So on Sunday Sacrament Meeting went over time. Fine, whatever. People like bearing testimony. I can dig it. So we end up 15 minutes over. I get up to make the Sunday School announcements and announce that Sunday School will end 6 minutes late to compensate. I then think to myself, well, I probably shouldn't make decisions for the whole ward without at least consulting with the Bishopric. So I turn around to confirm that that's ok and he looks at me seriously and says "You'll end on time." I was irked.
For starters, let's go into the logistics of this specific situation. Perfect world Sunday School: 50 minutes. Realistic Sunday School, about 40 minutes. Singles Ward Sunday School 30 minutes. People need to flirt, I get it, I support it. But when Sacrament goes over 15 minutes, then we're getting a 20-25 minute lesson. To teach Isaiah. Adding insult to injury, I was forced to end right at 3:00. Elder's Quorum ended 15 minutes early. Lameness all around.
I didn't write this post to complain about this Sunday. I wrote this post to complain about Elders Quorum, and how I just don't like it. There, I said it.
I have 2 clear biases. 1. I've been a Sunday School teacher 4 times. I like being a Sunday School teacher. 2. I like girls. These 2 biases are going to fuel most of my complaints.
On average, the lessons are worse. I've had good EQ lessons, but they are much rarer than good Sunday School lessons. EQ lessons trend worse for two main reasons. Firstly there are no girls in the class. The problem is not that I don't have girls to talk to during the lesson, though that is a negative. The problem is that the teacher knows there will be no girls in the audience. Without girls, guys lose much of their motivation to achieve. Hence poorer preparation (ie sometimes no lesson preparation) and thus worse lessons.
Secondly Elders Quorum has "worse" lesson material. I don't think the material is actually worse, it's just not as conducive to my learning. Right now we're doing Gospel Principles. You can pull stimulating conversation from GP, but it's tough. When we're not using GP we're using those president of the church manuals, which are great IF you spend a lot of time preparing the lesson. If not you spend an hour reading quotes aimlessly.
The content of discussion is less varied than Sunday School. Home Teaching, performing ordinances, service. Got it. There's a lot more to the Priesthood, I know that. But we don't talk about it as much.
They talk about football a lot more in EQ.
I think an important element of Relief Society is the emotional component. The sisters bond, share feelings, become a cohesive group etc. Great. The Elders Quorum doesn't try to do this much. And if they did, I wouldn't be very interested in it. I have some great friends who happen to be male, but generally I'm not inclined or interested in bonding with men. I don't think there's any homophobia involved, just a strong sense of effective time management. I have a limited amount of time, I want to spend it bonding with women. I'm a far cry from a Don Juan, I just prefer the company of the fairer sex.
I'm not saying get rid of Elders Quorum. I'm just saying I wouldn't miss it if they did. And they should have let me have that 6 minutes.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Redeem your honor
My polls rarely turn out well on my blog. But on facebook, they do pretty well. Are you going to take that blog people? Are you going to let facebook show you up like that?
Today's "poll": To assist me in my Halloweening, name some awesome characters/people/concepts involving beards. Go.
Today's "poll": To assist me in my Halloweening, name some awesome characters/people/concepts involving beards. Go.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Little strikes, not deal breakers
My default setting is negative. This isn’t to say that I’m always negative, just that I think of things in terms of the negative aspects, and then process the information from there, sometimes in a positive manner. I’m much better at listing movies I hate than movies I love. I’m much better at listing traits in a potential date that will eliminate them as a prospect than listing the qualities that I want.
All kinds of things are strikes for me. Strike probably isn’t the right word, as it takes many more than three strikes for me to eliminate a girl. Some are simple matters of preference: being blonde is a strike. Some are petty and unfair: lactose intolerant is a strike. Some are downright wrong: never watches R movies is a strike. These are all little strikes. Bigger strikes include stupidity, insanity, history of spousal abuse etc. A big strike can eliminate you, again making strike probably the wrong word.
Anti-depressant use: little strike. I have talked to a couple people recently that felt in no uncertain terms that anti-depressant use was a deal breaker. It was a sad statement to me.
Now I’ve had numerous girls tell me that they used anti-depressants. Certainly, this doesn’t make them more attractive, but it was no big deal. Another couple have told me about their anti-depressant use on a date. That was a bigger deal. I have more issues with the fact that you think your medication use is good first date chit-chat than the fact that you’re on them. Ladies, a good rule of thumb is to keep your crazy to yourself until the 4th date. Keep that in mind.
But to say that anti-depressant use is a deal breaker, well that shows a lack of something. Empathy, understanding, tact, something. One of these girls was not at all familiar with mental health, and so her statement of “run far away from that” is more understandable. The other girl was well acquainted with mental health, which made the statement worse to me.
Do I want to date sad girls? No. Do I want to date people with any chronic illness? Not particularly. Do I want to date someone that refuses to try therapy as an alternative/adjunct to their medication use? No. But using anti-depressants is a little strike. I feel like having it as a deal breaker would devalue my work as a psychiatrist. How could I say that I want to help people when I say that the depressed are entirely undatable.
And no, this diatribe is not my justification for dating patients. I promise.
All kinds of things are strikes for me. Strike probably isn’t the right word, as it takes many more than three strikes for me to eliminate a girl. Some are simple matters of preference: being blonde is a strike. Some are petty and unfair: lactose intolerant is a strike. Some are downright wrong: never watches R movies is a strike. These are all little strikes. Bigger strikes include stupidity, insanity, history of spousal abuse etc. A big strike can eliminate you, again making strike probably the wrong word.
Anti-depressant use: little strike. I have talked to a couple people recently that felt in no uncertain terms that anti-depressant use was a deal breaker. It was a sad statement to me.
Now I’ve had numerous girls tell me that they used anti-depressants. Certainly, this doesn’t make them more attractive, but it was no big deal. Another couple have told me about their anti-depressant use on a date. That was a bigger deal. I have more issues with the fact that you think your medication use is good first date chit-chat than the fact that you’re on them. Ladies, a good rule of thumb is to keep your crazy to yourself until the 4th date. Keep that in mind.
But to say that anti-depressant use is a deal breaker, well that shows a lack of something. Empathy, understanding, tact, something. One of these girls was not at all familiar with mental health, and so her statement of “run far away from that” is more understandable. The other girl was well acquainted with mental health, which made the statement worse to me.
Do I want to date sad girls? No. Do I want to date people with any chronic illness? Not particularly. Do I want to date someone that refuses to try therapy as an alternative/adjunct to their medication use? No. But using anti-depressants is a little strike. I feel like having it as a deal breaker would devalue my work as a psychiatrist. How could I say that I want to help people when I say that the depressed are entirely undatable.
And no, this diatribe is not my justification for dating patients. I promise.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Quote Camping Unquote
My blogging was pretty intermittent the last couple weeks, but this was primarily because I was out doing things. I find it acceptable not to blog when I replace the blogging with living.
2 weekends ago I went camping for the first time in a number of years. And let me tell you, it was a pretty awesome camping trip. And let me tell you, it really wasn't camping.
A sizable chunk of the weekend was driving since the campsite was in Show Low. Why did we need to drive 3.5 hours away to go camping? I don't know. But it did allow us to be cold, something that is difficult to do in Phoenix. So that means we were in the car for 7 hours out of approximately 24, which is not a terribly good commute to activity ratio. But I made the best of it by creating a 90s playlist. I figured people wouldn't want to jam out to my latest indie/Euro/techno/folk stylings, but instead would want to revert to some comfort music of their youth. I will not disclose how much time I spent creating this playlist. I will disclose that it was chock full of cheesy 90s goodness like Smash Mouth, Sugar Ray, Chumbawumba, Alanis, Coolio, Nirvana, Aqua etc. I actually forgot Aqua (blasphemy!) but added them to the list after I got home. It was a 7 hour playlist, which was really necessary to define a decade of music.
So roughly 1/3 of the camping trip consisted of singing along/loving/mocking the 90s. Approximately another 1/3 consisted of playing cards. Phase 10, Scum, BS etc. Some people go camping to enjoy nature, I really go to play cards. Thankfully I was always able to find like-minded individuals.
The remaining 1/3 consisted of chit-chatting. I really don't know how to successfully blog about chit-chatting, so I won't try.
I spent approximately 15 seconds setting up and taking down my tent. This was done by sleeping in the car. To be fair, I actually kind of like setting up tents. But I hate taking down tents, so in order to avoid that I slept in my car. As we all know, my car is in my top 10 places that I like to sleep, so that works out pretty well. Unfortunately, it did get down to 50 degrees and my Arizona-adjusted body didn't handle that terribly well. But apart from that, it was a good night's sleep.
So I didn't set up a tent. I ate Wendys for dinner. I did enjoy a campfire, but did zero work in setting it up or keeping it going. I didn't tell ghost stories. I didn't hike. I didn't swim. In short, I didn't really camp. Which is really what made it a good campout.
2 weekends ago I went camping for the first time in a number of years. And let me tell you, it was a pretty awesome camping trip. And let me tell you, it really wasn't camping.
A sizable chunk of the weekend was driving since the campsite was in Show Low. Why did we need to drive 3.5 hours away to go camping? I don't know. But it did allow us to be cold, something that is difficult to do in Phoenix. So that means we were in the car for 7 hours out of approximately 24, which is not a terribly good commute to activity ratio. But I made the best of it by creating a 90s playlist. I figured people wouldn't want to jam out to my latest indie/Euro/techno/folk stylings, but instead would want to revert to some comfort music of their youth. I will not disclose how much time I spent creating this playlist. I will disclose that it was chock full of cheesy 90s goodness like Smash Mouth, Sugar Ray, Chumbawumba, Alanis, Coolio, Nirvana, Aqua etc. I actually forgot Aqua (blasphemy!) but added them to the list after I got home. It was a 7 hour playlist, which was really necessary to define a decade of music.
So roughly 1/3 of the camping trip consisted of singing along/loving/mocking the 90s. Approximately another 1/3 consisted of playing cards. Phase 10, Scum, BS etc. Some people go camping to enjoy nature, I really go to play cards. Thankfully I was always able to find like-minded individuals.
The remaining 1/3 consisted of chit-chatting. I really don't know how to successfully blog about chit-chatting, so I won't try.
I spent approximately 15 seconds setting up and taking down my tent. This was done by sleeping in the car. To be fair, I actually kind of like setting up tents. But I hate taking down tents, so in order to avoid that I slept in my car. As we all know, my car is in my top 10 places that I like to sleep, so that works out pretty well. Unfortunately, it did get down to 50 degrees and my Arizona-adjusted body didn't handle that terribly well. But apart from that, it was a good night's sleep.
So I didn't set up a tent. I ate Wendys for dinner. I did enjoy a campfire, but did zero work in setting it up or keeping it going. I didn't tell ghost stories. I didn't hike. I didn't swim. In short, I didn't really camp. Which is really what made it a good campout.
Internet Find
I've liked this song for a little while now, and it may well make it to the ChrisMix finals in a couple months. Turns out, there are videos of people hand dancing to it. Good just got better.
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