I am ready for some football, finally

Today is the start of the NCAA football season. Go Southern Cal and UNC-CH! It is time to see if UT was just an anomaly when they won the national championship. I am quite sure that USC will still dominate (if not everyone, then definitely) the Pac-10. I am starting to feel happy :)

UPDATE:

Do not call at 5:45 - 9pm on Saturday, I will be watching USC :)
oh, by the way: Dook sucks, and fUCLA

Next School Year

I found out that I will only be teaching Earth Science next school year!!!!! Yeah me!!! I will not have to deal with junior high students in any way, besides to tell them to go to class and not play around in the hallways during their "nutrition" time. Why is it that they no longer have a "break" by the way? We always had a break, not nutrition, just a break in the schedule. It was mainly just a time where we all ran to the potty because we didn't want to disturb the teachers when they were giving us the lessons. I guess that it was understood that they taught, we learned and we all went to the bathroom during break or lunch... Well, that is the beginning of another rant, when I will finish it, I do not know.
Stay tuned :)

Cool Google things!

Google has created a new applet to its Google Earth program. You can now download an applet that allows you to hook into the USGS Earthquake centers and see the earthquakes that have been recorded within the last 7 days. It is a sweet interlay that will allow you to see the houses/surrounding area of the epicenter of each earthquake and approximately how long ago it had happened. When you click onto the earthquake, it tells the approximate magnitude and gives an option to go to the USGS webpage and see a more exact description as well as if the earthquake has been reviewed by a human being - as just about all earthquakes are recorded by our computers and many are not looked at and verified by a real geologist/seismologist. But the cool thing is, is that all of the ones, regardless of size, are being reviewed from Mt. St. Helens... (sarcasm) I wonder why... (end sarcasm)

Easily one of the coolest things that I have ever ran into on the internet... Now how can I integrate this "new" little thing into my Earth Science class... Hmmm.....

more on things to do this summer...

I know that summer is already over for many teachers, but I still have two weeks to go until I have to go back. I have not figured out what I am going to do yet for the first few weeks, so I am starting to get things together. Still waiting for the software but there is a good sign that I will be able to get a handle on it by Monday or Tuesday. So I will be busy next week, coming up with a decent test that will be good for not only my classes, but for all of the classes that are going to be taking Earth Science this year in my district.

For those who are caring, my back is still hurting and my knee is getting better. Got to go, talk to you later. :)

what to do...

Nothing to do today, just chilling out and watching TiVo and NFL football.

Yesterday evening, I had a pretty bad headache. So my wife and I decided to take a nap at around 8 pm. We woke up at around 4 am. we figured that we had a good 8 hours of sleep and we realized that we were both hungry. By 5:30 we were out of the door and on the way to IHOP. Mind you, it was still dark and we hadn't even been out this early since I took her to LAX for her flight to Michigan. But we went to breakfast that early on a Saturday and we werent even the only people there. We were instantly shown to a seat and enjoyed a hot meal. By 6:4o we were back in bed, as a every good meal deserves a nap, and slept in until 10 ish. This might sound normal for some people, but it was wierd for me. Don't ask me why...

By the way, I am trying to blog more, but with nothing else to say, I might just blog a bit of stupidity until something nice/new happens.

I'm Back....for the time being...

Yes, I know, I have told you all (2 - 3 people by now) this before, that I have started to blog again. There has been a lot that has happened to me, and most of it good. Since the blog world has last "seen" me, I have been in a slight automobile accident - I am mostly ok, just a bungled knee and a sore lower back. I have been attending an inquiry based science seminar for the last month or so at a local college, and have been taking it pretty easy the last few months while I have been on summer break. I have some pretty cool pictures of a Rube Goldberg machine that I helped build with "Mr. Steve", who is/was a fellow teacher that I am learning with at the seminar.
Things that I did:
1) Learned to solder - something that I have been meaning to do but did not have the materials to do...
2) Cleaned my mother and father-in-laws house while they were in Alaska
3) Slept in
4) Played video games
5) watched TiVo
6) Recorded cool videos and put them to DVD that I can actually use for class next year :)
7) Built Rube Goldberg machine - that actually works!
8) Met Dr. Rusty Shakelford of My Pet Jawa

Things that I need to do:
1) Write Quarter exams for my district
2) Plan what I will do the 2nd and 3rd weeks of school
3) something is just escaping me right now...

Of the things that I need to do, I wasnt thinking about #2 until now. #1 cannot be done without a few pieces of software that my district wants me to use, that I do not have with me at this present time.