I'm doing 41 things
In the process of moving...
2 months ago
...one realizes that at heart we’re all compulsive hoarders, albeit some of us less consistently than others.
Riley's Life List
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1. record my dreams
1 entry . 12 cheers319 people -
2. master grade 1 Kanji
1 entry13 people -
3. Research my genealogy
2 entries . 4 cheers204 people -
4. learn German
10 cheers3,993 people -
5. train as a barista
13 cheers21 people -
6. eat bread and cheese more often
19 cheers1 person -
7. find the locations in Spain where the spaghetti westerns were shot
5 cheers2 people -
8. read Ancient Greek
8 cheers10 people -
9. see 43 great films
1 entry . 8 cheers1 person -
10. rid myself of envy
13 cheers9 people -
11. learn to catch
1 entry . 4 cheers1 person -
12. rank the Presidents of the United States
4 cheers1 person -
13. formulate a coherent political philosophy
13 cheers1 person -
14. find out how a college education got so expensive
8 cheers3 people -
15. repeal the U.S. drinking age
1 entry . 1 cheer1 person -
16. learn chess openings
8 cheers6 people -
17. Learn to identify plants, flowers, and trees
16 cheers94 people -
18. never get a tattoo
9 cheers18 people -
19. let people know about "Open Source" radio
3 entries . 2 cheers1 person -
20. understand Rhetoric
3 entries . 2 cheers1 person -
21. write a play
6 cheers549 people -
22. be more like Camus and less like Sartre
9 cheers1 person -
23. convert Robert Moses' grave into a highway traffic divider
2 cheers1 person -
24. warn people about Constance Garnett's translations of Dostoyevsky
4 cheers1 person -
25. recognize musical intervals
5 cheers1 person -
26. learn walking bass
4 cheers2 people -
27. Improve my photography
1 cheer541 people -
28. Stop using paper cups
5 cheers2 people -
29. make a will
130 people -
30. learn more about statistics
1 entry3 people -
31. Understand game theory
2 cheers3 people -
32. learn to invest
7 cheers214 people -
33. take the MAT
2 cheers3 people -
34. put William James' words to the test: "Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."
8 cheers2 people -
35. learn ANTLR
1 entry1 person -
36. learn how to use git
1 entry3 people -
37. stop hoarding data
1 entry1 person -
38. get rid of everything I don't need
1 entry . 2 cheers115 people -
39. Learn about machine learning
2 people -
40. learn semantic web technology
2 people -
41. learn natural language processing
2 people
How I did it
It made me
go "whew". 
How I did it: I downloaded the renewal form in PDF from the State Department web site, printed it out, filled it out, and sent it in with my old passport, a check and two passport photos. I ordered expedited service because I hate being without a passport. Read how I did it…
Recent entries
Not out of the 林 yet
3 months ago
I realized this morning that I’ve attained the level of familiarity with grade 1 kanji such that the more advanced kanji now looks clearly and appreciably distinct. I’ve started to play “guess the grade” when I encounter unfamiliar kanji. Sometimes I get it right, although my guesses are pretty coarse grained: Grade 1, grade 2, or uh, beyond grade 2.
I’ve concentrated on the meanings, and have a lot of work to do in terms of learning the readings (on-yomi/kun-yomi) and how to compose the characters. Still having fun.
Surly adopter
3 months ago
It wasn’t so long ago I set aside cvs to take up subversion—which for all practical purposes has met my needs. But it’s no longer possible to ignore git: Many open source projects have already switched over to using it. It’s apparent that I will be assimilated sooner or later. Might as well make it sooner.
There are good and bad things about git. On the good side, github seems pretty cool, in so far as it facilitates collaboration in a way that leaves svn far behind. (Ever installed permission wrappers for a svn repository?) On the bad side, the git manpages are all but un-buildable under OS X. (Yeah, you can build them. If you install asciitext. And xmlto. And getopt. And gettext. This is where I gave up. This is too much work just to get manpages. And may I note that most of those packages don’t use a standard autoconf?)
