Month: September 2014

Weeks ago I ranted about how my iphone 4 up and crapped the bed, dying and refusing to power on at all. Well this morning the sucker powered up on its on and reminded the world it still has juice. This is where things get complicated. My new phone, the 15 decided to walk that fine line of suck and no longer is willing to access the internet for any apps. I can still make phonecalls from the new phone and text but the internet only performs when it sees fit. So now there are two glitchy iphones instead of one. I can predict Apple’s solution: Get an iPhone 6. This is by design, I think. As much as I love Apple products I am noticing a decline in the quality of their devices as I am noticing an uptick in how quickly new devices arrive on market. I have no proof that corners are being cut or that the company is officially aiming for a larger market share, but these things seem probable… and problematic.

The beauty of Apple is its bourgeoisie approach. The price points allow the company to market products to a specific and wealthy clientele. The smaller market allowed for greater time on task and a focused purpose to the devices and their support. Now I see Apple everywhere, which points to a larger market and one that supports a more varied clientele. This exposes Apple to the quick turnover mentality of that ‘what else you got?’ audience. While it deepens the pockets it weakens the products, and overall I really don’t like it at all.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Jason Mraz covering Boys II Men. Yeah. That’s dope.

It might be easier to ignore the ‘way things are’ if it were just the Ray Rice/Adrian Peterson situation or if it were just ISIS and the slick video production that is turning the group into a media sensation. When I heard Randall Wallace talk about his feelings on the Scottish referendum I realized there was a larger issue in play here. It wasn’t so much his feelings on the vote that swayed me as his tacit admission that there is a huge following of his Braveheart film running through Scotland like a river of pent up rage. The film gave viewers an image to tie to their emotion. If it is true that 65% of people are visual learners, it must also be true then that the optics–the specific amount of information and circumstance they see greatly effects how they interpret the world.

As Americans we are trained to chase the flashy thing. Bigger is better and brighter is King. ISIS gets it. They produce high quality videos that will attract our attention if for no better reason to comment on how well done the video is. The Rice case turned ugly the moment we actually saw him punch his wife. We’d know about the abuse incident for quite some time up to that point, but the optics of the thing–actually seeing it–changed everything. Rice, who’d been suspended two games and was likely going to be moved to a 6 game punishment, was suspended forever. Officially the suspension is indefiite, but it is  unlikely that anyone will pick him up…

That brings us to Wallace. In his NPR interview he references to the Braveheart’s, which is a movement of people who see his film as a tipping point. It helps them remember the longstanding loss. Without Braveheart it seems like less of a movement and more of scattered group of people. Why is that? Optics.

I tweaked my morning ritual to include a few minutes of positive reinforcement. The original plan was to go to sleep an hour earlier than normal and wake 30 minutes earlier, providing me with 30 extra sleep minutes and 30 extra minutes of kid-free morning time in the exchange. The cost has been an hour of evening space where I lay on the couch watching the bad TV I DVR. This, like many other things in my daily life, has led to cause for reflection.

Tony Robbins speaks of success in terms of rituals and small steps meant to add up to a larger sense of planning, purpose, and determination. I am in day two of a process forged late Tuesday afternoon, yet I already can see the effects taking root. The problem—the fear—is that I will fail to stick to it and ultimately sink back into the ways of a near-do-well and not become the person I intend to be. Fear does have its purpose, but that purpose is not served well in this instance.

Full speed ahead.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. This morning I broke my fast at a Village Inn near my campus. I enjoy this particular spot because of the regulars. I suppose I myself am a regular, but not like the gentlemen I witnessed today. It was interesting to watch the 3 men sit and discuss the long years they’ve been coming to this place and lament the three friends who couldn’t make this particular meeting because they’d gone off to Normandy to revisit their past. It made me think about the role that places play in our lives. Often we have a favorite watering hole or a place where something epic happened in our lives and these places become a part of our routine or even seared into our memory as a place we ought to get back to and visit and remember and, in some cases, revere. I have such places twirling through my memory and understanding. Just yesterday I drove past the site where the Albertson’s stood—the place I went to nearly every day when I first moved to AZ. The geography of my life sprang from that faded mall. I remembered all the moments leading up to and away from my time living near there, and the memories warmed me.

Fantasy Football just got a whole lot more interesting.

With My first pick–on two teams–Adrian Peterson sidelined because of a 2012 child abuse accusation, my fantasy teams are at a distinct disadvantage. I’m mildly sickened by this, moreso in fact than I am by the so-called abuse inflicted on the child. In truth I’ve bee beaten worse in my life by my mom, and we’re not even from the south. An even deeper truth: I deserved it. Some kids like me are completely unwilling to respond to other forms of discipline. Like one student of mine said, “You put my nephew in timeout and the kid just goes to sleep. What punishment is that?” I recognize that this is controversial. I also recognize that this particular blog is supposed to be about football, so without further ado…

 

Atlanta OVER Tampa Bay
The fantasy situation here is sketchy at best. Last week the ATL QB was a poor play and this week he faces a defense capable of putting another L in his column. There is going to be a reliance on the running game, especially late in the game. I believe Stephen Jackson is going to get on track here.

Buffalo OVER San Diego
I’m a believer in the Bills right now. I think the running game is solid, and barring injuries, the D and O will continue to click. This San Diego team is awfully legit, but early evidence suggests that Buffalo can survive a shoot out if it comes to that–and it will. I don’t think Gates will have the day he had last week, but there is going to be a lot of scoring going on.

CIN over TEN
Cincinnati is a very tough team to beat and they have been for some time now. Andy Dalton, likely a system guy, does well at home and has a tendency to have big games against defenses with weak safeties. Guess what?

BAL over CLE
In an earlier post I mentioned how much the CLE D would rest on the play of a rookie corner. It has, and that corner was awarded less playing time for his weak performance in the first two weeks. Sorry, Mr. Gilbert. You are no Haden.

Here’s some quick picks:

GB over DET

IND over JAX

NE over OAK (play the NE D!)

NO over MIN (see above AP comments)

NYG over HOU (can’t lose forever, right? Right?!?!)

PHI over WAS

DAL over STL (because they can afford to stick to the run game)

AZ over SF

MIA over KC

DEN over SEA (Manning figures this out)

CAR over PIT

NYJ over CHI — look, i’m always gonna go for the NY teams. It is a flaw.

 

I’m going to rant here…

 

Here is the inherently bi-polar position: We seem to believe that parents should be given the right to parent any way they see fit—so long as that parenting fits popular opinion. If some decision or method of discipline becomes fringe or is decided to be outdated we will publically burn at the stake anyone who engages in those outdated practices. Note: I’m talking about a trial in the court of public opinion and not the court of law. There is an expectation that we all now agree to hate and disassociate with Adrian Peterson because he admitted to spanking his kid. However, is what he did criminal? Is it wrong? Or are we still smarting from the beatings we took from our parents as kids—beatings that in some cases went too far and in others were both well deserved and properly impactful.

 

The popular media is also overlooking context here, and the public is clearly overlooking media motive here. I’ve spoken about the rule of three time and again. Here is how it works: Someone breaks a big news story. Immediately someone else finds a second story that continues public interest and then there is a 3^rd story to further public interest while the first is fading into memory. Try it some time. Look at the local news and note how the biggest stories always happen in threes. If you live in AZ take careful note of how the 2^nd and often 3^rd story is AZ specific as we attempt to link whatever is going on in the world to our own local drama. This last phenomenon might be standard, but I’ve only ever lived in three places. One of them was Iowa where news was careful to state that nothing at all was ever happening in state as though we wore some sort of ‘stuff-happens-proof-vest. The other was NYC and everything, apparently, was actually about us.

 

So what is the context here? It is unclear. I can speak from experience as both a counselor and a child who spent time in the courts: The court is a weapon used by bickering parents to wound the other parent and to advance their (often financial) interests. My birth parents were never married and hate each other to this day. As a result of that simmering anger I spent age 3 -16 in the courts dealing with custody and child support issues. I was in family court so often I knew judges by name. I was in the court long enough to actually believe I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up and have time to have the discussions to pursue that profession. We know from court records and media reports that at least one of the accusatory baby momma’s is constantly looking for more money from AP. We also know she’s lied about his role as a father. We haven’t heard about the mother of the child involved in the highlighted incident, but we do know the case in question was shopped around, brought to grand jury, dropped, and then later picked up again once the climate in the NFL changed.

 

But all this isn’t even the most important point.

 

Here is the most important point: The system of idolatry is inherently flawed. When we conflate the actions of an athlete with the actions of a hero we risk going down that slippery slope of unrealistic expectation. We remove the potential for that individual to be human and flawed, and when we take away what they’ve worked their entire life for simply because they are flawed outside of their professional responsibility, we risk creating a system where nobody can live up to the standards established. The climate of the NFL is moving towards this. We are trying to make heroes out of every single player, and this is not a realistic thing to do. I’m sure there are heroes among them, but being a hero isn’t the job. Scoring or stopping others from scoring is the job.

 

There are obvious objections to my point of view: Isn’t it the responsibility of the athlete to be a fine and upstanding citizen? Don’t they have a responsibility as public figures because they get paid so much to be in the public eye?

 

I truly believe that parents are responsible for teaching their children right from wrong. I find allies in this belief in the strangest places. Homeschoolers, religious fanatics, hard core right wingers, hard core left wingers all believe that parenting starts in the home. In truth, the main reason books are banned is because some group of parents decides that they don’t want their kids to be taught that stuff. However, I fear that much of what we see on TV about these so-called heroes is a gut reaction to the fact that many American parents leave parenting to the television. Perhaps we should spend less time policing the television then and more time educating the people who should be policing their kids. It takes a village to raise a child, not a flat screen. On the other point, the amount one gets paid and the amount of news coverage they are provided should in no way determine how an individual lives their life or performs outside of the basic responsibilities of their job. We seem to accept this truth when it comes to corporate CEOs and, to a lesser extent, political officials. We don’t accept it when it comes to athletes and, to a lesser extent, musicians. The real problem is the specter of expectation. We expect too much out of people who only have so much to give. Worse still, we’re always expecting the wrong things.

 

I want AP to come back and score touchdowns for the Vikings and thusly for my fantasy team. I want to ‘bear witness’ to his running and to his Hall of Fame career. The guy plays the game right. He works hard, and he is an exemplar of how to play the game. Too bad that isn’t enough anymore.

I hd my class watch a Tony Robbins clip today and I must admit the dude does something to the way I feel about myself. Robbins is a world renowned motivational speaker who tells you things that none of us really are ready to hear but help each of us gain a deeper understanding why we aren’t the best people we can be. Sometimes I feel like the guy is looking at me, pointing, and saying ‘I’m talking right to you, man.’ He talked about the habits and rituals that successful people do. He compared the morning ritual of a person who is not healthy to a fit man and clearly explained the inherent differences. I do some of the things he talks about. I do much more of the bad than of the good, so there’s that. However, I recognize the potential for greatness and have an understanding of the many little steps it takes to get there.

I still want to hit the reset button.

I still understand there is no reset button and any hole you bury yourself in you are beholden to dig yourself out of. Of course, the point is that so many of us allow that hole to become our new reality and we narrow our perspective of what is possible as we age. I’m as guilty of that as anyone, but I don’t think it has to be that way forever….

 

 

Some Thoughts:

1. The Giants are a brutally bad ball club right now. The best thing about them was the alliteration in that last sentence.
2. Sponsors are pulling out from the Vikings because of A.P. and his indictment. Whatever happened to waiting for the facts? A trial? Innocent until proven guilty?
3. Peter Clines might be a demi-god. Check out his blog and his books.
4. I’ll be 45 when this goes down, but expect me to be a NYT best seller in the near future.

Frankly, I’m exhausted, but I still gotta get a post in. We spent the weekend at the Canyon, which I detailed in the prior post. A second day in the Canyon meant meeting more interesting people and learning more about that lifestyle out there. The boys earned their Jr. Ranger badges and we spent many hours on the road driving home. I think the drives are the hardest. Short of ‘Are we there yet?’ drama, the drives home consist of three extremely boisterous boys alternating singing, laughing, fighting, and crying in the backseat–all at a volume that makes the vehicle want to autopilot to the side of the road slowing just enough to safely eject the three through the moon roof. Of course, maybe that’s just me putting my wishes upon the tribe.

Come Monday I’ll sink back into my natural world and struggle put together something resembling a valid work schedule. I’ve been getting things done rather well, but I cannot say I have a legitimate schedule to work off of. I have the class schedule, the office schedule,  and the practice schedules, but everything in between in up in the air.  As I age–and my body is telling me that this aging thing is happening with greater rapidity–I find I need more of a concrete idea of when to do things in order to achieve maximum effectiveness. Somewhere in the back of my mind I’m still convinced I have a reset button in me that, once pressed, will shake off a decade of tough living and just put me back on my game 100%.

I wonder if the Giants have one of those? They could use one, because they’re making me look like a fool for loving them…

I returned to the Grand Canyon for the first time since the trip with the guys. This trip was a family affair. The five of us slipped away late Friday night and drove halfway. In the morning we rose early enough to reach the Canyon before the sun grew too fat in the sky. Here is something I didn’t know: My mid-kid is deathly afraid of heights. I spent the majority of the trip holding his hand and coaxing him to at least look at the canyon. Here is something else I didn’t know: My body is a wreck. We didn’t walk but 2 or 3 miles and I wound up with pinched nerves and feeling pain and numbness all down the right side of my body. If this is what getting old feels like then I’m out. I need to find that magical tea Kevin Hearne keeps writing about and wipe away this nonsense.

Generally speaking the trip is a success. It represents the first time we took an extended family-only vacation, so there’s that. More interestingly we discovered an entirely separate culture there in the woods. The company that runs the Canyon operations, Xanterra, has created a very interesting multicultural environment of woods-people and small town dwellers. I’m interested in learning more and learning how to use this pocket culture as an example in my sociology courses.

Some Thoughts:

1. Canyon tech is limited, so this won’t be posted until we get home tonight. By then the Giants will be 1-1 and the Jets will be 2-0. Here’s hoping!

The League officially lost its mind and backbone tonight in one swipe. The league’s top running back was deactivated from the roster because an indictment of negligent injury to a child. The charge stems from a report that he spanked his son with a switch. In other words, he inflicted the same punishment on his son that the majority of southern parents I know and know of have used for longer than I’ve been alive. This is the same punishment I faced when I stepped out of line, and yes, I still spank my kids. I don’t expect to go to jail for that.

It is no secret that the league is scared silly of media perceptions. The deactivation is, in part, the result of the state of Texas’ request to have Peterson in custody, but he easily could’ve been allowed to play. I believe the fear of the negative press drove the team to make this move. TMZ has been riding this guy for years–since the 2012 death of his 2 yr old son. The overwhelming early TMZ verdict on the dude was that he’s a deadbeat dad who skimped on child support. However, upon further digging, the station learned the opposite to be true. I think we will find more of the same here. This is a guy who spanked his kid, wound up facing a grand jury. Was relieved when the grand jury decided NOT to indict, only to discover just recently that their changed their minds.

The difference? Ray Rice.

The Hunger Games, Wayward Pines, The Maze Runner, In the After, The Giver, Dust.. The list drifts on into the forever. Each story different than the last, but each dancing around the same premise: After the world ends we will discover a new, self-contained world in which all of our problems and issues are explored on a micro-cosmic scale and we, quite quickly, will devolve into a caricature of Orwellian dystopia…or we already have.

All of these books tend to start/develop in the same fashion: The world is over. Despite this there is a piece of that world that remains, walled off from the abyss and protected by a strict set of laws or rules. Often the books focus on those who seek to challenge this structure and the protagonist (and thus the reader) is fueled by a desire to either escape or to challenge the dominant ideology. In Demitria Lunetta’s In the After series, the protagonist finds herself in a world filled with zombie-like creatures. She comes upon a safe-haven, a city that thrives and seeks to rebuild humanity. However, the rules of the society are counter to everything she see’s as important to her rebellious teen nature. I think the fact that the majority of these novels are YA fiction says something. In many ways the novels feel like a response to an American society that, for large swaths of the country, exists primarily in HOA-sanctioned and controlled enclaves in which we live under a series of seemingly endless and often psychotic rules designed to keep people in line and similar. I suspect that, on some level, the books are targeted at an audience growing up in this world with the ability to change it or at least understand the consequences of it.

There is no question that this theme has gained primacy in the YA spectrum. The questions I’m wondering about are where is it going and how is it going to impact this generation of readers and thinkers?