Weekly update, Monday, July 27, 2020

Welcome back!

Howdy internet friend, and welcome back to my blog. Thanks for taking the time to check out this weekly update! As usual, I’m going to talk about the professional and personal stuff I did last week. If you didn’t have a chance to check it out, I wrote a second post last week about moving on from Go, and there will be a link at the bottom of this post if you want to check it out. I should also add that I am running late this morning, and for reasons I’m going to try and keep this update short. So without any further adieu, let’s get on with it!

Personal

Last week we made progress on getting our new home in order. One thing we finally got sorted out was to rent a 4x6 dumpster to put the horde of cardboard boxes we’ve accumulated over the last month or so. Between the move and buying furniture and stuff to get the house settled, we figure it would take six months to rotate all the cardboard out a week at a time through the weekly recycling pickup. So this morning a big dumpster will arive and we’ll have a week to get all our cardboard out. That’ll be nice because even though we’ve been here four weeks tomorrow, it still doesn’t feel real yet. I never thought I would be able to buy a home, let alone two years after moving to California!

We also spent time last week putting up the art we brought with us, and I ordered an electric guitar and amp that should come this week. I believe that all of my old music cables are dead, so until I buy a new monster cable I can’t be sure that my bass amp is broken. Regardless, I have been unable to play the bass through an amp, so I’ve been practicing for the last week or two just messing around with it and trying to build up some strength in my hands and thumb. My wife and I decided to buy an electric guitar and amp next, since it will be much easier to jam guitar/drums that just bass/drums. Plus I’ve been playing the guitar since I was twelve and I’m much better than the bass, although teaching myself slap bass has been really fun! We are also planning on getting a bass amp soon so we can really start rocking!

We also picked up a recliner and a rug that ties the room together, so our living room is much more comfortable than it was before. Unfortunately, we have to wait a few days for the second recliner to come, so my wife and I have been taking turns sitting in it, and when neither of us are in the room the boy helps break it in. We also bought some room dividers to build out an office for my wife, and I helped her fix her sitting/standing desk so she can get more work done. Finally, we bought a nicer and more comfortable chair for my office. While we still have a few more pieces of furniture to get, we are getting closer to having everything put together.

Since I brought it up last week, I want to mentioned that (with the exception of last night) I was sleeping much better last week. My wife suggested that having a fan on at night would help me sleep, and she was right! I usually like to be more cool when I sleep and the background noise of the fan plus the cool has been enough to give me great sleep. However, I’ve also been taking melatonin to help me sleep and I forgot last night. So every two hours I woke up and doomscrolled Twitter for a few minutes since I could not fall back asleep. Then I’d fall asleep again for more nightmares and another hour and a half to two hours of fitful sleep. Part of my issue was going to sleep upset. I’ve been really bothered by people not wearing masks and their selfishness and I think I should have tried to meditate or relax before bed. I am sharing this because it helps me to be accountable, and I think it is really important to think about things that aren’t going well, because that’s how I figure out solutions. Being upset is only valuable if it is a starting point, otherwise you are just getting burned for no reason. While I come off as a really positive guy online, and I try hard to be, I still get grumpy. I’m an old punk who grew up in a really gritty town and while I may not live there anymore, where I’m from had a big part in forming the person I became. It’s part of why I love music so much and want so badly to write music that is cool. Why I study music as an art form as well as for pleasure listening. Growing up in Bremerton there isn’t much to do outside, since it rains ten months a year. Living in Orange County, everyone talked about being an extra in a movie or acting in commercials. In Washington, everyone is in a band, and often more than one. As an example I had a personal rule about not being in more than four bands, because there weren’t enough days to practice with all of them. All of that is to say that music is really important to me and it’s been really great to be able to play again. My wife and I have been jamming at least once a week and I hope to increase the frequency when more of the gear arrives. Check back next week to see if we got any extra jam sessions in!

Finally, I want to talk about Black Lives Matter, but I am not making a subsection for it this week. That’s not because I do not still think the cause is important, I do! I am, unfortunately, running late this morning (due to the aforementioned crappy sleep from last night), so I will just briefly suggest if you are interested in learning more about the movement, do some reading and research on your own this week. I’ve provided resources in previous posts, so it isn’t like you will be starting from nothing. Part of the journey of self-discovery requires effort on the part of the self (in this case, yourself) so take the time this week (if you are interested) and do some learning on your own. Next week I will try to have more resources to read, but until then if you want to learn more, get your hands dirty and dive in!

Professional

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, I wrote a second blog post last week about moving on from the Go programming language. That post took longer than I anticipated and I ended up using my early morning work time last week writing that essay and on Friday I updated an essay I am working on about my parenting philosophy that is still a work in progress and not ready to share quite yet.

Outside the programming move to Rust, the biggest professional takeaway from last week was that I was approved to study and take the AWS Security exam by my employer. I started learning about security in the Cloud around DefCON last year and took the “A Cloud Guru” course for the AWS Solution Architect exam, though I never ended up sitting for the exam. This time I have four weeks or so to cram and take the exam. Once I am finished (pass or fail) I will write a post about what I did to study and cram (hopefully and pass) the exam. That means that my head will be in the clouds (ha) for the next month or so, but I think it also means that I can apply some of the stuff I’ve been learning about programming at work, which is awesome! Otherwise I’m planning on digging in and learning Rust this week on top of the cloud studies.

People to follow

As I do every week, here are some tech and non-tech people you might consider following on Twitter. I do want to give an extra shout out and greetz to Null Coder again this week, they are a brilliant up and comer doing really interesting work and I highly recommend checking out the stuff they are sharing on Twitter!

Martin Luther King III - The son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bernice King - The daughter of Dr. King

@cetolyne - great friend, awesome programmer, super helpful!

@blenster - cool maker, very positive, well worth a follow!

@GWeessies - very smart person doing interesting research!

Marley - first place champ! Marley is one of the best on Twitter!

Null Coder - another awesome person to keep an eye on!

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. Click here for the previous post, this one is next and I hope you have a great day!