I guess one good thing about my career thoughts these days are that they\’re less broad. I no longer think about becoming an accountant almost ever. I am pretty dedicated to the technical/engineering fields. But therein lies the rub: which? I\’m kind of caught between them and feel a bit like I\’m going to be someone left without a chair when the music stops.

Why do I think this? I think part of it has to do with a few interviews I\’ve had while employed at my current employer. In each I get the strong impression that my \”jack of all trades\” background is not helpful. Granted, I\’m a test engineer and the two jobs I applied for were a systems administrator position and a software engineering position. But that\’s the issue: I don\’t want to be a test engineer forever. Testers are a unique breed in that they are highly important but lowly. They don\’t lead. They necessarily follow. At the same time, can you lead within a following discipline? Sure. I\’m trying to do so. But I\’m also legitimately recognizing that my \”subordinates\” are passing me by. A fresh-out-of-college guy I hired not long ago was so far-and-away my superior at programming that it was almost depressing. A tech who was recently promoted to engineer is better now than I am. The kind of stagnant guy with a CS degree has suddenly become more adept and is noticeably better.

A lot of this tells me: You need to get better at programming. Well, yes. And maybe that\’s just what I should do. But at the same time, my job encompasses a lot of other areas of engineering: power systems, in particular.

I could get an EE degree. I\’d love to. But I can\’t. I mean, I could. My employer would pay for it. I really considered signing up for a class this week. But even if I could take 5 classes per year (a class per available term), it\’d take something like 9 years. And so far, I haven\’t been able to make it work when I\’ve tried. I\’ve literally paid for Calculus 2 something like 3 times. But I inevitably get about 3 weeks in and realize that I could hack it, but it\’s going to be ugly. Or it\’s going to literally take all of my free time (including too much time from my family).

I could just \”do calculus slowly.\” Which means doing Saxon Calculus. And I\’m inclined to do so. Just take 30 minutes a day and work through the book. I should really do that. Why not? Then Saxon Physics. But if I\’m going to focus on some other area of tech is that a waste of time?

But no, I don\’t think so.

This has been helpful. Here\’s what I\’m going to do:

I have a Codecademy subscription for a long time still (until June). Finish the CS degree plan. I\’m 9% into it.

At the same time, plod through Calculus. 30 minutes per day.

If I finish those, come back and celebrate.

A bummer in life is that web URL\’s are hard to get. Even URL\’s I\’ve had, too. It\’s just a bummer. And the ones I control are never as good. Grass, greener, etc.

But anyway.

Another bummer is that it seems that nothing tops a book, pencil, and notebook for math. I\’ve tried an old Samsung tablet with an S-Pen, then a new Samsung tablet with S-pen (Galaxy S7 , then recently I actually literally rented an Apple Ipad Pro (11 inch) with a Pencil (second edition) and it\’s still not as good as a simple notebook and math book. Oh well.

The holy grail is to be able to use a single device to be the math book and the notebook. It\’s simplicity. It\’s beautiful. But it never really works.

I do not like the new internet toggle system on Android (12, I think is where they introduced it). Multiple touches in order to enable or disable wifi or data. The old way was better.

You can re-enable them by using ADB. On Linux, you install it by means of:

sudo apt install adb

Then with USB connected, do:

adb devices

It should show your device.

If you get \”unauthorised,\” as I did, you might have to do:

adb kill-server

Then authorize when it connects again (click the button on the phone authorizing the computer).

I had trouble at this point connecting to a shell and did the following (though I\’m not certain it\’s required):

sudo apt install android-tools-adb

Then I did:

adb shell

Then in that shell, enter the commands here:

FYI: If you want to replace the Internet panel with the WiFi and mobile data Quick Settings tiles, run the following two commands in ADB shell:

settings put global settings_provider_model false

settings put secure sysui_qs_tiles "wifi,cell,$(settings get secure sysui_qs_tiles)"

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) December 13, 2021

So I entered these commands sequentially:

settings put global settings_provider_model false

settings put secure sysui_qs_tiles \”wifi,cell,$(settings get secure sysui_qs_tiles)\”

That seemed to work for me!

Then you just have to edit the toggles like normal on your phone and it has the old ones again.

Voila!

At least not formally. I have no intention of giving up learning–ever. If anything, I\’m more determined than ever to stick it out.

I was \”hacking it\” in calc 2. It was hard, don\’t get me wrong. But I had figured out how to study for it and was making it. The problem was that it was just taking too much time. I was having to devote too much time to it each day in order to keep up. So my time with my wife and kids was suffering. Not good. A deal breaker.

So what\’s the plan now, you (I mean me) might ask? Well, I feel like I know calculus better than I ever have, and don\’t want to lose that momentum. I\’m planning to continue on Saxon\’s Calculus and hopefully finish the book before November, then prepare for the Calculus BC exam next year. Why? Well, it\’s not structured, which is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it was nice being \”made\” to work really hard for a class. On the other, I can\’t just tell my kids, \”Sorry, can\’t be a dad; I have to study.\” And I can\’t tell my kids\’ school that I can\’t do volunteer activities because I\’m doing school. Or tell my extended family that I can\’t help them because I have school.

I guess the fact of the matter is that I have too many responsibilities to be a diligent student. Or maybe I\’m still a putz. It\’s one of those.

Anyway, I dropped my class. And part of me really mourns. It\’s legit hard. But, well, it\’s life. It\’s where I\’m at. And I have much to be grateful for.

Plans:

1. Spend at *least* thirty minutes per day on Calculus book.
2. Learn Python.
3. Get up early, but not quite so early.
4. No alcohol in August.

That\’s it. That\’s the plan. Oh, and maybe tangentially study for the ham radio exam.

I\’m in the midst of calculus 2 through an online school. First three weeks kicked my tail. I might be catching up now, sort of, but maybe not. We\’ll see when midterms roll around. Integration by parts is…hard.

I will say this: this is easily the most difficult class I\’ve ever taken. Calc 1 was hard, too, but it had easier grading. You got to bring a paper with notes to the midterm and final. No-can-do here. It\’s going to be hard. BUT, I think it\’s making me work harder in a more productive way.

That said, I did have to request (and receive) an extension for the third week\’s homework. I was just about ready to just withdraw when I remembered that you can request an extension. That was a huge help. It may end up biting me on the midterm (where the slack will come from), but we\’ll see.

So, I told my wife the other day that I thought I should abandon any hope of school. For the sake of my kids. I think part of that is certainly true. Yet….

When I abandon hope of school, it\’s like something changes inside of me. My intellectual focus shifts. I do worthless things, like spending time on Twitter. If I had Facebook, I\’d spend time there.

I don\’t know why this is. Intellectually, I know that my time is valuable, and that I should husband it. But somehow, when I don\’t have an educational goal….

Anyway. I tried to legitimately make sure my wife doesn\’t mind me going to work early. She legit seems to not mind. So I am planning to hit my Saxon Calculus book again hard tomorrow and get back to it. Idea being to be ready for classes in summer semester.

Killing VLC when it won\’t close:
pkill -kill vlc

To get my AMD v4900 graphics card working:

https://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo

Follow instructions there to get non-free working, then the part with sudo apt-get install firmware-linux-nonfree libgl1-mesa-dri libglx-mesa0 mesa-vulkan-drivers xserver-xorg-video-all

Getting HandBrake to work with DVD\’s was easy. All you need is to have non-free enabled, then:
sudo apt install libdvd-pkg
sudo apt install handbrake

Make sure to do the part the popup says about the libdvd package (mentioned in my last Linux post).

Finally, if your Dell computer is beeping a ton during the Debian installer, you can\’t figure out why, it seems like it\’s not really connected with anything you\’re doing, and the install seems to be going normally, note that it might actually be another computer on your desk beeping incessantly, and really does have nothing whatsoever to do with the computer you\’re actively working on. :facepalm:

I\’m not sure I\’m done. My company being stupid about COVID was definitely a big part of my decision to withdrawal, but they\’re not always stupid, and most companies are way, way stupider, so there is that.

The truth is I want to do more school. I want to actually get past calc 2 and 3, differential equations, and physics 1 & 2, at least. Those are such foundational courses in engineering that I want to have them done. And I\’m so close to being ready. I know I can do them. It\’s just a matter of…doing it. And my company will totally pay for them. So I should bite the bullet and do it.

While on paternity leave, and fighting off minor illness, my big project ended up being setting up a media server (Debian, Jellyfin) and converting our relatively small DVD collection to be available on it. I\’ve wanted to do this forever (probably about 6 months), and it\’s been great.

Hardest part is that even with a relatively small DVD collection, converting DVD\’s takes time. I\’ve got 3 PC\’s currently active doing it and I\’m setting up a fourth I haven\’t used in ages to help.

Well, actually the hardest part is that certain DVD\’s simply will not read. I\’m guessing their scratches are so perfectly strategically located that they are worthless. I don\’t know. I\’ve tried various tricks, but they just don\’t read certain sectors. It would have to be movies I know we actually care about (TWO of the original Star Wars, The Incredibles, Tangled) rather than, oh, I don\’t know, Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang or something.

Notes:

• Old laptops do conversions way slower than my main PC.
• The toothpaste trick doesn\’t work. Or at least hasn\’t so far.
• Linux is amazing. No cost for the software on any computer I\’m using.
• Debian is solid, but often a pain. Getting three monitors to work on my main desktop was more trouble than, well, almost anything else. But it worked out in the end after some trouble.
• Ubuntu is so easy. If you\’ve never used Linux and want to, go with Ubuntu or Ubuntu Mate.
• Plex was easy to install, but the interface was irksome. I get and respect that they\’re trying to make money, but I just don\’t want a bunch of \”free\” schlocky movies as my default interface.
• Jellyfin was free, just as easy as Plex, and doesn\’t have the extra \”free\” movies.
• But I\’ve still got to figure out how to get our Firestick to work. It at least looks reasonably easy (no clue how to select my username, but I\’m sure some doc on the internets will explain).
• HandBrake took some getting used to, but after figuring out the DVD licensing stuff, (sudo apt install dvdread[tab] and you\’re golden), it was easy. (edited to add: It was actually libdvdread[tab]. And I forgot that you also have to do sudo apt install libdvd-pkg, then copy and paste the thing that pops up saying sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg. That\’s required to get the DVD stuff to work on Ubuntu or *buntu. I\’m not really even sure if the libdvdread[tab] one is necessary, but the libdvd-pkg one definitely is.)
• Figuring out if this was legal was…interesting. But I\’m going with the \”gray but moral\” definition. They\’re DVD\’s I own, I\’m not sharing them with anyone, and FairUse FTW. If any lawyers read this, please, go away.

I just withdrew from school, probably for the last time ever. I don\’t think I\’ll ever re-enroll; it\’s just not in the cards.

There were a variety of reasons for doing this. But a major part is that I\’m increasingly disgusted with the effects of school. I get the impression that people who respect and adore degrees, and education (all rise!) are cool-shamed far too easily. So adieu. Farewell.

But that\’s not the only reason. Another real reason is that my company is increasingly going along with the COVID nonsense full bore. It\’s nauseating. And if I take classes, I\’m in debt to my company for at least one year (or rather, they can make me pay it back if I leave for any reason). I don\’t want such apron strings right now.

And finally, a major reason is just family time. I have a lot of kids and a lovely wife. Ain\’t nobody got time for school.