oh my god my life :) Part of the book "the now habit" is about keeping a procrastination log. its a good idea, and although i used to beat myself up about procrastination, really i just have to laugh at mysef at the ridculous thinking that goes on in my head.... oi humans
2/3/09
(S)=slow (P)=procrastination (遅い）＝late
目覚ます 6:35
起きる 6:45（P）
朝食を作る ６:50
テレビを見ながら食べる ～７:20（P）
歯磨く、シャワー ～7:50 （P）
服を着 ～7:55
出発 7:57 （遅い）
到着 ８:07 （遅い）
朝礼 ～8:20
印鑑、コンプータ、ランチ ～８：３０（P）
スケジュルを作る ～8:45
仕事ー(short paperwork) ～９：００
仕事／日本語の勉強(short paperwork) （S）～９：３０
授業(unprepared) 9:50-10:50
仕事 日本語の勉強 (short paperwork) 11:00－12:15（S？）
先生と話す 12:15ー12:40
ランチ 12:40－1:20（S）
昼寝、カード 1:20-1:50
仕事(long project)(due soon) 2:00-3:15
掃除 3:15 - 3:40
仕事(same project) 3:40-
2/4 水曜日
6:35-6:45 sleep in (P)
6:45-6:50 turn on tv, walk around
6:55-7:05 play with...
7:05-7:10 fix breakfast
7:10-:25 eat breakfast
7:25-7:45 brush teeth, bathroom, shower, shave (long time)
7:45-7:50 dressed (rushed)
7:50-8;05 通勤 （遅い）
8:05-8:25 朝礼
8:25-8:45 印鑑、ポッドキャスト、ランチ
8:45-9:10 worked on this thing (perfectionisting, by trying to do it in Japanese, and adding all new words to anki)-low priority? high priority? dunno
9:10-9:30 class prep-high priority (due soon)
9:30-10:45 class (prepared, good class, but ran it over a bit perfectionism?)
10:45-11:00 coffee, studying, putting away stuff
11:00-11:50 working on project(finished part of it, little perfectionism)
11:50- 12:05 bathroom+cards?
12:05-12:30 working on project (due soon)(multitasking with japanese?)
12:30-1:20 lunch, nap
1:20-2:05 finished up project (finally)
2:05-3:05 class (didn't prepare until last minute)
3:05-3:10 bathroom
3:10-3:25 prepared for a meeting with Umemoto
3:25-4:10 meeting with umemoto
4:15-4:25 soji
4:25-4:35 wrote this
4:35-4:40 cards
4:40-5:20 library stuff
5:20-5:30 packed up to go home, bathroom
5:30-5:45 commute
5:45-6:25 read mail pooped thought about what a badass I am umm something?
6:25-6:30 cards
6:30-45 snack
-:56 cards
7:00-7:10 laundry
-15 cards
-35 laundry
-40 cards
-50 house cleaning
-8:00 cards
-8:05- Go to pool (procrastinated-wanted a break-checked e-mail (it'll only take a minute)
9:30 leave pool (took a while in the sauna (thats ok) changing always takes too long)
9:40-9:55 tsutaya (couldn't find what I was looking for, wandered around, settled on something else)
10:00 arive back home, start making dinner
10:10 cards
10:15 rice was on wrong setting (too rushed?) so reset it, decided to make dinner w/out rice
10:20-10:30 ate dinner while watching a movie
(alarm goes off) Ignore alarm (procrastination)b/c rice is still cooking, and movie is hella sweet
10:40 did some cards for 10 mins
10:50 rice finishes, decide to eat a little more
11:20 clean up dinner
11:30 decide to go to bed, start packing stuff up
12:00 ish in bed, 1 and a hal hours later...
wake up:6:35
out of bed by 6:38 (pretty good)
bathroom, wander around for 15 minutes?
6:55 start making breakfast
7:05 start eating breakfast
7:25 finsish breakfast (orange takes a long time to eat)
7:25-7:45 teeth, shower,bathroom, medicine (shower=~7 minutes)
7:45-7:50 dress
7:50-8:03 commute (on time with time to spare!)
8:05-8:20 chorei
8:20-25 inkan, lunch
25-30 meet with ume
30-40 coffee, podcast
40-45 this
45-50 finished coffee and synched cards to ipod-procrastination (late to class b/c teacher said "dont' worr about coming just yet)
50-9:50 class (half of class doing cards) :)
9:50-10:00 cards
10:00-10:10 went to library, librarian wasnt there
:10-:15 cards
:15-11:30 prepared documents for a lesson, printed them, copied them (a little perfectionisty with the sorter and with the copies of the notebook)
:30 did some cards
:35-12:25 prepared for another lesson completed within time limits, not perfect, but I only have 20 minutes to deliver the lesson
30-44 cards, etc...
44-1:20 lunch
1:25-3:30 class, class, soji (both well-prepared for)
:30-:50 ?? did nothing relaxed
:50-4:50 went to talk to librarian. studied mostly (procrastinated on making poster for PPC-my work hours are over, i feel like studying japanese now... yeah)
5:00-5:35 studied japanese (procrastination? i was in a groove, and didn't really feel like going home. had no obligations there... whatevs got my studying done)
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Project Notes
Ok, since i can't connect my computer to the internet at school, blogging has taken a sabattical. But what i've found is that its still been useful for me to take notes on my projects i am working on. Basically, i just keep a stickies text file open on my desk top and jot something down that i think is worth noting. Some observation about my own behavior mostly. Mostly these notes revolve around my procrastination/time management project, and my japanese project. like most of the crap here, they're a bit rambling, but whatever its' my website, biotch. here's a dump of about a month's worth of notes, and an insight into the inner workings of tommy's brain
i guess there's also alot of crap about work, and this character "umemoto" umemoto sensei is the teacher i mainly work with. Basically, i don't really jive with her that well.
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procrastination:
Tuesday:
After lunch, I studied japanese for ten minutes, even though lunch break was over. Its ok to take a break, but I had just come off a break. better to do something fun after you do something not fun
at one point, i was talking to noda sensei, right as I was about to take a break. Instead of taking a break, I went back to working on what i was doing briefly
6:30: grabbed up some potato chips on an impulse, even though I hadn't decided to buy them before. Not really "procrastination" per se, but it seems like impulsiveness is a similar problem.
7:00 at tsutaya, had finished getting what i needed and went to go look at XBox games
7:45ish. Determined that I couldn't finish making dinner before I decided to go to the pool, so in the time between where i was going to make dinner and going to the pool, did some reading. Procrastination, or reward?
10:15 ish dinner wasn't finished, continued to watch DMC instead of doing what was scheduled- photography. it was still recreation, but unscheduled, and I hadn't yet finished cleaning dishes
Wednesday
morning: kept watching tv after eating b/c it was interesting. Unplanned reward.
Shower: timer is broken. rinse phase was ok, but washing took longer as i was perfectionisting and going slowly. Also after washing stood in the water for a while b/c it was warm. unplanned reward.
After shower, stood in front of the mirror admiring myself for a couple minutes lol.
leaving: had plenty of time, but i hadn't organized clothes well the night before, so my shit was all over the house and had to look for it.
School: arrived with a few minutes to spare. didn't do anything really.
after chorei, When I downloaded my podcasts, spent a little time dicking around on the internet, and consequentially forgot to load the mp3s in my player, so had to go back and do it again.
why did that conversation with umemoto piss me off? Well, unscheduled meetings are kind annoying. I felt like she was stomping on my turf, as usual, and was pressuring me to get this shit finished earlier than had be originally planned. I didn't know the answer to her question, or what or why she was asking it. I need to be nicer to her, especially since she was doing something for me, but like I really don't like being interrupted.
9:25 worked for 20 minutes. didn't set alarm. bell rang and I realized i hadn't prepared for class :)
11:18 needed to look up something in the dictionary, and ended up reading it a little bit
11:38 continued to work instead of taking a break
3:30: Umemoto asked me to finish prepping something, I had been working on it all day. I knew when she asked me, it would be tough to meet the deadline and she kept pressuring me and reminding me. Anyway, like when it came to actually getting it to a completed state, i told her that there was one part i didn't want to include on the test anyway, and she was like "no i want you to include it" so i did and it took a few minutes, but I felt pressure to finish it in a short period of time. the final sheet wasn't like what i wanted it to be. there was some issues with Word that i was working out, but in the process, was procrastinating on actually getting it done by worrying about getting it right. Perfectionism +_resistance to authority. I really am deathly allergic to being told what to do and how to act. authority
on one hand I feel like sometimes i wish i had more concrete work at this job, and sometimes i feel like the work is too concrete and doesn't allow me any freedom to do what i want.
Thursday
Morning: shower timer still busted. need to buy a new one. forgot to organize my clothes again. Woke up early and started to read, but continued after the alarm went off.
Prioritizing/procrastination: again when dling podcasts, got distracted with reading the internets. I needed to ask Umemoto about class first period. also, i forgot to actually put the mp3s on my player no negative consequences, but whatevs
10:15: did some "incidental cleaning for like 15 minutes looking for a piece of paper
friday
12:50 So, as expected, Umemoto kept bothering me to show her the test. I had completed it earlier in the day. its very obvious to me that, as much as i try, a. this class is not mine, but ultimately, hers b. my bosses/coworkers/colleagues still don't trust me. Is it becasue I of turning things in late? i dunno. I always feel like even when theres a deadline that i feel like I can make, it gets pushed up, or some other bullshit work gets put on top of it at the last minute, or like the first version I turn in isn't good enough (for me or for them). Anyway I don't know if this is a procrastination problem or not. I suspect it is. I'm justifying stuff that shouldn't really need justifying. justifying my tardiness (even though I thought I had done it on time) I dunno. I wish i could talk this over with someone who ws on my side...
月曜日 2/23 9:25
perfectionisting unschedule to avoid working on HBMLP schedule
10:50 perfectionisting: while doing edits, changed a card that was not in the edit que, to be more accurate, and match the card i had been previously working on. Should have added it to the edit queue and moved on
10:55 perfectionisting: after alarm went off, decided I needed to unsuspened edited cards. Probably should just do this at the beginning of next edit session.
1:45 ish perfectionisting: timer went off and I just had "a little more to do"- editing fonts and crap, ended up spending like another half hour until i was "interrupted" by an unexpected meeting
火曜日
9:20 planned on working for 20 minutes, decided to work for 40
perfectionisting? decided to do cards with a fudepen, takes about five times longer. dou ka na? Is it killing two birds with one stone? perfectionisting? I mean, I do think that it is important to know how to write the characters, and it affects how I would do them with a pen as well
how should I deal with "work related distractions"-when someone comes and asks me to do something while I'm in the middle of something else?
first thing, is obviously, I have to start on the new thing right away, second thing is, I can't take the break I had planned until I've at least completed a big chunk of the new project. Basically, have to reset the clock and move to a new project
2:40 perfectionisting: tried to get better stories and more accurate definitions for some characters, which took a shitload of time, especially when I already had stories
6:08 impulsiveness: incidental cleaning
2月25日 水曜日
9:20 perfectionism. continued to work after alarm.
10:29 perfectionism. changed the time of how long to do meditation, like five times
1:20 distraction. (did not time) continued to read long after lunch was over
I was working on grading these tests, and at the end of the day spend almost two hours on them. The lunch break i took today was extra long for some reason, and in fact, as i was doing it, felt as though I had to get back to work. I did and ume was like "oh are they done yet" and i was like... umm no way, i just began them. At another point i went back to my desk to take a break and do some cards, after a 40 minute session, and ume came over and was like "what are the grades like" and i was like " i don't know" and she was like "are they less than 30 point or some bullshit" and i was like "i really don't know." The fact is, I don't give a fuck about these tests, or testing in general. I know I'm supposed to, but tests are bullshit from both a learners perspective and a teachers perspective. why do i have to threaten them with a test to get them to study? threaten them with some arbitrary points game that is supposed to affect their future and reflect their ability to perform? Anyway, I did the grading for like two hours and it wasn't done yet. I feel like i wasn't or perfectionisting or getting distracted (while I was doing them). However, i was stopping every so often to 'take a break" it seems like these breaks tend to end up taking longer than I think-like not just 5 minutes, but like 10 at least 10mins break:20mins work aint good. Basically, while at work, if there is something I have to do, I don't really get a break(other than lunch break). blah. so i had to leave at my "real work time" to get to the bank, and the grading wasn't done yet. I felt like really bad about it. really stressed spent like 10 minutes thinking about whether i should leave or not. making excuses I wanted to tell Ume. On Basically it was really stressfull to leave work unfinished. The only way i can imagine to have made it better is if I hadn't taken a break the whole afternoon, and hadn't taken a longer lunch break. I dont even know if I could have finished it.
deadlines: if there is a deadline coming up, i suppose the only thing may be to just keep working until the job is finished? Theoretically the stress of deadlines would diminish as you become less of a perfectionist, and more about starting, but i suppose its still a worry
my main habit for working may be the desire to finish everything-to keep going on whatever i am working on until well i guess, until i get bored or something, or tired, i dunno
火曜日 2・26
working on housework, did some laundry kind of did it slowly and decided that in the remaining time I would get some dishes done. there was only 3 minutes remaining. the reason I am writing this is because I felt like It was really unfocused work, slow, time wasty. yeah its over now.
day off-月曜日 ３・２
9:15 distraction. checked e-mail
11:10 perfectionism/distraction. continued to look at the internet site, b/c it was interesting after i finished getting what i needed.
12:12 listening to jero made me want to look up more jero lol
1:30 impulsivity: went to the book store to look for some books that i was wondering "do they have them at the book store in hita?" in addition, ended up spending most of my time reading the doraemon kanji dictionary and then going to another store.
2:37 dicked around on the internet for awhile before actually getting back to work
8:00 shopping takes longer than expected, thus bumping back dinner, and also swimming. in fact, didn't even get around to eating dinner. Wasn't sure what to do, should i stay and eat, or go as planned? decided to go as planned and eat after swimming.
３月３日 （火曜日）
man i kicked ass today. reviews: 181 review time: 47 minutes adds: 26 time:2hr.15min. study work: 3hr,25min left work: 5:10
6:30 i shouldn't include 洗濯 in 家事 because then I end up only doing laundry instead of other chores that need to be done. how to split them up? i suppose just tell myself to only do two laundry tasks, and if it takes more than 20 minutes fuck it. if i do that every day, eventually I'll run out of laundry and have time to do other house stuff later in the week. maybe?
7:55 looked and realized a full hour had passed doing stuff on the internet. Got to be sure to time box that shite, and clearly see what needs to be done.
水曜日 ３・４
morning: took a nap. I was tired because I procrastinated on going to bed. Excuse: my ipod wasn't charged yet. and it hadn't finished charging an hour after I said that the first time.
late morning: worked on grading. It was awesome that I started it today, and also finished it today, however, i really perfectionisted it more than necessary. adding unnecessary statistics, etc. could have finished maybe like 30 minutes earlier.
today at work was a little rocky, being tired, actually having classes, and fucking grading. I hate grading. grading is why school sucks. anyway... totals: ~1:45 studying input:16 cards reps: 157
bullshit: i told ume "i have to go home now"-- that was a bit unprofessional, no?
木曜日 ３月5日
preparation: not a problem, but I didn't really put enough though into what i needed to prepare for my class. We're just showing a movie today, so I had the movie ready, but I didn't think ahead enough to get the projector, etc set up. of course, i still have like four hours before it starts
plan for waking up and falling asleep: When you go to bed on time and wake up on time, you need to reward yourself, so when you go to bed on time, you get (10 15 20?) minutes of reading or DS, whichever suits your fancy. As for waking up, same deal, (10,15, 20) minutes of reading, cards, or DS, but you have to get out of bed to do it. Also, maybe drinking something at that point would be good. As for time, maybe do longer at first, like 20 minutes, and then every week, shorter.
also, there were many times when I "couldn't" get something done. Generally, those should be "Xs." Write down why you couldn't do that particular activity
it seems like pretty much any activity that requires me to create something with word or excel (the internet?) i may be over-perfectionisting it. When does "making it look like I intended" become "perfectionism?" as soon as all the information is on the page?
3/5 friday
if you're gonna reward yourself, be sure to do it right away, learn to do that as soon as you complete the activity. Instant gratification, not delayed gratificaton (well, it is delayed, but no extra delay)
i wasn't really making an effort to write characters as I created stories, but I've found that recent characters have been machigaiyasui for stroke order
3/9 月
i went to the grocery store and it took less time than i predicted!! yay
3/10火
ok, so it was definitely a mistake to shortcut the process for RTK by only writing down the stories after I made a mistake on them. Basically, it takes just as much time to edit a story, or recreate one as it does to just create one from the beginning. But if you have to first make a story, then remake it later, it takes twice as much time. Sure, there may be a few that you don't really NEED stories for, but even though rote memorization does work to some degree, as you move through RTK you'll realize just what Heisig says, it's not a crutch, but a different way to walk. For instance, simple characters that I thought I "knew" i will forget because I don't remember which parts they are made of. Its as though my mind no longer sees kanji as shapes, but divide into parts. I was asked to write the kanji for store店, which is pretty simple, common, and I learned it back in college, so i never bothered to create a story for it. But when it came up, i forgot how to write it because even though there was a picture of it in my mind, i didn't know which primitives made it up.
The other thing is about having the stories on the front of your card. at first this seemed counter productive, but now I see why to do it. The first is that it conforms to the "one bit of information" rule. with the stories on the front, you have to recall only how to write the kanji. With them on the back, you have to recall both the story and the kanji. Which is harder, so you fail cards more. Easier is better. The second thing is whether or not I remember the "keyword" when I see the kanji. Well this is still difficult, especially with kanji that I don' t see often, however with the stories on the front, I don't think that my rate of recall (in the real world) is really significantly different, if not better, than it was before. Basically, real world kanji=> keyword/translation (meaning) recall goes like this for me. First, i may not even notice the kanji. its just a blur of lines within a bigger blur of lines. Second, i see the kanji as a discreet entity, but no more than that. I may recall having seen it somewhere else. Third, i see the kanji and see its as parts, but can't recall the parts readily. Fourth, i see the parts and see how they are arranged, but they don't trigger any memory. This is especially true when I have learned all the parts, but maybe two of them make a new "primitive" that i haven't gotten to yet in heisig. At this point, i may be able to assoicate some form of meaning with it, especially if I see the kanji in context "Oh that one is the one used for "education" and "atheletics" or whatever. I may be able to "recognize it, and possibly read it if I know words that use that compound. If i don't associate any contextual meaning with it, then there are ... more phases. Next, I see the kanji and recognize it but can't remember the keyword (what's that fucking character... i know it i know it...aww) I've probably hit this character in heisig in the past week or so and while i know it well enough to write from keyword-kanji, i haven't really seen the story enough to go kanji-keyword. That's the next stage. I see the same kanji again and this time the keyword comes with it (wait..hold on... that kanji is..... a tree...commandment...something about the ten commandments... in a tree... oh "contraption") and then the final stage, which is possibly the most interesting is that once i have seen the kanji to a point where I am "fluent" in writing it, its almost as though I am back a the beginning. My eye won't necessarily stop at the character, because I just "know" it. At this point, the meaning of the character is actually different than the keyword. If asked, I might be able to produce the keyword, or produce the story, but they're not generally necessary to understand the character. At this point, i can also write the character without any story or keyword prompt. (yeah, that one chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.)
Finally, one more comment. Umm i think basically the difference between front stories and back stories is that with stories on the back, you are reminded what the story is by basically pulling it out of your own mind. you would think that practicing pulling it out of your mind would be important, in order to pull it out of your mind when you see the character in the real world. Basically this is active review, or recall. What happens with the story on the front is that you are simply reminded of a memory that is linked to that character. It is passive review, or reminder. Basically, all you really need to recall is that memory-that image- that is linked to the story and to the kanji itself. Recalling the story itself is actually unnecessary. That memory gets strengthened (through review) both ways, with both passive recall and active recall. However, active recall requires more mental work. Why do more work for the same results?
i don't know what it is, but while my act has come together well at school, I can't seem to get things together after school when I get home. There are a lot more distractions here, I suppose another problem is less motivation overall (i.e. I want to be lazier at home) and also specifically-toward each goal (I don't really want to clean the house, i'd rather play video games, but if I play video games I won't be doing real work---) Ok, so those are the problems. What are the solutions?
ok, well generally I'd like my at home to flow like this:
turn on immersion/heat
change
eat quick snack
(i usually get stuck here)
do some chores (timed) (does not include dishes)(should this include laundry tasks? or just house work?)(or should it only be laundry tasks and no housework, save housework for weekends?)
(insert some play time)
do some photo/meditation
(insert some play time)
(here's where the order could change-dinner before or after pool)
basically, id like to prepare dinner before I go to the pool, and eat it after.
go to pool/evening event 7:50
return from pool 9:30(tsutaya-9:50)
eat dinner
clean up dinner
(e-mail, etc?-dangerous, could be time waster)
bed time cards
bed time routine
that seems like maybe a lot to pack into one day. If i could be that efficient, i could probably do it.
OK, well, try and see. that's the only way. try to do it, see what works and what doesn't work.
3.11 水 授業なし
after I was told that I couldn't participate in some activity (it was probably boring work) because I was not a "regular teacher" it kind of triggered a lot of thoughts (negative thoughts, or rather thoughts about what I would say to my boss if given the opportunity), and a desire to write down my thoughts. I did that a little bit, which i guess is important, but it was really distracting from work, and became difficult to focus. Just goes to show how outside forces can affect your actions, or more concretely, how my mood and psychological state affect my work. I think at these times, It's ok to write down my thoughts here or on a piece of paper.
secondly, i was going through my edits list, and hit a non-study related item. I think if I am going to implement some of the stuff in the "getting things done" book, I'm probably gonna start treating edits just like any other piece of "stuff"
grading standards for kanji cards:
(first review)
1-missed
2-not missed
(older cards)
1-mistake/forgot, had to rewrite more than once
2-mistake, but rewrote once, or had to look at the card more than once
3-right the first time, but may have not been completely fluent. needing to see the story or not has no relationship. If you need it, you're probably not fluent in writing it yet. If you don't need it, you're probably fluent in writing it. only grade the quality of output.
4-right the first time. fluent.
so, I changed my advanced scheduling settings about 2 months ago. Its been ok, but I worry that maybe the timing is too short, and I'm consequentially getting an inordinate number of reviews because of it.
The first thing i want to ask people is: what is your average number/ratio of additions to repititions per day, and also what is the average time you spend per day doing reps and doing adds?
For me, I have an anywhere from 120-170 reps per day, with an of 15-25 cards per day. This seems like a rather high number of reps compared to the number of adds I'm doing. By the way, I'm doing heisig-style kanji cards.
Writing every kanji, i can write about 4 kanji/minute. Doing adds and edits, I can do about one add or edit every two minutes. (coming up with and typing stories takes time)
The second thing I want to ask people is: do you have any advice for tweaking the advanced scheduling settings? the reason I tweaked them originally is that I was forgetting new cards too often. Instead of setting the initial interval to be less than days, I set it to one day for both the "2" and "3"options. Generally, I don't use the 4 on first reviews. ( I've also have tweaked my cards as well to make them a little simpler)
Basically, in the never ending quest for efficiency, i'm wondering if I'm doing an inordinate number of reviews My one-month average is 81%. Any advice is appreciated.
Benzhi
any story is ok
i guess there's also alot of crap about work, and this character "umemoto" umemoto sensei is the teacher i mainly work with. Basically, i don't really jive with her that well.
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procrastination:
Tuesday:
After lunch, I studied japanese for ten minutes, even though lunch break was over. Its ok to take a break, but I had just come off a break. better to do something fun after you do something not fun
at one point, i was talking to noda sensei, right as I was about to take a break. Instead of taking a break, I went back to working on what i was doing briefly
6:30: grabbed up some potato chips on an impulse, even though I hadn't decided to buy them before. Not really "procrastination" per se, but it seems like impulsiveness is a similar problem.
7:00 at tsutaya, had finished getting what i needed and went to go look at XBox games
7:45ish. Determined that I couldn't finish making dinner before I decided to go to the pool, so in the time between where i was going to make dinner and going to the pool, did some reading. Procrastination, or reward?
10:15 ish dinner wasn't finished, continued to watch DMC instead of doing what was scheduled- photography. it was still recreation, but unscheduled, and I hadn't yet finished cleaning dishes
Wednesday
morning: kept watching tv after eating b/c it was interesting. Unplanned reward.
Shower: timer is broken. rinse phase was ok, but washing took longer as i was perfectionisting and going slowly. Also after washing stood in the water for a while b/c it was warm. unplanned reward.
After shower, stood in front of the mirror admiring myself for a couple minutes lol.
leaving: had plenty of time, but i hadn't organized clothes well the night before, so my shit was all over the house and had to look for it.
School: arrived with a few minutes to spare. didn't do anything really.
after chorei, When I downloaded my podcasts, spent a little time dicking around on the internet, and consequentially forgot to load the mp3s in my player, so had to go back and do it again.
why did that conversation with umemoto piss me off? Well, unscheduled meetings are kind annoying. I felt like she was stomping on my turf, as usual, and was pressuring me to get this shit finished earlier than had be originally planned. I didn't know the answer to her question, or what or why she was asking it. I need to be nicer to her, especially since she was doing something for me, but like I really don't like being interrupted.
9:25 worked for 20 minutes. didn't set alarm. bell rang and I realized i hadn't prepared for class :)
11:18 needed to look up something in the dictionary, and ended up reading it a little bit
11:38 continued to work instead of taking a break
3:30: Umemoto asked me to finish prepping something, I had been working on it all day. I knew when she asked me, it would be tough to meet the deadline and she kept pressuring me and reminding me. Anyway, like when it came to actually getting it to a completed state, i told her that there was one part i didn't want to include on the test anyway, and she was like "no i want you to include it" so i did and it took a few minutes, but I felt pressure to finish it in a short period of time. the final sheet wasn't like what i wanted it to be. there was some issues with Word that i was working out, but in the process, was procrastinating on actually getting it done by worrying about getting it right. Perfectionism +_resistance to authority. I really am deathly allergic to being told what to do and how to act. authority
on one hand I feel like sometimes i wish i had more concrete work at this job, and sometimes i feel like the work is too concrete and doesn't allow me any freedom to do what i want.
Thursday
Morning: shower timer still busted. need to buy a new one. forgot to organize my clothes again. Woke up early and started to read, but continued after the alarm went off.
Prioritizing/procrastination: again when dling podcasts, got distracted with reading the internets. I needed to ask Umemoto about class first period. also, i forgot to actually put the mp3s on my player no negative consequences, but whatevs
10:15: did some "incidental cleaning for like 15 minutes looking for a piece of paper
friday
12:50 So, as expected, Umemoto kept bothering me to show her the test. I had completed it earlier in the day. its very obvious to me that, as much as i try, a. this class is not mine, but ultimately, hers b. my bosses/coworkers/colleagues still don't trust me. Is it becasue I of turning things in late? i dunno. I always feel like even when theres a deadline that i feel like I can make, it gets pushed up, or some other bullshit work gets put on top of it at the last minute, or like the first version I turn in isn't good enough (for me or for them). Anyway I don't know if this is a procrastination problem or not. I suspect it is. I'm justifying stuff that shouldn't really need justifying. justifying my tardiness (even though I thought I had done it on time) I dunno. I wish i could talk this over with someone who ws on my side...
月曜日 2/23 9:25
perfectionisting unschedule to avoid working on HBMLP schedule
10:50 perfectionisting: while doing edits, changed a card that was not in the edit que, to be more accurate, and match the card i had been previously working on. Should have added it to the edit queue and moved on
10:55 perfectionisting: after alarm went off, decided I needed to unsuspened edited cards. Probably should just do this at the beginning of next edit session.
1:45 ish perfectionisting: timer went off and I just had "a little more to do"- editing fonts and crap, ended up spending like another half hour until i was "interrupted" by an unexpected meeting
火曜日
9:20 planned on working for 20 minutes, decided to work for 40
perfectionisting? decided to do cards with a fudepen, takes about five times longer. dou ka na? Is it killing two birds with one stone? perfectionisting? I mean, I do think that it is important to know how to write the characters, and it affects how I would do them with a pen as well
how should I deal with "work related distractions"-when someone comes and asks me to do something while I'm in the middle of something else?
first thing, is obviously, I have to start on the new thing right away, second thing is, I can't take the break I had planned until I've at least completed a big chunk of the new project. Basically, have to reset the clock and move to a new project
2:40 perfectionisting: tried to get better stories and more accurate definitions for some characters, which took a shitload of time, especially when I already had stories
6:08 impulsiveness: incidental cleaning
2月25日 水曜日
9:20 perfectionism. continued to work after alarm.
10:29 perfectionism. changed the time of how long to do meditation, like five times
1:20 distraction. (did not time) continued to read long after lunch was over
I was working on grading these tests, and at the end of the day spend almost two hours on them. The lunch break i took today was extra long for some reason, and in fact, as i was doing it, felt as though I had to get back to work. I did and ume was like "oh are they done yet" and i was like... umm no way, i just began them. At another point i went back to my desk to take a break and do some cards, after a 40 minute session, and ume came over and was like "what are the grades like" and i was like " i don't know" and she was like "are they less than 30 point or some bullshit" and i was like "i really don't know." The fact is, I don't give a fuck about these tests, or testing in general. I know I'm supposed to, but tests are bullshit from both a learners perspective and a teachers perspective. why do i have to threaten them with a test to get them to study? threaten them with some arbitrary points game that is supposed to affect their future and reflect their ability to perform? Anyway, I did the grading for like two hours and it wasn't done yet. I feel like i wasn't or perfectionisting or getting distracted (while I was doing them). However, i was stopping every so often to 'take a break" it seems like these breaks tend to end up taking longer than I think-like not just 5 minutes, but like 10 at least 10mins break:20mins work aint good. Basically, while at work, if there is something I have to do, I don't really get a break(other than lunch break). blah. so i had to leave at my "real work time" to get to the bank, and the grading wasn't done yet. I felt like really bad about it. really stressed spent like 10 minutes thinking about whether i should leave or not. making excuses I wanted to tell Ume. On Basically it was really stressfull to leave work unfinished. The only way i can imagine to have made it better is if I hadn't taken a break the whole afternoon, and hadn't taken a longer lunch break. I dont even know if I could have finished it.
deadlines: if there is a deadline coming up, i suppose the only thing may be to just keep working until the job is finished? Theoretically the stress of deadlines would diminish as you become less of a perfectionist, and more about starting, but i suppose its still a worry
my main habit for working may be the desire to finish everything-to keep going on whatever i am working on until well i guess, until i get bored or something, or tired, i dunno
火曜日 2・26
working on housework, did some laundry kind of did it slowly and decided that in the remaining time I would get some dishes done. there was only 3 minutes remaining. the reason I am writing this is because I felt like It was really unfocused work, slow, time wasty. yeah its over now.
day off-月曜日 ３・２
9:15 distraction. checked e-mail
11:10 perfectionism/distraction. continued to look at the internet site, b/c it was interesting after i finished getting what i needed.
12:12 listening to jero made me want to look up more jero lol
1:30 impulsivity: went to the book store to look for some books that i was wondering "do they have them at the book store in hita?" in addition, ended up spending most of my time reading the doraemon kanji dictionary and then going to another store.
2:37 dicked around on the internet for awhile before actually getting back to work
8:00 shopping takes longer than expected, thus bumping back dinner, and also swimming. in fact, didn't even get around to eating dinner. Wasn't sure what to do, should i stay and eat, or go as planned? decided to go as planned and eat after swimming.
３月３日 （火曜日）
man i kicked ass today. reviews: 181 review time: 47 minutes adds: 26 time:2hr.15min. study work: 3hr,25min left work: 5:10
6:30 i shouldn't include 洗濯 in 家事 because then I end up only doing laundry instead of other chores that need to be done. how to split them up? i suppose just tell myself to only do two laundry tasks, and if it takes more than 20 minutes fuck it. if i do that every day, eventually I'll run out of laundry and have time to do other house stuff later in the week. maybe?
7:55 looked and realized a full hour had passed doing stuff on the internet. Got to be sure to time box that shite, and clearly see what needs to be done.
水曜日 ３・４
morning: took a nap. I was tired because I procrastinated on going to bed. Excuse: my ipod wasn't charged yet. and it hadn't finished charging an hour after I said that the first time.
late morning: worked on grading. It was awesome that I started it today, and also finished it today, however, i really perfectionisted it more than necessary. adding unnecessary statistics, etc. could have finished maybe like 30 minutes earlier.
today at work was a little rocky, being tired, actually having classes, and fucking grading. I hate grading. grading is why school sucks. anyway... totals: ~1:45 studying input:16 cards reps: 157
bullshit: i told ume "i have to go home now"-- that was a bit unprofessional, no?
木曜日 ３月5日
preparation: not a problem, but I didn't really put enough though into what i needed to prepare for my class. We're just showing a movie today, so I had the movie ready, but I didn't think ahead enough to get the projector, etc set up. of course, i still have like four hours before it starts
plan for waking up and falling asleep: When you go to bed on time and wake up on time, you need to reward yourself, so when you go to bed on time, you get (10 15 20?) minutes of reading or DS, whichever suits your fancy. As for waking up, same deal, (10,15, 20) minutes of reading, cards, or DS, but you have to get out of bed to do it. Also, maybe drinking something at that point would be good. As for time, maybe do longer at first, like 20 minutes, and then every week, shorter.
also, there were many times when I "couldn't" get something done. Generally, those should be "Xs." Write down why you couldn't do that particular activity
it seems like pretty much any activity that requires me to create something with word or excel (the internet?) i may be over-perfectionisting it. When does "making it look like I intended" become "perfectionism?" as soon as all the information is on the page?
3/5 friday
if you're gonna reward yourself, be sure to do it right away, learn to do that as soon as you complete the activity. Instant gratification, not delayed gratificaton (well, it is delayed, but no extra delay)
i wasn't really making an effort to write characters as I created stories, but I've found that recent characters have been machigaiyasui for stroke order
3/9 月
i went to the grocery store and it took less time than i predicted!! yay
3/10火
ok, so it was definitely a mistake to shortcut the process for RTK by only writing down the stories after I made a mistake on them. Basically, it takes just as much time to edit a story, or recreate one as it does to just create one from the beginning. But if you have to first make a story, then remake it later, it takes twice as much time. Sure, there may be a few that you don't really NEED stories for, but even though rote memorization does work to some degree, as you move through RTK you'll realize just what Heisig says, it's not a crutch, but a different way to walk. For instance, simple characters that I thought I "knew" i will forget because I don't remember which parts they are made of. Its as though my mind no longer sees kanji as shapes, but divide into parts. I was asked to write the kanji for store店, which is pretty simple, common, and I learned it back in college, so i never bothered to create a story for it. But when it came up, i forgot how to write it because even though there was a picture of it in my mind, i didn't know which primitives made it up.
The other thing is about having the stories on the front of your card. at first this seemed counter productive, but now I see why to do it. The first is that it conforms to the "one bit of information" rule. with the stories on the front, you have to recall only how to write the kanji. With them on the back, you have to recall both the story and the kanji. Which is harder, so you fail cards more. Easier is better. The second thing is whether or not I remember the "keyword" when I see the kanji. Well this is still difficult, especially with kanji that I don' t see often, however with the stories on the front, I don't think that my rate of recall (in the real world) is really significantly different, if not better, than it was before. Basically, real world kanji=> keyword/translation (meaning) recall goes like this for me. First, i may not even notice the kanji. its just a blur of lines within a bigger blur of lines. Second, i see the kanji as a discreet entity, but no more than that. I may recall having seen it somewhere else. Third, i see the kanji and see its as parts, but can't recall the parts readily. Fourth, i see the parts and see how they are arranged, but they don't trigger any memory. This is especially true when I have learned all the parts, but maybe two of them make a new "primitive" that i haven't gotten to yet in heisig. At this point, i may be able to assoicate some form of meaning with it, especially if I see the kanji in context "Oh that one is the one used for "education" and "atheletics" or whatever. I may be able to "recognize it, and possibly read it if I know words that use that compound. If i don't associate any contextual meaning with it, then there are ... more phases. Next, I see the kanji and recognize it but can't remember the keyword (what's that fucking character... i know it i know it...aww) I've probably hit this character in heisig in the past week or so and while i know it well enough to write from keyword-kanji, i haven't really seen the story enough to go kanji-keyword. That's the next stage. I see the same kanji again and this time the keyword comes with it (wait..hold on... that kanji is..... a tree...commandment...something about the ten commandments... in a tree... oh "contraption") and then the final stage, which is possibly the most interesting is that once i have seen the kanji to a point where I am "fluent" in writing it, its almost as though I am back a the beginning. My eye won't necessarily stop at the character, because I just "know" it. At this point, the meaning of the character is actually different than the keyword. If asked, I might be able to produce the keyword, or produce the story, but they're not generally necessary to understand the character. At this point, i can also write the character without any story or keyword prompt. (yeah, that one chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.chk.)
Finally, one more comment. Umm i think basically the difference between front stories and back stories is that with stories on the back, you are reminded what the story is by basically pulling it out of your own mind. you would think that practicing pulling it out of your mind would be important, in order to pull it out of your mind when you see the character in the real world. Basically this is active review, or recall. What happens with the story on the front is that you are simply reminded of a memory that is linked to that character. It is passive review, or reminder. Basically, all you really need to recall is that memory-that image- that is linked to the story and to the kanji itself. Recalling the story itself is actually unnecessary. That memory gets strengthened (through review) both ways, with both passive recall and active recall. However, active recall requires more mental work. Why do more work for the same results?
i don't know what it is, but while my act has come together well at school, I can't seem to get things together after school when I get home. There are a lot more distractions here, I suppose another problem is less motivation overall (i.e. I want to be lazier at home) and also specifically-toward each goal (I don't really want to clean the house, i'd rather play video games, but if I play video games I won't be doing real work---) Ok, so those are the problems. What are the solutions?
ok, well generally I'd like my at home to flow like this:
turn on immersion/heat
change
eat quick snack
(i usually get stuck here)
do some chores (timed) (does not include dishes)(should this include laundry tasks? or just house work?)(or should it only be laundry tasks and no housework, save housework for weekends?)
(insert some play time)
do some photo/meditation
(insert some play time)
(here's where the order could change-dinner before or after pool)
basically, id like to prepare dinner before I go to the pool, and eat it after.
go to pool/evening event 7:50
return from pool 9:30(tsutaya-9:50)
eat dinner
clean up dinner
(e-mail, etc?-dangerous, could be time waster)
bed time cards
bed time routine
that seems like maybe a lot to pack into one day. If i could be that efficient, i could probably do it.
OK, well, try and see. that's the only way. try to do it, see what works and what doesn't work.
3.11 水 授業なし
after I was told that I couldn't participate in some activity (it was probably boring work) because I was not a "regular teacher" it kind of triggered a lot of thoughts (negative thoughts, or rather thoughts about what I would say to my boss if given the opportunity), and a desire to write down my thoughts. I did that a little bit, which i guess is important, but it was really distracting from work, and became difficult to focus. Just goes to show how outside forces can affect your actions, or more concretely, how my mood and psychological state affect my work. I think at these times, It's ok to write down my thoughts here or on a piece of paper.
secondly, i was going through my edits list, and hit a non-study related item. I think if I am going to implement some of the stuff in the "getting things done" book, I'm probably gonna start treating edits just like any other piece of "stuff"
grading standards for kanji cards:
(first review)
1-missed
2-not missed
(older cards)
1-mistake/forgot, had to rewrite more than once
2-mistake, but rewrote once, or had to look at the card more than once
3-right the first time, but may have not been completely fluent. needing to see the story or not has no relationship. If you need it, you're probably not fluent in writing it yet. If you don't need it, you're probably fluent in writing it. only grade the quality of output.
4-right the first time. fluent.
so, I changed my advanced scheduling settings about 2 months ago. Its been ok, but I worry that maybe the timing is too short, and I'm consequentially getting an inordinate number of reviews because of it.
The first thing i want to ask people is: what is your average number/ratio of additions to repititions per day, and also what is the average time you spend per day doing reps and doing adds?
For me, I have an anywhere from 120-170 reps per day, with an of 15-25 cards per day. This seems like a rather high number of reps compared to the number of adds I'm doing. By the way, I'm doing heisig-style kanji cards.
Writing every kanji, i can write about 4 kanji/minute. Doing adds and edits, I can do about one add or edit every two minutes. (coming up with and typing stories takes time)
The second thing I want to ask people is: do you have any advice for tweaking the advanced scheduling settings? the reason I tweaked them originally is that I was forgetting new cards too often. Instead of setting the initial interval to be less than days, I set it to one day for both the "2" and "3"options. Generally, I don't use the 4 on first reviews. ( I've also have tweaked my cards as well to make them a little simpler)
Basically, in the never ending quest for efficiency, i'm wondering if I'm doing an inordinate number of reviews My one-month average is 81%. Any advice is appreciated.
Benzhi
any story is ok
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
More posters
oops i made a mistake on the e-mail address of those last posters. I should get rid o that.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
HBMLP Japan
long time no see, eh?
Well, it's time to get moving on this HBMLP Japan thing. Hopefully its not too late... anyway here's the poster ( i made it myself):
Well, it's time to get moving on this HBMLP Japan thing. Hopefully its not too late... anyway here's the poster ( i made it myself):
Sunday, January 11, 2009
New years resolutions vol. 2
Which brings me to the morning, where i also have issues. Mainly these revolve around my tendency to sleep in, which i suppose is really not a tendency, but what I do all the time regardless. Well basically I tried a number of strategies to deal with this, mainly "factoring in" my sleeping in time to my morning schedule and setting my alarm ridiculously early. This doesn' t really work because I still know that i have time to sleep and if i just hit the snooze, its so easy. I'm not sure the the snooze is patently counter-productive, but I think at least until i can get in the habit of NOT using it, then I can possibly, eventually, use it, carefully.
Anyway, in the mean time, the first step is getting up when the alarm goes off. Yeah, I'm tired, but look, I'll still be tired and want to get out of bed even less in 20 minutes (even though it seems like I would feel more rested and ready to get out of bed if I slept in). So that's the basic thing for mornings: get out of bed as soon as the first alarm goes off. just do it. just throw the covers off and stand up. Yes it sucks, but it will soon stop sucking and become habit, just like swimming did, just like listening to japanese did, just like signing up for bento in the morning. Developing good habits, and getting rid of old, unproductive ones. That's the main thing.
I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to move my going to bed and waking up times even earlier, because I think it would be good to be able to get some work done in the morning before school. Namely, meditating and doing flashcards. I'd like to have that up and running by april or may.
Which reminds me to mention that all the goals I'm taking one at a time; rather than stacking them all on top of each other. Its tempting to try to achieve everything in one fell swoop, especially with the burst of motivation and confidence that comes with the new years, but it's better, i think to get good at one thing, make it a habit, and move on to the next step. Better to do one thing well then try to do a whole bunch of things and do them all part way. Single tasking over multi tasking. The temptation is there when the motivation is high, but motivation is not the only thing. Motivation over time is what you have to maintain and that's best achieve by meeting small goals on a regular basis rather than big goals on a long-term basis. Which, of course is pretty much contrary to the way everything worked in life before "the real world" hit.
Anyway, after conquering the actuall getting out of bed problem, Ima work on the getting from the bed to out the door problem. Actually, I've been working on this a couple of months already, but there's still a few bugs to be worked out. Mostly its a matter of order of operations. A lot of shit has to get done in the morning, but for the most part it doesn't change from one day to the next. Keeping the routine steady and standard: repitition, is the best way to deal with things you have to do on a daily basis. So here's the routine:
1. Out of bed (put on slippers/sweater)
2. turn on news (ajatt stuff), heater in living room, heater in bathroom
3. make breakfast (i almost always eat the same thing these days: yogurt with jam and cereal. Milk coffee. Sometimes fruit. In theory, I'd like to make something like eggs, or toast, but they take a lot more time. I might implement this when I start waking up earlier)
4. Eat breakfast (timebox?)
5. Put away breakfast dishes and stuff
6. Take of PJs
7. Turn on shower
8. Take shower (Ok, i know how ridiculous and anal this all seems, but whatever this is how i operate. less thinking=more better)(anyway, with showers, I have the problem of taking too much time. Originally i tried timeboxing, but regardless I would always run into the alarm without having finished actually washing myself. Basically, I have the habit of going in the shower and then spending a long time just standing there, getting wet and enjoying the heat. Kind of thinking time (singing in the shower time i suppose). But that just kind of kept taking longer without ever actually, um, showering. Anyway, to fix this, I realized i could timebox the "getting wet" part of the shower (with the alarm i have there), so the alarm reminds me to stop getting wet and like... put soap on myself. that pretty much takes the same amount of time. the only other thing i have to worry about is the "getting the soap off" part which can easily turn into more "just standing in the shower enjoying the heat." So pretty much just gotta finish by the time that second alarm goes off, which is not too hard and then be sure to just turn off the shower and get out at that point. The final bit is the actual drying off, which can take an inordinate amout of time, too if I'm not careful, but generally is not that big a problem.
man i can't believe im writing about my showering habits.
my god am i weird or what?
9. Shave (if necessary)
10. Brush teeth/ put on deoderant and whatever.
11. Back to the living room to change.
12. Put clothes on (these should have been laid out the night before)
13. Put pocket crap in pockets
13. Put jacket on and gather computer, bag, (made ready the night before) keys, (garbage if necessary)
14. Roll out (Ideally, this would be about 7:35, giving me about 15 minutes before work officially starts to get work done. This time was originally set to compensate for waking up late, and just like with waking up, i tended to push this one back as late as possible and leave so I arrived just in time-and not infrequently-late. This time pretty much corresponds with what time I wake up, so waking up on time should lead to leaving on time naturally. However, that doesn't mean that If i wake up, I can dawdle around in the morning either. Hopefully mornings won't generally feel rushed, but that kind of nice feeling when you're getting what needs to get done done consistiently and at a good pace. Anyway, that's it. this post took about twice as long to write as I had planned (more on that problem later)...
Anyway, in the mean time, the first step is getting up when the alarm goes off. Yeah, I'm tired, but look, I'll still be tired and want to get out of bed even less in 20 minutes (even though it seems like I would feel more rested and ready to get out of bed if I slept in). So that's the basic thing for mornings: get out of bed as soon as the first alarm goes off. just do it. just throw the covers off and stand up. Yes it sucks, but it will soon stop sucking and become habit, just like swimming did, just like listening to japanese did, just like signing up for bento in the morning. Developing good habits, and getting rid of old, unproductive ones. That's the main thing.
I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to move my going to bed and waking up times even earlier, because I think it would be good to be able to get some work done in the morning before school. Namely, meditating and doing flashcards. I'd like to have that up and running by april or may.
Which reminds me to mention that all the goals I'm taking one at a time; rather than stacking them all on top of each other. Its tempting to try to achieve everything in one fell swoop, especially with the burst of motivation and confidence that comes with the new years, but it's better, i think to get good at one thing, make it a habit, and move on to the next step. Better to do one thing well then try to do a whole bunch of things and do them all part way. Single tasking over multi tasking. The temptation is there when the motivation is high, but motivation is not the only thing. Motivation over time is what you have to maintain and that's best achieve by meeting small goals on a regular basis rather than big goals on a long-term basis. Which, of course is pretty much contrary to the way everything worked in life before "the real world" hit.
Anyway, after conquering the actuall getting out of bed problem, Ima work on the getting from the bed to out the door problem. Actually, I've been working on this a couple of months already, but there's still a few bugs to be worked out. Mostly its a matter of order of operations. A lot of shit has to get done in the morning, but for the most part it doesn't change from one day to the next. Keeping the routine steady and standard: repitition, is the best way to deal with things you have to do on a daily basis. So here's the routine:
1. Out of bed (put on slippers/sweater)
2. turn on news (ajatt stuff), heater in living room, heater in bathroom
3. make breakfast (i almost always eat the same thing these days: yogurt with jam and cereal. Milk coffee. Sometimes fruit. In theory, I'd like to make something like eggs, or toast, but they take a lot more time. I might implement this when I start waking up earlier)
4. Eat breakfast (timebox?)
5. Put away breakfast dishes and stuff
6. Take of PJs
7. Turn on shower
8. Take shower (Ok, i know how ridiculous and anal this all seems, but whatever this is how i operate. less thinking=more better)(anyway, with showers, I have the problem of taking too much time. Originally i tried timeboxing, but regardless I would always run into the alarm without having finished actually washing myself. Basically, I have the habit of going in the shower and then spending a long time just standing there, getting wet and enjoying the heat. Kind of thinking time (singing in the shower time i suppose). But that just kind of kept taking longer without ever actually, um, showering. Anyway, to fix this, I realized i could timebox the "getting wet" part of the shower (with the alarm i have there), so the alarm reminds me to stop getting wet and like... put soap on myself. that pretty much takes the same amount of time. the only other thing i have to worry about is the "getting the soap off" part which can easily turn into more "just standing in the shower enjoying the heat." So pretty much just gotta finish by the time that second alarm goes off, which is not too hard and then be sure to just turn off the shower and get out at that point. The final bit is the actual drying off, which can take an inordinate amout of time, too if I'm not careful, but generally is not that big a problem.
man i can't believe im writing about my showering habits.
my god am i weird or what?
9. Shave (if necessary)
10. Brush teeth/ put on deoderant and whatever.
11. Back to the living room to change.
12. Put clothes on (these should have been laid out the night before)
13. Put pocket crap in pockets
13. Put jacket on and gather computer, bag, (made ready the night before) keys, (garbage if necessary)
14. Roll out (Ideally, this would be about 7:35, giving me about 15 minutes before work officially starts to get work done. This time was originally set to compensate for waking up late, and just like with waking up, i tended to push this one back as late as possible and leave so I arrived just in time-and not infrequently-late. This time pretty much corresponds with what time I wake up, so waking up on time should lead to leaving on time naturally. However, that doesn't mean that If i wake up, I can dawdle around in the morning either. Hopefully mornings won't generally feel rushed, but that kind of nice feeling when you're getting what needs to get done done consistiently and at a good pace. Anyway, that's it. this post took about twice as long to write as I had planned (more on that problem later)...
Saturday, January 10, 2009
New years
Basically, this is a response to an e-mail from a friend.
I started typing it on my cell phone but my thumbs started to hurt.
New years was fun. Me and a friend inadvertently paid 7000 to get into a club and then just danced and drank. unfortunely no midnight kiss/new years sex
Tokyo girls are cold as iceeeee
as for nudity, on the 3rd there was a big festival at 筥崎宮 called 玉せせりthat a friend of mine invited me to. I thought it was just to watch but no-no they want me to *participate* in it. So i strip naked in some random house in 箱崎 that I suppose my friend has some relation to, and some half-deaf japanese granpa puts on "traditional japanese underwear" which is basically a poor-mans sumo belt-just two pieces of thin, white cotton. I guess its a good thing he tied it tight, being the only thing between my manhood and the outside world, but-i kid you not-my balls are still sore today.
Then we all march outside barefoot, to the shrine to PRAY TO GOD YOU WONT GET KILLED and then to the street in front of the shrine to discuss strategy and wait for the だませせりto begin while having buckets of "力水" splashed on us by "supporters." It was a warm day with a cloudless sky, which is a good thing because apparently last year it was snowing.
Basically the だませせり is one guy gets on top of another guy's shoulders who are then supported by one guy in the front and two in the back. "You'll get it when you see it." As close as I could tell, the goal is to get the tama-a wooden ball a bit bigger than a basketball, and put in a hole somewhere in the shrine. "Where's the hole?" "Down there" "K, thanks." Oh, and by the way,When you get the tama you also have to raise it towards the heavens and praise the Kami and your ancestors for not having gotten killed. yet. And don't take your eye off it, because if someone drops it and it lands on yer foot, it hurts. a lot.
We waited for about 15 minutes, and down the street, I could see a brown ball on top of a clump-well actually "clusterfuck" is a better word-a ball on top of a clusterfuck of maybe 20 men, and soon it was my turn to join in the excitement. i mean join the CULTURE! I first started in the front as the kind of driver and we bumped around the clusterfuck for a few minutes before the "horse"-he was in fact called the horse- got tired and we switched. This went a couple rounds, and we got the ball a couple of times, but soon-guess who's number was up? So, I mount up my faithful steed-a japanese man I had no more than an hour ago and was now placing my nuts a cotton cloth's width away from his head.
Now, more then ever I felt the tightness of the belt, but quickly forgot as my steed rose and carried me forward toward the clusterfuck. The Tama is near. Now, it is within reach. I grab it and pull it away from my foes. I lift it in the air. Oh my god I have the Tama! I have the Tama! Now what? Ok, pass it to the next guy!
This experience was not unlike many middle school PE classes. "Oh i have the ball! Finally! I got the ball! I don't want this responsibility; get this fucking ball away from me!" I could have held it longer, being relatively taller and longer limbed than most of the Japanese guys participating, but I was told later that at that shining moment when I had the Tama in my hands, the camera shutters went crazy-the one white in an orgy of japanese men. INTERNATIONALIZATION DEKI-motherfucking-MASHITA!
Anyway they let me down, and next it was my turn to be the horse. Japanese men are not big, but carrying any grown man on your shoulders is no easy task. Especially barefoot. on gravel. Reaching for the ball, he thrusted his pelvis to thrust forward, into the back of my head, forcing it forward so I couldn't lift it to see the Tama. To support my neck, I put my forehead on the shoulder of the man in front and trusted him to steer. All I could see was his bare shoulders, and within ten seconds I was about to fall over from the weight. All i could do was hold on and chant with the rest of the clusterfuck "yo-SHOI yo-SHOI." words of power. I don't know how long had passed, and i tapped my head to indicate to my teammates I needed to change. As the three men in front and back of me moved away, my legs crumpled beneath me and i went down on my side. My rider fortunately, got away fine. I stood up, disoriented. "Daijobu?" "Un, Daijobu."
We were nearly at the gate of the shrine, and someone dropped the ball. The man who picked it up carried under his arm like a football and made a break for the gate-only to be rebuffed by the cluster. Now I could see where the goal was--through a square hole in the door, I could see a priest, dressed in his sunday best, standing behind the door waiting to recieve the tama. Everyone is gathered in front of the gate, packed in like a tokyo subway, some people even standing on the wood beams of the gate chanting yo-shoi, and grabbing for the ball. We passed the ball around the group a few times before we put it through the hole to give to the priest, and every time someone grabbed it, the cluster of men let up a cheer. After a few times around, someone finally put the ball through the hole and the cluster let up a big cheer, and began to move away from the gate, back where we came.
Walking back was a relief that it was over. As we walked, the crowd started singing a traditional song that marked the end of the matsuri. As we were walking, i noticed how cold i was, as I had been continually splashed with "力水" throughout the ordeal. Next was the remedy-a nice traditional japanese bath-with about seventy other dirty sweaty men. The bath house was a tiny shack on the grounds of the jinja. After waiting in line, i hopped in the bath. The bath itself was maybe about 1 meter square and about 1 meter deep. The bath water, already quite dirty from the groups who had gone before me, only filled up half the bath when empty, but was overflowing when you 20 men got packed into it. One more round of the song to make how long we took a bath before it was the next groups' turn.
Afterward, we walked back to the house, and after taking off the Fundoshi (magic underwear), took another bath, this time with only one other japanese guy, and then ate a big lunch and got really drunk with the girl who invited me and everyone in our group.
It was fun.
I started typing it on my cell phone but my thumbs started to hurt.
New years was fun. Me and a friend inadvertently paid 7000 to get into a club and then just danced and drank. unfortunely no midnight kiss/new years sex
as for nudity, on the 3rd there was a big festival at 筥崎宮 called 玉せせりthat a friend of mine invited me to. I thought it was just to watch but no-no they want me to *participate* in it. So i strip naked in some random house in 箱崎 that I suppose my friend has some relation to, and some half-deaf japanese granpa puts on "traditional japanese underwear" which is basically a poor-mans sumo belt-just two pieces of thin, white cotton. I guess its a good thing he tied it tight, being the only thing between my manhood and the outside world, but-i kid you not-my balls are still sore today.
Then we all march outside barefoot, to the shrine to PRAY TO GOD YOU WONT GET KILLED and then to the street in front of the shrine to discuss strategy and wait for the だませせりto begin while having buckets of "力水" splashed on us by "supporters." It was a warm day with a cloudless sky, which is a good thing because apparently last year it was snowing.
Basically the だませせり is one guy gets on top of another guy's shoulders who are then supported by one guy in the front and two in the back. "You'll get it when you see it." As close as I could tell, the goal is to get the tama-a wooden ball a bit bigger than a basketball, and put in a hole somewhere in the shrine. "Where's the hole?" "Down there" "K, thanks." Oh, and by the way,When you get the tama you also have to raise it towards the heavens and praise the Kami and your ancestors for not having gotten killed. yet. And don't take your eye off it, because if someone drops it and it lands on yer foot, it hurts. a lot.
We waited for about 15 minutes, and down the street, I could see a brown ball on top of a clump-well actually "clusterfuck" is a better word-a ball on top of a clusterfuck of maybe 20 men, and soon it was my turn to join in the excitement. i mean join the CULTURE! I first started in the front as the kind of driver and we bumped around the clusterfuck for a few minutes before the "horse"-he was in fact called the horse- got tired and we switched. This went a couple rounds, and we got the ball a couple of times, but soon-guess who's number was up? So, I mount up my faithful steed-a japanese man I had no more than an hour ago and was now placing my nuts a cotton cloth's width away from his head.
Now, more then ever I felt the tightness of the belt, but quickly forgot as my steed rose and carried me forward toward the clusterfuck. The Tama is near. Now, it is within reach. I grab it and pull it away from my foes. I lift it in the air. Oh my god I have the Tama! I have the Tama! Now what? Ok, pass it to the next guy!
This experience was not unlike many middle school PE classes. "Oh i have the ball! Finally! I got the ball! I don't want this responsibility; get this fucking ball away from me!" I could have held it longer, being relatively taller and longer limbed than most of the Japanese guys participating, but I was told later that at that shining moment when I had the Tama in my hands, the camera shutters went crazy-the one white in an orgy of japanese men. INTERNATIONALIZATION DEKI-motherfucking-MASHITA!
Anyway they let me down, and next it was my turn to be the horse. Japanese men are not big, but carrying any grown man on your shoulders is no easy task. Especially barefoot. on gravel. Reaching for the ball, he thrusted his pelvis to thrust forward, into the back of my head, forcing it forward so I couldn't lift it to see the Tama. To support my neck, I put my forehead on the shoulder of the man in front and trusted him to steer. All I could see was his bare shoulders, and within ten seconds I was about to fall over from the weight. All i could do was hold on and chant with the rest of the clusterfuck "yo-SHOI yo-SHOI." words of power. I don't know how long had passed, and i tapped my head to indicate to my teammates I needed to change. As the three men in front and back of me moved away, my legs crumpled beneath me and i went down on my side. My rider fortunately, got away fine. I stood up, disoriented. "Daijobu?" "Un, Daijobu."
We were nearly at the gate of the shrine, and someone dropped the ball. The man who picked it up carried under his arm like a football and made a break for the gate-only to be rebuffed by the cluster. Now I could see where the goal was--through a square hole in the door, I could see a priest, dressed in his sunday best, standing behind the door waiting to recieve the tama. Everyone is gathered in front of the gate, packed in like a tokyo subway, some people even standing on the wood beams of the gate chanting yo-shoi, and grabbing for the ball. We passed the ball around the group a few times before we put it through the hole to give to the priest, and every time someone grabbed it, the cluster of men let up a cheer. After a few times around, someone finally put the ball through the hole and the cluster let up a big cheer, and began to move away from the gate, back where we came.
Walking back was a relief that it was over. As we walked, the crowd started singing a traditional song that marked the end of the matsuri. As we were walking, i noticed how cold i was, as I had been continually splashed with "力水" throughout the ordeal. Next was the remedy-a nice traditional japanese bath-with about seventy other dirty sweaty men. The bath house was a tiny shack on the grounds of the jinja. After waiting in line, i hopped in the bath. The bath itself was maybe about 1 meter square and about 1 meter deep. The bath water, already quite dirty from the groups who had gone before me, only filled up half the bath when empty, but was overflowing when you 20 men got packed into it. One more round of the song to make how long we took a bath before it was the next groups' turn.
Afterward, we walked back to the house, and after taking off the Fundoshi (magic underwear), took another bath, this time with only one other japanese guy, and then ate a big lunch and got really drunk with the girl who invited me and everyone in our group.
It was fun.
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Years Resolutions
Jeez its fucking January. Ive been off the rag for a couple weeks cuz they took the internet away at work :(. Lame.
Ok so relating to my post on goals here is a little more concrete list of goals for this year. Once again one thing at a time.
Basically, I think the whole life project deals with my tendency to procrastinate. It may be oversimplification, but basically my difficulties with Japanese, waking up, and otherwise getting done what needs to get done can be boiled down to a tendency to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse-off for the delay.
I don't wake up on time because i can always wake up later and always rush out the door. I don't go to bed on time because whatever i'm doing at the time seems more important than sleeping, or at least more fun. Anyway I'm being too vague. Basically, I'm gonna learn some time-management techniques and learn to put those into practice.
Mental tools. Here's some books that I'm gonna read to learn some time management. these seem like the best place to start: Getting things Done and The Now Principle.
First, buy those books.
Second, read those books. 20 minutes a day until they're done.
Put the stuff in the books into practice right away.
Record progress in a notebook - using a spreadsheet-type calendar.
I hope that I can get one of those done in english and then the other one done in Japanese. Depends on where I'll be with the RTK
That Brings me to number 2: Sleeping, waking up, and being on time to work.
My goal is to, by the end of the year, wake up not just on time, but early. Early enough to meditate for 20 minutes in the morning. Possibly early enough to do SRS for about 20 minutes.
Despite seeming simple, this has been very hard for me up to now, which probably means the goals have been too many, too big and far away, or too fuzzily defined. So I'm gonna break this shite down right here and right now.
Going to bed: Stopping work at 10:30. This is tough. Just stopping when my alarm goes off. I have a tendency to just continue to work until i get tired. I'm not tired at 10:30, but if I don't go to bed around then, I'll be highly tired the next morning and feel awful and fall asleep at work. So here's the system: at 10:30 when the alarm goes off, look at what you are doing. Figure out the next best place to stop. Finish the sentence you are reading. Finish the SRS item. If whatever you are doing is "not completely finished" at that time, fuck it. This is important. Fuck it. Writing an e-mail; it can wait until tomorrow. Watching a movie or show? Turn off the TV. Reading the Interweb? Shut down firefox immidiately and turn off the computer. Its not importatnt. Talking to friends on Gchat? Sorry everyone, sorry mom. Gots to get da sleeps. Type the magic phrase: Sorry, but I have to go. Talk to you later. I know, I know, I want to keep talking to you too. Yes yes, I know its the middle of the afternoon there and its only 10:30 here. But it's bedtime. Sleep leads to good health, good health leads to long-term happiness. Talking to friends and surfing the internet bring short term rewards, but I gotta think about the bigger picture cuz I'm an adult now :(.
Ok so 10:30. LET IT GO. STOP. DROP.
From there, there is a pretty set order of operations to follow:
Turn off computer
Put computer and power cable in bag.
Prepare other work bag: Only one book per day, notebook, ds, pens.
Put both bags by the door.
Turn on heating blanket
Take melatonin (natural sleep aid, to get me in the rhythm)
Decide on tomorrow's work clothes
Gather tomorrow's work clothes.
Put "pocket stuff" on the bookshelf
Change into pjs
Brush teeth/wash face
GO TO BED
This whole thing should really only take like 15-20 minutes, so I'll be in bed by 11:00, and if I wake up at 6:35 that gives me like 7.5 hours of sleep. That should be enough, but eventually I'll aim for more sleep, and an earlier waking time.
Ok i need to continue this so i'll post more later...
Ok so relating to my post on goals here is a little more concrete list of goals for this year. Once again one thing at a time.
Basically, I think the whole life project deals with my tendency to procrastinate. It may be oversimplification, but basically my difficulties with Japanese, waking up, and otherwise getting done what needs to get done can be boiled down to a tendency to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse-off for the delay.
I don't wake up on time because i can always wake up later and always rush out the door. I don't go to bed on time because whatever i'm doing at the time seems more important than sleeping, or at least more fun. Anyway I'm being too vague. Basically, I'm gonna learn some time-management techniques and learn to put those into practice.
Mental tools. Here's some books that I'm gonna read to learn some time management. these seem like the best place to start: Getting things Done and The Now Principle.
First, buy those books.
Second, read those books. 20 minutes a day until they're done.
Put the stuff in the books into practice right away.
Record progress in a notebook - using a spreadsheet-type calendar.
I hope that I can get one of those done in english and then the other one done in Japanese. Depends on where I'll be with the RTK
That Brings me to number 2: Sleeping, waking up, and being on time to work.
My goal is to, by the end of the year, wake up not just on time, but early. Early enough to meditate for 20 minutes in the morning. Possibly early enough to do SRS for about 20 minutes.
Despite seeming simple, this has been very hard for me up to now, which probably means the goals have been too many, too big and far away, or too fuzzily defined. So I'm gonna break this shite down right here and right now.
Going to bed: Stopping work at 10:30. This is tough. Just stopping when my alarm goes off. I have a tendency to just continue to work until i get tired. I'm not tired at 10:30, but if I don't go to bed around then, I'll be highly tired the next morning and feel awful and fall asleep at work. So here's the system: at 10:30 when the alarm goes off, look at what you are doing. Figure out the next best place to stop. Finish the sentence you are reading. Finish the SRS item. If whatever you are doing is "not completely finished" at that time, fuck it. This is important. Fuck it. Writing an e-mail; it can wait until tomorrow. Watching a movie or show? Turn off the TV. Reading the Interweb? Shut down firefox immidiately and turn off the computer. Its not importatnt. Talking to friends on Gchat? Sorry everyone, sorry mom. Gots to get da sleeps. Type the magic phrase: Sorry, but I have to go. Talk to you later. I know, I know, I want to keep talking to you too. Yes yes, I know its the middle of the afternoon there and its only 10:30 here. But it's bedtime. Sleep leads to good health, good health leads to long-term happiness. Talking to friends and surfing the internet bring short term rewards, but I gotta think about the bigger picture cuz I'm an adult now :(.
Ok so 10:30. LET IT GO. STOP. DROP.
From there, there is a pretty set order of operations to follow:
Turn off computer
Put computer and power cable in bag.
Prepare other work bag: Only one book per day, notebook, ds, pens.
Put both bags by the door.
Turn on heating blanket
Take melatonin (natural sleep aid, to get me in the rhythm)
Decide on tomorrow's work clothes
Gather tomorrow's work clothes.
Put "pocket stuff" on the bookshelf
Change into pjs
Brush teeth/wash face
GO TO BED
This whole thing should really only take like 15-20 minutes, so I'll be in bed by 11:00, and if I wake up at 6:35 that gives me like 7.5 hours of sleep. That should be enough, but eventually I'll aim for more sleep, and an earlier waking time.
Ok i need to continue this so i'll post more later...
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