Reality Bites

Reality bites. But it is so addictive. For years I swore off reality television as brain numbing but then I started watching Top Chef, and because I love to cook, it was engaging and I personally was fascinated by the challenges. And then there were those few unfortunate episodes of Real Housewives New Jersey. So many people I know were talking about it, I checked it out just to see and found myself so disgusted by the entire premise of the show that I could only tolerate a couple episodes.

But as I was looking around the dial, I realized so many of the shows I watched were reality of some kind or another. The various travel channel shows - Man Vs Food, Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. They were all truly more reality than anything else.

I had become a fan of reality television without really realizing it. I was actually looking forward to Friday nights and Ghost Adventures. While the show is incredibly fake, the host (lead investigator) can get frightened and jump into my arms anytime.

And then along came the A-List. A couple of friends watched it and described it as a train wreck that your just couldn’t help but stare at. I made the mistake of catching a glimpse. All I can say about that is, “Bless their hearts. None of them got the sense God gave a mule.”

But coming in January is the highlight of the reality show season...

...RuPaul’s Drag Race. (Belated Happy Birthday RuPaul.)

Beta Teched

I think I was born into the wrong generation. When it comes to tech gadgets, no matter how much I tell myself I am going to resist, deep down inside I know I am going to cave the moment I get my hands on the newest device around. I should be part of the digital native generation rather than a digital immigrant as my age would suggest.

My latest  venture into  high tech is so new, it is still in the beta version. I first heard of it on an NPR program and immediately looked up when I walked into my home. Despite hearing about it on NPR, I was quite shocked to hear that it was not yet available and I had to actually request to use the beta version and that I would find out more in an email in a few days.

I am not the most patient person, but resolved to sit tight.

Yesterday I finally received the magically encoded email that gave the the link to download RockMelt, a new browser. Within thirty minutes of downloading it and getting it set up with the connections to favorite websites and sharing Facebook information, I had pushed the button to make it my default browser.

It lets me multitask in just so many more ways than I was able to before. One side of the window keeps up with who all of my Facebook friends are online - without me actually being on Facebook. The other side-bar keeps track of my favorite websites and lets me know when there has been an update - to the point that it actually counts the number up updates to the website since I have click on the website. I can click on the icon and it tells me what the new stories are with the appropriate link - so I can read it if it interests me or just ignore and continue on with whatever I was doing. 

Heaven!

The appearance is nothing spectacular -basic and functional, but I really do not want anything more. Content matters to me more than flash and the efficiency RockMelt brings to browsing allows my ADHD to function at just one more level.

Oh - and I have three invitations to share so you don’t have to wait a week if you ask nicely.

Fall Flowers

On several recent hikes, I have ventured into state parks and recreational areas looking for fall foliage. While Texas has limited leaf-color-change, one can usually find small bursts of the newly brilliantly chlorophyl-depleated leaves. Surprisingly, though, I have seen an unexpected number of fall flowers in full bloom.

Each of these photos was taken in the McKinney Falls State Park. One thing I notice about the fall flowers that differs from most of the spring flowers in the area is that these are quite dainty and small.








Even though I expected to see fall colors in Lost Maples State Recreation Area, I was more surprised to see the variety of flowers (and butterflies) in the park.

I really did enjoy getting to see the variety of fall flowers out. I have to confess that I am disappointed that I did not find any photos of the purple flowers that lined the trails in several places. For whatever reason, I neglected to take any pictures of them.


Nevertheless, autumn provides all kinds of beauty in unexpected ways. I am glad I have been carrying my camera around in attempts to catch it.

First Thursday

One of my very favorite things about living in Austin is First Thursdays on South Congress. Though I do not go every month, when I go with friends, I always have a wonderful time meandering through the businesses that stay open late and the various vendors who set up in tents and booths in every open lot along the street. The laid-back Austin culture pervades the nature of the event as people wander along the sidewalks and cross busy Congress Avenue whenever the whim strikes - further slowing the already parade-like pace of vehicles on that one night a month.

It is one night a month when people from all parts of Austin gather without the crowed nature often found in the contained festivals that occur throughout the year around town. The number of vendors and spectators varies from month to month based on the weather. It is rarely too cold, but there have been occasions when it rained and in the summer it truly can be too hot in the evening for pleasurable walking along the sidewalks and streets.

Spot on Sermon

The sermon in church today hit the spot. The pastor addressed a theological concept with which I have grappled for nearly two years - acedia. My  interest was sparked in acedia upon hearing an interview with Kathleen Norris who wrote the book Acedia and Me. I have been reading the book for two years and have not made it past page 86.  The concepts are too deep and too challenging for me to spend more than a little while on it at a time.

Therefore I was surprised when I saw it as the topic of a sermon, but anxious to see how it would be addressed. At one point,  in the sermon, an associate pastor read a list of synonyms for acedia that the pastor described as symptoms. The list took up over a page of text. Despite the extensive list synonyms, none accurately sums up the condition alone. Acedia as a concept is one greater than the sum of its parts.

That is why I have struggled with it as an idea within the Christian church. Indeed, it is the foundation on which the deadly sin, sloth, was based. But sloth as we consider it today does not begin to describe or approach the ideas acedia encompasses. It represents a spiritual weariness that leads to a repudiation or abandonment of faith. The danger to the person suffering from acedia to the spiritual growth of a person is real.

Like doubt, another concept I have been exploring in Christianity, approaching acedia offers the opportunity for spiritual growth; however, the danger of acedia is that it can creep in as a growing sense of exhaustion or overcome one suddenly as in a frustration that leads to surrender. Both can be overcome, but both risk a profound loss of spiritual connection.

I look forward to continued study of the concept of acedia in conjunction with the concept of doubt as both barriers and facilitators to spiritual growth and formation.

Safety Fail

The NFL and indeed every level of football has worked over the years to increase the safety of the players in the hard-hitting game. Helmets, padding, shoes, and even uniforms are designed with safety of the players in mind.

So why, with all this safety focus are we discovering the level of permanent brain injury among players - even players early in their professional career? Simply, progress in science and new technology allow us to gain more understanding of the nature of brain injury. This along with the awareness of brain injuries being suffered by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have helped us see that brain damage can occur without the symptoms of a concussion.

The more I think about it, the more I think that maybe reverting to the uniforms of the 1950’s mad indeed be preferable. The perception of invincibility given by modern uniforms has proven to be a false comfort for many players. As we know more about head injuries, we realize that they are silent stalkers that show their full effects ten and even twenty years after they occur. Despite the new rules and enforcement on helmet contact, many blows to the head still occur. Even though it may not be helmet-to-helmet contact, injurious contacts still occur on almost every play. Going back to a facemaskless helmet would quickly bring to an end these kinds of hits.

While professional players argue that they are aware of the risks and are paid well to take them, that argument falls flat when one considers that the vast majority of players play the game at the amateur level. New research shows that even some players at these lower levels are  experiencing potentially lifetime affecting brain injuries. With high school and college players far outnumbering the pros, we must keep them in mind when making rules and equipment decisions. 

The safety promised by the current equipment has proven to be a failure of technology. We must make changes soon to protect all participants in the sport whether they recognize the necessity of it or not.

Deadline Mahem

I do not know what kind of secret conspiracy multiple agencies have going, but lately the deadlines from every agency happens at the same time for me. There is a grant deadline, follow-up to last year progress report due, and current year evaluation report all due next week.

All this during one of the rare weeks when I actually teach most of the days.

Fortunately I have my calendars filled out well in advance with most of the deadlines; however, the grant only appeared recently, so I have barely had time to prepare for it. Everything else, though is mostly pulled together, I just need to find the writing time to synthesize all the work.

Still, the idea that every deadline should arrive at the same time creates stress. If something does not go as planned, then the entire plan falls apart, and so the stress grows. And on cue, I caught a cold that is making my eyes water and making it difficult to see the computer screen.

Fortunately, right down the street is a pharmacy and I have stocked up on all the cold remedies, am drinking hot tea and doing all the right things.

So next week will be a piece of cake.

The Cure

Aegrescit medendo.

Sometimes the cure does seem worse than the disease. At least that is how it is for me each fall when I start taking preventative medication to stave off the allergy season - most notably cedar fever. I have tried every medication, homeopathic cures, and every folk remedy I could find. So far, only one medication works for me.

I fuss, cuss, and delay taking it at all costs because it makes me even more hyper than I normally am. I really do not sleep for three or four nights because it makes me so jittery. Still, when I think how sick I am with a sinus infection, I decide the few days of extreme hyperactivity are worth the price.

If I ever let the cedar get a hold of my sinuses, it does not relinquish its hold until the last pollen grain is out of the air. That hold results in nearly constant congestion, sinus infections, fever, and general ickyness. Basically, it causes three months of misery that sucks the life out of all that i could be doing.

So four days of jittery sleeplessness against three months of full misery is not that great a sacrifice. Still the dread of the few days of discomfort comes around and gives me pause. This cure, while bad, is not worse than the disease, so I will take my medicine and be done with it.

Stragedy

Breaking a bad habit takes more time and energy than most people realize or are willing to dedicate. It is even more the case when one first learns something incorrectly: the way of doing something came wired into the brain a certain way. It remains the way of doing even when one learns better.

I have one friend who has mispronounced one particular word his entire life and nothing can change it. People who know him know what he means. I actually have come up with my own definition for the word because I think the definition deserves a word and this one sounds right.  My friend says “stragedy” instead of “strategy”. Given what he means and what it actually sounds like, I think we should all start using it when our best laid plans go horribly, horribly wrong.

We have all had those times. Despite our best efforts and most sincere planning, we have those events that go awry unexpectedly and never come back under control. We thought we had all the right strategies, but it turned into a tragedy. I think stragedy is the perfect word for such a situation. If Stephen Colbert can coin truthiness and have it become the word of the year, certainly a truly functional word like stragedy has room in the modern lexicon. 

And it saves valuable characters on Twitter.

Stumped

As an amateur photographer, I find myself most often drawn to still-life images in nature. And while the idea of death and decay may seem morbid to some, I find stumps and fallen limbs on  the ground to be beautiful sites with contrast, shadow, and sometimes a story to tell. Often while out on a jog or hike, I notice the stark grays and blacks and various shades of rusty brown.

The trunk above has several fungi growing out of it. My favorite part of it is that the top fungi looks like a guinea pig peaking out from a crack in the trunk.

Each of the photos above shows the variety to be found of stumps and dead limbs in nature. Each one is quite different in size, color, and setting.

The bright sunlight and shadows around this stump disguise the brilliant white fungus growing in various places on the wood. I wish I had GPS located this one so I could come back a year from now and see just how rapidly it had decayed.

All of the photos in this set came from a hike in Lost Maples State Recreation Area near Vanderpool. While I went looking for fall color, the warm temperatures had kept most of the leaves from changing; however, the lovely fall day and other sites more than made up for the lack of fall foliage. Of course, I'm used to that in Texas.