VaticPro Prism Bloom Review

Why I upgraded my pickleball paddle?

Being new to pickleball, this year, I wanted to upgrade my cheap aluminum paddle to a carbon fiber one, but I did not want to spend over $100.  Like most people, I went online and searched YouTube and Google.

 Throughout my search I couldn't believe how many paddle companies are USAP approved.  With different paddle shapes, handles, material and length I was overwhelmed with which paddle to go with.  Then during my first visit to Camp Pickleball in Plainville Connecticut, I asked to try a demo paddle.   They let me try a Joola Scorpeus 3 14mm and I was impressed until I asked them how much they cost.  She said, around $300!  I couldn’t believe how much one paddle was and anything over $150 was more than what I wanted to spend.

I noticed that most companies paddles seem to have similar dimensions and materials with a variety of prices.  But why are some paddle companies charging $200-$300 while others were selling theirs for $80-$150.

Then one day, while I was at Target with my family, I decided to go to the sports equipment isle to look at what they had and I saw a Joola and a Franklin paddle on sale for 50% off. I was excited at first but still questioned as to why they were on sale from $99 to $49.  I did have $50 cash from Christmas and my father's birthday was around the corner at that time so I bought them both.  These paddles were made of fiberglass, but the Franklin had more of a sand paper like feel to the face, which I wasn’t a fan of.  So, I bought the Franklin paddle for my dad's birthday and kept the Joola Seneca for myself.  I was feeling good about my purchase at that time, because of the discounts, but kept looking online.  After trying the paddle I was somewhat happy but I was not fully convinced that $50 for this paddle was the right purchase for me.  I felt like $50 was still a good chunk of money to put into a different paddle. Then I came across Vatic Pro.

Their reviews and prices had me quickly returned my Joola paddle to Target and that when purchased my first carbon fiber paddle from Vactic Pro.  Their prices were $89.99 plus tax, with a coupon code and shipping was included. While many other companies were still well over the $100 or more for their paddles Vatic Pro keeps theirs paddles affordable. Was it worth it? Yes, but why?

The reason why I went with a wide paddle is to have more control.  It has a larger wide body face which helps beginners and recreational players to have more control and spin.  I played yesterday in my first open play at Camp Pickleball and noticed the difference right away.  As a beginner I’m not looking to hitting the ball as hard as possible but want to work on my control, mechanics, fundamentals and get some spin on the ball.  I was extremely happy with my purchase and recommend it to my family and friends.  After trying pickleball for fun and learning more about the sport, I am thinking that I might be more of a balanced player on the court. For now...

Since I have bought this paddle, I have noticed how much response, spin and control I have in my game. If you are looking for a budget friendly paddle get the Prism Bloom 16mm or the Prism Flash 16mm.  If you are in Connecticut and would like to assess the paddle, feel free to reach out to me to schedule a time to play. 

When you are ready to buy from Vatic Pro use my name jonathantorres as a coupon to help save $10 on your purchase.  When you do, please let me know what paddle you went with, where you are from and what is your favorite places to play pickleball.

 Camp Pickleball in Plainville Connecticut

Why I Play Competitive Cornhole?

Yes, there is competitive cornhole? From the unusual sports out there of face slapping to disk golf to the more common games like dodge-ball and chase tag.  Cornhole as we know it is growing and if you are not aware, the American Cornhole League, has their National Finals broadcast on ESPN and CBS Sports.  Yes, it is a fun back yard game turned pro with the ACL and in my state of Connecticut there are multiple clubs for anyone to play socially or competitively almost every day of the week.  So why did I get into it? 

I needed to find a something to do outside of work and home.  I wanted to play softball but I wanted something to do indoors during the winter season and I needed knee surgery so I knew I could not do that.  I tried playing chess, and still do online via Lichess.org, but it can feel like a library at the chess club and I wanted something a bit more social and fun.  Then one day, at my local Costco store, I saw a cornhole set with "premium" boards and bought them for myself on father's day (2022) and fell in love with the game since.

Throughout that summer, whenever I could, I would setup the boards on the tennis courts at my apartment complex and throw for about an hour while the kids road their bikes, scooters and chalked up the court with kids art.  One day while I was throwing bags, a neighbor asked if he could join me in a friendly game. We played with these lower quality bags and decent boards but throughout the game I was not winning at all.  Actually, I lost fairly quickly but through conversation he introduced me to a cornhole club in town and explained how they run switcholios.  He then told me about an app called Scoreholio and showed me how to register and search for a switcholio tournament.

So I gave it a try and went to the local club and got hooked.  People had jerseys, music, drinks, premium cornhole bags, and a chance to win your money back and more.  I would never forget my first time going to a switcholio.  I was nervous but nevertheless excited to go throw bags at Naugatuck Valley Cornhole.  When I could not get the bag in the hole or even on the board it was frustrating.  I wanted to get better and did not like the fact that I could not keep a bag on the board.  After that day I quickly returned the cornhole set I got at Costco and bought my first Reynolds Pro Advantage bags and a more premium set of Cornhole Solutions boards.  At the end of that switcholio I was already looking forward to the next one. As a beginner, at that time, I was not great but I found out that this game helped me to disconnect from the world for a few hours.

Two Roads Tournament in Stratford Connecticut June 2023

 

I continued to play cornhole because it was hard for me to process my mother being in a nursing home and having to go to Florida to admit her for the first time was the hardest thing I had to do in my life.  I felt like I let my mother down because my brother and I could not care for her in our homes like we would have wanted to.   Having two young children and having my mother as a wanderer was not safe for anyone.  While she was in Florida I could not sleep, eat, and went into a depression because I would think about my mom constantly. I would think about her care and how my brother and I were going to bring her back to Connecticut.  Every nursing home I called in Connecticut either did not have an available bed, did not accept state assisted services or had a several years long waiting list.  Even the less expensive nursing homes can cost at least three hundred dollars a day!  But I kept searching, calling and visiting every nursing home I could.  One of my aunts, in Florida, did as much as she could to care for my mother and it is not easy to care for someone in this condition, especially if they are super combative.  At one time I thought my mom would have to stay in Florida and that is when I went into a deeper depression.  But I kept at it and prayed more to God for help.  Thankfully we were able to find a skilled nursing that could help care for my mother.

 

Visiting my mom at the nursing home shortly after were able to bring her back to Connecticut

 

In all I thank God for allowing me the opportunity to experience this game and the community of players we have in Connecticut.  I have met a ton of nice people who love the game just as I do.  Unfortunately I could not play as often as I would like to because of family and work responsibilities but I still enjoy it more every day.  It helps me to connect and disconnect.  If you are like me who has a parent with Alzheimer's disease, know that you are are not alone.  There are people out there willing to help and your scenerio will get better.  It will not be easy to find a place for your loved one but keep at it, educate yourself and talk to your local social worker.  Last, if you are still struggling mentally call your health insurance company to find a mental health coach to talk to.  I really learned a lot about myself during my sessions with my mental health coach. 

 

Things will get better for you!

 

As some say in the cornhole world, keep it straight and keep throwing four baggers. 

Cornhole clubs in Connecticut

203 Cornhole

Battle Baggers

Candlewood Cornhole

Central Connecticut Cornhole

Coastal Connecticut Cornhole

Connecticut Cornhole

Cornhole by The Sound

Naugatuck Valley Cornhole

 

Lenovo T490/T495 Review

This laptop is not available to purchase now at Lenovo.com but I wanted to give you my personal insight on what I think of this device using it for almost 4 years.  Why?  Because many reviews are only when they are new and out of the box with very low usage.  So why did I go with this and not another computer? 

At work I decided to switch over about four years ago from a fifteen inch 2015 MacBook Pro to a Lenovo T495.  One of the main reasons why I switched was because of the keyboards they had during that time plus some I would not need a virtual machine with a Windows operating system to run IT related applications.  Currently the new Apple laptop keyboards are better but I still would not go back to a MacBook just yet because of the limited ports.  If you are on the fence on getting a MacBook Air or Pro versus a Windows computer this post may help with you just that.  In this post I will provide some features and benefits of the Lenovo T490 series laptop. 

The Lenovo T495 is my daily work computer and overall enjoy the laptops performance.  There are many reasons why I like the laptop and as mentioned the keyboard of the Lenovo ThinkPad is by far of the best keyboards on the market.  

If you are a college student, teacher or professor, business manager or director the Lenovo T490 laptops are a great buy for the price.  The newer version of the laptop is the Lenovo T14 models.  They look and feel the same as the T490 series except the Lenovo T14 model has some internal updates but the biggest notice to me, when I setup the computers at work, is the new glass like trackpad and ports.  

If you are use to using the Lenovo ThinkPads their trackpads were one of the worst on the market.  The clicking was horrible and the trackpad design was not great.  They have come very far from a few years ago and that is one big improvement they have done to the T14 model.  The laptop I use is still not bad and much better than the ones they have a few years ago. 

Another great feature and benefit I love about this laptop are the multiple ports already with the computer.  They include two USB A ports, one Thunderbolt port, and HDMI.  Of course they also include the headphone/microphone jack to connect your headphones to and a micro sd card slot on the sight.  Oh and I forgot about the ethernet port as well on the side. (RJ45) This alone helps one not have to worry about carrying a multiport adapter when needing to plug it to an external monitor or projector when presenting.  Now the one thing that I still have not used much of is the Red center trackpoint stick.  I remember my dad having an IBM and long ago I had to use that or a mouse but I guess its okay to have instead of using the trackpad.  Again I dont use it much because most of the time my laptop is connected on the docking station at work and use a wireless mouse and keyboard. Despite the multiple ports available on the laptop it is not that bulky. 

One thing I noticed with the new Apple MacBook Pros are the difference in size.  They are designed nice but they are heavier devices to carry around.  If I were to puchase a MacBook I may go with the MacBook Air but again this Lenovo T495 does just right.  The design is professional and sleak looking.  The durability of the case is great and one great feature about the keyboard is that it is spill resistant.  

Regarding performance I upgraded my memory to 24GB and

What IT certification to study in 2022?

I spent most of my time studying for the Cisco Certified Network Associate last year. In my previous post, I explained my experiences with the exam and why I did not pass. In the end, I was not ready and needed more time. I enjoyed my studies, especially the Boson labs but after that exam, I took some time to reflect on my career and personal development goals for 2022..."What do I do now?".

I thought very hard about what to do after not passing the CCNA exam. Should I go after it again or learn something new? After that exam, I took time off from studying and spent more quality time with my family and friends. With the holidays come and gone I decided to not go for the CCNA just yet. Why? Because I want to learn more about CyberSecurity.  I will eventually go back to the CCNA studies but for now I want to focus my learning on something else.  Even if I did not pass the exam I still learned a lot and I that is why I am focusing on CyberSecurity.  So I did some research, found a video online and went to TryHackMe.com.

Why TryHackme.com? Because I like their content, format, and labs. So I signed up for the CompTIA PenTest+ learning path. Why this? I wanted a place that would provide hands-on experience with applications like BurpSuite, OWASP, Nmap, and more. 

Will I go for my PenTest certification exam? Not any time soon because my goal is to learn the content and find my passion through learning. Not that I was not passionate enough with the CCNA but I want to go about this learning path differently and so far it has been great. With TryHackMe I now have hands on experience with Nmap, BurpSuite, and OWASP Zap. Plus, I did a little bit of Advent of Cyber 3 in early December and learned a bit on web exploitation. Why this path? 

In general, I am a curious person, I may not be the most technical person but I am a team player and enjoy learning new technologies. Plus I saw a job posting that caught my eye which required experience applications BurpSuite, OWASP, Nmap, and more. So I wanted to learn some more about those applications and PenTesting.  That is why I found the CompTIA PenTest+ path in TryHackMe.com. 

Will I go back to the CCNA? Yes, absolutely! I will but I want to learn something else that is not Cisco or networking related and that is why I want to focus a bit more on information security. I almost went to Juniper's JNCIA because their exam vouchers are not as much and sometimes provide discounts if you take their online training or practice exam. But when I saw TryHackMe.com I just got hooked.  Plus most of their courses are free but if you want to use their virtual machines longer than the allotted time one has to subscribe to their services, which is not priced bad. I am not sponsored by them for this but recommend you take a look at the difference between the free version and the paid version of TryHackMe.  Why Subscribe to TryHackMe

My approach this time is not to pass the certification but go through the PenTest exam objectives. During my studies, if I noticed myself interested in taking an exam I will then sign up and schedule a date for the PenTest+. For now, I will do the TryHackMe.com site and learn as much as I can with their labs. 

I hope you are all well and have a prosperous new year. Be safe and keep on learning!

How was the CCNA exam?

The Cisco Certified Network Associate exam was not easy and neither was the Network+ certification when I pass that on November 2019. I had a feeling earlier during the week that I would not pass and had a feeling that I should have rescheduled it.  Why did I not reschedule?    

  

I was at a point where I was burnt out from studying. I went through the Cisco exam objectives, Boson labs, watched David Bombal Udemy videos, used Todd Tammle's CCNA book as a reference, flash cards, practice exam and even took an official week long live virtual training back in the spring. But none of what I learned was enough to pass the exam. But why did I not reschedule the exam? I wanted to keep my commitment and I wanted to accept the outcome regardless of the exam results. Let me explain my experience with the exam. 

I took the Pearson Vue exam at work.  I was lucky enough to reserve a small huddle room in the human resources building because I have too much equipment in my office to move out for a two hour exam.  In the huddle room it had a small table, an office chair and network jack.  There were no pictures on the walls, no monitors, no computers and it had good lighting.  I used a spare work laptop and had it wiped and reconfigured with no firewall settings or no antivirus.  It had the bare-bone Windows 10 image to make sure I was not blocked or disconnected from the exam since I was taking the exam at work.  Also, with a hybrid work schedule for some people in the building I knew I was not going to be disturbed.  The check in process by Pearson Vue was amazing.  I would highly recommend you take the exam at home or work versus going to a testing facility.  Once I finished my I exam I got the notification right away that I failed.  I was hoping to see the details on the exam but they did not include that in the end but I knew I did really bad.  Halfway through the exam I used up to much time on some difficult questions and guessed on a few questions.  I did not want to end the exam without time and now I know. I was not ready for this exam.

My detailed exam results came in the next day.  Once they did I logged back into Pearson Vue right away and it showed the percentage scores of each category. I wanted to post them here with this blog post but I am too embarrassed to show my results with anyone. I am still upset at myself for not rescheduling the exam with how bad I score but I wanted to keep my commitment to the scheduled date.

 

I was at a point where I was putting too much pressure on myself for this exam. At the end of the day, it is just an exam. This does not define who I am and what I am capable of doing and if you are in the same just know that you are not alone.  I am thankful for my job and the opportunity they have given me at work, to learn and develop my skills.  I am most thankful to my wife who is always supportive of my goals and I could not be more grateful for her loving support.  

I am happy that I failed because I will get back to my studies after I have take a small break and spend some time with my wife and kids during the holidays.  

 

Stay strong, keep moving forward and keep on learning. 

Happy Holidays!

Time-Saving Tricks for Subnetting by Practical Networking - My CCNA Studies 10 days Left

With my exam in ten days I have to brush up on my subnetting skills. I will be doing this every day till exam day.  If you are looking for ways to learn subnetting check out the links and video below by Practical Networking. I highly recommend you watch all of the Subnetting Mastery videos and website. If you have done subnetting before and just need a refresher check the video I included below.  The video provides great quick tips.

 By far these are the best videos on subnetting. I think being able to do subnetting quickly is a must know for the CCNA exam.  I have seen at least one or two questions within the Boson ExSim practice exams that require subnetting knowledge.

The links below are directed to their blog, website and YouTube videos on subnetting.  If you want to practice check out subnetipv4.com.  It has a clean and simple to use  tool that populates random CIDR notation to practice from.  In there one has to figure out the Network ID, Broadcast ID and if stuck it can populate the answers.  

Now I got to practice to get fast and better at subnetting. 

https://subnetipv4.com/

Subnetting Mastery Blog Post by Practical Networking

 Subnetting Mastery by Practical Networking

CCNA Studies - Learning Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol w Jeremy's IT Lab

My exam is in twelve days and wanted to give you a quick up on my studies.  From my last post I have continued well with my studies but still have much to do.  What my focus has been is reviewing some topics that I am not that good in and use Anki flashcards through the next few days and then go through Boson ExSim exams B and C.  I redid the Boson exam A and did much better but still have some weaknesses.  Mainly that I do not carefully read the questions and would recommend that when you are taking any exam you carefully read the question and answers. Plus I am quick to make a selection without really taking an extra few seconds to make a sound decision.  

With this I wanted to shared a good video on learning about Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol.  If you have not checked out Jeremy's IT Lab on YouTube do so below.  He has tons of free videos on YouTube on all of the CCNA topics.  If you are looking for an alternative trainer online this one is highly recommended. 

Well, I would like to continue on what I have learned but I got to get back to studying and back to the flashcards. 

Next time I post on here will be on the exam results.  My exam is on November 19th.  

Till next time...later!