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Weeknotes 7/31

Table of contents

Started using SpaceJump to categorize my desktops

SpaceJump lets you name your desktops in macOS. Mission Control showing five desktops categorized with SpaceJump as Lucid Dream, Misc, Blog, Ledger, and lucid test

Useful for multitasking. My pain of opening desktops until I find the right project is over.

Tried Grease the Groove workouts

Dashiell doing a pull-up on a doorway pull-up bar

This year I started focusing on pull ups. I started with zero. One if I screamed my way through it. Now I’m up to 3.

But when I go to the gym, I can only do one or two sets before my arms are dead.

On Monday, I skipped the gym because of the storm. I stayed home doing pull ups with at least 15-minute rest between. Altogether, I did about 36 pullups (3x12).

I learned this format of workout has different names. One of them is Grease the Groove, which is specifically where you never hit failure.

So on Tuesday I tried something similar, but doing only 1-2 pull ups each set to avoid failure. I kept trying GTG/convict conditioning through the week.

I’ve been eating Brami protein pasta

A dinner plate with Brami protein pasta, grilled chicken, and a cucumber-tomato-red onion salad

For the past few weeks I’ve been eating Brami.

  • 200 calories
  • 12 grams protein

Pretty good for pasta!

This is my go-to for adding a fun carby side dish to my dinner. It’s made of wheat and lupini beans.

There are many protein pastas, this one caught my eye because, though it’s not certified organic, it’s glyphosate residue free and CleanScan certified. I buy it at my Whole Foods. It’s also at Costco.

Worked on 2025 taxes

On Tuesday I completed tax tasks.

  • Had a call with my accountant
  • Organized my tax documents and documented how to find them again for next year
  • Sent documents to my accountant

It was satisfying to get this done because it’s stuff I hate doing.

Did a hip hop tutorial video date night

My spouse and I spent some time trying to learn a dance together. I found only one mildly good couples hip hop tutorial video.

Looked for wedding outfit- optimized for serious dancing

The back of a tan tulle gown with a low open back and full skirt

Just a Corpse skirt and leotard

My BIL is getting married. I really want to be able to dance hard at the wedding. I want to be able to get on the ground and throw my legs in the air.

It was hard to find what I want. I spent way too much time looking.

Optimized my agentic coding workflow

  • Shorter conversations

    For token management and organization.

  • Commit every chat session with model, effort, and chat session id

    Committing every session helps close out a task. And it makes it so every change is tied to its chat session. Helps track where agents made mistakes and why, sort of like a git blame. I don’t know if I can put that info in the git blame.

  • Moving more towards agent agnostic coding.

    Trying to move away from only using global rules in my CLAUDE.md. I want to be able to switch over to Codex and have Codex see the same thing as Claude.

  • Using /btw to clarify agent messages

    My chats are always thrown off on tangents with me trying to interpret Claude’s cryptic writing. I’ve underutilized /btw for this.

Went to Lincoln Park to investigate outdoor event space

A lily-pad-covered pond in Lincoln Park surrounded by trees and a stone edge

I’m looking for a space to host Psychedelic Synagogue’s Yom Kippur event this year. I’m really not liking the city vibes here though. The Chicago Botanic Gardens are much nicer. Unfortunately they aren’t free on Yom Kippur this year. This one hidden spot — the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond — was nice though.

Continued lucid dream projects

Monday

  • Ran an 8 hour hardware test to see if timestamp alignment drifts over time
  • Fixed GUI
  • Fixed notch filter
  • Fixed packet loss freeze

Tuesday

  • Documented unexpected behavior in GUI with packet loss
  • Ran packet loss test

Wednesday

  • Data labeling pipeline — Updated it to use confirmed sniffs to help identify lucid periods within REM sleep
  • Maintenance on todo.md formatting conventions

Wednesday & Thursday & Friday

  • Reviewed older sleep data to determine whether its sniff labels can reliably evaluate the sniff detector

Continued ledger project

This project devours tokens. I run these 12 critics that review my code changes. It would be great to understand better what is actually eating up my tokens.

Monday

  • Continued fixing a payout double-spend risk

Tuesday

  • Had agent critics review that fix and documented what still needed work

Wednesday

  • Fixed ways a payout could leave money stuck
  • Added a safer way for a person to release a payout that needs review
  • Added safeguards so payouts can only move through the right steps

Thursday

  • Made cancelling payouts and deposits safer and finished the next phase of that work
  • Improved how the system understands payment failures, including more realistic practice testing
  • Started fixing another case where money could get stuck after a temporary failure

Friday

  • Fixed and tested a case where money could get stuck during a security freeze
  • Spent time trying to understand the issues solved this week and the different aspects of the project