Personal

What motivated the recent publishing spree?

I admire people that write blog posts. Taking the time to put something out there. I want to be like them and share too. This website receives occasional attention, when I really want to say something. Many times, I really want and still fail to do it. It piles on the backlog. This time I had a challenge: 8 posts within a month! About twice a week: challenging but feasible. But as reality would have it, even with some planning I still cram everything to the last moment. There something creative and motivating about pressure and deadlines.

By — Dr. Óscar Nájera
| 3 min read | Personal

Why swim in a river at 0°C?

There are plenty of reasons: Get out of your comfort zone, build character, discover your limits. There are plenty of justifications: Simply crazy, settling a bet, religious penitence/purification. All those might apply, however for me it is a CELEBRATION. A celebration of how well I’m doing nowadays. I was born in a big city, I grew up surrounded by the grayness of concrete. The river in my city was so polluted that its smell alone would keep you away. Going into nature implied a family trip, implied planning, implied getting everyone to agree and then traveling far away until we could reach a clean river, a waterfall or a lake. Only then could I jump into those clean, refreshing and relaxing waters. In those day it didn’t matter how cold they were.

By — Dr. Óscar Nájera
| 2 min read | Personal

The right dictionary

I just found a post on using the right dictionary and I immediately had to review its reference: You’re probably using the wrong dictionary by James Somers . I don’t regret it. The core message is that we shall not only use dictionaries to find the meaning of words we don’t know, but to use them to enrich our prose. I never considered there would be such a dictionary that allows for such kind task. James presents the Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, unfortunately that link is broken. Nevertheless he provides a link to download the dictionary , it a standard format for dictionaries.

By —
| 1 min read | Writing | Personal