Reading and Running

I just read my last post eleven days ago promising two stories in my next post.  Well, I regrettably and laughingly must say I have no idea what stories I was supposed to recite to you all.  The whole bit about saying I'm going to write two stories was somehow going to help me remember to actually do the writing part of it was a failure to say the least.  My apologies.  This last week has been insanity.  I had papers, finals, standardized CBEST testing, graduation ceremonies and family gatherings, and an apartment to move out of all in a 7 day span.  So without further ado, I will recommence my blogging on this summer day.

I am currently signed up for two half marathons, mid August and mid October for the American's Finest City Half and the Long Beach Half, respectively.  So training is in full swing in order for me to get myself in shape by mid August.  To aid me in my endeavor I have started tracking my mileage on mapmyrun.com.  Technically, its a social networking tool for runners where you create a free account and can see what other runners are doing, or what other runners are running.  I like to use it because it allows me to keep track of my mileage without knowing specific routes.  I go for my run and keep track of time with a stop watch.  When I get home I map out my route on the site and punch in my time and wala.  It tells me my per mile rate and allows me to keep a calendar of my training.  Its also very useful for determining how far you want to run before you leave.  You could map out 6 miles exactly if you wanted to or you can look for runs in your area that other people are doing.  Its pretty cool.

Training is quite difficult I am finding.  Running and building up more and more endurance will come without a doubt, but its difficult to find time everyday to train.  Even just to run 5 miles takes quite a bit of time.  At least an hour if you include stretching and cool down.  Even more than that, I like to do 15 minutes of push ups and stuff before I go and shower off.  And then I usually will want to go play tennis or basketball later in the day.  And its only going to get longer too.  By the time I'm running upwards of 10 miles, I'll be at it for closer to an hour and half or two hours.

Moving on... I am starting to read this book called Why We Hate Us, "American Discontent in the New Millennium."  I am not too far in but I have had very mixed feelings thus far.  I sometimes feel like what the author is saying is obvious, or that he is simply just really negative and not worth reading (although I know resolutions come at the ends of books).  But there are times where some intriguing things are said.  I think I will use this book as a springboard for the next several posts. 

Side note: I am trying to finish Coetzee's "Waiting for the Barbarians" and will eventually start "For Whom the Bell Tolls" after that and will read concurrently with the Meyer's book that I mentioned above.  

Meyer's book starts off with a list of things that he believes everybody hates, or at least that one of his old column (CBSNews) readers hated and he agrees with.  Ridiculous things that the average person would dislike, such as people that clip their fingernails in public restaurants and the cosmetic line labeled "S.L.U.T.".  He then moves onto a larger complaint.  America's hypocrisy with the media, how we hate it and yell at it and call celebrities and reality stars stupid but spend hours watching them.  He reports in a study that on average, Americans spend 8 hours a day in front of electronic devices.  So that is essentially 8 hour work day, 8 hour media/electronic splurge, and 8 hours of sleep.  There is the American 24 hour cycle.  I appreciate the author's numerous allusions to Holden Caulfield in appropriately describing America's enemy in a national self pride - phoniness.  Caulfield hated phonies.  America is full of them.  I appreciate Meyer's quoting of columnist Lars-Erik Nelson's statement that "Conservatism isn't the enemy.  Liberalism isn't the enemy.  Bullshit is the enemy."  I couldn't agree more.  The media has turned Americans against one another.  The media has created the reds and the blues, the liberals and the conservatives, the atheists and the religious.  It is a polar nation.  The media is painting a picture of a divided nation, yet nobody is winning.  We are all still unhappy.  Just 19% of Americans, in a CBSNews poll, agreed that America was heading in the right direction in 2007.  I don't feel like that could be any higher right now given the poorest economy in decades.  We go to school and learn about the 60's, a time of revolution in America, a time usually deemed "turbulent," yet the numbers of "satisfied Americans" are now more than half of what they once were in polls taken in the sixties.  Yet, instead of fixing the problem together, Americans are still playing the "us" versus "them" game with each other and their own special interests, not realizing that we are all the "us" of America that media and big money are feeding off of.  The battle is against phonies and appearances, not each other.

I look forward to reading more, and hopefully finding more solutions than complaints.

I am really tired right now, but I must persevere with this blogging.

Things I find odd:

-the spelling for "shamee" is actually chamois.  I don't really see it.

-the handshake or hug exchange that usually ends in a weird combination of both.  A hug with locked hands in between the two participants stomachs.

-even more odd is trying to play it cool afterwards.  I find that playing it very uncool and just calling out the awkwardness is the best way to eliminate the awkwardness; a belief most don't share with me.

More to come.  I will tell two stories in my next blog.  Writing this not only puts all of you on the edge of your seat until i post my next blog, but also reminds me to write it at all.

"Tell us about yourself"

I went to the career center today for a workshop called "Job Search Jump Start."  Despite the title of the workshop, I really am in last place I feel like in the job hunt race.  I feel like I learned some valuable tips about resumes and cover letters, while some other things were pretty common sense, i.e. eye contact during an interview.  We did a little exercise with the person next to us to answer a possible first question of an interview; the duzy- "tell us about yourself"

The question seems simple enough but when asked to tell a peer who you don't know "about yourself" for a minute straight with out awkward breaks of silence, the question was impossible.  Its a deceiving question I feel like.  The workshop leader said that that is a great question to really sell yourself if its the first thing they ask.  I don't know though.  If I was an employer, I feel like I would use the question to break the ice and relieve anxiety for a would be employee; a moment for them to describe themselves... anything they wanted.  Apparently, "Tell us about yourself" = "tell us why you think we should hire you" or "brag about yourself."  Why can't I answer that question with my gut.  I feel by using the question to sell yourself is missing the point of the question.  Is it really the goal to define yourself through your desire for that specific job?  Thats essentially what the workshop leader was telling us.  

If an interviewer asks me what I can bring to the company then I'll tell them and try and sell myself.  If an interviewer asks me to describe my qualifications, I will sell myself by telling that person such.  But if I am asked to describe myself, I am more inclined to say that I love reading and writing and the beach, athletics and sailing, camping, or that I'm a twin and that my parents are divorced, or that I'm Catholic, or that I'm passionate about people... you know things that actually form my identity.  

My next favorite interviewer question is "What do you consider your weakness?"  This one can be the ultimate lock up if you're not ready for it.  Your eyes will migrate towards the ceiling and you'll stare at that fluorescent light until the cows come home trying to think of an appropriate answer.  Some of my favorite bad answers: 

"I'm a workaholic" - Lets all be honest, this is the annoying answer that desperate people give in order to turn a "negative" question into a positive and make you sound like a self righteous kook at the same time.  This is the answer that basically says, "I have no weakness but to serve you till death master!"  Next please. 

"I like people too much" - not really possible in my mind.

I'll stop there.  Basically any answer that changes the point of the actual question - for you to analyze a real weakness of yours and show to your employer what you have done to strengthen yourself in that area.  The idea is to show your employer self improvement and an ability to identify one's own self.  Now this isn't easy because it is a weakness for a reason and therefore isn't something that'll probably sound good, but they asked for it after all.  I'm not really sure what I would say mine is at this point, or at least one that I would tell my possible future employer.  Do you think they would mind if I said I was complacent, which might be just one notch above lazy?  Maybe I'll just take the easy way out:

Mr. Munns, What do you consider your weakness?

"I find that my weakness is being able to identify a weakness... it really is difficult, I can't think of anything..."

I'm sure I'll get hired on the spot with that quip.

blogging hodgepodge

Wow, I have really been letting my readers down lately.  Blogging really does take dedication.  I have been spending less time blogging, and more time making lists of things to blog later.  I have thought about getting a twitter account in light of Mr. Mitchell's new activity, but I am very hesitant.  Part of me agrees with him; it is in a sense a quickie blog, a convenient substitute when time is at a premium.  I guess for me, a twitter wouldn't be about what I'm doing, but more about what I am pondering or thinking.  I don't want people to know what I'm doing all the time.  

I think its weird when people start broadcasting their every moment to the world and I feel like most often people use it to try and garner some sort of sympathy from their friends.  The "I have the longest day ever," "when is summer going to finally be here," or "I hate finals" seem to be featured statements right now (on facebook status reports anyway).  I don't care about staying up to date with friends (or even non-friends) recent gripes and complaints.  

Maybe I feel like a blog post reaches a deeper level in a way, and I'm not sure if I want to sacrifice that for convenience and speed.  I also considered joining twitter out of necessity.  Not because I HAVE to stay connected with people but because I do feel like twitter is going to go places and I guess I feel like I don't want to get left behind in a way.  It could evolve into something better that I could be more behind.  Like a music twitter of sorts.  Where a twitter like application taps into your iTunes media player and displays to your friends what song you are currently listening to when you are logged in.  I feel like this would be a cool thing.  I am always wondering what people are listening to when I see ear budded students walking to and from class.  It would be the closest thing to everybody trading in their earbuds for juke boxes and connecting out loud through music.  Part of me also thinks that twitter could evolve drastically financially and I don't want to let a golden opportunity slip through my fingers.  

This stems from a recent surge of interest in stocks and the money market.  I guess with graduation around the corner, I've snapped into money mode.  I don't mean that I am out to get as much money as I can, I'm going to be a teach for pete's sake.  I just mean that I want to take control of my finances and I'm going to really need to be smart and knowledgeable of money markets and investing, especially if I'm going to be a teacher who doesn't want to retire at 70, but wants to travel and explore the world on his summers off.  So, essentially, I've been trying to keep a watchful eye on companies that I think could go huge.  Twitter isn't a publicly traded company but I want to see what they do in the next couple of years.  For now though, I don't see myself using twitter or staying up with it or using it to follow my friends... at least until otherwise convinced.

As for a final topic of discussion, I guess I will update you all with the current game plan after graduation.  Briefly: graduate, summer at camp with middle schoolers, take the CBEST August 8th, attempt to get a substitute teaching job or at least a volunteer job in the very least to get my feet wet.  Side job for extra income (anything really, hopefully some freelance writing) Do that for a year and move to bay area and get credentialed at SFSU.  Research master's programs, but a definite goal before or right after I started a teaching job.

Okay, that was an exhaustive comeback party to my blogging world.  I will most likely come back to some of these issues and have more organized thoughts in my next entry... which will be SOON!

23 Flavors

As I enjoyed a refreshing Dr. Pepper yesterday, I really started to wonder... What are the 23 flavors that Dr. Pepper flouts?  Is this a good thing to have 23 unidentifiable flavors that simply make up the flavor under the ambiguous "Dr. Pepper?"  

Cous cous?

praprika?

nutmeg?

old spice ocean breeze?

How can there be 23 flavors!?

Easy buttonation

I was listening to the radio the other day and I heard a commercial that said, “does your child suffer from lack of concentration, short attention span, or is unable to sit still?”  It was a commercial advertising for a clinical trial of some sort for ADHD, or what I like to call just being a childitus.  Other tragic symptoms not mentioned are: excessive energy, nose picking, and giggling. 

 Now I’m not saying that ADD/ADHD (whatever the differences is besides the “H”) doesn’t necessarily exist (although I admit I might just be saying this because I work for a branch of UCLA that provides services for students with ADD/ADHD and I need to cover my bases) but I think there is a severe over-diagnosis of the condition or syndrome or whatever you want to call it.  Not only is it being over diagnosed but doctors too readily "fix" the problem with prescription drugs like Adderall.  The drug apparently helps such inflicted students to focus yet at what cost?  I have friends who have and haven't been diagnosed with ADHD, some who are getting the pill from friends and some from doctors in order to get through their college classes.  Sure, I've heard it helps with focusing, yet some of these friends admit to having a serious dependency on it.  They can't function like they USED TO off of it without being ON it.  Some of my friends have gone through withdrawal symptoms like dizziness and shaking.  Another friend, who I actually believe has ADHD, takes medication for it but it renders him a zombie.  He has borderline depression.  Is this really the best solution doctors can come up with?  I think trouble focusing and hyper activity is best relinquished with exercise.  Could there be a correlation between ADHD diagnoses and hours of video or television played per week in a child?  Possibly... I think this is worth looking into.  Let us also not forgot how much money media/television and pharmaceutical companies make per year and how this plays a role in the big picture.  I'm not suggesting conspiracies, I'm only putting forth my own observations on the subject.  I honestly feel like a healthy dose of blood flow in today's youth would do the ADHD epidemic a lot of good.  I'm a little tired of society's trigger happy fingers that press away at the EASY button.  Driving north on the 405 you know your are approaching LA by the number of lap band billboards you see per 5 miles.  By the time you reach LA, you see one seriously every two minutes.  One like the following:

I don't think I really have to say much more on the subject.  EASY button bad.  Exercise and hard work good.

On another and possibly self aggrandizing note I just registered for the Long Beach Half Marathon in October.  Any takers?  I wanted to go for the marathon but I thought I better get a halfy under my belt so I don't die at mile 18.

"writing" Update

I began reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for class and thought that her introduction correlated with my previous thoughts about writing.  I am normally one not to read author's introduction because they tend to be pretty dry, but we have been focusing on them a lot in this class because they are an important part of the formation of the novel as a genre.  For example, Robinson Crusoe's first edition author's note is not at all by Daniel Defoe but by Robinson Crusoe himself.  He used the character as the author in order to gain higher readership by passing off his fiction as a first-hand non-fiction account.  In Mary Shelley's introduction, she writes the following:

"As a child I scribbled; and my favourite pastime during the hours given me for recreation was to 'write stories'.  Still, I had a dearer pleasure than this, which was the formation of castles in the air - the indulging in waking dreams - the following up trains of thought, which had for their subject the formation of a succession of imaginary incidents.  My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings.  I the latter I was a lose imitator - rather doing as others had done than putting down the suggestions of my own mind.  What I wrote was intended at least for one other eye - my childhood's companion and friend; but my dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free..."

mmm... mustache

This blog is hereby dedicated to my mustache - plucked in the prime of his life.  

Some great men have had mustaches:

Mario

Tom Selek

A John Munns used to sport a mean stache back in his day as well

I only wish I could be one of the proud men above but extraneous circumstances have left me stachless.

This is where I was planning on creating a list of the reason's why men should cultivate and care for a lip warmer... but I must now bypass that endeavor and send you loyal readers to the crown jewel... the mecca of the mustache community:  the AMI

YES! You guessed it, the American Mustache Institute, you MUST go to this website!

Book Covers

I was wandering through the UCLA bookstore the other day and came across a book I've been really wanting to read, but I found myself slightly turned.  This wasn't because I had a sudden twinge of repulsion to physical presence of the book or the price, but I didn't like the cover of the book.  

Now I know how the saying goes... "Don't judge a book by its cover..." but how can you not sometimes.  Aren't we all taught the importance of a good first impression?  Is that not what a book is giving us when we look at the cover and read the description on the back.  I'm going to have to clarify; I'm not saying a book has to have an amazing, artfully done cover in order for me to read it.  I actually really like the feel of an old hardcover with no cover - just the gilded lettering of the title and author along the spine.  This is a different kind of beast.  These older books weren't trying to sell anything other than the fiction or non-fiction that is inside.  But its different now.  Pretty much any recent publication of a book will have a thought out cover intended to grab the potential buyers attention.  As a reader and consumer I admit that I fall into this pit.  However, I really enjoy looking to see how an artist has interpreted the contents of the book.  It is extremely difficult to some up an entire book with one image.

The book I saw in the store was Blindness by Jose Saramago.  The cover turned me off.   It wasn't an original piece of artwork, but a movie flyer version of the book that had been re-printed after the release of the movie.  The cover features a giant gold sticker now proclaiming "Now a major motion picture" (implying the notion of well if they made it into a movie... it must be a good book) and the faces of famous people - Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore.  My biggest qualm with this is not the fact that the cover art has sold out in a sense (in order to gain the publisher more money through its new stars) but the fact that the reader's experience is slightly compromised.  Some may be able to overcome this obstacle but I have a difficult time doing so.  When I read this book now, I am not going to think of the main characters as my own creative projections of what Saramago is showing me, but as the character as played by Julianne Moore, or as played by Mark Ruffalo.  They no longer become independent characters for the reader to tease out, but like the movie, the reader has a sense that the character is being played in an odd complex way.  Its not the Doctor's Wife anymore.  In my mind it is Julianne Moore as the doctor's wife.  

The original cover of Blindness is below.  If you look at it and analyze it, it is very fitting for the novel.  It depicts the repetition of the word blindness, but with its repetition and pattern it represents the power of words to overcome the effect of the actual blindness, thus in the thick of the "unseeing" you can see through the density of words, one clear word - "blindness" - the title of the book.  Its interesting and deep and symbolic.  I think its what cover art should be.  It is a concept depicting the idea of the book.  It should be art, not just a poster of celebrities.

This blog is making me think about my conversations with CR about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - the comparison of the story by Fitzgerald and the big screen adaptation... more to come soon...

Summer goals

Summer goals:

take piano lessons

write a song (a little ambitious I know)

make another painting (a portrait of someone.  I'm usually afraid to tackle portraits because I'm not the best with proportions and I tend to be overly critical of my art.  I refuse to do another seascape though)

read~ East of Eden, Anna Karenena, Why We Hate Us, For Whom The Bell Tolls (the first two are extremely long but you gotta aim high right?  I'm going to try and get in the habit of reading a little bit after work and a little bit before bed each day.)  And there really are a lot of other books I want to read but I'm trying to prioritize a little

go to a drive in movie theater again

run/swim at least 5 days a week (I kind of want to run a marathon, and I might as well start)

watch more classic movies.  I really need to watch The Hustle just out of the top of my head

write more

hang out with my friends who I've spent the last two years missing... a lot.

CAMPING (I would love to go on a trip with my dad.  We haven't camped together since my brother and I were 11 years old.  I think it would be great for our relationship to rough it together again.)

cook more often (yes, with like... what's it called?.... oh yes, a recipe)

play pick up basketball and ultimate

become a wine afficionado

take lots of pictures, with my soon to be new camera

go to lots of Padres games

surf

perhaps an ambitious one... not role my ankle this summer.

go to Outside Lands Music Festival

find a real job if I haven't found one yet

spend as much time with the brother as possible

clean up my language (Ryan doesn't read this blog so I can blame him without him getting mad)

hang out with KB....

To be continued...