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Friday night I was at my lifeguard job rotating from one posting to another when I saw IT. I had my shirt off because I was rotating through a series of shirtless postings (we have to wear our shirts most of the time).
Right above the waistline on the left side, a slight bulge in my shadow, just the hint of a muffin top.
I know what caused it. We went to weekends only last week. We haven’t been swimming laps as much for team failure to perform and Lifeguard Olympics has come and gone. Toss in the fact that I normally swim my extra laps prior to a first shift and what you’ve got is a decline in exercise augmented by an increase in foot intake and butt in the chair disorder.
In other words, when I gain fat, it starts on my back and migrates around to my front. Fortunately, I caught it pretty early. Starting this week I’ll be sure to hit the campus pool for thirty minutes of lap swimming, soon to be augmented with weight training and cardio work once Trinity’s car is fully operational. I’ll change my intake habits accordingly as well.
I want to do more than maintain, I want to improve upon what I’ve built over the summer. Shave off some more fat, gain some more muscle and increase my cardio endurance.
On other fitness front matters, I discovered that the key to making push ups easy is swimming laps. The front crawl is perhaps one of the best back workouts I’ve ever had. It was relatively easy to knock out twenty push ups yesterday during break, something I normally struggle with.
Push ups, I might add, were a nemesis of mine in the Army.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
It has been a busy week for yours truly. So busy that my fitness program, which had been running pretty consistent since the start of the new year, got a bit derailed as I dealt with one issue or another.
Let’s get to it.
The Teaching Front
We’re advancing to our first exam, which is far later than normal due to the snow days we’ve had. I’m behind in all of my classes as well, which is yet another struggle. Further, due to the disruptions, it has been difficult to build up momentum and bond with the students. As a result, things are not working quite as smoothly as I’d like. Fortunately, I have no real disciplinary issues on the table.
On the other hand, I see a lot of my students using their textbook and their study guide during the lecture to hunt down terms. On the surface this might seem like a good thing, right? At least they are paying attention to something.
Well, actually, it is a bad thing. It is a sign of a time crunched student, or worse, a bored student, who is attempting to work through the study guide while I lecture. More often than not students believe that the lecture material is not important for the test. I often get students who ask how much of what I lecture on is in the textbook.
Less than you’d think. The lectures are often specifically designed to go deeper into the topics at hand or they are designed to operate hand in glove with the textbook.
So an example would be the lecture on the Pre-Revolutionary Era of American History. The traditional way of teaching this is to start with the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, the This Act and the That Act and rest assured that is exactly how it sounds to the student. They are merely memorizing bits of info for regurgitation and that is the last thing you want them to do. Memorization is just an early step towards true understanding.
Rather than lecture on those acts, I make the student responsible for reading the textbook’s coverage of those acts. What I do instead is lay out the case for why the Colonials believed that their only recourse was to declare independence from Great Britain. I lay down the grievances and I fill in the background for the Colonial’s historical understanding and perception of events.
How does that work out? Well, I’m two semesters into using that method and if you are a student who does what I told you to do, take notes on the lecture, tie it to your reading and form a synthesis of the two, then they do fine.
Test results aren’t much different between one strategy of coverage or the other, I might add.
In any event, they are doing their homework while I lecture. I think I’m going to put that on the Why Did I Fail The Test? section of my syllabus for next semester.
The Student Front
I’ve not had a chance to update either the Pondering Tree or Playing with Genesis.
We’ve moved into the actual writing of the novel. The group I am in wrote a combined first chapter this last week.
We’re in a computer lab and to be honest, I am growing to believe that this was not the best choice for the class. It is hard to get into an effective group in order to get any work done. The computers serve as a frequent distraction. Given that I was using my laptop on Tuesday, even I am guilty of this, though I had a reason (which is not the same as an excuse) for having that computer out. If nothing else, the clickety-click-click-click of the keys on my laptop are relatively quiet.
In fact, in terms of technology in the classroom, I think it ought to be banned. No videos, no slides, no powerpoints, none of it. Just a board to write on and comfortable chairs for the students to sit in with a large desk to spread out their things. On C-Span this morning (and what a wonderful discovery that is, a place where people discuss without drama or shouting or Jerry Springer like behavior) an education pundit was talking about a high tech public school on the East Coast which cost a pretty penny to equip with the latest and greatest in technology.
The performance at that school? In the toilet. Students surf the net, IM each other or spend their time trying to get the tech to work in the first place.
Banish to the Computer Science Department and leave it there.
I’ll provide a proper update to Playing with Genesis that covers the actual course material and progress later this weekend.
Research Project Number – 05
The Client was on deadline this week, which was something of a surprise to me. I wasn’t aware of the deadline. No matter. I sat down with the backlog I could most effectively contribute to and worked over the material. By deadline time, I had most of the storyline components covered. There are a few lingering errors in the manuscript but I will catch them later.
It is going to be a pretty big novel, folks. I’m looking forward to seeing how the trilogy ends.
The Writing Front
In the Early Morning Rain by Berry Henderson and myself is currently out to market. We haven’t heard anything back yet so we’re hopeful. It is a new market open to e-subs so I’ll be looking over my inventory to see what can be polished up and put into the wind. Many of the valuable things I have learned in World Building will be helpful in that respect.
On the novel front I was able to drag out the manuscript for the first time in a couple of weeks to give it a going over. What I have right now are a bunch of cobbled together, pasted together scenes which are loosely linked together. In looking over the manuscript I think some major work is needed to better define the roles of the various characters.
There is also one glaring problem, the same one I noticed with my previous novel effort, Convergence Point.
When I have the space to spread out and more specifically, work on a military topic, I tend to let the action and strategy dominate the narrative. It is a natural strength of mine as a storyteller and an historian. Unfortunately, without significant character depth and development, no one is going to care about that action. It will be nothing more than a series of cardboard targets getting cut down on the battlefield.
So that part of it needs significant work. It is the sort of thing I can probably hammer out in a week of concentrated effort.
As for the World Building in the novel, I think some refinement of various structures and institutions are necessary. I definitely want to redefine the family structure of this society based upon what I have learned in Melissa Eaton’s Cultural Anthropology side of the course.
If things go according to plan, I’ll use my time during Spring Break in tandem with Trinity’s Spring Break (which is at the end of the month) to get the project ready for submission to market.
Other Fronts
Over the next few days the Great Summer Job Hunt will commence. Now that I am lifeguard qualified I should be able to, hopefully, get a decent job at around 25 to 30 hours a week maximum. Even more ideally, it will be a posting to an outdoor pool.
Trinity is making plans to travel to California to see her eldest son and wife for a week during her Spring Break. I should be able to polish up the novel while she is out there. I’ve got to say that I am glad to see that fences have been mended with that particular component of her family.
Lastly, March 10th is my father’s birthday. He’ll be sixty-nine years old if my math is correct. No one thought he’d get this far given that he has prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, stage three lung cancer and a heart muscle that more closely resembles a chunk of hamburger than a heart.
I chalk it up to sheer cussed stubborness myself.
Trinity and I are going to see about getting some barbecue for tomorrow night so we can celebrate a bit early. Both of us will be tied up during the week with our respective college obligations.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Back Workout:
Latflex, 3 sets 150 to 180 pounds
Dorsiflex, 3 sets 150 to 180 pounds
Deltoid Fly, 3 sets 50 to 70 pounds
Abdominal Nautlius, 3 sets of 10 at 140 pounds
Back Nautilus, 3 sets of 10 at 125
Note, I followed the advice of my body building classes by focusing on resistance rather than simply letting gravity do the work. I lowered the weight I work with in anticipation of issues. Good thing I did, as I got a better workout.
Cardio:
Elliptical Trainer, 20 minutes
Walking:
Two miles
Projected Workout for Tuesday, 01-25-2011
Swimming at 0800 hours:
300 to 500 meters in 100 meter increments.
Chest Workout at 1230 hours:
Bench Press, 3 sets
Incline Press, 3 sets
Decline Press, 3 sets
Reverse Barbell Curl, 3 sets
Military Press, 3 sets
Tricep Pulley Pushdown
Cardio:
Elliptical Trainer, 20 minutes
I’ll finally get a weigh in tomorrow to see what I’m dealing with. I suspect I’m going to weigh in around 210 pounds. Hopefully it will be less.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Sorry I’ve been away from the Tree for so long. There were tests to grade and record, students to see, bills to pay since April Fool’s was payday (irony be thy name), and sunny weather to enjoy with the Woman I Love. Needless to say, Reality has kept yours truly busy.
The April Fitness Plan
I’ve got until April 27th to get ready for Lifeguard Training. The good news is that I can push myself to reach 300 meters of swimming without break. The bad news is that it takes a great deal of effort and it only features the front crawl. I need to master the breast stroke and the turn required to effectively use the breast stroke. This has to be done in twenty days or less.
I ran into a bit of a snag with my revised swimming plan. Across from the Pod is North Kansas City Community Center (it is across the street from the burning Quik Trip in Birmingham’s Without Warning for those wondering). I went across the street to knock out the first of my morning swim sessions only to find a large swim team contingent there. Granted, they left me to my own lane but I found it oft putting. It prompted me to rethink my fitness plan.
Here it is.
Monday-Wednesday-Fridays
0530 hours: NKC-CC, Strength Training
I’m going to make a change to my strength training workout. I had been working on sheer muscle mass mainly as a way to burn off more calories. The more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn. I also like the additional mass because it gives me a bit of an edge in the classroom (the mass adds just a bit to my command authority).
Instead, I’m going to aim for endurance instead. I’ll drop the level of weight I am using just a notch, say my bench press down to 165 lbs at 10 reps rather than 185 at 6 reps. I have a lot of raw power at my disposal but not as much endurance as I’d like.
And it is probably worth pointing out that the swimming is increasing my overall strength anyway. Yesterday when I worked on the Lat Flex machine for the first time in two months (the Campus Rec Center doesn’t have one I like) I noticed that I was pulling far more weight than I had in the past, up to 255 pounds. So I can probably modify my workout just a notch.
0930 hours: Campus Rec Center, Swim Training
The Campus Rec Center pool is pretty quiet at this time with lots of open lanes. For this week I am going to work at building up my form, breathing and endurance.
M: 100 meters x 5 for 500 meters.
W: 100 meters x 6 for 600 meters.
F: 200 meters x 3 for 600 meters.
1900 hours: Northtown Community Center, Additional Swim Training
I notice that I recover pretty fast between sets which leads me to believe I can probably push myself a bit more. In the evening I’ll hit the pool again. Each night with the exception of Monday night (I teach so I can’t swim) I’ll try to reach the 300 meters mark consistently.
Tuesday-Thursdays
I have a body building class on campus at 1230 hours. I think I need to get down to the campus rec center earlier rather than hanging around the adjunct farm eating junk food and generally goofing off. I also need to work in a cardio element into my plan.
1130 hours: Strength and Cardio Training
It is easier to work back at Northtown so I’ll work chest at the Campus Rec Center.
I will also work in a 20 minute session on the elliptical trainer. This will probably happen during the actual class as my fellow students tie up most of the weights.
If I feel like it, I may hit the pool for some swimming. I think I’ll restrict myself to 100 meter sets.
Saturday and Sunday
With the Northtown Community Center back on line, I can work in some weekend workouts. These will probably be either easy going days or make up days. Usually Wednesday ends up being my paperwork catch up day so I suspect I’ll be running with a variation of the MWF workout.
Consumption
I need to tweak my eating habits. One probably is that fresh fruit is a bit thin on the ground. The apples around here have been pretty crappy and it is still just a notch early for strawberries. I also need to watch the binging.
So it goes. My goal is still the same. Qualify for lifeguard training. Secondary goals include fat loss and increased muscle mass.
The Teaching Front
I handed exams back this week in three of my four classes. It was a mixed bag. Overall there were marginal improvements in all three day classes. The marginal improvement can be traced to some basic facts.
1. Some students have dropped or simply didn’t take the test.
2. Some students took my advice and prepared.
The additional prep work, outlines and note cards, helped most of my students who used them. However there is always a couple of people for whom these tactics do not work. I don’t quite know why this is and it bothers me to hand out a solution to a problem and see it fail for a few students. I don’t think there is any one solution to the problem. Some students aren’t ready for college. Some students aren’t quite getting what I am trying to teach them. Some students have issues outside of the classroom which are beyond my control. Some students simply do not have time.
A few students, I think many students, approach the work the wrong way. They do the prep to get it done, much the same way a fast food cook or an assembly worker does work. Do Task A, go to Task B, connect to Task C, complete task order, set aside and move to next task order. They do it much the same way I used to fill out my DA-2404s when we were on maintenance in the motor pool. You find the same problems with the vehicle that the Army hasn’t fixed, you list them, turn it in, call it good, go get a soda.
They see the material as little bits of data to be memorized. This is not a new observation, James Loewen makes this point in his Lies my Teacher Told Me book (probably one of the only decent points he makes, overall I find the book questionable). So they memorize a little bit of data, hope they see something that matches it on the test, throw it against the wall and hope it sticks. And the more they dislike a given topic, the more likely a student is going to respond in this fashion.
Lately I’ve taken to telling my classes these things.
1. History is not about memorizing useless bits of data. If that were the case then I tell you that I can get a classroom full of parrots to earn As on the test if you give me enough time and crackers to train them.
2. History is about motivations, causes and consequences. A student needs at least that level of comprehension if they are going to understand what is going on. This is different from “intellectual history” which is what some say I should be teaching. But I can’t have a discussion about trends and historiography if they don’t have the slightest idea of the basic facts.
3. 99% of History is about this question, “Who got screwed and why?”
The response I sometimes get is this.
1. I just need my history credit.
2. Just tell me what you want me to put on the essay.
3. I am never going to use this information, why am I in this class anyway? It has no purpose.
I have some sympathy with the later one. The question which drives so many people, my father is a classic case in point is, “Will this put food on the table, pay the bills, make me happier?”
In the immediate sense? No, it won’t. For me it is only lately that my skills as a historian has helped pay the bills, put food on the table and make me happier. But even before I started teaching, my skills as a historian had use in my life. As a security officer it helped me to write a more effective report, which is a first draft of history. Most of my students are moving on to Vocational training in fields where I know they will be writing reports. Mechanics, techs, medical, law enforcement, teaching, so on and so forth, they’ll be expected to write reports, fill out forms, diagnose problems. The skills taught in an history class helps with that, even if they can’t see that we are trying to teach them a way of thinking.
For others there is only ONE right answer. The subjective nature of history drives some black and white thinkers nuts and generates the “Just tell me what you want” statement. Some items are certainly locked in stone, such as dates, who signed what document and why, where places are, where events took place, and who was there.
No one except a nutjob is going to argue that the Declaration of Independence doesn’t exist. It does. We have sufficient documentation to tell us when it was written, by who, how it was revised and why, and the reason for the creation of such a document. Those are facts.
What is subjective is the effects the document had on follow on events or what the people who helped write the document were thinking at the time. If a student thinks there is just one right answer to any question, then this will drive them mad. It will be worse if they are simply trying to get the work done and out of the way.
Anyway, these are the issues I face in the classroom on a general level. Next time I might ponder some about student attitudes toward the essay questions I issue with each exam.
Payday Activities
Well, the first of the month is payday from the teaching gig so it was off to pay bills and whatnot. We’ve restocked the larder, laid in enough to hopefully get us through the month. Perishables are a bit of a problem but we’ll do what we can.
I’ve been making Trinity’s car payment for the last few months. I’m a bit worried about what will happen once summer arrives. There will be no money for the car then. Hopefully we’ll both pick up part time jobs and maybe her summer student financial aid will help with that. Still, I’m looking forward to having the car paid off. Once we get that cleared, we can see about upgrades to the office and living room areas.
And I can start restocking my personal library.
Speaking of books, lately I’ve been looking for books on economic history. I found a couple of good surveys of US Economic History, one set in the Gilded Age, the other a comprehensive examination form 1600 to about the mid 1980s (when the book was published). I was driven down this road for a couple of reasons. One is that I would like to reach a point where I could discuss economic history more effectively in the classroom. The other is tied to Research Project Number – 05, which I think is as much about economic power as it is about military and political power. When I read these books, I’ll post reviews on them.
Niall Ferguson also has what looks like a pretty good book called The Ascent of Money. I’m going to try and snag a copy of that.
Hopefully at some point over the summer I can sit down with a revised understanding of economic history and rebuild my lectures for both American History classes.
Clash of the Titans
I struggled mightily to get out of seeing this movie but Trinity wanted to see it. So off we went, yours truly not very happy about it but I did my best to suck it up.
The film sucks ass. No character development, no reason to give a shit about what happens, it is just awful. Only Liam Neeson’s little moments make it bearable and then just barely so.
That said, there is this.
It is better than the original.
But then, how could it not be?
Other Stuff
Yesterday was a mad day of spring cleaning at the Pod. We scrubbed the shit out of that place and it needed it.
And finally, we’ve been invited out to Sunset Bed and Breakfast for Easter Sunday doings so I’ll be dropping back off the net.
Tomorrow will be another day.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
My reply? “Duh, fucker.”
Check this news article out.
In addition to getting rid of bayonet training, the Army has decided to replace long distance formation runs in basic training with sprint training instead. In other words, train the soldiers for combat.
Well, far as this Army veteran is concerned, this change is about twenty-one years overdue. I remember asking, repeatedly, over my four years of active why we went on long distance runs. None of us were planning on reenacting the Battle of Marathon near as I could tell. The only instance I knew of from recent US History where running for distance was required pertained to Task Force Smith in the early dark days of the Korean War. In fact you could argue that US Forces Korea and the 2nd Infantry Division still have institutional PTSD as a result of Task Force Smith since running was the Big Thing when I was in Korea and probably still is.
To me, it just seemed fucking stupid. It seemed even more stupid once you consider how you are supposed to shoot, move and communicate on the battlefield. Worse, running, for some screwball institutional reason, seemed to be the primary measure of a decent soldier. A soldier could be a complete and total fuck up in every other regard and yet if he or she could run a ten minute two mile then they were golden. Conversely, you could be tactically and technically proficient, know your shit backwards and forwards but if you had trouble with running, then you were a dirt bag in the eyes of many.
On a personal level it was not only stupid but painful. I have chronic shin splints which seem to defy any remedy known to medical or sports science. Stretch ‘em, ice ‘em, heat ‘em, etc, etc, it didn’t seem to matter. After about a hundred yards of running, it always felt as if some asshole were driving an ice pick into my shins with each passing step.
The other aspect of this article is that the soldiers interviewed pointed out that the soldiers needed improved core body strength in order to carry the body armor and gear. Again, duh. I lost track of how many soldiers I heard whining and crying, the ones who could do that ten minute two mile run, bitching about how heavy all their gear was.
“My ruck is hurting my back,” they’d cry. “My body armor is too heavy. Oh, hold my hand, wipe my ass and help me breathe.”
Funny thing. I had no problem humping my load. Never had any back pain. Never had any problem shootin’ and scootin’ from one bit of cover to the next under a full load. In fact, here is a scary thought.
Though I may have been slower than my peers without a combat load, I was actually FASTER than many of them WITH a full combat load. When I went to Infantry School I heard it over and over again, “Wow, that Murphy guy is fast.”
Really grinds my gears that it took ten years of warfare for the United States Army to finally wake up to the clue bat which has been cracking them in the institutional melon for quite some time now.
On the other hand, I’m glad things are changing, in this case, for the better.
Hell, if they had made this change in 1993, I’d probably still be on active duty. Jesus, I hated this Jimmy Fixx running bullshit.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Arrival at Gym: 1000 hours
Departure: 1130 hours
Weigh in at Start: 206 pounds
Weigh in at End: 203 pounds
Warm Up:
Stretching followed by 5 minutes on the elliptical trainer.
Weights:
Benchpress: 3 x 6 at max, 175 pounds
Back Press: 3 x 6 at max, 80 pounds
Barbell Curl: 3 x 6 at max, 80 pounds
Seated Leg Press: 3 x 6 at max, 340 pounds
I learned I was doing back presses, where I stand with a barbell and press it behind my head. This works the triceps as well as the shoulders. I should be using a Smith machine for this task and the true military press (in front of your head). I’ll adjust accordingly.
Cardio:
Elliptical Trainer: 20 minutes
Swimming:
150 meters.
Instead of doing the usual workout, I decided to see how far I could swim without a rest. It turns out I can swim further than I thought. I got to 100 meters before I had to stop. I did another 50 after a break before deciding that was enough for today. I’ve got two problems. The first is that my breathing form gets erratic when I get tired. The other is that I really use a lot of energy on those flips/turns. That is what is wearing me out. The actual swimming doesn’t wear me out as much.
So I think I’ll revise my workout plan for swimming. Instead of 50 meters per set, I’ll do 100 meters per set and go for a total goal of 500 meters per swim session.
Consumption Log
Not so good here.
Breakfast:
-Two Waffles plus two brownies.
-Tea
Lunch:
-Pot Roast and Sweet Peas
Snack:
-Two brownies plus three chocolate chip cookies.
It is a wonder that I am not heavier than I am. One thing I have noticed is that my workout and fitness plans go to crap when a test for my teaching classes comes up. I’ll have to watch for that on the next cycle.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Aboard the Battlestar Steven Francis Murphy BSG-71
Location: CIC
Mission: Damage Control and Assessment
I’m running on three hours of sleep after learning that my father is back in the hospital last night. He is having heart trouble, trouble breathing, etc, etc. So that was part of my evening last night on the eleven month anniversary of Trinity and I. Mom’s down with illness as well and I’m having a bitch of a time finding the time and energy to get enough lecture material scraped together for Western Civ.
The problem isn’t knowledge or material. That I have plenty of. No, I just need the time to write the lectures into something useable so I don’t stand there in class and babble on like an idiot. I call those lectures Falling Down the Stairs Lectures. I used to give a lot of them during my first two years of teaching and it is a horrible experience that ranks right up there with a dream where one is naked in public yet no one notices.
In other words, I hate not being fully prepared.
Worse, I hate not getting at least four hours of sleep. It is a wonder I didn’t stand there in class and drool all over myself. As it is, my military bearing and two years of experience allowed me to slug my way through both lectures this morning. I wouldn’t say it was a cheerful experience but my 0800 students seem to know that crossing me is unwise.
Apparently tales that I threw someone out at 0830 for tardiness have gotten ’round the campus (though they are somewhat inaccurate, the general gist is true). My 0930 class is a bit more spirited but that isn’t a bad thing. Some of them will get a wake up call here in a couple of weeks.
Of course the other problem is that running on three hours of sleep makes doing physical fitness training problematic. It is a great way to injury yourself and for those that aren’t following John Birmingham’s blog, be advised that he snapped his ulna in martial arts last week (probably not due to fatigue). I’ve already got some problem spots, notably along the upper right arm near the tricep, some elbow and some shoulder trouble. I don’t need to blow something out when I have a 145 pound stack of weights over my chest because I wasn’t focused.
On the other hand, I was able to get the iPods operational using a campus computer to download iTunes. The iPods are both synced and prepped. I didn’t load any music onto Trinity’s iPod as I only had one of my CDs with me. I’ll try to reload iTunes on my laptop and see if that will work. If that doesn’t work, I’ll load a few songs onto Trinity’s iPod on campus while she is at an extra credit lecture.
As for Dad, well, he’s terminal, kids. We’re all terminal but he is closer to it than most of us are. Estimates range from tomorrow to a year from now. That said, Aunt Margaret said over at my facebook that we Murphys tend to be a stubborn lot (all those bad genetics I guess). He may well outlast all of us, beat the lung cancer and come in under the five percent statistic on remission/cures.
Makes you wonder how long he’d live if he hadn’t gotten Agent Orange related crap.
YouTubeage Action: James Bond OSTs to listen to while writing
When I write some action scenes, I tend to draw upon movie sound tracks, notably those by John Barry but he is not the only one. Here are a couple of my favorites.
This is called “Space March” and it is from the You Only Live Twice soundtrack. It matches the opening scene where an American space capsule is captured by a mystery spacecraft. The scene, if you haven’t seen it, is akin to watching a snake unlock its’ jaw to consume its’ prey, slow but inevitable. The Americans, of course, blame the Russians for the incident, which gets the movie going.
In a similar vein is “007 and Counting” which is matched to the video you see now. A rocket is hijacked by our bad guys in Diamonds Are Forever. It happens to be carrying a diamond augmented laser satellite and you can see where this is going.
So it goes, kids. Repair operations continue. I’ve got to pick Trinity up later from her therapy where she is trying to get her ship back to 100% or at least as close to it as she can.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Teaching Front: Week One Down
Well, the first week went off well enough. My 0800 American History class doesn’t care much for me but then they are mostly out of high school. I gave them the full dose of the Come to Jesus drill, rolling in hot on Tuesday. On Thursday we moved off into early American History.
These days I try to get through 1492 to 1750 as rapidly as possible. Why? Here are some reasons. First, the period doesn’t personally interest me that much. It never has. The European side of the house interests me more during that time period. Second, I really think the students need to have an understanding of the period from 1750 to 1865 locked down more than they need the previous time period.
Since I have to pick and chose anyway and other instructors often find that they can’t reach the Civil War, I figure there is no foul and moving forward rapidly. Until I receive orders to the contrary, I’ll continue to do it my way.
In Western Civ I broke out a brand spanking new lecture moving from the Stone Age up through Mesopotamia. I also moved pretty quick through this material. This class seems to be far more interested, interactive and they are quick to ask questions that have me dancing on my toes. Which only makes sense as the students who enjoyed American History normally take Western Civ later. I have veteran students in the class as well as non-traditional students, both of which are always assets.
So things are moving along pretty nicely. Granted, this texting shorthand on the surveys in one of my classes is not going to stand. I have to chat with those folks about that matter on Tuesday.
So it goes.
The Fitness Front
I was able to work in four workouts this week, which is pretty good for yours truly. I found out that since I am signed up for Body Building and Physical Fitness I’ll need to workout two hours a day to get the grades I want. What this means is that yours truly probably needs to revise his workout plan.
Here is what I am thinking of doing.
For body building I think I’ll revert back to drop sets. A drop set is where you work up to a maximum weight (usually by your third set) and then work back down to your starting weight. Five sets total for an exercise. That should give me an hour of work right there once you toss in stretching, warm up, cool down and more stretching.
Then at a different part of the day I’ll need to get my physical fitness hour in. I think the best way is to use that for cardio. I might try to work 30 to 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Maybe if I tweak the workout some I won’t wear out my knees as much.
If I’m working out two hours a day four times a week AND I religiously do my cardio, I suspect I’ll see some results.
The Writing Front
No fiction written this week. That will change starting next week. The plan is to set aside time for the full writing process.
Just what is that?
Well, what I’ve figured out over the last two years of teaching is this. It is not enough simply to set aside an hour and try to write. What I find is that I have so much chaos in my life that I need time for the dust to settle in my head, for all of the pieces to settle down to the floor of my brain. I need time alone in order to do that, someplace relatively quiet, someplace without any distraction.
For better or worse, the Uniguard job used to provide all of that. On patrol or at the dock office, once I got over whatever the latest bullshit was, there was time to reflect, ponder, take a deep breath, calm down and get to work.
I can’t ever seem to get enough time to myself to allow the dust to settle. There is always a demand on my time. About the only time I can point to as dust settling time would be either workouts at the gym or mowing my parents’ lawn. Maybe if I get an hour to wander around a bookstore would count as another, though these days I find the act of wandering the science fiction section to be incredibly depressing. I can’t find anything I really want to read. I suppose blogging is probably another way I try to get the dust to settle, though it is imperfect at best. It does keep some of my writing tools sharp however.
How much time would I need? I don’t know. It is extremely variable. It depends on the level of stress I am under, what conflicts are raging through my day, how much work I have to do as an instructor, personal issues which I do not blog about.
I do know this.
The pressure to rush simply locks me up further. The stories are there. The characters are there. I can feel a fucking plot beating underneath my fingers. But with all of the dust and static, I just can’t seem to unlock them.
Well, next week, I’m going to see what I can do about that. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays will be devoted to fiction writing, lecture prep and the physical fitness program. I’m going to allocate up to ten hours on these days for these projects, perhaps as much as twelve hours, perhaps more.
I am going to get past this block I’ve got.
One way or the other.
On other writing fronts, Entangled and Maternal Soldier are still out to market. No word back on Entangled but I do believe it has matriculated its way to the top of the stack according to what I know.
We’ll see.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
The Fitness Front
I’m no workout guru by any means. Yes, I spend time in the gym. However, a lot of what I do was taught to me when I was in the Army back in the early 1990s. And worse, while I know the exercise, I do not always know the name or the muscle I am working on.
Still, here are some shoulder vids.
Birmo, the exercise you were asking about is the front raise. I do it differently than this trainer here in the video. For one thing, I hold the two dumb bells together as if they were a barbell. For another, I move a bit slower. This trainer seems to be bouncing, or letting the momentum of his movement drive the exercise, which I was taught was a bad thing.
I believe you can do the front raise with the barbell as well. As my strength grows, I’ll migrate to the barbell for this exercise. Most of the other exercises in the video are problematic for me due to my own shoulder troubles.
I have a bit of trouble with the military press if I do it in the fashion demonstrated above. My shoulders pop while I am doing them, which is why I use front raises.
I will execute a behind the neck military press, which for whatever reason, doesn’t come with the snap crackle popping shoulders.
So for now, I use front raises for the front and behind the neck military presses for the back. I execute three sets per running reps of 15-10-8 with increasing weight on each set.
I had pretty good strength gains when I started the behind the neck military presses. A typical workout has me executing the barbell curls, then switching over to the press, then switching out weights for the next rep. I can use the same amount of weight for both exercises, so figure anywhere between 50 pounds to 80 pounds. Metric conversions are up to you.
I’ve also incorporated some forearm exercises, which is usually forearm curls with the barbell. Three sets palms down and three sets palms up. I follow that up with a reverse barbell curl (the palm is down) which provides a little better definition.
I am hoping to pick up some new tricks in the body building class that is upcoming this Fall. If I do, I’ll post some more entries.
So it goes.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Tenth Month Picnic
At some point this week I’ll blog about the great picnic Trinity packed for our Tenth Month Aniversary. We spent Sunday afternoon in Loose Park in the shade of evergreens enjoying the unseasonably cool temps.
More on that later.
The Fitness Front
Things didn’t go well sleep wise last night. Trinity was up and down all night and my stomach was bothering me again. The GERD has been acting up over the last week or so. Joy for me.
In any case, I trundled down to the gym on campus to get a workout in.
I’ve been concentrating on my arms and shoulders of late. For a long time I did the tricep pulley pushdown and the barbell curls for arms and that was it. Here lately I’ve added some forearm exercises and some reverse bicep curls (you hold the barbell with your palms down).
I also found a front shoulder exercise that seems to be effective. Working my shoulders is problematic due to the busted collarbone of 2003. The barbell press behind the head works for the back shoulders but I struggled to find something for up front. Turns out the simple thing is to use dumbell raises.
I suspect the reason I had trouble with push ups in the Army, even while I was on a weight training program, is due to the fact that I never worked my shoulders. Now I find I can pump out the push ups much quicker and without using as much energy.
So that is good news. I also got in my first session on the elliptical trainer in months. Twenty minutes at 250 calories, or two beers by my estimate.
Hopefully when I take the body builder class this fall, I can refine my workouts.
Napping under the Tree
Due to the sleep loss, I found that I didn’t have the energy to read on FDR and Stalin during World War II or a book recommended to me by a peer called Ivan’s War. So I made my way to a nearby park, spread out the poncho liner from my army days and took a nap with NPR’s Talk of the Nation in the background.
I feel better, folks. Much better. I may have to do that more often. The only problem is that once the weather gets filthy cold and nasty I will lose a great place to take a nap. So I’ll need to work on that.
Sometimes I think I just need an RV.
Maybe I’ll get some writing and lecture prep down tomorrow.
Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri
Those that done said stuff