Crumpled Notebook

I am in a baseball mood today. So here it is…the 5 worst and best teams in baseball (based on their win % which isn’t always the best predictor in post-season, but oh well).

The 5 Worst:

5th worse team in baseball: SF Giants. Yep. Sucks to be me. I bet Barry is sitting back laughing at them. I don’t blame him.

4th …: Colorado Rockies. They have however won 7 of the last 10 and are on a 2 game winning streak. Hey, it’s something when your average is .406

3rd…:Washington Nationals. I could careless. I hate expansion teams. Yes, even the above mentioned Colorado.

2nd….:Kansas City. Nothing to add about them. I don’t like them and don’t care, but come on, .391is pathetic. Anything below .400 and you just need to quit for the season.

1st…Worst team in baseball thus far this season: Seattle Mariners. They’re not just below .400, they are .351. The 2 best teams have lost more games each than they have won, and are still the best teams. And they are 16.5 games back right now. Just give it up. Come back for spring training.

The 5 Best:

5: Tampa Bay. I hate expansion teams, but they’re beating the Yankees, so I’m happy.

4: St. Louis Cardinals: Ugh. .592 is respectable though.

3: Anaheim Angles: Yes, I still call them Anaheim. If I have to cheer for a winning California team, I guess it’s them….just barely beats out St. Louis… .594.

2: Boston Red Sox: I love teams over 600. (.611 here). It says, “we’re so much better than you,” especially to the .351 team. The BoSox are hot again this year. Keep beating the Yankees and I’ll keep cheering for you.

1: Chicago Cubs: The Cubbies are really hot right now. .643 is nice. St. Louis is on their tail, but the Cubs are keeping their distance.

Think about this. If things continue and the best teams actually come out in the end at the World Series, we’ll have the baseball match-up to end all match-ups. The Cubs and the Red Sox. Granted the Sox have managed to break their curse, but still. Those are some die hard fans there.

New Switchfoot song from The Chronicles of Narnia; Prince Caspian. I’m not a huge Switchfoot fan, but I really like this song. It’s one of those songs that kinda speaks to your life at a particular moment in time, at least for me.

We did this fun thing at the 8th grade BBQ last night. Think limbo. Think slip-n-slide. This the potential for someone to get hurt (no one did). Think soap, water, and 15 teenagers.

Unfortunately I don’t have pictures, but it was one sure to be a classic for our kids. I got the idea somewhere on the internets.  It’s like this. I got a big tarp that I had. Sprayed it down with water. Poured on some dish washing detergent. Sprayed it down a little more. Got a limbo stick. And well, the rest you can figure out. It was quite fun watching the few kids that participated and didn’t mind getting their clothes all wet and soapy.

I love my job.

I’m disappointed with the Gmail labs launched this week. I know this is just what Googlers do in their 20% time, but everything in the lab is nearly useless in function. I mean, who really needs a random signature? Sure it might be fun, but why not working on something like a Signature Picker to start with. The Quick Links could be useful, but Superstars, pictures in chat, custom date format, SNAKEY? Seriously? So, a few of this could be useful to a handful of people like the Quick Links and the Custom Keyboard Shortcuts (the only truly useful one I see on the list). Email Addict? Maybe, but geez, if you need your email program to tell you to take a 15 minute break, you have bigger issues that being addicted to email.

How about some of the following:

• Signature Picker
• Better Contact Manager
• A folder option for all those people who keep screaming about it that can’t figure out labels
• an option to not add every email you send to your address book
• Sub-labels
• message sorter
• notes to yourself in messages
• auto text

Just to name a few upgrades I’d like to see…

Tonight I went to 8th grade graduation here. I had a lot of kids from my group that were graduation, as well as a lot of other kids I’ve worked with in the last 4 1/2 years since I’ve been here. I was so proud of all of them, but I seriously had the most proudest moment I think I’ve ever had tonight.

So, I almost never blog about my kids and I have never posted a picture of the kids, but I know this one won’t mind. So, this kid here, won the Principal award for most changed student, leadership, caring about school, etc…. I actually cried. See, this kid here is the reason I do what I do. I’m not sure why, but he’s really the first kid that kind of connected with here. He’s had a hard life. He’s been down the wrong paths. He’s always been the “bad” kid. But he’s always had this big heart and I’ve always been able to see so much potential in him. He really is a born leader. So the fact that, after all this time, the ups and downs, I’m glad that I’m not the only one that sees this in him (and a few times I thought I was). Anyway, it’s really what makes everything worthwhile, moments like that. It’s not really about him, although part of him reminds me of my brother. But, it’s the little things. All the time you spend, and you finally see one little sliver of it paying off. It’s encouraging actually.