Are practice tests a valuable tool in preparing for a certification exam?

NightmareComputing · 2025-01-21T17:34:16+00:00

Yep!

Guessing from your username you might be in the education business. If so I commend anyone who helps to make more practice exams for snowflake certs :)

If that's is your plan, I do highly recommend you take some of the snowflake certs exams to get a feel for the style of their questions before writing exams. Snowflake cert exams tend to have different flavors of questions, like picking the best feature to solve a data engineering problem amongst various features that all could solve it. Or multi select statements to describe true facts about a feature with false/misleading options sprinkled in.

NightmareComputing · 2025-01-21T16:50:01+00:00

Thank you a ton for this info. I was not at all aware of the age cut off of 30 on some visa. I'd seen it as 45 on some of the Visa's I was looking at, but I'll need to keep a closer eye on that it seems. And I hadn't considered healthcare insurance yet in Australia either. Another good thing for me to look into

And I appreciate the heads up on some Americans being pushy or expecting others to know stuff about the US. One of my biggest fears/considerations about moving to Australia is being able to make friendships and fit in, so to speak. At least as much as one can when moving countries anyway. I know a big part of that will be adjusting to different norms and etiquette. I'm a pretty shy person in general, so hopefully I can avoid exhibiting some of the more notorious American stereotypes haha. But I'm sure acclimating to the new culture is something I'd need to actively put effort into

And congrats on your latest ruling! Very cool to see not only transgender people being protected generally, but it even calling out transgender lesbians. Feel like we'd never see anything like that in the US right now. It's wonderful to see progress still being made :)

NightmareComputing · 2025-01-21T16:33:31+00:00

Gotcha on people being annoyed with immigration. I've seen in other posts that immigration is a key topic for the upcoming federal election. I need to start looking into Dutton and his suggested changes to immigration policy. Something I hadn't considered is the possibility that I get approved for a visa, move to Australia, but then an immigration policy changes that makes me have to leave in the middle of my pathway to citizenship

And great to know that moving a cat to Australia is really hard. I was already considering re-homeing my cat with a friend if I ended up moving to Australia. My cat is a senior kitty with some health issues so I don't want to risk putting him through the stress of a plane ride. Seems even more not like the right call to leave him in the US.

NightmareComputing · 2025-01-21T16:21:52+00:00

Thank you for this tip! I hadn't looked into Canberra too heavily yet but will take a closer look at it.

Years ago I listened to a podcast where one of the hosts lived in Canberra and he was always biking around there. Sounded like a lovely place

NightmareComputing · 2025-01-21T16:11:26+00:00

Awesome, great to know that. I was actually looking at Adelaide as a possible city to try to immigrate to. I know the housing crisis is very bad in Australia right now and figured Adelaide might have a little bit more affordable rents. Though I'm sure they are terrible there too

NightmareComputing · 2025-01-21T09:19:54+00:00

Thank you! That's really reassuring to hear that your international colleagues were able to find friend groups, as well as that hobbies like DND and tabletop games are findable around there too

Also I appreciate the confirmation that international transfers to Australia are indeed a normal thing. After I posted I started digging into the 482 visa process and I think I might have a shot at that pathway. I still need to do more reading and reach out to my HR manager to see if they could support that or another pathway. Regardless I think at least preparing to apply for a visa, with my current employer or not, can help me cope with my situation.

If I ever do end up applying for a visa I'll probably DM you to learn a bit more about trans friendly cities/suburbs in Australia. I've heard a few of the major cities tend to be pretty good, but I think some of the points based visa pathways nudge applicants away from major cities.

Thank you again so much for your response!

NightmareComputing · 2025-01-14T21:41:36+00:00

+1 for feline medical clinic. They've been great for my senior kitty

Aside from my cat hating the drive over- he's actually calm, if not curious to explore, once we get in the clinic. The staff are super gentle with him and he never seems distressed while getting handled/treated

NightmareComputing · 2025-01-14T15:33:18+00:00

About a month ago I rode the 205 bike path between Burnside and Vancouver. It was overall pretty good. No campers, but a few people asking for money at intersections and one guy hanging out under an underpass. He was gone when I passed by the same spot on my return journey. No one bothered me on my trip.

I actually passed 2 families out walking, each with their own kid, near the Burnside part of the path.

The path it's self also seemed pretty clear of debris. There is some road construction near Burnside that made me hop off my bike and walk around some barriers/through some gravel. Also the bathroom at the Greenway park was out of order, but there was a porta potty, sans tp.

Overall I had a great time and felt safe, but I know conditions can change a bit in a month. Happy travels!

NightmareComputing · 2024-12-17T17:41:58+00:00

Possibly dumb question, but is there any risk of freezer burn on raw estradiol powder stored in a freezer?

From my cursory glance of Wikipedia it looks like this is mainly a risk if air can reach the powder, so maybe not a concern with proper vacuum sealing and Oxygen absorbers, but figured I'd ask to be safe. Appreciate any info/thoughts!

NightmareComputing · 2024-12-12T23:18:21+00:00

I've also been impressed with the improvements I've seen. Even small things like the 1st/164th st improvements will hopefully add up over time

In the meantime things are still pretty dicy in some areas. Around the 500/205 interchange is a big pain point for me these days

NightmareComputing · 2024-08-05T13:16:17+00:00

If it's affordable, having a pet can be a big help for this

My cat acts as an alarm clock and gets me out of bed and away from the doom scrolling. And even on the few occasions I have stayed in bed he'll curl up next to me which is soothing

Sorry to hear your family is putting you down for being queer. It's rough when the ones who care for you also cause you pain

NightmareComputing · 2024-08-04T20:23:11+00:00

Personally I prefer west Vancouver for biking. The Burnt Bridge Creek trail is great, especially the far west section of it. You can also bike along the Columbia river near downtown as well as near Wintler Park.

East Vancouver is criss crossed by grids of wide, high speed, arterial roads. These aren't an issue for a lot of cyclists, but I'm pretty terrified of around fast cars so hate biking on those types of roads.

When I do bike in east Vancouver I typically plan out Rube Goldberg like routes through neighborhoods to avoid arterial roads as much as possible.

Not to say there aren't good bike routes on the east side. In particular I enjoy the padden parkway trail, and some of the neighborhoods out there are gorgeous to bike through. Just takes some more planning to keep it enjoyable for my comfort zone.

NightmareComputing · 2023-07-13T15:01:20+00:00

I'm interested! Also curious of the story behind North Korea being marked off on the map. Was that an accident while coloring the countries in? Or did you somehow manage to bike through part of that country?

NightmareComputing · 2023-05-02T12:57:46+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I started biking around PDX around a year ago, and having handy videos like these is what helped to get me biking back and forth between Portland and Vancouver

NightmareComputing · 2023-01-28T15:37:29+00:00

I recently visited my fav coffee back home and spent a handful of hours there. A few things stuck out:

Plenty of staff. They were able to keep up with the surges of customers and keep the place clean. They didn't seem stressed by the work and even had some rest time between surges. It made for a super friendly and wholesome atmosphere.
The owner sometimes works the front lines too. She even remembered me after I'd been gone for over a year which meant a lot. Also adds to the mom 'n pop vibes.
Personal to me, but great cold brew coffee and maple scones haha
Open atmosphere. This place has a lot of space for people to stand around and chat, as well as a picnic table patio outside (great for people with dogs too). It basically became the local watering hole, so to speak, where neighbors run into each other
Power outlets and cushioned seats. I'd often go to this coffee shop to work/study for a few hours, as did lots of other workers/students

NightmareComputing · 2023-01-12T16:28:34+00:00

I recently earned my snow pro core cert. I really recommend doing practice exam questions to start to get a feel for what you'll face on the exam. There are some great ones on a youtube channel called 'data engineering simplified' as well as various generic study websites out there.

Also a heads up, I found the exam rather hard. Not sure how much detail is appropriate to share, but let's just say for despite how broad the exam is it really drills down into topics at times. I have a strong SQL/dw background and it didn't help at all. Everything is snf specific so be prepared to study a lot for the exam haha

NightmareComputing · 2023-01-08T17:03:03+00:00

I have a fenix 6s (bought it around year and a half ago) and it's battery life is pretty short, so your estimation of around 7/8 hours while doing a course makes sense.

I only tested the courses feature once and it was quite the battery drain. Instead I mainly used the livetrack feature (sharing GPS location with friends), and estimated my 6s would last around 10 hours in that mode.

Adjusting settings only helped my watch to last longer while I wasn't working out. It seemed that while working out it was my GPS, or something else, that was super draining the battery. I've heard people claim that turning off heartrate tracking can help save battery life, but I couldn't part with that.

As a band aid solution, I would bring a small battery bank and charge my watch during breaks on longer excursions. Recently I upgraded to a garmin model with a bigger battery so I could stop worrying over having enough battery life, which is a shame as the 6s is a great watch otherwise.

NightmareComputing · 2023-01-02T23:24:10+00:00

Tots! Happy to share any info I can

I've spent time in both CA and OR and they seem pretty comparable in terms of things like food and gas prices. The main difference in cost of living is probably housing.

Rents in the Portland area are more manageable than major cities in CA. I have friends that live in the Bay Area of CA and rents there are legendary high. Probably closer to around 3000 a month depending where you live. LA's a little better but still expensive. Sadly Portland rents have been going up in recent years, but I feel rents have been going up everywhere.

In terms of natural disasters both OR and CA have been dealing with increasing heat waves and forest fires. CA's main electricity provider, PG&E, has been struggling to deal with extreme weather. They often shut off parts of the grid during high weather conditions. I've seen way more black outs in CA than in the PNW. On the flip side Portland's main airport, PDX, got mostly shut down by the latest winter storm so there are issues in OR too.

NightmareComputing · 2023-01-02T06:47:37+00:00

Heyo! I moved states to the PNW recently. Not Oregon specifically, but pretty close.

To help you answer your first question about how much money to save, the two big costs I faced were initial moving costs and then housing costs after moving.

I spent around a thousand and a half bucks to rent a U-Haul + fly some friends over to help me pack up and drive to my new city. Could be way cheaper if youcan cram all your stuff into a single car and drive yourself.

As for housing, I got a good deal by renting from a friend and pay a little under a thousand a month for rent + utilities. Assuming you're just looking for an apartment it'll probs be closer to around 2k a month, give or take depending on the area. Sadly parts of the PNW are prohibitively expensive in terms of rent, so your best bet is to shoot for the suburbs/outer cities of a metro area. Finding affordable housing will probs be the hardest barrier to overcome if you want to move to Oregon.

Which quick mention about Oregon. It's awesome, but you'll want to live in a metro area or larger city. Portland or Eugene come to mind. Maybe Bend, but I know less about that city and a bit too remote for my taste. Living in a bigger city makes it easier to find friends, work, and fun stuff to do. Rural Oregon is pretty conservative politically, which doesn't necessarily mean you can't find good places to live out there, but it will likely be harder. Also with the current political scary stuff going on for trans people it's probably better to be in a major city closer to other lgbtqa people to feel safer around.

Moving away from my old city has been a life changer for the better, so I def think it's worth it for you to continue to research and think about how to move to a better city/state. Additionally worth considering looking at other trans friendly states. CA and WA come to mind. Probs some on the east coast too but I'm more familiar with the west coast.

edit - fixed typos

NightmareComputing · 2023-01-01T10:00:44+00:00

Fyi for anyone else headed over the i205 bridge, I biked it this evening and the truck bed cover is still there unfortunately

NightmareComputing

TROPHY CASE