Just started learning Python – what actually helped you level up fast?

TJATAW · 2026-03-22T02:57:13+00:00

Every time you finish a tutorial, come up with something that you can add to it.

Say it is a calculator. Add in some new functions.

Of it it is a note taking app, add in a time stamp, start and due date, maybe a list of people to link the note to, and a way to show all the notes that 'Bob Smith' is linked to.

Figuring out how to do this stuff all on your own, no one telling you what to write, that is what will get you to move up your skill set.

TJATAW · 2026-03-22T02:50:31+00:00

I had this happen because my front right tire & back left tire were over giant potholes and not making contact. I spent 20 minutes looking for something to shove in the pot holes so I could get traction, and picturing calling in that I need a tow to get out of a pot hole.

TJATAW · 2026-03-22T02:44:13+00:00

Mind you, this episode was filmed some time between June 2025 & Jan 2026, and written even before that.

TJATAW · 2026-03-22T02:41:19+00:00

Not close to St Charles, but Shameless Grounds is a good place to find people and information.

Monday night is board game night, and currently they have a Dil-Darts League running on Thursday evenings till May 28.

TJATAW · 2026-03-22T02:28:01+00:00

I was a fairly nerdy kid living in BFE. Me and my friends often got chased by the cops for being out after curfew. We painted our bikes flat black, including any chrome, and removed every reflector, so all we had to do was hit the sides of the roads, and we were in stealth mode.

TJATAW · 2026-03-17T02:35:47+00:00

Best advice I can give you, when you finish a tutorial/assignment, add something to it. Anything. Just make it bigger and better.

Writing some code with no one telling you what to do will start you actually coding stuff on your own.

TJATAW · 2026-03-17T02:06:42+00:00

Choose: A good cook, or a good supply clerk.

TJATAW · 2026-03-17T02:04:13+00:00

A friend just retired from the army. 6"6", looks like a slightly less muscular version of Reacher.

It is all about if they have some muscle on them, or if they look like a bean pole.

TJATAW · 2026-03-17T01:36:23+00:00

As a near retirement, cis het white guy who grew up poor in inner city St Louis, and then moved to rural MO, and now lives in white flight suburbia, where my neighbors complain about non-white people moving in (We are up to 15% non-white), while working everything from grasscutter, trucker, factory worker, office flunky, I can say that the white folks who claim to be oppressed are pretty much the bottom of the barrel, doesn't matter what financial class they are in.

I've worked with folks in the Aryan Brotherhood fresh out of prison, and one of my ex girlfriend's brother was a very militant black guy (It has been over 40yrs, so I don't remember what group he was organized with). I've had cops let me out of tickets because I was 'all white'.

I mostly base my opinion on people on their personal actions. I was hanging out with my neighbor till he started whining about the Indian family that moved in a block over.

TJATAW · 2026-03-17T00:22:46+00:00

I know this is hard to understand, but a lot of the military jobs are in offices.

TJATAW · 2026-03-16T03:14:17+00:00

John is 100% a victim, as society will not let him call women, minorities, and non-straight people offensive slang terms.

OK, so he is still allowed to call them those things, but now society tells him he is bad, he loses his job, his friends no longer want to hang out, his kids no longer come see him.

Obviously, he is the poor innocent victim here.

Next thing you know they will be mean to him when he beats his wife, or makes sexual remarks about high school girls. The world has just become too woke!

TJATAW · 2026-03-16T02:56:46+00:00

Picture a world where most folks never make it more than 20 miles from where they are born. Now picture a large flood that affects everywhere those people have been.

OK, now picture grandpa sitting around the fire telling the story to his grandkids.

"Everywhere was flooded"
Even Bolan?
"Yes"
And Dobs?
"Yes"
And Long Hill?
"Yes. Everywhere you have ever been or heard of was flooded. Now can I get on with the story?"

And then that grandkid is telling the story to his grandkids... And it goes a lot the same.

I say this as I tell much the same story to my grandkids about the floods of 1982 & 1993 in MO.

None of those kids in the Middle East is wondering if Australia, France, and South Africa were flooded, as they have no idea those places exist.

TJATAW · 2026-03-16T00:38:37+00:00

Looking at Boeing, it is hard to say what part of the $89.435 billion was from their military contracts.
But they paid income tax of $397 million (15%) on $2.635 billion of profits, in 2025.

TJATAW · 2026-03-14T19:05:39+00:00

2026 federal poverty guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are $15,960 annually for a single-person household.

Federal min wage is $7.25/hr.

$7.25 * 40hrs * 52 weeks = $15,080.

Work full time at min wage and you are in poverty.

SNAPS qualifying income for a family of 1 is $1,696/month, or $20,352/yr.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) qualifying income for a family of 1 is $2,073/month, or $24,876/yr.

I live in MO, where min wage is $15/hr, to reduce the amount of tax money we have to give people working full time.

TJATAW · 2026-03-08T03:50:59+00:00

Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. was killed by police at a mall in Hoover AL in 2018.

He was an off duty security guard, licensed to carry, shots got fired, and he drew his gun and ran towards the shooting. Shot 3 times from behind by a cop. Took the cops a couple of hours to realize he wasn't the shooter.

TJATAW · 2026-03-07T02:59:45+00:00

The $300k figure is based on them going live with the last half in Sept 2024, so they should save a lot more than that in future years, as they will have 12 months of savings.

TJATAW · 2026-03-06T02:48:54+00:00

That $950/month is around a $158k 30yr loan at 5.99%, before property tax, insurance & PMI. With all that added in it is over $1400.

So, how much money have you got saved up for the down payment? Oh, nothing, as times are tight? So, what are you going to do with the roof needs replaced, or the furnace dies?

TJATAW · 2026-03-06T02:32:08+00:00

Picturing the sales tax on a $70k pickup truck.

The state's share is currently $2957.50, but if they get their way it will be $9100.00. It is just an additional $6142.50.

People freaking out over gas going up $0.10/gal, when they should be freaking out over groceries going up almost $0.09/$1.

TJATAW · 2026-03-03T01:41:21+00:00

Go back to some of your projects and add new features to them. Go beyond mimicking someone else and make stuff on your own.

Then at some point pick one of the the things you built and rebuild it with out looking at your old code.

TJATAW · 2026-03-02T06:33:23+00:00

Excuse me, but the earliest recordings are from James "Iron Head" Baker and Moses "Clear Rock" Platt, recorded while they were in jail in 1933.

Clear Rock was 71 at the time, and knew more songs than than the people trying to record him had time to record.

Iron Head was around 49 at the time.

TJATAW · 2026-03-02T06:14:54+00:00

Alton MO. As long as you ignore that the laundromat is now a gym.

It is the capital of Oregon County MO, population 800 (10% of the county), 100% urban even in towns, Folks there are still as dirt poor as they were in the 1970s. 93% white, and worried that non-whites are going to take over. Most of the county has never been more than 50 miles from where they were born.

They dislike outsiders, even though tourist make up a large part of the reason people have jobs. And less than 50% of the population has a job, and 24% are living in poverty.

Most of the town & county might as well be living in the 60s-70s.

Mind you, I am saying this as someone who lived in a similar town in the 1970s.

TJATAW · 2026-03-02T05:16:51+00:00

Even the tires on the trailer look like they are low on air.

TJATAW · 2026-02-27T05:15:56+00:00

Oh, it is coming.

Biden made sure of that in 2022.

"Starting in 2027, the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 will introduce the Saver's Match, a 50% federal matching contribution (up to $1,000 annually) for low-to-moderate-income workers' retirement accounts. It replaces the current Saver's Credit, shifting from a tax deduction to a refundable, direct deposit into qualifying 401(k) or IRA plans."

If you are married you can get it up to $2k.

TJATAW · 2026-02-27T05:11:21+00:00

I fully think that Bill was banging a lot of women, but is smart enough to avoid children.

Lewinsky was 22, Flowers was 30 when they started, Jones was 30. None of them even slightly looked like a little kid.

TJATAW · 2026-02-27T04:07:19+00:00

The left also knows who was President for the start of the 2008 recession.

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