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Summary: I got up a little later than I wanted to, meaning I slept beyond 8 hours. I slacked off a bit in the morning, but I got on track eventually and spent time working on Kaplan. In the evening I gave my class, and after writing this I'm going to do a bunch of dishes.

Comments: Like I did with breakfast, I'm timing how long it takes me to blog at a comfortable yet vigorous pace. This test will give me a more realistic picture of the time requirements of this activity.
I was dragging my feet a little this morning, and I'm sure part of that had to do with my breakfast, which was kind of half-assed. I only ate my fruit and cereal, but not my egg or my yogurt. The importance of eating a complete, healthy breakfast in order to achieve my work goals cannot be understated.
I reflected about this later while I was walking to Penn (not breakfast specifically, but about energy). There are some exertions that demand rest. Physical exertion is one such type--you can only push your body so hard before you collapse. I think there's also a type of mental exertion that has concrete limits. Doing focused mental work can sometimes bring me a state in which I can no longer continue thinking clearly; it demands that I cease my activity for a time. What I was wondering about was, how many types of exertion like this are there? Is there a kind of "motivational exertion" that falls into this category? Suppose you exerted yourself physically for a while, then switched to a mental task, and then switched back to a physical task, would it be possible to continue this pattern indefinitely, provided that neither type of energy were ever brought to the point of exhaustion? In the past I have said no, but I am willing to consider that you might be able to, provided that you maintain the right attitude. If you strongly and continuously resent your activities, I doubt that you could sustain them indefinitely. I'm just going to keep this in mind for a while and see what information my future experiences can bring to bear on the problem.

Plan for Tomorrow: Alternate between dishes and Kaplan, with an exercise session thrown in. I will call my contact at Penn again tomorrow (he didn't answer tonight), so that will enable me to eliminate one item from my task list. Raffe is coming over later, so I need to do some work to prepare for that. Also, if I have time, I would like to do some French.

***It took me 15 minutes to write this blog entry. I think 15 minutes is a manageable length of time. Now let me see if I can be satisfied checking my e-mail and reading blogs/message boards within another 15 minute span of time. ***

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Items Added to Task List: 2 "Call ___ at Penn", "Figure out health insurance from Kaplan"
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Summary: Visited Penn and worked on Kaplan. Great experience at Penn. No worries about excessive focus on theory or design. The program was balanced and just seems awesome overall. Talked to a prof and a few students. Sat in on 2 classes. Spent time in 1st year workshops coordinated through WRT--most if not all were real life projects (hence real life clients) in the Philadelphia region. And finally, I had another killer vegetarian sandwich from the Magic Carpet lunch truck
I want to limit my internet time at night. I need to employ my inspectional reading skills and go quickly. E-mails/blogs/news can take up so much time, and the value can often be pretty low, in my opinion. I'm aiming for 1/2 hour. Tonight will be more like 40 minutes because of high e-mail volume. What should I do? I decided that I will never simply ignore someone's email, so I need enough time to open, read, and respond to each, on a basic level.

Plan for tomorrow: Kaplan prep and then class at night. Dishes + call Penn student afterward if there's time.

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Comments: I had a great weekend in New York with Raffe. We saw him play at a venue in Brooklyn, along with some other acts. The place was crazy. It was an old warehouse in Flushing, with little spaces and rooms partitioned off everywhere. It was like the imagined Atheneum, except more punk rock. The diversity of the crowd was amazing. People were streaming in and out constantly. It was a great experience.
This morning we hung out at his friend Tim's house in Jersey City. We walked around the waterfront later and ate at a Mexican restaurant. Apparently Jarritos make a Jamaica flavor. It was good to see Raffe and his family again.

Plan for Tomorrow: Penn visit in the morning and Kaplan at night.