okay, brilliant thought for the day brought to you by the man and his son that sit behind me – now for three years strong at the bama games – first series yesterday for the opposing team, the owls of fla atlantic have a third and one – and they delay the game and are backed up five yards – and the father says “ooh, they’re going to be better now here b/c we would’ve stopped their run” – and i’m like “seriously??? you think third and six is better than third and one??? quick! tell coach saban so he can decline the penalty!!!”

“Never Fall Down” – so i finished this book in a day – yesterday to be exact – 1/2 before the bama game – and 1/2 during the game (thank you pay-per-view timeouts – really people, if you pay $40 for a game, why should you have to see commercials???) and so i’m done with high school BOB – don’t consider this a high school book at all – serious topic, 197os cambodia-vietnam conflict – serious issues (child soldier) – but in my high school days, we actually would’ve, oh, i don’t know… READ about the conflict and what happened and grappled with the US involvement – rather than read a child’s novelization…

“Catherine the Great” – yeah!!! finished friday – took forever – if she’d only had like five lovers instead of 12, maybe the book could’ve come in at 475 instead of 575 – anyway, catherine was great b/c she got rid of poland (literally) and developed the ukraine – and she was russia’s last female leader – unique character – but like reading a russian novel, it required some patience – the names probably most similarily to a novel from the same country

freed up from BOB obligations now and with a “big, serious” book finished, i’m looking to go brain dead for the rest of the fall – good times await:)

maf

so i ran a 1/2 marathon at talladega today – did pretty good – very cool run (i mean, like awesomeness factor – although the weather wasn’t that bad at all either)

before i went braindead (warning – i’m still dead right now so i’m not responsible for much of this blog…), i did complete two books this past week

“how they croaked” – finished the BOB set with this one – i would be the weak link on a BOB team on this book b/c it was a skim read for the most part – i just found it pretty offensive – i’m sure the author meant well, but i’m pretty sure the author didn’t have anyone close to him/her dying at the time – otherwise, you just can’t read it – or write it

“solo” – hope solo biography – really enjoyed it – from the dirt on the DWTS crew to her soccer crew, solo (and the author that probably wrote all of it with her:) did an excellent job – lots of lessons in the books – persevering, dealing with family, forgiveness, redemption, young talent – very enjoyable read

currently on “catherine the great” –  so far, what’s made her great is that she sired an heir – hoping for something else better…

mafeld (the great – b/c i finished higher than my assigned bib number:)

movie to promote gifted ed. julie and may Invest in gifted ed – it’s your best move (way better than that apple stock…)

thanks to merritt and julie – oh, and me… mafeld

one direction thursday’s pep rally – yes, we did win later on – all the rest edited out b/c they weren’t good enough… 🙂

so commercial breaks are still impossibly long – and i’m still too far up to see hannah, jp, ashley, and the rest of the million dollar band, oh, and it was impossibly hot (so much for the rain that day), but i did survive yesterday – and even finished “false prince” in the morning so i felt like i’d accomplished something…

“false prince” – book five of six in my quest to finish BOB – did not like “false” – took too long to get into – and then cameron RUINED the book for me by telling me there was a twist (and yet, she wanted to join my scholar’s bowl team… 🙂 i’m just glad we got the poor mute girl speaking – i mean, it’s an author’s nightmare when the love of the main character can’t talk… 🙂

“great call” – my labor day, in part, consisted of reading a book about paul finebaum – finebaum has a sports talk show – some say it’s the greatest ever (this would be the view of the author) – me? i’ve just never been able to follow sports talk for too long – particularly that show (i like to think i’m better than it:) although, paul is a very nice guy and actually came on my student radio show in college – yes, it was a sports talk show – yes, i get the irony

“escape from camp 14” – wow, what north korea does in the dark – even the daylight – while the rest of the world ignores what goes on – very amazing book – amazing story – insight into a dark spot on this planet – good book on how you respond to trauma – how do you live when you hate your past – the endurance we have and maybe don’t know – just a gripping read – should really be read by everyone – well, adults – and then we should decide to do something in the UN

moving to a soccer biography now – so glad to be done with most all the fiction of the BOB (just not a fan)

hope your dance week is great

mafeld

dear sunday audience,

hope your labor day weekend is going well – what with college football starting, i guess i’m just not reading anymore – or maybe running and the impossible-to-lose humidity is frying my brain – or something – anyway, two books this week – my apologies for leading you on by doing more…

“between shades of gray” – one of the BOBs – sad, sad book – based on real events from wwii – and a silence about those events that lasted for well over 50 years – i’m curious to those that read it whether they can enjoy it – it’s not a typical YA book so the enjoyment sort of has to come at a deeper level – like for me, the beauty of the book is asking yourself “could i endure something like this? how can i prevent things like this from happening? what things in my life seem hopeless?” but, i’m not sure middle school kids can ask those questions so i’m thinking this will not be a BOB fave…

“heist society” – i think this one will be a BOB favorite – even though this wasn’t one of my favorite it books – although, it does read quickly (i nearly finished it waiting for marjorie’s cross country race to start saturday – yes, it was HER race – no one else’s) – basically, super-smart stealer gets busted out of private school to return to live in the mafia – or the mafia that steals things – and art is involved – and boys – and kissing – so everything goes well and all ends well and we sort of forget that the book was originally about the girl busting her dad out of trouble because at the end of the book, the girl has a boy, and isn’t that the point in life???

okay, i’m letting my aggrevation show on that book:) time to move onto next week – if you’re sixth grade and new to this, you do not have to blog on labor day – we don’t meet – it’s not a school day – so do something productive and lament the fact you return to school the next day:)

sincerely,

mafeld

what’s up my good people??? 🙂

so the first week is in the books – which means it’s now time to bring out the journals…

“creamy and crunchy” – this was the book that i think i mentioned in just about every class – the book about peanut butter – loads of fascinating trivia – like george washington carver did NOT invent peanut butter – he is often said to have – one interesting trend was the amount of illnesses due to PB in recent times – whether due to gov’t oversight or just businesses being stupid – it’s amazing that people can die from such a delictable treat – anyway, i don’t think it was a major point of the book, but i did buy two jars of PB on saturday:)

“all the things i’ve done” – a high school BOB – i could camp out forever on this book b/c i soooooooooooo did not like it – it is now my least favorite BOB – i would’ve never thought the boston mystery one would get bounced but i did like that one a bit better – this one, wow, it had issues – for starters, there was the odd placement of a shakespearean drama in the play – my theory, when writers get stuck, they have their characters get cast in a play – often, one of the classics from shakespeare that their YA audience will know – and this plot device somehow is supposed to save the book – although, in this book, it just made things more confusing – it was a dsytopia (future world that’s messed up – how messed up??? chocolate is banned – so it’s contraband – and while the technology exists to make old people live forever – hooked up to machines – there’s hardly any water, no books, and people seem really hard up for things we take for granted – which makes me wonder why a future that’s so smart that it can cheat death can’t solve all the things it regressed on…)

i’m now set for a week of college football reading – i have one high school BOB left, but i’m not going to be able to get it for a while – the middle school ones will be next – although, i’ll be nice and let ya’ll claim what you want first

hope your first week of reading and writing is wonderful

mafeld

so before we get started with the reading material for this week, a few clarifications/notes of interest…

one, i owe hal higdon an apology – i wrote previously on this wonderful blog that i wanted nothing more to do with him after rereading “marathon,” and then this morning, i find my sister (who denies my existence on facebook apparently), yes, my dear sister, is training for our chicago marathon under the tutelage of, yes, hal higdon – so follow me… while i want literally nothing more to do with the literary work of higdon, on occasion, it appears i will unknowingly have literally something to do with him – my sister’s running (and for some reason, this time, that includes me on long runs…)

two, i have a new theory that explains life – based upon “stargirl” – the theory is that we all have tangible indicators of our happieness – for stargirl, it was her wagon and those 20 marbles – for me, it’s a refridgerator that’s actually full of food – first time in years – which must mean…

you’re all coming back to me!!!

oh joy… anyway, on to reading…

“crimson memories” by john forney – only radio football announcer i know of who wrote short stories – who knew??? very creative and impressive for a football guy – and some decent windows into what the university of alabama looked like in the 1940s

“the story of us” – with the advent of school, i can admit this is a high school BOB – and a good one at that – basically, two kids in 1996 can acess their facebook pages in 2011 – and what they see disturbs them – i’m curious if high school kids will enjoy anything in the book beyond the romance – as for a kid that graduated in ’96, i can assure you that life wasn’t nearly as exciting as the book makes that year:) i can also say that if a hypothetical me had acessed my facebook page in ’11, i would hope that while he wouldn’t recognize me physically, he’d see that most of the things he held most dear in 1996 are the things he holds true to in 2011

and isn’t that a good things? to figure things out early and cling to them as life comes at you???

j

so today was a perfect day – perfect morning – you just have these endless days in july and august that are miserably hot and humid to run in – and then, you wake up one morning and BOOM things are different and you think you can run forever – which is good when you run out of water with six miles left:)

“satchel” by tye – book on a great baseball player – we have a story on him in the sixth grade lit book – i guess the thing i took from the book is just how atypical the path of a guy from the negro leagues was – he played on a different team almost every year – and dozens of teams in the offseason – all b/c he was excluded due to baseball’s unwritten race rules (and baseball was one of the first to relax those) – definitely sad – particularly b/c satchel never went back to the best city on earth very often (mobile)

“america’s quarterback” by keith dunnavant – biography on bart starr – quality, quality guy – less a book about bart’s wonderful accomplishments with the packers (starr actually didn’t even play much his senior year at alabama – that was how bad the coaching was at the time), and much more about how a guy can deal with a strict father and a terrible childhood loss and turn those things into positives – instead of just carry that baggage and resent the world – glad he became a mountain brook-er:)

“creative strategy” by william duggan – great little book to use for educators – it’s written for business folk, but the things the columbia professor proposes definitely work in a gifted ed classroom – so we’ll give some of them a try

and finally… i read one of the high school BOBs – name undisclosed due to the fact i want to feel needed and e-mailed for the name – otherwise, i never hear from ya’ll and that makes me sad:( so anyway, i read of the high school BOBers – very long – but read it in a day b/c it was, um, not the greatest, let’s just say:) however, if you’re a fan of mystery – particularly possible psycho-thrillers, then this is the book for you – oh, and if you like the f-word, you’ll love the book:)

my favorite part in the book was when the main character started taking the transit in boston – and his stops were out where i stayed when i ran the marathon – and it was amazed that i remembered those stops – i can remember that but i can’t remember so many other things – like all the new teacher names…

maf

i thought this morning how all sunday mornings are the same in the months of july and august – hot – quiet – sunny – but then, i sort of changed that tune when i realized that some sundays are different than others – like when the pastor’s out, there’s nobody there – everyone’s “on vacation” – amazing how it coincides with the pastor’s trip  -then, he returns, and everybody comes back

i’m sure that observation came from my reading this week – or the delirium from running long this morning – anyway…

“wherever i wind up” by r.a. dickey – oh, what a wonderful book – dickey is a NY met pitcher – he’s thrown lights out this year – his story is pretty incredible – we may actually journal a bit this year about it b/c while i know none of you love baseball – all of you, all of us, can relate to what it’s like to go from phenom to nom (or nothing) in a particular thing we do – whether band, math, reading, sport – whatever, to go from being pretty good at something to losing that gift – and having to work to re-get that thing – it takes bravery, determination, unforeseen setbacks – dickey’s story is insightful (even without allowances for being a baseball player:)

and that was actually it this week – only one book – i’m slacking – truly – in fairness, there was magazine reading and newspapers, but none of those count – i know – i’ve truly disappointed you all – guess i was just out on vacation too… 🙂

the room is getting better – the dust clouds are settling so you might not even need a mask to enter my room

mafeld