Good Eeeeeve-uh-ning. Toniiiiiight is dee niiiiight, ven dee MOOOOOOON is fullll, and all dee creeeeatures of dee night come out, hahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Yes, I'm watching the Halloween parade on TV -- after all, it's Sunday night, and the rest of us who are not ghosts and goblins (or just don't have kids) have to get to bed early tonight for work tomorrow.
Next week is the NYC marathon. I've barely trained for it at all -- of course, things like getting married do sometimes take precedence over a training schedule, so I'm sure the running gods will absolve if I'm somewhat less prepared this year. I still was able to do a 20-miler a few weeks ago just by taking it at a sub-commute pace (those of us who ran with Team For Kids and Race With Purpose know what I mean). I'll just have to take it super-super easy this year.
From now on, the odd-numbered years, like next year, will be my "qualifying year." That means, instead of running the NYC, I'll do my 9 qualifying NYRR races (and one volunteering race), spread throughout the year, leaving me free to go on vacation during the summer. During the even-numbered years, I'm training for real. I might not have the time to train with RWP or any other group, but I'll have a program that I'll stick to like mad, a diet that I won't deviate from (except for a post-long run reward). I'm married, and that means I have more responsibilities, but dammit, I'm a runner, and that'll never change! When I don't run at least every other day, my legs get stiff and tight, and my chill/flow/qi/mojo disappears! I need my fix, baby, I'm addicted for life!
And to all my teammates from TFK 2005 & 2006, and RWP 2007 & 2008, good luck to everybody this year who's running NYC! Can't wait to see y'all at Fort Wadsworth, hitting the bridge, cruising through Brooklyn, booking it up First Avenue, and racing through the Park to Tavern On The Green (or whatever it's now called).
Good niiiiight, my children, hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
No More Bullying!
Since the tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi, the issue of bullying has again reared its ugly head. 11 years after Columbine, the bullies that keep our educational institutions in a constant state of chaos have not only gotten more brazen, but they've used the Internet to take their campaign of abuse and mayhem world-class and world-wide.
So who is to blame, anyway? The victims of bullying? There are some psychologists who tell us that victims of bullying need to just shake it off, not let it bother them, and just accept it as a fact of life -- in other words, "just ignore them," like moms used to tell us geeks back in the day. That's good advice, but it doesn't teach bullying that their actions are wrong. If anything, it sometimes makes bullies try even harder to mess around with us. So the victims are not to blame for what's happened.
The schools? Probably, but watch them actually admit that they allow it to happen? Case law in New York states that schools are not "insurers of their students' safety," because they can't monitor every single thing that happens. And if it does happen in front of a teacher or security guard, they look the other way. But does life get better if they actually do get involved, have a few assemblies, and start anti-bullying clubs? Hell no -- those kids get worse and tell the school to kiss off!
You know whose fault this really is? The bullies' parents. This is why these kids think they don't have to treat others with respect. This is why they don't acknowledge that a school has authority over them. This is why they think it's completely normal and natural to cause pain and humiliation of those who are weaker or less intelligent than they are. This is why they have no morals or ethics to speak of, and this is how they get away with it their whole lives. Their parents did not even bother to teach them how to behave.
So message to all those parents out there -- check out what kind of reputation your kids have. Do they take pride in smacking others around? Do they get a kick out of excluding others from their little circle of friends? SIT them down, GET their attention, and explain that this is NOT the way to BEHAVE! The rest of the world at large will thank you for setting a better example!
So who is to blame, anyway? The victims of bullying? There are some psychologists who tell us that victims of bullying need to just shake it off, not let it bother them, and just accept it as a fact of life -- in other words, "just ignore them," like moms used to tell us geeks back in the day. That's good advice, but it doesn't teach bullying that their actions are wrong. If anything, it sometimes makes bullies try even harder to mess around with us. So the victims are not to blame for what's happened.
The schools? Probably, but watch them actually admit that they allow it to happen? Case law in New York states that schools are not "insurers of their students' safety," because they can't monitor every single thing that happens. And if it does happen in front of a teacher or security guard, they look the other way. But does life get better if they actually do get involved, have a few assemblies, and start anti-bullying clubs? Hell no -- those kids get worse and tell the school to kiss off!
You know whose fault this really is? The bullies' parents. This is why these kids think they don't have to treat others with respect. This is why they don't acknowledge that a school has authority over them. This is why they think it's completely normal and natural to cause pain and humiliation of those who are weaker or less intelligent than they are. This is why they have no morals or ethics to speak of, and this is how they get away with it their whole lives. Their parents did not even bother to teach them how to behave.
So message to all those parents out there -- check out what kind of reputation your kids have. Do they take pride in smacking others around? Do they get a kick out of excluding others from their little circle of friends? SIT them down, GET their attention, and explain that this is NOT the way to BEHAVE! The rest of the world at large will thank you for setting a better example!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Now That's Happy, Baby!
This was a pretty good few weeks for me. I attended by 20th anniversary high school reunion, and I turned 30 years old!
Originally, I had decided that I would only attend my 10th reunion and never look back. However, I saw on facebook that it was getting put together, and I figured, what the heck. It stunk that my lady was out of town that weekend because she was teaching some Broadway seminars in Boston, but I'd proudly tell everyone about her. Ironically, her absence was a small blessing in disguise, because she would have had the awkward situation of meeting up with one of my classmates she dated 10 years ago! LOL
But why was I really looking to go there? I wasn't captain of the football team back then, and I sure wasn't a stud or a player. Why go see people 20 years later? Maybe just an opportunity for friendship and respect.
You see, I've done very well since those old days. It made me feel proud to go there and tell people that I'd become an attorney, that I'd run the NYC Marathon several times, and that I had recently gotten married. Quite frankly, I've reached a point in my life where I deserve respect, and it felt good to receive it, especially from those who didn't always give me respect back then.
But enough about me, I'm not just an ego trip! I was also happy to see how well everyone else was doing. My 9th grade crush? She'd landed a great job, still had tons of friends, and had a son who had made her very proud! The class present, most-likely-to guy? He did what he was most-likely-to do! He founded his own company, made a name for himself in educational software, and had a family out west! On top of that, people I almost never spoke to back in the 80's were hangin' out with me the whole time, and it just felt right!
Although we are each responsible for our own feelings of self-worth and whether we have low or high self-esteem, sometimes it's good to have a little reinforcement. No man is an island, after all. Attending a reunion as proof-positive that you're a better person now than you were then is one sure-fire way to reinforce what you're all about!
Quite frankly, that makes me want to make more time for the friends that I still talk to on a regular basis. Since I've moved here to the city with my wife, it's been a bit harder to come out to my old hometown to see a few friends and relatives, but I'm going to make a lot more time for it. Now that I've discovered the magic of Zipcar, I don't really have to depend on mass transit all the time, and I really can just get some wheels to drive out east any time I feel like it! That goes for my friend's family, including my godson and the Queen, my dawwwwwling Sista, and my grandmother, the Nanster! LOL, yes there are nicknames for most of them, my terms of affection, and one day I'm gonna have more of them come over here to see our place!
Oh well -- next week my wife will have the same opportunity. We're going to upstate NY to her old college town for a reunion up there, and we're gonna have a fine time!
Originally, I had decided that I would only attend my 10th reunion and never look back. However, I saw on facebook that it was getting put together, and I figured, what the heck. It stunk that my lady was out of town that weekend because she was teaching some Broadway seminars in Boston, but I'd proudly tell everyone about her. Ironically, her absence was a small blessing in disguise, because she would have had the awkward situation of meeting up with one of my classmates she dated 10 years ago! LOL
But why was I really looking to go there? I wasn't captain of the football team back then, and I sure wasn't a stud or a player. Why go see people 20 years later? Maybe just an opportunity for friendship and respect.
You see, I've done very well since those old days. It made me feel proud to go there and tell people that I'd become an attorney, that I'd run the NYC Marathon several times, and that I had recently gotten married. Quite frankly, I've reached a point in my life where I deserve respect, and it felt good to receive it, especially from those who didn't always give me respect back then.
But enough about me, I'm not just an ego trip! I was also happy to see how well everyone else was doing. My 9th grade crush? She'd landed a great job, still had tons of friends, and had a son who had made her very proud! The class present, most-likely-to guy? He did what he was most-likely-to do! He founded his own company, made a name for himself in educational software, and had a family out west! On top of that, people I almost never spoke to back in the 80's were hangin' out with me the whole time, and it just felt right!
Although we are each responsible for our own feelings of self-worth and whether we have low or high self-esteem, sometimes it's good to have a little reinforcement. No man is an island, after all. Attending a reunion as proof-positive that you're a better person now than you were then is one sure-fire way to reinforce what you're all about!
Quite frankly, that makes me want to make more time for the friends that I still talk to on a regular basis. Since I've moved here to the city with my wife, it's been a bit harder to come out to my old hometown to see a few friends and relatives, but I'm going to make a lot more time for it. Now that I've discovered the magic of Zipcar, I don't really have to depend on mass transit all the time, and I really can just get some wheels to drive out east any time I feel like it! That goes for my friend's family, including my godson and the Queen, my dawwwwwling Sista, and my grandmother, the Nanster! LOL, yes there are nicknames for most of them, my terms of affection, and one day I'm gonna have more of them come over here to see our place!
Oh well -- next week my wife will have the same opportunity. We're going to upstate NY to her old college town for a reunion up there, and we're gonna have a fine time!
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