so, yes, what’s that??? the sound of joy and laughter as you approach your return to school??? 🙂

hope it won’t be too bad – maybe even as good as…

“every good endeavor” by keller and leary – wonderful book – great material for the classroom on a proper perspective of work and how it relates to what we do – and as the book reminded me, reminded us:) we can’t sit around and do nothin’ all day – even the people that do this (nursing home) hate it

“tween crayons…” and something else – i forget – anyway, a book on how to teach middle school kids – i know, you’d think i would’ve tried to read a book like this before now – in my defense, it was a newer book so it took a while before i got it – best part??? the author pointed out that some middle school kids act like they still go home and play with toys – and some act like they go home and plan out their retirement funds – in other words, there’s a huge gap amongst the crowd of maturity – i think it will be fun for us to write about whether there’s more little kid or grown-up in us at this present time

i also read the preview material from the paper about the iron bowl – although, i only read the alabama things – life is too short to read about anyone else’s team – and so when dad asked who AU’s quarterback was – when the tigers started rotating – yes, at that moment – while i was well into my prepared speech about who the third-string defensive linement were that were playing, i had no clue that the frazier kid was still at auburn – oops:)

finally, i spent most of the holiday pondering the lyrics of the latest one direction album – my help as i brave very chilly mornings on a long run – i’ve decided that if i were to SCAMPER the lyrics, you could substitute all the words about women/girls and insert a sporting team – which in britain would be football and would be colllege football here – however, that substitution isn’t a perfect fit b/c you can always get over women/girls – there are plenty of them – but a sports team – you just can’t swap them in for a newer model or trade for a better team – no, you have to sit through the ups and downs with them – it’s such a heavy burden – perhaps my second favorite boy band ever will explore this theme more deeply in a third album:)

happy last week of novemember,
mafeld

so happy early greetings for Thanksgiving – another year – another Detroit Lions’ loss…

“Running the Race” probably my third biography on Eric Liddell – an Olympic runner in 1924 – a Christian who died for his faith as a missionary in a concentration camp in China during WWII – an amazing man – i learn, i get encouragement, from every biography about the guy that i read – his dedication to so many things that i’d like to show dedication to – his God, his faith, his family, his running – just a great book – even better man

“the zen of zim” – my grandfather loved an old guy that was the Cubs’ manager back when we used to watch them on wgn – so when i saw that zimmer had a book, i requested in from the library – i was disappointed b/c most of the book was about why he left the yankees in ’03 – good example of a book that probably is relatively popular at the time it goes to print – but it loses it’s importance about a month later b/c it’s now frozen in time and is only an argument for that one moment – and nine years after this book came out, it’s hopelessly dated – i mean, zimmer’s love for barry bonds was even naive in ’03…

“hotdogs and hamburgers” – a dad realizes he’s not being a good dad b/c his son is struggling and so the dad learns to help adults to read in hopes of helping his son learn – the chicago references are great – b/c that’s where they are – as for the teaching aspect, this author seems to be in the first-year teacher mode where everything he tried with his class worked and made them all brilliant learners – oh, he has so much to learn in the years to come – that is, if he doesn’t stop teaching and write a book – oh wait, he did… 🙂

enjoy the break – hope you get some good reading time in – or good time with the family

mafeld

so i’m thinking tomorrow’s faculty meeting needs to be cut short so i can go get in line for “breaking dawn: part II” – you know, because i just can’t wait to see the thing and all… 🙂

“ransom road” – book about redeeming the roads you’ve travelled in life – the first chapter was at the boston marathon – ah, memories – good ones for me:)

“run for your life” – maybe – it was by jim axelrod – cbs correspondent – just in time for the election, i read a book about a guy that found his sanity by ditching politics and running the NYC marathon – great book from the gifted angle b/c it looked at the whole issue of what you do when your parents appeared perfectly successful to the world – but really weren’t great to you personally – the issue of what you do when you can’t match their worldly success, but you’re a better human being

“believe” by eric legrand – got from the north shelby library – great YA nonfiction book about the rutgers’ lineman who was paralyzed two years ago – very sad book, but a great motivating book about seizing the day – the moment – and being thankful for those around you (he has an incredible mother that is his caregiver – and that can wear on a person – i know)

i also read – reread – a book on alabama prep football by ron ingram and rubin grant – two gentlemen i covered high school football with for a while – great book – much better than trying to rally the bama team during commercial timeouts (or tuning out the kid to my immediate left who was trying to put a hex on the aggies by dancing gangum style – yes, i’ve now gone from having my father as a seat buddy to some random fifth grader – sad…)

mafeld

so happy blog week to the three of you remaining:)

and to the rest, happy nanowrimo-ing:)

“lady bird johnson: an oral history” by gillette – LBJ’s wife did a serious of interviews at various points post-presidency – so this is pretty much her words about her life – and it was fascinating – she was born around the time of my grandfather so there was a lot she spoke of that made me think of him – of course, there’s a ton to appreciate from the historical view as well – but excellent life account of an important female when there weren’t that many

“who could that be at this hour?” by snickett – more word play, i think, than in the original “unfortunate events” – snickett goes back to when he was getting started and an initial mystery he worked on – i anticipate the start of a 40-book series in my wildest hopes:)

“clear and simple as the truth, 2nd edition” – apparently, there’s a classic writing style, apparently, english writers don’t use it (the french do) and apparently, it can’t be taught, but it’s not that hard – except when it involves deep thinking – which is done beforehand:) anyway, humor aside, the book was important to be if for nothing else than at the beginning – the author’s talked about how ridiculous it is to spend a lifetime on technique when great artists draw/paint from something else – so to think that you become “excellent” at writing from doing drills, well, that’s just crazy (or crasy:)

i saw a rainbow – both ends – this morning while running – does that mean something??? the ends of both were too far to run to for gold – but i hope your week is golden (not that lsu kind of gold – it tends to fade after a while:)

mafeld

dear readers,
so i ran an 8k yesterday (that’s 4.8 miles for ye non-europeans and non-runners:)

i caught an old guy near the end – then he burst ahead of me – and then he collasped at the finish – and they told us to keep moving (well, it was just the two of us – small race – i promise we weren’t the very last ones:) but people with a job LOVE to issue orders – so they said “keep moving”) – so i went on and ripped my number tag off to go find momma – and the old guy raised his head enough to say “i was ahead of him” – i mean, like it was important and like i needed to follow him home so that he felt ahead the rest of the day… grrr… old people…

other than that marring, and leaving my nook home, it was a wonderful day in the state yesterday – unless you were at auburn – but who goes there anyway…

“how children succeed” by paul tough – wonderful book – i culled plenty of notes to use in class – what i liked most was the chapter on middle school – because the author’s case study was a 30-year-old punk teacher in the bronx who criticizes her chess team constantly – blogs incessantly – worries that she gets it all wrong – and the team superachieves – apparently, telling kids how “wonderful” they are isn’t always the best thing – sometimes, research apparently shows that it’s good to slap them around (okay, metaphorically – sigh…)

i’m now on a superlong book about lady bird johnson – please look up who she is before telling me i shouldn’t read about people named after birds – i’m rather excited about the book for several reasons – probably the primary one just that i’m very weak on female biographies – there aren’t as many of them as men – particularly when much of your reading is football/soccer/running biographies:)

(i do stay away from teacher biographies – because lots of times, those are about women and how much they “love” the kids:)

hope your week is a good one – ye nanowrimo people, have fun

sincerely,

mafeld

so it was a great week – except for the fact that i read a book that basically told me my childhood was a lie:)

“mint condition” by jameison – wonderful, wonderful read about the baseball card industry – the author is about the same age as i, and like i, collected for years – only to wake up in his 20s and discover all of it is basically worthless – and so he sets out to find out why – and in short, a bazillion cards were run in the days when i collected – so a big, big supply vs. demand issue – of course, i say the book destroyed my childhood belief in the inerrancy of men that lead us – however, upon any great reflection (which always comes to me when i’m listening to music in the car and singing along on a long road trip – in this case – hewitt-trussville), i realize that there are bigger things i thankfully never discovered to be a lie – so believing that baseball cards were an investment, well, i’ll just chalk that loss up to good times with my father

“feel-bad education” by kuhn – fascinating book on all the things educators do wrong – like motivational posters:) oh, and standardized testing – grades – teaching to “one” right answer – lecturing – going on power trips – it was a great book just for a different take on education – most books laude educators – like we’re missionaries in service – so a book that takes us a few pegs down, i’m all for – b/c most days, i think i goofed up more than i did right

“running with the kenyans” by finn – i saved this book all year – bought it at Christmas last year – yes, i can wait that long – story of a brit who takes wife and kid on a journey to iten, kenya – in his quest to give his middle-aged 30-year-old body:) one last go-round – and what a round he had – good reminder that we self-impose many of our own limits

happy red ribbon week – happy parade week – i’ll be out all friday morning primping and getting my hair done – right???

mafeld

big week – read three books – not sure it’s even good for me to be driving right now in my current level of post-marathon recovery-ness:) but i did read – now let’s see if i remember anything…

“king’s cross” by keller – great book – keller looks at the life of JC in the book of Mark – i was particularly struck late in the book when he said that we live in the first generation that doesn’t believe in happy ever after endings – we want our movies, our books, to end “messy” – and our desire for “messy” interferes with our ability now to believe in good endings – endings that are too good to be true – i couldn’t agree more – but i’d never thought about it much – except that today’s youth has less hope than i think they should

“any given monday” by dr. james andrews – book about youth sports injuries – lots of problems in areas i had never thought about – like the softball warm up – dr andrews has been based in the b’ham area for generations, and the book’s proceeds are to prevent youth injuries – so i thought the whole thing was great – AND – best of all – he was a pole vaulter in high school – go track and field!!!

“fortune wookiee” – it has a longer title – but it’s the third in the origami yoda series – probably was least impressed with this one just b/c it was a total set up to the fourth book to come – didn’t really advance the series so much as just spin the wheels – but hey, read it in a day, tried to make a wookiee, and isn’t that what life is all about anyway??? 🙂

hope your return to blogging is as painless as can be this week

mafeld

so, i ran chicago – 3:02:50-something – a personal best – and just one hour later than you need to order pizza around here afterwards:)

(good thing i was in the mood for dairy queen and an oreo blizzard – highly nutritious:)

so anyway, all good all around – and i won’t bore you any more with it – except to say that you don’t have to blog this week – good luck on the final tomorrow (not written sarcastically – except in the case of shelby who needs all the help she can get:)

so there’s no reason to keep going except i like to write what i read for the week – if i can remember on runner brain

book one – i read an advanced copy of a book in the room – i got from ms blount – the guy that wrote it had written the oragami yoda series – the story had something to do with your best friend suddenly getting a fake mustache and threatening to take over the world – fortunately, the kid not only defeats his friend, but he also gains a superstar girlfriend – so smiles all around

i read the media guide to the chicago marathon – fascinating facts for you – 112 runners from alabama (never saw one in the race though until much later – and the poor girl was about dead) – 1,500 port-o-lets out on the course – 45,000 runners (i finished 1000-something) – 100 countries (i ran with a guy from columbia – and one from indiana xc – and mickey and minnie mouse from japan – by the way, it’s hard to think you’re doing well when minnie mouse is kicking your tail:)

i also read another book but i truthfully can’t remember it – at all – seems like it was a county library book – oh, wait – i’m not done with that one yet – i’ve got two that i’m working on – i haven’t progressed much lately b/c it would do no good to keep reading right now b/c reading recall level is like zero

but i did post a blog so i feel less lazy – oh, and i watched the talladega race today – which is a new experience after you’ve run it – so now i’m like a certain sixth grade student and just writing about what i watched so i should go… 🙂

j

(subject header overheard at church today – a mighty superhero runner discussing his feat at spain park… 🙂

so i was reading in my journal from three years back and at this point, i had some morning runs in the 40s – these are about the only moments i wish i could go back in time (i have a short memory as well b/c this “hot and humid” feeling i have currently out there is how i described summer running – which i’m sure was hotter but i truly can’t remember how much more miserable…)

on to the books – “in the water they can’t see you cry” by amanda beard – good bio about a swimmer – her bravery to discuss the abusive situations she found herself in – both abuse from others and things she did to herself – i admired her courage to come forth – very little about swimming in the book – good part about the whole issue of being an olympian at 13 and then a year later being a “has been” because you’ve hit puberty – sad that female athletes have to go through that

“the science magpie” by flynn – odds and ends from the magnificent world of science – and math – and literature – the cool part for me were the number of literature tie-ins to scientific works – poems about science – fiction about science – obviously, 90 percent was lost on me, but i do enjoy learning new things and this book was full of them

“pray” by hornby – recap of the 2011-2012 priemer league season – so british soccer – very cool as a comparsion to the football-crazed South – for example, the writer said 95 percent of teams live in the past – whether 5, 10, 15-plus years back, they go back to an era and live there – of course, alabama fans used to do this for years – now, they live in the present while ole miss still drags up archie manning and their 1960-something team that was really good – and ole miss is of course not alone…

“how the SEC became goliath” by glier – excellent book explaining how the SEC rose to power and won the last six BCS titles – a must-read for college football fans – even “experts” will enjoy it

okay, so that was a productive week – hope you get in some good reading before finals

mafeld

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