Now
Here you’ll find what I’m currently up to.
A now page, why?
Projects I’m working on
It’s a Python summer
This summer I’ve been focusing on developing my Python programming skills. I have a pretty good handle of R, so I felt it was time to learn Python. This started with learning Python’s basic data types, struggling through understanding Numpy arrays, getting a handle on the extensive use cases of the pandas library, and learning how to manage environments using conda. I’m aiming to write more blog posts focused in this space to document what I’m learning.
Continuing to experiment with Neovim
I’ve heavily leaned into using Neovim for most of my workflows. During this transition, I’ve come across some really useful tools, like telescope, harpoon, and vim-fugitive. I’m trying to learn as much as I can, as I still don’t know if my configuration is correct … lol
Attended Posit::conf(2023) Chicago
I was fortunate to attend this year’s Posit conference in Chicago, a five day conference with workshops and speaker sessions. I’m still sorting through all that I learned. Here are some of the highlights:
- Attending the Introduction to Tidymodels workshop
- Attending the Package Development Masterclass workshop
- All the keynote speakers, especially J.D. Long’s It’s Abstractions All the Way Down talk.
- Networking and meeting some folks from the R4DS Online Learning Community (in person).
Books I’m reading
Python for Data Analysis by Wes McKinney
Being that it is a Python summer, I picked up this book as a starter to learn and practice using Python for data analysis. Currently, I’m working through the data cleaning, preparation, and wrangling material. I’m hoping to get to the chapters on modelling towards the end of the summer.
Tidy Modeling with R by Max Kuhn and Julia Silge
While attending the Posit::conf(2023), I participated in a tidymodels workshop. As a result, I became more interested in how this framework and collection of packages could be applied to my own modeling and machine learning work. I’m specifically excited to learn more about the framework’s feature engineering functionality and predictive modeling capabilities.
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
I’m continuing to read more of Isaac Asimov’s work. It started with I, Robot. Now I’ve begun reading the first book in his Robot Series. I’ve recognized I really enjoy Science Fiction.