Unlisted

I genuinely appreciate Twitter for bringing me daily news digested into 140 characters or fewer, but I swear, if the “top” lists continue I am going to blow a few characters myself. I think the news people come up with the lists just because it is an otherwise slow news week. Do I really need them to tell me what are the 10 cutest animal pictures of the last year? Or the 10 best tweets? Or the 10 biggest celebrity scandals? Or 10 worst fashion disasters? And the lists go on.

I do not read those new stories when they are singular, much less pluralized into tens. I have sufficient grasp of the trivial without the assistance of such year-end lists.

Some sites are begging for my resolutions for the new year.

They do not really care that I, like every other American, want to be fitter, healthier, etc.

What I really want is to make fewer typos on my iPhone. Big fingers, old eyes, and a tiny screen were never meant to go together. Editing is not glamorous, but its importance on twitter and IM exceeds that even of longer compositions. One unfortunate autocorrect (easier to blame the machine than personal carelessness) stands out even more in the brevity of such communication. If everyone proofread before sending, websites would go out of business. Somehow I doubt that everyone will start proofreading tweets and texts, so we will continue to have the entertainment (real or fake).

So I have decided to be anti-list as the year comes to an end. I have my list of unaccomplished tasks on my winter break; I do not need any more lists in my life right now. I move into 2012 unencumbered with the weight of expectation.  No years have passed without personal accomplishments regardless of my resolutions. I will go forward and make the most out of the year and opportunities as they arise.

Unlisted, unresolved, but motivated. Come on 2012.

Clever New Uses

The barrage of emails with holiday tips did not stop with the arrival of the holidays. They have continued offering sage bits of advice, or things I could buy at a discount with sage bits of advice. One in particular caught my attention with the subject line: Clever New Uses for The Holidays.

While I, for the most part, shrewdly resisted the appeal of the various pitches, I could not turn down investigating what new uses someone had found for the holidays. Considering it came from a popular magazine that regularly presents new uses for common items, I figured that if anyone could do it, they would.

Opening the email proved disappointing because the headline had nothing to do with the content. There were numerous ways of using holiday packing and wrapping. There were recipes for combining common leftovers into more appealing dishes. There were tips for what to do with those partially used holiday-scented candles.

But not one new use for any holiday.

Despite the disappointment, I realized that Boxing Day has me pretty much holidayed out. I do not know how many more clever uses for holidays I could handle at this point; I am satisfied with the uses they already have. I just have to recover in time for New Year’s Eve.

And I have an entire year to come up with clever new uses for the holidays and give that magazine an article that lives up to its headline.

Christmas 2011

I did not believe the Christmas forecasts when they started coming in. No, the forecast did not call for snow in south Texas. That only happens once every few lifetimes and we had that once a few years ago. The weather forecast actually called for what equals winter weather in south Texas – chilly with chances of rain. The chilly part is most certainly correct, but the end of the day will tell us whether the rain held true.

Work, in several forms, got in the way of the holiday cards the way I normally do them. Instead of 96, this year there were exactly zero that went through the mail. I did not even create a fancy electronic card. If the motto for my Christmas this year was on a t-shirt, it wouldn’t even make the t-shirt. I would be, “I attended Christmas 2011 and all I got was this lousy blog post.”

Behind the appearance of griping, the “lousy blog post” means I am busy enough and loving what I  am doing that I did not take the time to send out the many Christmas cards I normally do.  The blog posts also came in the way of Advent devotionals – one written for each day of the season – that is continuing into Christmas and in some form through the church year calendar on my other blog.

Doing the daily Bible study and actually meditating on the passages and then writing a reflection has done more to prepare me for Christmas this year than in a long time.

I am not at all giddy about Christmas; I am ready for the holiday to kick of a new season of work and opportunity.

Beyond preparing for the holiday in a different way, I made some major changes in my life this year that fundamentally shifted how I spend my time. The changes led to positive, measurable output in writing and reading and health, so I do not look back on any of the changes with regret. I write from time to time about technology – especially when it fails.

Some of my changes have involved changing the technology I have in my life – namely getting rid of cable television and actually spending more time working on my iPad than on one of my computers because, while possible, it is harder to multi-task on the tablet than on a computer or laptop. All that is for naught when I have the MacBook Pro, Dell Laptop, and iPad all going at the same time – which I sometimes still do - though I am working at only using one device at a time.

2011 truly has been a transformational year for me and it culminated in the preparations for Christmas.

Twhat?

While running last minute errands yesterday, and doing the requisite Foursquare check-in at every location, I found myself getting a spam tweet after almost every check in as I have Foursquare set to share the check-ins on Twitter (which shares them with Facebook – so my technology programs are interconnected). After one check in, my phone did its typical ding to let me know I had a text message.

There was yet another text message from Twitter notifying me that someone had mentioned me in a tweet or has sent me a direct message via Twitter. By this point in the day, annoyance ran pretty high and I almost deleted the text without reading it, but as I had been in conversation with a friend in direct messages that day, I decided I better check it.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this tweet:

@rwlarson Sorry about your back pain. Hope all goes well. Please let us know if you hav a ny [sic] feedbackbit.ly/ARCfdbk Happy Holidays!

It was from the clinic where my doctor practices!

How did they get my Twitter identity?

And why are they tweeting out something that identifies a health condition in a way that anyone who follows my Twitter account can see? I had gone to the doctor two days earlier because of lingering back pain. I think there is a HIPAA violation somewhere in that tweet.

I am glad it was not an STD. I can only imagine that tweet:

@rwlarson Sorry about your gonorrhea. Hope the shot didn’t hurt too much. Please let us know if you need another. Happy Hoiidays!

What are they going to do next? Send my prescriptions through Facebook?

I joke about the circumstances of the tweet, but below it lays a serious concern about who has our information – not only our confidential information, but our socially accessible information as well. I work to connect all parts of my social media experience so that together they paint a more complete picture than any one alone would. I diligently monitor everything I post for appropriateness while ceding that I cannot control every line printed about me by others.

It is one thing for a friend or acquaintance to say something inappropriate, but quite another for a medical facility to post something about your health. Is the bank soon going to start tweeting my account balance to my timeline?

Our ability to now connect disparate bits of data through technology contributes to the exponential growth in our knowledge base and makes great strides in scientific and social progress, but where are the lines to be drawn? I know I do not want my personal details available on social media and will be extra careful about what and how various agencies learn of my social connections.

Simple Fixes

While I generally think myself pretty handy, sometimes it costs me more than if I had just hired a handyman in the first place. Such was the instance with my attempt at installing the iPod connection to the stereo in my truck. I not only did not install the connection, I injured my back which kept me from enjoy Christmas with my cousins in Kansas as I had originally planned. I finally went by an audio shop and for just $35, they made the connection in just ten minutes and now my truck stereo sounds better than ever.

After leaving the shop, I went to a home improvement store because my food disposal had stopped working and despite my best efforts, I could not get it to operate again. I resolved that I would have to pay for a new food disposal. While there, I saw a wrench designed to manually break disposal jams. I doubted that I was stronger than a ¾ horsepower motor, but decided a $7 fix was better than a $130 replacement.

As soon as I got home, I pulled out the wrench and decided to see if my disposal even had the appropriate slot for the wrench. It did and with just a little back and forth motion, my disposal worked better than it had in a very long time.

Sometimes the simple fix works best in the situation. This was one time that I actually saved money by doing-it-myself.

Old Men and Small Spaces

Sometimes the simplest task brings unexpected complications. My truck came with an auxiliary input, but it is not easily accessible. Still all one has to do is access the wire behind the dashboard. Previously a satellite radio receiver was connected to the input, but after it stopped working, I had nothing working through that access point.

With a lengthy road trip coming up, 12.1 days of music, and 4 days of pod casts in my iTunes library, I have no need to spend my trip scrolling through unpredictable broadcast radio stations when I can make a custom playlist to play each way on the trip. Having all of this in mind, I decided to connect my iPod to the auxiliary input. All I needed was to plug it in, right?

The access panel came of easily and the access to the system was clear. I just had to work my way up under the dash to reach all the wires and move them to a point where I can connect everything. On my first reach I discovered that old men and small spaces do not go well together. To get my arm where it needed to go I had to twist around, grasp the wire, and pull it down.

Twist. Grasp. Pull. Forty-five-year-olds cannot do that without proper warm-ups.

I felt and heard the muscle pull and wondered for a bit whether I would be able to even get out from under my dash. I began to consider how long it would be before a neighbor came by to pull me out. After taking a few deep breaths, I managed to slide out and make it inside to my recliner.

Almost a day later finds me still in my recliner. Fortunately with cloud technology, I am able to work from home and not get too far behind. I am still not convinced that is a good thing, but on days like today when I feel fine but simply cannot move, I think it is a good thing. Especially since I hope to take a day off later in the week to make my road trip.

But to finish the installation of the iPod kit, I think will require a trip to an audio shop with younger people crawling into the tight spaces.

God Said What?

A student made my day today. He said he should have dropped out last year before he met me. He came to that conclusion after sparring with me two different times over his stated decision to drop out of high school. He was certain it did not matter to anyone else and that he was the only person affected by his decision. He continually insisted that it was his decision, but he would not stop arguing with me about the idea of dropping out. He could not accept my disapproval anymore than i could accept his decision. He wanted someone to talk him out it, someone to not give up. He made the mistake of saying that maybe God put me there to tell him to drop out of school. It did not take long before he realized that making that comment was even worse than saying he decided to drop out. I think he does have a better understanding of social justice now. I pointed out that since he had brought up God, all was fair game and he was in for a sermon. And I began to preach. I connected everything I had already said to him about staying in school to social justice. Lifetime health. Family stability. Living wages. Doing what is right. Every one of them come with social justice implications. And every one of them linked to education. He never saw the sermon coming. God was his trump card. He was not expecting a pair of Gods to match and raise. Our first conversation ended with him walking out of my office. The second conversation ended with us laughing together and agreeing to meet again in the next week. He still insists he is going to drop out. I still insist he is going to graduate - from somewhere. I look forward to more sparring with him when he returns to my office. One thing I am certain of is that he will not be using "God" and "dropout" in the same sentence.

Deer People

During the day today we received an email with information for directing the homeless to the emergency sheltering system that was going to be in place tonight since the forecast called for temperatures below freezing. Since we do not often get temperatures so low, they can be especially deadly for people unaccustomed to them since they likely have few clothes suitable for the cold. In the education system, homelessness has a broader definition than just people sleeping on the streets. While I work with a number of people experiencing homelessness, none of them live on the streets.

Driving home tonight, while stopped at the longest stoplight through which I pass, I glanced over and saw a group of people gathered at the edge of the scrub-brush that had overtaken an unused lot on one corner. They looked like a herd of wild deer, waiting for the sun to go down just a bit more before they ventured out into the clearing to forage. The reality was that they were huddled together, taking what shelter the brush provided. Farther back from the street is the camp where they live in cardboard and tarpaulin structures that provide protection from the sun, wind, and rain, but do little to protect from heat and cold.

The residences there are not new. The well-worn paths out to the street provide ample evidence of regular traffic. The presence of the people in the triangle clearing at the corner of the lot behind the bus stop remind all who pass that way that, while undeveloped, the lot is used. Throughout the day, the residents take turns on the concrete barrier separating the turn lanes from the oncoming traffic panhandling for change. They are hard to miss.

I could not separate the people clustered back at the edge of the grove from the daily Bible passages for this season’s Advent. Here are the poor, the needy, the oppressed, quite possibly the ill. One side of the social war says give me more and I will do more. The other side says take away more from the other side and we will do more. Nothing is being done. Where is the church? Where are the social services providers? Where is anyone who actually does more than use these people as a rallying cry?

Growing up in the country, I used to see just how close I could creep to the wild white-tail deer in our pasture. While they can be quite dangerous, I was not afraid because I knew at the first whiff of me, they would flash those famous white tails and high tail it to the other side of the meadow and beyond. The “deer people” at the corner are not those wild animals in the pasture of my childhood.  We cannot wave our hands or walk by with our cologned selves and have them flee deeper into the urban forest, out of sight.

As I caught up on the news of the day, with politicians on both sides blasting the other side of the culture war, I could not help but inject my mental picture of those people from the corner lot into the story and ask who is looking at them when they speak? No one is. Neither side is ready to get their hands dirty and actually get into the trenches with the neediest among us or consider the hypocrisy that we as a society proclaim to value all persons while we daily drive by deteriorating lives and wish they were on some other corner.

The government cannot do it all. The Church cannot do it all. So both sides quickly give up and shift their focus to something with quick results that bring a nice warm feeling to replace the emptiness of that which continues to go undone. Together, though, more can be done than either side could ever do by itself. Governmental entities at the local, state, and Federal levels all have a role in changing the circumstances of the neediest residents under their jurisdiction. I use Church but really mean bodies of faith (churches, synagogues, mosques, etc.) - all have commandments from God to serve the widows, orphans, and needy in their area.

There is room for the 100% to become involved. This is not a 99% problem or a 1% problem. It is not a problem for people of faith or the atheist. It is a people problem. The “deer people” are doing their part: they survive from day to day with remarkable resourcefulness. It is time for the rest of us to emerge from our own forest and do our part.

401

Without paying much attention to it, I reached my 400^th post. During November I noticed I was into the upper 300’s and thought I should do some special post for number 400, then as I was looking at some visitor statistics, I saw the nice round 400 for total posts. Fortunately, those posts have been spread over 6+ years, so it has not been something I have been addicted to – as I can be with new technology.

After over six years, this is old technology, though I do update the template from time to time and expand it as I become more proficient with the layout. Eventually, I am going to be comfortable enough with some format that I will be managing it with my own website.

As I look over the numbers, the posting has been somewhat consistent over the years, though a couple of the years got a boost with NaBloPoMo as I attempted to write something every day for a month.

2005 – 2 posts (created and forgot it in a month’s time)

2006 – 41 posts (rediscovered it and started exploring)

2007 – 109 posts (really embraced the blog)

2008 – 64 posts (grad school took a toll)

2009 – 57 posts (more grad school)

2010 – 64 posts (finished grad school)

2011 – 62 posts and counting (including this one)

I have met over 20 people in person because of the blog – most of whom I met on a 24 hour trip to New York and back for a blogger picnic. I am still in contact with three of those people. Additionally, I have formed friendships with the two west-coaster bloggers I met while in Los Angeles a few years ago.

This continues to be a fun little aside for me. I have never sought to give it much purpose like the other blogs I write or to which I contribute, or make it into anything profitable as have some of the blogs I follow. I just like to write whatever comes to mind and toss it out there for the amusement of others. And so it goes.

Here’s to 401 and counting.

Just in Time

Some days demand that everything work right lest they turn into disaster. Yesterday was one of those days for me. By quirk of calendar, I ended up coordinating two events at the same time. Fortunately, they were both at the same location, so I could run back and forth between them. Despite their proximity, for them to work, both had to run exactly on time so I could do my necessary duties for each one.

Like clockwork each event went off on cue.

Part was due to simple good luck. Part was due to my ability to plan and schedule.

In the last few years, I have recognized that I have a photographic calendar in my mine. I remember details, dates, and days of the week almost perfectly. I am not one of those super-humans who can instantly recall the information, but with a little thought, I am able to get it. Such organization comes in handy with the many projects I have going on simultaneously.

One thing I discovered and have really been thinking about following an innocent comment of one of the participants yesterday was that I do not do a good job of communicating my organization.

As long as I am in charge and able to directly command the situation everything works great. The moment I step aside and assume others know what is going on, confusion and chaos take over. I need to learn to communicate the details of my organization much more effectively, so others have a better understanding of what is going on. People look at me as a leader, but I can see that this is one area of development I need to manage.

By luck, both events worked out yesterday, but I cannot count on luck happening every time I manage events. There are many around me who can have a bigger part in the event and themselves become stronger leaders. I made notes throughout the day yesterday and now am working out formats for communicating the organization I have in my head so I do not have to count on events playing out just in time.

World AIDS Day 2011

World AIDS Day each year has for years been one of the most moving days of the year for me. In the years before I came out, and in the early days of HIV/AIDS the day symbolized a time of fear an uncertainty. From the time HIV/AIDS was a topic for debate while I was in high school, I stayed update with news regarding the spread of the infection as well as the treatment for persons infect with the virus.

Sadly, for years there was not much good news with the disease, but over the years medications and prevention have made a difference and we begin now the fourth decade of recognition of the disease and progress continues to be made, but we cannot forget the toll of the disease on the community and populations around the world.

Robert Klitzman, M.D.: World AIDS Day 2011: Entering The Fourth Decade Of HIV:

'via Blog this'

Klitzman, a long time physician gives some insight into the progress. While there is much to celebrate on this World AIDS Day, we must also continue to remember the millions lost and redouble our efforts to create an HIV free generation by 2015.

Exercising My Fingers

Now that thirty days have passed, with writing every day, I managed to get thirty-two posts online in the time frame. Unfortunately I goofed and did not set the publication time correctly for one post and posted two on one day and missed a post on the next day – something I discovered after the fact. My attempt at NaBloPoMo was both a success and a disappointment. Because I am also writing an Advent blog, which has led to posts on two blogs since Sunday, I do not know if I have it in me to compose two blogs a day through most of December.

Fortunately the Advent blog comes with built in inspiration of the scripture passages for each day of the period.

This blog requires me to find inspiration somewhere in life either from what I am reading, watching or doing. Fortunately I do not sit still very often so come across something worth saying more often than not. I just do not force myself into it on a regular basis like I do this month.

Fortunately this month a confluence of events presented the opportunity to again focus on reading and writing. The time change coupled with canceling cable television gave me so much more time to engage in creative endeavors. I rarely “watched” television before cancelling the cable – or so I thought. I have found that even though I usually only had it on for noise, I paid much more attention than I thought I did because I have had so much more free time now that the television is not on.

My greatest distraction now comes when I leave an instant messenger on and start getting chat messages from various friends. That too, is something I am learning to turn off while I turn on my brain and exercising my fingers.

Free Black Friday!

Black Friday for me involved staying home avoiding the masses, and other than looking for a food disposal to replace mine which stopped working the day before Thanksgiving, I did not even begin to shop for the holidays. I have not yet decided what to get anyone for Christmas this year, so I guess I better start shopping soon. I did however purchase a few days of pure pleasure for me on Amazon. iTunes has free songs each week. Amazon music has free songs AND entire free albums.

Most of the free albums on Amazon are music samplers from various music publishers, but so far, everything I have downloaded from classical to world music has been music that I would listen to at length. While the process can be a bit tedious and the system does not warn you when you have already purchased (grabbed, snatched, taken) an album which sometimes leads to a double download of a particular selection, it can easily be cleaned up after they make their way into iTunes with the display duplicates function. Since my Black Friday raid on the free music on Amazon, I have been listening to a variety of artists I likely would never have experienced.

Which is exactly what the free music push-outs on iTunes and Amazon would like.

I like some new artists I probably would not have sought out on my own, but now that I am familiar with them, I am much more likely to search out something they have for sale on one of the music sites.

I have not played with the Amazon cloud player enough yet, but have played with the iTunes program enough to know that I like having a wide variety of music available at nearly any time. It comes in handy at work when I cannot count on otherwise streaming music to fill my office and have to rely on the radio.

Fortunately there is a classical music station I pick up most of the time.

Not long ago, I relied on the radio for the majority of my musical exposure, but in the last six years, I have hardly listened to commercial music. With friends posting music on social media, the period of time I had satellite radio, and now with the streaming music sources, I hardly turn on the radio more than to get my daily news fix in the morning and evenings.

I am happy with the much broader variety of music I get now than ever before – and the much broader selection than I can get from the broadcast stations in Austin. Honestly, I cannot slam them too much because I have not listened to them in such a long time, I could not tell you the format of any but the local NPR station and local classical music station. I stopped listening to them for a reason, and the few times I have turned  one or the other on, I heard nothing new that made me want to come back on a regular basis.

For the time being, I am going to continue taking advantage of the music to which I have access via social media, streaming music stations, and the other random sources.

And I’m going to continue growing my music library whenever I can.

iTraining

I do not know where my puppies, Bart and Lisa, got the idea that digging in daddy’s pot plants was a good idea or a fun thing to do, but lately it is one of their favorite things to do. They have also taken to biting limbs off the shrubs in the back yard.

I give them plenty of toys and give them new ones when I suspect they are being bored of the ones they have.

Still, they manage to be destructive.

Bringing the plants most threatened by the promised freeze we were to get with the latest cold front reminded me to be prepared for puppy damage. I have spent two years nurturing pineapple plants grown from the top of two pineapples I purchased on a whim (and during a particularly good sale) at the local grocery store. They managed to knock one off the plant stand in the yard twice and I worried about what they would do to it in my kitchen.

After playing with a couple placements, I think I found a spot where the plants will get enough light and not be in the path of the puppies running area. Much of what they do in the house is not malicious; it is brute muscle carelessness as they run around playing. And some of it is just them being puppies.

Still, I have to clean up after them.

Realizing that they are just puppies, I am ok with doing it. Unfortunately I can never catch them in the act because they are always nearly angels when I am home. They manage to do the damage when I am at work. I need to get a nanny-cam so I can see which of them does what during the day when I am at work.

Of course that would work best if I had a remote control and could watch the camera from my desk at work and activate a recorded “Stop!” command when I saw them doing something they were not supposed to be doing. I have an iPhone and my home theater system is connected to iTunes. Surely there is an app for that.

And Now I Bleed

Shaving remains the personal grooming activity I like the least. On weekends and holidays from work, I avoid shaving as much as possible and only shave for special reasons. I see why a month like November can become a month like Movember, a month for men to grow out their facial hair, would catch on. I could participate in something like that.

Except four days of facial hair annoys me about as much as shaving, so I give in.

And now I bleed.

One of the side effects of not shaving for several days is that I always nick myself trying to get every bit of the thick stubble. I keep a styptic stick and toilet paper handy, but I think I am a slow bleeder. It always appears after I have finished my shower and gotten dressed.

So, many of my shirts end up with blood stains around the collar because my Adam’s apple always gets the nick.

Honestly, I cannot grow a good beard. I have too many thin patches on my face. I could get a good moustache going and maybe even a goatee, but that takes even more work because it involves shaving AND trimming. Until someone comes up with a remedy for facial hair, I will continue to shave and I will continue to have my breaks from shaving.

And I will continue to bleed.

Blah

The company at Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful, but the food was, by my standards, a great disappointment. The challenge has been to figure out what I would have done differently.  Going into the meal, I was concerned that people would find the food too spicy for their liking; instead the food came out bland. After going through the consideration of making new foods for Thanksgiving, I decided to stick with the traditional foods I have cooked for years.

Because I have made these dishes many times, there was no excuse for them turning out the way they did.

I have gone over everything I could imagine that could cause the dishes to come out the way they did.

I purchased the ingredients just days before preparing the meal, so everything was fresh.

I did not have a cold or sinus problems affecting my sense of taste or smell.

Still, something had to be going on for every dish to come out so bland tasting that I was embarrassed to serve it. Of course, I did not know it was so bland until I actually took it out of the oven to serve it.

Everyone who ate the meal said it was wonderful and thanked me many time for having them over, but after tasting the food myself, I am convinced they were just being polite. Despite their polite assurances, my search continues to get to the origin of blah.

Thanksgiving Lunch 2011

Of course, I cooked too much, but I do not really know how to do otherwise. The foods today were:

Turkey - soaked in a citrus brine and cooked breast down to stay extra moist. Cooked with lemons, limes, apples and an onion in the cavity for extra flavor.

Cornbread dressing.

Corn pudding - with bacon grease for that extra goodness/badness.

Steamed green beans with bacon and a honey-mustard dressing.

Cranberry salad with fresh cranberries, diced apple, and fine pecan pieces.

And the best part of the meal:

Sweet potato souffle with slivered almonds and brown sugar crust on top. I personally think it is as good as any of the desserts.

And speaking of desserts - pumpkin cheesecake, pecan pie, double layer pumpkin pie, mincemeat pie.

Altogether a pretty nice meal.

Tryptophan Dreams

If I judge the goodness of a meal by the silence around the table, I think today was fairly successful. After my friends and I filled our plates, we sat in silence as we made our way through the different dishes. After having a few pieces of pie, we settled into a post-meal stupor watching football and different YouTube videos.

This is such a nice way to spend the holiday. Ample food to share with friends and then just hanging out is the way to spend the holiday. Cooking and sharing the table is one of my favorite activities - and is made even better when I get to share with friends I do not get to see very often. In spite of the stress that often comes with the holidays, the chance to spend quality time with with friends and family.

I like it for the chance to spend quality time in the kitchen whipping up some of my favorite foods that are not always the best for me. Even thought I do not eat nearly enough turkey for the tryptophan to truly be an issue, I enjoy it for the opportunity to blame it for an afternoon nap while the games play on in the background.

So will belly full and dishes washed, I nap and am thankful.

Another Week of Running - Week 4

One upside of food poisoning is the weight loss. I lost ten pounds in a week, but it comes with the down side of almost no energy. On my first run of the week, after not running for a week and a half, I only made it 3/4 of a mile before I was completely exhausted. I walked another quarter mile and tried to run the mile back. This time I only made it 1/2 mile before I could not run any farther.

Probably the worst part of the second stretch of running is that it re-aggravated the pulled muscle in my back. Apparently it was not as healed as I thought it was. I'm going to have to take some time doing other exercises to get more of my core strengthened so I can do as much running as I would like to.

Following the bad run, I decided to start doing some weight lifting and other actions to strengthen the core, but my back kept that from going as far as I wanted it to. I have just been focusing on stretching. Hopefully in a few days I will be back into condition to run again because I truly enjoy it for the health benefits and stress relief.

Cooking with My Besties

This week I purchase an extra bottle of dishwashing liquid so I could run the dishwasher as often as I needed while preparing the Thanksgiving dinner for friends and family. Even running the dishwasher every time I get it filled, I never seem to have the dishes I want to use, though anyone who has ever been in my kitchen knows I have more than enough dishes to stock a small restaurant.

It is just that there is always the one pan I REALLY want to use that happens to be in mid-cycle in the dishwasher.

Some dishes just seem to be best for cooking, stirring, mixing, storing, etc. I have my favorite knives, spoons, mixing bowls as well as my favorite appliances. All of them work together to make cooking as much fun as it is for me. And with the holiday preparations in full swing, I am making the most of them in everything I do.

The Silence of the Televisions

I have now gone several weeks without cable television. Technically, I still have "basic" cable, but it does not work, so I have lived off the channels I can pick up with my antenna. Despite no longer having the cooking shows or my weekly fix of Ghost Adventures (the best comedy that is not meant to be a comedy on television), there has yet to be a night I came home and missed turning on the television.

Many more opportunities appear when the television does not take the center stage of the night. As much as I thought I would be reading, I have actually spent more time studying various things for work or just personal edification. I have also taken the time to write some every night - whether it is with inspiration from the people sitting around a coffee shop or the random ideas that have popped into my head.

The more I have been writing, the easier it has been to write, which is far different than saying the writing has gotten any better, it is just easier to get words down on the page. Using my iPad as the primary composition device has also allowed me to work with far fewer distractions than working on the computer. I have not quite mastered the habit of turning off the chat program or Twitter when working with a laptop. At least on my iPad, the notice that something has happened out in cyberspace that I may be interested in comes with a simple bar turning at the top of the page instead of some obnoxious sound (unless I plug speakers into my docking station).

What I most need to focus on is the editing. Once NaBloPoMo ends and the pressure to post every day subsides, I will not feel like I have to go on and publish something just to get it out there. Until then, I am keeping my eyes open for a daily muse to get me through one furious time of typing and a basic visual spell check. I long ago learned that just because no words on the screen have a dotted red line below them I should believe that every word is spelled correctly. Too many actual words lurk behind a simple typo, and given that my left hand types faster than my right hand (and I am right-handed for the most part), many typos come from the over achievement of the left digits.

The other project I have taken on in writing receives a bit more thorough editing because it is topical and people will be able to take something meaningful away from it if they read it regularly. I will post more about it for the two people who read this blog on a regular basis when it is fully functioning (yes, another blog - and likely a third is coming along soon).

We shall soon see just what no longer turning the television on will lead me to do.

Not Without Caffeine

Today I managed to function on only two and one-half hours of sleep, though it seemed like much less. The throbbing headache that kept me from sleeping did not dissipate until it was time for my alarm to sound. At that point, I just lay in bed waiting for it to go off so I could turn it off. I managed to sleep through the sunrise, but the dogs' activity ensured that I would not stay in bed much longer than that.

Today, though is not the day I am going to worry about. Tomorrow, a work day, is the day I dread. As I have aged, I find that insomnia's effects are generally delayed by a day, so in this case, it means I'm going to be exhausted on a work day, rather than on the weekend, as I would prefer.

Of course insomnia does not come on a schedule. It happens at the most inconvenient times.

Fortunately, caffeine comes in many convenient ways.

Thanksgiving Planning

As much as I do not enjoy Halloween, I look forward to Thanksgiving. Maybe because so much of the day centers around food and I love to cook. Each year I prepare a meal for friends and family - anyone who is available to come by. Preparation begins weeks in advance as I plan out the menu and begin to play with the recipes to make them just what I want.

This year, I have been struggling with the menu. I normally do a traditional turkey and dressing with other traditional holiday foods. This year, I want to do something different, but I am having trouble coming up with the right food that celebrates the holiday but breaks tradition. I have considered doing beef since we are in Texas. I have considered game meats since that would have been widely available during the time of the first Thanksgiving.

With just days to go, the menu is blank and no groceries have been purchased. Normally cooking takes me four days. I need to get this underway shortly. The simplest thing to do would be to make a traditional meal. The stores are overflowing with those groceries.

Even if I do go with the traditional foods, my habit is to modify the recipes somewhat, so I have a few ideas how those recipes will change. Still there is only limited time to pull it all together. With that in mind, I will be spending time meandering the aisles at the grocery store, seeking inspiration - to either do classic traditional, or to do something creative.

Either way, I look forward to many hours in the kitchen in the next week doing what I can to show my appreciation for those friends and family who are joining me for the holiday.

Potato Breakfast Casserole

Just like with my classic breakfast casserole, for the potato breakfast casserole, I use the basics ingredients of eggs, milk, cheese, browned meat (hamburger, turkey, sausage) and cream of (mushroom, celery) soup. Instead of croutons or dried bread, though, I use hash browns.

For a typical breakfast casserole for work or other large group, I use 2 cups of milk, 18 eggs, 2 cans cream soup, 1 package frozen has browns (or 4 or 5 large potatoes grated), 2 cups cheese, 1 lb ground meat.

First I spray the pan with non-stick spray and spread the frozen hash browns.

Then I top that with browned meat and spread cheese over that.

Then I thoroughly mix together the eggs, milk, and cream soup and pour it over the top.

Cover and refrigerate over night. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and cook about an hour  until firm in the middle.

To have an extra cheesy casserole, spread and extra cup of cheese over the top about half-way through cooking. This one works well with a spiced up version with fresh jalapeños added into the mix.

The more I have made this variation, the more I have come to prefer it over the bread-based one.

What Calendar?

Why have a planner when nothing goes as planned? This week has been one of those weeks when, no matter what is on my agenda, something else happens. While every replacement activity has been worthwhile and important to the overall accomplishment of my job, I still have the feeling that I have not accomplished all that I should have done in the week.

That is the nature of a job in which you work with meeting people’s needs. You cannot be all things to all people but you do your best when they are around and do the paperwork later. I stay late almost every day just because that is the time that will allow me to get the bureaucratic tasks of my job done. The interaction with people, teachers, students, parents, truly make my job the one I love to do. While those interactions can be frustrating more often than I would hope, successful completion of them give me the energy to come back the next day - to look forward to the next day - even when it promises to be 12 hours long.

Although I know it is not always going to work, I do plan my days fairly carefully so that those I work with know what to expect. I even post my calendar on my door, so that when others drop in, they know what is on the agenda for the day. Most importantly, it lets people know what I am doing with my time, because many people do not know what people in my profession do from day to day. As often as it offers job security, it can cause confusion and frustration when others do not recognize the urgency that some tasks have over others. They do not realize that their immediate situation is not the most important thing I have on my calendar - because it is the most important thing they have on their calendar for me.

Each day I go to work with a mental calendar of activities that must be done.

Each day at work I adjust my calendar to match what needs to be done.

Each day I do to work looking forward to the challenges that come with it.

Each I come home from work, thrilled at the challenges I have met.

Another Week of Running - Week 3

The title is unfortunately misleading. Due to a pulled muscle in my back followed by food poisoning, I didn’t get to have a single run this week. Each day not running was more frustrating than the previous as I really looked forward to continuing the progress I had been making.

Not only has the drive been there to do the running, but the weather has been perfect for the running.

The food poisoning turned out to be worse than the back problem I was over the back problem in three days, but the food poisoning has hung on for five days.

Since it is supposed to be in the 40’s when I wake up in the morning, I’m going to do all I can to get up when the alarm first goes off to go out for a run in the neighborhood. Due to the time change, I cannot make it to the trail in the daylight during the workweek, but with a few good runs around my neighborhood in the week, I should be set for some good runs on the trail when weekends roll around (and I’m not working)

Canine Companions

Back in June I was debating whether or not to get a new dog. After a few weeks of searching, I ended up finding the puppy that I wanted - well puppies. I ended up adopting a brother and sister Boston Terrier/Pug cross - Bugs.  I wish I knew what I was getting into the day I brought them home.

It took a couple weeks before I finally settled on names for them. I wanted to find the right brother and sister from literature or history. It just seemed right because they were by far the smartest dogs I had ever had. They quickly learned to be mostly housebroken and actually made an effort to do the right thing and either ran to the training pad or outside when the time came. They learned to fetch and play various games as well as to sit and cooperate on a leash rather quickly.

Lisa

Bart

But their brains worked against me too. When bored, they quickly turned destructive and managed to get into things I never imagined. As a result my decision to wait a bit on names paid off. I went with Bart and Lisa - both smart in their own way, but also always into something well beyond what they should be.

The most amazing thing is how much they like digging into my walls. Yes - digging into the sheetrock of my walls.

And digging up everything in my garden. Their favorite bed outside is inside one of my large pots - from which they have dug out most of the dirt. They dug out the plants from every pot, but in that one, they sleep.

Still, I have no regrets about them. They are still the smartest dogs I've ever had and have amazing personalities. To some degree they mirror their namesakes. Bart is a big tough (well as much as 15 pound dogs are big and tough) dog who bulldozes his way though every situation. Lisa is much more clever; she pays attention to her surroundings and usually sees how much attention I am paying before she does something really bad.

When I am giving them a snack, it is so much fun to see their bodies nearly exploding with anticipation as I hold out on the goodie until they sit still for me to bring it all the way to their mouths. One of these days I expect their shaking to set of the local fault line. If my house was not on a solid concrete foundation, one would feel the house shaking as they charge through it (sometimes chasing me, sometimes with me chasing them.

I still have not replaced the dog door from when I had chihuahuas, Bart and Lisa now have to slow down to crawl through, so I have an advantage when chasing them. I can usually catch whichever one is waiting their turn to escape outside. In our games of chase, after escaping outside, Lisa has learned how to push open the door with her nose just enough to see where I am before she fully commits to coming in.

Someday soon, the two-year-old me is going to find a good hiding space just out of her sight so I can pounce as soon as she comes through the door. In these instances though, Bart may actually be the smarter one. He waits until she is fully inside to see what kind of reaction happens before he begins to venture in.

And They Call Him the Streak

Feeling at a loss for inspiration I started scouring my twitter feed and the various news sites I have on my iPad. An hour later, I had more than a few laughs but still wondered for inspiration. Disturbingly hilarious photos of families with their pets. A nude man robbing a liquor store. The litany of Republican presidential candidate gaffes. All of them are too good on their own. I do not need to comment on them. Even the news out of Penn State is so repulsive that I do not know where to even start in a commentary about it.

And then in real life, a guy wearing a trench coat walks into the coffee shop (start of many a joke) where I'm hanging out. It is 75 degrees. No good reason exists to be wearing a trench in the middle of a drought with this temperature. Well, no good reason unless you are going to flash someone.

He also ordered a hot chocolate.

That trench is coming off.

Unfortunately, he is somewhere behind me, so instead of doing the writing I want to do, I am closely watching the people in my line of sight so I can be ready with my phone camera when the big event goes off. I am trying to imagine how it will go down for a play by play announcer:

And he stands from his seat.

The table to the right is fully absorbed in their studies.

He's fully in the clear. He has a direct shot.

And he's walking.

He's walking.

His hand is on the button.

The table knows somethings up. He's closing in.

And there you have it folks. A wide open trench coat. Full frontal exposure.

The girl at the corner gasps as the boy next to her spews his coffee and points.

The guy across the table leaps to his feet.

But just as quickly trench guy is out the door.

Maybe I have been following Ruth Buzzi on Twitter too much lately. The whole trench coat schtick seems very 1970's. Do people still do that or does webcamming fulfill the fetish for people who have the need to expose themselves live to others? Lately there have been more stories of people streaking at sporting events than in past years, so perhaps we are regressing to a more personal touch for our exposure. Has social media become so distant even exhibitionists have to find a venue with real people?

If that is the case then Avenue Q is going to have to rewrite one of the funniest songs. The Internet is no longer for porn: it's for real stuff.

Not-so Good Sports

Last weekend I watched some of the best football games I have seen in years. This weekend I could not find a game that held my interest for even a few minutes. What makes such a difference in the games that leads some to be thrilling and holding one's attention from the first play and others to just be so tedious that one only watches out of habit?

The games that so engrossed me last week did not involve any of my favorite teams and I would have been lucky to name any player on either side. They were however well played close games that hinged on each play. One substantial play from either team could have turned the outcome of the game. I cheered both sides, since I did not have a particular team I was rooting for.

This weekend I watched games that carried into overtime. Nevertheless, they never captivated me or made me even consider standing and cheering for either team. I simply did not care about the outcome. Each game had memorable plays offensively and defensively. Each game came down to the wire and every call and execution potentially changed the final result.

Still, I could not get engaged in the games - even ones with Texas teams I am obligated to support to demonstrate my state pride. I do not support all Texas teams. I just cannot bring myself to support the Cowboys as long as Jerry Jones is the owner. (Do personal vendettas have a place in sports? You betcha' they do!)

Some other quality has to exist in the game that gives it that must watch quality. Or does it exist in me?

This weekend found me confined to my house due to something I ate Friday night - with long-lasting consequences. Even though I had errands I needed to run, I did not dare leave the house. Perhaps the preoccupation of all the other things I needed to be doing and could not affected my ability to concentrate on the games or give them a shot to be as exciting as Twitter and the announcers made them sound.

I think over the grumbling in my stomach, nothing would have made any game interesting - much less compare to the nail-biters from the previous weekend. At least I got hours of sleep!

Baked Oatmeal Breakfast

Since childhood, oatmeal has been one of my least favorite breakfast foods. I like oats and oatmeal as an ingredient in other dishes, but I just cannot get past the texture of traditionally boiled oatmeal. Recently, though, I found a new way of preparing oatmeal that overcame the slimy texture and turned oatmeal into a wonderful breakfast option, especially when I have company.

The simple ingredient list means this this dish can be one pulled together with little notice.

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 C Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons honey (or syrup)

2 Eggs

1 C Applesauce

1 1/2 C Milk

3 C Oatmeal

1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon salt

1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon (I use apple pie spice)

1/4 cup raisins (plumped for 10 minutes in warm water)

brown sugar

milk

Mix all the wet ingredients together then combine in the dry ingredients.

Pour into a 9 X 9 baking dish. Place in refrigerator overnight. 

(before cooking) I made a double batch to take to work and used a 13 X 9 pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes.

Two flavors I particularly like to add to apple dishes are mustard powder and cheddar cheese. I mix in about 1/4 cup cheddar cheese and  1/2 teaspoon powdered mustard.

This dish has become a favorite at work and with friends, and of course, has made me consider eating oatmeal regularly.

No Good Story

Just when I believed I would start setting geriatric speed records as I resumed my running, the entire endeavor ended (temporarily) in a single movement. Age showed itself with a pulled muscle in my back. Sadly, there no good story comes with it.

In fact, the debilitating event came from such a simple action that I wonder just what I could do to prevent it: I leaned over to get a pen out of my backpack and upon straightening up, a stabbing pain began shooting down my back. I could not continue sitting at the coffee shop and had to return home to my heating pad and what pain killers I had.

Two days of heating pads and epsom salt baths and my back feels much better, though my whole body is stiff from trying to move without straining my back. If today continues as I hope, I will run again in the morning.

Though the back pain causes some inconvenience, I recognize that it is just one part of aging, but approaching it with good humor and determination will not long slow me down.

Still, I want a better story than picking up a pen.

Revenge or Satisfaction - or Both

I have heard the saying, “revenge is a dish best served cold,” many times over the years in both literary and proverbial form. This week I happened upon an occasion to see revenge in several forms take place that did not involve me in any way.

No pre-meditated vengeance on my part. No blood on my hands, just the satisfaction of a job well done.

Some definite “might have beens” hanging out in their heads.

Punctuated by congratulatory emails on which the other was copied. 

Yes, I am happy about that.

Sometimes revenge happens best by doing the right thing and then letting karma play itself out.

A Little Moderation

The last few years have brought about such an outpouring of political frustration due to the perceived brokenness of the political system. From the virulent incoherence of the TEA Party movement to the wildly undefined OWS uprising, it has become clear that we as a nation have reached our frustration limits with the status quo. Politicians on both sides are doing their utmost to capitalize on the events either flattering and attempting to align, or damning and holding their opponents responsible. I have yet to see any politician who truly gets it and realizes that "the people" are fed up with being lied to and manipulated for the gain of the few by both politicians and corporations.

While I cannot find a way to align with either side in the social war. Both are too fragmented and to extreme. While on the one side, I want "government" to leave me alone even though I am a quasi-government employee (the state government claims educators when it wants to and disowns us when it is more convenient), but I do believe I should pay my fair share of taxes. I think I am grossly underpaid for the work that I do, but I opted to go to college and earn three degrees directly related to my present position - with the full knowledge that I would be grossly underpaid for my entire work life. I made the choice and quite happily live with it.

Discontent, though, creates dangerous conditions. Benjamin Franklin said, "a mob's a monster, heads enough but no brains." While both organizations appear to have structure, the extremists in each do a remarkable job of making both seem much more threatening than either likely is.

I have tried to come up with a clear definition for either one.

As best as I can define it, the one seeks social justice for themselves alone and the other seeks social justice 1950's Mississippi style.

Both perceive their own hurt to be so personal they cannot rationally comprehend any other viewpoint, and logic long ago fell victim to passion.

None of the leaders in this generation have experienced the level of acrimony from the public masses as is demonstrated in congressional town meetings, electoral debates, the vitriol of talk radio and the slanted coverage of news stations. Everywhere bias dominates the public forum and I have to wonder how much social media has to do with it. A couple years ago, a sociologist released a report/book on how we have segregated ourselves into interest groups. We have moved into neighborhoods of like people. We attend churches with like believers, we get our news from stations that support our political positions, and we friend or follow others who reinforce our values. No wonder we are such angry people as we constantly feed our emotion with fearsome fodder regardless of its nutritional value.

I long for leaders who have the strength to lead with one another over the din around them - leaders with the intelligence to understand the sound and fury of disillusionment and do what it takes to restore trust somewhere in the moderate middle - someone who is able to appeal to me.

Another Week of Running - Week 2

This week I only got in two runs. There were plenty of excuses, but no good reasons. Both runs I managed to get in were great and inspiring and kept my motivation going. I managed to run at least two miles each time with each mile under nine minutes. Each run had me so pumped and I ended them feeling so good that I wanted to continue running.

I once again found my rhythm. I checked my stopwatch, and like clockwork, I passed the quarter-mile makers along the trail, but after over-doing it in my first week, I learned my lesson about that, so had pre-determined how far I am going to run and have been able to do it. Now I have to make the decision to either get up earlier in the morning and do my run then, or leave work early enough to get to the trail, though the time change makes that more difficult.

I need to find out if the track behind the school is lit at night.

Unfortunately there were not more than two runs to report this week, they were good and I look forward to working more in in the coming week.

Unplanned

While making the effort to plan my posts for the month and build motivation for a month’s worth of writing, I wrote a calendar with a theme for each day of the week in hopes it would generate thoughts throughout the week so when I sat down and write, I would have pre-composed fragments and some cleverly worded sentence filed in my memory, next to the brilliant insults that come to mind a few minutes too late to deliver.

Lately I have been on time with the insults, but just not in the right situation to say all my mind conceives.

I have not had any trouble coming up with essays this month in my attempt to blog daily for the month; however, the creative juices have not followed my plan at all. So much has been going on, that inspiration follows each day based on experiences and observations from the day. Several of the topics about which I most want to write have documents in draft, but my thoughts are not clear enough that I am ready to post them. I am doing some reading and research before I finalize my thoughts.

One of the books I am reading is about writing, and listening to the Selected Shorts podcast on a regular basis has made me want to work on the stories I have had in outline for some twenty years. The final product, at least as final as they have reached to date, do not meet my standard for sharing, so they remain in draft. Perhaps sometime in the reasonably close future I will sit down with my editor's pen and revise to the point that I am ready to share.

The fact that I have been able to come up with topics on a daily basis rather than rely on some predestined theme offers some promise that over the holidays when I have some time off from work, I will be able to focus on creative activity rather than catching up with all the extra busyness of things neglected while focusing on work. With proper planning on my part the things neglected will be the creative endeavors I continually put off and say I will attend to on breaks from work.

I began writing this blog six years ago, when I was first in the job I once again have. At that time, it inspired creativity and I sought some outlet and decided to try out what was then a relatively new format. (The geek in me has always wanted to do what is new.) Now, upon returning to this job, the inspiration that came with it originally has returned with even more urgency.

Much as with the writing, my daily schedule does not often go according to plan and I often recall the lines from Robert Burns:

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Robert Burns, To a Mouse (Poem, November, 1785)

So as much as I want to take my upcoming break to work on the short stories I have begun over the last 20+ years, I think twice about making such a plan. Just like the daily plan for the blog this month has not stayed true to form, even for a single day, I will just let the days progress as they will. My tendency to over-plan every moment of my day gets in the way of life. I cannot resist the attempt to plan every waking minute of my work days and my days off, but I can also learn to go with the flow and enjoy even those things that are unplanned.