The extended friends and family weekend is over and it's back to work. I caught up with a lot of people this weekend and explained to most of them what it is that I actually do for work now, so I might as well inform anyone else who has no idea.

(Despite published reports, I am not a professional gambler. Not yet anyways. However, I did hit a 4 team parlay that contained not one, but 2 miracle OT touchdowns to cover(STL and SD). By losing a home game to the Miami Dolphins and costing me untold fortunes in potential winnings, the Raiders have played themselves on the Mad Cal Blacklist. They killed a 5-teamer, a 4 teamer, and an 8-teaser by themselves. Damn the Raiders. Or maybe I should get less greedy on the parlays. Damn the Raiders anyways.)

I work for the West Contra Costa Unified School District as a tutor at Adams Middle School. Every year, all the students go through standardized testing in basic subjects to see how many of them are at grade level. The kids are then classified into one of 5 groups: advanced, proficient (grade level), basic, below basic, and far below basic. This year, the school needs to get 30% of the students into the proficient level for math and english. Last year, they were at 24%. This school won't be winning any Science Bowls anytime soon.

The other tutors and I are working mainly with kids in the basic level and trying to bump them up into the proficient level. We do this by assisting teachers in the classrooms, taking small groups of kids out of the class for tutoring sessions, or just flat out cheating and taking the test for them. One of the teachers whose class I help out in, and he does need help, is Mr. Lau. Jason won't be winning any Teacher of the Month Awards any time soon. Not that he's a bad teacher, but the kids are just crazy.

So this is what I will be doing during the remainder of the school year. What I do after June is still to be determined. It's a good transition for me at this time. I get to stay in the area and still work with youth (and some of the same youth) in a different setting. It pays more and I work less hours. Best part about the job though is that I can get home in time to catch PTI on ESPNNEWS.