This may be old news for some, but I found the website Duolingo.com that seems like it’ll be really helpful for learning Spanish. It’s as effective anything I’ve used to date and it’s free! They also have French, Italian, German, and I think they’re working on others. I’m not affiliated with them in any way, I just wanted to put this resource out there for people.
"By giving you no choice but to press on, NaNoWriMo heads off most of your excuses and forces you to see what you're capable of writing."
How I did it: I was talked into it by a friend who had done it the previous year. I had an idea that I'd been toying with for some time so I dove in and worked hard at it. It ended up taking 1-2 hours a day to hit my word count quotas, but I made room (while going to grad school, no less!) Unless you're in a very serious crunch time in your life, I think this is doable.
Lessons & tips:
Resources:
It took me 30 days.
It made me Excited
The Gold Rush is a 1924 film featuring Charlie Chaplin in his famous “Little Tramp” role. In brief, he travels to the Yukon to participate in the titular Gold Rush, but is quickly caught up in the sort of zany antics you might expect from an old timey slapstick comedy.
I caught this on Netflix Streaming before it expired on the 15th. I’ve never watched a silent film before but it wasn’t as painful as I might’ve imagined. A few things struck me. First, it’s clearly impossible to experience this movie the way it would have been experienced in 1924. For one thing, many of its jokes felt really cliche, but I suspect that many of them were more original at the time and have since been reused to exhaustion. Second, whether the film was always of poorer quality or whether it’s the result of degradation by the time the film was transfered to its present form, the graininess and seizing pace of the film speed made many of the scenes unintentionally creepy. I found this fairly distracting particularly during the scenes in the isolated cabin. Third, the social standards have shifted so much in the last 90 or so years that it’s hard to understand whether the villain is seriously out of line or just mildly dislikable by 1920’s values. That last point has been kind of a recurring theme as I’ve gone through some of these older movies.
In all, I thought it was a satisfying film, and it’s impressive what Chaplin can do without dialog. For the cultural experience alone, I recommend giving this a shot at some point.
I’ve been poking at this list for a while so I thought it’d be worth putting my progress here. I’ll update as I see more.
2- -THE GODFATHER1972
3- -CASABLANCA1942
4 RAGING BULL 1980
5- -SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN1952
6- -GONE WITH THE WIND1939
7 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA 1962
8- -SCHINDLER’S LIST1993
9 VERTIGO 1958
10THE WIZARD OF OZ1939
11 CITY LIGHTS 1931
12THE SEARCHERS1956
13STAR WARS1977
14 PSYCHO 1960
15 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 1968
16 SUNSET BLVD. 1950
17THE GRADUATE1967
18 THE GENERAL 1927
19 ON THE WATERFRONT 1954
20 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE 1946
21CHINATOWN1974
22 SOME LIKE IT HOT 1959
23 THE GRAPES OF WRATH 1940
24E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL1982
25 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD 1962
26 MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON 1939
27 HIGH NOON 1952
28 ALL ABOUT EVE 1950
29 DOUBLE INDEMNITY 1944
30 APOCALYPSE NOW 1979
31 THE MALTESE FALCON 1941
32 THE GODFATHER PART II 1974
33 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST 1975
34 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS 1937
35 ANNIE HALL 1977
36 THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 1957
37 THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES 1946
38 THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE 1948
39DR. STRANGELOVE1964
40THE SOUND OF MUSIC1965
41 KING KONG 1933
42 BONNIE AND CLYDE 1967
43MIDNIGHT COWBOY1969
44 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY 1940
45SHANE1953
46 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 1934
47 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE 1951
48 REAR WINDOW 1954
49 INTOLERANCE 1916
50THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING2001
51 WEST SIDE STORY 1961
52TAXI DRIVER1976
53 THE DEER HUNTER 1978
54MA*SH1970
55 NORTH BY NORTHWEST 1959
56 JAWS 1975
57ROCKY1976
58 THE GOLD RUSH 1925
59 NASHVILLE 1975
60 DUCK SOUP 1933
61 SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS 1941
62AMERICAN GRAFFITI1973
63 CABARET 1972
64 NETWORK 1976
65 THE AFRICAN QUEEN 1951
66RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK1981
67 WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? 1966
68UNFORGIVEN1992
69 TOOTSIE 1982
70 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE 1971
71SAVING PRIVATE RYAN1998
72 THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION 1994
73 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID 1969
74THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS1991
75 IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT 1967
76FORREST GUMP1994
77 ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN 1976
78 MODERN TIMES 1936
79 THE WILD BUNCH 1969
80 THE APARTMENT 1960
81 SPARTACUS 1960
82 SUNRISE 1927
83TITANIC1997
84 EASY RIDER 1969
85 A NIGHT AT THE OPERA 1935
86 PLATOON 1986
87 12 ANGRY MEN 1957
88 BRINGING UP BABY 1938
89 THE SIXTH SENSE 1999
90 SWING TIME 1936
91 SOPHIE’S CHOICE 1982
92GOODFELLAS1990
93 THE FRENCH CONNECTION 1971
94PULP FICTION1994
95 THE LAST PICTURE SHOW 1971
96DO THE RIGHT THING1989
97BLADE RUNNER1982
98 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY 1942
99TOY STORY1995
100 BEN-HUR 1959
I set up my Shelfari (on Amazon) account a few years ago and loaded it down with every book I remember reading in its entirety in my life. Last year, I got to 100 books total. Yes, I counted stuff like Dr. Seuss but I tried not to abuse that. To be fair, it did count the entire LOTR set as one book, so I stand behind my decisions. At any rate, I’m trying to get that number up to 125, though I’m going to be realistic about my approach and try not to rush things since I’ve got so much else going on. If you’re reading this post at thetenofswords, you can see my up-to-date Shelfari list at the bottom of the page. As of this posting, I’m working on the following books:
- The Quest NIV study bible (The footnotes and asides make it much more approachable than the straight text, even if it is aimed at teenagers)
- Paradise Lost by John Milton – This is one I’ve been meaning to read since high school. I’m stubbornly attacking this and a few other “chore books” among my more enjoyable reads. As an aspiring writer, I think there’s value in reading the classics just to get an idea for how other people write.
- The Tao of Jeet Koon Do by Bruce Lee – Although I’m not actively practicing martial arts, I want to take the philosophical approach in this book and apply it to my other pursuits until I can get into martial arts again.
- Intuitive Biostatistics by Harvey Motulsky – Working in a biomedical science lab, a foundation in biostatistics should serve me well. This book is pretty readable given the content so I’m hoping it’s not going to be too painful.
It’ll probably take me a while to get through these, but I’m planning to get on a streak of easier books after I get some of these figured out.
At John’s suggestion, I picked up a book on forging called “Wayne Goddard’s $50 Knife Shop” and I’m starting to go through it. I don’t expect to actually get started for $50, since I may need to spring for more portable options for some of the equipment, but it’s a decent starting point at any rate. I’m not sure how I should move forward yet, but I’m thinking the way to go is going to be to find someone in PA who is willing to offer some mentorship and access to their facilities. In the longer term, I’d like to accumulate my own equipment and set up a workshop of my own. I doubt that I can operate a forge in an attached garage, so I’m going to have to either wait until I have a more suitable home or I’ll have to put together some kind of mobile unit that I can cart to a park or something. That last option might be impossible without a pickup truck, and might be really impractical anyhow, so I guess we’ll see what makes sense.
For better or for worse, a PhD in the biomedical sciences requires a certain amount of luck. In my case, that luck has been a long time coming. Today I got to report my first solid piece of reasonably novel data, and from here I ought to be able to build my thesis around what I’ve discovered. As much as I’d like to go into the gritty details, I’m going to wait until I’ve published to disseminate the information so that I don’t jinx myself or end up eating my words later. What I will say is that persistence and endurance appear to be much more important to the completion of a PhD than outright intelligence or productivity.
"A quick and effective way to make a difference."
How I did it: There's not a lot to donating blood on the surface. Contact your local blood bank via phone or email and determine their hours. If you don't know where to start, check local hospitals or look in your phone book listings for red cross or red crescent facilities. Usually you can set an appointment but some places accept walk-ins. The actual donation takes only 15-20 minutes and the staff is usually very helpful and happy to have your contribution. At the completion, there should be fluids and snacks to help you replenish what you gave up.
Lessons & tips: - Eat lots of iron rich foods for as long as you can prior to the donation. Red meats are very effective, but so are dark green leafy vegetables, peanuts, and other substances. Check here for details: http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/health-and-wellness/iron-rich-foods
It took me 1 day.
It made me Satisfied
My wife and I have been running regularly for years, and have finished a half-marathon and marathon together (after she had cancer surgery, no less!), but now it’s time for a new goal. The half-ironman seems like a reasonable place to aim, since the full ironman is a huge step up in overall athletic effort, where it seems that a half ironman is probably not too much worse than a full marathon once we get used to the swimming and running.
Accordingly, the first steps have been to ease into the other modalities. Winter in PA isn’t the most amenable to outdoor exercise, so we set up an indoor bike training space at home. We already had Trek 1.1’s that have been lightly used, so we bought Blackburn Tech Mag 6 indoor trainers and I bought a TacX trainer tire later because I’ve been burning the rubber off my back tire for whatever reason.
I had some reservations about using a magnetic trainer because I’d gotten the impression that they don’t offer enough resistance. However, this one seemed to work well and has held up solidly for two months of regular use so far. I do recommend the trainer tire to save the wear and tear on your road tire. It seems to cut down on tire slippage, too.
So far the bike training is working well, and I’ve been getting in a swim about once a week of 40-50 laps. Soon, I’m hoping to bring my wife along to get her acquainted, since she doesn’t have much lap swimming experience. Once we get there, I’m hoping we can work our way up to doing 2 runs, 2 bikes, and 2 swims a week. When we’re comfortable with a base level of all three, we can pick a race, register, and ramp up the distances to get ready.
So this is a really poorly defined goal. As with all the goals on here, I’m hoping to set myself some more complete, SMART parameters to get me on track. For starters, though, I’ve used a couple of pieces of software to help get me going
1) Rescuetime – Mac app to monitor my internet and app usage during the day
2) Stayfocusd – Chrome app that gives me a set amount of time (1 hour) to look at distracting websites before locking me out of them.
3) Firetask – to-do list organizer to help me break my goals down into steps.
I’ll note that I’ve tried the pomodoro method with its associated apps before, but the nature of my job doesn’t lend itself to 25 minute uninterrupted breaks – in science, you often have to do your desk work in odd intervals while waiting for something to happen with an experiment.
So I’m pretty well underway on my PhD. I’m doing a project on cancer research and have already published a review article, although my project has been changed since then. So far, this process has been much more difficult than most of the other goals I’ve approached in my life because of its poorly defined nature. It’s hard to outline a proper set of steps to get to the end, because research work is by definition exploring poorly understood areas of knowledge. In my case, that’s meant a whole lot of dead ends as my model systems have failed and my hypotheses have turned out to yield uninteresting results. I’m really hoping to generate some positive data this year, and I have a tentative goal of collecting enough data this calendar year to write up a research article. I’ll be using this blog system to keep up to date and chronicle my progress.
So I moved from a starter acoustic (A Jasmine S35) to a made in Mexico Fender Stratocaster with a practice amp (Fender Mustang I) and I’ve been playing around with a few things. Over the last six months I worked through the beginner lessons on Garageband on Mac, and I’ve been playing a few tabs. Recently, I picked up the Guitar Grimoire Exercise Book and I’m playing through that to get some more technical practice. I may try the blues and rock lessons on garageband as well. One mistake I made early on was using a book on how to use conventional music for guitar instead of tablature. This might be a good goal in the long run, but so much of guitar is done with tabs that it’s not a particularly useful skill for a beginner. What’s more, I picked up a book on songwriting. I want to start trying to compose as soon as possible so I can create instead of simply imitating. A friend of mine had said that playing an instrument is a mere parlor trick if you only imitate the works of others. I would add that it’s a damned advanced parlor trick, and that there’s certainly something to be said for learning from those who came before, but I like the idea of incorporating songwriting in my training early on.
"It was exhausting and took a lot of time, but finishing was really rewarding."
How I did it: Starting in January, I looked for a nearby marathon and set my training plan backward from there. I had already been running a decent base - 4-6 miles a day every day except friday, with occasional cross training. The major change for my training plan was just doing a long run on Saturdays, gradually ramping it up. I trained with my wife and we increased our distance week by week until we were doing 20 mile runs the month before the marathon. Then we tapered off and did the race.
Lessons & tips:
Resources:
It took me 6 months.
It made me
