Distorted Rovings

One of the reasons I started this blog was because of the increasing chance that many of you will find yourself in a 'sandwich', later in life, if not now. The lengthening of the life span of many people on the planet, plus having children later - and add to the fact that statistics show that many millennials will not have the opportunity to ever own a home - the chances increase that you will find yourselves living with parents and children at the same time. There are ways to do this, and stay sane - I hope to give some ideas of what has worked and not worked for me, personally. *~*~* It's been a time - so much has been going on that it feels like the day is over before anything productive can be done. The company my son works for has lost quite a few people - they pay a fairly low rate - and every year about this time, they end up needing to hire a new batch. Which is nice, in a way: he gets a larger paycheck. But, it also is more hours, in a highly stressful situa...

Photo from https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske Sometimes, life just doesn't go according to plan. Like this post, that should have been done yesterday. And is going to be choppy, since it seems that they need me more than usual right now. I had been taken, literally, to visit a friend of my son - who owned a shop here in town. Okay, yeah, they have a Facebook presence (actually, two of them), but wanted more exposure. And so I was 'volunteered' to do a quick web page for them - and then offered, since I was doing one, I may as well do two, to the stylist that rented a part of their sales floor. This was a mistake - trying to get communication with them is nearly impossible. I have rough ideas ready for both sites, but want some information from them. I'm about ready to give up - and use just random images from the internet. That takes care of two of the sites - the third is a wonderful business in another state: a Mexican-Greek restaurant that is very involved...

Thanks for the image, brainyquote.com ! Warning: this section has some details you may not wish to know - skip it if desired. So why, with a child and parent(s) that need attention, would anyone start on a learn-it-yourself path? This has been the best of a list of options, some of which weren't healthy. I'm not skinny enough to strip or work in a gym, I've lost my patience for call center work (the bosses, not most of the customers and co-workers), and damaged a shoulder working food service. I have to make plans for the future - parent isn't going to live forever, and the child is both working full-time, and looking for someone to start a long-term relationship with. The relationships I've had left me with not only bills, but a distrust of someone who isn't willing to work as hard as I do. My college degree is mostly worthless, with the changes in technology - by stopping to care for the family, I found myself behind. And the student loan ...

Image from https://www.brilliant-books.net/sites/brilliant-books.net/files/puzzles.jpg I started the edX CS50 class (taught at Yale and Harvard in person) near Christmas in 2016. I thought, given that it was a introductory course, there would be a few issues with the problems, but that I could figure it out on my own, and get it completed. I did it with a Microsoft  class, therefore this should be the same. I was so wrong! The first few classes taught me that not everything covered in the problem set was covered in the class, and some of the places I got stuck were mentioned in passing, or so it seemed. Which, learning in near-isolation at that point, wasn't helpful in the least. At this point, I was not 'out there' in the social media for the class, nor - when I did join - did I appreciate my feed going from 20 messages a day to 500. So that was out - I figured I'd fight through this on my own. The best thing about the first few lessons? Having the onli...

Image courtesy Business Insider - Flat Iron Schools India Setting short-term goals is how a Sandwich lives: something that we can fit into the myriad of interruptions that are our days. Some of them are tasks - empty one rack of dishwasher, check for issues, then continue. Others are more important. Planning time to fill out an application can be the most difficult thing. I love the ones where it says "Submit a resume and cover letter." I can do  this: if it takes me seven or eight attempts to write a letter, they need not know. But, often times the goals have a larger purpose - I'm currently doing the 100 Days Of Code, as a goal to both make sure I move forward daily with getting a job, as well as completing classes and a couple of projects. I will try and share some of my thoughts on it as I go. As a part of 100 Days, I'm using Twitter more (if you use Twitter, change your password!) There is a marvelous supportive group there, and a lot of sharing. I have...

Image from https://www.gagasisterhood.com/2015/5-tips-for-members-of-the-club-sandwich-generation/ Being aware that everything that goes into a device attached to the internet is there forever (like has been brought to awareness again with the privacy breaches of 2018) the details here may be a bit skimpy. The term 'sandwich generation' seems to have fallen off my radar – this is the term for those folk who have elderly parents as well as children that still depend on them. This may likely be a more-common situation as life spans increase across the globe, so I'm sharing my perspective on being in this situation, and trying to make a better life for myself. A cup of coffee to Mom, gather dishes, listen to a synopsis of his night. Back to the title of the post: Why now? I need a place to post my thoughts, experiences, and hopefully learn something from myself as this goes on. I am a student, learning to do front-end development – for those of you who may not ...