Boardwalk Lebowski

Play this at my wake.

How much water to add to scotch?

I sent this message to the Scotchcast lads in April 2012.

I decided to start drinking 3 years ago at Lark Music Camp after sharing scotch and chocolate during a morning class (singing highland pipe tunes acappella). Thanks for showing me the way.

How much water do you guys add to what amount of scotch?
jaya
_________________

My letter was answered in the May 2012 podcast, The Scotchcast 5th Anniversary show.

Continueous CPR

Take 6 minutes to watch the CPR training video. It may be all you need to help save someone's life.

Learn Sarver Heart Center’s Continuous Chest Compression CPR

Mosaic technology

This is just what I want to do with my quilting, step back and see the big picture.

David Louis Edelman's You Are What You Read blog post tells you how.

Goto David's post and expand to 100% to see how this image was created.

Zills/Sagat Training

Sharon bought me two pairs of zills (Turkish for the Arabic sagat) for my Halloween costume this year. Now in addition to the doumbek I need to learn to play the finger cymbals. Below are the YouTube videos I found that seem most instructive.

Ring, Clap, Tick.

And now for some real music. Aslahan's series seems like a good way to learn to play the zills. Aslahan recommends that you learn and practice a lesson before moving onto the next video in the series. I'd start here if you are serious about playing the zills. I particularly like what she uses the doumbek drum nomenclature to describe the patterns. Another great thing is that she doesn't use the terms "right" "left" but instead "lead" "off" so that instruction in ambidextrous. The 7th/last video I found is something I intend to use to practice the doumbek patterns.

Visualizing for Results

The Get-It-Done Guy's recent podcasts on visualization sounded like good advice so I'm posting my take on his ideas (so I can find them when I need them.) The right visualization techniques, plural, will move you towards your goals.

Tip #1: Visualize The Process, Not The Outcome

Visualize your efforts/actions as opposed to the end result.

Watch yourself working out or walking around the park.

Tip #2: Visualize From the Third Person

Have someone take pictures of you doing the new actions, use them in your visualizations.

Tip #3: Be Optimistically Realistic

"Stretch goals"

Tip #4: Make a Step-by-Step Plan

If your goal is to work out more, then the first step in the plan will be to get off the couch and stand up.

Tip #5: Publicly Declare Your Goal

If you're not willing to declare your goals then chances are you are not committed enough to actually get anywhere. If friends and family are not supportive of your declaration it is time to widen your circle and find some new friends.

Tip #6: Track Your Progress. In Writing.

What gets measured improves.

Review your progress weekly, you really have gotten somewhere different.

Track the effort.

Track the accomplishment and the rewards granted.

Review the history when you need a pat on the back.

Tip #7: Reward Yourself

Rewards for the actions towards the goal, don't hold back rewards until the goal itself is achieved.

My mind goes straight to food so I need to think of activities as rewards (as Stever suggests.) Experiences make us happier than things so use special experiences as rewards.

Make a written list of rewards.

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References Visualizing for Results, Part 1, by Stever Robbins. Visualizing for Results, Part 2, by Stever Robbins. End Procrastination with Action Days, by Stever Robbins.

The Rules of Improvisation

1. Always agree and say "YES!"
2. And not only say "YES!" but say "YES, and ..."

The first rule, always agree. Say yes. Say, “yes, and” to things. For example, if I enter a scene and say, “I have a gun.’ And you say, “No, you don’t. That’s your finger.’ That’s terrible. Now we’re done. Saying “yes” means you’re basically agreeing to honor what the other person is creating. The next part is “yes, AND …” which means to contribute something on your own, like, ‘I have a gun’ and you say, ‘but you’ll never get the gold because I put it in my butt.’ I wouldn’t recommend THAT … but that’s the end, you’re contributing. It’s an exercise in being in the present. To follow your partner, to ask questions.

It means don’t be afraid to contribute. It’s your responsibility to contribute. Always make sure you’re adding something to the discussion. Whatever is thrown at you, make an effort to agree and add something. In other words, whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles.

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Learned from the section The Rules of Improvisation That Will Change Your Life and Reduce Belly Fat in Tina Fey's new book Bossypants (2011).

See also Tina Fey's "Bossypants" Lessons for the Workplace, Nell Minow's blog.

Mindless Eating, Not

The Scientific American podcasts feature the research of Dr. Brian Wansink on eating (see my Thanksgiving blog post). I've borrowed a copy of his book Mindless Eating and obtained the audio book as well. After reading the book for general knowledge I wanted to capture the tips Dr. Wansink suggests that I think I will find useful at some point. What follows is my interpretation of the ideas included in the book.

• Don't be the first person who starts eating.
• Wait until everyone is at the table before picking up you silverware.
• Slow down, pace yourself with the slowest eater at the table.
• Avoid large plates, use smaller plates.
• Serve yourself in the kitchen and eat in another room.
• Holiday meals require multiple serving. Take very small portions and go back (so host knows you really like the food.)
• Don't eat out of the container the food came in. Serve what you want and put the rest away.
• Stop eating before everyone else has stopped. I.e., don't be the last one stuffing their face.
• Two or three types of food at a time when grazing at a party. The more variety you preceive the more you will eat.
• Fancy names make food taste better.
• Higher prices make food taste better.
• Artful presentation make food seem more expensive and fancy thus it tastes better.
• Loud noise/music dulls the taste.
• "The best diet is the one you don't know you're on."
• Don't eat while working. Stop to eat mindfully.
• Play video games that occupy your hands (so you can't eat and play).
• Get you snack before sitting down to watch TV. Avoid eating out of can in front of TV.
• The more deprived you feel the bigger the reactive whiplash.
• Don't eat if you don't feel hungry.
• Stop eating when you don't feel hungry any more.
• It is likely that you should stop eating before you actually don't feel hungry any more.
• Decide what and how much you are going to eat before serving yourself (not during meal).
• Serve yourself. Don't measure love by amount people serve you.
• Serve yourself smaller amount and go back for seconds and thirds.
• Keep the bones and empty bottles on the table so you can see how much you consumed.
• Use clean wine glasses for the next round, see how many glasses you have had.
• Serve 20% less food. It is OK to get up to get the remaining 10% is you like later.
• Increase your fruit and vegetable servings to compensate for 20% reduction is meat/carbs.
• Candy/nut bowls out of reach, must get up to grab some.
• Serve a portion of nuts and put the can away. Then go eat the serving consciously.
• Throw away the junk you don't want to eat. No law says you have to digest it.
• Chopsticks may slow you down compared to the ease of shovelling with a fork.
• If buy large/bulk goods repackage into reasonable containers.
• Seal potato chip bags with tape to discourage mindlessly eating just one more.
• Snack from a clean plate (not package, or standing up).
• Junk food must be on the grocery list specifically, not a spontaneous selection.
• Tempting foods stored outside your daily traffic pattern.
• Ask waiter to remove beard basket after you get what you want.
• Ask waiter not to refill drink.
• Pile the used plates at the all-you-can-eat buffet in front of you, ask busboy to leave them on the table.
• Large portions at restaurant, ask for take home container and fill it with the leftovers before eating.
• Want dessert, share it with someone. The first three bites are the best.
• Restaurant; appetizer, alcohol, drink, desert: select two and skip the others.
• Restaurant; order two appetizers instead of a meal. Emmh, hot wings.
• Tell guests how hard you worked preparing this special dish.
• 15 minutes on atmosphere will significantly improve the dinner party.
• Print menus for your dinner party. Use the fancy names with colorful adjective.
• Program yourself for healthy(er) comfort food. E.g., pizza and ice cream instead of champagne, caviar and chocolates.
• Refuse to deprive yourself. If you really want it, have it.
• Snack by serving size. Serve a serving only, don't leave extra around for snacking.
• Half-plate Rule: 1/2 plate vegetables and fruit, other 1/2 is carbs and protein.
• You can still find junk food in a "health" restaurant. (Goodness by association.)
• Super size for super thighs. Order the small size fries and be wise.
• Order the small size. Ask for a refill or order another french fry is you still need it after eating the original order.
• The more effort it takes to get food the less likely we will make the effort. (Get out of the car and walk in to order fast food from a person.)
• Negative Mindlessness = Overeating
• Mindfulness = Reengineering
• Positive Mindlessness = Better Eating
• Use 'food trade-offs' to include indulgent foods. E. g.,"I can have ice cream if I get my cardio up to 185 for five minutes.' or "I can have chips and salsa because I eat my apple today."
• Don't commit to big changes/sacrifices, just do the new/health habits that you can easily/mindlessly do.
• Create a 'Mindless Margin Checklist'.
• Review your Mindless Margin Checklist daily.
• The Power of Three. Design 3 easy/doable changes you can do mindlessly. Nike.

Music Practice Suggestions

Cleaning up the desk and found some notes from Lark Camp 2008? Thanks to Mark Bell for these thoughts about practicing. He is talking about practicing the doumbek but it applies to just about any mind/body activity that requires learning.

• in front of a mirror
• relax
• when you get tense stop and do something else
• repeat the same stroke continuously; e.g. fill a measure with the stoke and play 40 measures
• clear sound with tone (volume is least important)
• let gravity do the work
• minimal effort, be lazy

Go for sound clarity, quality and tone (with out volume). People will be able to hear what you are playing. People will want to listen to you (not tell you to go away.) People will ask you to play with them.

Changing Education Paradigms

You will want to watch this lecture/animation in HD in full screen mode.

Many people see this and say "When is someone going fix this?" I say do it yourself, change yourself, be the change you wish the see in the world.

How? If you need to ask or want some help my friend James Bach has a great book that you can use as a catalyst. I blogged about this subject after James published The Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar (website/videos). Read excerpts on Google Books. Here's a quote from Chapter 2.

A buccaneer-scholar is anyone whose love of learning is not muzzled, yoked, or shackled by any institution or authority; whose mind is driven to wander and find its own voice and place in the world.

Important Documents 4 when UR ! Dead, yet

There are five legal documents that will make a difficult situation manageable when you are not dead yet but your loved ones might be better off if you were.

1. Power of Attorney (POA)
2. Health Care Proxy
3. Living Will
4. Last Will and Testament
5. HIPAA Release

If you have all of these documents up to day in a safe place and copies in an accessible place then relax and smile, you are a very very good and considerate ancestor. But if you haven't gotten around to this yet shame on you.

When I told my mother I was moving out after high school she sent me to a lawyer and an insurance agent. Thus I have had a Last Will and Testament and a life insurance policy to cover my burial ever since I was 19, I love you mama. These other docs are mostly TBD. Please ask me if I have completed this task as a gentle reminder that I really do want to check that off my list of things to do before I die. (Note to self, create a list of things to do before I die. [sic])

See Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for a Richer Life podcast #195 for a 10 minute lecture on this subject.

Question Authority Not U No

Shred ASAP

Thank you [Jaya] for your sage advice about shredding. I am going to use your comment in advising all my clients that if you let it pile up on top of the shredder you are just conveniently locating sensitive material for thieves to steal more efficiently!—Marcia S.

Sol LeWitt, quilting ideas

We visited the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in D.C. this year. Seeing so many of the works one after the other inspired me to start quilting again. I took pictures of the pieces that interested me to save in my "Quilting Ideas" photo folder.

Pictured above: Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #356 BB Isometric figure within which are 3" wide black lines in three directions. (Cube without a cube), 2003.

Across the room from #356 is a study in color that had me fascinated, #1113 (above). Appeals to my Ikebana and quilting sensibility. See it through this videographer below.

Check out Variations Of Incomplete Open Cubes.
How many lines does it take to suggest/represent a cube?

Remembering That Person's Name

Last week's SciAm Psych Podcast was on Remembering That Person's Name.

anomia—the inability to remember names.

...So they tested the memories of 117 healthy 60 to 91 year-olds. And they found that the ability to put a name to a photo of a famous person declines with age. But semantic memory, which includes biographical info, like knowing that George Bush was a U.S. President, remains unaffected by age....

I recommend listening to the podcast because the introductory clip from Saturday Night Live, "Mom Translator", is more interesting/fun.

Folding@Home Information

To date I have completed 45 jobs on the PlayStation 3.

I understand that where a PS3 takes 6 hours to complete a job some PCs will take days. More power for gaming is good.

The model uses color to denote the elements in the protein.

• Grey-carbon and hydrogen
• Blue-nitrogen
• Red-oxygen
• Yellow-sulfer

The yellow lights on the globe (background animation) represent the sites where PS3 machines are being used in the Folding@home project. Again, please join my team (176303).

TED Ideas worth spreading

My buddy Ted visited last night and turned me on to this site that features short talks by smart people about their passions. Can you say YouTube for Illuminati?

TED.com—Technology, Entertainment, Design

I've added TED to my podcast feed. The buccaneer scholar sails on.

Evolution in Nocturnal

Episode #25 of Scott Sigler's book Nocturnal has a nice dialog on evolution and behavior. I'm not sure what I think about it, only that I need to study more and think about it. It folds into a discussion in On The Origin of Species, another book I am reading his month.

The Buccaneer scholar sails on.

The Buccaneer-Scholar

I recommend this new book, Secrets Of A buccaneer-Scholar by James Bach, to all my students and friends.

Folding@Home, join my team

[Geek On]

Folding@Home distributed computing.

I'm running this protein folding simulation software on both the PS3 and Mac.

Create a username for yourself.

Download and install the software.

You are welcome to join my team: Danzan Ryu (176303)

[Geek Off]

More info about my PS3.