Random thought

Otherwise, those people might move here.

You can dance or else

Interesting week. I took a group of soldiers to an elementary school in a sponsorship type deal. We were helping with the school's sporting event day, which was as fun as it sounds, especially in comparison to the average workday.

What struck me most about the kids today: The synchronized dancing. At certain points certain songs would play over the loudspeakers, and EVERYONE would stop what they were doing and start dancing synchronously -- including the boys. It struck me as weird. I think the prevailing personality youth culture follows is now "DJ."

I thought about my boy getting into this in a mere matter of months.

Shuddered.

Mobile shot

Testing. First post from phone.

And otherwise sitting up. Made the mistake of drinking coffee late after three days of abstinence. I'm wondering if the idea I have for a sci-fi story is decent or if it's just the vibes from the caffeine buzz.

I'm glad I missed the bandwagon on ...

Zombies. 
First off, it's too implausible. A really malignant disease or toxin wouldn't waste it's time coming up with the ridiculous amounts of energy required to animate dead flesh. If it had that kind of potential, it would just make live people dead, not the other way around. And what's the point of a disease that brings the dead back to life, just so they can then make more people dead? What do they do when they finish? Just stumble around bumping into each other and groaning non-effectively until they crumble into dust or blow up a gas station? Secondly, I realize that zombies are really about a story element, and the creepy effect of seeing dead people slithering around hits a lot of people on the subconscious fun button, but does nothing for me. It's just an emotional blank screen, sorry.

Any of several thousand apps now available on Facebook.
And they all want to post junk using my name. Really. Who the hell would accept that agreement in first place? I mean, besides 75 of my "friends" who really need to start re-thinking boundaries.

Pinterest.
See above, only I don't know what it means. It seems kind of craftish or something.

Mad Men. 
After one season, the only point I could see being made was that we are so much more awesome than those people from the past, dude. I never went back for season 2.


Food snobbery in general, coffee snobbery in particular.
A man on NPR the other day was introduced as the guy who "Writes about coffee for the New York Times."


The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
I realize it exists and is probably really evil, but I have a hard time believing more people didn't laugh when they heard the phrase "Scandinavian mafia."

The Hunger Games
I realize it exists and is probably really evil, but teenagers dying for the entertainment value sounds like a serious version of "Heathers" -- and I thought "Heathers" blew.

RIP to my nephew

Bad news in our family today.

One of my nephews died early yesterday morning in an accident, apparently after going to sleep at the wheel. The feeling for me is shock, gradually turning into a more predominant depression.

Tom -- a relative I only saw at the big family events -- was a good kid, an academic type of whom I recall being jealous because he basically started college as a junior. I think I last heard he was headed to law school and, I thought, yeah, no problem for him. He always put on a cheerful face. Always. I think I recall some moment of surliness when he was a teen. And that was it.

He was driving to the farm in Hico the night of his accident to meet up with his parents, they probably had some project in mind to clean up or improve something out there, like they always do. Hard. Impossible to know what they are going through now.

New Year Blewjowski, Part II: Sports

I figure I'll be done with these postings around 2014.

This post started out as a rant in my head, about a month ago, but I've stepped away from the toxins and have felt positive since.

I am no longer a fan of sports. Any sport. You can't make me care enough to invest the kind of passion and dedication necessary to be a fan of a watching half-naked men running around doing anything.

I lost my fanity by going to various Texas Tech fan sites during the football season, and was eventually overwhelmed by the combination of negativity, ignorance and gloating pessimism. I told myself to stay away from the comments, but somehow couldn't. "Surely, there will be a voice of reason and perspective. Someone will say that there are generally good people working here with good intentions."

And I'd read a 2,000-word rant saying that Tommy Tubberville is the devil and Kent Hance is Saddam Hussein and they all need to die. And he'd laugh at the funeral and make a pass at the widows.

Sucked the good right out of the season. The games sucked. The fans sucked. The future seemed to suck.*

And I had my epiphany: The hype machine is destroying sports, putting it on the same level of religion. Yes, religion -- have you seen some of the NFL promotions lately? The slow motion, fuzzy shots of people overreacting to a play. Treating people who dress up like fools as anything other than fools. From the promotions, it's hard to tell if Madden Football is a video game or a really special youth outreach project.

And then the self-seriousness of so many fans, preaching the gospel of why I really, really should hate Oregon.

My advice to self: Don't confuse the fun and fascinating with the morally vital. It's a game. It's always a game.

I have since tuned out the fan sites. I read about Tech in the newspaper, follow a bit of ESPN, which is a lot of fun to monitor since I stopped calling them the evil empire. And I can say without much doubt I get a lot more enjoyment out of my teams than most of you.

*Which makes me wonder why the entire state of Oklahoma hasn't lobotomized itself.