J4. A Tough One

For my choice blog, I am going to update you on my JV Basketball season, and tell you about the heartbreak that was against Cleve Hill for the second time.  On Friday January 20th we traveled to Cleve Hill to take on the Eagles.  Now if you reflect back to the blog I wrote about a month ago about our first meeting, it didn't go to well.  We lost by 12 at home and that made it seven straight losses in my career against Cleve Hill in basketball.  Heading on the road into their house the team and I would be looking for revenge and I would be looking for my first ever win against Cleve Hill.  At the beginning of the game both teams showed the hustle and showed the effort and showed that they would stop at nothing for a win.  After some quiet shooting by both teams in the first half, we were losing at the break.  Coming back out it was as if we were sleeping, we couldn't score, no help defense, and they tore us apart.  Heading into the last quarter we trailed by 10 and it was not looking good.  But, we came out of the huddle and dominated the fourth quarter.  We scored a season high 24 points in the quarter alone, more than half of our game total.  We came out and hit a three on our first three possessions and it looked as though we could not miss.  Getting back into the game we trailed by 5 with a minute left.  We hit a shot and fouled them so they would shoot free throws, they missed, and we made a layup to make it a one point game.  As they inbounded we got a perfect trap in the corner and got the ball back.  But, unfortunately we missed a shot at the buzzer and we would go down and drop our record to 9 and 3.  It was a very disappointing loss and maybe the toughest loss of my career.  It also made me 0 and 8 against the Eagles and I will have to wait another year for my win against them.

J3. Not Just One

To be honest, I don't really have a favorite band or musician.  I really only like different kinds of music, and listen to a big variety of music.  Sure I have few different favorites, and so I guess I'll just name a couple different people.  Near the top at least recently, is going to be Wiz Khalifa, Lil' Wayne, B.o.B., and maybe even a little LMFAO.  I really love Wiz Khalifa's music, I think he is at the top of my list because he just has so many quality songs.  I think that my favorite of his songs is either, When I'm Gone, or Roll Up.  Lil' Wayne is maybe one of the most popular artists in the world and is beloved by almost everyone.  Wayne just released his latest cd called Tha Carter IV.  This album has the most selling copies of his entire album and is phenomenal.  I have a copy of this album uploaded on my iPod and listen to most of his songs daily.  My top of his songs are: Blunt Blowin', John, and Nightmares on the Bottom.  B.o.B. just released one of my favorite songs of late which is Strange Clouds.  Lil' Wayne was also featured in this song and just made it even more amazing.  B.o.B. also released a hit called Nothin' on You a long time ago but is still played all around the music world.  LMFAO has been one of the most consistent bands of late.  They have released two big hits lately, one in Party Rock Anthem, and Sexy and I Know It.  LMFAO is probably the most popular band of late.  Since I do not have just one favorite band or musician, like I said I like a lot of different music and have a plethora of people I like.

J2. My Favorite Teachers

For my favorite school teachers in the primary and middle school I have decided to write about multiple teachers.  For the first one I have chosen Mr. Schutz.  Mr. Schutz was my first grade teacher, and has now been promoted to 3rd grade.  I really enjoyed my days with him and he made each and every single day of class fun for all of us.  Now since first grade was such a long time ago, I obviously cannot remember a lot from that time, but I do remember a few things.  Like some of the kids that were in his class as well that I became pretty good friends with in this year also.  Nick Kibler and Ed Hutschenreuter were both in my class and it did not take very long for us to all be pretty good friends.  Now since my schooling of K-5 was so good I have picked another teacher for my favorite and that is Mrs. Stoldt who was my 5th grade teacher.  I have known Mrs. Stoldt for a little while because I am very good friends with her son, and classmate, Brian Stoldt.  Since Brian and I are good friends, going into 5th grade I already had a good relationship with her which made it easier, and gave us some good times.  Every day I would walk into her class in the spring and we would talk about how the Yankees were doing and what happened in their game last night.  I really enjoyed this and made 5th grade so much easier and more fun.  I usually love most of my teachers every year, K-5 were all good just as any other year.  Hopefully in the rest of my schooling years, I will be having just as much fun if not more with the rest of my teachers.

J1. My Hero

In a hero there are many great and different characteristics and qualities.  There are all different kinds of heroes in the world or people in the world that you could label a hero.  I mean there’s always the cops and the firefighters in the world who do some very important and special things to help our day go smoothly and our lives for that matter.  Plus you have the Army, National Guard, Navy, and the Marines.  All these people are probably the biggest heroes in our world today.  They fight for our country, our rights, and our freedom.  Without out them, who knows what America would be like, or even if we would be alive.  They are the definition of a hero.  Now with that being said, you have the pop culture heroes.  The sports figures, the famous musicians and artists.  Also some people could have their hero be a political figure, such as a President, or leader somewhere else around the world.  Now I have a ton of different heroes, for every different kind of hero that there is in the world.  I feel as though that since I am such a huge sports fan that it would be appropriate for my all-time favorite hero to be a sports figure.  Now I love almost every sport, and so I have multiple heroes.  But for this blog specifically I feel like I am going to choose LeBron James.  LeBron James is by far my favorite basketball player and arguably the best in the NBA.  He has been in the league for 8 years now and is still in his prime.  Only 27, James came straight out of high school as the number one draft pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Since then, LeBron has won 2 MVP's and has switched teams to the Miami Heat.  LeBron will be hoping to win his first NBA Title this season, something that could make him a little less criticized as a player.

I4. The One and Ony Bill Penny

For my last blog of the week we have been asked as a class to write a choice blog.  And as a request from Bill Penny, he is the topic this week.  Bill Penny is a senior here at Alden High School; I also have the privilege of sitting next to him here in Online Publishing.  Bill and I have some fun times and enjoy each other’s' presence, although if you have read his blogs lately you may not think so.  Bill decided it would be nice to bash me and the fact that I have been forced to change seats next him.  Even though he feels this way, I still have respect him and I'll get over it, and so will he.  Because deep down inside of him, we all know he was kidding, otherwise woe would never talk and our seating arrangement would be a problem but it's not.  Going into other topics, Bill loves to workout.  He is at the weight room pretty much every day and can put up a lot of weight in the bench press; he is probably one of the strongest in there.  When he is older, he wants to be an accountant, and is undecided of what to do when he gets out of school.  I don't know how much longer I will be sitting next to Bill, but I do know that I enjoy myself in this class whether I'm sitting next to Bill or not.  And I believe Bill either will or has gotten over the fact that I may be here for a little while.  I feel like our relationship is grow stronger and stronger each day, but we'll see what happens.  Also let’s wish for Bill to have phenomenal career after high school, because he does have potential.

I3. South Carolina

My holiday break was full of spending time with my family, and a little time with my friends.  My holiday break started off by playing a game in basketball against the Roy-Hart Rams, we won the game to improve our team to a quality 6 and 2.  From then on I had to do something I did not want to do, and that was to take a 14 hour drive to South Carolina and stay there with family for the holidays.  Now I love my family, but I did not want to stay with my entire Mom's side of the family in the same house for 5 days.  Surprisingly we all got along and honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Probably though because we stayed in my uncle's huge house where we all had our own rooms and were able to do our own thing.  Aside from when we all went out together, I was able to have my normal peaceful break.  The family and I got a chance to check out the University of Clemson which was pretty awesome.  I was able to get a look in the football stadium as well as get into the baseball diamond.  We drove around the humongous campus for a little while and eventually parked and walked down a shopping and food plaza street.  The rest of the week we pretty much just hung out, one day the weather was so nice that we were able to take his boat out on the lake that is off of his house.  So overall the family trip was decent, but I still don't think I would want to do the same thing again or for any other holiday, I like just staying home and enjoying myself along with my friends and some family time.

My Bucket List

There are a lot of things I'd love to do before the day I die, there's good chance that most of them won't happen but we can only hope.  Of the things on my bucket list, my top one is to going to championships of all major sports including college. To me this goes all together as one big item, and as a major sports fan, my ultimate dream is to go to championships of football, basketball, baseball, and even hockey.  Now what would be really awesome is for me to go when my teams are in the finals.  As a sports fan you can't ask for anything more for yourself and your team.  The second of my top three items on my bucket list is to take a trip to Africa.  I want to go on an adventure into the rain forests and out in the jungle.  Even though I would be completely terrified to go, I would love to go and explore and try to overcome my fears.  I'd like to go in peace with only a few people, close friends, and we'd go for a couple days and have fun.  Hopefully nothing bad would happen to us and we wouldn't have any disasters, like getting bitten by something or even just encountering a threat to our lives, just having a peaceful time.  For my last item on my list I want to go sky diving.  Sky diving is very dangerous, but if you really want to do something, the risks are worth it.  Sky diving can be dangerous, but I feel like it is really something I would want to do and there would be people there to help me if there's trouble.  My bucket list has some crazy, yet fun activities on it; hopefully I can stick to my list and get it done.

How Long Can I Keep This Up?

For 2012 I have told myself that I was going to do a couple different things for my resolution, or resolutions.  One of those has to do with school and being more responsible.  That resolution is waking up earlier and making my morning much easier so I do not have to rush.  It will put less stress on my entire family and myself.  Usually I try to wake up around quarter after 6 or maybe even 6:30, I will set my alarm off of my phone and I'll wake up to it, but I tend to not feel like waking up and I will just lay there, or I'll fall back asleep, this year and hopefully even longer than that I am able to achieve my goal.  This morning I think that I had failed my task.  I never want to wake up past 6:30, and this morning I didn't get up until 6:35.  So even though that isn't really a bad start I am going to try to do better.  Now for my other resolution it is for religion.  I would like to become a little more involved and to do this I feel it would be appropriate to pray every night before I go to bed.  Now usually I don't pray that often, but I would still go to church most of the time.  Now I don’t really go because of friends or sports or some other reason.  In the future at least I want to become closer to God by praying.  So far I'm doing pretty good, I have done it the first two days.  Hopefully I can continue this and will help me in the long run of the rest of my life.  People usually don’t follow through on their resolutions, mainly because they’re too busy or are just too lazy, but maybe this year will be different and better to people.