I had the UFO dream again...

Bad enough I only budgeted 4 hours of sleep last night; having vivid, stressful dreams did not help much. Ever have the one where you can't find your car? It ended up my car was parked somewhere and smashed up. Just as I found it, my buddy and I look up as see the sky filled with giant UFOs.

What strikes me most is how real it all was. I had a very sober reaction to the situation, my mood a blend of fear, excitement, wonder, and annoyance. It was bewilderment at the proof that we are not alone in the universe stood next to the worry of how inconvenient it all really was. That is when I woke, instantly content that the world was less complicated and that my car was fine.

Dreams aside, my waking life is constant studying. Diving deep into sysadmin material always reveals how little I know. Keeping a good attitude about it all can be challenging. I try to guard myself from ego, but sometimes I go too far the other way and I find myself feeding into doubt. I find it such a difficult line to walk.

I know my weak areas are the nuances of AD and group policy. I am also making an effort to become proficient with PowerShell and Python.

Talking about it with others helps, though I find it somewhat challenging to find people who want to sit and chat about these subjects. Forums are helpful, but they are no replacement for a sit-down conversation with another person who is equally passionate about the subject matter. I think this is a case for school. Having access to peers to study alongside is beneficial.

University would be awesome, someday... self-study will have to do for the meantime though.

 - J

Rando

The fact that these posts have been fewer and far between speaks louder to how busy I've been. I'm still trying to keep up with this blog yet time has not been easy to find.

Someone very close to my heart passed away recently. The best aspect about this person was the manner in which he lived. He lived at the pace he liked. He was happy with what he had. A lesson I have taken from him is that you really do need to consider the bigger picture and remind yourself what you're working towards and why.

There is so much I want to know and I really do need to get over the fact that I will never know everything that I want to know. I need to focus more on what I truly want to know above other knowledge. It seems more and more that my passions are directed towards data management.

For the past two years I have been focused on infrastructure. Learning the physical means by which information and data is created, stored, and exchanged. I've gained much insight, though a daunting realization that the more I learn about hardware that I will never fully understand all the facets of hardware. Still I try to chip away at these subjects in order to better understand them. More and more I feel the urge to pursue a computer engineering degree of sorts.

As for present time I think databases are next on the menu for my studies. I still have a few weeks left of preparation before I plan to attempt the Security+ exam and must try my best to refrain from pouring into this next interest. Focus.

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Enjoy your day.

 - Jon



What am I curious about today?
Data structures, boolean stuff

What am I reading?
The Unix Operating System by Kaare Christian

What am I working on?
Security+

Sponge-mode

I tripped and fell into a new job. Much better than the old job I must say! This is a great opportunity to learn. My co-workers are incredibly knowledgeable across many different spheres of knowledge. I am officially in sponge-mode.

- Jon



What am I curious about today?
machine code and assembly

What am I reading?
The Unix Operating System by Kaare Christian

What am I working on?

Security+

And on and on and on...

Today was a good day. Life has been on one of those turbulent sections of the roller-coaster; not necessarily in a bad way either. I feel lately like my life has been more full of life than it has in a long time, both in ups and downs. Truly you cannot clearly perceive one without the other for contrast.

I find myself occupying a mental state that I have not been in since my early twenties. That was a time when I basked in multiplicity and being more fearless in my approach to other humans.

One thing that I have now which I lacked in my early years is a better sense of people. I used to be a very naive person. People aren't bad, they just make bad choices. That was a very loud thought in my head. While fundamentally I still do not disagree with that thought, today I am much more aware of the sort of bad choices some people are capable of.

Fast forward today, blogging, getting it all out there. A constructive outlet, just pouring out my mind.

I'm learning more about mobile devices and their architecture. I have a few phones that I would like crack and put a custom OS on. I'm feeling Gentoo call again but I also feel the need to stay focus on my current study path. So much to learn, so little time. Focus.

Speaking of focus, back to study.

 - Jon

What am I curious about today?
Federal Communication Commission device indexing, Read-only Memories

What am I reading?
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

What am I working on?
Security+, Gentoo refresher

Day 7 is the new Day 6

Slipped up. Sorry. It was literally the last thing I thought about before falling asleep last night. I promise to make up for it with an extra post at the end of this streak.

Life is just too jam-packed with stuff these days. We really need to find a way to overclock our brains. Imagine being able to achieve 100 hours of study in a few moments. That would be a major shift in our evolution as a species.

I have finally hit my first lull in study motivation. I want to play games. I want to sleep. I want to make origami. Focus Jon. Focus.

Found a really interesting document that I have the high hopes of reading, despite how daunting it seems. Lots of sub-sections and reference notation.... but the knowledge will be very useful. I'll be attacking this one a small chew at a time.

Looking forward to the end of all this snow. We got hit by what I hope is the last March blizzard. They've declared a state-of-emergency south of the border. Life up here is just the same as ever.

 - Jon



What am I curious about today?
Space and time

What am I reading?
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

What am I working on?

Security+

Day 5. Still Alive.

Day 5 is Monday. I don't mind Mondays. Today was actually a pretty damn good Monday I must say.

Still carrying on with the Security+ study. I feel that I'm starting to get traction on the material and have been noting many topics which I need to explore in more depth to gain familiarity.

It is very cold outside. March is a cruel month in this part of the world. It teases you with the promise of winter's end then blows a chilly -10° Celsius wind in your face. While most of the snow has subsided there plenty of dirt-infused ice clinging to the sidewalk curbs.

I'm learning a bit about .htaccess in order to broaden my web knowledge.

Hello? Anyone there? Just testing the line. Adios for now.

 - Jon


What am I curious about today? 
.htaccess

What am I reading?
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland (which I have not picked up in days despite the fact I still claim to be 'reading' it... note to self: go to bed 15 mins earlier and read in that time)

What am I working on?
Security+, line drawing

Day 4 - Focus

It'll be a short one today as I have a lot on the plate. It is the first weekend in a while that we've had a chance to tidy up the apartment. Making more strides towards the Security+. The material is sticking a lot better than that active directory crap... sorry, active directory is an essential service... I didn't mean it.

I really would like to play some Rust today! Seems I never have time for gaming anymore. When I do I end up feeling guilty after playing for an hour or so and go back to studying.

Side-note: I want to make a text-based adventure game in Python. Something like Colossal Cave Adventure by William Crowther and Don Woods but a bit more refined.

 - Jon


What am I curious about today?
Fortran and assembly language

What am I reading?
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

What am I working on?

Security+