In Defense of Refs

In case you've been living in a hole for the last two weeks, it's World Cup time. In the US, it seems like the most watched sporting event in the world has finally come to our shores, or maybe it's just that my family has cable now so I can actually watch it. Along with the fervor of the Cup has come controversy surrounding the refs, and the US National Team was right in the thick of it (that is, up until yesterday, when we were once again bested by Ghana). It seems like every time there is a major competition for international soccer bragging rights, there is controversy over a referee's call. Just today, England was shorted a goal when the ref failed to see that the ball crossed the goal line. And don't even get me started on Koman Coulibaly. Right now, there is much debate over whether to use technology to assist the referee in making the correct call. FIFA seems firmly against it, but the cry for change grows louder with each missed call, each wrongly disallowed goal (or two). My opinion on that debate can wait for another time.

Today, I would like to speak as a former youth soccer ref and lover of the game:

Lay off the refs.

Yeah, I said it.

It's easy for us in our comfortable lounge chairs to deem something a terrible call. Ask anyone in my family, I did my fair share--more than my fair share--of complaining about the calls last Friday (and Saturday...and Sunday...and...). But coming from someone who has made a terrible call, had perfectly correct calls criticized, been called names and cursed at, I can say with full conviction that being the person with the whistle is not easy. And that was with 14 year olds. Imagine trying to make accurate calls at the speed of play at the World Cup, where the difference between a clean challenge and a hard dangerous tackle is inches. In addition we expect the ref to read the mind of the player rolling on the pitch while dealing with the sheer noise of 40,000+ screaming, vuvuzela playing fans who think they know the game better and can see events more clearly from their nose bleed seats. While we're at it, let's not forget that the ref is running just as much as the players, at least 3 miles and probably more, while expected to make perfect decisions every single time. It is not an easy job.

Compare the job of the three referees on the field in soccer (four, if you count the fourth official, but he doesn't really do much) to that of the seven on the field in American football (plus the guy in the replay booth in the college game). Granted, the sport is a bit different, and there is much more contact. But I would wager that it is just as difficult to sort out the scrum in the goal box on a corner kick or set play as it is to untangle the line of scrimmage. And refs in American football have the advantage of the replay and the flag system. They have the opportunity to take back their mistakes. It's not so with soccer. Once the whistle is blown, it's blown and it can't be taken back.

So, I say it again. Lay off the refs. They are human and make mistakes. Does FIFA need to change the way they handle the missed calls and unsavory situations? Yes. But leave the refs alone, at least during the match. They can't be blamed for FIFA's refusal to step into the 21st Century and embrace technology. Oh, and a little ref accountability wouldn't hurt.

5:40

Is it strange that my favorite sleep comes between 5:40 and 6:10 on weekday mornings? This is the 30 minutes before I force myself to get out of bed (or start beating myself up for not being out of bed)after my alarm clock has gone off . For some reason, I love it. It's still dim, my room is fairly cool, and sometimes I'm still dreaming but I'm just conscious enough to be aware that it's a dream, which makes it all the more sweet. I wish Saturday mornings were like that. But on Saturdays, I know that I don't have to get up. So I slip back into a deep sleep for a few more hours, and the dreams that I was having aren't as sweet, spoiled by length and depth.

Strangely enough, I like getting up in the morning, at least when there's something to do. I like the stillness of the earth before the sun comes out and starts cooking the magic out of the air. In the morning, the day is full of possibilities.

New Glass

I got a new camera lens on eBay today. I'm really excited about it. Enough so that I'm writing a blog post about it. I've always had a thing for photography. As I kid I dreamed about becoming a photographer and traveling the world taking pictures of things. But somewhere around my sophomore year in high school, I earned a 'B' in photography and decided that it was something at which I would never excel. That's what a 'B' meant to me. Because I'm Asian. Sort of. Anyway, it was the only time I received anything less than an A+ in an elective, so I figured I must be pretty awful. I don't really know why I got a 'B' in photography. I do remember opening one of the school cameras in a dark bag that wasn't zipped all the way and ruining a whole roll of film. I suspect it was too technical for my brain to handle at the time. Also, developing film is really difficult.

Fast forward seven years and I've graduated from college, have a job and some steady income. I buy a digital point and shoot. And over time, the pictures I take become better. I can see results immediately. This is what I was missing in high school photography! Immediate feedback. I finally was able to compare results right then and there and try to fix them. So a few years later I had the opportunity to buy a DSLR and I took it. I'm so glad I did. Every time I take it out, I get a little bit better. I'm learning a new art form and documenting life as I do.

So, three years after getting my digital point and shoot, I've taken almost 4,000 pictures. Most of them are of my cat. Who could resist that face?

More Reactions to NPR

I've been listening to NPR a lot lately. It's a nice break from the inane conversations I have every day at work. There's lots to like about NPR. No, not the pledge drives, although I think I would be ecstatic if Ira Glass of This American Life called me and shamed me into pledging. But I like hearing the stories. I like that the news comes in narrative form, with real people telling the stories. And I like that more often then not, it makes me think about the world outside of my microcosm.

So I was listening to an All Things Considered* story about soda in America. The story posits that children today drink too many sugary drinks, largely due to a lack of education about what those beverages do to the human body. There was even mention of children who drink soda in the morning to "get them woke up." Kind of appalling, right? When asked about water, the kid says he can't drink water, he has to have something with flavor or his digestive system acts up. Really appalling, right? So all of this I agree with. Something should be done. I'm not opposed to taking soda out of schools, it's a small step, easy to make, and would probably do a world of good (although they tried to do that when I was in high school, and if memory serves me correctly it lasted less than a year). Then the reporter asked whose responsibility it is to educate children about good eating habits. Parents? Teachers? The guy at the Quik-E-Mart? "We all bear responsibility," the interviewee said. Again, I don't necessarily disagree with this. As a teacher, it's my job to help mold my students into happy, healthy, productive young adults, whatever that entails. The problem is, how do I teach them something if they go home and their parents teach and model the exact opposite?

This highlights a more widespread problem with education today, something that I've observed by interacting with parents. Lack of parental support and involvement. The principles, concepts, and behaviors that we try to instill in students at school are undermined when they go home. The problem isn't always with teachers or the public school system, although we tend to take the blame. It starts at home. That goes for learning and nutrition.

*Question: do you italicize radio program titles, or put it in quotes? Standby for MLA check--my handbook is still within arms reach of my desk, even though I haven't written a paper in years. Indeed, you do italicize. The episode title goes in quotes. I WIN!

She Supposably Won a Pulitzer

I'm a bit of a grammar snob. That's not to say that I have perfect grammar, know how to use a comma properly, or know when to use whom. But I do my best. So, imagine my indignation when I heard a Pulitzer Prize winner say the word supposably on NPR. Supposably. Really? I thought to myself, supposably? I can understand when my high school students mispronounce supposedly, they are neither educated, nor do they care. But a Pulitzer Prize winner?

So, in the midst of judging her for her use of supposably, I got to thinking, I must sound like an idiot with some of the slip ups I make. Glad I'm not on NPR.

If you're interested in the story, you can find it here. It's actually quite good, despite the early slip up. The supposably [tsk, tsk] is in the first four minutes.

Ugh

You may or may not have noticed that I haven't been writing that much lately. This is not limited to the electronic pages of this blog, but to everything in general. Yet for once, it's not because I've been busy, but more because I haven't really had anything to write about that didn't involve school. I have this hesitance to write about school (and probably justly so). Privacy laws and everything. But the rhythms of my life are dictated by the ring of an electronic bell, and there is sadly little else. So, I don't write. Because there's nothing to write about. I prefer silence to pointless drivel. You're welcome.

Group Singing Usually Sucks...

You know how a large group of people singing usually sounds pretty terrible? There are lots of people singing who really shouldn't so it all ends up sounding like a convoluted mess vaguely resembling a popular song. That is, of course, unless the large group of people singing are all theatre people, and therefore sing all the time. I was fortunate enough to witness this a couple of weeks ago at Districts. Owl City came on before Closing Ceremonies, and the room burst into song. Actually, we'd already been singing, because they played Lady GaGa right before that, but I digress. We'd gotten through the first stanza when the music cut out. But to room kept singing...on key, and in perfect time. Some were even singing the harmony. It sounded great.

Just one reason why theatre people are awesome.

Anyway, I haven't been writing much of anything lately. I tend to shy away from this blog when things get busy out of a sense of guilt. Why should I spend any amount of time on blogging when there is work to be done? But I've just spent the last couple of hours wasting time, so why not spend a little more, eh? I felt like I should post something, if only to remind the internet that I exist.