Skyline

In the ten years since I moved to Austin, the skyline of the city has changed drastically - seemingly with a new tallest building dominating the view every few months. Despite all the change, I still prefer the first of the new tall buildings to rise along Congress Avenue and dramatically change the view of the city.

The Frost Bank building with its abstract geometrical design stands out among the attractive, but otherwise smooth buildings in landscape.


As special feature, with the Frost Bank symbol (the circular design) and the pointed peaks gives the building an owl-like appearance when viewed from certain directions.  Although many locals have derided the distinctness of the building because of the way it stands out against the Austin skyline, it is just that distinct nature that makes it so attractive to me.

Wild Times in the Old Middle East

Most protestant churches ignore the “Catholic Bible” or more particularly, the  books of the Apocrypha. The Bible study group I lead has been reading through the Apocrypha for just over the last year and it has been a fascinating look at what some consider scripture. Not many Baptist Bible studies that i can find have taken the time to read and investigate the stories in these documents.

I think it may prove beneficial if some of our leaders study the history of the time covered in the apocryphal writings. In the recent weeks of reading through I Maccabees, one disturbing theme continues to surface.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

While most scholars consider I Maccabees to be “temple propaganda” to support the power of the Hasmonean dynasty in Israel, it does portray the strategies used by the leaders throughout the time.

They were namely:

• build walls
• throw out everyone who does not believe as they do
• capture territory
• colonize the captured territory with faithful Jews
• build walls higher

Something sounds oddly familiar about that strategy.

Possibly because it reflects much of Israel’s foreign policy today.

Certainly, it is a simplification, but when reading through the history and looking at the headlines of the day, the similarities are uncanny. The warring factions change, but the strategies remain the same. History demonstrates they have a short term effectiveness and appeal to a certain faction. History also shows that the strategy largely led to Israel ceasing to exist for over two-thousand years.

I would encourage the regional leaders and outside powers seeking to influence outcomes in the region to seriously read the history as it has been passed down. When we learn from history, we do not have to repeat the errors made in antiquity. The Apocrypha has been a surprisingly clear window to the thinking of the Israel in the past with a reflection of Israel today.

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

Unlike many gay men, I truly do enjoy sports in person and on television. Lately, though, I have had trouble really getting into sports of any kind because of lack of sportsmanship I have seen on so many levels ranging from coaches, to athletes, to fans. The situation only grows because many of the teams I normally support are struggling this season with only a few bright spots in the schedule.

Baseball, for me, is simply impossible to watch on television despite the great pleasure of the game in person. Somehow, television manages to turn the joy and excitement of the game and turn it into a tedious and uninteresting cycle of plays. However, because the Texas Rangers made the playoffs and survived into the World Series, I have been making a diligent attempt to watch playoff games into the Series. Despite the level of the game, watching saps what little energy remains in me from the day. And that is the good part of sports for me right now.

Those who follow college football closely knew it was going to be a rebuilding year for the University of Texas Longhorns, and we entered the year with diminished expectations following the heights we expected demanded last season. Nonetheless, even with lowered hopes, this season has been stunningly bad for a top-tier college program. Hopefully, the performance this year will bring about needed changes on the team that will allow for higher levels of growth and success in the near future. College football has been my favorite sport for years and I will continue to follow each Longhorn game with hopes that they will pull out another victory (though I did successfully predict the loss to Baylor).

By now, most of you can probably guess the ugliness that faces me each week in the sports world. The Dallas Cowboys, who have not been one of my favorite teams since Jerry Jones purchased the franchise in the late ’90’s, have always kept my attention as they are the historically powerhouse team from Texas - no matter what other team is playing in Texas at the time. As much as I enjoy trashing them as an organization, I have been stunned this season at how well they are doing it themselves. Is it really possible for any professional organization to so completely self-destruct? Despite the perverse glee I experience with each Cowboys’ loss, I mourn a little for their place in football lore.

Work Ethic

I come from a different generation. I work hard more hours each week than I care to count. While I have my “desk” hours at work, the hours I spend in district boundaries do not begin to touch the hours of work I do. As and administrator in an education system, most people do not understand exactly what it is that I do.

I administer.

I answer questions.

I make decisions.

I talk much.

I listen more.

When I first heard the term from one of my idols in administration, lead-learner seemed to me to be a homage to the profession and to diminish the distance between classroom educators and administrators. Now that I work in administration, I cannot find any good way to explain to others just how much time I spend studying and learning more about my job, my programs, the politics of the work that I do.

I often read until late in the night though my defined bedtime is 10:00 p.m. for my alarm sounds at 5:00 a.m.

Education is about learning. Administrators who cease to learn have a very short tenure with the burgeoning research into “best practices” potentially changing from day-to-day the work we do. However, effective administrators need to know the difference between “best practices” and what will truly work in the circumstances of the particular school. Such discrimination takes constant study and learning.

When I was a student through my first Masters degree, because I had never taken a break from the education system, I never realized how much work learning is. After taking a near ten year break between earning a first and second Masters degree, I forgot the effort required to truly master new information and be a successful student.

Lead learner no longer seems to me a dismissive term. It solidly represents the work ethic it takes to be an effective leader.

Because I still have so much to learn in one of the programs I administer, I do not yet consider myself effective. I am now sufficient, but through another year of learning, I may approach the point of being effective.

Working in education takes a different kind of work than many people can understand. The work I do on one day may not show effects for months. And  it may take days of work before there is a visible product to show for the hours of mental toil.

To many may consider it to be “less-than” work, but I know I sleep well each night. I gave up long ago trying to compare my 90-hour work week to the 40-hour work week of someone in a business setting. Thirty-plus of my hours of work my occur in the recliner in my living room, but with the ultimate outcomes being what they are, they are just as strenuous and effective as the hours spent behind a desk. I take pride in the work ethic I bring to the job each and every day and look forward to many more years of active learning, of being the lead learner in my job as an example for everyone who works with me.

Card Me

This morning I woke up to an unusual alarm going off on my phone. It was not the clock radio or the normal phone chimes. It was the alarm reminding me an important event on my calendar.

But why at 4:00 a.m. on a Thursday?

What could be so important?

Christmas cards!

As long as I have iCal and am using Apple products - or until I change the settings - I will be reminded three weeks before Thanksgiving to start working on my address list for Christmas cards. Since I mail 60 to 90 cards each year (I am single handedly trying to keep the postal service in operation), three weeks has turned out to be the magical time it takes to email people and update current mailing addresses.

Yes, I use email to get mailing addresses.

It is faster than sending a teaser card to see if I can collect a return address stamp from the USPS.

Holiday cards are one special way of making contact that still has a personal touch. While I do have a spreadsheet and use mail-merge to print the labels for the envelopes, I still sign each card and I send out a variety of cards each year and hand select the one that goes to each address. I do not simply pick one design, one-size-fits-all, and push them in the mail. I take the time to write a personal note as well as include my standard “Christmas Letter” though anyone would be sorely pressed to take my holiday letter seriously. It is early November and I already have the opening paragraph composed.

Prepare to be offended.

Maybe I should take some of the personal sensibilities of my recipients into consideration. 

Then again, my letter is about my life. They can tell me the dull details of their child’s finger painting. I shall turn the year into an adventure that bites.

Prepare to be offended.

Yahoo!

Despite my propensity for high-tech toys, in one area, I remain firmly entrenched in the 1990’s. My computer home page remains Yahoo. It has been the same since my internet addiction took hold in the mid/late ’90’s as it was the dominant email server and search site. As a digital immigrant, I grew comfortable with it and stuck with it over the years.

Despite it being a dropping in point, I do have other key applications in the tool bar across the top of the screen and use them almost exclusively for actual Internet functions.

Except quick news.

I am still addicted to the Yahoo top headlines - whatever they have picked out for me to be the top headline of the day.

Sometimes they are relevant.

Mostly they are not.

Mostly, they are nothing more than entertaining.

Especially when I get things about Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore breaking NCAA rules. Really? I care about this because? Because they met two potential Iowa basketball recruits, suddenly the NCAA is in a tizzy because they could potentially influence the recruits to attend Iowa.

Frankly, it would take more than Aston and Demi to make me attend Iowa.

And yet, I’ve spent twenty-something minutes pondering the uselessness of this information.

I think it is time for me to move into the 21st century and find a new Internet home page.

Rushing Water

As an amateur photographer, one of my favorite subjects is running water whether it comes from a fountain, raging stream, or gentle waterfall. The tranquility of gently running water, often juxtaposed against the evidence of its strength shown in gullies and worn paths through solid stone, often create beauty that attracts the eye and the ear.


The photo below shows one of the waterfalls at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin. Although the shot from directly above makes the fall look active and forceful, I was actually straddling the entire stream as I shot straight down on the fall as the water went over the edge.

Shown from the side, the waterfall is not nearly as intimidating.

Whenever I go hiking, I search out those places that have water running and seek as many angles as possible. Just before the water falls over the ledge above, it is running gently across a wide expanse of stone with various paths worn down by centuries of running water.

The previous three pictures were taken by laying flat on my stomach on (dry) creek bed just down from the water to get a straight-on shot. 

All the shots were taken in McKinney Falls State Park in Austin. I often forget about the park when I am thinking I want to get outside. I procrastinate and curse the parking challenges because of the congestion downtown. McKinney is only ten minutes from my house and there are never parking problems, and with this kind of environment, I am going to put it in the forefront of my mind for a quick natural get-away.

Vote Now!

Even though it is only a mid-term election, voting remains as vital as it is during a presidential election year. Unfortunately too many people do not seem to understand how vital it is. This year in particular determines governors and state legislatures who will be drawing up the redistricting lines following the release of census data that determines which states get more representatives and which states get fewer.

With that power comes influence that will last a decade regardless of the terms those elected this year serve. As much as I hope everyone agrees with me in the way to vote, given the contention and division that dominates the current state of our political system, anyone agreeing with me completely is quite unlikely. Every issue spans too many shades of gray for there to be much deep consensus.  Still, though we may disagree, I want everyone to vote their conscience this year with the understanding that there will be long-term consequences to the election.

The act of voting takes moments. The act of preparing to vote takes extended time or reading up on the candidates and issues involved in the election. The preparation is as essential as actually casting the ballot, for voting without the education leads to buyers regret in most instances. While it is now only 24 hours from the opening of the polls, it is not too late to research the candidates in your area. Look at the endorsements of local newspapers, check out party websites, and most local voting officials have sample ballots for view online.

Do your part. Research. Vote.

Mr. Popular

My schedule worked out to my advantage today as I was in my office for an extended time when the ACL tickets went on sale and I was able to get in the “virtual line” in plenty of time to actually purchase tickets for the 2011 festival, some eleven months away. While waiting in the virtual line (because it was still a line) I had a 1-on-1 conference with one of the teachers in the program I direct, composed an email for everyone in a different program I also direct, and contacted two outside agencies regarding data another district program needed for part of its annual report.

Yet in the middle of all that, I managed to notice when the screen changed and I pounced on my opportunity for “discounted” tickets.

I had no idea how popular that would make me.

Within the hour of tweeting (aka sideways Facebook posting) my purchase, I had received a call with an offer to buy some of my tickets and other Facebook notifications with offers.

If I had known purchasing tickets would make me Mr. Popular, I would buy tickets much more often!

For the time being, I’m hanging on to the tickets. Heck, they are just electronic imaginings with dollar signs attached to my American Express card until I claim them next September.

That’s when the competition really begins to see who is(are) my best friend(s)!

Why I Am Wearing Purple

Today many people are wearing purple to call attention to the issue of bullying faced by so many of the LGBT youth across the country. Over 19 years as an educator, I have seen bullying swell to epidemic proportions in the lives of young people. Certainly, bullies are nothing new. There have always been the Nelson Muntzs of the lunchroom and playground. There has always been the mean-girls club. This bullying is easy to see, and while not easy to stop, everyone knows it when it happens.

The bullying epidemic of the last decade, and the one claiming so many lives of young people today, occurs much more subtly - most often out of sight and sound. Today’s bullying rarely produces visible bruises. Instead it destroys the soul of the individual as it invades their most safe places with a message far more damaging than, “I’m tougher than you.” Today’s bullying thrives on the message, “you do not belong in the world.”

Particularly making news in recent months were the tragic suicides of young people taunted for being gay or for being perceived as being gay. As LGBT persons have gained recognition and much more acceptance in society, more and more young people have accepted their identities at a younger age, but at an age when their peers are developing their identities conflicting identities prove threatening.

Unfortunately, our political discourse encourages taunting and demonizing of anyone different. As our leaders have become less civil, our youth have taken that lesson to heart. The public, demonstrated lack of respect is the most bi-partisan activity our leaders have accomplished in the last four years. It is no wonder there is such distrust and disgust over all legislation passed; someone instantly discounts it.

When such messages dominate the media, why do we wonder that our youth would employ the same strategies in their lives?

I am wearing purple today, not just for LGBT youth who  have been bullied, but for all facing the torment of bullying through whispered denigrations, emailed threats, texted taunts, as well as the shoves, hits, and vandalism. I wear purple today to call attention to this plague across the country affecting our young people and society as a whole because if one thinks bullying ends at graduation, one has likely not paid attention at work.