Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession
Bio
I'm currently a Multimedia Media Design/Graphics & Web Alumni of Devry University, fitness/health enthusiast, mushroom cultivator/forager, gamer since 5yrs old. Born: 12/23/1992, Married: 06/23/18 & a Father
Stories (18/0)
How To Start Your Own Mushroom Farming Business
I have been doing a lot of research in regards to the business side of mushroom farming and I thought the information I’m about to share with my readers today should be publicized as it can help future mushroom farmers fulfill the market’s supply & demand of mushrooms anywhere in the world. First of all, let’s talk about the cost of materials that you will need in order to start a mushroom farming business. So, the items you will need can be bought from one or more sources but for simplicity’s sake, I will use amazon as an example. You will have to first get a pressure cooker which is going to cost about $100 or more minimum. Then you will need to get some glass jars preferably a 12 pack of 24oz jars (~$33), High temp Silicone (~$13), 100 Canning Lids/100 Rings (~$35), 50lbs of Whole grain/Rye grain (~$70, good for use on 33 24oz jars), 4 shelf storage shelves (~$119)
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession2 years ago in Earth
How I Transformed My Life
If you're feeling down and miserable about yourself then you're not alone on that. Believe me when I tell you that I once hit rock-bottom early in life when I've given into temptations with no direction in life or whatsoever. All I really liked to do from age 13-20 was play video games, hang out with friends, party, try new things, give in to peer pressure and just have fun without the thought of the future. Let's just say I wasn't the brightest kid around as I didn't even graduate high school but managed to get my GED so I could start working in entry level jobs immediately. And where did that lead me? I'd say it made me earn hard-work experience and some money but not the kind of life I really wanted. So I had to keep improving myself through self-education and college education. I've been learning mushroom cultivation in 2012 & foraging in 2016 because I've always wondered & been fascinated by the mushroom life cycle since I was a kid. I've even attended seminars hosted by experts such as Tellur Fenner and Paul Stamets & bought some of Paul Stamets books such as Growing Gourmet & Medicinal Mushrooms, Mycelium Running & David Arora's books such as All That The Rain Promises, Mushroom Demystified & from time to time looking up more information from the internet so I can learn more. Other than that, I was always fat and out of shape from when I was a little kid until right around the age of 13-14 when I've lost a lot of weight during puberty then started gaining weight again and was at the worse shape of my life by the age of 20. The fact that I have an endomorph body type didn't help. I've managed to overcome obesity by exercising regularly using apps such as daily yoga, ThenX, bodyspace or google/youtube, watching my calories/macronutrients/micronutrients with the help of myfitnesspal app, making sure I drink good amounts of water & sleep atleast 8 hours a day. It took me at least a year to learn discipline, to self motivate & dedicate myself to fitness & health back in 2014. That was the year that changed my mind, body and spirit. I've been able to manage my weight until today. Furthermore, I've attained my CNA or Certified Nursing Assistant with Medical Careers College in 2012 and didn't start working in the field until right around 2013. I've dealt with the elderly, middle ages and adolescence with various healthcare issues. I'd say I liked mental health the most because it was such a fulfilling duty to be able to make a difference in other people's lives by just being their companion. Then in 2015 I decided to further my studies in healthcare by getting my Pharmacy Technician License with Unitek and worked in the field for about a year which is where I've met my wife who is a Pharmacist. After getting fed up by so many rude customers I decided to go back to college and pursue the creative field which I'm passionate of & due to the fact that I've always been somewhat artistic since I was little when I used to draw dragon ball Z characters on a piece of white paper. I've finally attained my Bachelor's Degree in Multimedia Design/Graphics & Web Development in 2020 after 3 years of online school with Devry University. I'm also learning more about investing in stocks, crypto and other ways to make passive income and I've only been doing this since April 2021.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession3 years ago in Motivation
How To Buy Cryptocurrencies
As more and more people, institutions and companies adopt cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and other alt coins or tokens in our modern world this simply means we are very much approaching a new era where digital assets are becoming the norm. With this in mind, it is time for the world to know what platform to use to trade cryptocurrencies while being mindful of the fees that surround each and every digital asset exchange. For instance, if you want to buy cryptocurrency using your fiat currency (any of the paper currency the world currently has or is able to print more) then you can easily do so by getting verified first on an exchange such as gate, kucoin, binance, crypto, okcoin and gemini. You can also use my referral links down below to get a sign-up bonus!
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession3 years ago in 01
Stock & Crypto Market Exchange
Many of us are probably familiar with the stock market since it has been in existence for about 400 years but not a lot of us know about cryptocurrencies yet as they’re fairly new to our economy. I’ve done some digging & researching myself and according to some of my findings & readings online that both crypto & stock markets are equally risky meaning price fluctuations can be pretty common every so often. So before you even think about investing always remember to only invest what you’re willing to play with because you could either lose it or gain more from it if done with a less aggressive but more of a moderate/conservative approach & make adjustment as needed. Keep in mind the charts of each & every stock/crypto you want to invest in as this is one of the things that’ll help you make better predictions & investment decisions aside from the company of the stock(s) or crypto you’re investing in. Another is doing research about the stock/crypto alone may also help in making better predictions/investment decisions. Most importantly, knowing when to sell and buy is equally as important in making those short or long term gains. The point is simply to buy in low price, hold & know when to sell in high price which can happen in a week, month, a few months, a year or even in many years. The gains you can get will depend on how fast the growth of stock/crypto is going, the market cap of the stock/crypto, the purpose/reputation of the company of the stocks/crypto you’re investing in and ultimately how the economy is doing in general. So far, the total market cap of crypto just reached 2 Trillion USD whereas the total stock market cap is right around 50 Million USD. Moreover, crypto trading is 24/7 whereas the stock market has limited trading hours & have weekends/holidays off. The stock market may be more matured than crypto but it is pretty hard to know when things will either crash or go as high up as the moon. There are stocks/crypto less than a dollar worth which they call penny stocks/crypto and some are even below 1 cent such as the popular joke crypto Dogecoin when the coin was less than a cent for a few years until it hit .1 per coin and now it’s .59 per coin at the time of writing this. Diversification of portfolio is a good thing to do incase a stock/crypto or two price drop so we don’t end up losing a lot of our money within our portfolio. I’d say, anything above 20% of our portfolio being crypto while 80% is a mixture of stocks/ETFs/bonds is considered an aggressive approach to investing whereas 5-10% of our portfolio being crypto while 90-95% is a mixture of stocks/ETFs/bonds is considered moderate/conservative approach. Whichever strategy you choose is up to your experience, knowledge and how much starting capital you’re willing to invest. Now, if you’ve read this far then you must be wondering how to start investing in stock, crypto or both. Here are some of the best apps I recommend to both beginners and experts which you can find in the app store. 1. Kucoin is a great app where there are a lot of cryptos in various price range to trade such as coin worth below a penny, a dollar or more, a hundred dollar or more and bitcoin which is as high as 55,412.20 at the time of writing this. They also have charts and other features that you can use to better help ourselves with trading. They have an internal crypto wallet which acts as a store for your crypto. You can also transfer crypto from an outside wallet to the app’s internal wallet as long as it supports the crypto. Some of the widely supported crypto in most platforms are btc, usdt, eth and more. 2. Crypto.com app is another great app where they show you a list of currently trending or hot crypto but not much penny or under a penny crypto. They also have charts and their own crypto wallet. You can also transfer crypto in or out of the app. 3. Robinhood is a decent app for trading crypto/stocks but you can’t really transfer crypto into the app from an outside wallet and they don’t have any under a penny crypto/stock. 4. Stash is a good app as well but they only allow stock trading here. They have features such as auto investment & smart investment where the app will help you in the decision making of your investments but it has a monthly fee.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession3 years ago in The Chain
How To Become A Home Owner In Bay Area, California
So how do you become a home owner in California Bay Area when prices are so high? It truly depends on supply and demand and as of 2021, supply has been pretty low in the bay and very high demand so prices of houses have changed a little since then. I have a few simple tips & hacks to lay out for you so you can buy your own house today.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession3 years ago in Lifehack
My Life Story - Buhay Amerika
First of, I just want to tell you guys a little bit about myself & my family. My name is Joemarie C. Cristi, I was born in the Philippines on December 23, 1992 and have more than 10 years of experience in the workforce (1 year in temp warehouse jobs, 1 year as team lead for xoom.com/other retail & customer service jobs, 3 years as CNA, 1 year as Pharmacy Tech, 3 years in rideshare/delivery as lyft/uber/eaze & 1 year in design/marketing/media work), 8 years of self education in mushroom cultivation/5 years in foraging, some education (CNA & Pharmacy Tech), and Bachelor's Degree in Multimedia Design/Graphics & Web Development. Currently, a full time dad of our over 5 month old baby & freelance graphic/media designer/mushroom grower & forager/part time gamer. I have a retired father who has a Bachelor's Degree in Biochemical Engineering, a hard working mother who has a high school diploma and an older brother who has a Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Engineering and Technology and currently the manager at KLA-tencor. I've been married since 2018 to my wife who has a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry with a minor in history, a Doctorate in Pharmacy and is now the pharmacy manager of Lucky's. So who would've thought I would be where I am today? After all, I was just a poor little boy of the Philippines who migrated to California Bay Area back in the year 2002. I was only 9 years old and my older brother was 16 years old at the time and we lived with my dad and his brothers & their family. So for over 10 years I experienced living in a crowded place without much privacy (until I met Brianne who is my wife now around the year 2016). In the beginning, I experienced being picked on by other elementary school students because of my strong Filipino accent and the fact that I didn't know how to speak the English language very fluently until I was here long enough and took some ESL classes in middle school. I didn't get my high school diploma because of me getting distracted over a long distance relationship I had and thought it was real love at the time (when I was 17 years old) so I dropped out of high school just to meet this person in the Philippines but later on decided to get my GED, my driver's license, my first car (with my dad's help) and went through job after job.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession3 years ago in Humans
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
For those suffering from mental health conditions such as PSTD, stress, anxiety, depression, alcoholism, drug addiction and more then this read could be for you. Mental health problems are all over the place and MAPS is an organization I support for conducting research on psychedelic medicine which is starting to gain popularity as more and more positive findings are being discovered from experimenting with participants who may benefit from psychedelic medicine. One of the psychoactive medicines that intrigues me is psilocybin mushroom for its positive long-term effects to the human mind after a single use. According to experts such as Mycologist Paul Stamets, other credible organizations and sources doing their research on the subject matter, Psilocybin mushroom is the least addictive substance of all. Participants of clinical trials hosted by such organizations said that being under the influence of these psychedelic mushrooms were the most significant and meaningful experience of their lives and the positive effects lasted for months on end. This is why Psilocybin mushrooms are one of the psychedelic medicines being decriminalized in a few select states of America which is soon to be legalized for medicinal use and probably recreational use. I mean, come to think of it, if research is saying that the psychedelic medicine is proving to be promising for some mental health illnesses such as drug addiction, PTSD, stress, anxiety, depression, alcoholism and more then why not legalize it right? There are many pharmaceutical and illegal street drugs that are way more addictive and destructive than Psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelics which means these substances can very well be the new alternative. But of course, if it does get legalized, the Pharmacy would probably want to get their hands on it so they could profit of it. Let’s face it, it has always been about the money and not just helping humanity overcome some of the worse mental health problems in the world. Just look at Marijuana THC and/or CBD. They are literally being sold everywhere now in whatever states they’re legalized for recreational use! So, once psychedelic medicines become legalized for medicinal use which I assume is the next step after decriminalization, people might be required to get prescribed in order to obtain it but what happens once it becomes legalized for recreational use? You tell me. It will go down the same path just like Marijuana where companies and pharmacies would start buying/selling them for profit. It’s a complete monopoly game I tell you and people are either out to score some good medicine that will make their lives better or corporations are out to get you to buy their products in exchange for some of your hard-earned money. I’m totally for MAPS and what these corporations are doing which is providing great services to prove that these psychedelic medicines work so the public has more freedom on their choices of medicines out there. Until then, people will just have to wait until these helpful psychedelic medicines are available in the public. To those who has no idea then please don’t judge and do your research further before saying such things as “Oh those things are drugs” or “Really? Something that can make you hallucinate or high can cure mental health problems?” I always just tell myself that anything too much can be very bad for anyone and it doesn’t matter whether they can get you high or not. There’s a reason why nutrition facts have been created so people would know how much food to intake and same goes for medicines. Dosing is one thing and potency or effectiveness of a pharmaceutical, psychedelic or natural medicine is another.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession4 years ago in Potent
The Design Process
So, what is the meaning of Design Process? And why is it important? The Design Process is when you brainstorm and formulate ideas in order to create a blueprint or organized plan for your creative projects. It is always best to first find an inspiration on google, YouTube, from our mentors or people we look up to that has a lot of experience in the field. By doing so, we are able to get an idea on how to make a particular design whether it’s for a video, 2D/3D graphics for web or print or anything at all for either personal or professional purpose. Having an inspiration doesn’t just stimulate more ideas but can serve as a guide to create something new for people to visualize and comprehend. What you make could become an inspiration to others and the ideas we communicate are endless. There are countless possibilities to create any works of art. Second, it is always good to ask ourselves the question what is the purpose of creating this project? Will it help people learn a skill? Will it entertain people? Will it be used to advertise a business? Etc. The type of creative content you create are never-ending which is why having an inspiration is a good thing because they are setting good examples for other people to follow. For instance, have you ever looked up something on YouTube or google and it is the first thing that pop up or it is so popular that you notice the content has a lot of views and the person who uploaded the content has many subscribers? Those are the types of people we should be looking up to and it really depends on the type of content we’re creating. Only find the inspiration that has similar taste as you meaning follow the example of a creator that creates relevant content. Third, what kind of content are you creating? Are you creating a video, graphic or just a picture? Whatever content you’re thinking of sharing out there on the web it is good to know what social media platform to use. For instance, if I want to create a video, I would most likely upload it on YouTube so other people can watch my content. The thumbnail, title, description and hash tags matter in getting searched on both YouTube and the web. Going back to finding our inspiration, not only this will help us in creating our content but it can also help us in getting discovered. By simply looking at other content creator on YouTube or other social media platform style such as the way they present their content and hash tags we can have the advantage of getting discovered by other people looking for similar things. Lastly, what tools will you be using to put all of your content together? Would it be adobe suite? A free downloadable software you find on the web? A free online platform such as Canva? Whatever tools you use to create any content, you would know what works best for you accordingly. I highly recommend adobe suite and Canva for new or advanced users. Canva is pretty easy to use because you can look at hundreds of premade selections of templates for your creative projects. Unlike adobe suite where you have to create everything from scratch which may require research time in finding our inspiration in order to create a finished product. Pretty much, once you have found a few inspiration then this will simply guide and direct you into creating your own unique works of art for the world to see.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession4 years ago in Lifehack
The Mushroom Business
I have been growing mushrooms since 2013 when I discovered grow kits or premade mushroom spawn that you can just add water to, place the grow kit in a well-lit area in the house then wait for a few days and mushroom pins would pop up and eventually mature to fully grown mushrooms. I’m still learning more and more every single time because there are only a few techniques that I’ve been comfortable in using since 2013 and that is using fully colonized substrate also known as cake spawning, broken up mushroom spawn to inoculate sterilized/pasteurized substrate in bulk with a tub, or outdoor bed method which I recently started doing. According to my findings, anyone should be able to buy mushroom spawn from amazon, Alibaba or other reputable websites online so people can easily grow mushrooms in the comfort of their home. You can either buy in wholesale or retail prices depending on where you purchase the product. I recommend Alibaba if you’re growing in mass quantities and plan to start a mushroom farm business but may require a PPQ 526 Permit or just buy some spawn from amazon or other reputable sources and go from there. On the other hand, people can choose to learn how to create their own mushroom spawn with the help of spore syringe, substrate jars/bags (grains or sawdust based) and sterilized/pasteurized substrate for bulk growing indoors. Growing outdoors may not require much sterilization/pasteurization especially if you’re using a mushroom spawn made out of sawdust. There are books and online resources that also teaches more information about growing mushrooms such as Paul Stamets books Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms and books for foraging Mycelium Running and Psilocybin Mushrooms of The World. All That the Rain Promises by David Arora is also a good booklet to have with you whenever you’re out in the wilds. I’ve been foraging mushrooms since 2016 after attending Blue Wind School of Botanical Studies 2-day seminar in Ukiah, CA hosted by Tellur Fenner. At this point, you can now say that there are indeed a lot of ways to obtain any species of mushrooms but if you’re really determined to do everything from scratch meaning creating your own spore syringes, sterilized substrate jars/bags and sterilized/pasteurized substrates then I highly recommend buying a pressure cooker, laminar flow hood and making your own lab! But honestly speaking, having your own lab, pressure cooker and laminar flow hood is expensive and may not be necessary for beginners. Especially, if you can purchase premade mushroom spawn, spore syringes, substrate jars/bags and sterilized/pasteurized substrates then that can save us time, from errors and contamination. I have been growing mushrooms for years and sometimes buying and selling is perfectly fine especially if the mushroom you’re seeking is pretty hard to grow or forage! I’ve seen the best prices for ounces or even pounds of mushrooms on Facebook marketplace and especially Alibaba. As for spore syringes, spawn, growing mediums, materials and equipment you can try www.midwestgrowkits.com, www.premiumspores.com and more! Just make sure the website is reputable so you don’t end up getting scammed. Look at the website carefully and do your research ahead of time before purchasing. There’s a lot to take in so if you’re new at this I highly recommend doing more research to further expand your knowledge about the subject matter. Other than that, enjoy the process and happy growing. Good luck and hope I’m able to help and answer your questions or worries.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession4 years ago in Potent
How To Play Poker Like A Pro
So, I’m going to lay out the basics on how to play or at least how I play poker like a pro. First, what you want to consider is your bank roll because management of your bank roll can go a long way if you know how much you’re willing to play with. For instance, in the video I’ve included you will see that even though I may have lots and lots of money to play with I still choose to play low stakes. That’s part of bank roll management and another thing to consider is knowing when to raise or go ALL IN while playing low stakes which can be determined by your hand, board cards, other players and in certain occasions luck. Second, you want to play good hands only because you will keep losing chips if you keep playing bad hands and that can lead your overall bank roll to go down. Sometimes, you can play garbage hand such as off suits or non-consecutive cards. In my opinion, playing an ugly hand is ok when you have a lot of chips. It really depends on the situation and whatever cards that come out on the board. Third, play a few hands and see how others play in the beginning. Just like in the movie Rounders, if you haven’t figured out who is the sucker on the table then you may very well be the sucker on the table. Whether it’s tournament or cash game, observing and figuring out who is playing stupid on the table can go a long way because you can have the upper hand when you’re able to take away their chips for playing badly. Make sure you change your game too from time to time and keep them guessing so it’s harder for them to figure you out. For instance, there will be times that other players will keep raising or in other words bluffing and you finally call them out on it. This is the time when they’re vulnerable and could lose their chips especially when you have something really good and they think you don’t have anything. Poker is also a mind game or game of skill and not purely luck-based. Lastly, there are times that you might be getting bad hand continuously and you don’t know whether to call a blind and play the hand. My answer to that is just play and listen to your gut shot. I remember there were times that I had a really ugly hand such as 7 2 off suit and I ended up getting 2 pair, 3 of a kind or even a full house! Just don’t be afraid to play your hand and only play what you think you can afford to lose. After all, poker is both a game of luck and skill. Poker can be a pretty fun game to play if you don’t become a victim of the game meaning you don’t end up losing everything just to play poker and I believe that is where bank roll management comes into play. Play poker mainly to have fun and not to win. I’ve learned that no matter how skilled of a poker player you are, if luck is not on your side then you can potentially lose so don’t push it and learn when to stop, rest for a bit and give yourself some time to rethink your play style. Sometimes, looking back in how we played can help us improve our poker play and see whether it was luck that beat us or purely from bad play style.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession4 years ago in Gamers
Meet Our New Born Baby Lio Vlog
A lot of babies were being delivered at Eden Medical Center during our stay there due to the fact that we waited about 12 hours to get a non-triage room. At least, everybody were following safety precautions to prevent the spread of covid by not letting anyone in besides the person going into labor and the husband or partner. They’re also not letting anyone in again once they come out of the building so we were stuck there for about 2 days. Huge thank you to all of the front liner staffs and healthcare professionals of Castro Valley Eden Medical Center & Alta Bates of Berkeley who did everything they can to ensure a safe delivery of our child (Born on 09/05/20 around 5am @ 40 weeks, 6lbs & 2.6oz) and for making sure that our little one Rogelio Stephen Cristi aka “lucky Lio” (Rogelio is based on my grandpa’s name on my mother’s side who passed away, Stephen is based on my wife’s grandpa's name on her father's side who is still alive today & he's part Japanese, Guamanian, Irish, Scottish, French, German and Filipino) gets everything that he needs to be in the very best condition (He was taken to NICU immediately as he had some fluid in his lungs that might have caused brain injury so they had to suck that out with a tube, gave him some oxygen while making sure his sugar, gas & acidosis in his blood is reduced & eliminated. They had to put him on a cooling blanket for a little bit to help with the brain development and needed to do an MRI to make sure nothing went wrong on his brain when he had fluid in his lungs which could've made it complicated for the oxygen to reach the brain) Lio is progressing so much day after day since he was sent to NICU a few hours after his birth. He was already looking chubbier and was off his oxygen on day 3 and has been feeding on some of her mother's breast-milk little by little on a daily basis until his body gets used to getting more breast-milk that his mother is able to produce more and more. He's also able to poo & pee which means his kidneys & gut works! Thankfully, I used to be a Certified Nurse Assistant so diaper changing and caring for a little human is second nature.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession4 years ago in Families
Homemade Pork Adobo
When I was a little boy growing up in the Philippines, one of my favorite dishes has always been Adobo because of its stew-like appearance and satisfying flavors. I remember I could eat so much until my stomach was full to the point that I can't breathe anymore. That's why I was an overweight kid also because of the fact that I couldn't help myself with over eating. Until I moved to California where I thought I'd never encounter this dish again because it's America after all but I was wrong! California is full of diversity and almost everyone has tried Filipino food because Philippine groceries and restaurants are all over the place! At least in the Bay Area. As far as I know, Adobo normally consist of chicken or pork but some people like to experiment with other ingredients such as vegetables, sea foods and even beef. At least, my mom and dad always made the dish with either pork or chicken. Whether it is cooked at home, bought from a local vendor or restaurant; the taste of it always had me coming back for more. I just couldn't get tired of the tastiness! It is best served with white rice or other types of rice such as garlic rice, java rice, fried rice, etc... Adobo is simple to make unlike other Filipino dishes that requires more ingredients & time to prepare which is one of the reasons why I've come to appreciate this Filipino dish so much because not only that it's delicious but also pretty easy to prepare. Even my wife who is an American loves Adobo! I don't know if it has to do with the fact that she has Guamanian/Japanese in her blood aside from being Scottish, Irish, German and French but I consider it to be a universal dish that any race could enjoy. She even cooked some at home with the help of an easy online recipe we've found which we decided to make a how-to video on so people can easily make Adobo and possibly adapt the recipe in the comfort of their home. We're going to have our baby soon and we can't wait for our little one to be born as my wife's due date is on September 02, 2020. I'm sure our little baby boy would love the taste of Adobo just like when his old man first tried it. We'll definitely pass on the tradition and culture to our son once he takes his first bite of this delicacy.
By Hobbies • Skills • Talents • Passion • Profession4 years ago in Feast
