Minor adjustments

I have written before about school and distraction and playing games, though a lot of that has been on the main blog.

I recently realized that I was trying to concentrate on school -- which makes sense -- to the exclusion of other things -- which does not make sense and was not sustainable.

I would be working on schoolwork, and having a hard time focusing, so I would play a game of Spider Solitaire or watch some videos for a quick break.

It often ended up being too long of a break. 

Then, because I was not getting far enough along with school, I was also not getting to anything else and feeling frustrated about that. This did not help my concentration.

I hope this post isn't too much of a let down for people who have figured out all of this long ago.

Anyway, the answer ended up being that I needed to prioritize other things along with school.

Last night I watched a movie I had been meaning to watch, and then I did some more schoolwork. In between sections of the paper that I was working on, I folded laundry, changed my sheets, and did some cat grooming.

The night before I wrote three letters that I have been meaning to write for an embarrassingly long time. I did not get as much schoolwork done as I would have liked, but I think I was able to study better yesterday for having those letters done.

If part of my distraction is the other things I want to do pulling at me, then getting some of those done is more satisfying than the things that are supposed to be a quick distraction.

Don't get me wrong; writing even one letter takes longer than one game of Spider Solitaire does, if it ends up only being one game. However, the fact that it doesn't really solve anything may be why it tends to not be only one game, or why when I get back to the schoolwork my mind is still running around all over the place.

Technically it all makes sense. As unimpressive as an addiction to MarbleDrop might be, it is a very normal issue with addiction that you are substituting the object of the addiction for something else. It escalates because it keeps not working.

There is a small dopamine hit for having successfully solved a Sudoku puzzle, but if what I really want is to be keeping up with my church responsibilities or my housework or my friends, as well as keeping up with my schoolwork, then I should be addressing those needs.

Then you can quibble about whether those are multiple needs or the same need of feeling competent and on top of things... I mean, we can be complex people.

Regardless, last night I wrote three sections on the assignment and I still had fresh sheets! 

No post today

I think I am going to need to start a new series, but figuring that out. 

For your health

Dear readers, I have a cold.

I think I picked it up at OMSI. We went to see the Lego dinosaur exhibit. I was masked, but I have a common rhinovirus right now, which spreads from surface contact. This particular exhibit had lots of hands on building stations, meaning many people were touching the same bricks over and over. I am pretty good about washing my hands, but I guess I was not good enough.

This will not kill me. It is pretty annoying and it does not help my issue of being constantly tired, but I will survive.

There are worse things to catch than a cold. Diseases currently spreading in the United States include Covid, measles, and whooping cough. 

Making things worse, I am now reluctant to trust any information from the CDC. 

I know that in February the US was still averaging around 350 Covid deaths weekly.

I know there had been some interesting breakthroughs in what is happening with long Covid, though it's going to take additional research and good medical care for that to matter. 

Really, these are very discouraging times.

It's on us to do what we can to make things better.

Wear a mask when you are indoors in public spaces.

Actually, change that to "wear a respirator".

There is a lot of anti-masking sentiment, first directed against protesters, now against ICE. It makes sense, but none of the real or pretend ICE agents are wearing KN95, so let's start using our terms carefully.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/personal-health-care-us/products/face-coverings-101/ 

Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly. 

Consider adding an air purifier. You can still build one with an ordinary fan and filters, but there are commercial ones too. This may not only help with disease, but also with pollen and smoke from wildfires.

Imagine a world where people had taken COVID seriously and not allowed the spread and mutations.

Imagine a world where people had not started spreading ridiculous lies about vaccines, starting with Andrew Wakefield lying for financial gain.

I'd say imagine no Trump and RFKJr, but at that point we will just start to cry.

So in this very difficult time, do the best you can to make things better. 

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/02/im-not-swearing-at-you-this-time-but.html  

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/12/wear-damn-mask.html 

Until you find what works

I know it is because I am in school, but I keep thinking back to something on my mission.

My mission was to work with Laotian refugees in the San Joaquin valley.

The Lao language has a completely different alphabet, there are tones that affect which letters get used for some sounds, and there are not many cognates with English.

I had studied French, Spanish, Italian, and even bits of German and Norwegian, but there were no helps with that here. (Well, there were two Lao words that had been pulled from French, but that was about it.)

Previously learning languages had been pretty easy for me. I am not saying that there wasn't any studying or difficulty involved, but reading over the information and looking things up worked pretty well. 

That was all off the table in Lao.

Also, a lot of our work was with younger people who spoke English pretty well, often better than Lao.

We had time set aside each day for language study, but I was not using it effectively. I didn't know how.

This got worse in Modesto, where someone had donated a box of old church literature. There were some old scriptures in it, but also a lot of magazines. I would get distracted reading those magazines. I had always done a lot of reading before, but what we were allowed to read was very limited. Here was a treasure trove. There was a relief to reading in English when I did not feel like I was getting anywhere with the Lao.

Eventually my companion told me that it was a problem and she would have to tell the mission president. I started buckling down for that, because no one wants to get called into the principal's office. I did anyway, because someone else said I had a lot of potential but wasn't fulfilling it (my worst nightmare, other than vampires).

Those are not happy memories, but there is also one huge regret that has gotten worse.

When I did start studying effectively, the key for me ended up being writing. I suspect that is because the different alphabet was not entering my head as well; I needed to get it in via my hands as well as my eyes.

What I later realized would have been perfect was translating the magazines. It would have given me a wide range of vocabulary and given me practice writing and I still would have been able to read the magazines that I found so compelling. 

I still regret that I didn't think of it then. It really would have been perfect. 

I suppose in some ways it was a harder adjustment for me than for some other missionaries learning Lao. I was used to language coming easily, but the process I was using wasn't working. If they didn't have that experience, maybe that made it easier to just keep trying different things until something worked. 

Then again, maybe the first thing they tried did work, even if it required more effort.

In school I keep having to figure out how to approach various assignments. Often the first one that seems logical also feels wrong. 

I won't immediately give up the way that feels wrong, because there could just be some aversion to schoolwork or procrastination going on. However, it is important to remember that lots of different approaches are possible. Not only is it okay to change things up, it may be vital.

I suppose I am also thinking about this because on the main blog I am writing about different options for resisting. There often seems to be some failure of imagination. If you always do what you've always done...

The point is, don't give up. 

Do give it more thought.