Just bought a Giant Triple X that's rarely been used. It has rollerbrakes and I notice that the rear brake is weaker than the front. The brake lever feels noticeably lighter even after adjustment.
I haven't had a bicycle for years and no experience with drum brakes so I don't know if this is normal?
I've always had a pretty low resting heart rate despite not being athletic (around 60 BPM). I'm 5'11" and 159 lbs (180cm, 72kg). Lately I've been measuring 50-55 BMP more often. I feel a little weak and low energy when my heart rate gets this low.
Could any of my supplements be to blame for this?
Maybe something in my diet? Every day I eat lots of vegetables, 2 eggs, kefir, wheat germ, nuts and pumpkin seeds. Plenty of meat and complex carbs. Fish only once a week.
I've always had a pretty low resting heart rate despite not being athletic (around 60 BPM) but lately I've been measuring 50-55 BMP more often. I feel a little weak and low energy when my heart rate gets this low.
Could any of my supplements be to blame for this?
Maybe something in my diet? Every day I eat lots of vegetables, 2 eggs, kefir, wheat germ, nuts and pumpkin seeds. Plenty of meat and complex carbs. Fish only once a week.
This has always confused me. Canned beans are so convenient but are high histamine. I thought canned foods are sterilized though? Where does the high histamine come from?
I've only been playing classical piano for 2 years (with teacher) and have very basic music theory knowledge but I'm interested in learning jazz with the Barry Harris method.
How can I best approach this? Can I just dive in or would it be a better idea to improve my music theory knowledge first? Most jazz theory books like Mark Levine's tend to be very modal jazz oriented though. Terefenko's Jazz Theory is an exception.
Has anyone had 10 or more floaters disappear? Did they disappear overnight? Did they slowly become more transparent over time before disappearing or break up in smaller chunks?
I want to read "Reality: A Synthesis of Thomistic Thought" but it seems quite difficult to grasp for a beginner like me. Should I read works from other authors first to better understand him? What would you recommend?
Let me know what you think:
I'm Catholic but I feel I can't ask this elsewhere. I made a post in r/Catholicism expressing doubt about reading the work of an author who supported fascism in the 30s and 40s. I got hammered with downvotes and told my question is ridiculous. The mods eventually deleted my post.
This is so odd and I'm genuinely confused. What's up with this?
For some public domain books I can't find a good epub file for free. Amazon and Kobo usually have these for a low price with some titles having 2-5 different editions. I imagine most of these are just cash grabs and are terribly converted with lots of mistakes and bad formatting.
Is there a way to tell if an ebook is properly made other than looking at reviews (which most of these books don't have)?
I just started reading his book Time For God and this is from the first chapter. I found it incredibly insightful. I have the impression that many contemporary Christian mysticists tend to fall into this trap. For this reason I'm not sure if I should read Richard Rohr, Thomas Keating or Evelyn Underhill who are so frequently recommended in Christian mysticism circles. I could be entirely wrong though.
What do you think?
Mental Prayer is Not a Kind of Christian Yoga
To persevere in a life of prayer we obviously need to avoid heading down the wrong road at the start. Thus we need to determine what is specific to Christian prayer—what distinguishes it from other activities of the spirit.
This is all the more important since we may react against the materialistic culture around us by developing a sort of thirst for the absolute, for mysticism and communion with the unseen. Such a good in itself, but it can easily lead one to deceptive and even harmful experiences.
The first, basic truth, without which we will not get very far, is that the life of prayer (or contemplative prayer, to use a different name for the same thing), is not the result of a technique, but a gift we receive. St. Jane Frances de Chantal used to say, “The best method of prayer is not to have one, because prayer is not obtained by artifice”—by technique, we would say today—“but by grace.”
There is no “method” of praying, in the sense of a set of instructions or procedures that we merely have to apply in order to pray well. Though true contemplative prayer is a gift that God gives freely, we do need to understand how to receive it.
This point needs to be stressed for several reasons. First, of course, Eastern meditation methods—yoga, Zen, etc.—are widely known in today’s world. Moreover, the modern mindset wants to reduce everything to a technique. And third, the human mind is forever tempted to try to make life, including spiritual life, into something to be manipulated at will.
For all these reasons we often have, consciously or unconsciously, a false image of contemplative prayer as a sort of Christian yoga. We imagine that set procedures of mental concentration and recollection, appropriate breathing techniques, prescribed physical positions, the repetition of certain formulas, and so on should cause us to progress in mental prayer.
When thoroughly mastered through practice, we believe, these things should enable one to attain a higher state of consciousness. But this view gives a completely false picture of mental prayer and the mystical life in Christianity. It is false because it leads us to cling to methods that depend ultimately on human effort, whereas in fact, as Christianity sees it, everything is grace, a free gift from God.
True, there may be a certain resemblance between Eastern ascetics or “holy men” and Christian contemplatives, but the resemblance is superficial. At bottom they inhabit very different, even incompatible, realms. The essential difference has been pointed out.
On the one hand, it all comes down to technique, an activity depending essentially on human beings and their capabilities. This is so even when such systems claim to invoke special capabilities, left unused by ordinary mortals, which the “meditation technique” in question proposes to reveal and develop.
On the other hand, by contrast, it is a matter of God giving himself freely to someone. Even if, as we shall see, there is room for a certain amount of initiative and activity on the human side, the whole edifice of the life of prayer is built on God’s initiative and his grace.
We must never lose sight of this fact, for one of the permanent and sometimes subtle temptations of the spiritual life is to rely on our efforts and not on God’s freely given mercy. There are many very important consequences to what has just been said.
Let’s look more closely at a few.
Some Immediate Consequences
The first consequence is that, even though methods or exercises can be helpful in mental prayer, we should not attach too much importance to them, much less imagine that everything depends on them. To do that would mean centering the life of prayer on ourselves instead of God, and that is just the mistake we must avoid. Nor should we imagine that all we need is a bit of practice, or learning certain “tricks,” and then all our difficulties, distractions, etc., in prayer will vanish.
The profound logic of growth and progress in the spiritual life belongs to a totally different order. And that is just as well, for if the edifice of prayer had to be built up on our efforts we wouldn’t get very far.
St. Teresa of Avila says “the whole edifice of prayer is founded upon humility”—on the conviction that of ourselves we can do nothing, and it is God, and he alone, who can produce good in our souls. Pride may make this idea distasteful to us, but in fact it is enormously liberating. God, who loves us, will carry us infinitely further and higher than we could ever get on our own steam.
The fundamental principle stated above has another liberating consequence. With any technique, there are always some people who have a gift for it, and others who don’t. If prayer were a matter of technique, the same would be true: some people would be capable of contemplative prayer and others would not.
Yes, some people do find it easier than others to be recollected and to dwell on lofty considerations. But it doesn’t matter.Every single person, in accordance with his or her own personality, his or her own gifts and weaknesses, can have a deep prayer life by corresponding faithfully to God’s grace. The call to prayer, to the mystical life, to union with God in prayer, is as universal as the call to holiness. The two things, prayer and holiness, are intimately linked, and absolutely nobody is excluded.
Jesus is speaking not to a chosen elite but to all people without exception when he says to pray at all times (see Lk 21:36), and “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Mt 6:6).;
There is another consequence, one fundamental to the plan of this book. If the life of prayer is not a technique to be mastered but a grace to be received, a gift from God, then talk about prayer should not focus on describing methods or giving instructions, but on explaining the necessary conditions for receiving the gift.
These conditions are certain inner attitudes, certain dispositions of the heart. What ensures progress in the life of prayer, what makes it fruitful, is not so much how we pray as our inner dispositions in beginning and continuing it.
Our principal task is to try to acquire, keep, and deepen those dispositions of the heart.
God will do the rest.
I'm starting to feel Kobo will never release another 7-8" B&W ereader. The general consumer doesn't care about the contrast difference. I think most people don't care that much about color either and would buy the cheaper B&W version. This would have a significant impact on sales of the color version, so I think Kobo would rather abandon B&W altogether.
I think this is what happened with the Clara BW and Color. The price of the BW has increased more than the Color. The price difference is now a mere $20. They are actively trying to discourage people from buying the BW because the lower price was affecting sales of the color too much. I'm in Europe and bought the Clara BW shortly after launch for €119. It's €164 now.
The next Sage will no doubt be color. I'm already fairly certain there will never get an 8" B&W option again. That leaves only the Libra.
Is there any point in waiting? I feel I should just pick up the newly released Pocketbook Era Lite which has a 7" B&W recessed screen. The contrast is not as good as the Libra 2 and the processor is slower but that's still better than the Libra Color.
I just found out Pocketbook released the Era Lite, a new 7" B&W ereader with recessed Carta 1300 display. Has anyone been able to try it out? I'm curious how it compares to the Libra 2.
Has anyone been able to compare these?
I have the chance to buy a Kobo Sage display model for 30% off. The price doesn't really matter to me, I'm more worried about the condition of the battery. The device is in good condition but has been plugged in to the charger non-stop for 4 years. Isn't that terrible for the battery?
Let me know what you think. I have linked each book to its Goodreads page.
Which books would you consider essential for a beginner?
Which books do you think are required for someone who's more experienced?
Other spiritual books that do not fall under the category of mysticism:
There seem to be so many great books on Christian mysticism. It's pretty overwhelming though, I will never be able to read all of them.
Which 10 books would you consider essential for a beginner?
Which 10 books do you think are required for someone who's more experienced?
Other spiritual books that do not fall under the category of mysticism:
According to the choline calculator I need this amount but I do not reach this every day. I can do a whole week of 1100mg a day (500-600 choline + 750mg TMG) and a whole week of only 500-600mg and I honestly don't feel the difference.
I have no doubt been choline deficient for decades. I've drastically increased my choline intake in the last couple of months. Once body/brain stores are replenished, wouldn't a smaller amount suffice for maintenance?
I eat 3 eggs a day and 500mg TMG a day and this doesn't affect my anxiety so I don't think it's because of acetylcholine. I've tried several fish oil supplements and made sure the oil wasn't rancid (I cut open a capsule and smell).