Monthly update
Jun. 11th, 2006 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI've fallen out of the weekly updates. Suffice it to say I've been good. But at the start of the month I tried to take stock on a longer term, and though there was too much to be easily summarised, I was very pleased to see I've actually made much progress since I last went on an improvement jag.
Organisation
I wouldn't say I've completely beaten procrastination, but it certainly seems not to be a problem any more. I got a system, the key point being that it works when I get behind, so despite occasional wobbles, it's easy to stay in a good place, instead of being kicked into a bad place whenever something goes wrong.
What things do I not talk about? Well, quite a few things. Here, I admit I used to let something get out of control, and then be too scared to look at it. But it seems that working out what I'm scared of, triaging everything else onto next week's todo list, assessing it, asking what's the worst that can happen, and then what do I need to do from here, works. I highly recommend it if any of you ever feel lost :)
Work
I won't go into details, but for a couple of months it's been interesting and productive.
Summary
OK, I'm not as successful as I could be, but I'm enjoying life, which is good :) What I want to do is accept I can only seriously concentrate on one thing at once, and work out what should come next. Having achieved organisation means I *can* :)
Now I'm a bit older, I can think in terms of spending a couple of months aiming to fix something, and get into good habits which could be retained while I get on with my life, rather than feeling I should be able to do X right now, and if not getting dispirited and not being able to face it. Of course, many of you hopefully have everything you want in life right now, but as I say, there's no point pretending I can do something I can't.
1. Diet and exercise[1]. This should have been first a while ago. Let's see if I can follow mum's good example. If in the next year this was the only progress I made that'd be pretty damn good, all in all.
2. Finance. Check all accounts have good rates, all taxes and bills add up to what they ought, pension and stock options are in order, am on best tarrif for everything, that monthly expected and actual expendatures add up, and think about buying a house... Most of this will only take an afternoon, but definitely have good effort/reward, so let's get it out of the way.
3. Social. Concentrate on what/whose I enjoy going to most. Again, easy, can be done in parallel if I recognise it.
4. Work out where I want to go in life. Programmer? Program manager? Mathematician? Actuary? Accountant? Quant? Author?? It's not too late to do some research.
5. A variety of projects I'd like to do at some point.
* A winnie-the-pooh puzzle game I want to finish programming. (Currently in flash, I'm afraid.)
* Writing.
* Drawing. I need to practice. And I need to do a webcomic.
* Actively learn about programming, rather than solving each thing as it comes up.
* Some other programming projects, but with other thinking too, eg. customise a blog to be exactly how *I* want it, possibly make that available to other people too.
[1] Thanks to Simon for embedding in my mind how to spell this. One word at a time :)
Organisation
I wouldn't say I've completely beaten procrastination, but it certainly seems not to be a problem any more. I got a system, the key point being that it works when I get behind, so despite occasional wobbles, it's easy to stay in a good place, instead of being kicked into a bad place whenever something goes wrong.
What things do I not talk about? Well, quite a few things. Here, I admit I used to let something get out of control, and then be too scared to look at it. But it seems that working out what I'm scared of, triaging everything else onto next week's todo list, assessing it, asking what's the worst that can happen, and then what do I need to do from here, works. I highly recommend it if any of you ever feel lost :)
Work
I won't go into details, but for a couple of months it's been interesting and productive.
Summary
OK, I'm not as successful as I could be, but I'm enjoying life, which is good :) What I want to do is accept I can only seriously concentrate on one thing at once, and work out what should come next. Having achieved organisation means I *can* :)
Now I'm a bit older, I can think in terms of spending a couple of months aiming to fix something, and get into good habits which could be retained while I get on with my life, rather than feeling I should be able to do X right now, and if not getting dispirited and not being able to face it. Of course, many of you hopefully have everything you want in life right now, but as I say, there's no point pretending I can do something I can't.
1. Diet and exercise[1]. This should have been first a while ago. Let's see if I can follow mum's good example. If in the next year this was the only progress I made that'd be pretty damn good, all in all.
2. Finance. Check all accounts have good rates, all taxes and bills add up to what they ought, pension and stock options are in order, am on best tarrif for everything, that monthly expected and actual expendatures add up, and think about buying a house... Most of this will only take an afternoon, but definitely have good effort/reward, so let's get it out of the way.
3. Social. Concentrate on what/whose I enjoy going to most. Again, easy, can be done in parallel if I recognise it.
4. Work out where I want to go in life. Programmer? Program manager? Mathematician? Actuary? Accountant? Quant? Author?? It's not too late to do some research.
5. A variety of projects I'd like to do at some point.
* A winnie-the-pooh puzzle game I want to finish programming. (Currently in flash, I'm afraid.)
* Writing.
* Drawing. I need to practice. And I need to do a webcomic.
* Actively learn about programming, rather than solving each thing as it comes up.
* Some other programming projects, but with other thinking too, eg. customise a blog to be exactly how *I* want it, possibly make that available to other people too.
[1] Thanks to Simon for embedding in my mind how to spell this. One word at a time :)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-12 03:49 pm (UTC)Now hang on a minute. The flavour text makes clear that in later levels the heffalump traps (is the inconsistent non-canon spelling "hephalump" intentional?) are non-fatal to the Poohs, indicating clearly that Chris would prefer to have a Pooh safely confined but alive. I still don't think it's obvious that having him at the bottom of a trap fulfils this aim whereas having him completely trapped between trees and open pits does not!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-12 04:04 pm (UTC)Not really, but is entirely consistent with the fact that *cannon* spelling is inconsistent :)
The flavour text makes clear that in later levels the heffalump traps (is the inconsistent non-canon spelling "hephalump" intentional?) are non-fatal to the Poohs,
I admit I hadn't really thought this out. But the point is that it's all affected by Chris's subconcious. He's watched too many films or computer games where someone being violently hurt (fatally or non fatally) is a big deal and wrong but someone dropping into a pit is all clean and sanitary. The poohs in pits are *gone* from the world in whatever way (which is necessary because it improves the world a little bit), but not *hurt*, and especially not personally pummelled by Chris, because *relishing* violence set the world on the wrong track. Whether the poohs actually die or not is irrelevent.
Did that make any sense?
no subject
Date: 2006-06-12 04:14 pm (UTC)(I hate to spelling-flame again, but was it intentional that you said "cannon" in response to my "canon" in a sentence about spelling being inconsistent? ;-)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-12 04:19 pm (UTC)It makes sense, but I'm afraid it doesn't have the ring of rightness to me.
I think I should:
* Look at the flavour text again. Some of it is too devoted to bad puns, and it was mostly written as I went along, so it could probably stand a rewrite.
* Poll my friends to see if they get/like the metaphysics or not.