Day: July 20, 2018

So many thoughts churning this morning. I think I will deliver them to you MMQB style.

Some Thoughts:

1. Trying to lose weight is difficult. I’ve adopted a low-carb diet and it has effected my general mood in negative ways, my energy level in positive ways, and my overall weight minimally. It hasn’t been much more than a week (I believe I started on the 8th) and my expectations are very high. My results are not. I expected to lose close to 10 lbs by August. This was never realistic. I have lost roughly six as of two days ago and I weigh so much right now that the six doesn’t even show. I absolutely need to do more than I am doing. I need to add the gym into my regular routine.
2. I’ve had every opportunity to write over the past few days and I really haven’t. Instead I’ve watched very bad TV (Electric Sheep on Prime and the Kingsman: The Golden Circle) in the moments I could’ve spent working. There is a lot to be said for vegging out but this is just ridiculous. If I want to write, I ought to be writing. So, why am I not writing?
3. Finally saw Sorry to Bother You. This was an experience. As a fan of surrealist cinema (I’ve watched practically all of Cronenberg and Lynch) I was still taken back by the content of this. Bold proclamations were made and laid right out there on the surface. A lot of what was shown/said resonated and I know the director intended us to draw connections to things that are happening right now and have been happening for a long time. They rope you in with ‘use your white voice’ but that really only scratches the surface of what the film is getting at. Surprisingly, I can direct my sci-fi class to the work and feel like it absolutely works.
4. I’m not going to go on a political rant here, but I have to say that the marriage between the Republican Party, the Republican news machine, and Donald Trump’s family is astounding. At one point recently Stephen Colbert asked, how dumb do you think the American people are? I think you missed the point here. It isn’t about being dumb so much as it is about being easily convinced to go along with something so long as you think it keeps you as part of the in group, safe, and works towards what you’ve defined as your better interests. Unfortunately, they tend to define your better interests when the reality is that they just want you to listen so they can remain in power working towards whatever agenda keeps them in power and reaping the benefits.

Picture Yueyang City, a thriving waterside city in China. As clouds fill the horizon something else begins to take shape behind the clouds. Suddenly there in the mist is a distant city that cannot possibly be there. Yet there it is.

I don’t know about the validity of the photo or what really went down here, but this is yet another curious event that falls into the realm of the creative research experience I want to offer in the fall about unsolved mysteries. I don’t expect students to be able to solve this one. In truth, I doubt it is even real. Still, it corresponds with the age old phenomena of Fata Morgana, which deserves research and attention. Humans have been seeing illusions for years. Our brains are wired to fill in the blanks where they can in order to allow an image to meet expectations. This is, in many ways, the fundamental science behind magic tricks.

Teaching the writing of research papers is terribly boring work on the surface, because people don’t often desire to be there. Likewise they lack the fundamental drive to do the deeper research necessary to suss out a critical thinking problem. Instead of thinking like Sherlock Holmes they want to think like Sam the Google searcher. Having interesting problems to unravel should stimulate that hidden desire to learn more. Maybe I’ll even get them to step outside the box a little as well, opening their minds to new ideas and experiences.

Some Thoughts:

1. I’m happy. Worried I’m not being the best partner, but still happy to be able to be a partner.