The Cubs don’t just lose.  They lose with style.  They find new ways to make people say to themselves “I can’t believe the Cubs found a way to choke again!”  But why do they keep losing?  Is it a CURSE?  Yes it is…  But it has nothing to do with goats and everything to do with dollars.

You see, a franchise that has build a cult-like following on the platform of being “Lovable Losers” needs to maintain their status to keep their following.  And the following is where the money is…

Take the Chicago White Sox for example.  They won a World Series not too long ago.  But now, that is history and they are no longer selling out every game and in the national spotlight.  They have no story.  They are just another team that wins some and loses some.

But, to be a money machine you MUST have a story.  You must either be a big winner (like the Yankees) or a big loser (like the Cubs).  If you’re just floating around in the middle, you are not a story.  You are no longer the eternal undergdogs everyone roots for on the side.  You are…  Just another baseball team.

If the Cubs were to win a World Series, Lovable Loser would no longer fit.  And unless they could consistantly win, neither would the title of Elite Team.  So, I wouldn’t expect to see the Cubs winning a World Series any time soon.  They will always be a devistating injury, botched play, or Steve Bartman away.

Because baseball is a business and a good story is good for business.

No one likes to lose an hour of sleep.  Usually I take it as it comes, however, because I do enjoy the extra hour of daylight.  This year is another story.  The kids have NOT adjusted well to the time change AT ALL!  My oldest, an 8-year-old, comes into our bedroom EVERY morning and whispers, “Dad…  Dad…  DAD…  Is there a delay?”  This is partially the school districts fault.  For awhile, we were having 2-hour school delays due to weather at least weekly.  So now, she can’t get used to the fact that the weather is finally nice enough to start school on time.  Either that, or the district is sick of the heat of all the missed school and won’t delay anymore…  But much of it is because of the time change; my daughter just wants there to be a delay so she can go back to sleep for an hour or two.

My 3-year-old is back to staying up later than us.  She has always been a toughie to get on a proper sleep schedule, and wouldn’t you know it, we had her in an awesome sleeping groove until this darned time change happened.  She is back to refusing to go to bed, and she is a crabby zombie in the mornings.  The other night, she was sneaking peeks as we tried to watch Poltergeist in the living room – THAT’LL get her right to sleep!  That movie scared me awake for years – that clown part is STILL scary!

The baby – actually, she is now an almost 17-month-old toddler – is the most affected.  She cannot fall asleep before 10 at night, and she actually sleeps in a little bit in the mornings, kind of.  She’ll wake up at 5 or 6, then fall back asleep when Dad lays on the floor with her – poor Dad!  Have you noticed a trend?  They go to Dad when it comes to sleep issues – they KNOW better than to mess around with me – I get kinda grumpy when I don’t sleep well.  Unfortunately, the pregnancy has made me a light sleeper so I get woken up anyway.

Something tells me we’ll get it all worked out, but then we will just have to change the clocks back an hour the very weekend the kids finally adjust, starting all over again!

So, another election year is upon us and guess what…  We’re deciding between a black man and a white woman.  Either decision will result in the potential for “something new” in the Whitehouse.

But you have to ask yourself…  Are they really going to be any different?  After all, WHAT makes these candidates so different from the past presidents?  Well, we’ve already established that…

RACE  &  GENDER

If you could choose two candidates that don’t fit the “presidential mold” then a black man  and a woman are about as different (in appearance) as you can get.  But at the core…  Obama, a straight black man, and Clinton, a gay white woman, think very much the same…  They both think “WHITE MAN”.

Remember, Obama is not black.  He is 50% black.  So, if 50% black makes him black then 50% white makes him white.  So, if you’re saying he is a “black man” running for president.  You can use the exact same logic to say he is a “white man” running for president.  In fact, Obama’s main influence growing up was his WHITE mother.  He was raised in a white household by a white parent.

Remember, Hillary is not a lady.  Sure, she is genetically a female but she thinks male.  She has male drive, male goals, and if you watch her on the stump — male emotion.  In fact, rumors that Hillary Clinton is gay have been circulating long beofre her presidential campaign.  See here and here and here.

• Obama, LOOKS black but thinks WHITE; looks MALE and thinks MALE.

• Clinton LOOKS white and thinks WHITE; looks FEMALE but thinks MALE.

So they both think WHITE MALE even though neither of them have that appearance.

The difference IS only skin deep.  So, as we try to pretend that this is a new breakthrough in the Whitehouse and that this is not just another election of a WHITE MALE we should be ashamed of ourselves.  Yes, it is politics as usual in Washington.

Apparently parents of a high school student are considering just that after a teacher woke up a student by slapping her hand on the student’s desk.  According to their claim he suffered hearing loss as his ear was on the desk at the time and the sudden sound ruptured his eardrum.  If this is true, then I fully understand the parents’ concern, but something doesn’t seem quite right here.  From the article:

Barry said the boy’s ear hurt instantly after Nadeau hit his desk.

“He woke up and immediately felt pain in his ear,” Barry said. “I think he was so taken aback that he didn’t say anything at the time.”

The next day, Vinicios’ parents took him to the hospital after he complained of hearing loss and they discovered a bloody fluid on his pillow.

If his eardrum burst as they say, wouldn’t he have been in so much pain he would have said something?  Screamed out in pain?  Immediately gone to the nurse? I just don’t know…

Sleepy Student Claims Teacher’s Wake-Up Slam Caused Hearing Loss 

Okay, it wasn’t an arrest but apparently an 8th grade student got in trouble for buying a bag of Skittles of all things. Not pot, not meth, but Skittles. This boy was suspended, stripped of his title as class vice-president, and uninvited form an honors dinner as a result of this episode. What next, expulsion for running in the hall? I realize this school has a rule banning candy sales (according to the article), but this is just going overboard. Read for yourselves:

Connecticut 8th-grader suspended for buying Skittles in school

I have often reflected on teaching a particular subject I was good at in school- math.  Face it, either you’re good at math or you’re not- it’s just one of those subjects.  If you get it then you’re well on your way to high grades, but if you don’t…

As a great student in math I have struggled to teach it sometimes.  It’s like, “Why don’t you get it? I just showed you how to do it!” Even now, with all this sub experience, I often either go too fast and leave some students struggling or I take too long to teach it as if I’m afraid of going too fast.  It’s difficult to find the right balance.  Okay, to be fair as a sub I don’t know the students, so getting the right balance is just not possible, but it doesn’t stop me from wondering.  Today I subbed in 6th grade, but this kind of goes back to last week too when I was in that 3rd/4th grade class for a few days and only taught math.  Then, the teacher wanted one section taught per day if at all possible.  Four days, didn’t quite finish two sections.  Well, three days really since there was no math on the last day.

Today was a little different- she assigned five journal pages out of two sections!  Well, I guess she didn’t really want me to teach it.  I wound up just going over a few examples on the board from each section and letting them work, asking questions or work with a partner as needed.  I think in this case working with a partner was almost mandatory since I didn’t have time to teach full lessons.  Did she want it done this way?  I’ll never know.

This makes me think of a proof that I am slow at teaching math: the University of Chicago math program.  This seems to be used everywhere.  Well, at least in elementary schools.  This is a very structured program meant to be taught in about one hour.  This includes a game included in most lessons, but I rarely have time for when I teach the program for some reason.  It starts off with a “math message,” which is a math problem that will lead into the lesson.  This is followed by a full-group lesson that often involves some sort of manipulative which aids kinesthetic learners (touch), which believe it or not is most people.  True, many can learn by seeing or even by hearing, but touch really makes a difference in many people.  A Chinese sage once said after all:

I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.

In any event, following the full-group lesson there are small group, partner, and/or individual activities (one of which is the aforementioned game).  I think I need a full 90 minutes to get through all of it sometimes!

Apparently someone who was attempting to clean up the state he governed needed to look in his own backyard. As more details rise from the controversy surrounding the sex scandal of New York governor Eliot Spitzer, one of the leading stars involved in the prostitution ring is an aspiring actress/singer named Ashley Dupre. It is really unfortunate that a young person would feel the need to become involved in such a lifestyle…. even living with the governor in an apartment in Manhattan until he walked out on her. Although she does not want to be though of as a “monster,” who can say whether or not she will ever be seen as anything but the governor’s plaything. It just seems like a lot of young ladies (and men) who want to become stars are prone to controversy. Britney, Jamie Lynn (good name… wrong spelling), Lindsay Lohan, and several others seem to grace entertainment periodicals and news broadcasts everywhere. Not very good role models for teenage youngsters. The evils that celebrity leads to.

Which is not to say that the main character in the mess is the young lady. On the contrary, it is disgusting that the man who had been praised for reportedly decreasing the amount of crime and smut in New York state would be such a hypocrite.

What better way to promote a new movie than on America’s number one television show which is seen by millions every week. Last season two movies peddled themselves on American Idol, Shrek 3rd and The Simpson’s Movie. The top ten finalists were treated to the premiere showing of Shrek and got to go backstage for the behind the scenes work of The Simpsons. The Shrek connection kind of threw me since Dreamworks is not affiliated with FOX (that I am aware). Of course, money talks.

Last night’s result show also featured a promotional opportunity for 20th Century Fox’s latest attempt to transform a Dr. Seuss book into a theatrical masterpiece. The last two (The Grinch and The Cat in the Hat) were mediocre at best. I’m not sure if Horton Hears a Who will follow in their footsteps, but the cast list seems promising. Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, and Amy Poehler are a few of the talents who are lending their voices to the animated feature.

In order to further promote the film, Jim Carrey was in the American Idol studio audience with a giant set of elephant ears on his head and humongous elephant shoes on his feet. I personally felt sorry for the man who sat behind him. Later, the man of a thousand faces blended in with the finalists who were nervously awaiting the announcement of the contestant who would be getting the hook, axe, or otherwise sent packing.

I hesitate to tell you that the poor soul who was voted off the island (oops wrong show) was a young man who (according to newspaper articles) previously was employed as a male stripper at an establishment that catered mostly to male clientele. It would not be American Idol if there was not a bit of controversy.

Our wedding anniversary is coming up – this year marks #9! – and there’s a pretty cool gift we get this year: the first new Office episode in months!  Steve Carell gave an interview with TvGuide, and said that his character Michael Scott is hosting a dinner party, and it goes terribly awry.  If you know anything about the show, then you know how hilarious this will be and are looking forward to it as much as we are.  So on April 10, check out the first brand new Office episode since the writer’s strike saga!

And that reminds me, on April 10, 2009, we are hopefully going to have the time and resources to put together a “second wedding” for our tenth anniversary.  We didn’t know any of our Ohio friends when we got married way back in ’99, so we’d like to renew our vows and “get married” all over again in Ohio, 10 years later!  And, luckily for us, April 10, 2009 falls on a Friday!  So, this year we will be watching the Office.  Next year, we will be “getting married” again, hopefully!

I was home for most of the day (AM only job) but even so I don’t have anything to write right now. Sorry. Until tomorrow then.