It's That Time of the Year Again

It’s That Time of the Year Again

Halloween comes and goes so quickly every year. Mostly because we, as in children and young adults, over look Halloween and start preparing for Christmas. For most Christmas is a much bigger deal than Halloween, but that’s not always the case.

For young elementary kids Halloween is a huge deal!! They get to go around to all the neighborhood houses and say, Trick-or-treat, and receive a boat load of candy! Of course there are always those houses that hand out fruit or healthy foods just to be a Debbie downer on sweets. 

Next we have the awkward middle school age where you don’t know if you should go trick-or-treating still. So instead you stay home and carve pumpkins and hand out candy. But then you see all of your middle school classmates out having fun so the next year you decide that you aren’t too old and participate in trick-or-treating once again.

Halloween in high school can get a little crazy and a wee bit out of hand. As a freshman being invited to an older Halloween party means the world to you. You feel so important and cool that you are going to this costume party. Until you get dropped off by your mom and walk in. As soon as you open the door you got the wrong impression for this costume party. You look down and you’re dressed up as a football player and when you look around everyone looks like whores. Their butts are hanging out boobs are everywhere, you think to yourself if the invite didn’t say costume party I would have thought it’s was a birthday suit party only! You decide to say because the upperclassmen don’t harass you too much because they know you didn’t know what to expect. But then there are alcohol and illegal substances everywhere so you call your mom to come get you. As you get in the car the cops are turning down the street, so it looks like you made a great decision after all and will probably think before you go to another upperclassmen party.

Grandparents love Halloween because they get to see all these little kids running around asking for candy. I love going to the old people’s houses because they always say, “you look so adorable here take two handfuls”. You get way more candy that way.

Halloween is fun for all ages, whether you receive candy, hand it out or just throw a party. Every age has a different way of celebrating, but no matter what it is. It always turns out fun. (436)

Presents, Homemade or Purchased?

Presents, Homemade or Purchased? 

Would you rather receive a handmade present or a present that was bought? Okay, granted the purchased present looks better, is better quality and is in fashion. But handmade presents mean something. Receiving a handmade present really means the world and warms your heart, knowing someone put time and effort into something for you.

It’s a lot of fun making the present too! It’s like a little craft that you get to give someone and you know they will love. To make the gift extra meaningful you can make the gift you are giving to a friend and make one for you too, that way it can be a friendship ordeal. Instead of everything being a surprise you and your friend could have a craft week where you get together and make and exchange gifts. That way you get to spend time together and have fun!

For Christmas many families get together and draw names out of hats for a “secret Santa”. This is a lot of fun especially for little kids. All month, depending on when you draw names, the kids are anxious to find out who their “Santa” is. While each person is wondering what they are going to get they are also wondering what they are going to get the persons’ name whom they drew.

Of course as a kid you want that new hip toy from the coolest store. But, looking back at it wouldn’t you have wished you got something meaningful that was handmade? I know I would. I always found it cool as a child when the neighbor girl up the street that was five years older than me, made me and her matching friendship bracelets and shirts. It made me feel special that someone who I look up to would do that for me. When she would hand me my present I would have the biggest smile on my face and would think I was dreaming.

Giving people, especially younger kids, a gift that came from your heart can make their day. You will forever be remembered as an idol to that little kid. Even though they are younger than you, you made them something and said it was a friend charm just to make them feel special.  They will never forget that, trust me I know! (388)

Balls Balls Balls...

Balls

When you say the word balls, it means something different to people of all ages.

Two year olds might think of nerf balls to through around in the house.  Probably a gift from an adult so when they through it they won’t break anything. They also might use them to plan in the bath tub. They fill them with water and then squeeze them so the water comes shooting out.

Three and four year olds might think of a soccer ball. Their parents take them out in the heat, the rain and the cold just to kick that ball up and down a field to get it in a net. 

Five and six year olds and not just boys might think of a football. Boys and girls go out and put flags on and run with that pig skin ball to get a touchdown.

Okay we’ve got nerf balls, soccer balls and footballs. No let’s move on to softballs and baseballs. Kids of all ages use these balls in the summer.  Volleyballs are used in schools and on the beach by both girls and boys.  They even use volleyballs in the Olympics.

College boys like to get down and dirty while throwing that rugby ball around if they aren’t padding up and throwing the football. The basketball is another ball that is used from age three all the way through college.  Now we’ve talked about all of these different ages that play with balls but what about those adults out there.  Adult’s even grandparents enjoy hitting that little white ball into a hole. Of course they also like getting in the cart to get to the ball they just hit. Adults can play with this ball for hours. Adults also like getting exercise with the racquetball and a tennis ball. Oh yes there is another little white ball that adults like hitting on a table and that is the ping pong ball. Let’s not forget the cricket ball and bowling ball. 

What would life be like without balls? There are so many balls of shapes, size and colors and all used for different sports. Without balls there would be no school sports, no club sports and no pro sports for people to watch on TV.  Just think there would be some many less events at the Olympics without balls.

So there are soccer balls, nerf balls, footballs, softballs, base balls, racquetballs, basketballs, rugby balls, golf balls, tennis balls, ping pong balls, volleyballs, cricket balls, and bowling balls. How many different types of balls can you name? (427)  

Dreading This Season...6th Man

2012 Basketball Season

Wow does time fly! I cannot believe my junior basketball season is about to begin. We have a whole new varsity team, coach and all. We worked a lot this summer to get to know one another so we weren’t coming into this season blind. But to be honest, and I don’t know if this is just me, but I am not all that excited.

Some girls on the team that may or may not be the best players keep tweeting nonstop about basketball and how they can’t wait. One girl even made a countdown until our first practice, she wrote; “countdown till love”, mostly just to suck up. I’m really getting sick of all this drama and people just sucking up to the coach so they will start or get playing time. It is just like damn why can’t you show your skill in practice to earn your spot like the old days. Why does it have to be about who you are? It shouldn’t matter how tall you are or if you are the coaches’ daughter. IT SHOULD BE ABOUT SKILL! The best should start and play. It shouldn’t matter if you are a senior or not, if a junior is better than the senior and it is obvious then the junior should start. That would be the right thing, right? WRONG, no matter who you are, you could be the number one recruit in Iowa as a junior and that coaches’ daughter will still play and start over you.

I’m sorry but 5A high school ball is about winning. I don’t care if your Athletic Director says it’s all for fun or not, It’s a lie. It is all about winning, you want that state title, everyone does. You want those scholarships for a Division 1 college because it is what you have always dreamt of!

So I don’t know maybe I’m being a little defendant and deliberate but I really don’t give two shits. Ball is ball, whether its club or high school you are playing for something. Call me crazy but to me it shouldn’t matter who you are when it comes time to step on the court. The real ball players should be playing not the kids whose parents suck up all the time, or just because you are the coaches’ daughter. I do not care if you were the shit back in your 1A school and ran the court; this is a lot faster play. I’m not one to judge but if you keep getting shut down time after time changes should be made, but they won’t because that is the world we live in today. If you think you can run all over these teams with your daddy’s play, think again. Welcome to 5A. (465)

The Positives and Negatives of Siblings

The Positives and Negatives of Siblings

Having siblings can be a good and not so good thing, depending on if they are younger or older. Having older siblings can be a good thing because they experience a lot of things and you can learn from them. But it can be a not so good thing because if you have older siblings then your parents may learn they need to start being more strict when you get older.

Being a middle child is most of the time unfortunate. Most of the time the oldest is spoiled because they are the first born and they have the most pictures in the photo album and the coolest clothing as a toddler because it was a big deal having a baby to the parents so they go all out. The youngest normally gets whatever they want because they are the baby and that is just how things work most of the time. If they complain to mom about being picked on by an older brother, most of the time the older child will get in trouble because they are older and know better. The middle child is kind of just there. I feel bad for them because they get all the hammy downs of the first born and they aren’t the baby so they aren’t really spoiled and don’t always get there way. 

Being the oldest and having younger siblings can be a big pain sometimes. You have to watch them when your parents go out and adjust your plans accordingly. Your parents can’t wait until the day you turn 16, so then you can drive the little ones around and can use that as a threat to becoming grounded. But, on the other hand having little siblings can be a good thing. You can play games in the back yard when you are young and when you get older you can have someone to talk to and understand your situations easier than most parents would. Having a younger is especially good for older brothers to have because when your older brother likes a girl they will play with you and be really nice and include you in everything just to impress a girl he likes. The plus for the younger sister is you can black mail your older brother into taking you for ice cream, or else you will be bad in front of the girl he likes. (405)

Exercise

Exercise

What is exercise? Why is it important? The answer to these questions are really simple. Exercise can simply be walking around your neighborhood or more advanced running a few miles and doing things to make you sweat. Exercise is very important for your health, for your body and it is just a good thing to do. Everyone should exercise at least once a day. It doesn’t matter how old you are, from toddlers to grandparents exercising is good for you and easy to do.

For toddlers and elementary kids exercise is extremely important. Your body is growing and you need to be outside running around even if you are just playing tag around the playground at recess. During middle school is when kids begin to stop exercising because in middle school we no longer have recess. Unless a child plays a sport for their school they only have gym to get exercise or to exercise on their own at home. To be honest not many kids just go on a run when they get home from school as of I know, they want to hang out with friends and play video games. As we get older and enter high school the population of kids that go out for sports and stick it out for all four years is a small number. High school gym classes are a joke so the kids that have to take gym because they don’t do a sport don’t get near as much exercise that their bodies need to be getting.

Playing a sport in college is extremely rare and the kids that aren’t playing a sport are so overwhelmed with the tremendous amount of homework that they have that they don’t have time to exercise and not to mention that exercising is the last thing on their mind. This is one of the reasons for the “Freshman 15”. Former high school athletes that don’t continue to play a sport in high school are probably the ones that gain the most weight in college because there body is used to running and being at practice every day burning calories. Speaking from experience; I play 4 sports competitively all year round and when I broke my foot and was out for four months, I put on at least 15 pounds. When I came back and began playing my sports again I lost the weight I gained but every move I made was just that much harder because I hadn’t exercised in what seemed like a century. 

As an elder or being 55 or older is when your body really begins to slow down. To stay in shape and keep your health up you can exercise. It’s not a hard thing to do, just walk down the street and back to get your heartbeat up and burn some calories. It may not seem like much but it will pay off in the long run. (487)

Blogging During Class

Blogging During Class

Is blogging during class beneficial? Can you focus? Is there enough time for you to accomplish anything by the time you log on?

The answer for me is absolutely! Even if you start with 30 minutes of class time left like I am doing right now gives me enough time to get started. I can get at least half of my paper done during a blogging day if I am focused and am in “thinking mode”. One thing about blogging during class is that people around you can distract you or when they begin to start talking I get really frustrated and lose my train of thought.

Just to prove that blogging during class time is beneficial, I have been typing for 6 minutes and I already have a little over 130 words.

Coming up with ideas can go either way with it being helpful or not while sitting in a computer lab. It can be helpful with coming up with an idea or two by just simply looking around the rooms at your peers. If you just look you can find many ideas even in such a bland room, for instance; I guarantee at least one person is sitting there chomping on gum, listening to music, painting their nails or even doing other homework because they don’t think it is beneficial for them to being blogging with 30 minutes left of class. Just these simple things can turn into a huge blogging idea where you can expand onto and come up with a great purpose to match it. A not so good thing about being in such a bland computer lab and being surrounded by 20 other students can be distractions. If you like to blog and normally blog at home in your silent room then blogging at school and getting something accomplished may be difficult. One thing I dislike about blogging during class is that I will be in the middle of a great idea and a sentence into a paragraph and BOOM the bell rings and I have to try and remember my train of thought until I get home to pick up where I left off, but I never do remember…

I personally am not a big fan about blogging during class because it takes me awhile to get started. But something about me and I’m sure a lot of you are like this also. Once I begin typing I just keep going and going and going.

Instead of blogging during class because you know you physically can’t focus. Try blogging outdoors when you get home! That cool breeze and bird chirps make it easy and peaceful to write and you will be done before you know it. If you’re not going to blog during class still make you class time useful by reading other blogs or writing down topic ideas. (478)

The Importance of Keys

The Importance of Keys

Keys are very important and useful in many, but different ways. Keys that are used to lock/unlock and start a car are extremely important! Well if you don’t have a key to start your car then you can’t get anywhere, but if you unlock/lock key is different from the key that goes into the ignition and you lost it then you won’t be able to get into your car. A good way to avoid locking your car keys in your car is to; every time you got to get out, shut you door and then use your clicker to lock the door. So then you know for sure that your keys are in your hand and not on your seat while you are locked outside your car. 

I think it is very important for every family member living in your house to have a house key. That way your door can be locked everyday all day long. There are too many bad things going on in this world for people not to be locking their doors at night and leaving them unlocked during the day while they are at school or work. Think about it, how much safer would you feel if you were home alone and in the shower knowing that your front and back doors are locked? I would feel a whole lot safer if I was in that situation. Even if you know people are going to be coming and going all day, just lock your door to be on the safe side because you never know, that one time you go to walk in your house and there is someone standing there that you have never even seen before. What do you do now? Exactly, be safe and lock your doors!

Schools or my school at least is going crazy on lock downs. They I would say are little too concerned about locking their doors during the school day and during after hours. I mean come on when all 1900 of us students are rushing through the front doors trying to make it to 1^st hour on time, we are all trying to pile in 2 doors because they are the only two open!!! It’s crazy, during passing time the outside doors are open but as soon as the bell rings to begin class the door locks and you can no longer get inside. If you had to go somewhere in the main section of the school and you were on a wing you can go out the doors that are locked but you can’t get back in. Instead you have to go all the way around the halls of the school and it takes twice as long!

Personally I think my school needs to lay back the rules on the security system but hey, it’s the world we live in and this is what it has come to. (487)

Phones

Phones

Phones have changed tremendously over the years. Before phones there were people that were sent to deliver messages and then there were letters and now there are phones. The first phone to be made was, it was about three times the size of you face and really weird looking. The latest phone that has come out is the IPhone five, it is really technical.  The phone has internet, Skype, face chat and basically anything that you can think of. Honestly I think the phone is a little over the top and the company should have stopped at the IPhone four.

Now a day’s phones are just getting kids in trouble. Whether it’s with teachers or their friends causing drama or their parents. In school just about every student texts during class and miss things the teachers are teaching over some stupid conversation. Teachers act like they are strict and say they will take your phone away but what I don’t get is that kids are so addicted to their phone that they risk the chance of losing it for a whole school day.

When it comes to drama, phones are the main participant. All it takes for one stupid rumor that someone made up about another person is one button, send. Once the message gets sent, it is out there and people can forward it to others and before you know it the whole school believes this rumor before the end of the week. 

Parents are the main concern of high school students. The kids don’t let anyone especially their parents touch their phone. We get super protective whether there is anything bad on it or not. Our phones I would say are our life lines and can’t go more than a few hours without, which if you think about it, is really pathetic. (305)

Glass

Glass

            Glass is made to be millions of different things and used for millions of different reasons. Glass is very breakable as my grandma would say and she still makes me use plastic cups and plates when I am at her house. Glass is also very pretty; especially those glass paintings in the museums.

Glass is used for many things. One thing glass is used for is car windows.  Car window glass is made out of glass that shatters into small pieces so it doesn’t cut you if you get into an accident. House windows keep out the weather, the cold, the rain and the snow; you have to have glass windows in your house for your protection.  You can open and close your house windows whenever you want according to the weather. Windows keep burglars out because you open them from the inside. You would have no protection in your homes or your cars without glass. 

There are many other uses for glass; like dishes, drinking glasses, vase for flowers and some tables. The most important use is the windows in your home and vehicles. (186)

 

Electricity

Electricity

Without electricity now a day I think it would be extremely hard to survive. Where I live we have brutal winters and steamy summers. Without electricity I wouldn’t have heat in my house to keep me warm in the winter and air conditioning to cool me off in the summer.

It’s really hard to think of things you do or use that don’t involve electricity in some sort of way. Every time you go to type that homework assignment, turn your lamp on to write an essay, make a pizza in the oven, and use the refrigerator so your milk doesn’t spoil or even to set your alarm clock in the morning so you are on time for wherever you need to go, you are using electricity.

Everyone is constantly using electricity whether you realize it or not. When you are driving at night you are only capable of doing so because of street lights and your headlights, which run off electricity.

Back in the day, laundry was washed in a sink and dried on clothes lines in the back yard. It wasn’t the greatest technique and the most cleansing. I’m glad we have washers and driers now. It makes the whole washing and drying process a whole lot quicker and a lot more sanitary. Washing machines that use electricity are also a lot better at getting stains out of your clothes than wash boards are.

For emergency purposes it is great to have a cell phone, but you also have to make sure you charge it. A plus is that you can charge your phone at home in a wall outlet or for more convenience on the go in your car. Either way you are using electricity.

You have to use electricity to cook.  You use a microwave when you are in a hurry or an electric stove if you aren’t.  Electric mixers make it easier to bake. 

You couldn’t listen to music or watch TV without electricity.  Life is a lot more fun with electricity than without it.  When there is a storm and your electricity goes out you really miss it.

As you can see, everyday tasks use electricity. Try to cut back on how many loads of laundry you do or how many cords you have plugged in and unplug them to save electricity to help the environment. (393)

Sunlight

Sunlight

            Sunlight to teenagers is two different things. Sunlight means getting up in the morning, which none of us ever wants to do. Secondly it means getting a tan in the summer of course. Even though sunlight itself hasn’t changed, except for the number of hours that it is available throughout the year, the purpose of it changes.

Kids that would play outside from sunrise to sunset couldn’t get enough daylight. They would get so upset when it was time to come inside because all they wanted to do was play twenty four/seven. There are those few children that never want to go outside, sleep in until eleven am in the summer oly to get up and play video games or surf the net.  I don’t get that at all. As a kid sunlight is your summer and source of fun!

Every kid should be out playing in it because it is good for you; it is a source of vitamin D. Also, childhood is about having the most fun you can have because when you grow older you can’t just go outside whenever you want and play tag like when you were eight years old.

As you get to the age where you are in high school, you begin to see less and less daylight every year from freshman until senior year.  As a freshman you have that little bit of free time to ride your bike on week days or going to the park with your friends. Even sophomore year you can pretty easily make time to go outside and try to be a kid.  When during your junior and senior year you pretty much have no time at all to have “fun” out in the sunlight. As a student if you have a zero hour (early bird), school for you begins at 7:00 am. Along with that you most likely have a full schedule with multiple AP courses. So for those you are in school during most daylight hours and you also get an endless amount of homework to finish after you get out of school. Most high school students do after school sports or other school activities also out of school sports. A school sport is right after school from 3:00pm to 6:00pm so by the time you get home and showered and done with dinner it is around 7:30pm and you still have all of that AP homework and other assignments and study for that huge chapter test in your second hour. If you finish all of your homework for that night you most likely get to bed at 1:00am and you have missed all of the sunlight for that day.  This is bad for your health because then you lose sleep and become sleep deprived which increases your chances of getting sick.

Sunlight is very important for high school students because it is peaceful to even just sit outside in a lawn chair to relieve some of your stress from all of your homework. High school girls lay out in the sun to get tan for a dance.

Some people believe once the sun comes up you should get up and once it goes down you should be going to bed, that way you are sure to get plenty of sleep. I on the other hand disagree. When the sun comes up during the school year then yeah you should probably get up otherwise you will be late for your 1^st class. During the summer the sun is up really early because there are more daylight hours during this time of the year. I believe you should get up as early as possible to take advantage of the sun in the summer because you don’t have that opportunity during the school year.  You can go for a run or take your dog for a walk, just enjoy the daylight. Most of the athletic events in the summer begin later in the evening so you don’t have to work about missing your day in the sun. You can go to the beach or the pool in the summer with your friends. Just get out and have fun, take advantage of every moment you can because of having to spend all day inside during the school year. When you get older and are out of school you have to get a job and then the only time you get outside in the sunlight is on the weekends.  Enjoy the sun while you can because you never know when you won’t see another sunrise again …… (759)