10 Minute Rule

I have to admit the ‘press publish twice’ feature is a situation. It sounds like a simple thing to remember. Press the button and then just do it again, but I don’t do it again and I find myself publishing the next day again and again. See? Problem. I’m not entirely certain the problem rests on my side of the responsibility spectrum. I’d guess somewhere in between…

That is how I wound up making this blog about the role of technological thinking in writing–wait let me make that the title… brb.

Back. So, yes. Tech thinking in writing. Consider this factoid: The far fetched imagination of Gene Roddenberry is partially responsible for cell phone technology. Now we have cell and our thinking about tech ought to be scaling so vastly upwards that we are opening our world to new ideas and possibilities. The most far fetched thing I’ve read since then is about AI-enhanced everything from smart missiles to smart clothing. This is not terribly far fetched. It is instead  sensible and possible evolutionary next step in scientific thinking. I am talking about twenty steps ahead. Forty.

I am also just talking, because I haven’t made that leap myself. When I think about what Cli-fi means to me I think about that leap forward. Science fiction tends to dwell on the unintended consequences of advancements, but also requires the imagining of those advancements in order to question them. 

I do have one thought: Microweather.

When I was a kid and designing superheroes for a self-made role playing game, I came up with the concept of a Cherokee (it was the ‘it’ tribe back then) woman who could manipulate moisture in the air. I looked hard for a good name and that research brought me to the concept of a Rain shadow. Of course, it became her name. However, the idea of the leeward side of a mountain being shielded from weather effects made me wonder if, in a bowl-shaped geographical depression or at least at very low altitude as to limit movement, one could create micro-weather effects. In other words, could there be a climate shell in a specific region influenced and aggregated by technology? Could we use airborne nano or other types of wide spectrum effects to control the weather? 

That led me to thinking about short run seasons in a commercial zone and how that sped up cycle might lead to the production of or evolution of bacterium to the point where new diseases are birthed out of that zone. Now we have a story! 

Maybe I’ll consider writing it. Or maybe you will.

Fact: We can all get sucked into the daily routine and, especially if we get behind on stuff, we can forget to take care of ourselves. 

Fact: Healthy writers are better equipped to work than those whose bodies are constantly falling apart.

Both of these facts are influencing this ten minutes of conjecture and lecture. I want to be honest with you all: I can no longer touch my toes. No, it’s not a fat thing. I cannot stretch that far, my back hurts everyday, and until two days ago, I did not recognize that those two things could be connected. 

We get this one body in life. In the futures of my imagination we will get multiple bodies (and planets) and have the opportunity for a do over or to recklessly neglect ourselves. However, in the time and space my temporary consciousness inhabits, I gotta stretch. I am beginning to accept and believe in the connection between body and spirit. I feel that I am a better writer when I feel better in my body.

I’m almost back to form. 11-5 last week and the pick against the Raiders ought to be counted as a win, because they won exactly how I said they could, with Beast mode churning out 130 yards on the ground in only 20 carries. So, that changes things. Carr did still throw for 437, but it was a lot of play action and that too is part of the recipe. Here are the ingredients for this weekend:

Quick Picks
NE over IND
TEN over BUF
NYG over CAR
CLE over BAL
GB over DET
DEN over NYJ
PIT over ATL

JAX over KC
JAX is really good. People sleep, but I know what the Giants defense can do and I saw that clash happen. These guys are going to put up points and surprise the NFL’s hottest QB on the other side of the ball. Game of the week right here.

CIN over MIA
I don’t believe in MIA. I don’t even have an interest in talking them up. The fact is I have slightly more faith in what the Bengals core can do, so here we are.

LA over SEA
Rams are the real deal. Normally this would be one for the ages, but I fear Seattle is still reeling from the loss of Thomas. Sure, they were going to trade him, but they haven’t quite found the voice or energy to replace him. They’ll need that in this game.

HOU over DAL
The Battle of Texas will be won through the air. It won’t be Dak doing the winning. This is a big deal on many levels. The one that the media will seize on is that Texas has two black QB’s going head to head. Why does it matter? Because a school superintendent out there said that “You can’t count on a black QB.” Go ahead and read the article. The most interesting thing is how the dude himself treated his comments and chided others for how they handled the situation. Ahh, Texas. 

NO over WAS
New Orleans has a lot of tricks up its sleeve but the biggest one of all was exposing Eli Manning as scared to throw. We kinda knew. Well, we knew, but now we know. Alex Smith can’t throw down field like that. It is why Mahomes is running the show now. That means the swarming underneath defense of the Saints will take care of business.

It feels like a very long time since the last blog. This is because I’ve switched to daytime blogging (and writing) and this particular post is coming close to 11 PM. I lost track of the day. I fell into the beauty of the rain and the business of daily chores and teaching and writing and let the blog slip. 

So here we are.

I can update you on a few things. I’ve reached that point in my life where back pain is an actual problem. I’ve hit a wall in the weight loss department. Maybe it is more of a gentle slope backwards towards fattyland. Maybe the back and the fat are related. In happier news, I’ve found my way back into the page. I remembered (reconnected with?) what it really means to fall into story and I’ve been falling into this new piece. I don’t know that this feeling is sustainable. I wish it were, because I love how it makes me feel. It is because I love it that I know I still am a writer. 

I am happy. This is not as deep or thorough a feeling as possible but I am happy right now. I feel good in my own skin and I’m not fatalizing about the future. Yeah, I just made that word up. It’s a writer thing. 

I have been working towards a sense of balance. To me this means finding time and space for all of the things in my life that I love and accepting that there are still things in my life that I don’t love but still must devote adequate time to in order for them not to become unmanageable. In truth, I haven’t devoted the time to task that I need to. I have a handful of things that need doing–no I have a truckload of things that need doing to the point that I don’t write lists because I really don’t want to see them. So, rebalancing starts with doing that first. It starts with being realistic about the responsibilities and, once realized, setting a plan in place that makes time for those things while also making time for the healthy things that keep me well and make me who I intend to be.

Some Thoughts:

1. The things that matter to me matter to me only and that that is a difficult thing.

I need to write first thing in the morning

The line above has become a refrain, as in poetry, where I repeat it time and time again in hopes the repetition solidifies a deeper understanding or announces another segment of the struggle. Make no mistake: The struggle is real. Except, I don’t really understand the struggle. Once I’ve set the appropriate conditions to write or have at least motivated myself to the laptop and started punching, curiously, at the keys, it all tends to happen. Sure, some days what comes out is terrifyingly useless, but it is words. There are more good days than bad days. Unfortunately, there are not very many days at all. 

I’ve written and read about writing long enough to recognize that there are only a handful of variables that impact whether or not a person is a writer. To me, they are as follows: Confidence, motivation, external support, environment, organization, followthrough, and throughput.  

Let’s talk about that last one for a few minutes. Throughput is defined by dictionary.com as “the amount of material or items passing through a system or process.” To me that represents everything that we as writer’s take in from the world and mold into our oft fictonal settings. I find this most transparent in song writers–especially rappers. Consider the brilliance of Kanye West when he was living at a lower social stratum, touring the world with groups of artists and, before that, living amongst the people and understanding and recognizing what real life looks like. He wrote about that stuff. As his fame grew, his throughput shrank until eventually he became another insulated Kardashian and entirely forgot how the real world functions. Why? No throughput. No access to the real world materials that artists thrive on. In many ways success is it’s own tomb. So is being extremely busy–if you let it. I find that my throughput is shrinking due to focusing on the menial and repetitive daily chores that define my day to day life. My world has shrunk and my throughput has done accordingly. As a result I need to create more opportunities to step away from that insular pattern and see. I also need to look at that pattern itself and find the value in that day to day and what it too can bring to the page.

That term ‘grit’ popped up again the other day, and I recognized for the first time in a while that I don’t really have it. Not entirely. There is a wonderful Forbes article that speaks to the 5 key characteristics of grit. In that article it argues that grit includes optimism and follow through. While I have both, the tank is too low to fully realize it. 

Maybe I am like my car. There’s this torn axel boot that is leaking  transmission fluid and I don’t have the means to fix it at this point. More to the point, I cannot deal with the changes to my life needed in order to fix it. As a result the car is not running right. Still, it is running and doing what it needs to. 

Fix the car. Fix the man?

Some Thoughts:

1. Ultimately we are responsible for bettering our human race by having kids and having those kids represent the best version of themselves (and of us by default). Needless to say that a lot of our time and energy defaults to this endeavor. It is then some wonder that we have managed to steadily screw it up. 
2. Of course it is due to these devotions that we surrender time for ourselves and our friends and become, in a sense, slaves to the work of raising kids and neglect to raise our grown up selves.
3. While I am eating better, healthier, etc. I have hit a weight plateau that I don’t know how to get past.
4.  

I am the faculty advisor for the honors society of my community college. Being in this role allows me to connect with cc students who, contrary to the stereotype want to ball academically. Now having spent a year in the role I can truly say that this is a strange collection of individuals who are surprising, engaging, and truly capable of doing great things. That being said, some straight up suck.

I am not talking about my team. I love my team. They are an eclectic mix of achievers who largely seem to get what an advantage and what great opportunities they have laid before them. They don’t operate from a position of presumed privilege and don’t look down on the people who aren’t ‘at their level’ yet. In truth, they want others to get where they are and for their collaborations to grow and grow until we can say the entire campus rocks honors style and should be seen as such. However, many many others look down their nose at those who aren’t achieving and are just struggling to find their way academically. It is as if there are the students who meet the stereotype of CC and by their existence perpetuate it and there are students who find that stereotype revolting and by their existence seek to distance themselves and the CC name from that stereotype. I don’t think these forces need to exist in opposition, but the binary reinforcements of our society make it so.

Some Thoughts:

1. Since we are talking binary reinforcement, I’d like to point out that the latest proposed Supreme Court appointee is the embodiment of that statement and his hearings have been the worst version of the divide between the opposing forces. 
2. I also believe that he has shown himself to be partisan and to have a bias (perhaps newly formed) against the ‘other side’ which is going to show itself in his rulings. I believe this because I believe he is not even tempered and lacks the patience to serve fairly on the highest court in the land. 

I wound up back in coaching, working with my youngest and a coach who is in the league’s hall of fame. I’m having fun and not taking it as a life or death struggle that ultimately decides my human value. In other words, I’m coaching a kid’s team and recognizing that I’m just doing that. It’s fun like that. It’s two hours twice a week that, for the most part, stays on the field and doesn’t come home with me. It’s entirely different from the past and I can deal with that. 

Meanwhile the writing has been less than stellar and I recognize that this is largely about not making enough consistent time for the endeavor. I’m not doing it right and I need to get back to where I am doing it right and consistently. 

Beyond this, life is good. I’m loving life and love and dealing with the madness and drama that defines my youthful existence. Though as old as I am but don’t entirely feel, 

Happiness can be fleeting but it can also be sustained by good habits and better writing. I intend to make the most of my opportunities moving forward to do both. I want to move forward with a sabbatical and take some time to myself to really fall into the writing and make something of it. I am close to happiness that is sustainable. It’s only an opportunity away. 

Well, I was right about the Giants. All it took was the team finally abandoning the league’s worst O-Lineman. With Flowers benched the line looked like they cared and wanted to protect Eli (and their jobs). Wheeler struggled against Watt, but he held up well enough to let Eli fling it.

Gimmie Picks:
Jags over Jets
Pats over Dolphins
Texans over Colts
Packers over Bills
Falcons over Bengals
Seahawks over Cards
Chargers over SF

Rams over Vikings
This is a tricky one, but not the most tricky of the week. I feel like the Rams have a solid advantage because Griffen is out. When you have a lynchpin player like that and he’s hurt–mentally–that hurts the team badly.

Giants over Saints
I remain a believer. The Saints pass rush is limited to the point where Eli can be effective. I think they can outscore the Saints. This is going to be the difference maker, because it is going to be one heck of a shootout. 

Ravens over Steelers
James Conner is producing, but that will be limited by a stout ravens LB corps. Most importantly, the Ravens are perfect in red zone scoring. That is where the game is going to be decided.

Broncos over Chiefs
The Chiefs are really good. Really, really good. On offense. What is being overlooked are the glaring weaknesses in the secondary that will be exposed when the safeties come up in run support and allow Thomas to get free. 

Browns over Raiders
Browns are starting the kid. We knew that. Raiders gave up arguably the best defender in the sport. We knew that. Browns D has an answer for everything the Raiders can do except for the one thing they won’t do–feed the Beast. Bet you didn’t know that.

Bears over Bucs
I love me some fitzmagick, but what I was just talking about in regards to the best defender? Yeah, he plays for the Bears now on a D that was already good. 

Cowboys over Lions
I don’t entirely trust the Cowboys, but I also think last week’s Lions win was the result of Patricia having such a deep understanding of Belicheck. I also kind of think that Beli is slipping. He doesn’t seem to be ‘the guy’ anymore.

Titans over Eagles
Go Titans! Look, this team has a lot of weapons on both sides of the ball and is only now really beginning to gel. Meanwhile, the Eagles are not as strong as they were last year and are relying on a strategy that caters to speed. Titans have the speed to match.