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

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Ice

Lots and lots of ice this weekend. In a way it has been nice since it is slowing down the pace of the weekend. When nature decides to let you know that it's actively trying to kil you, I tend to pay attention and stay put. Today should be the most interesting as the temps are going to warm up and the ice will begin melting. That's when the trees starting losing big limbs and power lines start coming down. I think we'll be OK here in B-ville but we'll see about everyone else. What I was really amazed at were the number of people in Atlanta who tried to drive and ended up blocking all the major interstates in and around town. Apparently they didn't get the memo on nature trying to kill them.

Training went well this week with good TT, hill interval and power workouts. I thought I was going to die after the TT ride due to going so hard for 2 hours. I was really surprised to do so well on Hog Mt. intervals. I was able to do laps at over 20 mph which I really didn't expect. I had a hard time getting my heart rate up on the first couple of climbs but managed to hit LT on the lap two intervals. I guess I need a bit more warm-up time.

I've been reading "Making Sense of Church" by Spencer Burke. It's really been an interesting way of looking at issues in the Emerging/Postmodern church movement. Lots of frustration with traditional and contemporary churches out there. It's nice to know that I'm not alone in that. I've decided to participate in the on-line forums ot at The Ooze (www.theooze.com) to get a better sense of what people are thinking about.

Anyways, time to start the day. Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Sunday, January 23, 2005

I'm getting better...

No you're not, you'll be stone cold in a moment...

For the last two weeks that has been my inner dialogue. Just as I thought I was getting over my Christmas cold, I picked up another one that settled into my throat and chest. I spent about a week in denial and trained through it but finally late this last week I had to admit that I was running myself into the ground and I took a break. The only training I did were some light weight sessions with some lows resistance spinning. As a result I think I may have turned the corner. The last 24 hours have been significantly more pleasent than anytime in the last two weeks. So hopefully, I've finally managed to get past this month of annoying illness. I almost feel human again.

GCF Thursday night was amazing. I led it and so I knew what we were going to do and I was still blown away. We were talking about Christ and creation and so we read Genesis 1 and 2. Gary and I started the study by playing the Apollo 8 Christmas broadcast reading of Gen. 1 while projecting images of the earth and moon taken from various space mission including Apollo 8, 11 and the Galileo mission. To hear the words read by astronauts in orbit around the moon looking back at the earth while looking at the images was enormously powerful. It is something I want to do for a Christmas eve worship service some time. The big revelation to me was in looking at the second account of creation from man's point of view in Gen. 2. Eve is created from Adam through a process that prefigures Christ's death and piercing on the cross. Because she is made from him she is his perfect partner and thus they are united and become one flesh. The church, Christ's bride, is also made from Him and is His partner in carrying out His will on this earth. The thing that really occured to me is that in the Eucharist we become "one flesh" with Him by takign His body and blood. Not everyone reading these words will agree with this interpretation and I can understand that but the flash of insight was so powerful and so clear that I can scarcely deny its truth from within the conterxt of Genesis reading. That Eve's creation prefigures the church's is well agreed upon by many Christological scholars. Perhaps the one flesh reference is also a reference as well.

School is underway and going well. No major crises in any of my classes yet. My alg-trig based physics II class only has two students which is so cool. I love teachign classes that small as I spend a lot of time with the students one-on-one. We don't just talk about physics but I can pass along some career advice and wisdom about how to be a more successful student. The students know each other well so they are more willing to ask questions and less afraid of looking dumb. I feel like I've got a good group of physical science students at this point though a few of them are a bit more "tell me what to memorize" than is good for them but I have a feeling that they'll adapt to succeed.

Well, enough for now. Have a great day and thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Back to the Salt Mines

Tomorrow starts the new semester, at least in terms of teaching. For the first time in a long while, I don't think I'm ready to go back. I'm sure this lingering cold has a good bit to do with it but I just could use a little more time where I felt good and got to get a few more things done. Add to that the contemplative mood my most recent reading has put me in and I'd like to be on a schedule of morning reading and light housework, afternoon rides and evenings practicing bass and enjoying my wife's company rather than preparing for classes, grading work, cajoling students to give something approaching their best and all the rest. I love what I do and I'm blessed to be able to do it but it can take a lot of energy which is in somewhat short supply right now. Maybe today I'll finally vanquish this cold...

Training is coming along well. I feel stronger than I think I did last year and I've added in more intensity early this year, which was one of my mistakes from last year. I didn't build in some hard workouts early enough so I couldn't go with the strong moves early in the season. My time trailing is way ahead of last year so I'm feeling good about that. The big thing I'm working on there is developing more strength by riding a bigger gear, especially uphill, and pedaling in strong, full circles. I've got one more week of Base 2 and then a week of recovery and then I'll starting building in the first light interval work of the season.

I've been practicing on the bass now for two and a half months. I feel like I'm making progress (Master Jeff, if he heard me, might disagree though) but the more I work, the more I realize I have a long way to go. I've learned a lot about music theory that I didn't know, which has been cool, and I'm getting better at technique. I still need lots of work developing my sense of rhythm and time and getting fast enough to play some of the things I want to. Some of this just takes time and practice but it's hard knowing that there's some much I'd like to play that I can't.

I think that the big thing is that I want to do something that I really feel like makes a difference, probably for all the wrong reasons. I want to create an event but I find myself stuck in the continuum of life and the things I've chosen to focus on. In a way I want to break out of the daily routine to create a positive splash but I'm not sure how exactly. I don't feel that I can sacrifice the good things I'm working on now and I don't want to sacrifice some of the activities that create balance in my life. And I want to work as part of a team to do it. I want to expereince the synergy of a group of people coming together to create and make something new and powerful but everyone around me is in the same boat I am. They have the commitments they've made and activities that bring them a sense of wholeness. What could I ask them to give up?

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Hard to shake and a good book

As the semester looms near I'm finding this cold hard to shake. It hasn't really been too incapacitating but the symptoms have been annoying with the threat of coughing fits every evening. Cough drops have staved off that issue to date but I'd sure like to be over this thing. The hardest part is knowing how to balance my training with the cold. I don't want to take time off and lose fitness but if I overtrain then it takes longer to get over the darn thing. I ended up taking last night off as I was feeling pretty run down.

I've started reading a new book that is really remarkable. Titled Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives, the book seeks to create a dialogue as to how the church can best reach postmodern culture in America. Five different authors from very different perspectives and traditions look at how best to reach out to those who are disenchanted with mainstream Christianity. The really remarkable thing is that in a particular author's essay the other contributors have inserted comments about what has been written. The author is then allowed a final thought to address those comments. What results is a book that almost sounds like a conversation that helps the reader frame questions about the dialogue. While I've only read Andy Crouch's essay and the associated comments I'm really impressed with the level of the thinking and dialogue. What is just as amazing is that the book allows for differing points of view to interact and doesn't try to draw conclusions for the reader. In all of my reading of Christian material, this is the first time I've ever seen something that allows for the possibility that there is more than just a single author's monolithic point of view. In this way, the book is a huge success. I'll write more as I get further into the book but if you've got the time and ability to do a little philosophical lifting I recommend you pick up a copy and let it get you thinking. Especially if you happen to be in ministry and look out into your congregation and wonder where all the 18 to 34 year olds are.

Anyways, as always, thanks for taking the time to read this.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Happy New Year

Well, another year has come and gone with its variety of events both positive and negative as well as successes and failures. Hopefully I've been able to enjoy the successes and learn from the failures so that this year's experiences will be more positive where I can do something to affect them and I can have interactions that more profoundly impact those arouond me for the good.

I'd love to tell you about all the fun I had on New Year's Eve but it was pretty quiet around our household owing, in large part, to a persistent cold I picked up in Salt Lake. This is one of those yucky nasal weight loss colds with borderline voice loss that really wears you down. It effects how I sleep (or more accurately how I don't sleep) and how much energy I have. Typical cold remidies seem to do little more than hold the symptoms at bay through the middle of the day which allows me to train a little and do a little housework but not much else.

I did get my first mountain bike ride in about two months in yesterday. I went out to Dauset and just took it easy. What really surprised me was that I only had to put my foot down once in 90 minutes. I would have thought I'd have been a lot rustier than that. Of course, I wasn't pushing myself at all but I was still pleased that I seemed to have retained some of the skills I developed last year.

I'm not sure if I have too many resolutions yet. I have some goals in mind but I don't know about resolutions. I think I'd like to read a lot more and I'd like to get one paper published from some of the research I've been doing. I think my biggest secular resolution is going to be to be more prepared for class this year so that I spend less time feeling like everything is so last minute. My other big goal is to work to get the GCF worship time to grow into what we think it can be. Not just in numbers but in format and positive influence in people's lives.

Anyways, all the best to you and yours in the coming year and may the Lord bless you in ways you didn't expect.

Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |