July 20, 2011

Guidelines for Reading Pain

Posted by Nathen under advice, biofeedback, bodies, exercise, healing, injuries, lists, physiotherapy
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I’ve often wished I had a biofeedback device that could tell me whether something I was doing was good, bad, or neutral for my body. I have found pain and other sensations ambiguous directors. What are they asking for? This has been especially important in the last few years, dealing with injuries and slower healing. I recently asked my physiotherapist, Shannon, for her general recommendations for reading pain related to an activity. This is what she said:

1) Joint pain is never okay. If you experience joint pain during or after activity something is wrong; consider getting help to figure out what.

2) You should have no muscle pain during an activity (if you do, it means you are doing way too much).

3) Muscle pain after an activity means you are close to the right intensity – try lowering intensity and/or duration for a while and see how you respond.

4) Mild to moderate muscle pain in the next couple days is fine as long as it doesn’t escalate.

5) Each time you add an activity, do it at a constant level for 1-2 weeks before increasing duration or intensity

 

July 17, 2011

Philip K. Howard on Restructuring Our Governmental Operating System, Playgrounds

Posted by Nathen under children, government, law, Long Now Foundation, Philip K Howard, playgrounds
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In his lecture “Fixing Broken Government” for the Long Now Foundation, Philip K. Howard suggests that this time of trouble in the US might be one in which we can make some big, useful changes. He hopes for a change in “governmental operating system” comparable to the Progressive, New Deal, and Civil Rights eras. Instead of protecting children and other workers, establishing safety nets, or addressing civil rights abuses, however, he would like to un-paralyze our government.

Based on the idea that laws have “piled up like sediment in the harbor,” paralyzing our public servants, and on his truism, “Only real people, not rules, make things happen,” Howard proposes three new principles for modern government:

1) A spring-cleaning on all law with budgetary implications. A law does not become one of the 10 Commandments because some dead people passed it. He also proposes an “Omnibus Sunset Law” under which all laws with budgetary implications automatically expire after 10-20 years.

2) Laws should be radically simplified. Replace 95% of the 100,000,000 words of binding federal law, all the details, with individual responsibility. Allow public servants to use their judgment. Laws are to set goals, general principles, and allocate budgets and to determine who is responsible if the goals are not met.

3) Public employees have to be accountable. There is no need for minutia in law if people are held accountable if they do a bad job. That means they have to be fire-able.

On playgrounds:

“There is nothing left in playgrounds for a kid over the age of 4. Nothing. Seesaws, jungle-gyms, climbing ropes…merry-go-rounds are abandoned. There are a few diving boards left, but not many. Not very many high boards. Why’s that? Because they all involve not just the risk, but the certainty that something might go wrong. They also happen to attract kids to the playground so they don’t get fat and die of obesity. They also happen to teach kids how to take responsibility for themselves, and to be athletic. These risks are vital for  for child development, which the American Academy of Pediatrics and all kinds of other boring people would write books about, but we don’t have a legal system that allows kids to take the ordinary risks of childhood. It’s lunacy. ….The range of exploration of a 9-year-old in America has declined by over 90% since 1970. Kids are not allowed to leave home by themselves. And that ability to wander around the neighborhood, to explore the creek, all that sort of thing is absolutely vital.”

 

July 15, 2011

Tilke Elkins’ First Gallery Show

Posted by Nathen under Abraham Maslow, art, endorsements, natural pigments, photography, synesthesia, Tilke Elkins, Tilkin School
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Tilke Elkins, my favorite living painter, has her first gallery show and it is great. It’s open for one more week, until July 22, so you can still make it if you live in Oregon. It’s at The Voyeur in Eugene, 547 Blair Boulevard.

I may be biased by my years as the marketing director of her magazine, All Round, by my many more years living with her as she used our house as a gigantic art project, and by my even more years as her friend. (Plus, she did the album art and most of the photography and fliers for my band–here‘s an example).

I do not believe, though, that I am biased because of any of that. I’ve just had the great fortune to have spent so much time drenched in her aesthetic. I am not one of Abraham Maslow’s visual “advanced scout,” of superior sensitivity to color and form. It takes me a while to really appreciate an artist. I’ve had that time with her and it has really paid off. Tilke, on the other hand, is an advanced scout. When I am in doubt about a visual decision, I ask her and can trust to find her correct, eventually.

Photographs cannot do justice to her work–to my eyes, it seems to glow from the inside–but here is a shot of the gallery, to give you an idea:

Art by Tilke Elkins at The Voyeur, July 2011

Also, Tilke is starting an art school in Springfield, Oregon, this fall. She’s offering three classes:

Experimental Drawing Techniques and Materials: Tilke paints with natural pigments, many of which she makes herself, out of rocks and plants. She also paints on found materials.

Art for Synesthetes: This may be the first art class for people with synesthesia, whose senses behave quite differently from other people. (See my post on synesthesia here.) Tilke has synesthesia and it is part of how she works.

On Being a Metamodern Artist:  I have no idea what this is but it sounds intriguing. Check the “art school” link above for more information.

 

July 14, 2011

If You Are Going to Eat Watermelon This Summer, Try This:

Posted by Nathen under advice, food
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I forget who showed me this–someone I worked with at the old Rancho Mirage Charthouse. Squeeze some lemon juice onto your watermelon. I like watermelon a lot, but with lemon I love it. It’s so delicious that I’m surprised it’s not a big thing. Try it and thank me.

 

July 10, 2011

Oliver Week 5 Video

Posted by Nathen under babies, Damian Lester, Gabriel, Maggie, Maya, Open Office, video
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Here’s a video of my nephew Oliver, posted by his mama, Maya.

 

July 8, 2011

Graduation Photos

Posted by Nathen under graduate school, photography, rituals, Steve Lester
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2011 Cohort (I love these people!) by Hillary Nadeau (I'm at the top right, hatless)

Jeff, Deanna, Christian, (Faculty) In Regalia, photographer unknown

Post-Graduation With Reanna's Family, Dad, & Robert, by Aly

Post-Graduation With Reanna's Family, Aly & Robert, by Steve Lester

Faked Post-Graduation Shot With Pikes, Including Grandpa Bob

Goofy Faked Graduation Photo With Pikes

Sealing the Deal by Dunking in the Willamette, by Steve Lester

 

July 5, 2011

Shares of Total Taxes Paid by Each Income Group Were Similar to their Shares of Total Income in 2010

Posted by Nathen under money, Paul Krugman, statistics, taxes
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I thought this was an interesting presentation of data, from a column by Paul Krugman. Usually, when you see displays of percentage of taxes paid by income group, they show only shares of federal income tax, the only really progressive tax in the US. This display shows the percentage of all US taxes paid by income group, including payroll, local, state, etc. That’s the blue bars. The grey bars are also interesting–instead of just showing share of taxes by income group, this display compares share of taxes to share of income by income group. By this measure, it looks as if at the widest spread, total tax burden is only progressive by less than 5%. That is, even the top 1% of earners pay less than 5% more of total US taxes than the lowest 20% when their total share of income is taken into account.

 

July 3, 2011

Melt the Fuzz

Posted by Nathen under advice, bodies, fascia, movement, video
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This video makes a good case for using your full range of motion every day. The way I understand it, “the fuzz” is actually a healing process. Some tissues, like bone, “know” which way to send their healing protein. Soft tissue like fascia, though, send out their healing fibers in all directions, and rely on the body’s movement to break the strands that shouldn’t be there. If we don’t use our full range of motion, however, those strands start to glue everything together.

 

July 1, 2011

Eyes Versus Grad School

Posted by Nathen under age, aging, eye contact, eyes, graduate school, Reanna, visual acuity
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Leaving my last doctor visit, I had a chance to check myself on their eye chart. It was not official–I just backed up 20 one-foot floor tiles and looked at the chart. For the first time ever I was not able to make out some of the letters in the bottom, smallest row. That means my eyesight is now 20/13 instead of 20/10, or however small the denominator was before I started grad school. (The numerator is distance in feet (in the US) and the denominator has to do, in a way that I don’t quite get, with the size of the letters.) If you can see better than 20/10, you generally never find out: 20/10 is good enough. And so is 20/13–I am not complaining. Not much, at least.

I’m more concerned with my focal length, which has moved out at least an inch during the last four years, to a solid 8.5 inches. This happens with aging, of course, but I am willing to bet it is accelerated by reading 30+ hours a week. It is inconvenient not to be able to see my spoonful of food clearly while I am blowing on it. It is also inconvenient that Reanna and I have no overlap in clear vision. When we are looking into each other’s eyes, we have to choose who gets to see clearly, or else she has to wear her contacts. I know it will someday be inconvenient when my focal length exceeds my reach, and I will need glasses to read a book. Ah, aging. As my friend Robert says, “Getting old is very inconvenient. It is better, however, than the alternative.”

 

June 29, 2011

Post-Graduation Reading List

Posted by Nathen under fiction, nonfiction, reading
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Here are the books on my post-graduation reading list, in alphabetical order. Anything I should add? Anything I should move to the top? Anything you’ve read that I should remove from the list? I do not yet own the books marked with an astrisk. Also, I’ve been off fiction for six years–anyone willing to give me their top-five-or-so-fiction-of-all-time list?

A Pattern Language

A People’s History of the World, Harman

Achilles in Vietnam, Shay

An Ecology of Mind, Bateson*

Animals In Translation, Grandin*

Animals Make Us Human, Grandin*

Attachment, Trauma, and Healing: Understanding and Treating Attachment Disorder in Children and Families, Levi & Orlans

Biochemical Individuality, Williams

Clinician’s Guide to Systemic Sex Therapy, Hertlein, Weeks, Sendak

Cognitive Theory and the Emotional Disorders, Beck

Collapse, Diamond

Conceptual Revolutions, Thagard

Consciousness Explained, Dennet

Dynamic Assessment in Couple Therapy, Hiebert, Gillespie & Stahmann

Enhanced Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Couples, Epstein & Baucom

Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken the Heart and Mind, Walsh

Everyday Zen, Beck

Eye to Eye: The Quest for  a New Paradigm, Wilber*

Futurehype: The Tyranny of Prophecy*

Generations, Strauss & Howe

Genograms, McGoldrick

Gestalt Theory Verbatim, Perls

God In Search of Man, Heschel

Grace & Grit, Wilber*

Growing Old is Not For Sissies*

Handbook of Emotion Regulation*

Handbook of Emotion*

Healing Emotions: Conversations With the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health

Healing Parents: Helping Wounded Children Learn to Trust & Love, Olans & Levi

Healing the Soul Wound: Counseling with American Indians and Other Native Peoples, Duran

Healing Trauma, Siegel*

How Doctors Think, Groopman*

How the Mind Works, Pinker

How To Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People, Alford

Internal Family Systems Therapy, Schwartz

Lies My Music Teacher Told Me, Eskelin

Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen

Life Maps, Fowler*

Look Me In the Eye: My Life With Asperger’s, Robison

Love & Survival, Ornish*

Love Is Never Enough, Beck

Loving What Is, Katie*

Mad in America, Whitaker

Mans Search for Meaning, Frankl

Manufacturing Consent, Herman & Chomsky

Natural Capitalism, Hawkins, Lovins & Lovins

On Becoming a Person, Rogers

One Taste: Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality, Wilber*

Pain Free at Your PC, Egoscue

Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire

Phantoms in the Brain, Ramachandran *

Play In Family Therapy, Gil

Positive Words, Powerful Results, Urban

Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy, Fromm-Reichmann

Protecting the Gift, Becker

Quickies: The Handbook of Brief Sex Therapy, Green & Flemons

Resolving Sexual Abuse, Dolan

Revisioning Family Therapy: Race, Culture, and Gender in Clinical Practice, McGoldrick*

Reviving Ophelia, Pipher

Rituals for Our Times: Celebrating, Healing, and Changing Our Lives and Our Relationships, Imber-Black*

Rituals In Family Therapy, Imber-Black*

See What I’m Saying: The Extraordinary Power of Our Five Senses, Rosenblum

Self-Compassion, Neff*

Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Wilber*

Size Matters: How Height Affects Health, Happiness, and Success of Boys, Hall

So Sexy So Soon, Levin & Kilbourne

Story, Symbol and Ceremony: Using Metaphor in Family Therapy*

Strange Attractors, Butz*

Successful Aging, Rowe & Kahn*

Survivors Club: Secrets & Science that could Save Your Life, Sherwood*

Telling Lies, Ekman

The 12 Stages of Healing, Apstein & Altman

The Albert Ellis Reader

The Collected Works of CG Jung, Hopcke

The Dance of Anger, Lerner

The Divided Mind, Sarno

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, Mlodinow

The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think, Aunger

The Emergence of Everything, Morowitz

The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad, Wilber*

The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, Maslow

The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotions in the Making of Consciousness, Damasio

The Gift of Fear, Becker

The Healer Within, Jahnke

The Inklings

The Laws of Emotion, Frijda*

The Myth of the Chemical Cure, Moncrieff

The Nature of Emotion, Ekman & Davidson

The Personality Puzzle, Funder

The Presence Process, Brown

The Problem of the Soul, Flanagan*

The Quantum Mind & Healing, Mindell

The Science of Good and Evil, Shermer

The Science of Trust, Gottman

The Simple Feeling of Being: Embracing Your True Nature, Wilber*

The Stages of Faith, Fowler

The Therapist’s Guide to Psychopharmacology, Patterson

The Toe Bone and the Tooth, Prechtel

The Unwritten Rules of Human Social Interaction, Grandin*

The Way I See It: A Personal Look At Autism and Asperger’s, Grandin*

Theory-Based Treatment Planning for Marriage and Family Therapists, Gehart

Thinking In Pictures: My Life With Autism, Grandin*

Time for a Better Marriage, Dinkmeyer & Carlson

Traumatic Stress, van der Kolk

Unconditional Parenting, Kohn

Up From Eden, Wilber*

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, Levine*

What’s Really Wrong With You: Muscles & Health, Grivier*

You Ain’t Got No Easter Clothes, Love

 

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