Month: April 2011

My Current Thoughts (Literally)

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My thoughts as of this hour:

Why would you think of expanding the baseball playoffs Bud Selig? 10 teams by next year in the postseason? It’s kind of weird that we’re playing the October classic in November. If you want to watch your favorite team play the Fall Classic on Christmas day, let’s keep that as a fantasy.

Spaceballs was an awesome movie. Daphne Zuniga is totally hot and sexy in that movie and I wish I had a space winnebago. That’d be awesome.

My Kick Ass poster is falling off my wall, it’s a real eyesore.

I would love it for Facebook to stop sending me event invitations and offers to see who is viewing my profile. I don’t care because they never post anything or say hi. So stop giving me false hope by having the notification ad pop up! I’m a lonely soul folks!

I wish the Cate game didn’t get cancelled, I wanted to throw fire again. Go OVS Baseball!

I’m digging 90’s contemporary rock and punk music. Green Day, Soul Asylum and Third Eye Blind are really doing it right now.

Last but not least, it’s so refreshing to vent your emotions. You need to do it every once in a while. If you don’t, you’ll explode.

America

smackyjackjack2 Comments

America. Oh America. You are such a great country, but less can be said about the people that inhabit you. Americans have proven themselves to be some of the stupidest people on the planet. I can’t even imagine what other countries think about you when people like Palin and Trump are even considered to be in positions of power.

Part of your problem, America, is that you are so cocky. Why do you allow yourself to think that you are the best country on the planet? Every other politician has to make some stupid comment about the greatness of you, or how you are the best country on the planet. I have news for you America, you are not.

Take a seat America, this could take a long time.

Great countries do not torture people, America. They do not set up secret camps just for the sake of humiliation and torture of another race.

Great countries do not ward off immigrants, America. They do not send poor children with no where else to go back to their country. They do not waste money on foreboding walls to surround their country.

Great countries do not ignore the environment, America. And by the  way, a Hummer is not a symbol of intelligence or masculinity.

Great countries do not allow for CEOs of major companies to be paid in millions per year when others do not have enough to eat.

Great countries do not deep fry the twinkie.

Great countries do not disregard the foundations on which their countries were built upon.

Great countries allow ALL people to be free, and not just some.

Great countries have respect for other countries.

And finally, great countries do not think of themselves so highly. They are humble and recognize other countries as being great as well. They do not put down nations for having religions that are just as stupid as their own. And they do not hate others for liking soccer. Ok, never mind, soccer is pretty lame.

Brother, Brother There’s Far Too Many of You Dying

sennymcfly1 Comment

We were celebrating. Having a great time, laughing and dancing. Then the night ended and it was time to go home. The freeway was practically empty. One car passed maybe every five minutes. Most of Florida had already gone to bed, but there were still a handful of youngsters enjoying their late night freedom. Unfortunately, for some reckless free spirits decided to take full advantage of their freedom, but pleasure comes at a high price. Traffic was stopped. Almost as fast as we could blink there were 10, 20, 30 cars slowed in front of us. Red lights illuminated the road. Then as we rounded the highway the red lights grew brighter. Then blue lights came. Then another set of red and blue. Red and blue. Blue and red. The two colors flashed and beamed faster and brighter as we got closer. We were forced to merge into the right lane by a snake of orange cones and fire red flares. Our heads turned left. A small grey car balanced like a see-saw on the wall separating the eight lanes of freeway, belly up. We could only imagine the mangled positions the bodies were thrown into after flipping over and landing so unnaturally. “They are dead”. We all thought it and we all knew it. As we drove away we looked back to see three policemen standing, hands on their hips, wondering what they could do now. This was an accident so severe that nearly 25 police cars and maybe 3 ambulance were called to the scene.

The next day, we found out that the driver who passed in the accident was Miguel Angel Tabora, one of Aileen Fortan’s best friends. Aileen sat in the back seat next to me. She had no idea when she stared at the accident that she was in fact staring at her friend, buried underneath thousands of pounds of twisted metal. It’s sad to find out that someone close to you has died. Just the other day you were talking about them or thinking, “I wonder what he is doing right now”. Then they are gone. On the way back to Ojai, I heard of another accident that took three other lives. Then at school the next day, another accident; this one involving motorcycles. How is it that so many people die in such a short amount of time? Every 13 minutes. That’s how often someone dies in a car accident. There’s 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day. Calculate that and tell me, will you be next?

Read The Label!

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment

Having the privilege of watching Television over my Spring Break, I came across a commercial promoting Wendy’s “delicious, new ‘Natural Cut Fries with Sea Salt’.”

Although I never eat at Wendy’s, I was curious as to whether this “all natural” claim could actually be true.

It just couldn’t be possible to produce fast food in such an all natural process and still sell the product for $1.

Although Wendy’s did find a way to leave the potato skins on the fries in order to gain a crisper texture, they neglected to make it the supposed “all natural” way in which it is advertised.

Wendy’s CMO Ken Calwell stated that this natural process is simply not plausible in order to meet the demands of fast food.

“People are saying they want high integrity ingredients, things their grandmother would have used, that don’t look like they came out of a chemistry lab,” said Calwell in an interview with BNET. “But they’re also saying I’ve got a family to feed and can only afford to spend about $4 on my lunch, and I’ve only got about a minute or two to eat it.”

So rather than spending the money and resources to bake fries “in-house” at the individual drive-thru, Wendy simply decided to “settle for the natural-cut” process completed in a large factory. In addition, at these factories the fries are doused with sodium acid pyrophosphate and dextrose, a corn sugar, in order to preserve the fries texture. Then they proceed to be fried in the silicone-based chemical dimethyepolysiloxane.

However, I know that even though these chemicals are existent, people will still eat these fries.

And heck, I know I will stumble upon at least some fast food restaurants fries in the next year.

However I do believe that people should truly read the label before consuming things believed to be “all natural.”

Even those harmless little commercials that make you crave Wendy’s delicious fries can be deceiving.

Crunch Time

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Who knew so much pressure could mount up on one’s shoulders? I’m trying to cram so much information into my head. The AP weeks are coming up and I am on the brink of crumbling. AP Calculus AB and AP US History the first week, followed by three SAT II subject tests that saturday. Oh and what else? An AP Biology test that upcoming Monday and an AP Writing and Composition test to top it all off.


I am beginning to think that I will not be able to get the grades that I want to on these tests. I will need to stay up very late and buy multiple Starbucks double shots from Starr Market. However, what frustrates me is the recent ruling that girls are not allowed to stay up to study in the girl’s lounge past lights out. I just can’t wrap my head around it.


I understand that the faculty is concerned with us staying up and that those staying up may have abused the privilege by eating food while studying or being on Facebook. I am not going to lie, I did both. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be eating in my room or checking my Facebook for a quick five minute reprieve (because my brain cannot handle studying for hours on end without a quick break). However, I don’t think that the faculty understands that we cannot reach our goals of staying up to study and fully grasp our studies as well as do extra work for the upcoming SAT and AP tests in our rooms. My roommate usually goes to bed after a half an hour or an hour after study hall and studying under the small light of my desk lamp is very difficult. I chose to stay up. I want to stay up. I do so to get the grades I get and I do so to stay on top of things. But now that I can’t stay out in the lounge, I can’t study to my fullest potential.


It’s crunch time. This weekend and every night after tonight, I will be studying, studying, studying and praying my BUTT OFF so that God would bless me with the knowledge and preparation I need for this test. Ahh, maybe I should build my own personal girl’s lounge as an extension of my room. Ha! Now that would be odd.

Worse than Dropping the Ball

therightliberal2 Comments

Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos has been teased by almost every media outlet following his epic dropping of the Copa del Rey, the national cup of Spanish football.

Here is the video of his blunder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXxSuzRpTps

Luckily the cup did not have much damage to it but I am sure Sergio Ramos’ pride did.

Even more lucky for Sergio Ramos is that he is not the first to make a disastrous mistake like this. Here is a look back as some of the biggest athlete fails in the past years.

The Zidane headbutt is the largest mistake that I can remember. For one of the greatest players to end his career like that in such a dirty way was unbelievable. Added to that was the fact that it was in the most watched game in the world and you have a massive media craze.

In American football, the Super Bowl is huge. Everyone gets together and stuffs themselves full of meat and watches men hit each other. Before the game, someone famous always sings the national anthem. When Christina Aguilera was picked to sing, one would think she would work to learn the words. Here is what happened instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMHffUXbLV8

So here is to flubs at sporting events! Sergio Ramos should just pick his head up and laugh at his mistake. These are the moments that make fans laugh…and every sports fan can use a laugh.

Nerd Rant, Part II.

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Okay, so I’ve already nerd ranted about how Cedric Diggory pwns Edward Cullen, but now I’m going to nerd rant about something else.
Something awesomesauce.
That’s right, I’m going to nerd rant about THE BEST BOOK EVER (in my opinion).

This book is called Unwind, written by Neal Shusterman, and it’s pretty great.

So! This book is essentially about what happens after the “Second Civil War” which was about Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice. After the whole huge war, there is a bill made that appeases to both sides of the war. The bill is called the Bill of Life.

Now, the Bill of Life states that from the moment of conception, a child cannot be aborted. But when the child turns thirteen, the parents have the option to retroactively abort the child until it reaches the age of eighteen. This did not anger those who were Pro-Life because when the child got “aborted” they technically didn’t die. The “aborted” child gets sent to a camp where it waits until it is “unwound.”

When you are unwound they take you apart piece by piece, but still keep you alive. After you are completely taken apart, they send your body parts off to hospitals where other people will receive your organs for transplants or if he or she lost an arm then your arm would be grafted onto them. But even when they get your arm, it’s still your arm. If you were magician, someone who always did card tricks, your arm would still hold the muscle memory of all the actions you did while holding the cards. The person who got your arm would be able to hold a deck of cards and the arm, by itself and without any thought of its new owner, would start to do card tricks that you learned.

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Aliens?

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I was watching this video, and it really got me thinking. Do aliens really exist?

I’m completely serious!

If you think about it, we are one planet among billions and trillions of others. Is it possible that we are the only other life out there?

The idea of us being alone seems proposterous to me. Of course there are all the videos of fake UFO sightings and the random Area 51 rumors, but could be there some truth behind them?

And there are videos like this that honestly confuse me. Could that all be real or is it just a hoax. I mean it is on the History Channel. It has to be somewhat legitimate

Maybe I’m crazy, but I do believe that there is something else out there. I’m not saying that aliens are going to come and attack us, or that I believe in 2012. I more think that there just has to be something more than the population on Earth.

Or maybe I’m just crazy! You tell me.

The Ivies

Paloma Spencer1 Comment

We have all heard the classical tales of the 8 Ivy League Institutions.

Located on the north-eastern United States, these universities are known for their gorgeous campuses, amazing academics, social elitism, and, unfortunately for most students, the lowest percentages in acceptance rates.

In case you do not know, these are the 8 wonders of the college world:

Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

All these schools are of course, no doubt, amazing, but I find that many of my friends refused to apply to these universities because they “simply wouldn’t get in,” or because “there is no point to just get rejected.”

That is why I will tell you this:

Myself, as a senior applying to college had always known where I wanted to go, but afraid that I would never get in, I always created alternate top choices of schools that I would be more likely to attend.

My top was Yale University.

Yep, just the name makes me so happy!

The beautiful brick buildings, the intriguing classroom environments, and yes whoever watched Gilmore Girls would understand that Rory had a large impact on me.

Since I was young I had constantly heard the gasp of astonishment when people acclaimed they would attend Yale, and thus decided that this institution would be the place for me.

So I applied.

However, once I received my tiny little rejection letter in the mail, I felt crushed.

So I can be a bit of a drama queen, but honestly it did kind of hurt.

But the thing I realized is that although I was upset, I would have been more upset if I never even tried.

Even if you think you may not have the grades, or the extracurricular activities, you honestly don’t know what each college is looking for and there is always a chance to be pleasantly surprised.

Today, I am so happy with my college decision, even though it might not be Yale, and I do wish that all prospective college students apply to at least one of these eight institutions.

“If you never try, you’ll never know.”

: )

Coachella

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Of all the things I wish I could have done so far this year, Coachella tops the list. With headliners Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, and Kanye West on top of artists like The Black Keys, Wiz Khalifa, and The Strokes, it was no doubt nothing short of incredible.

In my slight depression since missing Coachella, I’ve been reading a lot of reviews, and all of them say that it was almost all great shows. One performance, however, stood out above all else.

Kanye West.

In all of the extravagant concert entrances I’ve seen, which is a slightly above average amount, Kanye’s was the best planned and would have been beyond awe-producing.

To sum it up, he had his dancers, twenty or so ballerinas, dance around for a good three minutes, then kneel down to a large monument to what seems to be gods. Then, from behind the crowd comes Kanye West, slowly being raised into the air on a raised platform, pointing to the sky all the while, as the phrase, “can we get much higher” is heard over and over again.

When I saw the video for this entrance, I was feeling two, very clear emotions: Jealousy, at the crowd for being there, and at Kanye, for being him, and then complete and utter awe. I knew right then and there that Kanye had done something that few people have ever done. He had made himself, in that one moment, the most important man in the world.

Not to say that he was the best, or the most needed, but I’d bet that more people wanted to see, hear, and be Kanye West in that one moment than anyone else on earth. He was truly the king, and even his ego was ridiculous no longer.

Of course, the moment passed, and he was just Kanye West again, entertainer, egomaniac, and generally only respected for his music. The image still remained, though, and in my mind and undoubtedly in the mind of countless others.