The Next Few Goals

I actually have found that I am not very good at predicting what order I will accomplish my goals.   Nonetheless, it does help to have a game plan.   And, after all, this is the whole point of the blog.

Here are the goals I am going to work on heavily this summer

• Do 100 push-ups in one go
• Be able to read smoothly in Spanish
• Be able to read smoothly in a 3rd language (it will be Esperanto)
• Learn intermediate woodworking skills

The last one is a somewhat interesting case.  I am going to try to buy a good deal of the tools I need while I am on contract for full days.  Next year, with me working half days, I'll, clearly, be making less, so I will be heavily economizing.  I might try to cut my expenses so far that I will be able to say I have at least proved the concept of

• Make active stream of income that pays my side of bills in 8 hours weekly work

Because I have recently realized there is a loophole in the way that goal is worded.  I do not have to stop working each week when I reach 8 hours; I just have to have bills low enough that I can pay those bills in 8 hours a week.

I think it is possible to get there.  I plan to walk to work most days, cook all the meals on the days I am to take care of dinner, downgrade my phone, and all around go on lock-down with my spending.  The fact that I am free of any debt also really helps.

Best Posts Before 2015

Around the turn of the year I wrote a post about the best posts of 2015.  This made me realize that I need a similar compilation for the posts before 2015.


As a whole, this group majors heavily in the problem of beating procrastination.

First, Use a Timer to Get More out of Your Time
Beat Procrastination by . . .  Starting
Procrastination Chronicles #3: Dealing with a Bunch of Crap
Three Times as Much as Average . . . Or More?
Nested Time Box Games
Procrastination Chronicles #1: Weed Eater
How I'm so Cheap: Eat the Weeds
Beginning Toward Squat Goal: Grease the Groove
No to Diet Sodas
Two Lessons at the End of a Mini-Retirement

Walden . . . Underground

I know that my most loyal reader has dreamed before about a cabin in the woods, a place to draw nourishment off nature and solitude.

In that spirit, I did a post on my blog about sustainability about underground houses.

April was the Month of Memory

As debate winds down, I have been catching up on life.  First dishes -- yeah, always dishes, then the lawn and garden, and now as I hack away at school work, I am also working again on language learning.  I am working on Spanish and Esperanto.

I am trying to learn from my experiences and pace myself with Anki to avoid burnout.  So I have set a limit a maximum of ten new cards per language, per day.  If I can't get around to do enough reading to find words or sentences to meet that limit, that is no problem.  My bigger worry is feeling so overloaded that I start to push back from what can and should be play time.

With Esperanto, I want to be able to read and write in it.  With Spanish, I want to be essentially bilingual.  I plan on working on my Spanish in all phases -- reading, listening, speaking, and even writing for the long haul.  With that said, I can afford to pace myself.  The good news i s that the materials I need are all around me, and the people I would need to converse with are around if I can just get a little more over my shyness.   

But for now a bookworm I remain.  I will read, read, read in Spanish, listen and watch some, and look up a few words.

If I had to guess, I would say that I will be able to "read smoothly" in Esperanto by the end of the summer, and will have finished my million word challenge in Spanish, and thus be able to count that as well.

I also starting working on a project which I think will improve my interior life immeasurably: memorizing poetry.  My eventual goal is to have a poem memorized for every day of the year, like a love poem for Valentines, a lot nature poem in March, that sort of thing. I plan on working on this slowly as well, shooting for a a few lines a day.  I'll go from there to learn 12 poems, one for every month, and then fill that in to 52, so I can have a poem for every week. . . And then, one day, after low-grade effort over a tremendous amount of days, I will know 366, so that I can have a poem for each day, even on a leap-year.

I have two poems that I have worked on in the past and am going to start back with:
If by Rudyard Kipling and
Me Imperturbe by Walt Whitman.

Different Kinds of Push Ups

Push ups are one of my interests.

State Title

One more item off the list: I coached a state champion.

The event was Public Forum debate, which is a team event with two partners.  The young man on that team is someone who I have coached since he was in eight grade.  He's seen me at my best, and he's seen me at my worst.  And it is a joy to be connected to him and his partner by this championship moment.

Procrastination Chronicles #13 : Tax Papers

On the path to greatness, there will be 100 overcomings.

I will chronicle my attempts to overcome procrastination.  My technique is to start small, really small.

My favorite post in the series is #3 Dealing with a Bunch of Crap.

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Since I have started paying taxes, I do not believe I have ever paid them this late.  

If the taxes get as far as spring break, I usually end up dealing with it during the break.  This year we went on a vacation to New York on spring break, so that pushed takes all the way into April.  

If my papers and other affairs were in any way organized this probably would not be much of a problem.  As it was, the fear of the papers grew in my mind.  And dread works best when it is ill-defined.  So . . . What was I afraid of?  Missing the paper on how much interest I've paid on the rental? Having to have my W-2 reprinted in the administrative center?  Being audited and thrown in jail?  Looking like an idiot to my wife at the tax place?  I had not really thought through what I was afraid of or even that I was afraid.  It just moved out of my mind quickly, but grew stronger with every time I realized that "Oh shoot, we need to do our taxes."  

I imagine that everyone has a kind of force field that makes it hard to get tasks done that they have already procrastinated, and the rub is that with each time the task comes to mind and yet doesn't get done . . . the force field . . . just . . .gets . . . stronger.  (This conception of a force field is based on Aaron Swartz's essay on productivity.)  

So my force field was strong and after staying up late to avoid the task, sleeping in to avoid the task, making eggs to avoid the task and even doing the dishes to avoid the task, I turned to the task near panic, promising myself that I would get cream soda later in the day (much better if I had some pre-warding materials on hand, but, alas, we were low).  I set a timer for 20 minutes, just picturing my entire day wasted looking through papers, and then -- oh gosh -- I'd never get to all the other things I needed to do . . . and some of those things flooded my mind.

With the timer going, I made a few hesitant steps, setting up different piles for what I was going through, clearing the space on a tv tray to make room for one pile, pacing a bit in another room for a bit because it was too much for me.  I couldn't believe I had set up an appointment with the accountant for 2:00 pm.  I just knew I wasn,t going to be ready by then, or if I ended up being ready, it would be nothing but a day of torture.  

Of course by the end of 20 minutes I had found all the papers I needed.  The rest of the day went smoothly and I got many things done.