2015 New Years Resolution

1/2/15, Fri

• Exercised with RC and LC at park; managed RC's seizure 
• Prepared pasta and dumplings and mixed berry smoothie dinner
• Followed Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Posts
• Received Professor Daut's email about Comm Sys Design grading of my incomplete work
• I received a TZ grade until my work is completed. Thank you Professor Daut!
• Read Comm Design book: Binary Modulation Schemes
• antipodal (PAM, BASK) vs. orthogonal (BPPM, BFSK) signaling
• Suggested family go out and explore on the weekends at sunrise, (because of low gas prices)
• Drive somewhere within an hour distance, eat brunch, explore a place for an hour, return home before 1pm

1/1/15, Thurs

• Discuss family matters at McDonalds
• Wrote down compelling reasons to pursue graduate school
• Rented out condominium; compiled negotiation procedure
• Watched football with LC; OH beat Alabama! OSU beat FSU!
• Wrote up Security Quad-copter Capstone Proposal

12/31/14, Wed

• Discuss investments over family brunch: dividend stocks VLY, MCC, RSO
• Practiced Basketball form and did vertical training
• Worked out upper-body
• Watched Porco Rosso with LC
• Celebrated New Years - by getting a little crazy in my room

edit:
I am interested in Mark Zuckerberg's A Year of Books New Years resolution. His task is to read a new book every other week with an emphasis on learning different cultures, beliefs, histories, and technologies.

Lacking Initiative

12/30/14, Tuesday

• Woke at 11AM
• Went with RC to RU vs Northwestern Men's Basketball Game
• Ate at Teppamyaki buffet with family; talked about investing
• Went to AFC, ShopRite, then home
• Slept 7:30PM - 11:30PM; Slept 2:30PM

12/29/14, Monday

• Woke at 1:30PM
• Cleaned condominium
• Ate at KFC with family 
• Start Coursera course "R Programming"
• Facebook-ed a lot

Take the initiative in making friends, building your network, and in learning material. 

Routine

12/28/14

• Woke at 7AM using white-light lamp
• OS 30min reading
• schedulers, deadlocks, semaphores, concurrency, indeterminacy 
• Rainy day photography
• Discuss economy and current events with parents over breakfast
• Invited HA and DL to LC's birthday celebration; catch up with LC's close friends

12/27/14

• Resisted snacking throughout the day
• Took family out for a long walk along New Market pond
• Robert enjoyed riding the new Razor A5 scooter
• Brought RC to local park to play basketball
• Skipping drill for vertical 
• Slept at 12AM, Woke at 7AM using a cool white light lamp
• Planned for LC's birthday celebration
• eating at Red Robin and watching The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

I am trying to get RC to exercise more, snack less, and be more active. Currently he is involved with bowling leagues and Special Olympics, but when those are not in season RC is quite the couch-potato. He seems to unconsciously start eating when he watches TV. It has been difficult to change his snacking habit, but one solution is to provide him a daily structure - a daily routine that includes exercise.

I exercise by competing in basketball and learning soccer, and I want to improve my vertical and agility  as well as strengthen my core and upper-body.

Focus

Thursday, December 25th, 2014

• Read an article about 'Working on Focus'
• exile distractions - it erodes your attention span
• keep a routine - wake at the same time everyday
• know your life goals
• Read an article about 'Aggregation of Marginal Gains"
• 1% marginal improvement in everything you do on daily basis
• it isn't notable/noticeable, but it can be meaningful in the long-run
• habit is the result of many small decisions over time
• where are the 1% improvements in your life?
• Practice Chinese
• 缘分：yuan2 fen4; used in maintaining social harmony in personal relationships
• "fateful coincidence" - attribute it to outside factors beyond control of individuals
• Chinese folklore describing good and bad chances and potential relationships
• “两个人能在一起是缘份”: liang3 ge4 ren2 neng2 zai4 yi1 qi3 shi4 yuan2 fen4
• Woke at 8 AM 
• Maintain network
• Condominium maintenance - post Sulekha ad

Happy Christmas!,
Will Cheng

Proactive Planning

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014

• I worked with BY on Comm Design Lab Reports; we completed prelab 10 and lab reports 9 and 10.

• I discussed the important of proactive planning with mom. Also showed her the song that's been stuck in my head, Sweet Caroline; it brought her back happy memories. ~"Sweet Caroline. *bam bam bam*!"

• I slept at 2AM, an hour earlier than yesterday. 

• I referenced an important Motivational Studies result with a handful of people. Studies show 'reviewing progress is the top motivator for successful people'.

• I worked on my basketball shooting form for an hour. And I did many long skips and jumps, hoping to increase my vertical.  

They say, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!". They also say, "If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late." I created a relation from these two sayings that states one must proactively plan to plan for success. Although the connection does not make clear sense without an adequate explanation, the relation between proactive planning and normal planning must be made clear: Proactive planning is one of four approaches to planning, (the one people oftentimes refer to). As you can see, this incoherent writing was not proactively planned for, and all this writing about planning made me realize I forgot to plan for Christmas day activities! Ciao

Almost Christmas!!!,
Will Cheng

Punctuality

Sunday, December 21st, 2014

• I did not hit the snooze button upon waking. I decided to read five saved articles on Facebook.

• After a medical discussion with family over lunch, I watched an interview of Salman Khan on FORA.tv. He talked about education reform - focusing on having teachers do more of what they are good at, nurturing students one on one. 

• I made slow progress, but still progress, on my overdue Lab Reports. I said I would help out MO with a prelab but I could not get that done today.

• I decided to sleep earlier at 2:30am to change my recent 4am-12pm sleeping pattern.

This semester I lacked punctuality; I did not preview course material ahead of time and I did not complete the weekly lab reports on time. My particular issue is summarized in the below two quotes and it's related to having a perpetual 'Writer's block'. I hope to improve myself in becoming more punctual by regularly setting small goals and deadlines and meeting them on time.

"Premature optimization is the source of all evil"
"Perfect is the enemy of good"

Happy Holidays,
Will Cheng

Introduction

This is the first post of my "What good have I done today" self-reflection blog. The motivation behind this blog came from Benjamin Franklin's daily routine shown below. I have been having some trouble lately figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, and this lack of direction has lead to poor short term decisions. I have been struggling with procrastination, responsibility, and a lack of motivation; furthermore, I'm rife with insecurities.

Through daily reflections, I look forward to developing my self identity and shift my paradigm of thought. I want to feel comfortable under my own skin, perform optimally, stay foolish and stay hungry. Though I expect many posts to be quite vapid and slice-of-life-like, from time to time I will post my original thoughts on readings/ideas.

This blog will be a success if...

• I manage to post once every two days
• I manage to get someone to read my post
• I manage to accept who I am and grow by the time I stop posting

Otherwise, I will have failed. Then I will have to try again. And again. That said, I'm feeling excited.