More Things Changed, Some Things Stayed The Same
We have come to the part of the year, other than birthdays, reunions, or anniversaries, where people look back on life and either reminisce, have regrets, or set new goals.
2013 was a challenging year for me. Honestly, I do not regret anything in life, however, I would say that in 2013, I had setbacks. These setbacks will take some effort to mitigate, but they are resolvable. I have also had triumphs, of course; but unfortunately the setbacks are weighing on me at the moment. Similar to most people, I have many challenges, but my biggest one is food. Because of food being my biggest vice, I challenge myself every year to give up one of my favorite foods. So far I have given up soda, ice cream, and deep fried foods.
2014 will be the year of no red meat. This will be hard, though, not as hard as ice cream, but hard nonetheless. I look forward to making healthy substitutions for red meat. My goal for these annual personal challenges is to break a habit and weave in a healthy habit into my eating lifestyle. My hope is that it will make it easier for my sons to emulate my eating habits- not to mention to enriching and lengthening my life.
There are many tools that can be used to track eating, exercise, and enrich quality of life. Below are a list of tools that I use.
MotoActv: This is my number one tool because it is so comprehensive with regards to tracking exercise, setting goals, creating workout plans, and challenging others in competitions.
Fitbit Flex: I am using this as a supplemental tool to my MotoActv. The great thing about the Fitbit Flex is that it includes a lot of the stuff I used to use myfitnesspal for. I can track my food, water, exercise, and have it sync with other tools that I use seamlessly.
Healthvault: Healthvault is an app that came pre-installed on my Surface Pro and I have to say that I love it. I have it synced with my Fitbit and soon I will have my other health info synced.
As I discover more tools throughout 2014 I will definitely update; but until then, Happy New Year and Godspeed!
-Ellison-
A.K.A Edmund Starbanks
December 31, 2013
December 2, 2013
The Human Community: We're All Teachers
I'm a teacher, you're a teacher, we're some teachers, wouldn't you like to be a teacher too! We've all heard the adage; "It takes a village to raise a child."; however, it also takes a lot of trust. The blessing and curse of the internet and technology is that information is readily available. I can easily find out how many sex offenders live within my or any neighborhood; complete with pictures of the offender along with the nature of their crimes. The downside to this, depending on your personality is that you lose a lot of faith in human beings and it can lead you to overprotecting your child and forcing them to live in a bubble. Though this information is valuable, it is also important to use common sense and instinct. We have become a society that has used technology as a crutch and escape from our surroundings rather than one that uses it as a tool to enhance our lives.
I am a self professed tech junkie. I read various technology websites and blogs so I am both aware and amazed of how far we have come technologically in a very short time span. Unlike my generation (I am 37) and ones before it, the current generation is not afforded a time buffer before a new technology or the enhancement of a current one is unleashed on the world. The beta phase (time in which a product is released to a select group of people to either test its viability or work out the kinks before public release) of tech products has been nullified. Either the beta window is too short or too long, relegating it to uselessness. Today, the internet has been ingratiated into our lives. Everything is connected, from TVs and cars, to refrigerators and even shoes. The ubiquity of the internet has changed social rules, social norms and sense of self. Texting, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and similar sites and technologies enable kids to invoke a false sense of independence and anonymity.
Because of these rapid changes, it is imperative that we establish a teaching community outside of the standard classroom. This may sound like common sense to my parents and their generation, but unfortunately, it is lost on a lot of people today. It seems that a lot of parents have adopted a Laissez a faire approach; minimal parental intervention and "letting the chips fall where they may" mentality. In my view, this is dangerous, because I believe it is important to mitigate overly aggressive behavior as early as possible. I have a 5 yr old son, and like most children his age, he and his friends like to play wrestle and shadow box. I don't have a problem with that; however, I tell him that he is not allowed to hit anyone in the face or private area. Again, I believe it is important that I instill boundaries and circumvent behaviors that could potentially escalate; either now in the future. No child is 100% on good behavior 100% of the time, so obviously my son will exhibit behavior that he has been told not to; -he is a five yr old after all- however, he knows that there will be ramifications. My wife and I are firm believers in ensuring positive reinforcements outweigh negative reinforcements. We do not believe in corporal punishment and thankfully, time out and reduction in privileges work for us. In my view, setting this foundation of parental guidance will lead my son to making decisions that are more beneficial to him and his counterparts rather than ones that can impact him negatively or detrimentally. He knows that we do not tolerate bullying, making fun of people, or callously pointing out differences in people-obvious or otherwise.
The reason I started this post with the "I'm a teacher" limerick is because I believe as a community, we are responsible for all of our children. Teachers are integral in the development of our children and despite their knowledge of their subject matter, most teachers are open to learning new things. They are open to new ways of engaging and enlightening our children. As parents, we must do the same thing. We do this by our actions and by helping each other out by correcting inappropriate behavior attitudes. If we notice negative behavior, we should be able to mindfully correct it immediately or reach out to the parent or parent collective to correct and limit the behavior. There are too many examples of bullying going too far; whether it's via social media or in person. We have become complacent and many parents have adopted an arms length approach. Their faces are buried in their mobile devices and they're oblivious to their children. The whole attitude is that the children should sort out all conflicts among themselves. Meanwhile, the children are developing behaviors that will be detrimental in the future because they have no outlet other than their peers. This leads some children to a mindset of no reprisal and the ubiquity of social media and its supposed anonymity lends itself to cyber bullying. Why tear you down face to face when I can do it safely from my mobile phone? Parental complacency is dangerous and unacceptable.
The new bubble is the cloud we have created with our mobile devices and other tech vices to separate ourselves from the world around us. This causes us to miss what is right in front of us. This complacency has contributed to the rise in social apathy and cyber bullying; because we as parents have refused to keep abreast of the changing times and rapid pace of technological advancements. As adults, it is our responsibility to be mindful of social trends, and change in technology so we can use this info to root out unacceptable actions and behaviors that have become much more explicit due to the ease of access and anonymity in the virtual world.
Here is some perspective; Apple's iPhone debuted in 2007. Since it's debut, it has gone through 9 iterations in 6 years, Google debuted Android in 2008 only to have it take up virtually 84% of the global cell phone market, Blackberry has fallen from dominance, Facebook and Twitter have risen from virtual nascent social networks to publicly traded companies, no one knows what the heck a Pocket PC is, Palm doesn't exist anymore, HDTV and Blu-Ray is commonplace, 3D HDTV has come and gone, and now everyone is talking about Ultra HD or 4K resolution, and flexible/bendable mobile phones. We are the point now where 1 yr is an eternity in tech advances. It may seem overwhelming to stay up to date, but if you use technology and the internet to your advantage, kids won't be too many steps ahead of us; and we can limit a lot of the abusive behaviors that we've all turned a blind eye to.
-Ellison
A.K.A. Edmund Starbanks
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