Snapshot Sunday, March 16

 

No pictures today (at least, none of mine), just a pining for a new way to create them.

A couple of years ago or so, I read an article about a really cool  new camera, the Lytro.  I thought they’d become the next big thing, but I haven’t heard a whole lot about them since then.  The technology is beyond me, but I can tell you that what they say is that this camera captures the entire light field of an image, rather than just a single plane of light.  Like I said, I don’t really understand that, but the end result is a picture that can be refocused and shifted around, even after it’s been taken.  To me, that’s really cool.

I wish I could put some of their photos here, but that doesn’t seem to be possible, at least not with their full functionality.  So, I’m going to paste a couple of my favorites, because a good picture is a good picture, even when it’s static, but I’m going to strongly encourage you to visit their gallery and see for yourself how truly nifty it is to be able to sort of re-envision your pictures after you’ve already taken it. 

   

    

 

 

 

 

 

I always want a new camera; sometimes my wants are practical, and sometimes they’re far less so.  Putting a Lytro into my camera bag would absolutely fall into the “impractical” category, but it sure would be fun.

 

Six Word Review

 

 

Movie day today; Non-Stop not bad.

Facebook Friday, March 14

 

A glance at Facebook today confirmed the tidbit I’d already seen on the history site: it’s Albert Einstein’s birthday.  I wasn’t going to write about him today, because I really don’t have much to say about the man, except that he was a genius, and I think it’s unfair that no uber-famous female would be allowed to have such unkempt hair without facing an awful lot of ridicule.

Oh, and there is this photo of the man I’ve always enjoyed:

 

  It’s not the sort of thing you would expect from a world-famous thinking man, and it amuses me.

But, fun picture notwithstanding, I wasn’t going to write about him, and I really still don’t have much to say about the man.  But while scrolling through my newsfeed, I did come across a graphic that caught my attention:

It’s just one of the many intelligent things the man said over the years, but I think it hit me because I had just spent a small amount of time on a homework worksheet that was really just about the learning of facts, and nothing beyond that.  Not that the facts aren’t important, of course they are.  But it seems to me that at a college-level course (even at a simple two-year institution) should be taking the time to teach beyond the facts.  Now, granted, it’s an online class I’m taking, and some things are lost in the format, but still.  And, I can be honest enough to admit that some days it’s a relief to be able to just read from a text and then regurgitate the information into homework answers without need of expending too much effort.  On the other hand, I can certainly recognize that I’m at least as responsible for my own education as the school is, maybe more so.  I mean, it’s my education.  So if I just breeze through a worksheet without putting in any real thought, whose fault is it really if there’s not an awful lot of true learning taking place?

So, in honor of the birthday boy, I’m going to make sure that I focus not just on learning facts, but also on examining those facts critically, and understanding the foundational theories behind them.   And, most of all, I will ask lots of questions.  I think that’s a key component to learning of any kind—asking questions to see beyond the simple facts presented.  Because while I think all of my education up to this point has turned me into a fairly decent “thinker”, it’s also true that that sort of education never really stops.  So even though I’m down to the last half of my last course, the education continues.

Trial by Jury

So, I was in a bit of a stupor last night. I did start writing this post, then, I guess, drifted off.  I don't have too much actual memory of that, but I vaguely recall that maybe Letterman was on when I turned off the TV and trudged off to bed.  Or maybe it was Ferguson.  It's sort of a blur.

Anyway, I think I mentioned that I was participating in my first trial this week.  There will still likely be more said about that later, but for now the thing that is all-consuming is that we lost.  Honestly, by the time the jury returned with the verdict, I wasn't surprised, since I didn't think the proceedings went all that well, but it was still disappointing.

Disappointing for me, but mostly for our client.  You know, in a lot of ways, I think our society has become too litigious, and I think that makes the average person very wary of anyone's claims.  The days of juries awarding money at the drop of a hat are probably gone.  But, unfortunately, that means that sometimes people who have legitimate claims bear the brunt of today's cynicism, and it's easy to assume that everyone is somehow trying to play the system and is out for whatever they can get.  That's too bad, really, when I still firmly believe that most people are good, decent folks who tell the truth about what happened to them.

Of course, that's the problem with an adversarial justice system, right?  That if you believe most people are telling the truth, it's a difficult thing when two sides are saying different things.  Surely one of them must be lying.  Trials force people to decide things in black or white, when there's almost always a lot of gray in the situation.  And there are real people stuck in that gray, who suffer when they're forced into one area or the other.  All in all, I think it can be a really sad thing. 

Weight Loss Wednesday, March 12

 

First, let me say that I glanced at a calendar this morning and realized that it’s been exactly six months since my granny died.  I’ll admit I cried a little.  Not as much as the other day when it hit me that she won’t be around for my graduation ceremony, but a little.  There’s a level of grieving that I thought I had moved past, but I think I was fooling myself. 

In terms of the weight loss, that’s going a big, fat nowhere.  Really, it’s sort of amazing I haven’t gained back the few pounds I managed to take off, what with no exercise and eating pretty much whatever, whenever.  A couple of weeks ago, I thought I was ready to get into an actual routine of working out, but illness, school, and work all conspired to keep me from the gym.  I briefly considered figuring out how to get over there at least a couple of days this week, but we’re in the middle of trial this week (my first since I’ve been at the office; there’ll probably be more about that at some point later, even though I do not have high hopes for the outcome), and it didn’t take me long to realize that nothing else gets done during trial.  But, though I may not have hopes for the trial, I do have hopes for finally making it back to the 10 Gym next week.

 

	Steps	Activities
Wednesday	5,602
Thursday	9,080
Friday	9,811
Saturday	7,357
Sunday	2,349
Monday	7,547
Tuesday	9,478

New Show—Resurrection

 

The last time we talked television—though that’s been a couple of weeks now—I told you about a new show that I was going to give a chance.  Not that I have a whole lot of extra time, or DVR space, for a bunch of new shows, but I have another one that I’m checking out just to see how it flies.

This weekend saw the premiere of Resurrection, something I’ve been looking forward to for a couple of months or so now.  The basic premise is simple, and probably not much of a surprise, based on the title:  dead people return to life.  Cool?  Or creepy?  I’m guessing it’ll be a little bit of both before it’s all said and done.

The pilot was mostly well done, following the story of young Jacob returned to his home, thirty-two years after his death—though I’ll admit that an awful lot of people seemed to accept the idea that a long-dead child just strolled back into town.  Also, as a minor thing, where did this kid learn how to use a cell phone?  He died back in 1982, when mobile phones were still installed in cars or carried around in  suitcases.  But, hand him a smart phone, and he not only knows how to play Donkey Kong, but he can also exit the game, find a notepad app, and write his name on the screen.  Come back from the dead? Okay.  Navigate a mobile operating system intuitively?  Seems unlikely.

But, back to the main concept, people returning from the dead.  It’s a storyline that appeals, because no matter how much we understand it cannot be, we’ve all wished for just one more chance to visit with someone we’ve lost.  Naturally, the show begins with a child returnee, because that’s certainly going to be the story that tugs on the most heartstrings, but by the end of the hour, we’ve met the second to return, and he’s an adult.  But, based on the previews, it looks like those two are just the tip of the iceberg, and the sleepy little town might be in for something of a population explosion.

So, how do the dead come back? And why?  Well, that’s what we don’t know, of course.  Or, are they even back?  Maybe they’re pod people, or something, clever façades, designed to make a town believe the impossible.   Maybe that’s why Jacob was immediately able to adapt to technology.  Or why he didn’t have a heartbeat at first, but then seemed to recognize one was expected.  I don’t know; at this point, it could be literally anything, but I’ve read enough Stephen King to believe that such miracles don’t usually occur without some sort of negative consequence.  It’s just a matter of waiting to see what kind of horror might befall the people of Arcadia as they welcome back their lost loved ones. 

But, the waiting might be the downfall of the show.  Because while I’m more than willing to wait as mysteries twist and turn and mythologies develop, I expect that there will also still be compelling story lines each week, and that mysteries don’t continue to exist simply for the sake of mystery.  I absolutely don’t want to watch a show that delivers questions week after week, month after month, but never any answers.  I am not that patient; I will cut my losses and abandon a show that does that for too long. (And, no, I was never a Lost fan.)

Another concern:  it seems like yesterday I was drawn into FlashForward, which lasted about fifteen minutes before it left the air and never explained exactly what happened in those damnable two minutes.  And what really happened to The Nine inside that bank?  I absolutely don’t want to be writing a blog post years from now still unsure if Jacob (and the future returnees) are actual miracles, or aliens from some other dimension, but television doesn’t have a great track record for letting things develop before giving them the axe.

Still, I think that I am physiologically incapable of not watching this show, at least long enough to give it a fighting chance.  I mean, it is dead people returning, and they don’t even seem to be zombies.  You have to admit, that’s at least intriguing.  So I’ll be watching for at least a while, and hoping for the best.  If you’re equally intrigued, you can check it out on Sunday evenings.

Overload

 

Something had to give.  In truth, a lot of things had to give recently, but visiting here at the blog was the one I missed the most.  It’s strange the way life just sneaks up on you sometimes, and you suddenly just find yourself just going with the flow—or raging current—with little to no control.

It started simply enough; I wasn’t feeling too swell one evening.  By the next morning, I was really just feeling sort of “off”, and by end of shift, I was ready to make a stop at the walk-in clinic.  They ended up sending me over to the ER, and by half-way through my visit to the hospital, I was feeling pretty miserable.

The really stupid part of the whole thing?  Nothing too drastically wrong with me, just a pretty bad case of vertigo. (Not that I’m asking for a more serious diagnosis; don’t get me wrong about that!)  Turns out vertigo is not particularly uncommon after a respiratory infection, which I’d dealt with a week or two before that.  What is uncommon, though, at least for me, is not being able to stand for more than a few minutes, or move my head too quickly, even when sitting still, because doing so just about causes a blackout.  It was totally stupid. 

That was a Wednesday night, and I pretty much stayed in bed for the next four days, moving as little as possible.  I think it was at least Saturday before I realized I hadn’t been posting to the blog.  Oops.  I blame it on the medication.  But, Saturday—or maybe Sunday—when I realized I hadn’t been posting, then I made the conscious decision that I couldn’t do it.  I was still feeling pretty cruddy, and I just couldn’t fathom the idea of sitting at a computer even long enough to tap out a short piece, much less actually think of something to tap out.

Monday I dragged myself back to work, but was far from recovered, so had to take a few hours to to drive back to town and see my own doctor to figure out why I wasn’t getting any better.  (And, yeah, driving was undoubtedly a risky proposition at the time, but I managed it, thank God.)

The problem with being sick enough to miss work, of course, is that the work doesn’t care if you’re there today; it’ll just be waiting for you when you make it back.  The first couple of days back, I had no choice but to take it sort of easy, though that just meant getting further and further behind on the work.  By Wednesday, I was finally starting to feel a bit better, but that meant working crazy long hours to try to get caught up again—which still hasn’t happened yet, by the way.

But that’s the sort of thing that starts the George Jetson treadmill going.  Then, the next thing you know, school is being neglected, the PTK weekend event that’s been planned for months is suddenly looming, seemingly unexpectedly, and, oh yeah, at the office, we’re suddenly preparing for trial next week.  So, you get through the week as best you can, muddle through the weekend on a total of about 7 or 8 hours sleep, then drag yourself into the office to do it all again Monday morning. 

As I said, something (besides sleep) had to give.  So, part of the PTK event weekend was missed; an assignment got turned in a few hours late, and my office looks like a cyclone tore through.  And, of course, I didn’t stop to write. 

I’m not happy about any of those sacrifices, but I’m most discouraged by being away from the blog for two weeks.  It was, as I mentioned, a conscious decision (once the meds wore off, you know), so I suppose there’s no one to blame by myself, but a careful analysis of the situation said there was just no way to make it happen.  I think my choice was well-reasoned, and in the same circumstances, I imagine that’s how I ‘d handle it again, but I can’t deny that I felt a little emptiness inside.  So, tonight, I made it home from the office just after ten, ate a quick chicken sandwich while watching the news (it’s amazing how quickly you can feel really out of touch these days), and now I’m here.  I think the treadmill is still running, but maybe something else needs to give for a while.