Outcome for 12/30: “Win”
Record: 86-4
Streak: Won 22

Summary: My willpower has been potent lately, which is great. I basically obey my own commands, which, as we all know, is harder than it sounds. I spent much of the day in Washington with an old friend from St. John’s. It was awesome. I have to say that my opinion of Washington has been raised dramatically. We walked through some beautiful areas, ate some great food, and later we checked out this huge cathedral which was stunning. It was massive. I think it’s called the National Cathedral, but I’m not sure. So yeah, Washington seems like a winner after all.

Week in Review: I came back after break with great discipline. All of these holidays are nice, but they also throw things off schedule. Like tomorrow, I’m going up to Philly, so tomorrow and the next day are going to be non-working days, and I need to adjust everything around that. It’ll still be fun. Next week I want to continue my good discipline. Actually, much of this week was perfect and I can’t think of too much I’d like to improve on.

Year in Review: I’m doing this now because I won’t be near a computer tomorrow. Hmmm, where to start...Overall I’ve made tremendous progress this year, even though at times it seemed I wasn’t getting anywhere. To illustrate this, I’m going to describe where I was at the beginning and where I am now.
At the beginning of the year, I was in a shameful state. My will had lost all of its power, and I was basically dreaming up fantastic plans without being able to execute. My bank account was nearly empty, I was overweight, I was getting ready to start at the SPCA, which was the shittiest job I’ve ever had, my book still hadn’t really taken off, I didn’t have any viable long term plans, I lacked etiquette and self-awareness in many situations (I was basically a barbarian) and I had no phone, internet, or car.
Currently, I’ve improved in nearly every area: the biggest thing is that I’ve developed a realistic, yet effective system. I have complete confidence now that I can execute any of the plans that I dream up, which is liberating in a way. My bank account is comfortable, I’m nearly at ideal weight, I’ve lost well over 20 pounds, I have a decent and stable day job, I got some hours at an awesome green building firm, I’m 33% done a very presentable version of the book, I’m over half-way done with a writing program that I expect to pay huge dividends, I’ve formulated a viable plan-b, I’ve signed up for Spring classes to further that plan, I’ve found summer programs to further that plan, I’ve made a big initial push on my GRE prep, I learned conversational French, I’ve learned a ton of domestic skills and shed my barbarian style to an extent, I’ve read a lot, and I’ve hooked up all my practical stuff so that I can concentrate on work without worrying about those things as much.
I’m trying to remember the books I’ve read this year. Here are a few: The Dubliners, Nichomachean Ethics, Spinoza’s Ethics, huge chunks of the Tanakh, sections from the Talmud, Crime and Punishment, After the Empire, How to Read a Book, Leaves of Grass, Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, a few Roman authors in the same volume as the Aurelius whose names I can’t remember, a shit-load of Emerson essays, Nature, Walden, On Walking, Franklin’s Autobiography, several books inspectionally read (don’t know if that counts)…shit I don’t know, I don’t really remember. While I did read a decent amount, it wasn’t enough. Right away, without proceeding to general evaluation, I can say that I didn’t read enough. That’s going to be a huge goal of next year. I want to read more and read better. I’m going to apply the How to Read a Book method, and begin my three book cycle. The first book will be selected from a pool of modern works that I inspectionally read. The one that seems the most likely to increase my understanding will be read analytically. The second book will be a French book read to improve elementary reading ability. I’ll probably do the Harry Potter books. The third book will be a great book read analytically and will include a written response to my experience reading it. Then I’ll start over with a contemporary book.
General evaluation: I’m just really happy with what I did. Emotionally I feel like I grew a lot this year. I look back over my old posts and I see myself now as being much more stable and effective. That’s the key. I plan to do great things, so I need to develop a way to execute, which I have. The lack of reading might be my biggest area for improvement.
Looking forward:
French--I’ll finish my current 15-minute a day program in five weeks, at which point I’ll probably just start over with the beginner one and cycle back and forth between them. In my leisure time I will continue to watch French movies, speak French with Eva, and perhaps I will seek a conversation group next year. Of course, my three book cycle will include a French book, which will greatly improve my reading knowledge.
Writing--I’ll finish Artist’s Way in February, at which point I’m going back to an hour a day, six hours a week (Sunday off). It doesn’t sound like a lot, but I got a lot done within that time frame in October and November, so it should come quickly. Plus I expect my output to increase dramatically after the completion of AW. I realistically expect to be sending out manuscripts to publishers next winter.
Green building--first I’m taking the GRE and beginning my classes. In March I will apply to summer studios, and then in the fall I will apply to grad school, unless the book or Dan and Derek’s program become 7+ figure ventures, in which case it’s all Rittenhouse Square all the time.
Fitness/Health--I will reduce my weight until I reach a point where I think my body looks like it’s in good shape. I don’t know when that will be. Maybe around 165? I think that should be in the neighborhood. And once I hit that mark, then I’m going to start accumulating my gentleman’s wardrobe, which leads me to the next point.
Etiquette/Presentation--I want to purchase some etiquette texts and strive to become a gentleman. In terms of appearance, I’m going to stop dressing like a riff-raff and where nice clothing (made in Philadelphia).
Money--I don’t expect to come out of next year with a big surplus, mainly because there are big expenses on the horizon. Summer studio is 2500, plus GRE fees and application fees and tuition for classes, etc. BUT, I expect to be able to cover all my expenses as a result of careful management and budgeting. The one possible change to this would be if the program blows up and I have shares and I become a billionaire.
Where will I be at this time next year? Here’s a best-possible-scenario sketch, based on what I know right now. I will be chilling in my nicely decorated Center City apartment. I will already have a complete manuscript of my book and will be shopping it around to different agents. I will have already gotten into a grad program and will be working at a green building firm in Philly to build my skills. Eva and I will still be together and happy. I will be dressing, speaking, and acting like a gentleman. I will be fluent in French. I will have written several philosophical essays in response to my re-reading of the great books. I will generally have a broader understanding of the world. I will be fit and healthy.
I’m not going to make an emotionally charged declaration about how much ass I’m going to kick starting Sunday at midnight, because I have discovered that I do much better when I use a calm and methodical approach. So I will continue what I’m doing, continue striving to master myself, increase my understanding, accommodate changes, and report my progress here.
Good luck to everyone else, keep posting, and let’s be like Rocky Balboa!

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 85-4
Streak: Won 21

Summary: Almost a 5-day under the old system. So I have this co-worker who is an immigrant from Malaysia, and he's an awesome dude. Hanging with him is definitely one of the pluses about going to work. Anyway, he gave me one of the best compliments anyone has ever given me. We were moving a bunch of really heavy shit from a storage locker for several hours. At one point, as we were straining to get this old fridge into the van, he goes, "Dang man...you crazy, you're like Rocky Balboa!" That was amazing. That's not a bad comparison at all, except I hope I'm not as dumb as Rocky is. Another story about this dude: he uses the phrase "action packed" for so many things, and I think it's great. Like, if we page our pseudo-secretary, and she gets back to us very fast, he says, "Wow ____, you action packed!" Or if an order is extraordinarily large, it's "action packed". The Redskins this year, which is his team, are not action packed. I myself strive to have action packed days, and by action I mean conscious living.
I rocked my morning pages, biked, worked, finished my French for the week, got a crazy workout at work, weighed in at 175, biked home, made some deposits (inorganic), dropped off the rent, performed other miscellaneous tasks, plowed through a large section of the GRE book, wrote an e-mail for "b", spent several hours doing AW exercises, read Fate by Emerson, and now I'm going to watch Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles and go to bed. I'd say it was an action packed day.
Oh, one more thing: so I remember that plan that Dan and I had about blasting Wu-Tang every morning in the apartment and jumping up and down on each others heads if we didn't get up. What would be even better, I think, is to have the theme song from Rocky set to start blaring at a certain time, say 6, and just wake up the apartment that way. ...dah-dah-danna-dah-danna-dah-danana...DAH-DAH-DANNA-DAH-DANNA-DAH-DANANA...and so on. I was hearing that shit blasting in my head this morning when I woke up, and I was so fired up, I probably could have tackled Brian Westbrook in the open field. I rode my bike with so much intensity, it was great. That would be the realest shit. Every day would be action packed.
*Update* Wow. Holy shit. How have I not heard of this movie? Check it out, seriously. The English title is A Very Long Engagement. It'll make you feel like an even bigger asshole for ever wasting a day.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 84-4
Streak: Won 20

Summary: Another solid day, although my state of mind was more volatile. My schedule right now is 1 1/2 hours of AW, which includes the mandatory 45 min. morning pages, 1 hour on "b", 1/2 hour cleaning, 1/2 hour dealing with administrative crap, 15 min. on French, and the remainder is free, which would ideally be used to read. My AW was solid today; for b I wrote an e-mail, stopped into an architecture office, and studied for the GRE; French I caught up to where I should be; and for my admin I went to the dentist after a long period of time without seeing one. It seems that I've been doing a good job taking care of my teeth, or I got lucky, because everything looks good. I haven't mentioned this before, but I require myself to perform a dental hygiene routine every morning and evening in order to get a win. My weight was 177.

Outcome for 12/26: "Win"
Record, as of 12/27: 83-4
Streak: Won 19
I have to give myself another win for Tuesday, because I really did do a good job maintaining my composure and getting the shit done that I had to get done, despite my crushing sadness at having to return to Acrapolis.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 82-4
Streak: Won 18

Summary: It was depressing driving southbound on 95, away from Philly. Ugh. But I came back, and I did a nice job getting back into the program. Actually, I maintained a near-perfect state of mind for much of the day. I was calm, feeling no anxiety, yet at each moment I was being deadly efficient, just doing each task without protest or distracting thoughts, applying the most rational strategy that presented itself to me.
My weight was bad--179.6--but not as bad as I expected. I gain weight very fast. I once gained over 10 pounds in 5 days while visiting San Francisco. Now I'm back on track, and I know for sure that there will be no delays between now and when I hit my goal. I did a solid hour on "b", 1/2 hour cleaning, 1/2 hour planning for something, 45 minutes on AW, and I made my lunch, had dinner, etc. I wish I could maintain my current state of mind forever. It's like I know for sure that I'm going to get to the pinnacle, and I'm not worried or stressed or panicked, because I just know it's going to happen. It's like having faith, maybe. I'm rolling, one day at a time. I'm applying Andy Reid and Rocky's strategies: Andy Reid's in the sense that I'm focusing on one day at a time, not getting too high or too low, treating myself with respect, and taking the attitude that I don't have time to despair or look for moral victories. Rocky's in the sense that I'm going to keep going at it no matter how many times I get knocked down. I feel like if you have the right state of mind, you could get knocked down an infinite amount of times and it would phase you less than a person with a worse attitude if they got hit just once. Maybe this is some Marcus Aurelius shit too. But I'm reminding myself that only I can make myself despair and give up, and nothing else matters--not the number of victories or failures. That's the way to victory in the long run.

Outcome for last three days: "Win, win, win"
Record: 81-4
Streak: Won 17

Summary: This has been an incredible Christmas break. Traffic was a breeze on Friday coming up here, and when I arrived, I had a delicious meal at Pinnochios and accomplished my shopping in one quick and pleasantly nostalgic trip to Granite Run. Then the next day, Dan and I made an awesome tour of Philly. Started at 30th street, walked to the Cira Center, clipped the corner of the Penn campus, walked over the South Street Bridge, walked up the Schuykill trail around the back of the Art Museum, walked up the Parkway, stopped at Eakins Oval, got a La Colombe, walked through Rittenhouse, checked out the Gross Clinic, which was amazing, walked to Sarcone's, where I enjoyed a hoagie (Dan thought it was garbage), walked down 9th Rocky style, checked out Passyunk Square, walked back up Passyunk, went to Borders, studied and talked, walked down Broad to South, admired the architecture, got a Lorenzo's, ate at Harmony, rode the R3 back, drove around with Derek, and then watched Rocky 6. Right there, that was awesome. That was almost as cool, in one day, as last year's Boston/New York trip was in 4 days. Go Philly.
Next day: I got up liesurely, hung out with Aaron for a while, did Christmas presents and stuff with my family, and then I drove to Josh's house in Havertown, got Wawa, played Resident Evil 4, and then beat Mega Man 1 and 6. That was a nice day with family and friends.
Today: Got up and had the family Christmas party at the house. Very nice. And then, of course, I got to witness the Eagles dominate the Cowboys and deliver one of my best Christmas presents ever. Tomorrow I go back, and while I'd like to stay more, it was an awesome weekend, with Philly showing up like a champion. We saved the Eakins, our city is awesome, Rocky's actually all right, and the Eagles are currently the division leaders.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 78-4
Streak: Won 14

Outcome for the city of Philadelphia on 12/21: "WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
http://www.philamuseum.org/press/releases/2006/559.html

Hell yeah! This is amazing. We're keeping the painting. I'm so glad that it's staying. I'm kind of speechless. New York lost it's painting, but Philadelphia, yes PHILADELPHIA, came together to keep ours. To be fair, New York didn't have the same chance we did...oh fuck it, this isn't about any of that. The Gross Clinic is staying in Philadelphia!

Outcome for 12/21: "Win"
Record: 77-4
Streak: Won 13

Outcome for 12/20: Win
Record: 76-4
Streak: Won 12

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/19/AR2006121901769.html

Look at the two maps. Specifically, see how Philadelphia has shifted zones. This is perhaps the most depressing thing to me out of all the issues that we face at the present moment. I don't just mean plant ecology, but the disruption of the planet in general. It hits me in a very sentimental place when I imagine a Philadelphia of the near future that lacks the snows and trees that I enjoyed as a child. Honestly, and anyone that knows me knows this, I would do anything for Philadelphia. I love it and I want to fight for it. But there's one thing that might make me consider moving to Montreal, or Alaska, which is if the climate and landscape become unrecognizable to me. I just couldn't tolerate it. I'd work on Philadelphia's behalf remotely, but I don't know if I could be happy living there in that circumstance. I don't know why, but I have such a connection with the old landscape and weather that I remember from my childhood. Aside from St. John's, which I loved, I hated living in Santa Fe. Everyone else thought it was beautiful, but I thought it was straight up ugly. It's a barren wasteland. I don't care how blue the sky is. I want a thick green northeast foliage, flowing creeks, and blanketing snow in the winter. That's my aesthetic, and I can't live without it. It makes me absolutely furious that humanity might have ruined this for me. And from a non-selfish point of view, it's deeply shameful that we have allowed the world to get to this point.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 75-4
Streak: Won 11

Summary: Here's something I think we can all agree about, regardless of our personal philosophies: let us never fail to do a thing because of laziness. Different philosophies will produce different sets of "things" and different ways to accomplish them. Perhaps Dan thinks he should accomplish 20 things in a day, whereas I might think that I should accomplish 10 things in a day. If we both accomplish our things, to say that one or both of us is shameful is really saying our philosophies and our personal expectations were flawed. But if one of us falls short of his target due to the fact that he didn't feel like it, that's dishonorable. It seems to me that, fundamentally, to neglect a task for the sole reason that you didn't feel like it (assuming that you weren't sick or something like that) is shameful.
There was a line in Artist's Way that deeply resonated with me, and I want to post it here. It reads, "Like most blocked creatives, he suffered from a deadly duo: artistic anorexia and prideful perfectionism." My understanding of artistic anorexia is that it's martyring yourself for the sake of something or someone else, constantly denying yourself pleasure and stimulation. I imagine guilt goes along with this (feeling like it's bad and indulgent to be creative). Anyway, I've been meditating on that passage since I read it. I think it's true, #1, and I think that it would be of great value for me to work on this, #2. So, now I'm working on it, and it's tough to break those tendencies.
I worked, did French, biked, enjoyed little things throughout the day, did laundry, cleaned, spent an hour practicing for the GRE, and after dinner I'm going to spend time with Artist's Way and perhaps my French grammar book if there's time.
My cappuccino was actually a latte today. Sometimes I have difficulty getting the micro-bubbles that the really good baristas there get. The drink was still delicious. For dinner I'm going to make rice and try a new peanut sauce that I picked up from Whole Foods. I've also been enjoying a radio station on the internet that plays Persian music. I'll listen to that while I'm eating dinner.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 74-4
Streak: Won 10

Summary: I got sick last night, which messed up my schedule a little bit. I still did well today. I worked hard at work, got a great start on my French, cleaned up at the apartment, and wrote my pages. I'm about to go to bed and get a ton of sleep. I hope that I'm 100%.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 73-4
Streak: Won 9

Summary: E-A-G-L-E-S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekly Summary: I was reminded of a few important principles this week. One is that we must remember that the universe is fundamentally mysterious. We must approach the world with the wonder of a child and restrain ourselves from trying to build a tower of Babel. Simple curiosity, playfulness, lightness, and creativity are essential. Perfection and domination are concepts that are toxic to the soul. I must remember the important things and head into next week with a Socratic mind. We must not be like Faust, the false idol of the modern age.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 72-4
Streak: Won 8
Summary: There's a difference between anger and discipline--I was angry earlier in the week when I made that post about tightening my criteria. I had been doing fantastically well up until that point, largely because I found a system that works, and I think that it would be unwise to undermine that. I still think that I could use more discipline, but the anger is not valuable. So that's the key, discipline, while still retaining my flexibility. So the scoring remains the same--an overall intuitive "pass" or "fail".

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 71-4
Streak: Won 7

Summary: I've been rising to the challenge that I put to myself. I figured out an effective way to utilize my PDA, so it's staying, for now. 1 hour on GRE, 1 1/2 hours on AW, including morning pages, virtuous work, admin, and tonight Eva and I have our private Hanukka party. Roller coaster day emotionally, but I kept plugging away, laughing in the face of my weak emotions. Or, as one of the Patriot's players said to describe their shutout loss to Miami, "they punched us in the face and made us like it." Well, I kept punching my weak and destructive emotions in the face and made them like it.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 70-4
Streak: Won 6

Summary: Normal stuff..weight in same as Monday

All right, I want to raise the ante here--bring up the intensity. From now on, starting after I post, only an effort worthy of a 5 will result in a win. Here are some specific things that must happen: I must follow my policies 100% throughout the day, both the major and minor ones. So if I get into bed a minute late, automatic loss. I must follow my schedule 100%. I must make a schedule to begin with, otherwise, automatic loss. And as always, I can change things, both long-term on the policy level, but also momentarily to make exceptions and adjustments, but it must be done as a rational, calm contemplation. If I change something or momentarily take exception to something with only a half-thought out reason, or an emotionally driven one, automatic loss. I need to hold myself to the highest standards.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 69-4
Streak: Won 5

Summary: normal stuff, 1/2 hour on GRE, 173.5 at weigh in, should get some time on AW exercises later tonight.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 68-4
Streak: Won 4

Summary: New policy--blog entries can only take a maximum of 5 minutes. Normal day. MPs, work, French, weigh in was 177.3, 1/2 hour of AW, sent some business e-mails.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 67-4
Streak: Won 3

Summary: I came "out the box" with fury! Really though, today was day 1 of my dual mind approach (calm like a monk until that fails and then I whip myself into the character of a furious demon). I wrote some glorious morning pages, enjoyed my breakfast, rode to work with great intensity, burned tons of calories at work, got a start on this week's French, picked up a GRE study book, looked at that for 45 minutes, bought a beautiful new notebook, did Artist's Way exercises for 45 minutes, ate a lovely dinner topped off by a delicious, flowerless chocolate cake, talked to my mom on the phone, ran some errands, took care of some mail, did some holiday shopping, and paid some bills.
A couple things. 1: I decided that I need to have rigorous, objective evaluations of my progress whenever possible. For my weight loss goal, I'm going to weigh myself every day at the same time and record the result. Today was 175.7. I started at over 200, so I've done well in the last few months. 2: I'm switching to a note-book system. My apologies to my computer-savvy virtue seeking friends, I hate electronics and computers. They fucking blow. I'm going to sell my PDA. My whole system is now organized by two notebooks, the Big Book and the Small Book. I'm not going to get into nuts and bolts, but it's working very nicely so far. 3: I've been legislating firm policies for myself. Today I added a new one--"During the first 15 minutes of my 30 minute break at work, I must relax and eat without spending that time on any other tasks." Often I'll give myself some small task to be done in that time, or I'll read the Inquirer on-line. These are both virtuous tasks, but I need time to rest, collect my thoughts, breathe, eat, and get ready to kick ass on French and then get back to work.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 66-4
Streak: Won 2

Summary: I did my morning pages, watched the Eagles game (GO EAGLES!), paid my credit card bill, put some systems in place that should take care of our mouse problem, picked up ice cream for Eva, did a parkour climb on the wall next to my front door each time I went in and out, wrote my check to keep the Gross Clinic in Philadelphia, prepared my lunches for next week, and read my Artist's Way lesson for next week. This week there's a short exercise to be completed each night before going to bed, so those will be accomplished starting tonight.

Week in Review: This was a weird, tough week. I tweaked my system and refreshed it in my mind, so that should give me a boost. I think I need to get tougher fundamentally. It's great when I can approach my days with happiness and a good attitude. But sometimes I just can't. And when I can't, what do I fall back on? I need to become like a demon, just attacking my shit, putting my head down and plowing through. I need intensity, hate even, if that allows me to stick to my schedules. This needs to happen, and again, I'd prefer if it could happen easily, happily, and with a constant serenity, but in the moments when the options are raging demon or saying fuck it and giving up, and I'm going to go with the raging demon.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 65-4
Streak: Won 1

Summary: I got back in it today, after refreshing and tweaking my system. I took care of some admin, did French, made my budget, legislated some policies for myself, wrote down strategies that I've found helpful in conquering my less virtuous aspects, and I cleaned.

Outcome: "Loss"
Record: 64-4
Streak: Lost 2

Summary: I voluntarily took a loss today so that I could rest and review my system. I'm still in the middle of it, but I think this will be beneficial in the long run.

Outcome: "Loss"
Record: 64-3
Streak: Lost 1

Summary: I totally ran out of gas today. I don't think I gave myself enough breaks early in the week. I'm going to sit down and look at some things, to use Andy Reid language. Two things in particular are stressing me out, namely not having a formal set of "laws" and not having my budget set down on paper.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 64-2
Streak: Won 8

Summary: Oops, I guess I added one to the loss column as well as the win column last night. Today was the normal stuff. I went to yoga again, which is nice, but more of a straight workout than a stretch. One of the tutor's at St. John's asked me some question once when I didn't want to do something. The question went something like, "Is it (your not wanting to do it) because of the task itself, or because of your resistance to it?" It almost seems like a silly thing to say. But in the years since then, I think about it sometimes, and I think the implied idea, which is that your arbitrary resistance to a thing makes it difficult and not the thing itself, is a profound and enabling idea.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 63-3
Streak: Won 7

Summary: Nice job on the straight 1s Dan. Hell yeah. And hell yeah Eagles. Fuck the Giant Eagles, but the regular Eagles are awesome. I overcame some adversity to do my morning pages, biked and worked with vigor, studied French for 15 minutes, did some AW exercises for 45 minutes, and now I'm off to the Envirocenter meeting.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 62-2
Streak: Won 6

Summary: I came out strong from the gate today. My morning pages were good, my preparations for work were done efficiently and thoroughly, I worked hard at work, I got a great start on my French, I sent something off for "b", prepared for a big green architecture meeting in Maryland that takes place tomorrow night, and after this I'm going to eat, make my lunch, read the AW book for 45 minutes, and watch the Eagles.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 61-2
Streak: Won 5

Summary: Got a haircut, did my shopping, made my lunches for next week. Exercised moderation and good ethics in general.

Week in review: This week was tough...too tough. I'm thinking it's because I lost my momentum by going up to Philly. It's hard when you come to accept a less-than-ideal situation, and then suddenly find yourself in paradise only to be yanked back to your former situation days later. Now I'm anxious, and everything seems to be moving too slow. I can overcome it though, and I persevered during some difficult moments. One thing I've noticed is that I have cultivated a pretty strong fall-back energy source, meaning, even after I've hit the point where I'm totally against doing something, I'm antsy, uncomfortable, and being pulled in some other direction by my emotions and impulses, I've been able to turn that off, get serious and hardcore for a second, and sit down and do what I have to do. That's fucking excellent. I would love to keep building that.
Next week I want to be more clear and conscious in my actions. I want things to be crisp. I want to know what my plan is, act in accordance with it, and remember that I acted in accordance with it. I have been doing this to a certain extent, otherwise I wouldn't have given myself the wins, but I need to do it better.
Next week I will do lesson 12 in French, lesson 4 in AW, get a GRE book and start studying for that, go to the envirocenter meeting on Tuesday, do some other stuff for "b", start applying my budget, eat healthfully (hopefully lose a bit more weight), and take care of a host of admin shit.

Outcome for 12/2: "Win"
Record: 60-2
Streak: Won 4

Summary: Hell yeah--I had to fight so hard not to engage in amusements that would divert my attention, and I think I won. I still have about an hour and a half to go, but I think my white horse won the battle tonight. Below I've posted my summary for yesterday as well as my monthly review. Tonight I finished my French, worked on something for "b", and later I plan to do some exercises from AW. Not only was I productive, but I overcame the urge to eat out.

Outcome for 12/1: "Win"
Record: 59-2
Streak: Won 3

Summary: I couldn't get my internet working last night, so I decided it would have been too inconvenient to post. Now it's working again (I have no idea what happened), and first I'm going to do a post for yesterday, and then later tonight I'll do one for today.
Yesterday I worked and then picked up Josh, and we hung out for the rest of the night. Yesterday was basically a break day, which means I will do some work on Sunday. I still did my French. My eating habits are getting a bit too lax, I think. Between Thanksgiving holiday and Josh coming down, I've been indulging more than I should. I also need to stop biting the skin on the tips of my fingers. It's unhygenic and it makes my fingers look gross.

Monthly Summary:
Three major things happened this month: I started my internship in Baltimore, I began the program in Artist's Way, and I was reminded of some important values that I had been neglecting. Signing up for classes also initiated what will end up becoming a significant movement.
The program in Artist's Way seems great, and after this week I will be 25% done. It seems highly likely to me that I will write more and write better as a result of the program. That was the gamble that I took by taking 12 weeks off from my novel. But already it seems like it will pay-off. I should finish the course at the beginning of February. At that point, even if I write at my old rate I will finish a good draft by the beginning of April, but I expect to accelerate that schedule.
"b" is progressing nicely. My classes are set up, I know what I need to do to get into Penn, and the internship has been a great boost. Sometime this spring I will take the GRE and soon I'll start putting together my application for the summer studio at Harvard. This coming week I'll be attending the monthly meeting for the local green building community.
Overall I was happy with this month. It was shitty that my first two losses occured, and unforunately I would say it was slightly less virtuous than October, but only slightly. I need to get a little more intense this month. This points toward my goal in December: I want to clearly establish my personal guidlines and policies. One aspect of this will be coming up with a new budget, which is now necessary because Eva made her finances independent. This will happen very soon, if not today or tomorrow. Another way I will accomplish my aformentioned goal is to literally legislate for myself, like write down a list of policies. I already sort of do this in my head, and I stick to it surprisingly well. I just need to codify it in writing, make it more external, less subject to my emotions. I also need to constantly remind myself of what I'm doing and why it's important. This meditation isn't hard.
I lost more weight this month. I'm down to somewhere in the mid 170s. I'm hoping the last week hasn't screwed things up too bad. I'm going to keep going with my current program since it seems to be working.
So basically, let's keep posting guys, and striving to be our best. Dan, you need to have a perfect day--you're coming so close! I'm trying not to have a single loss this month. It's feasible; in fact, I did it in October.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 58-2
Streak: Won 2

Summary: Since break, my wins have been tougher than before break. I have to fight with myself more. Maybe I built momentum, and in fact, it was this hard back when I first started my current 60 day run, and the only reason it's hard now is because I need to regain my momentum. Who knows. I did my morning pages very well (finished in a 1/2 hour without rushing!), worked, did my French (made an extra effort to absorb information), spent a solid hour on "b", cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom, and after this I'm going on my assigned artist's date for the week.
It works better when I "get into" a task--basically that means that I forget about everything else, psychologically allow myself some time, and loose myself. Also, and I've said this before, aesthetics can be a hinderance to doing well. It's not important whether my life looks a way that strikes me as virtuous, as if I were watching it on tape, it just matters if it is virtuous, even if that means violating principles conceived a-priori. A-priori principles; aesthetics--very important, but they must be handled responsibily, otherwise they just make you a fool. I contemplated some values today that I need to keep reminding myself of (Eva helps with some of those). Hopefully tomorrow can be a "clean" win.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 57-2
Streak: Won 1

Summary: I came back strong today. I was able to get into a great state of mind during my morning pages, my "toilette" was efficient and even invigorating, I kicked ass at work in the morning, made myself a nice cappuccino, did my French, went over to AACC and got into their system and registered for my two architecture classes in the spring, came back finished up at work, then I went to yoga for an hour, which was great, and after this I'm going to take care of some admin and put in my 45 minutes of AW. Yesterday, even though I had a loss, I still accomplished some important shit. Eva opened her own bank account, so now I have complete control over the budgeting of my money. Within the week I will come up with a frugal budget for myself.
Yoga was refreshing and now I feel relaxed and peaceful. I would like to go again in the future.
My goal right now is to put together a 100-win streak. It's a lot, but I think I can do it.

Outcome: "Loss"
Record: 56-2
Streak: Lost 1

Summary: Already I'm calling this one a loss. Last night I barely achieved a "win". Up until when I posted, I was right on the line. Let's say the cutoff was "80%" or something--I was 80%. Then I said I would need to be on-point for the rest of the night. Let's say the cutoff for "on-point" was "90%"--I was 90%. So basically leading into today, I was technically willing to give myself the win, but without the satisfaction of it being definitive, or strong. Then this morning I just acted like an asshole. I lost my serenity, I overindulged in some food, and I only did 2/3rds of my morning pages. I'm pissed at myself. I need to get back into my good schedule. I'm not giving up for today, and I'll still try to do something good, but this one is going down as a loss.

Outcome: "Win, pending"
Record: 56-1
Streak: Won 18

Summary: Pending because I need to execute with discipline for the remainder of the night. It was rough getting back into my routine. It really makes me sad to leave Philadelphia. I'll be there soon.
I got back to eating healthy, getting up early, doing my morning pages (not that I didn't do them on break because I did), French for 15 minutes, accumulating about an hour and 45 minutes overtime, doing grocery shopping, and now I want to put in 45 minutes on AW and take care of some administrative crap. This sucks man, seriously, it's so depressing going back to this. I just read Williams Penn's prayer for Philadelphia, which I believe I've read before on a plaque on city hall. Good stuff. I'm going to do everything I can in my lifetime to preserve and cultivate our city's virtues.

Outcome for Sat and Sun: "Win"
Record: 55-1
Streak: Won 17

Summary: Had fun.

Week in review: This will need to be short because I have to go to bed. Last week was good, and it set me up nicely for the immediate future, both in terms of confirming my values and also giving me a much needed rest. Next week I want to follow my will very near to perfect.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 53-1
Streak: Won 15

Summary: Vacation is great. But I still get stressed, even when I'm on vacation.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 52-1
Streak: Won 14

Summary: I almost forgot to do my morning pages this morning, but then I remembered and it was quite nice. I read, prepared for the seminar, and got ready for dinner. Dinner was good, and in a few minutes we'll have our seminr. Barring some gross violation of ethics, I'd say I lived how I wanted to live today.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 51-1
Streak: Won 13

Summary: Tying things down in Annapolis. I will be in the Philadelphia metropolitan area starting tonight. I lost another pound, so now I'm at 176. Other than that, just the usual. I might sign up for classes at AACC real quick before leaving.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 50-1
Streak: Won 12

Summary: Seriously, another 5. Two in a row, hell yeah. And apparently I haven't been clear, or Dan hasn't been reading my blog well enough. The book is still "plan a". In fact, I'm working on it more than ever right now. AW is directly contributing to the book. AW is a 12 week program that I have undertaken specfically to aid in the process of writing my book. Already it is helping. The book is still #1.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 49-1
Streak: Won 11

Summary: With so much adversity, I still perservered, and I feel like a champ. Today would have been a 5. I'm not going to get into too much detail because of the personal nature of the most of the chief circumstances. Morning pages, work, French for 15 minutes (nice start by the way), and lots of critical "b". Picked up my bike from the shop and took care of a little admin. Would like to do some AW, perhaps read some Emerson to prepare for the seminar, but most importantly I need to get a good night's sleep tonight, since last night I didn't (through no fault of my own).

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 48-1
Streak: Won 10

Summary: What a horrible bitter day. I didn't do anything wrong--I exercised moderation and was generally ethical, and I tried to rest on my day off. The day started off nicely with morning pages, including my weekly check up, and then a nice breakfast. But starting after that there was the Eagles nightmare of a game. Oh God. Then Eva and I fought, and then I felt sick to my stomach and had a headache, and now I just feel overall like a big pile of shit.

Weekly Summary:
Work wise, this was a killer week. I finished my French lesson, completed the first of twelve sections in AW, worked my ass off at normal work and especially at the internship, exercised moderation, got a great start on my French grammar text, took care of a huge amount of administrative stuff, took the first step in lining up my classes for next semester, and got a nice lead for "b".
There were a few things I wanted to work on for this week: one was freeing up Sunday so that I could have a full day of relaxation. Well, I did free up Sunday, but Sunday sucked anyway. I love the Eagles, and I will always watch their games, but in a way I'll be glad when the season's over. A second thing I wanted to address was hazy principles. I still didn't sit down and create a set of "laws", but it's ok that I didn't. I was very deliberate in all my actions, and was, if anything, more conservative than I needed to be. I still want to legislate, so that should be coming soon. There was only one thing regarding sleep, that I'll talk about below, in which I fucked up a little. The AW stuff worked out great. 45 minute morning pages and then another 45 minutes later in the day for the exercises.
Outlook for next week: I want to continue my solid effort. Wednesday night through Sunday night will be a vacation, which is much needed. Monday through Wednesday afternoon will still be productive. Even while I'm vacationing, I'll do my morning pages--basically I'll treat it as a string of Sundays. I want to do at least 1 lesson in French, if not more when I'm relaxing on vacation (at this point the French is fun). There are a few things I want to take care of with "b" before I take off. Ideally I'd like to register for my classes before leaving. Probably the biggest thing I'd like to improve upon is return to my firm ways about sleep. I need to obey myself. I can't get sloppy. Here's how I handle sleep normally. I want to get 8 hours a night on working nights. If I'm getting up at 6:15, I need to be asleep by 10:15. But I figure that I won't fall asleep right away if I get in bed at 10:15, so I get in bed at 9:45, to ensure that I'll be asleep once it hits 10:15. One night, during my artist's date actually, I was sloppy in the following way: it was 9:45, and I was finishing up a movie. I won't get too much into an artist's date, but it's basically supposed to be time to yourself, to recharge and stimulate yourself, by yourself, with no distractions or worries. I was having a great time, and I wanted to be liberal with myself, you know, treat myself. So I figured that if I turned off the light, laid down in bed, and watched the movie that way, I'd fall asleep quickly at 10:15, so I could have the benefit of the 9:45 thing while still being able to watch my movie. I'm sorry, that was bullshit. The artist's date is great, and I want to respect it, but there are also things that I need to be firm about. Because I don't always remember how important sleep is on a gut level, I need to make a hard and fast rule for myself to direct my actions. That ways it doesn't matter whether I'm fully conscious of its value at that time or not, I will do it because I legislated myself to do it, and if I don't, it'll be a loss. That's what I mean about being strict with sleep. The only way I will make an exception is for an emergency, or if I petition my rational mind in advance with a good reason (for example, there's something I might attend late on Tuesday, and the reason I might allow it is because I won't see Eva again for another week, and the only way to see her is to go to the thing). We'll see. So yeah, more firm, more crisp in my actions. Still working on my state of mind and calmness, but that's been good. Yeah, just keep rolling I guess.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 47-1
Streak: Won 9

Summary: I could feel that my tank is almost empty. I need a break, but I still managed to pull out a win for today. I mostly did the internship stuff today, which is going well. On my way in I took a different route and discovered this beautiful neighborhood called Bolton Hill. I'd love to park over there and walk around. When I came back I went grocery shopping, made dinner, and after I'm done writing this, I'm going to do some dishes, probably start some laundry, finish my French for the week, and hopefully complete a few of the administrative things hanging over my head.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 46-1
Streak: Won 8

Summary: Today was a lot of working. First I did my morning pages, and then I went to Pronto. I worked there until 11, did a tiny bit of French, jumped in my luxury vehicle and drove to Bmore city, worked at TL until 7:30, drove back, made a healthy dinner, and before I go to bed I want to put together some stuff for my mom and my sister. The three of us are having a seminar on Thanksgiving, so I'm going to send them some basic stuff to get them ready. I need to finish my French lesson at some point this weekend. I also need to pick up my bike, do grocery shopping, and make my lunches for next week (before Sunday!). Sunday is going to be jam packed full of chillaxing.
Something caught my attention this morning when I left my apartment. The Naval Academy had this big electronic text billboard inside their gate, and "God Bless America" was written on it in large capital letters. In that instance, and much of the time when I hear American's today using the phrase, it would seem that they're not actually saying what they mean. I usually interpret the meaning as "God Bless America--isn't America great?" in which case it would be more to the point to say, "God has blessed America". It's kind of chauvinistic. It's like saying, "We're the shit, and not only that, God endorses us." The phrase in the abstract suggests a humple appeal, an uncertainty about the future and a willingness to trust God's plan for you, but I don't get the sense that people are trying to convey that idea when they use it.
One more random side note: I fucking love my car. It's such a champ. I'm tempted to gut it and put it in my living room after it dies, like, set up a shrine to it. It's the Brian Dawkins of cars. It's an 87, and it needed a few repairs when I got it. Not knowing whether it would even get me out of Annapolis (it did, in fact, nearly die as I rolled through the Bay Bridge Toll), since then it has gotten me to Philly, Quebec, back and forth all over Quebec, Ontario, back to Quebec, back to Philly, down to Annapolis, back up to Philly, back to Annapolis, and to Bmore and back several times. The interior light is broken, the dashboard looks vandalized, the gear box makes wierd noises, the engine makes wierd noises, one of the tires is patched, the driver seat doesn't go forward anymore, the passenger door doesn't open, and it sometimes needs two attempts to start. Still, it's transported me like a golden chariot. I feel so greatful.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 45-1
Streak: Won 7

Summary: Morning pages, work, French, took my bike in for a tune-up, went to AACC to meet with a counselor, and later tonight I'm going on my artist's date from AW.
In a lot of ways, today was great. It looks like the two classes that I need fit my schedule exactly. The crazy thing is that if I were to take them now, with my current work schedule, I'd be working about 8am-9:30pm Mon-Sat. Well, Saturday I'd get off at like 6, but still, that's a lot. However, I don't think my situation will be the same, so I'm not worrying about it. The only thing I could have done better with was work. It wasn't that I did bad--it was totally acceptable, even more than acceptable. But in truth, I was doing just enough to qualify as "doing a good job" and stopping there. I could have worked harder. Sometimes I think I should stop at the point that I stopped at, for the sake of conserving energy. But then sometimes I think that it's better to go full-on, both because perhaps it's ethically better, but also sometimes I find that if I work really hard, I have more energy later for some reason (well, I have to qualify that. What happens is complex, but I'm not getting into it now because I need to post and log off).

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 44-1
Streak: Won 6

Summary: Morning pages, worked, 15 minutes on French, hour on "b", and hour on AW. I figured out what I was doing wrong with my shots. Now I'm back to pulling good ones. I looked into getting a new computer today. First I discovered that AutoCAD only runs on Windows, although there are similar design programs that run on other operating systems. I wanted to get a mac, but perhaps this information will have ramifications for my selection. I'm wondering if I should still take a class on CAD. It seems to be a very commonly used program in the world of architecture. I'm meeting with a counselor at the community college tomorrow, so I can find out what their computer design classes cover.
Mentally I was sort of scattered today. At first I felt like shit, then I felt like the king of the world, and then I felt anxious/stupid. I figured out this math problem that came up through my AW exercises, and that made me feel less stupid.
I wish I had learned more about computers when I was younger.
It also seems that I was doing something incorrectly with my morning pages (better to figure this out now than in week 12!). To correct it, I will need to wake up earlier. That sucks because I was happy about only getting up a 1/2 hour before normal, but now I'll need to switch to 45 minutes, if not an hour. Whatever it takes, I'm going to do it.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 43-1
Streak: Won 5

Summary: For some reason I can't pull a shot to save my life anymore. The first few times I did it, they were either perfect or within one second of where they needed to be. Now I'm getting these ridiculous results, like one shot being 10 seconds short and then the next one being 20 seconds long, even though I was seemingly doing the same thing both times.
I worked well today. I advanced nicely in French. I exercised great restraint and moderation throughout the day. I controlled my emotions well. I looked at some summer architecture studios online, emailed someone at Penn about it, and looked at some CAD stuff. Then I came home and did my hour of AW, which went well. This morning I was able to do my morning pages in almost exactly a half hour, so I need not get up 45 minutes early anymore, which is a good thing, because getting up that early blew. Later I'm going to take care of some admin and continue on my grammar text. Oh yeah, speaking of which, I finished slightly over 1/8th of the entire French grammar text in AN HOUR last night. I'm quite proud of that, since the same amount took us a few weeks in class.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 42-1
Streak: Won 4

Summary: I worked hard but I made a pretty huge mistake today. That made me feel shitty. On top of that, I was feeling this irrational sense of worthlessness and hopelessness. My victory was centered around the fact that I still did what I had to do and conquered my shitty state of mind. I put in an hour on "b", started my French, and did an hour of exercises from AW. I think I need a full 45 minutes in the morning to do my morning pages, so now I have to go to bed at 9:45. So far the program seems good; I'm glad I'm doing it. One of today's exercises was to take "your artist" on a walk--basically just walk outside and follow your curiosity, just like a kid. Don't think about work, shit you have to do, or time, or anything like that. Just explore around outside. It was amazingly refreshing. I found all these hidden nooks in downtown, like cool backyard gardens, interesting building structures, etc. I'm going to take care of admin crap for about 45 min, and then I'm going to study a French grammer text so that I can finally graduate from the elementary reading level (HTRAB). Analytically reading in another language sounds so crazy to me. I think I'll write my critique essays in French if the text is French.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 41-1
Streak: Won 3

Summary: made breakfast, watched the Eagles, went shopping, talked to my family, made lunch for next week, put in my final hour of writing for the week, read the first chapter of Artist's Way, pondered my schedule, and after this I'm going to bed.

Weekly Summary
Good:
1. Put in all my writing time.
2. Performed at my Baltimore job--big push on "b"
3. Put in my normal time on "b"
4. Worked with diligence.
5. Controlled myself pretty well.
6. Finished a lesson of French.
7. Generally acted with good ethics.
8. Set up nicely for next week.
Bad:
1. First loss. Just crumbled that night. I'm trying to pick myself up and go forward.
2. Kind of scattered at the end of the week, but this is not really my fault and I will address it in my plan for next week.
Plan for next week:
The big change is with my writing project. The program in Artist's Way is comprehensive and requires a lot of time. I will put in an hour and a half each day--a half hour for the morning pages as soon as I wake up and an hour at some point later to work on the exercises. If I finish all of the exercises for the week, I'll put in some time on the novel, but I don't know whether I'll get the chance for that.
I will continue putting in an hour on "b" each day up until Friday. On Friday and Saturday I'll probably work in Baltimore again, which will definitely fill my "b" requirement for those days. On Thursday I'm meeting with a counselor at the community college about taking classes. I'll also look into setting up a meeting with someone at Strayer.
There's a chance that I'll run out of things to do at normal work this week. If that happens, I decided that I will hit the gym for an hour, and if I still have time left before my normal finishing time, I'll just do other shit (AW, b, novel, reading for understanding, etc.)
At some point soon, maybe tomorrow, I want to put down a set of principles for myself in concrete form. This has to do with what I was talking about the other day regarding changing my policies on a whim. If I legislate some laws for myself, especially covering food consumption and spending money, I will have a more clear idea of what I'm doing. Something like, 1. Only 1 coffee drink per day; 2. Only eat out once per week, except if it's during a vacation, etc. Maybe I'll print some of my laws on here.
Here are a few nuts and bolts things that I will be changing next week. I will be going to bed a half hour earlier to accomodate the morning pages, so that means getting into bed at 10. Another thing is that I'm finding my Sundays are still stressful, for various reasons. One thing that I have done on Sundays every week up until now is make my lunches for the following week. I'm going to change this. I'm probably going to do this on Saturday. Also, this week, because of the Baltimore thing, I ended up needing to shop and write on Sunday. That was excusable for this week, but I'm not doing that again. I need a full, uninterrupted day of chilling in order to recharge.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 40-1
Streak: Won 2

Summary: Hell yeah. I worked all day in Baltimore, learning quickly on the spot. I'm into the company and the work they do. I came back and wrote for two hours. Tomorrow I'll put in my last hour of writing for the week. Starting next week my writing schedule is going to be different because of the program, but I'm not sure how exactly.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 39-1
Streak: Won 1

Summary: I rebounded nicely today. I controlled my emotions very well, especially considering the circumstances, I worked, by the end of the night I will have taken care of some administrative things like setting up the printer and paying bills, but the big thing was putting in my first shift in Baltimore. I think this might be a great thing.

Outcome: "Loss"
Record: 38-1
Streak: Lost 1

Summary: *update* wow, this sucks, but I need to preserve the integrity of the system. Like I said, I needed to be strong tonight and I wasn't. I could have approached the personal thing that's going on better. I could have had much better control of my emotions. I could have done a much better job cleaning up. Talking with Dan was nice, but I didn't get off the phone when I needed to. Then I shot some balls on the pool table and read Philly magazine without observing the rules from HTRAB. Basically I was like the Eagles tonight. I scraped out a win, and then I just let it slip away into a stupid loss that shouldn't have been. Admittedly, today was extremely tough, but I need to do better. I know I can do better, and I will do better.
Today was the toughest day of my current streak. In fact, it would take very little for me to change it to a loss. The rest of the night must be dead on. But still, even with what I've done, I'm quite proud of myself.
The reason that it was hard was because of some personal shit that's going on. I wanted to say fuck it more than ever today, but I stayed strong in every aspect. I worked hard at work, wrote for an hour, advanced my French to the point where I'm sure I'll finish comfortably tomorrow, and I spent an hour on "b". To make my situation worse, I made a mistake on "b", compounding my emotional turmoil, plus I think I'm getting sick, I didn't sleep well last night, and there was something that had been clear in "b" that became unclear. But I think I made it through this one.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 38-0
Streak: 38

Summary: I took a barista class tonight, so maybe I could work at your coffee shop Dan. Espresso pulled correctly is a beautiful thing. I saved up an hour of time, put in an hour on the novel, did some stuff for "b", including a lengthy phone conversation, and took my barista class. I've felt meloncholy all day, but I perservered by force of will. That's a good thing. Maybe when the stoic, peaceful monk state of mind isn't happening, your only option left is to switch to warrior mode (power through everything).
I've been reading this book called The Artist's Way, which was recommended to me by the St. John's tutor I talked to a few weeks ago. It's a 12 or 15 week program (I can't remember which), with specific time requirements and tasks to complete. I'm fully committing myself to it. I haven't sat down and adjusted my schedule to accomodate it, but there's a good chance that my novel writing will be suspended (since the program is ultimately in service of the novel). That's not to say that I won't write at all. Maybe I'll continue putting in 6-10 hours a week, or maybe I'll cut down, or a third possibility would be that I have zero time to work on it. It's ok though, because I have patience, and in time it'll all happen. I'm just making it even better by doing the course.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 37-0
Streak: 37

Summary: Hell yeah--I feel very good about today. I would have given it a 5 under the old system. Executed masterfully on the details, got my first big break on "b", which is some contract work in Baltimore, made a call, wrote an e-mail, set up an appointment with an advisor at the community college to talk about classes I might take to prepare for the program at Penn, wrote for an hour, voted, made a great push on French, and tonight I'll do some cleaning/admin and read for at least an hour.
The herbal tea is working, no doubt. I love it. Also, I think I need to eat a little more at lunch, since I've been feeling hungry around 4, and if I stay at work until 6, I can either suffer or eat something from work that isn't very healthy. I don't need much more, just a bit more.
There was one excellent thing that I did today, which I hope to repeat in the future. I worked when it was time to work, and when, for example, I started worrying about "b", or freaking out about writing, I told myself that the time for those things would come around, and at that time I can address my concerns. In the meantime, just calm down and work; don't think about anything else. Obviously, I did the same thing when it was time to focus on "b" or time to write. This is just one more way of trusting my reason and controlling my emotions. It's satisfying for me to visualize something like the ancient Greek fates at their spinning wheel, to picture someone or something else moving a great wheel of time, and all I have to do is sit back and relax, because I know I'm getting my portion. I literally don't have to do shit. If I plan an hour for writing and an hour for "b", I am guaranteed those hours, so I need not worry when I'm not working on them--the time will come.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 36-0
Streak: 36

Summary: Nice start on French, hour and a half surplus of time at work, and organized my materials plus wrote an email for "b".
I made an adjustment to my daily schedule (making sure it was done rationally and calmly, ahead of time, a la my last post). So, I have a 1/2 hour for lunch at work. My old schedule was to eat and read some periodicals about Philly (Philly mag or Inquirer) for the first 15 minutes, and then do my french for the second 15 minutes. I decided this was too harsh. There a varieties of particular circumstances that made this stressful, all of which are too boring to get into here (if I could adequately convey them in the first place). So starting today my new schedule is to eat and relax for 15 minutes, even to meditate (breathe deeply and clear my mind), and then hit the French for 15 minutes. I could tell that I was more relaxed and productive as a result of my schedule adjustment. The other thing that made me want to do it was thinking about Saturday night--after I read analytically, in accordance with the rules from HTRAB, I burned out in an hour and a half. Now I'll read Philly mag or the Inquirer if I need a rest, that way I'm still keeping up to date and enjoying those sources of information, but I'm doing it in a non-stressful, in fact, rejuvinating fashion.
I also had the herbal tea for the first time. I think it worked, but its effects were subtle. I'll keep with it for a while.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 35-0
Streak: 35

Summary: Chilled, talked with Ben, made breakfast, watched Eva's soccer game, cleaned up, watched part of the movie Indochine, and after this I'm going to make my lunches for next week and eat dinner.

End of Week Summary: Another solid effort. I'm doing well with work, "b", and writing. Actually, I could push a bit harder with writing, but it's still completely satisfactory. How did I do with my goal from last week, about being more calm and efficient with my energy? I did well. I could do better. That's how it goes, but I'm still fighting, and as long as I don't give up, I'll get there. I picked up some herbal stress relieving tea from Whole Foods yesterday, and I'm going to start making myself a cup as soon as I get home. I have two specific goals for next week.
1. Continue working on my mental composure. Not much to say about this.
2. Here's a new one: be more rigid about obeying myself and only changing my policies and plans as a result of careful reasoning. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. I made a policy not to look at ESPN crap, because it's a waste of time. Instead, I committed to using that time for reading to understand (to use the phrase from HTRAB). Last night I practiced analytical reading from HTRAB for a while, but it was immensely taxing on my mental endurance. My head was throbbing! It was dumb to continue reading in the same fashion, so I just let myself fuck around online, including looking at ESPN. My quick rationale was that I had read as much as I could, and since I needed a break, and Saturday nights are for recharging anyway, it was cool if I just had a casual fuck-around session on the internet. Regardless of whether my impulse was sound, it wasn't done in a serious, rational way. My emotions were doing the talking and of course they're going to come up with some way to justify whatever they want to do. I need to be rigid with myself--if a part of myself wants to do one thing that I have forbidden, I need to make an appeal to my rational mind, to have the rule amended or revoked. After a serious session of contemplation, I can change my mind, but only if there's good reason. I can't just let my desire take the reigns and do what it wants. If it goes too far, of course I'd give myself an automatic loss. I don't think what I did last night warrants a loss, but I want to be more strict with myself in the future.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 34-0
Streak: 34

Summary: Talk about bullshit: I was shopping for a USB cable to connect my new printer, and the ones I found seemed outrageously expensive. $20 at Staples and $35 at Best Buy. What the hell? I don't remember simple cables being that ridiculously expensive. They cost as much as some of the cheaper inkjets. I refrained from making a purchase, and when I got home, I looked on newegg, which is where I got my printer, and I found one for $1. ONE DOLLAR! What is going on with that mark-up? A 3,400% mark-up is worse than wine at a fancy restaurant. Anyway, put a point on the board for frugality (I feel virtuous with my laser printer and $1 cable; I may never go to a brick and mortar electronics store again).
I shopped, had a nice lunch with Eva, stayed calm and relaxed most of the time (shopping on Saturdays is often one of the most stressful times of my week), I'm going to put in an hour of writing, and then I'm going to work on my outline of How to Read a Book. It was a nice day overall--I especially enjoyed the colors outside.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 33-0
Streak: 33

Summary: worked, finished my french lesson, went to my meeting in Baltimore, and wrote for two hours. The meeting was great. The person was helpful and encouraging. I'm 99% sure that I'm going for the Penn M.Arch degree with a certificate in ecological design. I got some contacts and things to look into.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 32-0
Streak: 32

Summary: other than the usual, finished writing the hardest section of the novel so far, wrote two e-mails for "b" and printed out some materials for my meeting tomorrow. I skated for the first time in months tonight. It sucks because everytime I stop I'm back to square one when I start. I'm back at my 8th grade level, so to speak. Oh well, fuck it, it's fun. I also realized that I love lasagna. I made a pan tonight for dinner, and it blew my mind. Listening to Satie right now. So beautiful. Les trois sarabandes, gymnopedies, et gnossiennes.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 31-0
Streak: 31

Summary: Worked, had an ethics victory, ate more healthfully than usual to compensate for last night, wrote for an hour, and set up a meeting for Friday.

Outcome: “Win”
Record: 30-0
Streak: 30

Summary: In keeping with my goal of cultivating a tranquil state of mind, I took a refreshing break for an hour and a half this afternoon. I rode my bike around the neighborhoods, looking at the trees, and I chilled out on a dock to watch the sun set. I also drank some herbal tea at work. I observed my ethics, wrote for an hour, and made a strategic move in “b”. I have two hours surplus at work still, which I think I’ll use Friday for a meeting for “b”.

Monthly Summary: The biggest thing is that I think I’ve found my system. It’s flexible enough that it can change as needed while still retaining its fundamental identity. To use the language of a famous proverb, I’ve figured out how to fish, and even though the catch might fluctuate, I’m still going to be eating. One big testament to the system’s quality, aside from the 30 days themselves, is the fact that the 30 days haven’t felt hard, barring one or two. That’s huge, namely, that the system be sustainable.
Objectively I’ve done a lot. I checked the blog and I hadn’t started actually writing my second novel draft before the 30 days began. In that time, I’ve completed about 17% of my second, almost polished draft. So in five more months, maximum, I should have a solid draft. I know that sounds like a lot, but I don’t care, because I’m moving forward with my other plans, and I’m not going to rush my writing. It’s infinitely better than last year in the sense that it’s actually something, i.e, more than zero. Those months will be over before any of us know it.
Plan b went from a vague concept to a tangible project. I’m meeting with someone in Baltimore on Friday who runs a sustainable design firm, and I’ve been in contact with several other environmentally related organizations in the area. I’ve also been writing to Upenn about their program and beginning the process of putting together my application.
My ethics have been overall solid this month. Not much to say about that in such a public forum, as much of that has to do with personal relationships.
I’ve also been sure to put in full, honest days of labor at work. It’s been annoying at times, since my true interests are suspended while I’m there. But I’ve used the time well given the weird schedule.
So I'm picking this up where I left off, and I can't remember the order of thoughts that I had in my head yesterday. Incidentally, I had a meaningful ethics victory last night and today, but that type of stuff I don't really want to put into the blog.
Objectively speaking, I wrote 17% of my book. Next month I would like to at least continue at this rate. I picked up a book about writing that was recommended to me by a St. John's tutor. It will probably affect my approach, but I'm not sure if it'll effect my absolute output. With regard to "b", I narrowed down my interests, first of all. At the beginning of the month I was trying to everyone about what I want to do since it wasn't focused. Now I'm much more focused, I think the Penn program in architecture would probably suit my interests well, and the path between where I am and there seems somewhat clear to me. I also have 1 internship that I might get that I've already applied to, one very promising contact in Annapolis, and a meeting on friday with someone in Baltimore. I have plans about next month, but I'll keep them to myself at the moment. Work was straightforward, but even with the job that I have I saved a respectable amount of money. I'm not stressing about money at any rate. Next month will be more of the same. (Not that I have the mythical 7 that's being chased around here, but I'm good for now). I've been getting into much better shape. I don't know how much weight I lost in this last month, but overall I've lost about 30 lbs. I don't know what weight at which I want to stop my descent--it'll more be a question of when my body looks right to me. More of the same next month, which should be a lot, considering what I've done this month. In French I've been keeping a steady pace. I'll keep going with 1 lesson a week, which means I'll finish my program in three months. It sounds like a lot, but I just need that 15 minutes a day. I'm also going to start reading Harry Potter in French to master the level of elementary reading in that language, to use the How to Read a Book term. After that I'll start reading heavier stuff. Speaking of reading, now I'm going to apply the system from the aformentioned book (not Harry Potter) whenever I read. I'm extremely psyched about the growth of understanding that it should bring.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 29-0
Streak: 29

Summary: Good ethics, worked very hard, stored up two hours for writing later in the week, and put in a solid hour on project b. I also got a great start on my French for this week, actually pulling ahead of my normal mark. I plan to do at least 1 hour of reading tonight. I'm making a chart for the system presented in How to Read a Book. Seriously, read it.
This morning I was thinking about ideal states of mind. One state of mind which has some virtues and is generally respected is the warrior state of mind. In this state of mind you are a beast, and everything you have to do is like a battle in which you're going to dominate your opponent. It's all about intensity. I like this state of mind in some respects, but I am pretty sure that it's not the best. I think it's better to be rational, calm, and optimistic. This ties into my whole thing about psychic energy. So, in following up on my stated area for improvement in my weekly summary, I'm going to cultivate the compassionate monk's state of mind. That will be in the forefront of my challenges. I want to relax my stomach muscles and breathe deeply. I want to be slow to anger and quick to forgiveness. I want to focus on one task at a time, calm and reassured that everything will get done in due time because I have crafted a rationally sound plan. I will save energy and be less prone to fucking up, freaking out, and mistreating others. This is my hypothesis.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 28-0
Streak: 28

Summary: At first I couldn't make it for an entire week and now it's been four. I would think that I'd be happier than I am now, but I feel like shit. Probably because of the Eagles. Win or lose, I'll still root for them and watch the games.

Week in Review
Things I did well:
1. Put in a solid effort on the novel.
2. Put in a solid effort at work.
3. Read a lot--finished How to Read a Book for the first time, and last night I blasted through Encyclopedia of Manliness, although that wasn't "reading for understanding" as Adler and Van Doren put it, it was "reading for entertainment", so it's less of an accomplishment, if it's an accomplishment at all.
4. Made a few strong moves on project b. It's tough at times because my problem is precisely that I don't have a place to start, which is what I need to solve me problem. But I'm getting there, and I know that soon things will take off.
5. Finished an entire French lesson, as planned.
6. Didn't let the Eagles loss affect me too adversely.
Things I need to work on:
1. Controlling my feeling of being hurried and my irrational stress. Saturday was kind of bad. I have two strategies for this. One is to continue doing what I have been doing, which is to meditate and work on cultivating a calm, rational state of mind. This works sometimes and doesn't work other times. I think over all I'm winning that battle. The other thing is looking into therapy. Before I can do that I need insurance. And before I get that I'd need to get another job.
That's about it for stuff that's glaring. I just need to maintain, continue plugging away and executing on the big stuff. Ethics, book, project b, and work, that comprises "the big stuff".

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 27-0
Streak: 27

Summary: Spent the morning with Eva, went shopping, bought my own copy of How To Read A Book, unpacked groceries, cleaned, did laundry, worked on the novel for an hour, and for the rest of the night I'm reading. 3 things.
1. Last night, when I went to hang out with Christian, I had an unexpected meeting with a tutor from Santa Fe, who was here for the board meeting. It was great talking to him. He was encouraging and made me feel like even last year, during a time when I basically felt like a piece of garbage, I was doing good things. We talked about a lot of stuff, and it was refreshing to have conversation of that quality again.
2. How to Read a Book is fucking awesome. I'm a few pages away from the end, but as soon as I finish, I'm going to read it again and create a wall chart based on the method in the book. I can recognize the merits of their method, and I will use it whenever I can.
3. I was so stressed out while shopping today. Mentally I was just freaking out. Everything was fucking with me. I ate a piece of chocolate and felt like I ruined my good work up until now, and when I bought the book, I felt guilty about spending the money. I was guilty and angry the whole time. People moving too slow at the store made me want to scream. My lack of mental composure almost made me give myself a loss. Fortunately I was able to work very hard to counteract my freak out, drank lots of water and took a flaxseed oil pill, and eventually I calmed down. I feel like I overcame whatever that was. One day when money isn't an issue, I think I'll check out therapy. I can recognize better and worse overall states of mental health in my own past and theraputic things that I've done for myself, like reading and thinking. Still, I'm curious about clinical psychology and whether it might be able to better my life. We'll see. For right now I feel good about my situation.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 26-0
Streak: 26

Summary: Friday's are tough because often I have a big chunk of time where I'm just sitting by myself in my house with the intention of writing or doing research. If there's ever a situation where I'm prone to fucking up, that's it right there. But I kept up my effort. I put in my time at work, even getting a half hour extra for next week, finished a long lesson 6 in French (I've been working on that every day even if I don't write about it), wrote to admissions at Penn about one of their programs, contacted the Department of Natural Resources in Maryland to see about internships, took down some information about classes, and wrote two chapters in the book. After posting I will probably order a printer and write a thank-you note to my granddad.
Yeah, being fat is morally shameful, unless it is caused by an actual illness or some other unavoidable condition. There was a day when I was sitting on a bench in one of the busiest sections of Annapolis, and for about 30 seconds there wasn't a single, non-fat person in my field of vision. I was totally shocked. I don't know what made me think about it, but when I did, I was blown away by the fact that out of probably hundreds of people in front of me, 100% of them were fat.
I understand the temptation of food and the difficulty of exercise, and I even felt like I might have been able to consider myself fat for a little while last year, but it's still shameful. Addressing that has been one of the focal points of my new program. Speaking of which, I weighed myself today and I dropped another pound, so I'm down to 178 after starting at above 200. And that weight loss is just from eating better, not necessarily from going to the gym. I jog sometimes and ride my bike, and I also try to scale this wall by my apartment every time I pass it, but I don't go to the gym.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 25-0
Streak: 25

Summary: I used my two-fold strategy effectively again today--my preferred tact was to try to think about my situation and my tasks in a way that motivates me to do them. This worked some of the time, and when it did, it was a pleasure to be working. When it failed, my iron-fisted half took over and basically operated with pure will and reason. I find that even when I'm in mode #2, after I start a thing, I get into it and can switch into mode #1, but I need that initial jumpstart.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 24-0
Streak: 24

Summary: Today was an easy win. I racked up two and a quarter hours of overtime, so I won't see the work that I would have done today until Friday. I have faith that I'll do what I need to do.
I had a nice inspiration this afternoon. Of course it's inspiration, so it'll go away soon, but in the meantime it's been good. I transcended the anxiety caused by the feeling that The State of Worthiness is somewhere that I am presently not. I was able to take pleasure and pride in ethical living fundamentally and trust that the things I plan for will come. This is the main lesson I take from Self-Reliance. I'm being vague, I know, but I only wanted to sketch the feeling.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 23-0
Streak: 23

Summary: One way we can motivate ourselves is through inspiration. I'm including changing the way you think about something in the term inspiration. When inspiration is available, it can be a powerful force. The problem with it is that it isn't always available, and when it's not, you must have a strong willpower and a clear rational grasp of what you're doing. In moments like that you simply must power through your tasks. Today was a good example of this. During the day I meditated on some principles that made me feel great about my situation, and thus I worked very hard without difficulty. At night the feeling stopped, and I couldn't bring it back, but I still had stuff to do. I basically accepted my shitty feeling and said to it that I don't care if it's there, because either way I'm going to get done what I want to get done. And I did, just powering through. Having that power is largely based on sleep, exercise, and nutrition, as far as I can tell.
Worked well, wrote for an hour, got an hour overtime, and spent 45 so-so minutes on plan b. That isn't a huge deal because I'll get that hour later this week.

Outcome for 10/22: "Win"
Record: 21-0
Streak: 21

Summary: Chilled out at my house, watched the Eagles tragedy unfold, got hoagies, got coffee, picked up a whole Lorenzo's for everyone for dinner, drove back to Annapolis, had some cake, and went to bed.

Week in Review: Philly was fun as always. I did a good job this week (I genuinely avoided a loss). There are three key areas I want to focus on for next week. 1)I want to continue my 1 hour per day minimum writing. This worked gloriously last week, and I want to keep it up. 2) I want to make more of a push on plan b. I've already allotted at least an hour a day to it, but I need to be more aggressive. 3) Last week I could have made a more sincere effort at work, especially Friday. Not that I was straight up negligent, but perhaps I got too relaxed for a moment. Next week I want to go back to putting in impecable days (this will be a huge challenge since I'm very restless and want to be doing all writing and plan b).

Outcome for 10/23: "Win"
Record: 22-0
Streak: 22

Summary: I basically fasted today and just drank water to clear myself out. Hoagies, pizza, candy, cheesesteaks, cake, etc. will fuck you up. It fucked me up. I also didn't get enough sleep, so I'm going to bed very early tonight.
I put in a 95% solid effort at work, better than last Friday, but could have been slightly better. I just felt so crappy all day.
I spent a very good hour writing. I almost skipped it today because I was so tired, which, of course, would have warranted an automatic loss, so I powered through my tiredness.
I spent an hour working on Plan B. I contacted the director of an environmental design/"green" architecture firm in Baltimore to see about the possibly of talking to someone there about my interests.
Yeah, fucking Eagles. I don't know, in a way I feel less concerned about wins and losses after Sunday. I think if they're doing really well and obviously on track for the Super Bowl, it's like they're keeping up a perfect volley and it's crushing to drop it/lose. If they start losing a lot, and it seems like they might still make it to the Superbowl, but maybe not, losses are not as hard to bare, at least for me. I'm not saying that I've given up on this season--far from it, but it's more like I won't be super dissapointed if they don't make it to the post season. If they do, it'll b a pleasant surprise, something I didn't see coming or take for granted.

Outcome for 10/21: "Win"
Record: 20-0
Streak: 20

Summary: Went to Philly, hell yeah. Stopped at Tony Luke's for cheese steaks for the meat eaters, while I got an Uncle Mike's with cheese. It was delicious but too spicy. The place was South Philly par excellence. Before leaving the area we got pretzels at the Philly Soft Pretzel factory at 3 for 1$. Ben said this was the best pretzel he'd ever had. It was one of the best I'd ever had. Then we drove into Center City, dropped Ada off at the subway to go meet her friend at Temple, and afterward the rest of us went to the Rittenhouse area. We got delicious cappucinos at La Colombe, walked around, hung out at the Barnes and Noble, picked up Ada, walked up Broad through City Hall and went back to Rittenhouse. The girls went to some stores, while Ben and I watched skaters at City Hall/Love Park. For dinner we met my family at Charles Plaza in Chinatown, which was lovely. Finally, we went to South Street to finish off the night. By the way, Ada, who is from north Jersey, and Ben, from San Francisco, both said, almost upon first taste, that Lorenzo's was the best pizza that they'd ever had in their lives, hands down.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 19-0
Streak: 19

Summary: It's important on days full of unusual things to keep a focus on priorities. Today at work was casual--someone brought in free lunch, I had a nice coffee in the morning, and I got to participate in a cupping. I was feeling free and happy with my friday. Then I got this wierd aesthetic anxiety, like my work-day was somehow less than my best and that I was going to get a loss today. But I figured if I wrote, which I did, and kept up with the French, which I did, and spent any extra time on plan b, which I would have if I had any, then it was ok and I could still count the day as a win. Basically writing, plan b, and ethics are the real fundamental criteria, and if I cover those things, then I'm good.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 18-0
Streak: 18

Summary: Hour of writing, worked, planned for this weekend, did enough French so that I'll finish the lesson tomorrow, worked on project x for an hour, made dinner, and soon I'll read.
Here's how much I'll say about project x: it is no longer active; instead, it is being subsumed under a larger project, which is to start down the path of a plan b in case the book doesn't work, meaning graduate school preparation, looking into different programs, etc. I'll let you figure out what project x was. Right now I'm researching the functions and professional lives of urban planners and green architects, as a start.
I noticed that I tighten my stomach muscles pretty much all day. That probably wastes a lot of energy. Only when I become aware of it do I temporarily relax them. I'm not going to stress about this too much, but I will try to work on it. Like Andy Ried says, "we need to do better on that" Speaking of which, briefly, what the hell Mike Lewis? He went from being one of my favorite players on the team, who I viewed as an underrated Dawkins, to not being able to cover shit on the pass. He still tackles like a beast, and I have faith that he'll turn around, but damn.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 17-0
Streak: 17

Summary: Writing for an hour and a half, French for 15 minutes, normal stuff, tried to adjust my schedule so Eva and I can spend more time, and worked on project x. Tonight will be reading.
I'm ready to reveal project x, sort of. But first Dan must post. That's the deal: I'll stop being mysterious if Dan starts posting again. Hell yeah D-rock on the accomplishments and the regular posting.
So Dan, you know how you've mentioned a point where a person starts living virtuously and never turns back? Like after all the false starts and fuck ups, maybe you can finally launch and maintain it with some kind of permanence? I don't want to jinx myself or be overconfident, not to mention my skepticism as to whether such a point actually exists, but if it does exist, maybe I reached it. Who knows. I'm not inflating my scores at all, and I can't see myself faltering right now.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 16-0
Streak: 16

Summary: Today I did a good job with the things I committed to working on. I maintained good mental control and had a positive outlook. I should mention that last night I read a ton, in a quality fashion, and I'm about 160 pages into the book now after two days. That's the kind of progress that I like to see. I wrote for an hour and a half today. My outline for the first part is finalized, and I'm ready to go full-on with writing it. That should maybe take 2 weeks. I did some of the French lesson, and just now I put some time into project x. Getting a full night of sleep last night was hugely beneficial toward every aspect of my endeavor for virtue today. It's so essential.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 15-0
Streak: 15

Summary: Today, like that one day last week, was another close win. Some things I did well: writing was great, and I overcame my initial malaise that I felt when I woke up. Things I didn't do well: I looked at Philadelphiaeagles.com for injury updates and commentary, which is bad because I committed to stop reading crap like that, since it is incidental to the actual games. I was still bummed about the game, which I think needs to be worked on. By that I mean that I need to do better making sure that the games don't affect me negatively. My project x time was so-so, but in retrospect, it wasn't terrible (I only put in about 1/2 an hour). I'm giving myself the win on the condition that I exhibit good mental control throughout the rest of the day, cook and clean efficiently, and read during my leisure time. If I screw up any of those things, I'm logging on and changing the outcome to a loss.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 14-0
Streak: 14

Summary: Sad loss for the Eagles. I have to try extra hard to maintain my composure. Getting up was nice, the game was horrible, I ate too much at the bar and I'm feeling sick, I cleaned a lot and made lunch for next week, and later I'll probably read. I didn't do anything really unethical today, that I know of, so that's why I got the win (this is supposed to be my day of rest).

Weekly Summary: This was another awesome week in terms of striving for virtue. I took care of the basics--ate moderately, did my job faithfully at work, took care of my domestic tasks, and treated others with respect. I put in a lot of work on project x--this week it actually got off the ground, and if I continue putting in work at the same level, it'll be a huge success. I didn't write a lot because I was working on project x. This will be changed next week. I completed at least 1 lesson in French (I can't remember how much I did)--I only work on that for 15 minutes Mon-Fri on lunch break at work. I finished Hebrew Thought Compared With Greek. It was very interesting, but I felt like I didn't have a way to know whether the guy was right or not, since I'm not a Hebrew scholar (I'm not a Greek scholar either). I just enjoyed the ride. His hypothesis is beautiful, if nothing else. Definitely worthwhile.
Plan for next week: The big adjustment I'm going to make to my system is to require myself to write for at least an hour each day, including Saturday. Project x is the most important project right now, but I can't let it eclipse the writing. As always I need to continue working on my mental control and maintaining a good state of mind. I did better with that this week, but I still have a long way to go. Also, I need to read even more--again, I did more of that this week, but I need to do more. I basically get involved in distractions which are not necessarily forbidden by my system, but are still not the best I could be doing. Here's an example: one day this week I had about 2 1/2 hours that I could have read before going to sleep. While I was finishing up my tasks in the kitchen, Eva started watching Gilmore Girls on her computer. In my system currently, the time between the completion of all my chores and bedtime is free for relaxation, but ideally I should spend it doing something of high value, such as reading. That night I let myself sit down and watch Gilmore Girls for the whole 2 1/2 hours. It wasn't a failure or forbidden by the system, since I'm allowed to relax at the end of the night, but it would have been better if I used the time reading. Well, on the other hand, since it was time with Eva, it was good in that sense, so maybe I could have spent an hour watching that and an hour and a half reading. Or on another night, I talked to a friend on the phone, which is virtuous, but the call really didn't need to take 2 hours, as it did. Like watching GGs, it wasn't forbidden, but I could have maybe talked for 1/2 an hour and read for 1 1/2 hours. My next book is How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler.
Yo Dan, seriously, your goal for next week should be to post on your blog. D rock is kicking your ass with posts, and I haven't seen anything from Kyle in a long time.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 13-0
Streak: 13

Summary: The first half of my day was perfect. I got up leisurely, ate a nice breakfast with coffee, hung out with Eva, showered, and then we did all of our shopping in an hour and half, including shitty driving and parking time. I love that I only drive once a week. After than we unpacked the stuff, I cleaned the bathroom, I did some dishes, and then I put in a solid hour on the novel, using my new strategy of short but numerous time bursts to work on it. It went well, and from here on out I'm chilling, hoping to finish a ton of reading, and later I'll watch a movie with Eva.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 12-0
Streak: 12

Summary: Today was an all around solid day. There was a short stretch of time in the morning when I started to panic, like I sensed that the day was heading toward disaster. At the time I recognized my emotions as irrational, and I actually cured it by going over all the things I was going to do today in my head and drinking a cup of coffee. It worked.
I did all the normal stuff, plus worked 4 or 5 hours overtime for the week (which amounts to basically a full day of normal pay), did a few errands, and then in the evening I completed a big step in project x and wrote for about an hour and a half.
I had a thought while I was writing tonight. I noticed that the law of diminishing returns is especially true for me when it comes to writing, I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's so demanding. But in any event, I lose steam quickly, and I get to the point where I'm basically writing horse shit if I force myself to continue. I remedy this in a variety of ways--sometimes I switch to revision tasks, sometimes I work on project x for a while, and sometimes I take a short break. They all seem to work, but even once I start up again, the amount of recharge that I get keeps getting smaller and smaller compared to what I had at the beginning. Then I imagined a scenario that might be ideal for me in the future. Perhaps I can work during the day in green architecture, or sustainable development--something environmental and technical. Say I get off at 4:30, then I can do some intense yet fun workout for an hour, something like Parkour or even skateboarding. Then from 5:30 to 6:30 I could go to a library or my study and work on an original contribution to the humanities--an essay, literature, or philosophical writing. Maybe this could be profitable financially, maybe not, but that wouldn't be the point. I'd do it every day (Mon-Sat, let's say), so I'd end up putting in a fair amount of time by the end of the week, but I'd divide it into managable time chunks. Having that in my life perpetually would be deeply fulfilling and would provide a refreshing counterpoint to my professional life. At 6:30 I could start dinner, and then for the rest of the day it would be eating, relaxing, chatting, listening to music, reading, cleaning, and... Anyway, that was a vision I had that appealed to me.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 11-0
Streak: 11

Summary: I think I have surpassed my all time high streak. Things were easier today than yesterday, by far. I didn't fight myself, I conserved energy, and I even enjoyed some of my tasks. All the normal stuff + finishing lesson 4 in French, reading 15 minutes of Philly mag, huge step forward on project x, and after this I'm going to read and possibly clean a bit. I'm proud of myself for limiting my delicious cupcake intake to one per day, even though there's a clutch of them sitting on the kitchen island looking at me with seductive eyes everything I walk by.

Outcome: "Win"
Record: 10-0
Streak: 10

Summary: I burned some energy today stressing, which is never good, but ultimately I prevailed. It was a close one, mainly because circumstances kept arising that were obstructing or complicating my plans. I was basically in a 4th and long situation at one point, and I connected on a 50 yard pass to my better half, who made a leaping catch, stumbled, almost fell, regained his balance, juked past the defender, and ran with the ball straight into the endzone! (It's Eagles season, and while I think spectator sports have, in some ways, evolved into a grotesque form, I still love watching the Eagles and sometimes I even draw inspiration from it). I exhibited enough patience and flexibility to triumph, and now I'm ready to sleep and tackle my projects again tomorrow.