Update for 5/21/2017

I’m experimenting with leaving out the Project/Life/Site Update headings, since it all kind of blends together in my mind into a series of life events, and sometimes for narrative purposes I want to mix the more stand-alone life events in with the more project-like life events.

• Code console – I started working on creating cookiecutter templates for my projects and immediately got sidetracked by examining how other cookiecutters had been set up in case I needed to incorporate their ideas, and I didn’t get far enough to post anything yet, so I’ll keep working on it this week.
• Beliefs report – I’ll post my first few thoughts this week, and I’ll add to it here and there.
• AI – AI has been taking up more of my thoughts over the past few months, and in the past few days I’ve felt like listening to discussions of the subject, but I’ve felt a little frustrated that I don’t have a solid mental picture of the field as a whole, an overall context to put specific topics into, so I’m doing what I should’ve done a long time ago and watching videos from some intro AI courses–MIT’s and UBC’s (Mackworth and Poole), UBC because the professors are the authors of the AI textbook I have that seems to fit the way I think about the subject. In addition to overviewing AI, these lectures are giving me a decent sense of what technical classes are like, which feels challenging but motivating. I’ll probably start some articles on the wiki soon to collect links and my thoughts on AI, and I’m even feeling motivated to research grad programs again.
• Productivity – These AI videos have reminded me that when I go back to school, I’ll have to spend a lot more time on homework than I currently spend on my projects, and I might as well start practicing now. I’ve also been motivated by this profile of the serious-minded and hardworking Robert Mueller (and James Comey, but I mostly care about Mueller). So this week I’m going to try working on projects while I eat dinner rather than watching TV.
• Socializing
  • Movies – Tuesday night I went with my geek meetup to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. As with most movies I see, I don’t know if it was good, but I liked it, especially their animation of baby Groot, which seemed authentically childlike to me. Also relevant: this gallery of Mandelbulb art, some of which makes an appearance.
  • Board games – Saturday I went over to a coworker’s house with two other guests for his somewhat spontaneous game night. We played a three-hour game of Deus, and despite coming in last I had a good time.
• Diet – I had my annual wellness screening (mostly a blood test) at work last week, and my lipids came back only slightly bad, while my weight’s been slowly climbing back up, so in the next couple of weeks I want to start a combined low-carb TLC diet that I’ve had in mind for a while.