Filters … Grrrrr
Jul 9, 2010 Life
I enjoy work, and I support a corporate environment’s right and need to filter what their employees are allowed to see while at work. That’s all good. And I work at a place that has a very workable and professional policy toward the use of the Internet. I like that.
I admit, however, that I struggle to see why we let ESPN and stories about Lebron James through, but block Scientific America. I’m sure it’s something in the group we’ve (likely) outsourced to.
But these are the kinds of things that just make you wonder.
Losing Weight and Exercise
Jul 5, 2010 Life
As a general rule I’ve been trying to keep this little blog mostly about my writing, with a few tangential commentaries or links to things I think have some interest to the types of people who might be interested in me. Not that I’m always right, or anything. But that’s the basic plan of the place.
But today I’m stretching a little. So, bear with me.
Lisa sent me this story, which is somewhat relevant to us because, as I’ve noted a few times before, Lisa and I have been spending considerable time at the health club.
Quite honestly, I struggle with the story–particularly the headline.
For those who don’t click through, the headline asks: “Why doesn’t exercise lead to weight loss,” then the story goes on to explain that a collection of obese people were put through an exercise program without changing their diet and that they lost only seven pounds on average, with several losing only half that. So the first problem with this headline is, clearly, exercise actually did lead to losing weight.
I figure that the author did not write the headline. I assume that was a copy editor. But, even then I have to struggle with the lead portion of the article, which seems to be asking “why doesn’t exercise lead to MORE weight loss than this?” To that, I have to reply: Seriously? I mean, does one seriously have to ask why taking a collection of obese people and telling them to keep eating the same way that’s gotten them into their situation will severely limit the influence of exercise?
Just in case this is true, that one actually does have to answer that question, here’s the deal: assuming you are in fair health, either one of two things will happen when you exercise. (1) you will lose weight because the calories you burn off will offset those you eat, or (2) you will gain weight more slowly than you would have if you didn’t exercise. That’s the equation. It’s really very simple. Oh, sure, you can dig a little deeper to get some additional information and refine your weight control strategy (which this story touches on at its end), but the equation is all you really need to know about weight loss and weight gain. Exercise burns calories, and eating reasonable portions of a balanced diet allows exercise to do its thing.
Luckily, the article redeems itself a bit by quoting one of the lead researchers:
“The message of our work is really simple,” although not agreeable to hear, Melanson said. “It all comes down to energy balance,” or, as you might have guessed, calories in and calories out.
For the record, my BMI when we started going to the health club so often was 26.5, which put me in the “Overweight” category. Today it’s 23.4, which puts me clearly in the “normal” category. Lisa’s numbers are probably a shade better–and, yes, we’ve changed our approach to eating as well as exercising. Don’t get me wrong. We’ve not done any crash dieting. Such approaches would not work well for either of us, I think. I eat about as much as I ever did, for example, and I eat when I’m hungry. But we pay attention to what we eat, and we’ve gone to snacks that are more fruits and nuts than chips and cookies. Lisa takes her lunch to work, and I do the same a bit more than half the time (this saves money, too, of course).
So I’m sitting here wondering what it is that has me so perturbed about this article and its clearly misleading headline. To be honest, I’m not 100% certain. But it seems clear to me that we really don’t need this kind of confusing article being posted in one of the leading.
Picasso’s Cat & Other Stories is Now Available
So I’ve been absent for a bit. Sorry about that. The real job has been particularly hectic recently, and I spent the past two days in Mexico with limited time and net access.
The big news is that Picasso’s Cat and Other Stories is now available from The Merry Blacksmith Press. And if you order from the publisher’s website in the next 24 hours or so shipping will be free! If you ordered prior to this, your shipping will be refunded.
Very excited here.
Focus
Jun 24, 2010 Daily Writing, Life
I’ve been suffering a bit of a post-project malaise the past two days. I was so focused on getting these two books ready that my brain is having a hard time disconnecting. I admit the day job job is taking a lot of cycles, too. It’s a busy time all around.
Focus, Ron. Focus.
I did manage a few words on another project–and they’ll all add us eventually, right?
The fact is, though, that when you’ve been into something deeply the brain does sometimes take a little while to fully change gears. In that light, here’s a fluffy piece of science reporting that suggests that all us writer-types may be in for a rude awakening more rapidly than some of us would like to think.
Personally, I’m not worried about the ebook idea itself. I think people will always want stories–and, in fact, I think the idea of shorter novels is fantastic. I loved the old short 50-60K books that you could sit down and read in a day and still have a little time left over. I think there’s some likelihood that stories delivered on bits and bytes may eventually reduce the need to see a big-ol’ book spine on the shelf, hence liberating the short novel once again.
Hey, it’s as good of a dream as any.
What I don’t like about ebooks and ebook readers today has everything to do with the need to play with formats. It’s not hard to click a few buttons and get your material into the format of your choice, but it’s annoying and the format conversions are not always so glorious.
Reading something should never be annoying.
The B-52s, China, and Other Messing Around
Jun 21, 2010 Daily Writing, Life
I was pretty tired this morning, so I put the B-52s on my iTunes. I did this because it is impossible to be lethargic when the B-52s are playing. I mean, you have to be seriously dead in the head to listen to their music and not at least get a little toe-tapping going, right? Then the head bobs just a little–enough to be cool, but not so much that you’ll look dorky if the government surveillance systems flying in geosynchronous orbit right over your house catch you and they post it to You-Tube. Not that you should be paranoid or anything.
It’s okay. Really, it is.
Anyway, I was up earlier this morning speaking to folks from China, which is pretty cool from about a hundred angles when you think about it a little. When I first started working, the idea that I would ever have collaborated productively with people in China would have completely boggled the mind. Now the idea of NOT doing so is passé.
The rest of this morning was about listening to the B-52s while finishing up bits and pieces that I’ve left to fall into the cracks as I was pressing to finish the last novel rewrite (which is now officially done for good–I think [grin]). This means I’ve put a submission together, and put my desktop back into something that resembles order. I updated some of my status files regarding submissions and whatnot.
It doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’ve been busy all morning.
