Week 2 Review

MARCH 8 - 14

This is my full 2nd week since leaving work (post here: Why Reset?) to chase after personal goals & values. I am finding two things to be true:

1. Creating this site is causing me to step up in my personal accountability to do what I commit each week

2. Despite the above, it is still going to be challenging in a good way to surpass all my goals, some of which are still too foggy in their definition.

   
   

So, we came back from Vegas late Sunday, which left 5 days really to knock out what I had hoped to knock out:

Physical:

Got back into the gym on routine basis. Did get to bench, deadlift and squat this week, along with a shoulder workout. Somewhat weak though on some lifts. My goals for lifting are posted here: Lifting Goals

Logged 10 miles this week, which for runners is nothing -- but for scrubs like me, it is victory. Painfully slow @ 11-12 min/mile pace, but it did get a bit easier during the week. I am shooting for 13 miles next week.

For my diet of no sugar, good on that front. No sugar means no sweets, desserts, sugary soda, etc. I recognize it is nearly impossible to get it all out the diet, as it is in everything. But so far so good. No cheating. Also working to get 85 oz of water/day and reduce packaged foods (things with labels) as much as I can stomach (no pun intended). I read Hyman's detox book, which somewhat inspired this phase.

Spiritual:

Prayer. Every morning starts with prayer and study (even in Vegas which, as a town, is probably no stranger to prayers). I hope my heart each morning has been in the right place as I lift up my prayers. God is good to answer and those answers don't depend on my goodness, but His goodness and grace. Glad that is the case! 1st article on prayer here: My Prayer Closet

Word. Continue to work through Corinthians. The recent thing that has stuck with me is Paul's promise that we often go through affliction and suffering so we can help others who may be going through the same thing. Whether we are suffering or comforted, in Christ -- who dealt with both -- it should be to help others who may be struggling.

Others. A good segue way into helping others. I had the goal of inviting a young man/teen at our church who is living with his grandmother over for some games and a meal, but did not see him Wednesday. I will see him Sunday. Also need to visit a couple who have been dealing with a lot of physical issues, and bring them a meal.

Family:

Spent good time with my brother and his family, as well as my wife Jennifer while in Vegas. For our anniversary on the 16th, I have her favorite band playing as a surprise at a local place they often play. It will be an acoustic session with 3 of the 5, but I know she will be thrilled.

Was able to purge some t-shirts and clothes which had not been worn in some time. Did Marie Kondo say 'If it doesn't excite you, why keep it?'. Not sure excitement in clothes is in my DNA, but there were certainly some things which assuredly did not excite me in any way, which are now gone.

Learning:

For guitar, I did not practice as much as I did last week. I am trying to learn the Stray Cats song 'I won't stand in your way'. I am torn between the studio version and a really nice version Brian Setzer plays solo, which can be seen below as well. His solo version is played on a baritone guitar and is a bit different than the studio. Probably will stick with the studio version.

For AI, jumped into it this week. Friday, I installed CUDA, cuDNN, python, tensor flow, numpy, and some other tools to code. I was able to run some code provided by ChatGPT and used an open data source to feed the model. Pretty cool. Will push here to see what I can do.

Prepping for emergencies ... did absolutely nothing.

Geeking:

Put up Kallax shelves from IKEA to store board games. These were really easy to put together. Did not learn to play Sky Team, but did order and begin to read Marvel Champions. That will be played this weekend. I also began to convert an adventure from Dungeon Magazine into a Fantasy Grounds Adventure. I am using ChatGPT to clean up the cut and paste from the PDF nicely.

Already posted on trivia. Man -- almost had it. Can read over the game here: Team Trivia crashes on Dr. Phil

Books. I had expressed I would finish the 1st Kathrine Kurtz Deryni book, but instead began to read Julian May's the Many Coloured Land. I began to use Thrift Books: https://www.thriftbooks.com/. This is because the used bookstores around here do not have much in the way of classic sci fi or fantasy. Very hit or miss. And the virtual library -- forget about it. If they have it at all, you will be 32nd on the depth chart to check out in 19 weeks. I will post soon about the list I am assembling to read and why that list.

AV