Are Zombies Compostable? from Jason Janelle on Vimeo.

Which prompted this reply.

I love the internet.

So I photographed it.

Filled with beer cans, beans, apples, corn, plastic bottles; this fire was still hot to the touch long after people had left.

Hillside covered in trash. I used the large black bag at the bottom to clean up camp.

Organic matter littered the site. Just the thing that attracts and eventually kills animals like bears and coyotes.

Cucumbers

Apples

Apple eaten by animal(s).

Fish carcass found 4 feet from our tent.

And then I cleaned it up and hauled a bag of trash larger than what my family puts on the curb each week home.

To the people who do this: The words I have for you are not fit for print but I would be happy to say them to your face. There is a comment box below and while I will remove expletives I will not remove your comment, please explain to me why you think this is ok.

Oh yea ….

Not everything burned.

K diving off the block.

I was also reminded of my own sorted sporting history. My earliest memory of any sports event that I was in was in grade school: field day, the 100 yard dash. I had been in the top of this race for the first three or four years at school, trading off first place with another kid, AJ. I was proud of this. Little kid, I can beat you proud. My dad would take off work to come see it, which made it that much more important to me. The last time I ran it I walked up to the starting line filled to the brim with the confidence and pride that previous years had awarded me. I was also filled with the fat that a summer of eating a consistant diet of junk food awarded me. I don’t remember the start. What I do remember is being about half way done and gasping for air, all four of the other racers sailing by me. I kept running all the way to the finish line, and then through the finish line, past the other racers, and then across the school yard, all the way to the edge of the school property where I slamed into the six foot chain link fence, giant tears streaming down my face.

Things didn’t get much better from there on with me and sports. In junior high, while playing in one of the two football games I was put in for, I actually scored a touchdown for the other team. Yep, I’m that kid. I’m 6’2″, and am terrible at basketball. I got hit in the face with a pop-fly ball while playing left field in high school baseball. My braces are the only reason I still have my real teeth.

But now it’s time for K and R to find their way in the wide world of sports which means it’s time for me to decide what sort of sports dad I’m going to be. It really comes down to limits, how loud and in your face is too much? My gold standard of too much is a dad that got my basketball team disqualified because he wouldn’t stop yelling at the refs and coaches. At an away game. I’m pretty sure he was banned from future games in that town. But on the other side I think you can be too quite. When the kids look up into the stands I want them to see that we are cheering them on and use that energy.

What I found out over the summer was that I have no need to fear being too quiet and I feel like I’m still pretty far away from being too loud. I also saw a fresh set of parents all trying to be my new gold standard of too much. Kneeling on the side of the pool with your clipboard of stats while you scream at your 8 year old swimmer and then demanding the timers give you the times before they have even turned them in, that, my friends, is the path to the dark side.

What kind of sports parent are you and what do the other parents do that drive you nuts?

Limer Gymnast with Organs Copyright: Gunther von Hagens, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com

So after a walk through the museum we headed into the Body Works exhibit. Body Works is an exhibition of real human bodies and body parts that are posed and then preserved through the process of plastination. The results can be displayed in the open air and viewed without the distorting effects of other preservation methods. The bodies are posed doing all types of activities including hurdles, archery, figure skating, and gymnastics so that you can see how the body changes as we move. In addition to that various layers are removed or separated to allow you to see into the body. The experience is very cool and allows for laymen to see parts of the body that you would normally only see if you were learning to be a doctor.

Heart, opened longitudinally Copyright: Gunther von Hagens, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com

As much as I wanted to see this exhibit for myself, it was important to me to bring the kids and involve them in what we were seeing. Before we went I explained to them that these were real human bodies that were displayed as a result of their choice to donate their bodies to science after death. If they had been uncomfortable with this we wouldn’t have gone but neither one seemed to be bothered by it. Once we entered it became pretty apparent that R, our 5 year old, was not very interested in what was being shown. I’m not sure if he was having a hard time connecting what he was seeing to other human bodies or if he was just tired but every time I tried to explain what we were looking at his eyes kind of glazed over. However, the 8 year old, K, was connecting with everything that I was explaining and was very interested. Being able to point to the exhibits and then touch on K’s body the corresponding bone or muscle really seemed to set what she was seeing in reality and excited her. The displays of the blood vessels of various body parts and animals not only peaked her interest but, for me, really set in reality just how extensive our vascular system is. Overall Heather, K and I really enjoyed the Body Works exhibit. Unfortunately R just wasn’t into it although as I write this he remembers what is in these pictures and seems interested.

Blood Vessel Configuration of the Head and Brain Copyright: Gunther von Hagens, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com

Out of the 200+ people that were in the exhibit our children were the youngest. As such, I feel the need to give a few warnings to other parents who may be planning on going. My first warning is to gauge the interest of your children in this. It will take you 1.5 to 2 hours to go through the exhibit. If you are able to pay attention, it’s amazing. If your kid is bored or freaks out, you will get to pay for a quick walk through a dark hall glancing at the things you wish you could examine. My second warning is that every body part is on display. If you are not comfortable talking with your kids about every part of the body, including genitalia, you may not want to take your kids. We have always tried to be very open and honest with our kids in this area but I understand that some parents choose to wait to have these sorts of discussions. My last warning is that the display is the result of people and animals dying. Your kids may have questions that result in unpleasant conversations afterwards. K was curious and concerned about the baby skull that was on display showing the skull in it’s pre-fused state. We explained that not all babies survive and that some mommies and daddies choose to donate the body to science to help doctors better understand the body. This seemed to help her understand.

All warnings aside, this is a great exhibit and I am considering going back to take more time. For me it solidified in reality many of the things we are taught about human physiology through drawings and concepts. If you go I suggest calling the museum to find out when there is a less busy time to go. It was very crowded when we went on a Saturday at 5:45pm.

Why the sudden concern with honesty? Mostly because, as we connect with more people over facebook, twitter, and countless forums, I see a trend toward acting dishonestly under the guise of not hurting someone’s feelings. All too often I hear people say that they accepted so-n-so’s facebook friend request only to hide all of their updates or unfriend them at a later date just so that they don’t have to tell someone they weren’t interested in their updates. This is something I would expect from a teenager and not from an adult. When I hear someone say that it instantly dilutes our relationship because what I hear is that you are more concerned with appearances than experiences. Another thing that I have noticed, especially in photography forums, is the creation of honest evaluation zones. Areas where it is clearly declared that posting there will result in honest evaluation of the work. This seems backwards to me and implies that everywhere else people should keep their honest opinions to themselves. Shouldn’t we feel free to be honest except when asked not to be instead of vise versa?

Honesty does not need to be cruel. As with most things in life, we choose how to accomplish things and the outcome often is a direct result of the process. The difference between “That Sucks!” and “I don’t really like this.” or “I don’t like it be cause of [x], [y], and [z]” is night and day. Both get your point across that your not happy with what you are being shown but one way is cruel and the other is just honest. And out of that honesty can come growth.

There are two sides of this equation though, the person speaking and the person listening. As a listener we need to be open to criticism and remember that we are the ones who give someone else’s opinion power. If you value someone’s opinion it is probably for good reason and wouldn’t you rather they speak to you honestly? I would, it’s how I am going to grow. If you don’t value your critic’s opinion then what do you care what is said? If you find that it bothers you then maybe it is something you should look at at least to figure out why. Not everyone is your friend and not everyone wants to read your facebook updates, are you doing them for yourself or for other people? If your doing them for yourself then keep doing what your doing and don’t worry about what everyone thinks. If your doing it for others maybe you should listen and adapt instead of getting mad.

Honesty is an absolute. I should always tell the truth. Lying is terrible. Let me worry about my feelings and let’s grow into better people together.

It was one of those days which slaps you in the face with the fact that spring is just around the corner. We took advantage of it by fixing up our bikes. Once K’s was done she wanted to ride and, for the first time, rode her bike around the block and out of sight. To do this she has to ride down our busy street, cross it, ride through our neighborhood, cross our busy street again and ride to the house. Solo. Which left me trying to distract myself in our yard fixing R’s bike and hoping that all of our lessons about looking and staying to the right and being careful had made an impression.

Some of my best memories are of the “adventures” I had as a kid. Exploring with my sister, riding my bike, getting on our rooftop and jumping from house to house. Not all of it was smart but it is part of who I am today. I want K and R to be able to have their own adventures, riding their bikes through the neighborhood and testing themselves. But it doesn’t mean I won’t worry every time.

After what seemed like hours, but was really just a few minutes, K came riding back up the street and into the driveway. She was just fine and ecstatic with her new freedom. As she rode around the block a few more times I considered that one day she too may be flying across the country to spend time with family or friends. Solo.

K – “Daddy, what is the deal with the Easter Bunny?”
Me – “What do you mean?”
K – “Is he real or what?”

This is it I thought, the end of the magic, but instead of throwing in the towel I tried this:

Me – “What do you think?”

I know, cheap shot. But after a short back and forth she decided to give it a go.

K – “Ok, ok. I think the Easter Bunny is a man in a suit, a really rich man in a suit that goes around to all the kids’ houses.”

Now, on hearing this, I’m ecstatic for two reasons. 1. The game that parents and kids play is not over yet. 2. She has, on her own, come up with a reasonable conclusion based on the things she knows about the world and applied to them to something she doesn’t understand. For me, that moment is up there with first word and first step.

Me – “You know, I think your right.”

Since he could walk R has enjoyed running under the daddy bridge ( between my legs ). Over the years this has just been a thing with us and as he has grown I’ve began going up on my tippy toes to avoid … a collision. Well the other day that’s exactly what happened. As I was walking down the hall he went to go under, I went up on my toes, but it wasn’t enough and we collided. R went down, bounced back up and laughed. I went down, curled up in the fetal position and spoke in tongues. R laughed harder. The daddy bridge is closed.

Later that night, and I swear this was an accident, he fell asleep on the couch and, like I’ve done a hundred times before, I picked him up and took him to bed. As I turned the corner to walk through his door his head hit the door frame. I swear, accident, honestly. It was a light tap and he was over it and back to sleep in minutes.

My boy is growing. Some days we don’t notice anything and some days we are slapped upside the head, twice.

Hi, I’m Jason and I’m a scrooge. (Hi Jason!) I am was the guy who could happily go through the rest of life without another Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas, and, while you’re at it, haul the rest of those holidays out. That’s right, I’m talkin’ to you Easter Bunny and your pal Cupid there.

That was until I had a kid. Kids make the holidays bearable. They remind me of when it all went right. Kids don’t see the ever expanding commercialism that puts Halloween candy on the shelves on August 1st and replaces it on November 1st with armies of Santas. They see a chance to dress up with their friends, to see family that may not be around all the time, to believe in magic and to be part of something special. You would have to have a heart three sizes too small to deny them that, and I don’t. Once I started trying I found that there was still joy to be found in the holidays. At first it was the simple joy of knowing that K and R were into it but the more entrenched I was in the preparation the more I found that I was enjoying the holidays simply for the sake of it and now I am even looking forward to them.

So now I accept that the stores will pray on our yearly needs and avoid the people who might sour my new outlook on this season. I will walk through the dark and cold with a superhero and a princess. I will listen to sickly sweet music while hauling not 1 or 2 or 3 but 4 large boxes of decorations up from the basement. I will lie and stay up until the wee hours of the morning building complex devices in an attempt to keep the magic from dieing too soon ( and it is starting to fade ).

So until Cupid hauls off the empty husk of holiday’s corpse, the holidays are here and we will enjoy them. Or else.

“And one more thing… leave that no-account Oogie-Boogie out of this!”