Category Archives: Travel

Travel

Writing in Jamaica

This trip to Jamaica has been like a mini-sabbatical to work on my paper. Every morning we head into Lucea, and Amanda goes to the clinic. I take a 5 minute walk down the road to the parish library, check my email and so on, and then sit down to work on the paper. I’ve got 2-5 hours straight to just work. To make myself write. If I need a short break, I look out the window and see the ocean. I was worried that this trip would really interfere with my ability to work on the paper, but for the most part, it has been a blessing.

It has been an interesting adjustment not having continuous internet access. On that note, my internet time is up. More later.

Update from Jamaica

Hi all. Just an update to let you know things are going fine in Jamaica. It’s been difficult getting used to only intermittent internet access, but I’ve been logging on every morning at the Hanover Parish library, which is only possible in half-hour increments. Today I downloaded a bunch of papers to read, and then I’ll take them and read them on my laptop, since I can’t practically print them. I’ll be heading back on Saturday evening.

Contact Info in Jamaica

I am in Lucea, Hanover in Jamaica. You can call me at (Jamaican mobile #) 876-775-2667 and text me there as well. To avoid international texting costs you can email text to me (length <= 160 characters) at 8767752667@cwmobile.com.

I and I be gwon Jamaica, mon.

Here’s where I’ll be for the next 10 days, at successively higher altitude views.

Sandy Bay, Jamaica

Imagery courtesy of Google Earth

ADDENDUM: I was slightly off, the place is just to the east of the place shown here, and you can see it in some of the mid-altitude zoom pics.

Back to Baltimore and JHU: Avoiding Burnout

My vacation and my trips to New Orleans and Seattle are are over. I arrived back in Baltimore yesterday, and made my way through the cold, wind, and rain to the lab today.

Hopkins has an “intersession” period at the beginning of January, affording me a brief break from classes. Assuming I passed Models of the Neuron (I still don’t have my grade), and that I pass the two classes I’m going to take this semester, this should be my last semester of classes. Finally. Anyway, for the moment I am free, and I have two more weeks free of immediate and pressing deadlines (i.e. homework).

I plan to take full advantage of this time to knock down Next Actions and finish some projects.

The flip side of this plan is that I am going to try to avoid burnout. In the effort to (a) settle in, (b) keep up, and (c) make a good first impression at JHU, I went full-throttle into the fall semester, working many days 08:00 – 22:00. In short order I found myself burned out but without enough free time to properly recover. I had a very good meeting with my advisor toward the end of the year, in which she suggested that I make time for exercise, meditation, etc.

I know those things are important, but it’s interesting how easily I push them aside when things seem “urgent”.

Thanks to my vacation, I am now well-rested and not a bit burnt out. In fact, I am eager to dig in to my work. However, I’m going to set a few priorities. Call them new years’ resolutions if you like:

  • Exercise – in addition to my daily bike rides, I’m going to continue swimming three times a week, and re-introduce weight training at home to my routine
  • Meditation – I’m going to try to give meditation a higher priority. 20 minutes per day. Surely I can spare that, right?
  • Dharma – I’m going to try to crank through some of the Audio Dharma and Zencast podcasts that I’ve accumulated. Listening to these before, during, and shortly after the Katrina debacle helped to keep me (relatively) sane. It also helps to keep me centered and mindful of attachment.
  • @Home projects – my @Home projects have barely moved in half a year. I’m going to devote some more home time to finishing some of those Next Actions.

Also, several people in my life are climbing on to the GTD bandwagon, and this is giving me renewed interest in streamlining and making more effective my own system. On the flight to Baltimore I spent some time with my treo, whacking the stupid out of my system and re-evaluating some of my stubborn Next Actions. I’ve already seen an increase in my ability to knock down the NAs.