Month: February 2022

Using tech skills for hobbyist stuff

Dee Leave a comment

Before I started on the TechUP course, I was already into a lot of hobbyist tech stuff, as I’ve always found it interesting – and given that I spend pretty much my whole life in front of computer screens, I like to be able to solve problems myself when things don’t work as expected. This is part of the reason I jumped at the chance to do a proper software dev course.

Nevertheless, you would think that after five months of studying, I would be ready to run screaming away from tech stuff for a while. However, this is not at all the case. I am desperate to get back to my techy hobbies, as I’ve had absolutely no time to work on them for months! I won’t jump into anything with a deadline such as game comps and jams, as I do need a month or two off from *stress* after the course is finished, but I’m so excited to get back to playing with both hardware and software in a purely fun way – especially as I’m keen to utilise my new skills learnt on the course for some of my hobby projects.

This is also partly inspired by the fact that Dad arrived with some tools to revitalise my old dead laptop this morning (he and Mum are in town for his birthday today). Dad’s laptop-revitalising tools almost always consist of a Linux installation disk and a flash drive, and today was no exception. We were able to access my files as they were left when Windows stopped booting, so I have been able to back them up in their less jumbled state. This will be really helpful when getting everything properly organised on the new laptop.

I don’t need Windows on the old laptop any more, so once I’ve copied all my files, I’ll be installing Linux instead. However, I am developing quite a pile of old laptops upstairs with various builds of Linux put on them by Dad after they died as Windows machines, and I’m never going to need absolutely all of them as spare laptops. As such, I want to have a think about how they can be better repurposed. One of the many possibilities for the magical month of March (something I never thought I’d say about March) that will be here very soon.

It’s all on the list… somewhere

Dee Leave a comment

At times like this when I have a lot to do, I’m really glad of my fairly obsessively organised daily to-do list. I do have a good memory but it can be quite stressful to hold everything in my brain at once, and I feel much better when it’s all written down.

There are probably hundreds of non-urgent items on the ‘future’ part of the list at the moment. I tend to develop huge backlogs of such things (too many project ideas, not enough time). It’ll be nice to be able to pick and choose again when I’m no longer super busy.

The buffer kicks in

Dee Leave a comment

I have a total of three short presentations to give in the next week and a half as I finish the TechUP course, and today I wrote out the notes for them all. This took quite a bit longer than expected, so I didn’t get everything on my list done today. I am okay with that due to the scheduled-in buffer (see Sunday’s post). I never usually have buffers as I’m almost always right up against it at work, so I feel strangely un-panicked at the moment, especially considering how much I hate giving presentations.

We’re allowed to pre-record one of them, which is an opportunity I am grabbing with both hands. No point in being more stressed than necessary.

I am quite looking forward to posting about stuff that’s not TechUP in a couple of weeks’ time! Probably get back to my regularly scheduled marathon training posts…

Daily milestones!

Dee Leave a comment

I’ve got a lot on the list every day this week in order to finish my coursework, but so far (she says on Monday!) it’s getting done. I spent today finishing the most challenging coding module of the course – I’m glad it’s over, though tomorrow’s soft skills work will be challenging in a different way (I am a lot less comfortable when attempting to prepare things like presentations and elevator pitches than I am when learning to code).

Valentine’s Day has been nice, with a rare off-diet excursion into the land of chocolate and pizza. Back on plan tomorrow.

Planning out a buffer…

Dee Leave a comment

…and hoping that there are minimal or preferably zero spanners thrown into the works.

As mentioned in recent posts, I’m in the final fortnight of my course now, and there’s still a lot to do. On my current diary, it’s all looking very doable, but the nature of my work (which usually comes in on very short notice) means that this could change at any time! As such, I’ve scheduled the bulk of the remaining coursework for the first week out of the two. This will hopefully provide me with enough of a buffer that I can also fit in any client work that arrives in my inbox.

It really feels like I’m in the thick of it at the moment, but hopefully by the end of the month I will have a big achievement to celebrate.

parkrunday: Town Moor #527

Dee Leave a comment

It was Geth’s last parkrun as a runner for a while (he’ll be volunteering instead during his marathon training block) so we went to Town Moor in the hope that he could have a good whizz round. Unfortunately it was a bit too breezy for fast times today (though nothing compared to two weeks ago!), and I was taking it easy due to a slight twinge anyway.

Due to chatting to friends at the end I forgot to take a post-parkrun selfie today, but I did take this shot of our much-appreciated heater when we got home.

Post-parkrun heater
Not pictured: the other fire also going on the other side of me. Post-parkrun mornings are cold in the winter.

One last fortnight of focus

Dee Leave a comment

I’ve been really relieved that it’s been a slightly lighter week work-wise this week, as the deadline for finishing all my TechUP work (group project and modules) is a fortnight from today. I’m on top of it, just about, but there’s still a lot to do. Hoping to squeeze in a bit of downtime this weekend before the final push!

All present and correct…

Dee Leave a comment

…if not necessarily in the right order.

I had a bit of spare time today so I finished transferring all my files to my new laptop. It took a while to locate everything because I’ve been backing it up on various different external drives and USB sticks over the last few months and years, but I have now found it all. It’s all jumbled up and it’s going to take a long time to get it all organised, but at least it’s all there, so I won’t have lost anything if my old laptop does turn out to be unrecoverable!

I’m tempted to take this opportunity to reorganise everything completely. Maybe that’s what I’ll do post-TechUP.