Boredom and Tiredness

I believe there is a link between how tired you are and how bored you are. The other day I found myself extremely bored. Did I have stuff to do? Yes. Lots of stuff. The problem was, I didn't have the gumption to do it (yes, I just used the word gumption). I was doing everything but what I needed to. I was watching hulu, playing computer games, and just wasting my time. I was also bored out of my mind. Here's the kicker: today I feel the same way. I am battling myself to stay on task and wish I could have a perpetual bucket of water poured on my head to wake me up. I have no gumption. Here's the correlation between my boredom episodes: both of these bored times were after fairly late nights. I am going to do some research on myself and see if I can gather data evidence to back up my theory, but I believe that there is a correlation between boredom and tiredness.

The link is fairly easy to see after you think about it for a minute. When you're tired, what happens? Your brain shuts down to the point of wanting to sleep. When I am at work, I can't sleep. At least, I have to look like I'm awake, right? So, the recipe of a shut-down brain and having to stay awake is also the recipe for boredom. The key is the brain is not finding excitement nor fulfillment in anything you are doing. So, it follows that the brain will try to find entertainment in the usual places that are fun and exciting, watching TV, playing a game, and just regular, non-physical forms of entertainment. You've got a mountain of stuff to do, none of which looks appealing and so the brain naturally goes elsewhere to find something fun. You then begin that activity only to realize that this activity is also not fun (because your brain is turned off) and you look for the next thing and the next until you waste your time, go home, and sleep.

What is the solution, you might ask? Obviously get to bed earlier. Sometimes young parents will not get the best sleep because of children and what not, but by and large, getting to bed earlier will be the best option to stave off boredom. So, before staying up, you have to weigh in your mind how productive you want to be tomorrow compared to the benefits of staying up. Is the time you are spending up worth the loss in productivity the next day? Many times, yes. But it is something to think about before taking the leap.

Stress

As defined by the world's dictionary, dictionary.com, stress means "physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension". My desire with this post is to post my own thoughts on stress, what the causes are in my view, and how to confront and conquer those feelings. This post is written more for myself than for anyone else, as it seems my stress level has been risen to before unknown levels of late. We'll get to my own stress in a minute; let's get to general stress.

In my experience, stress is not caused by what is happening in the moment. Yes, I know you mothers who are dealing with a very tense crying baby right now are thinking, "Right..." (insert sarcastic tone here). I believe stress is caused by the fear of what is to be. For example, let us consider the following: you are driving down the road and all the sudden you feel the thump-thump and realize that your car has a flat tire. Add to that, your kids are in the car. Now take a step back and consider the situation. You have probably 5 different solutions to the flat tire problem already coming to mind (as that is what the brain does, thinks of solutions). The stress is not in what is happening at that moment. The stress enters as you consider what is going to happen. How are my kids going to do? What if this lasts longer than I expect, do I need to get a babysitter? What if they start crying while I'm in the middle of changing the tire/waiting for someone to come help out? I'm going to be late for my appointment! And the list goes on and on. What is happening at the moment is perfectly manageable. What will happen, because it is unknown, is not.

So, you ask, how does one conquer such natural and human inner feelings? How? That is the ultimate question that I am going to take a stab at. The brain can only focus on one item at a time with any amount of quality. Yes, it is true, humans were made to only be able to do one thing at a time. While you may think you can do more than one thing at a time, what you are really doing is one thing very quickly and then shifting focus to the next very quickly and back again. So, take a step back and analyze the situation. Your brain has already thought of several solutions to the problem at hand, so then think of any other problems stemming from this situation. The children will need lunch, how do you fix this? Now on to the next one, the children may get bored and subsequently cry, how do you fix this? Move from one item to the next until you have figured out how to get every problem under control. Remember, if you focus on everything at the same time, you will only feel the pressure increase. If you take one at a time it should relieve at least part of the stress as the future is now in your hands and not in some mystic I-don't-know-what's-going-to-happen's hands.

The key to this is the taking a step back part. I have found that focusing on my breathing is a great tool wherewith I focus on the here and now. Nothing is more important nor more relaxing. Just breath in and out slowly 4 times. This will help you focus on the here and now. It will also calm you down to focus on the immediate solutions.

Now on to my own personal stress. I am a father of two. My wife is usually working when I get home which leaves the care of the children with me after work. The chores are basically split between the two of us. I am taking classes which take my time after the girls go to sleep. I am really not much busier than most people, but there is a lot on my plate. So, in my mind I have many things going on. What if the chores take longer than expected so I can't get to my homework? I will then have to go to bed a little later, but then tomorrow I won't be able to think as productively. What if the homework I submit is not as good as it needs to be? Then I may not pass the class... and on and on. Notice anything in my self-talk? It is all about future events. I am in control now. I am getting things done now. The future will come and I can handle it when it comes.

Now, I am not advocating a total dismissal of future consequences. I do think we need to focus more on what we are doing right than what we are going to be possibly doing wrong in the future. In the Star Wars movie, Luke was so focused on what was going to happen to his friends that he abandoned his training and was almost killed because of it. Yoda sums up the principle I'm trying to portray best here. While this may be a fictitious story, the principle taught I believe to be a true principle.

So, my friends, focus on what you are doing. Take the best action for the desired consequences, and take life one step at a time. One problem at a time. That's my solution.

A Midnight Run - More than what it seems

About 1/2 an hour ago, my wife left to go for a 5k which will begin at midnight and, for her, end about 27 minutes later. There're no redcoats coming, no security or other issue at hand. Why might I ask, would someone want to run at midnight. The answer, I believe, comes from another midnight. New Year's Eve coming into the 2009 year. We decided that this year we would write down our goals on a piece of paper so big we couldn't miss them. Then we would hang them up in our bedroom so that we could see them staring at us every day. Almost staring us down, daring us to complete what would seem like altogether impossible goals.



Yet, as the proverb from someone no-one seems to know says, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

We made many goals, like fix the gate to our back yard. Financial goals like get out of debt. There were also physical goals, Brit's being run several (she has a number but I can't remember it off the top of my head) 5ks this year. As I sit here writing this I think that there is something more. There is something beyond the race, yes beyond the gate or debt. The real reason we have goals and something to shoot for is because we are trying to become better people.

My wife is right now getting set at the starting line of the race; ready to run into the night until she has one more check box on our goal chart to cross off. But is it just a check box, or is she herself becoming a better person, a better mother, a better and more useful daughter of God? I believe that she is accomplishing what I thought at the beginning of this year impossible, she is becoming a better Brittany.

Tired of Textbook cost

Over the span of my college career (now aproaching the decade mark - and no I haven't been in college for the entire time) I have bought many a textbook and sold many a textbook. I've bought books for as much as $200 and for as little as $3. As a computer scientist by trade, I think about the digitization of the entire world book library (proposed and almost implemented by google) and it doesn't sound like such a bad idea. I've learned how to go around the bookstore and actually getting a semi-reasonable price for my textbooks. For example, this semester I estimate I'll pay $35-$40 for my textbook that costs $126 at the bookstore. But, that's neither here nor there. A few semesters ago, actually come to think of it it was a few years ago...2004 to be exact, my physics professor decided to write his own book and publish it in a web browser. The book that would have cost about $60-$70 (based on the number of color pictures etc) actually cost $5. His reasoning? He thought that we would perform better as students if we weren't so worried about money. Having never taken physics in my life, I got an A- in the class...there could be something to that.

In preparation for this post, I read a couple of articles that gave some interesting statistics. You can read more about them here or here. The bottom line is that textbook costs have increased by a disproportionate amount and it is even deterring many people from entering college altogether, thus making our entire society suffer.

What, say you, is the solution? I propose this: the cost of a computer is going down at about the same rate the the cost of a textbook is going up. Let's make .pdf files of all the textbooks and charge students per download. Charge $15-$20 per download and that would cover the cost for the author(s). (The royalties going to the author are next to nothing anyway $3-$15 per book). At this price, the students would not need to find pirated copies of textbooks, which happens, and the profits to the actual author would increase because there are less costs of publication and students will go directly to the author instead of trying to buy it from someone in India who has an international version that costs less.

The student would then buy a computer (most do anyway) that can serve them in so many other ways than just a one time class.

A misspelled word

English is a funny language. In Armenian, there are no spelling bees, because if you can pronounce the word, you can spell it. Same with Arabic, Spanish and a myriad of other languages. This leads me to my thought for today, what does misspelling a word in English mean? Does it really mean that you don't have enough education to spell correctly or does it mean that English is an impossibly hard language so we should cut people some slack on spelling?

When I was in elementary school, I wanted to spell correctly and get 100% on every spelling test. In order to do that, I figured I needed to practice and so when I was speaking, I would spell in my mind every word I spoke out loud . Even today sometimes I subconsciously start spelling things I say. I would also pronounce the words in my mind the way that they were spelled (ex. beautiful I would say in my mind, "bee- aaa- ooo-tee-ful").

My question I've been asking myself is should a misspelled word preclude someone from having a certain job? I would understand if that person were applying for an editor position, but otherwise does spelling have any bearing on how well a person does a job that has nothing to do with spelling?

A man of science and religion

Ok, so I decided to go and make my own blog. I am ceding the Matt and Brit Gardner Family blog to Brit with an occasional entry from me focused on family stuff. I don't think my family blog is the place to post political debate topics, sports entries and the like, so I decided to branch out and make my own.

When Google comes out with its wave technology, I will try to implement that and create real discussion, but for now I will settle with the blog form as given.

So, to kick it off, I would like to propose a thought. When I was taking a physics class in astronomy at BYU-Idaho, my professor proposed that the chasm between evolution and religion is much like the chasm that existed many years previous between astronomy and religion, where the Catholic church persecuted and imprisoned those who thought that (based on evidence) the Earth indeed revolved around the Sun. Given time and understanding, we understand now that religion and science were not at odds with eachother, but that the interpretation of religion was at odds with science.

So, what do you think about evolution? What are some ways you have come to reconcile the two?

I found this interesting article in the new era a few years ago at lds.org.