Sustaining Momentum

I had a decent day yesterday. I was a bit busy at work so I didn’t do much writing, only updating my book blog. In the evening I started working on my big school assignment of the week, but after watching the target video I only tried to do the actual writing for about 45 minutes. So it was a modest investment of time, but I’m mostly satisfied with it. Finishing the assignment today to meet my goal will definitely be a stretch though. I think I’ll change it to noon tomorrow.

I danced yesterday, but I was discouraged at how badly I did, and end up spending nearly half the time just doing exercises. I need to review the instructional videos to figure out what I’m doing wrong, and I had intended to do so yesterday but I ended up watching another video about a guy speaking different kinds of Chinese in Chinese restaurants in New York and filming the other (Chinese) customers’ reactions. It was amusing, but the guy’s cocky attitude rubbed me the wrong way.

Anyway, as I was dancing and while cleaning afterward I thought about my goals. This week I’ve done really well and I’m proud of myself for that, but I’m concerned about sustaining this momentum. In my coursework I’ve been reading about self-efficacy—the belief in one’s ability to change one’s behaviors so that certain standards or goals can be reached. An important part of building self-efficacy is being reminded of one’s progress. I have tried to create systems for this purpose, but except for the first half of 2012 when I kept charts of time spent on language learning, I’ve never had significant success. I would like to program something eventually, but for the present, I want to direct my programming energy toward my memorization program. So, when I get the time, I’m planning to look for a way to do this. I’ve used Habitica before, but I didn’t find the effort that I invested in the RPG aspects to be proportionately satisfying (though that was during the alpha stages, so it might be worth another try). There’s also spreadsheets, which is what I used in 2012, but they require more effort than I like to render my results discernable.

In the past, my language goals have revolved around reading. Reading has many levels though, and being able to run your eyes over all the words on a page and formulating some idea of how they come together in meaning can be a long way from actually comprehending a text (as I discovered from this year’s Japanese test results). I’ve also found that reading does not have a significant effect on speaking fluency. So I was thinking that this year, since I’m gradually producing more English writing, maybe I can branch out my skills to be able to produce writing in another language as well. Production is its own proof of achievement.

Along with that, I’ve been thinking about language learning again. I don’t think I can or should stop learning a language completely. My plan was to wait until halfway through this year and then if I had time, I would return to studying a language, but it’s too strange to me. So the question is, which language should I study? Japanese is the most sensible answer for the present, as I am living here and I can practice (somewhat) easily if I try. I even have someone who would probably check my Japanese writing. Also, I still have not achieved my goals of being able to comfortably read visual novels and passing the JLPT 1. On the other hand, those goals no longer mean a whole lot to me. I’ve lost a lot of interest in anime and even visual novels, and from my current vantage point the number of jobs in Japan that will appeal to me in a year and a half is quite small. My next idea is Spanish. If I decide to teach in the US, Spanish would be my first or second choice of subjects. There are lots of resources available and if I am determined enough I could certainly find a way to practice it in the USA. If I don’t stay in the US though, I don’t see it being very useful. Finally there is Arabic. If I leave the US again, I will prioritize going to an Arabic-speaking country, and the sooner I get started the better. However, I’m not confident in my pronunciation or my capability to find someone to help me with it, and without that base I can see myself being easily discouraged.

Writing it out like this, I think I can eliminate Arabic from the possibilities, at least until I get back to the USA and find a tutor and/or some more motivation. I would really like to work on Spanish and take a test, because while I have a degree and living experience in French, a certificate and experience in Japanese, and experience in Russian, I have no proof of Spanish skills whatsoever. I feel like I could have a conversation in Spanish with a little study, and I know that I can read and understand Spanish texts. However, I will have to speak Japanese in the next two months, and I don’t want to get mixed up, so I think I will study Japanese while I am here. I will use my grammar textbook to create sentences and ask O-Sensei about them.

Cute conversation with kids

I haven’t slept well lately. Monday I set my alarm back to 6:25 to make sure I had time to read the Bible and do devotions. On Tuesday I set it to 6:20. Both times I woke up very disoriented, so I decided to stop moving my alarm earlier until I was a little more accustomed to the time. This morning my neighbor woke me up a little before six (maybe she had to catch the train, poor girl). I dozed a bit but still decided to start reading before the alarm. However, I was still really disoriented and barely able to keep my eyes open.

Monday I managed to complete my goal of all the textbook reading plus the quiz, and I even got a perfect score on the quiz. The material was quite interesting, but by the end of the day I was too tired to appreciate and really think about it. So I’m not sure that I will try that again. Yesterday I did the extra presentations, but that was only about twenty minutes together. After finishing that, I did a lot of programming. I made good progress and I think I’ve probably fully converted my formerly working program from a multi-windowed nightmare into using panels instead. Next I need to make sure that I can add verses manually, maybe test the reviewing a bit more, and add options.

I had a good chat with my brother last night. It seems that he might be picking up an interesting hobby (yard sale/thrift store reselling). I’m looking forward to hearing more about it when I get home.

On my way to work this morning I passed a few first graders. One of them ran to catch up with me and asked me if I had a beard. My hat/shapka is very furry, so I can understand their confusion. I unbuckled it and said “no!” and we all laughed. I walked a little further and they ran to catch up with me again, and we talked:

C: “Can you speak Japanese?”

Me: (in Japanese) “a little.”

C: “Speak!”

Me: “ohayo gozaimasu” (good morning)

C: “Ooh, even though you’re American, you speak Japanese!”

Me: “Can you speak English? Hello?”

C: “Hello!”

Me: (in Japanese) “Oooh! Even though you’re Japanese you speak English!”

C: “Oooh! You spoke Japanese again!”

So that was cute and funny.

Future of Japanese Study

I had a very productive weekend. I finished the week’s schoolwork a day ahead of time, on Saturday evening, and I danced and shopped, and did a little bit of programming too. On Sunday I did laundry, went to church and the gym, then cooked in the evening. I also did a little more programming and started the textbook reading for this week. My goal is to finish the textbook reading and do the quiz today, but the reading is quite long so it might be a stretch. At sixth period today I hope to watch the first graders do the 百人一首 tournament.

I realized yesterday that I might be able to give some of my belongings to people at church. From the list that I made, the only thing that I’m dead set on selling is my bike and saddle bags, though I think it only makes sense to sell the other accessories with the bike. My rice maker is in good condition and rice makers are in high demand so I feel confident that I can get at least twenty bucks from it. If it’s appraised at less than that, I wouldn’t feel too bad about giving it away also. The rest of my belongings: music stand, coffee maker, trash can, etc. I’ll probably try to ask the incoming teachers if they want to have, and if not, I’ll offer them to people at church.

My other thought of this weekend was about the JLPT. My score was 84, and the passing score is 100. I still did very poorly with the reading, and I think in order to improve I would need to read and answer comprehension questions. As of right now, I can’t envision a setup in which I would be motivated to do this consistently. Furthermore, returning to Japan, while still possible, seems less likely than ever. Therefore passing the test seems to have value primarily in abstraction. For the next year and a half I want to prioritize schoolwork, then supplementing my savings, staying healthy and fit, and finally working on programming projects before any other activities. With so many things already on my plate and my schedule liable to be mutable, I think it might be difficult to commit to something as time-intensive as studying for the JLPT. So I think I will give up on Japanese for the first six months or so of this year. If I can make it through half of the summer feeling like I have some extra time and willpower to devote to another pursuit, I think July won’t be too late to start studying.

The vanity of godless pursuits

This week ended up being a case-in-point for why I can’t play video games. On Sunday, instead of going to church, I watched some “Let’s Play” videos on youtube. This got me back into Dwarf Fortress. I didn’t play enough to disrupt my sleep, and I even made decent progress on my schoolwork (though I’ll admit that I’m about a day behind my plan from a week ago). But I did no exercise at all, even though I probably could have any day except Wednesday. My blog posting also suffered. Furthermore, I developed a bad attitude about work, and especially about the upcoming training seminar practice. I would probably be a bit sour about it anyway because it’s stressful and it forces me to speed-eat my dinner that day, but it’s kind of been haunting me because I feel like I won’t have enough time. And why won’t I have enough time? Because I want to spend it on video games.

There are many neat aspects of Dwarf Fortress, like the story-telling potential, but for me it really turns into a min-maxing colony builder. There isn’t much of an overarching goal for the game the way I play it, so when I reflected a bit on my week tonight I decided that I could drop it and direct my energies elsewhere.

I can’t remember where it came from (most likely from schoolwork), but for the last couple of weeks I’ve had the idea running through my head from Proverbs: “Get wisdom at all costs”. I picked up the Tim Keller devotional again briefly, and still found it underwhelming, but I was struck by his reference to a wise man building his house on rock vs. a fool on sand. He said that the greatest foolishness is basing your life on anything other than God. I’ve been obstinately trying to do that for most of my life, and in this last year I have felt the hollowness of this pursuit. In these past couple days also I’ve been feeling an echo of it. Though I’m set on the path of getting a Master’s in education, I’m constantly questioning my future career. In these thoughts resounds the vanity of godless pursuits.

Also, I think in one of the prayers Tim Keller talked about how Jesus lived with wisdom. It reminded me of how much I love the Idiot and other books or stories where the main character is Christ-like. Given that, why don’t I study the life of Christ more? I’ve only read through the New Testament past Matthew once in my adult life. And maybe it's worth reading a three-minute devotional to get that occasional nugget of gold.

It’s been almost a month since I started my resolutions. Honestly, I haven’t done very well. I’ve given up fanfiction, but my exercise and video game results have been mixed, and my spiritual focus has been non-existent. I excused myself for the latter by telling myself that I need to get advice from someone first, but I haven’t made any effort to get the advice. Thus, I haven’t made any effort on that resolution. Well, tomorrow I’m going to get started on it even without that advice. Incidentally, I also decided tonight that I only need to make night-before to-do lists on weekends.

Chickpea Bowls and Teacher Roles

I brought my rubik’s cubes to school yesterday and during the after lunch recess I went to the gym and played with them. The kids were amazed, even though I messed up the first time I tried to solve one, so it definitely took me more than two minutes. I solved it again and took less time the second time. It was a bit amusing to me that I got so nervous and messed up even with just a few sixth graders watching me.

Cooking dinner ended up taking longer than I expected (as usual). The recipe is only supposed to take thirty minutes, but I knew I would be slower so I figured on an hour. It ended up taking an hour and a half, so I decided to call off my exercise (again!). The miso chickpea bowl with tofu was really tasty though, and I’m looking forward to having it again tonight. I didn’t dry the chickpeas as much as I should have, so I probably burned the miso marinade by roasting the chickpeas long enough that they weren’t mushy anymore. I’ll have to try again sometime and make sure to do enough preparation.

After dinner I played a little bit of Dwarf Fortress, maybe for half an hour or so, but then I worked on my second textbook reading. I had hoped to take the quiz yesterday, but the reading turned out to be longer than I expected—even taking only a page of notes, it took me an hour and a half to read this second chapter of the textbook. I quite enjoyed the first chapter, and I liked the idea of the second chapter—metaphors for teaching—but in general I found that the author had little of value to say about the topic. It was mostly common sense, I thought. The metaphor of teacher as storyteller was kind of a romantic notion to me and quite interesting. Oh, he also talked about the teacher as a prophet. I took notes about that not because what he said was insightful, but because I was interested in how my high school folly might be more appropriate than I could have imagined.

Getting up this morning, I found that my legs were a bit sore. Eventually I remembered that we did the song “One little two little three little pumpkins” yesterday, and at every mention of pumpkins we squatted to make a pumpkin shape. I think in all we squatted only twenty four times, but apparently that was enough to make me sore. Maybe I need to add squats to my workout. After googling the benefits of squats, it sounds like it’s a really good exercise and could help me if I ever start playing tennis again.

Recipe Inspiration

At work yesterday I read almost all of the primary textbook reading for this week. It took about two hours. I also did some research for new recipes and discovered minimalistbaker.com, which has lots of delicious-looking vegetarian recipes. I found one for miso-sesame roasted chickpeas that I'm going to try for dinner tonight. This reminded me of a conversation with my conversation student who is a school nutritionist. She didn’t believe that adzuki beans could be used in anything other than sweet dishes. So I found a spicy Indian bean curry that uses adzuki beans.

After work I went to the supermarket and stocked up. I should have exercised, but since I had two days in a row of reduced sleep and also ate some a lot of candy after dinner which made my stomach feel a little overfull, I decided to pass. I read a bit from my second textbook reading, but somehow ended up skipping two chapters ahead without realizing it. When I checked my chapter progress and saw that I was in the wrong place altogether, I got a bit fed up and put down the textbook. I watched a couple of rubik’s cube videos but didn’t learn anything, and finally I read the Silmarillion until I got sleepy, just before 10. I think I got a good night’s sleep finally.

Productive despite distractions

Saturday I spent the majority of the day doing schoolwork. My effort paid off though, as I easily made perfect scores on both of the quizzes, which were on the longer side. In the afternoon I climbed, and did better than last week but still got tired around the hour mark, and just barely held out for another thirty minutes. In the evening, I was tired of working, so I played an idle game for three hours until I was too sleepy to stay awake. I woke up on Sunday and played a little more, but soon got bored of it.

I was resolved to go to church on Sunday, and was even ready to go except for changing my clothes, but as usual the idea of spending so long traveling and then meeting people and having to talk to them dissuaded me. I had watched a short video about how in Japanese it is rude to use the word for you, because it sounds like you can’t remember the other person’s name. At church, that is absolutely the case for me. I’ve been introduced to most of the people a couple of times and yet I only remember the names of the pastor, his children (not his wife) and a couple of other people. So not only is it uneasy because it’s in Japanese, and I don’t know the people well, but it’s difficult to talk to them because I can’t even remember their names. At my church in the US I also had this difficulty, but because the names are familiar and most of them were printed out sooner or later, I learned most of the people’s names eventually.

The time spent not going to church was only partially invested in school assignments. After that I wanted to get inspired, so I went to Youtube. Why do I think that Youtube is a good place for this? For a while I was inspired by tiny home videos, but I stopped watching those about a month ago because I had seen enough that the differences were insufficient to keep my interest. Videos motivate me to work on my climbing, but since I climbed on Saturday, there was no point in gathering motivation for that. They’re also good for dance, but I try to do my exercise later in the day to keep a consistent schedule for the weekdays. In conclusion, I need to reconsider my source of motivation, because rather than motivating or inspiring, Youtube distracted me.

First, I watched nearly thirty minutes of a Terraria speed run. Of course, this made me want to play Terraria, and I might have done so if I had it installed, but fortunately the combination of resistant will and the hassle of downloading and installing was enough to dissuade me. However, this video led me to a dwarf fortress video. I had started reading the Silmarillion on Friday, and Dwarf Fortress plucks some of the same notes in my heart, so I downloaded the new version and set it up. As usual, the setup alone took hours, and often I never get to the point of actually starting the fortress after doing all the planning. The last time I got past that stage so was probably five years ago. This time also I pushed through to the actual playing. For some reason I wasn’t held in the game’s thrall though, and after about an hour of actually playing I stopped and did my dancing for the day.

The dancing was not great, and I think I got tired overly quickly, after just half an hour, but I tried a couple of new moves and felt slightly better about a couple of old ones. At night I ate some kit-kats (snack-size) but I avoided ginger ale based on my hypothesis from the previous night that it disrupts my sleep. Nevertheless, I couldn’t go to sleep until about 1. This ended up being a good thing though, because my restlessness incited me to continue working on the assignment that is due today at 2 PM. Working on it last night meant that I managed to finish it before breakfast this morning.

First school assignment

My first real school assignment is due by 2 PM. It was tough, but I managed to finish it shortly after 11 PM last night. Part of the assignment felt like the usual academic nonsense, but in trying to write it I thought a lot about the Bible, so the assignment wasn’t a waste of time. I also prioritized exercising and thus did it in a timely fashion. It was a little boring because I feel like my repertoire of dance moves is quite limited, and the music I like to listen to (JPop/rock) honestly is not the best for my kind of dancing. But I did learn a new move, so I should feel good about it. Also, my hand has healed enough that I think I can go climbing tomorrow.

Last night I read for maybe ten minutes before giving up on the new fantasy book that I had started reading. I think I’ll try to return to historical books for my bedtime reading. If I’m seized by the desire to read fantasy books, I’ll start the Silmarillion.

Behind

As I expected, I wasted my Tuesday free time on the Cradle book series, and failed to exercise. Yesterday morning at work I read the last chapter of the sixth book. There are seven books, but it turns out that the seventh book doesn’t finish the series, and it just came out in September so the next book won’t be out for a while. Moreover, the reviews of the seventh book complained about the lack of plot development and a particularly painful cliffhanger. Since the sixth book ended on a strong note, I decided to drop the series for a while, which meant that I could have worked on schoolwork after work. However, I ended up getting home after 8:30 and was quite tired, so I just read for a while and then went to sleep early.

I woke up an hour early, but went back to sleep. Then I woke up again at 6:15, sneezing and congested. I feel perfectly fine otherwise, but my nose is still not very happy, and I’m carrying around tissues in case I have an emergency (which has already happened this morning).

It turns out that my first grad school assignments were actually due on Tuesday. I realized that about one of them, but I couldn’t figure out how to submit it. I somehow forgot about the other one, which seems impossible with the to-do list clearly set up. I don’t understand how it happened either. My instructor emailed me about it, but I didn’t check my school email because it has been spam only up to this point. This is why I can’t afford to play video games. An hour or two wouldn’t be a problem most days, but if I focus on it exclusively like I did with reading on Tuesday, I will almost certainly get behind on my assignments. Also, I need to remember that this first week of classes is very busy, and I need to stay on my toes as much as possible.

For today, I’m going work on school until 7 exactly, then dance and take a shower, then work until I’ve completed my forum post. I expect that will take a little longer than I want to spend on it.

Return to fantasy books

Sunday was a decent day—I danced and did a lot of cooking. First, I made taco rice with pinto beans, which was not particularly tasty but there was nothing bad about it. I’d give it a 6/10. Then I made vegetable tikka masala with paneer. That was absolutely delicious, and if I had cooked the carrots a bit better and if I could have added some smoked paprika it would have been a 9/10. It wasn’t the easiest thing to make though, because it required fresh cilantro blended with onions, garlic, and ginger. Not that hard I guess, but dirtying another dish, especially one as difficult to clean as a blender, is a bit painful for me.

On Sunday night I finally started reading the new fantasy book. The first half of the book was a bit plodding and frustrating, but I didn’t put it down because my neighbor and her guest were stomping around and talking loudly. By the time they got quiet a little after midnight, I had passed the halfway point of the book and was thoroughly engrossed. I ended up finishing it and even starting the next book, but I lost concentration around three and went to sleep.

Monday was a holiday, but as it was my third day at home in a row it ended up being a bit of a wash. In the morning I did some important things in preparation for my graduate school course and tried to work on redesigning the GUI for my memory program, but I ran into a couple of snags. I put a bit of halfhearted research into untangling them before giving up—I will need a lot of willpower and determination to get through them I suspect, which means the weekend. Then I went back to the fantasy books, finishing the second, third, and fourth before going to sleep.

Girl at the gym

I was inspired to cook two big meals, so I bought a lot at the supermarket. Afterward I went to the climbing gym for the first time in two and a half months. As expected, it was difficult. I did climb my favorite red problem (triangle on the alps) on my first try though. I noticed a girl seemed to be following me around and at one point she came to the same wall as me, did a problem, and stood right next to me. It was awkward and it made my heart pound really fast. Incidentally, she was very cute and had the extremely attractive combination of pale skin, black hair, and a purple top. I eventually decided that it was too strange not to talk to her, so I talked to her about the problem a bit.  Then I tried the problem a couple of times but my limbs were shaking from excitement so I did quite poorly. After that she left me alone which would have made me sad six months ago, but now I'm looking forward to going home and am not interested in making friends. At the one hour mark I tore off a bit of skin on that same problem, and apparently they don't keep free bandages at the gym anymore. I tried to climb without that finger, but it was tough so I quit after another fifteen minutes.

At home I made paneer. I'm not sure how it has turned out yet, but it seemed to work properly up to the point where I put it in the fridge. I didn't really do anything else until going out for game night. We played Move or Die and then some Counterstrike. Move or Die was fun, but so intense that I got tired. I would say that 20 minutes is about the max I could play without taking a break. We did play another round after a break, though. We also played two rounds of Counterstrike in which I once again proved how bad I am at shooting games.

I had planned to go to church but I had too many salty foods without water last night, so I woke up feeling not really hungover but definitely slothful and unwilling to move from my bed. At ten I finally forced myself to get breakfast, after which I felt much better.

Conversing for a living

I waited a little too late today to write, and now I'm more focused on what I have to do today and I don't quite remember what I did yesterday.

School was decent. I ended up having only two classes, one with the learning challenged students. There was only one student, and usually she won't speak above a whisper, but at least at the beginning of the class when I was working with her she spoke at an almost normal volume. Her reading of roman letters has really improved. In that classroom there is a Rubik's cube that I really wanted to play with, but there was a third teacher there today sitting right next to the cube, so I didn't dare. In the second class I prepared a running dictation activity which was a little too difficult for the students, but the teacher was satisfied with it. Actually, for the last twenty minutes of that period I went to have a practice conversation with a third grade student who has great academic success but apparently gets very nervous during interviews. It was a bit difficult to talk to her for that whole time since she only asked me one question, after I requested that she ask me a question.

This situation made me think--if you had told me ten years ago that I would be conversing with people for a living, I would have thought you had me confused with someone completely different. But while that's not the only thing I do, it's probably close to half. For all the time I've spent on it, I don't feel like I've improved a whole lot, but I have improved some.

After work I did some dancing and was still disappointed at my progress, and even got a bit bored so I stopped after half an hour. Yesterday was the first day that I could access my grad school coursework, so I did so and watched the introductory video. The instructor has a quaint southern accent, not unlike my mother's, and I want to ask her where she's from. I also tried to get a to-do list application, but I didn't find anything that met my specifications. I'm a bit tired of my book about Carthage, and I'm thinking about dropping it, but for a break I thought I would read some fantasy and maybe return to Carthage later, so I downloaded the Silmarillion and one other fantasy book to try. I got started on my next programming step, and then I reviewed Arabic. After that it was only 10:30 or so, but I was too sleepy to read so I went straight to sleep.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 because of my neighbor, but I didn't feel too sleepy. I have a to-do list today so I got started on it. I reviewed Arabic, watched two presentations for my grad course, did laundry, and made a grocery list. I also solved the Rubik's cube several times, enough to bring my average time for these past three days below three minutes. I did some programming, but it seems that the way I have set up my GUI is not only ugly but also extremely susceptible to bugs, and indeed I'm not even sure how to do certain things with the current structure. So my next step will be redesigning the GUI. First though, I'm going to go to the grocery store.

Goal reminders

I had a lot of energy yesterday despite my long Wednesday, and volunteered to go to a fifth class and act like a crocodile. After school I went to the supermarket and bought just a couple of things, then went to work and ordered a textbook for one of my students, then picked up my new Rubik’s cube from the shipping place. After dinner, I ended up spending almost the remainder of my night playing with the cube.

This meant that I did no exercise. Apparently I was seeing exercise as a kind of optional, which is a misconception that I need to clear up as soon as possible. Well, yesterday was kind of exceptional because I got the new Rubik’s cube and was excited about it, so I let it go for that day but really, I want to exercise every day, even if it’s just lightly moving to music. Another thing I forgot was Arabic. I finished the alphabet but haven’t done any review since that day (Tuesday?) so I’m overdue. I’ll definitely do it tomorrow.

In fact, I should probably reiterate my goals for the present. I want to exercise every day. It’s not really possible on Wednesday, but unless I’m sick or have a special event there is no excuse for not doing something physical every other day. I want to wake up early. I’ve been sticking to 6:30, but I would like to push it to six. Related to that, I want to work on my spiritual life. I tried reading a devotional, but after five days it felt so inane that I dropped that habit, and I need to make new plans. I want to cut out video games and fanfiction and replace them with programming, graduate school, and less time-consuming activities. I have succeeded well with this. My programming has progressed well and I think will continue to do so, and Rubik’s cube isn’t nearly as addictive as video games.

I’d also like to add a nightly routine, which I haven’t done consistently yet. After my free time, I will write a to-do list for the next day, and then read until I’m sleepy. Maybe a to-do list website or computer application would help me to remember to do this. A couple more short-term goals—I’d like to have my memory program in a marketable state by the time I leave Japan. I’d also like to feel comfortable with the Arabic alphabet by the same time, which means doing a little bit every day.

Ah, but about the cube. I had planned to learn the CFOP method, which is used by the world record holders. But then I heard about the Roux method, and how it was much more fun, included cooler finger moves, and required few moves. But it turns out that CFOP has more algorithms and after watching a few videos I decided that it looks cooler. But trying to solve with the CFOP method by looking up the algorithm took forever and was not fun, so I looked for ideas on how to learn it, and read that I shouldn’t consider it until I was averaging below two minutes at most with the beginner method. Right now my best time is 2:32, and I’m averaging almost a minute above that, so in the end I think I will work with the beginner’s method at least for another week.

Last night I saw some wedding pictures from someone at church. I think this caused me to dream about returning home and then going back to church, and receiving rebukes for not telling anyone that I was coming home. I did tell one person a couple months ago, but there’s someone else that I really need to tell and I have had a email draft to him for about a month and in my mind for longer than that, but I can’t seem to make myself sit down and write it.

First day back to school

Yesterday I was really tired even though I only had two classes at school. I guess a 12-hour workday is long regardless of how much work is actually done. After my eikaiwa classes I went to pick up my new Rubik's cube from the delivery shop, but they didn't have it so I'm going to pick it up today. When I got home after 8:30, I basically just researched Rubik's cube methods and played around with the Rubik's cube until I decided that it was too late to do anything but sleep. It took me a while to fall asleep after that, which could be attributed to my having the light on late and not reading, or it could be because I ate and drank soda quite late, until 9.

This morning I was thinking about a friend from college who posts a lot on Facebook. I think he might be one of the most academically intelligent people I know, but there's a lot that I don't agree with in his posts. I think it's mainly because he's pushing back too hard against his upbringing, to the extent that I'm not sure his worldview is even Christian anymore. I'm convinced that culture is wiser to the extent that it is informed by the Bible, but I'm almost certain that he would not agree.

Functional program and new Rubik's cube method

Yesterday I had a slightly more balanced day. I programmed quite a bit, but in the end, I didn’t make as much progress as expected. Do I ever meet time expectations in programming? I don’t think so. However, I did manage to achieve basic functionality by exporting program data to XML format, and I fixed a very frustrating bug related to the text correction system. Just in itself this is fairly decent progress. I also added some important functionality to the review system to make it less annoying, and tried to add a due date to reviewed verses, though I suspect there’s a problem somewhere in that.

There was a lot of resistance, but I managed to make myself get up and dance. The last time I was most happy with my progress with the Fresno, or hitting, but yesterday it was like starting from zero with how badly I moved. The other moves were on the stiff side as well—as expected of the first day back after four days on followed by four days off. Still, I managed to find enjoyment, and afterwards I completed my long dreaded thorough cleaning of the toilet. I had hoped to get a little more cleaning done before going back to work, but with the place tidy and the toilet clean, I am appeased.

Aside from producing a functional version of my memory program, going to Yokohama, and cleaning, I had two more goals for the break. First was to do a fake pack to see how much stuff I need to get rid of and whether I will need to send an extra box home. I decided that this was a bit pointless at such an early stage—it was mainly fueled by my excitement to be going home anyway. Second, I wanted to make paneer. I bought the milk, but I got absorbed in programming and never actually went through with making it. Friday shouldn’t be too late though, or even tomorrow if I get the urge.

By seven last night I had added all the easy features to my program, and my next planned feature was to a complicated window which I didn’t feel like starting. Instead, I cleaned the stains from my handkerchiefs and prepped my bag and clothes for my first day back at school. Then I started working on the Rubik’s cube, which I hadn’t done much of to that point. I decided to learn a faster algorithm. After research, I found the most popular speed-solving method, but it turns out that the first two steps are done entirely intuitively, leaving only the last two steps to be done by algorithm. So, my goal was to practice doing the first two steps intuitively. The website suggested doing the first step by preparing, and then moving the cube without looking at it, and also to keep the cross side down so that the other sides are easier to see. This was really difficult, and I spent over two hours practicing it. My speed cube comes tonight, and while I was worried that it might be a waste out of my not using it, now I’m more worried that it might be a waste because I don’t need such a nice cube yet.

Programming Haze

Yesterday I didn't even think about video games, so concentrated I was on programming. I hit several frustrations, but I pushed through. As mentioned in my previous post, I was intimidated by saving data, and I left it as the last feature to complete before considering the application to have basic functionality. I started to install a SQL database, and then decided that that was way too heavy-duty, at least for right now. A few minutes with Google reminded me that I could save data in XML, which I have done before though I don't remember it well. A couple more minutes led me to a library that converted entire objects into XML with a single line of code. That's what I'm talking about! Unfortunately, importing that library into my project became a nightmare because the instructions didn't seem to apply to my IDE. I searched Google for probably three hours and installed a new and old version of my IDE. Then I suddenly realized that this mysterious "Maven" that I was forced to make a project with was some kind of library repository which was able to painlessly download missing libraries, including the one that I was trying to use. Probably ten minutes later the library was working, but by that time it was already 11 PM so I got to a stopping point and shut her down.

I dreamed about Rubik's cubes again, although it seemed like I spent less time on it yesterday than the day before. I solved the puzzle eighteen times with an average time around 4:15. It was interesting to feel myself get slower as evening approached, though my second to last solve set my new record at 3:02. I'm thinking about buying a speed cube. Eh, why not.

I also went to Tsuruya, and found my decision not to take a bike ride vindicated. Just in that ten minute ride I hit four icy patches and I slid and fell off my bike at one of them. I landed on one foot so there was no injury, but it was scary and also I was glad that I didn't have any groceries with me at the time. Coming back home I was more careful.

In the end I did no exercise again, and no reading because I was determined to solve my library problem. I did finish tidying up my apartment, so I have no excuse not to do some serious cleaning today. Except, you know, programming. But I will definitely do at least some cleaning after I dance.

Day of Programming

Yesterday was kind of amazing. I woke up at four and went back to sleep around 6:30 for two more hours. After that I more or less programmed or played with the Rubik's cube all day, with breaks for coffee, lunch, and talking to my parents. Yet despite hours and hours of programming, I don't have a lot more to show for it, even looking at lines of code written. I designed a text browse window and achieved two objectives: based on a read file, display the indices (references) for the texts, and display the texts themselves. Next I want to work on the really excited part: the review window with text checking and correction. Then I'll dive into the dark nightmares of saving and loading data.

As far as the Rubik's cube goes, I can now complete it without looking at the instructions. My record is 4:20, but the next three tries after that all went over ten minutes because I made mistakes. I'm pretty sure that I could improve my time a lot on the first two levels of the puzzle, but I think I'm doing well for only having practiced for two and a half days.

This morning I finished learning the Arabic alphabet. Which doesn't mean I'm finished studying it by any means, just that I can recognize the roman alphabet equivalent for all the Arabic letters. Probably. I definitely need to do more review.

Slow programming

About 9 last night I suffered from a sneezing attack, which revisited me about 4:30 this morning. I'm thinking about making a bike trip tomorrow, provided that a cold doesn't haunt me all day today. It's going to be frigid in the morning, but there shouldn't be any precipitation.

Yesterday was kind of a wash. I went shopping, cooked dinner, watched some Jojo, studied Arabic, and did a good bit of programming, but I feel like that only accounts for about six hours. I spent another two or so working on my newly acquired Rubik's cube, managing to solve it three more times, the last time in less than fifteen minutes. Even though that time was not too long, I was seeing and thinking about the Rubik's cube as I went to sleep last night.

I actually ended up playing a video game (Streets of Rogue) for about three hours, which allowed me to beat it for the first time. It's much more fun in a social setting, and I don't think I can really lose myself to it for days, but I have put in almost forty hours since I bought it. Hopefully it won't draw me in again though--I no longer have the excuse that I haven't beaten it yet. There is still quite a bit of mysterious time to account for in my day. Maybe I need to use a time tracker.

For dinner I tried to make fish curry. I used cod, which was the only fish that looked mostly boneless and not too expensive. I think it worked quite well, but the curry itself was a different matter. First, the tomatoes I used were Del Monte, but they had an unpleasant flour-like flavor. I've noticed it before, but I thought it was from a different brand of tomatoes, so I guess now I need to just remember not to buy canned tomatoes. I also added too much yuzu, i.e. citrus flavor. The sauce was a bit too sour and fruity. Then to fix this I decided that adding mustard would be a good idea. It wasn't. So I've got two more meals of peculiar fish curry. I would like to make a decent fish curry, but next time I'll try following the recipe.

In programming I ran into several minor obstacles which slowed me down but didn't stop me completely. I designed the browser view, and then redesigned it when I decided to use a tree instead of a list to browse the texts. I also created the ReviewManager class and nailed down a lot of its functionality, although I didn't write any methods beyond getters. When I write what I accomplished it's hard to believe that I spent three hours, but I'm pretty sure that time is close to accurate. I need to write or rewrite a to-do list for the program--maybe it would help speed things up.

Back from Yokohama

How quickly I've forgotten my "habits!" Granted, it's only been a week, and yesterday I was out of town, but still! I've been writing a blog in my head all morning, and only now did I even think to actually write!

I traveled to Yokohama on Thursday. I had originally planned to spend three nights, but I decided that if I was going alone, two nights would be sufficient. Then when I got there, it turned out that the museums were all closed, so I decided that my one night was sufficient and came back home on the last train yesterday. For the most part I thought Yokohama was a really beautiful city. If you want to shop and eat without being overwhelmed by tourists, it's probably as nice as it gets. The sea and the bridges were highlights, and really made the city unique. I spent almost the whole time shopping, and despite the incredible array of food choices, all but my last meal ended up being convenience store food.

As for today, it's a bit of a lazy and strange day. My phone says that I walked almost thirty kilometers yesterday, and while I don't doubt that that's a high number, my legs are telling me that it's not too far off. So I won't be dancing today. And because I didn't remember blogging until the afternoon, this entry is looking like it will stop pretty soon.

Programming breakthrough

Yesterday was a beautiful albeit cold day, but I didn't take the chance to enjoy it. Compared to the previous day, I don't know where the time went. Oh yes, that's probably because after waking up early, I took a long nap and woke up at 10:30. I got my reservations completed for my trip, but I think I spent most of my time working on programming. I refactored all of my previously written code into the new project in Netbeans, and easily accomplished what I had first tried to do a month ago when my problems began--I made the program read a text file of a few Bible verses, and then display only the text of the first verse in a text box. Once this was successful, I did a lot of work on the GUI design.

I almost talked myself out of dancing just because I didn't feel like it, but I convinced myself to watch a few dance videos which inspired me to try after all. I think my hitting technique is improving, but it's still quite difficult to make it look good. I did some cleaning and packed for my trip, and finally had a rather nice dinner. I ate bulgolgi, okonomiyaki, and a matcha chocolate pudding which might be the most delicious thing I've ever had from a convenience store. I did laundry too, but seriously, where did the time go?

IOVG: Fighting the urge to play wasn't as difficult as the day before, but it was still quite a struggle. I did a lot of programming, and then I started reading at 8 PM. By 9:30 I was tired, so I downloaded a trivia game and played it for an hour. There were some interesting questions where I could learn something, like the one about hippos having red sweat or the Olympic gold medalist who colluded with the nazis during the occupation of France and was killed by a French resistance group. Unfortunately, these only made up for about 10% of the questions. There were also some incredibly stupid ones, like "what was the occupation of the character played by (actress) in the movie (title)?" Who cares, what's the point? And the majority of the questions were such basic knowledge that I felt a bit insulted, and there were ads too. So I uninstalled that app and played a memory game for about fifteen minutes.