Oh the drama! Amazing the ridiculous things occurring at my job. I really wish I was closer to the end than I am. I'll not go into the details (after all, who knows who is reading this blog) but suffice it to say that each day my resolve grows stronger to pursue alternate paths. At times I worry I'm running away from something more than I'm ascending to something else. But, those are the internal battles that are constantly occurring in my head. On to other things that I'd much rather talk about.
Sheesh, I think the people I know are the most fertile in the world. A congrats to DL, a colleague at work who just had a baby girl a couple days ago. And congrats to J&J, who announced the pending arrival of their 3rd. And a hearty congrats to an old friend Dr. JR, who is expecting his first. Wow! It is really crazy right now with all the babies.
Some poker adventures - as mentioned in my last post, Q & I went to play some No Limit at a local riverboat casino. It was $1 / $2 blinds. I won what I believe is the biggest hand I've ever won, approximately $440. I was in the big blind with Q6 off suit and flopped two pair. I managed to take it down. And I witnessed the biggest pot I'd ever seen in a game I was in, over $1k. Unfortunately for Q, he lost the hand with his pocket Aces getting beat by some bozo playing Jack Three suited. Ugh. But Q made an amazing comeback to finish only slightly down for the day while I won a medium amount. It was a lot of fun and a nice change from my normal, Limit poker game. I will definitely play there again on occasion.
Fantasy football was 3-0 last week. I should be in the playoffs in 2 leagues and have an outside shot at the third league. Playoffs start next week in the 2 where I appear to have made it, the week after in the other.
I'm submitting my last assignment for my Shakespeare class today. I have the final to take (which should be a piece of cake). I have gotten A's on everything in that class so far so feeling good about that. My 2 clinical observation classes are now done. And I have 2 weeks left in my other class. Unfortunately, I still have a boatload of work to do in that class. I hope to knock most of it out this weekend.
I'll leave you all with a joke, timely with all the impregnation going on with people I know:
A guy and a girl were happily married and about to have a baby. One day, the wife started having contractions, so the husband rushed her to the hospital. He held her hand as she went through a trying birth. In the end, there were two little baby boys.
The guy turned to his wife and angrily said, "All right, who's the other father!?!"
Until next time.
Ace
Friday, November 30, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Turkey time!
Happy Turkey Day a couple days early to the thousands of loyal readers out there. I'm overwhelmed by the generosity and the astonishing amount of food being sent in to the home office of the blog. Stellar!
It turns out that I'm really the turkey this year (no different than any other, actually). The past week was a big one school wise. First, I completed my clinical observations, including teaching a lesson in one of the classes I worked with. It was ok but the kids were pretty tough, mainly acting up a lot and not paying a lot of attention. I got most of them to do part of the lesson although I wasn't very happy that they didn't all do it. But the teacher was pretty pleased with how many of them actually did so whatever. Anyhow, I'm thinking that one of the things I'll want to do is start my classes out very tough from a discipline perspective. Hopefully that will avoid problems as the semester progresses. Anyone who knows me though knows that I'm pretty laid back in general so this will be sort of tough for me to do. We'll see how it goes.
I also taught a mini grammar lesson in my grad class last night. It was only 10 minutes long but we had to prepare an entire class long lesson. It was a lot of work! I can see how the first year of teaching is really going to be grueling, creating all these lessons from scratch. I think it will get easier once you are able to re-use things in future years. This was probably the most work for any assignment we have in this class so hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here.
I received my student teaching assignment for next fall. It's at a middle school that is about 10 minutes from my house. Unfortunately, I've decided that I'm going to postpone student teaching for one more year. It's primarily due to finances. We just haven't been able to save up enough money to allow me to quit my job as soon as next fall. I'm disappointed because I would really like to move forward that quickly but barring a financial windfall in the next 3-4 weeks, it will be out of the question. The upside is that I'll be able to focus on adding an endorsement, which will allow me to teach in a subject besides English. Since I'm focusing on middle school, I'll probably try to get the endorsement in technology. Business is another interest but I don't think there's a big need for a business teacher in middle school!
So, that will mean I'll have a few more classes to take but I will also have another year in which to take them. I need to work out my new schedule with my advisor pretty quickly.
One more Shakespeare play to go, Much Ado About Nothing. I just finished Merchant of Venice, which is really not very funny for a comedy. But I should be done reading by this time next week!
Travelling home to see my family full of turkeys for Thanksgiving. It will be just an overnight trip due to a bunch of strange schedules but that will allow me to get home quickly, which will be sort of nice. Unfortunately, that means I won't be able to see any of the friends from my hometown, which is always a very fun part of the holidays. Oh well, they're probably tired of my ugly mug anyhow. The upside is I get to spend all day Friday with my boy Q playing poker on his birthday. Sounds great to me!
Congrats are due to D & B, who had a healthy baby boy last Friday. Samuel Neal (again my recommendation of the name Ace was shot down!) is home with mom and everyone is doing great. Glad to hear all is well.
Plans are coming together for one of our family trips scheduled next year. In February, we'll be packing up the kids and trekking to Disney. This will be coupled with a record release weekend for one of my favorite bands, where 2 concerts will be played and general silliness will ensue. I can't wait, it really should be fun. And it looks like we're going to get the hook-up on a timeshare from one of my boys, which should be quite sweet.
My fantasy football teams are complete disasters. 1-2 again this week, barely squeaking out my one win. Here's the lowdown:
Boom Kings: 4-7, will take a minor miracle to make the playoffs
Nice Guy Dick-Taters: 5-6, have a shot at the playoffs but need a strong finish
Come On Sucker Lick My Battery: 6-5, should make the playoffs, jockeying for position right now
Is it baseball season yet?
Until next time.
Ace
It turns out that I'm really the turkey this year (no different than any other, actually). The past week was a big one school wise. First, I completed my clinical observations, including teaching a lesson in one of the classes I worked with. It was ok but the kids were pretty tough, mainly acting up a lot and not paying a lot of attention. I got most of them to do part of the lesson although I wasn't very happy that they didn't all do it. But the teacher was pretty pleased with how many of them actually did so whatever. Anyhow, I'm thinking that one of the things I'll want to do is start my classes out very tough from a discipline perspective. Hopefully that will avoid problems as the semester progresses. Anyone who knows me though knows that I'm pretty laid back in general so this will be sort of tough for me to do. We'll see how it goes.
I also taught a mini grammar lesson in my grad class last night. It was only 10 minutes long but we had to prepare an entire class long lesson. It was a lot of work! I can see how the first year of teaching is really going to be grueling, creating all these lessons from scratch. I think it will get easier once you are able to re-use things in future years. This was probably the most work for any assignment we have in this class so hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here.
I received my student teaching assignment for next fall. It's at a middle school that is about 10 minutes from my house. Unfortunately, I've decided that I'm going to postpone student teaching for one more year. It's primarily due to finances. We just haven't been able to save up enough money to allow me to quit my job as soon as next fall. I'm disappointed because I would really like to move forward that quickly but barring a financial windfall in the next 3-4 weeks, it will be out of the question. The upside is that I'll be able to focus on adding an endorsement, which will allow me to teach in a subject besides English. Since I'm focusing on middle school, I'll probably try to get the endorsement in technology. Business is another interest but I don't think there's a big need for a business teacher in middle school!
So, that will mean I'll have a few more classes to take but I will also have another year in which to take them. I need to work out my new schedule with my advisor pretty quickly.
One more Shakespeare play to go, Much Ado About Nothing. I just finished Merchant of Venice, which is really not very funny for a comedy. But I should be done reading by this time next week!
Travelling home to see my family full of turkeys for Thanksgiving. It will be just an overnight trip due to a bunch of strange schedules but that will allow me to get home quickly, which will be sort of nice. Unfortunately, that means I won't be able to see any of the friends from my hometown, which is always a very fun part of the holidays. Oh well, they're probably tired of my ugly mug anyhow. The upside is I get to spend all day Friday with my boy Q playing poker on his birthday. Sounds great to me!
Congrats are due to D & B, who had a healthy baby boy last Friday. Samuel Neal (again my recommendation of the name Ace was shot down!) is home with mom and everyone is doing great. Glad to hear all is well.
Plans are coming together for one of our family trips scheduled next year. In February, we'll be packing up the kids and trekking to Disney. This will be coupled with a record release weekend for one of my favorite bands, where 2 concerts will be played and general silliness will ensue. I can't wait, it really should be fun. And it looks like we're going to get the hook-up on a timeshare from one of my boys, which should be quite sweet.
My fantasy football teams are complete disasters. 1-2 again this week, barely squeaking out my one win. Here's the lowdown:
Boom Kings: 4-7, will take a minor miracle to make the playoffs
Nice Guy Dick-Taters: 5-6, have a shot at the playoffs but need a strong finish
Come On Sucker Lick My Battery: 6-5, should make the playoffs, jockeying for position right now
Is it baseball season yet?
Until next time.
Ace
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Ouch!
I ran in my 10k over the weekend. Before I start to whine about how bad it sucked, let me give a few excuses as to why it went so badly. First off, I started to get sick about a week before the race. I was in bad enough shape last Wednesday that I never got out of bed all day long. But I started feeling better Thursday and was close to back to normal on Friday. Unfortunately, being sick I didn't get to do my last few training runs but I figured I'd be ok since I went 45 minutes on the elliptical, which isn't too much shorter than I expected it to take me to run the race. Secondly, I did not eat dinner the night before the race. I got caught up doing something and just never made time to do it. Since the race was sort of early Saturday am, I really didn't have much of a breakfast either. Not really the brightest idea in the world.
The race was Saturday am. I got there and had a really bad feeling. Even though I trained for several weeks, I had not run outside at all, all the training was on the elliptical. So, the race started and off we went. I did ok the first mile, it was at about the pace I thought I would run the race and I felt ok. The second mile wasn't bad either, it was roughly the same pace. But somewhere between 2 & 2.5 miles I really lost it. I started to get very tired and slowed down. In my mind I had two goals: 1. Don't walk. 2. Don't die. I swear, this is what I was thinking as I was running. That generally is not a good sign. I'm glad to say that I met both goals! My time was about 8 minutes slower than my other 10k I ran two years ago, which sucks, but at least I finished. I will definitely need to train better for my next adventure. And I was about as sore as I have ever been the day after the race. I'm back to normal now but damn that was not fun!
I finished one of my classes last night. I've got another that finishes next Monday I believe. That will leave me with just Shakespeare and my teaching of writing class. The writing class has a big assignment due Monday and a few other big things to do in the next few weeks. I'll be glad to finish up the semester. I get about a month off until spring semester starts.
We hosted a baby shower for our friends C & N over the weekend. A good time seemed to be had by all. There was lots of good food, which made it even more fun. By the way (and not specific to this particular baby shower), the inventor of the couples baby shower really should be locked away somewhere. They are really not my cup of tea.
Congrats to my friend Thumper who had her baby over the weekend. Cute little dude. And congrats to S & B who are expecting their third. We did a count over the weekend and we know eight couples that are expecting right now. Wow! And best wishes out to DS who just found out about a major illness in the family. We're thinking the best thoughts on a successful recovery.
My fantasy football teams suck. I have gone 1-5 the last 2 weeks and will be lucky to make the playoffs in one league at this rate. Ugh!!!!
OK, that's enough for now.
Until next time.
Ace.
The race was Saturday am. I got there and had a really bad feeling. Even though I trained for several weeks, I had not run outside at all, all the training was on the elliptical. So, the race started and off we went. I did ok the first mile, it was at about the pace I thought I would run the race and I felt ok. The second mile wasn't bad either, it was roughly the same pace. But somewhere between 2 & 2.5 miles I really lost it. I started to get very tired and slowed down. In my mind I had two goals: 1. Don't walk. 2. Don't die. I swear, this is what I was thinking as I was running. That generally is not a good sign. I'm glad to say that I met both goals! My time was about 8 minutes slower than my other 10k I ran two years ago, which sucks, but at least I finished. I will definitely need to train better for my next adventure. And I was about as sore as I have ever been the day after the race. I'm back to normal now but damn that was not fun!
I finished one of my classes last night. I've got another that finishes next Monday I believe. That will leave me with just Shakespeare and my teaching of writing class. The writing class has a big assignment due Monday and a few other big things to do in the next few weeks. I'll be glad to finish up the semester. I get about a month off until spring semester starts.
We hosted a baby shower for our friends C & N over the weekend. A good time seemed to be had by all. There was lots of good food, which made it even more fun. By the way (and not specific to this particular baby shower), the inventor of the couples baby shower really should be locked away somewhere. They are really not my cup of tea.
Congrats to my friend Thumper who had her baby over the weekend. Cute little dude. And congrats to S & B who are expecting their third. We did a count over the weekend and we know eight couples that are expecting right now. Wow! And best wishes out to DS who just found out about a major illness in the family. We're thinking the best thoughts on a successful recovery.
My fantasy football teams suck. I have gone 1-5 the last 2 weeks and will be lucky to make the playoffs in one league at this rate. Ugh!!!!
OK, that's enough for now.
Until next time.
Ace.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Eye gouging, poisoning and suicide
No, I have not been watching re-runs of "The Simple Life" or "Real World". Rather, just reading some more of Willie Shakespeare. I just finished King Lear and am now down to just 3 more plays in the next 3 1/2 weeks. Not bad at all my friends. And I really am enjoying reading them, although they are some violent pieces of work. Next up is Richard III, which I understand is more of the same. I think I'm ready for a comedy to be thrown in here!
I am also down to 2 more visits to my middle school to finish my clinical experience for this semester. I've been in class 3 days. My most recent visit was fairly uneventful although I did enjoy reading a couple of stories aloud to the 6th graders in the first period.
I had a sick, sick hand in poker that I wanted to share. I just got back from dinner and sit down in the big blind (playing $5 / $10 Limit Hold 'Em). 6 players limp in and I look down at pocket queens. I raise and all 6 come along for the ride.
The flop comes K-Q-9, with two diamonds on the board. I bet, there is one raise, another raise and I cap the betting. I'm assuming there is at least one person with Jack Ten for a made straight and probably an Ace King. There are 3 of us left in the pot. The turn is a 9, giving me a full house. The only hands that beat me are KK or 99. I bet, one call, a raise, I re-raise and the other dude calls. The river is the worst card in the deck, another K. I check, dude checks, girl bets, I call, he calls. I show my full house, dude shows Jack Ten for the straight and girl shows K-9. So, that river king killed me and lost me a gigantic pot. I was crushed, the pot must have been over $300. Anyhow, I got back at the winner later with another monster pot when I cracked her Aces by flopping a set of 4s. The pot was nearly as big as the Queens hand. I finished up overall but could have had a record breaking night if not for that King, grrrrr.
Some potentially great news came my way over the weekend. I blogged previously about a state content test I took several weeks ago with the expectation at about 70% that I failed. I'll be damned if I didn't get an e-mail with preliminary results showing that I passed quite easily. I'm waiting for the official results in the mail but I was pleasantly surprised by that little gem. The only possible catch is that you have to pass each sub-area in addition to passing overall but I'm guessing I should be ok. What a surprise.
I register for next semester today, looking at 3 classes, which should be pretty comfortable. In fact, I think I'm going to sign-off now to register.
Good luck to D, who is due to go into labor at absolutely any time now. Hope it all goes well!
Until next time,
Ace
I am also down to 2 more visits to my middle school to finish my clinical experience for this semester. I've been in class 3 days. My most recent visit was fairly uneventful although I did enjoy reading a couple of stories aloud to the 6th graders in the first period.
I had a sick, sick hand in poker that I wanted to share. I just got back from dinner and sit down in the big blind (playing $5 / $10 Limit Hold 'Em). 6 players limp in and I look down at pocket queens. I raise and all 6 come along for the ride.
The flop comes K-Q-9, with two diamonds on the board. I bet, there is one raise, another raise and I cap the betting. I'm assuming there is at least one person with Jack Ten for a made straight and probably an Ace King. There are 3 of us left in the pot. The turn is a 9, giving me a full house. The only hands that beat me are KK or 99. I bet, one call, a raise, I re-raise and the other dude calls. The river is the worst card in the deck, another K. I check, dude checks, girl bets, I call, he calls. I show my full house, dude shows Jack Ten for the straight and girl shows K-9. So, that river king killed me and lost me a gigantic pot. I was crushed, the pot must have been over $300. Anyhow, I got back at the winner later with another monster pot when I cracked her Aces by flopping a set of 4s. The pot was nearly as big as the Queens hand. I finished up overall but could have had a record breaking night if not for that King, grrrrr.
Some potentially great news came my way over the weekend. I blogged previously about a state content test I took several weeks ago with the expectation at about 70% that I failed. I'll be damned if I didn't get an e-mail with preliminary results showing that I passed quite easily. I'm waiting for the official results in the mail but I was pleasantly surprised by that little gem. The only possible catch is that you have to pass each sub-area in addition to passing overall but I'm guessing I should be ok. What a surprise.
I register for next semester today, looking at 3 classes, which should be pretty comfortable. In fact, I think I'm going to sign-off now to register.
Good luck to D, who is due to go into labor at absolutely any time now. Hope it all goes well!
Until next time,
Ace
Thursday, November 1, 2007
It's been a while
since I've f*d things up, the way I always do. Ah, the chipper lyrics of Aaron Lewis, lead singer of Staind. Well, I don't think I've f'd anything up but when I wrote the title the song popped into my head. I digress.
MacBeth - done. One page paper to write tonight and I'm halfway done with my Shakespeare class. Dude was a pretty good writer. I'm thinking a bit overrated though. The class I'm taking is all done independently, with audio lessons via CD. The instructors could not be more in love with someone than they are with the old Shaker. I guess it's their job but it's a little disgusting. I think you could get arrested in at least 36 states for giving someone so much lip service. I'm in the midst of King Lear as we speak.
Only about a month left in the semester, I really can't believe it. I'm getting by and thinking I'll do pretty well in the class I care most about, one of my recent assignments has gotten rave reviews. This is a good thing. And I think the teacher likes me. Really, what's not to love?
I register for spring semester next week. It looks like I'll be in class at least 2 nights per week. But one of the courses is an American Lit course at the graduate level. I think it should be fun, I love literature. It looks like 3 classes total, which should be a little easier to handle than this semester.
One quick poker note, I was playing this past weekend and hit a royal flush. Not very often one of those bad boys come around, unfortunately I only had a couple people in the hand with me so it wasn't a huge pot to win. But, I did score 2 free tickets to the buffet for my effort!
Tough week in fantasy football, only 1-2 overall. I'm going to need to get hot to make the playoffs, although it is definitely still in striking distance in all 3 leagues:
Boom Kings 4-4 - probably my best team but on a 2 game losing streak. 5th place overall, top 4 make playoffs, 4th place team also 4-4 but has 27 more pts than me.
Nice Guy Dick Taters 4-4 - 3 game losing streak, tied with 2 other teams at 5th place overall, top 4 make playoffs, playing 4th place team this week.
Come on Sucker Lick My Battery 5-3 - 4th place overall
Congrats Red Sox on winning the World Series, they could definitely be set up for a nice run the next few years with all the talent on that team. And a fun football matchup this weekend with Colts and Patriots squaring off, what a hype fest! Plus the Bulls tipped off last night, not a great beginning but they should be pretty good this season. I sure hope they don't trade for the rapist-prima donna Kobe.
Finally, I'll leave with a limerick, which have gone missing in recent posts. This one is particularly timely:
There was a young damsel named Carole
Who liked to play stud for apparel.
Her opponents straight flush
Brought a maidenly blush,
And a hasty trip home in a barrel.
Until next time,
Ace
MacBeth - done. One page paper to write tonight and I'm halfway done with my Shakespeare class. Dude was a pretty good writer. I'm thinking a bit overrated though. The class I'm taking is all done independently, with audio lessons via CD. The instructors could not be more in love with someone than they are with the old Shaker. I guess it's their job but it's a little disgusting. I think you could get arrested in at least 36 states for giving someone so much lip service. I'm in the midst of King Lear as we speak.
Only about a month left in the semester, I really can't believe it. I'm getting by and thinking I'll do pretty well in the class I care most about, one of my recent assignments has gotten rave reviews. This is a good thing. And I think the teacher likes me. Really, what's not to love?
I register for spring semester next week. It looks like I'll be in class at least 2 nights per week. But one of the courses is an American Lit course at the graduate level. I think it should be fun, I love literature. It looks like 3 classes total, which should be a little easier to handle than this semester.
One quick poker note, I was playing this past weekend and hit a royal flush. Not very often one of those bad boys come around, unfortunately I only had a couple people in the hand with me so it wasn't a huge pot to win. But, I did score 2 free tickets to the buffet for my effort!
Tough week in fantasy football, only 1-2 overall. I'm going to need to get hot to make the playoffs, although it is definitely still in striking distance in all 3 leagues:
Boom Kings 4-4 - probably my best team but on a 2 game losing streak. 5th place overall, top 4 make playoffs, 4th place team also 4-4 but has 27 more pts than me.
Nice Guy Dick Taters 4-4 - 3 game losing streak, tied with 2 other teams at 5th place overall, top 4 make playoffs, playing 4th place team this week.
Come on Sucker Lick My Battery 5-3 - 4th place overall
Congrats Red Sox on winning the World Series, they could definitely be set up for a nice run the next few years with all the talent on that team. And a fun football matchup this weekend with Colts and Patriots squaring off, what a hype fest! Plus the Bulls tipped off last night, not a great beginning but they should be pretty good this season. I sure hope they don't trade for the rapist-prima donna Kobe.
Finally, I'll leave with a limerick, which have gone missing in recent posts. This one is particularly timely:
There was a young damsel named Carole
Who liked to play stud for apparel.
Her opponents straight flush
Brought a maidenly blush,
And a hasty trip home in a barrel.
Until next time,
Ace
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