Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages
Status Reports
Status: Summary (2021 - December)
(Text as at 03/01/2022 23:58:34)
*** 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 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 this academic year they 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 two projects in this group 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!
- 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. 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 play regularly for the Billericay first team in the Southend and North Essex Leagues. 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 no 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 68 – 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 continue to be time-consuming. The situation with the house15 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 first two phases of the work have been completed, with the third phase started in December 2020 and is now complete bar a lick of paint and lime-wash. We’ve given up seeking redress from the surveyor.
- 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 21Q4 I spent across my various projects 689.75 hours (689.75 hours YTD) – where by "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the academic year commencing in October 2021. "Actual versus plan" was 83.2%, (83.2% YTD).
- While I worked hard for the first two months of 21Q4, I took sick for the whole of December – self-diagnosed bronchitis after a nasty cold – and then there was Christmas, with Nat back from Thailand and the whole family over. So, no Bridge in December, nor much else.
- The balance of the various projects against plan over the last quarter was mostly as I’d like, with the minor projects losing out.
- 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
To accommodate Bridge – playing twice a week and acting as Secretary of Mountnessing & Mayflower DBCs – I had (last Quarter) massively increased the average weekly total plan to 64 hours. Even if I’d stayed well, this would have been unachievable, so I’ve reduced it to 60 hours (9 hours a day during the week, though 10 hours on ‘Bridge’ days, 7 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday). I doubt this will be achievable either, but some of the projects (Music, Bridge, Religion, Languages) are fairly light-weight (at least as I approach them20).
The planned effort for my Thesis – at 24 hours / week – is more or less what it ought to be21.
Chess and Bridge remain at “Priority 3”, as they should be, and Music, Languages, Consciousness Studies and Religion remain at “Priority 2”.
Despite the low-priority assigned to Bridge, I’ve had to allocate 11 hours a week to it in order to fulfil my ‘responsibilities’ This has been at the cost of inflating the overall time-budget. We’ll see what the situation turns out to be in practice.
A point of continual but useless regret is that – now at 29 hours / week – the time allocated to my relatively unimportant priority 2 & 3 projects nearly exceeds the 31-hours’ effort devoted to my priority 1 projects.
Philosophy of Religion retains its time allocation at 7 hours / week to give time to read through the Bible again, this time in the original languages to make it more interesting.
I’ve decided to continue to try to play the oboe properly, and improve my general musicianship, but as previously noted have had to reduce my Music allowance to 4 hours / week. I need to regain focus after recent illness.
I’ve maintained the time allocated to Languages at 7 hours / week, and the bulk of this will be otherwise “fallow” time while walking Henry the dog.
I’ve given in to reality, and swapped Bridge and Consciousness Studies between the priority 2 and 3 projects.
My intention has always to restrict the effort on Bridge, and focus on the philosophy of Personal Identity. Historically, this resolve has seldom come to anything, except when I’ve stopped playing bridge altogether, though I now believe that for me Bridge is sufficiently enjoyable and relaxing to be self-justifying. I’ve retained the time-allocation at 11 hours / week but – hopefully – not at the expense of other projects.
Other projects have had their time allocations reduced to zero, though that doesn’t mean I’ll do nothing on them.
So, the weekly plan (reduced slightly to 60 hours) for the next quarter is as below:-
- Priority 1: 31 hours
- Personal Identity: 24 hours.
- Web Tools: 7 hours.
- Priority 2: 29 hours
- Philosophy of Religion: 7 hours.
- Music: 4 hours.
- Languages: 7 hours.
- Bridge: 11 hours.
- Priority 3: 0 hours
- Consciousness Studies: 0 hours.
- Chess: 0 hours.
- Mathematics: 0 hours.
- HiQ: 0 hours.
Follow this link for a list of recently22 purchased books.
Detailed Interim Activities
- As these reports are now quarterly, at best, I include a link to a brief uncommented list23 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 List24, 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 Future25
- Thesis
- Website
- Religion
- Music
- Languages
- Consciousness
- Bridge
- Chess
- Mathematics
- HiQ
- Thesis26 (24 hours per week)
- Continue with my Thesis27; in particular
- Spend at least an hour a day writing something original.
- Fill out those sections that I can write something on without further research.
- Rework the structure so that Level-1 or -2 print produces the thesis with the correct reading-list.
- Continually review the Note describing my Current Beliefs28 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 Beliefs29.
- Make progress on specific Chapters of my Thesis, using the tasks outlined in my Thesis Dashboard30, using the materials listed31 in the Chapters and underlying Notes.
- Follow up on Keith Augustine's comments on my review of "Hershenov (David) - Review of Nancey Murphy's 'Bodies and Souls, or Spirited Bodies?'".
- 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-essays32.
- Determine how the first is produced, and why the pdfs aren't highlighted, and compare with Write-ups Notes Jump Table
- Re-read & enhance recent Précis conversions, ie:-
→ "Skyrms (Brian) - The Goodman Paradox and the New Riddle of Induction"
→ "Woolhouse (Roger) - Spinoza and Substance"
- Convert outstanding Essays.
- Complete cataloguing the books downloaded from Springer,
- Continue / complete reading various books that have landed in my in-tray:-
- "Ball (Philip) - How to Grow a Human: Reprogramming Cells and Redesigning Life",
- "Chomsky (Noam) - What Kind of Creatures Are We?",
- "Foroohar (Rana) - Don't Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles - And All of Us",
- "Jansen (Marius B.) - The Making of Modern Japan",
- "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",
- "Seung (Sebastian) - Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are",
- "Wright (Craig) - The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit - Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness",
- Complete reading (or make notes on):-
- "Borges (Jorge Luis) - Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings",
- "Bregman (Rutger) - Why Garbagemen Should Earn More Than Bankers",
- "Dennett (Daniel) - The Mind's I - Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul: Introduction",
- "Erber (Joan T.) & Szuchman (Lenore T.) - Great Myths of Aging",
- "Ord (Toby) - The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity",
- Complete my Note on "Smith (Martin) - Why Throwing 92 Heads in a Row Is Not Surprising" and discuss with Pete & Mike.
- Economics:-
- "Bregman (Rutger) - Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There"
- "Bregman (Rutger) - Why Garbagemen Should Earn More Than Bankers"
- "Reiss (Julian) - Philosophy of Economics: A Contemporary Introduction"
- "Sowell (Thomas) - Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy"
- "Susskind (Daniel) - A World Without Work: Technology, Automation and How We Should Respond"
- Continue reading and reviewing papers issued by Aeon33,
- Follow up on Jennie Black's 'Saloom' on Meritocracy by completing reading
- "Wooldridge (Adrian) - The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World" , and - as a counter-argument
- "Harden (Kathryn Paige) - The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality".
- Keep up with the Journals via JSTOR & Cambridge Core.
- Update my Journals Note34: 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.
- Website35 (7 hours per week)
- Own Website: Priority 1 Items By Category:-
- Architecture
- Compact and Repair Problems
- On compacting and repairing my main database I sometimes get the error "The query cannot be completed. Either the size of the query result is larger than the maximum size of a database (2 GB), or there is not enough temporary storage space on the disk to store the query result".
- It happens 3 times while the database is re-opening.
- There is lots of space, and the database is only 650Mb (and the error started when it was under 500Mb).
- This mostly happens after I've run long processes, so I usually close the database, re-open it and then try the compact and repair. Usually this works, but not always. But I then try again and the message disappears.
- I strongly suspect that this is MS Access itself re-indexing tables, and blowing up a temporary database, but I can’t find any evidence for this on-line. Or help, other than suggestions to split databases and do other sensible things. Given that the error occurs when the database is re-opening, with no temporary file visible, this is all very strange.
- 17/04/20 - set MaxLocksPerFile to 1,000,000 (from the default 9,500). Sadly, it doesn't seem to have made a difference.
- Complete XRef-re-engineering project:-
- Ensure all links and link-pages use the new XRef table, and pension off the old tables.
- Look into writing out specific object-identifiers, and linking thereto for Citations, rather than paragraph references. An issue is multiple instances of the same object in a document.
- Check all link-types still work and fix any errors.
- Complete the auto-triggering of regeneration of “associated” link pages.
- Fix update bug in Convert_Webrefs.
- Fix Bug whereby PaperSummary pages seem to have “Works-” and “Books/Papers-” Citings that refer to the same link-pages.
- Document36 the process!
- Document37, repair & update my Website site-map
- Review effectiveness of hyperlinking method in the light of PhD and Philosophy of Religion experience.
- Where possible, use ID rather than NAME for in-page hyperlinks
- Backups
- 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 document38 first
- Books
- Further improve the time to regenerate Book Summaries. Took about 21 minutes on 18/12/2021, but should be under 5 minutes!
- Books/Papers
- Investigate whether multiple Subject/Topic/Subtopic usage leads anywhere (ie. are just the first (of 3) actually used). Fix anything amiss.
- 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.
- Document39!
- 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
- iCloud for Windows: Re-install & solve 'The upload folder for iCloud Photos is missing' problem. Try on new Laptop.
- Notes
- Add "Note Alternates" to Note pages.
- Allow the option to concatenate Notes in the Printed version (ie. linearly embed them essay-style), rather than treating the hyperlinks as footnotes – but still keep the hyperlink & cross-referencing in place.
- For use as "disclaimers" - eg. for "Plug Notes".
- For Thesis / essays: the difficulty here is the need for linking passages to make the text run smoothly.
- As part of the Cross-Referencing project, check out the consistent treatment of Note 87540, which should be universally ignored. Recently, links to it appeared on web pages Book_Summary, BookPaperAbstracts and BooksToNotes, as a Note referencing a Book. The critical item was a row on the Note_Book_Links table.
- Develop a method to create Papers for rows in Aeon_Files that have an associated Identity_Note_ID but no Paper_ID.
- Investigate Note_Links: Section references seem to be incorrect
- Printable Notes: fix the bug whereby the “private” flag is round the wrong way.
- Split Aeon Page41 into multiple sub-pages (either by topic or by priority)
- Papers
- Split PDFs Available on Local Website42 page into alphabetical sub-pages
- The monthly regeneration process for Paper Abstracts is still taking too long. Monitor! Last run: 1.57 hours on 18/12/2021.
- Photos
- Timeline software43: Add photos for Bakers' Coxes Farm Development Phase III
- Timeline software44: 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.
- 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 pages45 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.
- 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.
- Technology
- Look into Sistrix Smart46. Errors and warnings itemised are:-
- Duplicate content: seems to be variants on theotodman.com
- Title Tags: Empty, too long, identical
- Page Not Found
- Filesize in excess of 1Mb
- Meta-Description: Empty
- Few words on Page
- H1: Not used, used multiple times per page, identical across pages
- Pictures: Alt attribute missing
- 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 Webrefs 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:-
Religion47 (7 hours per week)
- Philosophy of Religion:
- "Antony (Louise M.) - Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life": Continue reading,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - The Skeptical Christian": Read,
- "Howard-Snyder (Daniel) - Does Faith Entail Belief": Read,
- "Insole (Christopher J.) - Realism and Anti-Realism": Read,
- "Plantinga (Alvin) & Dennett (Daniel) - Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?": Read.
- Bible:
- "Metzger (Bruce) - The Greek New Testament",
- "Lanier (Gregory R.) & Ros (William A.) - Septuaginta: A Reader's Edition - Volume 1",
- "Cohen (A.), Ed. - The Soncino Chumash",
- Qur'an:
- "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an", Note48
- "Asad ( Muhammad), Qur'an - The Message of the Quran: The Full Account of the Revealed Arabic Text Accompanied by Parallel Transliteration",
- "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".
- Background:
- Aeon: Read & annotate papers as they arise
- "Finkelstein (Israel) & Silberman (Neil Asher) - The Bible Unearthed": Continue reading
- "Stavrakopoulou (Francesca) - God: An Anatomy": Continue reading
- "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
Music49 (4 hours per week)
- Oboe:-
- Practice the oboe for two 15-minute sessions each and every day50 – focussing on the items below and …
- Occasionally combine into an hour-long session to build up stamina further.
- Work through, and perfect, scales & arpeggios51 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 particular52
→ "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 particular53
→ "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 "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 through54 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 material55, 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".
Languages56 (7 hours per week)
- General:
→ Brief Thoughts on Language & Languages57
- Scripts: Thoroughly get to grips with:-
→ Armenian: "Andonian (Hagop) - Beginner's Armenian",
→ Hindi: "Snell (Rupert) - Beginner's Hindi Script",
→ Korean: "Go (Billy) - Korean Made Simple: A beginner's guide to learning the Korean language: 1",
→ Persian: "Farzad (Narguess) - Complete Modern Persian",
→ Thai: "Becker (Benjawan Poomsan) - Thai for Beginners",
→ Urdu: "Delacy (Richard) - Read and Write Urdu Script".
- Brush up on Biblical Hebrew and Greek:-
→ "Dobson (John H.) - Learn Biblical Hebrew", and
→ "Dobson (John H.) - Learn New Testament Greek"
- Amharic:
→ "Halcomb (T. Michael W.) - Introducing Amharic: An Interactive Workbook",
→ "Ling - Learn Amharic"
- Arabic:
→ "Jones (Alan), Qur'an - Arabic Through the Qur'an",
→ "Ling - Learn Arabic"
- Armenian:
→ "Schumann (Johannes) - Armenian for beginners"
→ "Ling - Learn Armenian"
- Chinese:
→ "Ling - Learn Chinese"
- Coptic:
→ "Layton (Bentley) - Coptic in 20 Lessons: Introduction to Sahidic Coptic with Exercises and Vocabularies"
- Danish:
→ "Koefoed (H.A.) - Teach Yourself Danish"
→ "Ling - Learn Danish"
- Dutch:
→ "Shetter (William) - Introduction to Dutch - A Practical Grammar"
→ "Ling - Learn Dutch"
- Egyptian:
→ "Collier (Mark) & Manley (Bill) - How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-step Guide to Teach Yourself Hieroglyphs"
- German:
→ "Tenberg (Reinhard) & Ainslie (Susan) - Deutsch Plus"
→ "Ling - Learn German"
- Greek (Modern):
→ "Matsukas (Aristarhos) - Complete Greek Course"
→ "Ling - Learn Greek"
- 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"
- Italian:
→ "Freeth (Mariolina) & Checketts (Giuliana) - Contatti 1: A First Course in Italian"
→ "Ling - Learn Italian"
- Japanese:
→ "Lammers (W.P.) - Japanese the Manga Way: An Illustrated Guide to Grammar and Structure"
→ "Ling - Learn Japanese"
→ "ToFuGu - Learn Hiragana: The Ultimate Guide" (revision)
→ "ToFuGu - Learn Katakana: The Ultimate Guide" (revision)
- Korean:
→ "Ling - Learn Korean"
- Latin:
→ "Duolingo - Duolingo Latin"
- Persian:
→ "Ling - Learn Persian"
- Portuguese:
→ "Whitlam (John) - Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar: A Practical Guide"
→ "Ling - Learn Portuguese"
- Russian:
→ "West (Daphne) - Russian"
→ "Ling - Learn Russian"
- Spanish:
→ "Gordon (Ronni L.) & Stillman (David M.) - The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice"
→ "Ling - Learn Spanish"
- 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"
- Syriac:
→ "Robinson (Theodore) - Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar"
- Thai:
→ "Ling - Learn Thai",
- Turkish:
→ "Celen-Pollard (Asuman) & Pollard (David) - Turkish (Teach Yourself Complete Courses)"
→ "Ling - Learn Turkish"
- Urdu:
→ "Ling - Learn Urdu"
Consciousness58 (0 hours per week)
- Aeon59: 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.
- "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
- "Papineau (David) - Introducing Consciousness": Re-read and write notes.
- "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
Bridge60 (11 hours per week)
- Play weekly at Mayflower & Mountnessing DBCs
- Bridge Admin: Secretary, Committee and Website responsibilities for Mountnessing DBC.
- Re-read Hand-counting papers, focussing on
→ Papers in Counting the Hands61,
→ "Bourke (Tim) & Smith (Marc), Bird (David) - Countdown to Winning Bridge", and
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to read your opponents' cards: The bridge expert's way to locate missing high cards"
→ "Lawrence (Mike) - How to Play Card Combinations"
- Read "Klinger (Ron) - Five-card Majors".
- Read "Reading - Bridge - Magazines".
Chess62 (0 hours 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),
→ Investigate63 LiChess.org
→ "Chess - Chess - YouTube Videos",
→ Complete review of 2018/19 season's games,
→ Complete review of 2019/20 season's games.
- Club Play & Participation:
- Over-the-Boad Play: Participation64 if and when play resumes in Billericay Chess Club:-
→ Club Nights
→ NECL matches
→ Southend League matches
- Attend weekly Billericay Virtual Chess Club (using Discord)
Mathematics65 (0 hours per week)
- Aeon66: 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.
- "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": Read.
- 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".
HiQ67 (0 hours per week)
- ISPE
- 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:
- 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 – currently about 40% through – is 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.
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:
- This is – on the face of it – rather absurd.
- How can reading the Bible in the original languages – and learning 23 other languages – really be ‘lightweight’? Even Bridge is the most intellectual thing most bridge-players do. Likewise music and musicians.
- What I mean is that there’s not a lot of original thought required of me, and I don’t really aim to excel.
Footnote 21:
- 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 22:
- 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 25:
- 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 31:
- I used to list in this Note an ever-growing list of items accummulated over time, broken down by Chapter and Note.
- In particular, make use of my new 'Snippets' technology to introduce text from the Notes to the Thesis Chapters' Main Text.
- 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 45:
- 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 46:
- See Sistrix
- This used to be called Optimizr, see Optimizr (Defunct) (which now auto-forwards to Sistrix).
- A quick look doesn’t show it to be an obvious scam, but I need to double-check.
- An unsolicited analysis of my site turned up monthly from Optimizr from January 2015 to October 2017, listing a large number of “problems” that I think I know about, but which are in the queue to address.
- It restarted in February 2018, under the Sistrix name (this seems to have been associated with Optimizr since November 2015).
- The free version of this software is restricted to 1,000 pages, which is a very small proportion of my Site, though I may be able to point it to difference base-URLs.
- But I do need to address the problems validly itemised, and a sub-set is still useful.
Footnote 48: Footnote 50:
- Well, maybe with the occasional holiday, and excluding days on which I have the Enigma Ensemble.
Footnote 51:
- 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 52:
- I've yet to decide which to present for the Exam, so this long list will get whittled down in due course.
Footnote 53:
- 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 54:
- The earlier grades are very elementary, but I need practice writing musical notation.
Footnote 55: Ie. The following:- Footnote 63:
- 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.
Footnote 64:
- This used to say "full participation", but I've let the team captain know that my 'mind games' focus is Bridge, and that - while I'm willing to "fill a board" - I don't want to take the place of anyone more enthusiastic.
- In any case, there's now no 'over the board' chess to be had.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 88)
Table of the 5 Later Versions of this Note
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 03/01/2022 23:58:34 |
512 (Status: Summary (2021 - December)) |
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- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2023