S/O called in the 'rents (who brought their anxious dogs) to stay over for the week. While they are mostly here in an emotional support capacity, they are also helping re-paint the house. To add to it, her best friend stayed a night as well, bringing her cat, so the house has been bursting at the seams as guests come and go this past week (cousins visiting, other friends come for dinner, etc.). In an odd spot where I'm just being 'supportive' throughout it all, but goddamn dude. I need a break. I am thankful for the choice of job made in January, at least. It's way more flexible than I thought it would be. Though, I've had a few clarifying moments that I want to switch into project management, and stay in renewable development career-wise. Deciding to build up enough savings again, then start looking again next January. Would like to post my DeSantis blurb over the weekend once guests are gone. Small disclaimer, a fair bit of information I'm sourcing is word-of-mouth from friends & acquaintances who (A) work in or around lobbying/ists in FL, (B) are New College alum, (C) talk around town. Also, some of this is not as topical as the bills that are cooking in FL legislature now (which has a Republican supermajority)... this all to say, some information doesn't touch on all the most recent events, and my sources to articles may be a little lazy. I'd hope to have more bandwidth by the weekend to prove otherwise. The hope with the post is to draw a through-line in related FL news to show how we got here, and what yaboi Ronnie Ds agenda looks like at large for FL as a preview of what to expect if elected.
Landed a remote job offer that will keep me behind a computer (in my field I went to school for) and in the warmth of FL. Tomorrow is also the final round of interviews for a position requiring re-location waaaaay further north. I seem to be the only person in my world that wants to see where the latter one goes. It would mean travel, moving into management, and steering towards a career and sector I want. Almost am afraid to complete the final interview tomorrow. I KNOW I am the right fit. I KNOW I am what they are looking for. I also know it would be uprooting the life I have. I’ve been believing in myself that it would be the right choice if I did it. Beginning to question myself after hearing those around me breathe a sigh if relief landing the remote gig.
thank you, steve. :) things are fine. i think now that things seemed to mellow out (after give or take a year), i've finally gotten a moment to remember what the heck i was vaguely concerned about a year ago. just cluttered headspace i don't want to act on atm...
fuck Sent from my iPhone
I will eventually comment more on this. Energies are currently focused on resume/cover letter review for a friend who's on the chopping block at their left-leaning lobbying firm that's laying off 75%+ of staff.
Submitting my letter of resignation today. Don’t have anything lined up job-wise after. But have more than enough “F- You” money to tide me over ‘til the next gig. I need a break anyways. Haven’t taken PTO over the past couple years for anything that was a vacation for just me.
I am grateful for Hubski.
I think dominance means [government] spending here. China's tactic very much seems to be throwing money at the wall and seeing what sticks ,'cuz why not. With the rate they are seeking to soak up ownership of the world's lithium mines, they don't have to worry about supplying whoever they are lending to. If a company strikes gold, then they are set for mass production as fast as the CCP wants them to be... but who knows when that will be. But, hey, maybe the U.S.'s targeted approach by lending to Ford will produce results. The U.S. is building out access to it's own large lithium deposit [see: Thacker Pass Mine in Nevada], so there shouldn't be a lithium supply issue in Ford's future... Assuming they right the ship on their current supply and demand issues which is definitely not a personal gripe.
S/O had a minor operation last Wednesday, then a minor car accident that Friday. She is fine, but the car is not. Been playing catch up since then, and not caught up on everything I’d like to be (including my post on FL politics here). Mostly commenting here to say I haven’t forgot about it.
(Breaks out chalk) I will make tomorrow’s virtual meet up. I will make tomorrow’s virtual meet up. I will make tomorrow’s virtual meet up. I will make tomorrow’s virtual meet up. …
Adding to the train of agreement on this, there’s also no shame in following up with those that you get declined a position from to ask something in the form of: “Can you refer me to a department within the company or otherwise that is in need of someone with my skillset?” Preferably this is over the phone with the hiring manager, but it works just as well with an e-mail (assuming you have the e-mail of someone other than HR).
Quick Updates: - Re-did the floors with my S/O's father. Been giving me great practice on my Spanish. Even better, I'm a certified Cuban coffee maker now - certified by a Cuban chef, mind you! Haven't been able to find a half-way decent cafe con leche since leaving Miami (though Orlando does have it's bright spots). - A soft job offer was rescinded due to me pushing my start date back for my parents anniversary. - Cumol hmu on discord when you can, buddy. - Meeting c_hawkthorne again this weekend. Very, very excited and grateful to him. Y'all gotta meet up more. People on here are super neat.
May I please introduce you to the book series “Annihilation” (alongside it’s same-name cinematic adaptation) set in the most bio-diverse location in the U.S.: Florida’s panhandle, the home to Apalachicola National Forest. ‘Cuz while the GOP doesn’t want to recognize climate change, but the USACE sends $7bn to FL for conservation, the GOP controlled state has matched that number in recognizing its value until recently where friends in environmental lobbies are getting laid off for political reasons. ohmahgawd. Yeah… this guy is doing a world tour while we’ve had the wildest weather. Japan for floodings with no response, Jerusalem for the tornados across the panhandle. And he’s out selling books around the globe when his state has no leadership to guide recovery or conservation efforts. 🤬 Glad you enjoyed the trip report :). Yeah someone I know was floating the idea a Fallout game series addition set in Florida, and I was like uhhhhh it's too boring from a topographical perspective, but we quickly solved that problem with the addition of some massive radioactive craters, of course.
Went WAY better than I could have expected. The extra luck must have helped. :)
There are many things wrong around the global - and the U.S. is no different… but I’m not sure the U.S. is the haven my great-grandparents saw it as generations ago.
Babel by R.F. Kuang - Nearly halfway through this gem. Was recommended to me by one of the few friends I keep up with from grade school. Read the summary in the link, since I won’t do it justice… though I did rave about it in chat lately. Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim - Next on the list, this book caught my eye in a local store. I had a rare moment of being on page 5 without remembering turning the pages due to how well written the opening chapter was. Needless to say, I got the book shortly after.
Be warned, I am no movie connoisseur. The two listed below are on top 100 listicles… but they meet your criteria of leaving an impression that spanned (more than) a week. - Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022): This movie, I sought out before it hit theaters due to cast, producers and concept. After getting my money’s worth in theaters, I dragged two others with me, and they invited me to their viewing parties where they bought the blu-ray to show others. - RRR (2022): It’s action sequences has so many tropes seen in American action cinema, yet follows through to a satisfying conclusion. Must see with friends. Another movie that is refreshing even as a re-watch.
Small update: highly considering starting a conversation with my prior manager about going back to work at the former company. Also, just thinking about taking a break from working altogether.
I did have an on-going hubski post in a word doc from about two weeks ago that went through learning I wasn’t going to hear back from the employer I previously traded jobs from, despite emphatic thanks and mentioning a spot if things didn’t work out. There was also developments in there like paying for/going through commercial drone pilot certification (which was one of the false promises from the most recent employers) ‘cuz it’s something I’ve been wanting to learn. And on top of those, something about being excited to really get my hands dirty through PostgreSQL – finally piecing together a web app from this site to 3D data-enriched, interactive visualization through NASA’s open-source Google Earth Pro for developers. Finally, in the good news department, I’ll be an author on published research as of the end of the year. Since then, I’ve stalled fairly hard, lost the much longer word document, and having a hard time looking for a job of interest in my area for my current field (hence the drone pilot school). The S/O and I acknowledged that our town isn’t the best for career development… and its clear she’s fine with that. Me, not so much, but would rather secure a gig in the meantime to replenish savings before re-opening that conversation. For better or worse, there’s a non-negligible amount of items to unpack in said discussion, to top it off. All-in-all, the September hasn’t been the sweetest of starts.
I could get hit by a car today, and it’d still be a good day. EDIT: Oh yeah, also updating my resume. Will fill out a proper pubski blurb soon.
Overall Health The past couple weeks have been draining. If I'm honest... I haven't had a truly restful weekend in recent memory - easily months. At least, not restful by how kantos two years ago would have defined it. Perhaps its rooted in COVID - and not just the era, but the lasting side effects of July's contraction. I cannot exercise without exhibiting what I'd expect are asthmatic symptoms which keep me seated or laying down for 72 hours. Even leisurely strolls in Southern heat left me horizontal in less than an hour. I've gained 40 pounds since quarantine began, and frustrated at getting knee-cap'd during what used to be a quick recovery period of minutes. Next step pending as a doctor appointment is scheduled for Friday. Work First work anniversary at the current job has passed. I've learned so much just getting the job. At the time, only partial benefits were offered. So, I argued for higher pay to compensate for lack of benefits... to HR... bad idea. Well, then I plead the case to the hiring manager (my now boss)... which gained me a higher starting salary than their advertised ceiling. Since then, I've gotten a full suite of bennies and two raises, plus a title change. All under a year. Fuck yeah. This place (especially my boss) has given me free range to hone what I've learned from grad school and then some. Tomorrow I'm rolling out a fully scripted set of Python tools by yours truly to help my tinnie-tiny department on the latest software upgrade coordinated my (for the people in the back), again, yours truly. On the spectrum of "holy shit" to "nice code bro," overall, it's more the latter in terms of bragging rights when looking at the scripts themselves. But, it feels like a 'holy fuck' to the dept, so I'm rolling with it. The company is small, and landing this job makes me wonder if I'm getting compensated enough still. Despite this, on-the-job training I've been annoying enough to 'manifest [my boss' rage]' is finally on the horizon, and it is exactly on course for what I've aspired to 'round about a decade now. Books I gotta get back in the habit of reading. Just reviewing my comments when I first joined Hubski make me feel as though I've gotten dumber. Hot damn. Found a 'fun read' to kindle the flame again. Next in line are Dune sequels and Foundation to further stoke the flame. Future Speaking of flame, I'm beginning talks with family about re-locating within the next decade or so to get ahead climate change induced migration. Finding better land, community, and environmentally sound regions are in-mind as I'm planning a non-related trip with a childhood buddy. The only conceivable reason to stay where we are is the safety in-case Yellowstone blows... which would also cause an Earth cooling event, I'd guess would run counter to global warming? Yeah... none of this is palatable. Sorry to leave this on a sour note pubs. FWIW, my work is actively involved in countering climate change (a point of pride), but man the uphill battle ahead does look tiring.
Just another 1/3 of a beer in the Pub for Cinco de Drinko? Nah. 
veen Please excuse the delay. I've been in the middle of moving in with the S/O on top of a family visit that has thrown off my schedule without my full workstation... You've hit a loooooooooot of topics swirling on my mind for a few years now. Looking back on my certificate and MS in GIS. I've realized this profession could easily be taught in a trade school. A couple courses here (one on vector data and it's applications; followed by a course on raster), another there (types of data collection - in situ, remote sensing and its varieties). Maybe, just maybe some visualization via web dev (AGOL), storage/'big data' (SQL/PostGIS) or automation (ArcPy). That right there could get a solid 2 years' worth of 'full-time' schooling and be done with it. This isn't to say I'm happy to have a couple extra letters after my name, but - call it imposter syndrome if you want - I don't think the value of what I learned in grad. school significantly impacted the type of job or salary I got coming out. Even looking at the market now, there is very little in between from technician to developer work. From what I've found, most job descriptions don't have that much variation between Tech - Analyst - Specialist. Unless, of course, you're starting out as an imagery analyst. Which is a job that has its day's numbered. A shockingly small niche (over here at least) is the people who are good at writing queries and half-decent at GIS. PostGIS legitimately can replace 95% of the individual pre-made tools QGIS and ArcGIS has to offer. You can do much more complex things much faster. My largest project the past year ended up being 2300 lines of PostGIS/SQL code I wrote on my own. The first 30% is just data prep written in code - "make sure I properly join tables A thru G in the data type I want it to be without ever having to touch Field Mappings ever again". The rest is a bunch of clever geo-joins and a bunch of not clever regular joins of tables and features. Nothing special to anyone who already knows how to handle semi-long SQL queries; PostGIS is really just one new column type and a bunch of functions to do stuff with it. The tipping point at my last workplace was a senior GIS dev that replicated my 2 months of census analysis (via ArcGIS) under 2 weeks with PostGIS. Now, I adore this dev, they were the only mentor in that floor. It made me realize how much more there was out there in GIS (and how little I could contribute to the field with my current skillset). Most salient of the points made while watching said dev work was "You've done a great job grinding at this for the past two months, though QC'ing is not possible since ESRI writes fresh data every. step. of. the. way. Now scale that over the course of 2 months of troubleshooting, trial & error, etc." It's a no-brainer. Would you mind sharing the course you took by chance? My resources of yet are a couple textbooks by recommendation of the former GIS Dev co-worker, a 4 hour YT vid on PostgreSQL, and a coursera course on SQL.As a whole the GIS world is...surprisingly shallow. There are some technical niches for sure, but compared to what I've seen in other domains of engineering, one can get incredibly fast to a point where one can do 80% of all GIS work. Really, a basic GIS course combined with a modicum of data-wrangling chops and Google skills can get you very far. To speak from personal experience; I had 2 mandatory GIS courses at uni, took one PythonGIS elective
and learned enough on the job the past 4 years (all of ArcGIS Online PostGIS + ArcPy) that I can prolly apply for most senior GIS jobs out there. A lot of GIS work is just about getting the right input into the right GIS tool(s) and ✨presenting✨the result. I know people who have done nothing more than "load data into GIS, apply pre-made tools, visualize" for decades.
Goals Short-Term: - Revive passion projects as way to learn PostGIS - Regain employment by September (absolute latest) Mid-Term: - Scope out feasible new countries of residence - Lose the COVID 60lbs #WorkIt Long-Term: - Finish setting up my office - Shell away more emergency money - Contingent on 2024 election outcome
This is a month old statement, but it’s been on my mind enough… I hope you give the following some credence from a FL native who wants to add some color to why DeSantis won. Things are getting better, sure. Though, I’d add that the Dems have not done well to campaign in Florida for a loooong time. Long enough that the time fight back now includes a couple decades-worth of gerrymandering in what is generally more a center-of-right (dare-I-say purple) state than many would like to believe when looking at Presidential/Gubernatorial election maps. Why do I say this? 1. Val Demings was a Dem running against Marco Rubio this year. Val Demings is a SUPERB candidate that has gotten more grassroots funds to kick off the election campaign that Rubio was sending pleas out for additional donations a couple months before November. The issue was Demings was the only stellar candidate the Dems put up for higher office in Florida. Nikki Fried was the only other Dem with “name recognition” (due to having her name on every gas station pump as head of FL Dept. of Ag.). Nikki? She was running against Charlie Crist (more on them next). If Dems put half the effort and resources as with Warnock, Rubio would have his butt outta Tallahassee, easily. But, the lack of resources is a symptom of the larger issue. I got 2 texts a day from Republicans, without exaggeration, leading up to the election since September. Democratic campaigns sent me 3… total. Mind you, I have only lived and registered in “blue” counties throughout my times in South, Central, and North Florida. I still get texts from districts I’m not registered in, for Republican campaigns. 2. Now, if we ignore the lack of Democratic presence outside the Gubernatorial race: Nikki Fried was an alright candidate with a horrid campaign management that would lash out at other democratic campaigns during primaries without provoking… and Nikki herself was taking donations from all the wrong PACs (looking at your FP&L). Her messaging was more progressive, but behind the scenes, Charlie Crist had the endorsements from Progressives that Nikki’s didn’t (Planned Parenthood for one). That being said, Nikki Fried vs Charlie Crist was a tough match up that people hope would prove better for the state. But when it really comes down to it, DeSantis leveraged quarantine to pull a publicity stunt to turn heads in the GOP. Ever since, he’s been acting as though he had a mandate in 2018 (for the record, it wasn’t a mandate). As such, Florida’s gotten redder with over a million people coming to a “Free” state with no income tax and low cost of living. So, the GOP machine has been pivoting to DeSantis from Trump as the 2024 heir apparent as J6 settled. Now, Crist won the Primary against Fried. Crist has also lost elections as a Republican, Independent, and Democrat - and he’s the best the Dem’s could be bothered to put up against Ron DeFuture? Hell, pitting Trump against DeSantis would have been an easy slam dunk to discourage MAGA heads from voting for DeSantis and his endorsements. Well A month late for quite possibly a throwaway statement, though I didn’t expect to have that tidbit in my brain that long. Hope the nuance answers some questions (or leads you and others to seek out answers) in 2024 when we’re all getting berated by DeSantis’s presidential campaign. ‘Cuz dollars to donuts, this time next year, that ship will have left dock already and all the punditz will keep reminding us how far it’s sailed until November 2024. TL;DR, there’s a bit more at play internally here in the Sunshine State. A lot of it having to do with a lack of support from the DNC in what has been a salvageable vote until seemingly very recently. Whitmer won big for the same reason DeSantis did in FL, which is that things are good and getting better for almost everyone.
The question was already asked, so I won’t belabor it… but this is also his second term. His voting track record proves he’s a candidate worth having in the Senate from an otherwise historically red state. Something else to consider… for both first and second term, a non-insignificant amount of people withstood voter suppression tactics to wait in line for hours to vote democratically for said candidate. It’s ironic the lengths Georgians went to elect someone with such pronounced religious fervor at face value when compared to the similarly fervent religious opposition. Maybe religion wasn’t truly the key issue at stake, but the values Warnock upheld….
In case this was a great joke I didn’t parse, though: lol. Forgive any perceived rudeness. I’m proud of what I’m seeing in [the backyard of] my neck of the woods. Doesn’t happen often, so I’m a little defensive of the wins that occur… especially given how Warnock’s election helps the Senate committees (and how Warnock of all the Senators, he didn’t play the roles Sinema or Machin did last session’s disgraceful acts in Congress).
Y’all, life is way too busy than it should be. I haven’t been able to sit down with my laptop and respond how I’d like to (however infrequent that usually is anyways). That said, been eating up articles left, right and center from Hubski along the way, so thanks for all the posts and comments peeps. Throwing more posts this way is my way of commenting for now it seems. Approaching 2 AM here and the home still needs cleaning up for parents to arrive over the weekend… haven’t had a clear weekend in months and now its holiday szn. What’s nuts is my brother came up 2 wknds ago (now that the whole fam is vax’d x2-3), and while reading this very post: … I get a call from my boss about a map needing a rework for a weekend flight ASAP. To be very, very clear, it was a mistake on my end, and bossman offered to do the work for me…. Which would require me driving back to my work computer anyway to e-mail the data. Chose to make a cute detour to a nice restaurant with my brother before work. But shit man. Anywho, going to take a shower before forcing shut-eye lest I vomit another comment I didn’t type out yet (loving the GenZ vs Millennials thread, so that will get bumped prob middle of next week by me). Until then, happy Friday eve, ‘ski.
Bumping this thread 😎
I gotta set a reminder for these things.