The metaphors we use affects how we think of things. And how we think of things betrays the metaphors hidden in the reaches of our minds.

Being part of a Messianic Jewish synagogue, I continually encounter the power of how we think, power to bring people together, or to push them apart. Because there is a 1700-year-old chasm between Judaism and Christianity, a chasm that Messianic Judaism now straddles precariously, and promises to make both friends and enemies on both sides.

If you see Yeshua as the guardian of the chasm between the old and new covenants, then it’s easy to ask—for example—whether to follow G-d (Judaism) or whether to follow the way, the truth, and the life (Christianity). But if you see Yeshua as the builder of the bridge that brings Torah to the rest of the world, then that question itself becomes nonsensical. Instead, you begin to ask where in the Torah is Yeshua and his teaching reflected and how he fits into Judaism.

This question goes directly to the heart of the very definition of “Messianic Judaism.” The Messianic Judaism I know is attempting to reconnect these two now-separate sides of the Chasm, which requires rewriting the metaphors that both sides use, challenging the hidden assumptions we find underlying those metaphors. Rabbi Mark Kinzer described it thusly in his paper, “Prayer in Yeshua, Prayer in Israel: The Shema in Messianic Perspective” (see Israel’s Messiah and the People of God: A Vision for Messianic Jewish Covenant Fidelity, or the papers from Hashivenu 2007):

Messianic Judaism involves more than the subtle tweaking of an existing form of Jewish life and thought—adding a few elements required by faith in Yeshua and subtracting a few elements incompatible with that faith. Instead, the Judaism we have inherited—and continue to practice—is entirely bathed in the bright light of Yeshua’s revelation. In a circular and dynamic interaction, our Judaism provides us with the framework required to interpret Yeshua’s revelation even as it is reconfigured by that revelation. In this way our Judaism and our Yeshua-faith are organically and holistically “integrated.”

Each proceeds from a completely different metaphor. And I have also found, it can be very hard to get people to recognize—much less accept—a metaphor that they don’t already know. There are many, unfortunately, on both sides of the chasm, who see the chasm and deny the existence of the bridge.

But assuming that you’re willing to explore the surface of the bridge, here are a couple new metaphors that I’ve found stimulating.

The One-Man Israel

I mentioned Rabbi Mark Kinzer’s paper on “Prayer in Yeshua.” One of the major themes in this paper is the idea of Yeshua as the One-man Israel. This is a distinctly Messianic Jewish idea, which flows naturally from the idea of Yeshua as the bridge-builder. Over this bridge, as the chosen Messiah, he brings the blessings of Israel to the whole world. As Rabbi Kinzer puts it, “we make the radical and scandalous claim that Yeshua constitutes the true center of Jewish life, just as Israel constitutes the true center of Yeshua’s ekklessia.”

God promised Abraham that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3). As the Messiah, this is Yeshua’s appointed mission. This is why certain of his actions are so significant. For example, when Yeshua touched a man with leprosy in Matthew 8:2-3— Touching a man with an unclean disease like leprosy would make you unclean. But instead of the uncleanness flowing from the leprous man to Yeshua, healing flows in the opposite direction. Similarly, in Matthew 9:18-26, when the woman with issue of blood touched him, healing flowed from him into the woman, rather than her uncleanness affecting him. And then he touched Jairus’s daughter, who had died, and instead of the uncleanness of the corpse defiling Yeshua, life flowed from him into the daughter.

And as God’s anointed king, Yeshua becomes the anointed representative of Israel. Every Christmas, Christians celebrate the birth of the Messiah by quoting the Magi, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him” (Matt 2:2).

Isaiah 53 also poses a fascinating parallel. Christians see the prophet as speaking about Yeshua, his suffering and sacrifice. Jews see the chapter as speaking about Israel, about their suffering and sacrifice. It seems an irreconcilable debate, except that with Yeshua as the One-man Israel, both can be true. Furthermore, the sacrifice of the Jews is seen by some Rabbis as atonement for the world, a role we also accept for Yeshua’s substitutionary sacrifice.

The Living Torah

Christians often have a hard time getting the concept of Torah, partly because it’s often translated “law,” because it started with the commandments Moses brought down from Sinai. But “Torah” is not the law of a modern secular state, which is how we usually think of “law.”

In many cases, a better translation for the Hebrew word Torah might be “teaching.” Indeed, Torah comes from the Hebrew verb horah, which can mean “to point out,” hence “to instruct.” And Yeshua surely takes on the role of a teacher, building upon the teaching that came before. A repeated meme in Matthew’s sermon on the mount is “You have heard that it was said… but I tell you…” (Matt 5:21,27,33,38,43). In each case, he reinforces the moral lesson of the original commandment and adds to it.

So we see Yeshua as the living Torah, the Word become flesh (John 1:14).

In another sense, too, Yeshua is the living Torah, because by his work he renews the covenant of Torah. We call it the “New Testament,” i.e., the renewed covenant, for this very reason. It’s timely that the Holy Spirit should be poured out upon the disciples on the holiday of Shavuot, which in Christian circles is called “Pentecost.” The symbolism in Acts 2 suggests a parallel to Mount Sinai: the wind, the fire, the Spirit descending on those gathered. And in a twist of irony, Shavuot became the holiday on which the Jews celebrate the giving of the Torah to Moses.

-TimK

This coming Sabbath service at our synagogue, I’m doing one of the Torah readings, from the Gospels, the first part of John chapter 11.

You may notice two funny things in that sentence. Firstly, as part of our Torah service, we don’t only read the standard parshah from the Torah (the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) and the corresponding reading from the Haftarah (a selection of readings from the Prophets). We also read a passage from the Besorah, that is, the Gospels, following the Chayei Yeshua reading cycle (“Life of Yeshua” reading cycle).

The other funny thing is that I a Gentile am scheduled to read. As is typical, in our synagogue, it is deemed inappropriate for a Gentile to read from the Torah or Haftarah in Hebrew, and in particular to say the aliyah blessing: “Blessed are you, Lord, our God, master of the universe, who has chosen us from all peoples, and given us his Torah.” This is not something that one can rightly say who has not become part of Jewry.

On the other hand, we do allow Gentiles to read the English translation. (I have done so several times.) And most notably for this post, those Gentiles (like me) who know a little Hebrew, we can take a turn reading from the Gospels, translated into Hebrew. Why? Because the Gentile church for all its failings through history, it took a key part in preserving those documents. And so there is no reason why I personally should not also share in that work of God’s provenance.

As it turns out, if I could have chosen any of the upcoming passages to read, this week’s would have been my first choice, because this is a deeply meaningful story from the Gospel of John, with some twists that we often gloss over. In fact, I was thinking about approaching the rabbi in charge of scheduling the readings, to ask him whether it might be possible for me to read this week. But I never got a chance to, because he asked me first. (He had no idea what I was thinking.)

I want to focus on one part of the story, in John 11:17-37, and present a few thoughts.

Martha

Mary and Martha had a brother, Lazarus, who died from some disease. Yeshua knew he was sick, and yet he didn’t get there fast enough to heal him. In fact, he seems to have been moseying along, taking his time, intentionally, on purpose. By the time Yeshua got there, Lazarus had been in the grave for four days.

Mary and Martha were still sitting shiva in their house, and many others had come to comfort them. For a week after a close loved one dies, a Jew mourns. He does not bathe or shower; he does not wear nice clothes or jewelry; he does not shave; he may even cover up his mirrors so he doesn’t see how sad he looks. He does not take part in intimate pleasures with his spouse. He does not even study Torah.

However, he does usually open his home during certain times, for friends and family to visit. It is considered a great mitzvah, a “good deed,” to comfort a family who is sitting shiva. Mourners will often talk about the one who’s passed, share stories of his life. When it’s time to say goodbye, a common blessing is: “May the Omnipresent One comfort you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.” That blessing has deep meaning for me, which goes beyond mourning a loved one, and I’ll touch on that later on in this post.

When Martha hears that Yeshua is coming, she goes out to meet him. “Lord,” she says, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Then she adds, “But even now, I know that whatever you might ask of God, God will give it to you.”

A hope against the odds. A hope against hope. Might there still be a chance for her brother to live out the rest of his life?

Yeshua answers, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha is trying to process this.

Have you ever wanted something really bad, and then you actually got it? Usually, when that happens to me, I can hardly believe my eyes. There’s some part of me who still believes my senses are deceiving me. I check, and double-check, and triple-check. Did I make a mistake? What did I do wrong? Because things could certainly not have gone that well. Could they have?

I think Martha wants to believe that Yeshua is saying what she thinks he’s saying. But she’s checking and double-checking her reasoning. She is afraid of getting her hopes up, only to have them dashed by the reality that her brother… is dead.

“I know,” she says, “that he will rise again, in the resurrection in the last day.” Because, she thinks, we’ll all rise again.

That is, in the bodily resurrection in the World to Come.

Now comes the first line that sticks out at me:

Yeshua says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who has faith in me, even though he dies, he will live. And anyone who lives and has faith in me, he will never die, forever.”

Yeshua starts with the phrase “I am” (ἐγώ εἰμι). This is the same name God gave himself, in Exodus 3:14. When Moses asked, “Who should I say is sending me?” God told him, “I am who I am” (אֶֽהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶֽהְיֶה).

And Yeshua emphasizes this point. None of this “resurrection in the last day” stuff. “I—the one you’re talking to right now—I am the resurrection.” He holds life itself in his hands. Can anyone besides God do that? From what I understand, Martha would not have thought of it any other way.

“Do you believe this?” he asks.

I imagine Martha thinking for a moment, letting that sink in. Then she says, “Yes, Lord. I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God coming into the world.”

That word “believe” there: “I believe” (πεπίστευκα). She’s not just saying she believes him. She’s emphasizing it, cause and effect. “What I have believed, I still believe. I keep on believing. And that belief continues to fuel my hope for the future.”

She’s kind of like the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz. “I do believe in ghosts. I do believe in ghosts.” Except that she has a positive belief, and she’s looking to Yeshua to confirm her hope.

Another interesting tidbit is the tag, “the Messiah, the Son of God coming into the world.” We usually think of the phrase “Son of God” as expressing Yeshua’s divinity, and the phrase “Son of Man” as expressing his humanity. But as Daniel Boyarin points out in his book The Jewish Gospels, “Son of Man” more likely expresses his divinity, referring to the “one like a son of man” in Daniel’s vision. Meanwhile, that would make the phrase “Son of God” another name for God’s Anointed One, his Mashiach (“Messiah”), as in Psalm 2:

The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed (meshicho מְשִׁיחֹֽו)…

He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.” Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.

Mary

Meanwhile, Mary has been back at the house. Martha returns, takes Mary aside, and quietly tells her, “The teacher is here, and he’s asking for you.”

She gets up immediately, and all the friends and relatives who’ve gathered in her house to comfort her–though probably not doing so good a job at that, because they’re all pretty sad, too—they think she’s going out to the tomb, to mourn there. So they follow her.

But when she gets to where Yeshua is waiting, she collapses on the ground. She’s in tears. She’s falling apart. And she manages between sobs to eek out, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother—my brother… would not have died.”

We usually translate Mary and Martha’s messages using the same words. But the way John wrote it, in Greek, he rearranges the words. You can do that in Biblical Greek. He rearranges Mary’s words to put the word brother last in the sentence, in the power position.

Mary is not saying the same thing as Martha, and she’s not saying it in the same way. Whereas the appropriate response to Martha was to enter into a deep theological dialogue, there ain’t no way Mary’s gonna understand any of that.

Instead, when Yeshua sees Mary crying, and all the friends and relatives gathered with her crying as well, his spirit is moved, and he becomes agitated. Delitzsch’s Hebrew translation (which we usually read from) says, “He began trembling” (וַיְהִי מַרְעִיד), which takes some liberties with the original, but it’s not a horrible translation. I imagine him eeking out the question: “Where have you laid him?” And then he breaks down himself.

Yeshua cried.

Then they all said, “See how he loved him!” Again Delitzsch comes up with a wonderful paraphrase: “Behold, what great love with which he loved him!” (הִנֵּה מָה רַבָּה הָאַהֲבָה אֲשֶׁר אֲהֵבוֹ).

Comfort

One of the central Jewish prayers, the Kedushah, it has three sections.

In the first, the cantor quotes Isaiah 6:3, “One called to another, saying…” And then we all respond, “Holy, holy, holy—kadosh, kadosh, kadosh—is the Lord of Hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory!” And on those first three words, “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh,” we lift ourselves up on our tippy-toes, in an attempt to reach into God’s presence. Sometimes, I just like to linger there. “Kadosh… Kadosh… Kadosh…”

Then in the second section, we recite Ezekiel 3:12: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.”

That word “place” is the same Hebrew word, makom, translated “Omnipresent One” in the blessing said to a mourner above: “May the Omnipresent One (haMakom) comfort you.” When you’re in the midst of sorrow, sometimes it seems God is a million miles away.

There’s a beautiful symmetry to the Kedushah. Sometimes we feel God; sometimes not. But he’s still always there.

And sometimes the right kind of comfort comes when we engage God.

And sometimes when we weep at his feet.

In both cases, from the third section of the Kedushah, quoting Psalm 146:10: “The Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations.”

Around this time of year, I’m invariably reminded of the line Tony Campolo popularized: It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming. Because Good Friday is the day we remember the Crucifixion; and Easter Sunday, the Resurrection.

But this year, it occurs to me that we’ve focused on only part of the story. Easter Sunday isn’t the end of the story, but the beginning.

What did Jesus say after his resurrection? “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached… I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

And so they waited. And they counted the days. And they prayed. For 50 days after Passover, they counted the days, until Shavuot arrived, the Festival of Weeks.

In the Jewish tradition, Shavuot is when God gave the Torah to Israel, and Israel became a nation, rather than just a bunch of refugee slaves from Egypt. And so Jews actually count the days between Pesach and Shavuot, and they pray each day, and wait for the fulfillment of the promise. Some Jews see this as a time of change, of personal development.

In the same way, Easter is not the climax of the story, but Pentecost. We are embarking on a period of self-discovery and personal change, during which God may have an opportunity to transform our lives. May we be sensitive to his direction.

Happy Easter!
-TimK

Tonight begins the first night of Passover. So I thought I might post some brief comments on some of my favorite lesser-known Jewish films.

And since it’s Passover, let’s start with When Do We Eat? (subtitle: Sex, Drugs & Matzoh Ball Soup), the story of a really dysfunctional and hilarious Passover seder, starring Michael Lerner, Leslie Ann Warren, Jack Klugman (one of the last films he appeared in), Meredith Scott Lynn, Shiri Appleby and others.

The Passover seder contains 15 steps, with eating the meal somewhere near the far end of those. (Hence the title of the film.) Even Ira Stuckman’s “world’s fastest seder” inspires hunger, as the family… Well, let’s see…

Ira and Peggy haven’t exchanged a tender moment since God knows when. Jennifer, the estranged half-sister, shows up with her lesbian lover. Grampa Artur, still living in fear of the Third Reich, is bitter at his son for forsaking the family business. Meanwhile, Ethan is desperately seeking spiritual fulfillment and so has recently taken up hasidism, Nikki finds her spirituality in her career as a sex surrogate, Zeke has slipped a tab of Ecstasy into his father’s Mylanta, and everyone thinks Lionel is autistic. And it only gets better from there.

Woven throughout the story is the idea that joy drives out conflict. Which is true. As Ira’s view softens, and he becomes less centered on himself, he starts to connect with his family. At first, everyone thinks it’s just a drug-induced hallucination. (Whether or not it actually was is a questioned left unanswered at the end.) Then he actually begins to change, and the atmosphere around along with him.

A poignant reminder that if you can only find the joy in a situation, or even if you can just laugh, you’ll be better able to repair your corner of this broken world we live in.

-TimK

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

Another Skinny Dip in the Jury Pool

I’m sorry. I still haven’t written up this story. There is a story behind it. A couple weeks ago, I served on a jury, for a short criminal trial, a case that should never have even been brought to trial.

You may be familiar with the classic scene in the prototypical courtroom TV drama. The jury is returning, after only having deliberated for an hour. The sympathetic defendant asks his attorney, “What does that mean? Is that good or bad?” The lawyer responds, “It’s good if the verdict is ‘not guilty.’”

The truth, as I discovered, is far simpler. When the jury returns after deliberating for only an hour, what that means is that the court bought them lunch, and it took them that long to finish eating.

Contrary to Popular Belief: Challenging Copyright Myths

And now for something vaguely political…

I was surprised to learn that there is a local Pirate Party here where I live. And there is probably one near you, too.

Politically, I’m not sure I get the Pirate Party, at least not here in the US. Issue-oriented political parties generally don’t do too well here in the US, unfortunately. This means that third parties are marginalized, sometimes by their very existence. However, it does represent an encouraging vibrancy in the debate over intellectual property and its abuses.

And in that vein, Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Pirate Party, challenges 5 widely held misconceptions about copyright. Having studied copyright many years ago—and the basic concepts have not changed since then—I have always realized these as uncontroversial truths. Unfortunately, in the intervening years, entrenched industry special interests like the RIAA and MPAA have publicized ideas, unchallenged, like “copying is theft.” (It isn’t; depending on the circumstances, it may be infringement, a legally distinct concept.)

So this debate comes a couple decades late. But better late than not at all.

Is Your ISP Turning to the Dark Side?

This is followed up by a critique by the EFF of the so-called Copyright Alert System, which enlists ISP’s as industry enforcers, to monitor networks for copyright infringement and target subscribers who are alleged to infringe. Unfortunately, it does so not from a balanced perspective, but from an industry-extremist mindset. (I say this as an author who himself has a distinct interest in legitimate copyright.) As a result, the CAS is likely to foster widespread abuse…

Trademark Bullies in Space

…as occurred in the case of indie-author M.C.A. Hogarth’s offbeat novel Spots the Space Marine, which Amazon removed at the behest of a game company who claimed trademark rights in the term “space marine.”

When I read that, my first thought was, How asinine! See, most trademarks only apply within an industry or market. A highly-distinctive name, like “Xerox” or “Exxon,” might be protected as a trademark across all industries. But even if someone down the street opens up a shop called “Top Shelf Wine and Spirits,” I can still name my business “Top Shelf Books” (neither one of which is a very good name for a business). Because my readers are unlikely to be confused and think I’m selling alcohol, and his customers are unlikely to think he wrote my books.

Considering that “space marine” has been in the common science-fiction lexicon for almost a century, it represents the height of hubris for this game snob to think he somehow “owns” it.

So where we cannot win in court, we appeal to the bureaucrats at Amazon, who will gladly do our dirty work for us.

Fortunately, Ms. Hogarth found powerful allies, in the EFF, Cory Doctorow, Wil Wheaton, and others, and Amazon backpedaled.

May all indie authors be so fortunate.

Personal Status

Progress on Character Fiction 101 is slow and steady. Scrivener tells me I’m up to about 7,000 densely-packed words. Not that this means anything. I still need to flesh out the sections on drama and conflict, plot points, how choosing a title relates to seeing your vision for your story, and how to actually put your story into words. And I’ve only roughed out two of the diagrams: the “Human Needs Chart” (including the 10 basic human needs and and 37 component needs) and “Where Ideas Come From” (four sources in two dimensions). I know of at least two more (the “Four Conflict Types,” also in two dimensions, and “The Plot Cycle,” which illustrates conflict resolution, climax, arc, layering), off the top of my head, that I need to draw up. I may find an artist who can turn these concept drawings into poster-quality artwork, which would be très kewl. I hope you can understand why this is taking so long.

For about 3 weeks, my weight hovered at 180 lbs. Stuck. And I still need some hypertension medication to bring my blood pressure down into a comfortable range. And my waist-to-hip measurement says I still need to lose a few more inches around the middle. So this week, I’ve completely cut out sugar and white flour, I’m minimizing the grams of carbohydrates in my food and maximizing the dietary fiber, and I’m eating only two large meals per day (and avoiding food for the rest of the day). I’m down to about 177 lbs now, and hopefully going down again.

I love cookies.

Today’s Quote

How To Be An Artist (In Twelve Words):

Show up. Be curious. Seek beauty. Explore the edges. Acknowledge progression. Share.

(Dan James, on A Big Creative Yes)

When this post goes live, I’ll likely be waiting in line at the courthouse. I’m scheduled for jury duty. They do this to me once every number of years. This’ll be the fourth time I’ve been “called” to fulfill my “civic duty.” But if I’m impaneled, it’ll only have been the second time I’ll have served on a jury. And no matter how it goes, I hope I’ll at least get a good story out of it.

In the meantime, my Beloved and I have been overindulging via Netflix on Emergency!, which is an updated version of the 1970′s classic Chicago Fire— Wait. Stop. Reverse that.

I was actually impressed that so many of the new generation have enjoyed this old show.

My brother the real-life paramedic reports that he knows a bunch of people who love this show, even find it motivating.

Me, it reminds me of the importance of working your calling. The topic of “Why become a fireman?” comes up in all of these shows. And the answer is always, “because it’s in your blood.” I don’t know how true that actually is. It appears, most successful people make their job into their calling, rather than finding a job that reflects their “passion.”

Nonetheless, I do think it’s important to work your calling, that is, to be the person God made you to be. This occurred to me in a recent conversation, in which we were talking about certain people who have developed extraordinary careers. And the question was raised: Would you like to have the life they have? No, I don’t think I would, because along with the greatness comes a torrent of suffering. And I don’t think I’d be up to the suffering part. They got to where they were because they were working their calling. When you’re working your calling, you find the hope that sees you through the suffering to the greatness.

What does any of this have to do with Emergency!? Watching fictional rescue workers reminds me of that truth.

But I’m still impressed with the breadth of the show’s fandom.

The coolest online post I ran across was from someone who had found a series of Emergency! coloring books from 1977. I don’t think I’ll be coloring these pages anytime soon. But they’re still cool to look at.

Much of the medical technology featured regularly on the show was on cutting-edge of the time.

And occasionally, we’ll even see a medical idea that has since been overturned. For example, in one episode, a patient with a peptic ulcer was ruminating on the question, “What was so stressful about my job?” The doctors went right along with it. In the 1980′s, it was established that most peptic ulcers are caused by a bacterial infection, not by stress.

On the other hand, part of me completely understands the fandom. I love watching them ride the fire truck, with the siren going.

-TimK

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Look at this Valentine’s bear that Abbie’s boyfriend Anthony gave her.

Grr… He’s showing me up.

Happy Ballantyne…

As it happens, this morning I listened to an interview with Sarah Ballantyne on the (back-episode of the) Livin’ La Vida Low Carb Show podcast (from last July).

Sarah lost 120 pounds and eased a host of food-intolerance issues by giving up grains, eggs, and other foods, and sticking with a strict autoimmune-protocol Paleo diet. She talks about her story and some of the science behind her experiences with inflammation.

Will This Get Me Laid?

While looking for something else, I dug up this classic piece by Holly Lisle on Men, Women, Writing, and Getting Laid. According to Holly, being a male writer is more likely to get me laid. But you women writers, forget it.

(As a guy, I think she’s oversimplifying. But it’s still an entertaining read.)

A Scene from Scrubs?

Via the Telegraph, 6 September 2011.

Doctors at the Memorial hospital in Istanbul are employing music as medicine. It may look like a scene from an off-kilter half-hour sitcom, but they say this music therapy is actually working.

Pictured: Dr Erol Can (center) bowing a yayli tanbur (an Ottoman violin), with Professor Bingur Sonmez (left) blowing flute, and Mehmet Susam (right) on guitar.

Personal Status

The great storm Nemo, succeeded by a night of almost no sleep, slowed up my progress this week. However I did get some done.

Character Fiction 101 — This has turned into a research project, in particular on story titles. As far as finished content, ready to be published, no significant progress. (Lots of notes that still need to be digested.) I’m also preparing a post for BeTheStory.com on the topic.

This morning, my bathroom scale read 177.6. But my waist is still at ~38 inches. (Which is probably the most important measurement, and I’d like it to be more like 35 or 36.) Sigh.

Today’s Quote(s)

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled

(Mark Twain… Maybe. But neither I nor anyone else I’ve seen has been able to dig up an actual citation.)

It’s easier to pull up a witty quote attributed to Mark Twain, in order to make those with whom you disagree look stupid, than to figure out the real reasons you disagree.

(Me. And that is a citation.)

It’s easier to learn the entire Talmud than to change one negative character trait.

(Rabbi Yisroel Salanter… Again, maybe.)

Now that the storm is passed, and we’re all dug out—which is a whole other story, for another time—we can look back at the fun, the pain, and even the beauty Nemo left us.

The funnest part, of course—for many of us—was being bundled up safe at home, with plenty of supplies, while the cold world raged outside. Some of us lost power, unfortunately, at least for a period of time; and with power, heat.

Others, like my own brother and his wife, worked into the storm (and some of them, through the storm), in emergency-response and medical fields, and for that we thank them.

And after it was over, then came the basking and romping, and some great photo-taking. I’ve collected a number of photos my friends have posted.

Like this little fella (posted by one of my other sisters-in-law), waiting for another shovelful:

Unfortunately, when I see this shot, all I can think of is: How come their bathroom is never overrun with snowflakes?

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L.B. took a picture from her back porch. Unfortunately, you can’t see much, because—hey!—giant snow drift, that’s why!

And this was common. My mom posted this photo of their front walkway and parking lot. Can you see the sidewalk? Can you see the cars? They’re there, believe it or not.

Fortunately, their condo association hired someone with a front-loader to scoop out the snow, and then someone with a shovel to clear the sidewalk.

Unfortunately, even after you do dig out, sometimes you find that the job is only begun…

(More stories like this, from my own camera, later.)

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I mentioned my brother before, who is a paramedic. He managed to get this shot on his cell phone. The extreme fuzziness is the snow. (It was a blizzard, after all.) The round thing is someone riding their bicycle. Yes, that’s right.

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I love this sequence, captured by my friend E.O.P.:

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And another friend, C.S., entitled this one, “Procrastination…”

…to which I replied, “It’s makin’ me late. It’s keepin’ me way-ay-ay-ay-aytin…”

After procrastination comes, “I love this!”

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One of my other sisters-in-law posted a quiet “after” photo from Canada:

I can almost hear the ripping of the water.

On the other hand, when my sister-in-law—the first one I mentioned, who camped out the storm in town—when she arrived home, this is what she saw:

Beautiful, if you get the shot before the shovel.

And lastly, my friend Julie Lavender posted this view from the DreamFarm Café, where she records her syndicated radio show of the same name.

Stay toasty!
-TimK

The bill has come due for the mild winter we had last year. And since Punxsutawney Phil (played by the classic actor Bill Murray) has predicted an early spring—which here in New England means snow, rain, sleet, hail, and 90-degree swelter, all within a 24-hour period… Since Phil has predicted an early spring, God has apparently decided to cram all the winter originally planned all into an 18-hour period.

Almost 35 years to the day (almost) since the Great Blizzard of ’78. (Of course, that year, Phil did see his shadow. So clearly, Phil isn’t always too accurate.)

According to the National Weather Service (which is sometimes right), we can expect “snow accumulations of more than 2 feet.” Fortunately, I remembered to store the GPS location of my car, so that I can find it again later.

(So I don’t accidentally dig out the wrong car.)

“LIGHT SNOW,” says the NWS in all caps, “WILL DEVELOP BY THIS MORNING… BECOMING HEAVY LATE IN THE DAY INTO THE EVENING COMMUTE… WHITEOUT CONDITIONS ARE ANTICIPATED AS ROADS BECOME SNOW COVERED BY THIS EVENINGS COMMUTE. STRONG NORTH-NORTHEAST WINDS ARE ANTICIPATED WITH GUSTS UP TO AROUND 60 MPH… RESULTING IN BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW. DAMAGE TO TREES AND STRUCTURES ALONG WITH SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES ARE ANTICIPATED.”

Sounds like fun, eh?

Fortunately, we’re all stocked up and bundled in. And I intend to update this post with photos from just outside my front door, for as long as the power holds out and I can still open it. As you can see, the skies have just begun flurrying, and a light sheet of white powder has just begun to accumulate on the ground.

Or in the words of the Beatles, “Here comes the snow. Here comes the snow. And it’s alright da da da da da da da da da da da da da da daaaaaaa.”

-TimK

P.S. I’m posting these photos also on my Facebook page.

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UPDATE: Feb 8, 12:00 noon

Still flurrying, and the Little One (who’s not so little anymore) is finally awake after staying up until 3:30 in the morning. Ah, to be young and without school in the morning.

I made some more progress on “Writing a Character Story,” including some more thought and research on what makes a good title for a novel or a story. And my current conclusion: it’s mostly just a bunch of B.S. In non-fiction, title matters. In fiction, not quite so much. Unfortunately, people don’t read fiction for personal development; they read it because all their friends said to, even if the book sucks.

So I took a break for a late breakfast and an episode of Emergency!. I’m ravenously hungry, probably to make up for yesterday’s paltry 1103 calories. (No joke—I kept track and added them up.)

The most exciting conversation so far this afternoon:

Girl 1: Will you dye my hair today?

Girl 2: Yeah.

Girl 1: Yay. [A beat.] Not right now, though.

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UPDATE: Feb 8, 2:00 PM

A little more, but I can still see the sidewalk. The footprints are my Firstborn Daughter’s, who just walked back from her friend’s house, where they are planning to work on a sewing project together.

However, I think I found the formula to keep my Little One from escaping the house—the threat of a blizzard. (All of her friends live too far away, apparently.)

So we finally broke out that new Wii game she got for Christmas, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth, the last of the series, which we’ve been wanting to play for a long time.

So I haven’t gotten any more writing done so far today, but I have been able to spend some rare time with my daughter, which (in this case) actually is more important.

More than 900 calories later (and only about 32 grams of carbs), my hunger is finally satiated. Part of the problem with keeping track of what I eat is… I never decided how long I was going to do it, and now I don’t know when to stop. I have almost 4 weeks of data. Is that enough for a representative sample?

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UPDATE: Feb 8, 4:14 PM

Now that’s more like it. Still waiting for the “blizzard” part— That’s not a dare to God, by the way; just an observation from someone who’s lived most of his short life in New England.

The most interesting factoid, sent to me by a friend, is that “Nemo” is not the “official” (i.e., state-sanctioned) name for this storm. As you may know, I have a deep libertarian thread running through my politics, and this fact delights me to no end.

As the story goes, the demand to name winter storms developed organically on social networks, especially Twitter. The Weather Channel, seeing that they were in a position to benefit from having these storms named, approached the NWS and NOAA, who promptly did nothing useful. So TWC took the initiative.

According to The Verge:

The National Weather Service does not endorse the practice and has told forecasters not to use the name. A harried spokeswoman told The Verge that the government agency has never named storms and does not intend to start. “The Weather Channel started naming winter storms, that’s their project,” she said…

[Says Bryan Norcross, a Weather Channel meteorologist,] “[Critics] like the fact that the storms are named. They get that in this modern era of short communication, having a name makes it clearer. They just wish that the National Weather Service were doing it so that there wouldn’t be a competitive aspect to it… Because we’re a private business and a private entity, we can move faster than these agencies can move.”

It may feel as if a private entity has hijacked what should be a government function, especially considering the value it’s adding to The Weather Channel’s brand… But the fact is, having a name for the storm that’s battering the Northeast has been really helpful. Just ask the New York City Mayor’s Office, which started referring to the storm as “Nemo” almost immediately.

Ha!

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UPDATE: Feb 8, 6:10 PM

I wish I could remember what I’ve been doing for the last two hours. A typical afternoon-evening at the King house. A thousand little things. That’s why I get most of my work done in the morning and early afternoon.

We’re finally into the “blizzard” portion of the snowstorm… I think. Unfortunately, it’s too dark out to tell, really.

It may be difficult to see, because it’s so dark out (and the outside lights are not illuminating at the appropriate hour), but you can just barely follow the sidewalk. This is why:

One of the few advantages of renting an apartment in a complex. Not too thrilled with the disadvantages, though.

I did finally get an opportunity to get this picture taken, though:

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UPDATE: Feb 8, 10:51 PM

One more brief update for tonight.

I think I’ve finally found Nemo.

(You knew I had to work that pun in there at some point, right?)

It’s like a religious experience.

And my right foot is I think about to fall off.

Good night, cold world!

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UPDATE: Feb 9, 6:02 AM

I was awakened by an alarm, which wasn’t turned off to let us sleep in on Saturday— Oy. Since I was up, I figured I’d take a quick photo.

There’s still snow falling… or blowing around. Accumulation is up past the bottom of the front door. I know there are cars out there somewhere. And a sidewalk… maybe.

A better photo after the sun comes up.

Right now, I’m watching old Mythbusters on Netflix. I love old Mythbusters episodes. Better than the new ones.

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UPDATE: Feb 9, 10:31 AM

One more quick update.

See? I told you there were cars out there… I think…

Still a little snow, and a bunch of wind. But much better than overnight. Roads are still impassible.

Now, the digging out begins.

I’m collecting a bunch of storm photos from my friends to post on Monday.

Stay toasty!

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

What Else When the Power Goes Out?

I suspect that there may be an unusual number of new birthdays between Halloween and Thanksgiving this year.

(Too subtle? Remember that the power went out for a half-hour during the Superbowl? Now try counting the number of months from the Superbowl—the beginning of February—until the beginning of November.)

Unfortunately, You Have to Be a Computer Geek to Get This Joke

Told my doctor I was idempotent. He said he could give me something for it but it wouldn’t change anything.

(Tweeted by Ian Malpass)

Co-ink-ee-dink!

Here’s a cute story, by Sandra of Add Humor and Faith…mix well, about some astounding coincidences.

Frankly, I don’t think I would have taken this one so well. Had this happened to me, it would have totally wigged me out.

Tempe Brennan Would’ve Had a Field Day

You’ve probably heard this remarkable story by now. But if you haven’t, this is so kewl.

Faced with human remains unearthed from under a parking lot in Leicester, England, researchers took advantage of some fascinating 21′st-century forensic science to confirm that the bones were in fact—not those of Jimmy Hoffa—but were in fact the 528-year-old skeleton of King Richard III.

When I first saw a link to this story, I thought it was a hoax, or a joke, or something. Never expected the depth of the actual story.

Enterprise, Meet Nyan-Cat!

I ran across this gem by accident. Couldn’t resist reposting it.

(And already, I can hear my Little One—who is not so little any more—asking, “Cool! Where can I get a hat like that?!”)

The image appears to have been altered (i.e., “Photoshopped”) from a scene in the episode “Q Who,” just before Q appears. I wasn’t able to determine the original source of the altered image.

Personal Status

Character Fiction 101 — I’ve decided to release this as a series of units: short ebooks of 99¢ each. The first is “Writing a Character Story in 5 Easy Steps.” It was about ⅔ done, but then I decided to go back over it and double its size by fleshing out certain points (so that the essay can stand effectively on its own) and adding additional examples (to increase its value). I’ve completed all the major planning I should need (knock on wood). Final word target: about 10K words, which I plan to have basically finished by the end of next week.

Other writing projects are currently on hold, but I’ll switch to one of them, temporarily, once I release “Writing a Character Story.”

In other news: My Beloved darkened and shortened my hair. (Pictures to follow.) Apparently, my press agent contacted her and insisted that I take off about 10 years. (Just kidding.) This is also why, by the way, I am currently down to 181 pounds and 37½ inches (according to my inaccurate bathroom scale and maybe-accurate sewing tape measure, respectively). And I can almost fit into those “thin pants” that have been hanging in my closet, collecting dust.

Last week, I found out a friend of mind had started a diet around Christmas. He cut out sugar and other “high-calorie foods” (his words). And shed 20 pounds in a month and is now talking about, “How do I stop losing weight, because I’ve reached my weight goal?” Grrr…

(Seriously, though, I’m happy for him that he so easily found a diet that worked for him. On the other hand, I do not plan to “stop” losing weight, ever, nor to go back to my previous, much-less-healthy diet, ever.)

Today’s Quote

A fire station just isn’t a fire station without a pole.

(Paramedic John Gage, Emergency!)

That’s a Foundation Course (offered online) at MJTI, the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, taught by Dr. Jen Rosner.

This is a topic I have a deep interest in, as a Gentile dwelling in the land of Messiah.

I see a 1700-year-old chasm between the People of God and the People of God. And for the first time in history, a movement that is attempting to re-integrate the two. If I might be allowed a Star Trek reference, I feel like a Romulan dissident working with Spock to reunify my culture with that of the Vulcans.

Or in the more eloquent (though less geeky) words of Rabbi Mark Kinzer, from his essay “Prayer in Yeshua, Prayer in Israel: The Shema in Messianic Perspective” (see em>Israel’s Messiah and the People of God: A Vision for Messianic Jewish Covenant Fidelity, or the papers from Hashivenu 2007):

Messianic Judaism involves more than the subtle tweaking of an existing form of Jewish life and thought—adding a few elements required by faith in Yeshua and subtracting a few elements incompatible with that faith. Instead, the Judaism we have inherited—and continue to practice—is entirely bathed in the bright light of Yeshua’s revelation. In a circular and dynamic interaction, our Judaism provides us with the framework required to interpret Yeshua’s revelation even as it is reconfigured by that revelation. In this way our Judaism and our Yeshua-faith are organically and holistically “integrated.”

These Foundation Courses at MJTI are intended for laypeople and offered online (over the Internet). I’m taking mine for credit (toward a Foundation Certificate), but I know others who have audited some of these courses (at a discount). I’ve taken two so far, of varying quality. I hear through the grapevine that they’re still working out the kinks in the online Foundation Courses (and I believe it); however, the better of the two that I’ve taken was taught by Jen Rosner, and she clearly knows what she’s doing when it comes to online courses. I highly recommend her classes, including this one (sight unseen).

You can be sure, I’ll be writing more on this topic in these pages.

-TimK

P.S. You can see the “Jewish-Christian Relations” course description here, and register here.

P.P.S. I receive no monetary compensation from linking to MJTI or its courses (just in case you were wondering).

P.P.P.S. Check out this video (and part 2 and part 3 and part 4).

I stepped on the bathroom scale this morning, and it read 182 and change, for the fourth time in the last four days. If you recall, for most of last week my weight was hovering around 184, and I couldn’t figure out why. I still don’t know why; the best I can come up with is that I caught a cold on the 17th, and while I was sick, I was unable to lose weight (but there’s no good proof of that).

In my writing projects, I commonly hit stagnation blockages of a similar sort. You’d think I’d be used to them by now.

However, after not making any progress for almost a week (more precisely, 6 days), to see my weight drop to 182.8, then to 182.6, then to 182.4…

I experienced a bout of acute joy.

So much so that I felt inspired to take a quick photo in the mall bathroom mirror this morning.

My pants no longer stay up by themselves. (Seriously.) I dug out from the back of my dresser an old belt that used to be two sizes too small. It now fits my waist wonderfully, but pulls my jeans into a baggy bunch at the top. For the time being I guess I’ll have to wear my overshirt on the outside, so I don’t look too much like a homeless guy who can’t afford pants that actually fit.

(Compare the picture of me from this past August, after I had lost “only” ~10 pounds from the time my doctor had used the term “pre-diabetic”— OMG! I just realized, A/B comparing these photos, I really have gotten smaller, haven’t I? And not just from around the waist.)

Last week, though, to have tried, succeeded for a little, then to have begun failing (or stalling), I felt a little like life was playing mind games with me. No fun. Discouraging.

Small setbacks should never be a reason to stop trying. I don’t know how many times I’ve given up because of discouraging setbacks. I’ve lost count. But one of my resolutions (as it were) this year is to seek motivation to pursue the changes I believe in, even if they seem out of reach.

So months from now, after I’ve lost the 15 or so pounds I want to lose, and I’m struggling with some writing project or other that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and I’m afraid that I’ve reached the end of my emotional rope, I’m going to look back at this moment. I’m going to remember the time when I thought I wasn’t able to reach a healthy weight. And I’m going to keep chugging on.

When that time comes, you remind me of this.

Keep chugging on!

-TimK

After posting a “Bits & Pieces” post yesterday of over 1200 words, I suddenly realized that I had enough good material in there for a whole week of actual blog posts… if I made them a little shorter. And I’m thinking that would probably be a better approach. Starting today.

According to Weather.com, last night began a “wind chill advisory”:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A WIND CHILL ADVISORY… WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM [Thursday] EVENING TO 10 AM EST FRIDAY…

* HAZARD TYPES… DANGEROUSLY COLD WIND CHILLS.

* WIND CHILL READINGS… AS LOW AS 18 BELOW.

* TIMING… TONIGHT [Thursday] INTO FRIDAY MORNING. [Didn't we already do this part?]

* IMPACTS… HEIGHTENED THREAT OF FROSTBITE OR HYPOTHERMIA FOR THOSE VENTURING OUTSIDE. [I'll bet!]

[ . . . ]

LIMIT YOUR TIME OUTDOORS. REMEMBER TO DRESS IN LAYERS AND WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE COLD.

Yesterday [Thursday], it was so cold, I actually parked closer to the mall so I wouldn’t have to walk so far to get to Starbucks!

This morning, I didn’t even dare leave the car.

No, I’m not cold. My fingers are just falling off.

Stay frosty!

-TimK

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

Some Random Photos

Because I didn’t pull out an entertaining and interesting image for any of the other blurbs in this post. (Sorry.)

Personal Status Update

Most writers report on stuff like this on their blog. I usually don’t, and I suspect that if I did, I might make more progress. So I’d like to give it a try.

Writing projects:

1. I’ve restarted Character Fiction 101 from the beginning, using a new approach and new style (inspired in large part by Alton Brown’s cooking show Good Eats). I’ve begun with a rewrite of “Writing a Character Story in 5 Easy Steps,” and have completed the chapter intro and 2 of the 5 steps (~2,300 hard-won words total). I’m putting a lot of additional research and creativity into these pieces, and I hope to soon have a snippet to share.

2. I’m working toward a second edition of 1001 Character Quirks, now long long overdue, completely rewritten and expanded, with 18 chapters planned (so far). Much of the more general writing advice I’m focusing on in CF101, whereas 1001CQ will aim to be a comprehensive guide to character ideas. I haven’t figured out how I’m going to price these yet, but everyone who has the first edition of 1001CQ will get a free copy (at least a free ebook) of the second edition and CF101.

3. I’m taking a break from A Reason for Life (Ardor Point #2). At last count, I had 28 of 40 scenes “zero-drafted”. (That’s 70% through draft zero.) And 9 of the unfinished ones don’t even have complete entries in the outline. (That is, the outline itself is only 78% done.) This project has been an uphill battle, which I believe has little to do with the story itself; it’s just me.

Losing weight: I’m down to about 184 pounds, for a BMI of 26.8, and just about 39½ inches around the middle (when I’m not sucking it in). About 15 pounds heavier than I’d like to be, and a few inches thicker. And for the past week, I’ve been stuck there. At first, I thought it might be because I caught a cold (which I did). Then I thought it might be because I had a bout of delayed onset muscle soreness, after a day of exceptionally brisk and heavy walking. Now, I don’t know what. Sigh. I’m forced to consider that it might be…

Cutting out carbs: Since I began keeping track of the food I eat, I’ve averaged 60 grams of carbs per day. That’s slightly more than many low-carbers advocate. Considering the amount of walking I enjoy, I may need to be even stricter about limiting carbs (or slack off more). Sigh×2.

Tech-support Divining Rod

No, not even Microsoft’s call centers are that prescient.

Jeanette Cates reports on an offline/online phone scam that’s apparently been going on for (at least) a couple of years.

Jeanette received a call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft support, who had ostensibly noticed her computer sending “a virus” to their network. And with a healthy dose of skepticism (and a little common sense), Jeanette’s BS detector went off like a klaxon.

These scammers may try to get information from you, or to trick you into signing up for a fraudulent service, install a fraudulent product, or even giving them remote access to your computer. Here’s a Microsoft article—the real Microsoft—on support phone scams.

And in a trés kewl twist of Gotcha!, Kaspersky Lab security researcher David Jacoby—Don’t try this at home!—played along with the scammers… or pretended to, in an isolated test environment. Okay, the truth: he scammed them. And managed to get information on their operation, including phone numbers they were calling from, the IP address they were connecting from, and some PayPal accounts they were using. Ha!

What Will You Stop Worrying About Today?

Marc Chernoff posted a list of 7 things to stop worrying about today.

The thought comes to mind that we so often fret over things we can’t control. I myself know better, and do it anyhow. It’s, like, hard-wired into the brain. We tend to underestimate the problems we’ll encounter; but then when we do encounter them, we freak out and shut down.

In The Millionaire Mind (pp 135ff), Thomas Stanley lists dozens of mind-tricks self-made millionaires play on themselves to counter fear and worry with courage, including such obviousnesses like hard work, believing in oneself, preparation and planning, decisiveness, visualizing success, and focusing on key issues. “It’s easy to say what must be done,” he writes, “but it’s very difficult for the average person to develop courage spontaneously.”

It occurs to me that these tactics ought to be useful no matter what the challenge, whether saving a million dollars or just getting your kids to their soccer game on time.

Following a Piece of Paper

Perry Marshall has some trés kewl comments on college education and the school of hard knocks, inspired by a series of posts entitled “Hipsters on Food Stamps,” about the college-educated who otherwise can’t afford to make the grocery bill.

I don’t have a piece of paper, never completed my degree. (And I think I just heard several of my Jewish friends gasp, because they probably assumed the opposite.) And something else: I don’t miss it. Because I love learning, but I hate sitting bored in class. And when I indulge in online courses—as I often do—I’m paying for the knowledge and experience, not for the certificate.

I believe it was during my Sophomore year of college, I had to take Mechanics for Electrical Engineers—or something like that—taught by Professor Loooooong-and-Boring— Uh, actually, just “Professor Long.” The class met at 8 o’clock in the morning—way before when my body says I’m supposed to get up. They crammed about 50 students into a tiny basement room the size of a bathroom stall, but with no windows or ventilation of any sort. And Professor Long would—and I swear this is an actual memory—spend the entire hour talking to the blackboard in a monotone voice. And I actually paid to take that class… or rather, to skip it. Instead, I studied the book and showed up for the tests, and passed with an A. And I was not upset that I had paid extra for experience and knowledge that I could have gotten—and actually did get—simply by reading a book. I had paid extra in order to take a step toward my degree, which I never did complete; a step toward my diploma, which I never did receive.

But I don’t miss the diploma. What I do miss is many of the lessons I would have learned by going through the school of hard knocks, as Perry puts it, by following a mentor through the school of hard knocks, lessons I’m still learning now. This truth served, in part, as inspiration for the story “A Penchant for Cotton.”

(By the way, like Perry, I also didn’t agree with everything in the original “Hipsters with Food Stamps” posts. But they do drip with attitude, don’t they?)

Today’s Quote

I know. But doing the right thing is not the easy thing. And frequently not the happy thing.

(Cadence Drake, Warpaint, by Holly Lisle, p. 266)

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

Dropping like a Feather

This morning, my bathroom scale read 184.0. That’s about a pound less than it did last week. Slightly disappointing, as my food journal (which I just began this week) seems to indicate that just cheating even a little causes me to put on the pounds. I get just a whiff of that birthday cake, and my body responds by adding a pound of fat. Ugh.

But 184 pounds is also a confirmed 4 pounds less than 2 weeks ago— So on average, 2 pounds per week. And that’s encouraging. At this rate, I’ll weigh 176 (which is almost “normal”) by Valentine’s Day (knock on wood), and hopefully looking a lot more sexay.

As I write this, I’m just starting to get hungry for a morning snack, but that’s because I didn’t eat a full breakfast. All I had this morning was a 2oz hunk of colby-jack and a couple tablespoons of half-and-half (in my coffee), only 148 calories. Usually, I down 500-800 calories of artery-clogging fatty meat and cheese in the morning, and it keeps me satisfied until 3 or 4 PM (including a brisk morning walk). Today, I’ll probably grab some nuts from the grocery store so I don’t have to listen to my stomach growl. Unfortunately, there’s not much else available for cheap and on the go (that I feel like eating right now) that has few carbs, lots of fat, and no trans-fat.

So far this week (since I’ve been keeping track), I’ve averaged 1830 calories per day, and I have not gone hungry. Absolutely amazing, but typical for my experiences over the past month.

No Money for Me! (This is a recording…)

My fellow blogger, cohort, and online friend Jim “Suldog” Sullivan, who has worked for over 20 years recording telephone auto-attendant messages (as well as other voice work), recently lost his job in an unexpected and unceremonious layoff (which has nothing to do with the economy, BTW). Anyhow, you can guess what happened when he called the Department of Unemployment Assistance to file his unemployment insurance claim.

Yeah, that’s irony.

When Home Is in the Street

Danielle Strickland has spent the better of part of her life reaching out to youth living on the streets in Latin America. Reintegrating street children into society requires deep and consistent love and compassion, both to help them escape poverty and to allow them to let go of feelings that they are unloved and unwanted.

Such is the message of “When Home Is in the Street,” a new, 35-minute documentary by the Fetzer Institute, the International Center for the Study and Research on Children (CIESPI) at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and CODENI (a children’s rights collective in Guadalajara), in which Danielle Strickland serves as director.

“I went into it thinking we were going to enlighten the world and we, instead, were enlightened,” she says about the film. “Sometimes I think I’ve become numb. I’ve seen so much that I don’t let my emotions take hold when I see a 10-year-old drugged up by a pedophile. But when you’re with someone who sees it for the first time, it’s powerful.”

Produced by award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Thereza Jessouroun, “When Home Is in the Street” chronicles the hope-wrenching stories of youth who grew up on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Guadalajara, Mexico. The young people share how they came to live on the streets and how love and forgiveness are helping them break free from a life of drugs, prostitution, and crime.

“Brazil has many challenges in its education system,” said Irene Rizzini, director of CIESPI. “One of the greatest concerns is providing education to vulnerable children and youth. Street children are most often outside any education system. A second challenge is to convince the general public that street children deserve and are capable of a decent future because they are part of our human family.”

Watch the extended trailer:

The film debuts in the US:

• Monday January 28 at 6:30 PM at Boston College’s Robsham Theater and
• Tuesday January 29 at 6:30 PM at New York City’s Helen Mills Theater.

Both screenings are free and open to the public. (source and source)

Today’s Quote

That the official embrace of low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets coincided not with a national decline in weight and heart disease but with epidemics of both obesity and diabetes (both of which increase heart disease risk) should make any reasonable person question the underlying assumptions of the advice. But that’s not how people tend to think when confronted with evidence that one of their long-held beliefs is wrong. It’s not how we typically deal with cognitive dissonance.

(Gary Taubes, Why We Get Fat)

A few months ago, I reported that I had lost over 10 pounds and was finally able to fit into some of my old shirts again.

What I didn’t tell you is that I had lost most of that weight by early 2012, and that by the summer I had gotten stuck at 190-195 pounds, which is still about 20 pounds too heavy (and several inches too thick around the middle). As of the beginning of December, I still hadn’t lost any more weight (and may have gained some back), and I was sure my cholesterol numbers still hadn’t improved sufficiently, and my annual physical was coming up fast.

Then I caught a segment on John Stossel’s “Food Bunk” show, an interview with Gary Taubes and Dr. Peter Attia, cofounders of the Nutrition Science Initiative. I immediately sought out Gary Taubes’s latest two books, finally took my doctor’s advice (which I’ll get to in a moment), revised my diet, and as of Monday morning (when I happen to be writing this) my bathroom scale read 184.6. (That’s a whole 10 pounds off of what it said a month ago.)

“Maybe you should cut back on carbs.”

This is what my doctor had said to me, over a year ago. My weight was 205 pounds. My HDL cholesterol was way too low (26 mg/dL), and my triglycerides were through the roof (429 mg/dL). I believe the term “pre-diabetic” was somberly intoned at one point. He said that cutting back on carbs has been shown to improve cholesterol numbers.

I tried, kinda. But had only limited success. It’s exceptionally hard to cut back on carbs without loading up on fat, and I believed that fat was bad for a body and bad for my cholesterol. I of course knew of the Atkins diet. And I heard the paleo-dieters from time to time. And I believed very little of it. They all sounded like snake-oil salesmen or evangelists or conspiracy nuts (or sometimes all three).

In the interim, I read through Dr. Oz’s book, and began losing weight. But by this past September (about 3½ months ago), I was down to a low of 190 pounds (probably because I had cut way back on sugar and white flour), my HDL was up a little (30 mg/dL—still not nearly high enough), and my triglycerides were down a bunch (162 mg/dL—so much better, but still not nearly low enough).

My doctor gave me a prescription for Lipitor, at a low dose. And it probably did help with my cholesterol. However, by December, my weight (according to my bathroom scale) was back up to 195 (probably because I was eating more sweets on the weekends). And I was not fitting any easier into the smallest of my old shirts. And I knew that without shedding my spare tire, I’d probably never be able to get off the cholesterol and blood-pressure meds.

And then I saw the Gary Taubes/Peter Attia interview:

They promoted the idea that what we believe about nutrition is based substantially on politics, and not substantially on science. That the state of the science in nutrition and obesity research is abysmal, no where near as certain as we’ve been led to believe. And that what we eat may be more important than how much we eat. These all resonated with my concept-oriented, logical mind.

And then and only then did they start talking about what happened when they, each of them, cut back on carbs and loaded up on fat. Peter Attia, in particular, used to look like me, even though he did athletic activity 3-4 hours every day. Now he does stuff like flipping giant tires.

Okay… The way I’ve framed that is a little misleading. You’ll have to read his blog for details on his nutritional and athletic regimen. But what impressed me is that even though he has the exact same body type as I—maybe even a little pudgier—he looks nothing like me.

After numerous hours of additional research, I’ve now come to believe that nutrition and obesity research, as usually practiced, bears more in common with ghost hunting (as in this video that is probably not safe for work), bears more in common with pseudo-science than with scientific inquiry. Ghost hunters have fancy measurements and sciency-sounding terminology, too. But in reality, they’re several steps away from demonstrating that there even is a ghost, much less that it’s causing the phenomena they observe.

We accept this about “the science” of ghost-ology. But when it comes to nutrition, we believe the bullshit. We believe the observational studies, even though observational is just a sciency-sounding word for “anecdote.” Real science demands more than just anecdotes. It demands randomized control trials, or at least plausible and well-established underlying theories that together explain the hypothesis that you use to interpret the observation.

(This is also the problem with economics, by the way, and why no two economists can seem to agree.)

Even so, poorly conducted observational epidemiological studies are the norm. And people repeatedly refer to them as “proof” of new “scientific” discoveries in nutrition and obesity research, even though they’re really just large collections of anecdotal, circumstantial evidence, being used to prop up a pet theory and make it sound plausible. I could just as easily use these very same studies to “prove” that high-fat diets are good for you and protect you from disease. And in fact, some people have done so (sometimes seriously, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, and sometimes it’s hard to tell).

I can’t fault the average person for believing the bullshit, though… I had believed the bullshit.

Most of what we think we know about nutrition is probably wrong.

And so it was time, I realized, to reconsider.

I still had a number of concerns: in particular, that low-carb/high-fat diets are bad for one’s heart. But overweight is the big risk factor for heart disease, along with HDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations. (Low HDL is probably the single biggest risk factor.) So if I can shed the extra fat around the middle, lower my triglycerides, and raise my HDL, it probably doesn’t so much matter what I eat to get there.

[UPDATE: More recent research indicates that, on the contrary, the single biggest (and maybe only) risk of heart disease is the number of LDL particles in your blood (not size or amount of cholesterol).]

At the very least, cutting out sugar, refined flour, and white rice is probably safe and wise. And that’s where I started (again). But as my research progressed, I came to the conclusion that a high-fat diet is definitely worth trying and that it is probably much safer for me than a high-carb diet.

[UPDATE: As it turns out, when people eating the standard American diet cut down on carbs, they tend to eat about the same amount of fat and protein, but they remain fuller longer, because their body is also using energy from excess fat storage, and so they eat fewer calories and lose weight. I do not have specific food-log records going back far enough to confirm whether or not this was true in my case.]

And randomized trials over the past decade have consistently shown that low-carb diets are heart-healthy, as in this recent study out of Stanford (video).

Beginning in mid-December, I gradually reduced my carb intake over a week or two—not because I had planned it that way; just because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing at the time (and it’s too late to go back and do it again now). By the time of my annual physical on January 3, my weight had dropped from 195 to 188 pounds. My HDL was up (36 mg/dL—almost normal), and my triglycerides down (139 mg/dL—well into the safe range).

(These cholesterol numbers are almost certainly at least in part due to the statin drug I’m taking, but my eventual goal is to shed all the meds.)

By now I’m ringing in at around 185 pounds, and still shrinking. I’ve also started keeping a weight journal and a food journal, which I will post as I share my progress. I was actually surprised, the first day of journaling, how many carbs I’m still eating. Carbs are everywhere in the modern diet, thanks to USDA recommendations, and they’re almost impossible to avoid… even sugar and refined starches.

A few years ago, I jabbed fun at a couple recipes found online: the bacon-wrapped turducken and the woven bacon cheese roll.

To mock the latter, I quoted Frasier, “[Eggs in a nest.] Ah, yes, the Crane family specialty. Fried eggs, swimming in fat, served in a delightfully hollowed out piece of white bread. I can almost hear my left ventricle slamming shut as I speak.”

To which Martin replied, “Do you want cheese on that?”

“No, I’d like to leave some blood flow for the clot to go swiftly to my brain.”

Everyone gets this joke, because of what we think we know about nutrition.

But now, I’m realizing that, contrary to popular belief, none of these foods are likely to make you fat or to clog up your arteries… except for the white bread.

-TimK

Something a little different and quirky and reminiscent (in a good way) today.

If you have young kids and you’ve never heard of Billy Grisack, you’ll want to hear this.

If you have ever had young kids (like me), and you want to remember the good times, like dancing and jumping to fun and energetic music, stuff that we old fogies find it ever increasingly difficult to pull off ourselves (without looking stupid)… Sigh.

I so wish I had known Mr. Billy on the Internet when my girls were that age. That would’ve been fun. Not that we didn’t have fun with Lionel and his Ice Cream Songs, because we did. But he never released 12 CD’s in 12 months— which Mr. Billy did in 2012, and frankly, I don’t know how he’s gonna top that. (Do any of you fellow indie authors want to publish 12 books in 12 months? Or would that be “13 books in 13 months for 2013″?)

So… breaking from the bookish meme that is “Teaser Tuesdays” (which I do occasionally), and for the little kid in all of us (and right now jumping on the bed of some of us), and with allusions to Jurassic Park (which has never traumatized the little kid inside of you), here enjoy Mr. Billy’s “I Like Dinosaurs” music video:

-TimK

Right about now, you may be feeling that urge, which hits sometime during the first couple of months of every year, the urge to forget the New Year’s resolutions to which you had so daringly committed only weeks ago. After all, you’ve already eaten that cake, skipped that workout session, smoked that cigarette… whatever. You tried, you failed.

But if the resolution was a good idea to start with—good enough for you to resolve to do it in the first place—then it’s probably still a good idea now. And giving up on resolutions, it seems to me, may be the sign of an addiction.

What do I mean by that? I’m glad you asked.

The thought first occurred to me while suffering from a long bout of writer’s block. Now, I don’t actually believe in “writer’s block”… but it’s kinda hard not to believe in it when you’re stuck in the middle of it.

What was happening was, there was always something more “important” or “urgent” that kept me from making significant progress with any of my large-scale writing projects. Things like blog posts and exercising and doing the budget and eating lunch and following Facebook and watching TV in the bathtub.

In reality, of course, life was not overwhelming me. But I was allowing it to overwhelm me; I was actually turning to distraction in order to avoid bad feelings and insecurities that I had associated with larger writing projects. I could always claim, “Those blog posts are important, because I plan to collect them into a publishable ebook” (which was the truth). But as soon as I’d try to put together even an outline for such a book, my brain would freeze; and never mind the work to collect the relevant blog posts and rewrite them to fit into the book. After a couple years of this (yes, years), the joy of completing a larger project seemed a distant memory, now perpetually out of reach, and that just made me feel even worse. And my self-doubts and self-criticisms only served to support those feelings.

Through much soul-searching and the support of friends, I finally realized that, believe it or not, I was addicted to writer’s block.

Think about it. What are the characteristics of an addiction? Different analysts identify different characteristics for different addictions. But they’re all similar, and lists will commonly include items like:

• You spend too much time on or repeatedly overindulge in the habit.
• You think all the time about the habit, can’t pull your mind from it.
• You need to do more and more of the habit (or engage in more and more daring variations of it) in order to get the same rush.
• You know the habit is bad for you, but you keep doing it anyway.
• You feel negative symptoms when you try to avoid the habit.
• You’ve tried to quit in the past, but always unsuccessfully.

All of these applied to my addiction of writer’s block.

And they apply to many of the changes we make New Year’s resolutions about, too. Especially the last item: every time you try to do the right thing, and fail, it can make you feel that much more lost, like your goal is that much more out of reach. So much so that some people don’t even bother to make New Year’s resolutions anymore, or mid-year resolutions or quarter-year resolutions or just-for-the-halibut resolutions; they refuse to pursue any changes in their lives at all.

But the truth about resolution failure is much brighter. As psychologists Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell wrote in Freedom from Addiciton: The secret behind successful addiction busting:

Contrary to popular belief, the more times you try to stop, the more likely you are to stop your problem activity eventually… Nobody wakes up one morning and just stops being addicted… Emotionally, over time, you will have identified more and more with your addictive habit and progressively built a lifestyle around it. That doesn’t just evaporate in a second. Just as it takes time for the addictive activity to take up a progressively greater proportion of your life, so it takes time for change to be put into place.

Now, not every missed New Year’s resolution is a sign of addiction. And not every writer’s block is an addiction. Writer’s block can be caused by numerous things, including stress, lack of preparation, physical illness, and drug side-effects. And missed resolutions can also be caused by a whole host of factors.

But figuring out how to navigate those factors is part of making a change in your life. And if you feel like giving up on your New Year’s resolution, maybe that’s just a sign that you should try again, try something else, try something different, keep trying to succeed.

Here’s to a healthy and prosperous new year!

-TimK

The job sounded simple enough; locate a space miner’s missing wives. Quick. Easy. Painless. This was not supposed to have anything to do with the damned Legends. This was supposed to have been a milk run, a simple job of locating two women who’d extended their vacation without notice and getting them back home to their worried, waiting husband…

After the hectic of the holidays, I settled down with Warpaint, the second installment of Holly Lisle’s Cadence Drake series, which was released last month to much personal fanfare— The Little One (who’s not so little any more) and I had been waiting for it for a long time. See, the first title in the series, Hunting the Corrigan’s Blood, came out in 1997, hit the Locus best-seller list, and sold out its first printing, at which point the publisher promptly canceled the series. (Corporate reorgs are a bitch.)

The Little One and I have been waiting not-quite-since-1997 for the sequel, but we have been waiting, and hoping. HCTB was one of those stories whose characters have staying power, that having read it, I felt a profound loss at having finished it. I so wanted to continue on with Cadence Drake that (for a time) I had trouble getting excited over reading anything else.

Then Holly got fed up with the publishing industry, went indie, personally republished a bunch of titles from her backlist, and began working on the sequel to HCTB (which was originally supposed to be the first of, like, 10 titles). Warpaint went up on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and other sites last month.

So I figured, with the new year now fully in flow, I would start on Warpaint (planning to go back and read it again with my daughter) and post a teaser. Unfortunately, I couldn’t put it down, and now I’ve already finished it, even before the first Tuesday post. Hrm.

No matter, I’m still posting a teaser today. (Hope to work on a fuller review, for my ebook-reviews site, later today.)

Today’s extended teaser, from Kindle Locations 165-171, 174-179 of Warpaint:

I had the long blonde hair and blue eyes of Candibelle on the stage at that moment, the coffee-with-a-touch-of-cream skin of Torch—who looked anatomically impossible to me—and the Old Earth Asian cast to my features, including the almond eyes and epicanthic fold, of the drink girl who’d just asked me if I wanted to buy a lap dance from any of the girls on stage. All of that courtesy of three biological fathers, and the psychotic mother who’d bought their genes and paid some illegal gene-hack to rearrange them to make me. On the other side of the equation, I had my mother’s height, and the solid muscle I’d earned living at two Gs aboard my ship and working all those muscles through daily combat routines. And I was wearing a ship suit, which fit like skin because it was designed to stay out of the way…

My client had contacted me as my alias, JT Loggins. The real JT Loggins had been murdered by space pirates, and one of Storm Rat’s minions had identified the body during a salvage sweep, and had grabbed all details of her identity, which Storm Rat had cleaned for resale—JT had been from some low-tech world with abysmal document security, so Storm Rat had been able to alter the few records that described her short, miserable arc through existence to make her look like me. Not having to have melanin lifts or bone restructuring or any of the other things I’d had to live through to get the job done in the past was a surprising benefit to being officially dead. It was, as far as I could tell, the only benefit.

---

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I’m trying a variation on the mainstream “Teaser Tuesdays” concept. Instead of quoting two sentences from a random page in the book, I’m selecting a snippet that reflects qualities I find in the book.

-TimK

Links and things that I’ve run across recently.

The Most Important Lesson I Learned This Christmas

Give the gift you would most like to have for the Yankee Swap. That way, when you get stuck with it at the end, you won’t be so disappointed.

If You Forgot to Get Holiday Gifts for Your Favorite Authors…

… check out this free, short ebook by Glenda Watson Hyatt: Become a Raving, Cheering Book Lover: A Guide to Sharing Your Favourite Amazon Books

The Customer Is Not Always Right…

… but a real person nonetheless. What happens when a falling-down drunk idiot tries to hold up a gas station with a cap gun, in front of four cops?

A Sci-Fi Conundrum

As computers do more and more, they’ll have to start making ethical choices for us, too. Think not? Well, in case of an impending accident, which ethical standards will govern your driverless car?

The Envy Cure

John Carlton’s classic. Keep in mind that which you cannot see.

Today’s Quote

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

(Jim Rohn. “The Formula for Success (and Failure).”)

Success is not a single, cataclysmic event. No one’s going to discover you… You don’t win overnight. Instead, success is a few correct choices repeated every day.

(Dave Ramsey. The Dave Ramsey Show, October 25, 2012.)