Joseph F. Radosevich

Every year on vacation I make a playlist so that we forever associate those songs with the place. It's really fun to be reminded of places through songs. I also use the playlist to introduce the kids to pop music history. If we are being honest, I am learning pop music history too. We usually have things from the 1950's-1990's.  This year's top song was probably Tom Petty's "Free Fallin.'" Other tops songs were "Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Purple Rain," and "Knowing Me, Knowing You." Check it out here .

 A late 30's dad asked me last week what I do for my workouts. Here is what I do 3 days each week: 5:00 warm-up 2 rounds of 5 goblet squats/11 push-ups/2:00 on an exercise bike 10:00 I pick 4 cards from my exercise playing cards. I do them as many times through as I can before the timer goes off. This satisfies my desire for variety. 10:00 I start a timer that beeps every minute. When the timer beeps, I do the assigned exercise and then rest until the timer beeps again.  Monday-4-5 kettlebell snatches with each hand Thursday-double kettlebell 2 cleans/1 press/3 front squats. This is called the Armor Building Complex by Dan John. Saturday-5 double kettlebell clean and presses Test my heart rate and blood pressure. 5:00 stretching I use a stretching plan that I learned in middle school from The Navy SEAL Workout  book. I'm not sure it if is psychological or physical but I don't feel right if I haven't stretched. I do bike sprints on Wednesday too. I did different programs...

  We just got back from our third vacation to Williamsburg, VA and Colonial Williamsburg. I feel like I should write a post on Colonial Williamsburg or Williamsburg and what to do and where to stay. I'll leave that for another time. I learned before this trip that George Whitefield preached his first sermon in America there. The picture above is right outside the church where he preached. Since he usually had to preach outdoors because of the crowds, he probably preached 50 feet in front of where I was standing to crowds on the palace green. I found the sermon that he preached (he only had 18 individual sermons that he preached thousands of times) and read it slowly over the week in the mornings before the rest of my family got up. Here is my favorite passage: However lightly you may esteem your Souls, I know our Lord has set an unspeakable Value on them. He thought them worthy of his most precious Blood.—I beseech you therefore, O Sinners, be ye reconciled to God. I hope you do no...

This is my recipe for making one large cup of coffee in French press. I use an insulated press and prefer it because I've broken two glass presses. My French press has two screens, but a cleaner cup comes from pressing the plunger very slowly. I learned that trick from James Hoffman. Grind coffee coarsely. Boil Water Preheat French press and then pour out the water. Weigh 27 grams of coffee into press. Keep it on scale but tare the scale. Wet the coffee to let it bloom. Start the timer for 4 minutes. At 3:30, stir the grounds. Then finish pouring water in to reach 405 grams. Preheat the cup. Put the lid on and wait. When the timer goes off, press the plunger down very slowly (30 seconds or so). If I'm being honest, the measurements have a little wiggle room. If you are really a coffee person, then you might hate this. Percolating coffee is pretty forgiving, so I don't worry if I overpour by a few grams. The coffee still turns out well. The 405 grams of water comes out to ha...

What I planted today Blue Lake green beans (Gurney) Fernleaf dill (Park) Dark Opal basil seedlings (Ferry Morse) Calypso basil seedlings (Park) Profusion zinnias AAS Mix (Park) Apricot Profusion zinnias (Park) Whirlybird nasturtiums  Fordhook nasturtiums Easter lily Jet Star tomato seedling (gifted) I love planting purple things in the garden. The Dark Opal Basil looks amazing next to all the greens. We also have red lettuce that gives a nice purple contrast. It makes a really pretty picture in the garden. Two other colors I like in plants to go along with the greens are yellow-green chartreuse plants, and burnt orange plants like a certain coleus we've grown in our porch pots.

  "It is an apple like ours in Myrtle." "But you said it was magical," Benny said, biting into a golden piece. Mr. Wheeler chewed his bite and swallowed. "It is." Jack Zulu and the Waylander's Key S.D. Smith and J.C. Smith

I am translating (transposing) a book of Cherokee phrases from English and phonetic Cherokee to the Cherokee syllabary.  I'm a member of the Cherokee Nation, and I've been wanting to learn the Cherokee language. The Cherokee language is written in a 81 character syllabary which means that each symbol is a syllable rather than in an alphabet where each symbol is one sound. In Cherokee, you have different symbols for the sounds "ga" Ꭶ and "gi" Ꭹ and so on. My first project was to learn it. There are 81 characters that often look alike and sound alike, so it was difficult. Once I did that, I needed to continue practicing it. That's what I do now.  I wanted to learn more Cherokee phrases, and I bought a book of Cherokee phrases called Osiyo Tohitsu  by Prentice Robinson. This has a ton of common phrases that you might use. There are also YouTube videos that the Cherokee Nation language office posts of common words and phrases. The problem with Osiyo was tha...

I deleted Facebook this week.  I'm off of most social media now. I had been on Facebook for 18 years. I remember when Facebook became available for my college during the fall of my senior year. We were all pretty excited about it. I've got pictures and posts about my life ever since, but it was time to delete it.  Here's why I deleted most social media: Facebook: I left this site because I couldn't use it the way that I wanted to. I felt like I was having to constantly tell them to hide sections of Facebook. I realized this week that I kind of spent the last year leaving it. I went 6 months last year without posting at all. I put time limits on using it. I even unfollowed almost every page. Facebook was constantly changing how it worked. Instead of showing me friends and family that I wanted to see, they were showing me posts and people that I didn't sign up to see. Sometimes it was inappropriate things. I decided it was time.  Twitter: I left this site when things ...

Every church keeps attendance. Pastors and boards and denominations live by them. Is there a different scorecard to use for myself? For churches and leaders? This was inspired by something Mike Cosper said a few years ago on his podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. A pastor asked him what to count if the emphasis on numbers was part of what led Mars Hill Church to hurt a lot of people. Cosper's answer was to count hospital visits and funerals. I've thought of that ever since. Here are additional numbers that we can count. Measure Walks with Family. Set a goal and measure how many walks you take with your family. This is good for your physical health. It's good for your mental health because it gives you the chance to process and think. Lots of writers, preachers, teachers, and creative people take lots of walks. It's also really good for your relationship with your family. Unstructured walks regularly would be something to measure. Fires with family and friends. This...

When I worked in a local gym, new people came in most days to sign up at the gym. We would ask them what their goal was and what their plan was. They always had a blank look for the plan because the gym was the plan. They planned on using the equipment to reach their goal but hadn't thought about how they would use the equipment. The equipment was the plan. Equipment isn't a plan. I've got 10 workout ideas for a fan bike. A fan bike is a bike that has a fan in place of the front wheel and usually has arms that pump back and forth. The reason for the fan is that the harder you pedal and pump, the resistance from the fan gets harder. As you work harder or get fitter, then the bike gets harder too. Fan bikes usually come with a computer display that shows time, speed, calories burned, distance, and revolutions per minute. It makes for great workouts. Schwinn Airdyne, Air Assault, and Rogue Echo are examples of fan bikes. There are others. Here are 10 workout ideas for someone ...

I'm starting tomato seeds this week and wanted to describe 3 new varieties. It feels late to be starting tomato seeds, but our weather doesn't really stay warm until after May 9th when we get back from our vacation. I also don't want my tomatoes to be too big and have a hard time staying up. This year, I'm trying 3 varieties new to me that were bred by Fred Hempel. Fred died last fall. His work used to be sold under the Artisan Seeds brand, but now is carried by a new company he was in the process of starting called Bene Seeds .  Benevento is the tomato that Fred was so proud of. It is a beefsteak tomato that is ideal for gourmet restaurants because it tastes great, holds up well if it is on a gourmet burger or sandwich, and stores well. You can pick it, store in normal conditions like a kitchen or restaurant, and have it still hold its shape and taste great. He talked often about the need for hold up like commercial tomatoes but taste like heirlooms. Benevento is a hyb...

 I've been praying through the Operation World prayer guide this year as a challenge. It is a different kind of challenge than reading through the Bible. One thing I've done that works well is subscribe to the Joshua Project Unreached People of the Day podcast. I already listen to a lot of podcasts, and since this is only 1 minute long, it easily fits into my listening. It is the only auto-subscribed podcast that I have.  It is well-done, and it packs a lot of info into one minute. The host describes the people group (usually from the target country in Operation World), shares a verse, and shares how to pray that verse for those people. It's amazing. I probably wouldn't listen if it was longer, so I'm thankful that he makes it short and sweet. I don't know anyone else praying through Operation World this year, but I assume that there are people out there. I feel like I'm in a club and that we are praying together this year. If you are praying through Operat...

When I was a trainer, I would do a sample workout with prospective clients. They were often interested in personal training, and the workout was the hook to talk about their goals and consider working together. What I normally did was take them through the warm-up I did with clients. For most people new to the gym, it felt like a hard workout. If they only did slow sessions on the treadmill or nothing at all, then this "workout" was hard. After they trained with me for a little while, then this warm-up was just a warm-up. Here is my current warm-up: 2 Rounds of 5 Goblet Squats (35 lbs kettlebell) 7 Push-ups 2:00 on the Airdyne at and medium pace. All this takes about 6 minutes. For some people, this would feel like a workout. Honestly, you could do that for 20 minutes and get a really good workout in. I've really been enjoying this warm-up.  

Here is my detailed review of what I did and what my results are. When I thought through doing Easy Strength for Fat Loss, I would have liked to see a review like this.  The Easy Strength plan is to do 2 sets of 5 exercises 3-5 days per week for 40 workouts. The secret is that you never goal to failure and do just enough to nudge your strength up gradually. The main adjustments "for Fat Loss" include adding 5 sets of 15 Kettlebell swings and 1 hour of walking or cycling on a fan bike (Airdyne). What I did Warm-up (5 Goblet Squats/5 Push-ups/2:00 on Airdyne for 2 rounds) Kettlebell Press 2x5 Pull-ups or Hangs (I hung for 30 seconds for 2 rounds. Every 4th day, I did 3 sets of 3 pull-ups. Dan John recommended this to help protect your elbow. I didn't want to get Middle-Aged Pull-up Syndrome again--I've had it twice.) Staggered Stance Romanian Deadlift 2x5 with each leg Ab Wheel Rollouts 1 set of 10 Carry 1 set (I did farmer's carry one day, suitcase the next, and wa...

Inspired by Phillips Brooks' advice to "write something besides sermons" but to do it as a pastor, I thought of what I would say about fitness from the perspective of a pastor and Christian who was a former personal trainer. I enjoyed being a personal trainer. Losing 50 lbs. improved my life a lot. I enjoyed helping others move better, feel better, and get healthier. There are a lot of pitfalls in the health and fitness world though. I'm not sure that they are different than in other areas of our world, but they exist. Here is what I would say as a pastor to someone about how to pursue health and fitness as a Christian: Don't be selfish or self-centered. 2 Corinthians 5:15 reminds us that we once lived for ourselves before we met Christ. So if our fitness goals or methods are selfish, we are going back to our old way of living. If your goal is to get other people's attention, then it is selfish. If your method requires you to sacrifice your family to spend exc...