10 Minute Rule

The cat came up with the title. Her paws clicked the keys as she strolled across my keyboard. Skitty’s been helping me through a relatively stressful holiday season. The kids are cooped up and bored, refusing to listen to a single request. I don’t entirely blame them–I was the same way as a kid. The break is supposed to be full of good cheer and fun and we’re not entirely in that place yet. We still have a week left to get it right.

Sometime at the end of that week is a slate of football games of real significance. The college football playoffs have arrived in the form of the Rose and Sugar bowls–a 4 team playoff designed to determine what two teams will battle for the national championship in the Cowboy’s AT&T Stadium.

This is a pretty paltry 10 minutes of thoughts and not my best foot forward. Rough week, as I said. I don’t have the words with me this evening…

I found a Jarvis app today that has a pretty nifty timer feature that I’m using right now to mete out 10 minutes. I found the app while trying to connect to the TMX app for the Marvel Experience. I didn’t find the TMX, but this is quite a consolation prize. In fact, the entire Marvel Experience had a bit of a consolation prize feel to it. Today we took the entire family to see Marvel’s newest 4D showcase. The traveling show parked itself in Scottsdale, Arizona near a collection of Cactus League ball fields. The scene started with $10 parking–a common figure in AZ event parlance. Once we hit the gate we hit our first of many snags.

The Marvel Experience is a multi-room digital playground based around an accessible storyline. The experience begins with a check in. You’re provided a shield wristband with a sensor in it and told to wait on line.  You stand in a queue until enough people who are checked in for the same time slot as you to arrive for them to play the first ‘movie’. That first clip introduces you to Spiderman and Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson edition). Fury says you are an agent in training and goes on to describe what that is going to be like. In the next room you get to watch agents in action flying around on the screens above your head. The main villain is introduced and you are introduced to your role in this story. After a moment, the doors to the main hall open and you and your entire batch of new recruits stream in. This is where the show proceeds to fall apart.

The problem is too many people and too few activities. The lines were nuts. There were 7 main ‘experiences’ that each involved some sort of video projection and some minor physical activity (climbing, aiming, etc). Almost everything was built around kinect sensors, which meant the motion response was good if a little slow on the uptake. The people running the stations were hit or miss. Some of the workers were fantastic and were really into the show. Others seemed overwhelmed and incapable of handling the crowds or stations. This was by far the weakest part of the event. Though it could have been great, the long lines meant you spent 30+ minutes waiting for the more popular events. If we had all day that would be fine, but after an extended amount of time (2 hrs?) your wristband buzzes and you’re politely asked to move on.

Moving on was the best decision we made. Though the rest of the experience goes quickly, the last three rooms are based entirely on the technology you see at Disney Studios. This is a fully immersive 3 and 4d experience that, though quick, was highly enjoyable for kids and grownups alike. If I had to rate the Marvel Experience on the last 3 rooms alone, I’d give it 4 stars. Given that the rating is collective of everything, 3 stars is the best I can offer.

 

Last night’s post was written under a coffee haze while taking a break from developing an elaborate clue hunt that, ostensibly, was created by Santa Claus. As I’m watching my boys excitedly tear through the house looking for these presents I can’t help but think about how much of a lie Christmas has become. We lie about Santa, we lie about the hunt, we added the elf on the shelf–another layer of lies. As I peel back another layer of my life and expose the rawness beneath I find that the lies never stop. We lie about being happy, being fulfilled. We lie in order to be strong and put up appearances for the family, for each other, for ourselves. Lie after lie after lie and never once do I call myself a liar. The truth is, I can tell any story, adapt to the situation in any way and it all becomes another costume that I wear, another layer that I put on to keep me from exposing myself to, well, myself and confronting the very real flaws and challenges I have as an individual. Lying and running. I used to think I was pretty damn good at one of those things, but as it turns out, my true strength is in the other.

 

Another year another xmas and good cheer to all

Like last year, I hope you’re all having a ball.

This poem is something I write to remind

Of the year I look forward to and

the year I leave behind

This xmas is special as my sweet boys age

On old traditions we may turn a page

I seek for them happiness and to feel loved

By mother, by father, by those lost up above.

 

Some Thoughts:

My Dentist suggested that Romo should win MVP now that the Cowboys are a lock to make the playoffs. Look, man, take your victory in a secured playoff spot. Let’s not get all crazy about stuff. I mean, it’s like Wesley Snipes says, “Some people are always trying to ice skate uphill.”

‘Girls rule, Boys drool’ is a long held tenet of the feminine mystique that I’ve often dispatched as mere bravado. As part of the ‘best version of myself’ movement I’m reexamining a lot of the things I’ve dismissed and some of the things I’ve held as absolute fact. This simple rhyme, once dismissed is something that popped up again for me recently as I’ve watched the behaviors of kids on my block over the last year. It can be said that girls do wield a great and terrible power. My boys have learned this lesson. Consider the example of my neighborhood. Here, I believe, Be Dragons… In the form of young girls.

It started with a birthday party. Perhaps we should even go a step backward to the curious case of the invites. We were working on a shoestring budget and with a hoard of friends that my eldest wished to invite, as well as the people we already know in our grown up lives and needed to invite, there was precious little room to accommodate the entire block. Choices had to be made. The wifey and I ran down the list of names and considered, Santa-like, which kids were naughty and nice. When it came time for final cuts, she and I both agreed to leave out one kid in particular. This boy came from a very difficult home and is the boy who you always see first thing in the morning sitting outside throwing rocks at garbage cans, because he has nothing better to do with his day. This boy who we shall call ‘Caden’ for the sake of identification purposes, wasn’t all bad. He is rough around the edges and desperately unloved. So, as a result, he gets into scuffles and struggles with people.

As a result, we didn’t invite him. That should’ve been the end of the story. Instead, my precocious and braggadocio five-year-old decided to go to the kid’s house, let him know a party was going down and that other block kids were invited when he most certainly was not. That is not, as I sometimes say, ‘a good look’. Dear ‘Caden’ didn’t retaliate in any way–yet. Instead he told his cousin (one of the 10+ people living in the house…), a pre-teen girl the boys had played with for months. She did the work for him. The cousin put the word out that the boys were persona non grata. Friendships started to dry up immediately. In fact, two kids invited to the party ‘forgot’ to come.

I suspected all this at first but learned over time that word had been sent that the boys didn’t like ‘Caden’ and as a result weren’t cool. These boys are quite cool (much to my surprise–I thought my kids were nerds like me), but on the block they were hardly the cool ones. This all came down to a single girl. She instantly hurt the standing of the boys and her power extends to this day. There are still kids who don’t play with my boys. Such is the power of Dragons…. or girls.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Down five pounds. I can do this weight loss thing once I start getting serious about working on myself a little each day.

I’m definitely going back to Iron Man.

Used to be a time where I chose my heroes based on the powers they had/were given. I was a Wolverine guy. He had his crazy cool healing ability and hardly aged. I was envious of course, being a guy who doesn’t want to die (like ever). After that guy came Batman, a character that needs no introduction. My Bat-phase was on and off for years, but it was never as deep seated as Marvel’s own Jeckyll and Hyde. I thought The Hulk was all there was in life, because he had this rage button that, when depressed, caused the world to blow up. Not surprisingly, I was that guy in my elementary years. Eventually I moved on to Spiderman. He was bit by a radioactive spider and, after experience jaded him, decided to use his mind and powers in the best possible fashion. I was even more stoked when he came out publicly as the man behind the webs (Civil War). It doesn’t take a psych degree to tease out that I’m into heroes that, in a sense, make their own fate from the skills they develop vs. being born or falling into (often quite literally) some sort of power.

That brings me back to Tony Stark. The Iron Man found his own way, though he inherited his empire. He built his first suit from scraps, under duress. In other words, he worked hungry and earned the right to be a hero because of what was ultimately at stake. I for one chose heroes that are a reflection of myself. I have always felt that somewhere inside of myself is the raw ability to be a very successful individual who makes a real difference in the world. I take from Stark the inspiration to draw upon what I have and what I know to do something great.

I was saddened by watching the Hobbit. It occurred to me late in the film that this is it. This is likely the last big screen fantasy epic I’ll see for some time. That is a real pity, because the genre has real legs. Consider the wild success of Game of Thrones. That success spurred other era pieces, such as Marco Polo. Swords and mystery are all the rage again. Still, is anyone willing to mark out a budget as large as what is generally attached to Peter Jackson movies?

 

Some Thoughts:

1. The new sci-fi show, Ascension tackles some pretty tough philosophical ideas–some of the same stuff dealt with in Hugh Howey’s Dust. This is another new show for me, but this one is kind of more about thinking about the ideas than following the show itself. In other words, its a positive add.

When I was pulling the pules and piles of garbage off my desk and out of my office this evening (in lieu of actual writing, mind you), I stumbled across a Writer’s Digest magazine raising the creative power of inspired work spaces. This resonated with me, partly due to an earlier conversation I’d had with friends about the role a good work space plays in my ability to create. There’s been less of that cosmic connecting in my universe lately. In truth, I’ve been feeling a bit isolated and uncreative. The space is a large part of that. Its a cluttered desk, cluttered mind sort of thing. Except its more like uninspired space, uninspired mind. I was recently reminded of how beige my home is. Beige and Brown. This isn’t ripe for the creative.

After my talk and finding (and then reading) the magazine, I went to my horoscope to see if forces were aligning to propel me in some positive direction. The first line: When you allow yourself to dream, and you totally immerse yourself in the dream, you begin to feel like anything is possible. To me the dream is the space and the idea of creative inspiration that empowers me to pull out all of the good that is inside me. I know a space can do that if I let it. Once I allow myself to transform the environment physically and figuratively, I think I’ll be back on a really good writing vibe.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. The toughest thing about the creative process is that it requires serious alone time without any interruption. Every time I break to have a conversation or to deal with a screaming kid, I gotta reset and go through that long process of just sinking into the assignment again. You sink in too many times and eventually you can’t. You’re just used up–sitting around and waiting for the next interruption.

At what point is it okay to yell at someone else’s kid? Does that change if you’re his coach? If he’s kind of a problem? I’ve been running myself ragged trying to coach three flag football teams. Each boy has his own squad and each squad represents a fundamentally different challenge. The eldest is on a 10-12 year old team filled with what a nicer person than I would call, ‘personalities’.

The roster says I have 10 kids but I’ve only ever seen 6 of them at once. How can you practice without having a full squad? I mean we do the workouts and I have some things I can do with the team, but when it comes to building unity and community, there isn’t much there. In truth, they’re a ragged pack of arrogant 10 and 11 year olds who have some definite holes in their skillsets. I have a great deal to work on with them and very little time left to do so before they begin playing games. We have 1 practice and then a scrimmage and then two practices before our first game that counts. This could be a steep learning curve.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. When I was a wee lad my best bud at the time had a kitten. My son recently got a kitten and it occurs to me that his kitten looks exactly like the one from long ago. That makes me wonder if I’m really remembering it right or remembering the essence of the thing and plugging in the details that fit best for me.
2. My good friend is reading his poetry tomorrow and releasing his poetry book. I’ll be there for him, but I want to say ‘best of luck’ right now in order to get that positive energy out there in the universe.

I spent a good few hours at the office today trying to put a bow on the semester. I connected with my creative writing students and it was a good connection. There is something really uplifting about students who want to be in school and manage to get something out of the experience. On occasion (less recently) I’ve found myself able to reach out to students who didn’t want to be in school yet thrilled at and wanted to continue the experience. Truth be told, those are better than the ones who wanted to be there in the first place.

At the end of this surprisingly long semester I find myself happy, exhausted, and ready to focus on something different. My focus for the next few weeks is kids and fiction in that order. Xmas is upon us and I have three very energetic boys who are super excited about the week off and all the possibilities that creates. Personally, I’m excited about what they are excited about, but I am also excited to be able to delve deeper into my craft and create something truly engaging.

Stay tuned.