Old World Swine

Prayers for the Grieving

Please remember to pray (or pray again) for the people of Szechuan province in China. The quake hit in the middle of the afternoon, and it seems there are so many schoolchildren who died or are still buried under the rubble. That hits close to home. I need only think of my own kids.

To the wall! Take up your weapons (rosaries)!

Transforming Culture

Many thanks to Jim Jankengt for his write-up on the Transforming Culture symposium. Read about it on his blog.

Wish I had been there, but very glad to hear about it first hand.

A Higher Aesthetic?

Over at Jimmy Akin's blog, he asks why so much of Christian art is so awful. Someone pointed out (rightly) that cheap mass production is a great challenge to the market for original art, and also contributes to a "dumbing down" of the market as a whole... Christian or not. I responded partly with the assertion that people...

" ...may not know or appreciate... that the viewing of original art is an experience of a much higher order, like the difference between listening to a classical music CD in your car (which is nice) and attending a real, live concert by a full orchestra (which can bring tears and make your hairs stand on end)."

Someone took exception to that (Gasp! Contrarianism on the internet?), so I clarified;

"I enjoy a good deal of modern music that is obviously made *for* reproduction. It is manufactured piece by piece, carefully assembled and tweaked, and then mass produced. That's more analogous to television than to painting or sculpture.

Orchestral concerts are not that way. It's partly about acoustics and the way the sound envelops the audience at a live orchestra concert... but as you say, the analogy is imperfect.

Good paintings reward close inspection, and reveal more depth as a viewer approaches. This is part of the experience of a piece of fine art... the approach. The piece must hold together from across the room, from a middle distance, and ultimately should draw the viewer in and allow them to experience continually deepening subtleties of transparency, texture and expressive brushwork, etc...

Much of this is lost or flattened out in a reproduction. There are color effects to some paintings, especially certain masterworks (the Flemish were just crazy good at this sort of thing) that simply can't be duplicated mechanically.

In fact, this is how paintings often fail... by looking okay from a distance, or in reproduction, but falling apart on closer inspection. Dull brushwork, flat color, overworked or muddy passages, might be overlooked somewhat, in a print, but in person these shortcomings are revealed.

Art that *does* have this kind of depth MUST be seen in person to be fully appreciated. This experience is a gift from the artist to everyone that views the piece, now or 500 years from now. That is one reason why original fine art is categorically an experience of a higher order than viewing mass-produced art."

Questions? Comments? Cantankerous Quibbles?

A Cool Name for a Nerdy Hobby

Look at me! What my dad used to call "common sense" has been re-branded as "hyper-miling", and I'm taking full advantage, trying to demonstrate to my kids that behaving like a miser can be both phat and dope.

Basically, hyper-miling is a way (or a number of ways) of squeezing every last yard out of a tank of gas. Though I can't quantify it yet (not having run out a full tank of gas and crunched the numbers) I have already seen improvement in miles-per-gallon based only on how fast my fuel gauge has been moving.

There are a lot tips and tricks that can help you get farther on the pricey gas we're all buying now. I have been using only a few of these methods, and I've seen a difference. Some of them, like I said, are just common sense, some of them I had not known or thought of, and some of them might actually be inadvisable if you want to stay on good terms with other drivers and not tangle traffic. Use your best judgment.

I won't be using everything in the truly dedicated hypermiler's bag of tricks, but here's what I have done in just the last few weeks:

First, I have slowed down, shaving probably 5 mph off my previous speeds. That means driving almost always in the "slow" lane on the right side of the freeway, which bothers me not at all. It's less stressful over there (except for the occasional merging driver) and I never even blink, now, when I see a police cruiser. I also drive more slowly in town. I find on most trips I don't lose more than 3 minutes, even on my commute to work (37 miles, or so). That's not enough to even think about.

Then, I followed advice I read on a hypermiling website and inflated my tires to the maximum recommended pressure on the tire sidewall. Again, I saw a slight but noticeable improvement in mileage.

I also unloaded 100 pounds of camping equipment out of my car. That would be one of those common sense things...

In addition, I have been generally much more aware of "engine load". In town, I keep a sharper eye out for red lights ahead, and usually begin coasting almost immediately - sometimes in neutral -  rather than running up to the intersection like I was late for something. I coast down big hills in neutral, which drops engine RPMs considerably. Yesterday on the freeway, I drafted a big 18 wheeler for at least five miles, which felt kind of like cheating - only without being immoral and making me a jerk. It was kind of cool (yes, I kept a safe distance... a few car lengths).

Next, when I change my engine oil, I plan to put in the lowest viscosity oil recommended for my engine. A thinner oil makes the engine run more freely (though older engines may need oil with a greater viscosity to reduce wear). You will want to make sure and change your oil according to your car owner's manual specifications (usually around every 3000 miles).

Hey, it saves money, reduces demand for oil, helps the environment, and it is kind of fun in a geeky sort of way. Next time I fill up, I'll set my trip odometer, figure my *new* gas mileage and report back.

(Take a gander at the Ultimate Guide to Hypermiling)

Do The Lighten Up

In solidarity with Sean at the Blue Boar, as well as all my fellow doughy and out-of-shape bloggers (and readers) looking to better themselves, I am throwing down the cutlet, and am going public with a fitness plan of my own, starting today.

Diet is an important part of it, of course, but the BIG thing - the crux of the biscuit - will be exercise.

I normally diet pretty successfully using a low-carb plan that works for me. I've lost probably fifteen pounds over the last year that way, but my weight has been hovering stubbornly between 215 and 218, which is not where I want to be. I know from experience that my body responds very well (and surprisingly quickly) to physical exercise, but finding the time (now that I have a day job) and the right routine (challenging, but within reach) at the right price (free) has been tricky.

For one thing, I have a family with whom I only get to spend a few waking hours each evening (excluding weekends). Carving an hour out of that time every day to accommodate my exercise routine is a non-starter. I have also always felt a twinge of guilt about spending that kind of time on myself, when there are inevitably chores to be done or a checkbook to balance, or what have you. I so have to get over that. It's not selfish to look after your health. In fact, it may mean living a lot longer and feeling better in the meantime, which means as much to your family as it does to you.

There are a few chores that I can use to good effect in terms of fitness (mowing the grass, mopping, etc...) but most household chores won't really do as a cardio workout, which is what I need. My kids are also at that magical age (they're both teens, now) when "working out with dad" doesn't hold the same charm for them as it might have when they were six. Making it a family activity would mean probably me working out and them either trying hard to ignore me, or eating popcorn and laughing (that might sound like a cheap alternative to basic cable, but I'll pass).

The good news is that I have finally dug out and set up what exercise equipment I have in a spare room, and will be able to use weights to complement my cardio routine (walking & bicycling, indoors and out). Having mulled it over for a while, I think my best bet will be to wake up early and exercise before my morning shower. This will take some doing, because - as I have confessed in other posts - I am not a morning person. For a while after I get out of bed, I'm as dopey as a three-toed sloth mainlining cough syrup. But if I can manage to get to bed a little earlier, I think I can get myself up at 5:00 every morning. Walking will probably wake me up more quickly than normal, and that might even help to make my morning prayers more coherent. And speaking of prayer... if you can spare some prayer time for me, please pray that I will be given the self-discipline to stick with this.

I plan to exercise at least 5 times a week this way, in addition to maintaining my diet. My goal is to get below 200 pounds, and I hope to accomplish this in five weeks. I don't think that is unreasonable. I would like to get down closer to 190 eventually, but I'll be tickled every shade of pink to get below 200. I once asked my doctor to calculate my ideal weight, which he did, but his opinion was that if I hit that weight (172 pounds) I would "look like a Biafran"... guess I'm "big boned" (heh).

I'll be posting with progress reports as I lighten up. Incidentally, the title of this post is a play on the song "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells.

Oh, Not Again...

Science News online reports;

"Researchers have demonstrated a new type of electronic component that could replace transistors as the building blocks of computer chips, and lead to faster, more powerful and less energy-thirsty computers."

Called a "memristor", the component promises even smaller electronic devices, which is bad, because two days ago I sneezed while talking on my cellphone and haven't seen the thing since. That's nothing. Last month I misplaced my wife's digital camera. I found it later in a drawer. Under a postage stamp.

Incidentally, did you know that there is eight times more computing power in your average cell phone than there was on any of the Apollo spacecraft? And speaking of that, see the documentary Moonshot, if you can. It's the film adaptation of the book by astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, in which we discover that it wasn't rocket fuel that got us to the moon, it was big, brass cojones.