Private obsessions

I haven't posted much lately. The reason why is that my recent obsessions haven't been fit for public posting. Some ideas are private. I'll try to explain why.

I have a very active inner process. At any given time, a large amount of my cognitive resources are devoted to figuring out what I'm feeling and what that feeling means. The subjective experience of what goes on inside is difficult to describe. I'm aware of internal impressions and artifacts which I label "energy", "chakras", "meridians", "acu-points" and other names which come from new-age and eastern mysticism.

However, I do not talk about these things. For one, I don't adequately have the words to describe them. All of these words that I apply are in some sense bullshit. Chakras are supposed to be "whirling vortices of energy", Kundalini is supposed to be "latent energy which sits at the bottom of the spine", and Meridians are supposed to be "channels through which energy flows". However, these things absolutely do not correspond to physical structures in the body, and no imaging techniques can capture them. Even when I use words like "meridian" with myself, I put them in scare quotes.

For two, due to the subjective nature of the experiences I have, they are uninteresting at best to other people, and at the worst they are crack-pottery. I've heard other people ramble on about how their energy feels and what color their heart chakra is and it disgusts me. Even if another person had similar somatic experiences as I have, I feel like the true domain of knowledge of the experience is personal and is not to be shared.

For three, I cannot give any evidence of my experience. I cannot show another person what it is like to be me, and thus even if I could describe what I feel, it would be meaningless. Of course, it might have meaning if they felt the same things I did, but in that case there would be no need to speak about it since the same process would exist within each of us.

So, how much can I share about the things I've been obsessing over lately? Even if I wanted to, the answer would be "not much". They are all internal and they are all meaningless without adequate words and access to the first-hand experiences. I wish there were some way to share these experiences with others; I feel that I might be truly understood that way. Maybe someday technology will exist to allow such a link. But for now, like all mortal beings, I remain stranded on the island that is my body.

This is how you know it's an obsession

You know it's an obsession when you're unable to take time away from it to write about your obsessions in your blog which is solely designed to write about your obsessions. Thus was my last, which is thankfully no more. It's a stupid iPhone game called Galaxy On Fire 2. In the last couple of weeks I've spent 61 hours playing it. I know this because the stupid game keeps track. Anyway, I'm done.

My new thing is learning Spanish. I recommend getting the BrainScape app for learning anything. It's a flashcard app with a small twist, but the system is remarkably better than normal flashcards. When you answer a question, you rate your knowledge of the answer subjectively from 1 to 5. The lower your rate it, the shorter the time period before it comes up again. It's super effective.

Update on the xwords - my first puzzle will be published in the NYT on Friday 3/23. There may be a shortage of papers in San Francisco that day because I will be buying all of them.

Trainyard is so good

I close my eyes and see trains.

iPhone puzzle games

There are a bunch of great puzzle games on the iPhone. However, none compare to Trainyard. This is by far the best puzzle game I've played since SpaceChem.

I think I have a problem

Whitney Houston died, and my first thought was this:



On the plus side, I think I'm reaching the Bruce Lee stage of crossword construction. On the minus side, I'm losing my humanity.

Errata

How is it that I can't play NAZI in Words With Friends? Damned socialists.

Also, hummus is excellent on fish tacos.

Crossword for class

I wrote a crossword puzzle for my class. Long story. Here's the result. Enjoy!

Here's a printable file

Here's one you can solve on a computer

If you want to solve it on a computer, you can download the free software here.

Crossword puzzle that was published today

I guess it's ok for me to put this on the web now. Have a look!

Puzzle

Big week

So far this week, I have done the following:

• Cooked a prime rib
• Deep cleaned the bathroom
• Prepared and gave a 20 minute presentation in class
• Written three crossword puzzles
• DJed a 5-hour set at a party

Things I have not done this week:

• Get enough sleep
• Go to the gym
• Beat Erica at Words with Friends

DJ Playlist

The party last week was really fun, and the new music was a hit. I made a Spotify playlist! Enjoy.

Awesome DJ music

These DJ hands will be spinning

DJing a party tonight! I found a bunch of cool music I like. I've learned that I'm a fan of a genre of music called "Complextro". Whatever.

Tomahawk - BT and Adam K

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M_XETcoHE4&ob=av2e

Acid Wolfpack - Coyote Kisses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyORw8bee4o

Icarus - Madeon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50KFz_wzZeQ

Crossword syndicate is a go

I have a puzzle running in the Harvard Crimson next week. The theme is "bodily fluids".

That's a joke.

Possible crossword syndication

I was recently contacted to be a part of a crossword making group that will be published in college newspapers. The guy could be genuine or full of it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he's not trying to get my bank account or something like that. If he's for real and you're in college, you might get to see more of my work.

The Hunger Games, again

Finished the third book. All I can say is that my early enthusiasm for book one turned to dread by the end of the third.

I'll try not to give too much away here, but there may be inadvertent spoilers.

The first book was tightly written with a believable, self-consistent plot device that drove the action forward. There was a logic to it and a sense of justice. It felt like the good could overcome the bad even in the most dire of circumstances.

By the end of the third book, that moral compass had been flipped on its head. The bad overcame the good just when you thought everything would be ok. So many likable characters ended up dead in such quick succession that I started questioning if there would be anyone around to finish the book.

To me, the third book had the same emotional landscape as a movie called "House of 1000 Corpses", directed by Rob Zombie. It's a torture porn movie (like "Saw" or "Hostel"). In the first half, you get to know a chummy group of 4 college age friends on a road trip. In the second half, you get to watch them be tortured to death.

The Hunger Games

I loved it. It sucked me in and was totally worth the entire day I spent reading it.

Structured Procrastination

Shout out to Teresa, who sent me this link: http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

It's an amazing idea - we never get the thing done that's highest on our list of priorities. However, if we can structure our procrastinating to get done other things that are important, we will be endlessly productive.

I find that if I have a todo list, I'm never getting done the most important thing on the list. However, as long as I stick to items on the list and I'm getting one of them done, I'm being truly productive.

Words with Friends

This game has taken up about an hour of my day every day since I've got it. It's wonderful. I don't know how I never got in to scrabble when I was younger, but I regret it now since I'm getting beat left and right.

One thing I've noticed is that my opponents' personalities come through very clearly in this game. One is more flashy, one is more timid, one is more careful, and the words and strategy that follow are in tune with these characteristics.

Maybe there's room for a new type of personality test based on competitive/artistic strategy games.

Crosswords

I think I'm going to get back on the wagon with crosswords. My target is one per month. I have some friends who are pretty much stuck at home with a newborn. These two are probably the most pun-intensive people I know. They had a bunch of fun cluing up one that I gave them a few weeks ago, so I believe it will be a productive relationship.

Fructose

New obsession: avoiding fructose in all its forms. I watched a video last night about how the body processes fructose (only in the liver) and what gets created when it gets processed (really bad stuff), and I'm now scared out of my mind.

I'm planning on avoiding anything with fructose in it, including High Fructose Corn Syrup, table sugar, molasses, maple syrup, and honey.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

It's by Robert Lustig, an endocrinologist and pediatrician, given at UCSF in 2009. It's long. To sum up his conclusions:

Fructose metabolism leads to hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and gout.

Fructose makes your body think it's starving, and so people will continue eating for longer if they are on a high fructose diet.

Glucose not so much.

I take that back

I rescind my statement that the iPhone is bad for me. It is probably the best piece of technology that I've purchased. I've had it for a week now and already I'm at the "how the hell did I live before this?" stage. Siri is a complete help in organizing my life. I'm more productive, more well organized, and I sleep better (since I set a reminder to tell me to go to bed at a decent time). No more missed meals due to forgetfulness. No more forgetting to take pills. I know the technology to make this happen has been there. But now that I can just say something into my phone and have it pop up on a to-do list, there's no barrier to organization.