Internet Fast

I think I am going to go on a fast from the internet for a week -- at least fast from my computer; I'll look at the weather app on my phone and it might flash the titles of my e-mails when I swipe the phone.

With the school year over, I need to not get into a screen-funk.

Woodworking Journal: Fixing Common Mistakes

I am liking the "Wood Whisperers" channel quite a bit.  It has been good guidance through the first part of my journey.

Push-Up Goal Update

I am pulling up a little short on my overfeeding every weekend until the end of the school year -- I got sick of chocking back that much food -- especially protein powder.

So hopefully I built up enough infrastructure, because it is now on to grease the groove.  Just a week of practice has made me feel comfortable with what kind of motion I need -- in the elbows and forearm.  Also, much like when I did squats, figuring out how breathing works seems to be a big help in increasing reps.

I shoot for "perfect practice" of the technique and then I spend time after a set visualizing the technique -- because, after all, the theory here is that I am training the nervous system as much as building muscular endurance.

Woodworking: a Sketching of some Projects

It turned out that with a little effort rewording I could make all of these start with the letter "b." These are all things I could make use of.

Birdhouses
Bookcases
Box (to be an outdoor haybox)
Bench -- new work bench
Backgammon board
Bad-ass tool holders so I can go "death to drawers."

The New Chapter

Yesterday was an emotional day.

It started with the burial of my uncle's ashes at the foot of my grandfather's grave.  After that brief ceremony, my wife and I went to the yearly debate and acting picnic, where I gave an introduction speech for each debate senior before they gave there good-bye speech.

After that, I went to my mothers and finally got around to looking through my grandfather's tools.  It will be an honor working on projects with those.

One chapter is closed, and another begins.

Woodworking. My First Step: Knowledge.

I am going to try to chronicle my process of learning how to make stuff with wood.

The first step to woodworking is some knowledge.  To the Google!

I just looked up what tools I need to get started.

First, Youtube.




Yes, Youtube.  It is a friend of mine.  Seeing faces makes me feel less alone, in the same way that people watch insipid shows like the Today Show.

But, reading is on balance more efficient for general goal nerdery.  They are easier to scan through, and much easier to make notes off.

Here is one article.  Here is another.  

The hierarchy of learning often goes like this:

• real experience 
• reading
• videos

But, and a huge but, motivation and inspiration are elastic.  Watching a lot of videos is infinitely better than doing no reading.  And that is what people often do with reading they should do.  So, yeah, Youtube can be a fantastic resource.

A  concern at this information gathering step is to avoid getting stuck in a paralysis of analysis, but that is what to-do lists and reverse Sabbaths are for.

Chinese Characters

In the process of writing my own translation of the Tao Te Ching, I have developed a liking for Chinese characters.

I a list of ten thousand things to do, but I get much joy from following my interests.  At the very least, I want to learn some radicals, including stroke order so I can write them, and then the characters found in the Tao Te Ching.  Easy enough if proceed slowly and wisely, step by step.  Some easy radicals:

Playing With Speed Reading

What's a personal development blog without eventually talking about speed reading?  As my life affords me more time to play, I have been playing with speed reading using spreeder.

I do best reading between 450 and 500 words, with 2 words displayed at a time.  This is still better the average for someone word-reading, but no where near the whiz-bang 1,000+ words a minute that seems to be the dream of people who get into speed reading.  And that kind of speed, while maintaining comprehension, is probably a myth.  Going at 1,000 words a minute, I can get the "gist" of the text, but I can save more time with the following:  1) being strategic enough to know what I have to read, 2) scanning through a text to find the parts I need, or 3) reading the first sentences of paragraphs only (occasionally the last sentence as well). 

For any reading that you want to really get the language at the level of, you know, what the sentences are actually saying, I would recommend not pushing the reading these kinds of software over 500 words a minute.  

But there is a another problem.  Because the internet now sucks, even finding material that is easy to copy and paste into speed reading software is a challenge.  If I have to go around every few paragraphs to avoid ads, and if the side bars get into text out of order, it makes for a screwed-up experience.  Again, I can just do better with scanning techniques.  

I find the best things to put through speed reading software are the same things on my best of the free internet list.  

And when I think about it, it makes sense.  These are the sites where there is the most good content, rather than bullshit.  Thoreau said : "Read not the Times.  Read the Eternities." The best of the internet still affords you that ability,  But it is getting harder and harder to find.

So this is my best speed reading tip: avoid the bullshit.  Don't even read it.  Don't even be on a site that has the temptation.  Hell, be on the internet less.  The internet becomes more and more click-bait, and you are much better off not reading most of it, no matter how fast it is thrown at your eyes.

Push Up Strategy

I am going to make an earnest run at the push up goal.  I will do it in two steps.

Step One.  For the rest of the school year I am on the following protocol:

On Saturday, I work out with an Escalating Density routine.  The sets I am alternating are push-ups and kettle bell swings.  Starting right after the workout, I immediately start drastic overfeeding to get some hypertrophy.  A real winner is ice cream mixed with a scoop of whey protein.  For the entire day I go into a binge mode and eat something between 4,000 and 6,000 calories.

Sunday, I stack this up with seeing my grandmother for lunch and eating dinner at my mother's.  I eat more like 3,000 calories on Sunday.

Monday through Friday, I don't eat breakfast and for lunch I have two spoons of extra light tasting olive oil.  This being the Shangri-La Diet.  Around 3:30 I try to eat something very high in fiber and then I try to basically "be reasonable" with dinner -- leading to somewhere between 1,200 and 1,600 calories consumed on those days. 

The strategy here is build up some muscular infrastructure for more push ups.

Step Two: During the summer, I will be greasing the groove for push ups.  Most days, I'll stay in with the heat and organize my days into hours, doing some push ups each hour.  On the days that I need to rest from push ups, I could walk to the Bizzell library at OU in the morning and hang out there.

Also, I have a lot of weight to lose (*sigh, again*) and so I will be doing the Shangri-La lunch of two spoons of extra-light tasting olive oil every day and eat a nutrient-dense, yet restricted-calorie diet.  (I may take Sunday lightly "off" because I of the family visits, but I'm not looking to hit those really high calorie marks that I was looking for in step one.)

If I don't reach the goal of a set of 100 push ups by the end of summer, I will probably need to take a break from push ups, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.  But I think I have a good chance of getting to 100 push ups this summer.