Tony's Summer Off

This is what I get to enjoy all summer long. With the exception of the past couple of days in which the humidity has hit 300%, it's been perfect.

I'm still kind of at odds over my free time -- I love the time to get caught up on things, but most of the time I'm bored.

"How can anybody possibly go to work on a day like this?"

EA Sports' NFL Head Coach

I picked this up last Sunday on my way back home from the great weekend. I will also note that I bought this game specifically for my PC, not the PS2.

For some reason, I just knew that this game would be right up my alley. For years I've championed the cause of the NCAA Football series over the Madden series due to the deptht that the game brings (recruiting, career mode for your own player, etc.). I loved the idea of getting involved with your team, off the field, rather just controlling the players on the field.

Now, with NFL Head Coach, this would be a game that you would be in complete control of your team -- hiring your coordinators, going over scouting reports, looking at potential draft choices, managing the salary cap, and best of all -- calling those all-important plays during an actual game.

The game picks up right after last season, when the Steelers defeated the Seahawks in last year's Super Bowl. Create your own "coach," then get ready to interview for head coaching positions. As for me, I interviewed with the Minnesota Vikings owner, but in return, I got offers from 5 different teams, including the Vikings. Although the Vikings were not really going to "pay me" the big bucks compared to the other offers, my heart is with Minnesota.

As the Head Coach, you're basically in your own office for most of the time. The Owner goes over the interface of what you can actually do in your office -- this is the most confusing part of the game. There's just so much to look through and the menus are difficult to go through.

The most exciting part for me during the off-season was getting ready for the draft, including the NFL Draft Day. That was pretty sweet, with scrolling information across your screen, who picked who, including analysis from Mel Kiper of ESPN. I wouldn't call it "realistic," since Reggie Bush went 8th overall (I picked Laurence Maroney as my first rounder -- RB from the Gophers).

Of course, you have your practice sessions, all the while trying to set goals for your team. If you don't match your goals, the owner gets pissed. Run plays over and over again (making them "money plays") and talk to your coordintors after a practice and get their input on who should be starting. It's all good.

(By the way, if you choose the Vikings, Culpepper is still the QB... Yeah, I know...)

Then, the game itself. You're on the sidelines, calling the plays. The offensive coordinator will give you a suggested play, and it's totally up to you to decide to go with that one or not. Even when they are running the play, you can turn around and provide feedback to your players, giving them strategy or motivation -- good or bad. Either way, you're going to piss off a few of your players, but you're the coach!

The Vikes played the Raiders in their first pre-season game and I pulled off a pretty nice win: 27-14. The offense really wasn't that great, but the defense played well. Culpepper was a punk all game: I would give him good feedback and he wouldn't like it. Then, I would yell at him, and he wouldn't like me even more. Bitch. I should have traded him for a draft pick.

A word of advice: when you're in the off-season, keep in mind of your salary cap! With the Vikings, I've got just a little over $30 million to spend. During this time, there are your free agency periods and players with their contracts expiring, so be wary who you want back. You will have to talk to their agent to discuss their contract. There was one agent for a back-up offensive lineman for the Vikes and I pissed him off something fierce (seriously, I wasn't going to pay a back-up right guard millions of dollars) and the agent decided not to talk to me again.

But remember to have money left over to sign your draft picks! I remembered this from previous games on the PS2, usually going crazy during the free agency periods and not having any roster room or money left to sign my picks. I managed pretty well, currently sitting with $8 million left in my salary cap.

Overall, a great strategy game. I'm afraid that this will become easier with time, because I cannot imagine a person playing this season after season without actually winning the Super Bowl. I'm predicting that I'll make the playoffs this season and probably will win the Super Bowl my second season. But like I said before, this game is right up my alley. You just have to be patient with it!

IGN rated it a 7.2, and GameSpot also rated it a 7.2.

STUDS Racing, Inc. Update

Things are going swell during my league races -- especially during the Noctural Adrenaline Cup Series, now that my handle "MobilOneDodge12" has now moved into 4th place in the points. It's just plain lucky really, since some of the Series regulars haven't made all of the races.

After 10 Noctural Adrenaline Cup Series races, I've only managed to secure 3 Top-5 finishes. I'm still looking for my first win!

The picture at left is the #66 Sony Vaio/Best Buy Dodge Charger taking laps, or testing, at Dover International Speedway. It's a tricky 1-mile concrete oval. This is the first time that I've actually run laps at this track since I've gotten NASCAR Racing 2003, and since it's already not one of my favorite tracks from the previous EA Sports NASCAR games, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Dover is steeply banked in the corners, and even the straightaways are banked. It's really easy to get "loose," or over-steer the car coming off Turns 2 and 4, so I have to be really easy with the throttle. There's just a few races left in this Series, and I'm almost glad, because with my new found experience in this league, I think I have something offer to the veterans for the next season.


Last week, the Nocturnal Adrenaline Series ran through Talladega. As you see on the picture at right, all was not well. I again decided not to qualify (take the provisional) and started in the back. Usually at super-speedways, things can get bunched up in a hurry, so starting in the back is the wisest of moves.

Unfortunately for me, this incident occurred on Lap 2 of a 66-lap event. Myself and the #001 car were riding the back of the pack, going down the long straightaway, then all of a sudden smoke erupted in Turn 3. Cars were spinning up the track -- reactions were critical. The #001 next to me decided to brake and I decided to pull the ol' Cole Trickle move from "Days of Thunder." I was determined to go straight through the smoke screen and come out on the other side peachy-clean. During this whole thought process, I'm thinking that based on past wrecks at tracks like Talladega or Daytona, the cars would eventually slide to the bottom of the track. Instead, cars on the bottom got caught up in the wreck and would immediately would shoot straight up to the wall.

For about a split second, I thought I had seen an opening, but I got hit ... I smashed into the #35 square on the nose, crumpling my hood. I barrel-rolled down the track once, coming to rest on all four wheels. I did manage to make it back to the start-finish line for the caution flag, but my engine was shot. I only ran about a couple of green flag laps after that, but my engine was so far gone -- I was running about 30 mph slower than the rest of the field.

In the other series, the Midnight Thunder Truck Series, the #4 Dodge Ram did not quite make the field due to other committments last Friday night. I was a little disappointed, because it was the first race of Season II. Now, I'm just hoping that I can keep my number (since some other guy was whining about that I had taken it), but it was all settled and all-good during the "acquaintence race" at a fictional track called Blue Ridge Speedway (which is basically Michigan).

Now, I'll be one race behind. There will be a lot of catching up to do, especially with a now-crowded field. Over 30 racers competed during the first race at Daytona. I guess I'll just have to stick with my strategy of starting near the back and letting things happen in front of me!

Is This Even Possible?

The Minnesota Twins -- playing the best baseball I've seen in years. Even during their playoff run back in 2002-2004.

And oh, by the way: Joe Mauer is God.

Check out this sweet Twins blog -- great in-sight into the goings-on of a rabid Twins fan.

The Mini-Class Reunion

It was all good.

But for the life of me, a person knows when they're getting old when they are completely sore from playing the "golf-ball game," or "ladder-ball." My legs, my ass, my shoulders -- abso-fuckin'-lutely are killing me. I don't know if it was the bed I slept on at my parent's house or what, but it's borderline ridiculous.

The weekend started off beautiful, with the chance of rain later on in the day (Saturday). I didn't think much of it, but later the weather would become a huge factor. I rolled back into the hometown around 12:15 p.m. that afternoon, hooking up with Mike and Lacey at their house, then proceeded to head to Robb and Jen's place. Lucky for them, they live on one of the busiest streets in GF, so the parade route went right by their house.

Once we got there, the drinking commenced. After a while, the clouds were beginning to look pretty gray, thinking, "Oh, shit...", but we forged on. It was your typical Midwestern parade, complete with fire engines, over-60 bands, and farm machinery. And lots of candy.

The Miller Lites were going down pretty well, then all of a sudden, I lost all taste. Remember those Miller Lite commericials that basically told you to drink Miller Lite for the flavor? Well, I wasn't tasting my Miller Lite -- which usually isn't a good thing. If beer's going down like water -- ooh, yeah.

After my brother's old drumline passed, the weather turned for the worse. The rain came down in sheets, so we made way for the garage in the backyard. More drinking commenced.

"Sippin' Hennesey and we be bubblin' ya'll..."

The highlight of the day was when Robb's cousin Jim showed up. Right when he came into the garage, there was a huge, bright lightning flash, quickly followed a bad-ass clap of thunder. Obviously, it came pretty close, which gave us all quite the jumps. As it turned out, the lightning struck a tree just a couple of blocks away, knocking out power and blowing a window out.

Ah, but wait! I guess a person couldn't say that was the ultimate highlight of the day. It all came when the clouds parted and we all decided to play a little "ladder-ball."

Mike and I were teamed up, and right off the bat, we didn't play to well. Don't get us wrong, we were quite competitive, but we just could not finish out our games. But then, what turned to be a simple game between the boys, ended up in being the "series of series."

Mike & Tony

v.

Robb & Bot

Mike and I dropped the first two games, always challenging them to a rematch. We used the old-school excuse (from The Owl Garden days), "okay, let's do the best of seven..." and thus, it was on.

Then all of a sudden, we won a game. We also won Game 5. Sometime during this period, there was a small rain delay (along with a supper break), and then we proceeded to win Game 6. The tension was high, Robb & Bot were getting nervous (I could tell, since Bot had some rotten ass). After Robb & Bot pumped each other up in the garage, Mike and I were ready. Game 7 was going to decide it all.

I don't know if it was good chuckin' on our part, or a New York Yankee-like choke in the hands of the Boston Red Sox, but Mike and I ran the score up quickly, taking an "early" 17-0 lead. Robb and Bot came back with 6 straight points, but I managed to land two 2-point throws and held it -- final score: 21-6.

It's a series that will go down in the annals of sport -- an underdog team who were three games down to win the next four. Ah -- good ol' yard games.

After losing the taste of beer completely, I switched back to an old-school drink, Smirnoff Ice, which wasn't any better. Later on I would suffer from one of the worst headaches ever.

But I tell ya, one hell of a night. A mini-Class Reunion, of sorts. As it ends up, only 18 people showed up to the real Class Reunion -- and Robb wins $500. That's a lot of beer to buy with that, buddy!

Cooling Off

I've finally found some peace after a rough start to the summer. The cure? Yard work.

My God, I am getting old.

Since Kate's been out of the house more often due to her new job, I've been the guy to step up and keep the house in tip-top shape. Projects that I have put off during the school year, well, they've been completed.

In addition to "riding the bike," my stress level is going down. I truly thought a few days ago that I was going out of my mind. I was anxious, depressed, bored. What was a fella to do?

My brother Dan stopped through last weekend. I hadn't seen him in a while, so it was good to see the guy. He was also having his problems -- he's also a teacher -- and was even considering a career move. He was approached to return to Minnesota with a huge pay raise. It seems like the thing he wants to do, but he's already pressed for so much for the music program that he is currently heading up in South Dakota. It was in his best interest to stay in South Dakota where he's already put in his full committment to that program, rather than "burn the bridges" and upsetting a South Dakotan community with a lot of potential.

After hearing Dan's trials and tribulations of the goings-on in his life, I re-assumed my role as the listener and the advice giver, taking notice of my own selfish complaints about how my life was not going so well. I quickly got over my senseless funk and returned back to normal once again.

Then, the unexpected happened. My brother-in-law Matt was on the "shit-end-of-the-stick," as I liked to call it -- him and his girlfriend of a year and a half had decided to split up. Well, it was her idea to "take a break." Guys -- have we heard that one before?

Matt was so out of it, he came over yesterday and we just sat there and talked. I tried my best to provide the advice that could try to make things all better, but to provide advice to a person who poured his heart and his soul into that relationship ... well, all you could do was to listen to him. This was the first time this has happened to him, so I told him of my past experiences, some of my friend's experiences, my brother's experiences, and how we've tried to deal with it.

Can AGAIN somebody say White Lion's "Broken Heart"? I forgot to mention that to him.

But after talking to Dan and Matt -- I've decided to head back home for the weekend and have a little old-school fun. Even though the 10-year class reunion is this weekend (I will not be making an appearance -- didn't pay my fee), I should make up for it. I just need some good ol' summer visceral fun!

MVP Baseball 2005 Stats

Statistics through Thursday, May 11, 2006 (on the game):

note: Robb, Sean, and Mike I. all play in the National League.

Batting Average:

1. Mike T., .374
2. Robb, .352
3. Sean, .343
4. Mike I., .309
5. Tony, .302

Home Runs

1. Robb, 9
2. Mike I., 9
3. Mike T., 8
4. Sean, 7
5. Tony, 7

Runs Batted In

1. Mike T., 27
2. Robb, 27
3. Tony, 25
4. Mike I., 24
5. Sean, 22

Stolen Bases

1. Robb, 11
2. Mike T., 10
3. Tony, 10
4. Sean, 8
5. Mike I., 8

Runs Scored

1. Robb, 44
2. Mike T., 34
3. Mike I., 31
4. Sean, 28
5. Tony, 26

Hits

1. Robb, 50
2. Mike T., 46
3. Sean, 46
4. Tony, 35
5. Mike I., 34

Doubles

1. Mike T., 7
2. Sean, 6
3. Robb, 5
4. Tony, 4
5. Mike I., 2

Triples

1. Sean, 2
2. Robb, 1

Base on Balls

1. Mike I., 35
2. Mike T., 31
3. Tony, 27
4. Sean, 24
5. Robb, 23

On-Base Percentage

1. Mike T., .506
2. Mike I., .476
3. Robb, .449
4. Sean, .443
5. Tony, .436

Total Bases

1. Robb, 84
2. Mike T., 77
3. Sean, 77
4. Mike I., 63
5. Tony, 60

Slugging Percentage

1. Mike T., .626
2. Robb, .592
3. Sean, .575
4. Mike I., 568
5. Tony, .517

After looking at the statistics between the two different leagues, the National League has an advantage over the American League in terms of the quality. The hitters over in the National League are outstanding, led by Albert Pujols batting average of .420.

The National League is so good, that if you would put Robb or Sean in with the league leaders for the American League, they would lead a few catagories. Robb's 44 runs scored is by far the MLB league leader -- probably that Coors Field he plays in, and along with Todd Helton, the Rockies are an early favorite to win the National League pennant.

I'll have to get some standing up also. If I get sick of playing the actual game, I can also sim the seasons and get some career records.

Again, More Created Players

I'm at it again, but this time, it's MVP Baseball 2005 for the PS2.

During my free time last year, this is the game that I had always played. Guiding the Minnesota Twins to the World Series Championship was something in itself, but sports games like these, I get this itching to create "free agents," players based on myself and others (like hockey, for instance).

About halfway through my first season, I created roughly 6 or 7 players. I maxed them out to their full potential and placed them in free agency, seeing whether or not a team would pick them up. I couldn't afford them for my Twins, since all players' abilities were maxed out, they were begging for a minimum of $12.4 million/season.

Just after I had created them, Mike was picked up by the Boston Red Sox. Sporting the #0 and playing center field, he dogged it in Double-A, moved up to Triple-A, then hit the majors in less than two weeks time. The move was so dramatic, that the Red Sox actually moved their star player of that year, Johnny Damon, from center field to right field to make way for the future Hall of Famer.

The other player that got picked up was Matt, my brother-in-law. In real life, he's a pretty good left-handed pitcher, and it wasn't surprising to me to see that he got picked up by the New York Yankees. Just like Mike, Matt played a few games in the minors before making a huge impact in the majors.

The rest of the guys, including myself, did not see any action until after the draft for the 2006 season. When free agency picked up, the big ball clubs decided that they had money to spend, so all of the created ballplayers were signed to huge lucrative contracts. They are as follows:

• Sean, left field: free agent pick-up for the San Francisco Giants. Surplanted "Jim Dowd," the Barry Bonds-like character in left field.
• Robb, right field: free-agent pick-up for the Colorado Rockies.
• Mike (the other brother-in-law), catcher: free-agent pick-up for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
• Tim, pitcher: free-agent pick-up for the Chicago Cubs.
• Tony (myself): free-agent pick-up for the New York Yankees.

I've played through the first week of May on the 2006 season. I do not have any control over the created players. The statistics these guys are putting up are impressive -- very competitive with the likes of Albert Pujols and Manny Ramirez. As soon as I can get some stats, I'll have to post them and give updates!

25 Signs That You Have Grown Up

Mike sent me this e-mail. Too true.

1. Your houseplants are alive, and you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
5. You hear your favorite song in an elevator.
6. You watch the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of "hook up" and "break up."
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as "dressed up."
10. You're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the stereo.
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's leftovers.
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
16. You take naps.
17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
19. You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer "pretty good shit."
21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
22. "I just can't drink the way I used to" replaces "I'm never going to drink that much again."
23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
25. When you find out your friend is pregnant you congratulate them instead of asking "Oh shit, what the hell happened?"

Cabin Fever

Yeesh.

I'm going crazy. Absolutely nuts. I cannot even believe it myself -- my own behavior. Soon after school ended for the summer, my temper has been short (just a little pissy), frustrated with my current situation (professionally), and overall just bored out of my mind.

I just still cannot get over the fact of this "portfolio" business -- just to get certified in a certain subject. Like hell I'm going back to school! I've been there for a while. I've done my time -- and my friends can voutch for me on that. I'm just cooling down a bit now until I finally go in and talk with the administration and tell them that I simply do not have the time or the MONEY to hit up school again.

I actually bitched about my lawn the other day. It was turning a sickly brown, due to the lack of rain in our region. Talk about getting old -- Mike actually sent me a pretty good e-mail regarding the "signs" of getting old. I'll have to post it. At least it has been raining pretty well few the past couple of days and the grass is making a comeback.

I cannot even sleep in. Teaching has really warped me -- I can stay up late, but still get up early. No wonder I'm like this. I usually read late into the night and read early in the morning ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"). You may laugh that I'm reading the "Harry Potter" books, but I myself finally caved in. At first, I slammed the books, but then I came to the realization that you shouldn't judge something without trying it first. I picked up the books last fall and as it turns out, it's a pretty decent story (for young-adult fiction). The first two books, or "years", translated well into the movies, but now that the books are getting longer with more narrative, it's tough to squeeze a 800-page book into an hour-and-a-half-long movie.

This past Wednesday was the deadline to register for our 10-year high school class reunion. Well, *whoops*, didn't mail in my check! I still think it's a joke, but that's just me. I actually dreamt last night that I had attended the class reunion. As far as I can remember, it was an enjoyable experience. Well, I guess anything is enjoyable with lots of alcohol.

The reunion actually takes place during the town's annual summer celebration, in which everybody and their dead grandmothers are going to be there. It makes sense to have the reunion that weekend (since everyone will be home), but everybody will want to be at the beer gardens, naturally, where other people besides your own age will be there also. I have also debated whether or not to return home for that weekend. I may have lost the spirit all together.

Softball seems like a lost cause for this summer. It seems that the team back home has a full roster, and nobody down here has even bothered to ask me if I had wanted to play. It's a little disappointing, considering that this is my first summer off in about 7 years to actually get back to the ballfields. At first, I was insulted that nobody bothered to ask (I thought, "c,mon! I'm a baseball coach, for crying out loud!"). Then, after some thinking, I got off my high horse and no longer worried about it. If I play, I play. It's just a situation of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the meantime, I ride my bike. Laugh if you will, but I've got to keep in shape somehow.

You may ask, "Tony, you gotta drink some beer!" Believe me, I have.

Man, I need a vacation.

Pure Laziness

My, the roles have changed.

Wednesday was my last day of actually doing something school-related. It was pure hell -- I attended a meeting regarding licensure via portfolio. It's a relatively long process of "collecting evidence" to show the big-wigs in the Department of Education that I am fully certified to teach a certain content area. This meeting was suggested to me by the administration, since they wanted me to head up the work-based learning program for the next school year.

As it turns out, to collect the "evidence" that these people need, I pretty much have to go back to class. They want things like a class syllabus, assignments, projects, how I am going to apply it to my students, etc. What a hassle -- time and money -- both of which I have very little of.

One would think: Minnesota and South Dakota have this great educational relationship in a form called reciprocity -- which means students who currently have a residency in Minnesota can go to a post-secondary school in South Dakota without having to pay those outrageous out-of-state costs, and vise versa. But when it comes to licensing teachers, the red lights go off in Minnesota. Things just do not seem to add up.

In South Dakota where I graduated, Computers and Business are two complete separate subject matters. In Minnesota, it's all bunched together into one huge Business section. For me to get off the variance wagon (a temp license that Minnesota grants -- a teacher can only get 3 in their lifetime [I've already wasted one]), I have to take classes that would fulfill the Business Education standards set forth. I would have to take accounting classes, marketing classes, all that other crap which I really do not care about.

I currently hold a Communication Technology Careers license -- which, in my words, is complete bullshit -- because it shows no relation to a Computer Education license from South Dakota.

This portfolio is going to be a lot of work and I really do not want to go back to school. Sioux Falls is starting to look very favorable now...

But other than that, Kate finally started her new job this week. As for me -- LAZYVILLE. I drove back up to the hometown on Thursday to watch our varsity baseball team play. They earned their second straight state tournament berth with a 6-0 victory. It was actaully "slow" back around my old hometown, nobody was around, even for the local softball games.

Today, I watched the entire 10 episodes of "Band of Brothers," the World War II epic about the Easy Company. Super-Great.

The End of the World?

6-6-06.

Eh. I really don't think that the "beast," or the devil, or Lucifer, or whatever you want to call it -- is actually coming back.

The new Omen movie looks good -- but I highly recommend watching the original with Gregory Peck. Damien, in that movie, was indeed the Anti-Christ (that smile he gives at the end of the movie still bugs me).

If the Anti-Christ, or Jesus for that matter, decides to come back, they can come back whenever they want to.

In-Service

Let me tell you how much fun In-Service days are.

Monday morning: all teachers and staff report to school before 8:00 a.m. We all had a staff meeting that morning that was supposed to last for 3 hours, but instead, it only lasted 15 minutes.

Then, it was "work in your rooms" day -- all the way until 3:30 p.m. I didn't have to take CPR classes again, but man, BORING.

During that time, I got my grades finalized, took down the pictures off the wall, threw away old assignments and recycled what I could.

Today, I was already expecting yet another slow day. After arriving here again at 8:00 a.m., I managed to get all "checked-out" early, getting my check-out sheet signed and things packed up and ready to go. By 9:30 this morning, I'm good to go. But this afternoon, we do have yet another meeting regarding the new discipline policy that the district plans to implement the next school year.

Tomorrow, is the last day for all teachers to get checked-out. It's just a short morning session with check-out in the afternoon. As for me, I will be traveling to a meeting regarding adding more licensure to my previous Minnesota teaching license -- since it has been put on me that I will be teaching a Work Program that requires a vocational license. Back to school this summer, perhaps?

But for now, I'm just "passing my time," so to speak.

STUDS Racing, Inc. Update

The past few weeks have been quite eventful for the STUDS Racing Team. The racing has been going strong in the Nocturnal Adrenaline Cup Mod, although I haven't posted a Top 5 since my Lowe's run weeks ago.

But big news filled the stables throughout the race shop as I decided to throw my hat into the Craftsman Truck Mod to run the Midnight Thunder Superspeedway Series on Friday nights.


The #4 Dodge Hemi "Grab Life By The Horns" Truck made its debut a couple of weeks ago to run the fictitious Zen Joltis Superspeedway, a 5.5-mile qual-oval.

My first impressions of the track: I simply love it. It's wide, it's fast, and the close, tight-knit racing really makes it fun.

Unforunately, the #4 Dodge didn't quite make it to the end of the race. I crashed out on a Lap 16 incident that took out two other cars -- a wreck that was completely my fault -- and I really felt stupid over it because it was simply a dumb mistake.

I was actually in 3rd place at the time, leading the outside row of cars. I knew the inside line was fast, and then going through a corner, I figured there was room behind this one particular truck -- but there wasn't. I ended up coming down on another truck and I literally bounced off and went straight for the wall. At speeds at nearly 205 miles per hour, it was a spectacular wreck.


I "barrel-rolled" along the top of the fence line before coming down hard on the track. On the picture at right, you're looking through another driver's cockpit view as you see my #4 Dodge Truck "flying" through the air. Believe it or not, I flew over this driver, cleared him completely. I view I could show you this video -- it's really something to see. After I cleared this guy, I flew over another driver. Luckily for me, I only took out two drivers, but those were not from direct contact, but from those losing control of their vehicles when they were trying to avoid me as I pinballed through the air.

Just last Friday night I started my second start at a figure-eight track called the "Eight-Bowl," a steeply-banked superspeedway. This time, I did finish, but I did get caught up in a minor accident (not my fault) that gave me some rear spoiler damage.

Tonight, we're back at yet another fictitious track called Riki Speedway, which is very comparable to Daytona International. The tri-oval and backstrech are both steeply banked, making control a little bit harder.

As for the Noctural Adrenaline Cup Series, we ran Chicagoland a couple of weeks ago. The #66 Sony Vaio was stout during practice, but I got a little carried away during the early portions of a green-flag run and spun out early in the race. In the process of trying to correct my car, I hit a wrong button on my keyboard and disconnected.

After an off-week, last night we ran Pocono. Right away, I thought that I wasn't going to have much fun running the odd-triangular-shaped track, but after the tires came in, I had some fun. The track itself is flat, with three different straights and three different banked curves. I did manage to finish in the Top 5 (on the lead lap, for the first time in the Noctural Adrenaline Cup Series).

Recently, I've been testing at Indianapolis -- yes, the famed "Brickyard" -- for the upcoming NA race on Thursday night. As it turns out, I will not be running the race there due to other committments (high school baseball playing for the Section championship).

I also wish I could put more race photos on here, but for some reason, Blogger won't let me.

The Last Day of School

The 2005-2006 school year has closed. The inaugural year of teaching is over.

To sum it up in one word: disappointing. I personally do not think that it was quite the year that I was expecting. Part of the blame falls on myself, adjusting to the new surroundings and dealing with the every-day situations that teachers usually encounter.

Also, the blame falls on the school -- the lack of necessary resources needed to provide good instructional lessons. I'm still dealing with the old "paper-based" lessons which usually doesn't work in today's technological age. Students, in my experience and opinion, learn best my watching, not reading.

To help remedy the situation, I'm actually learning more material that I can hopefully use in my future classes. For example, in my Web Site Design class, I basically used Microsoft FrontPage to teach my students the basics of Web page design. That's how basic it got, but I was always faced with questions about how to do more advanced things, like Java or Flash, that students are always keen to notice as they browse through the Internet. My answer: unless you know Java, Flash, or HTML for that matter, FrontPage really doesn't help.

I've already purchased instructional books on Flash and Dreamweaver. This summer, I should hopefully become a master at those two programs, then I can also finally get around in creating my own school Web page.

I also wanted to "get it in the ass," so to speak, in making my room more comfortable to my standards. I had planned on re-arranging my tables, doing some re-wiring of the network cables, plus the requisition of an air projector and pull-down screen. For those requisitions, I was looking at a $2,000 request. Unfortunately, I was denied this year, due to the massive budget cuts that the school district endured this year. It was worth a shot, but at the same time disappointing to resort to the old ways of doing things.

The students finished out the year with half-days, both on Thursday and today. Although the students are officially done for the year, teachers and staff are obligated to return to school next week for In-Service days, Monday through Wednesday. Mainly it's meetings between the departments and such, and the rest of the days are spent in the rooms, finishing up last-minute work and getting ready for check-out.

Camera bulbs flashed from the high schoolers, pens and markers were waved from the middle schoolers for anybody who wanted to sign their shirts. A successful Last Day, considering that there was absolutely nothing to do.

But due to changes in my curriculum next year, I may be going back to actual school this summer to get my vocational license. The only other person who had the vocational license at school was our old ag teacher, but he passed away this year. Without that vocational license, we cannot get any grant money. The administration has placed the responsibility of getting that taken care of upon my shoulders. At least the district is going to pay for it!

After the In-Service days, there is absolutely nothing for me planned for the summer until the last few days of August when we all start to prepare for the 2006-2007 school year.