u/masterofrants

The situation seems to be never improving.

She seems to have really bad periods, full-body pain, leg pain, headaches.

But she has never taken this seriously, doesn't go to a doctor to get evaluated for anything, and when I bring it up, talks to me like a mystic instead of anything scientific.

If I say anything like "you should get help" or "you should maybe get pills" or "maybe see a doctor," turns the conversation around patriarchy and men versus women issues. Basically, makes the conversation into a political argument instead of a medical and a scientific one.

She was suggested IUD by the doctor once and she took that whole thing to mean how doctors never really listen to women and just suggest the same IUD solution for everything. Which might be true because we are in Canada and healthcare does seem to be really bad but she has pretty good insurance from her work and she has constantly refused to use it and seek any help.

At this point I just want to say that she really enjoys the victimhood that comes with the pain of periods and how she gets into the whole righteousness mode about it.

In between all this I am treated pretty badly by her during periods. Anything I say is wrong. She makes a face at me, does the whole frustrated, sing-songy voice at me when answering my questions, as if I am some idiot who doesn't understand simple basic stuff.

Calling her out on her behavior towards me is again taken as proof that I am not fit to understand the holiness of women's periods. When I bring up the fact that I too suffer with chronic back pain, neck pain, due to my constant computer work but I don't take it out on other people, somehow that's not equivalent. Her situation is more serious and troubling than mine. Even comparing it is just further proof that I am an idiot.

The worst is doing anything with her during these times. For example now we are going for a trip, a two-day trip, and I can just feel what a drag it's going to be. She is going to turn off all the music in the car and not let me play music. It's going to be a four-hour drive with me alone driving because again she has never bothered to get her license done. Any solutions or suggestions I will give are just going to be met with a frustrated, drawn-out, angry vocalization as if I am a child and I should just move on and do what she is saying and not share my thoughts at all.

This has been going on for a while and the thoughts of breaking up have come to my mind. There is a deeper disconnect here. It is not just about how she behaves during periods. Even during other times it looks like she doesn't really value science-based solutions and seems like she is too much into astrology and mysticism, which is also something I am not into.

Hi, I am a network engineer and new to Ansible.

I installed WSL 2 on Windows and tried some things. What happened is I soon ran into a lot of issues, like some Python issues and then some Azure environment issues, because I was trying to integrate secrets management with Azure Key Vault. I am not sure if AI is teaching me good practices.

The next thing I am trying to get set up is Semaphore because I think that's one of the ways to actually learn production practices.

I am just putting my workflow here, what I did so far, but I want to know if this is a good idea or maybe I'm going down a wrong path and learning bad practices.

• Verified Ansible was installed via apt on Ubuntu WSL2 — no /etc/ansible/ created, used project-based ansible.cfg in ~/ansible/ instead
• Reinstalled Az CLI natively in WSL (was running Windows Az CLI via PATH passthrough) and authenticated with az login --use-device-code
• Created Service Principal sp-ansible-akmlabs in Entra ID, assigned Key Vault Secrets Officer role on the vault, stored credentials in ~/ansible/.env
• Created Azure Key Vault akmlab-az-kv in portal with RBAC mode enabled, stored a test secret via Az CLI
• Created Python venv, installed azure.azcollection requirements plus hidden dependencies, installed ansible-core inside the venv so Ansible runs from venv Python
• Wrote and tested playbook that authenticates as the SP and pulls the secret from Key Vault — confirmed hello-from-akmlabs returned successfully

Then ran into some crazy python issues which took 3 hrs to troubleshoot!

• No /etc/ansible/ — modern apt install doesn't create it; used project-based ansible.cfg in ~/ansible/ instead
• Az CLI using Windows Python — WSL was calling the Windows Az CLI via PATH passthrough; fixed by installing Az CLI natively in WSL via the Microsoft install script
• Wrong collection module name (claude got these wrong) — used azure_keyvault_secret_info which doesn't exist; correct name is azure_rm_keyvaultsecret_info, found by listing the modules directory
• Ubuntu blocked pip — PEP 668 prevents pip from modifying system Python; fixed by creating a venv and installing all packages there
• Missing hidden dependencies — requirements.txt from the collection is incomplete; had to manually install msrestazure and others not listed (known upstream issue GitHub #1463) - This then took 3 hrs lol!
• Venv packages being ignored — interpreter_python in ansible.cfg controls target host Python, not Ansible's own process; fixed by installing ansible-core inside the venv so Ansible itself runs from venv Python
• Wrong env var names — azure.azcollection uses AZURE_SECRET and AZURE_TENANT, not AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET and AZURE_TENANT_ID; silent auth failure until corrected
• Wrong secret field name — output dict uses .secret not .value; dumped raw output with var: kv_output to find the correct field name.

Feeling like all this was a waste of time and I did not learn anything that is done in a real production environment. If somebody can make a quick list of things that I could look into and actually learn something, it would be nice. Overall I think it's still fine. I did something I guess.

The job role is at a fast growing SaaS product, really promising product in the network engineering space.

I have a HR screening coming up next week, so maybe this is over prepping but just want to make sure I hit everything!

I used AI to format this but all the writing, words, ideas are mine so looking for feedback on that, please ignore the emdashes it throws everywhere!

Why Presales? / Good Qualities for Presales? / Why Is Presales Important?

Presales starts when a problem has been identified and a technical solution is being evaluated to fix it. From there, it's about asking the right questions — and the person asking needs to have a wealth of experience solving similar problems. When this is done right, the project flows smoothly and you don't run into issues later. Once something is operational, it's really hard to go back and fix technical debt.

So presales is the opportunity to ask the right questions upfront. After deploying hundreds of networking projects, I now have an intuition for what could break, what the technical teams at a customer are worried about versus what the business is worried about. Security vs. availability is a classic tension, and I know how to navigate that early with the right POC design and stakeholder buy-in from the start.

I love being part of the project from the get go, gives me the sense of control that I get to do it right the first time.

Walk Me Through Your CV / Tell Me About Your Career / Tell me about you

I started my career in network engineering in the Cisco world — switching and routing, then moved into <vendor> firewall deployments, doing a lot of sizing, POCs, demos, and then implementing the final solution.

Later, as a cybersecurity consultant on the integration team at my <last-company>, I worked across presales, implementation, and post-implementation support on products like <vendor> and <vendor> firewalls, <vendor> application delivery, and <vendor> solutions.

In the presales phase, I led discovery — asking questions to understand the business, pain points, and solution design. In implementation, I configured and deployed the solution, planned the cutover with the customer, and helped with fine-tuning and troubleshooting afterward.

My career has been a solid blend of core network engineering, security solutioning and design, and working with newer cloud products like Microsoft Entra ID and Intune because cloud identity became central to everything with the rise of SaaS. That's why this role feels like a natural fit.

How Do You Work with AEs / How Do You Support Sales? (Commercial new business segment — customers roughly 1–999 employees)

When it comes to supporting the sales function, I understand that the technical conversation and its outcome are a huge part of whether a deal closes. I make sure to understand from the AEs what they're working with, what their instincts say, what's already been discussed, and any objections or concerns from the customer. I use that to build my questions, update my discovery templates, and plan the POC accordingly.

Building a POC that directly addresses their pain points instead of just showcasing features is crucial. In the commercial segment, a well-targeted POC can close the deal fast. Compare that to enterprise, where you're always jumping through hoops: procurement might require a 90-day POC just to satisfy process. I lived through that contrast every day working across private sector and government projects in my previous role.

Tell me about you outside of work? (is this question possible?)

Outside of work I enjoy reading, hiking, podcasts a lot - I gravitate towards nonfiction mostly. I love going to events where I get to meet other fans and I also hosted a few events around the city since I got here for the online rationalist blogging space. That was hours of conversation around AI, nuclear vs solar energy, or some very tangential solutions to big problems by tweaking something in a totally different area.

Some Notes I made:

• Under $2K ACV — close within 14 days on average; ideally 1–2 calls
• Under $5K ACV — close within 30 days on average
• Under $25K ACV — close within 90 days on average
• Under $100K ACV — close within 90–180 days depending on number of stakeholders and gates
• Over $100K ACV — average 3–9 months; can take close to a year, as these are often tied to annual budget cycles
• Over $500K ACV — almost always budgeted annually; expect 6–18+ months, sometimes longer if you miss the annual budgeting window