Caddo Valley

2010 - Just Do It!

I can't believe that its the second month of the "new" year. Gosh! ... time flies. The last two years, my blogging did not pick up as I anticipated. Work and life got in the way and I was not able to cope with the idea of blogging through it all. 

How different could it be this year? I guess micro-blogging would be a new start. Daily. As a ritual for creative thinking and writing. 

As for today, I learned that we should never wait for the "right" time for anything. Just do it. 

Calculus Made Easy

Look what I found: Calculus Made Easy, by Silvanus P. Thompson. 

A Year Ago...

My wife just reminded me that a year ago, both of us were entertaining guests at our wedding dinner. I had no idea that is was a year ago. And just today, I pointed out to my students in class that there is an article today in the local paper, The Sun, on "Ways to improve memory." What an irony. 

The Book of Acts

Today I had my lunch with a pastor. And when we analyzed our Christian life, we did notice that we are far off from early Christians. In our discussion, I couldn't help imagining the early church described in The Book of Acts. 

And here is an interesting article about the early church and its author: 

After decades of examining the details mentioned in Acts, Sir William Ramsay concluded: "Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy, he is possessed of the true historic sense... In short this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians." 

Source: The Good News

Neuroplasticity

These days during my commute to work, I listen to Zig Ziglar and he did mention about the importance of what goes on between our two ears. So that led me to do a minor research on the subject of learning and brain activity. Here are some interesting findings on brain-based learning: 

• When a person practices something, the neurons in the related area of the brain fire more frequently and dendrite growth increases – in fact the dendrites maypotential paths for cognitive connections);
• When a person is learning, synapses work to organize neurons into a cohesive network which draws in some of the more isolated neurons – the networks are the physical equivalent of knowledge;
• Changes in the synaptic connections occur when learning is taking place;
• Synaptic activity is greatly enhanced when the brain is flooded with emotion chemicals (i.e., adrenalin, dopamine, and serotonin); and
• Exposure to new experiences and complex thinking actually increases synaptic connections and density between neurons in specific parts of the brain and also increases dendrite growth and connections in their brains (Draganski, 2004; Healy, 1990; Trachtenburg, 2002; Zull, 2004).

(Thompson, Sherry. "Brain-Based Learning." Brain-Based Learning -- Research Starters Education (June 2008))

So our learning potential is indeed flexible. 

Monday Morning Memo

Today, I have deleted all of my old post since 2006 because my previous posts (amounting to 5 or so) was not in any way profound to be kept in the archive. It is more like things that you want to flush it down the toilet. 

Anyhow, this is also to make way for new thoughts and updates (permanently) about my adult life. Just recently I turned thirty-three and I found myself to be a seasonal blogger at my other blog (I have decided to keep that to blog on less profound thoughts.) And over here, I plan to write on daily life as often as I could, and with absolute truth. 

Now, I need to say couple of things before we resume our normal post. Firstly, thank you so much for all the sweet and kind messages that you all have written in my Facebook and the emails that I have received. I truly appreciate having known all of you and I do miss talking to you all. And in case you are wondering, I got all the messages and I felt that I would wait to have this blog to be ready and here we are to see my first post. 

Secondly, I am juggling work and life at the same time. Enough said. 

Thirdly, I still love writing, blogging, and talking. It's just that I'd never really attempted doing all three at the same time. And this is my first attempt. 

Finally, I would like you to come as often as possible to my blog here and do give your comments.