And today was the first day of school after our wonderful week long break. Unfortunately, I was sick, and so I was unable to attend school on this most joyous occasion. I think my week will be much better because I kinda skipped Monday. Monday's are always the worst day of the week because you've just had a whole weekend of break. Mondays after breaks are even worse.

I went to the TAC dance on Saturday night, and it was very enjoyable. I was there for quite some time before the Dance because a) it started late, and b) my ride had "business" up there before the dance, so I wandered around campus for about an hour before hand.
The dance itself was quite long, and I didn't even stay for all of it. I left at around 1 am, but I hear that it went 'till around 3ish. The only unfortunate thing was that I had to get up and cantor for 7:30 mass the next morning, which was definitely *not* pleasant. And then I went to the Clark's and worked with Jack a bit on Fielding and Hitting, and then ran Mr. Clark's Baseball practice.
At the beginning of the practice it looked like only two players actually could field a ground ball, so we worked extensively on the proper form and technique, and by the end of the day, most of them looked a lot better than a lot of players their age. I think one of the big problems with youth Baseball is that coaches either a) don't know what the heck they're talking about when it comes to the fundamentals of hitting and fielding, or they don't think that 8, 9, and ten year old kids can grasp them. I've been working one on one with Jack Clark (I think he's 9) for about a month now, and he's improved drastically in both areas. It's not so much that he's hitting the ball farther (although he is) or throwing harder (although he is), his form is so much better then when I first saw him. And he's recovering from a broken leg! If kids were just consistently taught fundamentals by people who know what they're talking about, the level of play would go up at a young age, the kids would enjoy themselves much more, and more kids would continue on to play highschool ball. Unfortunately, even if a team gets lucky and has a really good coach on year, the next year 90 percent of them won't have the same coach, and, unless they get another coach who is willing to continue the constant, constant work on those same fundamentals, they'll lose it all. It takes more than a season to really get it all down. And really, it's all repetition. You can't just take 10 grounders and have that form and skill ingrained in your mind. You can't just take 100 or a thousand grounders. You have to continually take grounder after grounder, hit pitch after pitch, chase down fly after fly for multiple years until you really get it. And then, once it becomes second nature, you've got to maintain that second nature through more repetition. Of course, once it becomes second nature, it becomes so much fun to do. On Friday I got my coaches to hit my grounders and pop ups for over half an hour...straight, by myself. It was quite possibly the best practice I've had in High school so far. It was exhausting, but once you're not trying to think about 15 things at once, including "oh my gosh it's going to hit me!", every grounder becomes a new challenge to be enjoyed. I heard some of the players at the practice complaining about grounders that were "too easy". While it's true that some grounders aren't hit as hard as others, or they take Sunday Hops, that doesn't detract anything from the pleasure at fielding, transferring and throwing all in one beautiful motion. I still believe that one of the most beautiful things in the world is a perfect fielded and thrown grounder. You don't see them very often in High School, but it's very common in the pros. I could sit and watch Derek Jeter field grounders for ages...(actually, I'd probably get restless because I'd want to field some to :-P) Baseball is a sport which is made up of a whole bunch of different arts. Hitting is an art, Pitching is an art, and fielding is an art. Of the three, the most exciting to see for a lay-person (so to speak :-P), it seems, is hitting, but I'm in love with fielding.

Anyway, I just figured I'd get that out of my system. I think I've discovered (well, I kinda decided this a long time ago :-P) that I'd like (actually, love) to coach Baseball after I finish playing. I think I'd like to be able to teach younger kids (that is, 7-10 ish) the basic basics, and really hammer them into their heads, and watch the ones with the desire and talent, who were just waiting for the proper instruction, achieve beyond all the others. That would be really cool, to know that you were the one who was able to make that difference, and teach them the proper way to play. I mean, it's painful for me to see bad coaching. I helped out at a couple of my sister's practices last year (or was it the year before?) and it was awful. They really had no clue what they were doing! How is it useful to chuck balls at kids and say "hit it!" if they don't know how to hit it correctly? And how does it help to give the same stereotypical advice in every situation: "Keep your eye on the ball!". That is absolutely not help to a kid if they don't know what they need to do to keep their eye one the ball. I encountered that yesterday. One of the guys would swing and miss by a mile. Then, I'd ask them why they'd missed, and they would mumble something about not keeping their eye on the ball. But they'd have no idea what that really meant. Once I'd explained to them about keeping they're shoulder in and not dipping they're back shoulder, even if they didn't get it right away, they started to improve. And all they need is repetition. Repetition. If could coach my own team, I'd be able to give them that repetition! It would be so satisfying to see them at the end of the year, and compare them to the beginning!
Anyway, I need to go finish dinner, so I'll talk to y'alls later.

Exhausted Happiness

Wow, I'm tired. Not only have I been to two intense dances in the past few days, stayed up far too late the past few nights, and gotten up too early these past couple of mornings, but I just went on a 12 miles hike up to Nordhoff peak and back again with my great uncle John, three of my sisters and my brother. My uncle took us for our collective birthday. It was long, long, long. Steep, and very cold. I took some cool pictures on my phone though.

We just finished opening presents, and I got three awesome tee-shirts. One says Baseball, the other says Baseball, and the third says Baseball :-P They're pretty much amazing. I'm going to wear them all the time now.
I also got a book called "Philadelphia Chickens" It's a book of hilarious songs performed by famous people, and it comes with a CD, sheet music, lyrics et all. I think I'm going to enjoy them very much. I'll post some of the lyrics when I get the chance.
We also got loads of tennis balls, a bocce ball set, a little "space alien invasion" game, a book on Doubles Strategy, a movie....and my brother got a hard drive for our 360 :P Now all we need are some games that are compatible with the 360 and we'll be set and able to play on it.

My dad also officially gave me his old, old ipod, and I'm currently borrowing about 16 CD's from Luke and importing them all onto said device. I'm planning on listening to music the entire way to New York. What I really need, though, is the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. I watched it about a week ago for the first time, and I'm in love with the music. On a very related note, I love Tenors. We are absolutely the best voice part. Sopranos come in a close second, but only because they sound so good with Tenors :O) I'm trying to get ahold of the music for "All I Ask Of You" and I believe Mr. Wagner has the sheet music in his office, so I plan to photocopy it and sing it with someone *rubs hands together* Music is wonderful, singing is better, and Tenors are the best!!! :-)

And now, I get to go eat Trifle, French Silk Pie, and ice cream!

Blech!

For various reasons I am not feeling up to par tonight. So, I'm going to grace you all with a rousing rendition of the famous Italian Aria entitled "AAAAARRRG!"
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Days Are Numbered

That is, my days as a young, carefree, innocent 15 year old are numbered. On Ash Wednesday, 2007, the TQuack extraordinaire will rock the international community by turning 16. Maybe not. But I'm certainly going to eat a ton of Trifle!!!

Baseball's going great. Sometime in March or April I'm going to a showcase in Santa Barbara put on by UC Davis. I dunno if I want to go there, but there'll be scouts, so I'll get my name out there which will be handy.

I suppose I should have posted earlier so I can think clearly, but I didn't, and now it's late, and now I must sleep, so maybe I post again tomorrow...
G'night all!

5 days 'till practice starts!! 2 weeks 'till my Birthday!!

Yeah!! Real practice starts on Monday after school, and Soccer is ending, which means we'll be able to take batting practice outside of the cage!!! The blasted soccer team has been hoarding the outfield for weeks, and it was beginning to bug me. I mean, the pitching machine is great, but it lacks the element brought by a human arm. I admit, it was good for working on my right-handed technique, and it gave me down time to use a tee, but live pitching is gonna rock!!! And having more than 15 minutes for Infield...AAAHHHH! Heaven! Infield is absolutely the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best!!

Speaking of which (?), My birthday is in exactly two weeks! Yeah, Ash Wednesday is in exactly two weeks as well. This situation would be really bad, except that we (Nordhoff) get President's week off, so I can have a celebration of sorts during the week or the weekend before. My brother (his birthday is on the 20th, he's younger than me) and I will have our birthday's merged, and we'll have a wonderful "party" which means we'll eat cake and ice-cream in the evening and have a few presents...whoopee...
I need to do something exciting for my birthday sometime. But my parents won't really help me arrange anything, and they don't like big gatherings of my friends at this house, and I don't want to ask people to host my birthday party...I think my biggest regret is that I wasn't born during the Baseball season. IF I was, I could just get a bunch of people and go to a Dodger game...that would be so awesome!!! But alas, I'm born before Spring Training even begins.

On a completely different note, My sister and I are choreographing a small part of the Nordhoff Musical (Anything Goes). A very small part. As in, a few minutes of dancing...we're doing a little bit of Tango, with a weird slow interlude, and then some semi-modified Rumba stuff. It's pretty cool. They just asked us yesterday because they're choreographer is not a Ballroom dancer, and supposedly Liz and I are Ballroom experts (heh, of course! Experts...right) But hey, we'll get credit in the program, and everything. Pretty cool.

Well, I should head to bed, but I think I'll leave you with one of the wise sayings with which I am teeming: If a skunk quacks, shoot it.
~TQ

Comments...

My attention has been called to the detail of allowing non-blogger comments...I have made the appropriate changes...my apologies for any inconvenience it has caused.
-TQ-

Well, it's Super Bowl Sunday...

...and, true to form, I'm sitting here at home, not watching it, having absolutely no plans for the day. 99% of the population of the US is probly watching the Super Bowl, but apparently, I'm not home enough, so today we're going to have "family time". Of course, the Aist's are over, the Seeley's are coming over, my dad is locked in his room doing homework and my mom is on the phone.

To be honest, I haven't actually asked if I could go anywhere, because my mom took the initiative this morning and made it clear she didn't want me to go anywhere...I suppose if I pleaded I might be allowed to do something besides sit here while my siblings have friends over...who knows.

My game yesterday wasn't particularly great, but my leg didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, so I was fairly satisfied. I scraped out an infield hit and an RBI in three chances, and had four assists...so it wasn't technically a bad game...but I really wasn't hitting well. It might have had to do with Jack stealing my glasses at the Kelsey's, and forgetting to return them, so I had to play the game without my glasses. Anyway, I got nauseous halfway through the 14 inning game, and had to leave. It was ridiculous...the way it was supposed to work was that both schools would field two teams, a Varsity and a JV team. The Varsity players would play the first 6-7 innings, and then the JV's would gradually be subbed in, until it was a JV game...that's why we play 14. But a lot of our players also were doing Princeton Review, or Basketball or Soccer, so we had 50% JV to begin with, and only 12 players total. So after 7 innings, we were just playing to give their JV a chance to play...not cool. I would understand this happening once, but it's happened every game so far....I'm just glad the Winter leagues ending so the season can start.

On a completely different note, I've been getting a lot of e-mails from colleges, offering me pamphlets and brochures and guides and whatnot, and urging me to consider their college. I've decided that I like mail, so I've gone to every site and requested more info. So in the next few weeks I'm going to get a lot of mail..I think I'll feel special. Especially since I made sure some of them are going to be addressed to "Mr. Penguin".

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

This is really funny....if you want to destroy the world, you must read this:
http://www.livescience.com/technology/destroy_earth_mp.html

Exerpt from "Body Ritual from the Nacirema"

Really funny essay we read in English today...here's an excerpt:

In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine
men in prestige, are specialists whose designation is best translated
"holy-mouth-men." The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of
and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to
have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not
for the rituals of the
mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums
bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers
reject them. They also believe that a strong relationship exists
between oral and moral characteristics. For example, there is a ritual
ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their
moral fiber.

The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite.
Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious about care of
the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated
stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists
of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with
certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly
formalized series of gestures.

In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a
holy-mouth-man once or twice a year. These practitioners
have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of
augers, awls, probes, and prods. The use of these objects in the
exorcism of the evils of the mouth involves almost unbelievable ritual
torture of the client. The holy-mouth-man open the clients mouth and,
using the above mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may
have created in the teeth. Magical materials are put into these holes.
If there age no naturally occurring holes in the teeth, large sections
of one or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance
can be applied. In the client's view, the purpose of these
ministrations is to arrest decay and to draw friends. The extremely
sacred and traditional character of the rite is evident in the fact
that the natives return to the holy--mouth-men year after year,
despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay.

It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is
made, there will be careful inquiry into the personality structure
of these people. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy-
mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that
a certain amount of sadism is involved. If this can be established,
a very interesting pattern emerges, for most of the population shows
definite masochistic tendencies. It was to these that Professor
Linton referred in discussing a distinctive part of the daily body
ritual which is performed only by men. This part of the rite involves
scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp
instrument. Special women's rites are performed only four times
during each lunar month, but what they lack in frequency is made up
in barbarity. As part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in
small ovens for about an hour. The theoretically interesting point is
that what seems to be a preponderantly masochistic people have
developed sadistic specialists.

Uggness

Hm...does Uggness have two g's or one? Oh well, I suppose that it doesn't really matter in the long run. But really, I just hurt my leg trying to do a spinning kick thing. It wasn't really intelligent, so it's hard to feel sorry for myself, since it was stupid....but I manage somehow. I have a game tomorrow, so I suppose I should have considered more carefully before doing that.
Wow. In the past three days, I have received e-mails from nineteen colleges/universities (give or take a few) urging me to apply for summer programs and to go to their respective colleges. I, of course, since I love mail, went through every one and selected the "send me more info" option. I'm going to feel so special in a few days! I also made sure that they knew that my preferred first name was "Mr. Penguin" So exciting!
Baseball was boring today. I didn't get to do anything except hit. Okay, so it wasn't all consumingly boring, because I did get to do a lot of work on my switch hitting, and I hit well switch in the cage (for the first time *ever*!) and so it was fairly satisfying. But I still wanted to take infield. Man, I'm going to be glad when real practice starts, and soccer gets their lazy behinds out of the outfield and we can put our fence up.

The above is me on a Bus in San Francisco before we went to a performance of the San Francisco symphony...it's a year old, but I haven't changed that much, have I?

And so ends another wonderful day at Nordhoff...not really. Actually, it wasn't too bad, but my back hurts, so the world is somewhat darker than it would otherwise be. I'm not really sure what I did to it...I only first noticed it last night before bed, but it's really rather annoying. Fortunately, it didn't bother me during practice, and I was able to perform my Infield duties mostly unhindered.
AP history mid-term today...blech. We had to write an essay about imperialism, and then annotate various maps with rivers and mountains, cities, ports, trade routs and their respective products. Not fun.
Only one more day 'till the weekend!!