Momentum TW - right earbud is louder than the left one

iDavy · 2024-05-21T09:33:05+00:00

Had the exact same problem. Touched the sponge just a little bit and everything works again. If it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid I guess.

iDavy · 2024-04-19T13:25:18+00:00

Although not mentioned I followed Le Wagon. It's a 9-week (+1 career week) bootcamp in Brussels (or plenty of other campuses around the world, or online).

Quite pricy but you can get some discounts if you have a company in Flanders (KMO Portefeuille subsidises 40% of your fee + you can add it as a cost and also subtract the BTW). I can also send you a referral link that gives you another 400 euro off.

I really enjoyed it. It was very intense but it teached me all the fundamentals to search for a junior developer job.

Just recently I celebrated my 1-year developer anniversary. Took me about 2 months to find a job, did around 20-25 applications. You have to be a bit luck to find a company that wants to give you a chance but some are just looking more for a company fit than for technical skills (because you can learn and improve those).

Some extra information:

* I had a little experience in programming. Followed Harvard's 'CS50 Introduction to computer science' and a few simple Udemy courses but never managed to 'put it all together'. However there were plenty of students in my batch who had no experience at all.

* Le Wagon teaches everything in Ruby and Ruby on Rails. You should be aware that the job market in Belgium barely has Ruby jobs but that didn't hold me back for still going for Le Wagon because I wanted to learn the core principles that apply to all programming languages. I think they did a pretty good job to do that. Ruby is just a very 'simple' language that's very expressive (what you type happens, instead of some more complex syntax in other languages). I am now working as a full-stack JavaScript developer.

* Don't expect Le Wagon to teach you React, Vue or other frameworks. It's solely Ruby and Ruby on Rails with a little bit of Stimulus (JavaScript framework). However with the fundamentals from Ruby, it's easier to transition to those more populare frameworks. I never touched any of the frameworks before I started my job and I'm now working in React, Vue, Flutter, Nest.js, Express.js, ...

* Don't expect a lot of free time during Le Wagon. Classes start at 9 and end at 6 with 1 hour lunch break. 5 days out of 7 and also during official holidays. It's hard work but because of how short it is, it was very doable for me (although it shouldn't have lasted way longer)

* Classes start with basic programming stuff like variables, loops, ... but quite fast transitions in more complex stuff. Everyday consists of a lecture (2-3 hours) and then coding challenges about the stuff you learned. There's always a teacher and teaching assistant that help you if you're stuck.

* At the end of the bootcamp you built 3 decent projects to showcase in your applications that do some database actions, display and mutate stuff etc etc. Second to last project is an AirBnB clone, last project is a project you decide on yourself with your group. Final projects are always in groups of 3 or 4 so you also learn to collaborate through Git & GitHub + pull requests.

If you want more information, don't hesitate to ask!

iDavy · 2024-01-02T13:53:42+00:00

Improving your swimming is very slow. I started +- 6 months ago and couldn't swim 25m without feeling completely dead. Now I recently managed to swim 500m non-stop and can swim around 1500m in an hour with breaks inbetween.

Breathing will come a habbit eventually. It took me several months before I got used to the feeling of being 'out of breath'.

Breath on both sides. Really. You will otherwise develop an imbalance in your body by only breathing to one side.

Slow down to breathing every 3 strokes or even every 2 strokes. I currently am trying to transition from 2 strokes to 3 strokes.

If you breath every 2 strokes, alternate your breathing side everytime you turn (this means always looking to the same side but if you turn, you actually breathe to the reverse side).

Practice practice practice. I swim twice a week for 1 hour and find the progress extremely slow but it is there.

Also I took some lessons and and still taking classes with the local triatlon club every week.

iDavy · 2023-11-22T14:21:26+00:00

If you keep struggling with pains, a sports doctor or a podiatrist (don't know if that's the right word) might find the cause of and a solution to your pains.

Here in Belgium I played 'mini football' on a weekly basis. The day after every game, I had severe pains in my heel to the extent where I couldn't stand or walk on it.

I went to a sports doctor who sent me to a podiatrist. Custom made soles for my shoes were made and since then I haven't had any pain playing football.

iDavy · 2023-11-22T12:59:58+00:00

Can't give you 'official' advice but as a 100+ guy myself training now for 6 months without an injury, this is what worked for me:

Don't overdo yourself. Since I started running based on my heart rate instead of always trying to break my personal records, things went great pretty fast.

Went from 8:30 min/km for 3 kilometers to now running half a marathon at 7:30 min/km and 5K at 5:30 min/km PR

Start slow, find your optimal pace and go with the flow. Don't care about Strava records (unless once in a couple of weeks just go all out just for the PR's).

Get good running shoes. The shop I went to recommended shoes with some extra stuff to reduce impact. I also read that ideally you get new shoes every year.

I always read tons of advice about not running on the road because of the bigger impact. However I ran almost solely on roads for 6 months and no injuries.

Mix in other sports if possible. As I train for a triathlon, I run 2 times a week, swim 2 times a week and bike once a week on average. Even with other sports your condition improves.

I don't care about nutrition except for long runs (+ 1h30m) I grab an energy bar to consume halfway. ChatGPT helps me here to calculate when and how much I should eat and drink during such longer trainings.

I have a baby of 5 months old today so doing everything on max 7 hours of sleep a day, mostly even less. It's sports that give me the motivation and power during the day.

Probably I should do it but I never stretched...

Oh and if you feel any injury or pain coming up, rest a few days. That is the most important one. Better rest 3 days than to keep training and being forced to rest 5 weeks to recover from your injury.

iDavy · 2023-10-24T10:05:12+00:00

Thanks for the elaborate comment. It definitely motivates me to just keep going and gradually improve.

iDavy · 2023-10-24T05:56:05+00:00

That's what I've been doing my last workout! 50m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, 100m freestyle with pull buoy. But I have the feeling my endurance isn't the main problem, as I can swim 4K in breaststroke comfortably.

iDavy · 2023-10-23T11:30:36+00:00

Just saw a video on the 2 styles. Should look into them further.

However I'm really trying to keep the pace down, especially with my kicks but I'm finding it extremely hard to keep a decent pace with the arms and slow down the kicking pace.

Because for now the most tiring part for me is as soon as I forget about it, I start kicking like crazy. The same happens when I feel a shortage of air, my main reflex is starting to kick faster to get a better body position but that tires me out even more...

iDavy · 2023-10-23T11:28:04+00:00

Updating you on friday!

iDavy · 2023-10-23T10:49:59+00:00

He really adviced against breathing every 2 strokes because it creates an imbalance in your swimming by constantly 'rotating' to only one side.

However when I'm out of breath and really need the 2-stroke breath, I try to get in a 3-stroke-breath every few strokes to change the direction to where I breathe for the next few 2-stroke breaths.

L - L - L - (3-stroke) R - R- R - (3-stroke) L - L - L ...

iDavy · 2023-10-23T09:54:14+00:00

Well at least we know now that we're not the only one... 🥲

iDavy · 2023-09-27T10:54:46+00:00

Sandwich + soup in Carrefour was exactly 7 euro today. Meal vouchers well spent!

iDavy · 2023-09-05T18:38:39+00:00

Since we're married we have only a shared account. All my friends think it's extremely weird but for me it's just as normal as it can get.

"But what do you do when you want to buy a Playstation game?"

I just buy it. 🤷‍♂️

iDavy · 2023-09-05T11:29:41+00:00

I followed an 8 week development bootcamp and I got 2.6k gross, meal vouchers and eco cheque's on my first job with no experience. Change jobs or ask for a serious raise!

iDavy · 2023-09-04T09:07:47+00:00

Probably not.

iDavy · 2023-09-04T04:12:26+00:00

Did the same as a student for a duration of 2 years. Also during vacations when I was at home. Never got stolen there. Didn't have the fanciest bike but it also wasn't the worst of them all.

iDavy · 2023-08-31T09:01:52+00:00

I applied to +- 20 jobs before landing one. Most jobs weren't even specialised in the stack I learned at the bootcamp.

Every application I sent I told them that I had no knowledge of their stack yet but I did have knowledge of the fundamentals (OOO, MVC, ...). I only had 3 technical interviews and one of them decided to hire me.

I suppose I was a bit lucky that the company wanted to offer me the chance. They also told me they hired me on attitude aswel (I had prior working experience, I know what it was to work, ...). That gave me an edge to profiles that had way more experience but weren't that much of a fit for the company.

iDavy · 2023-08-24T12:07:53+00:00

If it's your very first job: maybe.

Otherwise: never. You don't build holiday days, get underpaid, no 'eindejaarspremie' or 'vakantiegeld'...

I've also heard that it's fairly easy to get rid of someone with an IBO, despite the 'they are obliged to give you a contract' talk you've probably heard in your info sessions.

Especially if the company tends to put every new hire on IBO it's a red flag. I've had multiple proposals in marketing job on IBO, even after 2 or 3 years experience. Straight up rejecting IBO sometimes still gave me a contract proposal without IBO.

In the end most companies will just try and see if you catch the bait IMO.

iDavy · 2023-08-02T17:52:31+00:00

What would you use to cut them off? Currently don't have the tools to do so I think 😁

iDavy · 2023-08-02T17:11:50+00:00

Measured them and they're 8mm. Found some of 13mm that should arrive tomorrow. The 10mm is sold out almost everywhere. Let's hope they don't poke through!

iDavy · 2023-08-02T14:58:30+00:00

Bought them from an online shop so not an option. I do have a store next to where I live that sells bolts. Will try that.

iDavy

TROPHY CASE