Okay, I'm learning how to juggle for the LSAT, but that's not something I can do for hours at a time. A brain can build an entire infrastructure it didn't have before only so fast. In the meantime I'm also working on a new nonfiction book.
Nonfiction books aren't like novels. You can shop a nonfiction book with publishers and agents with just a couple of finely written chapters and a solid outline. As well as plenty of documentation. That's something I can set up before I get back to work on the LSAT again in earnest.
This new book is a Gnostic view of fat and obesity. And believe me - the Gnosis has a lot to say about our hysteria over fat.
I've learned a lot about obesity. Among other things...
1. Fat people with high blood pressure don't get killed by it. Normal weight and under weight people do.
2. In the Harvard Alumni Study, among men who burn at least two thousand calories a week in exercise, the single best predictor of how long they lived was how much weight they put on. In other words, the more weight men like that put on the longer they lived.
3. It's dangerous to diet if you were born to be overweight. Because you'll almost always put that weight back on even if one day you are finally able to keep the weight off permanently. It's when you put the weight back on that you permanently damage your body's ability to produce healthy HDL cholesterol. And that's just one of the bad things that happen when you diet.
4. Physically fit men who are overweight but not obese live the longest! I'll probably bury all those guys with the washboard abs I was so jealous of.
5. Fat people have superior health outcomes in areas like cancer, emphysema, bronchitis, and osteoporosis.
The book is called The Fattie Militant, and I've modeled that turn of phrase on The Church Militant. The outline alone on this thing has grown to 14 pages, and I'm very proud of what I've done so far. Frankly it's the most original thinking I've ever seen on fat and obesity. It's elegant, quick, comprehensive, unimpeachable, and gorgeous.
I'll blog more on this later - much later. I don't have internet access at home so it's impossible to keep up with MySpace like I used to. In another couple of months that'll all change for the better.
When last I visited MySpace I declared to all the world I was going to be a lawyer.
Imagine!
Well, I started working on the LSAT - the law school entrance exam - and I slowly, painfully moved from the 50th percentile (half do better; half do worse) up to the 90th. Now only ten percent of college graduates taking the LSAT can do it better than me.
But I want to get either into Harvard or the University of Texas at Austin on a scholarship. That last one's harder than you think - it's one of the ten hardest law schools to get into. And to do that I need to score in the top 1%. But I've run into a roadblock.
LSAT is made up of three parts: Logical Thinking, Reading Comprehension, and Analytical Thinking. The first two I Phi Slamma Jamm all over; but that last one really kicks my ass. I do so bad that I'd really started to think I was just missing a part of my brain. I mean - I learned how to get organized for those things, but I could never get up to speed.
So one day while meditating on this I had a brain storm. I saw that in the Logical Thinking and Reading Comprehension sections, I was passively pulling information out of statements. But in the section on Analytical Thinking - also known as the Logic Games - I was juggling. It's hard to explain - so I won't - but I realized I really was confronting a well known blindside of mine. I've never been able to track more than one object in motion at a time. So...
I started juggling!
Well, after a couple of months of thrashing around haplessly the lights are suddenly started to click on in my head. With each passing week I'm getting closer and closer to actually being able to juggle three baseballs. I'll try to be up to four by the end of August, then I'll start back on the LSAT prep so I can test in October. God I hope this works.
So far it's shaping up pretty well. I'm evidently a very slow learner here - which confirms that I'm working on a major blind spot. Also, right after I started juggling I read about a German study of several dozen non-jugglers. Half learned how to juggle over a six month period, and half didn't (those are the controls). Both groups had before-and-after brain scans.
Well, the brains of people who were learning how to juggle actually grew in the parts meant for juggling. They had more neurons, and those neurons had thicker connections among them.
I've also been doing a lot of aerobic exercise, because the brain grows new neurons during cardio exercises. If you're not learning anything those new neurons will die. But if you are, they mature and migrate to the parts of the brain they need to go to help you learn. That takes about four months. So in four to six months I'll have a whole new set of mental tools to attack the LSAT with, and I hope they're the tools I'd been missing but desperately needed all along.
Finally found out what ’Krapek’ means.
Category: Blogging
I’ve known forever that my last name is Czech. But yesterday I met a guy from the Czech Republic and he told me what it means.
He said it means "Dripping Water," and he said it’s like water slowly dripping in an underground cave; building up stalactites and stalagmites. If you’ve never been to someplace like Carlsbad Caverns you wouldn’t know how beautiful those things can get. Sometimes you’d think you were standing in a cathedral. Once I was googling ’Krapek’ and I’d come across some site talking about stalactites and stalagmites; but it was in Czech and I couldn’t understand anything in it. I thought it was strange.
’Krapek’ is the perfect image of an introvert - which is what I am. I don’t have a lot in common with the people in my family as I know them - or with the general population of this very extroverted country - but apparently I do have a lot in common with some unknown ancestor in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
You know, when I was a kid in the state home in West Texas we’d always go to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. I got tired of it. And it’s the only weird place I’ve ever visited. Now I see the experience as a series of synchronicities trying help me understand the nature of my fairly rare personality. I like it a lot! For one thing I’m a late bloomer - these rooms take millions of years to build up. And for another it’s further confirmed my conviction that I’m about to take off in this mean old world. Stand back and enjoy the fireworks!
The Czech guy was very impressed with my name. He said it was quite rare - something I’m quite familiar with here in the States.
And oh yeah - it’s actually pronounced CRAP-ek and not the KRAY-pek I’ve always insisted on.
(Oy.)
And you know what? ’Krapek’ is also a very Jungian image - and if I could identify myself as anything it would be Jungian. Water... Underground... Secret Treasures... All part of the individuation process. Which is, of course, exactly when the synchronicities start to pop.
Gospel of Peter I: Form Giving Maleness
Current mood: tired
Category: Religion and Philosophy
As promised: a blog on the Gospel of Peter. This will be the first of at least four parts, and will deal with the motif of the "two men," and how it ties in with the dream I just blogged on.
All of the quotes from the various scriptures had already been gathered and commented on before the dream, although all the narration tying them together has just been finished.
Upon reflection I see that my dream was even more "Christian" than I thought. I'll go over more of it after I'm finished with the commentary on this gospel.
The results of the Iowa caucus are heartwarming. The American people are finally starting to stand up for themselves after almost thirty years of social paralysis.
My favorite gnostic - the Bishop Stephan Hoeller - does a Tarot card reading for the United States every year and his reading for 2008 has just been released. So far he's done very well for himself. In my opinion the caucus results confirm his reading for the year 2007.
I had a dream provoked by an incident on New Year's Day. I thought it was so important I had to blog on it. Soon I'll post a follow-up blog on the Gospel of Peter, which has motifs strongly connected to this dream and others I've had the last couple of years.
God I’m Glad the Holidays are Over.
Current mood: happy
Category: Life
I'm waiting on tables again for the first time in years, and I'd forgotten how much it sucks to work in the service industry over the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Yesterday I ran my ass off after the Cotton Bowl let out and I had to deal with a bunch of bumpkins from Arkansas. Judgmental attitudes flew. In fact it triggered a dream I may blog on.
Of course, I love my family and friends, but I've really wanted to focus on the LSAT. I've never been so dedicated to something in my life! The diversions from work and the Holidays were getting on my nerves.
Hope everyone is doing well. I have a very good feeling about the coming year.
I'm going to post a few more blogs. School starts back up for me January 14th and I have a lot to talk about before I get too busy again to do anything here.
I'm getting ready to get my undergrad degree, and right after that I'm going to law school. I'll be taking the LSAT in February and by golly it's the hardest test I've ever taken in my life.
I'd been working on a video blog on the Gospel of Peter, but because it's turned into a monster (five parts so far!!) I'm not able to finish it.
adventurous
tired
determined
happy
adored
scared
depressed