65. Thoughts on the week

I'm a day behind on my writing and I'm on a roll right now, so i thought I'd finish out my morning with a third post. Here's a notebook dump on the week.  

- I've been editing obituaries for my job. The HCBA organizes a memorial program for Twin Cities-area lawyers who died in the past year. There's a booklet that is filled with memorials written by family members or fellow lawyers. I've come to notice the difference between an ok memorial and a memorable one.

While the accomplishments of many of the lawyers were notable, I kind of gloss over when people list the boards and commissions the deceased served on. I don't know what those organizations did. While they probably accomplished important things, it doesn't really resonate with me. Show me what they did, don't tell me. I really like when people share personal stories about what type of people they were and not just put a resume of accomplishments.

- I’ve been playing a dumb computer game a lot this week. It’s called Canyon Defense 2. I’ve made it pretty far, but I feel like I waste so much time when I play it. I’ve tried to be more mindful of when and how I do things during Lent this year, but boy do computers prey on your impulses.

- I missed a really great Marshall basketball game this week. It was a section championship that went into four overtimes. It got some national attention on SportsCenter and different websites, which is pretty cool. I thought the section championship. I covered last year was great. Connor Winkelman got a bloody nose, but came back in the second half, scored about 30 points and nearly led his team to victory. It was a spectacle. But I guess human drama doesn’t really run out. (Though I’m jealous I missed this.)

- I didn’t care much for the Oscars this year. I felt kind of grossed out about it, really. It’s too long. It’s too self-serving. It doesn’t really matter to me.  It was cool to see films I enjoyed win awards (Yay Spotlight!) but it just felt like people got together to say: 1. How great movies are and 2. How much diversity needs to be addressed in Hollywood.

Yes, diversity is any industry important to talk about, but, like Chris Rock said, Hollywood’s issues are sorority racism. It only affects a certain part of the population on a certain level. It matters, but it doesn’t matter.

There are other race-related issues that deserve a bigger platform: how environmental problems affect communities of color, the achievement gap in Minnesota, and broken windows policing.

- I’m working on a puzzle with my mom. I haven’t done a puzzle in years. The other day I just shut everything off for a while, put on some jazz music, and worked on the puzzle. I was amazed at how quickly time flew by while my focus was on just one thing. That doesn’t happen too often anymore. I should do it more often.