Three Months of The Mutable

If I were feeling particularly facetious, I might refer to this as a quarterly review; frankly, I'm just feeling gassy and still a bit sick, so let's move this along.

This most recent update marks the twelfth consecutive week of the mutable, my program of self-publication. At the end of the day, this is what everything else is all about: fulfilling my dream of making my living off creative works alone. There have been ups and downs, and I've learned a great deal, but I want one thing to be made clear above all else: I am deeply grateful for the experience thus far.

In purely monetary terms, the venture is off to the sort of slow start I had predicted. I currently have two sponsors averaging roughly $4/week, which puts me at 0.89% of my goal. Thankfully, the reasons for this are quite obvious: the page is barely visible as far as the internet at large is concerned. In three months, it has received 363 pageviews, of which at least half appear to be from bots/crawlers of some sort. The means most readily available to me for correcting this are:

A) Migrating the content to my VPS as soon as possible
B) Putting content up on Youtube that directs attention to the writing
C) Linking to the site wherever possible

Both B and C make a lot more sense if A is already accomplished. I had really hoped to have this taken care of three weeks ago, which segues neatly into the second point of review: output.

Both in terms of volume of writing and secondary endeavors, my output continues to be a disappointment to me. There's always some distraction cropping up that I allow to completely derail me, to the extent that for two weeks in a row, I failed to put out any new prose, and that after weeks of missing the actual word count goal. Having managed to update with some new prose these past two weeks, I'm still well behind the volume of output I'm aiming for. This just comes down to effort and discipline.

Meanwhile, I've done far less drawing than I'd like, and haven't even embarked on language study yet. I've also not made any meaningful progress with coding. Here, what's lacking is a set of small, day-to-day manageable goals. In the case of drawing, just saying I'm going to sit down and draw for an hour might be fine, provided I was more experienced. At this novice stage, though, I need to be focusing primarily on exercises that help me build the fundamentals: gesture drawing, shape and form construction, straight lines, perspectives--and maybe mix some free drawing time in there. Meanwhile, saying I'm going to practice a given language or 'study coding' for an hour is a functionally useless description. My goals needn't necessarily be ultra-precise, but just having any at all would help with both motivation and perspective.

The more rigorous planning I've been wanting to switch to continues to elude me, in part because my failure to keep up with my schedule leaves me rushing to catch up on Sunday and Monday--both of the days I'd use for planning and relaxation otherwise. With the half-month remaining, I hope to focus on streamlining my process so that I can enter 2014 with a clear vision of what the mutable really is, execute on it swiftly, and bring myself that much closer to my dream.

Still learning,
~L

A Big Push

I initially titled this entry 'The Big Push,' then I realized that I would, undoubtedly, have many other big pushes in the future, so why set myself up for backpedaling and excuses later? Indefinite articles all up in here.

So, what is this particular 'big push' about? Well, beginning from a place of zero prior knowledge in the area, I pushed through a weekend of learning how to configure a server for web hosting with no assistance or management from the hosting provider. This was all in the name of getting the REAL the mutable up and running as soon as possible. I hit a few snags, but ultimately I have the server mostly secured and in testing I was able to get a public-facing test page to load properly for myself and others. I still have a couple more steps to take to lock everything up to my satisfaction, but while I'm figuring that out, I can also start really digging into coding the site. The sooner I can migrate my content to a distinct domain--and roll this blog into it--the better.

I'm also going to start experimenting with a new approach to my weekly writing, where on Sundays, instead of a sixth day of writing, I just use that time to outline and develop things. Currently, it feels like I'm hitting a productivity bottleneck owing to trying to combine plot/character construction with prosecraft, which is just asking for difficulties. Tuesday through Saturday can be for writing and editing, with a clear direction as determined by Sunday planning sessions. This would mean that the weekly output would be about 17,500 words once I reach the target of 3,500 words/day, which is still acceptable, as it allows for 3 or more distinct blocks of content each week--enough variety to keep me happy.

As soon as I have even the barest functional alpha version of the mutable up and running, I'll be linking to it here.

Still learning,
~L

Limitations

There are times when I am made acutely aware of the limitations of my way of life. I live close to the bone, trading income for the opportunity to focus on what I love first and foremost. Of course, I aspire to a state where the pursuit of what I love provides for me on its own--that is what this blog is detailing the process of--but in the interim, my life is like a string under great tension: it holds steady as is, but is always on the verge of snapping.

Most of the time, these limitations are manageable, minor things. Little money, a need for far greater caloric intake than most people, and the desire to make healthy ingredient choices means there's a fair bit of figuring that goes into making groceries work week to week, and the math works out that I typically fall ~500kcal/day of my desired intake levels. Or I don't have the money to invest in a membership to a proper gym or the space to build my own setup on the cheap, so I limit myself to bodyweight exercises as my sole method, when I'm getting to the point where I'd rather use them as the centerpiece of an approach that also employs powerlifting and olympic lifting.

Sometimes, the limitations make for deeper frustrations. This is the first post I've made from my desktop computer in quite some time, because nearly 3 months ago, the motherboard shorted out. Of course, in the process of diagnosing the issue, I ended up purchasing a replacement power supply (not necessary!), had to mooch a spare graphics card off my best friend (this was also not the problem part), a replacement motherboard (this was the problem initially), and a replacement CPU because mine broke in the process of removing it from the old motherboard.

Now, I have the desktop functioning, but it's only allowing me to use half of my installed RAM, and the Solid State Drive that had been relatively cooperative in the month leading up to the motherboard short-out, is now freezing more frequently than it ever did. This would be taxing enough if I'd been able to address the situation immediately, but my tight finances mean that the whole process became wildly drawn out, and roughly $300 later, the computer works as well as one $300 cheaper. Replacing the SSD will be anywhere from another $100 to another $180. The RAM issue is something I'm still hoping I can resolve without needing to purchase anything new.

Then, there are the times the limitations are legitimately troubling. I injured my right hand severely doing parkour eight weeks ago, and while it no longer hurts or impedes me in day-to-day function, it is bad enough that the wrist will not support significant weight, leaving me unable to do upper body exercises. I've tried to make the best of it by focusing on lower-body and core development (which needed to catch up anyway), but I can't pretend it's not a worry. If I had more money, I'd readily be able to consult a doctor, get it examined and get a surgery if necessary. As it stands, I can't afford any of those things, and have been hoping it would heal on its own. Its condition hasn't really changed noticeably in the last few weeks.

That being said, I am committed to trying to make the best of things. I lost a great deal of time I should have spent writing on trying to fix my computer, but I the time I did spend writing went very well--things flowed quickly and easily, and I had a great deal of fun. I also have access to all my language-learning resources again, so I can start my studies. I can't do upper-body exercises, so I'll continue using this time to build my core and legs up more. I'm also going to ramp up the aggression with which I pursue freelance work; even one extra contract would dramatically improve my position at this point.

Here's a look at the sort of Tuesday-Sunday schedule I have in mind for the immediate future:

06:30 - 08:00 : Exercise
08:00 - 08:30 : Hygiene
08:30 - 10:30 : Writing
10:30 - 11:30 : Drawing
11:30 - 13:30 : Writing
13:30 - 15:00 : Nap
15:00 - 15:30 : Lunch
15:30 - 17:00 : Japanese
17:00 - 18:30 : Freelance
18:30 - 19:00 : Dinner
19:00 - 21:30 : Freelance
21:30 - 22:30 : Free Time
22:30 - 00:00 : Khmer
00:00 - 01:00 : Coding
01:00 - 02:00 : Free Time

It's a tight schedule, no doubt about that. As always, the intention is to drive down the size of those 'Freelance' blocks with increased revenue from writing. The other area that potentially has some give is, surprisingly, the writing blocks themselves. Presently, I have four hours devoted to it, but if I'm pushing for an output goal of 3,500 words/day, then churning out and editing that much is something that could become a 3-hour process as I get back into it. Of course, I have plenty of non-prose writing I'd love to have more time for, and that might be where I'd take it from, as I want to convert freelance time to music time first and foremost.

I'm also not sure how things will work out with the language study process. I may find that 90 consecutive minutes would be better spent broken up into two 45-minute blocks for each language. Maybe I'll find that one hour each for three languages at a time is a better fit; I honestly can't say, since I'll be approaching it from an entirely new angle.

Still, exciting stuff.

Still learning,
~L

Environmental Studies

Three cheers for misleading titles! Huzzah! Huzz--no? Fine.

This post has nothing to do with the study of the natural terrestrial environment. Instead, it's based on the first project in my grand web-design/programming self-education scheme: configuring the development and production environments for the workflow ahead. My intention is to keep the process as simple as possible from step to step and limit configurations and installations to what I will be using immediately. With that in mind, these are the objectives for Project 0.

• Set up a Debian VirtualBox
• Install and configure Git for version control
• Install and configure vim for coding
• Install and configure Apache, nginx and Lighttpd server softwares
• Install and configure PostgreSQL database software
• Configure a Debian VPS (I'll be using Digital Ocean)

Since my initial projects will focus on relatively simple web design and learning C, this is the extent of the preparation I need to undertake up front. I'll need to make 100% sure I'm comfortable with the basic technology trio of HTML/CSS/JS before I worry about wonderful-but-optional things like jQuery and Node. Same goes for programming: I want to take some time cutting my teeth on C before I touch Assembly, and some time learning tight and efficient coding habits before I move on to something more lax like Python. Along the way, through general usage, I'll naturally build up my comfort and proficiency with Git, vim, bash scripting, servers and SQL.

The next project, I've already decided, will be a single-page directory that points to all of my assorted projects. Eventually, this will be replaced with a proper portfolio, but for now it should be sufficient.

In other news, today's writing went really well, despite my frustrations throughout last week. I crushed the target word count in one hour, and that was with the occasional interruption. Yay!

Still learning,
~L

A Better Outlook on Missed Marks

This week, I didn't meet my word-count goals for my update to the mutable. And I'm fine with that!

. . . well, okay. I'm certainly less than thrilled that I fell as short of the mark as I did. It's also a bit of a kick in the head that I struggled so much to turn out what I did without much of an understanding as to why. My concentration was utterly lacking this past week, meaning I struggled to achieve over several hours of dithering about what I can typically crank out in one hour without strain.

All that being said, I stuck it out, and I wrote something every single day, no matter how hard it was. In recent years, if faced with such stumbling, I'd just give up on the effort until the next cycle of that activity began and tell myself 'Okay, this time for real!' as if I was under some sort of obligation to get things perfect every time or just hold back until I could. That is, of course, a character flaw that needs to be purged from me before I can achieve my full potential in any endeavor, so to stick with the writing even when I was so scattered I could barely speak a coherent sentence tells me what I'm doing is working.

This upcoming week, I'll be repeating my attempt at last week's progression (1100 words on Tuesday up to 1400 words on Sunday) and sticking to my schedule. The important thing isn't to rush towards the output level I'd like, but to keep focused on reinforcing the habit of writing every day.

My intention is to take my first foray into the web design/programming self-education sphere this week and document the process. For the time being, that will end up on this blog, ideally as part of my daily updates. Wish me luck.

Still learning,
~L

Getting There From Here

In my last post, I promised I would talk a bit about how I intend to proceed with my endeavors in the immediate future. My long-term goals and concerns have remained largely unchanged. Meanwhile, here's the current run-down of projects

Fitness
I did a real number on my right hand practicing parkour a few weeks ago. While it's healed enough that it no longer impedes daily function, the portion of the palm that runs from the wrist up to the little finger still feels tender to the touch, and putting weight on it is rather painful. I'm hoping to get my hand X-ray scanned soon to see what the nature of the damage is. My fear is that it could be an occult fracture, but I'm hoping it's a bruise of the periosteum.

While I'm frustrated by this, I've taken advantage of the time to start building my core and lower body up to my upper body's level. I've been doing hill sprints every other day, allowing my legs to gradually acclimate to the new stress. When I've reached the point of steadily doing ten hill sprints per session, three sessions per week, I'll throw two isometric stretching sessions into my week as well and work towards the front split, side split, pike and back bridge.

Writing
This one has been going well! As I've already detailed, my output has consistently increased each week, and I'm currently on track to hit my goal of 3,500 words/day before the end of the year. I want to pick up the pace on poetry as well, but getting inspired to write a poem is a rarer occurrence lately. I think two poems a week would be a good target, and I'd consider a three-poem week exceptional.

What needs work in the process of making writing my sole income source is my marketing. It has been three weeks since I started putting myself out there, but my Facebook page has only three followers, my Twitter has thirty-one--but God knows how many of them actually pay any attention to it--and my Tumblr has four. Part of it is being a relatively new regular content producer. Part of it is that writing doesn't often attract large audiences as quickly as music or visual art. Most of it, however, is that I've yet to make my web-presence cohesive. So, given that, let's move on to . . .
 
Building Web Presence

In the case of my two blogger pages, replacing them with a proper the mutable website is the answer, but Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr remain separate. Learning more about properly customizing those will help me make an impression, but beyond that, I need a content strategy that links them all together with a 'voice.' Presently, I post snippets of the day's work on Tumblr and Facebook, link to the Tumblr entry on Twitter, and make occasional commentary on literary culture. I intend to continue doing these, albeit striving for greater regularity. The following ideas are under consideration:

• "Word of the Day" : In which I choose an interesting word and provide the definition.
• "Song of the Day" : In which I recommend a song for followers to check out.
• Humorous tweets : Fairly self-explanatory. I do find odd stuff funny, though, so I don't know if this would build a dedicated niche audience or just get nowhere.

. . . and, well, that's what I can think of at the moment that's specific to social media outlets. The other major exposure-boosting tool would be Youtube videos. There's also a bit of a learning curve on these, as I have no video-production experience, and producing videos of quality is important in differentiating myself as a content creator. Ideas for the content itself include

• Language Learning Videos : Videos in which I practice concepts from the languages I'm learning, inviting commentary and corrections from others.
• Tutorial Videos : Covering various subjects where I know enough to walk someone through useful concepts. With the exception, perhaps, of specific technology-related tutorials, the emphasis here would be on teaching broadly applicable concepts through an example, rather than just teaching the example itself.
• Performance Art : Monologue and other forms of solo performance art.

I've also considered a podcast, though this poses the question of what I and my hypothetical co-podcasters could discuss for 45-minutes-to-an-hour in an entertaining way, something I'm not really sure of yet.

Web Design and Programming

I have a clear idea of how I'm going to go about this. While there is a true programming component to most dynamic web design, I'm going to separate these into two parallel tracks. I'll approach both with a mixture of reference material and hands-on experimentation, setting myself specific, well-defined projects on both the web and non-web tracks, and I'll allow things to develop naturally from there.

I haven't picked my first projects for each, yet, but I know that on the web side, I'll be looking to start with refreshing my HTML/CSS experience and gradually start implementing more and more Javascript functionality--eventually learning to draw on various techniques like AJAX or JSON and libraries/extensions like Backbone, jQuery and Node. I can create a portfolio page to show the results off and possibly solicit more lucrative freelance work along the way.

On the non-web side, after some consideration and pulling in advice from various sources, I'm thinking of starting with C, then learning an assembly lanaguage (MIPS or ARM), then C++. Where I'll go from there, I'm still considering. Learning Assembly, C and C++ before anything else somewhat undermines the idea of an 'increasing complexity' approach, but would build a strong foundation of following stricter standards of clean code. I would probably take a look at Python, Ruby or Java next. We'll see.

Visual Art and Graphic Design

Starting with very fundamental drawing exercises here: exercises for drawing straight lines, for judging the lengths and angles of lines. These will be more bread-and-butter for a while, until I'm satisfied with the improvement enough to move on to 2d shape and 3d form drawing exercises. I'll also start doing simple drawings of actual subject matters in parallel to these, and study on the results to determine where I need to focus more. My intention is to create a gallery for this journey, which can hopefully inspire some people who want to draw but think they "don't have talent" and therefore can't do it, to try anyway.

These efforts with visual art will innately improve my graphic design skills, but I also need to develop greater acuity for layouts, color composition and typography. I'll be rolling these efforts into my web design practice.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

That's the current state of affairs. I have a lot learn and just as much to refine, but I'm eager to do so.

Still learning,
~L

Catching Up

The last few weeks have been an interesting ride--awkward, but interesting.

It was three weeks ago when I released the first edition of the mutable, my weekly literary publication. It started off humble, with roughly 1,500 words of prose and a single poem posted to a blogger page like this one. The second week clocked in at 2,500 words of prose and a poem, and last week's edition marked two changes: first, pushing publication to Monday so I'd have more leeway to get writing done on Sunday; second, increasing the target daily word count by 50 words each day towards an ultimate goal of 3,500 words/day.

So far, this has worked out well. It's a pace that acknowledges both my need for time to work on other things and my rustiness re: writing daily, but still increases the output steadily and non-trivially. For those of you interested in specifics, it means that on my Tuesday-Sunday schedule, the weekly output increases by roughly 1,800 words each week like so:


Week 3 : 550 + 600 + 650 + 700 + 750 + 800 = 4050
Week 4 : 850 + 900 + 950 + 1000 + 1050 + 1100 = 5850
Week 5 : 1150 + 1200 + 1250 + 1300 + 1350 + 1400 = 7650

This means that this week will most likely be the last one wherein the sole prose content is a part of Cat's Eye. Starting with the fifth edition, I'll add short stories into the mix. Of course, because I'm self-publishing, I can put out whatever mix of content I like from week to week. Yay, flexibility!

That being said, I've also re-engaged with social media for the purposes of promotion, and now have a Facebook, a Twitter and a Tumblr, in addition to my Patreon account. The thing is, I have seen the successful use of all these things on the part of content creators, and it involves the development of a particular voice. Given the nature of communication through these outlets, it has to be fairly condensed, with some sort of immediate 'wow' factor. Figuring out how to do that in a way that reflects what I'm about will take some doing, especially since I'm not a very social person to begin with.

Right now, in this transition phase in my life, I've been a bit unsure as to where I should be focusing the time and energy that is not going directly into my freelance work or my writing. Music would be an obvious choice, but I don't really have the financial flexibility to invest in regular vocal lessons or purchase a guitar just yet. Similarly, finances stand in the way of getting coaching in stage or voice acting. There's a litany of such roadblocks that, while far from unconquerable, do move me to ask the question: "What can I do this very moment?"

That question, I am pleased to say, yielded some immediate answers. Building my programming and web design skills is something I can chase down right now. The same goes for drawing and graphic design; I have plenty of pencils and plenty of sketch paper lying around, and the skills of illustration carry over to graphic design. In addition to being tasks I can undertake right now, they have the added benefit of giving me something I can show to attract traffic. I've seen examples of people showcasing their daily journeys of learning and they often receive support not just in the form of congratulations or interest, but in genuinely helpful advice that strengthens their learning process. It makes sense to leverage that.

Another endeavor I can undertake, as soon as I fix my desktop and get access to all my collected materials for it, is language study. There are plenty of opportunities to find people I can speak to in the languages I wish to study, and finding material to read is a breeze, though I suspect I'll need to get clever with the writing practice. Creating Youtube videos documenting my language work also sounds like a good idea, allowing me to get further commentary and correction from native speakers in some cases.

More generally speaking, I'm trying to cultivate greater mindfulness in everything I do. My exercise routine has helped greatly in that regard, though I had to suffer some injuries along the way; meditation has also been a boon in this effort. However, I'm seeking a greater mindfulness in everything, to build not just a habit of mindful exercise or mindful meditation, etc., but a habit of living mindfully. This is mostly a question of focus, though, which for someone who has grown so scattered, must be relearned over time.

I'll have an entry tomorrow that outlines the current state of my immediate goals and how I intend to approach them.

Back on the horse
~L

the mutable (and assorted housekeeping)

The single most important bit of information in this post is that I have launched the mutable, my weekly publication of prose and poetry. Right now, it's somewhat underwhelming both in presentation and in volume of content. For an explanation of the former, see this page.

As for the latter, the low output thus far is the result of pragmatism. I have made quite a few attempts to jump back on the writing-every-day horse since I first fell off it about 6 years ago. A lot of my failures were the results of simple distraction, but excessive ambition has been a factor in those, as well as the sole culprit at times. When making these comeback attempts, I have often recalled my most productive years as a writer. As a boy ages 14 to 16, especially, writing dominated my free time. The moment I was home from school, I'd hole myself up in my room, possibly read for an hour, possibly play video games for an hour, but I'd always write a minimum of five hours each day, quite often pushing to seven or eight. On weekends, spending 10 to 12 hours writing straight through was not uncommon for me. This all contributed to an average output hovering between 9,000 and 10,000 words per day.

Now, of course, my lack of time spent editing and my significantly less rigorous quality-control had some hand in that outlandishly high figure, but most of all, that volume represents the fact that by that time, I had been writing for long stretches every day for 7+ years. To not account for that habituation and expect I could just jump in at some mark near that, when I have less time and energy to devote to writing anyway, is of course going to lead to some burn out.

I also learned, as I got older, that 3,000 words per day is considered quite productive--a novel a month, if you think about it. Weighing that fact alongside what I want to achieve as a writer, I've come to two conclusions. The first is that I'm going to set 4,000 words as my long term goal while still building up my readership, and then I will throttle back to 3,000 when I'm more established and can afford to divert energy to my other literary ambitions--plays, screenplays, television scripts. The second is that I need to build up to that goal gradually.

To that end, I promised myself that I would write as much as I could without straining myself in my spare time leading up to the first edition of the mutable. What I ended up with was an average output of 300 words per day, five days that week. It was a bit humiliating, but that was how far I'd fallen. I accepted that as a starting point, and published anyway. This past week, I was able to turn out ~500 words per day for five days without much trouble. A good increase, but still a ways off my mark, and also a bit abrupt. Starting Tuesday, I'll be aiming to write up through Sunday and push my target word-count up by 50 each day (550 on Tuesday, 600 on Wednesday . . . 800 on Sunday.) 50 is a small enough number that each increment up doesn't greatly increase the challenge, but will add up over an acceptable span of time to my target. I may, if certain milestones seem to give me difficulty, stabilize the word-count for a while, but if things go smoothly, then I should have my first 4,000 word day near the end of the year or the beginning of next one.

As for how I'm going to handle this blog from now on, I'm not quite sure. The lack of structure in my days lately, combined with more difficulty sleeping than usual has meant a lot of time and energy spent inefficiently, leaving me rather exhausted at the end of the day, resenting the idea of having to describe it all coherently. I'm mulling over the possibility of making the blog a morning task, in which I describe the events of the previous day.

I do have some things of substance to discuss in the next post, so I'll probably save schedule restructuring talk for that.

Cheers,
~L

Day 1, Take 2: Electric Blogaloo

So, in case it wasn't horribly apparent, this blog has been on an extended, unintentional hiatus. I've been in a pretty poor headspace for a while, including the unique irritation that comes from being injured once you've grown used to a certain fairly high level of physical activity. Thankfully, I'm back on the horse with exercise, and taking a different tack to it. I noticed that my overly aggressive pace seemed related to my desire for variety: in a lifting program, improvement just means bigger numbers, which is boring to me. In a calisthenics/gymnastics/movement-focused program, improvement means entirely new techniques and skills in most cases.

My desire to push on ahead to some of the truly amazing feats currently out of my reach needs to be tempered with a realistic progression scheme. So, I'm dialing back the intensity on my strength training and rebuilding my foundation, but I'm also putting more emphasis on shoring up weak spots (grip strength and core strength) and building more flexibility, mobility and balance.

My biggest physical concern in the physical department is, honestly, meeting my daily caloric needs while keeping costs down. I'm a hard-gainer to be sure. Based on the results of my current diet and the results, I'm aiming for 3200 kcal every day, with the following break down:

Carbohydrates: 8 to 15% - 256 to 480 kcal - 64 to 120 g
Protein: 16-22% - 512 to 704 kcal - 128 to 176 g
Fat: 67-76% - 2144 to 2432 kcal - 238 to 271 g

Doing that on a budget is not the easiest thing in the world. Making sure I get my necessary micronutrients from produce (with low calories-per-dollar ratios) while doing so is a challenge. Coming up with things that can be made in bulk to save cooking time each week is not quite so hard, but becomes much harder when you also add the stipulate of trying to make it tasty. Oh, and I'm also trying to make this work with an intermittent fasting plan.

On the larger life-goals front, I've rethought my strategy with regards to writing--again. I'm still pinning most of my hopes on novels and other long-form works, but having come across Patreon, I'm no longer thinking of smaller works as a total wash. Instead, I think they can return to being useful projects to keep my momentum up and keep me thinking while also still yielding some financial return. My intention is to create a regular online literary supplement of sorts, featuring short stories, poetry, and serialized work, and to offer that up for free while encouraging Patreon and/or PayPal Donation support. It can serve as a way to generate immediate buzz and thereby strengthen my position when the time comes to start publishing larger works, and also to chip away at my financial woes and free up more time for the things I want to do.

Realism demands, of course, that I acknowledge that Patreon is still relatively unknown (compared to its large-project cousin, Kickstarter), and that writing is no match for music or video content in the popularity department, so I do not expect the staggering returns that a few of the most well-known Youtube creators are seeing through the service. Even so, every bit helps towards building a personal brand.

This week is going to be a bit of a calibration process as I figure a few variables out, but regardless it's good to be back in action. Cheers.

Learning again,
~L

Day 32: Evaluation 4

So, after three consecutive weeks of injuries (in the same region, no less), I've made the decision that I should have made the first time, which is to re-assess my workout progress and roll things back a bit. It's best practices with physical fitness to rest and retry when you reach a failure point, and scale back the difficulty on what you're doing if you fail a second time.

The thing is . . . I think it might be time to scale back on some other aspects of my life (not even just my specific endeavors), get back to my roots. But I don't know how.

I know this is evaluation day, but I honestly don't know what to say right now. It's not a bad feeling at all. I just need to adjust to some things this week.

Still learning,
~L

Day 31: A River, Its Mist

I spent a marvelous day hiking a trial that runs along and through a river gorge, marveling at the cool spray rising off the most turbulent ridges, the rich green moss that hung so thick on the gleaming-wet faces of rock. The smells and sounds through the whole chasm were utterly entrancing, and I kept thinking to myself, I must find such a place to build a home.

Of course, that's far off, but it's one more reason for me to set my feet to the world's road, one more thing to search for. Ah, the allure of the journey!

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 126g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.9 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - No
HTML/CSS/Javascript - N/A

Still learning,
~L

Day 30: Voodoo

Closing out a day with an excellent album--Voodoo by D'Angelo--as one does a thorough job of household maintenance. Certainly, I can think of worse fates! Though I do not find anything particularly therapeutic about menial chores, I do find that it's a nice balance of immediate productivity and mental freedom to toy with story ideas. It's a welcome reprieve after a day spent harassed by that particular breed of headache that sits directly behind the eyes, causing you to strain at the light.

That being said, there's not really anything particular to show for today outside of my freelance jobs. Ah, well. Tomorrow.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 131g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.9 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes
HTML/CSS/Javascript - Started writing script for first video.

Still learning,
~L

Day 29: This State is Not Solid

Technical difficulties are frustrating under the best circumstances--when they have no lasting consequences, only a five-minute interruption in which one may walk around, tend to laundry or read a few pages of a good book--because they represent a disruption in workflow, which is often delicate, especially in creative contexts. When they result in several extended interruptions, interruptions which cause irretrievable loss of work which requires it to be redone . . . yes, well. The rage is strong with this one. I have now taken suitable steps to alleviate the issue until such time as I replace my ailing Solid State Drive (likely this week), but still.

Little else worthy of observation today.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 152/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 115g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.9 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes
HTML/CSS/Javascript -HTML sections tags

Still learning,
~L

Day 28: Evaluation 3

Despite my addled brain and injured body, I managed some positives on the project this week. The new undertaking for the week was HTML self-education, which I decided I would further by producing video tutorials on the subject. First off, the general review went well, and I developed a clear picture of how the videos will flow. On the other hand, I did not adequately prepare for the actual recording process, and found myself, to my surprise wishing for a script. Certainly, it would have been trivial to record myself haphazardly throwing together the sample HTML and ramble on with improvised audio, but first, there are hundreds of coding/programming tutorials like that already, and I find them a nuisance to watch. Second, part of the advantage of doing these videos is that it also allows me to practice video and audio production techniques; the thing about editing is that it's always easiest and most fruitful when you start with solid material. I'd rather take the time to put together a good video. So, with that in mind, I've started writing out scripts for the first two videos. It's best to get into this habit now, because this will be especially helpful when I start working with actual programming languages and their significantly greater complexities.

I conducted my first strength benchmark test yesterday. Admittedly, the intensity and regularity of my workouts have been variable, so I was not expecting to put up huge numbers. What I was expecting, however, was different ratios than what I got. I managed a bench press of 54.4 kg (~77% bodyweight), a deadlift of 59 kg (~83%) and a squat of 63.5 kg (~89.6%). My understand is that the squat should be MUCH higher relative to the other two, but then I find myself wondering if that ratio is often possibly skewed; while I have seen many videos of heavy lifters working through full range-of-motion on both bench presses and deadlifts, the videos I see of big squats tend to involve very wide stances with small range of movement, often not even reaching parallel, let alone going below it. The difficulty of the motion takes a sharp increase as you reach parallel and continue down further, so the fact that I always squat with a full range of motion may be reflected in the lower weight I was able to work through. Even so, it also reflects that I have probably not challenged my legs and lower back as much as I should. Something to learn from.

I was able to actually get a complete Sunday cooking session in, but the results were a mixed bag, and the whole process took too long, in my estimation. With prep time accounted for, the whole thing took 5 hours. With cleaning time accounted for, it took 6 hours. This was less than ideal as it had to come at the end of the day, and I was feeling sluggish after a big meal. Of course, this was the first time I'd actually been able to do it. Now that I have a sense of the scale of the undertaking, I can start to build new efficiencies here and there. First, some time was lost to half-hearted dawdling as I found myself uncertain of what to do with my last two dishes, a breakfast hash and a tempeh stir fry. I was committed to using the older veggies in my fridge, which would have gone past their date this week otherwise, but had not even given serious thought to what those were or how they might be best used until the last minute. Laying out a clear recipe itinerary will help with this, as well as with my concerns about the flavor and texture of the resultant dishes. Dicing up sweet potato was also a failure point in the design; peeling and dicing these tough tubers completely took nearly 20 minutes unto itself, a process which could be cut down significantly. My resultant haste with the sweet potatoes led, in turn, to my rushing with peppers, mushrooms and onions, blitzing them in a food processor, which produced unfortunately uneven results.

The biggest problem, however, is the burgers. Grass-fed beef or bison burgers, depending on availability, are a staple of my diet, a key source of the protein I need to achieve my goals. Sometimes they smoke the kitchen into oblivion and mark the grill pan with scorched leavings, sometimes the process goes completely smoothly, and I've yet to observe any meaningful correlation between factors and outcomes. I'm sure it's something obvious, staring me in the face, but every time I have to wipe down the pan between rounds of burgers, I'm losing between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on how bad the layer of crust is. Last night, I lost 35 minutes to pan cleaning. Between these bigger, obvious time-wasters, and the smaller inefficiencies in my approach, I would honestly not be surprised at all if there were as many as 2 hours to be recovered from the process working as I did. With sufficiently understood recipes, I could cook more in parallel, in which case I suspect I could find 3 hours freed up. That means some free time this week must be given over to recipe research.

Despite my grumblings, this is actually what I enjoy about maintaining this journal and undertaking this challenge. Holding myself up to scrutiny is something I have always done, but it has been the kind of aimless, derogatory self-scrutiny that someone who vaguely wishes to punish one's self without admitting to any particular failing undertakes. No, this is a concentrated criticism which can only humble my heart and hone my being.

No new endeavors to add, this week. Just going to take this week to build on what I already have laid out before me.

Still learning,
~L

Day 27: As A Child

My workout schedule has been a bit thrown-off by my recent back injury, which is thankfully healed now. But going into my exercise this morning, I did not know that, so I focused my efforts on new movement patterns. It was a truly great experience, just experimenting, guessing and failing, discovering new things about myself, finding novel and interesting ways to take on my own weaknesses. It was very humbling to realize that with some seemingly simple tasks, I was starting from square one due to my own history of lacking activity, and in spite of the significant gains I've made through my normal training. If this opens up new avenues in my training, I say it can only be a good thing.

Tired, but a good tired. Cheers.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 130g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.9 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes
HTML/CSS/Javascript - N/A

Still learning,
~L

Day 26: The Knuckle Frog

. . . is not a pugilist amphibian of any sort, despite what hopes you may have had. Instead, it's just what I call a frog stand in which one balances on the knuckles, rather than an open palm. Shrinking your base like that--as well as opening up the range of motion for the wrist--means the task of stabilizing one's self is much more difficult. It puts a heck of a strain on your fingers, I can tell you that much. It is also a lot of fun.

If it seems like I talk about fitness an inordinate amount, it's only because it has become a really strong symbol for what I'm trying to accomplish here: the building of skills through gradual and consistent practice. Though my sleep remains more a burden than a boon these days, I take encouragement from my growth where I'm finding it.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 116g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.9 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes
HTML/CSS/Javascript - Reviewed HTML content division elements.

Still learning,
~L

Day 25: Listless

My sleep is usually fitful, nightmare-fraught, interrupted and of little actual rest. Some nights are worse than others, and leave me with little capacity to focus on much of anything. Today was one such day, resulting in a sort of going-through-the-motions approach. I have things on my mind, but not the energy to undertake saying them at this point.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 131g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.8 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes
HTML/CSS/Javascript - Studied and coded body and hierarchy constructs in HTML.

Still learning,
~L

Day 24: Tearing the Seams of the Sky

Whilst walking home this evening, I was caught in a thunderstorm. The first flashes of lightning appeared distant in the sky as I boarded the subway train, and the rain followed, sudden and heavy as I disappeared underground. I disembarked and resurfaced to find the rain weakened, but the clouds still alight, thunder rolling much closer. Not once did I see a bolt reach out and strike the ground, instead, I saw blue-white fissures appear in the vast dome above, time to and time again, until it seemed it must shatter and fall around me.

The boiling humidity of the day gave way to cooling rains, and nature's own grand light-show against darkened azure clouds. I turned off my music and listened, savoring every moment of it.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 116g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.9 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes
HTML/CSS/Javascript - Studied and created root structural and metadata HTML

Still learning,
~L

Day 23: Needle and Thread

In my end-of-day spare time, I took my first serious pass at basic tailoring; in particular, I have a number of shirts which I like, but which fit me like a sack, hanging loose and billowy off my body. These I wish to alter, especially the dress shirts which look so comical stuffed--rather than tucked--under the hem of my pants. It is not a skill I have ever devoted any effort to, though I have observed basic mending being done. There is a certain childlike fascination in it for me, to turn my mind and hands to a task utterly alien, where I cannot claim even understanding of the most fundamental principles. I am, of course, making liberal use of the resources on the internet, but I can clearly see this will be an engaging challenge in my spare time.

I am happy with how the HTML documentation work-through is going so far, though I'm not sure when I should aim to release the first video--either tomorrow or next Saturday? I am leaning towards the latter, as it gives me some time to reflect on production aspects of the video itself, and anyway I've only just started the process yesterday.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 122g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.9 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes
HTML/CSS/Javascript - Reviewed HTML syntax and structural conventions

Still learning,
~L 

Day 22: Arcana Intereticulati

Today marked the beginning of my latest endeavor, which is a thorough re-immersion into HTML and CSS. As I've mentioned in a previous post, my plan is to work my way through the standing W3C documentation on the specs. This is arguably the most daunting way to go about it, giving how positively massive those documents are, but my reasoning behind it is that it allows me access to all the raw information without an intermediary deciding what is or is not worth learning or emphasizing for me. One, however, must be willing to curate for one's self if intending to learn HTML in any practically applicable form; the ordering of the HTML spec is somewhat problematic, front-loaded as it is with foundational concepts (including extensive discussion of the DOM) which are largely hidden from the developer's eyes in most basic usage cases. One might feel hopelessly overwhelmed if they felt they were expected to understand this content before getting to the fourth section of the document, where actually usable HTML code is introduced for the first time.

Now, certainly, I make no claims to be any master of HTML, CSS or Javascript--if I were, why would I be undertaking this project?--but I happen to believe that one of the best ways to learn a concept and solidify it in one's mind is to teach it; to that end, instead of giving daily showcases of my studies, I will instead film educational videos on my learning process weekly. I had initially considered doing daily or thrice-weekly videos, but after thinking about the time required to do one well, and given my desire to take my time with it and learn some things about video editing and recording this way, weekly is far more practical, and also puts me in a position to have significantly more content for each.

So: the curriculum. Trying to teach without a sound and logically progressive curriculum is an absolute nightmare for both teacher and student, and runs the risk of putting people off. With that in mind, I've come up with an order which I feel promotes quick learning as much for my benefit as anyone else's.

1. HTML Syntax and Structure
2. HTML Elements
3. HTML Attributes
4. Implementing CSS & Basic CSS Selectors
5. CSS Declarations
6. CSS Pseudo-Elements, Pseudo-Selectors & Other Advanced Selectors
7. CSS Units of Measurement
8. Javascript & HTML DOM
9. AJAX, jQuery & JSON

Now, how long this will take to get through? I cannot say for sure. Given the things I have in mind for my main website, I'll want to have the big three web design fundamentals well in-hand, and likely pull Python (specifically Django) into the mix. But I also have other endeavors that are more important to me, and if faced with a conflict, I will throttle this process and use other outlets for promoting myself in favor of the other demands. Anyway, this should be an interesting undertaking, and I hope to learn a lot along the way.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - Yes
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 115g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.7 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes
HTML/CSS/Javascript - Overview of Documentation, Curriculum Determined

Still learning,
~L

Day 21: Coming Attractions

Now that I'm maintaining more regular habits and steadily building up steam that way, there are a few things I want--and to some extent ought--to put that momentum towards immediately. The first of these is a career move: much as I loathe social networking, I need to set up accounts with the major platforms for the sake of promoting my creative endeavors, because their reach is too far to be ignored. I also need to keep my ear to the ground for other promotional outlets, and to put together a proper website of my own.

I have a Youtube presence ready to mobilize, but I'm still unsure of where to start. I know that I want to use it as part of my language-learning initiative, and to promote my musical endeavors when they take off, but I'm not sure how much impact it could have on my other efforts or how to go about harnessing it for those less obvious ends. Perhaps this calls for some experimentation?

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 126g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.7 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes

 Still learning,
~L

Day 20: Past Efforts

Today, while sorting through sheaves of loose papers, I chanced across an artifact of a recently previous self-education endeavor; several pages, covered on both sides with lists, charts and personal annotations concerning the fundamentals of music theory. I remember well sitting down to scrawl it all out in my particular, comically small chicken-scratch two years ago, and the information laid out there is more or less retained. You could say it was successful, except that I still compose and arrange at a snail's pace, sing less than a third as well as I could, and cannot play any instrument tolerably in a live context.

Application was the missing piece there, and an obvious one, yet also the one that most disrupted my volatile ego. I flatter myself that I am a reasonably quick study in the theoretical aspect of most things, but I cripplingly shy away from actually practicing, where I know I will be faced with an ability to create that is--at least initially--very limited next to my ability to imagine and devise. It still blindsides me sometimes to realize that my egotism manifests in that particular way, given that the skill I take the most justifiable pride in, my writing, was earned through writing millions and millions of mediocre words that turned into good ones after some twenty years of constant effort. Yet, there it is.

Of course, I do not discount the value of the theoretical basis I possess, it is what turns a mechanical skill into a thoughtful craft, given enough practice. But these days, I tend to feel that theoretical learning is best paired with application for reinforcement; I am without question a 'learn by doing' type. In the spirit of that, I've picked my next self-education endeavor: rebuilding my HTML and CSS skills from the ground up, working straight through the W3C documentation on both specs. I intend to start into that endeavor on Thursday, and my progress metric will be a showcase of and display of what aspects of each specification I have studied that day. Every second week, I will test myself by setting aside a time to design and code simple websites from scratch, checking how much time it takes me from start to finish. This will reinforce my understanding of the specifications as cohesive units, instead of just modules.

Goals:
Weekly Income From Creative Endeavors - $5/$500
Adhere to Daily Schedule - No
Write 5,000 Words/Day - 0/5,000
No Artificial Ingredients in Diet - No
115 to 135 g of Protein - Yes, 117g
Weight of 77 kg, 8% Body Fat - 70.7 kg, 12% Body Fat
Practice Singing - Yes

 Still learning,
~L 

Day 19: Evaluation 2

Though I have stumbled more than I have moved forward with this venture so far, I am sufficiently happy with how thoroughly my head is in the game now that I feel it's time to make things concrete again. The first thing worth addressing is that lately, I have entirely neglected to take accounts of my progress towards certain goals. That was a critical oversight, and one I will do my very best not to repeat from tomorrow onward. An accountability journal is of little value without the accounts.

So, to begin, my schedule. If there is one thing my own experiences have taught me, it is that having a schedule of some sort, even if it's relatively open-ended, is crucial to building the habit of productivity. Being able to set aside time utterly removed from distraction to focus on one task has always worked far better for me than attempting to multitask my day away. However, planning the schedule can sometimes be daunting. For me, the first hurdle I had to overcome was saturating myself with mentally demanding activity after mentally demanding activity out of a well-intended but misapplied desire to learn and do as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

Once you've come to some realistic conclusions about what you can handle for starters, planning a schedule can be made easier by accounting for certain inevitabilities: sleep, work, eating, hygienic routines. For me, the sleep issue is one that has vexed for some time. I tend to function best with 5-6 hours of sleep, taken in two or three blocks, usually during dawn/daylight hours. The periods in my life during which I adhered to such unorthodox sleep patterns, I had a surfeit of energy and focus, my imagination was vivid and my mood stable. However, the fact that the rest of the world largely obeys standard circadian rhythms means that I have to adapt so that the bulk of my sleep takes place during the 21:00 to 07:00 block that is very widely regarded as acceptable sleeping time.

Now, work. For me, of course, this has two definitions: writing and freelance commissions. The former is, thankfully, something which can done at any time of day I so desire. Theoretically, the same could be said for freelance work, except that much of that work involves client interactions, so it's fairly convenient to plan putting myself in that frame-of-mind when I am most likely to deal with these people--and when I'm most likely to be working with my students. This time investment, then, can be pinned down to somewhere between 16:00 and 22:00, when people are off work, out of classes and still awake.

Now eating and hygiene as 'inevitabilities' are a bit harder to use as parts of your daily framework, because there's not really anything stopping a person from slotting those two elements of their day in anywhere. These, and much of the rest of my day, however, can be made easier to determine if I use a voluntary aspect of my day to anchor things: exercise. That I have fairly well-defined desires from my exercise regimen helps a great deal; I want to be able to use the nearby park with minimal chance for obstruction, I want to get the work out done during the coolest part of the day, I want to carry that satisfied and lively feeling through as much of the day as possible, I want to exercise while thoroughly fasted, and I need a significant chunk of time to be thorough.

So, then, it has to be early in the morning, as this meets all my criteria. But as for exactly HOW much time it takes up--and by extension, where I can fit that in--real precision is hard, and tolerances must be fairly wide. Even so, I can at least make estimates based on the content of my daily exercise.

The one pervasive feature is that every session will begin with mobility and dynamic stretching work (25-35 minutes) and end with static stretching (20-25 minutes), so we already know it will take at least 45-60 minutes. Next, Monday is an endurance day, which means high reps with brief rests between sets. To hit everything sufficiently, the routine would likely end up being 35-45 minutes. So, taken as a whole, my Monday routine would require 80-105 minutes. My Wednesday routine, with its lengthy waits between sets, would be about 95-100 minutes, or 140-160 minutes with stretching factored in. Friday's routine would be between 35 and 40 minutes, putting the total at 80-100 minutes.

Now, conveniently, the park is officially opened at 08:00 each morning, so I can be reasonably assured of peace and solitude if I finish my routine before that time, and given that it's helpful to maintain a steady wake time day to day, I don't want to simply sleep in by varying degrees to take advantage of that set end point. Instead, I can calibrate my waking time according to the exercise routine which takes the most time: 160 minutes before 08:00 is 05:20. I can be certain to arrive at the park at or before this time if I wake, change and leave the house at 05:00, so let's have that be my waking time and say 5:15 is my target start time, just to be safe.

I can also use this to determine certain things about my 'movement' day routines. See, while the 'movement' work itself is relatively fluid, my running training is going to follow a defined progression. At its most time-consuming, a full session would take roughly 60 minutes, which ends up being 105-120 when all the stretching is accounted for. Since the 'exercise' time slot each day would be 165 minutes long (05:15 to 08:00), I can allow for 45-60 minutes of pure 'movement' work. Similarly, I can allow for 60-85 minutes of it on Mondays and 65-85 minutes of it on Fridays.

So, okay, sweet, we have the earliest part of my day set in stone:

05:00-05:15 - Wake and prepare for exercise
05:15-08:00 - Exercise

Now, in the previous incarnation of my schedule, the next block of time was for showering and eating, but my fasting until the afternoon makes the latter a non-issue. Even so, the block of time can remain the same to allow for a leisurely shower and any time required for post-shower grooming. Lock in one more time slot.

05:00-05:15 - Wake and prepare for exercise
05:15-08:00 - Exercise
08:00-08:30 - Shower

While I'm feeling the vitality of having just exercised and cleansed myself, I want to channel my best energy and effort into my writing, so following up all that with writing-related work is only logical. First, one hour will be spent on planning and preparatory work, which always helps me greatly. Then, the remaining time until my brief mid-day nap will be spent on actual writing. The nap should end at a late-ish lunch time, when it is suitable for me to break my fast. So, this is fairly easy to figure out.

05:00-05:15 - Wake and prepare
05:15-08:00 - Exercise
08:00-08:30 - Shower
08:30-09:30 - Planning
09:30-12:00 - Writing
12:00-14:00 - Nap
14:00-14:30 - Eat

Of course, this still leaves me with some time before the ideal freelancer hours, and having only turned out 2.5 hours of writing in the day at this point, my goal of 5,000 words per day would be a strain. Having napped and fed myself well, I would be well-positioned to start into another batch of writing. Another meal would be well-positioned right around the end of that.

05:00-05:15 - Wake and prepare

05:15-08:00 - Exercise
08:00-08:30 - Shower
08:30-09:30 - Planning
09:30-12:00 - Writing
12:00-14:00 - Nap
14:00-14:30 - Eat
14:30-16:30 - Writing
16:30-17:00 - Eat

To make ends meet through my freelance efforts at the moment, my daily commitment needs to sit at four hours. Ouch! After this is the last eating period of my day.

05:00-05:15 - Wake and prepare

05:15-08:00 - Exercise
08:00-08:30 - Shower
08:30-09:30 - Planning
09:30-12:00 - Writing
12:00-14:00 - Nap
14:00-14:30 - Eat
14:30-16:30 - Writing
16:30-17:00 - Eat
17:00-21:00 - Freelance
21:00-21:30 - Eat

So that takes care of all my waking obligations. Getting sufficient sleep for my own needs with a wake-up time of 05:00 means throwing in the towel for the day at 00:30, which in turn means 00:00 to 00:30 is best spent reading, which both pleases and relaxes me. All that intervening time, then, is my free time.

05:00-05:15 - Wake and prepare

05:15-08:00 - Exercise
08:00-08:30 - Shower
08:30-09:30 - Planning
09:30-12:00 - Writing
12:00-14:00 - Nap
14:00-14:30 - Eat
14:30-16:30 - Writing
16:30-17:00 - Eat
17:00-21:00 - Freelance
21:00-21:30 - Eat
21:30-00:00 - Free Time
00:00-00:30 - Reading
00:30-05:00 - Sleep

At the moment, then, I'm sitting on 2.5 hours of time each weekday which is not already invested. There are, of course, temporary circumstantial time consumers, as well as outright inefficiencies. As my flexibility, technique and strength improve, I will require less stretching and be able to work more muscles with fewer individual exercises--by my estimate, I could bring my longest exercise routine under two hours. As I re-adjust to my biphasic sleep pattern, the total volume of sleep required will shrink. As I regain my momentum with writing, turning out my desired volume of quality material day-to-day will take less time. As my income from writing increases, my time spent freelancing will shrink.

It seems pretty daunting, the timing very tight at the moment, but there's so much potential for growth. It's exciting. I'm going to make this a good week.

Still learning,
~L

Day 18: Eat A Sandwich and Other Thoughts

It's not Sunday evening, so it's technically not time for me to do a weekly evaluation, but I created this with the intention of getting some things off my mind as they came to me. I'll start with the immediate concern to which I made a titular reference: I am losing weight.

Of course, the standard reply to this complaint is "You suck," "You're so lucky," "What a nice problem to have." I weary of hearing those sorts of response, because at the end of the day, gaining healthy weight while maintaining steady exercise to build one's overall fitness is every bit as complex and difficult a venture as shedding pounds wisely. Just because one problem is more common does not detract from the fact that the other problem's health and aesthetic consequences are just as real. Furthermore, when I find myself losing weight while on a diet that is carefully monitored to minimize intake of detrimental substances . . . it means my food bill is going to increase, and likely significantly, as I cannot just pile on many of the standard sources of cheap calories to solve my problems.

To meet my current objectives, I would guess that I need to aim for between 3000 and 3200 calories/day, between 115 and 135 g of protein/day and 150 g to 200 g carbohydrates/day. Oversimplifying the whole process, we'll just say that proteins and carbs being worth 4 calories to the gram, that accounts for up to 1340 of my calories, leaving me with between 1660 and 1860 calories to get from, well, fats. I'm also going to make more of an effort to round out my micronutrient intake--in particular, I seem to be lacking on the zinc, selenium, folate, vitamin E and vitamin D fronts.

The second matter to occupy my mind this evening is one which I have mentioned before: the matter of how much time it takes me to get my exercise routine squared away. Now, there are some factors here that cannot be circumvented: I want to build strength with minimal size gains, so extended rests between sets are mandatory on my 'strength day.' I also want to build flexibility and reduce risk of injury, so that means a mobility and flexibility routine preceding and following each workout session is unavoidable.

There are, however, factors that can be altered. The time savings most readily within my reach are those to be had on the flexibility front. The flexibility I've started with is poor, though my bodyweight work up to this point has improved it from the truly abysmal state it was in prior. Right now, my dynamic stretching routine takes roughly 35 minutes to get through because A) I'm doing high reps for three sets to build my flexibility, and B) I'm still so unaccustomed to regular stretching that I have to rest longer than I'd like between sets of stretches. That second problem will fall away with two or three more weeks of regular stretching, I hope, while reaching levels of flexibility with which I'm satisfied will allow me to cut down on stretching volume somewhat, to maintenance levels. From what I have read, it looks like I can cut that stretch time down to 15 minutes or so when I reach that point.

Looking ahead to the further future, the concept I touched on many entries ago of building an exercise routine that rolled muscle groups together as much as possible to cut down on the need for separate sets is one I aspire to. Of course, it will require building up the requisite strength and skill for these much more advanced exercises, and 'movement' days are partially intended to facilitate the technical/balance aspects. My main concern is, of course, with my pure strength routine, which presently takes over 90 minutes (stretching not included) because of the waits between sets. My current concept of the 'ideal' format would be like so:

Handstand Press - 4 Sets   (Shoulders, Triceps, Forearms, Core, Back, Legs)
Front Lever Muscle Up - 4 Sets (Back, Biceps, Triceps, Chest, Core, Forearms, Legs)
Planche Pushup - 4 Sets (Chest, Triceps, Core, Back, Forearms, Legs)
Pistol Squats(*) - 4 Sets (Legs, Core)

*I already know at this point that Pistol Squats will not last as a raw strength-builder forever, even if the point when that happens is yet quite distant, but I do not know what the alternative will be. I have some ideas, but that may end up being something that I experiment with on movement days, quite some time in the future.

That would reduce the whole thing down to a roughly 55-minute affair, of which only 48 would be spent waiting. Narrowing it down this much gives me a fairly clear focus.

The third and final thing I've been thinking about is putting some actual concentrated effort into memory training . . . but I'll leave that at that for now, because I'm not sure how I'm going to go about it yet.

Whee.

Still learning,
~L 

Day 17: Real and Fake Motivation

My sister is visiting from out of town today, and we spent much of the evening bowling and playing billiards. Now, my exposure to either of these could readily be classified as 'minimal,' but even relative to many people I've seen who play either game as infrequently as I, my performances are routinely abominable. While failing to put up anything resembling a decent contest, I found myself trying to commit to my turns the same mental energy and concentration I do to most things I choose to have in my life. I found myself dissecting the mechanics of both games and contemplating how much practice I could routinely get to ingrain the execution of these concepts into muscle memory, how far I could take my abilities.

Then, I walked away from the games, and those thoughts immediately evaporated. I have always been the sort where, once something catches my interest, it haunts me; in this case, petty as it was, I only cared about giving over any effort to the game as far as not losing in the moment, and even that was half-hearted at best. I also found myself making excuses in my head for my poor performance, though I had the good sense to keep them to myself until I'd quashed them.

Such motivation is fake, having no bearing on my actual happiness, and it's a part of my egotistical side that needs to die so that I can have the time and energy to focus on the things I actually care about. Instructive!

Still learning,
~L

Day 16: Inspiration; on K. J. Parker

I thought it might be a good idea to write a bit about someone who has been a significant inspiration to me in recent years: K. J. Parker. This author, responsible for such novels as Evil for Evil, The Proof House and The Folding Knife, is something of an enigma. Little is known of Parker's true identity; even gender is a mystery. But while that's lovely speculation fuel, I care about Parker because of what she has written. In particular, The Engineer Trilogy (Devices and Desires, Evil for Evil, The Escapement) stands as one of my favorite bodies of modern fiction, telling the tragic tale of a man, sentenced to death for a petty crime, who escapes and sets a war in motion just to be reunited with his wife and daughter.

There's a lot to love about these books. The setting is well developed, the plot is engaging, the characters widely varied and thoroughly human, and the whole thing is wrapped up in expertly-crafted prose. Finally, there is a remarkable consistency across the three novels--Parker has no doubts about what sort of narrative voice he/she wants to have, and at a more abstract level, one gets the sense that every moment that the reader is shown is not only carefully chosen, but also very deliberately matched to the perspective that gives a scene the most impact. I struggle fiercely with my desire to reveal choice tidbits as my instincts tell me to settle down, recommend the books and let you discover it on your own, but I think I can illustrate my point effectively with an example that doesn't require quite so much in the way of specifics.

There is a scene about two fifths of the way into the first book in which an official of the country that sentenced the (arguably) main character to death is sifting through the man's former belongings, and comes across a book of poetry he wrote himself. He finds the whole thing amusingly bad, and the following wry observation is made:

Psellus rested the book on his desk. So what? Right across the known world, in every country with some measure of literacy, there were millions of otherwise sane, harmless people who were guilty of poetry.

 'Guilty of poetry' cracks me up every time, but this flippancy is not merely to show that a character or the author have a cutting wit (no need to flaunt what is naturally evident in the book as a whole). No, it's a very wise decision in service of a point. If the man who had written said poetry had recalled it, it would have lent the scene a great tenderness in the best case, and a sort of maudlin sentimentality at worst. Instead, seen and criticized through the eyes of a man part of the inescapable political machinery of the world, it becomes a victim of the tragic inertia of a society that treats people like parts and worships the idea of its own perfection. It emphasizes why the sort of man who would write such poems ends up feeling compelled to sacrifices so many lives to oppose the order of a society that had defined his whole world.

I have much to learn from re-reading these books, as I have been doing lately, and I hope to greatly improve my own writing thereby.

Still learning,
~L

Day 15: Foundations

I'm content with how today went, in terms of getting things back in order. I successfully engineered my sleep schedule into something much closer to the shape it used to have--a brief sleep at night followed by a nap at midday. I had a thought on that subject, but I'll get back to that after I finish patting myself on the back. I acquitted myself satisfactorily with my workout this morning, and did not succumb to the temptation to abridge my planned three-minute waits between sets. I kept reminding myself at every turn that I am interested only in functional gains, and I'll let the necessary mass development to facilitate those gains take place, but will indeed avoid anything that will explicitly encourage such growth.

I got a decent amount of work done: not quite as much as I would have liked, but certainly I felt that I had achieved more today than most recent days. I do feel guilty that this blog is boring for its lack of substance, but I hope to fix that very soon with regular updates about cool stuff.

Before I knock off to sleep, let me talk about sleep. While it's certainly true that I have always felt better with less sleep than the recommended amount (between 5 and 6 hours) and that I flourish when that time is broken up into a main sleep and a nap, the troublesome thing about structuring a day around freelance work--and therefore by necessity around the patterns of the average person--is that it conflicts with what my body has always naturally tended towards. If left to my own devices, my sleep schedule will usually drift to a point where I'm going to bed at 06:00, rising between 10:00 and 10:30, and napping from 17:30 to 19:00. It takes considerable effort to push my sleep patterns more into line with the standard circadian rhythm, and even once it is habituated to, unless I keep an alarm set, the slightest problem could cause it all to fall apart, and for me to feel miserably lethargic and addled after waking.

Not that it's particularly feasible at this point in my life, but I do find myself wondering if it might not be a logical choice to allow my sleep to fall into its natural pattern in the future, when my time is strictly my own and my writing is my sole source of income. I do miss that pattern; it made me feel energetic, yet relaxed, and was great for concentration. Ah well, we shall see.

Still learning,
~L

Day 14: Breaking Bad (Form)

I've already blabbed about bad habits that prevent or stymy productivity, but honestly, one of the really fascinating things that you learn about yourself when you take a step back and examine the necessary steps to your goal is the way little imperfections make themselves evident. In fact, as much as the whole of the self-teaching process really excites me, I think it is this element of re-examination, deconstruction and refinement which most motivates me.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's the artistic impulse in me--particularly the part that adores the history and critical theory--that makes it so. Of course, the arts and culture in general tend to undergo periods of dramatic overthrow, where a radical challenge is posed to the status quo and things can never be the same, and these are the turning points most people remember. Fair enough, but to me, the immediate results of that shift are only very rarely the greatest exponents; no, those tend to come from the series of subsequent dialogues which examine the new paradigm, respecting it enough to believe it can withstand having bits taken apart and rearranged.

Though I'm tempted to talk about visual art, architecture and literature here, I imagine the example of contemporary music is more likely to hit a resonant note (hur hur) with my (non-existent) readership. So, then, consider punk rock. Depending on who you ask, they're most likely to tell you that the heyday of punk rock ran from the late 60s to the mid 70s (The Stooges, The Ramones, The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers) or from the late 70s to the mid 80s (Misfits, Black Flag, Minutemen, The Replacements). However, the earliest stirrings of what would become punk lay at the very end of the 50s and start of the 60s, with the formation of The Kingsmen in 1959 and of The Sonics in 1960. Later joined by MC5, The Velvet Underground and others, these bands would infuse a rawness, aggression and minimalist ethos into rock n' roll which laid the foundations for a genre that now has diverse subclassifications, has fused with every from blues to ska to metal to folk, and speaks very powerfully to millions. But though I love the great 'protopunk' bands of yore, and would consider The Sonics among my favorites, I do not think I would consider them the best punk bands.

They are seminal, and entirely necessary in the evolution of punk as we know it, but it is the examination, appropriation and experimentation that followed over the decades that have yielded not only the most beloved punk bands, but all the driving indie post-punk and garage revival stuff that has been taking the world by storm since the 80s. These things are refinements of the revolution, equipped to express certain ideas with a power and precision that their forebears were not.

Similarly, when one is striving to build one's self, some lifestyle changes are dramatic and momentous--committing to regular exercise and dietary control strike me as two examples in my case--and some are more minute. While starting one's pursuit of a goal is arguably the 'most important' step, if you do not stop every now and then to question and evaluate your progress, if you're not willing to tear it down sometimes, you'll likely find that the skill you have developed poorly will need to be unlearned in order to actually let you progress to the next stage.

Finally, and just as importantly, these adjustments are tangible progress, complete with the assurance that you are actually able to improve yourself with concentration, effort and savvy. Never underestimate the value of that psychological component.

Still learning,
~L

Day 13: What Is This I Don't Even

Little by little, the imaginative machinery is starting to pick up steam again. I've been reading books in my leisure time as often as I used to, and the effect on my mental acuity and staying power is salutary. I am reclaiming that precious tool of the artist: concentration. I am starting to remember, revive and rebuild story concepts, and the results are edifying so far.

I did, however, somehow manage to hurt my neck while holding a one-arm plank. Considering I didn't fall or make any sudden movements, I'm not really clear on how that's possible, but okay!

I managed to secure a new client for my freelance work today, and the extra source of income is lovely. My first priority item is a new SSD to replace the crashtastic one my desktop currently uses. Switching to the laptop is no longer as safe an option as I had hoped--it has been acting up on occasion lately, as well. Besides, having to pause every so often while the computer decides if it wants to die or not is not exactly helpful with the whole 'focus' aspect of this grand undertaking.

I'm doing well hitting most of my nutritional goals day to day, though my eating is still spread out too much. I keep brushing up against the limit of my 8-hour eating window. Part of the problem is that I've not been getting all of my cooking done each Sunday, which means I have to take some time every day to cook, so I put that off until I'm comfortable with how much work I've gotten done. This, in turn, leads to a restlessness problem where, when I get the urge to do a little exercise late in the evenings (which happens every evening) I have to keep putting it off because my stomach is full. If I could condense my needs down into two big meals, perhaps, it would make things easier. Extending the fasting period by shrinking the eating period would also make the fasting a bit more effective.

If I seem a bit scatter-brained at the moment, it's because I'm itching to do a little more writing-related work.

So, I will.

Still learning,
~L

Day 12: Signs of Movement

This week, I'm going to be undertaking a fairly drastic reform of my exercise regimen, in the name of movement. Certainly, every exercise one does constitutes a movement, and bodyweight exercises already tend to involve a fair sight more balance, coordination and mobility than weightlifting, but I'm talking about something a bit more fundamental. Challenging the body to produce fluid movements from changing positions in changing circumstances. If it sounds vague, that's because this is all relatively grey to me, as well, and I'll be coming at it with a mindset of experimentation.

I do have certain defined skills I'll be working on, but I'll also be spending my Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays just fiddling around with whatever motions come to mind and seeing how I might benefit from them.

Otherwise, my list of goals to work towards remains the same for this week. I need to really pin down those initial objectives before I bother myself with others. To heap another pursuit on my plate when I'm still too scatterbrained to face what I've got would just be looking down on these endeavors.

Still learning,
~L

Day 11: On Clutter and Other Maladies

A large part of the reason I have taken up this journal was to humble myself. Looking back at the fairly dramatic flourish I began with and comparing it to the sporadic (at best) updating it has received since, I can certainly say I feel humbled by that. Of course, it's only humbling instead of humiliating if one makes the effort to learn from it. I gave it some thought while on my walk today, and a few things came to mind.

1) I have allowed my life to become very cluttered.
2) I have developed the habit of talking too much and writing too little.
3) I have not been giving journalism its due respect as a form of writing.
4) I procrastinate on updating this because I hate the idea of not having anything to say.

Let's unpack that item by item.

First off, 'clutter' might seem an odd thing to say, given the positively ponderous list of goals this whole journal is based around helping me toward. But 'clutter' in this case means specifically those things which take up time and energy in my day but only distract from the things I really want. In my case, clutter comes in the form of menial busy-work and 'fun' distractions. The busy-work is obvious: cleaning, laundry, organizing things. That last one is probably the single biggest culprit, especially given the fairly Byzantine structure my data storage has taken on. With inevitable tasks like cleaning and laundry, the answer is simply to be diligent about getting those tasks done at a given day within a given time every week. Sunday is a lovely day for that purpose, and is also where--as my posted schedule dictates--I can get all my cooking done for the week up front, sparing me having to spend any serious time on it during the week.

Organization, on the other hand, will simply require moment-to-moment thoughtfulness. At some point soon, I will need to dedicate some time to improving the manner in which I organize my data, and I'll also need to start paying more attention to where things get saved or downloaded to. Managing these things as they come will spare me having to devote marathon sessions to sorting them, often pausing to figure out what in the world a given document or bookmarked website is about because I haven't so much as glanced at it in months.

This brings us back to the 'fun' distractions, which I put in quotation marks for a reason. These distractions are never actually fun for me. Some people have vacuous television that, for lack of concentration or motivation, they find themselves watching for a time, but when they walk away from it, they realize none of it stuck with them, or mattered to them at all: I have vacuous reading, for the most part. It is mildly entertaining and requires little-to-no effort on my part, but ultimately is never half as satisfying as actually getting something I care about done.

Second, talking too much and writing too little. I felt it was appropriate to combine these two, because in the course of my life, I think they have always been linked. I was at my most productive when I was at my least talkative. When I was a teenager, I rarely engaged a conversation I did not find mentally stimulating, and when I was in such a situation, I tended to keep quiet and let the other person speak while I thought. As I became more gregarious in my late adolescence, I forced myself to become adept at conversation, but found my time for solitude and reflection diminishing. Worst still, I had worked so hard to drag myself out of my shell and be social that when I had good opportunities to reflect and write and brood, I reflexively refused to. There is no doubt in my mind that my productivity and imagination as an artist has faltered for it, and my demeanor and patience have also suffered. I will not consider the shift a total loss, for I have acquired certain social graces and insights that are of great use in some circumstances, but I need to cut down on social trivialities. I'm more skilled as a writer than as a speaker, at any rate.

Thirdly, this journal has suffered because I have disrespected the art of journal-keeping. To maintain a journal that offers real insight beyond simple lists of daily activities requires just as much focus and drive as writing fiction or essay, and to make it enjoyable for others to read requires great verbal acuity. I've been humbled a great deal recently in the realm of writing by recent experimental efforts I've made to write in ways and areas I've not done before. I feel confident in my prose-craft, though I certainly wish to inject something new into it, but my writing outside the fictional sphere lacks the polish of my writing within it.

Fourth and finally, when, on a day to day basis, I have faltered and failed and idled, I sit and stare at this journal thinking, "Oh no, I'd have to start making things up to have anything worthwhile to say." I will not fret over this longer than to say that the solution here? Actually DO the things I have committed to, so that every day is a day worth writing about. Mind-blowing concept, right!?

Regular updates begin tomorrow, at a scheduled time.

Still learning,
~L

Day 10: No Rest For Those With Old Mattresses

Over the last two weeks, I have definitely noticed the quality of my sleep declining; at this point, I feel confident that the problem is with my mattress, as the title suggests. I'm not sure what would have changed to make things get worse so suddenly, but I have had my grievances with the mattress for a while. It is on the old side, and like most spring mattresses, has developed its own peculiar array of dips, hills and variations in firmness over the years.

But lately, I wake with far less energy than usual, often wishing simply to roll over and claim enough sleep to compensate. This has led to more than a few unusually late mornings, and those spent somewhat listlessly. I struggle to focus and be productive. Where I am usually quite able for 18 to 19 hours in a given day, I have found myself weary after only 15. My nutrition steadily improves, exercise has made my body stronger, and I am comparatively free of stress, so I'm inclined to rule out those factors. However, regardless of how I feel when I go to sleep, I wake with stiffness and soreness in my neck, shoulders and back. So, yeah. Hopefully I can set aside some money for a new mattress relatively soon.

In addition, my desktop's drive is doing its level best to die on me before the replacement part I desire is in stock. You will also notice that this blog, when I do update it, which is not regularly enough, is being updated in a somewhat token fashion. This really isn't the great start I had hoped for with this sort of undertaking, and saying that this kind of laxity and inconsistency speaks to the need for this blog to exist seems almost insultingly flippant. Tomorrow, crappy mattress or not, I will adhere to the schedule I have set for myself, including updating this when I've said I would, with the attention it merits.

Still learning,
~L

Day 9: Oops

So, about how "Day 9" is eleven days after "Day 8," can anyone remind me how that math works? Oh, it doesn't. Cool, that's cool. No excuses: not keeping this thing up is disgraceful, as it doesn't take very long to write these entries at all.

That being said, I've made some good progress in a few areas. My diet's taking on more of a favorable shape, and I've been keeping up with my fasting plan pretty well--fasting intervals have ranged from a minimum of 15 hours to a maximum of 19 hours. Honestly, at this point, the trick is proving to be in eating a sufficient amount in that time-frame. Having prepared a number of meals beforehand is helping, but I'm taking too much time between meals, meaning that I end up only 2/3 of the way to my caloric needs for the day when evening--the time of my day when I am most likely to have obligations to attend to--rolls around, and often makes eating an untenable option.

Obviously, the longer my fasting period, the shorter my eating period and the harder it gets to stuff my face enough in the time available to me. That is why I need to normalize at around 16 hours; it triggers the ketogenic state I'm looking for and gives it some time to ride, but also leaves me 8 hours in which to get the calories I need each day. Even then, though, it's hard to approach that volume without constantly eating during that period--on heavy exercise days, I'm looking at 3000 calories, and on lighter days, I'm looking at 2600.

Exercise has been going well, but grip strength is proving a significant-enough bottleneck that I've made adjustments to put more emphasis on building it up. You'd best believe things are getting gripped up in here, in this house. This heezy. Oh yes.

Work has been a bit of a Charlie Foxtrot. More on that tomorrow. Sleep is in the now-time.

Still learning,
~L

Day 8: Evaluation 1

Blargh, I neglected to update this bad-boy in two days. That being said, even though I missed my Sunday re-evaluation date, amidst my freelance-related work, I found some time to block out some of my goals more explicitly and figure out what needs to be done to achieve them.

Exercise Goals
Until this week, my regimen was three days per week, beginning with a very generalized workout plan that I did every day, later evolving into a three way split in which Monday was endurance training, Wednesday was strength, and Friday was explosive power. Starting with this week, that has been modified to six days per week. Those previously mentioned days remain my 'heavy' exercise days, but now Tuesday is a lighter-load power day, Thursday a lighter endurance day and Saturday a lighter strength day.

In addition, on these lighter days, I'll be throwing in some general skill work starting next week, since I have some time left in the 'exercise' time slot. Tuesday and Thursday will be focused, for the time being, on sprinting, with an ultimate goal of being able to run an aggressive 1.5 km. On Saturdays I'll work on technique-specific training for the handstand, the planche, the pistol squat, front lever and one-armed push-up.

My approach to the sprints will be focused on building sheer explosive speed first, then working on sustaining it over distances as I reached particular speed milestones. As my running progresses, I'd subdivide the workload between a speed day and an endurance day. That would look something like this:

Phase 1: 10 runs of 50 meters (Target = 6.2 s)

Phase 2: Tuesday - 10 runs of 50 meters
Thursday - 8 runs of 100 meters (Target = 11 s)

Phase 3: Tuesday - 8 runs of 100 meters
Thursday - 6 runs of 200 meters, (Target = 22.5 s)

Phase 4: Tuesday - 8 runs of 100 meters
Thursday - 4 runs of 400 meters, (Target = 56 s)

Phase 5: Tuesday - 8 runs of 100 meters
Thursday - 3 runs of 800 meters (Target = 1:58)

Phase 6: Tuesday - 8 runs of 100 meters
Thursday - 2 runs of 1500 kilometer (Target = 4:25)

I expect this progression to take me quite some time. Similarly, I know what sort of work I want to do on my 'feats of strength' on Saturday.

Handstand: Wall-Assisted Handstand Holds (60s) => One-Leg Free Handstand Holds (60 s) => Freestanding Handstand Hold (60s) => Handstand Press (20 reps) => Fingertip Handstand Press (20 reps) => One-Arm Handstand Hold (15s)

Planche: Frog Stand (60s) => Advanced Frog Stand (60s) => Tuck Planche (60s) => Advanced Tuck Planche (60s) => Straddle Planche (60s) => Planche (60s) => Planche Ups (20 reps) => Fingertip Planche Press (20 reps) => One-Arm Planche (15s)

Pistol Squat: Two Arm Assisted Pistol Squat (10 reps) => One Arm Assisted Pistol Squat (10 reps) => Pistol Squat (10 reps) => Jumping Pistol Squat (10 reps) => Reclined Pistol Squat (5 reps)

Front Lever: Tuck Lever (60s) => Advanced Tuck Lever (60s) => Straddle Front Lever (60s) => Front Lever (60s) => Front Lever Pull Ups (15 reps) => 1-Arm Front Lever (60s) => 1-Arm Front Lever Pull Ups (5 reps)

One-Armed Pushup: One-Arm Wide-Feet Plank (60s) => One-Arm Close-Feet Plank (60s) => One-Arm Plank, Feet Together (60s) => One-Arm Pushup (15 reps) => One-Arm Fingertip Pushup (5 reps)

Again, this stuff will take a while, but will thankfully be supplemented by my primary exercise routine. Acquiring these skills isn't a matter of show, but it's also true that I have a secondary motive beyond my fitness goals, which is efficiency. For example, incorporating the handstand press, planche up and front-lever pull-up puts enough focus on my core stability across those motions that I could justifiably cut my exclusively core-focused work, while achieving a single-arm push-up allows me to blitz my triceps without the need for often rather unnatural isometrics.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy bodyweight exercises; they're definitely a lot more fun than anything iron-oriented to me. I'd still like to get the most bang for my buck though, and currently my heavy strength day (Wednesday) comprises a ~90 minute routine before you factor in the mobility/stretching work. Take a look, bearing in mind that for strength gain with minimized size gain, there is a 3-minute rest between sets.

Pike Press x 4 x 4

Pull Up x 2 x 4

Chin Up x 2 x 4

Push Ups (Narrow) x 4 x 4

Tiger Claw Hold (Knees Far) x 2

Plank (High) x 3

Side Plank (High) x 2 per side

Split Squats x 4 x 4

 So in total, I'm counting 87 minutes of rest. Each plank set is also 60 seconds long, so even before we add up the time for the actual sets, we're looking at 92 minutes. Ouch! Adding in my pre-work-out stretching and my post-workout stretching, that bumps us up to about 2 hours, 15 minutes. Long-term, I'd love to get it looking like this:

Handstand Press x 4 x 4

One Arm Front Lever Muscle Up x 4 x 4

Tiger Claw Planche Ups x 4 x 4

Human Flag x 2

Reclined Pistol Squats x 4 x 4

That is, of course, a long way away for me, but a routine like that would hit everything brutally hard in ~60 minutes. With sufficient strength in the right places, I could even combine the planche ups and handstand press, cutting the time down to more like ~45 minutes.

Man, that turned into quite a lengthy diversion. Anyway!

Dietary Goals
So far, I haven't had any problem getting the amount of protein I want in a day, but I continue to succumb to the temptation of artificial, carb-loaded garbage (read: soda), which is holding me back in a variety of ways. It's keeping me from getting more useful calories, the kind that come with micronutrients. It's also causing the thin-but-present layer of excess fat around my core and glutes to remain, rather stubbornly.

I've also observed a recent change in my eating behavior, which is an increasing tendency toward eating earlier in the day--around 10:00. It used to be unheard of for me to eat before 13:00, having last eaten around 20:00 the previous night. I have also pushed my snacking later and later, to the point that I now often eat as late at 01:00 in the morning. The end result is that whereas I once was unwittingly intermittently fasting day to day and inducing a fat-burning state, I am now almost perpetually locked in a satiated state.

My diet in general is actually decent, though there are certainly improvements to be made, but simply starting with cutting out the soda entirely and returning to my original fast-like pattern will help a great deal. The next step--being the cheapest dietary improvement I could make--would be to start drinking my protein shakes on a daily basis. I'll need to revise my schedule a bit to reflect this pattern, but I feel confident it's a sound investment of effort.

As far as the actual weight/body fat measurements are concerned, I need to get my hands on an electronic scale that can measure the latter.

Career Goals
This past week has seen me doing very little writing, focusing instead on something more immediately pressing in my freelance career that, when finalized, should actually open up a fair bit of my time on a weekly basis, and allow me to put most of my mental energy where it belongs; in my writing.

Prior to that priority shift, my principle was simply to 'write more today than yesterday' to approach the goal of 5,000 words per day. Tomorrow, I'll resume that process.

As far as the singing is concerned, I've made efforts at the practice routine, but my allergies have made a point of being especially nasty, meaning my results on breathing exercises were less than stellar. I'm dissatisfied enough to not want to count the attempts.

Overall
I'm still trying to get my general situation aligned with this more concrete pursuit of goals, so for this week, so I'm only going to add the 'feats of strength' goals at this time. Expect the first reports on that tomorrow.

Still learning,
~L