Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #242

THIS WEEK IN REFLECTION

I’m always trying to keep up on youth culture, even if it’s not applicable to me. I’d hate to see myself in twenty years wondering why I don’t “get” kids these days. So, one thing I noticed is I will be hanging out with my interpreting cohort when suddenly everyone yells, “Time to Be Real!!” and then they take a picture. What in the world…? Because my college is Bethel University, where one of the mottos is “Be You” (get it…B.U.?), I assumed Be Real was a Bethel thing. LOL.

Next thing I know I’ve got the Be Real app (no, it’s not connected to the school). Randomly, at some point in the day, you get a notification that it’s time to “be real,” and you have two minutes to do so. You snap a picture, and your phone will capture both the front and back cameras, taking two pictures. Thus, everyone can see you and your surroundings, but you don’t have the time or ability to set a pretty scene or add filters, etc. You just have to be your big goony self.

Well, I started day one with a double chin because I couldn’t see myself in the “selfie” camera (back? front? Whichever, you know what I mean). “This must be one of the features,” I thought, “That you can’t see yourself, so you can’t pose.”

Day two I posted a picture of me with a bra drying on the door jamb behind my head, which someone kindly pointed out in my comments (actually, she wrote, “Nice nuggies holder”).

Then I learned that you can flip the screen and see yourself, so no, this is not a torture app. It’s gotten better since then, except I didn’t realize the “selfie” side of the camera takes a picture, then two seconds later the other side does, so I’ve got a few blurry photos and one in which I managed to get myself in both front and back photos, which seems like a time warp trick.

All in all, it’s good fun, and there sure is a commotion in my house when the unique alarm goes off, telling me to be real. Like, literally, Nick and I both run because you don’t want to miss the two minute window! Nick said it gives him anxiety.

Ah, and lots of interpreting this week, including being up on the stage again. I was proud when an announcer came out to give information about Hispanic Heritage Month, and as he listed several countries, instead of panicking and thinking about how I couldn’t fingerspell all the nations’ names, I just signed something like “that area in South America.”

IT DIDN’T MAKE IT TO GRAB THE LAPELS

I finished the 400+ page enormity Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon. It was pretty much all audiobook, though I tried to read the text a few times. I didn’t have time, so instead I listened while driving and exercising and washing dishes and organizing things for Goodwill. My old pal Stephanie put it best on Goodreads: Tryon’s novel is “an ambling stroll through a pretty meadow, and every once in a while you see a skeleton, but you just keep on amblin’.”

THIS WEEK’S BLOG POST

I always say I’m not a big fan of historical fiction, but I think really I’m not a fan of books that try to convince me that what happened in the book is truly representative of the time period. WWII books are the worst for this. However, Outlawed by Anna North takes bits and bobs of historical this and that to make a novel relevant to today when women’s rights are being stripped away, meaning the novel is set way in the past, but doesn’t twist history into something palatable.

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POST

Don’t let that cover fool you; Billie Letts will run your heart over with a stolen car. It’s just her style. Made in the U.S.A. is no different, except this time the amount of devastation is balanced differently from her other novels I’ve read. Review Wednesday.

BOOKS I BOUGHT

Books I paid for (that are not textbooks) since January 2023: totaling $43.28

BOOKS ADDED TO THE TBR PILE

Thanks to Anne @ I’ve Read This for her recommendation.

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Published by Grab the Lapels

I'm a graduate of the MFA fiction writing program at the University of Notre Dame, which inspired me to follow along with trends in teaching, publishing, and reviewing. I also have an MA and BS from Central Michigan University. I used to teach composition, creative writing, and literature in higher education, then did a brief stint at a civic theater, followed by two years at a references desk at a public library. I'm now working toward my ASL Interpreter license.

31 comments

  1. Be Real – ha ha, loved this story Melanie. Do you think it has practical benefit for mental health?

    And, I agree with you about wanting to keep up with “youthful” language and interests. As a grandma now, I am keen to do so too, though not in a creepy way. It’s a fine line sometimes, I think. With an interpreting job I assume it’s probably also professionally important to do? The more “cultures” you understand the better.

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    • I absolutely need to know young people to be an interpreter. Sometimes I look up teen slang in ASL, and it is so fun.

      I think the Be Real app helps me just see myself. I mean, if it’s not the most flattering picture, I remember that other people are doing the same thing.

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      • As they say, the way to stay young is to have younger friends! But for you it’s more than that, and has real validity.

        It is hard when you see unflattering pictures of yourself. As a 70s feminist I don’t colour my hair or wear make-up etc, but then I have to live with myself when I catch myself in a mirror and it can be hard sometimes.

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  2. I’ve pretty much given up with keeping up with The Youths. They’re doing their thing, I’m doing mine, and sometimes we intersect with often hilarious results, and that’s fine. The Be Real app sounds fun, but I’m sure it would try to ping me while I was at work or in the shower or something.

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    • LOL, if it pings you at a bad time, you can take a picture late, but it tells everyone you’re late. I think this is supposed to be a mild shame, but I couldn’t give a hoot. Instead, I enjoy the fun of yelling, “TIME TO BE REAL!!!” and running around to find Nick if I’m at home.

      I need to stay connected with all ages to be a good interpreter, so both younger and older.

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  3. We just learned the word hispanohablante on Duolingo which is a handy word but hard to say quickly – wonder if there’s a sign for that! My friend Claire uses Be Real to keep a connection with her teen, which is very sweet.

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  4. I can only imagine all the accidental dog butthole pictures that would end up on this app at my house. 😛
    It does sound somewhat anxiety inducing.
    I’m glad that you’re keeping up with the kids so you can just tell me and I can put in zero effort to understand what’s happening. Lol.

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  6. Your comment about keeping up with the whippersnappers made me laugh! Obviously I talk to students all the time and try to understand what they’re up to, but every now and then I get a reminder that there is a growing gulf in terms of age between myself and my students. Last academic year, I had a session with my third years in my timetable just before the Christmas break, but it kept appearing and disappearing. I had a particularly lovely group of third years this past year, so I told them that we would use this strange Schrodinger’s Tutorial for a Christmas party. It went really well. They even got together the day beforehand to have a big baking session and brought in lots of cakes and cookies, bless them – but the activity I prepared was a “guess the Christmas film” quiz I found on Youtube, and they did not know *any* of the films that were extremely familiar to me! That made me feel quite old.

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    • Someone gave me a mini pep talk, and I said, “Okay, Tony Robinson,” because he was only the most famous self-help guru for decades, and they replied, “Who?” Now everyone thinks they can be a motivational speaker, include thin white twenty-something women who face no adversity. Yes, please tell me how to get along, Rachel Hollis. It’s important that I understand all this cultural generational stuff for the sake of interpreting. I wish I had done it more while teaching because it could have informed me about how to best teach. For instance, the whole “kids these days on their devices all the time” isn’t Gen Z. It was Millennials. Gen Z don’t even text back, for pete’s sake.

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  7. Just reading about that app gives me anxiety. Hard pass! But good for you trying it and keeping hip with the younger crowd. Nice work on the interpreting!

    Say, how’s Toadman doing? Does he still have roommates?

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  9. I’ve never heard of the Be Real app, but I’m glad I can now rely on you to keep me hip and young at heart 😉

    The BEST part of this review, and perhaps my day, will be learning about the term ‘nuggies holder’. I can’t wait to tell my husband about this! That’s hilarious.

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    • I think I shared that I met up with this young woman at the movie theater, and because we go to a Bible college, I didn’t want her to think I’m a heathan, so I didn’t sneak in any snacks. She brought in a whole-ass McDonald’s meal, drink included, in her purse. When we said goodbye, we hugged. She had mentioned she didn’t finish her nuggets, so when I hugged her I said, “I hope I don’t squish your nuggies.” She said, “No, just these nuggies” (meaning her boobs). We’ve been saying “nuggies” ever since. In fact, right before I started interpreting on stage last Friday, she made a nuggie grabbing gesture from the audience.

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  10. I’ve never heard of this Be Real app and it does sound a bit stressful! I do like the thought of it though as backlash against how over-filtered social media can be.

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  11. I have fun with BeReal. A former student asked for permission to include me in his photo a couple of summers ago when we were playing in the pit–we’re so crowded together in there that he couldn’t take his BeReal photo without including me, like a bra in the background, so then I tried it and I’ve found it amusing. My photos are often with double chins and hands in front of my face, and I don’t always post at the time (I don’t always have my phone with me or I’m sleeping or I don’t hear it vibrate) but as soon as I post a photo I can see the photos from the 5 other people I know on there, including the former student, and it’s kind of fun to see what we do every day. I’m on there as “nonnecromancer.”

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    • Ha! Jeanne! I found and added you! I’m page_reaper (the name I was given by my horror book club because I’m the leader). I have loads of unflattering photos, but it also makes me get used to them, which I like. I can’t be self-conscious and interpret well, because that means I’m using up brain space thinking about what I look like.

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