Jetlag

Wow, it’s already March 31^st. My last few days in Japan were non-stop activity, and I only barely finished cleaning and packing by the time I was picked up. The van arrived at my house just as I was taking the trash bags out. Traveling was easy, though I regretted wearing four layers as I walked around carrying my luggage. The airports and airplanes both were mostly empty. Well, my flight from Tokyo to Dallas was more full than empty, but I still had two empty seats next to me.

I’ve now been at home for a week and a half. I’ve only left once, to go to the grocery store, and I’m about to leave for the second time today. I was jet-lagged until about Friday, a full week, and I had terrible difficulty getting my schoolwork done by the due dates. I had forum assignments in both classes, which are my most loathed type of assignment, but it also didn’t help that I’ve been playing video games.

I continued the Terraria game that I started back in Japan. On Saturday I fought the last boss and lost, but making it that far granted me nearly all of the most powerful items in the game, so I more or less lost interest in playing. A game that I have always wanted, Cities: Skylines, was on sale for 80% off. When I tried playing it in the past my framerate was so low that I had to give up, but I’ve ordered a new computer so I felt justified in buying it. I managed to play a couple of games on this computer, and sometimes it ran fine. The sense of progression was difficult to grasp though—I think I need to watch a video or read a guide to understand what I’m trying to do.

That game inspired me to return to Factorio. It has gone from version 0.16 to 0.18 since the last time I played it (a seablock playthrough that I dropped about eight months ago), but the only significant differences I have noticed are cosmetic. Apparently BobsAngels has gotten a few updates, but so far the only thing I’ve noticed is that the greenhouse churns out trees instead of wood, and these trees must be cut (with a sawblade) to make the wood.  I also installed an additional mod set, Pyanodon, to give this playthrough a little more novelty. So far I haven’t seen any of its content, though.

Given that I can’t really go out and plus I’m getting a new computer, I’ve decided to relax my no video games rule. I’d also like to game online with a friend now that I’m home, so that’s another reason not to maintain it. I’m going to return to my no fanfiction rule, though. Last night I caught up on Quintessence, a Worm/Star Wars crossover, and it caused me to stay up past midnight. There are plenty of books in this house, many that I have not read yet and many that I would read again. I have no excuse for wasting time on fanfiction except that it doesn’t require me to turn off the lights when I’m finished. Maybe I can find a different lamp or rig up something to make that even less of an issue.

So, other goals. My top priority right now is schoolwork. I think that if I work 4 hours a day (2 hours on each class) I’ll be in a good position and I might be able to forego working on the weekend. After three weeks of laziness though, I’m not sure that I can jump right into such an ambitious schedule. Furthermore, this week’s work is on the light side, so I’m not feeling as much pressure. So, for this week I’m going to aim for over an hour for each class every day for the next three days, and I’ll up the pace on Friday if it looks like I’ll have difficulty finishing. Next week I believe I have big projects in both classes, which should motivate me to stick to four hours a day, and once I know that I can do it maybe I can keep up the pace thereafter. I have a new strategy that I’m going to try—sessions. I’ll work on school work for 15-45 minute sessions, and then I’ll do something else. I’m hoping that the idea of just working for fifteen minutes will decrease my desire to procrastinate. Also, I’m going to time myself during these sessions, which I hope should increase my focus, knowing that if I distract myself with news or whatever, my reporting will be inaccurate.

My next goal is exercise. I danced on Monday of last week, but I wasn’t very happy with how difficult it was to pivot. I pulled out my tennis shoes and dance socks, but haven’t tried them yet. Last night I did do a song on DDR, which was fast but it left me completely out of breath, just after one song! I’m going to try to dance today, and if I’m still not happy with it, I might decide on a different mode of exercise. I have plenty of choices: there are weights and furniture, and I don’t have to feel bad about doing HIIT, and there’s a rowing machine, and I could probably even use the elliptical. So, for the next few days I might explore my options for exercise. I will set a concrete goal for general exercise by Sunday of next week. However, I am going to extend my five-minute plank goal for one (last) month. I’ll do a plank in the morning and evening; preferably a side plank, that way I can do a normal plank with less effort during the day.

On my list of priorities, getting a job would be number three. While I think that I could get a job now at the grocery store, the current situation is a good excuse to recuse myself from this requirement. At the very least I’d like to get a better feel for how much time schoolwork takes when I’m working on it diligently. Here’s my goal then—I’m going to look for job postings at least once a week for the next three weeks, until April 19^th. At that point, if the virus situation seems to be calming, I’ll start looking more frequently. If I see a job that is either (relatively) well-paying or a good experience, I’ll apply. That’s all I’m going to plan for now. If something changes my mind, next Monday I’ll give a report and reevaluate this goal as necessary.

I want to help with cooking and cleaning of the house. Cleaning I will do after exercising. So far, we discuss cooking on a case by case basis. I don’t think this is ideal, but I don’t feel that it’s the right time to try to institute something more regular. At least until next week, and possibly for the next month, I’m just going to cook whenever I see the need.

Writing and reflection is an important habit that I have neglected for the past two weeks. I think my productivity will receive a tremendous boost if I write regularly. In the past I found it difficult to write every day, but I think I’m going to try from tomorrow. I’ll wake up and eat breakfast, do a session of schoolwork, and then write about how I did with my goals on the previous day and possibly what I intend to do next.

I have been playing piano most days since I came home, but a couple of the notes ring painfully in my head, and I would really prefer to pick up the violin, even though it’s more difficult to set up and play. At this moment I don’t have any goals. If I practice consistently this month, I think I could aim to play Bach’s double concerto by the end of May, but I feel that it is out of reach for this month. I would like to be able to play one song (maybe a less familiar one) well enough to perform (to myself), and I would like to be able to play the G scale confidently, with good intonation and at a decent tempo. I need to find a program or something that will help me with the intonation—that’s something to think about. More details to follow.

Next is my language studies. For the month of April, I’m going to go casual with Japanese—reading only when I feel like it. Spanish will be my new focus. My ultimate goal is an ACTFL certificate, which is a valid certificate for teaching licensure in some states. I’ll do more research on the usage of these certificates, but I was amazed to see them available for so many languages. They might be a future goal for other languages as well. What are my steps toward passing this test? Obviously I need to learn more about the test first, but I’m having a little trouble with my research there. I feel confident about my reading ability, but I know that my knowledge of the grammar rules is quite sketchy. For today, I’ll look for a way to focus on improving that, in addition to researching the ACTFL test.

I’ve been doing the Rubik’s cube consistently but not deliberately. My last solve, which I did casually, took me 1:42. I think by concentrating more I could knock twenty seconds off, but that still puts me way behind my beginner method. I’m still making several mistakes with F2L, taking my time remembering steps for PLL, and hardly using OLL at all (since I only know three of the seven algorithms for it). My first priority then, is to finish learning OLL. For the next four days starting today, I’ll pick an algorithm, practice the steps 30 times, and train it five times. I’ll do that in addition to my casual solving, and I’ll practice the other OLL algorithms ten times. On the weekend I’ll practice all the OLL algorithms ten times and do mixed training 18 times (three for each algorithm I’m less familiar with). If I stick to this, I think my OLL should have a solid foundation that only requires more practice. I’ll announce my next goal for the Rubik’s cube on Monday.

My programming has once again been completely neglected. I don’t have the motivation for it at the moment. I’d like to pick up another hobby if I’m not doing this or working, but for now I think that I might spend any extra time on Factorio. Well, I’ll think about this tomorrow.

Finally, Bible reading, prayer, and memorization needs to be given a much higher priority. I haven’t reviewed my Psalms in the past two weeks, so first I’ll focus on reviewing Psalms 1-20 between now and Monday. I recognize up to Psalm 31, so I’ll review Psalms 21-31 for the rest of the month, with memorizing Psalm 32 (I’m pretty sure it’s new) as my stretch goal. As for reading the Bible and praying, I think I need a modest formula to get me in the habit. Also, I know that the amount I pray is never sufficient, so it’s discouraging thinking about how I fail each time. I need success and reasonable bounds, so I’ll read one chapter a day (I think I’m in Mark now), and I’ll pray for two people.

Writing this reminded me of a thought I had from all the farewells at the end of the school year in Japan. I think I need to write about a person every day, extolling their virtues and why I’m thankful that they are in my life. I think this will give me a better attitude toward interacting with people—more of a “you” focus, because I’ll be looking for material and/or I’ll be looking to validate what I have written about them. I probably shouldn’t post this writing online, so I guess I’ll start a word document for it. I plan to start this tomorrow—today I’ve already been writing for two hours, so it’s time to do something else and catch up with my other tasks.

Before I go, a quick summary of my goals as they relate to my next 24 hours.

•           No fanfiction—read a paperback before sleep (right now it’s A Gathering of Old Men)
•           Work on schoolwork in 15 to 45-minute sessions, at least 1 hour per class
•           Try dancing with dancing socks
•           Look for jobs by next Sunday.
•           Write in the morning after the first schoolwork session, starting before 10 AM.
•           Choose an easy but less familiar violin piece to master.
•           Find a way to monitor intonation for scales.
•           Research ACTFL test—what’s the use, content, and how to prepare.
•           Find an interesting way to practice Spanish grammar.
•           Practice one OLL algorithm deliberately
•           Review Psalms
•           Read Mark and pray for two people

Last Day at Soga

Yesterday was my last day at Soga Elementary School. If the students had been there, I probably would have cried, and actually when I walked down the halls last week and the students weren’t there, I almost did cry. I’m not nearly as attached to the teachers, although I will particularly miss the 5^th grade teacher. Anyway, I was told that I would give a farewell speech, and two hours before hand my palms got sweaty and I could feel the adrenaline. For two hours. Is this normal? I know all the 20 or so people there, and I’ll never see most of them again in all likeliness. Regardless, I was so nervous that I ended up forgetting about half of my short speech. How do I do that when my job is basically public speaking? Bizarre.

I found a buyer for my bike, although I ended up charging less than I had intended. I heard two more reports that the second-hand shops barely pay any money for items despite their high sales prices, so I'm happy to get as much as I will. I also posted the other items that I want to sell or get rid of, though I'm not especially optimistic about my panniers. I'm hoping that I can have almost everything gone or at least spoken for by the end of the weekend. Saturday I need to buy a suitcase and do a bit of shopping, plus I'll meet the pastor of my church here, and then I'll pack. Sunday I'll do my last bit of cooking and shopping, the rest of the heavy duty cleaning, and if I have time I'll go to Matsumoto and buy some souvenirs. If I can get all this done, I should only have a few things to do the day that I leave.

As for my goals, I decided that I will suspend most of them as mentioned in my last post. I think that I can still make the Bible memory goal though, so I'll keep that, and my choreography goal shouldn't be much of a stretch either.

Leaving soon?

I last posted on Saturday—what happened? Well, Saturday was a good day, and I did a lot of cleaning and organizing in preparation for leaving. In the evening I was invited to a board game night. I had three drinks in my fridge that I had bought a while back because the flavors were interesting, but I haven’t felt like drinking alcohol since the beginning of the year. I think the extent of my drinking has been one beer and a few sips of wine here and there. Anyway, so I brought those drinks to the party and drank them, and I also tried a glass of umeshu that someone else brought. Normally this much would be enough to keep me comfortable for two or three hours. That night though, I think the super sweet and salty umeshu, a lack of recent drinking, and probably some dehydration combined to make me feel sick. So Sunday I was miserable, and I ended up staying in bed and playing Terraria most of the day. Oddly, my internet was also out, so I couldn’t even review Bible verses (another reason that I should be motivated to finish my program), and I couldn’t access my to-do list.

The internet came back on Monday evening, but by then I was thinking obsessively about Terraria. I last played this game not long before coming to Japan in 2017, and there is supposed to be a new and final big update coming out this year, which I’ve been thinking about and that partially induced me to pick it up again. It isn’t as much of a sandbox game as most of the games that I play these days, so I don’t think I can spend as much time on it as my historical simulator or Factorio. Anyway, after this weekend I will be very busy with schoolwork and prepping to go home, so I really can’t afford to play much. I still haven’t come up with a mechanism to pull myself out of a gaming haze, but I think this time the imminence of my departure will keep me from getting too immersed.

Yesterday I was working on a quiz/presentation about my hero, Harry Potter (not really true, but a convenient fiction), and I googled “white pet.” One of the results that came up was a white rat from an article that advocated rats as pets. I recently talked to Mom and Dad about their mouse problem, and in one of the fanfictions that I was reading they talked about how dirty rats were, so I was intrigued by this article. I’ve read articles about cats and dogs as pets, and even fish, but this article was the first that made me think I might actually want a pet. Rats are apparently quite clean, can be trained (even potty-trained!), have definite personalities, will cuddle and do their own kind of purring. Also, they don’t take up much space, nor do they live long, so they could be a great pet for me. Still, it’s irresponsible to get a pet when I’m uncertain about my own future, so I’m definitely not making any plans to do so.

Yesterday some people mentioned the quarantine to me, so today I looked at the news. I didn’t find any new information about it, but I did notice that the change fees for flights have been waived. Given that, it only makes sense for me to change my flight to the day that I have to leave my apartment. That settles some of my unease—I was worried about where I would find accommodation for myself and all my luggage for four nights. The only problem with this is that now I have even less time to get rid of all my stuff. I’m feeling a bit more optimistic because I found out that several of my coworkers are staying for another year, but my bicycle and its gear still seem like they will be difficult to sell.

If my departure can be moved to next week, I think I will suspend my goals for March. I’m doing poorly so far, and with the disruption of hurried packing and re-accommodating to a new situation, there’s little chance that I will meet any of my goals anyway or even make substantial progress, at least before returning home.

Learning theories complete!

I wasn’t very motivated this week. I blame it on fanfiction and my lack of schoolwork, as I only had one short assignment to do. I think the structure of having something that I need to do at home helps me do other things too. That bodes ill for this upcoming week, in which I have no assignments at all, but I’m hoping that I can make programming my necessary assignment like schoolwork. If I don’t, it seems unlikely that I will meet my goal for the month. I should really replace my fanfiction with reading real novels, but I can’t seem to find anything that I’m interested in reading, and I’m worried that if I get too hard on myself I’ll return to video games, which is definitely the greater of the two evils.

On Wednesday I went to the last Shiojiri City English educators meeting that I will attend. I talked to the coordinator, Hayakawa-sensei after the meeting, and was able to tell her that I respected her and learned from her. I think she appreciated hearing that, and I felt good about having told her.

I really wanted to complete my last assignment for my class last night, but I couldn’t work up the motivation. When I decided to buckle down and do it this morning, I got it done in 20 minutes. Note though, that this was just the last part, a 150 word response, as the rest of the assignment was written on Wednesday. This morning I also got my grade back for my final paper—it was really high. Come to think of it, it might be the highest grade I’ve ever gotten on a significant paper. I felt that the paper severely lacked cohesiveness, and I know that it was linguistically repetitive and could have been better organized. Hopefully remembering this will help me to meet the basic requirements for future assignments without stress, regardless of how I feel about the actual quality.

Today I will work on assembling my belongings that I will give away or pack. I’ve got just over three weeks left in the country, and less than three weeks in this apartment. At this point I think I could get rid of everything except basic cookware and dining ware and I would be able to live without much discomfort. I would definitely miss my bike though.

JAPANESE

I’ve been inconsistent this week, but I did add two words yesterday. I did some extra Japanese reading on Thursday, and I read Steins;Gate yesterday for 25 minutes and mined some more words.

5-MINUTE PLANK

I haven’t come close to three minutes in a while. I know that muscles need to rest, so I feel like I shouldn’t do planks every day, but I feel like I was doing better when I was doing them every day. Now I tend to forget in the morning, and procrastinate in the evening.

I’ve already done my plank for this morning, but for the next week I think I will do side planks in the morning, and normal planks at night. I will allow myself two rest times, one of which will be Wednesday, and the other will probably come because I forgot.

DANCING

I skipped Monday-Thursday, but danced yesterday. I established that I can do most of the steps that I know with my chosen song to choreograph. The salsa step is rushed at this tempo, but I don’t do that step very well in the first place—I need practice and I might even need coaching to get it right. I would like to get at least two more decent steps, because I really don’t have enough variety. I typically look for new steps every time before I dance. For this week, I plan to work on transitions, particularly to and from the pas de bouree which I plan to use as my base step.

PROGRAMMING

I’ll work on this today, and this week! But I haven’t done so yet.

BIBLE MEMORY

Psalms 15-17 weren’t so bad, but today I review Psalm 18, the longest one I know at 50 verses. Also, I’m behind schedule, which is why I’m doing Psalm 18 all in one day. Last week I missed three days. If I miss more than one day before the 15^th, my test on that day won’t accurately reflect my knowledge. So I’ll try my best not to skip at all.

RUBIK’S CUBE

I haven’t practiced according to the system that I set up last week. A lot of my free time was spent on fanfiction, so some days I only practiced for a couple of minutes, mainly on F2L but doing the PLL patterns at least twice. Even so, I feel like my progress is (barely) satisfactory, so today I’ll start learning OLL. There are 10 algorithms in 2-look OLL—three in the first step, seven in the second. I'll give myself until next Sunday, eight days, to learn these ten algorithms. After next Sunday, I will be working on my weak spots until finishing the challenge.

x

Teacher Workdays

Monday was a productive day at work. I kept myself busy for almost the whole day, writing a record-breaking four emails as well as doing schoolwork, looking for jobs, and studying Bible and Japanese. I was tired in the evening and suffering from allergies, so I decided to skip dancing.

Tuesday I was kept busy with work-related projects like sorting flashcards. It was interesting, but when I got home I had no willpower to do anything except for Japanese flashcards. I spent an excessive amount of time trying to find a fanfiction to get interested in, and upon failing, I managed to fall asleep around 10. However, I woke up at 2:45 because I was hot and dehydrated. Even after remedying that problem, my allergies kept me awake for the rest of the night. I’m half-zombie right now, even though this is usually my peak energy time. I might have to make coffee much sooner than intended.

JAPANESE

I enjoyed reading some more of Steins;Gate and found eight words to learn. One of these was the super cool 上等だ – bring it on. The eight words helped make up for Tuesday, in which I did review only.

5-MINUTE PLANK

I missed the last two days, but I did two minutes this morning. It was hard. I hope I will do a plank twice a day consistently, missing only one day a time.

DANCING

As I said, I skipped dancing for the past two days, and unfortunately I will skip today as well.

PROGRAMMING

On Monday I made a decision about the verse browser, provided I can figure out how to implement my idea. I haven’t taken any steps toward implementing it yet—maybe today I’ll do a little research.

BIBLE MEMORY

Monday I reviewed Psalms 13-14. It wasn’t too bad.

RUBIK’S CUBE

I forgot one of the OLL algorithms again, but it didn’t take long to remember. I’m still not confident about using it in a timed situation though. Yesterday I mainly practiced F2L.

Final learning theory paper

Yesterday I finished the last significant assignment of my first course—a paper describing my theory of learning. Well, that was what it was supposed to be, but it was more like describing how I thought the ideal teacher should act. It was only five pages double-spaced of text, and a lot of that was taken up by references, bible verses, and headers. I enjoyed the structure and content of the assignment, but I didn’t feel like I had space to do justice to any of the eight topics I was supposed to address. Still, I finished it in a not unreasonable amount of time, which I wouldn’t have been able to do had the length less restricted, so I’m happy with it (at least until I get my grade back).

I spent almost the whole day writing, though. I took some breaks for cooking, Japanese, and exercise, but these were about 30 minutes each and an hour for exercise. Other breaks were mostly for Rubik’s cube, and thus rarely exceeded 5 minutes. I had a similar schedule on Saturday. So I probably spent eight hours on the paper Saturday and Sunday each which, considering I had already written lots of notes and gathered all my sources, is a bit excessive.

The Rubik’s cube is really neat though. It gives me something to fiddle with when I’m trying to think but I can’t make any words come out. When I take a break it gives me something to do for a limited time, usually 2-3 minutes, and then I naturally return to the project at hand. If this function doesn’t wear out, I may have mostly solved my procrastination problem.

JAPANESE

I read Steins;Gate (the visual novel) for at least 20 minutes (I should have kept track). It was long enough to mine seven good words, and I enjoyed the scene. I’m thinking that, since my goal is to read the visual novel, I will do so in the evening when I don’t feel pressured and will be more likely to extend the reading time, and I will take my vocabulary words from that, instead of doing it in the morning. The only problem with this plan is that now I have nothing to read in the morning with my breakfast. Japanese news would be ideal, but with my new goal I am less motivated to make the effort there. I’ll try it and see if I have enough willpower.

5-MINUTE PLANK

I forgot to do this yesterday morning, and in the evening I felt weak and only managed two minutes.

DANCING

I didn’t really work specifically toward my choreography goal, but I learned three variations of one of my new favorite move, the pas de bouree. Two of these variations are spins, which means I can’t tell what I look like when I do them, but I feel like they’re pretty cool. I learned them easily and enjoyed doing them.

PROGRAMMING

No progress, but using scripturetyper has inspired me and possibly given me some ideas.

BIBLE MEMORY

I reviewed Psalms 11 and 12. I didn’t quite make 90%, but it was close, so that was encouraging.

RUBIK’S CUBE

I can now do all the PLL algorithms without any reference. I still have to think about the steps for some of them, so I’ll keep practicing of course. For the first time, I tried timing my whole solve using only CFOP (except for the OLL step, which I haven’t learned yet). My shortest time was something like 1:40, but my longest time was over 3 minutes. I feel pretty confident that I can eventually solve any F2L problem, but I definitely fumble a lot more than I should.