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.