Freedom, or so I Thought

With the last "Little Thunder"(basically a kids basketball camp on Saturdays) over and done with I was filled with uncontrollable joy. Even the fact that I was unable to hang out with Jimmie(who was in town from Sonora) couldn't ruin how I felt. I was free of basketball, free of all the obligations that come with that, I could now spend more time in my classroom to prepare my students better, I could spend more time with my wife, and of course more time playing video games and watching sports. Oh wait...I knew it had to be too good to be true. I received a disheartening e-mail this morning asking myself and another coach to drive out to a game, and watch two teams I don't care about. I know this may sound fairly exciting to some of you, but to the vast majority this is not what we want to do on an upcoming Friday night. So I guess life will go on, but wow what a way to bring me back to earth.

Golden??????????

Oh Canada.....wait, what the heck happened today? Did Canada actually lose to Switzerland? I must be dreaming or something. How does something like that happen. People think that the USA beating USSR in 1980 was an upset, take a look at this game. This could have been one of the most one sided match-ups and it all went bad. I can take a loss(not very well) but this one is hard to swallow, although it could have been worse(not like we lost to the Americans). Is Team Canada turning into what the "Dream Team" in USA basketball has become. I certainly hope not as nothing except a gold will be considered success coming home from the Olympics. Well I can't believe I'm taking time out of my day to write about this but it is actually happening. Let just say way to many Canadians will be very upset if a trend like this continues.
Onto other news, basketball has officially finished and I'm relieved of my obligations. I absolutely loved coaching this year but need to focus on school so I think I will be taking some time off from basketball. The kids I had this year made it very special and I couldn't have picked a better group to go out on.

The Wonder of School

Being an educator(I guess that is what they call us now-a-days) I have dealt with the education system all my life(basically) and I have seen the different levels of education that is provided to people. Why is it that all the different states and countries have different systems for educating their children? Why for instance does California(which has some of the lowest scores in the country) have a complete and total different curriculum than Maine(which has quite high scores) Or better yet, why did I use the same text books in high school(in Canada) that I did it college(in United States)? Looking at education is kind of depressing because it really isn't anywhere near what it should be.

Sports??????????

After coaching another basketball game I am left to wonder about the state of sports in this day and age. When did the sports of old change into what we are left with today. Why do we have to add gimmicks to keep the attention of the fan? Why is it that in college and high school when you don't hustle or you don't play well you get pulled out and your new privilege is to sit on the bench, but in the pro's you never lose playing time and sometimes your minutes might go up(because someone who huslted got hurt). The interesting thing is that not only do we accept this we encourage it. Why is it that my JV boys basketball team works harder on defense than Mike Bibby. I understand that it is supposed to be "entertainment", but shouldn't it also resemble the original sport. Maybe the owners have it all figured out, maybe they know that since everyone has ADHD that they can't look at the game long enough to know what is going on. Don't get me wrong I enjoy special effects, but usually I limit them to my movies or TV shows. Well there are some random thoughts about how frustrating pro sports are. If you have any comments feel free to leave them .

What in the world

Hello to all of you. First and foremost I would like to tell you all why I am writing this blog. To me this is an easier way to inform the masses about what is happening in my life. Since most of my family lives far away in a frozen land I thought this would be an easy way for all of them to check up on me.

Well I will quickly give everyone a quick update on what has been happening. I'm now in my third year of teaching in California and I am having a great time. I teach 5th grade and now understand why most teacher lose their hair or their sanity. Along with that I'm also coaching a JV(junior boys for the Canadians) basketball team in my district. It is fun but I can't believe how time consuming it actually can be. I'm looking forward to the season being over and having more time to 1) hang out with my wife(I have been told I have to put that one first) 2) Watch more sports (mostly the Canucks right now since my wife bought me a satellite package that allows me to watch all of their games) 3) Sleep(since this is one of the major concepts I learned in college.

My wife a I have bought our first house and also got a puppy to keep us on top of things. Life is going well and we look forward to what is going to happen to us in the future. Thank you for reading and I hope you continue to do so.