Active Items on Task List: 36

Initially I had planned to go to bed at 10:30, but once I thought about it more, that seemed kind of unwise. I've been going to bed at 3 or 4 am, so lying down at 10:30 won't accomplish anything other than me lying in bed for a few hours. Instead, I decided to work on Kaplan until I get tired or until it's 2, whichever comes first, and over the next few days, I'll gradually scale back my bed time.
Here's an analysis of my time expenditures. What follows is my plan for the day and a comment in caps about how accurate my time allotment was: "1 hour to plan out meals 5:00-6:00 TOO MUCH TIME, I FINISHED IN 30 MINS/ 45 minutes to go shopping, 6:00-6:45 TOO LITTLE TIME, THIS TOOK AN HOUR/ Exercise from 6:45-7:15 THIS WAS RIGHT ON THE MONEY/ Dinner after, 7:15 to 8:30 THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE EXCEPT I HAD DISHES PILED UP FROM BEFORE, SO TODAY I JUST DIDN'T CLEAN UP ALL THE WAY. NORMALLY, IF I WERE TO MAKE WHAT I MADE TONIGHT, 45 MINUTES WOULD BE FINE FOR COOKING, EATING, AND CLEANING/ Watch 1 episode of the Wire, 8:30-9:30 THIS WAS EXACT, read for 1/2 hour 9:30-10:00 THIS WAS ALSO EXACT post/email/brush teeth 10-10:30 THIS WENT WAY OVER. I GOT A CALL, AND THEN I THOUGHT OF A FEW EMAILS THAT NEEDED TO BE WRITTEN. 10:30, go to bed THIS ISN'T THE PLAN ANYMORE"
The whole post/brush teeth/check emails thing is a little annoying. Some nights it takes 15 minutes, other nights it takes 2 hours. Theoretically I shouldn't do anything during that time that takes more than 5 minutes, and if something comes up that takes more than 5 minutes, I add it to the task list. Tonight it was partially because I forgot about that and partially because the e-mails seemed urgent, at least one of them. I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to write it. Typical week-day posting can be performed in 5-10 minutes, my oral hygiene takes maybe 5 minutes, and 15-25 minutes should be enough to Inspect my e-mails, i.e., see what I got generally, reply to some quick ones, and table the others to my task list. For tomorrow I'll try to be more strict about that.
During my reading time I inspectionally read Visions of a New Reality: The City and the Emergence of Modern Visual Culture by Frederic Stout.
Tomorrow: reply to housing e-mails, work on plans for Father's Day, spend 1/2 hour on French audio, work on Kaplan, check Visa statement for accounting (and write in routine audit day on calendar), plus the normal stuff. The order of priority if I finish my lesson is setting up my new computer with the MIT network and software, then transferring files, but I doubt I'll get that far.

Plan for the week: In general, I need to get back into a normal schedule. First I need to plan out meals and do any grocery shopping that's necessary. I've been eating out and living off of Tastykakes for the last few days, so I really need to get back into a decent routine.
Next, I need to finish preparing for my class on Sunday.
Beyond this, I need to monitor continuously my e-mail so I can respond if I hear something more about the internship. On Sunday my sister and I are planning something for Father's Day; more planning is still necessary.
Once I finish preparing the lesson, I need to set up my computer with the MIT network and software. I also need to transfer some files from the old computer. Next I want to set up my printer/copier and start copying some recipes in books that Eva will be taking.
Eventually I want to reevaluate my organization system now that I just got the iPod touch. Maybe I'll start writing down appointments in there as opposed to on my wall calendar, although I like my low-tech planning method, so we'll see. Either way, I want to look at everything again. This too has lower priority than lesson preparation.

Plan for today: 1 hour to plan out meals 5:00-6:00. 45 minutes to go shopping, 6:00-6:45. Exercise from 6:45-7:15. Dinner after, 7:15 to 8:30. Watch 1 episode of the Wire, 8:30-9:30, read for 1/2 hour 9:30-10:00, post/email/brush teeth 10-10:30. 10:30, go to bed.

Disclaimer upfront: I'm super tired while writing this, so excuse any extra incoherence.
A lot has happened since the last post. The biggest news is that Eva and I broke up. This isn't the appropriate place to explain the reasons in detail, but I will say that the breakup wasn't precipitated by a single, negative event, it was amicable, and we still plan to be a significant part of each other's lives.
Not only has this been emotionally consuming, but it has also been time consuming, as we have had to figure out how to separate materially. Thankfully, that's mostly finished.
A second piece of news is that a sweet internship might be in the works for THIS summer, before going to school. I'm going to keep this discreet until things reach a more certain point.
Third, I just got a brand new computer--a Macbook--partially motivated by desire and partially motived by need, since Eva is taking the one we shared (it belonged to her initially). I'm actually writing this post with the new computer. It's been fun playing with the features so far. I also got a free iPod Touch as part of a deal for students, which is nice. I always wanted an iPod but could never justify the purchase.
Tomorrow I'm going to take it easy in the morning and let myself sleep in. Once I wake up, I'm going to start planning and scheduling and getting back into a productive mode.

Plan for the Week: Fixed events for the week include Eva’s parents visiting this weekend, my Kaplan class on Sunday, and my dental appointments. I still need to finish preparing the Kaplan lesson, and I’d like get a head start on the following week as well.
The big focus for this week is working on funding and administrative preparation for school. At this point that means sending my consigliore my CV, e-mailing the department about any new opportunities that may have come up, filling out the internship form, and writing about being a TA.
While funding/admin for school is my top priority work-wise this week, setting my health insurance/PCP is going to be my next most urgent priority. It’s great that I have dental appointments set up for Monday and Tuesday so I can get that taken care of, but the other health stuff needs to be addressed.
On the diet/fitness side of things, I want to maintain a fairly austere regimen to get in shape for Argentina at the end of the month. Especially if I go on vacation in a place like Argentina, I want to feel as comfortable as possible walking around in my own skin, so I’m stepping up my fitness and diet goals for the month.
With French, yesterday I finished all the bookwork for the advanced program, so now I only need to listen to the audio for the last two lessons. This I will get out of the way early in the week, after which I’ll move on to my next French project: finishing French For Reading Knowledge. I plan to devote about 3 hours per week to that project and finish in about a month.

Plan for Tomorrow: Trip to CVS, go to dentist, e-mail Mark, finish French audio, see if I can schedule Mantoux test (or find out if I can waive it), deal with library books, and work on paperwork for school for the rest of my time.

New York Recap Written a Few Days Ago:
I just got back from a weekend in New York. On Friday we met Claire in The East Village for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. While the food was decent, the Vietnamese coffee was excellent.
We stayed at Claire's overnight, and the next day I met up in Brooklyn with Nunu from my summer program. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan, hung out in Chinatown, ate at a vegetarian restaurant, got bubble tea, walked to Midtown, and checked out Bryant Park. The vegetarian restaurant was good, but not any better than the ones at home.
After saying goodbye to Nunu, I walked back to The East Village, visited the Strand, which was impressive in its inventory size but ironically didn't have the book I was looking for (Flaubert's L'Education Sentimentale in French), and hung out in Tompkins Park and watched skateboarders (all of whom except 1 were mediocre). From there I walked to Klong (Thai restaurant) to meet Eva, Claire, Hadar, and Sheldon.
Dinner at Klong was great--it was one of the best Thai restaurants I've ever been to. Afterward we took a cab to Hadar and Sheldon's place. It was nice to finally meet them.
On Sunday, Eva, Claire, and I visited Columbia, and ate at this cafe by campus for breakfast. Afterward we took the subway to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, which was awesome.
After The Gardens, I walked to Avenue J to try the famous Di Fara's pizza. The wait time for a slice was ridiculous (45 minutes), but the wait and the price notwithstanding, it completely blew my mind. It's easily in the category of Tacconelli's, i.e., pizzas seemingly handed down from the heavens.
After pizza I took the train back into Manhattan, walked around the Lower East Side, and got on the bus to come home.
The city itself impressed me greatly on this visit. First of all was the impression of vibrancy. Countless streets were packed, seemingly 24 hours a day. It felt like a continuous party everywhere.
Next was the incredible ethnic diversity. The melting pot moniker is aptly given to New York. It was like taking a bunch of shops, faces, and street carts from every nation on earth, shaking them together, and tossing them out in random, dense sprawl. The intensity and variety of social stimulation was wonderful.
From a planning and design perspective, I noticed a couple striking things on my trip. First, and given street will be much wider than any given street in Philadelphia, often with "malls" constructed down the center, consisting of trees, gravel paths, benches, and chess tables. The effect that these streets create is one of a grandiose place, and I like it.
Next, the buildings are taller on average than in most other places. I'm not talking about the skyscrapers, because they aren't necessarily taller than other cities' skyscrapers, and not more impressive either (the skyline is nice, but it doesn't blow me away). No I'm referring to the brick apartment buildings that line seemingly every street in the city. Their size is impressive, again creating a feeling of the grandiose and perhaps also the cosmopolitan.
Third, fire escapes are common everywhere, mainly on the aforementioned apartment buildings. In Philadelphia they almost always appear at the back of the buildings, leading into an alley. In New York they are on the front. This doesn't strike me as positive or negative, just different.
Fourth, the city seems to have far fewer trees on the sidewalks than other cities, like Philadelphia. This is a negative, in my opinion, but it didn't bother me as much as I would have expected it to. I should mention though, I was impressed by the multitude and quality of the small and medium sized parks throughout the city.
Fifth, certain parts of the city, like the Upper West Side, feature noticeable topographical variation, which I like. It wasn't San Francisco, but the sloping streets by the Hudson provided lovely visual variation to the cityscape.
One final comment--I don't see why people compare Brooklyn with Philadelphia. Maybe the similarities these comparisons reference are demographic or sociological--perhaps--but visually, they don't look similar to me. Boston and Philadelphia look visually similar to me, but not Brooklyn and Philadelphia.

Items Added to Task List: 1--"AAA Batteries"
Items Removed From Task List: 1--"Scouring Pads"
Active Items Remaining: 38
Items Added to Routines: 1--"Check Argentina Ticket Pricing"

Summary of Week: First of all, I had a complete week in terms of routine tasks. This means I worked out 6/7 days, read for at least 1/2 hour each day, kept on top of cooking and cleaning, did 1 lesson of French, worked all my hours, got good sleep, and practiced good hygiene. From now on, unless otherwise stated, the completion of those types of things will be assumed, and I'll only address them when there is a change in the program (for example, switching French programs).
In terms of advancement, the creation of the summer budget was the biggest event. This not only laid out guidelines governing the expenditure of money, but it also more or less laid out the program for the summer's activities. In other words, if I put something into the budget, that means it's concrete now and will be much more likely to happen. New York, Annapolis, Pittsburgh, and Argentina all went into the budget, and I made headway with all four in terms of logistical planning.
Other advancements included planning a night out with Mom at the orchestra in June and starting and nearly finishing Les Femmes Françaises Ne Grossissent Pas. I got a good start on I Claudius on audio book as well. I also chipped away at several long-standing items on my task list. I won't mention them all here, but I predict that I will eliminating items much more rapidly in the coming weeks.
In terms of effectiveness, I think the week was good overall. I'm just learning to trust my system, and it will take time to make it habitual. As always, anxiety is a major obstacle, but toward the end of the week this was much better as I came to trust the effectiveness of the system (and it was indeed effective!).

Plan for next week: Not only do I want to execute my program faithfully, or even calmly--I want to execute with vigor. I should seize the opportunity to work and strive for virtue, not drag myself through it.
In terms of specific advancement goals, I want to move ahead on the administrative work with MIT as much as I can. I want to develop my CV and send that out. Also, I want to begin getting information about the classes I can test out of and what books/resources I can use to study for that.
Aside from MIT, I want to get the ball rolling on the medical and dental stuff. I already started with the dental. Medical might not be possible until my new insurance takes effective, though that shouldn't be long now.
Finally, at the end of the week Eva and I are going up to New York, and I'm looking forward to making that as fun as possible.

Summary of the day: I taught my class (which went well), prepared for future classes for an hour, listened to my French lesson, planned my meals for next week, made plans for visiting a dentist, made an initial attempt at purchasing plane tickets for Argentina, read for 1/2 hour, went to Trader Joe's, and watched the Wire with Eva.

Plan for Tomorrow: In addition to normal activities, check up on Penn move out day, arrange second Philly Car Share reservation for orchestra night, call about health insurance, work through MIT admin materials as far as possible, and send CV for editing.

Great show on hour 2 of Radio Times today about cognitive dissonance and justifying one's actions. Feedback systems are critical. Whether it be the idea that we must continually extract ourselves from our interior psychic space by immersing ourselves in the world, that we are best off if we can absorb stimuli from as diverse a set of sources as possible, or that we are better off in the long run if we find people who can give us constructive feedback about ourselves. As painful as it can be, honest feedback--both from within and without--is essential. Without it, you manage your soul like the Soviet Union, attempting to exert absolute control and authority over everything, living a delusion of grandeur while your reality is grim and horrible. The reference to Lao Tzu in the program was also sweet.
Unfiltered copy of notes:
Sat after Eva leaves for work:
Finish French
4 Hours Kaplan
Clean Bathroom
Exercise
½ Hour reading

Sun:
Grocery planning and shopping for next week
Look up healthcare details about start date again
Find dentist
Make 2nd Car Share Reservation for Mom
Purchase Argentina Plane Ticket

Items Added to Active Task List: 1--"Remind..."
Items Removed From Task List: 3--"Rat Traps", "SJC Alumni Contribution", "Budget"
Items Remaining: 35

Summary: I met the rodent exterminator, went to the DMV with Eva, checked out the lobby of the PSFS Building, had cappuccinos, filled out paperwork for MIT loans, did calisthenics and went for a run on the Schuylkill Banks Trail, made dinner and soup stock for later, read a bit, finished making the budget covering the time between now and the Massachusetts move, and filled out my SJC alum contribution form.
Planning the budget was probably the biggest development in the last few days. The outlook is good. There are a few trips on the horizon--I'm meeting Eva in Argentina at the end of June, going to Pittsburgh, going to New York, going to Annapolis, and a few other things. I made sure to apportion liberal amounts for moving expenses because I want to do this in a comfortable and reasonably ordered fashion, unlike any other time we've ever moved.
Here's a passage from a book I'm reading now that I think contains a lot of wisdom: "Complete control of the mind over the body is undesirable; it suggests a lack of openness to the spontaneous delights of the senses". I would extend this idea beyond sensation. There is a tricky balance between structure and spontaneity. Rules, strategies, and plans are always going to be better than some alternatives and worse than other alternatives. To be completely unstructured and lacking in willpower would be worse than having a decent plan and executing it, but the further entrenched you get in your plan, the less likely it is that you'll discover whatever better alternatives might be out there. I reflected on my 3 part model that I described a while ago--step 1, report honestly what happens, step 2, analyze the events, judge them, and bring them to bare on developing a strategy and agenda for the future, step 3, execute the plan, being open to on-the-fly adjustments without being weak-willed--and I still think the model is a good one. It allows for changes in approach, both when planning for the long-term and in individual moments. It requires us to be honest with ourselves. And it allows us to have structure and foundation.

Plan for Tomorrow: Other than working on Kaplan and visiting the night class, I want to check out that program Dan sent, get some audio books from the library, and plan the Orchestra/dinner excursion for my mom.

Active Items Added to Task List: 1--"Photograph bureau and go to antique appraiser"
Items Removed From Task List: 3--"Dental floss for shop", "Call Dad to remind him...", "Call Mom-Mom about Bureau"
Active Items Remaining: 36

Summary: Had a lovely albeit rushed breakfast and then went in to teach my class. The session went well. It's a small class, which is nice in a way. Later I ran some errands, did laundry, started an e-mail to Nutter and the Streets Department about my volunteering idea, planned meals, made a shopping list for next week, went out to dinner at Tiffin for Mother's Day (which was lovely), went shopping, finished my e-mail, and later I'll watch the Wire with Eva and spend 30 minutes reading.

Plan for tomorrow: Tomorrow I want to make a budget, work on Kaplan, call the landlords about logistics, figure out my contribution to the SJC alumni fund and general fund drive, audit the Kaplan class, and otherwise live a normal healthy routine.

Active Items Added to Task List: 4--"Rat Traps", "Orchestra for Mom", "Dental Floss for Shop", "Check Pay for Tomorrow"
Inactive Items Added to Task List: 1--"Short Story #2"
Items Removed From Task List: 0
Active Items Remaining: 38

Summary of the day: I worked until about 7, finished reading the Beautiful and the Damned, ate dinner with my dad at Tamarind, dealt with some administrative tasks, and later I might go dancing with Eva and some friends.

Comments: I came up with a plan for volunteering. I want to clean up the areas next to the Amtrak tracks. They give a terrible impression of the city. For people passing through on a regular basis via rail, I imagine that the sites along the tracks discourages further exploration into the city. This is our face to the world in many respects, and it happens to be one of our worst parts. I'm personally appalled by the sites along the tracks whenever I travel on Amtrak.
Certainly I could pick up garbage, but maybe I could even remove graffiti or help demolish old structures. I'm going to write to a couple different people in the city government about my idea to get feedback and possible support.
Other than thinking about volunteering, I finished the Beautiful and the Damned. Much of the writing was brilliant. It makes me want to go back and re-read the Great Gatsby. I wasn't analyzing it (in the HTRAB sense), so I'm not going to get into it too much. The characters were compelling. It got pretty emo, but not as emo as Jude the Obscure. Fitzgerald depicted Anthony's depravity in a much less corny way than Hardy did Jude's, in my opinion. I loved the two friends--Richard and Maury. Apparently there's a movie version of the book by an Australian director that has either been released recently or will be released soon. I'd be curious to see it, and specifically to see who plays Gloria.

Plan for tomorrow: At 1 I have my class, which goes until 3:30. I'll probably wake up late and spend the morning preparing for that. At 6:30 we're going to Tiffin for Mother's Day. Between events, I'll probably help plan food for next week and maybe read. Any extra time I have at the end of the day I'll use to compose correspondences about my volunteering idea.

Tasks Added: 3--"Pick up facewash, soap, and shampoo", "Research funding options for grad school", "Econ, stat, and excel study"
Tasks Removed: 1--"Look into switching energy companies"
Tasks Moved to Inactive: 3--"Find accountant/financial adviser", "How To Read A Book Lam Sheet", "Investing"
Current Active Tasks: 39

Summary: Worked, then went to Trenton to see Lazlo. We had some awesome tomato pies from Delorenzo's. I was solidly disciplined, but I could still do better. Radio Times had a great program on cognitive science. I also got into The Beautiful and the Damned, which seems great so far.

Plan for tomorrow: Go to Rittenhouse Row Festival tomorrow afternoon and then work on Kaplan all night until Eva gets home.

Current Active Items on Task List: 50
Items Removed Today: "Check Kaplan Hours/Direct Deposit Amounts"
Items Added Today: "Reply about availability to proctor exams", "Plan NY trip", "Plan Pittsburgh Trip", "Plan Annapolis Trip", "Figure out feasibility of Israel/Argentina trip", "Research past years' IAP".

Summary: Our new sink, cabinets, and dishwasher were being installed from the morning until the mid-afternoon, during which time there wasn't any water in the apartment, so I couldn't shower, shave, make food/coffee, or get a glass of water. Not having these things emphasized how important they are--I basically felt gross without the first two and deprived without the second two.
The only significant accomplishment today was submitting my application for health care through Kaplan. I haven't had insurance in nearly 3 years, and it's good that it's finally being taken care of.
Later tonight Dan and I have plans to set up my computer for GG data collection.

Plan for tomorrow: Kaplan, exercise, meal planning, reply about availability to proctor exams, audit Kaplan class at 6pm, begin the process of investigating AIP and haircut.

Plan for the Week: It’s been a while since I’ve gone a full week with a comprehensively healthy routine. This means full nights of sleep, nutritious meals that are primarily home-cooked, staying on top of day-to-day cleaning and administration, and substantial physical exercise. This is what I’m aiming for next week.
By the time I start school again in the fall, I want to be as habituated as possible to healthy living, so renewing my efforts now are an attempt to start cultivating those habits.
One aspect of healthy living that I want to improve is my community service. I wrote about this before, but I never committed to a program. This week I want to try again. Other than laziness, my biggest barrier in accomplishing that goal is that I get stuck trying to find the activity that’s maximally productive in terms of its contribution to society. That probably sounds silly, and it is silly after a certain point. Of course I don’t want to waste time, but it’s more important that I get out and do something for a few hours each week, even if it doesn’t match my ideal concept of maximum service contribution. And indeed, community service is in large part about the sense of good that one experiences simply from helping in some way, regardless of the specific contribution.
One more comment about “healthy living”. I’ve been thinking about the busy nature of modern life and the multitude of information that surrounds us. It seems to me that there is only so much a person is capable of, in terms of input/output. For example, sometimes I see people in cafes or university lounges with books beside them, a laptop in front of them (on which they are browsing the internet and using IM), a TV broadcasting somewhere in the background, people moving and chatting around them, and sometimes they are listening to music on top of all that. Such a person cannot possibly be engaged in any one of his tasks in a serious way. This seems to be common in our society. There are effectively infinite sources of stimulation and information, but do we give them the attention to digest them properly? Contemplation is a verb that seems lacking in our contemporary vocabulary.
Because of the mismatch between the quantity of information accessible to us and our capabilities, I think it’s important that we limit ourselves. For example, I feel anxious whenever I walk into a bookstore and look at the newly released titles. My desire is to read and master all of them. This desire is fed by the respect that we have for quantity, as in “I read 4 books this month as opposed to 3 books last month, so this was a better month.” Or, more to the point, if you gave the average person the option between reading 10,000 good books at an average-to-poor level of comprehension in his lifetime, or reading 5 great books at incredible depth, wouldn’t most people choose the former? Even if they say they would choose the latter, don’t most of us choose the former with our actions?
I’m not arguing for any specific reading quotas or restrictions, but I want to increase my awareness of my limits and the requirements for time spent meaningfully. This means a general trend toward doing less at a higher level of quality. I guess “inspectional reading” is meant to allow the reader to browse the sea of information to filter out things worth reading at a greater level of depth, so one solution is to continue practicing that skill. Regardless, I want to be aware of this issue.

Plan for Tomorrow: Tomorrow I’m going to let myself get up naturally, meaning without an alarm clock. I’ve deprived myself of sleep for the last three nights, and I need a night to catch up. After waking up and getting ready for the day, I want to work on Kaplan, exercise, make a plan for meals this week, go grocery shopping, and spend one hour looking at health insurance plans.

I got back from Minneapolis today. I appreciate Jewish traditions--the ceders were great. It was nice to see Eva's family again, and I hung out with Lila, whom I haven't seen in years, and that was also nice.
On Monday, Eva, Max, and I drove around Minneapolis looking at architecture. We went to the Basilica of St. Mary, City Hall, the downtown area, the Weisman, and the Guthrie. I'm noticing a trend in my architecture tastes--classical and Gothic buildings excite me with their surfaces, materials, and ornamentation, yet bore me with their use of space. On the other hand, modern buildings that I like tend to excite me with their use of space and the experience of the user from within the building but make me cringe with their materials and overall appearance from the outside. The Basilica and the Guthrie fit that pattern exactly.
Once I got back I voted, worked out, cleaned a bit, and went out with my dad, Mike, and his girlfriend to Tiffin. That place is incredible; I wish I had discovered it earlier. Afterward we stopped at Azure and caught the dramatic finish to the Flyer's Game 7 win over Washington.
Tomorrow after breakfast I am going to make a plan for the rest of the day as well as the rest of the week. My tasks will probably be administrative tomorrow.

Items Removed From Task List: 0
Items Added to Task List: 0
Items Currently On Task List: 29

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. ***

Items Removed From Task List: 0
Items Added to Task List: 2 "Call ___ at Penn", "Figure out health insurance from Kaplan"
Items Currently On Task List: 29

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.

Items Removed From Task List: 0
Items Added to Task List: 0
Items Currently On Task List: 27

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.

Items Removed From Task List: 1 "Write Thank You Letter to Pat Burland"
Items Added To Task List: 0
Items Transferred To Inactive: 1 "Novel"
Items on Task List: 27

Comments: I have been distinguishing between active and inactive tasks for a while now. Active tasks are ones that I could realistically accomplish in short order or longer ones that I am actively working on. Inactive comprises the ones that I'm not working on.
I didn't get up early today, I don't know why. I got up at 10, meaning I got 10 hours of sleep. Sleep is a mystery to me. It's true that I was in short-term sleep debt from earlier this week, so maybe I'm making up for it now. I want to have a week or two when I eat well, exercise, and try to get 8 hours of sleep per night and see if I can maintain that and not feel tired during the day. So tonight, when I go to bed, I'll set my alarm for 8.5 hours from that point (remember, my 1/2 hour buffer time for the time it actually takes to fall asleep).
I had my phone conversation, and though it was productive overall, I felt like I was speaking awkwardly. Yesterday in class I felt like I was eloquent and that the words were flowing, but this morning I was a bumbling idiot.
I worked on Kaplan for a while, but not as much as I would have liked to. At 4 I exercised, and afterwards I helped Eva get ready for dinner, and that was great. I also worked on French a little and looked into my tax rebate. I'll need to check back in a few days to confirm that they went through. Finally, I spent a little bit of time on the dentist thing, but I'll need to return to that next week.

Plan for Tomorrow: Exercise, clean up, French, and Kaplan, if there's any time left over (which they probably won't be). At 1 or a little before, I need to head over to 30th Street Station, where I'll take the R7 to meet Raffe, and from there we'll head up to New York for his friend's party.

Items on Task List: 29

Comments: I got up later than I wanted to, around 9am. However, once I got up, I was productive. I ate a solid breakfast then started rehearsing my Kaplan lesson. Around 2 I walked over to the Penn Center and picked up my class packet, went over to my class location on the Penn campus, continued rehearsing, met Eva for a snack and coffee, taught my class, and came home to check e-mail and get ready for bed.
Tonight was my first real class. It was fun but tiring. I went a little overtime, but part of that was because the room scheduling was messed up, and we couldn't start on time. It would be great to get to the point where I know the material so well that I can just get up and teach and not worry about rehearsing or prepping. But it went well overall.

Plan for Tomorrow: First of all, I want to get up earlier, more like 8am. Next, I want to prepare a list of questions to ask my contact at the planning firm, and write thank you letters after it's over. Tomorrow I have a phone interview scheduled to get advice about grad school and the planning field in general. After that's over, I will work on Kaplan until about 4, at which time I will work out, and then help Eva with dinner. In the evening I will do a little bit of French, confirm my tax rebates, and research a dentist.

Items on Task List: 27

Summary: I worked on my budget, planned some dishes to cook for next week, made a grocery list, mailed out some letters, did laundry, worked out, cleaned up from dinner, hung out with Eva, did some logistical planning for upcoming visits and trips, and worked on my HTRAB worksheets for 30 minutes (I finished the Inspectional Reading check-list).
I was irritable most of the day, though in the last hour or so I've felt all right. The work-out felt very strenuous.

Plan for Tomorrow: There are a couple of high priority things that need to happen. First, I need to contact the planning firm to see if I can set up a time to visit them. Second, I need to start scheduling visits to Penn. Third, I need to find a dentist. I'll take care of 1 and 2 right away after breakfast tomorrow. 3 might wait until later in the day or even Tuesday, depending on how much other work I get done. I still need to work my normal hours for Kaplan tomorrow.
Additionally, I plan to exercise, go food shopping when Eva gets home, make a deposit at the bank, and finish my budget. That should be more than enough for one day.

Goals for the Coming Week: On a basic level, I want to complete an entire week with a disciplined and healthy routine. That means going to bed at a reasonable hour (and waking up early), staying within my dietary constraints, exercising, mostly eating and cooking homemade meals from whole ingredients, hygiene, and not falling behind on any cleaning. Just doing this will be huge and will give me some positive momentum.
Speaking of routine activities, I would like to do 2 French lessons next week since I skipped one this week, but I'm not going to stress about it too much.
Next, I need to start thinking hard about my grad school options. I should hear back from Berkeley this week, but the main thing I want to do is meet with some planners in the private sector, discuss my options with them, and attend some Penn classes and studios. In two weeks I'll be at the MIT open house, and I'll need to come to a decision soon after that. That means my Penn visits need to happen mostly this week and next.
I don't plan on working on my book until I make a decision about school. One thing at a time.
Another thing I want to accomplish next week is finding a place to volunteer. I slacked off for the most part this weekend and didn't look into it, so that's on the agenda for next week. Other items from the task list that realistically can be tackled next week include buying a Britta filter and calling about Penn's anxiety disorder study. I'm also going to try to schedule a painting session (hopefully the final one) with Josh next weekend.