Words On Wednesday

In pursuing my master’s degree, I have become more perceptive to numerous forms and sources for research, both academic and less scholarly. While consuming these materials, I have become significantly more critical of the sources of my information for my academic purposes, as well as my non-academic learning. While I am by no means an expert on scientific research, there are a few examples I have recently discovered that stand out as surprisingly misleading or downright wrong. Lack of a Sufficient Control Group Having recently cracked down on my diet and exercise habits, I started incorporating chia seeds into what I eat. They mix well into a number of different foods, and pack an objectively impressive dietary and nutritional punch. Lots of fiber, lots of protein, and relatively few calories. Investigating further, I learned that some (https://runnersconnect.net/chia-seeds-running/) runners use chia seeds as a means of carb loading for long distance events. The Journal of Strength...

I mentioned before that I started high alching  on Runescape again. I apparently did this so consistently and mechanically in my drive to get 99 magic that I got banned from the game. As I discussed last November, high level alchemy was an attractive prospect for my current situation. It yields a net profit, the materials buy pretty easily and quickly, and it requires very little attention. I figured I would keep going as long as I can. In the process of making money, I would surely hit 99 magic eventually. Per my post back in 2016  when I started playing again the previous time, I had 3,934,074 experience points (xp) in the magic skill. I know for sure that I didn’t do much magic training during that few month span of playing, especially not the magnitude of grinding that I had been doing lately. So I would ballpark and say I was still under 4,000,000 xp when I started back on October 15, 2017. On November 8, I started actually recording my current magic xp periodically...

After a few years of consistent interest in wearable technology, I finally own a 2nd gen Moto 360 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moto_360_(2nd_generation) ) from Motorola. I first mentioned my curiosity in smart watches ( https://jakehennett.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/2016-03-09-the-smartwatch-conundrum/ ) back in early 2016. My sentiment from then remains the same. The cost of a new smart watch is high for what you get. Most of them run something north of $200, which would get a pretty nice analog watch that would last far longer than a smart watch. However, picking up a gently used one for a discounted price (like I did) puts them at a much more reasonable value. Two of my conditions for purchasing a smart watch were that their usable life span needed to be at least 3 years, and their price needed to drop below $150. At $100, I got in the price range that I wanted, but I’m still not certain about life span. It seems pretty resilient, and Android Wear updates seem less consequential t...

It was bound to happen eventually. I missed a Words on Wednesday post. What’s worse is that I missed the first post of the year. Not some random Wednesday in the middle of April. I missed the first Wednesday of the first month of the year. Fail. While I am disappointed that I missed a Wednesday, I do have a good excuse. For one, I was on vacation, without having queued up a post beforehand. Plus, my laptop crapped out while I was out of town (more on that in a moment), so I had no way of writing up a post anyway. I can’t go back and change the fact that I missed a week, but I can at least give you the story of how I broke my laptop (again). Breaking the Laptop To get a break from the day to day grind, we decided to rent a cabin up in the Appalachian mountains to bring in the new year. While I was able to take PTO days from my day job, I still have school and side hustle responsibilities that I always seem to be behind on. As such, I decided to bring my laptop with us and catch up...