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30 Days of No Alcohol

 After being annoyed about my weight and having issues with good sleep, I decided to stop drinking alcohol after Labor Day on Sept 4th for 30 days. Will I lose weight? Will I have fewer issues sleeping? Will I feel better overall? Yesterday was my first day back having a drink. How did I feel about that? The answers to these questions: What happened with my weight? Weight on Sept 4th: 133 Weight on October 5th: 131.4. During that time, my highest weight of the month was 133.2 and lowest was 130.8. Most of the time, I weighed around 132. I'm going to say there is no real weight loss correlation, even though the ending weight is lower than the starting weight. I had better luck when I had no sugar for 30 days a few years ago. How about sleep?  I didn't see any appreciable difference in sleep until I started using my Kindle instead of phone to read before falling asleep. I also chose a pretty boring book which seemed to be the best decision to help me fall asleep. So, no, nothing
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Magic the Gathering, Red Deck

 I'm learning Magic the Gathering because I guess I don't have enough  games to play. This has been a fun endeavor for a complete new person, though I have other game experience I can pull from. I've decided to play with one deck at a time to get a feel of how each color plays before making a decision on what decks I want to combine and play with, later. In my current red deck, I have 61 cards, broken out this way: 22 Lands 19 Creatures 16 Spells 4 Artifacts I pulled mostly light creatures, but I'm thinking I'll need to rebalance. My creatures: 1/1: 11 1/4: 1 2/1:  2 2/2: 2 2/3: 2 3/4: 1 While I can pull the 1/1 creatures out fast even if I only draw 2 or 3 lands, they aren't hitting hard enough if my opponent is able to bring out close to the amount of creatures. The longer a game goes on, the more often I slowly lose. I also think I need to learn more about shuffling. There are times that I get 6 lands but few creatures, or the opposite problem, excellent crea
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Doing Things - just not Blogging Things

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While I'm still struggling to get the habits back that I had for quarter one, I haven't exactly been a bump on a log. I finished Kinfire Chronicles. I hiked in Cuyahoga Valley National Park I hiked in Grand Canyon National Park I'm now enjoying Don't Starve Together and have put quite a bit of time into it. I continue to do cardio, just not as much as previous months, between work, appointments and weather. I feel like I've not been as busy, personally, as I was in quarter 1. I also know that I normally keep habits for about 90 days until I get tired/something happens. While I'd love to get back to what I had in quarter 1, I'm unsure if it was sustainable. Which also makes me feel lazy. I'll see what I can do for the end of quarter 3 and quarter 4!
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End of Quarter 2

 Oooh... considering I had so few blog posts, and most were about how I wasn't doing so hot on the weekly goals, well, this isn't exactly a surprise. Become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in The Definitive Guide to DAX  ( I switched to MS Learn instead of the DAX book and I'm 100% finished! ) Quarter 2: Purchase and do practice tests for PL-300 Quarter 3: Sit for PL-300  ( I'll do this in early June. Or I'll cancel instead. ) Quarter 4: Publish monthly dashboards on my webpage Have a similar level of fitness as my exercise partner Quarter 1: Create daily PT exercises habit  ( Done ) Quarter 2: Go through Couch to 5K program and practice bike drills  ( Didn't get the bike out, but did continue with running and walking. ) Quarter 3: Participate in North Hills 5k, go on monthly bike rides Quarter 4: Continue a weekly run throughout the winter Achieve intermediate level playing for piano Quarter 1: Play all
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Week 21 Start

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 I forgot about this blog for the month, mostly because I had gotten used to only adding to it on Sundays, and often the Sundays this month included other obligations, which meant I wouldn't have enough time to sit and think about the week prior and the one starting. In the last month, I celebrated my 39th birthday at a new and absolutely fantastic sushi spot. Even though I wasn't able to catch the Aurora Borealis, I was able to take a picture of the sun the next day!   I played several board games. I had eye surgery, which required a fair amount of recovery that included not looking at computer screens for a while. I don't have a picture of my very red eye that I want to share. However, I have been able to start the test prep I bought two weeks ago and have been progressing slowly with that. We'll see if I can just keep on with that to feel comfortable with the exam as planned or if I should reschedule it for a future date. I'll also get back to timebox
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Week 17 starts

  Week 16: Become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in MS Learn Model Data with Power BI 100% Build Power BI Visuals and Reports 2% Manage Workspaces and Semantic Models 0% Quarter 2: Purchase and do practice tests for PL-300 Purchased exam - June 14th Purchased 30 day exam prep, will start on May 13th Have a similar level of fitness as my exercise partner Quarter 2: Go through Couch to 5K program and practice bike drills Moving on to running 3 - 4 times a week and I better get the bike out. I've managed to walk between 2 - 3 miles each day, but left calf pain isn't helping with the running. Achieve intermediate level playing for piano Quarter 2: Play all of Alfred's Adult Learner 2 and learn an additional five fakebook songs I'm about halfway through the Adult Learner 2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (I'd like to get to 100% on this one before moving on.) In The Hall of the Mountain King (in fakebook)
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Moving on to Quarter 2... mostly

Another week flew by. I'm hopeful to get back to a normal schedule with fewer project cropping up, but we shall see! Week 15: Become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in MS Learn Model Data with Power BI 75% Build Power BI Visuals and Reports 0% Manage Workspaces and Semantic Models 0% Have a similar level of fitness as my exercise partner Quarter 1: Create daily PT exercises habit Run at least two times, make sure to do PT everyday. Achieve intermediate level playing for piano Quarter 1: Play through all of Alfred's Adult Learner 1 and learn five fakebook songs Become proficient in these songs in Alfred's Adult Learner 1: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (I'd like to get to 100% on this one before moving on.) In The Hall of the Mountain King (in fakebook) Cook through the 4 Hour Chef Quarter 1: Read through 4 Hour Chef Do the last recipe, meatloaf Go through the Brent Ozar DBA Mastery courses Quarter 1: sp_B
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Weeks 13, 14, 15

 It was a whirlwind few weeks. Suddenly, the eclipse took all of my time. I spent days between traveling to Texas and back, enjoying and photographing the eclipse, and processing the best photos. So, we'll skip reviewing weeks 13 and 14. Either way, I do have my eclipse page up now.   Eclipse Page Week 15: Become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in  The Definitive Guide to DAX  MS Learn Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in MS Learn Model Data with Power BI 75% Build Power BI Visuals and Reports 0% Manage Workspaces and Semantic Models 0% Have a similar level of fitness as my exercise partner Quarter 1: Create daily PT exercises habit Run at least two times, make sure to do PT everyday. Achieve intermediate level playing for piano Quarter 1: Play through all of Alfred's Adult Learner 1 and learn five fakebook songs Become proficient in these songs in Alfred's Adult Learner 1: Have Yourself A Merry
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Quarter 1 Finished and Week 13 start

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It is the end of the first quarter! How have I done? Here are my five goals, along with their quarterly goals: Become a certified Power BI Data Analyst Quarter 1: Finish Power BI Skill Track and do exercises in The Definitive Guide to DAX ( I switched to MS Learn instead of the DAX book and I'm 80% finished. ) Quarter 2: Purchase and do practice tests for PL-300 Quarter 3: Sit for PL-300 ( I'll do this in early June. ) Quarter 4: Publish monthly dashboards on my webpage Have a similar level of fitness as my exercise partner Quarter 1: Create daily PT exercises habit ( Done ) Quarter 2: Go through Couch to 5K program and practice bike drills Quarter 3: Participate in North Hills 5k, go on monthly bike rides Quarter 4: Continue a weekly run throughout the winter Achieve intermediate level playing for piano Quarter 1: Play all of Alfred's Adult Learner 1 and learn five fakebook songs ( Played all through Learner 1 and forgot how many good song there were, so I didn't feel
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Website Additions

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 One of my friends at work was needing to test the 3rd party load testing application, and so he spun up a new website that included images and links. Instead of just doing a boring 'Hello world' page, he got help from ChatGPT and LeonardoAI to pair some fantasy themed Choose Your Own Adventure type pages for the load testing app to step users through. He was surprised at how well ChatGPT wrote easy code, so I wondered if it would help me with my idea of getting an NC map with pins and links. I last used Javascript 13 years ago in college, so I was pretty rusty, but I was able to get something I was happy with. I now have an NC State Parks page! Here's my request to ChatGPT: I would like some help making a webpage that will include a map of North Carolina State Parks and each park pin on the map to go to another webpage where I will fill in the details of my travel there. And here's ChatGPT's response: Certainly! To create a webpage featuring a map of North Carolin
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