Weeknote for 11/12/2023

Christmas

😐

I settled on wishlist.com for my Christmas list but barely added anything to it. I’m sure I have excuses, but overall I’ve just been very distracted and procrastinatory lately. Now that I recognize that, hopefully this week I can pull myself together and finish researching what to add.

Productivity

😌

I replaced my detailed schedule tracker at work with a simpler one. This is a spreadsheet I made, along the lines of Cal Newport’s time blocking, that helps me manage my activity and determine what goes on my timesheet. With the old version I was wasting a lot of time updating it each day, and this new one is making the process a lot quicker. It’s an object lesson for me on how much it can cost to operate an overly complicated system.

Nature

🤔

I spent the week removing a mouse from my car. It was spending the nights in the metal tunnel under the windshield wipers. It was very cute, but they chew wires and leave diseased droppings, so it sadly had to go. So I bought some mouse repellent pouches made with balsam fir oil and stuffed one in each end of the tunnel, and now my car smells like Christmas whenever I run the heater. It seems to be working. Apparently mice don’t like nice smells.

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AI

🤓

Here’s a list of AI news digests and commentators that I follow. It occurred to me I’d never posted it. These are mostly for keeping up with the current generative AI boom, as opposed to other areas of AI. It looks like a lot, but their posts are staggered enough that it’s not a flood. The ones in bold are my favorites. I’m trying out the ones in italics. If you’re in a hurry to pick one, start with Last Week in AI or, if you want updates more often, Synthedia.