Softball in the cold

It's going to be quite chilly thru Saturday morning, especially in areas with breezy winds. Areas near the foothills of the Cascades will experience wind chills into the single digits to around 0°F. Here's a look at the forecast wind chills. Bundle up if you're headed out! #wawx pic.twitter.com/MRtxiDfdN9

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) February 23, 2023

 

Gaby has her first softball tournament today in Everett WA. The thing is, it's freaking cold. 24 degrees right now with one inch of snowfall this morning. It's going to be really interesting to see how the girls are going to play 3 games all day out in weather like this. 

Send thoughts and prayers. 

What have I been up to: Feb 2023 edition

Alright, I'm sitting here at a Public Library waiting for Gaby to finish softball practice, today the weather was going to be nice but then a last minute front came in and practice got moved an hour later and to an indoor facility. It's a typical Seattle evening in February. Rainy, 37 degrees last time I checked. I'm tired, I worked from the office today and I don't feel like doing anything productive so I figured I just write here and start rambling about what's fun, work and not fun. 

Fun Stuff

Skiing at Stevens

I go as often as I can. This is one of those things that gets me going into a state of flow, when I was first learning to ski it was scary, stressful and super hard on my knees, but now that I can at least not die it is just fun. 

Staying home

Last weekend I was going to go but since Gaby had stuff to do I stayed home, as a game I told Martha that I will not say no to anything she asked for that day. Needless to say, I did a lot of house chores that day. Yet I managed not to cook any meals. Another game I came up with is the one where I read to Martha the beginning of a book that has been turned into a movie or TV show that we've seen and I try to see if she can figure it out. Faster one was "Gone Girl" because she actually read the book, the one that she didn't get was "Station Eleven" because she didn't really watch the show. 

Home improvements

We put a dog run on the backyard, that was a real good investment, we covered the backyard and the side of the house with artificial turf, now the dogs can go out and not get muddy and the house stays clean. We love it. We're putting wallpaper in the bathrooms, we're going to add a fireplace to the living room and do other miscellaneous things, like adding a drybar area and shelves for my books. 

Modeling Shoot

Yeah, so today at work I did something different than the usual software engineering stuff. I got an email asking for volunteers for models to wear Amazon Web Services apparel for the online catalog and social media. They were looking for "diversity" so since I belong to the Latinos at Amazon Affinity group and because of my great looks (lol) 😂  so I told them I'll do it and they said yeah. It was a lot of fun, there were other "models" there that I met, I met a lady from Florida we bonded over the "yeah, I'll never live there again" and "which part of Florida is more sketch than Piooner Square" you know, typical Floridian in Seattle stuff. 

Work Stuff

Oncall

The last time I was oncall there was an outage that affected my service, and a VIP customer. I got paged so much, and I worked the hardest I've ever worked since I don't know when, The good part is that I got to meet famous people from the company since pretty much everyone was paying attention to this ticket.

No more working from home

Yeah, that was in the news the other day. Working from home is nice but as long as I don't have to commute to Bellevue I'll be okay.  Traffic is going suck, but at least the downtown scene will start thriving again, it was sad to see so many restaurants an businesses close during the pandemic

Big Project

I got asked to lead a big project with people working with me and all of that, it's more responsibility but I look forward to growing my skills.  There are things that come easy to me others take more work, planning, allocating time for multiple tasks organizing information and prioritizing are difficult. 

Not Fun Stuff

Chicha is getting old. 

Chicha turned eleven years old but lately her health is starting to deteriorate, she is the best dog I've ever had and I have a hard time letting go. I can't make the decision, but I know her time is coming. 

Sleep

I have not been sleeping well on and off since last November. I have had to deal with so many complicated situations that at night I just wake up early, like at 3 AM.  It was really bad in December, then January it got a little better but on and off. I've been much better this month but sometimes something triggers the insomnia and it sucks. It sucks the next day when I have to work because I don't have the energy to do normal executive function stuff. I notice that when I'm sleep deprived I'm more likely to get angry or upset or sad, alternatively when I get a good night sleep I'm in such a good mood that people can tell the difference. I am trying everything that I know to address this, but it still happens. I've been like this all my life but I think this is the longest stretch I've had where it happens more often than not. 

Well, that's all I have for now, the Library is about to close so I'm just going to publish without proof-reading. 

-JV

My Review of "Detox Your Thoughts" by Andrea Bonior on GoodReads

Detox Your Thoughts: Quit Negative Self-Talk for Good and Discover the Life You've Always Wanted by Andrea Bonior
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a self-help book. I'm usually skeptical but this one had a lot good info.

The book is short, a little over 200 pages with short chapters structured in a simple-to-digest manner. Lots of summaries and bullet points, which I liked.

There are four parts Part I: Your Mind, Part II: Your Moment, Part III: Your Heart and Part IV: Your Future. These are strategies for dealing with corrosive thoughts and feelings. The overall message is that we are not our thoughts, that thoughts and feelings themselves are not bad per se, but it's how we interpret them, how we react to them and act on them that can be toxic. I'd say it's a good read, it's good to know, of course the knowledge here has to be put into practice to be effective.

At first I thought I didn't have much to learn from it since personally I do not beat myself up with negative talk like "I can't do this" or "this is too much" etc, etc. There's no way I could have gotten through the Marines, a war, engineering school talking to myself like that. However, I did gain a few key insights into my psyche that I will take with me:

1. Emotions should not be dismissed or suppressed, they should be examined. When you tune out to your emotions, they come back, with force. Acknowledge your feelings and they will pass on their own.

2. Avoiding discomfort only makes things worse. People will do all kinds of things to avoid facing a tough reality. It's better to face the thing that you want to avoid to stop giving it power over you.

3. The one that hit me was the myth of arrival, people who live from goal to goal trying to achieve because deep down they believe that they have to achieve things in order to be worthy of love. I had to reckon with that one. I was raised to think that way, I absorbed that message and had internalized it.

Overall, it passed the test for good reads. I made me see things a bit differently, I do understand myself a bit better. It taught me to treat myself with the same kindness and compassion as I try to treat others.

Good Read.

View all my reviews

Life is not an Instagram or Facebook account

Is social media more harmful than good? Depends on how you use it. It should be for making connections and not for getting acceptance. 

Acceptance should come from within, if you don't love yourself and accept yourself as you are, just the way you are, with your quirks and imperfections, your past mistakes and regrets, your goals, dreams, values and desires. If you don't have that going for yourself, you're not going to get it from the outside world. Many people have this idealized version of themselves that they want to put online and when that idealized version doesn't match reality it can be harmful. It's no coincidence that studies have shown that social media use has been linked to increase depression, feeling of isolation and self-harm. It can lead to people feeling inadequate about their life or their appearance. It can make people feel lonely and isolated.  I also think that it makes you shallower, cuts your attention span and makes you pay attention to the wrong things, honestly. 

So before you post the next picture online, you must ask yourself, who am I posting it for? what purpose is this serving?  For me I like to post pictures on IG of things that I want to remember about that day, my audience is future me. If people in my life like the pic great, if not, that's okay. 

I used to think I could use Facebook to change people's mind, I just posted a link to the NPR story about Florida's war against trans rights, but I should know better than that, I don't think FB can be used to reach out and change people's minds about stuff like that, most of the time it just preaching to the choir.  What gives me hope is that maybe there's someone out there on the fence about the issue (it's 2023, not sure if that is realistic) and then they see my post and it persuades them. 

Anyway, my take on the whole social media thing is that you can use it for a good purpose and it won't be harmful however keep in mind that the people behind these apps are spending millions of dollars on figuring out how to capture your attention to make a profit. You are the product and if your well-being the price to pay to get you to be on their app they will gladly pay that price for you. 

Anyway, I got to get  to work now.

-JV

In the news: Florida bans gender-affirming care for trans kids

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/20/1157493433/florida-bans-gender-affirming-care-trans-kids

I wish I had the words to properly express how wrong this is.

The playbook is a old as time, politicians targeting vulnerable groups in order to get votes. 

I still hang on to the hope that most people are decent and want to do the right thing, that's why I'm calling on you (whoever is reading this) to please don't let this stand. Fight back against hate and intolerance. 

My review of "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" by Lori Gottlieb on GoodReads

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading this book, a lot.

Lori Gottlieb, the author, a practicing therapist in LA, writes a moving, funny and witty memory recounting her experience seeing a therapist after a sudden breakup. She has to deal with this crisis while at the same time helping others sort out their own problems. The mental image of a therapist quietly crying at her desk moments before talking to her patient is quite something (sad? hilarious? fascinating? all the above)
The author confides with us the inner stories her patients shared with her (identifying details altered for privacy) the stories are good, they are educational, poignant and engaging. Their stories tell us something about ourselves in a way that make it easy to face because it's presented in a non-threatening way.
The book is powerful because it's honest. The author makes herself totally vulnerable by revealing her insecurities and her issues with the whole world while also explaining that flaws don't make us defective, it makes us human.
I liked that the book is funny and the engaging style keeps the reader turning the pages.

I still had a lot of questions about the stories (how did things turn out with X, Y and Z? ) there is closure for some of them, but not all. I guess that's not the point of the book.

I love it when a book shows me new ways to understand the world, this book does exactly that. The inner world of the human mind is a vast universe that deserves our attention. Good Read.

View all my reviews

My Review of "How to Be a Stoic" by Massimo Pigliucci on GoodReads

How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life by Massimo Pigliucci
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Massimo Pigliucci offers the readers a practical guide to practicing stoicism, an ancient philosophy that has helped people live a good life for centuries. The book provides a concise summary of the tenets of stoicism, a brief history of its origins and a practical explanation on applying the wisdom of the ancient romans and greek stoics.

The book is divided in three parts, "The Discipline of Desire", "The Discipline of Action" and "The Discipline of Assent" What is proper to want and not want, How to Behave in the World and How to React to Situations.

The last chapter has a list of exercises taken from Epictetus’ Enchiridion meant to be practiced daily.

I was exposed to Stoicism in college when I took a class called "Reason and Values" that literally changed my life. I always summarized the teachings as "Focus what you can control, let go of the rest" as well as "Work on your character, nothing else matters" Meaning that to live a good life you must strive to be a virtuous person, and understand what you value and work on that. Nothing else works, if you focus on money you won't ever have enough, if you externalize your happiness (you base your happiness on what others think) then you will always be miserable because you don't control what other people do.

This book was a good review of the Stoic teachings, it offers well-written explanations meant for anyone to pick up and start practicing. I like how the author does not claim that Stoicism is the "one true way" or that this is the "silver bullet" that will solve all people's problems. Rather this is a guide for living your best life by adopting what works and dropping what doesn't. It's a powerful worldview when combined with a scientific approach to understanding the Universe.

The book is too short and leaves out a lot of other stoic works, but for the purpose of being an introductory book, it's perfect.

JV

View all my reviews

Back to part-time teaching at UW

 This semester I started a job part-time as a teaching assistant at UW's Machine Learning Certificate program given by the PCE department. I've been doing that on and off since 2017 (wow, 5 years!) and it's lots of fun. I get to meet a lot of fascinating people, the students come from different academic background and industries there's of course your typical data scientist with the big tech companies, but there's a guy who works as a data scientist for a major league baseball team! there's a lady who studied enology (the science of wine, yes!) there's always some dude that studied physics and math, a healthy amount of students in the bio sciences as well as business analysts folks. All of us have one thing in common, we love stats. 

 I confess that I don't like to grade homework that much, that's like, the least enjoyable part of my job, but I love keeping up to date on this area. It really sucks that classes are Thursday nights because that means I'll miss Trivia night with the wife. I need to find another bar that does trivia a different day, can't just give up on that. 

Anyone interested in learning Machine Learning, there are tons of free courses out there. I really enjoy MIT's ML course but there is no substitute for having discussions with other students, Q&A with a teacher and getting feedback on course assignments. 

One of these days when I have time (lol) I'll write some posts explaining ML concepts, if I ever get to that, I'll put it in my other blog. Don't know when that's going to happen.  I have been swamped with my day job the past couple of weeks, I'm a bit worried about managing my time with this part time job, we'll see how that goes. 

-JV

How to calculate square root of a number in your head

 Found this cool article on hacker news. 

How to estimate the square root of a numer without using a calculator. 

Link:

 https://gregorygundersen.com/blog/2023/02/01/estimating-square-roots/