Personal Log: Bad luck, abuddy, and tutoring ૮(„• ⌔ •„)ა💊

Two posts in one day? Siona, you beast! But really these abuddy posts had been one post but I decided to pull some of the really personal life stuff from the dev log, so it went here!

The Bad Luck

My current theory is that 2026 is wringing out the last of the bad luck it wants to dish out to me before the end of April. That way I can start fresh for my birthday this weekend.

Two weeks ago, now, I felt so unhealthy I ended up going to urgent care. It, thankfully, wasn’t any of the big fears my symptoms could suggest but I was still, absolutely, ill. So I ended up taking three sick days I hadn’t been planning for with my study plans.

On top of that, I was having difficulties with my appetite. That paired with my significant lack of physical activity since my December surgery, meant that I dropped into a weight size that was starting to scare me. I had to make some significant changes to my diet to make sure I was getting calories in.

So I completely missed my notice from unemployment about getting my training benefits progress report signed and turned in. Now I have to appeal my denial letter due to lateness, which is more hours I really couldn’t afford to use not on school.

So what do you do when anxiety is threatening to gobble you up and the mountain of to do work doesn’t seem surmountable?

If you answered take several additional hours to create a pomodoro timer with bash scriping to motivate you through the mountain of work… well, don’t. Because I already made it for you. Also that’s a really weird answer.

Abuddy

Truly, though, the script helped.

It probably also helped that I was actually getting food into my system and my brain fog from being sick was clearing up. More energy means better focus means its easier to understand material and get things done.

But with the timer I had documented proof that I was getting through things and in what segment of time. That thing that I thought would take an hour? Turns out it was a 20 minute task.

The script also made me stand up from my desk and start implementing stretches and exercises into my day rather than hunching over my desk for 8-12 hours thinking “just one more module page…” While they’re very low impact right now, I’m hoping to work back up to some of the strength I had before my surgery. I miss my buff arms!

From Friday April 24th to Sunday April 26th, I’d completely cleared the todo list from the previous two weeks. It also helped that it felt like some of the concepts, like IP addresses and subnet masks, were really starting to click finally. I was checking my notes less for quizzes and passing on the first try. I was only yelling “what the f– am I supposed to do?” once at the CompTIA labs rather than once every five minutes.

May needs to be better. And part of making that happen is down to me, so I’m taking charge in the places I can.

Sometimes that means building the exact tool I need – that is the urge that got me started with coding last year (though that’s a story for another time).

For more about abuddy, check out my previous Dev Log post or go to my repo

Tutoring

If you’re a North Seattle student, I have tutoring hours in the Accounting and Business Learning Center for IT classes. My pool of IT classes is small but I’m really excited to apply what I’m learning in a new context.

As I said in another post, I believe truly the best skill is learning how to learn. I don’t necessarily need to know the subject material, my job as a tutor is helping strengthen the learning skills other students already have.

At least that’s what I keep telling myself. I haven’t actually done a tutoring session yet. Today was my first day for walk-in hours and nobody showed up - but the schedule hadn’t been updated until just before my shift.

Maybe I’ll see some of you there!