Weekly Links: some good reading from around the web

walk your way through the wilds of the Internet...

SOME INTERESTING LINKS FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, SET OUT IN MY USUAL CATEGORIES OF FAITH, FAMILY, AND FICTION...

Faith  

-"My 7 Tips to Better Self-Care": The author behind this wise article used to go to our church (and moved - sniff! we still miss you, Raven!), and she has some good words for all you busy people out there.

-"Lectio Divina and the Facebook Newsfeed": a call to read less and think about it more.

Family 

- "How Can I Get Rid of Belly Fat?" - okay, it's a clickbait title, but it chronicles an actually interesting little science experiment. (And, like most of my health links--indeed, this and the next, IIRC--I have to thank my friend Becca for sharing this one with me.)

-"Why One Neuroscientist Started Blasting His Core": and I thought this one was fascinating because it talks about the links between posture, the adrenal glands, and mental health. Turns out we're complicated, well-connected creatures.

Fiction 

-Brandon Sanderson (of Mistborn fame) has been putting up new recordings of his college-level speculative fiction writing class. I got a lot out of these last time they went up online, and have started watching this new batch. He's a such a good writer, but also a really good teacher. You can find them on YouTube, here.

-"There is no That": What's behind the work? The work. 

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Weekly Links: ISIS, Austen, and more

SOME GOOD READING FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, SET OUT IN MY USUAL CATEGORIES OF FAITH, AND FAMILY, AND FICTION...

Faith

-"No Matter How Many  Priests ISIS Kills, They Can't Win":

When a faithful pastor baptizes, he is telling those clothed in the waters of regeneration, “You are no longer under the power of the devil, his murderers, or his terrorists. You are now under the protection of Christ, and no one can take you away from him.” When a pastor faithfully administers Holy Communion, he says to those who gather at the altar, “Here with his body and blood, Christ covers you in his righteousness, and no knife or bullet can pierce through that armor.”

-"A Good Man Justifies a Wicked Deed: Grudem on Trump":

We must vote for flawed men, but not for men who glory in their flaws.

-"Bats in the Attic":

The thing is, the Devil and all his evil cohorts really don’t want us, or anybody else, to go to church. If there is any reason at all, however small, to persuade you not to go, that reason will be gathered up and hurled at you, along with your own natural inclinations to take it easy and stay home. If you arrive on a Sunday morning, exhausted, totally unable to conceive of hauling yourself out of bed and going to sit in a hard pew with a lot of annoying people, well, you are not alone.

Family

-"Uncannily Youthful At 67, He Embodies Antidote To Bummer 'Biggest Loser' Study": apparently, it's all about building muscle mass.

Fiction

-"Austen Upside Down": Can you be an Austen fan without really understanding her? This article makes me think the answer is "yes".

-"Ten Thoughts About the Business Side of Writing": so very many good thoughts here.

May your week be a gracious rhythm of meaningful work and peaceful rest.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: Warlike Hymns, the Work-Work Balance, and more!

SOME GOOD READING FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON...

Faith

-"Are Our Hymns Too Warlike?" - Such a good explanation of (and defense of!) battle imagery in Christian music.

-"The Work-Work Balance" - Just Anne, being awesome again.

-"I Am Overweight":

This Lent, I decided to move my body more. I believe that God created us as whole people, not as brains-on-sticks, and I want to live into that conviction. That means taking care of my body.

-"What Could Possibly Be Wrong with Christian Masturbation?" - I don't share the author's Catholicism, and hence I don't agree with her entirely, but this is a very thoughtful take on the topic, and I appreciated reading a thoughtful take on something we don't want to usually bother being thoughtful about.

-"Lent and the Preschooler" - It's so fun to see someone using the suggestions from "Let Us Keep the Feast" (and from other awesome resources) in real life!

Family

-"Three Views of Marriage" - good stuff.

-"On the Good of Sleeping with a New Woman Every Night" :

So there is always a new woman beside us, and one at least partially of our own making, as we are at least partially made by her. But it is naive to think that we know her, or she us, just because we live together. To find her again, you must do what you did when you found her at first: you must pay court to her. Not always and not every day, for that would be a bore of a different order and would lose the element of surprise. But from time to time, you must rediscover this woman who is both the same and different from the one you married.

Fiction

-"Transitional Forms": I enjoyed this free piece of fiction from Lightspeed: it offers you a bit of the Old West with your sci-fi.

-Finally, there's a new movie about Biblical events that's just come out, "Risen", and I appreciated both of these (very different) takes on it:

     -"'Risen' Reflects the Subversive Power of the Resurrection"

                      and

    -"Risen: Movies, Faith, and the Bible".





Hope the rest of your weekend is restful and good!
-Jessica Snell


This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through these links, I'll receive a small percentage of the purchase price - for my own shopping! :) (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Fitness DVD Review: Jillian Michaels' One Week Shred

So, I like this one!  No huge shock, given that I'm a long-time fan of her old 30 Day Shred video.

Like that DVD, Jillian Michaels' "One Week Shred" consists of workouts that last about 30 minutes, and it gives you a great calorie burn for those 30 minutes.

The big difference between this DVD and its predecessor is that this one is divided into two workouts instead of three, and of those two workouts, one consists of strictly cardio and the other of strictly weights.

Now, Jillian suggests that you use this video for a straight 7 days, using one workout in the morning and one in the evening. I disagree. For me, the virtue of this DVD is that you can alternate cardio and weights on alternate days.

The weights workout is a bit over 30 minutes and the cardio a bit under 30. I'm a bit out of shape right now, and so I really appreciated the fact that Jillian provided good modifications to the various exercises. Even with the modifications, I felt like I got a great workout.

In sum, this one is a win for me, with the caveat that I wouldn't use it as suggested. Work out the amount of time that works for you - a crazy 7-day attempt to lose a bunch of weight doesn't sound healthy to me. But the workouts themselves? They're pretty good stuff.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell



This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Weekend Links - Screen Time, the neuroscience of CrossFit, and more!

Some good reading from around the Web for your weekend:

"Parenting Advice on Screen Time":

There are NO well-designed, well-executed empirical studies on how much is too much screen time in terms of video games. So parents are out of luck gleaning any “hard” advice in that domain from the research literature. There’s plenty of media hype, but none is based on good data. TV is the only exception and indeed less is best . . .

"CrossFit, neuroscience, surviving the zombie apocalypse: Is your workout a fraud?":

The modern gym has been deliberately designed to not require any coordination, accuracy, agility, or balance. The attributes of fitness that bind the body and brain together have become the exclusive province of athletes, dancers, and the few lucky children who still climb trees, pop bicycle wheelies, and hang upside down from monkey bars. The stripping-away of coordination, accuracy agility and balance from physical culture – from our modern notion of fitness – has made us weaker, because power, the ability to apply maximum force, requires neural circuitry that’s impossible to develop on a pulley cable.

"This is what happens in your brain when you’re writing": I found this article really interesting - esp. the differences between the brains of experienced writers vs. inexperienced writers.

"Unhappy Hipsters": hat tip to Anne Kennedy. This link has had me laughing for over a day now!


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

New Year’s Resolution #4: Love me

This is a new one for this year. But it’s along the lines of “love others as you love yourself.” Part of loving the ones God has given me to love is to make sure I’m well enough that I can love them and care for them.

Some of the specific ways I plan to do that:

1) Exercise 5X/week, when not sick. I’ve been putting on my workout clothes first thing in the morning, and that’s been working really well.

2) Do a modified No S, when it’s not feast time or fast time. (My modification is that I allow for fruit/veg and/or protein (e.g., milk, nuts) as snacks. I just do better when I snack!)  

3) Keep reading real books. The Web is wonderful and distracting, but I feel better when I read real books. I always keep track of my books read, but recently I've been keeping keep track of my reading time, and it’s helped me get back on track with my to-be-read list. I want to keep this up in the new year.

4) Be aware that lot of the things in the other categories help here, too. Like listening to the Bible, praying, writing, spending time with Adam, getting out of the house as a family, etc. All of those things keep me healthy and functioning.

What about you?

Talk about your self-care goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s.  I really liked Jen's comment on my last blog:

I've heard of doing "high-lows" (what you're doing when you ask your kids for one bad thing and one good thing), doing the 3 J's (your junk, your joy, and your Jesus moment), and a modified examen (something you're thankful for, something you wish you hadn't done, and somewhere you saw God's work during the day.) 

I really want to try the 3 J idea!  and maybe the modified examen, too. Thanks, Jen!


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Links!: a workout, a calling, and 3 reasons

The Scientific 7-Minute Workout - I tried this! It's a really decent, no-equipment-needed circuit.

"The Calling":

Into this fog came Thomas Merton, the priest in the documentary, whose example offered Martin a way out. But being called is one thing; answering the call is something else entirely. “At that time, joining the priesthood would have been like becoming an opera singer or running away to the circus,” Martin says. He consulted a psychologist instead.

“What would you do if you could be doing anything?” the doctor asked him, a year or so into his therapy.

“I’d be a priest,” Martin replied.

“Well, why don’t you?”

The next day, Martin was on the phone with the local office of the Jesuits.

"Three Reasons Star Trek Endures":

If Kirk is the heart of the show, Spock and McCoy are the head and conscience. Spock is all intellect. He’s the foil to all of Kirk’s antics – logical to the point of frustration, so reserved in emotion that he comes across as frigid, and asexual except when his half-human side gets the better of him. McCoy serves as the voice of human conscience, always at odds with Vulcan logic, seeking compassion and mercy, but also moderation and control. Kirk is stuck in the middle, struggling with these angels and pointy-eared demons on his shoulders. It’s a classic battle among Id, Ego, and Super Ego.

Couch-to-5K (C25K), a beginner's review

Very beginning, because I only just finished Week 4, and it's a 9 week program.

But I mentioned about a month ago that I was giving C25K a try, and promised I'd write about it more, and since I'm still at it now (how'd that happen?), I figured now I can talk about it without feeling like a total fake.

The first half of the program
You can see the whole program here (scroll down), and you can see that it's really simple. That's what attracted me to it: it's simple, and it's slow.

I've wanted to get into running for a while now, but I wanted to get into it with injuring myself. Like many women, I have the odd ache and pain from old injuries. (The fun one is the ankle that complains when I swim. Why is that fun? Because it has a good story: I injured it when I missed the mat on a pole vault. And I just have to say: I do not recommend missing the mat as a desirable pole-vaulting technique.) I also have a knee that complains when I run, and when I've tried to "just go out for a run" in the past, I've re-injured that knee.

C25K? I haven't re-injured the knee yet. It still hurts when I run, but it's not getting any worse. Actually, at this point, it feels like it's getting just a tad better. Or, at least, stronger.

The second half of the program
But now I'm staring down Week 5, and I admit that I'm a little nervous. By the end of next week, I'm supposed to be running 20 minutes without stopping. And running 30 minutes without stopping is the goal, right? so I should be happy to be getting so close.


But running is still hard. Each workout still feels like it takes me right to the edge of my I-can-do-this space. Could I go out and jog 20 minutes? Sure. But I want to run.

But I'm gonna trust the process. I've been able to do every workout so far, even if not quite as fast as I'd like to. I've been able to do it, and if I don't like how I feel during (and boy, I surely don't, I miss the feeling of having enough oxygen in my lungs), I really like how I feel after. I'm finding it's almost impossible to feel stressed while I'm running.

For that alone, the burning in my lungs and my legs is well worth it.

Anyone else out there a C25K-er?

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1.
I really like this new music from Gray Havens, and right now it's free! I especially like the Narnia-inspired "Silver" and the sweet, upbeat "Let's Get Married". "Where They Go" is good, too.

2.
I've been trying the Couch-to-5K program. I'll probably write a longer blog about it sometime, but right now I have to say that it's the most sensible start-running program I've ever encountered. I'm beginning to hope I might be able to become a runner without injuring myself! (Injuring myself is what I normally do when I think, "hey, I should go for a run!" I start out too fast and my body says, "hey, idiot, knock it off!")

3.
Something else I want to write a blog post on sometime is the difference between reading scripture and hearing scripture. I've become fonder and fonder of listening to the Bible. It seems to seep into my heart in a different way when it comes through my ears (sorry, that's a terrible mix of the metaphorical and the literal).

But reading it engages my attention, too. Just differently. I've been trying to figure out what the difference is. Anyone have any thoughts?

4.
You've probably seen the beautiful animated short "Paperman", but what you might not have seen is this sharp analysis by Lars Walker. I had the same problem he did with "Paperman"'s narrative arc, and I like his solution to the difficulty.

5. Lent starts next week! I'm just saying.

6. Actually, my preparations for Lent this year feel really different, because this is the first year I'm preparing for Lent as an Altar Guild director. Yes, I'm figuring out what I'm going to take on personally for Lent, what sort of fast I'm doing . . . but I'm also collecting last year's palm crosses to burn for Ash Wednesday and making sure our priest's Lenten chausible is ironed and that we have people signed up to serve at the various Lenten services . . . it's a really different perspective on the season.

7. I really like being a part of our church's volunteer staff. Talk about work worth doing! All of our lives are part of the life of the church, but getting to participate in the actual church-service-related work makes it all feel so much more literal than it usually does.

I'm not expressing that well, I don't think. I guess that means I need to think about it more; muddled expression usually means muddled thought. But there is something so good and sweet about liturgical work, and I'm sure there's some connection between that work and my day-to-day life as a Christian. Some connection between washing the chalice after communion and washing the dishes after my family has supper.

I just need to ponder it a bit more, I think.


More Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links - the year, the time, and the wine

"The Year of Not Putting Up With Things":

Maybe we should blame it on the practice of frugality that seems to have come with my German heritage, but I've put up with a lot of minor inconveniences over the course of my life...little things being not quite right, particularly in my home or in my wardrobe. A belt doesn't fit quite right. A dress rides up funny on one side. A shirt feels a tiny bit too short. The trusty black pumps I've owned and worn for years have started to separate from their strap on one shoe. The toilet in the guest bathroom splashes the lid when you flush. The rug in our living room is too small for the space. Our air conditioning has never worked.

"The Best Wine in the History of the World":

He was about to perform his first public miracle. Let me frame that a different way. He was about to formally and publicly introduce himself to his bride—the church—for the first time. I wonder if Mary’s request sounded to him something like, “Go on, son. Ask that girl to dance.”

"Routine Life":

Some mornings I wake up feeling ready to do it all again. Ready to get out of bed (after drinking coffee, of course), face the day, clean, prep meals, homeschool, do laundry, break up fights, nurse the baby. But some days, I just feel do not feel it. I do not feel like getting up and doing it all. Those days generally do not go well. But sometimes, something happens to arrest me mid-day and change everything.

 Usually, that thing is . . . work.

"how do I Run a Micro business and homeschool?": this whole thing was interesting, but I love, love, love Christine's observation about her home:

 I don’t decorate the house – it’s the lab for making projects in, it isn’t itself a project. 

Hey, I've got one of those project-lab houses, too! :D

"I love this bar (and a recipe)":

Houston, we have a problem. Even though I know that I can make something akin to a Larabar in my food processor and have a great granola bar recipe that most of our family will eat, even though I no longer buy boxes of granola bars or nutri grain bars for the children I cannot resist the lure of the bar.

There is something about the presentation, the bright colors, the many flavors, that seems to beckon. Eat me! They cry. I am interesting and fun and come in my own individual wrapper. I have as much protein as a chicken breast but taste like fake cookie dough coated in fake chocolate. Eat me and you can skip taking your multivitamin! I can make you happy!

"Op-Ed: An Ode to Ordinary Time": I'm not quoting from this one, because the fun is in the scroll-down reveal.

"Guinevere and Julia: The Platypus Reads Part CCX":

. . . it's a necessary part of all romance and adventure that we not be allowed to weasel out every time our beliefs land us in hard places. 

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Bob Harper's Totally Ripped Core, Revisited

I first reviewed this fitness DVD here, but today I did the long (about 45 minutes) workout on Bob Harper's Totally Ripped Core, again. And I am now just the teensiest bit light-headed.

Gosh, Harper just makes it very clear that the common conception of abdominal crunches being ineffective only exists because every other instructor out there is a wuss. He has you do them fast, without rest, and at a variety of angles and oh my gosh does it hurt.

Also? His plank circuits are vicious enough that you're relieved when you finally get to do stand up and do insane-jumping-around cardio stuff. Only not for long, because the insane-jumping-around cardio stuff is vicious, too.

 But it's so well-designed. None of the pain is injury-inducing pain, just muscles-being-pushed-to-get-stronger pain.* Love this workout.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

*For me. Your mileage might vary. I don't recommend it as a beginner DVD, but if you're familiar with the general rules of good form in exercise and don't have any injuries, it's just going to be a really fun challenge.

Exercise DVD Review: Bob Harper's "Totally Ripped Core"

Bob Harper's "Totally Ripped Core" is only about an hour long, but it was enough to make me sore for days and days afterwards.

In other words: I recommend it. :)

Some of the moves included:
-slow-motion one-legged deadlifts
-"killer" plank twists that actually are killer, because on top of your normal plank twist (bringing your knee to your armpit while you hold plank), he has you then drop your hip and stick your leg out straight underneath your suspended torso. Ow . . .
-lots of other body-weighted isometrics

This DVD certainly worked my core, but it also hit the shoulders, and big muscle groups like the quads and hamstrings, so there was never any question about whether or not I was burning a ton of calories.

If you're looking for a challenge that's varied enough that it's fun too, give this one a try.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

DVD Review: Jillian Michaels Kickbox FastFix

Oh, my goodness. Just finished this - all three levels, 'cause I'm nuts - and am I ever sucking wind right now. Good GRIEF. This is an AWESOME workout - I love it!

Whew. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Right, trying to get my breath back so I can do a proper review. Let's start with:

What is it?
There are three workouts on the DVD, each about 20 minutes long. And this time she really does stick to 20 minutes, which is nice. (Jillian Michaels often advertises "20 minute workouts" that are more like half an hour.)

The first workout concentrates on the upper body, the second on the lower, and the third on abs, but really it's all just kickboxing, with about one resistance move per circuit to let you catch your breath.

There are four circuits in each level, each repeated twice, and each consisting of about five moves repeated for 30 seconds each. Absolutely no time to get bored here, which I like.

Some of the kickboxing combos are a bit complicated, and I expect to enjoy this DVD more as I do it more and get the combos memorized. Prepare for a bit of frustration the first time through as you try to get the combos down.

Cons
My martial arts training was in Tang Soo Do karate, so I prefer to perform my kicks and punches slightly differently than Michaels does. I don't like how often she has you put your foot down for balance, but I can see how that would be useful if you weren't well-trained. I also don't like that she has you do each exercise only on your dominant side (and lefties will have to switch everything she does) because I like training both sides of my body equally. But I didn't find it too hard to switch sides on the second repeat of each circuit.


This isn't a beginner workout - not at all - but that's primarily because of the speed at which the moves are performed and because of the aerobic capacity required. I think that a beginner could make good use of this DVD if she were willing to perform everything at a half-time speed. And that would still be a really good workout!

TL;DR
Great workout, AWESOME at-home cardio option, advanced, highly recommended.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links: Marketing, Blogging Photos, the Psalms, and more!

"The Golden Weenie Award":

. . . but I did get around to see some of the specialty products offered to religious retailers. In the past, I’ve recorded some of the really bad ideas that have come and gone at the show — Gospel Golf Balls, Praise Panties, Pope Soap on a Rope, vials of “genuine ash from Sodom and Gomorrah,” etc. (And before you ask, NO, I’M NOT MAKING ANY OF THIS UP.)

"Blogging Authors Beware! You Can Get Sued":

Well on one random post, I grabbed one random picture off of google and then a few weeks later I got contacted by the photographer who owned that photo. He sent me a takedown notice, which I responded to immediately because I felt awful that I had unknowingly used a copyrighted pic. The pic was down within minutes. But that wasn't going to cut it. He wanted compensation for the pic. A significant chunk of money that I couldn't afford. I'm not going to go into the details but know that it was a lot of stress, lawyers had to get involved, and I had to pay money that I didn't have for a use of a photo I didn't need. 

"What Do We Do with Those?": -a short primer on the oddities in the book of Psalms - I thought his three conclusions at the end especially useful.

"Being a Marketing Trend":

 One of my pet peeves is this idea that exercise should be bimodal: either you should be satisfied with "walking, the best form of exercise," or you should be some kind of an exercise addict who works out like a professional athlete. Not to diss walking or professional athletes, but it seems like for the great majority of healthy adults, shooting for something in the middle -- light, but deliberate, daily exercise or (my pattern) vigorous exercise two to four times a week -- would hit the sweet spot of beneficial and realistic. But we just don't hear much about that.  

 Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica  Snell

Exercise DVD Review: Killer Buns and Thighs (Jillian Michaels)

This is a review of Killer Buns and Thighs, a new-ish Jillian Michaels exercise DVD.

Level 1 - Lets get the time thing out of the way first: this is advertised as being about thirty minutes long; the workout itself is 37 minutes long by my clock, and the whole first level, including intro and stretching, is a full 40. Truth in advertising? Not so much.

Now, the workout is excellent. I was feeling the promised burn by the end of the first circuit, and not just because I'd been roller-skating earlier. This first level is a nice mix of the familiar (squats and lunges) and the innovative. I really liked some of the yoga and martial-arts inspired moves, including going from a very low lunge up into Warrior 3, and a combo move that involved front kick, side kick, and back kick from karate, with a squat in between each kick. The plie squat with heel raises? Ouch. The static chair pose on one leg? Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Level 2 - I can barely begin to express the terrible, terrible, terrible things Jillian managed to think up for this level. It seems like everything in here is either isometric or plyometric or both. Let me just list a few of the terrible, terrible, terrible things:

-one-legged burpies. ONE-LEGGED BURPIES, people. This means you're squatting down on one leg, jumping back into plank on one leg, jumping back up into a squat on one leg, and jumping up into the air on. one. leg. Owwwww.
-reverse squats. You start in "goddess squat" (name from yoga), which means you're down as far as you can go, flat-footed, bottom just above the ground. Then you go up into a normal squart, i.e., your thighs are parallel to the ground. Then back down. And start over. Ow, ow, ow.
-star jumps. I just . . . so you start in a squat with your feet right next to each other, all curled up. Then you jump up, arms and legs wide, as if you were in the second half of a jumping jack, except you're way up off the ground, in mid-air. Then you gather yourself back into the starting position before you hit the ground. It's like a very extreme version of a jumping jack.

And on and on it goes. Let me say this: you certainly get your money's worth on this level.

Level 3 - Not so bad. A few repeats from her "Ripped in 30" DVD. Definitely some pain, but I liked this level - especially the one-legged deadlifts. That hurt good.


Conclusion? Great DVD. When Jillian puts her mind to it, she makes the best exercise DVDs out there.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

a workout you can do with kids around - no babysitter required

This won't work in the dead of winter and it'd be miserable in the heat of summer, but in this lovely spring? I have a workout for you.

Equipment: a jump-rope and a park your kids like.

The plan: Take your kids to the park. Find a spot next to the playground that's reasonably flat. Shade's a plus. Make sure you can see your kids.

Round 1: -100 jumping jacks
              -20 squats
              -jump rope 100 times
              -20 sit-ups
Go through Round 1 three times.

Round 2: -100 jumping jacks
              -20 lunges, alternating legs
              -jump rope 100 times
              -10 push-ups
Go through Round 2 three times.

This takes about half an hour, and it'll get your heart-rate up nicely, hit both your quads and glutes, which are big muscles that burn a lot of calories, and give you some ab and arm work too. And you can keep an eye on your kids the whole time (except maybe during the push-ups).

And you get to do it outside! I love exercising outside. Sun and sky and trees = happy me.

If you don't have a jump rope, you could substitute jogging or jumping in place. Easy-peasy!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Exercise DVD Review: "Billy Blanks: Boot Camp S.O.S." (Tae-Bo)

Another library DVD! This one was a perfect day for a fit when I had a longer time to exercise, because the DVD clocks in at just under 50 minutes.

It's funny that, although this is a much tougher workout, the instructor Billy Blanks reminds me most of is the sweet and gentle Leslie Sansone, of "Walk Away the Pounds" fame. She might be having you walk in place for 30 minutes, while Blanks has you doing kickboxing for almost an hour, but the share the same encouraging spirit. I was surprised at how often Blanks' cues included something like, "hang in there, you're doing well, take a break if you need to and go at your own pace, but then come back in and join us again, you can do it."

And that was kind of nice, especially as I didn't feel inclined to do, say, jumping back-kicks. Nothing against jumping (well, hopping, in this case) back-kicks, but I know enough about them to know that I don't want to do them in my small living room, especially when I haven't practiced karate in so long. I think this DVD is one where you need to be aware that there are some moves that might injure you if you're not careful.

But that caveat aside, I really liked "Boot Camp S.O.S." It got my heart rate up nicely and gave a good burn in the big muscles of the legs. Blanks has you run through each sequence at half-speed before turning it up full-throttle, and for all but a few of the sequences, that bit of practice was enough to let me go all out when it was time.

The back-up exercisers are hilariously into the workout. They'd be totally annoying if you were in a bad mood, but I was inclined to enjoy myself, and so I found all the yipping and high-fiving in the background funny this time around.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links: Bible Memorization, Roman Catholic Ethics, Intellectual Property Rights, and more!

"The Easiest Way to Memorize the Bible: What I Learned from Dr. John Mitchell" - this one's what it says, and well worth the read.

"Writer, Professional, Good" - John Scalzi's take on when you make it into each of these categories.

RC Bishops Distribute Letter to All Congregations: “We Will Not Comply” - A response to the attempt to force Catholic employers to pay for their employees' birth control methods and abortions. You know, though I agree with the Catholic church's stance on abortion, I don't entirely agree with their stance on birth control. All the same, despite my disagreement, I still think they should not be forced to pay for procedures that they believe are wrong. And I would hope that people that disagree with them on both counts can still see how wrong it is to try to force them to violate their consciences. There needs to be room for conscientious objection. There really, really does. (And yes, that might mean they need to stop accepting gov't money for their charities. But as long as they're willing to forgo gov't aid, they ought to be allowed to not pay for things that they believe are wrong.)

Yarrr. - I offer the following link with a couple of disclaimers. One, it's got a lot of language. Two, I don't actually agree with her solution, i.e., I don't think piracy's a good thing, even if content providers are slow off the mark. But this link does do a good job of highlighting the problem of facing consumers who want to pay the artist for their product but can't because of out-dated business models.

Easy 15-Minute Workout - I tried this last week, and loved it! I wouldn't call it "easy", but it's a very thorough workout, and all body-weight exercises (i.e., no equipment needed, save a chair for the triceps dips). If you're looking for something simple on days when you don't have a lot of time, this is it.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Review: the Firm: Turbocharge Weight Loss

I got "The Firm: Turbocharge Weight Loss" out of my library, and I think this might be a case where having it for such a short time lessened my potential liking for the DVD, because it feels like a workout that would grow on me if I did it regularly. This seems like a workout DVD that would be nice to have sitting on your shelves for those days where you really only have time for just a twenty-minute workout - and not a workout that claims to be "only twenty minutes", Jillian*.

This DVD contains two workouts. One is strictly cardio, and the other incorporates some weights. Both move fast and certainly got my heart-rate up, though not so much as the circuit-training DVDs I usually use.

The instructors move quickly from exercise to exercise, and though this adds to the fun I'm-taking-a-gym-class feeling, it does mean that you don't really have time to get each sometimes-complicated move right before it's time to move onto the next one. However, though the moves are a bit involved (e.g., "do this with your legs. Okay, now add in the arms"), they're still simple enough that I think this difficulty would disappear the second or third time you did the DVD.

Verdict: Fun workout, would probably grow on you, moves a bit fast for something that still somehow doesn't raise my heart-rate quite as much as I like. Wouldn't be bad to have on the shelf for days when you didn't have much time. I'd probably rather just do a series of jumping jacks and burpies to fast music rather than spend the money, but if someone gave it to me, I'd keep it and use it.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell



*I still do love the "30 Day Shred", and use it all the time. But it is not only twenty-minutes long. Closer to thirty. And sometimes, when dinner needs to be made, thirty minutes is something I do not have.

It's the weekend and I want to do too many things at once

I want to write on my real novel (the oh-no-war-broke-out-and-I'm-in-the-wrong-country one).

I want to write on my "fun" novel (the intergalactic space princess one).

I want to write on my other fun novel (the reality show romance - don't laugh. Or do. It's supposed to be funny).

I want to read the new Miles Vorkosigan book (this is probably going to win out).

I want to read the new Cooking Light I just got in the mail.

I want to read the other magazines I just got in the mail.

I want to crochet a bathroom rug. 

I want to cross-stitch.

I want to read every single Cat the Cat book to my kids.

I want to sing every single Easter hymn in the hymnal (yes, I know it's the wrong time of year, but Christ yet risen).

I want to make toffee (I'm not going to, it's not Christmas yet).

I want to work on a certain someone's Christmas present (but I won't elaborate on that here because said person reads this blog - ha! maybe it's YOU.)

I want to finish sewing the birthday dress I started for my poor firstborn TWO YEARS AGO.

I want to declutter at least three different places in the house.

This is how I feel, apparently, when I finish a really, really good workout.

(Miles? Miles, are you there?)

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell