Jack's Diary

Hi Petal,

Yes, it's rough. I did roll the dice a few years ago on not getting health care, but I wouldn't dream about it nowadays - there's way too much of a chance of getting wiped out financially by an unexpected health condition. Although I could, and probably should, save about $300 a month by getting a cheaper plan. But when you get billed hundreds of dollars every time you see a doctor for anything other than a routine checkup, it makes you think twice about that as well.

Anyway, I shouldn't complain too much. I'm lucky my wife is super-frugal, and that we've been able to save up enough for a slightly early, if modest retirement.

I'm going to make one single new years resolution, which is going to be incredibly difficult to keep, but something to shoot for:

DO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FIRST.

That doesn't include watching random football games like I am right now.

Speaking of which, I've recently started getting into youtube videos on chess strategy.

I've always liked chess, but never knew any of the strategies. It's like traveling without a roadmap. I read a couple of books in high school and it was a revelation. But nowadays, with going part time - how much fun would it be to actually understand the strategies.

What is the most important thing?

Well I gotta pay a bill right now. Then, I'm going to go to Panera's (get off this couch) and study some Japanese.

I concede I will watch the Celtics at 6. I gotta play guitar while I'm doing it.

I need to change the strings on both of my guitars.
 
jackbenimble said:
DO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FIRST.
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I like that, wish I was better at it. I tend to do the most fun or interesting thing first, the most important thing may or may not get done.
 
True, I mean, it's important to have fun as well. What this is about is me trying to stop wasting time. Which is completely against my buddy Eckhardt Tolle's philosophy, which is we should stop worrying about time and start focusing on the present, which is the only thing that's actually real.

But I don't care. I have to do something about this rampant couch-potatoism.
 
My friend got me into a thing of not allowing myself to say sit down and watch tv or say go on my tablet unless I had some productive things done first. Like vacuum kitchen ,clean bathroom, paperwork etc etc. It's working a charm for me and keeps me active.
 
I think the "do the most important thing first" is kind of figuring out what it means to you. For me, it's about not wasting time, for now. Also being more of the person I want to be, cleaner, cooler, better posture, clearer mentally and spiritually.

One thing for sure is getting to bed earlier. I can barely read anyways at night nowadays, so I might as well go to bed early. I did last night, around 10 say, and was up by 4. So I had all morning in front of me. I did meditation (10 minutes), stretching (7 minutes and it felt good), kanji review (200, around an hour) and went to the gym (another hour).

Another thing is a todo list. What I've been doing at work recently is creating a tab for each day, and just copying over the things that aren't done.

It the top of the most important thing is "inner peace", which is more of a way of being than something you cross off a to-do list. More like a guiding principle. Still, there is stuff you have to do to get there.

Another thing is to stop eating so much. I was 169 lbs this morning, although 168 or 168.5 after working out. These are not heavy duty workouts.
 
And there's the important/urgent distinction, too. Paying that bill is urgent, though not to compare in importance with inner peace. The urgent things are what end up on the to-do list, though hopefully not for long.
 
"Do the most important thing first."
Good thinking, Jack :)
I must redo my "to do" list & then get stuck into doing more :)
 
I know, Cate. The more you do, the more they give you to do.

So, I have to admit, I'm not fond of thinking in those terms of "Do the most important thing first". It sounds clunky and demanding. Worse, it makes me feel immediately guilty. For example, I cracked the scales at 170 this morning (rats) which I've been doing too much of this year. So, I should be at the gym, but here I am the old computer, same spot on the couch. At least I can move to the other couch.

There - a different spot is a little better. Purely symbolic, but still.

Here's another issue - last night, I spent probably a couple of hours watching chess videos. That's nowhere near the top of my list of goals, it's not even on my list. But it is fun. Chess. The ultimate time-suck.

The one I'm watching is a grandmaster (GM) taking on lower-rated players on chess.com, gradually moving to higher level players. At first, it builds your confidence when you see the lame moves the bad players make.

But now he's up to the 1200-1500 rated level, and the players at that level know what they're doing. It gets harder and harder to see what the next good move is. Of course, the GM always figures out the right one, and he figures it out fast. Like, I could pause the board for 5 minutes, and finally say, ah, that's the move. The I unpause, and he'll do the move within 5 seconds, no joke. And tbh, I'm lucky if I find the right move.

I mean, I could definitely get better with practice. But I have to ask myself, why am I doing this? It's fun, but there are lots of fun things. Like guitar, Japanese, software. Learning to cook (lol sure).

So, one reason I'm sure I'm gaining weight is I've had a few too many margaritas in the past few days, although I didn't yesterday. I had a couple of munchkins and a couple of chocolates that the HR lady brought around (I could've said no). Then I had a couple of cookies my wife brought out when her friend visited last night.

The other thing is 1/2 hour on the treadmill isn't quite enough. I need to go the full hour, but then I worry about my knee getting sore. Maybe 45 minutes?

My daughter was telling me about "SMART" goals. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based.

So my first goal under this umbrella of doing the most important thing first - let's call it "First things first", which isn't so clunky - is to get back down to 165 lbs. It meets all of the SMART criteria if I give it a deadline, which I'm loathe to do about weight loss, but let's say March 31, 2020.

For my guitar goal, I'm going to arbitrarily say learn "Ave Maria". It's the most popular lesson on this one website I subscribe to, so maybe it's easy. It will be a nice acoustic piece. I'll give myself a deadline of Jan 31, say. Memorized and everything. This will be a go-to piece after I learn it. I hope I can do it. I wonder if I'll get sick of it. So sugary. What about learning "Ramblin on my mind"? Or "Can't find my way back home". Never mind. Just do it and see what happens.

For my Japanese goal, well there is the JLPT. I've been avoiding doing that because it costs money and I'm not convinced it does enough conversationally. Also, I'm concerned it will expose how poor my listening skills are. But isn't that motivation?

Nahhh. That's enough SMART for now.

No more chess, though. Forget it. I will never come out of it.
 
jackbenimble said:
... No more chess, though. ...
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if i were home, i'd be popping "Searching for Bobby Fischer" into the DVD tray right now... been a few years since i've seen it. sitting on the couch watching a movie about chess? i guess there are more productive ways to deal with time.

.... but it is a great movie.

i wish i could find a book i picked up while in college. something like "10 best chess openings". what i learned (albeit playing with guys who basically knew little more than how the pieces move) is that when you create an opening salvo of moves that dominate the center of the board, there is little you need to do afterwards that will not lead to a win.
 
overlandflyer said:
if i were home, i'd be popping "Searching for Bobby Fischer" into the DVD tray right now... been a few years since i've seen it. sitting on the couch watching a movie about chess? i guess there are more productive ways to deal with time.
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Now I really, really want to see that.

overlandflyer said:
i wish i could find a book i picked up while in college. something like "10 best chess openings". what i learned (albeit playing with guys who basically knew little more than how the pieces move) is that when you create an opening salvo of moves that dominate the center of the board, there is little you need to do afterwards that will not lead to a win.
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Sounds like a *great* book. I never did learn the chess openings, although I did learn enough to know you should develop your pieces toward the center. As far as beating your opponent, that works great - until they read the book. Probably your buddies won't have, but on chess.com you will find plenty.

Reminds of a story - one of my buddies (I met overseas) was really good at chess. He was a rated player, won some tournaments. Anyway, I played him once. And beat him the first game on the simplest of moves, something called fools mate. He just wasn't looking for it. So, we played like 10-12 games in a row after that, and I couldn't do anything with him. It wasn't competitive. So I called an end to the massacre. There was no point, I had no clue what he was up to.
 
Hey Jack, I am not a chess player but my father was. He was also an engineer for the Air Force stationed at John Hay AFB in Baguio City in 1978, at the time of the infamous Karpov/Korchnoi championship. Long story but Baguio was a small town with a very outdated power supply; it failed just before the tournament and father helped bring power from the base to the hotel so the tournament could happen. In the process he met Karpov, I have several pictures of them together. My father did not play, he wasn't in that class.

Happy Holidays and Merry X-mas!
 
That's quite a story, Rob. Karpov is a name I recognize very well, along with Fischer, Spassky, Kasparov, and the current champion, Magnus Karlson or something like that. Also some older time guys like Morphy and Petrosian. That's about it...

I visited the Philippines way back when, for about a week. I think I even remember blackouts happening then.

Merry Christmas to you as well!
 
jackbenimble said:
Now I really, really want to see that. ...
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when you do, you should see why there should be a "casting director" category for the Oscars (though they snubbed this 100% rotten tomatoes rated movie in all but one nomination for cinematography). there is not one weak character in the entire film... and a few were brilliant.
 
So, I'm going to the airport in a few minutes to pick up my daughter and her boyfriend - he's not feeling well, might need to go to the ER, poor kid. He seems to have health issues, which is pretty surprising because he's quite the soccer player, in great shape physically.

I switched my song to learn from Ave Maria to Can't Find my way home by Stevie Winwood. The Ave Maria turned out to be way more difficult than I expected. Why not do an easier song that's more to my taste anyway...

I've been enjoying my walks on the beach. I'm listening to Japanese proficiency listening tests. It's a nice way to pass the time, I feel like it's more relaxing than books or music or talk. After listening to Eckhardt Tolle preach so much about enjoying nature, I'm appreciating more how natural and non-mindstuck the birds and the dogs are. Noticing how unconcerned they are is good for the spirits. Also, seagulls are quite beautiful to watch flying in particular. The beach water was nice and blue today.

I'm still hovering around 170. I'm seriously thinking about calorie counting. I was looking at the calories in some crackers I was starting to gorge on over my mom's house, and was shocked to see there were 60 calories in just 5 little crackers. Really gotta at least do the calculation when the information is so readily available. It acts as a deterrent, I ended up putting the third helping back into the box.

Work is going to pretty hard the next couple of weeks. This one place is having issues and it's a PITA to get access to. I made some progress on Friday, but it's really not what I'm good at. P won't be back until Mid-january, it cant' wait until then. All hell is going to break loose on the 7th when everyone gets back. C'mon, P, don't leave me hanging, bro, I know you are free the 7th.
 
jackbenimble said:
I'm seriously thinking about calorie counting. I was looking at the calories in some crackers I was starting to gorge on over my mom's house, and was shocked to see there were 60 calories in just 5 little crackers. Really gotta at least do the calculation when the information is so readily available. It acts as a deterrent, I ended up putting the third helping back into the box.
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Calorie counting has not only been helpful to me, but very informative. I have learned to choose most of my food based on calorie content, it lets me eat more without blowing the diet. Crackers are a good example, the calorie content varies hugely. The ones I used to eat, and liked best were the highest calorie ones, and it was mostly based on fat or oil content. Now I eat crackers with little or no fat, they have far fewer calories than the others, and the taste isn't bad, I've learned to like them.

Sorry about the Patriots, they gave Miami a run for their money though.
 
Hi Jack,
This is the first I've been at your page I think. I saw chess and got interested :) I love chess. It's one of the ways I unwind. I find it such a fascinating game. Never have gotten into watching other people play, though that GM playing through all those players sounds like a fun one!

As for calorie counting...yes so interesting to me. I find almonds astounding. I still eat them, but before I would eat a tonne of them thinking 'well they're healthy..' but now with calorie counting I really limit them. And then things like oil and butter--yikes! Good to be aware of how much they add to the calorie count for sure! At first I found calorie-counting and logging all my food into an app tedious, but by now I actually find it sort of fun to see how all the numbers go.
 
Hi Jack I hope that your daughters friend is ok . 170 sounds an ok weight and when xmas is finally over you will settle back maybe .
 
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