Have you considered just not doing Christmas? Only half joking.
We used to stress about this Auntie that always got us a present, and that one that sometimes did and should we get them one because if they get us one and we don’t have one we will feel stink, but if we get them one and they don’t have one for us they will feel stink, and all that jaz.
My Mum then said something like “When you decide to buy a present, is it because you want something in return? Or is it because you wanted to get them a present?”.
So now we keep our presents pretty limited. I do my immediate family (parents/siblings - with partners being joint with sibling. Just ask what they want, they ask what I want, and we buy and swap at Christmas), my wife does her family (normally just baking something each), and then we both work together on kids (TBH most of a santa sack is stuff we were gonna get anyway - wrap up a banana, jar of jam, box of crackers, etc. More to unwrap, tailored to what each kid likes, but not extra crap we don’t need).
Our aunties and uncles often buy stuff for us or these days more often the kids, and we say thank you and don’t feel bad about not getting them things.
In terms of the day itself, when my grandparents that used to organise Christmas were getting older and it was passing to my parents generation to host, we had a few relatives around for tea and were talking about it. My auntie said well what’s the difference between what we just had (pot luck dinner) and Christmas? Just do the same but throw a few crackers around the table.
Christmas isn’t much of a drama anymore, because no one has high expectations for the day and everyone just enjoys hanging out.
Though I get that there are families that won’t let Christmas not be a big deal 😆
That all sounds great, I’m happy you get to do it how you want.
I am not facing anything that would be daunting for most people, the food is not an issue (potluck lunch, finger food), there are only 4 people I need to buy for because my partner takes care of the ones in their family.
In other words it’s me that’s the problem. But spending time with my family at xmas is very important to me especially at the moment. I don’t always get to do it and I haven’t seen them for months.
I just wish I had more to draw on in terms of finding/buying/making a few presents. What do primary school age kids even want these days (apart from hundreds of dollars worth of lego?)
Ah sorry, I can’t imagine how taxing it would be for you.
What do primary school age kids even want these days (apart from hundreds of dollars worth of lego?)
Have you considered $15 of lego?
Lego is always our go to when someone asks what the kids want, as we know it will still be getting played with for years to come and it comes with a budget range to suit almost anyone. From $10-$15 right up to thousands.
However, what the kids want is pretty much anything branded with a TV show/movie they want. Have you tried asking the parent? Some kids love art supplies, which can be inexpensive. The warehouse also sells craft kits, where you can sometimes find good stuff (the range seems to change). Thinks like paint your own rocket/unicorn, make your own bouncy ball, spirograph, etc. Kmart have similar stuff as well. Most of the kits are in the $8-$20 range. This will depend on the kid, though. Some are more into art than others. Probably best to ask parents (though we are normally struggling for our own ideas). All three of mine are into puzzles at the moment, but that can be fleeting.
I do a lot of analytical work in my wider Team, and wanted to start adding Python to the arsenal, and have now just got access to Pycharm.
Wondering if there was anyone in a similar space (Data/Analytics), and was keen to hear some of the reasons you use Python, and how its incorporated into your workflow?
I’m a data engineer working mostly in Python and sql embedded in a data analytics team. Our main use cases are for ingestion pipelines (API sources, glue scripts, batch jobs in airflow and aws), and some work in pandas that doesn’t fit into our dbt sql models. I think it’s also nice for data exploration and sharing via jupyter/colab notebooks.
There’s a few different reasons that I’ve though about for now:
A lot of the data that we are working with is quite large, and it’s sometimes a struggle to work with it in Google Sheets / Excel (Unfortunately our workplace uses both for some reason)
I have some weekly reports that I’ve somehow ended up generating (Getting data via SQL, massaging the data, and presenting via a dashboard or sharing a spreadsheet.
For creating a repeatable set of calculations when someone asks for something (which I’m sort of doing via Powerquery or Google Apps Script)
I’m quite big on visualizations, so I want to give Matplotlib a go.
And I do of coding (Javascript & C++(Arduino)), and have always wanted to add Python to my list of skills, especially in recent times, as I begin to delve more into Data.
Those sound like perfect scenarios! One of the first projects that got me hooked on python was processing large csv files instead of opening them in excel and running visual basic on them.
If you haven’t already, you should check out duck db for working with your larger data sets, too. It’s pretty neat. duckdb.org
I’ve had a brief look into duckdb, and not too sure if I’m interpreting it’s use case correctly, but does it basically allow you to use SQL within your Python to query your large datasets that you have locally?
That’s right. You can read in structured files and query them locally without having to load into a database. It’s nice in the case where you would rather write analytics sql, or want to convert between sql and pandas. It’s very quick to load and run files. It can connect to databases, too.
I started working with python last year and now it an every day tool for me. Some of it is data / analytics, taking graphql queries, using pandas to restructure etc.
I looked at pycharm for a while, but started out with VSCode; and then jumped to using a linux server & nvim instead.
Did you have some programming experience before Python? - How long do you think it took for you to start being getting some “useful” outputs using Python?
Yes - I started in the 80s typing in BASIC by hand into my C64, and did a really half assed visual basic course in tertiary study. But outside of that not really until I started playing around with esp32s and having to learn a bit of C until I found out that micropython ran on them and was way easier, plus you didn’t need to use the Arduino IDE.
Mucking about with sensors & ESP32 etc is actually a good way to intro yourself to it I think; especially as there’s a big community so loads of projects online to take inspiration from.
At work most of what I do is about manipulating data so we can take it from one system and merge it into another so I don’t have to do too much actual data analysis with it most of the time. Usually just simple maths like taking a rate from some prometheus data, figuring out what the actual configured speed on a circuit is & then converting it into a percentage so it can be visualised more easily.
All really basic stuff compared to what some folks get up to with python.
I’ve really been enjoying working with microcontrollers. Started with Arduino, and quickly moved onto ESP8266’s. I’ve got a couple of ESP32’s and have been meaning to start giving them a go, but have been procrastinating as usual lol.
We’ve actually got quite a big need for that as well - Moving Data from one system to another, and ensuring it’s in the right format etc. Might be able to get some real benefit out of that :)
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