Young Hands Club

I don’t have much to report for this week, but some events happened and so I figured I’d write something small to check in.

I had a fun week, with the highlight being spending an evening with MP, hanbot, nicoleci, and the billymg’s. But I let my writing schedule get pushed back 1 day and then missed my article for today (Sunday.) The reason for the latter being…

On Friday I fainted. I was feeling slightly tired throughout the day but nothing too out of the ordinary. I felt dizzy about 20 seconds before the event, sat down, then I felt somewhat okay so I stood back up. About 15 seconds later I fell. First on my butt, and then I hit my head and was shaking/convulsing for about 10-15 seconds. When I came to, my face was white and my lips were blue. (The falling and white face / blue lips was recalled by Catalonia) I was able to remember the events leading up to the fainting, and I was not confused when I came back to consciousness. I’ve been feeling slightly dizzy and lightheaded since then.

If I’m not feeling ~100% by tomorrow, I’ll probably head to the doctor.

1. Monday 04/06

   1.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
   1.2 Trip to Santa Cruz / Tamarindo for Grocceries (5h)

2. Tuesday 04/07

   2.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (2.5h)
   2.2 Saltmines (6h)

3. Wednesday 04/08

   3.1 Daily Writing Exercise – Aristotle (Outline) (2.5h)
   3.2 Saltmines (6h)

4. Thursday 04/09

   4.1 Daily Writing Exercise – Aristotle (Publish) (2.5h)
   4.2 Relevant work for TheFleet (8h)

5. Friday 04/10

   5.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
   5.2 Work on TheFleet (2h)
   5.2 Apartment improvements ((Clean up entryway, drill in new shelves, and acquire plants to put in window)) (6h)

6. Saturday 04/11

   6.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (2.5h)
   6.2 Plan and review for next week (4h)
   6.3 Open Slot / Makeups (4h)

7. Sunday 04/12

   7.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
   7.2 Open Slot / Makeups (5h)

From my own assestment I am still teetering on belonging as a hopeful or a member in younghands. I said that at the end of this week we should formalize me moving down to a “hopeful” if I came up short. It may be best for me to take that step down, I’ll explain why with this review:

I believe this week was an improvement from last week, although it’s hard to say given my subpar measuring for both weeks. I published three articles ((And made a draft of another)), I published this review on Saturday instead of Sunday, I was more active in channel, and I completed another 6 hours of saltmines. ((The hours are shortened in part because I am working down hours that I’ve already been paid for and am working on smaller maintance tasks.)) Overall, I felt ((I use the past tense of feel intentionally. I didn’t do the daily timelogs, and I just had the sensation of working harder for the hours. With that said, I am pretty sure I reduced the amount of time spent on “getting up for water” and the like.)) more focused during the time I was working at my desk.

Although there _might_ have been improvement from last week, I still fail to accomplish the goals laid out by my plan. I should have had 12 hours for saltmines instead of 6, I didn’t spend the 4 hours I said I would on Monday rereading Aristotle, and I believe I spent fewer than 8h working on TheFleet on Thursday although I’m not sure since I didn’t log my time anyways.

The main problem I have – and the reason I believe it may be best for me to step down to hopeful – is that the work I do for younghands is not the top priority in my mind. I’d like to say it is, it certainly is the top priority for when i’m “working”, but my actions show that I constantly prefer to enjoy social time in its various forms than to get done what I set out to do for the week.

If I am to be switched to a hopeful, my goal is immediately to regain my status as a member, but I am not sure if I’m ever going to be able to change my pattern of randomly dipping out of work to catch a beer for sunset with someone or the like. I am not sure whether this is a character flaw or what. Perhaps I can develop my ability to turn down last minute invitations and work on making sure that meeting with others fits in my schedule. In any case, I would rather be assigned as “hopeful” because I am someone for whom there is genuinely hope, than be assigned as “hopeful” because I am some hopeless impostor member.

I should mention that I understand the practical consequence of moving from member->hopeful is that the frequency of your comments/reviews on anything I do are reduced until I reach a higher level of productivity.

I was supposed to visit jfw and dorion in Panama City this week. Oh well.

1. Monday 03/30

   1.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
   1.2 Reread Two Versions of Aristotle (4h)
   1.3 Start TheFleet logging new batches of channels. (4h)

2. Tuesday 03/31

   2.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (2.5h)
   2.2 Saltmines (6h)
   2.3 Spanish Lesson (2h)

3. Wednesday 04/01

   3.1 Daily Writing Exercise – (Outline) (2.5h)
   3.2 Saltmines (6h)

4. Thursday 04/02

   4.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (2.5h)
   4.2 Relevant work for TheFleet (8h)

5. Friday 04/03

   5.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
   5.2 Spanish Class (2h)
   5.3 Relevant work for TheFleet (4h)
   5.4 Address issues around the apartment (4h)

6. Saturday 04/04

   6.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (2.5h)
   6.2 Plan and review for next week (4h)
   6.3 Open Slot / Makeups (4h)

7. Sunday 04/05

   7.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
   7.2 Open Slot / Makeups (5h)

I improved from last week by producing epsilon instead of 0. My mind, time, and energy were still occupied by la mujer but inbetween my recurring visits to her nearby casita I managed to get in a few bursts of work. I would like to return to logging my time throughout the day. I haven’t been writing these because I am not brave enough / don’t see the point of publishing the details of my lack of productivity.

What I got done:

6 hours of saltmines.

3 hours of Spanish lessons.

I finished reading the perseus version of Aristotle’s poetics. ((Which had chunks missing just like Butcher’s translation did on MIT’s site… argh.)) I will need to reread both versions to be able to do a proper comparison article.

I created a python script to create a list of the channels I successfully logged. I still need to start TheFleet to collect the next batch of logs and figure out the right way to publish the logs I currently have.

This is basically a repost of last week’s plan.

1. Monday 03/23

   1.1 Saltmines (6h)
   1.2 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
   1.3 Read perseus version of Aristotle’s poetics(4h)

2. Tuesday 03/24

   2.1 Saltmines (6h)
   2.2 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (2.5h)
   2.3 Spanish Lesson (2h)

3. Wednesday 03/25

   3.1 Daily Writing Exercise – (Outline) (2.5h)
   3.2 Study virtual memory, with the goal of learning how to diagnose TheFleet memory management issue. (4h)
   3.3 Create a function for checking if a channel on a network has been successfully logged for 2 weeks. (4h)

4. Thursday 03/26

   4.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (2.5h)
   4.2 Publish logs for first batch of channels. (4h)
   4.3 Organize next batches of channels to log (4h)

5. Friday 03/27

   5.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
   5.2 Spanish Class (2h)
   5.3 Relevant work on TheFleet (6h)

6. Saturday 03/28

   6.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (1.5h)
   6.2 Plan and review for next week (4h)
   6.3 Read perseus version of Aristotle’s poetics(4h)

7. Sunday 03/29

   7.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (1.5h)
   7.2 Open Slot / Makeups (5h)

This week has so many compounded failures that there is not much to review. My mind and time was preoccupied with Catalonia. ((She has returned since her departure.)) It’s clear now that I’ve walked into her web. I will have to regain control of my schedule.

To stay positive I will mention some of the good things that came of this week. First off, Catalonia has been helpful for my Spanish. She speaks English well and that is the primary language we use to communicate. But we often go into bouts of Spanish that last a while, and she is helpful/patient with fixing my pronunciation. She also informed me that learning Spanish in Guanacaste is akin to learning English in Jamaica. I knew that the locals spoke a ghetto Spanish but this put the gravity of how bad the accent/slang is here into perspective.

I prepared for Armageddon by stocking up on non perishables. I could have done better by getting a fishing rod. ((Another mistake I made was not buying alcohol; Costa Rica has now mandated that the country is dry – stores are not allow to sell booze.))

1. Monday 03/16

   1.1 Saltmines (6h)
   1.2 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline Travel Article) (2.5h)
   1.3 Review logs (2h)

2. Tuesday 03/17

   2.1 Saltmines (6h)
   2.2 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish Travel Article) (2.5h)
   2.3 Spanish Lesson (2h)

3. Wednesday 03/18

   3.1 Daily Writing Exercise – (Outline) (2.5h)
   3.2 Study virtual memory, with the goal of learning how to diagnose TheFleet memory management issue. (4h)
   3.3 Publish logs for first batch of channels. (4h)

4. Thursday 03/19

    4.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (2.5h)
    4.2 Create a function for checking if a channel on a network has been successfully logged for 2 weeks. (4h)
    4.3 Organize next batches of channels to log (4h)

5. Friday 03/20

    5.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (2.5h)
    5.2 Spanish Class (2h)
    5.3 Message Panama Lawyers / Move around heathen money (1h)
    5.4 Open BAC account / Grocery Shopping (4h)

6. Saturday 03/21

    6.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Publish) (1.5h)
    6.2 Plan and review for next week (4h)
    6.3 Read perseus version of Aristotle’s poetics(4h)

7. Sunday 03/22

    7.1 Daily Writing Exercise (Outline) (1.5h)
    7.2 Open Slot / Makeups (5h)

The past two weeks have been quite the trip. I came back from having a wonderful time with my long term friends in beautiful scenic parts of Costa Rica to find MP had decided to shut down tmsr. Truthfully I felt a sensation of relief. But when I try to put away the emotions and think about the situation, I know that a great resource has been lost and my life and others’ will probably be worse for it.

Once my friends left I spent the next few days wooing a woman. While this was time consuming and sleep reducing, I could have at least squeezed in a travel article. MP’s departure has made my hallucination of freedom stronger. It will take extra will power to get back on track.

Lastly, I fell behind on the logs. I have been skimming the conversations, which is always unacceptable but especially now given the gravity of what is being discussed.

Between the three days I have before my friends come visit for a week, I have one day dedicated to saltmines, antoher to taking care of miscellaneous tasks, and the last to working on TheFleet.

1. Monday 03/02
    Saltmines (8h)
    Revise What-Makes-A-Good-Tragedy Outline (2.5h)
    Outline an article that is based on a personal experience (2.5h)
    Plan full day trip for the next day.

2. Tuesday 03/03

   2.1 Full day trip to take care of various tasks: (print businesses cards, get a haircut, get a pair of backup reading glasses, get a new surfboard fin key, find and take some clothes to a dry cleaner, make an appointment with a doctor, open bank account with another CR bank (BAC), buy jumper cables + get the car washed, put gas in car, go grocery shopping, withdraw cash from atm)
   2.2 Daily Writing Exercise – Publish What-Makes-A-Good-Tragedy Article(2.5h)
   2.2 Publish Article on Personal Experience (2.5h)

3. Wednesday 03/04

    3.1 Investigate memory issue with TheFleet. Restart dead fleet regardless of results (8h)
    3.2 Pick up friends from airport in the evening.

03/05 => 03/11
    Entertain two friends visiting from the states / Paris. We are going to visit the nearby beaches, and then go see Arenal / La Fortuna. I will try to find time to get some writing or reading done while they are here, otherwise I will be away from my terminal most of the time.