+++ title = “01” date = 2020 +++ Every system in life requires balance; therefore every system requires a budget. Diet requires a budget of energy. How much do you spend? How much do you save or consume? The answer to this equation is different for every person but important to consider. Those who don’t might end up trying to fix a mess later on. Fitness is the same. Can I increase the amount of energy expended, and how should I then consume calories/energy to compensate?

+++ title = “01” date = 2020 +++ The age old debate rages on: are we like this because that’s how we were made, or are we like this because society has given us a superficial roadmap? I’ve started to believe that it doesn’t matter much. After all, for most of us, this sort of inquiry is mostly for fun, at least when we talk on a societal scale. What’s more pressing is those who are in front of us everyday: our kids, our spouses, our parents, our friends.

+++ title = “01” date = 2020 +++ As I plan for my upcoming course, I keep thinking about what qualities make up the best classes. One of the most important creative qualities that we can cultivate in a class of students is vulnerability. I’ve always felt somewhat vulnerable, in life. Sometimes to my detriment. Other times, it’s helped with whatever I’m doing, especially if what I’m doing is something creative.

What are you to do when everyone disagrees? With your choices, with your art, with your life? For years, I thought this kind of peer feedback was a built-in safety mechanism. My friends would _never _let me do something so stupid as to release a book, or record an album, and embarrass myself. Or wear a yellow wristband with a pink Z, or drink pink cocktails as man, or… But what to do when you feel so comfortable in your choices that you can’t imagine an alternative and yet everyone laughs, questions, or pokes?

As I plan the syllabus for my upcoming college course, I find myself thinking about rewards and gamification. Gamification, that buzzword that everyone wants to “try” is actually something we’ve been doing for quite a while using points. If you’ve ever received x amount of points out of y, and you’ve had to total those points up for an entire semester’s worth of work to calculate your grade, then you’ve played a game.