Fitness lack of progress report

Well... I'm not gaining weight...

But I'm not really going in the other direction either. Incredibly frustrating s can be imagined

Album double whammy : # 9 & 10

#9 - Darcy James Argue's Secret Society : Infernal Machines

Yup. This album is great. Extremely clever big band writing. Nothing to say negative here. Go give it a listen.

#10 - Snarky Puppy : Family Dinner

Total jam album. Snarky Puppy brings the business. Not always the biggest fan of vocal jazz but you know... Sometimes I can be swayed

Book review 3 : The Language of God : Francis S. Collins

Not the book I was expecting and hoping for. And the bummer is that I really don't know what I was hoping for. I think the main problem was that since I already understand most of the content of this book nothing was really eye opening for me.

The book is written by the head of the human genome project who just so happens to also be a Christian. The book should have been on how to keep these two ideas without going crazy but it just seems so dumbed down. I don't want dumbed down, Mister Scientist.

Album review 8/104 : The Beatles : Beatles for Sale

Same old same old. Nothing new here. Move along move along

Fitness report week 3 : back to formula

Weekly Net Weight Loss : +3.6 pounds
Total Weight Loss : -0.1 pounds

Well.... Not a good week. Travel and a crazy schedule and overeating have brought me right back to square one. Really frustrating as you can imagine. Hopefully we can get back down to where I was soon.

Book 2 : the Paradox of Choice

While this book has a decent theory and even some helpful advice I'm just not sure I can actually reccomend it. It's much too long and is filled with scores if unnecessary information. The content is as depressing at times as Russian literature and rarely (until the very end) gives you something to do about it. 

The concept is sound: in a world where choices are more and more abundant, people are actually less likely to be happy. Perhaps some people needed those five chapters in the middle to be convinced of the concept but I wasn't. He needed to just get to the point. 

I have read other books in this sort of "learn how to relax and look at the world differently" genre and thought they were much better. Check out "The Art of Possibility" by Ben and Rose Zander for my favorite of these self-help books. Changed my life. 

Album Reviews 6 and 7 : The Beatles : A Hard Day's Night : Help!

I listened to these albums more or less back to back. I'm attempting to get out ahead of this resolution because I know there's going to be some REALLY busy weeks coming up for me. Plus I really want to get through the Beatles' core catalogue.

We're still in the early 60s. The Beatles (McCartney and Lennon in particular) are starting to write better songs. They're getting a little more adventurous and ambitious on a few tracks but the albums as a whole still average out to be the same old poppy doo-wop sounds I dislike so strongly.

Andy Hamilton thinks I'm crazy listening to so many albums I don't particularly love but the idea is simple. I am not a person who will readily say I like the Beatles when asked. The only issue is that I also can't say I've listened to enough of them, nor a wide enough variety of their music to really know. I want to be able to say I've listened to everything they wrote. They're arguably the most important important performing group of the 20th century.

We're rapidly approaching album 7 which I have heard from many people is the really turning point. We shall see!