Update for 9/3/2017

Blog

🤔

I think my long sentences and paragraphs still make up a wall of text that’s hard to read. The contents get lost in all the words. So with this update I’m going to split things up more. The sentences will become paragraphs, and the clauses, for the most part, will become sentences.

If I stick to a set maximum of paragraphs per section (my convention has been four), I should still be able to use the same mental pattern to write. That should constrain my writing enough to keep it manageable.

Sleep

🤔

Still mediocre last week, and I didn’t use my tracking app. But a random web post kicked me in the pants about sleep, so I’ve started tracking. I’m also going to make myself a motivational poster so I don’t forget why I want to sleep.

Work

😊

I finished my big, month-long batch of 16 ebooks Thursday evening. It was going to be 17, but one was canceled, though I had a few preview ebooks thrown in during the month. Thursday evening meant they were on time, so I’m rather proud of myself.

This worked so well I’m planning to process future ebooks in batches. On Friday I organized and typed my procedure. I also created a spreadsheet to estimate the time I’ll need for each step. Setting a deadline for each step was one of the keys to getting it all done on time. It told me when I needed to work faster or later.

This week I’m starting on the complicated ebook that was the reason for last month’s push. When it officially landed on my plate last week, I learned they’d changed the release date. Instead of two weeks to finish it, I have two months. I’m sticking to my original schedule anyway. That way it doesn’t accidentally interfere with other books or projects that get added in that time frame.

Computer

🙄

Sunday I bought the equipment I needed to replace my failing hard drive, but then I put off doing anything with it till Saturday. That evening I spent a slightly harrowing time burning Windows recovery disks. Over and over the file copying failed, and I had to put in another blank disk. But in the end HP pulled through and gave me the three disks I needed.

This week, if I’m not too lazy, I’ll replace the old drive, install Windows on the new one, and copy any files I can from the old to the new. The rest I can download from my online backups.

Project generator

😐

Between working late, scrolling through social media, and watching The Defenders, I actually made more progress on this than I expected. I feel like I’m getting a handle on writing a decent README. But it’s still not ready to post. Maybe this week.

Beliefs report

😐

I made more progress on this one than the project generator. I’m revising the bibliology section to reflect my new organization around types of belief. But I’m starting with my skeptical frustrations, which doesn’t really fit my goal of reassuring my Christian friends. So that’s not ready to post either.

Futurism

😎

Last week’s award for most interesting topic goes to nanotechnology. Famous nanotechnologist Eric Drexler says it will revolutionize manufacturing and transform the material basis of civilization. Looking forward to it!

Honorable mention goes to fundamental physics. In my book it’s not really a futurism topic, but it sufficiently blew my mind to be worth some attention. If you would also like your brain scrambled by knowledge, watch the Origin of Matter and Time playlist from PBS Space Time.

Podcasts

🙂

If you’re interested in the audio description stuff I talked about last week, I found a podcast called Blind Inspiration. It has a few episodes on audio description. The host co-leads training workshops for it, and through the podcast I found a book I might get to learn how it’s done, The Visual Made Verbal by Joel Snyder. Audio description has tight constraints with a focused purpose, depicting visual elements both concisely and precisely. I think that makes it a good writing exercise.