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