Project updates
- Math relearning – I didn’t get a lot done on this last week, but I did learn some more about the code I need to write and make a list of the tasks involved, which I’ll try to get through this week. I’m feeling more motivated on this project both because I’ve been working on it and because I ran across an interesting article on Common Core math, which of course led me to other articles, and I might post the wiki article I started a while back for collecting links on the topic.
- Life maintenance
- Ulcerative colitis – I met with my gastroenterologist last week, and I’m going to try switching from Humira to Remicade, so that’ll start in the next few weeks.
- Diet – I got my cholesterol results back from the lab, and everything was in a normal range except total cholesterol and LDL, which were still greatly improved from my earlier numbers, so I’m going to stick to the TLC diet a while longer. I might need to start tracking my food again, because I’m noticing myself getting more lax.
- Exercise – I think I’m going to have to just set my alarm earlier so this gets done and then deal with whatever tiredness happens.
- Daily routine – Do you have any stubborn life patterns that resist all your intentions to change them? Bad time management is one of mine. It’s an issue in need of journaling, if I can get myself to do it. I guess I should set my alarm even earlier.
- Books – I’m waiting for a movie to be returned at the distant library that has the Magic Thief audiobooks so I can consolidate my trips and pick up both the movie and the next book, so in the meantime I’m listening to some short books I can cram into a week, such as Coraline by Neil Gaiman, which I’d never read (how many books does that guy write per year??), and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which I read as a child but don’t think I ever finished, and I didn’t remember the plot except that the main characters are two kids who run away from home to live in an art museum.
- Creative writing – The little story Coraline writes toward the beginning of the Gaiman book reminded me of a passing thought that I’m now thinking of turning into a project: writing extremely short stories as an exercise, partly just to get myself used to writing whole stories and partly to experiment with writing stories iteratively, expanding my story blips into longer flash fiction in several passes.
Life updates
- Politics – I haven’t gotten back into the topic of fringe theories, but I did see an interesting and troubling article recently about how they’ve made their way into mainstream politics. To me it highlights the need for listening, since Trump in some ways represents the frustrations of people who’ve felt ignored, and they’re now more able to speak to each other, so they feel validated, but I don’t think there’s still much listening across political lines, maybe because it feels unnecessary, dangerous, or impossible, but then there are cases like Chick fil A. One of my distant dreams is to be involved in some kind of dialogue organization.
Setting your alarm earlier might only but help so much if you’re so tired in the morning that you can’t get moving. I imagine that continuing to focus on getting to bed on time will still be pretty important.
Anyway, you might look into Jonathan Haidt about the political discourse interest. He’s a social psychologist who studies political discourse and argues that we can’t convince each other with arguments alone, since people don’t shift their cognitive beliefs until their intuition has shifted. Since we’re talking on the wrong level, we talk past one another far too often. I think he has an organization that promotes civil political discourse.
I agree about focusing on bedtimes. And thanks for the Jonathan Haidt recommendation! He seems very interesting.
Neil Gaiman is very prolific. Hope you get inspired with your reading. What genre will you write?
Hmm, I hadn’t thought much about the genre. It’ll probably end up being mostly SFF, some general realistic fiction, and maybe some experimental fiction.