Monthly review: October 2015

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What a month for learning and making. =)

I think I’m starting to get the hang of asynchronous programming using the Q library for Javascript, with its ability to defer execution and pass values along. After I sorted out the mistakes I made while coding – such as returning the deferred object instead of the promise, or doing a convoluted promise instead of using q(…) to simplify handling either return values or promises – things made sense.

I used d3 to sketch one of the little visualizations I’ve been thinking about doing for my consulting client for a while now. It was well-received. I should get back to it and make it interactive.

Also, tech-wise: nudged by John Wiegley, I’ve started summarizing new Emacs-related resources from planet.emacsen.org, reddit.com/r/emacs, and Youtube.

I’ve been getting my business papers together in preparation for another tax return, and my notes from last year have been helpful. I’ve added more notes, so maybe next year will be even easier. The more I write down, the better things are for my future self. =)

In terms of sewing, I’ve gotten a bit more comfortable with the mathematics and programming involved in creating parametric sewing patterns using the Python framework I started playing around with some time ago. I’ve also moved into the mass production phase for some of the projects I’ve been working – well, not really mass production, but quite a few multiples of patterns that look like they’ll work out nicely.

Slow and steady progress through the Latin textbooks. I’m starting to get the hang of the first to third declensions, I think, and some of the types of verbs as well. It’s amusing to discover these little things about the phrases we’re so familiar with. In caveat emptor, caveat is the subjuctive of caveo (beware), so caveat is “let him/her/it beware”. Cave – from cave canem – is the imperative, “Beware!” Little things. =)

We cleared out the garden and got it ready for winter. The irrigation system was very helpful, keeping things surprisingly alive and thriving despite my neglect. We didn’t get as much out of it as we probably could have, but it was nice to have had a few bitter melons, a good supply of peas, and the surprise of a huge bok choy.

Lots of playing Borderlands 2: going through the downloadable content, and trying out a new character. W- and I have settled into a comfortable routine of playing an hour or two (and sometimes more) of Borderlands late at night, and then reading a bit before bed.

It’s been great being able to think clearly again, mostly. It’s probably more likely for me to assume fuzziness rather than clarity as the default. I wonder what I can put into place now so that later will be easier.

Let’s see what November will be like.

Blog posts

Sketches

Time

Category Last month % This month % Avg h per week Delta (h/wk)
Business – Earn 5.9 11.2 19 8.9
Business – Connect 0.5 1.1 2 1.0
Discretionary – Family 2.1 2.6 4 0.8
Personal 19.7 20.0 34 0.5
Business – Build 3.1 3.2 5 0.2
Discretionary – Social 0.4 0 0 -0.7
Discretionary – Productive 11.7 11.2 19 -0.8
Discretionary – Play 8.3 6.9 12 -2.4
Unpaid work 7.8 6.3 11 -2.5
Sleep 40.5 37.4 63 -5.2

A lot more consulting than I expected. The projects were useful and fun, so it was easy to work on that instead of other things. I thought I spent more time cooking and tidying, too, but the numbers don’t agree. Mmm. My time sense is a bit off for month-long spans, even though the days and the weeks make sense. Ah well, that’s why there’s data! =)

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