Road Tripping

"Please don't put doughnut in your ears!"

This week I had it in mind to write a blog about love. In fact, I had gone so far as to begin composing it in my head. It was going to be great. And then I went on a road trip this weekend. So, I decided to blog about the road trip instead. For pictures to accompany the narrative go here.

The impetus: The Lego company held a Grand Opening for their Murray, UT store.

Aiding factor: The girls' had no school on Thursday and Friday.

With the stage thus set I found little reason not to cancel classes on Friday and hightail it out of town. I evenly blatantly told my students why I wasn't going to class. They seemed highly amused; some even asked me about it today. Pre-road trip preparations involved a trip to the library for music (nothing worth mentioning...I know disappointing), and Trina doing most of the packing. She's a trooper.

6:20 a.m. Friday morning. I wake up, shower, and pack the rest of the gear needed for the weekend in the car. Miraculously, Anna is already awake and gets dressed. The other children complain little. Amazingly, we are packed up and...

7:00 a.m. ...actually leave on schedule. The drive goes well. We eat breakfast in the car. Two stops and almost four hours later we stop at the Lego Store. Originally our plan was to drive straight to Provo, visit people there, and return to the grand opening festivities on Saturday. However, we have time so we stop.

10:50 a.m. We arrive at the Lego Store at the Fashion Place Mall. The wait to get in the store is an hour and a half, more time than we have at the moment, but there is no line to help build the 8-foot Hulk sculpture so we help create a line.

11:00 a.m. The build officially begins. The children and I each build a block that is a 4:1 scale larger than a traditional 2x4 brick. We throw these in a pile with other finished bricks and get our certificates for helping out. Mine will join my Lego diplomas on my office wall. We look at the store, but don't go inside.

12:00 p.m. Arrive at Grandma's house; lunch at a pizza buffet. Yum!

2:30 p.m. We visit our long-time friends and allow our children to play. They've known each other since birth. Best friends since diapers.

5:00 p.m. Arrive at my brother Mike's apartment. We grab him, my oldest brother (James), plus my only nephews on this side of the family and head to dinner. We also bring along Trina's cousin Jenna. The location: our favorite Chinese restaurant in Provo, The Lotus Garden. Dinner is fantastic. The conversation is great. A good time is had by some.

7:30 p.m. Return to my brother's place and play a game of Fluxx while the children play Uno.

8:30 p.m. Return to Grandma's to put the children to bed. I also catch the end of the BYU football game. A full day, but a fun one.

9:30 p.m. I go to bed early for good reason, but I don't sleep well.

Saturday

5:00 a.m. After a night of tossing and turning I get up, get dressed, and drive back to the Lego Store. They've implemented a ticket system to keep the store from being over-crowded.

6:00 a.m. After briefly waiting in line behind twenty or so other early risers (and their kids!) I got tickets for my family to enter the Lego store with the first group when it opens.

9:30 a.m. The entire family arrives at the Lego Store where we wait for 30 minutes until the store opens. The children are remarkably good natured about the wait.

10:00 a.m. We are let in the store. It's chaos. Even with limiting the number of people in the store it is still crowded. Trina is a champ and controls all the children at the "Build a Mini" station while I do my shopping. It's so crowded I don't feel comfortable browsing. I spot what I want and grab it off the shelves making my shopping short and sweet. The only exception to the "no browsing" was the longing looks that I cast at the Winter Market Village. My early morning adventure means that we are in time to earn a free Exclusive Lego set. It's a mini model of the store. Anna loves it.

11:00 a.m. An IKEA trip. This is the part of the trip that is for Trina. The children get happily dropped off at the playland; Trina and I shop happily by ourselves.

12:00 p.m. Lunch at my sister's.

1:30 p.m. Family trip to the zoo including almost all my siblings (sorry Emma!) and all my parent's grandchildren. It's one of the rare time all the cousins are together. I enjoyed the Polar Bear. He was putting on a show.


5:30 p.m. Return for dinner. Pasta and salad!

7:00 p.m. Put on "Night at the Museum". It's the first time I've actually seen the entire movie. My wife and I enjoy our favorite Ben and Jerry's Flavor that we can't get at home: Peanut Butter World.

9:00 p.m. Bedtime for the children. The end of another non-stop day.

Sunday

7:30 a.m. Trina and I wake up at approximately the same time to find Anna watching us while she rocks in the rocking chair. Creepy.

12:00 p.m. Lunch before loading up the car and the kids to go home. They cry. They really enjoy being with their cousins. Fortunately, no plans on Sunday and they had the entire morning to play with each other. It's a sad departure.

1:00 p.m. Arrive at the Lego Store for the third and final day of the Grand Opening celebration. Mostly, I just want to see the finished giant Hulk sculpture. It's not finished. I make it back into the store for some last minute shopping. I'm still early enough to get a free Limited Edition minifig set. It contains a race car mechanic, a cook, and a computer guy who looks just like me. It's serendipity.

2:00 p.m. We held build the hulk sculpture again before leaving for home. It's still not finished at that point, but we can delay no longer.

4:30 p.m. After our last stop to get gas Sam received a doughnut. In true Sam fashion he ate his fill and then crumbled the rest in his seat. A short while later I see him in the rear view mirror putting doughnut crumbs in his ears leading to the exclamation that started the blog.

6:00 p.m. We arrive home, unpack, make dinner, and crack into our Lego sets. Successful trip.

I Hate Facebook

Let me get straight to the point. I don't really enjoy social networks. Mostly, it's me, but some of it is social networks in general. Here are the reasons why:

1. They don't actually make me more social. The things I want to say don't fit into the terse format expected of tweets and status updates. This means I rarely update my status. That's part of the reason I'm blogging. I like to take the time to express my thoughts. Given the chance I'll prattle on and on and you get the idea. Well does my wife understand this. She puts up with a lot of postulating and expounding. Now that you're reading my blog so do you. Congratulations or condolences, whichever is appropriate.

2. Seeing what people are doing doesn't make me feel like I'm a part of their lives. In fact, it does the exact opposite. It makes me feel like I'm not apart of their life. Here's all the fun stuff they are doing without me. I'm glad when things are going well for my facebook friends, but it accentuates how little they are doing with me. The only exception to this is when people tag me in their posts, because they are sharing something that made them think of me specifically. Even so, part of me misses the joy of sharing those moments together. I like gathering with my friends and seeing the look on their faces as I share humorous quotes, movies, or pictures. It's so much more satisfying than a "Like" and generally more sincere.

3. I just don't care about selfies. There are so many pictures taken now that cameras are everywhere. Way too many are self portraits. They are definitely not "Kodak Moments", but just an obnoxious desire to document our faces. Social networks aren't making people social; they are exacerbating our narcisstic tendencies in a bad way.

4. I want to talk to you. I don't find interacting with people through status updates and comment sections engaging. It takes too long. I want to talk to my friends. Most of the interaction I have on Facebook is through the chat feature. I often wonder if the chat feature on Facebook is under-utilized. It's one of the better ways on the site to actually be social. And, you don't have to put your conversation out there for the entire world to see. I'm not saying you have anything to hide, but I don't publish my phone conversations. If you ever see that I'm online, feel free to say hi via chat. It's what I'm there for.

5. It is time-consuming. I spend too much time on Facebook finding out what is going on with people I care less about. It needed to be said. I don't care about most of the people I'm friends with, and my friend list is actually fairly small. Honestly, the people who know what's going on in my life don't find out through Facebook. They get it direct from the source: me. I prefer my friends to do the same. My personal opinion is that, by and large, Facebook and other social networks are for secondary friends. The people who care about you the most don't let you find out about their wedding, baby, graduation, etc. via Facebook. You hear it from them first-hand. Facebook is for everyone else. So why am I spending time on relationships with "everyone else" when I would rather strengthen those small key relationships.

6. SPAM. For a long time people would complain about forwards and junk e-mail filling their inboxes. We still have the exam same content, but now it is being passed around endlessly on Facebook. What we didn't want to put up with in our inboxes we readily accept in our timelines. It's a travesty. Plus, amidst the spam we have an endless supply of game invites and diatribes. Why do we bother?

I'm sure there are other reasons that I'm not thinking of, but they don't come to mind. Do I think Facebook is bad? Not as a tool. I think the real problem is in how we use it. We are trying to be too connected to too many people and it is having a negative impact. It has gotten to the point where not engaging this lesser form of sociality has created negative impacts on esteem. Crazy. I'm about ready to deactivate my account.

Musical Theater

As long as I can remember I've enjoyed being on stage. When I was about 7 years old I played a tree sprite in a school play. The older class performed a humorous version of of Robin Hood. I was jealous of the older kids, including my brother, who actually were allowed speaking parts. There were no speaking parts for kids my age, but I (perhaps naively) believed that I could perform admirably.

Likewise, in sixth grade my class planned sketches for a school assembly. I had big ideas and imagined myself decked out in a harness and wires and being lowered onto the stage as Ra the sun god. The teacher decided not to use my ideas and our sketch ended up being something much less technically challenging. And much less memorable as evidenced by the fact that I don't remember what we ended up doing.

Years later I auditioned for the high school performing arts program; I got in during my first audition. They complimented my accent and my waltz. I spent the next four years in the program. I wasn't the only freshman to find space in the program, but there weren't many of us.

The program's standard routine was a song and dance show in the fall, a musical in the spring. We also added to the school choir for various events. Realistically, we were a musical theater program. We sang, we danced, we acted. We never did Shakespeare. My fit in this group was based solely on whatever acting merit I had, because I had no talents for song or dance (despite compliments of my waltz). I think the major strength of my acting lay in my ability to memorize. I had little trouble in learning my dialogue quickly and precisely.

Anyway, there were no auditions for the fall show. As a group we would find musical numbers to fit our theme, small sketches to connect them , and then divide out the work between us. We would choreograph them ourselves and I was never required to learn more than a few simple steps.

The fall shows required auditions. Everyone auditioned and then the teachers assigned roles to everyone. I don't remember what parts I auditioned for, except for my first year. It doesn't matter though because I rarely (possibly never) got the parts for which I auditioned. Freshman year we did the show "Crazy For You". I auditioned for the part of Bela Zangler; I got the role of Sam the Cowboy. The rest of the shows were as follows:

Sophomore: Guys & Dolls--Joey Biltmore
Junior: Oklahoma--Guy named Mike who previously bought a sweet-potato pie.
Senior: Anything Goes--The Porter

My senior year I also did work as a student director/producer. It was fun, but then I went off to college. I kept intending to audition for shows, but never found the time. In my mind I directed and performed versions of "12 Angry Men" with my friends or put on "The Fantastiks". It never happened. High school seemed the end of my scripted acting career. Musical theater abruptly stopped being a part of my life.

Eventually I replaced scripted theater with improvisational comedy and continued that for eight years. It was four years since high school, but I was back on stage. Performing without a script thrilled me. There was occasionally music too. It was great to do something I loved. However, I moved and my group didn't. I tried forming a new group, but it hasn't stuck yet.

So what's my point? I've been missing the stage for the past few years. I miss rehearsals, ad-libs, costumes. I want back on stage. A month ago I grabbed the season brochure for the local "Arts on Tour". Not only have I not been performing, I haven't been attending theater either. I was hoping to see something to entice me to buy season tickets. I keep meaning too. At the back of the booklet was an advertisement for "Spamalot". I got excited! I have wanted to see Spamalot for quite some time, and here it was being done local. I'm thrilled.

Then I did some more looking. The tickets were going on sale mid-September, but the show didn't open until late January. I went to the theater group's webpage to find out more details where I happily discovered that they hadn't even cast the show yet. In fact, they were planning three workshops before auditions and they hadn't even done the first workshop. Wheels in my head started turning. I fantasized about being on stage again. I broached the subject to my wife, explaining my thought processes; this involved worries about how much time it would take and what I would have to give up in order to do Spamalot. Without hesitation she told me that if this was something I wanted to do she would support me all the way and make it work. My wife is awesome! We both know she'll be the one sacrificing for this.

Flash forward a month. I've attended two workshops, bought the soundtrack, listened to it endlessly, started going through the script. Auditions aren't until Oct. 12th, but I'm trying to get ready now. I want to be in this, and I want to be in this big. My biggest weakness is that I can't sing and Spamalot is a musical. True, it's Monty Python so the singing doesn't have to be fantastic, but it has to be passable and I'm not sure I'm even that good. So I've been singing in the car, in my office, on the walk to work. I've been singing endlessly. I've checked out several books on singing technique. I'm working on this all the time. There's not much time, but any improvement will be good.

I thought I was making progress, until this last week when I recorded myself. Needless to say, everything was bad. Not just the singing, the acting as well. And I realized it was because I was trying. I was trying to sound like the man from the soundtrack and it wasn't working. I was "acting" and it was obvious. So I've got about three weeks to stop acting and remember how to have fun. To relax and just let it happen. And I need to remind myself that I used to sing on stage all the time with improv; this isn't unfamiliar territory. I can do this.

So this is what is about to take up a major portion of my life. Be on the lookout for how well I did after the auditions.

Also, check this out:

Family Togetherness

This is a list of things I think every family should own to encourage togetherness. I'll admit "every" family is a bit of a stretch, but if something on this list isn't right for yours it still might inspire you. The focus of this list is minimizing technology use. I'm not anti-technology. There are some great technological advances to bring families together. However, a lot of technology in the home discourages interaction. This list is meant to counter that trend. Being together is worth little if you're not interacting. With that caveat, in no particular order...

1. A large blanket you don't mind taking outdoors.



Rationale: An essential for 4th of July, summer concert series, and picnics. It can also be used in winter for cuddling under as a family while you watch a movie. If large enough it can be used for forts and tents large enough to fit the kids and the grown-up kids.

How I'm doing: My wife is a regular quilter. We have a plethora of blankets, several of which were intended for outdoor family occasions and they get plenty of use.

2. A picnic basket.



Rationale: Family picnics, obviously. Insulate it with a towel to keep foods warm for short periods of time. Otherwise, a basket can also pack non-food material for short family outings. And a basket with a lid can be used for surprises that you don't want to wrap, but still want to reveal dramatically. Like puppies.

How I'm doing: Despite the excess of blankets, my family is sadly lacking on picnic baskets. We have a few baskets that we use for Easter, but no lidded baskets. I hope to make this a new acquisition soon and will be scouring thrift stores for good candidates. No need to spend more money than necessary.

3. A board game that takes at least an hour to play.



Rationale: The trend today seems to be games that are quick. It's like people want to minimize family interaction. For younger children, those quick games are perfect. For older children longer games are more suitable as long as you make the time for them. Bonus: Games often teach strategy, problem solving, and important social lessons about winning and losing. If a board game isn't an option a deck of cards or two is a great alternative.

How I'm doing:I have a closet full of board games as well as a second box of games stored in my walk-in closet. I also have three decks of cards with identical backs (for larger card games), a pinochle deck, and a box of dominoes. Oh, every family needs dominoes.

4. A library card.



Rationale: A library card is the key to a good family outing. It teaches children that books are important. Oftentimes libraries also have art and exhibits. Finally, a large number of libraries (but by no means all) are built next to city parks. This can combine an educational trip with a play trip.

How I'm doing:A library card was one of the first things I got when I moved. I always have one. So does my wife. Now my oldest daughter has one too. Check.

5. A book you are reading together.



Rationale: This is really an off-shoot of the library card. It encourages literacy. It can make great discussion material for around the dinner table. Children will learn to use their imaginations. Adults will get a chance to share their favorites with their children while reliving them. Plus, you might find a new favorite. Don't just read it though. Anticipate what's going to happen next, ask younger children to summarize previous chapters, act out your favorite parts.

How I'm doing: Trina and I have often discussed reading a book as a family. We did it regularly when we were dating, but it died off when we married and had kids. We still read books to the children at night, but not a family book. This week I started to remedy that with "The BFG" by Roald Dahl. We'll see how long it lasts. The children seem to loving it though. Ask them about whizpopping.

6. Decent collection of cookie cutters.



Rationale: To be fair, Trina looked at me funny when I included this one. However, family cookie making is a classic especially at Christmas time. A decent set will have you making cookies at birthdays, Easter, Valentine's, etc. Plus, cookie cutters can be used to trace shapes and can be used with play-doh. And getting children into the kitchen will be cheaper (and tastier) than those store bought cookies.

How I'm doing: We bought a big set of cookie cutters several years ago. Not all of them are great, but they have served us well. We've added a few to the collections since then. When at our favorite kitchen supply store we sometimes look at their selection. We haven't purchased any cookie cutters from them...yet.

7. Play-doh



Rationale: Play-doh inspires creativity. You build, you design, you play. Have theme nights where all family members create something (like animals). Reenact scenes from stories. Create caricatures of the family. Remember, play-doh will not last forever no matter how well you care for it. Plus, it's fairly inexpensive. Let people mix colors. Don't plan on all the play-doh ending up back in the canisters. Build models that you expect to dry out and put on the shelves for a week or two. Make the things you see on the boxes instead of just rolling it out and balling it up endlessly.

How I'm doing:We have a few small canisters of play-doh, but we haven't sat down for some dedicated family building. Maybe next week.

8. Art supplies including Construction Paper, Pipe Cleaners, Sidewalk Chalk, Pens, Pencils, Crayons, Marker, Paint, etc.



Rationale: Art projects indoors and outdoors. Decorate your house, do puppet shows, make gifts, build toys. Really, this one deserves it's own blog written by my wife. Best bet, buy the art supplies at the beginning of the school year when they are at their cheapest. Doing art with the children makes it more likely the supplies will be taken care of and last for a long time. Plus you get to nurture your own latent (or not so latent) talent.

How I'm doing: My house is filled with art supplies of various types. We just need to be better about using them as a family. Too often I send the kids to be artsy by themselves instead of joining them in their artistry.

9. A little red wagon.



Rationale: Holding personal items (or children) on trips to the zoo, picnics, etc. It can also be used to do service projects as a family around the neighborhood.

How I'm doing: This was one of the first big "toy" purchases I made after the birth of my oldest daughter. I selected a wooden red wagon that I love. I haven't taken as good care of it recently as I used to. Some of the brackets need replaced and parts need a paint job, but it still functions. And I love it. It worked great at our recent zoo trip.

10. Sleds

Rationale: It's like a wagon, except for winter. Family time fun when the weather changes.

How I'm doing: I've had several sleds in the past, but moves with an uncertain future led to sleds being donated to friends. Currently, we are living without, but winter is approaching and maybe that will change. My kids are getting old enough to really enjoy them. Bring on the cold and cocoa.

11. Popcorn Maker/Ice Cream Maker



Rationale: I guess this brings it back to technology, but having food that you made together while you have a family night can just make things better than ever. Plus, it gives you an excuse to use that blanket I mentioned at the beginning.

How I'm doing: I own two ice cream makers (a small and a large). For my birthday about a year ago I got a hot-air popcorn popper. I love it and use it all the time. You can make microwave popcorn, but this is so much better.

I know this list isn't complete. I figure I will expand it in the future as things pop into my head, and I'd love your input.

Censorship

Recently I watched three movies where the use of foul or crude language was inexcusable. Generally, the word that caused offense in these three movies was the f-bomb. I wish I could tell you that I turned off the movies instead of exposing myself to the language, but I only ended one of the movies prematurely. In that one the language bothered me and the movie bored me. A double whammy that that couldn't be forgiven or tolerated any longer. Now, I'm not going to mention which movies because I don't want the post to be about the movies. I want it to be about the language.

You see, I believe in censorship. Not government or organizational censorship, but a conscientious personal censorship. There are certain words that should not be said. We should choose not to say them. No one should force us not to say them, but as individuals we should choose to use better language. Why? Because we are part of a society and we have the desire to be considerate to those around us. Just because we have "free speech" does not mean we should feel free to say whatever we want. Words have consequences and we should consider the impact of those words on the people around us.

I have heard the argument that the use of coarse or vulgar language makes characters more realistic. Related to this is the premise that vulgar language is used in movies because movies reflect reality. The argument is flawed. Anyone who watches movies can tell they don't reflect reality. If life was like the movies the world would be a different place. This is why we have a phrase like "willing suspension of disbelief" (WSOD). Abandoning vulgar language might make characters less realistic, but application of WSOD suggests that in most cases people will be able to deal with it. So the gangster didn't drop a blue streak when he started shooting. Most people will be able to accept that. Besides, I've never associated the ability to swear as a sign of depth of character and so characters probably won't suffer for lack of four-letter words.

Another concern of mine is that movies don't reflect life, they exaggerate it. That's right! Movies exaggerate life. They take the real world and make characters more stereotypical, fights more action-packed, romances more romantic, and curse words more prolific. In this way movies can concentrate their message. The sad thing is that it doesn't end with movies exaggerating life. Life than proceeds to mimic the movies. People model their behavior on peers and popular media. As people mimic movies their languages deteriorates to reflect the model. The norm shifts. Movies exaggerate the new norm. Life mimics. The norm shifts. A cycle is created that causes the decline of everyday language. Vulgar language becomes more prevalent and acceptable.

I also believe that casually dropping vulgar language as an adjective, verb, noun or exclamation is lazy writing. A person who can't stop using vulgar language in every day speech appears illiterate (even if they graduated from Harvard). In the same way, writing inundated with four-letter words appears sophomoric. It does not take a lot of creativity to use vulgar language (ok...sometimes it does, but most people are far from creative with it's use). Cole Porter was insightful with his lyrics "Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose...Anything Goes." That's sad.

Some writers seem to select a vulgar word as a go to choice, inserting it randomly into sentences to give them "flavor" or "honesty". Let me tell you about "flavor". The more you are exposed to a flavor the less strength it has. The end of a lollipop is the least flavorful. Chewing gum's flavor is strongest on the first chew. A steak's flavor diminishes with each meaty bite. It's just the way the senses work. In the same way, vulgar languages loses its power the more it is used. People who are using vulgar language for flavor or honest should discourage its use. That means each individual use will have more impact. It will do the job even better. Vulgar language is more effective when it's scarce.

Because that's the thing, a lot of four-letter words (I'm thinking of one in particular) have lost meaning, because they are used indiscrimanitely to describe anything and everything. Too many connotations and a word is essentially junk. Vulgar words are falling into the literary company of words like "very", "stuff", and "things" and should be edited out in a similar fashion.

This would be a great point in the blog to drop a blue streak to make my point about impact, but I won't. Why? It would undermine the rest of my message.

The question to ask yourself is "Would removing the questionable language change the meaning of the sentence?" If not, let it go. it's not needed. If removing the language would change the meaning of the sentence then let it go, but replace it with a more descriptive word that restores the meaning. Writers might be forced to find adjectives that actually have dictionary definitions or strong nouns. They'll be on a search for Porter's "better words". It can only help their writing. A good vocabulary is essential for any writer, including the four-letter words.

And that's all I have to say on the topic. If you have a comment make sure it's profanity free. After all, the profanity laden rebuttal is obvious and immature. And it will just get deleted.

About Books

My life runs on semesters. As a student, the semester schedule meant little. There was little in the way of routine. Each Fall would bring a different set of classes and requirements for success. So while some things were routine, by and large each new semester had it's own challenges and time requirements. However, as a teacher my semester schedule is fairly constant. My class loads haven't changed at all while I've been at CSI. Fall semester is six PSYC 101 classes and a PSYC 201. The times are the same. Even the classrooms stay the same. You would think, therefore, that I would be able to predict my workload for each semester.

I'm not.

As indicated by my earlier blog posts I had high hopes for getting a lot of writing done in the last five months of the year. However, as the semester started last week I find my time severely limited. I couldn't even find the time to edit my last blog post in a timely manner. It took the Labor Day holiday to find the time to edit that blog post and start this one. Now I'm editing this one on the day I'm supposed to be writing a new one. Sheesh.

But is it really a lack of time or am I just not spending my time well? Obviously (like the question of nature vs. nurture) the answer is both. I don't have enough time and I'm not spending my time well. I've been trying to analyze where I'm spending my time poorly in order to increase my productivity and get my writing back on schedule. I have come to a conclusion about one of the places I'm not spending my time well.

Librarians be warned: you might not like this part.

I read too much. Honestly, too much of anything can be bad for you, even reading. When my writing and other important goals suffer because of my reading it is time to ease back. I know several of my coworkers are jealous of the amount of books I read (and movies I watch). Generally I leisure read for at least an hour every day. Some days it can be 3-4. Weekends can sometimes reach more than 6. However, given how full my life is with other things (and potentially getting busier--stay tuned for future blogs) that might be too much. I might need to limit it to 30 minutes each day or less.

It can't be eliminated completely. A great writer needs to read. Books can inspire. Sometimes I pick up a book and the way the plot develops makes me want to rush to the nearest keyboard and begin typing. An authors use of words can make me start writing my own prose in my head as I try to adopt a similar voice. Writers need to be readers. The question is what is the perfect reading to writing ratio? Obviously, that's personal but it is still important.

Secondly, I have this deep desperation in my soul: I can't read everything. No matter how much time I have there will always be books that go unread, series I will not be introduced to, authors I won't have time to enjoy. Even if I cut back on reading time that list only grows. So what do I read? My to-read list is extensive. I don't limit myself much on genres. I read science fiction AND fantasy. Mystery. Classics. Non-fiction (especially focusing on psychology). Kids books. How-to. Anything that was adapted into a novel. So which books are worth spending my time on and which books am I just wasting my time on?

Yes! Some books are a waste of my time, but which? One of my current goals is to read all the Star Wars novels. This is a series of books that I largely consider fluff fiction. It used to be a small percentage of my reading selection, but because of this goal it has been almost 100% of my reading selection. Part of me has to wonder if I should abandon this goal. However, I'm over 100 books into the effort. Do I give up now? If I stay on track am I just committing the sunk-cost fallacy?

What about rereading old favorites? There are few books I'll read twice. Strunk and White's little book is the notable exception. I read it yearly. Mostly I reread books when the sequels come out and I need a refresher on what happened. However, every time I reread one book, that means another book I could have read doesn't get read. Do I have time for that with all the good books out there to read? The other day I was fondly remembering The Death Gate Cycle by Hickman and Weis. I'm considering rereading it, but that is seven books that I won't read because I chose to reread the cycle.

At times it feels like deciding to read a book or not is like being in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". I'm surrounded by grails (books). Some are jeweled, some are plain. Some are wood, some aren't. I can only pick one. Watching over my shoulder is a knight. Sometimes, halfway through the book he gives me a satisfied smile and I hear his voice echo in my head "You have chosen...wisely." Other times I'm just a few pages in and he's telling me I've chosen poorly. I hate when that happens. What do I do?

I can't do much except accept the inevitable. No, I won't read everything. It's impossible to keep up. The best I can do is read books I'm truly interested in. Don't waste time on books I'm not. This inevitably collides with my Star Wars goal. Currently I'm reading one of the books and it suuuuuucks! Do I waste time on it for the goals sake? Unfortunately, yes, but I'm cheating. Instead of reading it I'm skimming it. It will take me a fraction of the time and I can then move on to more desirable books.

Other books of note: I never picked up "The Davinci Code" and probably never will, mostly because I'm not interested. Same for the Twilight Series. I might eventually get to the Hunger Games series, but probably not. It's not that they're not good books (though what a good book is can be highly debated), it's just that I don't care.

My wife would swear that part of my taste in books is a strong distaste for trendy books. She wouldn't be wrong. A book being popular is never a reason to read it. It seems so many people read things because "everyone" is reading it. If you don't read it, you risk being left clueless while the rest of the world talks about it. Do I read the popular books? Sometimes, but only if the story interests me. Most popular books don't.

A not so guilty confession: I judge books by their cover. How else are you going to pick a book out from the local library?

I also take recommendations from people who know me well. So...any recommendations for things worth spending my limited reading time on?

Movie Night!

While hanging out with my friends Jared and Beth several weeks ago we hit on the great idea of having themed movie nights where we can force people to watch painful (and not so painful) movies from our past. Okay, the goal wasn't really to force people to watch bad movies but to see what movies people would bring when given a theme. The first theme we discussed was Natural Disasters. Beth piped up with Twister, and I put in with Dante's Peak. Then it became a game to see what bad natural disaster movies we could think of (I won't regale you with the list). Other themes discussed were Guilty Childhood Pleasures, Animal Movies, Space. The list went on; I can't remember them all.

I have a tendency to think big ideas, but to never let them come to fruition. For example, my sidewalk board game day. That one hasn't happened yet. However, I was motivated on this one and on the 16th of August Beth, Jared, Trian and I decided that movie night should move forward. Our first challenge was selecting a theme. We let fate play her hand. After creating a long list of themes we rolled a 10-sided dice (d10) and fate revealed our theme.
Theme: Actor/Actress

Bugger it all. That was less than helpful. Which actor/actress? Back to the drawing board. Selecting an actor wasn't difficult, but it did include some challenges. First, you need an actor who has been prolific. This allows for a large selection of films. Second, the actor needs to have done a variety of films. Some people might debate this criteria, but I think it adds to the excitement of the night if you don't know whether you're going to get a drama, an action, a comedy, or something else entirely. Third, we had to be able to agree that we could work with that actor as a theme. Who would you name?

Our list included Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, and a short list of others. I don't remember all of them. I've lost the list. Another roll of the dice and the theme was...

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN!

Take a moment and think about what you would bring to a Christopher Walken movie fest.

Done? Good.

As part of our movie night we also attempted to guess what the other members of the party would bring. Here's my list:

Trina: "Stepford Wives" or "Wayne's World 2"
Jared: "Wedding Crashers" or "Balls of Fury"
Beth: "Kangaroo Jack" or "Catch Me if You Can"

Here's how it actually broke down:

Me: "Batman Returns." I also brought "A View to a Kill" as a backup.
Trina: "Wayne's World 2"
Jared: "Balls of Fury"
Beth: "Seven Psychopaths"

We only allowed ourselves time for two movies. Both couples have children who get grumpier the later they stay up. And I get grumpier the later I stay up. So, instead of voting on the movie to watch we returned to the power of fate. Fate this time equaled small children. We put the movies in a bag and let the kids draw them out. The first movie was "Wayne's World 2" (I had been about to abbreviate it as WW2, but that doesn't work out well). The second was Batman Returns.

Attention and interest declined during the second movie, but there was a lot more interaction and commentary. It caused a lot of reflection about younger years, differences in the Batman depictions. For example, who was the best Batman. And separately, who was the best Bruce Wayne? Honestly, Christian Bale did a good Batman, but I don't think he did a great Bruce Wayne.

We also discovered via this conversation that Adam West was not the first screen Batman. That honor goes to Lewis Wilson (1943) and then Robert Lowery (1949) before we get to Adam West in 1966.

One of the best parts of the evenings, besides the conversation, was the food. I like to cook when I have friends over. I made pretzels and mustard, my wife made chocolate ice cream; we hauled out our collection of homemade crackers. Jared and Beth brought a bag of butter flavored packing peanuts. (No joke, worst part of the evening right there. Gross).

Anyway, I could go on and on about this, but I won't. It was a delightful evening and something I look forward to doing again in the future. If you have a great idea for a movie night theme, please comment!

Back To Work!

I am semi-excited and scared to be back at work this week. The first week of work is Inservice. It involves a State of the College Address, various faculty development meetings, department meetings, advising, as well as an ice cream social.

Amidst all this there is generally a fevered rush to get classes prepped. Syllabi need to be updated. Online courses need to be revamped. Assignments need to be reconsidered.

Most of this can fit in fairly well, except when you have a new textbook. This can add upwards of 700 pages of reading as well as a complete overhaul of the courses. Soon you are making decisions about what is most important to get done for the students and what would just be nice. It is what I'm going through right now.

I generally enjoy this week as everyone comes back and there are plenty of people to talk to. It's how I get my social fix. However, being social is also distracting. A simple question can lead into a full-fledged conversation and soon I've prevented myself and several other people from accomplishing work.

The other major obstacle I have to getting ready for the new semester will be my CPR/AED training. I'm getting certified. The college would like all their faculty and staff to be certified and I support that goal. I feel that it does little good to have life-saving technology spotting the hallways if you don't know how to use it. I pray that I never have cause to use it, but I'm glad that I'll know what to do should the need arise.

Still, that good thing is four hours taken away from other good things that could be done. Fortunately, advising usually makes up for the lack of time other meetings create. During advising time we have nothing to do but sit in our offices and wait for students to show up. It is generally a five hour block of time. Guess what? Students rarely show up for advising (though many of them should). The students that are mostly likely to show up are often the ones that need the least advisement. I attribute that to student denial and unwillingness to do school related work until school starts next week. Their procrastination is my gain. I use that time where I can't leave the office as the time I get most of my work done.

So work started Monday and I'm working like a busy bee to get everything ready for next week. I have gotten a good portion of it done. I'm at that point where I need to give my documents a day or two away so I can look at them with fresh eyes. There are errors in there somewhere, but I'm so tired of looking at syllabi that it has become hard to find them. That gives me the rest of today and Thursday to work on those "would be nice, but not necessary" projects for beginning the semester.

For example, one of my colleagues and I are planning a little experiment where we switch places at the beginning of class to see if anyone will notice. It should be fun. After that, it's all downhill. The routine is set, the lectures are well practiced. If I can only survive in-service week it will be a great semester.

Being a Better DM

I am a gamer. I have been as long as I can remember. I grew up on board games. My family had a fair collection. Family gatherings involved card games. Video games slipped in: first an Atari, then an NES, and so on. In high school I started tabletop roleplaying on a Star Wars system. We would meet in the art room at lunch time and game. The only thing I remember was shooting some spare parts for target practice.

The DM graduated a few years before me so gaming stopped. I didn't game again for a long time, mostly because I didn't know anyone else to game with; I lived in a small town. At college I was more interested in other types of gaming. However, in 2007 I came back to gaming as the Dungeon Master (DM) for a D&D 3.5 game (Nerd speak. If you don't understand, it's not important). This challenged me. I needed to learn the rules (several books worth--one of my players wanted to be a Warlock). I had to plan the story. I had to teach most of my players the rules I had just learned.

While the rules were fairly simple, because of my deep and abiding love or rulebooks, telling the story was more difficult. This is because there is no set way to tell a story. There are few rules for story creation. There are lots of ways to do it, and a lot of ways to do it poorly.

In D&D the major obstacle is too many storytellers. If the game is running correctly it should be a collaborative storytelling process. Each players gets a say in how the plot develops. This is a big deal for me. As a writer I like to develop plots, create likely scenarios, and guide everything towards a specific ending. Things should tie together. Nearly everything is important. Players often seem to care less about the story and more about what cool things their character can do. They generally blow stuff up. Note: I know that is a huge generalization and there are some great players out there who want to advance a cool story.

This means you have two possible outcomes. The first is holding to your plot against all odds. You remove options from the players, explain why what they want to do doesn't work, and drop hints about "acceptable" behavior until they get the hint and play along. This is appropriately known as "railroading"; players hate it.

The other option is letting the players do whatever they want. You throw your plot out the window and make up consequences for their actions as you go along. After the players leave you cry into your notes and then attempt to pick up the pieces. The players might love this at first, but it generally makes for a horrible story and the players will eventually lose interest. The campaign dies. Also, before the campaign dies the Game Master (GM) stops having fun. If he's not enjoying the campaign, no one is. They are part of game just like everyone else. Their enjoyment is important. So you need to find middle ground.

I'm learning a lot about this from my friend David. He's been a GM for two decades (or thereabouts). I am currently a player in his campaign and it has been illuminating. I wish I could tell you about all the insights he has given me, but many are still sinking in.

One of the great things that I've learned from him is the idea of treating the campaign as if it is a television show. The story comes in seasons. Each season has a central story arc. Within that arc you have episodes. Those episodes are a single night of gaming or two nights as an occasional "to be continued" happens. The episodes advance the story.

You also plan filler episodes. These are episodes that generally aren't about the central story, but allow the players a lot of freedom. They can get out craziness, but then they are generally ready to get back to the main story. Even better, if you can later find ways to tie the filler stories into the main story you will seem like a genius in the eyes of the players. It also adds a lot of depth to the campaign.

Another idea I've learned is that you treat the episodes like television writing. Good series don't write one episode at a time, they write all the episodes so they connect together better. Take time to plan the campaign, not just a session. If you plan episodes in advance then you can have a game plan for how unexpected player actions change the world. You'll have more time to anticipate what the players might do. For example, in my next campaign (Pax Malio Season 3) the players will (hopefully) choose to engage in a specific action. Time of day will affect the outcome. Not engaging in the action affects the world. Are there other things the players might do that I have considered? Sure, but the better prepared I am the more it will seem like reasonable repercussions to player actions and not just punishment for not following the script.

This is really the crux of telling a story as a group. You can't force the group to tell the story you want. You also can't them do whatever they want. Good GM's give players options to choose from and know how those options will affect the story. Some options will be more or less attractive. Mysteries, good mysteries, will keep the players within the boundaries because they want to solve the mystery. You can't plan an ending to a campaign (or sometimes even a single session). You have to plan several and see which one you end up at. Good GM's should read Choose Your Own Adventures regularly to get the idea of options in roleplaying.

In the end, I think the thing that makes this easiest is knowing your group. The more experienced a GM is with a group the more they'll have a good idea of what will happen. Then they can plan accordingly.

My campaign has me excited. My friend David's campaign is ending. We have about 6 episodes left. This will probably take us through 2013. 2014 is my year. This has given me more time to plan a campaign than I've ever had. I am currently planning about eight episodes. I have a small handful of them rough sketched. I don't have an order for how this happens. In the end their won't be one. I'm just going to present problems to the group and see which ones interest them. However, problems not dealt with will have consequences.

I have never been so excited for a story and as the game happens I will be blogging about how it goes. I see this last season being the most successful story I've ever played. I hope my players end up enjoying it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

Last words of advice then. If you have a great idea for a campaign start planning it now. Plan it as discrete episodes. Make options. Make several endings. Don't wait until your group is ready for a new campaign. Don't even wait until you have a group. Rough sketch it (don't finalize anything) now and you'll be better able to tweak in the details as your players hit the field and all your planning is for naught.

Psychology and Health or How I Stay Fit

Hello everyone! I know that a major concern people have today is weight loss. You see it everywhere. Heck, I use to worry about it too. Especially a little over a year ago when I weighed close to 180. Then I dropped a lot of that way and people asked me how I did it. I told them honest: I got sick and stopped eating. Not healthy and it didn't make me feel good either. That is why this post isn't going to be about weight loss. It's going to be about health which is much more comprehensive than just weight. I should prelude with a disclaimer: I'm not advertising this. I don't think this will work for you. I'm not a doctor, nutritionist, or other health professional. I don't plan on this blog being widely read so I don't have references at hand for some of the information I'm going to write about, but if you want them I can get them. This is just what I am doing for my own definition of health and it makes me feel better, even if it's not really working.

Since the sickness back in 2012 I've been working to get in shape and stay there. I want my weight loss to be healthy. Last time I weighed myself I was sitting at 153.6. That puts my BMI right about a 23. Healthy! However, I would like to get it under 150. Why? Trying to get it under 150 will help keep me concerned enough that hopefully it won't go higher. Keeping weight off can be one of the hardest bits. Maintaining a goal should help me maintain my healthy weight. Anyway...on to

4 Ways I Stay (Get) Healthy

1. Sleep

Sleep is important! I can't emphasize this enough. If you want to be healthy, get enough sleep. If you need 8 hours, get 8 hours. Don't just assume that if you can get by on six that you only need six. Find out what enough sleep is for you! I'll blog about that later.

Studies show that sleep deprivation has negative effects on the body. It makes us slower and we don't have the same energy. This makes it hard to exercise. Studies are also showing that lack of sleep messes with appetite hormones such as ghrelin and leptin. Basically, when you don't get enough sleep you are more likely to feel hungry and less likely to feel full. You'll eat more! Outside of weight, sleep deprivation can also harm the mind making us anxious, irrational, and screwing with our memories.

Sleep = health. I try and get a good night sleep every night!

2. Stretch

I don't stretch everyday, but I know I should. Stretching should be one of the first things we do in the morning. Not a serious stretch, but a light one to help loosen up the muscles. Look at little babies. Look at cats. Look at dogs. What do they do when they wake up? They stretch! What do adult humans do? Stumble to the kitchen or the bathroom. No wonder I'm so tense!

I don't know all the benefits of stretching, but I do know it's good for me. A light stretch before working out can help avoid injury. A good stretch after working out can increase flexibility. A good stretch before bed often helps me sleep better. I'm trying to stretch everyday to help myself feel healthier.

3. Exercise

I have heard that we should get a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise each day. Everyday is hard, but when I exercise I do get my thirty minutes. Here's how: 1. Push-ups and crunches. I try and do these 5 days of the week. I have no organized schedule. Sunday is an off day and then one other random day (often Friday). In general I do crunches until I can't do anymore which is about 50-60. Then I do push-ups until I can't do anymore which is about 30. Then I take a break and come back and do it again. On days when I'm really motivated I try and get in a 3rd set. Generally, each set has fewer reps, but that's okay by me. My goal is to get back to where I was at 18 (I know! That's one tall order) and be able to do three sets of 40 push-ups. Crunches doesn't have a goal.

A recent addition to my push-up regiment is the Saturday morning workout. In between katas I do sets of 10 push-ups in five variations: regular, fingertip, knuckles, diamonds, wide. I've only done this twice. The first Saturday I made 100 push-ups. This last Saturday I made 160. I think 200 push-ups would be a good end goal, but we will see what happens.

2. Karate
I do karate three times a week. The adult class is 75 minutes, so that's 150 minutes of karate a week across two days. However, I also take my daughter to a kid's class so that adds another 45 minutes. Throw it my personal Saturday morning workout and n a good week I'll get as much as 5 hours of exercise just from karate. It's fairly low impact exercise, but it does have me moving a lot of the body in a lot of different ways so it's a good all-over workout. Added benefit it's practical. My current goal for karate is to learn all the kata from my style. There are 18 kata, I know 16 of them (thus 160 push-ups on Saturday mornings). I should have all of them by the end of the year.

3. Walking/running. I walk to work most days M-Th. That's 1 1/2 miles. If it isn't too hot at the end of the day I also work home. Three miles round trip. Nights I don't work often end with a late night walk. These are faster paced to make them more impactful (buzzword!). Those walks are generally about three miles too. Talking to my Doctor friend David I learned that a walk should be about three miles before it really starts doing any good for your health. I'm set there.

Added to the walking is running. Several months ago I confessed to my coworker/friend Shelley that I don't understand people who exercise until they get sick. I was mostly thinking of runners when I said that, probably because running more than anything makes me feel like I want to vomit. I want to get past this and I've been inoculating myself to running by doing it every Saturday morning. I run laps around the local park where I do my Saturday morning karate workout. It's a good warm-up before the karate. Given the size of the park (it houses several softball fields) a lap is about .8 miles. I started off doing a half lap before I would walk the rest. Now I'm up to the full .8 mile lap. Slowly but surely, I plan to advance that to 2 miles even. Then I'll be satisfied. Of course, that will be slow enough that I'll never feel like I'm dying after I run.

4. Eating Better

A big portion of eating healthy for me is eating smaller portions. I'm not depriving myself any, but I'm realizing that I eat too much. For example, on burrito night I used to eat two burritos packed full of goodness. Then I would eat some cheese quesadillas afterwards. On barbecue night it would be a burger, a brat, a hot dog, AND sides. Now I'm trying for a single burrito; a burger, a brat, or a hotdog; a small handful of chips. Of course eating less food isn't always easy. Here are some things that are working for me.

a. Smaller plates. Experiments have shown repeatedly that the bigger plate you have the more you will eat. This generally holds true even if you go back to refill the plate. We essentially have three plate sizes. I generally try and use the smallest. I also try not to cram as much food on there as possible, but use what comfortably fits.

b. Plan for children's leftovers. I have a big problem with eating my children's leftovers. This generally leaves me feeling like a little too full and gives me more food than I need. However, when I plan that I am going to do this (some meals are more predicable than others) I will take less. Then the leftovers give me just enough to satisfy.

c. Eat slower. Honestly, I'm not good at this one. In my home you'll generally see me walk away from the table first while everyone else is still chowing down. I'm not a slow eater. However, I know I should be and it's something I'm working on. Dinner conversations help to slow me down.

d. Put the dinner away immediately. I tend to be a grazer. If food is left out I will come back and snack on the little tidbits. The best way to avoid this is to put it in the refrigerator. Out of sight might not be out of mind, but it definitely helps.

e. Eat the right amount the first time. I try and avoid seconds, because it seems that when I take seconds I generally take too much. Then I overeat.

f. Have a piece of candy. Seriously, why not? If I deny myself I'll just obsess over it and then binge later. If I give in early I'm more likely to walk away after a small handful of M&M's or a single cookie. Fighting the urge will generally turn into a small handful of cookies later.

Here comes the psychology. It's called thought suppression. The basic premise is that when you forbid yourself from thinking about something you have a tendency to think about it more. Tell yourself not to think about those cookies and those cookies will invade every other thought. What does that mean for diets? Don't forbid yourself certain foods. You'll just obsess and avoiding them will be harder. Better to eat a controlled portion in the first place. However, there are things you can do. Instead of forbidding yourself from thinking about it, distract yourself. Go do something else so you can't think about food. Admit that the craving is okay, you're just not interested. Don't have the food in the house. Out of sight helps keep it out of mind. You'll have an easy time fighting the urge for ice cream if it isn't there reminding you every time you open the fridge.

Of course, that's not the end of the psychology. Thought suppression has another dark side. It's called the rebound effect. What happens when you're done forbidding yourself from thinking about food? Will the temptation disappear as soon as the fruit is not forbidden? Nope. Not at all. There will be a temporary rebound effect after the restriction is removed. You'll think about it even more! That's where binges come from. You deny and deny and deny. Then when you break you don't just break a little, you break hard time. It's why I try not to deny myself foods.

I was going to finish by talking about eating healthy, but I don't really have a lot to say about that. I'm not an expert and won't pretend to be one. I do like Alton Brown's approach to eating. You can find it around the internet, so I won't bother re-posting it here. I think the biggest thing I try and do is cook most of my food, avoid soda, and choke down some fruits and veggies occasionally. Oh, and my morning egg for breakfast. It really does help stave off the munchies until lunch time.

How Long is Saturday

When I was younger (e.g. a few weeks ago) the idea of doing chores on my Saturday caused much distress. Saturday was a day off. Saturday was a day for relaxing. Work was for the week, not the weekend. However, on Saturday the 27th of July of this year I came to a startling realization: If you prioritize and get to it then Saturday is pretty long. There is time enough for work and play.

Let's take my Saturday and break it down.

7:00--First wake up.
8:00--Second wake up.

I usually wake up about 7:00 most days, and since I'm awake I get out of bed. Saturday's are no exception. This is an important point: If you want to have plenty of time to do things then get up at a reasonable hour. Lounging in bed and refusing to rise just wastes the day. This is followed by another important point. You'll notice that I went back to bed for another hour in seeming contradiction to my first point. However, this wasn't laziness; this was sleep deprivation. I haven't been sleeping well. Catching up on sleep is important. Here's the second point: Sleep deprivation makes everything harder. Get plenty of sleep. Seriously. If you are depriving yourself of sleep to give yourself more time to get things done your work will be sloppier, your decision making slower, your concentration impaired. You will need more time just to do everything. You will be slower! Save yourself time and get enough sleep.

8:30--Work out.

The Saturday morning workout is becoming a regular thing for me. I'll talk about that next post. I eat breakfast (a banana) as I drive to workout. Most of the time multitasking just slows us down, but with something as automatic as eating a banana it is a definite time saver and gives me the energy I need for that workout.

10:00--Second breakfast.

Because you need to refuel and rehydrate after a good workout.

10:30--Mow the lawn.

Here's where some of the real time saving comes into play. My usual tendency is to delay mowing the lawn. I like to make excuses about the grass getting dry so the mower doesn't clog, giving the batteries for the electric weed whacker time to charge (why don't I check those the night before!), not wanting to start too early and disturb the neighbors. However, do I spend this time wisely? Nope. I usually just lounge around the house watching cartoons or playing mindless games on the Ipad. They aren't things I really want to spend my day doing, but they are buffers against the things I don't want to do. Point three is something most parents already know but I seem to forget: If you procrastinate it will just take longer. You might as well just get to it.

As an added bonus I got to watch the kids play on their bikes while I mowed. That killed two birds with one stone.

11:30--Prepare the kids lunch.

I think this is a vital part of time management for parents. Feed the kids when they're hungry; feed yourself when you are hungry. It keeps the children from being whiny (about food). Put aside whatever you are doing and spend the time putting lunch together. While they eat they are (hopefully) less likely to bother you and you can return to whatever task you were doing in peace. If you try to finish first you'll just get slowed down by their constant cries for food.

12:00--Finish mowing.
12:45--Set up pool for children.

I was hot. I was sweaty. I was tired. I just wanted to shower. Food called my name. However, if I delayed setting up the pool then I would have to get hot, sweaty, and tired again later. That would deter me and the pool wouldn't get set-up. Besides, I was already in the backyard. Point four: Rest is important, but rest when you need it not when it would merely feel good. Oh, and when you're doing hot sweaty work make sure you stay hydrated. Heat exhaustion will ruin your entire day.

1:00--Lunchtime.

This is the point where a lot of people wonder "where has my day gone?" However, from a practical perspective I'd only been awake five hours and look how much I'd gotten done. I still had nine hours of my day left! Those afternoon hours tend to crawl by. There's a lot of them and people are generally at their most alert and effective. It's a good time to get a lot done.

1:30--Lifeguard the kids while they swim.

Humans don't multitask. Not really. Human consciousness can't focus on multiple things at once. The conscious mind is truly one-track. This means that when we are multitasking one part needs to run on the unconscious line and a lot of tasks are too complex for this line. So, to compensate for this we run two (or more) tasks in the conscious mind by switching back and forth between them. This causes us to do both tasks more slowly and generally not as well. Imagine driving one train forward a small distance, removing it from the track, putting a second train on the track, running it forward, removing it, replacing the first train...both trains will get to the destinations eventually after much more time and effort. Still, there are times when this is acceptable. Finding those times and using them well maximizes a Saturday. For example, while my children swam I could have sat there to prevent them drowning and done nothing else. Instead, I chose to read a book. I couldn't disappear into my book the same way I usually do. I had to stop reading every minute or so to check on the kids, but this didn't prevent me from enjoying the reading. Neither did the children drown. This is point five: If you have two tasks that won't suffer from switching rapidly between them, do them simultaneously. The tricky part is recognizing which tasks are appropriate for this simultaneous. Driving should never be one of these tasks. Just saying.

2:15--Shower (finally!).
2:30--Birthday Shopping with the children.

Honestly, shopping would have been faster without the kids, but it also allowed me to spend time with my children. Plus, getting the children out of the house allowed Trina more time to be productive or relax. This in turn creates less for me to do. If you want to know about Trina's birthday check out her blog. I'm sure she will talk about it in a few days.

4:30--Video Games.

Why? Because it is one of the fun things I wanted to do on Saturday. This wasn't just wasting time because I lacked something else to do. This was purposeful sitting down to play video games. More importantly, I had the time! Being proactive about my day meant little wasted time and more time to do what I wanted.

6:00--Dinner.
7:30--Movie/Wrap Presents.

I can't emphasize this enough: I love movies! Movies at home are also a great way to waste time. However, they can be used for not wasting time as well. I watch movies while I stretch, do kata, clean (especially old favorites I don't need to pay attention to!), fold laundry, etc. Movies (especially old favorites) fall neatly into the category of tasks that won't suffer much from doing them simultaneously with other tasks.

9:30--Relax, Get Ready for Bed.
10:30--Go to Bed.

What stands out to me is I had more I could have done in the evening but the chores were done. The work was finished. I spent my evening relaxing before bed with more reading. Left free I could read all day.

One of the other things that helped was minimizing wasteful time spend on the Internet. Several years ago I read "The Tyranny of E-mail" by John Freeman (thank you Goodreads for helping me remember the title) that included a list for making your e-mail use more efficient. I don't remember the entire list, but I do remember the basics. I try to apply them to texting, Facebooking, e-mailing, etc. When I stick to it the amount of time I waste online is greatly diminished. A check-in that lasts no longer than a minute isn't a big deal, but too many of those and you find your day disappearing. Scheduling time for the Internet (once in the morning, and once in the afternoon) is a good way to make your day more efficient.

So that was my Saturday...now if I can only remember those points for future Saturdays.

What am I Blogging About?...and Apocalypse Now

When I originally created this blog I intended to talk about my writing projects; I named it Raven's Writings (I have a penchant for ravens). However, it never worked out well. I would blog about my current projects for a short time, but then writing flagged and so did the blog. Besides, in a given week I might only add a scant 4,000 words. That is insufficient to blog about. Predictably updates became fewer and farther between until the blog was forgotten. I attempted to revive it on a couple of occasions to the same disastrous results. This leads me to an uncomfortable question: Can I feasibly devote an entire blog to just writing?

No, no I can't. Not yet.

But if I'm not going to focus on writing, what am I going to focus on? The answer is obvious: nothing. I won't focus on anything, but I will talk about everything. Writing is one-dimension of my life and, to be honest, a small one. I am also a gamer, a martial artist, a teacher, a father, a husband, an entertainer, a dreamer, a cynic. I am many things and the blog should encompass all of them. That should give me plenty to blog about each week.

A few years ago I was in the habitat of sending out lengthy e-mails to my family and a few select friends. These e-mails, two or three times each year, summarized current developments in the several aspects of my life. Time has gone by and those e-mails have stopped, but the premise behind them is still good. This blog will replace those e-mails. However, instead of sending them out to the people who I think will want to hear about them I will just place them so that they are available for anyone who wants to look at them. Consequently, I've renamed the blog "Brendan's Blog" until I can think of something that captures my personality without sounding too pretentious. Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.

Still, writing will be a major focus of the blog and I've created several static pages that will be updated much more slowly than the weekly posts. They reflect my WIP and include histories, summaries, progress, goals, and an excerpt. I'll add static pages for non-writing material as I find the need. Also, I hope to create a menu bar that will link you to posts sorted by subject. Even so, I am fairly excited about the current look of the blog. It feels more functional than the old blog and it looks modern. The original blog seemed to herald from the days when everyone was making websites on Angelfire and similar sites (I did that too!). Keep an eye out for future changes to improve functionality.

So what can you exactly expect on this blog?

• Health updates.  What am I doing to stay in shape? Is it working?  
• Karate.  What kata have I learned? Did I pass my kyu test? Pictures of injuries I've given/received.
• Gaming.  How is preparations going for next season? What happened in the most recent gaming session? What new board game do I love/hate?
• Improv.  Am I still doing it?  Is Haphazard getting back together or coming together with an all new crew? Do I have any new characters I am working on?
• Food. Have I created a crazy recipe (I have a few in mind)?  What have I barbecued recently?
• School.  Funny moments in class that I can safely share. Insights on teaching. Memorable moments from student papers. 
• Movies. I enjoy nitpicking them, thinking about them, etc. See thoughts on current movies, classic movies, and whatever I happened to stumble upon via Netflix. 
• Stuff.  You know, just stuff.  Those things that you want to put on Facebook, but the idea is too long and you don't really want to ramble on. That kind of stuff. I think a lot of stuff.

Don't worry. I know not everything is for everyone and I will be using labels to make it easy for you to find just the material you are looking for.  Oh, and if you're bored already don't worry about it. Posts will get better.

Apocalypse Now I often spend long hours at my desk. Much of this time is spent grading student papers, answering e-mails, keeping up-to-date, etc. However, I generally take a break during lunch to eat without worrying about work. I often watch a movie during this time. It's a good way to relax between class sessions. The college has a small movie collection that I've been sampling from, but this weekend I decided to start sampling in a more organized fashion. My goal: watch all the fiction movies the library owns. Given that they generally add two or three each month this will be a long, long, long term goal. I started this weekend with the A's. Technically, numbers come first but they only had "12 Angry Men" in that category and I've seen it. So instead, I started with "Apocalypse Now".

The best part for me was finally understanding what Apocalypse Now was about. I have a tendency to maintain a willful ignorance on a lot of subjects. One of these areas is the subject matter of movies and books. I am often acquainted with the title without a real understanding about the plot. Apocalypse Now was one of these. It also opened my eyes to how little I know about the Vietnam War and makes me interested to find out more. War movies are not my typical fare, but I enjoyed Apocalypse Now.

Added bonus: I will now understand things that allude to, parody, etc., this movie.

The Plan

I find that despite my beginning of the year resolutions I have been bad about writing. To be fair, I have been getting a lot of writing done, but it has been erratic and sporadic. I have taken on a lot of projects; little writing on many projects mean that little progress is made.  The feeling that I'm not progressing causes discouragement. That in turn leads me to write less.  To counteract discouragement and distractions I have created "The Plan":

1.  Blog weekly.  I don't have it in me to blog more than that, but I feel that one blog a week is a commitment I can keep. It will also give me plenty of time to write a blog post and edit it before I post it.  I might as well practice revision while I blog. I think the best day for this post to appear would be Monday.  That allows me Sunday to write the blog and Monday evening to look over the blog before posting. 

  --1.a   Revamp the blog. Make it prettier, functional, etc.  Anyone know someone who is good at that?

2.  Gain an audience. Blogging to improve my writing does little good if I don't have an audience who is waiting for the next update (or at least pretending to).  They can also provide feedback and encouragement.  Some of you are here because of my efforts on this step. Please, feel free to pass on the blog to anyone you think might be interested.

3.  Define my works in progress (WIP) and set goals for the progression of said WIPs.

4.  Write everyday on something even if it is not one of my WIP.  The blog counts. Letters to friends count. Facebook statuses do not count. Neither do work e-mails.

5.  Strengthen my writing network.  I have several friends who are writers and I need to reconnect with them and remind them that I'm a writer too.   With their permission I will post links to their blogs and websites here.

Hmmm...I am sure there is more to do. Look for the first post of my rejuvenated blog on Monday highlighting my WIP. In the meantime, I am open to suggestions of steps to add to my plan.  Thanks in advance.

Back in the habit

     Life. Who knew? The Beatles I guess. So almost two years ago I lost my job as an adjunct writing instructor. It wasn't that they were dissatisfied with my performance, but that they had run out of work for me to do. I was forced to find a new job. I was fortunate and found one a few months later and found myself moving in August 2010.
     I immediately stepped into orientation for my job as a full-time instructor at a community college. One of the deans of the college cited his plan from decades ago when he got hired: work as a teacher and do his artwork on the side. However, he soon began spending so much time on work that he never found time for his art, and he said that he never regretted it. At the time I thought that I would not become him. I would maintain my writing in spite of the pressures and demands of the job. I would be published! It was even encouraging to find that someone in my department had recently published a novel. I could find support for my goal. I would still be a writer.
      Now here it is almost three years since my last blog post and my writing habit has gone down the drain. I am determined to reverse this trend. This was motivated by several factors. The first was the roleplaying campaign my group was playing. I spent some time writing the summary that I thought I would novelize it. The first few chapters were well received by my gaming group and that gave me support to continue.
     The second motivation came while preparing for courses. This semester I decided to fall back on a technique from my adjunct days. The assignment guide. I used an old assignment guide as a format for the new ones I was preparing. In the process I came across this old assignment.

"DAILY WRITING
Due Monday, June 14th (Bring to Class)
100 points

To become better writers it is necessary that you write every day. For this class you are required to write a minimum of 200 new words every day, Monday-Saturday (including holidays)."

     I still believe that. If you want to succeed as a writer you must write every day (or as close to every day as is feasible). I believe it, but I haven't been doing it. I am going to change that and get back in the habit of daily writing. It shouldn't be too difficult: there is a lot of writing to do.
     The third motivation was New Years. It's a time to make a fresh start and I made a resolution to finish a novel this year and revise one. That's a stiff order if I don't spend time daily working on it. However, I believe it is possible and this blog is going to help me get there.