Cold Weather

Well, it finally snowed. Great. Most people look out the window after a big snow storm and are excited about it. Not me. I hate cold weather. I’d be fine living on an island it the tropics somewhere and never having snow. I mean, what is so great about it anyway? You walk outside, freeze, and slip on the ice. Cool...not.

Also, I hate cold weather clothes. I don’t like wearing coats. They make me claustrophobic. I used to get in trouble when I was in elementary school for not wearing a coat during recess. I was rebellious back then. I’d always tell the duty that I lost it. I’m sure I looked like some homeless kid whose parents couldn’t get him warm clothes to wear, but really, I just hated wearing it. I’d get in trouble with my mom too. She’d ask me all the time wear my coat. I’d wear it just long enough for her to drive away and then take it off. What your mom doesn’t know won’t kill her.

The only relationship I have with snow is snowboarding. I like to snowboard, especially on a nice day when you don’t really have to wear your coat. I like to stick my earphones in and just ride down the mountain. It’s great. But if someone said I could snowboard every day, but I’d have to spend every day with winter, I’d have to say no thanks. It’s fun, but not that fun.

I was watching some show on TV the other day that talked about people having some seasonal disorder where they get grumpy and depressed in the winter. I think I have that. I’m not myself in the cold weather. I’m more myself with a tan drinking a pina colada. Actually, I can’t really get tan. I’m the whitest guy you know. But sun and a pina colada I can do. Everyday.

Someday I’m going to move to someplace like Hawaii. I’ll learn to surf, which will be like snowboarding so I wont’ miss that. I’ll go to the beach and just hang out in the sun. I’ll play basketball outside and swim in the ocean. I like being warm.

Some people love Spring and Fall. I hate spring and fall. Why, because they pretend to be warm but they aren’t. It looks sunny outside, but it’s still too cold. It needs to be 80 degrees at least to be worth anything. Don’t be sunny and 60 degrees. That’s not warm. That’s a lie. False advertising. Bring on summer. Spring just tricks you. The flowers bloom. It looks like summer is just around the corner, then bam. A foot of snow.

Fall is just the same. It’s nice to look outside for a minute to see the colors change on the trees, but then everything falls to the ground and it just looks like everything is dead. I hate dead. Just let it be nice all the time.

If I was king, I’d make it summer everyday. Look me up in 20 years. You’ll find me on the beach.

Pets

So right now I am looking at my two very obnoxious dogs sleeping on my bed, so I decided to write a blog about pets. Right now, I’ve got more animals living at my house that I would care to admit. Keep in mind, I only like one of them, so it’s not really my fault this place is looking more like a zoo then a home. Here is an inventory of the different species of animals that I share living quarters with; two pugs, three chickens, 5 fish, and a frog. To be fair, I don’t share a house with the chickens, but the backyard is a still two close for comfort to me.

First, let me tell you about the dogs. The one I like is named Daisy. She is a littermate to my all time favorite dog that died last year. His name was Gus. Anyway, Daisy is great. She is old. She really stinks. She sleeps all day. She’s awesome. The other one is Roxy. Somehow my mom brought her home last summer, and since then, my house is a wreck. She barks at all my friends and tries to bite them. She fights with Daisy. She tries to eat all my food. Just today, I put a slice of pizza on the table and went to get a glass and bam! Pizza gone. My life was a lot better before Roxy. Although it is hilarious to squirt her with water when she starts barking. It’s the highlight of my day. Sometimes I ring the doorbell just so I can squirt her.

Don’t get me started on the chickens. I hate them. Seriously. What family has chickens as pets? Their names are Nugget, Alfredo, and Spicy. I’d really like to get rid of them, but I do like omelets and I’ve had a lot more of those since they started hanging around here, so maybe I’ll just tough it out.

The fish and frog hang out in my brothers room. He also had a turtle, but it creeped my mom out, so now it lives at my cousins house. I don’t really care about them but just the idea of them bugs me. My mom never let me have a turtle, or fish, or a frog. Why when the little brother comes around does it suddenly become OK to get more pets. I wanted a lizard when I was 5. Guess what! No lizard.

Someday I’m going to have my own place, and guess what, it’s only going to have one pet living there. I think it will be a bulldog. I like them because they are funny and they are super fat. I’m going to name my bulldog “Meat”. I like that name because it’s cute. I’m not going to dress him up in clothes. What is the point. I watch movies with dogs dressed up in clothes and it doesn’t make any sense to me.

To sum it up, this place has too many pets. I think there should be a law that limits two pets per household. But if my mom suddenly buys me a bulldog, I guess I won’t send him back.

New Year

New year, new resolutions, new goals. Always the same thing every year right? Everyone posting on Facebook about how much 2012 is gonna rock, people making goals that seem pretty unreasonable, and there is always those people who think the world is going to end. Don't get me wrong, I will enjoy new years the same as the next guy, but I don't get the people who think that much is going to change. A new year is just a rotation of the calender. You've lived through the same thing multiple times. Reason to celebrate? Why not. Reason to go into a frenzy? Not so much.
I would first like to talk about all the hype and pep of the new year. I don't really get why everyone is going to think that this year is going to be any better than the last because of the monumental change in the last digit of the calender. I can people setting goals to make this year better, but when it comes down to it, you count down with a bunch of your friends to just wake up the next day feeling normal. There is not exact star and moon alignment that shines down on you to make this year be the best year ever.
Now, the goals. I make goals too, but there are always the people who take it a little bit too far, and then they get disappointed. I heard a quote the other day, which I do not agree with, but it made me laugh pretty hard. It was, "I've found that if you don't make goals, then you're never disappointed." Again, I don't agree with that, but it's pretty funny. Some examples of goals I've heard are" "This year, Justin Beiber is going to follow me on twitter.", "This year will be the best year I've ever had.", and other things along that nature. Goals are Good, but be careful not to make one that cannot be accomplished.
Finally, the main topic that comes with the year 2012. Is the world going to end? No. But I think its cute when people do. I mean, what's going to happen? A huge earthquake is going to destroy the whole world? We'll be hit by a giant meteor? The world is not going to end. People think that because people need to believe in things. That's how we work. But just in case, I'm not going to do my homework December 26th, 2012.
To conclude, I think that New Years is fun and entertaining, but people shouldn't make more of a deal about it then every other holiday. It's another year you've survived, which is good. But it is also just another rotation in the calender. You have the same knowledge as the night before, and life goes on, which also goes for the topic; the world is not going to end.

Sugar Trade

I know, I know. The reason I am posting this essay about the Sugar Trade is because I am behind on my essays, and we wrote about it in Geography. But an essay is an essay, right?

About a year after Christopher Columbus discovered America, sugar was introduced to Europe, which was basically an undiscovered substance to them. Europe, and the rest of the world, would soon explode with the need for sugar. There are many reasons that people desired sugar, including slavery, plantations, and money, but I think the one of the main reason that sugar became such a need for many people all over the world, was the addiction to this sweet substance. We don’t even know it, but we eat sugar every day, and some people think that they could not live without it. As soon as people were introduced to it, the worldwide addiction began.
The average person consumes about three times their body weight in sugar every year. We absolutely love it, as you can see if you read Documents 3-5. Most of us cannot imagine a world without it, but for a very long time, people didn’t know it existed. But once they did discover it, it soon became clear that the passionate need for sugar would soon become a problem. The ground and climate were not ideal for growing cane sugar, and it got very hard to transport. But, when the Europeans found out that the Caribbean was a perfect place to grow it, the plantations and slavery for sugar also took off.
One of the main reasons of the things that we do today, are to make a profit. Our society is founded and formed around currency and pricing. It was the same back in the day, too. While the price of owning a plantation for sugar was expensive, it was more than beneficial. The average sugar plantation of five hundred acres required at least three hundred slaves, a hundred and fifty head of cattle, twenty-five horses, and fifty head of sheep, and that’s not including all of the houses and needs for the slavers and yourself. It was an expensive process, but the need for sugar overcame the price. The cost for slaves was expensive, but they sold for even more. The average slave cost around about 14-16 pounds, but they sold in the British Caribbean for 32-41. People could make a profit with just buying and selling the slaves for their plantation! Not only was it beneficial to make money from slaves, but they also worked at the plantation to help with the sugar, so if you think about it, you couldn’t really lose money owning slaves for your sugar plantations.
As seen from above, there are many reasons that the sugar trade took off, but I would like to restate, in my prospective, the main reason. I think that the need for sugar outweighs everything else. We, as modern Americans cannot live without it; can you imagine what it would have been like when it was discovered? We thrive on the stuff, and they did too. Once the people had sugar, they would soon need it for a lot of things they ate daily. With this need, it was easy for the sugar plantations to sell, which made a profit, which made owning a plantation very popular. So, when you trace everything back to the source, you will find that the main reason is that we are addicted to sugar.
To conclude, there are many reasons that the sugar trade took off. Slavery, plantation ownership, land and climate, and trade philosophy, but I think that the main reason was consumer demand. Sugar really is an addictive substance, and once discovered, people would continue to want it. The need for sugar brought plantations, slaves, and relocation to better places, so when you think of the reasons all this started, you come to one conclusion: Sugar was needed by everyone.

To Kill a Mockingbird essay.

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ I, personally, think that this quote from Miss Maudie in the book To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most important lines in the book. People often distrust what they don’t understand. A reason why this quote is important is because it basically sums up the whole theme of the book. As we see Scout (Our Narrator) grow up and become more mature, she states incidences in her life that she does not quite understand because of her age, but she is an excellent observer. She states situations such as The Tom Robbinson Trial, and extreme acts of racism. Even the Radley Place would fall under this topic. But if you read this book, you will find that through Scouts adolescent view, you can make sense of what she doesn’t. You can find incidences where people do kill mockingbirds, and you can’t forget it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

First, let’s start with the Tom Robbinson trial. Scout goes through this situation in an innocent manor, and she doesn’t quite understand what’s happening, but you can read through the lines a bit and find out the story. Tom Robbinson, a black man, was accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, had been arrested. Over the course of To Kill a Mockingbird, we start to see the trial unfold. Atticus, Scout’s Father, is his lawyer. We see Atticus threatened and insulted, just for helping a black person. We know Tom Robbinson is innocent, but he is convicted guilty. This situation reflects the theme because people didn’t understand him. To them, he was just black garbage, who deserved to die just because of his skin color. People hate what they don’t understand, which in this case, would be Tom Robbinson. He would be considered a mockingbird. He has done nothing to anyone, but yet, they kill him for not fitting the mold that casted the ideal society at the time.

I would like to focus on Atticus for this paragraph, because he would also be considered a mockingbird. We don’t read the book from his point of view, but we can understand some things that happened. I don’t think that Atticus was treated fairly at all, and I am not just saying that because he is my favorite character. Atticus Fitch has a different state of mind than most people in this book. He understands everyone is equal, while everyone else doesn’t. He almost gets killed in Chapter 15, just for trying to protect Tom. People don’t understand why he thinks so differently, so their conclusion is to be against Atticus. While we didn’t get to see some things that happened to him, he would diffidently be considered a mockingbird.

Another subject, which would seem like a childhood story than an actual event, would be the Radley place. Scout, Jem, and Dill grow up right next to the house, and they always thought it was a scary story, a Malevolent Phantom, if you will. They interact with this character they call Boo, who is rumored to remain inside the house at all times. They never get to see him early on, but they know he is there. People, including the kids, don’t understand Boo, also known as Arthur Radley. And while at the end of the book he saves their lives (which was one of my favorite parts in the book), he is often judged for what he is. Another example of people not trusting something they don’t understand. So, in a way, he would also be considered a mockingbird.

To conclude, I think that the main topic in this book is People often distrust what they don’t understand; I think that around the time this story takes place, is where this topic is most exampled. The thing is; people don’t like what they don’t understand. They hate it. So we see much injustice in this book, just because of the way that something is. People mistreat things that don’t deserve to be mistreated. They are like mockingbirds. And we must always remember: It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Choices

This whole world and everything we know, are based on choices. We all make important, life changing decisions and opportunities, and if we don't look around and pay attention, we might miss them. You always hear people telling you how to make your decisions, and odds are they know what's best, considering they know from experience, but you have to learn to make important choices by yourself. Of course, there are the little ones that don't make that much of a difference, but there are also the ones that can set the course for your life. Because of these choices, I am choosing to write about this topic.
Because of the normal human flaws, we don't always make the best decisions. But sometimes, It doesn't make that big of a shift in your life. Choices like deciding what toothpaste we should by, choosing to take the bus over driving, or downloading a new song from iTunes are decisions that would not make that big of a difference. Life is full of these choices, while some of them might seem useless, they help us with decision making.
Now, you know there aren't just little choices in life. There are always the ones that a huge chunk of our lives may be a result of that single choice. Some examples are: Marriage, career choice, and following the law. We will choose right and we will choose wrong in the times there are these choices. But some of these choices, which can sometimes be crystal clear, can be about as certain as the next song on your iPod when on shuffle. We don't have a definite answer to almost any of our choices.
Sometimes, we think something is not a major choice, but it could prove to be the most important one in our life. I heard a quote someone said, "There are many important choices in life, but some can be missed in the blink of an eye. In 20 seconds your whole world could be changed by a certain decision you have made." I think that it's strange to think that a decision that is happening in front of you, with no warning signs or signals, has the power to change your life. Also, a collection of these small choices can equal something big. Like if you choose to not buy toothpaste, not to shower once a day, skip shaving once or twice, could all add up to a person's perspective about you. In that certain example, I'm sure that someone would say something like, "You are absolutely discussing." *Personal hygiene is important.*
Well, I fit in all the comma rules I needed to in this cute little essay, so I'll start to close. Life is full of choices, and we need to pay attention or we could miss something important. There are choices that don't really matter, choices that matter a lot, and little decisions that end up mattering. We cannot control the outcome of unknown decisions, but they will always turn out the way they are supposed to.

School Responsibility

Fun title, right? They the words that every person feels at one point in their life, and it is the student code that we are told to live by. We are all need to act mature in our life, regardless of age. Don't get me wrong, I think that responsibility is one of the main things we need to learn in life, and I know of its major importance. I would rather do what I think is right and do what I think needs to be done, than someone telling me how to do things; which I hate. I am a huge believer in personal responsibility and I think that the entire school system should be formed around just that. But the way teachers pound you with assignments and expect them to be done exactly to their standards. The way that the word responsibility has its perfect definition, and any variations will not be tolerated. I cannot handle this school system anymore, and I know that I have already talked about this once, but let's continue, shall we?
I know that you have already heard me gripe and complain about this, and the last thing that I want you to know me by is my nonconformist ways, but my brain is shutting down. I am FAR to stressed as it is, considering all that I am currently doing, and I love everything that I'm doing outside of school, But when you add the fact that you need to be a perfect student. The way that they think that the only thing you should be doing is schoolwork, and you might even agree! Since when should school be the main source for everything? Did I miss the memo that told everyone to stop living life? Since when was I told I couldn't have a voice, or express myself through other means than an art project or science fair? You are supposed to live your own life, to learn from your OWN mistakes. I feel like people have all gone crazy or got brainwashed or something, except for me. But somehow I'm the crazy one, and I may be, but if you agree with everything that the school does, then I don't know what is going on. But I am asking you to join my insanity for a moment, at least until the end of this essay.
If you read my "The School System" article, then this would all be familiar, but I believe that there is this mold that has been formed of a perfect student and we are all told to fit it, and if we don't, it ruins our lives. According to the school system, there is one way to learn things, but there are millions! But they force us to learn one way and one way only. They'll hand you far too many assignments, and what do they hope to accomplish? Sure, some, or even most of the kids doing the same assignment may learn something, which is great, but what about the kids who don't? Of course, I do think that assignments can be helpful in moderation, but everyone has a different way of learning things. But it seems like the school doesn't care about them. You either fit the mold or you fail the class.
Now, it's late, and you probably stopped reading my rambling on about useless subjects that I cannot change, so I'll finish up. I don't think that the way the school teaches responsibility is the only way to learn it, but it seems they force you to. But who knows? I could be totally wrong. Until next week, Goodbye.