It is that dreaded time of year again, finals. 
After a full semester of work all I have to show for it is a bunch of pieces of crumpled papers in the bottom of my backpack and the ink my teacher puts on my test telling me how I did in their class this semester.
This time is stressful for all, and I try to not get caught up in the stress, but there is just no way around it.
Honestly, most finals for me aren’t too hard.
Math? Easy.
Science? Easy.
English? Easy
History? No sir.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog about a Bruce Springsteen concert I had attended over Thanksgiving Break. Earlier this week, I wrote about a true friend, and I had finally been lucky enough to find one.
For those of you who don’t know, Clarence Clemons, otherwise know as “The Big Man” or “C”, recently passed away on June 18th, 2011, at the age of 69. The Big Man was the lead tenor saxophonist in Bruce Springsteen’s “E Street Band”, and the two were as close as brothers, at least to the eye of the public.
At “C’s” funeral, on June 21st, 2011, Bruce Springsteen released a eulogy for his best friend, which has since been released to the public, and is available here.
In his eulogy, Springsteen talks about his friend, protector, confidant, and idol, not as someone of the past, but as someone who he will see again soon, “where we will once again pick up that work, and get it done.”
In my post about friendship, I spoke about what it means to have a true friend, and what a true friend is like. Today, while passing time in my Journalism teacher’s classroom, he recommended I read Bruce Springsteen’s eulogy for Clarence Clemons, because of my previous interest in Springsteen.
I immediately took his advice and began to read, and quite on accident I found the perfect example of friendship. The relationship between Springsteen and the Big Man was one of true friendship, at least to my eyes. And I recommend that you all read it as well, and find your true meaning of friendship within their beautiful example.
Enjoy!
Justice Scalia knew this day would come.
The coming years will mark the end of the grumpy-old-socially-conservative-white-male political system.
States have already begun legalizing Marijuana for not only medicinal use, but also recreational use. Not to mention the “radical idea” of letting gay people marry has come around to existence in many states as well.
The nation has a restless youth that not only wants but needs to make a difference. Using new media such as secure chat rooms, tor and other encrypted ways of communicating, the population of America can be seen making a difference. The most obvious of these recent restless movements was the Occupy protests which sparked a symbol of rebellion all around the world.
The population is upset, and there’s going to be a difference.
Right?
I mean, it’s not like we haven’t seen this before. In the 60’s and 70’s everyone was pumped up about making a difference, and some WAS made, but a few short years after that the still angry and energized youth was given Ronald Reagan, the exact opposite of what they wanted. Then, there were a couple of Bushes, and we all know how that turned out. Even in other countries this has happened throughout history. In Russia, a change was very badly needed so the people turned to Lenin. Before long they had Stalin.
Now, this country is most certainly not headed towards a Stalin-esque type leader, but you get my point.
Trapped.
Caged like an animal.
Can’t speak out for fear of punishment.
Must speak out for fear of death.
How do you live when you can do nothing?
Either way you are unhappy.
Words stuck behind the glass
Like finger paintings on a frosted window.
Flipped and confusing on the other side,
But leaves a mark in the morning light.
Hello folks, I haven’t talked to you in a bit.
I hopped on WordPress to see what was going on and to see what people have been saying on here only to find that the blog was snowing.
There are little white dots sprinkling down on the homepage banner and down through the blogs and pictures.
If it is just mine I will be a little bit worried, but I swear the blog is snowing.
Merry Christmas!
HO! HO! HO!
This is it folks!
All of the entries for the 2012 Youth Filmmakers Competition in Ojai have been judged and the winners have been decided.
The films range from from zombie-thrillers to real life documentaries about citizens in Ojai.
For the last several months students from junior-high and up have been working on films to be submitted to the competition, all hoping to win one of the three cash prizes ($500, $400 and $300).
The films are being shown on the 9th of December at the Ojai Playhouse. All of the films submitted will be screened, and the winners will be announced on the same day. Along with the three cash prizes, an audience choice award will also be given.
This is a great opportunity to see the works of the young people of Ojai. I suggest everyone comes down and checks it out!
So, much like a fellow writer, I too took a trip to Disneyland this past weekend.
It has been about a year since I had been to Disneyland, and I was glad I got the chance to go.
We left Ojai early in the morning in the pouring rain.
When we got to Disneyland it was cloudy, but not quite cold enough to wear a jacket around so I ended up carrying mine most of the day.
I spent the whole day hoping it would get cold so that I could put on my jacket and stop holding it.
So when we got the park I was with two very close friends of mine, Sarah and Cameron.
We took this trip to celebrate Sarah’s mother’s birthday.
When we got the the park her parents split off from us and another friend met us at the park.
We walked around for a bit and then Gavin, Sarah’s brother, met us to surprise his mom for her birthday.
The surprise ended up working perfectly.
We sat at the top of the stadium, with a clear view of the stage and the thousands of fans surrounding it. A grandfather, walking up the stairs with his two grand-kids, who couldn’t be more than four years old.
The family sitting two rows in front, who dance to every song and know every word, to all the songs, by heart.
They are all here to see the legend, Bruce Springsteen.
The fans with backstage passes eventually come out of the wings, and the lights dim. All that’s left is the twinkling of cell phone lights and the roar of the crowd, erupting with anticipation.
And then Bruce Springsteen walks out, and if at all possible, the crowd gets even louder. I can feel the chants and applause in the pit of my stomach.
Springsteen walks up onto the stage, and grabs the mike, saying something about how happy he is to be at the Mile High City. With emphasis on the “high.”
Alright guys I’m really coming up with nothing to entertain, but if you like dogs enjoy these pictures. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!
Click the link ^^^ , but don’t listen to the message it is portraying. Turkey is delicious.
So for months I had been talking with a friend about how our dogs should have a “play date” because we both though they’d get along.
Over break we decided to get them together with our other friends’ dog.
I feel like I am talking about myself in like 1o years when we all have children getting together…. anywho we took the dogs to the park and let them meet each other and then off to the dog park to run around and play with sticks.
Now enjoy these pictures of dogs drinking water and playing with sticks. 🙂
Silly Ella drinking water like a person (above)
Kai “The Best Dog Ever” Shiffman trying to attack the water
He decided the water was no threat and that he could then drink it
Very proud of his stick which he is guarding from a greedy Ella who took every stick from Kai
Dog Couture
Archie wanted to sit up front
Well folks this sums up how the end of my break went.
I just wrote a blog about our dogs playing in the park and allowed you to look at pretty pictures……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..dots are interesting.
Have a good one!
Let’s say
That I belonged to a social club that met each week.
Let’s say
That the people in the club believed that it was founded by a guy named, I don’t know, Chuck.
Let’s say
Chuck was a homophobic, misogynistic, genocidal old man who lived in a cloud and had the power to make everything happen.
Lastly, let’s say
That because I belonged to this club, I inherited a hatred of all other social clubs in the area.
Okay, now of course no one would ever join this club. It’s ridiculous. However, if this was your religion, you’d be perfectly fine with it.
The Old Testament, for instance, a book held believed to be true by both Christians and Jews, is one of the most outrageous pieces of literature in Western Culture.
For most of it, God is killing people. He wipes out everyone but Noah and his family in one part, destroys two cities and its inhabitants in another, forces Lot to offer his own daughters to be raped, etc.
However, when the O.T. is lacking in violence, it makes up for it in sheer whimsicality and stupidity. This is the same with all religious texts. There really is no room for a reasonable person to believe in some of the “facts” of Juedo-Christain beliefs (I’m not leaving other religions like Islam out on purpose, its just that these strike a little closer to home).
Religous “Facts”:
1. Sadly (spoiler alert), Noah of the O.T. died at the young age of 950. The good die young.
2. Although also in the New Testament, it is possible (and actually turned out quite well) to be swallowed by a giant fish, live in there for a while, and be spat back out.
3. The universe was created by…well God. There isn’t much else to say about that because books like the O.T. say about that much in regard to the beginning of time (cough-COP OUT-cough).
However, taking what some would call “cheap shots” like this at religion isn’t fair because these things aren’t meant to be taken literally. They’re simply meant to be ignored and the good bits should be cherry picked out when needed.
OVS Journalism Blog 
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