Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Summary (2023 - September)
(Text as at 04/10/2023 21:59:02)
Rationale for this Report
- This is a summary report with links to my various on-going projects. Detailed progress is shown on the sub-reports.
- This summary report should highlight whether my focus has become unbalanced or otherwise inappropriate to the achievement of my major goals.
- As these reports are rather a pain to generate, I now produce them quarterly, rather than monthly. I’ve also improved the automation and am reducing the amount of narrative comment.
Projects in Progress
- I have ten projects on which I would like to spend my time, which is too many. I currently split them into three groups.
- The first two groups always have effort planned, but the final group in general does not, though for the first Quarter of the academic year all of them have a token one hour per week each.
- The first group relates to my primary (project) life-goals; the second relates to lesser things I really want to address; the final group1 relates to those I’d like to look into if I get ahead on the other projects.
Primary Projects
- Personal Identity2: This is the subject that ought to grab most of my attention, as it is the topic of my yet-to-be-completed PhD Thesis3. I need to achieve something in philosophy, as this is the only one of my endeavours that promises a professional outcome (in the sense of being one of more than merely personal interest).
- Web-tools4: This project is intended to assist with the prosecution of philosophical research. It is fundamentally an enabling project, though one I hope will have general metaphilosophical implications. The other projects are test cases of the method, as well as worthwhile studies in their own right.
Secondary Projects
- Philosophy of Religion5: On and off, this represents the main preoccupation of my adult life (work and family aside). Eventually, I intend to follow up in some detail interesting topics from the Philosophy of Religion module from the MA in Philosophy and Religion at Heythrop College, London University that I tasted at the end of 2010, though nothing much has happened in the last decade or so!
- Music6: Improve my competence as an oboist. I have managed regular oboe-practice in my new den for some time now, and recommenced oboe lessons – approximately fortnightly – in September 2018, though these ceased with the pandemic and have not recommenced. I have also purchased an electronic piano – also installed in my den – so hopefully some progress will be made on piano-playing, though there’s little time for it.
- Languages7: Gain at least a rudimentary understanding of 24 diverse languages – for practical and philosophical purposes.
- Bridge8: I still want to become an expert player but have recognised that this isn’t going to happen without it becoming my main priority, so I’m effectively just playing for fun.
Other Projects
- Consciousness Studies9: A supporting project for both Personal Identity and Philosophy of Religion. An essential element of any critique of transhumanism.
- Chess10: I returned to the chess scene in September 2018 and played regularly for the Billericay first team in the Southend and North Essex Leagues until Covid put a stop to over-the-board games. My ultimate aim is to improve my standard of play so I can perform acceptably, but I’m currently just treading water, especially as there’s little over-the-board play to be had.
- Mathematics11: Revive / improve my mathematical competence with a view to the use of mathematics as a tool in my various other projects. Also – now that I’m nearly 70 – useful for keeping various bits of my brain functioning12.
- HiQ13: Enjoy and contribute to the intellectual society of ISPE and Mensa. Mostly in abeyance, though I re-joined ISPE14 in 2017 and have maintained my membership into 2020, but can spare no time to speak of for taking part.
- These projects are (approximately, in their respective groups) in order of decreasing priority, yet in practise the amount of effort expended on them has failed to respect this.
- I have ignored the various infrastructural elements of my life in these reports – in particular family life (including the grandchildren!), household management, general reading, culture, current affairs, walking the dog and such like.
- However, these “non-project” items – especially the dog, and formerly the house15 – tend to be time-consuming.
- This report and the sub-reports obtained by following the links immediately above show the current status. The report headings show the period the reports are for. Earlier reports can be found by following the links in the “Table of Previous Versions of this Note” further down this report, or in the sub-reports.
Actuals & Planning
- Actuals
- In 23Q3 I spent across my various projects 653 hours (2595.25 hours YTD) – where by "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the academic year commencing in October 2022. "Actual versus plan" was 98.5%, (95.7% YTD).
- I worked hard during 23Q3, nearly achieving my target hours. This largely in spite of a revolution in my priorities at the end of July, when I finally decided that I need to go all out – or as near all-out as I can cope with psychologically – on my Thesis. There’s still an enormous amount of work to do, and I’ll be 70 mid-November this year! So, I decided to ‘mothball’ three time-consuming projects, namely Bridge, Languages and Philosophy of Religion, at least I’m making considerable progresson my Thesis.
- The tables of actual versus plan are on separate pages, accessible below16:-
- For detailed breakdowns of time spent this year, by month and by study location, follow this link17.
- For a report by sub-project of time expended since my records began, follow this link18.
- For tables of Actual versus Plan, together with the high-level plan for the next quarter, see this page19.
Planning
For the next quarter – to reflect the focus on my Thesis – I’ve increased the average weekly total plan slightly to 53 hours. This is less than the 59 hours / week scheduled a couple of quarters ago, but reflects the fact that philosophy is more intellectually taxing than playing bridge.
Consequently, I’ve increased the planned effort for my Thesis to 29 hours a week, which is more than I’d schedule as a part-time PhD student20.
I’ve also increased the time allocation for my Web Tools project to 10 hours / week, as there’s a lot of importance to do fairly urgently.
I’ve decided to continue to try to play the oboe properly, and improve my general musicianship, but have had to restrict my Music allowance to 4 hours / week, which includes my administrative work in support of the Enigma Ensemble.
I’ve given up regular bridge-playing, but have retained 4 hours / week for the occasional game and residual administration.
Philosophy of Religion and Languages have been mothballed, with only a single hour a week each. “Fallow” time while walking Bertie will now be taken up with reading philosophy on my Kindle now that I have more time to follow up the reading with writing.
As is usual, the ‘Priority 3’ projects have a single hour each a week in the first Quarter of the Academic Year.
So, the weekly plan (53 hours) for the next quarter is as below:-
- Priority 1: 39 hours
- Personal Identity: 29 hours.
- Web Tools: 10 hours.
- Priority 2: 10 hours
- Philosophy of Religion: 1 hour.
- Music: 4 hours.
- Languages: 1 hour.
- Bridge: 4 hours.
- Priority 3: 4 hours
- Consciousness Studies: 1 hour.
- Chess: 1 hour.
- Mathematics: 1 hour.
- HiQ: 1 hour.
Follow this link for a list of recently21 purchased books.
Detailed Interim Activities
- As these reports are now quarterly, at best, I include a link to a brief uncommented list22 of what I’ve been working on since the last report (ie. this one). It is generated automatically from my time-recording system.
- I’ve recently added a fuller YTD List23, useful for getting a handle on what – if anything – has been happening to the minor projects.
- Their main utility (to me, at any rate) is as a quick jumping-off point for the various writings in progress or recently completed.
- The lists will, in general, be updated every few days.
Plans for the Near Future24
- Below is a sequence of long lists broken down by project. However, as a recent innovation, I’ve decided to add a small subset of these as a ‘Top 10’ (or thereabouts) items that have been bugging me and ought to be completed in the coming Quarter.
- This list is not to include long-term on-going items, so doesn’t necessarily reflect the highest priorities; just things I want to get out of the way. The list is not to get longer and longer, nor are items to sit on it for Quarters on end.
- Unfortunately, things haven’t quite worked out thus far! Items completed last Quarter were:-
- Drafted my Biography of Henry25.
- So, in no particular order:-
- Import all recently-acquired pdfs into my database, Notes reading-lists and Thesis Chapters. C/Fwd.
- Complete documentation of Photos Timeline Software26. New.
- Complete documentation of Coxes Farm Repairs27 (Phase III). C/Fwd.
- Add timeline photos to my Biography of Henry28. New.
- Move password management to Bitwarden. C/Fwd.
- Complete the redevelopment of the ‘Internal Links’ Spider29. C/Fwd.
- Complete redevelopment of my Backup30 routines. C/Fwd.
- Nail the Thai script via "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days". C/Fwd.
- Complete analysis of "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology". C/Fwd.
- Complete analysis of "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Materialism with a Human Face". New.
Detailed Plans by Project
- Thesis
- Website
- Religion
- Music
- Languages
- Consciousness
- Bridge
- Chess
- Mathematics
- HiQ
- Thesis31 (29 hours per week)
- Continue with my Thesis32; in particular
- Spend at least an hour a day writing something original: an essay on the difference between Forward and Backward Psychological Continuity33.
- Continue filling out those sections of my Thesis that I can write something on without further research, using books / papers already analysed.
- Continually review the Note describing my Current Beliefs34 on the topic of Personal Identity.
- Regularly review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those directly referenced by my Current Beliefs35.
- Make progress on specific Chapters of my Thesis, using the tasks outlined in my Thesis Dashboard36, using the materials listed37 in the Chapters and underlying Notes.
- Ensure the following foundational Books38 required for my Thesis are fully annotated39. In particular:-
- "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View",
- "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology", and
- "Olson (Eric) - What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology".
- Draw up a further SHORT list of books that MUST be studied in great detail.
- Read and comment on40 the following remaining PhD Theses relevant to my own Thesis:-
- "Baggini (Julian) - Psychological Reductionism About Persons: A Critical Development",
- "Eddebo (Johan) - Death and the Self: A Metaphysical Investigation of the Rationality of Afterlife Beliefs in the Contemporary Intellectual Climate",
- "Ferner (Adam) - Metaphysics and biology: a critique of David Wiggins’ account of personal identity",
- "Gendler (Tamar Szabo) - Imaginary Exceptions: On the Powers and Limits of Thought Experiment",
- "Keles (Serap) - Personal identity and persistence over time : the hybrid view with regard to hylomorphism",
- "Kotak (Aakash) - The Hybrid Theory of Personal Identity" (MPhil Thesis)
- "Lechthaler (Manuel) - Composition and Identities",
- "Lybaert (Fauve) - Personal Identity and the Formal Self",
- "Paez (Eze) - Abortion: What We Ought to Believe - An Ontological and Normative Analysis",
- "Parsons (Josh) - Theories of Persistence",
- "Rau (Philipp) - The Author, Not the Tale: Memory, Narrative, and the Self",
- "Skow (Bradford) - Once Upon a Spacetime",
- "Southgate (Susan Jane) - Personal Identity: The Simple View",
- "Trakas (Marina) - Personal Memories", and
- "Woods (Evan Thomas) - The Problems of the Many".
- Apply the issues raised by recently-read PhD Theses relevant to my own Thesis to my various Notes:-
- "Atkinson (Thomas) - Human organisms and the survival of death: a systematic evaluation of the possibility of life after death given animalism",
- "Hodson (Sommer) - A Hybrid View of Personal Identity",
- Follow up on Keith Augustine's comments on my review of "Hershenov (David) - Review of Nancey Murphy's 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?'".
- Follow up on Wayne Stewart's comments on my Note on Closest Continuers41, including reading and reviewing the following:-
- "Epstein (Dmitry) - What if We’re Still Here? A Selfish Reason to Care for Future Generations",
- "Stewart (Wayne) - Metaphysics by Default - Chapter 9: Existential Passage",
- "Stewart (Wayne) - Metaphysics by Default",
- "Stewart (Wayne) - Uzgalis: Accidentally Opening a Transmigration Window by Nixing the Proper Continuer",
- "Clark (Tom) - A Notable Theoretical Convergence",
- "Robert (David) - The Existential Passage Hypothesis",
- "Uzgalis (William) - Review - Dainton - The Phenomenal Self", and
- "Clark (Tom) - Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity"
- Complete analysing the following papers42:-
→ "Cofnas (Nathan) - Research on group differences in intelligence: A defense of free inquiry",
→ "Corabi (Joseph) & Schneider (Susan) - The Metaphysics of Uploading",
→ "Francione (Gary) - We must not own animals",
→ "Francione (Gary) & Charlton (Anna E.) - The case against pets",
→ "Frary (Mark) - Beyond Repair",
→ "Galton (Francis) - Visualised Numerals",
→ "Giusti (Elena) & Derbew (Sarah) - Decolonizing Blackness, alongside the Classics Curriculum: A conversation with Dr Sarah Derbew",
→ "Gradesaver - The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie: Study Guide - Introduction", Etc.
→ "Hume (David) - Treatise I.IV.VI: Of Personal Identity",
→ "Kobie (Nicole) - Neuralink: an old idea that could be the future of medicine",
→ "Korhonen (Anna), Woodward (Sarah) - This idea must die: 'AI will outsmart the human race'",
→ "Loose (Jonathan) - Materialism Most Miserable The Prospects for Dualist and Physicalist Accounts of Resurrection",
→ "Middleton (Anna), Welford (Megan) - The Ethics of Genomics"
→ "Moreno Figueroa (Monica), Jolin (Lucy) - A world without oppression to you",
→ "Olson (Eric) - The Central Dogma Of Transhumanism",
→ "Paris (J.J.) & Elias-Jones (A.C.) - Do we murder Mary to save Jodie?",
→ "Peckham (Jeremy) - AI, humanity and Christian ministry",
→ "Putnam (Hilary) - Brains in a Vat",
→ "Van Inwagen (Peter) - Materialism and the Psychological-continuity Account of Personal Identity",
→ "Walker (Robert) - Mary And Jodie – The Case Of The Conjoined Twins",
→ "Watkin (Christopher) - Christianity and critical race theory",
- Ensure the annotations from recently-read Papers are added to the relevant Notes:-
→ "Ayers (Michael R.) - Locke on Living Things"
→ "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Review of 'What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology' by Eric T. Olson"
- As background tasks:-
- Ensure all items in:-
→ "Various - Papers on Desktop", and
→ "Various - Papers in Desk Drawer"
are either addressed or re-filed.
- Maintain "Various - Papers & Books Yet To Be Logged", and log papers therein if they become important.
- Convert old PDFs to Notes:-
- Review the two reports:-
→ PDF-précis,
→ PDF-essays43.
- Determine how the first is produced, and why the pdfs aren't highlighted, and compare with Write-ups Notes Jump Table
- Convert outstanding Essays & Précises.
- Complete cataloguing the books downloaded from Springer,
- Continue / complete reading / annotating various books44 that have landed in my in-tray:-
- "Barash (David P.) - Through a Glass Brightly: Using Science to See Our Species as We Really Are",
- "Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds. - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity",
- "Borges (Jorge Luis) - Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings",
- "Bostrom (Nick) - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies",
- "Bradley (Ben), Feldman (Fred) & Johansson (Jens) - The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Death",
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking",
- "Dostoyevsky (Fyodor), Magarshack (David) - The Brothers Karamazov",
- "Doyle (Andrew) - The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World",
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging",
- "Green (Joel B.) - Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible",
- "Hasker (William) - The Emergent Self",
- "Hofstadter (Douglas) & Dennett (Daniel), Eds. - The Mind's I - Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul",
- "Kagan (Shelly) - How to Count Animals, more or less",
- "Korsgaard (Christine) - Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals",
- "Levitin (Daniel) - The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Ageing Well",
- "Marshall (Richard) - Philosophy at 3:AM: Questions and Answers with 25 Top Philosophers",
- "Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith) - The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death",
- "Miller (Kristie) - Issues in Theoretical Diversity: Persistence, Composition, and Time",
- "Peckham (Jeremy) - Masters or Slaves?: AI And The Future Of Humanity",
- "Plokhy (Serhii) - Lost Kingdom: A History of Russian Nationalism from Ivan the Great to Vladimir Putin",
- "Rowlands (Mark) - The Philosopher and the Wolf",
- "Ricard (Matthieu) - A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion",
- "Schneider (Susan) - Artificial You",
- "Seth (Anil Kumar) - Being You: A New Science of Consciousness",
- "Seung (Sebastian) - Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are",
- "Smith (C. Paul) - The Climate Change Hoax Argument: the history and science that expose a major international deception",
- "Walker (Matthew P.) - Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams",
- "Wilson (Jack) - Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities",
- "Wright (Craig) - The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit - Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness", and
- "Wyatt (John) - Matters of Life and Death".
- Complete my Note on "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising" and discuss with Pete & Mike.
- Continue reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon45 (and the occasional spin-off). In particular, complete write-ups for:-
→ "Francione (Gary) & Charlton (Anna E.) - The case against pets"
→ "Francione (Gary) - We must not own animals"
→ "Friston (Karl) - Karl Friston: Embodied cognition"
→ "Humphrey (Nicholas) - Seeing and somethingness"
→ "Jaarsma (Ada) - Choose your own birth"
→ "Lachmann (Michael) & Walker (Sara) - Life ≠ alive"
→ "Neumeyer (Joy) - The discontent of Russia"
→ "Marino (Lori) - Happy the person"
→ "Metzinger (Thomas) - Are you sleepwalking now?"
→ "Schwenkler (John) - What does it take for someone to become a ‘different person’?"
→ "Sebo (Jeff) & Schukraft (Jason) - Don’t farm bugs"
→ "Sebo (Jeff) - Against human exceptionalism"
→ "Sunar (Neesa) - I have no mind's eye: let me try to describe it for you"
→ "Zangwill (Nick) - Why you should eat meat"
→ "Zangwill (Nick) - Our Moral Duty to Eat Meat"
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core.
- Update my Journals Note46: Review the journals I have access to; more are available as a Cambridge Alumnus.
- Keep up with the philosophical world by regular reviews of "Interaction - Philos-List", but only seriously pursue items relevant to my research.
- Website47 (10 hours per week)
- Own Website: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
- Architecture
- Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
- Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables where appropriate.
- Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
- Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
- Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
- Complete Documenting48 the process!
- Review effectiveness of hyperlinking method in the light of PhD and Philosophy of Religion experience.
- Authors
- Import Author Narratives from Aeon (and other sources) into the Authors table
- Backups
- Determine why flag on directories "not to be backed up" gets reset
- Document and enable regular running of the de-duplication function ('pruning') of the backup disk. Keep a full record of deleted duplicates.
- Investigate historic error messages
- Investigate Record-count discrepancies:-
- How do website files work as far as counts are concerned?
- Why aren't they recorded in Backup_History, nor the fact that the website was backed up?
- Different counts depending on whether new or old laptop is backed up. Investigate 63k discrepancy - lower on new laptop.
- Review architecture to improve performance; Need to document49 first
- Books/Papers
- For Books and Papers - add link pages - analogous to:-
→ BooksToNotes_
→ BookCitings_
→ PapersToNotes_
→ PaperCitings_
linked to from:-
→ BookSummaries_
→ PaperSummary_
and (maybe) from:-
→ BookPaperAbstracts_
→ Abstract_
But, the links are FROM the Book / Paper, rather than TO
For Books, ensure that all the links from all the Book's Papers are also included
- Investigate whether multiple Subject/Topic/Subtopic usage leads anywhere (ie. are just the first (of 3) actually used). Fix anything amiss.
- Investigate why the actuals in "Practice - Oboe - Playing & Practice" don't sum to the linked Papers
- Reformat the BookCitings and PaperCitings pages:-
- Detail PaperCitings Pages: Include only useful information on the detail pages; but if there are multiple links from the same object, include them on the same line as 'extra links' as in BookCitings (copy the code: or, better, combine the two subs).
- Summary (Author Letter) pages: Include counts (as in Authors' Citations).
- Ensure uses the Cross_Reference table.
- Document50!
- Documenter
- Investigate the error reports from the Documenter, especially unused variables & queries.
- Provide Functional Documentation for Website Generator (using Notes)
- Education
- Read "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World".
- Read "White (Ron) & Downs (Timothy Edward) - How Computers Work: The Evolution of Technology".
- Infrastructure
- Migrate from Chrome to Bitwarden for password management
- Notes
- Determine why all my Status Reports from September 2021 are missing from Notes_Archive. Seek to recover them from backups.
- Develop method for (manually) deleting otiose Archived Notes: ie. ensure links work for remaining Notes!
- Document and correct processing for Note References & Reading List51.
- Enhance PID Note, Book & Paper Usage52 to include a section listing works cited in my Thesis but not read
- Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
- PID Thesis References - De-duplicate / suppress and / or change sort order / aggregation for non-anthology book chapters
- Papers
- Split PDFs Available on Local Website53 page into alphabetical sub-pages
- Photos
- Timeline software54: Add photos for Bakers' Coxes Farm Development Phase III
- Timeline software55: Add photos for Henry's Biography
- Timeline software56: Add photos for Holidays & Family History
- Develop software & procedure to make adding more content to the photos pages easier to undertake.
- Process
- Determine why Recalculation & Changed Book/Papers produce unneeded regeneration.
- Provide 'Quick' option for Recalculation (cmdRecalculate_Click) - exclude unnecessary items on request
- Spider
- Analyse the results of the data collection exercise and design a plan of campaign to fix broken Internal links and prevent recurrence.
- Correct the code so the problems discovered by the Spider don’t recur.
- Delete 'orphan pages' that are never linked to, ie. Use the Spider to prune redundant pages57 automatically where possible.
- Fix the historical data where errors are uncovered by the Spider. An easier task now the site has a full-regen function.
- As revealed by Spider: Consolidated Site-Hits Test Webpage. Mountnessing\index.htm Link. Should be .shtml.
- Failed 'Printable Note' links not picked up by Spider: Especially in Blog
- Investigate reduction in size of Web_Generator_Performance database that holds Raw_Links.
- Suppress MsgBox for 'Near to 2Gb' database size check (just use Debug).
- One-off deletion of rather useless links: EMail, TheosStyle.css, TT_ICO.png, #Top, ...
- Remove code that generates these links, and check them.
- Investigate removal of website 'root' (C:\Theo's Files\Websites\Theo's Website\) from Raw_Link and Full_Link. This would save 200Mb, but needs careful checking - especially against the Directory_Structure and related tables and code.
- If the above 'root' change is to go ahead - one-off updates + code changes required.
- Use Edge rather than Internet Explorer for External Links Spider
- Status
- Bible Reading Status Reporting: Adjust completion algorithm to allow for pauses
- WebRefs
- Documentation & Bug-fixes: Phase 2
- Re-document the procedures in the light of recent changes.
- Resolve issues generated / revealed by the spider.
- Investigate - and fix where possible - broken links.
- Find a way of recording Missing / Unknown Webrefs (eg. Webrefs 8395 and 8342 in Archived Notes 1292 and 1317) other than debug.print: create table, then suppress message for known problems
- Investigate items flagged as defunct. Populate Defunct_Explanation in WebRefs_Table. Consider use of FairUse (Link (Fair Use)) for documents no longer available that I'd downloaded.
- Investigate WebRefs with Issue = 'URL Translated OK': does the translation really work? How?
- Other Websites: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
- Religion58 (1 hour per week)
- Philosophy of Religion:
- "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life": Continue reading,
- "Davis (Stephen T.) - The Mad/Bad/God Trilemma: A Reply to Daniel Howard-Snyder": Annotate,
- "Ginn (Roy) - According to the Scriptures": Complete write-up
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Does Faith Entail Belief": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - The Skeptical Christian": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Was Jesus Mad, Bad, Or God?…Or Merely Mistaken?": Annotate,
- "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
- "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?": Read.
- David Instone-Brewer:
- "Instone-Brewer (David) - The Jesus Scandals: Why He Shocked His Contemporaries (And Still Shocks Today)",
- "Instone-Brewer (David) - Science and the Bible: Modern Insights for an Ancient Text",
- Incorporate downloaded papers into my database.
- Bible:
- "Bibleworks - Bibleworks: OT & NT", and
- "Lanier (Gregory R.) & Ros (William A.) - Septuaginta: A Reader's Edition - Volume 1".
- Qur'an / Islam:
- "Asad ( Muhammad), Qur'an - The Message of the Quran: The Full Account of the Revealed Arabic Text Accompanied by Parallel Transliteration",
- "Burton (John), Qur'an - The Collection of the Qur'an".
- "Crone (Patricia) & Cook (Michael) - Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World".
- "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an", Note59
- "Omar (Abdul Mannan), Qur'an - The Dictionary of the Holy Quran: Arabic Words - English Meanings",
- "Qur'an - Easy Quran: Arabic Text With Word For Word English Translation",
- "Wansbrough (John), Rippin (Andrew), Qur'an - Quranic Studies: Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation".
- Background:
- Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise
- "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": Continue reading
- "Stewart (Kenneth) - Sermons": Dip in occasionally
- "Taylor (Joan E.) - Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times Via Monty Python's Life of Brian": Review KCL Conference videos
- "Watts (Edward) - The Final Pagan Generation: Rome's Unexpected Path to Christianity": Continue reading
- Music60 (4 hours per week)
- Oboe:-
- Practice the oboe for two 15-minute sessions each and every day61 – focussing on the items below and …
- Occasionally combine into a half-hour-long session to help build up stamina further.
- Organise and attend the fortnightly sessions of the Enigma Ensemble. Practice any difficult pieces.
- Continue to try to get a grip on the oboe's high notes, especially above high D. Use:-
→ YouTube: Oboe Files - How to play high notes; 2nd/3rd octave with Fingerings!, and
→ Oboe Files - How to: high notes on the oboe (Fingerings and tips for the 2nd/3rd octave with video tutorial)
- Work through, and perfect, scales & arpeggios62 for Grades I-VIII, using
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity Guildhall Scales & Arpeggios for Oboe (Grades 1–8)", and
→ "ABRSM - Scales and Arpeggios for Oboe, Grades 1-8 (ABRSM Scales & Arpeggios)".
- Improve sight-reading by playing through
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Sound at Sight Oboe Grades 1-8", and
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 1".
- Occasionally review Grade VI pieces, in particular
→ "Boni (Giovanni) - Sonata in G" (Prelude, but also 2nd, 3rd & 4th movements for interest),
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Blatt - Study No. 52),
→ "Morricone (Ennio) - Gabriel's Oboe (Piano Solo Or Oboe/Piano)"
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (Eroica, Aida, Der Freischutz),
→ "Nielsen (Carl) - Two Fantasy Pieces, Op. 2" (Romanze only)
- Prepare Grade VII pieces, in particular63
→ "Albinoni (Tomaso) - Concerto in D Minor Op. 9/2 for Oboe & Piano", 1st movement (but also 2nd & 3rd for interest)
→ "Bach (J.S.) - 105 Difficult Passages from the Works of J. S. Bach. For oboe", Items 49 & 70
→ "Cimarosa (Domenico) - Oboe Concerto in C minor", All, but particularly 1st & 4th movements
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Ferling - Study No. 62)
→ "Fiocco (J.H.) - Arioso - Oboe + Piano",
→ "Head (Michael) - Presto for Oboe & Piano",
→ "Hinke (Gustav Adolf) - Elementary Method For Oboe", Items 14 & 18
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (Mozart Jupiter, Tchaikovsky Pathetique, Stravinsky Pucinella),
→ "Mower (Mike) - The Good Tempered Oboe" (Nos. 28 & 35: 'Jauntless Jig' & 'May The Fourth Be With You'; also No. 30: 'Answer the Question'),
→ "Nielsen (Carl) - Two Fantasy Pieces, Op. 2" (Humoresque),
→ "Saint-Saens (Camille) - Sonata Op.166 in D Major for Oboe & Piano" (1st Movement),
→ "Schumann (Robert) - 3 Romances, Op. 94 for Oboe and Piano" (1st & 3rd Movements; 2nd for interest).
- Prepare Grade VIII pieces, in particular64
→ "Bach (J.S.) - 105 Difficult Passages from the Works of J. S. Bach. For oboe", Items 62, 66 and 28
→ "Davies (John) & Harris (Paul) - 80 Graded Studies for Oboe: Book 2" (Harris - Study No. 74; Luft - Study No. 77)
→ "Miller (Vojislav) & Liebermann (Winfried), Eds. - Test Pieces for Orchestral Auditions (Orchester Probespiel) - Oboe" (try various),
→ "Mower (Mike) - The Good Tempered Oboe" (No. 44 - 'Dop Dop Doobah'; also No. 45: 'Enlightenment'),
→ "Saint-Saens (Camille) - Sonata Op.166 in D Major for Oboe & Piano" (2nd & 3rd Movements),
- Read and apply oboe practice techniques recommended by:-
→ Martin Schuring, and
→ "Benedetti (Nicola) - My five tips for learning an instrument".
- Read "Caplan (Stephen) - Oboe: The Breathing Book".
- Piano: Try to develop some minimal competence as an aid to theory, so:-
- Continue practicing "Rhodes (James) - How to Play the Piano" (Bach's Prelude #1),
- Work through "Faber (Nancey) & Faber (Randall) - Faber Piano Adventures: Adult Piano Adventures All-in-One Lesson Book 1: Spiral Bound",
- Work through "ABRSM - Selected Piano Exam Pieces 2009-2010: Grade 1", and
- Try to play by ear, using for inspiration:-
→ "Cannel (Ward) & Marx (Fred) - How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home".
- Theory: Prepare for Grade 5 Theory, so:-
- Study
→ "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 1", and
→ "Taylor (Eric) - The AB Guide to Music Theory - Part 2",
- Whiz through65 the exercises in
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 1",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 2",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 3",
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 4", and
→ "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 5",
- Aural:
- Run through:-
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity College London Aural Tests Book 1 (Initial to Grade 5) 2017", and
→ "Trinity Guildhall - Trinity College London Aural Tests Book 2 (Grades 6 to 8) 2017".
- Get a grip on the process of ear-training by
→ Reading "Deutsch (Diana) - Absolute Pitch", and related material66, and
→ Try out "Earmaster - Ear Training & Sight-singing".
- Try out "Boytim (Joan Frey) - The First Book Of Baritone/Bass Solos".
- Also follow up items in:-
→ "Various - Music - Aural - Various On-line Training".
- Languages67 (1 hour per week)
- General:
→ Brief Thoughts on Language & Languages68
- Scripts: Thoroughly get to grips with:-
→ Armenian: "Andonian (Hagop) - Beginner's Armenian",
→ Hindi: "Snell (Rupert) - Beginner's Hindi Script",
→ Japanese Kana (revision): "ToFuGu - Learn Hiragana: The Ultimate Guide" & "ToFuGu - Learn Katakana: The Ultimate Guide"
→ Korean: "Go (Billy) - Korean Made Simple: A beginner's guide to learning the Korean language: 1",
→ Persian: "Farzad (Narguess) - Complete Modern Persian",
→ Thai: "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days" & ThaiPod101 - Learn ALL Thai Alphabet in 50 minutes/hour - How to Write and Read Thai
→ Urdu: "Delacy (Richard) - Read and Write Urdu Script".
- Brush up on Biblical Hebrew & Greek and learn Qur'anic Arabic:-
→ "Lambdin (Thomas) - Introduction to Biblical Hebrew", and
→ "Williamson (H.G.M.) - Annotated Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew"
→ "Wenham (John) - The Elements of New Testament Greek", and
→ "Wenham (John) - Key to the Elements of New Testament Greek", and
→ "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an"
- Priority 1
- French:
→ "Ling - Learn French"
- German:
→ "Tenberg (Reinhard) & Ainslie (Susan) - Deutsch Plus",
→ "Ling - Learn German"
- Greek (Modern):
→ "Matsukas (Aristarhos) - Complete Greek Course",
→ "Ling - Learn Greek"
- Italian:
→ "Freeth (Mariolina) & Checketts (Giuliana) - Contatti 1: A First Course in Italian",
→ "Ling - Learn Italian"
- Portuguese:
→ "Whitlam (John) - Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar: A Practical Guide",
→ "Ling - Learn Portuguese"
- Spanish:
→ "Gordon (Ronni L.) & Stillman (David M.) - The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice",
→ "Ling - Learn Spanish"
- Thai:
→ "Ling - Learn Thai",
→ "Becker (Benjawan Poomsan) - Thai for Beginners",
→ "Juyaso (Arthit) - Read Thai in 10 Days"
- Ukrainian:
→ "Bekh (Olena) & Dingley (James) - Complete Ukrainian Beginner to Intermediate Course",
→ "Lonely Planet, Pavlyshyn (Marko) - Lonely Planet Ukrainian Phrasebook & Dictionary",
→ "Ling - Learn Ukrainian",
→ "Wikipedia - Ukrainian Alphabet",
→ "Wikipedia - Ukrainian Language"
- Priority 2
- Arabic (Modern):
→ "Ling - Learn Arabic"
- Chinese:
→ "Ling - Learn Chinese"
- Hebrew (Modern):
→ "Raizen (Esther) - Modern Hebrew for Beginners: A Multimedia Program for Students at the Beginning and Intermediate Levels",
→ "Ling - Learn Hebrew"
- Hindi:
→ "Ling - Learn Hindi"
- Japanese:
→ "Lammers (W.P.) - Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure",
→ "Ling - Learn Japanese"
- Turkish:
→ "Celen-Pollard (Asuman) & Pollard (David) - Turkish (Teach Yourself Complete Courses)",
→ "Ling - Learn Turkish"
- Urdu:
→ "Ling - Learn Urdu"
- Priority 3
- Amharic:
→ "Halcomb (T. Michael W.) - Introducing Amharic: An Interactive Workbook",
→ "Ling - Learn Amharic"
- Armenian:
→ "Schumann (Johannes) - Armenian for beginners",
→ "Ling - Learn Armenian"
- Danish:
→ "Koefoed (H.A.) - Teach Yourself Danish",
→ "Ling - Learn Danish"
- Dutch:
→ "Shetter (William) - Introduction to Dutch - A Practical Grammar",
→ "Ling - Learn Dutch"
- Korean:
→ "Ling - Learn Korean"
- Persian:
→ "Ling - Learn Persian"
- Polish:
→ "Lonely Planet, Czajkowski (Piotr) - Lonely Planet Polish Phrasebook & Dictionary",
→ "Ling - Learn Polish"
- Russian:
→ "West (Daphne) - Russian",
→ "Ling - Learn Russian"
- Swahili:
→ "Wood (Laurence) & Shadrack (Jaba Tumaini) - Learn Swahili Quickly and Easily: The theory made simple",
→ "Ling - Learn Swahili"
- Swedish:
→ "McClean (R.J.) - Swedish: A Grammar of the Modern Language",
→ "Ling - Learn Swedish"
- Priority 4
- Coptic:
→ "Layton (Bentley) - Coptic in 20 Lessons: Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and Vocabularies"
- Egyptian:
→ "Collier (Mark) & Manley (Bill) - How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-step Guide to Teach Yourself Hieroglyphs"
- Latin:
→ "Duolingo - Duolingo Latin"
- Syriac:
→ "Robinson (Theodore) - Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar"
- Consciousness69 (1 hour per week)
- Aeon70: Read & annotate papers as they arise, especially ...
→ "Chittka (Lars) & Wilson (Catherine) - Bee-brained": Write-up
→ "Frankish (Keith) - The Consciousness Illusion": Write-up
→ "Frohlich (Joel) - Frames of consciousness": Read & write-up
→ "Parks (Tim) & Manzotti (Riccardo) - You are the world": Read & write-up
→ "Pigliucci (Massimo) - Consciousness is real": Read & write-up
→ "Seth (Anil Kumar) - The real problem": Read & write-up
→ "Seth (Anil Kumar) - How we build perception from the inside out": Write-up
- "Bonhomme (Vincent), Etc. - General Anesthesia: A Probe to Explore Consciousness": Read & write-up
- "Crane (Tim) - Elements of Mind - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind": Re-read and review notes.
- "Dehaene (Stanislas) - Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts": Read.
- "Dennett (Daniel) - Illusionism as the Obvious Default Theory of Consciousness": Read.
- "Donald (Merlin) - A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness": Read.
- "Eliot (Lise) - What's Going On in There?: How the Brain And Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life": Read.
- "Goff (Philip) - Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness": Read.
- "Kammerer (Francois) - The Hardest Aspect of the Illusion Problem - and How to Solve it": Read.
- "Metzinger (Thomas), Ed. - Conscious Experience": Burst out Papers and add Metzinger's Abstracts
- "Shapiro (Lawrence) - The Mind Incarnate": Read.
- "Strawson (Galen) - The Consciousness Deniers": Read & write-up
- "Tegmark (Max) - Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence": Write up Chapter 8: Consciousness
- Bridge71 (4 hours per week)
- Play very occasionally if called upon.
- Bridge Admin:
→ Website and Secretarial duties for Mountnessing & Mayflower Bridge Clubs.
→ Maintain website for Hutton Union.
- Study: Re-read Hand-counting papers, focussing on
→ Papers in Counting the Hands72,
→ "Bourke (Tim) & Smith (Marc), Bird (David) - Countdown to Winning Bridge"
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to read your opponents' cards: The bridge expert's way to locate missing high cards", and
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to Play Card Combinations"
- Read "Kelsey (Hugh) & Glauert (Michael) - Bridge Odds for Practical Players".
- Read "Reading - Bridge - Magazines".
- Chess73 (1 hour per week)
- Why Play Chess:
→ Seriously consider the issues raised by "Ramon y Cajal (Santiago) - On Chess".
→ Counter this with responsibiity to the local chess scene now I've made contact
- Chess Study:-
→ "Gufeld (Eduard) - The Sicilian for the Tournament Player",
→ "Hansen (Carsten) - Back to Basics: Chess Openings: A comprehensive guide to chess openings and opening play",
→ "Hansen (Carsten) - The Full English Opening: Mastering the Fundamentals",
→ "Kuljasevic (Davorin) - How to Study Chess on Your Own: Creating a Plan that Works… and Sticking to it!",
→ "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 1",
→ "Ris (Robert) - Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 2",
→ "Sadler (Matthew) & Regan (Natasha) - Game Changer: AlphaZero's Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI",
→ "Speelman (Jon), Tisdall (Jon) & Wade (Bob) - Batsford Chess Endings",
→ "van der Sterren (Paul) - FCO - Fundamental Chess Openings", and
→ "Willemze (Thomas) - The Chess Toolbox: Practical Techniques Everyone Should Know".
- Chess Training:-
→ Chess.com (game analysis & occasional 10-minute game),
→ Investigate74 LiChess.org
→ "Chess - Chess - YouTube Videos",
→ Complete review of 2018/19 season's games,
→ Complete review of 2019/20 season's games,
→ Train Tommy as opportunity arises.
- Mathematics75 (1 hour per week)
- "Admin - Math Trainer": Try out
- Aeon76: Read papers as they arise.
- "Cummings (Jay) - Proofs: A Long-Form Mathematics Textbook": Read.
- "Gowers (Timothy), Barrow-Green (June) & Leader (Imre), Eds. - The Princeton Companion to Mathematics": Browse.
- "Ronan (Mark) - Symmetry and the Monster: The Story of One of the Greatest Quests of Mathematics": Read.
- "Polya (George), Stewart (Ian) - How to Solve IT: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method": Read.
- "Shapiro (Stewart) - Thinking about Mathematics - The Philosophy of Mathematics": Complete reading.
- "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising": Analyze.
- "Spiegelhalter (David) - The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data": Re-read selected passages.
- Try the puzzles in
→ "Polya (George) & Kilpatrick (Jeremy) - The Stanford Mathematics Problem Book: With Hints and Solutions", and
→ "UKMT, du Sautoy (Marcus) - The Ultimate Mathematical Challenge".
- "Wikipedia - Large language model",
- "Wikipedia - Normal Distribution",
- "Wikipedia - Cauchy Distribution",
- "Wikipedia - Prosecutor's fallacy", and
- "Wikipedia - Prosecutor's fallacy".
- HiQ77 (1 hour per week)
- ISPE
- Sort through and review historical material,
- Investigate & take part in ISPE Ning. There's recently been some advertising of Zoom meetings.
- Read "ISPE - The Thousander",
- Read "ISPE - Telicom": The last print issue (Jan - Dec 2016) looks interesting as a starter.
- Review biography of William James Sidis and related topics:-
→ "Aeon - Video - The Sad Story of the Smartest Man Who Ever Lived",
→ "Wallace (Amy) - The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis", and
→ "Towers (Grady M.) - The Outsiders"
- Investigate the controversies over IQ-testing, in particular read and review:-
→ "Gould (Stephen Jay) - The Mismeasure of Man",
→ "Herrnstein (Richard J.) & Murray (Charles) - The Bell Curve - Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life", and
→ "Devlin (Bernie), Fienberg (Stephen E.), Resnick (Daniel P.) & Roeder (Kathryn) - Intelligence, Genes & Success - Scientists Respond to The Bell Curve"
- Consider submitting articles on my research to Telicom as a way of getting feedback.
- Mensa
In-Page Footnotes:
Footnote 1:
- Since the contents of the groups changes over time, this justification for their segregation isn’t entirely accurate.
Footnote 12:
- Mind you, the mathematical bits didn’t function very well in my youth, so what hope is there now?
Footnote 14:
- Due to administrative confusion, I needlessly took their latest entrance test. After chasing them up I was told I “passed with flying colours”, but could get no more information.
Footnote 15:
- The situation with the house turned out to be much worse than we first thought and we appointed Bakers of Danbury to sort it out. Things have gone well, and the three phases of the work have been completed. We’ve given up seeking redress from the surveyor.
- Coxes Farm hails from the start of the 16th century, or possibly earlier, and is very “wonky”, requiring continual maintenance.
- In December 2017, a base to roof crack appeared in the render at the front.
- Subsequent investigations revealed that the frame at the front – which had been added in the 17th century – has rotted away, so the front façade was held up by the brick infill and an impervious cement render, the cause of the rot.
- The front of the house has now been rebuilt, as has ¾ of the rear.
- A third project was to rebuild the lower part of two side walls.
- I’ve written a Blog Item on this saga, with some theoretical thoughts, which I hope to have published in the Listed property Owners Club Magazine due course. Documentation of Phase 3 is awaiting completion.
- The main outstanding issues are with the roof. I don’t seem to be able to find anyone to fix them.
Footnote 16:
- If these link to the wrong version, ie. the current one, you’ll need to go the “previous versions” and select the correct one.
Footnote 20:
- 25 hours / week represents the amount of time that I’d need to spend if I were pursuing my research part-time at Birkbeck – which would be something like 5 hours / day, 5 days a week.
Footnote 21:
- Or at least those recently added to my database, in the case of electronic items that sometimes arrive too fast to be catalogued immediately.
- As my purchasing has now dropped to a relative trickle, I’ve extended the selection range to cover the last 6 months.
- Some of these are random purchases from charity shops, or presents. Others are selectively purchased in support of my various projects.
- Poverty and lack of space is severely curtailing my purchasing power.
- The categorisation of my books has got out of hand, but follow this link for an alternative – categorised – list of recent acquisitions.
Footnote 24:
- In the light of the segregation of my projects into three tiers, items for tertiary projects are only to be addressed if everything of higher priority is in shape.
- If there are any changes to this list between quarters, they will appear in the Priority Task List.
Footnote 37:
- I used to itemise in this Note an ever-growing list of items accummulated over time, broken down by Chapter and Note.
- However, now both Chapters and Notes are getting into shape, there is no need to list these items again here, so they have been cut after checking they are covered in their place elsewhere.
Footnote 38:
- This list could get very long, so restrict it to 3 books!
- I'll replace these with new ones when completed.
Footnote 39:
- This is extremely time-consuming, and will not be possible for all books and papers of interest.
Footnote 40:
- There are rather a lot of these, so some will have to be skimmed.
- There were a few more on less central topics.
- I hope to whittle these down as time goes by!
Footnote 42:
- This list used to get inordinately long and has been culled.
- Ensure this doesn't happen again!
Footnote 44:
- This list is getting ludicrously long, and either needs addressing or pruning!
Footnote 57:
- Note that Backup_Prune_Ctrl deletes (relevant) pages that weren't regenerated in the last full site-regen, but this isn't the same thing.
Footnote 59: Footnote 61:
- Well, maybe with the occasional holiday, and excluding days on which I have the Enigma Ensemble.
Footnote 62:
- I don't intend to present these for the Trinity exams, as I can present Orchestral Audition pieces instead; but they are essential for technique.
Footnote 63:
- I've yet to decide which to present for the Exam, so this long list will get whittled down in due course.
Footnote 64:
- These are just the ones from the Trinity schedule that I happen to have. Some look rather fearsome.
- The only one I've had assigned is the Second Movement of the Saint-Saens.
Footnote 65:
- The earlier grades are very elementary, but I need practice writing musical notation.
Footnote 66: Ie. The following:- Footnote 74:
- And consider migrating from Chess.com, though I renewed my membership at the end of August 2020, but downgraded from Diamond, costing about £80, to Gold, costing about £24.
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- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2023