Today Is A New Day

(9/14/19)

Today is a new day. Just like any other, but what makes today somewhat unique is that I'm writing a blog post on it. I spent the last few years working on myself and my career. Sooner or later I told myself I'd start blogging about it, and I guess today is both sooner and later - go figure.

Recent Successes

This year I got a great job working for a military contractor, in IT. Due to that, I got my CompTIA Security+ certification, and I'm working toward some more certifications in the same vein. CEH, CSSLP, etc. I've been getting straight A's at my local community college for about a year now and I was just accepted to the Computer Science Bachelor's Degree program at Western Governor's University, starting on 10/1/19. 

Journaling and Writing

What I'm most proud of and what's helped me progress the most is the 100+ pages of research related journal entries I've written. Close to every day I write about the stuff I'm interested in as I learn more about them. I write about the things that are going on with me in my life. And most importantly I get my thoughts out of my head to organize them coherently. Doing this, I'm twice as productive and three times more organized now than I ever was in my life. I'm honestly very surprised that more people I know don't do the same sort of thing, but maybe it's not for everyone. Either way, I highly recommend that you try.

Working On My Website

Earlier this year I worked on my website some. https://wforbes.net. It's not much to look at but it's got a cryptographically secure account system on it. That's what I mostly focused on with it so far. You can sign up for an account and I store your password in an unrecoverable form, so even if someone hacked and stole my database... they wouldn't be able to get the passwords. Beyond that, the website doesn't do much. I worked on it for a month and then put it down to work on later. Now is that later time, so I'm starting to work on it again. I hope to commit at least a few changes on it every day to its repository on Github (https://github.com/wforbes/wforbes.net). I'd like to now move my work in my journals into articles and other content for my website, more on that soon.

Break Up and Socializing More

Beyond all that, today I just broke up with my girlfriend of almost a year... which absolutely sucked, but I'm working through it. To counterbalance that, I've been trying to put more effort toward spending time with my friends and being more social - it's hard for me because I'd rather just work on code and stay home most of the time, but I'm definitely committed to changing for the better in that regard. I need to get out there more and being a good friend to the people I know!

Motivational and Self-Help Books

Over the last month or two, I've read five books and I recommend them all to those who might be struggling with getting their life going, getting away from toxic attitudes, or just improving themselves:

Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out Of Your Head and Into Your Life

The War of Art

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and Be More Productive

The Happy Mind: A Simple Guide to Living a Happier Life Starting Today

Dark Psychology Secrets & The Art of Reading People

Every day I'd just load one of these books into Audible on my phone for my commutes to and from work and school, concentrate on what was being explained... rewinding and repeating sections that I needed to focus on... and steadily I got through them. When I'm at home and I have a free moment, I open one of them up and read where the audiobook left off - or study more on the sections I didn't completely get while listening.

Working Toward Helping Others

I'm finding in my day to day that a lot of people struggle one way or another. Either with launching their ideas and working toward their dreams, or finding happiness in their routines and the people around them. A lot of people hold on to the past, dwell and soak in the negative, or simply just don't put the effort into themselves to be able to rise above what weighs them down or discourages them. I hope that as time goes on I can work to be of assistance to that, or inspiration for people that can't find a way. I think I've gotten to a point where I've come to grips with the things that have bothered me for years, and spreading the sense of freedom I've gained from that to help others through the dark would be amazing.

Software and Math Books I'm Working Through

Other, more career-centered, books I've gotten recently that I'm concentrating on include:
For learning C++:
Beginning C++17: From Novice to Professional (2018)
Mastering C++: A Step By Step Guide for the Beginner and Advanced User (2019)
Effective Modern C++: 42 Specific Ways to Improve Your Use of C++11 and C++14 (2014)
C++ Concurrency in Action: Practical Multithreading (2012)
Large Scale C++ Software Design (1996)

For getting better with C#:
Exploring Advanced Features in C# (2019)
Design Patterns in C# (2018)

For getting ready for Machine Learning and AI topics:
The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book (2019)
Coding the Matrix: Linear Algebra through Computer Science Applications (2013)
Linear Algebra (2011)
Linear Algebra (1971)

And of course, my Calculus textbook:
Calculus (2013)

Bye

For now, I'll keep working, a little at a time, toward this greater future I envision. That work includes posting more blogs like this one, adding content to my youtube channel at https://youtube.com/c/WillForbes87 and getting my website off the ground.

So that's where I'm at. That's the best introduction I could give on my life right now. Thanks for reading - hit me up any time at fb.me/wforbes87 ... stay tuned for more.