Episode: Apparently This Counts as a Productive Day
Today was unusually successful.
I don't trust days like that.
The goal was straightforward:
1) Finish my battle simulation assignment.
No side projects. No distractions. No accidentally spending three hours researching something unrelated because it was "interesting."
I got to the Systems Programming building early and claimed a desk before most people showed up.
Dvorak came with me, but spent most of the morning asleep in the little carrier on my hip that Emile made for them.
Which meant things were unusually quiet.
The assignment was about adaptive behavior in battle simulations.
Most of the morning was spent reading logs, adjusting values, running tests, and discovering that the problem was exactly where I thought it was.
I wish that happened more often.
Around lunchtime I realized I was actually making good progress.
Not "I can probably finish this later" progress.
The kind where things start getting crossed off your checklist instead of added to it.
Mostly because I needed a break from looking at the same screen for several hours.
A few people were practicing battles on one of the nearby fields. Someone was trying to ride a bicycle while carrying a stack of books.
Back inside, I finished the last round of testing.
Or at least worked well enough that future problems would be Future Val's responsibility.
That's the version of success most students are aiming for.
I submitted the assignment just after two.
Then checked three times to make sure I had actually submitted it.
I don't know why I do this.
The button doesn't become more submitted if I stare at it.
Afterward, I had something I wasn't expecting.
I walked around campus for a while.
Students were spread across the lawns. The café near the student center were Emil was working, it looked busy. Someone was playing guitar badly but enthusiastically near one of the dorms.
A pretty normal afternoon.
Dvorak finally woke up sometime during the walk back.
They emerged, looked around, determined nothing particularly interesting was happening, and drifted alongside me for the rest of the trip.
I stopped to get a new book before heading back.
Sat outside for a while and read.
Did absolutely nothing productive.
No last-minute assignment panic.
I don't have a clever conclusion.
Sometimes things just go well.
