You’ll probably be interested in this theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_civil_religion

Having grown up there I don’t inherently disagree with this idea

For the exercise if you can add a bit more it could help with getting tired when you want to sleep.

Yea like I said I understand the diet one might not be possible to change much with that.

I suppose pen and paper could be part of a winding down routine. Maybe spend a bit of time before bed writing down anything on your to do list or on your mind. It might help with falling asleep easier

1. Might be worth having your last a bit earlier. I’ve found that a cup at noon makes a difference for me falling asleep so most days I stick to just the one at 6ish when I wake up
2. If possible throw in some exercising, it’ll help with tiring you out even if it isn’t super intense. Plus it is good for overall health
3. Again here, if possible get a bit better options in. Canned food isn’t inherently bad but it can be overly salty at times. I get that there could be economic reasons that make this one harder to accomplish so do what you can but don’t overburden yourself
4. That’s good, means you don’t likely have to change much there. It could help to set a routine to make stopping with the phone easier. Like adding a 30 min reading session before bed or some meditation, or yoga if that is your thing. Essentially some routine to train yourself and your body that it is time to sleep

All this might sound like a lot but you don’t have to be perfect on day one and have to find a thing that works for you

Sounds like a reasonable plan and since you want a stricter schedule that makes it a bit easier. I’ve got a few more questions:

• What is your caffeine intake in a given day? And when is the latest you consume it?
• Do you work out regularly? If so what and how often?
• How’s your diet?
• Other than the phone after 9 anything else you typically do around bed time?

I’m assuming you are looking to be asleep by 10 or 11 to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. I’m on a similar schedule. Usually I’ll quit gaming at 8 pm on Sundays to be sure I am winding down by 10ish. I also try to only have coffee in the mornings most days as it’ll stick with you later than most people think.

What is the exact problem you are trying to solve?

Like do you have to get up at a certain time and find yourself staying up too late so getting little sleep? Or is it something else, like you can get up kind of whenever but the sleep isn’t refreshing?

Just because it is in your contract doesn’t make it legal!

Realistically it could be worth checking your local laws regarding it and potentially speaking to a lawyer as some will do a free consult to see if you have a case

To start with I’ll answer your specific questions

• Would working in helpdesk allow a better or worse WLB? This is very company dependent. In general though developers are usually able to clock out more often at the end of the day. If you go SysAdmin/DevOps/SRE when things break in the night it is you who gets the call. Again this varies wildly between companies, I’m in a DevOps/SRE role and have had that at 3 different places, one there was zero after hours calls, one was multiple times a week, and one was once or twice every quarter. So keep that in mind.

• Would it be more likely to be unionized and thus a better place from which to participate in tech labour struggle?
  Tech really isn’t unionized much. Helpdesk while often the seemingly most likely to unionize has the issue of people move up and out quickly and tech workers in general can move to new companies if they don’t like something and that is often easier than unionizing. To also echo @Kamaradski9000@lemmygrad.ml the leftists on the more infra side are few and far between. It draws a lot of loners and reactionary people, the musk fanboy types.

• Is it easier to break into than software, like, so much easier that it would be worth changing course, or just doing IT as a stepping stone for my first co-op (internship program in Canada) or two? It is easier in the sense that helpdesk is a grind(they call it helldesk for a reason) and places are always hiring. Pay will be terrible and you’ll be grinding some boring work unless you put in extra hours to move up and show you know stuff, or at least that is the general path. Lucking out into a SysAdmin role or a role doing interesting work is about the same difficulty as breaking into a software development role. There are usually less positions on the infra side, but also less people doing it.

As for my advice, you are still in school so keep learning. Use this time to try some new things to figure out what you’d enjoy more. Both roles are in demand and can have comfortable salaries. If you are thinking about linux and sysadmin work try standing up a small web server on one of the cheap cloud providers and see what it is like, then automate it. Once you’ve done that maybe play with some docker containers. As for an internship I’d suggest sticking with software development as it is more in line with your degree for the time being, if you are doing multiple internships(like one each year) then maybe consider looking for a more infra focused one if you don’t enjoy the development side

Sounds like a great way to spend the day despite your original plans not working out.

Nothing wrong with school, learning is always a good endeavor!

My suggestions would be:

• vegetarian chili

Can just use beans and no meat. Intensity of flavor is up to your taste I usually go with rather spicy but it can be mild too. Can take a bit of time but if you make one large pot it can last days and just needs to be reheated

• shakshuka

Relatively easy to make and is rather flavorful. Again here spice level is up to you

Both of these go well with bread, rice, or potatoes

These are meal replacement shakes, since you are in Germany the brand JimmyJoy would be the local(Dutch) equivalent.

They are quick and nutritious when you need something but a bit pricy per calorieanyd would likely fail your taste and consistency requirements

For translation I would recommend Pleco as you can have the person you are communicating with draw the characters and then translate that. It isn’t perfect but I used it heavily when I lived there

People’s Daily is my go to for Chinese news but there are others as well like CGTN and Xinhua

More or less yes you did American English correctly. More often I just refer to them as semis without adding the truck part, some also call them tractor trailers. It was clear what you meant though so only need to change it slightly if you are going for full American English

• https://english.www.gov.cn/services/studyinchina
  • Government site with links to more info
• https://apply.china-admissions.com/
  • private company that helps, disclosure I did not use them but I am aware of them from when I lived in China

I did find it eventually but only after following your direct link to it and going back to the main page after language selection, I meant put it on the landing page before language selection so https://prolewiki.org/ as opposed to https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/ProleWiki:Main_page

The non language landing page doesn’t have that sidebar and I only ever hit that page and searched immediately so never saw the other one with a lot more on it

As someone who didnt know you had a library and just checked it out few suggestions if you are open to them:

• link to the library from the main prolewiki landing page, otherwise it isn’t clear that a library exists
• add an easy way to export the texts as pdf’s or ereader compatible formats
• where possible highlight what was edited in the MIA version of texts that you host

Happy to write out longer use cases/feature requests if you’d like

A couple ideas for you:

Work on easier people, tons of people are only a couple good conversations away and are a better use of your time. I know it is tough cause it is your mom but definitely something to consider.

Get away from the two party discussion. Focus on concrete issues she faces and ask a lot of questions on how she thinks it should be handled. If she is a hard work and no handouts sort who has had factory experience maybe unions could be an in. Or ask about what she considers the minimum acceptable lifestyle and dig in to how to get society there for all, even the hardworking and down on their luck. Like what hoops is she willing to jump through if she got hurt or sick.

They think I am one of them

Jellyfin is great! As for a suggestion I’m a big fan of How Yukong Moved the Mountains