The feed of updates to Logan Gee
Like many other people, one of my favorite authors is Brandon Sanderson. I have read all of his Cosmere books, and more or less any new book or blog post from him is an auto-read for me. Ditto with most of his YouTube videos. Also like many people, I read everything published by Cal Newport, and have found his advice continually helpful in striving to live a deep and meaningful life, especially…
Believe it or not this a true story from many years ago. I’ve finally decided to commit it to the written word. Without further ado… I woke up abruptly, at least I thought I did. I couldn’t see anything, but seconds before I’d been in the middle of an unpleasant dream, no doubt induced by work stress. I lay there for a minute and calmed myself down, and then decided I should see what time it is. I…
20 minute read time The spousal relationship is one of the largest and most dominant relationships in most people’s lives. Rather than thinking of it as a single bond tying two people together, I wondered if it may be helpful to think of it as a number of smaller relationships between those same two people. When two people get married, we say they “ tied the knot”. So if we think of “ Marriage” as…
We live in a complicated world these days. And I think it’s largely self induced. Because we want things to be easy. And I think there are probably two good metrics to determine if a given solution is the best solution. Is it simple? Is it hard? If you answer “ yes” to both of those, you probably can’t go wrong. I suspect, when that’s the case, it is the right answer. But at the very least, it’s…
All models are wrong, but some are useful This is something multiple professors taught me back in engineering school. It was something I had in mind when I decided to that it was time for me and mathematics to part ways and to focus on engineering. But I’ve also been thinking a lot about it — and it’s corollaries — lately as I try to improve my health and some other personal goals. At the risk of…
1 A few weeks ago, my wife and I were watching the latest season of Queer Eye , specifically the episode with a wheelchair-bound hero, when she asked me a question. Do you think of yourself as a disabled person? I didn’t know how to respond at first. My gut instinct was “ not at all”. But before I could even form the words my mind immediately turned to all the things I couldn’t do over the past…
Do you wish you had more confidence? Do you wish you could be more disciplined? Do you wish you felt happier? Well I have a hypothesis about those things. I believe that none of those are things you can have. And none of them are things you can be. The only thing any of us can really be is ourselves. Which takes some of the pressure off, don’t you think? And I know: “ what about my…
My wife recently purchased a Tushbaby hip carrier for taking our daughter out on the town, to the zoo, etc. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Tushbaby is sort of a large fanny pack, designed in such a way that it provides a sturdy seat for an infant or toddler. When compared to other baby-wearing carriers, it is designed to put essentially none of the load into the wearer’s back and all the…
So I love my old chocolate chip cookie recipe that I developed, but I had some dietary changes. This recipe is in progress and attempted to eliminate added/non-natural sugars as well as some experimentation with flour types. Notes This recipe was designed and baked at an elevation of ~6,900 feet. Rub coconut oil on the inside of measuring cup before filling it with honey, it makes it a little…
Instead of talking what the disease does to me, today we’re going to talk about what I do to help myself. For the past year (since my diagnosis), I’ve been taking Humira every two weeks. It has given me enough of a boost to get the upper hand on most of the symptoms and recover most of a normal life, but it’s not perfect. I can feel the strength of the medication tapering off, and I currently live…
I ended the last post with a kind of bold statement, that is often met with confused looks when I tell people in real life. I fully believe that my spondylitis is one of the best things to ever happen to me. So now seems like as good a time as any to address that. “ Nature prescribed illness for him […] ordered, so as to further his recovery” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.8 Before the…
First, thank you to everyone who reached out after my first post! You are all great, and it meant a lot. Second, I apologize in advance, this one may not be a very fun read. But it is a necessary one to understand what day-to-day life is like for me and — more importantly — the next posts about how it has changed me. Trust me, stick with it and the pay off will be worth going through this. (I…
The Prologue The pain started in college. I think. It’s hard to remember exactly, but I remember things changing freshman year. My knees and hips started to hurt, and I didn’t understand why. I’d always been very active, but one day in gym class 1 , we were running the mile and I just couldn’t move the same. Later on, when I was limping down the hall, a guy in my dorm said “ O c’mon Logan, you’re…
What Is This? Not many people have heard of ankylosing spondylitis. 1 Fewer still know what it is like to live with. So I’m going to write about what it is, not medically, but what it is to me. What role it plays in my life; how it impacts me daily and in the big picture. How it makes my life worse, and yes, how it makes my life better. I’m not quite sure what structure this will take. I have a…
This entry has always been the one I am most uncomfortable about. When I migrated my blog I didn't bring it with. But my wife said it was her favorite, and one of the great things about a partner like her is being able to trust her judgements, so here it is. I'll probably add more to this in future posts, but I will let this stand as-is. I’m new to this dad business. But I have many friends who…
I’m usually not a birthday or decade kind of guy. But with My Diagnosis , the stars have aligned and I’m going to have to get over it. Now that I’m staring down the barrel of 30 years old and can see the road ahead for my health, I can’t help but look back. And I am proud of my 20s. Not that I accomplished much or did anything noteworthy. The Logan who turned 20 and the Logan who is about to turn…
The Facts The History/The Symptoms When I was around 20, I was in college and shared an apartment with a couple close friends. We did not live a healthy lifestyle. Workouts were occasional at best, our free time was couch-based in the form of binging TV or playing video games, and we ate garbage. Around this time, my back and hips starting getting tight and painful. Doctors were at loss or…
We live in an age of social media and loneliness. We compare our real lives with the reel lives of others, online — a subtle but important distinction. We all know the effects of this: melancholy, FOMO , loneliness, low self esteem, etc. And the common advice is that we need to be vulnerable, we need to put ourselves out there more. We need to overcome those feelings and reach out to people when…
Inspired by The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe and my actual real life Once upon a midnight dreary, while I slumbered, deep and bleary, Peaceful dreams of tasteful cookies and fuzzy warming socks— While I snored, Z’s was catching, suddenly there came a scratching, As of someone gently slapping, slapping at a cardboard box “’Tis some reverie,” I muttered, “ of a caffeinated fox— Just a dream, a vision in…
Starter I pulled out a big Ball jar (~4 cups). I weighed the weight of the jar beforehand just for grins. I put in 100g of water and 100g of flour and stirred it so it was evenly mixed. Every twelve hours for the next two weeks, I “ fed” the starter 50g of water and 50g of flour, stirring so it’d be mixed. A few notes: When the jar would get full I took out half and cooked in oil in a pan on the…
Jim hadn’t been sleeping well recently. After a few weeks of always feeling miserable, he’d started getting out of bed when he woke in the night, making his way back when he felt tired again. He sat at his desk surveying what he could see of the living room. The cat lounged on the rug, illuminated by a single light emanating from under the kitchen cabinets. At first the cat had been confused by…
Notes This recipe was designed and baked at an elevation of 5,900 feet. The molasses and half of the granulated sugar can be replaced by 2/3 cup brown sugar. Chocolate chips can be replaced by mint chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, M&M’s, mini m&m’s, or whatever! 2/3 cup cocoa powder can be added to the flow to create chocolate^2 cookies. Ingredients 2 3/4 cup flour (430 g) 1 teaspoon baking…
This is a story I wrote in my creative writing class in college. I’m still very proud of it. Thanks to Toni Lefton for being an awesome professor. Originally published in the Colorado School of Mines High Grade publication here . The cops don’t believe me. They’ve taken my blood splattered apron and my testimony but they think I’m crazy. Sure I had a record, but that was twenty years ago. I’m…