Infrequent Incoherent Thoughts

Wisconsin Soccer Player turned englishman has a blog on ESPN

“Credit to us though, it’s not like we haven’t been close or haven’t been in every game, we just haven’t had the breaks.

Out of our first nine games, we have five draws and four losses. We have hit the crossbar on more occasions than I can count, given away two penalties late in the game to lose. One was literally at the last whistle of the game against Bolton, the other a horrible call by the referee who gave a handball in the box, while the replay clearly showed the ball hitting our player’s face and going out of play.”

What I find interesting about this quote is that it shows a necessary trait of any type of pro athlete. They honestly believe that they are just as good as everybody else. You have to believe just to survive…but seriously they haven’t “been in every game.” They are clearly not as good as the other teams, but to admit that as a player is to not be able to compete mentally. It’s this whole idea that if you can trick yourself into ignoring the evidence you can often overcome it. Nobody would break a world record if they didn’t ignore that fact that nobody can run that fast.

It’s a bizare mental game.

Eric is at an interesting stage these days. He’s terrified of movies and yet he loves them. We rented all these movies for when he was sick, but he never wanted to watch them because they were scary…he just assumes every movie is scary if he hasn’t memorized it. Well, Rebecca sort of bullied him into watching the Aristocats. There was much bawling, teeth nashing, and general misery and the result is that he loves it now. Being sick makes Eric wierd.

This last Tuesday our levy failed at our school. It was very close 49 to 51 which of course makes it even harder to take. The district ran an organized, enthusiastic campaign and about 300 parents went door knocking, but it wasn’t enough. It means a 10% cut next year, which is pretty deep no matter how you look at it. When I was hired in ‘97 the district was still reeling from a number of failed levies. I remember in a staff meeting nearly fainting when Deb Geiger told me that class sizes averaged 35 (they had been about 25 or less where I student taught). Every year since things have sort of degenerated. Actually, I guess there were a few good years in 2000-20001, but I was getting used to classes of 10 to 15 in Kwajalein. The last few years my classes have averaged 35-40 and with the upcoming cuts it’s going to be awful. My guess is the new legislature will push to increase education spending but there is only so much money (much of it increasingly obliterated by healthcare costs) The whole picture seems pretty grim.