Today
I'm tying up loose ends on small and big projects I'm involved with. Figuring out which things I can offload, which things may not be paid attention to, and which things will likely do just fine without my fingerprints on them.Tomorrow
I will accompany my daughter to her new school for a new student/parent orientation to get the lay of the land - review syllabi, book lists, supplies lists, all manner of lists and agenda. In powerpoint vernacular, this is called the art of telling you what I'm going to tell you before I tell you. Generally, it is a 3 step process:- I tell you what I'm going to tell you
- I tell you
- I tell you what I just told you
Therein lie the fundamental minimal preconditions of winning over an audience with information conveyed on slides. Sound effects are also not a bad idea. Donuts can really bring you over the top.
My parents grew up in an era where telling people what you're about to tell them makes as little sense as it actually sounds. My old boss used to commonly use a wonderful word... decomplexify. I knew what the word meant despite truly believing it was anything but nonsense - something you'd toss into the final rounds of a scrabble tournament as a hail mary. If you look it up though, it has some citations - very few before the 20th century.
Oh yeah, and about the 20th century...
- Authenticity was presumed - nobody outside of philosophy graduate departments was talking about it. The word simply did not get uttered in sentences without Heideggerian footnotes.
- The internet for all intents and purposes, didn't really exist. And this was glorious.
- There were 3 television channels, and this alone could explain why people from that time don't suffer so much from low frustration threshold
- You had to pay for information - even of the lowest pedigree - which helps explain why in general, people who grew up in that era operate with a "look before you leap" mentality, and are generally more reliable in unfamiliar surroundings (like camping trips)
- There were far fewer categories for EVERYTHING that existed - which greatly decomplexified life in general. For example...
- Food
- Music
- Movies
- Politics
- Sexual orientations
- Airlines
- Network tv stations
- Types of ESPN (for christ sakes)
- Disgruntled people - or people who were on the verge of becoming disgruntled generally did not have a press-conference mentality about settling scores in passive aggressive or lethal ways
- Things that the average person paid for, or were concerned about on a recurring basis were simple: like rent, electricity, gas, and beer money. It would have been absurd to propose paying a monthly fee to track your workouts or to keep tabs on your mood.
- No one photographed their food because film was fucking expensive to develop, and you had to wait at least a day to get the pictures back. One hour if you were willing to pony up the extra cash.
It is 8:26pm and I've taken a mere 1,073 steps
Not even half a mile. Like most people who work from home, I lose track of time I spend in front of a computer. Totally immobilized, working on problem after problem, meeting after meeting. One thing I'm looking forward to during my sabbatical is the resumption of frequent strenuous activity: running, jiu jitsu, weight lifting, and gymnastics.
There's a strongman gym about 1.25 miles away from the house in Prospect Heights. I was working out there a couple years ago to help rehab from a jiu jitsu injury. They have some great equipment in there, and like a Crossit box, are totally fine with people parking their bike right inside the gym.
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