Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Summary (2013 - September)
(Text as at 16/10/2013 20:08:10)
*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***
(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)
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 produce, I now produce them quarterly, rather than monthly.
Projects in Progress
- I have now settled in to my new house and the developments to the outbuildings are complete. I’m now ensconced most of the time in my newly-built library / study – and have transferred my books from their temporary home in the garage and completed their re-cataloguing so I can find them when needed. So, things have returned to normal.
- I have ten projects currently on the go, which is too many. Consequently, they are divided into two groups. The first group has major effort planned, and the second group has only enough to keep them ticking over.
- This is the first report of the new “academic year”. I’ve re-focussed the projects to give prime attention to my research project – as though I were studying part time for a PhD.
- Follow the hyperlinks for further details:-
Primary Projects
- Research into Personal Identity1. This is the subject that ought to grab most of my attention, as it is the topic of my yet-to-be-completed PhD. 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).
- Studies in the Philosophy of Religion2. On and off, this represents the main preoccupation of my adult life (work and family aside). 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.
- Development of Web-tools3. 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 above two projects are test cases of the method, as well as worthwhile studies in their own right.
- Bridge4: I’m still attempting to become an expert player.
Secondary Projects
- Consciousness5 Studies. A supporting project for both Personal Identity and Philosophy of Religion.
- Languages6: Gain at least a rudimentary understanding of 24 diverse languages – for practical and philosophical purposes.
- Music7: Improve my competence as an oboist, and learn the piano. I have the intention of recommencing oboe-practice in my new den. We’ll see.
- Mathematics8: 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 60 – useful for keeping various bits of my brain functioning9.
- HiQ10: Enjoy and contribute to the intellectual society of ISPE and Mensa (in abeyance, as I’ve allowed my membership of both societies to lapse again).
- Chess11: Improve my standard of play so I can perform acceptably in the Essex, London, Middlesex … leagues (whenever I’m ready). Probably a dead project, though I intend to keep myself familiar with developments.
- These projects are (approximately, in their respective groups) in order of decreasing priority, yet in practise the amount of effort expended on them fails to respect this. My intention is radically to prune the effort on Bridge, and focus on Personal Identity.
- I have ignored the various infrastructural elements of my life in these reports – in particular family life, household management, gym, and general reading, culture, current affairs and such like. Thankfully, the main recent time-stealer – establishing ourselves in our new residence – is now a thing of the past.
- 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.
Planning and Actuals
- 3Q13 was much closer to plan than of late as far as time expended was concerned (96% QTD, 85% YTD) – where the year is the 2012/13 academic year – just completed. Attention to my Thesis was again terrible – with little effort on core activities and slightly less than half the planned effort expended. Bridge got out of control again as results picked up. Philosophy of Religion was in the doldrums, and Web-Tools again had more effort expended than planned – and mostly very usefully spent.
- The tables of actual versus plan are now on separate pages, accessible from the following links:-
- For detailed breakdowns of time spent this year, by month and by study location, follow this link12.
- For tables of Actual versus Plan, together with the high-level plan for the next quarter, see this page13.
- For the next quarter, I’ve retained the aggregate weekly hours to be spent on my projects at 54. I’ve set the plan for Bridge to a more realistic figure. The figure for my Thesis is less than it ought to be, but likely to be more than I can motivate myself to achieve. What I intend to work towards is to allocate to my Thesis the amount of time that I’d need to spend if I was pursuing my research part-time at Birkbeck – which would be something like 5 hours / day, 5 days a week – and then fit other projects around it. Anyway, the weekly plan for the next quarter is as below:-
… Personal Identity: 20 hours.
… Philosophy of Religion: 4 hours.
… Web Tools: 6 hours.
… Bridge: 17 hours.
… Consciousness Studies: 1 hour.
… Languages: 2 hours.
… Music: 1 hour.
… Mathematics: 1 hour.
… HiQ: 1 hour.
… Chess: 1hour.
- Follow this link for a list of recently14 purchased books. 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.
Detailed Interim Activities
As these reports are now quarterly, at best, I’m including a link15 to a brief uncommented list of what I’ve been working on since the last report (ie. this one). It is generated automatically from my time-recording system. Its main utility (to me, at any rate) is as a quick jumping-off point for the various writings in progress or recently completed. The list will, in general, be updated every few days.
Plans for the Near Future
In the light of the segregation of my projects into two tiers, I’ve in general dropped any items for the Secondary Projects.
- Personal Identity16
- Core Reading / Writing:
…”Attend” weekly pseudo-seminar "Look (Brandon C.) - The Metaphysics of Material Beings: Constitution, Persistence, and Identity".
… Complete detailed review "Kurtz (Roxanne) - Introduction to Persistence: What’s the Problem?".
… Complete detailed reviews of
… … "Olson (Eric) - Animalism and the Remnant-Person Problem", and
… … "Olson (Eric) - The Person and the Corpse"
… Use "Olson (Eric) - Immanent Causation and Life After Death", as a stimulus for further research, including ..
… Read "Hershenov (David) - Van Inwagen, Zimmerman, and the Materialist Conception of Resurrection".
… Complete detailed review of "Wilson (Jack) - Beyond Horses and Oak Trees: A New Theory of Individuation for Living Entities".
… Continue reading and reviewing "Gasser (Georg), Ed. - Personal Identity and Resurrection: How Do We Survive Our Death?".
… Re-read and take notes on
… … "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View", and
… … "Olson (Eric) - The Human Animal - Personal Identity Without Psychology".
- Background Reading / Writing:
… Read "LePoidevin (Robin) - Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time".
- Research Repositioning:
… Complete a full review and update of the Notes I’ve created on Personal Identity, focusing on those with little / no content other than a reading list.
- Philosophy of Religion17
- Web-tools21
- Hutton Bridge Club Website: Weekly maintenance
- Bridge “Joint Project”: Continue data collection & modelling
- Educate myself to professional standard in Web Development. Read eBooks (on Kindle):-
… "Lloyd (Ian) - Build Your Own Website the Right Way Using HTML & CSS"
… then others as appropriate, and apply principles to my site.
- Read books on MS Access and MS Excel, namely:-
… "Couch (Andrew) - Microsoft Access 2010 VBA Programming Inside Out",
… "MacDonald (Matthew) - Access 2010: The Missing Manual",
… "Bovey (Rob), Wallentin (Dennis), Bullen (Stephen) & Green (John) - Professional Excel Development: The Definitive Guide to Developing Applications",
… "Jelen (Bill) & Syrstad (Tracy) - VBA and Macros: Microsoft Excel 2010".
- Use the above books to remind myself of how to get MS Access and MS Excel to “tango” – by both writing out to spread-sheets, and using automacro facilities within Excel to allow Access to control Excel.
- Restart, and complete, "Weakley (Russ) - Getting Started with CSS".
- General PC Education: Read:-
… "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World".
- Write my CV ready for job applications.
- Undertake a trawl through the code for all functions within the generator – making improvements for efficiency and function.
- Supply rudimentary functional documentation as a spin-off from the above.
- Undertake a trawl through all (categories of) web-page, making aesthetic improvements, and correcting content.
- Ensure FN referencing within Notes and referencing between Abstracts and Notes works for archived Notes.
- Expand the link to Notes from Papers and Books to be two-way, so that it’s clear that a Note is referenced by my comments on Books and Papers.
- Review and Utilise Web Spider
- Fix bugs in multi-level footnoting in Printable Notes – the referencing is going wrong.
- Investigate the use of RTF in memo fields, so that I can get round the 64k character limit.
- Improve flexibility of password-protected areas (ie. multiple areas, with different log-ons).
- Bridge22
- Read a bunch of books and papers recently acquired on the topic of counting the hand, namely:-
… "Bourke (Tim) & Smith (Marc), Bird (David) - Countdown to Winning Bridge"
… "Kelsey (Hugh) & Glauert (Michael) - Bridge Odds for Practical Players"
… "Lawrence (Mike) - How to read your opponents' cards: The bridge expert's way to locate missing high cards"
… "Baston (Jim) - Memory Systems at Bridge"
… "Doroshow (Bill) - The One That Got Away"
… "Frick (Robert) - The Subtle Joy of Counting (at Bridge)"
… "Kniest (Tom) - Count, count, count (at Bridge)"
… "Schamehorn (Danny) - Danny’s Musings and the Joy of Counting in Bridge"
… "Schutzman (Howard) - Counting Distribution (at Bridge)"
… "Walker (Karen) - Developing Counting Skills (at Bridge)"
- Study books by Victor Mollo in order to improve my declarer play and defence, especially:-
… "Mollo (Victor) - Case for the Defence".
- Read (or complete) a few books recommended by Dave:-
… "Lawrence (Mike) - The Complete Book on Overcalls at Contract Bridge".,
… "Kelsey (Hugh) - Deceptive Plays in Bridge", and
… "Lawrence (Mike) - How to Play Card Combinations".
- Play in local clubs
… Weekly with David,
… Weekly with Ray (if available),
… Monthly with Linda and Mike, as available,
- Play in tournaments, with David, as below:-
… Saturday 5th October: Felixstowe Pairs, with David.
… Tuesday 22nd October: 1st Round NICKO, with David (and Mike + Catriona).
… Sunday 27th October: Kent Swiss Teams, with David (and Sandy & Robert).
… Friday 1st – Sunday 3rd November: EBU Seniors Congress, Daventry, with David.
… Sunday 10th November: Essex “C” versus Norfolk, Barleylands, with David.
… Friday 27th – Monday 30th December: EBU Year-End Congress. Partner(s) TBA.
- Consciousness23
- Mathematics24
- Languages25
- Music26
- Oboe:
… Practice 15 minutes every other day – just reprising the works assigned in previous lessons
- Piano:
… Practice 15 minutes twice a week – when Julie’s at work! – just reprising the works assigned in previous lessons
- Theory & Aural:
… "Taylor (Eric) - Music Theory in Practice: Grade 1".
- Chess27
- HiQ28
- ISPE
… Sort through and review historical material.
- Mensa
… Sort through and review historical material.
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 9: Mind you, the mathematical bits didn’t function very well in my youth, so what hope is there now?
Footnote 14: As my purchasing has now dropped to a trickle, I’ve extended the selection range to cover the last 6 months.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 56)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 48)
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
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| 16/10/2013 20:08:10 |
512 (Status: Summary (2013 - September)) |
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