That did not go as planned.

Randy Couture taps out James
Toney minutes into the first round.

Frankie Edgar proved he has BJ Penn's number and Kenny Florian proved susceptible to the same style that bested him against Sean Sherk in his first grab at the lightweight title, but the rest of my picks weren't too far off. Unfortunately, UFC 118 had more boring fights than exciting ones, but the exciting bouts were really satisfying. Joe Lauzon and Nate Diaz put on great performances, but that paled in comparison to Randy Couture doing exactly what everyone thought he'd do and embarrassed James Toney. Forcing Toney to tap to an arm triangle choke was the perfect capper to a game of trash talk that the boxing champ started and ultimately couldn't finish. The biggest laugh of the night came in Toney's post-fight interview when Joe Rogan asked him if there were aspects of his game, most notably his grappling, that he may want to address if he attempts MMA again. Toney's response was as delusional as his hype when he replied, "My ground game is fine" before walking out of the cage door.

The next three upcoming UFC events aren't setting my world on fire. I'll definitely check out the Fight Night on September 15 that will serve as an introduction to the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, but there aren't any marquee match-ups taking place. Even though Frank Mir can talk up a fight tremendously and he's a spectacular man, I'm not all that hyped for him facing Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 119 (Mir is my pick, by the way, probably by way of submission late in the first). Then there's UFC 120 in England with Michael Bisping taking on Yoshihiro Akiyama, but it's a show in England that'll also be free on SpikeTV. There's really no need for me to get excited about it if I don't have to pay for it. However, after that my favorite fighter and the baddest man on the planet, Brock Lesnar, will be fighting Cain Velasquez for the heavyweight championship in a fight that I will be attending live. Expect me to talk about that at length in the weeks leading up to it.

Get used to seeing this logo
in many an English class.

Frosh
On Wednesday, you brought books for outside reading and we went over the guidelines for the Outside Reading Updates. ORU 1 is due Friday, 9/10. We also went over body paragraphs and broke down how a chunk should be formed when writing in the Jane Schaffer format.

I was gone on Thursday and Ms. Keepers was there in my place. You did some commentary practice, which we will continue to do next week after library orientation Monday and Tuesday and your essay terms quiz on Wednesday.

During my meeting on Wednesday, the other frosh teachers hammered out our plans for Forward Fridays. This is the English department's collective push to increase test scores, and we'll be starting on September 3. I'll explain more about this starting Thursday, but just know that come time for the CSTs in the spring, everyone will be prepared.

Seniors
We went over lit terms on Wednesday, and on Thursday you read a poem called "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, OH." Pay attention to the lit terms, not just because there will be a test next Friday on them, but also because they will be some of the key things to annotate in your lit books.