Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Hmmm...

I am faced with a conundrum. What to blog about? Do I talk about the latest in health news about hypertension and smokers in their thirties or do I discuss my observations about first year students? Hmmm...what a choice.

Maybe that's what I ought to blog about...choice. Both things are in some sense related to choice (of course, isn't everything?). First year student first. I don't teach very many first year students. Because of the way science here at Gordon tends to work, the vast majority of my students are in their second or third year. Still though, through the reading of the blogs of some first year students I'm struck, even at this very early point int he semester, by how completely overcommitted some of them are. They have 15+ credit hour loads, they work full time jobs and they try to have very full social lives. Their writings are filled with how exhausted they are and we're only into the second week. Yet, they don't see that their attempts to have it all are the cause of their overextension or that they are shorting their academic time. As with many things, you can't really tell a student this because they look at you like you're some sort of evil, authoritarian boogieman who is bent on resrticting the "fun" they have in life. The truth is that only experience can teach them those things and experience is a lot meaner than I'll ever be.

Related to this is the news that 1 in 3 Americans now suffer from hypertension or high blood pressure. That's up from 1 in 4 a decade ago and a serious reversal of the trend of shinking numbers of 30 years ago. High blood pressure is related to higher incidences of stroke, heart disease and diabetes. While there are those who have some genetic predisposition to the condition, most have it on account of their lifestyle choices that have led to obesity, addiction and a lack of balance. Again, it's a result of trying to have too much out of life. You can't "supersize" everything and not pay the price. Another article details the results of a study conducted by researchers from Norway that show that smokers in their 30's are five times more likely to suffer a heart attack than similairly aged non-smokers. While the number of heart attacks in that group is likely much lower than in age groups that are older, the increased risk should give the reader pause. To smoke is a choice some people make each day. I'm guessing that very few of those people actually think of this in terms of choosing to increase their risk of heart attacks fivefold.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Monday, August 23, 2004

First Week Back

The first week of the semester is now officially in the history books and the ship is now underway with all passengers aboard (at least in some sense). My classes look like the typical mix of students; some that will do well and some that are already starting the slow slide beneath the water. The series of small crises that seem to always crop up during this time have taken place and hopefully things will settle down a bit. One thing I'll be interested to see is whether the College's early start date will cause any consternation. We have begun about a week earlier than many of the other state schools this year and I expect that a certain number of students didn't read any of the literature that was sent to them and thus will show up today horrified to find that they've missed the first week and their schedules were dropped. Every once in a while I have nightmares like that. I show up to school late only to find that I've been in classes all semester and now it's time for the final. From what I'm told, most folks who spend a lot of time in college have those sorts of nightmares. I remember the first time I had one it really freaked me out. I woke up and it took me most of the day to find my equilibrium. Now I wake up and after a short period of disorientation I usually chuckle over the whole dream. For these folks I expect that it'll take a good deal more to get over what they may experience today.

On the training front, I finally seem to have recovered from traveling to and from Nationals. During last week I didn't feel like I had any fitness or power. I made the mistake of going down to the Pig Trail in Macon on Tuesday and trying to ride hard in wet conditions and my body let me know what a huge mistake that was by having my legs spend the next two days trying to cramp. So I took it a bit easier until this weekend when I ripped off two really solid rides, one on the road and one on the dirt. I was able to keep the heart rate at around 165 and I was able to push up over 180 on the hard bits. I'm tired today, but its a good kind of tired. Tonight I'll spin out and then head down for another Pig trail ride on Tuesday. We race on the trail on Sunday and I'd like to get a good result for the Bike Tech team. Hopefully I''ll be able to finally break through to a top five finish but I'd just like to ride really hard and have a trouble free ride. Also, on Saturday I'll contest the Georgia State Time Trial Championships. I'm looking for a top five there also though the competition will be at a higher level than it was in South Carolina.

GCF is getting underway as well. Things seem to be shaping up really well and hopefully we can have a good push into this first semester. We have a number of solid activities planned and I think we'll have a chance to do some neat things over the course of the year. OUr biggest difficulty this year may in finding a place to hold the Bible study. Last year we had people sitting ont he backs of the couches in the house so I'm not sure what we'll do if we get too many more.

Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Back to Work

Sorry it's been so long but I've been traveling and such. Nationals went well though the results don't indicate it. After getting out to Salt Lake City and getting my bike put together Tuesday night I pre-rose the course on Wednesday. It was a lot harder than the profile indicated. After the ride I figured that doing a 52 minute time would be good for me. I'm pleased that I rode the course in 50:26 but I finished 23rd. To finish in the top ten I would have had to ridden a 47:30 or so which let's me know what I have to do to be competitive for next year. I have to improve by about 6% to get to that level. If I get a trispoke front wheel that'll be about 3% and if I can get out early enough to acclimate that might be another couple of percent. If I continue my 3-5% a year improvement through training then I should be in good shape.

School's back in session so I'm scrambling around to get everything ready. My classes are the typical physics and physical science with some good studnets and some not-so-good ones. Hopefully, I'm a year wiser and more prepared so I'll have a better idea what to do with the not-so-good ones. Also, GCF starts tomorrow so that'll be interesting. Coffeehouse t 7:00 pm should give me a chance to see some of our alumni and maybe meet a few new folks.

Anyways, back to the grindstone...to one I have to create for my students that is.

Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Kepler's Witch

Just finished the book of the above title. Really interesting book for me because Kepler was a man who possessed many of the same viewpoints and struggled with many of the same issues I seem to. He saw within the natural world the mind of God and sought to reveal and understand it. He was a man of deep faith and strongly held religious convictions who was willing to suffer for what he believed to be true, even when it meant he could not find a home church or a denomination willing to accept his faith without a blind loyalty to the tenets/dogmas of the denomination. He saw the world as it was and realized that the intolerance creeping into the religious dialogue would eventually explode and burn everyone who chose to fan the flame and an awful lot of people who didn't. His accomplishments are set against the background of the culture in which he lived which means an examination of the events and attitudes that led to the Thirty Year's War.

The title comes from the trail of Kepler's mother for witchcraft that occupied a great deal of energy for many years of his life. I don't want to give a book report here but the details of this sordid affair gives the reader an insight into the power of myth, superstition and fear when mixed with political jealousy, bad decisions after a night of drinking and not a little bit of overarching greed. There is a widely spoken adage that floats around our college campus from time to time that warns one to never underestimate the power of large groups of stupid people. This portion of the book is more about not underestimating the power of small-minded but deeply fearful local officials, especially those who might have an "in" with the local duke.

Anyway, if you are one who goes in for deeply personal biography, history and a need to connect the dots, I'd recommend this book. There's no math and while there is some discussion of Kepler's scientific work, the main focus is on the man himself and how he interacted in a world gone mad. Highly recommended for "geeks" all around (you know who you are).

Next up will be Owen Gingerich's new work on Copernicus, "The Book Nobody Read" as well as Grep Boyd's monograph explaining the basis and ideas of the "Open View" of God's pre-knowledge. I've read the first chapter and found Boyd's ideas interesting but not yet philosophically or theologically satisfying. I may post more later but as someone who is already in the free will camp I'm not finding his arguments particularly compelling at this point. His critique of the ideas of pre-determinism or the strongly Calvinist perspective is pretty good but he has done little more than sum up the arguments of many centuries of free-will thinkers. Hopefully the second chapter will hold more.

Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Stop...Hammer Time

Since my last sort of morose post I have done a lot of riding. A really lot of riding. Last Saurday I went for a solo 55 mile ride at 22 mph through hilly terrain. I wasn't Lance but I could have hung with him on a training ride (as long as it wasn't in the Alps...or when he was doing intervals...or actually going really hard...so I could have hung with Lance on a moderate intensity recovery ride I guess). Sunday I did some hard leg speed intervals on the rollers. Since I'm balancing on the rollers but not going anywhere my pedals stroke has to be reasonbly smooth and even. I was pleasently surpirsed to get up to 32 mph in the little ring. I was spinning with a candance of about 150 rpm and staying smooth. Monday was a day off and Tuesday I did a hard 35 mile ride on the TT bike. Yesterday I did 2 hours on the pig trail in Macon and turned out 31 minute laps which is pretty good considering the tree down across the trail and the fact that I was riding the course backwards for the first time. Tonight I went to the killer Griffin Thursday night training ride. In the middle of a thunderstorm I put the hammer down and dropped everybody and I do mean everyone. I was down in the drops with the bulging eyes and the drool and the snot hammering away into the wind on a flat section and I opened up a huge gap. I eased off on a hilly section and two guyus finally managed to bridge up to me. We rode together for a while trading monster pulls until they decided they'd had enough and sat up. I rode off and finished strong.

I feel good for Nationals in a week. I still can't believe that I'm going. My goal goal of the year was to qualify and go and I've done that. Anything else this year will be gravy. I hope to finish top ten out there but the competition will be strong. My biggest goal is to have the experience of competing at that level and to use the expereince to hone my goals for next year. I think that I can finally justify going out and getting a coach to help with with training and, most importantly, nutrition. In any case, I'm planning to have a lot of fun in Salt Lake racing the race and spending time with my family.

Faculty back week starts Monday with the requisite meetings and welcomes. In a sense I love these things but in a way they are totally boring. Hopefully the administration will remember that we really are professionals and that we don't need to be lectured to about stuff we deal with every day. Classes are full and the College continues to grow faster than the State's budget allocation to it so things are dicey as to where all the students will be going. Let's hope we can find spotws for everyone.

Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |