gondaily

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47415360

Today, I got a call. It was from a job I applied to today, some research project from an AI and biomedical device company. As a bioengineer with some experience working with biomedical devices, that appealed to me quite a bit.

The interview is tomorrow, early in the afternoon. I'm a little nervous, but I know I'll be much more nervous soon enough - especially tomorrow. Still, I'm fine. I was starting to get a little... Unhappy, with the current situation. I've been unemployed for 2 months now after quitting my PhD... My parents were starting to get on my ass. Well, hopefully this goes well. The guy that called me - the guy from the company - was actually really nice and he seemed very excited to hire me, frankly. He said that he thought that I was probably a really good match. I hope so!

Nothing can be perfect, of course. Firstly, it's in a different city... Though, it's in the city that I was living in previously! So... Maybe, I'll be moving back there. That would be really funny, I reckon. Like, are we serious?! I might need to buy a car and actually drive though, for work... We'll see how it goes. The other, perhaps more significant issue, is that it starts in September. We're in late June. Last time I was unemployed (right after finishing my degree), I was looking for a job for 6 months, thereabouts. Technically, I wasn't earning for almost 8 months after defending my thesis... That's... A lot, but hey, I was trying to break into the job market. Now, however, if I get this, I'll be out for 5 months (maybe closer to 4.5). That's not that much, really, but it's a bit annoying. Of course, I would get the job in only 2 months, which sounds to me like a pretty reasonable time-frame, but I'd be out of a job for 4.5 months. Pain in the ass.

Hopefully my parents are okay with this, or I can find some random stuff to make some coin in the mean time, just for a couple of months. We'll see, I suppose.

I might not even get the job, maybe it's not right to stay thinking about it.

Another point is that this will last 3 years, at most. It's a research project. I won't get paid much, but it's pretty reasonable. It's pretty much exactly the country's average. It's a cool company, so I might even get some connections and possibly secure a position after it's over.

Well, this to say that it's a nice position and that I really do hope to get it, and I have high hopes to get it too.

I'll have to dress reasonably well, tomorrow. Look presentable, wear some jeans at least... Good? Maybe.

I'll be going in about 6 minutes to renew my train pass and then buy a ticket for tomorrow.

Excited.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47341843

Today, I had lunch with my granny. She made roasted potatoes and octopus. I freaking love octopus and roasted potatoes! The food was tasty, and I very much enjoyed dessert: cherries and chocolate cake.

My grandma has a bit of an off-and-on relationship with baking, I feel like. She bakes rather often, but she's not very good at it at all. Occasionally, though, she'll manage to come out with a gem like today. She really hit it out of the park!

Most importantly, though, I got to spend some time with her and have a nice chat. Hear a little about what she's been doing and whatnot. It's nice.

I didn't do much today, outside of that. I ended up not rearranging my clothes, which is fine; I'll always have tomorrow. I do also have some clothes I should probably pick up.

On another note, I found a really nice Japanese YT channel! It's a girl vlogging her life. She speaks really fast, way too fast, but I can kind of keep up. I keep up enough to keep up, if you will. I feel like I'll be exposed to a lot of everyday vocabulary, hopefully used in context and by someone that actually uses it day to day. Really, that's the best way to learn, I'd say. Comprehensible input or whatever.

Her name's Hannah.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47266844

I had sushi with my grandma, my brother, and his friend, today. It was good. Very good, even!

I always have the same pieces, but today I felt like branching out a little bit. I didn't pick anything too different - not that there's that many weird pieces available at the buffet, mind you - but I did try a few that I usually don't. Namely, one with some white stuff that I thought was mayo, for some reason. It didn't look like mayo, but I vaguely remember trying it a long time ago (read: a couple years, at most) and being unhappily surprised that it tasted like mayo, so that was my expectation. Thing is: I love mayo. I believe the reason I elected to pick that one to be obvious. It turned out to not be mayo at all, but rather some kind of cheese thing, maybe cream cheese or something. I don't know the words for this stuff. It was too white to be mayo, in retrospect.

I also had some time to speak to my granny, which was nice. My brother and his friend ended up talking a lot, which made me feel a little left out, but it's OK. I love seeing my little brother have fun in a social way. I remember being a bit scared, a few years ago, that he was like me and wouldn't have any friends. I guess, looking back, that was a bit of an unnecessary worry. For one, he cared about having friends, which I'd think is a pretty good indicator that someone would try to make and maintain friendships; That was the reason I was worried, since he is rather introverted as well, but he cared about hanging out and having time with his friends, so I was scared that he would lose that. He didn't, thankfully. He went to the beach with his friends after lunch.

Tomorrow, I'll have lunch at my granny's. I'm excited. I doubt the food will be very good, but it's always nice to go there and spend some time with her.

I'm a little tired, though, of today. There was a lot of walking. I also feel a little overwhelmed with... Everything, I think.

A couple of days ago, I went to stand in front of my wardrobe, which I share with my brother. He takes the vast majority of it. That being said, I feel like I have too much stuff, and that stuff is so messy that it feels impossible to sift thru and sort out. I ended up just walking away. I want to just take everything out of the wardrobe and slowly put everything back properly. Fold everything, get rid of old stuff or stuff I don't use... That kind of thing. I was too weak to do it, so I just stood there and then left, but I'm feeling like I'll be able to do it soon. Maybe tomorrow.

I often do this, I feel like. I remember a few months ago I did something similar for my clothes when I was living someplace else. It took some effort, but eventually I got it done and it was really satisfying. Then, of course, I just had to move, didn't I?! Couldn't I just enjoy my organized wardrobe, damn it?!

I also feel like doing some organizing helps me realize the things I'm missing, and the things I have too much of. I might be surprised to learn that I actually don't have too many shirts (I definitely do) or maybe I have too many shorts (I definitely don't (this one I'm actually a little unsure about)). Yeah, I'll try to go at it tomorrow. Maybe I'll get the strength to organize all my belongings.

Today, I managed to do some laundry and change my sheets. What's a good timing to change one's sheets?

I've heard every week is good, but no way in hell I'm gonna do that. Maybe once every fortnight. Today was the 15th day since I last changed them, so that's 2 weeks - I changed them Saturday before last. Is that reasonable? I feel like it's reasonable. If it's not reasonable, then I'm not gonna be reasonable, point blank period. Periodt, even!

In other news, my ankle hurts a little. It's probably nothing, but if I die of chronic anklepainitis I want this to be the evermemory that I felt it and ignored it.

Today, I finally finished rereading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers.

It was fantastic and delightful in every way, absolutely incredible - perhaps even more than I remembered. This makes me want to reread The Night Circus as well; if this one was this good, than that one might be that good. Perchance.

Currently, though, I'm reading A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. Well, it's OK. I like it, sure, but I'm liking it much less. For one, I think the novelty - maybe... - has worn off a bit. The world is brilliant and inviting - luscious, as per Martha Wells - but now that I've been introduced to it in the first book, it doesn't hit as hard in the second. Maybe. I think this logic is a little flawed, since I did enjoy it very much on reread. I don't know.

We might be going into some conflict resolution soon, but I guess I do feel like not much conflict has existed in the first, what, 3/4ths of the book? It's still pretty and all, and there's some insight to be gleaned, certainly, but I just don't feel as pulled in, this time around.

I'll finish the book, of course, maybe even today. Then, I don't know. I might go back to Shadow Slave - not that I've dropped it or anything - or I might give something else a try. Maybe even - and hold on to your jaws - non-fiction!

AAAAH!!!

Sorry, I scared myself there.

I read exclusively fiction for no reason other than the fact I've never read non-fiction outside of an academic context. Well, I guess I've read news articles and such; it won't be that much different, maybe. I hope it'll be interesting, at least.

Alternatively, I can just read fiction instead. I don't see why not, other than the fact that I don't feel particularly inclined toward any particular book. I could look stuff up, of course, but I always feel a little uncertain when picking up new stuff - as is normal, I do suspect. I'm strongly considering going with The Dresden Files.

Becky Chambers, give me your autograph. I promise to cherish it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47108238

My youngest cousin is gonna have his first communion this coming August, and I'm likely to attend.

It's not a very formal event, but it's also not exactly something you're supposed to show up to in ripped shorts and a graphic tee. I've been thinking it through, and I think I don't really have appropriate clothes to take! Well, I do have jeans, some reasonable shoes, and a dress shirt - maybe that's enough - but I thought that this could be a good opportunity to get some "fancier" clothes, in relative terms. Nothing actually fancy like a suit, but just something a bit smarter that I could take to interviews, for example.

I thought that a polo shirt might be good. It's not formal, but it's definitely a step up from my usual Hard Rock Cafe shirts. Also, it's casual enough that it wouldn't really be weird to wear out and about, I hope.

Really, I wanted pants. I did have a list, at some point, of what pants I wanted to buy, but I really think I misjudged things, at the time. Now, as I'm looking, there's other, better options out there. I have my jeans settled, but maybe I should buy some chinos or something.

Ah, I don't know. I'll think about it some more, I do still have some time, but I might have to convince my little brother to go with me do some clothes shopping at some point in the next couple of weeks.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/47024388

While browsing YT - as one does - I came across the video linked in this post.

It elicited in me a certain feeling that I have never felt before. It's a certain kind of warmth, a weird sort of absolute peace permeating my very being.

Is this... Love?

Perchance.

Regardless, I think it's really cool. There are a few of these looks-old-but-isn't videos out there - they come up on my recommended occasionally - but they do always leave me wondering; did these people find old videos and decide to upload them now, or did they just genuinely record something with a 20 year potato? Alternatively, did they record it with an average modern recording device - say, a modern smartphone - and then purposefully deteriorate the quality to make it look like an old video? Questions.

For the record, I wanted to use the verb degenerate instead of deteriorate, there, but, for some reason, it just didn't feel right. I'm not sure why. Looking it up, it does seem that both degenerate and deteriorate can be used as transitive verbs, meaning what I meant to mean, but... Degenerate just looks wrong. I think it might be because I associate degenerate more with the noun than the verb. By the way, I think deteriorate also looks kinda off, but I wanted to use it, so I did.

Today wasn't actually that hot, still not jean-weather, necessarily, but it's OK. I'll be going back to the islands relatively soon, though, so I might be able to wear some actual pants then.

My lunch today was really nice. I've actually not been decreasing my weight for the past couple of days... As a matter of fact, I actually gained weight 2 days ago. I was ready to chalk it up to randomness, but 2 days in a row was a tiny little bit concerning. I didn't do anything different... Except that I drank 250 ml of kefir instead of my usual chocolate milk, but I'm inclined to believe that's actually less calories. I also had a banana each time instead of an apple. Could that be it?

I'm inclined to believe that the reason is actually my lunch. I had that thing my grandma had made - broccoli and tuna and cheese - which I thought would probably be fine, but maybe it's actually a calorie bomb in disguise. Like, three sticks of butter in a trench-coat. Or something. I don't know.

I'll just stick to what I've been doing and hoping that it works.

There's so many ways to interact with the Fediverse. The most popular, by far, seems to be Mastodon, but Lemmy, Misskey, and Pixelfed are also relatively popular. Kbin used to be popular, but it has apparently been abandoned, and is mostly dead at this point.

I recently learned that Mbin is a thing, checked it out, and it looked really cool! Has anyone used it? How different is it from Lemmy? I hear they have better integration with Mastodon.

What Fediverse services do you actually, regularly use?

For me, it's mostly Lemmy, though I do hop on Mastodon every now and then.

The Warriors have been doing really well since the Jimmy trade. They're 9-2. That's very, very good.

Here's the thing: in that stretch of games, they faced exactly 0 (zero) actual contenders. By actual contenders, I mean OKC, the Nuggets, Boston, and Cleveland. The closest things to a contender they faced were the Mavs, the Knicks, and the Bucks, but the Bucks didn't have Giannis, they went 1-1 against the Mavs without AD and they're cooked regardless, and well the Knicks were actually good and got blown out. That is to say, I'm unconvinced.

You see people talking about how Steph's been unleashed by Jimmy, which might be fair

he has been playing really well, regardless of whether that can be attributed to Jimmy or not

but misses the point, at least in part. Has he been playing well against fuckass OKC? Because, quite frankly, if they can't beat Shai, it doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter.

Steph needs another ring, Jimmy needs a ring. Anything outside of a championship is a failure for this season. Time is running out, and I just don't see this team performing at a high enough level to get there. I say this with a pained chest, of course, but they just aren't good enough.

I know, I know, shocker. Nobody's really walking around saying that the Warriors have a shot at the big-one, so it's not like I'm providing revolutionary analysis here, but it does frustrate me to watch this.

I'd also like to talk about NBA nicknames. I've always thought nicknames are one of the coolest aspect of NBA fandom; the joker, king James, chef Curry... These are iconic. They make watching the games that much more fun. Recently, the NBA has underwent a bit of a nickname renaissance, so to speak, seemingly on the back of "The Anomaly," referring to Jayson Tatum. It's not a bad nickname, as far as nicknames go, but it doesn't fit at all. It's a brilliant example of undeserved glazing, if anything. However, people have taken it in stride and started developing nicknames for other, sometimes mostly irrelevant NBA players.

My favourite ones so far are "The Trolley Problem" for Santi Aldama, and "The Ad Hominem Fallacy" for Jalen Green. I've tried looking it up, but I have no idea why Jalen got stuck with that, which makes it even funnier. They're so ridiculous, like Santi's, but mostly they're comprehensible. The idea is that Aldama presents a moral dilemma to the defender. Not bad, not bad... But I think that the sheer absurdity of a nickname as incomprehensible, nigh undecipherable, as Jalen Green's pushes it over the top of great into legendary status.

I saw a comment on a TikTok where the nickname "The Butcher" for Draymond Green was advanced. It pointed out how the Warriors have a chef, a butcher, and a butler. That's just perfect.