Coldrainwater's Log

[Le Baron]

Interesting. Can you say a little more about the effects for you of giving up caffeine? Are you saying that it caused narrow focus not just in direct study, but also in general life perspective?

[MorkTheFiddle]

Several years ago stomach pain forced me off caffeine. I still enjoy decaf coffee. Perhaps being pain free masked any other effects.
Several years even before that in a sweltering Austin summer I too went jogging in high temps. When I returned from the jog my girlfriend kindly massaged my swollen feet. Likewise no other special effects.
Your high opinion of The name of the Rose encourages me to do what I have long put off: reading it.

[coldrainwater]

Interesting. Can you say a little more about the effects for you of giving up caffeine? Are you saying that it caused narrow focus not just in direct study, but also in general life perspective?

Yes, that is more or less what I have noticed every time I have been off of caffeine for a long time (months). Noting the same effect on several occasions in past years gives me confidence that what I am describing is not a one-off.

When I think about taking a broader life perspective, I have to exercise a certain restraint and not take any one idea or line of thinking too far while simultaneously being able to juggle quite a few life aspects at once. It is not a super easy task under any scenario for me but at least now I feel it is within reach. That kind of restraint, while certainly possible, is harder for me to achieve while under the influence of caffeine. With caffeine, while I am on task, my mind may wander a bit, but that is more of a secondary effect and I am already down the rabbit hole. The tables are turned without caffeine and I have to work harder to focus as narrowly. My current lack of productivity related to this is a downside that I hope/intend to make temporary.

Come to think of it, I faced the same issue back around 2009 when I was sitting the Level II CFA exam. I ended up accepting fewer total study hours in exchange for more divergent thinking and clearer overall problem-solving abilities without caffeine. I prepped for that exam for roughly six months, and I made up for fewer daily study hours by simply studying for a couple of extra months. It worked but wasn't super efficient.

Another way of looking at it is that sitting back, relaxing and taking it all in was much harder for years with GAD+caffeine+two anxiety meds. Currently, I have minimized the first and eliminated the latter two completely, so I am noticing what it is like without those potential impediments. So far, and in sum, everything I see points to the idea that I underestimated how much of an impact caffeine had. I need at least a couple more months to evaluate everything holistically since I have only been off of one of the anxiety meds for about a month and I prefer to give it more like three months for evaluation purposes since those can be super long-acting with long periods of normalization.

A couple of other notes on caffeine while we are on the topic:

Without caffeine, my exercise is enhanced directly. I have fewer benign heart palpitations, making for smoother action in nearly any exercise endeavour/movement. Prior, I learned not to use caffeine and then go running right afterwards since it tended to cause something akin to lightheadedness, which was annoying. Now that isn't a bother at all and I can run with more confidence. The unnatural heat intolerance I had was due to anxiety medication rather than caffeine, and it just so happens that I am now getting benefits from dropping both drugs, which amounts to a better overall exercise state. Perhaps due to its shorter half-life, caffeine also caused other, non-exercise ups and downs. I sleep better without it and am much less likely to feel the impacts of postprandial crashes.

Several years ago stomach pain forced me off caffeine. I still enjoy decaf coffee. Perhaps being pain free masked any other effects.
Several years even before that in a sweltering Austin summer I too went jogging in high temps. When I returned from the jog my girlfriend kindly massaged my swollen feet. Likewise no other special effects.
Your high opinion of The name of the Rose encourages me to do what I have long put off: reading it.

I ran/hiked around Hunstville State Park today. Feet definitely seem to complain more than anything else and have a louder voice to boot. Moreover, they are very much justified in doing so. Hopefully Eco doesn't disappoint.

[coldrainwater]

I was listening to an episode of econtalk when the idea of intentional wandering was mentioned in passing and I realized that it aptly describes what I have been up to. Wandering for sure, but not completely without direction. I am slowly learning how to reincorporate English-based learning into my routine while still maintaining German studies actively and I know that I have a tough time putting hobby (rather than professional) hours into a hobby. I also haven't settled on an academic subject matter to study more in-depth and am not in a rush to do so. Nothing stands out as an obviously required field per se, but I am cognizant that making a good choice here can add much enrichment to my life. As an early step in that process, I am teaching myself to make a sharper distinction and recognize the difference between the entertainment and educational/skill-producing aspects of what I am consuming. It is easy to get too much of a good thing when entertainment so often comes wrapped in a package of new learning.

Life now is also part waiting game for me. One of the anxiety medications I had taken made me into an artificial morning person, which was a very awkward feeling. I am a night owl by nature and have been for at least the last three decades. The effect seems to be fading finally and I can see enjoying much longer evenings going forward, hopefully recapturing some of the best times I used to have for reading books and learning. I certainly never adjusted to being a lark.

In the interim, the best use that I could manage of my awkward early morning time has been to go jogging before work. I live in a heavily wooded area and branched out into jogging through nearby forested trails twice daily, morning and evening. That explains how I listened (twice) to 20.000 Meilen unter dem Meer von Jules Verne and (once) to Deutsche Geschichte: Ein Versuch von Herbert Rosendorfer, but only managed to read a single short book, Der Tausendjahresplan von Isaac Asimov during the last 30 days. I wasn't too enthusiastic about this first book of the Foundation Trilogy, but I am willing to give part two a shot. Both of the audiobooks mentioned above were fairly approachable and not too much of a stretch for my listening level. They made for enjoyable running material.

I am feeling the urge to shift away from audiobooks toward podcasts for a change of listening and like to share when I find transcripts with audio. So I will go ahead and mention Sternengeschichten even though I have only listened to a couple of episodes. The first 90 or so short episodes appear to have ready transcripts. They remind me a bit of Veintemundos (short with clear speech) except applied to the culture of the universe. Although there are many recommendations, econtalk has been the most promising and recommendable English language podcast I have listened to right out of the gate. Episodes go back to 2006 and some of the earlier material is heavy on economics while the latest material covers varied topics. The quality of the intellectual discourse is quite high and I feel like many other podcasts tend to go out of their way to dumb down material in comparison. I need more podcasts that are explicitly intellectually engaging and Econtalk has good interviews without significant strife and bickering.

[coldrainwater]

It is a weekend for...updating my log. In what must be the slowest reading effort I have ever made, I finally finished the Foundation Trilogie after knocking out Der Mutant and Alle Wege führen nach Trantor. I ended up appreciating it overall, though I still can't give it a gripping endorsement. In a good-faith effort to make up for that lacklustre reading performance, I have engaged in a very respectful amount of listening to the German podcast Methodisch Inkorrekt.

Meanwhile, I have also had time to objectively evaluate being off of caffeine for more than five months. For my own records, the benefits include more restful sleep, flexibility around exercise timing, and no headaches due to inconsistent dosing. The detriments weigh in with exceptionally low motivation and an absence of productivity. Upon reflection, I am going to reincorporate caffeine into my routine and revive the lost productivity and flailing task focus. I miss being able to dive right into detailed tasks with interest and study in a detail-focused manner.

With that out of the way, next up for me is some long overdue direct study. I have decided that the unfortunate victim of my focus will be deutsch.lingolia.com. It is grammar heavy and I credit @joecleland for initially posting the text from /r/The ultimate german link guide to our German Study Group. I initially stumbled and bumbled through the Zeitformen section, getting imperfect benefits from it. Then I changed my learning technique to better match my lack of skillset, added some cheats, and now I am on a better path with it. It is the first time I can remember where I haven't given up completely on doing the exercises and reverted to read-only grammar study. Most traditional PDF/epub/book exercises have always been too cumbersome and slow for me to follow through with for high-volume practice.

Lingolia Review

The paid Lingolia exercises in particular get several things right that have so far prevented me from throwing in the wash rag:

• Full answer keys for each section are available with a single click. Very helpful when the material invariable goes over my head. I can place a second browser window with solutions easily beside my primary workspace.
• Before grading, I get immediately feedback. The cell turns yellow if I got it right, and some other colour if I didn't, which eliminates the problem of simple typos derailing my efforts. When I submit, I know I have given it my best effort.
• The site toggles easily between one of several languages, so you are not forced into using a monolingual or multilingual language of instruction. We all have preferences.
• There are ample exercise sets, often 10-20 sets or more per subcategory (paid).
• Similar to other sites, it offers several useful lists (unregelmäßige Verben zum Beispiel).
• It is interactive in that I have to type the correct answer.

Though they may take some web snooping, there seem to be several promising alternatives with similar exercises. One appears to be mein-deutschbuch.de übungen. In addition, their Übersicht deutsche Grammatik appears complete, easily accessible and likely worth a second look on my part. Now that I have an idea of what I am looking for, similar resources will likely start popping up everywhere.

[coldrainwater]

For the last half of September, I was chugging along nicely studying grammar, fueled by coffee. Then, inexplicably I stopped caffeine and that brought grammar study to a screeching halt. Realizing the connection, I then fiddled around for the better part of October doing very little until I formed a plan and have since made a second and more dedicated effort, this time with the idea of reading more and leaving grammar alone for now. So far it has been successful and thus I have something to report in the way of an update.

Throughout and as always, I have been listening consistently, most recently to a couple of podcasts, namely Hotel Matze and Damals, both of which I enjoyed. Hotel Matze is a podcast with a very smooth vibe. He interviews mostly artists and business folk and I recall it being quite a pleasant listen. Damals covers topics the way they were when many of us were growing up describing how certain things came to be the way they are. It has been growing on me, even though I find some of the episodes a bit hit-and-miss.

The bulk of my language time this month has been devoted to reading and I just completed Das Buch der Neuen Sonne von Gene Wolfe, which included the following five titles:

• Der Schatten des Folterers
• Die Klaue des Schlichters
• Das Schwert des Liktors
• Die Zitadelle des Autarchen
• Die Urth der Neuen Sonne

This particular sub-genre of fantasy isn't my favorite and I thought it quite strange in many parts. For that and a couple of other reasons, I would probably rate the series as a whole something like 3/5 or 3.5/5. Wolfe definitely shines in the use of language and vocabulary. His English vocabulary is known to be challenging for readers and I found that the translator was very much up to the task of paying that forward by bringing a wide variety of useful language patterns to my attention. The five books together amounted to over 1600 pages of reading and I felt like I was actively learning all the way to the end. The series also seems to have barely put me over what I needed to complete the super challenge I signed up for, which is nice. Lately, reading seems to be giving me the most benefit for my time invested. I find my mind veering off into German mode a bit more frequently and even feel a bit of the mental language-learning buzz going on. My relationship with grammar is a bit different. I feel quite studious with the rule book right under my nose and seem to gain a good bit of knowledge from it. If only all that knowledge stuck around after I put the books away!

[coldrainwater]

Rather than face the challenging decision of which book to read next, I opted to update my log tonight instead. So far, I have read two more books to kick off December. Combined they made for a little over 800 pages of reading. Kleine Geschichte Chinas von Kai Vogelsang was the first. It was a really pleasant read and I followed both his logical perspective and writing style without great difficulty. I would give it close to full marks for delivering what it set out to provide. Vogelsang can also turn a phrase quite well. Very approachable for language study.

The second text I read was Das politische System der Bundesrepublik Deutschland von Wolfgang Rudzio. This was very hard but rewarding. I concur with its amazon rating and would give it strong marks objectively speaking. It definitely felt like I was reading in a new domain and I was introduced to new vocabulary and plenty of complex language usage. It is probably a good measure of just how far I have to go. The quality of writing seemed consistent throughout and the presentation was very thorough. I would hesitate to recommend it to language learners for a few reasons. It is very dense with bibliographic references that I felt detracted from the writing, both with consideration to space and style. The author also makes very heavy use of parentheses within sentences and of lengthy bulleted lists that ultimately gave it more heft than necessary. A wide range of facts and figures contributed a bit less to language learning than I would have liked as well.

DeepL
I am late to the party, but I finally discovered a neat feature of the DeepL desktop app. The default Ctrl+F9 keyboard shortcut to enable translation within applications is very helpful. I found it to work smoothly both on the web and using PDF documents. For the latter, it really opens up the use of PDF documents at earlier stages of learning. I didn't have a comparable tool and would have had to make my own hotkey to emulate that behavior. So kudos to their team.

[Le Baron]

The Bundesrepublik book seems quite advanced for you to be still calling yourself a 'beginner'!

[coldrainwater]

The Bundesrepublik book seems quite advanced for you to be still calling yourself a 'beginner'!

Indeed. I think I will change it to 'studying'. Putting a level is even more misleading as time goes on. I think that is especially true when my language of active study is reading/listening with no output practice and thus essentially no level of speaking or writing.

[coldrainwater]

Reading

EN
I have been on holiday enjoying the brisk weather and reading more than usual. The pattern of alternating short outdoor runs, maybe two miles at a time with indoor reading has been working well for me. American Government: Power and Purpose was the first book I finished, right on the tail of reading about the political system in the Bundesrepublik. I read this one in English and would give the text pretty high marks for being clear, easy to understand, and very well-written. If I were learning English, I wouldn't mind looking over some of the passages as examples of how to communicate clearly. It felt quite professional even though the book seems to be written for high school or perhaps first-year undergraduate-level studies. I took some liberties in completing it quite quickly, using it mainly as review material and for country-to-country comparison. It is also designed to be read topic by topic, so there is quite a bit of content repetition interspersed.

DE
I then dove right into Fischer Weltgeschichte, Bd.31, Rußland. This one was very didactically approachable and became more interesting to me as the tale progressed into the early 20th century. Specifically, the authors came across as somewhat lacking confidence when describing earlier Russian history and I needed about 60 pages to get into it, but they pulled it all together toward the end and produced better, more informative work. It wasn't riveting by any account but came across as practical and matter-of-fact. I didn't run into any noticeable issues on the language side of things and as a brief outline, I would certainly consider reading additional material from the Fischer series.

Long-term, I think it will work very well to take a casual but consistent approach and read a number of varied history texts slowly over time and let knowledge around the discipline accrue. The idea of occasionally pairing factual history texts with fictional literature of the same timeframe also crossed my mind. It is something I have often neglected in the past.

Listening
In the middle of one of my runs today, I finished listening to Erklär mir die Welt (had about 65 hours downloaded). Andreas comes across as a quite humble and very down-to-earth interviewer. I enjoyed the breadth of guests that he interviewed and his choice of topics. The format is simple. He asks a series of questions and doesn't get in the way of the answers. His four-year Rückblick is a good example of his voice with a lookback on some of the content he has produced in his own words. It is also interesting to note that this is a reasonably popular cast in Österreich and he is very transparent about how much he earns and other interesting business aspects around podcasting. I am a long way from fuller comprehension but I feel the extra reading I am doing is helping me recognize a bit more of the spoken terminology. I am usually very much on the run while listening, which somewhat impairs my concentration and attention, but at the same time makes the experience more enjoyable.