Why I LOVE October

October is obviously the best month of the year and now that it's almost over (seriously, how did that happen?), I figured I'd better put together my little list of reasons why I love it before it's over...

1. Baseball postseason - NLCS, ALCS, and the World Series

2. Start of the NBA season

3. NFL season in full swing...

• 3b. Fantasy football fun!

• 3c. Sundays no longer suck!

4. College Football season!

5. Fall colors and leaves and autumn gorgeousness

6. Cool enough to be comfortable outside [without serious risk of heatstroke (even in the deep south), but not so cold you risk frostbite]

7. Tailgating!

8. Apple cider and hot chocolate with marshmallows

9. Pumpkin everything - pumpkin patches and carving, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin ale, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie... yummm!

10. You get to finish it all up with Halloween - a holiday synonymous with candy, cute little kids that you only have to see before they get overly full of sugar, and dressing however the hell you want!

Thoughts on Brazen Careerist's Controversial Tweets

In case you haven't seen it on CNN, AOL, or any of about a thousand blogs, Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist fame recently tweeted about a miscarriage she was having at work and her relief that she would not be forced to drive to Chicago (from Wisconsin) to have an abortion (tweet featured above). Like or love it, hate it or feel disgusted by it, she's garnered a lot of attention because of it (and here's her blog entry about it, with the CNN interview). There are a number of complex issues involved here - personal thoughts on abortion, ideas about admitting something so private in the most public way, general beliefs about discussing something rather taboo... unfortunately, it seems that a lot of people (or at least those who feel the most compelled to comment the most frequently and the loudest) are focused on the abortion part, and their own personal feelings about it, as well as their own beliefs about a woman who would want an abortion.

I'm not saying that I agree with Penelope Trunk or her actions - either wanting an abortion or tweeting about her miscarriage at work - I don't think it matters, but I think that's a copout, so I'll admit that honestly, I feel pretty uncomfortable with it, but I feel compelled to defend her right to say it. Reading some of the comments posted on her web site - presumably comments written to Penelope herself! - I was absolutely horrified, outraged, and disgusted by people who would say such things. The irony that these people want to clean up the internet yet spew such hatred and awfulness seems to be lost on most of them.

I think David at The Rest Is Still Unwritten did a great job writing about this whole situation and the importance of discussing taboo and difficult topics, even revealing a lot about himself in the process. I think it's important not to lose sight of the fact that this forces us to think about a number of different issues and confront some interesting ideas that might not mesh with our own beliefs, and some issues that are only now relevant given the advances of technology that would allow someone to tweet at work, while having a miscarriage, and reach millions.

I posted this on Tumblr a few days ago when I first saw comments from these hateful people, but I felt that it was worth posting about the whole situation here because it continues to blow my mind...

Nature, Nurture, & Gestalt Psych in Football

The Pouncey Twins of UF

For some reason today I was thinking about the advantages of having a sort of "sixth sense" for your teammates in football and just being aware of one another and how that can make such a huge difference - between mediocre and pretty darn good and between good and great. Then for some reason I connected this to the advantages that siblings have in tennis when they play as doubles partners. Siblings that grew up together, have known each other their entire lives, that have practiced together more than apart... they just seem to "get" each other and have a sense of chemistry that's nearly impossible to develop without the nature and nurture ties. I'm thinking of the Williams sisters and the Bryan brothers in tennis.

But then I started to think about how this might translate to football and if there were any examples in football and I thought of Pouncey twins at Florida and then the Williams brothers for the Minnesota Vikings (both defensive tackles). There aren't that many other prominent examples right now, and unfortunately, it's not that easy to narrow down searches to brothers who have played football together (at least not without letting myself spend five hours looking). It's funny how that doesn't seem to be something anyone's really considered, yet so many broadcasters talk about guys who have a sixth sense for teammates and the position of the ball and yet we've ignored the obvious advantage of these blood connections and how valuable they can... and perhaps more importantly (or at least fascinatingly), what happens if we split these pairings? I think you'd lose a tremendous amount... at least for the brothers in football. You'd lose the symbiotic relationship, the whole as more than the sum of its parts-phenomena. Not that the Pouncey twins or the Williams brothers wouldn't be good without each other, but I don't think they'd come up with some of the plays they do without the other one. Just look at the Horton brothers at USC (Southern Cal, the other USC) - one switched positions AND transferred to play with the other!

It's interesting to think about what will happen with the Pouncey twins, as it's difficult to imagine that they could be drafted together, that one would last an entire round and you would have to make a trade pretty early to get two picks together to get them (otherwise you'd have one twin and everyone else would know you have the other and be able to squeeze you for a lot to get the other one... well, "a lot" being relative to what draft round the twins go in).

Just something interesting to think about, a new thought on nature and nurture combined with some Gestalt psychology for this autumn Saturday full of college football!

Google Account Issues

I apologize for the extreme lack of posting recently... I've had major technological issues. Mainly logging out of my real-person, school/work Gmail account and into this one in order to post. But I finally got in... I've written some entries that I haven't posted and at some point, I'll try to get those up here. But does anyone know what the deal with Gmail is recently? We've had the two major Gmail crashes and then I've had lingering issues... anyone know what's up? (Beyond the "official statements" and promises that everything is back to normal...)

I continue to post to Tumblr and some on Twitter though...