10 Minute Rule

I want to use this space to explore some ideas. I have a Sociology through Film class coming up and I feel like the class is a wonderful opportunity to explore the youth culture and their interpretations of the world around them. Like any good bonfire, these students need fuel. I try to strike a balance in my classes between directed and culled material. I want them to choose a certain amount of the media we explore, which narrows the amount of media I bring to the table and for what purpose.

I want to bring in The Wire for certain. The show is a poor opener for the class, as the complexity of the Wire is better unraveled with a basic understanding of sociological theory. But where do I start? I Love Lucy? Birth of a Nation? Actually, that last one isn’t a half-bad idea. While it could be too ‘in your face’ for an initial screening, it does make a statement about how film has and continue to be used over time. Perhaps I show a clip and get them going.

Its all about the energy in the room. If you can get the energy flowing at get them feeling safe and uncomfortable and excited to learn. Just gotta find the right clips to get them there.

Some Thoughts:

1. The assertion that macs do not become infected by viruses is totally false.
2. I still cannot believe MJ married that Debbie Rowe chick. If anyone needed an intervention it was him.
3. Lady Gaga is a lot like a deranged version of Madonna. Just saying…
4. Thinking about taking 1 or more boys to a Cardinals game. The price for tickets is restrictive, especially if they cannot make it a whole game. Still, I might go ahead and make this happen, because the experience of a pro game is awesome. Maybe I’ll do a dry run with them at a preseason game…

When I am overwhelmed I freeze up. I’m not talking about people telling me things I don’t want to hear or deadlines crashing down overwhelmed. I’m talking about ‘you have 24 hours to complete 47 tasks that take 3 hrs apiece’ overwhelmed. It happens more than I’d like to admit. It mostly happens because I set myself up that way. It isn’t so much that I have 24 hrs, but more that I give myself 24 hrs from awareness of any given task to completion of that task. That’s a ‘weird old trick‘ I picked up somewhere along the way to avoid procrastination. However, it only triggered additional procrastination, because the moment you realize that you’re going to fail to do everything you need to do, it becomes that much easier to avoid doing anything you need to do.

Nowadays I give myself till I go to sleep.

I don’t try to do every task. Instead I do a triage and determine what things are the most important. I usually can complete around 3 major tasks a day depending on the time requirements for each. I can do this because I say: I’m going to do Task A today and if I get the time I’m doing B. This way I feel less responsible to force out C or even B. I focus on what’s important and once that is complete I look at how much time I have left and jam whatever I can into those remaining hours.

I’m no organization or time management expert. In truth I suffer from a genetic illness known as Chronic Disorganizatia. However, by recognizing this illness and being patient with myself, I can function and complete tasks like a normal human being can.

On the good days I even look organized.

I am a huge fan of discovering how you learn best. To me it just makes sense to know what learning condition is going to be the one that benefits you. Learning how you learn is simple, but it must be more than a guess. You can say, “Hey, I’m an active learner, ” and call it a day but that doesn’t mean you understand what that entails or if it truly captures the entire way you learn. In truth, most people possess the ability to acclimate to all types of learning and even have competency in multiple learning styles. I suggest taking a simple test like this one or this one or even this one to gauge where you live along the learning spectrum.

This type of knowledge extends well past the classroom. Knowing how you learn ought to shape your experiences in life. I recently purchased the Up bracelet by Jawbone, a life tracking device that shows me what is happening with my body in terms of steps I take and hours I sleep. I am, in part, a visual learner so when I see a graphic reflecting my sleep and exercise trends it inclines me to be more active and to change the style and intensity of my activity. I am also an active learner–one who likes to move and do in order to learn, so I experiment extensively with different things in order to figure out the right way to do something.

Because I am visual and I am active I am a person who dabbles in the reading of how-to books and follows e-how online. My home is littered with attempts to learn professional carpentry and the like. Knowing how I learn helps my to understand how I can best acquire new skills without waisting money on learning experiences that will be ineffective.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. No Waiver Wednesday today. There is little to say between the 1st and second weeks of pre-season football that hasn’t already been exhausted on the plethora of 24-hr sports news stations littering your channel guide.
2. Still no Minecraft either, because a 4 yr old should not have any reason to pick up a 10 lb barbell and brandish it as a weapon.

I talk to my best male friend once a month if I’m lucky. There are times when the lapse between conversations extend to two or even three. It isn’t much better with my best female friend (outside of my wife, of course). We haven’t seen each other in two months easy, and unlike the male friend she and I live 40 minutes apart. The fact is I don’t fit the general perceptions of what adult friendships look like. We are a Wolfpack or a group of guys who get together to hunt and talk about our wives. We don’t have a Fantasy Football league (I mean, I do but not with my best bud).

All of those things are part of the perception or myth of adult friendship created by film and media. I’ve been fed these images of proper adult friendship protocol and activity since my youth and now as an adult I sometimes feel sad that I don’t have that sort of relationship with my top guy.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Rizolli and Isles is worrying me a bit. The format change reflects a need to tell the story of other members of the squad, which takes time away from the Isles/Rizolli interactions. It is the best buddy show I’ve seen in a while let’s not ruin it.

For all of the things I say about the difficulty of raising my three boys, I will say that there are moments in time where nothing in the world could replace the moments I have with them. Tonight presented such an opportunity. Each school day I sit the boys down one by one and ask them to tell me all about their school day. It makes school a special time for them, because they get this reward of being able to tell me all about it and do so in a way that makes them and their experience the center of my attention. They are the center of my attention for that period of time. I hold each one in turn and let him recount his day from waking up to being in my arms. I hold them and ask them questions. I listen and reflect on what wonders they’ve been up to and for those moments they are the most precious creatures in the multiverse.

Then the moment passes and the fighting and screaming begins anew.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. I’ve been given the opportunity to teach Sociology through Film again. This time I want to look at films specifically in terms of Genre and the role genre plays as a socializing agent and social tool. This could be fun.

A few years back I read a story by Joseph Findler in which he wrote, “Never let an asshole rent space in your head.” I’ve taken that statement as a bit of a mantra and realized that it does, in a way, explain all of the world’s businesses. Here’s my theory: People are ultimately insecure and a large number mask that insecurity with power. Steve Jobs had that problem. Though we tend to point to the wonderful company he built and his heroic cancer battle, the man was widely considered to be an ass. He isn’t alone. The medical industry is one peppered with individuals looking to make a quick buck, often at the expense of employees who are so cowed by these bosses that they are willing to accept less than acceptable behaviors in order to remain in the good graces of said bosses.

Politics lives by this mantra. Politicians are trying to do two things: get the people to vote for them and climb so deep into an opponents head that they either loose their cool or loose their ability to perform adequately. Corps and politics are very similar, which is what led to the quote. If you can understand the principle that these people in power over you are trying to rent space in your head, you are already ahead of the game.

I started thinking about this while reading non-fiction about the corporate world and listening to news reports about Putin. There is a guy who is clearly compensating with power.

Some Thoughts:

1. As the FB season nears, the Giants are looking great. The Jets are not. All is normal with the world.
2. Watching Clear History, the new Larry David film. No verdict yet.

A few years ago I spent some time in Florida. This wasn’t the real Florida, mind you, this was Disney’s Florida. I went with friends, had a ball, and hardly saw any of the madness that so plagues the media outlets today. The real Florida is a place where laws are made for political purpose. A good example of that is the Cuban Adjustment Act. Whereas any other nationality sets foot on American soil as an undocumented immigrant, they may be arrested. Cubans, on the other hand, are allowed to stay and provided a 1 year fast track to citizenship.

This is not the only peculiarity of Florida. The ZImmerman-Martin case highlighted the difficulties of the Stand Your Ground Law, but self-defensive assault has long been a right of the people. A recent case that highlighted this was the case of a bully murdered by the kid who was being bullied by him. I am the last to stand for bullying, but murdering your bully and then avoiding charges is a peculiarity that seems rather unique to the Florida Coast.

Lets not forget about the hanging chads. Before it was a cultural reference for poop that just won’t move on, it was the controlling factor in the 2000 Presidential election that saw supposed Internet Creator, Al Gore lose out to Upside Down Book Reader, George Bush.

In a place with as much swamp land as legitimate real estate, there are bound to be a few peculiarities (and alligators). Perhaps none as egregiously odd as this 2009 gem where a man called in a 911 emergency because the Donut Shop ran out of lemonade. Florida is flat out weird. Now, I live in AZ, so I can do about 17 more columns like this on my state, but like I said, I live here.

And people would talk bad about me.

 

 

 

1. I often wonder what ideas my head would be filled with if I never watched TV. The tube plays a significant role in my life and without it I wonder what my loose thoughts would be filled with?
2. Could be art. I’ve never had the mental time to appreciate art in any large way. I’d love to see and learn more about all forms of art.
3. This isn’t much of a blog this evening–call it the joys of a friday night. My brain is working overtime buzzing through a handful of private and work projects while still trying to get up to half speed. Full speed is perhaps a week off, just in time for classes.
4. Going to miss GenCon yet again. I really wanted to go this year being that it is very much the year of Shadowrun. I have multiple stories and work out there alongside some really great writers and I am proud of that.
5. Spent some of that story money before I got it. I picked up a 46″ TV for almost less than it cost my wife to buy her new glasses online. That’s been our ‘deal’ for years now. SHe makes a capital purchase and then I make one, or vice versa.

 

Been a long time since I’ve written about the game of football. Though I have a coaches meeting monday night for Soccer, it is the oval pigskin that occupies my thoughts. Do all ex  players wind up wanting to coach in order to stay closer to the game? The league is littered with players turned position coaches. Now that we’re in the Preseason for the NFL I  am anxious to watch the game and learn even more.

Maybe football is my one true hobby. I love it like a fat kid loves cake and I’ll coach it, talk it, and teach it free of charge. Lately I’ve been researching offenses from as far back as the origin of the game, trying to become the student of the game I never was when it truly mattered. This isn’t regret talking, this is my way of eyeballing the future. I want to coach the game beyond these last few years of flag. Maybe I coach my kids or someone else’s in the long run, but developing young players and being a teacher is where I want to be.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. I deleted MineCraft from my Xbox today after an in-game fight between the three boys erupted into a screaming match and deteriorated violently from there. It was time for that game to go.
2. When you work in education and someone says, hey, research says that students need this! your first thought should be, how can I make this happen for my students as opposed to, how am I going to manipulate this situation to get what I want so I can make my area stronger and get what I am entitled to in order to make my area into the image I believe it ought to be for students… Just saying.
3. I love how Chip Kelly is screwing with the media. NFL Network had to preview Eagles Patriots as Matt Barkley and the Eagles having no idea who is going to be putting in time beyond that guy. They stayed in form announcing the Patriots backup as the guy. It is clear the Patriots #2 is playing that game and not much will be seen of Brady. How about Tebow? I want to see Tebow.

Surfing the company website I noticed a bald white guy who immediately struck me as an old detective. Now the video was an HR video, so I had no reason to suspect Mr. Bald to be a police offer. I wondered why I thought that, and the answer popped into my head immediately. Mr. Bald mirrored my frame of reference for what an aging police detective should look like. I’m not ready to blame The Closer outright. I can’t really explain where this particular frame of reference or even stereotype came from. Some people look like cops, or crooks, or bankers, or housewives, etc.

Dictionary.com defines frame of reference as a structure of concepts, values, customs, views, etc., by means of which an individual or group perceives or evaluates data, communicates ideas, and regulates behavior. By this definition, we take in data from people’s appearance and compare that data to specific sets of criteria we are familiar with and seek the best match. This simplifies our understanding of who new people are as well as new situations. We apply our frame of reference to the situation and act according to expectations about that frame of reference.

So, when I saw the bald dude I felt cop. What are some of your frame of reference-based stereotypes? Think hard about it, because being aware of it will allow you to control your reactions to people, putting you in a better place for communication.