15% Time in school

I recently read an article in Mr. Hyer's class and it inspired me. The article was about how companies like Google and 3M use 15% of a day or the week to work on their own projects. In the 15% time used Google created Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Earth. So imagine what a student could do in that time. You could use it to create something in shop, explore your artistic abilities, or even just write for the school paper. It also gives students a chance to standout while applying to colleges. It would give you that one up on other people applying to the same school. How many of them would be able to say that they created something in Virtual Reality while getting credit for it in high school? Not too many that I can think of. It also gives you a cushion in case you do not have enough volunteer work or something else. I see this as a great opportunity to explore in. Hopefully the school district thinks the same.

Winter Break

School is out Wednesday and I couldn't be happier. Thursday will consist of Xbox all day Thursday and nothing else. It is amazing. I always sit at home on Christmas Eve Day and watch Christmas movies with my family. My favorite Christmas movie is easily National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. It is, hands down, the best Christmas movie ever. We normally watch movies until noon, have a family lunch then return to movies. Then before we go to bed we always get to open one gift, which is always a new pair of PJs. Christmas morning my step dad wakes us up at like 4 and always lets us go through our stockings and look at our "Santa" gifts. They are always the expensive and really cool gifts. Then my grandparents come over around 8 and have breakfast, then we open the rest of our gifts. Around lunchtime we go over to their house and have lunch and open gifts there. Afterwards, we just hangout for a while and just talk or watch TV. Then we come home and clean up and play with our new toys. The rest of break is Xbox. All day and all night. :)

Personal Philosophy

Some of my goals put into an assignment

I have a lot of goals for myself as a person, but there are 3 that really stick out to me that don’t involve being rich or doing crazy things in life. These 3 goals are realistic, achievable, and will be accomplished by the time I decide to call it quits.

My first goal in life is to go to college. Cheesy right? Well it is. Many people say they want to go but either take a year off to have that last little bit of fun in life before it gets all serious and too real for them, or they don’t have the money to go and don’t want to take out all the loans and have to pay it all back for the rest of their lives. Now a days going to college and getting a college degree are a necessity. You don’t hear about too many people being high up on the chain without a college degree. So in my eyes for me to be successful I need a college degree to take my first steps into the real world. Without a college degree in my eyes taking a step into the real world and failing is like falling down stairs without any rails to catch yourself.

My second goal is to be a Psychiatrist. For a while now that seems to be what I want to do, it is an interesting job, and you can help many people, and that’s what I want to do most. I have always wanted to help people in the profession that I chose, and I am also good at hearing other people’s problems and fixing them, why not find a profession that does both? So BOOM , that’s how I landed on wanting to be a Psychiatrist. Helping people has always been fun for me, so why not make it an everyday thing and love my job unlike many people now a days just do it for the money and benefits and not cause they don’t love what they do?

My third and final goal is to be able to look back on life and everything that I have done, and say that I did everything to the best of my ability, loved what I did, and help as many people along the way as I could. Again cheesy I know, but hey that’s what I want to do and I wouldn’t just do it for the money, it would be because it would be my passion. A lot of people that I know looked back on their lives and say did they had jobs for just the money, and not because it was not their passion or something they loved, it was just a job not a career.

So that is what I want to do in life. I don’t care if people try to push me off my path, I will just take a detour around them and continue on my way to what I consider success in my own life.

Homecoming

This week is Homecoming week. The greatest week of the school year.

Monday dress up day was Cowboy Day. Many people dressed up for that day, it was awesome.

Tuesday was Superhero Day. A bunch of people dressed up as Superman and Batman.

Wednesday was Think Pink Day. It supported the cure for cancer, and we sold shirts that went to a Fundraiser for finding a cure for cancer. Thursday was Duck Tape day, and some of the girls took old dresses and wrapped them in Duct tape. It was very creative and very cool. Finally, Friday is Spirit day, dress up in all school colors and go all out.

So thats our Homecoming dress up days for the week.

6/6/06 The Day i Almost Died

So lets paint a picture, its the Day of the Devil, June 6th, 2006. I'm not much of a Superstitious man myself, but for some reason i felt like i should have been that day. Well my 8th grade baseball team went to Waukee to play a double-header against them when everything went south for the worse there.

So we had just finished the first of our double header game and just started the second game when my life changed dramatically. It was the start of the 1st inning when a little blooper was hit between shortstop and second base, found out it was hit by one of my friends in high school that moved from Waukee. So, me and Jesse who was playing 2nd went after it. I thought i should dive for it and make a better catch, and Jesse thought he could just run and catch it. Well as i dove he ran in front of me and without meaning to, stepped on my hand and cut it from right above the thumb to almost my ring finger. It was 3 and a half inches wide and open from top knuckles to almost my wrist. So after i saw all the blood and a giant hole in my hand i ran to our dugout and all my coach said was: "well i dont think band-aid can fix that" Really? who would have thought that?? So I went to the other side and got it rinsed out and saw my bones and ligaments. Everyone around me freaked out but i just didn't look at it any more and was hoping it was all a dream. So a parent took me to the nearby clinic where they gave me 3 tylenol and said to call back in 3 hours on how i feel. I STILL FEEL LIKE A HOLE IS IN MY HAND!!! So we went to the hospital and they stitched me up, 18 stitches to be exact. The best news though? No broken bones, no torn ligaments, nothing.

So that was my worst day if my life, and if I learned anything from that day it is i will be more superstitious. Even if i dont really believe all of them

Protecting NFL players

This blog is about possible ways to protect the NFL players from head injuries. The NFL has implemented many rules to protect quarterbacks, but not the rest of the team. So I have put in a few ideas for them to add.

I think that the NFL should have more rules preventing illegal hits to players resulting in concussions and other serious injuries. Especially since it has been proven that many retired players have brain and head problems long after playing from countless concussions and blows to the head. So if the Commissioner were to put into a new rule how would it really affect a sport that players play after play put their bodies, and lives for that matter, on the line? In my opinion i do not think it would do anything to the sport. Many players don't mean to hurt anyone else to start with, so with a new rule most defensive players would almost be "scared" to tackle another player just in fear of a big fine and possibly hurting another player. The NFL just needs to protect players without implementing new rules that make the game a little less interesting. So to save players from injuries, any player leading with their helmet, being offensive or defensive, they shall be fined $10,000 and must sit the next scheduled game, and any time after that the fine goes up $5,000 and another week. With this in place more players will be saved from head injuries.

So in conclusion, there are a number of ways the NFL could protect other players besides quarterbacks. Many players suffer major from head troubles in the future far after retirement. So with new rules in place this could virtually eliminate any troubles they could have.