lennys September 09, 2024

Picking investments

So I just finished setting up a few investment pies in M1. I'm going off of the examples made in this newsletter I'm subscribed to, some of which is over my head but I'm doing it anyway. I won't be putting a lot of money into this at first, just a hundred dollars every now and then, so if it goes belly-up I won't be hit too hard. I've been studying investing off and on for a few years now, and I've learned that it takes a massive amount of time and effort to become knowledgeable in it. More time and energy than I care to invest in it, to be honest. Thus I'm going off of what the pros recommend. I'm doing all this because I got a late start in the investing game, and I'm playing catch-up now. So far overall it's been outperforming inflation by a few points so I can't really complain much. Other than that, things are boring like usual. I'm still painting on my toolbox which is coming along pretty well. It's a slow process because I have to let it sit between coats for a whole day, so I go out on the patio, spray paint it for ten minutes, then go back inside and wait until the next day for the paint to dry. I have a Python meetup tomorrow evening I'll be going to, which should be interesting. They'll be discussing something with Jupyter Labs, I forget the exact details but since I've been using Jupyter Labs in my Python studying I've got a little bit of familiarity with it now. We'll see how much I get out of it, so far I haven't really used it to its full potential. The new Python book is pretty good, it cuts out a lot of the fluff and covers material I haven't seen before. I'm slowly working my way through it. I'm still doing daily DataCamp lessons too - lately I've been working through an AI track they have, learning about LLMs and stuff. I don't know where I'm heading with this AI stuff, but it's been interesting so far and since AI is getting to be a big deal I figure it's a good idea for me to know more about it. I might even learn to use ChatGPT before it's over and done with too. I think I cranked something in my left shoulder at the gym last Saturday, as it's been aching ever since. I have an appointment with a trainer at the gym today so I'm going to have to be careful with what I do to avoid injury. I've been doing bodyweight exercises in the mornings before work for a couple of weeks now too. I'm not seeing a huge amount of improvement yet but I'm sticking with it. This "Pump" app I'm using is a helpful guide on what to work on and when to rest. I think it's been worth the 77 bucks I spent on it. If it helps me lose some fat off of my waist this year I'll be a happy camper.

lennys September 01, 2024

Nothing to write about

Like the title says, I haven't got much of anything to write about. Things are going along okay. I went to the Python meetup last Tuesday, where some guy showed off his stock research website he had built and discussed the code that makes it work. This coming Tuesday they'll be building a HTMX web server application. This is new territory for me, so I don't expect I'll get a lot out of it but I'm going anyway. I Started working my way through a new Python book recently. It's titled "Python Distilled", and so far I feel like I'm getting a lot out of it. It does a good job of summarizing the material without going overboard with the explanations. I've only made it through to chapter 3 so far, but it feels like I'm learning something. I'm working through the examples using Jupyter Lab, which is a pretty handy tool. I've just started to learn what can be done with it, you can write Python code or Markdown with it and it will display the results inline with the code, which is pretty neat. Until now I've been using a text editor and running the Python interpreter in a terminal, which is more difficult to use so the new way of doing things is definitely an improvement. I'm still working on painting my toolbox. I have started laying on the red paint on the interior, and I'm painting several light coats to avoid getting runs in the paint. It's slow going as I have to let the paint dry between coats, which takes hours, so I go out on the patio, spray it for about ten minutes, then have to let it sit until the next day, so it's taking a long time but I'm working on it. I'll get it done eventually.

lennys August 23, 2024

Nothing much going on...

So it's been a week and a half since my last post. Nothing much of note has happened in that time. I went to a Python meetup again, which this time was enjoyable somewhat. The talk was about Pandas vs. Polar, which are both software packages for crunching data. Pandas is written in Python and is something I'm familiar with, whereas Polar was new to me. Polar is written in Rust but apparently can be used in Python scripts, and the consensus was that it's an improvement over Pandas. It's faster to run and can get more done in less lines of code, so it's something I'm going to look into in the near future. It's out of scope to what I've been studying, but sounds interesting enough that I think it would do me some good to know more about. In the next Python meetup they are going to build an HTMX application, so we'll see how that one goes. My toolbox project has stalled out. I haven't done anything with it in a week at least, it's still sitting on my patio waiting for me to finish. I've got the primer coat all sanded down and ready for painting, I just need to clean up the sanding dust a bit more before I move forward with it. I still have to sand down and paint the drawers, so it'll be a while before it's finished. I'm hoping there won't be any rain in the near future so I can work on the thing without it getting wet. I went over to a friend's house to work on a workbench project of his a week ago yesterday. We didn't accomplish a whole lot, we just planed down a section of countertop and glued together a bunch of boards. That was as much as we could do since we had to wait on the glue to dry, but I hung out with him and his dad for about an hour and a half which was nice. I hadn't had a lot of interaction with other people in a while. Barring unforeseen circumstances I may be going over there again next Thursday. Not much else to report, other than that I started using a new fitness app on my phone recently. It's got some body weight exercises I've been doing in the morning before work. So far, so good with that. I'm still going to the gym at least twice a week, but I decided to add this app to hopefully help me lose a little bit of weight more quickly than otherwise. I'm getting older, so the bodyweight exercises help with mobility too which I need. We'll see how it goes.

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