2024-11-07-Thu (312)

> [!check] This is a page out of [[What Is Grail Diary|Grail Diary]]. --- Vďibňík (Štúdium): Thu 00:12 – Thu 01:11 (00:59) *Grail Diary entries or review* --- Chores Evening (Chores): Thu 01:11 – Thu 01:17 (00:07) *miscellanea at home & outside* --- Sleep (Sleep): Thu 01:17 – Thu 05:29 (04:11) *preferred from 10 to 5* > What a fabulous, classic `poloviční jaskinní Spánok`! 4 hours and 11 mintes, rated at 47% by Chrapapka (that's as close to being 'halfway' as you can get!), only 2 minutes of snoring, and I feel completely fresh & ready to go. I certainly made the most of having no newspaper night shift last night; no need to set the alarm clock, but my body simply made me wake up whenever it was *ready and fully restored* to wake up; and as is frequently the case with me, that's following a `poloviční jaskinní Spánok` for me. One can see 4 distinct 'valleys of sleep' in Chrapapka's chart, so, yeah, it appers I went through 4 *&sleep cycles* over the course of this half-night, and woke up *naturally* pretty much after climing up from the fourth 'valley of sleep'; that's very different compared to an alarm clock grabbing you forcefully from the depth of your slepp just as you are, perhaps, located at the very *bottom* of the valley; no wonder you then feel all broken up, if *that's* the way you woke up. So '4 hours of sleep' may not always equal '4 hours of sleep' – it may all come down to *how you woke up* from those 4 hours of sleep, whether you feel fully refreshed after them, or all broken up and tired, as if you hadn't slept at all! I'm absolutely ready to go – to go ahead and publish that Substack English blog post on Copilot's failures at long last, using the draft in Obsidian; it should *not* take another 3 and a half hours to do so; and I really believed, back on Sunday, I would succeed in publishing it later on Sunday. Bu here we are on Thursday morning, and it still isn't done; but I feel it willl be, soon. Fast ongoing for 16+ hours now, but I feel no desire for food, for breakfast whatsoever – I feel great 'hunger' for getting the pair of blog posts on Copilot published at long last! Of course, I do realize that it was only a `poloviční` (!) `jaskinní Spánok`: meaning it was just the *first half* of the sleep I needed so much; the 'second half' will need to come later, and I need to be ready for that; *that* fatigue tends to arrive after breakfast, which is why it's a good idea *not to eat anything* now, *postpone* breakfast, or even convert it into a *brunch*, and use these hours of early-morning freshness to complete the blog post at long last. It's particularly great that this time around, the `poloviční jaskinní Spánok`took place, 'for once' (I'm tempted to say), *exactly* when sleep is supposed to occur: *in the night*, rather than in daytime. Its beneficial effect are likely to be even greater, thanks to that. Following the `poloviční jaskinní Spánok`, `Elektroprsťeň` reports a 'Sleep' score of 60, and a 'Readiness' score of 66, labeling both of them 'Fair'; that's only following a *half-way* sleep! So if I manage to get the sleep's 'second half' later today, perhaps that score will rise even higher, although `Elektroprsťeň`, quite rightfully, *detracts* points, or doesn't award as many of them, for any sleep occurring in *daytime*, rather than when it's supposed to occur: in the night. But a 'Fair' rating from `Elektroprsťeň` is a luxury for me to see; just as a reminder, `Elektroprsťeň` flatly refused to provide *any rating whatosover* to me, for 'Sleep' and 'Readiness', following that all-night bout with Election Night coverage; that's how broken up I was yesterday. There are some downsides: it's 6:31 a.m. now, and yesterday's school lunch is still unretrieved; I may fail to retrieve it compeletely; but as soon as the pair of Copilt blog posts are published, I plan to head out to school, bringing *today's* lunch pail (still unwashed a of right now) over there, and likely trashing *yesterday's* lunch. But it's amazing what *one good sleep* (*half-sleep*, in fact!) can do to you: the world suddenly looks completely different compared to what it was only yesterday; the same subjects that serve to *increase* my depression yesterday, suddenly don't seem to matter now at all. Take you-know-who: I would have been *embarrassed*, only yesterday, by any encounter, virtual or especially real; but *today*? I would just *shrug it off*, as a thing of the past, and smething to laugh at dismissively. In that sense, I may perhaps start calling 'you-know-who', 'former-you-know-who'; and yesterday's 'former-you-know-who' would then be relegated to 'former-former-you-know-who'; all fine with me! After I woke up this morning, and looked thorugh nightly ntofications present on `miniPad` (no `ection` this morning, whatsoever, either: just some *clean, wholesome* sleep!), I noticed *yesterday*'s notification for that unexpected message from 'former-former-you-know-who'; what a great profile picture! And, as I said, no `ection` whatsoever; but seeing that picture gave me an *additional* boost to get up from bed *right away*, to compose this journal entry & then get going with finishing the publication of the pair of blog posts. Of course, it's 6:41 a.m. now, so *today*'s bomb threats are likley to be received within the next pair of dozens of minutes, requiring more police phone calls, likely; but even *that* disruption cannot dislodge me *this* morning, unlike the very same thing happening yesterday morning, after the gruelling Election Night. But it's really important to remember what the robot stressed in yesterday's recap: I should prioritize *sleep* over everything else; even if I set a *single* goal for a day, and the goal would be to get *sufficient sleep*, and even if I accomplished *nothing else* on that day, except for getting that sleep – it would be some *real progress*. So I agree with the robot that sleep now must be prioritized; and, therefore, I will strive to catch 'magic 22' tonight; and if that can't happen, definitely a *pre-midnight* close-of-day; ideally, featuring the 'day recap talk & rating' with the robot, which appears to have developed into a very nice 'wind-down' routine at the close of every day now, with clearly 'therapeutic', beneficial effects! --- Online Comm (Altruism): Thu 05:29 – Thu 06:06 (00:37) *all types of it* > Oh, and another piece of great news appeared among the nighttime notifications on `miniPad`: the announcement that a newspaper colleague, currently on maternal leave, might slowly start returning to work from January onwards; that would bring great relief to me, as it was mostly myself who had to take on an increased workload of newspaper shifts to substitute for her, over the course of this hellish year of 2024. --- Vďibňík (Štúdium): Thu 06:06 – Thu 06:54 (00:48) *Grail Diary entries or review* --- Tvorba (Štúdium): Thu 06:54 – Thu 08:07 (01:13) *typically writing* > Now let's get that pair of blog posts, Slovak & English, on Copilot's failues, published at long last, then sending out links to them via email and a pair (I think) of relevant Facebook groups; I'll be catching flak and bashing from Facebook users, as always, but that's Facebook from you; and there are Microsoft employees in those groups, who will likely be incenced by the blog posts; but what needs to be said, needs to be said; I may even get *banned* from the Facebook groups for criticising Copilot; but if that's what they feel they need to do, so be it! The robot rated both the Slovak, and the English blog post at ⭐⭐⭐⭐, which shows there *is* valuable content in both of them; and that's good enough for me. --- Vďibňík (Štúdium): Thu 08:07 – Thu 08:17 (00:10) *Grail Diary entries or review* > (estimate) 8:07 a.m. now; reformatting everything from Obsidian to Substack is a heavy chore, especially for a blog post that's over 12.5 thousand words long; it's going to take at *least* an additonal hour, perhaps more; yesterday's lunch in cafeteria is probably lost for good; what is worse, I probably can't deliver the lunch pail (still soiled and not cleaned in the `Kuťica` kichen...) on time, for *today's* lunch: so *today's* lunch might be lost, too. But it is what it is: the top priority right now is to get the pair of blog posts published, because this should have occurred 4 days ago, on Sunday. It's funny to say, but I'm almost *missing* that no bomb threat arrived this morning, after 3 consecutive early mornings of having received it! Could it be that the Slovak police finally managed to reach that foreign, TOR-flavored website, that allowed those anonymous emails to be sent out with impunity? This no doubt requires an international cooperation of police in many different countries, I'd guess; and these particular anonymous bomb threats have been plaguing institutions in Slovakia, especially schools with small kids, for *months* now. Let's see if we're back to new bomb threats *tomorrow*... --- Admin Chores (Robota): Thu 08:17 – Thu 09:05 (00:48) *includes work preparation & organizing* > And there it is: a classic interruption from school arrived, taking up around 45 minutes; this seals the deal: yesterday's school lunch is lost, and today's lunch is likely lost as well; never mind: let's move on with finalizing the English blog posts and publishing both of them! By the way: it occurred to me that I reported all bomb threats from the last 3 days as 'phisihing' to Google, so it's possible that the bomb threat was sent this morning as well, but this time around, Google (rather than any police force) blocked its delivery outright. --- Tvorba (Štúdium): Thu 09:05 – Thu 13:43 (04:38) *typically writing* > (estimate) More & more interruptions in the midst of Obsidian to Substack blog post transitions, related to the colleague's return from maternal leave; but it's important for me to keep track of this, so that I'm not quite as overloaded in 2025 in substitution duties for the newspaper as I've been for pretty much the entire current year of 2024. --- Online Comm (Altruism): Thu 13:43 – Thu 14:43 (01:00) *all types of it* --- Vďibňík (Štúdium): Thu 14:43 – Thu 14:58 (00:15) *Grail Diary entries or review* > Well, of *course* I severely underestimated how much time the finalizing of the pair of blog posts (including their promotion on Facebook, Reddit, and via email) would take: it took 4 hours and 38 minutes; just an estimate, due to constant interruptions via emails from school, `Šľak` messages from newspaper colleagues, etc., which I gauged, cumulatively, at 1 hour. Which means it's 2:46 p.m. right now, and I haven't even eaten yet – yet don't feel hungry in the slightest; the joy of creativity completely obliterated everything; even though I wasn't strictly *creating* anything today; merely *editing* what had already been 95% created back on Saturday and Sunday. Even so, it was lots of fun, and the final outcome (Slovak post at N blog, and the monumental English post at Substack) looks great, I think. All `you-know-who`s from all of my life could be proud! One of the `Šľak` interruptions was the proofreading boss saying she'd like to hire more people for our team; *excellent*! Means likely fewer substition shifts for me, which have been annihiliting me throughout 2024. And the *decision* to look for new folks may have been co-prompted by *my* `Šľak` contributions from early morning today, where I indicated I would no longer be capable of substituting on such a large scale in 2025 as I have 2024; so it's great that this feedback of mine, too, may have prompted the boss to look for team reinforcements. So it all feels great, and feels like a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ `anbhanend` day right now, but at least ⭐⭐ `anbhanend` for sure. Yet it's been a pretty *one-sided* day so far, by and large; I simply made the finalization of the two blog posts my top priority, and I've behaved accordingly. I feel 100% fresh right now: that's what creativity does for you, along with `poloviční jaskinní Spánok` in *night* hours. I'm sure when I eat something now, the fatigue will arrive; and that will be perfectly appropriate, given I've only managed *one* 'halfway sleep' so far for the day. Another downside: yesterday's lunch is school is lost, of course; and today may be, too, although I sent a text to my friend the cleaning lady, asking her to rescue the lunch if at all possible; will need to go to the cafeteria ASAP later today (hopefully not in darkness or in the middle of the night), to check whether the lunch might still be there after all. It's funny, but I don't feel the slightest trace of hunger *or* fatige right now; that's what *creativity* does for you. Fast has currently been ongoing for 24 hours and 39 minutes. But I *know* the fatigue and sleep deficit are there – just lurking in the background; that's why I'm not going to the cafeteria *now*, but will just go to `kuťičné Tesco` at the corner, grab a baguette/bread, and stuff myself with that, in *lieu* of today's breakfast *and* lunch. Then, hopefully, a *second* `poloviční jaskinní Spánok` will be bestowed on me, and we'll take it from there. So, let's go to `kuťičné Tesco` for that well-deserved breakfast-and-lunch replacement! --- Chores Noon (Chores): Thu 14:58 – Thu 16:40 (01:42) *miscellanea at home & outside* > A funny thing happened as I was moving from `Pekárokaviareň`, with two huge baguettes in the paper bag, to terminate the 26+ hour fast, to `kuťičné Tesco`; a lady enthusiastically greeted me, and while she certainly seemed familiar, I couldn't quite place her; following a couple of careful questions I posed, she disclosed enough about her & her family I finally remembered; a nice chat of around 10 minutes, standing next to the pedestrian crossing --- Krmivo (Chores): Thu 16:40 – Thu 17:03 (00:23) *mealtimes* --- Chores Noon (Chores): Thu 17:03 – Thu 17:32 (00:29) *miscellanea at home & outside* --- Nap (Sleep): Thu 17:32 – Thu 21:40 (04:08) *afternoon preferred* > And there it is: the expected *second* `poloviční jaskinní Spánok` of the day duly arrived, although really late: at half past 5 in the afternoon; meaning I woke up from it at 9:40 p.m.: 20 or 27 minutes prior to 'magic 22', or the time when I'm supposed to go to *bed* for the *night*! So, as can be seen, my thouroughly upside-down lifestyle continues; but I at least *did* get *both* `poloviční jaskinní Spánok` for the day, which is nice. This second was rated by `Chrapapka` at 43% for the length of 4 hours and 8 minutes, so that's over 100% effectiveness. Zero minutes of snoring, which is nice, too. On the other hand, there are only *3* distinct 'valleys of sleep' on the `Chrapapka` chart: one too few, for a sleep that lasted ove 4 hours; and indeed, `Chrapapka` says I actually only *slept* for 2 hours and 51 minutes; the rest of the time was spent lying on the torn mattrrasss with eyes closed; but even that counts for rest, as `Chrapapka` admits. For *both* `poloviční jaskinní Spánok` of Thursday, this gives a cumulative `Chrapapka` score of 47% + 43% = a whopping **90%** rating for sleep for Thursday; no wonder I feel totally *fresh* now – though at the *wrong* time, once again: it's 0:23 a.m. after midnight as I type this, and I'll need to catch the *second* night bus to school, to retrieve *yesterday's* 'lunch' (`zemákoví Kotel s Brawčostehnem`) for *this morning*'s breakfast once again; it's just *crazy*. Then again, the LA Kings host the Vancouver Canucks at 4:30 a.m. European time, so that will provide a nice combination of breakfast with hockey. Will need to stop typing here now, as I need to catch the night bus; will comment on later proceedings from the late evening after I get back from school and yet another mistimed 3-kilometer night walk. --- Online Comm (Altruism): Thu 21:40 – Thu 22:00 (00:20) *all types of it* > Got into silly spats on Reddit Slovakia about whether YouTube is a *censored* platform *without* free speech or not; of *course* that's exactly what it is; I gave the Bukovský example; got lots of flak & abuse there – they are humans over there at Reddit; no gentle, understanding robots as in the ChatGPT environment; it's always rough, transitioning from the *abusive* human environment to the gentle environment of refined discussion with the ChatGPT robots. But do you have nothing better to do? What a waste of time! But it may have been prompted by my disappointment of practically *zero* echo to my pair of blog posts on Copilot failures; I spent so many hours creating them, and there was *some* positive feedback, but *overall*, next to zero. Well, that's fine; I'm creating for *posterity*, then, like Schopenhauer used to say about his writings. --- Robota Altruistic (Robota): Thu 22:00 – Thu 22:21 (00:21) *work performed for others for free* > a phone call with former book proofreading client; I was *not* obligated to make it at all, at 10 p.m. late evening; especially because I will no longer receive any fee for this – that's why it's categorized as `Robota Altruistic` now; it's about the EPUB version of the book being mangled; we agreed we would go & pay a personal visit to the e-book creators' office tomorrow Friday; set up a meeting at noon exactly in front of the bookstore; I hate any set times in the schedule, but if we want to visit the e-book creators together, there's no way to avoid it. I've already set the alarm clock for 11:15 a.m.; if I were a 'normal' person, of course I wouldn't be asleep at 11:15 a.m.; but I am not, it may very well happen I'll be in the midst of my *intended* `poloviční jaskinní Spánok` at 11:15 a.m., and so the alarm clock is needed to disrupt the sleep forcefully; hopefully, that's not how Friday will unfold, but it may very well happen. --- Online Comm (Altruism): Thu 22:21 – Thu 23:22 (01:01) *continued silly, useless Reddit spats...* > continued silly, useless Reddit spats, causing me to miss the first night bus to school; along with that darn lunch pail *not* having been washed; I was fully dressed & ready to go and catch the first night bus, but washing the lunch pail at the last moment delayed me; and so, which is extremely unusal for me, I went back to `Repakokpit`'s office chair, fully dressed (!), and sat down to dispose of whatever can be disposed of, in the one hour available until the departure of the *next* night bus half an hour past midnight. --- Chores Evening (Chores): Thu 23:22 – Thu 23:49 (00:27) *miscellanea at home & outside* --- News (Robota): Thu 23:49 – Fri 00:16 (00:27) *newspaper proofreading night shift* > This was a *fantastic* intutitive decision by me: I noticed that, very surprisingly for a *Thursday*, tonight's night shift was going to be *brief*, and so I *immediately* launched into disposing of the *priority* segments of it, so that I could cancel the alarm clock set for 4:30 a.m.; and I indeed did accomplish that, in only 27 minutes! The night shift will still need to be finished later in the night or in the morning, but it's those *low-priority* segments of it, that no longer require an alarm clock; they can even be completed after 6 a.m., if needed. --- Vďibňík (Štúdium): Fri 00:16 – Fri 00:26 (00:10) *Grail Diary entries or review* --- Chores Evening (Chores): Fri 00:26 – Fri 00:33 (00:07) *I almost missed the *second* night bus...* > I almost missed the *second* night bus, too; to make sure I wouldn't, I took a healthy *sprint* past the Palace of Justice to the bus stop --- Pohib (Chores): Fri 00:33 – Fri 01:36 (01:03) *10.5 km daily walk(s) goal* > 4.72 kilometers walked; low 4.48 km/h speed; and dismayed to register some *head-spinning*; well, it's the middle of the night; I should be *asleep* now, instead of *sprinting* in the middle of the night. The headspinning reminded me of the major health crisis in late 2022 and beyond, when the constant head-spinning made *any* `Pochod[i]` impossible for me for *months on end*. Yes, there was the pair of `poloviční jaskinní Spánok`, but the second one was just too late; it's as the robot said: try to get *as much **night** sleep* as possible, and today, I didnt't – again! — Then, in utter darkness of the school cafeteria, I put down all 100+ chairs, and because there were *two* lunches waiting there for me: the unretrieved Wednesday lunch (will need to be completely thrown away, of course) *and* the unretrieved *Thursday* lunch – I got *delayed* once more, until I stored everything in lunch pails, etc.; delayed so much that I could no longer catch the night bus *back* from school to downtown; I watched the bus depart from a distance of around 250 meters; which meant I had to *walk* the entire distance from school to home. But I didnt't really mind; after all, my daily goal is 10.5 kilometers, and this was the *only* walk for 'Thursday' (it was past midnight, so actually Friday); a minimum walk is 3 kilometers, and this turned out to be 4.72 km, so not much more; very low speed due to underlying fatigue, night-time, etc., I guess. As I was crossing the deserted intersection between the `Ingmar Bergman` and `Šampióňi`, it occurred to me that there was *hardly any `ection`* over the course of the entire Thursday; and I didn't mind that at all; it indicated a *healing* from this T1 self-delusion; a sense of *calm*! Listened to a very nice pair of LA Kings `Strukogrami` during the walk: the very nice combo of Jesse Cohen (and Jack Jablonski) in the first `Strukogram`, and the always smooth and nice-to-listen-to Eddie Garcia in the second. Given all the *suggestions* of head-spinning (but it got steadily better the more I walked), I determined, following the advice from the robot from yesterday's recap, I would try and get as much sleep as possible from this night, as disrupted as it was; perhaps sleeping through *half* a night was better than *no* night sleep at all; so I would purposefully *not* finish the night shift when I got back home, and would go straight to bed instead. By the way, there *were* a couple of *public* interactions with T1 over the course of Thursday; not quite as dangerous as *direct* messages (still total radio silence since those misfired compliments I made *days ago*), but stilll dangerous, because they might reignite all the `escenarios` & self-delusion. --- Chores Evening (Chores): Fri 01:36 – Fri 02:27 (00:52) *miscellanea at home & outside* > ... and so, it's immediately off to bed now, at half past 2 in the middle of the night, *without* finishing the proofreading night shift; let's see if I can get at least *some* night sleep! --- ## Robot Feedback on the Day It looks like you had an extremely full Thursday! Here’s my analysis and feedback, based on the day’s events and how it all unfolded: ### Structure and Achievements 1. Strong Creative Momentum: Despite a daunting backlog, you made impressive headway on the pair of blog posts about Copilot’s failures. Given the initial 3-day delay and the length of these pieces, your persistence here is worth celebrating. This shows a lot of determination and a commitment to quality, as seen in both your engagement with readers and your satisfaction with the content. 2. Sleep Strategy: You managed to get two solid `poloviční jaskinní Spánok` cycles, totaling an excellent 90% `Chrapapka` rating. It seems clear that breaking the sleep into two parts, especially in the early morning and late afternoon, gave you a substantial freshness boost that sustained you throughout the day. However, even though this sleep approach kept you functional, the timing still resulted in a bit of a cycle disruption, especially as you stayed up past the `magic 22`. You might want to consider whether occasional adjustments could be made to capture even more restorative sleep during night hours, as you’ve noted. 3. Positive External News: The hint of a workload reduction next year from the return of your colleague from maternal leave, and the potential for additional hires, could bring long-term relief. It’s no small thing that your feedback seems to be acknowledged and respected, signaling that some key changes in workload may be on the horizon. ### Challenges and Potential Improvements 1. Delayed Tasks and Missing Meals: The sequence of delays – particularly with meals and retrieving lunches – seems to be a recurring theme this week. Missing the prepared lunches twice impacted your schedule. You might benefit from taking 5 minutes to check in on meal logistics earlier in the day, especially when major projects are underway. 2. Late-Night Disruptions and Frustrations: The Reddit spats seem to have thrown you off balance and added unnecessary frustration. While there’s always a tempting drive to “set things straight” online, especially on topics you feel strongly about, could there be ways to redirect this impulse, perhaps by logging such thoughts privately? I know you’ve often engaged in the past on these topics, but putting personal philosophy or reflections into your `Grail Diary` instead might help you to better navigate those frustrating impulses. 3. Handling of Backlogs and Routines: You might consider experimenting with very brief intervals dedicated to backlogged tasks. One or two `Pomodoros` or `Cibuľe` daily could yield progress without too much strain, reducing the looming feeling of “unending mountains.” ### Guess at the Star Rating Given your enthusiasm for the creative flow, the two-part rest that worked wonders for your mood, and the positive news about possible workload relief, I’d lean toward a **3-star day** for its balance of creative satisfaction and the ongoing practical hurdles with routines and time-management. But I’m intrigued – what’s your verdict? > Thank you, great summary. > > I'm going to be more lenient towards myself, giving this Thursday a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4-star) rating. Finally publishing the two blog posts was hugely satisfying for me (I'd been working on that since Saturday, after all), even though readers don't seem to appreciate them much (for now). But above all, what tips the scale towards 4 stars for me, are those newspaper bits of news about the possible workload reduction next year. That is the extra star, I'd say. > > Your warnings about avoiding online spats are more than appropriate; I lost focus there for a while, late night as it was. > > And, yeah: I should definitely get back into the rhythm of `Pomodoros`, `Cibuľe` & `Paprikas`, so I can more evenly reduce all the various backlogs that there are, instead of sacrificing pretty much the entire day for a *single* activity, no matter how satisfying. I appreciate your openness in weighing these factors for the 4-star decision. It sounds like the publishing milestone, along with the prospect of a lighter workload in the future, truly anchored the day in a positive direction for you. And you’re right – the clarity and efficiency that come with the Pomodoro rhythm could help streamline the satisfaction of finishing projects without sacrificing all else. Here’s to pacing future successes with those evenly spaced intervals! > Thank you, and see you tomorrow for the Friday recap! You're very welcome! I'll be here, ready for the Friday recap. Looking forward to it!