If I only had a brain...

Well, fresh off the presses out of Las Vegas, city of higher intellect, comes this story of two men trying to further their economic status. It reminds me much of the WalMart million dollar bill story that came out a couple years ago. However, if you want a million dollar bill, you can buy them here for less than 10 cents a piece. Although I laugh at these stories, it also saddens me that our educational system turns out people this stupid. In my class, we write checks for class privileges. It works as not only a way of promoting good behavior with positive reinforcement, it also teaches important life skills. My kids have yet to try to pass one of my class checks. These stories serve as good reminders to what happens to people who try to commit fraud.

Comparing T.O. to my students

Terrel Owens must not have felt that he was receiving enough attention from the media latley, so he decided to spit in the face of DeAngelo Hall. What a class act. I am not sure what Terrel Owens was like in high school or what his life was like growing up, but I can imagine and guess a few things. First, he was (or at least could have been) in Special Education. I don't say that in a deragotory way. I say that from experience as a teacher of students with emotional disturbances. I see so many parallels to T.O.'s behavior to that of my students it's not even funny (although I do laugh sometimes). One of the key characterstics that my students share is the need to bring attention to themselves in any way possible. T.O. seems to need to have the spotlight in his face all of the time. My students will often throw temper tantrums, argue, swear, yell at each other, yell at me, throw things, break things, etc, etc, etc (you can pretty much plug in the behavior of an angry two year old and that's what behaviors can emerge at any given time). For fun, I found an article highlighting some of T.O.'s calls for attention and thought I would compare that to behaviors I have observed in my classes throughout the years.

T.O.: 2004 - In an interview with Playboy magazine, Owens hinted that ex-teammate Jeff Garcia was gay, a claim he later recanted.
My classes: Students will always call others names, especially when they can't accept their own short comings. It is a way for them to put the blame for something they did on someone or something else in an attempt to avoid the real problem from being exposed.

T.O.: 2005 - After hinting that he might hold out of training camp, Owens shows up with a bad attitude, refusing to acknowledge the media or speak to his teammates. After a confrontation with head coach Andy Reid, he was suspended for one week.
My classes: If they don't want to be at school that day (there might be a test or maybe they just didn't sleep well) they will have a bad attitude at best and do what they can to get themselves suspended for at least a week.

T.O.: 2006 - On July 5, Owens released a tell-all book revealing his side of the story associated with his time in Philadelphia.
My classes: There are always two sides to every story. It is usually best to make sure you are wearing your hip-waders when listening to their side however.

T.O.: 2006 - On September 26, Owens was taken by ambulance to Baylor University Medical Center for what was thought to be a suicide attempt. The following day, Owens denied trying to kill himself, claiming a mixture of pain pills and supplements caused him to be "out of it" when talking to emergency respondents
My classes: Students will often talk about killing themselves. 99% of the time I know it is not serious, but I still need to report it. I have never had a student actually go through with this threat, it is just a call for attention but still needs to be taken serious. Notice all of the attention T.O. received after this.

T.O.: 2006 - On December 16, in a victory over the Atlanta Falcons, Owens spit in the face of cornerback DeAngelo Hall.
My classes: I actually had a student fill up a water bottle with urine and dump it out on a study carrel in the corner of my room (those are the desks with sides, like mini-cubicles).

The last incident had me "pissed" off (bad pun intended). Although I did not see who did it, I know exactly who it was. I know my students and their behaviors well enough. I had two choices when this incident happened. I could have acknowledged that it happened and brought attention to it or I could ignore it. I ignored it, until after school in which I cleaned it up. I never once mentioned it. You see, much like T.O., this student wanted attention. This same student used to write in pencil on his desk, "fuck off" all the time. (He did at one time branch out his horizons and write, "fuck the world"). Funny thing is, it wasn't hurting anyone, so I ignored it and it stopped. It still arises from time to time, but not in the frequency it was at the begining of the year. That student has not yet tried to repeat his actions because he does not get the desired outcomes. As mad as it made me, I realize this kid has mental issues. Some things are his fault, some are not. He needs attention for doing the positive things that he does, like his school work or helping me with my recycling.

This is why I state T.O. could have been in special education. He needs attention. Early in his career he was getting it for all of the positive things he was doing on the field as a player. When that attention started to wane and shifted to other people, his negative behaviors started increasing so that he would be back in the spotlight.

Disappointment

Today was commencement at that other university in the state in which I finished my MA in. I wasn't really planning on going, but I had a fellow teacher who was in my cohort whose husband passed away a couple of months ago and it was important for him that she finish and walk so I went as moral support because I knew it would be an emotional time for her. It wasn't too much different from any other graduation. They still have Graduate and Undergraduate ceremonies at the same time and there were about 3,000 grads total. To speed things up, they had two readers. Although I understand the need to get things going (it was a 2 1/2 hour ceremony), the readers were terrible. They would run over each other and call names at the same time (probably happend about 50 or 6o times. Additionally, I don't think they had language experts reading the names. When my name was read, it was mispronounced, badly. I have heard my name misprounounced because admittedly it isn't an easy name to say. However, the mispronunciation was not one that is common. As I crossed the stage, I just shook my head in disgust and think I even muttered, "that's fucking bullshit," to myself. I wonder if the lipreaders were able to see that on the jumbotron that they were televising the ceremony on. I think if I were a parent who jsut shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to see my kid better him/herself, I would be a little pissed off. The amount of diversity at unlv is pretty large, so I can't even imagine how many foreign and ethnic names got butchered today. Oh well. The important thing is that the university that I care about got it right. This proves once again where the academic superiority is within the state of Nevada. Plus, I didn't pay for any of the "degree" so I guess I can't complain too much. At least my diploma was spelled correctly.

Walk of Shame

Well, tommorrow should be an interesting day at work after Nevada's disappointing loss to unlv. I can only imagine that my inbox will be flooded with comments. Unfortunately, they will be deservedly so. I watched the game on television and I was disappointed by the team as a whole. It looked fairly obvious that Faz is still hurt. It was the first time I had an opportunity to see McGee and I was impressed with what little time he was on the court. Poor ball handling. Poor shooting. Poor effort in the first half. Needless to say, despite the fact that we are still a better team, unlv deserved to win that game. Kruger had his troops prepared and Fox didn't. He marched them into what could have been an (even more) embarrassing bloodbath had the team continued their poor play into the second half.
Despite that, it may not be the worst thing for the team in the long run. We needed to lose eventually. Yes, I would rather it be against anyone besides unlv, but it still needed to happen. If the kids on the team truly understand the importance of the Nevada/unlv rivalry, then this will make them a better team. This minor setback could be what propels us up to the next level. Even though we have been playing good ball, it hasn't been dominating. We play well enough to win, but realistically we haven't been sending any messages that we are a legitmate contender. We need to regroup, refocus, and retalliate with a beating of St. Mary's. Reading the RGJ, you would think that the world has come to an end and we are near total collapse. Embarrassing, yes. Time to panic, no. Everyone needs to keep their heads and chins up. My chin will be up Monday as it prepares to take all of the shots that will be coming my way. As a proud Pack member, I will take it like a man and stand by my team.

On a side note, I will be going to the Rose Bowl. I will be having a very long day at work on January 2nd (still not as long as tomorrow), but I will experience one of the greatest traditions in college sports.

Damn you, CCSD

As a whole, I enjoy my job. However, there are things about my employer that I don't care for. At this particular moment, I am not too terribly happy with the fact that in Las Vegas, we will start school back on January 2nd. I have an opportunity to go to the Rose Bowl on January 1st. However, this would mean driving back to Las Vegas from LA after the game. Best estimate with light traffic would get me back in town around 10 pm. However, I have made that drive and on a holiday weekend, there will be plenty of idiots and accidents to muck up the roads. I have thought about taking that day off of work, but unfortunately I have a work ethic that won't allow me to do it. The real problem stems from the fact that our break is earlier than everyone elses. Oh well, I guess I will have to watch it on TV.

Back to Back

Normally I don't cheer for any team from the south. However, since I teach at Las Vegas High School, an exception needed to be made in this case. LVHS defeated Galena handily in the 4A state football championship 33-6 this afternoon. If you want to know more, read about it in either the LVRJ or RGJ on Sunday. My hats off go to Galena for surprising most people who follow high school football in the state for even making the finals. They played well in the first half and went into the locker room down by only one, at 7-6. However, the Wildcats demonstrated why they are the defending state champs and came out with their adjustments to turn the game into a romp. Congratulations are in order to the coaching staff at LVHS. Also, as a coach in other sports, the administration and boosters of LVHS need to be thanked for their continued support of athletics. I have been fortunate enough to coach at two schools (Sparks High and Las Vegas High) where the schools have been supportive of athletics. It makes not only coaching enjoyable, but also makes teaching that much easier since I don't have to stress over anything coaching related.

Rebel Nation

Or is it anymore? This article details one local (las vegas) journalist's thoughts on the state of the silver and red. That was printed last Thursday. In todays paper, the responses started coming in. My first reaction is that it is amazing how fickle unlv fans can be. After a moment of pause though, it doesn't surprise me. The city is about winners. If you don't win, then you are a nobody and unimportant. That apparently includes the "football" team.

Casino Royale

By far the best Bond movie to come out in a long time. I am looking forward to seeing Daniel Craig portray the secret agent in upcoming Bond films. In my opinion, what sets this apart from more recent Bond films is that it relies less on special effects and gadgets and more on story and plot. I am not going into great detail about the movie so as to not ruin it for anyone who has yet to see it, but if you are at all a Bond fan, you need to go out and see it asap. Other things that I liked: replacing Baccarat with Poker, at least one plot twist that caught me off guard, and a crazy torture scene that will make people squirm. Plus, I have no idea who the actress who played the Bond girl was. I have not been a big fan of using already famous actresses like Denise Richards, Teri Hatcher, or Halle Berry as the heroines.

Bandwagon?

I have been a loyal fan to both the football and basketball teams at Nevada since my freshman year in 1992. I have seen both programs play poorly and play well. Usually, it seemed as if neither one did both at the same time until the past two years. I am not writing to discuss why I think the teams have done well. I am not writing to talk about why we seem to have fair-weather fans at best; I sat through many games at Lawlor in which there were many more empty seats than full seats and the same can be said of Mackey Stadium. I am writing to discuss the bandwagon fans that jump on for whatever reason. I no longer live in Reno (unfortunately, but this is a temporary inconvenince that I must endure) so it is difficult for me to attend games and events. Despite that fact, I still follow the Wolf Pack and the University of Nevada as much as possible. I read the RGJ online at least 4 times a week, more if I have time. I visit the University's website about once a week to see what is going on at the school. I read articles at foxsports and espn all the time. This is where I find my problem with people on the bandwagon. Recently, postings on ESPN.com's message board for Nevada have been starting to become active with chatter on the basketball season. I have no problem with that and enjoy reading and sharing ideas with other Pack fans. What I have a problem with are so called Pack fans who can't spell the Wolf Pack properly. There are currently two pos(t)ers on the message board who choose to believe they are at NC State for whatever reason. Probably the same reason one of them thinks he goes to UNR (it's Nevada as most alumni know). They probably don't have a clue and have jumped on the bandwagon. If they are buying tickets and merchandise, that's great and an added bonus for the University, but make yourself a real fan and get it right. I hate bandwagons and the people that jump on them.

On another side note that pisses me off: My latest google ad was for tickets to unlv events.

Apologies

This is an official letter of apology to a good friend of mine. You see, my friend, we'll call him "L-Dog" to maintain anonymity, was a former player for unlv. He was actually quite a good player as well and had a knee injury not hindered his career, he would probably be playing on Sundays and I wouldn't have even had the opportunity to know him. L-Dog is an all around, great guy with his only fault that I can point out being his alumni status. This past week has been filled with emails back and forth with some smack talk going on between the two of us. I think he is still bitter from having to wear Nevada gear and reciting the "Law of the Jungle" in front of our unlv graduate class after last years cannon game. Needless to say, his last email said, "You are going to be apologizing to me after it's all said and done." So here it goes:

I am sorry that your team does not know how to catch.
I am sorry that your team does not know how to carry the ball.
I am sorry that your team does not know how to block.
I am sorry that we unleashed the fury of a true freshman for 146 yards rushing against your team.
I am sorry that your coach feels your offense is so incompetent, that he decided to kick a pansy-ass field goal on a 4th and goal (it is my opinion that if the situation were reversed, Ault would have had the balls to go for it).
I am sorry that your boosters have been unable to buy your university any quality athletes since Tark left in the early 90's.
I am sorry that the Mountain West Conference in general is an inferior conference to the WAC (props BSU for pounding their best team).
I am sorry that unlv has the name "Nevada" in their title.
I am sorry that that the only unpaved area in the Las Vegas metropolitan area is the parking lot at the Silver Bowl. I am also sorry that there are only two roads in and out for rebel fans. It must be pretty frustrating having to sit in long lines when you leave at half time and you don't actually get to the freeway until the fourth quarter.

In general, I am sorry that if people in Las Vegas want to see a football game, they are better off checking out high school games on Friday nights or the Las Vegas ShowGirlz.
I am also sorry that unlv will not win another game this season.
Ok, so I am not sorry about that last one.....There's always next year, L-Dog and the rest of you Rebel fans.

Happiness=FUNLV

There are a lot of things in this world that make me happy: a Mighthy Mike and banana shake from Scoopers, sleeping in on the weekends, my job (most days, when I don't have something flying by my head and I am not being told to "Fuck off!"), and especially coaching. I couldn't teach if I didn't coach. None of these takes me to my "Happy Place" though. My happy place is watching the unlv rebels lose. I don't care what it is that they lose in, seeing them and their fans miserable makes me happy. Last night, our coaching staff took our volleyball teams to watch unlv play byu at the Cox Arena at unlv. It is an interesting crowd because of the large Mormon population in vegas. Many of the students who are attending unlv would have gladly gone to byu if they would have had the grades to go there. The crowd was about evenly split between cougar and rebel fans. One of the most interesting and amusing signs was from one of the rebel fans using the CTR acronym to say, "Choose The Rebels." Not being Mormon, I am not exactly sure what the code word CTR stands for, but I know it has to do with wearing a ring a promising chastity until marriage; I have to remind half my team to take their rings off before every game. Anyway, back to the game and being happy. Obviously unlv lost, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. What made it even better and what makes me smile even wider (and maybe makes me a little more loathsome of unlv is how they lost. The rules of volleyball have changed a little in the past few years, but basically in college they play to 30 with rally scoring (every serve is a point, you don't have to serve to score anymore) , you must win by 2, and they play best 3 out of 5. In games 1 and 2, unlv led 29-28 with the serve before losing 31-29. The third game, same thing, but they ended up being ahead 30-29 and 31-30 before losing 33-30. Additionally, they had to make some big comebacks to even put themselves ahead in games 2 and 3. They ran off 7 or 8 straight points with some really great hustle plays, heart, and determination (I may be a hater, but I always appreciate great play and effort, part of sportsmanship that is disappearing from athletics, but that is another topic). There were definite momentum shifts within the team and within the crowd. Everyone believed that unlv would win those games. And then they didn't. To see the crowd deflate made me happy. Is there something wrong with me because I have such hatred for unlv and their fans? If there is, I don't want to change. I will not take whatever pill that they make to help me reduce my symptons of Rebelhatus. The rush I get from seeing the silver and red go down in flames outweighs the side effects that any of those pills cause. Proud to bleed the Silver and Blue, which leads me to my second, shorter part:

Monday, for those who are living in vegas, the Lady Wolf Pack volleyball team travels to Cox Pavillion for a 5 pm match against the same choke artists I watched Saturday night. I would love to be there to see them win for the 5th or 6th consecutive time (can't remember off the top of my head) but I have a match of my own to coach and won't be able to make it.

Saturday, the big game. The battle for the cannon. I never thought I would see the day that our running game and our defense would be what wins us games, but obviously ault has changed some of his thinking (some for the better, some he still needs work on). For those of you who make it to the game, stop by the alumni tailgater and we can harrass rebels fans together.

Worlds Worst Security

One of the things I have found about living in Vegas is that I tend to have a lot of visitors. Some people I see more living in Las Vegas than I did when I lived in Reno. People like to come here. Last night, a friend of mine from Reno and I were at the Hard Rock when some people started getting into a disagreement at the Circle Bar. It was loud and there was a lot of "Fuck You!" and the like going on while guys were "Chicken Dancing" with each other. This went on for a good two or three minutes while one guys friends were trying to separate things and the other guys girlfriend was trying to pull him away. It was a pretty big scene. No security showed up. As the guy with the girlfriend left, he grabbed some other guys beer (bottle of Corona, change you latitude) and threw it in the direction of the guy he was having issues with. He instead hits the biggest dude at the bar. The beer did not spill and this guy obviously was not fueled by all of the fire because he just sat there and ignored everything. Even after a beer bottle flew across the bar, no security. The guy who was the owner of the now spilled beer ran over, pissed off, and yelled something racial towards the couple. The guy lifts his middle finger and retaliates with some more colorful verbiage and the girl now runs, jumps, and launches a loogie at the guy. Still, no security. Not taking the spit lightly, the guy crying over spilled beer jumps over the rail and gets in the couple's faces. The girl has her boyfriend in a choke hold and is holding him back. Then, out of no where, she reaches around and slaps the beer guy. At this point in time, they have moved their raucous over to the craps tables and are bumping into people throwing the bones and really creating a scene. Despite the fact that there are about 6 croupiers and a couple of pit bosses watching, no one is doing anything and there is still no security. Finally, a cocktail waitress who is about 5'2 gets in between them and tells them to knock it off andleave. The couple leaves and the beer guy returns to the bar, presumably to spend another 5 bucks for a new Corona. After everything is finished, security arrives. They talk briefly to the beer guy and a few other people, but nothing else happened. After that, a security guy patrolled the bar about every two minutes.
There are some political parallels that I have drawn from this incident, but I am going to keep them to myself. I shared the metaphor with my friends as the incident happened and we had a good talk about it.

Random Responses

Well, this is just to kill some time while I am working on writing about my goals in my teaching career and at the same time possibly introducing some new reading material to the few people who actually read this. Maybe you will be able to find something more entertaining from this. (There are a couple of links to other blogs, if you don't want your blog linked, let me know and I will remove it. However, you are probably the only people reading this anyway, so you shouldn't have to worry).

From the blog of a friend: We put things on this giant set of tubes because we want other people to read the things we put here. The premise of this quote (read the blog though) is that people want to be famous. In a response to this, I agreed, but to a lesser extent because of my educational background. As a teacher, I have been taught to believe (and strongly agree with) the principals of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I think fame is a component for some, but for most, it is to fulfil the need of acceptance and communication. This intrigues me and scares me at the same time.

A semi-related tangent to technology: I teach and coach at a local high school. I asked the girls (frosh) if they thought they could survive without technology. Their reactions were interesting. Most of them said they could do without TV; they don't watch it much (I disagree based on the conversations I have heard about Laguna Beach, amoung others). Having to live without computers or cell phones was not even fathomable to them. When I further added that we would have no cars or electricity, what would they do? Most of them agreed that they would kill themselves. I can understand that response since we are in Las Vegas. If I had no A/C, I would probably want to kill myself as well. I think that I was raised with enough common sense to figure things out and hold my own in a technologically absent world. Plus, I was raised in the sticks and I am one-quarter Iroqouis, so I have an advantage over most city folk.

Not that I am without fault: When I think back to when I was 14, TV was a big part of my life. Television similar to this video was what I lived for on Sunday afternoons. Among other things, I have viewed some of the commercials that were marketed towards me as a kid and I am not really too much different than these kids, their toys just have a lot more bells and whistles attatched to them. I joke with them that I am so old, that the only two toys my brother and I had were called "stick" and "rock". The game was simple: someone threw a rock at the head of the person with the stick and the other person had to hit it or get hit with the rock. Technology is probably a good thing...

One scary thing about technology is when people can find you. If you already haven't, Google your name. Try variations, including Mr. (insert last name). Also try searcing in images. I find that I have some links to some letters I wrote to the RGJ years ago. I also found some old interviews and sports statistics from various prep websites. I even have a pictures of me bribing the President. It was not a real bribe, nor was it the real President. It could bother me that a picture of me from 5 years ago along with these other things are still on the web. These all now become permanent records that anyone can find, so people need to be careful about what they write. The ony thing that bothers me is seeing that although it was starting to go, my hair was thicker than it is now.

The one scary thing that I found was that someone with my exact same name was arrested and convicted of possessing with intent to sell cocaine in Michigan. I always wonder what will happen if I get pulled over or since I am a teacher what would happen if there were ever a case of mistaken identity. It should also be interesting since I am flying to Ann Arbor to watch the Michigan Wolverines play the Iowa Hawkeyes in October and I know I will be drinking probably more than I should.

If this blog format looks somewhat familiar, yes I am stealing ideas. I do not have enough of a technological background to figure things out, yet. I can see something I like and hit the help button to figure how to roughly imitate and get the results that I want out of things, though.

Baseball

I love baseball. More specifically, I love the Dodgers. They are the best team ever to grace the grasses of the senior circuit. I grew up in NorCal with family in the San Francisco Bay Area. Everyone, including my father, are giants fans because of this. I, on the otherhand, turned out normal by maybe little more than the grace of God. It can vaguely be attributed to the 1981 World Series and the magic that Fernando Valenzuela created with his "Fernandomania" rookie season. I was 7 that year and had played T-ball for a couple of seasons, but I was primarily a soccer player at the time. At soccer practice that fall, I broke my leg; I didn't wear shin guards like one is suppossed to. That not only ended my season, but I was also laid up in bed with a plaster cast up to my thigh. My dad brought in the old black and white television set from the garage for my bedroom so I could stay in bed and not have to move around. This worked well for me since the only other television in the house was upstairs and probably weighed about 200 pounds, so it wasn't moving anywhere. The black and white on the other hand, was only about 13 inches and portable (this being a television from the 70's though meant it still probably weighed 30 or 40 pounds though). It took about 3 or 4 minutes for the TV to warm up and the antena had to be adjusted just right to get one of the 4 channels that were available to us (pre-cable by about 4 years for us hicks). So I watched the World Series. I watched the Yankees take a 2-0 lead in the series. I watched Fernando pitch in game 3 and win for the Dodgers. After that, they never looked back and beat the Yankees in the next 3 games to win the World Series. From there a Dodger fan was born.
I bring this up for a specific reason. That was 25 years ago. I have been to probably a dozen or so Dodger games; nothing is more exhilirating or exciting than a baseball game in person (at least nothing that you can do in the company of 40,000+ people). All of these games though were watched at "The Stick," home of the hated giants. This is not going to be a story about how my dad being a giants fan and me beign a Dodgers fan created this huge rift in our relationship. The only problems we ever had were created by me being a typical, pain in the ass teenager while I was in high school. This has to do with the comparison of watching games at "The Stick," and a game at Dodger Stadium. This past weekend, I went to LA on Sunday to watch my first Dodger game at Chavez Ravine. In addition, it was against these same hated giants. Additionally, it was going to be Greg Madduz on the mound, a shoe in hall of famer. To top that off, he was throwing against Jason Schmitt, the ace of the giants (a good pitcher in his own right and deserving of that credit despite wearing ugly-ass orange and black. Trick or treat, anyone?). The game was as expected, a National League beauty full of great pitching and defense.
I could continue to describe the details of the game, of the stadium, of the Dodger Dogs, but that is not and has not been my intended point, which I am now getting to. As previously mentioned, I have seen many games at Candlestick. Almost every time that I went, I was with friends who were giants fans. And almost every time I went there, I was harrassed and threatened by giants fans. I am a sports fan. I love rivalries and the competition that they spur. I expect to be heckled and ribbed. I am also an adult, and with the population of students that I work with, I can handle being told to, "go to hell," or to go "fuck yourself." However, after dozens of peanuts and a few beers being wasted on my back, it gets old. The average giant fan has very little class. When I was at Dodger Stadium, I sat next to a couple who was wearing giants jerseys. They were not the target of hatered or ridicule. No beers, no peanuts, no churros were hurled in their direction. Other than an occassionaly beach ball that indiscrimately headed towards them, nothing malicious attacked them. In fact, out the the 45,000+ people that were there, probably 10,000 were dressed for Halloween. And other than the occassional clown wearing a Barry Bonds shirt, no one appeared to be harrassed or overly heckled (the treatment of the Barry fans is pretty universal, I summise from watching games and hearing the crowd reactions).
It is sad that giant fans have had such a negative impact on my memories that after spending what possibly could be considered one of the greatest days of my life, the thing that I will remember the most will be the lack of class that they have. That is my rant. Dodger fans will understand. giant fans will continue to hate. Life will go on and so will baseball. Unless you are a giants fan and it comes time for game 163 on the season. Then you will be home watching the Blue in the playoffs. Have fun, but remember that if you hurl that beer at the television set, you might ruin your TV (as well as waste a beer).

The Blogging Bandwagon

Well, after reading everyone elses thoughts, I figure it is time I start writing about thoughts of my own. This will be an intersting experiment for a couple of reasons. First, I hate writing. Especially after just finishing my Masters. Thankfuly, I took my classes at unlv and the actual quality and depth of my writing did not require the highest of academic standards or intellectual thought. Plus, I don't spell very well and don't type nearly as well as your average twelve year old can with their text messaging cell phones (hopefully my writing has a little more depth, though, lol). Last time you will ever see "lol" in a post, I promise. Second, although I feel I can hold my own in some intellectual conversations, especially after a few beers, it can often be difficult to find people to have intellectual conversations with. Maybe I am actually not as intellectual as I think I am (hence, attending unlv for a Master's) but it is the beer that makes me think I am actually smart while simultaneosly diminishing the intelligence of my audience, thus exponentially increasing my perceived intelligence. Because of this, (see, not supposed start a sentence with "because") my occasional rants will be pretty darn boring and normal observations of my life and the world. Hopefully for those of you who know me, a light goes on in your head and you can say to yourself, "Well, that explains a lot about him," and those of you who don't know me realize that if you ever meet me, don't buy me any beers if you want to have a normal conversation.

*disclaimer-this post, as all posts, will be written while sober. Comments to replies, if any, on the other hand are subject to beer-goggled responses. If my responses are aggresive or violent by nature, then I was probably drinking Jack, which has been proven to increase testosterone levels (although anyone who ever went to college and called an offensive lineman a lard-ass already knew that).