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Today I lost my laptop. For the better part of the day I thought it was gone. I worried about my lost data, my unfinished novel that I felt was in the hands of some un-captured criminal. After hours of fretting, my mid-kid found the laptop. He isn’t clear on how it got to where it got, but he was able to locate it with relatively little trouble.

All that fretting for naught.

Afterwards I got to thinking about how valuable the things I carry really are. My laptop is a lifeline to the digital world, but it is also the sole repository of so many of my ideas. I’ve moved almost completely to the digital medium for storing my thoughts, and to lose the ‘top felt like a piece of me was shorn. I walked around like a zombie for most of the day, anxious about whether or not it could be found and nervous that it never would be.  In the end fortune smiled and granted me this small piece of tech.

Things are meaningful, but ideas are also extremely meaningful. Losing what I put to paper reminded me of the value of what I do and helped me to recognize the role it plays in my life. I need to write more and give more of myself to the words. The things that matter the most to you should be the things you do the most to preserve.

I’ve fallen into a bit of a routine. Come home from work, play with the kids, help the kids with homework, play a spot of Batman Origins, write for a bit (while hiding from aforementioned children), dinner,  clean up, play or watch tv with kids, prep kids for bed, watch tv by self, watch several hours of Breaking Bad with wife, write, sleep, repeat. Writing happens twice in that sandwich of events, but it doesn’t happen well. I’ve taken measures to maximize the time I have–namely making sure I can compact the work stuff into the work day–but I still have one last stage to go. I need to establish a solid writing hour during the time the kids and I are both home. This will ensure a healthy respect for the writing process as well as my personal space and time. It will also give me a time of day to write where I can assure myself the work product will be valuable.

Most authors will tell you to come to the page at the same time every day. I am that author, but I am also the guy with three boys, one wife, and no maid. Clearly there are parental and household responsibilities I am expected to keep pace with. The current routine doesn’t necessarily offer a lot of opportunity to do that, but I am ready to take that next leap and sacrifice some of the activities I really enjoy for the activity I truly love. Writing is a priority in my head but hasn’t always been a priority in my life. NanoWrimo is the perfect opportunity to make it so.

Some Thoughts:

I stumbled across a page about regrets on cracked.com. It heralded 20 things worth regretting, which led me to think about the things you should never regret. I disagree with a lot of what they have to say. I don’t think regret is a sensation (if you can call it that) I take much stock in. I believe in living life with utter and complete passion. I believe in making the best choices as well, so you don’t rush into anything without giving consequences and benefits the full thought they deserve. Perhaps that’s the real reason why people regret–because they half-assed the choice.

Live with passion and let it guide you to the best possible outcome. Regret is for suckers.

Some Thoughts:

1. My cat got trapped in the toy closet for what must’ve been hours. Here’s the weird part: We closed the door before we left at 3, came home by 5:30, but she didn’t mewl about it till 8:30. What were you doing in there? Sleeping?
2. Fantasy FB season is back on track with a win against the worst team in the league. I needed that win to end a 2 game skid that found me going from first place to 3rd. Now I gotta figure out a few things about the RB situation, because my main guy is terrible this season. Even so, my team is looking like a playoff squad but barely. The top teams are ringing in the points and I’m trying to hold on. We’ll see what kind of deals I can make to turn that around. After all, if you ain’t trading you ain’t trying.
3. I’ve come to realize that when you let people vote for things they don’t much care about, you get votes that are more reflective of feelings than real stuff. We had a vote for the rookie of the year trophy for the 4-5 team and the vote went to the girl who touched the ball about twice in a 7 game season and spent her on-field minutes playing tag with another girl as opposed to any actual soccer (both touches being completely accidental). The new players who worked hard at the game were snubbed in the voting and it had nothing to do with their talent. Annoying. My oldest kid called it on week one, and I didn’t believe him. Kid intuition is almost as god as women’s intuition it seems.

Some of the funniest moments of my childhood involve watching (and later mocking) those commercial where the parent sees his kid using drugs or doing some other foolishness and then the kid screams, “I learned it from watching you!”

Halloween in our era has very little to do with the original Samhain harvest festival. I celebrate Halloween less as a holiday than as a social event. Each year we gather the kids, stuff them into colorful costumes, and go door to door expecting candy. This year we took to the streets with friends, and the experience was different than what we’ve done in the past. It was a lot better. Not only were the house displays nicer, but the company and conversation meant that we adults could enjoy it on two levels. We were happy to enjoy our kids and happy to be in conversation.

The best part of the evening was a house in the middle of a block that took Halloween to the next level. They turned one portion of their front yard into a cemetery, while the other side of the front yard was a treasure trove guarded by all manner of fantasy monster. Much to the surprise, and often abject terror, of the kids, the monsters moved. They were wired to respond to vibrations, so when a kid got too close to the treasure, something leaped out at them. The cemetery was even more high tech. In the window behind rows of gravestones A ghost flew about. The ghost was a holographic film projection against the window that looked so real that my own kids were unwilling to get too close.

It turns out that house is pretty famous in Maricopa for their displays. The day after Thanksgiving they do a huge Xmas presentation that involves the Fire Department and a local cheer squad. I’m hoping to publish an article about that event in the Maricopan after it happens. In the meanwhile, that house helped us have a spooky Halloween.

Some Thoughts:

1. The next 30 or so days are NanoWrimo–the National Novel Writing Month. I’ll be participating this week as well as requiring my writing students to participate. This is a really great opportunity for them to be part of a larger writing community and get the benefits of that. Should be fun. The 10 Minute Rule will likely bear some of the brunt of this labor, and I expect to produce or reflect here as much as possible.
2. Wine is preferable to beer for most occasions. Beer, I find, is an enjoyable distraction  only when extremely cold.
3. Watching Blackfish with my cat was a really odd experience. My cat responded to every whale call. She doesn’t like whales all that much. Perhaps it feels like a meal that cannot ever be enjoyed.

When you become familiar with things it is easy to produce over and over again. I’ve become familiar with the Waiver Wednesday, so it is simple to churn out one of these bad boys, even when my mind is fatigued and devoid of ideas. So it is good fortune that this Wednesday’s 10 minute rule falls to football, for it requires no new neural pathways; no planning or forethought. Picking football is instinct, and my instincts are pretty good.

MIA over CIN
Going against the critics here, because I feel like Miami has a lot of opportunity at home. This is despite the fact that they lost a tackle and may have some dissension in the ranks. I think Miami can stop the run and force the pass. If they can minimize turnovers, I’m saying there’s a chance.

BUF over KC
AFC East week! I have little faith in the BUF offensive players, but I have heavy faith in the D to play hard and the O coaches to put together a strong gameplan.

MIN over DAL
The ‘Boys will have a hard time stopping Jared Allen this week, and an even tougher time keeping AP out of the endzone.

STL over TEN
STL home games are where the Rams do their dirty work. This game will be a close win for the home team.

NYJ over NO
My prediction presumes a defensive stand, and also respects the win every other week mentality of NY.

CAR over ATL
PHI over OAK
SEA over TB
BAL over CLE
NE over PIT
IND over HOU
GB over CHI

I’m really out of words this evening. I’ve sat here for the better part of ten minutes trying to figure some words to fill the blog, but I can’t reach into my creative center and draw out anything of worth. It seems then that I have finally run out of things to say.

Try again tomorrow.

I have a healthy respect for heights and hiking. Put the two together and you may find yourself in a rather gnarly situation. The North Kaibab trail into the Grand Canyon is considered one of the harder canyon trails. There are tons of switchbacks and narrow spots where someone with poor balance and or limited hiking skills could get in trouble. I spent the day with four other guys between 36 and 53 trying to navigate all the twists and turns of what turned out to be a breathtaking (in every possible use of the word) hike into the canyon.

I find myself nearly 8,000 feet above sea level and 30 minutes out from the rim of the Grand Canyon. It is a weekend trip with a handful of guys I’m fortunate enough to call friends. Tomorrow we plan to hike down into the Canyon and back up again–maybe 5 or 6 miles each way. It sounds like a little bit, but the  information I read says it is a bit more activity than i’ve done collectively over the past few weeks. This coming from a guy who said the other day that exercise was, basically, not gonna happen.

A good friend of mine put together this wonderful assignment on being an e-patient. The idea is that students should become informed about the medicine and treatments available to them should they fall ill. There is more to it than that, but the general gust is about becoming informed consumers in all aspects of your life. That assignment got her students thinking about cancer, and being a part of those conversations got me thinking about health and why we (read: me) are unhealthy people in the first place. I don’t feel like we are very proactive in our healthcare. I’m not talking about coverage, I’m talking about taking good care of ourselves. I suppose I am a culprit more than most, because I am blessed with a good metabolism and decent health, so I take advantage to eat like a pig and exercise not at all. I fear that if struck with some major malady, I would work like a beast to get healthy and fit. I fear that by that point it will be too late, yet I struggle everyday to convince myself to exercise and be healthy. Every day I lose that fight.

People don’t do optional, especially when optional means working harder. It is a matter of priorities. Would I rather spend 30 minutes a day working out or would I rather spend that time playing video games, reading a book, catching up on work, watching Breaking Bad, writing, or any number of enjoyable things I do. The gym makes it more of an obstacle when you calculate real vs. perceived time. Real time includes travel time, change time, and minor factors such as escape time (the time it takes to extract yourself from your home when you have kids who insist on going with you). So a half hour at the gym could mean an hour or more in real time.

This sounds like an excuse to be lazy but it is more of a rationalization of value. In a society predicated on immediacy, exercise is an irrational act–unless your life is at stake. Eating healthy–cooking food and the like–is equally irrational, given the number of expedient options both available and steadily reinforced through the mass media. It is more likely you will see 10 commercials about fast food options on any given channel (especially kid channels and food channels) than you will a commercial advertising the benefits and availability of healthy options such as salad. In short, we are programmed to be lazy junk food eaters. We are programmed to value such things before the healthier option and it is economically reinforced by the ease of financial access to unhealthy options vs. healthy options. An apple will cost me twice as much as a Twix bar. A monthly gym membership can be the cost of a single video game, and a full year membership will buy me a ps4 and an xbox one. Why then would I be inclined to make the leap to healthful living before I actually need to?

I spend hours each week thinking about this. I once sat for a full 5 minutes trying to decide if I wanted to do push-ups or not. Ultimately I didn’t do the push ups and instead ate some lemon cake. In the short term the cake was good, but my gut is bad, and my boys do find occasion to make fun of me when topless. Maybe that guilt will motivate me. Nothing else so far has.