Update for 4/17/2016

On time! How did this happen?? It’s mainly because I used a little trick that’s helped me in other posts, writing no more than four (complicated) sentences per topic.

Project updates

• Math relearning – I’m now on Topic D, about a third of the way through pre-K Module 1. I’m still working out exactly what to create from these lessons apart from my random comments, but thanks to my random comments on the first lesson, I’m closer to knowing. I’ll post my comments and whatever else I come up with as I finish each module. Math relearning is my favorite project right now, partly because I have such good material to work with.
• Daily routine – The simpler organization for my schedule was easier to think about, but it didn’t really get me to stick to it. I have a couple of ideas for this week. First, I want to keep a record of how I spend my time in the evenings to see what issues I need to address, such as naps, and whatever else I notice. And second, for at least a day or two I want to try moving my life maintenance (walk and devotions) to the morning so I’m less likely to skip it.
• Diet – I did a few low-carb cooking experiments this week: (1) hot fudge sauce for my low-carb ice cream, (2) pancakes, and (3) a beef broth sauce for a fajita steak and vegetable combination. They all worked out pretty well, except that for the hot fudge I had to use a lot of Truvia, which made it gritty, so I’ll keep experimenting. Because I’m still learning how to cook and eat low-carbishly, I have trouble socializing around food, which put me in a bad mood Thursday morning when I was feeling pressured to help out with a potluck at church, hosting a visiting choir. My sister was a good listener and made me feel better; and after some reassurances from the event organizer that they’d be okay, I ended up saying no.

Life updates

• Board games – At lunch on Wednesday a few of us playtested a game my coworker Matt is creating. It’s tentatively called Good, Fast, Cheap, and that’s the idea. The players are building businesses and competing for contracts, but each development can only have two of those three qualities. I love that theme, and it makes me wonder what other aphorisms could be gamified.
• Video games
  • Minecraft – After resisting and then contemplating it for months, my friend Jeremy finally bought the game two Saturdays ago, and Tuesday night I hung out at their apartment and taught their nine-year-old son some Minecraft basics. Yesterday I set up a Skyblock island on a Minecraft server so Jeremy and I could play it together, which we stayed up pretty late doing. I’ve only played Minecraft with someone else once before, and it’s fun enough that I’m still thinking of applying to that other server, though I don’t want to crowd my time with gaming.
  • Super Mario – Our family didn’t have consoles growing up, so I never played most classic video games. But this year I’ve been watching a lot of speedrunners who play Super Mario Bros. 1 and Super Mario World, so I’ve been wanting to try them, though not to speedrun, because speed and I don’t even belong in the same sentence. I don’t have consoles to play them on, but that’s okay because of emulators, but I needed to own the game cartridges as basically licenses to play the games, and to my surprise I found them at a couple of Half Price Books in the area, so that was my Saturday afternoon. Late Saturday night I got the emulators set up, and so after 31 years, I’m finally ready to play these games that defined the childhood of everyone else in the entire world.
  • Controller – To make it easier to play Mario and other games, I decided to buy a controller for my PC. My main choices were between Logitech, which is what Jeremy uses, and Microsoft, which my online friend Speedy recommended; and I went with Logitech because (1) it was the cheaper option, (2) I’m not a serious gamer, and (3) it’s my first PC controller. After testing it on a few games, I reached some verdicts: Final Fantasy VII (on an emulator)–easier; Stardew Valley–easier; The Talos Principle–harder; Rocket League–harder, surprisingly, though this type of game is hard for me in any case, but I’ll try to get used to the controller because it seems like it should be the better input method.
• TV – I finished Daredevil season 2, and despite some unsatisfying dialogue I liked it, especially the last episode or two, which seemed to set things up interestingly for the next season or show. Now I’m back to The Sarah Jane Adventures, which feels like getting together with an old friend after a long absence. I also might be drifting into another, probably short, anime phase, a side effect of looking into these classic Japanese video games.
• Freelancing – At the end of the week I got a request for a couple of short jobs from my old employer, so I’ll be doing that this week. They’re a kind of automated proofreading I’ve done many times before, so unless they have unusual complications, they should only take a day or two.