Season Finale

This whole blogging thing is rather odd. Anybody that has access to the Internet can stumble across your blog on any given day. You can write whatever you want. You can piss people off. You can make friends. You can have a good time writing something that in all likelihood, one about 3 people will ever read.

I like blogging. This is a statement that I rarely wrote this year. I hardly ever found the time and motivation to sit down and actually write something. Sometimes I complained that this whole blogging thing was wrong. But I think that I am better off for blogging. I discovered a whole world where anyone can say anything, then anyone can comment back and say anything. It’s a unique, never ending cycle that gets you caught up in your opinions and thoughts.

I think that I explain myself in my Why I Blog post. I like to blog, I just didn’t on a consistent basis this year. I don’t know. I guess I just didn’t have the motivation to actually follow through. It was one of those things where I could either go play basketball for a bit or do a blog post. More often then not, I chose basketball.

I think its pretty cool to have a blog. It’s kind of like a status symbol in the age of technology. “Yeah, I got a blog, what about you?” Not that I determine someone’s level of coolness on whether they have a blog or not. When I look back at this, I’m going to be pleased that I had a blog. I think its going to be here forever, so I can tell my kids to go read it if they want to know what their dad was like when he was in high school. Or maybe by the time I have kids, blogs will be outdated, just like the way my dad always tells me he never had a phone, or a computer, or an iPod thing. All I know is that I like being able to post a video, then talk about it and tell people to go watch more of them and give them the link to do that. Technology is an amazing thing, and I am glad to have been a part of it. I think that I will continue my blog. Not with the 3 posts of 400 words a week, but in my own terms. I will continue to post when I feel like I have something that needs to be said. Hopefully there is some regularity to it, but I can’t guarantee anything. 

Spiece, Part 2

The title of third best AAU team in the country is rather hard to come by. You truly have to be amazing to be considered nationally, but to be third, it’s hard for me to imagine. The team is Boo Williams from Virginia, and I believe that they deserve every bit of that ranking. So for us white kids from Iowa, we don’t have very much hope warming up across from 6 foot 10 inch monsters that are stronger than our whole team combined and have a 35 inch vertical. It’s intimidating to find out that their point guard is going to North Carolina to play. And it’s very intimidating to find out that he is not the only D1 player on the floor, or the bench for that matter.

But we held out own. It was the fourth game of the day for each team, so everybody on the floor was dead tired. This made it possible to scrap for baskets and stay in the game. It was nothing spectacular, but we managed to keep Boo Williams in reach throughout the first half. With about 1 minute left before halftime, we hit a three to put us up by 1, our only lead of the game. Then they made a basket right before the half, so we were only down by 1 at halftime. This is not bad (actually it’s great) for us. We were expecting to be down by 40 by halftime, so only 1 point was refreshing. But our fatigue, and their talent, took over in the third quarter and they got about a 15 point lead by the fourth. They didn’t expand it much after that, but there was no way that we were going to came back from any deficit.

So this team was pretty amazing. After the game, we were sitting around and our coach came over and started talking about them and what they were. He started to name off the kids and the schools they were going to. As I mentioned, the point guard is going to North Carolina, another guard is going to Duke. One of the big men is going to Wake Forrest, and another is going to Texas. All the others are getting recruited by ACC and SEC schools and will end up playing D1 basketball somewhere. My team, on the other hand, has a couple of good D2 players on it, a couple of guys going to college to play football, and a couple more that might not go play anywhere. So overall, we held our own, and I am proud that I can say we earned the respect of team Boo Williams, third ranked AAU team in the country.

Spiece, Part 1

This past weekend I was in Fort Wayne, Indiana for a basketball tournament. The tournament is called Spiece, and attracts teams from all over the nation. It’s a pretty cool experience and I think I was seen by a few college coaches, so that’s always a plus.

The Spiece field house is amazing in itself. It has eight full sized courts with shot clocks and the time on each backboard. But the courts are not what is so amazing. As you walk in to the field house, you go through a hall with memorabilia. There are signed pictures and posters hanging on every inch, from floor to ceiling of each wall. There are posters of Bobby Knight, Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, and the 1986 Indiana National Champions. But my favorite is the signed picture of Bobby Knight throwing the chair across the floor. Once you get past this hallway, you go into this open area. This area has more posters on the walls (these are life size though), and it has jerseys hanging from the ceiling. Some jerseys are signed, but all are from people that are well known (to say the least). They have everything from Patrick Ewing’s Knicks jersey, to Kevin Garnett’s Timberwolves jersey, but my favorite is David Robinson’s Air Force jersey. Let’s just say that there are few places like this, and I enjoy it every time I go.

But the field house is not the reason that I go to Fort Wayne. I go to play basketball. This is some of the best AAU basketball, and a lot of these teams could beat D1 schools…easily. This year, there were about 20 pools of four teams each (just in the 17 and under division, there were equal, if not more, in the younger divisions). The three pool play games were on Friday night and Saturday morning. In our Friday night game, we won by forfeit because the team was too far away to wait for them to arrive. This game would have been difficult for us to win anyway, so it was probably good that we didn’t play. On Saturday morning, we lost our first game, but won the second easily, so we ended getting first in the pool, miraculously. Our third game of the day was the first of bracket play (its single elimination from here), but it was another very average team, so we won again. This put us into the round of 16 (not bad for us Iowans) going against the third ranked AAU team in the country. Let me tell you about the last game…tomorrow.

Swine Flu

This swine flu thing is really starting to get on my nerves. Everybody is worried about how this could turn into some big epidemic, and how it could kill thousands of people. The media is over hyping this to death. I think we should take a chill pill and get over this.

People are worried about this flu because it has a little flu from pigs, birds, and humans all wrapped into one. It is airborne, and is possibly lethal, just like the regular flu. The regular flu kills about 30,000 people a year in the United States. This new swine flu, 1 person dead in the U.S. Wow. I’m scared. I have a 1 in 300,000,000 chance of dying because of the swine flu. There is a greater possibility of getting eaten by a shark while looking for shells on the shore of Lake Michigan (not really, but still, you get my point (I hope)). So overall, to say the least, I am not worried.

I would be worried if I lived in a third world country, with no proper vaccine or health care or treatment. If I lived there and the swine flu came along, I would run away. And this is where the media should be focusing their attention, on the terrible conditions in which the people are living who catch the swine flu. This is where the real story is at. I feel sad for people who can’t take care of the simple flu because they don’t have the right treatments while the generous and benevolent United States hoards all of the flu vaccines.

The thing that actually worries me the most, since I don’t live in a third world country, is how the virus mutated so quickly. The virus went to a pig and a bird and is now in a human and it contains parts of the flu from all three. This shows that viruses can evolve and mutate quickly and efficiently. This is where the real problem is at. When the swine flu starts to show resistance to the drugs used to treat it, then there is the possibility of an epidemic. Then I will be scared because it won’t be too far off in the distance when other viruses and bacteria start to develop resistance to the drugs that treat them. I know that it is happening now, but it is happening rather slowly. If this swine flu was to evolve that quickly to resist drugs that were just introduced to it, then I will be worried. But until then, I’m just going to sit back and watch everybody get all worked up over nothing.

100 Days

People have been talking about how Obama has completed 100 days in office. It is a huge deal to the media for some reason. So this is my thought on the whole matter:

People give Bush 8 years to screw over the nation, but they only give Obama 100 days to fix it.

Let's grow up, and let the President do his job and get off his back. We obvioulsy had a lot of patience with Bush, so let's show some maturity and show some patience with Obama

Bugs

With the new spring weather finally starting to take hold, I am getting worn out of school. The warm weather outside make it close to impossible to stay inside, which teachers seem to make us do a lot. I hate sitting in a boring class while looking out a window to the magnificent warm world outside. It makes me mad. I just want to go lie in the grass and take a nap, what’s so wrong about that? (everything if you’re a teacher)

Like I said, the warm weather is finally starting to come around on a regular basis. This means that baseball is starting, school is ending, and the bugs are coming back. I loathe bugs. I wish they would disappear and never, ever come back. They are annoying, they are persistent, and they are always places that you don’t want them to be. I can’t stand them. They get on my nerves and stay until I am finally able to find some way to kill it. But it seems like there is an endless supply of bugs, so there is always another one willing to take the dead ones place, kind of like the Chinese army.

And this would be one of the few reasons why would continue to live in Iowa. The winter kills all the bugs, so there is a time of relative peace if you can stand the negative temperatures. The winter in Iowa is bug free, and it is fabulous. I love walking my dog and not having to swat at the millions of bugs revolving around my head (if my boots aren’t filled with snow). I love not having to chase a bug that followed me through the door around the house (if my feet aren’t frozen from the tiles). I love it (if you interpret love as I can’t wait for warm weather, but I still hate bugs). But when the spring weather brings around heat and water, the bugs multiply. It is almost an instant change. One day they are completely gone, and the next there are more then the entire human population of the world. If you are lucky, you might catch a warning and see one or two a day or so in advance of the outburst. And this is why I hate spring, bugs. There is no way to avoid them, there is no way to kill them all. They are always present, they are everywhere. I can’t stand bugs. 

Making a Very Difficult Decision

Making decisions can be difficult. Making decisions about food can be even more difficult. When I am at a restaurant the one thing that I choose off the menu is the thing that I am going to spend my time eating, so I want it to be the best possible choice. I don’t want to waste my one opportunity on something that I will regret later, so I truly have to think about what it is I want to eat on that particular occasion.

The first thing that I take into consideration is what I’m in the mood for. But this is usually taken care of by the choice of restaurant anyway, so I don’t have to think that much about it. The second thing is how hungry I am. The answer to this is usually “very” so there is a good chance I am looking for something with a rather large portion. But if the place seems to have good deserts, then I might consider a smaller meal so I can enjoy the desert to the fullest. But after I take in those thought, I basically am open to anything. So that is my decision process at a restaurant.

I guess one could call me a true American because I really like a good hamburger. Actually, I could be called a hamburger connoisseur. If we are eating at an American restaurant, I am likely to get the hamburger. I have tried hamburgers from all over, and I have tried many different hamburgers, but there are a few that always outdo the rest. So here’s a list:Best Fast Food Burger: Culver’s Double Butterburger with Cheese

Best Expensive Burger: Beckett’s Traditional Hamburger 

Best BBQ Burger: Granite City’s BBQ Hamburger with Cheese

Best Overall Burger: The Starlite Room’s ½ pound Super Burger

Then after I enjoy my hamburger, I like to have some desert. This is the decision that always gets me. I can never decide what to get because most of the time it all looks so good. I want to have a little bit of everything, but I can’t, I have to decide on one. When I'm in a predicament like this, I usually go with whatever has the most chocolate in it. The hardest place to decide what to get for desert is Hickory Park. This place carries Blue Bunny Ice Cream, and its desert menu is larger then the regular menu. It’s actually kind of like heaven. 

My Fun Summer

My summer is going to be busier than my school year. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to summer just like everybody else, I can’t wait until I don’t have to come to school (to learn) everyday. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t be doing anything. I decided to give up baseball (I will talk about that I another post), but my summer will still be full. I am not a lazy couch potato, but every-so-often I will take my breaks.

Baseball is that sport that takes up the most time. So I worked out some numbers here (baseball is all about numbers, most of the coaches are math teachers): In one day, we spend more time doing baseball related activities then we would at school. We spend 1 hour lifting, 2 hours at batting practice, 4 hours (or more) playing a double header, then 1 hour with after game running and field cleanup- totaling 7 hours of baseball in one day. The school day is only 6.75 hours, with almost an hour of that going to lunch and passing time.

So with all of this extra time, I don’t know what to do with myself. Actually that is a complete lie. I will wake up at 6:15 every weekday to get to school for 6:30 football lifting and running. Then I will go straight to basketball workouts at 8:30, and then stay after it’s over to get extra shots up. Then after that I will go home and take a nap, only to be woken up by my dad who either wants me to mow the lawn or go on a bike ride with him, so I begrudgingly do either (actually I enjoy bike rides, but I loath mowing the lawn, so it balances out). Fun day right?

To me it is. I will enjoy my summer if everyday is like that. But the sad thing is that everyday is not a weekday. I think that every weekend I have a basketball tournament. Literally every weekend. If I don’t have one with my school team, my AAU team fills in the gap. My AAU team also takes up two weeks with two separate week long tournaments. I am also going to lose a weekend going to San Antonio for a family reunion (this will be the most fun time of the summer, whoooooo!!!! 6 Flags!). Along with football camps that I would like to go to, this is going to be a full summer, even without baseball.

The Drake Relays

Today I am leaving to go to the Drake Relays. The Drake Relays are a world renowned track competition, and I am running in the 100th year anniversary. I am also running in an event that is in its first year at Drake, the shuttle hurdle relay. This is completely awe inspiring.

This shuttle hurdle relay is a very new event in Iowa. Its first year in the state was only 3 years ago, when I was a freshman. It is obvious that it is brand new because whenever I tell someone that I run it, they always look at me with an odd look, and ask what I’m talking about. Everybody knows the 4x100, the 4x400, and the distance medley, but nobody knows the shuttle hurdle. So let me explain to you, like I explain to everybody else, what the shuttle hurdle relay is.

The relay team consists of four runners, just like every other relay, but instead of using the whole track to run, all we need is the front stretch. Each team has two lanes, with hurdles facing opposite ways in each. The first and third runners start at the finish line and come straight at the second and fourth runners. When the runner coming at you goes over the last hurdle, you have to be set in your blocks and cannot be moving. Then, when that runner hits the break line, the next runner can go. The total race is 440 meters, with each runner running 110 meters and jumping over 10 hurdles.

So that is the shuttle hurdle relay, running back and forth on the front straight. Right now, my shuttle hurdle team is seeded third. Let me rephrase that: we have the third fastest time out of any school in the state right now. Drake is not like state where you run against teams in your class; Drake is everybody has an equal shot and the top times qualify, no matter how big your school is. Our goal is to run a faster time then what we have now. There is nothing else we can do if we improve, so we have to let the cards fall where they may. The ultimate goal is to get past the prelims and be in the top 8 (there are only 16 teams and 8 go to finals), then in the finals run a sub 59 second time and hope for the best. I have never been to Drake, but I am told that this is a very fast track (meaning you feel faster on this track compared to normal) and our time should drop and we should at least place at the Drake Relays.

Iowa Is Truly Amazing

Iowa is truly amazing. I am completely serious when I say this. I am not trying to joke around and pull your leg. Iowa is truly amazing. Let me explain.

The seasons of Iowa are some of the most extreme in the nation. The winter is horribly cold, and the summer is horribly hot. In the winter we get snow, wind, ice, and just plain cold (well below zero) temperatures. In the summer we get ungodly heat and humidity. So the in between times are actually halfway decent. Spring and fall in Iowa are two times of the year when it is bearable to be outside for any extended period of time. But then again, spring and fall kind of suck. This is because winter and summer spread out over great periods of the year, so on the calendar when spring and fall actually start, winter and summer are still present. Summer drags on into fall so by the time fall weather comes, it is late in the year. But the worst is winter dragging into spring. Spring in Iowa doesn’t really start until the end of April at the earliest, not March 21. We get snow storms on April 14 and 30 degree weather with a wind chill that reminisces of winter. It is not right. Any human in their right mind would move as far away as possible, immediately. So why is Iowa truly amazing?

Iowa is amazing because when spring finally does roll around, everybody is in a good mood. Not one person has the ability to truly be down. The winter is so long and drawn out and cold, that the warm, nice, sunny weather is mouth-watering. Everybody has put up with the winter, and everybody is glad it is over. Iowa has the power to make everybody happy. No other place has this kind of instant ability to change everybody’s mood. If you live in Iowa, you know what I am talking about. The winter is depressing and unavoidable, but the spring is amazing and irresistible. Iowa is unique and truly amazing.

Susan Boyle

Pause this video at ­1:45 and tell me what you think (if you have seen this video, what you thought the first time).


You can’t say you were expecting that. The first time I saw this video, I was completely shocked. I thought she was going to be another William Hung, and be completely terrible. Just by looking at her, I knew that she couldn’t sing well. I was sure of it. I was sure she was going to belt out something that scarred my ears and actually deserved the ripping that Simon gives out. But no. I was wrong. Everybody was wrong. I know you would be lying if you said you expected that kind of performance. She completely stunned everybody, and I think that is partly societies fault. Society labeled her as an old, ugly lady who isn’t worth a thing. And that is why everybody was stunned. You don’t expect a beautiful song from somebody labeled like that. So I think that society as a whole should apologize to Susan Boyle and from now on, not label people before we see what they can do.

Scary but Funny

I watched an interesting video the other day. Usually YouTube videos are funny, that is the main purpose for YouTube in my opinion. They are meant for entertainment and to get a laugh out of you, not to be informative, or scary for that matter. This video that I watched was the scariest thing that I have seen in a long time, but through all of this, I couldn’t help but laugh at the man.

The name of the video is “Project 912 Glen Beck Tea Party.” Now this may not sound like a scary video, but it truly is. It is not about monsters or aliens or anything of that nature, it is about people. It is about a get together of people who want to express their ideas and feelings. I think that to attend one of these parties, you should have to pass a test to make sure you are not clinically insane.

This video does not start out like anything out-of-the-ordinary. It does not have nay action or anything like that. All it is, is people talking about politics. Politics in itself is a scary thing because many people have bad ideas, and many people have the power to put those bad ideas into affect. What makes this video even scarier is the fact that this guy is being completely serious. He is not joking in any way, and he truly thinks that everything is a conspiracy and he blames the communists. If I was to say this anywhere, at anytime (I’m not saying I even could, I couldn’t keep a straight face this is so ridiculous, and I'm not alone), I would be laughed at.

Scary might be an understatement. He blames communists and he blames mind washing techniques that are brainwashing our children. I’m sorry, but this is ludicrous. Get past the Cold War, move forward from the Stone Age, please learn to live in the present. I can’t stand people who hold true conspiracy theories of the 50’s to find a scapegoat for today. Just because we are going through hard times does not mean that one person is responsible, that one idea was wrong, that one mistake lead to the whole disaster. Learn to accept reality and please, if you have ideas that might even resemble these, do not share them with anybody, you might get laughed at.

Man on Wire

This weekend I watched an amazing movie. Man on Wire won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and I believed that it deserved it. It was an interesting film that was amazing and captivating. I often found myself thinking and saying out loud “wow.”

I thought “wow” a lot when Philippe Petit (the man this documentary is about) was talking about his passion. Wire walking is a unique hobby, and he has perfected this skill. He was 16 when he first learned about the World Trade Centers and that is when his dream began. So he started to build his reputation. He put a wire between the two towers of Notre Dame, and he put a wire between the two towers of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. He successfully walked in each of these places and he successfully brought attention to himself and people liked him. So then he put his dream into motion. He had dreamt of walking between the Trade Centers and now he was actually making this a possibility. His dream was tangible, and he was about to achieve it.

Most often when I said “wow” out loud was when Philippewas actually walking on his wire. This man is completely amazing. The movie is about his quest to string a wire between the World Trade Centers and walk between them, without any harnesses or safety equipment. He literally was balancing a quarter of a mile above the earth on a rope that was less than one inch thick. I was completely shocked that anybody in their right mind would put themselves in that kind of situation. But, when I look at the big picture, Philippe’s life story and his childhood, I realize that this is not a normal person. He is a wirewalker. This is somebody that walks on tightropes stretched out between two points (trees, buildings, et cetera) and performs for a crowd. He can lie down, walk backward, do summersaults, and juggle while he is on the wire. This kind of person has a sense of balance unlike anything else. There is some home footage in the movie of Phillip practicing wire walking, and his friends are jumping up and down on the wire and pulling it and doing anything they can to make him fall off. But he doesn’t. He stays on the wire and walks from end to end with the wire bouncing and shaking and swaying. The concentration on his face is intense. His face is a stone mask and nothing can be done to disrupt him. He is a man that belongs on a wire.

Obama and Nukes

I read this blog post by somebody who obviously doesn’t like Obama. These people are ruthless, calling Obama “Hussein” and trying to bash him so his credibility is shot. I’m sorry, but I guess they don’t realize that he is president (so people obviously like him), the only people who read this blog are people that agree on the same points (I stumbled across it looking at Obama’s proposal), and that these people aren’t really breaking any genius barriers. So here was my first reaction to the post and comments that I read:

What the hell are you guys talking about? He’s not saying that we should be the only nation to disarm our nukes; he’s saying that everybody that has nuclear missiles should disarm them. We would not be alone in this; there would be no active nukes in the world. The instant that we disarm our nuclear missiles, we would not be bombarded by others, because there wouldn’t be any. That’s the point of this whole action, to eliminate the threat of a nuclear holocaust. The simple possibility that at any instant multiple nations could start attacking each other with these devastating weapons is terrifying. It’s scary to think that one instant I could be walking my dog, and the next blown off the face of the earth. I’m not saying that this is likely; I’m just saying that to think about this possibility is chilling. And it is becoming an even greater possibility with more nations coming to discover nuclear powers and rockets that will send them to the other side of the world. The words “intercontinental ballistics missiles” seem made up, but in reality, they are becoming more prominent and closer to the point where somebody breaks and actually uses these words not in a speech, but in action.

War

The other day in school, two Vietnam veterans came and talked to our history class. They shared their stories and experiences, and answered every question that was asked, which is surprising. If I was a veteran, and I had these experiences, I would be hesitant to bring them up because they would probably bring back not very good memories. But they didn’t just share experiences, one veteran shared his opinion on war, which kind of caught me off guard.

This Vietnam veteran was against war and supported ending the war that we are currently engaged in. Normally when I think of veterans, I think of them as gung-ho and a little out there. But this veteran was not. If I saw him walking down the street, I would think he was just a regular guy. So when he said he supported ending the war, my first reaction was “I wonder if other veterans feel the same way as him?” It surprised me when he dealt out his opinion, but after thinking about it for a little while, I can see why he feels this way. I think that many veterans see what war is really like, the see the death and destruction, and I think that they realize that war is a bad thing. I think they realize that war does not solve the problems that people want solved, war does not fix things that are broken, war only breaks them more. I think to understand war, you have to be part of one. Not as a politician or observer, but as a solider in combat. To see what war really does, I think you have to participate and feel the feeling of the people who carry out the war, not the people who decide what to do in the war. I think that if the United States got into a major war right now (I’m not saying we are not in one, I’m just saying if we got into one that actually got peoples attention), I would have felt more comfortable with McCain as president. Nothing against Obama, but McCain was in the Vietnam War, he fought and was captured and he knows what war is like. He knows what would be right, and what wouldn’t.

Overall, I think I’m trying to say that war is not good. I support our troops and I have the greatest respect for soldiers, but I just think it is wrong to put them in this kind of compromising situation. I think that war doesn’t solve problems, and I think that politicians have some kind of mental block against this.

The Final Four

The Final Four killed my brackets. If anybody chose this exact Final Four, they are completely amazing, and completely lucky. I don’t think it is possible to be this good at predicting upsets and wins.

When Louisville lost, I knew that my bracket was down the drain. It began with the fact that I had Kansas beating Michigan St. in the first place. So when Michigan St. went two further games than what I predicted, I lost. I was confident that Louisville would at least get out of the region, but at least I didn’t have them winning it all. I didn’t think that Michigan St. had it in them. They are coming from one of the easiest conferences in the nation, the Big 10, and they had to play some good teams just to get to the Elite 8. This is why I thought Kansas would pull one off; I think Sherron Collins is the one of the best guards in the nation, but Kevin Lucas proved why he was the Big 10 player of the year. At least I’m not some crazy TV analyst who chose Louisville to win it all and told everybody that there was no way they could lose.

The other Final Four team that I missed was Villanova. Wow I did not see this one coming. In my mind, there were two possible teams that could come out of that bracket, Pitt or Duke. There was no way that the Elite 8 game could be anything but that. I guess I was wrong. But when a team only shoots four for a thousand from the field, they are most likely going to lose. But ok, Villanova beat Duke, big deal, there was no way they were going to beat Pitt. Pitt was just too good. But once again, I guess I was wrong. I don’t know how they did it, I thought Pitt played fairly well, but Villanova pulled off the upset by 2. I can’t tell you how surprised I was.

So the only way that my bracket could have any dignity left will be if UNC and UConn win and UNC wins it all. But I really don’t know anymore. I have basically given up on my basketball predicting skills. But I don’t think I’m alone, I have not heard of anybody who chose this Final Four, so I’m in good company.

Sport vs. Non-sport

There is a problem in the world. It is unjust and wrong. People, many of whom do not play sports, consider certain things a sport when it is very clearly not. This is one of the things that bothers me most. I can’t stand it when somebody calls something a sport when it is not. So here is what I believe…

The true definition of sport is “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.” The first part of this definition I completely agree with, sports require physical skill that not all people have the ability to perform. The second part I also agree with, sports are rather competitive. But the third part I have some problems with, I don’t think that some of the examples given are sports. Let me go into further detail.

My definition of sport is any strenuous, physical activity that takes skill to perform and cannot be preformed well by the common public. This means that you have to be able to use your body, hand-eye coordination, and more to do a physical activity. I’m not sure if this makes complete sense, so here are some examples. NASCAR is not a sport. I do not care how many people think it is. It is glorified driving, and the last time I checked, anybody (even 85 year old grandmas) can drive. Yes, I understand that it takes a toll on the driver’s body, but any goof can do it. Fishing is not a sport. It is an activity. Once again, anybody can go out on a boat and catch a fish. Some people may not have much success, but they can do what this so called “sport” requires it participants to do. But the biggest NOT A SPORT that some people call a sport is cheerleading. Wow. The first time I heard this called a sport I almost fell over laughing, but the person was completely serious. I am not going to say what I really am thinking about this, because it would be offensive to some people (cheerleaders in particular).

So overall, in case you missed it, here is a list of NOT SPORTS that some people consider a sport (I will most likely miss a few, so don’t consider this a complete list):
NASCAR, motocross, fishing, bowling, curling, cheerleading/dancing, darts, chess, hunting, baton twirling (from the Olympics), video games, croquet, and synchronized swimming.

Answering a Question

I often find myself faced with the question, “what is your favorite sport?” Or sometimes they ask, “what do you like better, football or basketball?” depending on the person asking. I will always tell the truth, but most times my answer just avoids the question. This is because I truly don’t know yet. I don’t know if I want to play a sport in college, and if I do, I don’t know what sport. So I have three definite answers to either of the questions. 1-I don’t know. 2- Whatever I am playing/ whatever is in season. 3- Ping-pong.

I don’t know. This is my answer if I just want to avoid the subject all together and start talking about something else. Its true that I’m not sure yet, so I’m not lying, but I’m also not answering any question. This is also my answer to people who I would rather not talk to, maybe because they annoy me or maybe because they are fairly dumb, because it is easy to understand and it is straight to the point. There are really no follow up questions that can be asked after this response, so that is also a plus.

Whatever I am playing/ whatever is in season. This answer I give to people who are serious and who deserve an answer. This is the closest to the truth, and most times needs an explanation. The sport that I am playing when this question is asked is most likely the sport that I am enjoying most. I like the sport I am playing because I am totally engulfed in it and I devote my time to it. Another reason why it is closest to the truth is that I like all sports that I play equally. No one sport (except ping-pong) is a clear favorite in my mind.

Ping-pong. This is the answer that is dealt if I feel like the person asking the question doesn’t really need a serious answer and I feel like joking around. But not joking here, ping-pong may actually be my favorite sport. It is amazingly fun, and I seem to be fairly good at it, which helps. I love to challenge someone in ping-pong and I have only found a couple of people who can beat me. But even if I don’t win, I love to play the sport, it just won’t take me anywhere in life.

Two Great Movies

This past week was my spring break (which may have been noticed by my lack of posts, or not because that is not an unusual occurrence). Spring break means two things: 1- spring weather is approaching, even though the snow hides that fact, and 2- there is a little extra time to watch movies. So this past week I had the opportunity to watch a couple of very good movies.

In Bruges and Let the Right One In are the two best movies that I have seen recently. Both easily make it into my top 10 favorite movies of all time, and come very close to the top five. This is not an easy task, but these movies deserve it with every ounce of sincerity that I have.

In Bruges is a very dark, very funny movie. It is about two Irish hit men who are sent to Bruges, Belgium because the younger one made a mistake and killed a little boy. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (the two hit men) perform beautifully together and have the special connection that portrays to the audience the emotion going through their minds. This movie was unexpectedly funny, but not the Anchorman/Zoolander funny, it was dark and witty. The dialogue was incredible, and the Irish accents gave it just the right sound to make me laugh harder to it than to a movie like Anchorman (which is one of my favorite comedies of all time). This movie also took many unexpected twists. In the beginning, the audience gets a general idea for the movie and a mood is set that has humor, but remorse (he kills a little boy, come on). But after a while I started to realize (with the hints that were given along the way) that there were two hit men for a reason. I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I would recommend that you view this film sooner rather than later, you are really missing something if you don’t.

The next movie that I watched was absolutely amazing. Let the Right One In is a low budget, non-Hollywood (key), Swedish film. Doesn’t really sound promising, and just to add to that, it’s about a 12-year boy and the young girl vampire he meets. Great, right? It truly was. I was completely and utterly impressed by this movie. There was something about the innocence of the relationship, and the caring for one another that drew me in and never let go. I came in skeptical, but left dazzled. I’m not sure what else to say about this movie, it’s hard to explain and doesn’t sound very good when I try. But trust me, this film is worth seeing. Just a side note, if you get this on DVD, watch with the English subtitles, not dubbed. When it’s dubbed, the acting loses all of its emotion. Don’t be lazy, and just read what they are saying to get the full effect intended.

The Philosophy of the School Year

Spring break is much needed. It signifies the end of the hardest part of the school year, and the beginning of the end. The hardest part of the year is between the end of Christmas break, and the beginning of Spring break. This is three months of consecutive school with no breaks at all. I know that some people may say that three months of school is nothing, but for high schoolers who are used to getting a week off every month of two, this is torture. Teachers expect more out of students and students want to be even lazier than they have been. This is not a good combination, and it results in teachers getting mad and students getting poor grades. Spring break is much needed time off for everybody to cool down and relax.

The school year can be broken down into four sections: Beginning, mid-break, torture time, and the end. The Beginning is the start of the year and everybody is halfway excited (even if they wont admit it) to be back at school and see all of their friends everyday. It goes by fairly quickly and easily because you are still getting back into a routine. This section lasts until the end of the first term or Thanksgiving break. The mid-break section is the time between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break. This is only about a month of school where nobody really pays attention, including the teachers. This is the best time of year because not much work is expected and you don’t really have to attend much school. But after Christmas break come the torture section. As I have discussed previously, teachers expect a lot from students and there is no fun to be found anywhere. This lasts for three months and ends at Spring break. The last section of the year is the end. This is from Spring break until the end of the school year. This section is at least tolerable because the weather is getting better so we don’t have to be cooped up inside all the time. It is also the section when the idea that school is almost out comes to play. This idea works wonders for many students because they think to themselves, “well, there’s only two months of school left, if I have survived thing long, I will be able to make it to the end.” And, after Spring break, most students do make it to the end.

This is the philosophy of the school year, and why Spring break is one of the most important times off for everybody in the school.

Bracket Predictions

Since yesterday was selection Sunday, I think I should write about the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. In my mind, this is a very good and efficient way to find out who the best team in the nation is. I wish college football would do something similar, but that is a whole different topic. So here are my bracket predictions.

The first thing I should say is that I see no clear-cut winner. Nobody is a definite favorite to go the distance. There are many teams that, if they play well, are capable of beating anybody else. As seen by the constantly changing number 1 team during the year, every team has their off day. I think that three of the 2ed seeded teams could have been 1^st seeds. Duke, Oklahoma (with Blake Griffin), and Memphis are good enough to run the table, but if they make one mistake, are bad enough to lose early.

Pittsburg is going to kill me. I think they are a very talented and tough team, but they have their lapses. I would like to choose Pitt to win it all, but I’m not going too. I think that they will have their off game, I just can’t figure out when. I’m not sure if its going to be in the second round, or the championship, but I just don’t have enough confidence to choose them as the best team in the nation. I think Oklahoma is very similar to Pitt. They are talented enough to make a run, but they just don’t have enough to win it all. When Blake Griffin is healthy and playing well, they are a very hard team to stop. But when he is off his game, or when he is injured, they are susceptible to a very ugly loss.

I think that the upsets are going to be hard to call in this tournament. No team got a high seed than they deserved, so the higher seeds have the advantage because the low seeded teams deserve the low seed. The most likely upsets in my mind are Arizona over Utah, and Northern Iowa over Purdue. Other than that, I don’t see many. I’m going to go out on a limb and call a Cinderella story team right now. This is all likelihood will not happen, but if it does, you heard it here first. Cinderella story= Mississippi St. 

Now for my final predictions. The final four will have at least 2, if not all of the number 1 seeds. I have Pitt, and Connecticut as the two that might not make it, but I have confidence that North Carolina and Louisville will. I have North Carolina and Louisville playing in the championship, and it pains me to say this because I dislike them so much, but I think that UNC will win it all. There you have it. 

Track

Track started for me yesterday. I have already posted about how absurdly early the track season starts, but now it seems like track season. It feels like we should be running outside, enjoying the nice warm weather and bright sunny days. But no, my first day of track practice was held in the gym, because it was too cold.

When I think of track, I think of running in shorts and a tee shirt around a track that is nice and warm. I don’t think of myself needing to wear tights and sweatpants and four long sleeve shirts just to begin to feel warm. I don’t think of running on a track that is covered in ice, and I don’t think of running by the still snow covered ground. This whole weather thing put a damper on my outlook of track.

But since I am running now, I am yearning for spring to fully arrive. I can’t wait until its 65 degrees and sunny on a regular basis only interrupted by a little rain. Rain in March I can deal with, but snow and ice is a different story. These long Iowa winters start to take their toll when it comes to decent weather.

I like running track. I know that may sound odd to some people, why would you want to just run? How could running be fun? But to be honest, I really don’t run all that much in track. I am a high jumper and hurdler. This means that the farthest I have to run at any meet is 110 meters plus whatever the approach to the high jump is. So I don’t go out and run, I go out and have fun because I’m around all these people who are running while I don’t really have to. If I said this to my coach though, that would not be pretty, but it is the truth. I like track because it is not as demanding as football or basketball, but I have fun nonetheless. I don’t have to spend three hours every night practicing and track practices are laid back and not very intense. So overall, I have to work hard at track, but I don’t have to devote my whole life into it like I do for football and basketball.

Stem Cell Research

Obama is now letting the government fund all stem cell research. I am for this completely and I think there never should have been a ban in the first place. Stem cell research has so much potential to improve every facet of life; I think it is shame that it was limited.

For starters, I think it’s a no-brainer for why stem cells need to be researched. Human cells that can be grown into any type of cell to replace damaged tissues are in short supply. But if there becomes a new understanding for how they work, then the supply will grow. Ways to cure paralysis and 100% acceptance for organ transplants, I think those are pretty good pros.

I know that stem cell research was not completely illegal, adult stem cells were fine, but the problem lies with embryonic stem cells. When the stem cells from an embryo are taken for research, the embryo dies. This is where many people feel the problem is. Many people consider an embryo a human life and that it is murder to destroy one. I have my own problems with this because I feel life starts at a different point, but I’m not going to stray from stem cell right now.

So hypothetically, let us assume that life does start the second an egg is fertilized. The embryo is a living human being in this situation. Even with this being true, stem cell research should not have been banned. People argue that we are killing humans that have a chance at life. But really, these embryos have no chance. Embryos used for stem cell research are embryos that have been fertilized out side the body, or in vitro fertilization. When in vitro fertilization occurs, multiple eggs are taken from the woman and fertilized all producing a human life. Let’s say that 10 eggs are taken and fertilized, but the woman only wants 3 children. What happens to the 7 other embryos? They get frozen and eventually thrown away. Is this not killing a living person? Is throwing away an embryo acceptable and morally correct? People say that we are taking life when we use stem cells from an embryo, but they don’t mention how that same embryo eventually gets it life taken when it is thrown away. So I don’t understand why it is wrong to research the stem cells of an embryo, even if it kills the embryo. The embryo is going to die anyway, so why not use it to help save other lives instead of just letting it go to waste?

Trigger Happy TV

I figured that I haven't had a video on my blog for a while and that most of the posts have been serious. So I'm putting Tigger Happy TV on. Trigger Happy TV was a British hidden camera television show in the early 2000’s. It is a show where you just can’t stop laughing. Most of the pranks involve large, animal mascot costumes, and the surprise and shock of complete strangers. This video is just a glimpse of the genius of Trigger Happy TV, so I added the link to the youtube search of it. Any of the videos are worth watching.

Track Already

Track starts Monday, February 16th. Wow. That is my first reaction. If we had not have had consecutive days of unusually warm weather at the beginning of the month, there would still be a foot of snow on the ground. The last time I checked, it’s hard to run in the snow. But nonetheless, practice starts Monday.

I will not be attending this first practice, or the first couple of weeks of practice for that matter. This is because basketball is still going on. The state tournament for basketball gets over in mid-March, by then there have already been a couple of indoor track meets. I don’t like how sports overlap like this. Give me a week off at least before I have to commit to the everyday running of track. This same problem occurred during the fall. Football goes into November if a team makes it to the playoffs, but basketball practice starts in mid-November as well. I think that if my football team would have made it to the state semifinals and lost, I would have had the weekend off before basketball started. If we would have made it to the championship, I think I would have missed some basketball.

This is wrong. Sports have their own season and should not drag on, or start up early. Track is a spring sport, the last time I checked, February in Iowa is the farthest away from spring you can get. Also, overlapping of sports gives the athletes no breaks. Coaches are always saying how you need to be in good condition and how you need to be well rested and ready to go. But when I have no break between sports, I never get the chance to rest. It’s always full go. It’s everyday, with no exceptions. I don’t like how coaches expect players to instantly switch from one sport to the next. I feel that it takes at least a week for me to transition out of one sport, and into another. But I know that if I want to make it to state in track, I won’t be able to take a week off, I will have to start right away, just like always.

Why I Blog (sort of)

Why I write. That is a commonly discussed topic among essayists. For bloggers, it becomes why I blog. But for me, it’s why I relentlessly rack my brains for random thoughts about loose topics to ramble on (great song) about. Sitting at a blank computer screen hurts, I loath it. But at the same time, I get excited when I have something to add to my blog, and the blank screen fills up fast. I have something to write about now; I’m going to blog about blogging (say that 20 years ago and people think your crazy, so I’m told). Now here it goes, why I blog.

I blog because I need to. In need to blog in order to get a good grade in a class, a class in high school that probably has minimal impact on the rest of my life, but might (I like to give this class the benefit of the doubt since it is the class that most entertains me during the day). In the grand scheme of things, I know that I should not be killing myself over such a simple task, but I do. I can’t help myself. I feel guilty when I don’t keep up on the required posts, and I feel guilty that I am only following the guidelines of the blog to their loosest setting. It’s not a good feeling to log onto my blog and see my last post was from a week ago. I want to blog, I really like having the thought that anybody in the whole world can read my words. But blogging is difficult to maintain at a constant rate. I find two reasons for this:

1-Time. It takes time to come up with a reasonable thought, write about it for 400 words, and then put it on the actual blog with tags and links and embedded videos and all. It is difficult to find time to sit down three times a week and repeat the steps mentioned above. An average 400-word post usually takes 25 minutes to write minimum. Maybe I’m not a normal person, but this seems long, and I usually don’t have the kind of time to do this, which all comes around to making me feel guilty again.

2- Lack of things to write about. I read things, I’m curious about a lot of things, I have opinion on almost everything, but I still find myself occasionally staring at a blank computer screen where words wont just magically appear. It sucks. I hate the feeling of helplessness when I have an empty screen and words just wont come. As you may notice, the original topics my blog is supposed to somewhat follow are sports, movies, and food. As you may also notice, it is not uncommon for me to write about something that is completely different then those. My blog has sort of become a place where I just write about whatever is on my mind, which has the always-looming possibility to come out bad. Maybe I’m missing something (I hope I am) but I just don’t have the time or idea bank to consistently write three 400 word posts a week.

Even with all of the difficulties of blogging, I really think it is quite fascinating. Anybody at anytime can read the words that came from my mind. My words all over the world. I don’t care who reads them; I don’t care if they get read. I don’t care if my blog is on Google, I just care that it is out there. Out there in a world of words, I added my own special touch. I added a small part of myself to the infinite Internet. And that feels good, to know that the audience is watching, but not too closely. When I say audience, I am referring to the innocent bystander who happens to stumble across my lonely blog and actually take the time to read it, even if what he reads is one line that makes him click back faster than the split second that it took him to accidentally click on my blog in the first place because that line was 81 words long and had something like 9 mistakes in it and was just unacceptable in his mind. I don’t care if that is the only person that visits my blog. At least its one.

I believe blogging would be truly enjoyable if I got to do it on my own schedule, about whatever I want to write about. And that is the other thing about a blog, you can write however you want. It doesn’t have to be formal, but can if the blogger feels it is necessary. It is how a person wants to write it, freelanced and streamlined.

So there you go, why I blog. This is not a piece of writing that will change the world in any sort of way, but now it is out there, and somebody might just happen to fall into the trap and enjoy it. But the chances are slim at best. 

Birthdays

What is the thing about birthdays? Why do we celebrate them? Why do we make them a big deal? To me, birthdays are nothing more than another day in your life, and you should treat them no different. But since today is my birthday, I got to thinking about them, and this is what I came up with: Why do we celebrate birthdays, and why do people fear getting old?

So first, why we celebrate birthdays. I really have no reasonable answer to this question, and if it was up to me, birthdays would not be celebrated. Why do we give people presents on their birthday? Why do we make them a cake? Why I it their day? I don’t have a reasonable answer to any of these questions either. I don’t have an answer because first of all, the person whose birthday it is didn’t do anything. The mother and father wanted you, planned for you, conceived you, and gave birth to you (the last part only pertains to the mother actually). So why do you get all the credit? Shouldn’t we be celebrating our parents on our birthday? Shouldn’t we make it our parent’s day and thank them for all the work that they put into you? It seems like celebrating your birthday is a very selfish thing to do.

And second, why do people fear getting old? It is obviously the most natural thing in everybody’s life- aging. Death is another issue, but getting to the point in your life when you can die naturally is a commonly feared thing. When the years start to pile up, people start to cover up. We see it everyday, woman wearing makeup to hide winkles, and men dying their hair so it doesn’t turn that dreaded gray. But why? I, once again, have no reasonable answer to this question. I might figure it out when I get to that point, but as of right now, it’s a mystery to me. I am going to embrace age. You can’t stop life, so why try and fool yourself.

Super Bowl Commercials

Watching the Super Bowl means I can’t change the channels when the commercials come on. The commercials, at least in the past, are what have kept me interested. Most of the time commercials are dull and boring and just a waste of time, but during the Super Bowl, they are funny and entertaining.

This years Super Bowl commercials were kind of a let down. There were about three or four that I really liked, but the rest were either just like a regular commercial or just stupid. The one second Miller Highlife commercial was by far the most original, just because I have never seen a one second commercial before. “Highlife.” That was all that was said, and it was effective because it left me thinking if it was supposed to be a joke or not.

My favorite commercial was the Pepsi Refresh Anthem commercial. After I saw it, I turned to the person sitting next to me and said, “That was a good commercial.” An immediate reaction like that for a commercial says that it really was a good commercial. It was not funny, which is usually what sets good ads apart, but it was catchy. I liked how they went back and forth between generations and I thought that it was very effective with a good song and images.
The other commercials that round out my top 5: Hulu.com with Alec Baldwin, LMAO by NBC, Castrol Oil with the monkeys, and a three way tie for fifth between Careebuilder.com tips for a new job, Coke with the bugs, and Bridgestone with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. These were all funny commercials (which you very rarely see outside of the Super Bowl), except for the Coke ad, but that was along the same lines as the Pepsi Refresh commercial.

Overall, I would say the commercials were below average. There were many that were just plain stupid. The front runners for this award are the Godaddy.com commercials. These are wrong. They need to find a new way to advertise because they beating this to death. These commercials were o.k. when they first came out, 3 or 4 years ago. But after a while they just get old. But the worst commercial of the game was another Pepsi commercial. Pepsuber. Really? Spoofing a spoof? That is low and its chance of being actually funny is about 1 in a gazillion. I thought MaCgruber was dumb on SNL, but to take it to another level like this was horrendous. That was the dumbest thing I have seen, ever.

To watch all of the Super Bowl commercials, go to NBC.com or Hulu.com.

The Super Bowl

Football is officially over. It’s February and basketball has been in full swing for weeks, and football just got done. I have already said that this is unreasonable, and there is no need to reinforce this. But its football, I can’t not do one final post about it.

I watched the Super Bowl I didn’t really care who won (although it would have been nice to see the “worst playoff team ever” pull this one off). So I was not planning on being very interested in the game. But I must say, that was a fun game to watch. All the ups and downs provided some serious excitement. I was on the edge of my seat for the last three minutes of the game. I was not expecting that.

I have said before that I would rather watch a good defense that a good offence. There was a lot of good defense in this game. To start, the 100-yard interception return by James Harrison to end the first half. Wow. I thought that Arizona was going to get back in the game with the ball on the 3 yd-line. But after that play, I didn’t think Arizona had a chance. A huge play like that turns the momentum in favor of Pittsburgh, and I thought it was going to be a blowout.

Second, it was a blowout because of the Arizona defense. I believe that they outplayed they Steelers defense but it didn’t show in the end. There was something like three red zone stands for Arizona, proving that they believed. Their defense played very well, but you can’t keep an offense led by Ben Roethlisberger from diving down the field in the end. Hats off the Arizona defense for proving people wrong.

I think the officials were being paid off. At one point the penalties were around 9 to 2, killing Arizona. They ended with 11 penalties for 106 yards. There were 3 personal foul, 15-yard penalties on one drive. One drive. You can’t win when you are being called for roughing the passer by knocking him over a split second after he releases the ball. He didn’t spear him, go for his head, drive him to the ground, or hit him late. He just knocked Roethlisberger down. I’m sorry, but it’s football, you need to expect to get hit. I’m not says that the penalties lost the game, but I am saying that they didn’t help the cause. 

MXC

MXC (Most eXtreme elimination Challenge) is the best show that almost nobody knows about. I mentioned this show in my last post when I talked about The Office. I said how The Office had become my favorite show, but this is for only one reason- I never see MXC anymore. I used to watch it all the time, it was on when I came home from school, and it was on later at night. They used to have MXC marathons on the weekends and I would watch that show for hours. But now, it’s almost never on. So I did some searching, and I found it on Spike TV at 1 or 2 in the morning on Friday or Saturday. It always changes between those days, so I just have to guess when it will be on. It sucks.

MXC was my favorite show because I never stopped laughing. I would laugh at the opening commentaries, at Guy LeDouche, and at Captain Tenneal. I would laugh at the stupid games, at the names of the people, and at what the people said before they went to play. But most of all, I would laugh at the un-athletic, and un-coordinated Japanese people basically hurting themselves on a game show. They jump and run and fall into “today’s mystery septic sludge” and in doing so, they would make me laugh even harder.

For those of you who have not seen the show, you are missing out. It is witty and off-the-wall. Its humor is not only in the stupid people, but it’s in the dialogue of the commentators as well. The show is a real Japanese game show, which a couple of guys re-dubbed into English. They talk over what is really being said, and say completely random, completely sarcastic, and completely side-splitting comments.

They games are my favorite part. They are pointless and always very difficult, even for athletic people. They require skill that most people do not have. It is these people, who wipe out, that are the substance of the show. When they don’t succeed, they get eliminated. At the end of the show, there is a Most Painful Elimination segment, where the people who wiped out the worst are featured.

All I can say is that if you have not seen this show, you don’t know what you are missing yet. You need to stay up late one night and watch it, if anything, just to say you have seen it. But I promise you, it’s definitely worth it.

The Office

I know that this blog is supposed to be about movies, but I would like to talk about a TV show. This has become my favorite show on television, passing even the best episodes of MXC. It is witting, thought provoking, and extremely awkward. The show I am talking about is called The Office.

Before I begin, I need to say that The Office was originally a show on the BBC, created by Ricky Gervais. I have not seen the “original,” but I have heard that it is better than the American version. I always say that I highly doubt this because The Office is the best show ever and nothing could be better, but I guess I should keep an open mind, I think Ricky Gervais is hilarious.

The Office stars Steve Carrel as Michael Scott- the manager of the Scranton branch of a small paper company, Dunder Mifflin. I do not know how he does it, but he is just an awkward person. He has a tendency to get into situations where he has no clue what to say next. This just makes the viewer uncomfortable. It is hard to watch an episode of The Office without cringing at the tension created by Michael Scott.

There other characters of The Office, but I only know by their names on the show. So here is a brief background of the characters and history of the show. Jim and Pam have had an ongoing and rocky office relationship. Pam got engaged (not to Jim) but eventually broke the engagement (because of Jim). Dwight is a suck up to Michael, and was having an affair with the office “stuck up” lady, Angela. Angela gets engaged to Andy, who has an anger management problem, but Angela continues to have the affair with Dwight. Phyllis is the large woman who gets made fun of a lot, Kevin is the large man who acts naturally as a mentally challenged person would, Meredith is the redhead alcoholic, and Creed is the creepy old guy. Oscar is a gay Mexican, Toby has a secret crush on Pam, Stanley is the “leave-me-alone” guy who does crosswords, and Kelly has a very oddly shaped relationship with Ryan the temp who becomes a corporate giant only to fall because of a corruption and a drug problem.

That was a brief description of each of the main characters. It may not seem like much of a concept, but to understand them, you actually have to watch the show. If you watch more than one episode, you will come to learn that they are all very well developed and very likeable to the viewer. The Office grows on you, and you will find yourself saying, “when is the next Office on?” When you watch The Office, you feel like you are part of an office. A very dysfunctional, uncomfortable office to say the least.

Football in January

These past weekends have been very busy for me. They have been full of basketball and homework. There is no time for a good movie, and that makes me mad. I have not had the chance to sit down and watch a movie since the beginning of the year, and I won’t get a chance to until February. This is because Friday and Saturday games every weekend leave little time for anything else. So I’m not going to write about basketball or school. I’ve had enough of those for now. I’m going to write about football.

Football is one of those sports that I get tired of watching after a while. It is exciting and fast paced, and can be very fun to watch if you are rooting for one team. But if you don’t care who wins the game, it can get down right boring. In recent years I have been intrigued by the playoffs because I like the Indianapolis Colts. They have gone far enough for me to watch football into late January, but not this year. This year they lost early, and my favorite team, Da Bears, didn’t even make it. So I was thinking that I would disregard football, and not even watch the Super Bowl, until the new season starts. I found that this was hard to do. I found myself sneaking away from what I was doing on Sunday afternoons to watch football. I would sneak away and watch two teams, the Baltimore Ravens and the Arizona Cardinals.

I watched the Ravens because I like Joe Flacco and I like the way they play defense. I know that sounds clichéd, but it’s true. I would rather watch a team make great plays defensively then watch a team make great plays offensively. It’s more exciting to see Ed Reed get an interception than see Hines Ward make a catch. But as they say, all good things must come to an end (I can’t believe I’m using this many clichés). I watched Joe Flacco’s inexperience catch up to him, and I saw the Ravens lose.

The Arizona Cardinals are still in it. They could possible win the Super Bowl. Amazingly enough, Kurt Warner is still playing. A hometown hero, it’s possible that he just lead a “hall of fame drive” to score the winning touchdown over the Eagles. That drive could have put a defining stamp on his jumbled career. He is a great quarterback, and he is leading a team the “Believes.” Its fun to watch the Cardinals play and I might actually watch the Super Bowl this year, because I now have a team to root for.

The Inauguration

Back to Obama, particularly his inauguration. I did not get to see very much of this (damn school!), but I have some thought on what little I did see.

First of all I have to say that Barack is one cool guy. When the chief justice screws up the oath and you don’t let it affect you, especially in front of that many people, you have some nerves of steal. I admire that greatly.

Second, what was with the weekly TV test? After the first sentence of Obama’s speech the screen all of a sudden goes black. Wow, great, our president just got assassinated, was my reaction. But eventually it kicked back in and we got to see the speech. But couldn’t the TV stations have some foresight and delay this test for an hour? Was it really worth interrupting one of the most historic events in our nations history to do some unworthy weekly test? I doubt it.

Lastly I want to talk about the pray that was given by Rev. Dr. Rick Warren before Obama was sworn in. This was the one thing that I had a problem with. When everybody was seated on the platform and Dr. Warren came up and started talking about God and African Americans and other things, I was thrown off. I know that religion plays a big role in these sorts of things, but I feel this was wrong. A small, simple prayer lasting no more than 30 seconds would have been fine, but this 5-minute rant was over-the-top. I don’t agree with all of the things he said, and I do not feel he should have had that kind of time to say all that. I thought this was supposed to be an inauguration, not a prayer service. Church and state should be kept separate, this kind of thing should not happen. It seemed obnoxious and un-American in the sense that it felt like he was telling us what to believe. This prayer put a damper on the morning festivities for me. I was not pleased.

Obama

Obama! Obama! Obama!

Obama is president. It finally happened. Finally! GWB is out of office and will only haunt us from our dreams. Obama is president. I just like saying those words. They have a nice ring to them. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Obama is president. This is a major step forward in our history. Obama becoming president is great and all, but I still have fear. I fear that there is so much hype, and the expectations are so high, that it will almost be impossible for Him to reach what people are hoping for. I fear that if He doesn’t reach these expectations, people will get angry and impatient. I fear people will mistakenly regret voting Him into office. But I also have faith. I have faith that whatever He does; the country will be better off for it. I have faith in Him. I also have faith in this country. My faith lays in this country’s free nature and acceptance. I have faith that if He falls short and doesn’t reach the expectations, the country will still embrace the good he brought. The good not only during his time in office, but in his time getting to office, uniting this often divided country.

Obama is president. So let us forget the horrors of the past 8 years. It will be extremely difficult, but I believe. I believe it is possible to move forward in trying times, move forward with a strong, calm leader out in front. I believe in my leaders ability, I believe in His words. He is going to be like a new father, showing a baby nation how to stand on its own. So believe with me, and help us start the climb back to the top. 

Snow (or wind or cold) Days

I do not like snow days. Usually students are all excited to get a whole day off of school to do nothing. But after the first snow day, not me. I say after the first snow day because one snow day I can deal with. I can’t deny that I do like to sleep in, not do anything until basketball practice, then not do anything after basketball. It’s just like a Sunday. But once the snow days start pilling up, I don’t like them anymore.

First of all, I don’t like the weather. Recently, we have been getting out of school because of the cold and wind. I always say, the snow I can deal with, but the cold always gets me. If it’s just a foot of snow to get us out of school, I’m fine with that. But when it drops to negative 23 with a wind chill of negative 50 degrees, I just don’t like it. That kind of cold makes everything cold. It makes your house drafty, it makes walking the dog unreasonable, and it makes your car too frozen to start.

The second reason why I don’t like snow (or wind or cold) days is because it screws up teacher’s plans for school. I know that this may sound odd coming from a student, but I really don’t like when teachers have to adjust their class plans. They always say that the make-up days are added at the end of the 3^rd term, which does us no good in the 2^nd term. This means that if we have multiple snow (or wind or cold) days, the homework load in the weeks after gets very large. Since teachers don’t have the time to cover things in class, they give it to the students to cover on their own.

And the third reason for which I loath multiple snow (or wind or cold) days, is because I would prefer not to finish school in July. As of right now, with only three snow (or wind or cold) days, we are already going into the second week of June. This is wrong, but it will only get worse with the more snow (or wind or cold) days that get added to this year. I would rather do my work now, and deal with the weather, than have to do my work in June when I actually enjoy the weather.

The Bowl Season

I have not posted on my blog in a while. As in, this is my first post of the year. This is because I took a break from all school work. Over Christmas break I did absolutely no homework. I’m not saying that I did absolutely nothing; I just didn’t do any school work. I was busy every day with basketball practices and scrimmages, and a full schedule of naps.

So now to what I’m to write about. I haven’t really thought much about it, but the first thing that comes to mind is football. Specifically, the bowl games. This is the silliest thing that I know of. The bowl system could be one of the most over rated and over talked about things in all of sports. Anytime during the Christmas break when I actually had my eyes open to watch TV, all that was on was bowl game analysis and predictions. The bowl games weren’t actually on; they were just talking about them. They are so hyped up that they actually are a let down when it comes to the game itself. In part because people are expecting so much from the games, and because the players have so much practice time, it’s hard for them to get back into the game mode.

This brings up the question of why the games are held at the end of December and into January, when the regular season ends at the beginning of December. Once again, the only halfway logical explanation in money. More time to advertise, so more people know about it, so apparently, more people watch. Money is the only reason that bowl games still exist. Money is the only reason the BCS standings still exist. Money is the only reason an undefeated team in a “lesser” conference doesn’t get to play for the national championship.

In my opinion, the BCS system should be thrown out and never thought of again. It is to make money, not to see who the best team in is. The only way to find out who the best team is, is to have a playoff. Every other NCAA sport and division has one. Basketball, baseball, even division II football has a playoff. So why not division I (I’m sorry FBS)? Money. The easiest and most successful way to determine who the best is, never takes place in DI because the people who run the show are too greedy and always want more money.