Checksum Arcanius

Usually, I do not sunburn badly. So when I took off my shirt on Saturday while playing ultimate to stay cool during the hottest day of the year so far, I thought little of the red glow I acquired in the process. I thought little of it, that is, until yesterday, at about 1:00pm. At that time, over the course of just a few minutes, my sunburned back went from a mostly comfortable tenderness to a burning volcano of firery indignation. Lava boiled from within my back like needles threading their way between the layers of my skin. I convulsed and contorted, pricked by the searing itch inside. Anyone who might have seen me would have surely thought I was having some sort of seizure. It was, I am convinced, the most physically unfomfortable I have ever been in my entire life.

Scratching brought only temporary, painful relief. Aloe Vera, Hydrocortisone, and Vitamin E, applied in frenzies of itch-induced rage, only exacerbated the symptoms. I found extended relief in a shower, with water gently massaging the entire affected area. However, only after steeling my resolve, asking for divine intervention, and, against all odds, defying the urge for temporary relief by, among other things, pounding a carpetted floor with all my strength and walking backwards while reading the comics, was I able to find relief outside of the shower.

The erruption slowly subsided, and soon I was able to funcation as a normal human being once again. However, all of my resolve to actually complete homework, for example, was drained. It was a terribly non-productive day. I failed on all four of my resolutions. Sunday, on the other hand, had gone quite well, missing only the push-ups part of the exercise routine. Welcome to the roller coaster ride that is my life.

Well, day 2 (that would be Saturday – I can’t really report on this beforehand since it involves me going to bed by a certain time) went pretty well.

#1 Bed by midnight: I got into bed at midnight, without a laptop computer, and with a book instead. I pass!
#2 Read one page from a book: Passed. I read from Seven Habits of Highly Effective people until my eyes got heavy, well more than a page. Woo-hoo!
#3 Exercise regimen: I played ultimate for nearly two hours, getting quite the sunburn along the way. I did pushups and sit-ups before going to bed for the night. Excellent!
#4 Limit CS to 1 hour: Well, I played probably about an hour and a half. Still, I didn’t let it get out of control. Just something to improve on.

Overall, a very good day.

Days like I had yesterday are why I need to follow through with my resolutions so badly. It was one of my “dysfunctional” days – slept in (because I went to sleep late), felt unmotivated most of the day, got next to nothing done, and generally made a mess out of things.

#1: Sleep before midnight: I get a bye, because I wasn’t home at midnight. Rather I was at Jon’s, and I got to bed without any problems once I got home around 1:30. I had all sorts of trouble falling asleep, and the fact that I am up already is only further testament to how little energy I expended yesterday.

#2: Read one page from a book: Failed. Yes, I know it’s ridiculous that I didn’t get this one done. But like I said, I have these resolutions for a reason.

#3: Daily exercise: Failed. See explanation of #2, above.

#4: Limit Counter-Strike to one hour: Well, I did basically nothing yesterday, including Counter-Strike. So I pass on this one, but not for any good reason.

Inspired by Chris Vincent’s recent post “Practical self-improvement,” I have decided to make public some of the plans I have to improve myself to remain a healthy and well-rounded individual. This is in the well–founded hope that making such a thing public will ultimately help me live up to the commitment. I have learned about myself that I am much better with commitments to others than I am with commitments to myself; and while this is a commitment to myself, making it public in a sense makes it a commitment to all of you also. Well, here goes:

1. I will go to bed – without my laptop – by midnight, every night that I am at home
   My eventual goal is to wake up before it becomes light outside. However, I realize that this is a way off, and these resolutions are to remain practical. Besides, going to sleep after it becomes light outside must be dealt with first. By adding in the “at home” clause, I will still allow myself to, for example, hang out with friends well past midnight as the occasion may arise. However, there are no good reasons for me to stay up past midnight in my day-to-day life.
2. I will read at least one page from a book every day
   I find it really sad how little I read, especially since when I do read, I tend to enjoy it so much. I figure that reading at least one page is a reasonable goal that will get me started. Hopefully, and I think it likely, I’ll get going and read well more than just one page.
3. I will exercise daily
   Another activity that, like Chris, I put off entirely too much. Again, keeping things practical, the plan is simply a daily regimen of at least push-ups, sit-ups, and something aerobic.
4. I will limit Counter-Stike to one hour a day
   I enojoy Counter-Strike quite a bit, but I find that I’ll get into a playing rut where I’m not really having fun, but rather I’m playing out of habit. This not only wastes copious amount of time and hurts my chances at my first goal (above), but it also turns out to be not so much fun afterwards. Limiting my playing time should address both problems.
5. I will overcome my irrational fears by consciously forcing myself to face them
   There are plenty of legitimate things to be wary of, but irrational fears are the foundation of so much that wrong with humantiy, and as much as possible, I don’t want to be a part of this unfortunate reality. So I will overcome my irrational fears by putting myself into situations where I am forced to deal with them, learning at the emotional level that there is indeed nothing to fear.
   UPDATE: this one has been striken at the beginning of day #2 because it is out of line from the others. It is not specific enough to adequately report on, nor is it daily, as the others are. Furthermore, I actually already do this from time to time, I don’t need the help of this support structure.

I think these four items will be a good start to improving myself in very real, yet quite practical ways. I hope to add to these slowly as time goes on and I achieve some level of mastery over the weaknesses these goals are intended to overome.

All choices have consequences – this is an eternal principle that cannot be overcome. While we live in a generally free society, one in which you and I are free to go where we want, talk to whom we please, seek gain with many diverse scheme, we are still not free from the consequences of our actions. This is a good thing, generally, as it encourages one to make decisions carefully. Today was one of those days where I wish I had chosen better.

It started, as it so often does, with procrastination. A paper I had due for my English class today, put off until last night. Then I found out that the CEO of the TRC was expected me at a meeting that I had not been planning on attending. Since I had a night class, I had previously been expecting to be able to write the paper after work today. However, with a meeting in the way, I decided I had to write it last night. Well, I put that off too – not getting started until well after midnight. By the time I was done, it wasn’t worth going to sleep before work. But I did anyway, and ended up missing most of work – which usually is ok, excpet today, because I missed an important meeting. So while the TRC and school were covered, I’m now feeling pretty terrible about letting down my coworkers and friends at work. I do hope they’ll be forgiving, and even more that I can learn from this mistake.

That last post was number 300. Sure, there are a few holes along the way, from incomplete and/or deleted posts, but its just like Firefox turning 50, where I am sure there were some repeat downloads in there (heck, I am responsible for a few repeats myself).

I celebrated the occasion by turning power off to sf2, the server responsible for SilverFir.net, off twice without warning. Actually, that had more to do with a 15-amp circuit breaker, lots of power supplies in my room, and a strange same-circuit connection to a certain socket in the laundry-room-turned-kitchen-during-remodel, where the Microwave sent the whole kit and kaboodle over the edge.

Nevertheless, its back up and seems to be healthy, and is now connected to a UPS that I picked up from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Long story. Regardless, it power loss should be less common now.

Recent events

85/100 on Circuits test… Not exactly what I would have hoped for, but better than I was expecting after I screwed up the op-amps. I’ve gotta kick it into a higher gear here soon, if I want to pull out of the mid-B rut that I’ve gotten myself into in the class.

Started building an ROV with Dan Marsh and the TRC. For more, see Dan’s post about it.

Collecting parts for a future SRS Robo-Magellan entry. Recently picked up a GPS reciever module (thanks to Dan for the tip). The module requires an active antenna, so I went looking for a good one, and settled on the Mighty Mouse II, a high gain, low power active antenna that rocks my socks. An especially big shout out to Tri-M Systems for working with me to help get the unit from Canada to the TRC quickly and efficiently. Go buy their stuff, yo!

Saw Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy twice in two days. Once was plenty, but a combination of circumstance and commitment led me to watching it a second time. Suffice it to say that it’s not one of those movies that gets better the second time through. I didn’t hate it the first time, though, and the second time, though not anywhere near wonderful, was not bad, and the company (Shai and Beth) was good too.

Installed a 9-in-4 card reader in my desktop computer. The unit was recieved from Dan along with a wired USB optical mouse in exchange for a Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer that wasn’t well-suited for gaming due to miniscule but noticable start-up lag times, and wasn’t well suited for a laptop due to its battery requirements. I think the trade was mutually beneficial. Everyone shoudl trade more, its good for everyone involved (but if I went too much further down this line of thought, I’d have to add this to the political category as well).

Began helping Erik set up his new dedicated server. Debian Linux is a good distro. It should go back to #1, yo. Silverfir.net, and perhaps TitanRobotics.net, will host some of their websites on the new server as well. The server is from ServerPronto, and its a good price for a dedicated server with the specs it boasts. We’ll see how it holds up once Erik’s proxy servers get going.

Played Ultimate Frisbee at the UW’s intramural field 1 on Friday with the team of Bobby, Jake, Joe, and others. We lost by a point to an evenly matched team, which seems to be the story of my ultimate life. It was good fun, however. Afterwards, we hung out at the UW until seeing Hitchhiker’s for the first time.

Went to a doctor Thursday morning. I have low blood pressure. Nothing too serious, though, apparently. I can eat more salt. Is this a good thing?

Talked to Scott about the upcoming bike trip.