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.

The 80's

There are obviously so many options to choose from going back in time and choosing which time period I would want to see. But I think that of all the choices, I would like to visit the 1980's. Mostly because of the famously known 1980 Winter Olympics. These Olympics changed American lives. The game known as the "Miracle Game" occurred, this game brought peace to Americans and made them live easier. The "Miracle Game" for those who don't know was the very game where the USA defeated the Soviet Union team. The most improbable win brought the Americans to closure. Mainly because there was a ton of tension between the two countries. Other big things that gone on, well the famously known game or toy called the Rubik's Cube, and the game Pac-Man game was invented in 1980, both big games today that are very entertaining. The current President at that time Ronald Reagan, was being attempted for assassination, but he was luckily able to get away unharmed. The NBA had a new star and boy was he a sight to see. Michael Jordan became arguably the greatest player ever to play the game in this decade. These years were his big ones, the ones he is known for. Michael Jordan graduated from North Carolina and immediately showed he could play with the big boys right away in the pros. The 80's are a time known for a lot of change around the world and wealth and production became easier to find and helped a lot of people out. I think that I would love to see what life was like back in this time, with all the different music and sports and wars and culture. I think it would be really awesome and to see all of the adults that were in their teens and 20s back then.

How Long?

There are many problems going on in the world, and most of them are unable to be changed.  I think that the most important of the problems, is the homeless and jobless population.  There are way too many people in the cities and downtowns that do not have homes.  It is ruining society and if I had the chance that would be at the top of my list.  The jobless population also is affecting many people throughout the world.  The main reason for these problems though, has to be the economy.  The economy has gotten so bad and people cannot afford anything anymore.  I think that if I had a chance to change the world it would be to lower many prices of anything and everything.  I know that this task would not be easy but it must happen for these goals to be accomplished.  The worst part is the economy and the jobless and the homeless populations are triggering other downfalls to our world.  For example, world peace and bullying and the ability to be equal are all still big problems we cannot change.  As much as we think it is all gone it will not go away.  I hope that one day is able to realize what is happening and all of the problems will be erased.  It will take a lot and a long time but who knows what will happen.  Maybe one day a bully starts to become nice and wants to change.  Maybe many people will follow him.  It only takes one to start a chain reaction, as we learned a few years ago in the Rachel's Challenge assembly, hopefully the world can accomplish this one day.  It will take many to want to change but I believe that one day something big will happen.