I will always remember the CS class I took that was taught in Lisp (it was the only class in that program that used Lisp).

It convinced me I did not want to do software engineering for my career.

I'm not OP, but I also don't have an internal monologue (and I don't dream, but I can construct images in my head "on demand"). I was in my late 20s before I realized that an internal monologue was not a literary device used by authors when telling a story - and people have an internal voice.

Think of it this way: unless something is causing sound externally there is absolute silence. It's peaceful sure, but your aware of all the little noises of things around you. One thing that can be hellish is getting a song stuck in your head ( I know several 3/4 and 5/4 melodies for just this reason).

Please do not eat food served via a 3d printed tool/plate/bowl/cup. A number of the materials that are used for 3d printing are toxic (cross contamination is likely even if the material has been changed), and the plastic can contain small abrasion which are impossible to sanitize.

It depends on your goal. If it's to learn (to say get a different job) you want/need as much flexibility as you can get. If it's just to have a media server then you probably want to optimize in favor of that.

Think of this like any specialty skill. It's hard the first time but will quickly become second nature. But first you have some homework...

If you have a way to section off your network and understand how to expose service's to the web you are off to a great start from the networking side.

For the ssl cert. As others have mentioned it's time to go read up on how DNS works. You don't need to go super technical (yet, if ever) - but getting you head around DNS delegation and registers will answer all the questions you have here. The super TLDR is you "buy" a domain and tell your register where they can tell others to find the records for that domain. Once you can prove you own the domain you can get certs. There are a bunch of options going this path, I'm most familiar with the enterprise grade choices (aka super expensive) so am not the best to recommend something for someone starting out.

Now for VMs. I'm sorry to say it's homework time. You have three primary choices: everything in a full VM, everything in containers or a mix. If your interested in having a GUI (learn the cli when your comfortable) then I'm going to recommend you look at two different technologies: proxmox (it's overkill but might be what you want) or virt-manager.

Let's be frank. The boss probably does not even know what a log is, let alone that people can pull it.

One of the more important lessons learned from a career in and around IT: no one holds a grudge like senior, non manager IT staff. And they turn up in the strangest meetings/locations. Hence the warning of "be careful".

Be careful. IT with good CYA has logs. If they are really good at CYA, the logs have logs. They might be a terrible IT, but they might be good at CYA (or friends with security, who makes good IT CYA look like chump change).

So I grew up 95% vegetarian. Stir fry can be adapted to fit just about anyone's taste, and is dead simple to make (and filling).

The first thing your going to want to learn is how to cook rice. This might be in a pot, rice cooker, or something else. Find what works for you.

Now with your rice cooking, do a hard pan fry of some tofu. Your goal is to get it crispy via the highest heat your stove can put out (think wok levels if you can). The trick is to use a firm (or extra firm) tofu that has been patted dry and cut into small cubes, oil and a lot of heat. From here add in a few veggies that you like and top with a basic teriyaki sauce.

That's a basic stir fry on rice. Mix the rice into the pan and you start down the road of fried rice.

Totally reasonable.

I'm digging up old memories, but anything released in the early 2000s should fit the bill. Skimming track lists for something I recognize, invincible or Alien Youth are jumping out at me.

Honestly, just pull up a smattering of the top songs. I don't think you need to do a whole album to get the vibe -- 2 - 4 songs should do it.

Cobol. We have experienced this problem happening organically with Cobol developers. The worlds financial infrastructure runs on Cobol and anyone who had skills in this language can pick the company they want to work at.

So let's talk about the Anthropic models, cause that's what I'm playing with on the company dime.

Wire up a few mcp configs (don't even start me on the inherent risks associated with current MCP permissions model...) and give it a run book and it's great at generating reports for me about stuff I kinda care about.

Could if replace an entry level grad? Sure. Will that company have all kinds of strange problems - hell yes. Think of it as an intern. You can give it all the crappy intern tasks while you make coffee. Only the intern improves when you give feedback...