October 17, 2015 2:03 PM
Happiness
Use the Continue Reading link to see some 2021 commentary
About a month ago I posted that I was in a funk. I was wasting so much of my time and not doing anything about it. Well, now I am pleased to say I am out of my funk and back to being one of the happiest people I know! How did that happen? I think reading Mr. Money Mustache was the big motivational push I needed to start making some changes in my life. Along with that, I also read some other personal finance blogs, like Early Retirement Extreme, The Mad Fientist, and jlcollinsnh. It turns out the point of these blogs isn't just to teach you how to be frugal and invest your money. It's about finding the joy in the simple things in life and learning to love what you currently have. It's amazing what the world has to offer on such a small price.
I'm slowly getting myself to exercise more, cook more, spend time with others more, and sleep earlier. The sleeping too late thing is still a problem, but I'm working on it. I also stumbled upon Budget Bytes which has some awesome, easy-to-follow recipes. It's actually made me a little excited to cook things each night.
On the technical side of things, I finally was able to add support for viewing issues under multiple tags in my Issue Tracker. It was way more complicated than I expected it to be, but I'm glad I finished it and I think I worked out all the kinks. Lesson learned: remember to explicitly set values to NULL!
October 9, 2015 12:31 AM
Slow[er] Internet
Two weeks ago, I decided that I was fed up with Comcast. My last bill was almost $90. All for fast-ish internet that dropped every day and cable that I didn't even use. First I tried negotiating with some customer service reps to try and get a better deal. The most I could save was $10 if I switched to 25Mbps and cut cable. So I thought, screw it, I'm getting Verizon. However, Fios isn't even available in my apartment. The best they could find was DSL for 7Mbps. This sounded extremely slow. But then I remembered still having dial-up in my high school days, and I figured, I can live with it.
Turns out, I'm not even getting close to the advertised 7Mbps. It's more like 0.5Mbps. Then again, I was only getting about 20Mbps with my "150Mbps" internet from Comcast. When I first got the internet set up, it was noticeably slower. Sites that used to load in about a second were now taking a few seconds. At this point though, I think I'm used to it.
I fired up Spotify today (I have a premium account) and tried to stream one of their playlists. It did take about half a minute of loading before I heard any music, but once it started playing, it was perfectly fine! No need to buffer again. If the quality is any worse, my ears aren't good enough to notice it.
I also just decided to watch a youtube video. It worked. No pausing in the middle. Haven't tried streaming on Netflix yet, but will update this post when I do.
2021 Update: No clue if Netflix ended up working or not, but I must not have been working at home because I know I would have gotten fed up with the slow speeds trying to work. I still don't really understand why watching videos never caused me any issues, but ssh into the dev servers at work, and suddenly my slow internet can't handle it.
September 13, 2015 11:43 AM
Funk
I've been in a funk lately. I have a good job that pays well and isn't too hard or stressful. Plus I get to basically program all day, and I love programming. But something's missing. I'm feeling unfulfilled. I think I've felt this way since a little before going on a cruise in early August. I just got lazy and bored and started wasting so much time playing silly games on my iPad.
I really really really want to go back to school at some point, but I'm not sure how much time and effort I want to devote to it. Should I go for a master's or a PhD? I guess I need to actually want to do research to get a PhD, but I've never even done research so I don't even know if I would enjoy it or not. And what if my lack of research experience makes it harder for me to get into grad school? I also don't know if I want to go back full-time or part-time. On one hand, I have a good job, and I think quitting would be stupid, but on the other hand, if I go back to school I feel like I would do better if I devoted the majority of my time to it. And where would I even want to apply? I need to talk to someone that actually has experience with these things.
I'm going to try getting back into updating this site more, because it really is something that I'm proud of, even though I'm pretty sure no one is reading this.
June 11, 2015 12:00 AM
I need more blog posts
So I'm trying to add a landing page to this blog that will show the most recent entries. I decided that six was a good number. It will also have previous and next buttons to go to the previous and next page of blog entries. Except right now I only have two entries, so it won't really matter.
I went to the dentist on my own for the first time ever. The dentists were very friendly, and they didn't just gossip with each other while looking at my teeth. Of course I had a cavity. I also had to get another cavity re-filled because my previous dentist had done a terrible job. Even though my whole face felt numb, once the dentist started drilling I thought "Oh my god, this is painful." But hey, free toothbrush, toothpaste, AND lip balm!
Speaking of free dental care products, I went to the Arts festival this past weekend and Sensodyne was there. (So was Xfinity but they were kind of lame) They were giving out free toothpaste! And free toothbrushes! And they even had sinks so you could brush your teeth right there! It was honestly the highlight of my day.
June 3, 2015 12:00 AM
Prioritizing and Reaching Goals
Use the Continue Reading link to see some 2021 commentary
Part of me feels like I'm making such slow progress on this website, but another part of me is just amazed I've been able to get so much done. I'm really liking my issue tracking system, though it needs some serious cleanup.
The other day I stumbled across this blog: Mr. Money Mustache. It's about this dude who retired when he was 30, and it's got all this great financial advice. I found it quite inspiring. (Just like when I discovered Nerd Fitness) I definitely want to do a better job at saving money. It's not like I'm struggling in any way, but I just think it's good to save up.
I feel like I have so many things I want to do, and not nearly enough time to get them all done. And I keep setting goals and failing to reach them. Or it just takes me five years. My mom even found an old cross-stitch that I got when I was 12 that I never finished! I am working on it again though. Right now I'm trying to:
- save money
- work on this website
- do well in my real life job
- cook my own meals
- get involved in the tech community
- keep up with friends, family, and my SO
- learn things on the side
- keep a clean apartment
- exercise regularly
And I'm sure there are more things. I guess it mostly just seems like normal, adult things, and for the most part I'm doing pretty well at that. I just need to remind myself that I can't get everything done every day. And I need to remember that the number 1 most important thing for me is to get enough sleep. When I don't have enough sleep, everything else just falls apart and I get headaches like crazy. And this is where I'm going to stop this blog post, because I really do need to go to sleep.
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