October 12, 2014: Me Day - Age 29

Year Three of the personal inventory tradition. I had to push it back a week because I was at a wedding on the normal day. I had a hard time reflecting deeply this year; it was hard to shake the intense focus on the present.

Wake up and watch the sun rise.

7:33. Catching sunrise over ballpark. Watching the birds and ships and sun and cranes and airplanes.

Create a piece of art.

I felt no desire to do this this year, so I didn't. Maybe I'll do it again next year.

Measure physical stats and take fitness pictures.

0.2 lbs heavier than this time last year, within 0.1% bodyfat. I wasn't focusing on weight or fitness for most of the year, so safe to say that this is an equilibrium point for me.

Weight:

136.0 lbs

+0.2 lbs

Body fat:

10.7%

-0.1%

Chest:

33.25"

+0.25"

Right arm:

11.25"

+0.25"

Left arm:

11.00"

+0.25"

Waist:

27"

+0.00"

Hips:

35.00"

+0.25"

Right leg:

20.25"

+0.00"

Left leg:

20.00"

+0.25"

Resting HR:

68 bpm

+1bpm

Measure my max push-ups and pull-ups.

31 push-ups, -10: fast, strict, chin touching the ground.
17 pull-ups, -2: fast, no kipping, chin above bar.

Take a long walk.

I moseyed up near the Metreon, returned a drill, and caught some Skritter and sun on the way back in Yerba Buena, then back to South Park for a reprisal of last year. Instead of a Chinese family, I shared my table with a ladybug.

Read from a favorite book.

Couldn't help but pick Snow Crash from the favorite book list this year. I promptly devoured half of it. It boggles me when people don't like this book. C'mon, it has swords and skateboards in it, plus the ultimate badass!

Get blood tests.

I ordered the same blood tests from last year from DirectLabs. Because I was doing a post-test from the MealSquares beta, I did it on 2014-08-25, but the stats should correspond well to today's inventory.

Results: I have them, but I hate interpreting them, so these are just going to sit here until I find someone who likes researching this stuff.

• Eos was high at 11% (should be 0-5%) last year, but is down to 8% this year. Google thinks it could mean a zillion things, so it probably means nothing. I've never measured "normal" eos.
• Amazingly, iron levels were fine on all tests, with just 31% iron saturation. Yay for giving blood!
• Vitamin D3 went from 48.9 ng/mL last year now to 41.1, despite eating 5000 IU most days. I had recalled people advising more than this, but the first three sources I checked suggest it's about right. I guess San Francisco won't have to deal with my shirtless madmannerisms (any more than they already do).
• Here's the fun part: cholesterol. Triglycerides (59 -> 55) and HDL (94 -> 81) both went down a bit, but LDL dropped from 179 to 91. I guess I'm eating a bit less meat than before, but I had thought that mostly due to MealSquares. Checking the pre-tests from two months before, when I started to eat them, show similarly lower cholesterol, though, so it's not MealSquares. Can I really be eating that much less beef? I'm not particularly concerned with LDL, but it's funny that it can change so much when my physical stats are so strikingly identical.

Count my possessions and get back down to 99.

Far less churn since last year as my possession stabilize. I have to think about them less and less.

Take stock of finances.

I finally increased spending to the point where I'm trading money for time at a reasonable rate. A lot of that is just living in San Francisco and now moving to a sweet apartment / CodeCombat command center.

(If you're me, you get to see finance stats here. Since you're not me, you see nothing.)

Do Quantified Mind testing.

I have two years' worth of monthly aging batteries now, and apart from the hint of a possibility of decline in finger tapping speed with age, there are no significant signs of mental aging yet. Good.

Call my family.

I just talked to everyone, especially at Heidi's wedding, so I didn't redo it on this day. From surveying people around me, it seems that I talk to family on the phone significantly less than average and see them in person slightly less than average. (Also of note, the girls talk to and visit their family much more often than the guys.)

Have a spectacular dinner with Chloe.

Chloe took me out to Skool, a fish-focused hip restaurant with a splendid outdoor patio. It was delicious, and I ate her dinner, too. Seemed like all the people around us were talking about startups or applying to YC, and there were dogs everywhere. Very San Franciscan.

Reflect on the past year

I sat down with my journal and evaluated three areas: what went well, what didn't go well, and how my relationships are now.

What went well? This past year, I:

• Was super productive, much moreso than last year. I put about 3100 hours of work into CodeCombat this year alone (and only 131 into Skritter).
• Had a great time being married to Chloe.
• Moved to a sweet new pad.
• Started expecting a baby at last!
• Hiked a badass mountain in Peru.
• Got to hang out with my CodeCombat/Skritter bros.
• Saw almost all my family.
• Did better than ever on nutrition, hygiene, and fashion.
• Made small amounts of progress on Stoicism and rationality.
• Got off my butt a bit with the standing desk.
• Extended my network surprisingly far with my blog and book.
• Was very satisfied to continue to not eat desserts.
• Rocked out to great tunes more than ever.
• Spent less time on unsatisfying entertainment than ever.
• Read some great books.
• Supported Chloe as she became ever more badass at photography, design, and fitness.

What didn't go well?

• Exercise has been the worst year in a long time; I barely did any, and my lifting stats went further down.
• The Japan trip and all the wedding trips weren't all that great; I'm becoming less and less into travel.
• Socializing with new people has been okay, but I deprioritzed it.
• Staying inside all the time has been fun, but not necessarily the healthiest.
• Hacking on personal projects has barely happened, although Telepath Logger has gotten some interest.
• Lucid dreaming is down recently, but wasn't too bad in the first parts of the year.
• Lack of exposure to nature has been suboptimal.

How are my relationships?

Pretty much the same as last year, except I have more acquaintances in the city and I saw more of my family.

Organize my files and computer desktop.

My files are still basically all organized from last year. Amazing!

Add at least one tradition.

This year I played some NetHack and thoroughly enjoyed it; I think adding a play-an-old-favorite-game tradition is a good one to have.

Destroy at least one habit.

I've been reviewing my Stoic notes and doing a weekly checklist since 2013-02-24, but it's been pretty rote recently: yes, I used Stoicism to endure discomfort; no, I didn't intentionally deprive myself; no, I didn't think about anything other than the present; and no, I didn't really appreciate what I have besides Chloe. Plus, it's getting hard to use negative visualization, since I've run through so many examples now. So I think I'll just stop doing it in favor of my new focus on freeing up attention by reducing recurring tasks.