Book 18 of 2011

Holy crap, I finished this in two days after borrowing it from Ms. Beeley.

18) Bossypants by Tina Fey

It feels unfair to review this book, which is part memoir and part comedic essay collection, in any sort of real or logical way since I feel like I'm predisposed to loving everything Tina Fey does since I've had a crush on her (like most of young, white male America between the ages of 24 and 39 with English degrees who stay up late at home on Saturday nights and spend too much time on the Internet) since she started doing Weekend Update on SNL back when that was a thing she did because she's a brunette lady who wears glasses on television and there are so very few of those. Also, she's smart and funny. And 30 Rock is one of my favorite TV shows and Liz Lemon is my favorite female character of all time. Plus, I liked both Baby Mama and Date Night and saw them in the theater. I was not impartial going into this book is what I'm saying.

Putting aside all of those predispositions, this book is great. Fey has a distinctive voice because she's, admittedly, very one-dimensional as a performer, but this leads to a familiarity. It's very easy to hear each word in Fey's usual exasperated cadence. Much like she does on 30 Rock through Liz Lemon, Fey is unafraid of making herself look ridiculous or be brutally honest about herself because who is she trying to impress at this point? She's happily married with a daughter and another kid on the way, working at her dream job. People that find her attractive and charming do so as much because of her sense of humor and intelligence as they do because she wears dark-rimmed glasses. And if dudes stop finding her attractive because she talks about her flat feet or belly fat, then middle fingers in the air for everyone, right? Right.

The chapters alternate between short narratives about specific moments from her personal life and an overview of Fey's career, all of which are funny. The highlight is an essay on her dad that made me want to write a similar ode to my own father. The rest of her insights into her experience playing Sarah Palin and attempting to make a hit show that instead became a critical cult darling are fun to read. I'd put this slightly above Patton Oswalt's Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, and I hope that she doesn't stop writing books with just this one. Ms. Beeley's assessment put it best: "I want Tina Fey to be my best friend."

UFC 129

The majority of the undercard and all but two of the main card matches fall under the purview of USA vs. Canada, something UFC loves to do whenever they're north of the border or across the pond (and possibly in Brazil this August). I even expect most of the Canadians to win on the undercard. Nate Diaz and Jake Ellenberger will probably come out on top during the prelim fights on Spike, though. Also, this event is notable for two other reasons. First, this is the UFC's debut at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific, mostly because it's been increasingly difficult to get east coast folks to commit to fights that start at 10pm. This is a great move on the UFC's part, since most of their main events have started at midnight EST and I am an old man that gets tired just thinking about staying up that late despite my crippling insomnia. I can't imagine actually living on the East Coast and having to deal with such late UFC start times. The second thing that makes this card notable is that it's the first event in Toronto, a hotbed for MMA for a very long time, and it's taking place at the Rogers Centre, formerly known as the SkyDome, which will hold a UFC and North American record of 55,000 plus fans. I really hope the production team makes this aspect of the card come across on TV because that's a gigantic number and something really special. They need to get some crowd shots and mic the place well, especially during the prelims on Spike, since this is so out of the ordinary for UFC events that it could actually get some on-the-fence types to lean towards purchasing. What I'm saying is that this show is a big deal.

Marc Bocek vs. Ben Henderson - Fresh off a destruction of Dustin Hazelett, Bocek faces former WEC Lightweight Champion and victim of the Showtime Kick, Ben Henderson. And while Bocek is a great BJJ grappler, Ben Henderson is Gumby. This guy can get stretched, twisted and pulled in ways that the human body should not be able to withstand and yet he continues to do so. Bocek for sure has the advantage on the ground, and he may be able to control Henderson if he gets the opportunity, but Henderson is just too well-rounded. Henderson has a durable chin and much better stand-up than Bocek could ever dream of having. I'm not only rooting for Henderson to win, I'm picking him to get a guillotine choke in the second round for the submission even though he'll probably wind up just taking the decision.

Randy Couture vs. Lyoto Machida - Despite the fact that Machida has somehow managed to get many people believing in the power of karate again, I learned a long time ago never to bet against Randy Couture. Win, lose or draw, Randy says that this is his last fight since he's going to be 48 in two months and he's making a lot of money outside of fighting just being Captain America and palling around with Sly Stallone. And, if by some chance he's able to have a good showing against Machida AND get the win, I think he might take another fight. These guys are a great stylistic match-up because both present aspects of their game that look to confound the other. A guy who works great in the clinch and can control distance between himself and his opponent is the perfect guy to take on Machida. Someone who is elusive, speedy and has tremendous knock out power is exactly the kind of guy that can take out Couture. Despite being on a three fight win streak, two of Couture's last opponents (Mark Coleman and James Toney) arguably had no business being in the octagon and he got a bit of a gift in the Vera fight with the decision win. And I honestly think that Machida will knock him out in the second, but I'm going with my heart here and picking Couture by unanimous decision.

Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Jason Brilz - Ugh...this fight is all sorts of lame and does not belong on this pay per view card when Nick Diaz is fighting in the one hour Spike TV prelims. In fact, this fight has gone through more changes than [insert timely awards show reference here]. Originally, UFC booked Matt Hamill to take on Phil Davis. Then Thiago Silva faked a drug test and Hamill was moved to UFC 130 to face Quinton Jackson. Mr. Wonderful's new opponent was Jason Brilz; not the most exciting fight, but at least Brilz had some momentum coming off a decision robbery against Noguiera. When Tito Ortiz pulled out of his fight in Seattle against Li'l Nog in late March, Davis replaced Ortiz, and Matyushenko moved in to face Brilz. This is all more interesting than this fight will actually turn out to be on pay per view. I plan to eat a piece of pizza and go to the bathroom and engage in lots of conversation about how boring this fight will inevitably be and generally be annoying during this fight out of frustration that is even on the main card. And Brilz will win by decision because Matyushenko is old and over the hill, kind of the opposite of Randy Couture in every way.

Mark Hominick vs. Jose Aldo (c) for the UFC Featherweight Championship - This is the debut of the featherweight championship under the UFC banner, and it's pretty auspicious since you have a guy who is thought to be an Anderson Silva level of athlete fighting a dude in front of 55,000 people in his home town. On paper, Hominick has a few impressive wins. He's also got crisp, technical stand-up and submission skills that few would scoff at. BUT HE'S FACING JOSE ALDO! This guy so thoroughly destroyed Urijah Faber that Faber left the division. He knocked out Cub Swanson with a double flying knee in eight seconds. His leg kicks are devastating. His knock out power is so great that he hasn't needed to use his Nogueira brothers black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu. This is the most clear cut case of "anything you can do I can do better" on the part of Jose Aldo. And Aldo will win by knockout in the first round.

Jake Shields vs. Georges St. Pierre (c) for the UFC Welterweight Championship - Let's make things clear first: this is not the mismatch or blowout that everyone seems to think it is. Jake Shields is a dangerous ground fighter who has a fifteen fight win streak. He manages to win all of the time. Not all of the wins are impressive, mind you, as there are plenty of boring decisions in the mix. But the dude has a way of winning. And not in the gross and disgusting Charlie Sheen way of winning, but in the sense that he gets the job done.

Shields is a ground specialist so that means he'll manage to keep control of most opponents even if it means he doesn't get the submission. He also has a tremendous gas tank, despite his lackluster performance against Martin Kampmann back in October. While the winner of that fight easily could have gone either way, Kampmann is no joke and Shields fought him coming off a disastrous twenty pound weight cut that left him looking gaunt and listless. Taking that into account, Shields did a great job considering what a horrible job he actually did, if that makes any sense.

Shields' best chance of winning is in grabbing a guillotine choke should GSP go for a takedown. He has a knack for grabbing and holding that choke, especially if someone is foolish enough to leave an arm in, which GSP does on his takedowns on a consistent basis.

But who am I kidding? That isn't going to happen because GSP won't make a stupid mistake like that. Again, it's possible but possible in the sense that it's possible that I could one day, in a bout of weird Fringe-ian circumstances, start to sprout a third arm growing out of my back because anything is possible. Will a third arm grow out of my back any time in the near future? More than likely not. So will GSP go for a takedown against Jake Shields and leave himself open for a guillotine choke? More than likely not.

There is a strong chance that GSP could choose to attempt to beat Jake Shields at his own game, just like he did in the first Josh Koscheck fight or the second BJ Penn fight. However, that's just playing into Shields' hands and I doubt he wants to do that. Instead, I see St. Pierre finally attempting to finish a fight for the first time in three years. As great as Jake Shields is on the ground, his stand up is terrible. This is a guy that has been training and fighting MMA for ten years and yet his striking still looks slow and rudimentary every time he faces an opponent. Meanwhile, GSP utilized a jab for five rounds and managed to break Josh Koscheck's orbital bone in the first. Koscheck is still looking at another six months before he's able to fight again.

I am rooting and hoping and just plain WANT GSP to end this fight standing, preferably early. This is Georges St. Pierre we are talking about, though. GSP will retain his championship by decision.

Book 17 of 2011

This is a book I borrowed from McB that I finished shortly before the school's Friday morning meeting.

17) See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers by Roxanna Elden

Roxanna Elden has taught all over the place in all different disciplines, from elementary to college level courses. This book takes her experiences, and the experiences of many other teachers from all different experience levels, and attempts to give the real lowdown that other teacher books fail to dole out in lieu of idealized versions of what all teachers hope to be. 

YES! TO JOURNALISM!

Many of you may recognize the poster on the left from my classroom. Cleaning out a filing cabinet one year, Ms. Beeley happened upon this little treasure, which sends a great message but is, like just about anything given enough time, hopelessly dated. But, at the same time, it's charming because all of those kids are incredibly enthusiastic (except for the one in the middle row of the center who looks like she got hit in the head with a sandbag just prior to the photographer snapping the picture). When my journalism students mentioned that they wanted to recreate the picture at the beginning of the year, I laughed at the idea but quickly forgot. Besides lots of students will often say they want to do something in a whimsical flight of fancy and never follow through with it.

However, this is the class that met every deadline in order to see me do a backflip. These are the students that have impressed me as a group in ways that I can't even manage to put into words. These are the students that have made my job the easiest that it's ever been in my six years as adviser to the Brave Times. Should I have really been surprised that they followed through with their intentions? Of course not. I don't think I was prepared for how much it would make me laugh.

This poster is going to be a high water mark for any future class to live up to. Seriously, future Brave Times staff, this is what you will be measured against so the onus is on you to make a bigger impact than the "Say NO to drugs and YES to Journalism" folks.

Frosh
Last Thursday, due to the STAR testing schedule shortened period, you received a work day.

Friday, we began reading chapter 6 of To Kill a Mockingbird and you were assigned to read through chapter 8.

Monday, you took a quiz on chapters 6 through 8 and we then worked on creating a thesis statement for chapters 1 through 5.

Tuesday was another shortened day due to STAR testing, and we used the time to continue revising the thesis we started on Monday.

Wednesday, I was under the weather and you had a reading day to hopefully finish chapter 11.

Today, you had a work day to give you time to complete the Character Chart and Themes worksheet for chapters 1-11 along with ORU 7, all of which are due tomorrow.

Seniors
Last Thursday, you continued working on the questions from Tom Wolfe's chapter of The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test called "What Do You Think of My Buddha?" during the shortened period for STAR testing.

Friday, you finished working on the aforementioned chapter and started to work on questions for section two.

Monday, you finished the section two questions, and we discussed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest up to that point.

During our final shortened period on Tuesday, we viewed Jill Bolte Taylor's TED talk on her experience having a stroke. I enjoy having you watch this short speech because it ties in to how Ken Kesey explains his experience in dealing with writing the first chapter of Cuckoo's Nest and gives us some insight into how Chief views the world. Living in the moment without context and then immediately seeing the world in full view using both sides of one's brain has much in common with how Chief views the world in such a figurative way. Chief feels the connections the world shares, much like Taylor describes, and he dislikes the way machinery attempts to make everyone the same. Her book, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, is available in paperback. I plan to read it this summer so I'll be able to have a review up then.

I felt a little under the weather on Wednesday, so I stayed home and you had a reading day. The day allowed me to get caught up on some grading, so at least there's that.

Today, you took the quiz covering chapters 5 through 14. We only had time enough to grade the quiz and not do my planned activity, which we'll get to next week.

Book 16 of 2011

My wife watched old episodes of Real Housewives. I finished this book.

16) The Nimrod Flipout: Stories by Etgar Keret
This is a collection of short stories, some absurd, some pointless, some funny, some dull.

It's really hard to figure out how much I did or didn't like this book. The cover alone sold me on reading the book, and there are times when it almost reaches the heights of absurdity that a picture of a short man in a bunny suit who has just shotgunned a bunch of fat birds promises. With the exception of the story about the guy whose dog wakes him up in a peculiar way and one or two others, none of the stories really stand out as especially great or memorable. It's probably time for me to pick up a regular old novel.

As is most often the case, a conversation with McB did make me ponder something while reading this. Keret's work is translated from Hebrew and what if what I love most about the book is how the translator did their job of interpreting the words as opposed to the original author's? This book isn't a good example of that idea, obviously. But what if I only like The Stranger because Stuart Gilbert did a great job of translating it into English as opposed to how Camus actually wrote it?

Book 15 of 2011

Finishing this at 12:45am when I was in that in-between time of insomnia giving in to sleep was not the best idea, but that's what happened.

15) Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America by Matt Taibbi

A contributing reporter for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi explores the root causes of why the economy collapsed back in 2008, how it wasn't the first time that the "bubble" burst and how the origins of our delightfully corrupt government and even more corrupt banking and corporate systems became so intertwined. There are seven chapters, each one dedicated to a different factor of the depressed economy: the Tea Party's outrage, Alan Greenspan's idiocy and incompetence, the mortgage and commodities crisis, the outsourcing of our national resources, healthcare reform's terrible implementation, and how Goldman Sachs is filled with greedy jerks who don't realize that they're greedy jerks.

Break your crown already, Jack.

Adam Sandler as Jill

Sometimes I get emails for advanced movie screenings, probably because I've purchased tickets on Fandango or Movie Tickets in the past and didn't click on the right button when I created the account that would spare me from annoying spam. However, every once in awhile a gem might sneak through and maybe, just maybe, I'll get a chance to go to a sneak preview of a new Marvel or DC superhero movie or some comedy that might actually be funny. Most of the time, though, I get invitations to things like Fright Night 3D or Jack and Jill starring Adam Sandler.

No, really. This is something that exists:

Everything was going great in Jack's life, until the most annoying person in the world came to visit....His twin sister, Jill. Come see the comedy event of the season, as Adam Sandler plays both Jack and Jill.

A little bit of web-fu on my part revealed this HIGH-LARIOUS picture of Adam Sandler in drag, so it's not like this is some joke invite that serves as a set-up in order to get me on a reality show or something.

Additionally, Katie Holmes plays Sandler's love interest which continues a theory of mine I like to call the Sliding Sandler Sweetheart Scale...because alliteration is awesome. The theory states that for each year that Adam Sandler gets older, more out-of-shape and/or uglier, his love interests in his films get younger, fitter and more attractive. Now, granted, Katie Holmes throws this trend off just a little bit, but every other movie, culminating in the recent and abysmal Just Go With It neatly falls into this phenomenon. Someone with better Excel skills could create an impressive chart detailing this idea; sadly, that person isn't me. Also, the theory only applies to Adam Sandler comedies, not his dramatic work that usually ranges from passable (Spanglish) to quite good (Punch-Drunk Love).

Frosh
On Monday, you took a quiz on the first three chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird. Scout's first day of school is an even better introduction to the social politics of small town Maycomb than the exposition heavy first chapter. Remember Walter Cunningham and the details of the discussion between him and Atticus as those will come up later on in the story. We began reading through chapter four after that. By Thursday, you need to be finished with chapter five for a quiz that covers those two chapters.

Tuesday (and, as I look into the future for fourth period, Wednesday) was the first day of STAR testing. Make sure you get a good night's rest and a substantive breakfast before each testing day. It's good to do that each day, but studies have shown that those two things play a big part in your performance on these kinds of tests. Third period received the Themes Worksheet and the Thesis Assignment. Fourth period will get them tomorrow.

Seniors
You received time on Monday to work on your group discussion questions for section one of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. We then discussed section one at length. Let me reiterate that this first section of the book is, by far, the most difficult. The tedium of the fourth chapter in particular is difficult to finish, but it's there by design. Without it, there's no way to tell how much of an impact McMurphy makes on Chief and the ward as a whole.

After finishing the discussion on Tuesday (and, again, Wednesday for sixth period), you began reading chapter four of Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test titled "What Do You Think of My Buddha?" which details Ken Kesey's introduction to the counterculture movement. There are eight questions at the end of the chapter which will be due on Thursday at the end of the (shortened) period.

Good news, everyone!

Professor Hubert Farnsworth
approves!

Shortly before we went on Spring Break, I interviewed for a position to teach honors next year. And, well, I got it!

Next year, instead of teaching frosh college prep, I'll be teaching the freshman honors class along with Mrs. Windt. I'm really excited to take on something that's completely new yet also a little familiar. It'll be an interesting challenge that will allow me to grow as an educator and as a person.

And now it's a ketchup time, in that we will catch up with all of the days I have neglected to blog about previously.

Frosh
On Thursday, March 31, you worked on deliberations in the case of the Choctaw Three and we discussed the results you determined. The lesson here is that despite years of progress, racism is by no means dead or done. It still exists, but hopefully that is something that all of us can combat in a meaningful way over the course of our lives.

Friday, April 1, you moved forward.

For Monday and Tuesday, you viewed the documentary titled Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, detailing the case of the nine black men accused of raping two white women. There will be an opportunity later on this quarter where you will write a compare and contrast essay, and one choice will be comparing the court case in To Kill a Mockingbird to the Scottsboro boys' case. If that is something that interests you, then make sure to hold onto those notes when I return them to you in the Graded Work tray.

Wednesday, we finished watching the documentary, picked up To Kill a Mockingbird and discussed the pre-interviews that you handed in.

You took the quiz on the "What Was Jim Crow?" packet on Thursday. Once that was done, we began reading the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird. By Monday, you should be finished with chapter three. That first chapter is challenging and somewhat long for the book but the story deals less with the history of the town and the Finch family after that point, so it should be less confusing. Keep with it and write down any questions you have so we can discuss your understanding after the weekend.

You moved forward on Friday for the final time this year.

Seniors

On Thursday, March 31, we listened to The Cure's "Killing an Arab" and Guns 'N Roses' "Civil War" in order to discuss the connections to both Cool Hand Luke and The Stranger. There were four questions dealing with each song, and your group chose which song to discuss the answers.

I told you a story on Friday, April 1, in the hopes that you would all make safe decisions on prom night. Hopefully, you did. We also attempted to watch a short film made by Mr. Rubel on the birth of the hippie movement, but my DVD player was uncooperative. 

Monday was a big day. You checked out One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest from the library and received both the reading itinerary and the Table of Contents assignment. We began reading chapter one. Keep in mind that Chief's perception changes throughout the novel, so the beginning is much more difficult to understand than the latter parts of the book. He views things from a metaphorical point of view, and it's up to you to determine, at least in the beginning, what is literally happening on the ward. 

On Tuesday, we finished reading chapter one and discussed the most important line in the book in terms of understanding Chief's perspective. We then focused on some terms that will aid your understanding of the novel.

Wednesday saw us finish the terms and read through the article "Tarnished Gallahad" by Matthew Rick. Ken Kesey lived a pretty fascinating life and writing this book was just a small part of his experience.

I gave you Thursday to read after you turned in your latest ORU. 

Friday, you took the quiz on section one, which consisted of the first four chapters of Cuckoo's Nest. You then received some questions that you began to answer in groups and will get the chance to complete on Monday. 

Book 14 of 2011

This sat on my shelf for quite awhile. I started it a few times but always got distracted by something else. This weekend, I finally took some time to not just read it but really soak in the entire story.

14) Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu
Waid and Yu take on the not-so-enviable task of retelling Superman's origin for the millionth time while updating it for a modern audience. The story clicks so well because the common complaint most people make when Superman comes up is that he's not relatable, and here Waid and Yu make him so.

Book 13 of 2011

This was a hardcover edition my parents gave me as a gift for the holidays that I read during SSR.

13) The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch

To borrow a line from another blogger I enjoy, were both of us not already married, I'd like Diane Ravitch to be my girlfriend. Sure, there's a bit of a forty-some odd year age difference, but I like her grit and tenacity so much that it's something I'm sure our mutual affection could overcome. Ravitch has been a historian for education since the 1960's and served under George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton in the Department of Education. Ravitch's central argument, if the subtitle doesn't already give it away, states that the so-called reform movement supporting charter schools at the expense of public ones and tying teacher pay to test scores is a move that will ultimately destroy the foundation of education much the same way that deregulation of Wall Street irrevocably damaged the economy.