Personal

Early Tuesday Morning Rain ☔

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Walking laps in the Plaza and doing the stairs in the LOB this morning again. I figure get an early start and get in an hour of walking before work.

After such a dry period it suddenly changed 🌧️as the high pressure finally moved off the coast. 🌀 It should be interesting how this all plays out but it seems like we are entering a much more active weather pattern though December isn’t as cold as it once was. But at least this weekend doesn’t look as cold and windy as it once was predicted 🔮 to be.

I’m still a bit undecided if I will head north this weekend 🏕️ or wait another week. Some depends on if I can get the big database update 💾launched before Thanksgiving 🦃 because I need to be in the office to oversee the launch of that. If I go north I want to take off Monday and a few more days so I can maximize the trip and possibly get up to Newcomb. I have the time to use up before the end of the year but things are busy and because I gave a lot of staff off around the holidays 🎅 guess who will be in the office keeping all the systems humming with last minute jobs.

While the DEC’s own website 🕸️ is intentionally vague about the so called fire 🔥 ban through November 30thif you read 📖 the governor’s press release, it’s nothing beyond the normal restrictions and doesn’t apply to fires in a contained manner such a fire pit like most of the campsites have. 💧 And after all the rain it’s not like the fire risk is that high. So that’s not a consideration. But I don’t want to be camping with a roaring wind. Or be traveling icy roads. 🌨️ Who knows what happens the following weekend weather wise, though it’s the end of regular season statewide 🦌, black 🖤 powder follows that. I just worry that the Adirondacks will get a tons of snow after Thanksgiving and that can make parking 🅿️ difficult even if I hot tent 🎪.

Use the tool your good with that does the job 🔧

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I really like coding with R and the tidyverse. It’s a great tool and it works well for the things I do. But I’m so torn, it’s not a real programming language I tell myself. It’s a domain specific language, something used a lot in academia and research but not something you would use to write the next Microsoft Word or use with 50 million data rows at once. And I don’t really have a use for either of those things.

I’m really trying to master the ins and outs of C and C++ but much like machine learning it’s not something I have much real world use for in every day life. Yet, I see it as a powerful and fast tool and I’m forcing myself to write code and learn the ins and outs of the libraries, the linker, build environments and vs code. Even if it’s easier to do something in R, I’m forcing myself to do it in C or C++. Honestly, I was going to do everything in C but C++ is so much more powerful – working with C libraries like glib feels like one big hack to overcome the limitations of C.

I often forget how difficult Python and R were when I started out. I got good at Python then R by using it every day. R is such a weird language for some one schooled in C++ years ago in college. But the truth is that the more languages you learn the easier new ones become. Syntax changes but core concepts remain the same though new ones are added all the time. Hell after all these years I still remember Hypercard and Perl though I’m a bit rusty.

I doubt I’ll ever be a real developer or a computer programmer. But I like maps and as such working with data. And I’ll do my best damn work possible as the Director of Data Services, writing the tools I need to deliver the results my clients need to understand their constituencies and effectively communicate. Who knows where this all leads but I know there is a lot of power in data.

Camp Run Lake

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Driving past Camp Run Lake on my way back to Camp Run Campground.

Three day work week 3️⃣

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Thanksgiving is Thursday and then snow and cold, and if you believe the Euro Model quite a bit of snow. Not that Euro Model is always right, indeed the GFS and GEM suggests less and more targeted snow but white stuff is coming to parts of the state for sure.

Another cool start to the morning ❄️ but not so cold that I can’t ride in. 🚲 Rain tomorrow do I’ll be busing it on Tuesday and Wednesday maybe I can ride both ways if I leave work early for the holiday. With the dryness of winter my hands 👐 keep getting cut and bloody, 🩸need more hand lotion on them. 🧴

Continuing my intense study and writing 📝 of C++ code. Whatever I code in C++ the way I look at it’s practice and I’m getting experience and getting better. Right now I’m not seeing massive speed or productivity benefits over writing R Code but I am seeing ways to integrate those skills along with my data skills. Mastering DuckDB 🦆 should though really help with my big queries and data work, and I can certainly call it not just from C++ but also R, Python code and shell scripts. Hardest thing with DuckDB was getting the libraries installed, kept getting segfaults and object errors until I found a Fedora repository with the RPMs of it online. Now it’s working great. Going to install the DuckDB package 📦 on my work machine too.

As my CD 💿 has come due, I am going to sell it and buy bonds and keep the rest of it as cash in my high interest savings account, as I want to get more market exposure without necessarily getting more stock. 🐄 I know right now bond rates are falling with interest rates going up so it will be a depreciating asset in the short-term but I am thinking longer out for buying land and that cabin. I have too much stock but also too much cash and I need more balance in my portfolio but I want to avoid paying extra in capital gains for now.

Got to schedule my state inspection and tire rotation on my truck 🚚 for I think mid December. Work Christmas Party 🎅 is on Friday December 13th so I’m thinking it would be a good week to get my truck inspected on the 11th or 12th in case any repairs are required. I might get away that weekend of the 6th and 7th, 🏕️ depends on how much snow 🌨️ and how cold it is. I really am not expecting to get away this weekend due to the cold.

Getting back to the evening walk 🚶

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Riding to work, often both ways which is about seventeen miles, I’ve used it as an excuse to skip my evening walk. But the past few days I’ve brought it back as I like that time to get some moderate exercise and reflect, plus it’s gotten harder to get in the necessary exercise at the suburban office without the 18 flights of stairs like my old office.

Riding to work is great but I do treasure the quiet of the walk. Plus it uses up time I would likely otherwise be laying in bed, reading or watching a YouTube. While that’s fine, evenings still are so long this time of year.

Out for a walk on Bennett Hill 🚶

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Rain squall blew in all the way from Lake Erie. It was actually somewhat decent out before the rain came in but windy. Earlier with the sun it was windy but not too cold.

I’ve just been taking it slow the past few days, 🖥️ recovering from the first five day work week in the office in person in months. I think I was chilled through yesterday but that wind 💨 was roaring away for much of the day. I mean I should have gone out for a ride yesterday 🚲 or maybe walked the block but I’m totally ready to just sleep through winter. ❄️

It’s not looking good for camping 🏕️ next weekend like I often do on Black Friday. It’s not the cold weather that bothers me, it’s the wind. 🌬️ I don’t mind 20 degrees days, especially if it’s sunny ☀️, they can be quite beautiful and the snow and ice tends to be well frozen. This year looks cold. Plus who knows about the burn ban, I don’t think it really applies to campfires but no info is on the DEC website but if there is snow ☃️ on the ground and it’s remote country who really cares. Ain’t never seen anyone up there at camp 🔥 after all these years. It’s like smoking pot on federal lands. Or burning a little plastic trash.

I still want to get up to the East Branch Scandaga and Newcomb 🗻 but it increasingly looks like that will have to wait another weekend. I have the time to use up before the end of the year at work so I should just plan hopefully on the next week. It’s gets tricky though schedule wise for me in December – work Christmas Party 🎉 on Friday December 13th and then I am seeing my niece at the ballet on Sunday December 22nd. So those weeks are bad. 🎅

Dropped off a bunch of mostly worn out, poorly fitting clothing at the clothes 👕 recycling ♻️ dumpster and returned a bunch of beer cans from camping 🏕️. Put most of my summer clothes away. Also got the electric space heater and the electric blanket out of the crawl space and put away the second cooler. Went to the grocery store 🏬, actually Walmart. Going to drop off the recyclables – cans 🥫 and bottles at my parents bin. Maybe some of the recycle plastics too, be green 💚 for once plus burning all that plastic can be kind of nasty. 🍊 Got grapefruit when shopping 🛒, I’m kind of excited about that.

Been doing a lot of studying of the C++ language and writing code. 📝 Along with practicing with linked libraries and build environments. Of I ever want to be a real developer, somebody who both excels at my job as Data Services Director and can use code to build anything I need to use C and C++ every day. I understand concepts but I want to excel at writing actual useful code. People ask how I go so damn good at R or even making maps 🗺️ – it’s that I did it every day for years.

Sunday dinner with the folks 👨‍👩‍👦 then maybe I’ll do my evening walk. I think it will be nice enough to ride in tomorrow 🚲 as I’m trying to boost my exercise levels after a pretty lazy 💤 Saturday that spent writing and studying code. I’ll keep an eye 👁️ on the forecast for next weekend but I’m okay waiting another weekend to head out of town. Really could save some money, 💵 things will be tight once the rent check clears plus I have a lot already on my credit card 💳. I’d like to have a warmer nicer stretch to get up to Newcomb.