With the violence and rioting associated with this Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man and then the black man dying from other things there's a lot of stuff that I really want to pray for and I want to be reminded to pray about it. So many people are posting trash in trash talk and commentary in opinions about what's happening and why you shouldn't of done this and this is a crime and that's not in all the silliness that's just echoing and making the violence worse in the in the anger and the frustration bigger and worse and more complicated.
And I remembered that the candle is often a symbol for all focusing of prayer. Catholics light a candle for somebody as part of their prayer when they're at the Cathedral or Basilica or church. Many of the meditation things that I've read encourage the use of a single candle and focusing on the flame to help you focus your energy and thoughts. And I've used candles in the past to help me focus as I pray.
So last night I found a picture of a single candle flame on top of the wax candle with a dark background and posted it with no words on Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and anywhere else I could posted. I made it the background on my phone both for the lock screen and the home screen. And as I see the candle on praying for the people involved in the people that are doing all the foolish things and the people trying to bring down our country through this opportunity that's been presented to them. And I pray for me to not get worked up and upset about the whole thing, which would be very easy.
I hope that people see it and understand what I am trying to encourage without using any words. And I hope that they pray also.
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Thursday, July 2, 2020
800+ streak in DuoLingo ~
How I accomplished in 800+ the streak in Duolingo.
So I started wanting to learn Spanish in high school but could not figure out how to plug that in the my schedule. Over the course of college of course my parents encouraged me to take Spanish because so many people spoke it and it would be good to speak another language. In my 20s I wanted to learn but I was focused on my career and my wife and starting to have children in our late 20s. 30s and 40s I didn't do a lot because I was busy running around working, taking care of kids, being with my wife and family and traveling here and there to see other family, and all the things that you do as an adult. They were really good excuses for not learning Spanish.
At one point we invited a friend from church to come to our house and teach us Spanish. We got all four kids in the room with us and she taught us a few words and phrases. Nobody practiced so she stopped coming after three visits.
Almost 2 years ago I finally paid the subscription price for DuoLingo and decided that since I was paying for it I needed to do it every day. I started learning Spanish and Chinese. Spanish came along pretty well although it's still challenging. Chinese is so foreign that I had to stop but I would like to try that again.
But now I have over 880 days in a row of doing a DuoLingo lesson or two or three per day. How did I do such a long run?
At first it was an issue because I would say I have to do my DuoLingo. That made it feel like it was an enemy or something bearing down on me and I had to do it. And of course my wife had some resentment toward toward it because it distracted me from listening to her. The kids didn't understand. Everybody would just walk up when I was in the middle of doing a lesson and interrupt me. I couldn't get any consistency.
Another thing that I ran into was the repetitive and singular nature of it. It became "DuoLingo" and in my brain I couldn't accept that I was to be focused on this one app that could crash at any minute and beyond. So I started doing another language learning app alongside of it. And I paired it with DuoLingo so that if I did DuoLingo I did the other one also. That gave me a lot more variety and different tracks of learning so that my brain got to see and hear different words in different challenges and instead of just being singularly focused on dual lingo and following the line now I was approaching something from multiple log directions and it was more challenging.
As I went along I had other things that I wanted to do consistently like a devotional and meditation. And I decided that I wanted to read a chapter of Proverbs a day for every day of the month.
So I incorporated all those things into what I call my "lessons". That way it's kind of mysterious and exciting when I tell people that I'm doing my lessons they ask if I'm going to school and then I have an opening to talk about it with them. Or with my family especially my wife it's a way to let her know that I need a few minutes alone.
The other thing that I did was I made a specific place that I tend to go to to do my lessons. I chose the hope in our bedroom. It is in front of the bay window. I sit on it like a bench and I got my wife to agree that when I'm sitting on the hope chest I am not to be disturbed. At first she would walk in and start talking and then start apologizing, then she would come in and start to talk and look at me and get a scowl on her face and turn around real quick and leave and then talk to me as soon as I came out. My two teenage boys still walk in and just start talking to me and I hold up a hand and ask them to leave me alone for a few minutes. And then after I'm done I go and find whoever wanted to talk to me and find out what it is we were going to talk about.
So combining things it's about half an hour worth of work. Along with having a specific place that my family supports not interrupting me this has helped me to do my lessons consistently now.
The best part is that I'm starting to really learn and understand Spanish. I'm extremely slow and I feel like a child when I try to speak it, but when I look at words on webpages and signs I'm starting to really grasp what they mean and what they're talking about. Especially in context because there's other clues. When I hear it I can pick up bits and pieces but just like with English people that speak Spanish natively are very fast. When I listen to the radio and they're going at full speed talking about the store and the sales and all that I only pick up about every fifth word or so. Still fun to do!
I'm very satisfied with my approach to learning this and I'm happy that I am actually accomplishing one of my life goals of learning to speak and understand Spanish. Makes me want to set some other goals so that I can accomplish them to.
So I started wanting to learn Spanish in high school but could not figure out how to plug that in the my schedule. Over the course of college of course my parents encouraged me to take Spanish because so many people spoke it and it would be good to speak another language. In my 20s I wanted to learn but I was focused on my career and my wife and starting to have children in our late 20s. 30s and 40s I didn't do a lot because I was busy running around working, taking care of kids, being with my wife and family and traveling here and there to see other family, and all the things that you do as an adult. They were really good excuses for not learning Spanish.
At one point we invited a friend from church to come to our house and teach us Spanish. We got all four kids in the room with us and she taught us a few words and phrases. Nobody practiced so she stopped coming after three visits.
Almost 2 years ago I finally paid the subscription price for DuoLingo and decided that since I was paying for it I needed to do it every day. I started learning Spanish and Chinese. Spanish came along pretty well although it's still challenging. Chinese is so foreign that I had to stop but I would like to try that again.
But now I have over 880 days in a row of doing a DuoLingo lesson or two or three per day. How did I do such a long run?
At first it was an issue because I would say I have to do my DuoLingo. That made it feel like it was an enemy or something bearing down on me and I had to do it. And of course my wife had some resentment toward toward it because it distracted me from listening to her. The kids didn't understand. Everybody would just walk up when I was in the middle of doing a lesson and interrupt me. I couldn't get any consistency.
Another thing that I ran into was the repetitive and singular nature of it. It became "DuoLingo" and in my brain I couldn't accept that I was to be focused on this one app that could crash at any minute and beyond. So I started doing another language learning app alongside of it. And I paired it with DuoLingo so that if I did DuoLingo I did the other one also. That gave me a lot more variety and different tracks of learning so that my brain got to see and hear different words in different challenges and instead of just being singularly focused on dual lingo and following the line now I was approaching something from multiple log directions and it was more challenging.
As I went along I had other things that I wanted to do consistently like a devotional and meditation. And I decided that I wanted to read a chapter of Proverbs a day for every day of the month.
So I incorporated all those things into what I call my "lessons". That way it's kind of mysterious and exciting when I tell people that I'm doing my lessons they ask if I'm going to school and then I have an opening to talk about it with them. Or with my family especially my wife it's a way to let her know that I need a few minutes alone.
The other thing that I did was I made a specific place that I tend to go to to do my lessons. I chose the hope in our bedroom. It is in front of the bay window. I sit on it like a bench and I got my wife to agree that when I'm sitting on the hope chest I am not to be disturbed. At first she would walk in and start talking and then start apologizing, then she would come in and start to talk and look at me and get a scowl on her face and turn around real quick and leave and then talk to me as soon as I came out. My two teenage boys still walk in and just start talking to me and I hold up a hand and ask them to leave me alone for a few minutes. And then after I'm done I go and find whoever wanted to talk to me and find out what it is we were going to talk about.
So combining things it's about half an hour worth of work. Along with having a specific place that my family supports not interrupting me this has helped me to do my lessons consistently now.
The best part is that I'm starting to really learn and understand Spanish. I'm extremely slow and I feel like a child when I try to speak it, but when I look at words on webpages and signs I'm starting to really grasp what they mean and what they're talking about. Especially in context because there's other clues. When I hear it I can pick up bits and pieces but just like with English people that speak Spanish natively are very fast. When I listen to the radio and they're going at full speed talking about the store and the sales and all that I only pick up about every fifth word or so. Still fun to do!
I'm very satisfied with my approach to learning this and I'm happy that I am actually accomplishing one of my life goals of learning to speak and understand Spanish. Makes me want to set some other goals so that I can accomplish them to.
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Another word ruined ~
I saw a bumper sticker today proudly proclaiming the owner of the vehicle as a "dog mom".
"Mom" is a word that is being ruined by its misuse. I understand the cute part of this use. We're supposed to think that they take care of their dogs the way they're supposed to as if they're children. But my logical mind that tends to take things too literally automatically thinks and wonders if that woman should be referred to as a bitch now?
Army mom, dog mom, mama called by husband, and other uses mess up the word "mom". Stepmom is one that drives people crazy because that woman is not that child's mother but you want to apply the intent of the word mom to someone who is not the mother of the child but married into that position.
And I guess that's the problem. It's that when I call my mother "mom" I mean mother and one that I love. So I can see the use of it in those other ways. But I just can't stand how words get bastardized by people trying to be too cute or too smart.
There are other examples. Wife. Boss. Others. We just tend to take words and twist them into meanings that weren't intended.
My 18-year-old tells me that they do that on purpose at his school because they're trying to hide what they're talking about. And half because it's done for the shock value.
I wish they would stop twisting words in the meetings that they just don't mean.
"Mom" is a word that is being ruined by its misuse. I understand the cute part of this use. We're supposed to think that they take care of their dogs the way they're supposed to as if they're children. But my logical mind that tends to take things too literally automatically thinks and wonders if that woman should be referred to as a bitch now?
Army mom, dog mom, mama called by husband, and other uses mess up the word "mom". Stepmom is one that drives people crazy because that woman is not that child's mother but you want to apply the intent of the word mom to someone who is not the mother of the child but married into that position.
And I guess that's the problem. It's that when I call my mother "mom" I mean mother and one that I love. So I can see the use of it in those other ways. But I just can't stand how words get bastardized by people trying to be too cute or too smart.
There are other examples. Wife. Boss. Others. We just tend to take words and twist them into meanings that weren't intended.
My 18-year-old tells me that they do that on purpose at his school because they're trying to hide what they're talking about. And half because it's done for the shock value.
I wish they would stop twisting words in the meetings that they just don't mean.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Ahead of my time on masks ~
I find it interesting that I am ahead of my time on so many things.
The latest example is covering the face. When I went for a 10 day hike at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico with my two youngest sons, my brother, and his two oldest sons, I did not want to wear sunscreen despite having had multiple episodes of skin cancer cut off of me. So I bought one of those gaitor things to wear around my neck and pull up over my face and ears and I used it along with a oversized floppy sun hat and long-sleeved shirts to protect myself from the sun. I did put sunscreen on my hands because I did not want to wear gloves every day for 10 days hiking with a 50+ pound pack on my back.
The facemask thing worked. It kept the sun off of my skin, it soaked up sweat and helped me stay cooler around my neck in my face, and protected me from dust blowing, and it was enjoyable to wear. It made the others uncomfortable because they could not see my mouth. And my boys made fun of me saying that I was getting carried away with things and that I was embarrassing them by wearing it.
Fast forward to today and now we're at a place where people look at you strange if you're not wearing a mask. Of all the impacts on our society I think that will be one of the biggest ones. Masks have always been associated with hiding your identity and making you look like you're up to no good. Unless you were a doctor or a nurse and you were going into surgery where the body was going to be opened up and you didn't want to breathe out things that could infect a person inside their body while they were cut open. And you did not want to get whatever was inside them on you through your mouth or nasal passage.
Now people are so scared with the coronavirus that they're wearing masks and not making any sense with them. Many people are turning them into fashion statements and spending time making matching masks out of the material that's like their shirt and blouse or turning them into sports team masks or whatever.
There are rules and laws that prohibit the use of masks in public. And those are being flagrantly ignored so that everybody can "stay safe". I'm not real sure how that works when people are using their dirty hands to pull them down so that they can talk to somebody and then push them back up. I've seen many people wash their hands than touch the outside of their masks as they're going about their day. And the use of a mask from what I've read does not inhibit the movement of the coronavirus because there virus is small enough to pass through most masks. It does inhibit you spreading the coronavirus through Ariel sneezing and blowing of mucus and all that, but the way people use masks is all wrong.
I just find it interesting that I wore a mask for years before this ever came up. Ahead of my time again!
The latest example is covering the face. When I went for a 10 day hike at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico with my two youngest sons, my brother, and his two oldest sons, I did not want to wear sunscreen despite having had multiple episodes of skin cancer cut off of me. So I bought one of those gaitor things to wear around my neck and pull up over my face and ears and I used it along with a oversized floppy sun hat and long-sleeved shirts to protect myself from the sun. I did put sunscreen on my hands because I did not want to wear gloves every day for 10 days hiking with a 50+ pound pack on my back.
The facemask thing worked. It kept the sun off of my skin, it soaked up sweat and helped me stay cooler around my neck in my face, and protected me from dust blowing, and it was enjoyable to wear. It made the others uncomfortable because they could not see my mouth. And my boys made fun of me saying that I was getting carried away with things and that I was embarrassing them by wearing it.
Fast forward to today and now we're at a place where people look at you strange if you're not wearing a mask. Of all the impacts on our society I think that will be one of the biggest ones. Masks have always been associated with hiding your identity and making you look like you're up to no good. Unless you were a doctor or a nurse and you were going into surgery where the body was going to be opened up and you didn't want to breathe out things that could infect a person inside their body while they were cut open. And you did not want to get whatever was inside them on you through your mouth or nasal passage.
Now people are so scared with the coronavirus that they're wearing masks and not making any sense with them. Many people are turning them into fashion statements and spending time making matching masks out of the material that's like their shirt and blouse or turning them into sports team masks or whatever.
There are rules and laws that prohibit the use of masks in public. And those are being flagrantly ignored so that everybody can "stay safe". I'm not real sure how that works when people are using their dirty hands to pull them down so that they can talk to somebody and then push them back up. I've seen many people wash their hands than touch the outside of their masks as they're going about their day. And the use of a mask from what I've read does not inhibit the movement of the coronavirus because there virus is small enough to pass through most masks. It does inhibit you spreading the coronavirus through Ariel sneezing and blowing of mucus and all that, but the way people use masks is all wrong.
I just find it interesting that I wore a mask for years before this ever came up. Ahead of my time again!
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Seeing fear
One of the hardest things during this whole virus panic event that we been going through for almost 2 months has been to see the fear in people's eyes. When I have gone to the store, which I never stopped doing, I see people not looking at anybody. Staring at the floor and not meeting anybody's eyes. Wearing their gloves and their surgical mask like it's going to protect them. Acting surprised when I say good morning or hello.
It's hard. It's been especially hard on my wife because she is such a people person. She doesn't like it and she feels the the urge to join the herd and be scared and quiver. But I keep telling her it's okay and just be safe and wash her hands and do what we normally do and everything will be fine.
Early on when I sensed and saw the fear growing I would send my youngest son out on missions. I would ask him to go and buy me something at the grocery store. I asked him to go and buy me some plants that the hardware store. I asked him to take something to another place. And I did that to help him avoid getting caught up in this year. And to see that it's okay.
What I remember from growing up was that my grandparents were always very careful. They didn't just wander around willy-nilly into things and do all sorts of crazy stuff with people that they didn't know. They had a genuine fear that had hardened to resolve because they came through some hard times call the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the oil crisis in the 70s that was manufactured by OPEC, and so many other things. This fear that I see now is different.
I've read about and watched how mass media has focused on the inflammatory and the fear generating in the big splash headlines that they focus on for a week or two at a time. And I've read articles about how their fostering fear in their watchers. They hire psychologists and scientists that specialize in addiction and foster addiction to fear. Just like app developers foster addictive like behaviors with games like candy crush and the systems like Facebook. It's that head of dopamine that unit.
As they drive more and more people to be fearful we as citizens need to be careful that our government doesn't overreach and begin to dictate things to us that they have no business dictating. I'm watching as some governors loosen restrictions and are working to get government out of the way so that people can make choices as to whether or not they want to take the risk of opening their business compared to the risk of not making any money and losing their business. This is a good thing and this is what I would love to see everywhere but I'm satisfied to see it where I live.
Another thing that I'm concerned about is how mass media is driving so many people to think of us as a singular country when we are actually a group of states United to form a country. And it scares me that the federal government that the states put together has grown to the point that now states are looking to the federal government to bail them out under the premise of the virus but in actuality they going to use any bailout money to pay for the money that they've taken out of their retirement system promised to former employees and to cover their actual expenses for the year of you know before ever encountering this virus panic situation.
My family is safe. My family is doing fine. I hope your family is doing fine also.
God bless America!
It's hard. It's been especially hard on my wife because she is such a people person. She doesn't like it and she feels the the urge to join the herd and be scared and quiver. But I keep telling her it's okay and just be safe and wash her hands and do what we normally do and everything will be fine.
Early on when I sensed and saw the fear growing I would send my youngest son out on missions. I would ask him to go and buy me something at the grocery store. I asked him to go and buy me some plants that the hardware store. I asked him to take something to another place. And I did that to help him avoid getting caught up in this year. And to see that it's okay.
What I remember from growing up was that my grandparents were always very careful. They didn't just wander around willy-nilly into things and do all sorts of crazy stuff with people that they didn't know. They had a genuine fear that had hardened to resolve because they came through some hard times call the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, the oil crisis in the 70s that was manufactured by OPEC, and so many other things. This fear that I see now is different.
I've read about and watched how mass media has focused on the inflammatory and the fear generating in the big splash headlines that they focus on for a week or two at a time. And I've read articles about how their fostering fear in their watchers. They hire psychologists and scientists that specialize in addiction and foster addiction to fear. Just like app developers foster addictive like behaviors with games like candy crush and the systems like Facebook. It's that head of dopamine that unit.
As they drive more and more people to be fearful we as citizens need to be careful that our government doesn't overreach and begin to dictate things to us that they have no business dictating. I'm watching as some governors loosen restrictions and are working to get government out of the way so that people can make choices as to whether or not they want to take the risk of opening their business compared to the risk of not making any money and losing their business. This is a good thing and this is what I would love to see everywhere but I'm satisfied to see it where I live.
Another thing that I'm concerned about is how mass media is driving so many people to think of us as a singular country when we are actually a group of states United to form a country. And it scares me that the federal government that the states put together has grown to the point that now states are looking to the federal government to bail them out under the premise of the virus but in actuality they going to use any bailout money to pay for the money that they've taken out of their retirement system promised to former employees and to cover their actual expenses for the year of you know before ever encountering this virus panic situation.
My family is safe. My family is doing fine. I hope your family is doing fine also.
God bless America!
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Lack of quality time
One of the challenging things for me during this coronavirus panic has been the lack of time with people that I care for.
My love language is quality time. But with everybody hunkering down and hiding in their homes or wherever they are and saying that they can't get together or they don't want to come over or they are obeying the government means that I don't get any time with them. Phone calls don't really happen. Because they are busy with work video calls and other things they don't want to set aside time or they have not set aside time to do a video call with me.
So I'm spending a lot of time alone. At home. Doing projects. Working out. Doing my lessons. Eating. Not drinking very much. Spending time with my wife, my college-aged son, and my high school senior son.
But I miss the others in my family. And I miss getting together with people. We did have another couple will come over for dinner a couple weeks ago. I had a water bottle at the door and I sprayed them like I was disinfecting them. They didn't get in till afterwards but than they thought it was sort of funny but also they had that sheer look on their face the I've seen so much lately.
But it was fun getting to spend time with them. Just talk and hang out.
I miss spending time with people.
My love language is quality time. But with everybody hunkering down and hiding in their homes or wherever they are and saying that they can't get together or they don't want to come over or they are obeying the government means that I don't get any time with them. Phone calls don't really happen. Because they are busy with work video calls and other things they don't want to set aside time or they have not set aside time to do a video call with me.
So I'm spending a lot of time alone. At home. Doing projects. Working out. Doing my lessons. Eating. Not drinking very much. Spending time with my wife, my college-aged son, and my high school senior son.
But I miss the others in my family. And I miss getting together with people. We did have another couple will come over for dinner a couple weeks ago. I had a water bottle at the door and I sprayed them like I was disinfecting them. They didn't get in till afterwards but than they thought it was sort of funny but also they had that sheer look on their face the I've seen so much lately.
But it was fun getting to spend time with them. Just talk and hang out.
I miss spending time with people.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Be prepared
One of the things that I enjoyed during the coronavirus panics time that I spent at home is getting a garden going on my deck. I've done that for a couple of years now but this year I have tomato plants, some peppers, and a few more flowers. I also bought a couple of blueberry bushes and a couple of grapevines just to see if I could make them grow.
I keep them on the deck which means I have to water them daily. I've collected bottles as we've emptied them out and I now have a collection of five or six big 2 L bottles that I used to water them with.
I keep the bottles filled with water so that when I go out morning or in the early afternoon to water the plants I can just start watering them. It's been so nice because last year and the year before I always had to grab the bottle or some picture, fill it with water, then go out and water plants.
But with the ability to adjust decide it's time to water and then go out and start doing I feel like my productivity is out. It's much more satisfying when I go to water the plants. And it's a lot more fun because I don't have to think about steps to get started, I just go and get started. Yes, I still have to fill the water bottles when I empty them. But it's much more satisfying to have already watered plants than having to stop and figure out which ones to fill out and all that.
So the Scouting motto "be prepared" applies here. I am prepared to water the plants and because I am prepared I can just start doing it.
In so many other areas of our lives it would be better if we were prepared so that when it was time to do it or we decided to do it we could just pick it up and no. Instead of having to go through a checklist of all the things that you gotta gather up and get together and then possibly use and may not need and all that. All the decisions get in the way of actually accomplishing what we set out to accomplish.
So do your best to be prepared. You'll come out ahead because of it!
I keep them on the deck which means I have to water them daily. I've collected bottles as we've emptied them out and I now have a collection of five or six big 2 L bottles that I used to water them with.
I keep the bottles filled with water so that when I go out morning or in the early afternoon to water the plants I can just start watering them. It's been so nice because last year and the year before I always had to grab the bottle or some picture, fill it with water, then go out and water plants.
But with the ability to adjust decide it's time to water and then go out and start doing I feel like my productivity is out. It's much more satisfying when I go to water the plants. And it's a lot more fun because I don't have to think about steps to get started, I just go and get started. Yes, I still have to fill the water bottles when I empty them. But it's much more satisfying to have already watered plants than having to stop and figure out which ones to fill out and all that.
So the Scouting motto "be prepared" applies here. I am prepared to water the plants and because I am prepared I can just start doing it.
In so many other areas of our lives it would be better if we were prepared so that when it was time to do it or we decided to do it we could just pick it up and no. Instead of having to go through a checklist of all the things that you gotta gather up and get together and then possibly use and may not need and all that. All the decisions get in the way of actually accomplishing what we set out to accomplish.
So do your best to be prepared. You'll come out ahead because of it!
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