Switching up the work out routine. Wanted to try something different to compare results with what I was doing before. Especially since I’ve been having trouble pinning down a consistent routine that I like. Going back to the basics! Walk and hit 10k steps a day with 3 lifting days. Wish me luck!
Pretty proud of myself! Got one of my private student loans paid off before the federal ones kick back in.
I’d like to put a spotlight on one of my favorite youtube channels HealthyGamerGG. I would say in my generation there is a mental health crisis of many degrees with those affected not having the tools to handle it and people can be uncomfortable or unwilling to seek therapy/help. Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Alok Kanojia created the channel to assist those in the online space by imparting his knowledge in a way that makes sense to those who escape into the online world. I enjoy listening to his content as I go about my day and it has helped me be more introspective. I specifically really enjoyed his talk titled “Why Your Sleep Schedule Sucks (And How To Fix It!)” because god knows we could all use some more sleep 😂.
Got new glasses in the mail from Zenni. First time ordering glasses online and I’m really happy with this new pair especially since they were only $65!
Unfortunately, I contracted the plague from those little germ balls known as babies. I will return to posting soon but I have a word of advice to avoid misfortune that has been done on to me. Don’t eat food that was offered to you after the baby took a bite no matter how cute they offer it to you…
Working remote this week in my hometown so I can visit friends and family. My father, Tim Chrest, has been brewing beer for years now and he grows his own hops in his garden. This year the hops are going crazy and he has a jungle growing in his back yard!
My First Custom Keyboard
One thing that I never thought I would get sucked into was the world of custom keyboards. I believed that the builds all looked super cool, but they had a spendy price tag. Well, that changed for me this week! A buddy of mine mentioned that he had been purchasing items for himself and his kids on Temu. I had been noticing Temu for a bit now on social media but wasn’t interested in checking it out until I heard good things from someone I know. He recommended me the DK75 Mechanical Keyboard Kit after purchasing it himself. $35 for the board with no switches or caps. I thought what the heck, might be fun building my own keyboard for once. Finally received all the items in the mail today, and I wanted to share the pictures with you all cause I love this kind of hardware stuff!
Custom Board
The main star of this show is the DK75 Mechanical Keyboard Kit. I really like the layout of this board since I’ve been leaning towards smaller form factor keyboards recently. The volume knob is also a nice addition as well with a tactile press to mute.
Key Switches
Next, I needed to pick out some key switches. I really like the weight of the press on these Holy Panda switches from Drop. They are decently priced as well just, unfortunately, had to get more than needed since they only come in packs of 35.
Keycaps
Then for the keycaps, I went with the Red Samurai keycaps that I found on Amazon. No reasoning for my choice here other than I thought they were unique! I was so excited to get the keycaps on that I didn’t take a picture of them before installation…. Finally here is the finished product. One picture has normal lighting and the other is dimly lit.
Intro to Linux
My legs are still sore from yesterday so I spent a lot of time planted at my desk today. Thought now would be a good time to finally dive into some Linux. There is an extra computer laying around since I put together a new workstation/gaming pc this last year and I’ve been toying with the idea of turning it into a server.
I gave this video a watch by Jay LaCroix to get an idea of what options I had when choosing a Linux distro. After watching this video and speaking to some friends who also manage their own personal servers I decided on Ubuntu. Today’s goal was just to get the server up and running so I could SSH and FTP into it from my main rig so that the server could live headless on my network.
Using Rufus I was able to make a bootable USB installer. Plug that sucker into the soon-to-be server and boot off that boy in the bios. Ubuntu’s installation was easy and painless. It walked me through every step giving me plenty of configuration options. Setting up SSH took no effort since Ubuntu’s installer has the option to set it up for you if you opt-in during installation.
INSTALLATION COMPLETE!
After rebooting into Ubuntu and grabbing the IP with hostname -I I hopped over to my main rig and SSHed into the machine. In awe of how easy all of this was, I popped open WinSCP and FTPed into the server as well. Pretty happy with this progress so time to do some digging into cool things I can do. I installed Docker on recommendation and will most likely migrate my Plex server over as well. I also need to do some looking around for a different case to move the build into. Need to get one with more drive bays.
Military Training
Got up at 3 this morning and drove to Camp Ripley north of St Cloud to run with one of my best friends Blair. Blair had to complete a 10k in a little over 1:45 while wearing a helmet, 50 lb backpack, and carrying a dummy weapon. They had a 5k circuit with our first lap done in 45 minutes and the following lap done in 51 minutes. We crushed it with a time of 1:36! It sucked getting up but glad I took the opportunity to go cheer him on and participate. Proud of you dude!
Summer Fun Runs
Excited and extremely anxious for this Saturday. My friend Blair from college has some military training exercises this weekend and friends and family are invited to cheer him on. I will be joining him for his 10K ruck at 5:30 AM. Luckily I don’t have to carry anything! I am not a good runner by any means, but I will do my best to help a friend. Previously I completed a 5K with my Aunt Heidi hosted by Minnesota Brewery Running Series. Love this picture of us that was captured by Alex Renner of Flying Penguin Studios. This is all a part of my weight loss journey and building healthy habits for the future. I am down 50 lbs since I moved to the Minneapolis area!
I’ve been using chat gpt for a bit now for a lot of different use cases. Getting inspiration, helping with business writing, and generating test/example data. Now that Googles Bard is open for public use I’m going to try it out and compare my experiences.
Bought my ticket to go to MinneDemo38! Excited to see what cool new innovations people are working on. Also will be my first MinneStar event. Looking forward to networking and meeting others in the industry!
Click here to check out the event if you are in the Minneapolis area.
Made it up to Bismarck, ND to the Wahus family reunion. Had a blast up there, but what I was looking forward to the most was hitting the trails with the old man! Unfortunately, the trails by the lake were too wet to ride that day so we had to stick to pavement. Pictures were taken at Harmon Lake.
So, I guess I’m behind on this news, but I stumbled upon Spotify’s AI DJ. I was aware of the new AI integration building playlists from music you like but I wasn’t expecting a full-on personal DJ in your pocket. The AI “X” voiced by Spotify’s partner Xavier Jernigan, will pop in, talk to you, then play about 3 to 5 tracks of whatever the AI alluded to. It’s like you have your own personal radio station with a host in all! Been listening to it for the last couple of days at work and I’ve loved the whole experience.
Click here to check out Spotify’s promotional video for DJ.
Had some USB slots on my motherboard stop working. Must have shorted or something cause I couldn’t repair it on the software side. Thankfully ASUS support is great and sent me a new board. Got it installed and everything is working again!
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Looking forward to the summer months! BBQs, pool parties, and fun in the sun. Snapped this picture last year down by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge. The famous Grainbelt sign was just starting to illuminate as the sun was going down.
To be honest, I was a bit skeptical about the Apple Vision at first, but after more thought this product is going to be revolutionary. My initial thoughts weren’t positive because of the price point and Apple exclusivity, but this could drive a lot of innovation in AR technology. Exciting!
Had an awesome time checking out the Edina Art Fair this evening with @jthingelstad. One of my favorite stalls was A. D. Hogan’s and his National Park paintings. I picked up a few prints to hang with my favorite being his depiction of Acadia National Park in Maine. Check out adhoganart.com!
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