I’ve put together a good plan to get my life together. I figured out ways to have food prepared, get exercise, play the games I enjoy, learn new things, and more. It all works really well on paper.

I’ve noticed a real problem, though. None of it holds up when things go sideways. Which it often does. I mean, when does life ever go as planned?

So, now that I have a plan that would work in a perfect world – one in which I’m never out of the house past 10, never have an early morning meeting sprung on me, never get up late – I need to turn it into one that works in the real world. I need to really think about my priorities, figure out what I can do when something unexpected comes up, and come to terms with the fact that I might not get everything I want.

I get surly if I don’t get to do something fun every day before bed. It is SUPER easy for me to convince myself to stay in bed another hour. Exercise always seems to be the thing that gets dropped when I get home late from work. I need to reflect on all this and set myself up to get around them.

Me vs me. Round 2.

 

This week has been inconsistent, at best. I’ve got plenty of food cooked, but my sleep schedule has been horrible. Missing out on sleep just ruins my whole day and makes it way to easy for me to slip into old habits like eating poorly. I’ve seen the problem now, so I can get it back under control.

I have a new approach to avoid getting distracted at work. Whenever a reach a lull, where there’s just a few minutes with nothing to do, I read a little bit of The Nerdist Way on my phone. That keeps me productive, keeps distracting websites off my monitor (so my coworkers and boss don’t think I’m wasting time), helps me meet my goal of reading 12 books this year, and encourages me to improve myself. We’ll see how this goes. I just need to make sure I only read a little bit at a time – like during bathroom breaks or when my code is compiling – so I still get work done. It went well today.

 

I took a sick day today, but I still managed to get some things done. Mostly, finishing my cooking. I now have 8 burritos freezing, a gallon of sweet tea and a stew that will cook until tomorrow. I hope it turns out well.

Tomorrow, it’s back to work. If all goes according to plan, I should be playing tennis again tomorrow night, too.

I still need to find some time for personal programming and learning the guitar. I feel I’m making headway, though.

 

I stayed up WAY too late last night with my friends. Got to bed around 5AM. I don’t regret it, though, because we had a great time playing card and board games and chatting about all kinds of important and bullshit things.

Unfortunately, that means I got up super late and was still tired. I decided to completely skip my yard work. I only need to do some trimming and bagging leaves. That can wait.

I got my cooking started, but ran into a couple of problems. I need to let my stew cook all day, so getting up late ruined that. I also didn’t realize I needed some more tomatoes for my burritos. So, I’ll finish the stew and the burritos tomorrow night.

This week, I’m going to focus on getting exercise and programming. I’m not going to become the next Notch if I don’t get my practice in.

 

I dragged my feet a lot today. Mostly watching YouTube videos. I’m pretty disappointed about that. I had several spurts of productivity, but I couldn’t keep any of them going. I really need to keep myself going once I get some momentum. The Internet is just not that entertaining. It is awfully distracting, though.

I did manage to put together plans for my menu, though. I have three dishes to cook: baked chicken breasts, beef stew, and burritos. Splitting those up will give more more than my target of 8 meals!

Also, I have to start getting exercise. WeightWatchers may help me lose weight, but I really need to build up my muscles and stamina. That’s my main goal this coming week.

 

I posted this comment today, in response to an article by Jonathan Coulton about the recent shutting down of MegaUpload, wherein he discusses copyright and questions the actual results of piracy and the government’s attempts to end it:

When in the course of history has there ever been a movement for government to legislate an industry into existence?

I’m no anthropologist or historian, but it seems perfectly natural for me that money is made when a business provides something that consumers can not acquire for themselves. The price is determined by the difficulty of acquiring the end product. Diamonds cost a lot because they are difficult to find and dirt is cheap because I have a shovel and a backyard.

The Internet has made art easy to acquire. People used to need marketers, TV stations, radios, advertisers, CD printers, album makers, and all kinds of services to experience art. Those people were doing something that was worth being paid for. Now, however, these business are not as necessary anymore. I can pluck music from around the world out of the air.

It didn’t become illegal to have a car because carriage companies would go out of business. Why should it be ONLY legal to get art through art companies? Why do you have to pay a company money because you MIGHT play music in your bar?

It’s because companies are writing the laws. They are redefining the word “piracy” to mean “not giving us money for something you can get for free”. They have succeeded in making people believe that just because something is easy to get is not enough of a reason to not pay for it.

I’m not saying art isn’t valuable. It’s one of the most valuable things that exists. I’m saying that we don’t need what they are selling, but they have taken control of the government and can FORCE us to give them money. This is fundamentally wrong.

 

I’m feeling good about my routine. I have enough to eat, time to do chores, and time to play games and watch anime. I still need to work on my bedtime, but I’ve been getting to work on time, minus one day. I still need to work out when I’m going to read, though. Nothing much else to say today.

 

This one comes in under the wire, but it fulfills my goal of posting every day. I’ve missed several days now. I’ll be putting up a counter to keep track of all my goals and how close I am to them.

I got back on track with WeightWatchers again today. I’m approaching it in yet another different fashion this time. I’ve got a sense of what foods I can prepare that fit in my diet. So, I’m first making a menu and preparing a bunch of meals for the week. Then, I know exactly how much of everything went into each dish, and that makes it much easier to track the points I use in my plan. I can fill in points with smaller meals like fruit, sandwiches, and other snacks. I think this method will work out well.

Usually, I play tennis with a friend on Tuesdays, but he had to postpone until Friday. That worked out fine, because I didn’t get a chance to cook over the weekend.

Ok, I’ll be honest. I didn’t TAKE the time to cook over the weekend because I thought I’d do it Monday. But, then, I did legitimately get busy, so I wasn’t able. I’m all caught up now. I have chili, spaghetti noodles, egg noodles, Shake & Bake chicken, beanie weenies, and rice all portioned out and ready to take to work.

 

I got all my dishes cleaned today. I also bought my ticket to see They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton in February. Yay!

I had a burger and donuts for dinner. Boo!

Oh, well. Back on the wagon tomorrow. Still no soda, though!

 

I think I got a cold from the circus.

I suppose I should take this opportunity to clarify that my goals that have to do with work don’t count sick days. I am only human, after all.

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