I’ve been quizzing myself all morning on cloud computing and networking. And yes, I’m still working on cybersecurity. The more I study cybersecurity, the more I realize that it isn’t really just one subject. It branches out into all these other areas that they expect you to have at least a basic understanding of. Cloud computing, networking, operating systems, security controls, and probably a dozen other things I haven’t even gotten to yet. It makes sense when you think about it, because cybersecurity touches just about everything in technology. Still, it can feel like every time I learn something new, I discover three more things I’m supposed to know.

Networking is one area where I’m definitely rusty. When I was in school, though, networking classes were always some of my favorites. I actually enjoyed learning how everything connected and how information moved from one place to another. It was one of those subjects that made sense to me once I could visualize what was happening.

Do you know what I had the hardest time with in networking? The history of telephones.

Yes. Somehow, my networking classes went all the way back to the beginning of the telephone. They wanted us to know the history of how telephone systems developed, and for whatever reason, I could never remember all those details. I could understand networks and technology, but ask me who invented what, when something happened, or which development came next, and suddenly my brain stopped cooperating. Ok, I know who invented the telephone.

Of course, I was also going through a pretty difficult time in my personal life when I was in school. I was with my ex at the time, and he made studying much harder than it should have been. So I probably had more distractions than I realized back then. It’s hard to concentrate on memorizing the history of telecommunications when your home life is constantly making it difficult to focus.

The one thing I still remember is that the invention of the telephone dates back to 1876. I’m pretty sure that’s one of those random pieces of information that has permanently taken up space in my brain.

I doubt my networking knowledge for cybersecurity is going to require me to go all the way back to 1876, though.

I also remember that a telephone jack is an RJ11 and that Ethernet uses RJ45. Again, I’m not sure how useful that particular knowledge is going to be for cybersecurity. It’s funny how the brain holds on to these little technical facts even when you have no idea whether you’ll ever actually need them again. I can forget something important five minutes after studying it, but apparently “telephone jack = RJ11” is information I have decided must survive forever.

The house is quiet this morning. Alex is still sleeping, which is probably a good thing. It’s nice having a quiet house every once in a while, especially when I’m trying to study. I can actually sit here with my thoughts and my quizzes without somebody needing something every 20 minutes.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like Kel’s dad will be going home. He is going into hospice now. That’s obviously not the outcome anyone was hoping for, and I feel bad for Kel and everyone else having to deal with that. Things have changed pretty quickly.

The plan now is for Chris, who is currently living at Kel’s dad’s house, to move back here. Alex will then move into Kel’s dad’s house. In a practical sense, it actually works out better for both boys. Chris won’t have to commute over here every morning, and Alex will be closer to his job… well, when he starts his new job. That’s supposed to happen next month.

I think all of this is happening this weekend, although I’m not completely sure whether the timing has been finalized. It’s one of those situations where everyone is having to rearrange things around circumstances that nobody really planned for.

Karissa woke up early today. I had a feeling she would because I woke her up earlier this morning to ask her a question. She isn’t very good at going back to sleep once she’s been woken up, but the question was important and needed an immediate answer. Some people can wake up, answer a question, roll over, and immediately fall back asleep. Karissa is not one of those people.

Alexis was up early this morning too. She texted me about bringing her office chair to her apartment whenever we decide to visit. I’m guessing she isn’t particularly happy with the chair she has now in her room. Her office chair would probably be much better for her back anyway. Sometimes you don’t realize how much a decent chair matters until you’ve spent enough time sitting in a bad one.

I also have a lot of medication to pick up at Walmart. Karissa has one prescription to pick up as well. I’m hoping I can make it to Walmart today and get everything. I had originally been thinking about waiting until tomorrow, but I figure I should probably start my new medication rather than putting it off another day.

If I can’t get there today, I’ll just stop by Walmart tomorrow. It isn’t a huge deal either way, although I’d rather get it taken care of today so I don’t have to keep thinking about it.

And then there’s the strange thing about how my mind works.

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have very many thoughts going through my head. There are times when my mind feels almost completely blank. Or I know there is something in there, but I can’t figure out how to turn it into words. I’ll have a vague thought or feeling, and then, when I try to explain it, it disappears or becomes impossible to describe.

So sometimes I wonder if I really don’t have that many thoughts floating around in my head. But maybe that isn’t actually true. Maybe I have plenty of thoughts and just don’t always know how to organize them. Maybe my brain jumps from one thing to another so quickly that I don’t even realize how much is going on in there. One minute I’m thinking about cloud computing, then I’m remembering something from networking class, then somehow I’m thinking about the history of the telephone, and suddenly I’m wondering whether anyone would actually care if I started talking about a book I was thinking about.

Or I’ll remember something that happened years ago for absolutely no reason. There doesn’t have to be a connection. My brain will just pull some random memory out of nowhere and put it in front of me.

And then I wonder, would anyone care if I talked about it?

Would anyone want to hear me randomly start talking about a book I was thinking about? Or tell a story about something that happened ages ago? Or explain some completely unrelated thought that wandered into my head while I was studying networking?

Maybe having a “blank” mind doesn’t necessarily mean there’s nothing there. Or does it? Maybe it just means I haven’t figured out how to put everything in there into words yet. But you’d think by now I’d know how to put thoughts into words by now. But I can write, but when it comes to talking, I fall short. But with writing, I can take my time to formulate thoughts and figure out how I want to write the sentences. I can also stop writing and come back later when I think of something to write about. When talking, things have to be instantaneous, and I’m not good at that. Or I will think of something and feel either too shy or awkward to talk about it. Like what I’m thinking about isn’t that important.

I’m starting to feel like I’m finally getting the hang of this networking stuff. There are still a lot of terms and concepts to remember, but I’m beginning to see how everything fits together. Tommy says one of the things I really need to memorize is the common network ports, so he sent me an image with 20 of the most commonly used ports. That should be really helpful. Having a list of the important ports in front of me will make it easier to study them and hopefully recognize them more quickly when I see them in questions.

Alex and I are heading to Walmart soon. Before we go there, we’re stopping at Kel’s dad’s house because Kel said Alex needs to be there by three. I honestly forgot what he has to take care of there, but we’ll be heading over soon. After that, we’re going to Walmart to pick up some medication and grab the Walmart order that his mom placed for him. I think Kel said the order was for totes, but I guess we’ll find out when we get there. I do listen to people when they tell me things, but as the day progresses, unless I write it down, I may forget things.

It should be a pretty straightforward afternoon, but at least I’ll have a little networking studying to work on afterward. I’m actually starting to feel more confident with it, which is nice.

Tommy has practice tonight, so tonight may be a fending night. I’m not sure what I’m going to eat for dinner.

Okay, I’m done on the bike. As soon as I got home, I got on and started riding because I didn’t want to waste any more time. We had already been at Kel’s dad’s house for almost an hour. I guess someone was there to pick up a few trailers, so we ended up waiting around there for quite a while.

After that, we went to KFC so Karissa could get a chicken sandwich for dinner tonight. Then Alex went to the grocery store to pick up something for himself for dinner. Once everyone had what they needed, we finally made our way over to Walmart to pick up the medications. Hopefully, the Foundayo will be ready to fill tomorrow. Walmart says it will be, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I’ve been doing pretty well with my eating lately, and I’m trying to stay consistent so I don’t gain back the weight I’ve already lost. I’m glad I’ve been able to keep myself on track, even with everything going on.

Now I’m going to search the kitchen and see what I can find for dinner. I’m not sure what I’m in the mood for yet, so I’ll have to see what we have and figure it out from there.

Tomorrow Tommy has the day off. I have my pill boxes to fill and laundry to do, so I’ll have a few things to keep me busy. Hopefully, I can get those things taken care of and have a relatively relaxing day too.