Aftermath of a long weekend...

It was a good long weekend - learned things, did chores, went on a lovely walk, and that's about the highlights of all that was or wasn't important.  I did complete the Industrial Robots course over the weekend with a greater fear/appreciation of the maths required to get those suckers working - might build a mearm to test out forward and inverse kinematics before returning to the 6-axis arm...

Rebooting pomodoro again:

Closing defects

First break:

• 35 pushups
• catching up on a few things

Work

Second break:

• weights (machine)
  
• closing break early by a minute

 Work

Third break:

• hand weights

Work - closing another defect.

Fourth break:

• closed early to wrap up something

Lunch - walked, saw M (driving like a maniac) - so she's not gone gone, walked with R for the return bit of the loop.

Back to last 2 defects

Fifth break:

• hand weights

 

And then things fell to shit...  Forget about the evening - did Angel work until I crashed.

Friday at last...

Yesterday afternoon was a loss - a mix of interactions with people, light at the end of so many tunnels...

• I will relaunch the pomodoro timer soon.  Right now just wrapping up units in the course to prep for completion tonight.

Start.

Closing defects this morning.

First Break:

• 30 pushups
• put debug logs in the compass/accelerometer software - not reading values

Back to closing defects - if not accidentally spamming people's systems.  :(

Second Break:

• machine weights routine 

 Closing defects - 4 left for retest

Third Break:

• chatted with Friend
  

Closing defects - standard image installation and limits checks

Fourth Break:

•  meh

Everything fell to shit because of fuckup with FedEx, driving out there, meeting with Manager that took too long...  

 

Overall - wrapping up last of the course to post on Linkedin...

 

Then git checkin, yoga, sleep.

Next Day of the Experiment

 I started off the day - thrown by an email but I'll roll with it and continue.  Normally it would have dominated my thoughts and ruined my day but I'm shrugging it off and moving on.

Today I will wrap up the Auto Encoder lessons, then move on.  It will be good to clear this course and apply it.

I will re-launch the Pomodoro method/technique again.

First Break: (kind of prepared for success)

• found LED grid
• found wires (hehehehehe)
• found accelerometer (read up specs - need to solder)
• 39 pushups - couldn't quite make 40

Closed a defect at work

Had caught landing of Falcon 9 booster on video - returning to ambient music 

Closed a few more defects.

Second Break:

• found youtube video on wiring up LED grid
• cleaned out c
• offee mug and french press

Closing defects

Mildly distracted by Kamalpreet's messaging...

Third Break (long one):

• LED matrix stuff and then my laptop memory chunked and so had to reacquire it (a bit risky to fit in even 15 minutes!!!)
  

 Still trying to close defects - down a few thus far.

Super distracted though...  Taking care of it.

Fourth Break:

• wasted...

Tired and I want a nap but I still need to get shit done...

 

Fifth Break:

• washroom
• stepped outside just to see what it will be like out for my walk - nice

Focus is gone - too many shiny squirrels...  Sigh.

Worked on a defect, scrolled through hackaday...

Lunch:

• ate lunch
• walked
• came back to negative talk about me not showing people how to use the weed trimmer

Back to work - closed off a defect and not looking forward to talking with my manager.

Had my meeting, stepped out for tea, a bit of quiet, a selfie, then back in to close off 2 or more defects before the end of the day. 

Started the Pomodoro timer again.

Sixth Break:

• all focus fell to shit in the afternoon...

 

Trying new focus...

Hoping that goal-oriented stuff will keep me focused.

Today on NLP work with Tensorflow and Keras.

Using Pomodoro:

First break:

• 30 pushups,
• boxed motor/vehicle project
• looked for drill bit
• put drill battery on the charger

Second break:

• washed some dishes
• made tea
• pee break

Third break:

• workout on machine
• cleaned up base of projector stand a bit

Fourth break (long break):

• talked for 1/2 - wow that took up some valuable time...
  
• looked for the missing drill bit (need to find all drill bits and organize them better!!!)   # TODO: find all drill bits

Fifth break:

• pectoral workout
• put shirt in washer
• set up verbose output to debug 'avrdude' programming from raspberry pi (really didn't buy me anything in less than 5 minutes)

Sixth break:

• bit of cleanup of projector stand (stuff I get to first thing in the morning)
• wrapped up a loose cable
• tossed a small solar light thing in recycling
• put bluetooth kb away with other keyboard

SUPER pre-lunch distraction mood!!!!

Seventh break: 

• lunch
• 1/2 hour walk - listened to Rachel Maddow podcast - 3.13 km

Back to work - kind of disappointed that I didn't have some time to do something else - will do so this evening.

 Eighth break: (just after standup)

•  made tea
• debugged Makefile for arduino - perhaps got the right board?  (worth it to use debugging concepts)

Ninth break: (short one)

• drilled hole into part 
• tried to work on it - need to find other drill bits (worth while as it got me moving)
  

 

On reflection: 

If all tools are handy, 5 minutes is good enough to do a quick adjustment or repair on something.

5 minutes is not enough to research and apply a fix to some code.

15 minutes is great!  Lots of things can happen - quick chat, recap of things, put some things away, pull others out, and there's enough time to look something up.

 

RNNs and LSTMs...

Yesterday was a long day indeed - but I accomplished almost everything that I planned on doing.  The only disappointment was the evening - although I did get course material worked on, I wasn't out with people which was the original idea.  Instead, long conversations about bedbugs.  Yuck.

Ick.

Today will be punctuated with frantic calls, discussions, thoughts, inputs, and of course delaying my continued learning.

I do enjoy helping people and it does balance out the karma as I have a lot to forgive myself in that kind of debt.  It does gnaw at you.  I have noticed though that when people get help from you, they never learn to help themselves in the right way.  The latest big giveaway that something was up was due to lack of communication - silence.  Shame.  Sigh.  I was reminded of this silence from darker periods of my past when I just couldn't let go of my ego for the sake of being compassionate and letting the other person enjoy their life and life decisions.

Today will be more work, more learning - working on an example problem using LSTM in Tensorflow and Keras.

Oh well, back to that work thing - it is boring and annoying not seeing the big picture.

The 3D printer is humming along, printing out this cool bag clip that I suspect one of my friends will find handy when they eventually do go to a restaurant.

Perhaps they'll invite me.

Probably not - time to hunker back down.

Monday morning bootstrap...

We all have memories of our past - good and bad.  One series of memories for me are tied to a smell that I'd have when I was really ill: hot dogs.  In particular the scent of hotdog water - in the land before microwaves (being common), we would cook hotdogs in the winter by boiling them in water.  Yay.  When I would have really high fevers and in the midst of a cold, I could smell hotdog water.

I don't smell hotdog water today - the past few days I have had the smell of my step-father's parent's cottage in my mind.  His Mother was a wonderful cook and the whole cottage would smell like whatever was being cooked.  On weekend mornings, there was no escaping the smell of bacon.  Endless bacon.  And that is what I have been smelling and yet there is no bacon that has been cooked.

This smell reminds me of times that really weren't great.  In many ways, I'd almost prefer to smell the hotdog water.  At least I would know that I was seriously ill but that I would feel better soon.

With this, it drags up unpleasant memories, annoyances, and a seemingly lack of control of my own destiny.

This is all despite a weekend of working hard to study, learn, do stuff, try to reach out, chores, and keep myself physically active.

I bring this all up on a Monday morning as it's the reboot of the week: back to work, try to give a shit about what I'm doing, try to ignore the things that I'd rather be doing, and just soldier on.

I'm tired.

Friday morning - wrapping it all up...

 Arg.

So today has sucked - walked but didn't do yoga, weights, and waited on a friend for a noon zoom call only to hear "nothing".  So my noon walk was cancelled for nothing. 

I am taking the Docker course seriously - applying it already to work.  I should have taken this ages ago.

No aura today so that's good.  The other day was too freaky for words for me.

My motors, wheels, and drivers arrived as well as new 3d print heads.  Yay!  Another project that will have to wait until I'm done with the other projects.  I really need to outline the projects - epics, stories, tasks, etc...  I really need to organise the fuck out of my life right now.  Is it bad that I count the hours down on a Friday afternoon hoping that it will just suddenly end so I'm freed up to do the things I want?

I will do an hour's worth of work on the Tensorflow course tonight.

A trip to Lowe's might be needed to facilitate the acquisition of the threaded rods, nuts, and washers - Home Hardware failed me.

I also need to knock the workout spreadsheet out of the park tonight.  We'll see...

Strangeness

 I have been pushing myself hard lately - stress from work, life, exercise, learning, building, etc...

Today I just freaked out - I had this crescent-shaped shimmering light follow the edge of my peripheral vision and it is exactly what I have been described as an aura.  I have been fortunate to have never been hit with migraines but I know so many people who have and this aura can sometimes be a pre-cursor for them.  It doesn't always have to be but can be.

I am still kind of freaked by it - it's kind of gone but kind of not gone.

My learning is coming along - I just wish I had a tonne of money to only learn for the rest of my very long life. 

Yesterday had its moments of joy and annoyances...

 The annoyances were pretty straight-forward: work.

The joys: accomplished cleaning that I had planned on doing, levelled the bed on the printer, printed out the parts I had planned on printing last week but gave up because I thought I had a clogged nozzle.  Nope.  Again, always: clean the bed, level the bed.

True Level...

I have given up all hope for this: BuildOne 3d Printer.  What an unmitigated piece of crap.  When I first saw the campaign, I thought: "Yeah this could work - he's basically slapping together a working 3d printer from a pile of equipment that I can't be arsed to get myself."  3 years now?  Sigh...  3 years is nuts.

Focus on things that are under your control/influence. 

The new exercise routine is in full-swing - just have to wait and see if  I get the results I hope for.

The courses are going well - I'm exhausted after being up late to wrap up the one section on Activation Functions.  Today I'm tackling Back Propagation and Keras and Tensor Flow, and then possibly back to the Docker one.

Perhaps more graphs or pictures later today...

New Day New Stuff

 There are a lot of things that you forget over the years if you don't use them.  In my case this morning, it was all about remembering how to insert a CR/LF or Return in an OpenOffice spreadsheet Cell.  CTRL-Enter.  Done.  Now the sheet fits the page.

Lovely.  New week, new part of the plan to re-introduce routine, different exercise and see what happens after a month.