My life was back ... now it is gone. Again. It's ok ... I need the money. I love marking until midnight.

Life is simple, I wake up, hopefully in one piece. Then teach until 3:03, leave my room if I'm lucky by 8pm, coach until we lose our next game, mark/plan until the stroke of midnight & repeat for ten months.

Then, If I'm still not dead, bugger off to strange far away places ... Who knows for how long my bones will keep working properly?? So, I'll do it NOW, and thank myself later when I'm an old man and drooling on my shirt in an old age home. Sounds mean, but hey, being old isn't always pretty.

My hope is to survive 30 years of full contact manic mathematics with my students. I'm pretty lucky though, I've survived the first half of the game, & hope the second half is just as amazing. I have the honours kids for two years now and they actually think I'm smart. Most of the regular kids just think I'm evil .... but that's ok. It is just a part of the job when you sign up.

Imagine Robin William's character in Dead Poet's Society .... but teaching mathematics .... that's one half to know. Then imagine Jim Valvano coaching hoops or Tommy Lasorda coaching softball, but losing 90% of their games and somehow keeping a smile on his face. That's the other half. But then the summer comes, all is forgiven (I think) then myself and Betty Sgohn Pharr with Mai Bakpak go on another adventure. Most of my friends think I'm a real photographer ..... but it's not even close. If you put yourself in the most beautiful places on earth, with a decent camera and THEN you aren't able to get some decent pictures with a bit of patience & luck, then there's something very, very wrong. 76 countries down, everywhere else to go ...

:o)