Sportmanship (Blog 2 later in the day)

I think sportsmanship, or court courtesy is getting lost. Frequently when I attend games I hear inappropriate comments being made by spectators (of all ages). What really irks is me is the ignorant yakers who yell and complain but don’t know the rules. The bleachers seem to be filled with expert coaches and expert officials who think they could do so much better. Well I’d really love to tell these people off. I’d love to say it’s because of people like them that many of the sports are having official problems—not problems in the quality of officials but in the quantity. Crowds in general are worse in terms of their behavior than they were 10 or 20 years ago. It sickens me—their big mouths, tons of opinions and lots of ignorance about the fact that their behavior is not positively affecting anyone in the game (players, coaches, officials, or other fans). So check your bad behavior at the door and try some good old fashioned cheering FOR a team and not sneering AT those who help make the sport even possible! If you think it’s so easy put your money/time where your mouth is and become a certified official!!

Photo Note: These young kids were displaying better sportsmanship outside the gym then the adults were displaying inside the gym. (Photo taken with permission by their mothers.)

The Unexpected

Today was the first day of videotaping for the Title IX project. It had a bit of a rocky start because I learned that I hadn’t planned on the unexpected. Although I had developed a solid set of interview questions and had created a basic story board of how it would all come together it wasn’t going to be that easy. The first spot I had planned on interviewing Deb was in front of the Northland College sign. It was a great backdrop, just in a bad location for that time of day. You see, the sign was located in front of the college which is located just off Highway 1. We got the cameras all set up. Even planned ahead and had two cameras rolling, one for close ups and one with a larger shot that included the whole college sign. It was the perfect time of day because the sun was in perfect camera lighting position. I hadn’t let Deb see the questions ahead of time because I wanted that “spontaneous” moment to be authentic. I didn’t want it rehearsed. I had it all planned out. Or so I thought. The one contextual variable I hadn’t counted on—the traffic. We didn’t get through the first interview question before our audio was being drowned out by the sound of a large semi truck barreling down the highway. Take two. Ok make that take 3. Suddenly our unrehearsed questions were starting to get rehearsed answers. I didn’t expect that in our first five minutes! So on to a new site.

The new site was better, at least sound-wise. We actually got through a couple of questions before we were interrupted by traffic. But at least I expected it now and was much more observant about checking down the road to make sure Deb had enough time to answer her question before I asked it. However what I didn’t expect was for a bus of high school students to pull up. This time it turned out to be a good surprise for the bus had a group of students coming over to the field for Phys. Ed class and their teacher? A former student of Deb’s. This unexpected arrival lead to some additional footage for our project. After explaining to the teacher, Helen Anderson, what were able to interview some of the kids (boys and girls) on what Title ix was and what they thought it might be like to not be able to play a sport because of their gender. We also got a few quotes from Helen. Later, while taping in the school we ran into three other individuals we taped as well. None of these were planned. So I guess what I learned today was that no matter how well you plan ahead, the unexpected might just happen and sometimes it might mean needing to refocus your attention and other times it can be a catalyst for unexpected treasures. Words of wisdom for the classroom too.


R: 2.88 miles 23 min 43 sec

To the class of 1940 (and 1988!!!!)

Earlier this summer I had my 20th class reunion. My elementary class had a pre-reunion reunion and that was a BLAST! I kind of figured most reunions would be done now that it is fall. Then, I saw this sign today. I had to do the math twice. I don't know if this blog entry is really an AHA moment as much as it is a tribute to the TRF class of 1940. I hope my BHS class is still that strong when we're 86!

W: about 3 miles

"Little Things"

I had planned to use my blog today to vent. I even had my title--"Stupid People P*## Me Off!" You see I had not one, but two encounters where people's ignorance and rudeness really irked me and I just couldn't let it go. My reality is that I have very high expectations of people and I expect people to do the right thing. When they don't--I get disappointed and sometimes I get angry. Today's encounters made me agry. I spent alot of time and energy fuming over both of these instances. This is not healthy. So I need to figure out a way to let "the little things" go before they become "bigger things". Unfortunately for me this is easier said than done. So my baby step towards this process is to not spend more time and energy venting about either of those two encounters in my blog. That might seem like just a little thing, but as I know so well, it is sometimes the little things that can turn into something bigger.


Note: The photo is of my size 9 shoe and a HUGE mushroom I saw at Old Mill State Park--it too probably started off as just a little thing!

B: 10.6 miles

We'll never know

I was leaving a grocery store today with a friend when we spotted this man with his arms in one of the bins of the large recycle station in the back of the parking lot. My friend and I watched him for awhile trying to figure out what he was doing. I saw him take out some paper products from the bin and place them in the blue cart in front of him. Why was he going through the recycle bin? Even though my mind wanted answers, I guess we'll never know the real reason for sure.

What I did figure out is that this photo would be a great exercise in fact-inference confusion. I could easily use it in the chapter on perception. There could be several possibilities for the man's behavior. Why did I think the worst? What did I know for sure as a fact and what did I just infer? What biases and stereotypes came into play leading me to make that first quick judgment? What did you think when you first saw the picture?

R: 2.88 miles 24 min 52 sec

We Sell Amish

Everytime I travel past Albertville I see a furniture store that cracks me up. I can't even tell you the name of the place but on the front of the building in big bold letters is their slogan--a sign that says "We Sell Amish". For awhile I thought somebody was just part way through putting it up and hadn't finished it. But time and time again I would drive by and everytime it said the same thing, "We Sell Amish." Nowhere have I seen anything so funny on a storefront.

Don't get me wrong, I've always known the Amish were good carpenters and no one would question whether Amish furniture is good quality. Everything they make is good. That's why all their stuff is in high demand. Everywhere you go stores have Amish furniture. So I don't blame the furniture store for wanting to promote this, I only blame them for their word choice.

So everytime we pass by this sign I think "I have to get a picture of that". But I've never been able to take the time to actually do it. "Next time," I tell myself, "next time I'll stop." But I never do. Well, on Wednesday I finally did. I've always wanted it and now I've got it. I've got the picture. Yeah!!!! Maybe I'll send it to Jay Leno for his headlines bit.



R: 3.5 miles (first time I ran with someone--thanks Ralph!)

Allness exercise

We went to the zoo zoo zoo

What a fun day. We went to the Minnesota Zoo in order to take pictures for a perception unit for my Interpersonal Communication class. My friend has a great camera. It takes great pictures. What a difference that can make!

We were able to get alot of nice shots that we can use. But I realized that there are hundreds of animals in this world of ours and many I have never heard of before. Here's a short list of just a few of the animals I didn't recognize: takins, red pandas, unicorn fish, and fishers. There were others but they were so unfamiliar I can't even remember their names now. So how well do you have to know something in order to remember it?



W: 3 plus miles

Incentives

Finished the state park metro region challenge with my friend. She has had two back surgeries and a knee replacement. Having done the challenge before, I knew what to expect on this hike. This challenge was not an easy route for anyone without those contextual variables so I was a little worried for her. But she did just fine. She compelted the challenge and received her medalion.

As often is the case with geocaching, neither of us would probably have come to this park to hike. We love the outdoors and hiking but sometimes just get into old habits of going to our favorite places. For me it's the North Shore for her it's the wildlife refuge. But here we were doing something we enjoy but basically only doing it today because there was a prize involved. And it struck me; why is it that we sometimes need to have an incentive to do actvities we know we'd enjoy anyway?



W: 4 miles

Bipeds

I was out geocaching with a friend today. We were on a hunt for a cache in the state park metro region challenge. This is the challenge that I had completed earlier, but was repeating today. The hike actually had us following a horse trail which can be difficult for alot of reasons. Nevermind the soft sand which makes a long trek harder, and the constant need to look down in order to avoid "road apples" as a fellow cacher proclaimed, this particular hike was difficult because it was a very busy. Several times along the way we had to stop and get off the trail as there was not enough room for all of us at the same time.

Well, one particular instance when we saw horses just as they saw us and I heard the leader of the pack yell back "bipeds ahead". At first I wasn't sure what I had heard as it did not register as a word I knew. One of the riders with her must not have heard either because she hollered up "what?" and the leader responded back, "bipeds...people". Ah, clever! Made total sense when I stopped to think about it.

Lots of groups of special terms that they use to describe members outside of their group. In geocaching terms someone who doesn't cache is called a "muggle". So if a cache is hidden in a park where community members may be present, the cache owner may warn fellow cachers to "be ware of muggles" meaning, be careful that they don't become suspucious of what you're doing. ("Muggles" is also used in the Harry Potter book seriers to refer to a person who is not a witch or warlock.)

When we were in Hawaii, I learned about the term "Howlie". A "Howlie" is a person in Hawaii who is not native of Hawaii. I was told that this term can even be linked to ethnicity and that even if you live in Hawaii, if you don't have ancestory that can be traced back to hawaiin roots you'll always be a howlie to some. I think Bette Middler talks about being a howlie and she grew up there.

In Australia, those not born in Australia might be called a "pommy". Many times this term is used to refer to someone from England. Why pommy? The online dictionary source dictionary.com says it could be a shortned version of pommegranite. Like that makes any sense? It listed a few other possibilities. But the one thing that's for sure? That the term is considered "disparaging". Guess when you think about it there are alot of examples of terms used within one's own group to label someone in your out group. Guess this means that
"biped" was not as fun as I thought!!


Photo: Deb Jacobson and her sister Barb Elseth two of my biped friends.
W: 3.5 miles

Not so far away

In a little community not so far away, lived an Amish family who was trying to eek out a living with only the most basic of necessities and their traditions...

When I was a student at Brainerd Community College I did a report on the Amish culture. It was an interesting research project and I feel like I learned alot that stuck with me. However, when I think about those who are Amish I think of people you live"far away".  And yet, there is a very active community here in central Minnesota.

Previously, my exereinces with first hand expereince were limited as one would expect. I'd once seen a horse and buggytied to a tree next to the new Staples hospital and once I saw a buggy ironically at the Staples car shop. This was previous to my carrying around a camera and I kick myself still because I would have loved to have had a photo of both of those sightings just for the dichotomy and juxtoposition of the two cultures.

I was driving to a conference in Alexandria today and first noticed a yellow road sign that cautioned me to watch for a horse and buggy. It wasn't long after the sign that I did indeed see a couple of carriages parked along side the road with a make-shift Amish market of handmade goods. How interesting that the Amish who I seemed to remember liked the sense of seculusion would self select to park alongside a highway in order to sell their crafts to us non-Amish. Seemed like commercialism has more influence than I realized.

I was still thinking about this influence when a slight movement ahead of me caught my eye. I figure was walking along side the road, a road that had no shoulder. So I slowed down not sure what would cause someone to walk along side the road. As I approached the figure I realized that it was a young Amish girl. For a split second our eyes made contact as she turned a corner unto an unpaved driveway. Two females from different worlds yet the same. What was going through her mind as she saw me driving my Jeep. How much of my culture did she know about. I thought I knew some of hers, but what did I really know? I'm sure we both had tons of stereotypes of each other and what an interesting conversation it would be if we got together.

I watched her in my rear view mirror as I continued my drive down the highway. In the background I saw a large farm yard with a tall house. I assumed it was her home. It may or may not have been. And I thought about that research paper that I wrote oh so many years ago about a culture that turned out to be right around the corner so to speak not that far away.


R: 3.6 miles 32 min 45 sec

Tomato time

Gorgeous day today. I'm glad I was able to get out and enjoy it a bit. I made healthy choices in my transportation today. Walked to get my hair cut, walked to Movie Gallery to return a movie, and in the afternoon biked to the grocery store to get some supplies for making freezer spaghetti sauce.

Tis the season for tomato harvesting. Since I've purchased the house I've had tomato plants. And every year, I end up having alot go to waste. So I really wanted to make a concerted effort to use them more this year. So far, I've been pretty successful. I've made BLT's for a few meals, made bruchetta a few times and had a family bonding experience with my mom and brother where we made a couple of gallons of salsa. The only problem there is that my very Scandinavian parents do not like spicey foods, so we had to make a very basic recipe that's more like a tomato salad than a salsa. But that's ok because I can just add my own spices to the batch I brought home. In fact, that's exactly what I did for lunch today--chips and tweaked-up salsa. And for supper? Pizza with homemade sauce. I have to admit it turned out pretty good.

So what have I discovered from all this? I've discovered that with some creativity and some time, I can do more with tomatoes. And it's been fun!


B: 4 miles 24 min W: 3 miles

A Day in the life of cycles

I woke up this morning at 3:00 am. I don't know why. My body felt totally awake. I hate that, well, I hate when that happens in the middle of the night. I laid awake for over 2 and a half hours. That's just crazy. Something was defintely wacky with my circadian sleep cycle.

I was able to go back to sleep somewhere between 5:30 am and 6:00 am and slept until about 9 am. Then I got up and went into my typical sabbatical morning routine: make some coffee, watch some Ellen, perhaps the View, all while working on my computer until lunch. Lunch for me used to be around noon, but since going on sabbatical I find that I get too involved in my computer work and end up trying to just finish up one more item before having lunch. The next thing I know it's 1:30 going on 2:00. That's what happened today.

For many years I didn't eat very well. Overall, I'm much better than I used to be but there are times when I still crave those bad-for you foods. I've noted there is a greater tendency for this to happen at one particular time of the month, a time that coincides with another cycle of which I will not go into any more detail here. Let me just say today was case in point for my overlapping theory--after choosing a decent lunch I followed it right up with a boat load of chips and dip. Argh!! Between the chips and not having exercised since last Wednesday, I knew I had to get out today.

So I donned my running gear and started out the door. Before I could get into my cycle of songs on the alphabetized playlist I heard music coming from down the street. As I turned towards the alley, I noted a several vehicles parked outside the nearby church. A silver hearse indicated a funeral was taking place there. Having solved the mystery, I took a moment of silence to pay my respects to the stranger for whom everyone was gathered. Then I moved past the church and began my usual running route.

Half a mile into my running circle a beautiful maple caught my eye. The colors were so vivid and bright I couldn't help but be captivated. I decided that I would have to come back with my camera and I could blog about the seasons and how it correlates to the cyle of life and death. But as I continued on my run more and more cycles came to mind. And I thought, today is all about cycles.

My usual morning routine was supplemented today with trips up and down the stairs trying to complete 4 loads of laundry. Laundry involves a few different cycles. First there's the washing machine cycle. Second you have the drying cycle. But the whole issue of doing laundry is a never ending cycle too. As a friend once noted, you can never be completely caught up unless you do your laundry naked. Which I don't.

To top it all off, when I got back from running I had to take my bike out in order to determine how far I had run. Since I hadn't run as far as I have been lately, I decided to continue my ride and add some more miles to my workout. So here I was cycling, thinking about cycles in my life. Today seemed to be the day many of those cycles were converging. And that's my reality for today.


R: 3.1 miles 27 minutes W: 2.5 miles B: 11:35 1 Hr 5 min

Three Seasons of Minnesota

Ok note today's post date: September 10th. I was on my way to the Cities and before I had even made it 10 miles down the road I met 6 snow plows!!!

Now I know we have longer than normal winters here in Minnesota but it was just last week that we had 90 degree weather and now I'm seeing snow plows? Holy Cow! It used to be the old joke that Minnesota only had 3 seasons: winter, spring and road construction. Guess I didn't think Fall's absence was that big of deal until today. Guess in every joke there's a touch of truth. So that's my reality for today. I live in Minnesota, land of crazy seasons!

To prove we do have a Fall I'm including this picture I took yesterday of a tree that has completely changed colors.

Note of contradiction: also take note the all the other leaves are still very much green and the big tree trunk is barren. Guess this photo demonstrates summer, fall and winter all in one shot.


W: around Lake Hariet in the Cities--2.9 miles

Numbers and neurosis

I biked 50 miles, well, ok technically it was 48.73. I accessed the Wobegon trail where the trail starts near Royalton and then biked to Albany and back. Problem was I made some side trips on the way so when I hit the 25 mile mark I turned around. I didn't see it being a problem at the time since I was in Albany. What I didn't take into account was the fact that I wouldn't have the same side trips on the way home so when I got back to the parking lot, my odometer read 48.73. I was too pooped to do much else but pack up my bike and head home. But as I was sitting in my cushy car seat driving home I started feeling monkish. I didn't want to end on 48.73. I wanted to say I biked 50 miles. I was so obsessed by that 1.27 miles that I almost unloaded my bike and drove it around my house just to get to 50. But like I said I was beat. I have done 50 miles before (legitimate 50) but for some reason it seemed harder on my body. Was it the wind? Was it the slightly flat back tire? For what ever reason it was enough to make me stick with the 48.73. But why did that odd number bother me so much? I think if I had even gone a quarter of a mile more I could have just rounded up and felt more justified in saying 50 miles. Argh!

My aha moment is not that I'm a little ADHD and monkish (I knew that all ready). Instead of just telling you what I discovered on the trail today I thought I'd show you...

Well I can't figure out how to make a direct link to this album so you're going to have to copy and paste the following link into a web browser in order to access the photo album titled "trail discoveries" hosted at Picasa (sorry--maybe I'll learn how to do this but I go too frustrated going around in circles) so here it is:

Link to "Trail Discoveries"

Monk photo from tvguide site.

B: 50 miles, ok fine 48.73

Sometimes it's not the distance

Today was gray and threatening rain. I was going to go for a 50 mile bike ride but didn't think the weather would hold out. The weather channel and dopler radar were showing recent rain in the area I was going to be traveling to so I opted out of going at all on the trail.

Feeling disappointed I decided to do laundry instead. By the time the first load was completed there still were gray clouds but no rain had come. What the heck? Could I have made it the 50 miles since the rain hadn't shown up here? Could I still? Erg!! I wanted to do my 50 miles but seeing as the clouds were still quite gray I didn't dare take off for that far of a distance.

I had a couple of errands that I needed to do so to make myself feel better I decided to at least attempt to get these done. At the last minute I decided to ride my bike versus driving. Hey that would be good. But one of the errands was to get groceries. This could pose a problem but I'm happy to report that it didn't because I grabbed my backpack and a reusable bag that I had much better intentions of using over the summer than I actually did. See I've got good intentions when it comes to living green, but don't always go as far as I'd like. But here's my aha moment. Sometimes it's not the distance but the steps you take along the way.

It's unrealistic to think that I can totally convert and become a die-hard environmentalist. I am afraid to say I'm a product of our Westernized culture which means I am a consumer. I admire people who can live so green. I have taken several steps towards that direction in purposeful, manageable and realistic measures--and that last one is a great term to use because every little bit really does add up. I recycle probably 80% of the time. I bought a more fuel-efficient vehicle to get better gas mileage. I hang alot of my laundry up to dry. I wash all my dishes by hand and have a great system of conserving water. I try to buy a few organic items and try to make more healthy choices in my diet. Do I still eat chips, french fries and the occasional sweet dessert? Sure I do, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't discount all the times I did make healthy choices.

So today I can pat myself on the back and feel good about some the choices I made. Could I have made more? Probably. But I did all right. Having a limited amount bag space and knowing I was going to be carrying all my groceries home on my back I found I shopped smarter. I didn't buy as much as I probably would have because I knew my space was limited.

I also decided to look through the store ad and use some coupons. I spent 30 bucks and saved over 10, a savings of 25% my receipt said. All right. This is good as I am making only 2/3 of what I normally would this year on sabbatical.

So although I didn't get my 50 mile bike ride in I felt good about my choices:
*I choose my bike over driving to the grocery store.
*I didn't buy as much as I normally would have purchased
*At least one item was organic
*I used coupons and saved 25% (and that doesn't count the savings from chosing some generic brand items and other sale items)
*I brought my own carriers for bringing my groceries home



So sometimes it's not the distance but the steps you took along the way!

Arts and Crafts Fair

This weekend was the big "Arts and Crafts Fair" in Little Falls. This was the 36th year of this annual event that brings in hundreds of crafters and thousands of visitors. This year there were over 650 vendors although in the past there's been as many as just over a thousand! People are bused in from all over and many of the city parks and private owner's yards are turned into temporary parking lots to help accommodate the over 100,000 people that flock to Little Falls.

In the 8 years that I've lived here I've discovered that residents here fall into a few main categories: 1) those that love the fair and check out as many booths as possible, 2) those that see the event as a way to bring in money into the community or even there own pockets if they live close enough to rent out there lawn space and 3) those that hate all things associated with the weekend and leave dodge in order to have to see any part of it.

I fall into category 4--I don't make my schedule around it, will go and look around, inevitably coming home a few goodies each time I go. I also have discovered that many people who live close to the action get calls from family and friends around this time of year. My neighbor had cars right on our property line the night before the event and had the street blocked off in front of their yard. They did so with a rope tied between a charcoil grill and a 6 ft ladder. Goofy (and probably illegal!)

This year I made my pilgrimage downtown and came home with a few goodies: two christmas gifts, a birthday gift, a stake for our garden and a stoneware sqare platter. I tend to lean towards pottery and stoneware and find this nice momentos of fairs attended or vacations taken. In May I purchased beautiful goblets in Sedona which I know I paid too much for, but decided it was worth it for sentimental reasons. Today as I walked the arts and crafts fair I saw some other goblets and I told myself they may be cheaper, but they're not as special as my Sedona treasures. So my reality for today is...there's a fine line between art and crafts and the difference is the sentimental value you place on it.


W: about 5 miles ? C: leisurely pace

Reality and Illusion

Today we went to a special 50th birthday party that included a murder mystery dinner theatre. I use the term "theatre" loosely. Seeing as I have a Master's in Theatre Arts and have been involved in theatre almost all my life, I wouldn't truly call this theatre. It was basically a costume party where everyone had a specific character and clues were handed out in 4 rounds. There were no actors outside of those of us who were guests. Yet, it was fun to get dressed up and play the part of someone else. Why is that illusion of being something you're not fun? My character was Beatrice Boe, an exotic dancer and underworld associate. I passed on wearing the suggested stereotypical blonde wig.

The funniest thing about the whole evening was not all of us playing these over-exaggerated characters it was the fact that it all seemed vaguely familiar. Even though it was supposedly all made up, there was just something I recognized about the character names and some of the clues I heard. Finally it donned on me...

Back in high school my friend and I had purchased a "How to Host a Murder" game box and then invited friends over to "play it". We did the same thing, we got our character vitae and costume suggestions from the box and followed the directions which included questioning each other through four rounds of clues and secret character information. It was the same basic information, the mansion dinner theatre had just expanded it to be able to incorporate more characters (i.e. more paying customers). I found the whole thing a bit odd. First I think that's illegal--some copyright infringement for sure as there was no mention to the boardgame originators.

The funniest part of the whole evening is that one of the characters, Allison (Ali) Bigh is a murder mystery writer who is and as I listened to the clues come out, I remembered that I played Ali Bigh when we had "hosted the murder" back in High School. I've produced murder mystery dinner theatres before based on two murder mysteries I wrote "Murder at the Speakeasy" and "Murder on the Mind". I've directed "Murder on the Mind" in 3 different cities. So here I was years earlier playing a part of a writer and then in reality I go on to write murder mysteries and then later act in the same murder mystery again which is being run under the illusion of murder mystery dinner theatre and now I am writing again about my reality of having attended a murder mystery dinner theatre. Did you follow all that? That's my mind and my reality for today!


W: 2 miles? geocaching on the way to the murder myster dinner

B is for boched up plans

OK I thought I had a great plan with running through my playlist in complete order with the songs alphabetized. But as is the case, sometimes the best laid plans...

I set out to run today (again on the Paul Bunyan Trail) before heading off to the college. Rain was looming and I was real tempted to not go, but I was in my exercise clothes and even had my sweatbands with (see blog one from August) so I figured I would just do a mile if nothing else. That way if it started to rain then it wouldn't be too far back to the car. Well, once I got going the good old guilt kicked in (GUILT will have to be a post someday all on its own as it is definitely a part of my reality growing up Lutheran) and I decided to go for mile marker two.

Seeing as I would be doing four miles I figured I would continue on my alphabetized playlist, so I put my itouch on songs and scrolled down to the b's. I had actually gotten a little bit past the a's when I biked the other day, so I thought I knew pretty much where I had left off. So I started with the next song on the list. I set the volume, clasped my itouch to my belt, adjusted my sweatbands and set off on the trail.

Now most songs are around 3 and a half minutes I deducted, and I've been running approximately a nine and a half minute mile. I'm not a math major, but I know that figures out to be more than a couple of song per mile. Well I was somewhere between the parking lot and mile marker 2 when I realized that the song I was listening to was "Smackwater Jack" by Carole King. I don't know what snapped me out of my "omg how much further do I have to go before I see the marker" stupor, but I started pondering the song. Did I mistake the title? Could it possibly be named something else? Afterall, I'm on the b's. I listened more intently trying to figure out what part of the song most be the title. There most be something in there with a b now what was it? "You can't talk to a man, with a shotgun in his hand..." Nope no b's. What' up with that?

Well, apparantly I don't know how to start the songlist in the middle and have it continue to play. For some reason it will play the first song I choose and then it shuffles it. So after each and every song for four miles I had to unclip the itouch, unlock the screen, push the back button and then find the next song on the list and touch it in order for it to play. Now there's got to be simplier way, but when you're running you're motivation is real low for tech exploration. So my reality today is always have a plan b (ha ha that's funny because it was those darn b's that got me into trouble today!)


R: 4 miles PBT 38 minutes

Polarization and Playlists

Today was another gorgeous sunny day. However, since Labor Day our temperature has dropped into "fall-like". It just feels different. It seems windier and the air seems crispier if that's such a word. But I know that the days of warm weather are limited now, so I decided to get out there and enjoy this one. Didn't feel as great today personally, so cut the run short and did some biking to make up for the shorter distance. And what did I learn or take time to appreciate today? Choices.

I had choices today as to what form of activity to do. I'm lucky, I have a bike, I have an able body and I have the flexibility with my time to take advantage of the choices in my life. Sometimes however I don't know if choices are always good. Like when I'm walking down the cereal aisle at the grocery store. Does a person really need that many choices? Some people argue that limiting choices can be good. This comes up when people argue over the value of school uniforms. Some people say more choices leads to more competiton which leads to lower prices and better values for the consumer. So are choices good or bad?

I've come to learn that such polarized thinking (that something has to be on only one extreme or the other, in this case bad or good) isn't accurate. My reality is that there's alot in life that falls somewhere in between extremes and that trying to pigeon-hole everything into one category or the other is often devisive. Of course this seems especially relevant right now as the DNC just got over and the RNC is almost over. Politicians often play the polarization game and I don't like it. In fact, it makes me quite furious. And then it sucks me in and I start doing the same thing too. Of course some would argue that this behavioral tendency is compounded by the fact that we as the United States don't have very many choices when it comes to political parties. (Many other democratic nations typically have several parties, where ours statistically comes down to just two. And again, I don't think alot of the true middle ground is accurately represented.)

As is the case in politics and in other polarized venues, I think it's hard for people to see reality when they're clouded in stereotypes and labels. And during my bike ride today I was listening to a song by Ann Reed and there was a line that jumped out at me and made me go--Uh HUH! The line went: "You've got to learn how to hate and fear." ENCULTURATION! In my opinion, I don't think it's the number of choices but the awareness of how those choices are affecting us. And with that awareness make informed and honest choices based on reality not on the labels or stereotypes about those choices.

So in order to be more aware of my reality I decided to start with the inspiration for today's blog--my music. I noticed that I have a choice of 922 songs on my itouch playlist. That's alot. I'm sure many of my students have even more than that, but I would guess they're still like me in that I typically tend to listen only to "my favorites". So I decided to give every song a chance at least one more time. I am going to start at the beginning of the alphabetized playlist and try and get all the way through the 922 songs. Each time I go biking I will hopefully get through at least one letter of the alphabet. I want to take advantage of my choices instead of falling into old habits. So that's my reality check. How many songs are on your playlist?


R: 1.8 miles 16 1/2 min, W:1.5 B: 13 miles 1:05 C: light wind

Labor Day

What a beautiful weekend for camping. For the first time in a long time, I didn't get rained on while camping. In fact, the weather was in the 80's and 90's, but the evenings were perfect for sleeping. We had a great site that provided alot of tree cover. We had to take down camp today. Setting up and taking down camp is a work out too! I'm lucky that the camping supplies are pretty much organized and have a place to go back into for future camping access but it still takes a chunk of time. It's always kind of sad for me to pack up camp. But what a great way to start off September. And it seems only fitting that I labor a little on Labor Day. So today I'm thankful for camping opportunities and I hope that this activity will always be a part of my personal reality.


Besides taking down camp; w: 5 miles