Monday, January 14, 2008

Well I tried to play basketball on Saturday. The sides of my feet hurt almost immediately and I had to bail after 5 minutes and walk funny for a couple of days. I definitely need new shoes, which I plan to take care of before Thursday night, when I will hit the court again. Because of the feet, I didn't walk on Sunday, and this morning there was a scheduling issue. Tonight I almost went but decided I'd rather get things done around the house and do it in the morning. So I've held steady at 21.5 miles and 1 evening of basketball for 2008. Hope I'm not letting anyone down just yet.

And my cousin won the bet. Good for him. *mutter, mutter, sputter, cough*

Bowling Alone has a chapter on TV that I would make required reading in every school and ideally for every parent. I don't claim to know how much they're cherrypicking their data, but it seems broad enough that a trend is apparent, and the trend is ugly. Watching TV over not watching TV lowers social involvement from every level from casual friendships through organizational leadership through political awareness/activity. Having it on habitually even when there's not something to watch lowers the numbers even more. These negative correlations are stronger than the impact of financial worries and suburbanization, which are usually the big reasons given for lack of involvement. Anyone know of more recent research (the book was written in 2000)?

And this is a must-click link for anyone who reads this blog: http://missedmanners.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/battle-of-pelennor-fields/
posted by Unknown 8:53 PM | 0 comments