• I have to keep reminding myself to focus - I can't do everything, it's okay for me to not kick ass like the people I admire in every single field. This is still new, this is still hard. It's the opposite of what I usually have to tell people, but in my case, I think I need some reining-in... stop trying to learn everything! Learn what you can, learn all you can, and love what you learn - but be okay with being finite and human, and instead of agonising over not learning 15 things, celebrate that you learned 3! (The notion of "opportunity costs I can't pay" is a toughie, since I'm used to being able to, due to sheer enthusiasm, willpower, and lack of sleep, do everything available to me that I am even remotely interested in.)
  • What these researchers did with cameras, I'd like to do with hearing aids.
  • Great new vocabulary word: fauxpen. 
  • I don't actually know project management, but I like keeping things transparent and coherently and publicly posted (because otherwise I can't keep up with stuff), and ask whatever shameless questions I need to ask to make that possible, and apparently this is... a large portion of it? Maybe someday I should take an afternoon to sit down and read through the PMBOK.
  • Crabs are delicious. I was confused when the server brought wooden mallets to our table, but was soon pounding on shells with great gusto (and getting crab juice all over my shirt). This was my one non-vegan day this week, in accordance with the "what happens when Mel tries to pay attention to consuming healthy food?" experiment; these days are cumulative, and I am saving up my days for Raleigh and some more NC BBQ... (Note that I'm not being a particularly strict temporary-vegan; if it's insanely inconvenient for me to get non-vegan food, and I am hungry, I will eat whatever I can find - but so far I've been able to manage it.)
  • The sleep experiment has gone on for one week. I have been able to sleep for 6 hours on 5 out of 7 nights, with extreme difficulty (I'd consistently wake up after 3.0-4.5 hours entirely alert, and have to struggle to go back to sleep) and quite a bit of foggyheaded "argh, I have slept too much"-ness. The other two days I could barely push past 4 hours before I gave up, sat up, and started working. More sleep is probably good for me, but it doesn't feel that way yet - maybe I'm going through insomnia-detox? It's strange to try applying discipline to my unconsciousness; it's not something I've particularly monitored or tinkered with before, so I think of this as the beginnings of a good experimental control.
  • Goal for this next week: establish a rhythm for my life as a Washingtonian, so I have something to rely on and fit into while I'm here this fall. It looks like I'll be working from Jeff's school on Fridays, and I'm trying to find a way to do the same from Gallaudet one day each week. And I should probably spend one day a week at the office, too.

Also, things I need to find in DC:

  1. bike shop (Thanks, Kat!)
  2. bookstore (Thanks, Max, Amy, and Erin D!)
  3. farmers' market / coop / other grocery-procurement-locations
  4. vegan-friendly restaurants (thanks, Kat!)
  5. places to listen to music (Thanks, Kat! Still looking for jazz locales.)
  6. library (It's on my way to the city. Awesome.)
  7. hackspaces (Thanks, Mike and Kevin!)
  8. Free Culture stuff (Thanks, Kat!)
  9. gatherings of fellow education geeks
  10. a good rolfer/deep tissue bodyworker, because my truce with RSI is still a very uneasy one
  11. places downtown with free wifi
  12. good places to wander alone and sit and read and think and ponder
  13. excuses to go to museums - and the library of congress - with people, because I'd rather go with friends than by myself. If you're in town and would like to see one, let me know and we'll make a trip of it.