Newsletter Change of Focus

(re)thinking fitness, nutrition, and aging

This newsletter was originally conceived in 2023 as a way to think about and understand AI. It served an important purpose for me, a community college English professor, knowing my students would be using it. I felt, deep…DEEEEEEEPPPPP… down, that I needed to experiment so I could do my job.

I was not wrong that students would use AI to assist in their writing, and we’ve all learned a few lessons since those early days (it’s now March 2025). AI has disrupted educational teaching patterns so profoundly, and it’s been like the creators of these tools decided to drop a flaming bag of turd on educational doorsteps, then ran away laughing and yelling “deal with it,” gleefully. Perhaps my lowest moment in dealing with AI writing came when a student persisted in turning in AI work after many 1-to-1 conversations and gave me yet another essay that failed to sound human in any respect, let alone come close to our published rubric or instructions. So I sent them feedback in the “highest falooting” language AI could generate, as I was not having it anymore. What did I get back for the final version? The same, unchanged essay. This lesson, along with many others, taught me that I didn’t want to write about AI recreationally…at all. It’s what I think about most days.

So as I return to this Substack space after a period away, the things I’d like to write about are based on (re)thinking fitness, nutrition, and aging. Because I’m an “old head,” I’ve got thoughts about what it means to stay active in your 50s, lose weight and gain some back, and just getting old in general (this last part ain’t easy, as I’ve been discovering in recent months more keenly).

So if you want to hang around for this, that’s cool. If not, take it easy. You can expect to see posts about trail running, mountain biking, maybe even some gear talk, and an occasional recipe.