Day 50: Sorry Not Sorry About What I Said
Jun. 9th, 2023 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebeI interviewed yesterday for a Quality Control Analyst position at a calibration and compliance company. They inspect controlled and standardized environments in labs, biotech, and other such places -- what I would be doing is going over the field technician reports to double-check the results. According to my interviewer, it's a lot of work constantly looking at similar data so attention to detail will be crucial. It's an entry-level position, so the pay would be a significant step back from my last job too.
But the company is rapidly growing and there are a lot of opportunities for advancement if I play my cards right. It's a fully-remote job, so there's no threat of a commute weighing over me. Two friends already work there, and I get on-the-job training in another field so transferable skills come out of it. It's also a work-a-day, 8-to-5 job with apparently limited supervision.
If I can swing the drop in pay, it would be a strong opportunity. At the very least, it gives me a steady income while I look for a job in education, health care, or government elsewhere. If I took it, I plan to stay for at least six months so the friend who referred me can get his bonus.
It's the most promising nibble I've gotten in a while, so I'll take it.
My desktop computer has been acting strange for a little while now, so yesterday morning I decided to do some digging. It turns out my C drive was nearly full! I had thought I was storing things on the much more spacious (but HDD) D drive when I wasn't -- and there's no easy way to migrate apps and programs from one drive to another. That, and there was an annoyingly persistent firmware issue that just wouldn't go away.
Ultimately I decided to reinstall Windows 11 and set up my app/program installations better. I think the idea with these hybrid (small SSD/large HDD) is to set up your programs on the SSD so they run as fast as possible, but put the bulk of the storage on your HDD. So while Steam is on my C Drive, the games library is on D.
It took me much of the day to reinstall the OS, hunt down the firmware issue (a bad update from Dell, it turns out), and put the programs back where they were. I'm actually still doing that -- Scrivener, Fantasy Grounds, and Discord are the heavy-hitters I'll need to reinstall today. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm quite worried I may have blown away my campaign in Fantasy Grounds. We'll find out when I reinstall, I guess. :P
I simply wasn't physically active enough yesterday. Talking about it with a recent friend, I realized how much trouble I'm facing if I don't get serious about my diet and exercise. I can already tell my balance is starting to degrade, and I just *look* near-sighted when I see myself in the mirror. I'm not diabetic yet, but that's on the horizon if I don't rein in my sweet tooth and get my eating habits under control.
The issue there is I'm already pushing myself in so many different ways. It's hard to devote spoons to that, too. I worry that if I try too much too soon, the whole house of cards will come crumbling down and I'll revert from all the progress I've made. I want to make sure the foundation of my habits is strong enough to withstand that extra weight.
That being said, there'll never be a "right" time to take on more responsibility. One of the things I've learned over my four decades of life is that you'll never feel ready to stretch yourself in the ways you need. Not really. So it's time for a little more discipline and control, as the Shadow Warrior would say.
Somehow we ended up with a socially-packed weekend. Tonight, we're taking K. to Haberdasher for a few drinks. We very rarely hang with him outside of gaming and his housemates, and I'm looking forward to connecting with him on a more personal level. I'm pretty sure drinks will turn into dinner; then we'll finish off the evening at home no doubt.
Saturday is frisbee golf with a new couple R. has befriended. They're newbies to it, but this will be our first visit to the course this year so I think that evens us out. Lunch with them after that, and then a board game party with H. in the evening. I think it'll be a smallish gathering, but I'm still looking forward to it. H. has surrounded himself with good people, and right now feels like a good time to make new friends.
I feel like I'm settling into myself more these days. I'm comfortable with my place in my journey, and while there are always things that could improve I'm also content with the progress I'm making. I know the flaws I have to work on and I'm consistently thinking about how to do that. I've been coping with my fear and anxiety a lot better, so it's been a bit easier to push past that when I'm doing something to trigger it -- like writing.
It's strange, but maintaining a long habit with Duolingo was just what I needed to have this small breakthrough. I'm coming up on a 90-day streak, and while a LOT of those days were filled with streak freezes even the illusion of daily practice has given me a confidence that feels new. I can be consistent with the things I want to do -- even if I don't do it every day, I can do it often enough that it feels weird when I don't. And over those three months, my vocabulary and speaking skills with French have improved dramatically. Who knows where I'll be in a year? Two?
Thinking that way makes me excited to do the same with writing, and my diet, and running. I know those take considerably more effort than opening a phone app every day, but if I can learn this much French in three months, what could I write if I stuck to it? How much weight could I lose?
It's given me proof positive that consistent effort IS transformational. It gives me a template for duplicating my progress elsewhere. It's a good feeling. :)
But the company is rapidly growing and there are a lot of opportunities for advancement if I play my cards right. It's a fully-remote job, so there's no threat of a commute weighing over me. Two friends already work there, and I get on-the-job training in another field so transferable skills come out of it. It's also a work-a-day, 8-to-5 job with apparently limited supervision.
If I can swing the drop in pay, it would be a strong opportunity. At the very least, it gives me a steady income while I look for a job in education, health care, or government elsewhere. If I took it, I plan to stay for at least six months so the friend who referred me can get his bonus.
It's the most promising nibble I've gotten in a while, so I'll take it.
My desktop computer has been acting strange for a little while now, so yesterday morning I decided to do some digging. It turns out my C drive was nearly full! I had thought I was storing things on the much more spacious (but HDD) D drive when I wasn't -- and there's no easy way to migrate apps and programs from one drive to another. That, and there was an annoyingly persistent firmware issue that just wouldn't go away.
Ultimately I decided to reinstall Windows 11 and set up my app/program installations better. I think the idea with these hybrid (small SSD/large HDD) is to set up your programs on the SSD so they run as fast as possible, but put the bulk of the storage on your HDD. So while Steam is on my C Drive, the games library is on D.
It took me much of the day to reinstall the OS, hunt down the firmware issue (a bad update from Dell, it turns out), and put the programs back where they were. I'm actually still doing that -- Scrivener, Fantasy Grounds, and Discord are the heavy-hitters I'll need to reinstall today. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm quite worried I may have blown away my campaign in Fantasy Grounds. We'll find out when I reinstall, I guess. :P
I simply wasn't physically active enough yesterday. Talking about it with a recent friend, I realized how much trouble I'm facing if I don't get serious about my diet and exercise. I can already tell my balance is starting to degrade, and I just *look* near-sighted when I see myself in the mirror. I'm not diabetic yet, but that's on the horizon if I don't rein in my sweet tooth and get my eating habits under control.
The issue there is I'm already pushing myself in so many different ways. It's hard to devote spoons to that, too. I worry that if I try too much too soon, the whole house of cards will come crumbling down and I'll revert from all the progress I've made. I want to make sure the foundation of my habits is strong enough to withstand that extra weight.
That being said, there'll never be a "right" time to take on more responsibility. One of the things I've learned over my four decades of life is that you'll never feel ready to stretch yourself in the ways you need. Not really. So it's time for a little more discipline and control, as the Shadow Warrior would say.
Somehow we ended up with a socially-packed weekend. Tonight, we're taking K. to Haberdasher for a few drinks. We very rarely hang with him outside of gaming and his housemates, and I'm looking forward to connecting with him on a more personal level. I'm pretty sure drinks will turn into dinner; then we'll finish off the evening at home no doubt.
Saturday is frisbee golf with a new couple R. has befriended. They're newbies to it, but this will be our first visit to the course this year so I think that evens us out. Lunch with them after that, and then a board game party with H. in the evening. I think it'll be a smallish gathering, but I'm still looking forward to it. H. has surrounded himself with good people, and right now feels like a good time to make new friends.
I feel like I'm settling into myself more these days. I'm comfortable with my place in my journey, and while there are always things that could improve I'm also content with the progress I'm making. I know the flaws I have to work on and I'm consistently thinking about how to do that. I've been coping with my fear and anxiety a lot better, so it's been a bit easier to push past that when I'm doing something to trigger it -- like writing.
It's strange, but maintaining a long habit with Duolingo was just what I needed to have this small breakthrough. I'm coming up on a 90-day streak, and while a LOT of those days were filled with streak freezes even the illusion of daily practice has given me a confidence that feels new. I can be consistent with the things I want to do -- even if I don't do it every day, I can do it often enough that it feels weird when I don't. And over those three months, my vocabulary and speaking skills with French have improved dramatically. Who knows where I'll be in a year? Two?
Thinking that way makes me excited to do the same with writing, and my diet, and running. I know those take considerably more effort than opening a phone app every day, but if I can learn this much French in three months, what could I write if I stuck to it? How much weight could I lose?
It's given me proof positive that consistent effort IS transformational. It gives me a template for duplicating my progress elsewhere. It's a good feeling. :)
