What I’m Up To – February 2024

(Current as of February 01, 2024)

Updates: February 28, 2024

A novel exploring the inevitability of death, artistry, and how “to love another person is to see the face of God” – 16,000 words in, hardly complete
Boba stickers (on RedBubble) – Not as many as I’d like; probably dropping this project, but was fun though!
A digital product on “Income beyond the 9-5” – Only outlined

The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett – Started, but decided to put on pause
Stoner, John Williams – Stayed up two nights for this one; was worth every minute of sleep lost
The 4-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris (re-reading) – Gleaned some new thoughts

Come up with 3 daily life problems and 12 solutions for each – Kept this up for 15 days, but y the 16th I had to stop because fully-fleshed ideas would come to me in torrents when I went to bed; will use this approach when short of ideas again
+1 pushup, starting at 20 reps – Skipped some days, but did a couple hundred more this month all told than I would have otherwise!
Dance 20-30 mins after waking up – The only thing I’ve been consistent with this month. Didn’t skip a single day; can’t recommend this enough

Daily kick-boxing, at least 5 mins – Did a couple days, then forgot/focused on other movement types
Qigong fundamentals – Started on breathing and developing a meditative mindset, but nothing “formal” or structured yet
Balance on rope for 10 secs, lying down – Zero progress on this one…hoping to revisit in a couple months

99 jumps/day, 3x (11x each pike, tuck, straddle) – Did a couple days *sigh*
Handstand walks – Not without support yet; slow progress
Kip-ups – Nope. Need to build more progressions, such as tucks and bridges.

Polygon 3-D Origami – Made a heart, dragon head (for Chinese/Lunar New Year), a moon, and am completing an owl
Python – A little progress, but in actuality? Nope…
JavaScript – Nope…

Hand drafting (architecture) + sketching (cartooning) – I couldn’t quite get what’s in my mind onto paper the way I’d like yet, but I have a better idea of what I want…still progress
Thanatology + death counselling – More thinking than actual study; would probably be an ongoing “background interest” of mine
Psychology in handwriting – Analyzed my students’ handwritten essays on levels most of them weren’t aware of, and tailored my support of their learning to what I learn about them from their handwriting

36hrs w/out food and water followed by 6 days of water fasting (one-time) – Feb 06-13; slipped in some water kefir here and there, plus saltwater flushes
Memorization – deck of playing cards, chess boards, playing by ear – Small improvements in each, but nowhere near my goal
Singing in microtones – This is FUN. Getting more accurate and micro

The nature of patterns – All comes down to this though…
Limits to conscious, intentional life design – I think I hit some limits this month…just look at all the unreached goals, haha
Shape grammars (as proposed by George Stiny, MIT) – Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. Would like to dedicate more attention to this in the future.

Odelia Chan