Today: Got up late, which was ok since I was severely sleep deprived for the last few days, picked up my dad at 30th street, got a haircut, worked out, wrote a school-related e-mail, made a lovely dinner, and now I'm going to post, read, and go to bed. My dinner was salad, homemade baguettes avec beurre, and cauliflower gratin. Also, I decided to buy a book today. I've been sworn off buying books since sophomore year in college, for two reasons: 1) I move so much and moving all my books was starting to be a giant pain 2) it saves tons of money to just get them from the library. Well, I'm not done using the library, but I want to start buying books again. I even regret selling the ones that I did from St. John's. My policy was good while it was in effect, but now I think it's time to start again. Aside from the obvious reasons that they have a valuable use and that I love books as objects, I think they are a beautiful aesthetic element of a space. That might strike some as a stupid/shallow reason, but I find it compelling. I get so much pleasure walking into a room that is stacked with books, especially great ones. I want to look over from my table and see books, have them physically around me. At the moment, my book collection is paltry. I had the illusion of owning a lot of books while Eva and I were together, but most of them were hers, and now I have this depressing, empty shelf looking at me all day. Anyway, the book I bought today was The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, a classic, and a nice one to set me back on my journey of accumulating an excellent library.

Tomorrow: All day work marathon with some French en route.

Week in Review: I took care of my basic, day-to-day tasks last week but not much beyond that. I'm ashamed that I couldn't advance my non-routine tasks more than I did.
That being said, one great piece of news is that I secured an apartment in Cambridge that sounds awesome. Location, roommates, and price are all excellent.
My trip to New York yesterday was fun. Not only is the bus $1, but it has free wifi too. Once I got there, I walked up toward Washington Square to meet Ben. From there we walked to Greenwich Village and checked out Jane Jacob's former house and block. It's so different than it was when she wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities that visiting wasn't as cool as I thought it would be. The area seemed nice though. Frankly, I prefer Rittenhouse Square over it.
Next we visited the Met with his friend and a friend of his friend, which was great. Ben and I went really slow, studied, and discussed a small number of the European sculptures, checked out the roof garden, got an overview of some of the painting galleries, and moved through the 16th and 17th century European room re-creations and the arms gallery. Many more trips would be required just to look at everything once in a cursory fashion, let alone study each piece.
Afterward the four of us had dinner, and then Ben and I walked to downtown, checked out a few of the neighborhoods down there, and then I took the bus back.
The upper east side around the museum was stunningly beautiful from an architectural point of view. I was really blown away. The majesty of the buildings and boulevards there is unsurpassed by anything I've seen in the US. On the other hand, I was reminded of how ugly I think much of the lower east side and downtown are. Some of it is downright depressing. Overall it was a great day and it was very nice to see Ben again.
Earlier in the week I had another adventure when I took my mom out to Susanna Foo and the Orchestra. The restaurant pulls-off "asian fusion" in a way that actually works, unlike most others that try for it. It was very nice.
As good as the dinner was, the Orchestra was the highlight of the night. They played a sampling of pieces from 19th and 20th century Russian composers. I had never been to the Kimmel Center before, and I was struck by its interior beauty and the acoustics of the concert hall. While I have mixed feelings about the exterior, the inside is great and overall, it's a world-class feature of the city.
A big reason for the low productivity was a re-ignition of my grief over the breakup. It messed me up, and by the time I felt ok again, it was late in the week and I just had enough time to work and go to NY. The extent to which I feel better right now is greater than it has been since the event occurred. I expect the pain to diminish from this point forward.

Plan for next week;
I deliberated about whether or not I want to work while in Pittsburgh, and I decided that it would be best to take a complete vacation. I haven't done that in long time. The opportunity has been there before, to be sure, but it usually gets undermined by my neurosis about not getting enough work done. Not this time! I'm chilling from Thursday to Sunday morning.
Because of this, next week will be a short week work-wise. Tuesday morning through Wednesday evening will be a work block, and I also plan to spend 9 hours on Sunday preparing my Kaplan lesson.
With the time left over, I want to cut into some of my tasks on Moday, which I'll get into with my plan for tomorrow.

Summary of Today: I got up and taught my class, took care of admin, ate a lovely dinner of vegetable soup, french bread, and avocado salad while listening to Debussy, cooked some food for next week, and just did general end of the week type stuff. The highlight of the day, by far, was that I successfully baked my own baguettes. It was my first attempt, and although they're not picture perfect in appearance, they taste delicious. I made a sample one and cut it open, spread some butter on there, and enjoyed the warm, airy interior and the hard, crusty exterior. It's satisfying to do something yourself that people usually rely on someone else to do.

Plan for tomorrow: Haircut, _____, funding research, call about insurance. test old compy., copy wall calendar to new compy.

Plan for Today (End times in parenthesis):

Look at housing (look at craigslist and survey other sources of info, like local newspapers online, mit bulletin boards), reply to housing questionnaire, e-mail John: 1 hour (2:20)

meal planning and shopping: 1 hour 45 minutes DROP OFF COOK BOOK AT LIBRARY, PICK UP DEBUSSY CD, AND NETFLIX IN MAIL BOX. (4:05)

Kaplan: 2 hours (6:05)

Exercise: 30 minutes (6:35)

Read: 30 minutes, in public place preferably (7:05)

Dinner: 1 hour 30 minutes (8:35)

Drink with Juan: 1 hour 30 minutes (10:05)

Blog/Email: 30 minutes (10:35)

Meditation: 30 minutes (11:05)

11:10 bed time

30 minutes isn't enough time to cook, eat, and clean up from breakfast. I tried 45 minutes this morning, and that seemed better.
This last week was tough, for obvious reasons. After the initial shock, I started feeling better, but then at the end of the week my mood started going back down.
I think part of the reason this happened is that my activities are too isolating. I work better when I can work with other people, and especially now, it's not good to sit in my apartment alone. I want to make more of an effort to be social and to make solitary activities into group activities wherever I can. For example, I'm considering seeking out a French conversation group to replace my solitary study (this was Will's suggestion actually). Other possibilities would be group parkour and studying in public places.
Whatever may be going on, for better or worse, I did two things that should be fundamentally prohibited--I completely gave up my discipline and didn't post, meaning, I didn't spend time reflecting and planning. Some might argue that I should be less harsh on myself with my notions of discipline, but here's the problem: if I don't control myself, I eat junk food and play video games, in solitude. That's it. That's my default activity. So what should I do? I believe that I need to exert control over myself because the alternative is completely valueless, and in fact, destructive.
The posting was the second duty that I neglected. This should be automatic, every day. I need to keep trying, keep thinking, and never give up. It'll be a fight, no doubt, but the fight needs to be made, otherwise nothing will happen.
Another thought is with continuity of program. If I change up my agenda and personal management techniques too frequently, I'll never give anything a chance, and I won't have actual test cases that I can learn from. If I start a new program, and it works for a few days, but then things get horrible, normally I stop. For the short-term that might be a good response, but in the long-term, I end up cycling between the same solutions, never giving each one its full trial. What would have happened if the colonies disbanded and gave up after the Articles of Confederation debacle? At least they rode it out, studied it, and implemented an evolved program that was conceived judiciously and carefully. I want to emulate this. I have a decent program now, so I need to stick with it, truthfully reflect on what's happening, and move forward with care.
One thing that I have done for long enough to be able to critique, and which I want to eliminate, is starting each post with tallies from my to-do list. It's not representative of my effectiveness. It makes me focused on reducing my task list instead of doing what needs to be done, and although it sounds like these should be the same things, let me explain. It's like judges accepting politically motivated plea bargains because the only thing they're focused on is getting convictions to be re-elected, as if the criminals and the justice system are making deals with each other for their mutual benefit. As I have said before, it's possible to have a highly productive day in which the net task balance rises and a weak day in which the task balance lowers. I should be focused on doing what needs to be done and doing it well. I shouldn't hesitate to put things on the list because it'll raise the count, and I shouldn't put aside the more lengthy, challenging tasks in lieu of quicker things that can produce more immediate results.
In terms of material accomplishments last week, it was amazing to me in the first place that I rebounded in any kind of way from the breakup earlier in the week. By mid-to-late week, I was on schedule again and getting things done. There was also the work that had to be done to "shut down" the relationship, namely, dealing with things like dividing up belongings, figuring out money, copying pictures, and attempting to reconcile ourselves with the situation emotionally.
Other accomplishments for the week were getting the process started on a possible summer internship, putting together a nice Father's Day dinner with my sister, advancing my knowledge about my new computer, finishing the French course, and getting my teaching completed effectively. In the beginning of the week I figured that my class would be able to tell that I was upset about something, but I think I managed to keep myself completely together, at least externally.
One big frustration with my effectiveness this past week is that I feel like so much time gets put into routine tasks that I'm not actually moving forward on really important things like finding funding or housing for school. Maybe I should cut back my standard of living to be more effective with that stuff. For now, I want to continue making home-cooked meals from fresh ingredients. I'm always tempted to eliminate this, and it would be easy to do so, because it's not yet routine, and I grew up eating instant food. However, I've come to believe that this is one of those cornerstones of human life (yes, I think it's that important). It may sound silly, but I have come to believe that cooking a fresh meal with real fruits, vegetables, fresh cheese, and home-baked bread, sitting down with whatever family you have around, and having a real meal is essential to mental and physical health. Ultimately, I know how many hours there are in a day, and I know what I need to do. When constructing my daily schedule the night before, I need to parse my time in a way that is consistent with my priorities, and then the following evening, I need to check, #1, if my time allotments were accurate, #2, see what happened, and #3, re-evaluate my time budgeting and priorities for the next day.
Last night I did end up going out for Father's Day, and that took most of the night. I only got back at 10:15, which left enough time to do some accounting, plan my work hours for the week, do laundry, and install some things on the computer. But then I fell apart later in the evening, which meant that I ate snacks and played games on the computer until 2 or 3 in the morning.

Non-routine stuff that has to get done this week:
Sunday Letter
KBS System/E-mails to students
Searching for housing in Cambridge

Non-routine stuff that I really want to get done/work on this week:
Get cooking pot
Plan Annapolis trip
Find a French Conversation Group
Spend time learning the computer
Survey funding options for school
Hang out with Juan tonight

Plan for the rest of the day: Pick up at least 2 cookbooks from the library, figure out how to run KBS and e-mail my students, pick up cooking pot, plan meals, go shopping, e-mail Eric back about housing, and go out with Juan.

*POST FOR SATURDAY JUNE 14*
Items Added to Task List: 0
Items Removed from Task List: 0
Items Combined With Other Tasks: "Getting CSA in Boston" eliminated and moved under, "Boston Move"
Active Items Remaining: 35

Summary: I went to a going away party for Eva and one of our mutual friends. She wanted me to go, and it seemed like the decent thing to do, but it was surprisingly upsetting. I had to leave early, actually. I had a ride there, but I left and walked home, from around 8th and Fairmount. I don't want to get into this too much on here, but it's tough, and it's making it more difficult to be on point.
I mostly was disciplined today, with a few exceptions: I had too many desserts at the party before leaving (though the walk back mitigated that), and I watched two episodes of the Wire, when I really only wanted to watch one, and maybe I shouldn't have watched any. However, I finished my preparations for tomorrow, worked out, mostly ate healthfully, thoroughly cleaned the kitchen, read more articles for 30 minutes, finished the French, and did some planning for Father's Day. With the completion of today's French, I have now completed Living Languages French Beyond the Basics for the second time. I might do it a third time at some point, since I think I still haven't mastered everything in the course.
My task to focus on today was getting new shoes. I spent a while looking on-line and visited two shops, but no one had anything that I was looking for. I'll have to pick that task up again at a later time. I don't feel bad for not finishing that, since I put in a good effort.
The one thing I do feel bad about is not spending time setting my computer up with the network. That should have been worked on during the hour when I was watching the second Wire episode. Oh well. Honestly, I was close to making a chip, soda, and Tastykake run on Old Nelson's and giving up for the night after I walked back from the party, so the fact that I rebounded at all is decent.

Plan for tomorrow: Get up at 10:45, eat, get ready, go over my notes from 12-1, teach from 1-3:30, and then after that the day could go one of two ways. One possibility is that we do something for Father's Day tomorrow, in which case most of the rest of the day will be spent on that (traveling to Media, eating, traveling back--easily 4.5 hours). The other possibility is that we do something at a later date, and I spend tomorrow afternoon working on things.
In the first scenario, upon returning, I would take care of the essentials. This means planning meals, food shopping, doing laundry, making a CVS run, and setting my agenda for the week.
In the second scenario, I might be able to knock off several of my tasks on the to-do list. These include: getting soap, getting cellophane tape, ordering/picking up a new pair of shoes, setting up the printer, copying recipes, getting a book for keeping copied recipes, as well as doing the other things I mentioned in the first scenario.

*POST FOR FRIDAY JUNE 13*
Items Removed From the Task List: ?
Items Added to the Task List: ?
Active Items Remaining:?
*The old computer isn't booting up right now, so I can't access my task list*

Summary of the day: I got up late but was disciplined after that. I listened to All Quiet on the Western Front during breakfast and lunch. I love it so far. During dinner I listened to NPR.
I alternated between Kaplan and my other tasks. My prep for Sunday is almost complete, so I should be able to get a head start on next week's class before next week begins. I did my accounting, French, replied to e-mails, and started planning for Father's Day. I need to talk to my sister about this tomorrow.
Later I watched another episode of the Wire and read some articles that my neighbor sent me. One was on "green jobs", another was on green roofs, and the third was on government surveillance. The first was the only one that contained substance that seemed to attain any depth. The last two I'd heard before. As the author of the first article said, more data is needed about the net gain or loss of jobs when switching traditional market sectors to green modes of operation.
Is there a net increase in jobs when switching to cleantech? If so, how long will that last? And why are there more? One argument I've heard is that cleantech is more labor intensive--does this mean the costs are inherently higher? That seems to deflate the argument that some make about green building being better both for the public good AND for the bottom line. And if the argument about net job gain is based on the observation that jobs will be created in the plus column, without considering anything else, that just seems foolish. Of course, I think these things should be done because they're the right thing to do, but other reasons are being sought out to convince people who either don't think it's the right thing to do or that think it's the right thing to do but won't act on that, and these reasons, if they exist, need to be clarified and transmitted.

Plan for tomorrow: Too bad I can't look at my task list right now while making my schedule. Here's what I can say in general: get up at 11:30, work on Kaplan until the Sunday lesson is complete, work on plans for Father's Day, possibly complete two short or one medium length task on the list, spend as much time as I need to finish the French (it'll be less than 1/2 hour), possibly go to that BBQ in the evening, watch another episode of the Wire, and continue setting my new computer up with the school network.

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.