Update for 4/4/2016

A couple of days late again because on Sunday I couldn’t be bothered to do anything responsible after church, and yesterday I went to sleep practically right after dinner. I’m also trying to make these updates shorter because my long update last week scared me off of doing them a little, so I want to write less so it gets done and without taking all week. I’m not sure I wrote less this week.

Project updates

• Math relearning – I finished the introductory material for the EngageNY curriculum, and I am finally ready to enter preschool. So hide your collections of 5 or fewer items unless you want them ruthlessly counted!
• Daily routine – I stuck to my evening schedule decently last week, though I had lots of interruptions, and I want to be extra careful to follow it this week so I don’t give up on the whole idea. I’ll wait to write about it on the wiki till I’ve had a few more weeks of experience. I’ve added a routine for Saturdays, and Sundays I think I’ll leave for doing whatever, other than these updates. I’ve also added a schedule for my workdays, which nicely breaks up the monotony and highlights the need for focus. If I only have an hour to work on something, it becomes very obvious to me when I’ve gotten too sidetracked.
• Books
  • I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, mostly during walks and household tasks. It’s a wide-ranging treatment of a question I’ve had for most of my life: Why has the West dominated the world? It’s dense with historical details, which are hard for me to follow, so I’ve been listening for main ideas.
  • During my devotions I’ve begun reading Colors of Goodbye by September Vaudrey, about her journey through grief after losing her remarkable daughter to a car crash. It appeals to me because I want to learn how people cope with different kinds of pain and because her daughter is someone I’d like to learn from.
• Podcasts
  • Serial season 2 just ended. You can binge listen to both seasons from their website. Serial is a journalism podcast that reports one story per season, stretched out over a dozen or so episodes. It’s fascinating and has brought the idea of podcasting to a broader audience.
  • Occasionally I try to catch up on some short story podcasts I listen to, Escape Pod and Podcastle. Last week a story that stood out to me was “The Copperroof War.” It’s the kind of story that makes me feel like a lot more stories could be told about its world, epic stories.

Life updates

• Socializing – Last week I had meals with three different friends and a surprise conversation at the grocery store with another friend I hadn’t seen in a while. Then Sunday I got together with my friend Tim, as I usually do, and we watched Batman v Superman. I liked the movie, but I’m open to people’s criticisms of it. My favorite part was the philosophizing in the middle. If only they could’ve kept that up during the fight scenes. Anyway, this is too much socializing, and I’ve decided for the good of my projects to remove all friendship from my life. Loneliness is a small price to pay for productivity! Okay, no, loneliness is one of the worst feelings, and I would fail miserably if I tried to do that.
• Clothes – I returned the rest of the pants I ordered and did some more in-store research at Macy’s, and now I’m ready for my next attempt at ordering. (Okay, I did it just now, but let’s pretend I wrote this two days ago.)
• Finances
  • I finally started my taxes. I’ve gotten through the income part. H&R Block’s online software makes it easy when you use them year after year. I had so much less data to enter because they already had it.
  • My replacement credit card arrived. Being a victim of credit card fraud is a strangely mild experience. It’s almost like any other business transaction. I’m sure it’s worse for the banks and retailers, or whoever ends up losing the money.
• Work – I’m making an ebook of a commentary series published by my current employer (of course) but written long ago by my previous employer. It was one of their major products. Kind of interesting.
• Worship team – Our teams are on a three-week rotation, and mine played this weekend. I felt like I played with more energy than usual.
• Death – At church they announced that the wife of one of my friends had died while they were on vacation. I’d probably met her once, but I didn’t know who they meant until they said her husband’s name. Death is always more shocking when you have some connection to the person. I don’t know the story yet, but she was pretty young. I’ll most likely go to the memorial service on Friday.