Freedom High made it all the way to the championship play-offs - go Patriots! The game was intense, our boys were (dare I say?) out-played in the 1st half, and it appeared that the refs were a little biased. In the second half our boys ROCKED. Especially Ian. I'm not a bit partial. There was one goal made, lots of really good defense happening, but not enough to make up for the first half struggles.
Ian was adorable. (I know 18 year old "men" are not adorable, more bad-ass in a fun-loving sort of way, but adorable, in my book). He was totally working the crowd. Freedom would make a great play, the crowd would cheer, if the cheering started to lag before the ball went back into play, Ian would signal us to keep it up. Plus - he plays some kickin' hard defense. I wouldn't want to run into him at top speed. The girl took her camera - most of the pictures are, of course, of Ian. I'll try to post on Facebook later today.
I have not been to very many soccer games, they usually conflict with gymnastics. Last night we should have left early, because 10:30pm is too late for the girl with an early gym meet this morning. But we stayed, and I have to say, I'm glad its over, 'cause I'm not sure how many obnoxious parents at soccer games I want to deal with in my life. It was bad to the point of laughable bizarre. I had no idea I was taking my child to an "R" rated event.
The fans for PHU (Palm Harbour University) were obnoxious, but I couldn't decipher most of what they were saying. Some of the Freedom parents were totally over the top. The guy behind me kept screaming at the Refs to put on a skirt. I thought the word "Pansy" was out-dated, but it got a revival last night. "Pussy" is still popular. "Girl" is apparently the worst possible thing to call a soccer boy. And, when a player gets injured, and the coach comes onto the field to assess his injury, he probably does not need public encouragement to give the kid a "BJ" while he's there. The standard obscenities were used.
We watched part of the game ahead of us, and there was one security guy watching the game. Our security guy watched the crowd, and after the 1/2, we had two, carefully watching the crowd. There were no post game issues, but from the size and unruliness of the other fans, a different result in the game may have made a messier outcome.
I am now less critical of gym moms. During moments of frustration, there is a lot of muttering, usually directed at the child that is not performing as well as the mom expects. Sometimes I pounce on the offending parent, but it is relatively harmless, unless they forget that the video camera is running, with full sound. Seriously, even the worst gym mom that I know is not as hard on her child as the girl is on herself. And the parents do keep it at a low mutter, and for the most part we all trust our coaches and let them do their job - which includes disputing scores, so we are not screaming obscenities at the judges.
I'm wondering what the effect would be to bring the soccer culture to a gym meet. "Hey judge - what was THAT? why don't you put some pants on?" "You little pansy - you flip like a BOY." "Hey strap on a penis and go play football, you Wimp." Somehow, I think I'd probably get thrown out. My daughter would never speak to me, and her friends would no longer be allowed to visit.
Wish us luck today. Off to prepare for the gym meet.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
One man's meat . . .
I was listening to some talk radio thing the other day on the subject of food, sort of. The guest was suggesting that we should change how we define food. Some sort of calorie to nutrient ratio to meet the criteria "food." So, veggies could still be food. McDonald's french fries would not be food. Even a big mac would probably not meet the mark.
Just think; junk food, candy, soda - no longer food. It could be regulated, controlled, and taxed like cigarettes and alcohol. Maybe we would begin to see a trip to the local fast food dive in the same light that we now look at ice-cream shops. "No, honey, you can't have chicken McNuggets, it will spoil your dinner." "Maybe after dinner we can run over to BK for some fries."
Of course if we actually followed this advice, the food industry would add enough "nutrients" to meet the criteria. We already have "vitamin waters" and herbal sodas, it would not take much to get the chemical composition of our junk to have the legal mix of nutrients. So that wouldn't really change anything. What if the criteria had to do with number of steps away from a live food source - so that overprocessed ingestibles would not be considered food.
Would we have a limit on the amount of controlled ingestibles allowed? What about open containers in our vehicles? Government sponsored rehab programs for those with serious non-food ingestible addiction?
We already have enough crazy laws telling what we can or can't do or eat, or enjoy. What we don't have is enough education and cultural reinforcement to prioritize good nutrition over convenience and "taste." I also think that high salt, fat and sweet foods do not necessarily taste better, but they have those basic qualities that our primitive bodies interpret as "good." In fairly recent evolutionary history more calories meant healthier. Our bodies have not caught up to our knowledge, and our will-power is caught in the middle.
So have a nice big bowl of steamed veggies for dinner, berries for desert. And maybe a whole bag of Cheetos as your non-food treat.
Just think; junk food, candy, soda - no longer food. It could be regulated, controlled, and taxed like cigarettes and alcohol. Maybe we would begin to see a trip to the local fast food dive in the same light that we now look at ice-cream shops. "No, honey, you can't have chicken McNuggets, it will spoil your dinner." "Maybe after dinner we can run over to BK for some fries."
Of course if we actually followed this advice, the food industry would add enough "nutrients" to meet the criteria. We already have "vitamin waters" and herbal sodas, it would not take much to get the chemical composition of our junk to have the legal mix of nutrients. So that wouldn't really change anything. What if the criteria had to do with number of steps away from a live food source - so that overprocessed ingestibles would not be considered food.
Would we have a limit on the amount of controlled ingestibles allowed? What about open containers in our vehicles? Government sponsored rehab programs for those with serious non-food ingestible addiction?
We already have enough crazy laws telling what we can or can't do or eat, or enjoy. What we don't have is enough education and cultural reinforcement to prioritize good nutrition over convenience and "taste." I also think that high salt, fat and sweet foods do not necessarily taste better, but they have those basic qualities that our primitive bodies interpret as "good." In fairly recent evolutionary history more calories meant healthier. Our bodies have not caught up to our knowledge, and our will-power is caught in the middle.
So have a nice big bowl of steamed veggies for dinner, berries for desert. And maybe a whole bag of Cheetos as your non-food treat.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Bees and Buttocks
Bees are industrious creatures. As individuals they are single purpose driven creatures without individual thought; as a colony they are an amazing, adaptable organism accomplishing task much larger than any individual bee could concieve of. The most amazing thing is that there is no single nucleus of control in the colony. The queen does not direct the motions of the workers, they work as a unit.
From a distance people may look like colonies of bees, especially city dwellers. Often I have found individuals to be disorganized purposeless drones going about their mindless tasks with little thought. OK - that is harsh, but rarely do we work as a collective, and what labor we do mindfully is rarely for the greater good of all human-bees. Plus, for most of us there are many locus' of control that get diluted into stranger and stranger disorganized jumbles by they time they get to us. We are constantly caught up in the bizare mindless "because that is the way we do it" of work, school, government, church, family, volunteer organizations, etc.
I am a good worker bee. I HATE inefficiency. I have been accused of being lazy, never by patients, or supervisors, or anyone directly involved with measuring my productivity, but by people (friends, lovers, coworkers) that observe my activities, without any knowledge of the result. I am amazed by people that use a 20 step process to do what I can do in 3 because "it is the right way."
Paper work is a good example. I do as much as possible as soon as possible. In other words, I know that when I discharge a patient, I have to write a comparison of where they were at evaluation and discharge, and if they have met their goals. So - when I do an initial evaluation, I fill out the "at eval" section of the discharge summary. When I do the discharge, I fill out the new information and: DONE. I do my notes as I go. I don't think I have ever had anyone wait for paperwork from me. Why waste their time? I have to do it eventually.
Although you would never know it looking at my car or closets - I am incredibly organized, especially when it comes to time. Pathologically early. And when I have built in free time, I don't fill it up looking busy. Disorganization in a structure that I did not create is very hard for me, and I have learned over the years that in general, people would rather complain about the "extra work" than do anything to actually eliminate it. So - with all my extra time, I will breathe, and meditate on bees.
From a distance people may look like colonies of bees, especially city dwellers. Often I have found individuals to be disorganized purposeless drones going about their mindless tasks with little thought. OK - that is harsh, but rarely do we work as a collective, and what labor we do mindfully is rarely for the greater good of all human-bees. Plus, for most of us there are many locus' of control that get diluted into stranger and stranger disorganized jumbles by they time they get to us. We are constantly caught up in the bizare mindless "because that is the way we do it" of work, school, government, church, family, volunteer organizations, etc.
I am a good worker bee. I HATE inefficiency. I have been accused of being lazy, never by patients, or supervisors, or anyone directly involved with measuring my productivity, but by people (friends, lovers, coworkers) that observe my activities, without any knowledge of the result. I am amazed by people that use a 20 step process to do what I can do in 3 because "it is the right way."
Paper work is a good example. I do as much as possible as soon as possible. In other words, I know that when I discharge a patient, I have to write a comparison of where they were at evaluation and discharge, and if they have met their goals. So - when I do an initial evaluation, I fill out the "at eval" section of the discharge summary. When I do the discharge, I fill out the new information and: DONE. I do my notes as I go. I don't think I have ever had anyone wait for paperwork from me. Why waste their time? I have to do it eventually.
Although you would never know it looking at my car or closets - I am incredibly organized, especially when it comes to time. Pathologically early. And when I have built in free time, I don't fill it up looking busy. Disorganization in a structure that I did not create is very hard for me, and I have learned over the years that in general, people would rather complain about the "extra work" than do anything to actually eliminate it. So - with all my extra time, I will breathe, and meditate on bees.
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