So, this morning I jammed my left middle toe on the center island in the kitchen.
It’s not really swollen, so I don’t think it’s broken, and they don’t do anything for a broken toe other than the big one as far as I know, so it doesn’t really matter if it is.
It really hurts. It’s hard to walk. I’ve now got a big bag of ice wrapped in a towel and rubber-banded around my toes to keep the pain and inflammation down.
Ow.
Found these today via MSN Virtual Earth
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| My Apartment | Amanda’s Apartment |
I’m still up at Larsmont, near Two Harbors, MN (check the ‘Posted from here’ link on the main page for the GPSed location). I’ve been trying to get work done, but without any kind of schedule, or even a framework of a schedule, and outside my normal environs, I’ve had a hard time getting work done.
I ended up trying to get work done all day, but being frequently distracted. This led to me trying to ‘catch up’ in the evenings, or whenever, and caused me to be tired, frustrated, and irritable.
After a discussion with Amanda over my sanity and productivity, I decided to start working a regular schedule. For the past three days, I’ve been working 08:00 – 12:00 and 13:00 – 17:00. This gives me a solid 8-hour work schedule and leaves time for some rest and relaxation in the evenings, as well as a nice, 1-hour lunch break.
This has helped increase my productivity, and more importantly, has done something to save my sanity. However, even within a scheduled work time, it’s easy to be distracted, to let breaks run a bit too long, and so on. In order to keep myself mindful of my time use, I’ve started using a program called KArm. It’s part of the KDE personal information management module, and fortunately runs on Mac OS X as well as various flavors of Linux, BSD, etc… With KArm, I’ve been logging time on a per-project basis, as well as break time, personal logistics (i.e. calling and cancelling my cable service since I don’t have an apartment), and work logistics (i.e. securing access to other labs’ computing resources). It turns out I take a lot of breaks. It’s nice to have it logged, so that I can watch the little minute counter rise as I slack off. I have about 20 minutes left of ‘work time’ today, but here’s where things stand right now (today’s time only):
| Task | Time |
| AscendingRamp | 2 min |
| Break | 2 hrs 1 min |
| MagfemVerification | 1 hr 19 min |
| Personal Logistics | 1 hr 44 min |
| Work Logistics | 57 min |
| Regional Ischemia Paper | 1 hr |
The paper writing is tough. I’m making it a requirement that I do a minimum of 1 hour’s work on the paper every day. Otherwise, it’ll be avoided and procrastinated to oblivion. Note that break time outweighs all other items, with personal logistics coming in at a close second. I’m working on it.
The AscendingRamp time is misleading — I’ve probably spent close to 10 minutes on the project, but that’s mainly swinging over to the cluster at WLU and checking to make sure that the pacing simulation is chugging along. I started it yesterday, and it won’t be done till sometime around noonish tomorrow.
That’s all for now. Just in case you’re wondering, I’m classifying this time as ‘Personal Logistics.’
I found (in my backups — I’m so thankful that I ran nightly backups to a removable drive) a statically-linked binary of the latest version of our simulation software.
I’m now setting up a universal operating environment, containing binaries, libraries, and scripts, that I can synchronize onto the various clusters that the lab has been given access to. I think I’ll have simulations running by tomorrow around lunch time.
I’ve also started logging the time I spend on lab-type work on a daily basis. I hope this will give me more insight into how I am spending my time, so as to encourage me to make the best use of work-time that I can.
Yesterday, I did nearly seven hours of work, while today I’m probably closer to three or four. I had to run errands, including returning the multifunction printer/scanner/etc device I bought last week. The scanner doesn’t work under OS X version 10.4, contrary to HP’s claims. It was therefore taking up space and a place in my budget and it had to go. I had my eye on a replacement device, but unfortunately Best Buy did not have it in stock — only available on their website. The joys of not having a permanent mailing address.
I should be returning to Mandeville soon, and will acquire the supplies I need at that time.
Power is supposedly back on at my parents’ house in Mandeville. The big question is, is the DSL up yet.
Hmm.