T-4

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paris2017

So a few more days until my trip and I am so excited! I am 99.2% packed! A few more things left to do:

  • Sync my music
  • Print the first three days of my list
  • Print my reservations, tickets,  and itineraries
  • Charge all electronic devices a day before
  • Check-in and print boarding passes
  • Photocopy paperwork
  • Finish homework!

I also have a few things that I am trying for this trip:

  • I rented a phone via Insidr and I will be using this phone across Europe so we shall see how that works out.
  • I only packed a carry on for this trip. What I am really having a difficult time with is decreasing the items in my personal bag.

Piano in my forties

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My DS started lessons when he was maybe 6 or 7 and has participated regularly in piano contests, and even won some regional and state ones. However, he has decided that even though he can make a career out of playing piano, he does not love it enough to make it the center of his life. He still has weekly lessons, but in a very relaxed and fun way and no more formal competitions and performances.

I grew up poor and owning an instrument and taking lessons was out of reach for me. Now that I am at a somewhat “comfortable” point in my life, and with a reasonably priced piano teacher available, I decided to start learning piano. I have to say that despite the fact that I have to retrain and develop “muscle memory” in order to make my fingers do what my mind wants it to do, I find practice time fun and enjoyable. I cannot say that I have a particular level of expertise that I am hoping to achieve apart from learning a new skill and prove that old dogs can learn new tricks. I have to say that this bitch is definitely kicking butt.

I bought a used version of the book Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One with a CD. I also have the Adult All-In-One Course: Lesson-Theory-Technic: Level 1 which I have yet to inspect. 🙂

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Change is inevitable

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I cannot remember a time when life was consistent and the steady rhythm of routine dominates each day. The past few years were filled with both small and life changing transitions.I have always been very flexible and efficient when dealing with changes but looking my paper list, I realized that majority of my actions and decisions were more reactive. This time around, I want to be more proactive and initiate the changes necessary to make long-term beneficial changes that affect my overall health. I want to be “fit” financially, physically, and mentally/spiritually.

Change is inevitable and I learned how to roll with and adapt to the demands. However, I am tired of being at the mercy of what will fall on my lap and anticipate the other shoe to drop.

I am making my own rules bitches.

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Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything

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a completely ordinary number, a number not just divisible by two but also six and seven. In fact it’s the sort of number that you could without any fear introduce to your parents  – Douglas Adams

The joke has been running for decades now and it looks like the joke is on me.  When I woke up this morning, almost everything felt the same yet something unnamed felt different. It signals some sort of mysterious turning point, this seemingly mundane number.

Despite the lack of fanfare and marching bands, I am determined to make this day my marker, which normally would mean a new and improved list but will now mean just adding one more word to the word that I used to signal the new year: My birthday word this year will be Balance.

Decisions that I plan to make this year would strongly consider how it would affect balance in my life. My time budgeting seems to always be skewed one way or the other and I have been slowly trying to modify that pattern.  Prioritizing areas of my life that are the most important, keeping things in perspective and using up my slowly dwindling resource of time for the people and things that matter most to me. People I love, causes I care about, a career that makes an impact in the world that I value.

I am a very, very lucky woman to have had the opportunities that I have had and although seemingly insurmountable challenges have been thrown my way, look at me! I am standing, in one piece, older and wiser.

Thank you world.

By Bryant Arnold – Cartoon a day

Beyond Passion: The Science of Loving What You Do – Study Hacks – Cal Newport

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Beyond Passion: The Science of Loving What You Do – Study Hacks – Cal Newport.

Everything is sort of like a chain of events with me and it always ends with a book purchase for my Kindle. The specific post above (and the book I bought) was triggered by a different post at ma.tt talking about finding three hobbies (which I think should really be four).

So I read the quote, thought about it, wrote on the comments section, did a search on Google to find out who the quote belonged to (unknown), ended up finding this piece that I am reposting here and finally, purchased the book “Drive” by Daniel H. Pink.  One of the reviews I read described it as “rhetorical yet incoherent” but I was very interested in the book because of this other snippet of review that I read:

“He does get the big picture right. He says that people would prefer activities where they can pursue three things.  Autonomy: People want to have control over their work.  Mastery: People want to get better at what they do.  Purpose: People want to be part of something that is bigger than they are.”

The above quote definitely resonates with me because I am at that cusp of this career/decision making process and it sums up what I am looking for (and will hopefully find).

Beyond Passion: The Science of Loving What You Do - Study Hacks - Cal Newport

xkcd.com – Randall Munroe

Why deep learning is at least inspired by biology, if not the brain

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Gigaom

As deep learning continues gathering steam among researchers, entrepreneurs and the press, there’s a loud-and-getting-louder debate about whether its algorithms actually operate like the human brain does.

The comparison might not make much of a difference to developers who just want to build applications that can identify objects or predict the next word you’ll text, but it does make a difference. Researchers leery of another “AI winter” or trying to refute worries of a forthcoming artificial superintelligence worry that the brain analogy is setting people up for disappointment, if not undue stress. When people hear “brain,” they think about machines that can think like us.

On this week’s Structure Show podcast, we dove into the issue with Ahna Girschick, an accomplished neuroscientist, visual artist and senior data scientist at deep learning startup Enlitic. Girschick’s colleague, Enlitic Founder and CEO (and former Kaggle chief scientist) Jeremy Howard, also joined us…

View original post 731 more words

Why deep learning is at least inspired by biology, if not the brain

/ Anaphylaxis

Gigaom

As deep learning continues gathering steam among researchers, entrepreneurs and the press, there’s a loud-and-getting-louder debate about whether its algorithms actually operate like the human brain does.

The comparison might not make much of a difference to developers who just want to build applications that can identify objects or predict the next word you’ll text, but it does make a difference. Researchers leery of another “AI winter” or trying to refute worries of a forthcoming artificial superintelligence worry that the brain analogy is setting people up for disappointment, if not undue stress. When people hear “brain,” they think about machines that can think like us.

On this week’s Structure Show podcast, we dove into the issue with Ahna Girschick, an accomplished neuroscientist, visual artist and senior data scientist at deep learning startup Enlitic. Girschick’s colleague, Enlitic Founder and CEO (and former Kaggle chief scientist) Jeremy Howard, also joined us…

View original post 731 more words