okay, so most of what i read aren’t things ya’ll are reading or will ever probably ever read – if you haven’t figured that out (not sure sometimes the level of brightness i’m dealing with) – anyway, this week was still no exception – as with…

“blood, sweat, and chalk” – by tim layden – sports illustrated author – book on football playbooks – specifically, different formations – like the veer, spread, tampa 2, 46, a-11 – not sure how many middle school kids, even football guys, would find the book interesting, but as a person who watches a decent amount of football – or maybe just watches and likes to appear to be smarter than the drunk fans around him at games – the book was interesting because it described the history and purpose behind different formations – so when alabama runs out of the wildcat now, i can turn to dad and say something like “boy, the zone blocking was great on that play”

(by the way, dad is a water drinker – like myself – don’t want any confusion:)

as for you  guys though, i did read two books i’d recommend…

“the defense of thaddeus a. ledbetter” – i do hope this is a BOB next year – so you don’t all have to rush and read it now – but it’s a truly wonderful little read – very funny – and the ending didn’t compromise anything that went on during the book – which i thought was great

“the reinvention of edison thomas” – story of an autistic scientific genius 12-year-old who basically gets better at science by learning how to develop friendships – or he’s rather befriended – through the book – very good story – eddy was a pretty real character for me – the way he puzzled to figure out social interactions, i could definitely identify with (as i think most kids could who spend any amount of time in environments where they’re not considered the top of the social class, so to say) – good comparison book for “rules”

i finished the old testament – yeah!!! ecclesiastes struck me a bit differently this time – i mean, everyone says that it’s depressing, and i suppose on a level it is – but it does appear the author is trying to fight through that to figure out the meaning in life

i also read a fascinating study in “the economist” that if you make text smaller, the kids will get smarter – sounds great – waiting to try that one out

happy reading – i’m getting ready to run in a 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) in tennessee this weekend

maf

we were – this has been a quick, quick weekend – it helps to be quick when you’re out until 2:30 am with a football game (it’s not my fault espn 2 wanted it as the preview for the hawaii-nevada game – the group i sat around, being alabama football experts – cough, cough – have assured me though that the mississippi state game will be at 11:30 – which means most of them will lose their expertness – which seemed to come from lots and lots of alcohol – oh joy…)

i did get 200 pages read in “the annotated us constitution and declaration of independence” yesterday – pretty interesting read about why we got both documents – and how both documents should be read – for example, both documents were rather new to the world – so the system of government that was outlined was meant to be a work in progress – ironically, it’s been viewed as rather a document you don’t change

the other book i read (i did finish “war of the worlds” early last week – thought about ordering a class set but then found out that it’s 12th grade reading – at least the author is – so there went that idea – you’re not going to miss much though – it wasn’t great), was “the runner’s body” – i also got a book late in the week, “road to the top” which was about running – just 10 years earlier with its publication – both books were similar in that they used science to drive the advice about running – like the importance of vo max (having lungs that can take in a lot of oxygen)

i’m now to the psalms – like psalm 65 – i found a few that talked about running – which was cool b/c i was running on the treadmill when i read it – i also read the sports illustrated story on the agent that came clean this week by ratting on the players he paid when they were in the ncaa – the story wasn’t that shocking

guess those are the highlights – two weeks until i’m racing in tennessee

maf

bonjour!
so you have monday off – enjoy it (if you’re reading this monday sixth grade, you don’t have to blog today – although, if you do, then you don’t have to blog another day) – i have a meeting – fun – and then time at the school – which i’m planning to devote to solving world hunger – or i’m just so awesome… 🙂

as for reading…
“the truth about santa claus” – great book by mome – i think that was his name – basically used cutting-edge science to explain some of santa – who apparently is a new yorker who’s been equipped by aliens for some time to use wormholes and building-atom guns to deliver happiness to the world – again, great read

“caffeeine for the creative mind” – an exercise book about ways to build creativity – i enjoyd the book – there were 250 exercises – maybe six of them caught my eye – the other 40 just basically looped every 40 pages (so like the same idea came up six different times – and i’d be like “didn’t i see that idea about 40 pages ago???” – i guess i stumbled on the difference between adult and teen fiction – in adult books, the author assumes your life is too busy to read the whole book very quickly – or at all – and so the main idea or ideas are just repeated a bunch to fill up pages)

as for rest, i’m up to ezra now in my quest to finish the old testament, i read about how calorie-restricted specimens in a lab not only lived longer but gave birth to specimens that lived longer (i guess you too can increase your life span from 8 to 12 days if you’re a microorganism and reading this blog), i read how david price of the rays is a nice guy (and how bama is the best team in the country – sports illustrated seemed to miss on that one this week), and i read a piece about using smartpens in the classroom as i ran my final long run before my 1/2 marathon race in the hills of tennessee – just three weeks away (joy)

must return to “war of the worlds” by hg wells – for some reason, this is the week to read about aliens…

maf

wonderful header, i know – had to warn the sixth grade – otherwise, i approve 90 comments this week before i remember to tell them not to write…

read “called to coach” by bobby bowden last week – good book – bowden was a very successful college coach – who grew up in b’ham – led florida state to national titles – i guess what was most interesting about the book was that it wasn’t a typical coach book where the coach makes himself a god (“i came in and the program was terrible and i turned it around”) – he admitted doubts he had and he admitted the help he had – it was a good read

got “the book of basketball” by bill simmons thursday – couldn’t read much in it what with a middle school game to announce and then bama’s game saturday – so only like 300 pages so far – but it’s a humorous look at the nba – it’s 700 pages long – about 500 more pages than die-hard nba guys probably want – so it’s curious in that aspect – but the guy knows the nba – and i don’t so i’ve learned a bit

up to 1 chronicles now in the bible read-through – 1 and 2 kings are rather depressing – although it did surprise me upon rereading how lenient God was towards the kings with all the things they did (like, oh, worshipping just about every god they could fashion)

read about bama’s cross country team today – my favorite sport – and obviously read some about the uf-ua game – guess those are the highlights – best wishes with finals

maf