The first quarter of 2020 caused a lot of emotional stress thanks to COVID-19, the death of Kobe Bryant and the end of his complicated life, and changes at my company, among other things. I will touch on some of those things as well as provide updates on Q1 goals (hint: they’re a work in progress). I might jump around a bit as I cover some of atypical things, but we’ll get through it alone together, sort of how we’re getting through the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders.
It is somewhat expected, but the fact I have to stay in my apartment except to get groceries, do laundry, and occasionally walk around helps me make progress on my goals. I now don’t have a commute and can’t make weekend plans, so I am left to do the things that I want to accomplish. There are different distractions such as virtual hang outs, in addition to Netflix and online shopping (definitely doing more of that than ever before). Sports are not really a thing for the time being and I have so far avoided resorted to video games.
This is important and, hopefully without making it sound like an excuse, a big reason I have worked more on my projects. I feel immensely responsible for those around me and want to make sure they feel their time is valued by me. I’m clearly biased and consider it one of my better traits, but it means I don’t always do what I want to do. However, I’m taking advantage of this opportunity to work on my start of year to-do list.
My progress has been solid in some parts, though a bit lacking in others. I researched credit cards and savings account, but have yet to commit to any in particular. I finally picked a password manager and went with Bitwarden, which has been great so far. I switched most of my personal laptop browser usage to Firefox, but not yet all. I have not ordered take out much to date this year, but that may grow more difficult with COVID-19.
I am progressing through my book list for this year, finishing Children of Dune, Dune Messiah, Hello World, and, most recently, Everything and More. Next up will be Range and Sprawl Ball, probably followed by some fiction. The shelter-in-place order shut down libraries, making it tougher to get some books, but forcing me to rent e-books on my Kindle.
Work on the technical pieces came slower than hoped, but I’m getting there. I had a decent amount of trouble getting good, clean data for my NBA salaries project, but it’s back on track after tweaking some code and finding some better data sources. Finishing v0 iteration focused on the raw salary and intersection with age and position is my focus and will be out the door by mid-April. Future versions will update the simpler assumptions such as ignoring rookie scales and the difference between veteran minimums’ cap and salary numbers.
It has been even harder to stay on pace with the Python Data Structures and Algorithms class and have not developed a plan of attack for learning JavaScript (Q2’s language of choice) means a command decision to move that part of my plan into thirds instead of quarters is necessary. Hopefully I will move back to quarters at some point, but as of now I’ll be booting the Q3 language (Nim) and whatever the Q4 class would have been from this year’s plan.
Nevertheless, I think I am getting better and better at writing Pythonic code. I learned how pipenv works, though it was a rather painful experience, and have gotten better at modularizing my own scripts for ease of use and de-bugging. I’m excited to continue getting better and using Python to do more and more cool projects.
Some odds and ends to finish up:
Kobe Bryant had a complicated life and legacy, and I leave it to better writers than I to tackle that. However, I will say that the crash causing the death of Kobe and his daughter Gianna hit me a lot harder than expected. I was never a Kobe fan, but it took me a while to read and watch some of the articles and clips remembering him and his daughter.
Another topic that I’ll mostly leave for the better writers, but I want to touch on silver linings for COVID-19. Human innovation has certainly been on display as we fight through the pandemic, in both professional scenarios and the silly ways to survive shelter in place. The environment is enjoying a respite, perhaps brief, that will hopefully remind humanity of the natural beauty around us that we lose through climate change. We may see the beginnings of a universal basic income as we get to the other side of what seems like a defining time in our age. There isn’t a lot to look forward to right now, but we should all focus on the right things and remember energy, even calm energy, is also contagious.
I have always loved fantasy books and games, and writing my own setting has been on the fringes of my interests for a long time. I’m not really sure if it’s best for a video game, book, or other medium, but some of the broad strokes have existed for a while. This includes an introduction consisting of two individuals stumbling through the forest and bumping into another person. Very original, I know. The two stumblers have bounced between identities such as ex-government agents and silenced scholars, but the one they run into has always been more defined. He is a monk whose religion became a thing of the past for the greater public and sought refuge in the wilderness before the two stumblers inevitably drag him into something bigger.
Maybe I will spend some time fleshing out the world a bit more over the coming months, but in the meantime I am writing a backstory for my newest Dungeons & Dragons character. I will tackle that this weekend since our first full session is on Sunday.
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