Marsh Mallowing

So me and some other guys have decided to make marshmallow guns and do something with them once we have done that. I finally finished mine, and I'm pretty proud of it, it isn't he normal one that some of you may have seen. I changed it up a little bit and modified it, making a shoulder brace, and one that shoots multiple marshmallows at a time.

If you have never seen one before you make them out of 1/2" PVC pipe. Using a saw or a pipe cutter you cut the pipe lengths to however long you would like them. Then using the connector pieces twist, turn, and cover it until there is only two openings. One for you to blow through and the other for the marshmallow to exit.

You may be reading this thinking, "wow what a loser," but I don't care they are fun to make and use. If you haven't ever had or used one I would suggest it. PVC is very cheap, I got 5' for only a buck and connecters for 10-20 cents. This makes it not only fun but cheap.

National Treasure (2)

The National Treasure series is one of the best selling right now. The second movie just came out and I did think it was pretty good, just like the last one was. Although the more I watch these movies and other ones like them, I find them less and less believable. When the first one came out, I was little younger and accepted that the whole concept was believable, even though it was extremely unlikely. But, now when I watch them after the first time, I just think they are stretching things too far. Yes, Benjamin Gates may know a lot of history, but there is no way he knows enough of it well enough to figure out the clues that are left behind in a minute. I think if you had a computer, a lot of people, and wikipedia then maybe you could figure out the clues in a few hours, but when one guy just thinks really hard and knows exactly where every piece of history is and was, it just makes it unreal. Despite this, I would still recommend the movies to others and let them decide for themselves how realistic they think it is.

What Would You Think?

Take a good look at your life. Now, right now you have a bias look on your life, you probably don't think that you are a bad person, and you are doing well in life. But, what do you think your child-self would think of you? Would they agree with what you think right now. Just think about what you thought about high schoolers, and other old people when you were in elementary school. I'm pretty sure when you were that young your acceptance of what is right and wrong is a whole lot different then they are now. Yes, granted as childern we were niave, but we were also uncorupt. In elementary school, you haven't been exposed to drugs, alcohal, and all the other such occurances in high school. I don't mean that all high schoolers are drinking and doing drugs, but I mean that in elementary school no one you know has drank exept for your teacher. It is just strange that over the years I am pretty sure we become more accepting of illegal activity. Instead of maturing when we grow up and establishing morals, it seems that more people do just the opposite, do what they know is wrong, what they had been braught up knowing is wrong. If you have gone down that road, it is your decision, and do what you want. (This is kind of one of thoes examples of were I have just began to accept that others do this). But, what would your 3rd grade self think of you now?

So Close

So today was the seniors' last day, and that means tomorrow we are now the top dogs on campus. Scary thought. It seems each year is going faster and faster, I can't believe I only have one more year of school left, yes college but that is nothing like school is now. It will be strange to be the oldest ones in the school. There is no longer people above you, like there has been ever since we started school, almost twelve years ago. Next year, the class of 2009 will be the oldest class, still active, in our school (and every other one).

When I started kindergarten way back when I remember looking at the seniors down the street at Kennedy (I went to Pierce), thinking that they were so old, and it was going to take forever to get there. But now I only have one year left. It is just mind blowing that school, the longest running thing in my life is almost done. I am looking forward to next year, I hope it is a good one and we make the best of it.

Summers past

Last summer my parents "hired" me to landscape the backyard. I agreed to do it because it sounded like fun. Now I knew it was labor but I wasn't expecting it to take the whole summer just to finish the first 3/4 of it. Last spring, almost a year ago now, we had some contractors come out and do some designs and estimates. After I saw both I was just joking to them and said I could to the same thing, maybe better, for less. So they challenged me to do it. I wasn't going to back down so I undertook it. I went out measured it, and planed the whole thing. It included a fire pit and patio made out of pavers, replacing about half of the grass in the yard with mulch, and stairs (which we decided to have someone else do). Even after I had planned this I still thought I could get it done in a month or so.

So, I started digging the whole for the fire pit and pavers and I ran into a few problems. First, the ground was pretty hard and dig not want to cooperate. Then once I had gotten down about six inches I ran into some roots. Not ones I could snap with the end of the shovel, I had to get an axe, and I even ended up having to dig up a couple of stumps. So a week or so into July I finally finish the fire pit and surrounded it with pavers, it was such a relief, but then I had to do it all over again, making a patio, and surrounding it with walls. So I went through that all and by the time I was done it was too late in the summer to put mulch down that would just get snowed on in a few months. That is now my project that I have to start here soon, although I am glad that it should be much easier, and I don't have to dig up a ton of dirt. But even though it was hard, I am glad I did it. It was fun, my backyard no longer sucks, and it gave me something to do outside.

Projects, projects everywhere

So, a little earlier I had a post about how school should be a breeze after I had finished my AP tests. Well that was exactly, wrong. I come back form my tests that we have been preparing for all year, feeling relieved that I finally finished them only to find that I still have 20%+ of my grade to finish. Yeah, all except for good ol' Herk have given me a final project. Now normally I wouldn't mind, I like doing projects, they are usually fun. The problem is after you get about two, and then keep adding more, they are no longer fun, they are a burden.

Going through my schedule, first obviously I have the alternative literary work for this class. Then in Physics we are supposedly going to start some sort of applied physics soon, I don't know if that is true (If you know Mr. Jensen you also know why). Then in History I have a final movie project that's worth about one third of our grade. Herk's class is fine, it's hard to do a project in math. In Psych we have community service. Don't ask me why we are doing that instead of some sort of Psychology project because it doesn't make sense to me either. Then finally the dreaded leyendas of Kollache. That is a brief overview of the upcoming stress of my life, but I'm not looking for pity, I did sign up for this, but I am wondering why.

imusic

"Turn it up, This is MY SONG!" You hear that a lot. Why is it your song? Do you just really like it? Or is does it actually have some meaning to you? Either is fine. But, I think it is strange to look at the music you currently listen to. At least for me, I seem to always find a way to associate it to my life at the time. Even if the song is completely random, and you are the only one that could make the jump. I seem to always just find that one or two songs that was, "written about me, for me." It is weird how much you can connect to, esspechailly when you look at it. Now for instance, I am listening to music as I type this up and find my self trying to connect it to my life.

I don't know why we/I do this. It may be just to personalize your favorite song, it may be that you want to understand the music on a further level, it could help you cope and feel like there is someone who has been through a similar spot, or it may just be fun. I think I do it for all of these reasons. And now, I am guessing that either you are doing the same thing as you listen to music, recalling a time that you have done it, or you will the next time you listen to music. It's not a bad thing, I like it, as I said it's fun.

Dubai

Dubai is one of, if not the, fastest growing cities in the world. It is located in the United Arab Emirates, which is in the Middle East. The prince of the country, who is very very rich, has started making the city Dubai, into a hot place for tourists. He started off by making the Dubai tower, a bow shaped building that is full of apartments, restaurants, malls, and other such forms of entertainment. Although this is now one of he tallest buildings in the world, and one of the most expensive, he didn't stop there.

His next project was making artificial islands. Now, these were not just circles of rocks and sand that they put into the sea. They are in the shape of palm trees, and one is a map of the world. People began buying real estate on the islands before they were even being built. They of course are extremely rich people, that have billions of dollars because the lots on the islands are probably millions of dollars.


He is still not going to stop there, the prince wants to make Dubai the tourist capital of the world. He has even more projects in the making. Such things as multiple new skyscrapers. But if you have been paying attention the you should know they will not be ordinary. First off, they will be spiraling, and waving, not just a straight up and down block normal one. Then on top of that one of them will be the tallest building in the world. I think this would be an aw some place to go to some day when it is a little closer to being finished, it's on the way of becoming one of the coolest places on earth.

I don't get it

We all have called someone names we have never met. It may be the jack a$$ who cut you off, the dirt ball, or the stuck up, the slut, but you have done it. I'll admit I have before and probably will again. But, the person with the pimples all over their face may not have washed their face enough or maybe it is just their genes, they can't help that, so why do we label them dirty. The stuck up that ignored you, yes they could have done it for no reason or maybe you were rude to them once, or maybe they were just in a bad mood and wanted to be left alone. There was certainly a time when you blew someone off. Then the slut. You may not agree with their decisions but they made them, they may regret them, no one goes around thinking, who am I going to get with today. Chances are they just aren't good at judging the difference between the guy who cares about them and the guy who just wants to "get some". They may think that this is the one, so why not if it makes them happy. Then when they get screwed over we don't label the guy a pig who just left, we say she is a slut.

It is not fair to label people. They are who they are, we all make our own decisions, those decisions shape us. They may be the wrong ones but we still made them and have to deal with them. No one in the world wants people to think of them in a bad way, so why do we think that way about others. The golden rule, "treat others as you wish to be treated." I'm not implying that everyone in the world should get along with each other, and we should all be one big happy family, this would be naive. What I don't understand is basically the whole high school click deal. Why do you have to stick to just the one click you have? What is wrong with the band geeks, jocks, nerds, dirties, etc. I would consider myself all of the above. I was in band all of middle school and two years of high school, I have plenty of friends in band. I am a jock; I have done just about every sport in the book, and have done four in high school, many of my friends are jocks. I am a nerd, I am in four AP classes (and I am sorry but if you are in AP Lang you are too, you are applying yourself in school) the most I can be in this year unless I took a zero hour, and I have plenty of "dorks" for friends. And yes, I would consider myself a "dirty." I shower everyday so I don't need any smart comments about that, as I do all of my "dirty friends." I don't understand why some people are labeled dirty, they are just as hygienic as the rest of us, the only difference it their clothes, and their friends.

So label me all you want, I am my own person, and I am getting tired of all the high school bull. The immaturity of labeling people you don't know, and being ridiculed for having someone as a friend. I know everyone has labeled someone else, but have you ever had a conversation with them? Do you actually know them well enough to describe them, besides their appearance? What happens when you do meet someone you wouldn't usually associate with? Think about a class, you are given a seat next to someone you don't know, they are not one of your friends, or even a friend of a friend. What happens usually by the time you switch seats next? You are friends with them. You may deny it, because your friends call them dirty or slutty, but you didn't find anything really that wrong with them. All I'm saying is, "can't we just get along?"

Almost There

On an earlier post I wrote about how there was only a few short weeks until AP exams. That day is finally here. I think I am much better prepared than I thought I would be, so I'm not stressing too much. I am in four so it is an ongoing anxiety that will bug me a little over the weekend, but now I just have to do some light review, relax, and hope for the best.

I hope I can get 3's on all of them, but I'm not going to lie, Physics is a little bit of a worry. It is a very hard subject, and we haven't even been taught all of the chapters we are supposed to know for the test, thank you jenson. What I am hoping for is that everyone in the country is in about the same spot we are, completely confused, and still taking the test. I do like the subject and if I end up getting a bad grade ont he test, I can hadle that. The rest I would like a minimum of three, and am hoping for a four.

Now despite what the teachers are going to say, once I have finally finished these four tests, my year is pretty much done. Yes, I will have the project, that is only done to use time and boost our grades, but I am not complaining, and I like doing those. These projects are the best one's of the year, partially because it is graded easier making you more relaxed.

Ohh Snap

What is it that makes a person 'snap'? I do realize that some people have a higher tolerance than others, of the abuse they can take before they snap back at someone. Just look at Gandhi, who would let people punch, kick, and physically hurt him, and then there are the people we all know that will blow up on you for something you did a month ago. I think sometimes it is just the mood and/or situation you are in at the time that makes you short. But, I think that everyone just has a range at which they have tolerance. It may go up and down depending on your mood, as I said, but it is more of the person.

We have all had that feeling when someone, or everything, is just pissing you off. You can tell that the next thing that rubs you the wrong way is just going to make you explode. Then when you finally do get to that point when you just rip on someone, it feels good. Now you can't deny it, when you are mad, then you are mean, everyone is. It doesn't' matter who you are you are going to get mean.

It is always fun to see someone get pissed off when you think of them as a nice, calm person. You know how they are feeling, but since they don't usually act that way, it is just funny to see them act tough and mean. This of course makes it worse because when you are chuckling at someone who is mad, this makes them even more mad, in turn making it more fun. This is a cycle, and it happens to all of us, even though it probably shouldn't.

Boy Scouting

Just because of some recent things I have gone through I have started to wounder why do we try to make others happy, even at the expense of ourselves? Yes, I do realize that sometimes we have to, "look out for number one," but in general people will try to help each other, or at least I do. I don't go around bragging it but I think in general I am a pretty kind person, but why will I go out of my way sometimes to help people, even when I know it will not be returned. All I get is a thank you, and a good feeling. Is it just a trait I have or is it the situation, I don't know. I just don't understand why I keep helping people, and they wouldn't go out of their way to help me.

This just gets me wondering if I am a rare person, or if most people will help you out. It's not like I don't know people who help others for good, many of my friends, I think and hope, would help me out if I needed it, even if I didn't ask for it. I don't know if I am just young and naive, but I'd like to think the world is that good of a place, but the more and more I experience it, the more I think that statement isn't true.

The Quest is Over

Ever since we have started blogging in our class, and found out Mr. Ayers had one too, we have been trying to find it. So finally today, May 1st we found it. We were in the computer lab once again and of course after a few minutes those of us up in the front began searching for the blog once again. We went through our fare share of searches and possibles. We found some people talking about many different Micheal Ayers's, some were good others we will simply say were not. Such as the what we can only assume was a teenage girl calling him a @#* guzzling $@!&. This and many other interesting people were found throughout the search, it's funny how many people and websites are connected to Micheal Ayers, most of them not even the one many of us know.

We finally did find it, http://panoptiblog.blogspot.com/, and I still haven't done more than read the titles. I don't know what to expect, I think it will be interesting although it is for the University of Iowa, so for all I know it may only pertain the his classes, of which I will probably know nothing about. This probably does sound strange that we spent time doing this, to think of it I don't know why we did, but we did anyways and you know what, we found it which is all we were trying to do.

Raw Power

There is so much that we think of as "strong." We start off with just a human being that is made of muscle, lifting hundreds of pounds. I know if I were to meet someone who was 6 feet plus and ripped then I may be a little scared. But there are plenty of machines that are much stronger than a human ever has been. There are all sorts of cars that could pull something a few times heavier than a human ever has. It is strange that we think a human is strong when they can lift a certain amount and be considered incredibly strong, but then I have seen commercials for trucks that can hall thousands of pounds, much more then a human could. So why is that considered a human considered strong even thought there are tons of things much more powerful.

Then we keep bumping it up, take bombs. A car has no where near the power an atomic bomb does. It has the strength to destroy an entire city in a matter of seconds. This is the strongest thing we as humans can make. Then nature beats us out with a number of phenomena; tornadoes, hurricanes, and volcanoes. All of these, especially a volcano can be just as if not stronger than an atomic bomb. Then finally we journey out to space where the formation, death, and collisions make the earth powers look like babies. Out in space things occur that could completely destroy the entire earth if they happened close to us. Yet despite these awesome powers and strength that could destroy a whole planet, if a man can lift a 1000 lbs. he is strong.

Where is Mexico?

Mexico, our amigos to the south. We seem to have a problem with many of them sneaking into our country and it has become somewhat of a problem. There are so many that we can't ever keep track of them, but I don't really want to talk politics about the, "growing epidemic in America." It many be a hot topic for the upcoming election but something I have had on my mind much longer has to do with keeping track of Mexico in a differnt way.

Why does no one know which connitnent Mexico is a part of . You ask some they say, South America, others say North America, and even others will just tell you its Central America. I'm pretty sure that last one can't be right because well; Aisa, Norh America, South..., that would make eight conntinents and I have always been tole that there were seven so that one is out. I personaly think that it is North America becasue all we have is the U.S., Canada, and Greenland, that isn't too many, compared to most other continents. So if it's a matter of fairness I think it should be included in North America, eventhough some of us Americans don't really like Mexico. This is probably one of the most random things I have written about but I would still like to know which one you think, have a survey if you will on which side you would like it on.

The Bucket List

A week or so back I went to the Bucket list. It was a good movie, strangely it was a comedy, and I did like watching it. You may have seen some commercials for it, it was about to men who were diagnosed with cancer, one thing leads to another, and they end up making a bucket list together. A bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you, "kick the bucket." Then for the rest of the movie they spend it going and doing the things on the list. Although I did enjoy the movie while I was watching it I never more then chuckled. I just couldn't get it out of my head that these two were going to die, soon, and they had no way out of it. I just couldn't get over that and it just depressed me. Yes, it was all acting so they could play the characters, but I hear about people like that all the time. They find out there isn't much left and they just go do everything you can with the time they have left. I wounder what kind of person does that; is there some type of personality that usually does it or is it just random. How do you take probably the worse news of your life and shrug it off and just accept it. I don't know what I would do if it happened to me, I hope it is no time soon, but I wounder how I would react. I hope I would act like the two in the movie, but it hasn't happened to me yet so I have no way of knowing.

Also it just got me to thinking, what do I want to be on my Bucket List?

1. Visit every continent in the world


2. Have a family
   
3. Fly a plane


4. Climb a mountain (kind of like in the movie)


5. And I'm sure I will be adding some as I think more

But what do you want to do before you die? If it isn't too depressing for you then leave so comments.

The Endless Debate

There is one debate that I believe will never be answered, that is the debate of religion. Now this debate can go in two different ways; the first is which religion is right and another, which can include everyone is the debate of whether god is real or not. Now I'm not making this to pick a side on these, I'm not even going to say which side I believe is right.

In school, this year especially, I have heard this debate over and over again. It often will escalate and people get frustrated, mad, and no progress is made for either side because it will always get hung up because it just comes down to a matter of faith, do you or don't you. You can argue and argue;Believers: well how can like 99% of people who believe in a god be wrong.

Non-believers: it has happened before, the earth being round not flat, or that the earth is the center of the universe.

Atheists: there is no way for you to prove the existence of god.

Faithful: there is no way for you to disprove his existence, that is the test he has, do you believe in him.

Believer: what about the written truth and existence of the people who made journeys for god, like the saviors; Jesus, Muhammad, and other religious figures?

Non-believer: that is the point, you get all of this form a book written a long, long time ago. Yes, those people are real, but today people who hear voices are considered insane, not a prophet.

What it comes down to is neither side can sway the others' beliefs. The atheist will use your faith against you, and scorn you for believing in something you can't see or prove, just aimlessly following what a priest or another teacher. While, a religious person is going to condemn you for not believing in the god that gave you life, not putting your faith and belief in him, the only thing he asks.

My opinion, since you are not going to sway a person either way on this, everyone just needs to accept the other, not believe only accept it. I don't mean you can't debate over it, because who doesn't like to argue? But do it in a constructive manner, don't condemn the other, don't tell the other they are wasting their time. Don't judge someone else by what they believe, judge them on who they are, what their morals are, both sides will have bad people, and both will have good.

Emmerson Hill

This morning I woke up before the sun was even up, at 5:45. About 5 other football guys and I went to the Emmerson Hill, right over by Xavier. I have no idea why we have started running up this monster, it has sort of started as a tradition for our team. We did it a few times last summer, but it wasn't that frequent and we've decided to start again on a more regular schedule now that spring is here at long last.

The hill I would say is about 200m long, halfway around the track at least, probably a little more. That isn't the bad part the bad part is that i would guess it is about 200m up also. So, we all get there around 6:15, stretched a little, and finally started going on up. The first time wasn't that bad, we went up and then came right back down. Once I stopped at the bottom of the hill I felt my legs get tight. But we weren't done, we did this 2 more times and by the third time up and down I was sore and tired. Of course this is all part of preparation for our next season and I'll be back on Thursday.

Ohh Crap

I don't think I'm the only one who is surprised that AP tests are only 3 weeks away. If you didn't I am sorry if I just ruined your day. Now I think I am tear the top with 4 tests. I often get the reaction of a jaw drop, a why, or some sort of astonishment. I really don't know why I took them all, I don't regret it, honestly there have only been a few times this year where the work load has been killing me, which even surprises me how easy it actually seemed this year. Despite this, I still can't believe that I only have 3 weeks to prepare for these, and I have only started on my U.S. history and the few times we have reviewed in some of my other classes. You know it is weird before spring break I was dying, I couldn't wait for that week off, because we had so much more to go, but now I don't know where all the time went. I hope this is going to come back and bite me in the a, butt. All I know is that I have to start soon and defiantly don't want to. But at least after May 13 school is pretty much a cake walk for me until the end of school. And now that you have read this I'm pretty sure you don't really care but you did, so sorry.

Truman at Home

Have you ever seen the Truman show? If not this may not make sense because I am not going to explain it much. What I want to talk about is if you ever get that feeling after you have watched it that you are like Jim Carey. Now it just may be me but for a month or so after it I would constantly wonder, what if this is all fake and everyone is just watching me. If my whole life was a lie, if everyone I knew was just acting, and this is not really what the world is like. Now I know this isn't right but you can't just help but think it and wonder about it. If it were actually happening to me I think I would want to know. I would just feel that my life was fake, and I got jipped out of living it.

I wonder what would be more appealing; a show of someone who as a perfect life, like in the Truman show, or a really crappy life. Now although the whole idea isn't ethical, let alone making someone live a crappy life where bad things happen to them all the time. Putting aside the ethical part I think a bad life would be more interesting, you know the wow I guess my life isn't that bad. This wasn't spurred by anything just another one of those moments when I thought everyone may be watching.

SiCKO

Last night I watched the movie/documentary Sicko. It is by Micheal Moore, a controversial man, who has done many documentaries on political issues such as 9/11. This one is about health care in the United States, and how it sucks. I, luckily, am insured so I didn't even realize how big of problem it can be for some people. I've heard that care is expensive but some of the stats on the surgeries astounded me. The one that sticks out in my mind is the man who cut off two of his fingers with a saw. He was uninsured, and when he got to the hospital and they told him one finger would cost $60000 and the other would be $15000! That is ridiculous! They were only the section above the last knuckle. It is like you have to give him a bunch of prosthetics, the only thing you have to do is sew it back on, and do some resetting of the bones and blood vessels. Now I realized doctors went to school for a long time but seriously, how is that fair?

That guy didn't have insurance, so you know everyday your kind of risking it. But what is more surprising, and actually completely wrong is the people who are insured but the insurance companies deny their claims. People have died because these companies want to make money, not actually do what they said they would do, pay for your medical expenses. So, as in the movie some people have cancer and can get surgery and treatment for it, they are lucky, they caught it soon enough, not. They are all ready to rid themselves of cancer when they get a letter from their insurer saying it is not approved. Some of the excuses were, it's too experimental (even though thousands have had it and cured by it), you lied on you application (we didn't care then because you were going to pay us money, but now that we have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars we've decided to screw you over), or hire investigators to find something, anything to deny you. Now he isn't just pulling this out of no where, a while ago a woman form one of the HMOs went to congress and exposed this problem, telling them how she was told that the more people she denied, the larger bonuses and promotions you would get, after being promoted as high as she could she decided it was enough.

Another part of the movie was Moore visiting Canada, Britain, and France who all have socialized/free health care. Many Americans, just as myself have fallen victim to the belief that with free health care the quality suffers. Although this isn't the case, from what I saw. Moore talked to doctors and Americans living in each of these countries. It isn't worse health care, and arguably it's better. You don't have to worry about getting approved, only getting well. Doctors are not going to get stiffed, a doctor in Britain makes more than a doctor here, and interestingly they receive bonuses for making their patients healthier; by having them loose weight, quit smoking, and other such things.

I do have to admit, I'm pretty sure Moore exaggerated a little to get his point across. He didn't talk at all about the fact that there are many people who insured well. Also he showed the worse case scenario, to make it seem much more tragic. Despite this though I did like it, and it opened my eyes a little to how well I have it, as well as why Obama and Clinton want universal health care, doesn't seem so stupid to me now.

Flyin' High

As I had mentioned you may get bored of all the Florida related topics I will be writing about, well here is another one. While I was there I did something I never thought I would be able to do, parasailing. I liked every minute of it. It wasn't scary at all for me, and even less of an adrenaline rush than I expected. I was just as surprised as you probably are right now. I was thinking it was going to be a fast, loud, and crazy ride. But is was the opposite. In fact is was peaceful. I know you probably don't believe me but it was. It was quite, no wind, it was actually louder on the boat then up in the air. Once I was up there it was amazing I was in a harbor so I could see the water forever on one side of me and the other was a lot of buildings and other stuff of that nature. It was probably the best way to get a good view of the city. Despite it being the complete opposite of what I was expecting, I still enjoyed every minute of it. Parasailing although not a thriller was fun and relaxing.

Stranger on a Plane

So over the break I went down to Florida for a few days, it was a good time I had fun, and you may get sick of the next few entries as they will most likely be all about this trip. Although before I had even gotten there I met a stranger on a plane, on my flight from Memphis to Fort Walton Breach. Row 6 seats A and B.

We didn't even talk through the first part of the flight, not until after take off did we begin a conversation. First we talked about just where we were from. Obviously I was form Iowa, he was from Lexington Kentucky originally, although had just recently moved down to Destin, Florida (ironically exactly where I was going). He had been up in Lexington visiting his ill mother, and was returning home to work, girlfriend, and normal life.

It was strange, in just an hour and some change of a flight, I learned a great deal about his life, intern he learned mine, and I even got some good ol' life advice. I won't bore you with the detail of my life I told him. He was just a stand-up guy from the country, now in his mid-thirties I'd guess. He went to college, at the University of Kentucky, although after recently visiting the campus of the Florida Gators he wishes he'd chosen differently. At this point I got some of the advise, go to college. I was already planning on this. Although the fact that he said, it's not even your major that matters, or any of the classes for that matter. They could help you if you do actually go into that field, but just having a degree is more important. He said that the most important part was becoming culture and experiencing life all by yourself. I had heard all of this before but it's from the people who are teachers, parents and principles, not some guy that you hardly know, it just made the advice seem so much more useful and sincere.

The next section of the flight was a conversation about music. We like the same things, mostly rock, but a little of everything. So, he first showed me the new head phones he'd just bought, that were amazing just as he had said, I couldn't feel them in my ears but the sound was amazing, covered the noise of the engines perfectly. Anyways, we then spent a while just looking/listening at each others' ipods, checking out the tunes and vids. It was a little weird but not nearly as awkward as it sounds, I don't know why we couldn't have just listened to our own ipods, but we didn't.

Lastly it was a little more personal. We were just chatting, about random stuff, we were talking about how we'd both been on planes since infancy and something a little more significant came up. He shared that his friend, actually buddy, that is what he called him the whole time, buddy, had been killed in a plane crash. He was just a passenger, even though his buddy was pilot. He was flying out of Lexington and the pilot screwed up and went down the wrong runway and the plane crashed and killed everyone on the plane, that's fair isn't it? It was sad, I could tell it was painful for him and also it was his best friend, although he hadn't ever said it I could tell.

I couldn't believe in such a short time I learned so much about a person and he had opened up so much to me. I kind of got the sense of the movie Forrest Gump, I just got to learn all about this person, his adventures, troubles, and just life. It was strange but he reminded me of an older version of myself. He's not a party animal, but he does stuff to unwind. He is athletic, active, and smart. He just seemed like a down to earth guy, and just is living a happy life. The funny thing is that although I really enjoyed the conversation and meeting this guy, I never even learned his name.

One more Day!

We are almost on spring break, thank god. I don't know about everyone else but this school thing has been killing me lately. Not only the fact that it seems like we are in an endless winter, going to school in this crappy weather, but just my class loads seem to be slowly increasing with each weak. It seems to just be so much later this year than all the past years. Now it is probably just the same, I don't really know but with all the other local schools with earlier spring breaks and the fact that this is just one more year on what seems like and endless cycle of school.

For my break I plan to relax. My family and I are going to Florida. After we get back I am going just relax and be a couch potato, despite my last entry. Of course I am going to have homework despite the word, break, but I'm not doing it until I absolutely must. So with this all planned out in my head, I should have perfect break, even though I probably won't.

P.S. happy spring break to all.

Gettin' the Junk in the Trunk

Nearly 65% of people in America age overweight or obese, that is terrible. Now I don't think we all need to be Hollywood worthy, but what happened to taking care of ourselves. Now I realize many people are busy, stressed, and just don't always have time to exercise and what not, but get off your ass and start exercising or something. It is not always completely your fault for becoming overweight. Some people are predisposed genetically to become overweight.

I don't mean you can blame your parents, and blame your parents for the way you are. Although as a nation instead of waiting until we become fat to go on crash diets, and ,"super fast," weight loss system. Why don't we just teach our kids how to stay healthy, and in turn even practice what you preach. If mom and dad eat crap, on top of fat, loaded up with cholesterol, just for a midnight snack. If we grew up knowing that we need all our foods and actually eating them, we will be much more likely to maintain a healthy life style as we grow into adults.

Looking at the extreme there are t.v. shows about people so fat they can no longer walk anymore, and have to go to a specialized hospital for assisted living. Once there, after needing 5+ people to get them to their bed, they will have a reduced diet, and begin exercise. But their diet is an average person's binge on vacations, 2500 calorie diet, and their exercise is raising their arms in the air and eventually walking. Now if this sounds strange and disturbing, good, if it doesn't I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you may have to go step on the scale. Although you are not alone don't worry we becoming bigger and bigger, but we are accepting that fact. We can't do this, being obese needs do be a thing of the past, there is no reason not to be healthy and live a longer happier life.

Night light

Look into the sky at night, what is the brightest thing in the sky? Hopefully you said the moon. The moon has been important parts of my ancient cultures, it is after all the brightest thing in the sky and we many people need it for light during the night. Many made up folk tales of how it came to be, unfortunately none of them were quite right, but even scientists struggled and debated for years where it came form. So where did it come from?

Well after all of that debating finally evidence was given that in fact the moon used to be part of the earth. Some millions of years ago earth and another smaller planet collided. This caused a lot of turbulence and problems in the earth, as you could imagine. The temperature of the earth greatly rose and with a large chunk was chipped off. This happened because the two didn't collide head on, it was more of a glancing blow. So the piece finally flew off but didn't float off into space because it was trapped by our planet's gravitational pull. So it was that is how it came to be, so after being bombarded by numerous meteorites, because it has no atmosphere, giving us the cheesy moon we know and love today.

I am Legend

I am Legend is a movie that recently came out on video. I have now seen it twice, in the theater and on DVD. Overall I do like this movie. It is a good plot, and who can complain of Will Smith's acting. It is a classic situation that many of us wonder about, what would I do if I were the last person alive? Now I don't think the majority of us would not plan on the zombies or want them, although with out them this movie would not have much of a point. This was an action packed thriller, and as I said I really did like watching it, would watch it again, and recommend it, but there is one complaint I have.

The complaint I do have it that it is a depressing movie. You feel sorry of Doctor Nevil, he is a genuine man and wants to cure all of the, "people," of the disease they have, despite the fact the are so far gone, there whole world is stay away from the sun, go out at dark, and kill anything that isn't like you. This is typical of any zombie movie, but I was generally sad when I saw the frustration he went through of having no one there. If you haven't seen it and don't want it ruined, read at your own risk. The one person he does have is his dog Sam. Now we all know that we love dogs, even if you prefer cats, you know when you see a dog in a movie you can't help yourself in liking it. That is why when Sam is killed by the zombies you can't help but just feel crushed, how could you let the dog die? Especially after she saved Nevil's life, and even when he tries to cure her you still let her die. I don't know if this is just because of the movie or if there were other factors; stuff that is in my life and what not that contributed but it just got to me. In the end... I guess I won't completely ruin it, but it's all good, because it's a movie.

Yumm

Candy is the ultimate treat. You could argue for some deserts; cake or ice cream but I pretty sure that candy would still beat them out. Now there are a few kinds; chocolate, toffees, and hard candies. They all have different textures, hardness, and flavors. They seem to just have magical powers. Some how you just feel better when you eat some candy. They bring happiness to all, yes a little more to kids that adults, but all ages can enjoy a good treat.

I personally like hard candies the best. I like the suckers, candy canes, and other such treats. Despite my opinion, the majority of people would favor chocolate. It has been around for a while, pleasing generations one after the other. There are a lot of different kinds, and mixtures. Hershey is one of the largest producing chocolate makers in the world, and produces enough chocolate Hershey's bars in a year to go around the world two and half times, that just goes to show not only how fat the U.S. and world is getting but also how much we love the sweet stuff.

The Greatest Mind

If there was one person in history that I would like to meet, one of the people at the top of my list would be a man by the name of Leonardo Da Vinci. He did countless things, made advancements in many area of science and art, and is called the father of many of his favorite topics. It is amazing that he was able to do so much in just one life time. Today his notebooks are prised possessions, one even sold for 28 million dollars, to another well known name, Bill Gates. Even though all of his ideas, designs, and inventions didn't always work, his concepts were revolutionary.

We have all seen the last supper and the Monalisa, but despite his knack for painting/drawing, he was one of the smartest men in all of history. Da Vinci thought of ways to fly, one of the first. Now it wasn't the traditional strap on some wings and jump off a building, the norm of the time. Instead he studied birds, and aerodynamics with water, and came up with a few ideas on how to fly. First he had the Da Vinci screw, better known as a helicopter, a glider, and another flying device resembling a birds wings. This final one was actually made recently and it did fly with a few modern improvements. He also designed a parachute that worked with no modern improvements. Another technological advancement made by him was in robotics/ and mechanics. He designed many self, "programed," objects that where highly complicated systems of gears and other mechanisms. One such item was a what can only be described as an ancient tank. Just to get into this guy's head would boggle most of us intelligent kids.

Another thing that Da Vinci began was the study of the human biology. He preformed multiple autopsies, made accurate drawings, observations, and discoveries on the bodies functions. Although this may seem a bit odd, why would some guy go around looking for dead people to cut open just to see inside? This is strange, or at least I think so, but he made up for it with his astute discoveries on the body.

Da Vici is one of the most influential people of all time, making advancements in nearly every field possible to him. I can't imagine being as active as he was. His mind must have been going a mile a minute every minute of his life and truly had one of the greatest minds in history.

Advancement

Looking back ohh say 10,000 years, which in the grand scheme of things is not actually that old, it is amazing that we humans, homo sapiens sapiens, have accomplished so much. When we first came around all we had was some fire and sticks. If one of our very very old ancestors were to walk through say New York, he would be amazed. Buildings made of metal, thousands of feet tall, "fire," or electricity at the push of a button, cars, and all the other advances he could have just begging to comprehend looking at his fire and stick.

The advances we have made from then to me are amazing. It may not always seem like with some of the people you and I know but we as a species are extremely smart. We have manipulated nearly every part of the earth to cater to us,(unfortunately this is catching up with us, ie. global warming). It took thousands of years for us to populate the earth, but now we can be to any spot in the world in days time. Food is readily available to us, forget hunting it for ourselves, we can have what we want when we want. There are two other things that I think no one in ancient times could have imagined. The first being guns, missiles/atomic bombs, and just weapons in general. The days of clubs and rocks have long been gone. We as humans have the power to kill thousands and even millions by simply launching a thousand pound object. And finally, the fact that we have left this planet, and sent robots to others. Good ol' caveman looked at the sky and saw darkness with pretty lights, we no know there is a vast vast emptiness seemingly endless. What I would want to know the most though is what he would think of our society, have we lived up to his expectations.

Into the Abyss

For my research I am going to talk about black holes. Now I may have to narrow that because I had no idea how much goes into this topic. There are so many theories, people, and phenomena that have to be explained. Before going out and researching I thought this wasn't such a full topic. I already knew the basic ideas around the black hole, but I didn't know where those came from.

People like Einstein who lived nearly 100 years ago began the concept of a black hole, gravitational forces, and time. All of these tie into black holes. He came up with the theory of gravitational relativity. Now this is a little complicated but, gravity essentially warps space and time. The easiest way to understand this is a trampoline analogy. Think of a planet or star as a ball on the trampoline like a basket ball. Obviously the trampling is going to warp and bend around it. Now think of time and light as marbles you roll towards the, "star," they are going to take a curved path around it. Now make a black hole after the star explodes, making a bowling ball. Send the marbles back exactly the same and they will curve, but they do not escape, they continue going around in circles until the reach the black hole. Now this is a watered down uncomplicated explanation of what a black hole is and does, which is what I will have to do because of my audience of students who are uneducated on this topic.

Another main topic that I want to discuss is the formation of black holes. Interestingly there are more that one kind, actually 3-4 depending on how you look at it. Some were just left over from the formation of the universe and the big bang. Then there are those that are made from the death of a star, and a supernova, or when the star basically implodes on it's self when it's fuel runs out. There are still more types of black holes that form other ways. I don't think I will have enough time to cover them all.

There are still other questions in the paper that I will have to address like, where are they now, what are they like, is it a worm hole, how are we finding them, and how are we studying them? My paper is probably going to be long. I have already learned a ton of information and I have only scratched the surface.

Tribute to the Best

Brett Favre is the best quarter back ever. Unfortuantly all of us Packer fans have to recongnize the fact that after seventeen great years Brett has to move on. We all know that he has accomplished so much, and holds nearly every record that he can, even interceptions which I do think is impressive and just part of his style. Even though I wish he could continue, I realize that for a 38+ year old man playing a physically demanding game like football must be hard. Then there is the pressure that comes with being a quarterback, the studying and preperation that he must put in.

Brett is one of the main reasons that football is my favorite sport. Seeing him play each and every Sunday for the past seventeen years, probably closer to 10 for me, is great. First of all that is amazing, and also a record, that you can come out for that many games in a row. But I more enjoy watching him play becasue despite his age he still acts just like a kid when he is playing. He has a great charisma, many NFL players loose the fun in the game, they get all wrapped up in the money, playoffs, and pressures. But Brett never does this, he does focus but watching him play is so fun that I just hope that Aaron Rogers will have the same style, and of course that he is good.

It was great to watch Brett Favre for so many years and I wish him the best of luck, and he is the one of my heros, and I will miss him on Sundays come next fall.

Justice, Shmustice

Many of you know about all of the celebrities that have been arrested and charged with numerous crimes, ranging from robbery, to rape, to murder. Most recently it has been Barry Bonds and Rodger Clemens in the infamous baseball steroids scandal. Each and every person in this country who knows about this also knows that they did take steroids. So why doesn't one of them or any of the other, "athletes," who has cheated grow some balls and own up to it. Now I would have more respect for someone who were to own up to it and admit they were wrong than continue to insist they are not lying. It does amaze me that many of these guys are actually going to jail, not just getting off with a slap on the wrist.

It is about time people are going to jail for the crimes they committed, as opposed to the past when O.J., and Michael (not Mr. Ayers), got off the hook. We all know that O.J. killed his wife or girlfriend thing, and Michael went to far with those kids, but somehow they got the jury who liked O.J.'s moves on the field, and the other who had followed Michael through the Jackson five. What gives them the right to be above the law? If you see in the paper some guy stabbed his wife to death, you are disgusted but when O.J. does it, it's just a joke. What is wrong with our country that just because a lot of people know you name and what you can do, you get of easier than the rest. If anything you should crack down on celebrities instead of doing nothing because people look up to them. Although there is something even more disturbing when the people in this country sue others for no reason or their own stupidity.

The cases that so many of us have heard. The lady spills hot coffee on her lap form McDonald's and gets money from them because she is a klutz. Why didn't you just sue the pants company for not making spill proof pants, or the guy who invented coffee. Then of course the robber who is stealing and ripping off some lady, falls down on a knife in here house and sues her. Because of course when the robbers come into your house you invite them to stay, have coffee, give them your credit cards, the combinations to all your locks, let them know where the best stuff is, and help them load it into your car and drive off. Then of course yo make sure that all the knives and other pointy object, such as tables and chairs are thoroughly wrapped in bubble wrap. Although the majority of our cases and justice system works pretty well, only hearing these horror stories just makes you wonder how much justice actually happens. This to me just shows that although we are the, "greatest nation on earth," we are still pretty fu, eh hmm, screwed up.

Research Topics

1. Pluto-should this be included as a planet. This is a new idea, we all grew up being taught that it was a planet and many scientists have demoted it.
2. Black holes-theorized by Albert Einstein and recently proven, this is an interesting hole in the universe. There are plenty of theories of why they exist and form.
3. Romans, Alexander the Great, or another ancient civilization-research an old nation and how they functioned, but more specifically their technologies and advanced they made.

KABOOM!

So as I am sure you know, seeing as we are all great students who have memorized each and every word mentioned by Ayers, we have a research paper coming up. So as I have been generating ideas many of my topics involve space, planets, and other such astronomically related things along with the title of my last essay, by a mere coincidence, was titled Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars, I thought I would right about some of my thoughts on the vast subject of the creation of the universe and life.

Now I know all about the theory of creation, I was brought up in a Christian house and in fact my grandfather was a priest. Despite all of this I believe it as much as I think the earth is flat. In my opinion it is just a story that was made up a long time ago when they had no idea where they came from, so they just made a story that seemed logical to them. Although now a days it is no longer logical, we now know about other planets, galaxies, and numerous other science related things. For this reason, I trust the scientific explanation of the formation of the universe, the big bang. Now I have learned about it in our science classes here at school, but I have also learned more about it watching t.v. Yes, I am the kind of dork who watches the discovery/history channel. From my understanding the universe some billions and billions of years ago was compressed into a single point of matter. Basically everything, ever was compacted into the most dense thing ever. You and I would be smaller than the atoms we are composed of if compressed to degree of the universe. Then it was triggered, and the universe expanded and is still expanding and will continue expanding for such a long time that you and I will be long gone, and that even the earth possibly even the milky way will have long died out. Then unfortunately the universe its self will be so stretched that all matter will be stretched and ripped apart. I don't know about you although that does sound painful, it also sounds really cool to me, then again I am a dork that watches this stuff on t.v.

To try to comprehend this topic I do realize is complicated, but the way I look at it is that in terms of the formation of everything it is actually pretty simple. If I were asked to come up with the theory of how the universe was formed I know I wouldn't expect it to be as easy as, "well, everything was all scrunched together and then it explode and it all spilled out." Even with this there are questions. I have many, such as, what was happening way back when before the universe exploded? If the universe is expanding, then what is outside of that? And of course one of my favorites, if our universe was that small, then couldn't there be a lot more that could have also formed? This is the main reason why this topic just boggles my mind. Since there are no answers you get to make up your own. I personally can spend quite a bit of pondering this subject. So far I have come up with that before the big bang happened there was nothing around the ball of infinitely dense matter. Now this is hard to picture and I have never managed to do this but I think nothing is seeing clear for ever. (Try to do it, it is much harder to do than it sounds, because no one has ever seen it). This is also what I think is outside of our universe and inbetween others.

As for creationism, I think there are so many more holes in that theory than there is in the big bang. I don't get how you can just create and entire planet out of thin air. To me it just seems impossible that some guy, no one has ever seen just waves his hand and there we are. This on top of the fact that it didn't explain the forming of space, or not at least until it was discovered further showing that this was only made to explain what people had no clue about. Just spending time thinking about this gets me going, as you can probably see from the length of this. I explains where I came from and how everything just works out and fits together.

Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars

As rug-rats we all heard and repeated the rhymes, then we grew a little and went through one of the most awkward days of our lives when we learned about...puberty. We all knew that boys and girls were different; the pee-pees and hoo-hoos, but that changed our lives. So we learned this and the next day we all looked at the opposite sex a little different. We do this each day for the rest of our lives, but sadly no one will ever know all there is to know about the others.

Seeing as I am not a girl, and there fore know less about them I will be talking about/questioning there actions. I know guys are the devil; all of us are pigs, jerks, sexist, and stupid. I honestly know some girls who believe this, and I am not saying all so please do not give me a million posts saying,"Ugh...I'm not like that!" I will grant there are a select few that evolution has not quite had the chance to weed out yet but for the majority the sexes are nearly even in terms of the number of jerks, pigs, idiots, and sexists.

I personally do not think that women are self-conscious, emotional, and nagging as many stereotypes label them. It is interesting though how much different our interactions are between males and females, at least I notice that I treat women much nicer and try to seem all around ,"better." I don't consciously do it but I just as everyone else act in different ways when in the presence of the opposite sex. I know some guys who's voices get deeper each time they talk to a girl, and I would assume that girls will tweak their behavior just as guys. The funny thing is that you don't even have to be attracted to them, but you are going to act differently towards the other group.

I don't think that anyone has ever been able to figure out ,"the way," to interact, because if they had we wouldn't have to go through all of this difficulty in figuring out what is he/she thinking right now, did I do this or this right. If someone had they would surely be among the minds of Plato and Socrates. I don't think that I will ever be able to figure out women and there strange ways and doubt anyone ever will.