Month: November 2013

The stuff that passes for news these days is problematic. I struggle to understand how a 24 hr news cycle can be filled with nothing meaningful and then, in the sudden face of tragedy (or, rarely, excitement), be filled with nothing but that specific event. I understand tragedy on a personal level. That means that I don’t feel every news channel needs to be filled with my ‘money shots of sadness’.

Because so much of what I put down here is based on what I see and hear and do, Its been hard developing topics now that I’ve largely abandoned the news. So, I turned it on the other day. I checked out a show (New Day on CNN) and a few websites. That led me to some thoughts:

1. The Knockout Game, as told by the CNN anchor is a terrible and fairly typical criminal situation. Kids have been jumping random people long before America was a colony. The difference here is the prevalence of social media-specifically through sights like Youtube and What I noticed above all else is the coverage is
2. Sometimes you find yourself in situations where you are a completely different type of person than everyone else around you. This rarely bothers me, but once in a while I feel so startlingly out of place that I shut up and just observe the situation with an abundance of curiosity. When it happened this last time I recognized that my life experience and approach to life and how I feel things need to happen is different than the majority of people I encounter in AZ. I’m irreverant. I don’t take things too seriously. It seems immature to some, but maturity seems immature to me most times. Maturity means exhibiting a set of behaviors prescribed by a long dead social leadership sect and continued by all of us in an effort to be accepted by leadership and the majority. That is useless to me. I want to reach through the skin of people and see who they are beyond that veil and interact with them on a real (non-formal) level. Perhaps I ask for too much. It does occur to me that in order to be taken seriously in most settings you must appear to be a very proper and serious person–that or an erratic genius.
3. A recent poll I found on a site (and then lost) indicated that somewhere around 40% of polled parents were against contact football up until the high school years. The effect of this could be a reduction in people cultured to handle the rigor of football contact and thus more injuries at the high school level. I also think it contributes to a general softening of America and Americans. This at the same time we are getting heavily into MMA and such…odd that.

The Storymatic spit out something quite compelling which I’ll need to address at a later date. My brain doesn’t have the juice to put out that level of thought. I can reflect on what’s been though. The last few weeks of a semester are exceedingly difficult. Students often don’t recognize the danger they are in until its too late. Think of the fable of the frog in hot water (still don’t know if that is true) and you’ll understand what I mean about freshmen and failing grades.

I’m needing to do a fair deal of damage control at this point, as well as reconsidering how I manage grades throughout a semester. On an interesting side note, I’m going to be replacing my DVR, which has me swallowing hours and hours of recorded footage before it is all deleted. I finally have a dedicated understanding of the Sleepy Hollow show. I’m not certain I like it all that much yet. I do like the fact that black female leads are becoming more prevalent in prime time. On the one hand it could mean that being a black female is hot again. On the other hand it could symbolize a reemergence of a certain style of black feminine beauty–which is a bad thing. Short of NCIS: Los Angeles, everybody is putting forward that Sanaa Lathan look.

I’m rambling again. Good thing my time is up.

I bought a fighting game and a philosophy movie broke out.

When I picked up Arkham Origins a few weeks back I did so with the understanding that the game would deal with a younger Batman. I presumed it would be in the same story vein of the latest Batman cartoon. It isn’t. Arkham Origins deals with some serious issues starting with identity. I don’t need to give too much away to tell you that the game is all about how Batman processes his identity and other build their identity around this path he’s taken. That path becomes the defining element for a number of key characters who decide in later games whether they want to follow the Bat way or the Joker way.

I haven’t finished the game, so I am no shape to deliver a solid review. I can tell you that the game makes me think in a meaningful way about interpersonal connections. The game reminded me that we often define and dedicate ourselves to something outside of ourselves. We join religions and teams and relationships in an effort to unlock the secrets of who we are. This game shows that in such a vivid way that even the games younger audience will understand why these things happen as well as what drives the relationships between the series’ key characters.

The hardest part of teaching happens to be the very part I wake up each day for. I can remember being that cocky college kid, full of ego and certainty and ready to accept the challenge of any teacher who dared put one forth. Sadly none did until I clawed my way into 300 level classes. Before that was boredom, ignorance, and uncertainty. I hated going to class because all the professors ever went on about was their research and the stuff that mattered deeply to them. Once in a while their interests and my own dovetailed, but this was not the way things normally went. Here is how it normally went:

Teacher: I want you to write a paper about A violation of your civil liberties.

Talislegger: Your paper, madam, is a violation of my civil liberties. Can I do something with Dragons?

Teacher: Get out.

This scenario repeated itself for years. I wondered why nobody bothered to ask me what was worth writing and researching about. When they finally did, I was chock full of nothing to talk about, because I’d never been given the tools, training, nor preparation to become part of the conversation. I believe the role of the student at every level of learning is to become part of the academic conversation. The higher your level of course (or discourse), the more I would expect you to contribute to the conversation. I actually ask my kids why 1 + 1 has to equal 2. They answer in a basic but informative fashion, contributing little to the philosophy of math but happy still that they contributed at all. This is how it should be.

This is how it will be in the spring when I return to teaching the research essay. I’m a sucker for Dev Ed, so I choose to spend my time hanging out in the middle of that pool. Every now and again I surface and pretend to be a composition and rhetoric scholar. The truth is, I’m just a plain ol’ writer, and maybe a bit of a sucker for a good tale at that. When I teach the research course I tend to theme it around student research. I actually start the class by being one of those teachers I hate. I pick a generalized topic to use as a point of entry to the student driven experience. It isn’t totally hypocritical though. I try to gauge student interest before I dive on into planning the next semester. This coming Spring I’ll set it off with a pair of rousing research challenges centered around cord-cutting (the act of removing oneself from the financial burden of cable TV in order to get everything online) and The Shining.

The topics–though specific, are actually lenses into the DIY and film research and analysis segments. The students will have a chance to pick their own DIY/escape from the grid topics as well as choose a film (possibly of the Kubrick or the Horror w/ a meaning and a message vein) in order to do a closer research analysis on. The goal here is to show them how powerful research can be both on the ground level–researching things that can effect your life financially–and the air level–researching things that can effect your life philosophically.

This two pronged attack is meant to propel them into individual and small group research projects that will lead them through a semester of contextualized problem-based learning. Best of all, it doesn’t suck.

Some Thoughts:

1. Warm wishes go out to my friend Tracey. She recently lost someone very important to her. It is a hard thing to face the fragility of life. I won’t say this too shall pass, because it wont. Instead I hope the loss becomes a part of you; that you carry the memory of love like a birthmark. Such things should never be forgotten or ignored.

A friend and colleague lent me a very interesting creative tool called the Storymatic. It is a story prompt generator designed to infuse creativity into your writing process in the moments when it becomes stale or even stalled. What you do is draw a series of cards that pertain to the main character or the conflict. From there you can produce your original fiction. I gratefully accepted the tool and promised to use it to generate this evening’s ten minutes of writing. Here it goes:

Character Cards: Subject of a medical experiment, Person who never gives up
Story Cards: Glasses, Aquarium

There isn’t much left now. The glasses tell me I have less than an hour before sleep takes me. The Prolponiaquin pushing through my veins burns feels heavy as egg nog and I know that I need to get to the scientists before they get to me. The glasses tell me to go to the Aquarium. I don’t know if its the water it wants or something else entirely. It took a long time for me to understand what was happening. I thought I was insane. The strength and agility results were way above what I was capable of before the exams, and increasing exponentially. Two months after the tests began my sight started to fail me. It was the opposite of what they expected. The other tests were showing results ahead of the curve of other participants, but I was the first to show any side effects. What use is a soldier woh can’t see?

They didn’t even pay for the glasses. They processed me out with 100% disability, set me up with a sweet severance package, and wished me the best for with my condition. See, they thought the strength and agility would leave me once I was off the injections; hell, so did I. Only, nothing went away–nothing but my eyesight. I bought glasses on a lark. By then I couldn’t see but two feet in front of my face. I couldn’t drive or walk too fast. The folks at Walmart asked for my prescription, but I hadn’t seen a doctor about any of this. I started trying on glasses, just hoping one of the standard pairs might make a difference. One did. Then it did more…

 

I don’t want to jinx it. Every time I write the G-men in as winners it ends up an L. While it is really egotistical to assume any statement I make has an effect on the outcome of a football game, I still hold on to superstition like a kid to stuffed bear. That being said, I won’t lie to you either. See, I believe the G-Men are going to win this one, especially facing a 3rd string QB with a former backup and a fullback as his 2 and 3.

Yeah, we got this.

The rest of the NFL is mystery to me. Once upon a week the Rams, Bucs, and Jags knew their place, but this past week all three won and made the greater fool out of a lot of top pickers. This week I hope they realize they’ve flown too close to the sun and fall back to the reality of the NFL basement. My picks mostly reflect that promise:

INDY over TEN
Despite the drubbing by St Louis, I still believe the Colts are a playoff caliber team. They’ll need to prove it this week in a bounce back game. I’m counting on their defense to bone up.

NYJ over BUF
These Jets win every other week. They didn’t win last week (bye week), so they’re due.

CHI over BAL
The Ravens flat out suck. It is a result of the new offensive schema and old offensive line.

CLE over CIN
HOU over OAK
AZ over JAC

WAS over PHI
IMHO, Nick Foles is not the real deal. In the face of an aggressive D, he will cave and make very bad choices.

TB over ATL
SD over MIA
NO over SF
NYG over GB
MIN over SEA
DEN over KC
CAR over NE

 

An eighth grade education is enough to get you through the majority of written and visual media. What we see and hear is geared towards an educated mass that realized that major basic education never survived the High School years. This is a purposeful manipulation geared towards addressing the largest segment of the population. We aim to please the masses, not just with Walmart, but with the other well placed distractions put before us. I believe that beneath much of the media we consume there are a series of subliminal messages geared towards teaching us the lessons we didn’t learn in school; the lessons that the creators–be they from the journalistic or entertainment realm–want us to learn.

Lets be clear: most of what is put forward as media is controlled by the power elite. These collectives make their money exactly like street drug dealers–they offer you a drug, which makes you feel good enough to come back for more and more. However, the drug might be cut with some real deep knowledge, should you be Einstein-slick enough to figure it out.

I first encountered the cavalcade of deeper meaning when I started watching Kubrick. 2001 is layered so thick with meaning that cracking through to the core can make someone’s career. However, not everyone is as subtle and layered as Kubrick and not everyone is taking this subliminal meaning to the positive side of the spectrum. When a Subway commercial quietly displays clips of Katniss Everdeen and reminds you that being bold could mean going to Subway and buying their food, they are manipulating you.

The key is to be smart enough to know it is happening.

So here’s the thing: I missed the waiver wire, but it doesn’t mean that I didn’t want to write about football. If anything, I’m a bit superstitious about saying anything in the midst of a Giants winning streak. I’m hoping against hope for a 9-7 finish and a playoff birth that carries my team into the Superbowl–even more spectacularly–against the New York Jets. Both options seem long shots but possible in the scope of this crazy season. This is more than just the talk of a crazy overzealous fan. The jets are over .500 and already beat the Pats. The Giants have the weakest part of their schedule and several divisional games ahead of them. If both can come out on top of their divisions, the playoff road could be paved with injury-laden franchises.

The injury bug is the story of 2012-13 in a year where safety was supposed to be job #1. Instead of making the game safer, new rules threaten to maim players in their prime. If you cannot hit high, and cannot hit middle for fear of the player ducking and the head hit coming accidentally. Now the only way to be safe is to go for the legs, and the legs are what makes and breaks a career.

Despite the rule changes and uncertain franchises, I’m enjoying this season more than any since the G-men took it all. I like more things about more teams, so I watch a lot more football as a result. Say what you will about college football and how players supposedly play harder at that level, the level of parity in the NFL is higher now than it has been in a while. Sure, you have your Jaguars and your Bucs, but on any given Sunday any team can beat anyone else. Ask the Colts who were beat down to the tune of 38-8 this weekend by a Rams team starting their back up QB.

Football is always going to be a part of my life, and despite all the drama attached to it, football is a hell of a sport.

There is something ephemeral about vacations. You can lose yourself in vacations. You can become someone else. You can do things you would never do in your normal life, because in a few days it will be all over and you can go back to the monotony of your days.

Or, you can just be yourself.

You to be as close to the ideal form of yourself as possible, because you don’t have the responsibilities that keep you from being who you want to be and doing what you want to do. The best part about my ephemeral vacation: I got to walk miles and miles along the shore, taking the briefest of steps towards getting my health back. I did it because I had time to do it. I didn’t have the distractions of daily life; the responsibilities of a job. I had time to work on me. I left the experience wanting to work on me, but afraid I wouldn’t be able to find the balance to do that with everything else going on. However, it is high past time I recognized that tomorrow isn’t promised. I don’t know how many days I have left. I don’t know how long it will take to get right. I know that every day I devote to bettering myself both physically and mentally is another day I add to my life expectancy. On the other hand, every day I allow myself to rot is another day closer to rotting forever.

Morbid thoughts aren’t always the best motivators, but they are reminders of the beauty that is life and the way you want to live and the person you want to be. So, do you have what it takes to get there? Bet I do.