Rounders

Wow! This is one of my favorite movies. Rounders stars Edward Norton and Matt Dammon.
This movie draws you in from the beginning with a high stakes poker game. You fined yourself rooting for Matt Dammon's character Mike McDermott. Across the table from From Mike is Roman, a dark straight faced almost anger Russian played by Salva Schoot. I'm not a card gambler but this movie and the characters are so complex and rich I can't help but watch. The acting is superb and I get lost in the story of the world of underground gambling. Edward Norton plays Lester "worm" Murphy a con artist that blurs the lines of honor among thieves and will cheat his own mother to make a score. Great suspends and a must see.

A drive to Achieve

In a I believe essay by Juliet Frerking she speaks about achieving something great. Guiness Book of World Records got my attention right off the bat. As a kid I use to marvel at the achievements in the book myself. I related to the essay quite quickly. She has a drive to do something amazing with the memories from her past. The mood is uplifting with a spirit of wonder. It reminds me of growing up barely able to wait for the new Guiness Book to come out. Like most kids, dreaming of getting in that book. To see your name in there meant that you were somebody. You did something unbelievable that few in the world could do. You were super human! Most of us grow up and start living in reality but to the few that don't I give them praise to be what nobody else can. A motivator with a drive to achieve.

Young for a Short Time

Children are only young for a short time. Parents need to embrace this fact. I am not saying, by any means, that the child should be spoiled. In fact quite the opposite is true. My brother-in law and I once had a conversation about this very topic. He justified working long hours to make good money by saying "I want to provide the best for my kids." I then asked if it was important for his kids to ride around in a new sedan that he's paying $600 a month to drive. By the way the kids don't ride in his car.

I had a job that paid pretty well but the hours terrible. I would work five or six days a week from ten in the morning to ten at night taking Sundays off. When we started having children it did not take to long for me to realize I never got to see my children. Children are only young for a short time. I quite my job, took another for one half the pay, and worked a much more reasonably time demanding job. This put me at home before 6pm and gave me most weekends off. My wife quit her job as well and went back to school to become a teacher. Money was tight but we were and are there for our kids. I can make money later, children are only young for a short time.

My wife was told by a close friend that she needed to get a new car. It would be nice to have a sparkle new car. The friend then add "you just need to take your kids out of karate and gymnastics. They can do some activities at the rec. center." WOW! Josh is less than 4 months
from getting his black belt. Ashley just second place in the all around, in only her 4th meet, against 67 other girls. No problem taking that away from the kids so mom can get a new car. The car is a little old but its still runs well. Let the kids sacrifice so mom can have a new car so her friend feels better. What a great idea. Again, children are only young for a short time.

For my wife and myself, we have the rest of our lives to make money, buy cars, eat in restaurants and all the other stuff other people think we should do or have. Children are only young for a short time.

Hiyhaaa

Testing day once again at the Martial Arts studio. Time goes by so quickly. The Tini Tigers enter the mat. This is the first testing for my littlest one. 6 years old and looking for her yellow belt. The studio is set up with a table at one wall, facing the mats, for the judges to sit and scribble notes. The judges are all high ranked black belts form other schools and are dressed in their uniforms demanding respect with out saying a word. They deserve the respect as well, some, spending more than 15 years studying the art to achieve such ranks. The class lines up to bow and the testing begins. A set of movements called "forms" must be preformed in specific order and in struck form to be awarded and move on to the next level. The mood for the 6 year olds is keep light and some giggles are shared with the instructor just before the "forms' are to be done. Cindy, my daughter, made it through with out any mistakes. The stress parents put on themselves is amazing. How do these little ones do it. When the testing is all over my darling daughter looks up at me and says "that was fun. I can't till next time." As long as she's having fun we will keep doing Martial Arts. They are only young for a short time.

Whats Fair?

I'm in a class. Its a group project and our group is up to present. We are group 3 and our editor in the group had a computer crash that morning. We will go on. No, you can't go on with out a power point. We could switch with another group and go next class. We can get together and make a new power point. No, you don't have it to bad! So what if there are other groups that get an extra week or two, that's the draw of the hat. You will lose points for being late or lose all points for not having a power point. We are ready to go. Its not like we done nothing. We are copping out. Such as life, yeah, I know, "if I bend for you I'll have to bend for someone else and then we have mass hysteria and world as we know it will no longer exist." Bla bla bla. Joe could have ten computer crashes but Joe still has two more weeks to have his ready. So, from on I take the assignment with the last possible due date. Your a poor sucker if you get stuck with the first one. In the real world, yes,it might cost you your job or maybe the presentation would be rescheduled, this could effect everything. We are here to learn and, maybe this is a tough lesion that needs to be taught. flexibility is one lesson not taught by some instructors.
The argument can't be one. I am just a student. But maybe there is a bigger lesson here. A lesson on how I might deal with the same situation. As a teacher, hopefully in the future, I will need to face this one on my own. I hope I can reflect on this moment, use my best judgement a reach the best answer. Maybe it was best thing for the instructor to do, dock us for a computer problem. Maybe not but when it is my turn at the helm the influence will be mine. Someone will get upset and try to argue but I'll have the last say and it will be my turn to stick to my guns.

Fore!!

I was 11 years old when I started shagging balls at the driving range on the Ironwood Nine golf course. My first real job after having a paper route. I would ride my bike down the road only 5 blocks away. Tucked on a hill was a small 9 hole par 3 golf course. Now it was called a executive 9 hole course because it had to pars 4 hole on it as well. But to the small town of Pleasant View just outside of Golden it was a place to hit balls on a Saturday afternoon. The grass never really took root on the fare ways and the owners had little money. This was a golf course built by the land it on not by big bulldozers and earth movers. Small and simple things seemed to slow down just a little bit on Ironwood Nine.


I learned to play golf in the heat of the afternoon. Not much to on the course in 90 + degree heat in the middle of the week. It was way to hot to mow on the old tractor so I would bang the golf ball around in heat until the late afternoon when the business men would come and try to sneak in around or hit a bucket of balls before going home. Then a would spring into action selling the bucket of balls I would later have to retrieve and bucket up for the next day.

It was on this golf course I learned to drive. First on a small Cushman cart, a three wheeler with a tiny truck bed, to haul dirt, small trees and allot of rocks dug up on the old farm turn into Ironwood Nine. By the time I was twelve I was driving the tractor to mow the fairways, mostly weeds but we called them fairways. I moved to the big leagues and got to drive the Ford 250 truck. I can't think of a better place to learn to drive a standard three on the tree transmission. It took some time but soon that old truck and I became good friends.

I made some good friends too. Like Pat, she was a pro golfer in the early 70's. The tour was a struggle so she came out to Colorado to start this golf course. She made allot of friends on tour and, through her, I meet Pat Bradly, Nancy Lopez, and many more pro golfers that would stop by to say hi.

Don was an old timer. He retired from the railroad and started Ironwood Nine with Pat and did most of the work himself. He taught about the dirt and grasses, planting trees and filling the tractor with heavy oil. Don also let in on a little history like the "mob" killed Kennedy because of the Bay of Pigs.

Now the grand old course, in my mind at lest, is no more. Pushed aside to sell motor homes, and a nice little open space park with a walking path. If you squint just right in the heat of the afternoon, about mid August, you can almost see the flag on the first green. A high 8 iron with a fade just might get there or put out a window at lest.

Cookies

Round and golden, tasty and tempting, filled with chocolate delight. Begging and urging to stanched up, gobbled and swallowed down. Josh, my 10 year old son, brought home cookie dough he had been selling as fundraiser for school. I don't remember (bemember as my daughter of 4 would say) having so many fundraisers when I was in junior high school. So cookies we must sell and cookies we must eat. Lots of cookies we must eat. It would have been more economical to just give the school money and by cookie dough at the store.
When do you, as a parent say to those wide eyes "we can't afford to by cookie dough from the school so you won't be able to win a prize that you'll be board of in ten minutes. Sorry." To break a child's heart is something all parents must face. This is a tough learning experience for both parent and child. It is the day our son or daughter finds out that your not superman or wonder woman. Kids bounce back faster than we do. I think it is because they have little hart break to compare it to.
For now, we eat cookies around the table and remaining a superhero for at lest a few more days. I love cookies. Especially fundraiser cookie I bought form my son! Milk anyone?