Ebjournal Revisited.

Beautiful day at illinois

Tony| Category: General | 4 Comments

Beautiful day at illinois

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

Sometimes i miss it

Baseball is berry berry good to me.

Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine | 2 Comments

Spring is here.  Fellow Midwesterns realize this because every time they wander outside they don’t curse fifteen times before they reach their unfrosted cars.  It also harkens the arrival of baseball, or beisbol for my Latino readers.  World Baseball Classic nonwithstanding, I have always had a hard time getting into baseball because spring training is fairly lame, April doesn’t count as teams are barely finding out who they are, and May is always a busy teacher month.  This means that I don’t start paying attention to baseball until June, just in time to witness the Cubs start to flail about in their annual swoon.  This all changed three years ago when my good friend Frank the Tank invited me into his fantasy baseball league.  Now I look forward to spring training because it means fantasy baseball is coming, and I’d better start paying attention. For those that are uninitiated, we hold a draft during spring training in which we choose players we think will have the best stats in certain categories (such as RBI’s, runs, home runs, on-base percentage, etc. for hitters, and wins, K’s, ERA, SV’s, etc. for pitchers)  Whichever team of drafted players scores more points per week wins. It’s a little more complicated than that, but my 2.8 readers are bored already, so we’ll move on.

This year we decided to do a live-draft in our league, (as opposed to autopick) which puts a lot more pressure on us because we have to really think about who to take and when. And then there’s the intangibles; do I draft Barry Bonds?  When do I draft a closer?  A catcher?  Fantasy sports blogging has exploded, and the talking heads have tons of ideas about who to take and when.  I made it simple for myself; take a hitter, then take a pitcher, and keep flip-flopping. Since I have to fill position spots, it actually worked out pretty well.  The scary part is that I went young.  Really young.  Last year I got burned with a ton of old guys (Palmeiro, Bagwell, and Tino Martinez) to name a few.  My team has tremendous potential, but they also may fall flat on their face.  This is also known as me pretending to know what I’m doing in fantasy sports.  Here’s my team, along with some notes on them:

1B: M. Teixeira

2B: M. Giles

3B: T. Glaus

SS:C. Barmes

OF: A. Jones, A. Huff, B. Giles

C: M. Barrett

Util:L. Overbay

Bench: N. Swisher , R. Baldelli, N. Johnson

Comments:  With the exception of Giles, all of my hitters are under 30 years old.  Baldelli,  and Barmes are coming off season-ending injuries.  Teixeira had a monster season last year, and I’m hoping he can repeat it.  I’m worried about Glaus and Overbay, but I think if they can pull off a whole season, it could be good news all around. Also, did Andruw Jones catch lightning in a bottle?  So many ways the  hitters could go.  Time will tell.  (This ends my obvious genius analysis of my hitters.  I admit it, I ran out of steam after linking all those players.  Moving on…)

SP: C. Carpenter, C. Lee, Z. Duke,

Carpenter is an easy choice– Cy Young and all… of course I’m nervous about him not being able to repeat it.  Cliff Lee did well for me the second half of last year, and he’s now the ace of the Indians.  He should have another solid year. Duke and Santana are coming off of solid rookie campaigns.  Sophomore slump? What’s the worst that can happen?  I’m sorry, I can’t hear you because I’m talking strategy with Jerome Walton.  My closers are solid. Period.  I’ve already had trade offers.  Lame trade offers, but they were there.

Alright, my brain is obviously on spring break.  Have a wonderful Opening Weekend, and go Clint Barmes!

03-28-06_2256.jpg

Tony| Category: General | 3 Comments

03-28-06_2256.jpg

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

Poker night

03-26-06_2342.jpg

Tony| Category: General | 0 Comments

03-26-06_2342.jpg

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

Even more fork of words

Tony| Category: General | 0 Comments

Even more fork of words

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

Even more fork

03-26-06_2331.jpg

Tony| Category: General | 0 Comments

03-26-06_2331.jpg

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

More fork of words

03-26-06_2308.jpg

Tony| Category: General | 0 Comments

03-26-06_2308.jpg

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

Fork of words

No, I’m not going to talk about the Illini (yet)

Tony| Category: General, All about me | 5 Comments

Warning: This post will be rambling and lack focus. You have been…

Where was I?

Welcome back, friends and family. I have the night off. Not really, there’s about a floppity gajillion things I could be doing right now, but since I haven’t really ebjournalled lo these past few weeks, I thought I would catch y’all up in several (un)important categories. We’ll start with…
1) Grad school. Finished last class smoothly, including writing up a case study on sister #3. I got an A, because she’s awesome. I’ve started my newest class, which is on assessment. It started off hard (the second class, I had to turn in a paper, and give a twenty minute presentation. This was the night after my band concert, and the night after the night of the dress rehearsal for my concert {see other below} Also, conferences were the following day [see school below]. FUN.) but has lightened up a little. I REALLY need to get working on my thesis, but motivation is running at a low. Why, you ask? Because of…

2) School

I love teaching. But this is the time of the year that things get bogged down. I try to keep things fresh, but I know my fuse is shorter, and that the kids are starting to get some serious spring fever. The good news is that the tadpoles came in, which means it’s rainforest time! We’ll slowly turn our room into an Amazonian Wonderland (Open House is at the end of April) We’re behind in math, and almost everything else. This is a fun class, but they’re not quite as advanced as last year’s group. They’ve come a long way, but I want more, and sometimes that means NOT Fun Mr. K comes out. We’ll keep going until break, or until we break, whichever comes first. Overall, I think the kids are handling things better than I am, which is good news.

3) Other. That’s enough of the updating for now. More coming soon.

Oh, and we continue to spread the gospel according to Guitar Hero. The St. Patrick’s day party, and the K family gathering converted at least ten more people, and probably contributed to at least two more guitars being bought. Good times.

I must, I must…

Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine, Entertainment Tonight | 1 Comment

Work out a lot in the  next three weeks. This is basketball heaven time. And you know what goes with basketball heaven, right.

Drinking.

Water, soda, other things. Drinking definitely goes with basketball.

Also, eating.
So much food, so happy in the food village that is my stomach.
I’ll try to be good. And then Blue Moon will be on special. Or it will magically appear out of the vending machine. Stupid enticing shiny buttons to push that make beer go to my mouth.

Tonight, I’ll be watching the Illini take on MSU for the second time in the last week. Go Illini! So, what do you think of Horange and Bluez chances in the Big Dance? I’m hoping for the Sweet 16.

I’m done with conferences. I will see you in about four pounds (of drinking and food)

Damn.

Tony| Category: General, Unfortunately Serious, WTF? | 0 Comments

It still bothers me.

It shouldn’t.

I’ve moved on.

It’s still a punch in the gut every time.

People are honest, which is good, but paranoia still creeps in because they’re not completely honest unless I ask.

Spare me.
I’m tired of it.

InnerWorks

Tony| Category: General, Site-Based Management | 2 Comments

Peeps.

Do any of you change the theme on my site, or have a particular favorite? Did you know you can change themes? Do you not care at all? I’m looking to get rid of having so many themes, so now is your chance to speak up. Any time I want to change something I have to apply it to all themes, and that’s getting to be a pain. But, in the interest of democracy, I will relinquish choices to you. Now go forth and vote. (Must be literate to vote.)

Did it answer my questions?

Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Chomping on Books | 3 Comments

For my birthday, Mom and Jerry got me a book I requested off of my Amazon wishlist. (They also got me a kick-booty article of clothing that will make its debut this fall.) Entitled Teacher Man, it is a memoir of one English teacher’s struggle to edumacate the masses, from the poorest of the poor, to New York’s elite. Covering nearly 30 years of teaching in the public school, Frank McCourt pulls you into his classroom by discussing the fears we all have as teachers. Did I mention the fella won a Pulitzer Prize for writing Angela’s Ashes? Though many of the struggles McCourt faced as a teacher are not the same challenges I have had, his questions, his self-doubt, and his demeanor all struck deep chords in me. I’m not sure it was an excellent book, but I did enjoy it. It was difficult for me to understand all of his situations, with me being an elementary teacher in a much different area and era, but I think a lot of his anecdotes are universal. I am especially recommending this book to Mrs. Zigzag, (Mrs. PhiBetaKappa Peterson…); I think she’ll enjoy it.(You can even borrow my copy!) For the rest of you looking to read something a little different, it’s a quick read. Pick it up, read it, and then go hug a teacher.