Weekly review: Week ending July 31, 2011

Posted on July 31st, 2011 by Sacha Chua

I thought I’d feel guilty about being on holiday while other people on my team – clients and IBMers in the US – are working, but it’s been a weekend well spent, and the Civic Day holiday will be a much-welcome transition period (plus a chance for more awesomeness).

In addition to taking care of our usual chores, we spent Saturday volunteering at Free Geek Toronto. The idea behind Free Geek Toronto is simple: help people learn computer skills and reduce electronic waste by refurbishing or recycling old computers, which can then be sold at a low cost or donated. They really need people to teach classes on how to build computers, so W- and I will start a series of classes next week.

Sunday was a kitchen sort of day. We took the pots and food containers out of the cabinets, separating them into keep-donate-repurpose piles. We reorganized the salad fixings and the spices. We emptied the chest freezer and the fridge freezer, separating different kinds of items using cloth and plastic bags: vegetables in the green bag, meat in the red, and so on. Then a big batch of cooking: two roast chickens stuffed with couscous for lunches throughout the next few weeks, stir-fried rice to use up leftovers. I’ll try scalloped potatoes and oatmeal cookies again sometime – more practice needed. Now we’re staying up late for baked beans, which will finish cooking at around 2.

Tired, but it’s a great sort of tired.

Plans from last week

Work
- [X] Get Project M ready for user testing
- [X] Work on scoping project T
- Bounced around ideas for an IBM comic
- Put together update for my manager

Relationships
- [X] Help people connect with each other regarding Manila Zoo
- Volunteered with W- at Free Geek Toronto
- Worked on cleaning up kitchen
- Attended Quantified Self meetup

Life
- [X] Practise piano – 30-60 minutes daily
- Got back into the swing of drawing – sketchnotes, drawing for fun

Plans for next week

Work
- [ ] Send mid-year update to manager
- [ ] Work on Project M issues/requests

Relationships
- [ ] Work on Latin – 30 minutes daily
- [ ] Help J- with piano

Life
- [ ] Practise piano – 30 minutes daily
- [ ] Draw – also 30 minutes daily
- [ ] Track a complete week of time

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