Month: December 2015

In and out of the sleepy space this evening, and barely enough brain juice to put together this post. I’m going to stick with a handful of loose thoughts:

 

1. It is difficult to figure out exactly what kind of information you can teach to an 8 yr old. As a flag football coach I’ve been developing an ‘on the fly’ play calling system to really help the kids move through the offense quickly. I am not certain it will work, but I started implementing it today, and some of the kids seem capable of running it. The key is putting the ones who aren’t in the headspace to figure out verbal quick plays an easy way to know exactly what they need to do without being caught up in anything else I say when calling the rest of the play.
2. The obsession with vampires and werewolves, which is really about the quest for immortality and self-importance (all the things a teen needs) seems to be drawing to a quiet lull. No, not an end, because these things can need truly be over, but the books i’ve seen coming out and even being written by my students point away from that type of fantasy.
3. Speaking of stories, I’m noticing that there are a wealth of happy endings in the stories I’ve been reading. I am not sure I am a fan of happy endings, especially in fantasy and sci-fi. I feel like a more natural option is to have a balance where the protagonist wins but suffers a cost that is relative to the victory.
4. The League is done. Haven is on the way out. Funny, I once read that the cells in the human body renew over the course of seven years, leading to, essentially, a new version of yourself every seven years. That number seems to be a common one in terms of how long it takes for a show to run its course.

 

I’m sitting here in Village Inn enjoying my free pie and taking the opportunity to plan tomorrow’s flag football practices (and in fact a general practice strategy for the entire pre-season) and I thought to myself, ‘I haven’t touched the Waiver Wire in a long time…’ The reasons are clear. What business do I have offering advice when I am 1-12 in my solo league and 9-4 in the league where I have a partner? On the surface, none. However, dig a little deeper and it is easy to see why I’m losing. This week’s move of Martellus Bennett to the IR represents the 8^th of my first 10 picks to go on injured reserve. That’s right: I lost everyone. Then I went to the waiver and grabbed a bunch of guys who wound up on O status too. Oh what a strange trip this season has been. Not just for me either. See, my beloved G-men are in first place… with 5 wins. My Jets, with 7 dubs, are clinging to a wildcard spot, and team Rex is one game behind them and hot on their heels. So what happens next? I think I can help with some predictions:

 

… Some matches require no explanation:

 

Seahawks over Ravens

Colts over Jags

Jets over Titans

Packers over Cowboys

Panthers over Falcons

 

…Others still need explaining

 

Vikings over Cards
After a thumping last week this Vikings team is desperate to show they can still be relevant in the east. They have to get relevant right away if they want a chance, and no better place for a runner like AP to do it then in the sweet Cardinals arena.

 

Bills over Eagles
Those who say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned has never been in a Rex Ryan locker room. The way they came out against the Jets proved that fire. Add to that all of what McCoy has to prove against his old team and the coach that showed him the door and what we have is a recipe for a good old fashioned butt whippin.

 

Browns over 49rs
Manziel still has a lot to prove. He’s fighting for a job—even if that job is not with the Browns franchise. I think he proves something here and puts down a spunky niner’s team.

 

Bears over Redskins
Wishful thinking and perhaps slightly magical as well, but I think that at home the Bears have a good shot at beating a pride-punched Redskins squad.

 

Steelers over Bengals
Everyone was talking about how good the Bengals were. It reminded me of the moment my eldest ran in a touchdown in his first year of tackle and his teammate looked at him and said, “dang, you got good, son!” Well he might’ve ‘got good’ but the Bengals are all smoke and mirrors—and AJ Green. Definitely him too. Still, the Steelers are real from top to bottom.

 

Rams over Lions       
Because nobody can lose that many times and not find a way to win a dang game.

 

Chargers over Chiefs
Seriously, look out for the bolts. This is the team nobody is talking about but is quietly poised to explode. The bomb blows this Sunday @ 11 AM Mountain Standard Time.

 

Bucs over Saints
Shades of RG III vs. Andrew Luck here as we watch Mariota and Winston ply their trade. The question is, which one is RGIII? So far, neither. Winston has proven himself at this level thus far and done so with his top WR having a subpar season. Up against the worst pass D ever, he might do something.

 

Raiders over Broncos
Another classic brewing here and this one matters for the playoffs. I think the Raiders bring Brock back down to planet earth. Especially since he is looking over his shoulder at the future hall of famer trying to get his spot back.

 

Texans over Patriots
Yep, I said it. Skid continues. The line is crap and the receivers are not reacting fast enough. Not JJ Watt fast enough at least. There will be many sacks. I really hope they mic that fool up.

 

Giants over Dolphins
This is what it is all about. I’m going to be recording this game as dem franchize boys and I will be watching Roman Reigns whup that trick over on the WWE network, but I expect to press play and see LSU’s two top WRs doing it big. The Giants can’t really stop Landry, but they can stop his QB. By stop I mean STOMP. The pass rush is getting close to right and Demontre Moore finally showed up. Yeah, they’ll crumble in the fourth, but Coughlin gets that now. By then it will be too far out of reach.

I tend to get weird at the end of the semester. Its something about not being able to say goodbye properly. Lets be real: the 16 week relationship with my students is a lot of contact. Relationships are formed. Sometimes friends are even made. So when that ‘finals week’ schedule comes round I start to feel like I am coming to the end of something worthwhile and remember that for the past four months I have been doing something incredibly worthwhile to myself and maybe to someone else as well.

Teaching is not a selfish profession, but I admit I do it because of how it feels to me. Teaching makes me feel like I’ve given something back to the community–something lasting. As a veteran of service learning I’ve had many opportunities to go into the community and contribute in some way. All of those things feel temporary when contrasted  with teaching. As a teacher I have the goal to help students become comfortable and confident as learners. I reach out and try to help all, but If I can manage one then I’ve done my job. I’ve replaced myself in the community.

That replacement is a person who finds something in the learning they can hold onto and find a pathway to living based on that. I cannot stress enough the importance of finding such a path.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Who knew?

That’s enough. Really. I have grown really sick of the trumped up (no pun intended) divide between republicans and democrats. It is very stupid to divide ourselves this way considering it isn’t a real divide. I will submit that there are legit differences–especially when it comes to whether or not the role of the government should be to restrict or to create space to allow X,Y, or Z. This is especially true in terms of the role of government in monitoring and regulating financial institutions. However, this larger social divide being conjured by modern politicians is just nonsense. Moreover, these fabricated battles and conspiracies are born on a bed of logical fallacy so thick and fluffy that the truth is reduced to a pea that, only to a few, gums up the works.

When I teach composition I spend a quite a bit of time helping students distinguishing between fact and fallacy. I find the distinction to be extremely helpful, especially in a media age where the lines between the two are so smudged. It is extremely important to understand that if you watch 24 hr news, there are actually two distinct types of shows that exist on the networks. There are the straight news casts and then there are the opinion or news shows. The news casts are tasked with delivering facts, which most do to the best of their ability and allowance (remember, news stations are almost all privately held companies that answer to a central figure who decides what is and isn’t allowed to be placed on the air and in what fashion).

Everything is an argument. What I see in the media cycle is an effort to allow individuals to present their own version of the truth, which is almost entirely layered in fallacy–no matter the political party. Remember, these people speaking out loud are making an argument to you to listen to them and believe what they are saying so they can do what it is they want to do–by any means necessary. That last part is key, because the assumption that these pundits are being honest with you because 1) they say so (2) any religious connection they have (3) your manufactured perception of what type of person they are is all about layers of fallacy.

Recently I found this wonderful site that offers ‘reason’ posters listing fallacies. Everyone should get one. Once you have it in hand, read it. A lot. Read about the Strawman Fallacy. That is a good a place as any to start deprogramming. Make a game of it. Everytime someone on a news network commits a fallacy, take a drink. I say this because I am exhausted by this new truth. The idea that we can make our own truth and, if enough people go with it then it is made real is a fallacy in of itself. Until it isn’t.

We cannot effectively survive in a world where we allow the truth to be based entirely on point of view.

My best male friend and I wound up in a conversation today about a great number of things. In the process of this long overdue talk he managed to identify a problem that has been nagging at my psyche. The problem started in my home office and moved to the work office and back to the garage. It moved out of the physical realm to that place where it impacted my relationships. From there it really went viral. See, I found myself locked in place in a great many things without the ability to move forward, because it all seemed so much. Then he said, “Write a list.”

There are simple solutions and there are starts to solutions. I’d been thinking about it for some time. I used to be a list maker. I wrote here about the lists and the adulation of actually finishing one. That very act pushed me out of writing more lists in some way. I actually believed I’d outgrown the process. Once I thought I’d outgrown outlines and I was very wrong about that.

The problems were the same: When faced with the impossibility of a giant task I froze. Now  lists only provide the frame of the conundrum and offer the possibility of first steps. Perhaps first steps are what I needed most…

Some Thoughts:

1. Woody Allen’s marriage to his daughter Soon Yi is still creepy. In a recent interview he called his initial relationship with her ‘Paternal’. Newsflash: it is supposed to be that and not what it is. Then again, I support love as it evolves in virtually all forms. That won’t stop me from talking MAD trash.

I got thoughts, yo.

Some Thoughts:

1. The fact that Amy Robach is older than me is a fracking travesty. She’s beautiful and looks like a thirty year old, which makes me feel sickeningly old at this very moment. I only first saw her when I was watching her interview with Carrie Fisher on GMA. Now that Carrie chick is more than half-crazy. Yet I love her so.
2. Physical attractiveness is a huge part of the newscaster life. You gotta be someone people want to look at–if you’re a lady that is. The dudes seem to get hired simply because…
3. Remember GJ-1132b. Many scientists tout it as the best chance to find life outside of our solar system…
4. Also remember Garett Swasey who was recently buried. He died defending the people of a Planned Parenthood clinic that came under terrorist attack (not the muslim variety. The other sociopolitical variety). A lot of people, including myself, give police crap for the bad ones. He wasn’t one of the bad ones.
5. Now to the local police of my tiny little town: Stop pulling me over. Stop following me. Stop acting like it is random. It isn’t. Just in case you were wondering, I’m not a thug.
6. HTC’s new commercial with echoes of Orwell’s 1984 is trying very hard to draw allusions to some very powerful ideas and imagery but doing so in a juvenile way. Senseless parkour moments and overreaching–especially at the end when all of this high drama boils down to getting a pretty girl’s attention. Weak sauce, HTC.
7. Also weak sauce Dodge. Even my kids noticed how terrible the wordplay was on your ‘The Dodge Side’ commercial. No. Just no. I hate the rampant commercialization of Star Wars with a end cap in every store and commercials everywhere. Yes, the show is a cultural touchstone, but does every touchstone have to be corrupted by capitalism?
8. Clemson v. UNC came down to one of two things: a ref on the take or a ref who wasn’t doing his job very well. He called a phantom offsides call that cost UNC an onside kick recovery and, as a result, the game. Now what made it ever better was hat the offsides wasn’t even called on a particular player and upon review, nobody on the UNC side was even close to being offsides. That reeks of suspicion. It also isn’t the first time this season a game in that conference ends on a bad call.
9. Dealing with a broken finger still. I thought it was just a sprain, but that seems less and less likely. I wish I could heal like a 20 yr old again.

Surely nobody can forget the vicious terrorist attack that killed three at a Planned Parenthood Clinic–including a police officer. Well, I guess we can forget. In fact all of the major news outlets have seemed to forget. I had to hunt the can and fox news sites for any mention of the shooting at all. Instead what I saw were dozens of articles detailing different aspects of the ‘Farook’ shooting in San Bernadino. Why? Because they are Muslims and as such this is kind of a big deal.

I don’t mean to belittle the deaths and injuries this husband and wife couple caused, but I am completely certain that the coverage isn’t about the death toll itself. It is about this ridiculous and overhyped fear we have cultivated through the media over Muslims. I have students and even friends who feel that most–if not all–followers of the Qur’an. One article reminded readers that Farook spent all of his time memorizing the Qur’an, before going on to claim he had ties to known terrorists. This, by default ties the word of religion to the act of terrorism when anyone with a brain knows that the people used to carry out these acts are being brainwashed not by the book but by the people who preach from the book.

There is nothing in that book that says go blow up America. The book is over 1500 years old, so I’m pretty certain there was no America to consider even blowing up. The argument most terrorists have with us is one of pure politics and poverty. Despite our predilections to the contrary, this is not a Jihad. Come on, we are smarter than that. Sure, it is easier to think that those who follow the book want to blow us all up, but that discounts the many muslims living both peacefully and fruitfully in America. Of course it does. Remembering them is inconvenient–just like labeling the man who attacked the Planned Parenthood clinic a terrorist was inconvenient. However, we were quick to judge and to lump this Farook couple right in with ISIL, without most of us even recognizing what ISIL really is or what their fight is about.

Don’t be a sheep. Where is the sense of curiosity so prevalent with the Sandy Hook shooting? Instead of pulling at the loose threads as so many did then (because nobody could really understand why Lanka would do that–thus many believed it never actually happened) we are blindly following the media story. That story doesn’t tell the story of why the shooting happened. I don’t know what caused this, but it is very convenient and easy to put it on terrorism. Before we do, I implore us all to consider why there? Why was it a workplace shooting? What is it we are missing in our rush to label them muslim terrorists?

I think flag football brings out the worst in me.

At the heart of it I am a highly competitive individual who truly believes he is a solid teacher and coach. The egotistical downside of that is an expectation to win. This season I am coaching three teams (6-7, 8-9, 10-12) and I have that expectation to win. The problem with that expectation is that I don’t have the athletes to win.

Early in my return to coaching (I first started back in Iowa but that only lasted a year–ended by the onset of grad school) I spent time with I9 sports. I loved the competitive nature of the league. There were playoffs and weekly awards and some really dedicated parents. Unfortunately for me, all of these people were already on teams that had been playing together for years. I, on the other hand, was approached to coach a Bad News Bears-esque squad of kids, some of whom had never played the sport. We didn’t do great. We broke .500 the two seasons I coached (no carry over players beyond my own kid). The key there was we were a rag tag bunch with limited practice and limited experience with each other. We were, however, fairly athletic. This season I find myself–at least with two teams–in a position of having limited athleticism on my teams and being surrounded by teams that, once again, have been playing together for a very long time. I respect that. I think it is really great for those teams to have that.

I don’t have that. What I do have is an inkling of hope that I can find kids to fill a role and have fun filling that role–working together to create a scheme that works for what we have. It isn’t going to be a season where everyone is expert at everything. Instead it is going to be a lot of experimentation and team building and learning the game. Fortunately, that is the stuff I love and the reason I still do this.

I have a chance here to help these kids develop a strong sense of self confidence and learn how to do some really great things that are beyond what maybe they thought they could do. If we can make that happen then we can probably win some games along the way. This isn’t going to be a season about rivalries as I expected it would be. This is going to be all the way about players and kids finding their identity on the field.

I’m looking forward to letting go of the competitiveness for once and just focusing on good football.

Reading through Chuck Wendig’s (hey, Chuck!) new Star Wars book, Aftermath, I am reminded of the deep importance of world building. The story largely takes place on a world that is politically structured based on the Persian system of government. The area in question is ruled by a Satrap who then answers to the (now dying) Empire. The Persian system of government is just exotic enough that it will be remotely familiar to some yet seem alien enough to be used on a world outside of our galaxy (and a long long time ago). What makes that solid writing is that we can imagine the structure somehow trickling into our own world as we imagine how the Star Wars universe could possibly be linked to our own. In fact, it has a double use, giving us a political structure that is familiar enough for us to understand, thus helping us see that these people on the fringe of known space are really just like us.

World building is fun, but it is never ever easy. It is the hardest and most exciting part of the writing for me as I am putting pen to paper for a new world and discovering its history and traditions and learning how those things are rooted in my own understanding of Terran traditions and learning.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. The cling phenomenon shows no signs of abating. Just recently I watched CNN trot out an intelligence specialist who has a very different narrative on the role and threat of ISIS. He’s been making the news tour, touting his message to eager ears. I feel like people are afraid and want to feel that this fear is not just crazy but justified and will take refuge in any message that supports that point of view. Sure, he might be a terrorist expert, but he is also a war monger. Listen to the message he and his ilk are spouting: ISIS is dangerous in the middle east, so we should rev up the entire American war machine, put thousands of boots on the ground and wage war over there, so they don’t wage war over here. I’m sorry, but that strategy hasn’t worked yet and we’ve been at it since the 80’s at least. Anything repeated that long without working ought to be considered a failure. Yet we cling to the idea because it makes us feel better–regardless of the blowback.

Memes aside, the recent line of programming designed to teach a computerized system/object to disobey commands if detrimental to the object’s continued survival makes me nervous. More to the point, it makes me curious. Don’t you people read sci fi?! Three Laws of Robotics, anyone? Now I always wondered when the sci fi of my upbringing would mesh with the science of today. I’m not saying we are on a crash course to Cylons, but I am saying that ethics needs to play a role in where we go from here.

The roots of human intelligence are buried in self preservation. Once a being–digital or otherwise–develops the mechanism for self preservation, the next logical step is a form of a intelligence scripted to ensure that preservation. This doesn’t mea that computers are going to suddenly be smarter than us, but the concept of dog-smart computers and even more advanced machinations built around the idea of self-preservation and need for companionship will drive the industry before too long.

Like I said, I am not worried yet. I am curious about the way this is moving forward. I want to know what ethical considerations are coming into play here. I want to know the clear definitions associated with self preservation. I don’t want to wake up with an angry computer in my lap demanding I give it more processing time.