I still haven’t figured out a clever way to translate my musical progress into blog form. Until then, you’ll just have to take my word for it — I’m kicking ass. I can play a mean rendition of Battle Hymn of the Republic. My daughter says so. Seriously though, it’s a lot of fun. Out of all the things that I’m doing, nothing is more rewarding than when a piece of music actually comes together, and I’m the one creating it. It’s a weird sensation.

It’s also kind of addicting. In fact, playing the piano reminds me a lot of playing a video game. Let me give you an example. A few years back I was obsessed with a racing game called Gran Turismo. I would play every day, determined to beat the game. When I got stuck on a certain race track, I would just play it over and over again until I beat it. My frustration greatly outweighed my enjoyment while playing, but when I finally did beat the track, it was all worth the effort. Victory is mine! Well, the same thing seems to be happening when I sit down at the piano. In the beginning there is the challenge, then comes hours of frustration, and then finally the reward. And what a sweet reward it is. I can’t pass the piano now without playing that song. I even hum it at work.

By the way, I can also play Silent Night like it’s know one’s business!

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it takes place every November. Thousands of authors, from novice to veteran, partake in this event and attempt to write 50,000 words, or more, in one month. That’s approximately 12,500 words a week or about 1700 words a day. 50,000 words is generally considered to be the average size of a novel.

I’ve been watching the NaNoWriMo community from a distance for years now and I have always admired this journey in which they all embark. I really want to be a part of it. Alas, 50,000 words is a little steep for someone who has never even written a short story, but what if I were to shrink that a bit. Say, 20,000 words (a novella). I might be able to do that. I could commit to three days a week, which comes out to approximately 1666 words per writing session (approximately three typed pages). That might be feasible for me.

I have no delusions of grandeur, mind you. I fully expect my first attempt to suck to high heaven, and there is no way anyone will ever read it other than yours truly, but it seems to me that it would be a good place to start. If anything, it will be a great learning experience and hopefully a lot of fun. I have multiple characters and plot lines floating around my head, which have been simmering on the back burner for the last few years. The question now is, which one of them do I run with?

I’ll keep you posted as the event starts to rev up.

It’s funny, the subject that I’m having the most fun with, is also the one I’ve written about the least. Well hopefully that’s about to change. I’ve finally received my Cyrillic stickers for my keyboard and have set up all my computers to allow me to switch from English to Russian on the fly. I thought I’d start with the basics, the Russian Alphabet. It will also give me a chance to learn the keyboard layout as well.

Though it may look confusing, once you memorize the alphabet it is surprisingly easy to sound out Russian words. There are obviously exceptions to the rules, but so far they seem few and far between.

Two examples are:

что - which is pronounced “shtoh” instead of “chtoh”.

and

сегодня - which is pronounced “sehvoydnia” instead of “sehgoydnia”.

I haven’t come across too many of these, but just be aware that they do exist.

I upped my daily meditation to 15 minutes. I started out at 8 minutes a day, then 10, then 12, and now 15. I really enjoy it. I don’t know if I’m doing it right, but I really enjoy it. If I had to describe what it felt like, I would say it was sort of like a very quiet and peaceful adrenaline rush. Yeah, that’s the best I can do…sorry.

Anyways, I plan on buying these books next:

• 365 Nirvana Here And Now: Living Every Moment In Enlightenment
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
• The Best Guide to Meditation

Methods are just like functions, with two differences:

1. Methods are defined inside a class definition in order to make the relationship between the class and the method explicit.
2. The syntax for invoking a method is different from the syntax for calling a function.

I’ve always been confused with the difference between functions and methods. The above quote has helped clarify that for me.

The perfect coldspeLL week that is. I used to call my little experiments like this “the okTober Projekt”. Notice my brilliant use of the letter “k”. I’ve been experimenting with weekly routines for a few months now and I’ve finally come up with one that I think might work. So starting today (my perfect week goes from Saturday to Friday), I will jump into it full force. First I’m going to break down my weekly schedule by subject, and then by days of the week. This is really for my own reference, but I figured why not post it to the world. Here goes…

By subject:

Health:

Running = Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday : from 1pm to 2pm. (including shower)
Weight training = Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday : from 6pm to 7pm
Meditation = Everyday : from 6:30am to 6:45am
Meals = Seven healthy meals/snacks a day @ 6am, 8am, 9:30am, 11pm, 2:30pm, 4pm, 6pm (or 7pm on lifting days)

Studies:

Python = Monday, Wednesday, Friday: from 5:30am to 6:15am
Writing = Tuesday, Thursday : from 5:30am to 6:15am
Piano = Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday : from 6:15 to 6:30
Russian = Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from 5pm to 5:30pm (I can do this while commuting to and from work)
Photography = Sunday (anytime)

Saturday
Sleep late, rest up, do whatever I want. I’ll still eat healthy and meditate (though probably at night), but I’m not committed to any studies or exercise regiments. I do, however, reserve the right to partake in any of the above activities if the urge strikes. — We’ll just call this a wild card day.

Sunday
5:00am = Wake up, grab my camera, and don’t let it out of my site for the rest of the day.
7:00am = Meditate.
9:00am = Free time until dinner.
4:00pm = Dinner, lunches, and clothes for next day.
5:30 = Weight training. (Chest and Triceps)
10:30 = Time for bed.

Monday
5:00am = Wake up.
5:30am = Python studies.
6:15am = Piano lesson.
6:30am = Meditate.
6:45am = Shower and get ready for work.
7:20am = Leave for work, Russian lesson.
7:45am = At work.
1:00pm = Run 2 miles.
5:00pm = Leave work, Russian lesson.
5:30pm = Home from work. Make lunch and get cloths ready for the next day. Free time.
10:30pm = Time for bed.

Tuesday
5:00am = Wake up
5:30am = Write, Write, Write.
6:15am = Piano lesson.
6:30am = Meditate.
6:45am = Shower and get ready for work.
7:20am = Leave for work, Russian lesson.
7:45am = At work.
1:00pm = Run 2.8 miles.
5:00pm = Leave work, Russian lesson.
5:30pm = Home from work.
6:00pm = Weight training. (Biceps and Back)
7:00pm = Make lunch and get cloths ready for the next day. Free time.Free time.
10:30pm = Time for bed.

Wednesday
5:00am = Wake up.
5:30am = Python studies.
6:15am = Piano lessons.
6:30am = Meditate.
6:45am = Shower and get ready for work.
7:20am = Leave for work, Russian lesson.
7:45am = At work.
5:00pm = Leave work, Russian lesson.
5:30pm = Home from work. Make lunch and get cloths ready for the next day. Free time.
10:30pm = Time for bed.

Wednesday is another rest day. No running or lifting.

Thursday
5:00am = Wake up.
5:30am = Write, Write, Write.
6:15am = Piano lesson.
6:30am = Meditate.
6:45am = Shower and get ready for work.
7:20am = Leave for work, Russian lesson.
7:45am = At work.
1:00pm = Run 3 miles.
5:00pm = Leave work, Russian lesson.
5:30pm = Home from work.
6:00pm = Weight training. (Shoulders)
7:00pm = Make lunch and get cloths ready for the next day. Free time.
10:30pm = Time for bed.

Friday
5:00am = Wake up.
5:30am = Python studies.
6:15am = Piano lessons.
6:30am = Meditate.
6:45am = Shower and get ready for work.
7:20am = Leave for work, Russian lesson.
7:45am = At work.
1:00pm = Run 3.5 miles.
5:00pm = Leave work, Russian lesson.
6:00pm = Friday nights are free.

And there you have it. Exciting, huh? What’s that? I need to get a life? Blah! Who needs that!

My goal is to follow this plan, as is, for one entire week. After that I will reevaluate. Also, anytime I use the phrase “Free time”, this could mean anything from playing with my daughter, to cleaning the house, to preparing meals, to painting my kitchen to, well, anything else that life has in store for me. Free time is not me skipping around, singing Skip to my Lou, my darlin. Though it could be.

One last thing. While experimenting with these weekly routines, I’ve realized the need to be flexible. Life, unfortunately, doesn’t always want to follow my routine, so I need to be ready to adapt. Be like water and flow with life, don’t struggle against it. See, you even get a touch of Taoism here at coldspeLL.

I’m still here, though you wouldn’t think it by reading this blog. I’m still running, lifting and eating healthy, I’m still coding, I’m still speaking Russian, and I’m still meditating almost every day. I am also writing, playing the piano, and taking photographs, though not nearly as much as I’d like to. I hope to remedy this.

On a side note, I’ve decided to read a minimum of one book a month. I’ve always wanted to read more, but I can never seem to find the time. That’s a sad excuse if you ask me. How hard is it to read a few pages a day. It’s not, actually, or at least that’s what I keep telling my daughter who has a book report due in one month. To help her realize this, I took the number of pages in her book and divided it by 30. I then grabbed a sticky pad and started to write the numbers 1 through 30 on them, one for each day of the month. According to my calculations, she needs to read 8 pages a day to reach her goal. I took each sticky note and placed them on the page that she should be on for each particular date (every 8 pages). Okay, so I know this isn’t some revolutionary idea, but it seems to help her when I set small goals instead of big ones. 8 pages a day, to her, is a lot less frighting than 240 pages. Then it hit me! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. So I did the same thing for the book that I’m presently reading and it turns out that all I have to do is read 10 pages a day to meet my monthly quota. That’s a nice small goal that I’m pretty sure I can handle.

Just in time too, my Amazon wish list is getting a bit out of control.

Breathing is important. If you don’t breath, you’ll die. Did you know that? But what I’m talking about is controlled breathing. I use some controlled breathing techniques prior to meditation to help me relax, and the effects are quite astounding. I was curious to see what kind of techniques runners use to help them go through the paces.

Ehow.com had some good tips, here and here. I tried the four-stride technique laid out in the first example. It goes something like this:

1. Start by inhaling when your left foot first hits the ground.
2. Continue to inhale for two full strides, i.e., inhale at left, right, left, right, left, right…
3. When you left foot hits the ground again, start to exhale slowly for two full strides, i.e., exhale at left, right, left, right, left, right…
4. Lather, rinse, and repeat!

It worked out pretty good, though I found that I had to really concentrate on my breathing to keep a consistent pattern going. I also found myself screwing up the pattern quite a bit, or having to deliberately break the pattern to catch up on my breathing. Apparently, this is normal. Depending on your running conditions and experience (up hill, down hill, novice runner, etc…), this technique should be modified, and sometimes on the fly. Your strides change significantly when running up or down hill, so it goes without saying that your breathing patterns should change too.

I’m going to experiment with other techniques as I go. I’ll keep you posted.