From 1268ec02fa60a1c84ce1fc0785c73c83e4100174 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: GitHub Actions Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2023 02:37:06 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Deploy semanticdata/zola-tale to semanticdata/zola-tale:gh-pages --- 404.html | 240 ++++++++++++++++++++ about/index.html | 252 +++++++++++++++++++++ assets/apple-touch-icon.png | Bin 0 -> 1077 bytes assets/favicon-16x16.png | Bin 0 -> 578 bytes assets/favicon-32x32.png | Bin 0 -> 753 bytes assets/js/disqusLoader.js | 7 + atom.xml | 135 +++++++++++ hello-world/index.html | 276 +++++++++++++++++++++++ index.html | 284 +++++++++++++++++++++++ main.css | 1 + monkey-brain/index.html | 284 +++++++++++++++++++++++ on-burning-out/index.html | 284 +++++++++++++++++++++++ page/1/index.html | 6 + robots.txt | 4 + sitemap.xml | 46 ++++ tags/blogging/atom.xml | 66 ++++++ tags/blogging/index.html | 258 +++++++++++++++++++++ tags/burnout/atom.xml | 42 ++++ tags/burnout/index.html | 249 ++++++++++++++++++++ tags/firefox/atom.xml | 47 ++++ tags/firefox/index.html | 258 +++++++++++++++++++++ tags/index.html | 363 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ tags/mental-health/atom.xml | 74 ++++++ tags/mental-health/index.html | 257 +++++++++++++++++++++ tags/tutorial/atom.xml | 47 ++++ tags/tutorial/index.html | 258 +++++++++++++++++++++ unlock-firefox-sidebar/index.html | 289 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ 27 files changed, 4027 insertions(+) create mode 100644 404.html create mode 100644 about/index.html create mode 100644 assets/apple-touch-icon.png create mode 100644 assets/favicon-16x16.png create mode 100644 assets/favicon-32x32.png create mode 100644 assets/js/disqusLoader.js create mode 100644 atom.xml create mode 100644 hello-world/index.html create mode 100644 index.html create mode 100644 main.css create mode 100644 monkey-brain/index.html create mode 100644 on-burning-out/index.html create mode 100644 page/1/index.html create mode 100644 robots.txt create mode 100644 sitemap.xml create mode 100644 tags/blogging/atom.xml create mode 100644 tags/blogging/index.html create mode 100644 tags/burnout/atom.xml create mode 100644 tags/burnout/index.html create mode 100644 tags/firefox/atom.xml create mode 100644 tags/firefox/index.html create mode 100644 tags/index.html create mode 100644 tags/mental-health/atom.xml create mode 100644 tags/mental-health/index.html create mode 100644 tags/tutorial/atom.xml create mode 100644 tags/tutorial/index.html create mode 100644 unlock-firefox-sidebar/index.html diff --git a/404.html b/404.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e52236b --- /dev/null +++ b/404.html @@ -0,0 +1,240 @@ + + + + + + + +404 | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+

404: Page not found

+
+

+ Oops! We can't seem to find the page you are looking for. Let's + head back home. +

+

+
+ +
+ + + + + + diff --git a/about/index.html b/about/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7f3572 --- /dev/null +++ b/about/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,252 @@ + + + + + + + + + +About | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+
+ Written by Miguel Pimentel
+
+

About

+
+

Hello there, it's good to see you. I'm Miguel—hobby developer, music enjoyer, and public infrastructure enthusiast. I live in Minnesota, also known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" for having over 14,000 bodies of fresh water.

+

I think a lot, work a lot, have existential crises, and know just enough about making websites to make me dangerous. I enjoy writing, reading, coding, listening to music, and love having a problem to solve.

+

As of September 2023, I am…

+

… tending to my digital garden.
+… making simple browser extensions.
+… collecting bookmarks with Raindrop.
+… slowly teaching myself game development with LÖVE.

+

Thank you for stopping by. Please tell your dog I said Hi! 🐶

+ +
+ + +
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I am a very private person. You will not find me sharing my personal life on social media. That said, these last 18 months have changed me profoundly, and I feel like I need to write these feelings down. This post's threshold of success is helping one other person navigate difficult times.</p> +<p>Burning out is something I had little experience with. A mental image of what it looks like when you burn out was all I had. My only context coming from watching online influencers post articles/videos about how bad it can be. I never really learned what it looks like before you burn out, how you get to there, what the signs are. After three and a half years of being a volunteer firefighter, I burned out. It did not catch me by surprise; I had been struggling mentally for some time. Every day, telling myself that it would be different, that it would change. That feeling went away eventually, leaving me with too much to handle.</p> +<h2 id="what-being-a-volunteer-firefighter-means">What Being a Volunteer Firefighter Means</h2> +<p>Depends on where the question is being asked. Volunteer, or sometimes paid-on-call firefighters make up more than 70% of registered fire departments. Minnesota sits at more than 85% volunteer fire departments, according to the <a href="https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/registry/summary">National Fire Department Registry</a>. Our setting is Bloomington, Minnesota in the US.</p> +<p>Here are some quick facts on being a volunteer/paid-on-call firefighter for the fourth-largest city (by population) in Minnesota a few of years before:</p> +<ul> +<li>Bloomington has 6 fire stations spread somewhat evenly over the city.</li> +<li>To be eligible, you need to live within 4 minutes of your nearest fire station.</li> +<li>You carry a pager around, when specific tones play, you are being asked to respond. This meant stopping anything you were doing, driving to the station, and responding to the incident in a fire vehicle.</li> +<li>Depending on incident time, one, two, three, or all six stations can be paged together to respond. For example, medicals calls involve 1 station responding with 1 truck, while residential fire calls start a 3 station response immediately.</li> +<li>You need to respond to at least 30% of the calls that were assigned to your station. These meant emergency calls during your work hours, weekends, holidays count against you.</li> +</ul> +<h2 id="learning-what-being-homesick-was-all-about">Learning What Being Homesick Was All About</h2> +<p>During the pandemic, the emergency medical calls went through the roof. The Police Department was unable to keep up with the large number of incidents, so the city came to rely on the approximate 100 volunteer Fire Department to pick up the slack. This meant those working normal 8 to 5 jobs had a harder time keeping up with their 30% minimum. Without going into details, it was difficult.</p> +<p>At the time, I was not in a good place mentally. Lots of things were lingering in the back of my mind. Everything has been made worse since I became woefully aware that I was homesick. I had planned to go visit for winter in 2020, but that option was quickly taken off the table. For context, I moved to the United States in Summer 2015, and to this day, due to one reason or another, I have yet to return.</p> +<p>The later half of 2021 overwhelmed me. Several things accumulated over time, some went under the radar and were never addressed until it was too late, and others were willfully ignored. Struggling to maintain my sanity and mental health, I decided to take a 90-day leave of absence from the fire department. My plans were to spend the extra time looking after my mental health. Unfortunately, nothing improved.</p> +<p>When the time came to rejoin, I opted to extend my leave as much as I could. I opted for another 90-day leave of absence, the maximum time allowed before needing to rejoin or separate. Again, nothing improved. I was just not in a good place mentally. A few days before needing to rejoin after 6 months of leave, I broke a bone in my hand.</p> +<h2 id="how-did-this-happen">How Did This Happen</h2> +<p>Distracted, I went to move a glass/ceramic base from my desk to the kitchen. It made it a good foot before I accidentally dropped it on a dog bowl on the floor. (we fed the dogs in weird places back them) It slipped from my hands and fell on the bowl and shattered. This was <em>not</em> the first time this had happened. I… struggle to describe what my feelings at the time were. My brain approved the decision to punch something. When tasked with finding something to punch, once again, my regretful train of thought took me outside, to the patio where I proceeded to turn around and punch the side of the house. The factors considered at the time were overwritten by rage.</p> +<h2 id="being-stubborn-is-not-the-same-as-being-naive">Being Stubborn is Not the Same as Being Naive</h2> +<p>So it happened. I punched the side of the house. <em><strong>Pain.</strong></em> Broke a bone in my hand, unbeknownst to me, of course. I managed to convince myself that it was a minor injury and I didn't need to be seen by a doctor. The hand hurt, but I chose to ignore it because my pride was in danger! (it wasn't) I went about my business for <em>three days</em> before the pain overtook my pride. After the initial triage, and x-rays were completed, the doctor returned to the room with x-rays of my hand and informed me that I had a boxer's fracture in my right hand. My brain could no longer hold the spell it had me under. I wasn't being naive, I was being stubborn.</p> +<p>Unfortunately, having used all the time permitted for a leave of absence, and lacking the ability to rejoin due to my right hand being broken, I quit the fire department.</p> +<h2 id="accepting-help-is-the-hardest-part">Accepting Help is the Hardest Part</h2> +<p>It does get tough sometimes, life can weight a lot more than what you can handle. What we often forget is to look around, to look for the people that are willing and lovingly ready to help. My biggest mistake was thinking I had no support, when it really was the complete opposite. I am in a <strong>much</strong> better place now. I have others to thank for that. The road back is long, but I have friends and family right beside me. It has been a long time, but I finally feel like I am moving forward.</p> + + + + Blogging to Tame the Monkey Mind + 2023-04-12T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-04-12T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/monkey-brain/ + <p>The term <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_mind">monkey mind</a> is a Buddhist term meaning: restless, unsettled, incontrollable. The original analogy comes from describing the human mind as being full of drunken monkeys, constantly screeching, fighting, distracting, and creating general mental chaos. I’ll go over what helps <em>me</em> keep the monkeys at bay. I hope some of this resonates with you and your monkeys as well.</p> +<h2 id="clear-my-mind">Clear My Mind</h2> +<p>My brain seems to always find distractions for me to tangent off to. Sitting down and making an effort to write everything rushing through my head has been an important mechanism to reduce my stress levels. This concept of dumping your brain by writing isn’t new, but it was to me.</p> +<p>It took me some time to mold the raw output into something I could use. In my case, it started within my journal. Using the left page for brain dump, and the right page to process it down to simple tasks, references, and other tagged entries. Small details like leaving space between entries allow me to go back and add an entry in a much closer position relative to other similar ones.</p> +<h2 id="share-knowledge">Share Knowledge</h2> +<p>When I think of sharing knowledge, the image of me boring my friends to death on a topic they aren’t interested in comes to mind. It is my goal to minimize those kinds of situations. I find it easier to talk about a topic in person if I have already “talked” about it on the blog. I can actually debate the idea, without feeling the need to interject at every interaction.</p> +<p>A sure way to tell whether you know a topic, comes from being able to teach it to someone else. I am <em>horrible</em> at keeping explanations simple. I am <em>terrible</em> at controlling my impulse to talk when engaged in conversation. Sharing <em>knowledge</em> via these posts helps my overall mental state. It reduces the amount of fleeting ideas going back and forth, and provides me with an opportunity to turn those into actionable ideas instead of letting them grow old and irrelevant.</p> +<h2 id="document-my-learning">Document My Learning</h2> +<p>Recently, I have been down the rabbit-hole that is Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) tools and apps. Jumping from app to app, looking for something that “<em>works</em>” for you. It’s fun! But, it is stupid easy to lose sight of your initial goal and turn that curiosity into wasted efforts.</p> +<p>By making a public commitment (even if nobody reads it), I am imposing a healthy amount of pressure on myself to be more open and honest about how I use my time. Keeping yourself accountable is <em>hard work</em>. Any amount of effort to curb “mindless wonder” helps tremendously.</p> +<h2 id="starting-a-blog">Starting a Blog</h2> +<p>Blogging pushes me to refine my better ideas. Expanding a fleeting thought into a blog post has a liberating feeling. It’s not even related to others reading your post. You don’t need an audience to start. The same way you should <em>just</em> journal, you should <em>just</em> blog.</p> +<p>Comes from the same idea that producing content is and should be a priority over consuming it. Find what topics make you want to write. Compile your reference material. List articles you’ve read, blogs you have enjoyed, reference that weird website you know and talk about why.</p> +<p>Avoid getting stuck on details. You can change your hosting provider later. The first thing you’d need to consider is whether you’ll be using a custom domain. I highly suggest you do so, as it makes for easier <em>platform changes</em>. My personal recommendation is to start writing anywhere. Pick a platform and focus on writing about things you are interested in.</p> +<p>Here are a few places to start:</p> +<ul> +<li><a href="https://wordpress.com/">WordPress</a></li> +<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/">Blogger</a></li> +<li><a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a></li> +<li><a href="https://bearblog.dev/">Bear</a></li> +<li><a href="https://mataroa.blog/">Mataroa</a></li> +<li><a href="https://prose.sh/">Prose.sh</a></li> +<li><a href="https://dev.to/">DEV Community</a></li> +</ul> + + + + Unlock the Sidebar Width in Firefox + 2023-03-19T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-03-19T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/unlock-firefox-sidebar/ + <h2 id="why-would-anyone-want-to-do-this">Why Would Anyone Want to Do This?</h2> +<ul> +<li>To enhance the use of the Firefox <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/side-view/">Side View</a> extension.</li> +<li>To compliment the use of one of my Firefox sidebar <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/17772574/">extensions</a>.</li> +</ul> +<h2 id="step-by-step-instructions">Step-by-Step Instructions</h2> +<ol> +<li>In a new tab, navigate to <code>about:support</code>.</li> +<li>Under <code>Application Basics</code>, find <code>Profile Folder</code>.</li> +<li>Locate and click the <code>Open Folder</code> button next to it. It will be next to an address similar to:<br /> +<code>%appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{profile-id}.default</code><sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></li> +<li>Inside your Firefox Profile Folder, create a new folder named: <code>chrome</code>.</li> +<li>Inside the newly created chrome folder, create a new file named: <code>userChrome.css</code>.</li> +<li>Copy the following code<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup>, paste as content and save:</li> +</ol> +<pre data-lang="css" style="background-color:#eff1f5;color:#4f5b66;" class="language-css "><code class="language-css" data-lang="css"><span style="color:#a7adba;">/* You may change the units to any length you find more convenient. */ +</span><span style="color:#8fa1b3;">#sidebar-box </span><span>{ +</span><span> max-width: </span><span style="color:#d08770;">40% </span><span style="color:#b48ead;">!important</span><span>; +</span><span> min-width: </span><span style="color:#d08770;">300px </span><span style="color:#b48ead;">!important</span><span>; +</span><span>} +</span></code></pre> +<ol> +<li>Finally, in a new tab, navigate to <code>about:config</code>, search for <code>toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets</code>, and change its value to <code>true</code>.</li> +<li>Restart Firefox and test it out!</li> +</ol> +<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup> +<p><code>%appdata%</code> is equivalent to <code>C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming</code><br /> +<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup>: After Firefox 107, <code>#sidebar</code> was deprecated, and <code>#sidebar-box</code> was introduced.</p> +</div> + + + + Hello World + 2023-03-18T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-03-18T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/hello-world/ + <p>This must be the fourth time I have started a blog. I haven't been very successful at being a consistent content producer. That changes today. I made a promise I can't break. I have made a real commitment to someone in my life, who I rather not disappoint.</p> +<p>The past few years have been difficult for me. I am privileged enough to have access to the resources I do. It is a scary thought; wondering where I would be without therapy and all the other resources I'm able to use.</p> +<p>Since June 2022, I have been pushing myself to journal more often. Note-taking has changed the way I digest information. I've experienced the &quot;productivity app rodeo&quot;. Jumping from productivity app to productivity app. Never settling, never producing content, just focused on the &quot;workflow&quot;. I think I'm past that. It's time I sit down and type.</p> +<p>I can't go on without mentioning some inspiring people I have had the pleasure of coming across. When it comes to blogging and just being great overall, I highly recommend following the likes of:</p> +<ul> +<li><a href="https://andy-bell.co.uk/">Andy Bell</a></li> +<li><a href="https://sive.rs/">Derek Sivers</a></li> +<li><a href="https://drewdevault.com/">Drew DeVault</a></li> +<li><a href="https://erock.prose.sh/">Eric Bower</a></li> +<li><a href="https://herman.bearblog.dev/">Herman Martinus</a></li> +</ul> +<p>Hope you found reading this worthwhile. If you take anything from this post, let it be:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>“Better done than perfect.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Take care, and maybe I'll see you in the next post.</p> + + + diff --git a/hello-world/index.html b/hello-world/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec8a728 --- /dev/null +++ b/hello-world/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,276 @@ + + + + + + + +Hello World | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+
+ Written by Miguel Pimentel
+ on  +
+

Hello World

+
+

This must be the fourth time I have started a blog. I haven't been very successful at being a consistent content producer. That changes today. I made a promise I can't break. I have made a real commitment to someone in my life, who I rather not disappoint.

+

The past few years have been difficult for me. I am privileged enough to have access to the resources I do. It is a scary thought; wondering where I would be without therapy and all the other resources I'm able to use.

+

Since June 2022, I have been pushing myself to journal more often. Note-taking has changed the way I digest information. I've experienced the "productivity app rodeo". Jumping from productivity app to productivity app. Never settling, never producing content, just focused on the "workflow". I think I'm past that. It's time I sit down and type.

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I can't go on without mentioning some inspiring people I have had the pleasure of coming across. When it comes to blogging and just being great overall, I highly recommend following the likes of:

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Hope you found reading this worthwhile. If you take anything from this post, let it be:

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“Better done than perfect.”

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Take care, and maybe I'll see you in the next post.

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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
+ + + diff --git a/index.html b/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2ecdb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,284 @@ + + + + + + + +Home | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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Being a Firefighter Does Not Save You From Burnout

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My life took a sharp turn early last year. I am a very private person. You will not find me sharing my personal life on social media. That said, these last 18 months have changed me profoundly, and I feel like I need to write these feelings down. This post's threshold of success …

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Blogging to Tame the Monkey Mind

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The term monkey mind is a Buddhist term meaning: restless, unsettled, incontrollable. The original analogy comes from describing the human mind as being full of drunken monkeys, constantly screeching, fighting, distracting, and creating general mental chaos. I’ll go over what hel…

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Unlock the Sidebar Width in Firefox

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Why Would Anyone Want to Do This? + +To enhance the use of the Firefox Side View extension. +To compliment the use of one of my Firefox sidebar extensions. + +Step-by-Step Instructions + +In a new tab, navigate to about:support. +Under Application Basics, find Profile Folder. +Locate and …

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Hello World

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This must be the fourth time I have started a blog. I haven't been very successful at being a consistent content producer. That changes today. I made a promise I can't break. I have made a real commitment to someone in my life, who I rather not disappoint. +The past few years have…

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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+
+ Written by Miguel Pimentel
+ on  +
+

Blogging to Tame the Monkey Mind

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+

The term monkey mind is a Buddhist term meaning: restless, unsettled, incontrollable. The original analogy comes from describing the human mind as being full of drunken monkeys, constantly screeching, fighting, distracting, and creating general mental chaos. I’ll go over what helps me keep the monkeys at bay. I hope some of this resonates with you and your monkeys as well.

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Clear My Mind

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My brain seems to always find distractions for me to tangent off to. Sitting down and making an effort to write everything rushing through my head has been an important mechanism to reduce my stress levels. This concept of dumping your brain by writing isn’t new, but it was to me.

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It took me some time to mold the raw output into something I could use. In my case, it started within my journal. Using the left page for brain dump, and the right page to process it down to simple tasks, references, and other tagged entries. Small details like leaving space between entries allow me to go back and add an entry in a much closer position relative to other similar ones.

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Share Knowledge

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When I think of sharing knowledge, the image of me boring my friends to death on a topic they aren’t interested in comes to mind. It is my goal to minimize those kinds of situations. I find it easier to talk about a topic in person if I have already “talked” about it on the blog. I can actually debate the idea, without feeling the need to interject at every interaction.

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A sure way to tell whether you know a topic, comes from being able to teach it to someone else. I am horrible at keeping explanations simple. I am terrible at controlling my impulse to talk when engaged in conversation. Sharing knowledge via these posts helps my overall mental state. It reduces the amount of fleeting ideas going back and forth, and provides me with an opportunity to turn those into actionable ideas instead of letting them grow old and irrelevant.

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Document My Learning

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Recently, I have been down the rabbit-hole that is Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) tools and apps. Jumping from app to app, looking for something that “works” for you. It’s fun! But, it is stupid easy to lose sight of your initial goal and turn that curiosity into wasted efforts.

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By making a public commitment (even if nobody reads it), I am imposing a healthy amount of pressure on myself to be more open and honest about how I use my time. Keeping yourself accountable is hard work. Any amount of effort to curb “mindless wonder” helps tremendously.

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Starting a Blog

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Blogging pushes me to refine my better ideas. Expanding a fleeting thought into a blog post has a liberating feeling. It’s not even related to others reading your post. You don’t need an audience to start. The same way you should just journal, you should just blog.

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Comes from the same idea that producing content is and should be a priority over consuming it. Find what topics make you want to write. Compile your reference material. List articles you’ve read, blogs you have enjoyed, reference that weird website you know and talk about why.

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Avoid getting stuck on details. You can change your hosting provider later. The first thing you’d need to consider is whether you’ll be using a custom domain. I highly suggest you do so, as it makes for easier platform changes. My personal recommendation is to start writing anywhere. Pick a platform and focus on writing about things you are interested in.

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Here are a few places to start:

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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
+ + + diff --git a/on-burning-out/index.html b/on-burning-out/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9938ee5 --- /dev/null +++ b/on-burning-out/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,284 @@ + + + + + + + +Being a Firefighter Does Not Save You From Burnout | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+
+ Written by Miguel Pimentel
+ on  +
+

Being a Firefighter Does Not Save You From Burnout

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+

My life took a sharp turn early last year. I am a very private person. You will not find me sharing my personal life on social media. That said, these last 18 months have changed me profoundly, and I feel like I need to write these feelings down. This post's threshold of success is helping one other person navigate difficult times.

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Burning out is something I had little experience with. A mental image of what it looks like when you burn out was all I had. My only context coming from watching online influencers post articles/videos about how bad it can be. I never really learned what it looks like before you burn out, how you get to there, what the signs are. After three and a half years of being a volunteer firefighter, I burned out. It did not catch me by surprise; I had been struggling mentally for some time. Every day, telling myself that it would be different, that it would change. That feeling went away eventually, leaving me with too much to handle.

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What Being a Volunteer Firefighter Means

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Depends on where the question is being asked. Volunteer, or sometimes paid-on-call firefighters make up more than 70% of registered fire departments. Minnesota sits at more than 85% volunteer fire departments, according to the National Fire Department Registry. Our setting is Bloomington, Minnesota in the US.

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Here are some quick facts on being a volunteer/paid-on-call firefighter for the fourth-largest city (by population) in Minnesota a few of years before:

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  • Bloomington has 6 fire stations spread somewhat evenly over the city.
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  • To be eligible, you need to live within 4 minutes of your nearest fire station.
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  • You carry a pager around, when specific tones play, you are being asked to respond. This meant stopping anything you were doing, driving to the station, and responding to the incident in a fire vehicle.
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  • Depending on incident time, one, two, three, or all six stations can be paged together to respond. For example, medicals calls involve 1 station responding with 1 truck, while residential fire calls start a 3 station response immediately.
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  • You need to respond to at least 30% of the calls that were assigned to your station. These meant emergency calls during your work hours, weekends, holidays count against you.
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Learning What Being Homesick Was All About

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During the pandemic, the emergency medical calls went through the roof. The Police Department was unable to keep up with the large number of incidents, so the city came to rely on the approximate 100 volunteer Fire Department to pick up the slack. This meant those working normal 8 to 5 jobs had a harder time keeping up with their 30% minimum. Without going into details, it was difficult.

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At the time, I was not in a good place mentally. Lots of things were lingering in the back of my mind. Everything has been made worse since I became woefully aware that I was homesick. I had planned to go visit for winter in 2020, but that option was quickly taken off the table. For context, I moved to the United States in Summer 2015, and to this day, due to one reason or another, I have yet to return.

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The later half of 2021 overwhelmed me. Several things accumulated over time, some went under the radar and were never addressed until it was too late, and others were willfully ignored. Struggling to maintain my sanity and mental health, I decided to take a 90-day leave of absence from the fire department. My plans were to spend the extra time looking after my mental health. Unfortunately, nothing improved.

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When the time came to rejoin, I opted to extend my leave as much as I could. I opted for another 90-day leave of absence, the maximum time allowed before needing to rejoin or separate. Again, nothing improved. I was just not in a good place mentally. A few days before needing to rejoin after 6 months of leave, I broke a bone in my hand.

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How Did This Happen

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Distracted, I went to move a glass/ceramic base from my desk to the kitchen. It made it a good foot before I accidentally dropped it on a dog bowl on the floor. (we fed the dogs in weird places back them) It slipped from my hands and fell on the bowl and shattered. This was not the first time this had happened. I… struggle to describe what my feelings at the time were. My brain approved the decision to punch something. When tasked with finding something to punch, once again, my regretful train of thought took me outside, to the patio where I proceeded to turn around and punch the side of the house. The factors considered at the time were overwritten by rage.

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Being Stubborn is Not the Same as Being Naive

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So it happened. I punched the side of the house. Pain. Broke a bone in my hand, unbeknownst to me, of course. I managed to convince myself that it was a minor injury and I didn't need to be seen by a doctor. The hand hurt, but I chose to ignore it because my pride was in danger! (it wasn't) I went about my business for three days before the pain overtook my pride. After the initial triage, and x-rays were completed, the doctor returned to the room with x-rays of my hand and informed me that I had a boxer's fracture in my right hand. My brain could no longer hold the spell it had me under. I wasn't being naive, I was being stubborn.

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Unfortunately, having used all the time permitted for a leave of absence, and lacking the ability to rejoin due to my right hand being broken, I quit the fire department.

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Accepting Help is the Hardest Part

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It does get tough sometimes, life can weight a lot more than what you can handle. What we often forget is to look around, to look for the people that are willing and lovingly ready to help. My biggest mistake was thinking I had no support, when it really was the complete opposite. I am in a much better place now. I have others to thank for that. The road back is long, but I have friends and family right beside me. It has been a long time, but I finally feel like I am moving forward.

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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
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diff --git a/robots.txt b/robots.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f35bd20 --- /dev/null +++ b/robots.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +User-agent: * +Disallow: +Allow: / +Sitemap: https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/sitemap.xml diff --git a/sitemap.xml b/sitemap.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40441bb --- /dev/null +++ b/sitemap.xml @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ + + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/about/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/hello-world/ + 2023-03-18 + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/monkey-brain/ + 2023-04-12 + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/on-burning-out/ + 2023-07-06 + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/page/1/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/blogging/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/burnout/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/firefox/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/mental-health/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/tutorial/ + + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/unlock-firefox-sidebar/ + 2023-03-19 + + diff --git a/tags/blogging/atom.xml b/tags/blogging/atom.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a014dfb --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/blogging/atom.xml @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ + + + Miguel Pimentel - blogging + I'm Miguel—hobby developer, music enjoyer, and public infrastructure enthusiast. + + + Zola + 2023-04-12T00:00:00+00:00 + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/blogging/atom.xml + + Blogging to Tame the Monkey Mind + 2023-04-12T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-04-12T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/monkey-brain/ + <p>The term <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_mind">monkey mind</a> is a Buddhist term meaning: restless, unsettled, incontrollable. The original analogy comes from describing the human mind as being full of drunken monkeys, constantly screeching, fighting, distracting, and creating general mental chaos. I’ll go over what helps <em>me</em> keep the monkeys at bay. I hope some of this resonates with you and your monkeys as well.</p> +<h2 id="clear-my-mind">Clear My Mind</h2> +<p>My brain seems to always find distractions for me to tangent off to. Sitting down and making an effort to write everything rushing through my head has been an important mechanism to reduce my stress levels. This concept of dumping your brain by writing isn’t new, but it was to me.</p> +<p>It took me some time to mold the raw output into something I could use. In my case, it started within my journal. Using the left page for brain dump, and the right page to process it down to simple tasks, references, and other tagged entries. Small details like leaving space between entries allow me to go back and add an entry in a much closer position relative to other similar ones.</p> +<h2 id="share-knowledge">Share Knowledge</h2> +<p>When I think of sharing knowledge, the image of me boring my friends to death on a topic they aren’t interested in comes to mind. It is my goal to minimize those kinds of situations. I find it easier to talk about a topic in person if I have already “talked” about it on the blog. I can actually debate the idea, without feeling the need to interject at every interaction.</p> +<p>A sure way to tell whether you know a topic, comes from being able to teach it to someone else. I am <em>horrible</em> at keeping explanations simple. I am <em>terrible</em> at controlling my impulse to talk when engaged in conversation. Sharing <em>knowledge</em> via these posts helps my overall mental state. It reduces the amount of fleeting ideas going back and forth, and provides me with an opportunity to turn those into actionable ideas instead of letting them grow old and irrelevant.</p> +<h2 id="document-my-learning">Document My Learning</h2> +<p>Recently, I have been down the rabbit-hole that is Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) tools and apps. Jumping from app to app, looking for something that “<em>works</em>” for you. It’s fun! But, it is stupid easy to lose sight of your initial goal and turn that curiosity into wasted efforts.</p> +<p>By making a public commitment (even if nobody reads it), I am imposing a healthy amount of pressure on myself to be more open and honest about how I use my time. Keeping yourself accountable is <em>hard work</em>. Any amount of effort to curb “mindless wonder” helps tremendously.</p> +<h2 id="starting-a-blog">Starting a Blog</h2> +<p>Blogging pushes me to refine my better ideas. Expanding a fleeting thought into a blog post has a liberating feeling. It’s not even related to others reading your post. You don’t need an audience to start. The same way you should <em>just</em> journal, you should <em>just</em> blog.</p> +<p>Comes from the same idea that producing content is and should be a priority over consuming it. Find what topics make you want to write. Compile your reference material. List articles you’ve read, blogs you have enjoyed, reference that weird website you know and talk about why.</p> +<p>Avoid getting stuck on details. You can change your hosting provider later. The first thing you’d need to consider is whether you’ll be using a custom domain. I highly suggest you do so, as it makes for easier <em>platform changes</em>. My personal recommendation is to start writing anywhere. Pick a platform and focus on writing about things you are interested in.</p> +<p>Here are a few places to start:</p> +<ul> +<li><a href="https://wordpress.com/">WordPress</a></li> +<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/">Blogger</a></li> +<li><a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a></li> +<li><a href="https://bearblog.dev/">Bear</a></li> +<li><a href="https://mataroa.blog/">Mataroa</a></li> +<li><a href="https://prose.sh/">Prose.sh</a></li> +<li><a href="https://dev.to/">DEV Community</a></li> +</ul> + + + + Hello World + 2023-03-18T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-03-18T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/hello-world/ + <p>This must be the fourth time I have started a blog. I haven't been very successful at being a consistent content producer. That changes today. I made a promise I can't break. I have made a real commitment to someone in my life, who I rather not disappoint.</p> +<p>The past few years have been difficult for me. I am privileged enough to have access to the resources I do. It is a scary thought; wondering where I would be without therapy and all the other resources I'm able to use.</p> +<p>Since June 2022, I have been pushing myself to journal more often. Note-taking has changed the way I digest information. I've experienced the &quot;productivity app rodeo&quot;. Jumping from productivity app to productivity app. Never settling, never producing content, just focused on the &quot;workflow&quot;. I think I'm past that. It's time I sit down and type.</p> +<p>I can't go on without mentioning some inspiring people I have had the pleasure of coming across. When it comes to blogging and just being great overall, I highly recommend following the likes of:</p> +<ul> +<li><a href="https://andy-bell.co.uk/">Andy Bell</a></li> +<li><a href="https://sive.rs/">Derek Sivers</a></li> +<li><a href="https://drewdevault.com/">Drew DeVault</a></li> +<li><a href="https://erock.prose.sh/">Eric Bower</a></li> +<li><a href="https://herman.bearblog.dev/">Herman Martinus</a></li> +</ul> +<p>Hope you found reading this worthwhile. If you take anything from this post, let it be:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>“Better done than perfect.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Take care, and maybe I'll see you in the next post.</p> + + + diff --git a/tags/blogging/index.html b/tags/blogging/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e648c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/blogging/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,258 @@ + + + + + + + +blogging | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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blogging

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Blogging to Tame the Monkey Mind

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The term monkey mind is a Buddhist term meaning: restless, unsettled, incontrollable. The original analogy comes from describing the human mind as being full of drunken monkeys, constantly screeching, fighting, distracting, and creating general mental chaos. I’ll go over what hel…

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Hello World

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This must be the fourth time I have started a blog. I haven't been very successful at being a consistent content producer. That changes today. I made a promise I can't break. I have made a real commitment to someone in my life, who I rather not disappoint. +The past few years have…

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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
+ + + diff --git a/tags/burnout/atom.xml b/tags/burnout/atom.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55ea6c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/burnout/atom.xml @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ + + + Miguel Pimentel - burnout + I'm Miguel—hobby developer, music enjoyer, and public infrastructure enthusiast. + + + Zola + 2023-07-06T00:00:00+00:00 + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/burnout/atom.xml + + Being a Firefighter Does Not Save You From Burnout + 2023-07-06T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-07-06T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/on-burning-out/ + <p>My life took a sharp turn early last year. I am a very private person. You will not find me sharing my personal life on social media. That said, these last 18 months have changed me profoundly, and I feel like I need to write these feelings down. This post's threshold of success is helping one other person navigate difficult times.</p> +<p>Burning out is something I had little experience with. A mental image of what it looks like when you burn out was all I had. My only context coming from watching online influencers post articles/videos about how bad it can be. I never really learned what it looks like before you burn out, how you get to there, what the signs are. After three and a half years of being a volunteer firefighter, I burned out. It did not catch me by surprise; I had been struggling mentally for some time. Every day, telling myself that it would be different, that it would change. That feeling went away eventually, leaving me with too much to handle.</p> +<h2 id="what-being-a-volunteer-firefighter-means">What Being a Volunteer Firefighter Means</h2> +<p>Depends on where the question is being asked. Volunteer, or sometimes paid-on-call firefighters make up more than 70% of registered fire departments. Minnesota sits at more than 85% volunteer fire departments, according to the <a href="https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/registry/summary">National Fire Department Registry</a>. Our setting is Bloomington, Minnesota in the US.</p> +<p>Here are some quick facts on being a volunteer/paid-on-call firefighter for the fourth-largest city (by population) in Minnesota a few of years before:</p> +<ul> +<li>Bloomington has 6 fire stations spread somewhat evenly over the city.</li> +<li>To be eligible, you need to live within 4 minutes of your nearest fire station.</li> +<li>You carry a pager around, when specific tones play, you are being asked to respond. This meant stopping anything you were doing, driving to the station, and responding to the incident in a fire vehicle.</li> +<li>Depending on incident time, one, two, three, or all six stations can be paged together to respond. For example, medicals calls involve 1 station responding with 1 truck, while residential fire calls start a 3 station response immediately.</li> +<li>You need to respond to at least 30% of the calls that were assigned to your station. These meant emergency calls during your work hours, weekends, holidays count against you.</li> +</ul> +<h2 id="learning-what-being-homesick-was-all-about">Learning What Being Homesick Was All About</h2> +<p>During the pandemic, the emergency medical calls went through the roof. The Police Department was unable to keep up with the large number of incidents, so the city came to rely on the approximate 100 volunteer Fire Department to pick up the slack. This meant those working normal 8 to 5 jobs had a harder time keeping up with their 30% minimum. Without going into details, it was difficult.</p> +<p>At the time, I was not in a good place mentally. Lots of things were lingering in the back of my mind. Everything has been made worse since I became woefully aware that I was homesick. I had planned to go visit for winter in 2020, but that option was quickly taken off the table. For context, I moved to the United States in Summer 2015, and to this day, due to one reason or another, I have yet to return.</p> +<p>The later half of 2021 overwhelmed me. Several things accumulated over time, some went under the radar and were never addressed until it was too late, and others were willfully ignored. Struggling to maintain my sanity and mental health, I decided to take a 90-day leave of absence from the fire department. My plans were to spend the extra time looking after my mental health. Unfortunately, nothing improved.</p> +<p>When the time came to rejoin, I opted to extend my leave as much as I could. I opted for another 90-day leave of absence, the maximum time allowed before needing to rejoin or separate. Again, nothing improved. I was just not in a good place mentally. A few days before needing to rejoin after 6 months of leave, I broke a bone in my hand.</p> +<h2 id="how-did-this-happen">How Did This Happen</h2> +<p>Distracted, I went to move a glass/ceramic base from my desk to the kitchen. It made it a good foot before I accidentally dropped it on a dog bowl on the floor. (we fed the dogs in weird places back them) It slipped from my hands and fell on the bowl and shattered. This was <em>not</em> the first time this had happened. I… struggle to describe what my feelings at the time were. My brain approved the decision to punch something. When tasked with finding something to punch, once again, my regretful train of thought took me outside, to the patio where I proceeded to turn around and punch the side of the house. The factors considered at the time were overwritten by rage.</p> +<h2 id="being-stubborn-is-not-the-same-as-being-naive">Being Stubborn is Not the Same as Being Naive</h2> +<p>So it happened. I punched the side of the house. <em><strong>Pain.</strong></em> Broke a bone in my hand, unbeknownst to me, of course. I managed to convince myself that it was a minor injury and I didn't need to be seen by a doctor. The hand hurt, but I chose to ignore it because my pride was in danger! (it wasn't) I went about my business for <em>three days</em> before the pain overtook my pride. After the initial triage, and x-rays were completed, the doctor returned to the room with x-rays of my hand and informed me that I had a boxer's fracture in my right hand. My brain could no longer hold the spell it had me under. I wasn't being naive, I was being stubborn.</p> +<p>Unfortunately, having used all the time permitted for a leave of absence, and lacking the ability to rejoin due to my right hand being broken, I quit the fire department.</p> +<h2 id="accepting-help-is-the-hardest-part">Accepting Help is the Hardest Part</h2> +<p>It does get tough sometimes, life can weight a lot more than what you can handle. What we often forget is to look around, to look for the people that are willing and lovingly ready to help. My biggest mistake was thinking I had no support, when it really was the complete opposite. I am in a <strong>much</strong> better place now. I have others to thank for that. The road back is long, but I have friends and family right beside me. It has been a long time, but I finally feel like I am moving forward.</p> + + + diff --git a/tags/burnout/index.html b/tags/burnout/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac645d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/burnout/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,249 @@ + + + + + + + +burnout | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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burnout

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Being a Firefighter Does Not Save You From Burnout

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My life took a sharp turn early last year. I am a very private person. You will not find me sharing my personal life on social media. That said, these last 18 months have changed me profoundly, and I feel like I need to write these feelings down. This post's threshold of success …

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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
+ + + diff --git a/tags/firefox/atom.xml b/tags/firefox/atom.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c87bb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/firefox/atom.xml @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ + + + Miguel Pimentel - firefox + I'm Miguel—hobby developer, music enjoyer, and public infrastructure enthusiast. + + + Zola + 2023-03-19T00:00:00+00:00 + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/firefox/atom.xml + + Unlock the Sidebar Width in Firefox + 2023-03-19T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-03-19T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/unlock-firefox-sidebar/ + <h2 id="why-would-anyone-want-to-do-this">Why Would Anyone Want to Do This?</h2> +<ul> +<li>To enhance the use of the Firefox <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/side-view/">Side View</a> extension.</li> +<li>To compliment the use of one of my Firefox sidebar <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/17772574/">extensions</a>.</li> +</ul> +<h2 id="step-by-step-instructions">Step-by-Step Instructions</h2> +<ol> +<li>In a new tab, navigate to <code>about:support</code>.</li> +<li>Under <code>Application Basics</code>, find <code>Profile Folder</code>.</li> +<li>Locate and click the <code>Open Folder</code> button next to it. It will be next to an address similar to:<br /> +<code>%appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{profile-id}.default</code><sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></li> +<li>Inside your Firefox Profile Folder, create a new folder named: <code>chrome</code>.</li> +<li>Inside the newly created chrome folder, create a new file named: <code>userChrome.css</code>.</li> +<li>Copy the following code<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup>, paste as content and save:</li> +</ol> +<pre data-lang="css" style="background-color:#eff1f5;color:#4f5b66;" class="language-css "><code class="language-css" data-lang="css"><span style="color:#a7adba;">/* You may change the units to any length you find more convenient. */ +</span><span style="color:#8fa1b3;">#sidebar-box </span><span>{ +</span><span> max-width: </span><span style="color:#d08770;">40% </span><span style="color:#b48ead;">!important</span><span>; +</span><span> min-width: </span><span style="color:#d08770;">300px </span><span style="color:#b48ead;">!important</span><span>; +</span><span>} +</span></code></pre> +<ol> +<li>Finally, in a new tab, navigate to <code>about:config</code>, search for <code>toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets</code>, and change its value to <code>true</code>.</li> +<li>Restart Firefox and test it out!</li> +</ol> +<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup> +<p><code>%appdata%</code> is equivalent to <code>C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming</code><br /> +<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup>: After Firefox 107, <code>#sidebar</code> was deprecated, and <code>#sidebar-box</code> was introduced.</p> +</div> + + + diff --git a/tags/firefox/index.html b/tags/firefox/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4dd3552 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/firefox/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,258 @@ + + + + + + + +firefox | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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firefox

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Unlock the Sidebar Width in Firefox

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Why Would Anyone Want to Do This? + +To enhance the use of the Firefox Side View extension. +To compliment the use of one of my Firefox sidebar extensions. + +Step-by-Step Instructions + +In a new tab, navigate to about:support. +Under Application Basics, find Profile Folder. +Locate and …

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+ +
+ + +
+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
+ + + diff --git a/tags/index.html b/tags/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50e9ced --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,363 @@ + + + + + + + +Tags | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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Tags

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+ bloggingburnoutfirefoxmental-healthtutorial +
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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
+ + + diff --git a/tags/mental-health/atom.xml b/tags/mental-health/atom.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f251eb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/mental-health/atom.xml @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@ + + + Miguel Pimentel - mental-health + I'm Miguel—hobby developer, music enjoyer, and public infrastructure enthusiast. + + + Zola + 2023-07-06T00:00:00+00:00 + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/mental-health/atom.xml + + Being a Firefighter Does Not Save You From Burnout + 2023-07-06T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-07-06T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/on-burning-out/ + <p>My life took a sharp turn early last year. I am a very private person. You will not find me sharing my personal life on social media. That said, these last 18 months have changed me profoundly, and I feel like I need to write these feelings down. This post's threshold of success is helping one other person navigate difficult times.</p> +<p>Burning out is something I had little experience with. A mental image of what it looks like when you burn out was all I had. My only context coming from watching online influencers post articles/videos about how bad it can be. I never really learned what it looks like before you burn out, how you get to there, what the signs are. After three and a half years of being a volunteer firefighter, I burned out. It did not catch me by surprise; I had been struggling mentally for some time. Every day, telling myself that it would be different, that it would change. That feeling went away eventually, leaving me with too much to handle.</p> +<h2 id="what-being-a-volunteer-firefighter-means">What Being a Volunteer Firefighter Means</h2> +<p>Depends on where the question is being asked. Volunteer, or sometimes paid-on-call firefighters make up more than 70% of registered fire departments. Minnesota sits at more than 85% volunteer fire departments, according to the <a href="https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/registry/summary">National Fire Department Registry</a>. Our setting is Bloomington, Minnesota in the US.</p> +<p>Here are some quick facts on being a volunteer/paid-on-call firefighter for the fourth-largest city (by population) in Minnesota a few of years before:</p> +<ul> +<li>Bloomington has 6 fire stations spread somewhat evenly over the city.</li> +<li>To be eligible, you need to live within 4 minutes of your nearest fire station.</li> +<li>You carry a pager around, when specific tones play, you are being asked to respond. This meant stopping anything you were doing, driving to the station, and responding to the incident in a fire vehicle.</li> +<li>Depending on incident time, one, two, three, or all six stations can be paged together to respond. For example, medicals calls involve 1 station responding with 1 truck, while residential fire calls start a 3 station response immediately.</li> +<li>You need to respond to at least 30% of the calls that were assigned to your station. These meant emergency calls during your work hours, weekends, holidays count against you.</li> +</ul> +<h2 id="learning-what-being-homesick-was-all-about">Learning What Being Homesick Was All About</h2> +<p>During the pandemic, the emergency medical calls went through the roof. The Police Department was unable to keep up with the large number of incidents, so the city came to rely on the approximate 100 volunteer Fire Department to pick up the slack. This meant those working normal 8 to 5 jobs had a harder time keeping up with their 30% minimum. Without going into details, it was difficult.</p> +<p>At the time, I was not in a good place mentally. Lots of things were lingering in the back of my mind. Everything has been made worse since I became woefully aware that I was homesick. I had planned to go visit for winter in 2020, but that option was quickly taken off the table. For context, I moved to the United States in Summer 2015, and to this day, due to one reason or another, I have yet to return.</p> +<p>The later half of 2021 overwhelmed me. Several things accumulated over time, some went under the radar and were never addressed until it was too late, and others were willfully ignored. Struggling to maintain my sanity and mental health, I decided to take a 90-day leave of absence from the fire department. My plans were to spend the extra time looking after my mental health. Unfortunately, nothing improved.</p> +<p>When the time came to rejoin, I opted to extend my leave as much as I could. I opted for another 90-day leave of absence, the maximum time allowed before needing to rejoin or separate. Again, nothing improved. I was just not in a good place mentally. A few days before needing to rejoin after 6 months of leave, I broke a bone in my hand.</p> +<h2 id="how-did-this-happen">How Did This Happen</h2> +<p>Distracted, I went to move a glass/ceramic base from my desk to the kitchen. It made it a good foot before I accidentally dropped it on a dog bowl on the floor. (we fed the dogs in weird places back them) It slipped from my hands and fell on the bowl and shattered. This was <em>not</em> the first time this had happened. I… struggle to describe what my feelings at the time were. My brain approved the decision to punch something. When tasked with finding something to punch, once again, my regretful train of thought took me outside, to the patio where I proceeded to turn around and punch the side of the house. The factors considered at the time were overwritten by rage.</p> +<h2 id="being-stubborn-is-not-the-same-as-being-naive">Being Stubborn is Not the Same as Being Naive</h2> +<p>So it happened. I punched the side of the house. <em><strong>Pain.</strong></em> Broke a bone in my hand, unbeknownst to me, of course. I managed to convince myself that it was a minor injury and I didn't need to be seen by a doctor. The hand hurt, but I chose to ignore it because my pride was in danger! (it wasn't) I went about my business for <em>three days</em> before the pain overtook my pride. After the initial triage, and x-rays were completed, the doctor returned to the room with x-rays of my hand and informed me that I had a boxer's fracture in my right hand. My brain could no longer hold the spell it had me under. I wasn't being naive, I was being stubborn.</p> +<p>Unfortunately, having used all the time permitted for a leave of absence, and lacking the ability to rejoin due to my right hand being broken, I quit the fire department.</p> +<h2 id="accepting-help-is-the-hardest-part">Accepting Help is the Hardest Part</h2> +<p>It does get tough sometimes, life can weight a lot more than what you can handle. What we often forget is to look around, to look for the people that are willing and lovingly ready to help. My biggest mistake was thinking I had no support, when it really was the complete opposite. I am in a <strong>much</strong> better place now. I have others to thank for that. The road back is long, but I have friends and family right beside me. It has been a long time, but I finally feel like I am moving forward.</p> + + + + Blogging to Tame the Monkey Mind + 2023-04-12T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-04-12T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/monkey-brain/ + <p>The term <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_mind">monkey mind</a> is a Buddhist term meaning: restless, unsettled, incontrollable. The original analogy comes from describing the human mind as being full of drunken monkeys, constantly screeching, fighting, distracting, and creating general mental chaos. I’ll go over what helps <em>me</em> keep the monkeys at bay. I hope some of this resonates with you and your monkeys as well.</p> +<h2 id="clear-my-mind">Clear My Mind</h2> +<p>My brain seems to always find distractions for me to tangent off to. Sitting down and making an effort to write everything rushing through my head has been an important mechanism to reduce my stress levels. This concept of dumping your brain by writing isn’t new, but it was to me.</p> +<p>It took me some time to mold the raw output into something I could use. In my case, it started within my journal. Using the left page for brain dump, and the right page to process it down to simple tasks, references, and other tagged entries. Small details like leaving space between entries allow me to go back and add an entry in a much closer position relative to other similar ones.</p> +<h2 id="share-knowledge">Share Knowledge</h2> +<p>When I think of sharing knowledge, the image of me boring my friends to death on a topic they aren’t interested in comes to mind. It is my goal to minimize those kinds of situations. I find it easier to talk about a topic in person if I have already “talked” about it on the blog. I can actually debate the idea, without feeling the need to interject at every interaction.</p> +<p>A sure way to tell whether you know a topic, comes from being able to teach it to someone else. I am <em>horrible</em> at keeping explanations simple. I am <em>terrible</em> at controlling my impulse to talk when engaged in conversation. Sharing <em>knowledge</em> via these posts helps my overall mental state. It reduces the amount of fleeting ideas going back and forth, and provides me with an opportunity to turn those into actionable ideas instead of letting them grow old and irrelevant.</p> +<h2 id="document-my-learning">Document My Learning</h2> +<p>Recently, I have been down the rabbit-hole that is Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) tools and apps. Jumping from app to app, looking for something that “<em>works</em>” for you. It’s fun! But, it is stupid easy to lose sight of your initial goal and turn that curiosity into wasted efforts.</p> +<p>By making a public commitment (even if nobody reads it), I am imposing a healthy amount of pressure on myself to be more open and honest about how I use my time. Keeping yourself accountable is <em>hard work</em>. Any amount of effort to curb “mindless wonder” helps tremendously.</p> +<h2 id="starting-a-blog">Starting a Blog</h2> +<p>Blogging pushes me to refine my better ideas. Expanding a fleeting thought into a blog post has a liberating feeling. It’s not even related to others reading your post. You don’t need an audience to start. The same way you should <em>just</em> journal, you should <em>just</em> blog.</p> +<p>Comes from the same idea that producing content is and should be a priority over consuming it. Find what topics make you want to write. Compile your reference material. List articles you’ve read, blogs you have enjoyed, reference that weird website you know and talk about why.</p> +<p>Avoid getting stuck on details. You can change your hosting provider later. The first thing you’d need to consider is whether you’ll be using a custom domain. I highly suggest you do so, as it makes for easier <em>platform changes</em>. My personal recommendation is to start writing anywhere. Pick a platform and focus on writing about things you are interested in.</p> +<p>Here are a few places to start:</p> +<ul> +<li><a href="https://wordpress.com/">WordPress</a></li> +<li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/">Blogger</a></li> +<li><a href="https://medium.com/">Medium</a></li> +<li><a href="https://bearblog.dev/">Bear</a></li> +<li><a href="https://mataroa.blog/">Mataroa</a></li> +<li><a href="https://prose.sh/">Prose.sh</a></li> +<li><a href="https://dev.to/">DEV Community</a></li> +</ul> + + + diff --git a/tags/mental-health/index.html b/tags/mental-health/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03dad80 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/mental-health/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,257 @@ + + + + + + + +mental-health | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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mental-health

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Being a Firefighter Does Not Save You From Burnout

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My life took a sharp turn early last year. I am a very private person. You will not find me sharing my personal life on social media. That said, these last 18 months have changed me profoundly, and I feel like I need to write these feelings down. This post's threshold of success …

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Blogging to Tame the Monkey Mind

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The term monkey mind is a Buddhist term meaning: restless, unsettled, incontrollable. The original analogy comes from describing the human mind as being full of drunken monkeys, constantly screeching, fighting, distracting, and creating general mental chaos. I’ll go over what hel…

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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
+ + + diff --git a/tags/tutorial/atom.xml b/tags/tutorial/atom.xml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5272a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/tutorial/atom.xml @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ + + + Miguel Pimentel - tutorial + I'm Miguel—hobby developer, music enjoyer, and public infrastructure enthusiast. + + + Zola + 2023-03-19T00:00:00+00:00 + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/tags/tutorial/atom.xml + + Unlock the Sidebar Width in Firefox + 2023-03-19T00:00:00+00:00 + 2023-03-19T00:00:00+00:00 + + https://semanticdata.github.io/zola-tale/unlock-firefox-sidebar/ + <h2 id="why-would-anyone-want-to-do-this">Why Would Anyone Want to Do This?</h2> +<ul> +<li>To enhance the use of the Firefox <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/side-view/">Side View</a> extension.</li> +<li>To compliment the use of one of my Firefox sidebar <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/17772574/">extensions</a>.</li> +</ul> +<h2 id="step-by-step-instructions">Step-by-Step Instructions</h2> +<ol> +<li>In a new tab, navigate to <code>about:support</code>.</li> +<li>Under <code>Application Basics</code>, find <code>Profile Folder</code>.</li> +<li>Locate and click the <code>Open Folder</code> button next to it. It will be next to an address similar to:<br /> +<code>%appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{profile-id}.default</code><sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#1">1</a></sup></li> +<li>Inside your Firefox Profile Folder, create a new folder named: <code>chrome</code>.</li> +<li>Inside the newly created chrome folder, create a new file named: <code>userChrome.css</code>.</li> +<li>Copy the following code<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup>, paste as content and save:</li> +</ol> +<pre data-lang="css" style="background-color:#eff1f5;color:#4f5b66;" class="language-css "><code class="language-css" data-lang="css"><span style="color:#a7adba;">/* You may change the units to any length you find more convenient. */ +</span><span style="color:#8fa1b3;">#sidebar-box </span><span>{ +</span><span> max-width: </span><span style="color:#d08770;">40% </span><span style="color:#b48ead;">!important</span><span>; +</span><span> min-width: </span><span style="color:#d08770;">300px </span><span style="color:#b48ead;">!important</span><span>; +</span><span>} +</span></code></pre> +<ol> +<li>Finally, in a new tab, navigate to <code>about:config</code>, search for <code>toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets</code>, and change its value to <code>true</code>.</li> +<li>Restart Firefox and test it out!</li> +</ol> +<div class="footnote-definition" id="1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup> +<p><code>%appdata%</code> is equivalent to <code>C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming</code><br /> +<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#2">2</a></sup>: After Firefox 107, <code>#sidebar</code> was deprecated, and <code>#sidebar-box</code> was introduced.</p> +</div> + + + diff --git a/tags/tutorial/index.html b/tags/tutorial/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0295721 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/tutorial/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,258 @@ + + + + + + + +tutorial | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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tutorial

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Unlock the Sidebar Width in Firefox

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Why Would Anyone Want to Do This? + +To enhance the use of the Firefox Side View extension. +To compliment the use of one of my Firefox sidebar extensions. + +Step-by-Step Instructions + +In a new tab, navigate to about:support. +Under Application Basics, find Profile Folder. +Locate and …

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+ © Miguel Pimentel. Powered by Zola and Tale. +
+ + + diff --git a/unlock-firefox-sidebar/index.html b/unlock-firefox-sidebar/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53028c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/unlock-firefox-sidebar/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,289 @@ + + + + + + + +Unlock the Sidebar Width in Firefox | Miguel Pimentel + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+
+ Written by Miguel Pimentel
+ on  +
+

Unlock the Sidebar Width in Firefox

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+

Why Would Anyone Want to Do This?

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  • To enhance the use of the Firefox Side View extension.
    • +
  • To compliment the use of one of my Firefox sidebar extensions.
    • +
+

Step-by-Step Instructions

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  1. In a new tab, navigate to about:support.
    2. +
  2. Under Application Basics, find Profile Folder.
    3. +
  3. Locate and click the Open Folder button next to it. It will be next to an address similar to:
    +%appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\{profile-id}.default1
    4. +
  4. Inside your Firefox Profile Folder, create a new folder named: chrome.
    5. +
  5. Inside the newly created chrome folder, create a new file named: userChrome.css.
    6. +
  6. Copy the following code2, paste as content and save:
    7. +
+
/* You may change the units to any length you find more convenient. */
+#sidebar-box {
+  max-width: 40% !important;
+  min-width: 300px !important;
+}
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+
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  1. Finally, in a new tab, navigate to about:config, search for toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets, and change its value to true.
    2. +
  2. Restart Firefox and test it out!
    3. +
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%appdata% is equivalent to C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming
+2: After Firefox 107, #sidebar was deprecated, and #sidebar-box was introduced.

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