The Hero of Time

In good news, the hedgehog has started eating its food again. 🙂 I reckon it was just away looking for a mate. I no longer think it had young earlier in the year. It's a shame about the other one, but I do feel much better knowing it wasn't ours. I'm sure you find the cheeky monkeys very frustrating, but there's something kinda cool about being able to say that you have monkeys sneaking into the house. I have to confess that I had to look up the Crowned Eagle. I hadn't heard of it. I saw a few Golden Eagles in Scotland as a teenager on family holidays: ...but nothing as dramatic as seeing one catch prey. I'd pay money to see that. They re-introduced the Sea Eagle (White Tailed Eagle) to Scotland in 2007 but, unfortunately, I've never seen one.

Update Last week, I concentrated on the arbitrage bot. I was using a websocket to get updates for holding quantities after trades (I use the updated quantity for the next trade in the arbitrage). However, those updates were taking six minutes to come through. In the world of arbitrage, that may as well be the age of the universe. I switched to using polling to get the updates and they now come in less than a second. I was also using a websocket to get updates on the latest trades (to spot opportunities), but I discovered that was only giving me an update of one trade per second. There are hundreds of trades per second. I've switched that to using polling for book orders across all symbols and I now get much more information every second. It currently takes about 4 seconds between receiving an update and calculating whether there's an opportunity among any of the symbols. I want this to be no more than a second, so that's something I'll be working on. I need to start writing again so that this challenge doesn't become derailed, so today I plan to work on both the bot and the second story.

That's a fairly normal winter night temperature around here. We had it a few times during the spring, too. We'd expect the numbers to be negative in January or February. "Terribly" cold would be below -10C. Of course, our houses are designed to keep the heat in and the breeze out, whereas I expect yours to do the opposite. I hope the fibre becomes available for you soon. It really does make a difference. Will there be an unlimited-data fibre plan available?

We did happen to see a hedgehog going through our garden on Saturday evening (at quite a pace--they move faster than you'd expect). It seemed familiar with our garden but the food still hasn't been eaten. I'm still hopeful.

Whole week summary I didn't create the list of targets for story-writing. I'm hoping to do that today. I did re-draught last year's competition story, ready to be sent off. I did get the bot to be able to simulate a few rounds of arbitrage, but I've since broken it again. docker: there were no targets I only did two of the three strength-training sessions. The heat was just too much for the third. I feel pretty good about the week even though I wasn't able to tick off all of the targets. The writing is the priority and I did that.

Week, day 5 summary - Jun 26th Friday's list [4/4] • ☑ challenge update • ☑ enhance invoicing script • ☑ work on bot • ☑ send bluetooth speaker back to Amazon I ticked everything off. I would have liked to spend longer on the invoicing script than I did. I didn't send back the bluetooth speaker until Saturday but I'm still counting that one. The bot code is becoming a little untidy and the control flow a little too complex--I'll have to do something about that. Today's list [1/6] • ☑ challenge update • ☐ enhance invoicing script • ☐ bot: bugfix problem with order-in-progress notification • ☐ writing: work on second story • ☐ story-writing list • ☐ strength-training

We're having a heatwave here in the UK. A heatwave in these parts means it's 25C in my office and I think I'm going to melt. I half expect you to tell me that's your normal winter temperature.

Week 1, day 4 summary - Jun 25th Task list [5/6] • ☑ challenge update • ☑ enhance invoicing script • ☑ work on bot • ☑ produce PDFs of reviewed first-challenge story • ☐ send bluetooth speaker back to Amazon • ☑ do interval training I forgot to post the bluetooth speaker, but I did everything else. I did some fairly major restructuring of the bot. It can now simulate a few arbitrage rounds but I'd like to refine the calculations. I produced the PDFs for the story. I'm not going to send it for publication this week. Hopefully I can get to that in week 5. Today's list [1/4] • ☑ challenge update • ☐ enhance invoicing script • ☐ work on bot • ☐ send bluetooth speaker back to Amazon We're having a heatwave here in the UK and I feel as if I and my chair are going to melt into the floor. I just can't face strength-training in these temperatures. I wish I'd gone out and stood in the brief rain shower we had earlier. __________________________ The hedgehog hasn't eaten any of its food. It looks as if it may be the one that died. 😞

Week 1, day 3 summary - Jun 24th Task list [6/7] • ☑ challenge update • ☐ enhance invoicing script • ☑ work on bot • ☑ final review of story from first challenge • ☑ measure porch wall so that I know what size of damp-proof membrane to buy (53cm) • ☑ ask Amazon support question about bluetooth speaker • ☑ do strength-training I didn't manage to work on the invoicing script. With the bot, I reworked some of the data types so that the necessary data can make it through to the order process. This meant changing quite a lot of code and I should learn the lesson that I should have more complete data definitions at the start. Having said that, when I first wrote the code it was just to see if this could actually work. I'll be reworking more data definitions today. I reworked the clunky section of the story. It's a little better now. I did learn something when writing the 500-word stories in the Great Deku Tree--I could see whole passages in the story that I could cut out without losing anything. Today, I plan to use my more streamlined automation to generate PDFs and the like for the reviewed story. I've decided to return the bluetooth speaker. In the past, I would probably have put up with the issue (I keep having to switch it off and on again to get it to play sound) and found a way to work around it. I just don't have the patience for that sort of thing any more (it's the approach I took with the original NVME drive and I regret doing so). I did my strength-training: 14.3kg reps (to failure) Cn = Circuit n BC = bicep curls, HC = hammer curls, CP = chest presses | | BC | HC | CP | |----|----|----|----| | C1 | 08 | | 29 | | C2 | | 10 | 26 | Today's list [1/6] • ☑ challenge update • ☐ enhance invoicing script • ☐ work on bot • ☐ produce PDFs of reviewed first-challenge story • ☐ send bluetooth speaker back to Amazon • ☐ do interval training __________________ Sadly, when we opened the curtains this morning, we could see a dead hedgehog lying on the other side of the road. We're hoping it's not the one that's been living in our garden, but we'll only know that if the food we put out for it stops getting eaten.

Week 1, day 2 summary - Jun 23rd Task list [5/5] • ☑ challenge update • ☑ enhance invoicing script • ☑ work on bot • ☑ review story from first challenge • ☑ do interval training I did everything on the list. It really does make a difference to have one. With the bot, I upgraded rxpy from 1.something to the latest version (3.something). I discovered that a lot had changed. A good chunk of time was spent updating my code so that it would run again. I did manage to make a little extra progress towards simulating a round of arbitrage, I fixed an error I was getting previously, and the programme also seems to run faster now. I reviewed the story I wrote (finished) in the first challenge. I made more edits than I thought I would. I intend to do a second and final review today. There's a section that seems a bit clunky and I want to fix that. Today's list [1/7] • ☑ challenge update • ☐ enhance invoicing script • ☐ work on bot • ☐ final review of story from first challenge • ☐ measure porch wall so that I know what size of damp-proof membrane to buy • ☐ ask Amazon support question about bluetooth speaker • ☐ do strength-training I need to remember to buy a fence panel to replace one that blew down, but I'll leave that for tomorrow.

Week 1, day 1 summary - Jun 22nd I didn't have a list. I did, however, do strength-training and work on the bot. Quest 3: bot I experimented with a different way of calculating arbitrage opportunities, but discovered it was no simpler than the method I was already using. My motivation was to use fewer mathematical operations, and save a few milliseconds, but there were just as many when I laid it all out. My old method more explicitly lays out the steps of the arbitrage so I'm going to stick with that. I wrote functions that create simplified versions of orders (for testing only). That gave me useful information about how things need to be arranged, so I now have some restructuring to do. Quest 5: strength-training I did my strength-training routine. Wii Fit U told me it had been 20 days since my last workout, and it felt that way. 14.3kg reps (to failure) Cn = Circuit n BC = bicep curls, HC = hammer curls, CP = chest presses | | BC | HC | CP | |----|----|----|----| | C1 | 08 | | 33 | | C2 | | 09 | 24 | I'm not sure why I could do only 24 chest presses in my second circuit. Today's list [1/5] • ☑ challenge update • ☐ enhance invoicing script • ☐ work on bot • ☐ review story from first challenge • ☐ do interval training

Weekly targets Some of these are targets I didn't meet in the previous challenge. Week 1 lists: create a list of targets for writing (for a more methodical approach) stories: prepare and submit the story I wrote in Kokiri Forest for publication bot: the bot should be able to simulate a few rounds of arbitrage docker: no targets for the first week strength-training: do three strength-training workouts while maintaining form Week 2 create a list of targets for game-development finish the second story the bot should be able to perform live arbitrage; let it loose for one round no targets for the second week do more than the minimum number of reps while maintaining form Week 3 create a list of tasks that need to be done but are not covered by quests create a final draught of the first story make sure the bot's code is cleaned up and properly documented, use data definitions where appropriate; run it live without interruption no targets for third week more of the same Week 4 I haven't thought of another list to make, yet create a final draught of the second story no targets for week 4 create updated Debian packages for main application and its dependencies more of the same Week 5 I haven't thought of another list to make, yet after proof-reading, submit the stories to on-line publications no targets for week 5 modify Docker image to use my Debian packages and test more of the same

The previous challenge started well but got derailed half way through. I want to do a better job of dealing with obstacles in this challenge, but I haven't worked out how to do that yet. Anyway, let's make some quests. _________________ Quest 1: make lists I'm going to keep making lists. They help to keep me on track and help me to keep track of what I've done and should be doing. Quest 2: finish two stories Yes, these are the two stories I was trying to finish during the previous two challenges. I was determined to do so during the last challenge. I'm just as determined to do so this time. At least the first story now has a completed first draught, although I've now had some ideas to give it more impact. I'm also going to dust off the competition story I wrote back in Kokiri Forest and, now that I know it didn't win, submit it to on-line publications. Quest 3: write a bot that will perform triangular arbitrage on a cryptocurrency exchange I know... I'm good at starting projects but not so good at finishing them. This is a project that started distracting me during the previous challenge. Similar to the Docker images, I've learnt that the best way to manage such distractions is to bring them under the purview of the challenge. I'm going to concentrate on this for the first two or three weeks and only then return to the Docker image work. I think it will be more efficient not to split focus. Quest 4: Docker images Once the bot from Quest 3 is up and running, I'll concentrate on creating Debian images for the Docker images. Quest 5: maintain strength-training form while improving strength I improved my strength-training form during the previous challenge. I want to build on that by maintaining that form while increasing the reps. I'd like to increase the weight on my dumbbells during the challenge, but it's not a requirement. Bonus Quest: do a better job of dealing with obstacles I allowed a hardware failure to derail my previous challenge. Hopefully the obstacles during this challenge will be less severe but I want to use them as practise to find better ways of dealing with the bigger ones when they come along. _________________ This does mean that game-development hasn't made it into this challenge. I do intend to pick that up again in future challenges. The writing quest is still my highest priority. Again, if I don't complete that, then I won't score any points for the challenge.

The Hero of Time sacrifices sleep for the hope of treasure. Spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:

The Hero of Time finds little reward. Spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: