Top 5 Musicals - SSR

One of my students blogged about a favorite musical of his for his weekly class blog post and it got me thinking about all the musicals I've seen in my life. When your mom's a music teacher, having a good working knowledge of musicals becomes common household knowledge.

My top 5:

5. Pippin - This is a musical that does not translate to film very well. It's primarily only ever been done on stage, and it was done at my high school my senior year. I played the drum set in the pit orchestra and got to watch the musical come to life. I enjoy the story immensely, and the ending leaves the whole thing up to interpretation. 

4. The Sound of Music - Oh, Julie Andrews. Your warm songs thawed a cold man's  heart and brought joy back to his life. And of course, you have to hate those nasty Nazis.

3. Godspell - Another musical that's primarily shown on stage. It's an interesting take on the life of Jesus as portrayed by hippies/children. This was also performed at my high school, and I was again in the pit orchestra.

2. Mary Poppins - Julie Andrews again. Notice any themes here? And once again, we have a father whose cold heart must be thawed with music.

1. The Music Man - This musical is just straight-up fun. You have a lovable bad guy, a clueless town/lynch mob, a musically-gifted heroine, and comedy. Doesn't hurt that the music is insanely catchy, too.

Honorable mention: Rent, Frozen (it IS a musical), Phantom of the Opera, Schindler's List South Pacific. 

A Letter to My Debaters on Opening Weekend

(I have three young debate teams traveling to Nickerson tomorrow and I can't drive them there since I am in Topeka with four other teams. So to completely make up for it, I wrote them this letter)

To my brave opening-weekend debaters:

You are embarking on a great journey. A journey that will transcend many miles. Like 20 of them.

There are many perils which lie before you. But knowing the effort, care, and determination that you have put into preparing for this, I have no doubt that you will conquer your fears, exceed your expectations, and destroy those who stand in your way.

You are a Crusader! Like the brave knights of combat who sought the gates of heaven in days of old, you too seek a great treasure. Namely, a winning record at a local debate tournament.

This step is the first of many. And as you cross this first threshold, you will become emboldened by realizing that you are capable of accomplishing so much more than believed possible. And as you face and overcome these challenges, remember these words of wisdom:

• Don’t just talk good. Talk gooder than the other team.
• Your judges don’t care about how fast you speak, but they do care about how well you wield those words in verbal combat.
• Double negatives are a no-no.
• The words “I think,” and “I believe” sound good in your head. Make sure those words stay in your head and don’t leave your mouth.
• Don’t just make good arguments, but point out why your opponents’ arguments are bad.
• Judges are like spies. They’re everywhere. Even when you think they’re not. Always act like one is watching you.

My last piece of advice is simple. Help your comrades. Make certain that you not only have everything you need, but that your teammates do as well. You are a squad. A team. An indivisible unit of power. When one succeeds, we all succeed.

I look forward to seeing you on Monday. Go forth. And do well!

Mr. Bauer

Time

You might look at my blog title and think this is a post about the passage of time, or about time as a phenomenon in and of itself. But no. This is about the lack of time.

There was once a time when I thought I was busy. I took 21 college credit hours in a semester. I also participated in musical ensembles through percussion and ran the student newspaper. In retrospect, though, that was cake.

Somehow, I still managed to play video games, hang out with friends, talk with my girlfriend, and even follow some sports teams. But I thought I was swamped.

Maybe that's a weird human condition, to constantly think there is less time than there really is. Or, probably more accurately, we try to wear our own busy-ness like a badge of honor. "Man, I was up until 4 a.m. doing work." "Oh yeah? I only slept for a minute. And I was drinking coffee during that minute."

I suppose this makes us look like hard workers? Or maybe it gives us a built-in excuse when things go wrong. We can default to how busy we are when something doesn't work out. "I couldn't do it because I was doing 800 other things."

Lately I've been trying to make a conscious effort to restore some solid balance to my life. Yes, that does mean being more productive, but it also means spending more time with my family when I can. I hate going home and having to work when I should be playing with my daughter. Those two things go hand in hand. If I can get more done during the day, then I can enjoy my time at home easier.

There are some tricks I'm going to try to do to make this happen:

1. Grade at debate meets. There's a lot of work into coaching debate. However, there's not a lot of work that goes into sitting around waiting for my kids to get out of rounds. That's arguably almost 7 hours of potential productivity. 
2. Important work early. I found out about this cool thing called a circadian rhythm, which goes about every 6 hours. I'm going to make an effort to time my important work for when I'm feeling energized (early morning), light work for 1:00 p.m.-ish. 
3. Coffee. Just. Yeah. 
4. Less multitasking. I don't think it works. I don't think it ever has worked. Time on one task should be time on ONLY that task. 
5. Destroy my phone - maybe I would be more productive if I had a faster phone. I doubt it, though. I think I do better when my phone is doing something else. Like, not being around me.