Another Snow Day

Not to complain, but why couldn't it have been on a day I actually have a class? Why couldn't they have called before I had already driven 20 of the 22 miles to work? Oh well. In truth, it's worked out great, for I am THE ONLY one in this building, and so it's a nice, quiet work environment. I'm catching up on grading (only 4o some-odd pieces remain) and I'm going to get some prep work done for the week (namely my podcast, lecture notes, etc).

Originally, I was intending to come home at noon and enjoy the snow, but I heard something about 15mph winds. That's not sounding pleasant. I'll likely hold out for play tomorrow.

Which brings me to the point--tomorrow should be the snow day, for it's to freeze hard and ice over and generally be terribly treacherous tomorrow. This brings up the whole idea of being pre-emptive. Reactionary.

I once had to make a weather-related decision that was very tough: cancelling a major event we hosted annually for 8 or 9 years. It was a senior-senior prom, a dance for elderly folk. We had 600-1000 guest annually for this little shin-dig, and the forecast was awful. It was knee deep snow during the week, but--welcome to Kansas--the night of the dance it would have been fine! That was one of those moments I kicked myself and every weatherman I could think of (metaphorically, of course).

Another was when I decided to go see a girlfriend in Denver during a blizzard; ended up snowed in with two lawmen and a convict in a little motel room in the middle of nowhere...but that's another snow story.

e-Failures

So, yesterday we had a very slow loading Internet interface that could have botched a presentation we were doing. Fortunately, I had made screen capture handouts and my associate was good at pulling up the site on another browser as we forged ahead.

The day before, something similar happened to me in class, when I was attempting to demonstrate some tool of the web-supported class.

The day before that, my iTunes had to be reloaded.

The day before that, my vehicle would not start.

...and last week, a student handed me his cell phone to read a joke, and I almost toasted the phone in attempts to navigate on it. (Ended up at some very interesting pictures before I handed it back to him with a shrug.)

What I'm listing here, what I'm offering is: technology fails. "Epic fail," as the young'ns say today.

I enjoy technological advances. I depend (too much) on them. However, I also know full-well that they are fickle and inconsiderate. They are not always going to serve me, so I should be prepared (like yesterday) for the occasional flight of whimsy. I have come to be okay with technology's temperament.

Now if I could just get my Ever-sharp (mechanical pencil) to work right!

I'm okay with that...

Maybe I'm just feeling complacent today:

• I got up late today, and now my whole day's off schedule, like daylight saving's time...but I don't really care, for I'm overall ahead of schedule.
• There were grounds in my coffee--faulty filter this morning. That's okay.
• Nobody contacts me back in Facebook, email, etc... *sigh*
• Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter. OMG!

This last item in particular surprises me, for I have not been one to enjoy winter. Maybe I'm getting older, sentimental or something. I just hate to see this winter end. I've always been this way about summer, but winter? me?

I guess I've finally come to that point that I like seasons, every season. I know winter is difficult sometimes, but it's also so uniquely beautiful. It offers some recreation and some wonders that no other season can touch. (No other season gives us snow days, for example!)

I know the flashy season, spring, is about to bud. Then we have all the bravado of big storms, torments of rain, and a kaleidoscope of colors as everything comes to life....but spring also means more work than winter asks of me. I'll be mowing and gardening and raising livestock and rearing children outside (unleashed madness). I'll be back to picking ticks.

I'm content to have six weeks before all the excitement. I can curl up with a cup of coffee, look out at the snow, and read my seed catalogs.

Heartbreaker

Why can't you just go away!

Since Thomas Etheredge is on trial at last for his financial wizardry, every hour on the radio I hear about it again. Every time I drive down 135 (which is almost daily, it seems) I am reminded of it--for the sign with that stupid cowboy is still there!

My 3 year old son and I spent many hours laboring over a coloring contest that led to naming this stupid cowboy, and not only did we lose that contest, we lost the whole park. (We were going to name him "Hickory Slick," but the name they chose was "Wild West Willy.) He's never forgotten being let down so harshly by the closing of this park. In ways, I take some blame, for I really hyped it up. We bought season tickets, in person, on the grounds, the first day one could purchase them. I was totally suckered in, so very much so that I still would like to think that Mr. Etheredge may not be such a bad guy.

Nevertheless, it is so very painful to be reminded daily (hourly) of a dream never to be fulfilled.

Dirty Laundry

I recall a trip to a friend's house once in which he was reluctant to let us near a certain part of his home, but we had to pass this area to get to the room he was putting us up in. I could not help but peek, of course, into the "forbidden territory." It was a laundry room that was at least knee deep in dirty clothes. I feared for the worst, thought they were divorcing. Who could keep house like that, I wondered, unless they'd given up entirely and were about to move away?

Now I have seen what can happen, even in my own home. Though to me it is near the height of chaos and disorder, a strong indicator of resignation and lack of self-worth, I have known this filth myself: dirty laundry. (The Eagles even had a song about it.) To have to live from laundry baskets and piles, to compose a load of wash out of urgency--it's all so alien to me and so repulsive. The way I was raised, our dirty clothes were hidden in a hamper, collected in a sorter behind closed doors (in the laundry room). Clothes were washed on a schedule that was strictly adhered to. We never "went without."

Having written that, even I know it was a bit extreme, perhaps, a little bit OCD.


It's only clothes, I know, and they are only a form of shelter, after all. I don't spend a fortune on clothes, and I don't really have much fashion sense, etc. My kids don't give a rip one way or the other, generally, unless they want that special cowboy shirt to go with boots for a trip to the zoo or something.

So why do I take it as such a personal affront that my wife and I cannot manage the laundry? Why is it such a crisis for me to have to sort socks at 5am? What's the big deal about having to use loose bedding to sleep in rather than a fitted and flat sheet set (matching, pressed)?

I guess it's just part of the compounded problem of chaos and litter and clutter that plagues our home. I tried all last year to cope with it, and yet I have not ever really come to terms with it, never accepted it, never been able to find contentment. A clean house is so much a part of what seems to me to be a stable environment, a place to be proud of, a "home."

SNOW DAY

My back yard beckons me (and the boys) to go out and romp around. I cannot wait for it to warm up, for it's not going to. I'm going to force them to hold out for after lunch, anyway, for then we can play in the snow and cold, then take warm showers, and (if I have it my way) take a NAP. (Life is good on a snow day.)

We were wise enough to stock up on food. We have lots of DVD's to watch. Of course, our house is full of games and toys, so there will be no lack of amusement...however, I'm out of novels to read--how could I be caught short handed on that!

This shot is of my little wood shed and tractor shed. To the left (out of range) is my pirate ship project. It will look odd to have a pirate ship under snow (next winter).

THIS brings it all together!

In this video, the Rev. Billy Talen preaches on localizing our lifestyles in his campaign for mayor of NYC. He is interviewed by "The Resident" aka Lori Harfenist. I've followed Rev. Billy's career for some time now, as I've also watched Harfenist's vlog off and on for years. This was the best six minutes I have spent today, absorbing the message the Rev. shares on anti-consumerism, on big-box monopolies and manipulations, and on the concept of retooling our economy. Hang Obama's 90 minute applause fest out to dry and invest your ears in this instead. His Church of Stop Shopping has some great songs/messages, and their website is great!

For my bandwith, one cannot go wrong listening to Harenfist (and she's easy on the eyes, too). I am going to recommend her to my classes, for she brings up some great controversies, and my students are to be entertaining controversial issues in Comp II.

For example, she has a segment on:

sin taxes, particularly one proposed on pop

climate change

calling this country "America"

Why people hate the USA (dated)

She's....stimulating, if nothing else. There are many commentators with more depth and content, but I think her vlog would be a good onramp for students to check out the behind-the-scenes medium of the Internet. (I'm collecting similar sites to share w/students, so fire some to me!)

Sometimes I wonder...

...what my students really think of class. Today, for example, we did traditional lecture, review, etc. and then I had them participate in "academic speed dating." This is not my original idea--it's something forwarded to me that I've had great success with (I think).

I have them sit in a long row, 1/2 on each side of the room-length table. I have them reach across to a partner and shake hands, exchange pleasantries, and then address a question I have for them on screen. After a few minutes, we reflect as a group, report back a few insights (and names) then rotate to new partners. It's a tool I use for review, obviously, but also to break the ice, so they can get to know at least 1/2 the class on just the second day of class.

...but it's weird. It's non-traditional. It's disruptive and messy. Do they really benefit? Does it actually help folks get familiar, or is it just busy hoop-jumping junk? I would like to think it's productive, that people have fun and learn a little something along the way, but it's hard to know...to REALLY know.

Thus, I am in a quandary. Do I keep experimenting and mixing it up, or do I throw back to staid, tried-and-true lecture? (Could I even do that?) I hope I find a good balance, that it's all in the best interest and best meeting the students' needs.

Sometimes I have doubts, that's all...

RUSTED ROOT RETURNS (well, returnED some time ago)

I am always the last to know anything! My favorite band released a new album LAST MARCH. People are always asking me what I like to listen to, and while I like lots of music, I thrive on this band, and you will, too.

Check out their myspace page...give ear to some of their music, like a incredible cover of Elvis' "Suspicious Minds" or go to their website and check out everything!

Why are they the best? They have a very dynamic sound, lots of complicated and moving percussion, intriguing lyrics, curiously engaging vocals--such texture I cannot describe it! Go there! Buy their stuff! See them on tour! I was fortunate enough to catch them some years back in Lawrence, KS. What I wouldn't give to see them again, now that they are back on tour.

Fostering Creativity

I'll likely be teaching Creative Writing online for my college next year, for I've been given the green light to design the course for that environment. I used to teach said course for rival institutions both on ground and online. I like teaching the course for one main reason: it meant so much to me.

Why? I guess it was the course that endorsed my creativity more than any other, save actual art classes. I always enjoyed having that element of my person appreciated. You could tell me I was smart or analytical or witty--and it would not really matter...but if I were told I was creative, well then, that was the highest complement, the fuel that launched me down a dozen paths.

I am still creative in writing and in building things. Sometimes its the smallest thing around the house, like mounting jars creatively with my wife. Other times the creative outlet is a much larger scale like my pirate ship project or the haunted houses I used to design.

I find that fostering creativity in others is perhaps the very most rewarding aspect of my job. I mentioned previously that I like to boost student self-confidence and expression in their writing. Igniting creativity takes that to another level, in my opinion.

The most important contribution I might be able to make might be to foster creativity in my own children. In that one small way, I think I'm succeeding well as a father. My kids are very, very creative. I know, every parent thinks such things and brags accordingly, but trust me, my children are off the charts. Maybe in another entry I will elaborate on that!

If I could do it all again...

...I would:

• teach speech, not composition.
• never let my body get so out of shape.
• work harder at retaining details (names, authors, dates...)
• be published.
• have told my dad how I loved him.
• save more money.
• record the stories I tell my kids nightly.
• learn a language a year.
• retire by now.
• read with Intention.
• live with Intention.
• take school seriously the first time.
• compare and commit to a religion, conscientiously.
• take more people under my wing.
• take more people into my confidence.
• take more naps (hard to imagine, eh?).
• swim and play tennis as my lifetime sports (rather than croquet).
• travel more.
• dance more.
• drink more water.
• be a better (fill in the blank: father, son, spouse, teacher...)
• not let friendships go fallow.
• master all-things farming.
• be self-sustaining.
• invent something significant (and lucrative).

This is a good exercise, for I am learning most of the items here are ones that I CAN STILL DO, if I just get up and go at it!

Arrrrrhhhhh!

So, last fall I started building a playground for my kids. It's to be modeled after a pirate ship. I've been documenting progress on that project at another blog: http://www.pirateshipplayground.blogspot.com

I often sit at the window, wishing it were better weather. These days, I've been out in the elements every chance I can get. We've made tremendous progress lately. I can now begin to see my project coming into its own. I have a target date of Spring Break for the christening of the pirate ship.

It is not without concerns that I build this beastie. I know that every playground is dangerous. Every time my kids monkey around on one, I worry. It's another issue, however, when the very playground I build somehow leads to an injury. That's creeping me out. To compensate, I've been collecting wood chips (now about 10 truck loads) which I will layer at least a foot deep all around the ship to cushion the boys' landings. Even so, I've got to attend to ways they might hang themselves in the rigging, how they might catch their heads between the rail posts, how they might find some inventive way to jump ship at some height I would not like. Worry, worry, worry!

On the other hand, the ship gives me something constructive to do. I can exhaust my creative energies on that project for a good long while. I've yet to design the gunwales, the anchor, the bow, the rigging, etc. I've ideas of the ship's exterior, but I don't know if I can really make it look like I imagine it might. I've got to create a captain's quarters, a ship's wheel, and various other nautical marvels, too. The boys want me to start on sea creatures next, to surround or perhaps accost the ship. I'll make those of concrete, somehow, I suppose...or better yet, let them make something of their own imagination!

Good times!

A Knight's Tale

I've been thinking of what film to show my classes this term...one that is a personal favorite is A Knight's Tale. I know it's not high-brow educational viewing, but it has merits and offers a good deal to discuss. I think students could digest this film well-enough and come to see the value and presence of subtle elements (lighting, costuming) as well as the film's more obviously employed novelties like a rock music soundtrack in a medieval setting.

The movie is a great popcorn piece, if nothing else, entertaining from beginning to end. I like the starkly contrasted good/evil (even though it's a little too stark for many reviewers). I love the main characters, one and all, and the performances by Ledger and others really work for me.

My kids watch this movie regularly. Even my in-laws watched and appreciated it. I think it has some appeal for all ages and demographics. It's also not too vulgar for classroom viewing and offers a number of points of departure for class discussion.

It's on my short list for the movie review unit, for sure!

Fog

What's with this fog? My son tells me fog is clouds on the ground, the result of high moisture content in the air and some peculiar pressure thing--but I'll have to ask my buddy Matt, who's a student of meteorology, for the skinny.

Today on the radio they reported the fog was the worst it has been all year, that visibility is about 100 ft. I was out driving in it and can attest that it should be slow going. I could not see from one utility pole to the next. How would anyone have the nerve to attempt to pass in these conditions? (I was passed twice in a 8 mile run; I was doing the speed limit.)

I have been in worse fog. Picture this, a frazzled me, six students and no map (before the days of the Tom Tom and cell phone). We were lost, off schedule, after driving around the clock, finding ourselves in Pennsylvania. Fog was so very bad at times one could not see 30 ft. Truth. We finally gave in and slept in the parking lot of a motel (too poor for a room) until the sun came up to burn off the fog.

Fog is good for...nothing. It doesn't provide any particular moisture for crops. It's not especially pretty like snow.

Fog...du-duh....UGH....what is it good for? Aaaaabsolutely nothin' ...say it again!

Untapped potential

Being useful.
Not just taking up space.
Serving a purpose.
Maximized.

I've already signed my organ donor card, but it just isn't enough. What about all those idle hours of sleep? I can join my PC to a network of others, allowing NASA or whomever to use my computer's processing power overnight or over other hours it is not otherwise in use. Why can't something like that be done with ME?

Maybe during idle time (or while I'm blogging or grading) I could give blood or sell plasma.

Maybe as I sleep my body heat could thaw out tomorrow's food or incubate baby chicks.

Surely someone can configure a USB port to the back of my head and draw something from my wetware, no?

Right now, as I sit here typing, what of my legs? Perfectly good muscles and limbs going to waste...maybe we all need generators under our desks, ones we pedal like an old fashioned sewing machine.

22 feet of intestines? Surely not all of that is optimized. Maybe a few yards could be used in a nice soup or for sausage casings? Think of all this skin--can't I wear a wet suit and just have skin on my face and hands?

I know many would agree with me on this: I put out enough hot air and wind to power greater Wichita. Why can't we tap that?

Toy War

My war with toys.

I am begging for your ideas, readers...here I am with a house that will likely be completely over-run with toys in 2012 should the exponential growth of the toy collection continue and the world not end as predicted.

The glut of possessions, of things, of consumerism gone wild--it's so overwhelming around my home. It's a small house to begin with, and there are 9 of us living here, but without clutter, we'd all have elbow room to spare.

I hauled off about a pickup load of excess over Winter Break. I gave away that much or more on Craig's List late last semester...but you would not know it looking around here. I am going to attack the garage on a nice day again and weed out more junk, maybe even the Christmas baubles. I am being more and more hard on myself so that I can then hold my kids accountable.

They have never practiced good stewardship of their things....I would argue it's because they simply have far too many things (like the rest of us in the house). I know that people like buying kids toys, for then they get that woo-hoo reaction from the tykes. However, as a parent now on the backside of gift-giving, let me attest to the complications. With three boys and a girl, one magnifies the toy collection quickly every holiday. We just survived Christmas and two recent birthdays, and for all of these we pleaded for reduced toys. I hauled about 60 gallons (based on trash bag capacity) of toys to the garage in November, but now the toy room is literally knee deep in new toys. Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

The kids were fascinated with the toys I rediscovered with them during my last purge. They fell in love all over again with Elmo, with puzzles, with legos, etc. Add to this that my oldest son knows and names every character, every little tiny plastic soldier, every stuffed animal...even the broken ones are valuable to him for they are wounded in battle or maimed from a shark attack or whatever the backstory.

According to Jax, these "Joes" must face off against the snake and the castle. In this picture, one can see Duke and his army, namely Double Snake Eyes, Crouch, Captain Fire, Agent Black, Army Green, Captain Twin, Private Goggles, Captain Vest, Captain Tiger Stripes, Contact, Ice Sculpture, Twin Eye (the one girl in the crowd), Bionauc Eye, Jack Erwin, Crash, and in front again with the white pants, Duke.

Everyone has a backstory in the toy room, if you talk a while with my son. His sense of ownership, then, is very powerful. He just can't let go. He takes pictures of his toys, knowing that some will end up lost in the shuffle for a while, buried, stored in the garage (and sometimes his ruthless mom actually GIVES AWAY or SELLS some things).

There you have it. Now, what can I do about it? I have tried sharing images, video, etc. of kids in need. I've tried appealing to their profit motive, urging them to sell things at a garage sale. I've tried rotating toys in/out of storage (successful, but it does not reduce the number of toys overall, and eventually my storage area will still be overwhelmed).

I know, I'm the parent. I can just set a cap on toy ownership and be an ogre. These are their things, however, and I don't want to pitch that ever-so-valuable one-eyed stuffed bear which was so meaningful. I don't want to scar my kids for life.

SO...what is to be done?

Wish list: Fordson Snow Tractor

Not that we ever have this much snow (global warming?), but I would really like to own one of these babies. I wonder if it ever made it to production? I marvel that ingenious inventions like this so often stay at the concept level and don't make it out of the shop. Anyway, it's too cool not to post.

Almost Over....sigh

Now THIS is a topic is one I revisit after every semester. I've been wondering why, so I thought I'd speculate...but first, the topic: I always feel such great regret at the end of a break. I get all bummed out, realizing that the time has past, that it cannot be redeemed ever again. It's gone. This sentiment makes me really value freedom, but as with too many things, I tend to only truly appreciate the value of things only when they're gone.

So why does this get so hyper-inflated at the end of breaks? Likely because I realize every break how very lucky I am to even have breaks. I know my friends in other career paths have paid vacations (that sounds nice!) and that they scrimp and save their days off to preserve such time. I am granted a month in the winter, potentially three months in the summer, and a full week for spring break. That's a great deal of time that I get which most others do not get. That makes it a treasure, and thus, I need to respect this gift of time and make the most of it.

Do I? No. I make impressive to-do lists, I attempt to invest quality time into family and friends, to do a little something for myself along the way...but I never really get everything done. I never take exotic world tours, island hop, or take a train around Europe.

I do, however, invest a lot of time into the kids and the property, and during these nasty cold breaks, into the interior of the house. I still see clutter around every corner, and I still cannot count the number of projects yet to do, but I have made a dent in it all this winter break, and I'm pretty content, overall.

I have 4 days left, and I think I'm going to take the boys to Pump it Up once, eat out a time or two, and generally poop off the time having fun.

....since 2006!

Four solid years of blogging. I started Jan 6 of '06. That's hard to believe. I just did a little fishing through the archives and was amazed that I'd written some of those entries so very long ago (seemed like this year). Time is so very relative, so fleeting.

I discovered in my review that I likely haven't said much of importance, and that I've likely said much the same over and over. In that regard, it would be best to hang up my keyboard and do something else with my time.

However, it does help me to articulate thoughts and to document my life and times. It does help me to reflect, overall, and to appreciate where I've been and where I see myself (and others) going.

In 2009 I kept the challenge of adding at least one entry to my blog per monthly total; that was respectable. In 2010, I am not sure what to do or what to expect of myself. I think, maybe, I really should grow this or blow this off. I might take on the task of rolling out this URL to more potential readers, haunting and lurking on other sites to further push traffic here. I don't know. It's not like I need a big audience or anything.

Perhaps a better goal is to become more transparent. For many years I've been reserved in my blog and not revealed too much about family, home, etc. Maybe this is the year for that, regardless of what critics and doomsayers may offer. Maybe it's time to let my digital hair down.

I think, in all fairness to my students, I should at least write 3 entries weekly, as I require of them.

AVATAR trailer

There's not a better way to end the year than to review the best trailer to the best film of 2009. Cheers to any faithful readers of MusementPark. Happy New Year!

10 of my favorite memories of 2009

1. Cooking out at the firepit, topless, in January.
2. Storage solutions for our house (3 cabinets, more shelves, discarding and giving away lots)
3. A cowboy guest at my son's b-day party, a historical reenactor who was fantastic!
4. Camping out with friends on our property
5. Exploring the zoo regularly
6. Building a carport
7. Making an anniversary gift together w/wife
8. Starting construction of the pirate ship playground (see link)
9. Attempting a Garden w/family
10. Having a new baby (girl!)

Repurposing a baby monitor...

Here's some ideas I've had today for repurposing a baby monitor. As we're nearing the end of our needs to monitor our babies, we'll need to find some alternative uses:

1. Homegrown radio show
2. One-way intercom ("Dinner's served!")
3. Halloween prank (put receiver in dummy on porch and "boo!")
4. Sleep aide (when set on alternate station, whitenoise!)
5. Eavesdropping (general purpose spying)
6. Parent monitor (reverse engineering)
7. Seance (hoax)
8. Poor man's walkie talkie
9. Pet teaser
10. Hearing aide (a bit large, but effective)
11. Drive thru ordering (isn't this the state of the art comm system they use now?)
12. Synthesizer (when waving the receiver next to the monitor)

I welcome additional ideas...

My Theatre's better than yours!

At my theatre, kids get in cheap. At the Warren, they had to pay $12 to see Bolt in 3D.

At my theatre, I got 3 pops, a large popcorn, and nachos all for under $20. At the Warren, a pop that size was $4.

At my theatre, the usher led my 4 year old down to the door to catch his uncle and brother. He later escorted me to the door of our theatre and held it for me (I had all those concessions!)

At my theatre, the custodian found me after the show to return my lost hat.

Friendly staff, more affordable prices, and I'd argue, a better crowd, too. My theatre has it all. I will continue to boycott the Warren franchise at any opportunity.

My Theatre is the Chisholm Trail 8 in Newton, Kansas.

So, here I am at 2am...

In a 3 bedroom house of 9 (3 over 55, 4 under 8), it's hard to find space to be alone, let alone time. I do not know how my wife does it, children clamoring for everything, all the time. I dislike winter, for the Outdoors was my answer to escape and have some "me time" and space, but it's bitterly cold these days.

So, here I am at 2am.

Sleep is highly over-rated. If I can get in 3 hrs early-on, then I'm good. Well, I need a nap mid-day or I get grumpy, but otherwise, I'm okay. Alright, along about 9pm I get really short, but that's just because I'm tapped out. I do try to sleep straight through to morning, but it seldom works, and when there's lots on my mind (much I cannot share here), then it's harder yet to stay asleep. With kids piling into my bed, it's harder yet.

So, here I am at 2am.

I like to think of it as captured time, like time in a bottle. I have this precious time to do with what I will, and no one else is even spending theirs. I think of time as being relative, that somewhere on Earth there are people working, thriving, fighting, etc. at this very moment, where it's 2pm or so. Technically, then, I'm just living my life in both hemispheres, rather than sleeping through one of them.

So, here I am at 2am.

Let's face it, I'm older, I'm restless, I'm awake anyway, so why not write to myself. I could be watching television (or other porn). I could be engaged in questionable web chatter. I could be playing video games or prying into people's facebook lives. Instead, I have a sense of decorum. I have limits. I have a dull-witted PC, a 10 yr old television, and poor Internet bandwith.

So, here I am at 2am.

White Christmas!

I'm documenting it here and now, for in Kansas, it's hit/miss. Today is truly a white Christmas. It looks to be about a 4 inch snowcover out there. I'm thrilled about it on every count, 'cept shoveling.

The kids are very excited to play in the snow (though today it may not get over 20 degrees).

I hope we can get some great pictures of the snow-covered property before everyone arrives and tracks it up. There's nothing quite like a pristine snow.

I don't know why snow on Christmas means so much, maybe it's all Bing Crosby's song (?) but I do know that it's not the same w/o snow. On those barren, brown years, the holiday is less...something. Snow, however, makes it magical.

(I'm also happy that I was able to put my vehicle in the garage...no scraping, ready to go!)

Avatar, some more

Again, Avatar has recycled themes and a very transparent green agenda, and for all that I say, who cares! It's a marathon of eye candy, employing computer animation in over 70% of the film better than I have seen it used ever before. The landscape and wildlife of Pandora are imaginative and colorful and (other than the dinosaurs) very otherworldly.

I've yet to watch a "making of" video or to read any behind the scenes pieces on the film. I can tell it uses the same animation technologies of Polar Express, etc to capture realistic facial expressions and body movement. This was most obvious with Sigourney Weaver's avatar (but then, that figures, for she was the only seasoned actress in the film, and obviously her acting even came through the CGI well).

The picture following is just an impression of the landscape...

What most wowed me was the world of Pandora, particularly the plant life (as mentioned, most of the animals looked like crude dinosaur knock-offs to me). The way the world changed at night to a blacklight ultraviolet show was as amazing to me as it was to the human character first experiencing it in his avatar. It is so very beautiful! I cannot wait to go see it on a bigger screen in brighter projection (we saw it locally on the cheap last weekend). My desktop image these days is of the floating mountains of Pandora (impossible, of course, but cool). I have a crush on Neytiri (behind the scenes and the avatar, actress Zoe Saldana).

AVATAR review

One might accuse me of following the herd, responding to hype, but truth is, I've been eager to see this movie long before the media blitz got so out of hand. I imagine some folks will refuse to see it simply because of too much media exposure. That said, what drew me from the start was the concept of an avatar (easily reviewed in some of my previous entries on Second Life, etc.)

The film is set in 2154 and by that time technology has allowed us to have complete neurological interface with synthetically grown avatars (a wetware/meatspace version of the androids in Surrogate) only they are still outrageously expensive (realistic). Thus, the avatars are only employed in the film's scope by a very wealthy company that is exploring and exploiting the planet Pandora for some rare natural resource. So it's sci-fi, but like the better sci-fi, it's built on plausible technology. It's not as if everything has changed too radically in 150 years. Well, we have somehow managed space travel (kryo for 5 years to travel to this planet).

Annoying to me, the one enterprise that currently spends the most on R&D, the most on technology--that is, the military--was using tools from today. That would be us using civil war weaponry. Surely in 150 years there's been much more advance in weapons technology! The only bells and whistles in that realm were the exo-suit giants some soldiers were driving....and I've seen that before many times (though it never gets old and yes I want to operate one).

Physically, the People of Pandora did have feline characteristics that were engaging to watch, and they had a cool neural connect to nature through something like a ponytail. (Too bad for those who might rather have shorter hair, eh?) Their culture, however, was less creatively developed. They were essentially taller, bluer Native Americans, right down to the war whoops.

Excellent video of 12 Days

Go here for a video of Straight-No Chaser's original 1998 rendition of the 12 days of Christmas. They are an astounding a cappella group with an amusing twist. This is likely my best present to my two loyal readers. :)

12 day countdown to Christmas!

Today is the 12th and thus it's 12 days until Christmas, and so, by rights, we can launch a new tradition today celebrating the 12 days of Christmas. What fun it can be to countdown the visit from Santa, the opening of gifts, the gathering of family around the hearth (if we had a hearth).

I stand corrected. According to David Bratcher: "The Twelve Days of Christmas is probably the most misunderstood part of the church year among Christians who are not part of liturgical church traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in most of the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th). In some traditions, the first day of Christmas begins on the evening of December 25th with the following day considered the First Day of Christmas (December 26th). In these traditions, the twelve days begin December 26 and include Epiphany on January 6." (Scroll down on that page for the potential theological references from the famed song, "The 12 days of Christmas."

As a procrastinator, I like this even better, for now I can work up a tradition and deploy it after Christmas, getting more mileage out of the break before I have to return to work, too.

Madman

I'm actually looking forward to this madman's visit to our house this year. Though a sometimes troubled youth, he is a character I'd (honestly) like to have around more. He IS family, and my family is few and far between. As one can guess from the picture, he's...fun-loving.

When he lived here we only saw him once in a while, and now that he's up by KC, only once in a great, great while (oh, 4 times a year, maybe). The picture above is from Christmas 2008. I look forward to seeing how we might top that moment this year.

The boys love his visits, obviously, for he's good at getting down on their level for a while and whooping it up with them. He tires easily, for he's not been condititioned for long-haul parenting, but next to Santa, he's one of their favorite visitors.

Punch drunk

o yjoml o eo;; etoyr yjod rmyrtu gtp, pmr lru pgg yjr mpt,s;////gpt zo s, grr;omh pgg yjr ,stl ypfsu. yjsy d gpt ditr/ ( rough translation: i think i will write this entry from one key off, for i'm feeling punchdrunk)

It's the time of year I forget where I parked (out back) and that I'm out of fuel (MUST pump up before the long cold drive home). It's a day when I don't remember how or when I got here, just that I know I must be here again and again and again. *sigh*

It's finals week. Huzzah for students. Hell for me. I'm not even going to give a count on how many papers are left to score--it would sound like whining and it would only further bum me out.

I've written entries around this time of year before, and I've offered myself lots of motive to do better. In truth, I've not procrastinated, just been burdened. Still--I think next term I will grade everything as soon as it hits my hopper; prevents complaints and keeps my in box empty.

So, there's little to learn this time, nothing to chastize. What am I to write about then? Maybe that I'm just a goob about now. I'm a dweeb. I'm a bit loopy. I don't know how else to say it, for all my good words are asleep in the recesses of my brain somewhere about now. Yet I grade.

Yet...I grade.

I am humbled by the Bowerbird.

I was reading a very engaging blog about how special animals are today. I was awestruck at David's entry, Same, different purpose, which elaborates on how much we share with other animals, how we set up an artificial distinction between us.

Within that entry, he made specific reference to a bird that builds bowers artfully. These constructs are not just functional nests or impressive ant hills or other marvels of simply architecture...they really are intentional works of art. (Check out his entry and see for yourself.)

He provided a link to this YouTube video clip on Bower birds. If nothing else, spend the 4 minutes to watch this--incredible!



I had never heard of the bower bird. I am amazed. They spend so much time carefully constructing this shrine, this artwork, all to woo a female. I wish mankind was likewise so intent upon creating beauty instead of wealth to attract the opposite sex. It would be great if girls found art more attractive than gyrating meatshop Neanderthals smelling of smoke and beer. Wouldn't it be something if a man were compelled to take up a paint brush rather than run to the jewelers or car dealer in order to express his love.

I think we should all slow down and appreciate the natural world around us. Sure, it's not the ideal season for this, but then again, snowflakes are each an amazing construct. Sparrows we take for granted are still with us. Flip over a piece of bark or turn a pile of hay--insects are always up to something noteworthy.

School Readiness

Most of my returning, non-traditional students freely confess that they were not ready for school the first time around. I know I wasn't. I waded through, holding facts like water through my fingers, from test to test. I had no purpose, no value for money, no concept of the future...

My traditional students typically acknowledge a lack of purpose/direction at one time or another. Of a class of 20, likely 2 know their curricular course of action toward Fulfillment (which is almost always the sacred Job). In any given semester, I might meet (not even just in my class, but of all students I'm exposed to) an individual who sees higher learning as an enhancement to their life, rather than a means to an end. I do not work at a trade school, but then, I am not at the University anymore, either--but even there, I remember very few who were in school for enrichment.

Now that I'm working, with a family, with so many economic and chronological (?) burdens--it's too hard (so I whine) to find time to be Enriched. However, I do not walk down a hall w/o listening in on lectures I wish I could absorb. I really want to know about history, now. I am curious about biology, now. I want to be knowledgeable about the universe, for now I'm all growed up.

I think we have things so backwards in this country. We should all be granted jobs out of high school, taking away the college prep feel entirely. We should be civil servants or civic servants or military fodder--some kind of national service should be mandated for at least the first two years out of school. Somehow, I have a feeling this would affect drop outs, teen pregnancy, suicide, all sorts of things, for the pressures would be radically different. High school would be able to slow down and work on quality rather than SAT's and ACT's and transfer potential.

Then, whenever a young person felt ready for school, after at least their two years of national service, well...then they could try on higher education, richly subsidized by the govt. If they screw up, they are out in the work force doing menial labor (that woke me up, let me tell you!). If they screw up, they have forfeited their financial aide from the govt and must then find their own resources.

Two years of national service might be a good sobering period, a time for people to get their adolescence over with. It might help them figure out how great school had been, and thus, when they return to it (like so many returning students now) they would appreciate it.

But then....nobody asked me.

Hats off to Hans Zimmer

I'm listening to the soundtracks of Batman and Pirates of the Caribbean as I'm grading. These are by Hans Zimmer. His style is bombastic, over the top, dramatic. Some find his soundtracks tiresome, too much the same. I find them striking. If I need some gusto for grading (or anything else) I just fire up the Zim-master. I've listened to these two so much I have them memorized, so I don't even need my iPod to go tripping.

I'm hoping to get some green for my iTunes account, so I can buy up more instrumental music like this. Meanwhile, I've also discovered a new Internet radio station, The Big Score, at GotRadio (hardly new, but new to me) that plays movie music, largely instrumental, 24/7. The problem with Internet radio compared to iTunes--bandwith. When everyone's here on a weekday, my connection gets dicey and I'm better off going offline.

I've mentioned it many times before, but I really like going completely offline, into my own playlist in my head. I think everyone should have one, whether it's full of rap lyrics, hymns, showtunes or country-western (or all of the above).

Seasonal Downers

In contrast to yesterday's post...

Cold brings death. Trees are skeletal. Grass is brown and crunchy. It hurts to just be in the elements, and everything's too brittle to work with (soil, wood, me...).

This time of year, I always have an enormous backlog of grading--I mean literally hundreds of pieces to grade, and a very clear and present deadline looms just 11 days, 20 hours and 57 minutes away. It is more-than-overwhelming...it is uber-whelming!

The lingering gloom of my dad's death at Thanksgiving haunts me. It really does. I don't like to admit it or write about it, but there are times I just wish he was still around to talk with. He always had interesting ideas and he was a good listener, too.

My health always deteriorates due to the weather and the workload. I don't get out much, and thus I don't work physically as I do in the summer...and I sit on my tookas a lot grading. The grading gives me knots in my stomach. I quit eating right. My circulation shuts down for sake of grading (I don't even understand this one). I sleep 4 hrs nightly these days. Whine, whine, whine.

I miss my students and they are not even gone yet. It's silly, but I know that this is history in the making, that this is the stuff some of them may remember years from now. I know that (at least for a few) I make a difference in their all-too-often miserable academic lives. Lots of them are fun and engaging. Almost all of them will move on, and I will be left here grading the next round. *big sigh*

Holidays are going, but I am grading. Parties, staff functions, etc. are practically daily, and I cannot attend them all, cannot afford them at all (time or money).

This is the time of year I most regret not working harder/more and thus earning more, for I have a generous spirit but tight purse strings. I can think of things, thoughtful gifts, that I would get for everyone...but it all costs money, too much money.

Nostalgia overload--from claymation Christmas cartoons to my favorite ornament, from It's a Wonderful Life to so many songs of the season...the taste of peanut brittle and fruit cake...the stories of Christmas' past. Altogether, there's more sentiment, memory and nostalgic glaze over this season than all the others put together, and sometimes, it's just too much for me.

Ahhhh, December!

December, when the wind whips the snow into drifts. The cold air nudges us indoors around fireplace and hearth, to cuddle with loved ones and drink hot cocoa. It is the season of giving, the images of Santa and Jesus and Valentines all throb with love.

Today, however, there's not an inkling of all of the above. It's in the high 50's and super nice outside. This is dangerous for me, for I need bone chilling cold that makes my very breath brittle, makes my nose bleed from frostbite. I need to hole up indoors and grade papers. Days like this are just too tempting. Every time one pops up, I think it may be the last for a long run, so I skip out and enjoy it. This is Kansas, after all.

How could I sit idle inside while the sun is so welcoming, the temperature so inviting...and the work so daunting indoors!

I will escape today, knowing I will only have to redouble my efforts the remaining 12 days to grades due. That's okay, so long as I can make the most of this moment, this weather, this day!

What rules my roost?

It just dawned on me recently that I have seldom had conventional living conditions. It seems there's some odd governing principle directing me to live in non-traditional settings...

Sure, as a kid, things were stable. I shared a room with my brother until we were teens, then we each had our own space. I lived in the same house throughout my entire childhood.

Then, when I went to college, I had roomies every year in a dorm. It worked out fine enough, and most of the folks I roomed with remained my roomie for more than a year. None of the former roomies is on my do-not-call list. (In fact, I should look them up!)

Late in college, when I moved off campus, it would have seemed a good time to get a conventional apartment. I did not. Instead, we shared the upper and lower levels of a nice duplex--took the door off that separated the two "housing units" and shared everything from bills to bagels. I continued the fine tradition of rooming with others up until the day I got married.

Then things seemed pretty standard, other than 3 moves in 4 years. We even had a year that was very conventional on our farm with our little growing family. Now we have incorporated multiple generations with my wife's parents (and sister) altogether with my 4 kids, my wife and myself. That's not very common in the USA today, but it is not really non-traditional.

In fact, I think it's more traditional than the insular, moving-off-on-our-own trend that is the status quo around here. It makes more sense economically. It works wonderfully for our kids to grow up in the close influence of their grandparents. We all help each other out with projects, chores, sometimes just swapping ideas in ways one could not if they did not share the same rooftop.

It can be trying for anyone, even man and wife, to share quarters. It would be a lie to deny that there are moments of tension. I can say, with all honesty, that I will always treasure these days we are sharing, that I know they are fleeting. I may take some of our time together for granted, writing it off to the work-a-day world, but I know that even mundane dinner conversation is much richer for the lives we share, the lies we swap, the tales we tell...and I would not have it any other way.

I hope that I don't rub anyone wrong too much around there. My metaphor is good, for as we rub each other wrong, we create sparks and heat...and that warm feeling? it's what we know as family!

Cardboard Furniture

I used to hang out with architects in college, and I had a passion for interior design ideas using found materials (recycling). The best of the best came out of a competition using cardboard. I toyed with cardboard some, but never have yet found the time to do much with it (but I do, of course, have ideas).

The best cardboard I've found yet is packing material around desks. Whenever a company gets new office furniture, I want to be there. The cardboard is about 1 inch thick and in a panel about 3ft x 6ft. If it could be indoors, I think it would be great building material. It's thick, durable, and best of all: FREE.

Blow me down!

Wind energy really does seem to have potential, especially here in Kansas (and ESPECIALLY where I'm from, SW Kansas!). Free energy just coursing by...and drawing on it has no bearing on it, so it is truly renewable.

I know the current way we generate energy from the wind is a bit less than well-received. Environmentalists worry about bird migration and bats suffocating and the general dominance of big wind farm turbines on the landscape. None of that is to be discounted.

Personally, I like the wind farms; they look like something from a sci-fi novel. That's probably why my dad liked the look of them too...that, and he was seeing dollar signs. Farmers get something like $2,000 per turbine on their land per year, at least that was the going rate 7 years ago.

Still, cool sci-fi looking turbines aside, I think we're not thinking this through well. I mean by the time you build, transport, assemble...then operate these giant things--c'mon. It's like putting a V8 on a skateboard. The generator housing atop these turbines is bigger than a full-sized passenger van! The blades are over 30 feet long!

I think that we need a better turbine, if we insist on wind-to-electric energy. Like the satellite dish, I think we need to go smaller. A thousand little propellers would be nicer to look at than 100 giant windmills. If you could wear a beanie with a propeller like this, and it could power your onboard electrically heated jacket in the winter, your iPod, smartphone, laptop, etc...that would be great!

The energy of ocean tides is harnessed, again convert it to electricity. Maybe all these Kansas wheat fields waving could likewise somehow be captured. All that back and forth has to generate static electricity. Maybe we can just run some kind of filament grid over a field and suck up some of that power?

Maybe we need to return to the original harnessing of wind energy and skip over electricity altogether. We could use windmills to turn:

• flour mills


• water pumps


• saw mills


• forges


• treadmills


• ceiling fans


• record turntables

...and doubtless, lots of other things.

I visited a bar that had belts and pulleys all over the ceiling operating the ceiling fans from one power source, an elaborate-looking Rube Goldberg affair that had me spellbound (and I wasn't drinking, either). I think it should be a staple in every home to have such a power transference mechanism like this to move the spinning of the windmill to the various speeds needed throughout a home. It would be cool.

Invention Tradition

Here's a mansion my brother and I built when we were kids. Back then, this was All-That and a bag of chips. It was before Legos got too carried away with specialty pieces, but you can see windows, flag pole, etc. that were pretty custom for the time (197o's). It was how we spent a lot of Saturday mornings, as I recall...

On Saturdays, my boys and I make up cool inventions. Here's a list of past ones:

• Pretty gun-makes anyone more attractive


• Kyle/Olivia cow invention--makes them into cows, makes cows for them


• Yes-in-ator--makes anyone more agreeable


• Robotic Toybox 3000--automatically picks up toys (not safe for children under 3)


• No helmet--reacts against yes-in-ator, generally negates everything


• Lightbulb that changes itself


• Duck shooter--great practice weapon with projected targets


• Costume maker--you think it up, it makes them all


• Auto-dog groomer--throw in the pooch and he comes out polished


• Age locker--stay eternally whatever age you are


• Time travel remote (like on Click)

It's a good exercise in creativity, and it's lots of fun. We discovered today that we have to start writing these down! (It was hard to even recall this list, and we've made up hundreds of things.)

Thanksgiving (buuuuuuuurp) Tradition(s)

Traditions....

We don't have many for Thanksgiving, except for pigging out. I think we should have more. My wife proposed a good one, spending the month of November writing down things to be thankful for and posting them on leaves (presumably fall colored paper leaves). That's a good start.

I think, perhaps, it might be a good time to remember the dead.

Of course I know we already have Memorial Day, Day of the Dead, All Saint's Day...but more personally for me, this holiday might be the only time to help my kids get to know my dearly departed dad. Their other papa. The dead one. (This picture, circa 1975, when he would have been 33 years old.)

It would be easy enough, for the next few years, to roll out an anecdote and related photos; for one thing, it would help me remember him and to record said memories. For another, unless I formalize this, I think he will evaporate to them, like so many mythological (and old cartoon) characters, dead pets, forgotten punchlines...

Juicy Job

What is the juice of my job?

It's not the paycheck! (image from Tack'0'rama)

When a student tells me:

....they'd never read a book before this one...they'd never read a poem and "got it" before...they'd never written anything so long as 1,000 words...they'd never been able to keep a diary/journal...they'd never enjoyed an English course...they'd never been forced to work so hard and end up happy for it...



When I have a moment:

...that students report they finally understood something hard...that I find a new/better way to deliver the goods...that an experimental classroom activity soars...that a parent encourages their kid to enroll in my class next term...that a student tells me he's encouraging his mom or dad to enroll in my class...when I realize I have had a family series of 4 siblings over the years all choose my class...when a colleague asks to sit in to see how things are happening...that I'm asked to help with a learning styles workshop at inservice...When I see grades at the end of the term that exceed my expectations, and I can rest easy knowing they truly are not inflated, that they really are earned by my "survivors..."



I guess, for me, it comes down to impact. I am sure that in the five years I taught English at the University I did fine, they learned some, it was all good...but that was 20 years ago and not a fair comparison to today. In fact, 10 years ago, when I was obsessed with work and myself, I was not the teacher I am today, and I did not enjoy my job as I do now. I did not always read over journals and class evaluations to notice incremental improvements in student work, behavior and (this is the biggie) a student's self-esteem.



That's just it. I went through it. They're going through it. I can help without getting all up in their business. I can empathize and do what I can to ensure learning takes place, even on the rocky shores of the life of a drop out, a third attempt, a busy single-mom-fighting-to-keep-custody-and-sanity. I really like hearing from my students years later, seeing how they have prospered, knowing (even in the very smallest of ways) I was involved. I helped that individual find a toe-hold of self-expression or self-esteem that was a (even tiny) factor in them becoming who they are.



Some students are not so needy, have a good head on their shoulders, know their future, just clock the time because they have to in order to go to (fill in the blank U). At the time they are in my class, they typically sigh a lot. Sometimes, in spite of themselves, they learn a little, too. Later, after they go on to the hallowed institution of their dreams, I often hear back from them, saying they wish I was there to teach them some advanced course in whatever. They appreciate the hands-on, down-n-dirty, applied, engaged, amused approach I take. I affected them and they realized it.



So the juice is impact, and that is a factor of learning, sure, but also a positive impact on their esteem. Whenever I take the time like this to realize what I am engaged in, in spite of the papers I whine about grading, I sometimes realize that this is a great occupation, one that's so great I am surprised I get paid for it! I should be paying the school for the privilege of teaching these fine people they call my students.

You are what you...

Intake?
I had an interesting discussion with a peer the other day who introduced what she said was an Asian theological belief/practice that essentially claims: don't take it in if it's forbidden. (I am not doing it justice, so I will elaborate.)

That is to say, as per her interpretation, if it's not good for you, ie forbidden (by you, not by some rule or legislation), then don't watch it. This was part of a discussion of extremely disturbing films (like the Saw series and that Nicholas Cage snuff porn movie). The same would hold true of bad music, the kind that chants or raps things you would never engage in but nonetheless absorb through music, perhaps.

The thinking is that whatever you are exposed to becomes part of you. Somewhere in your subconscious mind you are unable to discern truth from image, reality from (even the most loose interpretation of) art. Even if you do know it's not actually been said/done, it's a level of depravity and sinister glup you don't want in your head.

Hmmm...I don't know what to think about that.

The conversation went on to uphold the lifestyle and media of the pre-industrial revolution era. Then, of course, it was more work to intake anything artistic. One had to read, and at night, by candlelight. One had no radio, television, movie theatre, Internet... If you wanted bawdy, you had to travel to the red light district or a circus, I suppose. If you wanted violence, you had to pick it yourself or watch a barroom brawl. People were assumed to be, in general populations, more pure of mind and heart. One rationale for that assumption was: lack of exposure.

If this maxim is truth, then my kids are doomed. They have, in their young years, seen more violence and stupidity than I have in a life 7x as long as theirs. If it is truth, then I must be spoiled in all manner of writing, due to the poor writing I've graded over 20 years. I must not really know beautiful scenery since I spent too much time in western Kansas. (I know, I'm kidding. I'm stretching this exposure = evil thing too far.)

Regardless, it is an engaging thought. Are we so simple, underneath it all, that we really do not discern at some level? Does that make us numb to wrong, to pain, to the despicable things we've witnessed in movies and art? I hope to revisit this again some time and continue the thought process.

Greendale Community College

Check out this link to THE community college, Greendale Community College, where, "You're already accepted."

Dan Harmon is the man behind the great NBC series, Community. In the video above, he's hamming it up (as the college president) promoting Greendale, the setting for the series. Watching these promotional videos of the 5 "A's" really cracks me up, for these little clips are so much like promotional stuff I've seen for real colleges, even some I've worked for!

Even though the clips are satirical, they do still have a charm about them that makes me happy I'm working at this level. I really like community college instruction, the atmosphere, the student body. The emphasis is on students and teaching, not research or being all high and mighty. I know there's a lot of ribbing about Juco's being pud, but I can deal with it. Underneath it all, I like it here for I can measure the impact I might be having. At 4yr schools, it seems ever-so-much-more like a paper mill, for students are herded through with even less regard to them being engaged, learning anything.

I'll have to write more on this, sometime when I have time. The downside of working at this level is the LOAD, for I'm teaching more than twice what my peers at the 4yr do. Alas.

For now, I'll just confess that though I do not like TV, do not like sitcoms, and thought I'd be offended by a spoof of the community college--I really like this little show! I'll write a full review of it, sometime after I've watched more of it.

I am a family man.

"Family Man" from Trevor Little on Vimeo.

Song by Andrew Peterson
Video produced by Canyon Ridge Christian Church

What the future holds...

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I can refer one to this and this for perspective. Everything is changing, rapidly. It amazes me that I can still find people who knew life before cars were commonplace. Imagine the changes in one lifetime, from no radio to the Internet, wireless! I, for one, really like central heat and air. I depend on my electricity 24/7. Though I hate trips to the dentist, I much-appreciate his latest technological advances that (presumably) reduce my pain as he toils away.

All that said, I have learned to question anything that seems to promise too much. If we work under the assumption that technology is good for us, that progress is paradise, then maybe we should be putting more of our resources and attention into progressing. If it's true that we have such a bright future, why waste time watching movies and football--billion dollar investments, let alone the actual time invested--and put all our chips on microchips? Let's get with the advancing, already!

Alan Lightman, professor of science and writing, and a senior lecturer in physics, at MIT, also the author of Einstein's Dreams and Good Benito noted ( in an article published over ten years ago. ) this:
"1939 World's Fair, in New York, one could read the following in the promotional literature of the futuristic General Motors exhibit: 'Since the beginning of civilization, transportation and communication have been keys to Man's progress, his prosperity, his happiness.'

He notes that in that one phrase we mixed up just what happiness was to be--and what a prediction that has been! The problem is, are we buying into hype? Are we creating our new version of happiness on this premise that it is bound to progress, and that progress is interpreted as technological advance?

This leads us, sometimes, to have a knee jerk reaction to new technology. As it rolls out, we tend to immediately adopt it. (About the only arena this is retarded by caution is in medical advances, and think of the grousing and complaining about how slowly we release new pharma-wonders!)

"New" is the new "sexy."
Some of this is our culture's sheer consumerism, the insatiable appetite to buy. "I want it all, and I want it now." That is fueled by advertising. It's all fueled by greed. Now I'm ranting again.

The point is, where will all this go?
I've read enough and thought enough to imagine a future where thinking things makes them happen...that is, instead of twiddling our fingers on keyboards to make symbols appear, it would be much more smooth (and not far from possible, even now) to think words into being, to communicate by thinking it out. I am not even yet talking about telepathy. A wetware interface, a bio-computer that lives on your desk or your person...or one that is part of your person...is not far away, and it will out-compute even the fastest Crays we have these-days.

Isn't that cool? A bio-digital gizmo that's low maintenance, that needs no external power, that's as portable as you are because it is incorporated into your corporeal being! Blazing fast! Unlimited storage? We got it coming. We've already been engineering ways to store data on DNA components.

I can see technology sweeping past the written word very soon. Even today, kids use txt msgs to eclipse traditional spelling and communication standards we adopted at the advent of the printing press. Is that a bad thing? Spare yourself the tedium of writing it down, the embarrasment of wording or spelling it incorrectly.

I would venture that sometimes speed and ease are not our allies. Sometimes, at least I have found this to be true, it is fruitful to toil. It is worth it to invest twelve hours in the reading of a novel rather than two in watching an interpretation of it blow by on screen. Sometimes it means more to share a letter with someone (okay, even an email) instead of a voicemail or a qk txt. A real relationship with a warm hug has some potency that no friending on Facebook ever will.

I wonder if we will reach a peak and then react. I wonder if there will be a day in which we bail out of all this wonderment of technology. Like so many doomsayers, I wonder, too, if we will come to this point before the technology has the better of us, as in dystopias like Matrix, Surrogates, Wall-E, 9...

Doorbuster

Black Friday every Friday to Christmas--so the advertisement reads. Decorations for Christmas were rolled out in the big box stores in early SEPTEMBER and now abound in even the botiques. The hype around the holidays is out of control.

Doorbuster Sale
This weekend only!

Counting down the seconds
Anxious for
the ball to drop,
the shoe to drop.

Sprinkling coins in the temple
In the frontal lobe.
Lobbed into memory:
"Foist the sales"

Eagerly anticipating
Earnestly needing

Well up
Thunderhead
Sprinkling,

raining
down on me
drops
hail
hell.

Sales.

Parenting Pain

Yesterday, my son read his birthday card aloud.

Soon, he'll be making money, then he won't need me any more for anything. That's how it feels anyway. I cannot imagine what it feels like when your kid comes right out and says such things (but I'll prolly hear them, eventually.)

It's one thing to own something out-moded, or to feel out of fashion or to be simply a bit rusty on something. It's another to be of no use.

I remember a similar chilling observation when my eldest son began verbalizing his thoughts. He was coming into his own. He was a free thinker, not some meat puppet kid I could manipulate. He had some unique ideas all his own that I was astonished by. I do not know how something so simple as autonomy was so surprising to me. Maybe because I realized, at least in ways, I was the Creator of this autonomous being, and the beastie was coming to possess his own thoughts.

Now the boy is becoming a reader, soon to select his own reading interests--last night he wanted to read from the dictionary together, he is so hungry for knowledge and vocabulary. This is both impressive and enjoyable. For one thing, he likes to process each word he can read, then discuss it, associate it with what he knows, ask for examples--generally let it roll around in his mouth a while. That's so cool! I am also thrilled, for he chooses the dictionary of his own volition. I did not even tell him about it until he sounded out the word on the spine and asked me what a dictionary was. We have a common interest, like some dads have fishing or NASCAR, only ours is wordsmithing. Finally, he asks me to do this with him, to find our way through the dark and into the light of the Word, together. I consider this a high honor.

This entire discussion reminds me of a great poem (one of many struck from our Lit book), Gjertrud Schnackenberg's "Supernatural Love." Check it out, for it resonates with thoughts on vocabulary building, parenting, and God's love.

I just want to celebrate!

...another day of living
I just want to celebrate
...another day of liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifffffffffffffffffffe!

--from the song "I just want to celebrate" by Rare Earth

(listen to snippet at Amazon, buy it)

37 days until grades are due! That means I'll be free for almost a month. Too bad that's the coldest season and the longest stretch between paychecks, but I'm not complaining.

It's going to be 70 degrees today, and that's something to celebrate in itself. I love nice weather, especially when I can do something outside with the boys. (I did a to-do list recently, and whew! do I have things to do outside!)

My son turns 7 and we celebrate that this weekend. Woot Woot! He's growing into quite the little man. I can't say enough positive things about my boys with getting all sticky-sweet here.

1860 - Abraham Lincoln was elected to be the sixteenth president of the United States.

1861 - Jefferson Davis was elected as the first and last president of the Confederacy in the US.

1990 - Arsenio Hall gets a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame


According to this site, November is:
National American Indian Heritage Month
Adoption Month
Good Nutrition Month
Peanut Butter Lover's Month
International Drum Month
National Alzheimer's Month
National Sleep Comfort Month
International Creative Child & Adult Month
Aviation History Month
Georgia Pecan Month
National Epilepsy Awareness Month
Real Jewelry Month
National Fragrance Month
Native American Heritage Month
International Impotence Education Month
Diabetes Awareness Month
Alzheimer's Disease Month
Drum Month
Epilepsy Awareness Month
Flu Awareness Month
Home Care Month
Marrow Awareness Month
Peanut Butter Lovers' Month
Sleep Comfort Month
Vegan Awareness Month
Child Safety and Protection Month

Discarding the Stuff that Dreams are made of...

Goodbye stuff.
I just listed you on Craig'sList, FreeCycle, Hand-to-Hand...and soon they will descend upon you and pick you clean. By the time I get home, there will be nothing but a slab where you once huddled and prayed that last prayer, "Remember me!"

I won't forget you, picnic baskets that once held my creative writing in my little office in Ark City, you who were my sacred keeper of my current Works that no one else has ever read. You who served as end tables when I was in my wicker fad. You, who despite your frailties, worked hard during several moves, holding odds and ends swept from counter tops.

And you, dear old fake tree--how I marveled at finding you, at buying you back when at Hobby Lobby on clearance! How you adorned office and home for the better part of ten years. You who most lately have been festooned with Christmas lights, and who now waits some future owner to dust you off, light you up, right your trunk and basket with a little sand. How I will long for you when I see you standing so stoic in the background of so very many pictures, always there, ever-silent, ever watchful.

Alas, my long-time friend, my wife's body pillow, who offered her so much comfort when she was first pregnant. You, the quiet, almost life-size napping buddy of mine, now curled up in the pile and hoping for a new home. You who once served my beagle, when he would steal away and rest on you, hoping we would not see. I will miss your comforts, and I hope you find a loving home.

And you, dear old computer monitor--we shared thousands of hours of eye contact. You let me peer into the endless reaches of the Internet. You offered me relief when I tired of grading online papers by distracting me with zeFrank and Bored.com. I remember when you were young and fully-functional, how proud we were of you, how sexy you were, a black monitor! You offered the promise of a new life for us, a potential new career field of digital scrapbooking. You were our first best friend-computer, and we will be bff's always, even as you are hauled away as "junk."

Toys! Ohhhhh that you must be discarded is a pox upon all parents. How crass, how cold, how heartless we who damn you to be melted down or to spend eternity in a landfill, void of the playful attention of children, only to be pecked at by birds and cockroaches. I remember so many of you, and more--my kids will remember you. They will itemize their losses, and even if they do not vocalize it, they will harbor some hatred toward me for giving you away. It should not matter that you are old, so am I. It should be inconsequential that you are not in the best of shape, tattered around the edges--I am, too. What matter, that you are not all there--the same is said of me, regularly. You, dearest toys, are truly the matter of memories, the essence of joys innumerable, and you are now relegated at best to a less creative child who did not get you on Christmas morning or warm in their happy meal. You will, perhaps, be sentenced to the island of misfit toys. You could end up in the hands of an evil child like Sid. How could we do this to you, when you were perfectly content to wait, gathering dust, until my boys rediscovered you again, and then in some years, again. Some day, you might have been handed down to the children of my children, but no--you are being thrown to the curb.

Goodbye, my stuff. You have been sacrificed for Space.
Forgive me.

Cheap, cheap!

Someone told me I should do a seminar or write a book on how I get stuff so cheap. There's really no big trick to it, usually it's just being in the right place at the right time, being observant. I've had great luck with about every purchase, except vehicles. (Someday, I hope to find that gem of a car for fifty bucks!)

Meanwhile, my latest score was a unit (96 pieces, I learned) of deck wood which I purchased at 1/4 the retail value. It's brand new, super nice, and now waiting for me to get building! Source? Good o'l Craig's List. Unfortunately, though the deck is now no longer in financial limbo, it's in a waiting list behind other building projects I have backed up.

I'm bidding on a barn that someone needs torn down. If I net that, then I'll have the chance to recreate a 100 year old barn on my property, for virtually nothing! That would be a true marvel. (Wait until my family finds out about this one!)

I have reported here many times how much I gain from garage sales, too. I don't know if I will ever break this addiction to bargains. I would like this enthusiasm for the inexpensive to well up and overflow into the rest of my life (and more importantly, my entire household). Getting things on impulse is expensive; getting things by poking around is rewarding!

In the Wake

I've long been processing something I read/rumored about regeneration. A post on Snopes.com launched a great discussion of this, at length (snippets far below, food for thought). A good, thought-provoking take on Chopra's thinking spawned a good deal of thinking on my part, over the years.

Here's the skinny: since our cells regenerate, we are in some senses "new people" every few years as those old cells that make us up die and new ones take on their roles. That's just animal science. Of course, we are made up of more than the parts of our wholeness, but in the wake of my Uncle's departure, I find it somewhat comforting.

As I try to shake off the slime of mortuary science that jades my every funeral experience, I grapple here for something more positive.

What are we, really, but interactions, thoughts and memories we contain and make? "The Mark of a Man," yesterday's preacher's 'words of wisdom' have some bearing on this discussion. This suggests, of course, that we need to be engaged. We need to be out there making memories for ourselves and others, perhaps to even exist? I suppose one could be whole and not be anything to anyone but themselves. They would then contain a great number of memories. However, when they die, they are gone, by that reasoning. Only s/he who also makes memories for others lives after themselves among others.

Likewise, we are an assembly of convenient atoms. Yes, atomically we are reconfiguring all the time and composed of everyone and everything, but more than likely, if I don't travel much/far, then I am a rather homogeneous being compared to a world traveler. Take it down to something more easy to grasp: when you drive by a feedlot and smell that effluvia, you are literally engaged with particles of poo, these connecting with sensory receptors in your nose. However, if I never smell curry, or the sweat of an old woman sitting alongside the Nile, the flower of the rain forest, etc...then I am less a person than I could be, were I travelling far and wide.

There, I feel both better and worse now.



Snips from Snopes....
A lot of this talk goes back to an ancient logical conundrum that bedevils the concept of "identity." Imagine you have a wooden ship, the traditional paradox goes, and as you make your travels planks and ropes and such slowly wear out. As each small component becomes unfit it is replaced. Eventually, no original material remains, yet the ship has been in continuous use. Is it still the same ship?And to make things even more complicated, imagine someone has been following behind and collecting all the old pieces, eventually hammering them into a (supposedly terrible-looking) complete vessel. Is this then the original ship?

Hai!! Deepak Chopra has to be the biggest claptrap that has ever happenned to eastern religions. His theories are to Hinduism and Buddhism what ID is to Christianity. He tries to provide a scientific basis to things that are meant to be read as metaphors. He takes the spirituality, and wraps it in scientific sounding jargon interlaced with "facts" to make it sound authorativeIn this case, the "fact" is used to "prove" the Buddhist belief that the self is an illusion (which is derived from the Hindu belief that the world is an illusion). This concept is used to rationalize that attachment to self (or wordly objects) leads to sufferring, and true happiness/salvation/nirvana comes when you let go of attachment to things. How often your body regenerates itself, or whether parts of it does/does not regenerate is not important. The science behind it is not important. What is more important is the realization that your body isn't "you". Even if you could prove to me that my my neurons/teeth/that spot behind my ear that I never wash is never fully replaced, you haven't negated any of the Hindu/Buddhist philosophy.