Final Post

I don't know what to write about, which was the case almost everytime i tried to blog this year. I don't think I'll continue to blog this summer just because of the time it takes me. I do confess to having a xanga website back in middle school but i didn't really keep it up to date so i'm thinking the blog wouldn't really work out either.
I'm just rambling now, but jordan is on the FBI ten most wanted list and is reading about these guys. Osama Bin Laden is number one and has a 25 million dollar reward on him. I think Jordans going to devote his life to catching these criminals and cashing in on the rewards. He just has to figure out how to find them and he'll be set.
I don't know what else to write about and this entry is taking way too long. So far Jordan has made 54 cents off of his blog advertisments so he'll likely have to find a new job if the catching americas most wanted doesn't work out.
This has been one of my most distracted, random, bad blog entries yet, i apologize. but now i', done.

School Lunch

School lunch isn’t always a pleasant experience. Once the bell goes off in your 4th hour class one must hurry down the halls at a sprint in some cases just to get there in time for food. I’m in D lunch and in many cases the kids at the back of the line don’t get food because it’s already run out. Not to mention the crammed tables in the cafeteria. You usually spend about 5 minutes just standing around waiting for somewhere to sit. Then once you sit you have around 15 minutes to eat then be back to class. Alright I needed to get that out of my system.
Because of all this hassle my friends and I go out to eat some days. Because of the short time we just run through the drive through and eat on the way back, but it still beats the whole lunch room experience, no lines, good food, and you can sit down in your car. Next year I’m hoping to have 4th hour off so I can have plenty of time for lunch, a very necessary meal.

On Doing Nothing

Now that the seniors are gone most have my classes have slowed down. By slowed down I mean completely stopped. I am in no way complaining, it's just that I don't feel like going to class more than ever. I have a few classes were all we do is study hall. It's great, except you can only do nothing for so long before it starts to get boring. I think that classes dominated by seniors, especially ap classes should be dismissed after the seniors graduate. I don't think there's any point in keeping kids in class just because there are 180 days in a year to be filled. If they've learned everything needed in the course and have already completed an ap test they should be free to go, plus it would be incentive for kids to take ap classes.

I do think that the last weeks of nothing are a great time for teachers to provide their students with extra credit projects and other ways to improve their grade, i have no problem with that... I just hate spending a whole day at the school especially when I'm just sitting in class. I expect any teacher reading this would get upset and say something about how they can give us more work if will really want them to, and that we shouldn't complain but honestly i don't care and just want summer.

Mosquitos

             Mosquitoes are insects which make up the family Culicidae. They have a pair of scaled wings , a pair of halteres, a slender body, and long legs. The females of most mosquito species suck blood from other animals, which has made them the most deadly disease vectors known to man, killing millions of people over thousands of years and continuing to kill millions per year by the spread of diseases. (Wikipedia)

            You already know what they are, and I'm sure you've all felt the familiar sting of these pests living in Iowa. It's now becoming that time of year, puddles and mud become home to millions of mosquito larvae. I live in a wooded area and it's getting out of control. I'll open the door and within a few seconds a cloud of them will be swarming in front of my face. Anytime I want to go outside i have to cover myself in bug spray. I've never been a fan of the greasy feeling and usually go without it only to be bitten alive, I'm just hoping they become extinct in my lifetime. 

The Tunnel

Before the start of each football game you go through a routine. Get on the bus with all of your stuff and head over to the stadium. Once you’re in the locker room it starts to get quiet and everyone starts to focus on the game. Everyone gets into their pads at different rates and the mood starts to change again. People start yelling, slapping helmets and then coach calls us in for the pre-game meeting after we do our warm-ups out on the field. He gives us our talk and then coach white comes in to get us going. Next we file into the tunnel and squeeze in al tight up next to the banner. The stadium lights shine through the banner into the dark tunnel making a weird artificial light. There’s a strange feeling behind the glowing banner and it gets quiet until the announcer yells the Kennedy Cougars, then coach yells, “go get ‘em!” and we break through opening us up to all the light and noise as we flood onto the field.

Waking Up

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! My alarm usually gets its chime off four times before I reach my arm that’s still stiff from the nights sleep and grip the plastic slider to ALARM-OFF. The slider reminds me of the day to come. I’m reminded of everything I have to do next; I’m not in a good mood.
Next, I reach down and grab my thick blue comforter and pull it off of me along with my sheets. The cool air of my room hits my legs and jolts me awake. Once again, I am not in a good mood. The cold wood floor I step onto just adds to my jolly early-morning mood. As I walk to my door my room is already bright because of my large window, the door opens me up to the stinging hallway lights that shocks my pupils. My eyes get even with me by sending a stinging pain through my forehead.
I walk into my bathroom and turn my adjuster light on low and run some cold water in the sink. I look through the fog in my eyes to the mirror. After I splash my face with some cold water they clear up and I finally get the feeling that I’m awake. I dry off and stretch my arms as I walk into the kitchen and open the pantry and scan the shelves for something decent. I usually can’t find anything and end up grabbing a protein shake then heading out of the door.

Captain Crunch

I open the kitchen cabinet early one morning. My eye automatically goes to the second row from the top, where all the clear tupaware containers are holding different types of cereals. I read them left to right, like a book. First, the dark rough texture with little black dots spots me through its textured plastic container. This would be my dad’s favorite, Raisin Bran. Next over, I see some lighter colored circles, cheerios. Maybe another day, there not even honey nut anyways. My eyes keep moving. Next to the cheerios is some ugly mixture, something too healthy, something that tastes like different types of cardboard and gravel, one of my mom and sisters healthy cereals. I don’t even hesitate as my eyes keep moving onto the familiar, yellow round-cube like pieces of gold. Captain crunch, my favorite. My mouth starts to water as I reach into the cabinet and grab the container. This is going to be a good breakfast.

Presidential Physical Fitness

Presidential Physical Fitness is a program that is meant to keep kids in shape in grade school by encouraging kids to get in shape so they can get a badge and letter "signed" by the president. I remember the first day we were told about it. Our PE teacher told us we could be part of the elite presidential physical club.

All you had to do was meet some guidelines based on your age. Personally I think i remember having to do more than 30 situps in a minute, 4 pull ups, run a mile under 7 minutes, and be able to pass my toes on sit and reach. All of these were fairly easy for a skinny 5th grade boy, the pull ups were the only thing that threatened me every year. Since then they've gotten easier while the sit and reach poses more of a problem. I can't exactly touch my toes.

I remember after you met all the guidelines the gym teacher would anounce it. You would then recieve a blue badge and certificate "signed" by Bill Clinton himself. It was an elite group of athletic specimen everyone wanted to be a part of. Actually, it wasn't that hard and i think all but 2 or 3 kids in my class made it. Still, at the time, many kids thought it cemented there place in professional sports once they were older.

Homework

Last night i sat down to do my homework at about 3 in the afternoon. I figured that it wouldn't take very long and that I could finish it quickly and get to bed early that night. I wasn't exactly sure what I had for homework so I opened up my folders one by one. Starting with first hour. When I opened up the ap lang folder my eyes met the research paper.. o crap. I sat down at the computer and began to do one final revision for the paper. I didn't think that it would take me long, but it sure did. Three revisions later and my dads revision led to a different paper. Then I had to go back and cite the sources by paragraph, which I hadn't done before.
Luckily after that paper my 2nd and 3rd hour classes didn't give any homework. But my fourth hour pre calc class had a big test monday.. So i sat down and studied that for about an hour. After that i didn't want to go on to the next class, which was spanish. We had a quiz over ser vs. estar coming up. After looking at that I was ready to throw my bag out the window, instead i went over my ap lang paper one more time then went to bed, great night.

UltraKeys

If there was one class I wish i payed more attention to in middle school it's typing. We used this program called UltraKeys. It was part of Computer Tech Ed. Everyday you would go through this computer program typing the same sentences over and over.

The senences would work on one row of keys at a time. You would start by typing just the letters, like asdfghjkl; asdfghjkl; asdfghjlk; the eventually switch to real words, as dad sad a sag dag jag jas fash. This was pretty boring, and for that reason i didn't do it everyday. Then when it came time for testing we would have to type for speed. I barely passed because i never got any better. I'd just type really slow on the pre-test so it looked like a improved.

The other reason for my present day typing handicap is the cardboard covers we would put over our hands as we typed. I'd always cheat by bending my wrists so the cover would slide up and I could see the keys. Today, I still can't type without looking, sorry UltraKeys. It's your fault for being so easy to cheat on.

Michael Ayers

The class have recently ended the eternal quest to find Ayers's blog. The simple answer was to just google, "Michael Ayers" UIowa Blog. His blog is panoptiblog.blogspot.com. The actual search for his blog was quite interesting. The name Michael Ayers in synonomous with many things we have found out, from potty mouth teenage girls, to British boxers.

• 
  Michael Ayers, age 50, is a ultra-distance in line skater. His famous quote, "If it ain't at least 30 miles, it ain't worth putting your skates on for." Titles his website, there were numerous photos of him finishing these skating marathons, and some of him and his granddaughter skating around also. Quite the athlete.

While on the topic of his athleticism one should note his boxing career. He was 31 and 5 with 28 knockouts while boxing in the UK. He's a lightweight from London and is now retired at 48.

One of the more discriptive accounts of Michael Ayers cam from a teenage girl. She seemed to be upset with him and in love with him at the same time. I think he said something to one of her friends about her and someone else, so she resorted to name calling i'm not going to repeat.

Show and Tell

The other comic we read was Show and Tell. It was basically an author introducing you to comics, and showing you how to read them. He was pretty helpful in his introduction. He showed how different pictures from different places in time can be put in sequence without anywords and still tell a story. This story was a little easier to read in my opinion, compared to 2 Questions. This was probably because his writing was trying to explain how to read comics, while hers was just free flowing ideas. Show and Tell also contained pictures like those in 2 Questions, but they were boxed off more clearly, and easier to read through in order.

2 Questions

The other day we read an animated type essay, called 2 Questions. It was pretty interesting. It was written in a unique style. It was way different than anything we had read in class yet.The comic book style of the essay got the message across very effectively without using many words. The drawings gave you a very clear idea of what was going on inside the authors head.

The whole essay was about the authors struggle with drawing. She drew pictures of her in her childhood drawing for fun, then pictures of her struggle to draw with no purpose once she was older. An octopus was drawn throughout it all, which represented her not caring about what people thought of her drawing

Summeritis

         The term "senioritis" doesn't appropriately diagnose what most students are going through at this time. "Summeritis" seems to be more accurate as it pertains to all grades. It doesn't have quite the strength in symptoms that senioritis may bring about. Us juniors aren't going anywhere next year, but we are leaving for several months during the summer. These months are able to divert the attention and focus of any unsuspecting student.

You have to be careful, however, not to get too careless. This spring trimester has the ability to bring down your overall gpa. I must admit, i'm often tempted with the question at home, "study, or take a nap/ eat/ watch youtube/ tv/ talk/ anything but school?". As Ayers warned us while jordan walked into class late with full breakfast in hand, be careful not to get lazy, we still have four weeks left.

I'm going to try to keep going, and keep the grades up. After all we're almost there.. Only half a trimester left. Which is actually quite a while so I better figure something out.

Optimism

I wrote a speech in 8th grade about being an optimist, and how optimism helps the country. We show our optimism through giving our time, talent, and money to charities. Americans have dedicated millions of hours volunteering in schools and programs throughout the nation. We believe that our time and money will benefit a cause. Americans often unite together behind causes in times of trouble. After 9-11 people united together to donate millions of dollars, goods and services. The people that donated this money believed that it would help victims and our nation recover. This was partly due to their belief in each other. Building plans are being made to rebuild the towers, and businesses are regrouping to become better and stronger. We stand united in the belief that optimism will help us through any crisis.
Helen Keller once said, “keep your face to the sunshine so that you cannot see the shadow” I keep my face to the sun when I think of my future. Because I have faith in God, and believe that our country will stay united because of our acceptance of all people, our giving to those in need, and our loyalty to America. America will always stand united in optimism. Just as Winston Churchill once said, “ For myself I am an optimist, it does not seem much use being anything else.”

Stiff

I read this book Stiff, by Mary Roach about uses of cadavers. it was some pretty gruesome stuff.
In the first chapter of the section, Mary Roach talks about of the history of head transplantations. Research in this field started with doctors and scientists trying to take heads of decapitated prisoners who had been through the guitine and reattach them to something that would supply oxygenated blood to see if they could survive. The next thing Mary talks about is about doctors trying to fully transplant the head of one dog onto the neck of another dog. The doctors hoped that they could get both the dogs to survive with a new head. Sometimes it actually worked. In one case, one of the dogs lives for 29 days with the head of another dog. Towards the end of the chapter she covers the benefits of being able to transplant a head from one human to another.
A major benefit is that someone who had severe internal organs to their previous body could have their head transplanted to a healthy body and continue to live. The major drawback, however, is that once the head received a new body, the person would become paraplegic, and have no movement from the neck down. She says that one doctor, Dr. White, was able to transplant the brain of one monkey into the abdominal region of another and keep it alive. The brain had no senses though, and could only think.
The next chapter she writes is called, “Eat Me”. She talks about cannibalism, and the medicinal purposes of cadavers. There were some really weird cures using bodily fluids and stuff. Like saliva for eye infections, and putting tooth tarter on wasp stings. She has an explanation for these bizarre cures though. Someone says that sugar pills, or placebos, will reduce pain 25-40% of the time, and if u take that into consideration u can see how some people could believe they were getting better from the wacky cures. If you believe something works your mind can trick your body into believing it. The worst part of the chapter is when it talks about a man who worked in a crematory and cut the off parts of the deceased people he received and gave them to his brother who worked in a restaurant.

On Cooking

I'd like to think of myself as quite the cook. Not just a mac n cheese cook, more like a grilled cheese cook. Today i even made two of my own meals. Not to brag. 

For breakfast i just had some eggs and toast. My dad made the eggs, but i had the idea of putting the eggs onto two pieces of toast, creating an egg sandwich. It was delicious. For lunch i had soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, two of them. Instead of just microwaving the soup like a normal person, i heated it over the stove for optimal taste. The grilled cheese sandwiches were not any regular sandwiches. They were turkey ham and cheese, and i grilled them on this panini machine so they had the little lines on them.

I haven't made dinner yet and i don't know what i'll be making. I am getting very hungry talking about it though. Its almost eight and i don't know what to do. I'll probably back away from stove for an hour and just order pizza.

El Sol y La Luna

We have to translate fables for spanish class. This is a story about how the sun and moon were created. Basically two gods walked themselves into a fire to give light to the world. One of them walked in first and got to become the sun while the other was sared and only became the moon. Enjoy, if you like spanish.

Antes de había luz en el mundo, los dioses estaban hablando. Ellos decían que dos dioses deben caminar por el fuego para dar luz al mundo. Ellos pedieron quienes van a hacerlo. Tecuc quería dar su vida, pero no había más voluntarios. Luego, el viejo nanojuatcin quería dar su vida tambien. Por una semana, todos los Dioses se preparon para el sacrificio. El día del sacrifiio llegó, y nanojuatcin entró en el fuego, pero tecuc tenía miedo y entró en el fuego despues de un rato. Luego, el sol apareció en el cielo, y despues, la luna. Los dioses sabían que nanojuatcin fue el sol y tecuc fue la luna. Ellos pensaban que la luna no debía ser tan brillante como el sol, y por eso ellos tiró un conejo a la luna.

Soccer

I, like almost every kid i know played soccer sometime in their childhood. I don't know how i got into it, but i played on a ymca team with many of my friends. Some of them kept playing through high school. I chose to stop before middle school, but i'll always remember the games i did play in YMCA and Five Seasons leagues. My team was called the stompers.

The routine was the same. My mom or dad would yell at me that i had a game and i would run to my room to pull out my uniform. Shoes, shin guards, purple sox, black shorts, and purple jerseys. Then they'd drive me out to the soccer field and bring folding chairs. During the game we would all just chase the ball around in a big herd but my team was pretty good. At halftime everyone would sit cross legged and listen to the coach while we ate orange slices. The best part came after the game. After we shook hands with the other team we would get treats and drinks. Each week a different parent would bring drinks, and one would bring treats. We'd always ask the other players,"what did your parents bring for treats?". The best was Capri Sun and Rice Krispies.

Which Came First The Chicken or the Egg

I think that the chicken came first. Because of the simple argument of, where did the egg come from, a chicken had to lay it right? Many people argue this with the counter point, "where did the chicken come from?" Touchet my friends, this also brings up a good question to which I answer, from a chicken. Then one might argue yet again, where did the chicken come from.. To which I answer the egg had to come from the chicken which came first.
The large whole in my theory lays within the question, "where did the first chicken come from?". I have made a theory and sent it to some leading researchers who are yet to respond. It's probably above their heads. The theory is that the first chicken hatched from a mammal. Such as a cow. This is referred to as the mystery mammal theory. This baby chicken later met up with a rooster and they produced the first egg. This egg of course came after the chicken, so I must be correct.
If you have any objections to this theory or comments of your own I would love to answer them. Drop me a line, 319-310-6658. Thank you for your time.

Michael Jordan

I was going through my fifth grade word documents on my old computer and found one i did about Michael Jordan.---

Hmmm, when you think of Michael Jordan, you think about a basketball star that keeps wowing the crowd with his skill. But he hasn’t always been a champ; he started out like any one of us. In fact he wasn’t a very fortunate boy. Michael Jordan was born on the 17 of February in 1963 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Ever since he was a boy he had been in love with the game of basketball. Being cut from his high school team didn’t stop his love for the game. His good attitude, work ethic, and work habits kept him in basketball’s path. 1985 he was playing college ball for the University of North Carolina. Under the number 23 he soared over all other players and made a name for himself. All of his practicing and hard work paid off. In 1984 he was a first round draft pick for the Chicago bulls. Unlike most players he kept his edge over players all the way into the pros. The second he hit the pros, he fit in like the icing on the cake. Michael became known for his air born moves and his magical three point shot. As a six time world champion, and five time M.V.P. people started to recognize him as more than M.J. but as a legend. His success wasn’t all on the court, in 1998 he stared in the movie Space Jam. Michael didn’t let all of the fame go to his head; he didn’t get tattoo’s encasing his body, or die his hair rainbow. He was more than a star but a good roll model for kids. Who says you have to make a flashy image to be a star, who ever did, M.J. proved wrong.
Michael was like a fairy tale basketball player, out of some book written by the basketball king.
“Oh wait, Michael Jordan is the king!”
But all fairy tales end, most “Happily ever after.”
After his sixth world championship, he retired, as the worlds best player, ever. But have you heard of a continued fairy tale? I hadn’t, not untill he came back to the game playing for the Washington Wizards. Some were skeptical, but he kept his flame and is leading the Wizards to what they hope is a world championship. He has had a magical life, from zero to hero. All of this because of his strong work ethic, practice habits, and good attitude.

Swimmin with Barbies

Before I had even been to preschool I'd hangout with my neighbor who was the same age as me. We'd just mess around all day. One day we were messing around in my older sisters room. We pulled out a box of her barbies and continued to make a mess of everything. I don't know how long it took us but we eventually noticed her aquarium full of goldfish.
I'm not sure how we decided the barbies on the bed wanted to take a swim in the fish tank, but we did. One by one we dropped the barbies into the tank. Of course they had to be with ken, so we threw the Kens into the tank also. And of course the both wouldn't be comfortable swimmming without their wardrobes, so we threw all the barbie clothes in. Finally the barbies were content. We watched them float around with the fish for a while but that must have got boring also.
The next thing we did was try to get the barbies out. We weren't that tall so i reached up to the top of the fish tank and tried to pull myself up to get my hand in. All this did was bring the tank down off the dresser. It shattered on the floor and fish/water/barbie flooded my sisters room. I'm not sure if i was actually grounded though. Sorry sis...

The Hill

This morning i was fortunate enough to participate in a favorite activity of kennedy football players. Running up Emerson Hill at 6 am. We only run the hill three or four times each day, but thats more than enough to make vomit appear on the street. If you haven't seen the hill you probably won't be able to understand the effect it has.
You usually pull up to the bottom of the hill around 550 where a few cars are already waiting. The players start to gather at the bottom in the sweats, half asleep. Once everyone is there and stretched out as much as you can be at 6 in the morning someone yells go and the herd of players head up the hill. Its not too hard at first around the first couple bends, but once you hit the straightaway at the end you're about dead. The worst part, suprisingly, is the jog back down the hill, your already tired, and do everything you can to keep from falling over.
By the last trip up the hill you can't feel your legs and once your done theres not really a big feeling of relief, you just try to keep your breakfast down. The drive back to kennedy can be pretty bad if you start cramping up, it hasn't happened to me but some of my friends have had to pull over before.

One More Day

Today is Thursday, that means one more day until spring break. It hasn't exactly been an easy week before break. Today I had three tests, one quiz, and the in class essay. It doesn't look like it will be easing up tomorrow either. I have three more tests. The thought of sleeping in and doing nothing for a week should get me through the day though. As soon as the bell goes off after sixth hour I will be home free. Only football lifting then I'm on my way home.

For spring break I'm planning on going to New Smyrna beach in florida with a friend and my family. It should be a good time. Nothing to worry about, no snow, and no homework, well at least I won't be doing any. Break always goes by so fast for me and the next thing I know I'm back in school on Monday.

Hopefully tomorrow doesn't go to slow, and before I know I'll be on break. I know the last few classes we seem like an eternity but hopefully all the tests will make it go faster.

Kleptomaniacs

I've narrowed the topic of my essay once again. I'd like to focus more on the shoplifter, and why they shoplift. I'm still going to include where shoplifters go most often, and what stores do to protect from them. The main focus will be the mind of a shoplifter.

I'm probably goin to write the paper in second person for the most part. Like I'm describing to someone what a shoplifter goes through as if they're the shoplifter. I think it would be a different way to get all of the information I researched across. I'm trying to get across what makes a kleptomaniac act the way they do so putting the audience in the shoes of one of these people would be effective I think.

I'm wondering if i should switch back and forth between the different tenses or if I should stay in the second person for the whole time. Also, I'm not even sure if second person is the correct tense. Leave a comment if you know what tense this is- "You wonder why you can't stop. Your heart rate starts to race, and you walk in."

Pogs

I was cleaning out the bottom of my closet the other day when I stumbled on a shoebox from a while back. I opened it up and started looking through a stash of elementary school memorabilia. When I came across a few token shaped pieces of cardboard I was immediately brought back to 3rd grade. Those pieces of cardboard were Pogs. A short lived trend of the 90's. 

Pogs were used to play a game between two people. You would stack fifteen of these cardboard circles on the floor between two players. Each player then takes a turn throwing a "slammer pog", usually thicker and made of metal or plastic, on top of the pile to knock as many pogs off onto their opposite sides. You got to keep the pogs that flipped over while the ones the didn't flip over were stacked back up for the next player. The person with the most pogs at the end of the game wins.

I didn't play the game a lot but I do remember collecting the things. I had pogs from my favorite tv shows, pogs with athletes faces on them, and pogs with peace signs and ying-yangs. My favorite was a metal slammer pog, shaped like a table saw blade. I thought it was pretty hardcore. I'm sure a lot of you guys remember the game and some of you probably still have your pogs, but I'm willing to bet my red power ranger pog that I would beat you.

Lupe Fiasco

I'm sure your no stranger to all of the hip-hop that's taken over the radio. You can't escape it. Many people despise it. I don't mind it for awhile, but after hearing the same thing over and over again for more than a few songs I get tired of it. I'll listen to it on occasion, but there's only so much to be rhymed about cars, girls, money, and booze. 

A couple years ago a hip-hop song came out called, "kick push". About the life of a skateboarder. It was one of Lupe Fiasco's first unconventional songs to gain attention. I downloaded a few more of his songs and started listening to him some more. His stuff was a little different than most rappers. He didn't write about drugs or hoes. His lack of "street cred" has probably kept most of his songs out of the top of the charts, but he doesn't seem to care.

I bought his newest CD, "the cool". It's got some good stuff on it. Some of these songs I've even started to hear on the radio. Like Hip-Hop Saved My Life, and Dumb It Down. These songs along with some songs from his last CD "Food and Liquor" like the track Daydreamin' have started to gain popularity. In Dumb it Down he clearly bashes the rap industry for it's ways, and talks about how he's not going to dumb down his music to be popular. People have slowly started to agree with him and get into his music. You should listen to some of his stuff for yourself if your into rap.

Shoplifting

Today in class we did an activity where we wrote about the topic we had chosen for our research projects on a sheet of paper. We left the paper in our seats then rotated around leaving comments and questions on other people's papers to help generate ideas. I gained a few things that I could explore on my topic. Some questions people brought up on my topic of shoplifting were

-What stores have the most shoplifters?

-What goes on in a kleptomaniacs brain?

-What are the penalties for shoplifting?

-What measures do stores take to prevent shoplifting?

-Why would a celebrity ever shoplift?

A lot of the comments people left were about how they thought it was a pretty interesting topic and they all seemed to have about the same amount of background knowledge about it. I learned that shoplifting is a major cause of inflation in the country. The most common suggestion I received was to research what types of people shoplift, and what goes on in their brains that makes them feel compelled to steal. Some interesting facts brought up were that maybe the habit of stealing is passed down heretically, and that it's a mental thing.

My paper will be about why people feel compelled to steal mentally, how they go about doing it physically, what the stores do to prevent/punish for it, and I'd like to find a few interesting stories about certain shoplifting incidents to use also.

The Office

A few years ago a friend of mine on the football team introduced me to what is now my favorite show. NBC's "The Office". I'd hear him everyday ripping off these ridiculous quotes from some show. I asked him what the "office" was about and he told me it was on thursdays at seven, so I decided to catch it the next week. 

When I turned it on I wasn't sure what was going on. It's filmed in sort of a weird format. It's a documentary of everyday life within an Scranton based paper supply company office. The character's know the cameras are there and often acknowledge them with a glance or shrug in Jim's case. Every so often they will cut to an interview of one of the employees in the conference room ranting about their feelings, or something their outrageous boss, Michael, has done. 

Every episode takes place over the span of a day. They all usually start as a normal day until Michael, the boss, does something outrageous, or Jim, a salesperson, plays a prank on Dwight, a dorky salesperson who takes his job wayy to seriously. The show is pretty unique in it's format and it takes some getting used to. If you watch a couple episodes you start to catch on to it's humor, and it's pretty hilarious.

research topic follow up...

I started to browse the internet for information on the two topics I've narrowed it down to. The witness protection program, and shoplifting. I started on google and ended up browsing for a while on both topics.

The first topic I started researching was the witness protection program. This google search gave me plenty of results. The problem is, they were all the same, they were pretty vague and all about the same thing. They talked about how the program works and what you have to go to get into it. There weren't any interesting stories or anything, just the same governmental facts. It got a little boring reading over and over and I'm not sure if i could write a whole paper on it.

When I turned to my next topic the information I found was a little more hope full. I was able to find a lot of different things about shoplifting. What type of people do it, why they do it, how they do it, and a lot more. There are a lot of sources on it because it's a common problem people often try to overcome. 

Right now I'm leaning towards writing about shoplifting. The research about it was a lot more interesting to read and I think that it could make a better paper, and less boring one to write at that. 

The iPod

One of the coolest presents I ever received for my birthday was an iPod. This was before every kid on the block had one, so naturally it was a big deal. At the time the ipod I owned was the 2nd one to come out. This was before nano, video, touch, or super nano ultra video 5.0. All it did was play music. The screen wasn't even color but who cared, no one had even seen a color screen yet. Anyways, I thought it was the coolest thing that i had one. Of course now all the kids who didn’t have on at the time now own much newer ones and can store many times the music. 

I won’t forget going to Best Buy with my dad for my birthday and picking one off of the shelf. I couldn’t wait to get home and put my CD’s on it. Which at the time included Jock Jams, NOW (1st one), Queen, the Lion King Soundtrack, and Backstreet Boys Millennium. Don’t judge me, this was fourth grade and I’ve changed for the better, although the Lion King is still one of my favorite CD's.

After Getting home I ran to the computer to figure out iTunes. It took me a couple hours, 1.5 of which I was on hold with the help line, but i figured it out. I quickly added all of my CD’s to the computer than loaded them onto my iPod. The iPod was such a big deal to me that I never really used it because I was afraid to lose it. I never took it to school, but got my use out of it on car and plane rides, gradually added new music and erasing old, except for that Lion King. It's still on there along with thousands of others. 

YouTube

Whenever sitting around with nothing to do I usually end up wandering over to my computer. I'll surf the internet for a while, go to facebook, or go to the ravens website. I always end up at youtube somehow. I'll find some funny video and then another, then another. It's really sad, how much time I can waste just watching these videos.

I'm not sure why, but there is something entertaining about watching others act like idiots and film themselves. The stuff people think up is pretty amazing. There are some videos that make you cringe and others that can make you laugh 'till you cry. I like to think that by watching people do stupid things I gain a slight bit of wisdom. Not that I'd ever try bungy jumping with a garden house or riding my bike off the roof. It just makes me feel a little smarter all the victims of these videos.

One video that especially shocked me was of two boys putting the back tire of their moped on top of one of those metal roundabouts at the park while two girls held on. They revved the motor and got these girls spinning around so fast they flew in the air and off of the roundabout out of the picture. At first I thought it was fake but no, there was a whole trend going on with this same act. Kids were being seriously injured over and over by doing the same thing they saw in the last video. I found around 10 videos of kids doing this same thing on the roundabout. And in every video they flew off and landed motionless many feet away,  I really don't know why but they had to find out for themselves.

Spring Break

Only a couple more weeks, I keep telling myself. School just seems easier for me when I've got something to look forward to. Right now, it's spring break. I get more anxious every day leading up to it. When it comes down to the last couple days before break I just zone out. I know all you students know what I'm talking about. I just keep telling myself I don't care, that I'll deal with it after break, and I just go on autopilot...

It doesn't even matter what you do on spring break, as long you're out of school. And frustratingly, no matter what you're doing that week goes by too fast. You're having fun and relaxing everyday then the next thing you know, your slammed back into school and forced to deal with everything you put off in those days leading up to break. 

I don't mind going back to school too much. I just try to set my sights on the next weekend or next break to come. It doesn't matter when, just as long as I have something to look forward to I'm fine. Some people say it's not good to live in the present from week to week, but I beg to differ.

high school state basketball

Last night the kennedy boys played in the first round of the state basketball tournament. They've had a really good year with only two regular season losses. They were great through districts and last night they started the last stage of their road to a state championship. I think the team can win it all this year, they have a team full of seniors who are really determined. Some of the guys have been playing varsity for three years now.

I got to the stadium with a group of guys around 330. They wouldn't even open the gates until 530 so we walked around for a bit then decided to just wait at the gate. People started to slowly line up behind us until 530 when it was packed and they finally let us in. The student section filled up with white extremely fast and everyone got a good show as we won by 5 in a game that got a little too close for comfort.

research paper topics?

I have brainstormed a few different ideas for a research paper.

-The first one is something along the lines of steroids in sports, or baseball more specifically. I've read about the topic a little bit before and it might be a little boring for a whole paper.
-The second topic I thought about is shoplifting, emphasis on shoplifting in teenagers and why they do it/ psychological reasons.
-Another topic is the JFK assasination, i think it would be easy to find info on and a lot of soures atleast.

gotta catch 'em all

   The past week my grade has rediscovered their love for a childhood game. Pokemon. The fever has caught on all over again. You'll see kids walking down the hall with their gameboys bumping into people and not even looking up. Red, Blue, Gold, Fire, Ruby, or Saphirre, doesn't matter what version you own, everyone has dug up the games from their past. I laughed at first when I saw my classmates playing their gameboys during class, and thought of it as stupid until i got home that night.

    I dug out my old Gameboy and starting looking through some old games. That's when i started to remember how fun it was. When I found my dusty pokemon cartridge i spent a good minute blowing it all off then plugged it in. The theme song clicked on and immediately brought me back to 5th grade. I started over and deleted my old game partly because of the fact it was filled with all sorts of pokemon I had named in 5th grade, like my level 55 charizard dubbed "boobs".

   Once I started I couldn't stop. I forgot all about my homework and 3 hours later I was stuck in Saffron City with a blastoise that wouldn't even obey me. I realized how my grade could become so sucked in to the game, so practiced a little restraint and put the game back into the bottom of my closet so i could begin to study for finals, I don't think I'll be getting sucked back into pokemon for a while though.

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