kjodle/salad-days
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Initial commit

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
Kenneth John Odle 2024-07-09 11:32:52 -04:00
commit 5128adce26
3 changed files with 325 additions and 0 deletions
Show Stats Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

17
.gitignore vendored Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
Covers
*bklt*
*.aux
*.log
*.out
*.synctex.gz
*.toc
*.dvi
*.odt
metric*
*.mx1
*.abc
*.bak
*wc*
*drafts*
/build/*
*/build/*

63
salad-days-001-cover.tex Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
\documentclass[letter, landscape]{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{makeidx}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[]{kpfonts}
\usepackage{float}
\raggedbottom
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{multicol}
% Set column separation
\setlength\columnsep{20mm}
% Where are our images?
\graphicspath{{images/}}
% Stretch the linespacing
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{2.0}
% Let's adjust the page margins
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{
margin=10mm,
}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\begin{center}
\begin{multicols}{2}
% Back page
\vspace*{40mm}
%\includegraphics[scale=0.2]{iamemployedaf-post-2024_03_30_08_56}
\vfill\null
\columnbreak
% Front page
\vspace*{40mm}
{\fontsize{55}{70}\selectfont \textbf{Salad Days}}
{\large \textbf{A Life with Computers}}
%{\large \textbf{Issue \#5}}
{\large \textbf{Typeset in \textrm{\LaTeX{}}}\\(including the cover, of course)}
{\footnotesize \textbf{First Printing}}
\vspace{10mm}
%\includegraphics[scale=0.05]{4_RETAT_04_Linus_Torvalds}
\end{multicols}
\end{center}
\end{document}

245
salad-days-001.tex Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,245 @@
\documentclass[twoside]{report}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Packages %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{makeidx}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[nott]{kpfonts}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{gensymb} % Just for the degree symbol
\usepackage{ccicons} % Creative Commons icons; now we can delete an image
\usepackage{lettrine} % Drop caps
\usepackage{wrapfig} % Let's wrap some images
\usepackage{hanging} % For hanging indents in a script
\usepackage{fancyvrb} % Use line numbers with code samples
\usepackage{fvextra} % Break lines inside Verbatim environment:
\usepackage{enumitem} % Control spacing in lists
\usepackage{setspace} % Better control over line-spacing
\usepackage{nicefrac} % Use nice fractions
\usepackage[bottom]{footmisc} % Keep the footnotes at the bottom of the page
\usepackage{tabto} % Use tab stops when we need to (especially in footnotes)
\usepackage{microtype} % Make things neater. Thanks /u/-LeopardShark-
\usepackage{tabularray} % Easy tables
\usepackage[]{FiraSans} % sans-serif font; https://tug.org/FontCatalogue/firasansregular
\usepackage[]{footmisc}
\usepackage{verbatim}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Commands %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\graphicspath{{images/}} % Where are our images?
\usepackage{multicol} % Include two- or three-column sections
\counterwithout{footnote}{chapter} % Stop resetting the footnote count after each chapter
\NumTabs{18} % Define 18 tab stops (at 1/4" intervals) [tabto package]
\raggedbottom % Don't force text to fill page
\setlength{\belowcaptionskip}{4pt} % Adjust space between caption and figure
\renewcommand*\contentsname{In This Issue…} % Change the name of the TOC
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Document Setup%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{
paperheight=8.5in,
paperwidth=5.5in,
% heightrounded,
margin=0.5in
}
\addtolength{\topmargin}{0.4in} % Adjust and bottom margin
\addtolength{\textheight}{-0.75in} % Adjust the bottom margin
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Page Headers%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{\textit{Salad Days}}
\fancyhead[RE,LO]{Issue \#001}
\cfoot{Page \thepage}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.5pt}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Chapter Title Spacing %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{comment}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
{\normalfont\huge\bfseries}
{\chaptertitlename\ \thechapter}
{20pt}
{\Huge}
\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{0pt}{40pt}
\end{comment}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Custom Macros %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Make a nice border and box for the tops of our examples
\newcommand\klab[3]{\vspace{#1}\noindent{}\hrulefill\fbox{\texttt{~#2~}}\hrulefill\vspace{#3}}
% Add an \hrule with space above and below
\newcommand\krule[2]{\vspace{#1}\hrule\vspace{#2}}
% Make hrefs easier (must load package hyperref}
\newcommand\kref[2]{\href{#1}{{\texttt{#2}}}}
% Rotate text in tables easier
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/89115/how-to-rotate-text-in-multirow-table
\newcommand\krot[3]{\parbox[t]{#1}{\multirow{#2}{*}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{90}{#3}}}}
% Make diversions easier (and uniform!)
\newcommand\kdivb[2]{
\medskip
\hrule
\medskip
\noindent{}\textbf{#1}
\vspace{#2mm}
\begin{multicols}{2}
}
\newcommand\kdive[1]{
\end{multicols}
\vspace{#1mm}
\hrule
\medskip
}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Just for Issue #001 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Include URLS %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Be sure to load this package last
% [hidelinks option to hide big red box. Thanks /u/0b0101011001001011
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref} % Inlcude URLs, but load this package last
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Document Information %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\author{Kenneth John Odle}
\title{
{\Huge Salad Days} \\
{\footnotesize A Life with Computers \\
\bigskip
Typeset in \LaTeX{} \\
Issue \#001}
}
\date{\begin{small}\today{}\end{small}}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%% Let's get it started %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\section*{Impressum}
All contents \copyright2024 Kenneth John Odle
\medskip
FYI, this is made in \LaTeX \,using the report document class. It then gets exported to a letterhalf (5.5 in x 8.5 in) pdf, which then gets made into a booklet using PDF Booklet, which you can find at
\kref{https://pdfbooklet.sourceforge.io/wordpress/}{https://pdfbooklet.sourceforge.io/wordpress/}
I'm pushing this to my own git server as I write this. You can find it \href{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex}{here}: \kref{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex}{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex}. New issues will be pushed after they are complete. A list of topics I may cover in the future can be found at \kref{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex/wiki/List-of-Future-Topics}{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex/wiki/List-of-Fu\\ture-Topics}.
You can just skip over all the diversions in here if you want. It's just how my mind works. (And yes, there will be politics in this. \textit{You have been warned.}) Also, I use a lot of em-dashes, parentheses, and footnotes because that is also how my mind works. It's just one big long stream of consciousness up in here most days.
If you want to donate financial support for the creation of this zine (and all the hours of research that go into it), you can do so at
\kref{https://paypal.me/kjodle}{https://paypal.me/kjodle} (Thanks!)
\medskip
\noindent \textbf{Errata:} To err is human, to document those errors is divine. A list of errata can be found at
\kref{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex/wiki/Errata}{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex/wiki/Errata}.
\medskip
\tableofcontents
\chapter{The Salad Days Are Over}
\section{Yesterday}
I emerged from college with an English degree and a newly refreshed teaching certificate. My grades were good enough that I managed to earn a place in Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society.\footnote{\kref{https://www.english.org/}{https://www.english.org/}} I had a website, and had recently installed a Wordpress blog to talk about books.\footnote{\kref{https://bookblog.kjodle.net/}{https://bookblog.kjodle.net/}} ``Web 2.0'' was a buzzword and we still thought that social media could transform the world for the better.
We were wrong. Social media is a great way to make the world better. It's also a great way for nut jobs and conspiracy theorists and racists and fascists to connect with each other and increase their levels of hate and ignorance exponentially. What have we done?
\kdivb{Oh gosh, it's a diversion already.}{-2}
The problem with social media is that while you can broadcast to the world, the reality is that it quickly becomes an echo chamber. You follow people who have the same interests you do, and they follow you back, and it quickly becomes a community. This is a good thing, and this is pretty much where we thought social media would go.
The problem is that some people don't realize that a community is not the same thing as the entire world. If you are one of these people, and you only follow people who agree with your viewpoints, you start to think that the entire world thinks this way and that you are obviously right.
Of course, you probably aren't. You're just a victim of selection bias.
What this means is that the people you've surrounded yourself with haven't been selected at random. You've selected them precisely because they share the same beliefs that you do. This is not a problem. The problem is thinking that the rest of the world looks like this group of people and then assuming you must be correct because ``everybody else thinks like this too.''
There are two great examples of this, one a comedy routine, one a presidential election (and so, yes—this matters).
The first is by George Burns and his wife Gracie Allen which was broadcast on their radio show during the height of the Great Depression. This was a period in United States history when telephones were just becoming a widely available household appliance, but most people couldn't still couldn't afford them. I don't recall the skit exactly, and despite literally seconds of searching the web, I haven't been able to find it. But it went something like this:
\vspace{\baselineskip}
\begin{hangparas}{5mm}{1}
\noindent{}\texttt{George: What have you been doing lately, Gracie?}
\noindent{}\texttt{Gracie: I've been doing a survey to see how many of our friends have telephones.}
\noindent{}\texttt{George: And how many of them do?}
\noindent{}\texttt{Gracie: All the ones I've called.}
\end{hangparas}
\vspace{\baselineskip}
The point here is that of course anyone you call on the phone will have a telephone. Audiences in the 1930s understood this (and unfortunately they also understood the ``smart man/stupid woman'' trope as well).
The other occurred during the 1936 presidential election when a publication called \textit{The Literary Digest} predicted that Republican presidential candidate Alf Landon would win the election. Of course, this did not happen, and their margin of error was huge—almost 40 percentage points.
The problem was that the magazine employed a faulty polling technique, and so didn't capture a random sample of the population. It first surveyed its own readers, and then it surveyed two other readily available lists—registered automobile owners and registered telephone users.
At the height of the Great Depression, most people couldn't afford a magazine subscription, much less an automobile or a telephone, and these people tended to vote for Democratic candidates. The inaccuracy of the poll ruined the magazine's reputation, and it ceased publication two years later. (In point of fact, they not only failed to find a random sample, they relied solely on people who responded to their poll, and such people responded because they were vehemently opposed to Roosevelt. This is an example of ``non-response bias'' or ``participation bias'' but the point is the still the same—they failed to select a random group of people to poll.)
\kdive{-1}
And this is what comes after.
\section{Today}
I am in a very different place now than I ever thought I would be. I'm not on Plan A or Plan B. In fact, I've pretty much run out of alphabet to describe exactly where I am now.
So where am I?
I work as a data reviewer for a contract research organization in the pharmaceutical industry. That means that drug companies send us samples of their products, and we test them for things like assay, impurities, appearance, disintegration, etc. People who majored in chemistry run the tests and I sit there and look at their procedures and results and make sure that everything was performed correctly and that the results are, indeed, valid.
In theory, I'm an analytical chemist. In practice, I'm a nerdy science accountant who spends his day with his nose buried in Excel spreadsheets. A \textit{lot} of Excel spreadsheets.
Except that I also used to design websites, so my spreadsheets are easy on the eyes, color-coded, and logically oriented—that is, they take you through the analytical method in a step-wise, chronological manner. In other words, we look at standard concentrations first, and then our system suitability tests, and then the actual tests. Every cell is also labeled, so it's clear what goes where.\footnote{For a visual depiction, see \kref{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IFUYg9IUgI}{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IFUYg9IUgI}.} My boss admires them and I am justifiably proud of them. After all, these aren't just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill spreadsheets we're talking about here.
My spreadsheets are so beautiful that when my boss got a glimpse of them he immediately placed me in charge of mentoring new data reviewers, mostly so that they could see what my spreadsheets look like. And I get it. I worked really hard to make spreadsheets that are understandable not just to me but everybody because we may have a corrective action come up at some point and we need to be sable to see how we arrived at the results that have. So yep, I strive to make all my spreadsheets consistent and understandable to someone who has no familiarity with them.
\medskip
\texttt{tl;dr:} I'm \textit{really} good with Microsoft Excel.
\medskip
But it's not satisfying work. It pays the bills\footnote{Well, barely, after the recent fit of massive corporate price gouging—I mean, er…inflation.} It's not exactly the hind end of science, but it's close. (I once worked in a lab that did non-clinical testing\footnote{i.e., rats and mice} and believe me, \textit{that} is the hind end of science.\footnote{Science actually has many hind-ends. This is but one of them.}) I'm not really doing science; if anything I'm just a science accountant, making sure the books balance. It's boring—\textit{really }boring—and more than a bit mind-numbing.
Considering that my entire job exists to help keep the drug supply safe (well, the \textit{legal} drug supply anyway) that statement may sound frightening or even disturbing. But it's not really. You want this job to be boring. When it's not boring, it's generally because something has gone wrong, and and this is one of those industries (like nuclear energy or airplane manufacturing) where you really don't want things to go wrong.
\end{document}