Zero Hour! and My Social Media Fast

This one came while we were sitting together at Cold Stone Creamery for a little family outing to use a coupon before it expired!

"And you're Zero, watching a science video about good and bad bacteria while enjoying your yogurt."


And in a poorly-segued change of topic, many of you readers are aware that I embarked on a social media fast during the month of July. Why would you do such a thing, you ask? I'll give you a little insight and some learning points.

Rationale:

• I probably "browse" too much. Between Facebook and my favorite BYU Sports sites, and various blogs, I could spend too much time perusing information that, while interesting, informative, and/or smile-inducing, isn't critical to my existence.
• I chose July (and I chose it during the last week of June) because I felt that August wouldn't be a good month for 2 reasons: 1) I was gone without internet access while at scout camp for a full week, and 2) Football started and I wanted to read camp updates (which Cyndie picked up on before I even explained it to her, so point made).
• It's summer, there's a lot of other stuff to do when I am not a work.
  
• My wife is pretty anti-social media. She plans to be the last person on earth without a Facebook account. I have a few friends that want to do the same. They've talked of forming a group, just as long as they don't have to do too much to sustain it (quarterly dinner for example, but I'm not sure they'd get it coordinated). I wanted to see the world from their viewpoint.
  

Rules:

• No social media for the month of July
• My initial plan was to check personal email weekly (work email isn't social media, yo), but I figured out that people were trying to get a hold of me and I needed to respond, so I checked my personal email daily (but usually only once at lunch and once at night) and responded to texts (which were mostly for my church responsibilities).
  
• News sites were OK, but only to further investigate news I had become aware of.
  
• I'm the boss, so I can mutate rules if needed
  

Learning points:

• While I am goal oriented, I am better at denial goals (I swore off pop in 2009 and now rarely drink it) than proactive goals (I have a hard time getting in serious exercise every day).
  
• Social media is all around us. There's really no escaping it. We all engage in it to some degree every day.
  
• I can live without it, but I may feel disconnected. I missed some updates... and some events (was there a Swim Herschel Swim reunion?) Please forgive me.
  
• I read more, spent time with the family, did lots of yard work, and watched some old TV on Netflix with Cyndie, but not a ton (see proactive goal difficulty above).

All in all, it was a worthwhile experiment and experience. I do less "browsing" now. But here's the thing: I have friends (both the real kind like Joel, Ryan, and Rick and the Facebook kind like Cougar Tracks and Cougar Corner) who compile great information that I want, but save me the time of searching it out myself.

I will likely realize insights, or come up with learning points and post them later. In the mean time, see you in the ether.

T-Shirts and Stickers and Buttons and Such...

Cyndie was looking for some diabetes awareness material the other such merchandise and came across www.cafepress.com, a site with all kinds of schwag for diabetes, autism and other conditions.

Some choice excerpts from the site:

• WARNING! Tendency to be brutally honest. Strong Opinions and Passion may Offend.
  
• Keep Staring! It may cure my autism. Then we can work on YOUR social skills.
  
• Eye Contact Is Overrated.
• Cure Neurotypicals Now!
  
• Fingertips of Steel.
• Type 1: The Real Diabetes
• Unless Your Pancreas Doesn't Work, Stop Whining!
• Yes, I am diabetic. Yes, I have tested. Yes, I know this is candy. Yes, I can eat it. Yes, I even took a shot. BACK OFF!

I read an article a year or so ago stating that women's groups were choosing more crass names as monikers for their Susan G. Komen and other Breast Cancer Awareness/Cure fundraising teams. As a general rule, I see more and more advocacy groups doing the same.

The rationale, as I understand it, is that the crassness creates a "tougher than the disease" mentality. Not sure if the tougher than you persona actually does anything, but it does make for some funny shirts. And some laughs when you might otherwise cry.

Hunk-cules and Turning over new leaves

We went to the Desert Star Playhouse today. It's a place we take the kids a couple-three times each year to get them exposed to some culture (and comedy) in a place they can't do too much damage. Although we did send a glass of Sprite and ice sailing over a bannister today...

Anywho, today's feature was "Hunk-cules (I'm Too Sexy For My Toga)".

At one point the princess, betrothed to a man that was not her true love, ran into the audience to find the Amazon Queen (apparently she could not be found on amazon.com). She came right up to our table and Dane was able to help her find the fugitive!

After the ordeal, Dane looked at his mom and said, "I finally spoke to a princess. A real princess!" And then he whispered, "Everything is so clear now!"

As we were reminiscing about the hilarity of it all tonight, Dane dropped this gem: "I'm turning over a new leaf, getting a clean slate, living my life on the lam." And we thought he was looking forward to starting school on Monday! Oye!

Zero Hour! Conjoined Ghost Puppies

... and you're Zero, conjoined with another ghost puppy (at this point Tate and Dane touch their heads together, followed by a puppy "yip" from Dane). But don't worry, you're dead, so you're easily separated!

Zero Hour!

I've been on a social media fast. I decided the last week of June that July would be a cold-turkey, go-off-it-all month. I'll post more on that later.

Interestingly enough, Tate took a bit of a hiatus in his Zero game that you didn't miss much while I abstained from blogging. He's conveniently re-started the game, with an intensified complexity!


...and you're Zero in 1937 in the third pilot seat with Fred Noonan and Amelia Erhart, not paying attention to the coming storm.

...and I'm holding the just-been-born puppy Zero and all of the adult ghost dogs are amazed because he's the first baby ghost puppy ever.

...Zero, the ghost puppy, presents "Ghost Puppy Tunes 2"! Including Zero, singing "Smoke On The Water".