NZXT PODCAST - #137 - Is it Colombian or Columbian? (Ft. Al Bellon)

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

On this week's Hispanic Heritage Month edition of the NZXT podcast, we chat with Al Bellon, NZXT's Global Controller! We talk about his time moving to the US from Colombia without understanding English to Colombian traditions, culture... and FOOD! Also, apparently, Ivan's bowling alley has some good Chinese food? Tune in live every Thursday at 10AM PT on twitch.tv/NZXT and send your questions to: [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 137 of the NZXC podcast, the official podcast of the NZC community. This podcast recorded live every Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official NZC Twitch is available to stream on demand on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. My name is Mike. It was me, as always, is Ivan. How are you doing, Ivan? I'm doing good, but according to the stream, my name is Mike. Yeah, I switched around. Don't worry. I can split that around easily. Yeah, very good. Yeah, thank you, Mike. I'm excited for another podcast.

This is the third one that we're doing for Hispanic Heritage Month, that we have a very special guest today. Al, how you doing? You're doing well. I'm very excited to be here and nervous. Don't be nervous, Al. You're going to have a lot of fun. Trust me.

Me and Mike will make sure that you have a good time today. Before we get started into asking you a million questions about yourself, We're going to ask you really quickly, which country are you representing today for Hispanic heritage? I am representing my home country of Colombia. Colombia, not to be confused with Colombia, correct? Correct. Do well. Well, we have a lot of questions to ask you about Colombia, but before we do that, we do want to ask you to, you know, what is your job title and what exactly is it that you do at NZXT?

Sure. I'm the global controller for NZST, and I am the leader of our accounting team and responsible for our accounting clothes, making sure that we're booking our entries appropriately, revenue costs, all that, also in charge of cash management, something very exciting called legal entity accounting, which would make sure that as we're recording things in the right companies throughout the world, I also responsible for risk management, so the insurance that we have in the company and all that. And recently I've also taken on being the MIS, our information systems group reports into me, as well as I'm the acting liaison with our legal advisors. Yeah, that explains why the other day, you know, Mike messaged me on Slack and he's like, hey, I have a legal question about TikTok.

who should I contact and I told them to email our legal team and then when you replied I was like what is that a lawyer we're all so convinced I'm playing on TV yeah and that's what I was thinking too because that that job title that name

controller like it's so like it's so like powerful and vague at the same time that it's like really hard to grasp I think for a lot of people but thank you for the explanation I guess it really means you're you're involved in controlling a lot of different things is not just accounting, right?

Usually controllers is mostly about accounting and maybe risk management. The MIS aspect of it and the legal aspect of it are bonus features. It's something actually been very interested in my whole life. At one point, I wanted to be a lawyer. And after taking the outset, I quickly realized it was not for me. And then when I went and got my MBA, I remember my application, I had to write about what I thought my job in the future was going to be. I chose the CIO.

I've always been interested in information technology as well. Interesting. I was going to segue into like, because, so you wanted to become a lawyer. So what did you do before you started working at NZXT? So I have a finance undergrad, and this sounds really bad for a controller, I hope my boss is not listening. But my worst classes in college were accounting. I hated accounting.

So I started as a business analyst out of college, and I realized as I was starting my MBA that I had always looked at accounting the wrong way. I looked at it as a requirement to get a business degree and just something you had to do. And when I started thinking about it in terms of a language, that accounting truly is the language of a business, business, my mindset started changing about it and I started to really enjoy it.

I realized that because I had not paid attention as an undergrad that I really needed to strengthen my accounting background. When I graduated from my MBA, I actually went into public accounting and I used to work for PWC. It worked for four years and had an unbelievable time. Highly recommend anyone that's interested in accounting, getting to public accounting. It's a great way to learn the business. And then left and went into retail. So most of my career before I came to NZXT has been in retail. I used to work at Abercrombium Fitch. Spent 10 years with them. And then I worked for another women's retailer that's gone out of business for about five years. And right before I came to NZXT, worked for a company that owns an ATM network.

They actually hit the largest worldwide ATM, non-bank ATM network. And it got acquired, interestingly enough, by the company that I first started to work with out of college. And at that time, I was approached by a recruiter that I know for a while about this opportunity at NCXT. And it sounded very interesting. NCX is a smaller company. The other company was a multi-billion dollar company. And I enjoy working at smaller companies where I can have an impact. and work across different groups, which is now turned to be more of a reality than I expected,

rather than being a small cog in a big machine and a big company. Yeah, that's actually one of my favorite things about working at NZXT, too, is, you know, I think everyone that works here is always busy. There's always something to do, right? So that's cool that you're able to help out different teams. How long have you been working at NZXC? So I celebrated my one year anniversary two weeks ago. Oh, congratulations.

Thank you. That time flies. It does, and it feels a lot longer than a year. So in that one year, what has been the most fun thing about your job? I think it's been understanding the culture and in working alongside the people at NCXT. It's a very unique culture, not only for it being gamer focused, but a lot of the can-do attitude. You know, when I came to the company, I was surprised how quickly the company had grown and how complex it was from an international perspective and how quickly the company had grown into those areas,

because you don't usually see that even with more mature companies. So getting to know the different people, the different areas of the business, getting to expose more to the gaming world has been really interesting and enjoyable. And on the flip side of that, what is the most challenging part of your job? Yeah, under advice of counsel, I'm not going to answer that question. I think realistically, it would be, at times there are so many things you want to do, and you can't. So one of the things that, as I onboarded with my different teams here at NZXD, and I've done the other places as well, I always have a slide, I have a presentation that I go through, and I have a slide, and I ask people, how do you eat an elephant?

And the answer is one bite at a time. So the most frustrating part is always remembering that I can only do so many things at once and that I'm not going to solve, or my team's not going to be able to solve all the world's problems in one day. Well, you told us about the most fun, the most challenging. Now, I want you to tell us what has been the best. best experience you've had working at NTST? Good question. And why is it this podcast? I'll have to get back to you on that.

Several things should have to mind, but to be honest, so I'm based out of Houston, Texas. Obviously, the office is in L.A. I think one of the funest experiences whenever I come into L.A. and I get to interact with people in the office, not just with my team, but other groups. The funnest thing I say this, and I know that if he's listening, he will kill me if I'm going to mention it. It's work-related, but it's not work-work. Eugene, who we work with, took me to a noodle place, and it's a hole in the wall near the office. And they have the best spicy beef noodles I've ever had.

and look I lived five years in Europe next to the border of Italy and these noodles are better than any pasta I had in Italy and he knows anytime I come to town that we're going to be there for lunch at least once during that time I'd say that's a huge compliment to say that this

like this physical pasta slash noodles thing was better than Italian yeah I'll have to try that myself I don't believe it next time I'm in town we'll go behind Okay, sounds good. Yeah, it's actually my favorite thing, too, about work is the people as well.

I know it sounds cliche and cheesy, but I do love coming to the office and seeing people that, you know, that I work with every day. And like now that we're like a mostly remote company, it does feel like we're all kind of spread out. So I do like coming to the office and just doing simple things like going out and getting noodles. And the other thing that I really enjoy about it is it's consistent across everybody. It's not just the people in my accounting team that I see. It's everybody from going out to the warehouse and talking to the teams out there. Really enjoy my time with them.

And it's across the board. It's a really unique company, really unique culture. And when you get to my age, when you start choosing companies that you're changing jobs, you realize how important culture is. You know, everybody thinks about titles and pay and all that. Well, those are relevant. I think a cultural fit is more important. So I know that you talked about the culture about this, like, a specific industry.

Did you always have the idea that you were going to work in the gaming industry? No, not at all. Not all. This came out of the blue. And, you know, originally I was not really interested in the opportunity. I didn't think it was for me. and I actually recommended a friend of mine for the job. And I ended up competing against where she and I went one and two,

two finalists for this position. And it was as I met the different people I interviewed with, that it really got very interesting. I saw the potential of this industry. So you came into this industry, not really expecting it. So what advice would you have for people that do actually want to join this industry? Is there any advice for either having the job or the mentality you have to have while you're working in this industry? Based on my one year of experience, what I would recommend to people is, one, be flexible.

You know, it may not be the exact role that you want. Let's say you want to be in accounting, but there's an opening up in customer service. I think it's more important to get your foot in the door than it is for you to get to specific, perfect role that you've always wanted, right? because if that's what you want to get to, if you're that special and that good and that, those opportunities will open up themselves for you, right? You just need to get your foot in the door first. The second thing would be, be open-minded.

You know, I still remember when I went through this process, I was talking to the recruiter, he told me everything that they needed, that NZXT was looking for, and let's say that there were 10 items. And I knew I had experienced in at least six of them I felt very comfortable about, but seven and eight, I had some exposure, and nine and ten, I had none, right?

And if I just focused on nine and ten and said, I don't know how to do that and have passed on this opportunity, I would have missed on a great opportunity. So it's really about being open-minded in seeing the bigger picture, not just focusing on one aspect of it, and making decisions based on that aspect. That's really good advice. So I hope everyone that is watching or listening on Facebook. full attention. So I think that's brilliant. Well, thank you, Al, for telling us about your work history. Now it's time to ask you a little bit more personal questions. Sure. First one,

you know, since it's Hispanic Heritage Month, and you mentioned that you were representing Colombia. I'm curious, were you actually born in Colombia? I was. I was born in Colombia. I was born in Bogota, a capital. And interestingly enough, Colombia may be the I think might be the country have spent the least amount of time in. Interesting. Yeah, my dad used to work for General Electric International. Okay. So, as a child, we moved to Spain, lived there for a while,

came back to Columbia. And as I did it, maybe not. It's in the middle, but came back to Columbia. I think we were there for maybe like two years and then moved to the United States. So I've spent most of my life in the U.S. But yes, I was born in Columbia. And it's fair to me. Even though that's the country, you spent the least amount of time.

And like, what do you remember about it while you were growing up? What was it like? And what I remember about it is boatized is in the Andes. So being surrounded by mountains, it's something that I really, really miss. And having lived in the U.S. and in the mountainous region of Ohio and, you know, the great, mountains of Houston, Texas. Not having mountains is something I miss. It's funny.

As an adult had lived in Switzerland, seeing mountains again and really brought back a lot of Colombian memories. I remember my family. My sort of went on thing, my mom's sister married my dad's brother.

They met after my parents started dating. And they used to live right next door to us, in a condo that looked exactly alike. It was just like having a twin family. So I really remember staying town with my cousins. And then my grandmother, my dad's mom lived down there. My mom's parents had moved away to the U.S.

So I remember a lot about family and then food. Well, I guess the choice wasn't really up to you, right, to leave Columbia. It was mostly your dad's crew of his job, right? Yeah. Yeah, so we left Columbia in 1982. We actually just celebrated 40 years in the United States this past August. At a celebration with my parents and my brother and my family here in Houston. My dad worked for General Electric, like I mentioned.

And even though he was born in Columbia, he was considered at that time as a traitor because it was an American company. And in the early 80s, in Colombia, in a lot of South America, a huge anti-U.S. sentiment. So, and I found this out many years after we moved to the U.S. And just as an, oh, by the way, kind of a story my dad was telling us, the, my dad was in a hit list to either be killed or kidnapped because he was a general manager at General Electric. So little things that didn't make sense to me when I was a kid. For example, my dad would come home and driving different cars. Sometimes he would drive a box truck. And he always had a story.

flat tire, I had to help somebody move, why he had different cars, or we had an alarm system installed in our house. Like I said, my cousins next door, they didn't have one. I thought it was just, you know, we happened to have an alarm system. Now it was because the company installed it to protect them. So he, General Electric, sold their business in Columbia, and he was able to relocate to Cleveland, Ohio to escape, you know, being on a head list. This could be a TV show. I said, I think they have made TV shows about that. Yeah. So will you ever go back to Columbia at all?

Yes. I haven't yet. It's one of my biggest regrets, but there's always been a reason for it. And it's on the to-do list. I have my passport, my Colombian passport, and ready to go. We're supposed to have gone a couple of times, and it just had other life events getting away. and stop us from doing so. And there's no risk anymore, right?

There's no at risk. Okay, okay. Just make you sure. Just like you sure. Yeah, yeah. No, no. No, it's just been literally other issues that have come up in our lives as a family that's prevent us from going.

That's insane. So you moved to the U.S. very, very young, right? How old were you again? 12 years old. 12 years old. How was it coming into the U.S.? Like, did you, did you already have? English already down or did you not speak a lick of it? How was the challenge of that coming in?

I didn't speak English when I moved to the US and he did my brother. I did have a slight advantage over him. I did that school I went to, I went to a German school. I did have one year of English, but it was a very, very basic English to the point that our final was being able to differentiate when you use the word this versus when you used the word that. So very basic English. It was lucky that since I spoke German, English and German were very similar. So I sort of had a feeling for what was happening around me. But my brother and I both had a wing it. We literally moved to the US and two weeks later, my parents put us in a school bus, a yellow school bus, which we had only seen the movies, and we went to this.

small rural high school outside of a or school outside of a leave in Ohio wow so how long did it take you to fully like understand and have like a full conversation in english like how long did it take it took about probably a couple of months again i was lucky for two reasons one with german it again they're very they're not the same but they're similar enough that i could understand something. And look, I'll be honest, I was very shy and I was not Mr. Popular or anything like that. So I kept to myself a lot. But the school that we went to was literally a rural school. And they were willing to take us in that, like, next door, the school district, next door was the rich district. They, when my parents said, hey, they were going to need help with English.

They were told, you know, Cleveland Public Schools has good programs like that. You guys should look over there. But Kensington High School, shot out to them if anyone from that area is listening. They took us in and really made us feel welcome. Interestingly enough, they put my brother and I in all the lowest level classes. So we could get used to English. And then as we got better at the English, they moved us to our appropriate level of class. So for us, especially in math, both my brother and I took huge stuff back.

We're in remedial math. But it was just for us to get the language under our belt and then go on from there. So I'll probably say it took a couple months. One of the things I still remember, we've got very lucky in this is, you know, in Spanish, our vowels sound very different than in English, I, E, or you. And, you know, the E's and the I's have the complete opposites in the A with English. So one of the toughest times I ever had was spelling. where you have to stand in class and spell a word.

So I got lucky, if you remember 1982, the movie ET came out. What I would have to do when the teacher would pick on me to spell, I would have to visualize the poster E. Then I knew what the sound for E was, and I would rearrange my vowels using that visual. So I would spell in English and pronounce in English instead of pronouncing it in Spanish. Wow. That's amazing. How was it actually getting used to a culture in the United States?

You know, language aside, just, you know, the basic day-to-day stuff that goes on in the United States. Like, what was that like? It was different, but it was fun. The in the school we used to go to, and I went to a German school. So the German government at the time had set up schools wherever there were large populations of German people. Even though my dad was born in Columbia, he is 100% German. So actually, English is the third language that I learned. My mom would always speak to me in Spanish.

My dad, I was in German. So my brother and I both went to this German school. And for example, when we moved to Spain, we used the same books, the same, or in this exact same part of the class, even though we were switching schools. So at the German school, you stayed in your class. and the teachers came to see you. We didn't have lockers, we didn't have anything like that. You had your assigned desk and you sat there the whole school day and your teachers came to you.

So coming here to the U.S., for me, it was a very foreign concept that I had a locker where I had to put my books and I had to figure out where the different teacher rooms, classrooms were, right, and go there. So that was something relatively new. The other big thing is actually, The other big thing, it's actually something that's huge for us as a family. So I only have one brother for the four of us is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was the one holiday we never celebrated anywhere else in the world, right? That's a truly an American and Canadian holiday.

So I still vividly remember our neighbor from across the street coming over at 5 o'clock in the morning to teach my dad how to prepare a turkey for our first Thanksgiving. So for the four of us and now for my family, my wife, and my four children, Thanksgiving is very special. It's truly it is Thanksgiving and it's about us being thankful for the opportunities that this country has given us. It's beautiful. You mentioned, you know, going from Colombia to Spain to U.S. and all this back and forth. How long exactly were you in each country? So in Columbia, I think, did the math real quick. Five years, I was five years old when I left, spent five years in Spain, came back to two years in Columbia, got to 12, and then been here in the U.S. ever since.

Except for, as an adult, my family and I did a five-year stint back in Europe and lived in Switzerland. What, out of all those different countries, which one has been your favorite? The answer is yes. I like that. Bar-woo. But maybe you want to go to... Each country has something very special about it that I love and that it meets the world to me. So for example, when I go into the World Cup, people say, to ask me who's your favorite soccer team?

And I have a long list. Columbia, the U.S., I'm German, so German, Germany. My team, back when I was a little kid, Columbia didn't have a very good soccer team and they did the U.S., so my team's always been Italy. live in Switzerland, so I get to add them in Spain. So if all those teams are in the World Cup, I have at least seven teams that I'm rooting for. Yeah, so no matter who wins the World Cup, the chances are Al's team's going to win.

I like those odds. Italy and Spain is like a big contender. You got some pretty good chances right there. At least sitting four, or, no, yeah, three this year. in the mix. So also, I remember you saying that your name is special, correct? Yeah, my full name is Arvaron-Rericka Benong Gaetan. So my first name is Arvado.

I go by Al for two reasons. One, to differentiate myself from my dad, whose name is Arirot, but also going back to moving to the U.S. when they took us to the school to register, I remember the lady asking me my name, and I couldn't spell in English. So I was able to get two letters out, and I knew L was an option, since they were trying to figure out how to spell Alvaron

and do it correctly, I just stopped that Al, and I've been L ever since, just to keep it simple. It was either going to be A-L or E-T. So you had the right choice. Not. Sort of an interesting thing.

When I got married, we had two things happen. I put in my name, my full name, right? So it's, I've underneath my middle name, and then Bell and Guyton being my mom's last name. So the newspaper read that, and instead of putting Bell and Lori, my wife's maiden name, put Guy Tom Laurie. So no one knew who the hell that was.

And then my wife goes by her middle name. So the invitations went out with my full name. And most people never knew there was Al-Badro or my mom's name was Guy Tan. And my wife's first name is Michelle. She always goes by Renee. So it was this Alvar and Michelle people getting married. And actually the priest made a joke at the beginning that they were at the right wedding. It was Alan Renee's wedding.

Just invitations sounded differently. That's hilarious. That's a great way to start a wedding. Yeah. Now, you mentioned one of your favorite U.S. tradition, or is Thanksgiving. What about Colombian tradition? Is there anything that you still do to this day to celebrate that? Yes.

So going back to the wedding, in Colombia, you have this tradition of the Arras, where you have 13 gold coins that the groom gives to the bride. So I was actually able to get some of a set of Arras brought up from Columbia to give to my wife. So we incorporated that, which I was very appreciative of my wife's family, allowing us to do that. But when I think about my kids and in our family, obviously soccer is huge. World Cup and followed all that. But the way I've integrated our culture has been through food. For us, for Colombians, there are several typical dishes.

And there are two of them that I, that we are very big on. One of them is in Colombia, Christmas is celebrated at midnight. So our family Christmas here is that the German tradition, you do something, or in my family used to be, we used to go to my grandmother's house at 6 p.m. have cookies. we open up gifts from her. Then at midnight, we would celebrate the Columbian Way, have dinner and have gifts. And then in the morning, we would have, you know, the regular presence. So there's three sets of presents. So what we do here, or what my family does is we try to get as close to midnight as the kids have gotten older, they wanted earlier, and so do I, to be honest. But we have

agiacal, which is a chicken and potato soup that I make. It's a traditional dish from Bogota. So that's our midnight dinner on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. And then on a regular basis, we have chocolate, which is hot chocolate, but it's a different kind of chocolate. And it's not like the Mexican one that some of you may have had. It's slightly different. It's not to have cinnamon. But we have that with Bericos and a bunch of Colombian breads that I'll make. So my family, my kids and my wife absolutely love that. And when we have special, anything special that we want to celebrate, or when we're trying to do a, or my family's in town to visit or we're visiting them,

we do that as a baked breakfast usually on a Saturday or Sunday. and it's a meal that takes a while to prepare and also takes a while to eat. So it's a big celebration. I'm hungry now. So speaking of food, you sent us a picture of this, I believe, a Colombian traditional dinner. I'm going to pull it up on stream right now. Can you give a little bit of a explanation into what these foods are? Which one is it?

It's the one that you sent us. It's the one with the tray. And it looks like there's some sausages. It looks like there's some like bread, pastries, rice. So this is that breakfast I was telling you about. So that is, and interesting enough, if anybody has seen the movie in Canto, they do show this in the movie. When they're saying that for breakfast and Mary Bell gets moved around to be next to

the abuela, this is what they're having. So in the dish, you see Perikos, and that's basically scrambled eggs with tomatoes and green onions. I do remember that film in Canpo, and I forgot that. That is, it takes place in Colombia, right? Yeah, yes. Then in the dish with the wooden tongs, those are handmade areas. Now, a lot of different Latin cultures have arepas, but made those. Then the next dish forward are the different, and these are Amojavanas, which is a bread. It's basically a cheese bread. And then to the right of that are Pande Yucas, which is a Yucca-based bread, again, with cheese. And beneath it, there's Pandebona, which is yet another cheese bread. They're all, they're similar, yet they're each distinct tastes. One of the things you do,

you use different kinds of cheeses for it. And then the sausages are blood sausage, which only my son and I will enjoy. It's called Mercillo. And they're delicious. And I used to eat them all the time as a kid before I ever knew what a blood sausage was. And then they explained to me how they make it. And I will still eat them at any chance that I have a chance to do it. People listening should Google how sausage was made.

Yeah. Would you say, I guess, that food is a big. part of your family? It is. It's a big part for me. But again, going back to the culture in Colombia, Colombian food is different. People always ask me, what's Colombian food like?

Because they immediately think about Mexican food. And it's not like Mexican food. It's not about being spicy. We can't make something spicy. But Colombian food is more about mixing flavors and getting those different combinations. So if you could, I'd show the other

picture with me with the soccer Jersey. Right now. And ignore the dumb face I'm making in the picture. So this was this past July and it was our Independence Day, the Colombian Independence Day went to this Colombian restaurant here that's about less than 10 miles away, which has been one of my favorite things about coming to Houston. There are a ton of very authentic Colombian restaurants here.

So in front of me, you see this dish is called, we call a Montanero or Bandeja Paiso, which basically has beans, rice, paneg, steak, plantain, and chicharon, which is pork rind. And the key thing there is you mix it all together. And in Colombian food, sometimes you mix fruits with meats and things like that. So it's about the flavor combination. That's an interesting mixture. It is. It's delicious.

And then right under the Colombian flag is a picada, and that's got pork rind again. It's got strips of beef. It's got ribs, arrepas, plantains, tomato, and then Papa Crioia, which is a potato the only found in Colombia. It's a small little potato. And that's a potato that I used in the other, in that soup that I talked about before, archiacom. But for me, you know, you asked about what I remember about Colombia and all that food was a big part of it. So especially before I moved to Houston, getting some of these meals

or some of these ingredients was very difficult. So whenever we were able to have them together as a family, it was a very special location. So even when we live in Switzerland, believe it or not, we managed to always be able to have someone bring us over some of the ingredients. that we needed to be able to have our traditional meals. We would have via FaceTime the chocolate and pericles with my parents. So the kids have always known about the importance of not only the pride that I have been Colombian and they have been Colombian, but it's always been around food and how special it is and to always remind them of where they came from or where I came from.

That's beautiful. I think food can bring out people together a lot of lot of times. And I noticed in that picture that you're wearing a Colombian soccer jersey. So I'm assuming you're a big football fan. I am. How did you become a soccer fan? There was no other option. You're growing up in Colombia and Spain, right? We actually, we did, we did try American football. And I do have vivid memories of watching a Super Bowl. Steelers versus the Cowboys in Columbia at one point. My dad, my dad was a baseball fan, so he would watch some baseball games every now and then,

and then the Super Bowl was my uncle. And then we'd find a way to get the feed, international feeder, and be able to watch it. But, you know, we grew up always playing soccer. And, you know, the World Cup has always been huge for us. And, you know, my brother and I, he would pick Brazil, I would pick Italy, because there were, you know, natural enemies.

And I'm still to remember. One of our biggest fights was when Italy beat Brazil and I made fun of my brother and he started to wail on me and began to big fight. I have a quick question from Chrzy from the chat. Who's your favorite player? Ooh. I got to tell you,

he no longer plays, but Valdrama, he was a guy that had the huge blonde Afro. If you look him up, or El Bebes, what it was nicknames was. When... Carlos, right?

Yes. Yes. And not only was the unbelievable player, but more importantly, I used to, I lived in many different places in the U.S., but I was moving from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio. And this was when I joined PWC, I was going to start working with them. And I used to be a season ticket holder with a Columbus crew. It was an original season ticket holder.

And we were looking for a house, so I got a company-paid trip to Columbus, Ohio, during a Columbus crew, game and stayed right. This is when he used to play at the Ohio State Stadium. And after I looked at houses during the day, my wife and I decided to go walk around campus to talk about the different places we had seen. And as we're walking back, this is before the horseshoe, the stadium was closed off. We saw these huge buses parted at one end of it. And I figured that Tampa Bay, who Valderamo was playing for at the time, was practicing. So we walked up to the buses and the team was practicing there,

waiting until they were done, and walked up to him and talked to Alderama. First of all, he's very short. On 5'8, he was shorter than I was, and that surprised me. But second of all, and one of the reasons that I really appreciated it, I'm gushing like a little kid.

I could barely get words out because I'm meeting one of my heroes, right? and I introduced my wife and he was a complete gentleman to her, right? First of all, he was very nice to both of us. He didn't need to be. And he could see that I was blabbering like an idiot. And instead of focusing on me, he started being, you know, inclusive. I talked to him in Spanish and then switched to English to my wife doesn't speak Spanish

and to introduce her and all that. And he was a complete gentleman. I was so impressed with the way he handled that situation that he's my favorite player. That's awesome. You said your wife doesn't speak Spanish? No, she's tried. She's taking lessons, and she's actually done it a couple of times, but, you know, like any language, if you don't use it constantly,

you lose it. How about your children? Do they speak Spanish? Out of the four, only one has done it. The two went with German, and one of them chose not to, not to follow languages. Did you try, not forced, but did you try to encourage them to speak Spanish? No, and actually I should say all four of them, when we lived in Switzerland, we lived in the

Italian side of it. All four are in Italian. Wow. So I need to give all four them credit. No, I didn't push the Spanish for a couple of reasons. First of all, my Spanish was crap at the time. I was not using it. Living in Ohio, you don't have that many opportunities to use it. And even my parents would make fun of how horrible my Spanish was. I moved to Houston where I use it a lot more.

It's come back. It's still not the best Spanish in the world, but I can defend myself. So I didn't feel comfortable teaching something that I was not actively using, number one. And number two, it would have... In order to grow up in it, this is a theory, I'm not saying it's the only way, but in order to be more successful in a household that speaks two languages, you need to have one parents speak one language and the other parents speak the other language. Because if you have the same parents speak both languages, it confuses the kids as they're growing

up. So that would have required me to only speak to the kids in Spanish and my wife, to them only in English. I think it just, my Spanish was not good enough to be able to maintain that. it's on me. It's one of the regrets that I have. Well, you know, even though you didn't pass on the language, you know, I think you did a great job passing on the traditions and culture, especially with the food and things like that. So do you think it's important to pass along these traditions to second, third, fourth, et cetera, generations of Hispanic children just so they know their roots? I think it's extremely important.

And the other thing that says, not only pass on those traditions, but also be completely open about the good, the bad, and the ugly about your culture. And as a Colombian, it's been difficult. And one of the things, if you have not seen this documentary, I highly recommend. It's the two Pablo, the 30 for 30 that he has. I'm Pablo Escobar, or the two Escobars, excuse me. And I remember watching it with my son. And he had made a comment to somebody, and he didn't know the full story.

And I remember telling him, like, look, you need to sit down and you need to watch this with me to understand the full history of what Columbia was about in the whole situation. And this is where, you know, in the World Cup, 1994. one of the Escobar's who scored the own goal against the Americans and the Columbia lost that game against the U.S., which was a huge opposite. Columbia was picked to win. And when he went back to Columbia, he was shot. And Pablo Escobar, the drug dealer, had a lot to do with what happened to that team and how they were protected and all that. So I had my son sit down and watch it, and I remember at the end of it, he was just shocked about all the,

bad side about what happened in Colombia. I told him, I said, look, this is the responsibility that I carry and that you carry as a Colombian. We are proud of our country. It's a beautiful country. The people are amazing. It's great. But we've also made mistakes, and we need to on up to those mistakes and never whitewash them. Because when you start whitewashing, no matter whether you're Latino or not, you know, the bad things away, you're bound to repeat them. So it's, you know, one of the of the things that when I carry myself as a Colombian, you know, when I moved here to the states in the earliest, the jokes were always, I was either in coffee, my family was in the coffee

business, or in the drug business, right? And it got hiring after a while, but that's what everybody knew at the time. So I do take a lot of pride in what I've accomplished in the way my family is, because I show that all Colombians don't have to be coffee growers, they don't have to do Juan Maldez, or they don't have to be Pablo Escobar. You can be somebody else. I love that. You got to watch a documentary now. Yeah, it's a great 3430 was when they originally made the first 3430s, and originally they were all one hour long except for this one, this one was two hours. I did watch that, um, that Pablo Escobar show on Netflix a couple years ago, and I don't know how realistic it was, but the way they depicted Columbia during that time,

man, there was a lot of turmoil in that country. A lot of, not just in that country, but I think, like you said, I said earlier in the beginning of the show, like, between Colombia, and really, like, all of, like, South America and the United States and a lot of, you know, violence. And it was really, really sad and depressing, but I'm glad that, like you said, you acknowledge it. But at the same time, that's something that you whitewash and you, you, you, you,

learn from me bro and get better until it's i love that um we do have some uh other questions to ask you not related to Hispanic heritage month uh but before we get into those i have two questions here from the chat the first one is from paulini who first of all said that your face is not ugly that she's used to see united meetings so don't don't call it's ugly but her question is Al, when are you going to get good at Tetris so we can have a rematch? So this is online bowling. You guys need to go back to the NXT and the culture. This is one of the things that I love, right? We are a gaming company. As a result, we, my accounting team, we have a gaming hour where we play video games and other

groups do it as well and different people get invited. there is a group of ladies, and they just happen to be ladies, not because they are ladies, who are so good at this that they just beat the living crap out of meme in the Tetris. And Pauline is one of their ringleaders. Yeah. And they're just, it's amazing to watch how good some of these gamers can be with how fast they're doing Tetris. And I'm still trying to spin one piece, and they've already cleared like 20 lines and dumped it in all on me. So it's just, yeah, I'm working on it, Pauline.

One of my goals is to eventually beat you. Whenever I play with Pauline, I have her put her webcam on her fingers, so I couldn't prove she's not hacking. Yeah, she's really good. Sochi asked, how did you get into PC gaming? And I'm assuming they're asking that question because they see that awesome sim setup, you're hearing you? Interestingly enough, and this is how I'm going to start aging myself.

I did PC gaming a long time ago and then sort of dropped off, fell off and went more to the consoles. But I used to do PC gaming, got into by playing SimC City while I was going to college, and here's when I'm going to start dating myself. Back then, you could put the whole game on a floppy disk, and me and my friends would go to the computer lab after 11 o'clock at night and build cities until like 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. Then after I graduated in Bombine Computer,

started playing things like Rainbow Six, World of Warcraft. But this is back when World of Warcraft was a single game. It was not on the internet. Really enjoyed that one. And my proud achievement, the only piece of game I've ever finished, Diablo 2. I thought that was an incredible game, the original Diablo 2.

And I bought the remastered one. That's the only computer game I've ever done from beginning to end. That's so, what's interesting about all this to me is that, you know, when I asked you to be in the podcast, you made it a point to tell me, I'll do it, but just so you know, I'm not a gamer. But it sounds like you're a bigger gamer than both Mike and I. I've enjoyed it, but it's been a while. You talk about the racing rig behind me. That's, I bought it because one of my daughters got me floors up for Christmas. but I also used it for my PlayStation to play Formula One.

Have you tried using that for accounting purposes, like doing some spreadsheets with the steering wheel? No. But maybe I'm going to use to the Tentrake against Pauline. He might help me. Oh, all right. Now it's time for everyone's favorite part of the show is where Mike asked his rapid-fire questions.

The purpose of these questions is to kind of get you to answer as fast as possible. some of them are a little serious. Others are super silly and ridiculous, but go ahead and answer the fact that he can and elaborate wherever you feel like it. So Mike took it away. All right, first question. We had a little talk about this before, but what is your dream job?

My dream job, believe it or not, and I wanted to do this since I was a little kid. Truck driver, over the road truck driver. Why? Yeah. Two reasons. And they are, again, this is back in the late 70s, early 80s, the movie Convoy. You used to love that movie. And the TV show, BJ and the Bear, for those of you that know, it's about a truck driver who had a monkey as his pet and co-driver.

Just seeing those regs, I thought they were so awesome. And I guess a little bit of smoking the bandit. but just really I think 18 wheelers are awesome and I know the cab that I want when I lived in Detroit used to go to the Detroit Auto Show all the time and I would spend my time in the truck section

rather than the car section. They don't make TV shows like they used to a truck diving show with the monkey. Yeah. There's that, yeah, there's that show about like the truck drivers and it will just like document them going across the country and stuff like that

and honestly after after listening to that, I go, I get it now, because I was very invested in that show, too. So I get it. Oh, next question. Favorite Colombian food to eat? To eat? Yeah. It's got to be the one where I'm wearing in South New Jersey, Montaniero.

My dad is just, it's my go-to every time I go to the restaurant. Now, the other side, what is your favorite to cook? I love making those Colombian breads. It takes a while, but it truly, you know, when people say, about a labor of love. I enjoy making that. I enjoy how much my family enjoys them and my friends. So making those Colombian breads.

Now, we heard about your favorite soccer player, who is the best soccer player of all time? Does not have to be Colombian, but any soccer player. It has to be Palais. I'm going to go old school. I respect that. I respect that. People are going to come back with Messia and Renault.

I can't stand those guys. You can't stand? Why can't you stand them? I don't know. They're too good, I guess. Pelly, I mean, he's, you know, one. He's unbelievable. Yeah.

I think Ronaldo's too self-absorbed, too much of a pretty boy. Messi, an unbelievable player. I just, I've never liked Argentinian. Sorry to the Argentinian listeners. As I call on me, I just have never liked the Argentian teams. I can't root for Messi. Understandable. That was very understandable.

Honestly, I get that. So, if I see some people in a check, go, uh-oh. Let's see. Favorite game of all time? Red Dead Red Dead Redemption, too. Great choice. What was your favorite part about Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Redemption? Believe it or not, it's paying it with my kids.

And I don't understand this part. My kids will sit there and watch me play. And I drive them up the wall because I don't do the storylines. I'd rather just go around and hunt or try to find treasures. And especially with my youngest, Katarina, it drives her up the wall. Because she's about beginning and finishing the games and figuring everything out. She's really good at it. So is Natasha, my other daughter.

But I drive him up the wall. I'd rather just figure out when I get my peltz. I want to get on my fish and all that. But it's such an enjoyable game. That is, I think, the close second to it, Grand Theft Auto. Which one? Again, for the same reasons. The open world environment, to me, is more fun than everything else.

And, you know, I know there's a lot of violence and all that in Grand Theft Auto, but I'm that dummy that just likes to figure out where all the ramps are and try to hit them and see what I can do with the cars. What is that, GTA 4, 5? Again, I'm going to take myself, Vice City. Ooh, good one. Ooh, okay. I respect that, though.

As that, I really, so to further date yourself, what was your first ever game and or console? Great question. Collegovision and Collegial football. And I continue to kick myself in the butt because we kept it for a long time. My brother and I both went to Indiana University. We brought it down to where we lived,

and we left it there in a common room. And we were not, it was a, it was a, it was a house in a dorm. But it was kind of more like a fraternity kind of set up. And we left it there, and I still regret that. That's okay. At least you had good years with it. Oh, yeah. I think my uncle had one, and I remember playing that.

And honestly, my brother bought me the Sega when I graduated from college in 1992. And I gave it to my nephews. They stopped playing and they gave it back to me. So I still have my Sega. And that one was NHL hockey. Love that game. Back when you can get into fights. And of course, technical.

I can't believe for the Nintendo, TechMobile. Great games. So if you had to be stuck in one video game for, let's say for this one 24 hours, you just had to be stuck in a game for 24 hours, which one would it be? That redemption too. That's what I was leaning towards.

Would you do the same thing? Like you're just going to go hunting, camping. I do all that. You know, stay out of St. Denis because I always get in trouble in San Deney. Gotcha, gotcha. I think I have spent more time playing poker in fishing in Red Dead Reddarderson 2

than I have in real life. I honestly, I remember it was like when I was in, I was in college during this time, I literally spent like four or five hours just playing poker. Literally, I just like had a movie going on. I was just playing it and I go,

oh my God, it's been four hours. I can imagine Al, hanging out with Arthur Morgan just writing some horses around. I can see that. I can totally see that. We love doing this voice. Actually,

I want to show up with my youngest, or whenever we go, especially your Keynes, I have to place the order and pay using my Arthur Morgan voice. Let's hear it. No way. Yeah, come on, come on. This is for the podcast. You've got to give it to us.

I haven't played. I haven't done it in a while, so I can't. I'll, if it comes back, I'll do it. Okay. We'll take that. We'll take that. How do you like to spend your free time? Different ways.

Lately, I enjoy sleeping. reading, baking. To me, baking is very therapeutic. It's both therapeutic and anal. Even when we're talking about doing Colombian food, and my wife will tell you this, I don't want anyone in my kitchen.

And everybody's trying to help, especially like last time when we were celebrating the 40th anniversary, moving to the U.S. My mom is in the kitchen, my wife's in the kitchen, dad's trying to help out. And I'm like, just get out, get out. I'd rather do it all by myself and just be able to do things the way.

like to do it. But I'd love to bake. And when I bake, I usually bake after 11 o'clock a night. Because I want to have the kitchen to myself and just to be able to do things the way I like to do it. I enjoy reading a lot. And back in the days, to do a lot of cycling. Not so much anymore. Your favorite book right now that you're reading? I haven't received it yet. I'll get in next month. Nelson DeMille is my favorite author. And he writes a series by about a New York detective named John Corey. So he's got a new book coming out in October.

And I think it's October 26th. I will be at the murder by the book in Houston, Texas, meeting him in person and getting a signed book. So I'm very excited about that. Awesome. I love that. What is your guilty pleasure? eating and usually sweets and it's kind of probably be chocolate

you have a favorite chocolate like candy or is it just like a certain chocolate haven't lived in Switzerland where you know here in the US you go to the grocery store and you see a aisle worth of cereals of breakfast cereals in Switzerland you have the same thing but of chocolates so I've become a bit of of a chocolate snob. So my my go to is lint chocolate, especially the one with chili. And I'll tell you a quick story. So link chocolates, if you buy here in the U.S., you'll notice it's made in the U.S.

So during one of my trips, I was living in Switzerland, I bought a whole bunch of U.S. made Lynn Chauplin brought it back and had a blind taste test with my coworkers in the office. And there was a Swiss lady, very proud of it. Switzerland and all that. And she picked the best chocolates and all that. And time after time, she kept picking the American one over the Swiss made one. So the link chocolate we get here is pretty damn good. But try that one. Insane to say that you're saying, like, chocolate from Switzerland is not. I mean, they're made to the same levels and all that, but whatever they do

here in the U.S. is it tastes better than the Swiss one. I was like this argument I have with friends all the time. I swear the best Chinese would I've ever had is at this bowling alley by my house. And I have the friends that are like, you know, you live pretty close with city of industry. There was like tons of

delicious Chinese restaurants around you. And I'm like, I know, but trust me, this bowling alley who has the best Chinese food is. I can relate. There are different levels of Chinese. Yeah. Right? Pulling the wild, greasy spoon, Chinese, which I think is excellent. And then there's a place,

I'm in where I'm going to take you with those noodles that are just unbelievable. All right. I have to take you to be a bully nally then one day too. Done. Who's your hero? You know, that's a difficult question. I think I have two. My mother and my grandfather, who I never met on my dad's side.

So my dad's dad. My him because he was a Renaissance man. He did everything. He was a reporter. He taught math. He did all these different things. But more importantly, he was very big on speaking up against tyrants. So my grandfather actually spent time in jail for writing editorial seconds Hitler in Germany.

And eventually ended up on their bad list. and he always spoke up. So it's one of the things I love about the United States, freedom of speech. I'm very big on that. You may not like what you have to say in all that, but I believe that you have the right to say what you believe. To me, that's very important. And then my mother, because she grew up in a Latino culture back then.

And, you know, she had always been a stay-at-home mom. And when she came to the U.S., she got bored. as my brother and I, we were now 16, 17, 15, so we had jobs and all this. We weren't around. She got bored of just sitting around the house. And even though her English was not the best, he got herself a job. And she went and worked at a McDonald's. And because she thought we would be embarrassed, she went to a McDonald's that was like 45 minutes away.

And she did a hell of a job to the point that my brother and I would take our friends there to have my mom take our order because they were. so proud of her. So the fact that she's always challenged herself and again, growing up in a Latino culture where back then was very male dominated that she's always stood up for herself and is a very strong woman. I respect the hell out of it. All right. I got some, I got a very interesting one. So you know what a pop tart is, correct? Yeah. You consider a pop tar a ravioli? No. No. Why not? You made out of pasta. Would you count? ravioli as a dumpling then.

Yeah. Oh, you will consider ravioli a dumpling. Yeah. Okay. It's in pasta. Okay, so when we go

to that Chinese restaurant for those noodles, I want you to order some ravioli. I'll order you. I'm not ordering it. They're different. It's a variation of.

But, yeah, Pop-Tarts made out of pastries. That's why it doesn't, it's not a ravioli. even though it's even though technically it's it's kind of like a it's kind of like a you know pasta because it's using like cars technically it's it could be that you know if you count just pasta's carbs

it's just it's just what it is and there's filling inside pasta I know the Italian in you is just like out there just can't even try it no it's an interesting argument but you you lose me a pasta okay okay I appreciate that. And I would you rather, would you rather be fluent in all languages or be a master of of every instrument? Oh, languages.

Because I cannot play an instrument if my life depends on it. I can't. I love music. I enjoy it. I get the intricacies of it. And for someone that enjoys math as well, I can't play an instrument. But knowing languages to me is more appealing. Why is language is more appealing than music? Because it opens me up to more cultures. I can enjoy music

without playing it. I'd be lost if I couldn't speak your language. That's a good. That's a great answer. Honestly, I wasn't even think about that. I was thinking like, oh, you know, music is the universal language, but, you know, now you think

about it if you could speak the language, that's much better than anything. Okay. Definitely respect that. Okay. I think that is it for the rapid fire questions. Al, do you have any closing remarks or anything like that before I get into announcements? No, I really have enjoyed this.

Thank you very much for having me. And, you know, I'm very proud to work for a company that I know we know we do more than just, you know, Hispanic month. But that does look to highlight all the different people that we have in our, in our company and the different cultures and perspectives that they bring on board. So thanks for having me on the podcast. You're welcome and thank you too. Like I told you before the show, you know, we're really grateful and appreciative that you

not only agree to be in the podcast, but for, you know, you continue support because we, you know, we also think it's important to showcase and highlight the people that work at at MZXT and hopefully the people listening learned a thing or two about Columbia today. All right, Mike, it's time to wrap it up, so go ahead and throw out those announcements. All right, got a couple quick announcements. The main one that we have for this week is that we have just talked about that we will be releasing the N7 Z790 motherboard soon. The new motherboard will support the new 12th and 13th gen Intel processors, has DDR5, Wi-Fi 6E, and can be controlled through cam. So if you guys want to

Drop the link out If you guys want to take a look at that Here you guys go Take a look into the thing We will be releasing it down to road This is just more of an announcement But keep an out for that Let's see

Oh, we are doing Marvel Spider-Man remastered promo going on So if you purchase a qualifying NVIDIA G-G-Force 30 series PC from us I'll put the link in chat as well, but I'll put is Esclamation for the Spine. If you guys want to take a look at it, go to nzacc.com check any qualifying orders of any RtX 30 series PCs

and you get a free copy of Marvel's Spider-Man remastered. Fantastic game. I played the original. The remaster is even better. We have... Hold on, Mike. Do you want to tease a little bit of what we're going to be doing for Spider-Man next week? Not yet.

We will be doing something very fun. You guys will see on the socials of what we'll be doing for Spiderman. Keep an eye out for socials. We'll hold off on the official announcement soon. Oh, second, we have so many wonderful and beautiful people joining our partner program. So if you guys want to check out the NC60 family,

please check out ncxte.co slash partner. Sign up, get the application in. Good luck, best of luck. Please be patient. We only have very few people working on this at once. So please be patient with us. We also have a bunch of new things. Like we just talked about releasing a new motherboard.

We have lots of new monitors, cases, keyboards, mice, thermal pace, power supplies, everything you can think of. Please check out nz60.com to see if there's anything. Or you can check our socials to see if we release anything new. And for those that are here, thank you guys for joining us. So for those that are joining the Glean Giveaway. There is a secret code there that will basically give you 500 extra entries into the Steam giveaway. It's for those that stay with the podcast.

And a majority of time, one of every poll for these winners, most of them tend to be these 500 extra entries because the majority of them are the 10 or 100. So this is a very, this is thank you for sticking with us and also being supportive of Al being on our podcast. So the code, I'll type it right now, is cook for us. Al. That is the code. Secret code is C-O-O-K-F-O-R-U-S-A-L. Cook for Us, Al. Because now, after seeing all that food, I am starving, and I want all these things. I want Al to put some ravioli for us. Not going to happen. But you took it easy and then. You should have said it cooked for us. I don't Andre Carvino-Ga-Tan.

This is a full day. Change you real quick. You know, I could actually did a full day, but like, all right, good luck, guys. I'm not even going to tell them how to spell it. Exactly. Whoever spells it right gets it. But yes, that is the code. C-O-O-K-F-O-R-U-S-A-L.

Cook for Us, Al. That is it for all the announcements. Thank you, Al, for joining us on this podcast and talking all about the beautiful culture, Colombia, and everything like that and showing us some delicious just food that now I am drooling over. Now I walk to look if there's any sort of food around me that I don't even know if there's anything here in Seattle, but I'll try my best to find it.

I'll hook you up. Ooh, sweet. Perfect. I'll get an internship up there in Seattle once you find a place where she gets some Colmy food. Perfect. Pauli, he just says, I'll remember to Simon. Hacker.

Hacker. Don't worry. We got your back out. He's hacking. Don't worry. Don't worry. We got you. We got your back.

Appreciate you. All right, guys. Thank you guys for joining us. And remember tune in live every Thursday at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the official NCC Twitch. And don't forget to listen to previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, and SoundCloud. Please leave us a positive review if you like what you hear or if you didn't.

Got any questions for us. Send an email to podcast at nzix.com or tag at NZXT on all social media. Thank you to Al and thank you all for joining us. Have a good day. Bye. Bye-bye.