doing a Ralliart turbo kit install, I might become a JDM guy

    So I put in a couple eBay and amazon orders thus far to get start on the build (car radio, backup camera, and door belt molding)

    Weekend

    The weekend was nice and chill, my Wife and I took her mom out to Pembroke Gardens to couple of drinks on Saturday night, and Sunday night was the Super Ball so we binged watch “Love is  Blind” on Netflix. We did end up seeing the halftime show though we saw it the next day.

  • 2022 Week 5

    With week 5 now behind me, what did I get done?

    February started this week, so my birthday is now just a few weeks away. Starting this year I set up a goal to get back to 170lbs, as at some point in time last year I said I would probably never be at that weight again (so I wanted to prove myself wrong). At the beginning of the year I decided to start intermittent fasting to reach my goal faster. I’ve set up some milestones so I can track my progress along.

    Intermittent Fasting Progress

    YTD, I’ve I’m currently down 9.4lbs, starting the year at 201.6lbs, currently at 192.2lbs. At my current track I’ll be reaching my goal weight the first week of May. I’m currently tracking 2lbs higher than first milestone of 187lbs by end of week 7.

    Book Summaries

    Posted 3 book summaries this past week listed below:

    Workouts

    Increased my workout frequency to 5 days per week, as I mentioned above I’m currently tracking heavier 2lbs heavier than I should be to meet my Milestone of 187lbs in two weeks. So I upped my frequency to meet this goal. Currently working out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I’ll start back up tracking my workouts on the site starting this week.

    If you want to see a list of previous workouts here

    Date night with the Wife

    Saturday night, my Wife and I went out on a date night in downtown Fort Lauderdale we hit up Bash for dinner and drinks, and Brass Tap for a couple drinks. We got caught up in the rain, for about an hour before we made our way back.

    House Projects

    So Sunday came around, and I hadn’t done any work around the house. I had recently purchased a new entry way light and decided it was about time to put it up. It’s a very simple process pretty much take the light down, un-splice the cables, splice the new cables and put the new light back on. Unfortunately I did not take a before picture, but here is the new light.

  • 2022 Week 4

    2022 Week 4

    Looking back at week 4 of the year, what stands out:

    Birthdays

    2 nephews and 2 cousins had birthdays this past week. Unfortunately for me I didn’t get to see them, or spend time with them on their birthdays. Happy birthday to Sean, Felipe, Charlie, and Marcos.

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    Other

    Started the week out with a dental procedure, got a couple of fillings. First time since I had not been since prior to this year I had not been to the dentist in about 16 years.

    Work wise, it was a less hectic week over all, as most of the reporting from year end and quarter is now behind me.

    House Work

    I continued on a project that I had started a couple years back and had not really stepped up to finish. Since one of my goals is this year is to finish things I started, I decided it was time to step up and work on it. This being my living room entertainment center / bookshelves. This project was inspired by a piece my Wife and I saw at hotel while in France in 2018, with the exception that we wanted to build it natural wood color.

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    The reason I had taken so long to step up to finish this project, is as any amateur woodworker would tell you sanding is pain in the ass when you don’t have a dust collection system, and the only space you can do it is in the garage. Well I did quite a bit of sanding, this week and that got my garage looking like a hot mess, dust all over the place. Given that my garage is a multi-purpose space: gym, woodshed, storage place, laundry room, and garage I needed to clean the space up (somewhat). Ended up buying a portable canopy to start sanding out in the back yard, I need to keep my garage tidy enough to use.

    Pics from sanding, messy garage, and cleaned up (somewhat)

    Cleaning up the Garage

    Weekend

    Over the weekend bung out with friends and family. Saturday night we went into Fort Lauderdale to eat some food at (ramen place name) and the went out to get a couple drinks at Foxy Brown. One note there was a bartender at Foxy Brown who took his job a little too seriously, wouldn’t let anyone order more than one drink at a time, without multiple identification, to be honest he kinda got on my nerves.

    Sunday, went over to visit my mother in law. She had made some arroz con pollo, which was pretty freaking good, will have to ask for the recipe one of these days. Then we went out to Pembroke Gardens to walk off the food.

    That was pretty much my week over all.

  • 2022 Week 3

    2022 Week 3

    With week 3 of 2022 now in the books, what did I get done?

    Finished the audiobook 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson; this was quite a long book, took a lot of notes on it. Summary of what I learned from it coming soon, but to sum it up the 12 rules is about building the strength of character to overcome chaos and find meaning.

    Work was hectic this week, but finished everything needed for the week in good time.

    The weekend rolled around, Friday night happy hour with my Wife’s co-workers, always a fun time, we hit up a couple of places down in Miami, but ended the night at La Tropical.

    Saturday night bbq with friends, lots of fun. Tried food from my friends Komodo Red smoker (I’m thinking maybe I should get a smoker), had some good beers, and played some board games. Fun and chill.

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    Sunday went out to shoot trap, with a couple of the same friends. The Hum-V below, was at the range, got to say it definitely looked nice.

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  • 2022 Week 2

    2022 Week 2

    Starting this year I had set a goal to listen and summarize 36 audio books, so far I’m 3 books in (12 Months to $1 Million, Money Master the Game, Extreme Ownership) working my way through the 4th book, summaries of notes coming soon.

    I’ve started intermitted fasting at the start of the year, for physical and health benefits. As like most people have managed to gain a bit of a weight through out the past few months due trips and holidays, tracking progress.

    And this week one of my dogs, Hershey got a couple mast cell tumors removed. She’s doing alright though.

    List of books below, in no specific order, in bold the books I’ve finished thus far:

    1. Money Master the Game by Tony Robins
    2. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
    3. 12 months to $1 Million by Ryan Daniel Moran
    4. 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
    5. 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
    6. Fast. Feast. Repeat by Gin Stephens
    7. Bigger Leaner Stronger by Michael Matthews
    8. Beyond Order: 12 more rules for life by Jordan Peterson
    9. The Way of Man by Jack Donavan
    10. Becoming a Barbarian by Jack Donavan
    11. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
    12. The Authoritarian Moment by Ben Shapiro
    13. The Right Side of History by Ben Shapiro
    14. The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
    15. Unshakeable by Tony Robins
    16. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
    17. University of Berkshire Hathaway by Daniel Pecaut
    18. How to Win Any Argument by Robert Mayer
    19. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
    20. The 5AM club by Ronin Sharma
    21. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
    22. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Convey
    23. How to Destroy America in 3 easy steps by Ben Shapiro
    24. Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson
    25. Business Secrets from the Bible by Daniel Lapin
    26. Broke Millennial Takes on Investing by Erin Lowry
    27. Mastering Market Cycles by Howard Marks
    28. Everyday Millionaires by Chris Hogan
    29. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller
    30. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
    31. The Wim Hof Method: Activate your Full Human Potential by Wim Hof, Elissa Epel PhD
    32. Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
    33. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
    34. Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier
    35. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burtib G. Malkiel
    36. Find your Why by Simon Sinek, David Mead, Peter Docker