Archive for category Personal
It’s Baseball Season! For the Joes Not the Pros!!
Yes, spring has sprung(sprang?) and once again I will be subjecting myself to pain on a weekly basis for yet another summer. I am back with the same team I was with last year in the Royal Rooters Baseball League.
We are “The Thunder”.
We were a ragged group of misfits thrown together last year as an expansion team in a league that didn’t have much room to expand, therefore we ended up with a pretty rough group of guys who lacked some skills on top of lacking some management leadership. We had a grand total of 1 team practice prior to the start of the season, and we played no warm up games for “spring training”.
We finished off last season with an abysmal record of 3-17 after losing our first 12 games to start off the season, by an average score of 15-3; Three of which were shutouts by 15 or more runs. Needless to say, we had some problems.
For the most part our problem was actually our pitching, we lacked any pitchers that could be considered a solid #1 or #2 option on the mound, and we suffered greatly because of this; Walks being the main culprit. This led to lots of runs and lots of time in the field compared to hitting, which wears everyone down and our offense suffered because of it.
A little over halfway through the year, a couple games after we actually got uniforms(although we never got hats) we had a change in the leadership of the team, along with the acquisition of some decent starting pitching. One definite ace for the team, and also one semi nutty guy who thought he was way better than he really was, but it was an improvement at least.
Our change in leadership was a combination of Alex taking over as the manager of the team, and myself picking up some of the slack with the little things like equipment and water for the games.
We managed to eek out 3 wins in our final 8 games, 2-0, 4-1, and 13-11. Somewhat of an improvement to say the least.
Now we come to winter, Alex was officially the new leader of the team as of the end of last season and he spent a great deal of time over the winter getting some new players for our team. We managed to find a new catcher, along with 5 new players who are all above average pitchers. This is combined with what has been referred to as “shedding deadwood”, which mostly consisted of players who were either terrible, never wanted to show up, showed up still drunk from the night before, or were just douchebags to their fellow teammates.
We also spent a great deal of time as a team over at the batting/fielding cages in Medford. Then we have also played a total of 5 spring training games to make sure we can work out some of the kinks.
I am disappointed that it appears as though I won’t be a starting player for the team, probably because I have been having some troubles hitting even though my fielding has been superb. It’s ok though because things do shift around during games and not everyone will make it to every game we play.
We have gone 3-1-1 in our spring training games; Yes, there are ties during spring training. This shows a remarkable level of improvement for us as a team and it lends to the thought that we aren’t just going to be a better team, we are going to be a team who is contending to win it all this year.
So look here for some updates on how our season is going, I am sure I will have plenty to talk about and either be seeking sympathy for poor play or boasting about how awesome our turn around has been.
GO THUNDER!!!
I Just Don’t Get It Sometimes…
Sure, I don’t have kids so many people will probably discount my opinion on this topic, but really, I don’t think being a parent gives anyone more insight into the topic, and if anything I think it may cloud their perception of the topic.
Times have certainly changed since I was in school, and there is way too much sugar coating for kids nowadays for fear of “damaging them” even though the same things were done when I was in school, and it didn’t do any damage to me or anyone else I knew.
This blog is prompted by a Facebook status that was posted by one of my good friends, this was her status update:
This is what my daughter`s teacher wrote on her assignment “this shows a laziness and a lack of pride in your work”. Really? That`s appropriate to call a 9 yr old lazy? Am I missing something?
Now to me, I see nothing wrong with this, her daughter is in the fourth grade, and last time I checked a teacher’s job was to instruct, correct and teach children new things and to always try to get the kids to improve themselves and their work. Am I wrong about that?
Should a teacher not criticize a child’s work and allow them to continue bad habits or practices that are going to be unacceptable to the next teacher as well?
I seem to be in the minority since there were some interesting comments by other people as well who seemed to share the same outrage of the mom.
that is nuts!
I would go have a chat with that teacher. That’s not acceptable.
Hon let me at her/ him They need to be reminded that those that can – (do) tand hose that can’t – (Teach) Sorry but negative reinforcement never has the result that is trying to be achieved. a truley intelagent persons teachs by example.
That is crazy!!! I would set up a meeting the the teacher and the Principal together and discuss that. I can’t imagine! I would be SO pissed!!!
Really? You really feel this way? First off, I don’t see anything nuts about it, even without knowing the specifics of the assignment, the reason an assignment is turned in to a teacher is to have it graded, corrected and receive feedback on the assignment so the child can learn for future assignments and life.
Are those helicopters I hear?
Why is that not acceptable? Why would that make you pissed? Should the teacher continue to let the student hand in unsatisfactory work? Should the teacher not teach the child so they can learn? How else can you tell a student what they are doing is wrong and shows a lack of effort?
Are people really this sensitive that they can’t accept criticism of what they do? Are we so scared of hurting a child’s ego so much that simple criticism is no longer acceptable?
Also, while I agree about negative re-enforcement not being effective, I don’t consider this negative re-enforcement. Don’t even get me started on the whole “those who can’t do, teach” misnomer, whoever came up with that saying has never actually tried teaching and has no clue at exactly how hard teaching is, no matter what the subject. Personally I think the person that came up with it had some kind of serious personal issues, either self loathing or real feelings of insecurity, therefore they felt the need to lash out negatively against a teacher.
Back to my own experience, I know I got some notes like this when I was in the 4th grade, a few in the third grade too. I was in the Easton School System and had Mrs. Hooker as a 4th grade teacher, to say she was old school would be a complete understatement. She was harsh, but she was a great teacher. I am pretty sure she would have user a ruler to rap someone’s knuckles if she could have gotten away with it.
I’m not damaged because of that, plenty of other things may have damaged me, but having my teacher tell me that I wasn’t putting enough effort into an assignment and it showed in my resulting work isn’t a bad thing.
If a student is never told that, then how would they ever know that they were doing it? Where do we draw the line? How far are we going to go?
This goes way beyond just kids in school, that just happens to be the topic of this entry.
What about the constant use of hand sanitizer? Not letting kids get dirty? Not letting kids wait outside for the bus alone? Giving every kid a trophy? Not keeping score in games? Not publishing the Honor Roll in the town paper because it causes too much “stress” (Here and Here)?
At what point do you start to teach a kid that they did something wrong, someone else is better than you at something, or that you aren’t perfect?
At this rate is seems like we are going puts kids in hermetically sealed bubbles, get rid of grades completely, everyone gets into the college they want, and then eventually get the exact job they want at whatever they think they deserve for a salary while living with their parents rent free until they are in their 40’s.
C’mon people, let them fail at something, let them realize someone else is better than they are at something, let them make mistakes, let them solve some of their own problems by taking responsibility for their actions, let them get some real world experience now so they can grow and become an adult in the future, otherwise it is going to be one seriously harsh slap in the face when they actually get into the real world. (Feel free to correct me about this long run on sentence, you won’t hurt my feelings)
I’ve seen it with some kids in college, and even in the corporate world where someone wasn’t used to failing or being told that what they were doing and how they were doing it was wrong. Even funnier were responses I heard along the lines of “this is how I have always done it and it’s always been accepted before” as if it mattered in the current situation.
/end rant
On the bright side, at least the mom who I disagree with doesn’t hold it against me since it is just my opinion, and it’s one of the great things about this country and most of this world, we can all have our own opinions.
Photo 365 – 1/19/2010
How is this for a great parking job?
While I think anyone who parks this way with a really nice car is still a dink, I can at least understand WHY they do it.
This person though, Hello?!?! that’s a Chevy Cavalier that is at least 5 or 6 years old, it’s not exactly “nice” enough to even warrant that type of parking, and taking up 2(possibly 3) spots where voters are supposed to be parking?!?
Photo 365 – 1/16/2010
Yikes, this looks like the shopping trip for a family of 5 instead of that of a single guy.
Although, at least most of it was healthy stuff, and the only reason it ended up being so much was because I bought a whole bunch of stuff I normally only buy once a month or every couple weeks. It all sorta got lumped into one shopping trip. Things like olive oil, vegetable oil, peanut oil, poland spring sparkling water, a bunch of frozen lean cuisine meals and snacks.
Photo 365 – 1/5/2010
1/5/2010 – Everyone has seen this before, just not like this.
This is the pitcher’s mound at Fenway Park. I was standing right by it while taking pictures at the St’ Sebastian’s vs Belmont Hill game at Fenway Park. I was going to walk onto it to take a photo looking at home plate, but I chose not to since I thought I might get tackled by security for doing so.
The game was awesome, I thought that St. Sebastian’s had it locked up, but they haad a couple of bad penalties while up 5-2, which led to 2 goals making it 5-4. Then Belmont Hill tied it up with 5 seconds remaining in the 3rd period to send the game into overtime where they would score another goal less than 30 seconds into overtime.
Their side of the crowd loved it, the taunting was loud.
I will say that I was a bit disappointed with the St. Seb’s crowd, they were not nearly as loud, and didn’t do anywhere near the same level of taunting as the Belmont Hill crowd.
Gotta get them to know how to do better trash talking…
Photo 365 – 1/4/2010
I decided to get motivated after yesterday’s photo. It was kind of a disgrace so I decided to do some cleaning… it took me 2.5 hours… I cleaned so much I actually washed the window there, and cleaned the sugar that had embedded itself into the counter top because my roommate can’t seem to put sugar in his coffee without spilling an equal amount on the counter, and then not clean it up…
Photo 365 – 1/3/2010
Not a good start to the new year and new decade(no arguments, I go by whatever digit is in the 10’s place in terms of decades).
This is also one reason why roommates are starting to frustrate the hell out of me.
So this is what my kitchen looks like on the 3rd of January… I really need to get motivated and get it all cleaned up so I am actually able to use the kitchen, although I am going on a month now with no oven, and the part to fix the oven is back-ordered and it’s going to be another 3-4 weeks til it arrives at the repair place… GRRR
I WANNA COOK IN MY OVEN!!!
In contrast, I have been pretty inventive in regards to cooking, and using the BBQ to roast a couple large pieces of meat like a roast beef or a nice leg of lamb… delicious…
Photo 365 – 1/2/2010
Day 2 of this project, and hopefully I can keep it going.
This is looking up my street at dusk towards the end of the snowfall for the day, the purple glow from the street light and the flashing light of a sanding truck at the top of the street as it travels past my street, completely ignoring my street, just like they always do…
I like the snow since it helps cover up and not show exactly how terrible my yard is, the lack of quality grass, and all the random bits of wood and stone that are strewn about because of the construction of the retaining walls this past year.
Photo 365 – 1/1/2010
My first photo in my attempt to do a photo365, this is the out building at a house in Marlboro. We strolled by and we kinda sketchy looking while we checked out the house. We had no appointment to see the inside, we just wanted to check out the outside and see what the neighborhood and area was like.
Overall, a nice area and even though one side of the house was on a fairly busy road, the height of the property above the road seems to cut out most noise. The house is also on a corner, but it seems like most headlights aren’t a problem either due to the property height.
I think this garage/workshop is probably one of the coolest features of the house which already has several cool features to it. I can just imagine the possibilities of this for storage of stuff, along with a nice area to work on projects without having to worry about being all cleaned up to make dinner or use the area for something else.
We are only starting the search process, and it’s highly unlikely that we would ever actually end up at this house, but you need to start somewhere!
Cooler Day… A Magical Time
Today is what is known as “Cooler Day” here at my office.
The company I work for is a small family owned operation, the 3 main people in charge are brother, sister, and father. There is something quaint and warming about cooler day because it brings back the feelings and the ambiance of “the old days”. “The Old Days” were a time when people were more than just worker bees and you felt like you were really someone at the company you worked for instead of a faceless drone spending your time working for the man who has no idea who you are or what you do.
All 3 of the main people know me, know my name, and treat me with respect. Joe, the father, comes into the office and says hello to everyone by name, and always says hello to me since he can’t get into his office without passing by my cube. He is a happy fellow who is just a ncie guy, but can certainly throw out a jab or two when he feels like it. He often jokes with our outside IT Consultant when he sees him in the office, comments like “Oh, you’re here today, must have another kid who needs to go to college now” or “I see you felt it was time to come by so you could upgrade from a 3 series to a 5 series”
So it’s a really really great place to work.
but back to Cooler Day, today is the day when everyone in the office brings a large cooler to work. No, not so that we can go pick up some beers and throw a “wicked pissah bendah” but so that the company can give everyone their Thanksgiving Day turkey. The tradition was born long ago, sometime back before the 1960’s when the original owner would give out a turkey to all the staff. Joe came to the company in 1963, and they were doing it then. He has continued the tradition since he purchased the company back in 1986. In his own words when I queried him about it this morning”
“It’s a tradition, it’s one of those traditions that reminds of the way things used to be, it’s something to hold onto and let’s people know that you are thankful for the effort and work they put into their jobs. That’s why everyone who works here gets one, as well as some of our customers and our vendors, it’s our way of saying thank you in a more personal way.”
There is a reason I like smaller companies, the paycheck might not be as big, but the people and the atmosphere of a functional small company is something that can’t be beat. Sometimes work really is about the people not just the job.
and for the record, these aren’t just frozen turkeys from some supermarket, these are some locally raised, never frozen, fresh from the farm turkeys. They are honestly the best tasting turkeys I have ever had in my life. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all my leftovers this year, I have a total of 3 people(including myself) who will be having Thanksgiving Dinner at my house, and I have a 22 pound turkey that will be cooked. HELLOOOOO Leftovers!