Yesterday was MLK jr. Day, which is still a holiday in the US. I keep expecting our present shit leadership to cancel it and/or concoct a reason to replace it with their own birthdays. But it seems to have survived another day, so I guess let’s call that a victory. Have I gotten into my political leanings on this blog? Is it obvious if I haven’t? It is a personal blog, so I suppose I should at some point, but usually when I sit down to pop in my Monday check ins, I’m just not interested.
Left, in case it matters. Been pretty left for most of my life, and everything I learn and every experience I have always reaffirms that, though some do give me good reason to more deeply examine those leanings and the values that drive them. This moment in our country’s overall existence has been extraordinarily strange. But today, like most other days, I really don’t want to get into.
Let’s do the main checks, then maybe chat about something else.
Academia: I’ve tightened up my learning plan to try and finish my two lingering courses as soon as possible. I had initially planned to make it by the end of the month with room for that to spill over into February, and it is seeming more and more like February will be the target. But I do feel much better about my chances of finishing them at all. I’ve been stuck in Stats on Hypothesis Testing and finally convinced myself to do the thing that I’ve slacked off on since probably my Junior year in high school ever, which is to actually buckle down and study the thing from every possible aspect until I actually get it. You know, I generally try to avoid using extremely elder-millennial-coded blog tropes, like excessive ellipses, comedy strike-throughs, and mountains of em dashes, but I felt this was a good one, so we’re stickin’ with it. Anyway, I did the reading (and am still doing it, ’cause there’s more to go), did a bunch of practice, and even leaned on some internet stuff like youtube, google, free math lessons, and even AI. I don’t even like AI or think that it’s actually AI. But I also think that, if it weren’t torching down a lake every time you run a query, this is the sort of thing that I think these LLM and similar technologies would be perfect for. If we set things up the way I’m using it (is that a brag?), then I would actually think it’s a great idea to have them in classes. To have a personal teaching assistant for each and every student to do press with endless “why, why, why” and have it never tire or snap would, I think, be absolutely clutch.
Also, I finally settled on my homepage project for the CS50 class, I just haven’t finished executing on it. I think I’ll spend more time on that tomorrow. Maybe a bit tonight, if I can give that to myself. I’d really like to wrap it up and get started on the next problem set.
Fitness: No real changes, other than to log down that I’ve been slacking a bit on both my exercise and watching my intake. So this is sort of a note to my future self as to why I’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern this season.
Health: I’ve been feeling a bit swollen lately, which probably means I’m having a little edema episode, if that’s how I should refer to it. I don’t think this one is entirely natural, and I’d guess this is more related to my fitness update – not getting enough exercise and getting slightly too much salt. But whatever the cause, I’m going to take some of the powerful diuretics I’ve been prescribed for exactly this, which means I’ll be visiting the bathroom a lot more than I already do, which is already too much. There is more bad news, but not in my actual health, rather with health insurance. This year I’m on Medicaid, though I’m already regretting it, because my cardiologist doesn’t take the MCO I picked. I did not want to pick this MCO, which is like, the provider company, I guess. I think the one I picked is otherwise fine, but many of my preferred doctors only take one MCO, which is the one that is currently not available. Health insurance in America is a fucking joke and any asshole who defends it is either a dipshit or a fuckstick, likely both.
But that’s the end of the bad news, my health in general seems to be doing quite well. Though the fitness part is currently static, that’s frankly good compared to my past, especially since I’m lighter and fitter than I’ve been in literal years, possibly decades, heart and liver not withstanding. The good news comes from my GI following an ultrasound and some blood work. Now let’s not get it twisted, my liver is still hot garbage. It is heavily scarred, so I need to give it every chance I can and avoid all of my favorite poisons, but it is apparently otherwise working again. When I was hospitalized at the beginning of 2024, that was not the case. It was so busted and nonfunctional that they were pretty sure they’d have to replace it. So hey, that’s great news! He, the gastro doctor, also recommended stopping one of my medications, which I would love. However, I think my heart doctor wants me to keep taking it, so I’m going to need to check with… well, they don’t take my insurance anymore, so I guess maybe my GP can answer that. I don’t know, there is a lot to figure out. Extremely annoying all of this is, but at least I got some really great news. Things are getting better, slowly but surely.
This post feels a little rushed and slap-dashed, but I still think I’m going to squeeze a little more studying in tonight, so that’s just how it’s going to be. Anyway, that’s what’s up this week, keep it easy.