My name is Balthazar Razatos. Pronounced (bal·thu·zar). The name Balthazar derives from the extinct Akkadian language, which was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia and the more commonly known Babylon. I am a freshman here at City Tech studying computer engineering. I am very passionate about engineering. I enjoy math, complex ideas, and hard to solve problems, and I hope to make engineering a lifelong career. Some of my other interests are crypto, aerospace, philosophy and video games.
I was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico with my three other siblings. We then moved to Portland, Oregon when I was about thirteen. In Oregon I went to middle school through highschool and attended a couple of semesters of community college at PCC where I pursued a degree in computer science. I then moved to New York City in December of 2021 with my older brother to attend college and subsequently start my career in engineering.
How different is it living outside of New York City? I am also going to school for a similar major, computer system technician. I hope to see you around in school on our similar journey.
Hi Angel, thanks for the comment. It is very different living in New York City compared to the other places I’ve have lived. It is almost a different world entirely. Also scale wise no other city compares. When I drove here it was quite incredible going from pretty much flat mid west states to a massive city. Likewise I hope to see you around!
It’s nice to meet you. I am also in computer engineering major which can be stressful at first and I have anxiety where makes me have unsteady hands when I do lab work with the lab kits. It looks like you have a lot of interests and it’s good to have a lot of interests because there are people still struggling to find their interests. I never live outside of New York. Hoping you would start adapting to your new life in New York.
Hey Amy, It’s nice to meet you as well. I agree the classes and work load can be stressful at times especially around finals. It did take me quite some time to really figure out what my true interests are, I believe finding interests works by trying a lot of different things and seeing what you do and don’t like. I feel like I’m finally adapting to living here, it did take a while, but I’m really enjoying living here! Also hope to see you around in some computer engineering classes.
Im in the same major and wish you luck since I’ve heard how challenging this major can be. I also considered pursuing a major in computer science and I respect that you went through a couple semesters of that major. Also, how different is Portland from NYC?
Hi Anthony, Thank you and good luck as well, I have heard the major is quite challenging but I am looking forward to those challenges. Portland is incredibly different from NYC, not only scale wise, which is incomparable, but also culturally, They honestly feel like two different worlds.
Wow — You told us a lot of interesting things. You intro sparks a lot of questions: So are you from Mesopotamia? And is Akkadian a spoken language today? Do you call yourself Mesopotamian? What countries are part of this region today? As an American born person, I often feel that we don’t know enough about other countries and that we are very American-centric! So please tell us more. I like my students to learn from each other and I LOVE to learn from my students!
Growing up in the American West is also interesting. Most of our CUNY students have not lived there. So how would you compare East Coast to West Coast life. I suppose Portland, Oregon and Santa Fe, New Mexico is not really the West Coast, but the West? Actually these are really cool and hip places to live now with all the techy people moving there for the tech companies that are making headquarters in the West. Maybe you plan to move back — Do you?
Is this a picture of you as a kid? WIth your siblings? Do explain!
Computer Engineering: I know just a bit because my brother is an engineer and works for NVdia and he loves his job working on the driver-less car chip. He also makes big money, so this is a good field for math techy people.