From ae530431d79c3dafd0ba5a518123c9ba40c0473e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Awstin Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2024 20:49:10 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Adding my midnight musings, updating now page --- blog/FirstStepsToDigitalIndependence.html | 2 +- blog/MidnightMusings2024-09-26.html | 103 ++++++++++++++++++++++ templates/now.html | 53 +++++------ 3 files changed, 125 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-) create mode 100644 blog/MidnightMusings2024-09-26.html diff --git a/blog/FirstStepsToDigitalIndependence.html b/blog/FirstStepsToDigitalIndependence.html index 6467fdf..14ef907 100755 --- a/blog/FirstStepsToDigitalIndependence.html +++ b/blog/FirstStepsToDigitalIndependence.html @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ id: fsdi title: First Steps to Digital Independence previous: independence -next: wdtg +next: mm date: 2023-08-28 ---

First Steps to Digital Independence

diff --git a/blog/MidnightMusings2024-09-26.html b/blog/MidnightMusings2024-09-26.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62582e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/MidnightMusings2024-09-26.html @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +id: mm +title: Midnight Musings +previous: fsdi +date: 2024-10-01 +--- +

Midnight Musings

+

+ Last Wednesday night/Thursday morning I was awake for a few hours in the middle of the night. + Mind was racing and got it out on the page. + Some interesting thoughts, still processing. + I was going to edit it but decided to just post it as is. +

+ +
+ +

+ I make my art.
+ In words, in simple characters.
+ In code. +

+ +

+ It is not traditionally beautiful.
+ But it is to me.
+ The purity of function.
+ Not a clock cycle wasted on carrying out a useless task.
+ Maybe I will learn to wrap that in an aestetic beauty someday.
+ But that purity is the core of it. +

+ +

+ Words don't express things so clearly.
+ The ideas they convey are not the black and white of machine instructions.
+ So I shape them around what I want to say.
+ Showing it in outlines and shadows. +

+ +

+ It is late...
+ After midnight.
+ I tried to sleep but was restless.
+ My foot twitching as I lay in bed.
+ My mind spinning working on the website.
+ More data to store and organize. +

+ +

+ The functionality is small.
+ Something that I can hold in my head all at once.
+ I like this scale.
+ One where I find myself coming alive.
+ A passion, interest, even furvor that I don't normally find in myself.
+ This is what it means to live, to work.
+ To focus on one thing with all of its challenges.
+ And see it through. +

+ +

+ Is it the passion that keeps me up?
+ Or the fear that if I sleep it will leave me?
+ The task can be picked up tomorrow.
+ But the mind works when it decides to.
+ I find it much easier to turn it on then off. +

+ +

+ So strange that my energy can come back fully without sleep.
+ I was almost falling asleep in a work meeting at 16:00.
+ Now almost 9 hours later I am more awake then I was all day. +

+ +

+ Committing these words to (digital) paper.
+ Was wanting to write by hand but also not turn on any lights.
+ So a tablet and stylus will do. +

+ +

+ Code is the modern magic...
+ A magic, for there are many and it would be supremely arrogant to put my chosen sorcery above the others.
+ We all have our chosen magics.
+ Acts that feel divine.
+ That we can't explain even if we can explain all that goes into them.
+ For me it is creating and fixing things.
+ Improving or modifying.
+ The change.
+ Trasition from one state to another.
+ Broken to fixed,
+ parts to whole,
+ materials to a final object. +

+ +

+ In this way tools are my talismans.
+ How I commune with this divinity of mine.
+ My computer, keyboard, pens, saws, knives, screwdrivers... and everything else. +

+ +

+ I was pondering why I always carry some basic tools with me even if I don't use them all that often.
+ They are my connection to this.
+ My acceptance and willingness to do this work wherever and whenever it is needed. +

diff --git a/templates/now.html b/templates/now.html index ee4c14f..ea2bb2d 100644 --- a/templates/now.html +++ b/templates/now.html @@ -3,16 +3,13 @@ {% block content %}

- Last updated: 2024-09-07 + Last updated: 2024-10-01

Work

- Still in Toronto, still working in software at Amazon. - My team writes tools to help automate and test new machine setups. - Working on fixing up and expanding a tool that I wrote earlier in the year that didn't quite make it into production. - After the meeting showing the tool the team it was for had a couple more features they wanted added before it was deployed. - The configurations had changed before I got those done and some parts had to be redesigned/rebuild. - Making it more adaptable to keep this drift from happening in the future. + Preparing for the spike of traffic over peak. + Struggling with personal moral issues with the company as a whole (everyone I work with is great). + Putting some last touches on a project that I have been working on for a while, hoping to get it out this week.

Life

@@ -20,23 +17,23 @@ We have booked a venue and a date!! So excited and frees us up to start booking a lot of other stuff. Found a wonderful venue that incorporates a lot of nature and is comfortably in our budget. + Spent every moment outside of work for a week putting together our wedding website, and setting it up for people to RSVP and organize all the data. + Was so much fun to use my skills to build something for the wedding and makes me feel really connected to the process.

- Actually planning for the long term financially now that I am lucky enough to have a job that leaves me with money to save and invest after the bills are payed. - It still feels new to have that cushion and to plan long term, definitely enjoying it. + Working to find the path that feels right for me career wise. + Exploring various options and starting to look for places that align personally with my values.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

- Got my blue belt just before the new year. The team here at GB Toronto has become an external family. I am so grateful for the community.

- Competiton coming up on September 14th. - Not may of us from the school are going to compete but there are some members coming out to support. - Pulled back on training a bit after the last competition to make sure I had some balance in my life. - I want this training to be sustainable for the long term. - Just competing in Gi this time as opposed to both Gi and No-Gi. + Lost at the recent competition to a flying arm bar. + Was pretty cool if I do say so myself. + Pulled back on training a bit to balance various activities in life a little better. + Looking forward to a more relaxed winter season without needing to prep for any competitions.

Learning

@@ -53,27 +50,19 @@

Tinkering

- This website is the main thing that I have been working with. - Added a uses page recently with just a list of the common things that I use every day. - Going to add links and other curated stuff next. - I love these pages on other personal websites and want to contribute to that. + The last week has been spent entirely on the wedding website. + Would link here but we have it shut down for guest access only because it contains a lot of personal information. + It was the first time that I have done any web development work with cookies or authentication systems. + That was really cool to figure out and implement.

- I am looking at restructuring the site into more of a garden than a stream. - It is a structure that I find much more interesting and fits with how I want to build much more. - Treating most things as timeless and growing as opposed to a strict timeline. - It is how I keep most of my personal notes, dates more of as reference than things needing to be in order. - Will see how that works. + I like that I got to build it myself and have it customized slightly for each guest with a personal message and using proper names instead of general "you" etc. + Also set up a database to store all the various RSVPs, seating arrangements, and menu choices once we get to that point.

- Set up my own code forge to be able to share my code without having to post it to github. - Can see it here. -

-

- I dove hard down the custom keyboard rabbit hole this past week. - Going to be making a second one for myself to keep at work, and making one for each of my brothers. - Can (and have somewhat been) getting lost in the minutiae of layouts, switches, design. - It has been a lot of fun (and I apologise to my fiance for the constant clicking as I test out different switches). + It was the first time that I gave myself a personal project and a short deadline (a week essentially) and hammered it out around work. + Really pleased with that level of depth and focus, very excited to try and keep that momentum going working on other stuff. + Some extra things to add to this site, and some other things I have been thinking about.

Awstin