Weeknote for 3/19/2023

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Andy

Housekeeping

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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 artistā€™s explanation. ChatGPT even admitted it. šŸ˜‰ Last weekā€™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. Iā€™m hoping to have more thoughts on this to share in the future.

Posted in AI, Housekeeping, Weeknotes | 2 Comments

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 Iā€™ll need to sneak in some more research on the side as I move on to other projects. But Iā€™m determined to start this investing this year.

Housekeeping

šŸ˜

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. Iā€™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 hadnā€™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

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After a week crowded with naps I managed to gather more info for my taxes. Iā€™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. Itā€™s such an ordeal.

AI

:thinking:

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

Music

šŸ˜Ž

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

Posted in AI, Clothes, Life maintenance, Music, Taxes, Weeknotes | Leave a comment

Weeknote for 2/26/2023

Posted on February 26, 2023 by Andy

Life maintenance

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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 Bingā€™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 Iā€™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 Iā€™m listening to his recommended researchers on the other side of the issue.

Productivity

šŸ™‚

I finished The Sleep Solution and found out Dr. Winter goes all out on his napsā€”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

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For Lent Iā€™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 Iā€™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

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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

šŸ¤”

I started listening to W. Chris Winterā€™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

šŸ§

Microsoft pulled me back into the Twilight Zone by releasing Bingā€™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

šŸ˜Ž

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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Posted in AI, Cooking, Life maintenance, Nature, Productivity, Sleep, Weeknotes | 2 Comments

Weeknote for 2/12/2023

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Andy

Finances

šŸ¤”

Iā€™m closing in on choosing the funds for my medium-term investing. There have still been a surprising number of issues to learn about. Itā€™s technically time to pause the project for the next one, but I donā€™t like leaving it unfinished again, so as with the productivity system, Iā€™ll try to keep this one going on the side.

Life maintenance

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

Productivity

šŸ¤”

Getting enough sleep is becoming complicated. Time-wise Iā€™ve been able to keep up, but my patterns of sleep and fatigue arenā€™t as regular as Iā€™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 ā€œenoughā€ sleep? So now Iā€™m observing myself without caffeine, keeping some records, and starting to research the issue.

šŸ™‚

Iā€™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) Iā€™m trying Notionā€™s new sub-item feature to create task hierarchies for my projects.

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

Weeknote for 2/5/2023

Posted on February 5, 2023 by Andy

Finances

šŸ¤”

I inched closer to deciding on the funds to invest in for my medium-term goals. Learning the relevant terminology is seeming more laborious than it needs to be. Iā€™ll continue the research this week.

Productivity

šŸ™‚

Iā€™m reorganizing my project documents in Notion to follow Agileā€™s time intervals of releases, iterations, and days. The Bulletproof Workspace was a good starting point for my Notion setup, but it’s turning out to be too simple for my project management needs, and Iā€™m gradually moving away from it.

Iā€™m creating a food management app for myself in Notion. Itā€™ll help me streamline my grocery shopping. Iā€™m also reorganizing my recipe format to match the workflow of my cooking timer. And Iā€™m going back to buying some frozen meals to fill in gaps that crop up in my cooking schedule. If these steps save me enough time, I can wait on the time-consuming task of collecting quicker recipes for my meal plan.

I flipped my schedule so project work comes before admin. It’s still early in the experiment, but this seems to be a major step in carving out the time I need for my projects. I tend to lose track of time, so putting admin first was always crowding out my project time. The new schedule has worked very well the past few days both at home and at work. Iā€™m sure there are still nuances to work out to keep my admin tasks timely.

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Weeknote for 1/29/2023

Posted on January 29, 2023 by Andy

Productivity

šŸ¤”

I planned some of the changes I want to make to my project format and organization in Notion. I made some of the changes, but Iā€™ll have to make the rest as a side project.

I made a new rule for fixing my sleep schedule: I have to make up lost sleep within two days. It helped instantlyā€”I get to bed on time now. Weā€™ll see how long I can keep it up.

Finances

šŸ˜

Iā€™m returning to finances for two weeks. Iā€™ll keep working on medium-term investing and create some procedures for my regular financial management.

AI

šŸ¤”

Iā€™ve been following the controversy over generative AI among artists. I basically agree with Emergent Gardenā€™s take, but also Aaron Hertzmannā€™s, and for now Iā€™ll probably only use these models for learning, inspiration, and maybe non-commercial postings.

Spirituality

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Iā€™m getting back to my everyday prayer project on the side to prepare for Lent. These are prayers that relate to everyday tasks and circumstances. Iā€™m thinking of starting with prayers I can add to my routine timers.

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Weeknote for 1/22/2023

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Andy

Productivity

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I found two recipes to start off my new meal plan experiment. The idea is simple bowls that take minimal preparation. I chose Lentil Quinoa Bowl and Mediterranean Farro Salad.

This week Iā€™ll work on reformatting my project tracking in Notion to give me adequate information with less work. My current listening on #noestimates, #noprojects, and measurement should be helpful.

Food

šŸ™‚

I stepped into tea nerdery with my new Ali Shan oolong steeped in my new gaiwan. My sister bought me the tea, which is smooth and mild. The gaiwan is taking some practice to pour without spilling too much. These were both recommendations of Fredrik Knudsen (Ali Shan, gaiwan).

Posted in Cooking, Productivity, Project management, Tea, Weeknotes | 2 Comments

Weeknote for 1/15/2023

Posted on January 15, 2023 by Andy

Productivity

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I scheduled my movable personal projects around my fixed ones. My yearā€™s plans ended up looking like this: life maintenance, programming, arts, math, and AI. Iā€™m sure the plan will change as the year goes on. I also scheduled my fixed work projects, and this week Iā€™ll try to add some movable ones, although I have less control over that schedule.

For the next couple of weeks Iā€™m working on my productivity system. The updates will cover some combination of these: streamlining my cooking, reworking my project notes format, starting a media tracker, and planning a new schedule tracker.

Health

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Iā€™ve tested negative twice for COVID over this weekend, so itā€™s back to normal life this week. I still need to decide whether testing out of full isolation is helpful in immune-suppressed cases like mine.

Fiction

šŸ˜Ž

Eragon drew me back into a high fantasy mood. This was another series Jeremyā€™s been begging me to read. I tried reading it years ago, but I gave up immediately because it sounded like stereotypical fantasy, and I was tired of that. But Iā€™ve had a long break from high fantasy, so I was ready to try it again. Plus Jeremy insisted it wasn’t clichĆ©. And he was right! I found it sophisticated and intriguing, and I settled into it much more easily than Twilight. Iā€™ve already placed a hold on the next book, Eldest.

Posted in COVID-19, Fiction, Productivity, Weeknotes | 2 Comments