Outcome: "Win"
Record: 122-10
Streak: Won 4
Summary: I woke up at 11 this morning, wrote my pages, then I went back to bed and slept until 4:30. I guess I needed it. I feel great now. After sleeping that much, I have definitely overcome my sleep debt. Also, my sickness is basically gone, when even last night I felt like a pile of shit.
As soon as I got up the second time, I started steam rolling projects like an 18-wheeler with a drunk driver driving. I worked on my summer program application, put away laundry, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned up the entire kitchen which was getting pretty shameful, mailed a letter, created an axon drawing for class, and now I'm going to continue work on another drawing. When I first woke up I had this delicious mountain of pancakes with butter and maple syrup while listening to WRTI. It was glorious. They were playing this new release from Richard Rodney Bennet called Reflections on the Scottish Folk Song. It was amazing. It sounded like a more stringy and sweeping version of Ralph Vaughn Williams or even Debussy. I need to learn so much more about music. Now I'm listening to the kick ass salsa program. I listened to this last week too. I love this shit. I want to dress like a gentleman and host a private dance party in the pyramid lounge on top of the Mellon Center in Philadelphia.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Outcome: "Win"
Record: 121-10
Streak: Won 3
Summary: Today I felt sick and tired, literally, but I still did what I needed to do. I was tired because I've been averaging about 7 hours a night as opposed to 8, and I feel sick probably because it's that time of year. I wrote my pages, biked, worked, did French (I'm at lesson 18 out of 40 right now), weighed in at 172, worked, biked, made a deposit, and then came the event of the day: I decided that I need to get a drafting board. The lab hours are limited, and it'll save me the car trip up there on Tuesday's and Thursdays, not to mention the time, which adds up to about 2 hours a week extra. Well, I spent the majority of the evening researching what to buy, making calls, and then actually getting it. The store was pretty far, but I'm glad I got this accomplished in one night. This will be a huge change for the better.
In response to Dan's comments--one day's win is not a statement about how that day compares to the ideal day. It has more to do with what I did given what I had to work with. Like I said in my comments earlier, even if I grant myself too liberal of an excuse, that won't necessarily result in a loss. It's more an issue of taking each moment, trying to figure out what is the best thing, if I can't figure out what the best thing is, then trying to avoid doing obviously bad things, and then at the end of the day roughly balancing the amount of times I acted well and the amount of times I acted poorly. And different things are weighted differently. Like good posture is virtuous, but even if I have terrible posture all day, that's not necessarily a loss. It's like a touchdown for the opposing team, but I could still win. Not doing my morning pages, at least according to my latest scheme, is like throwing 4 INTs in a row--it's fucking over. I wanted an overall "yes" or "no" because I want my system to offer me flexibility. Also, I still have that part of me that wants to be perfect. I can appease that part by giving myself a win. Even though my rational mind knows that rarely will it happen that a win actually corresponds to a perfect day, my perfectionist mind just sees the win and is content. It thinks I did perfect for the day, because there are only two options and no subcategories. It's like, the Eagles can fuck up, yet still make some huge plays and pull out the win, and then once the game ends, all that's left is the win or the loss. They need not carry the thoughts and pains of those mistakes into the next game, although from a strategic standpoint you want to study them. Damn, I'm so tired right now. I'm just going to go to bed. My apologies if this is just garbled horse-shit.
Record: 121-10
Streak: Won 3
Summary: Today I felt sick and tired, literally, but I still did what I needed to do. I was tired because I've been averaging about 7 hours a night as opposed to 8, and I feel sick probably because it's that time of year. I wrote my pages, biked, worked, did French (I'm at lesson 18 out of 40 right now), weighed in at 172, worked, biked, made a deposit, and then came the event of the day: I decided that I need to get a drafting board. The lab hours are limited, and it'll save me the car trip up there on Tuesday's and Thursdays, not to mention the time, which adds up to about 2 hours a week extra. Well, I spent the majority of the evening researching what to buy, making calls, and then actually getting it. The store was pretty far, but I'm glad I got this accomplished in one night. This will be a huge change for the better.
In response to Dan's comments--one day's win is not a statement about how that day compares to the ideal day. It has more to do with what I did given what I had to work with. Like I said in my comments earlier, even if I grant myself too liberal of an excuse, that won't necessarily result in a loss. It's more an issue of taking each moment, trying to figure out what is the best thing, if I can't figure out what the best thing is, then trying to avoid doing obviously bad things, and then at the end of the day roughly balancing the amount of times I acted well and the amount of times I acted poorly. And different things are weighted differently. Like good posture is virtuous, but even if I have terrible posture all day, that's not necessarily a loss. It's like a touchdown for the opposing team, but I could still win. Not doing my morning pages, at least according to my latest scheme, is like throwing 4 INTs in a row--it's fucking over. I wanted an overall "yes" or "no" because I want my system to offer me flexibility. Also, I still have that part of me that wants to be perfect. I can appease that part by giving myself a win. Even though my rational mind knows that rarely will it happen that a win actually corresponds to a perfect day, my perfectionist mind just sees the win and is content. It thinks I did perfect for the day, because there are only two options and no subcategories. It's like, the Eagles can fuck up, yet still make some huge plays and pull out the win, and then once the game ends, all that's left is the win or the loss. They need not carry the thoughts and pains of those mistakes into the next game, although from a strategic standpoint you want to study them. Damn, I'm so tired right now. I'm just going to go to bed. My apologies if this is just garbled horse-shit.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Outcome: "Win"
Record: 119-10
Streak: Won 1
Summary: I broke my Wednesday-loss streak, although I got a loss yesterday, so I didn't really do any better. Yeah, the problem Dan points out in his response below is one of the fundamental problems that any "system" must deal with. I tried to give my best account of how I deal with it, and I encourage any critiques of my method.
So today I set a challenge for myself. It's not moderate, so I'm violating one of my core principles, but it's not a critical component of my plan--it's totally for fun--so it's not important that it violates my principles. My challenge is 100 straight wins. Today is #1. 100 would put me right around Boston/Philly time, which would be an amazing way to carry me into that transition.
I was thinking tonight that one effective way to use the blogs would be to "sponsor" each other. I tried to do this by offering Dan a raspberry mocha if he got five straight "all 1" days. The awards could be based on actual project milestones, like, I'll do x once you reach stage y in project z (or I'll do x if reach stage y in project z within a given range of time), or the awards could be based on our personal rating systems, like mine was when I attached it to Dan's rating system. I would think that pure monetary value of the incentives should not be the focus. It should be more creative. Like, Dan might say, "if you get an A in both of your classes this semester, I will promptly read any book you recommend to me, and provide feedback"--something like that.
I will try to set the tone: Dan and Derek suggest May as the time when they think their shit will be blowing up. If they simply complete the core program before March 31st, I will contribute 20 uncompensated data collection hours, and for each day earlier than that, I'll add another hour. By core program I mean everything except the content. It must be online with at least some sort of initial content and the capacity for users to start creating accounts. Does this seem too hard or too easy? Let me know, and I'll adjust my offer. I was just trying to think of something to test the sponsorship concept.
Record: 119-10
Streak: Won 1
Summary: I broke my Wednesday-loss streak, although I got a loss yesterday, so I didn't really do any better. Yeah, the problem Dan points out in his response below is one of the fundamental problems that any "system" must deal with. I tried to give my best account of how I deal with it, and I encourage any critiques of my method.
So today I set a challenge for myself. It's not moderate, so I'm violating one of my core principles, but it's not a critical component of my plan--it's totally for fun--so it's not important that it violates my principles. My challenge is 100 straight wins. Today is #1. 100 would put me right around Boston/Philly time, which would be an amazing way to carry me into that transition.
I was thinking tonight that one effective way to use the blogs would be to "sponsor" each other. I tried to do this by offering Dan a raspberry mocha if he got five straight "all 1" days. The awards could be based on actual project milestones, like, I'll do x once you reach stage y in project z (or I'll do x if reach stage y in project z within a given range of time), or the awards could be based on our personal rating systems, like mine was when I attached it to Dan's rating system. I would think that pure monetary value of the incentives should not be the focus. It should be more creative. Like, Dan might say, "if you get an A in both of your classes this semester, I will promptly read any book you recommend to me, and provide feedback"--something like that.
I will try to set the tone: Dan and Derek suggest May as the time when they think their shit will be blowing up. If they simply complete the core program before March 31st, I will contribute 20 uncompensated data collection hours, and for each day earlier than that, I'll add another hour. By core program I mean everything except the content. It must be online with at least some sort of initial content and the capacity for users to start creating accounts. Does this seem too hard or too easy? Let me know, and I'll adjust my offer. I was just trying to think of something to test the sponsorship concept.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Outcome: "Loss"
Record: 118-10
Streak: Lost 1
Summary: No pages and then a raspberry mocha. Also, I was feeling sorry for myself all day and finding ways to tell people about my condition in a way that I was seeking sympathy.
I am now committing to doing my morning pages every day. I have excused myself in the past, and I was going to write today off as an excused day since I was up late doing virtuous things, but then I realized that 45 minutes of writing my morning pages gives me more vitality than 45 minutes of sleeping, no matter what, so I need to do them, no more excused days.
Record: 118-10
Streak: Lost 1
Summary: No pages and then a raspberry mocha. Also, I was feeling sorry for myself all day and finding ways to tell people about my condition in a way that I was seeking sympathy.
I am now committing to doing my morning pages every day. I have excused myself in the past, and I was going to write today off as an excused day since I was up late doing virtuous things, but then I realized that 45 minutes of writing my morning pages gives me more vitality than 45 minutes of sleeping, no matter what, so I need to do them, no more excused days.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Outcome: "Win"
Record: 118-9
Streak: Won 5
Summary: Morning pages, biked, worked, weighed in at a shameful 174.6 (I can't really account for that), started my next French program (completed 4 out of 40 lessons today alone!), biked, eating dinner now, getting ready for class, going to kick ass at class, then go to sleep.
Record: 118-9
Streak: Won 5
Summary: Morning pages, biked, worked, weighed in at a shameful 174.6 (I can't really account for that), started my next French program (completed 4 out of 40 lessons today alone!), biked, eating dinner now, getting ready for class, going to kick ass at class, then go to sleep.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Outcome: "Win"
Record: 117-9
Streak: Won 4
Summary: Wrote my pages, made breakfast, read my final AW lesson, took a shower, made baklava, listened to a beautiful live rendition of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of the Fawn on WRTI, went to a Super Bowl party, made my lunch, and now I'm going to bed.
Week in Review: These days, my schedule is pretty action packed. The fact that I'm staying above water and completing everything is an accomplishment that I'm proud of. That one morning when I got up and did my pages, even after giving myself an excused absence, was awesome. My level of attention and effort on the second half of Wednesday was also great. There were a few things that could be better. First of all, no fucking mochas this week--none. Even though I do allow myself some dessert in my diet, the mocha is off-limits. I need to get back into the habit of being hardcore about desserts at work. If I don't draw a line now, soon I'll be wolfing down the pastries and drinking all manner of crap, like I did last spring. I've been virtuous about this so far, and I'd like to continue that. The other thing is reading. It seems like that's the one thing that tends to get sacrificed at the end of the week because I'm so tired. That's not right--it's a critical part of my week, and I need to make sure it's happening.
Next week I'm going to start going back through my old French program as a review. I'm curious to see how long it will take. I'm guessing I can do it in about 4 weeks.
In other miscellaneous news, I'm psyched that I'll be getting back to the book on the week after next. It's crazy to think about doing that again. We'll see if the last 12 weeks were worth it.
Record: 117-9
Streak: Won 4
Summary: Wrote my pages, made breakfast, read my final AW lesson, took a shower, made baklava, listened to a beautiful live rendition of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of the Fawn on WRTI, went to a Super Bowl party, made my lunch, and now I'm going to bed.
Week in Review: These days, my schedule is pretty action packed. The fact that I'm staying above water and completing everything is an accomplishment that I'm proud of. That one morning when I got up and did my pages, even after giving myself an excused absence, was awesome. My level of attention and effort on the second half of Wednesday was also great. There were a few things that could be better. First of all, no fucking mochas this week--none. Even though I do allow myself some dessert in my diet, the mocha is off-limits. I need to get back into the habit of being hardcore about desserts at work. If I don't draw a line now, soon I'll be wolfing down the pastries and drinking all manner of crap, like I did last spring. I've been virtuous about this so far, and I'd like to continue that. The other thing is reading. It seems like that's the one thing that tends to get sacrificed at the end of the week because I'm so tired. That's not right--it's a critical part of my week, and I need to make sure it's happening.
Next week I'm going to start going back through my old French program as a review. I'm curious to see how long it will take. I'm guessing I can do it in about 4 weeks.
In other miscellaneous news, I'm psyched that I'll be getting back to the book on the week after next. It's crazy to think about doing that again. We'll see if the last 12 weeks were worth it.
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