Check on my “Slides, Articles, etc.” page for slides of my talk, “Counseling Strategies for Individuals Struggling with Addictions.” The slides are in PPT format and are the last entry (#10) on the page.
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Why I don’t like group projects
Group projects are common in grad studies–and they should be. Learning and work needs to happen in community, not silos. But, there are good groups and then there are groups from hell.
Last night I was working on a paper at a cafe. Next to me was a group of loud adult women who I think were working on an MBA project. The tangents, the fighting over who would do what, the level of foolish banter reminded me why I always feared being in a group that couldn’t get out of its own way.
Best part last night? The 15 minute rabbit trail after someone spouted, “You are straining the gnats and swallowing the camel.” Apparently some had never heard this saying and so they debated its meaning, the right words for the saying and then who, in the group, was straining and who was swallowing.
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Wildlife in suburbia
On Halloween I took the family to the suburban cemetery woods to look for deer. Spotted 7 or so, including a 4 pt. buck. The youngest was afraid of being head-butted by a deer. I told him none would get that close to us.
Well, I was wrong about how close. After going down one trail, we decided to turn around. 30 seconds after turning around I spot a deer trailing us. We froze and the deer kept coming, eating yellow leaves as she picked her way closer. She clearly saw us but was intrigued. My 10 year old held up a yellow leaf to see if she’d come all the way. She got within 8 feet and then sauntered off in another direction. Later when we were returning to the car, we ran into her again (her face had a pretty unique marking near the mouth). Again, she wasn’t particularly concerned about our presence. Maybe others nearby feed her?
On Sunday, I returned to the trails to take my eldest and his friend. They got to see several deer but also as we were driving away, we saw a statuesque red fox observing us and the deer nearby.
For the suburbs, the kids see way more wildlife here than I did growing up in Vermont. There are some benefits to suburban sprawl (at least to us humans interested in seeing the wildlife). In the last week they have seen wild rabbits, ground hogs, fox, deer, and an opossum.
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Deer hunting
Yesterday I had the good pleasure of walking in the woods with my camera. Didn’t get great pictures but enjoyed a game of tag with several does. Was hoping to see the buck who had been scraping off his velvet. Maybe next time.
This little wood is an undeveloped part of a local cemetery in the middle of suburbia. Not much of anything, really. Yet, it gives me a wonderful experience: a great sense of quietness, light from the bright-colored leaves, the focus for walking silently and observing every little noise or movement, and connection to my younger days of going off in the woods to play or hunt for real. It was great medicine for a Sunday pm irritability that I hadn’t been able to shake.
Does walking in the woods do something for you?
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The color of poverty
Interested in a evening of good art and consciousness raising about the poor of the world? On the 9th of November (7 pm) Linda Ruth Paskell will be at New Life Presbyterian Church (Glenside, PA)displaying some of her photographs from recent trips to Africa and Latin America and telling stories about what she learned. Check out www.newlifeglenside.com in a few weeks for more information.
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Answer the question!
Here’s a thought. How about a small electric shock each time the candidates answer a question other than the one posed to them? Or maybe the audience could hiss each time they go off topic….
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Magical places
While in Chicago last Saturday I skipped out on the morning conference session to drive Wheaton College. It was nice to see old stomping grounds (where I did my doctorate). But the highlight was taking a friend to the Wade Center which houses the papers of CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, George McDonald (and 3 other literary greats whose names I’m forgetting right now). Below is a phone pic of a most magical place, Lewis’ actual wardrobe. You can’t help but reach through the coats to see if the back wall is there or not. You can see a note on the door that warns that the Wade Center is not responsible for lost children who enter the wardrobe.
Enter Narnia at your own risk!
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Read the fine print!
I’ve been needing a new PDA or electronic scheduler as I need to be able to return client calls and schedule appts away from my laptop. A friend told me about the TMobile Dash that has a full keypad (for people with fingers the size of toothpicks). Since I have TMobile I thought the cost was reasonable: get a new phone, give mine to my wife since her’s is broken and barely holding together.
Price for this phone? $99.
But read the fine print. It’s $99. if (a) you upgrade your contract for another 2 years, (b) pay $18. for the privilege of another (unwanted) 2 year contract, (c) purchase the add-on access to email or internet (additional monthly cost!), and (d) then wait 6 weeks for a visa card to come that can only be used where pre-paid cards are allowed, OR use it to by more things from TMobile.
What a racket!
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Letterboxing and the ADD brain
A friend recently told me about the hobby of letterboxing where you read a story for clues to a hidden box containing a log, some interesting ink stamps that you then stamp in your book while stamping your own stam in their hidden cache. The modern version of this is called Geocaching (using GPS to find stuff). I thought it would be interesting to do a few in my area with my kids. So, I googled around and found there are a bunch (maybe even some created by a reader here? I thought I recognized an email address but I won’t out the person). But, as I read I realized that my poor ADD brain (and my son’s) may not be cut out for deciphering the clues. Some letterboxers provide clear clues but others tell fancy stories and cover up the clues as best as possible.
I didn’t get beyond my feeble attempt to demonstrate how to use a compass to navigate in the woods (by using the degrees portion of the compass).
I’m still interested in this but we may have to wait til the kids are a bit older.
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Vacation notes
I’ve been absent from the site for the past 10 days (my posts were previously written thanks to WordPress scheduling software). Its been cool and somewhat rainy here in New England. So that has meant a rather quiet vacation. Not bad for me but probably boring the kids.
We had a big scare a couple of days ago when Sam (my 10 year old) did a flip off of a swing and didn’t stick the landing as he usually does. Hit the back of his head very hard and knocked himself silly. He got up stagger and hit the deck on his face, I suspect he blacked out for about 2 seconds. He was scared, we were scared. But after a bit of Tylenol he was fine. Hopefully, he learned that gymnastics should be done where there are mats!
Last night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with the Papanicolaous here in MA. These are good friend who have 3 adopted children. We bonded with them many years ago over infertility/adoption.
Looking forward to being back in my own bed but have another family stop to make.
Thanks for the many comments on the posts. Sorry I haven’t had time to reply. Enjoy the last 2 weeks of summer!
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Musings on Faith and Psychology 