Blog for March 3, 2011

Blogging for February 27, 2011

This is my second week of writing on a daily basis, almost. I don’t expect this segment to be much better than the first one, but it is a start after all. Sundays are my days for coming up with a topic for this week’s blog comment. I may come back to this after I’ve read a few of my blogs to jog my writer’s block.
The introductory paragraph, above, was all I came up with yesterday (Sunday). I’ll have to do much better tonight. My Red Wings game starts in about 35 minutes. We are on the west coast playing Los Angeles. Today was the last day to make a trade in the NHL. There appeared to be no particular blockbuster moves made, but I may be wrong. Poor Toronto had been courting Brad Richards, but he informed everyone this morning that he would agree to a trade only to the New York Rangers; yet another slap in the face for the Leaf Nation. Is there no indignity that they don’t or won’t suffer? You can talk until you are blue in the face and the leaflets just don’t get that quality hockey players in their prime have absolutely no desire to play for such a disastrous organization. With the possible exception of Ken Holland in Detroit, I don’t think there is a human being on this earth who can turn this ridiculous franchise around. They seem to be absolutely snake bit. It doesn’t matter what they do, but they find a way to look god-awful at the most inopportune times. See last night’s game against the struggling Atlanta Thrashers.
This is really the best part of the regular hockey season now. There will be no more trades; each team will have to make it on its own. No excuses. The Red Wings game last night was really strange. We were outplayed by a large margin in the first period and yet were ahead 3-1. Poor goaltending and finally some luck around the net paid off. We usually get this many chances in a game, but the shots rarely go in; I’m not sure why, but we often have trouble converting regularly on our many golden opportunities. Perhaps we have turned a corner; we’ll see: we have the Ducks tomorrow night, the Sharks on Thursday night, and the surging Coyotes on Saturday night.
The political scene in America continues to deteriorate. I’m beginning to sense that in my lifetime there will be cataclysmic shift in America’s ability to govern itself. I’m beginning to think seriously that President Barack Obama is not up to the job of reining in the Republicans and sending them and their tea party and all the nutjobs that follow them to political oblivion. The president could start by indicting all the Wall Street crooks, all the lawyers and politicians and the Bush regime cronies, including Bush and Cheney, and have them all brought before courts of law and have them tried and put away for good. Then and just maybe then will America begin to recover its soul and its direction. If this does not happen, then America is doomed. Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck and Bill O’Reilly, and all the hundreds and thousands of right wing radio and TV dipshits be also brought up on charges of sedition and God knows what else. Also the print journalists who have allowed all this to happen while they nodded approvingly from the sidelines.
So what is to come of all of this? I think, unfortunately, this is going to end very badly for all, except the rich, of course. The American middle class will all but disappear; there will be virtually no manufacturing at all, and there will be a vast lower class with catastrophic unemployment. Crime will be rampant and, given America’s love of the gun, there will be much violence; however, the rich will be protected by their own police force behind secure walls in gated communities. And it will happen sooner than later. Obama has been a major disappointment; the democrats, as usual, have been spineless do-nothings who wring their hands and wait to see what their rich benefactors tell them to do next.
Money has absolutely and thoroughly corrupted a once beautiful country. Every where you look, America is in decline.

Blog for February 21, 2011

It is about time I got back in the saddle and started blogging heavy hard. It’s been about a year since I last deposited a blog-worthy note in my moribund blog. This will mean, once again, that I have to follow my writing regimen of Sunday to Thursday writing, Saturday to revise, edit, polish, and proofread. Stir and repeat again beginning the following Sunday. All it requires from me is the willingness to sit down and get to work. Every night at 6:30, except Fridays.
It’s not like I don’t have a lot to talk about. I just to read my blogs for ten minutes and I have enough material to respond with a lengthy post, but for reasons I do not understand, I do not seem able or willing to get my thoughts down in writing. As they say though: the only way to begin writing is to begin writing. Thus I begin once again to wade into the murky but oh-so-satisfying world of writing, blog writing.
I just took a dip in the old American politics pool for a not quite refreshing dip. I don’t think I have enough intelligence; actually no one does, to make heads or tails out of what the American right thinks about anything. They could be the dumbest people on earth. If they are not, whom would you select as dumber, seriously?
I’m getting ready to watch a little bit of the Washington/Pittsburgh game that starts in a few minutes. I really wonder if the Capitals really have it in them to make a concerted effort to come together as a hockey team. As it turns out, the Capitals won the game 1-0; however, I never watched the rest of the game.
At the moment I’m watching Detroit and San Jose. It is 3-2 at the end of two for San Jose. We are quite well actually, but we are really having trouble controlling Joe Thornton’s line. We are, however, playing quite well; I’m optimistic for the third period. Perhaps the rest of this blog I will live blog the game. Hell, why not?
Datysuk just hit the goalpost at the beginning of the third. Eaves is gone for the night. He hurt his leg in the second period. Datysuk just had another marvelous opportunity - in front of the San Jose net. The last few minutes the puck has been in the Detroit zone; Jimmy Howard has been excellent all game actually. Detroit ended up losing the game 4-3. However, I think the team deserved a better fate. Better goaltending did us in along with a few goal posts.
Tonight I planned my last really heavy class load for tomorrow. Thankfully the year is just about up. I must be getting old; I look forward to the end of a school year. Mind you I still have to do five weeks of observing student teachers as my role as faculty advisor, and I have to finish my online course that goes until the end of March. This will be followed by the Junior Basic course in the spring, and then I’ll be done.
I really do wonder how much longer I will continue to do this. This will be the end of my 39th year in teaching. I wonder if we didn’t need the money how long I would continue to go. I’m probably good till 70, but all bets are off after that. Mind you if we win the $50 million lottery, I’ll be out the door in an instant.
Well, having won the $50 million, I guess I can give more time to my blogging. What would I talk about? Let’s see: American politics, the Leaf Nation, the Detroit Red Wings, education, fishing, that’s a start for sure. Now, I just have to win the big prize. In the meantime I’ll have to toil and toil and curse the bread, etc.
I’m quickly approaching the end of my self-imposed 700 words. I’m really not sure how I’m going to revise this mess into a coherent whole, but that will be Saturday’s chore. Right now I’m trying to hit the magic number before the Wings/Stars game.