Things I’m working on - update #1

There are a lot of things to learn and not enough time to learn it all.

That being said, I would like to track the progress of the one’s I have prioritized, and here’s a novel way of doing so. I’ll go into detail after they’re all listed.

MITx Supply Chain MicroMaster:

[▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯] 90%

The Odin Project:

[▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯] 0%

Ripple Training - Final Cut Pro Core Courses:

[▮▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯] 5%

… Math:

[▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯] 0%

MITx Supply Chain MicroMaster:

I took all the classes leading up to the cumulative exam for this throughout 2023 when I first got hyped up about a career in Supply Chain. I passed all the classes, and signed up for the exam in 2024 and… the Nike layoffs were suddenly looming.

I spent most of the first half of 2024 wallowing in pre- and post-layoff woes, even though I managed to keep my job. Ironically, I was unable to follow-through, study for, and complete an exam that probably would have helped me get a new one in the case that I lost mine.

I skipped that first exam, and skipped it again the next time it was available. The next one is this upcoming May, and I’ve lost so much momentum on the coursework that I feel that I’d need to review from square one.

And so - that’s up there.
Gotta finish that up lol

The Odin Project:

The main reason any of this blog stuff happened is that I bought a new laptop. One of the main reasons is that I’ve wanted to get started on a self-paced web development course called The Odin Project. Early on - in the installations overview, the program states from the chest that Windows isn’t ideal for the course.

Yeah - I could have used a VM to boot Linux, I could have used WSL - but, I had always wanted to learn how to use MacOS. I also always dreamed of being that guy in the coffee shop programming off of a Mac. The money was available, and I won’t be buying a house anytime soon… so I sent it.

I haven’t really made it past all the intro stuff, and so I’ve got this listed at 0%, but I hope to make some inroads here soon. Starting this blog (with a lot of ChatGPT help) was a bit of a catalyst, I think.

Ripple Training - Final Cut Pro Core Courses:

In getting a Mac - I decided to lock-in on a video editor. ChattyG helped me evaluate all the options, and since I’d be on an M4 chip, I decided to go deep into Final Cut Pro.

I bought a course that goes through likely all that I’ll need to know. I hope to do lil micro vlogs of our training weeks for the Honolulu Marathon and although I don’t need to do anything all that fancy for that, I would like to know what’s possible :)

… Math:

Math. My worst enemy. I never really did well in math in school. Probably as early as middle school? And it never got better.

I dropped out of Algebra 2 Honors because I was having a hard time, and then did fine in the non-honors version. Most of my friends took either Calculus AB or BC, and I just barely passed AP Statistics.

The problem is, now that I’m a grown adult, many of my interests are math aligned. I like computers. I’ve been reading/watching videos about LLMs, and general AI stuff. I’d like to be able to engage with Data Science - and I feel that I need to be able to make some sense of the hieroglyphics to do so.

I had my friend ChattyG assign percentages up to “college-level” calculus and here’s what we came to:

• Arithmetic & Pre-Algebra (10%): These are foundational but don’t take long to master if you review consistently.

• Algebra I & II (25%): Algebra is the biggest hurdle because it is the backbone of everything that follows. It requires significant time and effort.

• Geometry & Trigonometry (15%): These are necessary for visualization and application but generally easier to grasp compared to algebra.

• Precalculus (20%): A bridge between algebra/trig and calculus. If this part is weak, calculus will be extremely difficult.

• Calculus (30%): The final stretch—understanding derivatives and integrals requires strong algebra skills, logical thinking, and problem-solving practice.

And so - we’ll see where all that goes.

===

These will probably change over the upcoming updates, but that’s the point of tracking it - right?

I’m at a point in my job where since I have the knowledge of what I want to accomplish technically, it is pretty easy to make it happen with the access to work-sanctioned LLMs. As a result, I feel that I have the time to explore some personal interests instead of feeling that I need to forge my career path in this very moment.

P.S.

You bet your dang boots that I had ChatGPT write a little script to make those percentage bars programmatically lol

import argparse
import sys
import pyperclip

def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
        description="Display a progress bar with 20 blocks (each block = 5% progress), "
                    "append the percentage value, and copy it to the clipboard."
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "percentage",
        type=float,
        help="Progress percentage (between 0 and 100)."
    )
    args = parser.parse_args()

    # Validate the input percentage.
    if not 0 <= args.percentage <= 100:
        print("Error: Percentage must be between 0 and 100.")
        sys.exit(1)

    total_blocks = 20
    # Calculate the number of filled blocks (each block represents 5%).
    filled_blocks = int(args.percentage / 100 * total_blocks)
    remaining_blocks = total_blocks - filled_blocks

    # Create the progress bar string.
    progress_bar = f"[{'▮' * filled_blocks}{'▯' * remaining_blocks}]"
    # Append the percentage value with a "%" sign.
    final_output = f"{progress_bar} {args.percentage:g}%"
    
    # Print the final output.
    print(final_output)

    # Copy the final output to the clipboard.
    try:
        pyperclip.copy(final_output)
        print("Progress bar has been copied to your clipboard.")
    except Exception as e:
        print("Failed to copy to clipboard:", e)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()