Geoff's Miscellany

Tonight a friend asked me if I’d had any ideas for papers I would like to write. I do, I even have ideas for books. I’ll probably not write any of this, but maybe I will. The fact is that I want to write these things and I have no actual resources for getting published (not attached to any academic institutions of notoriety or scholars of note). But the first fact is enough to write them. So, I suppose that if I write any of this and nobody wants to publish it, I’ll just put it on my blog. When it appears, I hope you hate it.

I posted one of these a couple of weeks back. I thought mention some other things I like right now.

1. I've been training to failure in the gym again. It's been a nice time saving technique and a change of pace. The decreased weight from the insanely long sets (aiming for 10 reps two seconds up and four seconds down). To time my reps, I use a boxing timer app on my phone. It allows me to gauge whether or not my ten or more reps have been timed well. I may try a metronome app next. Anyhow, I'll train like this for a few more weeks with some jogging every once in a while in order to prepare my body for a camping trip we take for work next month. Training to failure takes advantage of several modes of muscle growth stimulation: heavy weight (eventually), occlusion, and effort. It takes advantage of volume as well, but it a way that few expect. Volume is a major stimulus for muscle growth, but in this form of training you're only doing one set. But if I did 3 sets of 5 and each rep took 2 seconds, that's still only 30 seconds of actual weight lifting. The difference in single set training is that while the volume is often higher, the extended sets can force the weight to be lower. After the camping trip I'll keep this training style up for a while, but switch up some exercises. I'll probably start aiming for heavy triples on dead lift one day a week as well. Here's my routine
   1. Pulldowns
   2. Dips
   3. Dumbbell Pullovers
   4. Dumbbell Bench Press
   5. Dumbbell Shoulder Press
   6. Back Extensions
   7. Leg Curls (I try for a set of 30 on these...it's pretty terrible)
   8. Dead Lift (try for a set of 12)
   9. Bicep Curls
   10. Posture Shrugs
2. I use the Sleep Cycle app on my phone to try to gauge my sleep quality. It's either a very effective tool or a placebo and therefore a very effective tool. I highly recommend you get it, or if you have a Fit Bit of some sort, try using a sleep tracker app.
3. Cal Newport's book How to Win at College is pretty amazing. He's a computer scientist from MIT who writes a great deal of helpful advice for young people. I read it so that I could give my students tips for success. His blog is super useful.
4. Posture exercises. I've been trying several times a day to stretch into a better posture and to walk with better posture throughout the day. There appears to be a reciprocal relationship between our attitude and our posture. Being in a bad mood can lead us to carry ourselves like we're retreating from the world, but conversely, carrying yourself like you're in a good and engaging mood ends up putting you in that mood. Try it out.

I’ll say more about this topic later.

Articles periodically pop up about why it is still important to major in the liberal arts and not bother with STEM fields. And then other articles will pop-up saying that liberal arts degrees are stupid and essentially put the individual student in debt without concern for said student’s future employment prospects.

To these claims I say, “Just shut up.”

Neither side ever means “the liberal arts.” They just mean “STEM or non-STEM degrees.”

A year or so ago, a friend gave me “The Color Spectrum” by The Dear Hunter. The album is very unusual, but it was a delightful surprise. I especially like the song below. I think I mostly like its sound though. While the chorus is great (what better thing to bring us back to reality or our calling than love?), I think the idea is that somebody keeps coming back to a distant and non-reciprocating object of affection because of love. While that story is used in movies all the time (see Ex Machina), it is not actually noble to put others on a pedestal. It could be possible that the person is brought back to a struggling friend or lover because of love, in this case the song is much more positive.

1. Sufjan Stevens' new album Carrie and Lowell.
2. I'm trying to wake up completely before drinking my coffee. To do this I exercise, drink one or two large glasses of chilled water and sit down and do some of my morning reading prior to coffee. I've found that feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed prior to drinking my morning cup-o-sludge helps me to get a boost from my caffeine rather than waking up feeling the need to have it.
3. Lately I buy cheap coffee to save money (though I've been treating myself once a week with a friend's high quality beans). When I make my gross coffee, I've found that putting cinnamon and occassionally cayenne pepper in the bottom of the cup before pouring adds a delightful spice to the experience.
4. I've come to really appreciate ginger water. I just buy a few ounces of ginger root, blend it up, boil it with filtered water and strain out the pieces as I pour the water into a pitcher and repeat with the same pulp one more time. Just a couple of ounces of this ginger concentrate diluted with about 10 ounces of water is amazingly refreshing.
5. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. I've been reading a lot about the cardinal virtues (courage, justice, prudence, and temperance), and a psychologist friend recommended this book to me. I decided I would read it, thinking I would dislike it. It is actually filled with insight. I wish it included more research, but that's okay. I highly recommend it to anybody who struggles with courage. Her main insight is that vulnerability is not weakness. Instead it is being vulnerable and acting anyway that is courage.  

The first time I heard this guy, I thought he was hilarious. I remember being at K-Mart and looking on the back of his album in high school. I was shocked because so much of his music had to do with partying. I mused, “This guy’s a joke and on purpose.” Anyway, when I was in college a friend showed me this song. Note how happily it starts and sounds, but the lyrics are completely frightening and morbid. Anyway, I suppose that a good way to start your week is to get ready to die. So, you’d better get ready to die.

Text 33 Πάλιν ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐρρέθη τοῖς ἀρχαίοις· οὐκ ἐπιορκήσεις, ἀποδώσεις δὲ τῷ κυρίῳ τοὺς ὅρκους σου. 34 ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν μὴ ὀμόσαι ὅλως· μήτε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ὅτι θρόνος ἐστὶν τοῦ θεοῦ, 35 μήτε ἐν τῇ γῇ, ὅτι ὑποπόδιόν ἐστιν τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ, μήτε εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, ὅτι πόλις ἐστὶν τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως, 36 μήτε ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ σου ὀμόσῃς, ὅτι οὐ δύνασαι μίαν τρίχα λευκὴν ποιῆσαι ἢ μέλαιναν. 37 ἔστω δὲ ὁ λόγος ὑμῶν ναὶ ναί, οὒ οὔ· τὸ δὲ περισσὸν τούτων ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἐστιν.^[1]

Back in the days of “the myspace” I had a roommate who was in a hard core band and a significant number of friends on myspace I met at his concerts or through another friend who went to a lot of evangelism conferences and such. I still remember when one of them messaged me and said, “You’ll really like this album by Thrice.” She was right. I’ve loved this album for a decade. My favorite song on it probably changes from year to year, but Of Dust and Nations is fantastic. The main theme is the sands of time continue to trickle through the hourglass of history and that anything that isn’t eternal that we put our trust in will be destroyed by time.

Text

31 Ἐρρέθη δέ· ὃς ἂν ἀπολύσῃ τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, δότω αὐτῇ ἀποστάσιον. 32 ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ἀπολύων τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ παρεκτὸς λόγου πορνείας ποιεῖ αὐτὴν μοιχευθῆναι, καὶ ὃς ἐὰν ἀπολελυμένην γαμήσῃ, μοιχᾶται.^[1]

Translation

31 Now, it was said, “If any should divorce his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. 32 Now, I am telling you that anybody who divorces his wife, except in a matter of fornication, makes her to be an adulteress and if any should marry a woman who has acquired a divorce, he is made to commit adultery.

I’ve always liked this song and meant to post about it Monday, but my other job started back up this week. I’ll be back into writing soon. But I think this is a challenging song about dealing with difficult relationships and trials in general. I hope you find it encouraging.

Favorite line: “I swear I’ll never give in, I refuse.”