Conflicted Progress

Read these two articles:

• How To Be So Disciplined It'll Look Like You Have Superpowers
• Mental Model Winner Take All

How can these two exist at the same time? One must cancel out the other like antimatter/matter annihilation. Or can they both be right?

Interestingly, I think both are possible, though the “Superpowers” article is mainly writing from the viewpoint of survivorship bias. That is the author is saying that because they did it, so can you, and because you are reading it then they succeeded wildly by following their own rules.

The Farnam Street Blog looks at several cases of Winner Takes All, but doesn’t tell you how to overcome that, except maybe buying several thousand copies of your own book. Does it cancel out the rule-following concept in the more positive article? No, but I think it tempers it quite a bit.

When it comes down to it: We can all improve, maybe even the top performers, but really the only person that would have thought we have superpowers is our former self. Let me frame it with the Recency Effect.

Let’s say that you are a hotdog eating contestant and you can eat ten hotdogs in a minute. You are so good that you have sponsorships and tour the country. Then someone comes along and introduces a new technique and is able to eat one hundred hotdogs in a minute. At the behest of your sponsor you learn the technique and are able to eat one hundred plus one hotdogs, reclaiming your crown.

Being at the top and then reclaiming the top certainly looks like superpowers to folks lower in the pecking order, but even the lightweight packing away only eighty per contest would scoff at your old record of ten due to your new achievement. You might appreciate the difference, but you only really have your initial reaction to gauge just how monumental a jump that is.

All’s good in hotdog-land, but what about starting from the bottom like removing a bad habit? Initially people may notice if it is an obvious habit, but soon it will be old history. Good changes are like a differential for people noticing and hopefully a integral in improving life. That is: people will only really notice as the change is happening, or if asymptotic like a haircut, right after, but then that will be the new normal. But maintaining a good habit like brushing your teeth might literally improve your life expectancy, and no one runs away from conversations anymore.

Self-set rules will only get you so far in becoming the best, the rest is how they relate to your goals, but I think they are a huge step in getting you away from the worst. Rule-following has another name: discipline.

Wait, Prepare, Wait

What is probably the worst combination in the history of the world? Promising and procrastinating.

I do this all the time, I promise my wife I will do something, but if I don’t do it right away I forget, or just plain procrastinate. I would like to say that procrastination is doing other things while still having the thing that you need to do in the forefront of your mind, but then I think forgetting about things has just the same effect, although less stressful until you remember. Of course the disappointment in myself is pretty big, but that is dwarfed by the feeling of having disappointed someone else, especially my wife.

Right now, as I write this, I am procrastinating. Sort of. I’ve read through assignment 3 and I need to let it simmer. But I am also waiting for the peer feedback for assignment 2 to be uploaded so that I can get that done for the class. It doesn’t look good for “the drop” tonight. I am also using this moment to write, write “I” enough that I think I might need to edit this.

This is an okay equilibrium at the moment, because it has many layers of preparedness: I am early wanting peer feedback, I have read the assignment a week before it is due and it builds off of the previous one, I am practicing writing which is crucial for this class, and I will update my to-do list before going to practice my cello, then reading and then bed. Right now, everything is under control.

It’s a good feeling, but of course fleeting because this week is going to flit by one way or another.

So is this waiting any better than just getting things done at the last instant? It’s hard to say from this end. Is it temporary motivation that I am chomping at the bit? Have I finally begun to learn discipline? (Note: whenever I think this way I remember all the things that I would like to add to my disciplined schedule and how many things I have failed at already in terms of discipline.)

It’s going to be hard to say from the other end. There is something to finishing something all in one go. Something satisfying about having just finished, and it’s addictive (Wait But Why.) I remember one of my most exhilarating coding days, I knew I needed to write a user interface to test the new receiver in the telescope. I put it off until the day of, and finished, not well, that same day. Here is the description in passing. It made me realize that being an expert at a chosen technology can mean that you can get things out quickly. While that is an awfully nice thought, a better one is getting it done over the course of weeks, consulting with people, and being on-hand for the commissioning.

I still have a problem with discipline at work as distractions are plentiful, but I also can get quite a bit done just being that much more of an expert. Something about having worked for 10 years as of the 21st of January.

There is no perfection in my work. I strive to understand better ways of doing things, new things I come across, but I am much more confident. I wait quite a bit more, but on the other side. I find things to do, things that I should be remembering sooner, and things that may make at least one person’s job easier.

NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge Post Mortem

MandI in a Seattle park being semi-tele-oped, August 2016

Relief and disappointment all in a few short moments. Our robot MandI, named for our team Mind and Iron, seemed to be stuck on the marble slab in the sunny, grassy park, but then it ramped up and over. Quite a feat for a wood-framed robot, but also not so great for our team as it smashed into the bright orange perimeter fencing.

The one and only run came to an entangled end. The team set out from the band-shell full of NASA folks to clear the field, our shot at a million dollars over.

Do I blame myself? Certainly, if I only checked this, or checked that… It just becomes a jumble of what-ifs. Writing this is mostly to get down my thoughts and observations, hopefully not too much blame.

Unfortunately the vision system was not communicating with the rest of the the robot system. That was totally not expected, it should have been sending photo coordinates to the robot’s state system. In the post mortem I found that some of the vision script had been modified on the robot without pushing it back up to the repo, so when my final changes came in it conflicted with the other changes. I did not take care of this merge conflict, but I should have, there was an obvious and basic misunderstanding of how the script operated with the other changes.

So it sounds like I am trying hard not to blame someone else by saying that I should have checked the final code. I would say it is not just my fault, but rather I take joint responsibility. So let’s turn to a proven method for getting down to the underlying reasons.

Why?

There were merge conflicts and I didn’t realize this until too late.

Why?

Because there wasn’t enough communication as to the fact of merge conflicts and sudden loss of functionality.

Why?

I can only assume an assumption that minimal knowledge was enough to deal with the merge conflicts which was in turn probably caused by the lack of unit tests.

Why?

Because most of the script and final functionality was written only a few days before the sequester period.

Why?

• General lack of planning on my part
• No quick feedback loops for communication until we were in the same place
• Not taking advantage of the previous trip
• Was still exploring possibilities with trip to Seattle.
• Changes to systems at the last minute due to insufficient previous exploration

I ran out of ‘why’s with the five why method. In summary I did not handle this very well. Between planning, exploring, and executing there was still too much thinking and exploring.

What did I learn:

• Planning is important, but if it blocks exploring then it becomes a detriment
• Exploring is important, but if there are still unknowns even a few weeks out then it is time to simplify.
• Write scripts so that components can be unit tested. If it isn’t getting the parameter in the first place, how is it going to send it?
• Always check merges with the above unit tests, or have others run the unit tests on their side. Double check functionality before critical situations.
• Never change code in high stress situations, make a UI that can simulate requested changes. Or if you do make changes, run the written unit tests!

Though smashing into the fence was not my code, I still didn’t like the fact that I did not control as much as I should have. Building that control was crucial, either by sitting down and hand testing it. That would have required quite a bit of computer and seat/keyboard shuffling, not something I particularly look forward to in any situation, maybe some musical chairs anxiety from childhood… The control is more simply built by making it easy for another person to check functionality.

By writing thorough tests and setting up a way for them to be run easily, then we get two immediate benefits. The other person can just be told how to run the tests, sees that the code isn’t working, and they can send the test’s error back to me. Even if it “works for me” we can still pursue a course of action where we find out where it went wrong.

Writing tests is important, but as I answered for one of the whys: I really needed to be more aware of the process. Planning, exploration, and execution are all phases of the process, and if any of these are early/long/late then the rest of the process will become disjointed or panicked. Just being aware of these will help me to recognize situations before they become critical.

*finito post mortem*

Weekly Novel Writing Update

Or "WeNoWrUp" for NaNoWriMo.

This week I never got ahead of the writing. I started the week with about 8000 words which was only 5000 words behind. Monday evening I pounded out 2000 words in a couple scenes that are quite important to the plot, and then followed up the stellar performance the next day by writing nothing. So this week definitely had its ups and downs.

I am slowly increasing my average words per day so that I am moving my expected date of finishing up, but I really need a few solid hours.

Last week's tirade about suffering sounds either more poignant or just ridiculous after Friday's events, probably a little flat. I could write on that sad event, but I think it would just be a bunch of righteous rage and freaking out that our intelligence communities really didn't have the group on their radar. The whole thing makes me sick.

Back to writing, normally scheduled events were not so nice to my writing schedule. Work was pretty solid including a meetup of beCraft on Thursday that talked about the Go language and a specific use case. Am I getting old that I just enjoy Python and don't really want to learn yet another language? I still find Go interesting, it has some built-ins that make it pretty good for, well, okay, aren't I writing about novels?

Back to writing, again. With a trip to see our Hawaii friend before she goes back this week, Saturday just disappeared. Not in a bad way except for writing-wise. So now I am looking at nearly a 10,000 word deficit. My best day has been around 2,000 words, so I really need a few 3,000 word days to make it a bit easier on the days that I can't sit down and write that many. And now this post is getting pretty long itself.

Let me know your thoughts about Friday, if you need a place to vent, or about languages if you understand the programming world. I am writing this early so that I might have a chance after church to put in many solid hours of novel writing. I remember back in the day when a few pages for a paper was back-breaking, now though I am pushing for a novel, crazy.

Writing Update and Other Things

I have ten things to write about that aren't part of NaNoWriMo, of course. My story isn't quite on the rocks word-wise, but I just wrote a post and have a few other things that are on my mind thanks to work and church.

Suffering is Not for the Faint of Heart - Talking about suffering, let's hope all your tribulations are small and solvable.

I also would like to write about how faith can come with writing. A small sticking point that somehow reason can't be applied to faith. Or maybe, it can't lead to faith. It is a very interesting question that I am somewhat invested in.

So I hope my unwritten words this week read my post on suffering, because they are suffering from me not writing them. Currently I have 6,987 very rough draft words. At the end of today I am supposed to be done with 13,333 words. A difference of nearly seven thousand words. Which if you read my post means that I still need to write nearly four hours today. Oof.

You can follow my progress at the NaNoWriMo site. Any encouragement welcome.

Anyway, I need to change my writing situation physically for a while. More words will come, hopefully a story with them.

Growing Culture

A pre-post edit: I am finishing writing this and editing with the events of Nov 3rd in mind, which were certainly a hugely negative approach to motivating our team that my interest is a bit shaken, or maybe I just have to be more cynical, or less?

The Center for Open Science is growing, and its culture is changing. It sometimes seems like a confusing jumble of all sorts of not quite conflicting interests, but order has been coming to our controlled chaos. In some ways it is awesome, in others it might just deaden things.

I write this as one of our developers is leaving us. He was the first developer hired by the center and laid quite a bit of the groundwork that we use day-to-day. He has his reasons for moving on, but it is still sad to see him go. His enthusiasm really solidified my interest in working for COS, it was serious development, as well as being a serious cause.

I started in February when we had about 30-ish full time staff and many fewer projects going on. There was quite a bit of nebulous thinking with some really nice features that were making the OSF much more of a usable product. There was quite a range of ways to do things, different ideas and lots of freedom to learn and do.

At the beginning of the summer we brought in 35+ interns, doubling our staff numbers and blowing away any possible workflow. Some interns were working on small projects and others were working on large “R&D” projects that may never get integrated into the OSF. Essentially chaos ensued that we are still trying to dig out from under.

We hired a Product Manager and she brought more Agile methods as well as Jira and other ideas. This is certainly still a work in progress but a better definition of how a feature or a fix gets defined, worked on, and merged is a huge improvement over the previous workflow.

Unfortunately with the recent experience and some burnout starting to rear its ugly head, especially with a negative motivation speech to seal the deal and thinly veiled diatribes against the method we certainly need a moment to collect ourselves and our thoughts.

There are two huge projects that are essentially due this month. The problem is with the approach to these projects that it was not managed in such a way that makes much sense.

• One project was given to an intern. Not that interns can’t do a good job, however, he can’t put in the time when it gets to the point where we need daily turnaround on code review response rather than weekly.
• This project is now up to 12k lines. By far the biggest chunk of code that has been “through” code review. Why wasn’t it put through in a more piecemeal manner as it was being written? Because it was an R&D project, and though it had people signing off on the proposal, no one was assigned to help the intern bring it up to speed until two weeks ago.
• Now they are trying to solve the crunch time by putting more devs on it. It may work, but really the fight was lost when it wasn’t converted from an R&D project earlier in the game with more code review done on top of that.
• Also the full time dev assigned is one of the three code reviewers, meaning that he hasn’t really been able to do code review for other smaller PRs coming through the system.

So I could go on about the negatives of how we aren’t experiencing management in a good way, but I think it is not malicious, just some line of communication was not very clear, and now we are rushing to meet a deadline that we have just learned about.

So my first suggestion is that if the R&D project is ever going to possibly be more than just a learning project then it needs to have definite code and functional milestones where code and functionality can be assessed and reviewed in order for the storm to be avoided when we find out just how close we are to a deadline, at least we will know exactly how the project is going.

We also need everybody doing code review. I know most people aren’t very good at it, but that is why we have more than one level of code review. But three people looking at code that nearly twelve of us produce means that they are always falling behind. Always playing catch-up.

If we have better incremental code reviews with better chunking of the tasks, then we get feedback on smaller bits of code that can be implemented for the next chunk. When 500+ lines of code are changed in a Pull Request, it starts getting troublesome for the more thorough code reviewer to trace down all the implications.

I was going to end this, before today, with an inspirational thought about how we all need to be one of a kind without breaking companies when we leave. But I would like to focus on the more practical. We have a much better, tighter approach than we had before, but we still have some major hurdles to overcome.

Write a Novel

This is just as an addendum to yesterday’s post. The reason why I was talking about time allocation and routines is because I want to write a novel. So here’s the math for a 50,000 word novel for Nanowrimo or National Novel Writing Month:

50,000 words really isn’t that large a novel. Assuming 300 words per page it comes out to about 167 pages. So it isn’t anywhere near some of those Russian behemoths that people either love or could leave resting on a shelf, but it is still a substantial amount of writing for a single month.

November is 30 days, and for one of my friends, yes the Thanksgiving is on Thursday this year. But that brings up a valid point. If I was to write every day then I would need to write about 1667 words every day. Yes I rounded the number in both cases if you are keeping track of the math. But I won’t. Even with a routine I will need to write less some days and possibly not write at all others, such as the one that requires a bit of cooking.

But let’s see what amount of time I would have to set aside every day to write 1667 words in a day. As I am writing this I am flowing pretty freely, even with the math, and am writing about 1200 words in an hour. My typing speed is not so great, but i just saw that I might be able to voice-type with Google Docs. It might be an editing nightmare, but maybe I can learn to speak faster than I can type, probably at this point.

All of that aside, it means that 1700 words a day is going to take me just under an hour and a half. Time I must set aside every day. Pretty unrealistic, maybe I can dictate in the car… That would give me about an hour on the commute and the transcript from a crash would be pretty hilarious, except for me, my body, and my wallet. So what if I put in two to three hours on the weekend days and then a lighter load on the weekdays.

There are nine weekend days. If I just wrote on the weekends that would put me at a bit over 5,000 words per day, meaning around four to five hours of writing. Oof. Not the way I really want to spend my weekend if the weather is as nice as it has been these last two weeks. Also it cuts out on the routine and starts stinking of inspiration, which in itself is not a bad word but fails me at critical points.

Alright, let’s figure out an hour count for the month, and give it 20% padding. 50 hours. If I take 2.5 hours every weekend day then that gets us to 27.5 more hours to distribute throughout the rest of the month, which isn’t much of a reduction, and still means if I miss a day I will have to make up quite a bit of time.

I probably need to approach 3 to 4 hours on the weekend days and keep writing on the weekdays to my dictation experiments in the car and hopefully up to an hour otherwise.

Are you interested in writing novels? How would you approach writing 50k words in a month?

Oh yeah, this was way more math than the last post that I named “Doing Math.”

Doing Math

There are so many things that I run calculations on it is weird when I can’t because there are too many unknowns.

For instance a budget. Really no problem. Figure out how much we are bringing in, plan for expenses, keep extra money for unknowns, done. No sweat, other than just getting it done. But for some reason planning time is drastically more difficult. In fact my ability to waste time has probably hindered my growth; there are plenty of things on the internet to look at and read. In fact if I am so lucky, you are reading this now.

The problem with time is that you can’t really keep a reserve in an account, it’s use it or lose it, and now. Many people will sacrifice one way of spending time, friends, family, sleep to get ahead or play more games. But that’s just what it is at that point: a sacrifice. In order for an unforeseen time commitment to get its necessary commitment for getting done, it needs sacrifice from some other activity for the push to actually happen.

But there are people who will continue to push, sacrificing their time consistently. Some of these people believe in what they are doing, either that they will get some big payout in the end, or that they will help so many others. Too many do it because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to support their family that they never see.

Both of my jobs since college have been mostly regular, forty hour a week jobs. However, there is the chance that I could spend much more time with the current one. And it is right on the edge of I enjoy this/they don’t pay me enough. I do enjoy my 40 hours a week, and I know I could put in more for some of these projects because over the summer a few weeks I put in eight to sixteen more hours of coding on my masters degree projects. I was lucky in the fact that Jessie was working out-of-town for the weeks, so I didn’t have to worry about spending too little time with her during the week.

But now that the job is over I find it very hard to balance my priorities and I think both school and Jessie suffer because of it. Oh yes, causes me stress and then I waste time and not spending it at least somewhat productively reading, writing, or learning. One thing I read this week has worked on my mind: Inspiration is for Amateurs by Art of Manliness.

With Jessie around I get out of habits and try to schedule my time around hers. This works to some extent but often it leads to me dropping things that I planned to do because I no longer have enough time. On the other hand this balancing also helps me to focus the time I can manage in more productive ways.

But what about the routines mentioned in AoM? I think I am missing out quite severely on my potential because of my lack of routine and lack of discipline. So I must put my foot down and have a routine that allows me to progress and have a regular schedule on which I can build my discipline. It will be harder as the winter months are colder and it is tougher to roll out of bed, but it will also be at a lower cost than other parts of the day. Jessie doesn’t like mornings. She will get up if she thinks it is worthwhile, like for our hike in the park this last weekend, but the morning really starts at 8 for her.

So, although she doesn’t like missing me in the mornings before I go to work, it is still better than staying at work later because I didn’t get in until 9. It is a sacrifice, not eating breakfast with her, but it is somewhat like banking time that I can spend with her in the evening. But it has its other benefits too:

Traffic is lighter if I leave for and leave from work early, the office is quiet and I can get some big rocks (code and such) done before the standup meeting, I am fresh for those tasks and can generally think more clearly than in the afternoon. I just have to continue with the routine, otherwise it will be easy to spend the mornings cozily in bed and then not get home until late in the evening.

I want to become a “creative professional” but I need the discipline and need to set my routine in stone. I love doing math, but I know that my equation needs to be regular in order for me to be more expressive.

I do not do what I want to do

I do not do what I want to do

If you do not recognize this, it is okay, you are living life to its fullest. You can move on and ignore these thoughts. However, I do invite you to ponder:

This is part of a longer, pretty confusing, passage in the Bible written by Paul in Romans 8. Maybe it’s just because I am contrarian and like things other people have a hard time dealing with because I also enjoy Ecclesiastes. Despite all of this talk of the Bible, I think that it is extraordinarily practical, even if some claim may that it can only be understood in a religious context.

One more thing before I dive into this and its application. Many people will claim that many parts of the Bible are impractical to be applied in someone’s life outside of being a Christian. In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis contends that we either have to take Christ as God, or a raving lunatic, never just a “good teacher.” While I agree that believing in salvation through the sacrifice of God is certainly a tall order and colors much of the rest of the book, and I hope more people would believe, but it is false to believe that there can’t be some positive understanding without being a believer. C.S. Lewis is right to say that calling Christ just a “good teacher” is impossible, but basically Christians fall into the pride trap and often look like the Pharisees in their words and actions believing that all the teachings can only be understood through relation with Christ. A humble view will show that, yes, salvation is a black and white subject, and not decided by us, but understanding specific passages can be done.

So what brought up this topic? Partly it was reading Strip or Retire post by Art of Manliness, but also having been in a discussion of this passage recently. What is better: To risk nothing by doing nothing? To risk everything doing something that the only reward is anxiety? Or to risk something or everything in order to do better?

If you read the AOM post I think you will know which one I am pushing toward, but still I am going to see if I can make sense of it.

First and foremost I must admit to being in the first camp. I don’t much like it when I think about it and often times I want to get out. But how comfortable it is to just let the status quo keep its status just where it is. But that is partly why I am writing this, to get myself toward the bank of the river Status; to think critically about subjects and expose my thoughts to a wider audience. This is risk, small but still more than I would otherwise consider normally.

What about that second camp? If we risk ourselves on things that are only going to cause anxiety, why do we do it? And does it really cause anxiety for all people?

The people who take these type of risks get an immediate rush, would anyone jump out of a plane or off a cliff to only see the view? Probably, but most people are doing it for the thrill, even with current technology the threat of death is right there. And to the skydivers, there are no personal consequences, at least insofar as they haven’t already reasoned away, who needs life insurance if you die doing what you love?

But these selfish actions, even as mundane (today, at least) as skydiving, do have consequences for other people. Skydiving is socially accepted, but there are many things that are not which people are taking risks all the time and hurting themselves and others for just an ever-diminishing rush. There are also some things that society views as not as bad as previous generations viewed it. Certainly some of these views may have been wrong, but to stir the fire: We all joke about politicians being liars, and the fact is there is no way they could ever keep all their promises, not unless they become god-like and tyrannical. But the US is currently looking at many candidates for an election that is more than a year away, and seemingly seriously considering a self-proclaimed liar.

I am sure you can attach a name to the man who has taken loans, promising to pay it back, and then those companies have gone bankrupt. Certainly unforeseen circumstances could crash a company once in a lifetime to the point that it requires bankruptcy, but when it becomes a pattern there is obviously some reasoning that allows it to happen again and again. Also the attitude is not one of contrition, but rather bombast. Just the person I want to run the country.

I do not want to move from the nothing camp into the negative side. Yes, I may get things wrong, but I want to be doing things right, for the betterment. Probably not altruistic, but certainly not selfish. And those who are coming with me need to know that there are risks, and the possibilities. But first I need to cut down on the nothing and start finding the risk that will pay dividends in the long run.

Some things that I feel I could invest my time in, either more or at all:

• People - Right now I only really invest time in one person. And even that I do not do too well.
• Constructive hobbies - lighting for a shadow box doesn’t happen without a bit of work. Also there are other projects around the house that could use my knowledge and/or quick learning to solve. There might be a bit of risk, but the reward will be a more comfortable, or usable, house.
• School - I would like to be an expert, and to have done well. I feel like I can actually put more effort into doing well. With my recent post I am considering quitting this semester, does this mean I am no longer taking a risk? Or am I increasing my risk for, hopefully, a better reward?
• Work - with my first major project taking too long in my estimation, we are switching to an agile system. I am in charge of getting a spam admin page up and going, but I am also angling to take charge of a small team to some extent. I am doing my work, but risking rebuke by trying to organize developers’ efforts.
• Also work - I had a constructive talk with two of our community team to figure out how I could get better at speaking about COS and developing so that I might be on the shortlist to go to conferences. I really need to start booking myself with local meetups in order to practice my speaking about subjects and hooking the COS pitch. I am not afraid to speak publicly, but what interests me I have found to bore other people.
• Writing, it sort of goes with the constructive hobbies. If I risk spending my time writing and delaying gratification (no one has clicked on an advertisement yet) rather than getting near-immediate gratification with games, then I could possibly become a better writer and start making money with this whole writing thing, hint, hint. But truly it is a side project.

All of these things are certainly good, but they are hindered by my outlook, I really am not great at taking risks. And reading Johnathan Mead’s blog I really can trap myself into not doing something by over-preparing, or previously visited, over-analyzing.

My biggest issue is the immediate discomfort that I believe I will face. My fight with myself every morning I intend to go running: “It’s too cold/dark, and I won’t do as well as I want.” But after every run, even though it isn’t a race, I am glad I ran. I might not be so happy that I ran too fast, or too slow, but I am glad that I got out there and did it.

Speaking of running, I signed up for a 5k. What does this do for me? It sets a goal, a date that I need to be ready for. Running is nice, a road or trail race isn’t a go/no-go decision, unless injured. Otherwise you can always run the race, maybe not as fast as you want, but I just need to show up and run, and I am a winner!

“Oh no. Everyone who runs can’t be a winner, did he just say that?” Nope, I will most certainly lose unless there is no one else in my age group, however, I gain a bunch of positives: Experience, exercise, a time to beat on my next 5k.

What it really boils down to is taking a risk, or many smaller risks to improve myself for the longer term, hopefully also looking to help others improve, through my example, encouragement, and exhortation.

Subjected to...

Why would anybody want to subject another to targeted advertising?

Good question. Why are you reading this blog? Friends of mine? Similar interests? Family? Well the first two mean that maybe *some* of the advertising will actually of interest. It is actually along the lines of my links page that I am doing a major overhaul on: I want the links to be a reflection of what I find important or useful. The advertising should be of use to someone, especially when I am writing about interesting things. Sorry family, maybe you like some of the things I do.

So why would I want to start making an infinitesimal amount of money from advertising on my blog? Here is an article on side hustle. Do I really want to write for a living? I already do. Coding.

But what this is is a small way to write a bit and get a bit of money. I am not expecting thousands of dollars, but I do need just a bit more motivation for some of my writing ideas.

Really though I have a much more lucrative side hustle already, reviewing code for Udacity. Depending on the projects and complexity of the rubric it can pay quite well, but guess what I am doing in that situation: writing. I write comments on specific parts of the code and write broader reviews for the rubric. It has really given me an opportunity to see some pretty good code as well as help those that need a bit of support to make their code work well. The only real issue is that there are waves of activity and I am usually busy with something else when they need tons of reviews done.

Why am I busy? Work, school, life.  And two of those are writing intensive. I want to work more on my universe building, or really extending our universe. I certainly know that not everything is working together right now. I have actually been doing some research on some of the tougher physics ideas, but I really have a hard time concentrating on things like that. I have also read a ton of sci-fi over the last year, choosing it over fantasy in order to just fill my mind with concepts, what works, what is wonky, what could be done better. I really want to have something believable to base a story on, I just get caught up in the world building idea.

One thing I worry about is character development. I know about it in theory, and experienced it in “the story of my life,” but there is still something that just scares me about it. I don’t want to just focus on one character’s major development, but I also don’t want to have flat characters. So how will I balance plot, characters, and the ever so essential technology? Well the technology will have posts here, but might also have some of its own material, only appearing in the story with enough context that you don’t need to go look it up, but hopefully for all those that want to they can find it.

Completely Different

Not speaking of work or side hustles, there is a group that I have tried twice that I enjoy to some extent: http://www.meetup.com/Cville-Dagorhir/. Hit one another with foam weapons… what could be more fun? It is great since you don’t need anything except a foam weapon, no armor, and if the people aren’t strict, no medieval costume necessary. The C-ville club has a few loaner swords, so it isn’t necessary to build your own right away. One issue that I have with the concept is that the head is verboten, only archers and rock-throwers can hit the head. That really messes with quickly choosing targets if you have been practicing longsword in your garage, like I have. Jessie and I will be practicing with fencing helmets and a few other pieces of protection, but much more in the Germanic tradition. But anyway, the people are nice and it is a fun form of exercise!

Fits and Starts

Another post in quick succession.

We had fencing twice more last week, which is twice more than I am used to, but it was well worth it. Again we had the two coaches from Oahu, Mike Aiao and Saul Mendoza. (This time I learned his name and saw it written as well.)

Saul worked us pretty hard Thursday and Saturday. I was pretty happy with going through drills and just getting in some good practice. I almost put a complaint here, but lets just say I will be working harder to get people to do drills. I will need to work with whoever shows up at the right time, beyond that it is up to them. That was tough not complaining.

Last time I wrote about the footwork, Saul worked us for more than a half hour trying to correct some of our bad habits. But the most recent two the footwork was a minor compared to the bladework. We paired off and he went around teaching and correcting. On Saturday he specifically talked to me about how to do the exercises as a teacher with a student. That was excellent although I am still trying to figure out what... I guess if I write down a bit maybe it will clear up the thoughts about teaching.

One of the big things is to start out basic. Just hit target and keep that up for a few minutes, maybe switching target areas just to get the right hand position. This is is from very close distance, where an extension hits, no movement of the feet. This reminds me, if I am going to have people stab at me over and over I will need to bring my black jacket with me. I can stand getting hit again and again, but it is much more comfortable with padding and the like.

The next is just to add an advance-attack. Just an attack with an advance, not much simpler than that. The big idea here is to watch for the arm coming out first in order to establish right-of-way. If the arm isn't preceding the footwork then it needs to be worked on a bit. This helps in another way as well: If the arm is extended than the footwork can adjust to the correct distance. As the instructor, because I am no way a coach, yet, I need to vary the distance and get a similar attack each time, in other words, they need to hit the same way no matter the distance.

With that working smoothly, and a bit of varying targets, it is time to move on to beats and disengages. This gets exponentially more complex, and there aren't even parries on the student side yet. A strike against the blade is usually a good way to get the opponent to parry in that direction. A beat 4 and then a disengage to the six line as they parry 4 is one of the simplest combination attacks ever. After a beat 4 direct though, it can be another point. Here is a short list of more:

• Beat 4, direct 4 (no response to the beat)
• Beat 4, disengage to 6
• Beat 4, disengage to 8 (Is it really a disengage? Yes.)
• Beat 6, disengage 4 (Against the same handed person this might not make sense if they are already in 6 guard, but it is much like the direct 4 listed above, if they stay in 6 then 4 is open, why not take it?

Part of getting someone to react the way you want them to is to have a convincing feint. Does the opponent think that they are being threatened? If not then the feint can be continued into a direct attack, all the better. But anyway this is getting long winded, and I am starting to see where I need to be for drilling with most people. I will write more later.

In other news I glued my fencing shoes back together. Unfortunately I would never recommend Absolute Fencing for shoes, they are cheaply made and wear down quickly on wooden floors, not even the cheese-graters of fencing strips. That being said I have bought both my helmets from them after a very denty Italian helmet. They have held up quite well along with the jacket and knickers that I wear 2 to 3 times a week for a moderate amount of fencing. So consider them for most things, but not shoes.

Drills

I am not very good at staying motivated. I can get really excited and start something, but it is tough to keep going. This blog may be an example of gaining and losing interest. Do an inverse on the number of days between posts divided by the average number and you will see a not so good trend. So let's try this:

Tuesday Mike Aiao and a few fencers came out from Oahu. Mike started us out on the footwork for about 10 minutes, I would like to comment on how late everyone started fencing, but let's keep to the subject at hand.

Mike drilled us on Basic footwork, then handed it over to another experienced fencer, whose name completely escapes me. He is a coach too. He took us through footwork, correcting people with too wide of a stance and getting us to move and work for it. Here are a few of the exercises:

• Advance-Retreat - of course, really simple and basic, but many people don't focus on this after they think they have "mastered" it.
• Double advance-Double retreat - Again, but getting moving a bit faster and not pausing between the movement, sort of as a smoothing exercise.
• Check-check - basically just picking up the back foot and then picking up the front foot. Checks to see if you are balanced and not too spread out.
• Half advance-Half retreat - Again checks to see balance and gets the body used to moving with the correct leg first. The half advance is basically just lifting the front foot and putting the heel where the toe was, then bringing it back to on guard. The retreat is the same, just the other direction.
• Then add the check-check  in between advances and retreats, that is, on the change of direction.

That was all on the really basic stuff. We also did quite a bit of lunging, he was definitely against over-lunging, which of course is not good for you.

Enough for now, I will write more tomorrow after another evening of fencing.

If Fencing, Learn to Fence!

When I was growing up practicing meant sitting on the hard piano bench and maybe playing, but mostly waiting for a half-hour to roll by. Homework was a once or twice a school-year occurrence mostly consisting of a science fair project or some other large project, even through high-school. So I do not have a stellar record for discipline and practicing, but I am beginning to see the purpose.

Tirade
Right now there is a severe lack of discipline in our fencing group, everyone wants to fence, by which they mean sparring, not learning to fence but just beating each other about the head in hopes of landing a point. It isn't that bad, but it is getting worse. I am not the most disciplined person in the world, but somehow my meager practice and discipline stand out over most of the rest of the group.

A Call for Discipline
We could all use more discipline as a group. The good thing is that there does seem to be a bit of warm-up discipline, most fencers will jog around the gym a couple times and do high-kicks and side steps. This is a good thing to keep up, however, it should be slightly expanded for most to include arm stretches and individual footwork.

The point of the warm up is to get muscle groups working together and warmed up. This may help to develop muscle groups for those who don't do anything else throughout the week, but for someone in decent shape the warm up will do nothing but get the blood, muscles, and bones moving. If a fencer were to commit a solid thirty minutes to working on cardio, muscle group strengthening, and fencing specific individual things such as footwork and point-control, then and only then would I say that is a start.

In fact I would say that 30 minutes once a week of intense individual fencing practice would be for those who plan to never go to a tournament, who enjoy fencing just for fencing, but who need to maintain a level of activity and skill in order to keep up with those who plan to be competitors.

The leisure fencers should also work to maintain their bladework and distance skills by doing partner practices for about 30 minutes a week as well. This is to keep from injuring their fellow fencers. This is a sport based off of three weapons, there will certainly be injuries and bruises, but they can be lessened by in large by good form and decent control.

Competitive fencers, or really any fencer who plans to go to a tournament, even if they claim just to be fencing for fun, should be held to a higher level.

Cardiovascular Condition: Should be able to maintain intensity through a 3 minute fencing period. For direct eliminations, or larger tournaments, should be able to maintain 3 of those periods with 1 minute breaks in between. Smartly choosing intensities and tactics for different bouts in order to conserve/be ready for all day fencing. I run 5 to 10 miles a week currently, but I have very little good experience and knowledge at correctly choosing intensity and overall tournament strategy. I feel stronger and more energetic on the strip than I have for nearly 3 years before I picked up running again. I would suggest anything from power-walking for 2-3 hours a week to running 5 to 20 miles per week.

This could get very long pretty quickly so I will be writing up several more posts of what a competitive fencer should be doing each week in order to advance beyond just talent. I know this is hard for some to take as it seems that I am just pointing a finger, but truthfully it is something i need to consider to. Some questions we can ask ourselves: Do I want to get better? What bad habits should I try to eliminate? Do I want to be fencing as strong at the end as I was in the beginning?

Until next time work on some cardio. Next time is footwork.