P1 - Television Usage

When I get home after a long and probably boring day of school, I usually end up doing something other than watching television. By that, I use something else to watch television shows or movies.

I honestly can’t even remember the last time I sat down in my Lazy-Boy recliner to see what was being shown on television. Nowadays, all I need to do is fire up my handy dandy MacBook, and watch some Netflix. Netflix just might be one of the greatest ideas of all time. Even though they may not have the best movies out there, it’s always fun to pick out a new TV show and watch every episode of every season is approximately 2-3 days.

Some of my favorite things to watch on Netflix are Louie, Trailer Park Boys, Breaking Bad, and random documentaries that happen to look interesting. As of right now, I’d have to say that Trailer Park Boys takes the cake on my favorite show to watch, but that’s only because I have watched everything else that looked appealing. If you haven’t got around to watching Trailer Park Boys, I highly advise you to do so because it’s easily the funniest show I have ever watched in my life.

I can’t guarantee how many televisions are actually in my home seeing as I don’t usually use them, but I would have to guess around two or three. There is definitely one in my room and there is definitely one in my living room, but I don’t go anywhere else in my house to watch television so I’m not entirely sure. I don’t see why you would ever need more than three, but I guess that all depends on how many people are living in the house.

The positives definitely out-weigh the negatives when it comes to watching television. Sure, you might not get much exercise watching TV for several hours, but you’re not losing too many calories studying for two to three hours either. No matter what you watch, you are getting some sort of benefit off of it, whether it be useful information, a source of laughter, or an easy way to put yourself to sleep. If you watch the news every single morning, you’d probably be surprised on how caught up you are in the world compared to most people. Nothing is more satisfying than being around a group of individuals and being able to actually partake in a conversation because you know what they’re talking about.

Get educated people, watch some television. Learn, Laugh, and Lounge.

O2 - College

As of right now, my plans for college are not much. I haven’t applied anywhere, but that’s because my main intentions are to take a year, or possibly just a semester, off. School work and all of the waking up early nonsense has been getting really old, and I believe an extended break off of it all would relieve my mind and would fully prepare myself for a successful first year of college.

To guarantee that a year won’t turn into two or three years, I am making sure that my father makes me do something with my life. Nothing scares me more than becoming a failure in life, and it’s always a reminder to see how hard some people’s lives are because they didn’t take part in the things that could have made them a happy and successful person. I also believe that if I were attending and paying for college, it would only push me to strive for perfection and excellence. I’m not going to pay for something and not try as hard as I could, and same goes with pretty much everything else in life. If you pay for it, you should utilize it to its full potential.

When I go to college, no matter where it is, I hope to major in Accounting. Some may see it as boring, I see it as simple, and the money that comes with it is very assuring. I am currently in Accounting, and it’s safe to say that I am one of the best in the class. Ever since the first day, it has just been so easy to understand for some reason. There are some areas where it’s hard to understand what is going on, but that’s the point of going to college and learning more about it. The hardest part of Accounting is having to go back and find your mistakes, but since this blog is about my college plans, I’ll refrain from ranting about the issues of Accounting.

Obviously I can’t tell the future, so I’m not going to guarantee that these are my plans. One can only hope that their plans will go exactly as they plan, but everybody knows that that is nearly impossible. Life is full of obstacles, and I am more than curious to see where they will land me.

O1 - Project Glass

Google is on its way to another money booming creation, and this time it’s something that you may not have even thought possible. It is called, Project Glass.

The basic concept of the project is a type of eyewear that you can put on just like glasses, but there are many things you can do while wearing these ‘glasses’. It’s almost as if they have a mind of their own, doing things such as automatically checking the weather when you look out the window, or reminding you to do things when you stare at a blank wall. There have been rumors that the technology will come out before the end of the year, with a price range of $250-$600. Experts are saying that this may not be true, since the technology may need to be worked on for quite some time.

It would be another step, if not leap, into the technology world. There are other things that you could do on these glasses that may wipe out other companies. You can send and receive text messages, along with participating in video chats.

Recently, there as a video on YouTube that was released showing what you would experience if you were to wear the glasses. It starts off with a man waking up and putting the glasses on. He then proceeded to look out the window, which showed him the current weather, and the highs and lows for the day. As he was on his way to the subway to reach his destination, the glasses notified him that the subway services were down for the day, and then proceeded to give him walking directions to his destination. As he made his way to the store, he said out loud, “Where is the music section?” The glasses the pulled up a mini map of the layout of the store, and gave him to directions to the music section. He got a book on Learning Ukulele, and went on with his day. At the end of the video, it shows him at the top of a tall building, and his girlfriend video calls him. She pops up on the bottom of the glasses, and all she can see if the city that he is looking at. He then pulls out a ukulele and plays a song for his girlfriend.

The point of the video is to show how convenient these glasses can make your day, but I believe there are many disadvantages to these glasses. One being that random things can just pop up in front of you while you are walking or driving, and it could be very distracting. That could easily result in serious injury or even death. Also, some are comparing this technology to the movie, “WALL-E”. If you haven’t seen it, the basic premise is a futuristic view of people and how technology is going to bring us down. In the movie, people sit in hovering chairs that they can control with their hands, and anything that they would ever need is available right in front of them due to holographic technology. Things such as eating, socializing, and basic everyday procedures. Project Glass may bring humans to the epitome of laziness, and it could very well make us much less motivated to try and help the world for the better.

It seems as if technology is getting too convenient these days. Who knows what the future has to bring us?

N-2 Spring

Spring may be seen as one of the most favorite seasons of them all for people around the world, but I definitely have a different opinion. Sure, spring brings flowers and warmth, but it also brings stuffy noses and snotty tissues. Nothing makes my life more miserable than a full day of blowing my nose and hoping for a fast recovery. Also, my Dad doesn’t see having terrible allergies as a good enough reason to skip school, so I have to suffer through embarrassing days of school while blowing my nose all day. Terrible, just terrible. Another flaw about this “wonderful” season is that is brings too much rain. Sure, there is a lot of sunlight and warmth, but what’s the point when it’s going to be wet and muggy all day? There is none. If I were to list my favorite seasons in order from favorite to least favorite, it would have to go Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring. Spring is definitely the worst season out of them all for said reasons. Another thing… the beginning of spring is always pretty sketchy. You never know if it’s going to stay nice out or if you’re going to get a random burst of snow and have to deal with cold temperatures for another day or two. It’s probably the worst feeling ever having a beautiful spring day one day, then when you wake up the next morning you realize that its thirty eight degrees out and you need to wear a coat and all of that annoying stuff. Looking to my left, I can see that Joseph White’s blog about spring is pretty similar to mine in the fact that is sucks, but all I have to do is look to my right to see that it is one of Michael Steffan’s favorite seasons. I think he is out of his mind, but that’s just my opinion.

N-3 John and Mary's

I was recently employed at John and Mary’s right across from the doctor’s office on Broadway. It is actually my first job so I am pretty pumped to finally get a weekly paycheck. Nothing makes you feel worse than constantly having to ask your Mom or Dad for money whenever you want to go out to have a good time with your friends. I’m still on training so I’m not getting too many hours, but next week I should be on the regular schedule. Tomorrow is my best friend Gavin’s birthday, so I feel it is necessary to take a chunk out of today’s pay check and spend it on a wonderful gift for the man. My main priorities at John and Mary’s are as follows. Washing dishes, taking out the trash, making pizzas, and pretty much everything nobody else wants to do. It kind of sucks but I work with cool people so it equals out. The fellow co-workers that most of you would know are Ryan Sosnowski, Nick Maiorana, Makiah Husain, Miranda Chester, and many other people that don’t go to high school anymore. It’s a unique experience being the guy to make pizza for the people who buy it from John and Mary’s, and I feel the need to do my job the best that I can. Sometimes alternating between different pizzas to make sure they are all cooked right and have the right toppings can get a little confusing and strenuous, but I’m sure I will get used to it over time. I’m just glad that I’ll finally be making some sort of profit so I can give my Dad a break on loaning me a few bucks every now and then, because I know I would hate that if I was a father. So, yeah. Order a pizza.

N-1 Amber Breyer Interview

This week in blogs, Mr. Currin assigned me to have an interview with Amber Breyer, and I could ask her five questions of my choosing. After much contemplation and thought, I thought of the five most ingenious questions a human could ask. The first question was, “If you could relive one year of your life, which would it be and why?” Her response was a pretty simple one, that being freshman year because it was all of the easy classes. Very poor answer in my opinion, but who cares about me. Did I mention that she said Mr. Currin has lame ties? We won’t go there. The second question I asked Ms. Breyer was, “If you could live in any country besides America, which would it be and why?” After an excessive amount of time, she finally said that Australia would be the best place to live because she really likes Australian accents. The third question was my favorite question to ask, “If you were asked to name one of Mr. Currin’s flaws, which would it be and why?” She actually had more than one answer to this one, but the first thing she said was his weird facial expressions that make him look like he has buck teeth. Mr. Currin actually did a demonstration of what she was talking about, and it is definitely a flaw. Nothing to brag about at all. Another flaw of Mr. Currin’s (according to Amber) is that he tends to say that he is a big deal a lot to himself and many others in the district. The fourth question was, “Out of all the salad dressings out there, which one do you prefer the most?” Amber prefers Ranch dressing out of the rest because she enjoys it with chicken fingers, salads, carrots, and pretty much all foods. Except for ice cream. That’s gross. Last but not least, the final question was, “If you could punch either Kyle Klug or Phil Bifulco in the face, which would you choose and why?” The winner was Phil, because she T.A’s for his gym class, and apparently Phil brags about being good at every sport in gym. Amber went on to contradict that statement because he placed 6th place in the Badminton Tournament in gym class. Sounds like Phil got a little too confident, but Amber put him back in his place. That’s all.

M4 - 4 Wheeling Incident

I have 25 minutes to type a choice blog. Because there is no way I am going to take the time out of my Thursday night so I can finish here. So here goes. Today I am going to write about my incident yesterday that almost led me to believe that I was just in a dream. Yesterday me and my friend Adam Strasser decided to go four wheeling with my two four wheelers behind my house. Although, when we go four wheeling, we tend to go onto other people’s land. Don’t tell anybody though. This is a fiction story so you can’t use it against me. We were riding in the back, when my smaller and older four wheeler that Strasser was riding decided to stall out and not start. We were actually on our way back when it happened, so I didn’t even know it occurred until I was about a mile away and realized that he wasn’t behind me. So I turned off my four wheeler and listened to see if he was coming, but I didn’t hear anything. So I decided to turn around and try to find him. He was at the same spot where we decided to leave, and he was trying to start the four wheeler. I felt bad because clearly I left him trying to start a stalled four wheeler all by himself. I tried to start it and actually got it to, but unfortunately it came to a stop pretty quick and we gave up on it. Luckily we had a rope on the back of the other four wheeler so I could tow him back and we could deal with the problem another day. Unfortunately, when we got the other four wheeler started, it decided to die on us. So there we were, 2 miles away from my house at 7:30 at night, without any cell phones and two broken down four wheelers that weren’t even on my land. The only option that we had was to walk to Kyle Klug’s house which just so happened to be right down the road. We walked to his house, very muddy and tired. I knocked on his front door and asked him if he could give me a ride home because we had no other choice. He abided and gave us a ride home. It was a very uncomfortable ride, but that is beside the point. I got home and had to tell the whole tale to my Dad since he was clearly worried about me (or so I hope) since we were gone for so long with no return or phone call. So we walk over to my neighbor Gavin’s house and asked his Dad if we could use his pickup truck so we could wheel the four wheelers into the back of it and just take them home. He gave us permission and actually assisted us in the process. The four wheelers were a good quarter mile from the road, so Strasser and Ihad to run all the way to the four wheelers and then wheel them back. The one that I had to push had a tire off the rim, so it was extremely difficult. My Dad was also there to assist me because it was taking us so long to get back. It probably took a good fifteen minutes to get them to the gate that was blocking the driveway. I will also add that there were huge rocks on the sides of the gate to make it impossible for vehicles to just drive past the gate, so this gave us another problem. We had to lift the four wheelers over the rocks just to get them to the car, and this was probably the hardest part of the whole thing. As we were wheeling the four wheeler over the rocks, I was being cut up by thorns worse than I ever have before, and this has given me quite the amount of battle scars on my arms and legs. I was drenched in sweat by the time I got both of the four wheelers past the rocks. Once we got one of the four wheelers in the back of the truck, we found out that there was no way we were going to get both of them in there, so we decided to strap one of them into the back of my dad’s SUV. It didn’t fit perfectly, so they had to use a few ropes and cords to secure in place. Gavin’s father drove to my house with the one, and it me and my Dad took the longer way because there were less hills and it would secure a safe trip for the four wheeler, because it could easily fall out of the back of the car. I had to hold onto the back of the four wheeler from the passenger seat of the car for the entire ride, and it was a very difficult task. Strasser and I never thought that the situation would blow up to become the incident that it became. When we got home, I thanked Gavin’s father and apologized to my father for what had happened. He understood and said he would have done the same thing, because it really was the only thing that me and Strasser could have done. There was no other way out of it. I didn’t want to tell this story to literally everybody in person, so I figured I would write a blog about. So now if somebody asks what happened to my arm, I can just say read the blog. Easy as that.