This is a brief post about wrists. Your wrists are good to you, be good to your wrists. If your wrists are hurting, it’s your fault. Not theirs. Stop being a dick to them. As per normal, I’m just going to link to people who are smarter than me. Actually it’s wrist and shoulders… moving on.
This post isn’t really for regular folks, it’s for people who ask more of their bodies. If you’re a regular folk whom happens to have pain from too much time on the computer or other repetitive, sit-on-your-butt work, try this post from the good folks at BoingBoing. And remember to “hold your wrists in a neutral position” while using a keyboard or mouse. That means elevated (flat). Not wresting on the desk or a gel pad. Actively holding up your wrists like a pianist will take care of most simple pain. It will also make you stand like a dinosaur for a while, but you’ll get through it.
For athletes — hand balancers, equilibre, acrobats, aerialists or anyone who asks a more from their wrists:
Start with this forum post. Did you click on it? Those bold-blue words are a link. What? Are you new to the internets? It’s like a series of tubes, invented by Al Gore or some bullshit.
If you’re lazy or in a hurry, the short version is:
Get into a pushup support position on your fists with your hands turned sideways. As you lower into the pushup, allow the wrists to bend outward and your bodyweight to descend upon the back of your wrists and hands. As you ascend out of the pushup, straighten the wrists simultaneously along with the elbows returning back up onto your fist.
– Coach Sommers
And watch this:
But really, that forum is great. Go spend some time there.
That was from Coach Sommers, who has raised a lot of Olympians and has long preached gymnastic training for strength.
As you can imagine, pushing his kids through such rigors he’s also very concerned with keeping them healthy. Thus, the wrist exercises.
I came to his website through this post by Ido Portal (who I was lucky enough to train with last fall). And this excellent post on daily preparation for training.
If you’re lazy, then there is no help for you. Go read that post.
I do all the wrist stuff he lists there, as well as all the shoulder stuff there and on his other post here.
I don’t do the capoeira stuff. Just the shoulder stuff.
The two important shoulder series are here:
And here:
And another great one from Coach Sommers is an exercise called Wall Extensions.
Just as a frame of reference. Ido had us warm up any handbalancing with:
1) 10 dorsal pushups
2) 10 finger-tip pushups, elbows in. The fingers should “gather” the ground actively, not passively resting on your fingertips.
3) 10 wrist pushups
4) 10 “first knuckle” pushups. That’s just a pushup where your elbows are locked (they never bend during the exercise) the thumb stays off the ground and you push the palm off the ground until vertical while leaving the fingers flat. Push into the knuckle behind the index finger. Don’t let your thumb touch the ground. Lower back down to your palm. Never let your thumb touch the ground. It’s only a movement in your hand, not your arms. The elbows stay locked, the inside of the elbow angled toward the wall in front of you (like you’re doing a handstand).
Why should you listen to Ido? Because Ido is an unbelievable badass!
OK. That’s the short version. Now go do wrist pushups!
-UglyElf
So I haven’t been writing much lately. It’s one part busy, one part feeling like nothing I have to say is worth saying. It looks like Both TeaElf and TangoElf are now blogging on their own blogs, which for some weird reason makes me feel like I failed them a little. And in truth, all writing has been hard for me lately, fiction, reviews, and journaling. I don’t know what’s up with that.
Anyway, I’m going to try and get some updates made for the site. I have two books I want to review. Renovation is coming up. Circus training is crazy and fun, if equally frustrating and discouraging. And I should probably write something about the frustrations of recovering from minor surgery while training like an eighteen-year old at age thirty-five.
Edit: It was a combination thereof, plus not realizing there was a plugin Gregory uses that I don’t have.
I’m currently blogging on another wordpress site. Unfortunately, apparently the person who set it up thinks I will explode it. I want to verify that my inability to post images stems from their decisions, not from my incompetence. To do so, I need to make sure I can post media on here. So – test one
Now on to other things. There is an interesting possibility up in PDX, maybe on over to the east coast. Then there is always
oh, what? Yeah, that thing. Finally. Long enough, you ask? Well, yeah, always takes longer than you think, no battle plan survives the first contact with the enemy, don’t count your chickens, you know how these things go. So.
When you start if feels so far away that you can’t even imagine it. Half way there, past the first rush of grad school and the stress of the first couple of years and papers, and you aren’t thinking of anything except the next hypothesis, the next experiment, and the next beer.
By the third and fourth year, it’s mostly the beer, and you don’t want to think about it. You’re not ready, but some of your cohort have already graduated and you are feeling a little stale. Is this really the thing? Is this really the One career? Should I even finish? Starbucks has openings.
Finally, the topic, an idea, maybe this is good enough. They agree, suggest a few changes, another experiment here, drop that one, these analysis. Move on. Next. You have real work to do.
Writing….
Writing….
Writi….no, not quite, a little more. Actually, no, not entirely sure. I’ve started looking, of course, I plan to do more of the same: more research, more teaching…
Writing….
Then there is that bright line. This term, this month, this week, and they have their copies, and the date is finalized, and now they are there, in the room, watching your talk, giving comments asking questions and you think, reply, and then you are done. The talk is over. Some more questions, then silence. Everyone leaves the room and you pace, outside, as they talk, inside.
What is the usual time on these things? You don’t remember from those other defenses you attended. At least, it never felt this long. Who the hell is allergic to apples, anyway? Will he hold it against me?
Then the door opens and you go back in, the handshake, the , “Congratulations, Dr. …” and then silence again. And nothing has changed and everything is the same and yet, it is like looking at the train station as you pass. From this side it looks different.
And now new questions, new hypothesis, wondering, should you get off at the next stop or ride longer, see what is on the other side of that tunnel? You don’t know. But you learned at least one thing in grad school and this train has a good dinning car.
This is pretty much just copied from an fb comment I made. I’m a little loopy on percocet/oxycodone, so it’s not the best post in the world. Go figure.
Hey, all! Thanks for the well wishing! I’m doing fine. I knew I shouldn’t have worried, but I did. Here’s the short version. I had three procedures: “Right endoscopic maxillary antrostomy”, “submucous resection of turbinates”, and “septoplasty”.
Stop reading now if you are squeamish. I’m not kidding. This is all pretty gross.
The first one was removing an area of bone to increase the opening between the right cheek sinus and the nasal passages. Then he removed a bunch of “gunk” — apparently a technical term — from that sinus and put a piece of degradable padding in there. This will take a year to fully heal. Yuck.
The second was carving out some tissue from my over sized turbinates, basically just making the breathing passages a little bigger.
The third one was more intense then he thought it was going to be. He wanted to carve down the deviated septum a little, again to help me breath, but it turned out to be the bone that was deviated, not just the cartilage. It’s what I get for having a rough childhood. So he detached the cartilage, cut off some of the bone, scraped off some of the cartilage, and then sowed it all back together. I now have something I think he called a ‘mattress stitch’, as well as several individual stitches, holding the inside of my nose together.
Spring has sproinged and I’ve notice a lot of my friends are making newly-woken-from-hibernation grumbling noises about wanting to eat better.
Awesome!
Of course I encourage this. I’m posting a primer on how to eat well, linking to some good articles on MDA. Mark’s Daily Apple can be a little overwhelming, so I’m suggesting you start with four specific articles, acquaint yourself with the site in general, and read more when you have time.
Congratulations on eating better! You’re doing a great job!
Caveat: this site (and my own diet) are on the extreme side. I think if you push yourself too far in too fast, you’ll abandon it. Maybe I’m wrong. But my gut says that for you, you should learn all you can and implement what you’re comfortable with. Think of it like a dietary grammar, you should know the rules before you break them.
This (go briefly glance but then come right back) — http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ — is the site I get much of my information from. But please do click through the links within the articles to their sources. I sometimes disagree with MDA, but I also often agree. It’s a little dizzying, so to get started, go to the getting started page (again, just a quick peak please, then come back): Getting Started.
Maybe read all the titles before you click on any of the links? Did you notice there’s an entire section with eleven articles on Eating Well on the Cheap? So don’t think you can’t afford it. You can!
OK, that’s still overwhelming. For you, start with the discussion about protein, then learn about sugars, make friends with fats, and last (for now) get to know grains.
2. Sugar — Definitive Guide to SugarsNote: This is really important. Remember when I said you should click through to the links in these articles? You SHOULD. One of the best sources of information on how the body actually WORKS with food is in this article. It’s the link to Dr. Lustig’s Video, The Bitter Truth About Sugar. It’s long, but you really really should watch it. I watched it a little bit at a time. That was the only way I could fit it into my schedule. So even if you can only watch the first five minutes now, go ahead and start. I’m not linking to it, you should have no trouble finding it in that sugar article if you’re actually reading it!
3. Fats — Fats and Getting over you fear of fats (and getting rid of your mood swings). Do click the link to read the rest of the story.
Optional (I promised you’d only have to read four). I thought the article on cholesterol was really interesting.
True story (and I can show you the letters from my doctor), a year ago my doctor threatened to put me on statins. This year, with nearly the same scores, he says I’m super healthy and doing great. He now believes the same things that article says, but a year ago he didn’t at all. Doctors are funny people.
Notice you’re missing something SUPER important in that list I gave you. Vegetables. For now, eat as many vegetables as you can of as many colors as possible. What you’re building towards is five colors of vegetable per meal, every meal (even breakfast). But for now, just eat a lot of vegetables and have a lot of variety. Then look up better information when you have time. (hint: make the time.)
When considering fruit, it makes a great dessert and a great snack. Enjoy. But keep it to snacks and desserts. Don’t let it kill your appetite for protein or veggies.
Wait! You say. What about my ?! Everything in moderation? Right!?
We need to define moderation. Moderation is an exception to the rules that keep you within your goals. Are you within your goals? If so, there is some room for “moderation”. If you’re not, there is no such thing as moderation. Don’t cheat yourself.
That said:
I think the most important thing you can do with food choices right now is to celebrate your successes and not dwell on any lapses. Positive reinforcement will guide you down the right path. The mind is a powerful thingum. If you try this way of eating, you’ll see positive changes and like them. Don’t think about your weight, just watch your shape. Give it two months and be amazed! Last note: this is not a diet to be followed for a short while before reverting to your previous crap way of eating (yup, I said it — crap), better eating is a way of life.
I’m helping a friend set up a WordPress site for the first time. In the process, I needed to send her the plugins I use, and a brief explanation as to why.
I figure that’s useful stuff to know, so I’m going to put it up here and you can use it too.
What are your favorite plugins? Add them in the comments. Extra points if you can tell me a good plugin for a flickr widget, and one for a flickr gallery.
I’ve divided the plugins I use into three groups.
Green for those you should use.
Blue for those you may want to use
Red for those which you probably don’t want to use (I use them for my special project)
Akismet (A must have plugin to prevent spam from comments and contact forms)
All in One SEO Pack (A must have way to add Search Engine Optimization to your site and every page)
Contact Form 7 (A simple contact form. There are others, you’ll probably need one and this has been fine for me.)
Executable PHP widget PHP Code Widget[edit: this was renamed at some point] (A nice plugin that lets you use WordPress PHP inside a widget the same way you do with pages / templates / posts. I use it to list recent blog posts, excluding my private members posts)
Google Analytics for WordPress (A must have plugin to track the traffic on your site)
Google XML Sitemaps (A must have plugin that makes it easy for google to map your site accurately)
Really Simple CAPTCHA (A simple way to cut out bots from using your contact forms)
WordPress.com Stats (Gives a nice graphical way to see how your site is being used)
WordPress Database Backup (It regularly emails you a copy of the text from your database. If you have to move your site suddenly, you could use this to recreate the content — except the pictures)
WP Super Cache (Speeds up the delivery of your site by caching pages that haven’t changed. I believe I remember configuring this to work with nginx.)
Reliable Twitter (It nice to keep your front page always a little different. Mirror your twitter posts to your site to do just that!)
WP-Polls (People like polls. — actually I’ve never used them. But I like knowing that I could…)
This stuff is all used to make a private area of my website for me and my friends. Posts can be private; public; or first part public, second part private. I had to fix a bug in
WP-Members, and another one in WordPress Access Control by hand. I couldn’t figure out how to let the authors know. Anyway, you probably don’t need this unless you’re trying
to do something complicated like I am.
WordPress Access Control
Frontpage Manager
Profile Pic
WP-Members (Not to be confused with WP-Member — not kidding, that’s different)
I’m sitting at the end of a five & 1/2 minute hallway.
Unknown Highland Ruins
Actually it’s only about a minute long, but the musically obsessed / literati out there will appreciate the reference to a song and a book written respectively by a sister / brother duo. I got a good four hours of sleep last night, then my good friend Insomnia dusted the sand from my eyes, I eventually got bored, showered, and grabbed my laptop and headed outside so I wouldn’t borrow my travel mates. I’m now sitting in the hallway outside our room (room #5 at the Bazpacker’s hostel) taking advantage of the free time to catch up with you, dear reader.
I’m not going to spend to much time on Day 2. I want to get to the next, Day 3, because it was awesome. That should hint to you that I’m at the beginning of Day 4.
When I left you last time, Insomnia and I were hanging out in the common room and the whereabouts of my travel companions were unknown. I wish I could tell you they were on a great adventure: fighting soccer hooligans, trapped in The City Below, walking with ghosts, carousing, fucking, haunting a graveyard, or even pulling the comely inhabitants of Scotland. They were none of these things. At six in the morning when I left the library of Castle Rock Hostel, I passed through the common room and they were there, sober as dowagers, chatting away. They swore they hadn’t moved all night and Axel had only recently left them. I don’t know how I could have slipped past without running into them, but I had. Good thing too, Day 1 wouldn’t have written itself.
So my insomnia worked out for me then, we were all sleepless. It’s not as welcome now, they’re sleeping like babes, and I shall be tired today.
Anyway, we met up. I tried to get another half hour of sleep and failed; Cameron cleaned up and Adam read. We regrouped and headed into the Edinburgh morning. It was beautiful. We’ve been damn lucky with the weather.
Cameron & Adam, CityLink bus station, Edinburgh
We found the bus station with oodles of time. We didn’t find our tickets. More properly our ticket numbers — all you need to ride with Megabus. We hunted for wifi and breakfast. We found wifi at McDonald’s, and they found breakfast there too. I had a pemmican bar. I think I won that round.
With wifi we had our ticket numbers and went back to the bus terminal. The bus ran late but we met and chatted with another American expatriate. His name was Jay, he played American Football for the University of Edinburgh while pursuing his graduate degree in creative writing. Nice guy. He’d personally met a (grammar) hero of mine, Geoffrey Pullum. Jay said Pullum was a brilliant but intimidating and snarky professor. I wasn’t surprised.
Taken from the window
On the bus we slept. I slept a little they slept a lot. I got some beautiful photos of the Highlands out the window.
We alighted in Inverness stumbled groggily to our hostel and then did stuff. OK! OK! I’m tired! I’ll try to be more descriptive than that. We at at the Castle Tavern, which is right next to the Hostel. Adam and I each had the cod and loved it. Cameron had a vegetable panino and hated it. We all drank scotch (my notes are in the room, I’ll have to remember to add them. I’m too lazy to add them. Ask me if you’re interested in my opinions on scotch.)
Cameron & Scotch
After that we went and checked out Inverness Castle. Although the site has been home to castles since 1057 — nearly a thousand-effing-years! — the current castle was built in 1837. It’s home to the Sheriff Court of Inverness and as such is not open to the public. But we walked about outside it. It was good.
I have to be honest, this day is a blur. Sleeplessness is not good for one’s memory. We did have a beautiful walk along the banks and over the bridges of the river Ness.
Shut up and eat your muffin
And the quote of the day was: “Why are you sitting on my chest?” “Shut up! It’s time for your muffin.”
Day 3 will be a much more epic post, I promise. For now, I’m waking up the troops so we can be on our way. I’m doing it with this song (is that cruel?)
It’s Day 2 right now, 5:45 pm, and the boys are both snoring. None of us slept last night, and today’s bus ride just didn’t offer enough hours to fully rest us. I think they both need it, though.
Day 1 started in a mixed fashion. Friday was a day of highs and lows, and I wasn’t quite back to normal by Saturday. I packed and unpacked half a dozen times before finally giving up and accepting that I would survive, regardless. I panicked about lack of plans, got distracted, panicked a bit again. I printed things and panicked again.
I read recently that perfectionists perform worse than non-perfectionists. They stress so much about getting something “right” that they don’t make all the wrong attempts that help them learn. They turn things in late because they don’t want to turn in an inferior version. Their writing is poor because they never get enough practice writing the lousy versions. I don’t self-identify as a perfectionist, but there is certainly an element of anxiety over making sure I make the best decision and the perfect plan and a deep fear over what happens if I get it wrong. Friday I finally admitted that this trip doesn’t need to have the best of each city. It needs to be nice. We need to have fun. We need to not spend our entire time reading in hostels. But we don’t need to do everything and see everything and feel guilty for downtime.
Adam and I timed our visit quite well. A run by Tesco for red pepper hummus, sourdough bread, crisps and Maltesers still allowed us to be among the first on the bus. A moment of awkward eye contact with FF as the bus drove away took me back to that obnoxious self-absorption about boys that I really need to stop indulging myself in, but Adam proved a wonderfully distracting companion for the rest of the trip.
The trip passed uneventfully, but with a great deal of cooing over baby animals on farms we drove by. We successfully navigated our way to the hostel, despite the fact that my entire conception of Edinburgh is based on the false idea that the castle is North of Princes Street. After checking in and dropping our stuff off in the room Gregory and I were sharing (Only one bed? Good thing it’s large), Adam and I wandered. One of our first discoveries, aside from some awesome scaffolding, was that my sense of direction is dire in Edinburgh. I successfully chose the least interesting direction every time I decided which way to turn. Eventually we turned around and started to explore a more interesting section. We discovered lots of old book stores, a few vintage clothes shop, and a place that sells yarn and tea. (I think I found heaven). After searching for a few of the spots Adam remembered from his last trip here, we made our way back toward the hostel. We were stopped along the way by a street performer whose banter was nearly matched by his ability to swallow a 20″ sword, juggle machetes, and extinguish a flaming torch in his mouth. The last trick was made more impressive by the board of nails on his stomach and the 20stone man on top of the board. I was entertained, Adam was in absolute awe. I don’t think of myself as jaded, but watching his reaction made me realize just how much I was under-reacting to the performance. I did work – fairly successfully – to revive my childlike awe. (Not to be confused with the emotions of two of the actual children in the crowd who fully expected the performer to die, and told him so. Loudly)
Gregory’s arrival was joyous. He arrived, blue hair and all, a bit after five and immediately injected energy, silliness and a sense of purpose into the evening. We took off for dinner at the Black Bull, a pub which (despite lacking fish and chips) served a few great Cask Ales and some fairly tasty onion rings.
Walking to a pub that evening involved a great deal of scampering over scaffolding, a process of which I invariably approve. I’m sure Gregory and Adam are tired of hearing my excitement over converse, but I’m really enjoying having the freedom to climb again. My normal tendency to monkey and act like a 5 year old has been seriously impeded by the poor choices I made when bringing shoes to this country. I feel more me with the ability to climb things, and luckily I’m in good company.
By our second pub of the evening we’d picked up one more, Tufts student from Argentina named Axel. He looks disconcertingly similar to a neuroscience postdoc I knew in NY, though this is at least as much stylistic as bone structure per se. As Adam and I discussed matters of emotion and psychology, Axel and Gregory chatted away. I kept catching bits of talk of literature, much of which sounded quite interesting.
It’s been ages since I’d pulled a true all-nighter, and by 5:30 am I felt remarkably energized. While deeply disappointed to discover Gregory had successfully avoided us during the course of his simultaneous all-nighter (He snuck by us! Hiding! Not saying hello!) Even so he eventually admitted his wakefulness and joined Adam and I for a morning chat, marking the official transition to day two.
