Programming/Action

Today I’m trying out my programming/action phase plan, and right now is my programming phase. I’ve already made a few adjustments to my schedule before entering this phase, but I’ve tried to minimize them. Last night I was reading until almost one because I didn’t feel sleepy. As a result, I gave myself the freedom to wake up without an alarm, and therefore began my day 20 minutes later than planned. Preparing for the day with breakfast and a shower also took 15 minutes longer than planned, so I’m now 35 minutes behind schedule. I’m hoping to cut the programming phase short though, since I already wrote a lot yesterday and did my planning for today as well.

One thing I realized after making up this schedule is that from the way the motivational course laid it out, these are things that will become habits, rather than the entirety of the day. Schoolwork is probably not going to become a habit. I’m not sure. Regardless, I’m trying it out my way by scheduling something for the majority of the day. I find that mere time-based cues can be insufficient to remove me from the activity that I’m currently engaged in, so in the future I may limit my planning to being around (more or less) fixed events. From waking up to breakfast is my best time to establish a habit, then after breakfast is good too. After lunch should work most days, but after dinner Mom likes to play games, and before bed I can’t make myself do much other than read. If I wake up earlier then, I might have more time for habits.

Yesterday I read Cheaper By the Dozen, and though there wasn’t a whole lot of substance, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and fully intend (unlike with some of the books I’ve reread) to keep it. I then started reading a textbook from GCC that I never actually read at the time, called “How the Rest Hates the West.” It’s kind of a diatribe though (not the word I’m looking for, but I can’t find it). It’s a one-sided, unashamedly biased analysis of recent historical events. I agree with everything the author said, but I don’t see much point in reading a book that gets my blood boiling, causes me to rail about the injustices, contradictions, and idiocies of the world, without giving me facts. So finally I read nearly half of Pride and Prejudice before getting sleepy. I managed to go the whole day without any video games or fanfiction, for the first time since the beginning of March.

Here’s the update on my goals:

SCHOOLWORK
I only worked on this for 70 minutes Thursday. It was a productive time and I felt satisfied with my progress, but I really need to invest a bit more into schoolwork on a daily basis so that I don’t get crunched on the weekend. I’m hoping that today I will meet my goal of 3 hours, and if I can match that on Saturday as well then I shouldn’t have to panic on Sunday.

EXERCISE
The plank exercise was quite tough this morning. I’m going to row later today—I hope blisters don’t prevent me.

SPANISH
I did my 5 minute vocabulary app (Drops) and one lesson of from the grammar website. I need to find a new podcast since the one I found before is about half English, and since it doesn’t repeat the Spanish after giving the English translation, it doesn’t really help me learn the words.

RUBIK’S CUBE
I did this a couple of times yesterday without timing myself. I haven’t really done it since my birthday. I think I still remember all the OLL algorithms, but I’m having trouble identifying when to use them again.

PROJECTS
I have chosen a woodworking project that I intend to start on. It’s simple and should be good for a beginner like me. Today I’ll get Mom’s approval to make it and verify that we have the tools with Dad. Then I’ll have to get the materials, which I may not be able to do for a couple of days. Today I also have a phone call to make, which I’ll do during this time.

MEMORIZATION
I did well yesterday except that there was one verse in Psalm 19 that I still couldn’t type with more than 90% accuracy. Still, I think that I will start on Psalm 21 today.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER
I read Mark 11, which was short. Prayer was not too difficult today. I didn’t get anything in particular out of the Keller book.

Productivity strategies

On my birthday, my new laptop arrived. With this laptop, I was able to smoothly (albeit with the computer fan running noisily) play Subnautica. It was a great game, and one of the most immersive I have ever played. Furthermore, it took me less than 30 hours to (almost) finish, although I did a few restarts and lost data from a bug. So I played it somewhat obsessively last week, once again barely finishing my schoolwork on time, and then on Monday I (nearly) beat the game. I played some Factorio after that, but then I started reading an extremely long fanfiction. It was my second time reading it, and the first time was just a year ago, but it was as good as I remembered. It’s approaching a million words though, so that consumed my Tuesday and Wednesday. Now I’m finished and not feeling any attraction toward video games or fanfiction.

Although I didn’t work much toward my goals, I wasn’t completely unproductive. I’ve done plank exercises for the past ten days, sometimes both morning and evening. They were easy last week, but they’ve gotten a lot harder. Last night and this morning’s exercises came close to making me want to give up. I also did rowing on Tuesday.

While I rowed, vacuumed, and then while I cooked dinner last night, I listened to a course on Skillshare about motivation. Although the author (clearly not a native English speaker) had a few verbal tics that annoyed me, it was a very good course. I had three takeaway points from it. First, have a planning period (or as I like to think of it, a programming period), and an action period. During the action period, think as little as possible, change as little as possible, and whatever you do, don’t think about changing. That was the possibly the strongest point and the most practical. The second point was about finding the purpose for your goals: “think about how your life would be different once you achieved your goals.” I’ve never really thought about this, so I want to give it a try. Finally, “find several situations in your everyday life that relate to your goal, and use them to remind yourself of how much you want to achieve your goals.” For example, if you look in the mirror every day, when you do so, think about how much you want to lose weight or build muscle. For the programming period, since I mostly have ideas about what to do, I only need to fit these actions into time slots. That’s not suitable for a blog so I won’t write it here. The other two are more verbally-based goals, though.

Here’s some brainstorming about the second point--what is my purpose? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Okay, what do I need to do to be able to do that? Develop a closer relationship with Him, imitate Christ, and learn to love the church (God’s people). Well, that middle one kind of encompasses everything, but anyway. Prayer, Bible reading, and memorization directly apply to the first. To the third—I guess my people journal is a related goal, though I’m not actually sure if it works. Speaking of which, I have only written one entry in that. I need to write some more.

Working is also a part of glorifying God, a part that is vague for me. What is my purpose in working? That’s difficult to answer. Most essentially, I need to provide for myself and have enough to give to others. There are branching aspects from that trunk. I need to make enough to provide for a family if it should be in God’s will to grant me one. I want a job that will sharpen me, one in which I can feel that I can learn, improve at, and make progress over years. Saying it that way, it sounds like a not-too-tall order, so I guess it’s not accurate enough. As a teacher with relatively little experience, I almost can’t help but improve. Making progress over years though, maybe that does help it be specific enough—in Japan at least, I didn’t really feel able to do that. In Russia and Vietnam I was able, but I felt too disconnected from people in Russia, and in Vietnam… maybe I was too restless, but I also felt frustrated with my inability to make a difference in the students’ lives. So I should add that to my purpose—having a perceptible and positive effect on people’s lives. Wow, that actually might be a difficult requirement, and I’m not sure I can even think of a non-healthcare related profession that would qualify in the absolute sense. But if we take “positive” in a broader sense, I suppose even collecting trash would do.

Since work is related to residence, I’ll go ahead and list those goals/requirements too. Given my experience in Russia and my first months in Japan, I need to be connected to a community, and not just at church (although a strong church community might suffice). On the less necessary side, I want to be able to live in or at least be working toward living in a place that is quiet and comfortable. The latter probably refers to being modifiable—can I change the sink knobs and the toilet seat? Come to think of it, I could probably do that most places since neither is permanent. Ugh. But I have much less control if I go overseas. Finally, since variety has always been a large part of my life, I would probably prefer to have a job that I can separate from the rest of my life.

That might have gone off-track from my goal setting, but I think it was good to write those ideas down. Now for the actual exercise—how would my life be different? For the most important goals, I think I would value my time with God and other Christians more, I would have a desire to serve other people, and I would grow in wisdom. I also hope I would feel direction better in my life, or maybe that I would be better able to respond to it. That sounds good. How about the career/living-related goals? I would feel more comfortable about my place in this world, about who I am and what I can do. I think I might be able to connect to people better because I would feel more permanent and therefore more ready to commit to them. Wow, if that’s true, I really shouldn’t leave the country, and maybe I shouldn’t even admit to myself the possibility of leaving. That possibility is about 75% of why I’m studying in grad school now, though, so it might zap my motivation to study.

On that note, I might need to find a new motivation to stay in school. Well okay, maybe not. Teaching isn’t such a bad job, it’s just insufficient for a family and doesn’t give me much free time. The free time probably won’t be much of a concern for the first year or two, because everything will be new and I won’t have time to be bored. Do I really want to teach language arts, though? Honestly, I would like to give it a try. I’d like to keep my options open though, and being able to teach more languages is the main way I see to do that. I’ve got enough qualifications in programming that if I put in a week or two of work I think I could produce a program that would be sufficient to demonstrate my ability for teaching purposes. Spanish though, that’s a long road that I should get started on soon. Well, I have gotten started, I just need to keep going.

With those long-term goals better established, now I want to consider my unrelated goals. Exercise is necessary to keep myself healthy and in a good frame of mind, and I would also like to improve my body image. Rubik’s cube is a quick, painless activity that gives me confidence in my ability to fulfill goals, as well as helping me maintain focus on schoolwork at times. Violin… well I like music, I want music to be a part of my life, and practicing violin (being a mostly physical activity) can give me clear results which boost my confidence. Right now, I’m not sure I have the willpower to practice—I’m not excited about any song, my acoustic is out of commission, and I don’t have a way to make the cool app function with my electric violin. Unless I find some way to output to a speaker, my electric violin is only useful for practicing. Decent transmitters specifically for that purpose seem to be expensive, and a cable seems uncomfortable. In conclusion, I’m not going to concern myself with violin for the rest of this month, just like I haven’t for the first half of it, hah.

Now for other goals that I haven’t really addressed this month. I want to work on making things. To do this, I need materials, which are a pain to procure in the current environment. I’m not sure that I want to work on this every day, but it is unquestionably a better use of time than playing video games or reading fanfiction, so it would be best to make time for it to avoid reverting to the others. Related to that, I want to read books before I go to sleep, preferably related to history. The hardest part of this is finding the books. If the library were open, it would be no problem, but as it isn’t, I really only have the books in my house to read. So I’m going to pile them up and read them, and if I get bored of one I will allow myself to swap it out without guilt. This should help me avoid fanfiction.

Okay, now I’ve got three fun(ish) books and two less fun books to choose from. Unfortunately, only one is actually historical non-fiction. Nevermind, looking in the office there are plenty more interesting non-fiction books, but I’ll start with this one since it’s on my bookshelf. Now I need to come up with a plan for my projects, and a plan for my time.

32nd Birthday

I’m 32 years old today. In this past year I’ve felt a lot of the pressure of getting old, which for some reason I didn’t feel (at least to the same degree) when I was 30. This year has been possibly the most difficult of my life, and the worst part is that I never had appropriate justification for feeling that way. I’m still feeling the uncertainty of the future—will I be a teacher in America, or abroad? Should I consider a different field even though I spent time on my teacher’s certification? I don’t think these are decisions that I can make any time in the next few months, but their importance makes me nervous and impatient.

One of the things that I decided to do yesterday was find a project so that I could work with my hands and feel productive. I started out my search by watching the class about “makers” and then looking up a magazine for makers. While it was interesting to browse through, and I think I probably would read it if I paid for it and it was sent to me, I couldn’t see myself actually making any of the projects. Most of them were more impressive than functional—the peanut butter turner machine that is the focus of the “making” class is a good example. The guy made a machine to automatically rotate a natural peanut butter jar because it was a pain to stir it up in the morning and he didn’t think he would remember to simply turn the jar himself. I guess I’m not lazy enough to emulate his ambitions. I felt the same way when looking at Arduino project ideas. They’re gimmicky machines which only save a minimal amount of human effort, if any at all.

But then I started looking at woodworking projects. Wow, no problems finding practical ideas. I could make a turning spice rack, a drawer filler, or an outdoor table with planters. I looked at sewing a bit too, and found a few things of interest there too. I’m less sanguine about making useful items with sewing, but the products generally take up less space, require fewer tools and equipment, and are probably cheaper, so it’s worth looking into.

On the less productive side, I bought Subnautica, which is an acclaimed game that I have wanted for a while. I had intended to buy it after I got my new computer, but it was on sale and I had some spare time, so I went ahead and got it yesterday. The focus is exploration, which is not really my cup of tea, but the progression which is easy to sense keeps me from getting frustrated.

SCHOOLWORK
I did two hours and completed readings and quizzes. I had intended to do more, but this was sufficient.

EXERCISE
I finally tried dancing on the floor protector mat. It worked well, but my dancing was poor after the first five minutes. I decided that I need another outlet for exercise. I enjoyed my plank app, though. Someday I’d like to see if I can do a five-minute plank in easy mode—with knees on the floor rather than toes.

VIOLIN
I forgot about this yesterday. I need to make a decision on the Bluetooth transmitter, whether the delay is too bad to be tolerated or not. If it is, I might end up dropping the violin from my goals.

SPANISH
I didn’t listen to the podcast, but I found a website (studyspanish.com) which has progressive grammar lessons and tests and quizzes as well, so I’m going to use that for my grammar. I discussed my oral strategies with Mom, and she seemed fairly on board with it—hopefully she’ll keep me accountable.

RUBIK’S CUBE
I solved it about ten times yesterday, and correctly identified the OLL algorithm every time, so I’m feeling a lot better about that. My total times ranged from 58 seconds to one unfortunate solve of 2:40. I’ll keep practicing all the algorithms today and tomorrow and look into ways to practice F2L from Friday.

BIBLE MEMORY
I succeeded on Psalm 20! But failed Psalm 4 (just one verse, but still…). Consistent practice is my anthem for a while, though if I keep having problems, I might concentrate on trouble verses.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER
I read Mark 10 this morning. Prayer came easily.

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.

Back to it!

It’s Monday again, a new week! Lately I’ve woken up thinking about Factorio, and before I know it it’s lunch time and I’ve done no schoolwork. Yeah, basically I’ve had another rotten week. This morning was similar, but after lunch I did reading and a quiz, so I’m feeling too productive to return to my slothful ways.

My new laptop didn’t come last week. I had to order another one, as this one was refunded without explanation. We played a new board game called Spontuneous on Saturday night, where you have to think of a song that uses a word which another player has come up with. It was interesting, though I imagine that it’s better with more people.

SCHOOLWORK
Last week I clocked about 11.5 hours on schoolwork. Considering I got most of the work done, that’s impressive efficiency. However, nearly half of that time was on Sunday, and the last assignment would have been much better had I been able to spend another hour on it. So, I’m not going to repeat that this week! Although, it should be easier this week anyway because I only have two creative assignments, and neither of them seem as daunting as those that I’ve done before. I’m going to aim for at least four sessions a day, two for each class.

EXERCISE
I helped move gravel on Saturday and I’m still a bit sore from that. I’ve done some weightlifting and at least one plank a day, but on the whole I’ve been lazy. I still haven’t established the routine of planking in the morning, but I am consistent about planking before I turn in for bed. Today I’m definitely going to dance and try out the floor protector mat.

VIOLIN
I haven’t done anything except order a bluetooth transmitter, which will allow me to play my electric violin out of almost any speaker in the house. The transmitter should come today, so if we don’t play a game tonight I’ll probably practice, and if we do I’ll still give it a test run.

SPANISH
I set up Alexa in my room to default to Spanish. I asked her a few questions, like “what is the tallest mountain in the world” and “how do you say pajaro in English?” It’s great practice I think because it forces me to speak clearly, loudly, and with reasonable speed. I’m still looking for other resources though. I need to set up a system.

RUBIK’S CUBE
The only thing on which I’ve made decent progress. I’ve found training to be too much of a hassle, but I can do all the algorithms with little hesitation. However, I have difficulty matching the algorithm to the cube state to which it should be applied. I’m practicing it by using one on a solved cube, and then applying the proper algorithm to the result. I think if I continue this practice for a week, I should be able to use it in a timely manner. My F2L is really slow, though. After this week, I will work on improving it.

MEMORIZATION
I haven’t worked on this since Wednesday.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER
I did this two more days since Thursday, but I’m still inconsistent. I think that I made a conscious decision not to do it, though, which shows that I’m thinking of it at the right time even if I’m making bad decisions.

Soundpost down!

For all my enthusiasm, I didn’t have the best day yesterday. I helped tear down the shed for about 90 minutes, which I counted as my exercise, but before and after that I was feeling quite lazy and spent a bit too much time on Factorio. Last night I went to sleep earlier, after finishing Carry On Mr. Bowditch and starting Ender’s Game. I woke up at 4:30 though and read more. Anyway, here’s the rundown.

SCHOOLWORK
In the end, I only spent an hour and forty minutes. I got to a stopping place in both classes, and then mostly figured out what I would need to do for the next assignments, but I didn’t feel like starting them. At this rate, I expect that I’ll have no problem finishing EDUC 521 by Saturday, and EDUC 532 doesn’t seem like it will require much more effort either, so I’m not feeling a lot of pressure. Even so, my goal was for two hours a day total, so I’m still expecting that much of myself for today.

EXERCISE
As I said, I counted tearing down the shed as my exercise, though I also did a bit of weight-lifting. I planked last night for two minutes, and this morning for about 2:10. I’ll try dancing again today, experimenting with the floor protector mat.

VIOLIN
Hearken unto my tale of woe. I was excited about using the app that I found, and I pulled out my old violin. The bridge was down. “That was smart,” I thought, “but it’s a bit of a pain to set it back up, so I’ll just use my electric violin.” I pulled that out and then realized that I probably couldn’t use the app with it, because the app needed to be able to hear it. So I stowed it again and pulled out the wooden violin. I set up the bridge according to the marks on my violin, and started tuning it. I had just about gotten it in tune when BANG. The bridge collapsed. It scared me, but I started to set it back up again. Then I noticed something rolling around inside. After quite a bit of effort, I figured out that it was some kind of wooden peg, probably important for the structure of the violin. Now I’m thinking that the violin might be permanently damaged because I see no way to put the peg back wherever it is. Disheartened by this result, I gave up for the day.

After googling this, it’s apparently a common operation to replace this piece (the sound post) and might not even cost money. Considering that I bought the violin at a small shop nearby, I suspect that I’d have a good chance of not being charged if I took it there. However, I’m also pretty sure that the shop is closed down right now, so I’ll just loosen the strings and wait for a good time to get it looked at.

SPANISH
My search for grammar resources turned up nothing of apparent value to me. I think I’m going to have to make my own program, but I’m not exactly sure how to do that. Okay, before I resort to a lot of effort, I’ll check out my old language learning forums for any good Spanish resources specifically related to grammar. For oral proficiency, I need to listen, and I need to speak. The University of Texas at Austin has tons of videos specific to tasks. I’ll watch one or two videos and attempt to do the task myself based on the example. For listening, maybe I can find a Spanish podcast. When will I listen? I don’t know. Maybe if the podcast’s subject matter is interesting enough, I’ll make time and maybe do weights or rowing as I listen.

RUBIK’S CUBE
I’m still averaging 1:45 for a solve. Finishing F2L takes consistently around one minute. Forty-five seconds for the last layer is a ridiculously long amount of time—it really shouldn’t take more than ten seconds, and even with the beginner method I could do it in fifteen. At this point I’m terrible at recognizing which algorithm to apply, and occasionally I’ll mess up the algorithm too. Today I’m learning the last OLL algorithm though, and I’ll concentrate on my recognition from tomorrow.

MEMORIZATION
I successfully reviewed Psalms 9, 12, and 17. I gave 19 a shot, and it was rough.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER
Since I woke up early and read Ender’s Game, I didn’t do this. I think I need a reminder when I wake up. I’d put something on my ceiling, but I kind of doubt that I would see it. Maybe putting it on my light switch or bedside table would work better.

Today’s special to-do list:

• Try dancing on the floor protector mat
  
• Set up electric violin to work on speakers
  
• Look at language learning forums for Spanish resources, especially related to grammar.
  
• Look for Spanish podcast.
  
• Set up new laptop which should be arriving today.

Spring(board) of April

It’s the first day of a new month! Oh hey, it’s April Fool’s Day. I kind of wish I had a prank in mind, but not enough to actually spend time on it. Anyway, things are strange with the virus shutting everything down, and I’m not especially happy because my pollen allergies are bullying me, but I’m going to give this month a good go. My hope is that it will serve as a springboard into May—I’ll set up habits and procedures that will allow me to stay productive as I enter a more normal mode of life.

Yesterday was kind of my springboard into this month. It was a little on the busy side—I went shopping, spent two hours cooking, and wrote an excessively long blog post. I did spend some time on Factorio, but I don’t think it was in excess of two hours. I didn’t read fanfiction, and instead finished A Gathering of Old Men. After that I was still quite awake, so I read about half of my old favorite Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.

SCHOOLWORK
In the end I didn’t reach my schoolwork goal, finishing at 90 minutes instead of 120. Still, I worked with focus and completed the reading and the quiz. Today I’ll try to hit 2.5 hours to make up for yesterday. I already did thirty minutes, so I’m feeling good about that, and eager to get back to it.

EXERCISE
I danced with the dancing socks on my shoes. It was a tolerable situation, but pivoting was still a bit difficult. I’m going to try using a floor protector tonight. Sadly, I didn’t clean afterwards. I also had difficulty remembering the moves, and I felt that I looked silly most of the time.

I did a plank last night but forgot to do one this morning. Even though I worked my abs heavily during my dancing session, I managed to hold out long enough to nearly finish F2L at a casual pace, meaning at least a minute. I didn’t actually time it because I was too lazy to walk to the playroom and get my watch.

VIOLIN
I found an app that was almost exactly what I’m looking for, which will give me a record of my intonation as I play a scale. I wish it had a metronome, but I can use that separately without much effort. I didn’t practice yesterday because I ran out of time, but I’m going to try to do so today, and hopefully find my target piece.

SPANISH
I researched the ACTFL certification and found that it was indeed the test that I needed to study for. Unlike the JLPT which is pass or fail, the evaluation is more like the TOEFL, in which everyone takes the same test and the result determines your level. Overall, I think this is a better way to test, and it means that no matter what result I get, I’ll have something to show for having taken the test.

The OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) test which is the requirement for educators seems very practical and communication oriented. That’s good, but it also means that it will be difficult (for me) to study for because it really requires interacting with native speakers. I remembered that we do have native speakers at church though, which will make it easier. Also, I have found a good resource specifically oriented to this test, so I’ll investigate it a little more and try to develop a plan for working through it. Preparation for the OPI will involve oral and aural skills, and I still think that my grammar needs focus. Today then, I’ll look for a grammar resource to work through.

RUBIK’S CUBE
It’s really difficult to count doing an algorithm 30 times. I’ve found though, that if I do an algorithm from the solved position three (or sometimes six) times, I wind up back at solved position, so that helps me to count. For new algorithms, if I work from solved position to solved position three times a day, three times each time, I think that will be sufficient. For reviewing algorithms, I’ll do one of these loops for each algorithm that I’m not comfortable with, preferably each review session. So, to summarize my schedule, I’ll have three deliberate practice sessions a day, in each of which I’ll work from solve to solve three times for the new algorithm and once for each unfamiliar algorithm. I’ll then do recognition training of the new algorithm twice.

This should be a good schedule when I transition to full CFOP, but it turns out that I only have two more OLL algorithms to learn for 2-step CFOP. From Friday, then, I’ll continue my unfamiliar algorithm review and replace the new algorithm practice with two more recognition training trials from a bank of all the OLL algorithms (except antisune which I can do in my sleep).

MEMORIZATION
I reviewed four Psalms yesterday and did really well with all of them except Psalm 20. That might have been the first time I’ve reviewed Psalm 20 in the past three years so, in which case I didn’t do too poorly. I think I’ll be able to get the first 20 Psalms to 90% by Friday, so instead of Monday I’ll start on 21 from Saturday.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER
I read Mark 7 (?) and prayed for two people. Prayer was uncomfortable. I’m out of practice.

I’m going to make a list of tasks for the month too, but once again they’re a bit too private to post here. As for my Extolling Log (about people in my life), I think I need to set a time for it so that I don’t forget. Just before reading would be most ideal, but in the past that has been a difficult time slot to stay faithful to. I’m thinking that I will set a timer for five minutes for this task, and maybe if I do that I can succeed in this task even when I don’t feel like it.