Update for 7/2/2017

Happy Independence Day! Even if you don’t live in the US, just celebrate being independent anyway.

• Code console – I only worked on this a little last week and didn’t post any updates, but I’m getting impatient with myself, so I’m going to try to push myself more this week.
• Grad school – Last week I was thinking about a new programming language I wanted to learn, and it reminded me that when it comes to learning new technical areas, I really need to determine what context I should learn them in–on my own, a pre-grad school class, or grad school. For that I need to determine what topics are likely to be covered in my grad program and what admissions will expect, and for that I need get back to researching grad programs, so I’ll be doing that soon.
• Beliefs report – I still didn’t post anything, but I did write some preparatory thoughts that should let me post something on types of belief this week, which will help me write the rest of the essay.
• Health – I have a colonoscopy scheduled for Friday so the doctor can see how things are going with my ulcerative colitis. To me my condition is the same as usual, abnormal but manageable. This has been a tougher colonoscopy to arrange than others, with a scheduling problem and a mixup with ordering the prep medicine, so hopefully things will all fall into place by Friday, or else I’ll have to reschedule again.
• Video games
  • Game log – Last week while contemplating what to buy in the Steam Summer Sale, I decided I only wanted short games, since I already have so many I haven’t played, so I asked Google for guidance and found HowLongToBeat, a website that lists average playthrough times for a lot of games, and it also lets you create a game log so you can keep track of the games you’ve played and your times, so I spent a decent chunk of the week creating my list, and I’m thinking of playing through my backlog from roughly shortest to longest, hopefully without distracting myself too much from my other projects. But it seems like the rest of last week was spent playing Minecraft, because it’s an easy way for me to feel productive when I don’t want to do real work.
  • SGDQ – This week I’m intermittently watching Summer Games Done Quick, an annual speedrunning charity marathon, the counterpart to Awesome Games Done Quick in January, where this year they raised over $2 million for Prevent Cancer Foundation. Speedrunning is a style of video game playing where the player tries to beat the game as quickly as possible, usually taking advantage of glitches in the game. The main event for me (schedule) will be the Mario relay race, where several speedrunners I watch will be competing, but I’m also looking forward to the Chrono Trigger run, because that was my first console RPG.
• Chapel – Last week we had another spy in chapel, this time an ex-KGB agent, Jack Barsky, whose book, Deep Undercover, is already out. He wasn’t as good at interviews as Michele Rigby Assad but still interesting.