Content-type: text/html Ray Manning

Monday, February 8, 2021 8:02 PM

No travel?


Tuesday is a blah day. It starts with morning low temperatures of 39F, so I do not go riding in the morning. Instead I go walkng for 80 minutes. Throughout the day I play around with ideas for the voting strategy algorithm, but I'm temporarily stuck for a great idea. I manage to get the mountain bicycle in to the repair shop for new shifting cables but the front derailleur is again frozen and not in stock. So I take the bike home in a rideable configuration to return on Saturday or so.

I'm up a bit late on Wedesday, but ride the mountain bicycle to the old yacht club and back home. The "click" noise is still present so I'll probably insist on a new crank bearing. At home I mow the lawn and drop some fertilizer on te front yard in advance of Thursday and Friday's rains. For the res of the morning I take care of a lot of small paperwork items and laundry and stuff before having a CSULA Zoom meeting at 2pm. Some of the paperwork is the first part of the annual required filings for the nonprofit. It's been a productive day and I relax for the rest of the day.

I'm lazy on Thursday morning and I do not get out cycling. Instead I go walk for an hour and drop some items off at the post office. After a shower I go get gasoline for the lawnmower and pick up supples at the grocery store. Back at home I reconfigure the voting strategy algorithm to utilize a neural network to derive precinct vote costs. And by 1pm I'm getting very close to the results that I need to dump into the previously-derived optimal voter/precinct campaign strategy. I take a break to work the abdominals, lower back, and core muscles and then watch some television. Later in the evening I'm helping a friend out with his website and I have an idea to parameterize the entire voting strategy algorithm to account for uncertainty in the demographic data as well as the convergence. I think this is going to get me to where I want to be on this effort.

We finally get some decent rain on Thursday night into Friday morning. It feels good to fall asleep to the sound of falling rain and to wake up a time or two at night to that sound. On Friday morning, powered by a Red Bull and Mountain Dew cocktail, I finish all of the nonprofit tax forms, other required filings, update a friend's website to make it more pleasant to view, work on the voting strategy algorithm with parameterization, check out the markets and the news, update the Fair Trade Long Beach website. I love Red Bull! At 11:30 am we have a CSULA Zoom meeting to get the students going for the spring semester. Afterwards I have a good workout with the weights and grab lunch.

It's 41F on Saturday morning when I start a road bicycle ride. I get in 60 kilometers today and have a good ride. After a shower I run errands to the post office, the pharmacy, and the grocery store. Back at home I do the monthly financial planning update and work on a few little things. But mostly just stay warm and watch television.

Sunday is a bit warmer and I have a good ride o the old yacht club and back home. I trim some fallen tree branches and sweep the driveway after all of the nasty wind and rain that we've recently had. And I have a quiet Sunday as I take a break from coding to let the latest good results sit for a while before taking the next step. Later in the day I buy a new phone since this one, which I've had for 3.5 years, is not holding much of a charge anymore.

I make up for Sunday's lack of coding by going wild on Monday. I start early on Monday morning working on some communication and state maintenace issues for a website. Approaching noon I take a break and give the Yamaha YZF-R1 a nice ride in the warm sun. Back at home I finally grab lunch and watch some Netflix shows. Late in the afternoon I lift weights and struggle a bit since I'm missing some rest since Friday's workout. After a shower I go back to coding and work fairly late at night. I keep saying "one more try" to figure this out. Just before quitting to read and sleep I have the issue solved on a test process and have to validate that it works for full site implementation.

I get in a struggling 60 kilometer road bicycle ride on Tuesday. I can only think that I'm down on energy since I started the new month of February, yesterday, by trying to lose the Covid-19 weight that I've gained. After a shower I read the news and markets and eventually do a bit of coding in the afternoon. I'm worn out from coding all day yesterday and the difficult bicycle ride.

Wednesday and Thursday follow the recent pattern of cycling or walking in the morning, running some errands, doing a bit of coding, and relaxing. There are a couple of Zoom meetings for the California Youth Connection and for CSULA, but nothing earth-shattering. I'm just getting used to the reduced calories and healthier foods as I start trying to shed the Covid-19 weight.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I get in good bicycle rides on both the road bicycle and the mountain bicycle. At the end of each ride I'm getting a bit tired and low on blood sugar since I'm reducing my calorie intake. On each of these days I run some errands and so some coding and talk on the telephone and finally watch the Super Bowl on Sunday.

I start Monday a bit late but get right to work generating a simulation for a miningand cement business friend. By the end of the morning I already have the framework written and running and the first phase of the simulation running. THe second phase should be straightforward and the third is the most difficult. After noon I get in a good session lifting weights where I've dropped the weights a bit since I haven't lifted for a week and want to see how it goes with the calorie reduction effort. After a shower the laundry gets done and I relax a bit and cook a very spicy yellow Thai curry. For a bit I think I am going to die because I've finally got enough spiciness to the curry. But I recover and enjoy my own cooking. Later I tackle the second phase the mining and cement simulation.