lennys April 05, 2024

Learning Log

So I just completed the Python Crash Course book. The last few chapters covered building a site called "Learning Log", which lets you setup an account, log into it, add a topic you're learning about, and type in a brief summary of what you have learned. It uses Bootstrap to make it look pretty. It was a good refresher on working with Django. I didn't do the deployment, because Heroku no longer has a free tier in their server packages. But that's okay, because I'm looking into hosting it on my own server. I'd like to incorporate it into this blog, but I don't yet know how to host multiple Django projects under one domain name. It's going to take some experimenting to figure that out. For the moment, I'm moving on to another Python book, named "Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python". I haven't even cracked this book open yet, so I can't say much about it yet, but based on the reviews I read on Amazon it sounds like a good next step for me to take.

lennys March 25, 2024

Python Crash Course, and taxes...

I finished up the "Automate" book, and am now working my way through "Python Crash Course" again. I read through this book and worked on the code a couple of years ago, but I've found that I need a refresher on working with Python. So the practice helps. I'll probably be working my way through this book for another week, then I'll have to move on to something else. I have an active datacamp.com subscription, and they have plenty of Python lessons for me to work through so I might go that route and not get another book for a while. But we will see how it goes. I'm doing this so that when I eventually install Ansible on my Cisco gear, I'll have a better idea of how it all works. But that's a ways down the road. In other news, well there isn't much news. I've just been going through the regular work-week routine. I'll be going to the gym again today after work, but other than that I don't have anything planned for the next few days except for an appointment with H&R Block to get my taxes done. I'd rather do it myself, but since I sold some investments this year and I'm not savvy with how that affects my tax burden, I'm deferring to the experts and will begrudgingly accept their exorbitant prices. They'll take their cut out of my tax return, so I'm not out-of-pocket on this, but I'd still rather keep my money. Paying taxes is like paying for insurance, you don't want to do it but it's necessary if you want to live in this society without any issues. I'm still looking for business ideas. Last month I read a book about starting up a business, and while it had some good tips in there I'm still stuck when it comes to what I'll actually sell. It'd be easier if I just wanted to open a bait shop or some other kind of brick-and-mortar store, but I've learned that I'm more of a "passive income" kind of person. I'm not good with marketing in general, so the idea of hustling to get my name out there is daunting. If I ever get something off the ground I'll have to pay someone else to do the marketing and bookkeeping. I have a bad habit of wanting to do EVERYTHING myself, because I generally don't trust other people. I'll have to find a way to get over that if I want this to go anywhere someday.

lennys March 16, 2024

It continues...

So I'm still working through the "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" book. I'm on my third read-through, going over the code hoping it will stick in my memory. I expect I'll be done with the book sometime this week, then I'll be moving on to "Python Crash Course" and doing basically the same thing: go over the code and read through the book multiple times. That'll probably take another full week if not more. After that, I'll have to buy a new book somewhere. I've got one book picked out and waiting in my Amazon shopping cart, written by the same author who wrote "Automate...". Hopefully it'll be a good one, as I'm still unsure of myself when it comes to Python. Learning to code is slow going for me sadly. I haven't pushed any code to GitHub since early February. Not that I've been avoiding it, rather I've been busy with my Python books and didn't see the point in pushing code I got from the book that's only a few lines long. Almost none of my repos are public so nobody can see them anyway (I hope), but I didn't think it was worth the effort to be honest. And from what I've read online, it's possible to write a script that would automatically create a repo and push some code daily, without any interaction from the programmer. A way to game the system to make your profile look as though you write and push code daily, when actually you're not touching it at all. I don't have any interest in developing such a script, I've just read about others who have done it. It feels like cheating to me. Sometime soon I want to spend some time going over my CCNA stuff again. I've noticed that I've forgotten a lot of what I learned about CCNA last year, and I don't want all that work to be for nothing so I need a refresher. If I stay at this job for another year I'll be looking into studying for the CCNP exam to get another raise, so my CCNA knowledge will definitely be needed. Besides, I still have 3 Cisco routers and 4 Cisco switches running in my cabinet at work, so I should put them to use somehow. I also need to spend some time working with my Mikrotik router. I want to learn more about running BGP on that thing, and since there aren't a lot of books on the subject I'll have to spend some time fiddling with it to figure things out. So many things to do, and never enough time for them all. Sigh.

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