Author Archives: Andy

Blinded by an Apple

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Smartphones are addictive. If you have one, you might already realize that. I’ve had one for a few years now, but it wasn’t until I got an iPhone with easy Internet access and 200,000+ available apps that I truly became an addict. Almost any time I have a free moment, I reach for my phone to check personal and work email, Facebook, various news sites, the weather, my financial accounts, or sports scores. I check it before I run. I check it after I run. I check it at the grocery store. I check it first thing when I wake up and last thing before I go to sleep. I even check it on the pot. (don’t lie – you do it, too!)

When Jenny and I leave US mobile coverage for a cruise and I shut off my phone for a few days, I go through withdrawal. Ask Jenny how many times I reached fruitlessly to my hip on our last cruise in October. I felt cut off from the world, and it took a few days to adjust. At first my iPhone was just a fun toy. Now it’s an obsession.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I’m not the only one. Jenny does it. Most of my friends with smartphones do it. Our obsession leads to a curious phenomenon when we get together with other people:

Instead of talking with each other, we bury our heads in our phones.

Have you noticed that? It doesn’t seem to be a problem with our parents’ generation. Perhaps it’s because they simply aren’t obsessed with their smartphones, even though many of them have jumped on the smartphone bandwagon for various reasons. Perhaps it’s because they still believe that spending time with friends and family should involve actual interaction rather than simply sharing the same air in the same room.

Are we hiding? Feeling shy? Maybe. As a shy person, I can understand that. People tend to leave you alone when you’re playing on your phone, interpreting it as a GO AWAY sign. Interaction can be stressful, and your smartphone is a paper bag to pull over your head. In some cases, maybe we just don’t like the people nearby. Or maybe we’ve had a hard day and just need to be alone in a crowd of people.

But in many cases, at least for me, it can be the addiction. I want to engage with the people around me, but I’m drawn to the phone like an alcoholic to a fifth of Jack or a smoker to a pack of cigarettes. I read articles on my phone sometimes when I’m watching the boys. I’ve played on my phone during dinner with my family. I’ve been to family gatherings with people I hardly ever see, and some of us simply sit there and text or read their Twitter and Facebook feeds. I’ve looked around during our home group meeting and seen almost every person silently fiddling with their phones.

Why do we bother being together if we’re not going to actually be together?

Obviously my little blog post can’t change the world, but I can pledge to you that I will try to change myself. When I’m with my friends or family, unless I’m tending to some urgent business or looking up something worthwhile to share with you, I will do my best to keep my phone stowed.

Island of Misfit Voters

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I have a problem. (quit snickering!) I’m interested in politics, but my views don’t really fit with any particular party. You’ve probably noticed that I generally vote Democrat and lean liberal, but on a few issues I align better with the Republicans and am quite conservative. I also line up with many parts of the Green Party platform. It’s frustrating. It means that whenever I vote for someone, I know that my candidate holds views that I don’t like and might vote in ways that I don’t like.

Let’s call this dim twilight the Island of Misfit Voters. Do you live here, too? Welcome! We misfits need to stick together. I think there are many of us, but it’s tempting and convenient to lump ourselves into a neat label like Republican or liberal that makes ourselves sound like we fit in with a particular group. So you might not realize how misfit you are. Not sure? Here are some interesting political quizzes to help you work through your views. Each focuses on different areas:

Per my results on the third quiz, “You want government out of people’s personal lives, but you appear to desire some continued government control over people’s economic activities. There is no political party that represents your view. You would need a mix of Democratic, Green, and Libertarian politicians in office to get the balance of freedom and social justice you desire.” I’m basically a libertarian liberal who happens to be pro-life just to screw things up.

Hmm.

I know – I could start my own political party! I actually started writing out a platform. That made me realize how little I understand certain complex issues such as the economy and our global military presence. So I gave up for now. Maybe later.

Until I can take over with my new party, I guess I’ll just do what I’ve always done and vote for whichever candidate gets the closest to my views overall, or whichever one agrees with me on my top priority issues. For the last two presidential elections, my top priority has been getting our troops out of Iraq. Thanks to Obama, that finally happened this month.

If you’re a misfit voter, how do you decide whom to support?

Haiku Tuesday 25 – New Year’s Eve

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2011 is almost done. Saturday night is New Year’s Eve, and Jenny and I plan to party in Dallas with the Stars and maybe check out the NYE bash at Victory Park. Let’s bust out some NYE haiku, shall we?

‘Twas ten years ago
Jenny gave me Stars tickets
And look at us now!

(The second time Jenny and I ever hung out solo, it was at a Stars game on New Year’s Eve 2001)

Put this year to bed
Tsunami, Congress, war and loss
Time for a clean slate

Where’s the champagne room?
Got a hot date, off the clock
Time for fireworks

The older we get
The less partying we do
Who’s this Seacrest guy?

Your turn.

Brenden Sings “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”

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Brenden has really gotten good at learning songs recently and loves to sing. I managed to capture him singing his current favorite Christmas song, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. Sorry about the poor lighting, but the audio is more important anyway. My parents once had a recording of me singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” at age 4 or 5. When I listened to it as a teenager, I was amazed at how different my voice sounded back then. I figure Brenden will have the same reaction when he watches this video a decade or so from now.

Dallas Jingle Bell Run 2011

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Day 21 of our Christmas Countdown brought us to the Dallas Jingle Bell Run, a 5k race that started and ended next to the Hilton Anatole. Around 5000 runners and walkers participated this year, many of them wearing holiday garb – Santa hats, Christmas lights, reindeer antlers, jingle bells on their shoelaces, a full reindeer costume, Buddy the Elf, and a weird Christmas dress that looked like Mrs. Claus’s lingerie. (!) Although some hardcore runners were there (15:07 for the winner, around 5:00/mile), the overall vibe was festivity and fun with lots of walkers, casual runners, kids, and dogs. Some of my friends from work and church ran or walked. Here are a few highlights:

  • Although I didn’t meet my primary goal time goal (partly because the first half mile was so crowded and I started from the middle of the pack), I did PR, which was my other goal. Considering I couldn’t run a quarter mile without horrible knee pain just a few years ago, I’m very pleased. I also kept my pace roughly consistent from mile to mile instead of starting like a jackrabbit and fading at the end like I’ve done before. Note to self: don’t try to PR at a race with 5000 people. Wait for the 100-person fundraisers for a small charity instead.
  • Brenden got to experience his first Port-A-Potty. In the dark. Have you ever tried to use a Port-A-Potty in the dark? How about with a three-year-old who could easily fall in with a poorly placed step? He wasn’t a fan. Neither was I, but it beat an accident at Mile 2.
  • At the start/finish line, they offered free Myoplex protein drinks. They were banana cream flavor, which sounded odd and turned off many of the runners, but were actually quite good. I drank one and took home two more. I refrained from tricking Jenny into trying one.
  • Jenny got a great workout by pulling the boys in their new red wagon while I ran ahead. Unfortunately, between the boys stealing each others’ food and glow sticks, Brenden being cold the whole way but refusing to put on his coat or walk to warm up (really?), and our friend’s 14-month-old daughter who was unhappy most of the way, it wasn’t exactly a fun experience for Jenny. As we swore last year after the Water is Basic 5k, we’re going to wait a while before taking the boys on another race.
  • Rumor had it that the post-race party inside the Anatole had pizza and beer. My kids and wife were DONE, so we went home instead.
  • My buddy Marvin from work finished his first 5k. He wasn’t sure he could do it, but he trained hard and pressed on until he reached the finish line. Bravo, Marvin!

Overall, it was a good event, although pretty stressful for Jenny. She took some pictures of Brenden pulling Jonathan toward the finish line. I’ll post them here if they turned out OK.

Next up: training for the Cowtown Half in late February. I’m also slightly intrigued by the Hotter ‘n Hell Hundred bicycle race in Wichita Falls in late August. I couldn’t do the full hundred miles, but they have some shorter distances that might work (25 mile, 50 mile).

All I Want for Christmas is a Heisman

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Brenden doing the Heisman

My first two years at Baylor, I think we went 1-18-1. We were one of the worst football teams in all of Division I football. The term “cellar-dweller” popped up frequently in any article about us. Things just didn’t work no matter what we did or how hard we tried. To illustrate how painful it was, in one of the few games I attended as a student, we were barely ahead at the end of the game against UNLV. We had the ball on their 5-yard-line or so with a few seconds left. To win, all we had to do was take a knee. But the students, players, and coaching staff were so unbelievably excited that we were about to actually win a game that the coach chose to try for one last touchdown. You can guess what happened.

Snap.

Fumble.

Recovery by UNLV.

The longest, most heartbreaking, most shock-inducing runback for a game-winning touchdown in the history of college football.

I stood there with my mouth hanging open, surrounded by silence, unable to move, lump in my throat, unsure whether my heart was still beating. Our hope lay on the field like a popped green balloon.

Last season things improved significantly compared to those dark days ten years ago. At the beginning of this season, Baylor University started a Heisman campaign for its quarterback, a talented dual-threat player named Robert Griffin III (RG3 for short). I was already an RG3 fan from last season and had high hopes for this one, but the campaign seemed like a longshot. Yes, he could run. And throw. And think. And lead. And make you regret taking that break to grab a drink or hit the bathroom during his latest highlight-reel play. And he just seemed like a good guy – humble, team-oriented, very loyal to Baylor, smart enough to graduate in three years and enroll in grad school to maintain his eligibility, funny, articulate.

However, Heisman Trophy winners play for teams in BCS bowl games like Alabama and Texas. They don’t play for little old Baylor, the team that was thrilled last season to be bowl-eligible for the first time in the Big 12. But I Liked the Facebook page for his Heisman campaign anyway and followed the season. Jenny and I got to attend two games, the TCU game in Waco and the Texas Tech game in Arlington. Except for two blowout losses and a one-point loss in October, we won every game we played, a total of nine. We beat Texas for the second year in a row. We beat Tech for the first time. We beat mighty Oklahoma for the first time. And along the way, RG3 put up Heisman-quality numbers that finally got people to pay attention to little old Baylor, which had finally grown into a dangerous – and fun to watch – football team. We have a date with the Alamo Bowl as the favorite against Washington. Last Saturday night, RG3 won Baylor’s first Heisman Trophy as the most outstanding college football player in the country.

WHAAAAAAAA?

Commemorative Heisman Bear Shirt

Baylor Nation has been going crazy all season, especially this week in the wake of RG3’s achievement. The administration is working on plans for a much-needed, on-campus football stadium at the northeast corner of I-35 and the Brazos River. In addition to our football success, our women’s basketball team is #1 in the country, and the men are top 10 as well. I know athletics is a collection of games, not the true point of college, blah blah blah. I know our society makes a bigger deal of sports and athletes than they deserve. I know all that.

But man, it feels good to win.