How Does This Thing Work Again?

Things have slowed down some at work, and I'm a bit burned out. Both of those combined = I am not working as much overtime. Yet somehow, I still can't seem to find time for the things I enjoy.

Part of this is because I switched guilds on World of Warcraft. We're trying to build the new guild, and I'm signed up to run something or other every weeknight. It wasn't supposed to be that way, but somehow right now it is. So I leave work either on time or half an hour past time, get home, take care of dishes and/or laundry, then hop on the game. My evening is officially shot.

The other end of the spectrum is before work. I've been doing pretty well lately with the hybrid workout schedule. Of course I can't stick to anything to save my life, so I've changed the schedule a bit. I'm no longer doing Jillian on Mondays, nor TurboFire on Fridays. I was not comfortable "showing my  moves" at the work gym, and I was not getting out of Jillian what I wanted. Also, I missed running.

The schedule now is Monday/Friday run, Tuesday P90X, Wednesday Insanity, Thursday core work of some sort, Saturday Yoga. I've only hit all 6 days once, this past week. This week I missed Monday's run because I decided Sunday's rest day was a good time to rake all the little acorns out of my yard. Not restful.

I've also been looking at my diet again. My auto-immune disease has flared up, and I am not at all interested in having my thyroid removed, so I'm trying to manage the situation with diet and exercise. I did not have to take my medication when I was running regularly, thus the increased runs in my schedule. I also have gone gluten free, and just this week sugar free. I did well on the sugar free diet last time. Now I just have to figure out how to maintain it for the long haul.

Obviously, another thing I missed was writing. I'm hoping to be back here somewhat regularly. As always, we'll see what happens.

02\12\2021:

Today I learned you can turn left on red, if you are turning onto a one-way street from a one-way street.

Taking Amy to surgery. Athena was very confused to wake up at 5am

 

It seems I still talk about Jeff, probably because I still think about him but haven't even talked about him much here. 

02/05/2021:

Successes: feedback from my first technical mock interview.

"It is a mistake to let Jan Cooper interview on the market as she might choose to become employed somewhere other than Tech Elevator. She is incredibly gifted technically and gave me unique and accurate answers to every question I asked her. Additionally, she was able to relate concepts to Java and C#. Everything about Jan screamed instant hire for me - except her demeanor. I saved my "Why do you want to do this?" question for last and only that brought a smile to her face. She means business and approaches life seriously, but she needs to learn to let that passion and joy and excitement shine through from the beginning of the interview because she's really gifted technically and she's absolutely 100% going to be amazing at whatever she chooses to do."

02/04/2021:

William had looked at my work from last night and edited it, so we had an hour-long conversation about how things should go. He keeps wanting to complicate things. I pushed back on having API in the URL path, because it breaks Abstraction by letting users know anything about the internal workings of the application, and because some people like to navigate by URL address instead of buttons. He was ok with that. Then we got into a conversation about what classes we'll need. I don't think he's read the README, nor looked at the database. He's going off projects he's seen and done himself, which are far more complicated than this needs to be. He definitely has an understanding of REST and websites, but he also has an ego. Not that I don't have an ego too. Again, I need to make sure he doesn't steamroll me. I will not be put in the same position I was at Rockwell!

02/03/2021:

We started our capstone today, and I got off on the wrong foot by suggesting we call ourselves the dream team. I'm frustrated with both teammates. William doesn't want to work with anyone, preferring we break off individually, while I want to try mob programming. I don't know where Dion is with the material, but William has been working on side projects on the weekends. I am concerned he'll try to bowl over me. I need to make sure I hold my own and not show weakness. 

I'm concerned about how much Dion will be around. He seems to travel with his family. I was a little annoyed he kept saying check-out was at 11, that he was at a vineyard, and wouldn't be near his computer all day. William had his mock technical interview at 2 and mine was at 4, so that meant we couldn't actually meet until the evening. Also, at one point in our initial meeting, William asked where Dion went and I didn't see him in Zoom because of the size of my zoom window, so I thought he dropped off. I had to apologize for saying something questioning about his being there for us.   

We did meet after dinner, but that meeting was not productive. I went through the code after and mapped out what I thought needed to happen, using Trello again. I didn't get into as much detail as the last project mapping, but I think I have a fair idea of what needs to happen. We won't be able to meet again until 11am tomorrow, because Dion's mock technical interview is at 10, and we have a short class meeting at 9.

02/02/2021:

I made the mistake of shoveling last night, which exacerbated my back stiffness. Now it's officially thrown out, spasming whenever I bend over.

I had to trudge through the snow walking Athena this morning, because the salt on the streets hurts her right hind foot. We only went around the block because my back was not happy. I finally got her to walk in the snow on the tree lawns while I walked in the street, so her foot didn't hurt and my back didn't hurt. 


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Successes:

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Accomplishments:
Balance accounts

02/01/2021:

 My back is stiff and sore and cramping from singing while walking yesterday

Unemployment implemented the latest stimulus, and I have notification of payments in my Unemployment communications. They haven't hit my bank yet, though. 

Erin is doing fine. the frantic phone calls from the dr. were about changing her medication because she was experiencing nausea on the antibiotics she was taking. 

Apparently, Amazon doesn't allow one to look up a wishlist by email address any longer. The person must share their list, which means Craig has to go share his list with me. 

Pinged Nick because I saw a notification on my desktop that he was playing Settlers of Catan. Also, told him about singing while walking since he was interested in getting me singing again. 

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Successes:


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Accomplishments:
Balance accounts

01/31/2021:

Catch up on news
Review homework with John
watch Bones
Started singing while walking, expanding my lungs through my back and sides. 
Dan and Theresa got married yesterday!
Pinged Berto but he didn't respond

01/30/2021:

I spent the day watching Bones. 

I saw Brian for dinner. 

Chris pinged me asking about kidney stones. Erin was diagnosed with a UTI earlier in the week, but the Dr. office called multiple times Friday afternoon. Most likely about test results, possibly the amount of blood in her urine, but not likely a kidney stone. 

Stephan's 2nd check arrived. I need to write him to let him know and thank him. 

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Successes:

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Accomplishments:

Dishes

12K+ Steps

01/29/2021:

called Mr. Montoni to tell him he'll get a check for $500 from OMJ, and I won't have money for him until the unemployment is implemented. 

chatted with Amy 

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Successes:
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Accomplishments:
9K+ Steps

Empty Dishwasher

01/28/2021:

I'm a day behind in my reading, meaning he taught the class yesterday on what I'm reading today. This is causing me problems, unsurprisingly. 

Athena hurt her foot this morning. She has a raw toenail and I suspect she got it caught on blankets. All I really know for sure is she yelped loudly, twice, when getting down off the office bed. I was in the bedroom at the time, making the bed after my shower. 

I was supposed to meet Brian last night to pick up rent and have dinner. I remembered yesterday morning, but forgot by the evening, only remember again this morning. I hate that he doesn't ping me when this happens. just stays silent and waits to hear from me. 

This arrived today. No idea where it came from, but it was addressed to me. No note or invoice or anything with it. I double checked, and definitely did not order it. I decided to put my jewelry in it, but as I started going through my jewelry I decided to hang the jewelry hanger I'd bought a year or more ago, instead. 

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Successes:

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Accomplishments:

5K+ Steps

01/27/2021:

Reorganized character generator into separate projects.

I struggled last night with the API update function homework. It turns out my code was failing because I was trying to verify the record was actually inserted, when the test was only checking to see if I used the correct call (PUT) to the API. The test was looking for an object ID that was not in our live database, but was in the mock used for testing. I was trying to return the verified object, which didn't exist because PUT doesn't add anything if it can't find the record to update. The test expected me to return the object I used in the PUT request, the assumption being the contract was fulfilled correctly whether or not the object was actually updated.git status 

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Accomplishments:

7K+ Steps

Water Plants

Dishes

Hang jewelry hanger

Balance Accounts

01/26/2021:

One of my favorite quotes, which I shared with the group today at bootcamp. I am struggling with APIs, and getting frustrated with my lack of understanding. It's not that I don't understand what we're doing. I don't remember the details of which command or annotation goes where, and I'm struggling to get the tests passing. I guess that means I don't understand why it's not working. 

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The weather is definitely getting to me. I napped for a couple hours today, after sleeping for 9 hours overnight.  

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I checked my bank account today and saw a balance of $0.00 with $362 negative, which made me think I'd overdrawn somehow. The only way I could think of to be that overdrawn was if Canyon actually pulled the payment they said they wouldn't. I pinged Chris because I didn't know who else to ask for help. He sent me $400 before I realized the bank was having problems and I wasn't overdrawn after all. I'm keeping the $400 until unemployment hits though, because I suspect I'll need it for my car payment. It looks like they won't have the systems updated until the end of February. 

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Leo sent out an email saying OMJ has new funds specific for the Tech Elevator cohort, that will pay the following:

$500/month in rent

$100/month in water (so $600 to Umberto)

$42.00 for internet

Up to $300 for health care

This will be extremely helpful!

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Accomplishments:

Fold Laundry

Wash jackets and robes

Dry jackets and robes

Clean 2nd floor toilet

6K+ Steps

01/25/2021:

I'm trying to work on my side project a little every week. Because of my conversation with Gregor, I installed mongoDB on my desktop today. 

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I updated my resume, adding the technologies we are currently exploring. 

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I'm still binging, eating all the sugar and all the things. I know it's partially because of the cold and grey. I think it's also partially the bootcamp, as we're now into areas with which I am unfamiliar. 

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Accomplishments:

Install Mongo DB

11K+ steps

Update Resume

Dishes

01/24/2021:

This is the worst time fo year for me because of the cold and grey. I'm eating all the things. I'm not sleeping well. 

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I let athena choose when to head home on our walk this morning, because it was so cold her feet hurt and she was limping.

I tried to trim her toenails today too. She was not happy with that idea. I was able to trim them, but it was a challenge. 

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Accomplishments:

Vacuum living room

Wash laundry

Wash Towels and Sweats

Dry Towels and Sweats

Empty Dishwasher

9K+ steps

01/23/2021:

I found these tracks in the snow on our morning walk:

 And sent this to Amy. They're not pigeon tracks, but they made me think of her.

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Ana's new baby, named Noah. Peg just sent a photo with no details. I'm not sure if Ana is keeping this one or not. I'm not sure how Peg feels about it. She did have !! when annoucing the Ana's water broke, but then nothing other than the picture. I'm thinking Ana is keeping this one, especially since Apollo was born.  

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Chatted with Joyce for a minute about being annoyed at myself that I let Rockwell get in my head. She had a similar experience at Instagram where her manager wasn't happy with her and didn't mentor or help her improve. She is now able to see what others are doing so isn't feeling so much like she's not performing well enough

This is the third time I've brought up how annoyed I am with myself for letting my confidence be shaken. I may not be the best student in class, but I am at one of the top students. 

I'm afraid I might be letting my ego get the best of me. I'm struggling with integration testing, which wouldn't be the case if I had actually paid attention during class. 

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I've been using the calf stretcher before bed. I find doing so opens my lower abs, as well as my back between my shoulder blades

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Accomplishments:
Clean cabinets
Sweep kitchen
Clean stove with oven cleaner
Shampoo kitchen mat

11K+ steps

01/22/2021:

I talked with Gregor about my D&D Random Character Generator project, and got so many ideas on how to organize things. I'm still not 100% certain how projects should be organized, but I'm starting to understand.

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Kristi reached out on FB today. Just a poke asking how I'm doing, but still very nice to hear someone cares enough to say hi after months and months without contact. 

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The toys I ordered for Athena came today, including the Tug-A-Jug meal dispenser. I was late to the school happy hour because it took so long to load. I thought it would be fun for her to get the kibble out, but it takes just as long to put the kibble in. 

From our happy hour. Turns out a background and foreground filter don't work well together, at least for me. 

I enjoyed the bottle of Riesling I bought from Costco, even if it was a screw-cap, cheap-ass wine. It made me drunk enough to tell Nick I was almost willing to consider him moving in with me... after I get a job, maybe. I'm concerned about his health, as he says he can't walk from his apartment to the rental office and back without extreme loss of breath. He's got to be well over 300 lbs by now, and has to put his legs up several times a day because his heart can't pump blood back up. In my alcoholic haze I was thinking he would be healthier living here, where he wouldn't be tempted as much by the junk food Mark so loves. Ignoring the candy and cookies I've been living on for the month or so. I spent a bit of time imagining how it would work, practically forcing him to walk Athena at least once a day, making him move. Because I could make him do anything. 

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Accomplishments:

Clean Microwave

13K+ steps

1/21/2021:

This is what my morning looked like:

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I recieved an email today from ODJFS about the 11 weeks of additional unemployment. The FB group I'm in said they should have the 5 systems updated by Jan 26th. I know I don't have it yet, and can't be certain that date is accurate, but I added the $$ into my YNAB to see how I'll fare once the money is coming in again. I'm pessimistically hopeful Biden will be able to pass additional assistance. I may not need that additional, but it would be nice to have that safety net. 

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I'm starting to recieve my tax documents. I recieved an email from Wells Fargo about  my mortgage documents today. My plan is to do my taxes once I get all the documentation in, but not submit them until I can pay them. Or tax day deadline, whichever comes first. I heard somewhere tax day may be postponed this year, which would definitely help.  

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Found funnies at Walmart that made me think of both Chris and Craig, so I sent them photos. Just doing that made me smile and a little sad at the same time, because I used to do this with Jeff. 

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This is what my evening looked like:

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Accomplishments:

Dishes

Write Stephan

Sweep kitchen

12K+ steps

01/20/2021:

I asked Gregor if it's better to pull a list from the database, then choose random from that result, or to have the database choose the random result to return. He said it's better to get just what you need from the database, so to get random through the select statement. The database is much more efficient at filtering data than the application would be.

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New blog ID: read Redditt and draw cartoons of the "tales from tech" type of stories. Of course, I'll need to relearn how to draw. Yet another project dependent on that. 

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I recieved an email from Lindsey at OMJ about the financial aid I emailed her about on the 18th. Apparently I'm not eligible for anything beyond the $25/day for attending the bootcamp, even though I've yet to see any of that money. 

Since she mentioned them, I asked her to look into what's going on with these payments as I haven't seen any of them thus far. 

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In going through my email today, I decided to reply to the CHN Housing email, letting them know I don't have an email address for Mr. Montoni. I also wanted to mitigate the fact I'm current on my rent, since I paid December and January with the last of my unemployment funds. I told them I was able to pay rent because I borrowed money (kind of true, since Stephan sent me $$) and failed to pay other bills (also true, considering the debt renegotiation and putting off car payments). 

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More retail therapy via Amazon today. I'm not sure what has me thinking I can afford this, beyond I haven't hit the limit on my credit card yet. I'm getting close, but I haven't capped it out yet. I think getting the email from CHN has had some affect. If they pay 3 months rent, I will be able to pay my credit card off. Of course, they only pay if I'm behind on rent, and as of now I'm current. I don't think I'll be hearing from them again. 

Cutting boards, and disposable cutting board film to use on board built into the cabinets. I probably could have done without the latter, but I use cutting boards so often with lemons in my tea, I really needed several small ones. The rainbow ones above are thin enough I can cut them in half, and even in quarters if necessary, so I'm not washing full size boards for a single lemon. 

Nail files. The ones I have are falling apart and worn down. This was something like 25 metal nail files for less than $10, which seemed like an awesome deal that will last a year or more. These have been on my Save For Later list for quite a while. 

Thinking more and more I decided I could afford this solely because I hadn't maxed out the credit card yet. The nail clippers are a must, because Athena's nails are getting longer and she seems to have shredded one trying to trim it herself. I think that's what has caused her pain in her foot the past month or so. At least part of what, anyway. The rest are me trying to get her engaged with her toys. She's destroyed all the puzzle toys she has, leaving nothing but chew toys. Many of those she doesn't chew on at all. 

These are just random shopping items. I don't really need the electrical tape, but it's been on my list for a while. I was using it to label freezer items. I have a lot of freezer items. The wax paper was a fantastic deal, at about $5 for the 3. I just purchased wax paper over the weekend, but ran out today and for some reason that meant I had to buy more. 

Athena's Halti has torn a bit. Not enough I'm concerned for the integrity of it, but enough I'm concerned the integrity will be compromised if it tears much more. I almost certainly could have waited, but didnt. I bought another. Apparently I ordered 2 of them, so will have to return 1 when they arrive.

My shower back scrubber fell again, and this time split. This may have been what started my shopping spree, because I felt I needed a scrubber, especially now it's so cold and dry and my back itches if I don't scrub it. I ordered the new scrubber with suction cup hooks to hang it on so this one doesn't break.

I'm still waiting for Yoga Toes, but ordered calf stretching boots. I used to have a pair, but got rid of them. Now I want to sleep in them again. These look to be larger than the ones I had, but they were the least expensive for what I'm trying to do. I'm thinking the toe area may be large enough to wear both Yoga Toes and boots at the same time.  

I bought brownie stuff last time I was at the store. I have 2 24-piece pans, but they are useless without liners because no matter how I grease them everything sticks. Actually THIS may have been what started the shopping spree, because I started out looking for silicone muffin tins. I have 2 silicone mini muffin pans, each holding 12, but that would mean multiple batches in an oven I can't trust to hold it's temperature. 

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I've been staying relatively up to date on the news since the attack on Washington. As in every few days, as opposed to every few weeks. I was catching up again today and found the NY Times advertising Punchbowl news. I already subscribe to the Skimm, which gives an overview of what's going on in a bipartisan way. That's what Punchbowl is also supposed to do, but it's written by people known for scooping the news in Washington specifically. 3 updates a day sounds like too much, but the free version is only 1x a day. That with the NY Times digest and the Skimm should keep me well informed. 

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I pinged Nick today about laying on the floor with his legs on a chair. He was complaining the other day about his legs getting blisters again, meaning he's not spending enough time with his feet high enough above his heart. He responded to my suggestion, saying it's too difficult to get up from that position. I have to remember I can't make people take care of themselves. All I can do is make suggestions.

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Successes:

Mock interview (practiced with John). I thought this went well. I'm still a bit slow on my  elevator pitch, but I got all my points in when asked. I came up with a valid failure story with a lesson learned, and had a whole slew of questions to ask, including one based on the answers from other questions. 

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Accomplishments:

Sweep kitchen

Clean Convection Oven

Pick up prescriptions

13K+ steps

01/19/2021:

Still thinking about how I could visit Julie, even knowing she didn't invite me per se. With that in mind I decided the Halti is as good as a muzzle. She's already comfortable with it, and can't get her mouth open wide enough to get a good grip. It's pretty much a given she's going to get into a fight at some point. 

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I moved my D&D Random Character Generator from KanbanFlow to Trello, because I can attach pictures in Trello and wanted to add diagrams for each class to the cards for those classes.

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Successes:

Figured out how to use the JDBCTemplate methods to connect to the database through Java

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Accomplishments:

Catch up with reading outlining

Wash sheets

Dry sheets

Wash blanket

Switch to palates ball seat in office

Dishes

Fold Sheets

Dry blanket

Stretch

17K+ steps