A little over a month ago I had one of those “ah ha” moments, where I came up with an idea, and I just knew I had to do it. It felt similar to when I started writing my book…I had no idea how long it would take, but something inside me knew that it was going to get done no matter what. Giving up part way through wasn’t going to be an option.

I started developing my own supplemental math materials. It was something that made me go, “Why didn’t I think of this before?” It combines two things I actually know pretty well…computer stuff and math stuff. Finding supplemental materials for the secondary level isn’t easy. In fact, some of our favorite materials are actually 35 years old, and we’re still using them!

The problem of course is that 35 years ago there was no such thing as standards. And while “math” hasn’t changed since then, the very specific expectations in each grade level has. As those materials age, they become less and less aligned to what we’re supposed to be teaching in each grade.

Another component to this is the Common Core State Standards. Not only do older materials not “align” properly, but this is a brand new set of standards being rolled out nationwide. Most of our materials weren’t even aligned to the California State Standards…and now we have a new revision! As teachers look for material that corresponds with what they are supposed to be teaching, using some of the older materials gets a little difficult.

So I decided to create my own materials, align them to the Common Core, and try to make a business out of it. I’m starting with Grades 6-8, because I’ve taught those and know them the best. I’m taking a lot of inspiration from the older worksheets we use. There is a joke on each page, and each answer fills in a letter at the bottom of the page, eventually revealing the punchline to the joke. At first I was a little concerned about copyright issues…but A) You can’t copyright math (as long as I’m making up my own problems I’m fine), B) You can’t copyright a format (having answers make a joke can’t be copyrighted, and I’ve even seen it used in other books), and C) You can’t copyright little one-liner jokes that can be found all over the internet.

That’s where the similarities end though. Those old materials would switch up the format a lot, to the point where you have to teach students how to fill out that specific worksheet. My goal is to be as consistent as possible, so that students can get straight to their practice without directions. The old worksheets liked to put borders and random “graphics” on the page, but it makes them look a little outdated and cluttered. Mine are very clean, maximizing the page and giving students room to “work” when possible. I’ve also contracted with a friend at work to have original cartoon drawings put on every page, which should really make them standout. The old materials are broken down purely by topic, but I’ve broken them down by Common Core Standard. Need extra practice on Grade 6, Number Sense 3 (6.NS.3)? In my book you turn straight to that standard and can see all 10 pages that relate exactly to that standard. In older material you have to figure out what topic is in the standard, find that topic, and then HOPE that the topic covers it in a way that works with the standard.

I’m excited too because the Common Core Standards have been adopted by nearly every state…and that means I have a huge customer base. I should be able to sell this online to teachers and school districts all across the country. It’s definitely a niche product (middle school math), but they can also be sold for a premium. The “old” books are still for sale at $75 a piece (and they’ve made a couple newer ones that go for $50).

One other component I’m excited about adding is some kind of “curriculum support.” Right now, you buy one of these old books, and you’re on your own. Don’t like a page in there? Need another page? Too bad. But now in the digital age, I can offer digital versions of the answers for teacher’s to display. If teachers request something that isn’t included, I can put it online and make it available to anyone that has purchased a book. A lot of possibilities!

I’ve only been working on it for about a month…but I’m on page 27 out of 300 or so. This is a big project that won’t be done for a year probably, but I’m excited about it. Here’s a sample page I finished the other day.

Not the most exciting project (unless you’re a math teacher!), but it’s something fun I have going on right now, so wanted to share. For the most part I haven’t had any major setbacks. Designing it all in Publisher, which is working well for the most part. I’d love to offer a digital version of the entire project, but that would only make pirating it easier. There are entire PDFs of the older books I’m using for inspiration on the internet. People have literally scanned all 200 pages of those books, and put them up online. If I offered a PDF version, it would be everywhere. I’ve even tried to think of a way to keep people from scanning an entire binder of pages, but I don’t have any great ideas. My best idea was to bind the pages instead of put the pages into a binder, but bindings fall apart, and they’re hard to put on a photocopy machine. I’m thinking digital versions of the answers is good enough. That would allow teachers to digitally look through the books and display answers on a projector, but you couldn’t share it and let other teachers use it because it would already have the answers (and I could keep the quality a little low so that they could look nice on a screen, but wouldn’t print that well).

But I have another 273 pages to design before I have to worry about any of that. I want Grades 6-8 all done before I even worry about selling them. Having a lone grade level to sell wouldn’t look as good. If I can get a small “set” complete, I can sell them together for discounts, and it looks more professional.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

During the summer I tried kicking soda, coffee, and alcohol…and I did OK for awhile. And then I went back to work. I got back into the bad habit of needing a coffee in the morning (or some sort of caffeine) to wake up.

For the last week though I’ve been caffeine free, and it has been great. I’ve had a sprite, and even a “drink” on Friday night, but the ups and down of caffeine are gone.

I’ve been pretty good about getting to bed at a decent hour. I think my body needs 7 hours of sleep minimum…but more is definitely better.

I’ve been pushing my running this week, and surprisingly that helps with my energy. Usually when I’m done running I feel invigorated. Getting that blood pumping feels so good…like a natural high. And when you really push it, I swear it’s good for your skin!

I’m not sure where to go in my weight training. I have a couple of 15/10/5 pound weights, and I do some different exercises with them. They’re cheap, and don’t take up a lot of space. I think before I do anything else, I just need to be more consistent about using them.

Right now I just need some exercise goals. One of my goals when we moved was that I would run to the end of the local pier….6 miles or so. But that would require someone pick me up.

Anyone have any New Year’s resolutions regarding healthy living?

During break I’ve had lots of time to get my gaming on! I bought Black Ops 2 because it was on sale….and it sounded fun. I skipped the first Black Ops and told myself I would only buy Modern Warfares, but oh well. Before I started playing it though, I had way too many games in progress. Here are the games I cleaned up in the last couple weeks.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal

I haven’t played a “fighting game” in forever…probably since smash bros on GameCube. So when this got announced, I was intrigued. I bought it for the PS3, and it was a cross buy game with the Vita. Buy it once for PS3, get it free for the Vita. Awesome. It’s similar to Smash Bros, for sure. Four people on the screen, fighting away. There are two major differences though. The first is obviously the cast of characters. These aren’t beloved Nintendo characters, but less beloved PlayStation characters. Some I recognize and like…Ratchet, Jack and Daxter, Nathan Drake, Cole, Parrapa. But some are from games I’ve never played, and don’t really care about. As far as characters go….the Smash Bros characters were more fun, probably because they were characters I grew up with. The PlayStation characters have a LOT of variation though, especially in their super moves, and this is where the games diverge.

Smash Bros was all about racking up that percentage, and knocking someone out. In stock games it was even fun to run away and be defensive. In PS All-Stars, you have to be offensive. Each character has three levels of supers, and you earn them by scoring hits on other players. Supers are the only way to knock a player out, so you want to build that super, and unleash it on the other players. The worst is when you build that super up, and then miss. Arg! It’s fun, but I don’t think the gameplay is quite as addicting as smash bros. It was an easy platinum though, which I did on both systems. I sold the PS3 disc, but I still have a digital version on the Vita if I want to hop online and play.

Disney Universe

This game I bought last January to play with Luke as his first real videogame, and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a lot of fun to play with him and introduce him to using the controller, completing objectives, and collecting stuff. Over the course of the year we earned nearly every trophy, but I decided to sit down and get the last couple. Nothing too difficult…gold trophy every level, and upgrade all the characters (which we had almost done from playing so much). Third platinum in a week!

Modern Warfare 3

I’ve been playing this bad boy since last Christmas. First 6 months or so, all I played was multiplayer. Eventually I got burned out, and during the summer I started the single player. I beat MW2 on the harder difficulty, so I wanted to do the same on MW3. In general, I have no idea what is going on story wise, but it’s still fun. And it was a good warm-up for Black Ops 2.

Current Games

Now that I have all those games “completed,” I can move on to Black Ops 2. I’ve only put in an hour or two, but it plays really well. The online ladder looks interesting instead of just the standard public matches. I’ve finally worn out my original dual shock 3. Sometimes I move, and even when the stick go backs to center, it keeps moving. I switched to my wife’s pink controller, but I do have a brand new black one I can open.

On the Vita I started Uncharted. I bought it back when I got the Vita, but the demo didn’t seem very cool, so I sold it. Since then I signed up for PlayStation Plus, and when they finally opened it up to the Vita, there were like 8 free games, and Uncharted was one of them. Starting it from the beginning makes it seem a lot better than the demo, since I’m actually getting some story. It wants to use the touch screen way too much, but you can ignore it for the most part.

I still have Heavy Rain waiting to be played, and I will absolutely get to that some day. Luke got the old Skylanders game for Christmas, so when we have father/son videogame time, that’s what we’ll be playing.

In case you hadn’t heard…our family is growing again. Kid number three will be here in June! This is probably the last one.

Something we’ve been putting off is replacing Stacie’s old 2001 Jetta…primarily because we wanted to see how big our family would get, and how big a car we would need. The last thing I wanted to do was buy something a year or two ago and then have to replace it again. Here’s a picture of Stacie saying goodbye to her old car.

Originally, I wanted to try and replace her car with a Passat. I’ve had really good experiences with the last two VWs, so I wanted to give them a chance first. Turns out two car seats and a booster seat in the back of a Passat is not a good idea. If you already owned one, and had to make it work…you could, but it’s definitely not ideal. So we turned to looking at bigger cars…and you find that your options start to shrink dramatically. We wanted a third row, so that basically narrows it down to some SUVs and Minivans.

For the most part, we want our car to be practical, and if it happens to look fun and cool, that’s great. We started to lean towards minivans, simply because they offer some of the roomiest interiors. I think the Odyssey third row was listed at nearly 20 inches more leg room than a Tahoe, and about 10 inches more than a Pilot. Minivans in general are cheaper than lots of the bigger SUVs and get better mileage too…so minivan it is!

Once we decided on a minivan, we narrowed our choices pretty quickly. The Odyssey is the only one with a 5 star crash rating for every category. Honda ranks pretty high on my list of trusted manufacturers, up there with Toyota. I test drove the Sienna…and it was OK, but I liked the way the Odyssey drove better. Another big factor is that we wanted leather, and Toyota forces you to get DVD and Nav with their cheapest leather model. Honda on the other hand has several options at their first leather model (EX-L). If you want it without DVD and Nav, you can actually get it that way, and this makes it about $5k cheaper than Toyota’s lowest leather offering. We don’t need NAV (phones are better), and we don’t need DVD (tablets are better). We had test driven our friend’s 2012 Odyssey and really liked it, so we made up our mind on the Odyssey. It has a rear backup camera, easy stow third row, leather throughout, programmable garage door opener, bluetooth audio (I’m jealous). Our plan is to take out the center seat in the 2nd row, and Luke can just climb into the third row and buckle himself into a booster seat.

I sent out a bunch of quote requests and compared them to truecar.com. The plan was to take Stacie’s car to Carmax first, get a quote, and then if I needed to, compare that to what the dealer was willing to offer. This was my first time going to Carmax, and it was awesome. We were there maybe 20-30 mins total, and we had a quote that was good for seven days. It was near the top end of what I was hoping to get, so I decided to not even bother with the dealer. I absolutely recommend Carmax. If I was looking for a used car, I would definitely go there. Car dealer wasn’t too painful. They honored the quote they had emailed. I tried to get them to throw in rubber mats for a 5 star yelp review, but that was a no go. “Do you know how much those mats are?” he tells me. He gets out the accessories book. “They are $290 with installation.” Really, you have to pay to install rubber mats? Oh well, I’ll get them for $160 on Amazon and do it myself, thanks.

Stacie settled on a really nice blue color, and she’s learning to drive it. It’s definitely bigger…but it doesn’t feel that big. I’m excited that the kids will have plenty of room on long car drives.

Something else I was excited about was finding a good way to “save” her new seats from the wear and tear of car seats. If you’ve never put car seats in a car, they have a tendency to leave indentations in the seats because they have to be strapped in so tight. I’ve done this in both leather and cloth…and it happens to both. You basically put your entire weight on the seat, and pull the straps tight. There are usually a few “pressure points” where the seats push into the seats, but if you can find a way to dissipate those pressure points, it should prevent any serious indentations. We have seat protectors that we put under the seats, but they also came with pieces to go on the back of the seats that we’ve never used. But instead of just putting them behind the seat, I folded them over three times to make them really thick. Now when those pressure points hit the seat, the folded over “foam” backing takes the brunt of the seat, and should leave the new leather seats mostly unscathed.

That was our new car journey over the break. This gives us both plenty of time to break the new car in for baby #3. And other than Stacie’s growing belly, the new car is starting to make it very real that our house is going to be just a little bit crazier this next year.

I find it funny that some people exert so much effort into disliking things that others like. Music, TV, restaurants, you name it. Why not favorite colors? You like blue? Seriously? Millions of people like that color….how could you POSSIBLY like BLUE?!

Obviously there are things I like and dislike, but when pointing out what you dislike becomes something that defines who you are, I think one needs to reevaluate their attitude.

This summer we started to do something that I’ve never done in my whole life: Look for a new church. This post details the why, the how, and what the experience has been like. As I started to write this post, I realized it’s a hard one to write…or at least write honestly, but that’s what I’m going to do.

I’ve never had to look for a new church. I went to Downey First Christian Church for three decades. The youth service there, The Burn, was amazing. It started when I was in Junior High, and it was a huge part of my life into my early twenties. It’s the sole reason I learned to play the guitar. It’s the reason I even worked at church for a while. My awesome wife Stacie even started to come when we got married seven years ago. Getting married was interesting, because I got my full-time teaching job at the exact same time, and that summer I just knew that my time at The Burn was done. I still loved leading worship there, but that chapter in my life had run its course. What I didn’t realize at the time though, was that all my friends had left. I’d been so busy helping with the youth, that I didn’t realize all the twenty something people I used to hang out with had gone and moved on. So when my new bride and I started going to church, without The Burn as my main focus…it wasn’t the same. It was hard for my wife, because she had switched churches after nearly 30 years at the same one (let alone coming from the Catholic church), so I know that was hard for her. But leaving The Burn…it almost felt like I didn’t recognize the church I was now attending.

Now this is the part I can’t really explain…but when we got married and started to go to church…it just never felt comfortable. I’m not even sure I can express why that is. I know it was hard on Stacie changing churches, but I didn’t expect it to be hard on me. I think the main thing that kept us coming back was that my family was there, and for the last couple years I’ve sort of felt like that’s the main reason we were coming there still. I think also, in the back of my mind, we had known for several years that we wanted to move away. We didn’t always know where exactly, but it’s almost like we had already moved mentally, and our “local” church didn’t even feel local.

We moved last summer, but settling into the new area, and having the new baby…all that stuff kept us pretty busy. But this summer, it’s like it finally felt right…we love the area, now let’s find a church. One of the most important things to me growing up was having a local church where I could make friends, and the people I ended up hanging out with in High School were all church friends. Having such a great peer group was awesome, and I absolutely want that for my kids. So when we moved last summer, I knew this would have to happen. I want them building friendships from a very young age, with kids that they will see at school, and hopefully know for a very long time. And that meant finding a church closer to home.

We didn’t have a lot of churches in mind. I know people in Huntington Beach, but that’s too far, and here in the Seal Beach area I hadn’t heard of too many. We tried out one down by main street in Seal Beach called Grace Community. Stacie knows someone there, and they had a VBS, so we figured why not!? We took Luke to VBS, and he loved it. We went one Sunday to their main service. We liked a lot of things about it…the church was smaller, something we were more used to, the people were friendly…but something was kind of off. A big part of the sermon that day was pre-destination, a religical idea I’m not too keen on. Not only do I not agree, but I just don’t care about it. This lead to an interesting intersection. Even though I had left a church I had “grown out of,” I was looking for one very similar to replace it! Now I’m no theologian, but I want my kids to go somewhere where I think sound biblical principles are being taught. So even though the people were nice…it just didn’t feel comfortable. Maybe it was the luck of the draw, being the first church we checked out (or the insane lack of parking), but we decided to keep looking.

After that we actually talked to our next door neighbor who goes to Sea Coast Grace in Cypress. I’d been to the website before, it looked like it was a huge church, and I’d almost ruled it out on that alone. But, after having been to one church already, I was game for anything. We set up one morning to go with them, and they helped us check-in the kids and all that stuff that can be a little overwhelming. My initial thoughts were….this church is bigger than any I’ve gone to before, the worship is amazing (can a church really have CIY caliber worship EVERY Sunday?), the people are friendly, they’re organized, parking is better than Seal Beach…but above all…I felt comfortable.

We’ve gone three weeks in a row now…and each week I feel like going back again. I haven’t gotten a lot of theology, but what I’ve seen so far I like. Their main pastor is off for the month (in Africa right now), but we’ve seen his cousin speak about miracles (awesome, liked everything he said), and then they had AC Green and his story, and today was a violin player named Roddy Chong and his story. It will be interesting when he gets back and we get to hear more. One of my initial concerns was that I didn’t want a big church…I wanted a small church where I knew everyone, but being a big church has its advantages. Some of the people they’ve had speak this month and the quality of worship they can put together are only possible in a big church. What’s funny about this big church vs small church thing…is that I went to a small church, and for the most part felt like I knew no one. Just because a church is big, it doesn’t mean you can’t make new friends. Will I ever know everyone? Nope…but maybe I don’t have to.

So for now, I think we’ll keep going. Luke still wants his VBS church, but today he admitted it was because they had snacks, and the new one doesn’t. And speaking of Luke…I don’t think we should try another new church for his sake, because he’s on church overload. I want to go somewhere for a while where he can start to feel comfortable…and I think the same goes for me. I’ve learned that this transition is hard, but it’s like a new chapter for our family. It’s a new church, and new relationships that Stacie and I are going to build together. It’s part of the future that we want to provide for our children, which is big. I will always have fond memories and high regard for my childhood church (so many great Christian examples I had the opportunity to learn from). Part of me even feels a little guilty…like leaving one church for another is telling the old church they’re not good enough…but I’d like to think it’s just a new stage in our lives. No one would think any less of us for switching churches if we moved out of state…so it’s like that, but we only moved 15 miles.

If you couldn’t tell, my thoughts are still sort of all over the place, but that’s how they have to be before you can figure them out. Who knows how long that will take. But I’m enjoying the journey.

Last month I ran 20 miles, and got into a really good routine of lifting weights and doing sit ups. I want to continue this, but one area I really want to improve is what I drink. For the month of August I’m going to try:

No coffee
No soda
No alcohol

First, I don’t think any of the above are necessarily bad, I’m just not good at doing them in moderation. With coffee, I end up relying on it to wake up in the morning, and I end up having it everyday. I wish I could have it once in a while…but that always seems to turn into every day really quickly. Soda is similar. I promise myself to only drink sprite, but that quickly turns into Dr. Pepper and more caffeine. This all just makes me feel really out of balance. Super tired in the morning, then caffeine high, then crash. These are also totally worthless calories I don’t need.

Part of the battle is just breaking the cycle. If I can get off the caffeine, I’m usually OK. But without being able to rely on it in the morning means I need to get a good night’s sleep. If not, I can easily fall back into the coffee problem (especially when I have work.)

As for alcohol, I don’t really drink too much, but I don’t sleep very well when I have it. That means I usually wake up tired, and coffee sounds really good, and the vicious cycle starts all over.

So I want to get rid of all three of these for the month. It will save me thousands of calories, and even some money. I need a little break from water, so I’ll probably do milk in the mornings, and maybe some V8 Splash for a treat.

Otherwise, writing all this reminds me how important a good night’s sleep is in this whole equation. Don’t wake up tired, and you won’t be as tempted to have that coffee. For some reason I don’t like just going to bed. Sometimes I’ll watch TV, watch something on my phone…but I think the best thing I’ve found for helping me get to bed quick is reading.

So here’s to a whole month (or most of it…I just started today) of healthier drinking.

Not to push my other post down so quickly, but when you’ve got it, you’ve got it.

If you run down the street pushing a baby stroller, you look like you’re exercising.

On the other hand…

If you run down the street holding a baby, it looks like you stole it.