Book 3 of 2012

My brother and his wife gave me this book for my birthday because I've been a huge Brock Lesnar fan for a long time and almost got them in trouble with their downstairs neighbor once during the Shane Carwin fight by jumping up and down when Brock survived the first round of the fight. There is literally nothing exciting about how I finished this book, though.

3) Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination and Survival by Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman

For the longest time, I could honestly say that my favorite fighter is Brock Lesnar. I vividly remember hearing the stories of the 300 pound NCAA Division I Heavyweight champion training at OVW who could do a shooting star press. His WWE debut is seared into my brain because poor Maven, Al Snow and Spike Dudley had to take all of those vicious slams the night after Wrestlemania. His time in the WWE was something to behold because he took to pro wrestling so well and so quickly that it was clear he had the potential to be an all-time great. Then he quit. And while I'm still a pro wrestling fan, I started looking at UFC and found myself even more intrigued with a sport that essentially answered the question "What if pro wrestling were real?" And wouldn't you know it? Two years after I became a fan of the sport, rumors started circulating about Brock Lesnar trying his hand at MMA. I've bought every single one of his fights on pay per view, from his debut to his retirement, and even attended his loss to Cain Velasquez live. It was really easy to call the guy my favorite fighter...until I read his book.

All the athletic skill Brock Lesnar possesses makes him fun to watch. All of the bombast and egotism that drives him makes it fun to anticipate when a person can watch him again. But all of those things that make him perfect as a draw are the exact kind of things that make it really hard to like him. Part of Brock's appeal is that he is an intensely private person. He enjoys putting on the show, but he figures that putting on the show is his job. Once he's done with his job, he just wants to go home and be a family man that's left alone. It makes him more intriguing that he wants to play the game on his own terms. I'm not one to spite him that mindset, however he makes a big point on the dust jacket of the book that this is the one time he's letting everyone into his private world. Too bad that it never actually feels that way.

Case in point: during the beginning of his WWE tenure, his daughter Mya was born. The passive voice is key here because he never mentions before that he has a wife or a girlfriend, that he even got someone pregnant. From the book's point of view, Mya was delivered by a stork that decided that Brock Lesnar needed a baby. There's never any insight into what would have probably made a very interesting story. It's all surface level information that could have been gleaned through a quick read of his Wikipedia page. 

His daughter's story is not the only time this occurs. The pattern of the book is as follows: Brock wants to be number one at [insert athletic achievement here]. Brock fails or succeeds. Brock moves on to [insert next athletic achievement here]. People get in Brock's way. Brock SMASH! It's repetitive and, really, kind of boring. He comes across as someone who is hard working, who doesn't buy into any of the hype surrounding the endeavors he engages, but instead wants to make the most amount of money that he can due to his humble beginnings. 

There are two ways to consider Brock Lesnar after reading this biography: either he never lets the reader penetrate the mystique that surrounds him, or the mystique was never really there from the beginning. There's some interesting information from a fan perspective, but, ultimately, it's a disappointing read.

Book 2 of 2012

I finished this book after waking up this morning. By the way, book one of 2012 was Shakespeare's Othello, which I read and annotated because I'm teaching it for the first time this year. In order to avoid getting sick of it before my students even start reading the play, I'm holding off on a proper review of it. It is pretty great, though.

2) Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce
For the longest time, I had no idea this book existed because the movie starring Paul Newman has always stood on its own as such a timeless piece of cinema that I never thought to question its origins. A few minor events are switched around from novel to film, but the things that happen are familiar. Lucas Jackson, a war "hero," gets sentenced to two years in a Florida chain gang and is too bullheaded for the guards' liking, so they proceed to try and get his mind right by breaking him down.

While the movie is a character piece, and the book does focus on Luke as the central figure, Pearce spends the majority of the novel detailing the harsh life of the chain gang. It's written in first person from the perspective of another prisoner who admires Luke for the savior-type leader that he is but also recognizes that no good outcome can result from Luke's behavior. Pearce provides insight into Luke's past, explaining how and why Luke's time in World War II led to his disillusionment with religion and disdain for authority.

This is a good book, and I really enjoyed it, but that enjoyment is also somewhat tainted by the film. Paul Newman and George Kennedy so encapsulate those characters and the movie itself is such a classic that it's difficult not to compare the two. Much like Fight Club, this is an occasion where the film trumps the original work. In both cases, the filmmaker decided to focus on the characters and landed actors that could do a great job fleshing them out and making them whole. That streamlined approach helps achieve the status it still holds today. Meanwhile, the book, by discussing the cruelty and despair of the chain gang life, touching on the depravity that men sink to during war, and merely hinting at the savior figure that Luke becomes in the eyes of the camp has a more scattered view. By tackling so many themes, it fails to accomplish getting a point across about a single one of them.

As a companion piece, to the film, this is an interesting read. On its own, it's merely just good but not really great.

UFC 143

This show is light on star power but heavy on fights that look decent on paper and that are tough to predict.

Ed Herman vs. Clifford Starks - Herman is on a two fight win streak following a terrible knee injury. As a TUF finalist all the way back in season three, he's always been a guy that could never really take things to the next level. He's an appropriate gatekeeper for Clifford Starks, an undefeated prospect known for his wrestling. I literally have no opinion on this fight as I never saw Starks fight before, but I'm going to root for him because I don't particularly like Ed Herman and what's a fight card without me going out on a limb with a long shot? And when we don't know enough, we always go with a decision, so Clifford Starks will win by decision.

Renan Barao vs. Scott Jorgensen - A few years ago, I went to watch UFC 79 at my wife's cousin's place with a large crowd of casual fans. Crowds like this are sometimes problematic for me because I tend to get a little nuts when I really focus on a fight, and it results in some weird looks thrown my way, not unlike when I attempt "humor" in any of my classes. During the course of the fight between Melvin Guillard and Rich Clementi, Clementi performed a picture perfect sweep, transitioning himself from the guard position on his back to full mount on his opponent. The fighters in the UFC are so well-rounded now that it's rare to see something like that performed with such ease at such a high level, and I deeply appreciated it the same way someone could appreciate a double play or complex lay up (Those are sports things, right?). I expressed as much in front of this crowd by saying, "Beautiful!" Cue the weird looks and comments, but, for reals, it was beautiful.

And you know what else was beautiful? Renan Barao fought Brad Pickett back in November and took his back after knocking him silly, sinking in both hooks, in such a fluid, quick motion that you'd think this guy has super powers. It was amazing and showed that Barao is for real since Pickett is no slouch. Jorgensen is a guy that is in the upper echelon of the bantamweight division, but lost recently enough to the champ that he's needing to build himself back up. Unfortunately, fighting Barao is not the way to do it because he's also riding a 27 fight win streak.  Barao has the potential to be the Jose Aldo of the bantamweight division, which is not good for Urijah Faber or Dominick Cruz, and especially terrible for Scott Jorgensen since he'll be losing to Renan Barao by submission in the second.

Josh Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce - Back in November, I explained at length why I don't like Rick Story (and, by extension, Jake Ellenberger) because he's just a guy that is completely interchangeable with any other guy. Add Mike Pierce into that same equation. All three are welterweights, too, which really doesn't help. None of them have had a fight I remember well. Granted, I watch a ton of fights, but I do so in the hopes of recognizing enjoyable fighters. Of the three, Ellenberger has been the most impressive, but none of them have shown a hint of personality. This is not to say that Pierce (or Ellenberger or Story) are not good fighters, but they're just so stereotypical in the their attitude and style that I get bored writing about them, let alone watching them in action. So whatever. Josh Koscheck will either attempt to knock him out or get knocked out, and I'll bet on the former over the latter because it's the safe way to go. Josh Koscheck wins by grinding out a decision.

Roy Nelson vs. Fabricio Werdum - As claims to fame go, being the first guy in a decade to beat and submit Fedor Emelianenko is pretty great for Fabricio Werdum despite the fact that he lost the follow up match to Alistair Overeem. Werdum will be able to hang his hat on that accomplishment for at least another two years, and it goes to show how dangerous he is on the ground. But Roy Nelson has his belly on his side, along with a better stand up game, devastating knock out power, and a black belt in jiu-jitsu. His portly appearance makes people underestimate his ability. Nelson is talented and smart enough to know how to neutralize any submission attempts by Werdum and vice versa. The same cannot be said for Werdum's rudimentary and pedestrian striking. The X factor in this fight is Nelson's wrestling: he's good enough to keep the fight wherever he wants to take it. Werdum is a guy I'd pick against a lot of people in the heavyweight division, but Roy Nelson has all the tools to get the job done here. I expect Nelson takes the fight by TKO in the second round.

Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit for the UFC Interim Welterweight Championship - With Georges St. Pierre injured and out until late 2012, the UFC has decided to create an interim championship between its top two contenders. It's appropriate that said contenders are the final Strikeforce and WEC welterweight champions, respectively.

Carlos Condit is a finisher who always has exciting fights. All but one of his wins have come by way of KO or submission. He effectively uses kicks, punches, and knees, all to devastating effect and has a solid ground game to match. His only UFC loss is a split decision to Martin Kampmann that easily could have gone Condit's way.

Nick Diaz is similar in that he always has exciting fights. He doesn't utilize kicks in the same way as Condit, but he more than makes up for that in his volume of punches that have pinpoint accuracy. They don't look like they pack much power, but he's the only guy to make BJ Penn's face look like it went through a meat grinder after three rounds of fighting. For fun, Diaz competes in triathlons (which really speaks to his wacky personality...more on that in a second), so his gas tank is one of the best in the entire sport. It also accounts for his standard game plan, which is to push forward and overwhelm his opponent with more punches than they can handle. He eats far too many shots in the process, but each of his punches finds the mark so well that he almost always comes out the victor in those exchanges.

The difference between these two guys outside of the cage is where the real story lies. Carlos Condit, for all the accolades someone can heap upon him as a fighter, is still just a guy and does nothing to set himself apart from any other MMA fighter out there. Unlike most sports where a team mentality often overwhelms the individual stars that exist, MMA and UFC specifically is completely star-driven. Carlos Condit is a very good fighter. He's not a star.

UFC 143 is the Nick Diaz show. He is compelling, partially because he's so good but also because he's pretty nuts. He's not Chael Sonnen nuts either, where it's clear that he's pandering to the audience to garner more attention. He just doesn't want to play the game that everyone expects him to play in how someone is "supposed" to act. In an age where everyone appears media savvy to some extent, Diaz refuses to join in. He won't be friends with other fighters he might face, he'll complain about the fact that he wants to get paid more, and he'll call out the fact that he thinks GSP is faking his injury because the latter is too scared to fight the former.

Because of that GSP dust up, Carlos Condit has almost become an afterthought in the build up to his own fight. GSP, Nick Diaz and the UFC fanbase want to see those two fight so bad that it almost feels like a foregone conclusion the fight between them will be the next one that takes place. Condit can spoil those plans. His knee strikes have knocked out guys with better chins than Nick Diaz and a well-timed one can counter a body shot pretty well. But that's just me hedging my bets because Nick Diaz will fight his Nick Diaz fight, Carlos' weakness, his cardio, will be the deciding factor. Nick will earn a TKO in the fourth round to set up the biggest PPV fight of 2012.

Don't call it a comeback!

LL Cool J knows what does and doesn't qualify
as a comeback.

HELLO!

Clearly, this blog has seen better days when it comes to the frequency of posting. Part of the reason for the infrequency of posting has to do with the fact that some jerks robbed my house in the early part of December, which definitely has an adverse effect on how much a person wants to interact with the world. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the damage was minimal. The things they took were just that: things. No one was home at the time (Although, our personal Batman-style detective work points to the fact that the perpetrators were teenagers interested in skinny jeans and anime, so my presence filled with menacing teacher looks may have been a deterrent.), and our dog was perfectly fine.

My wife and I are at the point now where we can joke about what a terrible guard dog our Spider-Man is; he barks incessantly at a perceived doorbell or knock, whether it's someone actually arriving at our house or something that occurs on television, yet a real threat to our abode leads to me arriving home to a perfectly happy dog.

I'm torn as to whether I should carry the burden of trying to catch up on all of the days I have missed in the nearly two months since I last wrote a classroom post, or if I should cut bait in the hopes of maintaining a motivation for writing. I'm leaning towards the latter. As a compromise, I'll merely discuss what we've gone over instead of doing a day by day breakdown. Heck, if that works better overall, I might adopt that for classroom posts in the future.

Frosh
After finishing up Fahrenheit 451, we focused on a research style project where you read through several articles on the idea of juvenile justice. You completed an essay on the subject after going through a plethora of pre-writing activities.

When we returned from winter break, we began to focus on the life and times of William Shakespeare in preparation for the third quarter text. Our focus will be on Othello this semester, but, since it's the first time I've taught that play, we'll also turn our attention towards Romeo & Juliet at times. This will serve the dual function of expanding your knowledge of Shakespeare's plays while also providing you the core literature the college prep classes cover.

We also spent a good portion of time on sonnets and iambic pentameter in an effort to prepare you for the style of writing Shakespeare employs. This is not to say that every single thing in either Romeo & Juliet or Othello will appear in this style, but it does prepare you for the diction and syntax present in the plays. Today, we'll be focused on reading through the famous balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet.

Seniors
After completing the senior literature project, we spent some time on Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. However, the time available towards the end of the semester couldn't do justice to the time needed to properly cover the literature. I know this breaks everyone's heart.

When we returned from break, we also started our focus on William Shakespeare. This is the one time of year where the subject matter of both my senior and frosh classes dovetail, presenting both opportunities and challenges in how to differentiate the instruction for the varying levels. You focused on reading through the cleverly titled Shakespacket, writing a short four paragraph essay with the provided topic sentences.

Now, we are currently in the thick of reading Macbeth, having just completed act I today in class. Everyone should be looking for examples of thematic dichotomies in the text in order to complete the paragraph due on Friday. Remember that a key aspect of completing said paragraph is to be able to distinguish your evidence from your analysis through highlighting.

UFC 141

This is a two fight card, and I'm not going to pretend like it's not. The only problem is that the UFC got cold feet by not putting it on New Year's Eve. The company always has a show right around the weekend of New Year's, but when the biggest party night of the year rolled around on a Saturday this year, they chickened out and put their biggest main event of 2011 on a Friday instead. It's a missed opportunity, and I hope it doesn't cost them.

Nam Phan vs. Jim Hettes - Hettes is an undefeated submission specialist who has finished all of his fights inside of two rounds. Phan is a middling striker who puts on entertaining fights. Hettes takes this by rear naked choke in the first.

Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson - Gustafsson is a great young prospect while Matyushenko is a past-his-prime dude nicknamed the Janitor. Gustafsson wins by TKO in the second.

Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks - ...zzzzzzzzzzzFitchbydecisionzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone - All right, now we're talking!

Donald Cerrone has deserved the spotlight for a good long while now, and getting the semi-main event slot for his second pay per view main card appearance is a nice way of doing it. He's riding a six fight win streak, finishing four of his opponents in the process and looking impressive with each outing. Cerrone has had some mental hurdles to overcome in the past, having a tendency to lose the early rounds before realizing he's in a fight, but ever since he transferred over to the UFC from the now defunct WEC, he's looked energized and come across as a title contender. There are few people in the UFC's midcard I anticipate watching more than the Cowboy.

AND HE'S FIGHTING A DIAZ!!

Guys, the Diaz brothers are tremendous because they're each individually more of a cartoon character than Chael Sonnen could ever hope to be with the added benefit of actually believing everything they say. While Nick is the crazier of the two, Nate certainly holds his own. For instance, the story goes that Cerrone, being the sportsman that he is, went up to Diaz at a public workout event to shake his hand. Diaz promptly slapped it away and called him a few choice words that are bleeped on television, explaining that they were in the same division so Cerrone was out of line. I wish I was making this up, but that's just Nate Diaz.

Thankfully, he fights as well as he talks, putting on a career best performance against Takanori Gomi back in September. However, Gomi is a shell of his former self and has had a terrible UFC run, so was that fight a case of Diaz taking his game to a new level at lightweight or looking great against an awful opponent? Regardless, the UFC brass saw Nate in a new way after the fight. Before that, he made a run at welterweight and lost two in a row, mostly because he couldn't handle the size advantage that most fighters in the division have over him.

Of the two, Cerrone has the better technical striking and Diaz has the better ground game, while neither are great shakes as wrestlers. Diaz can overwhelm opponents with his barrage of pitter-patter punches, but Cerrone has pretty great head movement and a solid chin and his kicks are enough to give a guy like Dennis Siver the shakey legs. Cerrone also is good enough on the ground not to get caught in a Diaz trap, while I can't say the same for Diaz when it comes to Cerrone standing. Another factor is that Cerrone trains with some world-class wrestlers at Greg Jackson's gym, so he probably gets the nod there despite the fact that neither guy is known for their takedown ability. How he wins isn't as clear to me, but I don't see anyone else but Donald Cerrone coming out the victor on this one. Let's say that Cerrone wins by TKO in the third.

Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem - Let's address the elephant in the room first for anyone who has been paying attention to the recent hubbub: this fight should not be happening due to the Nevada State Athletic Commissions. Call it incompetence at best or a conflict of interest at worst, but after it took Alistair Overeem 27 days to get a urine sample to the commission when they attempted to do a 48 hour drug test back in the middle of November, the fight should have been cancelled. As a fight fan, I'll still be glad to watch this bout, but, man, does it make them, the UFC and the sport as a whole look bad when shenanigans like this take place.

Overeem is a world class striker and a world class HGH and steroid abuser. See, this is what's great about being a fan of the sport who just happens to enjoy writing about it as opposed to a journalist or anything else where I'd have to be politically correct in my choice of words. Up until 2007, Overeem was an okay light heavyweight with a tall frame and a lean physique. A year later he put on 50 pounds of muscle and started destroying scrubs in Japan in the heavyweight division, where no one does any kind of drug testing. Stranger still, his face started to change shape, and a common side effect of growth hormone usage is a thickening of the jaw and bones in the head and face. No matter how much muscle a dude puts on, it's not all that common for their head to change as much shape as their body. Overeem, by the way, attributes his new body (and head girth) to eating horse meat. No, really.

But that's besides the point, isn't it? The point is that he punches and kicks really hard and can do so pretty accurately. And his opponent does not react well to getting punched in the face. Overeem also has a solid kimura and a pretty good guillotine, both of which he applies with more power than he does technique.

Don't mistake my criticism of Overeem for his suspect musculature for hypocrisy when I repeat for the umpteenth time on this blog that Brock Lesnar is my favorite fighter. Defending him and the fact that he's built like a man and a half is pretty easy considering his history of always being a giant. And who knows? Maybe they're both juicing. I like Brock more and that's all that really matters.

Also, he's going to win if he plays it smart. Not playing it smart would be to attempt to stand up for any length of time whatsoever at all with Overeem, and I don't see Brock doing that. Frank Mir laid out the exact game plan that I envision over at Yahoo. Brock will attempt a takedown, Overeem will sprawl, Brock will then power through and bull him against the fence where he'll trap him. Overeem will attempt to stand, and might even do so a few times, but lathering, rinsing and repeating the same strategy from Brock is all that will happen once he does stand up.

Well, that'll just lead to a boring decision then won't it?

No, faceless question asker, it won't. This is where the important distinction between the two men comes into play. Overeem is mentally weak and will break. Whether that happens before or after he gasses out is up in the air, but both will happen. Fifty pounds of extra muscle is all well and good until a person is forced to carry it around with another guy of equal size attempting to keep one down for the better part of a fast-paced five to ten minutes. The guillotine and kimura won't play a factor after that, and for all of the talk about Brock Lesnar not being able to take a punch, he sure does know how to hit really hard, especially on a prone opponent. That'll easily set Overeem up for an arm triangle.

Brock wins this fight in the second round by submission. 

Book 33 of 2011

I finished this shortly before performing my staff duty at work as the ticket seller for the play.

33) My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor
Jill Taylor is a renowned brain scientist who had a massive stroke due to a golf ball sized clot in the left hemisphere of her brain at 37 years old. It was the best thing that ever happened to her.

Taylor's story came to me through a TED talk that another teacher showed me while we both were teaching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Much like Chief, her brother is schizophrenic, which led her to study the brain as a means to find out why his perception of the world differs from that of everyone else. Her stroke gave her the opportunity to study the effects from a unique perspective and discover that the impairment a stroke entails also allowed her the chance to reboot her personality.

Taylor provides a great deal of insight into how the brain works, something she always studied in theory but discovered in practice when the clot essentially silenced the left half of her brain. The left hemisphere is the language center of the brain, but, more importantly, it's the part of the brain that puts everything we see or experience into context. Conversely, the right hemisphere is all about experiencing the present moment, taking in the here and now in such a way that Taylor compares the time when the stroke silenced her left hemisphere to experiencing Nirvana. Since her left side could not provide the context of the past, present or future, she no longer knew where the borders of her body ended and the rest of the world began. She goes into great detail about how her life was changed by the stroke, both in taking the 8 years to fully recover and noting the ways in which she consciously made decisions to avoid the emotional baggage that hounded her pre-stroke.

While the content of the book is fascinating, the layout and structure take away from the whole. The last four to six chapters really drag as she gets into flowery descriptions about letting the right brain take over and leaving the left brain behind every once in awhile. A better editor could have spread out the experience of the stroke and subsequent recovery over the course of the book with the chapters on how best to establish a right brain connection interspersed in between as a way to bring things together in a more cohesive way. Plus, toning down or getting rid entirely of how appreciative she feels towards each of he individual cells would have increased my enjoyment and decreased my frustration at the repetitiveness of her writing.

Still, it's a fascinating story that allows someone to experience the kind of empathy needed when dealing with someone who has had a stroke, and her guide for doing so in the back of the book will be invaluable for anyone suffering through the experience.

Here's the original video, which, if you're a senior, you'll see again in the spring.

A Tale of Two Games

New video games in my house are pretty rare outside of a sudden and/or unexpected cash influx, and to get two new games inside of a month is like finding the Loch Ness monster hanging out with Bigfoot. Yet, here we are, as I've acquired both Batman: Arkham City and WWE '12. Both are sequels to popular franchise games, but that's about the only thing the two have in common.

Arkham City takes place a year after the events of 2009's Batman: Arkham Asylum and opens the world to include a large portion of Gotham City's slums, which have been converted to an enormous prison/police-state. It's a tremendous concept, with gameplay that builds on the original and then exceeds it. There's a very defined version of Batman and his outlying universe that Rocksteady is creating with these games. While it's not the version of Batman I envision of the character due to him generally being a jerk to everyone all of the time and how he oddly feels compelled to save a girl he kind of likes instead of the hundreds of people dying at one point in the story, I dig that the creators are forging their own mythos that plays somewhere in between the comic books and the Christopher Nolan movies.

Additionally, the downloadable content provides some awesome alternatives for the challenge maps as a way to keep them from being too repetitive. Playing as Robin or Nightwing makes the game worthwhile since each one has unique gadgets and different fighting animations. My hope is that Rocksteady continues to pump out the DLC on a regular basis, maybe adding a new side mission or two in addition to the challenge maps because I don't want to have to wait another two years for the next sequel, which will be interesting since the next step up would be Arkham State, and I can't imagine what the scope of that game might entail.

WWE '12, on the other hand, feels like a mixed bag of a game, albeit one that's starting to grow on me. THQ, the folks in charge of both the WWE and UFC license, always appear to have the best of intentions but somehow manage to fall just a little bit short in their sports entertainment endeavors. Their latest addition is an attempt at a reboot by turning away from the Smackdown vs. RAW name they've employed for the last seven years. Unfortunately, it's not a reboot that is successful in reinventing the game, but there are some improvements that don't have me completely hating it as much as my initial impression led me to believe.

Let's look at the positives first. The game has the WWE presentation down. It looks about as perfect as fake fighting which attempts to portray itself as real but also tries not to be real ever can possibly get. The entrances capture every nuance of each wrestler, the moves are easily identifiable, and the level of customization has never been higher. As a visual experience, WWE '12 is the best wrestling game ever produced. THQ has also improved the WWE Universe mode, where you can customize and book three different television shows that build to the monthly pay per view, over last year's initial foray. To top it all off, both The Rock and Brock Lesnar are in the game, which is what really sold me on buying it the first week. The latter is an especially popular guy to make as a created superstar, so it's pretty awesome that we get the real deal this time around. Yet, the game is far from perfect.

One of the main reasons why I don't purchase games too often is because the replay factor on the games I like is really high. WWE or UFC games lend themselves to both long or short periods of play time, so playing one match or a series of them isn't a problem. But WWE '12 changes the gameplay to the point that I almost took the game back the day I purchased it. Cooler heads prevailed since the new grapple system clearly requires a learning curve that I was too stubborn to accept. Even though it was a blow to my pride, I switched the difficulty to Easy for the time being until I start to improve.

At the same time, there are still a ton of problems with playing the game. Running strikes and grapples are nearly impossible to vary thanks to the new tap and hold methods of implementation. Most of the time when I attempt the secondary running strike or grapple, I still end up attempting the standard one. For a game touting that players will have to vary their attack when facing the AI, this doesn't help. The reversals are also spotty (or I just stink at them) despite hitting the right trigger at the prompt on a fairly consistent basis.

By far the worst aspect of the game is the new dynamic camera system that's supposed to approximate WWE television presentation. Instead of the standard elevated camera utilized in the past, the game now takes the approach of WWE TV by showing most of the match from the hard camera side. While this works for their show, it completely robs the player of any depth perception and destroys any possibility of a match that flows as a quality wrestling showcase. Instead, there are tons of missed moves and comical pratfalls that makes playing more frustrating than fun. The camera also doesn't adjust when folks uninvolved in the action, like a tag partner or manager, stand in the way. In an effort to portray realism (ironic considering the subject matter of pro wrestling) by not having tag partners become translucent, they wind up interfering in huge way. Additionally, the referee is always in the way of the action in the match, which I don't remember ever being a problem in a WWE game before.

I guess I still need more time with WWE '12. Maybe getting used to the new control scheme will alleviate some of these problems. Once UFC Undisputed 3 comes out in February, though, I doubt I'll continue playing WWE '12.

Frosh
Monday, November 14 - You took the Fahrenheit 451 final and I checked your agendas. These should be entered into the grade book by the end of the week.

Tuesday, November 15 - After receiving a list of words from The Sniper, you worked with a partner to predict the usage and utilize words in context.

Wednesday, November 16 - You continued the work from the day before and also determined the definitions of a new set of words based on the way they were used in context.

Thursday, November 17 - Having completed the assignment from the previous two days, we read The Sniper together as a class.

Friday, November 18 - We read the story called The Last Spin, which served as an introduction to our Juvenile Justice unit we started the following week.

Monday, November 28 - After completing a quick write discussing punishment differences for adults and people your age, we determined the characteristics of a child, an adult and a juvenile. Our goal was to figure out for ourselves the factors that make up a juvenile and how to differentiate between the three different concepts.


Seniors
Monday, November 14 - You completed the final timed writing and turned in your books for the last annotation check. Please make sure to finish reading the book even if you didn't complete the annotations. Missing out on that 25 point annotation check is one thing, but if you don't finish reading the book, it will seriously hinder your ability to do well on the culminating paper.

Tuesday, November 15 - After turning in the final article selection assignment, you received a final work day to complete the CD Creation project.

Wednesday, November 16 - We discussed in-text citations and how to properly implement them in your paper.

Thursday, November 17 - You turned in your CD Creation project. We then continued reading through Beowulf.

Friday, November 18 - We completed reading Beowulf and you received time to complete the dialectical journals, which I will collect on Wednesday, November 30.

Monday, November 28 - You received the guidelines for a properly formatted works cited page.

Book 32 of 2011

32) God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Athiest and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette
One half of the magical duo Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette is a noted blowhard, but an entertaining one. He's cultivated this personality since his act with his partner has seen him become the talkative one of the two and they're pretty successful. The book makes the case for a secular collection of commandments to replace the Biblical version while liberally sprinkling in stories from his own experiences inside and outside of his life as an entertainer. Jillette is firm in his own beliefs and has no qualms discussing them here, as both a libertarian and an atheist.

UFC 139

Sadly, this might be a show that I don't see, but it's got some far-reaching implications for the light-heavyweight and bantamweight divisions, so I'd feel remiss if I just ignored it since my opinion alone is the sole one available on the vast Internets about the sport of mixed-martial arts. Besides all that, it's a card that, while lost in the shuffle of the recent glut of shows, is deep on potentially awesome fights. If Miguel Angel Torres fights on the undercard, then you're looking at a really packed night.

Stephan Bonnar vs. Kyle Kingsbury - Both guys are riding win streaks, Bonnar at two and Kingsbury at four, but it's Kingsbury who has looked the most impressive of late with two fight of the night bonuses under his belt and a wider array of skills to accompany his impressive new physique. Bonnar has languished for quite some time and is getting older as a fighter. Kingsbury is the younger guy who appears to finally be putting all of the pieces together to take his game to the next level while Bonnar starts to settle into a newer position as a broadcaster. By no means am I suggesting that Bonnar hang it up, but I don't like his odds in this contest. Kingsbury will get the decision in what will probably be a slobberknocker of a fight.

Martin Kampmann vs. Rick Story - Kampann lost a pick-em fight against Diego Sanchez that easily could have gone his way and came out the losing end in Jake Shields' UFC debut. Meanwhile, Story, a guy who comes across as the meatiest of meatheads in every interview he ever does, was riding a six fight win streak and probably in line for a title shot until he took a fight against Charlie Brenneman on short notice less than a month after the biggest win of his career against Thiago Alves. In a convoluted set of circumstances that can only happen in MMA, he was set to fill in for an injured Anthony Johnson against Nate Marquardt when Marquardt tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and subsequently got himself fired the day before the show. Instead of headlining against a big name dude in Marquardt, Story wound up facing a dude in Brenneman who had thought his fight was cancelled earlier in the week. IT IS CONFUSING, THIS FIGHTING THING.

Anyway, it wasn't a smart decision on Story's part since his body was exhausted from overtraining and attempting to peak it for a second time so soon after his last fight, resulting in a loss to the much fresher Brenneman. I explain all of this mostly to remind myself who Rick Story is since, besides this story and the aforementioned meathead comment, I always get him confused with Jake Ellenberger. They look alike (with Ellenberger being a little bit more notable for resembling a mini version of Rich Franklin) and are so nondescript and forgettable despite being decent fighters that I can never be bothered to care about their fights. Meanwhile, I like Kampmann enough to remember who he is but only if he's facing a guy that I think can make his fights memorable and exciting. Technically, Story can do that, but I am not in the mood to care. Plus, Story just rubs me the wrong way, if it wasn't already obvious. Story will get the decision, but I'm hoping for a Kampann win.

Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles - Here's the first in our triple main event: a number one contender's match for the UFC Bantamweight Championship. It's been well-established that mine is a household squarely in the California Kid's camp, as he is my wife's second favorite fighter. That being said, Brian Bowles is long overdue for a rematch for the championship he lost to Cruz. Bowles' biggest enemy has been time since his year on the shelf after losing the belt hurt his visibility.

It doesn't help that Bowles, despite being an exciting fighter won his last fight in a boring match against Takeya Mizugaki and has a personality that's akin to watching paint dry. There's no doubt in my mind that Brian Bowles is a perfectly pleasant fellow, but, man, he's boring. Whatever excitement he generates in the Octagon pales in comparison to the disinterest he creates in every other possible situation. He is the prototypical MMA fighter in that he trains hard and does his utmost to respect every other fighter he's up against. Ask him who he wants to fight next and he'll say, "Whoever the UFC puts in front of me." That's a fine attitude for some fighters to have, but a variety of personalities creates stars, and what many of these young fighters don't realize is that calling people out and being more than the respectful, hard-working athlete allows them to make a name for themselves off the established name of others.

Urijah Faber is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. He's outgoing, clever and a crowd pleaser outside of his fights as much as he is during them. That's where the lack of personality hurts Bowles. Despite winning two in a row and his sole loss being a literal and figurative bad break to the current champ, Bowles is here in a number one contender's match-up against Faber, a guy who has lost four championship bouts. Because he's a draw that has a large fanbase, and even though his last fight was a loss to Dominick Cruz, Faber is again vying for a title shot that should theoretically already belong to Bowles.

All of this means little in terms of the winner, though. And Faber is going to win because he's the superior wrestler and grappler. Bowles has a tight guillotine choke and dynamite in his hands, but Faber is too fast and too powerful to get caught. Faber will get the win with a submission in the second.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le - Originally pitting the San Jose native against the much larger and much more dangerous Vitor Belfort, Cung Le instead makes his UFC debut against the former Pride Middleweight Champion. Le is a passable enough wrestler who uses it defensively to employ his devastating and dynamic striking. Without question, Cung Le has the best kicks in MMA. Everyone knows it and everyone he faces plans for them, yet he's still able to employ them every single time, which just goes to show how great he is. Unfortunately, he came into MMA fairly late in life and is getting on in years. Plus, he fights so rarely that rust has to be considered going into this fight.

Meanwhile, Wanderlei Silva is technically younger than Le, but in fighting years, this guy is ancient. For most of his career, he earned his nickname "the Axe Murderer" by plowing through opponents utilizing the windmill strategy. He moved forward non-stop, eating punches in an effort to land more than his opponent and eventually knock the guy out. A guy's chin can only take so many punches, especially from folks who have more technical striking, and now Silva is bearing the brunt of all of those years of abuse. He's 2-4 in his UFC career and his jaw has turned to glass, but a fighter is always the last one to know when to retire. That's just sad. Cung Le wins this by knockout in the first round.


Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Dan Henderson - This five round fight appears to have implications for two different weight classes.

Rua is coming off a decisive victory over Forrest Griffin. He appears healthy, which is always a concern with Shogun, and his main weapons are his forward motion and technical striking combined with a great submission game. He's attempting to get back into the light heavyweight championship picture and a win over the current Strikeforce Light Heavyweight champ can go a long way towards making that dream a reality, despite how convincingly he lost the title to Jon Jones back in March.

Then there's 40 year old Dan Henderson, he of the granite chin, caveman face and right hand forged from the power of a thousand volcanoes. Additionally, he's world renowned Greco-Roman wrestler. He's riding a three fight win streak, with the biggest victory coming earlier this year against the vaunted (or overhyped...take your pick) Fedor Emelianenko. With his return to the UFC, Henderson hopes to make a statement that defies what most folks his age should be able to do. He's mentioned that with a win here, he'd like to challenge Anderson Silva to a rematch at middleweight, since Hendo is a small light heavyweight who has fluctuated between 205 and 185 over the course of his career. Can he do it?

Eh, I don't think so. This is a fight that favors Rua and I see Shogun winning with a submission in the third or fourth round.

"Vaya con Dios."

Over the weekend, I took in some live theatre (spelled with the "-re" at the end to make it sound both classy and fancy) in Los Angeles and attended Point Break Live LA. For those unfamiliar, Point Break is Oscar award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow's movie about surfing bank robbers and the FBI agent on a mission to stop them. It's a movie that is both awesome and incredibly ridiculous and not something one would normally associate with a sustainable stage translation, what with so many scenes taking place at the beach or in mid-flight during a spontaneous afternoon skydive.

The other thing Point Break is known for is Keanu Reeves and his ridiculous acting because he is terrible. Everyone else in the movie is either competent (Lori Petty) or having a whole lot of fun (Gary Busey), so their personalities work well with their performances, but Keanu is on another level. His line-readings in the movie, along with his truly awful acting, make for a cult classic performance and a unique stage translation. Instead of having an improv actor/comedian play the role of former college football great turned lawyer/FBI agent Johnny Utah, the crew at the Dragonfly casts the role from the audience members present. The audience member reads the lines from cue cards, which allows the individual to embrace the inner Keanu-ness of the part.

Everything is interactive, as the audience members become part of the play when the actors rob banks or run through the crowd to simulate the truly awesome chase scene. The foot chase between Johnny Utah and the bank robbing, surfer, Zen ringleader Bodhi is my favorite scene in the entire movie because the latter at one point throws a dog at the former, and they recreate that moment as faithfully as they possibly can in a theatre setting.

My only complaint is that, for the sake of streamlining the story and theatrical brevity, the cast and crew cut out a large subplot involving a separate gang of surfers who deal drugs and run guns. Some of my favorite moments come from that subplot, including Anthony Keidis shooting himself in the foot, Tom Sizemore complaining about having to wear the surfer attire and sport a stupid haircut while working undercover, and the fact that there is a character named Warchild. Still, as an experience I would enjoy attending again,
this was tops.

Frosh
Friday, October 28 - We explored irony through Alanis Morissette's song, "Ironic." In groups of no more than three, you took the existing situations in the song and modified them to be truly ironic. See, 'cause the song is only true to its namesake in that the situations described aren't, making the whole thing an exercise in irony. Crazy!

Tuesday, November 1 - After going over direct and indirect characterization, you began finding examples of both for a single character in Fahrenheit 451, taking note to use the acronym STEAL (speech, thoughts, effect, actions and looks) when finding indirect quotations.

Wednesday, November 2 - You finished Fahrenheit 451 and turned in your last batch of annotations, which I graded and returned to you. Meanwhile, the class received a work day for the Censorship Project.

Thursday, November 3 - We read through the afterword of the book and used that to discuss some major points about the novel, including how much ownership an artist has over art after its release.

Friday, November 4 - We continued our discussion and also read through the coda.

Monday, November 7 - You received a day to rehearse your Censorship Project.

Tuesday, November 8 - All students began presenting for the Censorship Project.

Wednesday, November 9 - Lather, rinse, repeat the previous day.

Thursday, November 10 - And after wrapping up the presentations, we reviewed for the final on Fahrenheit 451.

Seniors
Friday, October 27 - We started reading Beowulf with an eye for focusing on how it serves as a transition between pagan and Christian cultural beliefs for the Anglo-Saxons while also demonstrating Anglo-Saxon heroic ideals. As such, during our reading, you'll keep track of the truncated version of the story through a dialectical journal. On the left hand side, you'll summarize the section we completed in three to five sentences. On the right hand side, you'll write down the section of the heroic journey that the story falls under and two sentences dedicated to either how the section serves as the transition between the two cultural beliefs or how the section demonstrates the heroic ideals.

Tuesday, November 1 - We continued reading Beowulf because that guy is pretty cool.

Wednesday, November 2 - In an effort to better incorporate quotations into your writing, we went over TLQ guidelines, which stands for transition, lead-in, quote. The idea is that quotations should not just get dropped into your paragraphs because that's lazy. Instead, since quotations are meant to back up whatever point you're trying to make, they should be integrated seamlessly into your writing as a way to strengthen your argument.

Thursday, November 3 - This was our third timed writing day, and I asked you to incorporate a quotation into each of your three paragraphs using the TLQ guidelines from the day before.

Friday, November 4 - You received a work day for annotation or your CD Creation project.

Monday, November 7 - We continued reading Beowulf and discussed the battle with Grendel.

Tuesday, November 8 - You received the guidelines for the culminating paper, which is due December 6. The prompt asks you to trace a theme throughout the course of your novel, making sure that you support it with outside sources and valid thesis statement.

Wednesday, November 9 - We expanded on the idea for thesis statements, discussing the ATC3(or 4) format that leads to a valid thesis statement. The catch is to make sure the sentence flows and makes sense. The easiest way to figure out if it does is to read the sentence aloud to yourself after the fact.

Thursday, November 10 - You earned a work day and I forgot that your final article selection was due, so I pushed it back to the following Tuesday.

Book 31 of 2011

31) Wounded Warriors: True Tales of Iraq, Vietnam and Those For Whom the War Never Ends by Mike Sager
Much like Chuck Klosterman's IV, this book is a collection of articles written over Mike Sager's career that, at first glance, appears to focus on veterans who have come back from battle changed. Unfortunately, the "wounded warriors" premise stretches pretty thin to include drug addicts (a warrior of addiction?), kids involved with dog fighting (warriors of poverty?) and Kobe Bryant (...I got nothing.), which ultimately takes away from what would appear to be an important work.

My favorite articles were the titular one about how Iraq war veterans deal with their injuries, be they emotional or physical and the story on the morbidly obese man who comes to terms with his obesity but still has to deal with everyone else's lack of acceptance of it. In both, the motif of the wounded warrior was clear, and he takes the subject matter seriously with a depth that isn't often found in the latter. He'll sometimes switch between his third person narrative to a first person account of the subject's experience, which most writers/reporters don't have the courage to do.

While I didn't care for a few of the stories (the Vietnam veterans sticking around Thailand felt cliche and the Marlon Brando article that ends the book was self-indulgent), I enjoyed his overall writing style and was curious how he managed to secure his access with some of his subjects. Sager gets in deep with the poor Dominican kids who engage in vicious dogfighting, and how he gained the access to a bunch of poverty stricken adolescents as a middle-aged white guy felt like a more interesting story than the one he was telling.

Book 30 of 2011

Let it be known that I originally made a goal of reading 25 books in 2011, which I soon modified to 30 and then 35 as I found myself more and more motivated to get as many books under my belt as possible. With a little under two months left in the calendar year and five books left, I'm curious to see if I can measure up, especially considering that we're entering the hardcore grading period coming up with essays from the freshpeeps and CD projects and culminating papers from the seniors. It won't be a problem, though, if all of the books are like this one because I finished it in two and a half days.

30) Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
It feels like I've been too effusive with my praise of the books I've been reading lately. Not everything can be four or five stars on the Goodreads scale, right? But then I remembered that I choose what I read and I'm not trying to read things that I don't like, so if I do like it, then that shouldn't come as a shock to me or anyone else. If a book sucks so much that it'll get a one or two star rating, I'll probably stop part way through or only finish it out of spite. (Spite for who doesn't really matter even though it's pretty obvious that it's for myself.) But that leads us to Mindy Kaling's book.

Best known for her role as Kelly Kapoor on NBC's The Office, Kaling's book is a great mixture of memoir and philosophical musings of a successful, early 30-something woman who makes no apologies for having a great relationship with her parents and memorizing her debit card number to make online shopping easier. And it's also hilarious. The publisher released an excerpt shortly after the release of Tina Fey's book, Bossypants, and it was clear that it was right in the same wheelhouse.

The chief complaint that I heard about Fey's book after I read and reviewed it was how impersonal it felt, and in hindsight, that's valid. Sure, she discusses her father, her husband and the anxiety of having a second kid, but Fey never goes into too much depth on any of those topics, keeping it light, breezy yet still really funny. Kaling's book, while roughly the same length, reveals more about herself, her thoughts and her background while embracing superficiality without forsaking her insightful sense of humor.

And superficiality sounds like a mean term applied here, but, trust me, it isn't meant that way. Too many famous people seem to stalk fame like a big game hunter and then eschew the notion of it once they attain it. Mindy (Can I call her Mindy? That's how personable she comes across in the book: I want to call her Min or Mindy or M-Dog) has a chapter called "The Exact Level of Fame I Want," and that honesty is as endearing as it is refreshing.

Her writing style really works well, here, too, since I finished this in pretty quick fashion because the pages feel like a breathless Kelly Kapoor monologue. She's talented in such a way that she can use the phrase "...or whatever" effectively every single time. That takes an intelligence I'm not used to reading in my everyday life considering how often I see similar phrases used in student writing.

Other things of note in her book: She loves romantic comedies but not what they've become. Her chapter on best friend rights demonstrates just how different groups of female friends are from male friends. The chapter on karaoke etiquette shows that M-Dog and I would get along famously in person. (And she would probably hate the term M-Dog, preferring DJ Mindy Min.) The entire section on romance and guys reminds me of my wife and leads me to think that the two of them would be pretty great friends, too.

Where Tina Fey's book makes the reader want to be friends with her, Mindy Kaling's book makes me think being friends with her is possible.

VitaBeard

Beards are the best. This topic has come up more than a few times before, especially since my beard, at least the important beard-centric side portions, has always come up a subpar. My beard envy was only exacerbated over the summer when IFC aired their original program, Whisker Wars, a reality show about competitive bearding. These guys were so good at growing a beard that they gathered in one place and awarded each other trophies as tributes to their manliness.

The star and villain of the show, Jack Passion, earned the ire of other beard competitors, the Austin Facial Hair Club chief among them, by attempting to become the face of bearding and cash in on his facial hair growing ability. They think he's a sellout. While Passion does come across as a pompous jerk and a sore loser on the show, I can't blame him for trying to go pro and make some cash off of the fact that he doesn't shave. And, heck, it's worked, hasn't it? I follow the dude on Twitter, want to purchase his book, and now I'm relaying his latest endorsement mostly because I want it for myself.

It's a supplement that aids facial hair growth. To be clear, I have no false notion that this is anything other than a multivitamin, and even those are widely considered less than effective when their of the over the counter variety like this one. But I want to believe! I desperately want to think that this one pill, taken 2 to 6 times daily will make my beard fuller, thicker and more luscious. Don't be another Rogaine, VitaBeard. Don't break my heart.

Frosh
On Monday, we continued our discussion of Fahrenheit 451. The important idea that we focused on was the idea of perception and how allowing others to craft the perception of an argument or a rule grants them the power to create said rule's implementation. If others have that power, they control the idea, and controlling an idea is very effective tool when someone has an agenda.

Tuesday, the Link Crew came in and gave a presentation for the first half of the period and you annotated your books for the second half.

Everyone received a work day on the Censorship Project on Wednesday. You will have one more work day next week where you'll receive the rubric for the presentation as well as sign up for a spot to present. As a rule of thumb, I'm usually a much more lenient grader on those who volunteer to go first than I am than those who attempt to go last. Presentations begin the week of November 7. You'll have a rehearsal day on the Monday, and the following three days after that will be devoted to presentations.

Today, the plan is to introduce the concept of irony and attempt to make sure everyone can identify it in practice in our reading of Fahrenheit 451.

Seniors
We discussed the idea and implementation of evil, both in practice and as a concept, on Monday.

Tuesday, I collected your Thesis/Theme worksheets, and we collectively attempted to fix the level questions and theme statements of volunteers. Hopefully, you took this as a chance to modify your own by applying your own understanding to how you should construct your theme.

You received a day devoted to working on either the CD creation project or annotating your lit books on Wednesday.

Thursday, I tried something completely new and foreign to me with mixed results. We discussed archetypes and I asked you to write down your own examples of archetypes in small groups on the whiteboards I provided. However, I don't think my instructions were very clear. I modified them in asking you to come up with an archetype together (My example was the arrogant jerk boyfriend.) and then have each individual in the group come up with a different example (Bradley Cooper in Wedding Crashers and Stu's girlfriend from The Hangover both qualified.) all written on those shiny new whiteboards. With some clearer instructions, I think this is something I'll look forward to doing again next year.

Book 29 of 2011

Despite planning to grade on our first furlough day of the year, the doctor diagnosed me with an ear infection, nixing my plans. Instead, I read the last 60 pages of this book. This review, however, has taken much longer to write.

29) Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison

This is something that's hard to classify. It's part memoir, part comic book literary criticism, and part philosophical dissertation on mysticism and transcendentalism. What's really important, though, is that Grant Morrison is my favorite comic book writer, and this book both explains and shows why. 

Morrison explains his humble beginnings as the son of an urban liberal middle-class divorced couple and how that shaped his worldview in unexpected ways. His forays into punk music and crossing the line from a straight-edge lifestyle into one influenced by hallucinogenics draw a picture of a person who puts every aspect of himself into his work and endeavors to stretch the boundaries of the comic book medium. The most exciting and riveting chapter in the book deals with Morrison's experience in the fifth dimension and discovery of his own super powers of perception.

You didn't misread that last sentence. 

It's a fascinating read that demonstrates how Morrison possesses an adept grasp of comic book characters. He gives Superman, Batman and others their proper reverence, offering a history of their meaning to society while also properly analyzing the different phases of comic books as a medium. A recommended reading list supplied at the end is both exhaustive and illuminating and worth attempting. 

Look, this is just excellent, and sometimes excellence is more difficult to write about because people find it easier to tear things down than build them up. It's sizable compared to similar books in the genre, but worth the effort for anyone who is at all looking to explore superheroes beyond what's available at the box office each summer. 

Meta Blogging

This guy is almost as frustrated
as I am with my lack of posting.

See what happens when I get bogged down with doing my job? I fail to update the blog about my job! THIS IS A TRAVESTY AND UNTOWARD! This is a disservice to myself more than anyone because holding off on writing the daily happenings of the class means that I tend to forget aspects of each day, resulting in this blog entry becoming a chore. If details are spotty, that's why. Also, I don't get to do the fun pre-amble as I instead focus on some expository writing on why I haven't been writing, which is the most boring writing to ever exist. But here we are.

Frosh
Monday, September 26 - You needed to have Fahrenheit 451 by this day. We began covering the Elements of Theme in our notes. When creating a theme statement, the key is to first decide on any of the number of topics a story addresses (what the story is about), and then figure out what the story reveals about said topic (what the story is trying to say).

Tuesday, September 27 - We continued our discussion on the Elements of Theme. You also began reading The Scarlet Ibis

Wednesday, September 28 - You continued reading The Scarlet Ibis and worked to fill out your story charts, which, hopefully, led you to creating a valid theme statement.

Thursday, September 29 - Everyone turned in The Scarlet Ibis story chart and then spent the rest of the period working on the newspaper projects in their groups.

Friday, September 30 - Newspaper projects were due this day, and we spent a portion of the period looking at everyone's work. We also attempted to come up with our own theme statement for The Scarlet Ibis so that everyone else could come up with three possible theme statements for the story by the following Monday.

Monday, October 3 - Students received an annotation day to work on their reading of Fahrenheit 451.

Tuesday, October 4 - You received the Thematic Paragraph assignment and we went over themes you created together as a class.

Wednesday, October 5 - I gave you a series of statements that are thematically linked to Fahrenheit 451, and asked you to respond to them with whether or not you agree or disagree. Meanwhile, I also checked your books for annotations on the first 35 pages of the book.

Thursday, October 6 - In small groups, you discussed your opinions on the Fahrenheit 451 anticipation/reaction statements. This led to a whole group discussion where we talked about the views of your group.

Friday, October 7 - You turned in your Thematic Paragraph and took a quiz on the first 35 pages of Fahrenheit 451.

Tuesday, October 11 - We graded the first quiz together as a class as a means to discuss the first half of Part One of Fahrenheit 451.

Wednesday, October 12 - I collected your annotations for the rest of Part One and you took an in-class essay addressing the need for people to read books.

Thursday, October 13 - We finally went back to discussing your take on the anticipation/reaction statements. The goal here is to make connections to the book and clarify some of the more confusing aspects of it by framing your understanding through these statements.

Friday, October 14 - You received a day to annotate your books.

Monday, October 17 - We spent this day becoming acquainted with the library.

Tuesday, October 18 - I assigned your Censorship Project and answered questions on it. In groups of your choosing, you began working on a worksheet that explored the meaning of censorship.

Wednesday, October 19 - Your group turned in the censorship survey and then used the rest of the class period as a work day.

Thursday, October 20 - You took a quiz on the rest of part one and all of part two of Fahrenheit 451. After finishing the quiz, you wrote down ten questions on anything that occurs in the first two parts of the book for our discussion on Friday.

Friday, October 21 - We discussed all of part one and two of Fahrenheit 451.

Seniors
Monday, September 26 - You received the Persuasion Portfolio, formed groups and began working.

Tuesday, September 27 - Everyone turned in their Timed Writing 1 Revisions and worked on the Persuasion Portfolio.

Wednesday, September 28 - We watched No Logo and you answered questions regarding the documentary/speech.

Thursday, September 29 - Everyone took the comprehensive lit terms test and turned in the No Logo questions by the end of the period.

Friday, September 30 - Students worked on the Persuasion Portfolio for the last day.

Monday, October 3 - Persuasion Portfolios were due this day. I gave you a proofreading assignment to ensure your understanding of sentence run-ons and fragments.

Tuesday, October 4 - We corrected the proofreading assignment together as a class with some explanation. You then received a day to annotate your lit books.

Wednesday, October 5 - I gave you a list of forceless words that you should avoid in your writing that also contained a few lists of suggested words to improve your analysis. We then explored what analysis looks like by looking at examples and discussing how much summary should be included when analyzing literature. The answer? Very little. Remember that the assumption when writing any type of analysis is that your reader is familiar with and has read the work in question.

Thursday, October 6 - I collected your second Article Selection assignment. We then read about and discussed the Radical Honesty movement and how it could feasibly apply to a person's everyday life. We also started to go over level questions. Here's a lovingly crafted example using a then recent episode of Mad Men as a base that I wrote last year.

Friday, October 7 - We continued going over level question and applying them to your lit books.

Tuesday, October 11 - You received a day to annotate your lit books.

Wednesday, October 12 - As a way to introduce ourselves to Beowulf, we went over a truncated (and sometimes sarcastic) look at the Anglo Saxons and their history.

Thursday, October 13 - This day was focused on your second in-class Timed Writing and turning in your books for an annotation check.

Friday, October 14 - After looking at laws that existed between the fifth and eighth century, you discussed what these laws said about the Anglo Saxon society in small groups.


Monday, October 17 - I assigned the CD Creation project and showed off examples, both good and bad, of past projects. The key for this one is having a viable theme statement that can apply to your lit book before you even attempt to choose any kind of song. Please keep that in mind, since this project is worth 150 points and due on November 17.

Tuesday, October 18 - You turned in your second Timed Writing Revision. I assigned two theme-based worksheets, one asking you to write down subjects and revelations and another exploring level questions leading to a theme, both of which are due Tuesday, 10/25.

Wednesday, October 19 - This was a CD Creation project work day.

Thursday, October 20 - We discussed the hero's journey and where we've seen examples of it in stories we have all experienced before. In a longer form, we applied the hero's journey to Finding Nemo and then you were given time to work on the bonus assignment that was due the next day.

Friday, October 21 - As a class, we discussed the idea of evil, and you answered some questions about its nature.

And SCENE.

UFC 136

Between August 27 and November 12, every single UFC championship (injuries permitting) will be defended. We've already seen three go down, with Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Dominick Cruz all defending and retaining their belts, and this Saturday we have two more up for grabs. And on paper from top to bottom, this is a great night of fights that's not limited to a USA versus [Insert Foreign Country Here] theme like the UFC Rio card. In fact, this is a card where going over the Spike prelims feels like a necessity just to get over how incredibly deep the card feels from a fight quality standpoint. Another thing to note is that this is the fourth Saturday in a row to have a fight card, and then we get a two week break before another five week stretch, which includes the UFC's debut on FOX. Maybe during one of those weeks when I write about what's going on in class (1), I'll also delve into the UFC's over-saturation problem.

(1) Yes, I still do that.

Demian Maia vs. Jorge Santiago - Maia is a jiu-jitsu whiz while Santiago seems to always choke in the figurative sense whenever he's in the UFC, as he only has a 1-4 record. I suspect that will go to 1-5 since Maia has improved his stand-up to levels that are just above competent, and he possesses a much better gas tank than Santiago. Hopefully, it's not boring like many of Maia's recent fights have been since he uses his grappling to neutralize his opponents as opposed to submitting them, but I suspect Demian Maia will win by unanimous decision.

Jeremy Stephens vs. Anthony Pettis - While Joe Silva is the booker and matchmaker for the UFC, Jeremy Stephens seems to have a spell over him in order to book his own programs. Stephens MO of late has been to call someone out on Twitter either just to fight or for ducking him, and then, magically, Silva schedules the fight. It's such a simple concept that so few fighters seem to realize: if a fighter wants to get people to see a fight, the UFC will make it happen. Meanwhile, Anthony Pettis has had a rough 2011 considering how well his 2010 ended. His guaranteed title unification fight got thrown out the window following the draw between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard on January 1. Instead of waiting for those two to settle things, especially considering how the second rematch was postponed from its original Memorial Day booking, Pettis opted to keep busy and put his title shot on the line in a losing effort against Clay Guida. In order to stay relevant in the title picture, Pettis needs to win against Stephens. I suspect he will; Pettis is more dynamic with his striking, even if he doesn't possess his opponent's knockout power, and he has a much better ground game. Stephens has shown a weakness for submissions, too: half of his losses have come via submission. His best bet is to take the fight to the ground, and Anthony Pettis will win by choke late in the second.

Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia - This is a rematch from a fight last year where Garcia took the bout on short notice, got winded, and clearly lost the fight as Phan overwhelmed him on several occasions. However, two of the judges saw something very different than the rest of the world and awarded Garcia the split decision. Both guys are known for stand-up wars, but Phan has a more disciplined approach and Garcia swings for the fences on every single punch. While neither guy has a weak chin, Garcia has proven to be able to take a punch to the mush more than once. Phan has a tendency, sometimes through no fault of his own, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The two will approach the match-up with a Fight of the Night bonus in mind, but Garcia will take the decision, mostly because he'll have a full training camp and gas tank to back him up this time around.

Melvin Guillard vs. Joe Lauzon - Take a look at Joe Lauzon's record in the UFC. J-Lau has one fight that's gone to a decision in his entire career. He either wins in the first half of the fight or he gasses and gets overwhelmed by his opponent. Lauzon has a tendency to be a great first round fighter that can't put things together enough to take on the upper echelon of the division. In essence, he's a fun guy to watch, but he's a gatekeeper. That's really why this fight makes no sense. Melvin Guillard is on a five fight win streak and is already (probably) the number three contender in the division. There is no upside for him. If Guillard wins, it's a lateral move and he's no better off than he was before in the mythical UFC rankings, and if he loses, well, that's it until he builds up another five wins in a row. Meanwhile, Lauzon's stock will shoot into the stratosphere should he submit Guillard here, and submissions are Melvin's weakness. But ever since he started training with Greg Jackson's camp, Guillard has finally put all of the pieces together to live up to the potential that his long career has suggested. Melvin is 28, too, so it's not like his 40 fight career means that he's over the hill. The likely scenario here, despite the fact that I'll be rooting for Creepy Joe to get a submission, is Melvin Guillard knocking Joe Lauzon out, maybe in the first but likely in the second round.

Chael Sonnen vs. Brian Stann - I make no apologies for being a huge Chael Sonnen fan because I'm also a huge pro wrestling fan, and Chael Sonnen is the best trash-talker in sports. There's no one in wrestling, MMA, boxing, football, baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer, rugby or anything else who can speak with the eloquence and audacity of Chael Sonnen. He's a breath of fresh air in a sport so self-conscious about being collectively perceived as a bunch of barbarians that few attempt to stand out as personalities for fear of being disrespectful. Not Chael Sonnen. Granted, it's doubtful that he believes half of the things that he says (2), but the fact that he has the gall to say it at all speaks to the confidence the man has in his ability to back it up.

(2) The Nogueira brothers feeding a carrot to a bus has even become a bit of a running joke that grows in absurdity every time he makes reference to it.

It's too bad that his opponent, Brian Stann, is an American war hero, negating the opportunity for Sonnen's usual pre-fight banter. Instead, we have to focus on each fighter's ability. Sonnen is the best wrestler in the middleweight division who only loses when he has a brain-fart that leaves him open to submissions, especially triangle chokes. Stann is a constantly improving stand-up artist and grappler, with a weakness in takedown defense. Matching the two together creates an interesting fight, but one I think is academic in Sonnen winning. No doubt, Stann will eventually fight for the championship, but for now, Sonnen will take the fight by decision, no doubt calling Anderson Silva a jerk after winning. With any luck, the two will then coach FX's first season of The Ultimate Fighter and subsequently headline a stadium in Brazil for the blowoff. It'd be even better if said season also served as a tournament to crown a champion in the new 125 lbs. flyweight division, but beggars can't be choosers.

Kenny Florian vs. Jose Aldo (c) for the UFC Featherweight Championship - The stories of this fight are the health of the champion and whether or not the challenger is a guy that chokes in high pressure situations. Jose Aldo didn't look as good as he usually does in his defense against Mark Hominick in April, and given how good he usually looks, it's made people question if Aldo is for real or not. But that fight appears to be a hiccup more related to Aldo's trouble making weight than a condemnation of his stamina or ability. Considering those factors, it's impressive how dominant he was in the fight against Hominick, even if he wasn't as dynamic as he's demonstrated in the past.

No offense to Hominick, but he's no Kenny Florian, one of the smartest fighters in the game who is also one of the most well-rounded. MMA is a battle of inches, and each of his major losses that Dana White called "chokes" last year were anything but. He lost to a much bigger and much stronger Sean Sherk back when Sherk was a fighter that mattered. In his second attempt at the belt, he faced the greatest lightweight on the planet with a shoddy game plan when BJ Penn submitted him. Florian's last loss was to the guy fighting for the lightweight title on this very card who is still technically undefeated. Those guys all are (or were) very good, and losing to each of them doesn't make Florian a choker as much as it does a guy who lost each of those fights on that given night.

So here's the question: what if Aldo's first defense in the UFC wasn't a hiccup? Aldo has lingering issues stemming from a neck injury last December, and getting thrown on one's head and suffering from spinal compression doesn't just go away. Jose Aldo has the advantage on the feet as he continues to approach Anderson Silva proportions in his ability to move his head and kick people in the face. Both guys are fairly even on the ground. If what happened to Aldo last time happens here, then Florian will win because he's a much better fighter off his back than Hominick. If that happens, I'd also be fine with it because Florian is an excellent representative of the sport. But those are both big ifs. As much as MMA is a game of inches, Jose Aldo is starting a few feet ahead of his opponent, so I predict that Aldo will TKO Florian in the third round. It'll be a long time before Florian gets another shot, too.

Gray Maynard vs. Frankie Edgar (c) for the UFC Lightweight Championship - These two fought to a draw back on January 1, and Maynard is the guy who handed Edgar the sole loss of his career. There are any number of acceptable ways to score their last fight, but the fact remains that it was close in every conceivable way. Maynard clearly destroyed Edgar in the first to the point that a case could be made for a 10-7 round. Edgar came back and a similar case could be made for him winning each of the final four 10-9 with two or more of the rounds going Maynard's way. When a fight is that close, a draw is a perfectly acceptable outcome. Heck, draws should be happening more based on the asinine 10 point must system in place, which is a poor fit for MMA, but judges are too scared they won't be asked back if they score too many fights or rounds that way.

Here's how this fight breaks down based on the career trajectory of both guys. Maynard is a guy that started at a very high level by utilizing his wrestling better than anyone in the sport outside of Jon Jones. He has power in his hands, but he doesn't know how to use them. Of his 11 wins, only two are finishes, both early in his career. Maynard's picture will appear in the eventual MMA dictionary under the term "grinder" next to Jon Fitch and Antonio McKee. However, his improvement has only been incremental. Compare that to Frankie Edgar. Every single time he's stepped into the Octagon, he's shown a vast array of improvements. His foot work, his wrestling, his takedown defense, his grappling, and his ability to land punches have all grown by leaps and bounds. The Frankie Edgar that fought Gray Maynard in 2008 is not the same fighter while the Gray Maynard that fought Frankie Edgar in 2008 is virtually identical.

It's very possible that Gray Maynard is the guy that has Frankie's number. I don't see it that way. Despite being undersized for the division, Frankie Edgar gets the job done and improves each time he fights. Frankie Edgar will retain the title by unanimous decision, finally putting the Maynard question behind him and going on to face the winner of the November 12 Ben Henderson vs. Clay Guida war. Against either of those guys, though? I don't like Edgar's chances. But that's a story for another time.