Communication

Well once again I write yet this time much closer to Christmas. I found a story that all though it is not Christmas related I thought that you would all enjoy. I just kind of show us that you always need to communicate well other wise you might be miss- taken, and definitely for very wrong reasons.

The Water Closet

It seems that a little old English lady was looking for some rooms in Switzerland. She asked the local village schoolmaster to help her. A place that suited her was finally found and the lady returned to London for luggage. She remembered then that she had not noticed a bathroom or as she gad called it a “water closet”. So she wrote to the school master. He was puzzled by the initials “W.C.” never dreaming of course that she was asking about a bathroom. He finally asked the help of the Parish Priest who decided that W.C. stood for Wesleyan Church, this was his reply:

Dear Madam,
“The W.C. is situated nine miles from the house in the center of a beautiful grove of trees. It is capable of holding 350 people at a time and it is open on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday each week. A large number of folks attend during the summer months so it is suggested you go early, although there is plenty of standing room. Some folks like to take their lunch and make a day of it, especially on Thursday when there is an Organ accompaniment. The acoustics are very good and everyone can hear the slightest sound.”

“It may be on interest to you to know that my daughter was married in our W.C. and it was there that she met her husband. We hope you will be there in time for our bazaar to be held very soon. The proceeds will go towards the purchase of plush seats, which the folks agree are a long felt need, as the present seats all have holes in them.”

“My wife is rather delicate; therefore she can not attend regularly. It has been six months since the last time she went; naturally it pains her very, very much not to be able to go more often.”

“I shall close for now with the desire to accommodate you in every way possible and I will be happy to save you a seat down in front or near the door, which ever you prefer.”

-The School Master

So there you have it, it DOES go to show that if we do not communicate clearly you can be seriously miss- taken and for extremely wrong reasons though maybe not quite this bad, but still.

But now on an entirely different matter, don’t forget this Christmas to keep the right spirit and try to find somebody to help and possibly make a difference in their lives. So for yet another blog and almost 500 words more. I sign off once more, as always pondering what will be the next subject.

One of My Favorite Authors

So last week you all thought that I kind of cheated on my blog but this week I typed every single word.

Dear Mr. Bradbury,
I have recently read your book titled “Dandelion Wine”. I loved the way I could connect to the book, being a teenager of 14. I think that the feeling shared about family, and about summer are extremely common in young adults. Though this book was written sometime ago I could see the similarities between society in our current time and in this book’s society.

Yet another way I could connect to this book is in the way that the character Douglas Spaulding felt the sentimental “twinges” that he did. I too feel these “twinges” every time that something of the past goes away and something more convenient for modern society takes its place. During the reading of this book it made me realize how many different things occur at the same time. Even though they occur throughout different parts of the town and with different people I could see it the way that they all had a common point.

I like in which the way this society isn’t afraid to express themselves. I could tell that all the people in the town seemed pretty closely knit and intertwined. Many times during the book people would bring items or matters to the attention of others that I found most interesting, saying that in our modern society we are no longer able to do so. Doesn’t it almost make you wish that you could still do those things that the children did as kids, or the adults participated in; in the modern day society?

A major difference I noticed in contrasting then from now was sports. Now days it is extremely uncommon to see a kid that is not involved in sports or has no plan to. Most kids now are in something like football or soccer. It seems to me that in the older society represented in the book that was not a common thing to see kids missing days during the week to go to swimming practice or football practice or some other organized activity. Though this didn’t keep the children from staying fit, for it seemed to me that they enjoyed very much to go play and hang out with friends. And this normally included playing tag or some other physical activity.

I personally enjoyed this book, and would definitely count it on my favorites list. This book really helped me to realize that even though society has really changed noticeably there are many common factors that still exist. All through out the book I kind of just wished that I could go back and just live in the care free world that some of the characters had even if it were just for a day go back and see what it would be like to live as a care free child in the early 1900’s. I also kind of wished that I would have just as many wonderful people in my life as they commonly did back then.

So tell me... who's your favorite author?

Let it Snow....

Well now that it is freezing cold outside, and we can see our breath almost anywhere we go it has come to the time of year. Yes the white fluffy stuff has started to fall. And yes we all know what this white fluffy stuff is, that is right it is snow. Now, most of you would think that I am going to entirely dedicate this blog to snow, but not necessarily, this blog’s main interest is going to be in Christmas music, oh excuse me “Holiday Music”…

Let us start with a very well know song, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” as most of you know this song was originally written by Irving Berlin in 1942. This song was originally sung by Bing Crosby.

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to know Where the treetops glisten, and children listen To hear sleigh bells in the snow I'm dreaming of a white Christmas With every Christmas card I write May your days be merry and bright And may all your Christmases be white I'm dreaming of a white Christmas With every Christmas card I write May your days be merry and bright And may all your Christmases be white


Now for another, most of you have heard the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, but let us see what you know about it. It was written by Ralph Blaine in 1943, it was said to have been the saddest title of the century.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,Let your heart be lightFrom now on,our troubles will be out of sightHave yourself a merry little Christmas,Make the Yule-tide gay,From now on, our troubles will be miles away.Here we are as in olden days,Happy golden days of yore.Faithful friends who are dear to usGather near to us once more.Through the years We all will be together,If the Fates allowHang a shining star upon the highest bough.And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.


And now for one you all grew to love while you were under ten years of age, that is right, Jingle Bells. James Pierpoint is credited with writing this song in 1857. It was originally written for Sunday School Students.

Jingle Bells

Dashing through the snowIn a one horse open sleighO'er the fields we goLaughing all the wayBells on bob tails ringMaking spirits brightWhat fun it is to laugh and singA sleighing song tonightOh, jingle bells, jingle bellsJingle all the wayOh, what fun it is to rideIn a one horse open sleighJingle bells, jingle bellsJingle all the wayOh, what fun it is to rideIn a one horse open sleighA day or two agoI thought I'd take a rideAnd soon Miss Fanny BrightWas seated by my sideThe horse was lean and lankMisfortune seemed his lotWe got into a drifted bankAnd then we got upsotOh, jingle bells, jingle bellsJingle all the wayOh, what fun it is to rideIn a one horse open sleighJingle bells, jingle bellsJingle all the wayOh, what fun it is to rideIn a one horse open sleigh yeahJingle bells, jingle bellsJingle all the wayOh, what fun it is to rideIn a one horse open sleighJingle bells, jingle bellsJingle all the wayOh, what fun it is to rideIn a one horse open sleigh

And now the last song one that the band is so excited to play is “Sleigh Ride”. This song was written by Leroy Anderson in 1946 during an August heat wave. Lyrics weren’t written for this song for three more years.
Sleigh Ride

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
Ring-ting tingling too.
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling "yoo-hoo!",
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.
Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up, let's go,
Let's look at the show.
We're riding in a wonderland of snow.
Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up, it's grand,
Just holding your hand.
We're riding along with a song of a wintry fairy land.
Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy cozy are we,
We're snuggled close together like two birds of a feather would be.
Let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or two.",
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.
There's a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray,
It'll be the perfect ending of a perfect day.
We'll be singing the songs we love to sing without a single stop.
At the fireplace where we'll watch the chestnuts pop. ("pop-pop-pop")
There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy,
As they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie.
It'll nearly be like a picture print by Currier & Ives.
These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives.
Just hear those sleigh bells jingling
Ring-ting tingling too.
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling "yoo-hoo!",
Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. (horse whinneys)

Credits
www.wikipedia.com
and
www.carols.org.uk
are credited with all information and lyrics in this article.

Two, One, Sneeze!

O.K. this is one that we have all been through, and I am sure you all can guess what I am talking about. Yup that is right, a cold. We have all had on whether or not we have wanted one. As most of you know I have been going through one this very week. But there is a lot more behind the scenes, as most of you know. (From Health)

Well for starters we must all remember that a cold is virus. So when we all take pills to relieve our cold, that is exactly what we are doing, relieving our colds. So in other words we are just relieving our symptoms. These include scratchy throat, general malaise, sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion, and a headache. The average adult averages 2 to 3 colds per year and children average 6 to 10 a year. There are over 100 cold viruses in the world, but the most important is the Rhinovirus, which causes at least one half of the colds. But don’t worry because colds only last 2- 14 days. (On average) After that they turn into more serious infections.

When you first attract a cold it is believed that the virus comes in through you nose and travels to the back of you throat, where they attach around the area of your adenoid. The adenoid contains cells that the cold viruses attach to.

So now whenever you guys have a cold you’ll have something new to think about. Isn’t it amazing that whenever we are having what we think to be just a little cold there is so much going on behind the scenes? But don’t you kind of wish that when we were all going trough health that we could have had a nice consolidated lecture instead of a couple days of lectures on what seems to be such a boring subject? But now that we are in the season of the cold, we will probably all have to go through one before the year ends. So maybe if you remember this information it will cheer you up a little when you do get a cold.

The Common Cold

Sneeze, sneeze, sniffle, sniffle,
Rush to the box of tissues,
Normally being sick is no problem,
But with colds, I have issues,

I cannot barely breathe at all,
My nose is very stuffed up,
No matter how many times I blow,
My nose never gets cleared up,

My ears are ringing in the morning,
My throat sore in the afternoon,
All the while I am sniffling,
Hoping to be saved from this sickness soon,

Popping pills into my mouth,
They're here to save the day!
Saying, "The fight is nearly over!"
"The cold will soon go away!"

Four doses of Tylonel daily,
Four of Sudafed,
Four boxes of Kleenex,
For while I'm sitting here in bed,

My nose is like Rudolph's,
This tale is growing old,
For now, I can only sit and wonder,
When I'll defeat the common cold...
-Unknown


Works Cited

"Understanding Colds." Common Cold. 2007. commoncold. 1 Dec 2007 .

Turkey Day!!

Well it has come and gone for yet another year. As you can tell by the title I am talking about thanksgiving. For some this is their favorite holiday of the year. And yet for others it is yet just another day with an extremely large supper involved. And yet again you can say for others it means the day after Thanksgiving. (Shopping) But for me personally I think that it means lots of time with family. With school in full swing I hardly ever get to see all of my other family members. Most of the time I just get to hear funny stories about them from my Grandma or Grandpa. And then of course there is the food. Always the food takes center stage when it comes to Thanksgiving and it is no wonder why. But sometimes we need to remember where the holiday came from in the first place.

Thanksgiving originated from the Pilgrims back in the 1600’s. It was originally a day set aside after the harvest to eat and give thanks for the year. The Thanksgiving that we are all most acquainted with had Indians involved. And you may ask where did they come from in the first place? The Indians were from the Wampanoag Tribe, who which the governor had invited to come to the feast. That feast that I speak of just so happened to last three full days. Apparently during that time period somewhere the Indians went out and killed five dear which they presented to the governor as a gift. But you may still be asking why do we still celebrate it today? And why is it considered a national holiday?

It all happened in 1789 when George Washington issued a national thanksgiving proclamation. He wrote, "Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country...for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed...and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually...To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best." And ever since then we have been celebrating this wonderful holiday. So lets all try to keep the right spirit about it.

Not Again

Have any of you ever to been an event that lasted so long that you just couldn’t take it any more? And you kind of wanted to shoot yourself by the time it was all over. Well over the weekend I had such an event linked to a very long day. On Saturday I had to go to a high school swim meet that lasted for seven and a half hours, actually it was longer than that but I left a little bit early. There were 12 teems at this meet which is not even funny, the pool deck was so packed that there was nowhere that was dry. My team’s whole deck space seemed to be under water; half of it was the warm up/ cool down pool. Any ways there were over four heats of everything, when it came to the fifty freestyles there were 28 heats of them, which many take over half an hour to run through. By the time the meet was over and I had finally gotten home I get told that I got a call from the rocks and minerals coach for science Olympiad and he wants me to come take a test for Science Olympiad to determine if I am going to be on the team or not. So I head to his house, and what I thought was going to take a half and hour turned out to take over an hour and a half. There were a hundred and fifty eight rock specimens that had to be identified, and to boot there was a written test that was absolute murder. (How many of you have heard of triboluminesence?) So I finally got that done, and by this time it was about five o’ clock. When I get home I nearly get run over by my sisters and mom heading out the door way to a ballet. (They were performing in it) Luckily I didn’t have to show up for another hour to that thing. So during this hour of rest period I mainly tried to catch up on all the things that I had gotten behind in during the day. When my dad finally got home from work we had enough time to hurry and eat dinner and then head out the door to my sisters’ ballet. (The Nutcracker) The Nutcracker did not end until about twenty after nine, unfortunately we did not get home until about ten to ten. When this was finall all over I was absolutely exhausted I had gotten up at 6:00 am and now I would not get to bed until about ten forty-five. So have any you had a day like this recently? Or do you have days like this every time you walk out of your home? I know for a lot of you your lives are so jammed packed full that it seems that you hardly have time to take a nap. So let me know what do you think of you day? Good. Or Bad?

The End of Term.

This last week we all were affected by yet another end of term. It’s hard to believe that we are a quarter of the way through our last year in the junior high. We all received the dreaded report cards and from talking to most of you it seems that you all did quite well. But on the subject of report cards it comes time to ask, do you think that Honors English is benefiting you for the good or do you think that you are wasting you time by having to complete all of the assignments it requires you to do on your own? My answer to that question would have to be that it is definitely benefiting me for the good. It kind of excites me to think that in ninth grade I will already have an “Honors” showing on my report card. And it requires very little effort on your part once you think about it. But staying on the topic of Honors classes, a lot of you are taking Algebra II and this just so happens to be an Honors class as well. Do you guys think that this class is a benefit or do you think that it is one that the school should do away with and devote that time and money to other courses? And now just like I did on the last question I will answer it first and then I want you guys to tell me what you think on the comments. I think that Algebra II is a great thing to have at Fairfield Junior High. I also think that we are lucky we have a teacher who is willing to teach us to the best of her abilities, and who is willing to help us if we need help. I do not even think that Algebra II is that hard of a class considering the fact that it is High School Level.

And now for the final question, what do you think of Honors classes in general? Are you glad that we have the chance to take them, or are you kind of mad because it makes you make choices on what you want to do with your education? Do you think that they should do away with Honors and/or A.P. classes and make everybody take the same classes regardless? So here is my answer again, I think that we are definitely lucky to have the chance to take Honors classes. Look at how it will benefit us in the end. By taking the kind of classes we do now it will affect what colleges look at us, what kind of job we get, and how we live our lives in the future. So ultimately in the end it does affect our lives. It almost worries you to already be affecting you life so early on. A lot of times this is the period of time that people ruin their lives. Sometimes it is through not focusing on their education and other times it might be through drugs and alcohol. So what do you think, what are the kinds of conclusions that you have?

Our Changing Personalities

Take your mark, go! Most think that competitive swimming is an easy sport. Yet just about as many don't even know that it is a sport. But the truth is, swimming is a sport and it might be one of the most difficult out there.

Swimming is definitely a physical and mentally challenging sport. Swimming takes hours of disciplined practice, on average two to three hours of practice a day five days a week. Most of the time people find that they go home drained of almost all energy. But that is only the tip of the ice berg. The part about swimming that is the most fun must be the meets. Swimming meets are kind of a way to prove yourself; they are kind of a way to see what you can do. When you’re swimming your events at the meets you kind of go into your own world. Everyday matters do not even occur to you any more, only what is at hand. In the background you can hear all of your friends and coaches cheering you on with all of their energy. It gives you amazing self satisfaction.

But really it doesn’t matter what sport you favor in the end. Everybody has their own preference. But the thing that does matter is if you find satisfaction in what you do.

I know that most of you do favor other sports, so just to clarify; I am NOT saying that swimming is the best sport out there. I am just expressing an opinion. I know that all sports are only as good as you believe, not what others say. There are lots of cool sports out there tennis, basketball, skiing, snowboarding, and more. I am simply expressing my view on the one that I chose.

All sports do require things of the participant. It is this that I think gives us all our personality. Not the sports in which we participate necessarily but the things required of us in our day to day lives and how we react to them in given situations. We all react to things in different ways, which in turn gives us our personality. All of our personalities change over the courses of our lives. Though there always is that underlying thing we all have that will last us our entire live. It is kind of fun to look back on you personality in seventh grade and relate it to your current one. Most would be amazed at the changes that have been occurring during the years and us not even realizing them. We all have gone from nervous little seventh graders who were afraid of getting lost in the school, to the most comfortable kids in the school and not one bit nervous. We all know the school like a second home (regrettably) and traverse its halls almost daily. It would almost make us want to go into our teacher’s minds and see what they thought of us in seventh grade and what they think of us now. It almost scares you to think of it.

Hair Depots and Tulip Bulbs

“Luckily it was sunny outside so I could follow the lines.” “Way to go Melvin, you did a great job!” I say kind of unsurely. Melvin is a funny neighbor who has lead me on many adventures, and has taught me many lessons.

Melvin is a great guy who can make you laugh just by acting fairly normal. He wears a funny hat that is like one of those Swedish looking ones from the 80’s (it looks really cool), he loves to wear it rain or shine, and it’s kind of his trademark. He loves to wear jumpsuits that range from red to blue to gray. Those combined with his hat make him look pretty spiffy. You can always see him wearing them when he does his yard work though he normally does it when it is sunny outside so he can see to mow or weed. It’s kind of like when you start thinking to yourself in dialog. And you say; Melvin, one of the coolest people in my life, is probably one of the funniest. And the language he tends to use can make you laugh also; because it seems that a lot of the time he knows what he wants to say and expresses it in a way that only people who have known him for a long time can understand. Like when he says “Momma” you have to know that he is talking about his wife; or when he says “The Hair Depot” you know that his wife is getting her hair done. Another one he loves to use is “Don’t mind if I do!” But some of the adventures he has sent me on are almost as funny.

Over the span of my life Melvin has sent my family and me on many adventures. He has told my mom literally how to get from one end of Utah to the other. She is always saying, “Well this is what Melvin told us to do!” And the directions are always precise and accurate. Quite a few times we’ve gone to Southern Utah to go to the National Parks and have been side tracked by the awesome places Melvin has told us about. Like when we go rock hunting, we get to the place and if the rock isn’t really abundant we have to pull out a piece of paper with Melvin’s description of the rock. Many of these adventures have taught me lessons, although some closer to home.

Some of the lessons I have learned from Melvin are rarely seen in youth today. One year Melvin and I had to help his wife plant over 1,000 tulip bulbs. This, and other occasions have taught me much about gardening. Also patience, some times where solutions are obvious Melvin needs to consult with his wife, and it is always easier for him to make up his mind then to fight it. When doing things that might no normally be appealing Melvin always seems to brighten up situations. Whether it’s decorating for Christmas, or weeding the gardens, it is always more fun to do it with Melvin than anyone else. All these lessons and many more have proved useful in my life.

All in all Melvin has taught me a great deal, through some of his adventures to his odd humor. He is one that you would rarely see in the world anymore, he is one that is full of knowledge and shares it non stop. It kind of makes me wish we all had someone like Melvin in our lives.

So let me know if any of you guys have someone like this in your lives.

As School Wears On

Well school wears on, its grisly grasp pulling us all in. It’s amazing how fast school has been moving, you can hardly tell we’ve been going at it for almost a term. By now most of us have all settled into all of our classes. Though we sometimes hear of those who aren’t quite happy about their own schedules. We have all had a few funny moments in our different classes from Mr. Thompson telling us about the tiny faculty men’s room to Mrs. Vanvleet’s sixth period humor. All of us have also already had our own truckload of home work. I know for a fact that the Munnses have been loaded down with tons of it. Our (the Munnses’) kitchen table has also probably been put under more stress than it should have to bear in 200 years! All of us around this time are most likely doing our blogs for the week, or blogging on the discussion questions. (Have you guys seen Hannah Hendricks’s avatar?) Some of the blogs are really decked out, like Nicole Ly’s, hers is really decked out. Although Brady’s is kind of pimped too, his has a cool video on it. Although Honors English isn’t the only class that we are all taking, we all have to take Science and Math for what seems the rest of our lives after they changes the qualifications and make us take another year of each. Besides our day to day classes we all probably have extra- curricular groups we’re in. Some of us are in Science Olympiad, others volleyball, some NAL and others. Just the other day we were all finding out if we mad Olympiad and NAL. Good job to all those who gave it a try. It is a lot of work to get to try out on either team, from all of the paper work to two hour tests on a computer, to dressing up for interviews. And now we can look at all of that as the easy part as we all have another year of training ahead. And many of us will be juggling this around with already busy schedules. For some it will be many sleepless nights followed by packed days just to accomplish what they love. Most will notice all of the schools’ students go into overdrive for the next three terms. A lot of parents will probably start to worry about their kids, as they always do. But for the most part we will all settle into a routine and turn into a sort of homework robot. All of the teachers’ minds will tune out complaints of pain and worry and just lay on more homework. They will all consider it a privilege to torture us, that is until they have to grade it all. Hopefully though we will all, teachers and students, be able to wear out yet another year and be able to look back on it without distaste. Though most will find that difficult we will all have to face years that will wear a lot more.

The fun of Olympiad.

This blog happens to be about Science Olympiad. As most of you know it’s is time to try out again. Now I don’t know if I’m actually going to make it, but this is to tell those of you who don’t know what Olympiad is all about.

Olympiad is pretty much a competition to test skills in different areas of Science. Such as Physics, the Metric System, Terminology, Geology, and much more. One of the events is “Simple Machines,” in this event you have to be able to put together simple machines find Actual Mechanical Advantage (AMA), Ideal Mechanical Advantage (IMA), and the Efficiency of the machine. All of this has to be done in a certain time period which makes you rush everything, therefore you have to split tasks with you partner to get the event done within the time period. Another event is “Metric Mastery”, in this event you have to be able to take any given object and be able to find it’s mass its surface area, its area, its volume, its density, etc. Well you might think that is easy, but here’s the catch, you have to be able to estimate all of these by just looking at it and feeling it before you use equipment to measure it. All of this is moving so fast that you and your partner are very easily, well, it is very easy to start fighting we will say. And yet another event is “Rocks and Minerals”, in this event you have to be able to identify a rock and tell the event coordinator anything that they want to know about that rock OR mineral. Sometimes you don’t always get to see the rock, you just get a detailed description of the rock OR mineral. And once again it is timed so you are constantly under stress. (Ask Madi Randquist about Amethyst and state!) But we cannot forget about “Wheeled Vehicle”, some of you will be saying what? Because it is not on the event sheet for this year, but for the past two years it has. This event is pretty much building a vehicle that can travel anywhere between five and ten meters. You might think that this is pretty easy but there is a catch, it has to be able to go straight within a millimeter and it has to be able to stop within a millimeter of the marked distance. This sometimes requires over 50 hours of calibration! The funnest part of Olympiad though is state, and if you are lucky enough Nationals you just get to have fun with all of your friends. Most of you have heard about the grueling test, you know the 2 hour ball of fun! It’s like part ACT, part Mensa, and there was another part Greenaway used to do about like estuaries. All of you will most likely score wonderfully on this test and it is normally tenths of percents that decide it. It does sound really intimidating but the best way to get through it is to just grin and bear it! Good luck to all on Wednesday!!

My First Official Book Review

I know that it is funny but I just read the books “Eragon” for the first time in my life. I don’t know how many of you read my response to the discussion question #2 but it fits this book exactly. I think that “Eragon” was, in a way, and outlet for me. It was one of those books were I could just loose myself in a different world and not worry about any of my problems, but instead, just read about the problems of others. I know that it sounds kind of mean, but sometimes it is just nice to read about others problems and not you own. In this book (for those of you who have not read it) the main characters are Eragon, and Saphira, they start this epic journey at a very young age. The meet many people and things that most of us only dream of. Their journey starts at a little village by the name of Carvahall, from there an old story teller by the name of Brom leads them through the massive empire to escape from the evil king. When they finally escape they join a rebellion named the “Varden”, during their stay with the Varden they are attacked by an army sent by the evil king. The army comprised mainly of urgals, weird ram like beings. During the fight Eragon fights a Shade, which is a being that is possessed by an evil spirit. In the end he manages to run his sword through the Shade’s heart which killed it instantly. This provided the distraction needed for the Varden’s army to turn on the Urgals and overturn the battle and win. This is about where the author lets this book off and continues into the next book, called “Eldest.” This book mainly comprises of Eragon’s cousin’s problems with the empire, as well as the Varden’s. But mainly it tells of the training that Eragon and Saphira go through to prepare for the next battle against the empire. Overall these books are probably some of the best that I have read for some time. I think that these books are extremely well written, and that the author has done a very good job expressing some of his imagination- no matter how wild it may seem. But I personally can’t wait for the third book in this series. I think that it will answer many questions that people may have come up with in the two books that he has already written. Although I personally wouldn’t mind if he kept going on for many more books, maybe into a fourth or fifth book. The kind of world he has created in these books could go on forever and many books, but I think there is a limit on how far you can stretch it. But I wait excitedly for the third book.

In Wind and Rain....

Yesterday I did my eagle project out at Antelope Island. The weather was well… not desirable shall we say. When we first got out to the island the wind was blowing something fierce. And we were on the beach front! It was like standing in a 360 degrees sand blasting machine, sand got everywhere, in your nose, in your eyes, in your ears, in your mouth. It even got in your clothes that were covered! I had so much sand in my shoes it was like having arch supports. So here we were out in the middle of a giant sand blaster trying to build retaining walls out of logs. Everybody had to yell just to be heard over the noise of the wind, and you had to keep moving so you wouldn’t freeze to death. And could you believe that we were all having fun? We finally got one of the walls built and put in place, then it started to get colder, but we kept going. Then we started to work on the second wall, which would be twice as big as the first! We built it in two sections then put them where it needed to be. Then it started to rain! A cold driving rain, and it wouldn’t let up! So we were all out there freezing cold, and wet, trying to finish. Then the ranger in charge showed up and said that the park manager wanted the second wall done a different way! So finally after about an hour of debating, and freezing, and getting wet, we decided what to do. We were going to cut the second wall apart and move it to where it needed to be. But first we had to dig all the sand out that we had put behind them so we could even budge them. But still before we could move them we had to move sand to where they had to be. It took us over a half of an hour to move enough sand and level it off. Once we got all the sand taken care of we started to move them to where they were supposed to be. It turned out to be a lot easier to move them then we thought. Once they were in place we still had to put the last two layers on them so they would be tall enough, and while some of us were doing this there were others trying to backfill the retaining wall with even more sand! Now don’t forget that it was raining the entire time of the debates and so forth. Well we finally got it all done, and in five minutes we were gone. Later we met at my house for some hotdogs and hot chocolate. That is a project I don’t think that I will ever forget though. Working out in the driving rain and sand in thirty eight degrees weather was hard yet it was still immense fun. It was probably all the friends and family I had with me.

The First Blog

"2, 1, go!" I just sighed as I listened to my coach yell at us to start yet another set. As you can guess I was at the pool yet again. I couldn't believe that I was actually swimming for Davis High School. The fact that DHS even had a team was amazing I thought as I took a deep breath and kicked off of the wall, yet again. I was really starting to wonder if I needed air when spots started to appear under my eyelids. But it is normally by this time that I finally touch the wall and take a huge gasping breath. Most people say that thinking to yourself none stop is crazy, but I mean, what else are you supposed to do during a non-stop 500 yard swim? It is barely audible under the water but yes, the coach is yelling at us to swim faster again! I am continuously thinking, "Well how are we supposed go faster with this many people?" but somehow the pace always picks up. Isn't it amazing how a lot of the time you know the person by their suit color or design better than you know their face? And then, wham, I can't feel my wrist. These lanes are so small! How am I supposed to swim when I am continuously getting nailed by someone in the other lane? I mean it takes the other guy out too, and I don't think that he appreciates it either. But then the needle hits the top and we're of again! One, two, three, four, five, and bam I kick off the wall again. I have a million things to think about; am I to deep? Did I kick off to early? I am Pacing the first 25 right? Ah... It's all those things that make swimming a difficult sport mentally when you have already been burned out at school. You know going through Mr. T's class Money's, etc. But then there is always the physical part, football players have problems doing what us swimmers do. I mean, how many football players do you see that can swim a 100 yard Freestyle in under one minute? And then there is Breastroke, most people can not even swim that stroke properly, the same with Butterfly most people do this weird dead fish flopping type stroke! Swimming is even a full contact sport, I have had people fall in on top of me, whack me. I know a kid who kicked in the face so hard it cracked his goggles. And then bam, I get whacked in the face, that subject seems like it is jinxed. Oh man now my eye hurts, and it might blacken up on me. I wear Swedish goggles they have absolutely NO padding, it is plastic against face. Most people can't even wear them because they take about a month to get used to. Now can you imagine getting whacked in the face while wearing these? But hey, I guess that is the average 5 minutes of practice for a competitive swimmer.

Hello World!