Text-to-speech
🙂
A few weeks ago when I included an audio version of my post, I had a couple of (off-blog) comments about the unexciting tone of the text-to-speech voice Noah, and though I had sampled far blander voices, I agreed, so let’s try something different. This week’s reader is the slightly livelier British voice Harry. Too bad he thinks the post is for October 5 and not May 10.
Learning
😐
In my mnemonic dictionary project, last week I investigated some potential resources for assembling it and settled on my plans for finishing the first draft, which will happen this week unless I fritter away my time or run into big problems.
Spirituality
🙂
I was finally in the mood to finish Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett, which I began months ago and got sidetracked from. It’s a thought provoking and enlivening compilation of excerpts from her radio interviews, grouped by theme, exploring the current thinking of intellectuals and activists on ethics and the meaning of life. It’s worth listening to the audio version, because it uses clips from the actual interviews, interspersed with Tippett’s narration. It offers new angles on so many issues that I’m sure I’ll come back to study it once I dive more seriously into these topics.
Life maintenance
🙂
Gearing up for my renewed GTD system got me thinking again about all the purging of my possessions I need to do, so I listened to Spark Joy, Marie Kondo’s reference-like follow-up to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I think GTD and the KonMari method are very compatible, so I’ll be carrying them out together–purging and organizing, guided by joy, as I note the next actions attached to my belongings.
Productivity
😎
I listened to a book I picked up in a Leanpub sale, Know to Flow by Neil Keleher, containing his suggestions on entering a flow state and advice on when you shouldn’t, based on his experience in various activities, including math, programming, motorcycle riding, and yoga. In spite of how much more physical his life is than mine, our interests and perspectives overlapped quite a bit, and I found the book very interesting. He’s even a fan of Lynne Kelly’s memory books.
People
🙂
Friday I took the afternoon off and went on a walk in a park walk with Jeremy and his son. It was cold but sunny, and through our masks we talked about personality and politics and the virtues of programming as a hobby.
