Update for 8/28/2016

Project updates

• Math relearning – The explanation of my programming project is getting kind of long, and I still have more to write that’ll take a few more days, but hopefully I can post that this week. This explanation is mostly a rebuttal to some objections to this new direction I’m taking my math relearning. It was fun on Wednesday to have dinner with my antagonist on this project (who shall remain nameless but it starts with J) and learn more about his reservations so I can maximize his humiliation in my public refutation. I know he’s looking forward to that.
• Life maintenance
  • Diet – My boss was chagrined that I hadn’t read Taubes’ Why We Get Fat, one of the main books in support of low-carb dieting, so I checked out the audiobook and finished it today, and I have to say it’s more compelling than the arguments I see put forward online, though I also want to look more into people’s responses to him. I’d already been thinking of trying low-carb again sometime after I switch medications, and Taubes has made that idea more of a plan, especially since I lost weight much quicker on my low-carb diet than I have been on TLC, though I still have to see what happens to my lipids.
  • Illness – Thursday evening I got the short-term illness that’s happened to me occasionally since my ulcerative colitis started, where I get chills for a couple of hours, take a nap, then feel feverish and lethargic for a few hours, and in the morning feel better, except for maybe a headache, as in this case. Neither my primary doctor nor my gastroenterologist knows what this is, but my boss wonders if the cause could be leaky gut syndrome, which is one of those folk diseases that may or may not be real. I might go to convenient care (a walk-in doctor’s office) during one of these episodes to see what they can tell me.
  • Exercise – The sickness plus extra sleep deprivation that week threw off some of my other activities, and I’m going to blame that for my lack of exercise this weekend, but otherwise I’ve been doing my walks every day. I will get around to more weight training, but I don’t feel much urgency about it, and I haven’t even worked out how to fit it comfortably into my schedule, so I’ve been procrastinating.
  • Daily routine – My sleep schedule was a disaster last week, but of course I’ll try again this week, because while diet and exercise only have subtle effects on me, sleep is the one lifestyle factor that makes an immediate and dramatic difference in the quality of my day, especially when it comes to my mood, productivity, and outlook on life.
• Media
  • Books – Beggars in Spain was very good to the end, and even though Jeremy wasn’t impressed with the rest of the series, I want to see what comes next, so I’ll be listening to at least the next book. Cassandra Campbell has made it onto my list of favorite readers, especially with her rendition of Miranda Sharifi, my favorite character.
  • Movies – Sunday Tim and I got together with the Keevers again for part 2 of our Star Wars marathon, the prequels, which I remembered much better than the originals. We decided to end after episodes 1 and 2, and next time we’ll conclude with episodes 3 and 7, the latter of which Jeremy’s family hasn’t seen. After the movies Jeremy laid out his complaints about episode 2, which was a much different movie than he wanted to see, and I could sort of see his point, though as a minimal fan I didn’t go into the prequels with a lot of expectations, so the only problem I really had was with the stiltedness of some of the dialogue and its delivery, but Jeremy’s comments made me wonder what kinds of prequels other disappointed fans would’ve written, and I found quite a few (and here are some more).
• Dusk – My walk on Friday was in the evening, and I decided to do it at forest preserve 3, where a bunch of birds were hanging out on the rocks along the shore.

The bird council of forest preserve 3.

A photo posted by Andy Culbertson (@thinkulum) on Aug 29, 2016 at 8:59pm PDT

Life updates

• Car – For about a month my engine had been rasping and rattling, and I finally got around to taking it to my mechanic, who said I must’ve run over something, because a pipe connected to a converter had been ripped up and was letting in exhaust or something. So he replaced the pipe and managed to salvage the oxygen sensor that was in there, so that saved me a bit of money, and now my car is quiet again, and that is one of the best feelings.