As discussed last week, this entry is on break from a primary blog topic, so let’s jump straight to the numbers for the week.
Tuesday 8/18
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 2% of El Ojo del Mundo, various subreddit posts, ~60 minutes + 10 minutes (Toki Pona)
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, 1 episode of Arte Divierte, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Wednesday 8/19
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 1% of El Ojo del Mundo, various subreddit posts, ~60 minutes + 10 minutes (Toki Pona)
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Alfrely, 1 episode of La Zona Cero, 1 episode of Plano de Juego, ~60 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Thursday 8/20
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 2% of El Ojo del Mundo, ~60 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~90 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Friday 8/21
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 1% of El Ojo del Mundo, ~60 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~90 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Saturday 8/22
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 1% of El Ojo del Mundo, various subreddit posts, ~30 minutes + 10 minutes (Toki Pona)
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Daniel San GMR, ~120 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Sunday 8/23
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 1% of El Ojo del Mundo, ~30 minutes
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Kiwillius, 1 episode of La Zona Cero, 1 episode of Plano de Juego, 2 episodes of DSimphony, ~120 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
Monday 8/24
- Duolingo: 20 XP earned, ~0 minutes
- Reading: 2% of El Ojo del Mundo, various subreddit posts, ~60 minutes + 10 minutes (Toki Pona)
- Watching/Listening: 1 episode of Calex MP, ~90 minutes
- Speaking: reading out loud, ~30 minutes
- Total Duolingo: 140 XP, 0 minutes
- Total reading: 1/10 books read, 360 minutes + 40 minutes (Toki Pona)
- Total watching/listening: 13 YouTube episodes watched, 630 minutes
- Total speaking: reading out loud, 210 minutes
- Total Time: 17 hours 10 minutes
A slightly better week overall than it’s been trending recently. I decided early on that I really needed to give up the ghost on how I’ve been approaching the blend of reading vs. watching in my day to day, thanks to the usual level of demand at work that I have. It hasn’t been at ‘start of the pandemic’ levels for a while now, but it is just too busy for me to reliably get more than an hour of reading in. Maybe it will get that way again as things change, both at work and in the world in general, but I can’t keep operating from the assumption that it’s just going to change, because it’s been this way for quite a while now.
I’ve got things to a pretty consistent groove of an hour of reading with my scheduled breaks, lunch, and a specific part of the day before work starts, but the goal was always to get an additional half hour or more in during slower times of the day, something that just doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve stretched the time spent out to my goal of ninety minutes by reading after work, but the truth is that doing it that way has been mentally draining, because by the time I’m done with work I’m pretty tired and not very good at concentrating on written words anymore and would rather just watch something for a while before I have to go to bed. So I’ve decided just to lean into that.
Spending the hour and a half on watching/listening practice has proven to be a lot more accessible for me compared to what I was doing before, and the hour of reading that I have already built into my schedule feels a lot less oppressive to get through, since it’s just what I’m expecting to do throughout the day. I’m getting the same amount of work done over the work day and needing to squeeze out the extra thirty minutes after finishing, but can do so in a way that feels more naturally in tune with where I’m at mentally through the day.
So in that spirit, progress on El Ojo del Mundo has slowed down a bit, but I’m making my way through it. I’m about to cross the halfway mark, so it isn’t like it’s eternal or anything. It had started out a little dry, but it’s grown on me a lot as time’s gone on, and I’d love to have more time to read it day to day. Things just is what they is, though.
In the watching/listening world, Daniel San GMR has started streaming semi-regularly again, so I’m finding myself with lots of youtube material to watch. This has slowed me down on Gravity Falls quite a bit, but I seem to go in weird ebbs and flows of interest with different things, so I’ll likely get back to it and obsessively finish it one of these days.
The Toki Pona time has been good in general, as I don’t feel like I’m slipping much on it, so these little blips are helping keep it in my head, but I admit it’s not very intuitive for me yet to get to the blips. These should be easier to just fit into the day in an unobtrusive way, but I am still experiencing the sense that I have to go out of my way to remember to do it, and sometimes forget to get to it at a reasonable rate. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time and I’ll figure out how to slot it into my daily routine more naturally.
Anyway, that’ll do for this week. This first try at the abbreviated blog thing really seemed to hit the spot for what I was needing mentally, so big thumbs up so far. We’ll see how this hits going forward. TTFN.
Fumbling Toward Fluent 