Aaron's Notes

I’m only a day behind this week, and already feeling more back on track. That was a clunky sentence, and I’m not going to clean it up. I don’t think I have any follow-ups today, so let’s just get to checking things in.

Health & Fitness: Feeling back on track came in both health and fitness – I finally, FINALLY got my goddamn important heart medication prescriptions all filled. It isn’t what I was originally prescribed, or the very similar but slightly different drug they wanted to replace it with, but the generic version of the second one. Medical papers assure me it isn’t “second tier”, that they’re both first-rate versions of whatever this thing is doing. But then, they do also seem to indicate that this one is slightly less good at the main thing I’m taking it for. But, you know, it’s only my heart and all, so that definitely means it’s not medically necessary. Oh, right, it’ll be more efficient… to take the drug that isn’t as well proven to keep patients out of the hospital. The very, very expensive hospital. It once again seems we should be asking, efficient at what and for whom?

But with that, it seems like the health can take a back-burner in my check-ins again, at least for a while. I have a few other medical visits that might be worth mentioning at some point. I just did my first at-home sleep study, and that should be worth writing about when I get the results. I’ll say this now – it was like a zillion times more pleasant of an experience than the clinical, sleep-center version. If you need a sleep study and can manage getting the at-home one, you should do that.

I’ve also gotten back on that fitness horse pretty reliably. I’d been feeling like my latest routine changes might have been hasty and undercooked, but over the past week or so, I’ve really been pushing things as close to failure as I can. That’s clearly been a missing factor, and I am really feeling it. The regular walks and runs have also been great. I do need to make some tweaks to it. With my strength training, I’d really like to move into more functional, full-body exercises. I don’t want to spend hours in the gym each day hyper-targeting individual muscles. I do want to do some of those – I do have my vanity, and I’d love to have a nice chest, arms, and legs. But more than anything, I want to recover more of my lost strength, mobility, flexibility, endurance, and agility. If I can do that, I’d like to see if I can improve over my past self, though I don’t have any real benchmarks, so I guess that’ll be vibes-based, to use a slightly outdated parlance.

All of this together has had me back on a more regular life schedule as well – not staying in bed quite so long, not going to bed at night quite so late. Not lingering or dilly-dallying on BS quite so long or often during the day, either. I still haven’t hit my ideal pattern just yet, but I’ve meaningfully improved. Same with the diet. I’ve already found a pretty good rhythm with that, including saving a bit of money on all that dang chicken, and leveraging my years-long built knowledge and experience in cooking and food prep. It’s been a nice reminder of how spices really do go a long way.

Academics: With my last class firmly behind me and having gotten started on the next set, I’m also feeling a good bit back on track here. Let’s start with a quick recap on the plan.

I’m looking to head back to school and try my hand at a college degree. The real goal is the learn enough stuff and gather enough skills and experience in them that I can actually finish some of my many unfinished projects. The secondary goal is to gain enough credentials or experiential bone fides to bolster my resume and interview background. I would love to never have to work for someone else again, and I see this as my best way to do so. I also see it as a fantastic fallback if that doesn’t work out. And since I’m equal parts strategic and uncertain, I have fallbacks stacked on fallbacks.

The degree I’m most seriously thinking about pursuing is something in the Engineering realm. I think the world of Engineering gives me the best likelihood of actually pulling through on the greater plan, though I’m not really sure which area of study to pursue specifically. I really like the main areas in both Mechanical and Electrical, and have some notion that Mechatronics, which supposedly combines the two, might be up my alley. But given some of my other interests, I’ve had friend and family suggest Aerospace, Industrial, and Civil. I’ve had recommendations in just about everything, including a bunch that I’d never heard of before. It seems like a bigger field than I expected, which oddly, actually, seems like it should be expected. I don’t know, and I think I’m early enough to not need to worry about it just yet. I think I need to take some early classes to really get a feel for it.

My biggest concerns are money, time, and my own ability. I’ve been feeling like my ability has become extremely diminished over the years, and that is on top of it not being all that great to begin with. To help with the money and time, I’ve been taking courses online, some of which for credit*. From those, I should get credit for English Comp. I, Statistics I, and College Algebra I. I might be able to finesse a credit from an Intro to Computer Science class I took online from Harvard, and it seems I could get credit… for a few thousand dollars. I’m not sure if that’s really worth it to me yet. It’s not even the path I plan to head down, but then it would be 4 credits if I did. So maybe. I’ve also taken Micro and Macroeconomics courses, mostly Open Course Wear (OCWs) from MIT – because that’s free. I don’t think there’s a path to credits for those, but I think I will try to take some for-credit courses for them. I suppose that depends on time, because I’m planning on starting at my local community college in the Fall. Possible a summer class, but that’s coming up really soon. So maybe not.

I have had some struggles with parts of each of these, but I’ve so far been able to finish each. The bigger win, in my heart, is that I did better at each than I was expecting, and better yet, I really feel like I understand them. That’s pretty dope.

So where am I at now? Right, given that the plan is Engineering and that means a lot of Math, I want to tackle Calculus. I took AP Calc in high school and did fucking terribly. I think I may have technically passed, and I’m not sure if I took the AP test, but I’m certain I did not get any credits for it. I barely understood any of it. In retrospect, it seems the underlying problems were, of course, the foundations. I seem to recall doing pretty well in Algebra, but I think I started to fall off around the end of it. The bigger thing was that I somehow convinced my teachers to let me into Calc without taking Precalc or Trig. I think I might have promised to study them over the summer, which was absolutely a lie. The focus on Calc is that, so much of what I come across is really just concept and system, and once you can get a grasp of those things, you can really do anything. I’ve also been picked up by just how many absolute dipshits I’ve come across that have college degrees. Like, if these absolute drains can manage a degree, it really can’t be that hard, can it? Then again, the number of dipshits with Engineering degrees is a much, much smaller ratio. And frankly, after that high school experience, I’m pretty intimidated by Calculus.

So I figure that’s my real gut check. If I can pass and at least somewhat understand Calculus, then I think I can actually pull this thing off. And on the approach of the Pre-calc plan, I’ve discovered that College Algebra actually covers a good chunk of what I was missing from high school. I really struggled with a lot of the concepts that I should have had back then, and everything I’ve come across now, yeah it takes me a minute but… I get it.

So now the plan is do a strategic pass on Pre-Calc. I’m starting with all of the Trig that I missed, and it’s already going well. Not great, mind you. It’s only been a few days, and I’ve gleaned some knowledge, but I definitely haven’t committed anything key to memory just yet. But I’m getting there. I am eager to catch those Econ credits, but in this current phase, I’m not actually directly going for credits. Since most of the online credit-recommending options (stuff like Study.com, StraighterLine.com, Sophia.org – things that are like a modern take on CLEP or other ways you can “test out” of credits) bill monthly, or are free and culminate in a for-pay test or CLEP voucher, I figure the best way to use my time in this phase is to pre-study. Basically, I have a whole bunch of books and physical materials, and the internet is bursting with wonderful resources to study up on my subjects of choice, so how’s about I preload that knowledge while I ease off the monthly charge for a while?

So a Trig-heavy Precalc phase is under way. I’m going to see about layering in my Chemistry I and Physics I subjects as well. Since these are all core classes for some pretty intensive degrees, I’m not actually sure than any of the credits will transfer. I sure hope so, because, you know – time and money. But I won’t be crushed if they don’t. I also won’t be crushed if I end up falling back to a completely different degree or drop out entirely, to be honest, I’ll only be crushed if I meaninglessly give up. And if I take the classes and need to retake them for credit, I”ll just consider that extra practice. So Pre-Calc into Calculus I, Chem I, Phys I, Intro to MIcroecon, Intro to Macroecon. That’s the plan for the remainder of the Spring and Summer. If I can at least understand those well enough, then I think I’ve got a real chance.

I have so much else to say about all of this, but I’ve already said so much, and it’s late. I’ve gotta wind down for the night so I can turn in and get back at it early. Until next time, y’all.

My dog watch has been completed, and I may now rest. Let’s check the past week or so in.

Follow-ups: As previously mentioned, I spent last week watching my brother’s dogs while they traveled. Though I would have done it for free, it was a paying gig, which I do appreciate. Any extra cash to keep this project going is real boon. Anyway, it was nice to hang in the woods for about a week with some sweet pups and away from my regular routine.

It was also a little bit of a pain in the ass to be away from my usual routine, especially since I was just at the beginning of changing that routine up. But that’s how it goes, and I really don’t think I’m that much worse for wear, so all good.

Fitness / Health: The dogs and I did not go for those twice a day short walks I was expecting. Actually, I couldn’t seem to get them to go for even one single walk. It was really rainy all week, which I understand the older dog just won’t do. I don’t know, I get it. Anyway, I’m back home now, and I’ve started doing my daily walkies again, with occasional runs. Same with the strength training. I finally got around to assembling that pull-up bar I got on deep discount some time back, and wouldn’t you know it, it doesn’t fit any of my doorways. Not a single one. I have determined that I could use it in my bedroom closet, but I think I might need to take the door out. I did realize it may be possible to solve this by just, you know, turning it around. If I try to install it so I’d be hanging outside of the closet looking in while in use, the door itself is in the way. Doesn’t work. Could remove the door, and then it’ll fit. But then my closet will be sans door. However, I think if I hang it so I’m inside the closet and looking out into my bedroom, it might fit perfectly. Wait… I feel like I had this realization before. Did I already come up with this and forget? Well anyway, that admittedly obvious way to make this work just did not occur to me (possibly for the second time) until earlier today. And it’s a lower priority, so I haven’t given it a shot, and it’s possible that I’ll go ahead and forget again, so that’ll be fun. I have more fitness talk, but I want to hit the health first, so we’ll make a health sandwich with fitness bread.

I did finally get in to see my new cardiologist. I like him, I like the office, I like the folks that work there. Seems like a good fit. However, I still haven’t gotten the script for that critical drug that I need for my heart filled. This doctor made a new prescription and sent it directly to the mail order service for this shitty insurance. And they sure did deny it. Multiple cardiologists are certain that I need this thing, and without it, I’m going to end up costing a bunch of money going back into the hospital. But no, it’s more efficient to have this private insurer pretend to be part of a public system so they can deny preventative health measures. Nice. I’ve got another appointment tomorrow, this time about my sleep. I have a referral, but now I’m worried that I also need something else? I don’t have a reason to think that, other than everything is a huge pain in the ass, and I keep getting reminder texts from the place about it.

Okay, back to fitness. Trying to fit all of that protein and fiber into my diet has been a bit of a hassle, but I’m making it work. The most efficient way about it does seem to be the gym-bro chicken, broccoli, and rice, plus supplements plan. For the time being, I’m actually avoiding the rice. I’m sure it’ll find its way back in, but I’ve mostly been filling its place with stuff like high-fiber and/or protein wraps, bread, or noodles. Other leans meats, especially fish, and meat alternatives are on the menu, but you know, I’ve actually found fresh chicken breasts and thighs in those big-ol’ value packs are pretty dang affordable. The thighs aren’t as lean as I should be aiming for, but unless I need to trim some more calories or make for a higher protein-to-calories ratio, it’s not a huge concern. And thighs taste better than breasts, at least as far as chickens are concerned. Anyway, I can see myself having fun working out recipes and little adjustments here and there to the limited menu. Should be a good time.

When I started this change, I found it borderline miserable. All the powders, so many unpleasant and dry-assed calories, and the way your guts feel when you rapidly bump up your regular intake of protein and fiber… not a fun time. But now that my guts are catching up, this is actually going pretty well. I mean, I talk some shit, but I do like chicken and broccoli. Or any greens, really. And a well thought out pan sauce can really transform a dish. Now I’m trying to figure out the other meals. I usually skip lunch, but maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe it’ll be easier to split my calories up in thirds. Then again, I do like an end of day snack. I may have to do away with those, but if I can keep one, then I do have a number of foods that I can use to close my most common nutritional gaps. Yogurt, chia seeds, frozen berries, nuts, high fiber cereal, and more powders. I can do something with that, I’m sure. Fitting everything into the very restrictive box of specific macro goals with hard sodium limits is pretty tough. But it’s doable.

Academics – I finally finished that Algebra course and wow. I did not do great on the final. I think I got a high C. I got really hung up on a few early problems, the kind of stuff I really should have reviewed more. But you know, I thought that I had that stuff. When I got to the end of the test, it was all the stuff that I did review a lot, and that stuff was really easy for me. However, I didn’t get to all of them, because I lost so much time on the early stuff that I couldn’t remember! I straight up missed questions because I ran out of time, and they were the types of questions that I studied for! Ca-rushed!

That’s something I need to work on. Two somethings, really. First, to make sure I don’t get too focused on one area of problems that I end up neglecting critical early stuff. Second, to follow my test strategy. I had one, a test strategy, that is. If I’m struggling on a question for 30 seconds and don’t see the path to finish, I need to skip and move on. And I just did not do that. I should have marked the problems, moved the fuck on, and came back to finish them later. But whatever, I’d done so well up to this point, that I still finished the course with a low A. And I still don’t know if the grade is going to transfer or if it’ll just be a pass/fail. I’m not even sure if this will transfer at all, but I’m hoping this increases my chances that the credits will count.

I’m going to try and grab some easier credits in the next few months, and also see about studying up for my first round of actual, in person classes. The classes that are top of mind are Calculus I, Chemistry I, and Physics I. If I can at least get prepared for them, I’ll be pretty happy. I do think I’ll try to get those credits before enrollment, because every credit I can bank and get a transfer for saves both money and time. I’m a little worried that those credits won’t be accepted by my school, but also, I’m not that worried about it. The main goal remains to actually understand this shit, so if I take a course online and the actual school requires that I take theirs, I’ll be a smidge salty that I’ll have to spend more money, but also… it’s a community college, and their credits aren’t that expensive. The silver lining is that I’ll end up getting a more in-depth understanding of it all. And also be less stressed in class, presumably, which could mean that I could balance that additional depth with preparing for the next set of classes and try getting a jump on things. Wouldn’t that be nice?.

Alright, well I’ll probably have some more thoughts in cooking for this diet update. I think I can regularly do a riff on a Halal-Cart chicken, which I think something like farro would be a good stand-in for the rice. I’m not sure, though. I’ll need to do some real footwork with nutritional facts, so we’ll see.

Alright, that’s it for today. Keep it easy.

I just realized that I haven’t checked in yet this week, and that’s something that I’d like to do. So let’s do that.

I’m at my brother’s house this week, watching his family’s dogs. Did I mention that last week? Let me check… oh, I did. Dope. Well, I’m doing that. It’s nice. The dogs are mostly chill, though I can’t seem to convince them to go for a walk. It has been rainy all week, so… relatable. But I could use the exercise. Anyway, it’s also been a busy week because I finally got most of my healthcare stuff figured out. Finally. You know what? let’s run it down.

Fitness/Health: The fitness has bee mostly about figuring things out. Not being at home, it’s been kinda difficult to stay on task with exercise. I’ve gotten in a little here and there, but there really isn’t anyplace for a long walk or jog or whatever. I could, and really should, be doing some calisthenics and body-weight exercise, but I haven’t. So that’s my bad. I have, however, finally sat down and started trying to work out my diet update. The good news is that I finally made sense of it. The bad news is that for at least the immediate future, I think I’m going to have to go full gym-bro. I’m not 100% on what this means for budget, though, I think it’ll be overall the same if not maybe a little cheaper. I’m going to have to buy more lean meat and plant-based protein. Yep, protein. I harp on this shit because I’ve seen so many folks get so hyper focused on protein that they end up doing permanent damage to themselves by ignoring other things or just incorrectly pursuing that goal. In my want, fiber is also paramount. And the goal revolves around lean and clear, whole-assed foods. I am going to have to cut most grains most of the time, which I’m not thrilled about. To that end, I think I’m going to lean on some of those weird pastas and noodles made from lentils or sea trash. Konjac noodles, you know. You scoop up a handful of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, throw it into an InstaPot, and BAM, noodles. I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.

If I ever do get around to breaking down my new exercise routine, I’ll include the diet. But more or less, it’s going to be a lot of frozen chicken, white fish, and broccoli. Yee-haw.

Also powders. Protein dust and dusty husks. That’s where the fun is.

It’s not all bad. For starters, I really do need to do this. I have to get in better shape, and I know that’s mostly done in the kitchen. I need to cut my snacking (at least by some), I need to eat more constructively, and I need to make it easy to do so. So the chicken and broccoli tradition is basically perfect.

OH RIGHT! The medical stuff. I finally, FINALLY got in for a goddamn physical. I’m doing alright, though my blood pressure is a little high. That backs up my concern that the meds I can’t seem to get filled are things I do in fact need. I should be seeing my new cardiologist tomorrow, so hopefully they can finally close that gap. I’m still working out vision. This is all such a headache. But hey, progress. So that’s good.

Academics: I continue to not quite find the time and focus I need to completely wrap up the Algebra course, so it does seem like this is going to go longer than intended. I probably won’t take the test until this weekend or early next week. But it’s not all bad there, either, because I have been accomplishing the things that I’ve been meaning to. I’m actually understanding things. And I gotta say, that has been pretty damn wonderful. In this exercise, I haven’t just caught up to where I was in high school, I’ve completely overcome it. In my current level of knowledge, I can now look back on my previous skill level and confidently say that there was a significant percentage of it that I simply did not understand. There are entire problem types that, if I ever got correct on any test, I was guessing. Now I understand them well enough that I can reliably answer them and even explain them. Practice was the biggest part, structured practice. I also love how my professional life taught me the value of approaching things systematically, and that this revisit of school has helped me shift that experience into traditional learning. Being able to see a problem and instead of panicking at not being able to immediately divine the answer, I can calmly identify the type of problem that it is and systematically set up and then execute on a process to arrive at and verify my answers.

And that is dope.

So the trend of me feeling more and more comfortable and confident in all of this continues. I’m pretty happy about that.

On my coding project, I’m in the clean-up phase of my first working prototype. It works, which fucking whips. But it’s clear that it needs some work. I need to add some features, I need to make it look better, I need to make the overall experience a little better. And to get there, I need to make it easier for me to work on and test, which I’ve started. I got a cheap(ish) used Android phone to start testing for that platform. It’s been a few years since I last dabbled in mobile app development and I’d forgotten just how much of a pain in the ass this all is. Although, and I gotta think there are folks out there that can really relate to this, I also think that’s kinda fun. Like, having to weed through the bullshit and figure out how to solve some stupid thing is… yeah, kinda nice.

I have, um, too many computers. And they’re all different platforms. I can explain myself, but I won’t, just know that I do. I’m writing this on a Macbook, my home computer is a Windows PC and I recently converted it to dual-boot with a Linux distro. It’s been a long time since I tried to daily-drive Linux, which is the eventual goal, so I went with Zorin OS to make it easy. I like it, but I already want to switch distros. But that’s a thought for another time. Every time I write something like that, I’m reminded that I’ve become a real parody of a person. Goddamn, I should tape up the bridge of my glasses and get it over with.

Anyway, one of the middle-projects of the past week or so has been to get the development tools up and running on all of my platforms and to get the app not only running, but to also get my devices able to run work as development tools. I have almost all of that figured out now. I still have some work to do on the Linux one. I’ve got my IDE working there, but there are a few things I need to work out before I can send to the app to my Android phone from it. I do have that working on my Mac and Windows platforms, and I think I know what I’m missing on Linux. I’ll deal with that next week. But hey! I’m able to run my shitty little app on my Android AND my iPhone! That’s a bit of a minor win for me, but a win nonetheless.

So finish the dev setup is now a lower priority. I’m considering how I might want to develop things in the future, as I know a lot of pro devs use virtual IDEs, but I don’t know much about that. In fact, I don’t think I actually know that a lot of devs use virtual boxes, that’s just something I’ve read here and there. Also, that’s a back-of-mind thought, because it’s not something I’m really in the position of needing to worry about now. And this setup is working well enough for now. Also, I’m not planning on being a dev, I just think these are skills that I will want in the future for other professional things and also hobbies.

One thing I’ve discovered, or I suppose rediscovered, is that I like making little things. This whips. I’ll see how I feel about it when I actually get to the end of this project. I could finish it and publish it now, but… no, I don’t think so. I do think I’m going to try and make something actually useful and nice. It’s meant to be a little kitchen helper app, full of answers to the questions I’m always looking for. It’s not quite there yet, and sure doesn’t look nice. So I’m looking at this as a more structured project now. I need to wrap up this phase first. Then I’ll lay out my intended features, plan the work in phases with planned points to reevaluate and adjust as needed. I should… write about that, in a more specific way. And add a screenshot or two. Not today.

Alright, that’s enough of a check in for this week. It’s late and I need to wind down. Until next time.

The busy continues. I mean, I’m not that busy. Right, I’m able to maintain a life here. But I’ve had to divert a lot of my planned activities to keep up. Speaking of which, I’m going to try to be a bit more brief in this check-in. Quick note – I’m going to rip through this post and not take an editing pass, so apologies for typos and otherwise stupid shit.

Health/Fitness: I’m getting in the exercise and getting closer to hitting my nutritional goals, like a real gym-bro. The bigger thing is that I finally got to see a dang doctor, and I think I picked the right one, because she got right on top of getting me the referrals I’d need to fill in the various gaps that switching insurance has created. I see her again next week. I have all of my referrals and otherwise needs scheduled, except for an eye exam. Though… the way the referral reads, I think she’s just sending me to get checked for diabetic eye damage? That can’t be right, right? Well, it’s fine if so, because she made all of her referrals to places in town, and I’ve never had an eye appointment last much longer than a cup of coffee. So even if I need to make another one to update my vision prescription, it’s no big. Speaking of prescriptions, I finally got my meds refilled! Hurray! I’m dying less slowly again!

Academics: This is the real bust on my time, because catching up with the health, the car, some home maintenance, some social obligations, financial decisions, school planning, cooking, and running errands, that I’ve had to put the actual learning stuff on the back burner. I’m pretty annoyed by that, but you know, stuff’s gotta get done. And the occasion of having my car stolen and the ongoing problem of having to deal with healthcare has highlighted that I’ve put a few of these items off for too long, which has definitely exacerbated the issues. So I think now is the right time to get caught up on all of my outstanding needs, especially given the timing, which will have me out of my home for about a week and change. I’ll touch on that in a sec.

So what this means is that I haven’t closed the loop on anything I’m studying. I did get in some algebra study and practice, but I’m still waiting to take the final, because it’s 2 hours and I’m pretty sure I need to practice up on a few areas before I actually take it. The coding project I’ve started… have I talked about that? I don’t know, but I should at some point. Maybe next check in. Anyway, I did start a coding project a short while ago to continue that bit of learning, and that’s going well. But also, it needs considerably more work before I can call it complete. Especially since I’m planning to actually publish the thing. And I’m also still thinking about publishing the webapp I made for CS50 up on some personal site. Probably not here.

I did finish filling out the FAFSA. I’m not getting anything from it. However, it does open the door for me to start applying for scholarships and grants. And next up, I need to get on enrolling. It’s just my local community college, so there isn’t really a rush for this. However, I’d like to just get it done. At this point, I know I’m doing this, I just don’t know when. Getting the footwork done sooner makes it harder for me to put things off for longer, and may even convince me to jump in a littler earlier than planned. And also, and this is a big one, it would mean less stress. So I’ll probably work on that next week.

Follow-ups and What’s up: I did get in some reading, I did get in (very little) some cleaning, I did get in some studying (and some of it was really quite good), I did sift through my mail pile, I did make major progress on my health backlog, and there were a number of other things I either finished or made good progress on. But I’ve still go a lot of outstanding stuff, and a bunch of that is going to go on pause for a while.

It’s going on pause for a while because I’m going to be out of town. It’s not anything dramatic, I’m just going to stay at my brother’s house for a while. He and his family are going to travel for a little while. They have one or two obligations to fulfill, including an interesting conference my sister in law was, I believe, invited to in Germany. Good for her, right? I’m a little light on details, I’ve not had much occasion to catch up with them. I’ll have to get filled in on all of that when they return. Anyway, I don’t think those events are long, and the rest of their travel is for some family vacation time. Which is also good. They are busy, busy people, even when they take vacations, but at least that’s a type of busy that’s on their own terms.

They have two dogs that sometimes travel with them, but won’t be on this one. So I’m going to watch the dogs. Which will be nice. They have a lovely home in a nice little wooded area. And the dogs are great. It’s also not that far, just give or take 45 minutes away (depending on traffic). So it’s not like I’ll be completely cut off from my home and my stuff, but I don’t plan to commute back and forth each day – I’ll stay there unless I need to pop back up here. So while that will put a handful of plans on the shelf while I’m down there, it should also give me plenty of time to finally sit down and study up, take the damn final, and focus on some of the other things that have been shelved this last few weeks.

Alright, well, this was not as brief as I had planned, and I still have a mountain of other things I want to talk about. But it’s late and I need to start wrapping things or I’ll be up all night. So let’s call it here, and hopefully I can be a little less frantic and a little more on time come next week.

Wow, time is absolutely flying. I had most of this post ready to go yesterday and then got tired. I really gotta rearrange my life to accommodate my ongoing needs. Study, eat, sleep, clean, exercise, socialize, chill. Room for incidentals. Is there anything else? I’m not going to remember this thought. Anyway, things’ve been busy and I’m still playing catch up, so let’s check this week in.

Follow-ups: In my last post I mentioned that I was going into a busy stretch and made a list of stuff to work on when I had time. I got to almost none of it. Let’s look at the list and cross off what I actually got done.

• Basic clean-up of my condo
• Sift through my mail pile
• Double-check all bills are caught up
• Re-pot my poor, sad orchid
• A handful of car updates
• Algebra Final Prep / Study
• Flutter Project Progress
• Re-finish my carbon steel pan
• Bass guitar kit progress
• Soldering kit progress
• Start House Maintenance Schedule
• Start Auto Maintenance Schedule
• Read (at least 30 minutes)
• Exercise
• College stuff – FAFSA, grants, enrollment, etc.

I should give myself some credit, I have been putting off the orchid and my junked up pan for quite a while. Fixing that pan ended up taking a couple of sessions and I had to use a sander, rotary tool, and chisels. Yes, chisels. I needed to chip away at the carbon, rust, and otherwise burned in clumps of yuck with chisels. Don’t worry, I wasn’t using any of my nice ones. In fact, the chisels I used are themselves in need of some rehab, but that’s a further off project. But hey, my old Lodge 8″ carbon steel is back in action, and looks better than ever.

Fitness / Health: So I tried to switch health providers and after waiting forever for feedback, they just denied me with no second chance. So I guess I’m just stuck with it for the rest of this year, and now I need to find a new dentist, primary care provider, and cardiologist. I suppose I could have seen that coming and should have already done so by now. But I haven’t. So that’ll be a project that needs finishing ASAP.

Anyway, I’ve been getting back on track with the fitness of it all. I am back to walking most days, running at least a few times a week, and keeping up with my strength training. I’m also trying to catch little extras here and there. I’m not ready to post the routine just yet, but probably will some day. I’m pretty sure I posted one of the previous routines… did I? I’m not going to check. Anyway, it’s a modified Push, Pull, Legs leaning on supersets. I’m always interested in what other folks are doing, especially if our situations seem similar and their routine is working. It seems to me that I should at least to try participating in the sharing part of this equation. Though it’s too early to tell if my recent routine adjustment is working, so we’ll wait until we see some progress before that. It feels like it’s working, so at least there’s that.

I also finally started making those diet changes. Some of this is just returning to what was working for me last year, and some of it has been reevaluating some of those decisions given what I’ve learned. The whole foods are staying, but I’ve been putting off adding a few new ones because of my perception of the hassle involved in preparing them, like cooking beans from dry. That’s arguably the best way to go, the caveat being that canned or otherwise ready to eat beans are, well, ready to eat. But I tend to put off even canned beans, which is pretty silly. I know folks with family bean recipes and a sort of “bean culture”, if I may, like folks with “rice culture”, where they just are going to eat like that every day. I could totally crib recipes and meals from them, but haven’t. And I know beans is good. It’s like those somewhat overblown “Blue Zone” diets. Yeah, there is some BS in the hype over them, but what’s not BS is that they are food cultures that tend to just get in their veggies, and lots of them, every day. And without even having to think about it. I’ve been there before, but I’m not there now. So I’ve been working on that. I’m also finally giving in on protein powder, because I am in fact struggling to get in enough without. At least, if the current popular guidance on this nutrient is fair. Some of them are saying I should eat my entire weight in grams of protein every single day. 250 grams a day? Surely, this is a miscalculation. Also fiber, which I’ve been aware of and agree with the need, but also struggle with hitting that target every day. This week, I really haven’t, which has at least partly been due to being better at managing my sodium intake. So much of my food is from scratch anyway, so I can afford a few processed, sodium filled ingredients.

America has had a massively overblown obsession with protein for the past few years, which I’d imagine comes from hustle-bro culture. I don’t love that, but meh. I think followers of this advice rarely see how many of their advocates don’t live much past the age of 60. I am aiming to make it at least a bit past that, so you know. Vegetables. Those seem pretty good.

Academics: I’m at the end of that Algebra course. I have a 97.1% right now. The final is 60 questions in 2 hours, not exactly proctored but with more restrictions than the previous exams, and while it is “open book”, I’d like to be a little less reliant on looking stuff up. . So I’m spending the better part of this week studying up. It’s funny, I had planned to finish this course at the end of this month as a fallback, thinking I’d easily be able to finish by the middle of April and even finish earlier at the end of March if I pushed myself. Well, I didn’t exactly push myself, so that’s a bust. Now I’m in the middle of April and I’m certain I could finish it like, today. But I’d rather give myself the best chance of a high score on that final. The other thing is that I need to make sure I’ve got the important parts on lock before I move on, and for how I tend to study, it’s best that I do that before closing the book on this class. ‘Cause I’ll just move on when it’s done, you dig?

I paused on filling out the FAFSA. Something confused me or maybe spooked me, I don’t exactly recall, when I last left off. That was before the busy weekend, which is why it isn’t coming to mind. Anyway, I don’t think I’m going to get much from the FAFSA itself, which I think might be what bumped me. But I’m remembering that I’m not actually trying for anything from the FAFSA itself, but rather that by finishing it, that opens up my ability to get scholarships and grants. So I’ll need to get back to that work this week.

You know what, I’m going to call it there.

Another late check-in this week. It’s weird how busy you can get regardless of the working situation. I have liked keeping myself busy with studying and projects. I’m not spending enough time on upkeep, and that needs correcting, though I do have a few fair excuses

Side note – I’m half paying attention to what I’m writing, which isn’t really a smart move… I should stop that. Anyway, what’s in my other ear is a Donut Media video about how everyone is driving bad. I do miss the old Donut, for sure, though I’m liking this current crew and it seems like they’re finally getting some creative leeway, but that’s not what this aside is about. It’s about one of the questions the host presents, which boils down to “how do we fix this problem?” The answer is trains. I mean, the answer is actually a system of a bunch of answers, but trains is a key part of the project. People get shitty about this answer because they worry that means they have to take the train and can’t have a car. Don’t get shitty and don’t get lock inside the identity you’ve crafted for yourself – this has never meant that you can’t have a car. I am a guy that likes driving so please take this argument in the good faith it is being given. As a guy that does really like driving, I don’t always want to drive everywhere and, more over, I’m also also sick of all the batshit drivers on the road. This is why trains, which is really a shorthand for increased and improved transit of all types across the country, and especially in our densest areas. Cities, obviously, but also regions like where I live. I live close to Baltimore but not close enough to be a part of its transit system, which is kind of hit or miss, if I understand correctly. DC’s metro, though much maligned, is actually pretty solid. But the suburbs and smaller cities are treated like little farm towns that have no need for transit save for a handful of busses, and that just ain’t so. We need an intermediary transit, which by the way exists all over Europe and Asia, to get between the commercial centers of our mini-cities at a minimum. It should be super easy to hop a few rails and get to any of these places, and we know we have the ridership because look at the traffic. But forget that, focus on the personal – More trains for people who can’t or don’t want to drive means less people you have to share the road with. It really is that simple. But no, you’re right, we shouldn’t change anything. Things are going great in this country.

Anyway, what was I doing? Right, checking in the week, which is going to cover everything from the last check-in on Wednesday, April 1st to now, Friday, April 10th.

Follow-ups: So I did end up buying a car, and it ended up basically being the one I wanted, albeit an older model with higher mileage than I’d been hoping. I got a 2016 Mazda CX-5 with a boatload of miles on it, though for a modern car in the Mid Atlantic, the mileage is actually pretty moderate. So I’ll just need to keep on top of maintenance and things’ll be fine. Grand Touring is the package, so AWD and very plush, minus some cosmic problems that probably helped me get it on the cheap. It’s my first AWD and my first moon roof. So that’s fun. I’m going to take what’s left of my budget and slap it back on my best performing index fund(s). Thus far, I’m pretty happy with my purchase.

There was some other stuff I wanted to follow up on… oh, right, there’s a bunch of stuff. I haven’t gotten to most, others will be in the regulars.

Fitness / Health: I am now certain that the medication I’m supposed to be taking but can’t get because of insurance problems is a major factor in my latest weight gain. However, I am also pretty sure that I don’t have to let it win, at least not entirely. I took an audit of my caloric intake, macros, exercise, and sleep and it was about as bad as I thought. Which is to say not really for any one factor on its own, but my system is pretty fragile these days. So I just gotta be more attentive about these things. Anyway, since restarting both running and more rigorous strength training, things have improved. Some with being a little more mindful of getting my proper fiber and staying under my upper calorie limit. I do think I’m going to spend a couple months, maybe the better part of the remaining year even, with some easier, more repeatable meals. Some real gym-bro meals, like the ol’ chicken and broccoli sad bowl. That’s a fun time. I do think that my cooking experience will help me boost those meals joyfulness without piling on too many extra calories. I mean, you can really make a meal with just a few spices and some creative combinations.

I had a physical scheduled for yesterday and was assured on their own check-in system that my insurance was valid. When I got there, I was told it isn’t. So no physical. So I’m still missing that drug and not about to get it anytime soon. I have initiated the process to switch to the provider that should work with all of my preferred doctors, but hell if I know at this point. I did, at least, confirm with this practice in person that they would accept it, and I got the same confirmation over the phone from my cardiologist. I guess I should make a quick call to my GI office just to make sure. I’m very annoyed by all of this, and I’m pretty sure that the low-level headache I’ve had for the past month or so is also from this insurance stuff. So that’s also super fun.

Academics: I finished the last unit test of my online Algebra course and all that’s left is the final. The final has different restrictions. It’s not quite fully proctored, but it is more locked down. That’s fine, because I’m planning to go in as prepared as I can be. I’m not going to take it at least until Monday, maybe later depending on how much time I carve out to study. On that front, the plan is to go back through all of my notes, touch at least a little on literally every topic the course has covered – maybe a full review of all tests I’ve taken in it

I’ve started my FAFSA and started collecting info on scholarships and grants to apply to. My brother lent a hand on that, which I appreciate. I haven’t started the community college enrollment, so I do really need to get on that.

What’s up now: Things really have gotten on top of me lately, and my weekend is pre-booked with a whole bunch of stuff. So I’m going to slow things down and focus in on just a couple of things for the rest of today and the free time I catch on the weekend. In fact, I’m making a list:

• Basic clean-up of my condo
• Sift through my mail pile
• Double-check all bills are caught up
• Re-pot my poor, sad orchid
• A handful of car updates
• Algebra Final Prep / Study
• Flutter Project Progress
• Re-finish my carbon steel pan
• Bass guitar kit progress
• Soldering kit progress
• Start House Maintenance Schedule
• Start Auto Maintenance Schedule
• Read (at least 30 minutes)
• Exercise
• College stuff – FAFSA, grants, enrollment, etc.

I may not actually have time for all of these, but that’s how it always goes. It’ll help to at least have a sketch of my plans.

Alright, I’m gunna go see if I can swap out some electronics in my new/used car, get that good mobile connection junk working. Have a good one, ya’ll.

I’m feeling a bit behind and also overwhelmed, and I need to check in how things are going. So let’s do that. This is not an April Fools post, by the way. I don’t think it looks like one, but it is the 1st, so just to be clear. Just a good ol’ fashioned existential crisis.

Follow-ups: My stolen car was determined not worth repairing, otherwise known as “a total lost” or just “totaled”. So I’ve agreed to a settlement for it with my insurance company. I got the advice to reject their first offer, but not only do I not know how to do that while guaranteeing a second, better offer, the first offer was frankly worth more than the car would ever be on the open market. The offer may well have been more than double what the car is actually worth, considering it has been sideswiped while stationary causing enough damage for a few weeks of repairs, then needed another couple of weeks of repairs to replace the shitty engine it had. Plus some minor cosmetics. Add in that it’s over a decade old, is a high theft-risk make and model, and a number of other problems. So I took it. It’s about $7k, which isn’t enough to just out and buy a solid replacement. The options I’m looking at are… well, actually, not bad. I do think I found a solid Corolla for like $8k, and those things last forever, so there is hope. Especially since the decent cars these days can easily last well into 200k-300k miles, I should be fine. But it’s a lot of stress and I need to wrap this situation up as soon as possible, because every day it isn’t is going to cost me money and risk worse prices. Then again, it may be that the used car market is about to collapse, and if I buy before that, I could be throwing money away. Wow, what a fun world we live in, huh?

Fitness & Health: I’m running more, which is great, but not getting as much strength training as I should. I’ve been pretty caught up in other life stuff, as evidenced by the previous and next topics, so I’m not going to beat myself up about it. But it stinks. I’d really like to get back to just getting it done. At least I seem to be getting back on track with this part of my life, so let’s take that win. I’m not sure where I am on weight. I clocked in on my scale as high as 250 lbs, but then immediately dropped to 245 lbs the next morning. I don’t know, man. I’d fall back on trends, which is the most reliable metric for my situation, but I haven’t really been keeping a consistent or regular log. I guess it’s past due to start that back up as well. Either way, as long as I keep this up and make sure to keep my intake in check, I should hit my goal of 220 lbs well before the year is up. If I get even close to that, I’ll be pretty happy.

Academics: I’m feeling the pinch of time pretty hard right now. I was looking at my progress so far, trying to work out a roadmap ahead of me, and considering options. I think this review was the gut check I needed, because it made me feel physically sick to my stomach. Maybe I’m over-correcting, but I’m feeling like I need to drop everything in my life that isn’t helping me get to this goal and just lock all the way in. Or maybe that’s exactly the correction that I need. I feel like I needed to have enrolled already and that even though I’m so skittish about my skills and ability to learn, I should have just already gotten in there and if I’m gunna fail, I should have failed already so I could get this ambition out of my system. I mean… that’s very fatalistic, but that’s the feeling I had.

Stepping back for a minute, I know things aren’t that dire. I can still do this. And I’m at the very end of this Algebra course, and doing pretty well. I need to lock in on that, finish it, do a good, solid run-up of Precalc and Calc I, and enroll in my local community college as soon as I can. And I need to talk to an advisor, sooner than later. Because at this point, I need to also lock in on the path, which is almost certainly Engineering. And that also makes me feel a little ill. It’s going to be so hard.

The thing is, a big part of my initial plan has to be abandoned. The old idea was more or less to get an IT or similar degree online for as cheap and quick as possible. That idea is probably my smartest one still, but I just can’t get motivated for it anymore. Losing my last job and reflecting on it over the past… I don’t know, year and change at this point, is it? Well however long it’s been, the only thing that makes me feel even more sick is to just take another job where my efforts are so diminished that I find it hard to even try. I worked so hard and I advanced, for sure, but it was so clear just how throwaway I was, and through my entire adult life, I’ve found myself doing so very little towards any of my own personal goals. Maybe I’d feel differently if I was being paid better. But I was really being paid just enough to keep me at the time.

I don’t know how to trust my gut on this, to be honest. At the risk of sounding like a petulant child, and perhaps I am one, but I feel stuck between programs that I’m not interested in and programs that feel too hard. The IT track would be so much easier, and I could do it so much quicker and for so much cheaper. Engineering seems like a really bad idea, though, because it’s so hard and I’m a busted middle-aged dork. I think the risk of this is really getting on top of me right now. I need to be very sure this is what I want to do, and if it is, I need to do everything that I can to make it happen. Because after investigating all of my options, it really is the closest I think I can possibly come to setting up the life that I actually want. I just wish I’d have ever had any clue along the way before this.

Moving on…: I’m feeling a bit out of sorts right now, but I’ve got a plan. For my next car, other than budget vs. initial cost, my main concern is reliability. I’d be more concerned with fuel efficiency, but my annual mileage is actually pretty low. I’m much more concerned with maintenance and repairs, though if I can get both, that’d be dope. So here are the cars I’m looking at, with the hybrid versions preferred where they exist and are affordable:

• Toyota Prius
• Toyota Corolla
• Honda Civic
• Honda Accord
• Toyota RAV4
• Honda CR-V
• Mazda3
• Mazda CX-5

The CX-5 is my top choice, but it means eating at least 6k out of pocket up front, because nobody is going to give me a loan despite my extremely good credit. And I really don’t want to eat that cost, but it does solve a bunch of other problems. If I can find a good Prius deal, that’s what I’ll probably do. But it’s tough to find one, the often referenced “Toyota Tax”, where the maker’s reputation helps cars hold value out of its previously renowned affordability. But Mazdas seem to have just as bulletproof engines, they keep their transmissions simple and don’t use turbos in these models. A Mazda3 would be cheaper, and is maybe tied with Prius, Corolla, and Civic for reliability. But a CX-5 would give me some additional practicality and some peace of mind. But I don’t know, it’s possible that none of these options are really open for me, so we’ll just have to see how things are, and hopefully I’ll get that payment real soon so I can just get it over with.

Other than that, I think my path is also pretty clear, at least in the immediate future:

1. Get a hold of my dang self, for corn’s sake.
2. Get the ball rolling on community college application
3. Do the FAFSA application
4. Investigate and get on top of all possible grants, scholarships, and loans
5. Start getting a feel for low-stress, low-time commitment income options
6. Clear out all things from my life that aren’t a part of my core needs.
7. I guess determine what those needs are, which means this should go above the other, but I don’t feel like reordering, so you get it.

What are those needs? Should I make another list? I don’t think I have one just yet, so let’s just… School, friends/family, fitness/health, funding my stupid life. I’m not giving up on music or projects, which I see at a minimum as part of my mental health strategy, and possibly part of my overall career strat. Especially some of those projects, many of which tie directly into subjects that I’m learning or planning to learn. Maybe that’ll be next week’s topic. Anyway, I gotta get back to it.

Busy couple of weeks. Let’s start with a follow-up, then my check-ins, and then what’s been up if I have time.

Follow-up: My stolen car has been found. It also seems to have been involved in a crime or time while away, other than just being stolen. But it seems like there wasn’t much damage, so with some hope I should have it repaired and returned to me any day now. Hopefully soon, because the rental I’m in now is busted. It’s a much newer Mitsubishi and the model itself seems fine, maybe even nice. I think it might qualify as a crossover or a small SUV, I’m not sure, but it’s very comfy and the modern amenities are great. But because it’s a rental, the alignment, tire balance, and who knows what else are just fucked. Getting up to speed means the whole thing shakes to all hell. I’m also very happy that I won’t have to buy a new car. I’m really not in the place for that right now. So dope.

Fitness/Health: I’m having a bit of a dispute with my insurance over a medication that I need to, you know, live. So hopefully I’ll get that cleared up soon. Also, I’ve become aware that I somehow managed to miss my annual physical all of last year, which ain’t great. So I’m scheduled to get one mid-April, and kinda hoping I can get in a little sooner. Fitness wise, I slacked a bit again last week, but at least kept up enough for maintenance. This week, I’m working on getting into a new “Spring” phase. I got in a walk that ended with a bit of a run, and that feels like a good start. Now I need to make sure I get in my remaining workouts for the week, and stay on top of my intake.

Academics: I have finished CS50x. And now there is a video of me. I’m going to link it here. So I’m pretty upset about that, but whatever. I didn’t have to take the class and I’ve known for a while that this would be how it would end. So alright, there we are.

In Algebra, I’m still working through my Exponential and Logarithmic Functions. I’m not finding these nearly as difficult as I have in the past, but also, I am taking forever. I do, however, think I should take forever. I’ve had so much trouble with these in the past, and I just know I gotta know ’em, right? So that’s the plan. The shit that’s up next is Series and Sequences, which I constantly see others complaining about, and I don’t remember doing at all. I’d love to finish Algebra this month, but I’m runnin’ out of month, and chunks of it are getting eaten up by other needs and obligations. So that’ll probably be mid-April.

I had plans to take a Python class, but I can’t find any that really meet my wants and needs. I might still do it, but I don’t know. I can find some for credit. I can find some that are online. I can find some that are self-paced. I can find some that are generally considered quite good. But I haven’t found one that hits all of those notes. It’s also come to my attention that, while I will likely want to use it in Engineering, I’m likely to learn what I need from other courses and don’t likely need a dedicated one. I’d already planned to continue my coding journey with some side projects and I think this will be a good place to get that fix for now.

I may find myself needing to enroll in actual school earlier than I’ve been planning, given that the vast majority of classes I’ll need seem to be considerably better in person. This bums me out. I was really hoping to save time and money on as many classes as possible, but I’m finding fewer and fewer potential courses that are actually available for-credit in the self-paced online format. I know there are other options, including self-study with testing, and I’m exploring those, but meh. Probably not good enough. Classes do exist for a few, and I’m planning to do as much Math as I can, possibly up through Calc II. I’m hoping I can pair Physics I with Calc I, and I was looking at a Chemistry course with Lab, but I’m hearing that might not be great. I don’t know. What else can I do that would count towards this?

Alright, last up, I might start check-in sections for music, projects, other stuff. I don’t know, but on the music front, I play with my friends most Sundays. And it rips. This last practice – yesterday – we had a guest. The guest is much better at guitar than me, at least in the genre that we’re moving into. And this is great news for me. I’ve been feeling extremely stuck and I’ve been both super into this genre but I’m also super anxious about doing it. Being able to play with him and watch his playing was great, and it’s melted a bit of that concern. His fingering and strumming were very crisp and clean, which is something I need to work on. Also, his understanding of keys and progressions is solid, which is another thing to work on. But just knowing that I have something to work on, especially since it so perfectly matches up with what I’ve been looking to work on, is great. But the biggest thing is that I could see up close and confirm my understanding of the play matches with what I saw with my own eyes.

Oh, um… Soul. I guess Neo Soul, because there’s like a helping of of Soul with a smidge of Jazz, a pinch of Blues, and a heaping scoop of Funk. The big revelation is how much of what he was playing was just identifying the key (which I do find quite difficult), finding the right chord progression, and then with that, just playing those chords and picking out arpeggios and solos within those chords and scales. If I pair that with some music theory, I should get there. Having something to aim for is a real help, though I now have to lock down a plan and then execute on it.

There’s other stuff going on, but nothing really worth getting into at this point, so we’ll leave it there. I’ll check in again next week, possibly earlier if I can find some time. I do have a few off-topic things I’ve been itching to get into. Keep it easy.

So my car got stolen. That’s super fun.

It’s a 2010ish Hyundai, so I guess I should have expected this. But I’ve had it for over a decade and also, to be honest, I thought that was just the Elantra and whatever the Kia equivalent is that were being targeted. I don’t have one of those, so I foolishly thought mine was safe. Shame on me, I suppose.

I got a rental car today, so I’m able to get around. That’s important, because it’s nearly impossible to get anything done where I live without a car. It’s really just the bigger cities and a handful of older towns in the US where you can be autonomous without a car. Thankfully, ambitious people who give a damn have taken notice. Unfortunately, most of what’s being done is not by them. But here in my town, there have been some steps in the right direction, and here’s to hoping.

I don’t know what’s going to happen with my car. A friend of mine got his boosted a few years back, and he actually got his back. The way car boosting happens around this area on the class of models my car belongs to, if they aren’t taking the catalytic converter (and I would guess they are), it’s probably just a joy ride. That’s not great, and it does probably mean some amount of damage, but it also means that I have a good chance of getting it back. Which is great, because I doubt my insurance is going to cover enough to really replace it, and the more expenses that stack up, the less flexible I am in my current pursuits. And that would stink.

Speaking of which, let’s check progress on those pursuits in:

Health/Fitness: The numbers are more of less static, which is not my favorite, but it’s not all bad. It always takes a few weeks for my results to catch up with my actions, and I do feel like I just restarted for the season. Which means I’m more likely still leveling off from my winter indulgences. On that front, I got in a couple of decent strength training sessions this past week. This week that just started, I need to up that. I need a minimum of 3x each week, and should really be getting 4-6x sessions total, split between lifting, calisthenics, and HIIT. I also need to reintroduce my cardio HIITs, like that miserable indoor bike program that feels awful to do but feels great when done. Other cardio wise, I’ve gotten in a good few walks this week. Also not enough, I should really be getting a walk every single day, and I didn’t Saturday or Sunday. I skipped today, too, which is not how I should be starting my week. I gave myself a break because of the car and all, but… they aren’t actually related, so it’s a poor excuse. However, I did run last week. Three times. I didn’t make a full, unbroken mile on any of them, but I also wasn’t shooting for that. What I was trying for was reestablishing the routine and getting a sort of gauge like, where am I right now after that bit of a winter break? And it turns out, I haven’t fallen off all that far.

I’m not sure if I’ve stated or even really established a goal for this year, and we’re already a few months in, so let’s slap something on the table.

Here are this year’s main goals:

220 lbs – At or Below by End of Year. – If I can manage to hit that earlier in the year, I’ll readjust to the next class. But I’ve really been struggling to maintain the 240 I achieved last year, and I don’t want to stress out too much. Though I also think that combined knowledge is informing me to readjust my diet. On top of the needed increase in workouts and overall physical activity, one thing is for sure – I need to calorie count again.

End of Year Running Goal(s) –

1) Regain ability to run 1 unbroken mile (before Summer)

2) Make this a regular feat (before end of Summer – maybe weekly?)

3) Run the majority of my typical walking route at least once (any time – about 3.5 miles)

Academics: Did I mentioned I finished an Algebra test? Well, I did. I did pretty well, but as always, I found some shortfalls. Over the course of that Stats class and this Algebra rebuild, I’ve started to gain a strong routine of learning from my struggle problems – I do a review of my tests, log where I got anything wrong as correct answers that I struggled with, and try to work out them out. I try to get the answer on my own, if I can, but also try to identify why I got them wrong, what I didn’t understand, what silly mistakes I might have made. That really helps. I’m in Exponential Functions now, which I remember having trouble with in High School. More recently, I had a lot of trouble with logarithms, which is also a part of this section. The exponent portion of it is so far clicking, but every time I revisit logarithms, something just ain’t working for me. But it needs to, and it will, because this isn’t just the end of my college Algebra I. If I understanding correctly, this stuff in particular is also critical to Calculus, which itself is critical to all of the technical careers that I’m looking at. So this is do or die time.

I mean, not literally. I’ve at least proven to myself that I can do school and, at a minimum, I can take some classes to boost my resume. If I quit this year without ever getting to Calculus, I will have already done something important to me. And if that ends up the case, I now have some great foundations for other options, which will probably mean leaning all the way into coding with various IT certs. I’m already hire-able. I was when I left my last job. These moves have already been enough to improve my job market position. So I’m feeling pretty good about that at the very least.

I am still dragging my feet on that CS50 final, but I have now locked the code. And it looks great, if I can brag a little. I’m thinking about where I can deploy that to share it outside of the class and, kinda what I’m thinking is this is another chance to indulge one of my Elder-Millennial wants and buy another website. I’ve got a few ideas on my mind, but have thus far resisted actually checking if any are available. Because I just know that if I check and any of my top picks are available, I’ll buy them on the spot.

I’ve also pulled out a smidge of my old podcasting equipment so I can hopefully have some OK audio. Right, did I mention? I think I did, but not in today’s post. A video is required. So for the video, I think I’ll be using either (maybe both) my phone or laptop webcam. I don’t really think I have any other options. I don’t know the last time I bought a camera that’s… just a camera. I have been looking for an excuse to get a camera that’s capable of taking great digital video. It looks like a lot of youtubers use the same couple of cameras, especially leaning on Sony’s. Those are pretty pricey, though, and even more so in this bonkers inflation we’re living in, and then there’s the whole car thing, so… yeah, maybe the phone is the best idea. Webcam is more than sufficient for a student project.

I did get my README and video script written, and I did practiced a few times. I did a dry run yesterday and one where I actually recorded today. Today’s recording didn’t use the podcasting equipment, so the audio was predictably bad. But not so bad that it would stop me from using it if it was my only option. I have a Macbook, so I’ll be using the included iMovie to edit. This ain’t gotta be fancy, just concise and legible. And under 3 minutes, which it currently is not. My first practice run was something like 4 minutes 30 seconds. I think a little more practice and editing to clip out the pauses and um’s should tighten things up.

You know, every now and then I entertain the idea of starting a youtube channel. I ultimately back out for one reason or another, usually practical ones. It really does seem like a lot of work, for one. For another, it would be some real exposure, and I’m really not sure that’s something that I want. If I do, it means I need to be a whole lot more professional than I tend to come off as. Since the video in question is required for a program that I intend to finish, I have to do it. Thankfully, it can be unlisted, which means I get to have the taste of the experience without committing to the full exposure. But I might list it, because it will be a professional thing. Or at least professional enough. So I think when I do the real recording, I’ll throw on a tie, work out some flattering lighting, and make sure I don’t talk too roughly.

Probably the biggest boon from all of this is just being able to stretch my organizational skills again, along with my ability to learn new things. That’s been really nice.

Anyway, that’s been enough thoughts on all of this for now. I’ll report back when done, or I suppose… sheepishly next week if I’m still not done.

It’s snowing in Columbia, MD. On March 12th. Should it snow in Columbia, MD in mid-March? No, it should not.

Temperature today is in the 30s (that’s Fahrenheit, looks like the 0s in Celsius… is that right?). Yesterday it was in the mid-70s (or low-20s C). I’m sure that’s fine. We live in hell.

Anyway, my Algebra journey continues, and I’d like to log in some of that. My return to Math has been going well, and it has also prompted some self reflection. I’ve been thinking about the lessons I seem to have missed, and from what I’m still struggling with, I seem to have completely missed how knowledge and processes build. Honestly, it feels a little silly.

In my high school days, our Math classes always had something we called “Word Problems”. I think they might still be called that, but I’m not in high school, so I wouldn’t know. But in these college level courses I’m taking, they call them “Applications”, and actually, I do prefer that. A part of me does find it a little stuffy and pretentious, but give the adolescent implication of the phrase “Word Problem”, I can live with that.

I find myself having a little panic at the start of every one of these. I’m trying to find the thing that I’m solving for and piecing together what bits of knowledge are dropped in it to figure out how to solve it. However, there always seem to be these keys that go entirely unnoticed by me. Stuff I do notice – square vs. cube. They are probably both dealing with lengths of sides but if the square problem goes beyond that, it’s probably about area. So your equations should be about length times width. Cube could also be about area, but there’s a good chance that if we’re talking about cubes, area is a stepping stone problem. Like, what we really want is the volume, and we don’t need to know the area to get the volume of a box – it’s LxWxH, right? Except what if you’re only given two of those dimensions and an area? Right, so now we have to setup an area problem, solve that for the missing variable, and then we can plug that into our simple volume equation.

I think I needed to write that out because, while that specific type of problem isn’t all that hard to put together, the biggest win from it is just how it informs, sort of previews harder problems. I need to find a way to remind myself of that as I encounter the more complicated stuff. Sometimes it isn’t even all that more complicated, I got thwarted by a surface area of a cylinder question the other day, but that’s not really that hard either, to be honest. But when I’m in the mindset looking for an A->B and not thinking of an A->B->C, then I’m likely going to get stuck just trying to remember some of the mid-problem math, like if it’s the pi or the r that gets squared. The implication of the materials trying to teach you to write, read, and interpret complex rational equations is that the technical world is chalk full of these types of problems.

I’m trying to put this all in perspective because I’m at least halfway through this online course, and the way it’s structured, I’d say I’m actually more like 3/4s through. I am feeling a lot more confident in my skills now, but I’m not 100%, and I need to lock in. I don’t want to jump to the next level still caring the baggage of decades of unlearned lessons.