First Week Back

The most important thing that I've had to deal with this week involves sleep. I was sort of expecting this, but it's still pretty tough. Thinking is hard work. Going to class, taking notes, working out, homeworking, socializing, etc. It's tough. Getting the schedule down at home was pretty easy. I could do nothing if I wanted (though I tried to avoid that). Here I'm always doing something and my sleep schedule is taking a hit. I added an hour to my core nap and adjusted my naps to 30 minutes instead of 20. Even though I usually wake up before my nap alarm explodes, I need that extra time in my core. So my sleep time per day is still a respectable 5-5.5 hours, but not where I want to be. My goal is still 4 hours per day, and I'm sure I'll adjust. I'm not going to force anything right now, though: baseball starts up in 2 weeks and would only make me adjust again.

Also, I've noticed that it takes quite a bit of effort for me to take my nap. The decision is always between socializing and napping, and socializing seems so much more interesting. I always get them in, but I don't really look forward to them anymore and just kind of accept them as an inevitability. Schedules like this rely not just on the hours but on your mentality towards what you're doing. My mom tried very briefly to stay up with me, but ended up failing after only a few days. She didn't seem very tired, but couldn't accept that she needed so little sleep. I just had to look to first semester of senior year of high school (when I first got interested in alternate sleep patterns) when, according to my sleep journal, I averaged just over 3.5 hours of sleep per weeknight (and about 10 per weekend). I had some health complications after about 2 months of this, but until then it was a perfectly sustainable schedule. I actually think I could deal with even less sleep than 4, but I'm in an adjustment period right now so I'll play it safe.

Life here at UChicago has picked up exactly where it left off: physics homework every Wednesday, calculus homework on Mondays (instead of Fridays), civ reading Monday and Wednesday, and HUM reading Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm going to try very hard to get on my ideal work schedule now that I've caught up with all my reading for next week. Last quarter I didn't hold up too well, but I hope to finish (or at least take out a significant chunk of) my homework on the day it is assigned. For reading this really isn't a problem. I can just crack out the book when everyone else has gone to sleep and read a couple hundred pages. Physics will be interesting because we usually only get the material covered the class before it's due, so we'll see how that works out. Calculus shouldn't be too bad. But the really difficult thing will be papers. I have my first paper due Friday, and I haven't started yet. I should probably be doing that instead of posting this, but it's been a while since I entered anything. Anyways, this homework strategy should work out pretty well and leave my weekends pretty free.

I waste a little too much of my free time. 'Waste' actually isn't the right word, but I can't think of another one. I've spent quite a bit of time working on my cubes. I'm starting to really like my Dayan Zhanchi and my color scheme. I still can't decide what to do about ZBLL. On one hand, it has been my goal since sophomore year of high school. On the other, that means I would have to memorize and recognize 501 distinct cases. That's a lot of work. I'll figure it out.

I've also been watching a lot of movies. Well, technically it's a TV show. Those of you familiar with Mystery Science Theater 3000 will know all about this technicality. When I've re-watched all the episodes I'll do a list of my favorite episodes. Puma Man already has the #1 spot in my heart. Last night I watched it with some people in the common room and it was very well received. We then tried to watch Hercules and the Captive Women, but the drunk people started coming back from their parties and made too much noise. Still, good times. Also, a picture from last night. How exactly is Hercules steering?

I've also gotten really into my jazz collection, despite its rather small size. I guess I've eliminated it down to things that I really like. My iTunes now has a "Jazz Favorites" and "Study Music" playlist, and they've worked out well so far. I've also found that when I'm programming I work better to music. On homework, though I'm more motivated, it's a little distracting, hence the study-style music in a playlist. Also, if people know how to install Python modules, please let me know. My system protests whenever I try to get one up and running.

Well, that's about it. I had Harold's Fried Chicken yesterday for the first time. It was AMAZING. Everyone told me it would be meh, so I didn't have very high expectations. But three of us split 21 wings and fries and it was delicious. People propped up the Thai food here but I didn't find it that incredible. Still good, but not great. Harold's was great. And it only cost us about $7 each.

For those of you wondering, my new schedule is very similar to last quarter. With baseball it gets a little more exciting: