Speaking Their Language

(originally published 10/30/15 on Valparaiso University Study Abroad Blog)

I took my first Spanish class in ninth grade. I remember lamenting to my teacher that there wasn’t a magic pill that could suddenly render one fluent in a foreign language. In my mostly white, suburban community south of Cleveland, Ohio, I never really experienced international culture nor did I have to wrestle with diversity issues. Thus, foreign language remained a superfluity to me, a bland thing of academia.

Gavin with Professor Zamora-Breckenridge

In 2006 I came to Valpo as an eager young science student majoring in meteorology and with one final language course to knock out. I dispassionately enrolled in an intermediate Spanish course with Prof. Nelly Zamora-Breckenridge that fall. This course would prove to be the spark that ignited the passion for language and international communication that burns strongly within me today.

Prof. Zamora-Breckenridge, a native Spanish speaker from Colombia, succeeded in enamoring me with her birth language in two ways: first, the novelty of conversing in a foreign tongue with a native user was a skill that suddenly intoxicated me, perhaps with the same enthusiasm that young children often have for codes and secret communication. More importantly, the relevant global topics she worked into her lessons opened my eyes to a vast new world of social issues and complexities. I suddenly needed to devote myself to learning this new language, this lens through which I could continue to see the world more clearly.

Over the following three-and-a-half years I took almost every Spanish course that Prof. Zamora-Breckenridge offered and graduated in 2010 with a Spanish minor alongside a mathematics minor and a major in meteorology.

Recess with Peruvian kindergarteners

My one regret (truly) during my time at Valpo was that I didn’t pursue the opportunity to study abroad. Realizing this mistake upon graduation, I arranged to travel down to Peru in the summer of 2010 to volunteer for six weeks at a rural mountain kindergarten outside of Cusco. I saw more poverty than I had ever seen in my life. I also saw environmental damage that I couldn’t believe: the ceaseless inky spew of old vehicles, dirty streams choked with refuse, and plastic waste cascading down hillside after hillside. But I also had a ceaselessly full heart from interacting with so many people and especially children bursting with pure joy – all in their native tongue. The kids were wonderfully blunt when I would make Spanish mistakes, after which they would go right back to being my best friend. What an incredible way to hone one’s language skills without fear of judgment or shame!

I came back to the States and experienced the “reverse culture shock” that I had until then believed to be just an exaggeration – namely, utter apathy for acquisitive power, social media angst, and numerous other tritenesses of consumer America to which I was previously immune.

I am currently about a year away from obtaining my PhD in atmospheric science at Colorado State University. Science continues to interest me but language and international communication continue to interest me even more. I have served as a translator and blog manager for the International Environmental Data Recovery Organization. I have traveled to the hurricane-prone Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico during two summers to teach an introductory meteorology course in Spanish at a university that has a goal of starting their own atmospheric science department.

Valpo graduates on the border of Brazil and Argentina

And in 2011 I started teaching myself Brazilian Portuguese with my knowledge of Spanish, a fairly similar language, as a foundation. Learning and teaching through this beautiful language of Brazil is now a full-time hobby of mine. Brazil is a rapidly developing country, but with a population only 7% of which can speak English. I view this as an incredible opportunity: very infrequently do native English speakers have the chance to travel to a foreign country and be forced to speak the language of that country. This is a blessing and a curse. A curse, because it requires effort and non-laziness on the part of the American. A blessing, because communicating with a foreigner in their own language is truly an amazing experience. I mean it. In Brazil, this is not only possible but practically required.

Playing tambourine in a group of Brazilian capoeristas

Alongside my doctoral studies I now run a Portuguese-language YouTube channel for Brazilians who are learning English. Myself, my wife Lauren Roy [née Overstreet, VU ’11], and four other Valpo graduates traveled together down to the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. And I have aspirations of becoming a scientific translator of both Portuguese and Spanish in the future, helping to play a role in uniting the international efforts to address global climate change and environmental destruction.

There is no magic pill that will effortlessly grant one the ability to speak a foreign language. Learning a language takes years upon years of focus and dedication. But the ultimate reward of this effort is an unbelievably beautiful thing: there is no clearer way to “see” the world than by speaking with its inhabitants.

Gavin Roy is a 2010 Valpo graduate with a meteorology major and a Spanish and mathematics minor. During his time at Valpo, Professor Nelly Zamora-Breckenridge really instilled a love of language for him. After graduation, Gavin volunteered in a kindergarten for 6 weeks in Peru. He also traveled down to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico during the summer semesters of 2012 and 2013 to teach an introductory meteorology course in Spanish in the Engineering Department of the Autonomous University of the Yucatan. Currently, he studies at Colorado State University getting his PhD in atmospheric science. Additionally, he has been aggressively teaching himself Brazilian Portuguese, which is an enchanting and rapidly growing (in influence) language that is somewhat similar to Spanish.

"Big Four" Sports Championship Winners by Year on One Spreadsheet (NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB)

"Hey does anyone remember who won the NBA Championship in 2004?"

"Yeah, wasn't it the Spurs?"

"No wait the Spurs were 2003 and 2005 right?"

"Well who won the Stanley Cup in 2004? I know the Patriots won the '04 Super Bowl...."

"Can someone look it up on their phone?"

I can't count the number of times this has happened to me, and it often happens in trivia leagues when phones aren't allowed and the bastion of raw memory still reigns supreme. When championships occurred when I was an adolescent they were easy to remember because every year of your life then is so memorable as you are experiencing new things and climbing the grades through high school. Moments in time help you secure the knowledge of this championship alongside fragmented recollections of a family vacation, your first kiss, a college visit.

For example, I remember the Yankees beating the Mets in 2000 because I watched several of the games at 6th grade youth camp. I remember the Spurs beating the Pistons in 2005 because I was about to go on a teen biking trip with several friends from Detroit. I remember the Colts beating the Bears in Super Bowl XLI because I watched it in a fraternity house as a freshman at Valparaiso University, about halfway between the two fan bases.

As I've gotten older though, despite having felt as though I've lived a varied and dynamic life, the years go by and I increasingly forget who won what when. Was it 2011 or 2012 that the Mavs won? Did the Giants really win the World Series three times while I wasn't looking? And most recently, a simple Who won the Stanley Cup in 2014?

I couldn't remember.

Besides remembering the championships that occurred during one's lifetime there are of course all the past ones that need recalling, like the fact that the Cincinnati Reds beat the 1919 Black Sox, the Toronto Maple Leafs used to be good 1967 and before, and that the poor Buffalo Bills lost four straight Super Bowls from the specific years 1991-1994. And the even more obscure ones: in 1970 the champions were the Kansas City Chiefs, the Boston Bruins, the New York Knicks, and the Baltimore Orioles.

Then I began thinking: rather than remembering each rundown of championship winners individually (i.e. the list of Super Bowl winners, the list of World Series winners, etc.) why not try to mentally catalog by year who won which championship?

A few examples: I remember that the Angels won the World Series in 2002 which helped me remember that the Lakers won the championship that same year. The last year the Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup, their cross-state rival city Pittsburgh had just won Super Bowl IX. The Knicks were runners-up for three straight seasons from 1951-1953 but most of their fans couldn't have been upset for long since the Yankees won the World Series in each of those years.

I scoured the Internet for a unifying graphic or spreadsheet sorted in such a way that the years lined up and you could just read across the page. Nothing existed. Not even on Wikipedia.

So now, I give to you, for the first time:

  The Big 4 Champions Spreadsheet

Screenshot. Click link above for the full PDF.

As of the time of writing, it begins with the Boston Americans winning the World Series in 1903 and stretches all the way to the Cleveland Cavaliers losing the NBA Finals in 2015 (last night). I will continue to update it as future championships warrant.

Have at it, my trivia savvy friends. Never again will you be the guy in the jersey jogging your memory going "umm......"

Silent Heroes

Published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan on April 25, 2015:

Nassim Taleb, in his 2007 book "The Black Swan" on the fragility of our assumptions about risks, proposes a thought experiment called "the silent hero." In this thought experiment we imagine a legislator who manages to enact a law that goes into universal effect on Sept. 10, 2001, imposing continuously locked bulletproof doors in every commercial airplane cockpit. This law is not a popular measure among the airlines, as it elevates costs and inconveniences the lives of the airline personnel.

This legislator who imposed locks on cockpit doors (thereby preventing the horrific deaths of Sept. 11, 2001) gets no statues in public squares, not so much as a quick mention of his contribution in his obituary. Seeing how superfluous his measure was, and how it squandered resources, the public, with great help from the airlines, might well kick him out of office. He will die with the impression of having done nothing useful.

These "silent heroes," who unknowingly save lives with preventative measures, go unnoticed.

In Fort Collins, City Manager Darin Atteberry has facilitated the crusade to waive the requirement of trains to sound their horns as they pass through over a mile of Old Town. In so doing, he endeavors to repeal an existing "silent hero" measure from 2005 meant to prevent the loss of life.

A ban on train horns in Florida in the early '90s led to a doubling in accidents during the duration of the ban, according to a Federal Railroad Administration report, and I couldn't help but ask myself when I heard about Atteberry's proposed quiet zone for trains: When the first preventable train-related fatality happens in Old Town, will he and those who helped pass this measure experience guilt? Unlike in the cockpit door example, we will know precisely who could have prevented this accident.

My wife and I live in the Mason Street Flats downtown, directly next to the train tracks. We can personally attest that the train noise is at times deafening. However, we consider this clamor a small price to pay to avoid a preventable death: a kid on a bike, a green teen in a stickshift, an unfamiliar tourist.

Atteberry claims that sufficient research has been done to ensure that a fatal train accident in Old Town will only happen once every 500 years. Are we willing to go all-in on these formulated odds? However well-intentioned these blind statistics may be, the fact of the matter is that Fort Collins is a dynamic and rapidly growing city with increasingly more pedestrians and traffic in the downtown corridor and along the train tracks. A crash or fatality, especially with this added growth, cannot simply be predicted like the outcome of a series of coin tosses.

To repeal the effective preventative measure of train horns sounding through Old Town Fort Collins, while ostensibly popular, would be downright foolish and undoubtedly more risk-prone — all for the silly sake of assuaging our ears.

We strongly urge you to be a silent hero by voicing your opposition to this proposed train horn waiver, which is still under review, to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) at Regulations.gov.

Top 11 Spanish-to-Portuguese Grammar Differences

This post serves as a companion guide to our YouTube video, Top 11 Spanish-to-Portuguese Grammar Differences. It is also a follow-up to our first post about the top 11 pronunciation differences.

This video is again meant for native English speakers who are proficient in Spanish and are trying to use this proficiency to learn Brazilian Portuguese, a very similar language. By no means is this a complete and comprehensive guide to all the grammar differences between the two languages, however. This is a quick overview meant to expose you to what I have felt to be the biggest and most important differences while learning to speak Portuguese. Spurred by these tips, I encourage you to dive into each grammar difference further by using more in-depth resources, including those I've listed at the end of this post.

In the YouTube video I briefly discuss each grammar rule then have Gláuber (Brazil), Zitely (Mexico), and myself (USA) read the Portuguese (P), Spanish (S), and English (E) respective translations. These are reproduced below, with a brief overview of each rule (I go more in depth in the video):

1) Tú becomes você; nosotros becomes nós or a gente

P: Você vai ao supermercado?
S: ¿Vas (tú) al supermercado?
E: Are you going to the supermarket?

P: Como você está?
S: ¿Cómo estás (tú)?
E: How are you?

P: A gente é americano. Or: Nós somos americanos.
S: (Nosotros) Somos americanos.
E: We are American.

P: A gente foi ao cinema. Or: Nós fomos ao cinema.
S: (Nosotros) Fuimos al cine.
E: We went to the movie theater.


2) Less dropping of the subject pronoun (I, you, he/she, us, they, etc.)

P: Você viu esse filme?
S: ¿ (Tú) Viste esa película?
E: Did you see that movie?

P: Eu me sinto bem.
S: (Yo) Me siento bien.
E: I feel fine.


3) More dropping of the object pronoun (it, this, that, these, those, etc.)

P: Você viu esse filme? Sim, eu vi.
S: ¿Viste esa película? Sí, lo vi.
E: Did you see that film? Yes, I saw it.

P: Você compraria essa casa? Não, eu não compraria.
S: ¿Comprarías esa casa? No, no lo compraría.
E: Would you buy that house? No, I wouldn't buy it.


4) Respond to yes/no questions by conjugating the verb!

P: Foi ele que disse isso? Sim, foi ele.
S: ¿Fue él quien dijo eso? Sí.
E: Was it him that said that? Yes.

P: Você gosta de queijo? Não, eu não gosto.
S: ¿Te gusta el queso? No.
E: Do you like cheese? No.


5) Gostar de is a direct verb, as in English

P: Eles gostam de jogar futebol.
S: Les gusta jugar fútbol.
E: They like to play soccer.

P: Eu gostaria de viajar ao Brasil.
S: Me gustaría viajar a Brasil.
E: I would like to travel to Brazil.


6) Many verbs that are reflexive in Spanish are not reflexive in Portuguese. Thank God!

P: Eu levantei muito cedo.
S: Me levanté muy temprano.
E: I rose very early.

P: Ela esqueceu a resposta.
S: Se le olvidó la respuesta.
E: She forgot the answer.

P: Senta aqui.
S: Siéntate.
E: Sit down.


7) Indirect object pronoun (me, te, les/lhes, nos, etc.) placement

If the sentence only has one verb, both languages place it in front of the verb:
P: Carlota me disse a verdade.
S: Carlota me dijo la verdad.
E: Carlota told me the truth.

P: Martin nos deu o livro.
S: Martín nos dio el libro.
E: Martin gave us the book.

But if the sentence has two verbs, Spanish puts it before or after both verbs but Portuguese typically sticks it right in the middle:
P: Eles querem te mandar uma carta.
S: Ellos quieren mandarte una carta.
E: They want to send a letter to you.

P: Maria vai me dizer a verdade.
S: María me va a decir la verdad.
E: Maria is going to tell me the truth.


8) No personal a, and no a after the verb ir

P: Ela contratou ele.
S: Ella contrató a él.
E: She hired him.

P: Eu vou fazer o mesmo.
S: Voy a hacer lo mismo.
E: I'm going to do the same thing.

P: Eles vão buscar o secretário.
S: Ellos van a buscar al secretario.
E: They are going to look for the secretary.


9) Articles (i.e the) are often included before proper names and possessive pronouns (my, your, his/her, our, their, etc.)

P: A Laura está cansada.
S: Laura está cansada.
E: Laura's tired.

P: A Laura é a minha amiga.
S: Laura es mi amiga.
E: Laura is my friend.

P: Eu vou dar o meu relógio ao Marcelo.
S: Le voy a dar mi reloj a Marcelo.
E: I'm going to give my watch to Marcelo.


10) The preterite is used to convey the present perfect sense in Portuguese (these examples are explained better in the video!)

P: Você já comeu comida japonesa? (NOT "Você tem comido..."!)
S: ¿Has comido comida japonesa?
E: Have you (ever) eaten Japanese food?

P: Ainda não vi esse filme.
S: Todavía no he visto esa película.
E: I still haven't seen that movie.


11) The future subjunctive is still actively used in Portuguese

P: Se você quiser, eu posso tirar uma foto.
S: Si quieres, puedo tomar una foto.
E: If you want, I can take a photo.

P: Eu vou tomar uma cerveja se a genta for jantar.
S: Voy a tomar una cerveza si vamos a cenar.
E: I'm going to drink a beer if we go out to eat. (specifically, out to eat for dinner)


Check back in the future for more videos the key ways that Brazilian Portuguese differs from Spanish, including the most important vocabulary differences and false cognates!

And, as promised, here are some great resources for delving further into these differences and into Brazilian Portuguese in general.

Pois não: an excellent textbook with many cultural lessons and an audio companion
Tá falado: a podcast out of the University of Texas with pdfs of all example conversations

Pimsleur: the best strictly Portuguese language tool I have ever used; audio-based
Miscellaneous: BrazilianGringo, Wiki article on Spanish-to-Portuguese, Portuguese conjugation site

Até logo pessoal!

Speaking Spanish again after learning Portuguese from Spanish: 6 little difficulties

I have been learning Brazilian Portuguese for the last four years through my existing knowledge of Spanish. They say that these languages are 80% similar, so I say why start from the ground up. The 20% worth of differences is what will kill you though, and that's where the learning and speaking practice were of course necessary.

Last week, however, I ventured back to a country where I could employ my latent Spanish fluency once more. My wife and I, along with her brother and four other friends, traveled to the Dominican Republic for a week-long break from the Colorado cold. Switching from Portuguese back to Spanish was easier this time than the last time I had attempted it: crossing the border from Brazil to Argentina on foot last summer. That time, I could hardly speak any Spanish to the Argentine border agent because my mind was so confused. I ended up just persisting with Portuguese for several days since most people in the Argentine border town we stayed in could understand both languages. Eventually my mind flipped to Spanish but my lingual ego was definitely bruised.

Where Argentina meets Brazil high above the Rio Iguaçu. I'm the guy in the blue who doesn't know that he's about to get linguistically demolished.

This experience in Argentina allowed me to walk away with a few thoughts about the biggest problems one might encounter in switching rapidly from Brazilian Portuguese to Spanish. I put these thoughts to the test this past week in the Dominican Republic and arrived at the six biggest things I had to remember to change so that I actually spoke proper Spanish again and not "Portuñol". The six "big" things are actually quite simple tips, or language hacks I suppose you could call them. Three deal with pronunciation and three deal with little words:

In Spanish:

1) …words that have an L at the end of them are once more pronounced with an L sound as in English, not a W sound. Brazil, papel, azul.

2) …words that have a UE at the end of them are pronounced "ay" as in "lay", not with an "ee" as in "tee" sound. Que tal, porque, Que hora es? (side note: not Que horas son? as in Portuguese!)

3) …words that have an O at the end are once more pronounced with a hard O, not "oo" an in "too" as in Portuguese words when the O follows a consonant. Como, espero, tenho/tengo.

4) …the word for "there" is allá, not lá as in Portuguese! Lá is such a fun, emphatic word in Portuguese which sadly just can't happen in Spanish. I messed this one up a lot.

5) …the word for "but" is pero, not mais as in Portuguese! You would be shocked how much this cropped up, I think because it's usually said as a connecting word without even thinking about it.

6) …you must say no at the end of a questioning phase instead of the Portuguese conjunction né. Vamos cenar ahorita, no? This was another trip-up that got me accused of speaking with a heavy Brazilian twang.

And that's all you need to know! Just kidding. Of course you will find difficulties of your own that you will have to learn to overcome, but I hope that these may provide a little help or at least a little insight into the mental process you may need to undergo when switching between two very similar languages.

Até logo! I mean, hasta luego!

Venmo Eats Cash (and Google Wallet) for Breakfast

My wife and I arranged a ski trip in Colorado a few weekends ago with ourselves and 29 out-of-town friends. A month before the trip we dropped almost three grand on a VRBO chalet reservation for four nights and decided we'd ask everyone to pay us back later. Come Saturday night when all 31 of us were at the chalet and before the party really got started we calculated the per person cost and asked that everyone pay us back as soon as was convenient. Within a few hours we already had over half of the reimbursements and by Monday we were only missing two. This is a far cry from the "old days" when you had to harrass your friends until they finally got to an ATM or dropped a check in the mail. This is the final breakdown of the reimbursement methods:

Google Wallet: 1
Paypal: 2
Cash: 4
Check: 4
Venmo: 18

Venmo nearly doubled the rest of the payment methods combined, including other person-to-person money transfer sites such as Paypal and Google Wallet. Until Venmo starts charging small fees for personal transactions and bank account transfers, I can't see this trend slowing anytime soon (at least with millenials) - it's just too damn easy, convenient, and fun even.

So cash is doomed, certainly. And so are checks. (Although my mother-in-law still totes her checkbook around religiously.) But I specifically wonder about the lagging popularity of Google Wallet too: is Wallet to Venmo what Google+ is to Facebook? This hand-picked example is clearly a small sample size but based on other recent fiduciary experiences too my initial inclination is a resounding yes. I'll be excited to see the situation develop.

Side note: I'm still taking over/under bets on 2020 being the Year of the Demise of the Penny (YDP).

Top 11 Spanish-to-Portuguese Pronunciation Differences

This post serves as a companion guide to our YouTube video, Top 11 Spanish-to-Portuguese Pronunciation Differences.

For English speakers who are familiar with Spanish and want to learn Brazilian Portuguese, going through these Top 11 Tips will help you understand 90% of the pronunciation differences between the two languages. One by one we explain each difference and have Gláuber from Brazil read a list of examples. In the YouTube video you can hear Zitely from Mexico also read the Spanish translation of each word for comparison, but here I just list the Portuguese words:

1) Five new letters in Portuguese: ã, õ, ê, ô, and ç

• ã is a nasal vowel: lã
• õ is a nasal vowel: televisões
• ê is an open vowel: Por quê?
• ô is an open vowel: colônia
• ç sounds like an s: açúcar

2) Final position -e and -o

• Final -e sounds like "ee" as in "bee": telefone, nome
• Final -o sounds like "oo" as in "too": livro, como

3) Nasalized vowels ã and õ

• ã sounds like plugging your nose and saying "ahng": não, coração, irmã
• õ sounds like plugging your nose and saying "ohng": corações, lições

4) Nasalized vowels before a final -m/-n in a word/syllable

• vowel + m sounds like vowel + ng (nasal): tem, sim, som, um hotel
• vowel + n sounds like vowel + ng (nasal): quanto, convento, sinto, fonte, assunto, muito

5) g-, d-, and t- before -i or -e

• g before i or any e sounds like "zh" as in "treasure": gente, longe, gigante, giz
• d before i or final e sounds like "j" as in "judge": cidade, pode, dia, dizer
• d before non-final e sounds like "d" as in "dip": dez
• t before i or final e sounds like "ch" as in "cheat": sete, diamante, tio, tipo
• t before non-final e sounds like "t" as in "tip": tempo

6) r and rr

• r at beginning of word or beginning of post-consonant syllable sounds like "h" as in "hurt": rã, regra, honra, Israel, Rio de Janeiro
• rr always sounds like "h" as in "hurt": carro, cachorro

7) Final -l in a word/syllable always has a "w" sound

• mal, falta, legal, animal
• papel, túnel
• mil, barril, Brasil
• sol, espanhol, gol
• azul, última, multicultural

8) lh and nh

• lh sounds like the "lli" of "million": julho, mulher, trabalhar, lhe
• nh soundl like the "ni" of "onion": banho, senhor, amanhã, tenho, vinho

9) j always sounds like "zh" as in "treasure"

• já, jota, traje, laranja

10) ch always sounds like a soft "sh" as in "show"

• China, cheque, chegar, marchar

11) v always sounds like "v" as in "vote"

• vez, viajar, lavar, palavra

Check back in the future for more videos about the key ways that Brazilian Portuguese differs from Spanish, including the most important vocabulary differences and the most important grammar differences!

And here are some other great resources for English-speaking Spanish speakers who want to learn Brazilian Portuguese:

Pois não: an excellent textbook with many cultural lessons and an audio companion

Tá falado: a podcast out of the University of Texas with pdfs of all example conversations

Pimsleur: the best strictly Portuguese language tool I have ever used; audio-based

Garmin Vivofit vs. Fitbit Charge HR

My wife bought me a Garmin Vivofit (stylized Vívofit) for Christmas a month and a half ago and at first I loved it. She had researched the Vivofit and the original Fitbit Charge; both were the same price ($129) with similar features and similar reviews that she found. However, after a month with the Vivofit I ended up switching to the new release Fitbit Charge HR ($149), which I have had for a couple weeks now. Below is a feature comparison of the two models (abbreviated V for Vivofit and C for Charge HR) and perhaps a little insight into why I feel that the Charge HR is the better choice between the two, all things considered.

Garmin Vívofit (V)

FitBit Charge HR (C)

Tracker Display: One of the primary differences between V and C is that V's display remains "lit" the entire while C requires the push of a button or a double tap to illuminate it. V's display is comparable to the liquid crystal of a digital watch, and has no backlighting so it's difficult to see in low light. You cycle through V's screens (time, date, footsteps, steps to goal, miles traveled, calories burned, and, when applicable, heart rate [discussed more below]) by pushing the adjacent button and the last screen viewed remains on display. Meanwhile, C's screens (time, footsteps, miles traveled, calories burned, flights ascended, and constant heart rate) illuminate only when you push the button. You can set in which order these appear on C using your Fitbit online dashboard, and also set which screen appears when you double-tap the flat area below the display screen. Personally, I prefer the constant display of V, especially in the middle of a workout or run when I just want to glance down to see my stats. The only time I have preferred the display of C is when I wanted to know the time in a dark room, and the double-tap feature is also pretty cool. Winner: Vivofit. I like just glancing down and seeing my heart rate during exercise, or the time during any other time, without having to push a button. I also prefer V's parallel (to the strap) orientation of the numbers to C's somewhat squashed perpendicular orientation.

V's chest strap

C's built-in heart rate monitor (manifested as blinking green lights)

Heart Rate: In addition to monitoring the number of flights you ascend each day, C gives the user constant heart rate monitoring (hence the HR in Charge HR), which is awesome. This is done with a rapidly blinking sensor on the backside of the C display that measures fluid volume in your wrist. V also has a heart rate feature and comes with a chest strap that you are required to wear if you want to track your heart rate. Both track your heart rate zones (5 zones for V; 3 or custom for C), and only V displays the zone on the watch in addition to the heart rate. You can only retroactively see your zone data with C on your Fitbit online dashboard. I was slightly worried that C's heart rate feature would be hit-or-miss: it's the first release with this feature and almost seems too good to be true. However both have measured essentially identical heart rates during downtime and runs. I would say that the chest monitor of V was slightly more accurate though in that it more rapidly updated any heart rate changes; for example when lifting weights V shows my heart rate go up immediately during a set while C doesn't usually catch this. I suspect that C has a slightly longer averaging time of heart rate data. Winner: Charge HR. It is so nice not to have to remember to wear the somewhat uncomfortable and often sweaty/smelly chest strap of V, and C provides constant accurate heart rate data when you might not want to wear a strap: sleeping, skiing, and even just walking around town.

V's dashboard heart rate display for a period of exercise

C's dashboard heart rate display for an entire day

Wrist Strap: V automatically comes with a large and a small strap size into which you can pop the actual monitor, which is the size of a small thumb drive. With C, you choose the size (small, large, or XL) when you purchase it; there is a sizing guide on the side of the box, and most in-person retailers will allow you to try it on before buying it too. V has a very sleek matte design and a strap that locks in with two small rounded posts. C has a ribbed exterior and a smooth interior, and locks in with a strap like a regular watch. The band that holds the excess strap also has a small rounded post to prevent it from sliding around. I (a 6-foot, 170 pound male) was actually able to use the small V strap with one hole of slack, while C's large band works just fine. Winner: Vivofit. V's strap is inherently much easier to fasten and it felt very sturdy and reliable even after a month of hard use. C's ribbed exterior and grooves next to the screen aggregate skin flakes and other gunk quicker than you'd think. V also looked and felt sleeker and followed the curve of my wrist better. V's display sits a little too sharply and prominent for my liking.

Charging: V requires a new battery every year or two. C requires charging every five days and the actual charging cable and input format is specific to Fitbit. But, C illuminates while V does not. Winner: Vivofit. It's super nice to see the time in the dark with C, but it's even nicer to never have to worry about charging your device and still have a continuous liquid crystal display with V. And I'm not sure why Fitbit wouldn't jus t use a universal plug-in configuration.

C's actual device sans strap. Battery lies within.

Waterproofness and Durability: Despite the fact that V's actual device can pop in and out of the strap, it still felt perfectly sturdy. C seems slightly more rigid and delicate in comparison. I also wore V in the shower and for three hours in a hot tub (side note: is that healthy?). In contrast, I was specifically warned by the cashier at Sports Authority that C is not waterproof, and hardly even rainproof. Winner: Vivofit. I repeat: C is not waterproof. Forget about tracking your heart rate while swimming. Or pruning up in a hot tub.

Distance Accuracy: Configuring each device for the first time the user inputs their height, which in both is employed in an algorithm to predict stride length at a walking pace and a running pace. These paces are also determined automatically. I found that both estimated my walking stride accurately but underestimated my running stride by about 20%, and I wouldn't consider myself all that fast of a runner. Fortunately both have the option to manually enter your stride length in their respective dashboards. I find it odd that the user can't see their predicted lengths, though. If I could, I would just adjust my stride length by 20%, but instead I had to go to a track to measure my exact stride length (running 100 meters and dividing by footsteps). Winner: Charge HR. C wins because their instructions for a layperson on how to do this are much clearer, and their dashboard simpler to navigate and use (more on this below). C also counts steps in a much more real-time fashion than V; that is, you literally see each step add on to your total as you walk with C, while V often added footsteps in chunks of five or ten. I suspect that C uses a little bit of stride interpolation to ensure that this is the case.

Sleep Mode: Both track your sleep, but V requires the user to actually switch the tracker into sleep mode. This is accomplished by holding the button down for an exact amount of time, somewhere between four and five seconds but no longer. Sometimes I would forget to do this after switching off the lamp to go to bed, requiring me to switch the light back on to ensure I was in sleep mode (remember that V has no backlighting). C on the other hand has a rather ingenious way of automatically sensing when it should switch into sleep mode. I'm not sure what the algorithm is but I do know that it has yet to be inaccurate about my sleep timing. Both monitor the number of times you stir throughout the night, but only C monitors the number of times you actually get up too, I'm assuming by sensing a bout of footsteps sandwiched by near complete stillness. Winner: Charge HR. I love this effortless feature, and I find the graphics displayed on C's online dashboard to be much better than V's.

V's dashboard sleep display

One of C's several dashboard sleep displays

Syncing: These both sync wirelessly with a variety of newer phones and tablets without requiring any additional hardware. I can't speak intelligently on this however because I only sync using my Macbook Pro (OS Mavericks). For this, each tracker included a little dongle that plugs into one of the ports and is so unnoticeable as to essentially be part of the laptop - I don't remove it when I'm carrying my laptop around. Here's where the V problem began though. Upon initial setup, it took me an entire day to figure out how to get Garmin's syncing software to recognize my device. What I ended up having to do to sync every single time was take off the tracker, set it right next to the dongle, open the software, click to close it, then in the "Are you sure you want to close" window click "Run in background." At this time I would then hold V's button until it was in sync mode (yes, it required manual manipulation) and then hope that my stats would transfer. With C, my data is almost always already on the site by the time I view it, and in the rare occasion that it's not it is a one-click process to request an instant data detection and download. According to their respective manuals, V needs to be within three feet and C within ten for syncing to happen; I found it was much less for the former and perhaps even more for the latter. Additionally, V had a ton of trouble syncing with the popular nutrition and calorie tracking website MyFitnessPal which it advertised as a seamless integration. I've never had a problem with this with C. Winner: Charge HR. You don't even have to think about the syncing process when using C while on the other hand it was a central part of V ownership and usage for me. Garmin sent out a blanket email shortly after Christmas apologizing to all of its users for the syncing issues and promising that they were working hard the remedy all the issues. As of the time I traded my V, a banner advertising this apology was still prominently posted on the V dashboard, but as of the posting this review it is now gone so hopefully these issues have been at least partially fixed.

V dongle

C dongle

Extra Features: In addition to the cycle of statistics previously discussed, V also displays a red bar that grows longer from left to right the longer you remain sedentary. If you get up and move around for 3-5 minutes, this bar goes away. It'll begin to reappear again after about an hour. C has the ability to vibrate like a phone, which gives it a few gimmicky advantages, such as a vibrating celebration every time you hit your step goal and also the ability to set a silent, vibrating alarm to wake you up in the morning. This is configured via the online dashboard. Fitbit is also a social network, meaning that you can find your friends through C's dashboards and compare weekly stats, virtually "compete", and even "taunt" or "encourage" (similar to the poking feature of Facebook yore). Winner: Charge HR. I liked the red bar of V when I was at work because it reminded me to get my blood flowing, but I like the vibrating alarm feature of C even more. I can get up early without waking my wife, and I have found the vibration to be less jarring than a noisy phone alarm. The friends feature will get cooler as more and more people get Fitbits.

V dashboard

C dashboard

Bottom Line: My favorite thing about the Vivofit was the physical design and display. I liked several other things about it but didn't really love anything else. In contrast, while I don't love the physical design of the Charge HR, I love the super intuitive sleep tracking, the ability to monitor average heart rate without wearing a chest strap, and especially the ease of syncing. The syncing difficulties of the Vivofit were really the only reason I exchanged it, although these appear to have been fixed by Garmin. I have never been the biggest tech guy and when my wife introduced me to fitness tracking I admit that I was quite skeptical, and also worried that I was quite literally shackling myself to technology. Wearing a fitness tracker and logging nutrition haven't impulsed me to make any drastic changes in my exercise or eating routine: I still run 36 miles a week, walk/bike/lift the same amount, and still eat 2,500-3,000 calories per day. But the statistics are truly fascinating, and to a scientific mind interested in this sort of data (especially personal data) the returns absolutely merit the cost of a good fitness tracker.

6 Hacks For Reading More Books In The New Year

One of my new year's resolutions for 2015 is to read 40 books. I thought this was ambitious until I stumbled across a Life By Experimentation blog post in which globe-trotting web designer Zane Claes recommends his top five books out of 100 BOOKS HE READ in 2014. While Zane's job appears more flexible than most of ours (and certainly mine), this is still quite an admirable accomplishment, particularly since we determined that reading is not a waste of time.

Zane's 100 books got me thinking that perhaps I can and should shoot for more than 40 books. My to-read list is huge and keeps growing longer despite finishing more books every year for the last five years (6, 20, 27, 28, and 36). I want that to-read list to get shorter - I've got a lot of great stuff on there that I can't wait to get to. But where should this extra reading time come from, especially while retaining the same job and striving to maintain the same hobbies, exercise regimen, and social life of a fun-seeking twenty-something?

I've identified some simple, subtle habits I've gradually adopted that have continued to improve my reading efficiency, quantity, and enjoyment over the past five years - literary life hacks, if you will:

1. Keep a running list of books to read.

There's something romantic about wandering the shelves of a library or bookstore and randomly reading the first book that seems interesting. There's also something a little unfulfilling. When I choose a book to read I want to know that one of my respected peers liked it, or be relatively sure that I will get some sort of personal benefit out of it, e.g. historical knowledge, entertainment, or appreciation of great literature. Learning from and/or enjoying a book ensures a greater chance that you will want to keep reading, that you'll be excited and passionate about reading. Sites such as Goodreads and Shelfari are outstanding for curating a to-read list, and both have great communities of readers reviewing, discussing, and rating books. Or employ another method to keep track. Zane Claes keeps his list in a Google Doc. My mom keeps hers on a legal pad. Whatever you decide to use, get excited about tackling your list.

2. Strategically read multiple books at a time.

Over breakfast peruse a few quick pages of an interesting coffee-table-type book. Stuff a Kindle loaded with light fiction into your pocket or purse for small bits of downtime in lines and waiting rooms instead of mindlessly scrolling through your Facebook feed. Keep the new hardcover historical novel next to your couch or bed for dedicated reading at home. The bottom line is that having multiple books going at the same time allows one to be flexible and efficient. I wouldn't get much out of reading two pages of Tolstoy or David Foster Wallace over morning coffee and eggs, but breakfast is a perfect time to read snippets of 30-Second Philosophies or The Atlas of Remote Islands. Squeezing a few extra minutes of reading into each day adds up quicker than you might think.

3. Put down your damn phone.

Turn off the TV. Shut your laptop. Disconnect your Kindle's wifi. I doubt it needs to be reiterated how distracting social technology can be. Light a candle. Put on some classical music perhaps. The rewards of getting completely lost in a book are many. From a 2013 Time article entitled Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer:

The deep reader, protected from distractions and attuned to the nuances of language, enters a state that psychologist Victor Nell, in a study of the psychology of pleasure reading, likens to a hypnotic trance. Nell found that when readers are enjoying the experience the most, the pace of their reading actually slows. The combination of fast, fluent decoding of words and slow, unhurried progress on the page gives deep readers time to enrich their reading with reflection, analysis, and their own memories and opinions. It gives them time to establish an intimate relationship with the author, the two of them engaged in an extended and ardent conversation like people falling in love. 

This is not reading as many young people are coming to know it. Their reading is pragmatic and instrumental: the difference between what literary critic Frank Kermode calls "carnal reading" and "spiritual reading." If we allow our offspring to believe carnal reading is all there is — if we don't open the door to spiritual reading, through an early insistence on discipline and practice — we will have cheated them of an enjoyable, even ecstatic experience they would not otherwise encounter.

Note that your pace may slow, but that you are getting more satisfaction and personal benefit out of the experience. You are therefore more inclined to keep on reading and less inclined to get distracted - ultimately resulting in increased quantity and quality of reading.

4. Stop subvocalizing.

Many techniques exist that claim to triple or quadruple reading speed. These include "fixating" on every third word, reading multiple lines at a time, and even reading in an S-shaped pattern down the page so as to eliminate the time it takes for the eyes to jump to the beginning of the next line. However, many research studies and personal experience forums are quick to refute the efficacy of these techniques, citing that they often cause a nearly complete loss of comprehension and that the process itself exhausts the reader and takes the joy out of reading. One technique that passes most scrutiny, however, is eliminating subvocalization. Most children learn to read by memorizing alphabet sounds and then stringing them together into words they read aloud. Unfortunately, whether we realize it or not this tendency of a younger reader often persists into adulthood as subvocalization, or mentally "saying" each word as you read it. Subvocalization decreases the speed at which we can process text by two or three times. Try training your mind to eliminate this latent bad habit by occupying your mouth while reading by humming or by chewing on gum or a toothpick.

5. Listen to audiobooks on the go.

Per the US Census Bureau, the average one-way commute time of an American is 25 minutes. The Center for Disease Control and the American Heart Association both recommend 30 minutes of physical activity 5 times per week. That's 6 hours and 40 minutes per week that your eyes can't focus on a page (assuming you don't take public transit or ride a stationary bicycle for exercise). While the audiobook industry was widely considered doomed around the turn of the century, a recent resurgence in popularity has occurred likely because people are recognizing that listening to audiobooks is a way to maximize the productivity of such stretches of time. iPod Shuffles are amazing little devices for listening to audiobooks while running. Sites such as Audible, SimplyAudiobooks, and others send users new audiobooks for a small monthly membership fee; the former does everything by download whereas the latter also offers the option to ship CDs to your house (a la Netflix). Check out this comparison of the top ten audiobook services. Also, most libraries support a host of free popular audiobook (and ebook) downloads through sites such as OverDrive, Freading, Hoopla, and Libravox. Which brings us to our last little hack:

6. Borrow.

The price of books (both physical and digital) continues to rise with inflation but this obviously need not shy the reader away. Use the crap out of your local library, to which you of course contribute tax money. If they don't have a certain title, often they will buy it if a patron requests it. Or borrow from coffee shop shelves. Swap books with a friend. Pay a tenth of the price in a charming used bookstore. Whatever the method, don't let price be a factor in reading less. As a bonus, often just having the book lying around your house or apartment is enough to drum up your excitement for reading it. It is for me, anyway.

Thrikeball: How to Play Spikeball with 3 Players

Your fourth player baled. Your fourth player broke an ankle two minutes into the first game. Your fourth player is so insufferably bad that you broke his ankle for him.

Don't let the lack of a fourth player ruin your Spikeball afternoon. Here's how to play Thrikeball.

Thrikeball is Spikeball for three players. The format is 2-on-1. But here's the catch: the teams change every time the ball contacts the net - so a lot. It's easier to track than you might think.

Before we elaborate, the assumption is that you already understand the flow of standard 2-on-2 Spikeball. If not, here are the Official Rules and also a great video tutorial.

In Thrikeball, instead of playing and scoring points as a team, it's every man for himself, and after every rally there is exactly one winner (who gains 2 points) and two losers (who each lose 1 point). The winner is the first player to 10 points, or the player who is in the lead when another player hits -10 points. That's right, negative points.


Gameplay:

1. Decide who serves first. We will call this solo player the Spiker. The other two players comprise a team that we will call the Setters.
2. The Spiker serves the ball into the net (** see Notes on serving).
3. The Setters are allowed exactly two touches to return the ball to the net (not one, not three), one by each member of the team.
4. THE SWITCH: The moment the ball hits the net on the return is when the teams change: the Setter who hit the ball second (i.e. into the net) becomes the incumbent Spiker, while the other two become the new Setters (** see Notes on switching).
5. Play continues until the Setters fail to legally return the ball to the net in two touches, at which time the current Setters each lose 1 point and the Spiker gains 2 points.
6. To begin the next rally, the incumbent Spiker serves to the Setter who has more points. If they are tied, the Spiker serves to the player of his choice.
7. Repeat from Step 3 until a player has 10 or more points or until a player has -10 or fewer points. In the latter case, of the remaining two, the player with more points wins (** see Notes on scoring).

Notes on serving:

• As in regular Spikeball, in Thrikeball the server (incumbent Spiker) always gets two chances to serve. 
• If both serves are missed (double fault), no points are won or lost but the serve switches to the player with the fewest points. If this player misses both as well, the third player gets to serve. If this player misses, probably just call it a day.
• Remember that the Spiker always serves to the Setter with the most points. This gives the currently losing Setter the chance to score first (assuming the serve wasn't an ace). 
• If the Setters are tied, the Spiker serves to the player of his choice. We usually just alternate, but it's ultimately up to you.

Notes on switching:

• The constant switching of teams may seem complicated at first, but after a few rounds it becomes intuitive. We swear.
• The easy way to remember who needs to be doing what is that the person who spiked the ball into the net is the only one not involved in the next volley!
• Again, teams switch at the moment that the ball hits the net on a return. However, the strategic switch effectively occurs after the first Setter sets the ball to his ephemeral teammate, whose inevitable spike he has to start thinking about receiving. Something interesting that you will start to notice right away.

Notes on scoring:

• There will always be three scores (i.e. X to X to X). Each player keeps track of their own score.
• The winning Spiker gets 2 points; the losing Setters each lose 1 point.
• When in doubt on a score, remember that the total of all three scores should always add up to zero. This is a tug-of-war style game in that whenever you win points, you are effectively taking them directly from the other players.
• No points are won or lost on a double fault.
• Below is a flowchart of all possible score combinations and changes. Note that the three scores in each box are positioned in order from highest to lowest, not predetermined by player order.

• As you can see, there is one exception to the game being over once a player has reached either 10 or -10: (5  5 -10) is not a victory because the other two players are still tied, necessitating at least one more rally.

We love Thrikeball not only because it finally facilitates Spikeball with three players but also because of the Nash-like game theory involved. For example, it will become readily apparent to a new player of Thrikeball that if you are on the Setters' team it is best be the second hitter so you can become the new Spiker (and possible points-earner). However, if both Setters hold out on being the first to touch the ball on their volley, they both lose. Thus, the elements of both selfish strategy and cooperative compromise are present in Thrikeball, and it is up to you to figure out the balance.

Good to go? We hope this helps, and if you get a moment please let us know in the comments how your first Thrikeball experience went!

I thrike it. I thrike it a lot.

Your most earnest trio,
Gavin, James, and Alex
Fort Collins, Colorado

Is Reading a Waste of Time?

In Moonwalking With Einstein, author Joshua Foer poses a slightly disturbing question: given the finiteness of our lives and given the amount of time it takes the average person to read any book of meaningful length, why do we bother spending countless hours staring at sequences of text when we could be experiencing the natural world, socializing with fellow humans, crafting lasting art/goods, or attempting to monetize our time and our talents? 

Foer wryly muses, "Looking up at my shelves, at the books that have drained so many of my waking hours, is always a dispiriting experience. One Hundred Years of Solitude: I remember magical realism and that I enjoyed it. But that’s about it. I don’t even recall when I read it. About Wuthering Heights I remember exactly two things: that I read it in a high school English class and that there was a character named Heathcliff. I couldn’t say whether I liked the book or not."

This is a potentially scary reality check for bookworms, and I for one scrambled to find an explanation, or perhaps more aptly a validation, of why I choose to read.

For starters, I had never considered looking at my bookshelf a "dispiriting experience" before, each of the colored spines a little Grim Reaper in its own way, a testament to days lost. I shuddered.

And then I tested myself. Surely I could remember verbatim a single sentence, any sentence from the previous page of Moonwalking, that I had read not two minutes before.

But I couldn't.

"Few of us make any serious effort to remember what we read. When I read a book, what do I hope will stay with me a year later? If it’s a work of nonfiction, the thesis, maybe, if the book has one. A few savory details, perhaps. If it’s fiction, the broadest outline of the plot, something about the main characters (at least their names), and an overall critical judgment about the book. Even these are likely to fade."

The terror-inducing thought here is the apparent immediate loss of anything that could be useful to oneself later on. I read for enjoyment, but I also read for knowledge and to admire and glean from authors' styles. Several centuries ago, before the real profusion of book publication and widespread availability, Foer discusses how depth over breadth was valued because it was the only direction one could go. Generations of intellectuals and laypeople alike read, reread, and memorized the Bible, Shakespeare, Homer, Socrates. But we don't have the option anymore to force memorization by repetition. We are blessed and cursed with breadth.

But Foer's intent was not to be the bearer of bad news. His conclusion is satisfying and reaffirming, much to the reader's relief. He insists that whether one is consciously aware of it or not, what one reads has a way of working its way into your worldview. One's mindset is a pastiche of judgements based on personal experience, and an avid reader has the benefit of increased exposure to a vast range of opinions, ideas, and data (given an open-minded and diverse selection of literature, ideally). With a broader and/or deeper set of like and disparate opinions, the reader is more informed and better equipped to back up their opinion, whether or not they remember whence the opinion arose or strengthened. So there you have it.

I'd like to take this one step further, though. I don't like the reliance upon subconscious mental adoption as one's only hope that any wowing passage or idea will be internalized. If I love a paragraph or a particularly germane character quote then by God I make sure I underline it and dog-ear the page if the book is mine, or write the page and line numbers on my scrap bookmark if the book belongs to a friend or the library. I then archive these quotes online. I used to email them to myself after completing each book, but this quickly became cumbersome and disorganized. Now, after every completed book, I create a new entry on a separate blog I curate (Epihel, or Every Passage I Have Ever Loved), reproducing each memorable passage and adding a subject tag. I began this project after being persuaded to do so by Moonwalking several years ago and now, with only about 100 entries, it already feels like an customized treasure trove of fascinating wisdom. Perusing it at random is rewarding, and as a bonus I can use the tags feature to dig up forgotten quotes at the right time. For example, I am officiating a wedding in August and found a David Foster Wallace passage I will be incorporating into the ceremony (with the couple's consent) after searching all my entries on love.

Continually adding to Epihel has also turned staring at my bookshelf from a "dispiriting experience" into an almost holy one. This is what Susan Sontag was referring to when she wrote, beautifully, "my library is an archive of longings." 

Finally, just as important as a bolstered worldview and a personal archive of longings is the importance of sharing what one reads with other people. I love sites like Goodreads and Shelfari because they allow me to see what other friends are reading and then the next time I see them have a meaningful interchange of ideas on the spot. Again, a crafting of one's worldview through the transferring of ideas, but in this case with book discussion as the link between the most important sources of personal validation of truth: each other.

Right before his death in the Alaskan wilderness, Chris McCandless of Into the Wild reads the following passage in Doctor Zhivago: "And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness." Next to this line he scrawled "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED." Author Jon Krakauer speculates that had Chris not fallen ill after this epiphany he would have immediately hiked out to rejoin society and partake in shared happiness once more.

And so it is with reading.

BOOKS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.