Ronalfy.com

Remembering What It Was Like

Without going into too many specifics, I am mentoring a new hire at work. Some people use the term mentor loosely and think that it means ‘to look after.’ I tend to see mentoring as the growing and nurturing of an individual’s goals, skills, and interests.

I remember starting my job at Walgreens in Phoenix, Arizona. The time frame was the summer of 2000. On my first day, I was put on the main cashier position and was told to immediately memorize a lot of key combinations and such. I was also expected to be able to count out my drawer, know where store-items were, and help customers. I was yelled at for not knowing where things were in the back, and was also chastised for not being as productive as management liked. I was ‘expected’ to be able to do things upon hire, so to speak.

Eventually I got over my new hire status and acquired more skills. What I lacked in the beginning, however, was a good mentor. There was nobody to guide me by the hand and show me the ropes. Granted, the turnover rate at Walgreens is high, but I would imagine employees would want to stay on longer if they felt there was someone looking out for them.

The person I’m mentoring is full of ambition, and her career is essentially beginning. She has goals of what she would like to do as far as going to school and a career. I remember out of high school I was scared to death. I was in Phoenix, Arizona with only my sister to look out for me. She helped drive me around and introduced me to various churches. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t even know if Phoenix was the right choice for me. It’s rather scary to look back upon how uncertain my future was at that point in life. I just hope that this new hire can look back in five years with positive memories of what was the start of a blossoming career.

May Website Brief

May is almost over. Ronalfy.com went through a back-end makeover and was transformed over to the blog format. I expected a significant drop in users, as my link structure changed pretty drastically. I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to keep a lot of my visitors. In the month of April (before my website change-over) I had 437 unique visitors. Towards the end of May, I have 329. Keep this in mind, however. Repeat visitors have soared. For the month of April I had 575 visits compared to 914 visits for May. Awesome!

The Forums have been doing pretty well too. We added in three new members this month. The Forums have been rather “slow” compared to the usual activity, but new members who are becoming active make up the difference. I’m always open to ideas on how to increase membership, or how to encourage forum participation. One of the things I’ve been trying to do was advertise the latest Topics of the Week on MySpace. If you’d like to help out in advertising, I have some HTML code at the bottom of this post you can paste into your website or MySpace profile.

My World War II site is the most visited part of this website for the last two months. Since I no longer maintain and/or update the website, this comes as a surprise. I’m hoping the main Ronalfy.com website can get upwards of 2,000 unique visitors a month before the year is out. That was one of my goals for the beginning of the New Year. Continue Reading…

A Very Lazy Memorial Day

Sarah woke me up around 12:30 in the afternoon, complaining that she’s been up since about ten and she was very bored.

“I want to do something,” she exclaimed.

I, on the other hand, just wanted to go back to sleep and sleep the rest of my day away. I need to take the advice of another blogger in How to Become an Early Riser. On the weekdays I get up around six in the morning. On the weekends, I can sleep until two without breaking a sweat.

There were three things I wanted to accomplish this weekend. I wanted to finish putting together my filing furniture. That didn’t happen because FedEx still hasn’t delivered my missing part. I also wanted to work on my website a little. I was able to do that and add several features. I also wanted to work on some UML Diagrams for my chess project. That didn’t happen. Procrastination is such an aggravation.

Memorial Day is supposed to be about remembering those who you have loved and lost, and also remembering those that matter to you the most. This Memorial Day I remember my pepa, who served our country during World War II. I also remember my sister, who is currently serving our country in Iraq. Who do you remember on this Memorial Day?

An Awesome DiscPerience

I went to my fourth show of DiscOasis (MySpace Profile) on May 26, 2006. I had the wonderful pleasure of talking to some of the band members before the show. It was almost time for them to begin, and the Crossroads Café had only twenty people in it. When I raised the possibility of hardly anybody showing up, one of the guys I talked to optimistically stated, “At least it’ll be a paid practice then.” This was no paid practice; when DiscOasis started playing, the place was jammin’.

DiscOasis plays primarily seventies music of the disco era. Not having grown up (much less born) in the seventies, I was not a fan of disco. When I attended my first show back in October (of 2005), I was blown away. I went because a co-worker recommended the band to me. Soon, I was the one recommending the band to others. DiscOasis has a commanding stage presence, and the individual band members are incredibly talented. Most members play multiple instruments, and the two lead singers lead the audience through a vast selection of groovin’ disco music.

DiscOasis is a band that must be heard live in order to fully appreciate what they have accomplished. They have revived some of the great oldies and brought them to a new generation. Their sound-bytes on MySpace (although great) do not do the band justice. This is a band that must be seen live. So if you are in the Huntsville area and want to see a great band, check out DiscOasis. The band is truly a treasure that must be shared with all.

• DiscOasis MySpace Profile

My Revelation

Ronald Huereca
05/26/2006

Skip Foreword

Foreword

This fictional short story was inspired by C.S. Lewis’s book “The Screwtape Letters.” This story is entirely fiction. The characters and places in this story are made up. The Bible doesn’t necessarily go into detail about what happens after we die, so I made up some of the concepts and scenarios. You could potentially consider this an introduction into “The Screwtape Letters” when Mr. Wormwood has to deal with a new Christian convert. I hope you enjoy the story. Continue Reading…

X-Men 3

I jokingly e-mailed Sarah this morning and told her that we should go to the midnight showing at the new Rave Theater here in Huntsville.  Without even checking her e-mail, Sarah found out that X-Men 3 was playing at midnight.  I told her to go ahead and buy tickets.  She did so at about noon.

Only after arriving at our theater at ten o’clock in the evening did we realize that both screens for X-Men were completely sold out.  We were the first ones in line, and nobody really joined us in line until about 10:30.  After that, droves of people showed up.  The line (the part that I could see) was about two hundred feet long.  I felt silly for arriving so early, but I knew from past experience that this was the kind of movie where there was a line.

I’m not going to shed any details about the movie because I know there are readers that have yet to see it.  However, I do highly recommend watching the movie.  Opening nights for a movie are usually stressful, but this opening night was just an awesome experience.

An Incomplete Project

On May 6th (about two and a half weeks ago) Sarah and I bought a two-drawer filing cabinet for our house. I was looking for a good filing cabinet to organize all of our bills and paperwork. We went to Office Depot and found what seemed like a good piece of furniture. The sales associate who helped us out was very helpful; He even took the piece out to our vehicle.

When we arrived at home, I began unpacking the furniture and all of the miscellaneous parts that came with it. I looked at the parts list and assumed that most of the parts were there. It wasn’t until I was a quarter of the way through assembly that I noticed a crucial piece was missing. Continue Reading…

Flyleaf

I was in Hot Topic about three weeks ago listening to some of their c.d.s. Instead of listening to a lot of the punk music, I decided to try their “hard core” section. I’m not normally into that kind of music. However, I stumbled upon a band called Flyleaf (MySpace Music Profile). They sound like what Evanescence should have sounded like. Now that I’ve had the c.d. for several weeks, I really recommend at least a listen. The music is clean, and some of the lyrics are pretty intellectual.

For an example of one of their thought-provoking songs, listen to Cassie. It’s about the girl who was killed in Columbine for saying she believed in God.

My Brother and Me!

Although I went to Stratford, Texas this past weekend to see my grandma, it was a really good opportunity for hanging out with my dad and brother.

As you can see, I have the groovy long hair. You know you like it!

E3 - Part 2

Advisory: Strong Language
This story is the second part in a two-part story. Please read the first part (entitled E3) before reading this story.

A Little Background

My day of school had come to an end. I could hear laughter behind me as I approached my school bus. It had been a long day and I was anxious to get home. I glanced around my shoulder and recognized the faces from which the laughter was coming from. I shuddered, knowing that those same faces belonged to the ones who jumped me not too long ago.

After I was jumped, many of my friends at school vowed to avenge me. One such friend was Bud. I’m not sure where “Bud” got his nickname, but I doubt it was from the beer. Bud was one of those cool people that had a truck with an awesome sound system. I would ride with him wherever, often to steal cigarettes or ditch school. Bud was my homey and I described the jumping to him in detail. Continue Reading…

On the Road Again

I’ll be flying out today to the great city of Amarillo, Texas to visit my ageing grandmother. She’s not in the best of health right now, and I was encouraged to go see her while she’s able to be out and about. Unfortunately, this may be the last time I see her alive. She is a great woman and I will miss her dearly when it is her time go home.

Our Claim to Life

Have you ever had your mother say to you, “I brought you into this world… And I can take you out!” As cruel as it is to hear your own mother threaten to kill you, it does have a slight ring of logical sense. My mother did bring me into this world. Wouldn’t it be logical that she would be the same one to take me out? Fortunately, life doesn’t quite work that way. If your own mother–whom your are obviously from–can’t make a claim on your life, why is it that you expect to be able to? Continue Reading…

Death is Inconvenient

As hard as it is to pencil someone in for an appointment taking up our time, it is even harder to pencil someone in who is dead or dying. Appointments need to be canceled, plane tickets need to be purchased (at exorbitant prices), and funeral arrangements need to be made. None of these are cheap, nor easy to do. The fact is, death is an inconvenience.

Would it be rather insensitive to say to someone, “Why can’t you die in order to compliment my schedule?” How about asking somebody, “I can make it to your funeral next month. How about dying then? Great, I’ll pencil you in!”

Death is something none of us are ever prepared for. Death is hard to deal with when it’s other people, and I can only imagine what my own death will be like. Will I have inconvenienced somebody else? Probably so. I would love to say to God, “Hey! I’d like to die in twenty years, give or take a few months. At least then I’ll have been able to do what I want to do for a few more years.” Unfortunately, we’re all on God’s schedule. He doesn’t much care if we’re inconvenienced, although he does sympathize with our pain. God knows it hurts losing a loved one, but He also can’t meet our own selfish desires to die when we want, how we want, and where we want.

The Absurdity of Airline Ticket Prices

Airline ticket prices, at least for the time being, are somewhat absurd right now. The high prices may be contributed to increasing gas prices, and perhaps increasing demand, but the overall height of airline ticket prices doesn’t seem fully justified.

Sarah and I was looking for a ticket a few days back for her trip to Texarkana, TX. The price was a little less than four-hundred-dollars round trip. The very next day, that same ticket was almost nine-hundred-dollars. Granted, the high price was probably due to the Mother’s Day weekend coming up. However, that still doesn’t explain an almost five-hundred-dollar increase in one night. Continue Reading…

About Ronalfy

I often receive mispronunciations of my nickname. People pronounce my nickname as ronal-fly, ronal-fee, ronal-fye, or some other sick and twisted variation. The pronunciation of my nickname is rather simple; it is ron-al-fee, or ron-alfy.

The origins of my nickname come from high school. When I attended Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, Alaska, I parted my hair in the middle. I looked just like Alfalfa from Little Rascals. Since I looked like Alfalfa, everybody that knew me, or didn’t know me, called me by the name Alfalfa. Nobody called me by my first name, which just happens to be Ronald.

While I was in Vegas, everybody would call me Ron. I didn’t really mind being called by my shortened name, or Alfalfa. Soon the time came for me to pick a new HotMail account nickname and all the ones I could think of were taken. I decided to combine two of the nicknames people constantly called me. I integrated the Ron and the Alfalfa. Since RonAlfalfa sounded kind of weird, I shortened my nickname to Ronalfy. Luckily for me, the nickname was so original I could use it for practically anything. When I decided to start my own domain, it was just natural for me to pick my domain as Ronalfy.com.

Now I’ve had my fair share of criticism for the nickname. People have told me it sounds gay, or childish. I simply do not care for any of that criticism. Everybody has a nickname, screen-name, or some other sort of identification. I just happened to pick my own and it has its own special meaning. When I tell people the origin of my nickname, it finally starts to make sense. The people say, “Oh yeah… You do kind of look like Alfalfa.” Ronalfy fits me.

To Blog, To Forum

If you are familiar with my site, you will quickly realize that I use a combination of web forums, and web logs. Now why do I have both? Good question.

Forums are beneficial for other people to add content to a web site. With forums, users can ask questions, start polls, and even have their own little section to run if they wish. With blogs, one person usually runs the show and the users just comment on what that person writes on.

With my forums, the Topic of the Week is run like a blog. Only three users are authorized to start a new topic (me, cetroyer, and saralfy), but any member is welcome to add their own reply / comment to that topic. The rest of my forums are fair game. Anybody who is a member can post their own topic and talk about anything they want. Well, almost anything.

I’m not sure what to do with my forums now that I have my main site as a blog. The forums are still beneficial since I can host my pictures on them. I also enjoy the Topic of the Week and the occasional new topic post by a member. Blogs are somewhat impersonal, and don’t really allow the blog owner to get to know his or her users very well. Hopefully I can learn to enjoy the best of both worlds.

The Difference Between Black and Brown

My first real post in my blog and I have to write about something embarrassing.

I am in training this week, and on Monday I got to class about 7 a.m. I was drinking my coffee and I crossed my legs. I noticed a large black shoe. I said to myself, “I thought I put on brown shoes this morning.” I looked at my other shoe and gasped as I noticed I was wearing a black shoe on my left foot and a brown shoe on my right. I felt really embarrassed and like a first-class idiot.

The instructor of the class informed us all that we would have to give introductions of ourselves. “Great… A perfect time for everyone in the class to notice what an idiot I am”, I thought to myself. So I decide to get up in front of the class and inform everyone that I goofed and wore mismatched shoes to class. Of course everyone laughed and made fun of me for the rest of the day, but at least I didn’t go around hoping nobody would notice. In this particular case, I’d rather everyone know than for me to second-guess myself and go around all day feeling self-conscious. Some of the guys in class even complimented me on my honesty and sense of humor.

Somewhat Large Site Update

For all interested, I have transferred over my complete Ronalfy.com site to the WordPress blogging software. Users can leave comments and such on any of my articles and poems, with the exception of the Devry stuff.

Most of the link structure has changed, so I imagine the search engines won’t like me very much. Oh well. Please update your bookmarks if you have been nice enough to add me to your favorites.

Thanks for reading.

Ronalfy

New Site Engine

I’m using WordPress as my content management for this site. It’s taking me a little longer for stuff to transfer over, so I’m going to just have my two sites up at the same time. Sorry for the confusion

Sup?

The summer afternoon was very hot. He was playing basketball topless at the park as he heard a giggle in the distance. He pulled off his sunglasses and smiled.

“I see some things never change!” She yelled in a sarcastic tone.

He raced for his shirt and put it on. He wiped the sweat on his face with his arm.

“How’s it going?” He said out of breath.

She approached him slowly and gave him a hug, “Pretty good. How long have you been out here?”

“Not too long…” He said.

Continue Reading…