Week Notes: 19

Jun 6, 2022 20:53 · 637 words · 3 minutes read weekly-reviews

This is a new month! Albeit a very difficult one: last year this month a high-school mate kicked the bucket in a tragic road crash; and a dear one died by suicide. I’m taking things one day at a time. I’m sure I’ll pull through :)

Also, this is the first time since I started writing my weekly reviews where I skipped a review. On that note, here’s a lovely quote about criticism that I stumbled upon:

Psychologist and author Adam Grant on criticism:

“Criticizing is easy and fast. Creating is difficult and slow. The two hours you spent on a book or movie usually took two years to produce.

Anyone can tear down someone else’s work. The true test of insight is whether you can help them improve it or build something of your own.”

Free And Open Source(FOSS) Work

  • I haven’t been able to do much coding wrt work. I took time off to study for my module finals. That said, I was able to squeeze in a wiki entry on how to use pdb here. Later this week I plan on having a session with one my team-mates to show-case how I use pdb in the context of GN2.

  • I’ll try prioritizing GN2 work related to RDF.

  • Catching up with mails/IM’s.

Grad School

  • I had alot of anxiety/worry around doing exams. For one, I’m not allowed within SU’s campus grounds because I rock dreadlocks. This time, my usual invigilator wasn’t around, so my course administrator had to look for someone else to do that work. Unfortunately, this turned out to be absurdly expensive: KES 1000 per hour! Each paper is 3 hours long, and I had 3 of them. Luckily for me, the course admin is a reasonable woman and we were able to reach a reasonable agreement; heck I was able to sit for my final paper within SU.

  • The exams went absurdly well for me. I thought I was under-prepared, but the “little” I [think I] did was good enough to ace those finals.

  • On the final day of my exams, we went out as a class—I left abit early though—to unwind at some joint. It was great to meet, in face, some of my classmates.

  • Each semester has been an improvement of the prior semester for me. Last semester, I stuck religously to taking great notes (first mentioned here) and being really attentive in class. This coming semester, I want to stick to getting into the habit of scheduled revision, and somehow weave that into my routine in a sustainable way. Juggling school, work and family life can be a daunting endeavour.

  • I want to start work on my dissertation. I’ll work on my “Literature Review” section. Part of that is already covered in my grant proposal.

Long Form Reading

  • I started reading:
    • SICP
    • The Book Of Why
    • Before They Are Hanged
  • I finished reading: “The Blade Itself” (The First Law Trilogy: Book 1) by Joe Abercrombie.

Personal & Miscellaneous

  • I’m grateful that I have been meditating regularly.
  • Bought 2 extra Erreggati notebooks to last me the rest of the year. I also bought one for my partner.
  • Binged: “The Office” (the Amarican version) over the weekend.
  • Eminem released an extended version of his iconic album: “The Eminem Show.”
  • Very insightful conversation with friends and family around exams, anxiety and dealing with traumatic experiences.
  • Started a meal plan.
  • Finally got around to filing last year’s taxes ahead of the on-coming June deadline.