I managed to grab a screen shot of the "Zupke Family Zoom" yesterday:
We covered Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, New York State, Washington State, and South Carolina! All in all, we saw thirty-six different family faces. I tried to figure out how many Zupkes there are total last night in bed, but counting "Zupkes" worked far better than counting sheep for me!😪
We had it all planned. Tomorrow morning we were going to meet at Applebee's in Apple Valley to carpool to the Hastings Y. Die hard swimmers, the three of us, we knew the pool there was open at 9:00 a.m. Saturday. Our motto, "If you can't swim in Minnesota, drive to Wisconsin!"
Until the nurse, who is on the COVID ward at Regions, thought carpooling might not be wise. And then I came down with a cold (which the nurse says "Take the COVID test and make sure you know"). Now we're not going. But it sure sounded like fun . . .
When I was hired to work at Oak Hills Elementary this fall, I was told my hours would be 9:30 a.m. - 3:15 p.m. Perfect!
When I started working at OHE, due to Covid and starting out with hybrid learning, my hours were switched to 9:45 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. for the first three weeks. No problem!
In early October, once we were all in the swing of things, my hours were increased to 8:50 a.m. - 3:05 p.m. Okay. No worries.
Now that we're distance learning, my hours were changed to 8:15 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. meaning I now needed to work out after work instead of before work.
Except last Tuesday, I found out that my hours would only definitely be 8:15 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays would be determined by the team I'm working on. Since Aimee and I are the entire team and she's out with Covid exposure, who knows what I'm working when I go back to work!
In this time of Covid, when so many have lost jobs and businesses and are on furlough, I am ever thankful for the job I have - whatever my hours may be!
When Corey, our other-brother-by-another-mother, came down this afternoon to play dominoes, Matt brought out a bag of "Haunted Ghost Pepper Chips". The challenge was to eat one chip and then see who could wait the longest to drink their glass of milk. We decided that if I ate two chips, because the boys were dying after just eating one, I would be declared the winner. Little did they know, we used to have taco sauce eating contests at camp and "hot" offered no challenge to me! The victory was mine!
. . . Until Sam came home from washing Micah's car and finished off the bag.
Last night in church we sang this song, "Go Light Your World" by Chris Rice. As we sang it, I thought, "Hey, that's what I did yesterday when I shared Micah's cookies with my co-workers at OHE. I sought out a group of tired and exhausted teachers, confused and worn by Covid and held out a cookie, lighting their world.
It's funny how thanksgiving is a choice we make.
I finished my swim this morning and went back to my cubby to record my miles. There in my box was a package of cookies - homemade cookies! I knew right away it was from the Peterson family! I had talked to Riley earlier this fall while his boys were in swimming lessons, saying what I missed most about teaching swimming was the treats the parents brought!
Sure enough, his boys had had lessons last night and today, I had cookies - chocolate cookies! You'll be glad to know that I didn't eat a one until after my breakfast!
It was a sad day at Oak Hills Elementary today as our Monday students had their final day of class in 2020. One of the boys in my reading group said, "If we don't come back, I'll never get to see you again." Another boy said, "I'll still get to Webex with you, won't I?"
It is our hope, as a staff, that we will yet return this school year.
Micah received an order this week for an egg-less chocolate cake with camouflage frosting with the Tesla symbol on top. What do you think? How'd she do?
It was towards the end of October when I received this blog post from Erin Kirk's "Girl Catch Fire" regarding the "The Social Dilemma" on Netflix. Micah and I met Erin when we joined Mercy Ships in Tyler, Texas in 2014. That same week, one of my co-workers at the Y was talking about it and encouraging us to watch it. Today I did. I encourage you to do likewise. Here's a bit of Erin's post:
Then last night I watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix.
People have been talking a lot about it because it answers, in an informed and intelligent way, the question: How did we get like this?
The fake news. The division. The polarization. The out-of-hand election behavior. The astonishment you feel when talking politics with your relatives at Thanksgiving: Wondering where do they get this nonsense information and how can people be so deceived? What is even true anymore?
The Social Dilemma asks those questions of the programmers and the early-stage developers of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, Pinterest, Snapchat etc. - the people who accidentally accelerated and amplified an existing problem with human nature.
Now they are sounding the alarm in a big way, saying the technology has gotten away from us and is making the world worse and more dangerous in demonstrable ways.
The key takeaways are these:
Any platform that’s free to you, is not really free. YOU ARE THE COMMODITY. Not your data or personal information, like people think. It’s your attention and suggestibility that’s for sale. We’re happily sold into this market without realizing it, or the impact it has at scale. In other words, what happens when 2 billion people are unwittingly manipulated by giant commercial interests or foreign and domestic powers with nefarious agendas. That’s what’s happening when you post a selfie. Really, watch the documentary.
The designers who created the “like button” and “suggested videos” did so without ill intent. They were doing their jobs: Building the most efficient systems they could to keep users on the platform longer. When they figured out how to monetize and manipulate that time, without you knowing it, the business model was born and spread throughout the entire industry.
Those engineers got trained in human psychology and how to manipulate pain and pleasure pathways in the slowly-evolving human brain. With that knowledge, they created an electronic drug, gave it to us free, called us “users” and now that we can’t look away, they sell our eyeballs. That concept isn’t new, what’s new is the scale and speed at which it’s operating and the damage it’s doing to particular demographics, like teenagers.
These electronic drugs are unregulated because regulators don’t yet understand the risks they pose, but the people who created them do, and they’re are having a collective holy shit moment. In other words, this model has created the most profitable companies in the history of mankind, so it will be tough to get the genie back in the bottle.
I’m writing about this because before watching The Social Dilemma I unplugged from about 80% of my regular FB/Insta/Google time. I missed nothing, I felt better and was freer than I’d been in a long time, but I couldn’t articulate exactly why and how.
The Social Dilemma articulates it precisely. It’s intelligent and authoritative because it features the only real authorities there are - the people who built the tech.
For Veteran's Day on Wednesday, Sam's team worked with the fifth graders in his building, making a flip show thanking Sam for his years of service to our country (Air Force). He showed it to me Wednesday night. We rolled with laughter. Almost every child said, "Thank you . . .
MR. ZUPSKE!
Where did that "S" come from?
Today, I am thankful that which comes with my new job:
I checked my cell phone messages the other day. Just like a singing telegram, I heard, "Where's my Margo? Where's my Margo?" So I called Jana back singing, "Found a Margo! Found a Margo!"
The moral of the story: If you want me to respond to your message, sing to me.
Yup, that's us! We're the 2020 cover story for New Life Family Services Adoptive Family Newsletter. November is National Adoption Month.
Inside, one of the articles you'll find is our adoption story, written by yours truly! If you can't read the copy here, stop by our house and peruse our copy or ask New Life to send you one. It's definitely worth the time!
Our sweet little neighbor girl, Hazel, found out
from her parents yesterday that Annie had died. Hazel (3) had them
walk her down to our house later that afternoon to give us this picture
of Annie that she had colored. Micah and I both cried.
Micah turned twenty-one today! She made herself the above cake to celebrate.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICAH!
On a glorious day like today, with warm weather and sunny skies in November, what is there not to be thankful for?
Let me add three more possibilities:
As of 4:40 p.m. this afternoon, I am finished with PT for the car accident crushed bionic knees. I get to continue exercising at home, but I don't get to go in and see Laura any more. Sadly, I'm at a point with Twin Cities Ortho where ever receptionist knows my name!
I was making a sweet chili for supper the other night. Compliments of my PMR, chopping the apples was just not pleasant. The first child in the kitchen was drafted to chop. Trust me, it was only two apples and with a Pampered Chef chopper, but it must have been a mountain to Matt as the whine began:
"How many apples do I have to chop?"
"How many more are left?"
Finally, he reached over and ate the last two apples slices! Gotta love it! No more chopping.
One of my new co-workers had heart surgery this morning. Not knowing where she stands with Jesus, I simply told her I would be praying for her, specifically that her surgery would only last three hours.
If the right side of her heart needed to be repaired, it would be three hours. If her left side needed to be repaired, it would be six hours as it would be a more difficult surgery. They would not know until surgery began.
God was faithful. It was a three hour surgery on her LEFT side. I can't wait to hear the rest of the story!
One of our fifth grade boys had a birthday this week. We asked him if he was going to do anything special for his birthday. He replied, I kid you not, "We got a box of Apple Jacks for breakfast and I got the first bowl."
How do you respond to that without tearing up?
