Ravings of an Undead Cheese Minion

Once upon a time I was a screaming baby on a plane. I guess this is karma. Who brings their small child on a red-eye tho?

This is all extremely tentative. I sure hope I make rope drop at SWO but it's certainly possible that I won't. That morning is gonna be brutal.  Today, 4/01/2025 (Tuesday) Pre-Trip 4 PM go to sleep using a meditation.  7 PM shower, final check of gear (esp. flight gear), eat something, make sure you have floss etc. in your personal item 7:45 PM go to airport.  I have to get there pretty early due to transportation reasons.  Airport 8:30 PM arrive at airport Drop off bag Go through security  9:15 PM find gate  maybe get Panda if you want or maybe a dessert check out the shops grab an extra water bottle  work on stuff...if you want, or watch a show etc.  get ready for bed in the gross airport bathrooms hooray!  10:15 PM sleeping near gate  11:05 PM board plane.  Sleep gear: eye mask, earplugs, neck pillow Other stuff: bucked up shaker (but with water for now) and an extra water bottle  Wednesday, 4/02/2025 6 AM land 6:05 AM take ...

During allergy season, I don't just get itchy and sneezy. I also get shortness of breath, which sucks.  As winter turns into spring, I slowly start to transform into a totally different person. My summer self vs. my winter self don't look that  different externally , but I can assure you that there is a huge intrinsic difference.  I start to get weird bursts of euphoria at this time of year. I am not having one right now, but I did a few days ago. When they happen, I suddenly want to get out and explore the world again. And I stop stressing so much about stuff.  I'm still using my Verliux HappyLight because it's cloudy as crap, but the world is beginning to show signs of life.  Unfortunately, the boosted mood is tempered somewhat by raging allergies, as per usual. I start to wonder "did I ACTUALLY take my medications today? because it sure doesn't feel like it". I've had year-round allergies since I was in kindergarten that always get way worse in the ...

I had to switch out of West Jordan Concert Band because I wasn't driving 45-55 minutes in extreme traffic to get all the way to Copper Hills.  Now my current band, the Lehi Silver Band, is switching to Tuesday nights. That's when I have writing group, and writing always comes first. I'll get published within 3 years max, come hell or high water.  So now I either need to switch bands or take a summer hiatus. I guess the middle ground is taking lessons over the summer instead.  Even so, man I am sick of switching. 

In addition to Research Engineering, this: Is exactly what I want to do, if I don't decide to bridge next into cybersecurity or embedded. I would just work here and never leave until my writing took off. Or even just not leave even when it does.  Fully remote and at the intersection of tech, math, code, physics, and art. Also, I use Adobe's software on a daily basis.  If by a miracle I got an interview, well -- I'd be studying out the wazoo for it. 

LINK Because I'm tired of accidentally applying to Canada (their positions seem to fit my skillset perfectly. If only I loved the cold lol) 

Will update with exact dinner reservation times, gear for plane, Lighting Lanes, and goal rides.  Tuesday, 4/01/2025 8 PM head to airport 8:45 PM drop off bag, security 9:15 PM Panda Express, Auntie Anne's, shopping  10:15 PM get ready for bed  10:30 PM sleeping  11:15 PM board flight  11:45 PM flight to MCO Sleep on plane Wednesday, 4/02/2025 5:59 AM land in MCO 6:30 AM bag claim (if you check a bag) and get changed 7 AM breakfast at McD's or Starbie's 7:30 AM Lyft to Hampton Inn SeaWorld 8:15 AM drop off bags at Hampton  8:30 AM run or walk to SeaWorld Orlando 8:45 AM rope drop SeaWorld Orlando  9 AM - 2 PM SeaWorld Orlando 2 PM break at hotel  3 PM SeaWorld Orlando  6 PM Fun Spot Kissimmee  8 PM Lyft back to hotel  9 PM get ready for bed  10 PM bed  Thursday, 4/03/2025 6 AM wake up  6:30 AM lift  7:30 AM run  8 AM shower 8:30 AM breakfast at Hampton Inn  9:15 AM Lyft to TTC 10 AM Take bus to All-Star...

Even workouts. Basically all the time I spend working on my goals outside of work.  48 hours and 50 minutes this week. Holy crap I'm tired. And with that, I'm going to get ready for bed. 

if you call my plans and goals "ambitious" one more time I swear --  the end

I thought it was 500 :/  Yes I have 9K unread messages. No I am not going to leave any of my servers. I had to leave a few closed ones, but that's it.  This is BS. I might have to make a sock now.  I had a really good handle on my time tonight, but I lost 45 minutes "coding" -- was actually just messing with this when I was supposed to be coding. Sometimes ADHD screws you up like that. 

1. BEFORE workout: engineering/math/embedded/theme parks while getting ready for gym/warming up 2. Workout (as usual) 3. BEFORE work: Coding studies  4. During MID-MORNING BREAK: IT studies 5. During late morning break: language studies 6. During lunch: music practice  Not going to cram anything into the afternoon blocks. My brain doesn't work as well then and I need to make sure work comes first. In the morning, I'm energized enough to where I can use those breaks productively and jump right back into work. By afternoon, I cannot.  Then the rest of the schedule proceeds normally. 1.5 hours for both illustration/animation and graphics programming. 45 minutes for writing and reading. A break for dinner and a few other tasks. And 1 hour for game development and gaming.  The only point of difficulty is that I will have to somehow do embedded studies -- i.e. hardware -- in that tiny morning slot. Might just have to get up a little bit earlier.  but honestly -- doing...

my slow progress is becoming grating. I really would like to do the following each day:  Code/IT and Engineer: 60 minutes 2D Art, 3D Art, and Graphics Programming: 90 minutes Writing and Reading: 45 minutes Gaming and Game Development: 60 minutes Total =  4.5 hours Unfortunately, getting off work at 4 means I only have until 8 PM. Plus, dinner and cleaning are in there. And I have commitments such as band. After 8 PM will likely not happen. Technically, I could go until 8:30, but that's pushing it in terms of getting enough sleep.  Lunch isn't an option. That's taken by music, and that will not change.  Before work is my exercise. That won't be reduced or shortened. None of this is a problem that ChatGPT can solve for me, either. :V I've tried, but the time blocks simply aren't there. After all, 8 hours of my day are spent working.  And above all, there's the looming fear that I will lose my job and have to work in-person, losing even more time for my actual...

2 weeks before:  Slowly begin packing. We will have no marathon packing sessions for this trip.  Request WFH on Tuesday 4/01/25 Day 1 (Tuesday):  4 PM After work, do mini-blocks for all pursuits. Eat a fairly large snack or even meal. Nap with meditation/gateway tapes on from 5-8 PM or so.  This is contingent on getting WFH approved for that day.  8 PM Wake up. SHOWER.  8:45 PM leave.  9:30 PM arrive at SLC, drop off bag, security 10:00 PM get some Panda, maybe a dessert, maybe a Delta plush. Panda closes at 11 PM, so I might bump this up.  10:45 PM get ready for bed in the airport shower.  11:15 PM board flight  11:45 flight. bring bucked up protein shaker with a bunch of Crystal Light Energy, but fill it with water right now. bring change of clothes and mini fan. put on dratini neck pillow / possibly a better one that I buy online. put on eye mask, and noise-canceling headphones. listen to gateway tapes/meditation/Sky Sailing's An Airp...

Artists and writers are, in general, very supportive of lots of practicing . In other words, mileage is the best way to see progress. Pure practice. Uncomfortable, the creator of Drawabox, even says to not worry about if you're enforcing bad habits when practicing -- the benefits of regular practice outweigh this .  This is also an integral principle to distance running. Mileage above all.  I do not  see this attitude in music, at least not in the formal or classical realms.  In general, even the nicest instructors and directors tend to get impatient when the music is bad. An amazing piece of music can give you a feeling of peace, chills, or some other pleasant emotion. I think when we sort of  get that but then screw it up, this frustrates them. This is the problem of always being in the mediocre bands. The non-audition ones; the "secondary" bands; the "symphonic/concert band" instead of the "wind ensemble" or the "philharmonic orchestra".  ...

You say that you grew up You say that you tried I think you took the easy way out I say you gave up I say you died You'll say that you're content You'll say there's no regrets But I think you took the easy way out For if you're not dreaming anymore You're already dead - Woods of Ypres

This is weird to me.  Then again, my stance might seem weird too. To be clear, I'm not strictly anti-AI. I use ChatGPT pretty regularly, I find machine learning pretty interesting (I do Kaggle most days, I've taken two AI courses in college, and have Fast.AI and DeepLearning.AI slotted on my study plan), and I have Copilot at work. I am not even completely anti-AI art; I think it can be a good tool for moodboards and ideation. I've sat in on some of the Kaggle generative AI courses as well, though they turned out to be too time-intensive for me to complete alongside my current schedule. So I am not completely anti-AI, but I am absolutely against generative models being used as "art".  Even so, ever since I started my MS in CS back in 2020 I remember thinking "why is everyone just throwing neural nets at everything?"  When I talk about AI art, I am specifically referring to AI art as it replaces the creative process . To be honest, when Dall-E 2 first ca...

There has been a very annoying trend of people showing up sick to work, band, and choir.  Just don't. I used to, too, and it's just completely pointless. For work, you can telecommute (if you're an office worker). For band or choir, just practice or listening to recordings at home. I love all of you wonderful people, just please do not blow your spit particles at me 😀😀😀 Last summer I tried forcing myself to Lagoon on July 4th when I convinced myself that I was "feeling better" (I was not) after 90 minutes of lifting + an 8-mile run, and it just made me sicker for like 3 additional days. Last time I am ever doing that.  Signed, someone who is very annoyed that he is going to have to miss band tonight. Not because he is sick, but because sickies are attending and he has a work conference coming up. 

spring is approaching!  unfortunately, I must keep talking about schedules until all of my routines are automatic. it's not the most glamorous thing, but this is the only way to make my creative and intellectual goals a reality. Saturday is going to be a weird day once theme park season begins. I cannot lose my productivity momentum, but I also must enjoy my summer Saturdays to the fullest.  I sometimes do things like "try to do the carnival and also water parks today" and that just gets tricky.  brainstorming ideas:  duolingo/mango -- I could do this while getting ready in the morning potentially will probably have to get up at 4 am to lift and run on time  art: this should be done before I leave; could I pair it with recovery time?  could I fit in any music here?  writing: likewise, would like to do this before I leave, but I can technically write on my phone too. would love to read on the hammock!  leaving for theme/water parks would ideally ha...

I am experiencing an unhealthy amount of satisfaction -- even schadenfreude -- at the blowback on Shrek 5's design. Maybe if you hadn't gotten rid of a huge chunk of your workforce and outsourced all your films to cheaper studios, Randy Lake, then this wouldn't have happened?  But what would I know? I was just an easily discarded TD. I meant nothing to you.  In other CEO crap, the tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka, has just gotten demolished. Blown up, knocked down, 456 feet of beautiful engineering thrown into the wrecker for no actual reason. We were never given a warning to go ride it one final time (and I actually never got to ride it because I am not someone who just randomly decides to go to New Jersey, but I was going to go within the next few years). I hope Zimmerman feels a lot of pain from doing that. He probably won't, though.  Am I going to go to Saudi Arabia when Falcon's Flight is finished? I mean...Probably not. Too many human rights viol...

I should've been in bed 30 minutes ago, but here we are.  I am likely not going to hit my running distance targets tomorrow. Well, I might, but not in the morning. But I'm going to run even if I don't hit the targets. And that will lay the groundwork for much better days in the coming weeks. 

wouldn't it be nice? to have a 3-day weekend? sure would be We have to work Sunday and our company doesn't get Presidents Day off, so it's a 1-day weekend for us.  Meanwhile the guy who was an intern at Sling where I was a level 1 is now a senior engineer...and I'm stuck here at midlevel making 90k and having to work weekends. 

I'm going back to my beginning band roots 40 minutes a day. Eat lunch at 11:35 while working. Walk at noon for 20 mins. Then play.  During the summer I will only do that a few times a week, since I like going to the park. But right now, yeah every weekday. True beginning band roots would be more like 45-65 but I no longer have such time. 40 is close enough.  It's also split between 2 instruments lol. So I guess 45 clari and 10 piano would be perfect but oh well.