5.26.20

Things are going a little bit better this week, I think in large part to
sticking to  my idea  of regimenting  myself. I  bought some  clothes to
excercise in  during my lunch break,  and I'm feeling the  vitality flow
back into  my body, even  though I  know it will  take a good  amount of
effort to reach where I used  to be, fitness-wise. We called and secured
a new  apartment this past  weekend, and we hope  to be moving  in July,
which has also been a huge morale boost for myself and my family.

I've  been steadily  studying  for  the A+,  and  found  some good  CCNA
material which I  have realized is a better move  than the Network+. The
A+  material is  such a  strange  mixture of  "Things I  knew in  middle
school" and  "Memorize the  specs for 100  different standards"  that it
feels both trivially easy and tremendously  difficult. I know that a lot
of my trepidation towards  the A+, and why I have  been so adamant about
studying it, is purely  nerves. I want to know going  into the exam that
I'm going to pass, without a doubt. The CCNA is interesting because I am
still fairly  mystified by  networking, even  as I  get more  versed I'm
learning  all those  "things  you  didn't know  you  didn't know".  I've
ordered one  of those  mini-PCs that  are made for  use with  Pfsense or
Opnsense, and  I hope to  get some experience  setting that up  soon; it
should improve the home network and give me some interesting features to
play around with, while also giving me more in-depth hands on experience
with networking stuff, so a big win all around.

Also, I've started looking into Python  a little more. I've been reading
"Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" and also messing around with the
W3Schools Python materials, which  have not been incredibly challenging,
but have provided a nice little break in the monotony of studying, since
coding is a bit more interactive than watching lectures or reading flash
cards. Maybe  once I'm  better at it  I could write  a Python  script to
update my  Phlog here when  I have  a new post  to make. That  should be
simple enough to  handle. I'm excited to  see what I can  do with Python
the better I get to know it.

It's profoundly strange to be excited to  see the future, and I would be
lying if I said there wasn't a lot  of anxiety over the "what ifs" of my
life  at this  stage. I  try  to remember  to  let myself  be happy  and
excited, not  just in spite  of the bad things,  but because of  them. A
very special someone said to me once,  when I was having a Very Bad Day,
"Having a bad day today just means  that you're getting that bad day out
of the  way so you can  have a good day  later," and I think  that was a
very solid  piece of advice.  Maybe I've  collected enough good  days to
coast for a while, maybe something horrible will happen to me on the way
home from work today, who knows? I sure don't.

-Vx