Kendall Giles

Here are four books on writing I just finished reading that you may find of interest. These books give insight into the nuts and bolts of the writing life, fill in the backstory of how writers craft their ideas, show how to read critically, and discuss why books and writing are important.

How to be a writer in an internet world

This book, Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer, by Jeff Vandermeer, is probably the best, single-volume source for how to be a writer today. It contains strategies, tips, plans, advice, guidance, and motivation for almost all phases of life as a writer, from setting up a healthy and productive work schedule to networking to using social media platforms like Facebook to working with editors to dealing with fame and publicity.

Really, this is a useful book.

Reading like a writer

In Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, Francine Prose walks us through pieces of model stories written by great writers, helping us train our eye for good technique in the elements of writing good fiction, focusing on individual words, sentences, and paragraphs, as well as dialogue, character, and other components important in making a work enduring and memorable.

Listening in as an author writes a story

In Ron Carlson Writes a Story, author Ron Carlson lets us listen in, piece by piece and draft by draft, to his thoughts and motivations as he writes a short story. Kind of like looking over the shoulder of a professional writer at work.

Reflections on the life of a writer

In A Dangerous Profession: A Book About the Writing Life author Frederick Busch presents a collection of essays musing on authors and works he likes as well as insights into the life of a writer based on his own experiences as novelist, critic, and teacher.

So I mentioned that I am evaluating a TRX suspension system, by Fitness Anywhere, via a 12-week fitness program (FORCE). Today was Day 54.

For a warmup, I led off with 8 sets of 5,5 snatches with the 24KG kettlebell, on the minute. Thus, in 8 minutes I snatched the 24KG kettlebell 80 times, which means I lifted 4,232.875 pounds in 8 minutes. While this is good for me, currently, since I am just starting out in kettlebells and the 24KG kettlebell is a new weight for me, that's no where near where I need to be. My goal is to snatch the 24KG kettlebell 200 times in 10 minutes, so I have a long way to go.

In fact, in part I am using Laura as a model, who just made it to the 200 snatches in 10 minutes milestone. She tells about her feat on her blog, Mistress Laura's Seven Percent Solution, and there she also gives some insight into what she had to go through to achieve this goal. I am taking notes, and continuing to plug away.

After snatches I did 3 sets of 10 goblet squats with the 32 KG kettlebell. I opted not to do swings, due to the intense weather heat and because I ended up ripping my hands during the snatches --- blisters that formed yesterday during my cleans with the 32 KG kettlebell decided to commit seppuku today during snatches. Alas.

After kettlebells, I moved on to TRX FORCE program Day 54, which is the last strength workout of week 8. I still curse those sets of oblique pikes that end the routine, but I think I am ready to move on to week 9.

So I mentioned that I am evaluating a TRX suspension system, by Fitness Anywhere, via a 12-week fitness program (FORCE). Today was Day 50.

I was happy to note that the 24 KG kettlebell is now my standard Turkish Getup weight --- I did 4 TGU's, 2 per side with this kettlebell and, while I can always improve my form, I did not feel as though I was going to drop the kettlebell and crush my skull at any point during the exercises. This is a definite gain!

I was also happy to note that my 3x5 ladders of kettlebell cleans with the 32 KG kettlebell felt very solid. And so I followed these cleans with 10 minutes of swings with the 32 KG kettlebell, 10 swings per set, on the minute. I am still not up to pressing with this weight --- I suspect that will take time.

After kettlebells, I immediately moved into the start of week 8 of the TRX FORCE program. As far as TRX goes, this week will be essentially a repeat of week 7. But though the workouts are the same, remember that in week 7 we saw a drastic ramp-up in required performance, and so week 8 I think is more about cementing the gains started in week 7.

That is not to say week 8 is a breeze --- especially since I am doing a kettlebell workout immediately prior to the TRX. In fact, after finishing the TRX workout I sat down (collapsed) onto the yoga mat I use beneath my TRX space to help protect the floor and, after recovery, I got up and found a puddle beneath me. It wasn't blood, but just sweat. Still, the kettlebell/TRX combo I am doing does seem to put one through the wringer.

Here are two simple questions:

1. who wants to be healthy?
2. who wants to be rich?

Probably most of you raised your hands to both questions.

But considering that the National Center for Health Statistics reports that more than 34% of Americans are obese (and with another 33% overweight), and considering that the average American has about $10,000 in credit card debt, there seems to be a big difference between what people say they want to be (the answer to the above questions) and what they actually are (unhealthy and in debt).

I'll leave getting fit for another post, but at least there's a great resource you can tap if you actually want to be rich --- the unambiguously titled new book I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

The book contains a six-week program to get your finances in order, get you out of debt, and help you be rich. But it is important to note that this is not the typical "buy hot stocks" or "hedge funds are great" or "to be rich you need to be an expert in finance" investment books. Rather, this book contains basic, fundamental, core principles and steps you can actually implement, today, to get out of debt and save lots of money. For example, regarding credit cards, the author includes actual scripts you can use to turn the tables on the credit card companies (like the scripts the telemarketers use on you to get you to buy things) and get them to waive your finance charges, lower your APR, and resolve missed payments. The book also includes examples, solid advice, explanations and reasons, and practical tips for getting out of debt and becoming rich.

This book is best for those people in their 20's and 30's -- those most likely to make naive finance mistakes (like going into credit card debt) and those most able to take advantage of the long-term view to money management. But everyone can learn something from the book, from how to negotiate, how to automate your bills and investments, and how to make investment decisions that won't require you to spend a lot of your own time managing them and won't require you to become a finance expert beforehand.

From the current state of the economy, it is clear that a lot of people do not have a basic understanding of how to manage their money. If they really want to become rich, then they should buy the book and actually do something about it, starting today.

Currently available from Amazon in paperback or kindle editions.

Thinking of a career change in a down economy? Ever wondered how business leaders are trained? Want to gain insight into the world of movers and shakers?

If so, you might enjoy reading Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School, by Philip Delves Broughton (kindle edition).

Against type, the book depicts a former London journalist's decision to reinvent himself by trying for a Harvard MBA. While many of his classmates are attending the program "on vacation" from their Wall Street jobs, Broughton struggles to keep up with computations using Excel and a demanding class and homework schedule. The story is essentially about Broughton's quest for meaning, his place in the world, and what exactly are the characteristics of the "perfect job". As he goes through the program, he tries to balance all the knowledge and networking relationships he gains with the realization that the resulting careers of those who graduate, though very lucrative, might not be exactly what he is looking for due to the family and personal sacrifices such jobs demand.

The book also gives a rare glimpse inside the very successful Harvard MBA program, as well as some of the students in the program. If you are thinking of testing your mettle and going for an MBA, then you might want to read his story.

There are a number of tools that have become available recently that overlay population features on top of geographic maps (thanks NumbersGuy). The data is from government surveys, crime logs, census logs, etc., and have been available for a very long time. However, by adding the geographic component and a web interface, the data is suddenly much more accessible and useful, especially to the individual.

For example, are you going to buy a new home and want to check out neighborhoods for various factors, such as crime, income, education opportunities, neighborhood walkability, etc.? Or are you interested in checking out your current neighborhood? Do you want to open a business and so want to target specific markets?

Below are a number of online tools that you may help you answer these questions:

• SpotCrime: shows crime statistics for a given address
• PolicyMap: shows census, real estate analysis, crime, mortgage origination, education, income, demographic, job, energy, and other statistics
• Walk Score: rates a given address on its walkability - a measure of the quality of life around a given address when walking
• Criminal Searches: search a given neighborhood or even people for crimes and offences.

As the first of several examples, here is an image of the distribution of household incomes around VCU in the year 2000, using the PolicyMap service. The free version unfortunately only gives access to old data (e.g., year 2000 for incomes), and the resolution is a little course (does not give block-by-block resolution), but you still can see overall trends. In the figure, the regions shaded with the darker colors indicate higher median household incomes.

The image below, from SpotCrime, shows the various crimes that were reported and logged by police from March 4, 2008 to May 4, 2008 around VCU. The different icons indicate different types of crimes, such as assaults, thefts, arson, arrests, robbery, burglary, vandalism, etc. While the number of crimes over just a two month period might seem high, VCU is an urban university in the middle of a low-income part of town (see previous median income image) with a dense population, so some amount of crime is unfortunately probably to be expected without better enforcement and more security.

Finally, on the bright side, VCU does appear to be a neighborhood that is quite walkable, as seen in the following graphic, where WalkScore gives VCU a walkability score of 88 out of 100, where 100 is the best walkability score you can get. Each icon represents a grocery store, restaurant, coffee shop, bar, movie theatre, school, park, library, bookstore, fitness center, drug store, etc., that are good to have within walking distance - the more of these establishments there are, the higher the walkability score.

A colleague just gifted me with the book Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People, by Jane Bryant Quinn.

Unlike complex financial strategies based on timing the market or spending inordinate amounts of time and energy tracking various stocks and funds, Quinn's advice is motivated by the desire for simple strategies that anyone, with any schedule, can implement. Anyone has time to follow her advice and reap the rewards. Topics include buying insurance, buying a house, getting rid of debt, and how to invest money.

Technorati Tags: academia, income, living, review

I have been asked to give two tutorial lectures at this fall's Mathematics of Knowledge and Search Engines workshop series at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, which is a part of UCLA.

I just found out about this (me presenting), so it looks like I'll be busy preparing the talks from now until then. When I find out more information I will post it here.

Here is an overview of the workshop series:

The rise of the search engine as a major tool for searches on the internet has spawned a large and growing industry that has changed modern commerce, education, and the study of scientific, financial, and social data bases. The underpinnings of these search engines are mathematical algorithms which are well adapted to large and rapid computations, mainly from linear algebra. While the impact of this industry has been enormous, there is a parallel development in the applications of these methods to other related problems concerning the extraction of knowledge from large databases. This long program at IPAM will be devoted to new mathematics and methodologies of knowledge engines: the mathematical procedures used to extract knowledge from large databases. While this includes topics related to search engines it is mainly devoted to the more general problem of finding features in a database or using defined features to search within a database. It is expected that this program will be of interest to a large number of scientific fields, including pure and applied mathematics, statistics, bioinformatics, and engineering.

In addition to the tutorial sessions, the rest of the workshops are as follows:

• Dynamic Searches and Knowledge Building
• Numerical Tools and Fast Algorithms for Massive Data Mining, Search Engines and Applications
• Social Data Mining and Knowledge Building
• Search and Knowledge Building for Biological Datasets

Technorati Tags: academia, income, job, science, technology, travel, work

If you ever wanted to give up your 9-5 job, if you ever wanted to stop working for someone else, or if you ever wanted to live more of your life now, rather than wait until retirement, then you might consider reading Timothy Ferriss' new book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

Technorati Tags: academia, book, income, job, work

Virginia has a lot of things going for it: four distinct seasons, diverse climates and countryside, thriving economic centers, strong colleges and universities, and rich and interesting historic sites and museums.

However, now Virginia has another feather in its cap. A new Forbes survey of all 50 states ranks Virginia as the Best State for Business:

Four hundred years after Captain John Smith established the first permanent English colony in Jamestown, the Commonwealth of Virginia is leading the way once again. Virginia grabbed the top spot in Forbes.com's first ever Top States for Business thanks to its strong economic growth, low business costs and excellent quality of life.

In fact, Virginia dominated the rankings in each of the six examined categories: business costs, economic climate, growth prospects, labor, quality of life, and regulatory environment.

As for institutions of higher education:

One of Virginia's strongest attributes is its two highly ranked institutions of higher education. The University of Virginia and College of William and Mary spit out up to 5,000 graduates a year, many of whom stay in-state. They help contribute to Virginia's college attainment rate of 34% which is the seventh highest in the country. Life sciences businesses have popped up in and around Charlottesville because of UVA's highly rated medical school.

In addition to UVA and the College of William and Mary, Virginia also boasts the well-known Virginia Tech university, the growing George Mason university, Virginia Commonwealth University (the largest university in the state), and a College that Changes Lives, Lynchburg College.

Technorati Tags: academia, income, job, living, lynchburg, virginia