Weeknote for 4/16/2023

Posted on April 22, 2023 by Andy

Programming

😐

On the software development notes, I sorted the topics outline. I wanted to revise the whole project intro, but I’ll have to get to it this week.

Productivity

🙂

I spent Sunday afternoon making a big spreadsheet to hold examples of different shorthand letter combinations. I wrote a small program to generate the combinations, and it was an interesting experiment in comparing the chatbots I consulted for the code. Phind got closest to what I was looking for.

Nature

😎

I visited a great blue heron rookery near a trail I sometimes walk. It was impressive, and on a later trip I’m hoping to see the eagles that are rumored to share the woods with them.

Music

🙂

I set up Cakewalk to practice for the worship team and record music. Saturday I spontaneously decided this was the day to set up a DAW to use with my keyboard. I figured the new virtual instruments would make practicing more interesting. So I installed the free Cakewalk and then spent a lot of time shrinking the sound delay so it would be playable. The culprit was Microsoft GM Wavetable Synth. So now I have a way to record MIDI from my keyboard. This lets me capture random snippets I want to keep as I’m messing around.

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Weeknote for 4/9/2023

Posted on April 10, 2023 by Andy

Housekeeping

🙂

For the final week in this iteration of housekeeping, I finished up some remaining tasks. (1) On audio digitizing, I sorted the rest of the cassettes and copied a few more to the computer. (2) I cleaned my freezer and let it run a couple of days before moving the food. (3) I did some actual tidying and got some donations ready for Goodwill. They’d been sitting in my living room for a year or two.

Programming

🙂

This week my main personal project joins my work project on continuing my software development notes. I did nothing last week on this, so the extra time is welcome. I’ll do some organizing of my notes and plans, and then I’ll start on probably the topic of software requirements. Or maybe a little on lifecycle.

Spirituality

😎

I finished the fantastic Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. I did feel it helped me appreciate the Bible more. I was especially struck by the attention it drew to the Bible’s tenderness toward families and children.

:thinking:

On the everyday prayer project, I settled on the short list of prayers I’ll use for the first version, and I condensed another prayer from Every Moment Holy. After testing all the chatbots I use, I’ve decided this is a project to write myself. But I’m still using text-to-speech for the audio.

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Weeknote for 4/2/2023

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Andy

Housekeeping

🙂

I crammed in some last-minute progress on digitizing and cleaning. I finished recording the family history interview cassettes to the computer, and I researched how to clean my musty upright freezer so I can start using it again. This tidying project iteration has been more about preparing for future housekeeping, but that’s okay. This week I’ll do some actual tidying by taking a few things to Goodwill, and next week I’ll be on to the next project.

Productivity

🙂

I spent half the week shopping for new pens. I was running out of usable pens for writing my blog drafts. For shorthand I really need one with a reliably smooth line. So based on Wirecutter and Pen Addict I picked up some Pentel EnerGel RTX and Pilot Precise V7, plus some Office Depot gel inks I liked at the doctor’s office. And for writing on glossy receipts, I need to order some Uni-Ball Jetstream ballpoints.

Programming

🙂

This week my work project coincides with my next personal one, my software development notes. I’ll be synthesizing some of the programming listening I’ve done over the past few years and defining templates, procedures, and other conventions to standardize my own practice. I’m thinking I’ll start with requirements.

Spirituality

🙂

I got unstuck in my everyday prayer project. All my digitizing put me in the mood to sort out my messy iTunes library, which is where the prayer audio will live. So that freed me to continue with the project’s next steps. I’ve recorded the first prayer, and next I’ll test its volume and then move on to the other prayers in my list.

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Weeknote for 3/26/2023

Posted on April 1, 2023 by Andy

Housekeeping

🙂

I cleaned the bug off the inside of my scanner. It was easier than I expected. Now my archival scans will be smudge free.

I ordered a new tape player for digitizing my old cassettes. It arrived Tuesday. Since I have bad luck with audio cables, I chose a player with a USB connection. I ended the week with copying the first tape of a family history interview with my grandparents.

Productivity

:thinking:

To help with my sleep schedule, I’m turning back to Elastic Habits. Maybe gamification will remotivate me. I’m giving myself more leeway this time with a bedtime around 11 instead of 10.

AI

B-)

I finally tried Stable Diffusion, and it gave me a sense of connection. I was trying to replicate an old image I remembered, and I ended up with one I would usually ignore, but this time it caught my attention and evoked a scenario in my mind. So I asked the chatbot Claude for a story based on my premise, and it gave me a nice little vignette to explore. My investment in this image and story left me caring about the character Claude and I created and the real people in her situation. As I work with generative AI, I’m hoping for more experiences like this.

 

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Weeknote for 3/19/2023

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Andy

Housekeeping

🙂

For my tidying project, I chose a cassette player to order and found some info on taking apart my scanner. The cassette player will let me preserve some valuable old recordings. My scanner has a dead bug under the glass that causes a smudge on my scans, so I need to open it up to clean it off. Then I can preserve some valuable old papers. There are no exact instructions for my model online, so I got some advice from several chat bots, found some manuals and videos, and learned enough to try out some first steps.

AI

:thinking:

I contemplated AI as a chaos monster. One meme going around portrays AI as a Lovecraftian shoggoth, and this image feels very fitting to me. Here’s the artist’s explanation. ChatGPT even admitted it. 😉 Last week’s listening in the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery covered monsters, including Leviathan, the Old Testament’s symbol of cosmic chaos. This led me to ponder other biblical imagery that could apply to AI. On the negative side: Babel, disaster, judgment, slave, idol. On the positive: child, partner. I’m hoping to have more thoughts on this to share in the future.

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Weeknote for 3/12/2023

Posted on March 14, 2023 by Andy

Finances

:thinking:

I finished my taxes early, so I did some more investing research. I settled on my international stock fund fund and then got lost in the forest of bond funds. So I’ll need to sneak in some more research on the side as I move on to other projects. But I’m determined to start this investing this year.

Housekeeping

😐

This week starts a month of tidying. I want to digitize some old papers and recordings and clear some floor space.

Birthday

B-)

My sister made me this cross-stitch for my birthday. I’ve been trying to cultivate an adaptable, growth mindset, and this Seven of Nine quote will be a very nice reminder sitting on the shelf near my Star Trek books.

 

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People

B-)

I got an early birthday present when my old high school friend Andrew got in touch over Twitter. We hadn’t spoke in years, and Sunday we spent a couple of hours in a video call catching up and putting our heads together on his latest project.

Posted in Art, Birthdays, Housekeeping, Money, People, Weeknotes | 2 Comments

Weeknote for 3/5/2023

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Andy

Life maintenance

😐

After a week crowded with naps I managed to gather more info for my taxes. I’m aiming to finish the filing by Thursday for a discount on my tax software.

I reached a milestone in my ongoing spring housekeeping by finally replacing my worn out shoes. I have severe procrastination when it comes to buying new clothes. It’s such an ordeal.

AI

:thinking:

To follow up on last week’s post, I found some interesting discussions critiquing Eliezer Yudkowsky’s podcast interview.

Music

😎

Sunday morning I went to see my friend Jen conduct Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living (video). Heavenly. The highlight was the Agnus Dei with its three soloists.

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Weeknote for 2/26/2023

Posted on February 26, 2023 by Andy

Life maintenance

🙂

I made better progress on my spring housekeeping. I fixed my Quicken data, did my invoicing, caught up on some cleaning, and found some replacement shoes to buy.

This week’s project: taxes.

AI

:thinking:

I finally got access to Bing’s chatbot, and I’m not sure what to do with it. The way it integrates search seems perfunctory and clumsy, judging from my brief experimentation, and I’m sure can do most research better on my own. It could be good for summarizing long articles though.

In my AI discussion browsing I ran across this interview with Eliezer Yudkowsky about his current views on the state of AI risk. His level of pessimism was sobering. But it only made me want to look into the question more, so I’m listening to his recommended researchers on the other side of the issue.

Productivity

🙂

I finished The Sleep Solution and found out Dr. Winter goes all out on his naps—when they won’t disrupt his nighttime sleep. I also adjusted my nighttime lighting. I enabled blue light filtering on my devices with the f.lux app and the iOS Night Shift setting. And I covered the lights on the electronics in my room.

Spirituality

🙂

For Lent I’m listening to The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery and continuing the everyday prayer project. The dictionary is having the desired effect of enriching my knowledge of biblical themes and tilting my thoughts toward the spiritual. On everyday prayer I condensed the first prayer (with the help of ChatGPT) and chose a TTS voice to read it. Next I’ll make a recording, transfer it to my phone, and add it to the appropriate routine timer.

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Weeknote for 2/19/2023

Posted on February 19, 2023 by Andy

Life maintenance

😐

In the brief time I had for this project, I planned the iteration and made a few purchases. It seems like half my possessions are wearing out and need to be replaced. I also applied for my REAL ID, which was less of a chore than I expected, despite the long wait at the DMV.

Productivity

🤔

I started listening to W. Chris Winter’s book The Sleep Solution. So far I’ve learned (1) my sleep is pretty good, all things considered; (2) occasional nights of bad sleep aren’t a big deal, at least for health; (3) my sleep hygiene could maybe use a tune-up; and (4) when I can’t sleep, just resting is a good backup option.

I shifted my weekly food management up a day, back to its earlier slot, and that schedule feels much better. It’s easier to make sure the cooking gets done. My meals were running low thanks to cooking disruptions on the other schedule.

AI

🧐

Microsoft pulled me back into the Twilight Zone by releasing Bing’s GPT-based chatbot. I don’t have have access yet, but I spent the week reading about it and pondering its weird antics. Some links for you:

Nature

😎

I saw some deer on Saturday’s walk in the woods. It was a new-to-me forest I decided to visit because I was in the area to pick up a purchase. There were six deer in that patch of the woods, and they didn’t mind all the hikers on the trail at all.

 

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Weeknote for 2/12/2023

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Andy

Finances

🤔

I’m closing in on choosing the funds for my medium-term investing. There have still been a surprising number of issues to learn about. It’s technically time to pause the project for the next one, but I don’t like leaving it unfinished again, so as with the productivity system, I’ll try to keep this one going on the side.

Life maintenance

😐

The next two weeks are for spring housekeeping. It’s the first of my quarterly project periods where I catch up on miscellaneous life maintenance tasks.

Productivity

🤔

Getting enough sleep is becoming complicated. Time-wise I’ve been able to keep up, but my patterns of sleep and fatigue aren’t as regular as I’d like. How much is enough sleep anyway? What should I do about waking up too early? Why do I sometimes feel groggy even when I do get “enough” sleep? So now I’m observing myself without caffeine, keeping some records, and starting to research the issue.

🙂

I’ve continued my Notion tinkering. (1) I started recreating my timeline of projects for the year based on my database for iterations rather than on awkward subprojects. (2) I added a database of generic product names to make grocery planning easier. And (3) I’m trying Notion’s new sub-item feature to create task hierarchies for my projects.

Posted in Health, Life maintenance, Money, Productivity, Sleep, Weeknotes | Leave a comment