Some More Quick Thoughts

Serious Reflections

Most of you know I'm not given to big fusses made about me. I mean, I think I'm the only person in the world that thinks a surprise birthday party might just be the very worst thing you could give me to celebrate...with the best being time alone with my family in my house. I didn't go to any of my graduations after high school as I'm not a pomp & circumstance kind of guy. I have no idea why this is.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-fuss or anti-celebration. I enjoy making fusses over others over just about anything with my students or my friends. The letter comes with the college admission, the date gotten with the girl out of his league, the grandbaby births, making the team, getting the job or promotion, etc. I'm all over that when it comes to celebrating others. Just not when it's my stuff.

Anyway, part of the reason I've had blogging block as of late is that I'm working on a series of essays. It'll be 19 different ones, as I'm thinking about May 25. See, it was 19 years ago on that date in 1988 that I went to my office for my first day of working with teenagers. And, I think I learned an awful lot in those 19 years. So, what I thought I would do is start on May 7 is put those 19 essays up for parusal here at The Diner. One per day until May 25. Now, if that's too long of a series, lemme know. I'll back off and make it 7 or something. 19 does seem somewhat self-indulgent.

But then again, so's having a blog.

Sports Intensive

The Mavericks, who I care little, if anything, about, were knocked out of the playoffs last night. Apparently, those who keep up with such things were expecting them to at least make it to their conference finals--meaning about another month or two of professional basketball in our city--and the resulting morale and all that comes with a local team winning big.

Well, not so much. They were upset in the first round by a team they were supposed to easily beat.

The local hockey team, the Stars, were knocked out in the first round by a team they weren't really supposed to beat just a couple of weeks ago.

And our baseball team has won 10 and lost 18. They don't pitch well. They don't field well. They aren't hitting well. We got a new manager who was supposed to bring them back to having fun and there was this honeymoon ecstasy over his hiring and actions during spring training. The media gave him a free pass with a pretty high expectation. This team isn't good, and now with the media having nothing else to watch for two months, that spotlight is going to shine heavy on Ron Washington (after about three days of blasting Dirk & the Mavs). It won't be pretty.

Which means that I'll be reading more books over the next two months than I likely would've. It looks like a boring sports scene around here...at least until Cowboys training camp this summer--and that's saying something.

Rudd Intensive

I don't know what Josh's comment yesterday means. I mean, I don't want to have him on double secret blogging probation if he's not supposed to be on it. But what I want to happen is that when people click on his link they can read what he wrote. I'm a liberal arts guy. I have no idea about RSS and how Diner patrons can access that (nor do I feel the need for technological explanation) and I don't want to keep Joshua on double secret probation...so what do I do?

And, by the way, he and the pierced and tattooed Kristen might have the 2nd cutest kids on the planet. Check out her blog, which I find creatively done, by the way. Maybe Josh's is also and I'm just not art literate enough to get that either.

Entertainment Intensive

I'm just not that excited about the Spiderman movie release this week, and I thought I would've been. I liked the first one a lot. 2 was okay. Maybe it's that by the time the third one of any movie series rolls around I've gotten tired of the whole thing.

And I don't mind telling you that I feel pretty bummed about missing Chevelle in concert in Dallas when they come next Tuesday. Plus, I think Kelsey would've enjoyed seeing Joss Stone at the new House of Blues opening in Dallas that same night. Now if I could just find out when Tom Petty and/or Pearl Jam are coming through town next I might could do a better job of schedule management.