Tuesday, April 7, 2020

New apps

Yesterday was a fairly productive day after I woke up from my video game daze around noon. Last night I didn’t want to go to sleep, so I searched for apps and podcasts to help me with my goals and maybe make new ones. I found a Spanish podcast to try out, apps for Arabic and Spanish vocabulary, and a well-rated plank app, but my most interesting discovery was “Skillshare”. In this app, people make videos to share the skills they have. The first course I decided to try was about “makers”, people with broad interests who want to make their own things, possibly incorporating multiple interests in their endeavors. So far the course has been mostly about the mindset and not actually much use, but I’m interested in the magazine that the teacher of the course publishes.

Since I was looking up apps, I was drawn (as always) to a new time tracker/to-do list application. It is based on the pomodoro approach, which advises 25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of rest. After trying this, I decided that 25 minutes was too rigid for me, but now I have a slightly better idea of what I want in an app so I will probably look for another one soon. Probably not today, if I can control myself, because I have several other extra things to do.

SCHOOLWORK
I worked for about 2.5 hours, which is, I think, the most I’ve worked in any day that wasn’t Sunday. Considering I managed to get it done even without working in the morning was encouraging. It helped that the assignments (reading + quiz) are easy and approachable, so I’ll challenge myself to work at similar length in the face of more difficult assignments.

EXERCISE
None yesterday except for a plank and some bicep curls. I’m going to use the new plank app though—it’s a 30-day plan of short exercises to improve planking, and I think it will really be motivating.

VIOLIN
My Bluetooth transmitter arrived, but there is definitely a delay between my playing and the output. I should try a practice session to see how much it will bother me.

SPANISH
Nothing yesterday. I’m going to try using the Drops application for 5 minutes a day to acquire basic vocabulary. I need to decide on a time to listen to the Spanish podcast. I’ve identified cleaning time and cooking time as good times—we’ll see if I can actually remember to do it then. I still need to set a plan for grammar and a schedule and goals for my verbal proficiency. Maybe I could learn a question to ask Alexa every day. I’d also like to interact with Mom and do some kind of environmental aid/reminder. The latter requires research, but if I have a question for Alexa and a question for Mom (along with anticipated answer formats), that would be a good start for my oral component.

RUBIK’S CUBE
I solved it twice yesterday and figured out a confusion I had about one particular OLL algorithm. So, I didn’t spend much time on it. My idea of using an algorithm to shuffle and then a different algorithm to return to solved status is a good one, but I think I need a clearer goal. Part of the hard thing about practicing Rubik’s cube is that the whole reason I’m doing it is to take my mind off of other things, as a break. If I’m practicing it deliberately, I’m not really taking a break, I’m just switching gears. Which is good too, but then I need other breaks, so I lose some motivation in that way.

MEMORIZATION
I reviewed some earlier Psalms with no problem, and then tried 19 and 20 again. They’re still difficult, but I was close to 90%. I’m thinking that I will be able to get them to 90% tomorrow or Thursday, and then from Friday or Saturday I’ll start Psalm 21. However, starting with Psalm 21, with a few exceptions, I think I’ll need to make an effort to actually re-memorize the Psalms rather than reviewing them until they come back to me.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER
Today I read my devotional and prayed but forgot to read Mark. It was a good day for prayer, though, and the devotional had two points that stuck out to me.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Escapism

I'm tired of doing things that have no significance. I'm tired of the escapism that sits at my doorstep and bounds inside at the sli...