Well, I managed to do two hours of worthwhile work this evening, which brings me up to four hours in total for the week so far, which isn't enough. I should be able to get it up to fourteen without excessive effort.

To the extent that I'm happy at the moment, I'm happy because I have something to care about that I feel matters more than the things that would otherwise preoccupy me. I'm not really sure that this approach is likely to work; the sources I usually turn to for counsel are fairly unanimous in their disapproval. Ecclesiates describes temporal ambitions as a chasing after the wind; buddhist doctrine regards craving and appetite as the ultimate source of all emotional pain; Seneca states that the key to a life well-lived is an appropriate repose and freedom from unseemly and vain ambitions. I suppose I have replies for two of these objections; firstly, human life itself is meaningless and transitory, and in an odd way it seems appropriate to immerse oneself in the temporal as opposed to entertaining pretensions of transcendence that lie outside the human domain of experience. As for Seneca's objection, I don't hope for glory, recognition, profit or grandeur; I just see something that I feel needs to be done and I try, short of eroding myself with excessive effort, to spend what time I have doing what I want to do; and this is basically in accordance with his overall thesis. But I don't have an answer for the buddhist objection.

Well, I just hope this approach doesn't wind up biting me on the ass. I guess it doesn't really matter if it does, but it's only sensible to avoid unhappiness if you can see it coming and also figure out how to get out of the way. Oh well. Whatever.