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Status Reports
Status: Summary (2014 - June)
(Text as at 04/07/2014 22:46:34)
*** 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 produce, I now produce them quarterly, rather than monthly.
Projects in Progress
- I have ten projects currently on the go, which is too many. Consequently, they are divided into two groups. The first group has effort planned, and the second group does not, though I may address them from time to time to keep them ticking over.
- Contrary to the plan at the start of 2Q14, I’ve removed Languages to the second group, and have not produced a report this time.
- 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 always to restrict the effort on Bridge, and focus on Personal Identity, but this seldom comes to anything.
- I have ignored the various infrastructural elements of my life in these reports – in particular family life, household management, 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
- 2Q14 saw a slight decline as far as time expended was concerned (87% QTD, 87% YTD) – where the year is the 2013/14 academic year.
- The good thing was that my focus was very much on my Thesis and Web-Tools projects – the latter in particular. Bridge was on budget. Other projects hardly got a look in.
- The Minor projects remain effectively on ice.
- 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 a report by sub-project of time expended since my records began, follow this link13.
- For tables of Actual versus Plan, together with the high-level plan for the next quarter, see this page14.
- For the next quarter, I’ve retained the aggregate weekly hours to be spent on my projects at 5415. I’ve retained the plan for Bridge to historical levels with the vague hope of coming in under budget. 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 still 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: 22 hours.
… Philosophy of Religion: 3 hours.
… Web Tools: 12 hours.
… Bridge: 17 hours.
- Follow this link for a list of recently16 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 link17 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 Identity18
- Review my Research Proposal19 to see if this also still makes sense.
- Fill out my Thesis Outline20 with what I’ve already researched and complete the reading lists in a realistic manner – this will provide focus for what I really need to study.
- 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.
- As a background task, convert old PDF-précis, Etc. to Notes.
- Update my “Progress to Date” Note21.
- Philosophy of Religion22
- Web-tools24
- General Developments:
… 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.
- Specific Developments:
… Enable reproduction of archived “Printed Notes”.
… Standardise on “Write-ups” for Paper Abstracts – so, change the routines and database elements that enable the display of Paper Abstracts and Book-Paper Abstracts to accommodate this.
… Solve the problem of the size limitation for Notes by allowing their concatenation.
… Consequently, remove all large “Comments” that have been utilised to expand Paper (and Book?) abstracts.
… Utilise my Web Spider – in particular, regenerate and enhance the external links page, and see if I can get Jspider to work (or utilise some of its code) to check the links.
… Enhance my backup routines to allow pruning of the backup disk itself, and easier location of items to restore.
… 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.
… Fix bugs in multi-level footnoting in Printable Notes – the referencing is going wrong.
- Education & Infrastructure:
… Hutton Bridge Club Website: Weekly maintenance
… "Admin - Bridge - Joint Project": Continue data collection & modelling
… Continue with "Sitepoint (Learnable) - Sitepoint Learnable Web Development Courses":-
… Complete, "Allsopp (John) - Learn HTML5", and
… Restart, and complete, "Weakley (Russ) - Getting Started with CSS".
General PC Education: Read
… "PC Pro - Computing in the Real World"
… "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", and
… "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.
- Bridge25
- 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".
- Periodic involvement in Bridge Winners (Bridge Winners).
- Play in local clubs:-
… Weekly with David, at Mountnessing,
… Weekly with Mike, at Hutton
… Occasionally with Angie at Apple.
- Play in competitions – though none planned yet.
- Languages26
- Consciousness27
- Mathematics28
- Music29
- Chess30
- HiQ31
- 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 15: I want to increase this, but as I’ve never managed to meet this level of commitment, there’s no point.
Footnote 16: 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 59)
Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 47)
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 04/07/2014 22:46:34 |
512 (Status: Summary (2014 - June)) |
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