Weeknotes 2024W40

Got sick and watched movies

One afternoon this week, it hit me. My muscles were sore, my head hurt, and I was winded after putting on my socks. I pushed through for a late night session at the youth center and was really feeling it by the time I got home. The next morning I felt worse so I stayed in bed for the day. I moved my small table and extension cord over to my bed and downloaded a few movies which I don’t normally watch.

First up was Terminator 2, a classic. I always thought the liquid metal terminator had the most interesting capabilities. Young John Connor is fun. Overall, a pretty good move.

After that was Oppenheimer which I already had downloaded but never actually watched. It was good but I wish my brain was working at full capacity to really understand what was going on. It was also interesting “seeing” all these scientists whose theories and equations I had used in college. I kind of forgot that Niels Bohr was a real person not just the name of a model of an atom.

Wolf of Wall Street was next. Lots of cussing, drugs, sex, money, and securities fraud. I don’t think I ever really understood the scheme until this go-around. They were doing a pump and dump where the Belfort’s firm bought shares of very small-cap (penny) stocks. Then they’d “pump” up the price by getting investors to buy lots of the same stock by lying and making it sound better than it is. Once the stock price went up, the schemers would “dump” their stocks for a profit. This made the stock price go down, losing investors money.

Made a digital résumé

Before I got sick, I made a digital résumé in the same style as my home page. My CSS grid skills are definitely getting an upgrade. It’s 2024 and a flat, single page résumé don’t make sense to me anymore. So, I made a unique one on my website. Some cool elements:

• Testimonials in the form of quotes that I had written down in a big document whenever I saw them. These are unsolicited and copied right from the source.
• Featured posts that demonstrate the kinds of skills I’m trying to convey.
• A table of contents section if someone is looking for something specific.
• Deliberate color choices to tie elements together. Experience sections are split up but both colored red. Testimonials are lovely cyan sprinkles.

I also posted a write-up of my strategy for sharing who I am professionally with employers. I’m using layers of information because people are busy and need different amounts of information at different times.

Bits and Bobs

• Made progress on my backlog of book notes and posted book notes for Culture Matters. Really interesting book for cultural awareness and cultural self-awareness. I recommend it to any Americans curious about their own culture and especially Peace Corps Volunteers.
• Had an informational interview with an engineer in a role I might like. I really appreciate people taking the time and sharing their hard-earned knowledge.
• I’ve got less than a month left in Morocco.

Links

• Color scheme toggle by @miuku. Just plain ol’ fun.
• How I Experience the Web Today by Guangyi Li. A satirical look at modern websites and their god awful popups, modals, ads, and paywalls.
• anh’s home page. Beautifully and expertly crafted and kind of creepy. Incredible.
• What is it about people who write Weeknotes? by Phil Nunnally. Nunnally perfectly put into words how reading other weeknotes makes me feel.

  Weeknotes put us all on an equal footing. Everyone just had a week. What you noticed and how you spent the time and energy is what makes yours different.

• Being Raised by the Internet by Jimmy Miller. Openly sharing knowledge and resources is a wonderful thing.
• QR Code Generator by Kyle Zheng and the accompanying blog post. Really cool looking QR codes and a deep dive into how they work.
• Stay in the gap by Mandy Brown at everything changes. There will always be a gap between what you see as excellent and your abilities. This isn’t a gap to be crossed but one to live in.

Created: 2024-10-06

Last modified: 2024-10-06