Merry Christmas and a happy new year! This marks the beginning of a new age in my blog I believe, seeing that there is a massive gap consisting of what felt like eons. Well, we got off for Christmas break today, but not after an extended very special swim practice right after the half day we had. It was even longer than usual, I mean how much better can it get? For those of you who aren't the best with sarcasm, here is a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm that will tell you what its all about. Anyways, I am dedicating a plethora of time playing Battlefield 4 and Skyrim because ya know, that is the way to go. Anyways, our school's Semi-formal dance is tomorrow, and I am not going for particular reasons, including but not limited to, my inability to dance and that sitting around in a banquet hall for hours on end watching people dance gets kind of boring. Trust me. So ya I will probably just play video games or something, which I don't have that much of a problem with, cause we all know that fighting dragons is way more fun than dancing. Anyways, I always have to think about that research paper that's due and not to mention that project, but that will have to wait. Before I go, I just want to dedicate a sentence to spite formal and properly structured sentences, and because I think it would be good for my mental health to get it out of my system: The good dog went to you and you had to do the good thing for the bad person who is our bestest friend and he is good and I like him a very lot and he is very good and not bad and he cant do; anything wrong and he, is the best person and the dog and the guy and the Jabberwocky who got killed with the vorpal blade and he was dead.   Wow. That was monstrous. If you see nothing wrong with that sentence, here is a link to some formal conventions that I think might be relevant: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/980/03/. Well, video games call, so see ya!

Busy, busy, busy. Three words to accurately describe my life right now. This is time of year is the beginning of the long odyssey through swim practice every day including Saturdays, at least 3 different clubs, driver's ed class, choir practice, visiting the grandparents, homework, school, and in that very small crevice in the back corner of the unlit room, my social life. Anyways, you see how little time I have to myself, which is why I have been slacking at my duties as an avid blogger. Swimming hasn't completely started yet, but so far, preseason conditioning is whooping my butt. I am not made to be in the water. The land is my true canvas, and running is my paint. I love running with a dying passion, and these hours spent in the water make me miss it even more, but I have to stay in some kind of shape over the winter until track starts, so why not?

Oh and not to mention the dreaded research paper. In my opinion, everyone should just drop the research papers and start a blog for a grade. Creative and personal writing expands the mind, not droning on about boring political issues for 5 paragraphs. I guess we have to be accustomed to it for later in life, though, so while it may seem pointless, the skills used to write the paper will probably be helpful later in life, so I suppose they aren't COMPLETELY useless...

Anyways, gotta study for the tests I have tomorrow, so until next time!

Week-long Challenge: Video Games!

Ahh, the exciting and perpetual world of video games. This, like most topic, is a very broad one, and one that carries many opinions and preferences, but I will try to render you some of my ideas on this very exciting subject.

I have played my fair share of video games. Not nearly as much as many people nowadays do, but nevertheless, I am up there in hours played. I started getting into video games when I was younger with the Gameboy Color, Nintendo DS, and the greatest, the Nintendo Gamecube. All of these jog wonderful memories of massive lumps of time playing Pokemon and Kirby Air Ride, but in my opinion, nothing will ever trump a good game of Super Mario Smash Bros: Melee, or its later counterpart, Brawl. These things, however have slowly faded into history, and have given a prequel to modern gaming for me, such as first person shooters, RPG's, so on and so forth. I do occasionally miss playing Pikmen, or Mario Cart Double Dash, but with things like Minecraft, Terraria, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, all of these things, I am slowly becoming accustomed to the modern era.

Video games carry a lot of public hatred and distaste, but unless you are a gamer, you will fall victim to these protests at some point or another. Sure there are better things to be doing than wasting hours and hours killing zombies, but you know, why not? I think that when it comes to video games, there most definitely be limitations to how long you play and how many 2 liter bottles of Mountain Dew Voltage you have downed, but I think that every so often, playing video games to your heart's content is a wholesome experience. Its a way to escape from reality temporarily and a great way to blow off stress (Well, so is running, but if you live where I do, its kind of hard to run in 3 ft of snow, and treadmills are lame). Anyways, whatever your opinion be, I overall have a positive feeling about video games, and I can't wait to see how technology improves its status in the years to come.

Well, I would keep talking about video games, but at this particular moment, my monitor and the words on it are moving and kind of pulsing and drifting around, so I should probably get off before my headache gets any worse. Well folks, this is it! The week long challenge is over, and I must say, I have had a great time, it was a knowledgeable and exciting experience, and perhaps I will do it again at some point or another, but that will have to come a decent amount of time later down the road. Also, great job to the Spurs at their game last night, even though they lost, the put up a great game. Go Spurs Go!   

Week-long Challenge: Mythology Galore!

So, mythology. This topic is one of those things that you either love, or can't stand,  and in my opinion, if you don't like mythology, you've gotta be crazy. Ever since I was really little,  everything about the fantasy world has left me in awe, dragons,  wizardry, potions, elves, etc. I have always especially loved the idea of dragons, because just think how awesome it would be if dragons were actually real. This seems like a childish remark, but that is because a lot of people are ignorant to using their imagination. I have always imagined how awesome it would be to harness the power of magic,  or what it would be like to be from an elven culture,  and if you haven't, I am sorry that your childhood was deprived of the world of mythology.

There aren't many things that I don't exactly prefer in this category of fantasy, but to tell you the truth, I can't stand goblins, specifically, goblin archers. If you know anything about mythological races, you can see the conflict of a goblin archer. I can't put my finger on it, but it just seems completely out of place, like, no, you can't do that. Also, I would like to give my opinion and say that elves are definitely the best race. Elegant, masters of the arcane arts, intelligent, not goblins... Anyways, if you haven't yet experienced any mythology or fantasy, please go watch Lord of the Rings, or even better, read the Hobbit. You won't regret it!

Great job to the Spurs for their win against the Lakers, and good luck to the tonight against Portland! Go Spurs Go!

Week-long Challenge: Unrefined Science!

The dippy bird. Yes, that weird glass bird thing that dips in and out of a glass of water. So, I bet you are wondering how it works? No? Well then, you have come to the wrong place, because for this Unrefined Science (Don't ask about the name, it was an impulsive decision) we will be exploring the wonder and beauty of the majestic dippy bird.

To begin. The structure of the bird is composed of 3 main parts. The lower bulb (body), the tube, which contains an internal tube, (neck), and the upper bulb (head). The lower bulb is filled with a volatile liquid, which is just fancy science terms for a liquid that can transfer between energy states quickly without much effort. A common liquid that is used is called methylene chloride, a liquid that evaporates at a low temperature. To start the tipping of the bird, one must wet the bird's head with water. The head of the bird is covered with a felt material so when even a part of the bird's head is wet (Like the tip of it when it dips into the water) it will somewhat disperse throughout the rest of the felt through a process called capillary diffusion. This cools the head of the bird, and thus cools some of the methylene chloride inside the upper bulb, resulting in a low pressure head area. Now, if we remember that things travel from a high pressure environment to a low pressure environment, it would make sense that the fluid at the bottom (high pressure) will force some of the fluid up to the head through the internal tube (low pressure) and make the top of the bird a bit heavier and therefore dip down into the water, and when this happens, some of the evaporated liquid in the bird's body travels up through the outer tube, displaces the liquid that just traveled to the head, and that liquid flows back down into the body, causing the bottom to become heavy, and then going through the whole glorious process over and over again. By the way, you can thank Miles V. Sullivan for this clever contraption.

Whew. That was quite the challenge explaining that. I am sure that the way I explained it didn't make any sense, mostly because I'm not an expert in the vast field of "The Dynamics of the Dippy Bird", but I mean you got a pretty "unrefined" ;) view of it! Anyways, good luck to the Spurs tonight against the Lakers, and best of health to Tim Duncan! Go Spurs Go!

Week-long Challenge: (Almost) All Things Halloween

Ahh, Halloween! A time for corney costumes and a chance for girls to think that wearing outrageously short skirts and painting their nose black qualifies them for being a cat. Who can argue though? Anyways, moving on to the heart of what Halloween really means: candy. Right? Some guy way back when just decided to make some holiday so people could get candy, right? I hope that you didnt think that, and if you did, I am sorry. Anyways, back to the meaning of Halloween. My best description of the true origin of Halloween goes like this. The word Halloween, comes from another set of words, All Hallows' Eve, which in a nutshell, is a way to honor and give thanks to Christian saints. You might be thinking "Well, isnt All Saints' Day like the next day or something?" . And yes, you would be right, but how those two things got two seperate days beats me, and if I told you something it probably wouldn't be correct, so I will omit that. Besides, some good hearted research does the mind good! Well, considering the fact that you probably have better things to do tonight than hear me ramble on about Halloween,  that'll be it for this days's challenge!

Congratulations to the Spurs for their victory over Memphis last night, and good luck to them tomorrow as they take on the Lakers! Go Spurs go!

Week-long Challenge: San Antonio Spurs!

Go Spurs!

So, for the first time ever, I am going to follow a sport, and that is a hefty statement considering I know nothing about basketball (Probably should have mentioned that the San Antonio Spurs are a basketball team). I am kind of worried that this will eat up some precious homework time *cough* but I think it would be good for me to do something like this because every time someone starts talking about sports I just zone out and don't listen to much, but now, I will at least have some idea about what these sports people are chattering about.

If you are interested in watching the Spurs take on the Grizzlies at home tonight, they play at 8:30 eastern standard time. Also, congrats to those Lakers, Pacers, and Heat fans for their wins last night.

Well, I have to go to that driving class tonight, and that is from 6-8 and the Spurs play at 8:30 so I am going to have to cut it short here! Now that I think of it, I'm not really sure how I would have kept it going, mostly due to the fact that me talking on and on about basketball would be annoying, so take this opportunity to do something useful and productive!