March 7, 2021 11:57 AM
How to get more sleep at night
I was dealing with insomnia for about three weeks during this past month. I know quite a few people that have had trouble sleeping throughout their whole lives. But that's not me. When I go to bed, it takes me a few minutes to fall asleep, and then I usually end up sleeping more than 8 hours. I feel restless if it takes more than 5 minutes for me to fall asleep.
So you can imagine how maddening it was for me to not be able to sleep. I would wake up after a few hours of sleep and just stay awake for hours more, feeling so tired, but not being able to do anything about it. So, I did what I always do when I'm having a problem: I asked people for advice.
Just take some melatonin!
Nope, nope, nope, that's a last resort.
Try meditating.
Man, meditating is hard. I tried this over the past summer when I found myself consistently waking up way earlier than I wanted to. I don't think I ever figured it out.
Use a humidifier.
My nose gets stuffed up every night (and this is a problem I've had all my life) but it definitely makes it harder for me to fall back asleep. I think the increased humidity helps.
Take it easy.
Yeah, I know. I know this is mainly caused by increased stress. I cleared a lot of things off my plate at work. I started taking naps during the day. I took a break from most of my side projects. I think it helped.
Get more exercise. Do some yoga.
Taking long walks, helping a friend move, making my runs longer--that all was to the effect of getting more exercise. I think it helped. I thought about the yoga thing, but yoga is boring.
Turn the heat down in the bedroom and use a weighted blanket.
Okay I think this actually helped a lot. I turned off the heat completely in my room, and I started sleeping with three blankets. Thanks co-worker.
Call me at night to get your thoughts out.
"I know this is a saying, but I mean this literally. Whatever helps you sleep at night."
Thanks sister.
I don't think I feel completely normal again, but it's a lot better now. Better enough for me to write a blog post about it, and for me to make some ascii art.
.-~~-. / .", \ \ ; ; \ {`'~.,-.,',-~-. '. ; : .,_,' `'._.'`~. ! ,' ,'`'.,.' | .-~' ~' |,' .' `~-. |'-=' '. '| ,.,.,.,`='|,.,., A lot of the times when I try to make ascii art, it's a huge struggle. But this, this flower, let's call it a daisy, just kind of came together.
February 3, 2021 9:50 PM
This is what I love about my job
On Monday, I had an issue that I needed to investigate. I work on property tax software, and our client had asked why there was a pending refund on a bill from years ago. The business analysts (BAs) that looked into this weren't able to make sense of the numbers, so they asked for a developer's help.
So I'm asking the BAs questions on things that I definitely should have learned in my property tax training two years ago. I'm scribbling tax amounts in my notebook and doing math and getting confused because none of the numbers I'm getting match what our tax software was generating. There are taxes and fees and penalties and they weren't adding up. But I'd ask another clarifying question. And I'd redo my math. And I kept doing that, until it all clicked.
I explain it to the BA, and everything finally makes sense to him too. He in turn explains it to the client.
Client: Thank you for the detailed explanation, [BusinessAnalyst]! I will go ahead and approve the refunds to be processed now that we have a better understanding of why they were generated and how it was calculated. Really appreciate it!
Business Analyst: Thanks again on this one Kirsten. The county appreciated the detailed explanation (which I adapted from what you provided)
There's just something really satisfying about taking something complicated and confusing, making sense of it, explaining it to someone else, and seeing it all click in their head too.
February 2, 2021 10:12 PM
In progress
Rubik's Cube
The first day that I had picked up a Rubik's Cube last year, I played with it so much that I joked to my coworker "I feel like I'm going to get carpal tunnel if I keep this up."
No joke, I really think I'm getting carpal tunnel now. My fingers have been feeling a little numb. So I cut back on that.
Running
A few years ago, my aunt, seemingly out of the blue said "We should do the Broad Street Run!" and I responded "Okay! Let's do it!" The Broad Street Run is 10 miles. I have never run 10 miles straight in my life.
I was running a lot before the pandemic hit. I was able to do 5 mile runs without feeling tired at all, but my feet were hurting a lot, and I couldn't even walk around barefoot without it being uncomfortable.
Well, gotta get back to that. Right now, I think I can run maybe a mile and a half.
Programming Pearls
Back when I was a senior in college, on the last day of my co-op program, my mentor had gifted me a copy of Programming Pearls and told me it was the most helpful book for preparing for interviews.
6 years later, and I still hadn't read the book. But that's changing. I am reading this whole book and doing every single exercise I can possibly do. I'm only on Column 2 of 15. It's probably going to take me a few years.
Tech Projects
I have so many things I want to do with this site, with my food blog, and even with my Teochew site that I've neglected for the past year and a half.
I don't know how I have the time to work on all my goals/side projects, have a full-time job, keep up with chores and "adult things", maintain a decent social life, and get enough sleep. But I guess this isn't a bad problem to have.
January 31, 2021 5:47 PM
Winnie-the-Pooh
About a month ago, I said I was going to read all the Roald Dahl books. And since writing that post, I haven't read any more of his books. The problem is that I don't own any of them, so I have to take them out from the library, and with Covid, they only do curbside pickup. I have to request the book first, and the first few books I requested have taken a really long time to be available.
So, I decided I would read a book that I already own. At the moment, I only own four reading books, and one of them isn't even in English. I hadn't read The World of Pooh in such a long time, and it's my favorite book ever, so I figured I was due for a re-read.
One of the things that I don't think I appreciated before are the poems. Pooh is always turning his thoughts and adventures into songs and poems.
It's a very funny thought that, if Bears were Bees,
They'd build their nests at the bottom of trees.
And that being so (if the Bees were Bears),
We shouldn't have to climb up all these stairs.
There is so much in these two books that makes me smile and laugh. I love the writing style and the nonsensical logic. Every character is just so damn snarky and mean to each other without meaning to be. Well, except for Eeyore. I think he means it. It's all lighthearted, so no one takes anyone else too seriously.
"Thank you, Piglet," said Pooh. "What you have just said will be a Great Help to us, and because of it I could call this place Poohanpiglet Corner if Pooh Corner didn't sound better, which it does, being smaller and more like a corner. Come along."
But besides the silliness, there are also really touching moments in each story. And sometimes those are a little silly as well.
"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said.
_ {" `,.-~--. ,"\ _.-~~~-._ `; ` ,; ,-' `~. : :____,'_________________`._ ,'. .,; /\ .,.' `. ; },~ ' { / / \ \ (\, -' `. ,: : : : ; : : ; ,'~~'. \ : . .\ /. ` ., __,./ Y _ : `-.; ; ; { } :' ; Y~-~'; .~: ; `.,.-' y~-'_. `~-~" /////// J) "~' ////// /////// ,, /// ////////////////// //////// Piglet is actually much smaller than that, but, you know, limitations of ascii art.
Winnie-the-Pooh always gets a solid 6 out of 5 stars from me.
January 31, 2021 10:00 AM
An update to my colorful side project
Just a quick ascii art color-izer update:
You can now click+drag to select/de-select multiple characters at once. I tested it once on my laptop, and not at all on mobile, and it Works on My Computer, so good enough for now.
Oh, but you know what this means? Another post with ascii art is in the works...
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