Next year I will be MISTER Morris!

kristen thinking about her engagement ring
Originally uploaded by travelinjay.

Kristen and I are getting married next summer!!!! I really can't put into words how happy I am ... here's a picture.

My life is brilliant.

I have the best job in the world.

When I started teaching at a community college, I had just left one of the biggest, most prestigious, research institutions in North America. I was definitely excited to be teaching, but looking at the courses offered here, it was a little bit disappointing to think that I would be teaching the same three or four courses for the next 30 years. Here's what I had to choose from:

Basic Psych. Essentially Psych100 smooshed into one semester.
Lifespan Developmental Psych. Development from 'womb to tomb'.
Personal Psych. Understanding yourself and others.
Strategies for Success. Study skills, critical thinking, etc.

Coming in with a research background, the first two courses sounded very exciting, and the last two sounded a little bit ... horrible.

Every semester since then has been better and better. This past Fall, I was asked to re-structure and teach a Psychology of Advertising course (until then I didn't know this course existed at the college) to the Graphic Design students here (a very bright and motivated group). Now there is some talk that I may be able to teach Statistics to the upper-year students of the Collaborative Nursing program (collaborative with the University of Windsor), another one of my favourite groups to teach. Intro Stats is one of the most rewarding courses to teach because you get to see the 'aha!' moments on your students' faces.

As for the Personal Psych and Strategies for Success courses, I'm working with some of the other teachers to develop a new course that combines the useful elements of those two courses, along with some Educational and Social Psych concepts so that we can offer one course that will be more interesting and helpful for the students.

I may also get to teach the university-level two-semester Intro Psych course here for students who want to transfer credits over. It will be so nice to have twice as much time to get into these concepts.

The other great aspect of this job is the department. We have 4 Psych professors here, all hired within the last three years. So we've got a ton of energy and we're all happy to share ideas and work with eachother without any of the politics that might exist in more established departments.

Very, very happy.

$$$ Rapture Cash!! $$$

just_waiting
Originally uploaded by travelinjay.

Folks, there is now plenty of evidence to suggest that the end of the world is near. First, we saw God take out his anger on the boob-flashers in New Orleans, then he killed a bunch of pretty swans with the bird flu, and most recently he sent one of his most powerful henchmen to start shooting the elderly in the face.

Well, I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that when the rapture comes and all you good people are up in heaven listening to harp music and sipping champagne, I'll still be down here paying off my student loans. It seems that once you make a certain amount of blasphemous comments, you are denied entry into the wonderful country club in the sky, and I passed that threshold years ago. Besides, they won't let me in with these sandals on.

Ah, but there is good news! It turns out, due to a loophole in the rapture clause of the bible, although good people will be taken up to heaven, their pets must stay behind (something about dander allergies and poor air circulation up there). Anyway, with their owners gone, those pets need someone to take care of them, and that's where JesusPets.com enters the picture! They have created a program that matches up good christian pet owners with atheists like me who can take care of those pets when their owners fly away to heaven! FOR COLD HARD CASH!!!

I can't believe I didn't think of this! It's easy money! My student loans will be paid off in no time!

My original plan was to just run around looting, but I was never quite comfortable with that. Even godless heathens have some scruples. This pet thing is ethical AND lucrative!

Now I can't wait for the rapture!

Superbowl Weekend

windsor_detroit superbowl
Originally uploaded by travelinjay.

We survived Superbowl weekend in Detroit. Rumors of celebrity visits enticed us downtown in search of Ben Affleck, the Stones or, yes, we were told ... Dom DeLouise was in Windsor! The only credible story I heard all weekend came from a friend whose father spotted Hulk Hogan in a local restaurant. Amazing! So maybe Windsor didn't take in a lot of celebrity money, but it sure got us off our asses and out spending our own money. The downtown area was busier than I've ever seen it, and I donated $100 to my least favourite charity: Casino Windsor. Wheeeee!!!

South Beach Diet Summary

I'm done with South Beach now.

Week 2 went like this: Diet, diet, diet, cheat, cheat, diet, get a sore throat, ... lost a few more pounds.

Week 3 went like this: Cough, cough, cough, screw this stupid diet, fruit, fruit, pizza, ... weight stayed the same.

So I started around 196 lbs and got down to about 185 in two weeks. I'm holding steady while battling this sore throat, and I'm blaming Kristen for most of the bad things I eat.

In the end I think the South Beach diet is okay. It certainly works to help you lose a few pounds very quickly, but I don't think it's very healthy to cut so many carbs out of your diet. You end up with a high-fat, high-protein diet which isn't very healthy.

My two main recommendations for anyone who wants to try South Beach are:

1. Take some vitamin pills because you can't eat fruit (though we ate lots of veggies).

2. Make sure you are getting enough sleep.

I think my sore thoat came from a combination of sleep deprivation (I did the diet during the first couple of weeks back to school after x-mas, which is a bad sleeping time for me) and not eating any fruit for 2 weeks.

Oh, and don't get your blood tested during the South Beach diet. My cholesterol reading came back very high. Now that's partly genetic in my case, but I'm sure it has a lot to do with the high-fat, high protein diet. WAY too much cheese, eggs, and meat in that diet.

Co-incidentally, while visiting my parents this weekend, I came across an Andrew Weil book that I gave them a few years ago (Eating Well for Optimal Health). I forgot how much I loved that book. Every page I read yesterday had something interesting.

I was amazed at how similar Weil's 'philosophy of food' was to my own implicit ideas, ... until I realized that most of my ideas about nutrition came directly from this book a few years ago :) Oh yeah.

I also picked up Doug Hofstadter's 'Godel, Escher, Bach' again, so I may have something abstract and confusing to post here soon. I think GEB is an important book to look at from time to time, even if you (like me) only understand it on certain levels. That may actually be the point of the book. I'm not sure.

Imprecise South Beach Diet Update

Well, after one week of the South Beach diet, my weight has moved from somewhere around 194-197 lbs down to somewhere around 187-191 lbs. So, I've probably lost about 6 lbs.

Now, when I say that I've been on the South Beach diet for a week, that's a bit of a stretch. Saturday was an officially sanctioned cheat day because we had to go to Kristen's work party at the Ciccaro Club and there's no way in hell I'm going to pass up a free Italian feast ... and drinks ... and deserts ... and coffees. We also ate the appropriately-named 'Perfect Lunch' at Mykonos (a greek restaurant in Windsor), which is a chicken kabob with rice and Greek salad. Perfect.

Since this weekend silliness doesn't seem to have slowed the weight loss, I'm creating the new Jay Morris Diet (patent pending), which can be concisely described by the following rules:

Do Phase 1 of the South Beach during the week.
Be reasonable on the weekend.
Or don't.
Also, a little bit of dark chocolate every day is good.

This may soon be ammended to include one packet of natural cane sugar per day in my coffee.

I'll keep you (who reads this thing?) posted next week!

South Beach Diet

Well, I don't think most people would consider me to be fat (though at Carleton I was the fattest guy in a house of 4 skinny guys). My weight has recently varied between 168 lbs when I returned from backpacking around the world, to this year's post-christmas weight of somewhere between 195-200 lbs. I'm about six feet tall, which put my post-christmas BMI (body mass index) around 27, eeking me into the 'Overweight' category. So I'm trying out a diet.

When I tell people I'm trying out a diet they usually say something like "What? That's crazy! You don't need to lose weight!". I'm not exactly the type who follows recipes, rules, directions, ... and I'm not worried about my BMI number either. But, here are the two reasons I do need to shed some pounds:

1. The extra weight that I am carrying is almost exclusively in the middle of my body, which any nutritionist or doctor will tell you is a bad sign.

2. Much more importantly: I don't feel comfortable in this body.

When I was down around 170 lbs, I felt fantastic, I had more energy, and I felt better in my clothes.

So, Kristen and I have decided to check out the South Beach diet. The main idea of the diet is to get you to think about what you're eating and recognize good and bad carbohydrates. The main issue with carbs is the speed at which they are broken down into sugars. Unlike the Atkins diet, which basically says that carbs are bad across the board, South Beach tries to promote an understanding of why some carbs are worse than others, and that they can be made better or worse depending on HOW you eat them and WHAT you eat them with. Consuming fibre with carbs requires the body to work harder to break down the fibre before it can get to the sugars, which means the sugar is absorbed more slowly and you don't end up with an spike in your insulin levels (which is what causes you to be hungry after lunch or dinner, and start snacking).

There are three phases to the diet. The first two weeks are 'strict', where you cut out all carbohydrates except certain vegetables (e.g., brocolli, lettuce, and peppers are okay, potatoes and carrots are not). Phase two loosens up and you can re-introduce some carbs back into your diet. Not all at once though. You only get a small amount per day. You have to choose the ones that you really want to include. When you reach your desired weight you move to Phase three, where you can eat what you want, though by then you have hopefully changed your eating habits and won't eat much (if any) more junk.

I like the idea behind this diet, mainly because it makes you think about what you're eating it and how. With each new diet that comes out, the general public seems to learn more about nutrition. Of course if you think simplistically about them, you'll end up drinking nothing but juice, or eating nothing but Atkin's official products, which should be obviously dumb. I like to see these things as a slow education of the public, building up our common knowledge base.

Anyway, this is only Day 3 of the diet. Because my bathroom scale is a little old and because my weight seems to fluctuate wildly from day to day, I'm not going to get very excited about specific numbers, but here are some. Last week my weight varied from 194-197 lbs. This morning my weight was 191. That doesn't necessarily mean I've permanently lost any weight (lousy scale + weight fluctuation), but that's one of this week's measurements. I'll post my progress as we go.

What does it mean to be poor?

Folks,

My student loan debt is currently higher than my annual salary. My monthly payments are high enough right now that I am essentially leasing an imaginary Hummer. I am trying to aggressively pay off my debts so that I can have a net worth of zero dollars before I turn 35. When I hear about people being 'broke', I feel jealous. Oh, to have nothing!

Kristen and I visited friends in Rochester, New York this weekend, and got to see Kyle's photo exhibit there. Along our merry way, we stopped for lattes at Starbucks, and in Rochester, we went out for breakfast, had dinner at a nice little Mediterranean-style place, and saw a movie (Brokeback Mountain - very good, but so sad).

On the way back, we stopped at Ikea in Burlington and I picked up some nice wine glasses, a shelving unit for the bathroom, a matching set of towels, and some other fun stuff. We spent about $350 there.

This doesn't sound like the life of a poor man.

Here's an article from the Economist that compares two very different situations.

Read the article and see how you feel about your own situation.

Incredible Journey

You've heard about that American kid sneaking his way to Iraq without telling his mother? That was nothing.

Check out this story from McSweeney's.

New Years Revelations

Happy New Year!

Since my last post, Kristen has moved in to my (oops, 'our') apartment, my (our) roof has suffered reindeer damage, and we have slept through January 1st in a very traditional and respectful manner.

Now that Kristen and I are living together, I can more effectively steal her Christmas presents. So I'm just starting to read her copy of 'The Pagan Christ' by Tom Harpur (Thanks Ken!).

Harpur importantly first clarifies that the word 'pagan' originally means something like 'farmer' or 'peasant' (basically normal folks) and that the negative connotations of witchcraft or other goofiness that we have today are misleading.

The main idea of this book (so far) is that the Christian character Jesus borrows heavily from the Egyptian man-god named Horus (who had been around for a while). Both were born to virgin moms named (roughly) Mary and earthly dads named Joseph, heralded by 3 kings and a star, both referred to as 'the annointed one', baptized by someone who was later beheaded. Both raised someone from the dead named (roughly) Lazarus, etc. Far too many similarities to ignore.

The book is engaging and (so far) very readable. I have heard vague versions of this kind of claim before, but it is fascinating to see it laid out and explained. Unsurprisingly, Christianity is a story that is based on previous stories. Given the literalist wackos in Kansas and their Intelligent Design concept, is it ironic that the story of Christianity itself has actually *evolved* from previous versions?

Here's the part I like: Harpur is a Christian and claims that these findings have STRENGTHENED his faith.

His basic point seems to be this: Christianity is obviously not meant to be taken literally. Once you accept that, you can more effectively understand and celebrate the SPIRIT of the religion.

Let me add ... and once you ditch the literalism, the spirit of Christianity is basically the same as the spirit of most any religion: Do unto others, don't kill anyone, etc.

What a great idea! Let's all accept Jesus as a really nice character who we should try to emulate. Like 'The Dude' from The Big Lebowski, or that guy on Blue's Clues. Just good people who are trying to figure things out.

Merry Dudemas!

Radio

Two radio shows that will make your brain smile and grow (in a non-headache-inducing way).

This American Life (Sundays @ Noon on 101.9 WDET or WDET.org)(or most NPR stations)

Ira Glass and a team of producers explore a theme in three or four 'acts'. Funny, sad, crazy, wonderful stories on topics ranging from reincarnated bulls to Canadians living in the U.S.. You will be glued to the radio.

O'Reilly on Advertising (Saturdays@ 11:30 a.m. on CBC (1550 in Windsor) or CBC.ca)

No, not the FoxNews monkey Bill O'Reilly. This is CBC's Terry O'Reilly discussing the world of advertising. Very engaging with great examples to illustrate his points. Find out all about how well you're being manipulated!

blackhole

blackhole
Originally uploaded by kechambers.

Wow. This is a new picture from my friend Kyle. Perhaps this is the tunnel that carpenters see when they are dying.

Science "going too far"?

There has been some discussion in the previous post about whether or not science can 'go too far'. My take on this has been that science is the collection (verb) of knowledge and thus cannot be unethical, and that the problem lies in the application of that knowledge (technology). Kristen and Dave wondered whether cloning research itself (i.e., studying stem cells) can be considered questionably ethical because we don't know how that research can be applied. To which I said bah![1]

Now, how about this guy?

J.P. Rushton has been causing a stir in the scientific community and generally making me grumpy for years.

Part of Rushton's impressive vitae is a questionable (and questioned) line of research examining differences in intelligence[2] between Asian, Caucasian, and Black people. His conclusions boil down to: Asians are smart, Blacks are dumb, and White folks are in the middle (juuuuust right, perhaps?).

Is this an example of 'science going too far'?

I have claimed that science cannot go too far as it is simply the collection of knowledge, and that the application of this knowledge is where things can potentially go kablooie. However, this is a case where:

a) I can't see the benefit of this research (though maybe someone can explain it to me).

b) I CAN see a HUGE potential for abuse, both by people who understand this research AND by those who don't understand it.

c) I can't see what the motivation is for this research. What questions are we answering in this line of research?

On the one hand, Rushton's research is probably the most thorough examination of the relationship between race[3] and intelligence. And I would argue that we don't always need to have a practical application in mind when we do research. Basic research is often conducted for the sole (and important) purpose of furthering our knowledge in an area, with the hope of linking that information with other information in the future. And that is worthwhile research. Sometimes we don't know where a line of research will take us, or who will do what with the results. Kudos to Rushton if he understands that concept.

However, in this case, I can only think of negative applications of these results. I am not sure what would drive someone to invest SO MUCH ENERGY into demonstrating intelligence differences between races. Rushton has spent decades (and presumably a lot of research money) working to show racial differences in intelligence, and sexual and criminal behaviour.

But wait, there's more!

When I was in Illinois, studying Psychology at a very well-respected school, every couple of years a miniature version of Rushton's book[4] would mysteriously show up in the mailboxes of all the grad students. I'm not sure who put them there, whether Rushton himself mailed them out or some eager local brought them by, but what could possibly be the point of mailing out unsolicited collections of research claiming to prove that blacks are inferior? This is not a common practice. Every time these showed up, there were piles of them in the garbage can.

So, you decide!

Ruston: A man of science or a man obsessed with carefully examining the precise correlation between the vague concept of intelligence and the vague concept of race?


Notes:
[1] This is the Ebenezer Scrooge 'bah' not to be confused with the Dolly the sheep 'baah'.
[2] Whatever that is.
[3] Whatever that is.
[4] Rushton's mini-book was like a little bible, except with even more potential to make people hate eachother.

Evolution and Intelligent Design

Here is the first in what I expect will be a series of posts relating to the topic of ... well, thinking.

My friend Jeff just sent me a link to this article on Intelligent Design in Kansas schools. Here's my politically correct (if quickly written) reply to Jeff:

Solution: Two courses.

Course #1: Science. Principles of science, scientific method, experimental design, etc.

Course #2: Big Questions. How did we get here? What's the deal with Trump's hair?, etc.

Course #1 prepares students to use the scientific method to explore the world. There is absolutely no place for intelligent design in this course except of course as an example of how scientific examination can refute a theory.

Course #2 gives students some perspective on how we can take different perspectives on larger, unsolvable questions of life. Evolution is not THE answer to our questions, it's just the best SCIENTIFIC theory we have. The best non-scientific or FAITH-BASED theory is intelligent design. These are two ways of answering a question. Neither one is inherently better than the other, it's just that one is scientific (and therefore a better theory within the domain of science) and the other is faith-based (and therefore a better theory within the domain of religion or other non-scientific areas).

I don't object to the teaching of intelligent design alongside evolution. These are both valid theories of how we got here. However, intelligent design is not a scientific theory and should never be taught as part of a science course. In fact, I'd go a step further and say that teaching intelligent design in a science class would give students a confused and conflicted concept of what science is.

I will go even one step further to claim that the high school science teachers who want to include intelligent design in their curriculum don't have a deep understanding of what science is themselves, and probably should not be teaching science.

Welcome!

Welcome to this blog. I set this up a couple of months ago, and I've been meaning to write in it ever since. I seem to be suffering from a combination of what-to-write-about first syndrome and when-to-grade-all-these-damned-midterm-tests disease (non-contagious, but brain-degenerative). So, why not warm up the fingers with a little welcome message.

When I lived in Illinois, I got a chance to write a weekly mass-email inviting people to the Psychology grad student Happy Hour. It had been a 4 or 5 year tradition at that point (I took over for my last year there) and the emails were typically 10% invitation and 90% some kind of goofy story or fun take on some news item. Every Wednesday I would sit down and try to figure out what the heck I could write about. Some weeks nothing came out, but most of the time I was able to put together something that would amuse myself and at least a couple of my friends.

When I left Illinois and traveled for a while, there was always something to write about, and I had so much fun sending back ridiculous (but true) stories of ... well mostly ridiculous stories about how I injured myself in various countries.

Anyway, the two things I loved most about these projects were the feedback I got from friends, and the practice of regularly writing things. The emails were a great way to keep in touch with people, and I loved being forced (in the Happy Hour case) to sit down and come up with something creative every week.

Since moving back to my home town, I've landed a great job teaching at the college, bought a duplex to fix up, fallen in love with a wonderful person, and now Simon, Kristen, and I basically just roll around in big piles of happiness all day (alas, there's no money in teaching). But I'm missing three things in my life: travel, writing, and you! I can travel (to you) in the summer, but I'm writing now.

I hope you are doing well and appreciating the ridiculous and wonderful things in your life!

jay