What I'm thinking of doing is concentrating on a more narrow focus of electronics theory, not necessarily with podcasting, but actually making some YouTube videos and building up my other website. 

Could be cool!

Most days I'm still making a voice recording, they haven't been good enough to publish lately.  That's ok, at the moment keeping it going as a habit is more important.

I'm quite busy but I still find that I'm procrastinating more than I should.  So to try to get myself a bit more organised I'm going to plan out my week with a bit more structure:

They're blank at the moment but I'll be filling them all in later.

Nice board. Planning is very helpful to eliminate procrastination so surely this will help you. Just don't forget about taking breaks in all that struggle.

I wrote a post and put it on my real name website, put a link on Facebook.  Got 30 views on the first day.  Nothing too exciting, but not a bad start considering that I've kind of let that site sit there and collect dust for a long time(I'm not really sure how websites collect dust...).  The next post is going to include a YouTube video and show my face.  It's not really that hard to find me online(my profile pic is really me) but I'm a little bit nervous about mixing my two online personalities.  It's not like I'm advocating anything nasty but I haven't always been the most politically correct person online.  Probably shouldn't say that they're two personalities, I've never pretended to be someone I'm not.  But i think what I'm concentrating on needs to change..

Anyway, I think I've got some tough times and some tough decisions coming up soon.  I'll probably write about it in the future.  But in the meantime if anyone wants the link to my website, send me a message and I'll give you the URL.

This has been a somewhat rambling post, the next one will be more coherent.

30 views doesn't seem like much "online" but in person that would be a very good workshop.

Wow, been a long time since I posted in this thread.

So I'm going to be honest and say that lately I have not been doing as well as I would like.  For the last couple of years I decided to go back to uni to study electrical engineering.  I was an electronics technician before that, and it was a job I enjoyed.  So I figured that it seemed the next logical step in my career.  Turns out I suck at taking exams and in hindsight it was a very bad decision.  I did well in the electrical subjects throughout the semester but often bombed on the exam.  I was still passing, but considering I would be competing against guys significantly younger it didn't make sense to continue.

Right now I find myself without an income.  Where I currently live there aren't a lot of jobs/opportunities.  But this is not a pity post.  One thing that I truly believe is that almost everyone has the ability to improve their life if they put the work in.  It's absolutely worthless to wallow in self-pity, there's always something that can be done.  So what I'm doing about it is teaching myself programming, specifically Java/Android apps.  And I'll be moving to a bigger city in about a month's time(Brisbane) so that I can at least get a crappy job while I'm working on other things.

Did you think about learnign about embedded Systems? I don't know if in Australia there is an industry for this things but ehre in Germany they are on the rise (especially because of electrification of cars). I just ask because it woudl be a programming path where your knowledge of electronics is actually needed and could be utilized.

Embedded systems is definitely something I'd like to get into in the future if I can get into it without having a degree.  Embedded systems was actually my favorite course that I did at uni.  But for now I'll be concentrating on Android app development.  I think that once I get good at using Java it shouldn't be too hard to switch back to C/C++.

Don't want to discourage you at learning Java because it will help you a lot if you want to learn c++ later on. But you shoudl consider that most code on embedded systems is written in C wihtout any object oriented design. To write good code in C is quite different to c++/Java because it isn't object orientated. If you decide to learn C sometime I can recommend Learn-C-The-Hard-Way. He not justsShows you how to write good C code but also gives you  an overview over different tools you'll need. I am working through it right now and do like it very muhc because it Kind of bundles the Information I found in the Internet ins a nice order and gives me interesting challenges( think of ways to break c-code etc.)

Glad to hear you're taking action to turn things around. Being in a bigger city will definitely help a lot. Consider joining the Beyond group - think it would be awesome for you right now. 

Official notice has been given to the real estate agent.  Just a few more weeks and I'm moving out.  There's been some very hard personal decisions that have gone into this decision.  I don't want to talk too much about that publicly at this stage.  But I will say that, while it's exciting to be moving, there are a number of real concerns.

I'll write more later, but right now it's late and I need sleep

Bold action! 

I haven't written here for a while so a quick update.

Firstly, I've been using Habitica to keep track of some daily habits.  One of them is avoiding video games, just noticed that my streak just hit 90 days.

I've recently moved over 1000km, so now I'm living in Brisbane.  Bigger city, more opportunities.  Unfortunately, at this stage I'm not doing great, getting a job is turning out to be harder than I anticipated.  But I've been in worse situations than this and I've always managed to turn things around.  This time will be no different.

Nice to hear your update, Ed. Brisbane sounds like it's what you need right now.

Nice to hear your update, Ed. Brisbane sounds like it's what you need right now.

I know it's the right choice.  But right now Brisbane is kind of kicking my ass, I'm currently in that stage where nothing is going right.  You know that stage, the nothing stage, it's right before all the seeds you planted actually start growing.  I'm re-reading Scott Adams' How to Fail and Still Win Big.  One of the things that he talks about is that in life you get to keep pulling the lottery lever, eventually by doing things that have a small chance of winning you get the jackpot.  I know things will work out, but damn it sucks to be in one of life's valleys.

Nice to hear your update, Ed. Brisbane sounds like it's what you need right now.

I know it's the right choice.  But right now Brisbane is kind of kicking my ass, I'm currently in that stage where nothing is going right.  You know that stage, the nothing stage, it's right before all the seeds you planted actually start growing.  I'm re-reading Scott Adams' How to Fail and Still Win Big.  One of the things that he talks about is that in life you get to keep pulling the lottery lever, eventually by doing things that have a small chance of winning you get the jackpot.  I know things will work out, but damn it sucks to be in one of life's valleys.

I appreciate you being real. Hang in there! You've made some big changes in your life and it takes time to feel at home. I too want to improve my resiliency so that the valleys don't quite seem so low.

Been a while since I've posted so just a quick update on where I am.

Things are finally starting to look up, after getting a ton of rejections I'm starting a new job tomorrow.  It's an entry level position, and the pay isn't great, but it's a lot better than zero.  Plus it's a company that makes huge positive difference in people's lives and I get experience with microscope soldering.

I'm still working at getting better at programming and I've recently released my first app on Google Play.

 It's a basic budgeting app, if you have an Android device you can download it here or if you're interested in looking at the code here's the Github repository.  It's totally free and I haven't put any ads in it.  The purpose isn't to make money from it, more to put it out there as evidence that I can program, hopefully leading to better opportunities in the future.

Congratulations on your success and your first app.

Wow, can't believe it's over a year since I posted here. So if anyone remembers me here's a quick update

Things are going well. My job is going well but not overly exciting at the moment. I haven't done a lot of programming/electronics for a while. But I have been a little obsessed with photography lately. I've managed to improve immensely in the short to time I've been doing it. I think my technical skills have helped a lot. I've still got a lot to learn but I'm consitently improving. Here's a selfie I took a few days ago

 

I tried to make it a little smaller, I'll see if i can adjust it once I'm on my computer.

I hope everyone else here is doing well.

 

Welcome back  Ed! It's always nice to see some old faces to pop up in the forum haha ? 

 

P.S That's a rad picture right there!  Did you take it yourself? 

Thanks. Yes I took that picture. I used a Canon M50 and the Canon app on my phone.

Always great to see you here bro. Grateful we got to meet in the Gold Coast last year.

Thanks Cam. It's good to see you making progress on your mission.