Weeknote for 10/1/2023

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Andy

Productivity

🤔

I got past another productivity blocker by pushing through my fatigue. Last week reminded me that when I’m tired, I lie around waiting to recover longer than I’d like. So I tried a new practice of mentally preparing myself on my way home from work to push through my moderate fatigue. Doing this reminded me that feeling tired is often temporary and I can get more done than I expect.

Math

😐

I got through another section of the book. This time I learned it’s a waste to try to type complicated formatting into my flashcards, so now I take a screenshot of anything that needs a visual layout, and that’s much faster. This week with my new productivity techniques I’ll try to get through another few sections before I switch to Christmas projects next week.

TV

😔🙂

Netflix DVD ended on Friday, and I’m finishing out my subscription with Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie was one of my first Netflix rentals, so ending with this series feels fitting. And so far I’m not disappointed with my choice. I haven’t decided whether to send the discs back afterward. Netflix has gone out of its way to tell us to keep our last rental as long as we like.

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Weeknote for 9/24/2023

Posted on September 28, 2023 by Andy

Productivity

🙂

I started experimenting with ways to regulate my evening schedule. I’m treating it as a coarser grained version of my routine timers. I set alarms for a few target tasks, and using those as a guide, I’m making adjustments to my activities based on my circumstances at the time. As usual it worked decently the first couple of days, so we’ll see how it holds up.

Math

🤔

I got through studying the textbook’s first section. Unbelievably slow progress, but hopefully it’ll go faster if my time management keeps up. I also had to work out the details of getting notes from Google Sheets into Anki. From this first section I found that learning flashcards for complex material is difficult but doable. Also taking notes was slow, so I’ll be looking at how to speed that up. It seems this project is as much about learning how to study as it is about learning math.

Nature

🧐

A skunk joined me on my walk. It was late at night, so I was on the lookout for them. Sure enough, about halfway through one came galloping toward me down the street. But this time instead of hurrying away, I stopped, watched, and started filming.

 

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Weeknote for 9/17/2023

Posted on September 19, 2023 by Andy

Productivity

🙂

I returned to my mini-Pomodoro timer at work—4 minutes of work and 1 minute of break. It sounds ridiculous, but for the most part it keeps my time organized. It’s enabling me to pay some attention to side projects that I would otherwise procrastinate on. I work on them during my mini-breaks throughout the day. This got me through my blog post and a motivation hurdle in my math project. At the same time, it boosted my work productivity, which had been in a slump.

Math

😌

After more deliberation and research on how to approach it, I finally started taking notes for my flashcards. I decided on writing them in Google Sheets to import into Anki. Now I’m experimenting with how much detail to include in the notes. And yes, I’m still in the prealgebra stage. So I’m looking at how I can speed things up without cheating my learning. I’m hoping to at least touch on algebra this iteration.

Fiction

🤔

I tentatively decided on a theme for my October media, which is horror web originals, focusing on the SCP Foundation. I might also pick up where I left off on EverymanHYBRID. If it turns out I’m not in the mood for all that, I’ll switch to weird fiction, probably starting with The Weird, a large anthology edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. And if I’m not in the mood for that, I’ll switch to classic horror with my old Victorian story list and a modern take on vampires, The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko.

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Weeknote for 9/10/2023

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Andy

Math

😐

I imported my notes from the earlier iterations and began considering how to make my flashcards. I was still distracted by my AI side project and didn’t gain much momentum on this one.

AI

😌

I got past my blockages from the week before. (1) I found out how to free Llama 2 from its excessive false refusals (just change the system prompt), and (2) I learned how to compile the llama-cpp-python code that will enable me to install more language models on my computer (install Visual Studio with the Windows SDK). These solutions open up avenues for a lot more experimentation. Specifically, I want to look for Llama 2 glitch tokens that will make its responses extra random.

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Weeknote for 9/3/2023

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Andy

Math

😐

I tracked down my notes from earlier generations of this project. That’s about all I gave myself time to do. This week I’ll make any flashcards I’m missing from prealgebra.

AI

🙄

I spent too much of my week struggling with chatbots on my computer. At any given moment I was either failing to prompt my way past Llama 2 chat’s confusions and false refusals or failing to compile the necessary llama-cpp-python package to install an unrestricted version, among other models. Maybe it’s a sign I should wait until I’ve gotten somewhere on math!

Nature

😎

I took advantage of the cooler weather to explore more new parks. One of them was a Monarch Waystation, a field with plants monarchs need for food and breeding while they’re migrating. That park also had a house for mason bees made by a Girl Scout.

 

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Weeknote for 8/27/2023

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Andy

Life maintenance

:relieved:

I bought a new 12-inch skillet and some clothes. My old skillet has needed replacing for years, and I hope having a new one will at least temporarily motivate me not to procrastinate on cooking. My wardrobe has also needed replacing for a while, so it’s good to have that ball rolling.

Math

😎

Next I’m learning math for a couple of months. I’ve been looking forward to this project because my spotty, truncated math knowledge has been a boulder in my path to the kinds of technical work I’d like to do, or at least a large pebble in my shoe. This week I’ll start with a brief review of the prealgebra I relearned a while back, then move on to algebra. I plan to make extensive use of flashcards, since they’ve worked so well for shorthand. To put myself in a math mood, I’ve been listening to Ian Stewart’s excellent In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World.

AI

🙂

I installed some more chatbots on my computer. Simon Willison’s LLM tool makes this easy for several of the well-known models. They’re slow on my computer but still usable. And compared to FreedomGPT, these are much more flexible and better supported. There’s also an older model I want to try called GPT Neo that’s behind the weird and funny philosopher dialogues on the SymposiumStream Twitch channel. That one has been harder to get running.

Movies

🙂

To continue winding down my Netflix DVD queue, I returned to my AI movie project with the classic Tron. I had never seen it, and I think the surreal visuals would have had my childhood self enthralled. Now, thanks to this movie, I have a much better context for understanding synthwave art. The story itself was a bit thin, but it’s interesting to think about all programs someday being intelligent agents and forming their own societies, especially if they treat the existence of humans as an article of faith.

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Weeknote for 8/20/2023

Posted on August 20, 2023 by Andy

Life maintenance

😐

I didn’t fix my sleep schedule, but I did take a break from pushing myself to work on things. This week I’ll do some invoicing and look into some purchases that have been waiting.

Productivity

🙂

My flashcards for Gregg Shorthand are working better than I expected. Each day’s review is only taking 5 to 15 minutes, and I’m actually using what I learn in my blog drafts, which I write in shorthand for practice.

Writing

:thinking:

I continued some research on plotless narratives. My impulse is always to probe the boundaries of whatever I’m learning about. So while I love the books on writing craft I’ve been listening to, when I hear that X or Y is essential for an effective story, I wonder. On this question I’ve been focusing on the idea of plot and collecting categories and examples of stories that minimize it. So far I’ve found slice of life, vignettes, sketches, and whatever is covered in Narrative, Interrupted. I’m looking forward to studying some of these at some point. Chekhov comes up a lot, so I might start there.

TV

:head exploding:

I was caught completely off guard by “Subspace Rhapsody,” season 2 episode 9 of Strange New Worlds. It’s a polarizing one—I’ve seen some angry comments. But in my opinion, it took what could’ve been a gimmick and made legitimate science fiction out of it, in the process advancing several character arcs. You’ll think I’m exaggerating, but it truly gave me a new appreciation for the characters, the cast, the show, and the power of music. It affected me so profoundly I spent a rather weird day or two with raw emotions floating at the surface, and I’m still pondering the episode a week later.

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Weeknote for 8/13/2023

Posted on August 19, 2023 by Andy

Art

😐

I learned Blender’s basic interface from the first few chapters of Blender for Dummies. That’s as far as I could get in a week. I maybe could’ve gotten into some modeling with Learning Blender’s more tutorial approach, but I felt a little more at home in the other book. While I may not have created any art, I did benefit from the thoughts Blender sparked on how I could design my information modeling software. But I do want to come back to 3D modeling before too long.

Writing

:thinking:

The Science of Storytelling felt like a kindred spirit. Will Storr took all the ideas about psychology that have accumulated in my mind over the years and used them to explain the shape of stories we find compelling. And it got me to ask questions like, what’s my sacred flaw that could be challenged if I were a character in a story—my fundamental strategy for maintaining control of my life?

Life maintenance

😐

This week and the next are for my seasonal housekeeping, the time when I catch up on my maintenance. But this week is really for taking a break and hopefully fixing my sleep schedule.

AI

😎

Simon Willison’s talk “Catching up on the weird world of LLMs” is a good explainer on ChatGPT and similar bots (video, annotated transcript). In an engaging, accessible manner he outlines the history of the technology, its issues, and things you can do with it. Simon’s blog is one of the sources I follow for AI updates and commentary.

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Weeknote for 8/6/2023

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Andy

Art

🙂

I did the first few exercises in Presto Sketching. The first two were for confidence building (shown last in the Instagram post), and the rest were basically warm-up. This week I’m trying out 3D modeling, but I’ll try to keep doing sketchnote exercises here and there.

 

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Writing

😎

I carried on with creative writing by listening to the fantastic How to Tell a Story by storytelling organization The Moth. The audiobook is read by the authors and includes clips of storytellers from their events. It did inspire me a little to think about what stories I could tell from my life. Talk Like TED came next and complemented the Moth book by covering one context for storytelling.

Productivity

🙂

I set up an Anki flashcard deck for Gregg Shorthand, starting with an imported one someone shared. So far the studying has been easy, and I think it’ll be a better approach than laboriously creating sentence writing exercises for each new set of words.

TV

🙂

I revisited my childhood with the Lindsay Wagner Bionic Woman. I’m taking advantage of the final couple of months of the Netflix DVD service. So far I can say the acting is a bit awkward but has its moments, the writing is pretty good, and they make an effective use of music. It gives the bionic powers an almost mystical feel. But I’m still in Jaime’s origin story on The Six Million Dollar Man, so I don’t know what will be different about her own show.

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Weeknote for 7/30/2023

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Andy

Writing

😎

To wrap up this iteration on creative writing, I listened to Matt Bird’s excellent Secrets of Story and turned my attention to short stories. Those are the kind I expect to write, so I found a book on writing flash fiction (Fred White’s Writing Flash) and researched short story collections to study.

Art

🙂

The next two weeks I’m switching gears to visual art with sketchnoting and 3D modeling. This week I’ll do some exercises from Ben Crothers’ books Presto Sketching and Draw in 4. Next week I’ll dip my toe into Blender.

Work

:raised eyebrow:

I’ve learned that my next two months at work are extra crammed full of work. I feel that at this point in my productivity development I can handle it, so this discovery didn’t generate the dread it might have before. I’ll try not to let my workload interfere with my personal projects.

Video games

🙂

I’m nearing the end of The Stanley Parable. It’s reminding me how long I take to play games, especially when I only play in small bites during dinner. I was also playing through two different versions, the original and Ultra Deluxe, which was well worth the impulse purchase. The whole set is an interesting and amusing metafictional satire on video games.

 

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