Remembrances of Comic Cons Past

Those weren't the droids I was
looking for.

Back in those woebegone days when I was a teenager, before the invention of sand when everything was in black and white, my family used to make an annual trip to San Diego for Comic Con. This was before it turned into a haven for Hollywood movies to whet the appetite of the viewing public and instead focused on the thing that was in the name: comics.

That's not a knock on what the San Diego Comic Con has become, mind you. Over the last five years, especially, the number of movie studios appearing in San Diego has grown by leaps and bounds, all hoping to get some buzz going for their movies that are often a year away from premiering. Accordingly, the number of attendees and vendors has also grown, but, in doing so, it's squeezed out many of the longtime comic book aficionados in favor of Twilight or other flavor of the month fans hoping to get a glimpse of Robert Pattinson sitting at a table on a stage a football field away from them. That growth, while seemingly good for the properties I have an affinity for (*), has made it difficult to take part in what was once a hallmark of my youth. 

(*) There's a Thor movie coming out this week. This is madness considering that the highest profile superhero movie from my teenage years, Batman & Robin, effectively killed and salted the earth of the genre for over half a decade. I can't understate enough how amazing it is that we're staring down the  barrel of a Green Lantern, Thor and Captain America summer.

From the ages of 11 to 17, I attended Comic Con in San Diego every year with my folks and brother for vacation. Then from 19 to 25, I made a point to travel down there for at least one of the four days, if not more. Since then, hotels have been harder to come by and days for the event have actually sold out. That never used to happen. Heck, my wife and I were going to make a point of actually planning our full-fledged vacation for a Comic Con trip this summer when every single ticket, one day passes and four day passes both, sold out inside of 15 minutes of the on-sale.

Comic Con in San Diego got away from the comics, which is one of those "get off my lawn" statements I never saw myself prone to making before. However, over the weekend, I decided to try out a smaller scale convention over in Orange County called the Anaheim Comic Con. This was the kind of event I remembered from that first time I attended San Diego and contained everything I like about it: people dressed in weird costumes, artists plying their trade at rows of picnic tables, and lots of great deals. The rising cost of life has prevented me from regularly buying single issues of comics, so I tend to catch up on things by purchasing larger collections, or trade paperbacks. At shows like this, they're usually priced more reasonably than one can find at Barnes & Noble or Amazon, so I wound up getting about nine of them, all for half-price. 

It was impossible, though, to escape the convention's need for some mainstream attention as there were some D-list celebrities in attendance, charging way too much for autographs, 8x10 head shots and "photo opportunities." This is the kind of thing my wife, who is not a comics fan, would normally enjoy. When I started walking down the tumbleweed lane that was the celebrity row, I sent her a text message that Steve Sanders from Beverly Hills 90210 was in attendance. "GET ME HIS AUTOGRAPH!," she replied. I responded, "It's $20 bucks for just his autograph."Her reply was succinct, "Ew...don't get me his autograph." While Ian Ziering wasn't the most obvious sore thumb in the pack of what usually amounted to a large grouping of genre related character actors, he was pretty close.

Ultimately, it was nice just to soak in the ambience a place like a comic convention provides. I wasn't made to feel weird spending an hour looking through 15 long boxes to find the right collection of Ultimate Spider-Man or stopping to snap a photo of a procession of Star Wars droids. And that's the way I like things to be.

Here's the part where I discuss what went on in class, but since I'm behind, I'm going to split the catch up portion into a few different posts.

Book 19 of 2011

After devoting a good portion to reading on Sunday, I finished this today during SSR.

19) Animal Farm by George Orwell

It's an old, allegorical story that many people know by now: animals rise up against their human oppressors with the goal of establishing equality for all except that things don't quite work out that way.

My goal in rereading this was to annotate a new copy. Ms. Windt and I will be taking over the Frosh Honors classes next year, which provided us with a great opportunity to change some of the curriculum around. Instead of having students read Lord of the Flies, we opted for Orwell's tale of revolution gone horribly wrong, which will dovetail nicely into our first semester reading of Fahrenheit 451. This is a book that I could finish in an afternoon, but I was laser focused on making sure to highlight the important lines and note the thematic elements throughout, so it took me three days instead. Also, if you're into that sort of annotating thing, this is a great edition for it. The margins are wide and the print is even spaced out well to allow for liberal handwriting and underlining.


The essay at the beginning of this edition stands out and makes some excellent points about Mollie, a character I tend to forget about when I get to the later chapters. As for the book itself, I'm torn as to how to properly discuss it here, since I plan to go over it with next year's freshman. To overly analyze it may unduly influence them into parroting my views as opposed to coming up with their own take. Also, that might just be my own arrogance coming into play. I'm torn, you see, since I've never taught an honors class before and my biggest goal is to not completely screw it all up.

I will say this, though: my biggest complaint is that the book is very on the nose. But don't we need some things to be on the nose? There's very little one can mistake about the book: the roles everyone plays are very clear and the allegory for the Russian Revolution even moreso if anyone has a bit of history under their belt. I'm looking forward to teaching this and I hope the students really take the time to give it a proper read because it's probably the easiest book they'll be assigned all year.

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.

YOUCANHASCHEESEBURGER

Spring Break was fun, wasn't it? Mine can be summed up in one word: Youcanhascheeseburger.

YOUCANHASCHEESEBURGER - $5.50 worth
of delectable.

I CAN HAZ?

When I look back on my life and think of how I came to the point of suffering my first heart attack, I'll look fondly on this picture knowing that it was all worth it. This is no ordinary cheeseburger; it's a cheeseburger that replaces regular buns with grilled-cheese sandwiches. Normally, this is the kind of novelty food item that sounds good on paper due to the decadence and pure gluttony involved but ultimately proves untenable when actually eaten.

That is not the case here.

Somehow, the fine folks at The Brunch Box overcame this problem. I'm guessing because they use Texas toast for the bread on the grilled cheese sandwiches. Either way, it's the most delicious burger I've ever consumed, and I plan to make this a ritual of every visit I make to Portland, Oregon.


Frosh
Way back last Thursday, March 17, you spent the period self-editing your most recent draft of the essay using the self-edit guide provided to you. The next day, Friday, March 18, you turned in the final draft of the Character Analysis Essay along with the Character Quote Sheet. We spent time that day discussing what made this particular assignment different and why so many of you chose to complete it and hand in the essay. The rest of our time was spent discussing the final on Romeo & Juliet and what you could expect for it.

Tuesday, we returned from spring break and you took the aforementioned final.

Today, you received the pre-interview assignment for To Kill a Mockingbird. Remember that any interview subject must have read the novel previously and be over 30 years old. Make sure that you ask your subject to elaborate on their answers so you can get enough information to fill out the entire sheet. We then read the article dealing with the Choctaw Three, who were convicted of killing a baby whose mere existence came into question. If you're interested in reading more about them, there's a fairly in-depth article located here that provides an update to their story. You then spent the last part of the period in groups determining what information in the article goes towards their innocence and what information leads the reader to believe they are guilty. We'll continue the article and talk about this some more tomorrow.

Seniors
Thursday, March 17, we continued our analysis of Cool Hand Luke. The following day, Friday, March 18, you took your final on The Stranger and then completed the film.

Upon our return from spring break on Tuesday, we spent the period discussing Lucas Jackson and Meursault. As I said in class that day, I hold no grand notions that every single student fully read The Stranger, which is really too bad considering what an easy book it is to get through. Understanding it's deeper meaning may be a bit tougher, but the prose of The Stranger itself is simple to read. And now that opportunity is squandered along with the points available for the unit. Our next book, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, is much deeper, longer and more difficult to understand initially. It's also the final unit of the year and you're last chance to improve your grade. If you're already in a good place grade-wise, then keep on making that happen and stay the course. If you're not? Skipping the reading won't help.

Today, you read Albert Camus' preface to The Stranger and began answering questions about it with the whole period at your disposal. The assignment is due on Friday.

Book 12 of 2011

I finished this on my iPad while vacationing in Portland.

12) Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell takes a look at what really makes people stand out and achieve success. Surprise, the classic story of the self-made man or woman who brought him or herself up by their bootstraps to become super rich and powerful in their field is often not the case because people don't recognize the opportunities available to them and not others. Things like the cultural landscape of how they were raised, the window of time when they were born and the chance to put time into an interest that will have an impact on society later on all factor into making people outliers.

Gladwell presents his findings and the anecdotes preceding them well, usually starting off with the surface view of the story and then peeling back the layers to reveal the previously ignored circumstances that determined the level of success the person or institution reaches. He creates a puzzle with each chapter because once he explains the first idea of birthdays and hockey all-stars, it's clear that many success stories have more going for them than the narrative presented. Figuring out the true reason of the subject's achievement winds up being pretty fun.

Chapters that specifically stuck out include the idea of the home life's effect on high IQ individuals and cultural language in a global setting. Also, the idea that talent is far from innate is one that I really enjoyed as a teacher because the hard work and dedication needed to become an expert, the 10,000 hour rule, applies to a variety of fields and shows how important hard work is to being successful.

UFC 128

UFC 128 is a card filled with replacement fighters, but those replacements have made for way more interesting contests than the original card presented. Plus, with the Spike special an hour prior to the pay per view and the Facebook specific fights taking place before that, one has the opportunity to watch five hours of UFC on Saturday. Crazy.

The one notable undercard preliminary fight that isn't on the Spike card or airing on Facebook but should probably be on the main card is Joseph Benavides fighting Ian Loveland. Benavides is awesome and will win by guillotine, probably in the first round, so it might make its way onto the main card anyway, but UFC should be striving to get over the newer smaller weightclasses as much as possible and putting this on the pay per view would really help.

Mirko Cro Cop vs. Brendan Schaub - Cro Cop is done. He occasionally shows flashes of the Pride dude that could boast of a left leg that sends guys to the hospital and right that goes to the cemetery, but that's no longer the case. Based on his interviews, Cro Cop isn't taking Schaub seriously either, which is a huge mistake. Schaub should take the win with a first round TKO.

Nate Marquardt vs. Dan Miller - Miller is filling in for Yoshihiro Akiyama, who won't be able to make the show due to the recent earthquake in Japan. Both guys are grinders who have recently lost to Chael Sonnen with Marquardt possessing the edge in the stand-up. Marquardt also joins Kenny Florian by earning the "choker" label. When it comes to important, career-defining or title shot-earning opportunities, Marquardt has a tendency to fail. He did so against the aforementioned Sonnen and more recently against Yushin Okami. Miller is similar to Jon Fitch without the win streak and slightly less boring in that he's talented but not great and known mostly for his tenacity and refusal to ever turn down a fight. Most are picking Marquardt here, but I'm going against the grain when I pick Miller by decision. Nate Marquardt would have probably won against Akiyama because the latter is undersized for the weight division and always gets sucked into having an exciting fight even if it's one that results in a loss. The entire game plan has to change for Marquardt when faced with someone who's entire strategy is the complete opposite of someone like Akiyama. Marquardt is his own worst enemy, and, really, I just like Dan Miller more.

Kamal Shalorus vs. Jim Miller - This is a fight that can have some huge title implications once Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard determine the champion at the end of May and after Anthony Pettis and Clay Guida settle things in June. Since Sotiroupolus lost, Miller has the most convincing record to challenge for the title. He's only lost twice in his 21 fight career, both times by decision, to Edgar and Maynard. While he's facing an undefeated opponent in Shalorus who is a tremendously powerful wrestler, Miller has much more refined punching and great jiu-jitsu. Shalorus swings wildly and could probably knock out a horse if his punches ever connected, but most guys are smart enough to know how to avoid them. Miller will get the win with a submission, probably a choke or a leglock, and hopefully move into title contention in the eyes of both the UFC brass and the fans.

Eddie Wineland vs. Urijah Faber - Before I start, let's make sure everyone agrees that Eddie Wineland is no joke. He's a former bantamweight champion on a four fight win streak who's quick and able to knock people out with one punch. Most guys should not mess with Eddie Wineland.

Urijah Faber is not most guys. Urijah is a ball of energy that has a gas tank that lasts for days. He's well-rounded and his butt-chin isn't just for show: taking a punch is no problem for him. Urijah is mentally tough and has a ground game that takes out most guys who are renowned for their submissions. Urijah was the biggest fish of the small pond that was WEC, and all signs point to him shining brighter in the UFC...provided he wins here. Make no mistake, the pressure is on Faber to win and win impressively. Considering that the next season of The Ultimate Fighter features featherweights and bantamweights and that the only person Faber has ever admitted to disliking is current UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz, it only makes sense for UFC to name those two the coaches. But the only way that can happen is if Faber wins here, which isn't guaranteed. 

However, Faber can and, I think, will win this fight. Wineland is a good enough wrestler to be an MMA fighter but it's not a part of his game that stands out. Wineland relies on speed and power, something at the lighter weight class that Faber has in spades. I suspect that Urijah will manage a takedown, definitely by the second but probably in the first, and secure a guillotine or a rear-naked choke. Then expect Urijah Faber to attain the level of fame of a GSP or a Rampage because the guy has charisma enough to be tied for my wife's favorite fighter.

Jon Jones vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (c) for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship - There is so much to say about this fight that it's hard to figure out where to start.

Shogun has long been considered the best light heavyweight in the world and yet he gets the least amount of respect. The blame can partially rest on his long track record of injuries. He lost to Forrest Griffin in his UFC debut and was out for a year and half with a blown out knee. He looked terrible in beating Mark Coleman, defeated a declining Chuck Liddell and then found himself in a controversial loss to Lyoto Machida. When he avenged that loss to capture the Light Heavyweight Championship, Rua did so on a second busted knee; he wasn't expected back until the middle of the summer. Yet, here he is again, supposedly healed and ready to fight sooner than expected after a ten month layoff. 

The champ has a vast arsenal with a brutal submission game and even more impressive muay Thai skills.  With his opponent's long, skinny legs, it's natural to assume, and Rua stated as much on the Countdown show, that the leg kicks will be part of his game plan. Rua is also not afraid to bum rush his opponent to get inside and utilize his powerful striking like he did against a much more versatile and refined striker in Lyoto Machida. One need only look at his fight against Kevin Randleman to see the kind of damage Rua's leg locks can do. This is a guy that has a long and storied list of fighters that he's defeated, many in the first round, yet he's the underdog in the fight. This is madness. How can a guy that has the pedigree and skill at the level of Mauricio Rua be so under recognized in his first title defense?

Because he's facing Jon Jones.

Picture the most perfect example of an MMA fighter: a long reach, unheard of strength, elite wrestling skills, unorthodox striking and flexible, versatile limbs to apply a variety of submissions. This is Jon Jones, and he's only been fighting for just under three years. He's only 23. In fact, there are a lot of parallels between Jones and Rua. Rua was the same age as Jones when he started to set the MMA world on fire, earning the best light heavyweight in the world moniker. And like Rua at the time, Jones is only getting better every time he fights. 

Is this the fight that shows that Jones can hang at the elite level? That he can handle the pressure of the spotlight and deliver a championship to his mantle at home? Should Jones be able to utilize his immense 84.5 inch reach, an 8.5 inch advantage, with an effective jab, that should counteract Shogun's leg kicks. He won't want to get into a clinch with Shogun, despite that working wonders against the other fighters he's faced in the past because Shogun has effective striking in that position. And if he bum rushes Jones, Shogun is only asking for a takedown. 

The takedown in this fight is key; the last Machida fight showed that Shogun is not someone who prides himself on takedown defense as much as he relies on his grappling ability to allow him to stand when he is taken down. Machida has terrible wrestling for an MMA fighter whereas Jones is one of the top three, and an argument can be made for him being the top, wrestlers in the entire sport. His reach allows him to be an effective, brutal striker in his opponent's guard and his ground grappling is at a level that allows him to take on side control and mount with ease. 

Ultimately, that's where I see this fight going. Shogun can win should he keep it standing because, while Jones has unorthodox strikes with his spinning back elbows and kicks that come out of nowhere, he still looks like he's trying to incorporate things that he saw in a video game into a real fight, and that can be dangerous. However, Jones appears to be as smart as he is talented, so I expect Jon "Bones" Jones to win by TKO in the second round due to a barrage of powerful elbows that overwhelm Rua in his guard. 

It does a body good.

As the journalism adviser, recruiting new talent each year is a constant struggle. For the third year in a row, I decided to represent the Brave Times at Alta Loma's 8th Grade Welcome Night to attempt to entice eager, incoming students to write for what I consider to be the best newspaper in the district. It's always an interesting sight to see the people who show up, parents and students alike, all on their phones, with earbuds securely in place and video game devices at the ready. Just about everyone was attentive during the presentation, but very few of the people waiting beforehand spent the time interacting with those around them. I was also just as guilty of this, too, so don't think I'm placing myself above the fray. The experience left me thinking about a video I recently caught on YouTube, similar to one I posted back in December. This one, though, is directly related to education and what reform for it might truly look like.

Tell me what you think of the video. I'm curious about what students would have to say about it.

Frosh
This past Monday, you turned in your final review and study guide for Romeo & Juliet. I answered your questions about the essay and then gave you the rest of the period and the whole of Tuesday to focus on getting as much writing done as possible. Always remember that writing an essay out of order whenever you have the opportunity is actually the ideal way to get the best possible outcome. My experience shows that writing the thesis first should be the goal, followed by finding concrete details and evidence, and then writing the body paragraphs. Introductions and conclusions, while important, pale in comparison to the body of an essay. Speaking of which, below is the layout of your body paragraph, using the Jane Schaffer format.

1. Topic Sentence - State a reason why the character(s) you listed is/are to blame relating to one of your sub-topics in your thesis statement.
2. Concrete Detail (CD) - Incorporate a quotation from the play that supports the topic sentence with a proper citation. Your second semester ORUs demonstrate how to incorporate quotations.
3. Commentary (CM) - Explain how and why the quotation in your CD supports the TS using at least two sentences.
4. CM
5. CD
6. CM
7. CM
8. Transition Sentence - Write a sentence that allows you to flow from this paragraph to your next body paragraph. You won't need this sentence in your final body paragraph.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. Concluding Sentence - Conclude your body paragraphs in order to flow into your conclusion.

Today, you focused on peer editing. Tomorrow, you may use this marked up draft or modify your existing draft for the purposes of self-editing. My suggestion is to do whatever work now as opposed to later so you can save yourself the headache of having to do everything the night before. If you wrote it out, type it; if you chose to type it, put it in MLA format.

Seniors
We discussed a few terms on Monday that will hopefully inform your reading of part two of The Stranger. Keep these terms in mind as the magistrate questions Meursault and also wonder where the focus is during the trial.

Yesterday, we took a look at the idea of savior symbolism in comparison to our discussions on existentialism. In order to properly study this idea, we're taking a look at Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman. Keep in mind that you're taking notes on this for the purpose of seeing how Luke fits into either idea: savior or existentialist.

Book 11 of 2011

I finished this while my wife folded laundry, watching an episode of the Real Housewives.

11) The Imperfectionists: A Novel by Tom Rachman
Tom Rachman's first book is the (relatively) present-day story of an American newspaper in Rome and the people it employs. Each chapter focuses on an individual involved with the paper in some capacity with interstitial chapters detailing the history of the paper from its inception through the current period the regular stories inhabit. Additionally, the chapters all have a headline from an actual event dating when the chapter takes place.

Monopoly!

Zuffa purchases Strikeforce

Look, I know that I post about the world of MMA more than a teacher on his teaching blog probably should, but this is pretty substantial news that broke today, so it feels timely and poses so many questions that there was no way I could ignore it. Sure, I COULD have ignored it, but I don't feel like ignoring it. I promise to write something non-MMA related prior to my UFC 128 rundown.

In fact, click on the link for all of the available details because rehashing them here isn't my goal. My concerns center around the two big questions this purchase raises. 

Question #1: Does this purchase make Strikeforce the UFC's farm league?

I can't see any other alternative. Dana White claims that it's "business as usual" over at Strikeforce and that all contracts will be honored. The idea is that it will be run as a separate brand, independent of Dana's influence, especially since he has had some choice words for many of the fighters, commentators and several decision makers over at Showtime. And there has been some precedent set before when Zuffa (UFC's parent company) owned WEC. The latter was run as a separate group with its own matchmakers and separate television deals. But now all of that has changed. If the rating of UFC on Versus 3 tells us anything, it's that more fight nights ultimately means that fewer of the live TV events are special and people can pick and choose what they want. If this is diluted even further with five more championships, all that does is create more market confusion. My prediction is that once the existing television contracts run their course, which could be as far out as three years from now, Strikeforce and any existing contracts will be folded into the UFC. What does this mean for guys like Josh Barnett, Paul Daley and Dan Henderson? By that time, Barnett and Henderson could be retired so it may be a moot point, but guys like Daley, a guy fired and banned "for life" from the UFC by Dana White for throwing a sucker punch at Josh Koscheck after the end of their fight? Or Frank Shamrock, a commentator who has never had a great relationship with UFC management? I guess it's no fun to be them.

Question #2: With the only viable alternative North American league now under the same corporate umbrella as the number one promotion, does this make the case for a fighter's union all the stronger?

There's a lot of talk about unions in the news lately, and that's another discussion for another time. But theses fighters are now under, for all intents and purposes, a monopoly. They are at the whims of Zuffa. For all of the talk about Scott Coker and Strikeforce operating under their own jurisdiction when it comes time to negotiate contracts with free agents, I can't see that working out well for the fighters involved. Is the solution a union? If Dana White doesn't think so, then I can't see how a fighter's union would ever get off the ground. Major League Baseball has a union, as does the NFL, NHL and the NBA. A union could provide security, pensions, health insurance and insure that fighters have security and negotiating leverage. The examples I've cited aren't sports that operate in the same fashion as MMA operates, and I'm far from an expert on labor practices. I definitely don't have the answers here, but I think the question is worth exploring by those who study these things a bit more closely than me.

Frosh

This past Monday, you received the R & J Timeline assignment, which is due on Tuesday, available on School Loop and soon will be here on this site also. 

Wednesday, you received the Character Quote Sheet which you can use as a method of pre-writing for your previously assigned Character Analysis Essay. This will be due when you turn in your final draft.

Thursday, I gave you the Act IV/V Review, which is due on Monday along with your Act IV/V Study Guide. We also reviewed thesis statements on Thursday, something I hope everyone remembers, but if not, well, that's the whole point of review. To reiterate, please remember that thesis statements are ONE sentence, located at the end of the first paragraph and establish the main idea of your entire essay. If you needed to answer the prompt and could only do so with one sentence, the thesis statement would be it. Utilize the ATSO(3/4) formula (author, title, subject, opinion with 3 to 4 sub-topics) to guide you:

In William Shakespeare's play, Romeo & Juliet, ______ and ______ are the most responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet because _____________, _______________, and _________________.

Fill in the first two blanks with who you believe to be the most to blame for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. The three (or four) final blank spots should be short phrases (between 5 to 10 words long) that serve as reasons why the one or two people you choose are most to blame. Keep in mind that you can pick anyone in the play but be very careful in choosing because the whole point of the essay is to support your choice with evidence from the text.

The essay will be the main focus of the week prior to Spring Break since we also spent the majority of Monday through Thursday to finish reading the play. The tragedy finally unfolds almost exclusively due to a breakdown in communication: Capulet never listens to what his daughter truly wants; Romeo doesn't listen to Friar Laurence's warnings about taking things slow, Tybalt never listens to Capulet about letting Romeo's party crashing go; Juliet doesn't listen to herself about not wanting to get married; the letter never gets to its intended target explaining to Romeo the plan to let the star-crossed lovers live happily ever after. And so on. The lesson here is to never fall in love. Wait, no. The lesson is to listen. Or maybe the lesson is something else entirely for you to determine. Still, that listening part is still a good idea.

Seniors

On Monday, we read "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus and toiled endlessly to understand it. HAH! See what I did there? Camus' take always reads to me as an optimistic view of existentialism. Your results may vary. Tuesday, you spent the period answering questions dealing with Camus' impression of Sisyphus as well as your own impression of the guy destined/doomed to push a rock up a hill.

Wednesday, my wife was sick, so I allowed you the period to read The Stranger.

Hopefully, you took advantage of that opportunity because Thursday, you had a quiz on part one of the novel. Remember to have the whole book finished by next Friday, March 18. There'll be another test on it, this one a bit longer and a bit more difficult.

Book 10 of 2011

I finished this on a Sunday afternoon as my wife was breaking in our new oven by baking caramel cups.

10) The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande is a renowned surgeon who discovered that checklists ensure good communication between individuals working together and create an environment in which it is more difficult to make mistakes. He details situations where checklists would have been beneficial, his own experience creating and implementing a checklist in his own field and the success of utilizing a checklist in a wide variety of occupations, from investment banker to rock star.

Unfortunately, this book was a chore to get through, initially. I found myself wondering where my personal "cut bait" point for a book lies. Had I not pledged to read at least 25 books this year, I just might have given up on this one. Since this was another non-fiction book with a large notes section detailing the author's citations, the text only took up 193 pages, as opposed to the 224 listed, and by the time I was considering giving up, I felt I had come too far. The first half just feels repetitive and boring. It's filled with numerous medical stories that are so filled with technical jargon that I quickly lost interest.

However, the second half picks up when Gawande starts to include stories about creating his own collaborative checklists and his tales of other people successfully utilizing them, most notably aviators who needed them to safely fly complex planes. It's also surprising to learn how resistant he found people to be to accept checklists into their vocations despite the anecdotal and statistical success they bring. I am curious how I can bring the idea of a checklist into my own profession. We spend so much time on reflection and have so many things thrust upon us to fix it, I feel like it might be difficult to figure out where a checklist can apply. Situations do exist, though, and I'm glad to have the "Checklist for Checklists" appendix towards the end.

Top Numbered Somethings: Recent Video Game Experiences

With a few things on the back burner that I'm currently in the middle of writing but aren't quite ready for public consumption yet, I figured I could discuss some recent video games I've played. I suspect that once my wife and I have children, the limited time I make for video games will disappear altogether, but, in the meantime, I enjoy pretending that I am a digitally rendered avatar of a popular licensed or real-life figure of which I have total control.

3) Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - The most surprising aspect of this really fun multiplayer update of the great Assassin's Creed sequel is that the story mode is so deep. While the point of the game is to engage in the multiplayer mode for which it was designed, I haven't done so yet because almost everyone in the world beats me at any kind of multiplayer game except when it comes to UFC Undisputed 2010. Even then, I still have a hefty losing record. I imagine I might have more time for some of the multiplayer experience when summer comes around.

2) Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds- Once upon a time, I played Street Fighter 2 exclusively on an arcade machine and excelled with Ken, Ryu's blonde-haired red gi-wearing counterpart. Eventually, though, the Capcom world passed me by because it became about the number of combination hits a person could get while juggling their opponent in the air. I thought I might have a seizure because it became so frenetic. However, with the inclusion of Thor, Deadpool, and M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing), I couldn't resist this game. This is another one that I wouldn't dare ever play online, but it's really fun watching the Hulk smash things up.

1) EA Sports MMA - Ugh, this game is so frustrating. There was a ton of hype for this game prior to release because EA is considered the standard bearer of sports games, and UFC president Dana White famously denounced EA in the press because before UFC Undisputed 2009's development, EA refused to even meet with the company, calling UFC "not a real sport." Once THQ's first UFC game became a hit, EA changed their tune and started to develop this title.

Here's the thing: I have two go-to games that I always return to once I either beat or grow tired of the latest game. Either I go right back to playing the latest WWE or UFC release because for each one I can play one or two matches, not stink, and then turn it off. My standards for this type of game, then, are going to be fairly high. EA Sports MMA does not come close to measuring up to those standards. Since the reviews were poor and sales from the week of release were in the toilet (and because I am cheap), I waited for a significant price drop before buying it but I wish I had just stuck to a rental.

However, there are a few things that work and I note these in the hopes that THQ will swipe them to use in the next installment of UFC Undisputed. The one aspect of MMA that EA got perfectly right is submissions. The spinning the right control stick debacle that THQ calls "the shine" makes submissions nearly impossible in Undisputed. EA created a system that fits organically with how each submission works in the context of a fight: finding a sweet spot to apply a choke and working to hyperextend a joint for a limb attack. It makes sense because each type of submission requires a different approach by a fighter, unlike the same approach each time that THQ employs. Other things that work: facial damage and the aftermath of such damage looks as devastating as it does in a real MMA fight and the career mode is fun to play instead of a chore.

The good parts end there, though. Everything else about the game feels superficial and one-dimensional. UFC Undisputed does a great job of making each fighter feel independent and unique with striking, takedown and submission animations that are unique to that fighter. None of this exists in EA Sports MMA. The striking, employed by utilizing the right control stick, is basic and difficult to manage, not to mention limiting. Even if the creators had made unique animations for each fighter, they would only have what feels like three strikes per limb compared to the what feels like twelve to fifteen per limb of UFC Undisputed. Considering EA managed to procure every name fighter not under contract to UFC AND Randy Couture, you'd think they would take the time to make the fighters feel unique during gameplay and not interchangeable. Where is Nick Diaz's pitter-patter boxing style or Bas Rutten's liver kicks? Nowhere, that's where. And while it's nice that the creators gave the game and the sport its worldwide appeal by including different rules and arenas, there's no real difference in gameplay between fighting in a ring or a cage, which is the entire point of including the two.

And, yet again, I've written way too much about MMA in my teaching blog.

We have almost two weeks of catching up to do! Yikes! Plus, this entry is getting long, so I'll hide the whole purpose for this blog under a cut.