Author: admin

This is going to be a rant….

For the first time ever I have reached a major disagreement with my wifey. We fall on different sides of an issue with our eldest child. According to the Doc, the boy is borderline for Attention Disorder and does not have hyperactivity disorder. Nonetheless she wants to try him out on medication to see if it helps his condition. What condition? I mean, ADHD is pretty well known and common and if the boy is negative for one half and positive for the other half, he might be suffering from something else–like dyslexia, which is known to mimic the symptoms of ADHD.

Our doc told my wife the nursing student that meds are what is best for our boy. She didn’t  offer any other suggestions but for a sample regimen of meds which would allow us to see how the meds affected his behaviors. Yet this offers no real solution to the learning problem, which is what got us to the doc in the first place. The fact is the boy cannot read. When asked about his troubles reading he expresses symptoms identical to that of dyslexia. But the doc says it will take the school up to six months to test him (note, she doesn’t even know what school the kid goes to. She isn’t familiar with Maricopa schools) and in the meanwhile we should do the drug option.

No. That is where we disagree. My wife buys the tale that we would be doing him a favor by, well, sedating him with this medication. She spends a lot of time in hospitals and even children’s units, so she knows what a benefit it is to everyone around them and even the child if they could just fit in. However, my kid DOES fit in. He is an Honor Roll student and has been since he came to school in Maricopa. His behavior, while loud and boisterous at times, is manageable and does not severely effect his grades or schoolwork. In fact, his academic effort is near the top of the class.

So, why drug him? Why indeed. I am standing on the tracks in front of the drug train, and I wont get off. I let it go when they put him on allergy medication for life, but I am really tired of drugs being a doctor’s answer to everything under the sun. I am interested in a second opinion, but it is the opinion of most doctors I encounter that drugs are the answer to everything. At what point did they stop being healers and start being licensed pushers?

So the wifey is angrily dealing with my unwillingness to give him drugs except for as a last resort. She says we cannot wait, but I say that there is no ticking bomb. There is nothing so wrong with his behavior now that he is unmanageable. If anything, he has gotten better at being attentive and being settled. He just hasn’t gotten any better at reading.

It is a week of reflections for me. The first is that I am still nowhere near where I need to be in football. I played as badly as the Giants did today, and though my team won the game (all but one so far!), I have played very poorly every week but the first I was there. This tells me my game is very very far from being back. The lateral movement is an issue as is the field awareness. I am having a rough time tracking the ball in the air. This, something that used to be instinctual, is now my my greatest challenge.

I cannot train for something like ball tracking alone. If I can, I haven’t figured out how to do so. Some of it is math. With next week being the Vegas trip, I have two weeks to figure out my timing on breaks to the ball. I need to work on keeping my feet moving and being aware of how far I can move in the time it takes for the ball to reach the receiver. It starts with tracking that first throw. You need to count the seconds from release to reception and know your distance to the receiver. Once you know that, you know exactly how far off you can play at range to target. This is the path to interceptions.

The path to catching the ball is running good routes and tracking the ball in the air. My problem has been running disciplined routes and following through. I need to be clear with the QB on what I am doing and get very open. I’m getting open deep, but these guys haven’t even taken a shot to me downfield.

I am not close. I am maybe a month or three away from having legitimate game. It will take time. I hope they put up with me that long.

It occurs to me that sometimes intimacy within a marriage can be a chore. A friend told me that and it stuck in my mind like corn between the teeth. This is not, of course, how a marriage should operate, but it seems that most marriages I am familiar with operate in this fashion. Sex is something of a quick affair stuffed in between pick ups and practices, done  hastily before the teeth are brushed and the first child cries out at night. There remains little opportunity to luxuriate in any form of intimacy in a marriage frought with kids. This is why a good partner invests in an even better babysitter–preferably an unattractive one in order to allay fears and insecurities.

I’m enjoying this weekend more than usual. I slept in, i’m going to play football in the morning, and I know that I don’t need to show up to work on monday. I can let that work sit for another 12 hrs and not rush through it all on sunday. I can take the time to really enjoy my kids and play video games and watch movies like I don’t have a care in the world. It is amazing how much one extra day really matters.

I wandered back into the world of Mass Effect III multiplayer after months of being away from the game. I must say I am impressed at all of the upgrades. This multiplayer has gone from a rote exercise in killing the same CG baddies to a nightmarish landscape of shifting responsibilities and team dynamics.

All of the old stuff has been remade to increase the atmospheric quality. Sometimes you battle through the night and at other times doors shut, creating kill zones in places that once were hideouts. I am certain there is a pattern to some of these maps. There always is.  However, if the team continues to update and modify as they have, MS3 Multiplayer will survive a long time.

Part of the reason it will survive is the updated player reward system. Now you can see each player’s skills displayed on the meetup screen. Their points flash by and the graphic underlying the user’s slot indicates their latest or perhaps greatest conquest. I see players marked at N7 Elites, Defender’s, etc. I have no graphic. I have no special skill points to reflect how long I’ve played the game. See, everything is new now. It is also much much harder.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Storyforming my SR novel through the Dramatica software is helpful. It helped me add layers I did not think of. I’m not even done and I can already see how intricate and original the system has made this story.

My first-grader is skipping out on homework, and I am letting him do it. He developed a serious lazy streak. He rests on his intelligence and shrugs off the work that is needed to be successful. In other words, he is me.

This week his teacher challenged him with a large (20 pg) math packet and the completion of a book report. He completed half the math and completely skipped out on the book report. This is likely to lead to a failing grade in language arts and a major wake up call for a kid who just wants to get by.

I know he is young (5), and operating outside his range (1st/2nd grade class), but I believe he has the mental capacity to get through the grade. He is certainly smart enough, but he needs to mature into the learning level. This is still going to take some time.

 

0-8 is history. Welcome to the world of 1-8. I could end the season 5-8 with a outside shot at making the playoffs and then it is 0-0. I was powered by great performances from all my players, including some excellent play from Andrew Luck, a QB who I famously said was a bust waiting to happen. I think that 0-8 start was penance from the Football Gods. Here, on the eve of NFL week 10, I look to challenge Bristol greatness. Last week I went 11-3 with a couple of upsets to bust up my chance for a perfect 14. Still, 84-48 puts me ten behind Wickersham, eight behind Mortensen and still in striking distance of that championship. Will we see another strong week?

IND over JAC
No surprises here. Indy is rising behind strong offensive play and the heart of a coach who will not stop fighting–even when that fight is against cancer.

NYG over CIN
Road games are home games and vice versa.

TEN over MIA
Tough call, but the TEN running game is going to control the clock here.

MIN over DET
Something is amuck in DET. I cannot tell you why, but Megatron is not catching touchdowns. Madden Curse?

NE over BUF

NO over ATL
Yep, upset call of the week. I think NO knows how important this win is and in a home game, they are going to seal it late.

TB over SD

DEN over CAR

BAL over OAK

SEA over NYJ

PHI over DAL

SF over STL

CHI over HOU

PIT over KC

 

 

It is impossible to ignore the cresent of skin below the neckline broken by a line of cleavage. This is not a sexual affirmation, but an observation. For reasons I cannot understand, men–or just me–are compelled to look at a woman’s neckline. I try to stop. I often stare women in the eye to the point that it becomes obvious that I’m working hard to avoid looking down. I am not trying to be obnoxious or to sexualize people, I am merely responding to a strange unconscious urge to look at what is presented to me. I know this because it usually happens with women I am not even attracted to.

I think it is the flesh.

The persence of bare flesh presents a counterpoint to the clothing. I look at arms and legs the same as I do a neckline, but those glances are less noticable because they are more expected. It seems that the neckline and thusly cleavage, which some women work to make noticeable, is this odd test which women present in order to see just what kind of a person you are.

Does looking make you a bad person, a pervert, or even a deviant? Given the proclivity of designers to make low cut shirts, I feel the latter option cannot be true. It cannot be deviant to look when the majority of women’s wear is designed to goad you into doing so. I’m certain I sound like a pig for saying so, but indeed therein lies the trap.

I don’t think I am a bad person or even perverted. Maybe it is a sign that there is a good guy somewhere in me that I even choose to have this conversation. What I dislike most of all is that when my eyes do wander, it puts people on the defensive. I feel that I am making women uncomfortable with the notice of flesh, yet I don’t know how to not notice.

Some Thoughts:

1. The new season of The Walking Dead proves that no one is safe. There has been a quiet assumption that certain characters and concepts are basically off limits. In other words, some folks won’t be infected. However, that is not the case at all. Anyone can be killed. Even Rick.
2. The Giants lost another home game, this one in the 4th quarter. The loss was not terribly shocking, but it did come as a dissapointment to fans who hoped to step away from the sadness of Sandy by watching their team ‘do what it do’. I think the fans get that the G-men tried and that the Steelers don’t lay down for anyone.

I went through a period of time where I really let my guard down. I felt that I’d reached a point of organization and certainty where I could take it easy. Once that happened, I started to slip back into many of the old routines and things didn’t get done. Heck, I even missed a day of the blog. So, I think it may be a good idea to go back to the basics.

I scripted my week practically hour by hour in an attempt to see what I can do and what I must cut. If I allow the schedule to do its job I have a serious chance to put things right again with my time management.