Category Archives: Pondside Planner

Purpose, priorities, and progress.
Goals, grit, and growth.
Fundamentals, focus, and frameworks.

2015 – Wrapping all the blue goals together

The PolyBlog
January 8 2015

So most of my goals are up on the blog now, with strong commitments across the board. I haven’t talked about two of them yet, nor the “ongoing” day to day stuff. And the other piece missing? Things I intend to cross off my bucket list this year. Let’s start putting the pieces together.

BLUE PRIORITIES (Intellectual, organizational, cerebral)

My two big goals on this for the year are astronomy and a kitchen renovation this summer. Both require some additional planning, but they are the big two for the year, and I’ve already blogged about them.

For my bucket list, I’m going to knock five blue items off the list:

  1. Learn photography — I have a great DSLR, but I want to figure out how to use it better. Probably one of the Coursera or TheGreatCourses options, combined with some books that I have. I might sign up for a course next fall, if the schedule permits. I will probably start on this in March. I’m also going to produce special little cards, kind of like baseball cards, with key situations and settings as reminders.
  2. Learn to knit — I don’t have any great illusions of ability or commitment for the future, I’d just like to make something. Probably a scarf or a tea cozy. Nothing extravagant, I’d just like to try it. Andrea’s a willing teacher, at least in theory. We’ll see if her willingness continues when she has a lousy student. I’m thinking maybe April for this one.
  3. Learn to juggle — my hand/eye coordination sucks. But, most jugglers claim anyone can do it if they practice hard, and I bought a little “kit” a few years ago with some nice soft hack/sack like balls to practice with. There are also lots of videos on the net. I’m thinking I’ll commit to this as part of a creativity challenge one month when I’m tired of blogging on the computer all the time. Sounds like a good fall project.
  4. Learn origami — I’ve had interest in this since Grade 6 when my teacher, Mr. Hutchison, did some basic origami. I’ve learned a few folds over the years, but I’d like to commit to learning one a week once I actually get started. I’m thinking probably in May and then continue throughout the year.
  5. Experience a meteor shower — I might settle for the regular one in August, or set up for a special one another month. Nothing extravagant, and to be honest, it might not even be the best year to do it. But worth a shot.

Under my ongoing day to day stuff, there are still items that will take work and planning, just didn’t make my big list. Obviously, I’ve taken a different approach to my 2015 goals this year in order to roll up to the PolyWogg 4.0 / Commit to the Quest brand. I’m going to continue that with a new logo design, flow chart, and incorporation into a shirt layout for myself at one of those “print here” places. I also need to set up a special type of tracker to let me implement the Seinfeld Method and keep a running total on some of my commitments.

For my mother’s estate, I mentioned I’m going to do the photo scanning, 10 photos a day. Hoping to start by the end of the month. I’d love to have these all done by the end of the year, along with sorting out all my e-files for photos going back to 2002. That also includes learning some new software and creating some photobooks.

A huge portion of my free time involves electronic tools, and I need to continue my improved organization for it. Some of it is wiring, some of it is backups, some of it is copying CDs onto the hard drive.

I have a long list of little projects around the house, and I think I’m going to give them to Andrea as a “Honey Do” list to manage for me — she can choose which ones get done next. We do this anyway now with a joint list each weekend of errands/projects to do, but many of the non-urgent ones never make the list.

I also want to get my passport renewed, and do a comparison of costs between the two major grocery stores I shop at to see how much of a premium I’m paying for convenience when I use the one.

Finally, for the blue category at least, I need to figure out my learning plan for the year. Yesterday, I posted a list of courses for TheGreatCourses and Coursera that I’m interested in, and my approach. But of course, I didn’t actually commit to the courses — there are 125 with Coursera and another 170 with TheGreatCourses. My feeling is that I can probably do one every other month, so six for the year. Time to ante up and commit to the quest. One, two, three, weed the list!

Two courses are carry-overs, and I’m not counting them in the “six” as I can finish these ones pretty quick:

  • Coursera – Understanding video games (carry-over)
  • Coursera – Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology (carry-over)

Of the others, I think I want one that is tied to psychology. Coursera has an Introduction to Psychology (University of Toronto) and I’ll go with that. Future options might be “Positive Psychology”, but that is more about self-actualization techniques.

I also want one on music. There is a Coursera course called “Introduction to Classical Music” from Yale that looks great, give me a better foundation than just randomly picking Beethoven symphonies. Plus I’m a bit more eclectic in my tastes, with some of the most obvious choices of little interest to me. Mind you, there is also a Coursera course that would aid my Billboard writing called History of Rock, Part One which is part of the University of Rochester. But it is the fact that both of them are “obvious” choices that have led me to ignore them in front of a TGC course — Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion.

I’m going to play it a little safer for my third choice, something astronomy related. Coursera has an interesting course called AstroTech: The Science and Technology behind Astronomical Discovery from the University of Edinburgh but it’s not active at the moment. If it doesn’t show up this year, I’ll opt for one of the TGC courses, either Skywatching: Seeing and Understanding Cosmic Wonders or the more traditional Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition.

My fourth course is going to be hard-core. Yep, coding. TGC has nothing in this area, it’s all about the internet courses in general or the Coursera ones, and I’m going to opt for Coursera. I’d like to take Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems: Part 1 at the University of Maryland, but it assumes you already know Java which I inconveniently don’t. There’s a simpler version at University of Edinburgh called Code Yourself! An Intro to Programming, and it would probably be a really good idea to start with that one just to refresh my brain since my last programming experience from umm, 1989 and 1992 (!) didn’t use object libraries to combine existing code modules. But screw it, I am on a quest! I don’t have time for namby-pamby basics! I’m going for the University of Illinois’ Creative, Serious and Playful Science of Android Apps.

I’m going to pass on the photography courses and the Greek mythology courses, I have books on those that I’m going to read this year already. Governance and non-profits look great, as does one on giving and charities. There are several good options for ones about religion, cultural literacy, and soul beliefs.

But I really need a refresher on microeconomics to help with some work I want to do on ebook pricing, and there is a simple Coursera course called The Power of Microeconomics: Economic Principles in the Real World from the University of California at Irvine. They don’t have any sessions open right now, but I’ve added it to my watchlist. If by the time I get to it, nothing is still available, I’ll opt for one of the other micro-economic ones.

Last, I’m going to take a flyer on something. Coursera has a course from the State University of NY on Meta-literacy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World, which is about digital citizenry. I have an idea for a big project in November this year, and this will help lay the foundation early. In fact, it is up first in the rotation, starting in early February. I guess I should get those other two done before then!

That’s it, that’s all for the blue…On to the green!

2015 – Random Acts of Romance

The PolyBlog
January 7 2015

The thirteenth item on my vaguebooking list was “13. Thirteen years and counting”. The year 2015 marks 13 years that Andrea and I have been together. We were also married on the 13th of September, back in ’08, so this will be our 7th anniversary.

We swore that we wouldn’t become home bodies that never went out anymore, and that is certainly true when it comes to restaurants. We eat out a lot. Mostly simple places with Jacob. But, to my mind, that’s not enough. We have very little “just the two of us” time, instead of “all 3” time. And as with the rest of the things I talked about, I feel like we’re just drifting along. Not in a bad way, not at all. More content. Just perhaps a little too content with the status quo.

So, 2015 is the year I commit random acts of romance. Maybe without out the random part as much, after all I am a planner. Nor do I want to mention everything here since Andrea may one day be totally bored on a bus and read my blog. Shhh, it could happen. Just saying, if she does, I don’t want her to know all the plans in advance. Obviously.

However, some are obvious ones that she’ll have to know about. Like the big one, which is supporting her this fall when she takes off work to finish her M.Ed. It’s going to be a long semester for all three of us, with a lot of disruption in our schedules, workloads, etc. But it’s part of the commitment, to make it work for all of us, without her killing herself either.

I’m also committing to more of Jacob’s routine, which hopefully should ease burden a bit on her, as well as taking over a good part of the meal planning so it’s a little more planned for longer periods of time, with built in flexibility. We’ve been running on a 2-3 day cycle the last little while, so we got back to the 2-week plan this past week, and will likely bump it up to a 4-week extended plan to guarantee more variety within weeks. It also helps with my grocery shopping.

We have an entertainment book, and I’m going to pick a bunch of restaurants in advance and then we’ll schedule regular outings. I had hoped to do Stratford this summer, but didn’t really see any home run choices that I wanted. Hopefully we’ll do a play or two next year (hopefully after Xmas!), although we likely won’t have time for the NAC Pops series. We are however doing that now, which gives us at least one outing per month or so up until June sans cubby. For the entertainment book outings, many of them will still involve J, but at least they’ll be different outings.

I’m also hoping she enjoys the “Daddy and me” nights with Jacob, and takes advantage of them to do something more than just hang out by herself out at home (although that’s always fun too).

I have a few other things in mind, but again, won’t be mentioning them in advance. Commit to the quest — romance now!

2015 – Tools for setting goals…

The PolyBlog
January 7 2015

Given my obvious commitment to setting goals, my wife passed along a new tool called “The Year Planning Booklet” from YearCompass. I am going through it page by page, and it’s a pretty good tool. Let me tell you why I like it.

First and foremost, it starts with a review of the past year. You might think that sounds both obvious and counter-intuitive — you’re looking forward, why are you looking back? The reason you look back is the exact way they start the booklet. They have you identify big events and/or meetings of the last year. Which allows you to basically then categorize them into groups to show where you spent your time, what milestones you considered significant. Note that your memory is a really bad source of information — you might have thought, “Hey, I did a great job on meeting with my financial advisor” only to go back through your calendar and realize that you blew them off more than you met with them. Evidence-based analysis is key, and reviewing your last year is pretty good at providing that evidence.

Second, I really like the idea that you write out some simple declarative sentences that summarize various aspects of the year. For example, declaring what your wisest decision / biggest lesson / biggest risk / biggest surprise / biggest service / biggest achievement was during the last year also helps you think in terms of plans vs. reality, static vs. growth. I also like the fact that they go beyond that to nuance the types of “growths” that were possible. Partnerships, influences, best “moments”, what you needed to forgive, etc.

All of which culminates in the decision to close the book on your previous year. It’s done. Let it go (without the cheesy Frozen song). The analysis is a little long for most people, but it’s a decent set of questions to get you thinking before you get to the hard part — setting yourself up for the new year, which is the second part of the booklet.

I like too the idea of dreaming big at the start of the year. It worked for me this year (2015, the year I commit to the quest), but I confess that it won’t work for most people. Very few people know what their goals are, let alone an overarching theme. For many, it’s too big. However, the second page of the new year looks at what you see in family / private life (green energy); work, studies, profession (red energy); belongings (green energy); relaxations, hobbies, creativity (yellow energy); friends, community, service (green energy); health, fitness (red energy); intellectual (blue energy); emotional, spiritual (green or yellow energy); finances (blue or red energy); and a bucket list (any of the four energies). I find it a bit heavy on the green for my taste, but most personal goals approaches do this, reflecting the fact that “home is where the happy is”. It then takes those pieces and has you schedule them throughout the year. Also a good approach. For me, I use the same idea for the Creativity Challenge that I run with friends on Facebook. In it, people commit to certain projects for a single month (one month on, one month off). But it allows you to break larger ideas (Be more creative! Learn to sing!) into more digestible chunks and assign them to individual months.

I’m not as impressed with the next two pages of the booklet that focus on “magical triplets”, as I think in some cases they simply will not apply. Plus I don’t think there is any magic to the power of 3, outside of the Charmed TV series. Plus 12 categories is a bit heavy for most people. Planning shouldn’t tire you out, in my view, it should be short enough that when you’re done you’re energized, not exhausted.

It then concludes with a 30 day challenge, with some suggested items in it. Personally, I’d replace it with the Seinfeld method instead. Lasts longer, and easier to understand. Lots of people miss a day in a 30d challenge and then call it quits, whereas the Seinfeld method keeps trucking along.

I do however really like the ending — a word (or a phrase) for the year ahead. In my case, 2015’s phrase is “Commit to the Quest”. It reminds me what I’m trying to do, how much I’m aiming to do.

A good tool overall. And maybe might inspire me to write my own guide for next year in a similar vein! 🙂

2015 – Learning for life…

The PolyBlog
January 7 2015

One of my goals for 2015 is to think more coherently (i.e. plan) for online learning that I’m interested in. I have little interest in a formal degree at this point, nor even sitting in lecture halls. I have far more interest in online options, at least where it is not short-term or local or highly specialized (like a camera course).

For example, I basically see three main options for myself. First and foremost is the ad hoc stuff of TedX talks. I don’t take near enough advantage of the posts over there.

Secondly, iTunes and Youtube have lots of podcasts and videos where one expert or another has done the curation for me of some decent content, distilling it down to the bits I probably care about, and giving me enough of an overview that if I want to go further, I’ll have a good starting point.

Last, there is the dual-prong options of downloadable courses (such as The Great Courses) and online courses (such as are Coursera). For those who aren’t familiar with either, here’s the bumpf.

The Great Courses option is designed as a “cream of the crop” approach to lectures. Based on a variety of sources of info to identify who the best professors are around the world, they then hire them to record their lectures in audio or video format and then sell the courses to people. They have a huge catalog that they send out six times a year with massive discounts listed — for example, it is not uncommon for 75% discounts off the web-listed price. I’ve seen samples of some of the courses and they are pretty good.

Coursera takes a different approach — they offer a central repository for universities offering potentially-large enrolment online courses, usually with two options. One option is you pay, get graded, and get a certificate for finishing the course; second is free and you just audit the courses.

For me, the lists of courses are like fueling a drug habit. I ran through the Coursera listing over the last little while, and my list of courses in which I might be interested, noting that I was actually HARD in whittling out ones that sounded okay but really were a bit too off in their approach, is still quite large. 126 courses large. Of course, I could never DO that many courses, but it feels a lot like my undergrad where there were so many options and electives to initially consider. And these aren’t slouch courses — some of them are offered by Yale, Princeton, UofT, UBC, etc. My full list of possible Coursera courses is below. Unfortunately, many of them are not currently scheduled yet this year, and some of them are too long to sustain my interest, but I’m probably going to commit to at least three this year.

My interests fall into some pretty simple categories, except for the long nature of the original list:

  1. Gamification — There are lots of aspects to this including online game design, original game theory, visual design, and programming;
  2. Psychology — if this one seems odd, go back and read the first post of the year, it will all be come clear;
  3. History — including both human history as well as paleobiology;
  4. Music appreciation — classical, rock and roll, etc.;
  5. Publishing — it may not seem directly evident at first, but it is the source of the review of economic principles, different genres of writing;
  6. Astronomy — again, for obvious reasons;
  7. Writing — including forensics;
  8. Business, philanthropy, organizations, law, etc. — a few unifying themes there that all tie into governance;

Now I just have to get around to choosing my courses!

The Great Courses

  • 1 Fundamentals of Photography
  • 3 National Geographic Masters of Photography
  • Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation
  • Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer’s Craft
  • Our Night SkySale
  • Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the UniverseSale
  • Old TestamentSale
  • Writing Creative NonfictionSale
  • The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to ProfessionalsSale
  • Art of Public Speaking: Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History
  • Understanding the Fundamentals of Music
  • Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior
  • Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques
  • Foundations of Western Civilization
  • How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition
  • Thinking like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making
  • Stress and Your Body
  • Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd Edition
  • The Mathematics of Games and Puzzles: From Cards to SudokuSale
  • The World Was Never the Same: Events That Changed History
  • Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educator
  • The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries
  • History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon
  • A Visual Guide to the Universe with the Smithsonian
  • Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations
  • Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works
  • Forensic History: Crimes, Frauds, and Scandals
  • Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion
  • How the Stock Market Works
  • Lifelong Health: Achieving Optimum Well-Being at Any Age
  • The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works
  • My Favorite Universe
  • The Entrepreneur’s ToolkitSale
  • Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon
  • Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time
  • The Creative Thinker’s Toolkit
  • How Ideas SpreadFoundations of Western Civilization II: A History of the Modern Western WorldSale
  • Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime: Understanding Gravity
  • 12 Essential Scientific Concepts
  • Heroes and Legends: The Most Influential Characters of Literature
  • Mastering Differential Equations: The Visual Method
  • Foundations of Eastern Civilization
  • Medieval World
  • From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity
  • Economics, 3rd Edition
  • Behavioral Economics: When Psychology and Economics Collide
  • Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe
  • Cultural Literacy for Religion: Everything the Well-Educated Person Should Know
  • History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective
  • Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond
  • How to Read and Understand Shakespeare
  • Turning Points in Modern History
  • Trails of Evidence: How Forensic Science Works
  • Classical Mythology
  • Great American Music: Broadway Musicals
  • Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe
  • The Symphony
  • Story of Medieval England: From King Arthur to the Tudor ConquestSale
  • Art of Reading
  • Iliad of Homer
  • Early Middle Ages
  • Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and MuhammadSale
  • The Life and Death of Stars
  • Skywatching: Seeing and Understanding Cosmic Wonders
  • Odyssey of HomerSale
  • The Art of War
  • The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation
  • Introduction to Judaism
  • Masterpieces of Short Fiction
  • 36 Books That Changed the World
  • Dante’s Divine ComedySale
  • Joyce’s Ulysses
  • Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History
  • Life Lessons from the Great Myths
  • String Quartets of BeethovenSale
  • Beginnings of Judaism
  • Religions of the Axial Age: An Approach to the World’s Religions
  • Great World Religions: Islam
  • Great World Religions: Hinduism
  • Great World Religions: Buddhism
  • History of Ancient R ome
  • Bach and the High Baroque
  • Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas
  • A Brief History of the World
  • Late Middle Ages
  • Comparative Religion
  • Great World Religions: Judaism
  • Great World Religions: Christianity
  • Fall and Rise of China
  • Physics in Your Life
  • From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History
  • Terror of History: Mystics, Heretics, and Witches in the Western Tradition
  • Black Holes Explained
  • Great Masters: Mozart-His Life and Music
  • Great Ideas of Psychology
  • Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life
  • Why Evil Exists
  • Symphonies of BeethovenSale
  • Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies
  • Life in Our Universe
  • Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature
  • Understanding the Science for Tomorrow: Myth and Reality
  • Theories of Human Development
  • The English Novel
  • Special Collection – The Joy of Ancient HistorySale
  • Great Masters: Tchaikovsky-His Life and Music
  • Classics of American Literature
  • Greece and Rome: An Integrated History of the Ancient Mediterranean
  • Exploring the Roots of Religion
  • Music of Richard Wagner
  • Life Lessons from the Great Books
  • Unexpected Economics
  • Concert Masterworks
  • Classics of British Literature
  • Psychology of Human Behavior
  • Great Thinkers, Great Theorems
  • A Day’s Read
  • Reason & Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages
  • Why Economies Rise or Fall
  • Turning Points in Medieval History
  • Peoples and Cultures of the World
  • Science of Self
  • Shakespeare: The Word and the Action
  • Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature’s Most Fantastic Works
  • Machiavelli in Context
  • Great Masters: Mahler-His Life and Music
  • Masterworks of Early 20th-Century Literature
  • Great Masters: Brahms-His Life and Music
  • Great Masters: Haydn-His Life and Music
  • Great Masters: Shostakovich-His Life and Music
  • Great Masters: Stravinsky-His Life and Music
  • God and Mankind: Comparative Religions
  • Between the Rivers: The History of Ancient Mesopotamia
  • History of World Literature
  • The Concerto
  • Mystical Tradition: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
  • Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations
  • Skeptics and Believers: Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition
  • Science in the 20th Century: A Social-Intellectual SurveySale
  • Philosophy and Religion in the West
  • Long Shadow of the Ancient Greek World
  • Popes and the Papacy: A History
  • Philosophy, Religion, and the Meaning of Life
  • Myth in Human History
  • Origin of Civilization
  • Masterpieces of Ancient Greek Literature
  • Natural Law and Human Nature
  • Introduction to the Study of Religion
  • Great Masters: Liszt-His Life and Music
  • Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann-Their Lives and Music
  • The Skeptic’s Guide to the Great Books
  • Business Law: Negligence and Torts
  • Roots of Human Behavior
  • Life and Writings of Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition, 2nd Edition
  • Development of European Civilization
  • War and World History
  • Understanding Literature and Life: Drama, Poetry and Narrative
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Long 19th Century: European History from 1789 to 1917
  • From Plato to Post-modernism: Understanding the Essence of Literature and the Role of the Author
  • 20th-Century American Fiction
  • History of Science: Antiquity to 1700
  • History of Science: 1700-1900
  • Modern British Drama
  • Medieval Heroines in History and Legend
  • Greek Legacy: Classical Origins of the Modern World
  • Freedom: The Philosophy of Liberation
  • Representing Justice: Stories of Law and Literature

Coursera Courses

  • Active
    • Understanding Video Games
    • Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology
    • Introduction to Psychology
  • Arts
    • Ignite Your Everyday Creativity
    • Introduction to Classical Music
    • Advertising and Society
    • Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction
    • Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative
    • Comic Books and Graphic Novels
  • Biology and Life Sciences:
    • Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
    • Astronomy: Exploring Time and Space
    • Origins – Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life
    • An Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience & Neuromarketing
    • Introduction to Forensic Science
    • Introduction to Neuroeconomics: how the brain makes decisions
    • Childbirth: A Global Perspective
    • Abortion: Quality Care and Public Health Implications
  • Business:
    • Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship
    • New Venture Finance: Startup Funding for Entrepreneurs
    • Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace
    • Gamification
    • The Governance of Nonprofit Organizations
    • Marketing in a Digital World
    • Digital Marketing Channels: Planning
    • Essentials of Entrepreneurship: Thinking & Action
    • Social Psychology
    • Law and the Entrepreneur
    • What’s Your Big Idea?
    • A Beginner’s Guide to Irrational Behavior
    • Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination
    • Social Entrepreneurship
    • Unethical Decision Making in Organizations
    • International Organizations Management
    • The Power of Macroeconomics: Economic Principles in the Real World
    • An Introduction to Marketing
    • Giving 2.0: The MOOC
    • Surviving Disruptive Technologies
  • Computers
    • Image and video processing: From Mars to Hollywood with a stop at the hospital
    • Welcome to Game Theory
    • Game Theory II: Advanced Applications
    • Fundamentals of Digital Image and Video Processing
    • Game Theory
    • General Game Playing
    • Computational Photography
  • Software
    • Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems: Part 1
    • Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems: Part 2
    • Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming
    • Beginning Game Programming with C#
    • Human-Computer Interaction Design
    • Learn to Program: The Fundamentals
    • Learn to Program: Crafting Quality Code
    • Creative, Serious and Playful Science of Android Apps
    • Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps
  • Security
    • Cryptography I
    • Cryptography II
    • Surveillance Law
    • Securing Digital Democracy
  • Economics
    • Microeconomics Principles
    • Economics of Transition and Emerging Markets
    • Making Better Group Decisions: Voting, Judgement Aggregation and Fair Division
    • Understanding Media by Understanding Google
    • Public Economics
    • Property and Liability: An Introduction to Law and Economics
    • The Power of Microeconomics: Economic Principles in the Real World
    • Principles of Macroeconomics
    • Principles of Microeconomics
    • Principles of Economics for Scientists
    • e-Learning Ecologies
  • Education
    • Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World
    • The Age of Sustainable Development
    • Video Games and Learning
    • ICT in Primary Education: Transforming children’s learning across the curriculum
    • Supporting children with difficulties in reading and writing
  • Health
    • Useful Genetics Part 1
    • The Clinical Psychology of Children and Young People
    • Social Epidemiology
  • Humanities
    • Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World
    • An Introduction to American Law
    • Soul Beliefs: Causes and Consequences
    • Moralities of Everyday Life
    • Greek and Roman Mythology
    • Technology and Ethics
    • A History of the World since 1300
    • The Modern World: Global History since 1760
    • Practical Ethics
    • The Ancient Greeks
  • IT
    • Visual Design
    • Content Strategy for Professionals: Growing Audiences for Your Content
    • Content Strategy for Professionals: Engaging Audiences for Your Organization
    • Introduction to User Interface Design (Part 2)
    • Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling
  • Law
    • Introduction to International Criminal Law
    • Law and the Entrepreneur
    • International Human Rights Law: Prospects and Challenges
    • Presumed Innocent? The Social Science of Wrongful Conviction
    • The Global Student’s Introduction to U.S. Law
  • Math
    • General Game Playing
    • Games without Chance: Combinatorial Game Theory
  • Music
    • The Music of the Rolling Stones, 1962-1974
    • Music’s Big Bang: The Genesis of Rock ‘n’ Roll
    • History of Rock, Part Two
    • History of Rock, Part One
    • The Music of the Beatles
  • Physics
    • Galaxies and Cosmology
    • Astronomy: Exploring Time and Space
    • Origins – Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life
    • The Science of the Solar System
    • Introduction to Astronomy
    • Analyzing the Universe
    • Imagining Other Earths
    • How Things Work 1
    • From the Big Bang to Dark Energy
    • The Diversity of Exoplanets
    • AstroTech: The Science and Technology behind Astronomical Discovery
    • Exploring Quantum Physics
  • Social Sciences
    • Moral Foundations of Politics
    • Living with Dementia: Impact on Individuals, Caregivers, Communities and Societies
    • Positive Psychology
    • Resilience in Children Exposed to Trauma, Disaster and War: Global Perspectives
    • Organizational Analysis (Self-Paced)
    • Paradoxes of War
    • Introduction to Psychology as a Science
    • Democratic Development
    • Human Trafficking

2015 – Twelve steps to spiritualism

The PolyBlog
January 7 2015

The twelfth item on my vaguebooking list was “12. Twelve steps to take”. I am not quite sure what to make of this commitment, to be honest. I started it two years ago, and it kind of fizzled on me. The goal was to come up with 12 questions for myself and what I believed spiritually. I started on the first one, ended up down a rabbit hole of disconnected tangents, and I didn’t get too far.

I want to return to the work that I started two years ago, answering one question a month approximately, and to ask myself, “What do I believe?”. To what end, I’m not sure. Just perhaps to know myself better. I’ve had my “faith” tested at different points in my life, and I often know what it is “not”, more so than I know what it “is”. Maybe I’ll just end up down a rabbit hole again. But we’ll see. Overall though I suspect this “small” commitment will end up being way harder than the 500,000-word commitment, as this one will require me to ask some fundamental questions of myself and to dig deep emotionally and spiritually, not intellectually, to find whatever truths are hiding deep inside. I’m thinking of combining it with an online course in comparative religions, although I’m unlikely to find myself a spiritual home in any organized religion, it isn’t the way my faith is wired.

When I do those “online tests” to find which religion is closest to your views, Judaism and Wiccan come up as the best matches. Don’t ask, I don’t know how those two are linked. I know the first gets flagged because I care little as to whether Jesus was an actual son of God or a metaphorical one yet strong prophet (making me a pretty weak “Christian” in the normal sense, although I agree with most of the catechism lessons/morals/ethics), and I think the second one comes from a strong sense that there is something more universal in the literal sense of the word, that we’re part of a giant cosmos connected through energy flows.

One way to find out — commit to the quest!