A few Measly Steps a Day #2

I can use dictation inside G Docs, true. I used it briefly 4 years ago when I temporarily could not type due to a repetitive stress injury in the hands that later healed (plus I moved to my current apartment where I have a spacious office and an ergonomic set-up and the repetitive stress injury happened when I worked out of my half of a small dinner table in the apartment I shared with a roommate where I only had a small bedroom and no office).

I bet G Docs dictation has improved by leaps and bounds since.

But what if I am, say, driving and have thoughts come to me? It happens often. Should I use the dictation inside the phone? Say, open G Docs app inside my Android?

Oh, you have an Android phone? Hmmm, if you're not using it for anything else (like GPS), then I'd recommend trying it. I've dictated a few texts while driving (very few). And this was on an old $10 refurb Tracfone.

I think dictation requires data to function well, but I'm not sure. Just open a blank Gdoc before you start the car.

Have you ever tried Google Assistant? I have; I tried to train it to open Google Maps and find directions to my home whenever I said, "Chart a course home" (Star Trek style). Instead, it took me to Home Depot, and I didn't realize it until about 1/3 of the way into the trip!

How funny! I have a Home Depot off the highway closest to me and I do not want to go there!

I will try what you suggest. Since I mostly drive along familiar routes, I rarely use the GPS function of the phone. Will let you know how it goes.

SPG, I chuckled at AI interpreting Home Depot as home. Makes perfect sense.


Tart Cherry Jam, if you want to dictate your thoughts, please, either turn on your device before you start the car or pull off the road to start it if you are driving and inspiration strikes. You probably know this, but I'm saying it just in case. Inspiration can be a loud voice.


I'm in a position where I have to do something I don't want to do. (Nothing illegal - a matter of conscience. No, I don't feel comfortable saying anything more on the internet)

R, you'd probably jump right in and take care of things. Me - I'm chicken. I've been brought up to keep my mouth shut.

Hey team. Ms. D, re: jump right in & take care of things. It all depends. I do let some stuff pass and grumble about it till I bore people.

TCJ, I appreciate your challenge. There are many AI transcription apps. I had a project where I was going to record calls with my client and transcribe them before finally congealing them into a cogent grant application. My assistant mentioned that AI transcription services were much improved to what I'd experienced when the tech was a baby, so I dug into the research.

Some pretty good ones from 3 or 4 years ago, better ones might be out now. These work with video conferencing apps like Zoom. Also, zoom now offer transcription inside the zoom.

Otter.ai - watch out for limited time on their free plan.

Grain.com - limited recordings (was 50 last I checked). This is much better than Otter.

What I learned to do: use my zoom and simply make a recording of myself speaking or reading (when I needed to quote a long patch) with Grain running.

2. Take the Grain transcript (which is cluttered with speaker IDs & time markers) and ask Chat GPT (nicknamed by me: CHester) to strip out them out. This takes about 30 seconds.

3. Keep a copy of this stage before asking CHester to fix the grammar and organize by paragraphs.

4. Make any other tweaks as occur to you then print and edit.

Thank you greatly! I have heard of Otter but not Grain. Using Zoom is also a great idea. I will report back after my trials

Another update:

• Find an employment attorney to review the terms of my termination letter.
• Update "resume" DONE (but I've submitted it for review)
• Identify popular skills I might lack and self-train (Python scripting?)
• Figure out if my wife and I are really willing to relocate MOOT=DONE She seemed glad that I found a job opening that's closer than my previous work place.
• Apply for jobs IN PROGRESS -- ongoing
• Network IN PROGRESS -- ongoing
• Total up the dollar amount of the severance package 30% DONE-ish. It's only 6 weeks cash salary, but I'll also see accelerated vesting on two stock grants, and there a "refund" of a mandatory salary reduction that took place last year.
• Figure out insurance matters WELL, I figured out what I need to figure out. But then I have to figure that out. Insurances remain in effect until March 31, including the FSA charge card (WOOT!). First thing I want to know is whether I keep the deductible (which I've already met) under COBRA. ADDITIONALLY, I looked at the cost of the state sponsored insurance plans, and I'm definitely choosing COBRA.
• NEW: Use the legal plan to create a will and an estate before I lose the benefit.
• Think of more stuff to do and write that down IN PROGRESS -- ongoing

When I think of relocating, many feelings come up:

• It would too difficult to sell the house because it's so cluttered and run down.
• Some companies will provide a total relocation package -- they'll take care of everything -- but my low confidence and imposter syndrome make me think I don't deserve it / I'm not worthy.
• How do we know that we'll like the new location?
  • My wife wants a nice neighbors, but I'm sure she'll be annoyed by them. I'd rather have no neighbors.
  • Also, there's the effects of climate change now. We have more and bigger tornadoes, wildfires, flooding, snow storms. We seem to be in a good place right now.

My electronic Todo list has become a mess. Lots of dead tasks, meaning stuff I intended to do but never got to doing, and which may have become irrelevant. Looking at that old and never ending list now feels demoralizing.

Plus, I enjoy the pleasure of crossing off a completed task by hand.

Also, weirdly enough, I have come to like my own handwriting and enjoy writing my hand. Possibly this is because I was reprimanded by my first grade teacher for poor and messy handwriting, my only academic fault back then, and as an adult I worked on it and really improved it, so maybe I feel that I deserve that feeling 'I like my own handwriting'. I have even been praised for it once, about a decade ago, whom I sent typed up letters via snail mail and wrote the address by hand. It felt great and was unexpected.

So, going by the principle that enjoyment is highly motivational, I have bought a bound notebook from Amazon with extra sheets. Starting to use it today. Will report back to the thread.

AVVO can be helpful in reviewing candidate employment attorneys. Just note that unlike Yelp, AVVO allows colleagues and not just consumers to write reviews.

First my chime in and then my comments. Supposed to have held our annual condo meeting on Saturday, but lacked a quorum so re-booked 3 weeks out. This is the 2nd year in a row this nonsense has happened. Breathing and we'll see what unfolds.

I'm left stuck being more of the Condo Runner than is fair, just, right, or healthy for the other owners. This is my home and I must do what needs doing to keep it insured, livable, and within the protections of our governing laws and documents. So do they.

That's the motive, the experience is I've awaken that this makes me like Sisyphus. It's a Boulder to Shoulder, as far as I can see now, till I die. Yucksville Daddio.

TCJ, Oh, you're entering my zone of skills around lists and schedules. What I tend to do is use the blank side of used paper and make a daily list. Sometimes and even shorter list for a dash of work in a limited time. I do enjoy lining out items, too, by hand. When the list is completed I also love to tear it into pieces. Never to see it again.

If you're collecting your task in a notebook, look into Bullet Journaling if you haven't already. They have a method. Lots of tutorials out there on it. I personally find it too much bother, and for most things I have no joy in looking back and seeing it was done. You know, 3 weeks ago I see I went to the post office and mailed something.

SPG, about your termination case, look at what Nolo Press offers. I love Nolo press, their guides have been quite helpful when I was coping with being an estate executor and also when I was working through my lifetime strategy for managing my finances.

Re moving ... sounds like you're constructing a Pro/Con balance sheet. It's a really easy tool to gets all the various points of view with their plusses or minuses onto paper for further analysis. Benjamin Franklin is credited with inventing it:

To Joseph Priestley

London, September 19, 1772

Dear Sir,

In the Affair of so much Importance to you, wherein you ask my Advice, I cannot for want of sufficient
Premises, advise you what to determine, but if you please I will tell you how.

When these difficult Cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under
Consideration all the Reasons pro and con are not present to the Mind at the same time; but
sometimes one Set present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out of Sight. Hence
the various Purposes or Inclinations that alternately prevail, and the Uncertainty that perplexes us.

To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over
the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under
the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or
against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate
their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both
out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two
Reasons con equal to some three Reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at
length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is
of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly.

And tho' the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision of Algebraic Quantities, yet when
each is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can
judge better, and am less likely to take a rash Step; and in fact I have found great Advantage from
this kind of Equation, in what may be called Moral or Prudential Algebra.

Wishing sincerely that you may determine for the best, I am ever, my dear Friend,

Yours most affectionately

B. Franklin

Today at work, I wrote all my todos by hand, crossed them out, although not exactly in the order in which I listed them, and was happy that I got everything done. This is unusually pleasant.

You've stumbled on the Autofocus method developed by Mark Forster. A user's review on Medium where I snagged the steps.

The 5 Simple Steps of Autofocus

1. List Everything: Start with a notebook and jot down all your tasks as they come to mind.
2. Quick Scan: Read through the list quickly without taking any immediate action.
3. Feel the Pull: Slow down and let one task stand out to you. It’s that feeling of readiness.
4. Work on It: Dive into the task for as long as it feels right. No need to force yourself to work longer.
5. Update and Repeat: Cross off the task, and if it’s not finished, re-enter it at the end of the list. Keep going until no task stands out on the page.

The reviewer adds: "But why does Autofocus work so well? It’s all about finding a balance between your rational and intuitive thinking."

In practice I find myself rotating and inventing task management systems. The Doer me has the added burden of continually tricking the Lazy me.

Yesterday I scored a nearly perfect day. Did a bit of bookkeeping for my finances, dispatched my inbox and short condo todo list, enjoyed a break in the rains to get sour rye bread discounted for the month (gotta love discounts), shared my research on Alpaca socks (great for travel because they repel water and don't hold smells and dry fast) with the store I sometimes buy socks from; met up with a researcher from a study I'm part of for my payment; took the light rail to the county library to return a book, traveled back to return 2 DVDs to the university library, read a bit in the library using their wifi access, home for rest and a fast snack before being part of a script read for screen writers; a proper dinner, watched 2 episodes of "The Dark Side of Comedy" (Norm Macdonald & Ellen Degeneres) and then to sleep with a smile.

Brilliant! I am so glad I joined this thread.

Today, I used the same method and easily finished creating the content of the slides of my presentation. This is a second presentation this week. Next, I need to refine the formatting of the slides and make sure all the transitions are in place. Maybe tomorrow. And then I will practice and time myself on Friday. I will deliver the presentation on April 8 and if indeed I finish practicing on Friday, it will be the first time I am prepared so much in advance.

I've lost 2 (count em) hats over the past few weeks. I asked Chester (Ai) about it and got back a spew of associative meanings. These land on my situation:

Common Symbolic Meanings
Vulnerability or exposure – Hats provide protection from the elements. Losing one could symbolize feeling exposed, unprotected, or unprepared.
A shift in fortune – In some cultures, a hat being blown away by the wind can symbolize a change in luck or destiny.

Cultural and Literary Perspectives
In folklore, losing a hat could signal an omen, sometimes of misfortune but also of new beginnings.
In dreams, losing a hat might indicate a loss of confidence or personal power.

Repeated loss of identity or change – If hats symbolize personal identity, losing multiple could indicate a period of transition, uncertainty, or reevaluation of your role or direction in life.
Signs of distraction or preoccupation – Losing multiple hats might suggest your mind is elsewhere, possibly reflecting stress, forgetfulness, or shifting priorities.

Alright, I get it: distracted, shifting priorities, loss of personal time and feeling exposed to the criticism and judgments of indifferent, hostile, or critical others.

So, what's the mend? I've replace one of the hats (unhappily as I don't like what I mail-ordered); and will replace the second (likely the exact model). So much for the hats; what about my head?

Kipling, take us out ...

If

I[I]f you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son![/I]

Hats...

I think I lost two hats in quick succession about ten years ago and none since. My situation was that my daughter was still in high school and was applying / accepted to a secondary school. So I was about to "lose" my daughter and take on massive debt (more than the home mortgage, in fact). So the folklore meaning fits for me -- both as an omen (debt) and new beginnings (empty nester). And of course distraction, most of all.

Do your bylaws specify term limits for officers? This would relieve you of the never-ending role of chairing the meetings. Another useful thing to have is a clause that allows you to conduct some business by email vote or without a quorum.
Yep, I do exactly that. But then I started putting daily chores on the list (scoop the litterboxes, get the mail, brush teeth...) and got nothing important done.
Great advice for both situations, and I like the historical background on the Pro/Con list!

I lost a new hat during my vacation last May. But then my friend with whom we took the trip together gifted me her hat. It is a different hat from the one I lost, but still. One in, one out.

I absolutely love sour rye bread.

Sisyphean Burdens. We don't have term limits, SPG, because as a group we suffer from the opposite issues: unwillingness to care and to follow-through. I'm not currently officially on the board, but the Board president is a non-starter. So, to keep within legal compliance rules, I pick up the slack because I know the rules and it's gotta get done or worse problems sprout.

We've completed all the votes to conduct all business online. That includes the most frequent Board and Annual Meetings. Meaning, I completed the proposal and wrangled it through owner approvals.

Hats. Thanks for the tales of lost hats. While researching a replacer, many reviewers mentioned losing theirs. 18,000 hats are lost a year at Disneyland. OR, maybe hats hear about Disneyland and simply leave without saying goodbye.

My tendency is I get a really nice item the first round. Then when I accidentally damage or lose it, the next round I drop down the price scale. Why pay all that money when I can't seem to keep hold of it? This happened after I lost both of my wonderful folding caps from Sunday Afternoon. $20 a piece. Marked down. Replacements were under $5. Lost those next. Replacements still around $5. Learning to buy them 2 at a time. They're cheap, have unknown branding on them, and harder to lose for some perverse reason.

Found this Zen attitude on Reddit:

I know this feel. I have irrational attachments to hats. Like a little kid and his teddy bear. It's like a security thing? For me it's beanies, or "ski caps" as old people call them. I'll have a beanie that I wear everyday for months or even years. It's probably kind of gross.

Eventually, something happens, and it goes missing. It's just inevitable. I'll retrace my steps all day and a lot of the time I'll find it - laying on random street corner where it fell or just on some random chair in a class room. But sometimes it never shows up and I'll just get really sad for a few days like, "Nothing will ever be the same anymore." It's ridiculous, I know.

So, I've just learned to accept that is the way of hats. They come and go. If you let yourself get too attached you set yourself up for devastation. Learn to distance yourself from hats, and material things in general. You'll be happier and more stable over all.

"My hat's off to someone" is an expression I like to use from time to time, especially when that person possesses qualities I lack of has done something I could not have accomplished.

Thanks TCJ for the tip of the the "tip of the hat." There's "hat trick" for 3 goals in a hockey game. "Passing the hat" to collect moola. Well, ya need a hat to pass.

Another BIG winsight this morning: the missing hat came while I was feeling like "I'm shucked!" around my Sisyphean duties to save my home within my condo. Like a "deer in the headlights" —I fell stalled and stuck "facing" this bleak and lonely and hard working future.

All exaggerated, of course, but when I think of my inner selves, they are each a pure exaggeration. The parts—by collaborating or leading, or giving way—express a more blended, balanced, and seemingly well-adjuster performance that I present to others.

When I asked Ai it suggested the lost hat was a style of sacrifice. I think a closer fit is it simply slipped out my object permanence mental "space" as this condo boulder fully "landed" in my gut, vision, and plans. I mean, really, you only get 5 ± 1 chunks of mental processing capacity; and the condo boulder took up 9.

Gee, from this view, I got off light only losing a great hat I was falling in love with that cost about $25. As far as I know, I'm trying not to look for anything else.

This has generated a fresh search on "deer in the headlights." There are some good mind-body tools I found for dealing with the stress and anticipated stress (and blame, and mistakes-apology cycles, etc.)

Even found a NY Times article on couples therapy that has strong resonance with another boulder in my life: my relationship.

Winsight?

Is this your coinage?

How clever!

Hi, all,

I too work with lists. They help me to focus. And, TCJ, congrats on getting so much crossed off.

R, I've always admired you for doing your condo work. it's a heck of a job that has to be done. As you said, the consequences of not doing it are worse than rolling that stupid rock up the hill. I got asked to do a similar job for our church. (much, much easier than what you're dealing with, but still a pain.) As I said, I'm not cut out for this, but I'm not seeing anyone else who is in a position to do it. Rats!
Square Peg, congrats on crossing stuff of your list. Good wishes. May you end up in a good job.

me - Taxes are my next big hurdle. Then, hopefully, I won't have too many other boulders (to use the Sisyphus metaphor) to push around for a while. I'm having fun writing, and I do get the chance to jump into my characters at least once a day. The words don't come easily, and there's a lot of editing and rewriting, but this story is a lot easier to write than my other ones have been. There's so much I want to write, and it feels as if it goes so slowly, but at least it's moving forward.

R, Thanks for "If" it's always been one of my favorites.

I have read yet another report this morning that referenced a study about hand-brain connection. It made an even more compelling case for my love of handwritten lists.