Reference Diagram

Dream Boat

What is it about dreams? They are so weird. I rarely dream but when I do, I generally don't like it. My dreams are so random I can never make heads nor tails of them. What made me think of this is last night I had a dream that my wife was having an assignation with some scum bag (why I would dream this I have no idea). Then suddenly they were on a shipping container on a boat with nothing but a big bed and enough food and water to get them to where they were going. That was the end of my dream. Why? What is going on in the brain? Who knows?
The best dream I've had is that I could dunk a basket ball. I remember I was in a basketball game, jumped from the 3 point line and flew threw the air and dunked it hard. Man, that was awesome. So for all you psychologists out there, analyze that.

Math Homework

My oldest son Jared (9), is an amazing kid. Academically he is nothing like I was at his age (especially in Math). He comes home and immediately tells us he has homework, and gets it done. Let me stop there for a minute and digest what I just wrote. . . .I didn't know kids like this really existed. Take me for example. I would come home and lie my head off and put twice the energy into convincing my parents that I did not have home work than it would have been to just do it. Then the daily paranoia would set in. I would lay in bed and be petrified they would find out. It never really occurred to me that parent teach conferences were always looming out there and there would inevitably be a "come to Jesus" meeting with my parents and teachers. Math was, and always has been, my nemisus. Why would I ever need to know that pi was half-the circumfrance of a circle. Seriously! Nevertheless, I am a slow learner and this pretty much sums up my elementary and Jr. High careers.

So with my new and enlightened view of todays kids, I had to ask, why do our children perform so poorly on standardized tests? Does the fault lie with our teachers? With our school administrators? With our political leaders? Can we, as concerned parents, sue somebody about this and obtain millions of dollars?

Or maybe it's time that we parents stopped ''passing the buck'' on education. Maybe instead of ''pointing the finger'' at everybody else, we should take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror, and place the blame for our children's lousy test scores where it clearly belongs, on our children. They apperantly have a terrible attitude. While surfing the internet today, I found this letter written from an 8th grade teacher in Texas:

"I teach math to eighth-grade students. This is an unnecessary task because they are all going to be professional basketball players, professional NASCAR racecar drivers, professional bass fisher people or marine biologists who will never need to actually use math.''

This is a sad commentary on the unrealistic expectations of today's students in America. The real statistical truth is that, in any given group of 10 young people, only a third of them, or 22 % (I used a calculator here), will actually succeed as professional bass fishers. The rest will wind up in the ''real world,'' where, like it or not, they will need a practical knowledge of math.

So Jared, here's to ya. You are my shining ray of hope in this world of urealistic dreamers and kids that want jobs that the rest of us can only drewl over. Your the man.

Oh, did I mention what Jared said, when I last asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up: A Professional Football Player.

Small Towns

I've lived in Utah all my life, and traveled it a lot. You would think I have heard of all of the names of the towns. Today I drove to Price and Castle Dale for work and was yet again surprised by the small towns that I never knew existed. Did you know there was a Cleveland, UT? How about Hiawatha, Lawrence, Clawson, Ferron, Moore, and undoubtedly my kids favorite, Elmo. Who in the heck lives in Elmo? It is a different world when you back on some of the small roads in central, UT. They are forever away from everything. But I guess that has it advantages, all though I can't think of any right now.
I did see a lone coyote running along a ditch back, it made me think of Chris LaDue.

Chain Gang

So my neighbor went on vacation last week and asked me to run the chains at the local high school football game for him. This is like the creme de la creme for football fanatics like myself. The opportunity to stand on the sidelines and feel like your right in the action, it doesn't get any better. The interesting part about being on the chain gang is you are standing right in front of the opposing team and their coaches. You hear everything! And it's right in your ear.
I've decided it takes a very unique perosnality to be a head coach. A+++, Red, what ever you want to call them, but they are intense. This particular head coach last week had a little something extra. He stunk to high heaven. I'm talking the eye watering, make your nose drip, gag reflexin type of stench that is nearly impossible to describe. Every time he walked by I would take a quick breath of fresh air and hold it as long as possible. The other members of the chain crew would be throwing me looks like, what in the "H" is that smell? Anyway, despite the noxious fumes, it was incredibaly fun. Hope I can do it again.
By the way, we won, again.