Soli Deo Gloria!

This is the product of finally cleaning my room.  I have sadly discovered that I have not invested as much into my soul as into my body.  I have one bookshelf worth of books on exercise, health, and nutrition, while I have less than two shelves worth of books on Christianity.  I also seem to have quite a collection of personal development/leadership books.  The rest are mostly textbooks from college courses and old classics I bought at a used book store in high school.

Some Generalizations about Study Habits and Improving Study Habits

1.   You cannot be said to have learned something until you can explain it to someone else in speech or in writing.  You must not assume that you have learned something merely because you have heard it or heave read it.

2.   Effective students, that is, the ones who get the most from their time spent studying, do not wait until they get to class to find out whether or not they have learned their lessons and assignments; they question themselves after studying.  If they can’t explain to themselves what they have learned, how can they explain it to the instructor in class or on a test?

3.   Many students are in a constant state of anxiety and frustration about doing their homework because they allow everything else to take priority over it.  Going to class and doing homework can be viewed as a job for now and perhaps for the next several years.  Your home assignments should be as regular, and your time for them as well-budgeted, as your class time in school.

4.   About notebooks: you make them and they are for your use, no one else’s.  You are writing notes to yourself which you expect to be of value weeks, even months, from the day you took them.  Therefore–pen is better than pencil.  Date your notes; if you miss some, you’ll know what you missed and will be able to get them from someone else.  Take notes while you are doing your reading assignment at home.  Also, the closer you can come to writing a complete sentence in your notes the better.  One word or a phrase in your notes may make sense while you’re listening to the lecture, but may have no meaning much later when you need the informaiton.

5.   Frequent review of your notes makes studying them for an exam later much easier.  It’s sometimes surprising to see how much you covered in a short time in some subjects.  Don’t expect to remember everything at once–even though you are expected to remember almost everything in a final exam!

6.   When you study, have everything you need before you settle down.  Clear your desk of everything but what you need for study.  Have a quiet place–or as quiet as you can get it.  Music or television can be distracting.  They may soothe you, but they can also slow you down and break up your ability to concentrate.  Concentration is hard enough to maintain under ideal circumstances; don’t make it harder.

7.   Don’t get too comfortable.  Your brain will think it’s time to retire.  Keep the room cool; make sure you’re getting fresh air to feed the brain the oxygen it needs to work.

8.   If you can’t concentrate for very long, give yourself a short–perhaps five minutes–break periodically.  Get away from the work entirely for a while–not too long.  Remember–if you are tired of doing one thing you don’t have to go to bed to rest; just do something else.  It isn’t that your body is tired; it’s that the muscles you’ve been using to perform one activity are tired.  So, change to another activiity.  Your mind operates the same way.  If you’re tired of doing math, you don’t have to go to sleep; just switch to another form of mental activity.  Do your English or history.  However, if you are exhausted, don’t do anything.  You’ll do more harm than good.  Restand start fresh.

9.   Your study habits and techniques are your own.  What works for one person may not be any good for someone else.  But you must develop habits of study.  Your homework and school work cannot be accomplished in a haphazard way if you are to have the best results.  As time goes on, you will be studying with less and less help from teachers.  The habits you develop now will be the habits you will use in the future.  These habits will determine whether you are mature enough and efficient enough to meet the challenge of independent study.

I enjoyed Obama’s speech and did not think it was political in any way.  It is disappointing that the Presidency is not respected by politicians. 

*On another note: Does anyone know why we tend to dislike school, especially primary and secondary school?  Is it the teachers?  Is it the content?  Is it the educational system?  Is it the growing pains we experienced?  Is it the other kids?  We are all fairly well educated, yet we don’t seem to appreciate the education that we have received.  Besides the fact that Westerners are fairly spoiled, I wonder if there’s something else.

I dropped out of the 6 Week increment at Officer Candidates School (OCS) two days before Graduation.

I had to go before the Company Board during Week 5 for a lack of leadership performance and a failing average in physical fitness.  I was then recommended for the Battalion Board.  The Battalion Commander gave me a second chance, allowing me to retake the two graded events I had failed during Week 4 and have my peers reevaluate me.  This past Monday I retook both events; I failed the physical fitness event again and barely passed the leadership event.  My peers also wrote another evaluation on me. Later that night, my Platoon Commander informed me that he had recommended me again for disenrollment, but this time with the ability to come back.

As I was thinking over what to write this time on the form given to me, I could not think of anything to say to plead my case again before the Battalion Commander.  I couldn’t blame my failing the physical fitness event again on my knee injury, even though it did play a role.  And I thought I had done all right on the leadership event, but I found out later that my evaluator graded extremely tough.  And my peers had stated once again in their evaluations that I was smart and had good character but that I lacked command presence.  I agreed with basically everything that my Platoon Commander wrote about me on the form.

It was at that point that I decided that it was time to drop out.  Graduation was a couple days away, but I could see myself continuing to struggle with the leadership and physical fitness required of U.S. Marine Corps officers.   I had lost the will to continue to fight.  None of the training at OCS came naturally to me.  During almost every physical event, I would pray to God to help me to survive.

On Tuesday, my head drill instructor, my Platoon Sergeant, informed me that he had read what I wrote and admired the decision I had made.  He praised my character and and complimented me on the fact that I had the courage to drop out when I was so close to graduating.  He also praised me on sticking it out to the end.  He said that he would love to serve with others who also practiced the leadership principle–Know yourself and seek self-improvement.  He said that he had recommended that I be kept and that I had a good chance of graduating, but that I would have struggled at the Basic School.  He said that he would be at OCS until 2011 and that he had better see me again.

The Battalion Commander told me I was young and confused after asking me why I was dropping out.  He recommended a couple books to read, and he recommended I attend Toastmasters-a group for those seeking to improve their public speaking, leadership, and interpersonal communication.  He stated that he would erase my records and recommended that I come back in the summer of 2010 for the 10 week program.  Usually, people who drop out aren’t allowed back, but I believe he liked me.

As I was packing up to leave OCS, my Platoon Sergeant gathered up my whole platoon and restated to them what he had told me earlier.  I had gotten a little teary earlier, but this time I couldn’t hold back the tears.  In all my adult years, I have never teared up like that.  Later, as I waiting to leave OCS, my Company First Sergeant said he had also written what I wrote, and he basically told me the same things my Platoon Sergeant had told me.  He also said that many candidates were graduating from OCS who shouldn’t because they were too proud to admit that their faults and weaknesses.  I got slightly teary eyed while he spoke to me as well.

I never imagined that I would tear up if I were to ever decide on not becoming a U.S. Marine Corps officer.  Of course, the practical aspects of the decision entered my mind.  How would I pay off my loans and pay for graduate school?  What would I do now?  I teared up though because I had spilled my guts out for two years.  I had pushed myself emotionally and physically beyond normal limits in order to become a Marine Corps officer.  I had gone through a combined 12 long and brutal weeks of OCS during which I had wanted to quit too many times to count, but I had finally made it to the end.  After those many, many weeks of training, I had become a Marine.

I also teared up because I never expected to receive so much praise from the staff upon dropping out.  I was dropping out because I didn’t have the leadership and physical abilities needed in a U.S. Marine Corps officer, yet instead of being ridiculed like most of the others who drop out, I was actually being told that I was not a failure and that I was the type of person with whom they would love to serve.

Being a Marine isn’t just a career, it’s who you are.  I am a different person than I was six weeks earlier, but now I am not a Marine nor was I ever officially a Marine.  Before I left OCS, they took away all my cammies and all my boots.  I paid for all of them myself, and many of those items I had bought over the internet myself.  I felt like the Marine Corps had just disowned me.

Now, I am not only dealing with the issues surrounding what to do with my life now, but I am also dealing with getting a grip on my identity and my connection with the Marine Corps.

Do any of you think about death, and if you do, does it affect the way you live?

Please comment.  Thanks.

I am lacking in both time and money.

I could use any one of these:

Amazing Pictures of Money

Lincoln’s Logic on Slavery Applied to Abortion:

On January 12, 2009 Samantha Heiges, age 23, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for drowning her newborn in Burnsville, Minnesota. If she had arranged for a doctor to kill the child a few weeks earlier she would be a free woman.

What are the differences between this child before and after birth that would justify its protection just after birth but not just before? There are none. This is why Abraham Lincoln’s reasoning about slavery is relevant in ways he could not foresee. He wrote:

You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.

You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.

But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest; you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you. (“Fragments: On Slavery“)

There are no morally relevant differences between white and black or between child-in-the-womb and child-outside-the-womb that would give a right to either to enslave or kill the other.

The hunger to be understood.  Few needs of the human heart are greater than the need to be understood-to have a voice that is heard, respected, and valued-to have influence.  Most believe that the key to influence is communication-getting your point across clearly and speaking persuasively.  In fact, if you think about it, don’t you find that, while others are speaking to you, instead of really listening to understand, you are often busy preparing your response?  The real beginningof influence comes as others sense you are being influenced by them-when they feel understood by you-that you have listened deeply and sincerely, and that you are open.  But most people are too vulnerable emotionally to listen deeply-to suspend their agenda long enough to focus on understanding before they communicate their own ideas.  Our culture cries out for, even demands, understanding and influence.  However, the principle of influence is governed by mutual understanding born of the commitment of at least one person to deep listening first.

- “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Foreward, Stephen R. Covey

2009 in preview?

This year I plan on employing the 80/20 rule and the KISS principle.  The 80/20 rule states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the work.  The KISS principle is Keep It Simple Stupid. 

I am a perfectionist, and I try to be a jack-of-all-trades.  I want to know everything about or be good at everything I’m interested in: martial arts, political theory, fitness, gymnastics, weightlifting, nutrition, health and wellness, Christianity, military warfare, etc.  I have a ton of tabs open in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome; and, I have my desktop filled with saved webpage links and documents.  I also have many, many blogs and websites favorited.

In 2008, my interests swayed over to the fitness and nutrition & health side.  I struggled to live a balanced life.  This year, I plan on balancing all my interests in a healthy manner.  In order to be able to do this, I will employ the 80/20 rule.  I have to learn how to use my time efficiently.

Chrisitianity & Spiritual Growth:

Bible

Desiring God Blog

A Man from Issachar Blog

Between Two Worlds Blog

Challies Dot Com Blog

Fitness:

Crossfit Forum & Journal

Performance Menu Forum & Journal

GymnasticBodies Forum

Body Recomposition Blog

The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban

Nutrition and Health & Wellness:

Dr. Mercola’s Newsletters

Dr. Michael Eades Blog

News/Current Events:

Politico

Washington Post

Yahoo! News

Economics:

Greg Mankiw’s Blog

Military & Counterinsurgency:

Small Wars Journal

Other:

Tim Ferriss’s Blog

2008 in review

- growing pains (spiritual ups and downs)

- injuries (shin splints / lower back injury)

- fitness & health and nutrition obsession

- actually started reading books