My mother's cancer is back. Apparently it's worse than before. I don't know how that happens with as many follow up checks she had. She's having a surgery Monday, exploratory I think, but I have an inkling it's more than that and she's not telling me. I've known her long enough to know that tone of urgency in her voice. So I have to fly out immediately to CA for her immediately. I have no idea how I'm going to do that or afford it, especially with not knowing how long I will be there. Making 12k a year is fucking brutal because it doesn't leave room for emergencies. And more than that I hate even having to think about it. That I'm going to go home to help my mother through the hardest thing in her life and I have to fucking think about money.
Thanks again. The good news is that it looks like things are about to shift of the work front. Personnel shifting so they're going to have to fill the position that was opened for me. So hopefully I'll have news on that soon and be making a living wage.
I've gone through a few family cancer deaths. Getting a person through their end, if that is what you are about to do, are some of the noblest, most laudable services you can perform. Be strong and compassionate, give honor to your mom. It's a very challenging time and I hope it goes as well as it can. Hopefully I've said this way to early in your mom's case.
Thankfully, you're way too early with this. I believe we're at a point where the worst case would be an extreme surgery, but nothing too bad. We'll know after the exploratory on Monday, but I expect it to be a surgery, radiation, and then they'll consider from there.
I'm sorry to hear this as well. I wish you and your family the best.
My life is easily in the greatest amount of flux it has ever been in. This is both very exciting and also very scary. I can't wait to share with you all what I've been up to. I'm excited to see how the donation roll-out goes. I miss all of you. I've been largely absent. lil -you are in my mind pal. Hope all is well. humanodon -I think you too have been absent, but you are also on my mind. There are so many of you hubskiers that I am determined to someday meet in person.
Dudeski - I almost texted you earlier to tell you I have a date tonight... and it's not a "disgrace" - or with a "disgrace" (in-joke, hubbies, sorry). We shall see how it goes. . . Otherwise, it's my busy crazy day... so I can't linger at the pub drinking and no time to pull out plastic and donateski. Talk to y'all soon.
Good luck with the date! Did you meet on a dating site or another way?
Coffee: it's always there for you. It doesn't make you manic, it just makes the world a little brighter, makes it a little easier to face. Whether it's a wonderful locally crafted espresso drink (cgod) or 2 AM coffee from a McDonald's off the interstate, coffee always tries to help, whenever or wherever you need it.
It seems that approximately every 2.5 years, a so-far-so-nice guy with a good job and actual intelligence falls moderately hard for me and invites me to his place in the local city so he can make me a steak dinner. So like, this is cool. He even asked me what cut I wanted (ribeye, duh). I'm bringing the wine - a nice Malbec, I'm thinking. This time I'm not going to show up drunk or make a drunk idiot out of myself. Hopefully he doesn't either. He seems interesting and like he wants to be really, really nice to me, and he's definitely really, really into me. And he's not fat or ugly or anything! He's actually been really, really into me for like, a year and a half I think. So...I'm just gonna go along for the ride. And the steak. And it'd be nice to have sex again. So, yeah.
He even said he'd build a feral cat shelter with me! Because all I am is a cat lady. Speaking of, yesterday my first cat, Zeke, got stuck in a tree for five hours. I spent about half of that time crying underneath the tree, but we're all cool now. They have a cat rescue society. (In case you ever need it.) Apparently there are people who are recreational tree climbers and they are also really nice people who will help you rescue your cats. He wasn't going to charge me, even - but I couldn't not give something to the person who rescued my baby. Aw, feelings, who has dem? If you zoom in, I promise there's a cat in this picture. 
When's the last time you bought something you didn't really need? I got myself a Røde studio arm as a bit of an impulse purchase but decided not to return it. Partly because it looks so awesome, partly because I like voicechatting much better when it's reminescent of (college) radio.
You have no idea how interested in this I am. Do you want to make this a real thing? Because I want to make this a real thing.
I know it's a good idea because it kinda scares me. I already have some ideas for the format. This might be a good time to mention a) that I'm at least 6 timezones away and b) that I honestly don't know if I am any good at this? I was on air a handful of times but I wouldn't actually call that experience.
Thing one could work, I'm PST which is...very far away. But it's certainly doable and thing two isn't an issue at all. We should discuss this more with galen if he pops up from doing whatever collegiate things he's doing.
I so want this to be a thing. Are we talking live online show, prerecorded show, a show that's syndicated across our radio stations? Or maybe we only actually broadcast on one station and the others call in? However it can happen, I want it to happen. veen
I was thinking along the lines of an edited podcast - I think that works best for a show about hubski articles and things related to hubski. And it's reaaallly hard to do something live across multiple timezones in such a way that most people can listen to it. So a prerecorded show, conversations edited down, music edited in. Thoughts? ButterflyEffect
I was thinking a prerecorded show exactly like what you just described, we could potentially find a time to do it "live" and record it and then edit in the music and anything else that would be extraneous to our discussion. It would be good to have audio markers too that indicate discussion points and where the soundtrack is. And some sort of a visual design for each episode.
I have something amazing going on in my personal life but my work life is leaving a lot to be desired. As in, I don't think I want to do engineering after this next year. At best I'd be okay with more of a research or data oriented position. But in reality I think I'd much rather be working in something humanities and people based, such as community development, higher ed, those kind of multi-disciplinary environments. I sure as hell don't want to be in manufacturing this time next year, that much is for sure. The only problem is I might have gotten myself in too much student debt to make much of a change, but I might have found a way around that. I know a few of you have "nope-d" out of engineering. It just doesn't seem like my thing, I'm yet to be more than content with an engineering gig but at least this one pays well and has sweet benefits. I've started learning Python after work to help with any potential transitions, does anyone have recommendations on learning material? I'm almost done with Learn Python the Hard Way.
Question for you and kleinbl00, how transferable are those skills to something that isn't engineering? Being a CTO or something along those lines would be great, but it seems way too early in a career to be anywhere near that. I'm trying to think of near term exit strategies and ways to become marketable across industries, which is a big fear right now, that my staying in manufacturing would pigeon-hole me into that industry for life.
So what you'll realize is that the further you get from graduation, the more "a degree" matters and the less "this specific degree" matters. Honestly? Put in a couple years, get some business skillz, pay down your student loan debt, and keep a close eye on your managers all the way to the top. Consider them from a "if I were her, I would do X instead of Y" perspective and start thinking like a boss, rather than an employee. Then apply to high-end MBA programs, take 2 years off and get a much better job doing whatever appeals to you four years from now. Don't think of your current gig as a "career." Think of it as a cash-flow positive internship while you learn the ropes of, you know, working for a living.
We have engineers that have moved to roles like customer reps and project management. They're roles where the engineering background can be helpful, but the only math they do is adding up their golf scores. For being transferable, not all customer reps or project managers are engineers. They came from other industries or other backgrounds. I think the direction some of my colleagues have gone gives them a lot of flexibility to move to other industries entirely different from the engineering they did right out of school.
Best way to learn is to think of a problem you want to solve and try your hand at it. It doesn't have to be a complete program, or website, or service, just focus on one aspect of it and use your existing knowledge to model it the best you can. We had a subject study session last week where we had to simulate an average speed check, taking a license plate and the times recorded entering and leaving the monitored section of road; this was pretty trivial to get going but it was a nice challenge for someone who has rarely used Python and can be extended to make it more difficult.
That sounds like a good problem. I'm also planning on going through some of Project Euler and some Bioinformatics problem sets.We had a subject study session last week where we had to simulate an average speed check, taking a license plate and the times recorded entering and leaving the monitored section of road; this was pretty trivial to get going but it was a nice challenge for someone who has rarely used Python and can be extended to make it more difficult.
You could make a script that will take a file with a list of ISBN or UPC codes, decode what they are (lookup online perhaps?) and output a list of what they are, that'd be a neat little script. If you get a barcode app for your phone, you can then bulk scan all your books (or whatevers) and bam you have a list of all your books, no typing required.
t-minus four days to Canadian Thanksgiving, t-minus one day until most of my relatives show up. It's going to be a busy couple of days in particular, and my restaurant skills are definitely going to come in handy for breakfast. It will be good to see my grandmother. She is meeting me as me for the first time. I mean, so are the rest of my family, but I lived with my grandmother for a year while in university, so I have a pretty close relationship with her. I'm a pretty serious introvert, so having so many people in this house will be a... adventure. already planning out my quiet time retreats.
I'm pretty sick. Stayed home yesterday with low grade fever and nausea. Guess I didn't take it easy enough because this morning I've got fever, chills, nausea, joint aches and a headache. I'm going to the urgent care to get checked out in a bit, make sure it's not something easily curable.
Turned 18 this week, so living it up. Or, I got a Bitcoin wallet, though there are less freelancing opportunities with it than I hoped. So, guess I'll set up a PayPal sometime. Then, Etsy store and some freelance work can get started. Once Bitcoin donations are a go though, I'll be sure to share some of the 30,000 satoshi I have made from faucets. I registered to vote too. That won't be supper exciting till April though. Still have to register for the draft, but my wannabe town doesn't have a post office, so I have to go into the city. Other than that amazingly little homework means I am knocking down college apps like the Big Bad Wolf and not-to-code houses. Set some PRs mountain biking today, and broke 200lb for my deadlift 1RM this weekend. For some reason, my friends think I am a romantic genius. If there is relationship issues or possibilities, it comes to me. Weird, since I've never had a girlfriend, but it means I get all the gossip first. I learned this week though, largely unrelated, that "prairie school marm" can be taken as an insult even when admittedly accurate. That's life though. So yeah, right now, my life rocks.
"Oh, no! The plants are all gone!" - My daughter, walking around the deck yesterday morning This will be my last Los Angeles Pubski for... many months. Despite douchebags in VWs, it's melancholy; the last houseplant has been dispersed and the fish have a new home. At the same time, our neighborhood up in Seattle has a legit aquarium co-op (warning - Youtube autoplay) and my father-in-law has a greenhouse full of prize-winning orchids so I'm sure I'll get over it quickly. A thankful father gave my wife a nice bottle of champagne as thanks for a birth well done; he's a wine merchant so it was a pretty cool gesture. We've been holding onto it to crack open and drink when we have a signed lease for the birth center. That was NINE MONTHS AGO. But I should maybe get it chilling. SO: West Coast Hubski Peeps: DAY 1 looks like San Luis Obispo, because apparently their children's museum is pretty dope and because we're getting a late start. DAY 2 is the Monterey Bay Aquarium because it's the first place I ever went where I decided it'd be more fun with a kid. After that... well, gimme places you think I should bring a 2 year old between San Francisco and Portland. _______________________________________________ NROL-55 is going up tomorrow morning at 6am. Buddy and I are probably going up. 'cuz you know what? it's a solid booster and it's launching into dawn.
Aaaaah what a great road trip. I drove from SF to Seattle several years ago to drop off a friend at college. Beautiful drive. Hmmm let's see.. The gum wall in SLO is.. interesting? Might be fun as long as your child stays far away from the walls. Go check out the lion seals on pier 39 in San Francisco! If you take a slight detour, crater lake is really cool. I'm pretty sure there are barges that go to the island in the middle. If not you can always hike down and jump in! If you want to risk a two year old with sugar check out voodoo donuts in Portland. I'm more then a little jealous.. Have fun! Also, all photos stolen shamelessly from google.
Crater lake is well worth it. Ah, godspeed there. As I think more about it, a roadtrip could help in a funeral buildup.. Enough time to recollect, enough to ready oneself.
It might be a bit daunting for a kid as small as yours - and seeing as getting in the fountain isn't really condoned... it may not be the best suggestion, but this place blew my mind (and my kids'). http://www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/finder/index.cfm?&propertyid=194&action=ViewPark It's wicked dangerous and fraught with perils - maybe the kid will fall 20 feet to her death? maybe there are spend needles or broken glass in the bottom? But it was HELLA fun.
Yeah, Keller is awesome. Here's the thing, though: LA is as wide east-to-west as the drive from Seattle to Portland... or Seattle to Vancouver. Blew my mind. Also made me realize that heading down to Portland ain't no thang, particularly as I have a lot of friends there.
http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/ It looks like they're just opening a new exhibit, if you think your daughter would be into it. Plus a great view of the bay!After that... well, gimme places you think I should bring a 2 year old between San Francisco and Portland.
Oh, for some reason I'd imagined her a bit older! Still worth a pass through if you're looking for a view. Otherwise there are plenty of outdoor parks in the mountains there that I absolutely love! There are also two botanical gardens in Berkeley that are quite beautiful!
1) Having grown up in Los Alamos, NM, Livermore is where those pussies who bitched about how far they were from San Francisco came to have their lives destroyed when their parents moved from an exurb of a major metropolitan area to the middle of bum fuck nowhere a half-hour's drive from a fucking Taco Bell. FUCK Livermore. 2) I spent 9 days driving the 1 as far as the 1 goes. I agree with you... until you get to the Oregon coast. Everyone who yammers about the Oregon coast is getting out and walking around; if you're driving the 1 in Oregon, you're in a tree tunnel for six hours.
Yeah, our family moved there from Oakley. So... San Ramon was a step up? Not that they could afford to live outside the desert anyway, but hey, 2000 was one hell of a year to buy an $800k house you couldn't afford. The 1 is great only in CA. Between the Bay Area and San Simeon is exquisite, but if I'm in Cascadia there are way more beautiful things to see. Also, I'm aware you have minors aboard and whatnot, but there are some absolutely incredible breweries you could hit up on your way through NorCal. I usually do a mix of Lagunitas, Mendocino, Russian River, North Coast, and Anderson Valley. Three of those are within a half hour of each other.
It is very hard to get out of bed. I'm trying to keep busy because the minute I stop to get into my own head I get fucked up and debate why anything is worth it. Two weeks later I don't feel any better. But I got a second monitor, so I guess that's cool.
Dunno how strapped you are for cash, but if you're similar to me -- as in, a low-paid student constantly strapped for cash but loves to buy tech toys and shit -- this was a pretty good quality one for the price. it's the one I bought. That plus some speakers and I've been in high-res heaven.
"Hey mom, dad, I know you already know this - so it won't come as a surprise - but I want to make it easier for you to talk about it to me - so, yup I'm ...... [whatever it is that you are coming out as]" "Thanks honey. We didn't want to say anything until you were ready. We just want you to be happy." Parents know everything already, even if they don't want to know. OK, probably not.I almost came out to my parents a couple days ago.
We are going to do a science outreach event with the local Planetarium and a newish neighborhood/planned community this weekend. The goal was to get 400 people to sign up. Weather reports are now showing AWESOME weather for the full weekend, and after an email blast, two stories on the local news and a write-up in the local paper the signups are over 1000 people. The last time that the community put on an event like this (not with us) they had 80% show up who signed up. I'm now putting together a mini tour of the night sky to entertain one of the biggest crowds we have had in well, years. I expect the panic attack to hit Saturday AM.
Life is good right now. I'm two weeks from closing on my first house and everything is going well with that so it looks 95% certain to happen at this point! I had a kickass weekend, saw The Martian on Friday night (it was awesome) and went to the symphony on Saturday night. That's not something I do often but I enjoyed it. And I have a new nephew as of early Sunday! He's a cutie!
It's been a hectic few weeks, I've fallen into the rhythm of things a bit and today was my first proper teaching session. I've got mixed feelings on how it went, all day I've been beating myself up about it but now I'm more ambivalent -- we didn't stick to the plan, I'm unsure they learnt anything, but hey at least they had fun playing with robots. On the down side, my mobile has finally given up the ghost. I don't know if I can be bothered trying to get inside it to repair the power button, I think it's time to move on...
So someone in college is trying to re-boot the pretty dead mechanical engineering society. I always thought it was a shame the MechSoc died out, so I decided to offer myself up if they needed any help. About 5 minutes later I am now MechSoc's Events Officer. Need to make sure the power doesn't go to my head.
My left knee is still healing up, so I've been out of the gym for about three weeks now. Between work, school, and not working out I'm starting to feel it again. That terrible feeling that creeps up on me when I don't have time to myself. In other news I have been shredding through the list of classical music you all recommended to me, and I'm probably gonna make some huge post at the end of the month like a tripreport of sorts on my journey through classical music.
My close friend is the bassist in this band. they're pretty freaking great, and I enjoy it even though they're not my normal thing.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed. On top of all the work I have for school, I signed on to do a concert on saturday with some friends. Normally, that'd be a pretty good thing, but this is for a side-project that I've never done live before, and so I am writing all new material for it. Here's to hoping I can do it in time.