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