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| Homo Erectus v. Homo Slouchus |
| 12.08.04 (11:43 am) [edit] |
I've noticed recently that I have a very slouchy posture. My guess is that I spent years trying to hide my belly and man breasts by rolling my shoulders forward to change how my shirt drapes.
As I've lost weight over the past year, my self-image has improved and I don't really feel the need to hide what's still there - but my posture has become a habit. For the past few days I've started focusing on my posture to make myself walk erect again.
I know it's going to take time, but about a decade ago I corrected my habit of looking down when I walk, so I know it's just a matter of time before I can do this as well. Of course, I also need to make sure I don't become one of those guys that walks around with his chest thrust too far forward - that just looks uncomfortable.
Walking through the office today, I passed a group of 5 people walking with their heads down watching their feet. I started thinking that they look like extremely passive people that way. But, is that the case?
I did a quick google and found different statements about looking down having a direct impact on your overall posture and your breathing but precious little else about it. One site hypothesized that when one looks down like that, one is usually being introspective at the moment. But, what about people that walk that way normally? Are they just more introspective than others? Is it a self-esteem thing? Is it a matter of passivity? Am I just letting my mind have too much free time to contemplate the trivial?
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| I REALLY hope that's not me .... |
| 12.08.04 (11:00 am) [edit] |
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I was looking through the lists of hits to my blog just to see if anything interesting popped up. There was a hit that came when someone googled "Geoffrey Snyder charges" So, of course, I followed it back to see the results.
I'd googled my own name before in the past and know that I'm also a coroner, a garbage commissioner and a city council member among other things. I also remembered seeing something about someone with my name being arrested - but I forgot the details.
Anyway, google came back with 16 results. One was for my blog and one was for the arrested guy. He was arrested for soliciting sex online from a 14-year old girl.
Just in case someone googles him again, let me just say that I'm not a doctor, I wasn't 36 in summer 2003, I don't live in Ohio and I don't want to have sex with a 14-year old girl.
In case there's still some left over questions, I'm a software guy, I was 37 in summer 2003, I live in Texas and Antonio Banderas is not a 14-year old girl.
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| what's the deal with football? |
| 12.06.04 (5:06 am) [edit] |
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As someone who's always thought football was boring, (they spend ten minutes getting ready for 10 seconds of gameplay then start the ten minute setup again) I never really understood the American obsession with the game.
But that's neither here nor there - it just makes shopping that much easier on Superbowl Sunday. What I don't get is why, if the networks know that as game usually runs x amount of time, don't they schedule enough time for the game to play without pushing the rest of the network schedule back?
Practically every week the schedule is messed up because the game ran long. Shouldn't that be the exception? What about the half of the population that doesn't care if the Aggies beat the Broncos?
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| Love One Another? Not on NBC, CBS |
| 12.02.04 (10:54 am) [edit] |
As a gay person who grew up in the United Church of Christ, the hypocrisy in thenews article below offends me deeply. The Networks air shows the glorify and exploit sex and violence on a regular basis. Now they say they are worried about commercials that are controversial for suggesting that some groups and organizations are exclusive.
Is that a new idea for them? Is it just possible that there really are some Churches who do not welcome people of all ethnic, religious and sexual backgrounds?
Maybe the controversy revolves around the audacity of the UCC to actually publically state that the groups and people living in the US are less than 100% accepting of diversity.
What really kills me is that, according to the UCC's [url=http://www.ucc.org/news/u1130...]news article[/url] on this commercial, among many other stations, Fox (who I often write off as a mouthpiece for the Right) accepted it for broadcast.
[i][Published on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 by [url=www.thenation.com]The Nation[/url] [/i]
[b]Love One Another? Not on NBC, CBS [/b]by John Nichols
The Rev. John Thomas, who serves as general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, is having a hard time figuring out why the same broadcasters that profited so handsomely from airing the vicious and divisive attack advertisements during the recent presidential election are now refusing to air an advertisement from his denomination that celebrates respect for one another and inclusiveness.
"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks , an ad with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too controversial," said Thomas. "What's going on here?"
The ad in question is part of an ambitious new national campaign by the UCC to appeal to Americans who feel alienated from religion and churches, and to equip the denomination's 6,000 congregations across the U.S. to welcome newcomers. In an effort to break through the commercial clutter that clogs the arteries of broadcast and cable television, the UCC ad features an arresting image: a pair of muscle-bound bouncers standing in front of a church and telling some people they can attend while turning others away.
After people of color, a disabled man and a pair of men who might be gay are turned away, the image dissolves to a text statement that: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."
Then, as images of diverse couples and families appear on screen, an announcer explains that, "No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here." It is a graceful commercial, which delivers an important message gently yet effectively -- something that cannot be said of most television advertising these days. But viewers of the CBS and NBC television networks won't see it because, in this age of heightened focus on so-called "moral values," quoting Jesus on the issue of inclusion is deemed to be "too controversial."
What was controversial? Apparently, the networks don't like the ad's implication that the Nazarene's welcome to all people might actually include ALL people.
Noting that the image of one woman putting her arm around another was included in the ad, CBS announced, "Because the commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the (CBS and UPN) networks."
NBC was similarly concerned that the spot was "controversial." UCC leaders, pastors and congregation members are upset, and rightly so.
"It' seems incredible to me that CBS admits it is refusing to air the commercial because of something the Executive Branch, the Bush administration, is doing," says Dave Moyer, conference minister for the Wisconsin Conference of the UCC. "Since when is it unacceptable to offer a different perspective?"
Moyer says that people of all religious faiths and all ideological perspectives should be concerned that the major networks -- which dominate so much of the discourse in America -- are seeking to narrow the dialogue.
The Rev. Curt Anderson, the pastor of the First United Church of Christ in Madison, Wisconsin, says that people of good will should also be concerned about the message being sent to gays and lesbians in the aftermath of an election season that saw them targeted by the political right.
"I'm thinking of the LGBT folks in my church who felt so under attack after the election. They are getting hit again," explained the pastor. "This is another way where the culture, the media, makes them invisible. It is incredible that it is controversial for one woman to put her arm around another."
It is also bizarrely hypocritical. After all, the same NBC network that found the UCC ad "too controversial" airs programs such as "Will & Grace" that feature gay and lesbian characters. "We find it disturbing that the networks in question seem to have no problem exploiting gay persons through mindless comedies and titillating dramas, but when it comes to a church's loving welcome to committed gay couples, that's where they draw the line," explained the Rev. Bob Chase, director of the national UCC's communication ministry.
Chase has a point. CBS and NBC, networks that reap enormous profits from the public airwaves, are not serving the public interest. Rather, they are assaulting it by narrowing the dialogue and rejecting a message of inclusion that is sorely needed at this point in the American experiment.
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If you want to see just how controversial and offensive this commercial is, you can view at [url=www. stillspeaking.com]stillspeaking.com[/url] .
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All About Geoffrey Snyder
I am a 40yo guy living in Dallas, Texas with my partner of 18 years, Gilbert, and our puppy, Rex. I'm both a fun loving, happy guy in my everyday life and a loud mouthed Progressive.
I love to travel and meet people. My goal in life is to go everywhere and meet everyone.
So, pull up a chair, make yourself at home, enjoy my mental wanderings and feel free to drop me a line to tell me what you think...
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