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Once a month, Watson’s School of English produces a newspaper, as an aide for teachers and students who want to study on their own and, of course, as an advertisement for the school.  One of the features is the word of the month.  Here is this month’s.

This month’s word is:  Goal

This has been a sports weekend for us, so our word of the month is goal. On Saturday, our 7 year old had a football tournament, so we had a lot of goals to cheer about.  Then we watched a lot of very exciting hockey.

I hate it when the game ends in a shootout because the whole game depends on which team’s goalie (or goaltender or goalkeeper) does a better job of defending their goal.

In American football, a field goal is when you kick the ball between the goalposts.

Goals are not only for sports.  A goal is something you are determined to achieve, maybe at work, at school or in your life.

We have a story in this issue about a 13 year old boy whose goal is   climb the highest mountain on every continent.  It is a very ambitious goal.

It is good to have goals.  They give a focus to your life and you will never accomplish your goals if you don’t have them in the 1st place.

My goal, as an English teacher, is to teach you  English.  In some cases, it is an ambitious goal.  But, if your goal is to learn  English, then I am certain both of us will succeed.

Now, the cool thing about writing is I very often think of new ideas when I get started.  I think a lot of writers write because they have a core idea they want to express.  For me, writing is more analogous to a long, rambling walk in the woods.  I never know what’s going to happen.  This article was worth writing for the single line  “You will never accomplish your goals is you don’t have them in the 1^st place.”  I’m going to start living by that.

Some fancy pants scientists at Harvard, working in their crazy scientist laboratory, have created an artificial life form.

Now, some people would say that they only succeeded in altering an existing bacteria by injecting a human designed (there’s got to be some question about that as well) DNA molecule into it.  Close enough, I say.

It’s only the beginning.  In the article I read, they discussed creating life forms which would convert algae into petroleum.  They also talked about new foods, new medicines and good stuff like that.  They mentioned, on the negative side, the possibility of new biological weapons.

All of that is going to happen.  There will be incremental progress, and constant objections, but the good stuff will get through eventually because there is a need and a market for it, and the ethical objections, which overall are great, are easy to sweep aside in each individual instance.  The slippery slope thing.

The bad stuff will get through because there are a lot of evil bastards in the world, and they’ve got the power.

Here’s my prediction, though, for what it’s worth:  by the end of this century, we will have created a species which is superior, mentally and physically, to our own.

In some ways, it’s a beautiful thought.  We have truly become as Gods.

On the other hand, it is a horrifying thought.  If we don’t destroy ourselves with a nuclear war, destroy the earth in an ecological disaster or go extinct in an epidemic, we may just render ourselves obsolete.

Shootouts are a bad way to settle things.  I’m not talking about the shootout at the O.K. corral or the climax scene to a million bad movies – they took it to the limit in that Christian Slater movie which had two or three other great scenes (the “Sicilians are really Moors” scene and the “I was so relieved you don’t have a dick” scene), and any faceoff/shootout scene after that is anticlimactic.

No, I’m talking about the shootouts at the end of football or hockey games, and when I say football I mean real football.  When I’m referring to American football, I’ll say American football.

Last night, I was quite thrilled to watch the Czech Republic defeat Finland in the quarterfinals of the World Hockey Championship.  It’s always nice when your team wins, but I hate to see  it happen that way.  It’s almost like flipping a coin.

Also, I think it leads to more conservative, less exciting hockey.  They finished regular time tied 1-1.  (I’m assuming a bit here – we got confused about the TV schedule and didn’t tune in until nearly the end of overtime.  Instead, we watched Sweden thrashing Denmark.)

Then, they finished the overtime period tied 1-1.  I got the distinct feeling neither team was trying too hard to score.  They were satisfied to let it end that way and put all their chips on the goalie.

I suppose there are worse possibilities.  Counting the number of shots on goal, or penalty minutes, or any other arbitrary metric would be worse because it would encourage sloppy shots, or timid play, or change the game in some other, unimaginable way and the game is a pretty great game just the way it is.  But I still hate the shootouts.

Here’s what I’d like to see:  a single, unlimited time, sudden death, first goal wins overtime period.  If it winds up like a dance marathon, and the fans are sitting there until there butts hurt and kids are crying at home because their parents won’t let them stay up any longer and angry housewives are calling the TV station because the hockey game is cutting into their soap opera and players are collapsing on the ice, so be it.

Endurance counts in sports.  It should count more than luck.

Voyager is in deep space.  I am not talking about the Voyager from Star Trek, with Captain Janeway and crew.  Of course they are in deep space.

I am talking about the real Voyager in real deep space.  Voyager II is an unmanned spacecraft, launched in 1977, with a recording of earth music and greetings to any who find it.  It is the human race’s message in a bottle, it is a desperate note saying “We are here!” on this isolated ball of rock in a forgotten corner of the universe.

It is now in deep space.  The signal, which has been steady from the beginning, suddenly went wacky.  Every computer user can sympathize.

Anyway, some crazy German scientist said it had been hijacked by aliens.  Nobody believed him, and NASA had the signal fixed within days.  Amazingly.  It takes a radio signal 13 hours to get there and 13 hours to get back.  26 light hours!  And they fixed it!  That is awesome.

I’m guessing it will screw up again, though, eventually.  It’s not getting any closer.

What a wonderful day!  Arlen Specter’s political career is over.  It lasted far too long, he was beloved by none and hated by many.

In fact, when I posted a thread at www.thepartisandialogues.com, a site which is downright infested with teabaggers and others of the far right, there was agreement from all sides.  Specter was a snake, and pretty much everybody was glad he lost.

So, why was it even so close?  Well, the Obama endorsement probably swayed a lot of Democrats, coupled with the argument that he could beat the Republican nominee in November.  That’s a bullshit argument, but I must confess, it’s one I’ve used myself.  I originally supported Hillary because I didn’t think Obama (because of his race) or Kucinich  (because of his height) could win.  I’m really glad I was proven wrong.

I suspect that Obama endorsed Specter because that was the deal to get him to switch parties in the first place, and I suspect that Obama is perfectly happy with Joe Sestak as a candidate.  I also suspect that, way back when, Jeremiah Wright deliberately made it easy for Obama to throw him under the bus and there is no true animosity between the two men.

I was also happy that the Democrats held onto Murtha’s seat and that corporate whore and Republican in all but name Blanche Lincoln was forced into a runoff.  Conventional wisdom has it that she will win the runoff, but conventional wisdom is not what it used to be.  I suspect that she will try to scare progressives with the “Halter can’t win in November” argument, but I’m not sure anybody is buying that argument any more.

The election of Rand Paul in Kentucky doesn’t bother me either.  I do fear the Tea Party, even as I mock them, but I don’t really think they are worse than other Republicans.  And I think that Rand Paul may very well lose to a Democrat in November.  Even in Kentucky.